WASHINGTON D.C. (AP) — Republican Sen. Ted Cruz wants restrictions on military flights approved before government funding runs out at the end of next month to prevent another midair collision like the one over Washington, D.C., that killed 67 people in January.
Cruz and Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell held a news conference Monday with some of the victims’ families to urge Congress to strip some provisions from a massive defense bill that’s expected to pass this week. The provisions would allow military aircraft to get a waiver to return to operating without broadcasting their precise location, just as they were before the Jan. 29 crash between an airliner and an Army helicopter.
But amending the defense bill would send it back to the House and could delay raises for soldiers and other key provisions.
When he was asked about the helicopter safety concerns Monday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune responded that he hoped to hold a vote to add the legislation Cruz and Cantwell introduced last summer, called the ROTOR act, to a government funding package this week.
“I think we’ll get there on that, but it would be really hard to undo the defense authorization bill now,” Thune, R-S.D., said.
Cruz said he will hold up government funding until the ROTOR act is passed to fix the problem.
Cruz said the defense bill provision “was airdropped in at at the last moment," noting it would unwind actions taken by President Donald Trump and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy to make the airspace around D.C. safer.
“The special carve-out was exactly what caused the January 29th crash that claimed 67 lives,” Cruz said.
Before the crash, military helicopters routinely flew through the crowded airspace around the nation’s capital without using a key system called ADS-B to broadcast their locations. The Federal Aviation Administration began requiring all aircraft to do that in March.
National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy, senators, airlines and key transportation unions all sharply criticized the new helicopter safety provisions in the defense bill last week when they came to light.
Cruz and Cantwell said they only became aware that the sprawling military bill would have that language after it was finalized by congressional leaders last week. They began strenuously objecting as soon as they realized it contained the exemptions.
The families of the crash victims said that bill would weaken safeguards and send aviation safety backwards. Amy Hunter, who lost her cousin and his family in the crash, said Trump and his administration had worked to implement safety recommendations from the NTSB, but warned those reforms could be lost in the military policy bill.
Hunter said it “now threatens to undo everything, all the progress that was already made, and it will compromise the safety around Reagan National Airport.”
The NTSB won't release its final report on the cause of the crash until sometime next year, but investigators have already raised a number of key concerns about the 85 near misses around Ronald Reagan National Airport in the years before the crash and the helicopter route that allowed Black Hawks to fly dangerously close to planes landing at the airport's secondary runway.
The bill Cruz and Cantwell proposed to require all aircraft to broadcast their locations has broad support from the White House, the FAA, NTSB and the victims' families.
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This story has been updated to delete erroneous reporting that Sen. Ted Cruz was threatening another federal government shutdown if new restrictions on military flights are not approved by the end of January.
FILE - A diving team and police boat is seen near a wreckage site in the Potomac River, from Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Jan. 30, 2025, in Arlington, Va. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
SYDNEY (AP) — Before the bloodshed and broken hearts, there was a little girl with a gentle soul, a loving grandmother who delivered meals to the needy and a young man dubbed a “golden person” for his kindness. And there was an 87-year-old grandfather who sought solace in Australia after surviving the Holocaust, only to die in what officials have called antisemitic terrorism.
They are among the 15 people killed Sunday evening by two gunmen during a Hanukkah celebration at Sydney’s famous Bondi Beach. Australia’s federal police commissioner said it was a terrorist attack inspired by the Islamic State group.
Here is a closer look at some of the victims:
Matilda, a 10-year-old whose last name has been withheld at the request of her family, was the youngest person killed in the massacre.
Matilda’s language teacher, Irina Goodhew, who launched a GoFundMe for the girl’s grieving family, described her in a Facebook post as a gentle girl who saw beauty in everyone.
“Matilda was a bright and loving soul who taught us that true goodness is found in the love and compassion we share,” Goodhew wrote. “Her memory reminds us to carry kindness in our hearts and spread it to the world. May the light of her eyes live on through us — in our actions, our words, and our love for one another.”
Eli Schlanger, assistant rabbi at Chabad-Lubavitch of Bondi, organized Sunday’s Chanukah by the Sea event. He was a father of five, the youngest of whom was born just two months ago, according to Chabad, an Orthodox Jewish movement that runs outreach worldwide.
The 41-year-old, London-born Schlanger also served as chaplain to the state’s corrective services department and as a chaplain at a Sydney hospital, where he ministered to patients and families.
Schlanger would go wherever he was needed to help people including prisons, said his friend, Ben Wright.
“Eli was a very special person,” Wright told The Associated Press while standing near a cordoned-off section of Bondi the morning after the attack, a black box containing Torah verses strapped to his arm. “He spent a lot of his time trying to get Jews to do one good deed.”
Wright, who saw friends and strangers gunned down during the attack while cradling his 6-month-old baby, said he hopes to emulate Schlanger’s goodness.
Yaakov Levitan, a rabbi and father of four, was known for his kindness and dedication to helping others, according to the Chabad movement, which described him as a “vital, behind-the-scenes pillar” of Sydney’s Jewish community.
Originally from Johannesburg, the 39-year-old served as the general manager of Chabad of Bondi and worked with the Sydney Beth Din, or religious court.
Marika Pogany, an 82-year-old grandmother and community volunteer, delivered thousands of kosher meals to those in need, the Federation of Jewish Communities in Hungary said in a statement.
COA, a Sydney volunteer service for Jewish seniors, said in an Instagram post that Pogany was part of the “beating heart of COA and a source of warmth for thousands of people.”
“For 29 years she arrived at COA with her quiet smile and her steady kindness,” COA wrote. “She lifted the room simply by being in it. She asked for nothing and gave everything.”
Zuzana Čaputová, the former president of Slovakia, called her “Marika” and described Pogany as her “long-term close friend” who had visited Slovakia every year since 1989.
Dan Elkayam, a 27-year-old French national described by his brother as “a golden person,” was a talented soccer player who lived with his girlfriend in Sydney’s eastern suburbs.
Elkayam’s brother, Jérémie Elkayam, told broadcaster France Info that his brother was “someone extraordinary … who profited from life, wasn’t at all materialistic, who understood the value of things and who loved to travel.”
“We are four brothers and, of the four, for me he was the kindest of us,” Jérémie Elkayam said.
Sydney soccer club Rockdale Ilinden FC said in a statement that Elkayam was an extremely talented and popular player with the club’s Premier League team who “will be sorely missed by his teammates and everyone that knew him.”
“Those who were closest to him described him as a down to earth, happy go lucky individual who was warmly embraced by those he met,” club President Dennis Loether said.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot wrote in a post on X that Elkayam’s death was “yet another tragic manifestation of a revolting surge in antisemitic hatred that we must defeat.”
Peter Meagher, known to friends as “Marzo,” was a retired police officer and a team manager and beloved volunteer at Randwick rugby club, which condemned the “abhorrent targeted attack on our Jewish community" in a statement Monday and called Meagher an “absolute legend in our club.”
Meagher was working as a freelance photographer at the Bondi Hanukkah event, the club said, noting his presence was “simply a catastrophic case of being in the wrong place and at the wrong time.”
A photograph with the statement showed “Marzo” written in chalk on a rugby field, along with a team jersey.
Reuven Morrison, 62, was killed while trying to stop one of the shooters, according to his daughter, Sheina Gutnick.
Gutnick told CBS News that her father is the person seen in widely circulated video footage throwing objects at the gunman, which Gutnick said were bricks, after another passerby, Ahmed al Ahmed, wrestled the gun away from the shooter.
“I believe after Ahmed managed to get the gun off the terrorist, my father had then gone to try and unjam the gun, to try and attempt shooting. He was screaming at the terrorist,” she said.
Morrison migrated to Australia from the Soviet Union five decades ago to escape antisemitic persecution. He thought Australia would be safe, Gutnick said.
“This is where he was going to have a family, where he is going to live a life away from persecution,” she said. “And for many years, he did do that; he lived a wonderful, free life. Until Australia turned on him.”
Alex Kleytman was an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor who had moved to Australia from Ukraine.
“I have no husband. I don’t know where is his body,” his wife Larisa Kleytman told reporters outside a Sydney hospital Sunday. “Nobody can give me any answer.”
Larisa told The Australian newspaper that her husband died while protecting her.
“We were standing and suddenly came the ‘boom boom’, and everybody fell down,” she said. “At this moment, he was behind me and at one moment he decided to go close to me. He pushed his body up because he wanted to stay near me.”
The couple survived “the unspeakable terror of the Holocaust” as children before moving to Australia, according to a 2023 report by JewishCare, a service provider for Australia’s Jewish community.
Tibor Weitzen, a 78-year-old grandfather who saw the best in people, migrated to Australia from Israel in 1988, his granddaughter said.
“My grandfather was truly the best you could ask for,” Leor Amzalak told the Australian Broadcasting Corp., the country’s public broadcaster. “He was so proud of us … and loved us more than life itself.”
Panagiotis Pylas in Sydney, John Leicester in Paris, Justin Spike in Budapest, Hungary, and Melanie Lidman in Tel Aviv, Israel, contributed to this report.
British Consul General Louise Cantillon, lays a wreath at a flower memorial for victims of Sunday's shooting at the Bondi Pavilion at Bondi Beach on Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025, in Sydney, Australia. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
People weep and offer flowers at a floral memorial for victims of Sunday's shooting at the Bondi Pavilion at Bondi Beach on Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2025, in Sydney, Australia. (AP Photo/Mark Baker)
