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Rubio: Ukraine peace discussions ‘productive’ after critical Florida meeting

admin - Latest News - December 1, 2025
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Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Ukrainian officials in Florida for a round of peace discussions. Officials from both countries called the meeting “productive.” NBC News’ Raf Sanchez reports.



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October 1, 2025
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October 30, 2025
Oct. 30, 2025, 4:23 AM EDT / Updated Oct. 30, 2025, 4:36 AM EDTBy Alexander Smith, Carlo Angerer and Zacharie PetitFive new suspects have been arrested in connection with the Louvre crown jewels heist in Paris, officials said Thursday.Paris Prosecutor Laure Beccuau gave the update to the French radio station RTL.It comes a day after Beccuau revealed that two former delivery drivers had “partially confessed” to their part in the crime, but that the jewels themselves were still missing.Paris was rocked by the daylight theft 11 days ago, in which thieves used a furniture elevator to break into the Louvre, the world’s most famous museum, and steal jewels once worn by French royalty worth an estimated $102 million.French authorities have acknowledged major gaps in the Louvre’s security, with unions blaming staff cuts and funding shortfalls.The two suspects whose arrest was announced Wednesday include an Algerian national, 34, who was unemployed at the time of his arrest but had previously worked as a delivery driver. The second suspect, 39, is a taxi driver and a former delivery driver.Both were known to the police for past offenses, Beccuau said.This is a breaking story. Please check back for updates.Alexander SmithAlexander Smith is a senior reporter for NBC News Digital based in London.Carlo AngererCarlo Angerer is a multimedia producer and reporter based in Mainz, Germany. Zacharie PetitZacharie Petit is a producer in Paris. Max Taylor contributed.
October 24, 2025
Oct. 23, 2025, 8:14 PM EDTBy Rob WileCard-reading contact lenses, X-ray poker tables, trays of poker chips that read cards, hacked shuffling machines that predict hands. The technology alleged to have been used to execute a multistate, rigged poker operation sounds like it’s straight out of Hollywood. And those were only some of the gadgets that authorities say were used to swindle millions of dollars from unsuspecting victims through rigged, high-dollar, underground poker games over more than five years. A sprawling indictment unsealed Thursday by the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of New York charged Chauncey Billups, the head coach of the NBA’s Portland Trail Blazers, and Damon Jones, a former NBA player, along with members of the Mafia and dozens of other defendants, with being part of a conspiracy. The victims were “at the mercy of concealed technology, including rigged shuffling machines and specially designed contacts lenses and sunglasses to read the backs of playing cards, which ensured that the victims would lose big,” U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella of Brooklyn said in a statement.Cheating at poker is as old as poker itself. But today, wearable tech and nano-cameras are putting even upstanding poker players on their guard.The gadgetsThe defendants used “special contact lenses or eyeglasses that could read pre-marked cards,” Nocella said at a news conference announcing the indictments.He also showed a photo of an X-ray table that “could read cards face down on the table … because of the X-ray technology.”An X-ray poker table in an image from defendant Robert Stroud’s iCloud account.U.S. Justice Department“Defendants used other cheating technologies, such as poker chip tray analyzers, which is a poker chip tray that secretly reads cards using a hidden camera,” he said.And while marking poker cards so they are visible only with special eyewear is an old trick, new radio-frequency identification and infrared technologies have ramped up the sophistication levels. Technically speaking, many of the devices involved in the alleged scam authorities detailed Thursday are relatively cheap to manufacture, said Sal Piacente, a gaming security consultant.By the time they reach their customers, however, the cost of industrial shufflers or tables can easily approach $100,000, once distributors and middlemen are factored in.“You could make a lucrative career buying this stuff,” Piacente said.Casino and gaming security consultants told NBC News that the alleged scheme was possible only because the games were underground. In backrooms, there was none of the surveillance tech that reputable casinos use to catch players cheating.“A lot of the features which made this scheme so successful would have been ID’d a lot sooner, or very quickly, in a traditional regulated gaming environment,” said Ian Messenger, a former U.K. law enforcement officer and author of a book about casino security. The DeckmateMore than any other tech, it was the reprogramming of the industrial card shufflers — identified in charging documents as Deckmate-brand machines — that authorities said was key to the alleged game rigging.A DeckMate 2 shuffler taken apart on a table in an image from defendant Shane Hennen’s iCloud account. U.S. Justice DepartmentDeckmates are not sold directly to the public, only to casinos. The ones at the high-dollar games cited in the indictment could read cards and predict which player had the best hand. Neither Deckmate nor its parent company, Light & Wonder, were implicated in any way in Thursday’s indictments. A spokesman for Light & Wonder told NBC News in a statement that the company was aware of reports about the charges against people but said they were not affiliated with the company. “We sell and lease our automatic card shufflers and other gaming products and services only to licensed casinos and other licensed gaming establishments,” said Andy Fouché, the company’s vice president of communications. “We will cooperate in any law enforcement investigation related to this indictment.” Reprogramming shufflers is not a new trick. In 2023, hackers at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas presented research showing how to hack a Deckmate shuffler and use it to cheat.The human elementThe rigged shuffler machines would transmit information about the players’ hands to an off-site “operator,” according to prosecutors.The computer program showing information transmitted by the rigged shuffling machine in an image from defendant Shane Hennen’s iCloud account. U.S. Justice DepartmentThe operator would then communicate the information to someone else at the table, dubbed the “quarterback.” The victim was known as the “fish.” Here, the high-tech gadgets met the low-tech of a card game.The quarterback might touch the $1,000 poker chip or tap his chin or touch his black chips to indicate who at the table had the best hand.Text messages obtained by prosecutors also appear to show defendants concerned that a fish would leave the table if he lost too many hands. “Guys please let him win a hand he’s in for 40k in 40 minutes he will leave if he gets no traction,” read one text message released by authorities.But according to Messenger, the consultant, it was not the tech that made the alleged scheme so successful for so long. What set it apart was the level of communication.For example, he said, the card information had to be seamlessly passed from the dealing machines to an off-site operator and back to a person back at the table, all without alerting the fish.“The piece that made this so successful was the coordination, not the technology,” he said.Rob WileRob Wile is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist covering breaking business stories for NBCNews.com.
October 22, 2025
Savewith a NBCUniversal ProfileCreate your free profile or log in to save this articleOct. 22, 2025, 1:58 PM EDTBy Berkeley Lovelace Jr.Ginny Murray says she and her husband, Chaz, are out of options for health insurance. In January, their premiums are expected to rise higher than they’ve ever gone up before, putting the cost out of reach. The Arkansas couple plan to drop their coverage, betting their savings will be enough if unexpected illness strikes.“Our plan is to keep putting the money we’re already paying towards health care in savings,” said Murray, whose insurance is covered through the Affordable Care Act, “and really just hoping that we don’t have a stroke or we don’t have a heart attack.”They’re part of a broader shift taking shape as enhanced subsidies for ACA premiums are set to expire at the end of the year. Without them, many Americans could see their monthly premiums double or even triple next year, a spike that’s forcing people to rethink what they can afford — or whether health insurance is even worth it. Next year will be the biggest premium increase since the ACA took effect, said Art Caplan, the head of the medical ethics division at NYU Grossman School of Medicine in New York City. Open enrollment for ACA plans begins next month, and there is no data yet on how many people plan on dropping their coverage. However, the Congressional Budget Office projects nearly 4 million will drop their health insurance for next year if the subsidies expire. The issue has paralyzed Washington, where Democrats say they won’t vote to reopen the government unless the tax credits are extended.For Murray, 48, the math simply doesn’t work. A truck driver, she was injured in a work accident 2 ½ years ago and is still receiving workers’ compensation, unable to work full time. Her husband, also a truck driver, continues to drive as an independent owner-operator.The couple’s monthly premium is around $1,500; with the subsidies, it comes down to around $450. But the state regulators approved a 26% rate increase for their insurer, which means their premiums will rise by at least $400 next year. The cost could more than triple if the subsidies expire.“What other choice do we have?” Murray said. ‘A catastrophic event’Choosing to go uninsured isn’t new. Before the ACA became law in 2010, millions of Americans made similar choices — often with devastating financial consequences, said Dr. Adam Gaffney, a critical care physician and assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. From 2010 to 2023, the rate of people going uninsured fell from around 16% — about 48 million people — to 7.7%, according to data from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a nonpartisan research group. Meanwhile, enrollment in ACA plans has grown from 8 million people in 2014 to a record 24.3 million people in 2025, thanks in part to the enhanced subsidies, according to the health policy research group KFF. “Unless you are extraordinarily rich, it is effectively not possible to save enough money to cover the costs of a serious illness or major trauma,” Gaffney said. “For the uninsured, medical debt and bankruptcy is just one major illness or injury away.” That reality is compounded by the fact that many Americans don’t have much of a financial cushion, said JoAnn Volk, co-director of Georgetown University’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms.In 2024, roughly 37% of adults said they would struggle to cover a $400 emergency expense, according to the Federal Reserve. And for those who do manage to build a large emergency fund, the balance often pales in comparison to what a common medical procedure could cost, Volk said. window.addEventListener(“message”,function(a){if(void 0!==a.data[“datawrapper-height”]){var e=document.querySelectorAll(“iframe”);for(var t in a.data[“datawrapper-height”])for(var r,i=0;r=e[i];i++)if(r.contentWindow===a.source){var d=a.data[“datawrapper-height”][t]+”px”;r.style.height=d}}});“I’m sure people plan to save the money,” Volk said, “but [I’m] not sure how many can do so, and I expect they don’t know how much they’ll need for some common procedures if they have to pay out of pocket, let alone a catastrophic event or unexpected diagnosis.”‘It’s only gotten worse’D’nelle Dowis, of Denver, knows how quickly an unexpected medical expense can add up. She recalls how her father’s appendectomy in the 1990s was a huge financial burden for her family. “It was a big thing for our family having to deal with that,” Dowis said. “So, there’s some kind of childhood fears wrapped up in this.” Still, Dowis and her husband, Christopher, plan to drop their ACA coverage for next year and put that money into a high-yield savings account. The Denver couple, both in their 40s, run a web development business together — which Dowis says they were only able to start due to the safety net the ACA provided. They pay about $600 a month in premiums, but that could jump to $1,300 next year. D’nelle and Christopher Dowis and their two dogs.Courtesy of Dowis familyKeeping their coverage would mean cutting back on care for their two aging dogs, both of whom have cancer, as well as putting less money toward their retirement savings and holiday travel to visit family. “We’d be cutting down on other things that I see as necessities, and I’m not sure if, at this point in my 40s, I’m necessarily willing to do that or not,” Dowis said. Both she and her husband are healthy, which makes going without coverage feel manageable for now. “I am exceptionally frustrated and there’s a level of anger to it,” Dowis said. “We’ve had 15 years now to try to solve this problem, and it’s only gotten worse.” Claire Esparros, 34, said she has the same “psychological, mental, emotional breakdown” every year when it’s time to renew her ACA coverage and face the new monthly rate.Esparros, a New York City-based freelance photographer, has no major health problems and mostly uses her coverage for the basics — annual physicals and the occasional sick visit. But she said her plan hasn’t offered much peace of mind.“It’s horrible insurance,” she said. She has a so-called catastrophic plan, which carries a deductible of nearly $10,000. “The only reason I have it is if something truly horrible happens.”Next year, though, she’s planning to let it go. Her monthly premium is set to triple from about $300 to $900 — and she said she can no longer justify the cost.Instead of setting up a savings account like the Murrays and Dowises, Esparros is exploring health care co-ops, which pool money among members to cover medical expenses.Caplan, of NYU Grossman School of Medicine, said co-ops, sometimes called community-based self-insurance, can be cheaper and more flexible — especially for healthy people — but they aren’t regulated under the ACA. That means they may not cover certain medical bills and are subject to bankruptcy from a single expensive case. “It is a ‘Put your faith in your neighbor’ idea,” he said.Esparros has been looking into two options and said so far she hasn’t heard of any major drawbacks. “It feels more personal and safe,” she said.Berkeley Lovelace Jr.Berkeley Lovelace Jr. is a health and medical reporter for NBC News. He covers the Food and Drug Administration, with a special focus on Covid vaccines, prescription drug pricing and health care. He previously covered the biotech and pharmaceutical industry with CNBC.Geet Jeswani and Jiachuan Wu contributed.
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