The backlash about the frum Jewish magazine’s publishing of an article discussing Botox is understandable. The person who wrote into YWN on Monday labeled the topic as unbecoming of a Torah-true publication, arguing that it promoted superficiality and vanity. I get it. But as someone who teaches a class of Bais Yaakov-type girls, I feel compelled to address this reaction and offer a different perspective. The article wasn’t a frivolous endorsement of cosmetic procedures—it was a reflection of the pressures and realities faced by our daughters today, particularly in the shidduch world. For many young women in the shidduch system, their future feels like a high-stakes competition.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is opening a company conference in Chicago with remarks that could set the stage for where it’s taking its artificial intelligence business. AI developers are increasingly pitching the next wave of generative AI chatbots as AI “agents” that can do more useful things on people’s behalf. But the cost of building and running AI tools is so high that more investors are questioning whether the technology’s promise is overblown.

HaGaon HaRav Moshe Shternbuch occasionally recites Avinu Malkeinu on random days apart from Yamim Noraim and fast days. According to those close to him, since the start of the war, HaRav Shternbuch recites Avinu Malkeinu when there are reports of many people injured and/or killed. On Tuesday, HaRav Shternbuch decided to say Avinu Malkeinu in the small Shacharis minyan held in his home in Har Nof, Kikar H’Shabbat reported. “The Rav is mamash broken from the situation in which Jewish blood is spilling like water,” one person close to the Rav told Kikar. “Although it’s not a new thing for the Rav to recite the tefillah passuk by passuk, this time it’s a rare case and we apparently need a lot of Rachamei Shamayim.” (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

Iran has further increased its stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels in defiance of international demands, according to a confidential report by the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog seen Tuesday by The Associated Press . The report by the International Atomic Energy Agency said that as of Oct. 26, Iran has 182.3 kilograms (401.9 pounds) of uranium enriched up to 60%, an increase of 17.6 kilograms (38.8 pounds) since the last report in August. Uranium enriched at 60% purity is just a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%. The IAEA also estimated in its quarterly report that as of Oct.

The Jerusalem District Court has ruled that the Palestinian Authority (PA) and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) must pay tens of millions of shekels in compensation to victims of the 2001 terrorist bombing at the Sbarro pizzeria in central Jerusalem, according to a Channel 12 report. The August 9, 2001, suicide bombing, one of the deadliest attacks of the Second Intifada, claimed the lives of 16 civilians, including seven children, and injured 130 others. The court’s decision is based on evidence of the PA’s longstanding policy of financially compensating terrorists and their families. This precedent-setting ruling could potentially pave the way for victims of the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, massacre to also seek financial restitution from the PA.

Rabbinical representatives who inspected the Shabbos eruv after police and security officials left the impact site of a missile that fell on the border between Bnei Brak and Ramat Gan on Tuesday evening couldn’t believe their eyes. To their astonishment, the eruv that passes through the area wasn’t torn or damaged at all, remaining intact amid extensive destruction from shattered windows and glass due to the heat of the fire and debris. The missile shrapnel that fell [from an Iranian Fateh-110 surface-to-surface ballistic missile and not an interceptor missile as was initially reported], injured five people, knocked down a high-voltage power line, caused a fire, and damaged several buildings and an empty bus.

SpaceX on Tuesday launched another Starship rocket, but passed up catching the booster with giant mechanical arms. Unlike last month’s success, the booster was directed to a splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. The catch was called off just four minutes into the test flight from Texas for unspecified reasons, and the booster hit the water three minutes later. Not all of the criteria for a booster catch was met and so the flight director did not command the booster to return to the launch site, said SpaceX spokesman Dan Huot. He did not specify what went wrong. At the same time, the empty spacecraft launched from Texas atop Starship soared across the Gulf of Mexico on a near loop around the world similar to October’s test flight.

Building the current crop of artificial intelligence chatbots has relied on specialized computer chips pioneered by Nvidia, which cornered the market and made itself the poster child of the AI boom. But the same qualities that make those graphics processor chips, or GPUs, so effective at creating powerful AI systems from scratch make them less efficient at putting AI products to work. That’s opened up the AI chip industry to rivals who think they can compete with Nvidia in selling so-called AI inference chips that are more attuned to the day-to-day running of AI tools and designed to reduce some of the huge computing costs of generative AI.

President-elect Donald Trump is filling key posts in his second administration, and it’s shaping up much differently than his first. He’s prioritizing loyalists for top jobs. Trump was bruised and hampered by internal squabbles during his initial term in office. Now he appears focused on remaking the federal government in his own image. Some of his choices could face difficult confirmation battles even with Republicans in control of the U.S. Senate. Here’s a look at whom he has selected so far. Cabinet nominees: SECRETARY OF STATE: Marco Rubio Trump named Florida Sen. Marco Rubio to be secretary of state, making the critic-turned-ally his choice for top diplomat.

Imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi underwent a complex surgery in Iran that saw part of a bone in her right leg removed over cancer fears but was immediately returned to prison, raising the risks to her life, rights groups warned. A letter signed by over 40 activist groups, sent to the United Nations Human Rights Council, urged that Mohammadi be immediately released on a medical furlough from a prison sentence on charges long criticized internationally. It is part of a wider pressure campaign on Iran over Mohammadi’s detention since the Nobel committee honored her last year.