A report from a U.S.-backed agency alleging that famine is advancing in northern Gaza was taken down on Tuesday night after facing criticism from U.S. Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew. 

Lew stated that the report, published by the USAID-funded Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET), relied on “inaccurate” information and called its publication “irresponsible.”

Lawmakers in Virginia raised varying degrees of concern about the safety of Jews in the state in statements to Jewish Insider after a George Mason University freshman was charged on Thursday evening with plotting a mass casualty attack at Israel’s consulate in New York. 

The state’s Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin, told JI that the thwarted terrorist attack “serves as yet another wake-up call that antisemitism and the threat to Jewish students and the Jewish community in Virginia, and across America, is very real.” 

Florida State Sen. Randy Fine is seen as a heavy favorite to succeed Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL) in Congress in an upcoming special election, a Florida Republican strategist told Jewish Insider.

Fine was an early entrant into the race and secured President-elect Donald Trump’s endorsement even before he announced his candidacy — a distinction that makes him a near-prohibitive favorite for the seat, GOP operative Ford O’Connell said.

Tree of Life shooter Robert Bowers, along with Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Charleston, S.C., church shooter Dylann Roof, was not included in the more than three dozen death row commutations announced on Monday by President Joe Biden in the final weeks of his presidency.

Biden announced that he will commute the sentences of 37 of the 40 individuals on death row across the U.S. A statement released by the White House said that Biden “believes that America must stop the use of the death penalty at the federal level, except in cases of terrorism and hate-motivated mass murder – which is why today’s actions apply to all but those cases.”

President-elect Donald Trump announced on Sunday that he had tapped Elbridge Colby as undersecretary of defense for policy in his next administration, elevating a former Pentagon official whose dovish views on Iran have faced scrutiny from some pro-Israel conservatives.

In a statement, Trump described Colby as a “highly respected advocate for our America First foreign and defense policy,” saying that he “will work closely with my outstanding Secretary of Defense Nominee, Pete Hegseth, to restore our Military power, and achieve my policy of PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH,” Trump said in a statement. 

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and top House Republicans called on Congress to cut off federal funding to universities that target Israel in an after-action report detailing the findings of their seven-month investigation into the surge of domestic antisemitism. 

One of the 11 policy recommendations made to Congress, the White House and the universities themselves in the report, released on Tuesday, states that the House and Senate “should pass legislation removing Title IV eligibility from any university that boycotts or divests from Israel.” 

Maryland state Sen. Ben Kramer, a Democrat, blasted Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) at a breakfast organized by the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington on Wednesday over his outspoken criticism towards Israel’s war in Gaza and votes to block some military aid to Israel.

The speech, which Kramer told Jewish Insider was well received by the audience, is another sign of the deep dissatisfaction in Maryland’s Jewish community with the state’s soon-to-be senior senator over his approach to the war in the Middle East.

A new report by the Jewish Institute for the National Security of America urges the incoming Trump administration to pursue nuclear talks with Iran — but only under strict conditions and paired with a serious U.S. military threat to the regime’s nuclear program.

The JINSA report begins with a stark warning: “From the day President-elect [Donald] Trump takes office, he will have almost zero time or margin for error to prevent a nuclear Iran,” arguing that efforts to re-implement a maximum-pressure campaign “including credible threats of force” must begin before Trump is sworn into office.