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Oct. 17, 2025, 10:42 AM EDTBy Katherine DoyleWASHINGTON — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is set to meet with President Donald Trump at the White House on Friday, with long-range Tomahawk missiles and the trajectory of the war with Russia on the agenda as Kyiv intensifies its push for U.S. military aid.The sit-down follows Trump’s phone call Thursday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, during which Moscow warned that a U.S. decision to provide long-range Tomahawks to Kyiv would sharply escalate tensions. The missiles, which could be used to strike deep into Russia, would signal a “qualitatively new stage of escalation,” the Kremlin said.Follow along for live updatesTrump has not announced a decision on the weapons, but adding to the speculation, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth promised that more “firepower” was coming for Ukraine ahead of a NATO defense ministers’ meeting in Brussels this week. It is not clear whether the Tomahawks were part of that.Zelenskyy arrives in Washington after a night of punishing strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, underscoring the push for more air defenses and long-range capabilities to pressure Russia to end the war.Trump says he will have another summit with Putin in Budapest02:29The White House meeting on Friday caps a week of back-and-forth signaling from both leaders. Trump has publicly floated the possibility of providing Tomahawks, while Zelenskyy has framed the discussion as part of a broader effort to secure the weapons needed to deter Russia and defend critical infrastructure.Zelenskyy has also struck an optimistic tone, suggesting that diplomatic breakthroughs elsewhere, as Trump has secured a fragile ceasefire in Gaza, could help create momentum for ending the war with Russia.Trump appeared to acknowledge as much in his address to the Israeli parliament on Monday, saying, “Let’s focus on Russia first.”During his campaign for president last year, Trump promised to solve the war within 24 hours, but he has since conceded it is a more difficult task than he anticipated and turned his attention to other conflicts after months of negotiations with Moscow yielded little progress.Returning from the Middle East on Monday, Trump said he was considering approving the Tomahawk missiles, saying they would offer “a new step of aggression” in the war against Russia. He also said he might tell Russia, “If this war is not going to get settled, I’m going to send [Ukraine] Tomahawks.”“We may not, but we may do it. I think it’s appropriate to bring up,” Trump said aboard Air Force One. “I want to see the war settled.”He said he discussed the possibility with Zelenskyy during a call last weekend. “We’ll see,” Trump said.Trump also said this week that he plans to meet with Putin in Budapest in the coming weeks after making “great progress” in their call on Thursday. It would be Trump’s second meeting with Putin in recent months as he seeks to bring the war to a close.Trump said he had asked Putin in a “lighthearted” way if he would mind if he sent Tomahawks and that Putin opposed the move. “What do you think he’s going to say, ‘Please sell Tomahawks?’” Trump joked to reporters.Katherine DoyleKatherine Doyle is a White House reporter for NBC News.

- Latest News - October 17, 2025

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is set to meet with President Donald Trump at the White House on Friday.

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Oct. 17, 2025, 5:00 AM EDTBy Rob WileThe torrent of billion-dollar investment announcements related to artificial intelligence has raised fears that the economy is sitting on a bubble that, if popped, could send it into a tailspin. Some on Wall Street aren’t buying it. In a note to clients published Thursday titled “AI Spending Is Not Too Big,” Goldman Sachs economist Joseph Briggs made the case that the billions being spent on building out data centers — known as capital expenditures, or “capex” — remains sustainable.In short: Briggs believes AI applications are leading to real productivity gains that will help boost companies’ bottom lines. Meanwhile, the cost of the computing processing needed to power those applications justifies the billions in spending, assuming the sophistication of the applications continues to improve. In total, Briggs expects U.S. companies to generate as much as $8 trillion in new revenue thanks to AI. “The key takeaway from our analysis is that the enormous economic value promised by generative AI justifies the current investment in AI infrastructure and that overall levels of AI investment appear sustainable as long as companies expect that investment today will generate outsized returns over the long run,” Briggs wrote. Other key Wall Street players have echoed his assessment. This week, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon compared AI to the internet, which led to its own “dot com” bubble but ultimately created real economic and societal impact. “You can’t look at AI as a bubble, though some of these things may be in the bubble. In total, it’ll probably pay off,” Dimon said at a conference hosted by Fortune. Predictions about the economic impact of AI continue to run the gamut, from only a modest bump in productivity to the end of all jobs as we know them. Evidence of current effects so far is mixed, though the roster of companies citing AI or automation as a reason for job cuts — whether they actually intend to meaningfully increase its use — continues to grow.Amid all those variables, AI’s biggest impact has arguably been on stock returns. Despite some recent drawdowns, major U.S. stock indexes continue to sit near all-time highs, thanks largely to gains from tech companies participating in the AI boom. Peloton turns to AI in hope of boosting slumping sales03:41On Thursday, tech stocks got another lift when chip manufacturer Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC) reported record profits and soaring revenues. TSMC is the main supplier of semiconductors for Nvidia — the most valuable publicly traded company in the world — and it also counts Apple, Qualcomm and AMD as clients. “Our conviction in the megatrend is strengthening, and we believe the demand for semiconductors will continue to be very fundamental as a key enabler of AI applications,” TSMC Chief Executive C.C. Wei told analysts on an earnings call. Briggs of Goldman didn’t offer a direct comment about whether his analysis means AI-related stocks themselves have room to run. And there are growing signs that many investors now believe that whatever AI’s broader economic payoff is, stock valuations have become stretched. In its latest weekly investor sentiment survey, the American Association of Individual Investors found bullish sentiment had dipped below its historical average of 37.5% for the first time in five weeks, with 55% of respondents agreeing “stocks in general are overvalued.” Briggs did warn that some of the companies whose shares have had the greatest run-ups so far won’t necessarily be the ones who end up reaping the greatest overall returns from the AI revolution.“The ultimate winners from infrastructure builds are determined by a complex set of factors including timing, regulation, and market competition,” he wrote. Eventually, Briggs said, computing costs will decrease, meaning some proportion of the current AI spending boom will look overdone in hindsight. But given a 15% boost to productivity, a slower adoption timeline and other factors, current spending levels on AI investment are sound, he added. “While investment should eventually moderate as the AI investment cycle moves beyond the build phase and declining hardware costs dominate, the technological backdrop still looks supportive for continued AI investment,” he wrote.Jim Cramer, host of CNBC’s “Mad Money,” had a similar assessment this week, comparing the current AI moment to the dawn of the railroad age. “I am telling you, this is just the beginning,” he said. While not every company riding the wave will survive, the build-out itself changed the economy forever, he said, and “once the losers got wiped out, the winners won big.” Rob WileRob Wile is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist covering breaking business stories for NBCNews.com.

- Latest News - October 17, 2025

The torrent of billion-dollar investment announcements related to artificial intelligence has raised fears that the economy is sitting on a bubble that, if popped, could send it into a tailspin.

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Oct. 17, 2025, 5:00 AM EDTBy Frank Thorp V, Monica Alba, Julie Tsirkin and Carol E. LeeWASHINGTON — On Day 15 of the government shutdown, a U.S. senator hosted a well-attended birthday party for his bulldog.Dozens of Hill staffers lined up inside the Capitol on Wednesday to wish Republican Sen. Jim Justice’s pup a happy birthday as she sat under a balloon arch wearing a pink and white hat. They noshed on cakes and dozens of cake pops shaped in 6-year-old Babydog’s likeness.At the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue, President Donald Trump gathered some of the richest people in the country for dinner at the White House. There were beef Wellington, butterscotch ice cream and gold-rimmed china but no mention of the government shutdown during Trump’s 37-minute-long remarks thanking his guests for their donations for a new White House ballroom.Judge blocks Trump administration layoffs, calling them illegal as government shutdown continues04:01“This is really a knockout crowd,” Trump said Wednesday evening, noting that their collective donations have exceeded the ballroom’s $250 million price tag.And so it has been for the power brokers in Washington during a government shutdown that appears to have no end in sight. While thousands of federal workers are furloughed — or fired — and trying to stay afloat without paychecks, the ones responsible for the shutdown are literally, and figuratively, eating cake.The business-as-usual nature for elected officials in Washington, and some of their aides, is in contrast to the experience of others in the nation’s capital, where federal offices, as well as many parks, landmarks and museums, are closed, and of many people across the country. It also solidifies what now seems to be a bygone era of government shutdowns — one when elected officials wouldn’t want to be caught anywhere near parties or other nonessential indulgences.“Everything still seems to be the same, except it’s not. Except most of these people aren’t getting paid,” Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, told NBC News, noting that the Senate has continued its committee hearings, constituent meetings and normal voting schedules despite the shutdown. “I don’t think that’s right. I just don’t think that’s right. And so, yeah, it’s — and it just feels different than any other shutdown.”President Donald Trump boards Air Force One in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, to return to Washington on Monday.Evan Vucci / APThe federal government has been shut down since Oct. 1 after Democrats and Republicans in Congress, and the president, couldn’t agree on a spending bill to keep it funded.Lawmakers have since been working, to be sure. They’re delivering floor speeches blaming the opposing party for the shutdown and repeatedly casting votes on the same two resolutions to reopen the government that they know don’t have enough support. Some lawmakers have been having informal discussions about potential ways to break the logjam, but Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., told NBC News on Thursday that while those talks had been “productive … they’re done.” Members of Congress also continue to get paid, as their pay is protected under the Constitution.But members of their staffs and the many people who keep the Capitol operating aren’t. A congressional staffer, who asked not to be named to protect their privacy, said that while Congress doesn’t seem to be in a big hurry to reopen the government, the shutdown is urgent for them and their family.“My husband is a federal worker too, so for us, this is definitely urgent. We have a family to support,” the staffer told NBC News.Like Congress, Trump has been busy with government business, holding an average of nearly an event a day since the shutdown began. He has traveled to the Middle East to mark a deal aimed at ending the war in Gaza. He’s hosting foreign leaders. Later this month, he is scheduled to take a multiday trip to Asia for world leader summits and meetings.Trump also went forward this week with a previously scheduled Rose Garden ceremony honoring conservative activist Charlie Kirk, who was assassinated last month, on what would have been Kirk’s 32nd birthday. On Friday, he’ll meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House to discuss the war with Russia before he hops on a flight to Florida to spend the weekend at his Mar-a-Lago estate.The White House has called several aides who were initially furloughed back to work in recent days. While those staffers are working without pay, military personnel who service the presidency, such as the pilots, flight attendants and other staff members on Air Force One, are expected to continue receiving paychecks. The Defense Department shifted funding from elsewhere in its budget to ensure members of the military are paid during the shutdown.The White House also said Thursday that federal law enforcement officers, including those from Customs and Border Patrol, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Secret Service and the Drug Enforcement Administration, will be paid during the shutdown.Trump, too, will continue getting his paycheck under federal law, though he has said he donates his salary.At the same time, the White House has used the shutdown as cover to fire some federal workers. The Trump administration has already issued layoff notices to more than 4,000 government employees, though a federal judge blocked the move for now. The White House has said it plans to appeal.If the firings are allowed to go forward, White House budget chief Russell Vought said, the total could “grow higher” and “probably end up being north of 10,000.”Millions of tourists visit the U.S. Capitol every year, but tours are closed to the public because of the shutdown. Private tour groups arranged by senators and House members, however, have continued in abundance. Unlike in past shutdowns, cafeterias in the Capitol are open, trash is being picked up, grandfather clocks are still being wound, and some lawmakers have yet to furlough a single staff member.A “Closed to all tours” sign in the Capitol rotunda on Oct. 9, the ninth day of the government shutdown.Allison Robbert / APPast shutdowns have led members of Congress to frantically work weekend legislative sessions and hold late-night working pizza dinners to try to end the impasses. But this time, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has kept his members out of Washington since the shutdown began, and senators have consistently taken three-day weekends.Asked about the Senate’s weekend breaks, Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., told NBC News he will continue to allow senators to go home at the end of the week until there’s actual movement in negotiations.“If it looks like there’s productive reason for doing it, of course I’ll do it,” Thune said of keeping members in session over a weekend. “But if, you know, if it’s just no, no, no, no, no and we’re not making any headway, then I’m not sure what the point would be. But you know, I’m open to any suggestion that would help get the government back open.”Once the government reopens, federal workers will receive back pay to cover the shutdown, whether they worked or not. But that wasn’t always the case. In 2019, Congress passed a law that guaranteed back pay to federal workers furloughed during shutdowns. That guarantee seems to have led lawmakers and the executive branch to furlough fewer staff members this time, senators said.“I think the vibe is a little bit different this time because of the back pay guarantee,” Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said in an interview this week.Some Republicans, who were around for the 16-day government shutdown in 2013, said they believe that then-President Barack Obama and then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., purposefully made the Capitol complex and federal agencies less hospitable during that funding crisis, hoping the pain would lead lawmakers to end that shutdown.“I think it was intentionally,” said Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., who told NBC News he hasn’t furloughed anyone on his staff for this shutdown. Obama, he said, was focused on shutting down “as many things you can, make it as hard on everybody as you can, and Harry Reid did the same thing here in the Senate.”A staff member brings Sen. Jim Justice’s bulldog, Babydog, to Justice’s office Wednesday for a birthday celebration.Anna Moneymaker / Getty ImagesAnd while lawmakers continue to be paid during the shutdown, Justice, R-W.Va., Babydog’s owner, said he is donating his paycheck to his state’s National Guard.“There are people out there depending on us, and right now, it’s a dog’s mess,” Justice said in an interview Wednesday. “A government shutdown is the most ridiculous thing on the planet, and really, truly, we need to be working together and get across the finish line.”Babydog had no better answer than the humans in the Capitol have had about when the shutdown might end.“Snort,” she replied when she was asked at her birthday party how Congress and the White House might reach a resolution to reopen the government.Frank Thorp VFrank Thorp V is a producer and off-air reporter covering Congress for NBC News, managing coverage of the Senate.Monica AlbaMonica Alba is a White House correspondent for NBC News.Julie TsirkinJulie Tsirkin is a correspondent covering Capitol Hill.Carol E. LeeCarol E. Lee is the Washington managing editor.Brennan Leach, Melanie Zanona and Caroline Kenny contributed.

- Latest News - October 17, 2025

While thousands of federal workers go without pay, the government shutdown has had little impact on the day-to-day on Capitol Hill and in the White House.

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Oct. 17, 2025, 5:02 AM EDTBy Babak Dehghanpisheh, Chantal Da Silva, Matt Bradley and Matthew MulliganAs Israel pulled back in Gaza last week, Hamas stepped in, with violence marked by at least one public execution and clashes with rival factions as the militant group tried to reassert control amid the ceasefire in the war-torn territory.The message was clear: We are still here.The disarmament of Hamas is the most critical and difficult part of President Donald Trump’s peace plan to implement, analysts say. But Gaza is home to numerous clans and militant groups, with score-settling and criminality posing a threat to order in the Palestinian enclave even after the ceasefire. Video obtained by Reuters this week appeared to show masked gunmen executing several men in a Gaza City street. In the footage, at least six people could be seen being forced to their knees, with their shirts pulled over their heads, before being shot. In other footage, at least two of the people carrying out the executions appeared to be wearing the green headbands typically worn by Hamas’ military wing, the Qassam Brigades. NBC News verified the location of the video inside Gaza but not that the men shown were members of Hamas.Hamas did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the incidents. Last month, before the current ceasefire, Hamas-led authorities said three men were executed after being accused of collaborating with Israel, Reuters reported at the time. Armed Hamas fighters seen on Gaza streets after ceasefire01:22President Donald Trump issued a clear warning about the violence on Thursday. “If Hamas continues to kill people in Gaza, which was not the Deal, we will have no choice but to go in and kill them. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” he posted on Truth Social. Asked at a press gathering whether he meant that U.S. troops could be involved, Trump said, “It’s not gonna be us. We won’t have to. There are people very close, very nearby that will go in. They’ll do the trick very easily but under our auspices.”In the wake of Israeli troops’ initial withdrawal from parts of Gaza, Hamas, which has ruled over the enclave since 2007, has tried to regain control, with the militant group’s internal security organization issuing a call urging residents to report “wanted individuals,” including “collaborators” with Israel. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had confirmed earlier this year that Israel had “activated” clans that oppose Hamas, which is designated a terrorist organization by the United States. His comments came after Israeli media, including the Times of Israel, reported he had authorized giving weapons to a particular group in southern Gaza, citing defense sources.Calling on Hamas to “suspend violence” in the enclave on Wednesday, CENTCOM’s commander, Adm. Brad Cooper, said the truce brought by Trump’s 20-point ceasefire plan marked a “historic opportunity for peace.””Hamas should seize it by fully standing down,” he said. Trump’s warning on Thursday followed comments earlier in the week in which he appeared to downplay the violence in Gaza, saying Hamas had taken out “a couple of gangs that were very bad,” before adding, “that didn’t bother me much.”Masked gunmen prepare to execute a group of men in Gaza City.via ReutersThe flashes of violence this week came as the U.S. and Israel continued to call for Hamas’ disarmament, a key stipulation of Trump’s plan and a longstanding sticking point in talks for a lasting truce.The Israeli military was accused of repeatedly opening fire on Palestinians this week amid the truce. The Israel Defense Forces acknowledged one incident Tuesday in which it said troops opened fire on people who came near forces stationed along the withdrawal line agreed under the first phase of Trump’s plan, which it said was a violation of the agreement.Armed fighters in Khan Younis, southern Gaza on Monday.Abed Rahim Khatib / DPA via Getty ImagesMichael Wahid Hanna, the U.S. program director at the International Crisis Group, a global nonprofit based in Brussels, said there was still a lack of clarity around how the disarmament of Hamas might actually play out.”None of this has been spelled out — what kind of weapons, under what conditions … none of it. None of it is on paper,” he said. “It is a kind of aspirational endpoint without many signposts about how to get there.”What is clear, Hanna said in an interview on Wednesday, is that “Hamas is not gone.” “I mean, lots of people have said this for a long time, that Israel would not be able to eliminate or destroy Hamas, and they haven’t,” Hanna said. “They’ve probably eliminated Hamas as an actual threat to Israeli security, but in terms of Hamas in the Strip, they are still there and seemingly exercising some coherent control,” he said, noting that some of the violence appeared to be “tied up with clan criminality,” including clans with “links to Israel.”Members of a number of clans in the enclave have clashed with Hamas over the past two years, including the Abu Shabab clan, led by Yasser Abu Shabab, whom Hamas has accused of collaborating with Israel. The Doghmosh clan, one of the biggest and most powerful in Gaza, has also been at odds with Hamas. Reuters reported that Hamas fighters had clashed with members of Doghmosh on Sunday and Monday, citing security sources. NBC News was not immediately able to verify that reporting.”There are well-known clans and personalities,” Hanna said. “Anybody at this point who is trying to operate independently outside of Hamas authority in the places where it is present is probably going to have trouble.”In a statement released on Tuesday following a gathering of Palestinian tribes and clans in the Gaza Strip, some clans warned that protection would be withdrawn from any members “proven to be involved in any violation that threatens our societal security and civil peace.” They urged groups to “fully adhere to this decision” to keep the peace and to “hand over perpetrators and violators to the competent authorities,” in an apparent reference to Hamas.”I think it was a stupid strategy for Israel to try to rely on some of these clans,” Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib, head of Realign for Palestine, a project of the Atlantic Council, said. “Hamas made a name for themselves early on by basically breaking a lot of these clans and by having the ability to say we’re bringing law and order.”The gang violence in Gaza comes as peace efforts have also been complicated by Hamas’ failure to return many of the 28 bodies of hostages killed in captivity.Hamas said Wednesday that the remaining bodies required “significant efforts and specialized equipment to search for and retrieve.”Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz told senior Israel Defense Forces commanders to prepare a military plan to defeat Hamas if the militant group refuses to implement the U.S.-brokered peace plan, according to Katz’s spokesperson.Babak DehghanpishehBabak Dehghanpisheh is an NBC News Digital international editor based in New York.Chantal Da SilvaChantal Da Silva reports on world news for NBC News Digital and is based in London.Matt BradleyMatt Bradley is an international correspondent for NBC News based in Israel.Matthew MulliganMatthew Mulligan is a senior reporter for the NBC News Social Newsgathering team based in London.Reuters contributed.

- Latest News - October 17, 2025

As Israel pulled back in Gaza last week, Hamas stepped in, with violence marked by at least one public execution and clashes with rival factions as the militant group tried.

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