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‘Stranger Things’ star Brett Gelman proposes to singer girlfriend Ari Dayan in Jerusalem
(JTA) — The Western Wall and Jerusalem skyline provided the backdrop for actor Brett Gelman’s proposal to his now-fiancée musician Ari Dayan.
The couple, together since 2019, announced their engagement Friday on Instagram.
“SHE SAID YES!!!” Gelman shared. “Can’t wait for Mr. Gelman to become Mr. Dayan,” Dayan wrote.
Gelman, 46, is best known for his roles as the conspiracy theorist and private investigator Murray Bauman on Netflix’s “Stranger Things” and as the insufferable Martin on the BBC comedy “Fleabag.” He grew up in Highland Park, Illinois, a heavily Jewish suburb of Chicago.
Dayan, meanwhile, is a singer and performance artist from California. She has posted videos previously from Tel Aviv and has also shared about her grandmother, a Holocaust survivor whom she said inspired her song “Sara.”
The pair have collaborated in the past, including for the music video for Dayan’s 2022 song “Love” and in a Hanukkah singalong (with Dayan singing in Israeli-accented Hebrew) taped in their Los Angeles home and posted to Instagram.
In a joint interview with Ladygunn in 2022, Gelman called the “Love” video a “total equal collaboration.”
“Ari is a comic genius and her previous videos hadn’t showcased that side of her,” Gelman said. “Plus, the song itself has a celebratory tone to it.”
“We found our mutual voice pretty quickly,” Dayan said. “It has a lot of both of us in it both conceptually and tonally. I find a lot of joy at laughing at myself and I think Brett does too. This is a love letter to that part of ourselves.”
In an interview with W Magazine last year, Gelman said his Jewish background is the motivation behind his approach to the world both in terms of humor and empathy. Coining the term “Jaddy” to refer to a “sexy, Jewish, masculine man,” he said his style role models are actors like Elliott Gould and Richard Dreyfuss who dispel the stereotype of nerdy Jewish men.
Gelman will appear alongside Natalie Portman in the upcoming Apple TV series “Lady in the Lake,” focused on the disappearances and deaths of a Jewish girl and a Black woman who were treated with unequal media attention in the 1960s.
Gelman was previously married, from 2015 to 2018, to the Jewish performance artist Janicza Bravo with whom he collaborated on a film called “Lemon” about a washed-up Jewish actor.
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UK PM Starmer Says There Could Be New Powers to Ban Pro-Palestinian Marches
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer gives a media statement at Downing Street in London, Britain, April 30, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Jack Taylor/File photo
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the government could ban pro-Palestinian marches in some circumstances because of the “cumulative effect” the demonstrations had on the Jewish community after two Jewish men were stabbed in London on Wednesday.
Starmer told the BBC that he would always defend freedom of expression and peaceful protest, but chants like “Globalize the Intifada” during demonstrations were “completely off limits” and those voicing them should be prosecuted.
Pro-Palestinian marches have become a regular feature in London since the October 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel that triggered the Gaza war. Critics say the demonstrations have generated hostility and become a focus for antisemitism.
Protesters have argued they are exercising their democratic right to spotlight ongoing human rights and political issues related to the situation in Gaza.
Starmer said he was not denying there were “very strong legitimate views about the Middle East, about Gaza,” but many people in the Jewish community had told him they were concerned about the repeat nature of the marches.
Asked if the tougher response should focus on chants and banners, or whether the protests should be stopped altogether, Starmer said: “I think certainly the first, and I think there are instances for the latter.”
“I think it’s time to look across the board at protests and the cumulative effect,” he said, adding that the government needed to look at what further powers it could take.
Britain raised its terrorism threat level to “severe” on Thursday amid mounting security concerns that foreign states were helping fuel violence, including against the Jewish community.
“We are seeing an elevated threat to Jewish and Israeli individuals and institutions in the UK,” the head of counter-terrorism policing, Laurence Taylor, said in a statement, adding that police were also working “against an unpredictable global situation that has consequences closer to home, including physical threats by state-linked actors.”
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War Likely to Resume After Trump’s Rejection of Latest Proposal, Says IRGC General
Iranians carry a model of a missile during a celebration following an IRGC attack on Israel, in Tehran, Iran, April 15, 2024. Photo: Majid Asgaripour/WANA (West Asia News Agency) via REUTERS
i24 News – A senior Iranian military figure said that fighting with the US was “likely” to resume after President Donald Trump stated he was dissatisfied with Tehran’s latest proposal, regime media reported on Saturday.
The comments of General Mohammad Jafar Asadi, one of the top Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commanders, were relayed by the Fars news agency, considered as a mouthpiece of the the powerful paramilitary body.
“Evidence has shown that the Americans do not not adhere to any commitments,” Asadi was quoted as saying.
He further added that Washington’s decision-making was “primarily media-driven aimed first at preventing a drop in oil prices and second at extricating themselves from the mess they have created.”
Iranian armed forces are ready “for any new adventures or foolishness from the Americans,” he said, going to assert that the Iran war would prove for the US a tragedy comparable with what was for Israel the October 7 massacre.
“Just as our martyred Leader said that the Zionist regime will never be the same as before the Al‑Aqsa Storm operation [the name chosen by Hamas leadership for the October 7, 2023 massacre in southern Israel], the United States will also never return to what it was before its attack on Iran,” he said. “The world has understood the true nature of America, and no matter how much malice it shows now, it is no longer the America that many once feared.”
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Trump Says US Navy Acting ‘Like Pirates’ to Carry Out Naval Blockade of Iranian Ports
A view of Iranian-flagged cargo ship M/V Touska as the US Navy Arleigh Burke-class Aegis guided missile destroyer USS Spruance conducts its interception in a location given as the north Arabian Sea, in this screen capture from a video released April 19, 2026. Photo: CENTCOM/Handout via REUTERS
President Donald Trump said on Friday the US Navy was acting “like pirates” in carrying out Washington’s naval blockade of Iranian ports during the US and Israel’s war against Iran.
Trump made the comments while describing the seizure by US forces of a ship a few days ago.
“We took over the ship, we took over the cargo, we took over the oil. It’s a very profitable business,” Trump said in remarks on Friday evening. “We’re like pirates. We’re sort of like pirates but we are not playing games.”
Some of Tehran’s vessels have been seized by the US after leaving Iranian ports, along with sanctioned container ships and Iranian tankers in Asian waters.
Iran has blocked nearly all ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz apart from its own since the start of the war. Trump has imposed a separate blockade of Iranian ports.
The US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28. Iran responded with its own strikes on Israel and Gulf states that host US bases. US-Israeli strikes on Iran and Israeli attacks in Lebanon have killed thousands and displaced millions.
The war has raised oil prices and led to the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for about 20 percent of global oil and liquefied natural gas shipments.
Trump, who has offered shifting timelines and goals for the war that remains unpopular in the US, has faced widespread condemnation over his comments on the conflict, including when he threatened to destroy Iran’s entire civilization last month.
Many US experts said last month that American strikes on Iran may amount to war crimes after Trump threatened to target civilian infrastructure.