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Assuta Medical Centers and Microsoft are developing an artificial intelligence system that will effectively serve as a personal assistant for doctors. The AI will collect relevant medical information, summarize test results and previous documents, document meetings with the patient, and automatically draft visit summaries. 

The AI is not intended to replace the doctor, but to relieve them of documentation and search tasks, leaving them with more time for examinations, conversations, and medical decision-making. 

Unlike standard medical computer systems, in which doctors must move between screens, tests, hospitalization summaries, and referral letters themselves, the AI agent is intended to read the medical record and present important information ahead of the meeting. 

Before the patient enters the room, the doctor will be able to receive a summary of previous diagnoses, medications, recent tests, treatments that have already been tried, and changes in the patient’s medical condition. The goal is to reduce the time spent locating information within large volumes of documents and lower the risk that a significant detail will be overlooked in the file. 

During the visit, the system will listen to the conversation between the doctor and the patient, after the necessary approvals are obtained and in accordance with privacy rules, to produce an organized transcript. It will then process the information and draft a complete medical document that includes the patient’s complaints, medical history, examination findings, the doctor’s assessment, and recommendations for continued care. 

The doctor will be required to review, correct, and approve the document before it is added to the medical record. Assuta stressed that the system will serve only as a decision support tool and will not replace medical judgment. Responsibility for the diagnosis, the selection of tests, and treatment will remain with the doctor.

The system is also intended to assist after the visit. According to the plan, it will be able to identify when a patient requires a test or an additional appointment, locate a suitable time, and help schedule a follow-up visit based on medical need and availability in the system. Additional functions may be introduced in the future throughout the continuum of care, subject to medical oversight and information security regulations.

AI system designed to shorten visits without reducing time of doctor-patient conversations

One of the main challenges facing the healthcare system is the amount of time doctors spend on documentation, typing summaries, reviewing documents, and carrying out administrative tasks. In some cases, this work continues even after the clinic day has ended. According to the targets set for the project, use of the agent could save hundreds of doctor work hours each month.

These time savings could make it possible to shorten visits without reducing the amount of time doctors spend speaking with patients. 

Instead of looking at a screen and typing details of the conversation during much of the appointment, the doctor would be able to rely on the system to prepare the documentation. This could allow more patients to be seen during the workday, increase appointment availability, and reduce waiting times at clinics and medical institutes.

Developing such a system requires more than simply connecting transcription software to a doctor’s computer. To understand medical documents, the agent must undergo an extensive process of learning, practice, and training. As part of that process, the systems are provided with models of medical documents, visit summaries, test results, and professional terminology, while identifying details are removed and patient privacy is protected.

The system is trained to distinguish essential information from minor details, identify connections between diagnoses, medications, and tests, and draft concise summaries without omitting important information. Medical teams review the results, flag errors, and teach the system how to present information in a way that will assist doctors in their work.

One of the main challenges will be preventing errors commonly associated with artificial intelligence systems, including the omission of details, confusion between patients, or the creation of information that did not appear in the original documents. For that reason, the system’s output will not be entered automatically into the medical record without human review. Development and implementation will be carried out gradually, while examining the system’s accuracy, safety, and effect on the work of medical teams.

The first pilot is expected to begin within a year. The system will likely initially operate on a limited scale so that Assuta can examine how it integrates into daily work, how much time it saves, the quality of the summaries, and how comfortable doctors and patients feel with the automatic documentation of appointments.

Microsoft to develop more AI agents 

Alongside the development of the personal agent, Assuta and Microsoft agreed to gradually transition to the company’s cloud infrastructure and establish an organizational platform for developing and operating additional artificial intelligence agents. The infrastructure could eventually be used for solutions in medicine, service, and operations, while maintaining strict rules on privacy, information security, and the protection of medical information.

Sarit Sass, healthcare organizations director at Microsoft Israel, said: “We believe that the future of the healthcare system relies on combining the human expertise of medical teams with the capabilities of artificial intelligence.” She said the goal of the partnership is to allow medical professionals to focus on caring for the patient.

Ofir Shani Shaharbani, head of Assuta’s Information Systems and Technology Division, said the partnership was “a significant milestone in our journey.” He said the new infrastructure would make it possible to bring artificial intelligence to the heart of medical activity “in a responsible and secure manner, while strictly protecting patient privacy.”

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IDF Paratroopers discovered a terror tunnel containing dozens of rockets in the southern Gaza Strip, which was subsequently destroyed by engineering units, the military announced on Wednesday. 

The tunnel was found as troops worked to clear the Israeli-held area of the Gaza Strip, delineated by the Yellow Line, of terrorist infrastructure both above and below ground. 

A video released by the IDF shows footage from a body camera on a military dog of the IDF’s K9 unit, Oketz, exploring the cave and finding dozens of munitions.

The use of dogs in reconnaissance is especially common in tunnels, as they help soldiers mitigate exceptional threats in unknown, dark, and cramped conditions.

Terror tunnel destroyed by IDF engineers

Hamas, Islamic Jihad terrorists killed by IDF in recent days

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Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Wednesday that Tehran would support any initiative or decision taken by Palestinian leaders in ongoing indirect negotiations between terrorist group Hamas and Israel, Iranian state media reported.

Pezeshkian pledged Iran’s support for the Palestinian leaders’ decision in a phone call with the head of Hamas‘ political bureau, Khalil al-Hayya. 

IRGC urges Hamas not to sign BoP disarmament agreement

On Friday, Axios reported that officials from Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) urged Hamas delegation members not to sign the BoP disarmament deal.

Hamas representatives reportedly met with IRGC officials on a recent visit to Iran for the funeral of former supreme leader Ali Khamenei, Axios reported, adding that a senior US official also claimed Iran tried to convince Hamas not to sign the deal, but said the group chose not to listen.

Senior White House Board of Peace officials told The Jerusalem Post that “Hamas had a lot of concerns. It took months of delicate negotiations to bring us to this breakthrough, and we will move in the coming weeks to advance its implementation.”

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US FBI Director Kash Patel says he has forged new law enforcement partnerships with China and Russia, two longtime US rivals, over the past year in hopes of gaining allies in combating transnational crime, including fentanyl, cyber fraud, and child sexual exploitation.

The partnerships have involved personnel exchanges in which Chinese law enforcement officials have visited the United States and FBI agents have traveled to China to work on cases together and share intelligence. Separately, FBI and Chinese officers have carried out joint raids and arrests under the arrangement.

Patel returned from a trip to Beijing in late July, and a similar trip to Russia has been tentatively planned for October, according to FBI officials.

In exclusive interviews with Reuters, Patel described the FBI’s initiatives with what he called “non-traditional partners” as selective and limited to specific types of transnational crimes such as global child pornography networks and cyber scam centers that prey on Americans.

The partnerships, known internally as “working groups,” represent a major break with the past and have raised concerns within the broader counterintelligence community about the risks posed by sharing sensitive domestic security information with authoritarian regimes working to undermine the United States economically and militarily around the world.

In May, the FBI, China’s Ministry of Public Security, and Dubai police worked together in “Operation Sand Dollar,” a major raid on a cyber scam center in Dubai that led to 300 arrests, $300 million seized, and thousands of trafficked workers freed, the FBI said. In at least one case, a suspect inside China who was accused of “serious violent crimes” was repatriated to the United States, according to Chinese state media.

Risks of US collaboration with Russia, China can be managed, Patel claims

US officials have long portrayed Russia and China as exporters of crime instead of potential allies in combating it, not to mention sources of espionage aimed at American interests worldwide.

Patel, appointed by US President Donald Trump, said such risks can be managed.

“They are both new and dynamic relationships, and we are extremely mindful of their adversarial approach on many matters,” Patel said. “They are not going to stop, but if we can go and have wins for America, then we must engage.”

The current relationship began with Trump’s visit to China in May 2025 and was followed by two trips by Patel to China. Patel said the cooperation has expanded across four working groups: cyber fraud, violent crimes against children, counternarcotics, and a fugitive task force.

As part of the partnership, Patel has brought officials from China’s Ministry of Public Security, or MPS, to multiple FBI facilities in the United States to share intelligence and investigative information.

“Every month, they send their working-level MPS officers here, and the following month we go there,” Patel said. “They are speaking with us daily, which has also never happened before.”

Asked about joint law enforcement operations, a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington said, “We have always believed that dialogue and negotiation are the right way forward, and that military means offer no solution.”

Patel said information exchanges are narrow in scope and limited to the four types of transnational crime where intelligence sharing is reciprocal. Patel said these new FBI partners would not replace longtime US allies such as the “Five Eyes” intelligence partnership with Canada, Australia, Britain, and New Zealand.

“Five Eyes will always be our most important intelligence relationship. No one is trying to replace that,” Patel said. “Unlike military and traditional intelligence agencies, we have a unique lane to drive this dynamic change with law enforcement, which is an apolitical mission.”

Patel meets with China on law enforcement cooperation

During his trip to Asia last month, Patel met with Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong and Vice Minister Xu Datong to deepen what Chinese state media described as “practical cooperation” on a range of criminal activities.

The cooperation between US law enforcement and leading global adversaries is a major break from the past, and reflects Trump’s personal approach to diplomacy with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“China and Russia are our enemies, period,” said Jeff Crocker, a former FBI supervisory agent who retired in 2024. “They are actively trying to harm our country physically, economically and militarily.”

Crocker said there are enormous risks related to giving Chinese officials access to the American intelligence community, diplomatic personnel and US government facilities and contractors. Chinese and Russian agents would use any access to US facilities as an opportunity to infiltrate them, Crocker said.

“So this is great cover for them,” Crocker said.

Patel said counterintelligence operations and countermeasures are deployed for any foreign visitor to FBI facilities. Three former FBI employees told Reuters this usually involves electronic and physical surveillance, particularly for people from countries considered the most dangerous US adversaries.

“We know exactly who is coming here, and we vet them,” Patel said.

The Kremlin and the Russian Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Patel said there have been months of behind-the-scenes law enforcement collaboration with Russia targeting violent criminal networks.

“This stuff doesn’t happen overnight,” Patel said. “We’ve been at this for 15 months.”

FBI working with China against fentanyl production

An internal memo viewed by Reuters credited the FBI’s cooperation with China’s Ministry of Public Security in multiple operations against Chinese pharmaceutical companies this year.

The memo said this led to the arrests of nine people, the shutdown of two chemical production facilities and three associated websites, and the seizure of fentanyl precursor chemicals “likely otherwise destined for the United States.” The memo did not specify where these arrests and seizures occurred.

Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow in foreign policy at the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington, said fentanyl overdoses have been declining rapidly in the United States since the winter of 2022, likely due to cooperation with China and other factors such as the wide availability of the life-saving drug Naloxone.

“It could be that the people who were already vulnerable had already died,” Felbab-Brown said.

“I think that the cooperation is useful, should be fostered, and that it contributed to some extent,” Felbab-Brown said, referring to the decline in US overdoses. “But how much is really hard to know, and there are a lot of complexities to it.”

Chinese law enforcement worked with the FBI’s field office in Omaha, Nebraska, to take down a multinational child sexual abuse materials network in June, an operation that included the arrests of 16 suspects, according to the FBI memo.

The expanding cooperation comes after years of deep suspicion between the United States, which has accused China of turning a blind eye to its production of the precursor chemicals required to manufacture fentanyl, and Chinese authorities, who ended cooperation due to political disagreements such as former US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s 2022 visit to Taiwan.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio offered a cautious assessment of Chinese cooperation. During a visit to the Philippines last month, Rubio called cooperation with China on fentanyl precursors “a work in progress.”

“I think we’ve made some progress on that front, but not entirely where we need to be,” Rubio told reporters.

Patel said the playbook that is used to work with China and Russia could be applied to other non-traditional intelligence-sharing partnerships tailored to each country.

“The fact that we did it with China,” Patel said, “when everyone said, ‘Don’t do it,’ and, ‘You can’t do it,’ shows what we can do with almost anyone.”

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The High Court of Justice on Wednesday temporarily froze nearly all budget transfers approved by the Knesset Finance Committee a day earlier, citing apparent procedural flaws in the committee’s election-recess meeting.

Justice Alex Stein’s order blocks the implementation of all transfers approved during Tuesday’s session, except for funding designated for civilian emergency expenses. The court has not ruled that the transfers themselves were unlawful.

The committee approved approximately NIS 1 billion in allocations, including roughly NIS 270 million for haredi (ultra-Orthodox) education, following a stormy debate over whether the meeting had been properly convened during the recess.

The petition, filed by the Hiddush religious-freedom organization and Democrats MK Naama Lazimi, will be heard by a three-justice panel as soon as possible. The respondents were ordered to submit preliminary responses ahead of the hearing.

This is a developing story. 

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Many of Iraq’s public employees reportedly have not received their July salaries as the country struggles to weather an ongoing oil export crisis caused by the continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz, according to Arab media reports this week.

Iraq spends approximately $6.5 billion a month on salaries, pensions and social welfare payments, according to the Finance Ministry. A senior ministry official told The National that “if the export disruption continues, we will not be able to pay salaries in time from now on.”

“We will pay whenever we have cash. Or those who got paid in time for July will be paid late for August,” the official said, adding that plans were being considered to see salaries paid out every 45 days.

Iraq’s oil exports plunged from 100 million barrels in February to around 32 million in May and June, according to figures shown to The National by the country’s Oil Ministry.

Iraq’s economy has already been battered by years of conflict. In recent years, however, conditions have improved, with the Multidimensional Poverty Index reporting that poverty fell from 23% to 17.5% over the past three years. The Borgen Project warned in April that the continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz could jeopardize that progress.

Iran strikes vessels despite promises of exemption for Iraqi ships

Though Iran has promised an exemption for Iraqi vessels transiting the strait, according to Al Jazeera, a number of vessels were targeted during the conflict. In mid-March, Iranian drone boats entered Iraqi waters and attacked the Marshall Islands-flagged Safesea Vishnu and the Malta-flagged Zefyros, which were both carrying fuel cargoes from Iraq.

Iraq’s economy remains heavily reliant on oil, which accounts for 90% of government revenue, 95% of export earnings, and more than 53% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). Although Baghdad has sought to mitigate the impact of the blockade, including through a one-year agreement with Turkey to maintain exports through the Iraq-Turkey pipeline, the country remains billions of dollars short because of the disruption to its oil exports.

“While our efforts continue toward a new long-term agreement for this pipeline… we have implemented this transit arrangement covering a daily capacity of 750,000 barrels,” Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said on X on Saturday.

In addition to renewing an agreement with Turkey, the US-funded Arabic media site Al Hurra reported on Tuesday that Iraq is offering discounts of nearly $30 a barrel on Basra crude, with sources saying there were hopes the price cuts could persuade potential buyers to accept the risk of sending tankers.

Asem Jihad, an oil expert and former spokesman for Iraq’s Oil Ministry, told the Middle East Broadcasting Networks, which operated Al Hurra, that the discounts “do not necessarily mean that Iraq has an oil surplus it is trying to dispose of,” but reflect the mounting risk and cost of doing business in the region.

According to Jihad, Iraq offered discounts of more than $30 a barrel on some Basra crude cargoes in May, though this reduction narrowed in July to around $14 to $19, before returning to $30 as concerns over tanker traffic renewed.

“This confirms that the size of the discount moves in line with the level of risk, not with the existence of a permanent production surplus,” he said.

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SIL204, a treatment being developed by Israeli company Silexion Therapeutics Corp., may help the immune system identify and attack KRAS-driven cancers, according to preclinical findings released on Wednesday. 

Combined with the company’s previous data, the findings support SIL204’s potential to combat three different ways cancerous tumors evade the immune system: by making the cancer cells more visible to the system, restoring susceptibility to cell death from the system, and reducing a checkpoint molecule that allows the cells to evade the system’s surveillance. 

The treatment uses small RNA molecules, known as siRNA, to suppress the expression of mutated KRAS genes, one of the main mechanisms behind tumor growth within certain cancer patients. KRAS mutations occur in roughly 90% of pancreatic cancers and 30 – 35% of lung adenocarcinomas.

In studies on human cancer cell lines representing three different KRAS mutations in human pancreatic and non-small cell lung cancer, SIL204 treatment led to statistically significant increases in expression of FAS, an immune “death receptor” which allows the immune system to trigger programmed cell death. It also led to a significant reduction in expression of HLA-G, an immune checkpoint. 

“These new findings meaningfully extend and reinforce the immuno-oncology profile of SIL204 that we first
reported in May. We believe this profile supports the rationale for further evaluation of SIL204 in combination with
anti-PD-(L)1 checkpoint inhibitor therapies, particularly in indications like pancreatic cancer where these agents
have historically shown limited single-agent efficacy,” Chairman and CEO of Silexion Ilan Hadar said. 

SIL204 enters new phase as trial starts

This comes as the oncology research field explores combining KRAS-directed treatments with checkpoint inhibitors. 

Silexion advanced SIL204 into Phase 2/3 clinical evaluation at the end of July, after beginning its first clinical trial at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center. The trial is focused on patients with pancreatic cancer and, while initially limited to this one hospital, is later expected to expand to additional medical centers in Israel, Germany, and other countries. 

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A DHL cargo aircraft hit an unknown object as it was climbing away from Leipzig/Halle airport in eastern Germany overnight, prompting an unscheduled landing in Hanover, a source familiar with the incident told Reuters on Wednesday.

Authorities said they were investigating a drone found near a runway at the airport during the night, which the Bild newspaper said contained a detonator.

The southern runway of the airport, a major hub for the logistics group DHL, remained closed while explosives experts examined the drone, a police spokesperson said.

Several aircraft, including a passenger flight, were diverted overnight, but operations were back to normal in the morning, the spokesperson said.

German airports are on high alert after a series of unauthorized drone overflights at sites including military facilities, energy terminals, seaports, and logistics companies.

Federal police have said the overflights could have been organized by Russian agents.

Bild reported that a drone with a detonation device had been found lying in the immediate vicinity of a Ukrainian cargo plane shortly before midnight on Tuesday.

While air traffic was being diverted, one cargo plane had to abort its landing. It then hit an unknown object before later landing in Hanover, where minor damage to the nose section was discovered, according to the report.

An interior ministry spokesperson confirmed that a drone had been found at the airport but did not give further details.

Russia denies involvement in 2024 incendiary incidents

European security agencies have been investigating a series of incendiary devices concealed in parcels that caught fire in 2024, raising concerns about sabotage of air cargo operators.

Some of the devices were found at a DHL warehouse in Leipzig and in freight shipments in transit across Europe.

Russia has denied any involvement in the incidents.

DHL Group CEO Tobias Meyer said the German logistics firm was still studying the overnight incident.

“We’ve got plans for cases like this, and we’ll try to make sure that the influence on our customers will be as low as possible,” Meyer said during a quarterly results call.

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These days, every global event seems to lead back to Israel, so much so that former spokesperson and adviser to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, David Keyes, created an Israel Conspiracy Generator.

Using Grok, Keyes built a site that, with just the click of a button, generates a random location and disaster, connecting the two with a theory that always leads to Israel.

“Because you know who did it,” the site states.

Who made this? It’s genius. Oh, wait, I did.https://t.co/hEs79Ra4jm pic.twitter.com/wGQhfZLh29

— David Keyes (@DavidMKeyes) August 4, 2026

Antisemitic conspiracy theories continue to spread every day

While the generator is obviously satirical in nature, users noted that the concept of randomly blaming Israel for every non-issue isn’t exactly far-fetched.

“Feels like Candace Owens typed all of these,” one X user wrote.

This week, two new theories made their way onto the internet blaming Israel for two major world issues: the Ceuta and Melilla border disruptions in Spain, and the wildfires spreading across Europe.

Far-right American commentator Candace Owens shared a post made more than seven years ago by Netanyahu’s son Yair, where he argued that Israel would not fund “NGOs in [Spain] calling you to give away Ceuta and Melilla, and [Spain] will stop funding NGOs in our country that call us to give away Judea and Samaria.”

Separately, posts in English, French, and Spanish claiming that Jewish people deliberately sparked the fires or orchestrated them for political or financial gain were identified by the Cyberwell analysts.

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Voting stations will be deployed “behind enemy lines,” in Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza, to enable combat soldiers deployed outside of Israel’s borders to exercise their right to vote, IDF Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir announced in an internal directive published by Army Radio on Wednesday.

Zamir reportedly convened the General Staff’s senior leadership in preparation for the election on October 27. The primary goal of the meeting, outlined by Zamir, was “enabling the right to vote while keeping the IDF out of political discourse.”

The chief of staff outlined a number of preparatory guidelines and procedures to be implemented by the IDF.

In addition to the announced plan for the IDF to deploy polling stations deep in enemy territory, it was also announced that political tours and lectures would be banned, and IDF commanders’ statements would be closely monitored on every official letter, message, or speech to ensure that political topics are not broached during the sensitive election period.

Additionally, social media activity will be regulated. A dedicated team is being set up to monitor statements by IDF soldiers. They will be empowered to respond to incidents, with the Chief of Staff emphasizing that the IDF must not be used for propaganda purposes and that the ban on political activity by military personnel be upheld. 

Special preparations made ahead of election period

As for reservists, many of whom are deployed during the election period, Zamir stressed the need to “strictly adhere to the laws and orders concerning them.” 

Special preparations are also being made for sensitive commemorative days during the election period, namely the third anniversary of October 7 and the anniversary of former prime minister Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination.

“We must stick to existing procedures, orders, and directives on the matter, and avoid innovations that could lead to undermining public trust in the IDF. We must align expectations, educate, and make the process accessible to the commanding ranks,” Zamir said at the conclusion of the meeting.

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Turkey’s ruling alliance is expected to submit a draft law to parliament on Wednesday that would facilitate the disbandment of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) by allowing the return of thousands of former militants, aiming to end a decades-old conflict, according to state media and a party leader.

The draft law, some details of which surfaced last November, is focused on managing the return of PKK fighters and civilians from hideouts in northern Iraq, setting out how they will be processed through the justice system and reintegrated into society.

Lawmakers are expected to approve the legal framework this week, marking a leap towards ending an insurgency that has killed more than 40,000 people since 1984, sown deep discord at home, and fueled violence across borders in Iraq and Syria.

The bill has broad support in parliament, even though polls show some skepticism that it will bring a lasting peace and sensitivities around the return to Turkey of former PKK members.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AK Party (AKP) and its nationalist MHP allies have signed the draft legislation, dubbed “national solidarity and social integration,” while the pro-Kurdish DEM Party and most other parties, including the main opposition, have voiced support for it.

Abdullah Guler, the AKP’s parliamentary group head, told reporters the bill will be submitted on Wednesday.

Iran war brings Turkey-PKK peace process to standstill

The peace process between Turkey, which has NATO‘s second-largest army, and the PKK began in late 2024, but came to a near standstill earlier this year due to the Iran war and concerns about broader regional instability.

The PKK decided in May last year to disarm and disband after an appeal from its jailed leader Abdullah Ocalan. It is designated a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States, and the European Union.

It launched its insurgency in 1984 and initially sought an independent Kurdish state in southeast Turkey, but later refocused on seeking autonomy and Kurdish political rights.

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Antisemitism in healthcare has risen significantly since Hamas’s October 7 attack, yet fewer than 2% of surveyed healthcare institutions were reported to have incorporated education about antisemitism into anti-discrimination training.

This is according to the new peer-reviewed narrative review ‘Anatomy of Antisemitism in Health Professions Education and Practice.’

The evidence reviewed from multiple countries points to a substantial increase in reported antisemitism in healthcare since October 7 and urges institutions to treat antisemitism as a mainstream issue within anti-discrimination education. Unlike a single survey, the review brings together evidence from multiple countries and covers medicine, psychology, nursing, social work and other health professions.

The review draws on a recent survey that revealed that 88% of Jewish medical students and physicians in the US have reported experiencing antisemitism since October 7, 2023, compared to 40% before that date. 

More than 35% reported personally directed antisemitic incidents, and over 30% reported face-to-face antisemitic encounters. Nearly 50% reported exposure to antisemitism on social media and 21% reported exposure in classes or seminars, yet fewer than 2% of surveyed Jewish medical students and physicians said their own institutions had incorporated education about antisemitism into anti-discrimination training.

The review also looked at a 2024 survey of Jewish healthcare professionals in the UK. 95% of the 293 people surveyed reported an increase in antisemitism in their daily lives since October 7, 2023. 73% reported experiencing at least one antisemitic incident, and among these, most said the source of at least one incident was within their own healthcare circles.

Some 98% of Canadian medical professionals, students concerned over antisemitism, compared to 1% before Oct. 7

In Canada, a review of 1000 Canadian Jewish medical professionals and students found that only 1% of respondents felt antisemitism was a severe problem in the medical field before October 7, 2023, compared to 98% after. 

Beyond the survey data, the review identifies recurring themes of harassment, social isolation, exclusion and hostility in classrooms and workplaces. It cites several high-profile cases, including the Bankstown Hospital nurses incident in Australia, British physician Rahmeh Aladwan’s alleged links to extremist organizations, and a therapist who described Zionism as a root cause of mental illness – as examples discussed in the literature. 

The medical literature itself also revealed a similar pattern: A PubMed search for antisemitism in the healthcare professions returned just 61 records – compared to 732 for DEI and 3,824 for racism. Antisemitism was studied 12 times less than DEI and 63 times less than racism, even as incidents have surged since October 7.

Altogether, the pervasive antisemitism perceived runs “antithetical to and violates ethical oaths and charters of the health professions,” the review stressed.

It added that medical professionals are charged with assuring that clinical and learning environments are free of bias and hate, and that it is the duty and moral responsibility to ensure this is upheld.

The review also highlights the need for editorial vigilance to maintain journalistic integrity in medical/scientific journals to counter antisemitic anti-Israel bias which has appeared and can fuel antisemitic sentiment and actions.

Review emphasizes need for education, engagement, empathy, and enforcement

It stressed the need for better education, engagement (for critical reflection), empathy, and enforcement, with educational topics of Judaism, Jewish identity, history of health professions’ complicity in the Holocaust, countering Holocaust inversion, and on origins and persistence of antisemitism.

“Antisemitism in healthcare has become a problem that can no longer be ignored,” said Dr. Hedy S. Wald and Dr. Steven Roth, the authors of the report, in a statement provided to The Jerusalem Post. “We conducted this research to ensure that healthcare leaders and policymakers recognize the scale and scope of this problem and take necessary steps to address it. Understanding the breadth and depth of the issue is the first step; action must follow.”

The American Jewish Medical Association (AJMA) commended the publication of the survey, noting that it is the first systematic review of antisemitism across the health professions, synthesizing evidence from the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia since the Hamas massacre in southern Israel on October 7, 2023.

“Dr. Wald’s and Dr. Roth’s new research is an important addition to the body of evidence that AJMA and others have been presenting to policymakers, healthcare leaders, and the public, and its publication in a peer-reviewed journal gives that evidence considerable weight,” said AJMA CEO Eveline Shekhman.

“AJMA will use this research as a tool to push for accountability until medical institutions treat antisemitism with the same seriousness as every other form of discrimination.”

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The IDF completed its investigation into the July terror attack on the outskirts of the village of Tel in the West Bank, in which Battery Commander Maj. Yuval Ezra and regional defense fighter Capt. (res.) Benayahu Mellet were killed, the military announced on Tuesday.

The IDF stated that investigators identified significant operational and command failures. The findings were presented to IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Eyal Zamir by Central Command chief Maj.-Gen. Avi Bluth and Judea and Samaria Division commander Brig.-Gen. Kobi Heller.

This is a developing story. 

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Hamas is transferring some of its organizational activities, including its planning and cyber departments, to Turkey, KAN reported on Wednesday.

Palestinian sources say that the transfer to Turkey involves most of Hamas’s covert activities, while Qatar will continue to host the terror organization’s leadership and public-facing activities.

According to KAN, security forces in Qatar have bound the movement of Hamas’s leadership throughout their territory, requiring them to obtain permission for any official meetings.

This comes as a result of Hamas’s decision to appoint Khalil al-Hayya as its leader, which Qatar disapproved of.

The Qataris instead backed Khaled Meshaal, who had closer ties to Qatar than the Iran-backed al-Hayya.

Qatar preferred another candidate, al-Hayya seeks alternate ties

Hayya, who served as chief negotiator for the terrorist organization during the Israel-Hamas War, was chosen to be head of Hamas’s political bureau on July 20 to replace Yahyah Sinwar – a role that has been vacant since Sinwar’s death in Gaza in October 2024.

During that period, the terror organization was temporarily managed by a collective governing committee. 

Hayya served as a Hamas point person for ties with Arab and Islamic states. He accompanied Hamas’s Ismail Haniyeh on his visit to Tehran in July 2024, during which the latter was assassinated.

Hayya, who is himself based in Qatar, met with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan last week in his first high-level meeting since being elected.

“Fidan reiterated Turkey’s strong support for what he called the ‘just cause’ of the Palestinians in every field and on every international platform,” Turkey’s state-run media, Anadolu Agency, announced.

Seth J. Frantzman and Shir Perets contributed to this report.

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The Syrian military has raised its alert level, ordered units to increase readiness, and recalled personnel who were on leave, amid reports that additional forces have been deployed near the border between Syria and Iraq. No official statement has been issued explaining the reasons for the measures or how long they will remain in effect.  

Sources cited by Al Arabiya said the Syrian military had declared a state of alert, while Syrian media outlets reported that the Defense Ministry had ordered personnel to enter what they described as “Alert Level C” and instructed service members to return immediately to their units.  

Informed sources said the orders included moving military units toward areas along the Iraqi border as part of wider readiness measures. The number of troops involved and the deployment locations could not be independently verified.  

Leave canceled as military personnel called up

The Media Line separately spoke with two Syrian military personnel who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Both said their leave began on Monday but was later canceled, and that they were ordered to return immediately to their duty stations.   

The two service members said the instructions they received did not explain why the leave had been canceled or what developments had prompted the increased state of readiness.  

Their accounts support reports that military personnel have been recalled and leave has been canceled. However, neither could confirm whether the measures apply across the entire military or are limited to specific units and regions.  

At publication time, the Syrian Defense Ministry had not issued an official statement explaining the reasons for the alert, specifying how long it would last, or indicating whether it was linked to a particular security threat inside Syria or along the border with Iraq.  

It also remained unclear whether the military movements had affected border crossings or civilian and commercial traffic between the two countries.  

Areas along the Syrian-Iraqi border face multiple security challenges. Syrian forces are deployed across large parts of Deir ez-Zor and Hasakah provinces and along roads and routes connecting eastern Syria with Iraq.  

Alert may be precautionary or preperatory 

The absence of an official explanation makes it impossible to determine whether the alert is a temporary precautionary measure or preparation for a broader security or military operation.  

Military sources quoted by Syrian media said the orders included heightened readiness and the immediate recall of personnel, but they did not identify the authority that issued the instructions or indicate when the measures were expected to end.  

The Media Line was unable to independently verify the scale of the military deployment along the Syrian-Iraqi border or reports that units had been placed under “Alert Level C.” 

This post was originally published on here. 

Piers Morgan’s interview with senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad this week deserves close attention. Hamad insisted Hamas had never intended to kill civilians on October 7. There had been no orders, he said, to kill women or children. If civilians died, those were mistakes.

Morgan accused Hamas of “utter barbarism.” Hamad said: “This is not true. No evidence.”

The demonstrable falsehood is less surprising than the brazen insistence in the face of repeated challenges from the valiant Morgan: Hamas believes that the devastation of Gaza, the length of the war and the collapse of Israel’s world standing have created conditions in which the defining event that began the conflict can be relativized and denied.

We should understand that this may very well succeed. If so, it will weaken Israel further.

So it bears repeating: At dawn on October 7, 2023, thousands of Hamas fighters breached Israel’s border in multiple waves. They blasted through the security fence with explosives and bulldozers, crossed by motorcycle and pickup truck, landed from paragliders and infiltrated from the sea. They invaded towns, kibbutzim, and civilian communities and carried out a sustained and gleeful massacre of civilians.

At the Nova music festival, Hamas gunmen hunted thousands of young people across fields and roads, murdering hundreds. Elsewhere, terrorists went house to house, shooting families in their homes, turning safe rooms into execution sites, throwing grenades into houses and bomb shelters, burning homes with residents inside, murdering elderly people where they sat, killing parents before their children, sexually assaulting women, mutilating bodies, and abducting children after forcing them to watch family members die.

Wearing body cameras and using mobile phones, they filmed themselves shooting civilians, dragging wounded Israelis into Gaza, forcing elderly women onto golf carts, and abducting 250 people including babies, children, and Holocaust survivors.

Why does Hamas bother to deny their massacre?

Since the attackers happily filmed themselves and their actions, uploading videos in real time, this was one of the most thoroughly documented massacres of modern times – so Hamas’ denials are not exploiting uncertainty but flying in the face of overwhelming evidence. Why, we might ask, would they bother?

Because they believe the world will be receptive to the lies.

The weeks immediately following October 7 were dominated by revulsion at the massacre – but as Israel’s military campaign got going, attention shifted. Television screens filled with images of devastated neighborhoods, collapsed apartment blocks, overwhelmed hospitals, displaced families, and immense civilian suffering throughout Gaza. Accusations of genocide emerged with extraordinary speed.

Whatever one’s view of Israel’s conduct, Hamas understands something fundamental about modern media. Public attention is drawn to the latest images, not the causes. The longer a conflict continues, the more its origins fade into the background.

That is the opportunity Hamad’s interview reveals.

Hamas does not need the world to celebrate October 7, as many Palestinians plainly did, but for the massacre to become blurred within a larger narrative of a cycle of endless violence. If enough people conclude that everyone committed atrocities, that history is too complicated to disentangle, that casualty totals matter more than chronology, or that decades of conflict somehow explain what happened, its work is done.

Hamas ensured the casualty count on the Palestine side would be favorable to its cause – that is, far greater – by embedding itself and its weapons completely among the civilian population, refusing to surrender or release the hostages no matter what.

Hamad asked Morgan what he expected of the Palestinians “after 80 years of occupation.” In his narrative, all of Israel, not just the West Bank and Gaza, is occupied – even though Israel’s 2 million Arabs have citizenship and equal rights. Israel’s repeated offers to hand almost all of the West Bank and Gaza to a Palestinian state are meaningless – Hamas views partition as a shameful compromise.

Hamad didn’t even hide it, telling Morgan that the world “should reconsider the existence of Israel,” adding: “Why Israel should exist? Israel is a big burden on the shoulders of the world.”

Truth too complicated for global mainstream media

Let the October 7 revisionism stand, and this will start to seem reasonable. The truth will not necessarily take hold in global public opinion or in the mainstream media – it is simply too complicated. All that matters is that Israel launched a brutal war for years on end – and this is where the Israeli government bears responsibility.

No country could permit an organization capable of carrying out such an attack to remain intact on its border. Destroying Hamas as an effective military force and removing it from power in Gaza were legitimate strategic goals. The question was how those goals should be pursued. Israel always pursued short, effective operations.

Instead, the war increasingly appeared to lose strategic coherence. Israeli soldiers entered, secured, and withdrew from the same areas, only to fight over them again months later.

Just this week, I spoke with a soldier who had served in Khan Younis. His unit entered the city three separate times. They could not understand why territory captured at considerable cost to his comrades’ lives – and those of Gazan civilians – had been relinquished, only for more soldiers to die recapturing it.

Plenty of Israelis suspect that Prime Minister Netanyahu wanted to prolong the war to keep his coalition intact, to let Israelis’ own memories of October 7 recede and be overwhelmed by even bigger narratives of war, and to delay an investigation. I am among them. But whatever the intention, the effect was to move October 7 itself steadily away from the political conversation.

Every additional month of fighting generated more civilian casualties, more destruction and more diplomatic isolation. International coverage naturally concentrated on the newest devastation. Modern journalism is driven by immediacy. Casualty totals become headlines. This does not necessarily reflect bias – it reflects what the audience has patience for. But it creates precisely the environment in which Hamas’ revisionism can succeed.

That is what Hamad’s interview foreshadows.

Hamas and the Israeli government both benefit from downplaying October 7

This insane situation also produces one of the strangest political convergences of this war. Hamas benefits when October 7 fades from international consciousness because it carried out the massacre. For entirely different reasons, the Israeli government also has an interest in allowing the massacre to become less central. Indeed, the government is even resisting efforts to call it a massacre, and its spokespersons are pointedly refusing to call it the greatest massacre of Jewish civilians since the Holocaust.

That cannot continue.

If Netanyahu is reelected on October 27, Israel will have even bigger problems – the country will be in existential danger. But if he is replaced, Israel’s next government should recognize that preserving the historical record has become a strategic imperative.

It should publicly warn that Hamas is engaged in historical revisionism that makes a mockery of journalists and their audience. It should challenge international media organizations not to allow the destruction of Gaza, however real and however deserving of scrutiny, to erase the massacre that began the war. It should finally establish the long-delayed commission of inquiry, create permanent archives and memorials, support documentaries, museums and educational initiatives, and ensure that every October 7 is marked by the presentation of the evidence rather than by ritual alone.

In real time, wars are fought over territory, security and power. Afterward, they are fought over memory. The battle over what the world remembers about October 7 has only just begun. What is needed, as Netanyahu himself might say, is total victory.

This post was originally published on here. 

Rep. Wesley Bell has defeated former House representative Cori Bush in Missouri’s Democratic primary for the state’s 1st Congressional District.

Bush had emerged as one of Congress’s most outspoken critics of Israel following the October 7 Hamas massacre and the subsequent war in Gaza, while Bell campaigned on a more moderate platform and has consistently supported the US-Israel strategic alliance.

The result represents an important victory for the Democratic Party’s pro-Israel wing after AIPAC and its allies invested millions of dollars in the race.

During his victory speech, Bell said of his voters, “There’s folks who chose to have their voices heard when there are forces trying to take those voices away from them. But you chose to show up, show out and let – not just the country – but the world know that we are here and we are not going away.”

Looking ahead to the general election in November, Bell said “the fight is just starting,” and that he will “work with anyone who will work with us.”

“We do have a lot of work to do,” he said. “And the only way we do that is if we come together.

Meanwhile, Bush disparaged Bell to her supporters after his victory.

“It pisses me off,” she said, “that for the next two years, this community will be represented by someone who didn’t deem you valuable enough to show up to one candidate forum where there were audience comments, even though I showed up to every one.”

Pro-Israel Democrats still holding against progressive challenge

As this election was widely viewed as a test of Israel’s standing within the Democratic Party, the Missouri outcome suggests that, at least for now, pro-Israel Democrats have succeeded in holding off the progressive challenge on Israel. 

Attention now shifts to Michigan, where the closely watched Democratic Senate primary is expected to provide a broader indication of where the party is heading on Israel.

This post was originally published on here. 

Researchers from Johns Hopkins University and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have developed G-AUDIT, a tool to identify hidden issues in the datasets used to train medical AI.

Medical AI systems, while showing great potential for improving healthcare through disease detection, forecasting medical risks, opportunistic screening, and quantitative medicine, have repeatedly underperformed and exhibited serious implicit biases. 

The researchers focused on biases resulting from the medical data on which AI systems are trained, which are often not representative of the larger population within which the AI systems are intended to be used. 

“The models that drive precision medicine learn to infer clinical outcomes from the data they’re trained on. In many cases, that works great, but it can also lead to interesting failures that aren’t immediately apparent,” said Mathias Unberath, an expert in AI-assisted medicine at Johns Hopkins University.   

Data bias may result in AI shortcut learning, bias and fairness issues in AI predictions, and lack of generalization. 

AI draws conclusions from patterns, relevant or irrelevant

Shortcut learning causes AI to draw conclusions from irrelevant patterns. In one example, an AI learned to recognize that skin markings made by clinicians were associated with malignant lesions. When tested, the AI produced 40% more false positives when the scan showed clinician markings. 

Another AI was trained on a dataset including images from two different clinics, one which specialized in cancer and one generalized dermatology clinic. The clinics used separate imaging systems which varied in quality. Additionally, rulers were often present in the images from the cancer clinic as they are frequently used to track the growth of tumors. An AI can easily learn to associate camera quality and ruler presence with cancer risk. 

“Envision taking this algorithm into the real world with a smartphone camera. There’s no ruler. The camera quality is completely irrelevant. But the model learned to associate ‘ruler’ and ‘camera.’ You have just created health disparity,” Unberath said.

“We train models to be the most predictive, but we have zero control over what the model uses to make the prediction,” Unberath added. 

These shortcuts mean that an AI may initially appear to be able to make diagnoses well, but will make crucial errors when applied outside the sample data. 

G-AUDIT focuses on data sets themselves

While much of the research on medical AI biases focuses on adapting the AI models themselves, researchers from John Hopkins and the FDA focused on the data sets and developed a technique called Generalized Attribute Utility and Detectability-Induced Bias Testing (G-AUDIT).

G-AUDIT is designed to identify potential problems in data sets before they’re used to train medical AI models. G-AUDIT was tested on a data set of images and on a set of health record texts used the characterize stigmatizing language usage by physicians. 

Within the image data set, G-AUDIT found that image height, image width, and year of collection were at the highest risk for causing bias. 

Within the text, G-AUDIT found that clinical specialty was at the highest risk of causing bias, more so than patient sex or race for several tasks. 

The research team is planning to expand the tool and has said it may be adapted for use beyond healthcare. 

This post was originally published on here. 

Israel Police, in coordination with the IDF, arrested a suspect in Jericho overnight on Wednesday for allegedly publishing incitement and indicating support for Hamas on social media.

The police worked in cooperation with the Judea and Samaria District’s Observation and Intelligence Unit, the Border Police, and the IDF’s 417th Brigade in order to carry out the operation. 

The suspect is alleged to have operated a number of social media accounts through which he would publish incitement against Israel and the IDF, alongside praise and support for Hamas.

Posts include incitement, connections to Hamas discovered

“God chose the name Hamas for us, and we did not know that its meaning in Hebrew is ‘destruction and ruin,’ and that it would be destruction and ruin for the Zionist occupiers,” he reportedly wrote in one post.

In another, he posted: “Set ambushes and strike your enemies,” alongside images that praised members of Hamas.

The 39-year-old suspect, who was caught hiding in bushes near his home, was transferred for interrogation at the Ma’aleh Adumim police station.

According to police, the suspect has been found to be affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood in the northern Gaza Strip and linked to Hamas operatives.

This post was originally published on here. 

The deadly attack near Berlin’s Pride celebrations in late July reopened a difficult question for European authorities: How should security institutions assess individuals whose commitment to extremist violence is visible online but has not yet developed into a specific, detectable attack plan? 

On July 25, a man drove a van into a crowd near the closing events of Berlin’s Christopher Street Day, one of Europe’s largest LGBTQ+ Pride celebrations. Investigators say the suspected attacker then continued on foot and was later found armed with a machete.

A Polish woman was killed, and at least 29 people were injured. The 21-year-old suspect, Abdul Ballout, was killed the following day during a confrontation with police.

German federal prosecutors subsequently confirmed that investigators had recovered a video in which a masked individual believed to be Ballout announced his intention to carry out an attack and pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (ISIS).

The attack was not directed or operationally coordinated by ISIS, based on information publicly disclosed so far. It nevertheless reflects a model of violence that has become increasingly central to the jihadist threat in Europe: an individual radicalized through propaganda, acting with accessible weapons and apparently without requiring sustained contact with the organization’s central leadership. 

Immediate threat of individuals, small groups being radicalized, preparing online

This distinction matters because Europe is not necessarily witnessing a return to the coordinated, high-casualty campaigns associated with the Islamic State’s territorial expansion between 2014 and 2017. The more immediate threat is dispersed across individuals and small groups whose ideological formation, communication and sometimes operational preparation take place largely online. 

“What we are observing in Europe is not so much a return to jihadist terrorism in the form we experienced between 2014 and 2017, but rather its transformation. This is probably the most important distinction to make,” Daniele Garofalo, an expert on extremist groups and jihadism, told The Media Line. 

Europol’s latest terrorism assessment reinforces that conclusion. According to the EU Terrorism Situation and Trend Report 2026 published in July, European Union member states reported 45 terrorist attacks in 2025 and 486 terrorism-related arrests. Jihadist terrorism accounted for 24 of the attacks and 347 arrests. Most attacks and plots involved lone actors or small, self-initiated cells using relatively simple methods. 

The imbalance between arrests and successful attacks does not necessarily indicate that the threat is expanding at the same rate as arrests. It may also demonstrate that intelligence and police services are intercepting suspects during the preparatory phases, including while acquiring materials, conducting surveillance, disseminating propaganda or attempting to contact foreign organizations. 

“This might appear paradoxical, but in reality it indicates that European authorities are intercepting a significant part of the threat before it materializes,” Garofalo said. “The increase in arrests does not necessarily mean that terrorism has suddenly surged, but that there is an active base of radicalization that security forces are monitoring more effectively.” 

The Berlin case, however, illustrates the limitations of prevention when warning signs do not produce a sufficiently clear assessment of imminent intent. 

German prosecutors said Ballout had published prohibited Islamic State propaganda on Instagram twice in June 2024. In 2025, he traveled to Lebanon while allegedly intending to reach Syria and join the organization. He was detained in Lebanon before returning to Germany, where he was arrested and held in pretrial detention. 

In May 2026, a juvenile court convicted him and imposed a sentence of one year and 10 months for preparing a serious act of violence endangering the state and for offenses involving prohibited ISIS propaganda. The court postponed a final decision for six months on whether the sentence would be suspended, released him under the supervision of a probation officer, and lifted the existing arrest warrant. It took into account his time in detention, his confession, his stated distancing from ISIS, and the absence of a concrete threat resulting from the offenses. Prosecutors appealed, seeking a longer sentence that could not be suspended and the continuation of his detention. 

For Lucas Webber, a senior threat intelligence analyst at Tech Against Terrorism, the case demonstrates how online activity may be underestimated when assessed in isolation from the broader process of radicalization. 

Enduring threat of ISIS-inspired violence

“The Berlin Pride attack underscores the enduring threat of ISIS-inspired violence, where propaganda consumed and shared online sustains ideological commitment independent of any operational command link to ISIS leadership,” Webber told The Media Line. 

He continued, “The attacker had been convicted of publishing Islamic State propaganda online, yet received a suspended sentence because judges weighed his confession and apparent distancing from the group against the fact that no concrete threat had materialized, a judgment his subsequent actions have now overtaken.

Ballout’s precise legal sentence was more complex than a suspended sentence that was immediately finalized, because the court had postponed that decision for six months. The central issue raised by Webber nevertheless remains: how much evidentiary weight should courts and security services assign to the repeated production, consumption or distribution of extremist propaganda when no specific target or operational plan has yet been identified? 

“That gap between digital activity and perceived risk is the core problem: online propaganda sharing is too often treated as a lesser offense, a symptom to be monitored rather than a direct indicator of intent, when in practice it is frequently the only visible marker of radicalization before an individual moves to violence,” Webber said. 

Europol has identified the same digital environment as a central component of contemporary terrorism. Its 2026 report states that online platforms allow extremist actors to reach, recruit and mobilize large audiences while coordinating activity both online and offline. Algorithmic distribution can amplify extremist content, while initial exposure on mainstream services may lead users towards closed groups and encrypted platforms containing more explicit material. Young and vulnerable individuals are considered particularly susceptible. 

Among jihadist suspects, Europol found that most arrested individuals had been inspired by ISIS propaganda, although direct organizational connections were less common. Radicalization often began with user-generated jihadist material on social networks, youth-oriented platforms or gaming environments before moving towards more secure communications. 

“In recent years, the distinction between propaganda and operational planning has become increasingly blurred,” Garofalo said. “Many individuals begin by consuming extremist content, gradually come into contact with digital networks, establish relationships with online facilitators and, in some cases, eventually begin preparing an attack. The radicalization process is far more individualized than it was in the past and often does not pass through clandestine mosques or structured territorial networks.” 

This transformation also affects attack methods. Complex, coordinated operations require communications, financing, logistics, and personnel, which increase the likelihood of detection. Vehicles, knives, improvised weapons and arson require fewer resources and can be deployed with limited preparation. 

“The relatively limited number of successful attacks should not be interpreted as an indicator that the threat is low,” Garofalo said. “On the contrary, it also reflects the high effectiveness of the preventive work conducted by intelligence services, counterterrorism units and international cooperation. Many plots are disrupted during their initial stages, when individuals are still acquiring materials, carrying out reconnaissance or communicating with other extremists.” 

The Berlin attack has not been connected to Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas or any Iranian state structure. Conflating ISIS-inspired terrorism with Iranian or Iran-aligned operations would obscure significant ideological and operational differences. 

Its relevance to the wider Iran-Israel-United States conflict lies instead in the cumulative burden on European security services, which must now monitor several distinct threat environments at once. 

The war has intensified propaganda, political polarization and threats against Jewish, Israeli, Iranian opposition and Western targets. Europol has warned that groups linked to Iran’s regional network could seek to conduct destabilizing activities in Europe, potentially including terrorism, intimidation, financing and cybercrime. The agency also warned that the rapid spread of polarizing material could accelerate short-term radicalization among individuals and diaspora communities. 

According to the EU’s 2026 terrorism report, pressure on Iran and its proxy network could generate more direct threats inside Europe. While Iran-aligned organizations had historically used European territory primarily for fundraising and logistical activity, Europol warned that some could increasingly consider attacks against Jewish, Israeli or other targets. The report also referred to indications that Iranian actors and proxies had used criminal networks in incidents across several member states. 

In February, the European Union formally added Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to its terrorism list, subjecting the organization to asset freezes and restrictions on access to economic resources inside the bloc. Britain has separately sanctioned individuals and entities allegedly connected to an Iran-linked criminal network accused of planning attacks and facilitating hostile activity. Tehran has repeatedly denied involvement in attacks and plots in Europe. 

These developments represent a different security model from the largely self-directed ISIS supporter. Iran-linked activity may involve state intelligence structures, proxy organizations, financial networks, surveillance operations, criminal intermediaries and deniable acts of violence. Yet both threat environments may exploit similar vulnerabilities: encrypted communications, decentralized online recruitment, informal financial channels and individuals who initially appear peripheral to organized terrorism. 

“The traditional jihadist threat has recently been joined by an additional layer of risk linked to the growing tensions among Iran, Israel and the United States,” Garofalo said. 

“European authorities have intensified their monitoring of individuals connected to the Iranian apparatus, Hamas, Hezbollah and other affiliated organizations, not only because of the risk of attacks but also because of intelligence activities, surveillance, financing and logistical support. This is a different threat from the one represented by the Islamic State or al-Qaeda, but it is potentially complementary.” 

The word “complementary” does not necessarily imply cooperation between ideologically hostile organizations. ISIS has repeatedly portrayed Iran and Shiite groups such as Hezbollah as enemies. Rather, it describes the cumulative pressure placed on European institutions when several unrelated networks operate within overlapping digital, financial and criminal ecosystems. 

International conflicts also offer extremist movements a constant supply of images and grievances that can be reframed for recruitment. Europol found that conflicts in the Middle East continued to be exploited in 2025 by jihadist, far-right, left-wing and other violent extremist actors, sometimes contributing to threats or attacks against Jewish and Muslim communities. 

European governments must distinguish between basic free speech and terror

The challenge for European governments is therefore broader than identifying members of a particular organization. They must distinguish between lawful political expression, possession or dissemination of illegal propaganda, ideological commitment and concrete preparation for violence – often on the basis of fragmented digital evidence and before a suspect has selected a target. 

Webber said the case shows why authorities should maintain long-term scrutiny of people with documented histories of creating or circulating extremist material, rather than ending monitoring at conviction or release. In his view, online expressions of ideological commitment can persist despite apparent remorse or claims of disengagement and should remain part of risk assessments.  

“Platforms, courts, and security services all have a stake in closing that gap, treating sustained online extremist activity as a persistent risk factor rather than a resolved one once a sentence is served,” he said. 

Such monitoring also raises questions of proportionality, judicial oversight and the allocation of limited counterterrorism resources. Not every individual who views or shares extremist material will proceed to violence, and treating digital consumption alone as proof of operational intent risks weakening legal safeguards and producing assessments that are too broad to be effective. 

The Berlin attack nevertheless demonstrates the consequences of the opposite failure: dismissing online extremist behavior as peripheral when it may be the clearest available evidence of an individual’s ideological trajectory. 

Europe’s emerging security environment is not defined by a single organization or a single conflict. It combines persistent Islamic State inspiration, increasingly individualized radicalization, Iran-linked state and proxy activity, and the exploitation of geopolitical crises by multiple forms of extremism. 

It is less reminiscent of a single, organized terrorist campaign than of a fragmented, continuous threat environment. The principal test for European institutions will be whether they can identify when digital allegiance becomes operational intent – without conflating distinct actors, criminalizing communities, or waiting until the final stage of radicalization becomes visible through violence. 

This post was originally published on here. 

For nearly three years, much of Jewish culture has been shaped by war, rising antisemitism and questions of identity under pressure. Rachel Israel’s latest movies head in a different direction.

In the space of a year, the New York filmmaker directed two unabashedly Jewish comedies, The Floaters, set at a Jewish summer camp, and Influenced, a satire of Manhattan influencer culture that culminates in a b’nai mitzvah celebration. 

Both immerse themselves in Jewish identity, but instead of treating Jewishness as a problem to be solved or an identity under pressure, Jewishness serves as the backdrop for stories about friendship, family, ambition, and belonging.  

Reviewer Nell Minow wrote that The Floaters has “an appealing Jewish neshama (soul) that peeks out from under the surface,” and that the film offers “an exceptionally authentic movie portrayal of the way Jewish traditions and culture reflect and shape the Jewish worldview.” 

In an interview with the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Israel discussed making two Jewish films back-to-back, why Jewish characters come naturally to her as a writer and director, and why, even after Oct. 7, she believes audiences are ready for stories that celebrate Jewish community as much as they confront Jewish vulnerability.

“I didn’t set out and decide I’m only going to make Jewish content, and I don’t think I’m only going to make Jewish content,” she said. And yet, her two latest movies, plus the 2017 love story Keep the Change, all have what she calls a “strong Jewish element.”

“It’s just kind of rolled into being,” she said.

Director tries to bring Jewish joy in a time of antisemitism

The films also rolled into being at a time when antisemitism is on the rise and anti-Israel fervor over the Gaza war has put Jews on the defensive. In interviews for “The Floaters,” the director agreed that she hoped to provide an alternative image of “Jewish joy.” 

The Floaters is a comedy about a Jewish summer camp, starring Jackie Tohn, from the very Jewish Netflix hit Nobody Wants This, as a would-be rock star hired to supervise a group of misfit campers, the “floaters” of the title. Influenced is the story of a newly divorced Manhattan Jewish mother (Jill Kargman) who tries to climb the ranks of the Upper East Side influencer scene, while also helping her twin children prepare for their bar and bat mitzvah. 

The Floaters was shot first, and Influenced second. The Floaters is currently in theaters, with a video-on-demand release expected later this year. Influenced is currently available for rental from Apple, Amazon and other providers. 

In addition to their lead actresses, the films also have very Jewish casts. The Floaters features Seth Green, Steve Guttenberg and pro wrestler Maxwell Jacob Friedman. Influenced features David Krumholtz, as an unhoused onetime rock star who collects bar mitzvah shirts, Justin Bartha and Dan Hedaya. Judd Goodstein and Ellie Biron play the two b’nai mitzvah kids, and Gwyneth Paltrow also makes a cameo. 

“The way I approach it is, I’m grateful for the bounty when there’s bounty,” she said of having the chance to make two movies back-to-back. 

The same goes for family. “I was pregnant while filming The Floaters, and we reached some sort of milestone in the edit, and then I delivered,” Israel said. “Then my daughter was 4 months old when we went into production on Influenced.”

Israel’s five children are between the ages of 2 and 9, and on several occasions she enjoyed the chance to bring a child with her for “a weekend date with mama” to one of the festivals where her films have screened. In an industry famously inhospitable to women directors and working moms, she and her husband, producer and filmmaker Kurt Enger, have made it work. 

“When you have filmmaking parents, I think it’s really a family effort to support that career, because I was away from them for a while in making both films, and so it was great to bring them to see the work,” she said.  

The Floaters was shot at Camp Tel Yehudah in Barryville, New York, in the Catskills, the same camp where the producers’ parents met. The film features a wide variety of Jewish types, from kosher-enforcing kitchen staff to a group of outsider-ish kids to a female rabbi (played by Aya Cash). 

Israel didn’t attend Jewish summer camp, but relished the opportunity to immerse herself in the culture.

“It was wonderful to have that, to be shooting in this real location and kind of have all of the texture of the place to feel fully authentic on screen and permeate the experience. I felt through making it that I absorbed some of what camp is like,” she said of The Floaters. 

Israel has much more experience with New York City, where “Influenced” was filmed on location. A New Jersey native who spent many formative years in Florida and attended the Rhode Island School of Design, she has been based in New York since beginning graduate school at Columbia University, where she earned an MFA in 2013.  

Nevertheless, shooting Influenced also involved a learning curve. 

“I’m not even on social media,” she said. She enjoyed the opportunity to approach that world with “fresh eyes.” 

Keep the Change, her first feature, was based on her own short of the same name, which she developed in grad school at Columbia. That film is set in part at a Manhattan Jewish community center. 

The film, she said, was “based on people I knew.” 

And while Influenced is not “centrally” a Jewish film, its characters are clearly Jewish, and it has a “strong Jewish thread.” At their climactic bar/bat mitzvah party, the kids reference the idea in Genesis that all humans are created “b’tzelem Elohim, in the image of God” and are inspired by that lesson to create a charity to help the downtrodden. 

Influenced had its world premiere at the Miami Jewish Film Festival in January, while “The Floaters” had its Southeast U.S. premiere at the same festival, after having its world premiere at the Bentonville (Arkansas) Film Festival in June 2025. Both films have spent some time on the Jewish film festival circuit, a process that Israel enjoyed. 

“Being Jewish,” she said, “you can find rooms full of family who you might not have met before, but that feeling of Jewish familiarity in all different places is wonderful.” 

The Bentonville festival wasn’t Jewish, but “we brought out the Jewish community in Arkansas.” 

“It’s fun feeling that expansive, Jewish film family,” she said. 

She considers herself, these days, “more like Reform, Conservative-level of observance.” 

“Having Shabbat and being a parent and wanting to continue that legacy and that connection, that positive emotional connection to being a Jew and pride in that identity, is very important to me and my husband in raising our family,” Israel said.

While she did not write the screenplay for either of the new films, Israel said of The Floaters that she “loved the opportunity to make a film that would say what I felt this film says about Jewish community.” 

“Being Jewish from my earliest memory of myself, [and] understanding fully what it means to be a Jew intellectually, it was very central to who I was,” Israel said. “I had a very, very strong relationship with my grandparents on my mother’s side, and they were both Holocaust survivors. 

“How much they cared about family, and their sense of humor, they were very pivotal figures in my life. Those relationships with my grandparents at a young age were to me what it meant to be Jewish. It was talking about stuff, it was talking about feelings, it was talking about messy things.”

This post was originally published on here. 

Left-wing protesters attempted to violently break into the Religious Zionist party’s headquarters in Shoam, the party claimed on Wednesday morning.

The protesters were seen banging on the doors with hands painted red while chanting “Arabs want to live.”

While initial reports indicated that RZP members were locked inside the headquarters and were forbidden to leave, Standing Together stated that the doors were not locked and that party members were free to leave as they pleased. 

The Jerusalem Post reached out to Israel Police for comment.

This is a developing story.

This post was originally published on here. 

An outspoken pro-Palestinian progressive who campaigned with Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed bested two establishment-backed picks in a Democratic House primary for a battleground district in the state on Tuesday.

William Lawrence, a co-founder of the climate advocacy group Sunrise Movement, took the Democratic nomination in the state’s 7th District, with the Associated Press calling the race for him Tuesday night. With 58% of the vote in, Lawrence had around 43% of the tally in the three-way race. 

His opponents, Bridget Brink, a former US ambassador to Ukraine, and former Navy SEAL Matt Maasdam, two centrist candidates who boasted military and foreign policy backgrounds, effectively split the establishment vote and opened a lane for the progressive. 

“I couldn’t be prouder of the movement we’ve built in mid-Michigan,” Lawrence wrote on social media after the race was called. “We’re building a movement made up of real Michiganders across political divides, not DC consultants.”

At the time the AP called the race for Lawrence, another House candidate backed by El-Sayed, state Rep. Donavan McKinney, was awaiting results in his challenge to the incumbent in Michigan’s 13th District.

As with several other victorious Democratic House candidates this primary cycle, Lawrence made pro-Palestinian advocacy a central plank of his campaign. He was the only Democrat in his race to accuse Israel of genocide, and at his rally with El-Sayed in Lansing, the candidate had called for America to “stop arming Israel.” 

Lawrence to face Republican incumbent Tom Barrett

Lawrence, whose campaign also tapped into growing public anger over data centers, will face Republican incumbent Rep. Tom Barrett in November. 

Lawrence’s victory marked one area where party leadership will be pressured to support pro-Palestinian progressives if it hopes to retake Congress in November. Democrats have eyed the district, which was held by centrist Jewish Democrat Sen. Elissa Slotkin before Barrett, as a top target for flipping. Slotkin had endorsed Maasdam in the race’s homestretch while staying out of the Senate race.

It won’t be easy to line the party up behind Lawrence. He had been condemned by the Congressional Black Caucus during his campaign over resurfaced podcast comments in which he said Black Democratic leaders “defang the white left” – comments he later explained as having been prompted by his anger over Israel’s war in Gaza. Centrist House Democrats have questioned his ability to win in November.

But his campaign told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in a statement ahead of primary day that they were confident his focus on “ending military support to human rights abusers and bringing that money home to fund good jobs, housing, and healthcare here at home” would play well across party lines.

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A group of Republican and Democratic US senators on Tuesday called for elections in Venezuela, seven months after President Donald Trump’s administration removed then-President Nicolas Maduro and installed his vice president as acting president.

Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas and Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire introduced a resolution reaffirming US support for elections in Venezuela, calling for the release of political prisoners and saying that anyone – including senior government figures – should be punished if they are responsible for harming anyone seeking public office.

The bipartisan resolution comes amid increased frustration over what critics see as the Trump administration’s failure to effect real change in Venezuela by pushing Venezuela’s government, now led by acting President Delcy Rodriguez, toward free and fair elections.

Talks to take place without country’s most popular opposition leader

Talks between Venezuela’s interim government and a faction of the opposition are set to begin in the coming days, but without Maria Corina Machado, the country’s most popular opposition leader.

“The people of Venezuela deserve free, fair, and transparent elections, and it is vital to the national security interests of the United States that those elections occur expeditiously,” Cruz, a senior member of the Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement.

Shaheen, the committee’s top Democrat, said authorities in Caracas must release all political prisoners and allow all political actors, including Machado, to safely return and participate in political activity.

The resolution has five other co-sponsors, four Democrats and one Republican.

Nobel Peace Prize winner Machado left Venezuela late last year to receive her Nobel after living mostly in hiding since a contested 2024 presidential election. She has vowed to return to help with the response to June’s devastating twin earthquakes, frustrating US officials who believe it is not the right time.

Trump has denied media reports that his administration told Machado not to return. Machado has repeatedly been publicly sidelined by Washington since Maduro’s removal, with US officials saying she does not have enough support to lead the country.

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A US judge on Tuesday granted the US Justice Department’s request to dismiss cases against members of the right-wing Oath Keepers militia who took part in the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, according to a court filing.

The ruling from Washington-based US District Judge Amit Mehta tosses out convictions of Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and other members of the group who were convicted of seditious conspiracy for plotting to stop the transfer of power after US President Donald Trump lost the 2020 election.

All the defendants had already been freed from prison as part of Trump’s sweeping move to pardon nearly all 1,600 people charged in the attack and commute the prison sentences of the remaining defendants.

Mehta, who presided over the two seditious conspiracy trials in 2022 and 2023, wrote in his ruling that he strongly disagreed with the Trump Justice Department’s decision, but concluded prosecutors had the authority to drop the cases.

“Today’s epilogue diminishes the gravity of that day, denigrates the work of the prosecutors and law enforcement officers who secured these convictions, and excuses criminal acts that caused a centuries-long pillar of our democracy – the peaceful transfer of presidential power – to buckle,” Mehta wrote. “The court cannot write a different ending.”

Justice Department moves to vacate Proud Boys conviction

The Justice Department also moved to vacate seditious conspiracy convictions of members of the far-right Proud Boys group for their role in the Capitol attack. Members of a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol on January 6, 2021, in a failed attempt to stop congressional certification of Trump’s defeat.

The eight defendants whose cases were dismissed on Tuesday were among the few January 6 defendants whom Trump did not fully pardon, meaning their convictions would have stood without the Justice Department’s decision to intervene.

Prosecutors argued dismissal was appropriate given Trump’s order to drop all pending January 6 cases on the first day of his second term. Trump has said that January 6 defendants were mistreated and that their prosecutions were an abuse of the legal system, though the Justice Department did not make those arguments in seeking dismissal of the case.

Several members of the Oath Keepers had appealed their convictions.

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Brazil has told Argentina its relations will be handled at the chargé d’affaires level after Argentine President Javier Milei again insulted Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, a Brazilian government source said on Tuesday.

Brazil‘s ambassador to Argentina, Julio Bitelli, will not return to Buenos Aires, the source said, after Milei referred to Lula in an interview with Argentine TV channel LN+ as an “ex-convict,” a “thief” and “corrupt.”

The move formalizes a sharp deterioration in ties between two of Latin America’s largest economies, whose presidents have not held an official bilateral meeting since Milei took office.

Bitelli recalled after previous criticism

Bitelli had already been recalled from Buenos Aires late last month after Milei criticized Lula while appearing alongside opposition presidential candidate Flavio Bolsonaro at the formal launch of his campaign to unseat the incumbent, who has been leading polls ahead of October’s election.

Argentina‘s ambassador in Brasilia, Daniel Raimondi, was informed of the decision to downgrade diplomatic ties, the source said. Argentina’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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An AI agent was caught creating fake online identities to gain unauthorized access to secure systems during tests of models from OpenAI and Anthropic, which revealed a series of new breaches, Britain‘s AI Security Institute disclosed on Tuesday.

The institute said agents powered by Anthropic’s Mythos 5 and OpenAI’s GPT-5.6-Sol engaged in unauthorized actions during security evaluations the government organization conducted to assess the models’ capabilities.

“Some of the agents being tested had engaged in sustained, potentially harmful activity directed at real people and organizations,” AISI said in a blog post.

The report underscores the lax state of safeguards around the process of testing agents, which AI companies are simultaneously marketing as the future of business.

AISI, which receives access to advanced AI models under voluntary ​agreements from major labs, put the agents through a fictional cybersecurity scenario to test their capabilities.

Anthropic AI generates false online identities in fictional scenario

It ran the challenge 122 times and identified 19 unsanctioned actions across a total of 10 test runs. Anthropic’s agent was behind 17 of the actions, and OpenAI‘s agent the remaining two.

The most egregious action involved an agent writing malicious code and creating fake online identities in an attempt to get a human to approve the code, AISI said, adding that no real-world harm was found as a result of any of the breaches.

While AISI did not say which agent was behind the fake identities, Anthropic confirmed its agent was responsible.

“We’re grateful to the UK AISI for their leadership on this incident, which underscores the need for a broader conversation about how to safely evaluate increasingly capable AI agents,” Anthropic said in a statement.

It also said it was working with AISI to obtain more details on the incident and conduct its own investigation.

Andrew Yoon, a researcher at CivAI, a California non-profit that examines AI capabilities and dangers, said: “The fact that Mythos engaged in such deceptive actions, with apparent awareness that it was targeting a real person, suggests that Anthropic does not have as good a handle on their models as they think.”

OpenAI discloses agent’s unapproved connection to internet

OpenAI shared details in a company blog post, noting that both of its agent’s unapproved actions involved accessing the internet in ways that were forbidden by the prompt.

“We are committed to working across the industry to strengthen shared practices for conducting high-risk evaluations safely, including convening stakeholders such as national AI institutes, independent evaluators, other AI labs, and other groups in the coming weeks,” OpenAI said.

OpenAI also disclosed in its blog post a separate incident whereby a misconfiguration by Irregular, a third-party testing provider, allowed its agents to mistakenly connect to the internet. It mirrored a similar disclosure about misconfiguration that Anthropic made last week.

Reuters reported last week that OpenAI had widened its hacking probe after finding evidence of other agent breakouts.

Unlike the July security breach of AI firm Hugging Face by an OpenAI agent, the agents in the AISI evaluation did not escape an isolated testing environment to reach the internet. Rather, the agency had permitted internet access in line with its standard testing procedures, AISI said.

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Contractor and businessman David Appel and former MK Michael Kleiner, who currently serves as president of the Likud Party’s internal court, were named as the suspects in an alleged multimillion-shekel real estate fraud scheme, Israeli media reported on Wednesday.

The pair were questioned at Lahav 433 on Wednesday morning. 

This is a developing story.

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Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected the notion of a premature Israeli withdrawal from the IDF’s current positions in Gaza in a video posted to his Facebook page on Tuesday.

“We won’t retreat from the current lines until Hamas lays down all of its arms,” Netanyahu said in the video.

He added that “we will allow IDF troops to do everything necessary to protect themselves, protect our territory, and protect our citizens.”

Netanyahu also said the White House had sent Israel a draft proposal regarding Hamas’s disarmament, but clarified that Israel had not accepted it and had sent it back with comments.

Netanyahu meets with Board of Peace Representative for Gaza Mladenov

Board of Peace (BoP) Director-General and High Representative for Gaza, Nickolay Mladenov, met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and requested that all IDF strikes against Hamas in Gaza stop so a “14-day ceasefire” aimed at kickstarting the demilitarization of Hamas can begin, sources familiar with the matter told The Jerusalem Post on Monday.

The meeting between Netanyahu and Mladenov had been “constructive and detailed,” the BoP wrote on X/Twitter, adding that both parties share a common understanding of the ultimate objective in Gaza.

The BoP stated that the objective is “the complete decommissioning of weapons in the [Gaza] Strip and the transition away from rule by the gun to civilian governance.”

The IDF’s withdrawal from Gaza would only take place once all weapons and military infrastructure, including light weapons, heavy weapons, and tunnels, in Gaza are decommissioned, the BoP said.

Prior to the prime minister’s meeting with Mladenov and subsequent reiteration that Hamas must be completely disarmed as a precondition for any withdrawal process, Israel turned down the BoP’s request last week for the removal of IDF forces from the Gaza Strip.

Amichai Stein and Idan Kweller contributed to this report.

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On the same night, a pro-Israel favorite of Michigan’s Jewish community was battling in her high-profile US Senate Democratic primary against pro-Palestinian progressive Abdul El-Sayed, a Jewish LGBTQ Democrat easily picked up the party’s nomination for her House seat.

Michigan state Sen. Jeremy Moss, who has spoken out against antisemitism from the state house floor, netted the Democratic nomination for the state’s 11th District. The seat, which has a history of GOP representation but has been held by Democrats for the last several cycles, is currently held by centrist Rep. Haley Stevens, who was facing off against El-Sayed Tuesday night. 

The Associated Press called the race for Moss after 74% of the vote had been counted, with him taking 49.2% of the vote, far outpacing his next-closest rival, pro-Palestinian attorney Aisha Farooqi, at 32.9%. The district is located in Oakland County, a suburban Detroit region with a high concentration of Jews, and includes Temple Israel in West Bloomfield, which was heavily damaged in an attack earlier this year.

On Tuesday night, Moss expressed appreciation to his supporters via X/Twitter. “Thank you, Oakland County! It’s the honor of a lifetime to be your Democratic nominee.”

Some Jewish supporters express support for Moss

Many of Stevens’ most prominent Jewish supporters – some of whom have vowed to fundraise for Republican candidate Mike Rogers if she loses her primary race – also expressed their support of Moss.

While Moss has not made Israel a central issue of his candidacy, he has in the past supported liberal pro-Israel positions, including a two-state solution. “The overwhelming majority of American Jewish voters believe that both Israel has a right to defend itself from terrorism & Palestinians have a right to self-determination in a peace-seeking state,” he wrote on X in 2024. 

Moss highlighted a range of other liberal issues throughout his campaign, and received comparatively little campaign funding from pro-Israel groups. Yet his opponents tried to link him to the lobbying powerhouse AIPAC, whose outsized spending in the Senate race became a central issue there. Moss told Jewish Insider he believed some of those attacks “touch many people’s ears as if it’s trafficking antisemitism.” 

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Shipping traffic at the key Middle Eastern maritime chokepoints of the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab al-Mandab was little changed on Tuesday from the previous day, ship-tracking data showed.

Eight vessels transited the Strait of Hormuz, including five tankers and three bulk carriers, shipping data from Kpler showed, the same as the previous day. Six of the vessels, three tankers and three bulk carriers, were entering the strait, while a gas carrier and a tanker were exiting.

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.

Additionally, a liquefied natural gas tanker controlled by Abu Dhabi National Oil Co reappeared outside the Strait of Hormuz on Tuesday, carrying a cargo loaded from Das Island, according to LSEG and Kpler data.

The tanker Mubaraz departed Das Island, United Arab Emirates, on July 14 after picking up a cargo there, both LSEG and Kpler reported. It was last seen inside the strait on July 16, according to the ship-tracking data. 

The tanker is currently off the western coast of India, both companies’ data showed. LSEG data shows a discharge location of India’s Dahej terminal in Gujarat, with an arrival date of August 5.

This is the third time the Mubaraz LNG tanker has exited the strait carrying cargoes from Das Island since the war began. The previous two cargoes were delivered to China and India.

ADNOC did not immediately respond to a request for comment outside business hours.

Some 20 vessels cross Bab el-Mandeb strait

In the Bab al-Mandab, 20 vessels crossed the strait on Tuesday, with 10 entering and 10 exiting the waterway, Kpler data showed, the same as the previous day.

Six tankers, three dry bulk carriers and a gas carrier entered the Bab el-Mandeb, while seven tankers and three bulk carriers exited, the data showed.

Some vessels may still be sailing with their transponders turned off, which are not considered in the counts.

Qatar said on Tuesday that mediators were making progress in efforts to end the US-Iran war, driving oil prices lower, although Tehran has denied President Donald Trump’s assertion that talks are already under way.

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US President Donald Trump said that Iran had been asking him for talks and then lying publicly about ongoing negotiations in an interview on Wednesday morning.

Trump revealed that the United States had been prepared to launch what he described as a massive military operation before deciding to pursue diplomacy.

“We were going to a tremendous attack, the biggest since World War II, and they called me and said, very politely, ‘Please, can we talk?’ They didn’t want [the attack], and I said, ‘Yes. We can talk. Let’s get it done. Finally, let’s get it done.’”

Trump also accused Iranian officials of publicly denying contacts with Washington despite having all-day talks on Tuesday.

“They don’t like to admit that. You tell people we’re having wonderful discussions, and then some guy will come out of Iran and say, ‘We have not met.’ They’ll say, ‘We didn’t talk about nuclear.’ Well, what did we talk about? We’re sitting there twiddling our thumbs, right?”

Trump reiterated that Tehran would not be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon, adding that one way or another the Strait of Hormuz would open soon.

“Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. They already can’t, but it’s going to be formal,” he said.

Iranian state media, citing an informed source, said the Strait of Hormuz agreement with Oman would be delayed as long as the US continued to threaten Iran. 

Asked what would happen if Iran withdrew from the current talks, Trump warned, “If they back out again, they’re going to get hit really hard. They know that. They understand that.”

“I have no choice. They can’t have a nuclear weapon. It’s very simple,” he added.

Trump criticizes Obama Iran deal, claims military pressure brought Tehran to talks

Trump also criticized former president Barack Obama, accusing him of attempting to “bribe” Iran.

“Obama was taken to the cleaners. He thought he could bribe his way out. He gave them billions, tens of billions of dollars so stupidly. $1.7 billion in cash, green cash, on a Boeing 757.”

The president insisted that military pressure had brought Tehran back to the negotiating table.

“You can’t bribe your way out. All you can do is fight your way out. If we weren’t doing what we’re doing, they wouldn’t be talking.”

While emphasizing that military options remain available, Trump said he hoped they would not be necessary.

“We hit them very, very hard. But the hard hit is yet to come, and hopefully we won’t have to use it. I hope we won’t have to. We’re having very good discussions.”

“The only thing that matters is action, and they want to make a deal. We’ll see what happens. If they don’t make a deal, it’s going to be too bad. And we have much more on Iran coming up,” he said. 

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The US is pressing ahead with talks on allowing Ukraine to make Patriot interceptor missiles, which Kyiv urgently wants to defend against Russian attacks, even after US President Donald Trump cast doubt on such a deal, four sources familiar with the discussions said.

The discussions include an option for Ukraine to build some components for final assembly elsewhere in Europe, the sources added.

Kyiv has been seeking more PAC-3s, the newest type of Patriot missile and one of the few weapons capable of downing the ballistic missiles Russia has been launching into Ukraine in growing numbers.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday warned that the country had run out of Patriot interceptors, and that only one of 27 ballistic missiles fired by Moscow that day had been shot down.

During a meeting with Zelensky in Ankara, Turkey, last month, Trump said the US would grant Ukraine a license to manufacture PAC-3s in a boost for Kyiv.

But last week, Trump appeared to reverse course after what two of the sources described as a challenging meeting with Zelensky at the White House. He told reporters that the US had not agreed to letting Ukraine build Patriot missiles and the US must be “very careful about letting somebody build them.”

Zelensky’s calls for domestic production of interceptors, needed for the Patriot system, had been largely set aside by Washington while the war continued, given security concerns raised by industry executives and US military officials, three of the sources said.

Washington’s envoy to NATO, Matthew Whitaker, is now leading the push to reach an agreement and traveled to Kyiv last month to discuss the issue and assess options with Ukrainian officials and weapons industry executives, the four sources said.

“No order was given to halt the discussions,” one of the sources said, adding that talks continued with US arms makers, military officials and others.

The White House declined to comment on the matter.

The options under consideration include building Patriot components in Ukraine and sending them to Germany for final assembly, adding Ukraine to an existing US-European Patriot interceptor program, and allowing Kyiv to build a cheaper version of the PAC-3, according to the four sources.

The sources were granted anonymity to speak freely about the administration’s internal deliberations.

Whitaker used last month’s visit to Kyiv “to explore collaboration opportunities on battlefield innovations, such as drones, which will benefit the US warfighter,” his spokesperson said, without specifically mentioning the Patriot initiative.

US exploring possibilities for Ukraine defense cooperation

A senior Trump administration official said that the US is “exploring several potential pathways for future defense industrial cooperation with Ukraine,” adding that any agreement must prioritize the security of US technology.

Ukraine’s embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment.

Trump’s skeptical tone on a Patriot deal, an apparent reversal of his support for granting Ukraine a license to produce the missiles, caught many by surprise, including Zelensky.

The Ukrainian leader underscored the need for his country to defend itself in a subsequent phone call with US Vice President JD Vance, who reassured him that agreements between presidents would be honored, one of the sources said.

Among the options under consideration, the most feasible would be making components in Ukraine and assembling them in Germany, said a US official familiar with the matter. An older Patriot model is already made in Germany, and the more advanced PAC-3 is expected to be produced there, as well.

Separately, the sources said Ukraine could potentially join Lockheed Martin Corp’s new lower-cost Patriot ‌interceptor, the PAC-3 Adapted Capability Effector (ACE) missile, announced last month.

Ukraine still needs missiles immediately, regardless of manufacturing agreement

Even if Ukraine secures an agreement to manufacture Patriot interceptors, it would not start receiving new missiles for a year or more. It will need other missiles to meet its immediate needs, and is urging allies to transfer some of theirs.

Ukraine’s former ambassador to the US, Olha Stefanishyna, said last week that Kyiv was also exploring the long-term purchase of PAC-3 interceptors and swapping deliveries with other countries to get them sooner. She said Lockheed Martin was fully engaged and was working to send a team to Ukraine soon.

Lockheed Martin did not reply to a request for comment on the matter.

US officials say licensing US weapons production in Europe has been under active discussion since Russia’s 2022 invasion exposed gaps in Europe’s own arsenals, and some deals have already been struck.

Officials cautioned that opening new component lines is not simple, with production typically not starting until three to seven years after a licensing deal is signed.

Global stocks of the high-end missiles have dwindled since the Iran war, with Patriots earmarked for Ukraine diverted to the US military and US allies in the Gulf. Ukraine hopes that a production deal would allow it to rebuild its arsenal over time.

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The US, Iran, and Oman are close to an interim deal that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz, Axios reported early Wednesday morning, citing two regional sources and a US official.

According to the sources, Washington is aiming for the agreement to be announced on Wednesday. 

The deal has been under negotiations for several weeks and is aimed at resuming ceasefire talks between Washington and Tehran that would restart negotiations for a nuclear deal, according to the report. 

This comes after US President Donald Trump called off strikes on Iran over the weekend, which he abandoned for the sake of continuing negotiations.

On Tuesday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said progress had been made in talks with Iran, adding that the White House was “hoping” for an agreement.

Trump warns Iran against pulling out, agreement would see two lanes of shipping and demining

“The Strait is going to be open very soon — or they’re gonna hit very hard, and then the Strait is going to be open,” Trump said in an interview early Wednesday morning.

“If they back out again, they’re going to get hit really hard. They know that; they understand that. I have no choice,” he said, though he also claimed that the US was having “very good discussions” with Iran.

The interim agreement being discussed would entail a period of at least 60 days, in which Iran and Oman would jointly administer the Strait of Hormuz, according to the regional sources cited by Axios.

Under the reported arrangement, all inbound ships would travel along the northern Iranian lane, while outbound ships would travel in a southern lane in Omani waters, said Axios. During this period, ships wouldn’t be charged tolls or fees, and the parties would clear mines from the median lane of the strait within 30 days, after which it would be used for traffic both ways under a permanent agreement.

The US was involved in the negotiations, with Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff calling both the Iranian and Omani foreign ministers, Axios cited the sources as saying.

Moreover, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi agreed to the deal but needed approval from Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei, as well as the country’s Supreme National Security Council before proceeding, the sources added.

A US official and one of the regional sources said approval had been granted by Iranian leadership on Tuesday, according to the report.

Advisor to Qatar’s Prime Minister and Official Spokesperson for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dr. Majid bin Mohammed Al-Ansari had said on Tuesday that Qatar, a mediator in the talks, aimed to restore commercial shipping through the strait to its pre-war numbers.

On Tuesday, US Central Command (CENTCOM) said the southern lane of the strait remained open, and that it had facilitated the movement of over 1,000 ships through the strait in the last three months.

Iran has long demanded control over Hormuz, which it says it should share with Oman on the opposite shore. It’s halted most traffic moving through the waterway after US-Iran tensions began in February.

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An elderly Israeli activist was reportedly hospitalized with a brain hemorrhage after being assaulted while removing a sign calling for the release of Yigal Amir, who is serving a life sentence for assassinating prime minister Yitzhak Rabin.

Police must establish exactly what happened, identify those responsible, and examine whether there were failures in the response. Political violence, regardless of the victim’s views or the attacker’s motives, must be met with swift and impartial law enforcement.

The incident also draws attention to the message on the sign. Calls for Amir’s release seek to recast a convicted political assassin as a victim deserving of public sympathy. That effort should concern Israelis across the political spectrum.

Rabin was shot dead on November 4, 1995, at the end of a peace rally in Tel Aviv. Amir, a Jewish extremist opposed to the Oslo peace process with the Palestinians, was convicted of the murder and sentenced to life imprisonment. The assassination shocked the country and remains one of the gravest attacks on Israel’s democratic system.

Nearly 31 years later, a generation of Israelis has grown up without any personal memory of that night. For many younger people, Rabin is known mainly through the Oslo Accords, the controversial agreements signed in the 1990s between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Those agreements divided Israeli society then and continue to do so today. Some Israelis regard Oslo as a courageous attempt to end the conflict. Others believe it empowered Palestinian terrorism and endangered Israel’s security.

That argument is legitimate and will continue. Efforts to rehabilitate Amir fall outside legitimate democratic debate.

Amir is not a political prisoner

Amir was imprisoned for assassinating Israel’s democratically elected prime minister because he rejected the government’s policies and wanted to change the country’s direction through murder. His crime was aimed at more than one man. It sought to override the decisions of elected leaders, public institutions, and Israeli voters with three bullets.

Any campaign to present Amir as a political prisoner sends a dangerous message: Political violence can eventually be excused when enough time passes, when the victim remains controversial, or when the assassin’s motives appeal to a political faction.

Israel cannot afford to normalize that idea, especially as the country enters another bitter election season. Political opponents are increasingly described as traitors, enemies, or existential threats. Trust in institutions has weakened, and violent rhetoric spreads quickly through social media.

Against that backdrop, signs demanding Amir’s release carry consequences. They help move an extreme idea from the margins toward ordinary political debate. Repetition can make the outrageous appear familiar, and familiarity can make it easier to tolerate.

Democracy depends on clear rules. Elections choose governments. Demonstrations influence policy. Courts resolve legal disputes. Citizens and politicians may argue fiercely, but political power must change hands through ballots and lawful institutions.

Political leaders therefore carry a special responsibility. Figures from across Israel’s ideological spectrum should state clearly that Amir must remain in prison, and that his crime stands outside the boundaries of legitimate political advocacy.

Rejecting his release requires no endorsement of Rabin’s policies. It requires recognition that assassinating an elected leader is an assault on every citizen’s right to determine the country’s future democratically.

Leaders on the Right have an especially important role. They must prevent extremists from exploiting opposition to Oslo as a path toward legitimizing Rabin’s murderer. A democratic Right should be among the first to defend the principle that opposition to a government can never justify violence against its leaders.

Silence allows fringe ideas to gain legitimacy. Extremism often advances because responsible voices assume someone else will confront it.

Israel has endured terrorism, wars, political upheaval, and the horrors of the October 7 massacre. Through these crises, one principle has remained essential: Governments rise and fall through elections, not assassination.

Israelis may praise Rabin, condemn his policies, or continue debating the decisions made during the 1990s. Those arguments belong in the Knesset, the media, public demonstrations, and the voting booth.

Calls to free Yigal Amir cross a fundamental democratic line. Israel must never rehabilitate the man who tried to determine its future through murder.

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Archaeologists have uncovered the full floor of Lithuania’s historic Great Synagogue, revealing treasures nearly erased by Nazi and Soviet occupations, and exposing rifts between Lithuanian Jews over how to preserve and interpret what survived.

Locals walking through the center of Vilnius now pass a hole in the ground, a portal to the rich Jewish past of a city once called the “Jerusalem of the North.”

For the first time since 1940, they can see the polished, colorful floor and entire prayer platform of the Great Synagogue of Vilna, built in the 17th century, which became one the most important religious, cultural and intellectual hubs for Diaspora Jews.

In Lithuania’s small remaining Jewish community, who number less than 3,000, there is no debate that the site must be preserved. But discussions about how to protect the past, and what to build over it, have triggered pain over one of the last pillars of identity left standing for Lithuanian Jews.

The community’s main representative body plans to build a new Jewish community center over the excavation, where visitors could view the Great Synagogue floor through a glass layer or a basement-level exhibit. Above, the center would celebrate current-day Jewish life through cultural, social and educational events. 

Some Orthodox Jews and their supporters oppose that project, saying the synagogue should be rebuilt as a house of worship or preserved as a purely archaeological exhibit. Other residents say the mission of a new building should be broadened beyond Lithuanian Jews, offering a center that promotes tolerance, human rights and understanding of Jewish history among all Lithuanians. 

Lithuanian Jewry was decimated in Holocaust

On the eve of World War II, the massive Great Synagogue stood among more than 100 synagogues and Jewish prayer houses in Vilnius, where about 40% of people were Jewish.

Over 90% of Lithuanian Jews were killed in the Holocaust, and from 1944 until 1990, Vilnius was remade as the capital of the Soviet Lithuanian Republic. The synagogue was burned and largely destroyed by the Nazis, then razed by the Soviets to build a school in its place. 

“This is the place that half the population would have identified their city with,” Jon Seligman, the archaeologist leading the excavation, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “So this city at the moment is missing half its identity, and because it’s such a long time since it happened, they don’t even know they’re missing half their identity.”

The excavation is over a decade in the making. Seligman, an Israel-based archaeologist whose Jewish grandparents lived in Lithuania before World War II, first proposed unearthing the synagogue’s remains in 2013 after a visit to discover his family roots. His team of archaeologists have worked there since 2015, and last year, the former Soviet school building over the site was demolished. 

In an accident of history, the synagogue’s main floor was constructed below ground and spared from total erasure. 

“When the building was built in the 17th century, part of the restrictions that were placed on the Jewish community was that they were not allowed to build their synagogue higher than any of the churches in the surroundings,” said Seligman. “So to create the internal majesty, if you don’t want to have a low, two-story building, what you do is you drop the floor level one story below ground surface, and that’s what they did.”

The latest installment of Seligman’s project, completed in July, fully exposed this main hall and the bimah, or prayer platform, covered in red, white, green and black geometric designs. Archaeologists also found traces of the Shulhoyf, a busy complex that formed the heartbeat of Jewish life. 

Vilnius was a major center of Jewish thought, famed for both its religious tradition and modern secular Jewish culture. It was home to the 18th-century Vilna Gaon, one of the most influential Jewish sages, and also the birthplace of the Jewish Labour Bund, a secular, socialist and anti-Zionist organization. Schools taught literature and the sciences in Yiddish and Hebrew, and Zionists shared ideas alongside anti-Zionists. 

Before World War II, the Shulhoyf hosted 12 prayer houses, a bathhouse, kosher butcher stalls, the first public toilets in Vilnius, the prestigious Strashun Library and the first headquarters of the Yiddish Scientific Institute, or YIVO. That institute, now in New York City, continues to preserve the Yiddish language and cultural heritage of Eastern European Jews. 

Faina Kukliansky, who has since 2013 chaired the umbrella organization known as the Lithuanian Jewish Community, spearheaded the initiative to construct a community center over the synagogue. 

Kukliansky grew up as the child of Holocaust survivors in Lithuania under the Soviets. She said the new space will replace the community’s current headquarters, hosted in a nearby building that is more than a century old and struggles with heating and water system issues. 

Kukliansky said the new center will honor both the past and the present of Lithuanian Jews, featuring a YIVO exhibition alongside concerts, social clubs and Jewish learning events. After the Holocaust and decades of Soviet restrictions on Jewish life, those who remain are mostly secular and distant from Jewish traditions. Kukliansky said the center’s construction over the remains of the Great Synagogue will inspire Jews to trace the threads of their heritage.

“It’s very meaningful that in the place where the synagogue rose, Jewish life will be intensive because our Jewish community center is there,” said Kukliansky.

But Kukliansky’s plans have met sharp opponents from other corners of Lithuania’s Jewish world. Among the most vocal is Rabbi Sholom Ber Krinsky, an emissary for the Chabad-Lubavitch Orthodox movement who was born in Boston and has lived in Vilnius since 1994. 

Some Jews believe a community center wouldn’t honor the sanctity of the site

Krinsky said that according to Jewish tradition, the Great Synagogue site should not be covered by a building for secular cultural activities, but remain a “living Jewish religious center that continues the learning and the prayer.” 

“If a site was used as a synagogue, for centuries, in this case, the holiness retains its holiness, and it’s proper to respect that holiness,” said Krinsky. “A Jewish community center might be nice, but it certainly doesn’t represent the holiness of that site.”

Krinsky has for years demanded more money for Chabad projects, which he says would be used for religious services, Jewish education and social welfare programs. He accuses Kukliansky of monopolizing funds granted to Jews by the Lithuanian government as compensation for property stolen during the Holocaust. The Good Will Foundation, an international body created through the World Jewish Restitution Organization and the Lithuanian Jewish Community, has been authorized to distribute this restitution money. 

Since legislation passed by the Lithuanian parliament in 2022, the Good Will Foundation has disbursed about $9 million to compensate individual Holocaust survivors and their heirs for private property claims. Given that most Jewish property was left without any heirs, another $40 million is being allocated to support Jewish communal life — including projects like the new community center.

Krinsky said these funds have not been sufficiently used to nourish religious life. Kukliansky countered that her organization supports the Choral Synagogue, the only synagogue still active in Lithuania, where Krinsky leads the small group of Jews who usually scrape together a minyan — the minimum of 10 people required for public prayers.

Compared with other Eastern European communities, Chabad’s footprint is small in Vilnius, where the Vilna Gaon led a tradition of opposing Hasidism that became central to the identity of many Lithuanian Jews. 

Kukliansky also claims that Krinsky has refused to provide her with financial reports. His wife, Nechama Dina Krinsky, was indicted for tax fraud in 2023.

Kukliansky faces further criticism from Dovid Katz, an American-born, Vilnius-based scholar of Yiddish and the Holocaust. Katz advocated for rebuilding the Great Synagogue or preserving its remnants as a religious site, which he said would draw Orthodox pilgrims from around the world. 

“A synagogue is a religious place, and religious leaders today, and everyday religious Jews, need to be consulted on what’s going to replace the Great Synagogue,” said Katz. “It is a place either for a replacement synagogue or for archeological remains.” 

Still other critics say the Jewish representative body has split the site from a broader mission that would attract non-Jewish Lithuanians and Jews from around the world. Anna Avidan, who founded a nonprofit called Jerusalem of the North to celebrate Jewish history in Lithuania, led a conference in 2017 that invited historians, architects and students to discuss the future of a space commemorating the Great Synagogue. 

Avidan said attendees proposed a cultural center that would host forums about tolerance, drawing international visitors and educating Lithuanians about the Jewish past of their country. She argued it would be “selfish” to build a center exclusively for the Lithuanian Jewish community, since such spaces are closed to the public, partly for security reasons. The proposals emerging from Avidan’s conference were shut down after Kukliansky’s opposition.

“We are still working on how to include Jewish history in Lithuanian history,” said Avidan. “Approaching the site as a site of Lithuanian history, that would promote this harmony and understanding.” 

At the excavation site, Seligman’s team has dug up pieces of life in the synagogue, which seated about 500 people, with some 500 more squeezing in for High Holidays.

The latest artifacts to emerge from the ground include a Passover plate, a dish for gefilte fish, a plaque engraved with the Ten Commandments and several seating plaques with the names of people who donated to the synagogue, assuring their spots inside.

These name plaques left clues about families who vanished from Vilnius. One marked a seat for Gitel Klachek, identified as the “wife of the late Yechezkel, Shamash d’Mata,” the city sexton. Their wealthy, influential family owned several businesses around the Great Synagogue.

On the uncovered synagogue floor and the surrounding Jewish neighborhoods, there walked people who disputed religion, Jewish identity, Zionism and other ideas. “There would have been a large contingent who would have been ultra-Orthodox. There also would have been a large contingent who were completely secular,” said Seligman. “So the city was very, very much a very mixed community.”

The fights over the memory of these ghosts, and over Lithuania’s Jewish identity, echo the disagreements that animated the Jews who once thrived there.

This post was originally published on here. 

The family of a man from El Salvador, who died in a US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center in New Jersey, alleged medical negligence during his custody and demanded an independent investigation into his death.

ICE said on Monday that Edwin Lopez-Cornejo, who was being held at the Delaney Hall detention facility, was pronounced dead on Saturday by medical personnel at University Hospital in Newark, New Jersey, after suffering what the agency described as a medical emergency.

Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Lopez-Cornejo’s family said he suffered from a number of underlying health conditions, including high blood pressure, diabetes and epilepsy, and relied on several medications to keep those conditions under control.

His mother, Maria Cornejo, said he called a day before his death and told her he lost feeling in half his face and arm.

“My son needed medical attention, and he did not receive it,” his mother said in Spanish. His 12-year-old daughter also alleged he was denied medications and that he had lost a lot of weight in custody.

Lopez-Cornejo’s death comes amid broader scrutiny of conditions in US immigration detention facilities. More than 50 people have died in ICE custody nationwide since US President Donald Trump took office in January last year, while rights groups have repeatedly raised concerns about medical care and living conditions at the facilities.

ICE said Lopez-Cornejo received proper medical care and was seen by medical professionals.

“When Lopez-Cornejo experienced a medical emergency while in ICE custody, GEO facility staff and medical staff responded immediately and called 911 for emergency medical services. The official cause of death remains pending further medical examination,” ICE said in a statement on Monday.

The agency reiterated that statement when asked for comment on the remarks by Lopez-Cornejo’s family.

Governor claims ‘obstruction’ in full inspection

While the family demanded an independent investigation into the death, New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill said her administration continues to “face obstruction in our efforts to conduct a full health inspection of the facility.”

ICE has dismissed reports of poor conditions and maintained that it takes seriously the safety and health of detainees.

ICE has been at the center of Trump’s immigration crackdown and deportation drive that rights groups condemn as violating free speech and due process rights.

Human rights advocates also say the crackdown has created an unsafe environment, particularly for ethnic minorities who have raised concerns about racial profiling.

Trump says his actions aim to improve domestic security.

This post was originally published on here. 

Sometime between Friday night and Saturday morning, July 31 into August 1, someone crept into the Plaza de Tiberíades in the old Jewish quarter of Córdoba, Spain and sprayed a swastika across the base of the bronze statue of Maimonides, arguably the greatest thinker that Judaism has ever produced. 

The paint went on the pedestal, not the face. But the target was the man himself, and the target was the face of Judaism itself.

“But, Israel…” some people will say.

To which I would say— whatever the Judeo-Spanish equivalent of bullsh-t would be. This had nothing to do with Israel. Maimonides died more than 700 years before the creation of the state. He only lived in the land of Israel briefly, before finally settling in Egypt.

Vandalizing a Jewish statue will never be about Israel

When you deface a statue of Maimonides, it is about only one thing.

Judaism.

That is precisely what Córdoba’s city council knows. They called it an “attack on heritage” and “a message of hate of extreme gravity.” Acting mayor Cintia Bustos ordered the municipal cleaning company Sadeco to send its stone-graffiti specialists first thing Monday morning.

If that statue could speak, what would it say to us?

Not about the vandal. Maimonides, of all people, would have very little curiosity about one frightened man with a spray can. He would want to talk about the rest of us, about what to make of hatred itself, and about how not to let it move in and take up residence.

Moses ben Maimon was born in Córdoba around 1135, into a family of rabbinic judges, in a city then ruled by the relatively tolerant Almoravid dynasty. That world ended when he was a child. In 1148 the Almohads, a fundamentalist Berber movement whose founder is recorded as vowing to “cut [the Jews] off from being a nation,” conquered Córdoba and gave its non-Muslim population an ultimatum: convert or leave.

“Fun” fact: Maimonides had three names. RMBM, the acronym for his name, in Hebrew, pronounced in modern Israel as Rambam; Maimonides in Greek, the ultimate source of his philosophical system; and Musa ibn Maymun in Arabic, because Muslims also venerated him.

He would start with a diagnosis. Seven hundred years before anyone coined the word “antisemitism,” Maimonides had already worked out where this particular hatred comes from. In the Guide for the Perplexed, writing about human cruelty in general, he traced it to a single root: It comes from ignorance, which is the absence of wisdom. Whoever sprayed that swastika did not know Maimonides. He knew a symbol.

That diagnosis wasn’t abstract for him. It was personal history. Around 1172, the head of Yemen’s Jewish community wrote to Maimonides in despair. A ruler had decreed forced conversion. A self-declared messiah had emerged amid the panic. Maimonides’s reply, Iggeret Teiman (Epistle to Yemen), does not just console. It runs the ledger.

He reframes the crisis immediately: The nations that rise against Israel do it out of envy and impiety, unable to forgive a people bound to a covenant they did not invent and cannot break. Then he gets specific. Every campaign to wipe out the Jews and their Torah, he argues, has taken one of three shapes across history, and all three have already failed.

‘Judge the persecutor, not the persecuted’

The first is the sword: outright killing, the method of Amalek and Sisera, and later Sennacherib, Nebuchadnezzar, Titus and Hadrian. The second is argument: the polemics of what he calls the most learned and educated of nations, the Syrians, Persians and Greeks, who tried to talk the Jews out of existing rather than kill them for it. The third came later, and combined the first two: a movement that claimed its own prophecy and its own revelation, hoping to absorb Judaism rather than merely attack it. He meant Judaism’s two “daughter” religions — Christianity and Islam. 

His verdict on all three is the same. “Neither the one nor the other shall succeed,” he writes, reaching for Isaiah’s old promise that no weapon formed against Israel would prosper. He treats that promise less as comfort than as a prediction: Whatever the method — sword, argument or a rival faith — the campaign to erase the Jews is structurally doomed.

He grounds that confidence in the largest claim available to him. Israel’s disappearance from the world, he writes, is exactly as unthinkable as God ceasing to exist. He isn’t offering hope so much as stating a law of nature.

He would also tell us what to do while we wait them out, because he had already lived it. A decade before he wrote to Yemen, his own family had been given the Almohads’ ultimatum, and his answer, in Iggeret HaShmad, the Epistle on Forced Conversion, wasn’t defiance for its own sake. It was simpler than that: Go. A Jew must leave everything he has and travel day and night until he finds a place where he can live without compulsion.

But for the Jews who could not run, who converted outwardly and prayed in secret, he had something the vandal in Córdoba will never earn from anyone: mercy. He refused to let the community shame them for surviving. Judge the persecutor. Not the persecuted.

If that statue could speak, that is what it would say. Sword, argument, rival faith or a can of spray paint on a pedestal: Maimonides observed every form of this campaign fail, one after another, for 3,000 years, and he did not expect this one to end differently. Hate is ignorance, not a verdict. It has failed before, and it will fail again. Maimonides knew that better than almost anyone who ever lived.

Eight hundred and fifty years later, so should we.

This post was originally published on here. 

A 38-year-old California man was arrested on Sunday near US President Donald Trump’s golf club in Rancho Palos Verdes, Los Angeles, shortly before the president arrived for a scheduled visit.

The man drew the attention of plainclothes FBI agents operating in the area, according to authorities. Agents found a loaded handgun and a magazine containing ammunition inside his vehicle.

A subsequent search of his home uncovered numerous firearms, ammunition, protective vests, and notebooks containing material that authorities described as concerning. Officials said no concrete threat had been identified, though the investigation remains ongoing.

Initial findings showed that authorities seized an improperly modified AR rifle, a .45 caliber 1911 handgun, two radios, a protective vest, and high-capacity magazines.

During a search of the suspect, investigators also found a magazine containing 16 hollow-point rounds. The handgun discovered in his vehicle was loaded, with a round already in the chamber.

Trump attends fundraising event at the golf club

The suspect had already been under investigation by El Segundo police on suspicion of robbery. He was also arrested on suspicion of carrying a concealed weapon and possessing prohibited ammunition.

Investigators from the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force searched his home in Downey on Monday. The case was later transferred to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office for review, and additional charges are expected to be filed.

Trump had been scheduled to attend a Republican National Committee dinner at his golf course Tuesday evening.

Gunshots heard at annual White House dinner earlier this year

About four months earlier, gunshots were heard during the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner, prompting Secret Service agents to remove Trump, first lady Melania Trump, and Vice President JD Vance from the stage.

The incident began before the entertainment program started, when a man carrying several weapons charged toward security checkpoints in the hotel lobby from about 50 meters away.

A confrontation followed, during which shots were fired and a Secret Service agent was shot at close range.

Security personnel quickly evacuated Trump, the vice president, and other senior officials from the head table to a secure area. A rapid response team then subdued the suspect and removed him from the premises.

This post was originally published on here. 

Cyberwell has alerted X/Twitter of a new wave of antisemitic conspiracy theories blaming Jews for wildfires across Europe, the NGO announced in a statement on Monday. 

The organization, whose goal is to combat online antisemitism, identified “nearly identical narratives” regarding recent wildfires in Norway, France, and Spain, reinforcing what Cyberwell describes as a “recurring pattern of event-driven antisemitism, in which major crises are exploited to spread hate toward Jews.”

Posts in English, French, and Spanish claiming that Jewish people deliberately sparked the fires or orchestrated them for political or financial gain were identified by the organization’s analysts. 

Cyberwell found that content on the Norway wildfires surpassed 2 million views on X, “helping transform an isolated conspiracy into a broader wave of antisemitic content,” according to the company. 

Meanwhile, content on Spain’s wildfires reached more than 69,100 users, according to Cyberwell’s numbers. 

Antisemitic theories emerge following major events, Cyberwell says

Antisemitic conspiracy theories also emerged following the Los Angeles wildfires in 2025 and the Patagonia wildfires earlier this year, the company said. 

Other theories have emerged following the White House Correspondents’ Dinner shooting and the hantavirus outbreak.

“CyberWell found that bad actors and antisemites repeatedly inserted Jews into breaking news through familiar antisemitic tropes portraying them as secretly responsible for disasters or as profiting from human suffering,” said the statement. 

“As false claims spread,” it explained, “posts increasingly incorporated dehumanizing language, calls to expel Jews and well-known antisemitic imagery, including the ‘Happy Merchant’ caricature.”

The “Happy Merchant” depicts a Jewish man with exaggerated stereotypical facial features greedily rubbing his hands together, and is popular among white supremacists, according to the Anti-Defamation League. 

Cyberwell CEO and Founder Tal-Or Cohen Montemayor said that “the same scapegoating stories, once popular in Nazi propaganda during the Third Reich, now trend on every major social media platform after a crisis. Any major event can become a vehicle for blaming Jews online.”

“Whether the story involves a wildfire, a disease outbreak, a shooting, or another international crisis, we repeatedly see the same conspiracy theories emerge within hours,” explained Montemayor. 

“The details change, but the underlying message does not: Jews are maliciously portrayed as secretly orchestrating disasters or profiting from human suffering. This pattern demonstrates how antisemitism continuously adapts to the news cycle while recycling centuries-old myths.”

The content, according to Cyberwell, is reflective of “antisemitic conspiracy frameworks recognized under the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism, which include collective accusations against Jews and conspiratorial claims of hidden Jewish control.”

This post was originally published on here. 

Border Police arrested two suspects Monday after they allegedly vandalized a memorial site in Kibbutz Retamim dedicated to a fallen IDF soldier. 

The memorial to Sgt. Yehuda Peretz, 18, was vandalized last month, according to police. Peretz, a Retamim resident and Golani Brigade soldier, was killed in a road accident in August 2025.

According to the NGO Im Tirtzu, damages included burned benches, as well as ruined signs and flags.

Residents filed a complaint with police over the vandalism, which they described as a “serious violation of sovereignty and the rule of law,” according to Im Tirtzu.

After identifying the suspects, Border Police undercover officers made the arrests at separate locations in the Bedouin town of Bir Hadaj, police said. They were subsequently taken to the Segev Shalom police station for questioning.

Police released footage showing the moment Border Police officers arrived at the suspects’ homes. 

Peretz was due to be married only a month after the accident

Peretz was killed when the vehicle he was traveling in crashed into a barrier on Route 222. He was reportedly only a month away from his wedding.

Peretz had met his partner, Adi, at the age of 15, and proposed to her during his service in the IDF, according to a memorial site for fallen soldiers. Peretz was returning home from combat in Gaza when he died, the site said.

Peretz had lived in Retamim since the age of three and was active in the Bnei Akiva youth movement. Following his death, the local chapter raised money to dedicate a Torah scroll in his memory.

This post was originally published on here. 

Israeli flags placed beside the grave of Staff Sgt. Regev Amar, a soldier who fell in battle in Kibbutz Kissufim on October 7, were vandalized and torn down on Tuesday in Kibbutz Sde Nehemia. 

The individuals responsible for the incident have not been identified. 

This is the “second time this week that haredim have vandalized an Israeli flag on Regev’s grave, Regev, who fought on October 7 for all the people of Israel, regardless of religion, race, or gender,” Regev’s mother, Gilanit Amar, wrote in a social media post. “Regevi, I’m sorry.”

‘Painfully difficult to discover’, Amar’s mother says

Amar’s mother said that it was painfully difficult to discover that Israeli flags had been vandalized beside the grave of a fallen soldier who gave his life for the country. 

Regev was buried at the cemetery in Sde Nehemia near the Nahal Hermon river, as close as possible to the place he loved most and where he spent time and experienced many meaningful moments throughout his life, according to his family. 

The cemetery is located beside a path used by pedestrians and cyclists, and many hikers pass through the area at this time of year. Family members and local residents said that, in addition to the repeated damage to the flags, hikers leave waste in nature and even relieve themselves among the bushes near the cemetery because of the lack of available restrooms, despite the Upper Galilee Regional Council having placed trash bins along the stream.

Amar, who was 20 when he fell, served as a Negev machine gunner in the Paratroopers Brigade’s 101st Battalion and attended a squad commanders course at Bislah, the School for Infantry Corps Professions and Squad Commanders. He dreamed of becoming an officer, educating soldiers, and later studying medicine and specializing in trauma.

On the morning of October 7, his unit was deployed to the Gaza border area. Along the way, the soldiers fought terrorist cells and rescued a young woman from an attempted kidnapping.

The unit arrived at Kibbutz Kissufim, where Regev was struck by three bullets in his lower body and lost sensation in his legs. 

Despite his severe injuries and massive bleeding, he continued directing the fighting calmly. When his comrades tried to approach and rescue him, he ordered them not to do so in order to avoid endangering their lives. “If you come near me, you will die,” he told them. “Stay where you are.” After one of his comrades recited “Shema Yisrael” with him, a grenade was thrown toward him, and his voice fell silent.

Following his death, he was promoted to the rank of staff sergeant. He is survived by his parents and two sisters. His family decided to commemorate him by establishing “Derech Regev” in Sde Nehemia, a branch of the Galil Elyon pre-military academy that will operate in accordance with his values: love of the land, protecting nature, love for others, and volunteering in the community.

This post was originally published on here. 

An Israeli man and two Gaza residents were indicted on Tuesday after the driver admitted to transporting the two Gazans in exchange for NIS 50. 

The indictments were filed against all three on Tuesday at the Nazareth Magistrate’s Court, along with requests to keep them in custody until the end of legal proceedings.

The driver, Mahmoud Khatib, admitted last week that he had transported the two men from their lodging in Kafr Kanna to their workplace. 

According to the indictment, Northern District patrol officers had spotted a Skoda traveling through Kafr Kanna last week. After noticing the police vehicle, one of the passengers quickly lowered his head in an apparent attempt to hide.

The officers stopped the vehicle and found the two Gaza residents, aged 37 and 54, who did not have permits to be in Israel.

Khatib, both Gazans, charged

Following the investigation, the Israel Police’s Nazareth North Prosecution Unit charged Khatib, a 74-year-old resident of Kafr Kanna, with transporting people who were in Israel illegally. The two passengers were also charged with entering and remaining in Israel without permits.

This post was originally published on here. 

An IDF soldier undergoing basic training was seriously wounded by gunfire during a shooting exercise at a training base in the Jordan Valley on Tuesday evening.

A preliminary inquiry raised suspicion that the soldier was struck by an accidentally discharged round. He received medical treatment at the scene immediately after the incident and was later evacuated to a hospital in serious condition. His family was notified.

Investigators from the Military Police Criminal Investigation Division were dispatched to the base following the unusual incident and opened an investigation into the circumstances. The inquiry will examine how the shooting exercise was conducted, the handling of the weapon, and the circumstances that led to the accidental discharge.

Once the investigation is completed, its findings will be transferred to the Military Advocate General’s Office for review.

This is a developing story.

This post was originally published on here. 

On the rolling hills outside Dodoma, Tanzania’s wine capital, an agricultural partnership is taking root. Israeli non-profit CultivAid is working with local growers, researchers, and young agricultural professionals to modernize grape cultivation and winemaking through hands-on training, using Israeli cultivation techniques to improve yields, grape quality, and long-term sustainability.

For local experts, the collaboration is providing something they say has been missing, practical experience, mentorship, and a roadmap for training the next generation of viticulturists. 

For Tanzanian viticulturist Jacob Timothy Mwavika, Israeli agriculture is a source of inspiration. “I have followed Israeli agriculture for many years because of its innovation and technology, especially irrigation techniques, desert agriculture and greenhouse technology,” Mwavika told The Media Line. “Israel also stands out because of the amount of agricultural research and development it invests in.” 

While familiar with Israel’s agricultural achievements, he admitted he knew little about the country’s wine industry before working with CultivAid. “To be honest, I had heard very little about Israeli wine compared to what I knew about table grape production,” Mwavika said. 

Tanzania’s commercial wine industry

Tanzania’s commercial wine industry is relatively young by global standards, dating back to the early 1960s when Catholic missionaries introduced modern viticulture around Dodoma in the country’s semi-arid central region.

Today, Dodoma remains the heart of Tanzania’s wine production, accounting for the vast majority of the country’s vineyards. Unlike many African nations, Tanzania has developed a commercial wine sector built largely around locally grown grapes rather than imported bulk wine. 

Despite decades of production, much of the industry continues to rely on traditional farming and winemaking practices. Industry experts say improvements in vineyard management, irrigation, modern equipment and technical training could significantly raise both grape yields and wine quality, while helping the sector capitalize on growing domestic demand, tourism and export opportunities across East Africa. 

Israel is internationally recognized for developing agricultural technologies that enable farming in some of the world’s most challenging environments. Faced with scarce water resources and arid conditions, Israeli researchers and farmers pioneered innovations including drip irrigation, advanced greenhouse cultivation, precision agriculture and water recycling.

The country invests heavily in agricultural research, with close cooperation among universities, government research institutes, and farmers, enabling new technologies to move quickly from the laboratory to the field. 

This is where CultivAid has stepped in.  

“We saw that there was a lot to do,” Dr. Tomer Malchi, co-founder and CEO of CultivAid, told The Media Line. “There are many difficulties. They have low crop outputs, low quality, and pesticide issues. We have a lot of know-how and agronomy that can jump-start the crops.” 

According to Malchi, the vineyards in the Dodoma region are not yet close to their maximum capacity and could potentially double their crop output.  

Israel’s expertise is rooted not only in agricultural innovation but also in the rapid development of its own modern wine industry. 

In the past four decades, Israel’s wine industry has also undergone a dramatic transformation. Although winemaking in the region dates back thousands of years, the contemporary industry emerged in the 1980s and 1990s as wineries adopted modern vineyard management, international grape varieties, and advanced production techniques. 

Today, Israel is home to more than 300 commercial wineries, producing internationally recognized wines from regions including the Golan Heights, Galilee, the Judean Hills, and the Negev Desert, demonstrating how high-quality viticulture can flourish even in challenging climates. 

According to the Israel Wine Grapes Board, Israeli wine exports totaled roughly $66 million in 2024, with the US as the main market. 

CultivAid supports local wine industry growth

Through CultivAid training programs, Mwavika has been able to put into practice many of the techniques he had previously encountered only in books or research papers. 

“CultivAid introduced me to many experts and gave me the opportunity to physically see and practice methods that I had only learned about through reading,” Mwavika said. 

The organization has established a six-acre farm in Dodoma where research and experiments are conducted. “We are training local residents to be the best agronomists in Tanzania,” said Malchi.  

Recently, CultivAid launched a vineyard management course for 60 local participants and established a vineyard nursery as part of its long-term training program. 

As a professional viticulturist, Mwavika said that much of his knowledge came from years of field experience with limited guidance. “It has always been my dream to raise a new generation of grape specialists,” Mwavika said. “The challenge was that there was no platform to train them. CultivAid has provided that solution, and now they are helping develop young professionals with specialized skills in viticulture.” 

The initiative comes as Tanzania’s wine sector remains relatively small but shows considerable potential for growth. The country is East Africa’s only commercial wine producer and has favorable conditions for expanding grape cultivation. 

“The Tanzanian wine industry has significant opportunities for growth because there is still land suitable for grape production,” said Mwavika. “We also have a strong tourism market, where wine consumption is high, and with improvements in quality, Tanzania can become much more competitive.” 

Tanzanian wine industry has grown significantly since CultivAid began work

Malchi also believes that there is significant potential. “When we began our activity, the local wine industry was producing between 4 to 5 million liters a year, and now we are at 20 million liters,” he said. The goal is to expand the supply of high-quality grapevines to meet demand from growers and wineries.  

Mwavika noted that Tanzania has an advantage in supplying the wider East African market. “Only Tanzania is able to commercially grow grapes and produce wine in the region,” he said. “The wine industry has the potential to generate significant national income and create many jobs.” 

At the same time, he pointed out that much of the sector still relies on traditional production methods. 

“There is still limited innovation and technology in the industry,” he said. “Modern equipment and improved techniques can transform both production and wine quality.” 

Beyond agriculture, the partnership has also shaped Mwavika’s perception of Israel. “I have learned that Israelis have a genuine willingness to help transform agriculture through practical training, working directly with farmers and openly sharing the results of their research,” he said. “I have not yet visited Israel, but it is something I very much hope to do.” 

For Ayelet Levin-Karp, CEO of SID Israel, an umbrella organization for Israel’s humanitarian aid and international development community, the significance of these projects lies in their practical, long-term impact. “Projects like CultivAid reflect a different side of Israel’s engagement with the world, one built on partnership, knowledge-sharing and long-term economic development,” she said. 

“At a time when Israel faces significant international challenges, the work of Israeli development organizations across Africa demonstrates that Israeli expertise continues to be valued because it delivers measurable results and creates lasting opportunities for local communities,” she noted. 

This post was originally published on here. 

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has approved pay rises of up to 80% for members of the armed forces, the presidency said on Tuesday, in a move aimed at boosting troop welfare as the country battles insurgency, banditry and kidnappings.

The salary increase comes as Nigeria grapples with multiple security challenges across different regions.

Islamic insurgents continue attacks

Islamist insurgents, including Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), continue to stage attacks in the northeast, while heavily armed criminal gangs, known locally as bandits, operate across parts of the northwest. 

Kidnappings for ransom have become widespread in parts of north-central Nigeria, while security forces also face periodic separatist-linked violence in the southeast.

Under the new pay structure, effective Sept. 1, officers above the rank of colonel, including generals, will receive a 30% salary increase. Personnel from colonel to warrant officer will receive a 50% raise, while soldiers from private to staff sergeant rank will see salaries rise by 80%, according to a statement by presidential adviser Bayo Onanuga.

The new package will increase the annual wage bill for the armed forces to 924 billion naira ($678.68 million) from 660 billion naira.

Successive governments have struggled to contain insecurity despite increased military deployments and spending, with attacks by armed groups continuing to strain security forces and communities.

Tinubu said his administration would continue to prioritize troop welfare and modernize the armed forces with the weapons and technology needed to tackle security threats.

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