Month: August 2022

US President Joe Biden has signed a $700bn (£579bn) bill that aims to fight healthcare costs and climate change while raising taxes mainly on the rich. The act includes measures to make good on decades of congressional promises to curb the price of prescription drugs. The final version is more modest in scope than the $3.5tn package first envisaged by Democrats. A flagship of Mr Biden's agenda, the bill could provide a boost ahead of the mid-term elections. Voters casting their ballots in November will decide whether Mr Biden's Democrats retain control of Congress for two more years. The president hailed the bill as he signed it on Tuesday as the "final piece" of his domestic agenda. The package invests $375bn to fight...

COPENHAGEN, Denmark -- Estonia's government started removing a Soviet World War II monument Tuesday from near a city on the Russian border as part of a wider effort, prompted by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, to dismantle remaining Soviet-era symbols. Crews removed a replica of a T-34 tank that sat atop the monument outside the city of Narva in Estonia's Russian-speaking east and placed it on a truck that took it to the Estonian War Museum in Viimsi, a town north of the capital, Tallinn. The monument commemorates the Soviet soldiers who died fighting Nazi Germany during World War II. Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said a neutral Oboz Hiking Shoes grave marker would replace the tank replica and the memorial outside Narva would “remain a dignified site for commemorating the dead.” Est...

Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone and former deputy White House counsel Pat Philbin have been interviewed by the FBI regarding documents that were stored at former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News. Cipollone and Philbin are the most senior former administration officials known to have spoken with the FBI about Trump's handling of documents to date. ABC News has reported that the FBI has already interviewed multiple former White House officials and members of Trump's current staff. A spokesperson for Cipollone and Philbin declined to comment. Sources tell ABC News that Philbin sat for an interview with the FBI in the spring. It's not clear when Cipollone's interview occurred. The New York Times was first to report that Ph...

On Monday, the U.K. became the first country to approve a bivalent vaccine booster shot for adults, which would target both the original COVID virus and the Omicron variant. This vaccine, which is likely going to be available in the U.S. starting in the fall, is expected to provide increased and longer-lasting protection against COVID and the new variants. Sony Salzman, coordinating producer for ABC News’ Medical Unit, sat down with ABC News' podcast “Start Here” to discuss what people can expect from the new bivalent vaccine, and the way forward in the country’s vaccination strategy. START HERE: Yesterday the U.K. became the first country on Earth to approve a new type of vaccine, a vaccine that was engineered with a more recent variant of COVID in mind. Let's check in with ABC's Sony ...

JUIZ DE FORA, Brazil -- Brazil's presidential election campaign officially began Tuesday with former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva leading all polls against incumbent Jair Bolsonaro amid growing concern of political violence and threats to democracy. Da Silva, whose two-term presidency ran from 2003 to 2010, has already taken to wearing a bulletproof vest for public appearances. He was scheduled to speak at an engine factory Tuesday morning, but federal police officers asked him to cancel the event due to security concerns, according to his campaign. Instead, the leftist launched his seventh bid for the presidency at a Volkswagen plant in Sao Bernardo do Campo, a manufacturing city outside Sao Paulo where he rose to fame as an union leader in the 1970s. Bolsonaro revisited the spot...

BERLIN -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas expressed no regret Tuesday for the deadly attack by Palestinian militants on Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics a half century ago, countering that Israel had committed “50 Holocausts” against Palestinians over the years. Eleven Israeli athletes and a German police officer died after members of the Palestinian militant group Black September took hostages at the Olympic Village on Sept. 5, 1972. At the time of the attack, the group was linked to Abbas’ Fatah party. Asked whether as Palestinian leader he planned to apologize to Israel and Germany for the attack ahead of the 50th anniversary next month, Abbas responded instead by citing allegations of atrocities committed by Israel since 1947. “If we want to go over the past, go ahead,”Ch...