Meron rabbi arrested after cult watchdog warned of sex abuse in strictly run group

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/meron-rabbi-arrested-after-cult-watchdog-warned-of-sex-abuse-in-strictly-run-group/

A leading communal rabbi from Meron in northern Israel has been arrested for alleged “serious sexual offenses,” police said on Thursday, a week after he was accused by a cult watchdog of managing a tightly controlled group since at least 2011.

Sources familiar with the details of the case told the Walla news site that according to complaints that had accumulated over time, Shoveli presented his control over followers as spiritual.

“He succeeded in entering into the lives of people and making them completely dependent on him. He controlled their daily routines, distanced them from their families, and some of them effectively became his servants,” a source with knowledge of the probe told Walla.

Last week, the Israeli Center for Cult Victims posted a warning about Shoveli, saying it had collected 16 testimonies against him, including from five people who were directly involved in the group’s inner circle, as well as from family members from the Haredi community.

Iran has hit far more U.S. military assets than reported, satellite images show

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2026/05/06/iran-us-bases-satellite-images/

Iranian airstrikes have damaged or destroyed at least 228 structures or pieces of equipment at U.S. military sites across the Middle East since the war began, hitting hangars, barracks, fuel depots, aircraft and key radar, communications and air defense equipment, according to a Washington Post analysis of satellite imagery. The amount of destruction is far larger than what has been publicly acknowledged by the U.S. government or previously reported.

“The Iranian attacks were precise. There are no random craters indicating misses,” said Mark Cancian, a senior adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies and a retired Marine Corps colonel, who reviewed the Iranian images at The Post’s request. The Post previously revealed how Russia provided Iran with intelligence to target U.S. forces.

“The Iranians have deliberately targeted accommodation buildings across multiple sites with the intent to inflict mass casualties,” said William Goodhind, an investigator with the open-access research project Contested Ground who reviewed the imagery. “It is not just equipment, fuel storage and air base infrastructure under fire, but also soft targets, such as gyms, food halls and accommodation.”

Brain health supplements are booming. Here’s what one longevity expert takes.

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2026/05/07/brain-supplements-longevity/

Only one has been shown in clinical trials to slow cognitive aging, by about two years. This is what the science says about which supplements work.

About 1 in 5 adults over age 50 use vitamins or supplements specifically to try to boost brain functions like memory, attention or focus, according to a 2021 AARP survey, the most recent update. The global market for nutritional supplements was estimated at $517.1 billion in 2025 and projected to be $862.5 billion by 2033, according to Grand View Research.

As more interest and money flow into the space, more serious human research is beginning to take shape. The findings, however, remain modest and uneven.

3. Multivitamin One of the more convincing findings to date about supplements comes from the cognitive substudies of the Harvard-led COSMOS trial, which involved over 2,200 participants followed over roughly two to three years. A paper published in 2024 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that adults over 60 who took a daily multivitamin scored modestly better on tests of episodic memory than those given a placebo — a gap researchers say amounts to about two years of cognitive aging

US probes oil trades worth $2.6B made before Trump's Iran War announcements

 https://www.israelhayom.com/2026/05/07/us-probes-oil-trades-worth-2-6b-made-before-trumps-iran-war-announcements/

According to ABC, US authorities are investigating traders who made $2.6 billion from oil deals carried out minutes before key announcements by Trump and Iran during the war. In one case, trades totaling half a billion dollars were placed 15 minutes before Trump announced a pause in attacks on Iranian power plants. The suspicions were reported in real time. 

According to the report, the case involves at least four incidents in which investors "bet" on a drop in oil prices and made large profits following the president's announcements. The Justice Department and the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission, the American regulator, have opened a joint investigation into at least four of the trades.

The investigation comes against the backdrop of a recurring pattern of suspicious trades on betting platforms around US military operations. About two weeks ago, US special forces soldier Gannon Ken Van Dyke was arrested on suspicion of betting on Polymarket on the ouster of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro based on information to which he had been exposed, just hours before he took part in the operation to capture him in January. He allegedly made a profit of more than $409,000.

Levin: Result of reported US proposal to end Iran war would be ‘disastrous’

 https://thehill.com/media/5868059-mark-levin-criticizes-iran-deal/

Conservative radio host Mark Levin cast doubt on the reported U.S. proposal to end the Iran war, saying it would be “disastrous” if implemented.

Under this 14-point deal, Iran would halt its nuclear enrichment processes, the U.S. would lift its sanctions on Iran and both countries would release their control over the strait, according to the outlet. 

“I have to believe the Axios report is largely fake,” Levin wrote in a post on the social platform X on Wednesday. 

“If the Axios report is close to accurate, the Iranian regime will survive, the Iranian people will face even more extensive brutality, and the Israeli government could fall in the October election.  A disastrous result,” he continued. 

US-Iran deal won't meet Israel's war goals on nukes, missiles and proxies

 https://www.ynetnews.com/article/s1d00bvycbl

Israeli officials warn the proposed agreement may leave Iran’s missile arsenal intact, ease financial pressure on Tehran and limit the IDF’s freedom of action in Lebanon; They support continuing siege on Iran and say Iran likely will cheat from the outset.

Israel fears the emerging agreement between the United States and Iran will not restrict Tehran’s development of ballistic missiles. Israeli officials are also concerned it could undermine the IDF’s freedom of action in Lebanon, and perhaps even lead to a demand for withdrawal. Some diplomatic officials are warning that the IDF could be handcuffed and paralyzed in Lebanon. Added to that are a series of objectives cited at the start of the war as goals Israel sought to achieve — and the emerging agreement does not necessarily address them.

Another concern raised in Israel is that the agreement will unfreeze billions of dollars for Iran, funds that could ultimately be directed toward rearmament and strengthening Tehran’s proxies across the region.

U.S. intelligence says Iran can outlast Trump’s Hormuz blockade for months

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/05/07/cia-intelligence-iran-trump-blockade-missiles/

A confidential intelligence community assessment delivered to the White House also finds that Iran retains a substantial missile and drone arsenal.

A confidential CIA analysis delivered to administration policymakers this week concludes that Iran can survive the U.S. naval blockade for at least three to four months before facing more severe economic hardship, four people familiar with the document said, a finding that appears to raise new questions about President Donald Trump’s optimism on ending the war.

The analysis by the U.S. intelligence community, whose secret assessments on Iran have often been more sober than the administration’s public statements, also found that Tehran retains significant ballistic missile capabilities despite weeks of intense U.S. and Israeli bombardment, three of the people familiar with it said.

Secret CIA analysis revealed: Iran can survive months of blockade, still has 70% of its missiles

 https://www.ynetnews.com/article/rk11yshqawx

“Iran and its proxies are weaker than ever,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared Wednesday night. U.S. President Donald Trump, for his part, claimed that “we have already won” and said Tuesday: “Their missiles have been destroyed.” 

But according to a classified CIA analysis revealed Thursday evening by The Washington Post, Iran still retains most of its missile capabilities, and the U.S. intelligence agency assesses that it could withstand the American blockade on its ports for at least three to four months before feeling especially severe economic pressure.

The Post’s report is based on four sources familiar with the classified CIA document, which was delivered this week to decision-makers in Washington. According to the newspaper, the assessment casts doubt on Trump’s optimistic statements about the blockade’s ability to force Iran to compromise in talks on ending the war. Trump has claimed the blockade denies Iran $500 million a day in oil export revenues.

A promising new depression therapy focuses on finding paths to joy

 https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2026/05/06/positive-affect-therapy-depression/

Depression treatments focus mostly on decreasing negative emotions. But a study finds that increasing positive ones might be more effective.

“We do a pretty good job of helping people feel less bad,” said Steven Hollon, a professor of psychology at Vanderbilt University who has studied depression and anxiety for decades. Hollon noted that psychotherapy and medication can be very effective at reducing negative emotions. What has been more elusive is getting people with depression or anxiety to actually feel good.

A study published recently in JAMA targeted anhedonia using a relatively new therapy called positive affect treatment. The researchers wondered what would happen if they tried to make people feel good, rather than just less bad.

Democratic Majority

The Rise of Antisemitism in the U.K.

 https://time.com/article/2026/05/03/rise-of-antisemitism-in-the-uk-terrorist-incident-government-response/

Britain raised its national terrorism ​threat level to "severe" from "substantial" on Thursday, a day after an antisemitic attack in London was declared a terrorist incident by police.

The attack that unfolded in Golders Green, a predominantly Jewish area in the capital, saw two Jewish men taken to hospital with stab wounds. A 45-year-old man has been charged with attempted murder.

“Britain’s Jewish community suffered yet another vile terrorist attack,” U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer said, noting that this is just the latest instance of antisemitism to unfold in recent months.

The government has announced an extra £25 million in funding to go towards protecting Jewish communities and there are plans for increased security, but Starmer is facing calls to do more.

Read the Alleged Jeffrey Epstein Suicide Note: Judge Orders Release

 https://www.newsweek.com/epsteins-alleged-suicide-note-release-demanded-after-new-details-reported-11913947

A federal judge in White Plains, New York, has unsealed a purported suicide note by Jeffrey Epstein as part of criminal proceedings involving his former cellmate.

The note allegedly written by Epstein, who was found dead in a New York jail cell a month after being indicted on federal sex trafficking charges, has been locked away in a courthouse for nearly seven years, The New York Times reported late last month.

Krishnamoorthi, who serves on the House Oversight Committee, said the Department of Justice had arrested only Epstein and his accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, despite the "existence of millions of documents that suggest a vast network of sex traffickers," including prominent public figures.

He wrote about their daughter’s sudden death. Then his wife did the same.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/style/2026/05/06/dispatches-from-grief-danielle-crittenden-memoir/ 

Part of what made the loss of their daughter so acute was that Miranda had seemed to have recovered so well from the brain tumor that scared her parents when it was first diagnosed in 2018. It turned out to be benign, however ruinous to her pituitary gland. But treatment took its toll. Just as Miranda was approaching the five-year anniversary of her brain surgery — an occasion for the party she was planning, with “tumor-tinis” and “MRI-jitos” — the Frums received the devastating news one morning: Miranda had been found dead in her New York apartment by her cleaning lady at 9 a.m.

So, she had a “conversation” with Miranda, and her daughter “told” her she needed to write it. That it would help other parents. That of course she should promote it: “You want a book about me to be a failure?” she could imagine Miranda saying.

The list of acclaimed writers who have lost a child and written about the experience may be longer than the list of those who lost a child and did not write about it. One way or another, the sorrow works its way out through prose.

A convert to Judaism, she learned in a more visceral way about Shiva, the Jewish period of mourning. Previously, she had questioned its value — all those friends and relations intruding on a time of personal grief — but she came to this understanding: “The instant earth closes over the grave, the community opens its arms. The family need only exist and receive. Permission to fall apart arrives exactly when you need it most.”

Lutnick admits to having prolonged ties to Epstein in closed-door interview

 https://www.politico.com/news/2026/05/06/howard-lutnick-commerce-epstein-00908865?utm_medium=bluesky&utm_source=dlvr.it

For reasons he said were “inexplicable,” Howard Lutnick acknowledged visiting Jeffrey Epstein’s island seven years after he claimed to have severed his relationship with the convicted sex offender, according to lawmakers present for the Commerce Secretary’s closed-door testimony Wednesday.

“He was evasive, nervous — he was dishonest,” Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-Va.) told reporters during a break in the hourslong proceedings. “He would not admit to lying, which he clearly did.”

Even the Kentucky Republican acknowledged to reporters before the interview Wednesday that Lutnick “wasn’t 100 percent truthful” in the past when describing the timeline of his relationship with Epstein.

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) said that Lutnick admitted to conferring with the administration about the Epstein saga. But, Walkinshaw said, Lutnick would not answer questions about whether he spoke with Trump in advance of his testimony Wednesday.