Sen. John Fetterman hospitalized after fall near his home
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(PITTSBURGH) — Sen. John Fetterman’s office said the Pennsylvania Democrat is under “routine observation” in a Pittsburgh hospital after he fell during an early morning walk Thursday near his home in Braddock, Pennsylvania.
“It was established he had a ventricular fibrillation flare-up that led to Senator Fetterman feeling light-headed, falling to the ground and hitting his face with minor injuries,” a statement from his office said.
“If you thought my face looked bad before, wait until you see it now!” Fetterman said, according to the statement.
Fetterman opted to stay in the hospital so doctors can “fine-tune his medication regimen,” the statement said.
Fetterman suffered a stroke in May 2022 during the Democratic primary for the state’s open Senate seat. Despite his condition limiting his campaigning, he won the Democratic nomination and later defeated Dr. Mehmet Oz, now President Donald Trump’s Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator, in the general election.
The following February, Fetterman was hospitalized for several days of observation after feeling lightheaded, though his aides said testing ruled out seizures or another stroke.
Weeks later, Fetterman checked himself into a Washington hospital for treatment of depression.
“While John has experienced depression off and on throughout his life, it only became severe in recent weeks,” Adam Jentleson, his chief of staff, said at the time.
The Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History is seen from the Washington Monument on June 3, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kevin Carter/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie Bunch III asserted the Smithsonian Institution’s control over its programming and content this week in a letter addressed to the White House after the Trump administration demanded a review of the institution’s exhibits, a Smithsonian official confirmed to ABC News.
The White House announced last month that it plans to conduct a wide-ranging review of the Smithsonian’s museum exhibitions, materials and operations to ensure they align with President Donald Trump’s view of American history.
In the Sept. 3 letter, Bunch responded to Trump’s demand that his administration review the Smithsonian’s exhibitions, materials and operations. It also said that the Smithsonian, which is the world’s largest museum complex, will remain control over programming and content and that it will do its own review of exhibits, material and operations, the official told ABC News.
Following its internal review, Bunch said he will brief the White House on its findings, but the Smithsonian will not be sending a formal report to the White House, the Smithsonian official added. The museum’s review of exhibits is expected to be complete by the end of the year.
Asked about the Smithsonian’s internal review and whether the White House will insist on being involved, a White House official told ABC News that the Smithsonian “cannot credibly audit itself.”
“The Smithsonian is not an autonomous institution, as 70% of its funding comes from taxpayers. While we acknowledge the Smithsonian’s recognition of its own programmatic failures and is moving toward critical introspection, it cannot credibly audit itself,” White House official Lindsey Halligan said. “By definition, an ‘audit’ must be neutral and objective. The American taxpayers deserve nothing less, which is why the White House will ensure the audit is conducted impartially. This is non-negotiable.”
ABC News reached out to the Smithsonian but a request for comment was not immediately returned.
Bunch, who met with Trump at the White House on Aug. 28 over lunch, referenced the Smithsonian’s response to the White House and his conversations with Trump during the lunch in a Sept. 3 letter to the institution’s employees, which was obtained by ABC News.
In the letter, Bunch told Smithsonian employees that he communicated to the president during their Aug. 28 meeting that the Smithsonian’s “independence is paramount.” He also told employees that the Institution remains committed to telling the “American story” and “will always be, a place that welcomes all Americans and the world.”
And in response to the White House’s request for information, Bunch informed employees that he has assembled a small team to advise him regarding what information can be provided to the White House and on what timeline.
The White House’s demand for a review comes after the president signed an executive order on March 27, placing Vice President J.D. Vance in charge of supervising efforts to “remove improper ideology” from all areas of the Smithsonian and targeted funding for programs that advance “divisive narratives” and “improper ideology.”
The order — called “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History” — directed Vance and Interior Department Secretary Doug Burgum to restore federal parks, monuments, memorials and statues “that have been improperly removed or changed in the last five years to perpetuate a false revision of history or improperly minimize or disparage certain historical figures or events.”
The Smithsonian also affirmed its autonomy from outside influences in a June 9 statement after Trump announced that he fired National Portrait Gallery head Kim Sajet for allegedly being a “highly partisan person.” Sajet resigned on June 13, a Smithsonian spokesperson confirmed to ABC News.
But in an Aug. 12 letter sent to Bunch, the White House said that administration officials will be leading a “comprehensive internal review of selected Smithsonian museums and exhibitions” in order “to ensure alignment with the President’s directive to celebrate American exceptionalism, remove divisive or partisan narratives, and restore confidence in our shared cultural institutions.”
The American Historical Association (AHA), which represents more than 10,000 historians in the country, including some who work at the Smithsonian, released a statement on Aug. 15 reaffirming its support for the Smithsonian and its historians, including curators who put together the exhibits.
“The AHA urges the administration and the American public to respect and value the expertise of the historians, curators, and other museum professionals who conduct the review and revision of historical content according to the professional standards of our discipline,” the AHA said in the statement. “Historians practice our craft with integrity. Political interference into professional curatorial practices and museum and educational content places at risk the integrity and accuracy of historical interpretation and stands to erode public trust in our shared institutions.”
ABC News’ John Santucci, Hannah Demissie and Michelle Stoddart contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) President Donald Trump and Hungary’s autocratic leader Viktor Orban, whom Trump has repeatedly praised as a “strongman,” will meet at the White House on Friday.
Expected to be part of the talks is Russia’s war in Ukraine, specifically new U.S. sanctions targeting two of Moscow’s largest oil companies and their subsidiaries that are set to go into effect on Nov. 21.
Last week, Trump said Orban wanted an exemption from the sanctions.
“He has asked for an exemption. We haven’t granted one, but he has asked. He’s a friend of mine. He’s asked for an exemption,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One.
Orban was recently going to play host to a summit between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, before Trump called the proposed meeting off amid frustration with the lack of progress in peace talks.
Trump said they had picked Budapest, Hungary as the location because both he and Putin liked Orban.
“He’s been a very good leader in the sense of running his country,” Trump said of Orban.
Ahead of Friday’s meeting, Orban posted on X that he hoped to “open a new chapter in Hungarian–American relations with President Trump.”
“Our goal is to establish a strategic partnership that includes energy cooperation, investments, defence collaboration, and discussions on the post-war landscape following the Russia–Ukraine conflict. We are working on an agreement based on mutual benefits, one that serves the interests of every Hungarian citizen,” Orban wrote.
Trump also welcomed Orban to the White House during his first term, in 2019, breaking from his predecessors who had shunned Hungary’s prime minister from Washington.
The two men met several times when Trump was out of office at his Florida estate, including during the summer of the 2024 campaign and after Trump became president-elect.
Orban has been embraced by many prominent American conservatives over his positions on immigration and LGBTQ issues, and has spoken several times at the Conservative Political Action Conference. Orban hosted a CPAC event in Hungary earlier this year.
Trump praised Orban during the ABC News September 2024 presidential debate with then-Vice President Kamala Harris, after Harris claimed Trump was not respected on the world stage.
“Let me just tell you about world leaders. Viktor Orban, one of the most respected men — they call him a strong man. He’s a tough person. Smart. Prime Minister of Hungary. They said why is the whole world blowing up? Three years ago it wasn’t. Why is it blowing up? He said because you need Trump back as president,” Trump said during the debate.
The United Nations headquarters is seen in Manhattan on Sept. 9, 2025 as the annual U.N. General Assembly, the 80th, began with thousands of delegates and world leaders expected to attend over the next few weeks. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — President Donald Trump and foreign world leaders will meet this week at the United Nations General Assembly where Trump is expected to deliver the first address of his second term to the annual gathering of global leaders on Tuesday — though Trump will largely be isolated from more than half of the member nations and key allies over the war in Gaza.
All eyes will be on Trump, who in recent months has initiated massive cuts to U.S. foreign aid since his return to the White House, eliminating support for U.N. agencies and aid as overseas humanitarian crises continue to grow.
Trump’s appearance at the 80th session of the U.N. General Assembly comes as several prominent world leaders — and key allies — of the U.S. are set to formally recognize Palestinian statehood as international alarm continues to build over the ongoing war and starvation crisis in Gaza.
On Monday, France and Saudi Arabia will hold an international peace conference in support of the two-state solution that will take place in New York. France and several other countries are expected to recognize Palestinian statehood, joining more than 140 countries which have already recognized Palestinian statehood.
Leaders from the United Kingdom, France, and Canada have maintained there should be an end to the war in Gaza, including the immediate release of all remaining hostages, and the understanding that Hamas would no longer be a leading authority in Gaza after the war.
The French have said that 10 countries would formally recognize Palestinian statehood at the meeting — Andorra, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Luxembourg, Portugal, Malta, Britain and San Marino alongside France.
The U.S. will not participate in the conference and was one of only 10 countries who voted against the General Assembly resolution backing the high-level gathering.
Israel, for its part, has vowed to take action in retaliation of the formal recognition, which may include annexing parts of the occupied West Bank.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was unequivocal in rejecting the planned international conference in a statement Sunday.”I have a clear message to those leaders who recognize a Palestinian state after the terrible massacre on October 7th, 2023: You are giving a huge reward to terrorism,” Netanyahu said.
“And I have another message for you: It will not happen. A Palestinian state will not be established west of the Jordan River.”
Critics of the recognition — which include the U.S. and the Israeli governments — have long condemned the plan, saying it only moves to embolden Hamas and further isolate Israel and the Trump administration on the international stage.
U.S. officials have said the action is largely “performative” and “symbolic” and will do nothing to help mend the relationship between the Palestinians and the Israeli government.
“I think much of that is a reaction to several nations around the world deciding to unilaterally declare a Palestinian state,” said Secretary of State Marco Rubio on reports that Israel was seriously debating annexing parts of the West Bank, which some say would be illegal under international law.
“We warned them that we thought that was counterproductive. We actually think its undermined negotiations, because it emboldened Hamas, and we think it undermines future prospects of peace in the region. We thought it was unwise to do that, and I think you’re seeing that as a counterreaction,” Rubio told reporters last week.
The U.S. — Israel’s main ally — has opposed the recognition and last month moved to deny and revoke visas to the Palestinian delegation, including for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas ahead of Monday’s international conference, accusing the Palestinian leadership of undermining peace efforts. The Palestinian state holds permanent observer status at the U.N. and is not a full-blown member state.
But on Friday, the U.N. General Assembly voted overwhelming to allow Abbas to address this week’s gathering of world leaders virtually after the Trump administration declined to grant Abbas a visa. The motion passed by a vote of 145-5 with six abstentions. The U.S. and Israel voted against the motion.
On Sunday, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia formally recognized a Palestinian state — three countries who are some of the U.S. and Israel’s closest allies. The move came after an official state visit from Trump to the United Kingdom, during which he voiced his disapproval of the plan.
Other experts remain wary of the recognition, suggesting that while the acknowledgment of a Palestinian state is a long-overdue decision, it must be accompanied with more concrete action against the Israeli occupation, which launched a ground invasion last week. Such action could include an arms embargo, sanctions and more support for international tribunals investigating Israel’s possible crimes.
Trump is expected to meet with Netanyahu on the sidelines at this year’s UNGA.
Trump is also expected to meet with other foreign leaders throughout the week, including Syria’s President Ahmed al-Sharaa, who will be a prominent new addition to the gathering. The meeting with Trump will mark their second meeting this year as the Syrian leader confronts the challenges of rebuilding the country after years of civil war under Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
Iran’s nuclear program will also be a top-agenda item this year as sanctions against Tehran that were lifted 10 years ago are set to be reinstated. France, Germany and the United Kingdom moved last month to trigger the “snapback mechanism,” which automatically reimposes all U.N. sanctions that were in effect before the nuclear deal.
Trump will also meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the sidelines this week over promised postwar security guarantees, which Zelenskyy has said are critical to resolving the war with Russia. Russian President Vladmir Putin has so far refused to engage in a good faith effort to end the war after almost four years of fighting.
