Efforts to locate the diver who disappeared following a shark attack in Chadeira on Monday have been suspended, according to an announcement by ZAKA.
The search was called off after authorities discovered what are believed to be human remains near the area where the diver went missing.
“From the moment we received the report, we went to the scene with large forces from the Israel Police, the Marine Police Unit, the Fire and Rescue Flame Unit, volunteers from the rescue units and other forces,” ZAKA stated.
They described the situation as both rare and highly challenging, noting that it required significant coordination and a high level of expertise from all those involved in the response effort.
ZAKA’s professional diving team conducted thorough underwater sweeps with the help of advanced sonar equipment. The organization noted that these divers are highly trained and experienced in aquatic search-and-rescue missions.
Material recovered from the location was sent to the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Abu Kabir for analysis and identification. Officials close to the investigation indicated that a decision on whether to resume the search will be made after the forensic results are reviewed.
ZAKA added that “we are prepared to bring the findings found at the scene to the Israel Grave and are accompanying the family during their difficult time.”
{Matzav.com Israel}
The Trump administration is actively exploring initiatives to increase marriage and childbirth rates across the country, with one idea under discussion being a $5,000 “baby bonus” granted to mothers following the birth of a child, according to a new report.
Senior officials in the White House have recently been engaged in developing strategies to counter the nation’s waning birth and marriage figures, with the broader goal of encouraging more Americans to embrace the family-oriented ideals championed by Trump and his supporters.
According to four individuals who have been involved in recent discussions, advocates for raising the national birthrate have held talks with administration staffers to design policies aimed at persuading more women to have children, the New York Times reported.
One of the proposals involves awarding a $5,000 payment to new mothers. Another idea floated in the meetings would prioritize married people or those with children for 30% of all Fulbright scholarship allocations.
As of now, the administration has not announced which, if any, of these proposals might move forward.
Those close to the talks emphasized that improving fertility rates will likely become a central theme in efforts to ignite the kind of “baby boom” Trump is aiming to foster.
{Matzav.com}
President Donald Trump revealed today that he held a conversation with Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu covering several pressing topics, and emphasized that both leaders see eye to eye on those matters.
“I’ve just spoken to Prime Minister of Israel, Bibi Netanyahu, relative to numerous subjects including Trade, Iran, etc. The call went very well—We are on the same side of every issue,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
Their recent dialogue follows a face-to-face meeting in Washington two weeks earlier, where Trump disclosed that the United States was initiating a new phase of engagement with Iran focused on its nuclear program.
“We are having direct talks with Iran. On Saturday we will have a very big meeting and we will see what can happen. I think everybody agrees that a deal would be preferable to doing the obvious, and the obvious is not something that I want to be involved with, or frankly that anyone here wants to be involved with.” He added that the scenario was “getting to be very dangerous territory. Hopefully, those talks will be successful, and I think it would be in Iran’s best interests if they are,” Trump said.
Addressing the issue of hostages held by Hamas, Trump stressed his desire to see the conflict come to an end. “I want to see the end of the war. Right now, we have a problem with the hostages, we’re trying to get the hostages out. We got quite a few out, but it’s a long process. It shouldn’t be that long, but we have a big problem,” he said.
{Matzav.com}
Israeli Defense Minister Yisroel Katz on Tuesday rebuked U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) for accusing Israel of committing a “war crime” via its policy on humanitarian aid to Gaza, calling the senator’s claim both false and ignorant.
Responding to a post Sanders published Monday on X—where the senator alleged that “no humanitarian aid has entered Gaza” for 51 days and quoted Katz out of context—Katz wrote: “Contrary to the Senator’s statement, Israel is acting in full accordance with international law.”
“The humanitarian condition in Gaza is constantly monitored and large quantities of aid were delivered,” the defense minister stated, adding that aid must be prevented from falling into the hands of Hamas, which he said “exploits humanitarian aid to maintain control over the civilian population and to profit at their expense—profits that fund and sustain terror infrastructure used to target IDF soldiers and Israeli civilians.”
Katz emphasized the need for the international community to ensure that aid bypasses the terror group and reaches civilians directly and securely.
“It is unfortunate that the honorable Senator has learned nothing from the lessons of October 7 and the atrocities committed by Hamas against Israeli citizens and the Jewish people,” Katz continued, referencing the murder of the Bibas children while in Hamas captivity “simply because they were Jewish.”
He concluded by reaffirming Israel’s obligation to prevent a repeat of such horrors and expressed gratitude to the United States for supporting Israel’s right to self-defense “in the face of the hypocrisy of some international bodies.”
Sanders has repeatedly criticized Israel’s war against Hamas and has led calls in Congress to condition U.S. military aid to the Jewish state. JNS
{Matzav.com Israel}
President Trump’s Education Secretary, Linda McMahon, has spoken out in strong support of the administration’s move to resume collecting student loan debt, accusing colleges of taking advantage of loan forgiveness initiatives enacted under Biden.
On Monday, the Department of Education revealed that starting May 5, it would resume collection efforts on student loan debt from the approximately 5.3 million individuals currently in default.
In a sharply worded opinion piece published in the Wall Street Journal, McMahon pinned the blame for the student debt crisis on Biden’s policies and institutions of higher learning, saying they’ve misled students while benefitting from the system.
“Colleges and universities call themselves nonprofits, but for years they have profited massively off the federal subsidy of loans, hiking tuition and piling up multibillion-dollar endowments while students graduate six figures in the red,” McMahon wrote.
She pointed to research from nearly a decade ago that links the rise in tuition to increases in federal loan limits.
“A widely cited 2015 study found that for every dollar of increased federal caps on subsidized loans, colleges raised tuition by 60 cents,” she continued.
McMahon also blasted academic institutions for continuing to push students toward degrees that hold little real-world value, while encouraging them to take on huge financial burdens.
“Many of the degree-granting programs that qualify for student loans are worthless on the job market, but colleges continue to accept students to these programs and encourage them to borrow to pay for them.”
She emphasized that both students and institutions must be held responsible for the role they play in the growing student debt crisis.
“Accountability is a two-way street. As we push to hold student borrowers to account, we will also push colleges to be responsible and transparent.”
Dismissing claims that the resumption of collections is punitive, McMahon said the decision is rooted in fiscal responsibility and called out President Biden for making hollow campaign pledges.
She said Biden used student loan forgiveness to appeal to younger voters during his campaign, without the legal authority to deliver on those promises.
Student loan payments were first suspended during Trump’s administration in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, McMahon noted, but the Biden White House extended those suspensions beyond what she says was legally permissible.
According to her, this extension only made things worse by giving borrowers the false impression they wouldn’t need to repay what they owed.
“I am announcing the end of this dishonest and irresponsible policy. We will conform the department’s repayment options to federal court decisions and end the Biden-era practice of zero-interest, zero-accountability forbearances that are pushing borrowers into loan delinquency and default,” she said.
She outlined the steps that will soon take effect, including getting nearly 2 million borrowers back into active repayment status and restarting collection efforts for those who are still in default.
“On May 5, we will begin the process of moving roughly 1.8 million borrowers into repayment plans and restart collections of loans in default. Borrowers who don’t make payments on time will see their credit scores go down, and in some cases, their wages automatically garnished.
“Why? Not because we want to be unkind to student borrowers. Borrowing money and failing to pay it back isn’t a victimless offense. Debt doesn’t go away; it gets transferred to others. If borrowers don’t pay their debts to the government, taxpayers do,” McMahon added.
She also underscored the unique nature of student debt, saying it must be taken seriously and cannot be viewed like ordinary consumer loans.
“We are committed to ensuring that borrowers are paying back their loans, that they are fully supported in doing so, and that colleges can’t create such a massive liability for students and their families, jeopardizing their ability to achieve the American dream,” McMahon said.
Earlier, McMahon had taken aim at Biden’s repeated attempts to erase large amounts of student debt—moves that were partially thwarted in court decisions last year.
According to the Department of Education, 42.7 million Americans currently owe over $1.6 trillion in student loans, creating what the agency described as a looming threat to the financial health of the federal student loan system.
The department further warned that millions of borrowers have gone well over a year without making payments, with some having defaulted on their loans for more than seven years.
{Matzav.com}
