Sen. Darline Graham’s (R-SC) stumbling performance at the final GOP primary debate on Tuesday has prompted questions among Republicans in Washington about her prospects in next week’s runoff against Rep. Ralph Norman (R-SC).

Graham’s debate performance has been widely panned for her response to a question about Taiwan and the South China Sea, during which she admitted that she is “not that informed on national security.” The moment prompted national Republican operatives to question her qualifications to replace her late brother, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), and led to an avalanche of attacks from critics about her lack of policy experience. 

President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that the U.S. was launching “economic warfare and isolation on an unprecedented scale” against Iran, threatening to take aggressive action against foreign entities and businesses engaging economically with Tehran.

“No one has given the Islamic Republic of Iran a greater opportunity to make a Deal than me,” Trump wrote on Truth Social, but Tehran has “failed to take it.” 

Aisha Wahab, a progressive state senator from California, held a narrow lead on Wednesday over Melissa Hernandez, a moderate former local mayor, in the special election runoff for an East Bay House seat that drew a late surge of outside spending from AIPAC.

With 62% of the vote counted in Tuesday’s election, Wahab had 51%, leading Hernandez, at 49%, by just two points or 1,356 votes, according to the unofficial initial returns. The preliminary figures — with about 40,000 votes yet to be tallied — largely accounted for early mail ballots. Experts said that the late mail and Election Day votes would, in the coming days, paint a clearer picture of the direction of the race.

ICE detained a Jewish bridal shop owner and his mother living in Englewood, N.J., a local elected official confirmed on Wednesday to Jewish Insider, warning of a growing trend impacting the Jewish community. 

Ari Ladino and his mother, who are originally from Bogotá, Colombia, run Luana Rose Modestly in Teaneck — a dress shop that opened in 2024 specializing in modest special occasion gowns and wedding dresses popular among local Orthodox Jewish women. 

Jewish leaders in Michigan are circulating an open letter urging Jewish Democrats and independents in the battleground state to sign their names in support of former Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) as he faces Abdul El-Sayed, the far-left Democratic nominee for Senate whose hostile positions on Israel have alarmed many Jewish voters.

The letter, which was obtained by Jewish Insider on Wednesday and has not yet been publicized, is led by Eric Bronstein, a Detroit businessman, among others identifying as Democrats and independents.

Dysfunctional union governance is leaving some Jewish faculty and graduate students marginalized and unrepresented by the labor organizations meant to advocate for them, a report released Wednesday by the Academic Engagement Network and the Anti-Defamation League documents. 

The report, “A Crisis of Representation: Antisemitism and Inclusion in Higher Education Unions,” highlights how activist factions have used low-turnout union elections to push anti-Israel positions without broad member buy-in — often at the expense of Jewish members who say they have faced targeted attacks. 

Rejecting a model of cultural preservation in favor of a religious and cultural heritage that is evolving, Rabbi Marc Angel argued on Monday that North America’s oldest Jewish congregation, New York’s Shearith Israel, serves as an example of enduring not as an ethnic relic in need of preserving but as a guide for the future of Diaspora Jewry.  

“People speak of preserving the Sephardic heritage. I do not agree,” said Angel, rabbi emeritus of the Shearith Israel — often called the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue — on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, which he led from 1969-2007. 

Sen. Darline Graham (R-SC) said at the final GOP primary debate to replace the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), one of Congress’ most engaged members on foreign policy, that she is “not that informed on national security.”

Graham made the comments after being asked at Tuesday’s debate, which was hosted by Newsmax and South Carolina ETV and Public Radio, if she believed Taiwan and the South China Sea were national security issues for the United States.