A bipartisan group of House moderates is expected to propose a new, slimmed-down version of the Senate-passed Israel aid bill. The proposed bill will remove humanitarian aid from the Senate proposal and introduce new border policy provisions, which could make it difficult to muster sufficient Democratic support. House Republican leadership has also provided no guarantees that it would see a floor vote.

According to public reports and comments by the bill’s authors, the proposal will pare back the Senate proposal from $95 billion to around $60 billion, including by removing humanitarian aid for the Palestinians and Ukraine. It maintains military aid for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan. It’s not clear if nonprofit security grant program funds will also be on the chopping block.

A proposed New York congressional map unveiled on Thursday would deliver a modest boost to Democrats seeking to retake the majority, while making no changes to the district of a vulnerable anti-Israel incumbent facing a serious primary threat.

While the new congressional lines kept most districts across the state relatively unchanged, the lack of revisions to the seat held by Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) means the embattled Squad member will still face a tough primary against a formidable challenger, George Latimer, the popular Westchester County executive.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle suggested at a House Financial Services Hearing on Wednesday that the Treasury Department is failing to be proactive enough or act expeditiously enough to counter the international networks that help finance Iran and its terrorist proxies.

Pressed repeatedly on how Treasury is cracking down on further Iranian profits and transfers of funds to its proxies, Brian Nelson, the undersecretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, said that the department is working actively to sanction entities involved in Iran’s illicit finance operations, highlighting last week’s sanctioning of a Chinese oil buyer. He also noted that the department has issued several new rounds of sanctions against Hamas and its affiliates since Oct. 7.

The House voted nearly unanimously in favor of a resolution on Wednesday condemning sexual violence committed by Hamas during and since its Oct. 7 attack on Israel. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) was the only member not to support the resolution; she voted present, while 418 other House members voted in favor.

Tlaib said in a speech prior to the vote that the resolution “rightfully denounces any sexual violence by Hamas” but added that it “completely ignores and erases” sexual violence allegedly committed by Israeli forces against Palestinians. “War crimes cannot justify more war crimes,” she continued. “We must stand up for everyone’s safety and human rights, no matter their faith, no matter their ethnicity.”

Twenty-five Democratic senators joined a call on Wednesday to offer “urgent support” for efforts to reach a deal to free additional hostages from Gaza “in tandem with a restored mutual ceasefire in Gaza.”

The letter to President Joe Biden was led by Sens. Jon Ossoff (D-GA) and Raphael Warnock (D-GA). An Ossoff spokesperson clarified that the letter is seeking a temporary pause in the fighting, consistent with what has been publicly reported about the hostage talks.

As Israel turns its attention to Gaza’s southernmost governate, Rafah, and what could be its final big battle in the war against the Islamist terror group Hamas, it faces a complex military challenge in a densely packed urban arena and a diplomatic pressure point as some of its closest allies call for restraint and even an immediate ceasefire.

While four Hamas battalions are believed to be largely intact in Rafah and most of the Iranian-backed group’s senior leadership, including Oct. 7 mastermind Yahya Sinwar, is thought to be hiding there, the presence of more than 1.5 million civilians – many of whom fled fighting in the northern and central parts of the Strip over the last four months – sheltering in the area has drawn broad international concern, and mounting pressure on Israel to act with greater consideration for international law.

In this edition of “Inside the Newsroom,” former Israeli MK Einat Wilf discusses the current state of affairs in Israel.

In a series of interviews and public appearances spanning nearly two years, Jim Marchant, a Republican candidate for the Senate seat in Nevada, has frequently invoked antisemitic tropes claiming that “evil people” including the “Khazarians,” “the cabal,” “globalists” and “central bankers” have controlled the government and conspired to oppress the American people and the world for centuries.

Marchant is likely a long shot for the Republican nomination — he trails a distant third in fundraising among Republicans behind Army veteran Sam Brown and former U.S. Ambassador to Iceland Jeff Gunter. Marchant, who ran for the U.S. House in 2020 and was the Republican nominee for Nevada secretary of state in 2022, emerged as a prominent proponent of false claims that the 2020 election was stolen, among other conspiracy theories.