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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.

Remarkable details about the daily life of the renowned mekubal Rav Dovid Shalom Batzri zt”l have emerged following his petirah, with Rav Yaakov Ades describing years in which he watched the venerated mekubal devote virtually every waking hour to Torah, lengthy tefillos and helping other Yidden.

Rav Batzri, the longtime rosh yeshiva of Yeshivas Hamekubalim Hashalom in Yerushalayim and one of the most prominent mekubalim of his generation, was niftar on Erev Sukkos at the age of 85. He had collapsed while in Bnei Brak and was rushed to Sheba Medical Center following prolonged resuscitation efforts, but was ultimately niftar at the hospital.

His levayah departed from Yeshivas Hashalom on Rechov Tachkemoni in Yerushalayim and proceeded to the Sanhedria cemetery, where he was buried alongside his wife, Rebbetzin Tzipora Batzri a”h, who was niftar on Erev Pesach 2020.

In an extensive conversation with Rav Moshe Ben Lulu on Kol Chai’s “B’Govah Halev” program, Rav Ades offered an unusually intimate glimpse into Rav Batzri’s private avodas Hashem. Rav Ades said that for years he spent “most of the day in the same room” with Rav Batzri, learning alongside him and observing a daily regimen that he found difficult to comprehend even while witnessing it firsthand.

“He would arrive at the yeshiva at around a quarter to five in the morning and leave at around two in the morning,” Rav Ades recalled.

That schedule left Rav Batzri with barely a few hours away from the yeshiva each day. Even his eating, Rav Ades said, was strikingly minimal. During the week, he rarely sat down for conventional meals, subsisting instead on small amounts of salad, crackers, fruit and vegetables.

“I didn’t understand how he survived. No one should try to imitate this. His vitality came from the Torah. The Torah gave him life.”

Rav Ades stressed that Rav Batzri’s regimen was not something others should attempt to emulate physically. What astonished him was the degree to which Rav Batzri appeared to draw his strength from learning and avodah despite sleeping and eating so little.

“It is truly very difficult to eulogize such a great person, with so many qualities,” Rav Ades said.

Rav Batzri was born in Yerushalayim in 1941 to Rav Yosef and Victoria Batzri and descended from an illustrious family of Iraqi Torah giants. He was a descendant of the great mekubal Rav Yehuda Fatiyah zt”l and was related to the Ben Ish Chai. In his youth, he learned at Yeshivas Porat Yosef and absorbed Torah from some of the leading Sephardic gedolim and mekubalim of the previous generation.

He later married Rebbetzin Tzipora, daughter of the famed mekubal Rav Salman Mutzafi zt”l, and devoted his life in particular to the study and transmission of Torat hanistar. Over the years, Yeshivas Hashalom became a major address for the study of Kabbalah and the kavanos of the Arizal and Rashash.

Rav Ades said Rav Batzri’s tefillos were themselves an extraordinary avodah. He would daven according to the kavanos of the Arizal and Rashash, “down to the smallest details,” remaining on his feet in prayer for hours at a time.

Even exhaustion seemed to disappear once the tefillah began, Rav Ades recalled.

“Even when he was weak and tired, he would begin to daven — and receive strength like fire.”

Rav Ades remembered seeing Rav Batzri shed tears as he davened for individual Yidden who needed yeshuos, as well as for Klal Yisroel as a whole. At the same time, he said, there was an unmistakable simcha in Rav Batzri’s learning, even during periods when he was personally experiencing difficulty and pain.

One episode Rav Ades related concerned an individual who had fought against Rav Batzri during a certain period. Later, that same person found himself in need of assistance.

Rav Batzri did not hesitate.

According to Rav Ades, he helped the man “with joy and a full heart, with all his heart and all his soul,” without allowing their earlier dispute to affect his response. Rav Ades said the incident exemplified Rav Batzri’s approach to avodas Hashem: personal calculations and grievances had no place when another person needed his help.

Rav Ades also described a side of Rav Batzri’s life that was far less visible to the public — his extensive involvement in efforts to strengthen Jewish families and prevent abortions.

According to Rav Ades, Rav Batzri invested enormous effort in those activities over many years, and he estimated that “certainly thousands” of children were born as a result of those efforts.

Alongside his public work, Rav Batzri possessed an extraordinary command of the writings of the Arizal and Rashash, Rav Ades said. Yet one of his gifts was his ability to take exceptionally difficult concepts and explain the Siddur HaRashash to students with unusual clarity and simplicity.

Some of those talmidim would themselves eventually become accomplished mekubalim and teachers, extending Rav Batzri’s influence to another generation.

His impact on the baal teshuvah movement was also far greater than many people realized, Rav Ades said, because much of Rav Batzri’s work was conducted behind the scenes.

Among the efforts with which he was involved was the campaign to bring children from secular Israeli homes into Torah educational institutions. Rav Ades said Rav Batzri was among those who encouraged Rav Uri Zohar zt”l to devote a substantial portion of his efforts to bringing Yidden back to Torah and registering children in religious schools.

“One can say with almost certainty that tens of thousands of people who observe Torah and mitzvos today are the fruits of his initiatives,” Rav Ades said.

Rav Batzri remained intensely involved in the needs of individual Yidden and Klal Yisroel throughout his life. Even during his later years, when his health declined and he experienced a number of hospitalizations, he continued teaching Torat hanistar, receiving people seeking advice and brachos, and involving himself in matters concerning the klal and the prat.

Following Rav Batzri’s petirah, Yeshivas Nahar Shalom described him as someone who devoted his life to the precise study of the kavanos, teaching Toras hanistar and davening with extraordinary concentration for Klal Yisroel. He had maintained a longstanding relationship with the yeshiva and its leadership, learning there and encouraging the publication of siddurim devoted to the kavanos of the Rashash.

Rav Ades concluded his remarks by leading a tefillah l’ilui nishmas Rav Batzri and for the yeshuah of Klal Yisroel. But he also urged that the memories and stories surrounding Rav Batzri’s life be translated into something concrete.

In particular, he called for efforts to encourage additional Yidden to keep Shabbos l’ilui nishmas Rav Dovid Shalom ben Rav Yosef Batzri zt”l.

Rav Ades recalled a young man from Nahariya who had once been influenced by a radio campaign encouraging Shabbos observance. The young man began keeping Shabbos himself, subsequently influenced several of his friends to do the same, and ultimately entered a yeshiva to learn Torah.

For Rav Ades, the story illustrated how a single initiative could produce consequences extending far beyond anything its organizers could initially see — precisely the kind of zikui harabbim that had characterized Rav Batzri’s life.

“Do it with all your strength,” Rav Ades urged.

{Matzav.com}

Iran is on the verge of having no oil remaining at sea and no incoming revenue from those shipments for the “first time in history,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said, as the Trump administration tightens its economic blockade and senior Iranian officials publicly acknowledge an increasingly severe financial crisis. Pasted markdown

The extraordinary claim comes after Iran loaded no crude oil onto tankers during September, according to Bessent, leaving Tehran dependent on the dwindling cargoes that were already at sea before the blockade took effect. With those shipments now reaching their destinations, Bessent says Iran’s principal source of foreign revenue is approaching a complete standstill.

“For the first time in history, since they started pumping oil, they will have no oil on the water this week,” Bessent told The Axios Show. “They will have no revenues.”

Bessent described the situation as the culmination of a deliberate three-part strategy pursued by President Donald Trump: first inflicting major damage on Iran’s military capabilities, then imposing an unprecedented maritime blockade, and finally attempting to isolate the Iranian economy from the remaining international trade and financial networks available to Tehran.

The first stage, Bessent said, was the roughly six-week military campaign that began in late February. He said the fighting destroyed Iran’s navy and air force, severely reduced its missile and drone arsenal and damaged Tehran’s ability to rebuild those capabilities.

“We had kinetic,” Bessent said. “We destroyed their navy, their air force, substantially depleted their drone and missile capability, destroyed their chances of rebuilding that.”

The administration then shifted to what Trump has dubbed the “Iron Wall,” a U.S. naval blockade intended to prevent Iranian exports while allowing international commercial traffic to continue moving through the Strait of Hormuz under American protection.

“Then we went to what the president calls the Iron Wall and the blockade, which we’d never done before,” Bessent said. “And now we have Operation Economic Outcast, and we are isolating them economically like has never happened before.”

Operation Economic Outcast, launched by the Trump administration in August, is designed to cut Iran off from sources of revenue and penalize foreign companies, governments and financial institutions that continue facilitating Iranian commerce.

The Treasury Department widened that campaign again Thursday, imposing sanctions targeting major components of Iran’s automotive and railway industries, along with foreign companies accused of supporting them. The administration says the sectors have been exploited by the Iranian government and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to support military programs, including missile and drone production and cyber operations.

Among the Iranian companies targeted were major automakers Iran Khodro and SAIPA, as well as several important railway and transportation companies. Foreign suppliers in Turkey, Indonesia and the United Arab Emirates were also targeted as Washington attempts to close alternative economic channels available to Tehran.

Bessent said Thursday that Iran had loaded zero crude oil onto tankers during September, calling oil the regime’s most important source of revenue. The administration argues that choking off those earnings will increasingly limit Tehran’s ability to finance both its military and its regional allies.

The Treasury secretary says the blockade has produced a striking disparity in maritime traffic: Iranian oil shipments have effectively stopped while enormous quantities of internationally traded oil have continued moving through the region.

“Right now, the score, in terms of barrels out of the strait: U.S. about 1.1 billion, Iran zero,” he said.

Bessent had predicted a week earlier that Iran was approaching precisely this moment. At the time, approximately 15 million barrels of Iranian oil loaded before the blockade were reportedly still aboard tankers, much of it headed toward China. Bessent said that once the final cargoes were unloaded, Tehran would have “nothing left to trade.”

One week later, Bessent says the remaining supply is essentially exhausted.

Inside Iran, the economic consequences are becoming increasingly difficult for the government to conceal. The rial plunged to a new record low over the weekend, trading at approximately 2.69 million to one U.S. dollar, after losing more than half of its value over the past year. Inflation has meanwhile risen above 70 percent.

Iran’s central bank has responded by making as much as $2 billion in U.S. currency available through state banks in an effort to stabilize the rial and satisfy soaring demand among Iranians seeking dollars as protection against the collapse of their own currency.

The economic strain has prompted unusually stark language from senior Iranian officials. Mohsen Rezaei, Iran’s top national security official, reportedly described the present circumstances as among the most difficult periods the country has faced during a high-level government meeting attended by President Masoud Pezeshkian and senior ministers. Iranian state media reported his assessment without publishing his remarks verbatim.

Pezeshkian himself acknowledged that conditions have deteriorated, saying his government has adopted a “new posture” to confront the country’s “special conditions.”

The crisis is increasingly being felt by ordinary Iranians as well. Reports from inside the country describe families burning through savings, workers losing jobs, people relocating to less expensive areas and households cutting expenditures on food and other necessities as inflation and the collapse of the rial erode purchasing power.

So far, the economic distress has not produced a sustained nationwide protest movement. Reports from inside Iran indicate that fears of government repression, together with the immediate struggle of families simply trying to meet daily expenses, have limited the extent to which economic anger has translated into organized demonstrations.

The collapse of Iranian oil exports is particularly striking because shipments from other Persian Gulf producers have been recovering. Recent shipping data indicate that regional oil exports have returned to roughly prewar levels despite continuing instability around the Strait of Hormuz.

The recovery has been aided by U.S.-protected shipping routes, alternative pipelines and complicated tanker-transfer arrangements developed by Gulf producers to keep energy supplies moving despite the conflict. The system remains vulnerable, however, as a recent series of attacks on commercial vessels has again raised concerns over maritime security.

The Trump administration says its objective is to preserve that distinction: keep international energy supplies moving while preventing Iran itself from earning money through the same waterways.

War Secretary Pete Hegseth said that American forces can sustain the blockade for as long as necessary and dismissed Tehran’s repeated assertions that Iran controls the Strait of Hormuz.

“Iran wants to play games with things like the Strait of Hormuz. They don’t control it. We do,” Hegseth said. “They have literally gotten nothing through. Our blockade’s been ironclad, and we’re running almost at prewar levels every single night through that.”

Hegseth said the situation has left Washington in a “very strong position,” and urged Tehran to “make the right choice” while an agreement with Trump remains possible.

“If they don’t, the president’s going to have all the options he needs on the table,” he said.

Even as the economic squeeze intensifies, diplomatic contacts between Washington and Tehran have continued. Iranian officials said Sunday that the United States had sent ideas to Tehran through an intermediary in response to Iran’s latest proposal, and that Iranian officials were reviewing them.

The latest contacts have reportedly been conducted with Qatar playing a mediating role. Iranian officials have maintained that the immediate discussions concern the Strait of Hormuz and maritime arrangements rather than a reopening of broader nuclear negotiations.

Tehran continues to demand relief from U.S. economic restrictions and changes to the blockade before it will fully reopen the Strait of Hormuz.

Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said Sunday that the waterway would remain closed until Washington fulfills seven Iranian conditions based on the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding, the June framework that briefly established a ceasefire and provided a pathway toward reopening Hormuz and broader negotiations before the arrangement collapsed.

“The Strait of Hormuz will not open until our seven conditions based on the Islamabad Memorandum are met,” Ghalibaf said.

The disagreement reportedly centers in part on the sequence in which the United States and Iran would fulfill their obligations. Tehran says Washington must satisfy the conditions before the Strait is fully reopened, while the Trump administration has resisted accepting an arrangement it regards as inadequate.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has meanwhile insisted that additional economic pressure or another round of American military strikes will not force Iran to accept Washington’s demands.

“There is no military solution, nor any solution based on new sanctions,” Araghchi said, arguing that negotiations based on “justice and fairness” offered the only path to ending the conflict.

At the same time, Araghchi warned that Iran remains prepared to fight if diplomacy fails, saying that if Iran’s enemies “again choose the path of military confrontation, our response will be stronger than before.”

The Trump administration is also preparing for the possibility that negotiations will fail. Senior administration officials gathered for several hours Friday at Camp David for a previously undisclosed meeting focused heavily on Iran and the administration’s next steps.

Vice President JD Vance chaired the session, which included Rubio, Hegseth, Bessent, CIA Director John Ratcliffe, White House envoy Steve Witkoff and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine.

“Things were decided or at least deeply discussed,” one U.S. official said.

Trump offered little information when reporters asked afterward what had been decided.

“If I told you, you would have a major story,” he said Friday. “But you will see. It is working out very well. Iran is not doing well.”

The following day, Trump indicated that he was nearing a decision on how to proceed.

“We have a decision that I’ll make about Iran,” he said. “Iran has been decimated. So the only question is it’ll either be the easy way or the hard way. We’ll have it the easy way or the hard way.”

Iran, for its part, is signaling that it is preparing for another round of military confrontation even while participating in indirect diplomatic contacts.

The Iranian army announced Sunday that it is working to increase both the range and speed of its missiles based on lessons learned during the conflict. Brig. Gen. Mohammad Akraminia said Iran concluded that American forces were now operating farther away from Iranian territory and that Tehran therefore needed weapons capable of reaching targets at greater distances.

Akraminia said U.S. forces had withdrawn as far as approximately 1,000 kilometers from Iran in some areas, prompting the military to work on extending the reach of its missile arsenal.

The Trump administration is closely monitoring a potentially serious public-health incident in Russia after a 28-year-old employee of a Siberian anti-plague research institute died following a suspected case of pneumonic plague, prompting quarantine measures and medical monitoring of nearly 200 people who may have come into contact with her.

The State Department confirmed Sunday that U.S. officials are tracking developments in Russia’s Irkutsk Oblast together with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other federal agencies. Washington is also pressing Moscow to disclose what happened as conflicting accounts emerge about the woman’s illness and Russian authorities stop short of confirming that she died from plague.

“We are aware of reports of a fatal case of suspected pneumonic plague in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia,” a State Department spokesperson said. “We are monitoring the situation closely with the CDC and our other interagency partners.”

The State Department called on “Russian authorities to share accurate information quickly and openly,” while emphasizing that many of the circumstances surrounding the case remain unconfirmed.

At the center of the mystery is Darya Shipilova, 28, an employee of the Irkutsk Research Anti-Plague Institute, an institution that works with dangerous infectious diseases, including the bacterium that causes plague.

According to Russian independent media reports, Shipilova may have been exposed on September 25 while working with live plague bacteria when a test tube containing the pathogen was accidentally broken. That account has circulated widely but has not been officially confirmed by Russian health authorities.

Shipilova subsequently became seriously ill and was admitted to a hospital in Shelekhov, outside Irkutsk, on September 29. She reportedly developed severe pneumonia-like symptoms and was placed on a ventilator before dying in intensive care in the early hours of October 2.

The case immediately triggered extraordinary precautions. The inpatient section of the Shelekhov district hospital was placed under quarantine, and people who had been in contact with Shipilova were identified and placed under medical observation.

Russian media reports put the number of people being monitored at approximately 189. According to one breakdown, 114 were being observed at one hospital, 63 at another facility and 12 at the anti-plague institute where Shipilova worked.

So far, Russian officials say the people being monitored have shown no signs of illness and have tested negative.

The Russian government’s response nevertheless indicates the seriousness with which authorities are treating the incident. Anna Popova, Russia’s chief sanitary official and head of the federal public-health agency Rospotrebnadzor, traveled more than 2,600 miles from Moscow to Irkutsk to oversee the response.

Irkutsk Governor Igor Kobzev convened a special meeting of the regional commission responsible for sanitary and epidemic prevention measures after authorities received information concerning what he described only as a suspected case of a “particularly dangerous infection.”

Kobzev did not identify the disease as plague, saying instead that authorities were carrying out a full range of epidemic-control measures and that those who had been in contact with the patient were under observation.

The head of neighboring Buryatia, Alexey Tsydenov, initially appeared to provide a more direct confirmation. He said Shipilova had died of plague while stressing that she had not traveled to Buryatia and that there was no outbreak there. His statement was subsequently edited to say that she “may have died from plague.”

Russia’s public-health authorities have since pushed back against reports that Shipilova’s death was caused by the plague bacterium. Rospotrebnadzor said Sunday that she had been diagnosed with pneumonia of unknown origin and that testing had not identified microorganisms connected to her professional work. The agency said the epidemiological situation in the region remained stable.

That leaves a major unanswered question: whether the extensive quarantine and contact-tracing operation was undertaken because Shipilova actually contracted pneumonic plague, because authorities initially feared that she had, or simply as an extreme precaution because of her work with dangerous pathogens.

Reports of the possible laboratory accident have also been questioned by some specialists. Epidemiologist Mikhail Favorov expressed skepticism that merely breaking a test tube would have produced the reported infection because employees working with live plague bacteria should be wearing specialized protective equipment.

The conflicting accounts are one reason Washington is seeking greater transparency from Moscow.

Former CIA officer Dan Hoffman said American intelligence agencies would likely be gathering information from numerous sources in an attempt to establish what actually happened.

“I would also expect our embassy in Moscow to be engaging with their diplomatic counterparts at an official level because we might have people in Russia who might be at risk,” Hoffman said.

“Washington will be speaking to all of our allies and partners in the region and sharing what we know.”

Despite its fearsome historical reputation, plague is no longer automatically a death sentence. The disease is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis and still occurs naturally in several parts of the world, generally circulating among rodents and fleas.

There are three principal forms of the illness: bubonic, septicemic and pneumonic plague. Pneumonic plague is the form involving the lungs and is considered particularly dangerous because, unlike ordinary bubonic plague, it can spread from person to person through respiratory droplets when there is close contact with an infected individual.

Untreated pneumonic plague can progress extraordinarily rapidly and can be fatal. Modern antibiotics, however, are highly effective when treatment begins early, with health authorities stressing that patients should receive treatment as soon as plague is suspected rather than waiting for final laboratory confirmation.

The State Department similarly emphasized that pneumonic plague “is treatable with common antibiotics, especially when treatment starts early.”

The World Health Organization says pneumonic plague can become fatal within 18 to 24 hours after the onset of symptoms if it goes untreated, but patients have a high chance of recovery when the disease is identified promptly and appropriate antibiotics are administered.

The current incident therefore does not by itself indicate that Russia is facing a widespread plague outbreak. As of Sunday, there were no confirmed reports of secondary infections among the nearly 200 people reportedly placed under observation, and Russian authorities maintain that the regional epidemiological situation is stable.

The secrecy and conflicting information surrounding Shipilova’s death, however, have attracted attention outside Russia, particularly because she worked at an institute specifically responsible for researching plague and other highly dangerous infectious diseases.

Russia has long maintained specialized anti-plague institutes because natural reservoirs of Yersinia pestis exist in parts of the country and neighboring regions. Workers who handle live cultures of the organism are among those for whom Russia recommends plague vaccination.

Russia’s previous publicly reported human plague case occurred in 2016, when a 10-year-old boy in the Altai Republic contracted the disease. Plague continues to occur naturally elsewhere in the world, with cases recorded particularly in parts of Africa.

For Americans, the State Department said there has been no change to its broader warning against travel to Russia, which is already classified at Level 4, “Do Not Travel,” for reasons unrelated to the suspected plague case. Americans who nevertheless travel abroad are being encouraged to enroll in the department’s Smart Traveler Enrollment Program to receive security and emergency information.

For now, the key questions remain unresolved: what caused Shipilova’s fatal illness, whether she was exposed to Yersinia pestis while working at the Irkutsk institute, and whether anyone who came into contact with her was infected.

Elon Musk says SpaceX’s artificial-intelligence operation will be renamed SpaceXSI, embracing President Donald Trump’s push to retire the term “artificial intelligence” in favor of “super intelligence” — and declaring Sunday that the old terminology has run its course.

“No more AI,” Musk wrote on X.

“SI,” he added in a subsequent post. “It’s better.”

Musk then went a step further, declaring, “SpaceX is a super intelligence company.”

When an X user asked Musk whether that meant SpaceXAI itself would be renamed SpaceXSI, Musk confirmed the change.

“Yes, we will make that change,” he replied.

Musk did not announce when the new name will formally take effect. As of Sunday, the company’s website and social-media accounts were still using SpaceXAI, suggesting that the rebranding had not yet been fully implemented.

The move comes less than a week after President Trump signed an executive order titled “Inaugurating the Era of Super Intelligence,” directing federal agencies to replace the terms “Artificial Intelligence” and “AI” with “Super Intelligence” and “SI” in executive-branch communications wherever legally permitted.

The September 29 order directs federal departments and agencies to use the new terminology in official correspondence, public communications, policy documents, websites and other non-statutory government materials.

The order does not automatically rewrite terminology contained in federal statutes, nor does it retroactively alter previously issued regulations, contracts, grants or other historical government documents. Changing terminology embedded in federal law would require congressional action.

The White House said the change is intended to reflect what the administration views as the increasingly advanced capabilities of modern technology, arguing that “artificial intelligence” no longer adequately describes systems capable of increasingly sophisticated reasoning and problem-solving.

“President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order to replace the term ‘Artificial Intelligence’ (‘AI’) with ‘Super Intelligence’ (‘SI’) in the executive branch to recognize the continuously advancing technological frontier and the limitless promise it offers the American people,” the White House said in announcing the order.

Trump’s directive also instructs the assistant to the president for science and technology to develop a proposed federal definition of “Super Intelligence” and “SI” reflecting the current state of the technology. The official is also tasked with identifying additional executive actions needed to implement the terminology throughout the federal government.

The White House argues that the word “artificial” suggests technology that merely imitates human intelligence, while “super intelligence” better conveys systems capable of expanding human abilities and performing tasks that were previously impossible.

“The name Super Intelligence conveys the true capabilities of the technologies being developed today, unlocking new forms of human creativity and empowering Americans to achieve what was previously impossible—not simply imitating or automating human intelligence as is implied by the term ‘Artificial Intelligence,’” the White House said.

The administration has increasingly placed advanced computing at the center of its technology and economic agenda, describing technological supremacy as an issue of national security as the United States competes with China and other countries for leadership in the field.

Trump had publicly floated alternative terminology before signing the order, including variations of “super intelligence,” “superior intelligence” and “supreme intelligence.” He also used his September address to the United Nations General Assembly to promote the change internationally.

“From this point forward, all of United States documents, and hopefully the world’s will be changed to use the much more accurate term ‘super’ as opposed to artificial. So it’s super intelligence.”

Musk’s enthusiastic adoption of the terminology is particularly notable because he has been warning about the eventual emergence of intelligence exceeding human capabilities for well over a decade.

In 2014, Musk publicly endorsed philosopher Nick Bostrom’s book “Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies,” which examined the possibility that machines could eventually surpass human intelligence and the dangers that could result if such systems were not adequately controlled.

Musk warned at the time that highly advanced machine intelligence could ultimately present risks greater than nuclear weapons, a concern he has repeated in various forms over the years even as his companies have become major developers and users of the technology.

The SpaceXSI announcement is also remarkable because the operation being renamed has itself undergone a rapid series of corporate transformations.

Musk originally established xAI as a separate artificial-intelligence company in 2023, building the Grok chatbot and the massive computing infrastructure required to train increasingly sophisticated models. The company was subsequently brought together with X, Musk’s social-media platform.

SpaceX then acquired xAI in 2026, combining Musk’s rocket, satellite, communications and artificial-intelligence operations in a massive transaction. The artificial-intelligence operation subsequently took the SpaceXAI name in July.

Now, only about three months later, that name is on its way out as well, with Musk adopting SpaceXSI to conform with the terminology Trump is promoting.

The corporate shift comes as SpaceX increasingly views advanced computing as central to its future rather than merely an auxiliary technology for rockets and satellites. The company has been developing plans for large-scale computing infrastructure in orbit, arguing that space could eventually provide enormous amounts of energy and computing capacity for increasingly powerful models.

SpaceX’s own corporate material describes the company as developing “orbital AI compute,” contending that its launch capabilities and vertically integrated infrastructure could make it uniquely positioned to build computing systems in space.

Musk has also recently deepened his involvement with the Trump administration on technology and defense issues. His Grok technology has been used for some federal work, and Musk has participated in White House discussions with leading technology executives over the future of advanced computing in the United States.

Just days before announcing the SpaceXSI name change, Musk joined Trump and other technology executives at the White House as the administration unveiled an industry accord concerning the development of super intelligence.

Musk has also been tapped to participate in Project Meridian, a Pentagon initiative examining the weapons and technologies the United States could require for warfare decades into the future.

The SpaceXSI change does not appear, at least for now, to represent a technological restructuring of the business. Musk has announced a change in terminology and branding, not an abandonment of the technology commonly known as artificial intelligence.

Nor has Musk indicated that Grok or SpaceXAI’s other products will receive new names as part of the change. He has provided no timetable for completing the corporate rebranding.

{Matzav.com}

NASA is accelerating plans to put a nuclear reactor on the moon by the end of 2030, setting up a new phase of the global space race as the United States seeks to establish a permanent lunar presence years before a competing Russian-Chinese nuclear project is expected to become operational.

The American space agency is moving ahead with Lunar Reactor-1, or LR-1, a compact fission power system designed to operate near the moon’s south pole. NASA wants the reactor deployed by December 2030, approximately six years before Russia expects to have its own lunar reactor operating as part of a joint project with China.

NASA’s Glenn Research Center released draft contracting documents in late August laying out requirements for LR-1. The reactor is expected to generate 20 kilowatts of electricity and operate continuously for at least five years without routine maintenance or human intervention.

The system would use high-assay low-enriched uranium, known as HALEU, rather than highly enriched uranium, and employ a closed-loop Brayton power-conversion system. NASA’s requirements call for the reactor to function automatically even when communications with Earth are intermittent and to withstand the severe conditions near the lunar south pole.

Reliable power is considered essential to plans for a lasting human presence on the moon. Solar power has significant limitations on the lunar surface, where darkness can persist for extended periods and permanently shadowed craters receive no sunlight at all. Those same regions are particularly important because scientists believe they contain deposits of water ice that could eventually support astronauts and potentially be processed into rocket propellant.

NASA says nuclear fission could provide uninterrupted electricity regardless of sunlight, allowing astronauts to heat habitats, operate scientific equipment, charge lunar vehicles and support other infrastructure needed for a permanent base.

The 2030 deadline also reflects an increasingly intense strategic competition among the United States, China and Russia over who will establish a lasting presence on the moon first.

Russia has assigned its state nuclear corporation Rosatom and the Kurchatov Institute to develop a lunar reactor known as Selena. The Russian system is intended to provide power for the China-led International Lunar Research Station, a planned network of installations on and around the moon.

Current Russian plans call for Selena to become operational by 2036. The reactor is expected to generate as much as 10 kilowatts and function autonomously for approximately a decade. Russian officials have said a prototype could be completed several years earlier, with a sequence of missions eventually delivering the infrastructure and nuclear power system to the lunar surface.

China and Russia have steadily expanded their lunar partnership, with Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin placing considerable emphasis on cooperation in space. The International Lunar Research Station is intended to become a long-term scientific and exploration facility, with its principal infrastructure concentrated around the lunar south pole.

NASA officials are particularly concerned that whichever country establishes major infrastructure in the most desirable areas of the lunar south pole first could gain a significant strategic advantage. The region contains limited locations offering favorable lighting, terrain and access to suspected ice deposits, raising questions about how competing bases and equipment will operate in close proximity.

The United States is therefore pursuing a broader plan that goes well beyond a single reactor. NASA has shifted its lunar strategy toward establishing a surface base and building the infrastructure necessary for sustained human operations rather than limiting Artemis to a series of individual astronaut visits.

President Donald Trump has made American leadership in space a component of his broader America First agenda, and the administration’s national space policy calls for the United States to expand its presence on the moon while developing nuclear power and propulsion technologies for missions deeper into the solar system.

Before attempting to place LR-1 on the lunar surface, NASA plans a major nuclear demonstration much farther from Earth.

In December 2028, the agency is targeting the launch of Space Reactor-1 Freedom, or SR-1 Freedom, which NASA says would become the first fission-powered interplanetary spacecraft. The spacecraft is slated to travel toward Mars while demonstrating nuclear-electric propulsion in deep space.

SR-1 Freedom will carry a 20-kilowatt fission system fueled with HALEU. After escaping Earth’s gravity, NASA plans to activate the reactor and use the electricity it produces to power electric thrusters. The mission will also carry three Mars helicopters, known collectively as SkyFall, which are designed to investigate possible future exploration areas and search for subsurface water ice.

NASA views that mission as a technological stepping stone to Lunar Reactor-1. By flying and operating a reactor in space before attempting a lunar landing, the agency hopes to demonstrate the hardware, establish nuclear-launch procedures, develop an American supply chain and resolve technical problems before the 2030 lunar mission.

The effort marks a dramatic revival of American space-fission technology. The United States has flown only one nuclear fission reactor in space: SNAP-10A, launched in 1965. Although Washington has spent billions of dollars on various space-nuclear programs in the decades since, none resulted in another operational American reactor being deployed in space.

Russia and the Soviet Union accumulated considerably more experience in that area, launching more than 30 nuclear reactors into orbit, primarily aboard military satellites during the Cold War.

The Pentagon is also pouring money into the return of American nuclear technology to space. The U.S. Space Force recently awarded California-based nuclear startup Antares a $161 million contract to advance a reactor system designed for spacecraft.

Under that program, Antares is developing its R1-S space reactor and is expected to conduct a nuclear ground demonstration before integrating the reactor with a spacecraft for eventual flight certification. The award is part of a wider Defense Department effort to develop reliable power sources for military and national-security operations in space.

The rapid expansion of nuclear projects beyond Earth has also raised safety concerns among nuclear specialists, who warn that the renewed competition among major powers could create pressure to move faster than prudent safety practices allow.

Edwin Lyman, director of nuclear power safety at the Union of Concerned Scientists, told The New York Times that adding nuclear technology to the accelerating competition in space “could take a potentially more dangerous turn.”

American and Russian engineers maintain that lunar reactors can be transported safely because the systems would remain shut down during launch and the journey to the moon. The reactors would become operational only after reaching their destinations, sharply reducing the amount of radioactive material that could be dispersed if a launch vehicle exploded or failed during flight.

History nevertheless provides a warning about what can happen when nuclear hardware in space goes wrong. In 1978, the Soviet nuclear-powered reconnaissance satellite Kosmos 954 reentered Earth’s atmosphere unexpectedly and scattered radioactive material across a vast stretch of northern Canada. A major Canadian-American recovery effort subsequently searched thousands of square miles for radioactive debris.

Safety concerns do not end once a reactor reaches the moon. R. Scott Kemp, an associate professor of nuclear science and engineering at MIT, has warned that an accident on the lunar surface could prove particularly difficult to contain because a compact lunar reactor cannot be surrounded by the massive containment structures commonly used at terrestrial nuclear plants.

Another challenge is obtaining sufficient nuclear fuel. NASA’s plans specify HALEU, which contains a higher concentration of the uranium-235 isotope than fuel typically used in commercial American nuclear power plants. Supplies of HALEU remain limited as Washington attempts to establish a larger domestic production capacity.

The issue has become more complicated since the United States moved to prohibit imports of Russian uranium beginning in 2024, part of Washington’s effort to reduce dependence on Russia’s nuclear-fuel industry following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Rep. Bill Foster, D-Ill., a physicist, has separately raised proliferation concerns surrounding the possibility of using highly enriched uranium for space missions. Foster warned that highly enriched material could potentially be converted for weapons purposes with little more than “a machine shop and a little bit of high explosive.”

NASA’s current LR-1 documents, however, call for high-assay low-enriched uranium rather than highly enriched uranium, an important distinction as the agency attempts to balance performance requirements with nuclear-security concerns.

The race is ultimately about far more than powering a handful of machines. Both the American and Chinese-led programs envision the lunar south pole as a foothold for permanent operations, scientific research, resource extraction and eventually missions farther into the solar system.

NASA’s current timetable would put the American reactor on the lunar surface in 2030, while Russia’s Selena system is targeted for operation by 2036. If those schedules hold, the United States could establish nuclear-powered lunar infrastructure years before the Russian-Chinese partnership — turning an engineering competition that once sounded like science fiction into one of the most consequential elements of the new race for the moon.