Author: Alexander Winning and Wendell Roelf Reuters

JERUSALEM – Hamas handed over more bodies of deceased hostages after Israel threatened to reduce aid into Gaza on Tuesday and U.S. President Donald Trump threatened violence against the Palestinian militant group if it does not disarm. A day after Trump spoke in Jerusalem, touting his plan to end the war, Hamas’ re-emergent fighters executed…

Trump: Gaza war has ended

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Reuters The war in Gaza has ended and the Middle East is going to “normalize,” President Donald Trump said on Sunday as he flew to Israel, which was waiting for Hamas to release Israeli hostages as world leaders were gathering to discuss the next steps toward peace. “The war is over, you understand that,” Trump…

Dozens killed in Pakistan-Afghanistan clashes

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Reuters ISLAMABAD • Dozens of fighters were killed in overnight border clashes between Pakistan and Afghanistan, both sides said on Sunday, in the most serious fighting between the neighbors since the Taliban came to power in Kabul. The Pakistan military said that 23 of its soldiers were killed in the clashes. The Taliban said nine…

CDC walks back hundreds of firings

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Reuters WASHINGTON • In the second week of the U.S. government shutdown, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notified some 1,300 employees they would be laid off — then rescinded hundreds of those notices within hours, a person familiar with the matter said. The Trump administration is set to lay off entire offices and…

Shutdown standoff ignores rising national debt

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Reuters WASHINGTON • The ongoing shutdown debate between Democrats and President Donald Trump’s Republicans is largely avoiding the difficult fiscal issues clouding the country’s future — the rising national debt and the long-term financial health of Social Security and Medicare. The fifteenth partial federal government shutdown since 1981 has been sparked by Democrats’ demand for spending, which…

101225-nw-briefs

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Mississippi school homecoming celebrations turn deadly LELAND, Miss. • High school homecoming celebrations in Mississippi ended in gunfire, with two separate shootings on opposite sides of the state Friday night that left at least six people dead and many more injured, authorities said. Four of the dead were killed in downtown Leland, after a high…

Actress Diane Keaton dies at 79

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Reuters Diane Keaton, the quirky actress who won an Academy Award and captured hearts with her endearing performance as Woody Allen’s eccentric, insecure girlfriend in the 1977 romantic comedy “Annie Hall,” has died at the age of 79, People reported on Saturday, citing a family spokesperson. A representative for Keaton could not immediately be reached.…

Why Hamas gambled on giving up Gaza hostages

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Reuters CAIRO/WASHINGTON/DUBAI • Hamas has called Donald Trump a racist, a “recipe for chaos” and a man with an absurd vision for Gaza. But one extraordinary phone call last month helped persuade Hamas that the U.S. president might be able to hold Israel to a peace deal even if the group surrendered all the hostages…

Gazans stream back home as ceasefire holds

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Reuters GAZA/TEL AVIV • Thousands of Palestinians streamed north along the coast of Gaza on Saturday, trekking by foot, car and cart back to their abandoned homes as a ceasefire between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas appeared to be holding. Israeli troops pulled back under the first phase of a U.S.-brokered agreement reached this…

Trump administration to pay troops during shutdown

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