WATCH: Footage captures the moment a suspected car bomb malfunctioned and detonated in Amsterdam’s central square. Following a minor explosion, the vehicle burst into flames, an act authorities consider deliberate. This event took place at the exact location where a stabbing attack injured five individuals just days prior.
The IDF says it carried out a drone strike on a Hezbollah terrorist in southern Lebanon’s Aalma ash-Shaab a short while ago. Lebanon’s health ministry reported one wounded in the strike.
Former hostage Eliyah Cohen spoke with Channel 12 on Tuesday evening about his harrowing ordeal in captivity. During the interview, he revealed that Raz Bukovza, H’yd, who was abducted from the Nova party and was placed with him and three other hostages on the back of the terrorists’ pickup truck for the trip to Gaza, tried to escape. “I remember him saying: ‘I’m jumping,’ Eliya said. “We tried to convince him not to but he jumped out of the vehicle on the way to Gaza. The terrorists stopped and shot him to death. We continued as if nothing had happened.” Raz’s brother, Ofek Bukovza, responded to Eliya’s testimony about his brother’s final moments by saying: “Eliyah was by Raz’s side in the last five minutes of his life, but for us – it’s a whole world.” Ofek told Ynet that his family was exposed on the day of the massacre to footage that was filmed on a dashcam showing Raz’s murder. Ofek added that the family would like to hear more details from Eliyah and Or Levy, another released hostage who was also with Raz in the pickup truck. “There were five on the vehicle – only four arrived in Gaza,” he said. “Two of them returned from captivity. Every additional detail about Raz’s last moments is very important to us.” (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
Ford Motor Company will offer employee pricing to all US shoppers: “For the next couple of months, we’re going to offer our customers the same deal that our employees get… that’s worth thousands of dollars.”
Financial markets around the world are reeling Thursday following President Donald Trump’s latest and most severe volley of tariffs, and the U.S. stock market may be taking the worst of it. The S&P 500 was down 4% in morning trading, worse than the drops for other major stock markets. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 1,520 points, or 3.6%, as of 10:10 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 4.0% lower. Little was spared as fear flared globally about the potentially toxic mix of higher inflation and weakening economic growth that tariffs can create. Everything from crude oil to Big Tech stocks to the value of the U.S. dollar against other currencies fell. Even gold, which has hit records recently as investors sought something safer to own, pulled lower. Some of the worst hits walloped smaller U.S. companies, and the Russell 2000 index of smaller stocks dropped more than 5% into what’s called a “bear market” after losing more than 20% from its record. Investors worldwide knew Trump was going to announce a sweeping set of tariffs late Wednesday, and fears surrounding it had already pulled the S&P 500 10% below its all-time high last month. But Trump still managed to surprise them with “the worst case scenario for tariffs,” according to Mary Ann Bartels, chief investment officer at Sanctuary Wealth. Trump announced a minimum tariff of 10% on imports, with the tax rate running much higher on products from certain countries like China and those from the European Union. It’s “plausible” the tariffs altogether, which would rival levels unseen in roughly a century, could knock down U.S. economic growth by 2 percentage points this year and raise inflation close to 5%, according to UBS. Such a hit would be so frightening that it “makes one’s rational mind regard the possibility of them sticking as low,” according to Bhanu Baweja and other strategists at UBS. Wall Street had long assumed Trump would use tariffs merely as a tool for negotiations with other countries, rather than as a long-term policy. But Wednesday’s announcement may suggest Trump sees tariffs more as helping to solve an ideological goal – wresting manufacturing jobs back to the United States, for example – than just an opening bet in a poker game. If Trump follows through on his tariffs, stock prices may need to fall much more than 10% from their all-time high in order to reflect the global recession that could follow, along with the hit to profits that U.S. companies could take. The S&P 500 is now down about 11% from its record set in February. “Markets may actually be underreacting, especially if these rates turn out to be final, given the potential knock-on effects to global consumption and trade,” said Sean Sun, portfolio manager at Thornburg Investment management, though he sees Trump’s announcement on Wednesday as more of an opening move than an endpoint for policy. One wild card is that the Federal Reserve could cut interest rates in order to support the economy. That’s what it had been doing late last year before pausing in 2025. Lower interest rates help by making it easier for U.S. companies and households to borrow and spend. Yields on Treasurys tumbled in part on rising expectations for coming cuts to rates, along with general […]
US Secretary of Commerce Lutnick: “I mean, European Union won’t take chicken from America … they hate our beef because our beef is beautiful and theirs is weak.”
A new three-way hypothetical poll for NYC Mayor finds that Democrat Andrew Cuomo would win 43%, Independent Eric Adams would get 13%, and Republican Curtis Sliwa would garner 11%.
VP Vance: “A lot of people have gotten rich from American jobs moving overseas, but American workers have not gotten rich. And frankly, American companies have not gotten wealthy from the increasing growth of foreign competitors manufacturing overseas.”
A car exploded and caught fire in Amsterdam’s Dam Square this afternoon, with police suspecting the driver intentionally triggered the blast. According to reports, driver is in custody.
United States CENTCOM chief Gen. Michael Kurilla, who arrived in Israel earlier this week, held an assessment with IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir, the Israeli military says.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese fell off the stage — but laughed it off with style. The incident happened during a campaign event, right in front of a banner that read: “Building Australia’s Future.”
While overall hate crime rates in major U.S. cities dropped by nearly 3% in 2024, targeted attacks against Jews and Muslims surged, according to new preliminary data released by a leading hate crime researcher. The multi-city survey, conducted by Brian Levin, professor emeritus of criminal justice at California State University, San Bernardino, found that anti-Jewish hate crimes rose by 12% and anti-Muslim incidents by 18%—marking the fourth consecutive year of increases for both groups. Levin, who founded the university’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, attributed the sharp uptick to the ongoing impact of the Gaza war. “Crimes against Jews and Muslims rose for a fourth consecutive year and were accelerated by the Gaza War,” he said. Despite the higher rate of increase in anti-Muslim hate crimes, Jews continued to be the most frequently targeted group, accounting for 25% of all hate crimes reported in the survey. The data showed that other ethnicity-based hate crimes declined slightly in 2024, though most changes remained within the margin of error. Meanwhile, college campuses have seen an unprecedented explosion of antisemitic incidents. A report by the watchdog group StopAntisemitism revealed that antisemitic incidents on U.S. campuses spiked by a staggering 3,000% in 2024—much of it in the wake of the October 7 Hamas attacks and the subsequent war in Gaza. The new findings follow a troubling trend documented by the FBI, which reported in 2023 that antisemitic hate crimes in the U.S. had surged by 63%, reaching an all-time high. The data comes amid growing concerns from Jewish and Muslim advocacy groups, who warn that political polarization and global conflict are contributing to a dangerous environment for religious and ethnic minorities in the U.S. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
Violent storms and tornadoes tore through cities from Oklahoma to Indiana during what could be a record-setting period of deadly weather and flooding, destroying homes and sending debris nearly 5 miles (8 kilometers) into the air in one location. Dozens of tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings were issued Wednesday and early Thursday from Texas to West Virginia as storms hit those and other states. Forecasters attributed the violent weather to daytime heating combining with an unstable atmosphere, strong wind shear and abundant moisture streaming into the nation’s midsection from the Gulf. Sgt. Clark Parrott of the Missouri Highway Patrol said at least one person was killed in southeast Missouri, KFVS-TV reported, while part of a warehouse collapsed in a suburb of Indianapolis, temporarily trapping at least one person inside. In northeast Arkansas a rare tornado emergency was issued as debris flew thousands of feet in the air. The Tennessee Department of Health confirmed two weather-related fatalities, one in McNairy County and the other in Obion County, the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency announced early Thursday. A man was killed in a home damaged by the storm near Moscow, Tennessee, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) from Memphis, according to Ray Garcia, chief deputy of the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office. Garcia also reported downed trees and power lines in the county, and officials are preparing for more rain and strong storms Thursday. “It looks like a swimming pool in my front yard,” he told The Associated Press in a phone interview. The coming days were also forecast to bring the risk of potentially deadly flash flooding to the South and Midwest as severe thunderstorms blowing eastward become supercharged. The potent storm system will bring “significant, life-threatening flash flooding” each day through Saturday, the National Weather Service said. With more than a foot (30 centimeters) of rain possible over the next four days, the prolonged deluge “is an event that happens once in a generation to once in a lifetime,” the weather service said. “Historic rainfall totals and impacts are possible.” More than 90 million people were at some risk of severe weather in a huge part of the nation stretching from Texas to Minnesota and Maine, according to the Oklahoma-based Storm Prediction Center. Tornadoes touch down, and more could be coming A tornado emergency — the weather service’s highest alert — was briefly declared around Blytheville, Arkansas, on Wednesday evening, with debris lofted at least 25,000 feet (7.6 kilometers), according to Chelly Amin, a meteorologist with the service. “It’s definitely going to be a really horrible situation here come sunrise in the morning in those areas,” Amin said. The Arkansas Division of Emergency Management reported that there was damage in 22 counties due to tornadoes, wind gusts, hail and flash flooding. At least four people were injured, but there were no reports of fatalities as of Wednesday evening. Volunteer firefighters and police officers in Lake City, Arkansas, searched through rubble and rescued people overnight. No one was seriously injured, but residents were without electricity and some were also without water, Mayor Cameron Tate said in a Thursday morning Facebook post. City Council member Brenda Hutcheson was in nearby Jonesboro when the tornado struck her hometown Lake City, a community of about 2,400 in the northeast corner of the state. “The community itself is very, very close-knit and will help one another,” […]
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Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Finance Minister Betzalel Smotrich will try to negotiate with the Trump administration in the coming days to reduce the 17% tariff on Israeli exports to the US, Israel’s largest trading partner. The US decision shocked Israeli officials and caused the Israeli stock market to dip, with the Tel Aviv 35 index dropping 0.16%, the TA-125 falling 0.20% and the Tel Aviv Banks index decreasing by 0.1%. Trump announced reciprocal tariffs on 60 countries, including Israel, of half the rates they impose on US goods. Israeli financial officials are very concerned about the decision’s impact on Israel’s economy. Ynet quoted Dr. Ron Tomer, president of the Manufacturers Association of Israel, as saying he is seriously concerned about the decision. “The Israeli industry is deeply worried by President Trump’s decision to impose new tariffs on Israel,” he said. “We’re trying to understand the rationale behind this move. The claim that Israel imposes 33% tariffs on American goods is unclear, and the 17% response seems unjustified.” Tomer said that the tariff could harm Israeli exporters, affect jobs, and decrease business activity in the US market. “The decision threatens Israel’s economic stability, could deter foreign investment and weaken the competitiveness of Israeli firms in the U.S.,” he added. Israel exported approximately $34 billion in goods and services to the US in 2024. According to officials, the U.S. trade deficit with Israel — $7 billion annually — was a major factor in determining the 17% tariff. Israel imports $13 billion of US goods while exporting $20 billion in goods to the U.S., creating a $7 billion deficit. Israel was not informed of the 17% tariff beforehand. “We were aware of the tariff decision like everyone else, but the specific rates were not known in advance,” the Finance Ministry said in a statement on Thursday. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the Trump administration’s new envoy to NATO are seeking to reassure wary NATO allies of the U.S. commitment to the alliance. Rubio on Thursday decried “hysteria and hyperbole” in the media about President Donald Trump’s intentions despite persistent signals from Washington that NATO as it has existed for 75 years may no longer be relevant. Rubio and newly confirmed U.S. ambassador to NATO Matt Whitaker are in Brussels for a meeting of alliance foreign ministers at which many are hoping Rubio will shed light on U.S. security plans in Europe. “The United States is as active in NATO as it has ever been,” Rubio told reporters as he greeted NATO chief Mark Rutte before the meeting began. “And some of this hysteria and hyperbole that I see in the global media and some domestic media in the United States about NATO is unwarranted.” “President Trump’s made clear he supports NATO,” Rubio said. “We’re going to remain in NATO.” “We want NATO to be stronger, we want NATO to be more visible and the only way NATO can get stronger, more visible is if our partners, the nation states that comprise this important alliance, have more capability,” he said. In a statement, Whitaker said that “under President Trump’s leadership, NATO will be stronger and more effective than ever before, and I believe that a robust NATO can continue to serve as a bedrock of peace and prosperity.” But he added: “NATO’s vitality rests on every ally doing their fair share.” Concerns about US commitment to allies Despite those words, European allies and Canada are deeply concerned by Trump’s readiness to draw closer to Russian leader Vladimir Putin, who sees NATO as a threat as the U.S. tries to broker a ceasefire in Ukraine, his rhetorical attacks and insults against on allies like Canada and Denmark. And Trump’s Wednesday imposition of new global tariffs, which will affect allies, have added to the uncertainty and unease. Asked about concerns among European allies about a possible U.S. troop drawdown and the importance of getting clear messages from the Trump administration, Rutte said: “These issues are not new. There are no plans for them to all of a sudden draw down their presence here in Europe.” Indeed, the Trump administration has not made its NATO allies aware any plans it might have. But several European countries are convinced that U.S. troops and equipment will be withdrawn, and they want to find out from Rubio how many and when so they can fill any security gaps. “We need to preempt a rapid retreat, but we’ve had nothing precise from the U.S. yet,” a senior NATO diplomat said ahead of the meeting, briefing reporters on his country’s expectations on condition that he not be named. Rutte’s dilemma Rutte is in a bind. European allies and Canada have tasked him with keeping the United States firmly in NATO. Around 100,000 U.S. troops are stationed in Europe along with the Navy’s 6th Fleet and nuclear warheads. U.S. firepower ensures that NATO’s ability to deter Russia is credible. This means he cannot openly criticize Trump, who is commander in chief of NATO’s biggest and best-equipped armed forces. What is clear, is that U.S. allies must ramp up defense spending even more than they already have since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine 3 years […]
