Texas lawmakers approve letting private citizens sue abortion pill providers

Texas lawmakers on Wednesday approved letting private citizens sue abortion pill manufacturers, doctors and anyone who mails the medication, setting the state up to be the first to try to crack down on the most common abortion method.

The law would be the first of its kind in the U.S. and add another layer of abortion restrictions in Texas, which has some of the toughest in the country and already bans nearly all abortions.

The bill now goes to Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, an abortion opponent who is expected to sign it into law. It would take effect in December, though it is nearly certain to spark legal challenges from abortion rights supporters.

Supporters of the proposal, which passed a final vote in the GOP-controlled Texas Senate, call it a key tool to enforce the state’s ban and protect women and fetuses. Opponents see it as not only another way to rein in abortion but intimidate providers outside Texas who are complying with the laws in their states. They also say it would encourage a form of vigilantism.

Under the measure, Texas residents could sue those who manufacture, transport or provide abortion-inducing drugs to anyone in Texas for up to $100,000. Women who receive the pills for their own use would not be liable.

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Florida plans to become first state to eliminate all childhood vaccine mandates

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Florida plans to become the first state to eliminate vaccine mandates, a longtime cornerstone of public health policy for keeping schoolchildren and adults safe from infectious diseases.

State Surgeon General Dr. Joseph Ladapo, who announced the decision Wednesday, cast current requirements in schools and elsewhere as “immoral” intrusions on people’s rights that hamper parents’ ability to make health decisions for their children.

“People have a right to make their own decisions, informed decisions,” Ladapo, who has frequently clashed with the medical establishment, said at a news conference in Valrico. “They don’t have the right to tell you what to put in your body. Take it away from them.”

Florida’s move, a significant departure from decades of public policy and research that has shown vaccines to be safe and the most effective way to stop the spread of communicable diseases, especially among schoolchildren, is a notable embrace of the Trump administration’s agenda led by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime anti-vaccine activist.

Dr. Rana Alissa, chair of the Florida Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said removing vaccines puts students and school staff at greater risk.

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Epstein survivors implore Congress to act as push for disclosure builds

WASHINGTON (AP) — Survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse made their voices heard Wednesday on Capitol Hill, pressuring lawmakers to force the release of the sex trafficking investigation into the late financier and pushing back on President Donald Trump’s effort to dismiss the issue as a “hoax.”

In a news conference on the Capitol lawn that drew hundreds of supporters and chants of “release the files,” the women shared — some publicly for the first time — how they were lured into Epstein’s abuse by his former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell. They demanded that the Trump administration provide transparency and accountability for what they endured as teenagers.

It was a striking stand as the push for disclosure of the so-called Epstein files reaches a pivotal moment in Washington. Lawmakers are battling over how Congress should delve into the Epstein saga while the Republican president, after initially signaling support for transparency on the campaign trail, has been dismissing the matter as a “Democrat hoax.”

“No matter what you do it’s going to keep going,” Trump said Wednesday. He added, “Really, I think it’s enough.”

But the survivors on Capitol Hill, as well as at least one of Trump’s closest allies in Congress, disagreed. Some of the women pleaded for Trump to support their cause.

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Famed streetcar in Lisbon, Portugal, derails and crashes, killing 15 people

LISBON, Portugal (AP) — A picturesque electric streetcar that is one of Lisbon’s big tourist attractions derailed and crashed Wednesday, killing 15 people and injuring 18 others, emergency services said.

Five of the injured were in serious condition and a child was among the injured, Portugal’s National Institute for Medical Emergencies said in a statement, adding that an unknown number of foreigners were among the injured.

Authorities called it an accident, the worst in the city’s recent history, and it cast a pall over Lisbon’s charm for the millions of foreign tourists who arrive every year. Officials did not immediately provide a cause of the crash.

The yellow-and-white streetcar, which is known as Elevador da Gloria and goes up and down a steep downtown hill, was lying on its side on the narrow road that it travels on, its sides and top crumpled. It appeared to have crashed into a building where the road bends, leaving parts of the mostly metal vehicle crushed.

“It hit the building with brutal force and fell apart like a cardboard box…” Teresa d’Avó told Portuguese TV channel SIC. She described the streetcar as out-of-control and seeming to have no brakes, and said she watched passersby run into the middle of the nearby Avenida da Liberdade, or Freedom Avenue, the city’s main thoroughfare.

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Judge reverses Trump administration’s cuts of billions of dollars to Harvard University

BOSTON (AP) — A federal judge in Boston on Wednesday ordered the Trump administration to reverse its cuts of more than $2.6 billion in research funding for Harvard University, delivering a significant victory to the Ivy League school in its battle with the White House.

U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs ruled the cuts amounted to illegal retaliation for Harvard’s rejection of the Trump administration’s demands for changes to Harvard’s governance and policies.

The government had tied the funding freezes to Harvard’s delays in dealing with antisemitism, but the judge said the university’s federally backed research had little connection to discrimination against Jews.

“A review of the administrative record makes it difficult to conclude anything other than that (the government) used antisemitism as a smokescreen for a targeted, ideologically-motivated assault on this country’s premier universities,” Burroughs wrote. The country must fight antisemitism, she wrote, but it also must protect the right to free speech.

The ruling reverses a series of funding freezes that later became outright cuts as the Trump administration escalated its fight with the nation’s wealthiest university. The administration also has sought to prevent the school from hosting foreign students and threatened to revoke its tax-exempt status in a clash watched widely across higher education.

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Trump says US strike targeting Venezuelan gang will cause cartels to think twice

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday justified the lethal military strike that his administration said was carried out a day earlier against a Venezuelan gang as a necessary effort by the United States to send an unmistakable message to Latin American cartels.

Asked why the military did not instead interdict the vessel and capture those on board, Trump said the operation would cause drug smugglers to think twice about trying to move drugs into the U.S.

“There was massive amounts of drugs coming into our country to kill a lot of people, and everybody fully understands that,” Trump said while hosting Polish President Karol Nawrocki at the White House. He added, “Obviously, they won’t be doing it again. And I think a lot of other people won’t be doing it again. When they watch that tape, they’re going to say, ‘Let’s not do this.’”

Tuesday’s strike was an astonishing departure from typical U.S. drug interdiction efforts at a time when Trump has ordered a major Navy buildup in the waters near Venezuela.

Later Wednesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned that such operations “will happen again.”

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Trump suggests National Guard could go into New Orleans, a blue city in a red state

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump suggested Wednesday that New Orleans could be his next target for deploying the National Guard to fight crime, potentially expanding the number of cities around the nation where he may send federal law enforcement.

Trump has already said he plans to send the National Guard into Chicago and Baltimore following his administration deploying troops and federal agents to patrol the streets of Washington, D.C., last month.

“So we’re making a determination now,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office during a meeting with Polish President Karol Nawrocki. “Do we go to Chicago? Do we go to a place like New Orleans, where we have a great governor, Jeff Landry, who wants us to come in and straighten out a very nice section of this country that’s become quite, you know, quite tough, quite bad.”

Trump now frequently boasts about turning Washington into a “safe zone.” The White House reports more than 1,760 arrests citywide since the president first announced he was mobilizing federal forces on Aug. 7.

But Washington is a federal district subject to laws giving Trump power to take over the local police force for up to 30 days. The decision to use troops to attempt to quell crime in other Democratic-controlled cities around the country would represent an important escalation.

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With Israeli advance looming, Palestinians in Gaza City ask when to leave and where to go

DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip (AP) — As artillery and bombs pound around Gaza’s largest city and Israel promises a punishing new offensive, Palestinians in the city are paralyzed with fear — unsure where to go, when to leave and if they will ever return.

Israel has declared Gaza City, in the north of the territory, to be a combat zone while the military moves forward with plans to overtake it in a campaign to push Hamas into submission. Parts of the city are already considered “red zones,” where Palestinians have been ordered to evacuate ahead of expected heavy fighting.

That has left residents on edge, including many who returned after fleeing the city in the initial stages of the Israel-Hamas war. With Israeli bulldozers razing the ground in occupied neighborhoods and Israeli leaders supporting the mass relocation of Palestinians from Gaza, departing the city now could mean leaving for good. Moving costs thousands of dollars and finding space in the overcrowded south to pitch a tent feels impossible. But staying behind, they say, could be deadly.

“The Israeli forces, when they mark any area by red color and they request the people to leave, they really will destroy it,” said Mohammed Alkurdi, who is sheltering in Gaza City along with hundreds of thousands of other Palestinians.

“So it’s like you decide whether to live or die. It’s very simple like that.”

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‘Ketamine Queen’ pleads guilty to selling fatal dose to Matthew Perry

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A woman branded as the “Ketamine Queen” pleaded guilty Wednesday to selling Matthew Perry the drug that killed him, becoming the fifth and final defendant charged in Perry’s overdose death to admit guilt.

Jasveen Sangha pleaded guilty to five federal charges, including providing the ketamine that led to Perry’s death. Her trial had been planned to start later this month.

Perry’s mother, Suzanne Perry, and his stepfather, “Dateline” reporter Keith Morrison, sat in the audience. It was their first time attending court proceedings since the announcement of the indictments one year ago.

Wearing tan jail garb, Sangha stood in court Wednesday next to her attorney Mark Geragos as she repeated “guilty” five times when U.S. District Court Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett asked for her pleas.

Before that, she answered “yes, your honor” to dozens of procedural questions, hedging slightly when the judge asked if she knew the drugs she was giving to co-defendant and middleman Erik Fleming were going to Perry.

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Conservative news network Newsmax files antitrust lawsuit against Fox News

NEW YORK (AP) — The conservative news network Newsmax filed an antitrust lawsuit against Fox News on Wednesday, saying Fox has sought to maintain its market dominance through intimidation and exclusionary business practices designed to stifle competition.

Fox has sought to block television distributors from carrying Newsmax or minimize its exposure, pressured guests not to appear on the rival network and hired private detectives to investigate Newsmax executives, said the lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in south Florida. Newsmax seeks a jury trial.

Fox, in a statement, said “Newsmax cannot sue their way out of their own competitive failures in the marketplace to chase headlines simply because they can’t attract viewers.”

Newsmax, which has operated since 2014, is attacking Fox News at perhaps its most popular point: the cable network’s opinion programming has consistently beaten broadcast networks ABC, CBS and NBC in prime time over the summer months.

Its rivals pointed at a series of hardball business tactics in the complex world of television distribution. Fox’s success enables it to charge distributors “outsized” fees to carry the network, and it tries to force distributors either not to carry competitors who seek access to conservative viewers or make it hard to find them.