CBS News
Parents of slain hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin continue to push for agreement to bring remaining hostages home
Hersh Goldberg-Polin was one of the hundreds of hostages taken by Hamas during its attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023. The 23-year-old Israeli-American was held for more than 300 days before being killed in late August by his captors as Israeli troops were moving in.
His parents, Jon Polin and Rachel Goldberg-Polin, have been leading voices in the effort to bring their son and the other hostages home, and they told CBS News they’ll continue to advocate for the roughly 100 still being held captive in the Gaza Strip.
Hersh was kidnapped by Hamas terrorists from the Nova music festival on Oct. 7, and about six months later, Hamas released a video of him alive. But in August, Israeli soldiers found his body, along with those of five other hostages, in a tunnel in Gaza.
His parents’ dignity and courage has never wavered, not even when they learned how Hamas had executed their son.
“He had a bullet that went through his hand. …The gun was so close that the bullet was able to go through his hand, through his neck and come out the side of his head,” Rachel Goldberg-Polin said. “He then, we think, collapsed, and they put the gun on the back of his head. And the exit wound for that gunshot was the top of his head.”
She said her son, despite being nearly six feet tall, weighed just 115 pounds when he was buried last month. She said that she didn’t necessarily want to know the more horrific details of her son’s death at first, but then she saw how small his body looked at the funeral.
“I just think that that’s really important, first of all, for people to understand how these hostages are being kept and treated, because we do have these 101 that are still there,” she said.
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The Goldberg-Polins both place the blame for their son’s death foremost on Hamas, but both also say they feel Israeli, American and even global leadership has let them down.
“There is a role the world’s leaders can play and we feel like we were failed,” Jon Polin said “We were failed by Israel’s leaders. We were failed by all of the world leaders. And we hope that we can now turn this into action while it’s still possible to save the 101 [hostages]. … We sat and we waited for the presidents and prime ministers and foreign ministers of those countries to get up on a stage, arm in arm, and demand our people be let go. And that didn’t happen. It still hasn’t happened. Maybe now it can. Maybe they’ll use this as a corrective.”
He also stressed the need for a diplomatic solution to return those still being held.
“In 369 days, seven hostages have come out through military operation. Over 100 have come out through a negotiated settlement. It’s pretty clear that what we need to do. Some people have this vision that, the idea of soldiers are going to come out carrying 101 hostages. Most people understand that to get these people out is going to require a negotiated agreement of some sort,” he said.
In their personal lives, the Goldberg-Polins now face the heartbreak of adjusting to life without their son.
“I’m trapped right now in this place psychologically, where I’m scared to turn around and look back,” Rachel Goldberg-Polin told CBS News. “And I’m scared to try to proceed forward in life without Hersh.
“I moved my seat at our breakfast table,” she added. “So I sit where Hersh normally sat because I didn’t want to see him not in his seat.”
“It’s very confusing now because we had his absence for a very long time before he was killed,” she said. “But there was always this feeling, there’s hope and this optimism that we’ll get him. We will get him home.”
The couple remains focused on helping bring the remaining hostages home safely. But as the war widens, there appears little political will for negotiation right now on either side. They are hoping that changes.
“I’m very hopeful that within that widening, that there’s opportunity — meaning whatever’s happening in Lebanon, it’s horrible for everybody. The whole region is on fire. Whatever’s happening with Iran last week firing 180 ballistic missiles at Israel; will Israel retaliate? … Maybe there’s room somewhere to say everybody, nobody is doing well right now. We’re going to stop this,” Rachel Goldberg-Polin said.
The couple, both Orthodox Jews, say they have seen tremendous support from both the Jewish community and also many Christians around the world. Despite the tragedy, both still find comfort in their faith.
“My faith in god has not diminished,” Rachel Goldberg-Palin said. “My faith in people has, because I felt, I just felt that people could have done more.”
Despite losing his boxing match to Jake Paul, Mike Tyson in a social media post Saturday said he had “no regrets” to getting “in ring one last time.”
The boxing legend was defeated by social media star Jake Paul in a highly anticipated fight on Friday night with an age difference of over three decades between the two contenders.
Netflix said Saturday that 60 million households worldwide tuned in to watch the match. The two fighters went eight full rounds, with each round two minutes long. Paul defeated Tyson by unanimous decision and the 27-year-old upset boxer and 58-year-old former heavyweight champion hugged afterward.
Paul was expected to earn about $40 million from the fight, and Tyson was expected to take around $20 million for the fight, according to DraftKings and other online reports.
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Tyson said on his social media that “this is one of those situations when you lost but still won. I’m grateful for last night.”
The fight almost didn’t happen after Tyson experienced an ulcer flare-up while on a plane in March. He addressed his illness Saturday, writing that he “almost died in June.” He said he had eight blood transfusions and “lost half my blood and 25lbs in hospital and had to fight to get healthy to fight so I won.”
Tyson retired from boxing in 2005 after a 20-year career. He last fought in a 2020 exhibition match against former four-division world champ Roy Jones Jr.
“To have my children see me stand toe to toe and finish 8 rounds with a talented fighter half my age in front of a packed Dallas Cowboy stadium is an experience that no man has the right to ask for. Thank you,” he said.
Alex Sundby and
contributed to this report.
In their final meeting, China’s leader Xi Jinping told U.S. President Biden that his nation was “ready to work with a new administration,” as President-elect Donald Trump prepares to take over.
The two leaders gathered Saturday on the sidelines of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit. Mr. Biden was expected to urge Xi to dissuade North Korea from further deepening its support for Russia’s war on Ukraine. It marked their first in-person meeting since they met in Northern California last November.
Without mentioning Trump’s name, Xi appeared to signal his concern that the incoming president’s protectionist rhetoric on the campaign trail could send the U.S.-China relationship into another valley.
“China is ready to work with a new U.S. administration to maintain communication, expand cooperation and manage differences so as to strive for a steady transition of the China-U.S. relationship for the benefit of the two peoples,” Xi said through an interpreter.
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Mr. Biden, meanwhile, spoke in broader brushstrokes about where the relationship has gone and reflected not just on the past four years, but on their long relationship.
“Over the past four years, China-U.S. relations have experienced ups and downs, but with the two of us at the helm, we have also engaged in fruitful dialogues and cooperation, and generally achieved stability,” he said.
Mr. Biden and Xi, with top aides surrounding them, gathered around a long rectangle of tables in an expansive conference room at Lima’s Defines Hotel and Conference Center.
There’s much uncertainty about what lies ahead in the U.S.-China relationship under Trump, who campaigned promising to levy 60% tariffs on Chinese imports.
Bobby Djavaheri, president of Los Angeles-based Yedi Houseware Appliances — which manufactures its products in China — told CBS News in an interview this week that such tariffs “would decimate our business, but not only our business. It would decimate all small businesses that rely on importing.”
Trump has also proposed revoking China’s Most Favored Nation trade status, phasing out all imports of essential goods from China and banning China from buying U.S. farmland.
Already, many American companies, including Nike and eyewear retailer Warby Parker, have been diversifying their sourcing away from China. Shoe brand Steve Madden says it plans to cut imports from China by as much as 45% next year.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said Biden administration officials will advise the Trump team that managing the intense competition with Beijing will likely be the most significant foreign policy challenge they will face.
It’s a big moment for Mr. Biden as he wraps up more than 50 years in politics. He saw his relationship with Xi as among the most consequential on the international stage and put much effort into cultivating that relationship.
Mr. Biden and Xi first got to know each other on travels across the U.S. and China when both were vice presidents, interactions that both have said left a lasting impression.
“For over a decade, you and I have spent many hours together, both here and in China and in between. And I think we’ve spent a long time dealing with these issues,” Mr. Biden said Saturday.
But the last four years have presented a steady stream of difficult moments.
The FBI this week offered new details of a federal investigation into Chinese government efforts to hack into U.S. telecommunications networks. The initial findings have revealed a “broad and significant” cyberespionage campaign aimed at stealing information from Americans who work in government and politics.
U.S. intelligence officials also have assessed China has surged sales to Russia of machine tools, microelectronics and other technology that Moscow is using to produce missiles, tanks, aircraft and other weaponry for use in its war against Ukraine.
And tensions flared last year after Mr. Biden ordered the shooting down of a Chinese spy balloon that traversed the United States.
President-elect Donald Trump has selected Chris Wright, a campaign donor and fossil fuel executive, to serve as energy secretary in his upcoming, second administration.
CEO of Denver-based Liberty Energy, Wright is a vocal advocate of oil and gas development, including fracking, a key pillar of Trump’s quest to achieve U.S. “energy dominance” in the global market.
Trump also said in a statement Saturday that Wright will serve on the newly-created National Energy Council, which will be chaired by North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum, Trump’s selection for secretary of the Interior.
Burgum will oversee a panel that crosses all executive branch agencies involved in energy permitting, production, generation, distribution, regulation and transportation, Trump said in a previous statement.
Wright has been one of the industry’s loudest voices against efforts to fight climate change and could give fossil fuels a boost, including quick action to end a year-long pause on natural gas export approvals by the Biden administration.
Wright also has criticized what he calls a “top-down” approach to climate by liberal and left-wing groups and said the climate movement around the world is “collapsing under its own weight.”
Consideration of Wright to head the administration’s energy department won support from influential conservatives, including oil and gas tycoon Harold Hamm.
Hamm, executive chairman of Oklahoma-based Continental Resources, a major shale oil company, is a longtime Trump supporter and adviser who played a key role on energy issues in Trump’s first term.
Hamm helped organize an event at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in April where Trump reportedly asked industry leaders and lobbyists to donate $1 billion to Trump’s campaign, with the expectation that Trump would curtail environmental regulations if re-elected.
The Energy Department is responsible for advancing energy, environmental and nuclear security of the United States. The agency is in charge of maintaining the country’s nuclear weapons, oversees 17 national research laboratories and approves natural gas exports, as well as ensuring environmental cleanup of the nation’s nuclear weapons complex. It also promotes scientific and technological research.
Republican Sen. John Barrasso, who is expected to become chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said Trump promised bold choices for his Cabinet, and Wright’s nomination delivers.
“He’s s an energy innovator who laid the foundation for America’s fracking boom. After four years of America last energy policy, our country is desperate for a secretary (of energy) who understands how important American energy is to our economy and our national security,″ Barrasso said of Wright, adding: “Wright will help ensure America remains committed to an all-of-the-above energy policy that puts American families first.”
Thomas Pyle, president of the American Energy Alliance, a conservative group that supports fossil fuels, said Wright would be “an excellent choice” for Energy secretary. Pyle led Trump’s Energy Department’s transition team in 2016.
Liberty is a major energy industry service provider, with a focus on technology. Wright, who grew up in Colorado, earned undergraduate degree at MIT and did graduate work in electrical engineering at the University of California-Berkeley and MIT. In 1992, he founded Pinnacle Technologies, which helped launch commercial shale gas production through hydraulic fracturing, or fracking.
He later served as chairman of Stroud Energy, an early shale gas producer, before founding Liberty Resources in 2010.
