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Seymour Stein, Jewish music mogul who discovered Madonna and The Ramones, dies at 80
(JTA) — Seymour Stein, one of the most influential music executives of the 20th century, who frequently throughout his career referred to his Jewish Brooklynite roots, died at 80 on Sunday at his home in Los Angeles.
The cause was an unspecified form of cancer, according to reports.
Stein, born Seymour Steinbigle in 1942 and raised near Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, signed artists to his Sire record label ranging from pop superstars like Madonna to punk rockers like The Ramones to New Wave pioneers like the Talking Heads. He also helped found the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in the early 1980s and was inducted with a lifetime achievement award in 2005.
As he details in his 2018 autobiography, Stein’s father became closer to Orthodox Judaism in his 30s and 40s, regularly bringing his family to a nearby synagogue, where he was a vice president. Stein wrote that his father stopped by the synagogue at 6 a.m. before working in Manhattan’s Garment District and then again after work on his way home every day.
He described the Jews of 1940s Brooklyn in detail in “Siren Song: My Life in Music”:
We had every flavor of Ashkenazim — Russian, Polish, Baltic, Romanian, Austrian, Hungarian, German, and Czech Jews, including about fifty thousand survivors from the concentration camps. We had lost tribes you didn’t even know existed — Syrian, Iraqi, Persian, Yemeni, Ethiopian, even some Sephardic Jews whose family trees had curled through Spain, North Africa, the Middle East, and South America…. [E]ach Jewish community was distinct, often with its own native food and language.
In 1966, Stein — who shortened his last name on advice from an early mentor, the Jewish executive Syd Nathan — co-founded Sire Records, which would go on to sign and promote artists from a range of burgeoning genres in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s: British indie rockers like The Smiths and The Cure, electronic innovator Aphex Twin, the rapper Ice-T.
“He knows all the lyrics to every song you’ve ever heard,” said Chrissie Hynde, the famed leader of The Pretenders, another Sire band.
Along the way, Stein wrote and mentioned in interviews how he found camaraderie with other Jewish executives and stars, after having grown up in an era when Jews were implicitly banned from some professions in the United States but found a haven in the entertainment industry. In his autobiography, for instance, he calls Lou Reed and New Wave electro-rocker Alan Vega fellow Brooklyn Jews.
“It’s amazing now that so many doctors and lawyers are Jewish,” he said in a 2013 interview with Tablet magazine. “Jews in America weren’t allowed in those professions 120 years ago. Music is something Jews were good at and they could do. All immigrants into America tried their hand at show-business.”
Stein signed Madonna from his hospital bed, where he was recovering from an open-heart surgery in 1982. She would release three top-of-the-charts albums with Sire before creating her own imprint in 1992.
In 1975, his wife, Linda, encouraged him to look into The Ramones, a group of scrappy punks in ripped jeans from Queens (two of whom were Jewish). She would co-manage the band for a time before becoming a real estate agent.
Stein, who later came out as gay, wrote that “the roles were a little confused” in his marriage and that he felt pressured to hide his attraction to men in part because of his traditional Jewish upbringing. “Just because I may have been gay didn’t mean I wasn’t Jewish,” he wrote. He and Linda had two children but eventually divorced.
In the Tablet interview, Stein mentioned that he stayed observant, though not Orthodox, throughout his life. He visited Israel several times and worked with Israeli pop star Ofra Haza on multiple albums. In the 1990s, he visited the grave of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov in Uman, Ukraine, a small town where thousands of Orthodox Jews gather each year on Rosh Hashanah.
“I feel a strong attachment to Nachman’s teachings,” he said.
Linda Stein was murdered by her assistant in 2007, and their daughter Samantha died in 2013 from brain cancer. Stein is survived by their other daughter Mandy, a sister and three grandchildren.
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Global Leaders React to the Killing of Iran’s Khamenei
A woman holds a poster with the picture of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as people gather after Khamenei was killed in Israeli and U.S. strikes on Saturday, in Tehran, Iran, March 1, 2026. Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was killed in US and Israeli strikes, state media confirmed as another wave of attacks hit the country on Sunday.
Below is international reaction to his death.
PAKISTAN PRIME MINISTER SHEHBAZ SHARIF
“Pakistan also expresses concern over violation of the norms of international law. It is an age-old convention that the heads of state/government should not be targeted.”
IRANIAN PRESIDENT MASOUD PEZESHKIAN
“The martyrdom of the Supreme Leader at the hands of Israel and the criminal America was a great disaster for our country… America and Israel should know that it will bring them nothing but embarrassment.”
EUROPEAN COMMISSIONER URSULA VON DER LEYEN
“With Khamenei gone, there is renewed hope for the people of Iran. We must ensure that the future is theirs to claim and shape. At the same time, this moment carries a real risk of instability that could push the region into a spiral of violence.”
ITALIAN FOREIGN MINISTER ANTONIO TAJANI
“For the moment, Iran is in a transitional phase, and it remains to be seen how long it will last and what impact the war will have. What is certain is that a leader who had guided Iran for decades is gone, and that is bound to have consequences — including the loss of Khamenei’s personal authority over the population.”
FRENCH GOVERNMENT SPOKESPERSON MAUD BREGEON
“He was responsible for the deaths of thousands of civilians in his country and in the region, so one can only welcome his disappearance. It is now up to the Iranian people to choose their own destiny.”
EUROPEAN UNION FOREIGN POLICY CHIEF KAJA KALLAS
“The death of Ali Khamenei is a defining moment in Iran’s history. What comes next is uncertain. But there is now an open path to a different Iran, one that its people may have greater freedom to shape.”
RUSSIAN PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN
“Please accept my deep condolences in connection with the murder of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Seyed Ali Khamenei, and members of his family, committed in cynical violation of all norms of human morality and international law.”
SWEDISH FOREIGN MINISTER MARIA STENERGARD
“Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been confirmed dead. This could open a window of opportunities. But there are still many uncertainties remaining.
“Iran’s future must belong to the people. But the road there is long. The risk of a spiral of violence in the Middle East remains great.”
INDONESIA’S ULEMA MUSLIM CLERICAL COUNCIL
“The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) expressed its deepest condolences for the death of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamenei, as a result of the Israeli-American attack on February 28.
“The United States, which is playing a central role in managing the Palestinian conflict through the BoP (Board of Peace), faces a major question: is this strategy truly aimed at a just peace, or is it actually strengthening an unequal security architecture and burying Palestinian independence? Therefore, the MUI urges the Indonesian government to revoke its membership from the BoP.”
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Israel and US Used Anthropic’s Claude and CIA Intelligence in Timing Iran Strike
CEO of Anthropic Dario Amodei, addresses the gathering at the AI Impact Summit, in New Delhi, India, February 19, 2026. REUTERS/Bhawika Chhabra
i24 News – Israel and the United States used an artificial intelligence system and detailed CIA intelligence to help plan and time their joint strike on Iranian leadership in Tehran, according to reports in the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times. The operation targeted a rare gathering of senior Iranian officials and was adjusted to coincide with a Saturday morning meeting at a government compound in central Tehran.
The Wall Street Journal reported that the attack was carried out with the assistance of “Claude,” an artificial intelligence tool developed by the company Anthropic, just hours after the federal administration announced it was terminating its contract with the firm and labeling it a “security threat.” According to the report, sources familiar with the matter said military headquarters around the world, including United States Central Command in the Middle East, are using Claude “for intelligence assessments, target identification, and battle scenario simulations.” CENTCOM declined to comment on the specific systems being used in the operation.
In a separate account, the New York Times said the CIA had been tracking Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei “for months, gaining more confidence about his locations and his patterns,” according to people familiar with the operation. The agency then learned that a meeting of top Iranian officials would take place on Saturday morning at a leadership compound in the heart of Tehran and that Khamenei would be present at the site.
Officials with knowledge of the decisions told the Times that the United States and Israel decided to adjust the timing of their attack “in part to take advantage of the new intelligence.” The information provided a “window of opportunity” for the two countries to achieve “a critical and early victory: the elimination of top Iranian officials and the killing of Ayatollah Khamenei,” the report said. The CIA passed its intelligence, described as offering “high fidelity” on Khamenei’s position, to Israel, according to people briefed on the operation.
Those sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the intelligence and military planning, said Israel used the American intelligence alongside its own to execute an operation it had been preparing for months, focused on the targeted killing of senior officials in the Iranian regime. According to the reports, the governments of the United States and Israel had originally planned to launch the attack at night but shifted to a daylight strike after learning of the leadership gathering in Tehran.
The Times said senior figures in Iran’s security establishment attended the meeting, including Revolutionary Guard commander Mohammad Pakpour, Defense Minister Aziz Nasirzadeh, military council head Ali Shamkhani, Revolutionary Guard Aerospace Force commander Seyed Majid Mousavi, Deputy Intelligence Minister Mohammad Shirazi, and other top officials. An Israeli security official, quoted by the Times, said the operation “was carried out simultaneously at several sites in Tehran, including at the meeting point of the Iranian political‑security leadership,” and added that despite Iranian preparations for war, Israel had achieved a “tactical surprise” in striking the compound.
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Abu Dhabi Complex Housing Embassies Damaged as Retaliatory Strikes Widen in Gulf
Smoke billows from Zayed port after an Iranian attack, following United States and Israel strikes on Iran, in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, March 1, 2026. Picture taken with phone. REUTERS/Abdelhadi Ramahi
Debris from an intercepted drone damaged an Abu Dhabi complex housing the Israeli embassy and several other international missions, causing minor injuries to a woman and her child, Abu Dhabi’s state media office said on Sunday.
Debris from the drone fell against the facade of the Etihad Towers complex after an interception that caused loud sounds heard across the emirate, the media office said.
After the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran on Saturday, Iran said it would target US bases in the region. But it has also hit a range of civilian and commercial areas across Gulf cities, widening the conflict’s impact on key regional aviation and trade hubs.
As retaliatory strikes widened on Sunday they reverberated across Gulf Arab states, with loud blasts heard in Dubai and the Qatari capital Doha and with Oman being hit for the first time.
PORTS TARGETED
In Dubai, two people were injured after shrapnel from drones fell over two houses when they were intercepted, a Dubai state media office statement said.
Dubai’s international airport, its landmark Burj Al Arab hotel and man-made Palm Jumeirah Island all suffered damage overnight, as did Abu Dhabi’s international airport.
Thick black plumes of smoke continued to rise from the Jebel Ali port area, where one of the berths caught fire on Sunday because of debris from an intercepted missile.
In neighboring Oman, which was spared retaliation on Saturday, Duqm commercial port was targeted by two drones, wounding one worker, the state news agency said.
Dubai is the biggest tourism and trade hub in the Middle East and its airport is one of the world’s busiest travel hubs.
Qatar’s interior ministry said on Sunday that it was responding to a limited fire in an industrial zone after debris fell from an intercepted missile.