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Kibbutz Be'eri 2 years on from Oct. 7

admin - Latest News - October 7, 2025
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Kibbutz Be’eri in southern Israel was a community devastated by the Oct. 7 attacks in 2023, which prompted the beginning of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza. NBC News’ Richard Engel reports from the remains of a home there on the 2 year anniversary of Oct. 7.



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Savewith a NBCUniversal ProfileCreate your free profile or log in to save this articleOct. 6, 2025, 6:32 AM EDT / Updated Oct. 6, 2025, 4:37 PM EDTBy Alexander SmithIsrael and Hamas began indirect peace talks Monday, with hopes it could represent the best chance yet to end the two-year war and free the remaining hostages from Gaza.Egypt’s state-owned Al-Qahera News television station reported that the talks began with a meeting between Arab mediators and the Hamas delegation. Mediators will then meet with the Israeli delegation, the station said.Egyptian and Qatari mediators will discuss the outcome of their meetings with both parties, before U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff joins the talks, it said.”I really think we’re going to have a deal. We have a really good chance of making a deal, and it will be a lasting deal,” President Donald Trump told reporters at a media gathering Monday. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at a briefing Monday that Witkoff and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner were holding talks with “their respective parties from all sides.””The president wants to see a ceasefire. He wants to see the hostages released, and the technical teams are discussing that as we speak to ensure that the environment is perfect to release those hostages,” Leavitt said. “They’re going over the lists of both the Israeli hostages and also the political prisoners who will be released. And those talks are underway, and the president is very much on the ball and is being apprised of this situation.”On the anniversary eve of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, terror attack, and subsequent military operation by Israel, representatives from all sides arrived in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to discuss a 20-point peace plan tabled by Trump to halt the conflict.Hamas’ delegation is being led by senior official Khalil Al-Hayya, whom Israel tried to assassinate with a strike on Qatar last month. Al-Hayya, whom Israeli President Isaac Herzog described as a “murderous terrorist” in the wake of the Qatar strike, arrived in Egypt early Monday, Hamas said in a statement.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington.Will Oliver / Bloomberg via Getty ImagesIsrael’s delegation will be led by Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, according to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office Sunday. The two sides have agreed on parts of Trump’s proposal.Witkoff and Kushner traveled to Egypt to help hammer out the deal’s remaining sticking points, a senior White House official told NBC News on Saturday.Trump called the talks “very successful, and proceeding rapidly,” and said Monday’s meetings was just a case of technical teams clarifying “final details.” He wrote in a social media post that “the first phase should be completed this week.”Bishara Bahbah, a Palestinian American mediator, said in an interview that Hamas leaders were optimistic about the prospects of arriving at an agreement and feel specifically reassured by Trump’s recent comments. They believe Trump is the only person who can pressure Netanyahu into a deal, Bahbah added.Bahbah said he believes Hamas is unlikely to walk away from the talks without a deal, though “Hamas wants assurances that the war has truly ended and there will be no going back to the war and no Israeli violations” of the agreement, he said.On Monday, the Hostages Families Forum Headquarters, a group that coordinates efforts for those still held in Gaza, sent an “urgent letter” to the Norwegian Nobel Committee, “strongly urging” the body to award the Nobel Peace Prize to the American president this week “for his unprecedented contributions to global peace.”A senior Arab negotiator directly involved in the talks told NBC News on Monday, “A deal will happen if President Trump keeps pushing.”A child sits in the rubble Wednesday at an UNRWA school in Gaza heavily damaged by Israeli attacks.Hamza Z. H. Qraiqea / Anadolu via Getty ImagesSecretary of State Marco Rubio was cooler, telling NBC News’ “Meet the Press” on Sunday that finding a resolution would take “some time” and that “there’s some work that remains to be done.”It came as Israel said it deported 171 activists, including the campaigner Greta Thunberg, who sailed toward Gaza on an aid flotilla. The detainees, whose vessels were boarded by Israeli military personnel, were deported to Greece and Slovakia, the Israeli Foreign Ministry said in a statement. The first phase of the talks will deal with the release of the remaining 48 hostages, some 20 of whom are believed to still be alive, in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israel.The plan also calls for the end of fighting and the withdrawal of Israeli forces. Hamas agreed to some of this proposal Friday, while sidestepping Trump’s call for it to disband and disarm.On Sunday, Hamas leader Mahmoud Mardawi denied as baseless reports in Arab media that the group had agreed to lay down its weapons.Israel says it agrees with the plan, buoying the yearslong, impassioned domestic campaign by families and supporters of the hostages to cease fighting so they can be brought home.Ohad Ben Ami, 56, was released in February, having been kidnapped from kibbutz Be’eri, in southern Israel, and held captive for 491 days. On Sunday, he showed NBC News the place where he was taken on Oct. 7.”When we were down there” in the deep Gaza tunnel where he was held, he said he was told “many times there was a deal in the air,” he said. “We were very happy and on a high, then they say, ‘no it’s collapsed’ and we were very depressed.”A protest organixed by the families of the Israeli hostages, outside Netanyahu’s residence in Jerusalem on Saturday.Ahmad Gharabli / AFP via Getty ImagesStill, Netanyahu faces pressure from his own government over negotiations. Far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said on X that stopping attacks on Gaza would be a “grave mistake.”In Gaza, many Palestinians are desperate for an end to the bombardment that has killed more than 67,000 people, most of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry. Some 78% of buildings have either been damaged or destroyed.The prospect of an agreement has not stopped the Israeli attacks. Gaza’s Hamas-run Government Media Office said Sunday that Israel had carried out 131 airstrikes on Gaza over the past 48 hours, killing 94 Palestinians.Israel launched the offensive after Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack, in which some 1,200 were killed and another 250 kidnapped.Though freeing the hostages would be a “significant achievement and a fulfillment of a principal war objective,” IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir warned his troops to be ready.“The operation is not over; we must remain alert and ready for combat at all times,” he said in a statement Sunday. “If the political effort does not succeed, we will return to fight.”Alexander SmithAlexander Smith is a senior reporter for NBC News Digital based in London.Reuters, Yarden Segev, Marc Smith, Richard Engel, Matt Bradley, Tara Prindiville and The Associated Press contributed.
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Oct. 7, 2025, 5:00 AM EDTBy Lawrence HurleyWASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Tuesday considers a free speech challenge to a Colorado law that bans conversion therapy aimed at young people questioning their sexual orientations or gender identities in a case likely to have national implications.The ruling could affect more than 20 states that have similar bans and raise new questions about other long-standing state health care regulations.The court, which has a 6-3 conservative majority that often backs conservative free speech claims, will hear oral argument in a case brought by Kaley Chiles, a Christian therapist, who says the 2019 law violates her free speech rights under the Constitution’s First Amendment.Conversion therapy, favored by some religious conservatives, seeks to encourage gay or lesbian minors to identify as heterosexual and transgender children to identify as the gender identities assigned to them at birth. Colorado bans the practice for licensed therapists, not for religious entities or family members.At issue is whether such bans regulate conduct in the same way as regulations applying to health care providers, as the state argues, or speech, as Chiles contends. Chiles says she does only talk therapy.The Supreme Court has, in major cases, backed LGBTQ rights, legalizing same-sex marriage in 2015 and ruling five years later that a federal law barring employment discrimination applies to both gay and transgender people.But in another line of cases, the court has backed free speech and religious expression rights when they conflict with anti-discrimination laws aimed at protecting LGBTQ people.The court backed a religious rights challenge this year to a Maryland school district’s policy of featuring LGBTQ-themed books in elementary schools. It also handed a major loss to transgender rights advocates by ruling that states could ban gender transition care for minors.Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser, a Democrat, said in court papers that a ruling against the state would imperil not just conversion therapy bans but also other health care treatments that experts say are unsafe or ineffective.”For centuries, states have regulated professional healthcare to protect patients from substandard treatment. Throughout that time, the First Amendment has never barred states’ ability to prohibit substandard care, regardless of whether it is carried out through words,” he wrote.Chiles, represented by the conservative Christian group Alliance Defending Freedom, countered in her court papers that therapy is “vital speech that helps young people better understand themselves.”The state is seeking to “control what those kids believe about themselves and who they can become,” the lawyers said.Chiles’ lawyers cite a 2018 Supreme Court ruling in which the conservative majority backed a free speech challenge to a California law that requires anti-abortion pregnancy centers to notify clients about where abortion services can be obtained.The court might not issue a definitive ruling on conversion therapy bans; it could focus more narrowly on whether lower courts that upheld the ban conducted the correct legal analysis.If the law infringes on speech, it must be given a closer look under the First Amendment, a form of review known as “strict scrutiny,” which the justices could ask lower courts to do instead of doing it themselves. Under that approach, judges consider whether a government action that infringes on free speech serves a compelling interest and was “narrowly tailored” to meet that goal.The Trump administration filed a brief urging the court to find that the law does burden speech while also saying a ruling in favor of Chiles would not upend state regulations in other areas.Lawrence HurleyLawrence Hurley is a senior Supreme Court reporter for NBC News.
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Sept. 30, 2025, 10:07 AM EDT / Updated Sept. 30, 2025, 8:50 PM EDTBy Scott Wong, Frank Thorp V and Kyle StewartWASHINGTON — The federal government is barreling toward a shutdown Tuesday night, with President Donald Trump and Democratic leaders engaged in a fierce blame game and trading insults about each other.Hours before the midnight deadline, the Senate on Tuesday gaveled out for the evening with plans to return on Wednesday. A shutdown is all but assured to begin after midnight.It’s unclear where the parties go from here. The Senate Tuesday evening voted down competing Republican and Democratic plans to stave off a shutdown.House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said he hoped the defeat of the GOP bill — for a second time this month — “will open lines of communications” with Republicans. That has not yet happened.“Leader Schumer and I have made clear we are ready, willing and able to sit down and with anyone, anytime, any place to fund the government and to address the Republican health care crisis,” Jeffries said shortly before the Senate votes.Senate fails to pass funding bill, shutdown imminent00:36Bipartisan talks have been at a standstill in the 24 hours since the Big Four congressional leaders met with Trump at the White House Monday.The impacts of a shutdown would be felt by many. None of the millions of federal workers would be paid, and hundreds of thousands of them would be furloughed. In recent days, White House officials had tried to allow military personnel to continue receiving pay during a shutdown, according to a source familiar with the discussions, but those efforts were unsuccessful. So service members wouldn’t be paid during a shutdown, either.And the White House has threatened to fire federal workers in a shutdown as well. Asked Tuesday morning how many government employees his administration would lay off, Trump responded: “Well, we may do a lot, and that’s only because of the Democrats.”The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated Tuesday that a government shutdown would lead to the furlough of about 750,000 federal employees.Responding to Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, who asked for the assessment, the CBO said of the furloughed workers: The “total daily cost of their compensation would be roughly $400 million. The number of furloughed employees could vary by the day because some agencies might furlough more employees the longer a shutdown persists and others might recall some initially furloughed employees.”Federal agencies, including the Defense and State departments, have already posted their plans for how they will operate.In the final hours before a shutdown, the two parties traded insults rather than serious proposals.Trump shared a crude post on Truth Social Monday night that showed Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., with fake AI-generated audio, saying Democrats “have no voters anymore, because of our woke, trans bulls—” and that if they give undocumented immigrants health care, they would vote for his party.The post depicted Jeffries wearing a sombrero and a mustache as he stood silently by Schumer’s side. Mariachi music played in the background.The video referenced a Trump talking point that Democrats are demanding health care for undocumented immigrants in exchange for their votes to keep the government open. Democrats have called that a lie. They have pushed to extend expiring Obamacare subsidies and to undo Trump’s Medicaid cuts, not to pay for health care for people who are in the country illegally.Schumer responded to the video on X, writing: “If you think your shutdown is a joke, it just proves what we all know: You can’t negotiate. You can only throw tantrums.”Jeffries had tough words for Trump during a news conference on the steps of the Capitol on Tuesday morning. “Mr. President, next time you have something to say about me, don’t cop out through a racist and fake AI video,” Jeffries said, surrounded by dozens of rank-and-file Democrats. “When I’m back in the Oval Office, say it to my face.”The House leader also shared a photo on X of Trump with Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender. “This is real,” Jeffries wrote above the photo, which was taken at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in 1997. (Trump has said he and Epstein had a falling out, and he was unaware of the financier’s crimes.)The personal insults indicated that the two sides were nowhere close to an agreement to keep the government’s lights on past Tuesday’s deadline.“It looks to me like we’re headed for a shutdown,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., earlier Tuesday. “And you know me, I’m the most optimistic person you know.”High-stakes White House meeting as government shutdown deadline looms02:18Political theater dominated on Tuesday. Democrats filed onto the House floor during a pro forma session as the party’s top appropriator, Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, attempted to offer her party’s plan to keep the government open. But Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Va., who was presiding, did not acknowledge her and quickly adjourned. “Shame on you!” some Democrats jeered at Griffith. Democrats on the floor had a poster with Speaker Mike Johnson’s face on it and the words: “Missing Person.” Johnson, R-La., was in the Capitol on Tuesday and attended the Trump meeting a day earlier. But the House left town Sept. 19 after passing a seven-week funding bill and is not set to return until Oct. 7. By Tuesday evening, the GOP-controlled Senate made a last-gasp attempt to avert a shutdown but came up short. The upper chamber voted down competing Democratic and Republican funding plans, a repeat of earlier this month when the same bills failed to reach the 60-vote threshold needed to pass.The GOP bill had cleared the House on a party-line 217-212 vote on Sept. 19, but it was rejected Tuesday in the Senate 55-45, shy of the 60 votes needed to break a Democratic filibuster. Three members of the Democratic Caucus — Sens. John Fetterman, D-Pa., Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., and Angus King, I-Maine — joined Republicans in voting yes; just one Republican, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, voted no with Democrats.The rival Democratic bill to fund the government was also rejected, on a party-line 47-53 vote.If a shutdown occurs, “that’s a sad day for the country, it truly is. We have to find a better solution,” said Fetterman, who voted for both bills. “As a senator, I think that’s one of our core responsibilities, keep the government open … and then debate and figure out some kind of compromise.”Republicans have argued that Democrats could avert a shutdown by simply voting for the House-passed continuing resolution, or CR, which would fund the government at current levels through Nov. 21.But Democrats said they are trying to stave off a looming “health care crisis.” Specifically, Democrats want any CR to include an extension of Obamacare subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year. They have also pushed for rolling back some of the cuts and changes to Medicaid that were enacted in Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” earlier this year.Speaking to reporters in the Capitol after Monday’s meeting with Trump, Schumer said Trump appeared to be “not aware” of the impacts of expiring Obamacare subsidies on everyday Americans. And he urged Trump to try to convince GOP leaders on Capitol Hill to back a deal to extend those subsidies.”It’s now in the president’s hands,” Schumer said, with Jeffries at his side. “He can avoid a shutdown if he gets the Republican leaders to go along with what we want.”Scott WongScott Wong is a senior congressional reporter for NBC News. Frank Thorp VFrank Thorp V is a producer and off-air reporter covering Congress for NBC News, managing coverage of the Senate.Kyle StewartKyle Stewart is a producer and off-air reporter covering Congress for NBC News, managing coverage of the House.Brennan Leach, Gabrielle Khoriaty and Sahil Kapur contributed.
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