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Israel strikes Gaza hours after ceasefire progress

admin - Latest News - October 4, 2025
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Israel airstrikes hit the Gaza Strip on Saturday, local authorities said, hours after President Donald Trump called to halt the bombing, saying that Hamas was ready for peace. NBC News’ Richard Engel reports.



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Oct. 4, 2025, 12:00 PM EDTBy Natasha Korecki, Jonathan Allen and Carol E. LeeFormer President Barack Obama has stepped up his criticisms of the Trump administration in recent weeks, weighing in more forcefully and frequently than he did at the start of the president’s second term.It is an intensification that Democrats welcome at a moment when they lack party leadership, even as some say his trademark caution is still getting the better of him.In the last three weeks, Obama called President Donald Trump’s news conference linking Tylenol and autism “violence against the truth,” and he attacked the administration in the wake of comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s initial late-night ouster for taking “cancel culture” to a “new and dangerous level.” After Charlie Kirk’s killing, Obama aggressively called out Trump’s rhetoric, saying the president was further dividing the country. And before the government shutdown, he clapped at Republicans, saying they would “rather shut down the government than help millions of Americans afford health care.”Obama’s headline-grabbing comments come after private conversations over the summer with allies about whether he should speak out more and how he should approach high-stakes White House actions as they unfold, according to two people familiar with the discussions. According to one of the sources, the former president recognizes the gravity of a moment when Trump is seen as stretching the limits of the Constitution, and one former aide said he is cognizant that there is a dearth of party leadership.It’s unclear, however, whether Obama will sustain this pace.A former Obama White House official with knowledge of his team’s thinking said before Obama sat for a series of paid speaking events in recent weeks, his team mulled how to best take advantage of the appearances. At the same time, a flurry of high-profile events transpired, including the Kirk shooting, Kimmel being pulled off the air and the indictment of former FBI Director James Comey.“I’m aware there are discussions of ‘Should we be out there more? How are we calibrating?’ Of course they’re asking that, that’s responsible because he’s trying to be thoughtful. It’s fair to say they’re constantly asking themselves, ‘How do we meet this moment?’” the former official said.But that person noted that some of Obama’s newsmaking moments emerged from public appearances that had been on the books for months. “To take that shot is intentional,” the person said of Obama’s rhetoric against Trump. “Don’t get me wrong — that is definitely a choice. But I can’t overstate the extent to which the realities of the opportunities you have on the calendar inputs into your strategy. They reinforce each other.”Obama’s role in the country’s current political discourse has been a topic of conversation — and at times a source of deep frustration — among Democrats since he left office more than eight years ago. While it’s still not enough for some, his cadence in recent weeks is a sharp change from Trump’s first term, when he subscribed to post-presidential norms of not talking about a successor.But this time is arguably unlike any other. Eight months into Trump’s presidency, the Democratic Party remains leaderless, creating a void that Obama is best suited to fill.“The party itself is in the wilderness and I think the last person who can speak with credibility on behalf of Democrats is Obama,” said Ami Copeland, a Democratic strategist who previously served as Obama’s deputy national finance director. “People don’t want to hear from Biden about anything right now. Clinton is still kind of tainted, I think. And the last person who really led a successful campaign that moves the big-tent party is him.”Copeland characterized Obama’s recent public statements as likely coming from a sense of duty.“He still feels a responsibility to not just the party, but more importantly, to the country. I don’t even see that as a partisan comment. That is just [an] ‘I care about the country and babies’ comment,” Copeland said, referencing Obama’s retort on Tylenol. In response to a request for comment on Obama’s recent remarks, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said, “Barack Hussein Obama is the architect of modern political division in America — famously demeaning millions of patriotic Americans who opposed his liberal agenda as ‘bitter’ for ‘cling[ing] to guns or religion.’””If he cares about unity in America, he would tell his own party to stop their destructive behavior,” she added.Even as many Democrats point to Obama’s impact, they acknowledge they need to look beyond him if they’re ever to move forward with a new generation of leadership.But for now, they point to Obama’s popularity as giving his words more weight. A Gallup poll in February showed Obama had the highest approval rating among presidents who were still living. A Marquette University Law School poll released last week showed Trump with net minus-15% favorability while Obama enjoyed net 17% favorability. Obama’s discussions on whether to weigh in more publicly on developments out of the Trump administration have included exploring ideas of how, when and in what format, according to the people familiar with the discussions. They characterized the approach as a work in progress, meaning he’s made his views on Trump clear over the past decade, but as the administration rolls out new actions, he’s sought to ensure his approach has an impact.This summer, the former president was called out for clinging to a reserved posture.In June, a headline in The Atlantic asked, “Where is Barack Obama?” and thrashed the former president, casting him as all but sitting on his heels as democracy burned.“No matter how brazen Trump becomes, the most effective communicator in the Democratic Party continues to opt for minimal communication,” the piece stated. “His ‘audacity of hope’ presidency has given way to the fierce lethargy of semi-retirement.”Less than two weeks later, Obama made news at a public event where he warned that the United States was “dangerously close” to slipping into an autocracy. At the time, news pieces found it notable that Obama appeared publicly to speak against Trump at all. But even at that event, no audio or video was allowed, and Obama was cautious and circumspect. He did not mention Trump by name.“Democracy is not self-executing. It requires people, judges, people in the Justice Department, and people throughout the government who take an oath to uphold the Constitution,” Obama said in those remarks. “It requires them to take that oath seriously. When that isn’t happening, we start drifting into something that is not consistent with American democracy. It is consistent with autocracies.”Aides have long said they want to avoid a “dilution” factor with the 44th president, so that he’s not so frequently weighing in on issues that his words lose their impact.In July, Obama’s office did issue a rebuke of Trump after the president accused him of committing “treason” and rigging the 2016 and 2020 elections.“But these claims are outrageous enough to merit one. These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction,” his office said at the time.To some Democrats, Obama is falling short at a critical time.“Obama has a singular role in impacting the national debate that he is not in any way maxing out right now, at a time when he is most needed,” said Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee.Green held up Obama’s signaling of support for California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s effort to match Texas in redrawing its maps mid-decade as the kind of “trickle down” messaging he should take part in to help guide other Democrats.“He has an unmatched ability to cut through the noise and focus in on the Republicans’ most effective arguments, and then completely debunk them, oftentimes with humor that has been devastating for some Republican candidates on the receiving end during campaign season,” Green said. “But we need him to use that same prowess in this moment to help save the country.”As president in 2011, Obama showed no reticence in ripping into Trump for promoting the false claim that Obama had been born outside the U.S. At that year’s White House Correspondents’ Association dinner, Obama mercilessly mocked Trump, who was in the audience, for having little experience in making consequential executive decisions and for peddling conspiracy theories.“Now, I know that he’s taken some flak lately, but no one is happier, no one is prouder to put this birth certificate matter to rest than the Donald,” Obama said. “And that’s because he can finally get back to focusing on the issues that matter — like, did we fake the moon landing? What really happened in Roswell? And where are Biggie and Tupac?”Trump was visibly irritated during the remarks, and some of his allies say the moment likely factored into his decision to seek the presidency in 2016.To be sure, Obama has for years served as a Trump critic, particularly when shifting to his familiar role as a closer in critical races on the campaign trail for other Democrats. He’s trotted out punchy one-liners, including at the Democratic National Convention when he memorably needled Trump over an obsession with crowd size, then gestured with his hands in a way that made clear he also was referencing Trump’s manhood.In August, it was Obama who acted as the party elder and congratulated Texas Democrats in a video address for standing up to Republicans by leaving their state to deny the GOP a quorum before a redistricting vote. Obama has kept up his advocacy for the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, led by his friend and former attorney general Eric Holder.“President Obama has been sounding the alarm about the threat of gerrymandering for a long time. He was integral to the formation of the NDRC and has made our mission a priority in his post-presidency,” NDRC President John Bisognano said in a statement.The recent recalibration of Obama’s comments is in part due to the increasing pace and scale of Trump’s actions, two former aides said.“When I hear not just our current president, but his aides, who have a history of calling political opponents ‘vermin,’ enemies who need to be ‘targeted,’ that speaks to a broader problem that we have right now and something that we’re going to have to grapple with, all of us,” Obama said at a Sept. 17 public appearance before the Jefferson Educational Society, a nonprofit think tank.Before that, he stood out among Democrats for having called New York City mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani in June, even as many of his peers in the party tiptoed around the democratic socialist’s primary win.“He picks and chooses his spots wisely. Sometimes you can watch for so long,” a person who frequently speaks to the former president said. “You won’t see him shadowing this president. He didn’t do it the first four years. There was a lot of crazy then. More crazy now. He’s not going to be a president who spends his time throwing shade on another president, but he’ll certainly lean in when he sees injustices.”While being interviewed onstage in London by British Nigerian historian David Olusoga, Obama last month described Trump’s claims about the link between Tylenol and autism as “violence against the truth.”“We have the spectacle of my successor in the Oval Office, making broad claims around certain drugs and autism that have been continuously disproved. … That undermines public health, the degree to which that can do harm to women who are pregnant,” he said. “That’s why, by the way, it is important for those who believe in the truth and believe in science to also examine truth when it is inconvenient for us.”John Anzalone, who acted as a chief pollster to Obama as well as to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and former President Joe Biden said Democrats are so far in the desert they’re craving a dominant voice to step forward.“More Obama,” Anzalone said, “just like ‘more cowbell,’” referencing a famous “Saturday Night Live” skit.Anzalone argued this moment is unlike others in history, as there is no major oppositional voice breaking through in the same way that then-House Speaker Newt Gingrich could act as a foil to President Bill Clinton when the Republicans were in the minority, for instance.If “he feels more comfortable ratcheting it up, you’re going to see a lot of people cheering, because we feel that it’s kind of leaderless and rudderless,” Anzalone said of Obama. “There’s an audience for President Obama and people do listen, but we also kind of understand that there’s a certain calculus when you’re a former president about what, how often and how loud you speak, and you’ve got to respect that.”Anzalone noted, however, that as much as Democrats want to hear from Obama early and often, new leaders need to emerge, and the party as a whole must find a way to break through to voters moving forward.“It’s good to hear from President Obama but there’s limits to what even he can do fixing the problems of the terrible branding,” Anzalone said. “Individual candidates are going to have to do that. Leaders are going to have to do that.”Natasha KoreckiNatasha Korecki is a senior national political reporter for NBC News.Jonathan AllenJonathan Allen is a senior national politics reporter for NBC News. Carol E. LeeCarol E. Lee is the Washington managing editor.
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Savewith a NBCUniversal ProfileCreate your free profile or log in to save this articleOct. 2, 2025, 2:16 PM EDTBy Denise ChowThe fall vibes are on hold across much of the Midwest this week.An extraordinary October heat wave could bring record-breaking temperatures to the northern Plains and Upper Midwest in the coming days, with Minneapolis forecast to reach 90 degrees Fahrenheit this weekend.Temperatures across the region are expected to be up to 30 degrees higher than normal on Friday and Saturday. Highs well above 80 degrees will be common from South Dakota east to Illinois. Some places may climb into the low to mid-90s, according to the National Weather Service.“Despite the calendar saying it’s October, it sure will be feeling much more summer-like than fall-like the next few days,” the weather service said Thursday in its short-range forecast.Dozens of new daily temperature records could be set Friday and into the weekend, including in Minneapolis; Bismarck, North Dakota; Rapid City, South Dakota; Madison, Wisconsin; and Moline, Illinois.These parts of the country are largely unaccustomed to summery conditions at this time of year. The Minneapolis-St. Paul area, for instance, has only hit or exceeded 90 degrees in October three times in recorded history, according to data from the National Weather Service, which has maintained temperature records since 1872.Heat waves are becoming more frequent and more severe as a result of climate change, studies have shown. Extreme heat events are also expected to last longer as the planet warms.This week’s unusual warmth is caused by a ridge of high pressure that remains parked over the Plains and Midwest, according to the National Weather Service. When these areas of high pressure stall over land, they tend to trap hot air and drive up temperatures for days on end.Denise ChowDenise Chow is a science and space reporter for NBC News.Kathryn Prociv contributed.
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Oct. 28, 2025, 6:28 AM EDT / Updated Oct. 28, 2025, 6:49 AM EDTBy Steve KopackAmazon said Tuesday that it plans to cut 14,000 corporate jobs, its biggest round of layoffs in years, as it invests more in artificial intelligence.In Amazon’s announcement, top human resources executive Beth Galetti cited AI, which she said the “most transformative technology we’ve seen since the internet.” She added that AI was “enabling companies to innovate much faster than ever before.””We’re convicted that we need to be organized more leanly, with fewer layers and more ownership, to move as quickly as possible for our customers and business,” Galetti continued.In June, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy sent employees at the company an email with the subject line “Some thoughts on Generative AI.” In it, Jassy signaled that Amazon’s workforce would likely shrink in the future.”We will need fewer people doing some of the jobs that are being done today, and more people doing and more people doing other types of jobs,” he wrote.Jassy continued, “It’s hard to know exactly where this nets out over time, but in the next few years, we expect that this will reduce our total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company.”The job cuts at Amazon come amid a wave of layoffs at other tech and retail firms. Target said last week it would cut 1,000 corporate office jobs and close 800 open roles. Meta Platforms, owner of Instagram and Facebook, also cut 600 jobs on Wednesday and Microsoft began eliminating 9,000 jobs in July.Paramount Skydance, which competes with Amazon in streaming and for sports rights, also plans to cut 2,000 workers this week, Reuters reported. Salesforce reduced its workforce by 4,000 employees in September, citing “the benefits and efficiencies” of AI.But AI is not just impacting hiring in the media and technology sectors. Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon told employees in recent weeks that the Wall Street lender would “constrain headcount growth through the end of the year” and cut a limited amount of jobs due to efficiencies gained through the use of AI tools.Amazon had 1.55 million employees worldwide at the end of the second quarter, which ended on June 30, according to a filing. About 350,000 of those work in corporate offices, Reuters reported.The tech giant said it would give employees whose roles are eliminated Tuesday “90 days to look for a new role internally,” with recruiters prioritizing internal candidates “to help as many people as possible find new roles within Amazon.”Amazon has in recent years also ordered corporate employees back into the office and asked them to move closer to the physical office locations where they are based. Workers were told in June to relocate to Amazon hubs such as Seattle and the Virginia area, Bloomberg News reported. Those locations are where two of Amazon’s regional headquarters are located.Amazon is set to announce its third quarter earnings on Thursday. Wall Street analysts expect the company, which currently has a market value of more than $2.4 trillion, to report revenue of more than $170 billion.Tuesday’s cuts may only be the beginning. Galetti said Amazon expects “to continue hiring in key strategic areas while also finding additional places we can remove layers, increase ownership, and realize efficiency gains.” Steve KopackSteve Kopack is a senior reporter at NBC News covering business and the economy.
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