Over the past two weeks, the political landscape around the negotiations for a cease-fire in Gaza have undergone a dramatic transformation. The American elections, the firing of Israel’s popular defense minister, Qatar’s decision to suspend its mediation, and the ongoing war in Lebanon all seem to have pushed the possibility for a cease-fire in Gaza further away than it has been in more than a year of conflict. Still, some families of the dozens of hostages who remain captive in Gaza are desperately hoping the changes will reignite momentum to bring their loved ones home — though the impact of Donald Trump returning to the White House and a hard-line new defense minister in Israel remains unknown.

Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party’s prodigious fundraising operation raised more than $1 billion in her loss to Donald Trump, but the vice president is still pushing donors for more money after the election. Democrats are sending persistent appeals to Harris supporters without expressly asking them to cover any potential debts, enticing would-be donors instead with other matters: the Republican president-elect’s picks for his upcoming administration and a handful of pending congressional contests where ballots are still being tallied. “The Harris campaign certainly spent more than they raised and is now busy trying to fundraise,” said Adrian Hemond, a Democratic strategist from Michigan. He said he was been asked by the campaign after its loss to Trump to help with fundraising.

Russia on Sunday launched a massive drone and missile attack on Ukraine, described by officials as the largest over the past months, targeting energy infrastructure and killing civilians. The attack came as fears are mounting about Moscow’s intentions to devastate Ukraine’s power generation capacity ahead of the cold winter. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russia had launched a total of 120 missiles and 90 drones in a large-scale attack across Ukraine. Various types of drones were deployed, he said, including Iranian-made Shaheds as well as cruise, ballistic and aircraft-launched ballistic missiles. Ukrainian defenses shot down 140 air targets, Zelenskyy said in a statement on the Telegram messaging app. “The enemy’s target was our energy infrastructure throughout Ukraine.

As President-elect Donald Trump makes a flurry of choices to fill out his incoming administration’s Cabinet, the lobbying for key positions has been fierce behind closed doors — and sometimes publicly. Now billionaire and key Trump ally Elon Musk is calling for more direct public input into the decision-making process for at least one top post: the head of the Treasury Department. “Would be interesting to hear more people weigh in on this for @realDonaldTrump to consider feedback,” Musk, who Trump has already tapped to co-lead a commission tasked with increasing government spending efficiency, posted Saturday on the X social media platform he owns. Musk then used the rest of his post to become the first participant in the public poll he was proposing.

by Rabbi Yair Hoffman Rav Leib Bakst zatzal (1918-2004) was an Alter Mirrer who was an outstanding Talmid Chochom and gadol who was  rosh yeshivah of Yeshivas Beis Yehudah in Detroit.  He taught thousands of talmidim, and now, Boruch Hashem, a new sefer on his Chidushei Torah has just been released. I would like to thank Reb Avrohom Applebaum, a father of one of my students for bringing me a copy. Rav Bakst was born in Doltish, Lithuania, to Rabbi Yaakov Yehoshua who perished in the Holocaust hy”d. He studied at the Mir Yeshiva in Mir, Poland and later during its exile in Vilna and Shanghai during World War II. He was close to both the Mir Rosh Yeshiva Rav Laizer Yehuda Finkel zt”l and also studied under in the Mir’s famed Mashgiach – Rav Yerucham Leibowitz zt”l for six years.

An Israeli airstrike in central Beirut targeted a building in the Ras al-Naba’a neighborhood, killing Hezbollah’s media relations chief, Mohammed Afif. The information was confirmed by two Lebanese security sources to Reuters. The strike, which occurred outside Hezbollah’s traditional stronghold in the southern suburbs of the Lebanese capital, marks a significant shift in Israel’s targeting strategy. The densely populated Ras al-Naba’a neighborhood is not typically associated with Hezbollah activity, making the attack particularly striking. According to the sources, the IDF carried out the operation without issuing any prior evacuation warnings, a move that deviates from its usual protocol in such strikes.

The IDF sent 1,000 of 7,000 draft orders to Bnei Yeshivos on Sunday following Attorney-General Gali Baharav Miara’s order last week. The Chareidi Yated Ne-eman newspaper published a front-page article reiterating the instructions of the Gedolim to bnei yeshivos to ignore the draft orders. The article stated that bnei yeshivos “should act according to the instructions in HaGaon HaRav Landau’s letter and as was clarified in a chizzuk talk at Yeshivas Mir: ‘The matter is clear.

The Loop, a mega audio world of wholesome fun, is celebrating its two-year anniversary with a LoopFest bang!  The LoopFest is jam-packed with excitement for kids—all kids, whether or not they’re subscribers—but here’s the part that will delight you, their parent.  Subscribe during the LoopFest season and get two months free!  And now for the kids!

Three Israelis were arrested overnight Motzei Shabbos for firing flares at the private home of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu in Caesarea on Motzei Shabbos. The three suspects are anti-government anarchists, including a senior IDF reserve officer who is one of the leaders of the protests against Netanyahu in Caesarea. Ynet reported that according to the investigation, the suspects launched the flares from dunes on the beach near Netanyahu’s home. The flares that were used are designed to be used by naval vessels as distress signals. All three suspects were reportedly well-known anti-Netanyahu activists and will likely face multiple criminal charges, including arson.

The IDF on Sunday morning announced that an IDF soldier was killed in battle in the northern Gaza Strip. He was named as Sgt. First Class (res) Idan Kenan, H’yd, 21 from Ramat Gan. He fought in the Kfir Brigade’s 90th Battalion. He was killed by a Hamas sniper on the outskirts of Jabaliya, near Beit Lahiya. His death increases the death toll of IDF soldiers since the start of the war to 796. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)