Man who helped subdue knife-wielding suspect aboard flight to Tel Aviv honored
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets with one of the passengers involved in subduing an attacker during a flight on a FlyDubai plane, after he arrived at Ben Gurion International Airport, near Tel Aviv, Israel, Sept. 30, 2026. (Prime Minister’s Office)
(LONDON) — A man who was among a group of passengers who subdued an attacker on a flight to Tel Aviv on Wednesday was welcomed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he returned to Israel later in the evening.
The prime minister posted a video of meeting the passenger named Yaniv Hayun, who still had blood on his shirt from the encounter.
Yaniv and a group of other passengers aboard FlyDubai Flight 1073 were able to get into the cockpit after an unidentified pilot stabbed the co-pilot, Capt. Smit Machchhar and took control of the plane, Israeli officials said.
The suspect allegedly plummeted the plane in an attempt to crash it and kill everyone aboard, Israeli investigators said.
“And then there was a very sharp nosedive down, something that threw me to where the flight attendants stand in front of the cockpit, I flew sideways,” Yaniv said.
Yaniv said he placed the attacker in a chokehold and pulled him out. And then he quickly went for the plane’s controls and briefly flew the plane.
“And the plane started to level out a bit more, and then the (third) pilot told me he’s taking control from here,” he said.
The third pilot flew it to Saudi Arabia, where the plane landed and the passengers disembarked. Capt. Machchhar was being treated for his injuries and the suspect is in custody, officials said.
“I imagine if we entered the sky of the country it wouldn’t have been good,” Yaniv told the prime minister during their meeting.
Patriot launchers modules mounted on M983 HEMTT, part of the U.S.-made MIM-104 Patriot surface-to-air missile (SAM) system, are pictured on a open field on Feb. 18, 2023, in Zamosc, Poland. (Photo by Omar Marques/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Friday reversed course on his offer earlier this month to give Ukraine a license to produce Patriot air defense systems, saying during a Cabinet meeting that “we have not agreed to that.”
“We have to be very careful about letting somebody build them,” Trump said as he gathered his top officials at Camp David. “You have to be very judicious, but you have to be very careful. Now, we have not agreed to that. We’re talking about it. But it’s a hard thing to give away that kind of technology.”
The president’s remarks contradict Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s readout of their Tuesday meeting at the White House, in which Zelenskyy said Trump agreed to provide the license. Zelenskyy, while in Washington, met with executives at Lockheed Martin, the U.S. defense giant behind the Patriot missiles.
Trump’s Friday comments are also a departure from his own public message to Zelenskyy at the NATO summit in Turkey in early July.
“We’re going to give a license to you to make Patriots. That’s pretty cool, right?” Trump said to the Ukrainian president the time, adding: “This way he can’t complain that we’re not giving him enough. I said, ‘Make them yourself.'”
Zelenskyy has long raised alarm bells about the rapid depletion of U.S. Patriot missiles, which are widely considered to be the most effective tool to counter Russian missiles and drones.
Just as Trump’s Cabinet meeting was getting underway, Zelenskyy posted on X that he received a “good phone call” from Vice President JD Vance and reiterated that the Patriot missiles remain a “top priority.”
“He’d like to have some Patriots,” Trump said of Zelenskyy on Friday. “He’d like to have some Tomahawks, which are, you know, lethal. One offensive, one defensive.”
Trump called it a “big step” to provide such a license, and then suggested that Ukraine or any other nation given the sensitive technology could one day turn and use such weapons against the U.S.
“And I don’t think this would ever happen, but, you know, those people that you give that technology, they can someday turn on you. You know, that is possible,” Trump said.
“So, we have to be very careful,” he added.
Trump said he spoke to Zelenskyy, presumably during his visit to the White House earlier this week, about the weapons systems.
“I also spoke to him about let’s get this war over with,” Trump said.
Trump said both Ukraine and Russia will have to make concessions in order to end the yearslong war, which started when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
“I said, ‘You got to get this war over.’ I think he wants to make a deal, and I think Putin wants to make a deal. But there’s a lot of dislike, as you probably notice,” Trump said. “Well, nobody wants concessions, but they’re both going to have to make some concessions. I mean, you got to make a deal.”
Pedro Sanchez, Spain’s prime minister attends the NATO summit on July 08, 2026 in Ankara, Turkey. (Burak Kara/Getty Images)
(ANKARA, Turkey) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday appeared to grow increasingly frustrated with NATO allies for not supporting his war effort in Iran, targeting Spain in particular and calling for “all trade” to be cut off with that country.
“Spain is a wasted cause,” Trump said at the NATO Summit in Ankara, Turkey, during an official greeting with Secretary General Mark Rutte. “We don’t want to do any trade business with Spain anymore. By the way, I’d like you to cut it up. Scan, Spain is a terrible partner in NATO. They don’t participate, they don’t pay. I don’t want anything to do with Spain. Cut off all trade with Spain, please, including visits.”
The comments were the latest complaint from Trump against Spain, the only member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization that has not committed to defense spending equal to 5% of its GDP by 2030.
The U.S., because of its outsized military spending, indirectly contributes more to the NATO than any other country, Trump said last week. The U.S. is responsible for about 15% of NATO’s direct funding, according to the bloc.
At last year’s NATO summit at The Hague, allies agreed at Trump’s prompting to target defense spending equal to 5% of each NATO member countries’ GDP, up from the previous 2%. Spain was alone among the 32 member states in saying it wouldn’t commit to the target.
Trump has previously threatened to end trade with Spain, including in March, when the Spanish foreign minister said at the time that they wouldn’t allow the U.S. to use jointly operated bases in southern Spain for any strikes not covered by the U.N.’s charter.
“I don’t want to do any more trade with them. All right, take it immediately,” Trump said on Wednesday. “Don’t even talk to them, they’re hopeless, bad people, because you know they have everybody else going and paying and working in Spain, in particular Spain, there are a couple of others, but in particular Spain, they’re open about it, they’re hostile about it, and let’s see how hostile they remain when they call up, and they ‘please, please, we want to trade with you, sir, we want to trade with you, sir.’ They make so much money with us, and we’re going to see that they make a lot less. I want no business with them.”
After Trump’s comments, sources at Moncloa Palace, the Spanish prime minister’s office, told Madrid’s El Dario newspaper that Spain “maintains an excellent social, cultural, and economic relationship with the U.S., and it is not our intention for that to change.”
Trump on Wednesday said “nobody,” aside from the “small countries” wanted to help the U.S. in its war with Iran.
“There was calls made a few weeks ago,” Trump said, claiming he spoke with the United Kingdom, Germany and France, among others. “Nobody wanted to help. Some of the very small countries wanted to help, because they’re the most vulnerable. I mean, that’s the only reason they wanted to help.”
The leaders of the U.K., France and Germany did not immediately respond to Trump’s statement on Wednesday. Each has repeatedly declined to involve their countries directly in the war, although each also has said Iran should not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons.
Trump spoke about his displeasure with NATO allies at large, saying that the U.S. has paid for allies to be protected against Russia but that safety has “nothing to do” with the U.S.
“They weren’t there for us, and we’ve been there for them, ” he said. “We spent over a trillion dollars over the last short period, trillion in order to protect these countries from Russia, and has nothing to do with us. We have a notion, but it’s been a long-term thing, and they haven’t treated us right.”
Trump on Wednesday shook hands with Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, a day after the president renewed his calls for the U.S. to take control of Greenland, which is an autonomous territory under Denmark.
Frederiksen pledged earlier in the summit to defend Greenland, saying, “Our position is clear as it has been all through. Greenland is, of course, not for sale.”
Rutte later celebrated Trump’s ability to get allies to pay a greater share for defense. Rutte appeared to remind the U.S. president that Spain was a part of the coalition that upped their spending.
“And you mentioned Spain, even you got Spain to pay 2% they spent, they made a huge step in last year, so there are still issues we have to solve, but hey, also, even Spain, I would say they got to the 2%,” Rutte said.
