President Donald Trump announced Sunday that the U.S. will cut all funding to Colombia, accusing President Gustavo Petro of failing to curb drug production and calling him “an illegal drug dealer.” Writing on Truth Social from Mar-a-Lago, Trump said Petro “does nothing to stop” the drug trade and warned that if Colombia doesn’t act, “the United States will close them up for him.”
Iran has executed a man convicted of spying for Israel’s Mossad, according to the country’s judiciary. The execution took place Saturday in the city of Qom after Iran’s Supreme Court upheld the death sentence and denied a pardon request. Authorities said the defendant began cooperating with Israeli intelligence in October 2023, providing sensitive information and carrying out missions inside Iran before being arrested in February 2024.
Brutal front page from the NY Post after NYC mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani was photographed campaigning with an imam who is an unindicted co-conspirator of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and who has called for “jihad” in American cities.
A private defense contractor claims it was behind the wave of “UFO” sightings across New Jersey. The company demonstrated a 20-foot, four-winged manned aircraft with unusual flight movements and later told observers that its test flights over New Jersey in November 2024 sparked the reports of mysterious objects in the sky. The contractor said it was operating under a private government contract and was not required to disclose the tests.
Trump on Hamas: “These are very violent people. This is a very violent part of the world… If we have to, we’ll disarm them… We won’t have boots on the ground — there’s no reason to.”
Q “Is there a timeline to get Hamas to disarm, in your mind?” TRUMP: “Not a hard line, but we’re going to see how it all works out. They’ve lived there for a long time. They’re very violent… it’s a whole new set of people. They get replaced by other people — young people… at a certain point, if they don’t do what they’re supposed to do, then we’ll have to do it for them.”
Today, an Air China flight from Hangzhou to Incheon was forced to make an emergency landing in Shanghai after a lithium battery in a passenger’s overhead bag exploded and caught fire. The fire was quickly extinguished, and the aircraft landed safely with no injuries reported. Flight tracking shows the plane turning around over the East China Sea before returning to Shanghai.
Hamas says it has located the body of one more hostage, which it said will be returned to Israel today if “conditions on the ground are appropriate”. “We will transfer the body today if the conditions on the ground are suitable,” it says, adding that “any Zionist escalation will complicate the search and digging operations and the recovery of the bodies, which will lead to a delay in the occupation’s receipt of the bodies.”
BORO PARK: A fire erupted early this morning at approximately 7:15 a.m. inside an apartment building near 12th Avenue and 54th Street. Residents, including several children, were rescued through the fire escape as the blaze quickly drew a large emergency response. Boro Park and Flatbush Hatzolah, the FDNY, NYPD, and Boro Park Shomrim all responded to the scene. Sources tell YWN that approximately 27 individuals were transported to local hospitals for evaluation due to smoke inhalation. Thankfully, all have since been discharged.
The IDF has issued an urgent warning to Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to avoid entering areas under Israeli control and to stay away from Israeli troops. Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesperson, stated that “in the wake of repeated violations of the ceasefire and this morning’s attack by Hamas terror elements, the IDF will respond with great force against terror infrastructure and Hamas operatives.” He emphasized that for their safety, residents should remain on the west side of the Yellow Line, attaching a map showing the areas in Gaza currently under IDF control.
BREAKING: A senior U.S. official has confirmed to Axios that Israel alerted the U.S. ahead of planned Gaza strikes in response to Hamas’s ceasefire violations.
Iran executed a person convicted of spying for Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad in the city of Qom, the official judiciary news agency reported Sunday. The sentence was carried out early Saturday after the Supreme Court upheld the ruling and a request for a pardon was denied, the Mizan news agency said. The report didn’t identify the person, but said that the individual was accused of “intelligence cooperation with the Zionist regime” and found guilty of “corruption on Earth” and “enmity against God” — crimes punishable by death under Iran’s Islamic penal code. Mizan said that the person began contacts and cooperation with Israeli intelligence services in October 2023 and was arrested four months later, in February 2024. The defendant had allegedly provided sensitive information to Mossad and carried out missions inside Iran on behalf of Israeli intelligence, according to the report. No further details about the nature of the alleged espionage or the date of the person’s arrest were made public. Iran’s judiciary has repeatedly described such executions as necessary to safeguard national security, particularly amid what Tehran calls Israel’s “infiltration and sabotage operations.” The execution in Qom, home to a sacred Shiite shrine about 120 kilometers (75 miles) south of the capital Tehran, follows a recent series of similar cases involving alleged cooperation with Israel. On Oct. 4, Iran executed six people accused of conducting bombings and armed attacks in Khuzestan Province while allegedly working with Mossad. Authorities said that the group had “operated in direct connection with the Zionist regime’s intelligence apparatus.” Days earlier, on Sept. 29, Iran hanged another defendant, identified as Bahman Choobiasl, who was convicted of spying for Israel. Choobiasl was executed in Arak Prison, after being found guilty of collecting sensitive information and providing it to Israeli handlers. Since the “12-day war” earlier this year and a series of Israeli strikes targeting Iranian military sites, Iran is known to have executed at least nine people accused of espionage. The conflict — marked by Israeli airstrikes that killed about 1,100 people, including senior Iranian military commanders — triggered Iranian missile barrages targeting Israeli territory in retaliation. The exchange left both sides on high alert and further inflamed tensions across the region. Human rights organizations and Western governments have condemned Iran’s increasing use of capital punishment, particularly for political and espionage-related offenses. Activists argue that many of the convictions rely on coerced confessions, and that trials often take place behind closed doors, without access to independent legal representation. Tehran, however, maintains that those executed were “agents of hostile intelligence services” involved in acts of terrorism or sabotage. Iranian officials have accused Israel of orchestrating a campaign of covert attacks inside Iran, including assassinations of nuclear scientists and cybersabotage of strategic facilities. (AP)
In a brazen, seven-minute strike, thieves used a basket lift to reach the Louvre on Sunday morning and, as tourists were already inside, forced a window, smashed display cases and fled with jewels of “inestimable value,” France’s interior minister said. The world’s most visited museum closed for the day as police sealed gates and ushered visitors out during the investigation. “A robbery took place this morning at the opening of the Louvre Museum,” Culture Minister Rachida Dati wrote on X. The museum cited “exceptional reasons” for the closure. No injuries were reported. Around 9:30 a.m. several intruders forced open a window, stole jewels from vitrines and escaped on two-wheelers, according to the Interior Ministry. It said forensic work is underway and a precise inventory of the stolen objects is being compiled, adding that the items have “inestimable” historical value. Dati and Nuñez were on site with museum leadership. Video from the scene showed confused tourists being ushered out of the glass pyramid and surrounding courtyards as officers shut the iron gates and closed nearby streets along the Seine. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez called it a “major robbery,” saying the intruders entered from the outside using a basket lift. He said on France Inter radio that the heist took seven minutes and the thieves used a disc cutter to slice through the panes. He said it was “manifestly a team that had done scouting.” The heist occurred in the Galerie d’Apollon, a vaulted hall in the Denon wing that displays part of the French Crown Jewels beneath a ceiling painted by King Louis XIV’s court artist, according to the ministry. French daily Le Parisien reported the thieves entered via the Seine-facing facade, where construction is underway, and used a freight elevator to reach the gallery. After breaking windows, they reportedly took nine pieces from the jewelry collection of Napoleon and the Empress. One stolen jewel was later found outside the museum, the paper reported, adding that the item was believed to be Empress Eugénie’s crown and that it had been broken. Security and staffing at the Louvre in the spotlight Security around marquee works remains tight. The Mona Lisa is protected by bulletproof glass and a custom high-tech display system as part of broader anti-theft measures across the museum. Staffing and protection have been flashpoints at the Louvre. The museum delayed opening during a June staff walkout over overcrowding and chronic understaffing. Unions have warned that mass tourism strains security and visitor management. It wasn’t immediately clear whether staffing levels played any role in Sunday’s theft. In January, President Emmanuel Macron announced a decadelong “Louvre New Renaissance” plan — roughly €700 million to modernize infrastructure, ease crowding and give the Leonardo da Vinci masterpiece its own dedicated gallery by 2031 — but workers say relief has been slow to reach the floor. Other European museums have been robbed The theft, less than half an hour after doors opened, echoes other recent European museum raids. In 2019, thieves smashed vitrines in Dresden’s Green Vault and carried off diamond-studded royal jewels worth hundreds of millions of euros. In 2017, burglars at Berlin’s Bode Museum stole a 100-kilogram (220-pound) solid-gold coin. In 2010, a lone intruder slipped into Paris’s Museum of Modern Art and escaped with five paintings, including a Picasso. The Louvre has a long […]
Authorities announced Sunday morning that 54-year-old hostage Ronen Engel Hy”d has been identified by forensic experts as one of the two bodies returned on Friday night from Gaza by Hamas. Engel was murdered by Hamas terrorists on October 7, 2023, in Kibbutz Nir Oz, and his body was taken into Gaza. His wife, Karina, and their daughters, Mika and Yuval, were also kidnapped that day and later released a month later as part of a ceasefire deal. On Friday night, the Red Cross received the caskets containing Engel’s remains and another, still-unidentified hostage from Gaza and transferred them to the IDF for formal identification.
A delegation of gedolei Eretz Yisroel — Harav Dov Landau shlit”a, Harav Chaim Peretz Berman shlit”a (Rosh Yeshiva of Ponovezh, visiting America for the first time), Harav Eliezer Yehuda Finkel shlit”a (Rosh Yeshiva of Mir Yerushalayim), Harav Avraham Salim shlit”a, and Harav Yerucham Olshin shlit”a (Rosh Yeshiva of Beth Medrash Govoha) — will be traveling to the United States next week, with stops in Cleveland and Los Angeles, to garner further financial support for Keren Olam HaTorah. On Monday, October 20, Cleveland will have the zechus of welcoming Harav Dov Landau, who will arrive to be mechazek and inspire the tzibbur in this vital mission. The day’s schedule will begin with a special children’s gathering at 11:30 a.m., providing an opportunity for tinokos shel beis rabban to meet the gadol hador. At 7:15 p.m., a community-wide asifa for men will take place at the Hebrew Academy, Oakwood Campus, 1516 Warrensville Center Road, where Rav Dov will personally address the tzibbur. On Tuesday evening, the West Coast will host a historic asifa with Rav Dov and the other gedolim at the Saban Theatre, 8440 Wilshire Blvd, beginning at 8:30 p.m., where thousands are expected to join together b’achdus to demonstrate their ahavas haTorah v’lomdeha. The asifa will also feature divrei hisorerus from Rav Ephraim Wachsman shlit”a, who will serve as the guest speaker. Over the past two years, the olam haTorah in Eretz Yisroel has been facing severe and painful government funding cuts, leaving thousands of yeshivos and kollelim struggling to keep their doors open for their bochurim and avreichem. At the urging of the gedolim, Keren Olam HaTorah was founded to ensure that the kol Torah in Eretz Yisroel continues to thrive. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
Ukrainians shared their disappointment Saturday that the U.S. may not provide Kyiv with long-range Tomahawk missiles, while work to repair the damaged power supply to the country’s Zaporizhzhia power plant soothed other concerns surrounding Europe’s largest nuclear plant. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with President Donald Trump at the White House on Friday, after the U.S. leader signaled that Washington could provide Ukraine with the long-range missiles Kyiv believes will help bring Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table. Yet Zelenskyy ultimately left empty-handed — an outcome that dismayed, but did not surprise, many in the streets of the Ukrainian capital, who maintained their determination to end Russia’s 3 1/2-year invasion of their country. One Ukrainian military serviceman, Roman Vynnychenko, told The Associated Press that he believed the prospect of Tomahawk missiles for Ukraine was a political “game.” “Ukraine won’t get those missiles,” he said. Vynnychenko said Ukraine still needed to procure new weapons with or without American help, particularly as Russian drones and missiles continued to hit civilian infrastructure. “Every day civilians and soldiers die, buildings collapse, our streets and cities are being destroyed,” Vynnychenko said. Russia invaded its smaller neighbor in February 2022, sparking a 3 1/2-year conflict that has become a grinding war of attrition across a 1,250-kilometer (780-mile) frontline in Ukraine’s east and south. Trump’s frustration with the conflict has surfaced repeatedly in the nine months since he returned to office. In recent weeks, he had shown growing impatience with Putin and expressed greater openness to helping Ukraine win the war, including with the sale of Tomahawks. But Trump’s tone shifted again after he held a lengthy phone call with Putin on Thursday and announced that he planned to meet with the Russian leader in Budapest, Hungary, in the coming weeks. The talks raise new hopes that diplomatic progress could be made to end the war. But after multiple failed starts, Ukrainians are reluctant to believe that a significant breakthrough will take place soon. “To tell you the truth, I look at the news, but nowadays I read only the headlines. And even those make me sad,” Victoria Khramtsova, a psychologist, told the AP. “We have been at war for more than three years. We just want peace.” In the meantime, Russia continued its aerial bombardment of Ukraine, launching three missiles and 164 drones overnight, Ukraine’s Air Force said Saturday. It said that Ukrainian forces shot down 136 of the drones. Two people were injured after Russian drones targeted a gas station in the Zarichny district of Sumy in northeast Ukraine, local officials said Saturday. They were two women aged 51 and 53, according to regional Gov. Oleh Hryhorov. ‘Crucial for nuclear safety’ Elsewhere, work has begun to repair the damaged power supply to Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the head of the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog said Saturday. The repairs are hoped to end a precarious four-week outage that saw it dependent on backup generators. Russian and Ukrainian forces established special ceasefire zones for repairs to be safely carried out, said the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi. He hailed the restoration of off-site power as “crucial for nuclear safety and security.” “Both sides engaged constructively with the IAEA to enable the complex repair plan to proceed,” Grossi said in a statement. […]
A plan to fire live artillery shells over a major Southern California highway as part of a military showcase attended Saturday by Vice President JD Vance drew strong objections from Gov. Gavin Newsom, who said safety concerns forced him to close a portion of the busy interstate. “The President is putting his ego over responsibility with this disregard for public safety,” the Democratic governor said in a statement. “Firing live rounds over a busy highway isn’t just wrong — it’s dangerous.” U.S. Marine officials at Camp Pendleton have said there was nothing unsafe about the artillery exercise and no need to disrupt traffic on Interstate 5, which is the main highway along the Pacific coast between San Diego and Los Angeles. Vance, a Republican, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth visited the base in North San Diego County to celebrate the Marine Corps’ 250th anniversary, and watch troops put on a show of amphibious vehicles and Marines demonstrating a beach assault. Vance and his wife, Usha, watched as aircraft shot across the sky and columns of smoke rose from munitions strikes. The state had considered closing the freeway earlier in the week, but the U.S. Marines said Thursday that the event would occur on approved training ranges and comport with established safety protocols. State transportation officials ultimately made the decision to close the freeway after practice firings over the freeway Friday evening and a request from event organizers for signage along the road stating “Overhead fire in progress.” The California Highway Patrol closed a 17-mile (27 kilometers) stretch of the highway Saturday. Severe traffic delays were reported Saturday morning and early afternoon in the area around the base. “This is all because of the White House-directed military event, that for the safety of the public, we need to shut down the freeway since they’re sending live ordinances over the freeway,” California Department of Transportation spokesperson Matt Rocco said. The California Highway Patrol reopened the I-5 briefly on Saturday afternoon to relieve some of the traffic congestion, Lt. Matt Gutierrez said, but then closed it again. U.S. Marines Capt. Gregory Dreibelbis said in a statement that there is artillery fire at the base nearly every week and that the exercises didn’t endanger motorists. “Weeks of deliberate planning and rehearsals ensured success at every phase of execution,” he said. In a statement to The New York Times, a spokesperson for Vance, William Martin, said Newsom misled the public about the safety risk. “If Gavin Newsom wants to oppose the training exercises that ensure our Armed Forces are the deadliest and most lethal fighting force in the world, then he can go right ahead,” Martin said. Rocco said the I-5 closure could cost up to another two hours of trip time for those commuting between San Diego and Los Angeles. The freeway carries with 80,000 travelers and $94 million in freight through the corridor daily, according to the governor’s office. Passenger rail services running parallel to the I-5 have also been canceled for the afternoon. (AP)
