Gilyonos for Shabbos attached

WhatsApp is set to roll out usernames, allowing users to create unique handles using lowercase letters, numbers, periods, and underscores.

Usernames must include at least one letter and can’t start with “www.” A confetti animation will confirm successful creation.

Once live, usernames will appear instead of phone numbers in chats and groups, enhancing privacy — especially in public forums or business interactions. Username updates will notify contacts, similar to profile or number changes. A username availability checker is also planned for the web version. While no launch date is confirmed, beta hints suggest the feature is arriving soon.

Passengers travelling through certain UK airports will soon be able to carry up to two litres of liquids in their hand luggage. This is due to the upcoming implementation of new 3D security scanners, which will lead to some airports ditching the 100ml liquid limit – a rule that’s been around since 2006.

Those arriving or departing from the UK can anticipate more streamlined security checks as these new 3D CT scanners begin to replace older systems at ten major airports. The long-standing rule restricting liquids to 100ml in hand luggage is currently still in place until the new systems are brought in.

All children from households receiving universal credit will get free school meals, the government has announced ahead of next week’s spending review.

Ministers said the change, which will come into force at the start of the 2026 school year, would see more than half a million more children gain access to a free nutritious meal at school.

That will see £500 put back into parents’ pockets every year, lifting 100,000 children across England completely out of poverty, the government claimed.

Prime minister Keir Starmer said: “Working parents across the country are working tirelessly to provide for their families but are being held back by cost of living pressures.

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The number of speeding tickets issued to motorists on a major Dorset route went up by 36,131% in the first full year since the limit was reduced from 40mph to 30mph.

Responding to a Freedom of Information request, the county’s road safety team revealed that the camera on the A348 Ringwood Road in Bournemouth resulted in 11,594 fines in 2024.

This was after Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole (BCP) Council changed the speed limit in May 2023 following a public consultation.

In comparison, 32 tickets were issued in 2022 and 55 in 2021.

The council said it did not receive any income from fines and that the speed limit change had formed part of travel improvements from Poole town centre to Ferndown and Wimborne.

The camera is located northbound opposite Turbary Retail Park.

The FOI also revealed that more than 3,000 speeding tickets had been issued to motorists caught exceeding the limit so far this year.

The German insurance firm Allianz Trade announced Tuesday that it expects insolvencies in Germany to climb 11% year-on-year in 2025 due to tariff uncertainty and a bleak economic outlook.

The figure was revised up from the previous forecast in March 2025 of a 10% increase in the cases.

The total number of insolvencies in Germany is expected to rise to 24,400 this year, according to a statement by Allianz Trade.

A further increase of 3% is expected next year, reaching 25,050 cases.

“However, it is not just the overall figures that are currently causing concern, but also the persistently high number of large-scale insolvencies, which are causing particularly significant damage to the companies affected,” it said.

Engineers have discovered ‘kill switches’ embedded in Chinese-manufactured parts on American solar farms, raising fears Beijing could manipulate supplies or ‘physically destroy’ grids across the US, UK and Europe.

Energy officials are assessing the risks posed by small communication devices in power inverters – an integral component of renewable energy systems that connects them to the power grid.
While inverters are built to allow remote access for updates and maintenance, the utility companies using them typically install firewalls to prevent direct communication back to China.

But rogue communication devices not listed in product documents have been found in some solar power inverters by US experts who strip equipment hooked to grids to check for security issues, two sources told Reuters.

Friendship between Elon Musk and Donald Trump Crumbles

Ever since the Trump and Musk alliance was formed almost a year ago, watchers the world over have been asking when and how it would end.

Now we have our answer; 137 days into Trump’s presidency and with the fire-powered ferocity of one of Musk’s rocket launches.

“Without me, Trump would have lost the election, Dems would control the House, and the Republicans would be 51-49 in the Senate.”

Musk didn’t hold back, calling out what he called “ingratitude” as their once-close alliance descends into chaos. This dramatic public spat marks a shocking rupture between two of the biggest personalities in American politics and tech.

The feud centers around Trump’s signature “One, Big, Beautiful Bill,” a massive tax-and-spending package projected to add trillions to the U.S. national debt over the next decade. Musk, who once supported Trump’s agenda, launched a digital campaign Wednesday to “Kill the Bill,” claiming it includes “a mountain of disgusting pork” and unfair cuts to electric vehicle and solar incentives.

Trump responded during a meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, suggesting Musk was angry about the bill’s EV tax credit rollback.

Adding fuel to the fire, Musk questioned Trump’s claims that he “knew the inner workings of the bill better than anybody,” asserting, “False, this bill was never shown to me even once and was passed in the dead of night so fast that almost no one in Congress could even read it!”

Sources close to the ongoing fallout reveal that long-standing speculation about their falling out has just become reality. For months, the two figures maintained a veneer of friendship—Trump even praised Musk as a “friend” in the Oval Office last week, praising him for his work on DOGE.

Now, with Musk distancing himself from Trump and criticizing him openly, their relationship has crumbled in spectacular fashion—dragging their once-allyship into the spotlight as a full-blown public feud.

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In a serious and heartfelt meeting held earlier today in Moshav Orah, the Moetzes Gedolei HaTorah of Agudas Yisroel came together to discuss the harsh gezeiros hanging over the heads of our precious bnei Torah. The meeting was hosted by the Vizhnitzer Rebbe, shlita, and was attended by the Rebbes of Ger, Modzitz, Boyan, Seret, and Biala—with the Biala Rebbe joining the Moetzes for the first time.

The Gedolim made it clear: if the government moves ahead with plans to draft yeshivah bochurim this summer, Agudas Yisroel will support going to new elections.

The Gerrer Rebbe, shlita, who has long been concerned about the government’s handling of this issue, gave extra time until after Shavuos for the Prime Minister to come up with a proper law to protect bnei Torah. But now that the attorney general has announced that 50,000 draft orders will be sent out in July, and the government still hasn’t acted, the Gedolim are saying enough is enough.

The Degel HaTorah Gedolim, Maran Rav Dov Landau and Rav Moshe Hillel Hirsch, have already agreed to support dissolving the Knesset next week. If the seven chareidi MKs step away, and Shas follows, the government loses its majority, and we could be heading to new elections—possibly right after Sukkos.

One insider close to the Gedolim said:
“We survived Pharaoh, we survived Haman, and with Hashem’s help, we’ll survive this too. But Torah is not up for negotiation.”

The meeting came with a clear message: Torah is our life, and we won’t stand by quietly when it’s under attack.

In a heartfelt shmuess ahead of Shavuos, the Rosh Yeshiva of Brisk, HaRav Avrohom Yehoshua Soloveitchik, shlita, addressed his talmidim—especially the newer bochurim—urging them not to daven in the nearby Zichron Moshe shtieblach. The Rosh Yeshiva expressed concern that leaving the yeshiva to join outside minyanim leads to bittul zman and detracts from the derech hachaim of a true ben Torah.

The shmuess came on the heels of the inauguration of a beautiful new beis medrash building, just in time for the summer zman. The spacious upstairs beis medrash, with over 350 seats, now serves as the central location for all tefillos.

To meet the tefillah needs of the bochurim, the Rosh Yeshiva announced a third official minyan within the new building, led by his eldest son, Rav Mordechai Yaakov (Reb Yankel), alongside the existing minyanim led by the Rosh Yeshiva himself and his brother, Rav Moshe, shlita.

From now on, all tefillos—Shacharis, Mincha, and Maariv—will be conducted inside the yeshiva. A later Shacharis and an after-seder Maariv have also been arranged, ensuring that no bochur has to leave the yeshiva for davening.

The Trump administration on Thursday imposed sanctions on four judges at the International Criminal Court who have been involved in proceedings against Israel and the United States.

The four judges will be barred from entering the US and their assets in the country will be seized, measures typically used against officials from countries hostile to America.

“The United States will take whatever actions we deem necessary to protect our sovereignty, that of Israel, and any other US ally from illegitimate actions by the ICC,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement.

“I call on the countries that still support the ICC, many of whose freedom was purchased at the price of great American sacrifices, to fight this disgraceful attack on our nation and Israel,” Rubio said.

The court swiftly hit back, saying in a statement: “These measures are a clear attempt to undermine the independence of an international judicial institution which operates under the mandate from 125 States Parties from all corners of the globe.”

Two of the judges, Beti Hohler of Slovenia and Reine Alapini-Gansou of Benin, took part in proceedings that led the court’s chief prosecutor Karim Khan to issue in November arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant.

Khan claimed to find “reasonable grounds” of criminal responsibility by the pair for actions that include the war crime of starvation as a method of war in Israel’s massive offensive in Gaza following Hamas’s unprecedented October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, in which some 1,200 were killed and 251 were taken hostage. Israel has strongly rejected the charges.

Gansou also served on the bench that originally approved the investigation into alleged war crimes in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and East Jerusalem in 2021.

For the UK Jewish Orthodox Community
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Erev Shabbos

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