A quarter century later, Rosh Hashanah and 9/11 converge on the day judgment is written, but the shofar is silent
This Rosh Hashanah arrives on the eve of September 11, 2026, twenty-five years to the day since nineteen terrorists hijacked four American airliners and killed 2,977 people, including five Israelis, drawn from more than seventy nations. The Jewish New Year, the Yamim Noraim, the Days of Awe, begins this year at the exact hour America marks a quarter century of mourning. It is only the second time since 2001 that the two dates have coincided, and this year Rosh Hashanah falls on Shabbat as well, meaning the shofar that normally opens the Jewish year will not sound at all.

Fresh US aircraft carrier strike group arrives in Middle East
The USS George Washington aircraft carrier strike group has arrived in the Middle East, the US military announced Thursday. The aircraft carrier will replace the long-deployed USS Abraham Lincoln after apparently deteriorating living conditions on board sparked fresh criticism of President Donald Trump’s war against Iran.

Central African Republic Gold Mine Collapse Kills More Than 100
The death toll from the collapse of an artisanal gold mine in western Central African Republic has risen to more than 100, with others still missing or trapped beneath rubble, underscoring broader concerns about safety risks faced by miners across the region, The low-tech Zamboye gold-mining site collapsed Tuesday, August 18, near the border with Cameroon, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the town of Baboua.

Harvard agrees to $53M settlement with families after donated body parts were stolen, sold on black market
Former morgue manager Cedric Lodge pleaded guilty to stealing and selling cadaver parts from Harvard Medical School. Harvard University has agreed to a proposed $53 million settlement with families who accused the school of negligently handling its anatomical gift program after a former morgue manager stole and sold body parts from remains donated for medical research and education. “His violations … were despicable, abhorrent, and a flagrant betrayal of our values as a medical community,” George Daley, Harvard’s dean of the faculty of medicine, and Bernard Chang, dean for medical education at Harvard Medical School, wrote in the letter.

Romania destroys marine drone near Neptun Deep gas project, minister says
Romania scrambled F-16 fighter jets to destroy ​a marine drone spotted a few hundred metres from the Black Sea gas ‌project Neptun Deep, Defence Minister Radu Miruta said on Thursday. The incident underscores the growing threat to critical energy infrastructure in the Black Sea from drones and mines linked to Russia’s war in Ukraine, with Neptun Deep ​expected to make Romania the European Union’s largest gas producer when it comes onstream ​in 2027.

Oil Exports Almost Halted as Iran’s Economic Crisis Deepens
Iran’s conservatives portray the suspension of talks as proof of American failure, but the central bank governor acknowledged cash-flow difficulties. The proposal targeting foreign infiltration is turning ties with the outside world into a focal point of conflict within the regime.

Israel didn’t approve entry of int’l security force to Gaza Strip, Netanyahu says 
Israel hasn’t approved the entry of the International Stabilization Force (ISF) into the Gaza Strip, the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (PMO) stated. “Contrary to reports, the political leadership did not approve the entry of the international force into the Gaza Strip,” the PMO said. “Israel made clear that there will be no reconstruction of the Strip before Hamas is fully disarmed.”

Netanyahu reiterates: Israel ‘won’t tolerate’ any Turkish military presence in Syria 
Israel’s leadership doubled down on threatening Turkey not to advance its military toward Israel on Wednesday, after claiming responsibility for strikes on a northern Syrian airport to render it unusable ahead of the allegedly planned takeover by Turkish troops.

US plans to bar Mahmoud Abbas from attending UN General Assembly for second year
The United States is planning to deny Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and members of the Palestinian delegation visas to travel to New York for next month’s United Nations General Assembly, repeating a restriction that prevented Abbas from attending the gathering in person last year, The Jerusalem Post reported. Washington’s planned move would prevent Abbas from delivering his address at UN headquarters in person.

U.S. Treasury Secretary to Unveil Iran Economic Isolation Plan on 24th, Pressuring Allies to “Choose Sides”
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on the 20th that the administration will announce a plan to economically isolate Iran and its trading partners at a press conference on the 24th. He pressed allies to decide whether to “stand with the United States or against it,” emphasizing that this would be the largest coordinated economic isolation campaign in history. With China in focus as the primary buyer of Iranian crude, Bessent noted that Chinese cooperation would serve China’s own interests. Brent crude rose for a fifth consecutive session to around $94 per barrel, its highest level since the start of the month. President Trump warned on the 19th that third countries providing a “lifeline” to Iran would also face economic consequences. I

Deri warns: “They are fighting to destroy us from within”
Shas chairman launches the party’s election campaign with harsh accusations against elements within the Haredi community who, he claims, are acting on behalf of the left to harm the right-wing bloc.

Democratic Senate candidate El-Sayed’s mother worked for Hamas, Taliban-linked group
Abdul El-Sayed’s mother worked for the Islamic American/African Relief Agency, which the US Treasury designated in 2004 over ties to terrorist financing. The birth mother of Democratic US Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed worked for a designated terror group that financed Hamas and the Taliban, the Midwesterner first revealed on Tuesday. … this omission might be intentional.

Turkey ‘crossed a red line’ in Syria, Israeli ambassador to US Leiter tells ‘Post’ 
Israeli Ambassador to the United States Yechiel Leiter told The Jerusalem Post that Israel had received clear intelligence indicating that Turkey intended to significantly expand its military presence in Syria, a move Jerusalem viewed as crossing a red line. “We are not seeking escalation or war with either Turkey or Syria. But a red linewas crossed,” he said. His comments came following Israel’s strike in Syria and subsequent criticism from both the Syrian and Turkish governments. “This was supposed to be a blatant Turkish violation of the understandings,” Leiter said. “Those who needed to be exposed to the intelligence received it. Those who needed to know what was coming knew. We made clear that this was a violation of our understandings – and that is why Israel acted as it did.”

Hamas Uses Gaza Hospital for Torture, Interrogation of Palestinians, IDF Says
Hamas has been using Nasser Hospital in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis to torture and interrogate Palestinians, according to Israeli authorities. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) and the Shin Bet security agency released a joint statement on Thursday saying they can now reveal intelligence showing that Hamas “conducts security interrogations and torture” at the hospital.

In meeting with Kushner, Netanyahu makes ‘very clear, in no uncertain words, that he is against a Palestinian state’
In a meeting on Monday with Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law …Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made “very clear, and in no uncertain terms, that he is against a Palestinian state,” according to a senior Israeli official. Kushner and other visiting Americans didn’t press a Palestinian state, but the prime minister made it “abundantly clear that he is 100% firm on this,” the senior Israeli official told JNS.

Israel warns Syria against Turkish military buildup as Ankara lashes out at Netanyahu
Ambassador Yechiel Leiter says Turkey crossed a ‘red line’ by planning to expand its Syrian military presence; Ankara denies the claim and accuses Netanyahu of fueling regional instability

China embraces AI while America fears being replaced
While university graduates in the United States greet Silicon Valley executives with boos and see automation as a direct threat to their livelihoods, in China people are embracing the AI revolution with almost blind enthusiasm. The enormous gap is no accident. It is the result of a short technological memory, a radically different employment structure and one basic question: Who really holds the reins of the tech giants? Eric Schmidt, Google’s legendary former CEO …began extolling the “enormous benefits” of artificial intelligence, the hall did not respond with polite applause. …Instead, the audience, …. broke into a cacophony of boos.

‘Responsible For The World’s Problems’: Israel Has Truly Become ‘The World’s Jew’
Bar-Illan said that the media was “loading the dice” against Israel, not simply by negative reporting but by hiding facts, distorting context, and declaring Israel guilty without evidence. He didn’t claim Israel should be immune from critique. No nation should be. Israel is a country of human beings who disagree, make poor choices, and fail. But Bar-Illan recognized that Israel is held to a different standard. When dictatorships slaughter their own people, terrorists embed themselves among civilians, and regional powers arm proxies and export chaos, the world concludes that Israel is the problem. Antisemitism did not disappear with the Nazis after the Holocaust. It simply wore a different uniform and shouted new slogans.

Spain: Granada seismic sequence exceeds 620 quakes, around 600 residents evacuated
A shallow seismic sequence south of Granada, Spain, has produced more than 600 earthquakes since August 14, 2026, including two M4.8 events. Around 600 residents were evacuated in Las Gabias while hundreds of buildings were inspected for damage.

6.7 Peru earthquake injures 2, damages buildings
A 6.7 earthquake shook Peru’s southern Andes Mountains Thursday, injuring at least two people and damaging homes, health centers and schools. The earthquake was centered in the Ayacucho region. It was felt in several regions of southern Peru, including Ica, Arequipa, Huancavelica, Apurimac and Cusco, as well as in the capital, Lima.

Snowplow in August? Overnight storm dumps 3 inches of hail on Kansas City airport
A utility pole was also damaged, knocking out power to portions of the airport. Crews at the Kansas City Downtown Airport are breaking out the snowplows after early morning storms. Snowplows in August? After thunderstorms? These storms dumped three inches of hail on some of the taxiways at Wheeler Field.

Day of Reckoning Arrives for U.S. Treasuries Just as U.S. National Debt Reaches $40,000,000,000,000
We’re 40 trillion dollars in debt and spending well over a trillion a year in interest. No one can deny that our debt spiral is totally out of control. The federal budget deficit for July was 432 billion dollars. Interest on the national debt for July was 118 billion dollars. Now Treasury yields are spiking as investors become hesitant to buy more of our debt.

Blasphemy: Abdul El-Sayed Compares Himself to Jesus on Progressive Christians Podcast – ‘Radical in His Time Too’
Communist Muslim Democrat Michigan U.S. Senate candidate El-Sayed is invoking Jesus once again to justify socialist policies such as Medicare for All, but his comparison of himself to Christ is blasphemous. Jesus is seen as subservient to Allah in Islam, not as the crucified Son of God in Christianity. Using Jesus as a political prop is disgusting and evil.

Israeli FM Hits Back at UK: ‘Israel Will Not Be a Passive Victim… It Will Defend Its Rights, Its Interests, and Its People’
Sa’ar said, “It is absurd for Britain to lecture the Jewish people about where they may live in their historic tiny homeland, when the Jewish people’s connection and right to this land is the most extensively documented of any people in human history.”

Syrian Nuclear Material, Turkish Encroachment, and the Burden of Damascus
It doesn’t matter who controls Syria—whether it’s the Assad regime or now Ahmed al-Sharaa—we know Biblically that there has to be a future cataclysmic event that will cause Damascus to cease from being a city (Isaiah 17:1). Knowing this, one eye has to always stay on what’s going on in Syria.

Home Office hands out pamphlet to educate “asylum seekers” that rape is a crime in UK
Yesterday, the UK Home Office published a 7-page booklet that will be given to asylum seekers as part of an education campaign. It comes in the wake of a series of horrific rapes and sex attacks by people entering the country under the auspices of seeking asylum.

‘Shocked and Distressed’: Canadian Christian Grandmother Euthanized Against Her Will, Says Family
The family of a Christian grandmother who was euthanized, allegedly without her consent, filed a complaint. Brigette Stegemann previously refused so-called Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) on the grounds that it violated her Christian faith. She died by a lethal injection on July 10 without providing a final verbal confirmation of consent.

Iran loses key economic lifeline in Middle East that Trump’s sanctions couldn’t reach as deadlock persists
The United Arab Emirates suspended all trade, commercial exchanges and financial transactions with Iran after accusing Tehran of firing ballistic missiles toward maritime traffic. The UAE’s move severs one of Tehran’s most important commercial links, cutting off Iran’s imports valued at roughly $21B

Teen Boys Are Using Meta Glasses to Harass and Bully Girls at High Schools and Middle Schools
A Futurism review found large numbers of videos recorded at middle and high schools using smart glasses — almost always Meta’s AI Glasses, designed in partnership with the eyewear titan Ray-Ban — and shared to social media platforms TikTok and Instagram. Recordings take place in school hallways, cafeterias, and classrooms, and feature interactions with other students as well as with staff and faculty.

UAE Cuts Ties As Iran Warns Gulf States Against Helping Washington; Kpler Says US Navy Gaining Ground In Hormuz
And in another significant escalation that effectively torpedoes any remaining illusions of hoped-for cross-Gulf detente, the United Arab Emirates has announced Wednesday a complete and immediate severance of all economic ties with Tehran. The move comes on the heels of what UAE officials claim was a barrage of Iranian ballistic missiles targeted directly at Emirati territory.

Why Is This Medieval Disease Striking LA County
Flea-borne typhus hit 220 cases in Los Angeles County in 2025, a record, and nearly 9 in 10 patients needed hospitalization as rats and encampments spread. “It’s largely an issue of … people living in just horrible conditions in close proximity to rats,” Winslow said, describing rats as the primary hosts involved in the infection. Those conditions are particularly relevant as LA continues to struggle with homelessness. However, the problem extends beyond encampments.

Kamala Is Back – and More Radical Than Ever
Despite losing the popular vote, Electoral College, and every swing state, national polling shows that former Vice President Kamala Harris remains the clear presidential frontrunner for Democrats in 2028. But the version of Harris Americans will likely see on the campaign trail appears far more radical than even what they saw two years ago.

Arizona Democrat vows renewed assault on Seal of Confession despite repeated failures
An Arizona Democrat has pledged to continue to assault the Catholic Seal of Confession despite a state supreme court ruling and previous failed attempts. For years, Democrat Stacey Travers has been obsessively focused on violating the rights of Catholics, including confessors and penitents, to have the Seal of Confession protected.

Texas Hits New Peak Demand Record, Faces 80% Supply Shortfall By 2030
ERCOT’s large-load queue has grown by more than 200 GW since 2024, driven largely by data centers, manufacturing, cryptocurrency and industrial oil and gas development, but uncertainty remains over how much load can be safely interconnected. Even though that appetite is enormous, if it can’t get met, it’s not coming online,” Brent Nelson, senior managing director of market intelligence at Ascend, told Utility Dive in an interview. “The ability of the grid to add new generation is much, much smaller than the demand of queued large-load facilities,” Robert LaFaso, Ascend’s director of market intelligence, told Utility Dive. Both executives identified generation availability as the primary constraint.

Americans Stop Paying the World’s Pharmacy Tab as Prices Fall Hardest Since 1963
President Donald Trump’s Most Favored Nation policies and TrumpRx platform have produced the largest annual drop in U.S. prescription drug prices in over 60 years, the steepest since 1963, according to the administration. The update follows years of price increases across much of the sector, with Americans footing the bill for other nations’ use. “Without even twisting an arm, without trying to pass a new bill, he [Trump] brought all these players together with TrumpRX to lower the cost of prescription drugs, and he continues to do that because this guy understands leverage.

Prosecutors In Charlie Kirk Slaying Case Say Evidence Supports Death Penalty
Prosecutors on Aug. 18 urged a Utah judge to uphold all charges, including one carrying a potential death sentence, in the case against Charlie Kirk’s accused killer. prosecutors said evidence clearly shows that others besides Kirk were at great risk of being killed—an “aggravating” circumstance that supports a death-penalty-level charge, they argued.

Jeffrey Tucker Reveals The Insidious Reason For The Lockdowns
Jeffrey Tucker – founder and president of the Brownstone Institute, says top FDA and NIH officials told him that the purpose of the COVID-19 lockdowns were “to delay the onset of natural immunity… until after the shots were online.” Dr. Jessica Rose, where he says that ‘multiple sources’ who were involved in the response confirmed the bombshell revelation “without a shadow of a doubt.” The lockdowns that wiped out small businesses. The school closures that sent children’s reading scores back to 1971. The plexiglass, the masking, the stay-at-home orders. None of it was about keeping us safe. “It was exactly the opposite,” It sounds like a “wild conspiracy theory.” But it’s the truth.

With no MoU extension in sight, Iran threatens attacks on US sites in Europe 
Iran is weighing an attack on U.S. military facilities in Europe if President Donald Trump orders an escalation in military operations, the Financial Times reported. Citing two regime insiders, the Times report identified Bulgaria and Cyprus as possible targets of such attacks. One of the regime insiders referred to the previous drone attack on a British air base in Cyprus as proof of Tehran’s ability to carry out such attacks.

Turkish president’s party set up Washington HQ, met with US influencers critical of Trump, Israel 
A recent investigation into U.S. Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) records is raising questions over Turkish lobbying efforts involving several media personalities, including former CIA officer John Kiriakou and the CEO of the Tucker Carlson Network. The investigation by journalist and open-source intelligence (OSINT) researcher Eitan Fischberger, based on FARA records, draws attention to meetings between these media personalities and the Justice and Development Party (AKP) of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The AKP spent millions of dollars in 2024 to acquire the former French Embassy, turning it into a headquarters for its U.S. influence operations in Washington, D.C.

Israel confirms striking Syrian airport to prevent Turkish entrenchment; Damascus claims right to keep nuclear material 
After months of relative quiet, the Syrian front came back into focus in Israel in recent days, as Jerusalem confirmed having struck an airport in northern Syria on Tuesday to prevent Turkey’s military from establishing itself there, rejecting criticism from the United States.

Where is the Ark of the Covenant today? A Torah scholar weighs in on the leading theories
Talmudic scholar and Torah educator Efraim Palvanov worked through the question methodically, moving from the original construction of the Mishkan (Tabernacle) through a largely unknown history of multiple ancient Jewish temples,

Jewish Men Pray From Prayer Books on the Temple Mount: The Quiet Revolution Bringing the Third Temple
Jewish worshipers were allowed to carry and read from full siddurim (prayer books) on the Temple Mount on Sunday, the latest and most significant challenge to a decades-old policy barring non-Muslim prayer at Judaism’s holiest site. Right-wing journalist Arnon Segal posted a photograph Sunday showing men praying at the site with siddurim in hand, towels laid on the ground before them signaling that the men had also prostrated themselves in prayer. “Still no blanket permit, but an initial experiment aimed at ensuring the Middle East doesn’t lose its mind over this,” Segal wrote, calling the moment “history.”

Netanyahu says that IDF ‘made sure’ Syria ‘understood’ that Turkey unwelcome in region
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the IDF struck a Syrian military base after Jerusalem had given Damascus several warnings about Turkey’s military presence in the country. In his first comments since Israel struck Syria on Tuesday, Netanyahu wrote in a Wednesday post on X/Twitter that Israel “made the message clear: Don’t.”

Katz: IDF to continue eliminating terrorists from within Gaza security zone
Israel’s policy for Gaza is to “remove threats, eliminate terrorists, and exact retribution from anyone who took part in the [Oct. 7, 2023,] massacre,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said on Tuesday.The Israel Defense Forces eliminated Hamas terrorists in Gaza earlier in the day and will “continue to act with force to protect our soldiers and ensure the peace for the southern communities—from within the security zone,” Katz added in Hebrew.

SYRIA SHOWDOWN: Mossad Chief Spoke With Syrian FM Days Before Israeli Strike as Netanyahu Warns Türkiye
New details emerging from the dramatic Israeli strike in northern Syria reveal that Israel had repeatedly warned Damascus against allowing Türkiye to establish a significant military foothold in the country — including through a rare high-level contact between Mossad chief Roman Gofman and Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani just days before the attack.

Russia’s fuel crisis returns as Ukrainian drones target oil facilities
Russia’s fuel crisis enters a second wave as Ukrainian drone strikes hit oil facilities; Gas stations in Moscow impose new limits, while nine people are killed in Russia and Ukraine and 206 prisoners return home in an exchange

Lightning strike triggers fire in three natural gasoline tanks at Explorer Pipeline facility in Glenpool, Oklahoma
A suspected lightning strike triggered a fire involving three natural gasoline storage tanks at the Explorer Pipeline facility in Glenpool, Oklahoma, on August 17, prompting evacuations and shelter measures around the site. No injuries were reported. Officials said the fire was no longer actively burning on August 18, and the response transitioned to cleanup and recovery.

Comcast is rolling out identification of who is in your home using your internet router
Comcast offers Wi-Fi Shield to Xfinity Internet users at no extra cost. It includes Wi-Fi Motion, which uses Xfinity Gateway intelligence to provide “an added layer of awareness without recording video, capturing images or identifying individuals.” It turns routers into potential methods of surveillance without people’s knowledge or consent.

Christian MP blocked from entering UK for the second time because of her Biblical views
Finnish MP Päivi Räsänen, convicted over citing a Bible passage on homosexuality, has been blocked from entering the United Kingdom, leaving her unable to attend a Northern Ireland conference where she was due to speak about freedom of speech.

U.S. Faces “Historic” Cattle Shortage as Size of U.S. Herd Shrinks to Smallest Since 1951
A multi-year cattle shortage has pushed beef prices into painful territory. In some places, ground beef prices now exceed federal minimum wage, the first time it has happened. At the start of 2026, there were 86.2 million cattle & calves in the US, the smallest since 1951. In 1951, there were 154 million people in the US; there are 342 million today.

Shocking Survey Finds Only 35% of Women Under 25 Have Positive View of Men, and “Heteroflexible” Is Fastest Growing Sexual Orientation In America
Our culture is being transformed at a pace difficult to comprehend. We’ve been through so many societal pivot points in recent decades, and it’s probably inevitable there will be more. But without a doubt there have been some very clear long-term cultural shifts that have radically changed how we relate to one another and to the world around us.

Israel confirms striking Syrian airport to prevent Turkish entrenchment; Damascus claims right to keep nuclear material
After months of relative quiet, the Syrian front came back into focus in Israel in recent days, as Jerusalem confirmed having struck an airport in northern Syria on Tuesday to prevent Turkey’s military from establishing itself there, rejecting criticism from the United States.

Ballot-Box Jihad — How Islamic Networks Are Weaponizing Elections to Conquer America from Within
“A planned war is underway to Islamize America – with ballots. Islamic leaders who once called voting haram now call it jihad. Mosques serve as polling stations. A coordinated web of nonprofits, PACs, & groups like The Moral Vote mobilizes every Muslim voter, distributes templates & installs candidates who push Islam & socialism.

Trump threatens ‘unprecedented’ economic consequences for any nation aiding Iran
Trump said he was announcing the most crushing economic operation ever against any country that will be economic warfare & isolation on an unprecedented scale; also that any country allowing its financial institutions, businesses, airports, or gov’t entities to provide any type of lifeline to Iran will itself face tremendous economic consequences.

Iranian Envoy Joins Ceremony in Mexico to Honor Communist Mass Murderer Castro
The Iranian terror state’s ambassador to Mexico attended an event to mark the would-be 100th birthday of dead communist mass murderer Fidel Castro in that country, using it as an opportunity to promote Iran’s war against the United States and demand diplomatic and economic support.