A flood of donations from anti-Israel campus agitators and radical protesters — including individuals arrested during violent demonstrations — has helped bankroll the surging mayoral campaign of Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, according to a New York Post exclusive that first revealed the controversial donor base. The Post uncovered that Mamdani has received more than $48,000 from 676 donors affiliated with CUNY, NYU, and Columbia University, including professors and employees, many of whom have been involved in pro-Hamas or anti-Israel activism. Another 1,351 contributions from college students totaling $46,200 were also documented — all eligible for New York City’s generous eight-to-one public matching funds program.

President Donald Trump has appointed Rabbi Chaim Dovid Zwiebel, executive vice president of Agudath Israel of America, to the White House Religious Liberty Commission’s new Religious Leaders Advisory Board. The appointment follows an executive order signed by the president earlier this month establishing the Religious Liberty Commission, aimed at promoting and protecting religious freedom across the United States. The commission will be supported by three advisory boards made up of religious leaders, legal scholars, and lay experts.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is probing the Democratic New York attorney general’s real estate transactions, Director Kash Patel confirmed in an interview with Fox News on Sunday. The investigation is focused on whether the state Attorney General, Letitia James, committed fraud on a mortgage application. A grand jury in the Eastern District of Virginia has issued subpoenas on the matter. James, who won a civil case last year against the Trump Organization and Trump himself over allegations of faulty business practices, is the first public official who investigated the president to now face potential criminal prosecutions themselves.

YWN has exclusively obtained a copy of a letter from the State Education Department directing New York City to cease providing special education services to children at six local yeshivas. SED’s letter comes as parents whose children receive special education services are faced with a rapidly approaching deadline to submit their Parental Notice of Intent advising which school their child will attend in the upcoming school year. If SED has its way, parents will not be able to submit a PNI listing any of these six yeshivas.

New Jersey Transit’s train engineers reached a tentative deal Sunday to end their three-day strike that had halted service for some 100,000 daily riders, including routes to Newark airport and across the Hudson River to New York City. The union said its members would return to work on Tuesday, when trains would resume their regular schedules. The walkout that began Friday was the state’s first transit strike in over 40 years, forcing people who normally rely on New Jersey Transit to take buses, cars, taxis and boats instead or consider staying home. The main sticking point had been how to accomplish a wage increase for the engineers without creating a financially disastrous domino effect for the transit agency.

A shocking broad-daylight robbery shook Boro Park on Friday afternoon when four Hispanic males violently attacked a man near Fort Hamilton Parkway and 56th Street, snatching a gold necklace off his neck before fleeing the scene. The brazen assault occurred in full view of bystanders, prompting a swift response from Boro Park Shomrim after a resident urgently phoned in the incident. Within moments, multiple Shomrim volunteers were deployed, while the organization’s tech team sprang into action, scouring area surveillance footage for any leads. Thanks to the rapid coordination, volunteers obtained a clear description of the suspects. Just blocks away, on 54th Street between 11th and 12th Avenues, a sharp-eyed Shomrim volunteer spotted one of the assailants.

A Mexican navy tall sailing ship, collided with the Brooklyn Bridge, triggering a major search and rescue operation, according to FDNY officials. The ship, carrying approximately 200 people, struck the bridge with one of its 147-foot masts before 9PM. Victims are being transported to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, with those in critical condition being rushed to hospitals for further treatment. Sources report that two individuals are in critical condition, with others injured.

New Jersey Transit train engineers went on strike Friday, leaving an estimated 350,000 commuters in New Jersey and New York City to seek other means to reach their destinations or consider staying home. Groups of picketers gathered in front of transit headquarters in Newark and at the Hoboken Terminal, carrying signs that said “Locomotive Engineers on Strike” and “NJ Transit: Millions for Penthouse Views Nothing for Train Crews.” Friday’s rail commute into New York from New Jersey is typically the lightest of the week. In New York, some commuters from New Jersey said they could not work remotely and had to come in, taking busses to the Port Authority bus terminal in Manhattan. David Milosevich, a fashion and advertising casting director, was on his way to a photo shoot in Brooklyn.

YWN readers know that there have been significant recent developments in the long-running battle to protect our yeshivos from the State Education Department. Last week, important and helpful legislation was enacted, and yesterday the State’s highest court, the Court of Appeals, heard argument in the challenge to SED’s onerous substantial equivalence regulations. At the argument, SED conceded for the first time that parents can supplement any supposedly deficient instruction at their child’s yeshiva with a tutor, homeschooling or an extracurricular class. The state had insisted otherwise for three years, and had used that to try to force parents to enroll their children at other schools. In fact, many parents have received letters to that effect in recent days.

A massive crowd of thousands packed Rockland Community College on Monday night for the groundbreaking Motzoh Tov event, as Yidden from across Monsey and nearly every major Chassidus—including Viznitz, Satmar, Belz, Skvere, and more—came together to support a powerful initiative aimed at restoring simplicity and affordability to chasunahs. The crowd heard stirring words from Rabbonim, askonim, and parents who have already embraced the Motzoh Tov model—saving tens of thousands of dollars while maintaining full kavod and simcha. The atmosphere was electric, as speaker after speaker reinforced the message: it’s time to return to dignified, realistic wedding standards.