Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the ambassadors of Israel and Lebanon signed a framework agreement in Washington on Friday aimed at scaling back Israel’s military presence in Lebanon, where the IDF has established a presence for the last three months as part of its campaign against Hezbollah.  

Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Yechiel Leiter and Lebanese Ambassador to the U.S. Nada Hamadeh Moawad announced the deal at a press conference with Rubio, following four days of negotiations in Washington during the fifth round of direct talks between Jerusalem and Beirut. 

As the Trump administration moves to dismantle much of the decades-old U.S. sanctions regime imposed on Syria, one major obstacle remains: Damascus is still designated as a state sponsor of terrorism by the U.S. The White House and lawmakers have signaled that could be about to change, in another move to attempt to pull Syria back into the global order.

Syria remains one of just four countries — alongside Cuba, North Korea, and Iran — designated as an SST. It is a status Damascus has held since 1979 and its current government, led by President Ahmad al-Sharaa, has actively sought to shed. 

The 29,000-member California Faculty Association, California State University’s teachers’ union, is spearheading a backdoor legislative push to repeal the time, place and manner restrictions implemented across the state’s university system following its 2024 anti-Israel encampments. 

The California Faculty Association, which represents faculty across the 23 campuses of the California State University system, announced it would sponsor AB 2551, authored by Assemblymember Sade Elhawary. AB 2551 would repeal SB 1287 — California’s landmark campus safety and civil rights law — in its entirety by Jan. 1, 2029.

As diplomacy between the U.S. and Iran continues following the adoption of the memorandum of understanding between the two countries last week, Washington is again leaning on Qatar to serve as a critical interlocutor, further cementing Doha’s standing as an intermediary despite the significant setbacks sustained by the Gulf state during the recent war with Iran.

In an interview with UnHerd that was published on Thursday, Vice President JD Vance, traveling back from the Iran talks in Switzerland earlier this week, said that Doha would serve as the location for CENTCOM to meet with Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps officials — despite the IRGC’s designation as a foreign terror organization by the U.S. (a move undertaken by President Donald Trump in his first term).

The State Department announced on Thursday that nine new parties had signed on to Pax Silica, the U.S.-led initiative uniting American allies with the aim of developing global supply chains for artificial intelligence and the production of semiconductors, chips, critical minerals and energy sources to reduce global dependence on China.

The announcement came from Jacob Helberg, the under secretary of state for economic affairs and the architect of the project, during the Pax Silica Summit at the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington, which brought together artificial intelligence and tech companies, prominent investors, senior business executives and top officials from at least two dozen countries seeking partnerships and investment opportunities with fellow signatories of the alliance.

The House Education & Workforce Committee advanced three bills to combat antisemitism on college campuses, with little support from Democrats, at a markup on Thursday.

The committee approved the Protect Economic and Academic Freedom Act, which would make schools engaged in a “nonexpressive commercial boycott of Israel” ineligible for federal student aid funding; the Student Protection and University Accountability Act, which would overhaul how discrimination complaints are handled on campuses, with schools that fail to comply facing a loss of federal funding; and the No Antisemitism in Education Act, which would require schools to treat antisemitic discrimination, as defined by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism, in the same manner as racist discrimination.

A decade ago, Center for American Progress CEO Neera Tanden spent her time arguing with leftists on Twitter. 

Her life doesn’t look too different today: After four years holding senior roles in the Biden administration, Tanden is back at CAP and once again arguing with the far left on Twitter, now called X. 

David Harris spent more than three decades leading the American Jewish Committee, where he navigated crises facing the Jewish community and built bipartisan coalitions to advance the group’s mission of supporting Israel and Diaspora Jewry.  

His book, Antisemitism: What Everyone Needs to Know, published by Oxford University Press last year, is Harris’ attempt to reach beyond the Jewish community — churches, classrooms and the “average New York Times reader.” His goal, he said, is to turn the “silent majority” into the “loud majority.”