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- [00:02]
A
Hey, friends. And welcome to here's the scoop from NBC News. I'm Morgan Chesky. Coming up on the show today, if you've been counting, you already know it is day 20 of the federal government shutdown. We also have an old fashioned heist at where else? The Louvre and Posh Spice is telling us what we want, what we really, really want. We're gonna get to all of that, I promise you. But first, our top story. President Trump is trying to make the art of the deal happen, specifically a peace deal. This week, he's gearing up for a highly anticipated meeting in Budapest, Hungary with Russian President Vladimir Putin to hopefully end the war in Ukraine. But first, and it's an important first, Secretary of State Marco Rubio got on the phone with his Russian counterpart, trying to at least pave the way towards actual progress. We all remember Alaska. As for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, well, he took to Meet the Press this weekend urging President Trump to keep the pressure up on Putin.
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B
We want to stop this war. We want to stop Putin. And of course, we count on President Trump on the United States and European allies with this pressure on him.
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A
But as President Trump tries to make progress in Ukraine, peace in the Middle east has hit a snag. Israel launched strikes in Gaza over the weekend after they say Hamas militants killed two Israeli soldiers in an area under IDF control. Under the terms of this ongoing ceasefire, both Israel now and Hamas are accusing each other of violating the terms of this fragile truce. Now, with fears growing that the ceasefire could collapse altogether, Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff met with the Israeli prime minister along with the president's son in law, Jared Kushner. Also, Vice President J.D. vance expected to make a trip sooner than later. For much more on this, I want to bring in our foreign correspondent Matt Bradley on the ground in Tel Aviv. Hey, Matt, thanks for being here.
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B
Thanks for having me.
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C
The big question right now, is this peace deal still in place? How delicate is it?
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B
I mean, the simple answer is it's still in place, defying all of the odds. And it really is just so delicate. But I mean, I think when you're looking at what has happened in the past 10 days since this cease fire came into place, what has happened in the last 48 hours or even just 24 hours and noting that the cease fire is still in place, the that kind of answers your second question. It's delicate, but it's not that delicate. It has survived some pretty big violations so far, some pretty big disputes that should be deal breakers in some cases, or at least really should shake the foundations of this ceasefire. And so far they haven't.
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C
And it survived despite, as you mentioned, potential deal breakers on both sides. Walk us through what happened over the weekend.
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B
Well, it looks as though there were several incidents in which armed militants the Israelis say were Hamas approached the so called Yellow line. That's the line that the Israelis were supposed to retreat to as part of this deal and either fired across it or ignored warning shots by the Israelis to stop. And the Israelis in every case said that they neutralized or destroyed these armed militants who they said were approaching their positions. Now, Hamas has said that none of this is true. They said that the Israelis were putting up flimsy pretexts in order to restart their war in the Gaza Strip. And Israel did restart, in a way, the war. They fired dozens of airstrikes across the Gaza Strip, killing, according to Palestinian health officials, dozens of Palestinians in Gaza. So that really was quite a violent weekend, but one that didn't shatter the ceasefire, despite the odds.
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C
Matt, the official Hamas line is that the, the militants who fired on the Israeli military were kind of a rogue group, if you will. Right.
- [03:51]
B
Well, they were saying that they have no contact with these fighters in southern Gaza, in Rafah. So they basically were implying that. And there were questions to the IDF whether or not these shots that were fired at the Israelis, the deaths of these Israeli soldiers were in fact the result of internecine fighting among Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, of which we've seen quite a bit over the past 10 days. And again, this is a hallmark of Hamas. After a ceasefire, they will go around and try to, first of all assert their control, assert their continuity of governance in the Gaza Strip and to intimidate their rivals. And that's exactly what they did. And we saw a public execution that was done by Hamas. The IDF had said, this has nothing to do with these were Hamas fighters. They approached and they took shots at Israeli troops in a lethal, deliberate manner. So the Israelis are saying, no, this is Hamas full on.
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A
Matt, I'm curious.
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C
With both sides claiming the other violated the ceasefire, is there a third party or someone who can act as an authority to adjudicate these claims?
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B
That's one of the things that's really missing from all of this. There's supposed to be an international peacekeeping group that would be made up of Arab countries that hasn't been installed. Now all both sides are waiting on guarantees from the United States. It's really just Donald Trump and his diplomats who are underwriting this entire deal. The problem here, and one of the reasons why this deal actually succeeded, is because Donald Trump and his diplomats, Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner, basically just said, we're gonna push this through, details be damned. And that's what they did. And it worked. For now, one more conventional politician, more conventional diplomacy might have said, every detail needs to be ironed out step by step, sign on the dotted line for a timeline, for various numbers, for retreats. All of this needs to be understood, and everybody needs to agree. That's not what happened here. There are huge parts of the future of this deal that have not been negotiated.
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C
And I think one example of that, at least that stood out to me, Matt, is the fact that, you know, Israel is asking for the bodies of the hostages be returned. And Hamas says, well, in order to do so, we need to bring in heavy equipment in order to dig through the rubble to recover them. So both sides, again, kind of blaming each other for the lack of progress there?
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B
Well, yes. I mean, Hamas had made clear during these negotiations that they weren't going to be able to find all these bodies. And they gave reasons why. Gaza has been completely leveled. And a lot of the fighters who buried these bodies, according to people that I've been speaking to, have since been killed in the fighting. So it's going to be tough to dig underground to find them, even if people know where they are. In a lot of cases, they don't know where the bodies are buried. But there was this acknowledgment that everybody knew that this was going to be the case from early on, which is why it's a bit upsetting to the parties that this is becoming a major issue when this was something that was understood.
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C
We've learned that U.S. officials, Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner, they're on the ground. And then also Vice President J.D. vance heading that way soon. I'm curious, what are they going to try to accomplish here with so many unknowns? What's the priority?
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B
Well, I think the priority is rescuing the ceasefire as it is, you know, trying to make sure that these incidents, these violations, don't accumulate. The second one is going to be this question of the bodies, I would say, which is also really foundational to the treaty. The other thing is what we were just discussing, the huge holes that are left in the negotiations, the yawning gaps between these two sides. There are multiple phases to this. There's a phase two and a phase three, the parameters of which have not been decided upon. And that means that even if we're seeing all these violations. And even if the ceasefire continues to work, despite those violations, it could still fall apart because of a lack of agreement over future terms of this deal.
- [07:57]
C
Matt Bradley on the ground for us in Tel Aviv. Matt, thanks so much.
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B
Thanks very much.
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A
All right, time now for a quick break, but when we're back. Somebody call Inspector Clouseau. There has been a robbery at the Louvre.
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D
Stick around.
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A
And we're back with. Here's the scoop from NBC News. Quick sec here. I want to queue up our official. Here, here's the scoop heist playlist. Yeah, little Pink Panther felt appropriate following a heist worthy of Hollywood at only the world's most visited museum. When the Louvre opened its doors Sunday, a band of thieves made off with priceless jewels. We're talking about stuff worn by French royalty. Yes, that Louvre in Paris in broad daylight. Something straight out of Ocean's Eleven. This is the vault at the Bellagio. It's located below the strip beneath 200ft of solid earth. It safeguards every dime that passes through each of the three casinos above it. We're gonna rob it. Smash and grab job, huh? Slightly more complicated than that. Slightly. And now it's left French authorities trying to solve a series of clues. Kind of like their Tom Hanks in the Da Vinci Code.
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B
This phrase is meaningless unless you assume these letters are out of order, too.
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C
An anagram.
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A
It took just seven minutes for these four suspects to lift nine pieces of France's crown jewels dating back to the days of Napoleon. And two of the thieves spent only four minutes actually inside the gallery. And. And believe it or not, it wasn't as high tech as you might think. A ladder was involved. And in true French form, they sped off on. What else? Motor scooters through the streets of Paris. Eight items still remain missing after the suspects happened to drop a crown during their getaway. Just think, the robbery was pulled off faster than the first segment of this very podcast. With that, we gotta get right to NBC News foreign correspondent Molly Hunter.
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E
Morgan, bonjour from Paris. We are right outside the museum, so.
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A
I want to make sure people understand.
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C
What exactly these thieves were able to actually make off with here. Because we are talking about jewels that really are in a lot of ways priceless.
- [10:26]
E
Priceless. One of a kind. There are no other crown jewels or crown diamonds like what was taken from the Apollo Gallery. So this list, Morgan, would include a tiara and a brooch belonging to Empress Eugenie. She was a fashion icon of the nineteenth century. And she was the wife of Napoleon. Napoleon iii, who was the ruler of this country in the nineteenth century. An emerald necklace, a pair of emerald earrings which belonged to Empress Mary Louise, a tiara necklace and single earring from a sapphire set that belonged to Queen Mary Amelie, and a beautiful brooch. Interestingly, though they stole nine items, only eight are still missing. And there was a diamond encrusted crown that was found on the ground outside of the museum that the thieves clearly dropped on their way out.
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C
A lot of people hear heist and.
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A
They'Re thinking, breaking in under the COVID.
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C
Of darkness, middle of the night, pulling this off. These thieves appeared to actually wait until the Louvre opened up before they made their move through this window. How exactly were they able to gain access? From what we know, they not only.
- [11:31]
E
Waited for it to open, but according to museum authorities, the museum was full at 9:30 on Sunday morning. What we know from the Culture Ministry, from the Interior Ministry, and from the French Prosecutor's office, those are kind of the three main bodies running this investigation, is that these were slick, well trained, professional thieves. At least that's what kind of all signs about this operation point to what we know. 9:30am, People inside the museum, they pull up a truck with an electric ladder on the back outside of the Apollo Gallery on the south side of the Louvre. Now, there's a very busy road between the Louvre and the Seine, but this is one of the most picturesque places in all of Paris. They pull this truck up, of course, the ladder goes up to the second balcony, they climb up and. And authorities say once they get up to that second floor balcony, they use a grinder to break that window. And actually we were just standing outside looking. You can still see the break in that window. They've boarded it up now, but there was one small window that was broken. Alarms apparently at that point were going off. And that is when the four thieves entered the museum and headed straight for the Apollo Gallery.
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C
Morgan, what, if anything, do we know about the suspects here? A number, a description, anything?
- [12:48]
E
So as far as description, all authorities have said is that they believe there were three or four they've been leaning for in the last couple of hours. Inside, there is a tiny bit of video that has been passed around French media and that we have run on NBC News as well, showing a man in a high vis vest smashing one of the two display cases that were broken inside the Apollo Gallery. This high vis vest, or at least one high vis vest, was left behind on the scene and is one of the clues that investigators are now looking into. The other thing, Morgan, they left behind the grinder that was used to break that window. So these are two kind of physical pieces of evidence in addition to the truck and the ladder the detectives are digging into.
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C
You mentioned that high vis vest, Molly. That would kind of be something you would anticipate a security guard or someone directing traffic to maybe throw on neon yellow. Hard to miss.
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E
Very hard to miss.
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A
So it hasn't even been 48 hours.
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C
Since this heist, and yet it's somehow already going political. How so?
- [13:52]
E
So for a couple of reasons, a lot of the ministers are now giving interviews, speaking publicly about this. You've got the French Justin minister who railed in a radio interview today, he said, what is certain is that we failed. It gave France a, quote, deplorable image. And then you have the culture minister talking about for so long all the security focused on the tourists and the museum goers and not the actual security of art. And then the main headline for a lot of the French media today has been this audit report. It was leaked to a few French media organizations who have been writing about this and reporting it out today. It wasn't going to be published until November. But Morgan, what it finds is that systematically in this audit report by the state auditor, it is separate and independent from the government that the Louvre routinely deprioritized security and tightened the security budget in recent years. It goes on to say an NBC News not confirmed this in some reports that are citing this leaked report that there were too few surveillance cameras in this area. Now, we have gone to the prosecutor's office with these questions. We've gone to the police, we've gone to the interior ministry. We have been trying to figure out was there sufficient surveillance coverage in these rooms. Is the Louvre going to step up its security, for example, when it opens at some point, we believe later this week? We have not gotten answers to those questions.
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C
Morgan, what do you think comes next in this investigation? Molly?
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E
Well, that's one of the questions as far as kind of where do these items go that we have really been asking experts trying to figure out, first of all, what's the market for stolen items? Who buys a priceless diamond encrusted tiara that is incredibly recognizable, particularly because there are pictures of it all over the world. And so experts have now said that there is a real finite window right now, a race to get these items back that basically within a week or 10 days, the chances of the necklaces been picked apart for gems, the gold melted down, the diamonds been separated, and suddenly you have thousands of individual gemstones that are out in the market and it becomes very, very hard to track down these original items. And so detectives have said they are working extremely hard right now in these first 48, 72 hours to try to make as much progress as they possibly can because it's just going to get harder.
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C
Fortunately, we have you on the scene keeping us posted every step of the way.
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E
Molly, thanks so much on the case here in Paris. Morgan.
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A
All right, gang, time now for some headlines. It is day 20 of the government shutdown and yeah, you guessed it, we're still not seeing any progress towards a deal. Senators are expected to vote on a continuing resolution this evening for the checks notes 11th time. And yes, at this point, it is still likely to fail. And we're also starting to see the effects of a prolonged shutdown. We're talking about staffing issues causing thousands of potential delays at Dallas, Atlanta and Newark airports this very weekend. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy addressed the issue on Fox and Friends this morning, saying that there could be more disruptions if air traffic controllers start missing paychecks.
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F
I think what you might see is more disruptions in travel as more of them look to say, how do I, how do I bridge the gap between the truck that's not coming and putting food on my table? And we've heard they're taking Uber jobs. They're doing doordash, figuring out ways to keep their families afloat. I mean, it's a very real problem.
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A
Ainsley Speaking of doordash, if a recent order went haywire, I promise you, you were not alone. A major outage at Amazon Web Services sent the Internet into an all out digital meltdown today, knocking out everything from Netflix and doordash to Peloton, even Alexa herself for hours. Millions of people were left refreshing, rebooting, wondering what life was like before the cloud. Most services, I'm happy to say, are now back online. But this glitch, absolutely a reminder that when AWS sneezes, feels like the entire Internet catches a cold. Here's Scoop co host on our business and tech correspondent Brian Chong.
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Did you try to send someone a Snapchat or maybe you tried to wire someone some money through Venmo, or maybe you were trying to book a flight on United. Well, if you tried to do any of those things, you probably saw an error message. That's because of an outage at Amazon Web Services or aws. Yes, the same Amazon. Not a lot of people realize that they actually make more money in profit from AWS than they do by sending packages to your door. Regardless there was some issue at AWS today that had to do with what they describe as a DNS resolution. It's basically geek talk for the wade that the servers talk to each other. There was some breakdown that ultimately led to consumers not being able to access many websites. We reached out to Amazon for comment on exactly what happened here. They did not respond, but cybersecurity experts that I spoke to said the outage could just be the result of some sort of software update issue, almost like the CrowdStrike Microsoft issue from last July, but nonetheless a massive global outage sparked by one company underscoring the fragility of the global IT system.
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A
Thanks, Brian. Hey, some good news on the allergy. Peanut allergies among young children are dropping sharply and experts say it's all thanks to letting babies try peanuts earlier. This new study from the American Academy of Pediatrics found peanut allergies among children under age 3 dropped by more than 25% after 2015. That's when new guidance encouraged early peanut introduction for high risk infants. Now, those same allergies dropped by over 40% once the recommendation was expanded to all babies back in 2017. Researchers estimate that that one shift is responsible for preventing about 60,000 cases of peanut allergies nationwide, and doctors say it doesn't take much. Here we're talking about just small, regular tastes that can help a baby's immune system learn tolerance instead of fear. And a friendly reminder for everyone, parents, always talk to your doctor before making any changes to your little one's diet. Alright, baseball fans, has everybody settled down from witnessing what could be perhaps the greatest performance ever? Yeah, I'm talking about LA Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani, who on Friday pitched six scoreless innings, struck out 10 batters, then casually knocked in three home runs during Game 4 against the Milwaukee Brewers. Ohtani did he Ohtani. Ohtani has done it again. His third home run. Stay with me here. In the history of baseball of our national pastime, 503 players have hit three home runs in a game. 1550 have struck out 10 or more batters. Pretty impressive. But up until Friday, not a single player in the history of the game had done both. All that and Ohtani's performance, well, it also punched his team's ticket to their second straight World Series. Reports are likening Ohtani's game to Michael Jordan in the Finals or Tiger woods in his Sunday Red. We are officially entering goat status, folks. And as a completely impartial Angelino, I kind of have to agree. Tonight there's a big Game 7 between the Seattle Mariners and the Toronto Blue Jays. So plenty at stake to prove that the West Coast. Yeah, yeah. It's the best coast. Okay. Finally, before we let you go, there's no mistaking that song. Victoria Beckham. Yeah, Posh herself just dropped a little extra spice into our lives. In a chat on SiriusXM's radio Andy, Victoria admitted a full on Spice Girls reunion is quote tempting. But don't cue the world tour just yet, she joked, adding, I have a job. How good would the spice goes? Be it.
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B
Yes.
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A
Okay, so you're kind of. So this is maybe a thought.
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E
I love the idea.
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A
Yes.
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B
I mean, I don't know if I.
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Could even still sing. I mean, I was never that great. You could sing, babe. Still, Beckham sounded open to a one off comeback, citing the Oasis reunion as inspo. She flirted with the idea of the Vegas sphere, but did kind of hit the brakes. Hard to believe, but next year marks the group's 30th anniversary and the rest of the spices. They've all hinted that they're planning something big and let's be honest here, the fans have also been vocal with.
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They.
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Want that reunion and I'm not a huge fan, but we all have to admit it'd be a heck of a show that's gonna do it for us at here's the scoop from NBC News. We will be right back here tomorrow. Signing off, I'm Morgan Chesky. And hey, if you liked what you heard, like us back wherever you get your podcast.