Israel is preparing to deploy one of the world’s first combat-ready laser air-defense system, marking a historic shift in how nations defend against rockets, drones and missiles — and a sign that Jerusalem is intent on staying one step ahead of its adversaries even as active fighting subsides.

In an interview with Fox News Digital at the Association of the U.S. Army (AUSA) conference in Washington, D.C., Rafael Advanced Defense Systems CEO Yoav Turgeman confirmed that the company has completed acceptance testing of its Iron Beam laser interceptor and is now delivering the system to the Israeli Air Force for operational use.

‘We have demonstrated the first production-line system. It was very successful,’ Turgeman said. ‘We are delivering the system to the Air Force, which will use it operationally.’

The Iron Beam represents a breakthrough in directed-energy technology — capable of destroying incoming rockets, drones and mortars with a beam of light that can strike targets moving as fast as the speed of sound and at a fraction of the cost of conventional interceptors.

‘The interception cost is just a few dollars,’ Turgeman explained. ‘There’s no interceptor debris, so the collateral damage is much smaller. It enables us to reduce the cost of interception and enhance the performance of our system.’

The Iron Beam’s rollout makes Israel the first nation to field a high-power laser interceptor integrated into a national air-defense network — a milestone that could redefine missile defense for decades to come.

Rafael designed it as part of Israel’s layered air-defense architecture, which also includes the Iron Dome, David’s Sling and Arrow systems.

The laser will handle short-range threats such as rockets, small drones, and mortar rounds, freeing up Iron Dome’s more expensive missile interceptors for higher-value targets.

‘Each layer complements the other,’ Turgeman said. ‘The system decides what is the optimized solution.’

Turgeman said Rafael will partner with Lockheed Martin to produce Iron Beam components and indicated the technology could be integrated into the U.S.’s Golden Dome plans.

‘We are looking forward to start the production stage,’ he told Fox News. ‘Lockheed Martin will take part in a significant part of the production. We were able to meet our schedule on time, even though we had a war.’

Modeled after Israel’s Iron Dome, the U.S. is currently developing plans for its own homeland missile defense shield.

‘We would love to see [Iron Dome] as part of that solution,’ he said. ‘We have Iron Dome, the Stunner interceptor, and the laser — all could help protect the U.S.’

The new technology comes amid relative calm in the Middle East. Israel and Hamas have maintained a cease-fire in Gaza, and Iran has not launched attacks since June’s 12-day war.

Still, Israel isn’t taking any chances: Turgeman said Rafael has doubled its research and development investment to ensure Israel maintains its technological edge.

‘If there will be another war, it will be the surprise,’ he said. ‘The idea is to deter the enemy from attacking Israel — that is the safest way to prevent war.’

At AUSA, Rafael also unveiled a new L-Spike loitering weapon, a drone-like missile capable of reaching a target rapidly and then circling overhead until a strike is authorized.

Turgeman said it’s designed for ‘time-critical targets’ and built to resist electronic warfare interference.

‘Even though the system has its own brain and can identify the target, the operator must approve the attack,’ he said. ‘One operator can run four systems — but the final decision is human.’

Republican Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst introduced a bill Wednesday that would require federal agencies to submit detailed reports outlining the true full costs of a government shutdown, including back pay for furloughed employees. 

‘Schumer’s Shutdown shenanigans have already wasted $4.4 billion paying 750,000 ‘non-essential’ federal employees not to work for more than two weeks,’ Ernst told Fox News Digital. 

‘My Non-Essential Workers Transparency Actwill expose thelost productivity and true cost of Democrats’ political stunt,’ she said. ‘It will also help expose which parts of the bloated bureaucracy are truly ‘non-essential’ and should be put on the chopping block to increase efficiency in Washington for taxpayers.’

Ernst’s bill would require federal agencies to submit reports to the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs within 30 days of a shutdown’s end, detailing each agency’s total number of employees when the shutdown began, total salary spending during the previous fiscal year, the number of furloughed workers, how much those employees would have earned during the shutdown, and the number and pay of those who continued working.

The U.S. government has been in the midst of an ongoing shutdown since Oct. 1, when Senate lawmakers failed to pass funding legislation for 2026. An estimated 750,000 federal employees were furloughed and will be compensated with back pay once the shutdown ends, as stipulated in a 2019 law. 

As the shutdown loomed at the end of September, Ernst published Congressional Budget Office data showing the shutdown is expected to cost taxpayers $400 million a day, with the Iowa senator railing against the hefty price tag ‘to pay 750,000 non-essential bureaucrats NOT to work.’

The estimated cost of back pay has reached roughly $4.4 billion as of Wednesday, according to estimates cited by Ernst.

‘Using information from the agencies’ contingency plans and the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), CBO estimates that under a lapse in discretionary funding for fiscal year 2026 about 750,000 employees could be furloughed each day; the total daily cost of their compensation would be roughly $400 million,’ a letter to Ernst from the Congressional Budget Office stated in September. 

The Trump administration and Republicans have since pinned blame for the shutdown on Democrats, claiming they sought taxpayer-funded medical benefits for illegal immigrants. Democrats have denied they want to fund healthcare for illegal immigrants and instead have blamed Republicans for the shutdown.

‘They say that undocumented people are going to get these credits,’ Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said earlier in October. ‘That is absolutely false. That is one of the big lies that they tell.’ 

White House spokesman Kush Desai slammed Democrats as ‘not serious people’ when asked about the Congressional Budget Office data earlier in October. 

‘Democrats are burning $400 million a day to pay federal workers not to work because they want to spend $200 billion on free health care for illegal aliens,’ he told Fox News Digital. ‘These are not serious people.’

President Donald Trump warned the administration could make ‘irreversible’ changes to the federal workforce in the lead-up to the shutdown, most notably through a new wave of fresh layoffs. The president repeatedly said that he and his allies did not want the government to shut down, but that it opened the door for some ‘good’ that could come from it as he looks to further slim down the size of the government and make it more efficient.  

The White House announced on Friday that reduction in force notices, better known as RIFs, had been issued across agencies. 

‘The RIFs have begun,’ White House Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought wrote on X Friday. 

President Donald Trump decried left-wing violence on Tuesday while speaking at the ceremony to posthumously honor conservative activist Charlie Kirk with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

‘We’ve watched legions of far-left radicals resort to desperate acts of violence and terror because they know that their ideas and arguments are persuading no one. They know that they’re failing. They have the Devil’s ideology,’ he asserted.

Trump also sounded off regarding the political firestorm surrounding Democratic Virginia attorney general candidate Jay Jones. At the center of the controversy are Jones’ texts, which envisioned the murder of a rival, have overshadowed the state’s top-of-the-ticket race as Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears and Abigail Spanberger descended on Jones’ backyard in Hampton Roads, Virginia, for their gubernatorial bout Thursday. 

Earle-Sears — who also represented nearby Virginia Beach, Virginia, in the state legislature two decades ago — and Spanberger met at Norfolk State University in Norfolk, Virginia, Thursday for their one-and-only debate appearance. 

Kirk, 31, was assassinated last month while holding an event at Utah Valley University.

The ceremony was held on the day that would have been Kirk’s 32nd birthday.

The president described Kirk as a ‘true American hero.’

Fox News Digital’s Charlie Creitz contributed to this report.

Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk’s death has not dimmed his legacy of encouraging an increasingly ‘unhappy’ generation to seek meaning and purpose through faith and family, young Americans told Fox News Digital.

‘I think we live in a world where people are more unhappy than ever,’ Georgetown University student Elizabeth Oliver said. ‘Depression rates and suicide are so high, and people are longing for true happiness. Charlie always talked about how ‘desires of the flesh’ aren’t fulfilling or making people happy. Instead of pursuing those things, we should turn ourselves toward higher purposes like family, marriage and God, because those are what truly fulfill people’s lives.’

‘I actually think most people are searching for something,’ she said. ‘I think that searching should be directed toward God. But I think most people recognize nowadays that what the Left has to offer is not going to lead to a fulfilling life.’

Americans’ happiness has taken a nosedive in recent years, with the U.S. falling eight spots in the 2024 World Happiness Report, which ranks countries’ life satisfaction, due to American young adults reporting they are not satisfied compared to their parents’ and grandparents’ generations. Americans older than the age of 60 ranked number 10 for overall happiness, according to the study, while young adults under the age of 30 ranked 62nd internationally for happiness, CNBC reported in 2024. 

Suicide and depression rates have meanwhile skyrocketed in recent years, with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reporting that one-in-five high school students seriously considered attempting suicide in 2023, with suicide jumping by 62% among young adults when comparing 2007 data to 2021 data. 

Amid the increasing rates of unhappiness among youths, Kirk landed under the national spotlight as a youth, himself, rallying his peers to embrace conservative and Christian values to find peace. 

‘Marriage isn’t just a life milestone- it’s a calling. God didn’t say ‘wait until you feel ready.’ He said ‘it is not good for man to be alone.’ Get married young. Be fruitful and multiply,’ Kirk posted to Facebook just months before his death. 

His comments were even praised by Trump, who celebrated his message to young adults to get married. 

‘We have so many bad philosophies, ideologies, politics,’ Trump said on Fox News following Kirk’s death. ‘His was basically just good. He talked about family, he talked about getting married, ‘go get married. It sounds old-fashioned when you think about it, but he’s right.’ 

Kirk was shot and killed Sept. 10 during an outdoor event at Utah Valley University, the first stop on TPUSA’s planned ‘American Comeback Tour.’ 

After news of Kirk’s killing spread across the country and world, some college students are choosing to carry on his legacy by echoing the values he championed and encouraging political debate among Gen Z peers.

Oliver is one of those Gen Zers, a college senior and president of the university’s Right to Life group,a pro-life advocacy group. She told Fox News Digital that she believes open dialogue can help renew focus on Christian conservative values.

Kirk ‘dedicated his life to talking with other people respectfully and listening to them,’ she said. ‘We desperately need more of that dialogue now, more than ever. In a world that has abandoned God and moral values, we have even abandoned the basic respect for other human beings and we need to reclaim it.’

Kirk often spoke of marriage, children and the importance of family — with his widow continuing the promotion of those values from the stage of his memorial service in Arizona in September.

‘We have an uplifting message for America, one that is hopeful, one of family formation, one off church attendance going up one of business ownership of entrepreneurship,’ Kirk said on ‘The Will Cain Show’ on May 2.

‘Trump voters, young men, they want family, children, and legacy,’ Kirk added on the Ingraham Angle Sept. 8, only two days before he was killed. ‘Young women who voted for Kamala Harris, they want careerism, consumerism, and loneliness. That is a dramatic divide that is going to play out in our politics for the years to come.’

Americans’ pessimism toward the institution of marriage and family, however, currently outweighs their optimism, according to a September 2023 Pew Research Center report called, ‘Public Has Mixed Views on the Modern American Family.’ 

‘Americans most often point to job satisfaction and close friends, rather than being married or having children, when asked what contributes to a fulfilling life,’ the report found. ‘Some 71% say having a job or career they enjoy is extremely or very important for people to live a fulfilling life, and 61% say the same about having close friends. Only about a quarter say having children (26%) or being married (23%) is equally important.’

However, young adults are picking up the mantle of Kirk’s promotion of traditional values as support for TPUSA continues to grow following his death. 

Since Kirk’s assassination, Boston University College Republicans Vice President Philip Wohltorf, who also works as a legislative aide in the Massachusetts State Senate, said his group has seen a drastic increase in attendance. Democratic groups on campus, however, have not been open to debating, he said, allowing anti-conservative sentiment to spread across the student body. 

‘We were thinking, well, the left is open-minded and tolerant, they want to talk,’ he said. ‘Unfortunately, they don’t, and it doesn’t really help. I think it would be great on campus if we would have a civil, calm, challenging debate. It would show the student body that people can disagree with one another but still shake hands and be friends afterward.’

He said, ‘America was founded on the principle of freedom of speech and dialogue, and nobody did it better than Charlie Kirk,’ as the cultural divide continues to widen.

In a statement to Fox News Digital, the Boston University College Democrats said the group sent a ‘polite decline’ to a debate request, explaining that it is ‘very difficult to make debates worthwhile.’

‘We feel it is very difficult to make debates worthwhile for participants and viewers, so we decline them with everyone, not just Republicans,’ the group said. ‘Freedom of speech is something we value greatly but we believe that open bipartisan collaboration is the path forward at this time.’

The group condemned all political violence, adding, ‘Charlie Kirk should not have died. We believe everyone should be able to share their ideas and beliefs without fear.’

TPUSA exploded with new interest after Kirk’s memorial service, receiving more than 120,000 campus chapter requests, according to the organization. 

Prior to the memorial service, TPUSA had around 60,000 requests, Andrew Kolvet, executive producer of ‘The Charlie Kirk Show’ recently said. TPUSA operates 900 official college chapters and approximately 1,200 high school chapters across the country. 

Wohltorf said more young people are standing by their values, pointing to faith and family as the most important priorities to many in his generation.

‘I like the saying that people were now posting in the past two weeks talking about how one Charlie Kirk is gone but one hundred thousand new Charlie Kirks were just created,’ Wohltorf said. ‘The majority of the conservative movement feels obligated to continue Charlie Kirk’s legacy and to continue to preach those family values, faith, and Christianity … I think that the majority conservative movement is even more likely to fight now and to speak out,’ Wohltorf said.

Oliver and Wohltorf believe these values will continue to be upheld for years to come after this political turning point. They say they’re inspired by Kirk’s legacy to share their beliefs and not be afraid.

‘I think the majority is trying to continue his legacy, feeling obligated to fight, feeling obligated to foster dialogue, debate, and challenge one another with ideas,’ Wohltorf said.

‘Ultimately, Charlie said he wants to be remembered for his courage, for his faith, and I think that message is resounding very strongly with my generation,’ Oliver said.

Trump posthumously awarded Kirk the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation’s highest civilian honor, Tuesday at the White House.

Fox News Digital’s Amanda Macias contributed to this report.

President Donald Trump, when asked about the prospect of a two-state solution for Israel and the Palestinians, declined to commit, telling reporters, ‘We’ll have to see.’ 

The comments came during a press gaggle aboard Air Force One as Trump returned home after signing a historic peace agreement that ended two years of fighting in Gaza. 

When the topic came up, Trump said he was focused on rebuilding Gaza after two years of Israeli bombardment, following the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre by Hamas. 

‘I’m not talking about a single state or double state or two state,’ Trump said, adding: ‘A lot of people like the one-state solution, some people like the two-state solution. We’ll have to see.’ 

Trump said any decision on the matter would be made in coordination with regional and international partners. 

The president concluded a whirlwind trip Monday that included a global peace summit in Egypt and a speech before the Knesset in Jerusalem earlier in the day, where he celebrated a U.S.-brokered ceasefire with Hamas.

Speaking to leaders gathered in Egypt, Trump called for a new era of harmony in the Middle East, seeking to advance broader peace in the region.

‘We have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to put the old feuds and bitter hatreds behind us,’ Trump said, urging leaders ‘to declare that our future will not be ruled by the fights of generations past.’

Leaders from dozens of countries, including from Europe and the Middle East, attended the summit. 

Trump, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani signed a document outlining a broad vision for Gaza’s future.

Twenty hostages were released Monday as part of an agreement intended to end the war in Gaza. Trump met with some of their families during his visit to the Knesset.

The moment remains fragile, however, as Israel and Hamas are still in the early stages of implementing the first phase of Trump’s peace plan.

The sides have not agreed on Gaza’s postwar governance, its reconstruction, or Israel’s demand that Hamas disarm. Negotiations over those issues could break down, and Israel has hinted it may resume military operations if its demands are not met.

Much of Gaza has been reduced to rubble, and the territory’s roughly 2 million residents continue to struggle in dire conditions. Under the deal, Israel agreed to reopen five border crossings to ease the flow of food and supplies into Gaza, parts of which are experiencing famine.

Roughly 200 U.S. troops will also help monitor and support the ceasefire deal as part of a team that includes partner nations, nongovernmental organizations and private-sector groups.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The No. 3 House Republican is accusing Democrats of making a hypocritical argument in their resistance to the GOP’s federal funding bill.

The government shutdown is in its thirteenth day with Republicans and Democrats still unable to agree on a path forward. The Trump administration is taking steps to prevent the military from missing paychecks this week, while also beginning to lay off scores of federal workers amid the standoff.

Democrats have said they will not agree to any solution that does not include serious concessions on healthcare from the GOP — but House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn., argued that they are themselves harming healthcare access by allowing the shutdown to continue.

‘They are [jeopardizing healthcare],’ Emmer told Fox News Digital, pointing out that certain telehealth services, for example, are going without funding during the shutdown.

‘We had a huge advance during the pandemic when it came to remote care. You’ve got all kinds of constituents that don’t live in a condensed or a dense urban area right next to a hospital, right next to a provider, they may be a distance away. And the telehealth option actually made a big difference,’ Emmer said. ‘I know it did for our veterans.’

‘I don’t know if the VA — [House Veterans Affairs Committee Chairman Mike Bost, R-Ill.] made it sound like they’re going to protect that under his jurisdiction, not sure how — but I do worry about it for the private providers, hospitals. How are they going to do it if they’re not getting reimbursed?’

He was referring to the Acute Hospital Care At Home program, originally created during the COVID-19 pandemic. It allows healthcare providers to bill Medicare for telehealth appointments and at-home aid that previously was only reserved for hospital care.

It’s become a popular program for elderly or otherwise vulnerable Medicaid recipients, but the ongoing shutdown has prevented Congress from being able to extend it.

The government entered into a shutdown nearly two weeks ago on Oct. 1 after Senate Democrats rejected the GOP’s federal funding plan. They have since blocked consideration of the same bill six more times. 

Republicans proposed a seven-week bill extending fiscal year (FY) 2025 federal funding levels through Nov. 21 called a continuing resolution (CR). It’s aimed at giving congressional negotiators more time to strike a longer-term agreement on FY2026, which began on Oct. 1.

It passed the House along mostly partisan lines on Sept. 19. But Democrats in the House and Senate were largely infuriated by being sidelined in federal funding talks and are now demanding any spending deal that also include an extension of COVID-19 pandemic-era enhanced Obamacare subsidies that are set to expire at the end of this year.

Democrats also introduced a separate counter-proposal that would completely eliminate healthcare reforms made in the GOP’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) and restore funding to NPR and PBS that the Trump administration revoked earlier this year.

Democrats have said that proposal is aimed at rolling back Republicans’ Medicaid cuts. But Republicans have positioned it as the left’s effort at restoring federal funding for illegal immigrants’ healthcare — though Democratic leaders panned that as a lie.

Emmer also pointed out that it would revoke $50 billion for a rural hospital fund that OBBBA put in place.

‘The Rural Health Care Fund is a great example. I mean, right now, it’s our job, it’s the representatives’ job back in their districts, to try and work with our hospitals to make sure that they can access the funds,’ he said.

‘Because you don’t know exactly how deep the shutdown is going to impact hospitals, providers, ultimately consumers and patients.’