The Times of Israel is liveblogging Tuesday’s events as they unfold.

The US ambassador to Turkey says Washington and Ankara are holding talks on purchasing F-35 stealth fighter jets, which it is barred from doing since acquiring the S-400 air defense system from Russia.

“As laid out in US law, Turkey must no longer operate nor possess the S-400 system to return to the F-35 program. The positive relationship between President Trump and President Erdogan has created a new atmosphere of cooperation, which has led to the most fruitful conversations we have had on this topic in nearly a decade,” Ambassador Tom Barrack writes on X.

“Our hope is that these talks will yield a breakthrough in the coming months that meets both the security requirements of the United States and Turkey.”

Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana and US House Majority Leader Mike Johnson announce a joint initiative to mobilize their counterparts worldwide to nominate US President Donald Trump for a Nobel Peace Prize.

The initiative is announced following Ohana’s meeting with Johnson in Washington, and ahead of tomorrow’s Nobel Prize ceremony, when the Peace Prize will be awarded to Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado.

The announcement in October that Machado had been selected to win the award disappointed some who had hoped Trump would be the top candidate due to his efforts to end the war in Gaza.

Ohana and Johnson, in a joint statement, argue that Trump deserves to be nominated for next year’s peace prize, as “throughout his years of public service, President Trump has carried the banner for peace, has been steadfast in his commitment to promoting dialogue, fostering dialogue, and has set an example of leadership on the international stage.”

In addition to his 20-point plan to end the war in Gaza, the pair cite the Abraham Accords and US-brokered ceasefires, pacts, and agreements between India and Pakistan, Thailand and Cambodia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwanda, Azerbaijan and Armenia, Serbia and Kosovo, and Egypt and Ethiopia as accomplishments that prove Trump’s eligibility for the award.

“In accordance with the founding principles of the Nobel Peace Prize, we are united in our beliefs that nobody has advanced peace in 2025 more than President Trump,” the statement says, adding that “few, if any, have done more throughout history to advance the cause of peace” than Trump has.”

The Israel Port Authority has lost contact with an Israeli yacht that was en route to Cyprus, Channel 12 reports.

Connection was severed with the yacht, a short distance from the port in Cyprus, Channel 12 says, and Cypriot authorities have dispatched a vessel to search for it.

There are five people on board the yacht, which set out from Ashdod, in southern Israel, two days ago.

Channel 12 publishes the contents of a confidential 17-page legal opinion that it says was drafted in 2019 for a former associate of President Isaac Herzog, then head of the Jewish Agency and the leading candidate for the presidency, regarding a president’s powers to grant a pardon before a conviction in a political matter. The report is broadcast following Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s official request last week for a pardon from Herzog in his corruption trial without admitting guilt.

The report prompts a firm denial from Herzog’s office of the suggestion, raised in the TV report, that he was involved years ago in preparing a deal under which he would back a pardon for Netanyahu in exchange for Netanyahu’s support for his then-future presidential bid. His office dismisses the report as unfounded and outrageous, denounces its publication as outside the legitimate limits of free speech, and says he has instructed his attorney to immediately take the appropriate legal action.

“There was never any agreement, understanding or acknowledgment between President Isaac Herzog and Prime Minister Benjamin........

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