By DAVID CRARY, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — Leading Jewish groups in the United States are urging all Jewish organizations to ratchet up security measures at public events — including restrictions on access — following the deadly mass shooting that targeted a Hanukkah celebration on a popular Australian beach.

The groups — including three which specialize in security issues — said Jewish public events in the coming days should be open only to people who had been screened after preregistering.

“Provide details of location, time, and other information only upon confirmed registration,” the groups’ advisory said. “Have access control (locks and entrance procedures) to only allow known, confirmed registrants/attendees into the facility/event.”

Coinciding with this urgent appeal for increased precautions, some rabbis said their synagogues would proceed with large-scale celebrations, intended to demonstrate resilience. The mass shooting is the latest reminder of the Jewish community’s longstanding reality of having to factor security into religious practice.

“This week, let us choose Jewish joy, communal strength, and courageous hope,” said a message posted by Temple Beth Sholom, one of the largest synagogues in the Miami area. “We invite every member of our family … to join us this week as we celebrate Chanukah. Let us gather to share the warmth of the candles and reaffirm our unbreakable connection.”

Similar sentiments were expressed by Rabbi Jeffrey Myers of Pittsburgh’s Tree of Life Congregation, a survivor of the 2018 attack by an antisemitic gunman that killed 11 worshippers at the synagogue.

“Hanukkah is supposed to be a time of light, celebrating the resilience of our people,” Myers said. “In the face of antisemitism and violence, my prayer is that we don’t let the fear win but instead lean into our Jewishness and practice our tradition proudly.”

People look at the Menorah during the annual National Menorah Lighting in celebration of Hanukkah, on the Ellipse near the White House in Washington, Sunday, Dec. 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

At least 15 people died in Sunday’s attack, which has fueled criticism that the nation’s authorities were not doing enough to combat a surge in antisemitic crimes. On Monday, Australian leaders promised to overhaul already-tough gun control laws after the targeted attack on Sydney’s Bondi Beach

Among those killed was Eli Schlanger, assistant rabbi at Chabad of Bondi and an organizer of the family Hanukkah event, according to Chabad, an Orthodox Jewish movement that runs outreach worldwide and is known for its public menorah lightings.

Just a year earlier, according to Chabad, Schlanger had urged his fellow Jews to be uncowed in the face of rising antisemitism, voicing this message, “Be more Jewish, act more Jewish and appear more Jewish.”

Chabad.org said Chabad centers worldwide are going ahead with thousands of planned public menorah lightings and community Hanukkah celebrations “while taking greater security precautions — calling on the Jewish community to drown out hate with greater light and goodness while mourning those lost and wounded in Sydney.”

The Sydney shooting reinforced the importance of these public celebrations, said Rabbi Chaim Landa with Chabad of Greater St. Louis. The organization proceeded with its planned Sunday night menorah lighting near the Gateway Arch but with a greater police presence. He believes it is what Schlanger would have wanted.

“There’s a couple pieces to this. There’s making sure that it’s safe, and there’s also making sure that people feel safe. And we want both,” said Landa, who estimates close to 300 people attended the outdoor event in below-freezing temperatures.

“People wanted to come out, and they wanted to be together. So it’s very important that people feel that they can do that, and that’s what we want to ensure.”

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In a speech delivered after the Australia attack, the president of the largest branch of Judaism in North America elaborated on the mix of dismay and determination being experienced through the Jewish community.

“We are thinking about security and how to live openly and safely as Jews — asking questions that are newer to us but would have been all too familiar to generations of our ancestors,” said Rabbi Rick Jacobs of the Union for Reform Judaism.

“We need to ask these hard questions. We need to be smart about security and protecting ourselves and our fellow Jews — whether within the synagogue walls, or when we walk down the street wearing a kippah,” he added. “But the spirit of the defiant Maccabees is also part of the Hanukkah story. Our Jewish community will not go into hiding. We are proud Jews and will remain so even as we make the security of our Jewish community a primary obligation.”

Jacobs referred to the Jewish tradition of placing the Hanukkah menorah in a window for others to see.

“But in the Babylonian Talmud we are taught that in a time of danger, we do not do that,” Jacobs said. “We have been living in a time of growing danger for several years now. And for too many Jews, putting a menorah in the window is too dangerous.”

Alon Shalev, a research fellow at the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem, argued that Jews — following the attack — should be bolder in boosting their public profile.

“When Jews are attacked for being visibly Jewish, the instinct to retreat is understandable — but it is precisely the wrong response,” he told The Associated Press via email.

“Jewish safety in democratic societies depends on open, shared civic affirmation, supported by political and community leaders and by fellow citizens, not on retreat behind closed doors,” he added. “Stepping into the public square and normalizing Jewish presence is how we defend ourselves.”

AP religion news editor Holly Meyer contributed to this report.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

By MICHAEL R. SISAK, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — UPS stole tens of millions of dollars in pay from seasonal workers who help the shipping giant deliver packages during the busy holiday season, forcing some to clock in well after their shifts started and deducting pay for lunch breaks they never took, New York Attorney General Letitia James alleged in a lawsuit Monday.

Filed in state court in Manhattan, the lawsuit accuses UPS of “repeatedly and persistently” failing to properly compensate driver helpers, who assist with deliveries, and seasonal support drivers, who use their own vehicles to make deliveries. James estimated that in the last six years, UPS has deprived tens of thousands of seasonal workers of wages totaling about $45 million.

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The lawsuit seeks back pay and penalties, plus a court order requiring UPS to end off-the-clock work and change its timekeeping and payroll practices. The company, known for its brown trucks and uniforms, delivered an average of 22.4 million packages a day and brought in $91.1 billion in revenue last year, according to its website.

“We oftentimes don’t think of these workers when we’re opening up our gifts for the holidays,” James said at a news conference announcing the lawsuit. “And these individuals are struggling each and every day to make ends meet.”

In a statement, Georgia-based UPS said it was aware of the lawsuit, “takes all accusations of wrongdoing seriously and denies the unfounded allegation of intentionally underpaying UPS employees.”

“We offer industry-leading pay and benefits to our more than 26,000 employees in New York, and we remain committed to following all applicable laws,” the statement said.

James, a Democrat, said she started investigating UPS in 2023 after an employee union, Teamsters Local 804, raised concerns about the company’s treatment of seasonal workers. Those workers are employed on a temporary basis from October to January.

Josh Pomeranz, the union’s director of operations, said that while there isn’t evidence that the company’s top management was involved in, aware of or condoning alleged wage theft, “these are just certain practices that you have to actively ignore, not to see it happening.”

NEVIS, Minn. — Although it was dark and freezing cold, the air outside Flour Chicks Bakery in Nevis smelled like warm doughnuts.

Inside this bakery in Minnesota’s lake country, the staff were working late into the night to churn out a steady supply of fresh breads and pastries. In the winter, the bakery’s calmest season, owner Sara Halik said they work until about midnight or 1 a.m., then start baking again at 5 a.m.

Halik bought the bakery two years ago with her sister-in-law, Tina Smith. She also owns Red River Bar and Grill in Akeley and splits her time between the two Hubbard County businesses.

She said she was in charge of making the cakes at her restaurant.

“I just fell in love with it and decided I wanted more work to do,” she said. “So, I bought a bakery.”

Flour Chicks re-opened under Halik’s ownership in October 2023, she said. So far, business has been booming, although the bakery only recently hired a full staff.

Behind the scenes

Flour Chicks Bakery owner Sara Halik of Nevis, Minn., said her favorite things about the bakery are her great staff and customers. (Alex Haddon / Park Rapids Enterprise / Forum News Service)

All of the recipes are kept in a thick binder, where they’re laminated and covered with notes. Some of them are “very touchy,” Halik said. As the seasons, temperature and humidity change, amounts of water and yeast have to be carefully adjusted by the gram.

Nikki Kramer starts her shift at 5 p.m., right after the store closes to customers, and gets to work making “all the pastries for the morning,” Halik said. Those include turnovers, scones, croissants, muffins and cinnamon rolls.

“You’ll see her cinnamon twists come out perfect,” Halik said.

To make cinnamon twists, a large sheet of dough is coated with an egg wash and sprinkled with cinnamon. Then, Kramer folds it over, cuts it into strips, twists them and sets them aside to rise.

Kramer and the other night staff go through dozens of sheets of dough, pressing out air bubbles and cutting out rings for doughnuts.

The centers of the doughnuts are saved to become doughnut holes. Cutter Serena Krotzer chops up any spare scraps of dough with cinnamon to be made into apple fritters.

Nothing goes to waste.

Neil Selseth, the fryer and “muscle” of the team, arrives at 6:30 p.m. and starts on the battered doughnuts.

“These girls make the magic happen, I just take care of the heavy stuff,” Selseth said, referring to the 50-pound bags of ingredients he lifts.

By 7:30 p.m. on a Tuesday, much of the next day’s doughnuts were rising in a warming box called a proofer.

Selseth was frying croissants in hot oil. Each small batch took about two minutes to finish. Selseth monitored them carefully and flipped them with a pair of sticks when they turned golden brown, then transferred them to a rack to glaze.

The business of baking

Neil Selseth of Flour Chicks Bakery in Nevis, Minn., maneuvers with a tray of freshly fried and glazed croissants ready for the doughnut case. (Alex Haddon / Park Rapids Enterprise / Forum News Service)

Halik knew cakes, but not doughnuts or bread when she bought Flour Chicks, she said, so the previous owner gave her and Smith a crash course in baking.

Once a week or so, they would come in and help him bake goods for the farmers’ markets.

“That’s how we learned to do what he was doing,” she said. “So, that really helped. It helped him too, because we were making the product for him to take and sell.”

Opening the doors was “overwhelming” at first, Halik said. Customers poured in, but the bakery was drastically understaffed.

“I was cutting, frying, I mean doing everything, every night, myself,” Halik said. “We were working 15-, 16-hour days. We were running the counter and running the back.”

Summer is their busiest season. Halik said she worked for 24 hours straight during one holiday, although she doesn’t remember which.

“I believe she had like 15 or 18 dozen croissants she had to fry, and additionally, another 30 pounds worth of cake doughnuts that she fried up,” Selseth said about one particularly busy summer day. “And they still ran out of doughnuts before 11 a.m.”

Soon, Halik said she developed a process for the bakery and hired people into specific positions. There were moments of hilarity, like when Halik got to know “Big Bertha,” her giant mixer.

“When we first started, we did not know what speeds they were,” she said. “So, we filled it up with powdered sugar. We thought three was low and it was not.”

The sugar went “everywhere,” leaving her and Smith laughing hysterically.

Now, Halik said she has about nine great employees and the bakery is running smoothly. She stops by in the mornings and evenings to check in.

She also makes all the pies. Over Thanksgiving, she said she fulfilled about 100 orders ranging from pumpkin to coconut cream.

Bright and early

It was about 7 below outside when the morning shift started with prepping bread and frosting doughnuts.

There’s a special technique to folding bread dough so it rises in neat spheres, Maya Deshayes said. The dough is tucked into itself and flipped over, leaving a perfectly smooth, domed top.

Keelin Irish was frosting and filling doughnuts. Despite “not being a morning person,” she works at Flour Chicks before heading to class at Nevis Public School. Halik was cutting cheesecake into tiny squares she would later dunk in melted candy to make 2,000 cheesecake bites.

Halik said Kathy Plumley is her “main person,” taking care of the cookie and cake decorating and overseeing general operations. Many of the vibrant designs in the cake counter are her work. Earlier that week, she’d frosted about 1,000 intricate Christmas cookies for the Akeley Veterans and Community Outreach Christmas party.

Plumley, a self-taught froster, helped teach Halik how to “do cakes.”

“(Plumley) always said, ‘Well, if I was younger, I’d buy that bakery,’” Halik said. “So when I bought the bakery, I reached out to her.’”

At 5:30 a.m., Plumley was dunking tiny, round pieces of cookie in icing and red sugar sprinkles to make Rudolph noses. Then, she decorated doughnuts to look like melted snowmen.

Doors open to customers at 6 a.m., except for a special group of customers known as “the coffee guys.” The group of retirees have been meeting for years to chat in the mornings. They’re greeted by Candy Pike, who works the front counter.

Pike said she loves working somewhere where everyone’s happy to visit.

“Here, I just get to be me and have fun and greet customers,” she said. “I get people to buy a lot of doughnuts.”

Pike said she’s worked in a lot of commercial bakeries, many of which just order their pastries frozen, “warm them up and put a little icing on them.” Flour Chicks is old school, she said. Baking is an art and they do it well.

Pike said her favorite good at the bakery, the fried cinnamon roll topped with buttercream and pecans, is so heavenly it “gives you a buzz.”

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By MATTHEW PERRONE, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. health officials have expanded approval of a much-debated drug aimed at boosting female libido, saying the once-a-day pill can now be taken by women older than 65.

The announcement Monday from the Food and Drug Administration broadens the drug’s use to older women who have gone through menopause. The pill, Addyi, was first approved 10 years ago for premenopausal women who report emotional stress due to low sex drive.

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Addyi, marketed by Sprout Pharmaceuticals, was initially expected to become a blockbuster drug, filling an important niche in women’s health. But the drug came with unpleasant side effects including dizziness and nausea, and it carries a safety warning about the dangers of combining it with alcohol. The boxed warning, FDA’s most serious type, cautions that drinking while taking the pill can cause dangerously low blood pressure and fainting.

Sales of Addyi, which acts on brain chemicals that affect mood and appetite, have been limited. In 2019, the FDA approved a second drug for low female libido, an on-demand injection that acts on a different set of neurological chemicals.

Sprout CEO Cindy Eckert said in a statement the approval “reflects a decade of persistent work with the FDA to fundamentally change how women’s sexual health is understood and prioritized.” The company, based in Raleigh, North Carolina, announced the FDA update in a press release Monday.

The medical condition for a troublingly low sexual appetite, called hypoactive sexual desire disorder, has been recognized since the 1990s and is thought to affect a significant portion of American women, according to surveys. After the blockbuster success of Viagra for men in the 1990s, drugmakers began pouring money into research and potential therapies for sexual dysfunction in women.

But diagnosing the condition is complicated because of how many factors can affect libido, especially after menopause, when falling hormone levels trigger a number of biological changes and medical symptoms. Doctors are supposed to rule out a number of other issues, including relationship problems, medical conditions, depression and other mental disorders, before prescribing medication.

The diagnosis is not universally accepted, and some psychologists argue that low sex drive should not be considered a medical problem.

The FDA rejected Addyi twice prior to its 2015 approval, citing the drug’s modest effectiveness and worrisome side effects. The approval came after a lobbying campaign by the company and its supporters, Even the Score, which framed the lack of options for female libido as a women’s rights issue.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.