The highest-paid consultant for former New York City Comptroller Brad Lander’s congressional bid is the founder of the “Hot Girls for Zohran” campaign — and a prolific X user who has shared posts lauding Hamas and insinuating Israeli involvement in 9/11 and the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, all while attacking police and Democratic elected officials.

Among the 21 payments appearing in the first campaign finance filing from Lander — New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s endorsed candidate against Rep. Dan Goldman (D-NY) — the largest is $15,000 disbursed to a company called Brain Child LLC for “Website and social media.” State corporation records reveal that the two-and-a-half-month-old firm belongs to Kaif Gilani and is based out of his triplex Brooklyn apartment.

Noah Pollak, a senior advisor at the Department of Education, offered a series of recommendations, including broader cultural changes and vigorous disciplinary action, on how universities can and should reform to better address antisemitism on campus.

Speaking at an antisemitism conference on Tuesday organized by The George Washington University Program on Extremism, Pollak said that schools need to have “backbone” in enforcing their disciplinary codes, offering as one example Brown University, which he said failed to uphold a new code of conduct rules when an encampment sprung up to protest the war in Gaza in 2024. He attributed schools’ reticence to a “cultural problem” for the universities.

Republican lawmakers on the House Ways and Means Committee urged their Democratic colleagues on Tuesday to work with them on legislation to update the Internal Revenue Service’s 990 forms used by tax-exempt organizations to include disclosures for donations from foreign actors.

The overtures took place at a House Ways and Means Committee hearing on the rise of foreign influence operations targeting the U.S. nonprofit sector, where Democratic and Republican witnesses agreed on the need for reforms to the disclosure forms to ensure foreign donations are easily identifiable for IRS investigators. 

A group of eight leading Senate Democrats released a statement on Tuesday evening urging President Donald Trump to “clearly reinforce the opposition of the U.S. government to Israeli government actions that set the conditions for irreversible annexation” of the West Bank when he meets with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Wednesday.

The statement emphasizes Senate Democrats’ opposition to Israel expanding its control over settlements in the West Bank, which Israel’s Security Cabinet approved measures to help facilitate on Sunday ahead of Netanyahu’s visit to Washington this week.

House members on both sides of the aisle raised concerns about the new Syrian government’s recent moves against minority groups, particularly the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, in some cases questioning whether Damascus is complying with lawmakers’ expectations after the Caesar Act sanctions on Syria were lifted.

Speaking at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, Republican and Democratic lawmakers highlighted ongoing abuses by the Syrian government, with some appearing to argue that there might be cause to revisit the imposition of U.S. sanctions on Syria. Some, particularly Republicans, had been hesitant to back full sanctions repeal, but did so under pressure from the Trump administration.

Former Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares on Tuesday laid out what he said was a coordinated network funneling U.S. funds to terrorist groups abroad and bringing foreign money into the U.S. to incite anti-Israel protests.

The former attorney general, who in his previous role sought to expose the financial records of American Muslims for Palestine, seemingly referring to ongoing litigation, that “allegedly, a good number of charitable organizations and networks of them” funnel money both from the United States to terrorist proxies in the Middle East, as well as from overseas into campus protests.

Jeremy Ben-Ami, the president of J Street, has been elected as a new trustee of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, a leading philanthropic backer of anti-Israel causes, the foundation announced this week.

In joining the board, Ben-Ami is drawing closer to a foundation that has long been a top contributor to J Street, a progressive Israel advocacy group that has recently sought to capitalize on growing Democratic frustration with the war in Gaza.

Top New Jersey Democrats lined up behind far-left, anti-Israel activist Analila Mejia on Tuesday in New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District — even as a moderate Jewish state assemblymember publicly is mulling a bid against Mejia in the June regular election primary.

Gov. Mikie Sherrill, who previously held the seat, and Sens. Cory Booker (D-NJ) and Andy Kim (D-NJ) all endorsed Mejia, the surprise winner of last week’s special election primary race. Former Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ), who conceded the race to Mejia Tuesday morning, also backed her, as did several members of New Jersey’s House delegation.