YWN regrets to inform you of the petirah of Rav Shlomo Zalman Singer zt”l, the beloved rosh yeshiva and founder Yeshiva Ner Boruch – Passaic Torah Institute (PTI). The rosh yeshiva, who impacted thousands throughout his half-century in chinuch and harbotzas torah, was 90 years old. Born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, in 1933, Rabbi Singer’s journey reflected the growth of Jewish America. Raised on New York’s Lower East Side, he was a neighbor and talmid of Rav Moshe Feinstein zt”l, later continuing his learning under Rav Aharon Kotler zt”l in Lakewood. In 1966, he moved to Passaic, where he became a chazzan and rebbi, eventually founding PTI in 1996.

New Jersey and Minnesota sued Glock on Thursday, calling on the gunmaker to stop selling firearms that can be adapted with dime-sized switches to fire up to 1,200 rounds a minute. New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin and Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison also announced that top law enforcement officials in 14 states and the District of Columbia are forming a coalition to reduce gun violence by coordinating enforcement of the states’ consumer protection laws.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte warned on Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin wants to “wipe Ukraine off the map” and could come after other parts of Europe next, as he urged Europeans to press their governments to ramp up defense spending. “It is time to shift to a wartime mindset,” Rutte told security experts and analysts at the Carnegie Europe think-tank in Brussels. He said people should gird themselves for the prospect that Russia might try to use “swarms of drones” in Europe as it has to deadly effect in Ukraine. Putin “is trying to crush our freedom and way of life,” Rutte said. The former Dutch prime minister listed Russia’s attacks on Georgia in 2008, the annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014, and the all-out invasion launched almost three years ago.

President-elect Donald Trump was huddling with allies and a Republican cause célèbre at Saturday’s Army-Navy football game, taking in one of the most storied rivalries in college sports while spotlighting his emerging national security team. Trump was joined by Vice President-elect JD Vance, embattled Pentagon pick Pete Hegseth, potential backup defense secretary option Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and others for the 125th matchup between service academies. Also attending was Daniel Penny, a military veteran who was acquitted of criminally negligent homicide this week in the chokehold death of an agitated subway rider in New York. Penny was invited by Vance, who accused prosecutors of trying to “ruin” Penny’s life by charging the Marine veteran in the death of Jordan Neely in 2023.

A bird strike involving an American Airlines jetliner disabled one of the plane’s two engines shortly after takeoff from New York’s LaGuardia Airport, forcing the flight to turn around and land at John F. Kennedy International Airport, authorities said Friday. No one was injured in the incident involving Flight 1722, which took off from LaGuardia at 7:43 p.m. Thursday with a destination of Charlotte, North Carolina, airline officials said. The Federal Aviation Administration says bird strikes are increasing, with 19,400 strikes at 713 airports across the U.S. last year alone. Rarely do they cause so much damage that commercial jetliners are forced to make emergency landings. The pilot of the Airbus A321 declared an emergency at 7:52 p.m.

American officials have been in direct contact with the terrorist-designated rebel group that led the overthrow of Syrian President Bashar Assad, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Saturday. Blinken, speaking at a news conference in Jordan, was the first U.S. official to publicly confirm contacts between the Biden administration and Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS, which led a coalition of armed opposition groups that drove Assad from power and into asylum in Russia last weekend. Along with counterparts from eight Arab nations and Turkey and senior officials from the European Union and United Nations, Blinken signed off on a set of principles meant to guide Syria’s transition to a peaceful, nonsectarian and inclusive country.

The man charged with killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was not a client of the medical insurer and may have targeted it because of its size and influence, a senior police official said Thursday. NYPD Chief of Detectives Joseph Kenny told NBC New York in an interview Thursday that investigators have uncovered evidence that Luigi Mangione had prior knowledge UnitedHealthcare was holding its annual investor conference in New York City. Mangione also mentioned the company in a note found in his possession when he was detained by police in Pennsylvania. “We have no indication that he was ever a client of United Healthcare, but he does make mention that it is the fifth largest corporation in America, which would make it the largest healthcare organization in America.

South Korea’s parliament on Saturday impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol over his stunning and short-lived martial law decree, a move that ended days of political paralysis but set up an intense debate over Yoon’s fate, as jubilant crowds roared to celebrate another defiant moment in the country’s resilient democracy. The National Assembly passed the motion 204-85. Yoon’s presidential powers and duties were subsequently suspended and Prime Minister Han Duck-soo, the country’s No. 2 official, took over presidential powers later Saturday. The Constitutional Court has up to 180 days to determine whether to dismiss Yoon as president or restore his powers. If he’s thrown out of office, a national election to choose his successor must be held within 60 days.

Ukrainian drone strikes on southern Russia killed a 9-year-old boy and set fire to a major oil terminal, officials said Saturday, the day after Moscow launched a massive aerial attack on its neighbor that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said was one of the heaviest bombardments of the country’s energy sector in the nearly three-year war. The boy died when a drone struck his family’s home outside Belgorod, a Russian city near the border with Ukraine, local Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov reported on Saturday morning on the Telegram messaging app. His mother and 7-month-old sister were hospitalized with injuries, Gladkov said.

Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had hip replacement surgery Saturday at a U.S. military hospital in Germany after falling while at an event in Luxembourg with other members of Congress. Pelosi, 84, “is well on the mend,” said Ian Krager, a spokesman for the California Democrat, in a statement. Pelosi thanked the staff at Landstuhl Regional Medical Center and the hospital in Luxembourg, where she was also treated, for “their excellent care and kindness.” She was in Europe with a bipartisan congressional delegation to mark the 80th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge in World War II. Pelosi tripped and fell while at an event and fractured her hip, according to people familiar with her injury who were not authorized to publicly discuss the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity.