1/ The House remains leaderless as Steve Scalise doesn’t have the 217 Republican votes needed to become speaker. Despite securing his party’s nomination over Jim Jordan in a conference-wide vote, at least 12 Republicans have publicly refused to back Scalise and more have expressed frustration or skepticism about his leadership. A two-hour, closed-door Republican meeting was described as unproductive and that no candidate is close to garnering the 217 Republican votes needed to win the speaker’s gavel. Without a speaker, the House is paralyzed and unable to move forward on any major items, including spending legislation and aid for Israel and Ukraine. (NBC News / Politico / Washington Post / New York Times / Wall Street Journal / CNBC / Associated Press / CNN)

2/ Federal prosecutors indicted Sen. Bob Menendez on charges of conspiring to act as an illegal foreign agent of Egypt while serving as the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The superseding indictment comes three weeks after a federal grand jury charged Menendez with accepting “hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes” in exchange for his political influence. The new indictment alleges that Menendez “provided sensitive U.S. Government information and took other steps that secretly aided the Government of Egypt.” (Politico / Axios / New York Times / NBC News / Washington Post / Wall Street Journal / CNN / Associated Press)

3/ The U.S. urged Israel to avoid civilian casualties as the Israeli military said its preparing “for the next stage of the war” “to change the reality” in Gaza. Following Hamas’ terror attacks, which have killed more than 1,200 people, Israeli military officials said they’re now ready to “go on the offense” within Gaza. Israeli officials said they plan to capture or kill all of Hamas’s leaders, destroy the group’s militant units and underground tunnel network, and make it impossible for the terrorist organization to govern Gaza. The country has called up 360,000 reservists, who have started ...