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New push to recover remains of Israeli hostages

admin - Latest News - October 26, 2025
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In a post on his “Truth Social” platform, President Trump put new pressure on Hamas to recover and return the remains of Israeli hostages who were taken captive during the Oct. 7 attacks. NBC News’ Molly Hunter reports.



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Oct. 26, 2025, 9:51 AM EDTBy Freddie ClaytonA number of countries have offered to take part in the international stabilization force expected to operate in Gaza, Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said, even as key details, including its mandate, were still being negotiated.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that Israel would determine “which forces are unacceptable to us.”“This is, of course, acceptable to the United States as well, as its most senior representatives have expressed in recent days,” Netanyahu told a session of his Cabinet.During a visit to Israel, Rubio said Friday that the force would have to be made up of countries that Israel is “comfortable with,” adding that any potential role for the Palestinian Authority has yet to be determined.The discussions come as President Donald Trump said the U.S.-backed ceasefire in Gaza remained strong, even as Israel launched a fresh airstrike in the enclave on Saturday, and as tensions escalate over the bodies of 13 hostages that remain in Gaza.Israeli forces carried out a “targeted strike” on an individual in central Gaza on Saturday, Israel’s military said, the latest incident since the ceasefire came into effect.The attack targeted “a terrorist from the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization who planned to carry out an imminent terrorist attack against IDF troops,” the Israeli military said in a statement.On Saturday, Rubio said a number of countries have offered to take part in the force to support the demilitarization of Gaza and monitor compliance with the ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.But he stressed that many governments first need clarity on the force’s legal basis and rules of engagement.“I think they’d want to know what’s the mandate, what’s the mission, what are the rules of engagement, what is this force supposed to do,” Rubio told reporters. “All of that’s being worked on.” Rubio added that the force would have to be an “international mission” that could work as part of an agreement through the United Nations.“A lot of countries have expressed interest,” he said, without specifying which countries. “I think they want to know what it is they’re signing up for, which is a very reasonable thing.”Indonesia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Qatar and Azerbaijan were among the countries that had “raised their hand” to contribute, two senior U.S. advisers said last week.Trump said Saturday he discussed the Gaza peace deal with Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani during a meeting aboard Air Force One on Saturday on his way to Asia.Asked by reporters after the meeting when a stabilization force would be ready to deploy in Gaza, Trump replied, “pretty quickly.”“They’re actually picking leaders right now,” he said. “This is real peace.”A U.S.-backed ceasefire remains in force in Gaza, but each side has accused the other of violations. As part of the ceasefire agreement, Hamas returned all living Israeli hostages, but the remains of 13 are still in the enclave. The group has warned it will take time to locate and recover the remains.In a post on Truth Social on Saturday, Trump said that Hamas must return the remaining bodies of deceased hostages, or “the other Countries involved in this GREAT PEACE will take action.”“When I said, ‘Both sides would be treated fairly,’ that only applies if they comply with their obligations. Let’s see what they do over the next 48 hours,” he wrote.Freddie ClaytonFreddie Clayton is a freelance journalist based in London. 
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Oct. 25, 2025, 6:15 AM EDTBy Liz SzaboJeb Teichman’s phone rang just before midnight. As a pediatrician, he has received many late-night emergency calls.This time, the call was about his 29-year-old son. Brent Teichman had been suffering from the flu for five days. After he began to recover, his symptoms returned with a vengeance, making it difficult to breathe. Teichman, who was out of town, suggested his son visit an urgent care facility. Brent Teichman returned home from the clinic with a prescription for antibiotics and collapsed in bed.When his roommate checked on him a few hours later, Brent Teichman was unconscious. His roommate first called Teichman, then 911. The emergency operator instructed the roommate how to perform CPR. When Teichman called the roommate back, he asked the young man to hold the phone so that he could hear emergency responders trying to save his son. “I could hear the monitors beeping,” Teichman said. Six years after his son’s death, Teichman said, “when I close my eyes at night, I still hear that beeping.”Brent Teichman was 29 when he died in 2019 from flu complications. His father, Dr. Jeb Teichman, said his son’s only risk factor for severe illness was that he didn’t receive a flu shot.Courtesy the subjectAlthough Teichman has retired, he said he is still trying to save lives. He has joined the board of a nonprofit group called Families Fighting Flu, made up of people who have lost loved ones to the illness. As misinformation spreads on social media, Teichman and other health advocates are reminding people of basic facts about the flu.Based on wastewater samples, the current flu season hasn’t taken off yet in the U.S., although once it does, it spreads rapidly across the country, Alexandria Boehm, program director of WastewaterSCAN, a nonprofit monitoring network and a professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University, said. “Once it starts in one state it starts everywhere at the same time,” she said. “It’s not a slow wave.” With flu, wastewater levels match what’s happening in the community, she said. Last year, influenza took off in mid-December and lasted through mid-April. Flu season typically peaks around February, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, although the influenza virus can continue circulating through May.The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends vaccinating children against flu as soon as shots are available in late summer or fall, said Dr. Kristina Bryant, a member of the academy’s committee on infectious diseases and an author of its flu shot recommendations. Most kids only need one flu shot a year. Babies and children between the ages of 6 months and 8 years old getting vaccinated against flu for the first time, or who have only had one lifetime dose before the current flu season, need two shots, four weeks apart. So it’s especially important for infants and children to start the process early, in order to be fully protected by the time flu begins to circulate. In adults, immunity provided by flu vaccines can wane over time. So adults who get their flu shots very early — such as in August or early September — may lose some of that protection toward the end of flu season, said Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious disease physician and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. Adalja recommends adults get their flu shots by late October in order to be protected by the beginning of flu season, which can vary depending on where you live. Flu vaccines are safeFlu vaccines and their ingredients are rigorously tested and found to be very safe. Over the past 50 years, hundreds of millions of Americans have safely received flu shots.“Really, these are extremely safe vaccines,” said Dr. Robert Kim-Farley, a professor at the Fielding School of Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles. “There’s nothing people need to be alarmed about.”The most common side effect of flu shots is a sore arm, Adalja said.Some people worry that flu shots increase the risk of Guillain-Barre syndrome, a serious but rare disorder in which the immune system attacks nerve cells, causing muscle weakness and sometimes paralysis. The actual risk from current flu shots is very low, with one to two additional cases of the syndrome for every million doses of vaccine, according to the CDC.It’s important to note that viruses also can cause the syndrome, Adalja said. In fact, people have a higher risk of developing the syndrome from flu than from the vaccine.Fears of Guillain-Barre syndrome stem from a 1976 outbreak of swine flu, in which 45 million Americans received a new vaccine. That flu shot caused one additional case of Guillain-Barre for every 100,000 people vaccinated.Flu vaccines save livesFlu vaccination prevented 9.8 million illnesses; 4.8 million medical visits; 120,000 hospitalizations; and 7,900 deaths during the 2023-2024 season, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Yet, only 32% of people hospitalized for flu last year had been vaccinated, according to the CDC.Last season’s flu shot reduced the risk of testing positive for flu during an outpatient visit by 56%. Although people who are vaccinated sometimes still get infected with flu, their illness tends to be much milder compared to people who aren’t vaccinated, Adalja said. While they’re not perfect, flu vaccines can reduce the risk of infection and make people less contagious, at least for part of the flu season. Flu shots “do provide some level of protection to close contacts for a period of time,” Adalja said.Flu vaccines tend to be less protective than other vaccines for multiple reasons, Adalja said. First, flu viruses themselves change every year, which means the vaccine needs to change, as well. Because flu shots take several months to produce, vaccine makers need to begin production in the spring, long before flu season begins. Manufacturers in the United States select which viral strain to include in fall vaccines based on the influenza strains circulating in the Southern Hemisphere, Kim-Farley said. This year’s flu shots protect against three strains of influenza, including two types of influenza A and one type of influenza B.Flu shots don’t cause fluInjectable flu shots are made with pieces of the flu virus, Adalja said. These pieces stimulate the immune system to make protective antibodies in order to combat any flu viruses that enter the body.Nasal flu vaccines, which are approved for people 2 through 49, contain live viruses that have been weakened to prevent them from causing the flu, Bryant said.Because the virus is live, it can cause mild symptoms, including a fever over 100 degrees in children ages 2 through 6; a runny nose and nasal congestion in people ages 2 through 49; and a sore throat in adults ages 18 through 49.People can now order the intranasal flu vaccine online and use it at home.Flu vaccines take 2 weeks for full protectionSome people who develop symptoms such as a fever or cough after receiving their flu vaccines assume their flu shot was ineffective. But because it takes the immune system about two weeks to make antibodies against the influenza virus, it can take two weeks for people to be fully protected, Banks said.Meanwhile, there are dozens of viruses and bacteria that can cause flu-like symptoms — such as fever, chills, cough, body aches and headaches — including enterovirus, parainfluenza and more.Flu shots can be safely given with other vaccines“Extensive testing is required for every vaccine, and we have a lot of research showing that getting multiple vaccines at the same time is safe,” Bryant said. “What happens when we delay or we space out vaccines is that we’re really just increasing the amount of time that children remain vulnerable to infection.”Some parents worry that multiple vaccines given in one visit overwhelm a baby’s immune system. But babies and young children are exposed to as many as 6,000 viruses, bacteria and other substances that stimulate the immune system — known as antigens — in a single day. In comparison, the entire pediatric immunization schedule exposes them to 165 antigens, Bryant said.Pediatricians and health officials recommend grouping vaccinations together because it’s more convenient for parents to bring a baby to a clinic once, rather than multiple times, Kim-Farley said. Children are more likely to receive all recommended vaccines if they are given multiple shots in one visit.Some parents fear that giving the flu shot in combination with other vaccines causes their children excess stress. In fact, a study examining stress hormone levels in infants found no difference in stress levels between babies who received one vaccine compared to those who received several. Spacing out vaccines increases a child’s total stress by causing them to receive injections on multiple days.Flu vaccines don’t contain harmful ingredientsContrary to what is shared on social media, flu vaccines do not contain fetal cells, blood products, human DNA, soy, gluten, latex or microchips.Vaccines have five major ingredients: antigens, which are viral proteins or sugars that stimulate the immune system to make protective antibodies; adjuvants, which boost the immune response; stabilizers, which keep the vaccine stable over time; preservatives, which prevent the growth of fungi and bacteria; and residual byproducts.Some flu shots contain dead or weakened viruses as antigens. Others have only viral proteins. Although some flu vaccines grown in eggs have traces of residual egg protein, the amount is so minuscule that most people with egg allergies can still safely be vaccinated.Flu shots do not contain aluminum, used in trace amounts in some shots, such as hepatitis and pneumococcal vaccines, to help generate a strong immune response.Although President Donald Trump has called for removing aluminum from vaccines, studies show that the tiny amounts of aluminum in vaccines do not cause harm. In fact, babies consume more aluminum from breastmilk or formula than vaccines.Some social media influencers have expressed concerns about preservatives in vaccines. A CDC advisory committee in June recommended removing a preservative called thimerosal from vaccines. But that wasn’t a major change; flu vaccines in prefilled syringes are already thimerosal-free. Thimerosal was only used in multidose vials of vaccines — which account for only about 4% of flu shots — as a way to prevent dangerous bacteria and fungi, Adalja said.Although studies show that thimerosal isn’t harmful — and doesn’t cause autism — manufacturers took the preservative out of routine pediatric vaccinations in 1999. Most flu shots don’t contain adjuvants; the one exception is a flu shot designed for people older than 65, whose immune systems need an extra boost, which uses a non-aluminum adjuvant.Dr. Virginia Banks, an infectious disease specialist in Youngstown, Ohio, said she recently opted for a vaccine recommended for people older than 65.“I’m way over 65, but I look in the mirror and I think to myself, ‘You don’t need that,’” she said. “But then I realize, ‘Yeah, yeah you do.’”The flu is not just a bad coldEven during relatively mild flu seasons, thousands of Americans die from the virus.Flu season was particularly brutal last year, sickening at least 47 million Americans, hospitalizing 610,000 and killing 27,000, according to the CDC. Those deaths included 281 children, the largest number of pediatric deaths in 15 years, when the world was hit by the H1N1 pandemic, according to the CDC. Of the children who died from flu last year, 89% were unvaccinated or weren’t full vaccinated, compared to 82% during the 2023-2024 flu season.Last season’s flu also led 109 children to develop a rare, severe neurologic complication called influenza-associated encephalopathy, which can cause altered mental status and seizures. Nineteen percent of affected children died, according to the CDC.Research shows that Black people have the highest flu-related hospitalization rates, followed by Native American people and Hispanic people.Racial and ethnic disparities are greatest among children; rates of severe outcomes, such as hospitalization and death, are up to four times higher among racial and ethnic minority children under age 4 compared to white children. People from racial and ethnic minority communities are also less likely to be completely vaccinated against the flu.How much do flu shots cost without insurance?Children can be vaccinated for free through the federal Vaccines for Children program.The Affordable Care Act requires that commercial insurance plans provide flu shots for free. People can also get free flu shots through Medicare, Medicaid or the Veterans Health Administration. Without insurance, a flu shot can cost $20 to $130 out of pocket. Many adults without insurance can receive free or reduced-cost flu shots at federally qualified health centers or public health departments. Young, healthy adults and children die of the flu every yearAlthough infants, older adults, pregnant women and people with chronic illnesses have the highest risk of hospitalization or death from the flu, the virus can also kill healthy people, often by causing pneumonia. Forty-four percent of children who died from influenza were previously healthy.The CDC recommends flu shots for everyone older than 6 months old. Vaccinating pregnant women against the flu helps protect both prospective mothers, as well as their infants, at least for the first few months of life.Fewer Americans are getting flu shotsFlu vaccination rates have fallen since 2020, caught up in a post-pandemic backlash against vaccines, as well as the mistaken belief that influenza isn’t a serious threat, research suggests.The percentage of American adults who report having received or planning to receive a flu shot dropped from 60% in 2020 to 54% in 2024. Vaccination rates have fallen among children, as well, dropping from 64% in 2019-2020 to 49% in 2024-2025.“People have been told to get Covid shots and RSV shots and flu shots, and people are just a little bit vaccine fatigued,” Banks said.Low vaccination rates may have contributed to the severity of last year’s flu season, in which influenza-related hospitalization rates were the highest since 2010-2011.Teichman said his son’s only risk factor for severe illness was that he hadn’t received a flu shot.Teichman said he and his wife, Grace, a retired nurse, “reminded Brent to get his flu shot a couple of weeks before his passing. He said he had it on to-do list, but he just never got around to it.”Liz SzaboLiz Szabo is an independent health and science journalist. Her work has won multiple national awards. One of her investigations led to a new state law in Virginia.Jane Weaver contributed.
November 27, 2025
Nov. 27, 2025, 11:30 AM ESTBy Gordon Lubold, Courtney Kube, Mosheh Gains and Katherine DoyleWASHINGTON — Army Secretary Dan Driscoll was planning a trip to Kyiv to discuss drone technology with his Ukrainian counterparts when his mission suddenly got more complex. President Donald Trump was upgrading his role, Driscoll was told, to include international diplomat.The decision has thrust Driscoll to the forefront of the most vexing foreign policy challenge that Trump, by his own admission, has faced since he took office: ending the nearly four-year-long war in Ukraine. It’s a high-stakes foray for Driscoll, a former Army Ranger and financier, that has elevated his profile and fueled speculation inside and outside the Trump administration about where he might land next.This account of Driscoll’s diplomatic activities and how the administration came to trust him is based on interviews with four current U.S. officials and two former U.S. officials. For more than a week, Driscoll has crisscrossed Europe, shuttling from Kyiv to Geneva to lead talks with Ukrainian and other European officials. And he made a secret trip to the Middle East to meet with the Russians. All the while, he has socialized elements of the U.S.-backed peace plan crafted by Trump’s closest advisers.Driscoll flew from Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates to Fort Campbell, Kentucky, on Wednesday to meet with Vice President JD Vance, who was there to address troops, and he is expected to again meet with Ukrainian officials.A senior administration official said Driscoll was tapped for Ukraine negotiations because Trump trusts him and because it was convenient given he was already scheduled to be in Kyiv for discussions about drones.Driscoll, who is also the acting director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, was hoisted into Trump’s orbit by Vance, his close friend. The two men are former Yale Law School students and military veterans.Driscoll, 39, a North Carolina native, served in Iraq in 2009 before he attended Yale and then worked in finance. Since his Senate confirmation in February, he has been focused on helping transform the Army by pushing to eliminate some weapons seen in the military as sacred cows and adding some new ones that are cheaper and easier to buy, moves intended to make the Army more relevant and “lethal,” he has said publicly.That effort has had its challenges, as some lawmakers worry Driscoll’s proposed changes could result in jobs leaving their districts and states. But Republicans and Democrats alike have praised him as sincere and accessible, and he has many lawmakers on speed-dial, according to two U.S. officials.Driscoll has no formal diplomatic background. But the two U.S. officials said he has been given latitude from the highest echelons of the White House to carry Trump’s message.“People know he’s operating with the intent of the vice president, and the VP is synced up with the president,” one of the U.S. officials said of Driscoll.“In the midst of conversations, he can be making decisions to go the next step or not without hesitation because he knows and trusts that he’s within the intent,” the official said. “He knows where the red lines are and where to keep going.”At Vance’s urging this month, Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff asked Driscoll to talk about a peace deal while he was meeting with the Ukrainians during his trip to Kyiv, according to one of the previously mentioned U.S. officials and two additional U.S. officials.It was ultimately Trump who said he wanted Driscoll to be part of his impromptu peace effort, those three U.S. officials said. Trump wasn’t deterred by Driscoll’s lack of diplomatic experience, having already embraced unconventional diplomacy by tapping his friend and fellow businessman Witkoff to lead his peace efforts in the Middle East and Ukraine.Trump is known to refer to Driscoll as “drone guy,” one of those U.S. officials said, because of his expertise in the technology. He also has praised him publicly.“What a job he’s doing, this guy,” Trump said of Driscoll in September at an Oval Office event announcing the deployment of National Guard troops to Memphis, Tennessee.“Look at that nice face, and yet he’s a killer,” Trump added. “Nice, beautiful face, and he’s a total killer. I don’t know how you do it, huh?”“Lotion, sir,” Driscoll joked.The idea behind sending Driscoll was that as a military leader with the backing of the White House, he could look the Ukrainians in the eye, perhaps with more credibility than a conventional government diplomat, and persuade them it was time for peace, the three U.S. officials said.Witkoff read Driscoll in on the broad strokes of the peace deal he had assembled, though Driscoll wasn’t briefed on the specifics of the 28-point plan before he arrived in Kyiv, according to two of the U.S. officials. Elements of the plan were leaked to the media while Driscoll was engaged in informal talks in Kyiv, the two officials said. That leak and initial signs of momentum in the discussions between Driscoll and the Ukrainians prompted White House officials to decide to brief Driscoll on the 28-point plan, those U.S. officials said. Driscoll was then instructed to brief the 28-point plan to the Ukrainians, the officials said.In tasking Driscoll with peace negotiations in Kyiv, Trump’s hope was that he could lay important groundwork with the Ukrainians before Witkoff or Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is also the national security adviser, got more deeply involved, the three U.S. officials said. The process has since evolved into a series of ongoing negotiations that have both drawn criticism that they favor Russia and raised hopes of a potential deal.The momentum Driscoll has helped build in recent days has raised questions inside and outside the administration about whether he could be on a short list to succeed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth should he depart sometime next year, according to the three current U.S. officials and two former U.S. officials. Some of Trump’s top aides don’t trust Hegseth to lead on such sensitive and potentially consequential negotiations, according to two of the current U.S. officials and one of the former U.S. officials. Trump is fond of Hegseth despite the secretary making a series of errors since he began leading the Defense Department, including pausing aid to Ukraine without informing Congress or the State Department and sharing sensitive information about a military operation in a group chat on the Signal messaging app, according to four of the current and former officials and two people familiar with the matter.The senior administration official pushed back against the idea that Driscoll is in any way being positioned to succeed Hegseth. The official said Hegseth needed to be in Washington to brief Trump on his fight against drug cartels, manage the relationship between the United States and China and attend Trump’s intelligence briefings. Hegseth, the official said, is overseeing the sale of weaponry to NATO for Ukraine and has engaged in various conversations with the Ukrainians. “Secretary Driscoll’s role has evolved because he was going to be in Ukraine for talks on drone technology and war fighting capabilities anyway, and so it made sense to just tap him to have these conversations with the Ukrainians at this time, frankly, out of pure convenience and because, again, he is a trusted player on the president’s team,” the official said. “Secretary Hegseth is also beloved by the president, and the president has the utmost confidence in Secretary Hegseth.” Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement, “The secretary has built an all-star team at the Department of War, and we are proud of our many accomplishments.”One of the U.S. officials described Driscoll, who has held a much lower-profile role than Hegseth, as “trusted, liked and respected” in the administration and in Congress.When he arrived in Kyiv on Nov. 19, his message for the Ukrainians was simple, according to two of the U.S. officials.The officials said Driscoll told the Ukrainians that unlike in the past — when the United States would reject Ukraine’s requests for weaponry, expanded intelligence or other assistance, only to later approve such requests — this time was different. He said the United States couldn’t continue to provide Kyiv with more weaponry at the same rate it has been, given American stockpiles are depleting and supplies are starting to run out, according to the officials.He also delivered a grim U.S. assessment on the war: that while the Russian military’s progress is slow, its ability to keep fighting could continue long past the Ukrainian military’s ability to keep fighting, with or without American and European support, NBC News has reported.Driscoll’s message to the Ukrainians wasn’t so much a finger in the chest as it was pragmatic, two of the U.S. officials said.“He didn’t tell the Ukrainians anything they didn’t already know,” one of the officials said.Driscoll and other U.S. officials then made an unannounced trip to Geneva for more meetings with the Ukrainians. Delegations from some European nations, including France, Germany and the United Kingdom, also visited Geneva to support Ukrainian efforts. Driscoll’s boyish exuberance that administration officials describe behind the scenes was on display as he turned to fist-bump an aide after a news conference he joined there with Ukrainian officials, Rubio, Witkoff and Trump’s outside adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner.Driscoll appeared after several days of negotiations to have secured assurances, at least from the Ukrainians, that the outlines of a peace plan in its current form were potentially acceptable.The next day, Driscoll was secretly flying to Abu Dhabi to meet with a Russian delegation about a potential peace plan, albeit one that now had been somewhat altered in favor of Ukrainian interests.Russian officials haven’t voiced support for the current plan. Trump said Tuesday that Witkoff and possibly Kushner are set to travel to Russia next week for negotiations.He also said his Army secretary-turned-diplomat will hold additional meetings with the Ukrainians.Gordon LuboldGordon Lubold is a national security reporter for NBC News.Courtney KubeCourtney Kube is a correspondent covering national security and the military for the NBC News Investigative Unit.Mosheh GainsI am NBC News’ producer & off-air reporter covering stories about and related to the Defense Department around the world.Katherine DoyleKatherine Doyle is a White House reporter for NBC News.
September 26, 2025
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