Propped up in her hospital bed, railway conductor Olha Zolotova speaks slowly and quietly as she talks about the day her train was hit by a Russian drone.
"When the Shahed [drone] hit I was covered in rubble. I was in the second car. People pulled me out," she says.
"My eyes went dark. There was fire everywhere, everything was burning, my hair caught fire a little. I was trapped."
Olha is a victim of Russia's increasingly frequent attacks on the Ukrainian railway system – vital infrastructure that keeps the country moving three and a half years since Moscow's full-scale invasion.
Ukraine's 21,000km-long (13,000-mile) railway system is not merely a mode of transport, it is a central pillar of Ukraine's war effort and a powerful national symbol of resilience.
Russia intensifies attacks on Ukraine's trains in 'battle for the railways'
Trump says he authorized covert CIA operations in Venezuela as Maduro decries the move as ‘coups d’etat’
Donald Trump said on Wednesday he had authorized the CIA to carry out covert operations in Venezuela, marking a sharp escalation in his administration’s pressure campaign against Nicolás Maduro’s government.
Trump further suggested he was considering strikes on Venezuelan territory, a dramatic step that would go beyond a series of recent lethal attacks on boats in the Caribbean, which Democrats and United Nations experts have forcefully condemned as unlawful.
Maduro decried what he called “coups d’etat orchestrated by the CIA” after Trump’s comments.
“No to war in the Caribbean … No to regime change … No to coups d’etat orchestrated by the CIA,” the leftist leader said in an address to a committee set up after Washington deployed warships in the Caribbean for what it said was an anti-drug operation.
Trump’s remarks about the CIA confirmed an earlier story from the New York Times, which had reported on a classified directive about the secretive operation in Venezuela.
‘He may be watching’: Mamdani on Fox News speaks directly to Trump
Zohran Mamdani, the leading candidate to be the next mayor of New York, stepped into the lion’s den on Wednesday when he sat for an interview with Fox News, the rightwing news organization that has spent weeks demonizing him and his democratic socialist goals.
Speaking to host Martha MacCallum, Mamdani was asked about funding for his proposals, which include freezing increases on rent-stabilized apartments, providing free buses and offering free childcare – and whether other services would be cut to achieve those goals.
“I don’t think we have to cut,” Mamdani said. “I’ve spoken about raising taxes on the wealthiest. And, frankly, this is an issue that we have here in New York City, and, frankly, even across this country.”
Mamdani said he had spoken to people who voted for Donald Trump in New York who told him it was the “cost of living” that “drove them to vote” for the president.
Mamdani said that, despite that, “what we’re seeing time and time again is we’re more focused on the question of billionaires and the most profitable corporations than we are on people who can’t even afford to make ends meet in the city”.
US Capitol police investigating flag with swastika in Republican representative’s office – report
US Capitol police are reportedly investigating after a US flag bearing a swastika was discovered inside the office of Republican House member Dave Taylor of Ohio.
The image, obtained by Politico, shows a modified flag featuring red and white stripes arranged in the form of a swastika – which is virtually synonymous with the Nazis’ genocidal regime. The flag was displayed on what appears to be a cubicle wall behind Angelo Elia, one of Taylor’s staff members, during a virtual meeting.
Other items pinned nearby include a pocket constitution and a congressional calendar. It remains unclear whether Elia had any connection to the display.
“I am aware of an image that appears to depict a vile and deeply inappropriate symbol near an employee in my office,” Taylor said in a statement to the Cincinnati Enquirer.
“The content of that image does not reflect the values or standards of this office, my staff, or myself, and I condemn it in the strongest terms. Upon learning of this matter, I immediately directed a thorough investigation alongside Capitol Police, which remains ongoing. No further comment will be provided until it has been completed.”
Brown University rejects Trump proposal to overhaul policies for preferential funding
Brown University has become the second higher-education institution to turn down an invitation from Donald Trump to sign onto his administration’s 10-page college compact that would overhaul university policies in return for preferential access to federal funding.
The “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education” is a proposed agreement that would impose restrictions on diversity, equity and inclusion programs and limits on international student enrollment.
Brown’s move comes after the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) refused to sign it last week.
In a letter sent on Wednesday to administration officials, Brown’s president, Christina Paxson, said she was concerned that the compact “by its nature and by various provisions would restrict academic freedom and undermine the autonomy of Brown’s governance”.
She added: “Additionally, a fundamental part of academic excellence is awarding research funding on the merits of the research being proposed. The cover letter describing the compact contemplates funding research on criteria other than the soundness and likely impact of research, which would ultimately damage the health and prosperity of Americans.”
Jack Smith speaks out against the Trump administration in rare interview
Jack Smith, the special counsel who brought two criminal cases against Donald Trump, spoke out against the Trump administration in a rare interview posted Tuesday.
Smith, who resigned from the Justice Department in January shortly before Trump returned to office as president, warned that attacks on public servants would have an “incalculable” cost on the country.
“I think the attacks on public servants, particularly nonpartisan public servants — I think it has a cost for our country that is incalculable, and I think that we — it’s hard to communicate to folks how much that is going to cost us,” Smith said in an interview last week with former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissman at University College London Faculty of Laws, where Weissman is a visiting professor.
Reached for comment on Smith's interview, the White House said, “The Trump Administration will continue to deliver the truth to the American people while restoring integrity and accountability to our justice system.” The Justice Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Exonerated after serving 40-plus years, he's now detained by ICE
In early October, after 43 years behind bars for a murder he apparently did not commit, Subramanyam “Subu” Vedam was ordered released.
But a day later, before he had even set foot outside the Pennsylvania prison where he has lived for decades, Vedam was taken into ICE custody. Now Vedam, 64, is on the verge of being sent back to a country he last lived in as an infant.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement cited a 1988 deportation order for the murder conviction and a drug crime in justifying his detention and deportation. Vedam’s exoneration for murder did not clear his drug conviction.
His family members, including a niece, are devastated by the likelihood that they will lose Vedam yet again.
"All we want is for him to be home with us and to be able to move forward in life," Zoë Miller-Vedam told USA TODAY from her home in California.
Judge temporarily blocks Trump administration from firing workers during government shutdown
President Trump's administration for now must stop firing workers during the government shutdown, a federal judge ordered on Wednesday.
U.S. District Judge Susan Illston in San Francisco said the cuts appeared to be politically motivated and were being carried out without much thought.
"It's very much ready, fire, aim on most of these programs, and it has a human cost," she said. "It's a human cost that cannot be tolerated."
She granted a temporary restraining order blocking the job cuts, saying she believed the evidence would ultimately show the cuts were illegal and in excess of authority.
The judge's decision came after federal agencies on Friday started issuing layoff notices aimed at reducing the size of the federal government.
The layoff notices are part of an effort by the Trump administration to exert more pressure on Democratic lawmakers as the government shutdown continues. Russell Vought, the head of the White House Office of Management and Budget, said earlier Wednesday that the number of layoffs could reach more than 10,000.
Trump revives Mamdani attack, threatens to send troops to NYC if ‘Communist' wins
President Donald Trump is renewing his threats against New York City, suggesting he'll withhold federal funds and deploy the National Guard, as he did in other major cities, if Zohran Mamdani is elected mayor.
Speaking Tuesday at the White House, Trump hurled insults at the Democratic candidate anew.
"We have a Communist, 33 years old, doesn't know a thing, probably never worked a day in his life, and he sort of caught on. I'm not going to send a lot of money to New Yorkhttps://tse3.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIF.i1lDsFxaLYUz%2fHU8dP3MqA&pid=Api&h=220&P=0," Trump said. "We're not going to ruin one of our great cities, because we'll make that great. We will clean up the crime in about 30 days."
"It took 12 days to do Washington, DC, so New York is bigger, and Chicago, we've already made a lot of progress despite fighting from the government. All of these cities, we want to clean them up," he added. "We don't like that opposition. But if somebody is going to be a communist mayor of New York. It's a fluke if he gets in."
The comments add to an arsenal Trump has wielded against the city. A day after Eric Adams dropped his reelection bid, Trump called Mamdani "one of the best things to ever happen to our great Republican party," and threatened to withhold federal funds should he win. He called him a Communist, as he did again Tuesday.
Mamdani had no immediate comment on the latest jab. He appeared at an event with Gov. Kathy Hochul Tuesday night, their first joint appearance since she endorsed him a month ago, noting some philosophical differences. Hochul has pledged to have Mamdani's back, as well as New York's state, when it comes to Trump.
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