Travelers heading upstate on Thursday nights this summer will be able to catch a minyan without having to worry about seasonal heat, humidity, or heavy rains, with the Tefilas Mordche Mincha Area moving to an indoor, air-conditioned space for the first time ever. The Mincha Area will be operating inside The Marketplace shopping center in Spring Valley, located just off exit 14 of the New York State Thruway. Minyanim will be held every Thursday starting on June 26th and running through August 28th. The mall’s first entrance offers the fastest access to the Mincha Area, with signs posted inside the mall pointing travelers to the davening spot.

At a Thursday morning briefing alongside Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth criticized the press for latching onto an early intelligence report that appeared to cast doubt on the success of recent U.S. airstrikes targeting Iranian nuclear facilities. He accused reporters of ignoring context and downplaying a mission that, according to the administration, achieved its goals.
Hegseth argued that the assessment, which suggested the damage from the strikes may have fallen short of expectations, had not been vetted across the intelligence community. He emphasized that other, more thorough evaluations presented a very different understanding of the impact from “Operation Midnight Hammer.”

Israel’s Mossad agency has proffered an offer of free telemedicine to residents of Iran injured during Operation Rising Lion. The offer was extended on the Mossad’s brand-new Farsi-language X account, its first public account in its history, in a break from its strict decades-long policy of secrecy. “Dear people of Iran,” the post begins. “A ceasefire has been implemented. Now, the extent of the damage is becoming clear.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader, made a rare public appearance Thursday, claiming an unsubstantiated triumph over Israel and boasting that his regime had “delivered a hand slap to America’s face.” This marked his first public speech since Israeli and U.S. forces devastated key elements of Iran’s nuclear program, an operation President Trump labeled “total obliteration.”
Despite Iran’s massive losses, including the deaths of more than a dozen senior nuclear scientists and the destruction of three major uranium enrichment facilities, Khamenei insisted on calling the 12-day conflict a victory.

MASSIVE OUTAGE: Nearly 6,500 customers in Lakewood and Jackson are without power this morning, as JCP&L continues to fail in its basic job of keep the lights on. ETA for restoration is currently 10:30 am.

HEGSETH: “When someone leaks something, they do it with an agenda. When you leak a portion of an intelligence assessment but just a little portion… that makes it seem like maybe the strike wasn’t effective, then you start a news cycle.”

Sen. Eric Schmitt: “Just think about that feat—of being in the air for 30 hours… and execute something that precise… we accomplished that particular goal, and then immediately moved toward peace and a ceasefire. It’s pretty remarkable.”

A former Venezuelan spymaster who was close to the country’s late President Hugo Chávez pleaded guilty Wednesday to drug trafficking charges a week before his trial was set to begin in a Manhattan federal court. Retired Maj. Gen. Hugo Carvajal was extradited from Spain in 2023 after more than a decade on the run from U.S. law enforcement, including a botched arrest in Aruba while he was serving as a diplomat representing current Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s government. Carvajal pleaded guilty in court to all four criminal counts, including narco-terrorism, in an indictment accusing him of leading a cartel made up of senior Venezuelan military officers that attempted to “flood” the U.S. with cocaine in cahoots with leftist guerrillas from neighboring Colombia.

Sec. of Defense Pete Hegseth: “What President Trump accomplished in NATO yesterday was game-changing and historic … 32 NATO countries committed to spending 5% of their GDP on defense on actually investing in the NATO alliance.”

Gen. Dan “Razin” Caine demonstrates how GBU-57 MOPs work: “Unlike a normal surface bomb, you won’t see an impact crater because they’re designed to deeply bury and then function … All six weapons at each vent at Fordow went exactly where they were intended to go.”

Pete Hegseth on Iran: “We’re watching very closely what they do… our job is to be prepared… but the President has created the contours, the opportunity for a deal; for peace — and we got that peace, that ceasefire… because of strength.”

TRUMP ON FORDOW: The cars and small trucks at the site were those of concrete workers trying to cover up the top of the shafts. Nothing was taken out of facility. Would take too long, too dangerous, and very heavy and hard to move!

A piece of suspected missile debris was found this morning floating in the water near the shore of the Kinneret. Israeli police marine officers and inspectors secured the area and removed the left over threat.

ANOTHER ONE CONFIRMED: IRGC Quds Force’s Palestine department head, General Izadi, was killed in an Israeli strike in a few days ago.

TRUMP EFFECT: Summer road trips appear to be safe from a big spike in gasoline prices. The national average price of gasoline has hovered around $3.20 a gallon this week. The last time the cost for drivers was lower in late June was in 2021, when the pandemic depressed demand for the fuel.

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Ayatollah Khanemei delivered a live televised speech, his first public statement since the ceasefire was declared. Unsurprisingly, Khamenei spouted lies and propaganda about Iran’s “victory” and even claimed that the Islamic Republic delivered a “harsh slap to America’s face” and “crushed the Zionist state.” He added that the US felt forced to join the war out of fear that “the Zionist regime would be totally destroyed.”

Secretary of Defense Hegseth reads intelligence assessments that confirm the Iranian regime’s nuclear facilities have been obliterated: “Rendered the enrichment facility inoperable” “Enormous damage to Iran’s nuclear sites” “Destroyed Iran’s centrifuge enrichment program” “Destroyed”

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