The South Texas home of Elon Musk’s SpaceX rocket company is now an official city with a galactic name: Starbase. A vote Saturday to formally organize Starbase as a city was approved by a lopsided margin among the small group of voters who live there and are mostly Musk’s employees at SpaceX. With all the votes in, the tally was 212 in favor to 6 against, according to results published online by the Cameron County Elections Department. Musk celebrated in a post on his social platform, X, saying it is “now a real city!” Starbase is the facility and launch site for the SpaceX rocket program that is under contract with the Department of Defense and NASA that hopes to send astronauts back to the moon and someday to Mars.

A small plane crashed into a neighborhood in Simi Valley on Saturday afternoon, killing a person aboard the aircraft and damaging two homes, authorities said. Fire crews responded, and police cordoned off the streets, warning people to stay clear of the area. Smoke could be seen billowing from the roof of one home in the Wood Ranch section of the community, which lies nearly 50 miles (80 kilometers) northwest of Los Angeles. Wreckage could be seen between the two homes. The Ventura County Fire Department confirmed that residents were inside at the time but said they evacuated with no reported injuries. Both homes sustained structural damage and were impacted by the fire, authorities said. About 40 firefighters were on scene. With the flames out, they began working on salvage.

Britain’s counter-terrorism police arrested eight men, including seven Iranian citizens, in two separate operations on the same days, the Metropolitan Police announced on Sunday, according to a Reuters report. The men were arrested for alleged terror plots, including planning to target a specific location. The arrests were made in Swindon, west London, Stockport, Rochdale, and Manchester. “The investigation is still in its early stages and we are exploring various lines of enquiry to establish any potential motivation as well as to identify whether there may be any further risk to the public linked to this matter,” said Commander Dominic Murphy, head of the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command. The Embassy of Iran in London did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Beersheba District Court sentenced three defendants to prison terms ranging from 3.5 to 5 years for plotting several terror attacks in Israel, including a plan to assassinate National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir with a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG). The three men, two Arab-Israelis and one Palestinian, received light prison sentences  as part of a plea agreement in which the original charge was changed from “conspiracy to assist the enemy,” which carries a sentence of life imprisonment or death, to “disclosure of a decision to betray.” The trial of the other seven defendants, including the main defendants, is ongoing.

The Houthis in Yemen fired a missile at central Israel on Sunday morning, triggering sirens across central Israel, the Shefela, Shomron and the Jerusalem area. In a first, shrapnel from the missile fell in the Ben-Gurion airport area, which was packed with passengers returning from the March of the Living ceremonies held in Europe for Yom HaShoah. According to the MDA spokesperson, several people were lightly injured from the blast near Terminal 3, and there was extensive property damage in the area. It was the first time in two weeks that a missile was launched at central Israel. Following the incident, the IDF confirmed that it failed to intercept the missile although air missile defense forces made several attempts to do so. The incident is under investigation.

RAFAH, Gaza — The Israeli military announced that two IDF soldiers were killed and two others wounded in a devastating explosion caused by a booby-trapped tunnel shaft in southern Gaza’s Rafah on Saturday. The fallen soldiers were identified as Captain Noam David, 23, from Sha’arei Tikva, and Staff Sergeant Yaly Seror, 20, from Omer. Both served in the elite Yahalom combat engineering unit, known for its specialized operations. According to an initial IDF investigation, the Yahalom soldiers, operating under the Golani Brigade, were scanning the entrance to a tunnel inside a building when the explosion occurred. One of the wounded soldiers is reported to be in moderate condition, while the other’s condition was not specified.

Singapore’s long-ruling People’s Action Party won another landslide in Saturday’s general elections, extending its 66-year unbroken rule in a huge boost for Prime Minister Lawrence Wong who took power a year ago. The Election Department announced the PAP won 82 Parliamentary seats after vote counting ended. The party had earlier won five seats uncontested, giving it 87 out of a total 97 seats. The opposition Workers Party maintained its 10 seats. The PAP’s popular vote rose to 65.6%, up from a near-record low of 61% in 2020 polls. Jubilant supporters of the PAP, which had ruled Singapore since 1959, gathered in stadiums waved flags and cheered in celebration.

Passengers with flights to or from Newark Liberty International Airport encountered long delays and cancellations Saturday due to an air traffic controller shortage, a nationwide problem the Trump administration has pledged to fix. The busy airport outside New York City experienced disruptions all week. Faulting the Federal Aviation Administration’s alleged failure to address “long-simmering” challenges related to the air-traffic control system, United Airlines cut 35 daily flights from its Newark schedule starting Saturday. United CEO Scott Kirby said the technology used to manage planes at the New Jersey airport failed more than once in recent days.

YWN regrets to inform you of the petirah of Rabbi Sholom Lipskar zt”l, the longtime Rav of The Shul of Bal Harbour and founder of the Aleph Institute, who was niftar after decades of transformative avodas hakodesh and recent medical complications. He was approximately 77 years old. Rabbi Lipskar, born in 1946 in Tashkent in the former Soviet Union, was a lifelong servant of Klal Yisrael. As a baby, he was miraculously smuggled across the Soviet border and taken to a Displaced Persons (DP) camp in Germany, before eventually settling with his family in Ontario, Canada. His early life, marked by mesirus nefesh, shaped a neshama that would later inspire countless Jews across the globe.

Revered investor Warren Buffett shocked an arena full of his shareholders Saturday by announcing that he wants to retire at the end of the year. Buffett said he will recommend to Berkshire Hathaway’s board on Sunday that Vice Chairman Greg Abel should replace him. “I think the time has arrived where Greg should become the chief executive officer of the company at year end,” Buffett said. Abel has been Buffett’s designated successor for years, and he already manages all of Berkshire’s noninsurance businesses. But it was always assumed that he would not take over until after Buffett’s death. Previously the 94-year-old Buffett always said he had no plans to retire. Buffett announced the news at the end of a five-hour question and answer period without taking any questions about it.