2 more charged in Louvre jewel heist, 3 released from custody
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(NEW YORK) — Two people arrested in the investigation into the Louvre Museum robbery last month have been formally charged in connection with the case, according to the Paris Public Prosecutor’s office. Both denied their involvement in the robbery.
Two others were charged in connection with the heist this week.
French authorities identified the new suspects as a 37-year-old man and a 38-year-old woman. They were charged with organized robbery and conspiracy to commit organized robbery and remanded into custody.
Additionally, three of the five people arrested on Oct. 29 have been released from custody, prosecutors said.
On Oct. 19, four masked thieves stole eight pieces of jewelry from the Louvre, the world’s most visited museum, that were valued at $102 million. The robbery, which authorities say took just seven minutes, sparked a national outcry and nationwide manhunt.
The stolen jewels remain missing, authorities say.
Last week, one suspect was arrested at Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport while trying to board a plane bound for Algeria, police said, while the second suspect was detained as he was about to travel to Mali.
(LONDON) — North Korean officials on Monday said the country’s status as nuclear state “has become irreversible,” despite efforts by the West to negotiate an end to the production of those weapons, according to state media.
“The position of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea as a nuclear weapons state which has been permanently specified in the supreme and basic law of the state has become irreversible,” North Korea’s Permanent Mission to the U.N. said in a press statement, according to the Korean Central News Agency.
The International Atomic Energy Agency, the intergovernmental body for nuclear cooperation, has no “legal right and moral justification” to interfere with what North Korea consider an “internal affair,” the mission’s press statement said.
The statement on Monday was one of several anti-U.S. messages issued by North Korea that coincided with the launch of Freedom Edge 25, a joint military exercise being held by the United States, South Korea and Japan, off South Korea’s Jeju Island. Those drills are scheduled to run through Sept. 19.
North Korea’s Pak Jong Chon, vice-chairman of the Central Military Commission, said on Sunday that those drills “pose a grave challenge to the security interests of our state and a major danger of undermining regional stability and escalating military tension,” according to state media.
The secretive state on Monday accused the United States of violating its own stated obligation of preventing nuclear proliferation “while concentrating more than anyone else on nuclear power buildup.”
“The U.S. has gone to extremes in its nuclear threat as days go by and the U.S.-led nuclear alliance is getting desperate in its confrontational moves,” the North Korean officials said on Monday.
IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi earlier this month pointed to North Korea’s nuclear development programs as “clear violations” of U.N. Security Council resolutions.
He said his agency nonetheless “continues to maintain its enhanced readiness to play its essential role in verifying the DPRK’s nuclear program.”
Smoke rises after an Israeli strike on the Sabra neighborhood in southern Gaza City, as Israel’s attacks on the Gaza Strip, which began on Oct. 7, 2023, continue without interruption and military activity in the region persists, in Gaza City, Gaza on October 08, 2025. (Photo by Hamza Z. H. Qraiqea/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(LONDON) — As U.S. officials and leaders in the Middle East are celebrating the proposed Gaza ceasefire deal between the Israeli government and Hamas but there are still many questions over the timeline and challenges to end the fighting and return the hostages that lie ahead before a deal to completely end the war is in place.
These include details of the deal’s timeline, and challenges to end the fighting and return the hostages.
The first phase of the deal, which is slated to be approved by the Israeli government on Thursday, will see all remaining hostages returned from Gaza, a number of Palestinian prisoners released from Israeli prisons and the partial withdrawal of the Israel Defense Forces inside the Gaza Strip.
It is expected that humanitarian aid will move quickly into Gaza once land crossings are opened back up.
A senior Israeli official told ABC News on Thursday that the 72-hour window for Hamas to release all hostages will begin after the Israeli government ratifies the deal.
The 20 hostages believed to still be alive are expected to be released all in one group on Sunday or Monday, the official said. President Donald Trump, speaking at a cabinet meeting at the White House on Thursday, said that the release of the hostages could be Monday or Tuesday.
Then, negotiators will move to the next phase of Trump’s 20-point peace plan, which was unveiled in late September.
Sources familiar with the negotiations told ABC News agreements still need to be reached on some of the most difficult points of the plan.
These include the total withdrawal of Israeli forces from the Gaza Strip, Hamas ceding control of Gaza, disarming and decommissioning the militant group’s weapons, and turning Gaza’s governance over to an international trusteeship overseen by the U.S. and Arab allies.
The challenges to implementing these terms are immense, according to sources with knowledge of the negotiations.
European and Arab allies plan to convene in Paris on Thursday for a Gaza “day after” meeting.
The meeting will focus on three main areas: security, governance and reconstruction. Conversations on Palestinian statehood will also be discussed, a French diplomatic source said.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio was initially considering participating in the Paris meeting, but he told reporters on Capitol Hill on Wednesday that he is not expected to attend the meeting due to the rapidly moving situation in the Middle East. Rubio made the statement before it was announced that the first phase of a ceasefire deal had been reached.
An administration official told ABC News that if President Trump heads to the Middle East this weekend, Rubio will be traveling with him.
ABC News’ Ivan Pereira contributed to this report.
(PARIS) — Several people disguised as construction workers broke into the world-famous Louvre Museum in Paris on Sunday, cracking open display cases and stealing jewelry that once belonged to Emperor Napoleon and his wife, officials said.
At least nine pieces of jewelry of “inestimable heritage and historical value” were taken in the brazen heist before the thieves made their getaway on motorcycles, two ministers said.
“Investigations have begun, and a precise list of the stolen items is underway,” the museum said in a statement.
Four thieves pulled off the apparently well-planned heist, according to authorities.
The theft took place around 9:30 a.m. local time on Sunday, just before the museum was set to open to the public, the Paris Police Prefecture said in a statement.
The team of thieves drove up to the side of the museum in what police described as a “mobile freight elevator” equipped with a metal ladder on the back that was extended up to a window, according to the Paris police.
“They deployed the freight elevator, securing the surroundings with construction cones, before accessing the second floor, in the Apollo gallery, by breaking the window with an angle grinder,” according to the police statement. “Inside, they then smashed two display cases, ‘Napoleon jewels’ and ‘French crown jewels,’ using the angle grinder and stole numerous pieces of high-value jewelry.”
Two of the thieves arrived at the museum in the mobile freight elevator, one wearing a yellow vest and the other an orange vest, according to police. Two accomplices arrived at the museum at the same time on what police described as “T-max vehicles” or sports motorbikes.
“The staff on site, upon seeing what was happening, took to safety,” according to the police statement. “An alarm was triggered at 9:37 a.m. The perpetrators exited through the window by going back down the freight elevator before fleeing on the two motorbikes at 9:38 a.m.”
Following the heist, police found two angle grinders, a blowtorch, gasoline, gloves, a walkie-talkie, a blanket, and a crown at the scene. Police also found a yellow vest that was apparently dropped by one of the fleeing perpetrators at the corner of Pont de Sully and Avenue Henri IV, several blocks from the Louvre, police said.
French Interior Minister Laurent Nunez in an interview on local radio said the value of the items would be “inestimable.”
The alleged robbery took about seven minutes, he said.
A notification posted on the Louvre’s website shortly afterward said, “The Louvre Museum will remain closed today for exceptional reasons. We thank you for your understanding.”
The decision to close the museum was made jointly by its management, the police and the Ministry of the Interior, museum officials said in a statement. The doors were closed as “a security measure and to preserve traces and evidence for the investigation,” the statement said.
Kaci Benedetti, who was visiting Paris from the United States, told ABC News she was standing in line to enter the museum on Sunday when a commotion began. Police were running along the courtyard where Benedetti and her family were waiting, she said.
She watched as the officers attempted to enter the building through a side door, but “could not because they were locked,” she said.
“We could see people inside running and some were banging on the glass doors to get out, but could not because they were locked,” Benedetti said. “Then police and military police arrived. After about an hour they announced the Louvre was closed for today.”
The news of the robbery came first from French Minister of Culture Rachida Dati, who said on social media, “A robbery took place this morning at the opening of the Louvre Museum.”
Dati added, “No injuries to report. I am on site alongside the museum teams and the police. Investigations underway.”
