US and Ukraine near an economic deal with mineral rights but no security promise, officials say
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine and the U.S. have reached an agreement on a framework for a broad economic deal that would include access to Ukraine's rare earth minerals, three senior Ukrainian officials said Tuesday.
The officials, who were familiar with the matter, spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. One of them said that Kyiv hopes that signing the agreement will ensure the continued flow of U.S. military support that Ukraine urgently needs.
The agreement could be signed as early as Friday and plans are being drawn up for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to travel to Washington to meet Trump, according to one of the Ukrainian officials.
Another official said the agreement would provide an opportunity for Zelenskyy and Trump to discuss continued military aid to Ukraine, which is why Kyiv is eager to finalize the deal.
President Donald Trump, speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, said he’d heard that Zelenskyy was coming and added that “it’s okay with me, if he’d like to, and he would like to sign it together with me.”
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House GOP pushes 'big' budget resolution to passage, a crucial step toward delivering Trump's agenda
WASHINGTON (AP) — With a push from President Donald Trump, House Republicans sent a GOP budget blueprint to passage Tuesday, a step toward delivering his “big, beautiful bill” with $4.5 trillion in tax breaks and $2 trillion in spending cuts despite a wall of opposition from Democrats and discomfort among Republicans.
House Speaker Mike Johnson had almost no votes to spare in his bare-bones GOP majority and fought on all fronts — against Democrats, uneasy rank-and-file Republicans and skeptical GOP senators — to advance the party’s signature legislative package. Trump made calls to wayward GOP lawmakers and invited Republicans to the White House.
The vote was 217-215, with a single Republican and all Democrats opposed, and the outcome was in jeopardy until the gavel.
“On a vote like this, you’re always going to have people you’re talking to all the way through the close of the vote,” Majority Leader Steve Scalise said before the roll call.
“We got it done,” the speaker said afterward.
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Fired cybersecurity chief for Veterans Affairs site warns that health and financial data is at risk
BOSTON (AP) — Sensitive financial and health data belonging to millions of veterans and stored on a benefits website is at risk of being stolen or otherwise compromised, according to a federal employee tasked with cybersecurity who was recently fired as part of massive government-wide cuts.
The warning comes from Jonathan Kamens, who led cybersecurity efforts for VA.gov — an online portal for Department of Veterans Affairs benefits and services used by veterans, their caregivers and families. Kamens was fired Feb. 14 and said he doesn't believe his role will be filled, leaving the site particularly vulnerable.
“Given how the government has been functioning for the last month, I don’t think the people at VA ... are going to be able to replace me,” Kamens told The Associated Press Monday evening. “I think they’re going to be lacking essential oversight over cybersecurity processes for VA.gov."
Kamens said he was hired over a year ago by the U.S. Digital Service, whose employees' duties have been integrated into presidential adviser Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, which is leading the downsizing effort. Kamens was a digital services expert and the VA site's information security lead when he was fired by email at night, along with about 40 other USDS employees, he said.
Millions of people use the VA.gov website monthly, Kamens said, and the department is responsible for securing private health and financial information including bank account numbers and credit card numbers. Others on the team will focus on protecting the site, but his expertise can't be replaced, he said, noting he was the only government employee with an engineering technical background working on cybersecurity.
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The White House says it 'will determine' which news outlets cover Trump, rotating traditional ones
The White House said Tuesday that its officials “will determine” which news outlets can regularly cover President Donald Trump up close — a sharp break from a century of tradition in which a pool of independently chosen news organizations go where the chief executive does and hold him accountable on behalf of regular Americans.
The move, coupled with the government’s arguments this week in a federal lawsuit over access filed by The Associated Press, represented an unprecedented seizing of control over coverage of the American presidency by any administration. Free speech advocates expressed alarm.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the changes would rotate traditional outlets from the group and include some streaming services. Leavitt cast the change as a modernization of the press pool, saying the move would be more inclusive and restore “access back to the American people” who elected Trump. But media experts said the move raised troubling First Amendment issues because the president is choosing who covers him.
"The White House press team, in this administration, will determine who gets to enjoy the very privileged and limited access in spaces such as Air Force One and the Oval Office," Leavitt said at a daily briefing. She added at another point: “A select group of D.C.-based journalists should no longer have a monopoly of press access at the White House.”
Leavitt said the White House will “double down” on its decision to bar the AP from many presidential events, a departure from the time-tested and sometimes contentious practice for more than a century of a pool of journalists from every platform sharing the presidents' words and activities with news outlets and congressional offices that can't attend the close-quarter events. Traditionally, the members of the pool decide who goes in small spaces such as the Oval Office and Air Force One.
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Federal technology staffers resign rather than help Musk and DOGE
WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 20 civil service employees resigned Tuesday from billionaire Trump adviser Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency, saying they were refusing to use their technical expertise to “dismantle critical public services.”
“We swore to serve the American people and uphold our oath to the Constitution across presidential administrations,” the 21 staffers wrote in a joint resignation letter, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press. “However, it has become clear that we can no longer honor those commitments.”
The employees also warned that many of those enlisted by Musk to help him slash the size of the federal government under President Donald Trump's administration were political ideologues who did not have the necessary skills or experience for the task ahead of them.
The mass resignation of engineers, data scientists, designers and product managers is a temporary setback for Musk and the Republican president's tech-driven purge of the federal workforce. It comes amid a flurry of court challenges that have sought to stall, stop or unwind their efforts to fire or coerce thousands of government workers out of jobs.
In a statement, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt was dismissive of the mass resignation.
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Vatican says Pope Francis is critical but stable with no new respiratory crises
ROME (AP) — Pope Francis was in critical but stable condition Tuesday as he worked from the hospital while battling double pneumonia, and the Vatican announced some major governing decisions that suggest he is getting essential work done and looking ahead.
The Vatican’s evening update said the 88-year-old pope had had no new respiratory crises and that his blood parameters were stable. He underwent a follow-up CAT scan Tuesday evening to check the lung infection, but no results were provided. Doctors said his prognosis remained guarded.
“In the morning, after receiving the Eucharist, he resumed work activities,” the Vatican statement said.
The Vatican's Tuesday noon bulletin contained a series of significant decisions Francis had taken, most importantly that he had met on Monday with Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, the Vatican “substitute” or chief of staff.
It was the first known time the pope had met with Parolin, who is essentially the Vatican prime minister, since his Feb. 14 hospitalization and the first outsider known to have called on Francis since Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni visited Feb. 19.
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Southwest Airlines flight abruptly rises to avoid another plane crossing Chicago runway
CHICAGO (AP) — Pilots on a Southwest Airlines flight attempting to land at Chicago's Midway Airport were forced to climb back into the sky to avoid another aircraft crossing the runway on Tuesday morning.
Airport webcam video posted to X shows the Southwest plane approaching a runway just before 9 a.m. Tuesday before its nose abruptly pulls up. A smaller jet is seen crossing the runway that the passenger plane was set to use.
Southwest Flight 2504 safely landed “after the crew performed a precautionary go-around to avoid a possible conflict with another aircraft that entered the runway,” an airline spokesperson said in an email. “The crew followed safety procedures and the flight landed without incident."
Audio recording of communication between the smaller jet and the control tower recorded its pilot misstating instructions from a ground tower employee, who repeated that the pilot should “hold short” of a runway. About 30 seconds later, the ground tower ordered the pilot “hold your position there.”
The tower employee is then heard saying: “FlexJet560, your instructions were to hold short of runway 31 center.”
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A mystery illness in Congo has killed more than 50 people hours after they felt sick
KINSHASA, Congo (AP) — An unknown illness first discovered in three children who ate a bat has rapidly killed more than 50 people in northwestern Congo over the past five weeks, health experts say.
The interval between the onset of symptoms – which include fever, vomiting and internal bleeding – and death has been 48 hours in most cases and “that’s what’s really worrying,” said Serge Ngalebato, medical director of Bikoro Hospital, a regional monitoring center.
These “hemorrhagic fever” symptoms are commonly linked to known deadly viruses, such as Ebola, dengue, Marburg and yellow fever, but researchers have ruled these out based on tests of more than a dozen samples collected so far.
The latest disease outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo began on Jan. 21, with 419 cases recorded and 53 deaths.
The outbreak began in the village of Boloko after three children ate a bat and died within 48 hours, the Africa office of the World Health Organization said Monday.
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Asteroid 2024 YR4 is no longer a threat to Earth, scientists say
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Scientists have finally given the all-clear to Earth from a newly discovered asteroid.
After two months of observations, scientists have almost fully ruled out any threat from the asteroid 2024 YR4, NASA and the European Space Agency said Tuesday.
At one point, the odds of a strike in 2032 were as high as about 3% and topped the world’s asteroid-risk lists.
ESA has since lowered the odds to 0.001%. NASA has it down to 0.0017% — meaning the asteroid will safely pass Earth in 2032 and there's no threat of impact for the next century.
Paul Chodas, who heads NASA’s Center for Near Earth Objects Studies, said there is no chance the odds will rise at this point and that an impact in 2032 has been ruled out.
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Diana Taurasi of the Phoenix Mercury retires after 20 WNBA seasons, 3 titles and 6 Olympic golds
PHOENIX (AP) — Diana Taurasi is retiring after 20 seasons, ending one of the greatest careers in women's basketball history.
The WNBA's career scoring leader and a three-time league champion, Taurasi announced her retirement on Tuesday in an interview with Time magazine. The Phoenix Mercury — the only WNBA team she played for — also confirmed her decision.
“Mentally and physically, I’m just full,” Taurasi told Time. “That’s probably the best way I can describe it. I’m full and I’m happy.”
With her taut hair bun and supreme confidence, Taurasi inspired a generation of players while racking up records and championships.
Taurasi led UConn to three straight national titles from 2001-04 and kept on winning after the Mercury selected her with the No. 1 overall pick of the 2004 WNBA draft.
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