Workers digging at Manhattan’s World Trade Center site 15 years ago made an improbable discovery: sodden timbers from a boat built during the Revolutionary War that had been buried more than two centuries earlier. Now, over 600 pieces from the 50-foot (15-meter) vessel are being painstakingly put back together at the New York State Museum. After years on the water and centuries underground, the boat is becoming a museum exhibit. Arrayed like giant puzzle pieces on the museum floor, research assistants and volunteers recently spent weeks cleaning the timbers with picks and brushes before reconstruction could even begin. Though researchers believe the ship was a gunboat built in 1775 to defend Philadelphia, they still don’t know all the places it traveled to or why it ended up apparently neglected along the Manhattan shore before ending up in a landfill around the 1790s. “The public can come and contemplate the mysteries around this ship,” said Michael Lucas, the museum’s curator of historical archaeology. “Because like anything from the past, we have pieces of information. We don’t have the whole story.” From landfill to museum piece The rebuilding caps years of rescue and preservation work that began in July 2010 when a section of the boat was found 22 feet (7 meters) below street level. Curved timbers from the hull were discovered by a crew working on an underground parking facility at the World Trade Center site, near where the Twin Towers stood before the 9/11 attacks. The wood was muddy, but well preserved after centuries in the oxygen-poor earth. A previously constructed slurry wall went right through the boat, though timbers comprising about 30 feet (9 meters) of its rear and middle sections were carefully recovered. Part of the bow was recovered the next summer on the other side of the subterranean wall. The timbers were shipped more than 1,400 miles (2,253 kilometers) to Texas A&M’s Center for Maritime Archaeology and Conservation. Each of the 600 pieces underwent a three-dimensional scan and spent years in preservative fluids before being placed in a giant freeze-dryer to remove moisture. Then they were wrapped in more than a mile of foam and shipped to the state museum in Albany. While the museum is 130 miles (209 kilometers) up the Hudson River from lower Manhattan, it boasts enough space to display the ship. The reconstruction work is being done in an exhibition space, so visitors can watch the weathered wooden skeleton slowly take the form of a partially reconstructed boat. Work is expected to finish around the end of the month, said Peter Fix, an associate research scientist at the Center for Maritime Archaeology and Conservation who is overseeing the rebuilding. On a recent day, Lucas took time out to talk to passing museum visitors about the vessel and how it was found. Explaining the work taking place behind him, he told one group: “Who would have thought in a million years, ‘someday, this is going to be in a museum?’” A nautical mystery remains Researchers knew they found a boat under the streets of Manhattan. But what kind? Analysis of the timbers showed they came from trees cut down in the Philadelphia area in the early 1770s, pointing to the ship being built in a yard near the city. It was probably built hastily. The […]
President Donald Trump on Wednesday will meet with members of a NATO alliance that he has worked to bend to his will over the years and whose members are rattled by his latest comments casting doubt on the U.S. commitment to its mutual defense guarantees. Trump’s comments en route to the Netherlands that his fidelity to Article 5 “depends on your definition” are likely to draw a spotlight at the NATO summit, as will the new and fragile Iran-Israel ceasefire that Trump helped broker after the U.S. unloaded airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities. At the same time, the alliance is poised to enact one of Trump’s chief priorities for NATO: a pledge by its member countries to increase, sometimes significantly, how much they spend on their defense. “NATO was broke, and I said, ‘You’re going to have to pay,’” Trump said Tuesday. “And we did a whole thing, and now they’re paying a lot. Then I said, ‘You’re going to have to lift it to 4% or 5%, and 5% is better.’” Spending 5% of a country’s gross domestic product on defense is “good,” Trump pronounced, adding, “It gives them much more power.” The boost in spending follows years of Trump complaints that other countries weren’t paying their fair share for membership in an alliance created as a bulwark against threats from the former Soviet Union. Most NATO countries, with the key exception of Spain, are preparing to endorse the 5% pledge, motivated to bolster their own defenses not just by Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine but also, perhaps, to placate Trump. As a candidate in 2016, Trump suggested that he as president would not necessarily heed the alliance’s mutual defense guarantees outlined in Article 5 of the NATO treaty. In March of this year, he expressed uncertainty that NATO would come to the United States’ defense if needed, though the alliance did just that after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. On Tuesday, he told reporters aboard Air Force One on his way to The Hague for the summit that whether he is committed to Article 5 “depends on your definition.” “There’s numerous definitions of Article 5. You know that, right?” Trump said. “But I’m committed to being their friends.” He signaled that he would give a more precise definition of what Article 5 means to him once he is at the summit. Trump also vented to reporters before leaving Washington about the actions by Israel and Iran after his announced ceasefire. He said, in his view, both sides had violated the nascent agreement. After Trump arrived in the Netherlands, news outlets, including The Associated Press, published stories revealing that a U.S. intelligence report suggested in an early assessment that Iran’s nuclear program had been set back only a few months by weekend strikes and was not “completely and fully obliterated,” as Trump had said. The White House called the report “flat-out wrong,” and Trump posted in all-caps on social media early Wednesday that any reporting that the strikes weren’t “completely destroyed” was an attempt to “demean one of the most successful military strikes in history.” The White House has not said what other world leaders Trump would meet with one-on-one while in The Hague, but he said he was likely to cross paths with Ukrainian President Volodymyr […]
US President Donald Trump claimed on Wednesday that Israeli agents entered the Fordo nuclear facility after the US strikes on three of Iran’s nuclear sites. Speaking to reporters from the NATO summit in The Hague, Trump denied reports that the US strikes only set back Iran’s nuclear program by months “It was obliteration, and you’re going to see that,” he said. “Israel is going to report on it now. I understand. And it was total obliteration. You know they have guys that go in there after the hit. And they said it was total obliteration.” However, Kan News reported Israeli officials as saying that they have no information about such an operation. Trump also praised Israel in his remarks, saying that he was “so proud of them” for calling off an extensive retaliatory strike against Iran on Tuesday, adding that Israel was “technically right” that Tehran violated the ceasefire. When a reporter asked if the US would attack Iran again if it rebuilt its nuclear sites, Trump responded, “Sure.” “The last thing they want to do is enrich anything right now. They want to recover. They’re not going to have a bomb, and they’re not going to enrich.” “I think we’ll end up having somewhat of a relationship with Iran,” he added. “Israel got hit very hard,” Trump said about the war. “Especially the last couple of days. Israel was hit really hard. Those ballistic missiles, boy they took out a lot of buildings.” “And they’ve been great. Bibi Netanyahu should be very proud of himself.” (YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)
Hackers backing Tehran have targeted U.S. banks, defense contractors and oil industry companies following American strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities — but so far have not caused widespread disruptions to critical infrastructure or the economy. But that could change if the ceasefire between Iran and Israel collapses or if independent hacking groups supporting Iran make good on promises to wage their own digital conflict against the U.S., analysts and cyber experts say. The U.S. strikes could even prompt Iran, Russia, China and North Korea to double down on investments in cyberwarfare, according to Arnie Bellini, a tech entrepreneur and investor. Bellini noted that hacking operations are much cheaper than bullets, planes or nuclear arms — what defense analysts call kinetic warfare. America may be militarily dominant, he said, but its reliance on digital technology poses a vulnerability. “We just showed the world: You don’t want to mess with us kinetically,” said Bellini, CEO of Bellini Capital. “But we are wide open digitally. We are like Swiss cheese.” Hackers have hit banks and defense contractors Two pro-Palestinian hacking groups claimed they targeted more than a dozen aviation firms, banks and oil companies following the U.S. strikes over the weekend. The hackers detailed their work in a post on the Telegram messaging service and urged other hackers to follow their lead, according to researchers at the SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks the groups’ activity. The attacks were denial-of-service attacks, in which a hacker tries to disrupt a website or online network. “We increase attacks from today,” one of the hacker groups, known as Mysterious Team, posted Monday. Federal authorities say they are on guard for additional attempts by hackers to penetrate U.S. networks. The Department of Homeland Security issued a public bulletin Sunday warning of increased Iranian cyber threats. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued a statement Tuesday urging organizations that operate critical infrastructure like water systems, pipelines or power plants to stay vigilant. While it lacks the technical abilities of China or Russia, Iran has long been known as a “chaos agent” when it comes to using cyberattacks to steal secrets, score political points or frighten opponents. Cyberattacks mounted by Iran’s government may end if the ceasefire holds and Tehran looks to avoid another confrontation with the U.S. But hacker groups could still retaliate on Iran’s behalf. In some cases, these groups have ties to military or intelligence agencies. In other cases, they act entirely independently. More than 60 such groups have been identified by researchers at the security firm Trustwave. These hackers can inflict significant economic and psychological blows. Following Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel, for instance, hackers penetrated an emergency alert app used by some Israelis and directed it to inform users that a nuclear missile was incoming. “It causes an immediate psychological impact,” said Ziv Mador, vice president of security research at Trustwave’s SpiderLabs, which tracks cyberthreats. Economic disruption, confusion and fear are all the goals of such operations, said Mador, who is based in Israel. “We saw the same thing in Russia-Ukraine.” Collecting intelligence is another aim for hackers While Iran lacks the cyberwarfare capabilities of China or Russia, it has repeatedly tried to use its more modest operations to try to spy on foreign leaders — something national security experts predict Tehran is almost certain to try again as it seeks to suss out President Donald Trump’s next moves. Last year, federal authorities […]
IDF spokesperson Effie Defrin said on Wednesday that it’s too early to determine the results of the US strikes on Iran’s nuclear sites, but “the assessment is that we significantly harmed the program, setting it back by years.” Later on Wednesday, ABC News quoted Israeli sources as saying that the results of the strikes are still under assessment, but the strike on Fordo did not produce satisfactory results, saying the outcome there was “really not good.” The Israeli sources added that they do not have information about the amount of enriched uranium that Iran may have transferred prior to the strikes. A U.S. intelligence report on Tuesday suggests that Iran’s nuclear program has been set back only a few months after U.S. strikes and was not “completely and fully obliterated” as President Donald Trump has said, according to two people familiar with the early assessment. The report issued by the Defense Intelligence Agency on Monday contradicts statements from Trump about the status of Iran’s nuclear facilities. According to the people, the report found that while the Sunday strikes at the Fordo, Natanz and Isfahan nuclear sites did significant damage, the facilities were not totally destroyed. The people were not authorized to address the matter publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. The assessment also suggests that at least some of Iran’s highly enriched uranium, necessary for creating a nuclear weapon, was moved out of multiple sites before the U.S. strikes and survived, and it found that Iran’s centrifuges, which are required to further enrich uranium to weapons-grade levels, are largely intact, according to the people. At the deeply buried Fordo uranium enrichment plant, where U.S. B-2 stealth bombers dropped several 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs, the entrance collapsed and infrastructure was damaged, but the underground infrastructure was not destroyed, the assessment found. The people said that intelligence officials had warned of such an outcome in previous assessments ahead of the strike on Fordo. The White House strongly pushed back on the DIA assessment, calling it “flat-out wrong.” “The leaking of this alleged assessment is a clear attempt to demean President Trump, and discredit the brave fighter pilots who conducted a perfectly executed mission to obliterate Iran’s nuclear program,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. “Everyone knows what happens when you drop fourteen 30,000 pound bombs perfectly on their targets: total obliteration.” The CIA and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence declined to comment on the DIA assessment. ODNI coordinates the work of the nation’s 18 intelligence agencies, including the DIA, which is the intelligence arm of the Defense Department, responsible for producing intelligence on foreign militaries and the capabilities of adversaries. The Israeli government also has not released any official assessments of the U.S. strikes. Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff, who said he has read damage assessment reports from U.S. intelligence and other nations, reiterated Tuesday night that the strikes had deprived Iran of the ability to develop a weapon and called it outrageous that the U.S. assessment was shared with reporters. “It’s treasonous so it ought to be investigated,” Witkoff said on Fox News Channel. The intelligence assessment was first reported by CNN on Tuesday. Outside experts had suspected Iran had likely already hidden the core components of its nuclear program as it stared down […]
Esmail Qaani, the commander of Iran’s Quds Force, was spotted alive in Tehran, dispelling rumors that he was eliminated by Israel during the war. The New York Times reported at the beginning of the war that Qaani had been assassinated in Israel’s opening strikes targeting key military and nuclear sites along with targeted eliminations of Iran’s leading political figures and top nuclear scientists. However, the IDF did not name Qaani as a target and said that they have no information about reports of his elimination. As it turns out, Qaani, who succeeded Qassem Soleimani after the latter’s elimination in a US drone strike in 2020, was apparently in hiding. He emerged from his hideout following the ceasefire to take part in “victory” celebrations in Tehran. This isn’t the first time that the elusive commander was rumored to be dead, only to later appear at a public function. Speculatory reports in October 2024 said that Qaani was killed in an Israeli airstrike in Beirut, where he had traveled to support Hezbollah amid its war with Israel. Other reports speculated he may have suffered a heart attack or was being detained by Iranian authorities on suspicion of espionage. However, footage later emerged showing Qaani in attendance at a funeral service in Karbala, Iraq, for senior Revolutionary Guards commander Abbas Nilforoushan, who was killed in an Israeli airstrike a month earlier. (YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)
Just hours after the ceasefire between Israel and Iran took effect, the Iranian judiciary system in Tehran announced a series of new legal measures, centered on a dramatic tightening of espionage laws—a move designed to facilitate authorities in penalizing citizens suspected of ties with Israel or of expressing criticism against the regime. According to the spokesman’s announcement, the “redefinition of the crime of espionage” grants the authorities almost unlimited powers to arrest and convict citizens based on mere suspicions and without the legal process restrictions that were previously in place. The announcement reflects the regime’s goal to regain control—at any cost. As of Wednesday, 700 people had been arrested since the beginning of the war for ties to Israel. Iran also executed three prisoners on Wednesday over allegedly collaborating with Israel’s Mossad in smuggling “assassination equipment” into the country, its state-run IRNA news agency reported. Iran previously executed three people during the war with Israel. (YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)
Defense Minister Yisrael Katz delivered an extended security briefing on Tuesday to the members of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee at the Kiryah in Tel Aviv, which mainly focused on the IDF’s activities during the war against Iran. At the meeting, Katz revealed that one of the reasons for the launch of the war was that Iran had planned a surprise attack on Israel. “The Iranians planned to act first and launch between 400 and 500 missiles in the opening strike,” he said. “If we hadn’t acted first, it would have been far worse for us.” He added that the main challenge in the operation was opening the skies and thwarting Iran’s air defense systems: “We controlled the skies and could have continued, but we decided in advance to achieve the objectives and end strongly.” He added, “We made a distinction during the war and harmed more Revolutionary Guard operatives than soldiers in the Iranian army. While we wanted to eliminate Khamenei, he hid.” “We met 100% of the operation’s objectives in Iran,” he said, noting that most of the operation was carried out by Israel alone, while the US joined only in the final stage. “The Americans faced three options—to join, to prevent, or to approve. They chose the third option: they gave a green light and later also joined.” Regarding the phone call between Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and US President Donald Trump over Israel’s strike on Iran following its violation of the ceasefire, Katz joked, “If Trump had woken up 15 minutes later, the attack this morning would have been stronger.” Katz also mentioned that Netanyahu is expected to travel to the US to influence the formulation of a nuclear agreement. “Netanyahu will fly to the United States to formulate the agreements with the Americans on Iran. Right now, it’s just a ceasefire. We must remember that Trump canceled the central sanction on Iran to sell oil to the Chinese, and Iran may become stronger again as a result.” He emphasized that there was no goal to overthrow the Ayatollah regime: “Harming elements of the regime was not part of the goals—it happened incidentally.” (YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)
The IDF has released the names of six soldiers who were killed during combat operations in the southern Gaza Strip. Their families have been notified, and their names have now been cleared for publication. The fallen are: * Lieutenant Matan Shai Yashinovski, 21, from Kfar Yona, a platoon commander in the 605th Combat Engineering Battalion of the 188th Brigade. * Staff Sergeant Ronel Ben-Moshe, 20, from Rehovot, a soldier in the 605th Combat Engineering Battalion of the 188th Brigade. * Staff Sergeant Niv Radia, 20, from Elyakhin, a soldier in the 605th Combat Engineering Battalion of the 188th Brigade. * Sergeant Ronen Shapiro, 19, from Mazkeret Batya, a soldier in the 605th Combat Engineering Battalion of the 188th Brigade. * Sergeant Shahar Manoav, 21, from Ashkelon, a soldier in the 605th Combat Engineering Battalion of the 188th Brigade. * Sergeant Maayan Baruch Pearlstein, 20, from Eshhar, a soldier in the 605th Combat Engineering Battalion of the 188th Brigade. The IDF noted that in the same incident where these six soldiers fell, a seventh soldier was also killed. His name has not yet been cleared for publication and will be released once permitted. In a separate incident on Tuesday, a soldier from the same battalion — the 605th of the 188th Brigade — was severely wounded during combat in southern Gaza. He was evacuated to a hospital for treatment, and his family has been notified. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
Mamdani’s early-vote edge is powered by the East River corridor in western Queens and Brooklyn, but he’s also scoring key wins in Hispanic pockets like Washington Heights and Corona and Asian enclaves such as Bay Ridge and Bensonhurst.
A powerful maamad took place at the home of noted philanthropist Mr. Jimmy Khezrie in Deal on Monday, featuring leading Gedolei Yisroel including Rishon L’Tzion Harav Yitzchak Yosef shlit”a, Harav Moshe Hillel Hirsch shlit”a, Harav Don Segal shlit”a, Harav Dovid Cohen shlit”a, Harav Shlomo Kanievsky shlit”a, and Harav Malkiel Kotler shlit”a. The cause: Keren Olam HaTorah, a lifeline for thousands of yeshivos and kollelim facing financial devastation due to crippling budget cuts in Eretz Yisroel. The emcee, Rabbi David Haber, said it best: “This is a war — not with weapons, but to defend Torah. Gedolei Torah have been on the road for over a week, utterly spent, not to save their own yeshivos, but for the kollelim in Ashdod, the avreichim in Beit Shemesh, and the Torah world across Eretz Yisroel. And we, baruch Hashem, have the chance to stand with them.” Mr. Khezrie – who co-hosted the event along with Mr. Ezra Erani, another world-renowned baal tzedakah – moved the room with his remarks: “I used to wonder why Torah is called keneged kulam, more valuable than all other mitzvos. And now I understand — because without Torah, we don’t hold on to anything else. Torah is what has preserved our people through 3,000 years of war and exile. We’re not just supporting Torah — we’re preserving our survival.” Harav Moshe Hillel Hirsch shlit”a followed with a sobering message. “When Hashem is distant, klal Yisroel suffers,” Rav Moshe Hillel said. “And what determines if He is close to us? Torah. Supporting Torah in Eretz Yisroel isn’t tzedaka — it’s how we bring Hashem closer to our lives, to our kehillos, and to the world.” And then, a remarkable thing began to happen. One by one, tomchei Torah rose before the gedolim, each one pledging their financial support for the monumental, historic mission to save Torah in Eretz Yisroel. Deal’s Kehilla Rises Up with Historic Support for Keren Olam Hatorah
Some 444 firefighters, assisted by 14 helicopters and four planes, have been deployed to contain wildfires at different locations on the Greek island of Chios after the island declared a state of emergency
STEVE WITKOFF: Leaking that type of information, whatever the information, whatever side it comes out on, is outrageous. It’s treasonous. So it ought to be investigated, and whoever did it, whoever is responsible for it should be held accountable.
The head of the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog issued a stark warning Tuesday following a deeper analysis of U.S. airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear program: the destruction is more severe than initially reported — and may include chemical contamination. This comes as other reports from CNN and Times of Israel say that the airstrikes either delayed Iran’s nuclear program by a few months (according to CNN), or a few years (according to Times of Israel). This latest report, first published by the NY Post, creates a new layer of speculation and confusion. Rafael Grossi, Director General of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said new satellite imagery of Iran’s Fordow and Natanz nuclear sites revealed previously unseen damage, including evidence of potential toxic hazards at Natanz and critical infrastructure hits at Fordow. At Fordow — a fortified underground facility carved into the mountains south of Tehran — analysts found that access roads and at least one entrance had been struck. The U.S. is believed to have dropped 14 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs on the site, which houses uranium enrichment equipment buried as deep as 300 feet underground. The findings at Natanz were no better. IAEA analysts identified two direct missile penetrations above the facility’s underground enrichment halls — areas used for both uranium processing and sensitive storage. Grossi warned that based on the known contents of those chambers, “this strike may have caused localized contamination and chemical hazards.” The U.S. reportedly used cruise missiles launched from a nuclear-powered submarine to hit Natanz and two other sites in the coordinated Saturday strike. While Grossi assured that “no radiological impact” has been detected in surrounding populations so far, the full extent of the damage remains unclear. IAEA teams have not been permitted on the ground to inspect the facilities firsthand, limiting the agency’s ability to assess potential contamination or nuclear material leakage. Grossi has formally called on Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi to grant immediate access to the damaged sites, warning that continued non-cooperation could permanently derail diplomatic efforts. “Resuming cooperation with the IAEA is key to a successful diplomatic agreement to finally resolve the dispute over Iran’s nuclear activities,” Grossi wrote. Compounding international concern is the revelation that nearly 900 pounds of uranium enriched to 60% has gone missing since the Israeli airstrikes began on June 13. Grossi confirmed that the IAEA has no current knowledge of the uranium’s location — a deeply troubling development given how close that level of enrichment is to weapons-grade material. U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance suggested the missing uranium may have been buried beneath the rubble during the bombings. But other experts point to satellite footage that captured trucks entering and exiting Fordow and other nuclear sites in the days leading up to the strikes — raising the possibility that Iran deliberately moved or concealed the material in anticipation of the assault. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
Israeli intelligence now assesses that the joint U.S.-Israel strikes on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure have significantly delayed — but not eliminated — Tehran’s atomic ambitions. A senior Israeli official told The Times of Israel that the coordinated operation has pushed Iran’s nuclear program back by “several years.” However, the official emphasized that the program was not fully dismantled, contradicting the White House narrative. A separate CNN report on Tuesday said that the U.S. airstrikes on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure failed to cripple the country’s atomic ambitions, undercutting public claims by President Donald Trump and his defense officials that the mission delivered total destruction. “The damage is real and strategic,” the Israeli official said, “but not absolute.” He noted that Israeli intelligence is continuing to refine its assessment as new data comes in from surveillance and covert sources, with a clearer picture expected in the coming weeks. The official defended the necessity of the strikes, arguing that the results far surpassed anything that could have been achieved at the negotiating table. “No amount of diplomacy would have produced this level of disruption,” he said, adding that the operation sends a clear message to Tehran about the costs of pursuing uranium enrichment. Alongside the nuclear targets, Israeli and American forces also struck dozens of missile and military installations throughout Iran, including suspected IRGC command centers and air defense systems. Echoing the assessment, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said Tuesday night, “We have set Iran’s nuclear project back by years — and the same goes for its missile program.” Zamir did not provide exact estimates but described the campaign as “a strategic success across multiple fronts.” Still, the comments from Israeli leadership mark a subtle but significant departure from the tone in Washington, where Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have repeatedly claimed the strikes “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear capabilities. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
HaGaon HaRav Naftali Kaplan, the Mashgiach of Yeshivas Netiv HaDaas, held a special va’ad on Thursday, during which he spoke about the war between Israel and Iran and the historical events happening in our time. HaRav Kaplan began by speaking about the time when Moshe Rabbeinu questioned Hashem, ‘Why did You send me?”—after Pharaoh intensified the conditions of slavery for Am Yisrael after Hashem sent Moshe to speak with him. HaRav Kaplan quoted the Ramban, who said that Moshe didn’t realize that geulah doesn’t happen suddenly but is implemented stage by stage, explaining that the final geulah will also not happen like many people think, that Moshiach will suddenly appear on a horse and rebuild Yerushalayim. But just like the geulah happened in Mitzrayim, there will be stages and more difficult times and hidden and open nissim during the final geulah. The Mashgiach also spoke about Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s public statements of emunah, which he said are also a neis. An open neis is “water turning into blood,” and hiddin nissim are “200 fighter jets who went to bomb Iran and returned safely to Israel” or “Binyamin Netanyahu saying that there was Siyata Dishmaya.” HaRav Naftali concluded the va’ad by saying that “these are the days of Moshiach and we should be mechazeik in using our time wisely.” (YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)
A new poll taken in the aftermath of Israel’s 12-day war with Iran shows Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu gaining ground politically — but not enough to reclaim a governing majority. The survey, conducted by Channel 12 following a ceasefire widely seen as a military and strategic success for Israel, gives Netanyahu’s Likud party 26 seats in the 120-seat Knesset — a modest four-seat gain from pre-war polling. Yet despite the bump, Netanyahu’s right-wing coalition remains short of the 61-seat majority needed to govern. According to the poll, the current coalition would muster only 49 seats, down from the 64 it held prior to the war. Opposition parties collectively would control 61 seats, while Arab parties, traditionally reluctant to join any government, would hold the remaining 10. Sources close to the prime minister reportedly expressed disappointment, saying Netanyahu had anticipated a much stronger surge in support following the war, which saw Iran’s missile and drone capabilities severely degraded and Iran’s nuclear program in shambles, in what many viewed as a defining moment for Israeli deterrence. The standout political shift comes from former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, whose newly re-launched party is projected to win a striking 24 seats — positioning him as the second-largest political force and a viable challenger to Netanyahu. The poll marks the first time this year that Netanyahu leads Bennett in a head-to-head popularity question. When asked who is best suited to serve as prime minister, 38% of respondents chose Netanyahu, compared to 35% for Bennett. Another 21% said neither were fit for the role, and 6% were undecided. Still, Netanyahu maintains a clear edge over other opposition leaders, including Yesh Atid head Yair Lapid. The rest of the political map remains deeply fractured. The left-wing “Democrats” would secure 12 seats, while Yair Lapid’s centrist Yesh Atid, Shas, and Avigdor Lieberman’s nationalist Yisrael Beytenu each pull in nine seats. United Torah Judaism polls at eight seats, and Defense Minister Benny Gantz’s National Unity collapses to seven. Far-right Otzma Yehudit registers just six seats — a sharp fall from its previous electoral performance. Arab parties Hadash-Ta’al and Ra’am each receive five seats, continuing to hold sway as kingmakers unlikely to align with either major bloc. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel HaRav Kalman Bar published a halachic letter on Monday, in which he explains why, despite the war, getting married during the three weeks is forbidden. Last week, HaGaon HaRav Yitzchak Yosef called on couples from the Sephardi and even Ashkenazi sectors to get married during the three weeks rather than postpone their weddings. He explained that “there is no greater time of need than this,” and emphasized that even those who are generally machmir should be lenient this year, emphasizing, “המחמיר בזה יוצא שכרו בהפסדו.” Although as of Tuesday morning, the war is officially over, the dilemma for couples who postponed their weddings due to the war still exists due to the difficulty in finding available chasunah halls after Tisha B’Av. In a lengthy response to questions by engaged couples who asked whether they can marry during the three weeks, HaRav Bar paskened that there is no heter to get married during these days, despite the circumstances. The Rav explained the reasons for the minhag not to marry during the three weeks, saying that mourning and joy are contradictory. In addition, the Rav noted that “it is not a good siman” to marry during these days, and חמירא סכנתא מאיסורא (danger is stricter than prohibition), and therefore we have not found any posek who permitted this, and certainly not with a fancy seudah. HaRav Bar emphasized that the poskim did not allow marriage even on the night of the 17th of Tammuz [before the fast begins], even at a sha’as hadchak (time of need). HaRav Bar noted that the Sephardim who are noheig to hold chasunos until Rosh Chodesh Av are of course, permitted to wed during those days and ended with “כל המתאבל על ירושלים זוכה ורואה בשמחתה.” (YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)
Israel’s main international gateway, Ben Gurion Airport, is returning to full operations after the Home Front Command lifted all wartime travel restrictions, the Israel Airports Authority announced Tuesday. Effective immediately, limitations on the number of incoming and outgoing flights, as well as passenger capacity per flight, have been removed. In addition, entry restrictions for travelers and accompanying individuals at airport terminals have been fully lifted. “The restrictions on the number of incoming and outgoing flights, as well as the number of passengers on each flight, have been lifted,” the Airports Authority said in a statement. “In addition, restrictions on the arrival of passengers and accompanying persons at the airports have been lifted.” Duty-free shops at Ben Gurion and other airports are set to reopen beginning Wednesday morning, operating under updated security and regulatory protocols. The Airports Authority urged travelers to stay informed by checking with their airlines for the latest flight schedule updates. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
In a test case for the artificial intelligence industry, a federal judge has ruled that AI company Anthropic didn’t break the law by training its chatbot Claude on millions of copyrighted books. But the company is still on the hook and must now go to trial over how it acquired those books by downloading them from online “shadow libraries” of pirated copies. U.S. District Judge William Alsup of San Francisco said in a ruling filed late Monday that the AI system’s distilling from thousands of written works to be able to produce its own passages of text qualified as “fair use” under U.S. copyright law because it was “quintessentially transformative.” “Like any reader aspiring to be a writer, Anthropic’s (AI large language models) trained upon works not to race ahead and replicate or supplant them — but to turn a hard corner and create something different,” Alsup wrote. But while dismissing a key claim made by the group of authors who sued the company for copyright infringement last year, Alsup also said Anthropic must still go to trial in December over its alleged theft of their works. “Anthropic had no entitlement to use pirated copies for its central library,” Alsup wrote. A trio of writers — Andrea Bartz, Charles Graeber and Kirk Wallace Johnson — alleged in their lawsuit last summer that Anthropic’s practices amounted to “large-scale theft,” and that the company “seeks to profit from strip-mining the human expression and ingenuity behind each one of those works.” As the case proceeded over the past year in San Francisco’s federal court, documents disclosed in court showed Anthropic’s internal concerns about the legality of their use of online repositories of pirated works. So the company later shifted its approach and attempted to purchase copies of digitized books. “That Anthropic later bought a copy of a book it earlier stole off the internet will not absolve it of liability for the theft but it may affect the extent of statutory damages,” Alsup wrote. The ruling could set a precedent for similar lawsuits that have piled up against Anthropic competitor OpenAI, maker of ChatGPT, as well as against Meta Platforms, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram. Anthropic — founded by ex-OpenAI leaders in 2021 — has marketed itself as the more responsible and safety-focused developer of generative AI models that can compose emails, summarize documents and interact with people in a natural way. But the lawsuit filed last year alleged that Anthropic’s actions “have made a mockery of its lofty goals” by tapping into repositories of pirated writings to build its AI product. Anthropic said Tuesday it was pleased that the judge recognized that AI training was transformative and consistent with “copyright’s purpose in enabling creativity and fostering scientific progress.” Its statement didn’t address the piracy claims. The authors’ attorneys declined comment. (AP)
