The Latest: Hamas accepts some elements of Trump’s peace plan for Gaza, others require negotiation

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Hamas responded Friday to President Donald Trump ’s proposed plan to end the war in the Gaza Strip, agreeing to give up power and release all remaining hostages, but the group said that other elements require further consultations among Palestinians.

Trump’s peace plan has been accepted by Israel and was welcomed internationally after it was unveiled alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu earlier this week.

Hamas reiterated its longstanding openness to handing power over to a politically independent Palestinian body. But it said aspects of the proposal touching on the future of the Gaza Strip and Palestinian rights should be decided on the basis of a “unanimous Palestinian stance” reached with other factions and based on international law.

The statement also made no mention of Hamas disarming, a key Israeli demand included in Trump’s proposal.

The latest:

The offers are a new incentive in the administration’s efforts to persuade people to self-deport.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not say how much migrants would get or when the offer would take effect, but The Associated Press obtained an email to migrant shelters saying children 14 years of age and older would get $2,500 each. Children were given 24 hours to respond.

The notice to shelters from the U.S. Health and Human Services Department’s Administration for Families and Children did not indicate any consequences for declining the offer.

ICE said in a statement that it would initially be for 17-year-olds.

“Any payment to support a return home would be provided after an immigration judge grants the request and the individual arrives in their country of origin,” ICE said. “Access to financial support when returning home would assist should they choose that option.”

The president gave that directive after Hamas said it had accepted some elements of his plan to end the nearly two-year war and return all remaining hostages taken in the Oct. 7, 2023, attack.

“I believe they are ready for a lasting PEACE,” Trump said via social media. “Israel must immediately stop the bombing of Gaza, so that we can get the Hostages out safely and quickly! Right now, it’s far too dangerous to do that. We are already in discussions on details to be worked out.”

Hamas said Friday that it accepts elements of Trump’s plan including giving up power and releasing all remaining hostages, but that others require further consultations among Palestinians.

The statement came hours after Trump said Hamas must agree to the deal by Sunday evening, threatening an even greater military onslaught. There was no immediate response from Israel, which was largely shut down for the Jewish Sabbath.

Shutdown disruptions have reached the gridiron, as some high school football teams on Army posts have had to postpone games.

Two schools in Kentucky, at Fort Knox and Fort Campbell, rescheduled games meant to be played Friday night. In fact all extracurricular activities have been paused, though classes remain in session.

Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell attempted to intervene, writing to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to ask that athletics and extracurriculars at the schools be designated as activities allowed to proceed despite the shutdown.

Sean McGarvey, president of North America’s Building Trades Unions, said the shutdown is causing severe pain in the sector across dozens of states.

“Over 300 Department of Energy project awards have been canceled, and major transportation projects are now also threatened in major hubs like New York and Illinois,” he said in a statement. “These are not headlines or talking points; these targeted actions attack the jobs of blue-collar workers and create deeper construction industry market instability in both red and blue states.”

“Real jobs and real paychecks are in jeopardy from these devastating blows to American workers and their families.”

McGarvey highlighted two projects in particular, the Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Hub and California’s ARCHES Hub, which he said would have created more than 135,000 construction jobs.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said that Republicans have “wasted a week” after the Senate rejected for the fourth time on Friday two bills that would open up the government.

“Republicans thought they could scare us,” Schumer said. “It ain’t working.”

The government shut down at 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday after the Senate was not able to pass legislation to keep it open. Democrats are demanding an extension in health care subsidies, among other asks, in exchange for their votes for a House-passed bill that would keep the government open until Nov. 21.

Republicans say they will not negotiate on the “clean” bill, which they argue should be non-controversial.

The Senate has also repeatedly rejected a Democratic bill that would extend the Affordable Care Act subsidies that expire at the end of the year and reverse Republican cuts to Medicaid.

Schumer, D-N.Y., has blamed Republicans for the shutdown. “Republicans hold the House, the Senate and the White House,” he said. “They’re in charge.”

The Supreme Court on Friday allowed President Donald Trump’s administration to strip legal protections from more than 300,000 Venezuelan migrants.

The justices issued an emergency order, which will last as long as the court case continues, putting on hold a lower-court ruling by U.S. District Judge Edward Chen in San Francisco that found the administration had wrongly ended temporary protected status for the Venezuelans.

Trump’s Republican administration has moved to withdraw various protections that have allowed immigrants to remain in the United States and work legally, including ending TPS for a total of 600,000 Venezuelans and 500,000 Haitians who were granted protection under President Joe Biden, a Democrat. TPS is granted in 18-month increments.

The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Sen. Jim Risch said he was meeting with the president at the White House before the strikes on the boat in the Caribbean was announced.

The Republican from Idaho said Trump had authority to go after the cartels without further authorization from Congress under his powers as the commander in chief.

Risch said, “What could be a bigger defense of this country than keeping out this poison that’s killing thousands of Americans every year?”

But GOP Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who has consistently criticized the strikes, said only Congress, not the president, has the authority to wage war.

“Blowing them up without knowing who’s on the boat is a terrible policy, and it should end,” he told AP.

“If they want to declare war, come to Congress and say they want to declare war,” he said. “But you can’t just say it yourself and say, Oh, well, we sent them on note and now we’re at war with unnamed people who we won’t even identify before we kill.”

Hamas said it was willing to release hostages according to the plan’s “formula,” likely referring to the release of Palestinian prisoners. It also reiterated its longstanding openness to handing power over to a politically independent Palestinian body.

But it said aspects of the proposal touching on the future of the Gaza Strip and Palestinian rights should be decided on the basis of a “unanimous Palestinian stance” reached with other factions and based on international law.

The statement also made no mention of Hamas disarming, a key Israeli demand included in Trump’s proposal.

Hamas said Friday that it has accepted some elements of U.S. President Trump’s plan to end the war in the Gaza Strip, including giving up power and releasing all remaining hostages, but that others require further consultations among Palestinians.

The statement came hours after Trump said that Hamas must agree to the deal by Sunday evening, threatening an even greater military onslaught nearly two years into the war sparked by the Oct. 7 attack into Israel. It was unclear how the U.S. and Israel would respond to partial acceptance.

Trump appears keen to deliver on pledges to end the war and return dozens of hostages ahead of the second anniversary of the attack on Tuesday. His peace plan has been accepted by Israel and welcomed internationally, but key mediators Egypt and Qatar have said some elements need further negotiation, without elaborating.

House Speaker Mike Johnsons announced that the chamber would close for legislative business next week, a move meant to force the Senate to work with the government funding bill that has been passed by House Republicans.

During the House’s pro-forma session Friday, the speaker moved to make next week a district work period.

Asked whether he was concerned that health insurance premiums may rise in his state should Affordable Care Act subsidies lapse, Thune replied: “I’m always worried about anything going on in my state. Inflation is always a big issue. But again, I don’t think it’s absolutely a bad policy.”

“That doesn’t mean it can’t be reformed or fixed, it can. But we can’t get to that conversation until we get the government back into place,” he added.

Asked about his whereabouts for the weekend, Thune said: “I’m flying back to South Dakota, but I’ll be available!”

“We had a brief chat on the floor and I’ve chatted with some other members on their side of the aisle,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said of conversations he’s had with Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and other Senate Democrats.

“I think that the path forward on this is more likely to be achieved with rank and file members who actually want to have an appropriations process, want us to get back on track on the calendar legislatively,” said Thune as he left the Senate floor.

“I understand the predicament but we’ve got to get the government opened up or else we can’t get anything else done around here,” said Thune.

President Trump says he has personally reversed $187 million in funding cuts made by his administration for New York’s law enforcement and counterterrorism operations.

The restoration, which the Republican announced on Truth Social Friday, follows a bipartisan outcry from New York officials who said the original decision by the Department of Homeland Security to cut the funds put New Yorkers and Americans in danger.

Trump said on social media it was his “honor” to reverse the cuts.

He had heard complaints about the reductions from both Democrats and Republicans representing New York. Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul said they represented an 86% of homeland security funding to the state, impacting the New York City police and fire departments, state police and other law enforcement agencies.

Republican U.S. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, the only Republican representing New York City in Congress, said she had spoken with Trump about the cuts, which she called a “terrible idea.”

A fired national security prosecutor has written colleagues a letter saying he’s “disappointed” to be leaving his job but even more distressed by what’s happened to the office where he works.

Michael Ben’Ary was fired on Wednesday from his job running the national security section in the prestigious Eastern District of Virginia. The termination came hours after Julie Kelly, a conservative writer and activist, shared online that he previously worked as senior counsel to Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco during the Biden administration.

Kelly’s post speculated that Ben’Ary may have been part of the “internal resistance” in the office to the recently charged case against FBI Director James Comey. But Ben’Ary played no role in the Comey case.

In a letter to colleagues, Ben’Ary said the decision to fire career prosecutors and agents puts national security at risk and shows that the Justice Department’s leadership is more interested in punishing perceived enemies than it is in keeping the public safe.

He also noted that his firing will “hurt” the case against a suspected planner in the Abbey Gate bombing in Afghanistan. Ben’Ary was helping prosecute that case in Virginia and preparing for it to go to trial.

Democrats refused to budge in a Senate vote and President Trump readied plans to unleash layoffs and cuts across the federal government.

On the third day of the shutdown, a Senate vote to advance a Republican bill that would reopen the government fell well short of the 60 needed to end a filibuster and pass the legislation. Senators were expected to depart for the weekend, and there have been few signs of any real progress towards ending the congressional standoff.

The Smithsonian Institution including all its museums will remain open at least through Oct. 11 amid an ongoing federal government shutdown.

Museums, research centers and the National Zoo were originally projected to only be able to operate through Saturday using prior-year funding.

The extension was posted Friday on the Smithsonian website.

The Smithsonian, the National Museum of African American History & Culture, has been targeted by the Trump administration for programs that advance “divisive narratives” and “improper ideology.”

The vote to advance a GOP bill to reopen the government isn’t over, but senators are already heading for the exits of the Capitol.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune says he will give Democrats the weekend to think over their stance, but there have been few signs of meaningful progress to ending the impasse.

The bill was poised to fail Friday afternoon as over 40 senators have already voted against it. The Senate’s filibuster rules require at least 60 senators to vote to advance the legislation to a final vote.

“We’ve got to do something to make sure the premiums don’t essentially double, which they will in my state,” said the Missouri Republican, referencing ongoing discussions about extending the ACA tax credits. “We just can’t allow that to happen.”

“That’s a lot of Missourians that will not be able to afford healthcare. So we have to do something about it,” said Hawley.

Some Republicans have said they will address the expiring ACA tax credits once the government reopens. Hawley said they need to be addressed “as soon as possible.”

The Senate is now voting on whether to advance legislation known as a continuing resolution that would reopen the government. The bill has already passed the House, but Senate Democrats have almost all held out against voting for it.

The Senate’s filibuster rules make it necessary for the government funding legislation to gain support from at least 60 of the 100 senators. That’s given Democrats a rare opportunity to use their 47 Senate seats to hold out in exchange for policy concessions.

“These aren’t serious individuals. They want to keep the government shut down,” the Democratic leader said during a Friday press conference.

Jeffries leveled a litany of critiques of President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans. He added that President Trump “has behaved in a deeply unserious and deeply unhinged manner, and it’s evidence of the fact that Republican have a weak argument.”

Jeffries reiterated Democrats’ position that an extension of Affordable Care Act healthcare subsidies would be necessary for any budget to reopen the government.

“Everyone is about to experience dramatically increased premiums, co-pays and deductibles because of the Republican health care crisis. Everyone,” he warned.

Jeffries said that he had not spoken with House Speaker Mike Johnson about a potential delay in the House returning next week but said he “expects” the current schedule for lawmakers to hold.

“I’m ready to talk to Mike Johnson, John Thune, the President, the Vice President, or any member of the Trump administration with any authority, anytime, anyplace, anywhere,” Jeffries told reporters.