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Special envoy Steve Witkoff faced fierce backlash from lawmakers and Ukraine for praising Russian President Vladimir Putin as a “humanitarian” after Russia’s release of U.S. citizen Stephen Hubbard Wednesday.
Some Republicans joined Democrats in criticizing Witkoff’s remarks, which he made during talks in St. Petersberg. Russia’s war in Ukraine has killed hundreds of thousands of people.
“WTF, Steve?” Republican Sen. Thom Tillis (R-North Carolina) wrote on social media, alongside a picture of the dictionary definition of “humanitarian.” “What an embarrassing and outrageous thing to say.”
Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) called Putin “a stone cold killer,” while Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) said: “Vladimir Putin is not our friend, and he is certainly no humanitarian.”
Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) criticized “Witkoff’s pathetic fawning.”
The bipartisan backlash comes as Trump seeks successes ahead of the midterms, where Republicans are battling low presidential approval ratings and frustration over inflation.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday three waves of ballistic strikes were launched at Kyiv “by Russian ‘humanitarians’ since yesterday evening.“ He said the attack came “almost immediately after another round of talks.”
Zelensky said he is grateful to those who “acknowledges the reality.” “The aggressor deserves to be treated accordingly,” he added.
Showing that his trolling game is in postseason form, former NBA player Enes Kanter Freedom tried to take in Game 3 of the WNBA Finals on Wednesday night.
He never made it to his seat.
Freedom, an outspoken opponent of transgender athletes competing in women’s sports, was denied entry to State Farm Arena in Atlanta after refusing to watch the game from a private suite that the team had arranged in response to his concerns about his safety.
Freedom had purchased seats for the game and insisted on sitting in them. Video he posted to social media showed an arena official telling him he could enter State Farm Arena only if he agreed to watch from the suite, where additional security had been arranged.
“I purchased tickets, right?” Freedom said. “I would like to sit in my seat. That’s all I want.”
Freedom eventually left the arena and portrayed the episode as an attempt to silence his views. “I just got kicked out of a @WNBA game for the second time in a row for supporting WOMEN!” he wrote on X. “Let that sink in, AMERICA!”
Before the game, State Farm Arena said Freedom had contacted federal, state and local authorities, as well as the WNBA, Atlanta Dream and arena officials, to express concerns about his safety. Officials said the suite was intended to address those concerns and provide “a safe and positive experience” for Freedom and other fans.
The former NBA center has made transgender participation in women’s sports a public cause. Freedom and former NBA player Royce White have sought to provoke the league by declaring themselves women and candidates for the WNBA draft, part of a campaign challenging the league’s policies on transgender athletes.
Wednesday marked Freedom’s second confrontation at a WNBA game in recent months. He was ejected from a Chicago Sky game in August following a verbal exchange with guard Natasha Cloud and was later banned from the team’s arena.
He has not shied away from the attention his campaign has invited. Freedom appeared with Dennis Rodman at a Trump rally in Oklahoma earlier this month, where the president called him out from the stage and joked about Freedom’s purported plans to play in the WNBA.
With Freedom left outside the arena — and far from the cameras — the Dream defeated the Valkyries, 97-71, to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven WNBA Finals.
Federal health officials are investigating a multistate salmonella outbreak that has been linked to raw oysters and sickened 27 people across a dozen states.
Five of the cases have involved hospitalizations, health officials said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said an investigation is underway of infections linked to raw oysters harvested by the Little Wicomico Oyster Company from the Little Wicomico River’s harvest area in Virginia.
The company recalled oysters harvested from that area from Sept. 18 through Oct. 8. People are advised not to eat, sell or serve them, officials said.
The Virginia Department of Health has also temporarily closed the harvest area as a precaution.
Authorities said the Little Wicomico Oyster Company has contacted its customers. On Wednesday, a person who answered the phone at the company’s office and declined to give her full name said the company was “aggressively working” with health officials on the issue.
The Food and Drug Administration said the Little Wicomico Oyster Company’s recalled oysters were distributed to restaurants and retailers in California, Colorado, Connecticut, D.C., Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina, New Jersey, Nevada, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas and Virginia.
People who have been infected with salmonella may experience diarrhea, fever and stomach cramps, usually six hours to six days after swallowing the bacteria, health officials said.
A 79-year-old Colorado pastor who lost 35 pounds and the strength to walkafter being placed in immigration detention 13 months ago has been released by order of a federal magistrate judge.
The Rev. Edward Nalwamba left the Aurora Detention Center on Tuesday. U.S. Magistrate Judge Cyrus Y. Chung ruled that federal officials had “no concrete plan” to return him to Uganda, the country he fled 24 years ago, and had exceeded the “presumptively reasonable” six months of holding time.
The Rev. Phil Eberhart, lead pastor at Resurrection Anglican church outside Denver, where Nalwamba worked for years before his recent retirement, said the government ignored requests for a wheelchair and some advance notice so supporters could safely escort Nalwamba out of the detention center.
Instead, photos posted on social media show three other detainees carrying Nalwamba to a waiting vehicle.
Eberhart says Nalwamba had pneumonia for three weeks in detention, was never treated and has had a chest cough since June. The Department of Homeland Security has said claims that the pastor was denied medical treatment are false.
On Wednesday, DHS said Nalwamba had overstayed his visa for decades and resisted earlier rulings telling him to leave. Nalwamba and his attorneys say he tried repeatedly to hire attorneys and seek legal status but was scammed or made legal errors.
“The immigration system is the most opaque system in the government and it’s so broken it’s unbelievable,” Eberhart said. “The system is inhumane.”
Additional Coverage
President Donald Trump said he called Google’s Sundar Pichai to discuss renaming the Atlantic Ocean, but would “probably pass” after the chief executive told him: “Please don’t ask us to do that.”
Trump, who controversially renamed the Gulf of Mexico and Lake Ontario, floated the idea at a rally in South Carolina on Wednesday evening, saying: “We have a lake and we have a gulf, now we need a river and we need an ocean.”
He said he “called Google Maps, who were really great,” with the previous name changes, and asked Pichai if Google could “handle” a name change for the Atlantic.
Trump said Pichai responded: “No, no, no. This time, I’m not doing it,” and “Oceans are different, Sir,” as they border “a lot of countries.”
Google has not confirmed the call took place, and it did not immediately respond to an overnight request for comment.
Google, and other private companies that offer online maps, have generally acquiesced to Trump’s previous name changes for U.S. users.
Trump added he would “probably pass” on renaming the Atlantic Ocean following his call with Pichai, but mused he could rename the Pacific “the American Ocean” instead.
The Trump administration said Wednesday night that construction on President Donald Trump’s planned triumphal arch could begin immediately after the National Capital Planning Commission meets next month.
“Construction could commence as early as November 5, 2026,” if the commission approves the towering arch and the Interior Department formally authorizes it that same day, the Justice Department said in a court filing. A federal judge has been weighing whether to halt the project, but Trump officials have argued that intervention is premature given that work has not begun.
Trump has packed the commission, which reviews federal construction projects, with allies who are expected to approve his project. The administration this week added several political appointees as alternate commissioners, replacing career officials, ahead of next month’s vote.
Veterans groups, local advocacy organizations and historic preservationists have called for the administration to scale down the planned 250-foot arch or pick a different place to build it. Three Vietnam War veterans and a historic preservationist have sued to halt thework, saying the towering structure would interfere with their experience visiting nearby Arlington National Cemetery.
U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan, an Obama appointee who is reviewing the veterans’ case, has warned the administration not to abruptly begin construction on the arch — as Trump did when he demolished the White House’s East Wing to build his ballroom without seeking approval from federal review panels or from Congress.
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum — who has publicly touted plans to build the arch — has said that he has not approved it.
“A final decision on the undertaking will not be made until the National Capital Planning Commission completes its review,” Burgum wrote in an Oct. 9 letter to the commission.
Zookeepers aren’t sure how Dolly feels about her new name. But they say it matches the bold and feisty personality of their “most vocal” recent red panda cub.
National Zoo officials put it to the people, and they (more than 20,000 of them) were clear: Dolpa came in at 15 percent; Pyra netted 20 percent; and a nod to the country superstar took roughly 65 percent.
“With flaming locks of auburn fur and a cuteness that extends beyond the hours of 9 to 5, this little firecracker officially has a name,” officials said of their 4-month-old female cub, who was born in Front Royal, Virginia, at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute.
It’s not the only thing named for Dolly Parton. In late August, shortly after Parton’s death, the entity overseeing the Nashville International Airport voted to start the process of modifying the facility’s name in her honor. Three decades earlier, Dolly, the cloned sheep, helped set things in motion.
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