The IDF’s new “ghost” unit completed several weeks of training on Thursday. The multidimensional combat unit was formed by IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi in January as part of the IDF’s multi-year Momentum program designed to face the multiple challenges Israel faces from its many enemies. The unit is comprised of soldiers from paratrooper and artillery units, the Duvdevan commando unit, the air force, field intelligence units, combat engineers and the elite Yahalom and Gadsr reconnaissance battalions. During its first large-scale drill, led by its commander, Lt.-Col E., Brig.-Gen. Yaron Finkelman, the commander of 98th Paratroopers Division and the head of the Ground Forces Maj.-Gen.

President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he has scrubbed his planned Republican National Convention scheduled for Florida next month, citing a “flare-up” of the coronavirus. Trump’s formal renomination will still go forward in North Carolina, where a small subset of GOP delegates will still gather in Charlotte, North Carolina, for just four hours on Aug. 24. Florida was to have hosted four nights of programming and parties that Trump had hoped would be a “four-night infomercial” for his reelection. “It’s a different world, and it will be for a little while,” Trump said, explaining his decision. “To have a big convention is not the right time,” Trump added.

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama stepped up their attacks on President Donald Trump and defended their time in the White House in a new video showing their first in-person meeting since the coronavirus outbreak began. The 15-minute video, posted online Thursday, is the latest maneuver to get the former president involved in the 2020 campaign for his former vice president, as Biden tries to rebuild Obama’s winning coalition in November. The former president and vice president used the interview-style conversation to amplify Biden’s arguments against Trump, with Obama emphasizing Biden’s experience and personal attributes.

According to reports in Iranian media, an Israeli aircraft made an “aggressive” close pass near an Iranian airliner that was flying through Syrian airspace on Thursday. According to Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), Mahan Air Flight 1152 on its way to Beirut, Lebanon, from Tehran, Iran, was approached closely on Thursday by an aircraft purported to be Israeli. However, PressTV has reported it may have been American. “After this dangerous action by the Israeli fighter, the pilot of the passenger plane quickly reduced the altitude of the flight to avoid colliding with the Israeli fighter, which caused a number of passengers on the flight to be injured,” IRIB reported.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) called Wednesday for the impeachment of New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) over his handling of the state’s coronavirus outbreak. “The people we are lauding are actually making catastrophic decisions,” he said. “I think Gov. Cuomo should be impeached … for the disastrous decision he made to send patients with coronavirus back to nursing homes. … Virtually half his people who died were in nursing homes,” Paul said on Fox News’s “Rundown” morning podcast. (Source: The Hill)

Hundreds of Chareidim took to the streets on Wednaday night, protesting the 100th day of the incarceration of a man named Binyomin Friedman. As YWN has previously reported, Friedman was arrested for being in a Shul during COVID-19 when he wasn’t allowed to be there. The court has agreed to release him, but he refuses to do so due to Shabbos. Meanwhile, Israeli Police acted like thugs tonight and randomly kicked and beat Chareidim. There is tons of footage documenting horrific police brutality against unarmed protesters tonight. Around 15 Charieidm were arrested. Meanwhile, things turned dangerous during the Hafganah, when a vehicle attempted to deliberately run over Chareidi protesters on bar Ilan Street in Yerushalayim.

President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he will send federal agents into Chicago and Albuquerque, New Mexico, to help combat rising crime, expanding the administration’s intervention in local enforcement as he runs for reelection under a “law-and-order” mantle. Using the same alarmist language he has employed to describe illegal immigration, Trump painted Democrat-led cities as out of control and lashed out at the “radical left,” even though criminal justice experts say a spike in violence in some cities defies easy explanation.

The United States said Wednesday that it has ordered China to close its consulate in Houston “to protect American intellectual property” and the private information of Americans. China strongly condemned the move, the latest in a series of steps by the Trump administration as it ratchets up pressure on the world’s second-largest economy over trade, technology, human rights and security. In Houston, firefighters responded to reports of papers being burned on the consulate grounds Tuesday night but were barred entry, according to news media reports. The U.S., in a brief statement, did not provide any details on why the consulate in Texas was targeted.

As YWN has reported earlier on Wednesday, the Israeli government has announced that American Yeshivos and Seminaries will be allowed to open in Elul. Rabbi Nechemya Malinowitz, the head of the coalition of Yeshivas and Seminaries for B’nei Chu”l, has spent weeks working with Gedolim and government officials to pull this off. In this riveting interview, he shares the backstory that many people are unaware of. He discusses his fascinating conversations with HaRav Moshe Hillel Hirsch Shlita. He talks about the immense achdus and Kiddush Hashem that has come out of all this. He explains why he believes the government will keep this policy in place and not retract.

Police are searching for the man who attacked a bus driver in Manhattan after the driver refused to let him on the bus because he wasn’t wearing a mask. The attack happened around 2:30 a.m. Monday near Madison Avenue and East 29th Street. The suspect, who is seen on surveillance video, punched the 62-year-old driver in the face and ran away. The driver is expected to be okay. Masks are mandatory on MTA buses. Police are trying to track down the suspect. (YWN World Headquarters – NYC)