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China has eliminated nearly one-quarter of its banking institutions in just four years, including a record 670 closures in 2025, as Beijing accelerates a sweeping consolidation campaign aimed at containing weaknesses among smaller lenders and preventing problems in the country’s enormous banking sector from spiraling into broader financial instability.

The vast majority of the institutions that disappeared last year were small rural lenders, with regulators favoring mergers, acquisitions and dissolutions that transfer their assets and liabilities into larger, better-capitalized banks rather than allowing troubled institutions simply to fail.

The restructuring reduced the number of banking institutions in China to 3,139 by the end of 2025, a decline of approximately 23% over four years. China’s largely state-controlled banking system holds an estimated $64 trillion in assets, making its stability critical not only to the Chinese economy but to global financial markets.

The extraordinary consolidation comes amid mounting pressure on China’s smaller banks from the prolonged property downturn, weak domestic credit demand, deflationary pressures and persistently low interest rates, all of which have made it increasingly difficult for lenders to generate profits.

Fitch Ratings has warned that small banks, particularly rural and city-level institutions, “remain the weakest part of the system,” pointing to weak asset quality, limited capital cushions and governance problems that are especially pronounced in less-developed areas.

The financial deterioration can be seen in the profitability of rural lenders. Their return on assets fell to 0.45% during the first half of 2026, compared with 0.56% in 2021.

Bad loans are also considerably more prevalent among those institutions. Rural commercial banks recorded a nonperforming-loan ratio of approximately 2.8%, compared with about 1.5% for China’s banking sector overall.

The disparity reflects the types of borrowers served by many of the smaller institutions. Rural and regional banks frequently have greater exposure to small businesses, financially troubled property developers and local-government financing vehicles, leaving them particularly vulnerable to China’s continuing real-estate slump and the heavy debt burdens of local governments.

“We’ve never seen consolidations on this scale before,” Jason Bedford, a senior visiting research fellow at the National University of Singapore’s East Asian Institute, told the Financial Times.

Bedford said one objective of Beijing’s campaign is to reduce the possibility that vulnerable small lenders could experience liquidity crises that undermine depositor confidence and spread financial stress to other institutions.

Chinese authorities have therefore generally sought to absorb weaker banks into larger ones rather than permit outright collapses. In many cases, assets and liabilities are transferred to stronger institutions, leaving fewer independent banks but theoretically producing larger lenders with stronger balance sheets and more effective supervision.

Fitch said the strategy could improve transparency and regulatory oversight while making it more difficult for small institutions to exploit differences in regulatory requirements.

The problems have not been confined to rural banks. Smaller city-level lenders have increasingly come under scrutiny as Beijing expands its cleanup of the financial system.

One notable case involved troubled Wuhan-based Z-Bank, which authorities moved to absorb into Hankou Bank. The intervention underscored regulators’ willingness to step in directly when they believe problems at an individual institution could threaten depositors or local financial stability.

The episode recalled the dramatic 2019 government takeover of Baoshang Bank, which became one of the most significant Chinese bank failures in decades. Baoshang’s collapse rattled the country’s financial markets and highlighted the vulnerabilities that had accumulated among smaller regional lenders.

At the same time that Beijing is shrinking the number of small banks, it is pouring tens of billions of dollars into some of China’s largest state-controlled financial institutions.

Chinese authorities recently announced a roughly $54 billion capital injection involving major banks and insurers. The package includes approximately 300 billion yuan supplied by the Finance Ministry through special government bonds and another 60 billion yuan from state-controlled tobacco companies.

Among the institutions receiving support are banking giants Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Agricultural Bank of China. The latest infusion follows approximately 520 billion yuan — nearly $70 billion — injected into four major state-owned banks in an earlier recapitalization effort.

The enormous capital injections reflect another pressure confronting Chinese banks: shrinking lending margins. Low interest rates have made borrowing cheaper as Beijing attempts to support economic activity, but they have simultaneously squeezed the difference between what banks earn on loans and what they pay to obtain funds.

Despite the aggressive cleanup, Fitch does not currently expect difficulties among smaller banks to produce a nationwide banking contagion. Many rural lenders operate primarily within limited geographic areas, and their connections to the broader interbank market are relatively modest, reducing the risk that the collapse of one small institution would automatically destabilize the country’s largest banks.

Nevertheless, the unprecedented banking consolidation is unfolding against a broader economic slowdown that has increased pressure on President Xi Jinping’s government to stimulate growth without creating additional financial vulnerabilities.

China’s economy expanded 4.3% from a year earlier during the second quarter of 2026, down from 5% in the first quarter and the slowest quarterly year-over-year pace since 2022. First-half growth stood at 4.7%.

There have been pockets of strength. Manufacturing activity returned to expansion in September, helped in part by demand associated with the global artificial-intelligence boom, while Chinese exports have remained resilient.

Other indicators remain considerably weaker. Domestic consumption and investment continue to lag, the property sector remains under pressure, and industrial profit growth slowed sharply in August.

Industrial profits increased 4.2% from a year earlier in August, down from an 11.2% increase in July. For the first eight months of 2026, however, industrial profits remained 15.7% above their level during the same period last year.

Beijing has responded with additional economic support measures, including lower financing costs, expanded lending programs for infrastructure, technology, farms and private businesses, and mortgage subsidies intended to encourage home purchases and provide support to the battered property market.

The challenge for Chinese policymakers is that many of the measures designed to stimulate the economy — particularly lower interest rates — can further compress bank profitability, while aggressive lending can create additional bad loans if borrowers are already financially strained.

That tension helps explain the speed of Beijing’s banking overhaul. Rather than wait for hundreds of weak regional institutions to encounter individual crises, authorities are attempting to consolidate them while simultaneously strengthening the capital positions of the country’s largest banks.

For now, Beijing’s strategy amounts to a massive restructuring rather than a wave of uncontrolled bank failures: hundreds of smaller institutions are disappearing, their business is being folded into larger lenders, and the government is injecting billions of dollars into major financial institutions in an effort to reinforce the system before China’s economic slowdown exposes deeper weaknesses.

{Matzav.com}

MK Meir Porush declared that United Torah Judaism will refuse to accept coalition positions and will prevent coalition legislation from advancing after the election unless a law is first passed protecting the status of yeshiva bochurim and lomdei Torah from military conscription.

Speaking in an interview with Kol Chai Radio ahead of Election Day, Porush said the position is not merely a campaign pledge, but part of a binding agreement reached between the components of United Torah Judaism as they prepared for the election.

“We signed an explicit agreement between Agudat Yisrael and Degel HaTorah,” Porush said. “We will not be appointed to or serve in any coalition position – not as ministers, not deputy ministers, and not committee chairmen – and we will not allow any coalition legislation to pass as long as the status of yeshiva students and Torah learners is not regulated by law.”

Porush made clear that the commitment is intended to give the party significant leverage over the next government. Even if UTJ joins a coalition politically, he said, its representatives will not allow the coalition to function normally in the Knesset until the draft issue is resolved to their satisfaction.

“Members of Knesset want to advance legislation, and they will understand very well that without a complete solution to the conscription issue, the Knesset will not be able to move forward.”

The declaration follows months of bitter battles over the draft law, which became one of the most explosive issues facing the outgoing Knesset and repeatedly created divisions both between the chareidi parties and the Likud and within the chareidi political camp itself.

Agudas Yisroel, including Porush, adopted a particularly firm position during the previous government, opposing the 2026 state budget in its first reading after the draft issue remained unresolved. Degel HaTorah and Shas supported the budget at that stage amid negotiations over proposed draft legislation, while Agudas Yisroel maintained that it could not support the measure without an acceptable law regulating the status of bnei yeshivos.

Porush and other Agudas Yisroel representatives repeatedly maintained that any acceptable legislation would have to protect those engaged in limud haTorah without quotas or sanctions. The dispute ultimately contributed to the collapse of the chareidi parties’ participation in the governing coalition.

The draft controversy also unfolded amid arrests of yeshiva bochurim accused of failing to report for military service, funding disputes involving yeshivos and other institutions, and a series of court and government legal decisions that chareidi leaders said threatened the continued functioning of the Torah world.

Porush said Sunday that the experience of the past several years demonstrated why the chareidi parties cannot rely solely on political understandings or promises and instead require legislation that formally establishes the status of yeshiva bochurim.

He also focused heavily on the role of Israel’s courts and government legal advisers, warning that decisions made by those institutions can directly affect funding for Torah institutions and the ability of chareidi communities to maintain their way of life.

“The public must understand what happens when the judicial system and legal advisers make unilateral decisions that harm Torah students and institutions,” Porush warned.

Porush argued that the stakes extend well beyond the draft itself, saying that control of the government could determine how funding and other government resources are distributed to chareidi communities across the country.

“If, G-d forbid, the left, led by figures such as Yair Golan or his partners, runs the system, they will be the ones deciding what can be received in each and every city and whether a city whose residents are not to their liking is eligible for funding. Our goal in this campaign is to show the public just how critical these elections are to our existence.”

UTJ is once again contesting the election as a joint chareidi slate, although its internal structure has undergone significant changes. The election list now incorporates Degel HaTorah, Agudas Yisroel and the newly established Chomas Toras Yisroel framework representing Porush’s Shlomei Emunim faction together with the Belzer representation.

Despite the internal political arrangements, Porush said the factions have agreed on the central demand that will govern their conduct after the election: there will be no assumption of government posts and no cooperation in advancing coalition legislation until the legal status of bnei yeshivos and lomdei Torah has been resolved.

The pledge effectively puts any prospective prime minister seeking UTJ’s support on notice that negotiations over the draft law will come before the usual bargaining over ministries, deputy ministries and Knesset committee chairmanships, with Porush insisting that the party will use its parliamentary votes as leverage until an acceptable law is enacted.

A mathematics lecturer at Bar-Ilan University has been indicted on charges that he spent more than three years developing an elaborate plan for 72 armed Jewish attackers to carry out simultaneous terror attacks against Arabs across Israel, with prosecutors alleging that his ultimate objective was to kill hundreds of people and trigger a mass exodus of Arabs and Palestinians from Israel, eastern Yerushalayim, and Yehuda and Shomron.

The State Prosecutor’s Office filed the indictment Monday in the Central District Court in Lod against the lecturer, a Petah Tikva resident in his 60s. A court-imposed gag order currently prohibits publication of his identity.

The defendant is charged with preparing to commit an act of terrorism under Israel’s Counter-Terrorism Law, extortion by threats and obstruction of justice. Prosecutors have also asked the court to order that he remain in custody throughout the proceedings against him.

According to the indictment, the defendant’s ideas developed against the backdrop of the violence during Operation Guardian of the Walls in 2021 and intensified following the outbreak of the Iron Swords War. Prosecutors say he devised an ideological-nationalist program that he called “Ayt,” a Hebrew acronym meaning “A Nation Will Carry Out Transfer.”

The prosecution alleges that his preparations began in February 2023 and continued until his arrest in September 2026. During that period, he allegedly transformed the idea into a detailed operational plan, prepared extensive written materials, conducted reconnaissance and spent approximately a year and a half trying unsuccessfully to recruit others to participate.

The scale of the alleged plan was extensive. Prosecutors say the lecturer envisioned assembling 72 Jewish attackers, at least half of whom would possess firearms licenses, and dividing them into 12 separate cells of six people each. The defendant himself intended to participate as one of the attackers.

The cells were allegedly supposed to launch attacks simultaneously in mixed Jewish-Arab cities and Arab communities around the country, using the element of surprise to overwhelm security forces and produce mass casualties. The proposed arsenal included handguns, rifles, axes and hammers.

According to additional details contained in the indictment, the defendant envisioned the attacks killing hundreds of people. Some reports citing the planning documents put the contemplated death toll at between 600 and 700.

The alleged scheme went considerably further. Prosecutors say the defendant hoped to recruit sympathetic individuals from within the IDF who could provide support to the attacking cells, including assistance involving the Air Force, artillery and armored forces against Arab population centers.

His stated objective, according to prosecutors, was to create such widespread bloodshed and fear that Arab Israelis, Bedouins, Arabs living in eastern Yerushalayim and Palestinians in Yehuda and Shomron would flee or be permanently driven to Jordan, Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.

The documents allegedly contained operational instructions for what the defendant described as putting the plan into effect “here and now.” Those instructions called for quickly taking control of flashpoint areas, roads, entrances and exits to Arab communities, mixed cities and hospitals while carrying out mass killings.

One of the most disturbing passages cited from the defendant’s writings concerned the treatment of civilians. In one document, according to the indictment, he wrote: “Do not have mercy even on the women and children.”

Prosecutors maintain that the plan did not remain confined to writings and theoretical discussions. The defendant allegedly took concrete steps toward implementation, including conducting reconnaissance around the Arab town of Tuba-Zangariyye in northern Israel to study possible access routes and methods of attack. The community was reportedly intended to serve as one of the principal targets.

Investigators also say he spent approximately 18 months trying to locate people willing to participate in the operation. Those recruitment efforts were unsuccessful, and there is no allegation that the 72-person force he envisioned was ever actually assembled.

A significant portion of the indictment centers on the defendant’s repeated attempts to involve Moshe Feiglin, who is running in the upcoming election as part of the joint Zehut-Religious Zionism Party slate.

According to prosecutors, the lecturer believed Feiglin could help him recruit participants. His plan allegedly called for carefully selected activists to be invited to a Zehut campaign gathering, where they would suddenly be informed that they had been chosen to participate in an attack scheduled for the following day.

The defendant attended two public events at which Feiglin appeared and repeatedly attempted to arrange a personal meeting with him and deliver a summary of the plan. Prosecutors stressed that Feiglin did not respond to the approaches and had no involvement in the alleged scheme.

Feiglin said Monday that he had been receiving correspondence from the defendant for an extended period but had not taken it seriously.

“I have been receiving repeated letters for quite a long time that I did not take seriously,” Feiglin said.

After the attempts to secure Feiglin’s cooperation failed, prosecutors allege that the defendant escalated his efforts as the election approached. He allegedly sent Feiglin a letter threatening to make its contents public in a manner he believed would politically damage Feiglin unless he agreed to cooperate and help advance the plan.

The lecturer allegedly traveled to Feiglin’s home and left the letter with a neighbor to deliver to him. He subsequently attended a Zehut event at Yerushalayim’s Machane Yehuda market and passed additional copies to the party’s director-general through another woman.

Prosecutors say the defendant simultaneously went to considerable lengths to prevent investigators from tracing his activities. He allegedly avoided creating his planning documents on a computer and instead wrote them by hand, operated under a false name and appeared at meetings wearing a mask, hat and sunglasses.

He is also accused of borrowing the phones of unsuspecting passersby when contacting people he hoped to recruit, apparently in an effort to prevent the communications from being traced back to his own device.

The prosecution says the lengthy duration of the planning, the reconnaissance, the detailed operational documents, the recruitment attempts and the measures allegedly taken to conceal his identity demonstrate that the scheme had progressed beyond the expression of extremist ideas into concrete preparations for a terrorist attack.

In asking that the lecturer remain jailed until the conclusion of the case, prosecutors described the alleged plan as the product of an “extreme and murderous ideology” and argued that his repeated efforts to move it toward implementation demonstrate that he presents a serious and immediate danger.

The defendant has not been convicted of the charges, and the allegations contained in the indictment will now have to be proven in court. His name remains barred from publication under the existing gag order.

{Matzav.com}

A potentially critical Israeli database containing information on international passengers and flight crews was never used by the Transportation Ministry, according to reports emerging in the aftermath of the attempted Flydubai terror attack, prompting political commentator Amit Segal to brand the failure a “real scandal.”

The revelation has become a central element of the growing controversy over how Hamam al-Hammami, the Omani co-pilot accused of trying to seize and crash Flydubai Flight FZ1073, was permitted to serve aboard a flight to Israel despite his nationality and reported history of extremist concerns.

“The Transportation Ministry’s failure is glaring in one central area: a National Passenger Profiling Center was established,” Segal wrote.

The National Passenger Profiling Center was established under legislation approved in 2023 to collect and analyze information supplied by airlines about passengers and crew members on international flights. The data can be used for purposes that include combating terrorism and protecting civil aviation.

According to Segal, government bodies entitled to use the system were expected to authorize employees who could access the information and perform searches tailored to their particular responsibilities.

He pointed to the Health Ministry as one example, saying officials could use the system to identify travelers arriving from countries experiencing disease outbreaks. The Transportation Ministry, he argued, could similarly use it to identify pilots or crew members from hostile countries.

The database was not merely theoretical, Segal noted, saying it had previously demonstrated its usefulness by assisting authorities in locating Israeli women who went missing in Vienna.

But Segal charged that the Transportation Ministry failed to take even the basic steps necessary to make use of the system.

“The Transportation Ministry never bothered to authorize employees, never submitted a single query, and did not even bother to pay its share of the database.”

“If it was decided that pilots from hostile countries are not allowed in, how are you going to identify them if you didn’t bother to do your basic part and actually check? It’s a real scandal,” he added.

The criticism comes amid a widening examination of the Israeli government’s handling of security for foreign airlines, with multiple reports indicating that information about the Flydubai crew was already inside an Israeli government system before the flight departed Dubai.

The Israel Tax Authority has confirmed that information concerning the pilots and cabin crew was transferred to the National Passenger Profiling Center before the flight. The information supplied by airlines includes identifying details such as names, nationalities and travel-document information.

That is particularly significant because al-Hammami was an Omani citizen. Oman does not maintain diplomatic relations with Israel, and the attack has exposed questions over why his nationality did not prompt additional scrutiny before he was permitted to operate a Tel Aviv-bound flight.

Reports indicate that while the information existed in the Israeli system, it was not pulled from the database by the relevant Transportation Ministry officials for examination. The ministry was legally permitted to request queries or assessments from the center but reportedly had never sought to activate that access since the system was established.

The Shin Bet, Mossad and Israel Police, by contrast, are among the agencies authorized to maintain their own branches of the system. Reports have indicated that the Mossad also did not check the Flydubai crew list before the flight, underscoring the broader questions now being raised about how responsibilities were divided among Israel’s various agencies.

The system itself may also have weaknesses. Crew information can sometimes reach the database only shortly before an aircraft’s doors close, and in some instances after departure, leaving authorities with a narrow window in which to identify a potential security problem. That process is now reportedly being examined as part of the broader investigation.

The Flydubai case also exposed a longstanding practice under which foreign airline crew members holding citizenship from countries without diplomatic relations with Israel were able to enter Ben Gurion Airport. Only after the attempted attack were instructions tightened to prevent airlines from assigning such crew members to Israel-bound flights.

The controversy has grown further because the underlying security gaps were reportedly identified well before the Flydubai attack. An internal National Security Council document found that the Transportation Ministry was not fulfilling responsibilities assigned to it under previous decisions concerning foreign aviation security.

The same issue reportedly surfaced in a classified State Comptroller report and in discussions involving the Transportation Ministry, National Security Council, Shin Bet and Mossad, indicating that concerns over the division of responsibility had been circulating within the government for some time.

Transportation Ministry professionals had themselves warned that their office lacked the capabilities necessary to shoulder the broader security responsibilities being assigned to it. Nevertheless, those responsibilities remained with the ministry, while no replacement system was established to bridge the gap between intelligence held by Israeli agencies and the screening that needed to be performed on incoming foreign crews.

Another issue now receiving scrutiny is the size of the ministry unit responsible for the task. The Transportation Ministry’s Security, Emergency and Cyber Division has responsibilities spanning aviation, maritime transportation and ground transportation, yet reportedly operates with only about 10 permanent full-time employees after departures and unfilled positions reduced its staffing.

Transportation Ministry officials have pushed back strongly against attempts to place responsibility for the Flydubai failure solely on the ministry. They argue that the ministry is not an intelligence service and does not possess the manpower or intelligence capabilities necessary to conduct independent security-background investigations of every passenger and crew member flying to Israel.

Ministry officials have also maintained that the names of the Flydubai pilots were not sent directly to their security division before the flight, even though the crew list was transmitted to the National Passenger Profiling Center. They have further acknowledged that existing procedures did not contemplate a scenario in which a commercial pilot himself would attempt to carry out a terror attack.

The ministry has additionally argued that some of the criticism has blurred the distinction between its responsibilities for regularly scheduled foreign flights and those involving charter operations.

The dispute over responsibility has intensified following reports that Emirati authorities transmitted the flight’s passenger and crew information, including nationalities, to Israel before departure and that Israel raised no objection to anyone aboard the aircraft.

Israeli Prime Minister Binyomin Netanyahu has now ordered a comprehensive investigation into the security arrangements governing foreign civilian aviation to Israel. On Sunday evening, Netanyahu instructed National Security Council chief Shmuel Ben-Ezra to appoint an examiner to review the entire system and determine where the failures occurred.

The review is expected to examine not only why al-Hammami was not flagged, but the larger question now hanging over Israel’s aviation-security apparatus: how critical information could have been sitting inside an Israeli government database before the flight took off without anyone responsible for protecting the flight making use of it.

{Matzav.com}

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul declared a statewide disaster emergency Monday in response to a rapidly growing measles outbreak, giving health professionals expanded authority to vaccinate and test residents as cases spread through rural communities across the state.

The executive order comes after New York recorded 108 confirmed measles cases so far in 2026 as of Oct. 3, including 101 cases outside New York City and seven within the five boroughs. That is more than double the 48 cases reported statewide during all of 2025.

The sharpest increase has occurred in recent weeks. Since July 15, 92 cases have been reported in under-immunized rural communities spanning 18 counties, prompting local health departments to administer more than 1,000 doses of the measles, mumps and rubella, or MMR, vaccine.

“After reviewing the latest data on measles cases in New York State, I am declaring a State Disaster Emergency to strengthen our ongoing efforts to confront this disease,” Hochul said. “No one should get seriously ill or die from a vaccine-preventable disease. That is why I have taken steps to increase the number of health professionals who can vaccinate and test. These emergency measures will protect New Yorkers and support our community partners as they work tirelessly to address the spread of this disease.”

The emergency declaration does not impose lockdowns or restrictions on the general public. Instead, it temporarily expands the number of medical professionals authorized to administer measles vaccines and conduct or order testing, allowing the state to respond more quickly in communities where infections are appearing.

Under Hochul’s order, paramedics, advanced EMS providers, pharmacists and midwives are among those newly authorized to administer measles vaccinations. Nurses are also being given expanded authority to order measles testing, rather than requiring every test to be ordered by a physician.

The largest concentrations of cases outside New York City have been reported in several upstate counties. Otsego County has recorded 20 cases, Seneca County 17 and Steuben County 14. Cases have also been reported across Western, Central and other parts of upstate New York.

The outbreak has been particularly concerning to health officials because many of the affected areas have relatively low childhood vaccination rates. State data show that, as of the beginning of 2026, 80.9% of children statewide had received at least one MMR dose by age 2. Rates vary significantly by county, including 71.2% in Seneca County, 77.5% in Otsego County and 79.1% in Steuben County.

New York’s outbreak is occurring as measles cases have surged nationally. As of Oct. 1, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had recorded 3,887 confirmed cases across the United States in 2026, compared with 2,289 during all of 2025. Ninety-five percent of this year’s cases have been associated with outbreaks.

New York health officials have also been closely watching neighboring Pennsylvania, where a major outbreak has sickened hundreds of people. The spread across state lines has heightened concerns in rural counties in New York’s Southern Tier and western regions.

State Health Commissioner Dr. James McDonald said health officials are working with local departments and regional partners to identify infections, trace contacts and contain further transmission.

“I appreciate Governor Hochul’s swift action to help address ongoing measles cases. Department staff are working closely with local health departments and regional partners to track and contain the current measles outbreak. The measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine is the best protection — protecting nearly all people against disease who receive the recommended doses. I urge New Yorkers to check their vaccination status and make sure that they and their families are protected. I also ask health providers to be prepared to diagnose and treat any measles cases they encounter.”

Measles is an extremely contagious viral illness spread through coughing and sneezing. An infected person can transmit the virus beginning four days before the appearance of the characteristic rash and continuing until four days after the rash develops, meaning people can spread the illness before realizing they have it.

Symptoms generally begin seven to 14 days after infection, although they can take as long as 21 days to appear. Early symptoms commonly include a high fever, cough, runny nose and red or watery eyes. Several days later, a rash typically begins near the hairline and spreads downward across the face, neck, trunk, arms and legs. Fever can rise above 104 degrees when the rash appears.

Health officials say people exposed to measles may be required to quarantine for 21 days after exposure, while those who become infected should remain isolated through four days after their rash appears.

The state says one dose of the MMR vaccine is approximately 93% effective at preventing measles, while two doses are approximately 97% effective. Most people born before 1957 are generally presumed to have immunity because measles circulated widely before widespread vaccination.

People uncertain about their vaccination status are being advised to contact their doctor or local health department. Health officials are also urging anyone who develops symptoms after a possible exposure to call a healthcare facility before arriving so that precautions can be taken to prevent exposing other patients and staff.

The Hochul administration has also directed the state Health Department to continue publishing information about confirmed cases through its measles dashboard as officials monitor whether the outbreak continues to spread.

{Matzav.com}

Lakewood, NJ Township officials have approved significant spending cuts, imposed a hiring freeze and sharply curtailed overtime as they struggle to close a multimillion-dollar budget gap, with officials warning that municipal layoffs could follow next year.

The belt-tightening comes despite another sizable increase in municipal property taxes. Under the township’s newly approved 2026 budget, the owner of a home assessed at $375,000 will pay an estimated $541 more in municipal taxes. That follows average increases of approximately $300 last year and $225 in 2024.

The final spending plan totals roughly $155.5 million, down substantially from the approximately $163.5 million budget initially proposed over the summer. Township officials say they were forced to eliminate planned expenditures after confronting a budget shortfall that had initially approached $8 million.

Mayor Ray Coles said the township is already operating under strict spending controls.

“We had a budget we planned to put through the end of the year that is now not going to be spent,” Coles said. “They went through the budget, they eliminated expenses whenever possible, the majority of that in overtime.”

The township’s financial difficulties stem from several factors, including increased snow-removal expenses and lower-than-anticipated state assistance. Officials had hoped for additional state funding to help Lakewood contend with the extraordinary costs associated with its rapidly expanding population.

Coles said the state budget ultimately included the original $5 million aid package, leaving the township with a substantial hole to fill. Additional state assistance secured with the help of state Sen. Robert Singer reduced the deficit, but not enough to avoid significant spending reductions.

“I admit this is the hardest budget we have faced in many years,” Coles said.

Township CFO John Barrett confirmed that officials are already considering personnel reductions for the next budget year.

“We are looking at a layoff plan for the township,” Barrett said.

No number has been announced for possible layoffs, and officials have not identified which departments would be affected.

The prospect represents a significant reversal for Lakewood, which in recent years has added police officers, public works personnel and other municipal employees to accommodate extraordinary population growth.

Coles said officials are attempting to protect essential services, particularly public safety.

“I don’t want to think about a cutback on police. We are investigating other areas I can’t go into right now.”

The effects of the current spending restrictions are already becoming apparent. Coles said that during a recent nor’easter, police and fire personnel continued answering emergency calls, but some customary preparations — including advance sewer clearing and neighborhood checks — were curtailed.

“We had the bare minimum and just responded to things when they happened,” he said.

With Lakewood continuing to grow rapidly and the township facing another difficult budget cycle next year, Coles acknowledged that the financial outlook remains troubling.

“I’m very worried about next year,” he said

{Matzav.com}

[Video below.] Maran Rav Dov Landau, Rosh Yeshiva of Slabodka, sharply criticized Religious Zionism, army service and Zionism itself in a conversation recorded at his Bnei Brak home and newly publicized by Israeli media.

The recording, which was reportedly made approximately a year and a half ago and was aired Monday by Israel’s Channel 12, captures Rav Landau discussing the fundamental ideological differences between the chareidi and Religious Zionist communities, including the question of how chareidi bochurim should view the sacrifices of Religious Zionist soldiers who combine Torah learning with IDF service.

“The confused people with the knitted kippot, we won’t talk about them. They have their own theories, and it’s difficult with them,” Rav Landau said.

Rav Landau maintained that the true protection of the Jewish people comes from limud haTorah, and he linked the deaths of soldiers to what he described as insufficient Torah learning and an incorrect understanding of the Torah’s approach to warfare.

“Those who are killed, they were killed because we don’t learn enough. We could save even more,” he said. “They are killed because their rabbis teach them a distorted Torah. And they do a lot of what they do not to save people, but for the glory of the state. They kill people for glory.”

In the latest recording, Rav Landau argued that the continued survival of the Jewish population in Eretz Yisroel cannot be explained through military strength alone. Instead, he said, the merit and spiritual protection generated by lomdei Torah is what protects the country’s residents.

“There is no explanation why Arabs don’t join together to flood the entire land, and G-d forbid, annihilate us all. There is no explanation,” he said, referring to the protection provided by Torah study.

Rav Landau then turned to a broader discussion of Zionism and the establishment of the State of Israel, questioning the assumption that Jewish sovereignty was necessary for Jewish life to flourish in Eretz Yisroel.

“I don’t know what would have happened if, at the beginning, there had been no state and they had established some kind of UN rule here – the situation would have been excellent,” he said. “It is possible to live without a state, to live well with the Arabs… It was quite good when Arabs ruled here; that was the best situation. The Arabs ruled, they were respected, and people did not interfere with them. Money was brought into the country, and Arabs like money.”

Rav Landau also blamed the Zionist movement for worsening Arab hostility toward the Jewish population, arguing that the establishment of the Zionist movement and its political aspirations transformed an already difficult relationship into a far more dangerous conflict.

“They caused the Arabs to hate us. The Arabs were never good, but they had to be respected,” he said. According to him, Zionism, which he said sought “to save the Jewish people,” brought “the physical disasters, not only the spiritual ones, upon the Jewish people.”

Rav Landau acknowledged in the conversation that whatever his view of the creation of the state, the present-day reality is entirely different. Millions of Jews now live within Israel’s political and security framework, and the chareidi community itself depends in numerous ways on state institutions and the security provided by the country’s armed forces.

“What difference does that make now? What are we supposed to do now? If we live among robbers and the robbers are saving us, what can we do? It is a problem, a very big problem,” he said.

Addressing the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Rav Landau said that he does not believe Palestinian assurances can presently be trusted, while suggesting that at an earlier stage there might have been room for certain concessions that were permissible according to halacha.

“To say that one day they will stop? It is no longer possible to believe them. But perhaps certain permissible concessions could have been made,” he said.

Rav Landau also spoke harshly about secular Israeli society, contrasting the secular public of today with the nonreligious Jews he remembers from earlier periods.

“The problem is that today’s secular people are not the secular people I remember,” he said. “These are people who have no connection whatsoever to Judaism, nothing. It is terrible and awful. In my opinion, this is a very great desecration of G-d’s name.”

He concluded by returning to what he sees as the fundamental spiritual problem with Jewish sovereignty when the state itself is not governed according to the Torah.

“The fact that the people of Israel, who are G-d’s people, established a state of apostasy and heresy – this is a very serious lesson.”

{Matzav.com}

[Video below.] Israeli President Isaac Herzog said Monday that Israel’s battle against Islamist terrorism extends far beyond its own borders, declaring that the Jewish state is “protecting the West and the free world” as he discussed the Flydubai terror attack, the Iranian threat and the third anniversary of the October 7 massacre in an interview with Fox News.

Appearing on “America’s Newsroom” with Dana Perino, Herzog said Israel’s response to the Hamas-led October 7 attack was an act of self-defense against forces whose ambitions threaten the broader free world. He also warned that Iran must never be permitted to obtain nuclear capabilities.

Herzog addressed the widening investigation into the attempted hijacking of Flydubai Flight FZ1073, including the revelation that the Omani co-pilot accused of trying to bring down the plane had previously been barred from flying by Oman Air amid concerns over extremist views.

“Prime Minister Netanyahu announced that our national security adviser, Shmuel Ben Ezra, and his team will review this and investigate it in depth in order to see where the gaps were and what faults there were,” Herzog said. He noted that Israel is also working with the United Arab Emirates and other relevant agencies in the region as investigators attempt to determine how the suspect was allowed into the cockpit of an Israel-bound aircraft.

Netanyahu on Sunday ordered a comprehensive review of security procedures governing foreign civilian flights to Israel. The inquiry comes amid mounting questions over failures in intelligence sharing, crew screening and the division of responsibility among Israeli agencies for vetting foreign airline personnel.

Herzog said the Flydubai episode demonstrated both how close the region came to a potentially catastrophic attack and how urgently aviation security procedures must be strengthened.

“We’re seeing a clear evidence of a terror attack, a terror attack which could have changed the world literally and definitely the region,” he said. “That means, of course, that above the miracles that were there, there’s also the need to repair and be better next time.”

The Flydubai attack occurred aboard a Dubai-to-Tel Aviv flight carrying more than 170 people, when the co-pilot allegedly attacked the captain in the cockpit and attempted to seize control of the aircraft. Passengers and crew ultimately subdued the attacker, and the plane made an emergency landing in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.

The incident has triggered investigations across several countries and raised serious questions about how the co-pilot was hired and permitted to fly to Israel despite having previously been removed from flying duties over concerns about his extremist views. Investigators have thus far not established that Iran or another foreign government or terrorist organization directed the attack.

Turning to the continuing confrontation with Tehran, Herzog was asked about President Donald Trump’s warning that the Iranian crisis could ultimately be resolved “the easy way or the hard way.” Herzog said Trump’s characterization accurately reflected the stakes facing Israel, the Middle East and the West.

“We are dealing with an empire of evil, which wants to really radicalize the world, conquer the free world, get all the way to Europe and the United States. That’s the jihadist regime philosophy,” Herzog said. “That’s what Tehran is doing. And that is why they must not have any access to nuclear capabilities at all.”

Herzog said apprehension over Iran extends well beyond Israel, arguing that governments throughout the Middle East understand the danger posed by Tehran even when they do not publicly acknowledge it. Regional countries, he said, are increasingly cooperating to prevent Iran and what he described as its “empire of proxies” from reshaping the Middle East.

He pointed in particular to the threat emanating from Yemen and the repeated disruption of international shipping near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, one of the world’s critical maritime routes.

“A small tribe is blocking a main artery of world trade,” Herzog said. “Meaning, are we going to cave into terror, harassment, blackmail or not? And that is why the war with Iran is so essential.”

The interview came as Israel entered a painful week of remembrance marking three years since the October 7, 2023, massacre. Herzog said Monday marked the anniversary according to the Hebrew calendar, while Wednesday would mark three years according to the secular calendar.

“We have a whole week of ceremonies, huge agony, pain and sorrow, reminiscing and memory, but also a lesson to all of us. We must fight terror together,” he said.

Herzog also recalled his July 2023 address to a joint session of Congress, delivered less than three months before the massacre. He said he had warned at the time that terrorism represented one of the principal obstacles standing between Israel and a more peaceful Middle East.

“We want peace. We want peace with our neighbors. We did not seek that war. It was waged upon us by horrific, barbaric terrorists who raped, butchered, abducted and killed our citizens,” Herzog said.

The Hamas-led assault on southern Israel on October 7 killed approximately 1,200 people and saw 251 people abducted into Gaza, setting off the war that has reshaped Israel and the wider Middle East over the ensuing three years.

Herzog said Israel had no choice but to respond militarily after the massacre and argued that the country’s soldiers have fundamentally altered the strategic reality of the region.

He added: “With our inherent right to self-defense, we went out to fight and we changed the route of the Middle East with our heroic fighters.”

Despite the sustained international criticism directed at Israel over its military operations, Herzog said the broader significance of Israel’s campaign is often overlooked.

“The truth of the matter is that Israel is protecting the West and the free world by its activities.”
WATCH:

{Matzav.com}

Karoline Leavitt is headed to Fox News, with the former White House press secretary set to become an on-air contributor beginning Nov. 1, the network announced Monday.

The 29-year-old will provide political commentary and analysis across Fox News Media programming, giving her a prominent television role just over two months after stepping down as President Donald Trump’s chief White House spokeswoman.

Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott said Leavitt’s time inside the Trump White House, coupled with her experience on the campaign trail, would give the network’s audience an unusual firsthand perspective on Washington and national politics.

“Karoline’s firsthand experience in the White House and on the presidential campaign trail gives her a distinct understanding of today’s political landscape. We look forward to her providing our audience with authentic and sharp insight across all FOX News Media platforms.”

Leavitt also issued a statement welcoming the move, saying she was excited to officially join a network on which she has appeared frequently for years.

“I am grateful for the opportunity to continue appearing on FOX News Channel as an official member of the extraordinary team at FOX News Media. I look forward to bringing my unique perspective from my experience as White House Press Secretary, along with the same energy and candor that defined my tenure, to Fox’s millions of viewers across their many platforms.”

Leavitt served as the 36th White House press secretary from January 2025 through August 2026, becoming the youngest person ever to hold the position. She emerged as one of the Trump administration’s most recognizable public faces, regularly defending the president and his policies from the White House briefing-room podium and in television interviews.

Her tenure also brought significant changes to the White House press operation, including expanded access for independent and nontraditional media through a “new media” seat in the briefing room.

Leavitt announced in August that she would leave the administration after concluding that the demands of the job were becoming too difficult to balance with raising her two young children. She had given birth to her second child, a daughter, in May before returning to her White House duties.

At the time of her departure, President Trump praised Leavitt and made clear that she would remain part of his political circle as a top outside adviser. Leavitt also confirmed that she planned to return to MAGA Inc., the Trump-aligned super PAC for which she had worked before joining his 2024 presidential campaign.

Her new Fox News position appears to allow her to remain involved in national politics while living in New Hampshire, where she recently returned with her family. Fox News is reportedly preparing an in-home studio for Leavitt, allowing her to make regular appearances without relocating to New York or Washington.

Leavitt’s relationship with Trump dates back to his first administration, when she worked as a presidential writer and later as an assistant White House press secretary. She subsequently became communications director for then-House Republican Conference Chair Rep. Elise Stefanik.

In 2022, Leavitt launched her own campaign for Congress in New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District. She won the Republican nomination but was defeated in the general election.

She later became a spokeswoman for MAGA Inc. before joining Trump’s 2024 campaign as national press secretary, where she became one of his most visible surrogates and defenders during the presidential race.

Following Trump’s victory, Leavitt was tapped to serve as White House press secretary. She was 27 when she assumed the post, making her the youngest person in American history to serve in the role.

Leavitt’s move to Fox News also marks something of a return to where her media career began. While attending Saint Anselm College, she interned at Fox News during the 2016 presidential election. She graduated in 2019 with a degree in politics and communication.

The move also places Leavitt alongside another Trump White House press secretary at Fox. Kayleigh McEnany, who served as press secretary during Trump’s first administration, later joined the network and currently co-hosts “Outnumbered” while also hosting a weekend program.

Leavitt will officially begin her new role on Nov. 1 and is expected to appear throughout the Fox News lineup rather than being assigned to a single program.

She currently lives in New Hampshire with her husband, Nick, and their two young children.

Hamam al-Hammami, the Omani co-pilot accused of trying to hijack and crash a Flydubai passenger jet bound for Israel, has told investigators that the attack was motivated by the war in Gaza and that he hoped to die while carrying it out, according to new details from the multinational investigation.

“I did it as revenge for Gaza. I wanted to die as a shahid,” al-Hammami told investigators.

The admission provides the clearest indication yet of the alleged motive behind the terrifying incident aboard Flydubai Flight FZ1073, while investigators continue trying to determine whether al-Hammami conceived the plot on his own or received assistance, encouragement or instructions from another individual or organization.

The Shin Bet is now participating in the Israeli investigation, a detail cleared for publication Monday evening, as Israeli intelligence agencies work alongside information being gathered by authorities in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

Investigators have also learned that the alleged plot appears to have been in the works long before last week’s flight. According to officials familiar with the investigation, al-Hammami told UAE interrogators that he had planned an attack even before joining Flydubai. He had previously flown the sensitive route to Israel and is believed to have contemplated carrying out an attack on an earlier flight before ultimately abandoning the plan.

Investigators believe his intended target last week was Ben Gurion Airport, though reports have also indicated that other prominent targets in the Tel Aviv area were considered. The attack unfolded as the plane was nearing Israel, when al-Hammami allegedly assaulted the captain, Smit Machchhar, with an emergency crash ax kept in the cockpit and attempted to seize control of the Boeing 737.

The aircraft plunged dramatically before the wounded captain managed to get the cockpit door open, allowing passengers and crew members to overpower al-Hammami. Other qualified pilots aboard the flight then helped regain control of the aircraft, which made an emergency landing in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia.

Authorities are now scrutinizing how al-Hammami was permitted anywhere near the cockpit of an Israel-bound aircraft. He had previously worked for Oman Air but was removed from flying duties amid concerns about extremist views. Despite those warning signs, he was subsequently hired by Flydubai and ultimately assigned to flights serving Israel.

Investigators are also reviewing al-Hammami’s previous travel, including brief visits to countries hostile to Israel. During a Security Cabinet meeting Sunday, a Mossad representative briefed ministers on information uncovered during the investigation.

According to two people who attended the meeting, the Mossad representative told ministers: “We discovered that in recent years, the terrorist visited countries hostile to Israel, some of them enemy states. These were brief visits. We are investigating whether, during those visits, someone or some organization recruited or directed him.”

At the same time, early findings have increasingly pointed toward the possibility that al-Hammami was acting as a lone attacker. Israeli officials familiar with the investigation have said that the evidence examined so far has not established that a terrorist organization or foreign government directed the plot. Investigators have stressed, however, that the inquiry remains active and that the possibility of outside involvement has not been closed.

A central piece of that investigation is al-Hammami’s cellphone. Saudi and UAE investigators have access to the device and are examining its contents, including communications and other stored information that could shed light on his contacts, movements and preparations before the attack.

Israeli officials hope the cellphone examination will help establish whether al-Hammami communicated with extremists or operatives before the flight and whether anyone knew of, encouraged or assisted his alleged plan. The device could also help investigators reconstruct how long the attack had been under preparation.

UAE authorities have separately questioned the Flydubai flight attendants who were aboard the aircraft. Information relayed to Israel indicates that investigators have found no evidence that members of the cabin crew participated in the plot or knowingly assisted al-Hammami.

The flight attendants reportedly described being confused amid the chaos aboard the aircraft but denied having any role in the attempt to seize and crash the plane. Israeli authorities have received reports from the UAE concerning those interrogations.

The Emirates, however, have not permitted Israeli investigators to directly participate in questioning the crew. Israel is therefore relying in part on investigative material and findings transmitted by Emirati authorities while conducting its own intelligence examination.

The widening probe is also focusing intense attention on a series of security failures across several countries. Al-Hammami had reportedly been sidelined from flying by Oman Air because of concerns about his extremist views, yet those concerns did not prevent him from obtaining another cockpit position with Flydubai.

Questions have also emerged in Israel over how an Omani national was cleared to operate flights into the country despite Oman having no diplomatic relations with Israel. Reports indicate that Israeli authorities had access to information about the flight’s crew before the aircraft departed, raising questions about why al-Hammami’s identity and background did not trigger additional scrutiny.

Israeli Prime Minister Binyomin Netanyahu has ordered a broad review of the procedures governing foreign commercial flights entering Israel, as officials examine failures in the exchange and screening of crew information and determine which agencies were responsible for vetting those aboard incoming aircraft.

For investigators, however, the immediate question remains whether the man who now says he wanted to exact “revenge for Gaza” and “die as a shahid” was a self-radicalized attacker who exploited a chain of security failures — or whether someone else helped put him in position to try to turn a passenger jet into a weapon.

{Matzav.com}

The Omani Flydubai copilot accused of attacking his captain and attempting to seize control of an Israel-bound passenger jet allegedly conceived the plot before he was even hired by the airline, and specifically sought employment with a carrier that flew to Tel Aviv, according to two Israeli officials familiar with the investigation.

The startling new details, reportedly based on statements the suspect has made during interrogation in the United Arab Emirates, suggest that last Wednesday’s attack aboard Flydubai Flight FZ1073 was the culmination of a plan that had been developing for more than a year — and that the suspect may previously have come close to carrying it out.

According to two Israeli officials briefed on the investigation, the copilot told Emirati interrogators that he had already planned the attack before applying to Flydubai. The officials said he searched for airlines operating flights to Tel Aviv and subsequently applied for a position with the Dubai government-owned carrier.

A third source briefed on the UAE investigation said the suspect’s intended target was Ben Gurion Airport, where he planned to deliberately crash the aircraft.

Even more alarmingly, the source said the copilot had flown to Tel Aviv earlier this year and had intended to hijack and crash the aircraft on that occasion as well. He ultimately abandoned the plan during that flight. Investigators have not established publicly why he changed his mind, although he is believed to have known someone aboard the aircraft at the time.

The disclosures significantly deepen questions over how the suspect was hired, how his background was vetted and how he was subsequently permitted to serve as first officer on flights to Israel despite indications that he had previously raised security concerns elsewhere.

The suspect has been identified by multiple sources familiar with the investigation as Hamam al-Hammami, an Omani national. Israeli officials have publicly confirmed that the copilot is from Oman but have not officially released his name, while UAE authorities and Flydubai have also not publicly identified him.

Al-Hammami was reportedly previously flagged while training with Oman Air over concerns about extremist views. According to officials familiar with his history, he was suspended from flying duties there in 2024 after extremist material was discovered in his possession. He was reportedly shifted away from flying before later securing employment with Flydubai.

He also completed a three-month theoretical training program with Royal Air Maroc in 2025 as part of that airline’s pre-employment process, but was ultimately not hired.

Investigators are now examining how those earlier warning signs failed to prevent him from entering the cockpit of a commercial aircraft carrying more than 170 passengers and crew, most of them Israelis.

The alleged attack unfolded Wednesday aboard Flight FZ1073, which departed Dubai for Tel Aviv. UAE authorities have since formally described what occurred aboard the aircraft as a “terrorist attack.”

According to the UAE prosecutor general, the copilot attacked Captain Smit Machchhar, an Indian national, with an emergency crash axe stored inside the cockpit and attempted to seize control of the Boeing 737 MAX 8.

The aircraft plunged sharply as the struggle unfolded inside the cockpit. Despite suffering serious injuries and heavy bleeding, Machchhar managed to open the cockpit door, allowing others aboard the aircraft to intervene.

Passengers and crew members rushed the cockpit and overpowered the copilot. A reserve Flydubai pilot who happened to be traveling aboard the flight then took control of the aircraft and ultimately landed it safely at a regional airport in northwestern Saudi Arabia.

The suspect was taken into Saudi custody following the emergency landing and was subsequently transferred to the UAE, where he remains in custody and is being interrogated. The UAE has not yet announced formal charges against him, and it is not known whether he has retained legal counsel.

The investigation is also focusing intensely on how an Omani citizen was assigned to operate a flight into Israel in the first place. Israel and Oman do not maintain diplomatic relations, and Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu has said that longstanding Israeli arrangements with foreign airlines prohibit pilots who are citizens of countries without diplomatic relations with Israel from operating flights into the country.

Netanyahu has ordered a broad review of security procedures governing foreign airlines flying to Israel following the incident.

Israeli law requires airlines to provide information about passengers and crew members before flights arrive in Israel. Officials have said the UAE supplied Israel with the passenger and crew list before Flight FZ1073 departed, but no Israeli warning was raised regarding the copilot.

That has left investigators confronting failures on multiple levels: how the suspect was hired despite his reported history, how he was permitted to fly for Flydubai, and how he was cleared for an Israel-bound flight despite being an Omani national.

Netanyahu said last week that the copilot had undergone “Islamist radical indoctrination,” while an Israeli official said the suspect’s social-media activity included material concerning the killing of Jews.

Investigators have also been working to determine whether the alleged plot was directed or assisted by anyone else. Authorities have thus far disclosed no evidence establishing that the suspect belonged to a terrorist organization, and no conclusive evidence has emerged publicly linking the attack to Iran.

The investigation has expanded beyond the Middle East. An Australian multi-agency counterterrorism unit is examining the suspect’s connections to Australia after authorities learned that he had studied at RMIT University in Melbourne approximately a decade ago.

Israel is reportedly receiving continuous updates from the UAE regarding the interrogation and investigation.

The latest revelations indicate that the decision to attack an Israel-bound aircraft may have preceded the suspect’s employment at Flydubai itself, transforming the investigation from one focused primarily on what happened inside the cockpit into a far broader examination of how an individual allegedly intent on carrying out a mass-casualty attack was able to work his way into precisely the position he needed to attempt it.

{Matzav.com}

Saudi Aramco CEO Amin Nasser issued a stark warning Monday that the world’s oil reserves have been severely depleted by the seven-month Middle East war, leaving the global energy system with a “scarily thin” cushion against further disruptions and potentially requiring as long as two years to rebuild inventories.

Speaking at the Energy Intelligence Forum in London, Nasser said nearly 3 billion barrels of expected oil supply have been lost since the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran began at the end of February and effectively choked off much of the traffic through the Strait of Hormuz.

More than 1 billion barrels have already been pulled from global inventories to compensate for the lost supply, Nasser said, dramatically reducing the reserves available if the world faces another major disruption.

“The system is already straining,” Nasser warned. “And, with precious little else the world can turn to, the supply resilience cushion is scarily thin.”

Nasser said the world entered the crisis with approximately 10 billion barrels of total oil stocks. He estimated that fewer than 6 billion barrels of commercial inventories now remain — and warned that the overwhelming majority of that oil cannot practically be drawn down and delivered to consumers.

According to Nasser, as much as 90 percent of the remaining commercial inventory is effectively unavailable because it is contained in pipelines or represents the minimum amount of oil that must remain inside storage tanks and other infrastructure for those systems to operate properly.

The warning comes only days after the Group of Seven nations agreed to release another 100 million barrels of diesel, gasoline and crude oil from emergency reserves over the coming four months in an effort to ease severe pressure on global fuel markets.

Governments have already released hundreds of millions of barrels from strategic reserves during the crisis, but Nasser said most of the oil used to cushion the supply shock has instead come from commercial inventories held by companies — something he described as “the last major tool in the box.”

Nasser cautioned that additional emergency releases can provide temporary relief but cannot resolve the underlying shortage.

“Emergency reserves might buy us a winter. They cannot fix long-term supply,” he said.

The Aramco chief said the situation will remain precarious until the Strait of Hormuz is fully reopened and confidence returns to international shipping through the vital waterway.

“Until Hormuz fully re-opens and confidence returns, the crude reality is that pressure at both ends of the barrel will intensify,” Nasser said. “Even then, replenishing inventories while meeting demand could take up to two years.”

The Strait of Hormuz has long been one of the most strategically important energy chokepoints in the world, serving as the principal route for massive quantities of oil and refined petroleum products exported from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Iraq and other Gulf producers.

Nasser estimated that the nearly 3 billion barrels lost since the war began represent roughly half of the crude oil and refined products that ordinarily would have traveled through Hormuz during the same seven-month period.

Although crude shipments from the Gulf have begun recovering toward prewar levels, the danger surrounding shipping routes remains significant, and shortages of diesel and other refined fuels have become particularly acute.

Nasser said the pressure on refined products has actually been more severe than the squeeze on crude oil itself.

“While the squeeze on crude is serious, refined fuel prices have risen even more sharply,” he said.

Rebuilding depleted inventories could itself place substantial additional pressure on the oil market. Restoring global stocks over approximately 18 months would effectively create roughly 2 million barrels per day of additional demand, according to Nasser, on top of ordinary worldwide consumption of more than 100 million barrels per day.

The warning comes amid already elevated oil prices. Brent crude, the international benchmark, was trading around $102 per barrel Monday after reaching approximately $126 at the height of supply fears in late April.

Nasser said the consequences could have been considerably worse without Saudi Arabia’s East-West pipeline, which allows the kingdom to transport oil across the country to Red Sea export terminals rather than relying exclusively on the Strait of Hormuz.

Without that pipeline, Nasser said, Brent crude could have reached $200 per barrel during the crisis.

Saudi Arabia currently has maximum sustainable production capacity of approximately 12 million barrels per day, which Nasser said could be made available within days if necessary. Aramco’s upstream production capacity remains intact despite attacks on energy infrastructure during the conflict.

Aramco has continued supplying customers in Europe and Asia by shifting between different grades of crude, drawing on international storage facilities, deploying its tanker fleet and making use of alternative export routes.

The company is now studying additional routes that would further reduce its dependence on Hormuz, while also considering expanding overseas oil storage so that supplies could be positioned closer to customers before another crisis occurs.

“Multiple export routes, which can be adapted in real time, already reduce the risk that a single chokepoint can paralyze the system,” Nasser said.

He said Aramco is already examining what he described as potential “fourth and fifth” export routes, while Saudi Arabia is also considering expanding the capacity of its East-West pipeline, which can currently carry approximately 7 million barrels per day.

Nasser described the prolonged disruption of Hormuz as the most severe energy supply shock he has witnessed during his career, which has spanned roughly five decades and included the 2008 financial crisis, the 2019 attacks on Saudi oil facilities and the global energy upheaval caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“But this year has been another level,” he said. “The world always knew that the Strait of Hormuz could be disrupted. Few expected the near-closure of the world’s most critical energy artery to last so long, or its impact to spread so widely.”

Nasser also warned that the effects of the oil shortage are extending far beyond gasoline and diesel. Petroleum and natural gas remain deeply embedded in manufacturing, agriculture, medicines, transportation and petrochemicals, while energy shortages are feeding into shipping costs, supply chains and inflation around the world.

He cited an International Monetary Fund scenario under which global economic growth could fall to just 2 percent next year while inflation rises above 6 percent if the disruption becomes sufficiently severe.

“The longer the disruption continues, the risk of this happening only grows,” Nasser said. “And when energy becomes scarce or unaffordable, the most vulnerable suffer hardest and they suffer first.”

Nasser also sounded an alarm over the growing threat to energy infrastructure itself, saying modern technology has made information about pipelines, tankers and facilities increasingly accessible to attackers.

“Open data such as satellite imagery and shipping logs are increasingly being weaponized against infrastructure and tankers,” he said. “Tools of transparency should not become ammunition for aggression.”

The Aramco chief urged governments and energy companies to rethink how they prepare for major supply shocks, calling for more investment in infrastructure, additional storage, diversified shipping routes and greater cooperation between energy-producing and consuming nations.

“Let’s end the era of cyclical under-investment, and invest in the sources and systems the world still needs,” Nasser said. “Let’s start thinking about energy security in decades, not quarters.”

{Matzav.com}

Hours of unrest erupted in the Meah Shearim neighborhood of Yerushalayim on Monday evening after a police and municipal operation to remove Palestinian flags and erase Palestinian graffiti from public areas developed into clashes with protesters.

The disturbances began when officers from the Lev HaBira police station, members of the Yerushalayim Yasam unit and municipal inspectors entered the neighborhood to remove Palestinian flags and erase graffiti and drawings of Palestinian flags that had been sprayed on walls in public areas.

During the operation, several rioters began hurling stones and other objects at police officers. Police responded with riot-control measures, including stun grenades, as confrontations spread through the area and continued for hours.

As police forces were leaving the neighborhood, officers spotted a minor suspected of throwing stones at them. Undercover detectives who had been operating among those involved in the disturbances moved in and arrested the suspect, who was taken for questioning.

A separate confrontation subsequently broke out nearby when a group of protesters gathered around a female police officer. Additional forces were called to the scene and dispersed the crowd, arresting two more suspects, both 16 years old, on suspicion of involvement in the incident.

All three suspects were taken to a police station for further questioning.

Meanwhile, police continued operating throughout Meah Shearim, conducting searches and carrying out both overt and undercover investigative activity in an effort to identify additional suspects believed to have participated in attacks on officers and the disturbances.

The clashes remained ongoing hours after the initial police and municipal operation began, with police forces continuing their activity throughout the neighborhood.

{Matzav.com}

A special announcement brought added simcha to the Boyaner kehillah during Hakafos Shniyos, as the Ruzhin-Boyan institutions revealed that monthly stipends for its avreichim will be increased by 20 percent, thanks to a major donation from a generous benefactor seeking to strengthen lomdei Torah and their families.

The announcement was delivered to the Boyaner Rebbe during Hakafos Shniyos by Rav Binyomin Hershler, director-general of the Ruzhin-Boyan institutions, amid the celebration of Simchas Torah.

The increase comes as avreichim and their families face growing financial pressures amid government cuts and other measures affecting the Olam HaTorah. A generous philanthropist and supporter of Torah and its lomdim stepped forward with a special contribution that will enable the institutions to raise their monthly kollel stipends by 20 percent.

The news was received with tremendous excitement by both the administration and the avreichim, particularly because it was delivered to the Rebbe in the midst of the Simchas Torah festivities.

The new increase is the latest component of an extensive system of financial assistance provided by the Ruzhin-Boyan institutions to kollel avreichim and their families throughout the year.

Approximately two years ago, the institutions implemented another substantial increase, raising stipends for avreichim by 25 percent. That initiative was part of an ongoing effort to strengthen those devoted to limud haTorah and enable them to continue their learning with greater financial peace of mind.

In addition to their regular monthly stipends, avreichim receive special grants before Pesach and during Tishrei. Each of those grants is worth nearly an additional full month’s stipend, helping families meet the considerable expenses associated with Yom Tov and enter the chagim with greater financial stability and simcha.

The support extends beyond monthly stipends and Yom Tov grants. The institutions also provide financial assistance at significant milestones and simchos in the lives of kollel families.

When an avreich celebrates the bar mitzvah of a son, he receives a grant of 4,000 shekels toward clothing for the bar mitzvah bachur.

The institutions also provide assistance when a child is born into an avreich’s family. That support includes help with the cost of a recovery home for the mother, clothing for the newborn, and other expenses associated with the birth.

Officials at the Ruzhin-Boyan institutions stressed that these programs are not intended as isolated forms of assistance. Rather, they reflect a broader approach under which supporting an avreich and his family is viewed as an integral part of sustaining and strengthening the Olam HaTorah.

With government cuts and other financial pressures weighing increasingly heavily on lomdei Torah, the institutions said their response is to increase rather than reduce their support.

“דווקא בימים אלו – מרבים תורה, מחזקים את לומדיה ומרוממים את קרן התורה”, officials said — “Precisely in these days, we increase Torah, strengthen those who learn it, and raise the honor of Torah.”

The timing of the announcement, in the midst of the simcha of Simchas Torah, gave the development particular significance, as the Boyan institutions continue expanding their efforts on behalf of their avreichim, talmidim, and families.

{Matzav.com}

Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu vowed Monday that Israel will finish its mission in Gaza, destroy Hamas’s rule and continue hunting down those responsible for the October 7 massacre, declaring at the state memorial ceremony marking three years since the attack that there will be “no forgiveness” for its perpetrators.

Speaking at Mount Herzl in Yerushalayim, Netanyahu addressed bereaved families directly, saying that he and his wife, Sara, share in their pain and understand that the wounds left by the massacre remain ever-present.

“Your grief is the nation’s grief. I know what a void has been torn within you,” Netanyahu said. “Everything reminds us of our loved ones: The empty chair at the table. A favorite food. A touching song. We will cherish the memory of each and every one of the fallen.”

“In their name and for their sake, we will continue to strike our enemies, unceasingly strengthen our state, and build our homeland from generation to generation,” he added.

Netanyahu then recounted the story of Karin Journo, 24, who was murdered after attending the Nova festival on October 7, and described an encounter he had several weeks ago with her father, Doron Journo, at Ben-Gurion Airport.

According to Netanyahu, Journo told him: “All that is left of my Karin is three teeth. The terrorists burned her. That is what is left for me.”

Journo then made a direct appeal to the prime minister: “Prime Minister, finish the mission. Finish the mission in the Gaza Strip.”

“I hugged him, and promised him: ‘This is my commitment. We will finish the mission. And I want you to know – every day we are completing it,’” Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu said the enormity of the October 7 atrocities leaves Israel with an obligation to continue pursuing those who planned and carried out the massacre.

“We will never reconcile with this horrific crime, and precisely for that reason – we will complete the mission,” he continued. “We will settle accounts with those who dispatched and carried out the horrific massacre in our towns, our kibbutzim, our cities.”

The prime minister said there would be “no forgiveness” for those behind the killings, abuse, burning, destruction, looting and kidnappings of October 7.

“We brought home all of our hostages who were held in the tunnels of Gaza, but this is not the end of the story,” he said. “We are hunting without letup the human-beasts who attacked us with shocking cruelty, and those who held the hostages with shocking cruelty.”

“We will eradicate Hamas’s regime of blood. We will destroy it,” he declared.

Netanyahu’s pledge came as Military Intelligence Directorate chief Maj. Gen. Shlomi Binder informed the Security Cabinet that Israel has eliminated approximately 4,000 of the estimated 6,000 terrorists who entered Israel during the October 7 assault, with the security establishment continuing to pursue roughly 2,000 others.

Turning to the extraordinary acts of courage displayed as the massacre unfolded, Netanyahu said Israelis from across the country rushed toward danger to defend communities and save lives.

“From the abysses of the fracture, the forces of our life burst forth,” Netanyahu said. “In the most difficult moments, our heroes did not hesitate – they leaped into the fire. Soldiers, female soldiers. Policemen and policewomen. Security personnel. And no less than that – citizens imbued with mutual responsibility, who acted to rescue, to save, to deliver.”

Israel’s enemies, Netanyahu said, subsequently discovered the magnitude of the response that the country would unleash.

“Our iron fist strikes everyone who has raised a hand against us,” Netanyahu said, adding that Israel was not only defending itself but also the free world.

Netanyahu also used the memorial address to denounce what he described as false accusations and libels being spread against Israel internationally.

“Lie follows lie. Libel follows libel, and we must fight it.”

As an example of Israelis confronting those accusations abroad, Netanyahu spoke about Sabin Tassa of Netiv HaAsara, whose husband was murdered in front of her children and who also lost a son at Zikim Beach.

Netanyahu recalled Tassa attending a screening in the Netherlands of the film “Naza,” where she confronted the audience with her own experience of October 7 and declared: “Here is the truth. Here is the truth. I am the truth.”

“To stand like that, the way Sabin Tassa stood there, is heroism,” Netanyahu said. “She is fighting heroically for truth and justice. I salute you, Sabin; the entire nation salutes you.”

“We will continue to struggle for the truth – and the truth will prevail. Good will prevail – Israel will prevail,” he added.

Netanyahu then recounted a more personal connection to one of the victims, speaking about 25-year-old Jonathan Azulay, who had attended the Nova festival.

Azulay’s father, Yaakov, served as Sara Netanyahu’s personal driver, while his mother, Linda, is the sister of Netanyahu’s longtime driver, Eli Elouz. Netanyahu said he had served as sandak at Jonathan’s bris milah after the family named the child for Netanyahu’s brother Yoni.

“At 7:00 in the morning, on October 7, his mother Linda received a call from Jonathan,” Netanyahu said. “He was inside a shelter, terrorists were outside, he fought them to save his partner, and a few minutes later the sound of an explosion was heard. Jonathan was killed by the grenade but managed to save his partner.”

Netanyahu said the heroism displayed amid the massacre carries with it what he described as a “supreme command” for Israel: to continue fighting its enemies while rebuilding the communities devastated by the attack.

“We are vigorously rehabilitating the Western Negev, the communities, the cities, the kibbutzim,” he said. “We do not forget the pain, we remember the pain, and we build.”

“Thus it is in the south – and thus it is and will be in the north as well. In place of destruction – building. In place of falling – revival,” Netanyahu said.

Near the conclusion of his remarks, Netanyahu quoted the prophet Isaiah: “To give them beauty instead of ashes.”

“Terrorism will not extinguish the eternal light of our nation – the light of our loved ones who were murdered,” he said. “By their light, we will persevere on the path. We will persevere in reaching out a hand to one another. We will persevere in marching forward – for the future of the nation and the State.”

“With God’s help, the victims of hostile acts will always be part of our national journey toward revival, hope, and victory. May their memory be blessed.”

The solemn address was interrupted when Yaakov Godo, whose son Tom Godo was killed during the aftermath of the October 7 attack at Kibbutz Kissufim, shouted toward Netanyahu from the audience.

“You didn’t protect my son on October 7th; you didn’t protect 1,200 victims murdered in one day. Shame, disgrace. Insolent,” Godo shouted, prompting Netanyahu to stop speaking for several seconds before resuming his address.

Tom Godo had been sheltering with his wife and three daughters after terrorists entered the family’s home. Israeli soldiers who later entered the house mistakenly opened fire toward the shelter door, killing him. His family initially believed Hamas terrorists had killed him and learned only after an IDF investigation that he had been struck by Israeli fire.

Israel has eliminated approximately 4,000 of the roughly 6,000 terrorists who invaded the country during the October 7 massacre, Military Intelligence Directorate chief Maj. Gen. Shlomi Binder told the Security Cabinet, revealing that the IDF is continuing an intensive hunt for some 2,000 participants who remain alive.

Binder presented the figures to ministers during a Security Cabinet meeting Sunday evening, nearly three years after thousands of Hamas-led terrorists poured across the Gaza border and attacked communities and military positions in southern Israel.

“Of the 6,000 who crossed the fence, 4,000 have been killed,” Binder told ministers. “Two thousand remain — we will get every last one of them.”

The new figures indicate that Israeli forces have now eliminated roughly two-thirds of those whom Military Intelligence says crossed into Israel during the October 7 attack. The pursuit of the remaining terrorists is continuing as a standing mission of the IDF, Shin Bet and other elements of Israel’s security establishment.

Israeli intelligence officials are working to identify and locate those who took part in the invasion, murders and kidnappings, as well as terrorists who subsequently participated in holding Israeli hostages in Gaza. Some are believed to be hiding in tunnels or concealing themselves among Gaza’s population, requiring lengthy intelligence work before their locations can be verified and a strike can be carried out.

The scale of that effort was highlighted by IDF figures released last week showing that 70 terrorists were eliminated in Gaza during September alone. Among them were three brigade commanders, two battalion commanders and nine company commanders. Seventeen of those killed had participated in the October 7 attack, abducted Israelis or been involved in holding hostages.

Among the October 7 participants eliminated was Muhammad Jamal Mahmoud Abu Al-Shaar, a Hamas military-wing cell commander who, according to the IDF, invaded Kibbutz Be’eri during the massacre and was involved in the abduction of six Israelis: Sharon Hertzman-Avigdori, Noam Avigdori, Adi Shoham, Nave Shoham, Yahel Shoham and Shoshan Haran.

Abu Al-Shaar was killed in an Israeli strike in Gaza City. That same day, the IDF eliminated Musab Abd al-Jalil Saqib Balbisi, a Palestinian Islamic Jihad military-wing commander, in a strike in Jabalia. The IDF said Balbisi had also participated in the October 7 invasion.

The senior Hamas figures eliminated during September included Khan Yunis Brigade commander Muhammad Yazouri; Nael Abu Obeid, commander of the Rafah Brigade and head of the Operations Array in Hamas’ military wing; and Northern Gaza Brigade commander Izz al-Din Bikh. Muhammad Abu Alwan, who headed Hamas’ Finance Department, was also among those killed.

Israeli forces have continued targeting October 7 participants into October. Among the latest was Ibrahim Mustafa Suleiman Abu Oweimer, a Nukhba platoon commander in Hamas’ military wing who participated in the invasion of Israel. The IDF also announced the elimination of Saqr Nabil Musa Qaisi, a Hamas Nukhba terrorist whom the military said had been posing as the director of the humanitarian organization Deniz Feneri.

The wider manhunt has included terrorists directly connected to some of the most notorious scenes of October 7, with the IDF and Shin Bet conducting prolonged intelligence operations to identify those involved in individual murders, kidnappings and attacks.

Among those tracked down was Saher Nidal Lutfi Saqr, identified as the motorcycle driver involved in the abduction of Noa Argamani and Avinatan Or from the Nova music festival. Israeli forces also eliminated Ismail Ibrahim Darwish Qandil, who participated in the October 7 invasion and was involved in the killing of Nahal Brigade commander Col. Yonatan Steinberg.

The ongoing campaign has required extensive intelligence gathering, surveillance and coordination between the IDF and Shin Bet. In many cases, security forces have waited for extended periods until they could conclusively establish a terrorist’s identity and location and find an operational opportunity to strike without unnecessarily endangering others.

Binder’s disclosure comes as Israeli intelligence officials are also warning that Hamas is working to rebuild its forces and prepare for renewed attacks from Gaza, adding urgency to Israel’s efforts to locate the remaining October 7 participants.

The security establishment has made clear that the passage of time will not bring an end to the pursuit. Those who participated in the massacre, abducted Israelis or held hostages remain targets, regardless of how long it takes Israeli intelligence to locate them.

“There are 2,000 remaining, and we will get to every last one of them,” Binder said.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Jeff Merkley are seeking to effectively drive automated license-plate readers out of government use with sweeping new legislation that would prohibit federal agencies from using the technology and threaten federal funding for state and local governments that continue operating the surveillance systems.

The legislation, called the Ban Flock Act, was introduced amid intensifying bipartisan scrutiny of Flock Safety, the largest operator of automated license-plate readers in the United States. The company has more than 120,000 cameras around the country, creating a network capable of recording enormous numbers of vehicle movements and allowing law-enforcement agencies to search collected information across jurisdictions.

Although Flock is named in the title, the legislation is not limited to one company. Its restrictions would apply broadly to automated license-plate readers, commonly known as ALPRs, regardless of the manufacturer.

The bill would prohibit federal agencies from acquiring or using ALPR systems and from accessing information gathered by cameras operated by local police departments, private companies or other entities. It would also bar the use of federal money to purchase the systems.

State and local governments would face significant financial pressure to abandon the technology as well. Under the proposal, certain federal grants would be withheld from states and municipalities that continue using automated license-plate readers or contracting with companies that provide them.

The legislation would additionally give Americans a legal avenue to sue the federal government if their rights were violated through prohibited use of ALPR technology.

There are limited exceptions. The bill would permit license-plate readers to be used for toll collection, and Congress could specifically authorize other uses through future legislation. Such authorization would have to include restrictions requiring that collected information generally be deleted within 48 hours.

Sanders said the technology has expanded far beyond an ordinary police camera system and now represents a fundamental threat to Americans’ ability to travel without having their movements continuously recorded.

“At a time of growing concern about the unchecked power of artificial intelligence, Flock is eviscerating the very notion of privacy by installing tens of thousands of cameras in communities across America without their consent,” Sanders said. “Going to the doctor? Flock knows. Dropping your kid off at school? Flock is tracking you. Flock is always watching. We cannot allow America to become a surveillance state where a handful of AI oligarchs profit by giving the government the power to track our every movement.”

Flock’s cameras are typically positioned along roads and automatically photograph passing vehicles. The system records license plates and other identifying characteristics, and the information can then be searched by participating law-enforcement agencies.

Newer versions of the technology can collect considerably more information than a traditional license-plate photograph. Critics say Flock’s artificial-intelligence tools can combine images of vehicles and people with information from other databases, potentially producing details about individuals, relatives, court records, online accounts and patterns of movement.

The scale of the network is one of the principal concerns driving the congressional push. Flock says its more than 120,000 cameras capture approximately 20 billion vehicle observations each month.

Its national lookup capabilities also mean that a camera located hundreds or thousands of miles away can potentially become useful to an investigator elsewhere. Agencies participating in the network can, subject to system rules and data-sharing arrangements, search information collected outside their own communities.

Ocasio-Cortez said that capability has transformed what might once have been viewed as a localized law-enforcement tool into a nationwide surveillance system.

She said the Ban Flock Act would “enforce our constitutional right to privacy and protect Americans from both corporate and government surveillance.”

“No one should have this unchecked surveillance power at their fingertips,” Merkley added.

The controversy has been fueled by documented cases in which law-enforcement officers allegedly used ALPR systems for personal purposes rather than legitimate investigations. More than 50 officers around the country have reportedly been accused of unauthorized searches, including cases involving officers searching for wives, girlfriends, former romantic partners and women they wanted to meet.

Five Indianapolis police officers, for example, were accused of improperly using Flock cameras to search for people with whom they had personal relationships, including spouses or romantic partners. The department subsequently tightened its policies and introduced daily auditing of ALPR searches.

Other concerns have centered on searches connected to political demonstrations and immigration enforcement. Critics of the technology say ALPR databases have been searched in connection with demonstrations against immigration raids, pro-Palestinian protests and “No Kings” demonstrations, while Flock data has also been shared across jurisdictions for federal immigration investigations.

The mounting concerns have already prompted communities around the country to reconsider their relationships with Flock. According to the lawmakers behind the Ban Flock Act, at least 56 municipalities have deactivated cameras, canceled contracts or rejected proposed Flock agreements this year.

The legal debate intensified further last week when a federal judge in Oklahoma ruled in a criminal case that an officer’s warrantless use of the Flock network amounted to “indiscriminate mass surveillance” and violated the Fourth Amendment.

The case involved a Tulsa County sheriff’s deputy who used Flock data to track the movements of a vehicle suspected of involvement in drug trafficking. A subsequent search uncovered 91 pounds of methamphetamine, but U.S. District Judge Sara E. Hill concluded that the broad tracking made possible by the network crossed a constitutional line because it allowed police to reconstruct a person’s movements without first obtaining a warrant.

The ruling represents one court’s decision and does not establish a nationwide prohibition on ALPR technology. Flock strongly disputed the decision and said it conflicts with established legal precedent concerning the observation of vehicles traveling on public roads.

Concern over the cameras has also become strikingly bipartisan.

Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, recently chaired a Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearing titled “Always Watching: Flock’s Nationwide AI Surveillance Network,” examining the privacy and national-security implications of ALPR systems.

Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, participated in the same hearing and called for stronger safeguards governing how the technology can be used.

Flock CEO Garrett Langley was invited to testify before the committee but did not appear. The CEOs of several other surveillance-technology companies were also invited and declined to testify.

Flock instead submitted written answers to Hawley and acknowledged that Congress should establish a federal regulatory framework governing automated license-plate readers. The company also described safeguards it has introduced as scrutiny of the technology has increased.

Hawley is pursuing his own legislation rather than endorsing a complete federal ban. His proposed Stop Flock Abuse Act would impose rules governing how ALPR systems are used, require audits designed to identify improper searches and establish restrictions intended to prevent unauthorized surveillance.

That means the congressional debate is developing along two different tracks: Sanders, Ocasio-Cortez and Merkley want the federal government out of ALPR surveillance altogether and would use federal funding to push states and cities in the same direction, while Hawley is proposing to permit continued use under stronger safeguards and oversight.

Flock has said it supports congressional action establishing rules for the industry, while opposing the characterization of its technology as inherently incompatible with privacy.

“We welcome these conversations in Congress because we believe public safety technologies are powerful tools best used in concert with strong policy, accountability and oversight mechanisms,” a Flock spokesperson said in a statement.

Law-enforcement supporters of ALPR technology argue that the cameras can provide investigators with valuable leads in cases involving stolen vehicles, kidnappings, missing people and violent crimes. Because the cameras can rapidly identify a wanted vehicle traveling through a particular location, police departments say searches that once required hours or days can sometimes be performed almost immediately.

Critics counter that the same capability that makes the cameras effective for solving crimes also makes abuse extraordinarily easy: a search can potentially reveal where an individual has traveled without requiring officers to physically follow that person or, in many circumstances, obtain a warrant.

That tension has increasingly become the center of the national debate — whether the public-safety benefits of a vast interconnected camera network justify creating a searchable record of the movements of millions of Americans who are not suspected of committing any crime.

President Donald Trump escalated his long-running feud with Barack Obama on Sunday, sharing a meme that branded Obama — rather than Richard Nixon — the “most corrupt president in the history of the United States,” as federal investigators continue examining the conduct of Obama-era officials surrounding the investigations of Trump that began during the 2016 election.

Trump posted a split-screen image of the official presidential portraits of Obama and Nixon on Truth Social, accompanied by a pointed caption.

“One of these men is the most corrupt president in the history of the United States. The other is Richard Nixon.”

Trump added no further commentary to the image, but the comparison represented another broadside against his Democratic predecessor, whom Trump has repeatedly accused of wrongdoing connected to the origins of the Russia investigation and efforts by intelligence and law-enforcement officials during and after the 2016 presidential campaign.

Those accusations have received renewed attention during Trump’s second administration following the declassification of intelligence documents and the opening of a Justice Department investigation examining whether officials from previous administrations participated in a broader effort to violate Trump’s rights through a series of federal investigations.

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard released documents in 2025 that she said demonstrated that Obama administration officials politicized intelligence concerning Russian interference after Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. Gabbard subsequently referred material to the Justice Department and publicly accused Obama administration officials of participating in a coordinated effort to undermine Trump’s incoming presidency.

Obama’s office has rejected those allegations, calling claims of wrongdoing “outrageous” and maintaining that the documents did not undermine the longstanding conclusion that Russia attempted to influence the 2016 presidential election. Obama himself has not been charged with a crime.

The Justice Department investigation has continued into 2026, focusing in part on the origins and conduct of the Russia investigation and other federal investigations involving Trump. Former Obama-era intelligence officials, including former CIA Director John Brennan, have faced scrutiny as part of the inquiry.

The investigation has also experienced internal upheaval. Several officials involved in the probe have left or changed roles, including Kurt Olsen and Joseph diGenova, while the Justice Department has maintained that the inquiry remains active.

Trump has repeatedly argued that the Russia investigation amounted to an effort by political and government opponents to cripple his first presidency. Critics of that contention say multiple investigations established that Russia interfered in the 2016 election, while the Mueller investigation did not establish that the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government in its election-interference activities.

The president’s decision to invoke Nixon gave Sunday’s post an especially provocative historical edge.

Nixon resigned from the presidency in August 1974 as the Watergate scandal closed in around his administration and impeachment appeared increasingly likely. The scandal began with the June 1972 break-in at Democratic National Committee headquarters at the Watergate complex and ultimately expanded into investigations of the Nixon administration’s efforts to conceal its involvement and obstruct the subsequent investigation.

The House Judiciary Committee approved three articles of impeachment against Nixon in July 1974, accusing him of obstruction of justice, abuse of power and contempt of Congress. Nixon resigned before the full House could vote on impeachment, becoming the only president in American history to leave the office by resignation.

Trump’s meme effectively argued that Obama’s conduct was worse, although the post offered no specific evidence or allegations to accompany the comparison.

The two presidents have maintained an unusually bitter relationship extending back well before Trump first entered the White House.

Before launching his presidential campaign, Trump became one of the country’s most prominent proponents of the false claim that Obama had been born in Kenya rather than Hawaii and was therefore ineligible to serve as president. Obama was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, in 1961. Trump publicly acknowledged in September 2016 that Obama was born in the United States.

Their political conflict intensified after Trump succeeded Obama in January 2017, with Trump dismantling or reversing numerous Obama-era policies while repeatedly accusing Obama administration officials of improperly targeting him and his associates.

Obama, meanwhile, has become increasingly outspoken in criticizing Trump’s second administration.

In recent months, Obama has challenged Trump over the administration’s approach to regulating advanced technology and over the war with Iran. In a June interview with NBC’s “Today,” Obama argued that the United States had emerged from the Iran conflict in a worse position despite the enormous financial and human costs involved.

“We’ve now fought a war, spent billions and billions of dollars, put an enormous strain on our military, a lot of people have died, and it feels like we are back where we were before we started the war, except maybe a little worse off,” Obama told host Craig Melvin.

Obama has also recently addressed the subject of government corruption more broadly. In September, he argued during an episode of his podcast that the federal government, when measured by traditional forms of corruption such as bribery and patronage, is considerably less corrupt than it was during earlier periods of American history.

Trump has continued responding with his own attacks, frequently using Truth Social to share memes, videos and commentary aimed at Obama and other political adversaries.

Last month, Trump shared a graphic ranking American presidents that placed himself alone in a category labeled “The Greatest,” while Obama, Joe Biden and several other presidents were placed in a category labeled “Failures.”

Sunday’s Nixon comparison went considerably further, placing Obama alongside the president whose name has been synonymous with Watergate for more than half a century and explicitly asserting that Obama’s record was worse.

Nixon was never impeached because he resigned before the House could take a final vote. Three presidents have been impeached by the House: Andrew Johnson in 1868, Bill Clinton in 1998 and Trump, who was impeached twice, in 2019 and 2021.

The Senate acquitted the president in each of those four impeachment trials. No American president has ever been convicted and removed from office by the Senate.

{Matzav.com}

More than 60 million American children have now been automatically enrolled in Trump Accounts, dramatically expanding President Donald Trump’s new investment program and giving virtually every eligible child under 18 an account even if their parents never signed them up.

The Treasury Department confirmed that it completed the massive automatic-enrollment process on October 1. Every eligible child under 18 with a valid Social Security number who did not already have an account now has one established on his or her behalf, with Treasury planning periodic automatic enrollment for newly eligible children going forward.

But there is an important catch for parents: an automatically created account generally must still be claimed by a parent or guardian before the family can manage it and make ordinary contributions. Parents of children eligible for the federal government’s $1,000 starter payment must also take action to request that money.

“Millions of children have already enrolled in Trump Accounts. With automatic enrollment, over 60 million more eligible children now have an account ready to be claimed,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said. “This is a transformative milestone in the Trump Administration’s effort to give every American child the opportunity to build generational wealth and jump-start their financial future.”

The sweeping expansion marks a major change from the program’s original rollout, when parents or guardians had to affirmatively register children. Roughly 7 million children had been signed up before Treasury shifted to automatic enrollment, while Bessent has said the potential eligible population could ultimately approach 70 million children.

The accounts, formally known as Section 530A accounts, were created under Trump’s signature tax and spending legislation. They are designed to give children an early foothold in the investment markets, with money generally invested in diversified, low-cost funds tied to the American stock market.

Treasury officials said one reason for switching to automatic enrollment was to ensure that large charitable contributions could reach children regardless of whether their parents happened to know about the program or had completed the registration process.

That issue became particularly significant after Michael and Susan Dell announced a $6.25 billion commitment intended to provide $250 for approximately 25 million children. The initiative focuses largely on children who are 10 or younger and live in ZIP codes with median household incomes below $150,000, subject to the program’s eligibility requirements.

The government’s decision to create accounts automatically means philanthropic programs can potentially reach a far broader pool of children rather than being limited to those whose parents had already registered.

Parents whose children were automatically enrolled still have several steps to complete if they want to take control of the accounts.

Treasury says a parent or guardian should download the official Trump Accounts app, available for iOS and Android devices. During the claiming process, the adult must verify his or her identity, establish the relationship to the child, review the child’s information and accept the account terms.

Once the account is claimed, parents can manage it and family members, friends and employers can begin making ordinary contributions.

The distinction between being automatically enrolled and having a fully claimed account is especially important for parents of babies and young children who qualify for the government’s $1,000 seed contribution.

Children born between January 1, 2025, and December 31, 2028, who meet the program’s eligibility requirements can receive a one-time $1,000 federal contribution. Automatic enrollment by itself does not cause that $1,000 payment to be deposited. An authorized parent or guardian must claim the account and request the federal seed money.

The broader eligibility rules extend considerably further. Any eligible child in the United States who is under 18 and has a valid Social Security number can have a Trump Account, even if the child was born outside the 2025-through-2028 window and therefore does not qualify for the federal government’s $1,000 contribution.

The IRS has specified an additional qualification for children whose Social Security cards carry the notation “Valid for Work Only with DHS Authorization.” In those cases, the Social Security number is considered valid for purposes of the program only while the underlying Department of Homeland Security authorization remains valid.

Beyond the federal $1,000 payment available to qualifying young children, millions of children may be eligible for additional seed money from private donors, employers, state or local governments and philanthropic organizations.

The rules were structured to encourage those large-scale contributions. Qualified contributions from governments and certain charitable initiatives do not count against the ordinary annual contribution limit, allowing children to receive those payments in addition to money deposited by their families.

Parents, grandparents, other relatives and friends can also contribute. Ordinary contributions are generally subject to an annual limit of $5,000 per child.

Employers can contribute as well. Employer payments are capped at $2,500 annually and count toward the broader $5,000 annual limit. A number of major American companies have already announced programs to make or match contributions for the children of employees.

Those dollar limits are not permanently fixed. The IRS says the contribution caps will be adjusted over time for inflation.

The accounts differ in several important ways from traditional 529 college-savings plans. Trump Accounts are intended as broader long-term investment vehicles rather than accounts restricted primarily to educational expenses.

During the child’s growth period, the money is generally invested and allowed to compound. The IRS defines that period as ending on December 31 of the year before the beneficiary turns 18.

After the beneficiary reaches adulthood, money can ultimately be used for purposes including higher education, purchasing a first home or starting a business. The tax treatment of withdrawals can vary depending on how and when the money is distributed.

Early distributions may trigger additional taxes, although the IRS notes that exceptions may apply “such as for distributions for higher education expenses or first home purchases.”

One of the administration’s central arguments for Trump Accounts is that even relatively modest amounts invested at birth could become substantial sums if left invested for decades.

Bessent has previously illustrated the potential by considering a child who receives only the government’s $1,000 seed payment and never receives another contribution. Assuming the S&P 500 were to continue producing an average annual return of approximately 10.5%, he has estimated that the original $1,000 could eventually grow to roughly $600,000 by retirement age.

That figure is an illustration based on an assumed long-term return rather than a guarantee. Stock-market returns fluctuate, and future performance could be substantially higher or lower than historical averages.

The White House Council of Economic Advisers has offered another scenario involving a child born in 2026 whose account receives the maximum permitted annual contributions. Its analysis estimated that such an account could exceed $300,000 by age 18 and potentially surpass $1 million by age 28 under a high-return scenario.

Those projections similarly depend on investment returns and continued contributions and should not be read as guaranteed account balances.

The automatic-enrollment policy also addresses a problem Treasury officials identified during the program’s initial months: millions of children qualified for accounts, but only a relatively small portion of families had actually completed enrollment.

Treasury concluded that requiring every parent to opt in could also undermine large charitable initiatives because donors seeking to help an entire class of children could reach only those whose parents had already registered.

Under the new system, Treasury itself makes the election necessary to establish an account for an eligible child who does not already have one. The department will continue periodically creating accounts as additional children become eligible.

The change means parents who ignored the original Trump Account rollout, missed the registration announcements or deliberately took no action may nevertheless discover that an account has already been established for their child.

It does not, however, mean parents have surrendered control of family money or that Treasury is automatically taking funds from them. The automatic process creates the account; ordinary family contributions still require action by the parent or guardian.

For families, the immediate question is therefore no longer simply whether their child qualifies for a Trump Account. For more than 60 million children, Treasury says the account is already waiting.

The next step belongs to the parents: claim it, determine whether the child qualifies for the $1,000 federal seed payment or other contributions, and decide whether they want to begin adding money of their own.

A large majority of Americans say President Donald Trump’s policies are contributing to higher prices, while his approval ratings on the economy and cost of living have fallen to new lows, according to a new AP-NORC poll released just weeks before the November midterm elections.

The survey found that 65% of Americans believe higher-than-usual prices are the result of Trump’s policies, while just 17% approve of his handling of the cost of living. Only 26% approve of the president’s management of the economy overall.

The findings underscore the political challenge facing Trump and congressional Republicans as voters prepare to decide control of the House and Senate. Recent polling has consistently identified inflation, affordability and the broader economy as among the issues weighing most heavily on voters.

The nationwide AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey was conducted September 24 through September 28 among 2,140 adults. Interviews were conducted online and by telephone through NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel. The poll has an overall margin of sampling error of plus or minus 2.9 percentage points.

Partisan differences remain pronounced. Among Republicans, 67% said elevated prices are primarily attributable to circumstances outside the president’s control rather than Trump’s policies.

The partisan response mirrors attitudes recorded during the Biden administration, although the overall numbers differ considerably. In October 2022, when inflation was a major political liability for President Joe Biden and Democrats, 44% of Americans said higher prices were the result of Biden’s policies. At the same time, 87% of Democrats said factors outside Biden’s control were responsible.

The latest survey suggests that dissatisfaction with Trump extends beyond Democrats and independents, particularly when respondents were asked whether his performance has lived up to what they expected after his return to the White House.

“Trump is also falling short of expectations on the cost of living, with 69 percent of the public saying his handling of the issue has been worse than expected, including 52 percent of Republicans,” noted the poll.

The public’s broader assessment of conditions in the country was similarly negative.

“More than half of adults say the country as a whole, the national economy, and their local economy are worse off since Trump was reelected in 2025,” it continued. “Forty-six percent say they and their families are worse off since the start of Trump’s second administration. Most Americans (73 percent) say the country is heading in the wrong direction, including 92 percent of Democrats and 47 percent of Republicans.”

The economic pessimism comes as Americans continue confronting elevated costs for gasoline, groceries, housing and services. Consumer confidence fell sharply in September, reaching its lowest level in more than a decade, while inflation and the cost of basic necessities continue to dominate voters’ economic concerns.

The latest employment figures have added another complication. The U.S. economy added only 29,000 jobs in September, substantially below economists’ expectations, while unemployment edged upward from 4.1% to 4.2%. Earlier employment estimates for July and August were also revised downward by a combined 60,000 jobs.

At the same time, inflation remains persistent. Consumer prices were 3.4% higher in August than a year earlier, while wage growth has slowed, increasing the pressure on households already concerned about affordability.

Trump and his allies have argued that the administration inherited significant economic problems and that its policies on energy, taxes, trade and deregulation will ultimately produce lower prices and stronger growth. The president has also increasingly focused his midterm campaign appearances on the economy and has argued that Republican control of Congress is necessary to carry out his agenda.

The AP-NORC results indicate, however, that many Americans are currently assigning responsibility for their economic frustrations directly to the White House.

The findings are particularly significant because Trump historically performed relatively strongly with voters on economic issues. His current 26% economic approval rating represents a substantial deterioration from earlier in his presidency and comes as Republicans defend narrow congressional majorities.

The poll also found considerable dissatisfaction with Trump’s trade policies. Sixty-eight percent disapprove of his handling of trade negotiations with other countries, while 58% say his performance on trade has been worse than they expected during his second term.

Trump’s aggressive use of tariffs is also unpopular with a majority of respondents. Sixty-four percent said the administration has gone too far in imposing new tariffs on foreign countries.

The president has defended tariffs as a tool for protecting American manufacturers, forcing trading partners to negotiate more favorable agreements and encouraging companies to move production to the United States. Critics have argued that tariffs can increase costs for American businesses and consumers when importers pass the added expense along through higher prices.

Immigration remains a comparatively stronger issue for Trump, although he is still underwater with the public. Thirty-nine percent approve of his handling of immigration, a figure that has remained relatively stable in recent surveys.

“About half (48 percent) say his handling of immigration has gone worse than expected, another quarter (23 percent) feel that it has gone better than expected,” the study added.

The administration’s handling of Iran is receiving even lower marks. Seventy-one percent of respondents said they disapprove of Trump’s handling of Iran, while 69% said the war with Iran has not been worth fighting.

Those numbers come as the administration continues a naval blockade intended to choke off Iranian oil revenue while simultaneously engaging Tehran through diplomatic channels in an effort to reach an agreement over the Strait of Hormuz and other outstanding issues.

Another finding that could concern the White House involves perceptions of Trump’s ability to fulfill his commitments. Only 17% of Americans said Trump keeps his promises. Among Republicans, 36% said he keeps them, while 48% said he tries to fulfill his promises but is unable to do so.

The economic concerns are also beginning to affect perceptions of the two major parties. A separate analysis of respondents from the same AP-NORC survey found registered voters now give Democrats an advantage over Republicans when asked which party they trust more to handle both the economy and the cost of living.

That advantage does not translate into broad enthusiasm for Democrats. The same survey found considerable distrust of both parties, with relatively few voters saying either Republicans or Democrats are focused on helping people like them or are capable of solving the country’s most important problems.

Other polling has likewise shown affordability becoming central to the midterm campaign. A recent Fox News survey found that roughly three-quarters of voters said inflation had caused them financial hardship, while 54% expected economic conditions to deteriorate further.

Republican leaders have acknowledged that the cost of living will be critical in the final stretch of the campaign. The GOP is attempting to increase turnout among Trump supporters while defending slim congressional majorities, and the president has begun an intensified campaign schedule aimed at mobilizing voters who turned out for him in presidential elections but have historically been less reliable in midterms.

Trump pushed back against unfavorable polling during a campaign appearance in Ohio, arguing that surveys do not adequately account for the effect of his personal campaigning and urging his supporters to approach November as though his own name were on the ballot.

The president’s overall approval numbers have varied considerably depending on the poll and methodology, with recent surveys placing him between the upper 20s and upper 30s. But across multiple surveys, concerns over inflation and affordability have emerged as a consistent vulnerability for the administration and Republicans heading into Election Day.

With less than a month remaining before voters cast their ballots, the AP-NORC survey suggests the political debate over the economy is increasingly centered on a straightforward question for Americans: whether their financial circumstances have improved since Trump returned to the White House. For nearly half of those surveyed, the answer about their own families was that they are worse off than when his second administration began.