At his marathon year-end news conference, Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed questions about the future of the conflict in Ukraine and dismissed suggestions that Moscow is preparing for a broader military confrontation with Europe.
Asked directly whether Russia intends to launch military action against European countries, Putin said Moscow’s position depends on how it is treated by Western governments. “There will be no special operations if you treat us with respect, if you respect our interests as we have always tried to respect yours. There will be no further Russian invasions if you do not humiliate us as you did when you expanded NATO eastward,” Putin said.
The Russian leader also revisited his proposal for ending the war in Ukraine, pointing back to terms he publicly outlined last year. He reiterated that Moscow expects Kyiv to renounce its bid to join NATO, withdraw forces from four regions claimed by Russia, reduce the size of its military, and grant official status to the Russian language. Putin additionally called for new presidential elections in Ukraine.
Putin argued that Russia remains open to a negotiated resolution, insisting that responsibility for the lack of progress lies elsewhere. “The only thing I want to say is that we have always said this: we are ready to end this conflict peacefully, based on the principles I outlined in June last year at the Russian Foreign Ministry, and by addressing the roots that led to this crisis,” he said during the event, which stretched for more than four hours.
He also spoke positively about U.S. President Donald Trump’s involvement, saying he appreciated Trump’s role in seeking an end to the war. At the same time, Putin accused Western governments of preventing an agreement. “It is the West, not Russia, that is blocking the deal. The ball is in the court of our Western opponents, primarily the leaders of the Kyiv regime, and in this case, above all, their European backers,” he said.
Ukrainian officials, for their part, have already rejected Moscow’s territorial demands, including calls for Kyiv to surrender Crimea, Donbas, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia, areas Russia claims as its own.
{Matzav.com}
A 15-year-old from Beit Shemesh who drew nati1onwide attention last month after climbing a crane at the Marom Tower near the entrance to Yerushalayim attempted to scale the site again on Friday morning, but was stopped before reaching dangerous heights.
The earlier incident ended with the teen being rescued by fire and rescue crews. This time, his attempt was cut short when he was intercepted by a passerby and later taken in by police for questioning at the Lev HaBira station.
According to reports, the teen was spotted trying to breach the perimeter fence leading toward the 39-story Marom Tower. Photographer and drone hobbyist Malkiel Elbaz noticed the attempt and chose to intervene to prevent another life-threatening situation.
Elbaz described the encounter, saying, “I was passing near the central bus station and saw a boy trying to cross the fence toward the Marom Tower. I came closer and asked him where he was going. He told me that he had been up there a month ago and that he was going up again.”
Realizing the danger, Elbaz said he took immediate action. “I was alone and decided to act. I notified the police and started talking to him, and when I saw that he was about to cross the fence, I jumped up, grabbed him, and held him for a few minutes until more help arrived. Then police officers came and took over.”
After the incident, Elbaz issued a public appeal, warning of the risks involved. “I have one request of you—pay attention to your friends. This is not a joke; these are people’s lives.”
Police confirmed that the teen was brought in for questioning following the incident.
{Matzav.com}
Rabbi Leibel Druck z”l, a respected member of the Karlin-Stolin community and a longtime melamed at Etz Chaim, passed away early Friday at the age of 79.
The niftar, who resided in Beitar Illit in recent years and was formerly a resident of Yerushalayim’s Rechov Yirmiyahu, had been ill over the past period. During the night, he suffered cardiac arrest and was niftar.
Rabbi Druck was born in Yerushalayim on 8 Elul 5706 (1946) to his father, Rav Chaim Druck zt”l, author of Oros Chaim and one of the prominent rabbonim of Yeshivas Etz Chaim. His father was a talmid of Rav Isser Zalman Meltzer. His mother was Mrs. Batya a”h.
Upon reaching marriageable age, he married the daughter of Rav Moshe Cohen zt”l.
For many years, Rabbi Druck served as a devoted melamed at Etz Chaim in Ramat Shlomo, where he was known as a warm and caring educator who consistently went out of his way to help others. Those who knew him describe him as a gentle and giving individual, deeply committed to his talmidim and to those around him.
In recent years, he relocated to Beitar Illit to live near his children. He is survived by his family, including his sons and daughters, sons-in-law, and many descendants.
His levayah took place Friday morning, departing from the Shamgar Funeral Home in Yerushalayim to Har HaMenuchos, where he was laid to rest.
The family will be sitting shivah at his home, 38 Maggid of Mezeritch Street, Beitar Illit.
Yehi zichro baruch.
{Matzav.com}
Rabbi Moshe Chaim Hertzel z”l, a distinguished member of the Belzer community in Antwerp and one of the owners of the Hertzel-Gold dairy, widely known as Europe’s Jewish dairy, has passed away at the age of 70 following an illness.
Rabbi Hertzel was born in the month of Adar 5716 (1956) to his father, Rabbi Yosef Yisrael Hertzel z”l, one of the senior Belzer chassidim in Antwerp and among the founders and owners of the only Jewish-owned dairy in Europe. His mother was the daughter of Rabbi Shmuel Yosef Friedman.
As a youth, he studied in the educational institutions of Belzer chassidus. Upon reaching marriageable age, he married his wife, the daughter of Rabbi Tzvi Davidson.
Rabbi Hertzel was widely known as a man of extraordinary chessed. He donated significant sums of his personal wealth to Belz institutions worldwide, with particular dedication to the institutions in Antwerp. Among his many acts of generosity, he regularly covered the annual costs of refreshments on the first day of Selichos at the Beis Medrash in Kiryat Belz in Yerushalayim, an event that draws thousands of Belzer chassidim each year.
Despite his financial success, he was known for his humility and discretion, quietly assisting families in need and giving charity without seeking recognition.
His levayah will take place on Motzaei Shabbos in Antwerp. His aron will then be flown to Eretz Yisrael, where the levayah will be held on Sunday night, Leil Zos Chanukah, in Kiryat Belz in Yerushalayim. He will be laid to rest in the Kehillas Machzikei Hadas section of Har HaMenuchos.
Yehi zichro baruch.
{Matzav.com}
Work crews began preparations at the Kennedy Center on Friday to reflect the board’s decision to add President Donald Trump’s name to the iconic performing arts complex, one day after the vote was taken.
Early in the morning, large blue tarps were draped across portions of the building’s exterior, shielding the activity from public view. Before the coverings were fully in place, a large letter “D” could be seen mounted on the structure, while workers operated from scaffolding along the façade of the building originally named for President John F. Kennedy.
Under the resolution approved by the board, the venue will now be known as The Donald J. Trump and The John F. Kennedy Memorial Center for the Performing Arts. Trump, a Republican, currently serves as chairman of the board.
The decision has drawn objections from critics, including Democrat members of Congress who sit on the board in an ex-officio capacity, as well as several historians. They argue that authority to alter the center’s official name rests solely with Congress, not the board.
The Kennedy Center now joins a growing list of Washington landmarks bearing Trump’s name. Earlier this year, his name was also added to the building that houses the U.S. Institute of Peace.
{Matzav.com}
Leadership changes are underway at the BBC after an internal assessment faulted the organization’s response to controversial edits made to a speech by US President Donald Trump on January 6, 2021, the day of the Capitol unrest.
At the center of the shake-up is the network’s editorial standards committee. BBC chairman Samir Shah, who faced criticism over the episode, will step aside from leading that body as part of the restructuring.
The review, released Friday, concluded that senior management failed to respond “quickly or decisively enough following the discovery” that edits to Trump’s remarks created the impression that he urged supporters to storm the US Capitol.
Those edits prompted Trump to file a $10 billion lawsuit against the broadcaster, escalating scrutiny of the BBC’s editorial practices and governance.
According to the report, the committee’s remit will be adjusted to “clarify and focus” its role, with the stated aim of adopting a “robust and transparent approach” to addressing editorial issues as they arise.
{Matzav.com}
President Trump moved late Thursday to halt the visa lottery program after it was disclosed that the suspect in the killing of two Brown University students and an MIT professor entered the United States through that system.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem announced the decision in a statement posted overnight on X, saying, “This heinous individual should never have been allowed in our country.” She added, “At President Trump’s direction, I am immediately directing USCIS to pause the DV1 program to ensure no more Americans are harmed by this disastrous program.”
The suspect, Claudio Neves Valente, a 48-year-old native of Portugal, received a Diversity Immigrant (DV1) Visa in 2017 and was granted a green card several months later. Authorities said he was found dead Thursday evening at a storage facility in Salem, New Hampshire, from what was described as a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Neves Valente was identified as the prime suspect in the December 13 mass shooting at Brown University that left students Ella Cook and Mukhammad Aziz Umurzokov dead and nine others wounded. Investigators also linked him to the December 15 killing of MIT nuclear science professor Nuno Loureiro.
Records show that Neves Valente had previously enrolled in a graduate physics program at Brown during the 2000–01 academic year. He took a leave of absence in April of that year and officially withdrew from the university in 2003.
Authorities have not determined where Neves Valente lived or what he was doing in the years leading up to the shooting. His most recent known address was in Miami, Florida, and his activities between receiving his green card in 2017 and last weekend’s attack remain unclear.
The Diversity Immigrant Visa program was created under the Immigration Act of 1990 and allows for up to 50,000 visas each year. The lottery system prioritizes applicants from countries that have sent relatively few immigrants to the United States over the previous five years.
For the 2025 lottery cycle, nearly 20 million people submitted applications. More than 131,000 applicants and their spouses were selected worldwide, including 38 Portuguese nationals.
President Trump has criticized the visa lottery in the past, renewing calls to end it after a 2017 terror attack in Lower Manhattan. In that case, Uzbekistan national Sayfullo Saipov killed eight people and injured 11 others when he drove a pickup truck onto a crowded bike path along the Hudson River.
Saipov was convicted in January 2023 on murder and other charges and was sentenced to eight life terms plus an additional 260 years in prison.
{Matzav.com}
Debate over presidential war powers has resurfaced as President Donald Trump defended his authority to expand U.S. military action against drug traffickers linked to Venezuela, arguing that congressional approval is not required for such operations.
Speaking in the Oval Office on Thursday, Trump dismissed the need to formally notify lawmakers if he chose to authorize strikes on land, saying he would not object to informing them but questioning the value of doing so. “I wouldn’t mind telling them, but you know, it’s not a big deal. I don’t have to tell them,” he said, adding that members of Congress “leak like a sieve.”
The comments came in response to a reporter’s question about whether Trump would seek authorization from Congress before targeting drug cartels inside Venezuela, following months of U.S. military activity aimed at trafficking operations at sea.
Since September, American forces have carried out a series of airstrikes against suspected drug-smuggling vessels in the Caribbean and Pacific, actions that have resulted in at least 99 deaths, according to U.S. figures.
Those operations have drawn criticism from both parties in Congress, with lawmakers pointing to constitutional limits on presidential authority. While the president serves as commander-in-chief, the Constitution grants Congress the sole power to declare war — a concern raised not only by Democrats but also by some Republicans, even as most members of Trump’s party have continued to back him.
During a House debate, New York Democratic Rep. Gregory Meeks challenged the legal basis for the strikes, saying, “The president has failed to demonstrate the necessary authority under U.S. or international law to conduct lethal military strikes on these boats.”
Meeks went further, arguing that the threat justification does not hold up. “No one can credibly claim that these vessels, in some cases not even traveling to the United States and located thousands of miles from U.S. soil, posed an imminent threat to the American people warranting the use of military force,” he said.
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has accused Washington of using anti-drug operations as a pretext for destabilizing his government, claiming the true objective of the campaign is regime change rather than narcotics enforcement.
Legal and military analysts note that a U.S. president may order limited strikes without congressional approval under certain conditions, but say such actions are generally expected to be short-term and narrowly defined, often framed as defensive measures.
After the September 11 attacks, Congress passed authorizations for the use of military force in Afghanistan and Iraq, which were later cited to justify counterterrorism missions in other parts of the world, a precedent now being referenced as lawmakers weigh the scope of Trump’s current actions.
{Matzav.com}
