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Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu gave an unusual interview on Thursday to the Israeli Telegram channel “Abu Ali Express,” bypassing the mainstream media. In the over 30-minute conversation, Netanyahu addressed the ongoing war in Gaza, the fate of the hostages, and Israel’s broader regional strategy.

Speaking about Hamas, Netanyahu declared: “There are two options: either surrender or destruction. If the surrender option doesn’t work, there will be Plan B – destruction.” He emphasized that his comments referred to Hamas itself, not the civilian population of Gaza. “I cannot detail the timelines,” he added, “but I assume there will be unexpected developments.”

Netanyahu explained why the war is taking longer than some had hoped, comparing Gaza to Mosul in Iraq. “There was a city called Mosul that dozens of countries went to attack. There weren’t 30,000 terrorists there—only 3,000—and it still took nine months to conquer them. Gaza is much more complicated. They built a dense urban system with tens of thousands of terrorists, booby traps, and weapons. It takes time.”

He noted that beyond the direct fight against Hamas, Israel is also contending with regional threats. “On the second day of the war, I said we are changing the face of the Middle East. It was clear to me we are not only fighting Hamas, but also Assad’s regime, the Houthis, and Iran itself.”

Asked whether the war will end before the next Israeli election, with hostages returned and new peace agreements signed, Netanyahu replied cautiously: “I will not reveal details here. We have plans both to defeat Hamas and to bring back our captives. As for peace with Saudi Arabia, it doesn’t depend only on us. It depends on eliminating Hamas and ending the war. In such a scenario, I believe new opportunities will open—both with Saudi Arabia and with other states.”

Netanyahu said the war could end “tomorrow” if Hamas lays down its weapons, returns the hostages, and Gaza is demilitarized under a secure framework. He suggested that the Strip should then move toward civilian governance “by people who do not fund terrorism.”

On the idea of voluntary migration from Gaza, Netanyahu pointed to Palestinian surveys indicating that at least half of the population wants to leave. “This is not mass expulsion, not part of our war plan,” he said, “but it could certainly be a result. People want to go—just open the gate.”

When asked about the possibility of a future clash with Iran, Netanyahu recalled his longstanding warnings. “For years I said we will not allow Iran to arm itself with nuclear weapons. Recently they tried to bring in 20,000 ballistic missiles. We acted on that principle. We eliminated leaders like Haniyeh and others. We eliminated Nasrallah, which many didn’t believe possible. We removed the existential double threat of nuclear arms and their ambition to stockpile 20,000 missiles. Our response depends on them. I don’t think it’s in their interest to push this further.”

He concluded by pointing to unrest inside Iran: “There is a yearning to break free from the tyranny of the regime. In the end, it depends on them. But there are many cracks, a lot of destabilization.”

{Matzav.com Israel}

U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., facing pointed bipartisan questioning at a rancorous three-hour Senate committee hearing on Thursday, tried to defend his efforts to pull back COVID-19 vaccine recommendations and explain the turmoil he has created at federal health agencies. Kennedy said the fired CDC director was untrustworthy, stood by his past anti-vaccine rhetoric, and disputed reports of people saying they have had difficulty getting COVID-19 shots. Medical groups and several Democrats in Congress have called for Kennedy to be fired, and his exchanges with Democratic senators on the panel repeatedly devolved into shouting, from both sides. But some Republican senators also expressed unease with his changes to COVID-19 policies. The GOP senators noted that Kennedy said President Donald Trump deserved a Nobel Prize for the 2020 Operation Warp Speed initiative to quickly develop mRNA COVID-19 vaccines — and that he also had attacked the safety and continued use of those very shots. “I can’t tell where you are on Operation Warp Speed,” said Republican North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis. Tillis and others asked him why the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was fired last week, less than a month into her tenure. Kennedy said she was dishonest, and that CDC leaders who left the agency last week in support of her deserved to be fired. He also criticized CDC recommendations during the COVID-19 pandemic tied to lockdowns and masking policies, and claimed — wrongly — that they “failed to do anything about the disease itself.” “The people at CDC who oversaw that process, who put masks on our children, who closed our schools, are the people who will be leaving,” Kennedy said. He later said they deserved to be fired for not doing enough to control chronic disease. Democrats express hostility from the start The Senate Finance Committee had called Kennedy to a hearing about his plans to “Make America Healthy Again,” but Democratic senators pressed Kennedy on his actions around vaccines. At the start of the hearing, Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon tried to have Kennedy formally sworn in as a witness, saying the HHS secretary has a history of lying to the committee. The committee’s chair, Sen. Mike Crapo of Idaho, denied the Democrat’s request, saying “the bottom line is we will let the secretary make his own case.” Wyden went on to attack Kennedy, saying he had “stacked the deck” of a vaccines advisory committee by replacing scientists with “skeptics and conspiracy theorists.” Last week, the Trump administration fired the CDC’s director — a Trump appointee who was confirmed by the Senate — less than a month into her tenure. Several top CDC leaders resigned in protest, leaving the agency in turmoil. The ousted director, Susan Monarez, wrote in The Wall Street Journal on Thursday that Kennedy was trying to weaken public health protections. “I was told to preapprove the recommendations of a vaccine advisory panel newly filled with people who have publicly expressed antivaccine rhetoric,” Monarez wrote. “It is imperative that the panel’s recommendations aren’t rubber-stamped but instead are rigorously and scientifically reviewed before being accepted or rejected.” Kennedy told senators he didn’t make such an ultimatum, though he did concede that he had ordered Monarez to fire career CDC scientists. Kennedy pushed back on concerns raised by multiple Republican senators, including Tillis and Sens. John Barrasso of […]

At a joint press briefing in Quito, Ecuador, alongside Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Gabriela Sommerfeld, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was questioned on Thursday about Israel’s consideration of extending sovereignty over Judea and Samaria, as well as the recent suspension of visas for Palestinian Authority officials.

Rubio began by pointing out the problems within the Palestinian Authority itself. “The Palestinian Authority has its own set of problems: ‘pay-for-slay,’ they pay people to kill Israelis, we have problems with them too,” he remarked.

Speaking about nations that have chosen to recognize Palestinian statehood without negotiations, Rubio said: “We told all these countries, ‘If you guys do this recognition stuff, which isn’t even real, you’re going to create big problems. There is going to be a response from Israel, you’re going to make it harder to reach a ceasefire, and it may even trigger these sorts of actions’ (enacting sovereignty over Judea and Samaria).”

He explained that the US has been monitoring the matter carefully but avoided giving a direct opinion. “Other than to tell you that we predicted that this would happen. We warned everybody that it would happen, but nonetheless, some of these people decided to move forward with something that’s illusory.”

Rubio then turned to the broader conflict, stating, “Right now we should focus on how we should end this war in Gaza, how do you eliminate Hamas, how do you disarm Hamas? That end could end tomorrow if Hamas would just disarm, surrender, and release the 20 hostages who shouldn’t even be there. It would end, but Hamas refuses to do that.”

Returning to the debate over sovereignty in Judea and Samaria, Rubio emphasized that it remains unsettled. “That’s not a final thing, that’s something that’s being discussed among some elements of Israeli politics, I’m not going to opine on that today. What I will say is that was totally predictable, we told all these countries before they went out and did this, we told them that if they went through with this there wasn’t going to be a Palestinian state, becayse that’s not how a Palestinian state would happen, becayse they have a press conference somewhere, and we told them that it would lead to these reciprocle actions, and it would make a ceasefire harder.”

He also pointed out how recent moves by European powers backfired. “The day the French announced that thing, Hamas walked away from the negotiating table. They immediately increased their demands and stopped negotiating. So we also warned that that would happen, and it did. But sometimes these guys don’t listen, and they do what they gotta do because of their domestic politics. These are consequences of that.”

{Matzav.com}

The IDF’s campaign in Gaza City has reached a new stage, with Israeli forces steadily tightening their hold over key parts of the territory. Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin, the army’s spokesperson, reported on the progress and said the military is now in control of a substantial portion of the city.

“We hold 40% of the city of Gaza. Our forces are maneuvering within the city—specifically in the Zeitoun neighborhood and on the outskirts of northern Shuja’iyya,” Defrin stated.

He continued by explaining the military’s trajectory and what might follow. “We are moving toward the defeat of Hamas in Gaza City. What comes next? Decisions will need to be made. If no other solution is found, there will be military governance.”

Defrin also made it clear that the military’s top leadership is united in its vision. “The Chief of Staff, his deputy and the commander of the Southern Command – there is no difference of opinion between them. They believe in the plan to conquer Gaza City.”

{Matzav.com}

The Arab man who said that he and his fellow Arab workers intentionally spit in the ice cream at the Israeli factory they work at was arrested on Thursday, according to a police statement. Police officers from the Jerusalem District launched an investigation after a video of the Arab admitting his vile actions to a Syrian interviewer circulated on social media. After progress in the investigation, the suspect, a resident of East Jerusalem in his 20s was arrested and transferred for questioning. The police emphasized that “anyone who chooses to incite violence or behavior that could disrupt public order for racist or other motives should know that we are vigilant and will use all the tools and means at our disposal to locate, arrest, and bring him to justice.” (YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem)

The Israeli Supreme Court issued a unanimous ruling today dismissing a petition lodged months ago by the Students’ Union that sought to revoke state support for yeshiva students, including those who had not yet been called up for military service and are not currently of draft age under Israeli law.

The case was thrown out on procedural grounds, though Chief Justice Yitzchok Amit hinted to the petitioners that they could file a revised version that addresses the deficiencies.

The petitioners argued that students in yeshivas receive unfair advantages compared with those studying in universities and other institutions of higher education.

They asked the Court to strike down state subsidies for yeshiva students who are not subject to military service, maintaining that the grants—channeled through the institutions themselves—constitute an “evasion” of the ban on funding yeshiva students who are otherwise required to enlist.

Beyond the demand to cut hundreds of millions of shekels now allocated to religious schools, the petition also urged the Court to require the government to create a monitoring system ensuring proper transfer of funds. Without such oversight, they insisted, the state should be barred from directing money to religious institutions altogether.

Government attorneys responded by stressing that financial support for yeshivas is “the implementation of the government’s socio-economic policy that lies at the core of its authority and discretion.” They explained that the subsidies follow transparent, legally established criteria. On the claim of unequal treatment, the government replied, “religious institutions and institutions of higher education do not belong to the same equality group.”

Officials further maintained that the Ministry of Education already carries out sufficient supervision in compliance with the law. They noted that scholarships funded by the state may rightfully be distributed by religious institutions, since such payments fall under legitimate operational expenses, and therefore should not be considered improper.

In its decision, the Court stated the petition “suffers from a generality that does not allow for an efficient and proper examination of the claims and remedies contained within it.”

The justices pointed out that the petition bundled together a wide array of demands with little connection to one another, targeting multiple ministries and agencies, with each demand requiring distinct factual and legal foundations not provided by the filing.

Justice Yitzchok Amit, who authored the opinion, made clear that although the petition was inadequately drafted, certain issues within it may merit judicial discussion if resubmitted properly. He encouraged the petitioners to refile in corrected form and refrained from levying any court costs.

Amit wrote, “Our statements do not detract from the importance of some of the issues raised in the petition,” while emphasizing that any new petition must first pass through all legally required procedures.

{Matzav.com Israel}

The IDF is transporting tens of thousands of tents into Gaza to shelter civilians relocating south, with thousands already in place and more expected in the coming days.

An eight-year-old child from Gaza, who had been reported dead in late May after an alleged Israeli strike, has now been confirmed alive following a highly complicated rescue mission overseen by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). The announcement, confirmed by Fox News and The Daily Wire, ends weeks of global speculation about his fate, after the case became a flashpoint for debate and outrage around the world.

The boy, whose name is Abdul Rahim Muhammad Hamden but who is more commonly called Abboud, became the centerpiece of a dramatic story advanced by Tony Aguilar, a former GHF contractor. Aguilar claimed the boy—whom he referred to as “Amir”—was killed on May 28 outside a GHF aid hub by IDF fire. He circulated bodycam video along with a vivid and emotional story, which quickly spread across social media and was even raised by members of the U.S. Congress.

After weeks of investigation, GHF discovered that Abboud was in fact alive and with his mother, Najlaa. On August 23, the two turned up at GHF’s Secure Distribution Site 3. From there, they were escorted to safety and taken out of Gaza to an undisclosed location. “Outside the Gaza Strip is nice,” Abboud remarked during an interview that Fox News later confirmed as authentic.

To ensure accuracy, GHF used both facial recognition tools and biometric data, comparing new images of Abboud with those from the original May 28 distribution center incident. This confirmed that the child Aguilar filmed was indeed Abboud. Video published by Fox News Digital also showed the boy smiling and playing with aid workers, further validating his safety.

Additional reporting from The Daily Wire revealed that Abboud had left the custody of his stepmother in July and had been living in secrecy with his biological mother ever since. GHF staff, made up of military veterans and local personnel, conducted a covert operation to track him down and remove him from dangerous circumstances.

Rev. Johnnie Moore, who serves as Executive Chair of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, issued a statement underscoring the significance of the development: “We are overjoyed and deeply relieved that Aboud is safe, and that this story ends in hope. That outcome was never guaranteed, and it’s thanks to the courage and persistence of our team of American heroes, veterans who never stopped working to find him and bring him to safety in the most complex environment imaginable. While this story ends happily, it could have ended in tragedy.”

Moore also faulted those who rushed to amplify Aguilar’s story without confirming details. “Too many people, including in the press and civil society, were quick to spread unverified claims without asking the most basic questions. When a child’s life is at stake, facts must matter more than headlines.”

GHF spokesperson Chapin Fay told Fox News Digital and The Daily Wire that Abboud and his mother are now in a secure location. “We will not be disclosing their whereabouts at this time for their safety and security, but we have every belief that they are on their way to a new life,” he said.

Najlaa, speaking for the first time since their escape, shared her appreciation: “My son and I suffered a lot. But we thank God. I thank everyone who helped me and stood by me.”

Aguilar had initially alleged that Abboud was fatally shot after thanking him for food. But Fox News and The Daily Wire later uncovered numerous contradictions in his accounts. Aguilar shifted his story multiple times, claiming at various points that the event occurred near SDS 1, SDS 2, and SDS 3. GHF later clarified that Aguilar’s role would not have allowed him access to the places or views he claimed, due to site restrictions and barriers.

The group also said that no incident of IDF fire on civilians took place at any GHF secure facility on May 28. Aguilar, who was dismissed in June for what GHF described as poor job performance and erratic conduct, has nonetheless persisted in retelling his version of events.

GHF concluded its statement by urging the media to exercise greater responsibility in handling sensitive stories and highlighted the dangers of amplifying misinformation. The foundation reaffirmed its commitment to delivering aid in Gaza and to continuing its humanitarian mission despite the challenges.

{Matzav.com Israel}

The District of Columbia on Thursday challenged President Donald Trump’s use of the National Guard in Washington, asking a federal court to intervene even as he plans to send troops to other cities in the name of driving down crime. Brian Schwalb, the district’s elected attorney general, said in a lawsuit that the deployment, which now involves more than 1,000 troops, is an illegal use of the military for domestic law enforcement. “No American jurisdiction should be involuntarily subjected to military occupation,” Schwalb wrote. The White House said deploying the Guard to protect federal assets and assist law enforcement is within Trump’s authority as president. “This lawsuit is nothing more than another attempt — at the detriment of D.C. residents and visitors — to undermine the President’s highly successful operations to stop violent crime in D.C.,” spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said. Members of the D.C. National Guard have had their orders extended through December, according to a Guard official. While that does not necessarily mean all those troops will serve that long, it is a strong indication that their role will not wind down soon. The Republican president has credited the weekslong surge in Washington with reining in crime and said he plans to send the National Guard into Chicago and Baltimore, despite staunch opposition in those Democrat-led cities. In the nation’s capital, Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, has backed up some of Trump’s claims that crime is down during the takeover. Still, data shows and critics argue that crime was already falling before the surge. A federal judge in California ruled on Tuesday that Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops to Los Angeles after protests over immigration raids in June was illegal. It does not directly apply to Washington, where the president has more control over the Guard than in states. Several GOP-led states have added National Guard troops to the ranks of those patrolling the streets and neighborhoods of the nation’s capital. Schwalb’s filing contends the deployment also violates Washington’s Home Rule Act, signed by President Richard Nixon in 1973, and wrongly asserts federal control over units from other states. The lawsuit is the second from Schwalb — whose office is separate from Washington’s federal U.S. attorney, a presidential appointee — against the Trump administration since Trump asserted control over the city’s police department and sent in the Guard. Those actions have been with protests from some residents. Violent crime has been an issue in the capital for years, though data showed it was on the decline when Trump intervened with an executive order on Aug. 11. Bowser has pointed to a steep drop in offenses such as carjackings since it began, while also expressing reservations about the use of the Guard from other states. There are clear divides between some D.C. Council members and Bowser, whom critics have accused of acquiescing to the administration. Speaking at a Free DC “Federal Forces Out Now” news conference on Capitol Hill, one councilmember, Robert White, said his own young daughters do not see the military personnel and officers as protectors. “They are here to catch them, to condemn them, to take away their rights,” he said. White said when history is written about this moment “we will have to justify what we did and did not do. I’m not prepared to […]

Major crime in New York City fell again last month, with shootings and gunshot victims hitting all-time lows — even as murders rose, according to new NYPD data. Citywide crime dropped 6.7 percent in August compared to the same month in 2024, driven by an 8.2 percent decline in robberies and a nearly 19 percent fall in burglaries. Felony assaults, grand larceny, and car thefts also decreased, police said. Through the first eight months of 2025, the city recorded 489 shootings with 611 victims — the lowest totals since the NYPD began tracking such data, surpassing previous lows in 2018. Despite those historic declines, murders spiked 33 percent in August, fueled by several deadly incidents in Manhattan and the Bronx. A gang-related shooting at a Bronx park on Aug. 23 left one person dead, a 17-year-old girl critically injured, and four others wounded. The 47th Precinct in the Bronx continues to struggle with violence, recording a 50 percent increase in shootings this year, even as the borough overall reported declines. Shootings in Brooklyn also spiked early in the month, including a hookah lounge shooting that killed three and wounded nine. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch praised officers for driving down overall crime, citing a 22 percent reduction in transit crime compared to last year. “Below ground on our subways, we have cut crime down to record-lows, excluding the pandemic years,” Tisch said. “Our strategy is working, and our cops are driving down crime.” Mayor Eric Adams noted that murders are still down nearly 20 percent citywide through the first eight months of the year compared to 2024 — with 209 so far this year versus 260 last year. “But even with the tremendous steps we’ve taken in making our city safer, we know that one crime is still one crime too many,” Adams said in a statement. “Thanks to the brave men and women of the NYPD, New York continues to be America’s safest big city.” (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

By Rabbis Moshe & Yitzchok Fingerer  Who is the gentleman who showed up in the middle of davening with a big ponytail and was fervently shuckeling away with such Kavanah? It seemed like an irony, a dichotomy, a contradiction.  If he looked so secular, how did he know how to daven?  Everyone saw this young man but no one knew the back story.  I met him ten years ago when he worked at a medical office in Flatbush. He had a very Jewish, even frum sounding first name. No Yarmulkah. A ponytail. Secular looking. Very dismissive, even slightly defiant of any overture from frum people, especially a rabbi.  Nevertheless, I made eye contact, smiled, took an interest and got his phone number.  After reaching out numerous times throughout the years, I didn’t elicit a response. Until, he finally replied last year. I invited him for Rosh Hashanah and he said he would come. That’s when he showed up in the middle of davening with his ponytail.   The Mishna in Avos says to judge “Kol Ha’Adam” favorably. Asks the Sfas Emes that seemingly there is an extra word here. Why does it say “Kol” which can also mean the entire person? It should have simply said, “Adam” – judge a person favorably.  What does “Kol” the entire person mean?  Answers the Sfas Emes, it means that when assessing, analyzing or trying to decipher a person’s actions, conduct or behavior, one needs to look at the entire person. Not just merely the person.   One must understand that the person comes from life circumstances,  a background, challenges and difficulties that you may not be privy to. The person isn’t acting a certain way because he wants to necessarily but because of the struggles and battles they’ve encountered.  We must take the entire person into account and lovingly bring them back to Hashem.   The fellow with the ponytail was someone from a religious upbringing who went astray.  Without knowing his “entire” story one can easily judge him. However, if we only would understand that there’s more to a person than meets the eye, we would be patient, kind and loving.  Long story short, the young man with the pony tail is now enrolled in the BJX weekly learning program and is enjoying learning Torah and growing. B”H another BJX miracle!   This would never have materialized had we just looked at the “Adam” and not “Kol Ha’Adam.”  Next time you meet someone, keep in mind there is background, there is more than meets the eye, there is more to the story. There is a soul waiting to be kindled and nurtured. BJX needs your help! Support Hatzalas Neshamos and the life-saving work of BJX. Act today. Save a life. Change generations. EIN 47-2389703. Donate now: HelpBJX.com| 646-397-1544. One more Jew is waiting – help us reach them now. With decades of experience and proven success, Rabbis Fingerer have guided hundreds of families, teens, and young adults from the Frum community back to a meaningful, fulfilled life rooted in Yiddishkeit. Don’t wait for a crisis—address challenges early and see lasting results. Call 646-397-1544 to schedule your confidential appointment.

BREAKING: ICE is officially flooding into Chicago “imminently” to crackdown on criminal aliens.

Nelson Mandela’s grandson has claimed that the conditions Palestinians face under Israeli rule are harsher than the oppression experienced by Black South Africans during apartheid. He appealed to the international community to rally behind the Palestinian people.

Mandla Mandela, age 51, gave the remarks to Reuters on Wednesday evening from Johannesburg Airport, just before flying to Tunisia. There, he will join a flotilla attempting to bring humanitarian aid and food into Gaza despite Israel’s naval blockade.

“Many of us that have visited the occupied territories in Palestine have only come back with one conclusion: that the Palestinians are experiencing a far worse form of apartheid than we ever experienced,” Mandela said.

“We believe that the global community has to continue supporting the Palestinians, just as they stood side-by-side with us.”

Israel has repeatedly rejected parallels drawn between its policies toward Palestinians and South Africa’s apartheid regime, which imposed minority white rule over the Black majority population.

The Israeli government also maintains that its strict controls on the entry of goods into Gaza are necessary to prevent Hamas from acquiring weapons.

At the same time, the World Food Programme has reported that hunger and malnutrition are widespread in Gaza.

Mandela will travel with ten South African activists as part of the Global Sumud Flotilla, which consists of dozens of vessels and hundreds of participants from 44 nations. Among them is Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg.

South Africa’s African National Congress issued a statement of support, declaring that the initiative “echoes our own struggle for liberation.”

Mandela reminded that apartheid in South Africa only ended after significant international sanctions and diplomatic isolation forced change.

“They isolated apartheid South Africa and finally collapsed it. We believe that the time has come for that to be done for the Palestinians,” he said.

{Matzav.com}

The number of Americans seeking jobless benefits rose modestly last week, suggesting that employers are still retaining workers even as the economy has showed signs of slowing. Applications for unemployment benefits for the week ending Aug. 30 rose by 8,000 to 237,000, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That’s more than the 231,000 new applications economists were expecting. Weekly applications for jobless benefits are seen as a proxy for layoffs and have mostly settled in a historically healthy range between 200,000 and 250,000 since the U.S. began to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic nearly four years ago. While layoffs are low, hiring has also weakened as part of what many economists describe as a “no hire, no fire” economy. Still, the unemployment rate remains a historically low 4.2%. On Wednesday, the government reported that U.S. employers were advertising 7.2 million job openings at the end of July, fewer than economists had forecast and the latest sign of weakness in the U.S. labor market. Last month’s grim July jobs report, which showed job gains of just 73,000 and included massive downward revisions for June and May, sent financial markets spiraling. President Donald Trump fired the head of the agency that compiles the monthly data. The government issues its August jobs report on Friday, with economists expecting that U.S. employers added a slim 80,000 private non-farm jobs. New jobs numbers are being closely watched on Wall Street and by the Federal Reserve as the most recent government data suggests hiring has slowed sharply since this spring. Job gains have averaged just 35,000 a month in the three months ending in July, barely one-quarter what they were a year ago. Growth has weakened so far this year as many companies have pulled back on expansion projects amid the uncertainty surrounding the impacts of President Donald Trump’s tariff policies. Growth slowed to a 1.3% annual rate in the first half of the year, down from 2.5% in 2024. The sluggishness in the job market is a key reason that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell signaled last week that the central bank may cut its key interest rate at its next meeting Sept. 16-17. A cut could reduce other borrowing costs in the economy, including mortgages, auto loans, and business loans. The Labor Department’s report Thursday showed that the four-week average of claims, which softens some of the week-to-week volatility, rose by 2,500 to 231,000. The total number of Americans collecting unemployment benefits for the previous week of Aug. 23 fell by 4,000 to 1.94 million. (AP)

President Trump has privately urged contenders in the New York City mayoral race to scale back their campaigns within the coming week, in hopes of blocking a socialist from taking over City Hall, The New York Post reports.

On Sunday, Trump phoned billionaire businessman John Catsimatidis — who has connections to both Mayor Eric Adams and Republican nominee Curtis Sliwa — and voiced alarm about the possibility of Democrat Zohran Mamdani, an outspoken socialist, winning in November.

“He is concerned about the New York City race. He does not want a socialist mayor, and he said, ’It’s not going to happen’ under his watch and wants a person under his watch,” Catsimatidis told The Post.

In a move without precedent for a president in a New York City mayoral contest, Trump made clear he wanted the crowded race narrowed within 10 days.

“At the end of the next 10 days, he wants the most qualified candidate to beat Mamdani,” Catsimatidis said.

When pressed about Trump’s exact intentions once the deadline hits next Wednesday, Catsimatidis would only respond, “He’s going to do whatever he has to do.”

According to individuals familiar with Trump’s thinking, the president is considering ways to persuade both Sliwa and Adams to step aside so that ex-Governor Andrew Cuomo could run as the leading challenger.

This strategy is not tied to Trump’s personal feelings about Cuomo, but to polling since the primary that continues to show Cuomo consistently holding second place, Sliwa trailing in third, and Adams slipping into fourth.

Trump and party insiders believe Cuomo stands the strongest chance of defeating Mamdani, pointing to surveys that reveal Mamdani’s support plateauing while his unfavorable ratings remain unusually high for a Democratic candidate.

The disclosure of Trump’s phone call, which had not been revealed until now, comes on the heels of reports that senior White House aides have been searching for a role for Adams in order to push him to abandon his independent re-election campaign.

“While other candidates have quit their jobs, Mayor Adams hasn’t walked away from his responsibilities,” said Adams campaign spokesperson Todd Shapiro. “He is running for re-election not because he needs another position, but because he believes deeply in the future of this city and has a proven record of getting things done.”

{Matzav.com}

MARCO RUBIO: “We told all these countries, if you guys do this [Palestinian] recognition stuff, you’re going to create big problems.”

MARCO RUBIO: “The Palestinian Authority has its own set of problems. They pay people to kill Israelis.”

The IDF has confirmed 12 senior Houthi officials targeted and killed in the area of Sanaa, Yemen

The IDF has released a new photo of Hudahaifa Kahlout, known as “Abu Obaidah,” Hamas’ spokesperson eliminated last Tuesday with other top leaders.

WATCH THIS: Emotional moments today at Soroka Hospital, where IDF soldier Yaakov Telkar, a wounded member of the Golani Brigade, married his kallah, Tair.