New York City’s transit system, the largest in the US, is creating a new unit to steer a $12 billion effort to replace decades-old trains and modernize its bus fleet.
Jessie Lazarus, who led the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s shift from the MetroCard to the tap-and-go OMNY fare system, will head the agency’s new Rolling Stock Program. The group, which will include about 10 staff members, will focus on performance-based specifications for manufacturers rather than being overly prescriptive on design, she said.
Given the scale of its procurement needs, the MTA aims to broaden the domestic manufacturing base and boost competition among suppliers, Lazarus said in an interview, describing the agency as “truly the market maker” that must be strategic about capital deployment and rail production capacity.
“This is one of the largest investments in manufacturing that’s happening in America,” Lazarus said. “And we should think about our power to structure policies that can stabilize the supplier base for the benefit of domestic public transit.”
The MTA plans to buy about 1,500 subway cars, more than 500 commuter-rail cars and roughly 2,200 buses under its 2025–2029 capital program. The rolling stock initiative accounts for nearly 20% of the agency’s $65.4 billion capital plan through 2029.
Many of the MTA’s rail cars date back to the 1980s and are nearing the end of their useful life. Older trains break down about six times as often as newer models, according to the agency. Roughly 40% of the bus fleet will also be eligible for replacement in the coming years.
Lazarus joined the MTA in 2023 after working at Carmera Inc., an artificial-intelligence company acquired by Toyota Motor Corp. in 2021. She previously served as New York City’s chief digital officer from 2014 to 2016. Lazarus holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and a bachelor’s degree from Middlebury College.
(c) 2026, Bloomberg
Despite repeated assurances by Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu that neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority would have any role in a technocratic body overseeing Gaza, developments on the ground suggest otherwise, Arutz Sheva reports.
Reporting on i24NEWS, Amichai Stein disclosed that the newly unveiled emblem of the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG) incorporates the official insignia of the Palestinian Authority, raising questions about the committee’s true affiliations.
Beyond the logo itself, the composition of the 12-member panel further underscores those concerns. The committee, headed by Dr. Ali Shaath, is largely made up of individuals identified with the Fatah movement and the Palestinian Authority, including several who previously held positions within PA government frameworks or public institutions.
The roster includes Sami Nasman, who once served as a senior figure in Palestinian General Intelligence and was later imprisoned by Hamas while in Gaza. Another member is Hanaa’ Al-Tarazi, the sole woman on the committee, a Christian attorney whose professional focus is Islamic law.
{Matzav.com}
NEW DELHI – The United States and India have finalized a trade agreement, President Donald Trump said in a Truth Social post Monday, putting an end to rancorous, months-long negotiations and steadying a relationship that had plummeted to its lowest point in decades.
The agreement calls for Washington to lower its 25 percent tariff on goods imported from India to 18 percent, with India reducing its tariffs on U.S. goods to zero, according to Trump. It is unclear whether the additional 25 percent tariff Trump levied on New Delhi for its purchases of Russian oil in August will remain, though the president wrote that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also agreed to “stop buying Russian Oil.”
“Our amazing relationship with India will be even stronger going forward,” Trump said.
In a post on X, Modi thanked Trump “for this wonderful announcement” and said that “when two large economies and the world’s largest democracies work together, it benefits our people and unlocks immense opportunities for mutually beneficial cooperation.”
The long-sought agreement between Washington and New Delhi was reached just days after India signed a sweeping trade deal with the European Union, part of the country’s efforts to diversity its global partnerships amid tensions with the White House.
Trump, in his Truth Social post, said India would also purchase more than $500 billion of U.S. energy, technology, agriculture and coal products.
(c) 2026, The Washington Post
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Top Justice Department officials have stripped Ed Martin of the bulk of his expansive responsibilities, leaving the staunch ally of President Donald Trump on the sidelines of many of the controversial investigations he has championed, according to two people familiar with the personnel move.
As a result of the changes, Martin will no longer chair the department’s Weaponization Working Group, which was tasked with reviewing special counsel Jack Smith’s prosecutions of Trump and other perceived examples of “prosecutorial abuse,” according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel move that has not been made public.
Martin will continue to serve as the Justice Department’s pardon attorney but will no longer work at Justice Department headquarters. Instead, his office will be located in another DOJ building in Northeast Washington, pulling him away from the attorney general and the most powerful figures in the department, according to a person familiar with the move. The pardon office is in that Northeast Washington building.
“President Trump appointed Ed Martin as pardon attorney, and Ed continues to do a great job in that role,” a Justice Department spokesperson said.
Martin is a longtime antiabortion activist who helped plan and finance the rally that preceded the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Trump first named Martin to serve as the U.S. attorney for D.C.
Martin, who had no previous trial or prosecutorial experience, served in that role for 15 weeks on an interim basis, with his tenure marked by his threats to investigate Trump’s perceived political adversaries and firings and demotions of career prosecutors who handled cases involving the president and the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Trump pulled the nomination because Martin did not have enough Senate support and instead gave him a senior Justice Department role, which did not require Senate confirmation.
As leader of the Weaponization Working Group, Martin has played an important role in the largely unsuccessful prosecutions of Trump’s political foes, including New York Attorney General Letitia James, former FBI director James B. Comey and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-California).
In November, The Washington Post reported that federal prosecutors appeared to be questioning a witness in the Schiff mortgage fraud investigation about her contact with Martin and Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte.
The questioning suggested that investigators were looking at whether Martin and Pulte used inappropriate tactics to launch probes of Schiff and others, questioning whether the two Trump officials divulged information about the Schiff investigation to people who were not authorized to be a part of it.
(c) 2026, The Washington Post
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A classified internal memo circulated by Hamas leadership to its senior administrators in the Gaza Strip, ahead of the expected arrival of a technocratic government, lays out a strategy for maintaining Hamas’s rule over the territory even after the new administration formally takes office, according to a report by Kan News.
The document reportedly provides specific guidance to Hamas’s administrative officials on how they are expected to conduct themselves on a daily basis in relation to the incoming technocratic government.
Under the instructions outlined in the memo, officials are told to carry on with their regular responsibilities without alteration, effectively behaving as though no transition has taken place and ensuring that existing control structures remain intact.
The document also warns officials against criticizing members of the technocratic government or its leader on social media platforms, a move intended to prevent visible clashes or public disputes.
At the same time, the memo explicitly orders officials not to form any direct personal relationships with government representatives and not to transfer information or reports to them, except via the “relevant authority,” which, in practice, refers to Hamas itself.
Through these directives, the document describes an arrangement in which the technocratic government appears to function outwardly, while actual authority over administrative systems, information channels, and bureaucratic operations continues to rest firmly with Hamas.
Alongside these political maneuvers, the terror group is reportedly advancing its military capabilities under the protection of the ceasefire. Channel 13 News reported that the Israel Defense Forces recently placed a formal warning document on the desk of Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu, alerting him to a marked increase in Hamas’s military buildup in Gaza.
According to that assessment, the IDF believes Hamas is actively working to safeguard its strength and preserve both its civilian authority and military dominance in the Strip.
The core concern raised in the warning is that even within a “technocratic government” framework, Hamas will be able to retain effective control over Gaza unless the organization is fully disarmed.
{Matzav.com}
