Melania Trump says she and Putin communicating about children affected by war
First Lady Melania Trump. Aaron Chown-WPA Pool/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — First lady Melania Trump announced Friday that she and Russian President Vladimir Putin have had an “open channel of communication” regarding children impacted by the Russian-Ukraine war.
“We have agreed to cooperate with each other for the benefit of all people involved in this war,” she said.
“In fact, eight children have been rejoined with their families during the past 24 hours,” she added.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks during a press briefing in the Brady Press Briefing Room at the White House on August 28, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — A rare political standoff continued between the leader of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Trump administration continued on Thursday, leaving CDC Director Susan Monarez’s termination in limbo as high-level CDC officials resigned in protest.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters President Donald Trump had fired Monarez, saying Monarez “was not aligned with the president’s mission to make America healthy again.”
“It was President Trump who was overwhelmingly reelected on November 5,” Leavitt said. “This woman has never received a vote in her life, and the president has the authority to fire those who are not aligned with his mission.”
Leavitt said her replacement will be announced “very soon” either by Trump or by Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
But immediately after the White House press briefing, Monarez’s attorneys pushed back that she still hasn’t heard directly from the president and thus hasn’t been officially terminated from her job — her stance since Wednesday.
“[White House press secretary] can say whatever she wants because thankfully free speech still exists in this country. But it doesn’t make her comments factually true, even when from a White House podium,” attorney Mark Zaid wrote on X.
Monarez’s attorneys maintain that she will respect the decision of the president himself, but said they have not had any further communication with the White House since Wednesday night, when a White House staffer notified her that she’d been fired. They don’t consider the notification substantial enough because she is a Senate-confirmed, presidential appointee.
Further legal routes, if they don’t hear from the president, are “under consideration,” Zaid told ABC News. In the meantime, Monarez does not have access to her work office or email, he said.
Meanwhile, President Trump has yet to publicly weigh in on the dispute.
Kennedy, at a news conference about rural health in Texas on Thursday, said Monarez was “let go.”
“There’s a lot of trouble at CDC, and it can require getting rid of some people over the long term in order for us to change the institutional culture and bring back pride and self esteem and make that agency the stellar agency that it’s always been,” Kennedy said.
Monarez’s attorneys say the administration is attempting to oust her for “protecting the public” over serving “a political agenda.” The dispute began as a disagreement over demands from Kennedy and his top staff for Monarez to support changes to COVID vaccine policy and the firings of high-level staff, which Monarez would not commit to, a source familiar with the conversations told ABC News.
After HHS said on Wednesday that Monarez was no longer director of the agency, four other senior career officials at the CDC also resigned, according to emails obtained by ABC News.
Republican Sen. Bill Cassidy, a deciding vote on Kennedy’s confirmation to lead HHS as chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, wrote on X that the “high profile departures will require oversight by the HELP Committee.”
Cassidy also called for the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), a committee that reviews vaccine data and determines nationwide recommendations, to be indefinitely postponed following the CDC staff shakeups. The next meeting of the agency’s vaccine panel is scheduled for September 18 and 19.
“Serious allegations have been made about the meeting agenda, membership, and lack of scientific process being followed for the now announced September ACIP meeting. These decisions directly impact children’s health and the meeting should not occur until significant oversight has been conducted,” Cassidy said in a statement on Thursday.
The White House on Thursday was asked about Trump’s stance on COVID vaccines, specifically whether he believes they should be available and covered by insurance for all Americans, regardless of age and pre-existing conditions.
The question came after the FDA on Wednesday approved updated COVID-19 vaccines for only high-risk Americans, a narrower scope than in the past.
The new, more limited FDA approval for the vaccines questions about accessibility — whether people will still be able to get the vaccines easily in pharmacies, rather than doctors offices — and insurance coverage, which is often determined by the CDC advisory committee’s recommendations. The list price, without coverage, for certain COVID vaccines is over $100.
“The reason for the revocation of that emergency youth authorization is because, obviously, the COVID pandemic and the public health emergency is over,” Leavitt said. “But just to correct the record, because there’s been a lot of misinformation on this, the FDA decision does not affect the availability of COVID vaccines for Americans who want them.”
“We believe in individual choice. That’s a promise both the president and the secretary have made. It’s a promise they have now delivered on,” Leavitt said.
(NEW YORK) — President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping met for their first face-to-face talks in six years with hopes of ending a monthslong trade war — a meeting that came shortly after Trump said the U.S. would “immediately” begin testing nuclear weapons, which it has not done in more than 30 years.
The meeting at an air base in Busan, South Korea, lasted roughly 1 hour and 45 minutes. Leading up to the meeting, Trump said it could last three to four hours.
The two leaders appeared to be in good spirits leaving the meeting, exchanging a brief word and shaking hands. Trump is now headed back to Washington.
There was no immediate readout of high-profile talks.
The two shared a handshake for the cameras ahead of the meeting and, in brief remarks, projected optimism about the U.S.-China relationship.
“I think we’ve already agreed to a lot of things, and we’ll agree to some more right now, but President Xi is a great leader of a great country, and I think we’re going to have a fantastic relationship for a long period of time,” Trump said.
Xi said, since Trump’s reelection, the two leaders have spoken three times on the phone.
“Given our different national conditions, we do not always see eye-to-eye with each other, and it is normal for the two leading economies of the world to have frictions now and then,” Xi said through an interpreter.
But he said the relationship between the two countries remained “stable on the whole.”
About an hour before the meeting was set to start, Trump posted on his social media platform, touting U.S. nuclear capacity and saying he had ordered the Pentagon to resume nuclear testing on an “equal basis” to other countries’ testing programs, which will begin “immediately.”
The U.S. has “observed a voluntary moratorium on nuclear explosive testing since 1992,” according to the Congressional Research Service, though it has maintained the ability to resume the tests.
“The United States has more Nuclear Weapons than any other country,” Trump said in the post, adding “Russia is second, and China is a distant third, but will be even within 5 years.”
The post went on to say, “Because of other countries testing programs, I have instructed the Department of War to start testing our Nuclear Weapons on an equal basis. That process will begin immediately.”
After negotiations in Malaysia earlier this week, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said U.S. and Chinese officials agreed to a framework around trade talks. But ultimately, it’s up to the two leaders to finalize the deal.
Even if truces are made and deadlines extended, experts say any breakthrough will only offer temporary relief: short-term adjustments rather than structural change to one of the world’s most consequential relationships.
What’s on the table in talks Weeks ago, China announced it would dramatically expand restrictions on rare earth minerals — materials key for producing computer chips that are needed for everything including smartphones, AI systems and defense technology. The new rules mean that foreign firms must get Chinese government approval to export products that have even trace amounts of certain rare earths that originate from China.
Bessent said China has agreed to delay its restrictions by one year. But that’s not a lot of time, certainly not enough build viable alternatives to China.
And experts say restrictions on rare earths are part of Beijing’s long-term plans. While they can delay these controls, it still gives Beijing powerful leverage for years to come.
The rare earth export restrictions are part of a “broader shift in China’s approach to economic diplomacy,” said Neil Thomas, a fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis.
“It’s been studying the U.S. export control regime and absorbing the lessons of just how powerful a diplomatic tool can be. … Beijing wants Washington to reduce its own export controls on China,” Thomas said.
Tariffs are also to be a main topic of the talks.
In response to China’s rare earth controls, Trump threatened to impose additional 100% tariffs on China. Bessent says that threat is now off the table.
But Nov. 10 is another deadline: That’s when the 90-day truce on the sky-high tariffs on each country expires. Bessent says he expects an extension, but even with this truce, tariffs on goods from both countries remain in the double digits.
Trump imposed 20% tariffs on China earlier this year over claims that China has failed to crack down on exporting chemicals used to make fentanyl. Trump said he expects to lower those fentanyl tariffs. The flow of fentanyl precursor chemicals has been a longstanding challenge between the U.S. and China.
Bessent said the deal with China also addresses the concerns from American soybean farmers. China has turned to Argentina for soybeans during the trade war, a shift that has deepened financial pressure on U.S. farmers.
Bloomberg and Reuters report that China has purchased a few soybean cargoes — its first purchases from this year’s U.S. harvest. ABC News has reached out to the White House and Treasury Department for comment. While this could be temporary relief, the long-term trend is that China has been steadily reducing its reliance on the U.S.
Plus, the TikTok deal to keep the hugely popular app operating in the United States could be finalized during their meeting. Bessent said on Sunday his “remit was to get the Chinese to agree to approve the transaction” and he believes “we successfully accomplished that” during their negotiations in Malaysia.
The White House announced last month the deal would create a joint venture majority owned by U.S. investors, with Oracle overseeing the algorithm.
Some experts say President Xi is angling for President Trump to signal a shift in U.S. support for Taiwan, the democratically governed island that Beijing claims as its own.
Trump played down the issue, telling reporters he doesn’t know if they’ll even mention Taiwan, which relies on the U.S. for political and military backing.
Also on the foreign policy front, Trump wants Xi to use his sway over Russian President Vladimir Putin to help end the war in Ukraine and to stop buying Russian energy.
(WASHINGTON) — President Barack Obama gave a group of war heroes a surprise they will never forget.
The former president surprised a flight of Korean and Vietnam War veterans on an honor flight from Madison, Wisconsin, to Washington, D.C., ahead of Veterans Day, according to a video he posted on X.
“Ahead of Veterans Day, I was honored to welcome a flight of veterans and their families as they arrived in DC. To all those who bravely served our country, thank you to you and your family for your extraordinary service. The sacrifices that all of you have made to protect our country will be honored, today and every day,” Obama posted alongside the video on X.
Obama came aboard the flight and shared a special message on the intercom of the plane for the veterans.
“Hello, everybody. As we approach Veterans Day, I wanted to stop by and just say thank you for your extraordinary service. To you, your family, the sacrifices that all of you made to protect our country is something that will always be honored, and we are very grateful,” Obama can be seen telling the veterans upon touchdown in D.C. in the video.
The veterans were flying to D.C. on behalf of the Honor Flight Network, a nonprofit that provides flights to veterans and their families to visit monuments in the nation’s capital.
“Participation in an Honor Flight trip gives veterans the opportunity to share this momentous occasion with other comrades, remember the fallen, and share their stories and experiences with other veterans. Honored veterans always travel free of charge, thanks to generous donations to our organization,” their website reads.
The nonprofit has flown over 300,000 veterans to D.C. in the past 20 years, according to their website.
Obama also took to his Medium account to reflect on meeting the veterans and thank all who have served in the U.S. military for their service.
“To all those who bravely served our country, thank you to you and your family for your extraordinary service. The sacrifices that all of you have made to protect our country will be honored, today and every day,” Obama said.
The Honor Flight Network did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
