Jared Kushner, an informal Middle East envoy to the White House, said Thursday that Iran had not been serious about reaching a nuclear deal with the United States before President Donald Trump, his father-in-law, chose to attack the country in a joint military operation with Israel.

“We basically saw that there was no seriousness, and that they were trying to play different games to just get beyond President Trump in order to preserve their capabilities and pathway to get to a nuclear weapon in a way that would have been very, very hard to be stopped in the future,” Kushner said at Saudi Arabia’s exclusive FII Priority summit, held in Miami this week.

An AI-generated Instagram account appearing to be a Hasidic rabbi is pushing antisemitic conspiracy theories to its more than 1.4 million followers, and it’s not the only one, a study published this week about antisemitic content on the social media platform has found. 

An account called “Rabbi Goldman” “uses fake, AI-created authority figures to spread hate” in “a troubling and growing tactic,” according to the report, published on Wednesday by the Combat Antisemitism Movement.

A nasty intraparty divide intensified this week as Democrats publicly debated whether to associate with Hasan Piker, the far-left streamer who has faced criticism for antisemitic commentary and pro-Hamas rhetoric, among other extreme remarks.

The dispute erupted Tuesday after Piker revealed that he would join Abdul El-Sayed, a Democratic Senate candidate in Michigan, for two upcoming rallies in the state, marking the Twitch streamer’s first major campaign appearance of the midterms.

A group of Senate Republicans is urging Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel to provide a congressional briefing on the “progress and future priorities” of the joint task force established in the aftermath of the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terror attacks, which is responsible for investigating and prosecuting Hamas members and other actors involved in funding, supporting or perpetrating the attacks. 

The request, sent in a letter to the two Cabinet members on Thursday, was signed by Sens. Jerry Moran (R-KS), Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Ashley Moody (R-FL), Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), Steve Daines (R-MT), Ted Budd (R-NC), Katie Britt (R-AL), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), James Risch (R-ID), John Hoeven (R-ND), Mike Crapo (R-ID) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV).

Several Senate Republicans this week declined to fully endorse President Donald Trump’s comments that the U.S. had “won” the war in Iran, arguing that there is still more to be done to fully degrade Iran’s capabilities to the extent necessary.

Trump told reporters in the Oval Office Tuesday, “You know, I don’t like to say this — this war has been won. The only one that likes to keep it going is the fake news. … We’ve won this war.” Trump also said Monday he would postpone strikes on Iran’s energy infrastructure to allow for “productive conversations” toward ending the war — an announcement that boosted markets and brought down oil prices.

The top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee told reporters on Wednesday, after a classified briefing, that the administration isn’t giving committee members enough information about its plans in Iran.

The comments by a senior, generally hawkish Republican, Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL), are a sign of cracks between congressional Republicans and the administration — who have largely remained in lockstep through the first month of the war — over the strategy in Iran.

The campaign website home page for Michael Blake, a progressive challenger to Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-NY) who has made his criticism of Israel a centerpiece of his campaign, features a picture of Blake in Israel.

Blake was once a strong supporter of the Jewish state, and traveled there with the AIPAC-backed American Israel Education Foundation and with the New York Jewish Community Relations Council.

Former U.S. Central Command head Gen. Frank McKenzie said Wednesday that the U.S. military is “in the heart of the plan” in its war against Iran, pointing to major military achievements against Tehran’s missile and military capabilities, while cautioning that the conflict remains a grinding, long-term campaign.

As the conflict between the U.S., Israel and Iran nears the one-month mark, officials say Iran’s capabilities have been severely degraded, while President Donald Trump has asserted that the war is nearly over and that its objectives have largely been achieved.