A newly emerging, highly contagious strain of COVID-19 that has been driving up hospital admissions in China has now made its way to the United States, with infections confirmed in multiple locations including New York City, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Known as NB.1.81, the variant was initially identified in the U.S. between late March and early April, discovered in travelers arriving through airports in California, Virginia, Washington, and New York City. Further cases have since been documented in states such as Rhode Island, Ohio, and Hawaii.

JERUSALEM (AP) — Argentina’s President Javier Milei is headed to Israel.

Walmart fined for shipping realistic toy guns to New York, violating state law Walmart agreed to pay a small fine and promised to ensure its third-party resellers are unable to sell imitation toy guns to buyers in New York. New York Attorney General Letitia James said that the retail giant’s online store shipped at least nine such toys to the state. State law bans retailers from selling or shipping toy guns of certain colors — black, dark blue, silver, or aluminum — that look like real weapons.

Dozens of Yidden gathered to demonstrate at a building site in Yehud, a city in central Israel, asserting that the land under development may be the location of an ancient bais hakevaros.
Video footage from the scene captured several chareidi men sprawled on the ground within the work zone, symbolically pouring dirt into sections of the site that had already been dug up as a show of opposition.
On Tuesday, Border Police forces responded by forcibly removing the demonstrators from the premises.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Drones have harassed airports and bedeviled local police.

A bizarre metallic sphere, spotted soaring through the skies before crash-landing in the small town of Buga, Colombia, on March 2, has sparked a firestorm of speculation about its origins, with some researchers claiming it could be evidence of extraterrestrial technology. The discovery has drawn global attention, dividing scientists and fueling debates about whether the object is alien, an elaborate hoax, or something else entirely. The sphere, described as a seamless, silver orb roughly the size of a bowling ball, was recovered shortly after its dramatic descent. Witnesses reported seeing it zigzag through the sky in a manner that defied the movement of conventional aircraft, before it landed in a rural area near Buga.

A man accused of brutally assaulting an off-duty NYPD officer in a shocking weekend attack has been captured hundreds of miles away. Taveon Hargrove, 23, was taken into custody Tuesday morning by members of the U.S. Marshals Regional Fugitive Task Force in North Chesterfield, Virginia, bringing a dramatic end to a multi-day manhunt. He now awaits extradition to New York City, where charges are pending. The arrest comes just days after the violent incident rocked the Bronx. Early Saturday morning, near St. Peters Avenue in the Parkchester section, Hargrove and another still-unidentified suspect allegedly ambushed a 27-year-old off-duty officer, knocking him to the ground before punching, kicking, and robbing him at knifepoint.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has revised its guidelines, announcing that it will no longer advise healthy children or pregnant women to receive the COVID-19 vaccine. The decision was made public by the Trump administration on Tuesday.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. criticized the prior administration’s approach, stating in a video message, “Last year, the Biden administration urged healthy children to get yet another COVID shot despite the lack of any critical data to support the repeat booster strategy in children.”
Echoing that sentiment, FDA Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary remarked, “There’s no evidence that healthy kids need it today and most countries have stopped recommending it for children.”

Israel’s establishment of humanitarian aid hubs is being seen as a pivotal moment in the unraveling of Hamas’s dominance in Gaza, according to an Israeli official who spoke with The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday. The IDF has unveiled two major food distribution centers, which are intended to provide sustenance for as many as 600,000 Palestinians within a week.
These aid centers are positioned at Tel Sultan, located deep in the southern Gaza area of Rafah, and at the Morag Corridor, slightly to the north of Rafah.

Thousands of Ezer Mizion volunteers gathered today for a special yom tefillah on Erev Rosh Chodesh Sivan, visiting the kevarim of tzaddikim throughout the Galil. The event took place in a tent near the kever of Rav Shimon bar Yochai in Meron. Divrei chizuk was delivered by Rav Chananya Cholak, followed by Rav Shimon Galai shlit”a, who offered divrei bracha.

WATCH: CCTV cameras capture the massive explosion at Shandong Youdao Chemical’s plant in China’s Shandong province, the world’s largest chlorpyrifos producer, sending thick gray and orange smoke plumes hundreds of meters high. Casualties are unknown, with rescue operations ongoing.

Drones have harassed airports and bedeviled local police. They have trespassed over nuclear plants and prisons. On the battlefield, they can kill. But aside from shooting down the devices, which may create further danger, there’s often not much anyone can do to stop drones when they pose a threat or wander where they’re not welcome. That’s beginning to change. Cheap and easily modified, unmanned aerial vehicles have become a part of daily life as well as a tool for governments and bad actors alike — used for intelligence gathering, surveillance, sabotage, terrorism and more. Concerns about their misuse have spurred a technological scramble for ways to stop the devices in midair. “An adversary can use an off-the-shelf drone they bought for $500 and find out what’s going on at U.S.

Freed Israeli hostage Omer Wenkert recounted the horrific abuse he endured while imprisoned in Hamas’s underground tunnels, describing a brutal deterioration in his treatment that coincided with Israel’s military operation in Rafah during May 2024.
“They deliberately deprived me of food,” Wenkert said while speaking at the Bar Association conference, recalling a period of two to three weeks during which he survived on just half a pita a day.
He described the conditions as especially cruel around the time the IDF advanced toward Rafah. “There was purposeful starvation, and calculated torment,” he said. “They put me in situations that seriously threatened my life — and did it just for amusement.”

More footage shows the chaos at the aid distribution site in Rafah. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation says that its American security sub-contractors fell back in order to allow “a small number” of people to take food, and that operations have since returned to normal.

Alex Thompson on Fox News: “If you believe…that Donald Trump was and is an existential threat to democracy, you can rationalize anything, including sometimes doing undemocratic things.”

Less than 2% of Gazans trust Hamas to manage and deliver humanitarian aid, as opposed to 5% who trust Israel & the U.S., according to a poll by The Arab World for Research and Development.

President Trump warns Moscow, claiming Russia avoided ‘REALLY BAD’ consequences only thanks to him.

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