Senior Israeli officials say most components of a hostage release and temporary ceasefire deal with Hamas are now agreed upon, though the broader question of ending the war in Gaza remains unresolved. “We are coordinated,” said Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, who participated in the White House meeting. “We hoped Hamas would say yes to the Qatari proposal. They essentially said no. But the gaps are small enough to engage in talks.” A third round of indirect negotiations kicked off Tuesday morning in Doha. According to a senior Israeli official, between 80 and 90 percent of the deal’s terms have been finalized. Still, implementation could stretch beyond the coming days. Qatari Foreign Ministry spokesman Majed Al-Ansari said both delegations are in Doha but that formal negotiations have yet to begin, with mediators still working to establish a framework. Negotiators are reportedly close to agreement on a clause covering humanitarian aid delivery to Gaza. According to the Qatari outlet Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, Hamas is seeking United Nations oversight of aid during any ceasefire, instead of the Israel-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, who is expected to travel to Qatar this week, told reporters ahead of the dinner that “we have an opportunity to finally get a peace deal.” After the meeting, a senior Israeli official emphasized the “total coordination” between the U.S. and Israel, describing the bilateral trust as deeper than at any previous stage of the conflict. Mediators involved in the negotiations have been informed that the White House expects a deal to be finalized within the week, according to an Arab diplomat and another individual familiar with the talks. In parallel with the aid discussions, negotiators are addressing the contours of a partial Israeli withdrawal from Gaza during the proposed 60-day ceasefire. An Arab diplomat said Israeli officials brought a map outlining their envisioned pullback. While Hamas initially demanded a return to IDF positions from before the March 2 collapse of the prior truce, the group has shown some flexibility, the diplomat said. Still, the core disagreement remains. Israel continues to frame the deal as a temporary pause in hostilities. Hamas, by contrast, is demanding an agreement that would amount to a permanent end to the war. Speaking Tuesday in Washington, a senior Israeli official outlined Israel’s endgame: Hamas must be dismantled, its leadership exiled or defeated, and an alternative governance structure established in Gaza. “There has to be a system there that manages life,” the official said, acknowledging the possibility of Israeli oversight in the interim. “Maybe for a certain amount of time, it is us.” The official added that Israel is now convinced Trump is committed to supporting emigration efforts from Gaza. “After tonight, I am [convinced],” the official said. “The plan is alive. What is needed is operational coordination, not only the aims, but how we achieve it.” Senior Israeli officials also pointed to close U.S.-Israel coordination on Iran. According to one official, the two countries were aligned diplomatically and militarily before, during, and after Israel’s 12-day aerial campaign last month targeting Iranian nuclear and military sites — an operation the U.S. ultimately joined. “We had diplomatic coordination before the attack, military coordination during the attack, and now once again diplomatic coordination,” the official said. “I measure my words — there has never […]
NISSIM IN WURTSBORO: A group of bochurim visiting the Wurtsboro Airport in Sullivan County for a gliding experience were involved in a frightening incident when a glider, whose pilot reportedly did not see them, slammed into the golf cart transporting them from the terminal to the glider area. Bechasdei Hashem, the crash occurred at an angle that prevented serious injuries, and all the bochurim suffered only minor injuries. Only one of them required transport by Catskills Hatzolah to Ellenville Hospital for evaluation.
YWN regrets to inform you of the Petira of Reb Aron Dovid Rubinstein Z”L, a beloved and devoted longtime member of Hatzolah in both Kiryas Joel and the Catskills. He was 51 years old. A dedicated responder for many years, Reb Aron Dovid Z”L, a resident of Kiryas Joel, answered hundreds of emergency calls throughout his service, earning the respect and admiration of his peers and community. He was known for his calm demeanor, reliability, and wholehearted commitment to helping others in times of need. He was known in Hatzolah as KY45 and C88. He had been battling illness in recent years, and his condition significantly worsened in the past few weeks. Levaya details will be published when available. Boruch Dayan Ha’Emes… (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
As trash and tempers heat up across Philadelphia on Day 8 of a strike by blue-collar city workers Tuesday, some residents and small business owners are hiring pop-up hauling services to clear their blocks of garbage, even as they broadly support the union’s quest for higher pay. Mayor Cherelle Parker, a Democrat, is standing firm in her offer of raises of about 3% per year over a three-year contract, which comes on top of a 5% raise she gave as an olive branch to all four major city unions after taking office last year. “I do believe that the mayor has made a gross mistake,” said Jody Sweitzer, who has watched her East Passyunk neighborhood in South Philadelphia gentrify in her 26 years there, leading to higher rents and less diversity. Sweitzer owns a popular downtown bar called Dirty Frank’s. “Forty thousand dollars cannot cut it in Philadelphia, you know,” she said, referring to striking workers’ pay. “You can barely rent an apartment with that kind of money. So I feel as a resident of Philadelphia that she’s doing injustice to those (workers) who actually live here.” The strike by District Council 33 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees involves nearly 10,000 workers, although judges have sided with the city in ordering some critical employees back to work at the city’s 911 centers, water department and airport. Judges have also decreed a temporary halt on evictions. The two sides have met only intermittently since the strike began, but there was hope they would return to the bargaining table on Tuesday. In the summer of 1986, a citywide trash strike went on for three weeks, leaving 45,000 tons of rotting garbage in the streets. Terrill Haigler, 35, a former sanitation worker who now does private hauling under the handle “Ya Fav Trashman,” said stress was on the rise Tuesday along with the 94-degree (34.4-degree Celsius) temperature. “It’s like Gotham City with water ice,” he said, referencing a local treat that is famously mispronounced “wooder ice” by natives. “We support District Council 33 100%,” Haigler said. “They deserve everything that they’re asking for, but we also have to think about the residents on the other side. There are some people — elderly, mothers who have children — who can’t let the trash sit for five, six, seven and eight days.” A shop owner on Sweitzer’s street hired Haigler to clear the block Tuesday. In turn, he hired two teenagers to help him while he drove a rental truck down the narrow, one-way street that ends at Pat’s King of Steaks. ”Our goal is to hopefully relieve some of that tension by cleaning as many blocks as we can, picking up as much trash as we can for customers, just to give some ease and some peace,” Haigler said. The city has designated about 60 sites as drop-off centers for residential trash, but some are overflowing, while striking workers on hand ask residents not to cross the picket line. Most libraries across the city are also closed, with support workers and security guards off the job. While Sweitzer hoped the strike would encourage more people to cut down on their trash through composting, city officials said other residents were taking advantage of the situation and discarding mattresses and other […]
The Trump administration is prepared to support renewed Israeli military action against Iran if Tehran attempts to revive key components of its nuclear program, according to Axios citing two sources briefed on recent discussions between senior Israeli and U.S. officials. Israeli officials say they are seeking clear understandings from Washington on what scenarios would trigger U.S. backing for future strikes. The issue was expected to be a central topic when Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met with President Trump for a private dinner at the White House on Monday evening. Netanyahu’s national security adviser, Ron Dermer, relayed to Israeli officials that he left recent meetings in Washington with the impression that the U.S. would approve Israeli strikes under specific conditions. According to the sources, those conditions include any Iranian effort to remove highly enriched uranium from nuclear sites at Fordow, Natanz, or Isfahan, or to restart enrichment operations at the damaged facilities. Dermer held closed-door meetings last week with Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and White House envoy Steve Witkoff. Israeli officials say Dermer emphasized the urgency of aligning positions with the U.S. in anticipation of possible Iranian moves. Intelligence assessments shared between Washington and Jerusalem indicate that while Iran’s facilities suffered significant damage in recent strikes, large quantities of enriched uranium—some of it enriched to 60%—remain on site. U.S. and Israeli officials believe the material is currently sealed off and inaccessible, but concerns remain about future attempts by Iran to relocate or reprocess it. President Trump has said on multiple occasions since the end of the 12-day war between Israel and Iran that the U.S. is open to further strikes if Iran reinitiates uranium enrichment. At the same time, he has expressed interest in a negotiated agreement to avoid escalation. Meanwhile, diplomatic efforts are moving in parallel. Witkoff is planning to meet Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi in Oslo in the coming days to explore the possibility of restarting nuclear talks. Iranian officials have confirmed that such a meeting is under discussion, though no final date has been set. During his Washington visit, Dermer was told that the administration remains committed to the “zero enrichment” policy on Iranian soil—a longstanding Israeli demand in nuclear negotiations. U.S. and Israeli intelligence agencies are continuing to monitor movement around Iran’s nuclear sites. Officials say any indication that Iran is attempting to access or move uranium stockpiles would likely trigger a reassessment of the military option. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, in an interview aired Monday with Tucker Carlson, said that while the sites were damaged, Iran has not yet been able to fully evaluate their condition due to ongoing security constraints. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
Her voice breaking, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Tuesday that emergency responders in Texas are “still looking for a lot of little girls” who remain missing after a catastrophic flood during the holiday weekend. Noem described the scene at Camp Mystic in Kerrville, Texas, at the urging of President Donald Trump as he opened a meeting with his Cabinet at the White House. Noem visited on Saturday, a day after floodwaters swept away the camp. She said Texans are strong but “they’ve gone through something that is absolutely horrific, and it is heartbreaking to watch these families suffer the way that they are.” Trump announced during the meeting that he and his wife, Melania, will visit on Friday. Noem said she was “surprised” when she arrived at the camp and saw the devastation. “The parents that were looking for their children and picking up their daughters’ stuffed animals out of the mud and finding their daughter’s shoe that might be laying in the cabin and, just hugging and comforting people matters a lot,” the secretary said. “I’m extremely grateful for God’s hand in that whole situation because hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people were saved,” she said. “And and this is a time for all of us in this country to remember that we were created to serve each other.” A wall of water slammed into camps and homes along the edge of the Guadalupe River before daybreak Friday, pulling people out of their cabins, tents and trailers and dragging them for miles past floating tree trunks and cars. Some survivors were found clinging to trees. More than 100 people were killed, including at least 27 campers and counselors. Officials said Monday that 10 campers and one counselor still have not been found. The flood and its devastation appear to have, for the moment, tamped down talk by Trump and Noem of scaling back the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which helps states respond to natural disasters by providing water and other supplies and federal assistance. Trump declined earlier this week to discuss his plans to shrink FEMA when a reporter asked if that was still his intent. Noem said Tuesday that FEMA supports states during disasters like this “and that’s exactly what we did here in this situation.” (AP)
The IDF has released footage of the drone strike in southern Lebanon. Killed in the explosion was Mehran Mustafa Ba’jur, a high-ranking Hamas official who was behind rocket attacks on Israeli cities and worked to build Hamas’ terror network in Lebanon.
NETANYAHU: “There are opportunities for peace that we intend to realize. We’re working together on this. We have still to finish the job in Gaza, release all our hostages, eliminate & destroy Hamas’ military and governance capabilities because Gaza must have a different future.”
Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Monday brushed off threats from New York City Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani, who previously said he would have Netanyahu arrested if he set foot in the city. Speaking to reporters at the White House during a working dinner with President Donald Trump, Netanyahu dismissed the remarks as unserious and vowed to visit New York anyway. “I’m not concerned about that,” Netanyahu said when asked about Mamdani’s statement. “There’s enough craziness in the world, but I guess it never ends. This is folly, and it’s silly in many ways. I’m going to come there with President Trump, and we’ll see.” Trump interjected with a grin: “I’ll get him out.” Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist who recently won the Democratic mayoral primary in a surprise victory over former Governor Andrew Cuomo, made headlines last year when he told journalist Mehdi Hasan he would enforce the International Criminal Court’s arrest warrant for Netanyahu if elected mayor. “As mayor, New York City would arrest Benjamin Netanyahu,” Mamdani told Zeteo in December 2024. “This is a city where our values are in line with international law. It’s time that our actions are too.” Trump, standing beside Netanyahu on Monday, sharply criticized Mamdani. “We don’t know who the mayor is going to be yet, but this is a communist. He’s not a socialist. He’s a communist,” the president said. “He’s said some really bad things about Jewish people and a lot of others. I think he’s going through a bit of a honeymoon right now, but he might make it.” “He’s going to behave,” Trump added. “He better behave. Otherwise, he’s going to have big problems.” Trump also warned that a Mamdani administration could jeopardize federal funding for New York City. Meanwhile NYC Mayor Eric Adams was asked about this today, to which Adams said that Netanyahu is welcome in NYC. New York City is home to the largest Jewish population of any city in the world — approximately 1.3 million — and also hosts the largest Muslim population in the U.S., with roughly 750,000 adherents. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
President Donald Trump continues to expand his crypto-related offerings, this time with a planned exchange-traded fund tied to the prices of five popular cryptocurrencies. Trump Media & Technology Group, a Florida company that operates the Truth Social media platform, announced Tuesday it had filed paperwork with the Securities and Exchange Commission for approval to launch the “Crypto Blue Chip ETF” later this year. The proposed ETF would have 70% of its holdings in bitcoin, the world’s most popular cryptocurrency, 15% in ethereum, the second-most popular, and 8% in solana, a cryptocurrency popular in the meme coin community. The fund would hold 5% in the cryptocurrency developed by the company Ripple and 2% in the crypto created by the exchange Crypto.com, which will act as the ETF’s digital custodian. Trump Media previously announced plans for a crypto ETF with just bitcoin and ethereum. It’s unclear if the company plans to move forward with that ETF offering. Trump Media did not immediately return a request for comment. Cryptocurrency-based ETFs make it easier for investors to gain exposure to cryptocurrencies without having to buy them directly. These funds have exploded in popularity since bitcoin ETFs began trading in U.S. markets last year. The SEC released new guidelines last week for crypto ETF issuers as part of the Trump administration’s push to create a more welcoming regulatory environment for crypto-related companies. The agency has also dropped or paused several enforcement actions against crypto companies since Trump took office. Trump was once a bitcoin skeptic who has since warmly embraced the cryptocurrency industry, which has showered him with campaign and other types of contributions. Ripple, for example, was one of the biggest donors to Trump’s inaugural committee. While the Trump administration has pushed for crypto-friendly regulations and laws, the Trump family has aggressively sought to expand its crypto-related businesses. That dynamic has led to allegations of corruption from Democrats and concern among some crypto enthusiasts that the president may be undermining their efforts to establish credibility and stability for the industry. At a news conference last month, Trump dismissed any notion that his family’s investments were improper and touted his administration’s efforts to make the U.S. the world capital for crypto. “If we didn’t have it, China would,” Trump said. (AP)
Real estate investors are snapping up a bigger share of U.S. homes on the market as rising prices and stubbornly high borrowing costs freeze out many other would-be homebuyers. Nearly 27% of all homes sold in the first three months of the year were bought by investors — the highest share in at least five years, according to a report by real estate data provider BatchData. Between 2020 and 2023, the share of homes bought by investors averaged 18.5%. All told, investors bought 265,000 homes in the January-March quarter, an increase of 1.2% from the same period a year earlier, the firm said. Despite the modest annual increase, the rise in the share of investor home purchases is more a reflection of how much the housing market has slowed as traditional buyers face growing affordability constraints, according to BatchData. The U.S. housing market has been in a sales slump since early 2022, when mortgage rates began to climb from pandemic-era lows. Home sales fell last year to their lowest level in nearly 30 years. They’ve remained sluggish so far this year, as many prospective homebuyers have been discouraged by elevated mortgage rates and home prices that have kept climbing, though more slowly. As home sales have slowed, properties are taking longer to sell. That’s led to a sharply higher inventory of homes on the market, benefitting investors and other home shoppers who can afford to bypass current mortgage rates by paying in cash or tapping home equity gains. “As traditional buyers struggle with affordability, investors with cash and financing advantages are stepping in to maintain transaction volume,” according to the report. BatchData analyzes U.S. home sales records to determine which properties were purchased by investors. These could include vacation homes or rentals, but not a homebuyer’s primary residence. Investors bought 1.2 million homes in 2024, up from an average of 1.1 million homes a year going back to 2020, according to BatchData. Even so, investor-owned homes account for roughly 20% of the nation’s 86 million single-family homes, the firm said. Of those, mom-and-pop investors, or those who own between 1 and 5 homes, account for 85% of all investor-owned residential properties, while those with between 6 and 10 properties account for another 5%. Institutional investors that own 1,000 or more homes account for only about 2.2% of all investor-owned homes, the firm said. And that number could get smaller, amid signs that large institutional investors are scaling back home purchases. Out of a group of eight of the biggest companies that own and lease single-family houses, including Invitation Homes and American Homes 4 Rent, six sold more homes in the second quarter than they bought, according to data from Parcl Labs. (AP)
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Sec. Scott Bessent: “We will be taking about $100 billion in tariff income thus far this year, and that’s with the major tariffs not having started until the second quarter — so we could expect that that could be well over $300 billion by the end of the year.”
Switzerland’s medical products authority has granted the first approval for a malaria medicine designed for small infants, touted as an advance against a disease that takes hundreds of thousands of lives — nearly all in Africa — each year. Swissmedic gave a green light Tuesday for the medicine from Basel-based pharmaceutical company Novartis for treatment of babies with body weights between 2 and 5 kilograms (nearly 4½ to 11 pounds), which could pave the way for hard-hit African nations to follow suit in coming months. The agency said that the decision is significant in part because it’s only the third time it has approved a treatment under a fast-track authorization process, in coordination with the World Health Organization, to help developing countries access needed treatment. The newly approved medication is a lower dose version of a tablet previously approved for other age groups, including older children. Dr. Quique Bassat, a malaria expert not affiliated with the Swiss review, said the burden of malaria in very young children is “relatively low” compared to older kids. But access to such medicines is important to all, he said. “There is no doubt that any child of whichever age — and particularly very, very young ones or very light-weighted ones — require a treatment,” said Bassat, the director- general of the Barcelona Institute for Global Health, known as ISGlobal. Up to now, antimalarial drugs designed for older children have been administered to small infants in careful ways to avoid overdose or toxicity, in what Bassat called a “suboptimal solution” that the newly designed medicine could help rectify. “This is a drug which we know is safe, we know works well, and therefore it will just be available as a new version for a specific age group,” he said. Ruairidh Villar, a Novartis spokesperson, said that eight African countries took part in the assessment and are expected to approve the medicine within 90 days. The company said that it’s planning on a rollout on a “largely not-for-profit basis” in countries where malaria is endemic. Dr. Bhargavi Rao, co-director of the Malaria Centre at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, noted that malaria cases continue to rise — especially in crisis-hit countries — despite new vaccines and programs targeting the mosquitoes that spread the parasite. She said access strategies for the new medicine must include a look at where needs are greatest, and urged clarity on pricing. “We need transparency around what Novartis’ ‘largely not for profit’ statement means including publicly available pricing, which countries will benefit and how long for,” she wrote in an email. Still, she said it was “significant to finally have a suitable and safe treatment for very young children — more than 20 years since WHO first pre-qualified CoArtem for older age groups. She noted the announcement comes as resistance to antimalarials has been growing and many traditional donor countries have been sharply cutting outlays for global health — including for malaria programming and research. The mosquito-borne illness is the deadliest disease in Africa, whose 1.5 billion people accounted for 95% of an estimated 597,000 malaria deaths worldwide in 2023, according to WHO. More than three-quarters of those deaths were among children. (AP)
The State Department is warning U.S. diplomats of attempts to impersonate Secretary of State Marco Rubio and possibly other officials using technology driven by artificial intelligence, according to two senior officials and a cable sent last week to all embassies and consulates. The warning came after the department discovered that an impostor posing as Rubio had attempted to reach out to at least three foreign ministers, a U.S. senator and a governor, according to the July 3 cable, which was first reported by The Washington Post. The recipients of the scam messages, which were sent by text, Signal and voice mail, were not identified in the cable, a copy of which was shared with The Associated Press. “The State Department is aware of this incident and is currently investigating the matter,” it said. “The department takes seriously its responsibility to safeguard its information and continuously takes steps to improve the department’s cybersecurity posture to prevent future incidents.” It declined to comment further due to “security reasons” and the ongoing investigation. One of the officials said the hoaxes had been unsuccessful and “not very sophisticated.” Nonetheless, the second official said the department deemed it “prudent” to advise all employees and foreign governments, particularly as efforts by foreign actors to compromise information security increase. The officials were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. “There is no direct cyber threat to the department from this campaign, but information shared with a third party could be exposed if targeted individuals are compromised,” the cable said. The FBI warned in a public service announcement this past spring of a “malicious text and voice messaging campaign” in which unidentified “malicious actors” have been impersonating senior U.S. government officials. The scheme, according to the FBI, has relied on text messages and AI-generated voice messages that purport to come from a senior U.S. official and that aim to dupe other government officials as well as the victim’s associates and contacts. It is the second high-level Trump administration official to face such AI-driven impersonation. The government was investigating after elected officials, business executives and other prominent figures received messages from someone impersonating President Donald Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles. Text messages and phone calls went out from someone who seemed to have gained access to the contacts in Wiles’ personal cellphone, The Wall Street Journal reported in May. Some of those who received calls heard a voice that sounded like Wiles, which may have been generated by artificial intelligence, according to the newspaper. The messages and calls were not coming from Wiles’ number, the report said. (AP)
