Tuesday, Oct 28th
Last update07:24:37 AM GMT
The move from the EU was part of a sweeping new package of sanctions -- the bloc's 18th since the start of Russia's 2022 invasion -- that also took aim at Moscow's banking sector and military capabilities.
The measures come as allies closely watch whether US President Donald Trump follows through on his threat to punish Moscow over Russian President Vladimir Putin's failure to move forward on a truce.
President Trump sued The Wall Street Journal for defamation on Friday after the newspaper published a story detailing an alleged letter Trump sent to Jeffrey Epstein for his 50th birthday.
The 18-page complaint says the story has caused “overwhelming financial and reputational harm” for the president, demanding billions of dollars in damages.
“Defendants concocted this shttps://tse4.mm.bing.net/th/id/OIP.5fn3ZAo9cpISNGxiaG4S2gHaE7?pid=Api&P=0&h=220tory to malign President Trump’s character and integrity and deceptively porthttps://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/5409336-trump-lawsuit-wsj-letter-jeffrey-epstein/ray him in a false light,” the lawsuit states.
Trump threatened to sue the outlet in an interview ahead of publication, and he doubled down on the threat after the story was published Thursday evening.
The Late Show with Stephen Colbert has been cancelled and will end in May, with network CBS announcing it will retire the Late Show entirely after a 33-year run.
Colbert, who has hosted the talkshow since 2015, announced the news during Thursday night’s taping, telling the audience he had only been told the news the previous night.
As the audience booed, he said, “Yeah, I share your feelings.
“It’s not just the end of the show, it is the end of the Late Show on CBS. I’m not being replaced, this is all just going away,” Colbert said.
He said he was “grateful” to the viewers and the show’s 200-strong crew.
“Let me tell you, it is a fantastic job,” he added. “I wish someone else was getting it. And it is a job I am looking forward to doing with this usual gang of idiots for another 10 months.”
President Trump said the Coca-Cola Company has agreed to use real cane sugar, at his request, in the American version of their flagship drink.
“I have been speaking to Coca-Cola about using REAL Cane Sugar in Coke in the United States, and they have agreed to do so. I’d like to thank all of those in authority at Coca-Cola. This will be a very good move by them — You’ll see. It’s just better!” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform Wednesday.
In a Wednesday statement on its website, the Coca-Cola Company said it admires “President Trump’s enthusiasm for our iconic Coca‑Cola brand.”
“More details on new innovative offerings within our Coca‑Cola product range will be shared soon,” the statement continued.
The Gaza Humanitarian Fund accused the Hamas militant group of fomenting panic and spreading misinformation that led to the violence, though it provided no evidence to support the claim.
It said 19 people were trampled in a stampede and one person was fatally stabbed at a hub in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis. Gaza’s Health Ministry and witnesses said GHF workers used tear gas against the crowd, inciting a panic. The ministry said that it was the first time people have been killed by a stampede at the aid sites.
It was also the first time that GHF has confirmed deaths at one of its distribution sites, although Palestinian witnesses, health officials and U.N. agencies say hundreds of people have been killed while heading to the hubs to get food.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), a staunch vaccine supporter, said he was “heartbroken” after hearing parents recount how their once-healthy children were injured or killed by vaccines.
The parents’ testimony, delivered during Tuesday’s U.S. Senate hearing, “Voices of the Vaccine Injured,” did little to sway Blumenthal from his belief that vaccines are “safe and effective” — but the gut-wrenching stories did lead the senator to suggest he may be willing to look into the issue of whether pharmaceutical companies should be held liable for injuries caused by their products.
“Maybe we ought to look at this system,” said Blumenthal, referring to the National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act of 1986, which established a government compensation program for people injured by vaccines while granting legal immunity to vaccine makers.
Since 1986, the only recourse parents have had if their child was injured is to file a claim through the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) — a bureaucratic labyrinth that rejects nearly half of all claims.
Blumenthal, ranking member of the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, which held the hearing, said the parents’ testimony “makes me want to do something.”
Tsunami advisory issued in parts of Alaska after 7.3-magnitude earthquake
Noaa initially issued a tsunami warning in the state’s southern coast, which it later downgraded to an advisory.
A stretch of Alaska’s southern coast was under a tsunami advisory on Wednesday after a strong earthquake was felt throughout the region.
More...
The US Geological Survey described the earthquake as a magnitude 7.3. After the quake, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a tsunami warning, which it later downgraded to an advisory.
The US Tsunami Center said the advisory was in effect from about 40 miles (64.4km) south-west of Homer to Unimak Pass, a distance of about 700 miles (1,126.5km). The area is sparsely populated – among the larger communities in the area is Kodiak, which is home to 5,200 people.
Meanwhile, officials in the Pacific north-west were evaluating whether there was any threat to coastlines there.
The first waves were projected to hit the village of Sand Point, a community of about 580 people on Popof Island, in the Aleutian chain. The first waves were projected to land there, but the state’s emergency management division said an hour after the quake that it had received no reports of damage.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has fired two top deputies at the Department of Health and Human Services, ABC News has learned.
Heather Flick Melanson, Kennedy's chief of staff, and Hannah Anderson, deputy chief of staff of policy, are departing, according to a department spokesperson and another person familiar with the decisions.
No reason was given for the ousters. The person familiar with the situation told ABC that Kennedy "has every right to make personnel decisions."
Neither Flick nor Anderson immediately responded to an ABC News request for comment.
"Secretary Kennedy has made a leadership change within the Immediate Office of the Secretary," according to a statement provided by an HHS spokesperson to ABC News. "Effective immediately, Matt Buckham will serve as Acting Chief of Staff."
"Mr. Buckham currently serves as Kennedy’s White House liaison at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, where he oversees the recruitment and onboarding of political appointees across the agency. He brings valuable experience in personnel strategy and organizational management to this new role," the statement continued.
The Justice Department’s senior ethics attorney, a position tasked with ensuring all employees abide by the department’s moral principles, announced Monday that Attorney General Pam Bondi had fired him.
Joseph Tirrell said he received notice from Bondi on Friday and shared a copy of her letter to him on LinkedIn. The notice did not provide any reasoning for his firing, which was effective immediately, but says he may appeal the decision.
Tirrell said in his LinkedIn post that he was “responsible for advising the Attorney General and Deputy Attorney General directly on federal employee ethics” and led a team of 30 people dedicated to upholding ethics across the Justice Department.
His public service career spanned a quarter of a century, Tirrell wrote in his announcement, saying he began as a U.S. Naval officer before earning a law degree and working at the FBI before moving to the DOJ. He’s led the ethics office since 2023.
Page 58 of 1152
