EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin says he is closing a one-room museum at the agency’s Washington headquarters, saving taxpayers $600,000 a year in operating costs. Zeldin, who has vowed to slash agency spending, said in a video posted Monday that the museum cost $4 million to build and attracted fewer than 2,000 visitors since it opened last year. The museum is “yet another example of waste by the Biden administration,” he said, adding that it is overly focused on environmental justice and climate change, two Biden administration priorities. While admission is free, the museum’s operating costs — coupled with low attendance — means it costs taxpayers about $315 per visitor, Zeldin said. “This shrine to EJ (environmental justice) and climate change will now be shut down for good,” he said.

On Monday, President Donald Trump suggested that David Friedman, who previously served as the U.S. Ambassador to Israel, could be a contender for the role of U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. This came after the White House decided to pull Rep. Elise Stefanik’s nomination for the position.
While addressing reporters in the Oval Office, Trump remarked, “I can tell you that for the replacement [for Stefanik], we have a lot of people that have asked about it and would like to do it – David Friedman, Ric Grenell, and maybe 30 other people.”
He continued, “Everyone loves that position. That’s a star-making position. And so we’ll see what happens, but we have a lot of people that are interested in going to the United Nations, as you can imagine.”

Rebbetzin Hendel Kaplan, a”h, a daughter of HaGaon HaRav Meshulam Dovid Halevi Soloveitchik, zt”l, and wife of HaRav Nechemia Kaplan, shlit”a, one of the gedolei marbitzei Torah in Eretz Yisroel was niftar on Monday night at the age of 68 following a prolonged illness. The levaya took place at her home on Rechov Yosef Ziv in Yerushalayim, leading to her kevurah in Har HaMenuchos. Rebbetzin Kaplan, a scion of Torah royalty, was born on Lamed Nissan 5717 (1957) into one of the most illustrious families of gedolei Yisroel. She was the daughter of HaRav Dovid Soloveitchik zt”l, the Rosh Yeshiva of Brisk, and the granddaughter of HaRav Yitzchok Ze’ev Soloveitchik, zt”l, the Brisker Rov. Her yichus extends back to Rav Chaim Brisker, the son of the famed Beis Halevi, zt”l.

Acting on intelligence provided by the Shin Bet, the Israeli Air Force launched an early morning strike on Tuesday targeting the Dahieh neighborhood in Beirut, a major center of Hezbollah activity.
The IDF and Shin Bet released a joint statement explaining that the operation was aimed at a Hezbollah operative who had recently been working with Hamas terrorists, helping them orchestrate a serious and imminent assault on Israeli civilians.
“Due to the immediate threat the terrorist posed, the IDF and ISA acted to eliminate him and removed the threat,” the statement said.
“The IDF and ISA will continue to operate to prevent any threat posed to the civilians of the State of Israel,” it added.

Family getting up: Shacharis: 8:00 am Mincha: 7:00 pm Maariv: 8:35 pm

The Trump administration said Monday that it has deported 17 more “violent criminals” from the Tren de Aragua and MS-13 gangs to El Salvador, as it doubles down on a policy of removing people from the U.S. to countries other than their own despite criticism over lack of transparency and human rights issues. The State Department said the immigrants were removed Sunday night. The statement said murderers and rapists were among them but didn’t give details of the nationalities or alleged crimes of those removed. The office of El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, however, said Salvadorans and Venezuelans were among the prisoners. “These criminals will no longer terrorize our communities and citizens,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in the statement.

Two state legislators are advocating for new legislation that would require repeat traffic offenders to install speed-restricting technology in their vehicles, preventing them from exceeding the speed limit by more than 5 miles per hour.
The bill is aimed at drivers with a history of traffic violations, such as those who accumulate at least six tickets from speed or red light cameras within a year, or who amass 11 points on their licenses over a two-year period, according to lawmakers who introduced the proposal during a press conference at Brooklyn Borough Hall on Monday. The announcement came just 48 hours after a tragic car crash in Brooklyn that claimed the lives of a mother and her two children.

Markets around the world continue to sink on fears about President Donald Trump’s protectionist trade policies, and investors keep plowing money into gold, with futures hitting another record high Monday. Trump’s latest round of tariffs roll out Wednesday, which Trump has been calling “Liberation Day.” Interest in buying gold can rise sharply in times of uncertainty, as anxious investors seek safe havens for their money. Gold prices have been spiking as Trump’s tariff policies have started an international trade war that’s roiled financial markets and threatened to reignite inflation for families and businesses alike. If trends continue, analysts say gold’s price could continue to climb in the months ahead. But precious metals are also volatile assets — so the future is never promised.

A massive fire has broken out at a petrol station in Putra Heights, Malaysia. Injuries unknown.

Newly appointed Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has announced snap elections in his country. This has set the stage for what many analysts are calling one of the most crucial votes in Canadian history.
With key issues on the table and numerous tightly contested ridings (voting districts), the outcome of this election could shape the country’s future in significant ways. Beyond the general importance of this election, it is also considered especially critical for Canada’s Jewish community.

AG Pam Bondi just announced charges against the alleged Tesla firebomber. “We are seeking 20 years in prison…” “We will find you, arrest you, and put you behind bars.

The Trump administration announced on Monday that it would carry out a “comprehensive review” of $9 billion in federal grants and contracts at Harvard University over the school’s failure to protect Jewish students.
As part of the joint task force to combat antisemitism, the Departments of Education and Health and Human Services, and the U.S. General Services Administration, said they would audit “more than $255.6 million in contracts between Harvard University, its affiliates and the federal government,” as well as “more than $8.7 billion in multi-year grant commitments.”

In a deeply emotional levaya that extended past midnight, Sara Natasha Saada, a”h, and her two young daughters, Dina Bracha, a”h, and Devorah Mazal, a”h, were laid to rest side by side on Har HaMenuchos in Yerushalayim. The grief-stricken father, Rabbi Sidney Tzedaka Yeshuah Saada, shlit”a, arrived in Israel carrying the unimaginable burden of his loss, while simultaneously concerned about his 4-year-old son, Raphael Pinchas ben Sara, who remains in the hospital, rehabilitating from serious wounds incurred during the crash.

I saw in the YWN Live Blog that a man whose daughter was getting married tonight was spotted wearing a sweatshirt that, instead of saying “Father of the Bride,” read “American Express of the Bride – Expires 3/31/25.” Cute? Sure. Funny? Absolutely. But behind the humor lies a serious problem that’s spiraling out of control. Parents, hear me out—because what starts as a joke is turning into a financial disaster for an entire generation. Let’s talk about the disaster unfolding in too many homes today: parents handing their newly married kids a credit card like it’s some kind of chesed trophy, only to watch them spend like drunken sailors on shore leave. No restraint, no sense, no chinuch—just a free-for-all with Mommy and Daddy’s plastic.

Israel is set to begin the long-promised construction of a new border fence along its frontier with Jordan this June, a project expected to take three years to complete. The Times of Israel reported that the initiative aims to enhance national security and curb the flow of weapons and drugs into the country. The new fence will span from Hamat Gader, at the southern edge of the Golan Heights, to Ramon International Airport, located north of Eilat. A 30-kilometer (18-mile) segment of the border between Eilat and Ramon Airport was previously upgraded in the 2010s, adopting a design similar to Israel’s existing security barriers along the Egyptian border and the Gaza Strip.

Ali Larijani, a senior advisor to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, issued a stark warning on Monday, stating that any military aggression by the United States or Israel could push Iran to pursue nuclear weapons.
Although Larijani noted that Iran currently abides by a fatwa—a religious ruling issued by Khamenei—forbidding the use of nuclear arms, he cautioned that external attacks could change the situation dramatically. “If the US or Israel make a mistake and bomb Iran, it would force Iran to develop them due to public pressure,” he said.
Larijani also advised Washington to reconsider its stance, urging the U.S. government to “choose a different course rather than hostility.”

Just after sunrise on Saturday, a satellite set its long-range camera on the city of Mandalay in Myanmar, not far from the epicenter of Friday’s 7.7 magnitude earthquake that devastated the Southeast Asian country’s second-largest city. The mission was to capture images that, combined with artificial intelligence technology, could help relief organizations quickly assess how many buildings had collapsed or were heavily damaged and where helpers most needed to go. At first, the high-tech computer vision approach wasn’t working. “The biggest challenge in this particular case was the clouds,” said Microsoft’s chief data scientist, Juan Lavista Ferres.

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