NBC News April 3, 2025
Both Trump-endorsed candidate wins, in Florida special election, give Republicans a 220 to 213 majority in the House with two Democrat vacancies.

Randy Fine for National Security Adviser Mike Waltz's seat and Jimmy Patronis for Matt Gaetz whom Trump wanted to be Attorney-General before his nomination was pulled over concerns that he lacked sufficient Republican support to be confirmed.

Democrat backed Susan Crawford, a liberal judge, won a judicial election in Wisconsin something of a referendum on Elon Musk, who played a big role, spending some $20 million of his own money, on Republican backed losing candidate Brad Schimel's campaign.

Wisconsin's outcome might help move Musk and his blunt, unpopular agenda out of the spotlight and congressional Republicans will be quietly happy about that

Reuters March 28, 2025
President Donald Trump pulled the nomination of New York Representative Elise Stefanik to serve as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Announcing his decision in a post on social media, Trump said it was essential that Stefanik retain her seat in the House of Representatives to protect Republicans' razor-thin majority No more

Now that both the Republican congressional seats retained in Florida Stefanik for U.S. ambassador to the United Nations

Newsweek November 12, 2024
Elise Stefanik Is Trump's UN Enforcer, and a Gift to Netanyahu Called UN a "cesspool of antisemitism"

From: The Times of Israel April 3, 2025
Nicaragua walks back request to join ICJ genocide case against Israel

FM Gideon Sa’ar praises decision as ‘better late than never,’ urges other signatories to follow suit;

1. Nicaragua sought in February to join the case over Israel-Hamas war in Gaza.
2. Nicaragua on Tuesday told the International Court of Justice ICJ it is withdrawing its request to join South Africa’s genocide case against Israel.

The court issued a press release on Thursday confirming the withdrawal No reason was offered for the move.

It came less than two months after Nicaragua requested to join the case in early February.
It also followed the country’s claim before the court last year that Germany violated the genocide convention for selling arms to Israel.

Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar praised Nicaragua’s withdrawal on Thursday, posting on X “Better late than never.”

“Nicaragua has withdrawn its morally repugnant intervention in the baseless and outrageous case that was filed by South Africa against Israel at the ICJ,” he wrote, after a similar tweet in Hebrew. “Others that made the same mistake should follow suit,” he concluded.

US Senate overwhelmingly votes down Sanders’ motions to block arms sales to Israel

Minority of Democrats voting in favor falls from 19 to 15 since November, with Senator Jon Ossoff of Georgia, who is likely to face an intense reelection challenge from Republicans in 2026 flipping to ‘No’ as he readies for reelection fight next year;

The US Senate on Thursday overwhelmingly rejected a pair of resolutions by progressive Senator Bernie Sanders aimed at blocking the transfer of weapons to Israel, with the minority of Democrats voting in favor falling since the last time such an initiative was advanced several months ago.

Sanders’s motions were virtually guaranteed to fail given:
1. the Republican majority in the Senate
2. and the still small minority of Democrats willing to vote against Israel.

However, such votes are often framed as a litmus test on how much the Democratic Party:
1. is shifting in its support for Israel,
2. and in particular, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman James Risch of Idaho urged defeat of Sanders’s resolutions, saying:
“They would abandon Israel, our closest ally in the Middle East, during a pivotal moment for global security.”

Trump began his second term by reversing his predecessor Biden’s efforts to place some limits on what arms are sent to Israel.
Trump in February sidestepped the congressional review process to approve billions of dollars in military sales to Israel.

From: Haaretz April 3, 2025

The Sordid Scandal Behind Netanyahu's Weekend Hungary Trip to See Viktor Orbán
Whatever the precise motivation, one thing is clear: Netanyahu's trip is only urgent in his twisted, narcissistic worldview

Here are some of the headlines that Israelis woke up to on Thursday morning:
1. In Gaza 59 Israeli hostages continue to rot in dark tunnels, held by terrorists for 18 months, with little hope of returning home.
2. The hostage families are increasingly worried that Israel's new offensive in the Strip will lead to the death and disappearance of many of them.

From: The Times of Israel April 3, 2025

US President Donald Trump says Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu may visit the United States next week, having just visited the US in early February, becoming the first foreign leader to meet with Trump.

“I think he’s going to be coming to the country some time in the not-so-distant future.
Maybe next week,” Trump tells reporters aboard Air Force One, confirming that he spoke to the Israeli premier earlier today.

True Globe-trotting while Israel is bleeding and burning All fronts...
Defiance of the ICC arrest warrants or do these visits achieve anything that cannot — in phone / Zoom calls or Signal messaging chats!

From: The Jerusalem Post April 2, 2025
Hamas admits 72% of deaths are combat-aged men as it quietly reduces civilian death toll

Approximately 72% of fatalities are aged 13-55 and are men - the demographic category aligns with Hamas combatants.

Hamas quietly removed the names of thousands of Palestinians it had previously alleged were killed during the Israel-Hamas war, Salo Aizenberg, from the US-based non-profit organisation Honest Reporting told The Telegraph on Tuesday after analyzing Hamas’s March 2025 casualty update.

according to the research:
1. Hamas has previously claimed that 70% of casualties have been women and children, a claim no longer reflected in their recently updated lists
2. “Hamas’s new March 2025 fatality list quietly drops 3,400 fully ‘identified’ deaths listed in its August and October 2024 reports – including 1,080 children.

Aizenberg asserted: These ‘deaths’ never happened. The numbers were falsified – again,”

Still 13 year olds should be at school... Not this childhood trauma of "endless offensive” Forever terror war

Taking Hamas figures as fact:

A similar report by the Henry Jackson Society in December also concluded that Hamas had inflated the number of casualties in the war.

“We knew there were rafts of errors in their reporting,” report author Andrew Fox said.

“There’s a reasonable explanation in that their computer systems went down in November 2023 so it’s been challenging for them to report accurately, but:
1. the lists are so unreliable that the world’s media shouldn’t be quoting them as reliable.
2. “The UN also just takes Hamas’s figures and publishes them with a note stating the figures are unconfirmed.”

Fox explained:
1. Hamas will “have gone through the list, trying to make it as convincing as possible.
2. They’ve been accepting names onto that list with no evidence whatsoever,”
3. “So what I’m guessing they’re trying to do is thin out the names they cannot substantiate at all.”

“Salo’s research would be looking for names that were on previous lists but have now disappeared,” Fox explained.
“Hamas releases lists as PDFs, so it’s harder to do comparisons but we transfer names to an Excel sheet to do a mass comparison this way.”

Nothing startling here... Everything from the terrorists -- inflated lies
World deliberately deaf and blind to Israel's dire straights, taking them to task over everything they do or don't do... but letting the terrorists, off the hook

From: The Times of Israel April 3, 2025
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar: Israel could end Gaza war ‘tomorrow’ if Hamas frees hostages, exits Strip

Sa’ar said Thursday after meeting his French counterpart Jean-Noël Barrot in Paris. Israel is ready to end the war in Gaza “tomorrow” in exchange:
1. for the release of hostages
2. and an end to Hamas’s presence in Gaza

“The way is very simple,” Sa’ar said, “hostages back, Hamas out.”

“We are still giving a chance to negotiations to extend the ceasefire and release our hostages on the basis of [US special envoy Steve] Witkoff’s proposal, but it is not open-ended,” he warned, referencing a proposal that would secure the release of five Israeli hostages.

Iran:
Sa’ar stressed that Iran was a threat to the entire region and not just to Israel, adding Israel was in talks with France, Britain, and the United States.
“We don’t exclude a diplomatic path with Iran,” he added.

Concern is mounting as talks with Iran appear to have reached an impasse while the window for negotiating a new treaty with Tehran is set to close in the fall

From: Sky news April 3, 2025
Day 545 Hamas open to releasing all Israeli hostages and end the war in Gaza

according to Palestinian officials, Hamas is expected:
1. to release the remaining Israeli hostages held in Gaza
2. and permanently end the war

The terror organization’s proposal comes as Israel has ramped up its attacks against Hamas in recent weeks.

A senior Palestinian official revealed to The Times of Israel that Hamas is ready to free hostages in exchange for Israeli forces leaving Gaza
Israel has not yet accepted the proposal, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejecting similar deals in the past.

While Hamas insists, they and Israel should follow the initial ceasefire deal brokered by the US they are now willing to end the war permanently.

a Palestinian official revealed:
1. “We had no other choice.
2. The situation in Gaza is terrible,”

Nothing about disarming No Hamas out.”... So after regrouping, rearming -- "endless offensive” Forever terror war