News briefs

Tribune News Service on Aug 27, 2026

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Cassidy says abortion pill makers turn blind eye to safety

WASHINGTON— Sen. Bill Cassidy is accusing abortion pill manufacturers of not meeting their legal responsibilities to ensure compliance with Food and Drug Administration safety regulations, especially when pills are sold online through third-party providers.

A report issued Thursday by Cassidy, chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, follows the panel’s monthslong investigation into the three mifepristone manufacturers: Danco Laboratories, GenBioPro and Evita Solutions.

The report calls on legal and regulatory authorities to take action.

Republicans have rallied around safety concerns of medication abortion since the Biden administration expanded mail-order access to the pill during the COVID-19 pandemic. Conservatives also argue mailing pills across state lines undermines state abortion restrictions.

—CQ Roll-Call

Trump praises Ted Cruz ahead of possible 2028 presidential run

President Donald Trump on Thursday praised Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, as the one-time rival mulls a possible 2028 Republican presidential run that could see him face off with Vice President JD Vance.

Responding to a reporter’s question about Cruz “teasing” a White House campaign, Trump had nothing but compliments for the man he famously derided as “Lyin’ Ted” during their 2016 Republican primary dogfight.

“I would say that he’s very talented. He’s a very good friend of mine,” Trump said of Cruz at an unrelated White House event. “I think he might do that, yeah. He’s a talented guy.”

If Cruz runs, the Texas conservative would likely find himself locked in a race against Trump’s Vice President JD Vance and maybe Secretary of State Marco Rubio as well.

—New York Daily News

Defense rests in Tupac slaying trial. Soon, a jury will decide the outcome

LAS VEGAS — The defense rested Thursday in the trial over the slaying of Tupac Shakur in 1996.

A defense attorney for Duane Davis, 63, and prosecutors will make their final pitch to the jury in closing arguments Monday.

Davis is the only person to be prosecuted in connection with the slaying of Shakur, who died Sept. 13, 1996, days after the shooting near the Strip.

Prosecutors have said Davis was the “shot-caller” who came up with the plan to exact revenge on the rapper and Death Row Records CEO Marion “Suge” Knight in retaliation for an attack by Shakur and his entourage against Davis’ nephew, Orlando Anderson, earlier that night at the MGM Grand.

Davis is accused of being a leader in the South Side Compton Crips during the 1990s.

—Las Vegas Review-Journal

Putin moves to escalate war in Ukraine as talks at dead end

Russia is preparing to escalate attacks on Ukraine after concluding that negotiations for a peace deal have reached a dead end, according to three people close to the Kremlin.

For now, Russia is weighing an intensification of powerful conventional ballistic missile attacks on Kyiv, including the center of the capital, and infrastructure targets in other Ukrainian cities, the people said, asking not to be identified because the matter is sensitive.

Negotiation frameworks have effectively collapsed, leaving the two warring sides back at square one, the people said. Putin won’t end the war under economic pressure from sanctions and Ukrainian attacks on Russian refineries and logistics networks, they said.

Moscow increasingly views the Ukrainian strikes as attacks by NATO states because alliance members supply Kyiv with weapons and intelligence, the people said. The current phase of hostilities isn’t the peak of military escalation, they said.

—Bloomberg News

From beaches to battery fires, California moves to outlaw disposable vapes

Vape pens and other disposable e-cigarettes could soon be illegal in California.

On Wednesday, the state assembly approved Assembly Bill 762, which if signed by the governor, will make the battery-powered disposable devices illegal to manufacture, distribute or sell in the state. The bill passed the state Senate on Tuesday.

“We are hopeful the Governor will recognize the threat these devices pose to our communities and that the costs of cleaning up the mess these devices leave are borne by ratepayers,” said the bill’s sponsor, Assemblywoman Jacqui Irwin, a Thousand Oaks Democrat, in a press release.

The bill targets single-use, battery-embedded electronic cigarettes containing tobacco products. Cannabis devices are exempt. To be legal under the new law, a vaping device must be both refillable (or use replaceable pods) and have a rechargeable battery.

Vapes have become a trash plague on streets, beaches and in parks where they leak toxic chemicals such as, lead, lithium, cobalt, cadmium, chromium, copper, zinc, nickel, microplastics and battery acid.

—Los Angeles Times