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  • U.S.-Russia talks on Ukraine were productive but work remains, Putin adviser says

    U.S.-Russia talks on Ukraine were productive but work remains, Putin adviser says

    Talks between Russia and the U.S. on ending the nearly four-year war in Ukraine were productive, but much work remains, Yuri Ushakov, a senior adviser to President Vladimir Putin, told reporters on Wednesday.

    Putin met President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner in the Kremlin in talks that began late Tuesday as part of a renewed push by the Trump administration to broker a peace deal. Both sides agreed not to disclose the substance of the talks.

    Ushakov called the five-hour conversation “rather useful, constructive, rather substantive,” but added that the framework of the U.S. peace proposal was discussed rather than “specific wording.”

    Putin’s aide also said that “so far, a compromise hasn’t been found” on the issue of territories, without which, he said, the Kremlin sees “no resolution to the crisis.”

    “Some of the American proposals seem more or less acceptable, but they need to be discussed. Some of the wording that was proposed to us doesn’t suit us. So, the work will continue,” Ushakov said.

    There were other points of disagreement, although Ushakov did not provide further details. “We could agree on some things, and the president confirmed this to his interlocutors. Other things provoked criticism, and the president also didn’t hide our critical and even negative attitude toward a number of proposals,” he said.

    Trump peace plan is center of effort to end the war

    The meeting came days after U.S. officials held talks with a Ukrainian team in Florida and which Secretary of State Marco Rubio described in cautiously optimistic terms.

    At the center of the effort is Trump’s peace plan that became public last month and raised concerns about being tilted heavily toward Moscow. The proposal granted some of the Kremlin’s core demands that Kyiv has rejected as nonstarters, such as Ukraine ceding the entire eastern region of the Donbas to Russia and renouncing its bid to join NATO. Negotiators have indicated the framework has changed, but it’s not clear how.

    On Tuesday, Putin accused Kyiv’s European allies of sabotaging U.S.-led efforts to end the war in Ukraine.

    “They don’t have a peace agenda, they’re on the side of the war,” Putin said of the Europeans.

    Putin‘s accusations appeared to be his latest attempt to sow dissension between Trump and European countries and set the stage for exempting Moscow from blame for any lack of progress.

    He accused Europe of amending peace proposals with “demands that are absolutely unacceptable to Russia,” thus “blocking the entire peace process” and blaming Moscow for it. He also reiterated his long-held position that Russia has no plans to attack Europe — a concern regularly voiced by some European countries.

    “But if Europe suddenly wants to wage a war with us and starts it, we are ready right away. There can be no doubt about that,” Putin said.

    Russia started the war in 2022 with its full-scale invasion of a sovereign European country, and European governments have since spent billions of dollars to support Ukraine financially and militarily, to wean themselves from energy dependence on Russia, and to strengthen their own militaries to deter Moscow from seizing more territory by force.

    They worry that if Russia gets what it wants in Ukraine, it will have free rein to threaten or disrupt other European countries, which already have faced incursions from Russian drones and fighter jets, and an alleged widespread Russian sabotage campaign.

    Trump’s peace plan relies on Europe to provide the bulk of the financing and security guarantees for a postwar Ukraine, even though no Europeans appear to have been consulted on the original plan. That’s why European governments have pushed to ensure that peace efforts address their concerns, too.

    Coinciding with Witkoff’s trip, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky went to Ireland, continuing his visits to European countries that have helped sustain his country’s fight against Russia’s invasion.

    High-stakes negotiations

    Zelensky said Tuesday he was expecting swift reports from the U.S. envoys in Moscow on whether talks could move forward, after Trump’s initial 28-point plan was whittled down to 20 items in Sunday’s talks between U.S. and Ukrainian officials in Florida.

    “The future and the next steps depend on these signals. Such steps will change throughout today, even hour by hour, I believe,” Zelensky said at a news conference in Dublin with Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin.

    “If the signals show fair play with our partners, we then might meet very soon, meet with the American delegation,” he said.

    “There is a lot of dialogue, but we need results. Our people are dying every day,” Zelensky said. “I am ready … to meet with President Trump. It all depends on today’s talks.”

    Building on progress in Florida

    After months of frustration in trying to stop the fighting, Trump deployed officials to get traction for his peace proposals. The talks have followed parallel lines so far, with Rubio sitting down with Ukrainian officials.

    Zelensky said he met Tuesday with the Ukrainian delegation that returned from the negotiations with U.S. representatives in Florida. Rubio said those talks made progress, but added that “there’s more work to be done.”

    Zelensky said the Florida talks took as their cue a document that both sides drafted at an earlier meeting in Geneva. The Ukrainian leader said that document was now “finalized,” although he didn’t explain what that meant.

    Ukrainian diplomats are working to ensure that European partners are “substantially involved” in decision-making, Zelensky said on the Telegram messaging app, and warned about what he said were Russian disinformation campaigns aimed at steering the negotiations.

    European leaders want a say

    Zelensky met with political leaders and lawmakers in Dublin on his first official visit. Ireland is officially neutral and isn’t a member of NATO but has sent nonlethal military support to Ukraine. More than 100,000 Ukrainians have moved to Ireland since Russia launched its war on Feb. 24, 2022.

    Although this week’s consultations could move the process forward, few details have become public. It remains unclear how envoys are going to bridge the gap between the two sides on such basic differences as who keeps what territory. European officials say the road to peace will be long.

    European leaders want to make their voices heard after being largely sidelined by Washington. They are also working on future security guarantees for Ukraine.

    Zelensky was in Paris on Monday, and French President Emmanuel Macron said they spoke by phone with Witkoff. They also spoke to leaders of eight other European countries as well as top European Union officials and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte.

    Diplomats face a hard time trying to bridge Russian and Ukrainian differences and persuading them to strike compromises. The key obstacles — over whether Kyiv should cede land to Moscow and how to ensure Ukraine’s future security — appear unresolved.

    Zelensky under pressure

    Zelensky is under severe pressure in one of the darkest periods of the war for his country. As well as managing diplomatic pressure, he must find money to keep Ukraine afloat, address a corruption scandal that has reached the top echelons of his government, and keep Russia at bay on the battlefield.

    The Kremlin late Monday claimed that Russian forces have captured the key city of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine. Zelensky, however, said in Paris that fighting was still ongoing in Pokrovsk on Monday.

    Ukraine’s general staff on Tuesday also denied Russia’s claims to have captured Pokrovsk, saying it was a propaganda stunt. The Ukrainian army is readying additional logistic routes to deliver supplies to troops in the area, the Facebook post said.

  • The first big snowstorm of the winter hits the Northeast, but not Philadelphia

    The first big snowstorm of the winter hits the Northeast, but not Philadelphia

    PORTLAND, Maine — The first major storm of the winter covered parts of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic with snow and ice Tuesday, making roads hazardous, disrupting travel, and closing schools as some areas braced for several inches of heavy snowfall.

    The storm could deliver up to a foot of snow as well as wind and heavy rain across Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont, Maine, Connecticut, and New York, although some areas were spared the predicted high totals. Winter storm warnings and weather advisories were in place throughout the day.

    “It looks like winter wonderland at the moment,” said John Marino in New York’s Catskill Mountains, which could get up to 8 inches of snow. As co-owner of a ski shop, he said he’s grateful that several inches had already accumulated by Tuesday afternoon, a welcome bonus as the season gets into gear.

    Some light freezing rain, sleet, and random snowflakes were reported across the Philadelphia region around daybreak Tuesday, and several school districts in Chester and Montgomery Counties opted for two-hour delays.

    Small accumulations of freezing rain, under a tenth of an inch, were measured in the Doylestown and Pottstown areas.

    For the record, the National Weather Service in Mount Holly reported that the city recorded its second official “trace” of snow, defined as a trained spotter’s sighting at least one flake at Philadelphia International Airport.

    Hundreds of flights were delayed and roads across the region turned hazardous before sunrise, slowing commutes. In West Virginia, a tractor-trailer driver was rescued unhurt when his cab dangled off a bridge for several hours after losing control in snowy conditions early Tuesday, news outlets reported.

    The storm came just as the Midwest began to escape the snow and ice that snarled travel after the Thanksgiving holiday. Chicago O’Hare International Airport set a record for the highest single calendar day snowfall in November at the airport, with more than 8 inches, according to the weather service. The previous record was set in 1951.

    Winter weather arrives in the Northeast

    “It’s going to be the first snowfall of the season for many of these areas, and it’s going to be rather significant,” said Andrew Orrison, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service.

    Meteorological winter, which covers December through February, is used by climate scientists for consistent recordkeeping and differs from the astronomical seasons found on most calendars.

    The National Weather Service warned that snow and ice would make travel dangerous in coastal Maine from Tuesday morning until Wednesday morning and urged residents to delay trips if possible. Several Northeast states also shut schools and as the snow began falling before dawn, making roads slippery during the morning commute. Numerous highway crashes were reported.

    The first wallop of December snow brought back a new tradition in New Hampshire, where residents were invited to submit names for the state’s second annual name-a-plow competition.

    “We have orange snowplows just waiting for the perfect name,” the Department of Transportation said on social media. Last winner’s top name was Ctrl-Salt-Delete. This season’s winners will be announced in January.

    The storm’s path

    The snowstorm sweeping the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast began as a weaker system over the central U.S. but strengthened as it neared the coast, said Ashton Robinson Cook at the NWS’s Weather Prediction Center.

    These kinds of storms are uncommon but not “too far out of the realm of possibility,” he said. The next system could also bring winter weather to the Mid-Atlantic through Friday and Saturday.

    Schools closed, roads jammed, crashes reported

    Winter weather advisories remained across Ohio on Tuesday, as the icy conditions snarled traffic and shuttered schools. Snowfall overnight left accumulations of 3 to 5 inches in some southern parts of the state, according to the National Weather Service.

    A portion of I-70 West through Cleveland had to be closed as a crash was cleared, while highways around Columbus saw dangerous slowdowns. Troopers in New York also reported multiple weather-related crashes and vehicles off the road along Interstate 87 north of Albany.

    Vehicle restrictions were imposed on many interstates in the eastern half of Pennsylvania, including on the turnpike system’s Northeast Extension, from the Lehigh Valley to Clarks Summit.

    Snow was falling steadily in the Lehigh Valley by Tuesday morning.

    “We really prepare for snow all year long,” Orbanek said.

    Staff writer Anthony R. Wood contributed to this article.

  • Trump administration says it will withhold SNAP from Democrat-led states if they don’t provide data

    Trump administration says it will withhold SNAP from Democrat-led states if they don’t provide data

    WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s administration said Tuesday that it will move to withhold SNAP food aid from recipients in most Democratic-controlled states starting next week unless those states provide information about those receiving the assistance.

    Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said at a cabinet meeting Tuesday that the action is looming because those states are refusing to provide data the department requested such as the names and immigration status of aid recipients. She said the cooperation is needed to root out fraud in the program. Democratic states have sued to block the requirement, saying they verify eligibility for SNAP beneficiaries and that they never share large swaths of sensitive data on the program with the federal government.

    Marissa Saldivar, a spokesperson for California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, was skeptical about whether funding will really be taken away.

    “We no longer take the Trump Administration’s words at face value — we’ll see what they actually do in reality,” she said in a statement. “Cutting programs that feed American children is morally repugnant.”

    Twenty-two states and the District of Columbia previously sued over the request for information, which was initially made in February. A San Francisco-based federal judge has barred the administration, at least for now, from collecting the information from those states.

    The federal government last week sent the states a letter saying that it was time to comply, as other states have, but the parties all agreed to give the states until Dec. 8 to respond.

    Approximately 2 million Pennsylvanians receive SNAP benefits, or nearly one in six of the state’s residents.

    This fall, Gov. Josh Shapiro, a Democrat, joined 21 other states in his capacity as Pennsylvania’s governor in suing the USDA to prevent the department from withholding its SNAP payments. A federal judge in California in October ruled in favor of the Democratic-led states and temporarily blocked the USDA effort from going into effect.

    A spokesperson for Shapiro on Tuesday declined to comment.

    Administration says data is needed to spot fraud

    About 42 million lower-income Americans, or 1 in 8, rely on SNAP to help buy groceries. The average monthly benefit is about $190 per person, or a little over $6 a day.

    Rollins has cited information provided by states that have complied, saying it shows that 186,000 deceased people are receiving SNAP benefits and that 500,000 are getting benefits more than once.

    “We asked for all the states for the first time to turn over their data to the federal government to let the USDA partner with them to root out this fraud, to make sure that those who really need food stamps are getting them,” Rollins said, “but also to ensure that the American taxpayer is protected.”

    Her office has not released detailed data, including on how much in benefits obtained by error or fraud are being used.

    It’s also not clear which states have handed over the information. Rollins said 29 have complied and 21 have not. But 22 have sued to block the order.

    Additionally, Kansas, which was not part of the lawsuit, has not provided it. The USDA told the state in September that SNAP funds would be cut off. The state asked the agency to reverse the action. A spokesperson for Gov. Laura Kelly, a Democrat, said there had not yet been a reply as of Tuesday. North Carolina appears to be the only state with a Democratic governor that has handed over the information.

    Experts say that while there is certainly fraud in a $100 billion-a-year program, the far bigger problems are organized crime efforts to steal the benefit cards or get them in the name of made-up people — not wrongdoing by beneficiaries.

    Democratic officials question administration’s motives

    U.S. Rep. Jahana Hayes, a Connecticut Democrat who is a co-sponsor of legislation to undo recent SNAP changes, said Rollins is trying to make changes without transparency — or without a role for Congress — and that she is mischaracterizing the program.

    “Individuals who are just trying to buy food, those aren’t the ones who are gaming the system in the way that the administration is trying to portray,” Hayes said in an interview on Tuesday before Rollins announced her intention.

    Democratic officials responded to Rollins’ announcement by blasting the administration.

    “The Governor wishes President Trump would be a president for all Americans rather than taking out his political vendettas on the people who need these benefits the most,” said Claire Lancaster, a spokesperson for Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat. ”Whether it’s threatening highway funding or food assistance, the President is making malicious decisions that will raise prices and harm families.”

    In response to Rollins’ comments, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul tweeted, “Genuine question: Why is the Trump Administration so hellbent on people going hungry?”

    SNAP has been in the spotlight recently

    The program is not normally in the political spotlight, but it has been this year.

    As part of Trump’s big tax and policy bill earlier in the year, work requirements are expanding to include people between the ages of 55 and 64, homeless people and others.

    And amid the recent federal government shutdown, the administration planned not to fund the benefits for November. There was a back-and-forth in the courts about whether they could do so, but then the government reopened and benefits resumed before the final word.

    In the meantime, some states scrambled to fund benefits on their own and most increased or accelerated money for food banks.

    Staff writer Gillian McGoldrick contributed to this article.

  • Supreme Court sympathetic to antiabortion center in fight over donor names

    Supreme Court sympathetic to antiabortion center in fight over donor names

    New Jersey Attorney General Matt Platkin issued a subpoena in 2023 — part of an investigation into whether a chain of faith-based, antiabortion pregnancy centers were deceiving clients and donors by falsely suggesting they offered abortion referrals.

    First Choice Women’s Resource Centers Inc. quickly sued in federal court. The broad request for donor information and other material chilled its First Amendment rights and was an act of intimidation by an official hostile to the group’s views on abortion, the organization said.

    Tuesday, the Supreme Court appeared sympathetic to First Choice’s argument, which is backed by other religious and antiabortion groups and also by some free-press advocates. The threat of disclosure was enough to make donors think twice about giving to the group, several justices suggested.

    “You don’t think it might have a future effect on donors if their name, addresses and phone number is disclosed?” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. asked an attorney for New Jersey.

    The case turns on a technical legal issue — whether First Choice has met the bar to challenge the subpoena in federal court rather than state courts — but it has potentially wide implications.

    A range of ideological groups, from LGBTQ+ advocates to firearms rights organizations, have increasingly come under scrutiny by attorneys general armed with broad powers. They say the ability to file suits against subpoenas in federal court at an early stage of litigation will give them a tool to fight politically motivated investigations. The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press told the justices in a friend-of-the-court brief that investigative subpoenas could be used to threaten news organizations that investigate official misconduct.

    Erin M. Hawley, an attorney for First Choice, called the subpoena in this case “sweeping,” adding there were 28 categories of documents the attorney general was seeking.

    “That is a death knell for nonprofits like First Choice,” Hawley said.

    The case began after a state probe found some of First Choice’s client-facing websites and donation pages omitted or obscured its antiabortion mission, saying it was “a network of clinics providing the best care and most up-to-date information on your pregnancy and pregnancy options.” First Choice has five centers in New Jersey, where abortion is legally protected.

    First Choice denies any wrongdoing.

    Clinics like First Choice have been operating for decades to persuade women to continue their pregnancies, and they saw a surge of financial support after the Supreme Court struck down a right to abortion in 2022. Antiabortion strategists hoped more women would turn to centers like First Choice if they could not access an abortion. Red-state leaders rushed to fund the clinics to the tune of millions.

    The clinics say they offer valuable services, but critics have accused them of masking their antiabortion mission and using false advertising to lure pregnant women, including patients who need medical care that the clinics are not properly equipped for. There are more than 2,500 pregnancy centers across the United States, according to estimates by researchers at the University of Georgia.

    In 2023, a Massachusetts woman took a pregnancy center to court saying it had failed to catch signs of her ectopic pregnancy — which can be fatal if left untreated. The clinic later settled.

    This is not the first case the Supreme Court has considered in this area.

    In a major 2018 ruling, the high court ruled that pregnancy centers could not be required to tell their clients about abortion services, saying such a mandate would probably be a First Amendment violation.

    Platkin issued his subpoena in November 2023 seeking the names of First Choice’s donors, staff information and more, sparking a protracted and complicated court fight. First Choice argued that disclosing its donors would make them less likely to give money, chilling their free speech and association rights.

    The legal question at the heart of the case is whether First Choice’s claims are “ripe.” To bring legal action in federal court, plaintiffs are required to show they have suffered an actual harm, not a hypothetical one.

    The subpoena that Platkin issued for First Choice’s records requires a state court in New Jersey to order its enforcement. To date, a state judge has told First Choice to respond to the subpoena but has yet to demand it turn over the records. For that reason, Sundeep Iyer, chief counsel to the New Jersey attorney general, said First Choice had not yet suffered a concrete harm.

    Any harm was “wholly contingent on a future court order” that had yet to materialize, Iyer said.

    But several justices pushed back on that idea, including liberal Justice Elena Kagan who said “one of the funders for this organization or for any similar organization presented with this subpoena and then told ‘but don’t worry it has to be stamped by a court’ is not going to take that as very reassuring.”

    Iyer said if the justices embraced First Choice’s arguments, groups might challenge thousands of subpoenas that state governments issue each year, creating a logjam in the courts.

    “The risk would be federal court would be inundated,” Iyer said.

  • Hegseth cites ‘fog of war’ in defending follow-on strike on alleged drug boat

    Hegseth cites ‘fog of war’ in defending follow-on strike on alleged drug boat

    Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Tuesday that “a couple of hours” passed before he was made aware that a September military strike he authorized and “watched live” required an additional attack to kill two survivors, further distancing himself from an incident now facing congressional inquiry.

    Speaking in the Cabinet Room alongside President Donald Trump, Hegseth delivered the most extensive public accounting yet of his involvement in the strike on alleged drug smugglers in the Caribbean Sea. Lawmakers and law of war experts have questioned whether the episode constitutes a war crime and, if so, who bears responsibility.

    “I did not personally see survivors,” he said in response to a reporter’s question, “ … because that thing was on fire and was exploded, and fire, smoke, you can’t see anything. You got digital, there’s — this is called the fog of war.”

    Hegseth and Trump deflected responsibility for the killing of two survivors, pointing instead to the senior military officer in charge of the operation on Sept. 2, Adm. Frank M. Bradley. And while they praised the military for conducting the mission, both sought to make clear they had not known that a second order was given to kill the survivors as they were clinging to the boat’s wreckage.

    “I didn’t know about the second strike. I didn’t know anything about people. I wasn’t involved, and I knew they took out a boat,” Trump said during a meeting with members of his cabinet.

    Spokespeople for U.S. Special Operations Command, where Bradley is the top commander, have not commented publicly on the matter.

    Hegseth said he had observed a live video of the initial attack before he “moved on to my next meeting.”

    “I watched that first strike live,” Hegseth said, noting that he did not witness the entire sequence of events that unfolded next.

    “As you can imagine,” he added, at the Defense Department “we got a lot of things to do. So I didn’t stick around for the hour and two hours, whatever. … A couple of hours later, I learned that that commander had made the — which he had the complete authority to do, and by the way, Admiral Bradley made the correct decision to ultimately sink the boat and eliminate the threat.”

    The Washington Post reported Friday that Hegseth gave a spoken order before the first missile strike to kill the entire crew of a vessel thought to be ferrying narcotics in the Caribbean, the first of nearly 20 such strikes directed by the administration since early September. When two survivors were detected, Bradley directed another strike to comply with Hegseth’s order that no one be left alive, people with direct knowledge of the matter told the Post.

    The Trump administration has said 11 people were killed as a result of the operation.

    It is unclear whether separate written orders explicitly detailed plans to kill suspected drug traffickers or contained more comprehensive information about what options were available in the event of any survivors. Military officials, in planning subsequent missions, have put greater emphasis on rescuing those who have survived the strike, according to people familiar with the matter. It is unclear who directed the change in protocol and when.

    Hegseth has called the Post’s reporting “fabricated,” even as he and other administration officials have corroborated aspects of it in recent days.

    For instance, in his remarks at the White House on Tuesday, Hegseth said he was directly involved early on as the administration began its military campaign in Latin America.

    “Now, the first couple of strikes, as you would, as any leader would want, you want to own that responsibility,” he said. “So I said, I’m going to be the one to make the call after getting all the information and make sure it’s the right strike.”

    Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, said Monday that Hegseth had authorized Bradley to conduct the strikes on Sept. 2, asserting that the admiral “worked well within his authority and the law, directing the engagement to ensure the boat was destroyed.”

    Legal experts have said the survivors who were killed did not pose an imminent threat to U.S. personnel and thus were illegitimate targets. A group of former military lawyers and senior leaders who have scrutinized the Trump administration’s military activities in Latin America said in a statement issued over the weekend that the targeting of defenseless people is prohibited — regardless of whether the United States is in an armed conflict, conducting law enforcement or other military operations.

    On Capitol Hill, two Republican-led committees have opened bipartisan fact-finding inquiries into the attack. Sen. Roger Wicker (R., Miss.), who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee, has said he spoke this week with Hegseth and the Joint Chiefs chairman, Gen. Dan Caine, and that he expects to speak with Bradley also.

    Wicker has said that he is seeking video and audio recordings of the strikes and that once those materials are received, he will decide how to proceed.

    Lawmakers in the Senate and the House have criticized the administration for withholding information related to its military campaign and the legal arguments supporting the deadly boat strikes, even as Hegseth has vowed to continue the attacks.

    In October, Wicker and his Democratic counterpart, Sen. Jack Reed (Rhode Island), published two letters they had sent to the Pentagon weeks earlier requesting videos and orders documenting the strikes, which so far have killed more than 80 people. To date, the Pentagon has not complied, Wicker and Reed have said.

  • Eugene Hasenfus, key figure in 1980s Iran-Contra affair, dies at 84

    Eugene Hasenfus, key figure in 1980s Iran-Contra affair, dies at 84

    MADISON, Wis. — Eugene Hasenfus, who played a key role in unraveling the Iran-Contra affair after his CIA-backed supply plane was shot down over Nicaragua in 1986, has died.

    Mr. Hasenfus died on Nov. 26 in Menominee, Mich., after a nine-year battle with cancer, according to his obituary from the Hansen-Onion-Martell Funeral Home in Marinette, Wis. He was 84.

    Mr. Hasenfus was born Jan. 22, 1941, in Marinette. He served with the Marines in Vietnam and continued a private career in aviation before he became a key figure in the Cold War’s Iran-Contra scandal in 1986.

    In 1981, President Ronald Reagan authorized the CIA to support the anti-communist right-wing guerrilla force known as the Contras who were working against the Sandinistas in the Nicaraguan government. Congress cut off all military assistance to the Contras in 1984.

    Months before the cutoff, top officials in Reagan’s administration ramped up a secret White House-directed supply network to the Contras. The operation’s day-to-day activities were handled by National Security Council aide Oliver North. The goal was to keep the Contras operating until Congress could be persuaded to resume CIA funding.

    The secrecy of North’s network unraveled after one of its planes with Mr. Hasenfus on board was shot down over Nicaragua in October 1986. Three other crew members died, but Mr. Hasenfus parachuted into the jungle and evaded authorities for more than 24 hours.

    He was captured by the leftist Nicaraguan government and charged with several crimes, including terrorism.

    Mr. Hasenfus said after his capture that the CIA was supervising the supply flights to the Contras. At first, Reagan administration officials lied by saying that the plane had no connection to the U.S. government.

    Congress, spurred by controversy over the Hasenfus flight, eventually launched an investigation.

    Mr. Hasenfus was convicted in Nicaragua of charges related to his role in delivering arms to the Contras and sentenced to 30 years in prison. Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega pardoned Mr. Hasenfus a month later and he returned to his home in northern Wisconsin.

    In 1988, he filed an unsuccessful lawsuit seeking $135 million in damages against two men and two companies linked to the Iran-Contra arms deals.

    In 2003, he pleaded guilty in Brown County Circuit Court to a charge of lewd, lascivious behavior after he exposed himself in the parking lot of a grocery store. His probation was revoked in 2005 and he spent time in jail, according to online court records.

    He is survived by his four children and eight grandchildren.

  • Former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernández is freed from prison after a pardon from Trump

    Former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernández is freed from prison after a pardon from Trump

    TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras — Former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernández, sentenced last year to 45 years in prison for his role in a drug trafficking operation that moved hundreds of tons of cocaine to the United States, was released from prison following a pardon from President Donald Trump, officials confirmed Tuesday.

    Hernández was released Monday from U.S. Penitentiary Hazelton in West Virginia, a spokesperson for the Federal Bureau of Prisons told the Associated Press. The bureau’s online inmate records also reflected his release.

    The release of Hernández — a former U.S. ally whose conviction prosecutors said exposed the depth of cartel influence in Honduras — comes just days after the country’s presidential election. Trump defended the decision aboard Air Force One on Sunday, saying Hondurans believed Hernández had been “set up,” even as prosecutors argued he protected drug traffickers who moved hundreds of tons of cocaine through the country.

    The pardon also unfolds against the backdrop of Trump’s aggressive counter-narcotics push that has triggered intense controversy across Latin America. In recent months, U.S. forces have repeatedly struck vessels they say were ferrying drugs north, a series of lethal maritime attacks that the administration argues are lawful acts of war against drug cartels — and that critics say test the limits of international law and amount to a pressure campaign on Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro.

    The Trump administration has carried out 21 known strikes on vessels accused of carrying drugs, killing at least 83 people. The administration has justified the attacks as a necessary escalation to stem the flow of drugs into the United States and asserted the U.S. is engaged in an “armed conflict” with drug cartels, similar to the war against al-Qaida following the Sept. 11 attacks.

    Hernández’s wife applauds his release

    Ana García thanked Trump for pardoning her husband via the social platform X early Tuesday.

    Speaking to reporters Tuesday outside her home in Tegucigalpa, she thanked Trump for pardoning her husband and drew a parallel between the two men.

    “Today the whole world realizes that, like they did with President Donald Trump, the same Southern District, the same prosecutor created a political case,” García said.

    She said Hernández called her Monday evening to say he was in the office of the prison head and had been told he will be released. García said Hernández is in an undisclosed location for his safety, but that he plans to address the Honduran people on Wednesday.

    Hernández’s attorney Renato Stabile said in an emailed statement he also would not share the former president’s current location.

    García said the process to seek a pardon began several months ago with a petition to the office of pardons. Then on Oct. 28, Hernández’s birthday, he wrote a letter to Trump. He announced he was pardoning Hernández last Friday.

    “My husband is the president who has done the most for Honduras in the fight against organized crime,” Garcia said.

    Trump’s rationale for the pardon

    Trump was asked Sunday why he pardoned Hernández.

    “I was asked by Honduras, many of the people of Honduras,” Trump told reporters traveling with him on Air Force One.

    “The people of Honduras really thought he was set up, and it was a terrible thing,” he said.

    “They basically said he was a drug dealer because he was the president of the country. And they said it was a Biden administration setup,” Trump said. ”And I looked at the facts and I agreed with them.”

    Stabile, the attorney, said Hernández is glad the “ordeal” is over.

    “On behalf of President Hernández and his family I would like to thank President Trump for correcting this injustice,” Stabile said.

    Democratic lawmakers expressed condemnation and disbelief that Trump issued the pardon.

    “They prosecute him, find him guilty of selling narcotics through these cartels into the United States. Can you think of anyone more reprehensible than that? Selling drugs to this country, finding more victims by the day,” said Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois in a speech on the Senate floor.

    “This is not an action by a President trying to keep America safe from narcotics,” Durbin added.

    The Trump administration has declared drug cartels to be unlawful combatants and has carried out strikes in the Caribbean against boats the White House says were carrying drugs.

    The case against the former president

    Hernández was arrested at the request of the United States in February 2022, weeks after current President Xiomara Castro took office.

    Two years later, Hernández was sentenced to 45 years in prison in a New York federal courtroom for taking bribes from drug traffickers so they could safely move some 400 tons of cocaine north through Honduras to the United States.

    Hernández maintained throughout that he was innocent and the victim of revenge by drug traffickers he had helped extradite to the United States.

    During his sentencing, federal Judge P. Kevin Castel said the punishment should serve as a warning to “well educated, well dressed” individuals who gain power and think their status insulates them from justice when they do wrong.

    Hernández portrayed himself as a hero of the anti-drug trafficking movement who teamed up with American authorities under three U.S. presidential administrations to reduce drug imports.

    But the judge said trial evidence proved the opposite and that Hernández employed “considerable acting skills” to make it seem that he strongly opposed drug trafficking while he deployed his nation’s police and military to protect the drug trade.

    Hernández is not guaranteed a quick return to Honduras.

    Immediately after Trump announced his intention to pardon Hernández, Honduras Attorney General Johel Zelaya said via X that his office was obligated to seek justice and put an end to impunity.

    He did not specify what charges Hernández could face in Honduras. There were various corruption-related investigations of his administration across two terms in office that did not lead to charges against him. Castro, who oversaw Hernández’s arrest and extradition to the U.S., will remain in office until January.

    The pardon promised by Trump days before Honduras’ presidential election injected a new element into the contest that some said helped the candidate from his National Party Nasry Asfura as the vote count proceeded Tuesday.

  • Pope Leo XIV shares his thoughts on the conclave, reflects on spirituality and future travels

    Pope Leo XIV shares his thoughts on the conclave, reflects on spirituality and future travels

    ABOARD THE PAPAL PLANE — Pope Leo XIV on Tuesday shared for the first time what he was thinking when the votes started going his way during the conclave that elected him, saying he resigned himself to the inevitable and put the rest in God’s hands.

    “I took a deep breath. I said ‘Here we go Lord. You’re in charge and you lead the way,’” Leo told reporters during a wide-ranging airborne news conference coming home from his inaugural trip to Turkey and Lebanon.

    Leo fielded questions for a half-hour, responding easily in English, Spanish, and Italian about a variety of church and international news. He hinted at behind-the-scenes discussions about Hezbollah and Israel in Lebanon, urged dialogue rather than U.S. military threats on Venezuela and discussed his hoped-for future travels in Africa and South America, among other topics.

    But it was his remarks about the conclave and his papal learning curve that shed new light on Leo the man and what makes him tick. His responses, after seeming timid with the media early in his pontificate, showed he is much more comfortable now, is paying close attention to what is being reported about him, and that he has a good sense of humor about it.

    Leo was asked what he was thinking when he saw a huge crowd of people at one of his events in Lebanon, where it seemed as if the size had taken him by surprise. Leo suggested that wasn’t necessarily the case.

    “My face is very expressive but I’m oftentimes amused by how the journalists interpret my face,” he said. “It’s interesting. Sometimes I get really great ideas from all of you because you think you can read my mind or my face.”

    “You’re not always correct,” he added, to laughs.

    A spirituality that leaves everything up to God

    More instructive to understanding what he’s thinking, Leo said, would be to read up about his spirituality. Beyond St. Augustine, the fifth-century theologian who inspired his religious order and is Leo’s most-frequently cited church father, Leo recommended a book The Practice of the Presence of God, by a 17th-century Carmelite friar, Brother Lawrence.

    “It describes, if you will, a type of prayer and spirituality where one simply gives his life to the Lord and allows the Lord to lead. If you want to know something about me, that’s been my spirituality for many years,” he said.

    “In midst of great challenges — living in Peru during years of terrorism, being called to service in places where I never thought I’d be called to serve — I trust in God,” he said.

    That held true in the May conclave, he said, when the former Cardinal Robert Prevost was elected in a remarkably fast four ballots on the second day of voting. According to cardinals who participated, it was clear already by the third ballot that morning that the votes were going his way and that Prevost would be elected history’s first American pope.

    “I resigned myself to the fact when I saw how things were going and I said ‘This could be a reality,’” Leo said.

    Speaking to a reporter who is about to retire, Leo said he had had different plans for his future.

    “Just a year or two ago, I too thought about retiring some day,” he said. “You’ve received that gift apparently. Some of us will continue to work.”

    In Lebanon, Leo had a taste of what it’s like to be a pope on the road, and he said the enthusiasm of young Catholics was “awe-inspiring.”

    “I think to myself, ‘These people are here because they want to see the pope.’ But I say to myself, ‘They’re here because they want to see Jesus Christ and they want to see a messenger of peace,’” he said. “Just to listen to their enthusiasm and to hear their response to that message is something that I think is — that enthusiasm — is awe-inspiring.”

    “I just hope I never get tired of appreciating everything that all these young people are showing,” he said.

    On pressing international issues

    • Leo urged the United States to pursue dialogue and even exert economic pressure on Venezuela’s leaders to achieve its goals, rather than threats of military action. “The voices coming from the United States change, with a certain frequency at times,” he said. “I believe it’s better to look for ways of dialogue, perhaps pressure — including economic pressure — but looking for other ways to change, if that’s what the United States wants to do.”
    • Leo said he hopes to make his second trip as pope to Africa next year, visiting several countries but especially Algeria because of its important role in Christian-Muslim relations and its significance to St. Augustine, who inspired his religious order.
    • Leo also said he hoped to visit three countries in Latin America in either 2026 or 2027: Argentina, Uruguay and Peru, where he lived for two decades as a missionary. Argentina especially has been waiting for a papal visit after Pope Francis never went home after his 2013 election.
  • RFK Jr.’s vaccine advisers plan biggest change yet to childhood schedule

    RFK Jr.’s vaccine advisers plan biggest change yet to childhood schedule

    Federal vaccine advisers selected by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. are planning to vote on ending the practice of vaccinating all newborns for hepatitis B and to examine whether shots on the childhood immunization schedule are behind the rise of allergies and autoimmune disorders, the newly appointed chair of the group told the Washington Post.

    Kirk Milhoan, a pediatric cardiologist and critic of coronavirus vaccination who recently took over as chair of the influential vaccine panel, said members meeting Thursday and Friday are broadly scrutinizing vaccines recommended for children. The wide-ranging discussions on the timing of vaccines and ingredients could signal major changes to how children in the United States are vaccinated, marking the latest flash point in an accelerating reshaping of immunization policy under Kennedy.

    For decades, the childhood and adolescent immunization schedule has called for administering vaccines at set milestones. But Kennedy, the founder of an anti-vaccine group, has long linked the rise of chronic disease, autism, and food allergies in the U.S. to what he calls the “exploding vaccine schedule” — claims that have been rebutted by medical associations and extensive research into the safety of shots.

    The members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices are preparing to make their most significant change to the childhood vaccine schedule yet since Kennedy purged the panel and replaced members with experts who have largely been critical of public health vaccination practices.

    The new members plan to vote Thursday on scrapping the recommendation to give babies a dose of hepatitis B vaccine within 24 hours of birth if their mothers test negative for the virus. Instead, the panel is weighing a delay in that first dose byan interval that is “still being finalized,” Milhoan said. Vaccine advisers pushed back a vote on hepatitis B vaccine recommendations at their September meeting following disagreement.

    The birth dose has been credited for a 99% drop in infections in children and teens since the 1991 recommendation from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics, according to a 2023 study in the official journal of the U.S. Surgeon General.

    Critics of the birth dose, including Kennedy, say that it is unnecessary to vaccinate all children for the virus when the vast majority are not at risk for infection.

    Clinicians say the birth dose acts as a safety net to give infants immediate protection if they acquire the infection from mothers whose infection status is unknown, incorrectly documented or whose test results are delayed.

    ACIP makes recommendations to the CDC director on how approved vaccines should be used. CDC directors have almost always adopted the committee’s recommendations, which compel insurers to pay for vaccines and have traditionally guided pediatricians and medical organizations.

    The committee also plans to begin public discussions on its effort to review the childhood immunization schedule and the cumulative health effects of the dozens of shots children receive.

    “We’re looking at what may be causing some of the long-term changes we’re seeing in population data in children, specifically things such as asthma and eczema and other autoimmune diseases,” Milhoan said in an interview Monday.

    “What we’re trying to do is figure out if there are factors within vaccines,” he said, such as their ingredients or unintended substances contaminating them during manufacturing.

    Milhoan said the panel is focusing on the use of aluminum as an adjuvant, an ingredient added to vaccines to help the body produce an immune response strong enough to protect the person from the disease.

    Aluminum salts are in more than a dozen routinely recommended vaccines such as hepatitis A, hepatitis B, diphtheria-tetanus-containing vaccines, Haemophilus influenzae type B, HPV, and meningococcal B and pneumococcal vaccines. Adjuvants are essential because without them, the vaccine might not be able to trigger adequate immune responses.

    Aluminum salts have been used safely in vaccines for more than 70 years, according to the CDC. Aluminum-adjuvant-containing vaccines have only uncommonly been associated with severe local reactions, according to the Food and Drug Administration, which tests vaccines containing adjuvants extensively in clinical trials before they are licensed. The agency notes that the most common source of exposure to aluminum is food and drinking water.

    Public health and medical experts have raised alarms that the panel is moving toward recommending that only vaccines without aluminum adjuvants be used, a move that health and industry experts have said would be expensive and difficult on a practical level and could lead to shots being pulled from the market. Milhoan said the panel is not calling for the removal of aluminum from vaccines.

    “We’re not saying that at all,” he said. “We’re just starting to have the discussion.”

    The FDA generally has the responsibility to direct manufacturers to remove ingredients from vaccines. Some high-level FDA officials think that it would be infeasible to take aluminum adjuvants out of vaccines and that it cannot be done on any practical timeline, according to a senior federal health official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to be candid.

    Vaccine industry officials said that removing aluminum adjuvants from vaccines would cost billions of dollars and that finding a replacement would take years, according to people involved in the drug industry who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid publicly antagonizing the administration. The costs and technical complexities of doing so are enormous, one of the people said.

    The two-day ACIP meeting this week follows intense upheaval in the federal vaccination system.

    The committee has come under intense criticism from public health groups who accused the new members of botching and misstating science to further an agenda to undermine vaccines.

    Sean O’Leary, who chairs the infectious-diseases committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said revisions to the childhood immunization schedule by the newly reformulated ACIP “should not be trusted.”

    “Any changes they do make could be devastating to children’s health and public health as a whole,” O’Leary said in a briefing with reporters.

    Andrew Nixon, a spokesman for the Department of Health and Human Services, said in a statement that the vaccine panel “remains committed to evidence based decision making, and will carefully consider all data before any recommendation is made.”

    HHS announced Monday that Milhoan would be chair because his predecessor Martin Kulldorff, a Swedish biostatistician and prominent critic of the public health response to COVID, is joining the health agency in a staff role.

    Milhoan is affiliated with an organization that promoted ivermectin as a coronavirus treatment despite trials finding it is not effective, and in March, he called for mRNA vaccines to be halted.

    Former CDC director Susan Monarez said she was fired in August after refusing to rubber-stamp recommendations from the reformulated committee, and several top CDC officials resigned in protest.

    Last week, the CDC revised its website to contradict its longtime guidance that vaccines don’t cause autism. Kennedy told the New York Times he personally directed the change.

    On Friday, the nation’s top vaccine regulator, Vinay Prasad, announced plans to impose a more stringent approach to approving vaccines, including the annual flu shot, citing his team’s conclusion — without detailing the underlying evidence — that coronavirus vaccines had contributed to the deaths of at least 10 children.

    With the exception of the vote on hepatitis B vaccine, the federal vaccine advisers have not scheduled any other votes on the childhood vaccine schedule this week. According to the draft agenda, there are no presentations about vaccine effectiveness, access, equity or practical consequences of disrupting well-established schedules, which were always included before panel membership changed.

    Milhoan said vaccine benefits are well known and have been extensively discussed.

    “Not enough attention is being paid to risk,” he said.

  • ‘Franklin the Turtle’ publisher slams Hegseth post joking about boat strike

    ‘Franklin the Turtle’ publisher slams Hegseth post joking about boat strike

    The publisher of Franklin the Turtle, a Canadian book franchise aimed at preschoolers, has expressed criticism after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth appeared to make light of deadly boat strikes in Latin America by posting a doctored image that showed the well-known turtle character attacking the crew of a narcotics vessel.

    The Washington Post reported exclusively Friday that Hegseth gave a spoken order to kill the entire crew of a vessel thought to be ferrying narcotics in the Caribbean Sea, the first of more than 20 such strikes carried out by the administration since early September. When two survivors were detected, a military commander directed another strike to comply with Hegseth’s order that no one be left alive, the Post reported.

    In a post on X over the weekend, Hegseth shared an image of a doctored book cover, titled “Franklin Targets Narco Terrorists,” that depicted the elementary-school-aged turtle firing a rocket-propelled grenade at apparent drug traffickers. “For your Christmas wish list …” Hegseth wrote.

    In a statement late Monday, the cartoon’s publisher, Kids Can Press, issued a statement that did not name Hegseth, but said: “Franklin the Turtle is a beloved Canadian icon who has inspired generations of children and stands for kindness, empathy, and inclusivity. We strongly condemn any denigrating, violent or unauthorized use of Franklin’s name or image, which directly contradicts these values.”

    In an emailed response to a request for comment Tuesday, chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said, “We doubt Franklin the Turtle wants to be inclusive of drug cartels … or laud the kindness and empathy of narcoterrorists.”

    The Franklin the Turtle franchise began in 1986 and spans over 30 books, as the young turtle embarks on familiar coming-of-age milestones including falling in love, celebrating Thanksgiving and having a sleepover. The series has sold more than 65 million copies in over 30 languages, according to its publisher, and has been made into two educational television series and multiple movies.

    On Monday, Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer described Hegseth’s post as a “sick parody of a well-known children’s book,” and accused Hegseth of being childish and unserious. “This man is a national embarrassment. Tweeting memes in the middle of a potential armed conflict is something no serious military leader would ever even think of doing.”

    Pressure has been mounting on the Pentagon to provide a full accounting of its orders to target alleged narcotics traffickers in the Caribbean Sea with lethal force, in strikes that have killed more than 80 people to date. Following the Post’s report, lawmakers in the House and Senate pledged to open inquiries to see if a war crime was committed during the first strike, where the two survivors were targeted. Legal experts have said the survivors did not pose an imminent threat to U.S. personnel and thus were illegitimate targets.

    On Monday, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt acknowledged Hegseth had authorized the commander, Adm. Frank M. Bradley, to conduct the Sept. 2 strikes, while saying Bradley had “worked well within his authority and the law, directing the engagement to ensure the boat was destroyed.” Writing on social media Monday night, Hegseth said he stood by the admiral and “the combat decisions he has made.”

    The statements were seen as an attempt to distance Hegseth from the growing fallout from the strikes, with military officials expressing concern that he was attempting to insulate himself from any legal recourse and leave Bradley to face the fallout alone, the Post reported.