As President Trump was leaving a Sept. 12 Congressional Medal of Honor Society event in the White House, Epoch Times photojournalist Samira Bouaou broke protocol by entering a restricted area and handing Trump a purple folder. "Trump accepted the folder and appeared to open it briefly as he departed before quickly shutting it," The Washington Post reported Tuesday, citing several news photographers who witnessed the event. "It was not clear what was inside the folder. Photographers who asked Bouaou afterward why she did it and what the folder contained said she declined to provide details."

White House Press Secretary has discussed Bouaou's folder situation with the White House Correspondents' Association executive board, and the White House has reviewed the incident, but nobody will say anything about it on the record. One White House official told the Post that the matter has been "dealt with." Bouaou, who had recently received a Secret Service pass to attend White House briefings and other events, has not been seen at the White House since the encounter, other photographers say.

The Epoch Times, launched in New York in 2000 by a group of Chinese Americans, is believed to have close ties to the Falun Gong spiritual group, an affiliation the newspaper denies. Falun Gong and the Epoch Times are both banned in China. Ming Xia, a political science professor at the Graduate Center at the City University of New York, tells the Post that the newspaper's part-time journalists "support the Falun Gong because they are Falun Gong practitioners. ... They are not professional journalists and they do not follow the protocols professional journalists abide by. That's how they can be very pushy and aggressive." Xia said the Falun Gong is eager to exploit Trump's hardline stance on Beijing. Peter Weber

A Southern California surgeon who appeared on Bravo's 2014 reality show Online Dating Rituals of the American Male and was once named Orange County's Most Eligible Bachelor stands accused of drugging and raping two women, with prosecutors saying there are likely other victims out there.

On Tuesday, prosecutors alleged that Dr. Grant William Robicheaux, 38, of Newport Beach, and his girlfriend, Cerissa Laura Riley, 31, of Brea, drugged and raped two women in 2016. Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas described Robicheaux and Riley as being "clean-cut, good-looking people," and said they went looking for women at bars and festivals. One of the victims contacted police in April 2016 after she was allegedly raped, and on Oct. 2, 2016, one of Robicheaux's neighbors called police when he heard a different woman screaming for help from inside his house.

The Los Angeles Times reports that during subsequent search warrants, police found cocaine, MDMA, GBH, and illegal unregistered weapons inside Robicheaux's house, as well as several videos, including one showing sex acts with a victim. The investigation was turned over to prosecutors from Newport Beach police on Sept. 6, charges were filed Sept. 11, and Robicheaux and Riley were arrested Sept. 12; both are now free on $100,000 bail. They face multiple felony counts, including rape by drugs and oral copulation by anesthesia. The Times asked a Newport Beach police spokesperson why it took so long for the arrests to be made, and was told the "evidence initially did not meet the standard to make an arrest." Catherine Garcia

Are you confused about what's going on with the proposed Senate testimony of Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford, the woman who says Kavanaugh tried to rape her in the early 1980s? It is a complicated and fluid situation, but CNN's Chris Cuomo broke out the whiteboard on Tuesday night to outline the facts and game out the possible outcomes. For starters, Cuomo said, he doesn't see Kavanaugh and Ford testifying about the alleged incident on Monday, as Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) proposed.

"This is about politics," Cuomo said. The FBI can — if President Trump allows it — and should investigate Ford's allegations, and Kavanaugh should want the feds to clear his name, Cuomo said. An FBI probe would bring a delay, and "if it doesn't happen, if there is no FBI, if the president doesn't allow it, Monday goes away and this is a done deal," he predicted. Why? Republican voters and Trump's base showed in 2016 they were willing to overlook or discount credible sexual assault accusations by several women against Trump, Cuomo said, and given the choice between "a generation of jurisprudence and having the rules of society reflect what they like, versus this woman and her accusation — if they swallowed so many like a bowl of ice cream, what do you think they'll do with just one?" Trump, for what it's worth, seems to agree with Cuomo's assessment. Peter Weber

In a joint statement released Wednesday after their two-day meeting in Pyongyang, South Korean President Moon Jae-in and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un agreed to establish buffer zones along land and sea borders and create a joint military committee that will work to ease tensions and prevent any accidental clashes.

Moon said Kim agreed to let international experts watch as North Korea permanently dismantles a missile engine test site and launch pad, and said if the United States takes corresponding measures, he will take additional steps toward denuclearization, including shutting down North Korea's main nuclear complex.

The two Koreas have also agreed to cooperate in sports events, like the 2020 Summer Olympics, and will try to get the rights to co-host the 2032 Summer Olympics. Kim vowed to visit Seoul "in the near future," and if he does make the trip, he will become the first North Korean leader to visit since the division of the Korean peninsula in 1945, The Associated Press reports. Catherine Garcia

Texas Republicans got a big boost on Tuesday as retired game warden Pete Flores beat former U.S. Rep. Pete Gallego (D) in a special state Senate election in a San Antonio district that last elected a Republican in the the 1870s. Flores will serve out the rest of the term of former state Sen. Carlos Uresti (D), until 2021, giving Texas Republicans 21 seats in the Senate and virtually ensuring a 19-seat supermajority in the next legislative session. Uresti resigned in June after being convicted of 11 felonies related to a business venture. Gallego conceded at 9 p.m., when unofficial results had him losing by 6 percentage points, 53 percent to 47 percent.

Flores was boosted by strong support from all top Texas GOP elected officials and Republican enthusiasm. Turnout was low, but not for a special election, the San Antonio Express-News reports. The last Republican to represent Texas' Senate District 19 was Andrew Phelps McCormick, who left office in 1879. Flores will be the first Hispanic Republican ever to serve in the state Senate. Peter Weber

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) responded Tuesday night to a letter sent earlier in the day from lawyers representing Christine Blasey Ford, the professor who accused Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault when they were teenagers.

On Monday, the committee invited Ford to testify next Monday in front of the panel regarding the alleged assault. The letter from Ford's lawyers demanded an FBI investigation into Kavanaugh before Ford will talk to the committee, and revealed that she has received death threats and had to leave her house. "Nobody should be subject to threats and intimidation, and Dr. Ford is no exception," Grassley said. "These are serious allegations and Dr. Ford deserves to be heard."

Grassley said as soon as Ford revealed her identity in The Washington Post on Sunday, "committee staff started working to gather facts related to her claims." She has been invited to attend a public or private hearing Monday with the committee "as well as staff-led interviews, whichever makes her most comfortable," he said, and the offer "still stands." Ford's testimony would only reflect her "personal knowledge and memory of events," Grassley said. "Nothing the FBI or any other investigator does would have any bearing on what Dr. Ford tells the committee, so there is no reason for any further delay."

Grassley also stated that the committee never planned on having Ford and Kavanaugh on a panel together, and that they gave "Dr. Ford multiple dates" for a hearing. Grassley did not explain why, if Ford was given several dates and her lawyers did not respond to the invitation until Tuesday, he announced on Monday that the hearing would take place next Monday. Catherine Garcia