At least 15 people were killed in a shooting at Australia’s famous Bondi Beach, and 40 people were taken to the hospital.
Officials declared the shooting a terrorist event and said the attack was “designed to target” Jewish people. An event to mark the first day of Hanukkah was taking place at the beach Sunday.
The victims killed in the attack were 10 to 87 years old, according to New South Wales police. A Holocaust survivor and a rabbi who organized the event are among them.
“What should have been a night of peace and joy celebrated in that community with families and supporters has been shattered by this horrifying, evil attack,” New South Wales Premier Chris Minns said.
Police identified the two suspects as a father and son, ages 50 and 24. Officers fatally shot the 50-year-old at the scene, while the 24-year-old “suffered critical injuries” and was hospitalized.
The 50-year-old suspect had six firearms licensed to him, Police Commissioner Mal Lanyon said at a news briefing.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the attack an “act of evil antisemitism.” It is the deadliest shooting in Australia since 1996.
Notable quote
That man is a genuine hero, and I’ve got no doubt there are many, many people alive tonight as a result of his bravery.
New South Wales Premier Chris Minns on the man who disarmed a gunman at Bondi Beach
A man is being hailed for his bravery after dramatic video appeared to show him disarming a gunman during the deadly Bondi Beach attack. In the video, a man in a white T-shirt crouches behind a parked car before he rushes a gunman from behind.
Person of interest identified in Brown University shooting that killed 2
A gunman killed two people and injured nine others when he opened fire at Brown University’s engineering and physics building in Providence, Rhode Island, officials said.
A man detained as a person of interest in the shooting is Benjamin Erickson, 24, three senior law enforcement officials briefed on the investigation told NBC News.
It is not yet clear whether Erickson had any ties to the university. Officials are looking into any possible connection to Brown, as well as his mental health history, according to the sources.
Follow live updates.
A spokesperson for Brown University Health, which operates the hospital where the injured were being treated, said seven people remained in critical condition and one had been stabilized. An 11th victim was identified hours after the shooting and had non-life-threatening injuries from fragments, officials said.
Students described uncertainty and fear in lockdown as reports of an active shooter spread on campus. For two of them, it wasn’t their first school shooting.
Poll: Trump’s MAGA base is still behind him — but cracks are showing ahead of 2026
President Donald Trump’s approval rating remains steadily underwater among adults as he nears the end of his first year back in the White House, and he has lost some ground among his “Make America Great Again” base, according to a new NBC News Decision Desk Poll powered by SurveyMonkey.
Trump’s approval has also inched down in 2025 amid concern about the economy, while Americans remain worried about inflation and costs after he promised during the campaign to ease those anxieties. Respondents’ concerns were apparent in everyday spending decisions like grocery shopping, holiday spending and more, the poll shows.
Overall, 64% of Americans think the country is on the wrong track, up from 60% in the beginning of the year.
Other high-profile decisions, including Trump’s handling of the controversy over the Jeffrey Epstein files, have scored negatively with Americans. While Trump remains strong with his base, fractures have emerged.
Among the Republicans who consider themselves more supporters of the Republican Party than the MAGA movement, the share of those who “strongly approve” of Trump now stands at 35%, compared with 38% in April.
Trump’s strong approval is higher among those who consider themselves MAGA Republicans: 70%. But that is a drop of 8 points (from 78%) since April. And fewer Republicans report being part of the MAGA movement compared with earlier this year.
Meet the Press
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said he believes mid-decade redistricting is a “mistake” by both parties that could eventually lead to more political violence.
Paul pointed to how members of the minority party could feel if politicians redraw districts to increase the majority party’s power.
“I think there is the potential that when people have no representation that they feel disenfranchised, that it can lead and might lead to violence in our country,” Paul told “Meet the Press” moderator Kristen Welker.
The Indiana Senate last week rejected a redrawn congressional map aimed at benefiting Republicans in next year’s elections, despite heavy pressure from Trump.
Paul also said extreme changes could make people lose trust: “They think, ‘Well, the electoral process isn’t working anymore. Maybe we have to resort to other means.’”
Politics in brief
- Hate crime charge: The Justice Department is weighing how to bring federal charges against the suspect in Charlie Kirk’s assassination, including under a novel legal theory that it was an anti-Christian hate crime.
- ‘Vote no and take the dough’: Numerous House Democrats are touting projects in their districts funded by government spending bills they voted against, a tactic Republicans have a history of using.
- Comey case: A federal judge ordered the Justice Department to return data it seized in 2017 from a close friend of former FBI Director James Comey, ruling that federal prosecutors handled the material with “callous regard” for his constitutional rights.
- Soldiers killed in Syria: Trump vowed retaliation after two U.S. soldiers and a civilian U.S. interpreter were killed in an attack in Syria, an incident the Defense Department said occurred during a counterterrorism engagement.
The cultural moments that defined 2025
The year 2025 has been filled with cultural absurdities.
Toothy plush dolls became one of the hottest and most elusive collectibles. A fiery feud between two rappers boiled over at the Super Bowl. And a viral cheating scandal became the biggest meme of the year.
Here are some the top moments:
Celebs (briefly) go to space: Katy Perry and “CBS Mornings” co-host Gayle King were among a handful of public figures who were part of a high-profile Blue Origin flight.
Jeans or genes? An ad for American Eagle launched one of the biggest controversies of the year when it touted actor Sydney Sweeney’s “great jeans” in a denim campaign, which many online accused of promoting eugenics.
⁶🤷⁷: Gen Alpha’s lingo entered the zeitgeist with two numbers — six and seven — that have become inescapable in either browsing the internet or talking to younger people.
Read our full recap of the year here.
In case you missed it
- Ukraine relinquished its ambition to join NATO in exchange for Western security guarantees in an effort to end Russia’s war, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
- Virginia Giuffre’s family said they were “deeply disappointed” after London’s Metropolitan Police dropped its investigation into Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, saying authorities found no evidence that the former Prince Andrew asked a bodyguard to investigate her.
- For the first time in his career, Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes is not going to the postseason.
- Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza won the Heisman Trophy, becoming the first Hoosier to win college football’s most prestigious award since its inception in 1935.
- Comedy icon Dick Van Dyke celebrated his 100th birthday Saturday.
- Abraham Quintanilla Jr., the father of slain Tejano music icon Selena Quintanilla Perez, died at 86.
