Utah on Wednesday became the first state to pass legislation requiring app stores to verify users’ ages and get parental consent for minors to download apps to their devices. The bill headed to the desk of Gov. Spencer Cox has pitted Meta, which operates Facebook and Instagram, against app store giants Apple and Google over who should be responsible for verifying ages. Similar bills have been introduced in at least eight other states in the latest fight over children’s online safety. The proposals targeting app stores follow legal fights over laws requiring social media platforms to verify the ages of users.

Columbia University has initiated a sweeping investigation into students involved in anti-Israel protests, a move that comes as the Trump administration ramps up its threats to slash federal funding to universities accused of tolerating disruptive campus activism. The university’s newly formed Office of Institutional Equity has sent disciplinary notices to dozens of students, targeting actions ranging from posting inflammatory social media content to participating in unauthorized demonstrations that have roiled the campus. The investigation follows months of escalating tensions at Columbia, where anti-Israel protests have frequently disrupted academic life and drawn sharp criticism for crossing into harassment and intimidation.

South Korean and U.S. troops will begin their large annual joint military drills next week to enhance readiness against North Korean threats, the allies announced Thursday, days after North Korea threatened high-profile provocations against what it called escalating U.S.-led aggression. However, the announcement was overshadowed by the news of two South Korean fighter jets accidentally dropping eight bombs on a civilian area during a joint live-fire exercise with the U.S. military earlier Thursday. Eight people were injured and South Korea’s military halted all live-fire drills across the country. The allies have already begun joint field training for the March 10-20 command post exercise dubbed Freedom Shield exercise, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

Micha Koby, a former senior official in the Shin Bet, was a guest on Wednesday evening on the popular ‘The Patriots’ show hosted by Yinon Magal on Channel 14 and spoke about the Shin Bet’s internal report about the organization’s failure to predict and thwart the October 7 massacre that was published earlier in the day. Koby said that Shin Bet head Ronen Bar failed in an extraordinary way and “should have resigned on the night of October 7 or on October 8.” Koby added: “I divide the Shin Bet into two.

Hamas spokesman Abu Obeida has issued a warning that any Israeli military escalation against the terror group in Gaza could lead to the killing of hostages still held by Hamas. In his statement, Obeida asserted that Israeli threats of war and blockade would not lead to the release of hostages, dismissing military pressure as ineffective. At the same time, he claimed that Hamas remains committed to the ongoing truce deal with Israel, despite the first phase of the ceasefire having already concluded. Following the end of the first phase of the ceasefire, 59 hostages are still believed to be held in Gaza. However, at least 35 of them have been confirmed dead by the IDF.

President Donald Trump on Thursday postponed 25% tariffs on most goods from Mexico for a month amid widespread fears of the economic fallout from a broader trade war. Trump’s announcement comes after his Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, said earlier Thursday that tariffs on both Canada and Mexico would “likely” be delayed. No change was announced regarding new tariffs imposed on Canada, another major trading partner. It is the second time Trump has postponed tariffs since he first unveiled the import taxes in early February. The reprieve would apply to goods from Mexico that are compliant with the trade agreement Trump negotiated with Canada and Mexico in his first term— which will likely cover the vast majority of imports.

Two South Korean fighter jets accidentally dropped eight bombs on a civilian area during a joint live-fire exercise with the U.S. military on Thursday, injuring eight people, officials said. The MK-82 bombs released by the KF-16 fighter jets fell outside a firing range, the air force said in a statement. It apologized and expressed hopes for a speedy recovery of the injured and said it would offer compensation and take other necessary steps. The air force said the fighter jets were taking part in the one-day firing drill with the U.S. military in Pocheon, a city close to the heavily armed border with North Korea. The air force also said a committee would investigate the accident and examine the scale of the damage inflicted.

I was surprised to read the letter decrying the incentives being offered to children to fundraiser for tzedakah organizations. The letter writer, while I’m sure well-intentioned, seems to have entirely missed the main issue that he was so clearly pointing to. You’re upset about the prizes. You think they’re corrupting our children, turning tzedakah into a transaction rather than an act of chesed. You believe that without these flashy incentives, kids would be learning to give for the right reasons, and that these campaigns are destroying a generation of gomlei chasadim. You’re wrong. Not because it isn’t tragic that children today need to be “bribed” to do something good, but because you’re completely missing the reality of the world we live in.

Mortgage rates have been mostly declining in recent weeks, helping encourage prospective home shoppers just as the spring homebuying season gets going. But the same factors that have pulled mortgage rates to their lowest level since December — signs that the U.S. economy is slowing and uncertainty over the potential fallout from the Trump administration’s tariffs on imports — are clouding the outlook for where mortgage rates will go from here. “We do not anticipate significant relief from high mortgage rates in the near future because of inflation remaining stubbornly high, which will not be helped by the tariffs that the Trump administration appears committed to rolling out,” said Joel Berner, senior economist at Realtor.com. The average rate on a 30-year mortgage in the U.S.