The State Attorney’s Office has filed an indictment in the Nazareth District Court against Yoni Segal, 18, and Nehorai Mizrahi, 20, both from Tiveria, on charges including contact with a foreign agent, providing information to the enemy, and obstruction of justice. According to the indictment, the defendants initiated contact with Iranian operatives via Telegram in mid-May. Initially, the Iranian contacts posed as “Kaplanist leftists” and tasked the pair with symbolic acts such as writing “Bibi Dictator” on a note and burning it, offering cryptocurrency in return. As contact progressed, the Iranians instructed the defendants to purchase secure “operational phones” to conceal their identities and engage in more advanced espionage tasks.

Hope is rising on Thursday morning in Israel regarding the chances of reaching a hostage release/ceasefire deal in the Gaza Strip. If Hamas responds positively to the deal, an Israeli team will leave for negotiations in Qatar as early as the end of next week. According to Israeli media reports on Wednesday evening, Israel is making major efforts to reach a deal ahead of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s visit to the White House next week. Israeli sources say that Hamas is showing “flexibility” to a revised US-brokered proposal. According to the proposal on the table, Israel will halt the war for two months but will agree to extend the ceasefire even after the two months to try and reach an agreement that will end the war.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller tore into tech billionaire Elon Musk on Fox News Tuesday night, dismissing him as an “outside voice” whose views hold no sway over Republicans rallying behind President Donald Trump’s sweeping spending bill. Miller’s remarks came after Fox host Laura Ingraham pressed him about Musk’s growing threats to primary Republicans who campaigned on fiscal restraint but ultimately backed what Trump calls his “Big, Beautiful Bill.” Musk, furious over what he describes as reckless spending, has publicly vowed to target those lawmakers.

Israel’s governing coalition is exploring the possibility of bringing Benny Gantz’s centrist Blue and White party into the government if far-right factions abandon ship over a deal to end the Gaza war, Army Radio reported Sunday. The potential pivot comes as Otzma Yehudit leader Itamar Ben Gvir and Religious Zionism chief Betzalel Smotrich rage against a U.S.-backed ceasefire proposal that would secure the release of Israeli hostages but effectively end the fighting in Gaza. According to reports, Ben Gvir is actively seeking Smotrich’s cooperation to block the deal, although Smotrich’s office denies agreeing to any such meeting. Fearing a far-right walkout, Shas party chairman Aryeh Deri is reportedly leading quiet contacts with Gantz to shore up coalition stability.

Ali Shamkhani, a top adviser to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and one of the regime’s most influential security officials, has emerged alive after weeks of reports claiming he had been killed in an Israeli airstrike. The New York Times confirmed Shamkhani’s appearance over the weekend at a funeral procession in Tehran, contradicting Iranian state media accounts that declared him dead last month. Frailer and leaning on a cane, Shamkhani was seen paying tribute to senior Iranian military officers slain in Israel’s recent barrage — a 12-day offensive that targeted Iran’s nuclear and military command structure.

Rev. Al Sharpton is turning up the pressure on Andrew Cuomo, publicly urging the disgraced former governor to abandon his struggling campaign for New York City mayor in the wake of a bruising primary defeat. “I think, in the best interest of the legacy of Andrew Cuomo, that he ought to let them have the one-on-one race,” Sharpton told MSNBC’s Morning Joe on Wednesday, calling on Cuomo to step aside and clear the path for a head-to-head fight over the city’s future. “He can endorse one or the other, and let them have a battle over what is best for New York.” Sharpton, a longtime power broker in Democratic politics, revealed he had already reached out to Cuomo’s inner circle, trying to convince him to bow out.

The gradual loss of Kovod for our present day Gedolei Yisroel. First it was the important ad in Yated that everyone is being Mechalel Shabbos in Japan. A full page announcing to Klal Yisroel that one must follow the Psak of the Chazon Ish. No one can Chas v’Sholom say anything to diminish the Kovod of the Chazon Ish ZTL. However, Klal Yisroel has been following the psak of the Gedolim of our Dor, Rav Yosef Sholom Elyashiv ZTL, Rav Yisroel Zev Gustman ZTL and Rav Shlomo Zalamn ZTL, all who pasken that we follow the Shita of Chachmei Yerusholayim and the Yidden in Japan are keeping the correct Shabbos. This writer doesn’t have the chutzpah to discuss the actual halacha, but he does know that we have been following these Gedolim in all our Shailos and they were post Chazon Ish.

Saudi Arabia secretly participated in intercepting Iranian drones during the 12-day war between Israel and Iran, according to Gulf sources cited by Yisrael Hayom. The Saudi air force reportedly scrambled helicopters to shoot down unmanned aerial vehicles crossing regional airspace over Iraq and Jordan, halting their advance before they could reach Israel. While Riyadh has not publicly confirmed its involvement — and even condemned Israel’s strikes against Iran — the revelations point to a dramatic realignment in the Middle East, where Sunni powers increasingly see Iran as a shared threat worth countering, even if unofficially.

A pair of career criminals behind a series of daring and methodical cash robberies across NYC were arrested Wednesday afternoon by the NYPD, thanks to the sharp vigilance of Boro Park Shomrim volunteers. The takedown occurred near 18th Avenue and Dahill Road, after the suspects targeted a van that had just withdrawn a large sum of money from a check-cashing store in Flatbush and traveled into Boro Park. The scheme was both simple and slick: one suspect, riding a bicycle, followed the van and punctured its tire a few blocks away. As soon as the driver exited to inspect the flat, the second suspect swooped in, climbed into the van, and made off with the cash.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand has issued a public apology to New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, backing away from comments she made last week warning that Mamdani had referenced “global jihad” in past statements. The senator’s retreat, first reported by Politico, came after a wave of outrage from left-wing activists and progressive allies determined to shield Mamdani from scrutiny, despite the fact that questions about his record and rhetoric had resonated with many New Yorkers worried about extremism.