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Tamerlan Amshukov, 26, and Alina Kushnirenko, 24, were indicted on Thursday for allegedly carrying out a months-long series of surveillance and intelligence-gathering missions for Iranian agents in exchange for cryptocurrency.

The Tel Aviv District Attorney’s Office charged Amshukov with contact with a foreign agent and 16 counts of providing information that could benefit the enemy. Kushnirenko was charged with eight counts of providing such information.

Prosecutors asked the Tel Aviv District Court to keep the couple in custody until the conclusion of the proceedings against them. They were arrested on July 12 following a joint Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and Israel Police investigation.

According to the indictment, Amshukov was first approached via Telegram in late 2025 by a profile calling itself “Rafael,” which offered to pay him to visit and film a restaurant in Ashdod. Kushnirenko allegedly warned him that the approach could be connected to terrorist activity, and the assignment was not carried out.

About four months later, another Telegram profile, using the name “Aslan,” offered Amshukov a commission to withdraw money and deliver the cash to another person. He did not carry out that assignment but continued communicating with the profile, prosecutors said.

“Aslan” later allegedly offered to pay Amshukov to conduct surveillance, film addresses, and track individuals whose photographs would be sent to him. The assignments were carried out for “Aslan” and another person calling himself “David,” with payments transferred in cryptocurrency.

Amshukov allegedly accepted the offer and recruited Kushnirenko to assist him. Prosecutors said the pair carried out the assignments between April and July, knowing – or deliberately ignoring the possibility – that they were working for an Iranian agent or another hostile organization.

The couple allegedly filmed residential targets in Ashdod, Beersheba, Haifa, and Kadima-Tzoran, documenting the buildings or homes, their surroundings, and the routes leading to them.

The targets included a Beersheba apartment building where an employee of a defense facility lived, as well as a private home in Kadima-Tzoran belonging to a member of the security services. The indictment said the defendants were sent photographs of the people they were asked to locate but did not know their identities.

At several locations, the handler instructed them to return and repeat the filming because he was dissatisfied with the footage.

Suspects sent to film mall emergency exits, Eilat port

The couple was also allegedly sent to Ramat Aviv Mall in Tel Aviv to document its emergency exits and identify an area not covered by security cameras. Prosecutors said they filmed part of a staircase between the mall’s first and second floors after determining that it did not appear to be under camera surveillance.

In late June, the pair traveled to Eilat, where they allegedly filmed the promenade, coastline, port area, and ships they believed were military vessels. During the journey, Amshukov also filmed a security installation near Dimona without knowing its purpose and sent the footage to the handler.

The handler later instructed the pair to approach a closed military port and photograph ships, telling Amshukov to take a panoramic photograph of a naval base. Amshukov reached the area but left without completing the assignment because he became afraid, according to the indictment.

After complaining about the quality of the footage, the handler allegedly transferred $1,200 for Amshukov to purchase a new phone with a higher-quality camera. Kushnirenko allegedly helped configure the phone before the pair returned to the Eilat promenade and port area and sent additional recordings.

Amshukov was later sent to Mount Herzl in Jerusalem, where prosecutors said he filmed the entrance, surrounding area, access roads, and IDF soldiers. He returned the following day and allegedly filmed additional parts of the site, including the Herzl Museum.

The handler also proposed assignments that were not completed, including renting an apartment in Haifa and installing a camera overlooking building entrances, finding someone to retrieve a package arriving by sea, transferring money, and recruiting taxi drivers to carry out missions.

Suspected spies received over $4,400 in cryptocurrency

Prosecutors said the defendants received approximately $4,450 in cryptocurrency, while a further $2,300 remained unpaid. They were arrested before carrying out another alleged assignment in Beersheba.

In the detention request, prosecutors said both defendants admitted carrying out the assignments. They initially denied knowing that they were working for Iran but later acknowledged that they had understood this during the Eilat mission and had continued performing tasks, according to the state.

The prosecution said its evidence included material extracted from their phones, videos, and photographs, cryptocurrency-wallet records, communications data, and security-camera footage. Amshukov allegedly deleted most of his correspondence with the handler from his personal phone.

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The US Air Force has begun relocating some of its aerial refueling aircraft that had been stationed at Ben-Gurion Airport in recent weeks, amid ongoing security developments, N12 reported on Thursday.

The move comes after Transportation Minister Miri Regev pressed Israeli security officials to clear the refueling aircraft from the airport in order to ensure normal operations during one of Ben-Gurion‘s busiest travel periods.

More than 2.6 million passengers are expected to pass through Ben-Gurion Airport during August, making it one of the airport’s busiest months since the October 7 massacre.

Hundreds of thousands of travelers expected in Ben-Gurion

Airport authorities expect an average of approximately 100,000 passengers to travel through Ben-Gurion each day throughout the month. Thursdays are forecast to be the busiest days of the week, while Monday, August 17, is expected to be the single busiest day of the month.

The relocation of the US tanker aircraft is intended to free valuable parking and operational space at the airport as airlines continue to handle increased passenger volumes during the summer travel season.

The report did not specify how many aircraft were relocated or where they were transferred.

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Six weeks after the US and Iran signed a memorandum of understanding, the deal survives mostly as a rumor about itself.

Talks resume, then they don’t. Strikes land while both sides insist the framework holds. On this week’s Deep Dive episode, host Jacob Laznik argues the story has quietly changed subject, and the people it was supposed to be about have dropped out of it.

His guest, journalist and Iran analyst Jonathan Harounoff, spent two years at the UN: after the December protests began and the killing started, it took the Secretary-General two to three weeks to say anything. In Gaza or Lebanon, he says, it would have taken hours.

Laznik’s sharpest question is an arithmetic one. Empty water reserves, rationed power, talk of moving the capital, then two rounds of war. How is this regime physically still standing? Harounoff’s answer is the reason to watch. The math does add up, he argues, because the Islamic Republic spent decades funneling everything into this moment. And its single greatest asset right now is that it isn’t a democracy.

It doesn’t answer to polling, fuel prices, or midterms. Israel and the US do. It can’t win a conventional war, so it plans to out-suffer them, with the Strait of Hormuz as the lever.

With Israel voting October 27, Iran isn’t cracking the top ten campaign issues. Harounoff’s diagnosis isn’t indifference but access, which is why 15% of the views on everything he posts come from inside Iran. Then he closes on the detail that lingers: the people who pressed him hardest for continued strikes on the Islamic Republic weren’t officials or analysts.

They were Iranians at Nowruz parties in Brooklyn, approaching him one after another to urge it. The people with the most to lose were the most insistent. 

This post was originally published on here. 

Some 100 people died during the massive border rush last week in Spain’s Ceuta, the enclave city’s leader Juan Jesus Vivas said on Thursday during an EU parliamentary meeting.

Vivas added that between 3,000 and 5,000 migrants were still in Ceuta.

This is a developing story. 

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At least 30 Yemeni government troops were killed in Houthi attacks on military camps in the provinces of Marib and Hadramout, government sources said on Thursday.

The sources added that the death toll could rise.

This is a developing story.

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Five months into the US war with Iran, Americans who expect the Middle East to slide toward chaos outnumber those who see the war bringing more stability by three to one, according to a new Reuters/Ipsos poll.

The six-day poll concluded on Monday, as US President Donald Trump again backed away from threatened “massive attacks” on Iran, underscoring uncertainty surrounding a conflict he initially predicted would bring a swift victory.

Fifty percent of poll respondents sai they thought US military action in Iran would destabilize the Middle East over the next year, about three times the 17% who said the war would lead to more stability in the region. Another 16% said stability would stay about the same and 17% said they were unsure or didn’t answer the question.

Americans were also pessimistic about gasoline prices, which have risen as Iran has choked off traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a vital route for global oil supplies. Some 58% said they expected gas prices to worsen, while just 15% expected them to improve.

Respondents held similarly grim views about the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with a majority fearing it will get worse over the next few years, and also raising concerns about new conflicts arising elsewhere on the world stage.

Political risks for Trump, other Republicans

The findings underscore the political risks for Trump and his fellow Republicans as they seek to defend narrow congressional majorities in November’s midterm elections.

Trump returned to office in January 2025 vowing to avoid “stupid wars”, a message that resonated with voters weary of the two decades of war that followed the September 11, 2001, al Qaeda attacks.

Republicans, in contrast with their general support for Trump, were sharply divided on how they see his war with Iran playing out. While 80% of Republicans approve of Trump’s performance as president and 66% back his handling of Iran, fewer than half – 41% – think stability in the Middle East will get better over the next year as a result of the war.

The war has led to Iranian missile and drone attacks against neighboring countries and commercial shipping, and sparked new fighting in Lebanon, which has reduced in intensity since a US-brokered truce. The Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen have also threatened Saudi shipping transiting the Bab al-Mandab chokepoint at the southern end of the Red Sea.

David Schenker, who served as the State Department’s top Middle East official during Trump’s first term, said the economic effects could persist even if the fighting ended quickly. But he said it was not certain the war would result in a more unstable Middle East, arguing that US and Israeli attacks had significantly weakened Iran’s military capabilities and the regional proxy network.

“I don’t think there’s an understanding of the nature of the degradation of Iran’s capabilities, which is significant,” said Schenker, now with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

The war, which Trump launched with Israel in late February, has cost US taxpayers at least $37.5 billion, killed 18 US service members and killed thousands of Iranians.

The war with Iran proves unpopular among most Americans

Just 35% of Americans approve of the war. Asked which political party has a better approach to handling war and terrorism, registered voters picked Democrats over Republicans – 37% to 36% – the first time Democrats led since Reuters/Ipsos polling began posing the question in December 2024, when Republicans led 39% to 28%. The poll also showed voters now see Democrats as better able to manage the economy for the first time in about a decade.

“This war was unpopular the day it started, and it’s gotten more unpopular since,” said Justin Logan, director of defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute, a Washington think tank.

Logan said Trump faced a difficult tradeoff: He has set ambitious goals for the conflict – destroying Iran’s missile capabilities and preventing it from ever obtaining a nuclear weapon – while seeking to limit US casualties and the political costs that could come with them.

“That incoherence, or rudderlessness, in the conduct of the war is causing more problems for the president,” Logan said.

Americans are about Ukraine and China

The poll found that Americans also have significant concerns that wars underway will get worse and that new wars will break out. Some 58% said they were concerned the Russia-Ukraine war, in which Washington and European allies have supported Kyiv with weapons and intelligence, could get worse.

Another 55% said they worried about China engaging in conflict with Taiwan while 48% were concerned a war could break out between Russia and a European country other than Ukraine. Some 37% worried the US would go to war over Greenland.

The Reuters/Ipsos poll was conducted online, gathering responses from 4,505 US adults nationwide. It had a margin of error of 2 percentage points.

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The Israel Fire and Rescue Authority responded to a fire that sparked near the Beit Dror settlement in the West Bank on Thursday, in addition to a number of other fires in the region.

The blaze began in an open area and spread toward the settlement due to the wind. 

Firefighters established a defensive line around the houses in the settlement, and additional teams arrived on the scene to assist. 

Police were able to direct traffic away from areas affected by the fire.

A short time later, police from the city of Ariel were called to direct traffic following a vehicle fire on Highway 5 in the Samaria region of the West Bank. The fire spread to an open area beyond the highway, police added. The highway was briefly closed to traffic, but opened up soon after. 

This is a developing story.

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Israel will focus its development efforts on quantum computing and physical artificial intelligence, with the objective of becoming a leading nation in both areas, the Prime Minister’s Office National AI Directorate and the Finance Ministry Accountant General’s Department announced on Tuesday.

According to the release, the focus will be on developing a “locally produced quantum computer” under the newly released “Project Nexus,” while also investing in physical AI solutions that enable the use of AI in real-life situations.

The announcement is centered around “Government Decision 4255” and the national AI strategy, which will work as the inaugural projects of the National AI Directorate.

“Government Decision 4255 aims to secure Israel’s place at the forefront of global AI. Our role is to accelerate the advancement of AI in Israel, which is why we are transitioning swiftly and professionally from defining vision and strategy to practical implementation on the ground, together with all government partners,” said Brig.-Gen. (Res.) Erez Eskel, Director of the National AI Directorate.

“The steps we are launching now are a central phase in securing our sovereign infrastructure while continuing to focus our efforts on the State of Israel’s comparative advantages for long-term global leadership,” he added.

“The close collaboration between the Accountant General’s Department and the National Directorate enables us to translate government decisions into practical, contractual mechanisms that will establish the required infrastructure on the ground,” pointed out Senior Finance Ministry Deputy Accountant General for Innovation and Technology Evyatar Peretz.

The announcement also detailed that a Request for Information (RFI) will be published to “advance the establishment of Israeli sovereignty in foundational models, promote Israeli leadership, map market capabilities, and examine measures to maximize the State of Israel’s comparative advantages.”

“The steps we are leading today, from quantum computing to Physical AI and foundational models, provide the industry and the economy with the necessary foundation to lower barriers, ensure technological sovereignty, and make global breakthroughs,” Peretz said.

Quantum computing is still the main priority

Quantum computing has been one of the government’s main concerns since 2018, with several programs aiming to push Israel among the five leading nations in the world in this field.

Some of them showed results, such as the first domestically built quantum computer, using advanced superconducting technology, revealed in 2024, or the recent team-up between Israel’s quantum computing startup Qedma and IBM to create a device capable of surpassing the performance of the world’s most powerful supercomputer.

This last experiment was conducted by IBM on a quantum chip that it developed using superconducting technology, which contains 72 physical qubits – different units that allow different calculations to be performed simultaneously.

Physical AI is gaining strength

Another priority of the government is centered on physical AI, which can be seen in action with drones that don’t require a pilot to reach their targets, or systems capable of organizing the energy usage of companies to save money on electricity.

Arik Feingold, chairman and president of Commit, told The Jerusalem Post back in June that the next milestone the Israel Innovation Authority needs to set will be the development of these types of technologies.

“This is where our comparative advantage in planning, creativity, and integration truly shines,” he explained.

“If we steer the Innovation Authority toward encouraging deep-tech solutions that bridge AI with field operations, manufacturing, and industry, we will ensure the resilience of our ecosystem during these challenging times and also the next growth engines for the Israeli economy,” he added.

Yonah Jeremy Bob and Assaf Gilead/Globes/TNS contributed to this report.

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For commuters trying to fit more movement into a packed day, the Moovit app has introduced a route option that adds walking without extending travel time. 

The app is no longer just about getting users from point A to point B – it’s about helping them incorporate more walking along the way. The addition was inspired by academic research showing that commuters can build more walking into their daily routine without necessarily extending their travel time.

The study, conducted by Prof. Jonathan Rabinowitz, a wellness researcher at Bar-Ilan University, suggests that for thousands of public transportation users, the simple act of getting off one stop earlier or taking a different route could add meaningful physical activity to their daily routine. 

When choosing a route in the app, users can select the “Steps” feature to prioritize itineraries that include more walking. 

The idea came to Rabinowitz when a family member recovering from an injury noticed that by getting off public transportation earlier, or by walking between connections instead of waiting for a second bus, the commute could be shortened. 

Life becomes increasingly sedentary

In recent years, life has become increasingly sedentary. Many people spend hours each day sitting at desks, in cars, or on public transportation. In addition, long working hours often limit the time left available for physical activity. This lack of movement has been linked to a higher risk of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, certain cancers, and premature death.

 Lack of physical activity has also been connected to poorer mental health and reduced overall well-being. Walking is one of the simplest and most accessible forms of exercise, offering an effective, cheap, and readily available exercise option. Regular walking helps improve cardiovascular health, strengthens muscles and bones, supports weight management, reduces stress and anxiety, and has been shown to lower the risk of chronic disease.  

“It reduces the chances of dying young,” Rabinowitz told The Media Line. “The more you walk, the better it is for you.”  

According to Rabinowitz, the debate over the number of steps recommended daily is unnecessary: “Just get out there and walk,” he said.  

Dr. Eyal Ginesin, an orthopedic surgeon and sports injury specialist at Clalit Health Services, sees the consequences of a sedentary lifestyle in his clinics every day. 

“The main complaints are lower back pain and leg pain,” Ginesin told The Media Line. “Prolonged sitting shortens the muscles, especially the hip flexors and the hamstrings, which are critical to walking.” 

“Muscles that don’t move do not get the nourishment they need,” Ginesin added.  

Because it requires no special equipment or training, incorporating more walking into everyday routines – such as during a daily commute – can be an effective way for people to become more active without making major changes to their schedules. 

“In our wellness lab, we try to find changes that people can make in their daily lives by focusing on biohacking for everyone,” Rabinowitz explained. “Sometimes these are small changes that anybody can make to their daily lives.” 

Making simple changes to help your health

Biohacking refers to making simple, science-backed changes to daily habits to improve physical and mental well-being. While the term is often associated with expensive gadgets or extreme self-optimization, Rabinowitz’s approach focuses on practical, accessible interventions – small adjustments that fit into everyday routines and can have a meaningful impact on long-term health. 

“Almost all of the complaints due to sedentary lifestyle are reversible,” said Ginesin. “Our bodies are meant to be active.”  

The main advantage, according to Rabinowitz, is that people who incorporated walking into their commute could still reach their destinations on time. 

“Increasing the amount of walking by a kilometer and a half or so, actually resulted in greater efficiency,” he said. “Oftentimes, fewer transfers opened up additional transportation possibilities.” He noted that some commuters could walk to a train – often a faster option – rather than take buses that involved less walking. 

The popular 10,000-step benchmark is not a universal medical requirement, and health guidelines generally emphasize the total amount and intensity of physical activity rather than a single step count.

The World Health Organization recommends that adults engage in 150 to 300 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity per week, or an equivalent amount of vigorous activity, while also limiting sedentary time. For desk-bound workers and long-distance commuters, walking as part of a regular transit trip may offer a practical way to increase daily movement. 

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Nearly three years after the October 7 Hamas attack, Israel’s national debate has been trapped in an exhausting and polarizing loop: how to address severe military manpower shortages while resolving the long-running dispute over military service for the Haredi community. Despite mounting Supreme Court intervention, economic sanctions, mass draft notices, and fierce political rhetoric, the country remains no closer to a functional or sustainable outcome.

Haredim, often called ultra-Orthodox Jews, are a religiously observant Jewish community for whom full-time Torah study, the study of Judaism’s foundational religious texts and traditions, holds exceptional religious and cultural importance. For decades, many Haredi men studying full-time in yeshivas (religious academies) received deferments from Israel’s compulsory military service.

Perhaps the most overlooked reason for the ongoing stalemate is simple. The public and judicial debate has consistently framed the issue as a rigid, zero-sum struggle between legal equality and the continuation of these deferments. In doing so, policymakers, legal authorities, and commentators systematically overlook the primary defining value of Haredi society: the foundational, non-negotiable role of full-time Torah study. As long as state mechanisms fail to understand and respect this core reality, even the most aggressive pressure will produce social friction rather than a durable contribution to national security.

To understand why legal coercion consistently backfires, one must look beyond Israel’s immediate political arena to the global Haredi community. Whether in Jerusalem, Lakewood, London, or New York, the fundamental defining value of the Haredi world, and the key distinction between it and other observant Jewish communities, is the absolute centrality of immersion in Torah study during a young person’s formative years. For Haredi society, intensive study in yeshivas between the ages of 14 and 22 is not an academic pursuit, a vocational stepping stone, or a social convenience. It is the spiritual pulse of Jewish continuity, the moral anchor of the community, and an irreplaceable value.

While dedication to Torah study has defined the Jewish people throughout history, the intensity of the modern yeshiva ecosystem took on a distinct historical dimension following the Holocaust. Faced with the near-total destruction of European Jewry and its great centers of learning, alongside the rapid onset of secularization and modernity, the rebuilt yeshiva world was designed as a vital strategy for identity preservation and spiritual resilience.

This historic revival was built upon a tacitly recognized duality: while one part of the Jewish people established physical sovereignty and military defense, another dedicated itself to rebuilding the decimated spiritual infrastructure of the Jewish world. Both missions were understood to be essential for the survival of the Jewish people.

Over the decades, as a result of this foundational commitment, the State of Israel evolved into one of the world’s foremost centers of Jewish learning, drawing tens of thousands of young men and women from around the world each year to immerse themselves in Torah study and Jewish heritage in Israel.

Haredi values lead to record volunteer numbers

Crucially, this intensive religious education does not exist in a vacuum; it profoundly reinforces values of altruism, social responsibility, and human empathy. Far from being disengaged from the welfare of the broader public, Haredi society has developed an extraordinary culture of volunteerism and mutual aid, reflected both in individual participation rates and in institutional social innovation.

On an individual level, Haredi adults volunteer at strikingly high rates. According to a comparison of Israeli government data and OECD figures, 34.3% volunteer at least once a month, about twice the OECD average of 17%, and higher than Finland’s 28.6%, the highest rate recorded among OECD countries.

Beyond individual participation, Haredi society has effectively become a “Start-Up Nation” for social innovation, founding dozens of pioneering civil society organizations. These include landmark institutions like Yad Sarah, which revolutionized community medicine and home care across Israel; United Hatzalah, which developed groundbreaking, fast-response medical models now emulated across the Jewish world and globally; Matnat Chaim, which made Israel the world leader in altruistic living kidney donations per capita and recently entered the Guinness World Records; alongside dozens of other specialized charitable networks.

The current friction surrounding military service is therefore not driven by a refusal to contribute, a lack of civic responsibility, or a fear of personal risk. The argument that Haredi men are unwilling to risk their lives for their fellow citizens is flatly disproved by facts. On October 7, while the fighting was still underway, Haredi volunteers from emergency organizations such as United Hatzalah and ZAKA rushed into active combat zones without military protection, risking their lives to rescue the wounded and recover the dead with dignity.

Resistance to military service stems from fear of assimilation, losing autonomy 

Resistance to military service stems not from a fear of danger, but from a deep-seated resistance to externally imposed cultural assimilation, social engineering, and the dismantling of educational and cultural autonomy. When legal systems pursue a uniform approach without sufficient practical accommodation, they push an entire community into self-defense rather than partnership.

Recognizing this distinction is not an argument against military service. It is a prerequisite for designing policies that can actually succeed.

Instead of relying on rigid legal confrontation that achieves neither equality nor operational readiness, Israel’s leadership must adopt a strategy that respects social reality. Demanding total, immediate compliance from full-time yeshiva students who view their study as a sacred historical obligation merely guarantees perpetual gridlock.

Israel’s security establishment cannot afford the luxury of prioritizing legal arguments over strategic success. A resilient, forward-looking national defense strategy must accommodate the reality of a diverse society.

A durable national compromise must begin not by asking how to weaken the world of full-time Torah study, but by asking how to preserve it while expanding meaningful avenues of national contribution.

Real progress will not come through economic warfare or legal threats. It will come when Israel’s leadership recognizes that protecting full-time Torah study and strengthening national security are not mutually exclusive goals; they are the two foundational pillars upon which the Jewish state was rebuilt. By establishing protected, adapted frameworks for those not engaged in full-time study, while simultaneously guaranteeing the continuity and dignity of the yeshiva world, Israel can build an inclusive security ecosystem capable of meeting the monumental challenges ahead.

Eli Paley is the publisher of the Mishpacha international media group and the founder and chairman of The Institute for Strategy and Haredi Policy.

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When Spencer Lucker saw the notification that Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary had been called for Abdul El-Sayed, a progressive who spent much of his campaign attacking AIPAC and Israel, it felt like a gut punch.

“I have a really hard time grasping that this is the Democratic Party that I’ve always supported and been a part of,” said Lucker, a 38-year-old Huntington Woods, Michigan, resident who backed US Rep. Haley Stevens in the primary.

As Lucker absorbed the results Wednesday following an election night that saw Sayed eke out a win against Stevens by 48.5% to 47.5%, he said the narrow margin offered a small measure of assurance even as it did little to ease his concerns about the nominee.

“There is some relief and hope in however many people voted for her,” Lucker said. “But the margin doesn’t matter in the end.”

Sayed’s unexpectedly narrow margin – polls had shown him with a commanding lead in the days before the primary – has allowed some of his critics to tout a silver lining, with Jewish leaders saying the close result proves that many Michigan voters do not embrace his anti-Israel politics.

Jewish leaders reject claims of an anti-Israel mandate

“The lesson from Tuesday’s results is twofold: There is clearly strong anti-establishment energy this cycle, but no one should count pro-Israel Democrats out,” said Brian Romick, the president of the Democratic Majority for Israel PAC. “While Sayed’s razor-thin victory in Michigan is disappointing, it was hardly the sweeping triumph he predicted or a mandate for his views.”

Halie Soifer, the CEO of the Jewish Democratic Council of America, which backed Stevens, said in a statement, “While we are disappointed in the final result of the Michigan Senate race, the razor-thin margin isn’t the resounding win for the far-left that was predicted.”

Now, as Sayed is set to face off against Republican Mike Rogers, a former congressman, in November, the debate has turned to whether his narrow margin of victory on Tuesday portends a Democratic loss in a crucial battleground state.

While recent polling conducted prior to Tuesday’s primary showed Rogers with a slight lead over Sayed, Josh Pasek, a professor of communication and media and political science at the University of Michigan, cautioned against reading the primary margin as a measure of Sayed’s general election prospects.

“I mean, disappointment matters. It hits enthusiasm for people who support one candidate versus another,” said Pasek, who is Jewish and has previously been involved in Democratic politics. “But the real question is how does the party, how do the candidates, and how do the supporters, respond to whatever happens next?”

Since his victory, Sayed has drawn endorsements from Stevens as well as Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, who had backed her in the primary. Former Vice President Kamala Harris also sent a plea to donors on Wednesday asking them to help fund Sayed’s general election campaign.

Throughout the race, Sayed drew criticism from many Jewish Democrats over his attacks on AIPAC spending, his relationship with the anti-Israel streamer Hasan Piker and his remarks following the attack on Temple Israel in the Detroit suburb of West Bloomfield in March. While Sayed condemned the attack, his statement also discussed Israel’s war in Lebanon, where the attacker’s brother was killed.

Sayed faces pressure to rebuild ties with Jewish voters

Now, the new Democratic nominee is signaling that he is looking to build bridges with Jewish Democrats in the state. In his victory speech, Sayed made a direct appeal to Jewish voters, saying that his “commitment to Jewish safety is the same commitment that I have to the safety of my own daughters.”

For Jessica “Decky” Alexander, the Michigan Jewish Democratic Caucus chair, the strong showing for Stevens underscored that Sayed would need to build a “much more diverse coalition” ahead of November, including with Jewish constituents.

“I was more worried that we wouldn’t be at the table, so I think we’re at the table,” Alexander said. “I know that feels strange, but I feel in some ways we’re part of this story and part of this narrative. So I actually feel kind of relieved.”

Michigan’s Jewish Democrats now face a question that has loomed throughout the bitter primary: whether those who were deeply alienated by Sayed’s rhetoric can ultimately support him in November.

Lucker said he knows he won’t be able to bring himself to cast a vote for Sayed. But he said he was unsure if he would be prepared to vote for Rogers instead given his stances on social issues.

“I am a firm believer that we should not vote against our own interests, and I feel like a vote for him is a vote against the interests of me as a Jewish community leader as well as a Jewish father,” Lucker said of the Democratic nominee. “At the same time, I don’t know if I can vote for Mike Rogers either, again, as a father of a young girl, as a husband, as the son of gay moms.”

Elizabeth Dizik, a 42-year-old Jewish voter from Lathrup Village, a suburb of Detroit, is eyeing a different path.

Dizik said Sayed disqualified himself from her vote with his response to the attack on Temple Israel.

“As a Jewish Democrat with small children, I feel like our Democratic candidate does not value the safety of my children, which means that he is not a candidate that is representative of all of Michigan,” Dizik said. “I think his rhetoric is really dangerous, and I’m incredibly disappointed and sad that that rhetoric is being normalized amongst the party.”

At this point, Dizik said she was “more likely to cast a vote for Rogers than I am to abstain from voting.”

But while Jewish Democrats mull their choices in November, Pasek said he did not believe most Jewish Democrats who were alienated by Sayed would ultimately vote Republican, though some might instead sit out the general election.

“There are people who definitely decide not to vote. That’s much more common than crossing the aisle in practice,” he said, later adding, “Voters who have voted for the same party for a long time have a really hard time leaving that party.”

But Pasek said the Michigan Senate race was unusual in ways that could break the mold. “This got more heated than a lot of primaries on some issues that are going to be a little harder to reconcile, particularly when we’re talking about the Jewish and Arab communities,” he said, adding that Sayed’s next moves on the campaign trail are crucial.

“If Sayed wants to not alienate a bunch of people who are going to end up not voting, I think he’s got to do some serious outreach and to figure out how to build bridges,” Pasek said. “It’s going to be a bit of a challenge because what has come up so far seems like a pretty big gap.”

Sayed urged to reach out to Jewish Democrats

Some Jewish Democratic leaders are already calling for Sayed to take that step.

“He absolutely needs to do some outreach in the Jewish community,” said Adam Duberstein, a Jewish City Councilmember in Clawson, Michigan, and the co-chair of outreach for the Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus, which backed Stevens.

The Michigan Democratic Jewish Caucus has not yet decided whether it will back Sayed for the general election, Duberstein said, citing a “diversity of opinion” within the group.

Alexander said the group was far off from making any determination.

“My sense is he’d seek it for sure. He sought our endorsement for the primary, but for us as a caucus, I think we’d have to figure out: What would we need to hear from him and his campaign?” Alexander said.

Duberstein said he had heard a wide range of reactions since Sayed’s victory, including from Jewish Democrats considering abstaining, voting for Rogers or supporting a third-party candidate. But he said those reactions also offered an opportunity for Sayed.

“People are trying to understand, how do we forge forward and work together so that Jewish Democrats can help to keep a Democrat in the seat,” Duberstein said. “I’m hoping that he takes an opportunity to get to know our community.”

Alexander said that, despite the “harmful” rhetoric employed during the primary, she hoped Jewish Democrats would resist retreating from the party.

“I am nervous that a lot of people are either going to not vote or vote for Rogers,” Alexander said. “Those are easy things. The harder thing for us all to do would be to actually talk and connect and converse, and it’s going to be harder, but that’s what we have to do.”

As his caucus decides how it will move forward, Duberstein said he believed the results of the primary, and the near-tie between Sayed and Stevens, reflected a wider question facing Democrats.

“What it means is that there’s still some questions about the direction of the Democratic Party, not just in the state of Michigan, but nationally. What direction should we go, and how big of a tent are we?” Duberstein said. “How do the Sayed fans and fans of Congresswoman Stevens sit down at the end of the day and make some calls about how they want the party to move forward and how they want it to look.”

For Jewish voters like Lucker, the question is whether they can still find a place in that tent.

“I am not a single-issue voter, or never have been, and so that is where I really feel politically homeless,” Lucker said. “Does either party really care about me, my family, and my community? I’m not convinced either do.”

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Progressive candidates continue to rack up wins in primary elections across the United States, propelled by a new left-wing media ecosystem allowing them to build a national profile on their own terms – and sidestep the traditional gatekeepers of the Democratic establishment.

For Pennsylvania state Representative Chris Rabb, a Democratic socialist who recently prevailed in a congressional primary against a more moderate rival, appearances on programs like “The Majority Report with Sam Seder” and “Breaking Points” played a key role in his political breakthrough.

“It helps me increase my visibility, validation, and ability to raise money,” said Rabb, describing it as “a Venn diagram of success.”

This fast-growing world of left-wing websites, podcasters, YouTube hosts and livestreamers – many of whom blend opinion journalism and activism – affords candidates a sympathetic space to sharpen their message and mobilize grassroots support. But it also risks deepening the fissures in the Democratic Party, analysts say, and alienating moderates in the coalition.

On Tuesday, progressive Abdul El-Sayed eked out a victory in Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary against Haley Stevens, the preferred candidate of the party establishment.

Left-wing media helps candidates bypass party gatekeepers

El-Sayed, a former state health official and a rising star in left-wing media, was massively outspent in television advertising – funded by tens of millions of dollars from pro-Israel and other outside groups – but still managed to win in a swing state carried by Republican President Donald Trump in 2024.

New media entrepreneurs say they are filling a void in mainstream political coverage and providing a platform for candidates with views that have long been underrepresented in Washington. They include advocacy for universal healthcare, abolishing ICE and cutting off military aid to Israel.

“There is an audience and a demand and a hunger for different viewpoints,” said Mehdi Hasan, a former MSNBC host who launched his own news organization, Zeteo, in 2024.

“The same energy that enabled us to be a success as a media entity has enabled a lot of political candidates to be successes.”

Podcasts build audiences and campaign momentum

The American left has long had its own constellation of shows and publications. But as the reach of, and trust in, traditional media declines and consumers look elsewhere for news, independent content creators are becoming political kingmakers.

While much smaller and less well-funded than right-wing media, the left’s growing network of podcasters, streamers, and digital publishers is becoming an increasingly important force in Democratic politics, shaping primary campaigns, fundraising, and activist organizing.

Zeteo has 700,000 Substack subscribers, up 50% from a year ago. “The Majority Report with Sam Seder” has more than 2 million subscribers on YouTube, and roughly 75% of listeners are under age 55.

Progressive commentator and activist Hasan Piker has more than 3 million followers on Twitch.

For campaign strategists, the appeal of this new media environment is simple. Their candidates can have long, in-depth conversations on policy issues – the kind seldom seen on cable news – engage directly with voters and generate clips that can be blasted across social platforms.

“I think we help create early enthusiasm,” said Sam Seder. “Our audience in particular has a lot of activists and a lot of people who run activist organizations, and I know we have a lot of legislative staffer types.”

Candidates often move through the same circuit of shows and creators, allowing audiences to discover them through trusted ideological allies, said Jesse Lehrich, a Democratic operative and co-host of the political podcast “Nobody Knows Anything.”

In turn, rising stars on the left help emerging media figures build their brands.

“It’s interconnected,” said Hasan. “I don’t think one is necessarily leading the other.”

Progressive media’s influence could deepen Democratic divisions

Most of the left-wing media personalities that have risen to prominence in recent years are unapologetic partisans.

“Breaking Points” co-host Krystal Ball took part in a livestreamed August fundraiser for El-Sayed and other progressive candidates in Michigan.

Piker canvassed last week for Francesca Hong, who is vying to be the first democratic socialist governor of Wisconsin, and took part in El-Sayed’s election night party in Detroit.

“The work is only beginning,” he posted to X/Twitter as the last votes trickled in on Tuesday night.

Piker has voiced support for Hamas, used the word “cracker” to refer to white people, and said that “America deserved 9/11,” a comment he later described as “inappropriate.” He did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

He has built a deeply devoted following on his daily Twitch streams, where he hosts free-floating discussions about hot-button issues – similar to Joe Rogan, the influential right-leaning podcaster who endorsed Trump in 2024.

For Seder, the goal of “Majority Report” is less about persuading swing voters than educating and energizing those already in their corner.

“We may be preaching to the choir, but the choir is then going out and preaching to the independents,” he said.

Hans Noel, a professor of government at Georgetown University, said these creators and outlets “energize voters who find the party’s platform too lukewarm or uninspiring.”

“At the same time,” he added, “factional voices are not always interested in compromise,” which could pose a problem for candidates like El-Sayed as they seek to win over more moderate Democrats in the general election.

Progressive podcasters move into politics

Jennifer Welch and Angie “Pumps” Sullivan, friends from Oklahoma City, started the “I’ve Had It” podcast in 2022 – a venue to vent about all the things that annoyed them, from the antics of reality stars to their own misbehaving children.

It wasn’t until the 2024 presidential campaign that they began to talk about politics, savaging Trump in typically irreverent terms.

Soon they were interviewing Democratic presidential hopeful Kamala Harris and attending the party convention in Chicago.

Their show now has more than 5.2 million subscribers and followers across YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok.

Listeners “are coming to us to get news and to get our opinion on the news,” Welch told Reuters.

El-Sayed appeared on the podcast twice, and Welch endorsed him on air, a decision she described as a “layup.”

“I think that the Democratic base is so much further than what the establishment realizes,” she said, “and I think candidates like Abdul are the future of the Democratic Party if we are to be an opposition party.”

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Israel launched a national program to recruit Jewish educators from North America and place them in Israeli schools as the country confronts a growing shortage of qualified teachers.

The National Educators Aliyah Program, announced by Nefesh B’Nefesh in partnership with the Education Ministry and the Aliyah and Integration Ministry, will provide prospective immigrants with assistance in obtaining professional recognition, completing licensing requirements, and finding employment before they arrive in Israel.

The initiative is expected to begin during the 2026-2027 academic year and aims to place its first group of immigrant teachers in Israeli classrooms for the 2027-2028 school year.

Israel has faced persistent teacher shortages, particularly in English, mathematics, and science.

According to the organizations behind the program, the shortages are especially severe in the country’s central regions, while thousands of educators already employed by the school system lack full certification or teach subjects outside their areas of expertise.

‘A national, Zionist, educational initiative’

“The teacher shortage is one of the greatest challenges facing Israel’s education system, and we are committed to addressing it with every tool at our disposal,” Education Minister Yoav Kisch said.

Kisch described the project as part of a wider effort to expand Israel’s teaching workforce and direct qualified educators toward the subjects and regions where shortages are most acute.

“This is a national, Zionist, and educational initiative that strengthens our education system, brings exceptional talent into our classrooms, and reflects our commitment to ensuring that every student in Israel receives the best education possible,” he said.

Under the current system, immigrant educators often begin applying for recognition of their degrees, teaching credentials, and professional experience only after moving to Israel.

The new program will allow candidates to start those processes in North America, reducing the time between their arrival and entry into the Israeli workforce.

The Education Ministry will map vacancies according to subject, professional skills, school district, and geographic region.

A centralized database will then be used to match candidates with schools and educational networks seeking teachers with their qualifications.

Dedicated educator aliyah fairs are planned across North America during 2026 and 2027. Candidates will be able to meet Israeli education officials, examine potential job opportunities, receive guidance on professional licensing, and begin the recognition process for their academic degrees and teaching certificates.

The program will also hold webinars, information sessions, and smaller community meetings.

Support will continue after the educators move to Israel. Participants are expected to receive help with job placement, required coursework and certification, classroom-level Hebrew, and professional mentoring from experienced immigrant teachers.

Their families will also have access to an accompanying support network.

Emphasis on English-language teaching

The initiative will initially emphasize English-language teaching, while seeking qualified educators in other subjects where Israel’s schools face staffing gaps.

Aliyah and Integration Minister Ofir Sofer said the program was designed to allow teachers to enter their profession soon after arriving.

“When the government removes barriers, actively facilitates professional licensing and credential recognition, and supports new immigrants as they transition into the workforce, the results speak for themselves,” Sofer said.

The educators program is based on the International Medical Aliyah Program, which Nefesh B’Nefesh launched in 2024 with several government ministries and the Jewish Agency.

According to Nefesh B’Nefesh, the medical initiative has helped more than 1,000 physicians immigrate to Israel and enter the healthcare system over the past two years.

Tony Gelbart, co-founder and chairman of Nefesh B’Nefesh, said the organization believed the medical program’s model could be used to address shortages in other essential professions.

“This new initiative connects the mission of aliyah with one of the country’s most significant national priorities, strengthening the education system,” he said.

The organizers said they hope to identify hundreds of potential educators during the program’s first stage. Sofer said the government would eventually seek to expand the initiative to additional Jewish communities outside North America.

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Palo Alto Networks on Thursday began trading on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange’s flagship equity indices, Tel Aviv-35 and Tel Aviv-125, which represent a new step in the company’s growing investment in the Israeli market.

Palo Alto Networks is a US-based cybersecurity firm founded by Israeli entrepreneur Nir Zuk, which is currently dual-listed in both the American stock market and the TASE.

“Our mission at Palo Alto Networks is to be the natural partner in information security and protect our digital lifestyle. Our secondary listing on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange reflects our confidence in Israeli talent and innovation, which are at the forefront of the world. We are proud to officially join the exchange’s flagship indices,” said the company in a statement.

“As an organization that employs thousands of excellent professionals in Israel, we are proud to be part of the local technology ecosystem. This milestone reinforces our long-term commitment to continue investing in Israel, expanding our presence here, and deepening our partnership with the Israeli innovation community, as part of shaping the future of cyber,” it added.

According to Calcalist, Palo Alto Networks’ weight in the indices will be capped at 1.25% until November, 2.5% until February of 2027, and 5% after that date, mainly to comply with TASE’s regulations regarding double-listed companies.

The Israeli finance outlet also reported that the move is expected to create NIS 800 million in Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) demand, while the main ETFs operating in these indices are expected to execute some NIS 7 billion in order to adjust their holdings.

Palo Alto Networks becomes TASE’s most valuable company

Palo Alto Networks has been TASE’s most valuable company since it was listed on the stock exchange back in February, with its valuation representing 25% of the total value of the exchange.

The cybersecurity giant Palo Alto Networks decided to become a dual-listed company -with stocks also available on NASDAQ- as part of its acquisition of the Israeli cybersecurity platform CyberArk.

The listing will also honor CyberArk, with Palo Alto Networks using the ticker CYBR on the TASE listing instead of its Nasdaq ticker PANW.

“Building on CyberArk’s heritage and Israel’s position as a global cybersecurity powerhouse, Palo Alto Networks announces its intent to pursue a secondary listing on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE),” the company said in a statement.

According to Globes Israel, the total deal to acquire CyberArk was worth $21.5 billion, with Palo Alto paying $45 per share of CyberArk and 22005 shares of PANW to stockholders of the Israeli company.

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Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.

For more news, analysis, and the latest updates, head to jpost.com.

Headlines edited by Corrine Baum and Lara Sukster Mosheyof.

Hosted and produced by Shifra Jacobs.

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Hamas urges Palestinians to target leading figures in the Israeli-backed armed groups in the Gaza Strip.

The terror organization’s special security unit, Rada Force, which is responsible for addressing internal threats – specifically suspected collaborators with Israel – stated that the solution to dismantling what it described as “collaborator gangs” is to eliminate their top members.

“We say to all members of the collaborator gangs that assassinating senior collaborators in these groups will be your salvation before us and before your people,” the Rada Force said in a statement.

As part of Hamas’s attempts to crack down on armed militias in the strip, the force stated on Thursday that “with the assistance of residents, it apprehended a Palestinian closely linked to senior militia collaborators,” and added that his weapons and money were confiscated.

It expressed appreciation for what it called the public’s sense of national and ethical responsibility, urging Gaza residents to immediately report any suspicious behavior or the whereabouts of “wanted collaborators.”

Hamas agrees to hand over heavy weapons as part of phase two of peace agreement, sees militas as a threat

The call to assassinate figures in the armed militias follows the announcement of a roadmap for advancing to the second phase of the Gaza ceasefire.

According to the deal, Hamas claims it agreed to hand over its heavy weapons to the Palestinian technocratic committee, the transitional governing body, which is expected to administer the Gaza Strip under the Board of Peace’s plan for post-war Gaza.

Although the deal includes the terror organization’s demand to dissolve the anti-Hamas armed militias and stipulates that their members will not be integrated into the security and police services under the new arrangements for Gaza, sources in Gaza said that Hamas remains concerned about their continued presence.

“Despite the militias not having public popularity, Hamas still sees them as a threat to its rule,” one Palestinian source told The Jerusalem Post. “Hamas is trying to prevent them from becoming stronger.”

Another Palestinian from Gaza said that “it shows that Hamas is worried” and is seeking ways to isolate militia leaders and strip them of public support.

“Hamas wants to make them look bad in the eyes of the people,” he said. “They use manipulation, now telling members of these armed groups, ‘come to us, we’ll embrace you and take care of you,’” he added.

Gaza force officials offer pardons to pro-Israel militamen to press forward with peace plan

The Rada Force claimed in the statement that it offers a pardon to pro-Israel militiamen who repent, making it possible for them to leave these groups and return to Gaza society.

“We consider the current circumstances a golden opportunity to end the phenomenon of the collaborator gangs, which have represented a black mark in the history of our people’s struggle,” the statement read.

“Despite the security situation, we continue to attach great importance to bringing back those who have been misled and rescuing them from the mire of betrayal,” it stated.

The force claimed it is handling requests from families to resolve the cases of their sons who have joined the “collaborator gangs,” especially those who express regret and wish to return to “the right path.”

Three days ago, a source in the Rada Force stated that Hamas has addressed the cases of 17 individuals linked to collaborator militias.

“We reaffirm that the idea of these militias was dead from the outset,” the Rada source said. “The occupation will not protect them, and the coming days will prove it. We renew our call to all gang members to come back to the embrace of their people before it is too late.”

These escalatory statements come at a time of heightened hostility between the two sides.

In response to Hamas’s apparent agreement to store its weapons, a key militia figure in Gaza told the Post over the past weekend that he “does not believe Hamas will disarm” and said that “the deal will not happen.”

Since armed groups supported by Israel were established in the Gaza Strip to combat Hamas following the October 7 massacre that triggered the war in Gaza, Hamas has constantly sought to delegitimize these militias, with frequent clashes taking place.

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The Byzantine-era church in Nahariya that had been hit by a Hezbollah rocket in April has reopened to the public, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) announced in a Monday night social media post.

In the months since, teams from the Nahariya municipality had worked to restore the damaged structure so that visitors would be able to return and visit the site, the IAA said.

The church, rediscovered by the municipality in 1964, is home to a colorful mosaic floor dating to roughly 550 CE. Originally destroyed by the Persians in 614 CE, it was painstakingly restored by the IAA over the course of two years, and officially opened to the public in 2022.

At the time, the IAA had shared with The Jerusalem Post that only the site’s modern, protective structure had been damaged in the strike.

An on-site assessment conducted by a team of archaeologists and conservators from the IAA, along with representatives from the local municipality and the Israel Tax Authority, showed that while the mosaic floor was covered in debris from the damaged protective structure, it had not been damaged itself.

Mosaic depicts colorful animals, symbols of Christianity

Signs of the mosaic’s original destruction at the hands of the Persians can still be seen, as it is stained black and white in places, and large amounts of molten lead were found at the site.

The mosaic itself stretches over more than 500 square meters, and is richly decorated in greens, reds, yellows, browns, whites, and blacks.

It has over 100 medallions, of which 87 survived, depicting scenes of daily life, including animals, humans, hunting scenes, grapes, pomegranates and symbols of Christianity.

In the center of the floor is a stunning rosette with an optical three-dimensional illusion, which has survived the centuries almost in its entirety.

“From the decorations of the basilica, we see that the person who built it was very wealthy and invested a lot of money to build it,” IAA regional director Kamil Sari explained in 2022, adding that an inscription in old Greek indicates the church was built by the archbishop of Tyre, modern day Sidon, Lebanon.

The church complex had been built on the remains of an earlier temple from 4,500 years ago.

Judith Sudilovsky contributed to this story.

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Ohio congressman Max Miller will run for reelection in November despite facing domestic abuse allegations from his ex-wife, the representative told CNN in an interview on Tuesday.

In past months, Miller has faced scrutiny after claims of domestic abuse made by his ex-wife, Emily Moreno, surfaced in media reports. In May, Miller sued Moreno for defamation, claiming she made “false, malicious, and defamatory statements” about him.

Moreno has accused Miller of holding a gun to her head, as well as fracturing their two-year-old daughter’s collarbone. Other reported incidents include one when Miller allegedly threw Moreno against a wall. These allegations appeared in police records reviewed by news agencies.

In a post to X/Twitter on Sunday, Miller rejected Moreno’s accusations.

“I have never abused our daughter,” he said, framing the allegations as made as part of a battle for custody over their daughter. Additionally, he released a series of documents from his divorce and custody cases, which he said supported his version of events.

Miller ‘fails to meet’ standard for politicians, Moreno’s father says

That same day, Moreno’s father, Ohio Senator Bernie Moreno said that the process had been “brutal beyond comprehension” for Moreno, and that “if there’s any minimum standard for being a public official… [Miller] fails to meet that [standard].

In another post to X on Tuesday, Miller said he would file for an ethics investigation into himself.

“I have absolutely nothing to hide,” he wrote. Later that day, the House Ethics Committee said it had opened an investigation into the allegations. 

US President Donald Trump called Miller a “good person” when asked about the situation.

“I know Max. He’s a good person. I mean, I always thought he was a very good person. And I’m going to let the families figure that out,” Trump said. Miller previously worked on Trump’s first two election campaigns.

Behind the scenes, however, the White House wants Miller to let go of his seat at the end of this term, POLITICO reported citing several anonymous sources.

Miller said he would keep his reelection bid going n a Tuesday interview with CNN.

“No one has told me to get off the ballot, and that’s because they know I can win this seat,” he said. Republican colleagues of his have largely refused to call for his withdrawal, with House Speaker Mike Johnson arguing that the ethics investigation should be completed before any decision is made.

“We always withhold judgment on this, whether it’s Republicans or Democrats,” Johnson told POLITICO.

Should he change his mind, Miller would need to withdraw from the race by August 10, per Ohio’s election rules.

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As the dust settles after Tuesday’s primary election, Michigan Democrats are facing the massive challenge of uniting their party after the ugly and caustic intraparty fight between Haley Stevens and Abdul El-Sayed. 

El-Sayed, a former public health official from Ann Arbor, won Tuesday’s contest by 1 percentage point, 48.5% of the vote to 47.5% for four-term US Rep. Stevens of Birmingham to vie against Republican nominee Mike Rogers in the fall, according to unofficial results. 

Even before the polls opened Tuesday, Democratic leaders in the state were wringing their hands about some backers of the losing candidate threatening to sit out the November election rather than vote for El-Sayed, potentially depressing turnout in the battleground state at a moment that Democrats need to hold Michigan to retake the Senate majority.

Both El-Sayed and Stevens, during their campaigns, pledged to support the eventual nominee and help them fight to defeat Rogers in November’s election. But bringing along Stevens’ followers could be a delicate and perhaps difficult task, particularly among some Jewish Democrats and Black voters, leaders in those communities said. 

Party figures stressed this week that it will take deliberate outreach, listening and time to get Democrats united behind El-Sayed after the finger-pointing and divisions of the past year, including character attacks, demonization and mocking by surrogates and “bros” in an intensely online race.

“The reason I support the ticket is because we are at a historic moment in our country as it relates to protecting our democracy and putting the brakes on the corruption of Donald Trump,” said former US Sen. Debbie Stabenow, a Lansing Democrat who backed Stevens for Senate.

“We have to keep that in mind. (The primary) was very contentious in so many ways and extremely divisive. But the fact it was so close says that people on both sides should be respectful of people’s opinions and positions,” Stabenow added.

“If we are going to unify, if we are going to beat Mike Rogers, people have to be willing to listen to each other, and to be tolerant and respectful and really focus on the big goal. Not their emotions. … This should not be a moment of bravado and back-slapping and crowing. This needs to be a moment of humility to understand that we don’t win this seat unless people are able to be respectful and understand each other.”

But Michigan state Rep. Noah Arbit of West Bloomfield Township, who represents large swaths of Stevens’ congressional district in Oakland County, said El-Sayed will have a lot of work to do after clinching the nomination, and that he should not take the votes of Jewish Democrats as a given.

‘El-Sayed’s comments on Jews alarming’

“I’m Jewish, and some of the things (El-Sayed) has said, even setting aside his policies relating to Israel … but the way he talks about Jewish power, influence, money, et cetera, is incredibly alarming and dangerous and threatening,” Arbit said.

Arbit’s district is anchored by West Bloomfield Township and the cities of Orchard Lake, Keego Harbor, Sylvan Lake, and parts of Commerce and Bloomfield townships and contains a large Jewish population.

“I’m going to need to see a real soul-searching from the candidate, if he should prevail, before he would be able to earn my vote and, frankly, the votes of my constituents, particularly in the Jewish community,” Arbit said Tuesday.

“I have grave concerns about his ability, should he win, to unite this party and be the nominee that the Democrats need.”

One veteran Michigan Democratic leader contends the path to unifying the party lies with the cost of gas, groceries and Trump’s track record in office. 

“Remember what’s at stake in November. We need to remember all of the horrific things that have happened in the last two years,” said US Rep. Debbie Dingell, an Ann Arbor Democrat who remained neutral in the Stevens and El-Sayed race. “That’s how we unite.”

Unity event set for Friday

The Michigan Democratic Party has scheduled a unity event Friday in Detroit with headliner former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, a potential 2028 presidential hopeful, and the newly minted statewide Democratic nominees. Stabenow said she plans to attend.

“Frankly, whoever wins, what they do to reach out to the other side in this primary will be important,” said Chris DeWitt, a Democratic strategist who wasn’t involved in the Senate primary contest.

“If not handled correctly, that unity event on Friday could turn into a real s— show.”

At his election night party in Detroit, El-Sayed delivered a message of building bridges with Stevens supporters and coming together to defeat Rogers.

“We’ve got 13 weeks to beat Mike Rogers. And however we might feel about the campaign we’ve just come through, I want you to understand that it pales in comparison to the cynicism, in comparison to the corporatism, in comparison to the lies that Mike Rogers and Donald Trump are going to tell,” El-Sayed said.

He added: “However much we might disagree with our Democratic opponent, there is so much more that unites us than divides us.

“To all of our supporters here tonight, watching on TV tomorrow, we begin to mend fences. Whatever happens tonight, we have a responsibility to assure that we unite.”

El-Sayed also advised his supporters not to gloat if he were to come away with the win.

“Always magnanimity in victory. So if your instinct is to be like, ‘I told you’ – nope. Let’s come together to build a movement that’s even bigger, that’s even stronger, that’s even more powerful, that reaches into the very depths of this state, that reminds us of the best of who we are and who we can be.”

Another influential voice in the race, former Senate candidate Mallory McMorrow of Royal Oak, immediately endorsed El-Sayed after the first race call early Wednesday and joined him at his victory speech several hours later in front of the Spirit of Detroit statue outside Detroit’s city hall. McMorrow dropped out of the Senate primary on July 5.

“We need all of you, all of us, to stay in this fight every minute going forward,” McMorrow said. “Because I can promise you that today Mike Rogers and Donald Trump are looking at Michigan and they’re hoping these family fights we had, the disagreements within the Democratic party, are the fights we’re going to retain through November.”

‘We have to do the work’

Former US Rep. Andy Levin, a Bloomfield Township Democrat who supported El-Sayed, suggested that fears that Democrats are too fractured to unite behind the nominee have been overstated, saying most of Stevens’ supporters “will come over fine.”

“But we have to do the work. Abdul will do the work of reaching out. I feel confident we can do that,” Levin told The Detroit News.

The unity mission could be hardest among some of Stevens’ supporters in the Jewish community and the Black community. Some Black voters are wary of El-Sayed’s early involvement in the 2024 uncommitted effort to oppose President Joe Biden over the war in Gaza, arguing it dampened enthusiasm for Kamala Harris, America’s first African American vice president, even though El-Sayed endorsed her soon after she declared her candidacy to replace Biden on the ticket. 

“Black people have a right to be pissed off about the uncommitted stuff. There’s going to need to be some healing, big time,” said Keith Williams, chair of the Michigan Democratic Party’s Black Caucus. 

“And don’t just think that Black folks will fall in line. They need to talk to us.”

In the Jewish community, some Democrats have worried publicly about El-Sayed’s fierce criticism of US support for Israel and the “corrupting” influence of the pro-Israel lobby coming at a time of increased antisemitism within the far left of the party.  

El-Sayed has repeatedly stressed that he loves and respects Judaism and the Jewish people and that his criticism is specific to AIPAC – the American Israel Public Affairs Committee – and the Israeli government.

“Judaism and the Jewish people are a light unto the world – a beautiful faith, a beautiful people. The contributions they’ve made to this country alone are staggering,” El-Sayed said Sunday on MS NOW. “I’m looking forward to standing with the Jewish community against antisemitism. After all, antisemitism and Islamophobia are one and the same, and we need to take them on.”

But the American Jewish Committee, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit that doesn’t endorse political candidates, called El-Sayed’s victory a “deeply troubling reflection of the growing mainstreaming of divisive rhetoric and exclusionary politics in America.”

“Of particular concern to the Jewish community is El-Sayed’s portrayal of supporters of Israel as illegitimate and morally corrupt, while simultaneously demonizing Israel itself,” the AJC said in a Wednesday statement.

Some Jewish voters express concern

Several voters Tuesday said they would have to overcome considerable hurdles to vote for El-Sayed in the November election.

Oak Park residents David and Maia Snider, who voted for Stevens, said they have “a lot of issues” with El-Sayed and didn’t want to cast a vote for someone they didn’t trust to represent them.

“I voted for Haley Stevens,” said David, a self-described moderate Democrat. “She’s our (congressional) representative, and I’ve liked her a lot. If Abdul El-Sayed wins the primary, I probably will end up voting for the Republican.”

More: El-Sayed rides huge turnout to Senate victory, but did it set a record?

Maia said she wasn’t sure she’d immediately decide to vote for Rogers, but instead would wait to see how the next few months develop.

“We’re going to see what happens in the next couple of months in other states at the national level and make a call based on what seems best at that time,” Maia said. “I don’t think we can commit now. … I might choose not to vote in that specific case.”

Outside a polling station at Norup Elementary School in Oak Park on Tuesday, a pair of voters debated whether El-Sayed would protect them from antisemitism if he won, given his rhetoric about Israel and AIPAC.

Avi DuBois, 37, was concerned that an El-Sayed victory could hurt the Michigan Jewish community and render Michigan a dangerous place for Jews.

“I’m scared of antisemitism being empowered and encouraged and inflamed,” DuBois said. “I’m scared of making a safe place for that to happen, for antisemitism to fester.”

Allan Brill, a 77-year-old Oak Park resident who is Jewish, spent time volunteering for the El-Sayed campaign and said he was frustrated with his neighbors’ and family members’ perceptions that Stevens was the only candidate that they could feel comfortable with.

Brill said the idea that El-Sayed “hates Jewish people” is “propaganda” spread by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. Brill, who lost family in the Holocaust, said El-Sayed was right to express concern about the Palestinian lives lost in the Gaza war and the billions of dollars spent by the US government for weapons for Israel.

Brill added that he didn’t like the idea of AIPAC spending so much on a primary to try to defeat El-Sayed.

“The whole idea of spending millions of dollars to buy a senator is objectionable,” he said. “No one should support a candidate who is bought off.”

Isabella Collins, a 20-year-old Jewish college student at Western Michigan University, wore an “I voted” sticker on her white shirt at Stevens’ primary election party at Hotel Saint Regis in Detroit.

“I voted for her because, as a Jewish college student, I feel much safer with her representing our state rather than the competitor,” Collins said of El-Sayed. “I like her views and her actions on Israel.”

Collins said she wanted Stevens to work more on protections for Jewish students. “I think there’s a lot of work to be done still. I still find myself, like, just hiding my necklace and little things like that,” she said.

Levin, a former synagogue president, acknowledged that El-Sayed likely won’t win over single-issue Democratic voters prioritizing unconditional US support for Israel, but he said they don’t represent the Jewish community writ large.

“That’s only some of the Jews. They do not represent all Jews or the majority of Jews,” Levin said. “There was such a robust Jews for Abdul effort. They’re deeply committed to Abdul as a candidate, who they find inspiring and who will stand up for human rights.”

Eric Weissman, 53, of West Bloomfield said he identifies as an independent but leans more conservative. He added he was concerned about rising ideas in the Democratic Party he didn’t agree with, and he worried they could damage the party.

“There are certain ideological movements that I think make absolutely no sense,” Weissman said. “But they’re here. And one of two on the Democrat side are for it.”

Hamtramck resident Sarah Tarian, 39, a volunteer and donor to El-Sayed’s campaign, said she believes he will be able to unite the party in Michigan.

She praised his “positive energy” and “down-to-earth demeanor,” drawing a parallel to her experience with Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.

“He can unite people and bridge rifts,” Tarian said.

She cited an example when El-Sayed interacted with someone during the campaign who said they were not going to vote for him. But after discussing his health care policies, the person became a supporter.

“He is the kind of person,” Tarian said, “who can reach across and find common ground.”

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US President Donald Trump has repeatedly spoken with the chairman of the Federal Reserve in recent months, violating a precedent meant to insulate central bankers from the political cycle, the Wall Street Journal reported. 

According to sources familiar with the situation, Trump calls the chairman, Kevin Warsh, in sporadic bursts. Sometimes he calls several times in a week, and other times he is radio silent for weeks. 

Though it’s unclear whether Trump and Warsh have directly discussed monetary policy, the president reportedly seeks advice on heavily politicized issues, including how the war with Iran and artificial intelligence will impact the economy.

Warsh has only been on the job for a little over two months after he replaced former Fed chair Jerome Powell in May. 

Presidents historically meet with Federal Reserve chairmen from time to time, though recent decades have seen the sessions taking place in more formal settings, often arranged in advance. The official nature of the meetings is to avoid projecting an image of presidential influence on national rates.

However, Trump frequently sidesteps formal communication channels, often making calls to world leaders and executives from his personal cellphone. Barack Obama and Bill Clinton both exemplified presidents who typically avoided putting pressure on the Federal Reserve. 

As such, Federal Reserve chairmen are meant to serve 14-year terms in order to outlast any one sitting president and retain public confidence in the security of the economy.

The 1951 Post-Accord precedent and the Federal Reserve Act both dictate the importance of keeping presidential goings-on and Fed monetary policy separate. 

Trump’s relationship with Warsh revives Fed independence concerns

At Warsh’s swearing-in ceremony earlier this year, Trump publicly stated that he wanted the chairman to be “totally independent.” He now sees Warsh as a valued economic adviser, sources say. 

“Don’t look at me, don’t look at anybody. Just do your own thing and do a great job,” he added, in reference to the chairman.

This is a walk-back from claims he made in December, hailing himself as a “smart voice that should be listened to” when he told the Wall Street Journal that he wanted the Fed to consult with him going forward. 

Just last Wednesday, the president called Warsh a “brilliant guy,” despite Warsh’s lack of initiative in enacting the rate cuts Trump has been desperately pushing for. 

Warsh indicated in a press conference following the Fed’s decision to leave rates unchanged that he would be more inclined to increase rates in response to stiffening inflation – in direct opposition to Trump’s wishes. 

This contestation is the same thing that led to many clashes between the president and Powell. At the time, Trump criticized the former chairman for declining to cut rates and not cutting them significantly enough when he eventually took action.

The president repeatedly threatened to fire Powell, even though the Federal Reserve Act says a president can only remove a Fed governor for neglect of duty, not policy disagreement. 

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Visa signed a definitive agreement on Monday to acquire Tel Aviv-based anti-fraud company BioCatch for $2.4 billion in cash, adding the Israeli firm to its network of cybersecurity, risk-management and payment-security solutions.

BioCatch serves more than 350 financial institutions in 21 countries, protecting 760 million users and 1.8 billion devices. Its artificial intelligence and machine-learning systems analyze more than 3,000 anonymized data points to identify suspicious activity, supporting the wider use of AI-based fraud prevention in digital payments.

“Account takeovers and scams cost the global economy over $1 trillion annually, and AI is enabling these attacks at unprecedented scale,” said Andrew Torre, president of value-added services, Visa.

“BioCatch will help our clients stop fraud before it reaches the point of payment. This acquisition is part of our strategy to help clients prevent cyber threats upstream while continuing to protect transactions as they occur, building trust into every transaction,” he added.

Visa said it has invested more than $13 billion in technology and infrastructure over the past five years to protect the payments ecosystem. The deal also reflects growing demand for real-time fraud detection across financial services.

The transaction is expected to close by the end of Visa’s fiscal second quarter of 2027, subject to regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions. The planned purchase follows a year of record Israeli cybersecurity exits and other major transactions, including Google’s acquisition of Wiz.

BioCatch seeks to strengthen trust in digital banking

“Real-time insights into customer intent continue to grow increasingly essential for institutions to establish trust within digital banking sessions,” BioCatch CEO Gadi Mazor said.

“For more than a decade, we’ve demonstrated behavior’s unique ability to distinguish the criminal from the legitimate. In the last couple of years, we’ve shown how real-time intelligence-sharing networks between our customers can amplify the power of our behavioral intelligence further still,” he added.

“Together with Visa, we’re even better positioned to advance our mission of making the world a safer place to transact and protect consumers from financial crime.”

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The United States intervened to limit Israel’s response to a deadly incident in southern Lebanon in which two IDF reservists were killed in an explosion near Majdal Zoun, Lebanese outlet Nidaa Al-Watan reported on Thursday.

Citing Lebanese political and official sources, the outlet reported that Washington moved to contain a potential escalation between Israel and Hezbollah that could have derailed ceasefire negotiations in Rome.

According to the report, Israel sought to launch a wider attack on Hezbollah following the Majdal Zoun incident, which occurred on Wednesday afternoon, but the proposed response was blocked by the United States.

The “decisive” American intervention “saved the third day of negotiations in Rome,” the Nidaa Al-Watan report added.

IDF Maj. (res.) Harel Birenstock and Master-Sgt. (res.) Tamir Vaknin were killed, and four other soldiers were seriously wounded, during an operation in the southern Lebanese village of Majdal Zoun, an area that had not yet been inspected by the IDF and is not included in the pilot zones established under the trilateral agreement between Israel, the United States, and Lebanon.

The troops were killed after entering a booby-trapped building, where an explosive device detonated upon their entry, causing part of the structure to collapse.

Katz questions IDF tactics after deadly Hezbollah booby-trap kills two soldiers in Lebanon

Separately, Walla reported on Thursday that upon learning of the deadly incident in southern Lebanon, Defense Minister Israel Katz questioned why soldiers entered the booby-trapped building.

Katz asked why troops had entered the structure and requested that operational directives be reinforced in line with his policy, emphasizing the destruction of terrorist infrastructure rather than entering such buildings.

Northern Command is continuing to investigate the incident, in which combat forces from the 55th Reserve Paratroopers Brigade entered the booby-trapped building.

The investigation is examining why Israeli forces entered the structure and whether it carried out the required clearance procedures for terrorists and explosive devices, including the use of an Oketz canine unit, a ground robot, a drone, a thermobaric charge inside the building, or tank shell fire.

IDF concerned Hezbollah may attempt to booby-trap more buildings

During the height of the guerrilla fighting in Gaza, Hamas planted rear-view and street cameras inside selected buildings, monitored IDF troop movements from command centers, and detonated explosive devices once soldiers entered in order to collapse the structures on top of them.

The IDF is now concerned that Hezbollah may attempt to booby-trap additional buildings in villages under Israeli operational control in southern Lebanon as part of efforts to derail negotiations between Israel and Lebanon, which the military believes run counter to the strategic interests of Hezbollah and Iran.

IDF soldiers have located and dismantled thousands of Hezbollah infrastructure sites during months of operations in southern Lebanon, the military said on Thursday.

The sites included command posts, operational and observation positions, launch sites, underground infrastructure, and large quantities of weapons, according to the IDF.

The military said Hezbollah had spent years entrenching itself in villages across southern Lebanon, embedding military infrastructure within civilian areas and turning them into bases for its operations. It accused the terrorist group of exploiting the local population and endangering Lebanese civilians.

The announcement came as the IDF carried out strikes near Mansouri in southern Lebanon, targeting what it said were Hezbollah weapons-storage facilities and command centers in response to the deaths of the two reservists.

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The US Senate panel investigating Dr. Anthony Fauci has obtained copied material from an iPhone he used while leading the US response to the COVID-19 pandemic, potentially giving lawmakers access to additional records concerning his conduct in government, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

The Department of Health and Human Services transferred the material to the Senate Homeland Security Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, chaired by Republican Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin.

A spokeswoman for Johnson said Fauci used the phone while serving as director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. It was not immediately clear what records the copied material contained or when investigators would begin reviewing them.

The disclosure came days after HHS transferred copies of Fauci’s pandemic-era journals to Congress and subsequently made them public. Johnson and Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky have increased pressure on Fauci to provide information about pandemic health measures, federally supported coronavirus research, and the origins of COVID-19.

Paul and Johnson have also received millions of additional pages of Fauci-related material from government servers, according to people familiar with the matter, and are seeking further records. At least four Republican-led states have launched separate investigations involving Fauci.

Senate continues grilling Fauci over response to COVID-19

The latest transfer coincides with a Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee meeting scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Thursday in Washington, during which senators are expected to vote on whether to hold Fauci in contempt of Congress. Paul, who chairs the committee, released the contempt resolution on Tuesday.

Fauci declined to answer more than 100 questions when he appeared before the committee under subpoena on July 29, repeatedly invoking his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

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A post shared by Senator Ron Johnson (@senronjohnson)

He accused Paul of having an “unhinged obsession” with him and said the senator was attempting to elicit statements that could support Paul’s previous calls for him to be imprisoned.

Fauci also told the committee that he had testified before or briefed Congress more than 200 times during nearly four decades as the country’s leading infectious disease official.

Paul has argued that Fauci should not be permitted to invoke the Fifth Amendment because former US president Joe Biden granted him a broad pardon shortly before leaving office in January 2025.

Biden said at the time that the pardon was intended to protect Fauci from “unjustified and politically motivated prosecutions.” It covered potential federal offenses committed between 2014 and January 19, 2025, but did not apply to conduct occurring after it was issued.

Fauci’s attorneys have argued that the pardon does not eliminate every form of possible legal exposure. It does not prevent state prosecutions or protect Fauci from potential allegations involving testimony delivered after the pardon.

The dispute could test unsettled questions about whether Congress may compel testimony from someone who has received a presidential pardon. Paul has said the committee intends to send its contempt recommendation directly to the US Attorney’s Office in Washington if the resolution passes, although contempt referrals have traditionally gone before the full Senate.

A Justice Department investigation or prosecution would not be automatic. Prosecutors would still have to establish that Fauci willfully refused to answer questions he was legally required to address and overcome his claim that responding could expose him to criminal liability.

Long-running clash over Wuhan research

Paul and Fauci have repeatedly clashed over whether research supported by the National Institutes of Health and conducted through the US-based EcoHealth Alliance at the Wuhan Institute of Virology amounted to gain-of-function research.

Gain-of-function is a broad term that can refer to experiments that alter organisms to study how their characteristics or behavior may change. The controversy has focused particularly on research that could make pathogens more transmissible or harmful.

Paul has accused Fauci of misleading Congress by denying that NIH funded gain-of-function research in Wuhan and has alleged that US-supported studies may have played a role in the pandemic.

Fauci has denied misleading lawmakers. He has maintained that the research cited by Paul did not fall under the US government’s regulatory definition of gain-of-function research and has rejected allegations that he attempted to conceal the origins of COVID-19.

The precise origin of COVID-19 remains unresolved. A declassified US intelligence assessment concluded that both natural transmission from an infected animal and a laboratory-associated incident were plausible explanations.

Four US intelligence agencies and the National Intelligence Council assessed with low confidence that natural exposure was the most likely cause. Another intelligence agency favored a laboratory-associated incident with moderate confidence, while several agencies did not reach a conclusion.

The assessment also concluded that the virus was not developed as a biological weapon and that most intelligence analysts believed it was probably not genetically engineered. It said additional information about the earliest cases in China would be required to reach a more definitive conclusion.

The FBI has favored a laboratory origin, while the CIA announced in January 2025 that it considered a lab-related incident more likely, although it expressed low confidence in that assessment. China has repeatedly rejected claims that the pandemic began with a leak from a Wuhan laboratory.

Paul released 1,141 pages of Fauci’s journals shortly before the July hearing, arguing that they undermined the account given by federal health officials during the pandemic.

A representative for Fauci said the entries were consistent with his public statements at the time. Fauci has said he remained open to both a laboratory accident and natural transmission as possible explanations and had raised concerns early in the pandemic about China’s transparency.

Fauci’s role in the pandemic response

Fauci served as NIAID director for 38 years under Republican and Democratic administrations and became one of the most prominent figures in the US response to COVID-19.

During Trump’s first administration, Fauci at times publicly contradicted the president and called for greater caution as the virus spread. His support for masks, social distancing, vaccines, and other public-health measures made him a target of Trump supporters and conservative critics.

Supporters have argued that Fauci and other health officials issued recommendations based on limited and rapidly changing evidence about a new virus. Critics have blamed pandemic authorities for prolonged restrictions, school closures, vaccine mandates, and inconsistent public messaging.

Fauci remained in government during the first years of the Biden administration before retiring in 2022.

HHS is now led by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longstanding Fauci critic who published a book in 2021 accusing him of close ties to pharmaceutical companies and of disregarding civil liberties.

A lawyer representing Fauci did not immediately respond to The Wall Street Journal’s request for comment regarding the iPhone material.

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A 20-year-old resident of Muqeible in the Gilboa region, Ayman Jaramna, was seriously injured and subsequently killed by gunfire early Thursday morning, according to Israeli media reports.

According to a statement from Magen David Adom (MDA), medics received a report of a young man wounded in a shooting at around 6:00 a.m. 

Paramedics reportedly provided him with medical treatment for multiple gunshot wounds at the scene before evacuating him to HaEmek Hospital in Afula in critical condition. 

Jaramna was pronounced dead upon arrival at the hospital.

Police have yet to state any additional information regarding the investigation into the circumstances of the shooting.

Israel’s Arab sector sees two murders in 24 hours  

On Wednesday, a 57-year-old resident of Tira was shot dead in Tayibeh. MDA teams who responded to the scene found the man with multiple gunshot wounds and no signs of life.

He was pronounced dead at the scene. 

Initial reports suggest that the victim was discovered shot inside his vehicle.

Officers from the Tayibe police station in the Sharon district have opened an investigation into the shooting‘s circumstances and are searching for suspects involved in the attack.

Investigators currently believe the killing was most likely linked to an ongoing blood feud.

The victim’s partner, Susan Abd al-Qader Bashara, a social activist in Tira and a former candidate for the city council on the “Youth of the Future” list, was also shot dead while sitting in her vehicle approximately a year and a half ago.

Since the beginning of the year, a reported 158 people have been murdered in the Arab community amid a high crime wave.

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A group of Israeli settlers reportedly set fire to several Palestinian residents’ homes in the village of Tuba in the West Bank on Wednesday, according to an IDF statement on the incident released on Thursday.

The IDF and local police rushed to the area following a report of an arson attack on several homes.

Upon their arrival, police officers searched the area and found burned buildings, graffiti, and destroyed property. 

The suspects fled before the IDF and police arrived at the scene.

According to a Haaretz report, some six Palestinians were wounded in the attack, including four children aged 5, 6, 8 and 10, as well as a 35-year-old woman and a 22-year-old man. 

Several homes in the village were burned.

The IDF later condemned the attack in its statement.

“The IDF strongly condemns such incidents, including harming residents, including women and children. The IDF expects law enforcement agencies to bring the suspects to justice.”

Settlers set fire to Palestinian vehicles

On Tuesday, Palestinians reported that Israeli settlers had set fire to vehicles and property in the villages of Talfit and Jalud, located near Nablus, according to Haaretz.

In one of the villages, graffiti reading “Revenge” and “Avi, go home” was spray-painted, seemingly targeting Central Command Chief Maj.-Gen. Avi Bluth. 

This incident followed the controversy surrounding Defense Minister Israel Katz’s announcement of his intention to dismiss Bluth.

However, Katz reversed his decision on Wednesday after meeting with settlement leaders.

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US Sen. John Fetterman, in perhaps the most in-depth and toughest interview he has faced in recent memory, defended his unwavering support for Israel and his harsh criticisms of fellow Democrats when pressed by Jon Stewart in a podcast episode released Wednesday. 

The liberal comedian and political commentator repeatedly accused Fetterman (D., Pa.) of “caricaturing” the left wing of his party and the debate around Israel’s handling of the war in Gaza.

“Jewish community and Israel are not the same thing, brother man. They’re not – that is not the same thing,” Stewart, who is Jewish, said at one point as Fetterman described his full-throated support for the war as being because of “the Jewish community.” 

Asked repeatedly about the United States’ moral obligations about backing the Israeli strikes that have led to the deaths of tens of thousands of Palestinian civilians, Fetterman stood firm.

Jon is joined by U.S. Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) for discussion on the Democratic Party, Israel, and the issues that continue to shape his politics. New podcast out tomorrow! pic.twitter.com/QAmZazHzOQ

— The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart (@weeklyshowpod) August 4, 2026

Fetterman and John Stewart discuss Israel-Hamas War, Netanyahu in podcast interview

He said – as he often has since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Hamas that sparked the conflict – that it was necessary to go after Hamas leaders. The killing of civilians was “terrible” and “collateral” damage but not a genocide, Fetterman said.

Stewart continued to press – questioning why Fetterman was standing so firmly behind a foreign ally that was “dehumanizing” and slowly killing another population.

Jon and U.S. Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) discuss how Israel has conducted its war on Palestinians. pic.twitter.com/neSzaWjBU8

— The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart (@weeklyshowpod) August 5, 2026

“I don’t understand how you have no criticisms over their actions, over their increasingly messianic, ultra-right-wing government that seems to think relentless war is, like, that you can bomb people out of resistance,” Stewart said.

Fetterman’s passionate defense of Israel sparks tense showdown

The roughly 75-minute interview, on “The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart”, came a week after Fetterman once again met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington.

Many other elected Democrats have distanced themselves from the Israeli government and criticized its tactics. Fetterman has acknowledged his position has hurt him politically. In the interview with Stewart, he echoed previous comments – which have also become evident in public polls – that he has lost the support of his former Democratic base as his and his party’s stances diverged.

“I’m aware that if I happen to disagree with the party line, there’s a price to pay,” Fetterman said. “There are a lot of stories of how I’ve become increasingly more unpopular with Democrats in my state. And I’m aware of it. But these were all very specific choices. … I would rather have people know what I happen to believe.”

Stewart asked Fetterman several times about how he has voiced those disagreements.

He said the senator has focused far more on arguing with his own party in a way that has further hurt its brand. And he has broken from the party’s ranks as Democrats try to use even an inkling of leverage that could impact Republicans’ agenda as the GOP controls both Congress and the White House, Stewart said.

He pointed to issues like immigration enforcement reforms, which Democrats tried to enact by holding out support for a spending bill earlier this year. Fetterman said he supported the reforms but would not go along with letting part of the government shut down as a strategic move.

Stewart also pressed Fetterman on how his approach to President Donald Trump has softened as he has ramped up the criticism of his own party.

“You called President Donald Trump a jagoff in 2016,” Stewart said, prompting Fetterman to say that he put the phrase on shirts and sold them.

“You put it on a shirt. And now you’ve been very complimentary to him. And if your concern with Graham Platner is you didn’t think he was very nice to women, you’re ignoring an awful lot of evidence for the current president about his relationship with women,” Stewart said, referencing Fetterman’s attacks on the Maine Democrat who dropped out after facing allegations of sexual assault.

“So my point is, there seems like there’s a way to go about this that embraces, as you said, the 90% of things that you agree with, and try and utilize that energy to reform a party that has a worse public image than herpes in terms of getting things done. This feels like it’s playing into the hands of Republican caricatures.”

Fetterman pushed back, saying he was trying to stop “extreme” elements of his party in a way that would lead to better success in battleground elections – like in Pennsylvania – after Democratic losses in 2024.

“We keep losing, and now we keep returning back to some of the extreme things,” Fetterman said. “That’s not a caricature. That is a fair assessment of where we are with these kind of things.”

Stewart, noting that former vice president Kamala Harris was not the most progressive Democratic option in 2024, rejected the idea that the party lost because of far-left views. In an extended conversation about capitalism and socialism, he also encouraged Fetterman to embrace new ideas presented by democratic socialist candidates whom Fetterman, like many Republicans, refers to as communists.

Fetterman, who frequently appears on Fox News but has not appeared on more liberal programs like Stewart’s “Daily Show”, described himself as a longtime fan of Stewart and said he believed the interview was “very fair.”

At the end of the podcast, after Fetterman left, Stewart said he “wasn’t sure what to think” and was “weirdly thrown off right now.”

“I feel like we all just got out of one of those movies. Do you know those movies where it’s like … there was a weirdly traumatizing scene in the movie,” Stewart said. “And now we’re all just, like, ‘Do you guys, um, do you want to go get something? I guess I’m just going to go get a slice and maybe go home.'”

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A body in an advanced state of decomposition was found in an open area near the Yarkon Interchange on Thursday morning during police searches for Eldar Dayan, a 23-year-old Dimona resident who has been missing for nearly three weeks.

Police stressed that the identification process had not been completed and that they could not confirm the identity of the deceased. The body was transferred to the L. Greenberg Institute of Forensic Medicine at Abu Kabir for identification and an examination of the circumstances of death.

The discovery came one day after orders were issued to transfer the investigation from the Dimona Police Station in the Southern District to the Sharon District Central Unit. Police said the transfer was made after the search operations and investigative avenues pursued by the Dimona station had been exhausted.

Dayan’s mother arrived at the scene later on Thursday, pleading to police to “take her to the child” and allow her to see the remains for identification purposes.

Body found in Petah Tikvah after missing person search for Eldar Dayan stretches into third week

Thursday’s searches were led by the Sharon Central Unit together with Petah Tikva police, Border Police officers, and volunteers.

Dayan’s family said it learned that a body had been found through media reports rather than directly from police. Attorney Sapir Pardo, who represents the family, criticized the handling of the notification and said the family was waiting for the forensic examination before drawing any conclusions. In its statement, police did not address the family’s criticism.

Dayan traveled to central Israel with two friends in mid-July. Police initially appealed for information after saying he had last been seen near Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park on July 17.

Surveillance footage released later showed him at a gas station in the Petah Tikva area on July 18, shortly before contact with him was lost.

Before he disappeared, Dayan sent messages to his girlfriend indicating that there had been some kind of disturbance. His phone was subsequently switched off, and his family said he had not contacted them or his girlfriend since.

Investigators later located a damaged vehicle abandoned near a Petah Tikva gas station. The vehicle had a broken windshield, and blood traces were found inside. Police examined whether it had been involved in a vehicle incident following an altercation involving Dayan and his companions.

Two of Dayan’s friends were arrested last week after investigators said they had given conflicting accounts. Their detention was extended on suspicion of involvement in a suspected hit-and-run incident and obstruction of the investigation. 

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In a decision carrying significant diplomatic as well as legal implications, Italy’s Council of State has ordered “Aeroporti di Roma” (ADR) to replace the Israeli consortium responsible for the counter-drone protection system at Rome Fiumicino Airport with the Italian electronic warfare company ELT (Elettronica S.p.A.).

According to the Italian newspaper Il Messaggero, the ruling effectively removes two Israeli defense companies – Altintech and Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, the manufacturer of Israel’s renowned Iron Dome air defense system – from one of Italy’s most strategically important civilian infrastructure projects. The decision could attract attention well beyond the procurement dispute, as it affects a high-profile Israeli defense presence in a major European airport.

A ruling was overturned in a May 2024 ruling by the Regional Administrative Court of Lazio, which had previously upheld the award of the contract to the Israeli consortium. ADR has now been given 60 days to finalize a contract with ELT.

The court also ordered that the case file be transmitted to the Rome Public Prosecutor’s Office, which will evaluate whether criminal investigations are warranted regarding the procurement process.

How the Italian court justified replacing the Israeli consortium

Central to the judgment is the classification of the radar installed at Fiumicino (Rome International Airport).

Technical experts from Italy’s Defense Ministry concluded that the system qualifies as military equipment, citing its technical characteristics, its classification under the International Traffic in Arms Regulations, and its registration in Italy’s national registry of military equipment. According to the ruling, the necessary authorizations for importing and operating such military material were not in place.

ADR has maintained that the radar is a dual-use system already employed at other European airports and for protecting major public events. The airport operator stated it will fully comply with the ruling while ensuring that airport security and counter-drone operations continue uninterrupted. 

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Yinon Eliya Levi, 33, was indicted on Thursday for reckless homicide in the killing of Palestinian activist Awdah Hathaleen during a confrontation in the South Hebron Hills village of Umm al-Khair last July.

The Southern District Attorney’s Office filed the indictment with the Beersheba District Court, alleging that Levi fired toward an area where villagers, including children, were gathered after ordering an excavator to clear an unauthorized route across private land.

This is a developing story.

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The US Treasury Department removed an Iraqi IRGC-linked airline from its Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) list of Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) on Wednesday.

Two aircraft operated by the airline were also covered by the sanctions, and were delisted Wednesday. CEO Basheer Abdulkadhim Alwan Al-Shabbani, however, remains sanctioned, with the State Department claiming he still has ties to the IRGC.

A Treasury Department official said that the removal of sanctions was not indicative of a shift in US policy towards Iran or the IRGC, or negotiations to end the conflict in the Middle East.

The removal of Fly Baghdad Airlines Co. (FBA), Iraq Express and two Boeing 737 aircraft from the Treasury’s Specially Designated Nationals list was part of the Office of Foreign Assets Control’s process to reconsider sanctions after behavior changes, the official said.

The official stressed that the US could reimpose sanctions on the airline at any time.

Separately Fly Baghdad remains banned from the EU, placed on the EU Air Safety List by the European Commission placed it.

Airline had ties to IRGC, transporting weapons and personnel

The airline, Fly Baghdad, along with its CEO had been under US sanctions since 2024. At the time, the department said the airline supported IRGC operations through transporting weapons and personnel. These weapons included ballistic missiles, rifles, and other tools of war, according to a press release.

OFAC maintains enforces sanctions against several categories of foreign individuals and entities. The SDN list covers “individuals and companies owned or controlled by, or acting for or on behalf of, targeted countries” as well as “individuals, groups and entities… designated under programs that are not country-specific,” according to OFAC.

Targeted individuals or groups have their assets blocked and US entities are banned from doing business with them. Those sanctioned as part of the SDN list can petition for removal.

The Treasury Department has listed IRGC-related groups as recently as late July.

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US President Donald Trump did not know about the extreme munitions shortage that is threatening to limit US military options in Iran, the Washington Post reported on Wednesday, citing a source.

According to the source, Trump confronted US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth at Camp David on Friday, saying that he thought the munitions issue “had been fixed,” and that he felt he had been misled, the report added.

This missile shortage may have been part of the reason that Trump decided not to launch what he described as “the biggest attack since World War II,” on Iran over the weekend, the report cited the source as saying.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt rejected the report as false in a post to X/Twitter on Wednesday evening.

I was at Camp David with President Trump and Secretary Hegseth. This literally never happened, and we told the Washington Post that repeatedly. This B.S. story was shopped to many outlets by someone clearly out to disparage the Secretary, for whatever reason. Unfortunately for… https://t.co/BUwn11nC52

— Karoline Leavitt (@PressSec) August 6, 2026

“This literally never happened,” she wrote.

“This B.S. story was shopped to many outlets by someone clearly out to disparage the Secretary, for whatever reason. Unfortunately for them, the President loves the Secretary and thinks he’s doing a tremendous job.”

The US Army has used up “virtually all” of its stockpile of highly accurate long-range missiles during its five-month war with Iran, according to a Reuters report on Tuesday.

These long-range munitions allow the military to carry out accurate strikes from a safe distance, playing a crucial role in the US-Iran conflict.

Ukraine feels interceptor shortage after US rejected license

The Washington Post found that in the first month of the conflict with Iran, the US had fired more than 850 Tomahawk cruise missiles and over 1,000 Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAD) missiles, and used at least 1,300 tactical ballistic missiles.

When asked for comment on the stockpile data, the White House issued a statement from Trump, saying the US had “far more munitions than anyone in the world” and “far more than we need,” Reuters reported.

“Our defense companies are, at this moment, making more munitions than they have ever made before, in addition to expanding their plants and equipment at record levels,” Trump said.

The munitions shortage has an impact beyond the US-Iran conflict. The Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMs) stockpile, a short-range missile also in demand by Ukraine, is drained to the extent that there’s basically none left, Reuters reported.

Additionally, between February and July the US had used around 65% of its Patriot interceptors, leaving the country unwilling to supply Ukraine with the much needed defense system.

At times, the interceptor shortage caused by US use of munitions during the Iran conflict has been deadly in Ukraine.

Although in early July President Trump had offered to give Ukraine the license to make Patriot interceptors, last week he denied the claim that the US had agreed to “give away” the technology.

On Wednesday, following a deadly Russian attack on Kyiv, Ukrainian President Voldymr Zelenskyy said that the shortage of interceptor missiles “encourages Russia to launch such attacks that take human lives,” the BBC reported.

“Every single day,” Zelenskyy said, “the lives of people here in Ukraine depend on the decisiveness of our partners in Europe and America.”

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Two IDF reservists were killed and four others were seriously wounded after an explosive device detonated inside a booby-trapped house during a combat mission in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, the military announced Thursday.

Maj. (res.) Harel Birenstock, 34, from Efrat, was a company commander in Battalion 2855 of the 55th Reserve Paratroopers Brigade, while M.-Sgt. (res.) Tamir Vaknin, 33, from Eilat, served as a combat soldier in the same battalion. 

Birenstock was married and a father to four, including a six-month-old baby.

Rambam Medical Center said on Thursday morning that the conditions of the four injured reservists were serious.

Birenstock and Vaknin were killed during a search operation in Majdal Zoun in southern Lebanon that had not previously been inspected by the IDF, after Hezbollah fighters pulled back from the town back in March.

The squad entered a booby-trapped house, where an explosive device detonated upon their entry, causing part of the building to collapse. Troops rushed to assist the reservists trapped beneath the rubble, and Birenstock and Vaknin were evacuated along with four other reservists who were wounded to varying degrees.

The IDF called the explosion a “blatant violation” of the ceasefire, and struck weapon storage sites and command centers in southern Lebanon, while also issuing evacuation warnings to the town of Mansouri. The Lebanese health ministry said on Wednesday one person was killed and 12 others were wounded in an Israeli strike on the southern town of Tibnin, about 25 kilometers from Mansouri. 

The exchange took place as the latest round of talks between Israel and Lebanon continued in Rome, after the two countries agreed in June to a US-brokered security arrangement intended to ease hostilities along the border.

The last time an IDF soldier was killed in Lebanon was on June 28, a little over a month ago, when Capt. David Hazzut, 21, from Ashkelon, was killed in an encounter with a Hezbollah fighter. 

Birenstock’s funeral is scheduled to begin at the Mount Herzl Military Cemetery in Jerusalem at noon. Vaknin’s is scheduled for Thursday evening at the military cemetery in Eilat. 

Katz: ‘Birenstock, Vaknin were dedicated to reserve duty’

Defense Minister Israel Katz wrote, “On behalf of the entire defense establishment, I extend my deepest condolences to the families.”

He added: “Harel and Tamir left behind families and full lives, yet they dedicated themselves to reserve duty with commitment, devotion, and a profound sense of mission. They fell while working for the security of the State of Israel and its residents in the North.”

בשם מערכת הביטחון כולה, אני שולח תנחומים מעומק הלב למשפחותיהם של רס”ן (מיל’) הראל בירנשטוק, מפקד פלוגה בגדוד 2855, ושל רס”ם (מיל’) תמיר וקנין, לוחם בגדוד 2855, שנפלו בקרב בדרום לבנון.

הראל ותמיר הותירו מאחוריהם משפחות וחיים שלמים והתייצבו בכל פעם לשירות המילואים במחויבות,… pic.twitter.com/cGDCve5Q1F

— ישראל כ”ץ Israel Katz (@Israel_katz) August 6, 2026

He also expressed support for the families during this difficult time and wished a speedy recovery to the four wounded reservists.

The Eilat Municipality described Vaknin as “one of the finest sons of the city of Eilat.”

“Tamir, of blessed memory, was a hero of Israel, the salt of the earth, who fought bravely to defend the State of Israel. May his memory be a blessing,” the statement read.

Gush Etzion Regional Council head Yaron Rosenthal also eulogized Birenstock.

“We mourn the loss of Harel, who grew up in Gush Etzion and made his home here. I send my condolences to his parents, wife, children, brother, sisters, and entire family,” he said. 

Having served as a paratrooper himself, he extended his thoughts to the brigade, which had “suffered a heavy blow today.”

“Though I am here in the hills of Gush Etzion, my heart is with you in the mountains of Lebanon,” Rosenthal added.

Sarah Ben-Nun and Reuters contributed to this report. 

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Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. stated he does not have a gag reflex, proclaiming he will “literally eat anything” in an interview with USA Today on Tuesday.

“I will eat anything, and I love experimenting with foods,” he said, noting that he’ll eat “even stuff I find on the street, you know, street vendors cooking.”

Kennedy noted that his own diet largely consists of “meat and fermented foods,” and stated that he enjoys “a bite of the meat… a bite of the sauerkraut.”

“That is kind of the prescribed perfect way of eating it. You know, I don’t do that perfectly every time, but I try,” he said.

During the interview, Kennedy also shared he felt “a lot of pressure” as he’s been assisting members of Trump’s cabinet on their own weight loss journeys through his beef and sauerkraut diet.

Kennedy launches new ‘The Real Food Show’ to promote healthy eating

The interview was intended to promote Kennedy’s new YouTube cooking program, The Real Food Show, which will “make healthy, affordable cooking simple and accessible for every American,” according to the show’s official website.

The show aims to teach viewers how to cook food according to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans as part of US President Donald Trump’s Make America Healthy Again plan.

The first episode, featuring Chef Andrew Gruel, teaches viewers how to prepare salmon cakes with apple, white beans and greens salad using “simple, everyday ingredients that fit almost any budget.”

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Shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, the key maritime chokepoints in the Gulf, reduced significantly on Wednesday from the previous day, shipping data showed.

Just two vessels transited the Strait of Hormuz, including a Panama-flagged coal-laden carrier entering the waterway and another commodity Marshall Islands-flagged vessel exiting, shipping data from Kpler showed, down from eight vessels a day earlier.

Roughly 130 to 140 ships would typically transit the waterway before the US-Israeli war with Iran began on February 28, and Iran responded by closing the strait.

In the Bab el-Mandeb, only one commodity vessel, a Bahamas-flagged dry bulk carrier, crossed the strait on Wednesday, Kpler data showed, down from 20 the previous day.

Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthis said on Wednesday they had launched a missile attack on a Saudi oil tanker off the coast of the kingdom’s Red Sea port city of Yanbu and another missile attack on a Saudi oil tanker in the Gulf of Aden.

Houthis blocked Saudi Arabia from Red Sea

There was no confirmation from Saudi Arabia on either incident.

The Houthis have imposed a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea since last month in response to what they described as a Saudi siege on Yemen, an allegation Riyadh has denied.

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Ariel Bibas, who was abducted by Hamas at age 4 and murdered in captivity along with his mother and younger brother, would have celebrated his seventh birthday on Wednesday, as his father marked the occasion with an emotional public message remembering the son he lost. 

Born on Aug. 5, 2019, Ariel was kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz during the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack, along with his mother, Shiri, and baby brother, Kfir.

The three later became among the most recognizable symbols of the hostage crisis because of their bright red hair, with the color orange adopted around the world in solidarity with the Bibas family. 

Their father, Yarden Bibas, was abducted separately during the attack and released from captivity in February 2025. He is the only surviving member of the immediate family. 

Yarden Bibas remembers his son Ariel on what would have been his seventh birthday

On what would have been Ariel’s seventh birthday, Yarden published a message addressed to his son. 

“Instead of celebrating your birthday, instead of going with Mom to buy things for your birthday party, I’m sitting here beside you … In the only place where I feel closest to you,” he wrote. 

He described the passage of time as offering no relief from the family’s loss. 

“Time isn’t doing its thing, and the days aren’t becoming any easier. The longing grows stronger day by day, and the feelings of loneliness and absence only intensify.” 

Yarden wrote that ordinary life now feels empty without his wife and children. 

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A post shared by קיבוץ ניר עוז (@save_niroz)

“Everything enjoyable feels empty and hollow. In everything I do, I can’t help but think about you and how it could have been so much more enjoyable with all of you!” 

Remembering the birthday celebrations they once shared, he wrote: “Chuki, I can’t lift you up in your birthday chair, and I also don’t get to see you excitedly open all the presents you would have received.” 

He ended by expressing hope that Ariel was being celebrated in heaven. 

“But I hope that up in heaven they’re lifting you up and celebrating your birthday! I’m sure Mom arranged the most beautiful birthday she could for you, just like we did for you at the kibbutz every year.” 

Memorial tributes from organizations including the American Jewish Committee also commemorated Ariel’s birthday, remembering the young life cut short by his captivity and murder. 

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US President Donald Trump accused Michigan Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed of hating Israel and Jewish people during a speech in Las Vegas on Wednesday.

“He doesn’t love Israel. He doesn’t love Jewish people. He hates them. He hates them with a passion that burns in his heart, and there’s not a fricking thing he can do about it,” Trump said.

The 41-year-old candidate was said to have condemned antisemitism and claimed that criticism of Israel’s activity in Gaza and its presence in the West Bank should not be equated with antisemitism, though he’s repeatedly spoken out against Israel. 

“I don’t want to fund a foreign military that does genocide, apartheid, or has taken us to a war we don’t need to fight,” Sayed said in an interview with CNN on Wednesday. He attempted to center the conversation on Michigan policy, though he did not shy from answering the Israel questions head-on. 

“I believe our responsibility, though, more than anything else, is to use our tax money here in Michigan to provide healthcare in Michigan, in schools in Michigan, and roads in Michigan rather than to send it to a foreign government that might use it in the form of bombs and tanks to destroy infrastructure in schools and hospitals there,” he added. 

He went on to confirm that he’s against the Iron Dome, claiming he doesn’t see a difference between offensive and defensive weapons. 

“I am against it, in large part because I just don’t understand why anybody thinks it’s the right thing to do to send our tax dollars abroad, to fund foreign militaries when our own kids barely get to go to schools that are functional,” Sayed said. 

Voters unhappy with Iran war, economy

Trump’s comments against Sayed came one day after the candidate won Michigan’s Democratic Senate primary, which means he’ll face off against Trump-backed Republican Mike Rogers in November.

The president appeared in Las Vegas after the White House pushed him to highlight the success of progressive candidates as the voters indicate frustration with Trump’s economy and military action in the war with Iran.

A Reuters poll found that only one in three Americans support the US military’s strikes against Iran, though Trump supporters at the Las Vegas event were open to giving the president more time to resolve the war.

“We want to wrap it up as soon as possible, not just to save American lives and get our gas prices down, but we have the midterms coming up,” said Francine Moshkovsky, a retired Veterans Affairs physician from Las Vegas.

Sayed echoed these anti-war sentiments as he called for an end to US military assistance to Israel during his campaign, along with pushes for universal healthcare and abolishing ICE.

Trump’s initial reaction to Sayed’s victory

On Wednesday, Trump called Sayed’s victory “great news for the Republican Party” in a Truth Social post following Stevens’ defeat.

“El-Sayed, a Communist loser who hates Jews and Israel, is the projected winner in his race with the Socialist [Stevens],” Trump wrote. “As usual, the polls were way off on this one. She was not expected to do nearly as well as she did. Now, the Democrats’ crazy policies will only get worse!”

However, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani praised El-Sayed and predicted that he can win in swing-state Michigan.

“To win this race … is a testament to what he ran on and also how he ran the campaign,” Mamdani told reporters at a City Hall press conference. “That’s the kind of work it’s going to take to ensure we are winning in November. So kudos to him.”

Mamdani noted that El-Sayed overcame a flood of $60 million in spending by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee that backed rival Rep. Haley Stevens. He wound up winning by a narrower-than-expected margin of about 1%.

The 34-year-old mayor said there’s no reason El-Sayed cannot win a general election in a purple Rust Belt state with the same message of affordability that resonated in the Big Apple.

“He was able to prevail with a focus on a cost-of-living crisis,” Mamdani said.

“The message of money out of politics, money in your pocket, Medicare for All is something even New Yorkers can relate to.”

Jerusalem Post Staff contributed to this report. 

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New Mexico sued the US Department of Justice on Wednesday for access to unredacted files on Jeffrey Epstein, alleging the federal agency was stonewalling the state’s investigation into the late sex offender by refusing to provide the documents.

The lawsuit escalates a politically charged dispute over the US agency’s Epstein files, an issue that has dogged the Trump administration.

The Democratic-run state reopened its Epstein investigation in February and requested unredacted US DOJ files to identify visitors and staff at Zorro Ranch, a property owned by Epstein near Stanley, New Mexico, who allegedly took part in crimes or witnessed them.

The US Department of Justice has said it provided some files but was prevented from supplying other material due to privacy protections.

“Federal inaction does not merely stall the investigation; it prolongs and compounds the suffering of survivors,” the New Mexico lawsuit argued, requesting that the US District Court for the District of Columbia compel acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche to release the requested files.

New Mexico says withheld files are blocking Epstein investigation

In response to the lawsuit, the US DOJ said that under the Epstein Files Transparency Act and protective court orders, it was neither required nor permitted to disclose victim-identifying information.

“New Mexico has provided no lawful basis to justify such sweeping disclosures,” a spokesperson said in a statement.

Over five months into the state investigation, New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez has yet to announce any results.

In a call with reporters, Torrez said the state was devoting a “substantial” amount of resources to the probe, but declined to give further information.

“We haven’t charged someone because we need to see those files before we charge someone,” Torrez said.

State commission identifies dozens of potential Epstein victims

Also on Wednesday, New Mexico legislators released an interim report on their so-called Truth Commission probe, an independent investigation into Epstein.

Evidence to date shows Epstein abused at least five women and girls at Zorro Ranch between 1996 and 2012, the report said. The commission has counted at least 30 other individuals who potentially were abused in New Mexico. Some may be witnesses to abuse, others may be facilitators of abuse, and some may be both, the report said.

Of the first 20 subpoenas issued by the commission to entities ranging from law enforcement departments to a Santa Fe scientific institute, over 100,000 records have been returned, commission Chair Andrea Romero said in a presentation.

Seven subpoenas were refused or ignored, among them a request to the Federal Aviation Administration for Epstein’s flight records and a subpoena to the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York for evidence New Mexico investigators handed over to them in 2019 that has never been returned, Romero said.

New Mexico authorities claim that the US DOJ reneged ​on a ⁠2019 deal under which the state agreed to halt its Epstein probe and hand over evidence to the federal agency in return for continued information sharing on alleged survivors and crimes. Torrez has said the state investigation faces considerable obstacles, including the ​decades that have elapsed since Epstein’s alleged crimes, the disappearance of evidence after the ranch was sold in 2023 and possible ​jurisdictional issues surrounding any potential prosecutions.

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A collection of 18 tombs and numerous artifacts were unearthed during archaeological excavations ahead of construction of a visitor’s center in Egypt’s ancient city of Marina El Alamein, the Egyptian Tourism and Antiquities Ministry announced in early July.

Marina El Alamein, which flourished between the Hellenistic period until the Byzantine era, is located on Egypt’s northwestern coast, about 100 kilometers west of Alexandria. It is believed to be the city of Leukaspis mentioned by the Greek geographer Strabo.

The site was discovered in 1986 during construction work in the Marina area. Since then, extensive archaeological excavations and studies have uncovered one of the best preserved ancient coastal cities in Egypt.

Of the 18 tombs discovered in July, 11 are carved entirely into the rock, a style of tomb known as a hypogeum, explained Mohamed Abdel Badie, head of the Egyptian Antiquities Sector at the Supreme Council of Antiquities, while the other seven are made of limestone aboveground.

Some of the tombs are also very well preserved, with chamber entrances sealed by stone slabs that had not been opened since ancient times.

Eman Abdel Khalek, leader of the archaeological mission, added that a 2.5 meter long granite sarcophagus had been uncovered with its original lid still in place. 

The skeletal remains found inside are currently being studied.

Khalek added that a collection of 24 “golden tongue” pieces were found inside the mouths of some of those interred, including one shaped like the Eye of Horus, an important protective symbol in ancient Egyptian belief.

Several surface burials and a well, believed to have been reused for burial purposes, were also uncovered in the area surrounding the tomb. 

These finds are an example of the continued influence of ancient Egyptian traditions on funerary architecture during the Ptolemaic and Roman periods, according to the ministry. 

Collection of assorted ancient artifacts uncovered at site

A collection of artifacts was also discovered, included complete and partially-complete pottery vessels, amphorae, oil lamps, plates, limestone altars and basins, as well as a number of architectural elements associated with the tombs.

The most notable discovery, according to Central Administration for Lower Egypt Antiquities Head Hisham Hussein, was a limestone altar used to present offerings, featuring an ancient Egyptian funerary “false door” facade.

An unfinished statue of the Greek goddess Aphrodite, a limestone gravestone depicting a seated man holding a bird, and a number of glass tear bottles were also found at the site, as well as the remains of a plaster sphinx statue.

Dr. Hisham El-Leithy, Secretary-General of Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities said that the ministry is working to turn Marina El Alamein into a formal tourist site, which will include a visitor center, roads and pedestrian paths, a museum storage facility, administrative headquarters, and an open air theater.

Construction and development work are expected to be completed during the first half of 2027, according to Leithy.

Previously undiscovered ancient Egyptian tomb found at Theban necropolis

Two weeks ago, Egypt’s Tourism and Antiquities Ministry announced that archaeologists had unearthed a previously undiscovered tomb during excavations at the Theban necropolis located on the west bank of the Nile.

The tomb, dating back to the Ramesside period, was unearthed in the lower Sheikh Abdel-Qarna area by a Dutch archaeological mission led by Dr. Karina van den Hoven of Leiden University.

Inscriptions found within the tomb bear the name of its owner, “Paser,” as well as wall paintings depicted Paser worshipping the shrines of several deities. Additional paintings portray Paser and his wife standing before an altar.

What further intrigued archaeologists was the tomb’s layout, which followed the traditional style of Thebes’s private tombs during the New Kingdom period, according to Abdel-Badie, as it consisted of an outer courtyard, an inverted “T” shaped chapel carved into the rock, and burial chambers hidden below the surface.

Abdel-Badie added that the tomb’s courtyard contained several architectural elements that have been preserved in good condition, including a mudbrick platform with a niche in its center designed to hold a funerary stela, as well as a staircase flanked on both sides by ramps leading to the tomb’s entrance.

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An explosion was heard across northern Tel Aviv in the early hours on Thursday, after a suspected fragmentation grenade was thrown at a residential tower in the upscale Park Tzameret neighborhood, according to Hebrew media reports. 

The blast was audible throughout the surrounding area, including Ramat Gan, and reportedly damaged the building’s entrance.

“It was loud, but it did not sound like an impact or a grenade,” a local resident told Ynet. “Although it wasn’t close to me, I still heard it clearly.”

No injuries were reported following the explosion. 

The Tel Aviv District police stated they have opened an investigation into the incident. The police stated that officers believe the incident has a criminal background.

This is a developing story.

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As one walks among the burial plots of Zionist leaders on Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl, one finds remarkably few rabbis. The mountain is populated instead by presidents, prime ministers, military commanders and political leaders whose decisions transformed the Zionist movement from aspiration into reality.

Wednesday’s reburial of Theodor Herzl’s grandparents, Shimon Leib and Rivka Herzl, beside their grandson enriches that history.

Their arrival in Jerusalem reminds us that while the institutions of the Jewish state were largely built by secular political leadership, many of the ideas that sustained Zionism were cultivated much earlier, within Jewish homes, communities and places of worship.

History often remembers the individual who stands at the center of great events, but is less generous to those who shaped the environment in which those individuals were formed.

Shimon Leib Herzl occupied no prominent political office nor addressed the First Zionist Congress. He did not negotiate with emperors or draft political programs. He was the gabbai of the synagogue in Zemun (then part of the Habsburg Empire, now in Serbia) where Rabbi Yehuda Alkalai, one of the earliest advocates of Jewish national restoration, served as rabbi.

The roots of political Zionism

Decades before political Zionism emerged as an organized movement, Alkalai was arguing that the Jewish return to the Land of Israel should become an active national endeavor rather than remain solely the subject of prayer and messianic hope.

No historian can state with certainty how much influence those ideas exerted on the young Theodor Herzl. Intellectual history is rarely so straightforward. Yet it is equally difficult to dismiss the importance of family and upbringing, along with the transmission of values across generations.

Ideas seldom appear fully formed. They are discussed at home, reinforced by example and passed, often almost imperceptibly, from grandparents to parents and from parents to children.

President Isaac Herzog captured that thought with particular eloquence during yesterday’s ceremony. “Dreams are not passed down through written inheritance,” he observed. “They are passed around the Shabbat table… in the stories a grandfather tells his grandson.”

It was a reflection on the manner in which Jewish continuity itself has survived across centuries of exile and upheaval. As Herzog suggested, the decisive moments in history are frequently preceded by countless ordinary conversations that no historian ever records.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu approached the occasion from a similar perspective, describing “Judaism as the basis of Zionism” and saying that the home of Herzl’s grandparents had provided “the roots from which the trunk, branches and fruit later grew.” Whether expressed in religious or national terms, both speeches recognized that political Zionism did not emerge in isolation from the generations that preceded it.

There is a lesson to be learned, particularly for Jewish communities outside Israel.

Herzl is frequently portrayed as the assimilated Viennese journalist whose encounter with the Dreyfus Affair awakened him to Jewish nationalism. There is truth in that account, but it is incomplete.

Herzl undoubtedly lived within the assimilated society of fin-de-siecle Vienna, yet assimilation did not erase family memory or inherited identity. Before he became the author of Der Judenstaat, he was a grandson, and before he articulated a political program, he belonged to a family whose Jewish consciousness had been shaped by previous generations.

A responsibility passed between generations

Jewish history has endured because each generation accepted responsibility for transmitting our languages, memories, and traditions to the next. That responsibility remains no less significant today, particularly at a time when many Diaspora communities are confronting unprecedented challenges to Jewish confidence and identity.

World Zionist Organization Chairman Yaakov Hagoel told The Jerusalem Post that Herzl had left “two wills”: one concerning his family, and another that “you and I fulfill every day, every hour” through the continuing work of building the State of Israel.

This extends beyond the physical return of Herzl’s grandparents to Jerusalem. The work of Zionism was never intended to conclude with the establishment of the state but requires every generation to renew its commitment to the ideals, identity and sense of purpose that made the state possible in the first place. It is one of the beautiful things about seeing proud, Zionist communities throughout the Diaspora.

The graves on Mount Herzl commemorate those who helped build modern Israel. Wednesday’s ceremony reminds us that, before Zionism became a program for national revival, it was an inheritance passed from one Jewish generation to the next.

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The IDF “will not relent until we bring every person who played a part in the [October 7] massacre to justice,” IDF Chief of General Staff, Eyal Zamir said on Wednesday while conducting an operational assessment in the Gaza Strip.

“We are implementing the security strategy we defined, not only here, but along all of the State of Israel’s borders,” Zamir explained. The strategy places the IDF at the front, in order to protect communities and their residents.

The IDF chief also thanked the IDF’s Southern Command, expressing appreciation for units operating in the Gaza area who have maintained a “sustained offensive approach,” and continuously act “to protect the residents of the communities near the Gaza Strip.”

He spoke about recent operations that have targeted and killed Nukhba and October 7 terrorists, explaining that the pursuit of everyone involved in the October 7 massacre “is a permanent and ongoing mission that the command is carrying out with great success.”

Speaking on August 5, 2026, the day that would have been Ariel Bibas’ seventh birthday, Zamir said that “The images from the communities, the Bibas family, the surveillance soldiers, and all the victims of the October 7th massacre are before our eyes every day.”

IDF military action in the Gaza Strip

Zamir also provided some insight into IDF operations in the Gaza Strip, “We have struck Hamas, significantly weakened it, and fundamentally changed the security reality.”

“The IDF will continue to operate proactively and according to the principle we established, to remove threats and, in every situation, protect the communities and their residents and safeguard their security.”

Over the weekend the IDF carried out a series of strikes in the Gaza strip, killing several Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) terrorists, including Mahmoud Fatair, a commander in the PIJ’s Central Gaza Brigade who infiltrated Israel on October 7 and took part in holding Rom Braslavski hostage.

However, operations in Gaza aren’t alone, emphasized Zamir.

“The Gaza front is part of a multi-front effort. Last week I met with the troops in southern Lebanon, and here I see the same spirit. A spirit of initiative, determination, and commitment to the mission,” Zamir said.

“It is this spirit that enables us to continue implementing the principle we established and to maintain the initiative in our hands,” he added.

“We will not allow a threat to emerge on our borders like the one we experienced during the October 7 massacre.”

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