Gilyonos for Shabbos to Download

Britain entered a new political chapter today as Andy Burnham was formally confirmed as Labour Party leader, placing him on course to become the country’s next Prime Minister.

The former Mayor of Greater Manchester is expected to succeed Sir Keir Starmer on Monday, when he will be formally appointed by King Charles and enter Downing Street. Sir Keir remains Prime Minister during the transition.

Burnham, 56, returned to Parliament only recently after spending almost a decade leading Greater Manchester. He built a national reputation by demanding greater investment outside London and challenging Westminster during the Covid pandemic.

His arrival comes as Britain faces rising living costs, a housing shortage, lengthy NHS waiting lists and weak economic growth. Burnham has promised an “unashamedly Labour” government, with a greater focus on regional investment, public services and easing pressure on working families.

His first Cabinet appointments and policy announcements will now be closely watched.

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The United States struck Iran and Tehran hit back at US allies in the Gulf on Thursday, as the foes battled over the vital Strait of Hormuz in the renewed Middle East war.

The rekindled fighting came a month after the signing of a preliminary deal that aimed to end the conflict, which broke out in late February with massive US-Israeli strikes on Iran. So far Israel has not been involved in the latest escalation and Tehran has not directly targeted the Jewish state.

On Thursday, Tehran warned it would target infrastructure across the region if Donald Trump followed through on a threat to attack power plants and bridges in Iran — though the White House said the US president remained “open to diplomacy.”

Earlier, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said they struck a US airbase in Jordan with ballistic missiles in response to what they described as an American attack near a children’s cancer hospital in the Islamic Republic.

Iranian state media said the hospital in Ahvaz, in the southwest, was evacuated following US airstrikes on the area that foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei slammed as “barbaric.”

Hani, a 34-year-old teacher from Ahvaz, said the strikes were “very intense,” adding: “My hands are shaking. There were at least 11 or 12 explosions. My ears are exploding.”

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President Isaac Herzog sits down in his Jerusalem office with the Saudi Al Arabiya TV station, telling the outlet that is his dream to see peace between the two countries.

“I have great respect for Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman,” says Herzog of the Saudi leader. “The thing that we want most in Israel is to see rapprochement between the nations.”

He says he hopes to “meet the Saudi Arabian leadership officially in due course.”

Herzog says he is “not surprised” that the US-Iran MOU broke down, given Iran’s behavior in the past.

At the same time, he says he trusts US President Donald Trump fully, and believes in a diplomatic solution to the conflict, but “we had legitimate concerns, we raised them, and now you see it in front of your eyes with the Iranian behavior.”

“I respect President Donald Trump, and I respect Vice President JD Vance,” Herzog stresses, after Vance blamed Israel for trying to undermine talks with Iran.

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Shas chairman Aryeh Deri lashed out at IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir on Thursday over his strong opposition to the coalition’s recently passed law freezing the arrest of Charedi draft dodgers, accusing the military chief of trying “to help the left-wing bloc during an election campaign.”

The chair of the Charedi party also criticized the High Court of Justice for freezing the new legislation the day after it passed, declaring that the country’s top court “no longer has authority over us.”

Before the law was passed on Tuesday, Zamir warned in a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Defense Minister Israel Katz, and Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee chair Boaz Bismuth that the legislation was “clearly and unequivocally inconsistent with the IDF’s needs” and amounted to providing “mass exemptions from prosecution” for draft dodgers.

Some 72,000 Charedi men aged 18 to 24 are currently believed to be eligible for military service, but have not enlisted, despite mounting calls for their conscription as Israel has fought wars on multiple fronts since the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack, while facing a growing manpower shortage.

Speaking to the Charedi Kikar HaShabbat news channel, Deri, who sits in the government’s key decision-making security cabinet, claimed on Thursday that Zamir had “lost it,” and was “preoccupied with attacks against him and with protecting his own reputation.”

The Israeli military now controls more than 60% of the Gaza Strip’s territory, a senior officer says, well beyond the portion of the enclave that Israel was allowed to temporarily continue holding as part of an October 2025 ceasefire deal with Hamas.

“We are standing here [near] the northern Gaza Strip, looking at everything we have achieved — and we have achieved a great deal. More than 60% of the Strip is in our hands,” said Central Command chief Maj. Gen. Avi Bluth during a handover ceremony yesterday for the commander of the 99th Division, whose forces operated in the Strip in recent years.

“There is a security zone for the communities near the Gaza border, held by two divisions and the IDF’s finest soldiers. The threat of an invasion, as occurred nearly three years ago, is no longer possible,” he says.

Bluth adds, however, that “Hamas still controls [its portion of the Strip] and the murderous organization retains residual capabilities, and its vision of destroying Israel has not changed.”

In May, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he ordered the IDF to take control of 70% of the Gaza Strip. At the start of the truce, the military controlled around 53% of the war-torn Palestinian enclave, with Hamas controlling the other 47% where nearly all of the Strip’s two million residents live.

Nearly 5,000 members of the tzibbur gathered Thursday evening outside Israel’s Military Prison 10 in Kfar Yona for a powerful protest following the imprisonment of a kollel avreich and a bochur from Sanz. The two were arrested after arriving at a military recruitment office in an effort to regularize their legal status, only to discover they had been classified as draft evaders under the current system.

The emotional gathering reached its peak when the Sanz Rebbe unexpectedly interrupted his stay in Caesarea and traveled to lead the rally in person. Standing before the prison walls, the Rav declared through tears, “Fortunate are those who were arrested because of Torah. One thing is certain—the Torah will never go bankrupt.”

He also urged steadfastness during this difficult period, reminding the thousands in attendance of the importance of remaining faithful to Torah despite the challenges.

The arrests have deeply shaken the Sanz community in Netanya, prompting widespread tefillos throughout the yeshiva and kollel network. The tzibbur continues to daven for the release of Avraham Tzvi ben Reizel and Shmuel Shmelka ben Esther.

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

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