Matzav

A serious security incident unfolded Sunday night in the chareidi city of Modi’in Illit, after dozens of illegal entrants infiltrated the city area, triggering a large-scale response by the army and civilian security volunteers.

According to reports received by the Shomrim emergency hotline, approximately 25 illegal entrants breached the area near the Yellow Gate at the edge of the Green Park neighborhood. After crossing into the city’s vicinity, the suspects fled toward the direction of Kfar Ruth, with several apprehended by IDF forces during the pursuit.

Due to concerns that additional suspects may still be at large, dozens of Shomrim volunteers rushed to the eastern neighborhoods and surrounding open areas to conduct intensive searches, both on foot and by vehicle. The operation was reinforced by Israel’s drone unit, which deployed operators using a thermal drone to scan the wadi and adjacent terrain for possible escapees.

Shomrim officials said that while some of the infiltrators were detained, there is a strong likelihood that others managed to evade capture, prompting the ongoing sweeps late into the night.

The incident has raised significant security concerns, particularly in light of previous threats directed at the city. Several months ago, the Hamas terror organization released a propaganda video containing explicit threats against Israel, in which Hamas prominently marked Modi’in Illit as a central target for potential attacks. The video, intended to intimidate the Israeli public, was viewed as an escalation in the group’s threats.

In that footage, the chareidi city was clearly identified as one of the locations the organization seeks to strike, with messaging aimed specifically at the chareidi population. Security officials have warned that such threats reflect an effort to undermine the personal safety of Israeli civilians throughout the country.

Authorities continue to monitor the situation closely as searches remain underway.

{Matzav.com}

Israel plans to reopen the Rafah Crossing with Egypt once a military effort now underway concludes with the recovery of the body of Master Sgt. Ran Gvili, according to an announcement released Sunday by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office.

The decision followed deliberations by the security cabinet and comes amid mounting international calls for Israel to resume operations at the key Gaza–Egypt border crossing.

Although the Prime Minister’s Office did not specify how long the current IDF mission is expected to last, a US official told The Times of Israel that American officials anticipate the operation will take several days, potentially clearing the way for the crossing to reopen before the end of the week.

Earlier Sunday night, the IDF confirmed that troops are conducting a search for Gvili’s remains at a cemetery in northern Gaza. The military said intelligence indicating the body is buried at the site is credible, while noting that other intelligence avenues are also being pursued.

Separately, the head of the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza and the Gaza envoy to the NCAG-supervising Board of Peace announced on Thursday that Rafah would resume operations this week, marking its first reopening in nearly a year.

In its statement, Netanyahu’s office said reopening the sole pedestrian crossing between Gaza and Egypt is contingent “on the return of all living hostages and on Hamas making a 100% effort to locate and return all slain hostages.”

Under the October 9 Israel-Hamas agreement tied to the first phase of US President Donald Trump’s broader Gaza peace initiative, all hostages were to be returned within 72 hours of the October 10 ceasefire. The deal acknowledged, however, that retrieving bodies from beneath Gaza’s rubble could take longer and did not explicitly link reopening Rafah to the return of all captives.

Israel has declined to advance to the second phase of Trump’s plan — including reopening Rafah — until Gvili’s body is recovered. Hamas has said it does not know the precise location of his remains but claims it has attempted to search for them.

The Prime Minister’s Office said the IDF is currently carrying out “a focused operation to fully utilize all intelligence obtained in the effort to locate and return” Gvili.

Once the mission concludes, “and in accordance with what was agreed on with the United States,” Israel will move ahead with reopening the crossing, the statement said.

Netanyahu’s office emphasized Israel’s commitment to returning Gvili and vowed to exhaust all efforts to bring his body home.

The operation began over the weekend following intelligence assessments that Gvili was buried in a Muslim cemetery in eastern Gaza City, near the neighborhoods of Shejaiya, Daraj, and Tuffah.

Gvili, 24, served as a policeman and was killed while defending Kibbutz Alumim in southern Israel during the Hamas-led assault on October 7, 2023, which ignited the Gaza war. He joined the fighting despite awaiting surgery for a shoulder injury.

On Friday, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir attended the family’s weekly rally in Tel Aviv and reportedly told Gvili’s parents there was “room for optimism” regarding their son’s return.

During a security cabinet meeting Sunday night, far-right ministers reportedly voiced strong opposition to the plan to reopen Rafah.

“We did great things like kill tens of thousands of terrorists, but we still haven’t completely eliminated Hamas,” National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir said, according to quotes reported by the Walla news site.

“We have to dismantle and disarm it. Enough with [Jared] Kushner and [Steve] Witkoff’s naivety — if Rafah Crossing opens, it will be a big mistake and a very bad message,” he reportedly said.

The US envoys, who met with Netanyahu and other senior officials during their visit to Israel, have been urging the government to proceed with the next stages of Trump’s Gaza framework.

Settlements and National Projects Minister Orit Strock also criticized the move, reportedly arguing that Israel was effectively transferring control of Gaza to the Palestinian Authority, which the government accuses of supporting terrorism and says should have no governing role in the enclave.

“This cabinet will eventually make a decision to send our soldiers to fight Hamas because no one else will do it, and then what will we tell them?” she said, according to Walla.

While Rafah has been used to transfer goods at various points during the war, its primary designation is for pedestrian crossings.

{Matzav.com}

[Video below.] An American climber stunned onlookers by scaling one of the world’s tallest skyscrapers without ropes, completing a rare free-solo ascent in front of a global audience.

The climber, 40-year-old Alex Honnold, made his way up Taipei 101, a 1,667-foot tower in Taiwan, during a Netflix livestream that was pushed to Sunday after rain forced a delay, according to CBS News.

The ascent took roughly an hour and a half, and recorded footage captures the final moments as Honnold reached the summit.

Standing atop the building, he briefly took in the view and reacted with a single word: “Sick!” before peering down at the city far below.

WATCH:

Additional video shows him pausing to recover, then pulling out his phone to snap a selfie. “This is so cool… I’m so psyched and you know what, pretty tired, actually,” he said.

CBS News noted the prominence of the structure itself, writing: “Taipei 101 is one of the tallest skyscrapers in the world. The building was designed by C.Y. Lee & Partners and opened in 2004. It’s home to observatories, restaurants, a shopping mall and offices, as well as the Taiwan Stock Exchange.”

Honnold’s website highlights his previous achievements, stating that he is the only person to have free-solo climbed Yosemite National Park’s 3,000-foot El Capitan.

The site adds high praise for his accomplishments, saying, “More people will walk on the moon than will do what Alex Honnold has done. His extremely rare skill and unmatched mental focus have helped make him climbing’s transcendent, breakout star, inspiring millions around the world.”

Footage from earlier in the event shows the married father of two beginning his climb as spectators looked on, applauding and cheering while he periodically turned back to grin at the crowd.

Before starting the ascent, Honnold explained that his focus was on precision and avoiding errors, according to People magazine.

“I’m sure I’ll feel a little nervous at the bottom, just because it’s something totally new. I’ve spent 30 years climbing rock faces; this is going to be my first big handmade structure, so I’m sure it’ll feel a little different,” he said, adding, “My life is on the line — I don’t really care who’s watching. I care about doing what I’m doing and doing it well.”

{Matzav.com}

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Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas sharply criticized President Donald Trump’s tariff strategy and derided Vice President JD Vance during private donor gatherings last year, according to audio recordings obtained by Axios that capture some of the most pointed intra-party attacks from a Republican lawmaker since the administration took office.

The comments, made during two separate meetings, reveal Cruz leveling unusually blunt critiques of both Trump and Vance behind closed doors, at a time when he is widely viewed as weighing a potential 2028 presidential bid.

The recordings — totaling nearly 10 minutes — show Cruz framing himself as a pro–free trade, interventionist Republican, positioning his views in contrast to Vance’s more restrained foreign policy outlook as a possible primary challenge looms.

In the conversations, Cruz portrays Vance as closely aligned with conservative podcaster Tucker Carlson, whom Cruz has repeatedly accused in public disputes of promoting antisemitism and advocating an anti-Israel foreign policy.

The audio files were provided to Axios by a Republican source and were recorded in early and mid-2025.

In the later recording, Cruz warns donors that Trump’s tariffs risk triggering severe economic fallout and could ultimately expose the president to impeachment.

Cruz recounts that after Trump announced the tariffs in early April 2025, he and several other senators held a late-night call with the president urging him to reconsider. Cruz says the call stretched past midnight and “did not go well,” describing Trump as “yelling” and “cursing.”

“Trump was in a bad mood,” Cruz tells the donors. “I’ve been in conversations where he was very happy. This was not one of them.”

Cruz says he cautioned Trump about the political consequences, recalling that he told the president: “Mr. President, if we get to November of [2026] and people’s 401(k)s are down 30% and prices are up 10–20% at the supermarket, we’re going to go into Election Day, face a bloodbath.”

“You’re going to lose the House, you’re going to lose the Senate, you’re going to spend the next two years being impeached every single week.”

According to Cruz, Trump’s response was blunt: “[Curse] you, Ted.”

At one point during the donor session, when an attendee referenced “Liberation Day,” Trump’s label for the tariff rollout, Cruz quipped: “I’ve told my team if anyone uses those words, they will be terminated on the spot. That is not language we use.”

Cruz also told donors that he has been “battling” the White House to secure approval for a trade agreement with India. When asked which administration officials have resisted such deals, Cruz pointed to White House economic adviser Peter Navarro, Vance, and “sometimes” Trump.

Returning to Vance, Cruz again tied him closely to Carlson’s worldview, saying: “Tucker created JD. JD is Tucker’s protégé, and they are one and the same.”

{Matzav.com}

[Video below.] Rav Aharon Teitelbaum of Satmar issued a sweeping directive prohibiting yeshiva bochurim and avreichim affiliated with Satmar institutions in Israel from taking part in street protests, following a series of deadly incidents in which two bochurim were killed during  or near demonstrations against the draft law and other issues.

The directive was delivered Motzaei Shabbos during a melaveh malkah marking the yahrtzeit of the Rebbe’s grandfather, the Atzei Chaim of Sighet, in Palm Springs. In his remarks, the Rebbe addressed the recent tragedies and announced an outright ban on participation in protests by members of the Satmar community.

The Rebbe’s comments followed recent demonstrations during which two bochurim, Yosef Eisenthal and Naftali Tzvi Kramer, were killed after being struck by vehicles. The Rebbe referred to the drivers involved as “רוצח’ישע דרייווערס,” saying they deliberately drove buses into crowds in order to harm bochurim.

Recalling earlier tragedies, the Rebbe referenced the 2014 kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teenagers in the Shomron by Hamas terrorists. He said: “I spoke then and asked a very difficult question: Who gives permission to send bochurim into the occupied territories? It is a place of danger, Arab murderers roam there and kill bochurim, and the parents who sent their children to a place of danger, their blood is on their hands. At the time there were many Zionists who shouted that it was not a dangerous place, but the reality is known to all: sending bochurim into the territories is murder.”

Turning to the current wave of protests, the Rebbe said: “In recent weeks, when the decree of drafting yeshiva students reached a new peak, with harsh decrees and the kidnapping of bochurim from their homes, they began organizing protests in the streets. Unfortunately, at some of these protests there are people who block roads and do improper things. Recently, two bochurim were murdered in these protests, and I want to say from here — the Zionists are no less murderers than the Arabs.”

The Rebbe continued: “Just as everyone understands that we do not send bochurim into the territories where Arab murderers roam, in the same way we do not send bochurim to protests where Zionist murderers roam. It is exactly the same thing.”

Emphasizing that the ruling applies directly to his own community, the Rebbe said: “I cannot speak for the entire world, but we have yeshivos in Yerushalayim and Bnei Brak, we have kollelim in Yerushalayim and Bnei Brak — and I want from here to forbid our people not to participate in these protests where Zionist murderers are present.”

Citing the principle of ‘al pi shnayim eidim yakum davar’, the Rebbe added: “Two bochurim were murdered by the Zionist murderers, and that is enough.” He requested that his words be publicized in every place where there is a Satmar community, saying, “It needs to be heard throughout all of Eretz Yisrael.”

The Rebbe concluded by citing the Gemara in Chullin that “chamira sakanta mei’isura” — danger is more severe than prohibition and invoked the teachings of the Satmar Rebbe Rav Yoel Teitelbaum, the Divrei Yoel. He said that anyone familiar with how the Divrei Yoel led the struggle against Zionism knew that he recognized the danger involved, and therefore ruled that all members of the Satmar community are forbidden from participating in such demonstrations.

WATCH:

President Trump said his administration is examining the fatal shooting of an armed protester by federal agents during an anti-ICE demonstration in Minneapolis, signaling that a formal assessment of the incident is underway.

“We’re looking, we’re reviewing everything and will come out with a determination,” Trump told the Wall Street Journal during a brief phone interview Sunday night, stopping short of offering a personal judgment on whether the agent’s actions were warranted.

“I don’t like any shooting. I don’t like it,” Trump said in the same call. “But I don’t like it when somebody goes into a protest and he’s got a very powerful, fully loaded gun with two magazines loaded up with bullets also. That doesn’t play good either.”

Authorities identified the man killed as 37-year-old Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse who had joined the protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Officials in Minnesota said Pretti was armed with a handgun at the time of the encounter and possessed a valid concealed carry permit.

Video footage that spread rapidly online appears to capture the moments leading up to the shooting, showing a struggle in which one agent seems to pull a firearm from Pretti’s waistband while other officers restrain him on the pavement. Seconds later, gunfire is heard, after which Pretti becomes motionless and was later declared dead.

Trump also indicated that the surge of federal personnel sent to the Minneapolis–St. Paul area would not be permanent, suggesting the deployment would be scaled back in the future.

“At some point we will leave. We’ve done, they’ve done a phenomenal job,” he told the Journal.

He did not say when the federal agents would be withdrawn.

{Matzav.com}

A chareidi IDF soldier wounded in combat delivered a searing rebuke during a stormy session of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, accusing state authorities of completely erasing religious and chareidi wounded soldiers from the public and legislative conversation even as efforts intensify to draft more chareidim.

Eliyahu Pinchas Tzemach, a representative of the Metzuyanim B’Yisrael organization , which advocates for religious and chareidi IDF wounded, addressed the committee during deliberations on the draft law. Speaking with visible anguish, Tzemach described what he called the total disappearance of chareidi wounded soldiers from policy discussions.

“I hear debates, I see headlines, I follow this law from every angle, but there is one thing I have not heard even once: wounded soldiers,” he told lawmakers. “Not in the law, not in the discussions, not even in a single sentence. As if they do not exist.”

Tzemach pointed to what he described as a glaring and painful contradiction: the state tracks the lives of chareidi youth in minute detail, yet refuses to acknowledge them once they are injured in military service.

“The state knows exactly where every chareidi boy studied at age 14, which institution he transferred to at 15, what he eats, what level of kashrus he keeps, but when that same boy enlists, is wounded, and broken, the state is not even willing to know how many there are,” he said.

“Even to count us, they are not willing,” Tzemach added. “Forget rehabilitation, forget treatment … even the basic recognition that we exist is already too much for the system.”

According to Tzemach, this is not a bureaucratic oversight but a deep systemic failure with devastating consequences. Wounded soldiers are left without answers, families collapse under the strain, and there is no rehabilitation framework tailored to the needs of the chareidi public.

He described realities on the ground that, he said, are never voiced in the Knesset: mixed-gender therapy groups that chareidi patients cannot join; Beit HaLochem facilities with no accommodations for Torah-observant soldiers; rehabilitation gyms, activities, and overseas delegations that are entirely mixed; and the complete absence of transitional housing or structured rehabilitation tracks for chareidi wounded and their families.

“There is no rehabilitation. There simply is none,” he said. “And then they come and demand more enlistment, more targets, more numbers — without stopping for a moment to ask: what will be with those who were already wounded? And what will be with those who enlist now and will be wounded?”

Tzemach posed a direct challenge to lawmakers: “How can you demand more enlistment from the chareidi public when those who already carried the burden and were wounded have been completely erased from the discourse?”

Speaking afterward, he said that the focus on quotas and targets is fundamentally misplaced.

“Before talking about numbers, targets, and enlistment quotas, there must be a conversation about rehabilitation,” he said. “About responsibility. And about the future of chareidi wounded soldiers who have paid — and unfortunately will yet pay — a very heavy price.”

Former President Barack Hussein Obama issued a rare and forceful public rebuke of President Donald Trump on Sunday, directly blaming the current administration for the deadly shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis and warning that the situation surrounding federal immigration enforcement is spiraling dangerously.

“The killing of Alex Pretti is a heartbreaking tragedy,” Obama said in a statement posted on X. “It should also be a wake-up call to every American, regardless of party, that many of our core values as a nation are increasingly under assault.”

In his statement, Obama sharply criticized the conduct of federal immigration agents operating in U.S. cities, saying their tactics have sparked justified outrage nationwide. “People across the country have been rightly outraged by the spectacle of masked ICE recruits and other federal agents acting with impunity and engaging in tactics that seem designed to intimidate, harass, and provoke and endanger the residents of a major American city,” he wrote.

Obama’s comments came one day after Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse, was shot and killed by Border Patrol agents during a confrontation on a Minneapolis street.

According to authorities, Pretti was carrying a loaded firearm when he stepped between federal agents and a woman they were pepper-spraying. Agents attempted to arrest him, removed the gun from his belt, and then fired roughly 10 shots, killing him at the scene.

While acknowledging that immigration enforcement is inherently challenging, Obama said the Trump administration bears responsibility for fostering an environment in which deadly force is used recklessly.

“The President and current administration officials seem eager to escalate the situation, while offering public explanation for the shootings of Mr. Pretti and Renee Good that aren’t informed by any serious investigation – and that appear to be directly contradicted by video evidence,” Obama wrote.

The statement marked Obama’s first public comments on the unrest in Minneapolis, which erupted earlier this month after ICE agents fatally shot Renee Good. Authorities said Good had attempted to block immigration officers with her vehicle and nearly struck an agent, who then opened fire, killing her.

Dozens of demonstrators identified with extremist factions blocked Route 10 at the entrance to Beit Shemesh on Sunday evening, protesting the draft law and the arrest of yeshiva students accused of draft evasion.

The protest reached a dramatic peak when demonstrators placed a chilling display in the middle of the roadway, featuring mock coffins meant to symbolize their opposition to the policy.

The coffins bore the names of Yosef Eisenthal z”l and Naftali Tzvi Kramer z”l, two bochurim who were tragically killed during protest-related incidents in recent weeks.

Police forces arrived at the scene and worked to clear the road, which was blocked for a short period of time.

The closure caused heavy traffic congestion at both the entrance to and exit from the city before traffic was eventually restored.

President Donald Trump on Sunday pressed Democratic governors and mayors across the country to work with federal immigration officials, arguing that resistance to cooperation has produced “dangerous circumstances” and resulted in the deaths of two American citizens.

In a statement posted on Truth Social, Trump laid out four steps he said Democratic officials must take to support his administration’s immigration enforcement agenda.

First, Trump said state and local authorities should hand over all criminal illegal migrants currently in state prisons or local jails — as well as those with outstanding warrants or known criminal records — to federal officials for immediate deportation.

Second, he called on local police departments to transfer custody of all illegal migrants they arrest directly to federal immigration authorities.

Third, Trump said local law enforcement agencies should be required to assist federal officials in locating, apprehending, and detaining illegal migrants wanted for crimes.

Fourth, he urged Democratic jurisdictions to actively partner with the federal government to quickly remove criminal illegal migrants, pointing to cities such as Memphis and Washington, D.C., which he said have cooperated with federal authorities and experienced improvements in public safety.

Trump singled out Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, accusing them of refusing to work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement and of encouraging resistance to federal enforcement actions.

The president argued that Republican-led states have shown that close coordination between local and federal authorities can lead to effective enforcement without public disorder. He said that Texas, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, and Louisiana saw more than 150,000 criminal illegal migrants arrested by ICE over the past year without protests or riots, crediting cooperation between law enforcement agencies for the outcome.

Trump contrasted that with what he described as obstruction by Democrat-run “sanctuary cities and states,” accusing them of placing the interests of illegal immigrants ahead of law-abiding citizens and creating unsafe, volatile conditions for both officers and the public.

He also called on Congress to pass legislation banning sanctuary city policies nationwide, describing those policies as “the root cause” of the current problems. Trump said American cities should be “safe sanctuaries for law-abiding American citizens only.”

The remarks come as immigration enforcement continues to dominate national political debate, with Republicans and Democrats sharply divided over public safety, local cooperation with federal authorities, and the role of state and municipal governments in enforcing immigration law.

{Matzav.com}

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent sharply criticized Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney over a new agreement with China on electric vehicles, cautioning that Canada could face steep penalties if it enables Beijing to flood the U.S. market with low-priced goods.

President Donald Trump initially played down the agreement, telling reporters, “If you can get a deal with China, he should do that.” A day later, however, Trump escalated the response, warning that Canada could be hit with 100% tariffs.

“There’s a possibility of a hundred percent tariffs if they do a free trade deal, if they go further — if we see that the Canadians are allowing the Chinese to dump goods.,” Bessent said Sunday on ABC News’ “This Week.”

Bessent noted that Canada had previously aligned with Washington on trade enforcement against Beijing. “The Canadians, a few months ago, joined the U.S. in putting high steel tariffs on China because the Chinese are dumping,” he said. “The Europeans also have done the same thing. And it looks like Prime Minister Carney may have done some kind of about-face.”

Canada imposed 100% tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles in 2024, mirroring U.S. policy. Under the new arrangement, however, China will be permitted to sell up to 49,000 EVs in Canada at a 6.1% most-favored-nation tariff rate, as part of a broader agreement between Ottawa and Beijing aimed at expanding cooperation on green energy.

Carney’s shift toward China has been widely interpreted as a signal of resistance to Trump, who last year slapped broad tariffs on Canada over alleged drug trafficking and border security issues.

“I don’t think he’s doing the best job for the Canadian people,” Bessent said of Carney.

Trump has previously joked about annexing Canada, and his aggressive trade posture reportedly led then–Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to break down in tears in public.

Last week at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Carney told global leaders that the international system had fundamentally shifted amid Trump’s threats to assert control over Greenland.

“We know the old order is not coming back,” Carney said. “We shouldn’t mourn it. Nostalgia is not a strategy, but we believe that from the fracture, we can build something bigger, better, stronger, more just.”

“This is the task of the middle powers, the countries that have the most to lose from a world of fortresses and most to gain from genuine cooperation.”

On Sunday, Trump renewed his attacks on Canada, accusing the country of “systematically destroying itself” and striking “one of the worst deals, of any kind, in history.”

“China is successfully and completely taking over the once Great Country of Canada,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “So sad to see it happen. I only hope they leave Ice Hockey alone!”

A massive winter storm sweeping across the US triggered what is shaping up to be one of the worst air travel meltdowns since the Covid-19 pandemic, forcing some major airlines to cancel more than half of their scheduled flights.

More than 16,000 US flights have been canceled through Monday, according to data from flight-tracking website FlightAware, as the storm pushed into major population centers and snarled airline networks nationwide. Airlines scrapped more than 10,300 US flights on Sunday alone, according to FlightAware.

Sunday marks the highest number of cancellations since the pandemic, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium. There were 22,751 flights scheduled for March 30, 2020, with 12,143 cancellations.

Carriers with large hubs in the storm’s path were hit especially hard. American Airlines canceled more than 55% of its Sunday schedule, while JetBlue Airways scrapped more than 70% of flights. Delta Air Lines cut more than 40%, and United Airlines canceled nearly 38%, according to Cirium.

Major airports across the eastern half of the country were effectively shut down. By 10 a.m. New York time, more than 80% of departures were canceled at Newark Liberty International Airport, LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy International Airport, while Washington Reagan National topped 90% cancellations, Cirium data show. Boston Logan, Charlotte Douglas and Chicago O’Hare were also among the hardest hit.

Weather impacts stretched well beyond the Northeast. Texas and parts of the South were among the first regions hit, with freezing rain and ice snarling operations at major hubs including Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston and Austin. Data from the Federal Aviation Administration show multiple airport closures across the South and Midwest as of Sunday as ice and snow made runways unsafe, contributing to cascading disruptions throughout airline networks.

The storm is expected to continue battering the East through Monday. New England could see as much as 18 inches of snow, according to the US Weather Prediction Center, with up to a foot possible in New York City. Some of that precipitation may fall as sleet, increasing the risk of heavy icing on roads and runways.

Airlines had begun rolling out contingency plans ahead of the storm. Delta is allowing passengers to rebook flights without fare differences across 41 airports in the South and Southeast, including Atlanta, Dallas, Austin, Houston, Charleston and Memphis, through Jan. 28. United Airlines is waiving change fees and fare differences for travelers affected at 61 airports, including Boston, Newark and New York’s LaGuardia.

(c) Bloomberg

{Matzav.com}

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz compared President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement operations to the capture of Anne Frank during a Sunday press conference, as he pressed the White House to pull ICE and Border Patrol agents out of his state.

Walz made the remarks while calling on Trump to withdraw federal immigration authorities from Minnesota following the fatal shooting of protester Alex Pretti a day earlier, an incident that has intensified opposition to recent raids.

The governor said children who are in the country illegally, as well as children of illegal immigrants, are living in fear and reluctant to attend school because of the enforcement actions, warning that history will render a harsh verdict on the administration.

“Allow our children to go back to school. We have got children in Minnesota hiding in their houses, afraid to go outside,” Walz said. “Many of us grew up reading that story of Anne Frank. Somebody’s going to write that children’s story about Minnesota.”

Critics have argued that the analogy breaks down on several fronts, noting that Frank was a German citizen before the Nazi regime stripped Jews of their citizenship, and that the United States is not deporting immigrants to death camps.

Frank and her family were hiding in the Netherlands to evade Nazi occupation forces before being discovered and arrested in 1944. She died the following year at age 15 in a concentration camp, and her diary, later published after World War II, became one of the most widely read personal accounts of life under Nazi persecution.

Walz has previously used similar rhetoric, having described ICE last year as President Trump’s “modern-day Gestapo.” He is not alone among Democrats in invoking Nazi-era comparisons in opposition to the administration’s immigration policies.

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker drew a similar parallel last October, likening Trump’s ICE raids to Nazi stormtroopers seizing Jews and other targeted groups.

“This is how authoritarian regimes do it. They create these kind of fake ideas that there’s an enemy out there and it could be sitting next to you at one of these tables. So just somebody sitting at your table that you don’t like might be one of those enemies,” Pritzker said at the time. “So let’s round them up, let’s make sure they are the subjects of the laws that we’re passing, because we don’t like who they are. That is what authoritarian regimes do.”

{Matzav.com}

President Donald Trump said Sunday that efforts to block construction of a new ballroom at the White House are futile, arguing that the project is already underway despite a lawsuit recently filed to challenge it.

Writing on Truth Social, Trump said the ballroom is being built without public money, calling it “a GIFT (ZERO taxpayer funding) to the United States of America.” He put the price tag at $300 million and said the project is being paid for entirely through private contributions.

Trump said the legal challenge was filed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and faulted the organization for acting only after construction had begun.

“Why didn’t these obstructionists and troublemakers bring their baseless lawsuit much earlier?” he wrote.

He also dismissed arguments about preserving the East Wing, saying it has undergone multiple changes over the years and no longer resembles the original structure. Trump wrote that the East Wing was “changed, built and rebuilt over the years” and that “it bore no resemblance or relationship to the original building.”

The ballroom project was publicly announced on July 31 by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, who said the administration plans to build a 90,000-square-foot space designed to host roughly 650 seated guests while maintaining the White House’s classical architectural style.

The White House currently lacks a formal ballroom, and the new structure is slated to replace the existing East Wing.

Since returning to office, Trump has moved quickly to alter the appearance of both the White House and surrounding federal landmarks, putting a distinct stamp on the executive complex.

Among the changes previously unveiled is a proposed monument known as the “Arc de Trump,” which is intended to mark the nation’s 250th anniversary next year.

Trump has said the arch, modeled closely on Paris’s Arc de Triomphe, will serve as a gateway for visitors entering Washington from Arlington National Cemetery via the Arlington Memorial Bridge.

Inside the White House, Trump’s aesthetic preferences are evident in the Oval Office, where gold-colored elements now feature prominently, reflecting a taste for grandeur.

He has expanded those design touches to include gilded trim along the ceiling and doorways, and even the cherubs set into the door frames were redone with gold finishes.

Beyond the Oval Office, the administration has also rolled out what it calls the “Presidential Walk of Fame,” lining the West Wing colonnade with portraits of former presidents.

One of those portraits, depicting former President Joe Biden, includes his signature produced by an autopen, a device that mechanically reproduces handwriting. Large gold-framed mirrors have also been installed along the same walkway.

Trump has also highlighted renovations elsewhere in the building, including changes to the Lincoln bathroom, which he said did not align with the historical period it was meant to represent.

“I renovated the Lincoln Bathroom in the White House. It was renovated in the 1940s in an art-deco green tile style, which was totally inappropriate for the Lincoln Era,” Trump wrote in an Oct. 31 Truth Social post.

{Matzav.com}

[Video below.] A senior Immigration and Customs Enforcement official in Minnesota appealed Sunday for demonstrations in the Twin Cities to remain nonviolent after two recent fatal shootings involving federal agents in Minneapolis, unrest he said was unprecedented in his experience.

Sam Olson, the ICE field office director based in St. Paul, addressed the situation during an appearance on Fox News, urging protesters to respect boundaries while agents are working in the field. “When we’re out there, we have no problem with the public watching what we do, filming what we do, talking to us while we do it, but there is that line, though, when they start to impede and get in situations where, frankly, we don’t want them to be, we can’t have them to be, kind of in our workspace,” Olson said on “Fox & Friends Weekend.”

He warned that tensions escalate once those limits are crossed. “That’s when we have issues,” he added.

Olson’s comments came shortly after a second deadly encounter involving a federal officer in Minnesota, intensifying scrutiny and sparking additional protests.

In the latest incident, a Border Patrol agent shot and killed 37-year-old Alex Pretti, a Veterans Affairs intensive care unit nurse, leading Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to publicly back the agent’s actions as self-defense.

The shooting was the second fatal episode this month in the state involving federal law enforcement officers, adding to mounting anger and unrest.

Pretti’s parents spoke out Saturday following the shooting, saying they were “heartbroken but also very angry,” and accusing authorities of spreading “sickening lies” about what happened.

During his television interview, Olson described the shooting as “unfortunate.”

He emphasized the gravity of such incidents for law enforcement officers, saying, “No officer wakes up in the morning and hopes to have to use any type of force, let alone deadly force, and now this happened.”

Olson went on to blame heightened confrontations on the streets, adding, “Again, this happened because of kind of what we’re seeing around here with a lot of these agitators, these vigilantes kind of surrounding the officers on the street.”

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Vice President JD Vance accused far-left activists of fueling turmoil in Minnesota after a second fatal shooting involving a federal agent, describing the unrest surrounding the incident as deliberately manufactured.

The shooting occurred when 37-year-old Alex Jeffrey Pretti, a Minneapolis nurse, was killed by a U.S. Border Patrol agent during a protest tied to a federal immigration enforcement action. Authorities said Pretti, who was legally carrying a handgun, attempted to interfere with the operation and resisted arrest.

Following the incident, Vance placed responsibility on what he described as coordinated activism aligned with local officials, arguing that their actions set the stage for the deadly confrontation between Pretti and federal agents.

“This level of engineered chaos is unique to Minneapolis,” Vance wrote on X. “It is the direct consequence of far left agitators, working with local authorities.”

Vance’s comments came as established far-left networks ramped up organizing efforts across the country, often converging around unrelated causes but mobilizing rapidly after high-profile incidents.

In Minneapolis, protests and tensions escalated after the shooting, prompting several state and local leaders — including Gov. Tim Walz — to demand that the Department of Homeland Security and the Trump administration withdraw Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from the city.

Walz said he contacted the White House “after another horrific shooting by federal agents this morning.”

“Minnesota has had it,” Walz said. “This is sickening. The President must end this operation. Pull the thousands of violent, untrained officers out of Minnesota. Now.”

A day later, Walz reiterated his call, saying, “Minnesota believes in law and order. We believe in peace,” while again urging Trump to remove what he described as “untrained agents” from the state.

The White House rejected those demands, signaling no intention to pull federal law enforcement from Minnesota.

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt responded on X, arguing that the priority should be enforcing immigration law rather than removing officers. She said the focus must be on expelling “dangerous criminal illegal aliens” rather than sidelining federal agents.

“The Democrats have their priorities completely upside down. They will not keep the American people safe,” Leavitt wrote.

According to the Department of Homeland Security, Pretti approached agents while armed with a 9 mm handgun and two magazines and then “violently resisted” attempts to disarm him, leading one agent to open fire.

However, video recorded at the scene and accounts from witnesses appear to show Pretti holding only his phone before being pepper-sprayed and restrained on the ground, casting doubt on parts of the official narrative.

DHS Secretary Kristi Noem said Sunday that she sympathizes with Pretti’s family and pledged a full investigation into the shooting.

“We can’t have individuals that are impeding law enforcement operations and then showing up with guns and weapons and no ID and confronting law enforcement like that,” Noem said. “It is one of the reasons that we see situations like this unfold.”

Pretti was struck multiple times and was pronounced dead at the scene. State officials later confirmed that he had a valid permit to carry the firearm.

Minnesota Democrats disputed the White House’s assessment, saying the federal enforcement action itself inflamed tensions and put residents at risk, including people who were not targets of immigration operations.

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[Video below.] New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani revealed Sunday that he has been in text contact with President Donald Trump since a White House meeting last November, describing the exchanges as confidential and centered on issues affecting city residents.

Speaking on ABC’s “This Week,” Mamdani said he obtained the president’s phone number during that meeting but declined to share details of their messages. “He gave me his number. I’ll say that the conversations between the president and I are private, and I’ll keep them there. But they are always back to the question of New Yorkers,” Mamdani said.

When asked how frequently the two communicate, the mayor avoided giving specifics and emphasized that the outreach is about results rather than personal rapport. “I think it’s less about the maintenance of a personal relationship, it’s more about delivering for the people of the city,” he said. Mamdani added that he had made clear during the campaign that “where the president is looking to pursue policies that will hurt the city, I’m going to be there on the front lines,” while remaining open to collaboration when federal actions benefit New York.

The remarks reflect a softening in relations following months of sharp rhetoric between the two during the 2025 election season and the transition period.

Earlier this month, Axios reported that the texting began after Trump and Mamdani swapped phone numbers at their November Oval Office meeting, characterizing the dynamic as notable given earlier clashes, including Trump labeling Mamdani a “communist.”

Despite the outreach, criticism from the White House and Trump allies has continued, particularly targeting Mamdani’s political views, even as the mayor has pursued cooperation on affordability measures and federal assistance for the city.

Before the November meeting, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt referred to Mamdani as a “communist,” and CBS News reported that Trump had threatened to cut off federal funding to New York City.

Mamdani, who identifies as a democratic socialist, was sworn into office on Jan. 1 after winning the November election. His initial policy push has focused on easing living costs, with proposals that include universal child care, rent relief, and fare-free bus service.

During the campaign, he also called for higher taxes on wealthy individuals and large corporations to help pay for parts of his platform, proposals that would require approval from state lawmakers rather than action by the mayor alone.

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Legal fallout from the deadly shooting involving federal law enforcement officers in Minneapolis could ultimately be handled in federal court, regardless of whether charges are initially brought by state authorities, according to Alan Dershowitz.

Speaking Sunday on Newsmax’s “Sunday Report,” the Harvard Law School professor emeritus explained that state officials are permitted to investigate and even prosecute such cases, but defendants who are federal agents have a key procedural option. “The state has the power to investigate, and they could actually prosecute even if the federal government doesn’t want to,” Dershowitz said. “But then the defendant can remove the case from state court to federal court, where the case would have to be tried.”

Dershowitz added that federal officers have the right to seek removal of a case from state jurisdiction, pointing to President Donald Trump’s own attempt to move his New York case into federal court. “If you’re a federal agent, you can remove your case from state court and have it tried in federal court,” he said, noting that Trump’s request to do so remains unresolved.

Former Sen. Rick Santorum, now a senior political analyst for Newsmax, also weighed in, placing blame on Minnesota officials for what he described as poor coordination with federal authorities. He argued that local law enforcement should have been responsible for managing crowds and ensuring the safety of federal agents on the scene.

“They have not cooperated at all in doing what local police generally do, which is provide a protection, a shield of protection around federal agents doing their job,” Santorum said.

Santorum emphasized that joint planning between different levels of government is standard practice and said federal officers should not be tasked with managing volatile crowds. “There’s usually coordination between the state and the municipality and the federal government,” he said. “ICE agents and Border patrol agents should not be doing crowd control.

“That’s just not what they do. That’s the job of the local police.”

He argued that the lack of cooperation worsened the situation and said local leaders should have taken steps to calm tensions rather than allow them to escalate.

Later in the discussion, Santorum said immigration enforcement had once been less politically charged, accusing Democrats of exploiting the current situation for political gain. “It’s unfortunate because you go back to the Obama administration, to all the Clinton administration, you know, border enforcement and arresting and deporting illegal immigrants was something that was not a partisan issue,” he said.

Dershowitz returned to the legal framework governing federal authority, stressing that federal agents have a constitutional right to operate anywhere in the country and criticizing resistance from state officials. “The Constitution is the Constitution, and federal officials are allowed to come into any state to enforce federal law,” he said.

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