New York City Police Benevolent Association President Patrick J. Lynch blamed Mayor Bill de Blasio and the city council Tuesday for a spike in shootings this summer, telling Fox News contributor Lawrence Jones: “The city has given our streets back.” “Our city council, our mayor’s office, and the state legislature have handcuffed police officers and given the street back to the criminals.” WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, is the latest national chain to require all customers to wear masks. The change will start next week. Starbucks said last week that it will require customers to wear facial coverings or masks in all 9,000 of its company-owned US stores beginning Wednesday. Best Buy announced Tuesday that it will also require all shoppers coming into its approximately 1,000 stores to wear face masks. Costco began requiring its members to wear masks in stores beginning in May. (AP)

President Donald Trump has apparently embraced a more natural look during the coronavirus pandemic and allowed his famously blond hair to fade to gray. The president, 74, is known for his interest in maintaining his appearance with a year-long tan and perfectly positioned hair. As Trump emerged for a briefing in the Rose Garden on Tuesday, there was a notable difference in his hair color from his pre-pandemic days. Just a few months ago, the president was still boasting a mop of blonde hair with often noticeable roots showing the difference between his bottle blonde and natural color. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)

The number of New Yorkers hospitalized with the coronavirus fell to the lowest point in nearly four months, state officials said Saturday. But Gov. Andrew Cuomo is predicting a new increase in cases amid outbreaks in other states. “The only question is how far up our rate goes,” Cuomo said in an interview with WAMC radio on Friday. “You can’t have it all across the country and not come back.” The governor acknowledged the limitations in enforcing quarantine rules for travelers returning from states with rising rates of transmission. The travel advisory currently applies to people entering New York from 19 states, including California, Texas and Florida. “How do you catch somebody driving in, right? I mean, it’s very very difficult, it’s trying to catch water in a screen,” Cuomo said.

Israelis throughout Judea and Samaria as well as Yerushalayim were woken up to the sound of fireworks going off. The loud noises, which sound very close to gunshots, began just before 8:00 a.m. on Shabbos morning and continued throughout the day until just before 11:00 p.m. in many areas. Residents in many Jewish communities complained about the noise and municipalities and regional council hurried to alert their citizens that the noise were indeed just fireworks. The fireworks were launched by Palestinian Muslims in celebration of the end of the school year. The firing of the explosives worried many residents as it is highly unusual for such celebrations to begin that early in the morning and continue on for the entire day.

Israel hit a new high on Wednesday as 1,319 new coronavirus cases were diagnosed in 24 hours. There was also a spike in the number of seriously ill patients, from 89 to 107 in 24 hours, with 36 on ventilators. Another 82 patients are in moderate condition. Five more deaths were recorded since Tuesday morning, raising the death toll to 343. There have been twelve deaths in the past two days. Defense Minister and Alternate Prime Minister Benny Gantz (Blue and White) entered quarantine on Wednesday morning after he discovered that he was in contact with a coronavirus carrier or Sunday evening. The restrictions on public transportation went into effect on Wednesday morning at 9 a.m.

An explosion that rattled Iran’s capital came from an area in its eastern mountains that analysts believe hides an underground tunnel system and missile production sites, satellite photographs showed Saturday. What exploded in the incident early Friday that sent a massive fireball into the sky near Tehran remains unclear, as does the cause of the blast. The unusual response of the Iranian government in the aftermath of the explosion, however, underscores the sensitive nature of an area near where international inspectors believe the Islamic Republic conducted high-explosive tests two decades ago for nuclear weapon triggers. The blast shook homes, rattled windows and lit up the horizon early Friday in the Alborz Mountains.

A federal appeals court on Wednesday ordered a lower court to allow the case against former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to be dismissed, as requested by the Justice Department — likely ending the years-long legal saga stemming from the Russia investigation. The abrupt ending came in an order from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. This was the result of an appeal from Flynn’s lawyers asking for a so-called writ of mandamus — essentially an order telling a government official to carry out a certain duty — directing Judge Emmet Sullivan to approve the DOJ’s motion to dismiss. Sullivan did not immediately grant that motion and instead sought to hold hearings on the matter, angering Flynn allies.

Former national security adviser John Bolton can move forward in publishing his tell-all book, a federal judge ruled Saturday, despite efforts by the Trump administration to block the release because of concerns that classified information could be exposed. The decision from U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth is a victory for Bolton in a court case that involved core First Amendment and national security issues, even as the White House pledged to keep pursuing the onetime top aide. And the judge also made clear his concerns that Bolton had taken it upon himself to publish his memoir without formal clearance from a White House that says it was still reviewing it for classified information. “Defendant Bolton has gambled with the national security of the United States.

An unusual standoff between Attorney General William Barr and Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor ended Saturday when the prosecutor agreed to leave his job with an assurance that investigations by the prosecutor’s office into the president’s allies would not be disturbed. U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman announced in an early evening statement that he would leave his post, ending increasingly nasty exchanges between Barr and Berman. President Donald Trump, meanwhile, had distanced himself from the dispute, telling reporters the decision “was all up to the attorney general.” The whirlwind chain of events began Friday night, when Barr announced that Berman, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, had resigned.