The U.S. Census Bureau is changing how it counts immigrants in annual estimates by including more people who were admitted for humanitarian, and often temporary, reasons. The change is being made in an effort to better reflect population shifts this decade, officials said Monday. Population estimates, including immigration, are due to be released Thursday showing how the populations of the United States and the 50 states changed this year. However, the new approach to counting immigrants will only be reflected nationally. The percentage of U.S. residents who were foreign born rose to its highest level in more than a century in 2023. It could be even higher under the new methodology.

A highly anticipated concert featuring Jewish music star Benny Friedman has been abruptly canceled by its London venue, sparking outrage over the blatant antisemitism. The decision comes just one day after tickets for the show went on sale, leaving organizers and fans stunned. The Am Yisrael Chai Tour, organized in partnership with ACM Events, has toured globally. For years, London topped the list of cities requesting visits from Benny Friedman, prompting the team to schedule two UK concerts: one in London on January 6 and another in Manchester on January 7. Despite overwhelming demand, organizers encountered huge obstacles in securing a venue for the London concert, with multiple venues reportedly unwilling to host a Jewish event or align with pro-Israel sentiments.

Federal engineers will begin the process of preserving a functioning 150-year-old lighthouse that sits precariously on a mudflat in the middle of the Hudson River in New York, officials announced Monday. U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer and the Army Corps of Engineers said that $50,000 has been allocated to study how to protect the Hudson-Athens Lighthouse, which began operating in 1874 and was this year placed on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s list of the country’s 11 most endangered historic places.

Iran “appears to be nearly naked to attack after a wave of pinpoint Israeli airstrikes on its air defense system in October,” senior columnist David Ignatius wrote in the Wall Street Journal. Ignatius interviewed former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, who was in Washington last week, who explained that Israel’s bombing of Iran on Oct. 26 created “a window to act against Iran” before it produces a nuclear weapon. Ignatius wrote: “Israel’s Oct. 26 assault was calculated to leave Iran unprotected against a future attack. An astonishing wave of 120 jets took part in the raid, an Israeli military source said. The Israeli planes targeted air defense radars and antiaircraft batteries protecting Tehran as well as key factories producing fuel for Iranian ballistic missiles.

The “Shidduch Crisis” has become a painful reality for so many in our community, and I am no exception. Finding a life partner—a goal that should be filled with excitement and hope—has turned into a drawn-out, demoralizing ordeal. This isn’t just a crisis of numbers or compatibility; the entire process is fundamentally flawed. I’ve seen it firsthand, and it’s exhausting. Let’s start with the process itself. You’d think that in a world of modern communication, setting up a date would be straightforward. But no, the delays start the moment a suggestion is made. First, the boy looks into the girl’s resume. This “research” phase can take days, as if dissecting someone’s life on paper could somehow reveal their true essence.

White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby said the White House’s assessment, in coordination with the FBI and state and local officials, is that the mysterious drones flying over the country are in fact “legal” and “lawful.” Kirby told Fox News anchor Bret Baier Monday on “Special Report” they’ve examined roughly 5,000 sightings and to date, their analysis is “lawful, legal, commercial hobbyist and even law enforcement aircraft activity,” is responsible for the sightings. “Some of it’s manned, some of it’s unmanned. We absolutely acknowledge that a lot of these are probably drones, but they’re flying legally.

CNN’s dramatic report of rescuing a “wrongfully detained” prisoner from a secret facility in Syria has unraveled into a fiasco after it was revealed that the so-called victim was actually a notorious member of Bashar al-Assad’s brutal regime, infamous for torturing civilians and extorting bribes. Last week, journalist Clarissa Ward led the charge in what she breathlessly called “one of the most extraordinary moments I have witnessed” during her 20-year career. Footage of the dramatic rescue showed Ward and her team escorting the supposed prisoner — who introduced himself as Adel Ghurbal — out of a grim, windowless cell. Ghurbal claimed he had been detained for three months, oblivious to the regime’s downfall. But the story quickly fell apart.

Drone-detecting devices deployed in New Jersey in the past week have found “little to no evidence” of anything nefarious or threatening, Gov. Phil Murphy said Monday as calls grew for action to address the mysterious nighttime sightings of suspected unmanned flights across the northeastern U.S. Murphy told reporters in Trenton that there were 12 sightings of suspected drones in the state on Saturday and one on Sunday. He declined to go into detail about the detection equipment, but said it was powerful enough to disable the drones, although he added that is not legal on U.S. soil. Murphy, a Democrat, echoed calls by officials in other states for Congress to give them more authority to deal with drones. Nearly all the power now rests with the federal government.

The Lebanese Al Akhbar newspaper reported on Sunday that the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) terror group, the new rulers of Syria, has instructed Palestinian terror organizations in Syria, including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, to immediately lay down their arms and dismantle their military and training bases. According to the report, a very dramatic meeting took place between HTS and representatives of the Palestinian terror groups in the Yarmouk “refugee camp” in Damascus, which was the largest Palestinian “refugee” community in Syria before most of its residents fled during the Syrian civil war amid intense clashes between the Free Syrian Army and the PFLP-GC, supported by Syrian government forces.

A California man was sentenced Monday to nearly 3 1/2 years in prison for running an extensive business that helped pregnant Chinese women travel to the United States to deliver babies who would automatically have American citizenship. U.S. authorities had sought a more than five-year prison term for Michael Wei Yueh Liu, 59, who was convicted in September of conspiracy and money laundering for running a company known as USA Happy Baby. Phoebe Dong, Liu’s wife — though the couple have since separated — was also convicted in connection with the scheme and is expected to be sentenced early next year. After receiving a 41-month sentence, Liu was led out of the courtroom by authorities and taken into custody.