Vaccines could be a key means of suppressing bird flu and avoiding the slaughter of millions of chickens, which is blamed for egg prices averaging nearly $6 a dozen. But the move has been delayed in part because of concerns it could jeopardize chicken exports worth billions of dollars a year. The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced plans to spend $100 million to study bird flu vaccines to fight the disease in concert with meat chicken, egg and turkey groups. That’s part of a larger $1 billion effort to invest in more protections to keep the virus off farms that President Donald Trump believes will help lower egg prices. Chicken meat producers remain the most resistant to vaccines because of concerns they could harm meat exports, which totaled nearly $4.7 billion last year.

El Al posted a record-breaking net profit of roughly $545 million for 2024, almost five times higher than the previous year, with foreign airlines halting their services to Israel due to ongoing hostilities with Iran and its terror affiliates in Gaza, Lebanon, and Yemen, according to data released by the airline on Wednesday.
The prior record was approximately $116 million in 2023, bolstered by a strong fourth quarter, where competition diminished following the October 7 Hamas attack that sparked the Gaza conflict. During the final quarter of 2024, El Al earned a net profit of $130 million, a sharp increase from the $40 million seen in the same period the year before.

Russia claimed Thursday that its troops have driven the Ukrainian army out of the biggest town in Russia’s Kursk border region, as a senior Kremlin official said that a U.S.-proposed 30-day ceasefire in the war three years after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine would help Kyiv by giving its weary and short-handed military a break. The Russian Defense Ministry’s claim that it recaptured the town of Sudzha, hours after President Vladimir Putin visited his commanders in Kursk and wore military fatigues, could not be independently verified. Ukrainian officials made no immediate comment on the claim. The renewed Russian military push and Putin’s high-profile visit to his troops came as U.S. President Donald Trump presses for a diplomatic end to the war. The U.S.

Poland’s President Andrzej Duda again called on the United States to deploy nuclear weapons to Poland as a deterrent to Russia, the latest indication that the frontline NATO nation is increasingly considering nuclear protection as fears of Russia grow. Duda made his appeal in an interview with the Financial Times published on Thursday, repeating an appeal he made to the Biden administration in 2022. Duda’s adviser for international affairs, Wojciech Kolarski, followed up on Duda’s appeal with an interview on Poland’s RMF FM radio Thursday morning in which he argued that nuclear protection would improve security for Poland, a NATO member along the alliance’s eastern flank that shares borders with Ukraine, Belarus and the Russian territory of Kaliningrad.

By Rabbi Yair Hoffman At a recent medical visit, my doctor cited a quote from Alexander Pope, the famous British satirist, that “Mighty

By Rabbi Pinchos Lipschutz
Face it. Life has its rough patches, days when nothing seems to go as planned and everything you do leaves you feeling frustrated.

Israel’s team negotiating the release of hostages stayed in Doha for the night, as talks continue, according to an Israeli official speaking with The Times of Israel.
There had been some speculation that the team might return home last night.
According to Kan, the public broadcaster, a Palestinian source claims that the United States is advocating for a 60-day ceasefire as part of an agreement for the release of 10 hostages.
If that fails, the US might focus on securing the release of American hostages only. One, Edan Alexander, is still alive, while four others have been confirmed dead.

Hundreds of mispallelim, accompanied by the IDF, entered Kever Yosef in Shechem on Wednesday night, ahead of Taanis Esther and Purim, as part of the regular visits arranged by the Shomron Regional Council and approved by the IDF. Yossi Dagan, the head of the Shomron Council, called for the restoration of full Israeli control over Kever Yosef. “There is no real reason to continue this absurdity, that a site that is supposed to be under full Israeli control, even according to the cursed Oslo Accords, has remained abandoned for over 24 years – one of the most kodesh places for the Jewish nation,” he said. “I call on the government to act to restore the permanent presence at the site, to correct the disgrace and allow every Jew to daven in this kodesh place without fear.