Vance joins special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in Israel in effort to shore up peace
Matt Korade and Yamiche Alcindor
Vance will be in Israel today as the Trump administration works to secure the fragile ceasefire it helped broker between Israel and Hamas after deadly fighting broke out between the two sides over the weekend.
Trump’s special envoy, Steve Witkoff, and son-in-law Jared Kushner met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday, a senior White House official told NBC News.
Israel said it had begun the “renewed enforcement of the ceasefire” yesterday after it launched strikes in Gaza over what it said was Hamas’ violation of the truce with attacks on Israeli soldiers that killed two.
Senators head to White House as shutdown heads into fourth week


Brennan Leach and Matt Korade
Republican senators will head to the White House today in an apparent show of solidarity as the government shutdown enters its 21st day with no end to the impasse in sight.
The Senate rejected the House-passed short-term spending bill for the 11th time yesterday.
Asked by NBC News what he hopes to see out of the meeting today, Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., said yesterday evening that while the agenda is unclear, Trump “is doing real good about reaching out and making sure that the Republicans are working all on the same page.”
“That should attest to his leadership, making sure he’s leading from the front, sharing his vision, making sure we’re staying in line with where the White House and the Congress wants to go with policies,” Mullin told NBC News.