Naftali Bennett, Israel’s former prime minister, delivered harsh criticism of the country’s leadership today, focusing on both the security and political arenas.
“There isn’t an Israeli who doesn’t want to bring all the hostages home and defeat Hamas,” he declared.
Bennett went on to say, “The current government has failed in the two goals it set for itself.” He continued, “Because it places politics above the lives of its citizens, it has brought reservists to unprecedented exhaustion and turned most of the world against us. That’s why Israel is stuck.”
Discussing the way leaders relate to the public, Bennett charged, “To conceal its failures, the government returns to its expertise of dividing the people and creating two camps: a camp supposedly in favor of the hostages but weak and supportive of glorifying Hamas, and a camp supposedly indifferent to the hostages but in favor of defeating Hamas. As long as the appearance of two opposing camps exists, the government is freed from accountability for its failures, which is why it constantly fuels the internal conflict.”
He further stressed, “The current government is an autoimmune disease, causing the state to fight itself. Only replacing it will bring the solution.”
Bennett’s remarks came as the Hostages’ Families Forum, together with anti-government and anti-war activists, staged a nationwide “Day of Disruption” to demand that the government secure the release of hostages and bring the war to a close.
Protests erupted in roughly 400 locations around the country, including outside the residences of government ministers and Knesset members. Demonstrators shut down major thoroughfares such as Route 1 leading to Jerusalem and the Ra’anana Junction. In addition, hundreds of vehicles set out from Latrun in a convoy aimed at demanding an end to the fighting.
{Matzav.com}
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) lashed out at President Trump following his high-profile summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, condemning the outcome and accusing Trump of betraying Ukraine.
“Looks like once again Trump is selling out Ukraine and bowing down to dictator Putin,” Schumer posted on X. “No Nobel Peace Prize for that.”
The Democratic leader’s criticism came shortly after Hillary Clinton made a pointed remark that she would consider putting Trump’s name forward for the Nobel Peace Prize if he were able to extract a ceasefire deal from Putin.
Trump and Putin sat down Friday at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage for about three hours. While the White House withheld specifics of their discussion, Trump characterized the exchange as “productive” and indicated that while movement was made, there was no final agreement.
“We didn’t get there, but we have a good chance,” Trump said to the press after the meeting, declining to answer follow-up questions. Later, he briefed NATO and European allies on the talks, who in turn reiterated their strong commitment to Ukraine.
Schumer, issuing a further rebuke Friday evening, accused Trump of giving Putin undue prestige, referring to him as an “authoritarian thug.”
“Instead of standing with Ukraine and our allies, Trump stood shoulder to shoulder with an autocrat that has terrorized the Ukrainian people and the globe for years,” Schumer wrote on X. “While we wait for critical details of what was discussed — on first take it appears Trump handed Putin legitimacy, a global stage, zero accountability, and got nothing in return.”
“Our fear is that this wasn’t diplomacy — it was just theater,” Schumer added.
Trump countered the Democratic attacks later that night in an appearance with Fox News host Sean Hannity, maintaining that the responsibility now falls on Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to work out a settlement. Trump and Zelensky are scheduled to meet at the White House on Monday.
Earlier in the week, Clinton had remarked that she would back Trump’s candidacy for a Nobel Peace Prize if he could broker an end to the war, now entering its fourth year, in a way that undercuts Moscow’s claims to Ukrainian land. Trump publicly thanked her for the acknowledgment.
But Zelensky rejected Trump’s floated idea that any ceasefire might involve trading Ukrainian territory already seized by Russia since its 2022 invasion.
“We will never leave the Donbas,” Zelensky told journalists on Tuesday.
{Matzav.com}
A new cancer vaccine in development has shown encouraging results in preventing the return of certain aggressive cancers.
Researchers from the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, together with other institutions, carried out a phase 1 clinical trial of the vaccine known as ELI-002 2P in 25 patients previously treated for colorectal and pancreatic cancers.
These patients had already undergone surgical removal of tumors but still displayed “signs of minimal residual disease,” meaning fragments of cancer-related DNA remained in their systems, putting them at high risk of relapse, according to a UCLA statement.
Studies show that more than 80% of pancreatic cancer cases recur after surgery, and for nearly half of patients this happens in the first year. For colorectal cancer, the chance of recurrence ranges between 30% and 50%, most commonly within two years of surgery.
Mutations in the KRAS gene are linked to about 50% of colorectal cancers and over 90% of pancreatic cancers. The new vaccine, designed to target these mutations, was delivered in a sequence of injections intended to stimulate immune activity in the lymph nodes.
Results showed that 21 out of 25 participants produced “KRAS-specific T cells,” demonstrating a robust immune response. Those who developed stronger T-cell activity were more likely to remain free of cancer recurrence than those with weaker responses.
In six patients — three with pancreatic cancer and three with colorectal cancer — the vaccine appeared to clear all measurable signs of the disease.
Among the group with the most significant immune response, most remained free of cancer nearly 20 months after vaccination. The trial results were published in Nature Medicine.
“This is an exciting advance for patients with KRAS-driven cancers, particularly pancreatic cancer, where recurrence after standard treatment is almost a given and effective therapies are limited,” said lead study author Zev Wainberg, M.D., professor of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and researcher at the UCLA Health Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center.
“We observed that patients who developed strong immune responses to the vaccine remained disease-free and survived for much longer than expected.”
The researchers also noted that 67% of participants displayed immune responses to “additional tumor-associated mutations,” pointing to the vaccine’s potential in driving “broader anti-tumor activity.”
A key advantage of ELI-002 2P is that it is “off-the-shelf,” meaning it is produced in standardized form and does not need to be customized for each patient.
“This study shows that the ELI-002 2P vaccine can safely and effectively train the immune system to recognize and fight cancer-driving mutations,” Wainberg said.
“It offers a promising approach to generating precise and durable immune responses without the complexity or cost of fully personalized vaccines.”
Enrollment has already been completed for a phase 2 clinical trial of an updated version, ELI-002 7P, which is designed to cover a wider range of KRAS mutations, the announcement noted.
The research was funded by Elicio Therapeutics, the Massachusetts-based company behind the vaccine, and carried out in collaboration with MD Anderson Cancer Center and Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
Fox News senior medical analyst Dr. Marc Siegel, who was not part of the study, said the findings highlight the growing role of targeted therapies in oncology.
“Solid tumors, especially pancreatic, can be difficult to treat because they are not as mutagenic (capable of inducing or causing mutations) as hematological malignancies (blood cancers) or melanoma, for example, so they don’t have as many ready targets for immunotherapy,” he explained to Fox News Digital.
“The new cancer vaccine from UCLA is very promising as a major tool against these cancers, as it ‘programs’ the immune system to target these mutations and has been shown in the NATURE study to elicit a strong clinical response.”
{Matzav.com}
Fox News host Mark Levin lays out what is known of Russian President Vladimir Putin in light of his summit with President Donald Trump on ‘Life, Liberty & Levin.’
WATCH:
Top European officials are preparing to stand alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during his meeting with President Trump at the White House on Monday, following concerns about how Trump’s Alaska talks with Russian leader Vladimir Putin played out.
Those set to attend include European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, all of whom confirmed travel plans to Washington, DC.
It remains uncertain whether every one of these leaders will sit in on the White House session itself or hold separate discussions with Trump during their visit.
“They’re not coming here tomorrow to keep Zelensky from being bullied,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told CBS News’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “This is such a stupid media narrative… We’ve been working with these people for weeks.”
“We invited them to come,” Rubio added.
Of particular note, Zelensky’s delegation includes Stubb, Meloni, and Rutte, each of whom has cultivated a notably warm relationship with Trump.
Some of these leaders have developed such close connections with him that they’ve been nicknamed “the Trump whisperer.”
Hanging over Monday’s gathering of allies is the tense February 28 Oval Office encounter between Trump and Zelensky, which broke down into a televised shouting exchange.
European officials regard the upcoming meeting with Trump as pivotal for Ukraine’s future, particularly after his face-to-face with Putin last Friday.
In advance of that summit, Trump had warned Putin to pursue peace in Ukraine or be hit with new sanctions, telling Fox News that he “won’t be happy” if a ceasefire wasn’t reached.
Putin did not agree to halt hostilities, but Trump afterward emphasized that there had been “progress” and pointed toward a more comprehensive peace agreement as preferable to a temporary truce.
Though much of what was discussed remains unclear, reports indicated that Putin pressed for Ukraine to surrender the remaining areas of resource-rich Donetsk, a largely Russian-speaking territory.
In return, Putin reportedly offered the possibility of freezing combat in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, according to Axios.
Analysts expressed skepticism about those rumored terms, noting that Donetsk — described as a “fortress belt” — is heavily defended by Ukrainian forces. Surrendering it could allow Russia to reignite fighting later and drive deeper into Ukraine with greater ease.
During the summit, Putin also sought to flatter Trump. Trump later told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that the Russian leader claimed the 2020 election had been stolen from him and that the Ukraine war would not have erupted if Trump had been in power.
Former UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson denounced the meeting, calling it “the most vomit-inducing episode in all the tawdry history of international diplomacy.”
The gathering marked Putin’s first visit to the United States in nearly ten years and his first face-to-face with an American president since the Ukraine conflict began.
{Matzav.com}
Police announced on Sunday that 32 people have been detained across the country in connection with disruptive demonstrations organized under the banner of the “Day of Disruption.” The protests, spearheaded by the Hostages’ Families Forum along with anti-government and anti-war movements, aimed to paralyze daily life and the economy to pressure leaders into securing the release of hostages and ending the war.
Authorities added that all roadways in Yerushalayim that had been blocked due to the protests were once again open, and normal traffic had resumed.
“Since the morning, Jerusalem District Police and Border Police officers have been working to restore order due to demonstrations at several intersections in the capital on Begin Boulevard and Route 16, which included riots while blocking the roads, and several clashes between protesters and officers have occurred,” the police said. They continued, “During these clashes, the police arrested seven rioters and they were taken for questioning at the police station.”
In Tel Aviv, tensions flared earlier in the day when a truck attempted to drive through a crowd of demonstrators at the Kaplan-Leonardo Da Vinci intersection. The driver argued with the protesters after trying to push through. Demonstrations also blocked Route 4 in both directions, while at the Em Hamoshavot Junction between Petach Tikva and Bnei Brak, tires were set on fire.
At the entrance to the Route 16 tunnel into Yerushalayim, police declared the gathering illegal and used a water cannon to disperse activists who sat on the ground, holding onto one another. The demonstrators later moved from the entrance to block the tunnel’s exit instead.
Law enforcement later reported that “dozens of participants began to riot while blocking the Route 16 tunnel and clashing with officers. So far, the police have arrested seven suspects.” Meanwhile, Israel Railways said conditions at stations had eased considerably, noting that “no crowding is observed at this hour,” following morning delays from road closures and a brief crash of its website that was subsequently repaired.
Figures released by Sheba, the company that oversees the national debit card payment system, suggested that the strike had only a limited influence on overall commerce. Between 8:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m., transactions processed through Sheba totaled 584.26 million shekels, down 5.1% from the 615.87 million shekels recorded during the same time frame last Sunday, August 10, 2025.
{Matzav.com}
[COMMUNICATED]
The Hirschman family is facing a moment of both great joy and overwhelming challenge. Their daughter’s wedding is fast approaching, yet the weight of years of severe medical hardship has left them emotionally and financially drained.
The White House brushed off a report from NPR claiming that confidential U.S. documents about President Trump’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska were left sitting on a public printer at a hotel, dismissing the story as “hilarious.”
“It’s hilarious that NPR is publishing a multi-page lunch menu and calling it a ‘security breach,’” White House Deputy Press Secretary Anna Kelly said in a statement to NewsNation. “This type of self-proclaimed ‘investigative journalism’ is why no one takes them seriously and they are no longer taxpayer-funded thanks to President Trump.”
According to NPR, the packet consisted of eight pages containing details of the summit, including schedules, locations, and even the phone numbers of three U.S. staff members. The materials were reportedly discovered on a printer at the hotel before Trump and Putin met Friday at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson outside Anchorage.
The front page laid out Friday’s meeting schedule, noting that Trump was expected to present Putin with a gift. Four of the pages identified top American and Russian participants present in Alaska, while one page listed contact information for three U.S. advance officials. Two more pages contained the planned seating chart and menu for a working lunch.
Although that meal never actually occurred, the documents revealed it had been designed as a three-course affair featuring a starter salad, followed by either filet mignon or halibut olympia. NPR reported these details after obtaining the paperwork.
The documents bore the imprint of the Office of the Chief of Protocol, a division of the State Department that describes its role as to “advance the foreign policy goals of the United States by creating an environment for successful diplomacy. Our team extends the first hand that welcomes presidents, prime ministers, ruling monarchs, and other leaders to our country.”
{Matzav.com}
