https://edition.cnn.com/2025/07/24/world/macron-france-palestinian-statehood-trump-latam-intl
The surprise announcement tells us two things.
Firstly, that Emmanuel Macron feels this is the time to act. Leaders from France, the UK and Germany are due to speak Friday to seek urgent action over the new lows of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza.
https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/article-862134
The Health Ministry warned on Thursday that parents should complete their child’s routine measles vaccinations as outbreaks have been reported in the Jerusalem and Beit Shemesh area.
Over the past three months, 245 measles cases have been diagnosed, and there are currently 91 active cases. Of the active cases, almost half were diagnosed over the past week.
A large majority (87%) of new cases were diagnosed in children.
Israel on Thursday blamed a “lack of cooperation from the international community” for the limited aid entering the Gaza Strip while dismissing Hamas’s “famine narrative” as a tactic used in the hostage talks.
Speaking to reporters on the Gaza side of the Kerem Shalom Crossing, Col. Abdullah Halabi, head of COGAT’s Coordination and Liaison Administration for Gaza, said that approximately 1,000 trucks’ worth of aid are piled up inside the Strip, awaiting collection by the United Nations and aid groups.
The senior officer in the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories said truckloads are waiting on the Gaza side of the crossing “due to a lack of cooperation from the international community and international organizations.”
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5416848-wsj-doj-trump-epstein-files/
Attorney General Pam Bondi informed President Trump in May that his name appeared multiple times in files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, according to a bombshell report The Wall Street Journal published Wednesday.
Bondi and her deputy told the president that Justice Department (DOJ) officials reviewed what she described as a “truckload” of documents on Epstein and discovered the president’s name appeared multiple times, according to the report, which cited senior administration officials.
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/07/23/politics/bondi-trump-epstein-list-files
When Attorney General Pam Bondi briefed President Donald Trump in May on the Justice Department’s review of the documents related to the Jeffrey Epstein case, she told him that his name appeared in the files, sources familiar with the discussion told CNN.
The conversation, which also included Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, was characterized by two White House officials as a “routine briefing” that covered the scope of the Justice Department’s findings. Trump’s name appearing in the files, they said, was not the sole focus of the discussions.
Bondi also raised in the meeting that several names of high-profile figures were also mentioned, and that investigators did not find evidence of a so-called client list or evidence refuting that Epstein died by suicide, the officials said.
In a White House outpouring Tuesday, President Trump accused President Obama of “treason,” calling him the “ringleader” of efforts by U.S. intelligence officials to steal the 2016 election. On Sunday his Truth Social account posted a fictitious video depicting FBI agents handcuffing Mr. Obama in the Oval Office, to the tune of “YMCA,” while Mr. Trump looks on and laughs.
The impetus was a batch of documents that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard released and handed to the Justice Department, so it can deliver what she called “accountability.” She claims they show “a treasonous conspiracy” to subvert Mr. Trump’s win in 2016. “It’s time to go after people,” the President said. “Obama’s been caught directly,” and what happened was “criminal at the highest level.”
White House initially calls WSJ report ‘fake news’ before official doesn’t deny the US president’s name appears in investigative documents related to the convicted sex offender
Bondi also told president at the meeting that Justice decided to not release more Jeffrey Epstein documents because of the presence of child pornography and the need to protect victims
When Justice Department officials reviewed what Attorney General Pam Bondi called a “truckload” of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein earlier this year, they discovered that Donald Trump’s name appeared multiple times, according to senior administration officials.
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5415258-epstein-brother-white-house-claim-blatant-lie/
Mark Epstein, the older brother of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, refuted the White House’s claims that President Trump never visited the disgraced financier at his office.
“That’s just another blatant lie,” the older Epstein said during a Tuesday appearance on CNN’s “Erin Burnett OutFront.”
“Because he was there. People that worked for Jeffrey in his office, they could testify that they saw Trump in Jeffrey’s office on numerous occasions,” he continued, “So for him to say he wasn’t there, all I can say is that’s just just another lie.”
Remember when they used to tell us to never say the word "divorced" in your home, it's terrible for a marriage?
Of course they meant not to throw the word around when you're arguing with your wife because it's very mean and makes her worry that it is, indeed, the end. But what we as kids took away from it was the idea that we shouldn't talk about misfortune and that would somehow protect us from it, like some sort of secret forcefield against harm. Similarly, we say " machala" to somehow insulate us from getting sick. And now, as adults, we subconsciously avoid divorced people. Tell me, this isn't true? You don't approach them. Don't ask how they're doing or if they need anything. Don't get involved. You're "staying safe".
Perhaps you're afraid you'll plant the seed of divorce into your home by having a divorced person over for a Shabbos meal. Perhaps your wife might get some ideas from a divorced female after hearing the joys of attending singles events and speed dating. Perhaps your wife might get ideas from a divorced male at the table, ideas of how exciting it might feel to have a different kind of man in her life. Perhaps your wife is afraid you'll be inappropriate with the divorced single mom while her back is turned. So the divorced neighbor learns to meditate and perhaps figures out how to make Shabbos meals for themselves, sometimes getting together with other singles, other times just staying home. Shabbos is long and they're lonely and disconnected, feeling shunned. Perhaps they had a bad experience in beis din and forfeited getting any support in order to be released from an abusive man, leaving them literally destitute with no food in their fridge. Perhaps they're currently being dragged through court by the ex husband who's trying to alienate the kids and keep her half of the house that he bought while she raised his kids, did his laundry and served him supper for decades. Perhaps her own parents think she embarrassed them and don't speak to her anymore. Perhaps the man suffers from bipolar and misses his family who put up with it for 25 years until it was too much. He ruminates. Perhaps the phones come out on Shabbos. Perhaps they start making friends outside of the community. Perhaps they checked out of Judaism altogether and put on the requisite clothing in order that their kids can have some dignity and so that they can still work in the community.
You probably shouldn't have even read this far. You're getting ideas. What if it happens to you? Nah, you know what you're doing, and she would never leave you anyway, especially not with all these kids in tow. Sure, you haven't really been nice to each other in a few years. You push eachother's buttons and avoid each other as much as possible. Sometimes you fight but she gets over it, right? And you have a cute secretary so you're not feeling such a lack of human connection; you can survive. She wants you to go for couples counseling. You think you know what they're gonna say, that you should probably get divorced or perhaps make major changes and who needs to be scolded and threatened? So you refuse. The rabbi might suggest you see someone but those therapists are all the same and you saw something about this in the Lakewood Voice and the therapist was just a big fat yenta who told everyone about the person's private matters so you tell the rabbi to forget about it.
What if one day your wife demands a Gett? Are you gonna be shocked? How did she pull it off? Where's she gonna go? How's she gonna pay for stuff?
What if she's smarter than you and already put all your money in another account and hired a lawyer who's not going to let you see the kids more than every other Shabbos? How's that feeling now?
Maybe it's good for families to see divorced people. Perhaps you can be nicer to your wife. Perhaps she can be a bit more nurturing to you. Perhaps you can benefit from a good couple's therapist? Perhaps reality is that divorce isn't some " loser option", but rather a gift from God to remind us to cherish what we have and to be thankful for our spouse? And to allow us to move on and find someone else if it's no longer possible to serve Him with joy with that person?
https://rabbisacks.org/archive/marriage-is-a-metaphor-for-our-relationship-with-god/
Marriage is not just living together, a temporary partnership for mutually beneficial ends. Heaven help us if that is all we see in it. It is the point at which the “I” of self meets the “Thou” of another, transforming us into something larger, more spacious, more generous and tender than we could ever be on our own. In marriage at its best you see humanity at its best, and in a loving home you can almost touch the Divine Presence.
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/07/22/politics/tulsi-gabbard-russia-trump-obama-analysis
When President Donald Trump sided with Vladimir Putin over his own intelligence community on the topic of Russia’s interference in the 2016 US election, then-Sen. Marco Rubio sharply rebuked Trump.
The Florida Republican said in 2018 that the intelligence community’s “assessment of 2016 is accurate. It’s 100% accurate. The Russians interfered in our elections.”
He added: “I think it was not a good moment for the administration, obviously. Hopefully, something like that never happens again.”
But seven years later, it just keeps happening — over and over again — as Trump and his most loyal allies seek to sow doubts about that 2016 episode and punish their political enemies. That’s now taken the form of Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard threatening criminal referrals and even floating allegations of treason for key officials in the Obama administration.
Her argument is full of holes, as even critics of the Russia investigation such as the National Review’s Andrew McCarthy have noted. (Basically, the whole thing conflates Russia’s attempts to influence the 2016 election with nonexistent attacks on election infrastructure that changed votes. )
But just as notable is that Gabbard’s move to cast doubt on Russia’s 2016 interference is wholly at odds with several top Trump administration officials, most especially Rubio, along with a pair of congressional investigations spearheaded by Republicans.
“The Committee found that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the Russian effort to hack computer networks and accounts affiliated with the Democratic Party and leak information damaging to Hillary Clinton and her campaign for president,” the report said. “Moscow’s intent was to harm the Clinton Campaign, tarnish an expected Clinton presidential administration, help the Trump Campaign after Trump became the presumptive Republican nominee, and undermine the U.S. democratic process.”
Criminalizing a spat over interest rates is an Argentina-level mistake.
Ramban (Devarim 21:12): The reason for all the rules and procedures required for the Yofas To’ar (beautiful captive) is that she is being converted against her will. She is not asked if she wants to leave her religion and become Jewish as is done with other converts. She is told by her captor that she must keep the Torah whether she likes it or not and must abandon her religion. That is why the verse says she must cry for her father and her mother because she is forced to leave her people and deity. This is the derasha of R’ Akiva that “her father” refers to idolatry as it says in Yermiyahu (2:27), “They say to the tree ‘you are my father’ and to the rock “you gave birth to me.’ ” In sum, she is mourning over leaving her religion and becoming part of another nation. It is plausible that the court forces her to immerse in a mikveh and is done with slaves. Consequently since she is not becoming Jewish in the normal way the Torah distances her during this time. Our Sages say that the reason for having her mourn and and cry is that she should become repulsive and her captor will lose his lust for her. The Ibn Ezra says it is out of respect to her parents who died in the battle. In contrast the Rambam(Moreh Nevuchim 3:41) says it is to be merciful with her so that she can come to grips with her new situation because it is known that crying and mourning ultimately bring tranquility. The Rambam says during this period of mourning she is not forced to leave her religion and he is not to have sexual relations with her. However in my view this time is not to show kindness to her. Rather it is to uproot the name of her deity from her mouth and her heart as well as remove the pain of separation and loss of her father and mother and her people. That is because it is wrong to have sexual relations with a woman who is being forced and is in mourning as our Sages (Nedarim 20b) prohibited concerning a women that the husband has already decided to divorce her. So obviously in this case where she is crying in her heart to her deity to save her and return her to her people and deity (Ruth 1:15). Therefore when she is informed that she is being forcibly separated from her people and her land and being converted to Judaism, she is also told that she should give up any thought about her father and mother and her land because she will never see them again. She is told that now she will be the wife of her captor following Jewish custom (daas Moshe and Yehudis) (Kesubos 72a) Judaism. At this point she is given time to cry and mourn in order to calm down from her anguish and hopes. Mourning eventual brings acceptance and tranquility. During this time she will come to grips with the reality of conversion and this will partiall uproot idolatry from her heart as well as concern for her people and nation. She will let go of them and attach herself to this man (who captured her) as she becomes accustomed to him. That is why the Torah says that she is to be brought into his house… in the hope that she will accept her lot. All the above is only relevant when she is converted through force. However if she willing converts before a beis din according to the normal procedure for conversion – she is permitted to her captor immediately or to his father or brothers. This is stated explicitly in Yevamos (47b), “She shall cry for her father and mother for a month.” However this is only true when she doesn’t accept Judaism willingly. However if she accepts Judaism then she immerses herself in mikve and she is permitted at once. It is possible that this procedure is done with all female captives of war. In other words everyone is knows that they will be subject to this procedure – if they don’t agree to convert. Therefore because of fear of this procedure she will agree to convert from the beginning to avoid the procedure. That is why Devarim (21:14) says that in the end of he doesn’t want her she is set free – that she is free to return to her religion and she is not forced to observe the Jewish religion. That is because only the person who willing accepted conversion to Judaism is forced to observe it. Therefore only if she accepted Judaism willingly and yet violated Shabbos she is subject to stoning and if she ate pork she is subject to lashes. In other words the willing convert who ends up violating Jewish law is treated as any Jew who violates Jewish law. to send her. Furthermore if she converted willingly without being forced – she is not sent free if her captor rejects her. Because if she is viewed as being motivated to convert out of fear - she still has the status of a full Jew. This is stated in Yevamos (24b) that in cases of questionable motivation that they are still considered full Jews.
