Rep. Steve Cohen (D-TN) told CNN he left the Congressional Progressive Caucus last year — and decided not to run for reelection this year — in part because of the rise in socialist leadership in the caucus.

“I just found it to be not the same caucus I joined in 2007. It had become more the socialist caucus, and most of the leadership was socialist Democrats,” Cohen, a longtime progressive, said in an interview with the outlet. “I didn’t feel comfortable in it.”

J Street’s college group is co-sponsoring this weekend’s College Democrats of America convention that will feature far-left, antisemitic influencer Hasan Piker.

J Street U, the student organizing arm of J Street, “is proud to sponsor and participate in the College Democrats Convention,” Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of J Street, told Jewish Insider on Friday, hours after Piker was announced as the convention’s “surprise speaker.” 

U.S. Ambassador to Turkey Tom Barrack on Friday promoted a new regional trade and security alignment in the Middle East centered around Iraq, Turkey and neighboring Arab states, appearing to sideline a similar regional project including Israel.

Speaking at the U.S.-Iraq Business Summit, Barrack told attendees that Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi, who visited with President Donald Trump at the White House this week, is considering a transformative agreement “that will make the Strait of Hormuz” — which has been effectively shut down due to the Iran war and continued hostilities — an “afterthought in two years” by shifting trade that usually passes through the waterway to overland routes.

Days after 104 members of Congress voted in favor of a measure that sought to end U.S. aid to Israel, AIPAC will no longer allow donations through its political action committee to 18 lawmakers it endorsed who voted in favor of the legislation. 

The group did not announce the change. But the endorsement page on AIPAC’s political giving portal — where supporters can donate to candidates who have been endorsed by AIPAC — removed the option for individuals to route money to those lawmakers. 

President Donald Trump said on Friday that he has asked newly-appointed Sen. Darline Graham (R-SC) to consider running in next month’s special Senate election for the full term of her late brother’s seat. 

Trump wrote on Truth Social that he had encouraged Darline Graham, who was appointed to serve out the remainder of her brother’s term following his unexpected passing last weekend, to run in the race to succeed Lindsey Graham during her visit to the White House on Thursday for their first meeting since she was sworn in. 

ASPEN, Colo. — Annalena Baerbock, the president of the United Nations General Assembly and former foreign minister of Germany, on Friday criticized the Board of Peace, the U.S.-led body responsible for managing the ceasefire in Gaza. 

The Board of Peace has “proved what I just said — that obviously it’s not so easy to build another institution, and for sure it can never ever replace the United Nations,” Baerbock said at the Aspen Security Forum, referring to claims by some in the Trump administration that the board could act as an alternative to the U.N. for a range of global conflicts. 

Keith Sonderling, the acting labor secretary nominated by President Donald Trump to officially assume the role, told lawmakers during his confirmation hearing on Thursday that the federal government must play a role in shielding workers from religious discrimination, invoking his own Jewish family history to highlight his dedication to the issue.

Responding to a question from Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) regarding the department’s responsibility to protect American workers against religious discrimination, Sonderling referenced his background and emphasized that the Department of Labor under his leadership would remain committed to rooting out bias.

The second-quarter congressional fundraising reports, which were posted on Wednesday, paint a picture of far-left, anti-Israel candidates drawing financial fuel from a growing small-dollar donor network of like-minded individuals. 

Nearly all of the Democratic Socialists of America-aligned or virulently anti-Israel candidates were among the Democrats’ leading fundraisers, including lawmakers (like Reps. Rashida Tlaib [D-MI] and Ilhan Omar [D-MN]) who are not facing particularly competitive races.