Georgia has become the latest state where a federal judge has blocked a law requiring age verification for social media accounts. Like in seven other states where such laws have been blocked, a federal judge ruled Thursday that the Georgia law infringes on free speech rights. The ruling by U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg means that the Georgia measure, which passed in 2024, won’t take effect next week as scheduled. Instead, Totenberg granted a preliminary injunction blocking the law until there’s a full ruling on the issue. Georgia’s law would require some social media providers to take “commercially reasonable” steps to verify a user’s age and require children younger than 16 to get parental permission for accounts.

Having just recently read some gender-based letters (that is, letters from women complaining about men) in a Jewish publication, I was confronted with a mailbag letter from a female high school student complaining about the dress code of the seminary she will be attending next year. Besides saying that the code would stifle her self-expression, the student alleged that parallel standards are not applied to yeshiva bochurim, in that rules against “hoodies” and guidelines about haircuts are allegedly not being enforced in men’s yeshivas. Excuse me??? Last time I checked, Yeshiva boys have the most restrictive dress code of all, being required to wear black suits/pants and white shirts.

During a speech delivered Thursday at the White House, President Donald Trump unleashed pointed criticism at Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, accusing him of turning his back on the Jewish community.
Trump’s comments were made at an event promoting the One Big, Beautiful Bill Act, a sweeping Republican-backed tax and spending measure that GOP lawmakers are aiming to pass and send to Trump’s desk by Independence Day.
While discussing his broader grievances with the Democratic Party, Trump singled out Schumer—who is himself Jewish—as an example of what he sees as the party’s abandonment of traditional values, especially in its embrace of transgender rights.

Republicans on the House Oversight Committee issued a subpoena Thursday to Anthony Bernal, a senior aide to former first lady Jill Biden, as part of their rapidly expanding investigation into former President Joe Biden’s mental fitness while in office. The subpoena signed by Rep. James Comer of Kentucky, the Republican Oversight chairman, requires Bernal to appear for a deposition on July 16. It came after several weeks of back-and-forth with Bernal’s lawyer over the timing of a voluntary interview. “Given your close connection with both former President Biden and former First Lady Jill Biden, the Committee sought to understand if you contributed to an effort to hide former President Biden’s fitness to serve from the American people,” the subpoena reads.

Former Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) delivered a combative and unfiltered monologue on CNN Wednesday night, accusing systemic racism — and the psychological toll of being “called the N-word directly or indirectly every day” — of driving chronic health disparities in the Black community. The ex-congressman, who lost his seat last year in a bruising primary challenge, took center stage during a panel discussion on CNN NewsNight, blasting Republicans, invoking slavery, and tying health outcomes to racism in a performance that quickly veered into territory more suited for a protest podium than a policy roundtable. “You can’t be calm about this!” Bowman shouted at former Trump adviser Marc Short, barely allowing him to speak. “I’m a Black man in America!

The State Prosecutor’s Office filed a formal indictment today (Thursday) in the Yerushalayim District Court against a 23-year-old resident of Beitar Illit who is accused of deliberately setting two separate fires, one of which targeted the shul where the Rishon LeTzion, Rav Yitzchak Yosef, regularly davens. The acts resulted in property damage and posed a serious risk to human life.

Andrew Cuomo will remain in the New York City mayoral race beyond Friday’s deadline to withdraw from the general election, according to sources who spoke with CNN. His continued presence on the ballot means the strategic groundwork he laid before the Democratic primary — anticipating a potential face-off against both Zohran Mamdani and current Mayor Eric Adams — remains in play for the fall.
Although Cuomo acknowledged defeat on Tuesday night and conceded to Mamdani, insiders say he hasn’t made a definitive commitment to campaign actively in the coming months. Nonetheless, the former governor will retain his place on the “Fight & Deliver” party line for the November election, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Ukrainian forces have halted Russia’s recent advance into the northern Sumy region and have stabilized the front line near the border with Russia, Ukraine’s top military commander said Thursday. Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, commander in chief of Ukraine’s armed forces, said that Ukrainian successes in Sumy have prevented Russia from deploying about 50,000 Russian troops, including elite airborne and marine brigades, to other areas of the front line. His claim couldn’t be independently verified, and Russian officials made no immediate comment. Russian forces have been slowly grinding forward at some points on the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, though their incremental gains have been costly in terms of troop casualties and damaged armor.