🎤 Music of the Movement: In The New York Times, the Atlantic Council’s Holly Dagres spotlights Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi, who was arrested earlier this year for his support of the anti-government protests and now faces possible execution. “But as public anger has built since December 2017, when one of the largest mass protests since the 1979 revolution began, Mr. Salehi’s music found its audience. In his first big hit, ‘Rathole,’ he rapped about regime apologists inside Iran and abroad, telling them to buy a ‘rathole’ with the money they received propping up the clerical establishment. The lyrics were so shocking when the song came out in 2021 that many Iranians found it hard to believe the rapper was living inside the country when he released it. He had to do an Instagram live to explain he was, in fact, based in Iran. ‘There has certainly been a history of angry lyrics before Toomaj, given that rap has functioned as a language of protest,’ Nahid Siamdoust, an assistant professor of media and Middle Eastern studies at the University of Texas at Austin, told me. ‘What sets Toomaj’s music apart and is a new feature is its radical anti-state rhetoric.’” [NYTimes]

🇹🇷 Turkey Talk: The Washington Post’s editorial board suggests how Western governments, and specifically the Biden administration, can shift recently reelected Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan away from his more autocratic policies. “It’s true that the West might not be able to impede Mr. Erdogan’s steady march away from democratic norms; his election victory owed much to his clampdown on Turkey’s once-vibrant media, the jailing of political opponents, and his ruthless manipulation of state institutions and resources. His atrocious human rights record has been key to maintaining his power. Nonetheless, the Biden administration and its European allies should continue to speak out for the fundamental Western values that Mr. Erdogan has trampled — even as they face the reality that he enjoys the protections of some of the West’s most prestigious institutions.” [WashPost]

⚖️ Courtroom Coverage: The Pittsburgh Post-Gazettecovers the trial of the Tree of Life shooter, which began yesterday, with opening statements from the prosecution and defense as well as testimony from Rabbi Jeffrey Myers. “There was a stretch of relative silence on the call after Rabbi Myers believed he heard footsteps coming toward him. The recording captured him faintly speaking in the background. He was praying. ‘I expected to die,’ he testified, weeping. ‘I was trying to decide, “Do I hang up the phone and call my wife or make a video?” I thought if this was the end, I wasn’t going to leave her like that, for her to hear that. So I decided to stay on the phone with 911.’ He said he thought of the history of his people, persecuted and killed for centuries. He said he thought about how they must have felt before they were killed. He wasn’t angry with God, he said. God didn’t do this. ‘I was prepared to meet my fate,’ he said.” [PostGazette]

🗳️ Christie’s Candidacy: Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is expected to announce his entry into the Republican presidential primary next week.

🛣️ Middle of the Road: Former Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT), the founding chair of No Labels, is featured in a new ad running in Maine promoting the centrist group.

🙅‍♂️ Offsides: Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy fired one of the consulting firms working on his campaign that was also working for the Saudi-backed LIV Golf league.

👋 Goldman Goodbye: Dina Powell McCormick is departing Goldman Sachs, and will become vice chairman and president of global client services at BDT & MSD Partners.

☢️ Going Nuclear: Senior White House adviser Brett McGurk traveled to Oman earlier this month to discuss with officials in Muscat potential outreach to Iran over its nuclear program, Axios reports. Meanwhile, NPR spoke to the White House’s Iran envoy, Rob Malley, about the state of negotiations five years after the U.S. withdrawal from the deal.

⚠️ Global Warning: The New York Times’ Bret Stephens suggests that the outcome of Turkey’s recent presidential election “should serve as a warning about other places — including the Republican Party — where autocratic leaders, seemingly incompetent in many respects, are returning to power through democratic means.” 

👪 Sackler Ruling: A federal appeals court ruled that Sackler family members will receive full immunity from civil legal claims over the family’s role in the company’s business and the country’s opioid crisis.

😟 California Concerns: Jewish leaders and officials in Sacramento, Calif., are raising concerns over antisemitic comments made by an individual at recent city council meetings.

👨‍⚖️ Plea Deal: A Staten Island, N.Y., man accepted a plea deal that will see him serve 60 days in jail and three years probation for the assault of a man wearing an Israel Defense Forces shirt.

🥯 Delis Through the Ages: Time Out New Yorkspotlights the upcoming illustrated book The Jewish Deli: An Illustrated Guide to the Chosen Food, which chronicles the history of Jewish delis in America.

🕵️ Keeping the U.S. on Side: The Financial Timeslooks at how international spyware companies are orienting themselves around American interests, following the high-profile case of Israel’s NSO Group.

🌊 Making Waves: The U.S. is facing pressure from the UAE to crack down on Iranian moves in the Persian Gulf, following Tehran’s seizure of two oil tankers in recent weeks.

🪖 War Games: CENTCOM Commander Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla traveled to Israel ahead of a two-week-long IDF exercise simulating a multifront conflict.

🚑 Terror Victim: Israeli officials identified the man killed in a West Bank terror attack on Tuesday as​​ 32-year-old Meir Tamari.

🛥️ Boating Incident: A retired Mossad agent was among four people killed when a boat, reportedly carrying other intelligence agents too, capsized in Italy’s Lake Maggiore; the other Israelis on board were flown back to Israel.

⚽ Blue-and-White Win: Israel’s national-under 20 soccer team beat Uzbekistan 1-0 in the final minutes of the game, and will head to the quarterfinals, where the players will face either Brazil or Tunisia.

🇺🇦 Kyiv’s Call: The Ukrainian parliament approved a 50-year sanctions package on Iran, saying in a statement that the move synchronizes Kyiv “with the actions of the entire civilized world.”

Israeli President Isaac Herzog meets with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev yesterday in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Israeli actress, singer and dancer, Liraz Charhi turns 45… 

Investment advisor at Wedbush Securities in Los Angeles, Alfred Phillip Stern turns 90… Industrialist and philanthropist, Ira Leon Rennert turns 89… Singer and songwriter famous for his lead role in the 1960s folk trio Peter, Paul and Mary, he campaigned for freeing Soviet Jews in the 1980s, Peter Yarrow turns 85… Professor at Yale University and the 2018 winner of the Nobel Prize in Economics, William Dawbney Nordhaus turns 82… Food critic at Vogue magazine since 1989 and judge on “Iron Chef America,” he is the author of the 1996 award-winning book The Man Who Ate Everything, Jeffrey Steingarten turns 81… Founder and retired CEO of the Democratic Leadership Council, Alvin “Al” From turns 80… Author, political pundit and a retired correspondent for HBO’s “Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel,” Bernie Goldberg turns 78… Comedian, actress and TV producer, Susie Essman turns 68… Founder and chairman of the Katz Group of Companies, Daryl Katz turns 62… Reality television personality, she starred in “The Millionaire Matchmaker” on Bravo TV, Patti Stanger turns 62… Founder, chairman and CEO of CyberArk Software, Alon Nisim Cohen turns 55… Co-founder of CryptoLogic, Andrew Rivkin turns 54… Former Democratic mayor of Annapolis, Md., now head of policy at SWTCH, Joshua Jackson “Josh” Cohen turns 50… Assistant director of community outreach at the Board of Rabbis of Southern California, Melissa York… Author of the “Money Stuff” column at Bloomberg Opinion, Matthew S. Levine turns 45… Freelance writer in Brooklyn, Sara Trappler Spielman… Attorney and NYT-bestselling author of the Mara Dyer and Shaw Confessions series, Michelle Hodkin… Former head of public policy and regulatory affairs at Zoox, Bert Eli Kaufman… Zoe Goldfarb… Stephanie Oreck Weiss… Media exec, Brad E. Bosserman… Senior rabbi and executive director of Jewish life at D.C.’s Sixth & I, Aaron Potek… Allbritton Journalism Institute’s Matt Berman… Medical student at the University of Nicosia Medical School, Amital Isaac… Brad Goldstein… Basketball player in Israel’s Premier League, Spencer Weisz turns 28… Rapper, singer, songwriter and producer, known by his stage name, King Sol, Benjamin Solomon turns 25…