The international community must demand that Hamas free the remaining captives held in Gaza “immediately,” Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu said on Thursday, accusing the terrorist group of frustrating the indirect talks towards a hostages-for-ceasefire-and-terrorists-release agreement.
“Hamas is trying to hide the fact that it continues to oppose a hostage release deal and is thwarting it,” Netanyahu’s office stated. “While Israel accepted the ‘final bridging proposal’ made by the U.S. on Aug. 16, 2024, Hamas rejected it and even murdered six of our hostages in cold blood.
“The world must demand that Hamas free our hostages immediately,” the prime minister reiterated in the statement.

The Kremlin responded on Monday to a report by The Wall Street Journal, which claimed that Iran had provided Russia with short-range ballistic missiles. In its response, the Kremlin emphasized that Iran is considered a partner of Russia, and the two nations continue to strengthen their dialogue across various sectors.
The Wall Street Journal, citing unnamed officials from the U.S. and Europe, reported that Iran had supplied Russia with short-range ballistic missiles.
When asked about the report, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov acknowledged having seen it but suggested that not all such reports are accurate.

The European Parliament gave preliminary approval on Wednesday to the freezing of 20 million euros ($22 million) allocated to the Palestinian Authority over antisemitic textbooks in its educational curriculum.
The move in the parliament’s prestigious Foreign Affairs Committee, which requires two additional parliamentary votes in order to become law, is seen as a bellwether of change in the European Parliament following the summer elections, after years of merely declarative moves on the issue.

To the unseasoned, Rabbi Shmuley and Candace Owens have maintained a bitter feud over at least two years, having accused each other of everything from hypocrisy to lying to outright bigotry. Shmuley heavily criticized Owens for her embrace of Kanye West after his anti-Semitic tirades. Owens has hit back, claiming that Shmuley has harassed her publicly, blackmailed her and twisted her statements to present her as a hater of Jewish people.
Their personal grudges aside, the two firebrands are passionate voices for their own communities. So finally, after years of vitriol, Piers Morgan is joined on Uncensored by both Owens and Shmuley for the first time. Their opening statements set the tone for the discussion, and no one should be surprised that they were confrontational.

CNN has secured the initial interview with Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz after they were selected as the Democratic candidates for President and Vice President, Deadline reports.
Dana Bash is set to lead the interview, which will take place in Georgia this Thursday.
The network has revealed that the conversation will be featured in a primetime special later that evening.
The interview will air at 9 p.m. ET.
{Matzav.com}

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz is once again facing allegations of lying about his past after an old letter from the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce, dated 2006, has resurfaced during his vice-presidential campaign.
When Walz was first campaigning for Congress in Minnesota, his campaign website claimed he had received an award from the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce in 1993 in recognition of his efforts with the business community, as noted in a 2006 article from the Post Bulletin.
However, this claim was false, as pointed out in a strongly worded letter from Barry L. Kennedy, who was president of the Nebraska Chamber of Commerce at the time.

US House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) on Tuesday suggested that Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro was overlooked for the role of Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate because of his Jewish background.
Johnson’s remarks, made during an interview with The Hill, followed the announcement that Harris had chosen Minnesota Governor Tim Walz as her vice presidential candidate.
Johnson indicated that Shapiro, who was among the final contenders, “would have been a stronger choice” for Harris.

Israel is refusing to extend visas for a significant portion of U.N. staff and other non-governmental organizations, a Yerushalayim-based United Nations official said on Thursday.
During a briefing about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, Andrea De Domenico, head of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Palestinian territories, told reporters that would be his final briefing, as Israeli authorities had not granted his visa extension request.

Former President Donald Trump brought the “computer genius” responsible for displaying the chart he was looking at just before an attempted assassination to the stage on Wednesday, giving her credit for saving his life.
“I love that chart. I’m going to sleep with that chart for the rest of my life,” Trump, 78, said at a campaign event in Harrisburg, Pa., with the well-known immigration chart shown to his right.
The Republican presidential candidate then called up the staffer who was managing the slideshow in Butler, Pa., on July 13 — the day 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks shot at him.
“She should come out. Just tell her to come out here for a second,” Trump instructed his team. “Quick, quick, quick, quick, you got to get her.”

The Republican Party’s organizing effort in Israel is leaving nothing to chance, especially given the record of Kamala Harris, the U.S. vice president whom U.S. President Joe Biden has endorsed and whose record suggests she is to the left of Biden on policies toward Israel.
Marc Zell, chairman of Republicans Overseas Israel, told JNS that about 500,000 of the estimated 750,000 U.S. citizens living in Israel—per the U.S. State Department count—are of voting age and eligible to vote in U.S. elections.
“Our task is to reach out to them. The party calls them low-propensity voters,” Zell told JNS. “If we can get them to vote, then they’ll vote Republican by a large majority, which is unusual for Jews, as you know, here in the United States.”