Defense Minister Yisrael Katz held a meeting on Sunday with the members of the Nagel Commission, which was established by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in August 2024 to establish recommendations for Israel’s military force needs and its security budget for the next decade. During the meeting, Katz outlined the three central principles of Israel’s security policy: 1) to act against any existential threat to the State of Israel; 2) Israel will not ask anyone to fight in its place; and 3) Israel must be able to defend itself on its own against any threat, with the backing and support of the US. “Israel must be able to defend itself, on its own, against any threat,” Katz emphasized.

Former Chief Rabbi of Israel and member of the Moetzet Chachmei HaTorah, HaGaon HaRav Yitzchak Yosef, spoke out again on Sunday against Chareidim serving in the IDF. During a sichah to yeshivah bochurim, HaRav Yosef said: “Even a batlan (someone who wastes time) is forbidden to serve in the army. Do you hear me? Absorb this message. My uncles, the brothers of Maran [HaGaon HaRav Ovadia Yosef, z’tl] learned in Yeshivat Porat Yosef and were talmidei yeshivos. They went to the army and were corrupted, they all became secular. Later, they did teshuvah.” HaRav Yosef’s words caused an immediate media storm in Israel.

President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday voiced his support for the dockworkers union before their contract expires next month at Eastern and Gulf Coast ports, saying that any further “automation” of the ports would harm workers. The incoming president posted on social media that he met Harold Daggett, the president of the International Longshoreman’s Association, and Dennis Daggett, the union’s executive vice president. “I’ve studied automation, and know just about everything there is to know about it,” Trump posted. “The amount of money saved is nowhere near the distress, hurt, and harm it causes for American Workers, in this case, our Longshoremen. Foreign companies have made a fortune in the U.S. by giving them access to our markets.

Americans may have recently elected Donald Trump to a second term, but that doesn’t mean they have high confidence in his ability to choose well-qualified people for his Cabinet — or effectively manage government spending, the military and the White House, according to a new poll from the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. As Trump names his appointees for key posts in his administration — some of whom could face difficult confirmation fights in the Senate even with Republicans in control — about half of U.S. adults are “not at all confident” in Trump’s ability to appoint well-qualified people for his Cabinet and other high-level government positions.

The company that owns the salvage rights to the Titanic said Thursday that it hasn’t settled on plans to retrieve more artifacts from the shipwreck, potentially cooling down a legal battle with the U.S. government. The Georgia-based company, RMS Titanic Inc., wrote in a court filing that it won’t visit the wreck in 2025 and is still considering the legal and financial implications of future salvage operations. The court-recognized steward of Titanic artifacts since 1994, RMST has recovered thousands of items from silverware to a piece of the ship’s hull, which millions of people have seen through exhibits. The U.S.

China’s military kept silent on its large deployment of naval and coast guard ships off Taiwan last week, with its top spokesperson quoting an ancient strategist instead. Taiwanese officials have said that China was simulating a blockade with one string of ships off the island and a second one farther out at sea, in waters between Japan’s Okinawa islands and the northern Philippines. The Chinese Defense Ministry’s first public comment on the activity was essentially a no comment. Wu Qian, the ministry’s top spokesperson, included a famous quote from “The Art of War,” an ancient Chinese text on warfare strategy, in his remarks. The quote says military tactics adapt to changing conditions, just as flowing water does.

DoorDash will require its drivers to verify their identities more often as part of a larger effort to crack down on unauthorized account sharing. DoorDash has been under pressure to ensure its drivers are operating legally. Over the summer, for example, it pledged to do a better job identifying and removing dangerous drivers after a flood of complaints of dangerous driving from cities. Officials in Boston, New York and other cities have said that in many cases, people with multiple traffic violations continue to make deliveries using accounts registered to others. The San Francisco delivery company said Thursday it was requiring some drivers to complete real-time identity checks immediately after they complete a delivery.

The White House on Thursday announced what it called the first-ever national strategy to counter Islamophobia, detailing more than 100 steps federal officials are taking to curb hate, violence, bias and discrimination against Muslims and Arab Americans. The proposal follows a similar national plan to battle antisemitism that President Joe Biden unveiled in May 2023, as fears about increasing hatred and discrimination were rising among U.S. Jews. Officials worked on the anti-Islamophobia plan for months, and its release came five weeks before Biden leaves office. The White House said the bulk of its actions had been implemented, with the goal to roll out the rest before Inauguration Day on Jan. 20, when President-elect Donald Trump takes office.

Israel said Sunday it will close its embassy in Ireland as relations deteriorated over the war in Gaza. The decision to close the embassy came in response to what Israel’s foreign minister has described as Ireland’s “extreme anti-Israel policies.” In May, Israel recalled its ambassador to Dublin after Ireland announced, along with Norway, Spain and Slovenia, it would recognize a Palestinian state. The Irish cabinet last week decided to formally intervene in South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, which accuses Israel of committing genocide in Gaza.

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell, a childhood polio survivor, said any of President-elect Donald Trump’s nominees seeking confirmation should “steer clear” of efforts to discredit the polio vaccine. “Efforts to undermine public confidence in proven cures are not just uninformed — they’re dangerous,” McConnell said in a Friday statement. “Anyone seeking the Senate’s consent to serve in the incoming Administration would do well to steer clear of even the appearance of association with such efforts.” The 82-year-old lawmaker’s statement appeared to be directed at Trump’s nominee for health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., after a report that one of his advisors filed a petition to revoke approval for the polio vaccine in 2022.