By Rabbi Yair Hoffman A young kollel wife in Yerushalayim, the daughter of a close talmid chacham friend, recently experienced a harrowing medical ordeal that nearly cost her life rachmana litzlan.

Various Yom Ha’atzmaut ceremonies were held across Israel on Thursday as Israel’s Fire and Rescue Service continued to battle the fires that began in the Jerusalem hills on Wednesday. Photos taken of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu at the President’s Medal of Excellence ceremony in Jerusalem aroused curiosity due to a sight not seen since COVID days—the prime minister’s bodyguards with masks on their faces. The masks were not worn to protect against a new COVID variant but against the ancient and deadly antisemitism variant. The bodyguards, who are part of the Shin Bet’s personal security unit, were instructed to wear masks at public events to protect themselves from possible arrest warrants issued abroad, Walla reports.

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An Israeli soldier was accidentally left behind in the Gaza Strip earlier this week, wandering alone through hostile territory for 40 harrowing minutes before finding safety. The incident occurred on Tuesday following an IDF operation by the elite Yahalom combat engineering unit in the volatile Morag Corridor, nestled between Rafah and Khan Younis — a region known for fierce fighting and terrorist infrastructure. As the unit concluded its mission and withdrew back into Israeli territory, one soldier was inexplicably left behind. According to a statement by the IDF, the soldier—realizing he had been abandoned—began making his way through the danger zone on foot, calling out “IDF! IDF!” repeatedly in an effort to avoid being mistaken for a terrorist and shot by his own forces.

The animal sedative medetomidine is increasingly showing up in the U.S. illegal drug supply, according to three reports released Thursday. Medetomidine, which is used to sedate pets and is somewhat similar to xylazine, was first detected in illegally manufactured opioids in North America in 2022. Investigators say the drug is being mixed in with other illicit drugs, mainly fentanyl, the synthetic opioid behind most overdose deaths. On Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published three reports about recent clusters of medetomidine cases in Chicago, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. In Chicago, health officials last May were puzzled by a surge in overdoses. The patients had taken fentanyl, but the overdose-reversing drug naloxone didn’t seem to work.

Steve Witkoff, a former real estate mogul turned makeshift diplomat, has become a growing liability for the Trump administration, drawing scorn from foreign policy experts, career diplomats, and even members of Trump’s own orbit, the NY Post reported in a scathing article. Once hailed for brokering a brief cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, Witkoff’s erratic solo diplomacy is now being widely ridiculed as amateurish, naive, and dangerously out of step with international norms. Witkoff, now serving as President Trump’s special envoy to both the Middle East and Russia, has taken on a role that would overwhelm even seasoned statesmen. But rather than surrounding himself with veteran negotiators and intelligence experts, Witkoff has taken to flying solo — literally.

The U.S. Justice Department filed lawsuits against four states this week, claiming their climate actions conflict with federal authority and President Donald Trump’senergy dominance agenda. The DOJ on Wednesday filed lawsuits against Hawaii and Michigan over their planned legal action against fossil fuel companies for harms caused by climate change. On Thursday, the DOJ sued New York and Vermont, challenging their climate superfund laws that would force fossil fuel companies to pay into state-based funds based on previous greenhouse gas emissions. The suits, which legal experts say are unprecedented, mark the latest of the Trump administration’s attacks on environmental work and raises concern over states’ abilities to retain the power to take climate action without federal opposition.

Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu made waves on Thursday when he emphasized that achieving “victory” over Hamas remains the paramount aim of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, even above securing the release of hostages still held captive. The remark drew immediate and fierce backlash from the families of those abducted.
This development comes as relatives of the hostages have recently accused Netanyahu of derailing potential negotiations for a ceasefire and prisoner exchange. They also claim he is keeping them in the dark regarding the fate of the remaining 59 hostages believed to be in Gaza.

In yet another explosive controversy rocking New York City’s embattled public school system, the Department of Education is under fire for distributing an official newsletter that accused Israel of committing “genocide in Gaza”—a claim that outraged Jewish educators and advocates are calling a dangerous escalation of anti-Israel and antisemitic rhetoric within the city’s classrooms. According to a NY Post report, the inflammatory statement appeared in the spring 2025 edition of the “Teacher Career Pathways” newsletter—an internal publication bearing the logos of both the NYC Department of Education and the United Federation of Teachers (UFT)—which was distributed to hundreds of “master teachers” across the city’s 1,800 public schools.