Senate IVF bill fails after Republicans block it, despite Trump support
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — A U.S. Senate bill aimed at enshrining federal protections and expanding insurance coverage for fertility treatments failed on Tuesday, as Republicans voted against it days after Donald Trump surprised supporters by voicing support for such a policy.
The bill failed 51-44, falling short of the required 60-vote threshold after most Republicans voted against it for the second time. Democrats control the chamber by a slim 51-49 margin.
The bill’s sponsor, Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth, first attempted to get a vote on the same bill in late February, after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled the embryos used in in vitro fertilization, or IVF, should be considered children, jeopardizing access to the treatment used by millions of Americans every year.
Republican presidential candidate Trump said in August he would require the government or insurance companies to pay for IVF if he is elected, surprising some hardline Republicans for whom the treatment is controversial. “We want to produce babies in this country, right?” Trump said during a town hall-style campaign event in La Crosse, Wisconsin.
Vance remarks on Harris are dangerous, White House says
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — The White House said on Tuesday that Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance’s comments about Vice President Kamala Harris not having faced an assassination attempt were dangerous.
Vance’s Republican running mate, former President Donald Trump, is seeking to best Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, in the Nov. 5 race for the White House.
Trump and Vance have escalated their attacks on Harris and Democrats since the Secret Service foiled what the FBI called an apparent assassination attempt against Trump on Sunday while the former president was golfing in West Palm Beach, Florida.
“The big difference between conservatives and liberals is that … no one has tried to kill Kamala Harris in the last couple of months and two people now have tried to kill Donald Trump in the last couple of months,” Vance, a U.S. senator from Ohio, said. He suggested Democrats “tone down” their criticism.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre suggested Vance’s language could put Harris in danger.
“When you make comments like that, all it does is … opens an opportunity for people to listen to you and potentially take you very seriously, and so it’s dangerous to have that type of rhetoric out there,” she told reporters on Tuesday.
FBI probing threatening letters sent to election officials in 6 states
WASHINGTON (Reuters) — The FBI and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service are investigating suspicious packages that were sent to election officials in six states on Monday, the law enforcement agency said in a statement on Tuesday.
Officials in Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Tennessee, Wyoming and Oklahoma were targeted.
The FBI said some of the letters contained an unknown substance that was being examined. The sender of the letters identified themselves as the “US Traitor Elimination Army,” Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold said in a post on X.
The threats to election officials come just weeks before Americans go to the polls on Nov. 15 to choose between Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and her Republican rival Donald Trump. The country is deeply polarized and on edge amid an increase in political violence and two assassination attempts against Trump.
The FBI said it was working to identify those responsible as well as a motive. It was also working to determine how many letters had been sent in total.
Nebraska Secretary of State Robert Evnen’s office said its elections division had received a “suspicious” envelope with a substance inside. It said the substance had been tested and found to be non-hazardous.
The threats follow similar letters sent to election officials in several states in November.
Venezuela arrests fourth US citizen this month, interior minister says
CARACAS (Reuters) — Venezuela has arrested a fourth American citizen since the start of this month, the country’s Interior Minister Diosdado Cabello said on Tuesday, without naming the person detained.
The American was arrested after taking photos of military units, power stations, and state entities, Cabello said during a National Assembly session which was broadcast on state television.
“Another citizen of North American origin was captured, an American we had been following was captured here in Caracas taking photos of electrical installations, oil installations, military units,” Cabello said.
On Saturday, Spain asked Venezuela for information regarding the arrest of two Spaniards, three US citizens and a Czech, following reports they were detained over an alleged plan to destabilize the country.
“Rest assured that this gentleman is part of the plan against Venezuela,” Cabello said.
Meta bans Russian state media for ‘foreign interference’
NEW YORK (Reuters) — Facebook owner Meta said on Monday it was banning RT, Rossiya Segodnya and other Russian state media networks from its platforms, claiming the outlets had used deceptive tactics to carry out covert influence operations online.
The ban, strongly criticised by the Kremlin, marks a sharp escalation in measures by the world’s biggest social media company against Russian state media, after years of more limited steps such as blocking the outlets from running ads and reducing the reach of their posts.
“After careful consideration, we expanded our ongoing enforcement against Russian state media outlets. Rossiya Segodnya, RT and other related entities are now banned from our apps globally for foreign interference activity,” the social media company said in a written statement.
A spokesperson for Alphabet’s YouTube also said the company terminated over 230 channels affiliated with Rossiya Segodnya and AVO TV Novosti, which were already blocked from viewers.
Ghislaine Maxwell’s sex-trafficking conviction upheld, appeal planned
NEW YORK (Reuters) — A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday upheld Ghislaine Maxwell’s conviction for helping the disgraced late financier Jeffrey Epstein sexually abuse teenage girls.
The decision by the Manhattan-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals means the British socialite will remain in a Florida prison, where she is serving a 20-year sentence.
A lawyer for Maxwell signaled she will appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Maxwell, 62, was convicted in December 2021 on five charges for having recruited and groomed four underage girls for Epstein, her former boyfriend, to abuse between 1994 and 2004.
Russian nuclear test chief says Moscow is ready to resume testing ‘at any moment’
(Reuters) — The head of Russia’s nuclear testing site said on Tuesday his secretive facility was ready to resume nuclear tests “at any moment” if Moscow gave the order, in rare comments likely to fuel concerns that the risk of such a step is rising.
Moscow has not conducted a nuclear weapons test since 1990, the year before the fall of the Soviet Union, but some Western and Russian analysts say President Vladimir Putin could order one to try to send a message of deterrence to the West if it lets Ukraine use its long-range missiles to strike Russia, something that is under discussion.
A nuclear test by Russia could encourage others such as China or the United States to follow suit, starting a new nuclear arms race between the big powers, which stopped nuclear testing in the years after the Soviet collapse.