Trump's lawyers meet with prosecutors; Putin's declared deployment of nuclear weapons raises tensions; Angels won't trade Ohtani | Top headlines for July 27 & 28, 2023

On the version of Hot off the Wire posted July 27 at 4 p.m. CT: Lawyers for Donald Trump have met with members of special counsel Jack Smith’s team ahead of a potential indictment over the former president’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election. With heat waves spreading across the United States, President Joe Biden has announced new steps to protect workers, improve weather forecasts and make drinking water more accessible. A derailment of an Amtrak train in Montana that killed three people in 2021 was caused by a poor track conditions at the accident site, federal investigators said in a final report on the accident. Russian President Vladimir Putin says the fighting in the Zaporizhzhia region of southeastern Ukraine has “intensified significantly.” At least 100,000 people in the U.S. have become allergic to red meat since 2010 because of a weird syndrome triggered by tick bites. Sometime this summer, if President Vladimir Putin can be believed, Russia moved some of its short-range nuclear weapons into Belarus, closer to Ukraine and onto the doorstep of NATO’s members in Central and Eastern Europe. The declared deployment of the weapons onto the territory of its neighbor and loyal ally marks a new stage in the Kremlin’s nuclear saber-rattling over its invasion of Ukraine. Shohei Ohtani is staying with the Los Angeles Angels, at least for the rest of the season. The playoff-contending team said Thursday it has decided not to deal the two-way superstar, just days before MLB’s trade deadline. LeBron James says his family is “safe and healthy” three days after his oldest son, Bronny, went into cardiac arrest. President Joe Biden says the first cancer-focused initiative under his advanced health research agency is a “major milestone in the fight to end cancer as we know it.” Archaeologists said Wednesday that the ruins of Nero’s Theater have been discovered under the garden of the future Four Seasons Hotel. —The Associated Press About this program Host Terry Lipshetz is a senior producer for Lee Enterprises. Besides producing the daily Hot off the Wire news podcast, Terry conducts periodic interviews for this Behind the Headlines program, co-hosts the Streamed & Screened movies and television program and is the producer of Across the Sky, a podcast dedicated to weather and climate. Lee Enterprises produces many national, regional and sports podcasts. Learn more here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.