SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — North Korea said Saturday it tested a “super-large” cruise missile warhead and a new anti-aircraft missile in a western coastal area as it expands military capabilities in the face of deepening tensions with the United States and South Korea.

North Korean state media said the country’s missile administration on Friday conducted a “power test” for the warhead designed for the Hwasal-1 Ra-3 strategic cruise missile and a test-launch of the Pyoljji-1-2 anti-aircraft missile. It said the tests attained an unspecified “certain goal.”

Photos released by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency showed at least two missiles being fired off launcher trucks at a runway.

North Korea conducted a similar set of tests Feb. 2, but at the time did not specify the names of the cruise missile or the anti-aircraft missile, indicating it was possibly seeing technological progress after testing the same system over weeks.

KCNA insisted Friday’s tests were part of the North’s regular military development activities and had nothing to do with the “surrounding situation.”

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula are at their highest in years, with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un dialing up his weapons demonstrations, which have included more powerful missiles aimed at the U.S. mainland and U.S. targets in the Pacific. The United States, South Korea and Japan have responded by expanding their combined military training and sharpening their deterrence strategies built around strategic U.S. assets.

Cruise missiles are among a growing collection of North Korean weapons designed to overwhelm regional missile defenses. They supplement the North’s vast lineup of ballistic missiles, including intercontinental ballistic missiles aimed at the continental United States.

Analysts say anti-aircraft missile technology is an area where North Korea could benefit from its deepening military cooperation with Russia, as the two countries align in the face of their separate, intensifying confrontations with the U.S. The United States and South Korea have accused North Korea of providing artillery shells and other equipment to Russia to help extend its warfighting in Ukraine.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — An Iranian attack on an Israeli desert air base last week as part of Tehran’s unprecedented assault on the country damaged a taxiway, a satellite image analyzed by The Associated Press on Saturday shows.

The overall damage done to Nevatim air base in southern Israel was minor despite Iran launching hundreds of drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles. Israeli air defenses and fighter jets, backed by the U.S., the United Kingdom and neighboring Jordan, shot down the vast majority of the incoming fire.

But the Iranian attack last weekend showed Tehran’s willingness to use its vast arsenal of ballistic missiles directly against Israel as tensions remain high across the wider Middle East over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. An apparent Israeli retaliatory attack Friday on Isfahan, Iran, and Tehran’s low-key response to it suggest both countries want to dial back their long-running shadow war for now — though risks of a wider conflagration in the region remain.

The Planet Labs PBC image, taken Friday for the AP, shows fresh blacktop across a taxiway near hangars at the southern part of Nevatim air base, about 65 kilometers (40 miles) south of Jerusalem. The daily newspaper Haaretz, which published lower-resolution images of the site Thursday, identified the hangars nearby as housing C-130 cargo aircraft flown by transport squadrons.

The satellite image corresponds to footage earlier released by the Israeli military, which showed construction equipment working on the damaged taxiway. A hangar in the background of the video mirrors those seen nearby.

Other images released by the Israeli military showed a crater in the sand and damage under what appeared to be a wall that it said came from the Iranian attack. The little visible damage seen at the air base in the satellite image directly contradicts Iran’s efforts to portray the attack as a great victory to a public alienated by the Islamic Republic’s cratering economy and its heavy-handed crackdowns on dissent in recent years.

“This operation became a sign of the power of the Islamic Republic and its armed forces,” Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi said Friday. “It also showed the steely determination of our nation and our wise leader, the commander of all forces.”

However, it does show Iran’s arsenal has the ability to reach Israel, as the April 13 attack marked the first direct military assault on the country by a foreign nation since Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein launched Scud missiles at Israel in the 1991 Gulf War.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House swiftly approved $95 billion in foreign aid for Ukraine, Israel and other U.S. allies in a rare Saturday session as Democrats and Republicans banded together after months of hard-right resistance over renewed American support for repelling Russia’s invasion.

With an overwhelming vote, the $61 billion in aid for Ukraine passed in a matter of minutes, a strong showing as American lawmakers race to deliver a fresh round of U.S. support to the war-torn ally. Many Democrats cheered on the House floor and waved blue-and-yellow flags of Ukraine.

Aid to Israel and the other allies also won approval by healthy margins, as did a measure to clamp down on the popular platform TikTok, with unique coalitions forming to push the separate bills forward. The whole package will go to the Senate, which could pass it as soon as Tuesday. President Joe Biden has promised to sign it immediately.

“We did our work here, and I think history will judge it well,” said a weary Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who risked his own job to marshal the package to passage.

Biden spoke separately with Johnson and Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries to thank them for “putting our national security first” by advancing the legislation, the White House said.

“I urge the Senate to quickly send this package to my desk so that I can sign it into law and we can quickly send weapons and equipment to Ukraine to meet their urgent battlefield needs,” the president said.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine said he was “grateful” to both parties in the House and “personally Speaker Mike Johnson for the decision that keeps history on the right track,” he said on X, formerly Twitter.

“Thank you, America!” he said.

The scene in Congress was a striking display of action after months of dysfunction and stalemate fueled by Republicans, who hold the majority but are deeply split over foreign aid, particularly for Ukraine. Johnson relied on Democrats to ensure the military and humanitarian funding — the first major package for Ukraine since December 2022 — won approval.

The morning opened with a somber and serious debate and an unusual sense of purpose as Republican and Democratic leaders united to urge quick approval, saying that would ensure the United States supported its allies and remained a leader on the world stage. The House’s visitor galleries were crowded with onlookers.

“The eyes of the world are upon us, and history will judge what we do here and now,” said Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee

Passage through the House cleared away the biggest hurdle to Biden’s funding request, first made in October as Ukraine’s military supplies began to run low.

The GOP-controlled House struggled for months over what to do, first demanding that any assistance for Ukraine be tied to policy changes at the U.S.-Mexico border, only to immediately reject a bipartisan Senate offer along those very lines.

Reaching an endgame has been an excruciating lift for Johnson that has tested both his resolve and his support among Republicans, with a small but growing number now openly urging his removal from the speaker’s office. Yet congressional leaders cast the votes as a turning point in history — an urgent sacrifice as U.S. allies are beleaguered by wars and threats from continental Europe to the Middle East to the Indo-Pacific.

“Sometimes when you are living history, as we are today, you don’t understand the significance of the actions of the votes that we make on this House floor, of the effect that it will have down the road,” said New York Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “This is a historic moment.”

Opponents, particularly the hard-right Republicans from Johnson’s majority, argued that the U.S. should focus on the home front, addressing domestic border security and the nation’s rising debt load, and they warned against spending more money, which largely flows to American defense manufacturers, to produce weaponry used overseas.

Still, Congress has seen a stream of world leaders visit in recent months, from Zelenskyy to Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, all but pleading with lawmakers to approve the aid. Globally, the delay left many questioning America’s commitment to its allies.

At stake has been one of Biden’s top foreign policy priorities — halting Russian President Vladimir Putin’s advance in Europe. After engaging in quiet talks with Johnson, the president quickly endorsed Johnson’s plan, paving the way for Democrats to give their rare support to clear the procedural hurdles needed for a final vote.

“We have a responsibility, not as Democrats or Republicans, but as Americans to defend democracy wherever it is at risk,” Jeffries said during the debate.

While aid for Ukraine failed to win a majority of Republicans, several dozen progressive Democrats voted against the bill aiding Israel as they demanded an end to the bombardment of Gaza that has killed thousands of civilians. A group of roughly 20 hard-right Republicans voted against every portion of the aid package, including for allies like Israel and Taiwan that have traditionally enjoyed support from the GOP.

Some Republicans also angrily objected to their counterparts waving Ukrainian flags during the vote. Rep. Kat Cammack, a Florida Republican, said on X she was “infuriated” by the display and would bring a bill to prohibit the flags of foreign nations on the House floor.

At the same time, Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, has loomed large over the fight, weighing in from afar via social media statements and direct phone calls with lawmakers as he tilts the GOP to a more isolationist stance with his “America First” brand of politics.

Ukraine’s defense once enjoyed robust, bipartisan support in Congress, but as the war enters its third year, a majority of Republicans opposed further aid. Trump ally Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., offered an amendment to zero out the money, but it was rejected.

The ultraconservative House Freedom Caucus has derided the legislation as the “America Last” foreign wars package and urged lawmakers to defy Republican leadership and oppose it because the bills did not include border security measures.

Johnson’s hold on the speaker’s gavel has also grown more tenuous in recent days as three Republicans, led by Greene, supported a “motion to vacate” that can lead to a vote on removing the speaker. Egged on by far-right personalities, she is also being joined by a growing number of lawmakers including Reps. Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., and Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who is urging Johnson to voluntarily step aside.

The package included several Republican priorities that Democrats endorsed, or at least are willing to accept. Those include proposals that allow the U.S. to seize frozen Russian central bank assets to rebuild Ukraine; impose sanctions on Iran, Russia, China and criminal organizations that traffic fentanyl; and legislation to require the China-based owner of the popular video app TikTok to sell its stake within a year or face a ban in the United States.

Still, the all-out push to get the bills through Congress is a reflection not only of politics, but realities on the ground in Ukraine. Top lawmakers on national security committees, who are privy to classified briefings, have grown gravely concerned about the tide of the war as Russia pummels Ukrainian forces beset by a shortage of troops and ammunition.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., announced the Senate would begin procedural votes on the package Tuesday, saying, “Our allies across the world have been waiting for this moment.”

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, as he prepared to overcome objections from his right flank next week, said, “The task before us is urgent. It is once again the Senate’s turn to make history.”

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York lawmakers passed a $237 billion state budget Saturday that includes plans to spur housing construction and combat unlicensed marijuana stores.

The package also includes a raft of other measures such as expediting the closure of some state prisons, addressing a recent influx of migrants and continuing the pandemic-era policy of allowing people to buy takeout cocktails.

The state Senate and Assembly finished working through several budget bills Saturday after hours of debate. The spending plan now moves to Gov. Kathy Hochul to be signed into law, which she is expected to do.

The negotiations, which were conducted in private between the governor and top legislative leaders, largely hinged on a sweeping proposal to jump-start the state’s housing market.

The plan offers developers a tax break if they agree to rent a portion of apartments in new buildings for below market price. The deal also includes measures to protect some tenants against unreasonable rent increases and evictions, though it was not as comprehensive as many advocates had wanted.

“This budget agreement represents the most significant improvement in housing policy in three generations,” Hochul said in a statement.

The state had a similar tax break before, but it expired in 2022. Hochul and other supporters have long said that such an incentive is a vital lure for development, though critics consider it too costly and favorable to developers.

“Governor Hochul did not solve the housing crisis — instead she pushed through a housing deal written by the real estate industry to ensure they keep getting richer off the backs of hardworking tenants,” Cea Weaver, the coalition director for Housing Justice for All, said in a statement.

Lawmakers also moved to address the explosion of unlicensed cannabis storefronts in New York City. Bureaucratic hurdles have made it difficult for the state to shut down the shops, which have become ubiquitous in the Big Apple.

To help solve the problem, the budget includes policies that would allow local law enforcement to more easily shutter stores accused of selling marijuana illicitly while their cases play out. Previously, most enforcement could only be done by the state, and such stores were able to stay open while a lengthy appeals process played out.

State officials also earmarked $2.4 billion to care for an influx of international migrants who have overwhelmed New York City’s homeless shelters. The money will go toward housing, legal services and health care for the migrant population.

State Senate Republican Leader Rob Ortt criticized that measure during floor debates, saying it would encourage more migrants to come to New York.

“We made a lot of tough decisions in this budget,” Ortt said. “But 2.4 billion goes a long way, and I just wonder what that could have done in other parts of the budget for legal New Yorkers.”

Additionally, New York will expedite the closure of up to five state prisons in an effort to save money amid the state’s declining prison population. The governor has until next March to choose which prisons will close. The state has shuttered two dozen correctional facilities since 2011 because of vacant beds, saving about $442 million annually, according to the state corrections department.

The budget also contained measures that would offer paid time off during pregnancies, enable New York City to lower its speed limits and expand access to booze, with proposals to extend the pandemic-era sale of to-go alcoholic drinks and allow movie theaters to sell hard liquor.

The budget was finalized about three weeks after its original April 1 due date and came after a cyberattack hampered the state office that drafts bills for the Legislature.

LONDON (AP) — London’s police force has been forced to issue two apologies after officers threatened to arrest an “openly Jewish” man if he refused to leave the area around a pro-Palestinian march because his presence risked provoking the demonstrators.

Gideon Falter, chief executive of the Campaign Against Antisemitism, was wearing a traditional Jewish skullcap when he was stopped by police while trying to cross a street in central London as demonstrators filed past on April 13.

A Met police officer telling a Jewish man that he can't cross the road because he is Jewish.

This is not 1930s Germany. This is Mark Rowley and Sadiq Khan's London in 2024.

I'm ashamed of this country.pic.twitter.com/psYjWdFttA

— Lee Harris (@addicted2newz) April 19, 2024

One officer told Falter he was worried that the man’s “quite openly Jewish” appearance could provoke a reaction from the protesters, according to video posted by the campaign group. A second officer then told Falter he would be arrested if he refused to be escorted out of the area because he was “causing a breach of the peace.”

London’s Metropolitan Police Service on Friday afternoon apologized for the language the officer used in describing Falter’s appearance, but said counter demonstrators had to be aware “that their presence is provocative.”

The Met later deleted that apology from its social media accounts and issued a second statement.

“In an effort to make a point about the policing of protest we caused further offense,” the force said. “This was never our intention. We have removed that statement and we apologize.”

“Being Jewish is not a provocation. Jewish Londoners must be able to feel safe in the city.”

The episode highlights the challenges London police face amid the boiling tensions surrounding the war in Gaza, with some Jewish residents saying they feel threatened by repeated pro-Palestinian marches through the streets of the British capital.

While the marches have been largely peaceful, many demonstrators accuse Israel of genocide and a small number have shown support for Hamas, the group that led the Oct. 7 attack on Israel and which has been banned by the British government as a terrorist organization.

The Met has deployed thousands of officers during each of the dozen major marches as it sought to protect the rights of the pro-Palestinian protesters and prevent clashes with counter-demonstrators and Jewish residents.

Earlier we posted a statement about a video released on Thursday evening by the Campaign Against Antisemitism.

That statement has now been removed. We apologise for the offence it caused. pic.twitter.com/W8tKaqRiDY

— Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) April 19, 2024

Following Falter’s confrontation with police, the Campaign Against Antisemitism issued a call for Londoners to exercise their right to walk wherever they choose on April 27, when another pro-Palestinian march is scheduled.

In response, the Met emailed Falter about what it described as his intention to “protest” next week and offered to meet with him to discuss ways to “ensure we can police the event as safely as possible,” according an exchange of correspondence released by the campaign group.

Falter rejected the idea that he was staging a protest, saying he was planning to go for a walk as a “private individual” and others might choose to join him.

“Unfortunately @MetPoliceUK is missing the point,” he said on the social media site X. “This is not a protest or counterprotest. Anyone who wishes to walk around London on Saturday 27th April … is free to do so. Even if they are ‘quite openly Jewish.’”

NEW YORK (AP) — Video cameras stationed outside the Manhattan courthouse where former President Donald Trump is on trial caught the gruesome scene Friday of a man who lit himself on fire and the aftermath as authorities tried to rescue him.

CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC were all on the air with reporters talking about the seating of a jury when the incident happened and other news agencies, including The Associated Press, were livestreaming from outside the courthouse. The man, who distributed pamphlets before dousing himself in an accelerant and setting himself on fire, was in critical condition.

The incident tested how quickly the networks could react, and how they decided what would be too disturbing for their viewers to see.

With narration from Laura Coates, CNN had the most extensive view of the scene. Coates, who at first incorrectly said it was a shooting situation, then narrated as the man was visible onscreen, enveloped in flames.

“You can smell burning flesh,” Coates, an anchor and CNN’s chief legal analyst, said as she stood at the scene with reporter Evan Perez.

The camera switched back and forth between Coates and what was happening in the park. Five minutes after the incident started, CNN posted the onscreen message “Warning: Graphic Content.”

Coates later said she couldn’t “overstate the emotional response of watching a human being engulfed in flames and to watch his body be lifted into a gurney.” She described it as an “emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment here.”

Fox’s cameras caught the scene briefly as reporter Eric Shawn talked, then the network switched to a courtroom sketch of Trump on trial.

“We deeply apologize for what has happened,” Shawn said.

On MSNBC, reporter Yasmin Vossoughian narrated the scene. The network showed smoke in the park, but no picture where the body was visible.

“I could see the outline of his body inside the flames,” Vossoughian said, “which was so terrifying to see. As he went to the ground his knees hit the ground first.”

The AP had a camera with an unnarrated live shot stationed outside the courthouse, shown on YouTube and APNews.com. The cameras caught an extensive view, with the man lighting himself afire and later writhing on the ground before a police officer tried to douse the flames with a jacket.

The AP later removed its live feed from its YouTube channel and replaced it with a new one because of the graphic nature of the content.

The news agency distributed carefully edited clips to its video clients — not showing the moment the man lit himself on fire, for example, said executive producer Tom Williams.

Julien Gorbach, a University of Hawaii at Manoa associate professor of journalism, said news organizations didn’t face much of a dilemma about whether to show the footage because there was little for the public to gain by seeing images of a man lighting himself on fire.

The episode highlights how fast information travels and the importance of critical thinking, Gorbach said.

“It outpaces our ability to a) sort out the facts, and b) do the kind of methodical, critical thinking that we need to do so that we understand the truth of what actually this incident was all about,” Gorbach said.

The location of the incident may have prompted some to think the self-immolation was related to the trial.

Gorbach, who was listening to MSNBC on satellite radio when it happened, said the coverage he heard was careful to question whether there was any connection to the trial. It also raised the possibility the man may have wanted to get media attention.

News organizations can’t suppress the news just so the public doesn’t get confused, he said. Word would get out regardless as non-journalists post accounts online.

“So it’s really a test of us as a public,” he said.

TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — The New Jersey rabbi serving a decadeslong sentence in a 1994 murder-for-hire plot targeting his wife has died.

Fred Neulander, 82, was pronounced dead shortly after 6 p.m. Wednesday at a hospital in Trenton after he was found unresponsive in his cell in the New Jersey State Prison infirmary, news outlets reported, citing the state department of corrections.

A cause of death wasn’t immediately released. Neulander was listed on the New Jersey corrections inmate locator Saturday as “deceased.”

Neulander — founding rabbi of the Congregation M’kor Shalom synagogue in Cherry Hill, which merged two years ago with nearby Temple Emanuel — was sentenced to 30 years to life in January 2003 after he was convicted by a jury of having hired two men to kill his wife. An earlier trial ended with a hung jury.

Carol Neulander, 52, a mother of three, was beaten to death in her Cherry Hill home in November 1994. Prosecutors alleged that the hit men received $30,000 for the kill and were told to make it look like a robbery that turned violent.

Prosecutors alleged that Neulander arranged the slaying in order to continue an affair with another woman. Neulander maintained that the two men acted on their own and were motivated by robbery. Both were released from prison after serving 23-year terms.

An appellate court denied Neulander’s appeal in 2012 and the New Jersey Supreme Court did the same in 2016.

The case became a media sensation, and was aired in full on CourtTV.

NEW YORK (AP) — The man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former President Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said.

The New York City Police Department told The Associated Press early Saturday that the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital.

The man was in Collect Pond Park around 1:30 p.m. Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said.

A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed to the aid of the man, who was hospitalized in critical condition at the time.

The man, who police said recently traveled from Florida to New York, had not breached any security checkpoints to access the park.

The park outside the courthouse has been a gathering spot for protesters, journalists and gawkers throughout Trump’s trial, which began with jury selection Monday.

Through Friday, the streets and sidewalks in the area around the courthouse were generally wide open and crowds have been small and largely orderly.

Authorities said they were also reviewing the security protocols, including whether to restrict access to the park. The side street where Trump enters and leaves the building is off limits.

“We may have to shut this area down,” New York City Police Department Deputy Commissioner Kaz Daughtry said at a news conference outside the courthouse Friday, adding that officials would discuss the security plan soon.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration on Friday imposed sanctions on two entities accused of fundraising for extremist Israeli West Bank settlers who have harassed and attacked Palestinians, as well as the founder of an organization whose members regularly assault Palestinians.

The Treasury Department announcement comes as the West Bank has seen some of its worst violence perpetrated by extremist settlers against Palestinians since the war in nearby Gaza began.

There is also friction between President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose far-right government has reacted angrily to previous sanctions imposed against West Bank settlers.

Included in the Friday sanctions are two entities — Mount Hebron Fund and Shlom Asiraich — accused of raising funds for sanctioned settlers Yinon Levi and David Chai Chasdai.

The fundraising campaigns established by Mount Hebron Fund for Levi and by Shlom Asiraich for Chasdai generated the equivalent of $140,000 and $31,000, respectively, according to U.S. Treasury.

The penalties aim to block them from using the U.S. financial system and bar American citizens from dealing with them.

Additionally, the State Department is designating Ben-Zion Gopstein, the founder and leader of Lehava, an organization whose members have assaulted Palestinian civilians.

Treasury Deputy Secretary Wally Adeyemo said the organizations “undermine the peace, security, and stability of the West Bank. We will continue to use our tools to hold those responsible accountable.”

In February, Biden issued an executive order that targets Israeli settlers in the West Bank who have been accused of attacking Palestinians and Israeli peace activists in the occupied territory.

PARIS (AP) — The French government announced a new rule on Friday that will require stores to tell customers when a product becomes smaller but its price stays the same or increases, a practice known as shrinkflation.

Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire announced the measure to tackle the common but often criticized method that has become an international buzzword. He said that from July 1, such cases will need to be clearly communicated to shoppers.

Le Maire called shrinkflation a “scam” and stressed the importance of transparency. “Consumers must understand the real price evolution of products when their sizes change,” he said in a statement.

Retailers at medium to large supermarkets will have to display specific information about the price per unit and any changes in quantity next to the affected products. It must be visible as signs on store shelves for two months following any changes to a product. This requirement applies to a wide range of goods, including food and household items. The Finance Ministry said there would be exceptions for unpackaged food items and bulk goods.

The French government is highlighting the new rule’s consumer protection aspect. Consumers who notice pricing discrepancies are now encouraged to report them through France’s SignalConso website or app.

Consumer watchdogs welcomed the new rule.

“This is great news, as shrinkflation is shifty and misleading because it is done behind the customer’s back. It’s high time to act, as we have less money and prices are rising,” said Camille Dorioz, Campaign Director at Foodwatch France.

“It’s perhaps very French that the government is stepping in to help the consumer. It’s a French way not to let the markets rule on this problem,” he added, saying that France is simply reinforcing a European law that forbids misleading packaging and products.

Dorioz said that most shoppers don’t notice when a product they buy is 2 grams less, but “over time, it soon adds up, and when people are alerted to it, they understandably get angry.”

TOKYO (AP) — A group of Japanese doctors has filed a civil lawsuit against U.S. search giant Google, demanding damages for what they claim are unpoliced derogatory and often false comments.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in Tokyo District Court, demands 1.4 million yen ($9,400) in damages for 63 medical professionals.

Google said in an emailed statement Friday that it is working “24 hours a day” to reduce misleading or false information on its platform, combining human and technological resources “to delete fraudulent reviews.”

The lawsuit claims groundless negative reviews have been posted on Google Maps, a very popular app in Japan, that allows people to write in ratings of various institutions and their personal reviews.

Some comments are irresponsible and appear to be written out of spite and the “word of mouth” remarks take on a life of their own and are nearly impossible to refute, according to the lawsuit.

It said Google has done very little to fix the problem, despite complaints.

“The damage suffered is substantial, and the people have been powerless to fight back. We don’t agree that the platform shares no responsibility,” Yuichi Nakazawa, who leads the legal team for the plaintiffs, told reporters.

Some Japanese say they rely on what people say online about hospitals, including how long the wait was or what kind of care they got, rather than official sites. But those online comments may be inaccurate and even detrimental to health care, those behind the lawsuit say.

Japan boasts a relatively widespread and affordable health care system, making the medical sector a hot topic in one of the fastest aging societies in the world.

Class actions are relatively rare in Japan, though Google has been sued in the U.S. and various other nations, accused of misleading advertising, violations of privacy and other problems.

Earlier this month, Google agreed to purge billions of records containing personal information collected from more than 136 million people in the U.S. who had surfed the internet through its Chrome web browser. That was part of a settlement in a U.S. lawsuit that had accused Google of illegal surveillance.

The lawsuit in Japan is intended to highlight the potential dangers from Google’s technology, the lawyers for the medical professionals say. The damages they are seeking are symbolic, about 23,000 yen ($150) per plaintiff.

NEW YORK (JTA/By Julia Gergely )- On the evening of Monday, April 8, the last hours Tom Weiss was seen in public, he was taking care of others: He sang and chatted with friends at the annual dinner at Ohab Zedek, his synagogue on New York’s Upper West Side. He accompanied the dinner’s senior citizen guests home afterwards and then walked a friend back to their house safely, before calling yet another friend.

It was a typical day in the life for Weiss, who according to friends and family was always the first person to call to make a minyan and the last person in the room on Friday nights and Shabbat mornings making sure everyone got home without incident. 

Weiss was found dead on April 11 in his apartment on the Upper West Side, where he lived alone. Weiss’ brother said he likely passed away from a pulmonary embolism. He was 61.

While he had no spouse or children, Weiss had spent nearly his entire life on the Upper West Side creating for himself a family of hundreds of people who he cared for and who cared for him.

Indeed, Weiss dedicated his life to chesed, the Hebrew term for acts of kindness, especially that of bikur cholim, or visiting the sick. For many decades before COVID-19, Weiss gathered a group of people at the corner of 96th Street and Columbus Avenue on Shabbat afternoons, walking across Central Park in every type of weather to Mount Sinai Hospital, then climbing up and down 11 stories to find Jewish patients who might like to listen to him sing or hear a kind word. 

During the pandemic, Weiss began delivering meals to home-bound Manhattanites, rushing around on Friday afternoons to make sure sick and immunocompromised people would be able to have a meal for Friday night.

He also took care of his mother, Zelda, for four years until she died this past December. 

“He was a sole caregiver for her. It was unbelievable — he was showering her at 91 years old. And he was smiling at that, he was never angry and never upset,” Stephen said. “He went above and beyond the call of duty every single time.”

“He was really an icon and legend on the West Side in every way,” said his longtime friend Nava Silton. “Every rabbi knew him. Every shul knew him. Every community member knew him. He was a complete paragon of virtue and chesed.”

Weiss sometimes attended five synagogues in a day to be the tenth man in a minyan, or prayer quorum, so that someone could say Kaddish for a loved one, celebrate a simcha or mark another occasion.

An ardent lover of Israel — Weiss made aliyah in the mid-2000s and lived in Israel for several years — and Jewish life, Weiss was an active member of several Jewish communities on the Upper West Side, including Manhattan Jewish Experience, the Jewish International Connection of New York and Ohab Zedek. He was dedicated both to Torah learning and to uniting Jewish communities of different denominations, his friends and rabbis say.

Stephen and Tom Weiss, above, were the sons of former Congressman Ted Weiss, who served the Upper West Side for 16 years. (Courtesy Stephen Weiss)

Weiss was born in Manhattan on Sept. 15, 1962. His father Ted, an immigrant from Hungary and lawyer, represented the West Side of Manhattan in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1977 until his death in 1992 at the age of 64.

As a child, Weiss belonged to B’nai Jeshurun and Stephen Wise Free Synagogue on the Upper West Side and began to get more interested in Orthodox Judaism after staying with cousins in Flatbush and keeping Shabbat for a weekend as a teenager. When his father died, Weiss became more observant, his brother said. 

“Tommy was always so proud of my father,” his brother, Stephen, told the New York Jewish Week. “In a way, my brother found his own way to serve his community.”

Weiss attended Butler University in Indiana, where he was the only Jewish member of the Lambda Chi Alpha fraternity. 

“For us sheltered Midwesterners, Tom was a unique blast of Manhattan brio. I had never met a Jewish person before welcoming Tom as a fraternity brother. His devotion was awe-inspiring,” wrote Dave Arland, a fraternity brother and classmate at Butler, in one of dozens of social media tributes that followed news of his death. “He will forever be the short Jewish kid on our intramural baseball team. Tom didn’t take the easy road. Everything he did was a testament to helping others, to make the lives of others better.”

Friends describe Weiss as someone who was always determined to do what he felt was right — whether that meant sneaking away from home one Sunday afternoon to catch a double header at Yankees Stadium at 9 years old or being the lone voice in synagogue singing in a falsetto pitch. But often what he felt was right was often helping as many people as he could. 

“He didn’t only do it for himself, he encouraged everyone to be part of the mitzvah. It wasn’t wasn’t just like his own chesed, which is amazing in and of itself, but he was a true guiding light for others to do unbelievable things,” Silton said. 

Upon his return to Manhattan, Weiss brought Jews together both formally and informally. As young men in their 20s, Weiss and Wildes often organized Shabbat dinners together. 

“Tom was then already a very popular and very beloved member of the Upper West Side community. He was just one of the most disarming, charming individuals. People would just follow him,” remembered Wildes. “Tom would literally find people on the street on the Upper West Side to invite — when we started we had about a dozen people coming and that went all the way up to 60 people crammed into our apartment.”

At one point, Weiss pioneered a Shabbat dinner program matching congregants between the nonaffiliated congregation B’nai Jeshurun, known as BJ, and the Modern Orthodox Ohab Zedek.

Weiss appeared on Sesame Street with his friend Nava Silton’s son Jonah. Friends say he was a role model and loved working with children. (Courtesy Nava Silton)

Allen Schwartz, the senior rabbi at Ohab Zedek, where Weiss was part of the community for three decades, said he was “an eternally optimistic individual.”

“He was like a pied piper. He had a following of people — if you saw Tom coming, you knew you’d have to set plates for three, four or five people following behind him,” Stephen said.

Weiss’ dedication to different parts of Jewish life was evident at his funeral, which took place on Friday, April 12 at Plaza Jewish Community Chapel. Seven different rabbis of several denominations came to speak and honor Weiss’ life. 

“I was one of seven rabbis at the funeral. I’ve never been to something like that. Every one of those rabbis had their own congregation — each of us had thought we were his favorite rabbi,” Wildes said. 

Many also noted Weiss’ genuine happiness in life, as well as his complete humility and lack of ego or need for accolades. “It was this very organic humility,” Silton said. “It was never about him. It was always about everyone else and the opportunity to protect everyone else and make them shine.” 

“Nobody had any idea the extent of the chesed,” Stephen said. When their mother died, Stephen told Weiss that he should do something for himself — but he never did. “He’d just smile and say ‘no, I’ve got this.’ At the end of the day, he did get it. While we’re all anxiety ridden and thinking about what’s going on in our lives, he had this worldly perspective.”

Outside of Jewish life, Weiss loved singing, running, biking and playing tennis. He and his brother played tennis three times a week in Plainview, Long Island, where Stephen lives. 

“I wasn’t going into his world because I’m not religious. So he would do his thing in the city and then he would come out to what he called ‘the country,’ which is Long Island. We played tennis and then he would daven at Young Israel in Plainview,” Weiss said. “In just a short time, everybody in the tennis world out here and everybody at Young Israel knew him.”

Weiss’ ability to occupy any role wasn’t just a way of life — it was also his career. Weiss worked as a sports broadcaster, producer and actor, appearing as “Noah,” a board member of Waystar Royco in Season 1 Episode 6 of HBO’s “Succession,” and he also appeared on other shows like “Sesame Street,” “Law & Order” and “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” In Israel he interviewed local politicians and everyday people for a Facebook and radio feature he called “The Ambassadors Report.”

Weiss is survived by his brother Stephen, sister-in-law Paula and niece Teddi. 

“I feel like my brother had a higher calling and God needed him for something else,” Stephen said. “Meanwhile, he can still look over all of us. I believe that.”

“A lot of people in the community now are thinking to themselves, ‘How can I be more like Tom? How can I have more happiness every day in life? How can I do more to help people?’” Silton said. “A lot of people in the community are going to try to live a lot more like Tom.” 

NEW YORK (AP) — Sometime in the next few days or even hours, the “miners” who chisel bitcoins out of complex mathematics are going to take a 50% pay cut — effectively slicing new production of the world’s largest cryptocurrency in half.

That could have a lot of implications, from the price of the asset to the bitcoin miners themselves. And, as with everything in the volatile cryptoverse, the future is hard to predict.

Here’s what you need to know.

WHAT IS BITCOIN HALVING AND WHY DOES IT MATTER?
Bitcoin “halving,” a preprogrammed event that occurs roughly every four years, impacts the production of bitcoin. Miners use farms of noisy, specialized computers to solve convoluted math puzzles; and when they complete one, they get a fixed number of bitcoins as a reward.

Halving does exactly what it sounds like — it cuts that fixed income in half. And when the mining reward falls, so does the number of new bitcoins entering the market. That means the supply of coins available to satisfy demand grows more slowly.

Limited supply is one of bitcoin’s key features. Only 21 million bitcoins will ever exist, and more than 19.5 million of them have already been mined, leaving fewer than 1.5 million left to pull from.

So long as demand remains the same or climbs faster than supply, bitcoin prices should rise as halving limits output. Because of this, some argue that bitcoin can counteract inflation — still, experts stress that future gains are never guaranteed.

HOW OFTEN DOES HALVING OCCUR?
Per bitcoin’s code, halving occurs after the creation of every 210,000 “blocks” — where transactions are recorded — during the mining process.

No calendar dates are set in stone, but that divvies out to roughly once every four years. The latest estimates expect the next halving to occur sometime late Friday or early Saturday.

WILL HALVING IMPACT BITCOIN’S PRICE?
Only time will tell. Following each of the three previous halvings, the price of bitcoin was mixed in the first few months and wound up significantly higher one year later. But as investors well know, past performance is not an indicator of future results.

“I don’t know how significant we can say halving is just yet,” said Adam Morgan McCarthy, a research analyst at Kaiko. “The sample size of three (previous halvings) isn’t big enough to say ‘It’s going to go up 500% again,’ or something.”

At the time of the last halving in May 2020, for example, bitcoin’s price stood at around $8,602, according to CoinMarketCap — and climbed almost seven-fold to nearly $56,705 by May 2021. Bitcoin prices nearly quadrupled a year after July 2016’s halving and shot up by almost 80 times one year out from bitcoin’s first halving in November 2012. Experts like McCarthy stress that other bullish market conditions contributed to those returns.

This next halving also arrives after a year of steep increases for bitcoin. As of Thursday afternoon, bitcoin stood at just over $63,500 per CoinMarketCap. That’s down from the all-time-high of about $73,750 hit last month, but still double the asset’s price from a year ago.

Much of the credit for bitcoin’s recent rally is given to the early success of a new way to invest in the asset — spot bitcoin ETFs, which were only approved by U.S. regulators in January. A research report from crypto fund manager Bitwise found that these spot ETFs, short for exchange-traded funds, saw $12.1 billion in inflows during the first quarter.

Bitwise senior crypto research analyst Ryan Rasmussen said persistent or growing ETF demand, when paired with the “supply shock” resulting from the coming halving, could help propel bitcoin’s price further.

“We would expect the price of Bitcoin to have a strong performance over the next 12 months,” he said. Rasmussen notes that he’s seen some predict gains reaching as high as $400,000, but the more “consensus estimate” is closer to the $100,000-$175,000 range.

Other experts stress caution, pointing to the possibility the gains have already been realized.

In a Wednesday research note, JPMorgan analysts maintained that they don’t expect to see post-halving price increases because the event “has already been already priced in” — noting that the market is still in overbought conditions per their analysis of bitcoin futures.

WHAT ABOUT MINERS?
Miners, meanwhile, will be challenged with compensating for the reduction in rewards while also keeping operating costs down.

“Even if there’s a slight increase in bitcoin price, (halving) can really impact a miner’s ability to pay bills,” Andrew W. Balthazor, a Miami-based attorney who specializes in digital assets at Holland & Knight, said. “You can’t assume that bitcoin is just going to go to the moon. As your business model, you have to plan for extreme volatility.”

Better-prepared miners have likely laid the groundwork ahead of time, perhaps by increasing energy efficiency or raising new capital. But cracks may arise for less-efficient, struggling firms.

One likely outcome: Consolidation. That’s become increasingly common in the bitcoin mining industry, particularly following a major crypto crash in 2022.

In its recent research report, Bitwise found that total miner revenue slumped one month after each of the three previous halvings. But those figures had rebounded significantly after a full year — thanks to spikes in the price of bitcoin as well as larger miners expanding their operations.

Time will tell how mining companies fare following this next looming halving. But Rasmussen is betting that big players will continue to expand and utilize the industry’s technology advances to make operations more efficient.

WHAT ABOUT THE ENVIRONMENT?
Pinpointing definitive data on the environmental impacts directly tied to bitcoin halving is still a bit of a question mark. But it’s no secret that crypto mining consumes a lot of energy — and operations relying on pollutive sources have drawn particular concern over the years.

Recent research published by the United Nations University and Earth’s Future journal found that the carbon footprint of 2020-2021 bitcoin mining across 76 nations was equivalent to emissions of burning 84 billion pounds of coal or running 190 natural gas-fired power plants. Coal satisfied the bulk of bitcoin’s electricity demands (45%), followed by natural gas (21%) and hydropower (16%).

Environmental impacts of bitcoin mining boil largely down to the energy source used. Industry analysts have maintained that pushes towards the use of more clean energy have increased in recent years, coinciding with rising calls for climate protections from regulators around the world.

Still, production pressures could result in miners turning to cheaper, less climate-friendly energy sources. And when looking towards the looming halving, JPMorgan cautioned that some bitcoin mining firms may also “look to diversify into low energy cost regions” to deploy inefficient mining rigs.

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — Atlantic City casinos are facing threats on multiple fronts from new competitors not just in New York, but from within their own state.

That’s not great news for a seaside resort in which the amount of money won from in-person gamblers continues to lag, with seven of the nine casinos winning less from on-premises customers than they did before the COVID-19 pandemic hit.

At the East Coast Gaming Congress Thursday at the Hard Rock casino, numerous executives from some of the major casino companies in America acknowledged the opportunity of three downstate New York casino licenses — and the risk they will present to Atlantic City.

And the operator of a racetrack in northern New Jersey, just outside New York City, told The Associated Press he believes New Jersey voters will authorize construction of a casino in the Meadowlands shortly after New York casinos open and New Jersey gamblers tire of paying bridge tolls and sitting in traffic to get to gambling halls in New York.

“Now more than ever we know there’s a threat coming with New York City gaming coming,” Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small said at the conference. “We understand the threat. We want to continue to work together to do things right to put Atlantic City into a prime position, no matter where these casinos are, that we diversify our options.”

Jim Allen, chairman of Hard Rock International, is straddling both markets.

His company operates a casino in Atlantic City that is the second-most successful in the market. And Hard Rock is partnering with New York Mets owner Steve Cohen on a proposed $8 billion casino complex at Citi Field in the city’s Queens section.

If as many as three casino open in or close to New York City, Allen said, Atlantic City’s in-person gambling revenues could fall by 20% to 30%.

“We have to be prepared for that,” he told attendees at the conference.

Allen said Atlantic City’s Hard Rock will weather the storm of New York competition. But he said he does not want to see any competitors in the city close, throwing 2,000 to 3,000 people out of work in a repetition of a wave of casino closings in Atlantic City from 2014 to 2016 that saw five casinos close. Two have since reopened under new ownership.

Tom Reeg. CEO of Caesars Entertainment, which owns three of Atlantic City’s nine casinos, also said New York casinos will be a challenge. His company, too, is seeking a New York casino license with SL Green, and Roc Nation in Times Square.

“We’re pursuing that license with fervor,” Reeg said. “I share Jim’s concern about where the (Atlantic City) market is headed as we head into New York.”

Soo Kim, chairman of Bally’s Corporation, which has a casino in Atlantic City, said table games revenue from New York gamblers “will be harder to attract” once casinos open in New York City. “With casinos in New York, Pennsylvania and Delaware, there’s casinos everywhere.”

He said New Jersey can rely on its robust internet gambling market to offset some expected losses.

Concerns don’t end with New York.

Jeff Gural runs the Meadowlands Racetrack in East Rutherford, New Jersey, just outside New York City, along with the Tioga Downs and Vernon Downs racetrack casinos in upstate New York.

He also has a deal with Hard Rock to build a casino at the Meadowlands Racetrack — a proposal that was put on the back burner when New Jersey voters overwhelmingly rejected a referendum on expanding casino gambling beyond Atlantic City in 2016.

“I’m just waiting for New York to open,” Gural said in an interview. “People will say, ‘Why am I driving over the George Washington Bridge and paying an $18 toll and sitting in traffic to go gamble?’”

Gural said the 2016 referendum failed largely because it was written to permit more than one casino in northern New Jersey without specifying where.

“People don’t want a casino in the neighborhood,” Gural said. “If we make it clear it’s only at the Meadowlands, common sense tells you there will be a casino in the Meadowlands.”

Gural said that will happen in “a lot sooner than 10 years.”

Mark Giannantonio, president of Atlantic City’s Resorts casino and of the Casino Association of New Jersey, said during Wednesday’s opening day session of the convention that Atlantic City views New York casinos as a threat.

“New Jersey has to be prepared for this, to make Atlantic City more attractive for people to visit, and there’s a lot of work to do,” he said. “Table games clearly will be impacted.”

He said Atlantic City has a “two-year window” to prepare for New York competition by cleaning itself up, improving its infrastructure, and assigning more police to the Boardwalk and other areas so visitors see a visible law enforcement presence. He also said Atlantic City needs to solve its problem with homelessness.

But Giannantonio said Atlantic City can survive the advent of new competition in an already cutthroat northeastern casino market.

“I’m always going to rely on hotel, entertainment, retail and the experience on the casino floor,” he said. “I believe in my heart that Atlantic City, with some hard work, will be an opportunity. We’re excited about the future.”

RAMAT GAN, Israel (AP) — When Ben Binyamin was left for dead, his right leg blown off during the Hamas attack on the Tribe of Nova music festival, the Israeli professional soccer player thought he would never again play the game he loved.

“When I woke up,” the 29-year-old said, “I felt I was going to spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair.”

Then Binyamin learned about a chance to be “normal” again: Israel’s national amputee soccer team.

The team, which includes two Israeli soldiers who lost limbs fighting in the war with Hamas, has offered all three a chance to heal from life-altering wounds suffered during the Oct. 7 attacks and Israel’s ensuing war in Gaza. It heads to France in June for the European Amputee Football Championships. Some 16 teams, mostly from Europe, will compete.

“It’s the best thing in my life,” said 1st Sgt. Omer Glikstal of the team’s twice-weekly practices at a stadium in the Tel Aviv suburb of Ramat Gan. The 20-year-old soldier from Haifa regularly played soccer until his life was turned upside-down when a rocket-propelled grenade shattered his left foot during a battle in Gaza in November.

“It’s a very different game than I used to play, but in the end, it’s the same,” he said.

Dozens of Israelis lost limbs during the Hamas attacks that killed some 1,200 people in southern Israel and the war that followed. Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, home to a major rehabilitation center, says it alone has treated about 60 amputees.

Israel’s Defense Ministry says 1,573 soldiers have been wounded since Israel began its ground offensive in late October, in which troops have engaged in close combat with Hamas militants. The military did not have specific statistics on amputees but said some 320 soldiers were critically wounded.

The Israeli athletes and others who lost limbs have benefited from a world-class medical system that has decades of experience treating young people injured in wars and conflict.

In Gaza, unknown numbers of Palestinians have also lost limbs in a war that has claimed nearly 34,000 lives, according to Gaza health officials. Gaza’s health system has been overwhelmed by the war, and doctors and patients say they often need to choose between amputation or death. Before the war, Gaza also had a fledgling team of amputee soccer players wounded in previous conflicts with Israel.

Shaked Bitton, an Israeli army division commander, lost his right leg when he was shot by a Hamas sniper with a .50-caliber round — the type that can blast through concrete — near the Jabaliya refugee camp in late October. “I heard two shots. I fell down. I looked back,” the 21-year-old soldier said, “and I saw my leg.”

Bitton thought his life was over — he had never even met an amputee before — until he was visited in the hospital by others who had lost limbs and successfully resumed their lives.

Among them was Zach Shichrur, founder of Israel’s national amputee soccer team. Severely injured when a bus ran over his foot at age 8, he knew what these men were going through, and he offered them hope.

“There is nothing greater than to go out and compete at the international level when you have the Israeli flag on your chest. Most of us, if not all, could not have even imagined something like this,” said Shichrur, 36, an attorney and the team’s captain.

Since its founding five years ago, the Israeli team has met with growing success, placing third in the Nations League in Belgium in October. That qualified it to compete in the European championship in June.

Amputee soccer teams have six fielder players who are missing lower limbs; they play on crutches and without prosthetics. Each team has a goalkeeper with a missing upper extremity. The pitch is smaller than standard.

At team practices, the Israeli players are undeterred by the absence of an arm or a leg — whether from an accident, a war injury or a birth defect.

“We all have something in common. We’ve been through a lot of hard and difficult times. It unites us,” said Aviran Ohana, a cybersecurity expert whose right leg is shorter than his left due to a birth defect, and who has played with the team for two years.

On a recent April evening, the team started its warm-up with sprints around the pitch, the men speeding forward propelled by one leg, steadied by their crutches.

A game against able-bodied teenagers followed. Binyamin, dripping with sweat, kicked the ball with his left leg as the coach shouted from the sidelines: “Forward! Forward!” Every goal was celebrated.

Sir Ludwig Guttmann, a Jewish neurologist who fled Nazi Germany in 1939 and settled in Britain, is credited with pioneering competitive sports as a form of rehabilitation. Guttmann, who organized the first competition for wheelchair athletes on the opening day of the 1948 London Olympic Games, is considered the father of the Paralympic Games, and his legacy has enhanced the lives of thousands of handicapped athletes.

In Israel today, the amputee soccer team offers the players the excitement of competition — and the healing powers of sport, said Michal Nechama, the team’s physical therapist.

“They need it for their soul,” she said. “It gives them joy, pride. That extra thing that you can’t give in a hospital.”