President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order directing Vice President JD Vance - a member of the Smithsonian Board of Regents - to eliminate "improper, divisive, or anti-American ideology" from Smithsonian museums, education and research centers and the National Zoo, the White House said. The order also directs the interior secretary to restore federal monuments and statues that have been removed or changed in the past few years "to perpetuate a false revision of history or improperly minimize or disparage certain historical figures or events."
(Reuters)

A U.S. judge on Thursday ordered President Donald Trump's administration to preserve messages sent on the Signal messaging app discussing attack plans against the Houthis in Yemen that became public after they were inadvertently shared with a journalist. The order from U.S. District Judge James Boasberg requires federal agencies whose leaders participated in the chat, which included Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, to maintain all messages sent through Signal from March 11 until March 15, the period during which an editor for The Atlantic magazine documented activity in the chat. A lawyer for the Trump administration earlier said federal agencies were already working to determine what records still existed so they could be preserved. American Oversight, a government accountability group, sued federal agencies involved in the chat on Tuesday, alleging that the use of Signal, which allows for messages to be automatically deleted after a certain time span, violated a federal record-keeping law. The lawsuit was unrelated to the national security implications of the disclosure and instead focused on American Oversight's claim that the messages should count as government records that agencies are legally required to preserve.
(Reuters)

U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders said on Thursday he would force votes next week on resolutions that would block $8.8 billion in arms sales to Israel, citing the human rights crisis faced by Palestinians in Gaza after Israel's bombardment of the enclave and its suspension of aid deliveries. "(Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu has clearly violated U.S. and international law in this brutal war, and we must end our complicity in the carnage," Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, said in a statement announcing his plan. A decades-long tradition of strong bipartisan support for Israel in the U.S. Congress means resolutions to stop weapons sales are unlikely to pass, but backers hope that raising the issue will encourage Israel's government and U.S. administrations to do more to protect civilians.
(Reuters)

Harvard University has announced the suspension of its collaboration with Birzeit University near Ramallah, due to concerns about its links to Palestinian terrorist organizations. After the expiration of the last memorandum of understanding between the parties, the Harvard School of Public Health, the only body that collaborates with the Palestinian university, decided to freeze relations with the academic institution. However, collaborations between individual researchers can continue. The move comes amid pressure from the Trump administration on universities to deal with antisemitism.
(Daniel Edelson, New York)

King Charles III of England, 76, is experiencing "temporary side effects" that have required him to remain under observation in the hospital, following his cancer treatments, Buckingham Palace said. The king's engagements for today and tomorrow have been cancelled.
(News Agencies)

Gazan demonstrations against Hamas continued into the night on Thursday. In Saraya Square in downtown Gaza City, where one of the terrorist organization's "hostage return ceremonies" was held, the crowd chanted: "Hamas out."
(Einav Halabi)

Police reported that six police officers were injured in a Haredi demonstration in Jerusalem against the draft law, some of whom were evacuated for medical treatment. The police also reported that two of the demonstrators were arrested, and that rioters at the protest caused damage, set fire to garbage bins, and threw stones and objects at the police and Border Guard soldiers.
(Liran Tamari)

Israel will perform the 14th song in the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest, out of 16 countries competing on May 15 on stage at the competition in Switzerland. Yuval Rafael will perform the song "New Day Will Rise," and competition experts said that this is a good place in terms of the order of performances, similar to Eden Golan's performance last year.
(Ran Boker)

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi addressed former U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent letter to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, in which Trump urged negotiations on the nuclear deal. "We sent our response to Trump’s message yesterday through Oman," Araghchi stated. "The possibility of indirect negotiations with the U.S. exists, as it has in the past. Our policy remains not to engage in direct talks with the U.S. due to its maximum pressure campaign and military threats. Our response to Trump includes our views on the current situation."
(Lior Ben Ari)

Fourteen members of Congress from both the Democratic and Republican parties wrote to the Nobel Prize Committee, recommending that the Nobel Peace Prize be awarded to the families of the hostages for their work in raising awareness of the plight of their loved ones held captive by Hamas. According to the leaders of the initiative, Democrat Brad Schneider and Republican Max Miller, the awarding of the prize would be "a recognition of the fundamental principle of the sanctity of human life and the uncompromising struggle for justice."
(Daniel Edelson, New York)

President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order directing Vice President JD Vance - a member of the Smithsonian Board of Regents - to eliminate "improper, divisive, or anti-American ideology" from Smithsonian museums, education and research centers and the National Zoo, the White House said. The order also directs the interior secretary to restore federal monuments and statues that have been removed or changed in the past few years "to perpetuate a false revision of history or improperly minimize or disparage certain historical figures or events."
(Reuters)

A U.S. judge on Thursday ordered President Donald Trump's administration to preserve messages sent on the Signal messaging app discussing attack plans against the Houthis in Yemen that became public after they were inadvertently shared with a journalist. The order from U.S. District Judge James Boasberg requires federal agencies whose leaders participated in the chat, which included Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and CIA Director John Ratcliffe, to maintain all messages sent through Signal from March 11 until March 15, the period during which an editor for The Atlantic magazine documented activity in the chat. A lawyer for the Trump administration earlier said federal agencies were already working to determine what records still existed so they could be preserved. American Oversight, a government accountability group, sued federal agencies involved in the chat on Tuesday, alleging that the use of Signal, which allows for messages to be automatically deleted after a certain time span, violated a federal record-keeping law. The lawsuit was unrelated to the national security implications of the disclosure and instead focused on American Oversight's claim that the messages should count as government records that agencies are legally required to preserve.
(Reuters)

U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders said on Thursday he would force votes next week on resolutions that would block $8.8 billion in arms sales to Israel, citing the human rights crisis faced by Palestinians in Gaza after Israel's bombardment of the enclave and its suspension of aid deliveries. "(Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu has clearly violated U.S. and international law in this brutal war, and we must end our complicity in the carnage," Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, said in a statement announcing his plan. A decades-long tradition of strong bipartisan support for Israel in the U.S. Congress means resolutions to stop weapons sales are unlikely to pass, but backers hope that raising the issue will encourage Israel's government and U.S. administrations to do more to protect civilians.
(Reuters)

Harvard University has announced the suspension of its collaboration with Birzeit University near Ramallah, due to concerns about its links to Palestinian terrorist organizations. After the expiration of the last memorandum of understanding between the parties, the Harvard School of Public Health, the only body that collaborates with the Palestinian university, decided to freeze relations with the academic institution. However, collaborations between individual researchers can continue. The move comes amid pressure from the Trump administration on universities to deal with antisemitism.
(Daniel Edelson, New York)

King Charles III of England, 76, is experiencing "temporary side effects" that have required him to remain under observation in the hospital, following his cancer treatments, Buckingham Palace said. The king's engagements for today and tomorrow have been cancelled.
(News Agencies)

Gazan demonstrations against Hamas continued into the night on Thursday. In Saraya Square in downtown Gaza City, where one of the terrorist organization's "hostage return ceremonies" was held, the crowd chanted: "Hamas out."
(Einav Halabi)

Police reported that six police officers were injured in a Haredi demonstration in Jerusalem against the draft law, some of whom were evacuated for medical treatment. The police also reported that two of the demonstrators were arrested, and that rioters at the protest caused damage, set fire to garbage bins, and threw stones and objects at the police and Border Guard soldiers.
(Liran Tamari)

Israel will perform the 14th song in the second semi-final of the Eurovision Song Contest, out of 16 countries competing on May 15 on stage at the competition in Switzerland. Yuval Rafael will perform the song "New Day Will Rise," and competition experts said that this is a good place in terms of the order of performances, similar to Eden Golan's performance last year.
(Ran Boker)

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi addressed former U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent letter to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, in which Trump urged negotiations on the nuclear deal. "We sent our response to Trump’s message yesterday through Oman," Araghchi stated. "The possibility of indirect negotiations with the U.S. exists, as it has in the past. Our policy remains not to engage in direct talks with the U.S. due to its maximum pressure campaign and military threats. Our response to Trump includes our views on the current situation."
(Lior Ben Ari)

Fourteen members of Congress from both the Democratic and Republican parties wrote to the Nobel Prize Committee, recommending that the Nobel Peace Prize be awarded to the families of the hostages for their work in raising awareness of the plight of their loved ones held captive by Hamas. According to the leaders of the initiative, Democrat Brad Schneider and Republican Max Miller, the awarding of the prize would be "a recognition of the fundamental principle of the sanctity of human life and the uncompromising struggle for justice."
(Daniel Edelson, New York)