Netanyahu: Preventing Iran's Nuclear Armament Remains Israel's Top Priority

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a session of the Knesset, Israel's parliament with US Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy as a guest, in Jerusalem, Monday, May 1, 2023. (AP)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a session of the Knesset, Israel's parliament with US Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy as a guest, in Jerusalem, Monday, May 1, 2023. (AP)
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Netanyahu: Preventing Iran's Nuclear Armament Remains Israel's Top Priority

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a session of the Knesset, Israel's parliament with US Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy as a guest, in Jerusalem, Monday, May 1, 2023. (AP)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks during a session of the Knesset, Israel's parliament with US Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy as a guest, in Jerusalem, Monday, May 1, 2023. (AP)

The need to block Iran's nuclear armament will continue to be Israel's top priority, announced Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Netanyahu spoke at the Knesset plenum attended by US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.

He noted that the first and most urgent challenge was the joint effort of Israel and the US to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

"We properly see the threat posed by the fanatical regime in Iran, which threatens not only Israel but also the United States and the entire free world," the PM noted.

He asserted that Israel would not allow Iran to establish itself militarily along its borders and would do everything to prevent it from acquiring nuclear weapons.

Meanwhile, Israeli Foreign Minister, Eli Cohen, met the EU's foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, in Brussels.

Cohen aimed to ensure that the EU would take a tougher stance on Iran's repeated violations of its nuclear commitments before June's meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency's Board of Governors.

Cohen is expected to ask Borrell to declare the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a terrorist organization, according to the Israeli "i24 News" channel.

Last Thursday, Cohen urged his Spanish counterpart, Jose Manuel Albares, to form a broad and firm front against Iran, including economic and political sanctions.

Cohen told Albares, "We must form a broad and determined front against Iran, which includes economic and political sanctions at the same time as a credible military threat."

"Today Europe has a better understanding of the danger of the Iranian rule of terror," the Israeli minister tweeted.

He indicated that he discussed strengthening relations between Israel and the European Union- with Spain in particular- in the fields of cyber and fin-tech.



Spacex Set for Starship's Next Flight, Trump Expected to Attend

NASA's SpaceX Europa mission on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket lifts off from Launch Complex 39A, at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA, 14 October 2024.  EPA/CRISTOBAL HERRERA-ULASHKEVICH
NASA's SpaceX Europa mission on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket lifts off from Launch Complex 39A, at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA, 14 October 2024. EPA/CRISTOBAL HERRERA-ULASHKEVICH
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Spacex Set for Starship's Next Flight, Trump Expected to Attend

NASA's SpaceX Europa mission on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket lifts off from Launch Complex 39A, at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA, 14 October 2024.  EPA/CRISTOBAL HERRERA-ULASHKEVICH
NASA's SpaceX Europa mission on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket lifts off from Launch Complex 39A, at the agency's Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA, 14 October 2024. EPA/CRISTOBAL HERRERA-ULASHKEVICH

SpaceX is poised for its next Starship megarocket test flight on Tuesday, with US President-elect Donald Trump expected to witness the second ever attempt to catch its descending booster stage in the launch tower's "chopstick" arms.
It comes just over a month after the company first pulled off the technical tour de force that underscored its position as the world leader in reusable rocketry.
"It was a beautiful thing to see," Trump declared in his election night victory speech, dramatically recounting the feat.
US media outlets have reported on Trump's plans to attend -- further backed by Federal Aviation Administration orders showing flight restrictions for VIP movement have been imposed around the area during the launch window, which opens at 4:00 pm (2200 GMT) from the company's Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas.
Meanwhile, the usual air traffic restrictions over Trump's Florida residence will be lifted at the same time.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has been a constant presence at Trump's side since the Republican's election victory, joining him at meetings with Argentina's President Javier Milei and even at a UFC fight. Trump's decision to travel to Musk's home turf is the latest sign of the burgeoning bond between the billionaire duo.
SpaceX will be looking to prove the first catch wasn't a fluke, after Musk revealed -- indirectly, through audio shared on X of a discussion with engineers days later -- that the Super Heavy booster had come perilously close to crashing.
The world's richest man shared a three-minute video flaunting his hack-and-slash skills in the "Diablo IV" video game, during which sharp-eared viewers caught an employee briefing him that "we were one second away" from a system failure that could have ended in catastrophe.
Tuesday's launch will mark the fastest turnaround between test flights for the world's most powerful rocket, a gleaming, stainless steel colossus central to Musk's vision of colonizing Mars and making humanity a multiplanetary species.
NASA is also counting on a specialized version of Starship to ferry astronauts to the lunar surface later this decade under its Artemis program.
Daylight splashdown
Flight six will revisit many of the goals from flight five, with some updates.
If all goes as planned, the returning booster will decelerate from supersonic speeds, creating sonic booms as it nears the launch tower. There, a pair of massive mechanical arms will reach out to catch it and bring it to a halt, around eight to ten minutes after liftoff.
Starship's upper stage will make a partial orbit of Earth, reenter the atmosphere and splash down in the Indian Ocean a little over an hour later, but this time in the daylight, providing better conditions for visual analysis.
Technical goals include reigniting Starship's Raptor engines for the first time in space, and carrying out new heat shield experiments in what will be the final flight for the current generation of Starship prototypes.
The next bloc will feature redesigned forward flaps, larger propellant tanks, and new-generation tiles and thermal protection layers as the company strives towards a fully reusable heat shield.
Musk riding high
The flight comes as Musk is riding high on Trump's November 5 White House win, having campaigned extensively for the returning Republican leader, as well as donating tens of millions of dollars from his own fortune to the cause.
He has been appointed to co-lead a new "Department of Government Efficiency" -- whose acronym DOGE is a reference to an internet meme and a cryptocurrency that Musk heavily promotes.
That in turn has led to concerns Musk will face possible conflicts of interest if he's seen to influence government regulators to the benefit of his six companies, including SpaceX and its flagship project, Starship.
Ahead of the fifth flight, SpaceX wrote a lengthy post complaining that "the licensing process has been repeatedly derailed by issues ranging from the frivolous to the patently absurd," singling out a "superfluous environmental analysis" for a launch delay.