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Nov. 23, 2025, 5:07 PM ESTBy Alexandra Marquez, Courtney Kube, Fiona Glisson, Megan Shannon and Julie TsirkinPresident Donald Trump inserted fresh tensions into the high-stakes Ukraine-Russia peace talks on Sunday, publicly accusing Kyiv’s leaders of showing “zero gratitude” for U.S. support just as U.S. officials in Geneva were working to show a united front.Trump’s Truth Social comments landed at a delicate moment: his administration is pressing Ukraine to accept a 28-point peace proposal by Thanksgiving, even as confusion over the plan’s authorship and concerns from European allies and U.S. lawmakers have raised questions about whose interests it serves.Senior U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and special envoy Steve Witkoff, met with Ukrainian officials in Geneva, Switzerland, this weekend to move peace talks forward with a goal of ending the war.Ukraine’s Andriy Yermak, left, and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio hold a press conference at the U.S. Mission in Geneva, Switzerland, on Sunday.Fabrice Coffrini / AFP – Getty Images fileOn Sunday, after a full day of talks, Rubio told reporters “a tremendous amount of progress,” had been made. He added “there’s still some work to be done, but we are much further ahead today at this time than we were when we began this morning and where we were a week ago for certain.”“So it is in my personal view that we’ve had probably the most productive and meaningful meeting so far in this entire process since we’ve been involved in from the beginning,” he said. “We have a very good work product that was already built on a foundation of input from all the relative parties involved here, and we were able to go through some of those items now, point by point. And I think we’ve made good progress.”Another U.S. official told NBC News that Rubio, Witkoff and Army Secretary Dan Driscoll met with a Ukrainian delegation at the U.S. Mission in Geneva. The U.S. officials said the discussions were “positive and constructive.”In a post later Sunday on Telegram, Zelenskyy thanked the U.S. and European allies.“Ukraine is grateful to the United States, to every American heart, and personally to President Trump for the help that, starting with the Javelins, is saving the lives of Ukrainians. We thank everyone in Europe, in the Group of Seven and the Group of Twenty, who is helping us protect lives,” he wrote.Ukrainian and European leaders have expressed concerns about the peace proposal, with some European leaders and U.S. lawmakers close to Trump have also expressed concerned that it benefits Russia.“While there are many good ideas in the proposed Russia-Ukraine peace plan, there are several areas that are very problematic and can be made better. The goal of any peace deal is to end the war honorably and justly — and not create new conflict,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., wrote in a post on X Saturday.Another top Trump ally in the Senate, Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss., also expressed concerns on Friday. “This so-called ‘peace plan’ has real problems, and I am highly skeptical it will achieve peace,” he wrote in a post on X.Trump says 28-point Ukraine peace plan isn’t his ‘final offer’00:32On Saturday, Trump told reporters that this particular proposal is “not my final offer.” He added that if Zelenskyy didn’t accept the peace proposal, “then he can continue to fight his little heart out.”In a video after the proposal was made public, Zelenskyy said, “Currently, the pressure on Ukraine is one of the hardest.”He added, “Ukraine may now face a very difficult choice, either losing its dignity or the risk of losing a key partner, either the difficult 28 points, or a very difficult winter.”Olha Stefanishyna, Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States, told Fox News’ “The Sunday Briefing” that the 28 points are a starting point for negotiations.“This is only the first proposal, unattainable, and indeed, it’s a wish list. It’s not a document or an agreement. It’s just a list of the points it’s been discussed right now, and it is an agreed line with Ukraine and the United States that it will be a constructive reconciling process,” she said.On Saturday night, several U.S. lawmakers questioned whether the peace proposal was drafted by the U.S. or Russia.Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., on Saturday said “none of the information that was released on this particular proposal came back from the administration,” following his call Saturday afternoon with Rubio.“We asked, ‘Is this, you know? Where does this come from?’ And he said, ‘This was a product that had been presented to Mr. Witkoff, and that it was not our proposal, and that it was an opportunity, though, for the U.S. as an intermediary to bring it to the attention of the Ukrainians and I believe, the Europeans as well,’” Rounds added.In a post on X late Saturday night, Rubio said that the plan was endorsed by U.S. officials.“The peace proposal was authored by the U.S. It is offered as a strong framework for ongoing negotiations,” he wrote. “It is based on input from the Russian side. But it is also based on previous and ongoing input from Ukraine.”Alexandra MarquezAlexandra Marquez is a politics reporter for NBC News.Courtney KubeCourtney Kube is a correspondent covering national security and the military for the NBC News Investigative Unit.Fiona GlissonMegan ShannonMegan Shannon is a White House researcher for NBC NewsJulie TsirkinJulie Tsirkin is a correspondent covering Capitol Hill.Isabella Colletta contributed.

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President Donald Trump inserted fresh tensions into the high-stakes Ukraine-Russia peace talks on Sunday, publicly accusing Kyiv’s leaders of showing “zero gratitude” for U.S. support.



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September 29, 2025
Sept. 29, 2025, 5:36 AM EDT / Updated Sept. 29, 2025, 5:38 AM EDTBy Chantal Da SilvaPresident Donald Trump will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Monday to try and turn rising hopes into a deal to end to Israel’s offensive in Gaza and free hostages still held in the devastated Palestinian enclave.Trump sounded optimistic in an exclusive interview with NBC News on Sunday ahead of the crucial talks.”We’re doing very well. It looks like there is a really good chance for peace in the Middle East,” Trump said. “Everybody is on board. Everybody.”Netanyahu’s tete-a-tete with Trump comes as Israel faces mounting global isolation and outrage, with a host of Western powers embracing Palestinian statehood in defiance of the U.S. and its close ally, while Israeli forces push ahead with a deadly assault on famine-stricken Gaza City.Israeli forces have been bombing Gaza City to support a ground assault on the area.Ali Jadallah / Anadolu via Getty ImagesNetanyahu’s government has also faced growing pressure from Trump over Israel’s actions in the Middle East, with the president warning he would not allow the country to annex the already occupied West Bank and expressing rare public frustration over the attack targeting Hamas officials in U.S. ally Qatar.That strike, on senior leaders gathering to discuss a U.S. peace proposal in the capital of a crucial mediator, had appeared to derail negotiations. And Netanyahu vowed to “finish the job” in Gaza in his speech at the United Nations on Friday that saw dozens of delegates walk out in protest.Still, Trump on Sunday sounded optimistic about the possibility of a truce, despite past efforts repeatedly falling short.“We have a real chance for GREATNESS IN THE MIDDLE EAST,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social. “ALL ARE ON BOARD FOR SOMETHING SPECIAL, FIRST TIME EVER. WE WILL GET IT DONE,” he said. Trump and Netanyahu are expected to meet in the Oval Office, with a news conference to follow. Trump has been a consistent backer of Netanyahu, but the Israeli leader has stopped short of agreeing to a deal.Andrew Harnik / Getty ImagesHamas has previously said it will only release the remaining hostages held in Gaza in exchange for a lasting ceasefire and Israel’s withdrawal from the Palestinian enclave.At least 48 hostages are believed to remain held in Gaza, of whom only 20 are believed to be alive.On Sunday, Hamas’ military wing, the Qassam Brigades, said it had lost contact with two of the prisoners being held in Gaza due to Israel’s operations in the Sabra and Tel al-Hawa neighborhoods. It called on Israeli forces to withdraw from the area and temporarily halt air operations to allow attempts to locate the hostages.An injured child receives medical treatment after Israeli attacks on displaced Palestinian tents west of Nuseirat refugee camp in Gaza City, on Friday.Fadel A. A. Almaghari / Anadolu via Getty ImagesThe Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which represents the families of hostages, said in a statement that the families of the captives named by Hamas were working with authorities to review the militant group’s claims. Trump said Friday that Hamas was “very much aware” of discussions around a peace plan and that Israel had also been “informed at all levels.”Trump presented his 21-point peace plan to Arab nations last week in a meeting held on the sidelines of the annual U.N. General Assembly. The president was left feeling more optimistic about the likelihood of an agreement because of the meeting, a White House official said, adding that some progress was made. It’s unclear, however, whether Hamas has signed off on any deal that would free all the hostages and implement a 60-day ceasefire.The group said Sunday it had not received any new proposal since negotiations were suspended after the Israeli attack on its negotiating team in Doha.Around 250 people were taken hostage in the Hamas-led attacks on Oct. 7, 2023, in which some 1,200 people were also killed, marking a major escalation in a decadeslong conflict. Since then, more than 66,000 people have been killed in Gaza under Israel’s assault, including thousands of children, while much of the enclave has been destroyed.Chantal Da SilvaChantal Da Silva reports on world news for NBC News Digital and is based in London.Yamiche Alcindor, Reuters, The Associated Press, Monica Alba and Carol E. Lee contributed.
November 7, 2025
Nov. 7, 2025, 5:00 AM ESTBy Mike HixenbaughThis article is part of “Pastors and Prey,” a series investigating sex abuse allegations in the Assemblies of God.The Assemblies of God is facing calls for reform and repentance after an NBC News investigation revealed decades of sexual abuse allegations and alleged cover-ups within the world’s largest Pentecostal denomination.The report last week identified nearly 200 ministers, church employees and volunteer leaders accused of sexually abusing more than 475 people, most of them children, over the past half-century. In dozens of cases, the investigation found, Assemblies of God churches returned accused offenders to ministry — freeing them to abuse again.In response, several Assemblies of God pastors said they were praying for a reckoning within their ranks. One urged the denomination to enter a season of repentance; another announced he was leaving in protest.“I cannot in good conscience remain credentialed with the Assemblies of God,” the minister, Trevor Walker, wrote in an email Wednesday to denomination leaders. “I pray that greater light and humility will one day prevail in addressing abuse within the church.”Walker was one of 10 current and former Assemblies of God ministers who shared their views with NBC News. Reporters also heard from several alleged victims and longtime congregants. Their reactions ranged from outrage and grief to deep disappointment. Some said they hoped the reporting would prompt change.The Children’s Pastor: The 40-year mission to stop a preacher accused of raping children42:24“Maybe this will be the thing that turns the corner,” said Krystopher Scroggins, an Assemblies of God minister who leads a college ministry in San Angelo, Texas. “You can’t have this amount of light shining in your dark corners and not want to clean your house.”The General Council of the Assemblies of God, the denomination’s U.S. governing body, released a video statement last week taking issue with the NBC News report and asserting its commitment to child protection.“The Assemblies of God grieves with anyone who has been hurt by the actions of an abuser,” said General Superintendent Doug Clay, the denomination’s top national leader. “The General Council of the Assemblies of God is committed to child safety and has an established track record of leadership in this area.”Standing beside him, General Secretary Donna Barrett defended the denomination’s policies, reiterating that it requires background checks of credentialed ministers and screens out any found to have sexually abused children.‘Pastors and Prey’: NBC News investigates sex abuse in Assemblies of God churchesAssemblies of God churches shielded accused predators — and allowed them to keep abusing children.A revered missionary who was also a convicted sex offender urged generations of Chi Alpha members to get naked in his Houston sauna.Assemblies of God church leaders allowed a children’s pastor to continue preaching for years after he was accused of sexually abusing girls.An NBC News documentary traces the 40-year fight to stop a preacher accused of raping children.Some pastors praised the Assemblies of God for vetting credentialed ministers but were troubled by a significant gap noted in NBC News’ report: Under denominational policy, only a church’s lead pastor is required to hold ministerial credentials — meaning other staff, such as youth pastors or music ministers, can be hired without national oversight or background checks.Jim Line, who leads a small church in St. Marys, Pennsylvania, said he’s concerned that this lack of supervision can allow individuals with troubling histories to return to ministry roles.“If you bring in somebody who’s a minister of music or youth pastor and they’re not credentialed, I don’t know what your background is,” said Line, who added that he otherwise thought the Assemblies of God’s policies are strong. “I do have a problem with that.”NBC News contacted each elected member of the denomination’s Executive Presbytery, which serves as a national board of directors, but none agreed to comment.At least a few of the Assemblies of God’s 66 district councils, which oversee church affairs on a state or regional level, sent emails to ministers responding to the reporting. One district office implored every pastor in the region to voluntarily adopt child safety policies; another called the reporting “heartbreaking” and encouraged ministers to watch the General Council’s response.For some inside the denomination, the video statement fell short, confirming fears that leadership is unwilling to confront what they see as systemic failures.California pastor Anthony Scoma called on Assemblies of God leaders to repent for failures that allowed alleged abusers to remain in ministry.Courtesy Anthony ScomaAnthony Scoma, an Assemblies of God pastor in San Francisco who previously served as a district leader in north Texas, said failures that allowed sex offenders to return to ministry can’t be fixed with policy changes alone. He called for “churchwide, denominationalwide repentance” in response to the NBC News report.“As long as the Assemblies of God, led by our leaders, refuses to repent over a culture of abuse, the media, the courts, public opinion will continue to expose all these things,” Scoma said. “Because it’s not actually them that’s exposing it — it’s God. It’s the spirit of truth that is bringing these things to light.”Among the most forceful reactions came from Walker, the minister who resigned his credentials after two decades in the Assemblies of God. Walker said he had already left his church in Midlothian, Virginia, in 2023 over its handling of a family member’s abuse allegations but had maintained his credentials and hoped to one day return to ministry.The NBC News report and the denomination’s response — which Walker described as “sterile,” “impersonal” and “devoid of accountability or compassion” — finally convinced him to step away for good.“If they would have said, ‘Many people have been hurt over the years under our watch, and we regret that, but we’re working toward making it better,’ that would have been enough for me,” Walker said.Other ministers criticized a 2021 decision by the General Council to reject a resolution that would have added language to the bylaws stating that a credentialed minister or church could be expelled or disciplined for failing to enforce safeguards like background checks and mandatory reporting of abuse. Ministers declined to adopt the policy after lawyers for the denomination warned that it could expose the General Council to costly lawsuits.One senior official said at the time that the legal risk “outweighed the benefit.”That remark brought to mind a passage from the Book of Matthew, said Scroggins, in which Jesus warned that a person cannot serve both God and mammon — or money.“When your guiding thought is, ‘We don’t want to implement this policy that will protect children because we don’t want to lose a lot of money in potential lawsuits,’ that to me is, you’re worshipping money,” Scroggins said. “And that’s heartbreaking.”Barrett, the Assemblies of God’s general secretary, defended the 2021 decision in the video response last week. She said the denomination’s structure gives churches broad autonomy to govern themselves, which she said “makes it impossible” for the General Council to “give oversight” to local congregations. “It is absurd to think that anyone at 2021 General Council was opposed to child safety,” Barrett said.Former Assemblies of God pastor Dan Matlock called that explanation hypocritical and “frankly, pardon me, bulls—.”Former pastor Dan Matlock criticized the Assemblies of God for saying it can’t force local churches to adopt policies to protect children.Courtesy Dan MatlockIn 2020, Matlock’s church in Kyle, Texas, announced it would affirm LGBTQ members and perform same-sex weddings. Within days, Assemblies of God district officials moved to revoke his ministerial credential and expel the church for adopting views “contradictory to historical Christian beliefs and our AG doctrinal positions,” according to a letter reviewed by NBC News.Matlock said the episode showed that the Assemblies of God can exercise control over local church policies — when it’s important to them.“I am not convinced in the least that what they are most concerned about is congregants’ safety,” he said.Among rank-and-file Assemblies of God congregants, reactions to the NBC News report ranged from heartbreak to hope.Charity True, a longtime Assemblies of God member in Illinois, said “Jesus would be flipping tables” at the Assemblies of God’s national office.“If my local church didn’t have their act already together, then last Sunday would have been my last Sunday inside of an Assemblies of God church,” True said in an email, referring to her congregation’s stringent child safety policies. “I just pray this will bring change at a national level.”For survivors, the revelations were deeply personal, reviving painful memories and exposing a pattern of abuse, silence and cover-ups.Cheryl Almond, who says her pastor molested her in the late 1970s, said she was “shocked” by NBC News’ report.September Dawn Bottoms for NBC NewsCheryl Almond spent decades attending Assemblies of God churches in Oklahoma — even after she says her pastor, Joe Campbell, sexually abused her as a teen in the late 1970s. After other children came forward in the 1980s to allege abuse, Campbell was allowed to keep preaching for years before the denomination finally removed him in 1989, NBC News reported in May.Almond said she was devastated by the latest report, which she said confirmed a long-held fear: What happened at her childhood church wasn’t isolated. “This has been allowed to happen to far too many kids, and for far too long,” she said.In calling for change at the national level, Almond pointed to Jesus’ parable of the shepherd who leaves 99 sheep to rescue one that has gone astray — a lesson about valuing every life.“The Assemblies of God isn’t doing that,” she said. “They’re saying that safeguarding the 99 is more important than protecting the one. ‘That vulnerable child can fend for themselves. We’ve got a church to protect from lawsuits.’”“It’s wrong,” she added. “It’s not biblical, and it’s disgusting.”Mike HixenbaughMike Hixenbaugh is a senior investigative reporter for NBC News, based in Maryland, and author of “They Came for the Schools.” Elizabeth Chuck contributed.
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Oct. 14, 2025, 3:53 PM EDT / Updated Oct. 14, 2025, 4:19 PM EDTBy Sahil Kapur and Scott WongWASHINGTON — At the two-week mark, Republicans and Democrats are bracing for a long government shutdown, with both parties seeing more upside in persisting with their conflicting demands.As a result, neither side is willing to give an inch in the standoff, now the fifth-longest shutdown in the country’s history. Republicans say their message is simple: Senate Democrats should vote for the short-term funding bill to reopen the government that passed the House last month and pursue their policy demands separately. They accuse Democrats of holding the government “hostage” to their goals.But Democrats are eager to continue a national debate they’ve forced about a looming health care cliff, by demanding any funding bill be tied to addressing expiring Obamacare subsidies. The health care money is popular, even among self-described MAGA supporters, and has divided Republicans — although they are unified in saying it must be dealt with separately, outside the context of a government funding bill.“It feels like both parties are digging their trenches and preparing for a long conflict,” said Ian Russell, a former national political director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. “This is Washington, so things can obviously change very quickly. But you get the sense from leadership suites on both sides that both parties feel like they’re either maximizing their strengths or certainly not exposing themselves to serious vulnerabilities.”The Senate is scheduled to vote Tuesday for the eighth time on the GOP’s short-term funding bill, which requires 60 votes to advance. Republicans need at least five more Democrats to break a filibuster and have made no progress since the shutdown began.Russell said Democrats see the Obamacare funding as a way to “reset the narrative” and “unite” a party that has clashed about the way forward after their devastating defeat in 2024. “We took back the House in 2018 while campaigning on health care. We’re able to unite the factions in our own path when we’re talking about health care,” Russell said. “For Democratic leadership it makes sense to have this fight now, on these terms.”Earlier this week, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said the nation could be “barreling toward one of the longest shutdowns in American history.”Recent polls show that more voters are generally blaming President Donald Trump and Republicans for the shutdown than Democrats. But a Reuters/Ipsos survey released last week showed that clear majorities of Americans are placing “at least a fair amount” of blame on Trump, Republicans and Democrats. The overall public opinion deficit for the GOP is narrow enough not to move them off their position — particularly as Trump has taken on a posture of all-out political war with Democrats, including by telling GOP leaders not to bother negotiating with the opposition in the run-up to the shutdown. On Tuesday, Johnson insisted — again — that he won’t negotiate with Democrats on their demands because House Republicans have already passed a stopgap funding measure with no extraneous policy provisions. “I don’t have anything to negotiate. … We did not load up the temporary funding bill with any Republican priorities or partisan priorities at all. I don’t have anything that I can take off of that document to make it more palatable for them,” Johnson told reporters at his daily shutdown news conference in the Capitol. “So all I am able to do is come to this microphone every day, look right under the camera and plead with the American people … to call your Senate Democrats and ask them to do the right thing,” he continued. “We’re not playing games; they’re playing a game.”House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., praised Senate Democrats on Tuesday for continuing to block the GOP funding bill, while saying he’s “flummoxed” that House Republicans are keeping the chamber in recess for a fourth consecutive week.He said Democrats aren’t intimidated by the White House’s attempts to lay off federal workers.“For the Republicans, cruelty is the point,” Jeffries said. “And the fact that they are celebrating, meaning the extremist, the extreme MAGA Republicans, the fact that they’re celebrating firing hard-working federal employees doesn’t strengthen their position with the American people. It weakens it because the American people don’t accept that kind of cruel and callous behavior.” The war of words between the party leaders comes as Trump and his administration have begun to mitigate some of the critical pain points of the shutdown that were expected to drive the two sides to the negotiating table.A food aid program assisting women, infants and children had been set to run out of money because of the shutdown, but Trump officials said they would shift $300 million in tariff revenue to the WIC program to keep it running temporarily. This Wednesday was a key date, with more than 1 million active-duty service members set to miss their first paycheck due to the shutdown impasse. But Trump directed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to move money around again to ensure the troops got paid. Hundreds of thousands civilian federal workers, however, have missed part of their paychecks and will miss a full paycheck on Oct. 24. And many government contractors also are not being paid during the shutdown, and won’t receive backpay unlike federal workers.Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday representing Maryland and Virginia — states with a large number of federal workers — railed against what they described as Trump’s “illegal” move Friday to fire roughly 4,000 federal workers through a “reduction in force,” or RIF.“This is unjust. It is unjustified, and this is the feeling that we’ve awakened with this morning,” Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, D-Md., said in her message to federal workers. “But I want them to recognize that another morning is surely coming, that none of this is sustainable. This evil cannot last.”Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump threatened to inflict more pain on the opposition by shutting down “Democrat programs.” “So we’re closing up programs that are Democrat programs that we wanted to close up … and we’re not going to let them come back. The Democrats are getting killed, and we’re going to have a list of them on Friday,” Trump said. “We’re not closing up Republican programs because we think they work.”Sahil KapurSahil Kapur is a senior national political reporter for NBC News.Scott WongScott Wong is a senior congressional reporter for NBC News. Gabrielle Khoriaty, Kyle Stewart, Brennan Leach and Caroline Kenny contributed.
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