Israel has denied involvement in the massive explosion ripped through Iran’s largest port on Saturday, killing at least 28 people and injuring over 1,000 others. The blast shook the Port of Shahid Rajaee in Bandar Abbas, a critical hub on the Strait of Hormuz. Thick plumes of smoke towered over the strategic facility after the blast, which initial reports suggested may have involved chemical materials linked to ballistic missile production. Iranian officials have remained tight-lipped about the true cause, saying only that the explosion had no connection to the country’s oil industry. Hossein Zafari, a spokesperson for Iran’s crisis management agency, told local media that “chemicals inside the shipping containers” were to blame.

President Donald Trump said the United States would “willingly” join Israel in launching a military assault on Iran if nuclear negotiations collapse, though he still holds out hope for a diplomatic resolution. Speaking to Time Magazine in a wide-ranging interview reflecting on the first 100 days of his second term, Trump addressed mounting tensions with Tehran, his recent diplomatic outreach, and the growing pressure from Jerusalem to take action. “If we don’t make a deal, I’ll be leading the pack,” Trump said, making it clear he’s not afraid of confrontation should Iran fail to come to terms. The interview follows reports that Israel recently proposed a series of coordinated strikes on Iran’s nuclear infrastructure.

A Hamas supporter was seen wearing a mock suicide vest at an anti-Israel protest in Manhattan. The vest is reminiscent of the suicide vests worn by terrorists to murder and maim Israelis during the Second Intifada in the early 2000s. And of course, the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers in New York City were also carried out by suicide attackers. The video shows the would-be suicide bomber with other pro-Hamas supporters arguing with counter-protesters. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

The last person convicted in Germany for crimes committed during the Holocaust, Irmgard Furchner, died at the age of 99, a German court announced on Monday. In 2022, Furchner, who served as a secretary at the Nazi concentration camp Stutthof during World War II, received a two-year suspended sentence for complicity in the murders of more than 10,000 people. Her trial marked the first prosecution of a woman in Germany for Nazi-era crimes in decades. The Stutthof concentration camp, located near Gdansk in occupied Poland, was established by Nazi Germany in 1939. Around 65,000 people lost their lives at Stutthof, many of them non-Jewish Poles, as well as Jews deported from Warsaw, Bialystok, and forced-labor camps in the occupied Baltic states.

A growing number of Americans now view Israel in a negative light, according to a new Pew Research Center survey released Tuesday, with 53% expressing an unfavorable opinion of the Jewish state — rising from 42% in March 2022. The survey also found that confidence in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu remains low, with just 32% of Americans trusting him to handle world affairs appropriately, while 52% say they have little or no confidence in his leadership. Partisan divides were evident in the results: 69% of Democrats hold an unfavorable view of Israel, up from 53% in the 2022 survey. Among Republicans, the number of those viewing Israel negatively increased to 37%, compared to 27% three years ago. The shift has been especially pronounced among younger adults.

OCD or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, is a medical diagnosis that gets thrown around a lot in colloquial speech, especially around Pesach time. We take Hilchos Pesach seriously, and rightfully so! OCD is not the same as being careful in Halacha, and it’s crucial to distinguish between the two. Because the term is so misused and misunderstood, it can be helpful and important to distinguish between what is and isn’t OCD. Many people will say things like “I’m so OCD” when referring to being hyper-organized or particular about the way they do things. (You line up your clothes in your closet in order of color? You’re so OCD!) This is not OCD and can be both invalidating to people who are truly struggling and just generally misinform the public about what to be aware of.

Hamas has quietly removed around 3,400 previously reported “deaths” from its casualty lists—including an astonishing 1,080 children who apparently weren’t as dead as initially advertised. It seems the Gaza Health Ministry, controlled by Hamas, has accomplished what science could not—bringing thousands back from the dead. Analyst Salo Aizenberg from Honest Reporting and NGO Monitor pointed out this curious phenomenon after noticing a striking discrepancy between Hamas’s August and September 2024 casualty figures and their magically revised March 2025 list. “These ‘deaths’ never happened. The numbers were falsified—again,” Aizenberg said. “What happened? How did 1000s of supposedly confirmed, fully identified deaths just vanish? Were some actually missing persons? Sloppy records?

HaGaon HaRav Dov Landau delivered a chizzuk talk on Sunday, the start of Bein HaZemanim, at the Beis Hashem shul in Bnei Brak, with hundreds attending and thousands listening via live teleconference. At the end of the sichah, the Rosh Yeshivah instructed Bnei Yeshivos how to act upon receiving draft orders. “We’re in a very difficult situation as those who oppose us are persecuting the Olam HaTorah, doing things to harm Bnei Yeshivos and avreichim in order to harm Torah,” HaRav Landau said.

A tragedy was narrowly avoided early Sunday morning in Flatbush, thanks to the quick response of Flatbush Shomrim volunteers who stopped a wrong-way driver barreling down Ocean Parkway—just three blocks from the site of a horrific crash that killed a mother and her two children less than 24 hours ago. At around 6:00 a.m., Shomrim received a frantic call about a vehicle driving against traffic near Ocean Parkway and Avenue N. Volunteers rushed to the scene within seconds and successfully intervened, preventing the driver from colliding with other vehicles or striking pedestrians. The driver, who was found to be four times over the legal alcohol limit, was arrested at the scene by the NYPD.

In a powerful video statement published on Wednesday by YWN on WhatsApp, HaGaon HaRav Dov Landau, Rosh Yeshivas Slabodka, unequivocally opposed participation in the World Zionist Organization (WZO) elections. The video, now available with English subtitles, captures the revered Gadol HaDor urging Klal Yisrael to refrain from voting, emphasizing the spiritual dangers he associates with Zionist institutions. Rav Landau’s words come amid ongoing debate within the Chareidi world about involvement in the WZO, with some advocating participation to influence funding and policy. However, the Rosh Yeshiva’s firm stance reinforces the traditional Litvish position against such engagement.