The three Jerusalem District Court judges involved in Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s case confirmed reports that they had recommended that state prosecutors retract the bribery charge in Case 4000. The judges held a meeting on June 20 with Netanyahu’s defense team and the prosecution and recommended that the prosecution drop the bribery charge due to “difficulties in establishing the crime of bribery in the first charge in the indictment.” The state’s representative refused the judges’ request, responding that the state views things differently and that further evidence could prove the charge. The judges, Moshe Bar-Am, Rebecca Friedman-Feldman and Oded Shaham, released an official record of the meeting on Thursday. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

In a tense pre-dawn incident on Sunday, an anti-aircraft missile launched from Syria detonated over Israeli airspace, resulting in shrapnel falling in the southern city of Rahat. The Israeli Air Force (IAF) allegedly carried out strikes near the Syrian city of Homs, according to reports. Syria’s state news agency, SANA, confirmed the Israeli strikes near Homs, stating that several sites were targeted, causing unspecified “material losses.” The Syrian air defenses responded to what they referred to as “Israeli aggression” on Homs, a claim frequently made by Syria in response to alleged Israeli attacks. However, military analysts often doubt the veracity of these assertions.

On Friday afternoon, the New York Times reported on letters sent by the New York City Department of Education to 14 yeshivas. According to the Times, which cited City officials, the news was all bad. Those yeshivas were accused of not providing “substantially equivalent’ instruction, whatever that means. The Times ignored the fact that 7 other yeshivas were deemed just fine by the City. And we presume that the letters were far more nuanced than the Times is letting on. The new state regulations demands instruction in New York State history and constitution, and a review of a school’s teacher recruitment and hiring policies.

More than two dozen rabbanim and roshei yeshiva are publicly banning the use of artificial intelligence chatbots such as the wildly popular Chat-GPT. In the kol koreh, the morei derech write that such chats have the ability to ingrain the wrong hashkafos in people, as well as outright kefirah, abominations, and other harmful content. It adds that those who begin using it are opening the door to being exposed to a veritable minefield of poisonous perspectives. “Therefore,” the 25 rabbanim and roshei yeshiva write, “it is assur to connect with and use artificial intelligence chats, whether via a phone, text, or computer, even for a necessary use, and kal vachomer for divrei torah.” The kol koreh states that this ban is applicable to all men, women, and children.

A sharply divided Supreme Court ruled Friday that the Biden administration overstepped its authority in trying to cancel or reduce student loans for millions of Americans. The 6-3 decision, with conservative justices in the majority, effectively killed the $400 billion plan, announced by President Joe Biden last year, and left borrowers on the hook for repayments that are expected to resume by late summer. The court held that the administration needs Congress’ endorsement before undertaking so costly a program. The majority rejected arguments that a bipartisan 2003 law dealing with student loans, known as the HEROES Act, gave Biden the power he claimed. “Six States sued, arguing that the HEROES Act does not authorize the loan cancellation plan.

Nearly all Rabbonim in Chicago have issued a message to its Community, to only engage in and purchase food from, home businesses with reputable kosher supervision. This proclamation follows the lead of an earlier Kol Koreh signed by the leading Poskim in North America outlying similar guidelines. What is unique about the Chicago Kol Koreh is the willingness to work with any home business owner to financially help with guidelines that a Rav Hamachshir might require to meet his standards. One common example is to help build a separate area or entrance where proper supervision can be conducted. The Chicago Rabbonim have also committed to not allow any products that are being sold without proper hashgacha into their Shuls.

As YWN reported earlier this week, terror groups in the Gaza Strip have been indoctrinating young children to commit terror acts in specialized summer camps in the Gaza Strip for years. Strangely, the UN, which has condemned Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, more times than any other nation in the world, remains silent on the issue. This is true despite the fact that according to its Human Rights Council, using children for military conflicts constitutes a war crime. Where is the outrage of the “human rights activists” around the world, whose rage spills on the streets if Israel dares to defend itself from these camp directors/terrorists? The silence is deafening.

Hollywood mogul Arnon Milchan testified on Thursday that he never received any assistance from Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in acquiring a US visa, completely squashing the main charge of bribery in Netanyahu’s indictments. One of the main charges of Case 1000 accuses Netanyahu of assisting Milchan in obtaining a ten-year US visa in exchange for gifts of champagne and cigars. Netanyahu’s lawyers, cross-examining Milchan for the fifth day, said to him: “Confirm to me that you never brought cigars and champagne in connection with a visa or anything else.” Milchan, who is testifying via video link from a hotel in the British resort town of Brighton, replied: “I said that several times, Netanyahu didn’t help.” In fact, Milchan contacted then-U.S.

A heated exchange between Mayor Eric Adams and a constituent unfolded at a community conversation event held at Gregorio Luperon High School for Science and Mathematics in Washington Heights. The confrontation stemmed from criticism of the city’s new rent increase rules, with the mayor likening the woman’s behavior to that of a plantation owner. In video footage captured during the meeting, the woman interrupted Adams to accuse him of “raising the rent.” The mayor clarified that he does not have control over the Rent Guidelines Board, which recently faced backlash for approving rent hikes of up to 6 percent on New York City’s one million rent-stabilized apartments.

In a rare public statement and release of an interrogation video that was recorded in Iran, the Mossad revealed on Thursday evening new details about the thwarting of the planned Iranian terror attack against Jewish and Israeli targets in Cyprus. The Mossad carried out a counterterrorism operation on Iranian soil, kidnapping the head of the cell, Yosef Shahbazi Abbasalilo, who received detailed instructions and weapons from senior Revolutionary Guards officials.