Experts warn of dangers from breach of voter system software
Republican efforts questioning the outcome of the 2020 presidential race have led to voting system breaches that election security experts say pose a heightened risk to future elections. Copies of the Dominion Voting Systems software used to manage elections — from designing ballots to configuring voting machines and tallying results...
Voting rights advocates rally for stronger elections laws
Thousands of voting rights advocates rallied across the country Saturday to call for sweeping federal laws that would wipe out voting restrictions advancing in some Republican-controlled states that could make it harder to cast a ballot. Many activists view the fight over voting rules as the civil rights issue of...
Could saving Pa.’s state tree help fix trout fishing troubles?
Pennsylvania fishermen like Russ Collins are worried about trees. He lives in Palmyra, Lebanon County, and is the vice president of Trout Unlimited’s southcentral region. He wonders whether a struggling tree species could ultimately endanger one of the top fishing grounds in the country, if not the world. He sees,...
GOP rift widens amid growing hostility to Afghan refugees
As the U.S. rushes to evacuate Americans and allies from the chaos of Afghanistan, a growing number of Republicans are questioning why the U.S. should take in Afghan citizens who worked side by side with Americans, further exacerbating divides within the party heading into next year’s midterm elections. Little more...
Taliban largely seal off Kabul airport as airlift winds down
Taliban forces sealed off Kabul’s airport Saturday to most Afghans hoping for evacuation and most NATO nations flew out their troops after two decades in Afghanistan, winding down a frantic airlift that Western leaders acknowledged was still leaving many of their citizens and local allies behind. The United States, which...
Russia’s covid deaths hit new high in July
A new report from Russia’s state statistics agency shows the country recorded a record number of deaths in July of people infected with coronavirus. The report from the Rosstat agency said 50,421 people suffering from covid-19 died during the month, sharply higher than the previous record of 44,435 in December....
Iraq brings together Mideast rivals in bid to ease tensions
Arab heads of state and senior officials from the region including archenemies Iran and Saudi Arabia held a rare meeting Saturday at a conference hosted by Iraq. The meeting is aimed at easing Mideast tensions and underscored the Arab country’s new role as mediator. French President Emmanuel Macron also attended...
U.S. intelligence still divided on origins of coronavirus
U.S. intelligence agencies remain divided on the origins of the coronavirus but believe China’s leaders did not know about the virus before the start of the global pandemic, according to results released Friday of a review ordered by President Joe Biden. According to an unclassified summary, four members of the...
U.S. drone strike kills 2 Islamic State members in Afghanistan
Acting swiftly on President Joe Biden’s promise to retaliate for the deadly suicide bombing at Kabul airport, the U.S. military said it killed two members of the Islamic State group’s Afghanistan affiliate with a drone strike in the group’s eastern stronghold. The attack Saturday local time came amid what the...
RFK assassin moves closer to freedom with help of 2 Kennedys
California’s parole board voted Friday to free Robert F. Kennedy’s assassin after two of RFK’s sons said they supported releasing him and prosecutors declined to argue he should be kept behind bars. But the governor ultimately will decide if Sirhan Sirhan leaves prison. Douglas Kennedy was a toddler when his...
Pa.’s legislative leaders wield extraordinary power, and the election audit fight proves it
Spotlight PA is an independent, nonpartisan newsroom powered by The Philadelphia Inquirer in partnership with PennLive/The Patriot-News, TribLIVE/Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, and WITF Public Media. Sign up for our free newsletters. HARRISBURG — It’s a throwback to the hardball politics of the Capitol’s past: a powerful legislative leader stripping one of his...
Judge blocks Florida governor’s order banning mask mandates
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Florida school districts can legally require their students to wear masks to prevent the spread of covid-19, a judge ruled Friday, saying Gov. Ron DeSantis overstepped his authority when he issued an executive order banning such mandates. Leon County Circuit Judge John C. Cooper agreed with...
Scientists manage to successfully reverse age-related memory loss in mice
A group of scientists at the University of Cambridge and the University of Leeds managed to successfully reverse memory loss in aging mice. While this may seem like an insignificant blip on the scientific radar, this breakthrough is very importantly indicative of how the same methods may be used in...
Explainer: How dangerous is Afghanistan’s Islamic State?
The Islamic State offshoot that Americans blame for a deadly suicide attack outside the Kabul airport coalesced in eastern Afghanistan six years ago, and rapidly grew into one of the more dangerous terror threats globally. Despite years of military targeting by the U.S.-led coalition, the group known as Islamic State...
Hurricane Ida strengthens, Louisiana braces for severe blow
Forecasters warned residents along the northern Gulf of Mexico coast to rush preparations Saturday ahead of an intensifying Hurricane Ida, which is expected to bring winds as high as 130 mph, life-threatening storm surge and flooding rain when it slams ashore in Louisiana on Sunday. The National Hurricane Center warned...
Police: Illinois brothers say mother, sister buried in yard
LYONS, Ill. — Authorities are planning to excavate a suburban Chicago backyard Friday after two adult brothers found living in what police called a “hoarder home” said they had buried the bodies of their mother and sister there. Excavation equipment was expected to arrive Friday at the house in Lyons...
U.K. lawyer accused of injecting blood into supermarket foods
LONDON — A 37-year-old man accused of injecting food items in three London supermarkets with syringes of blood appeared in court Friday and was ordered into custody until his next hearing. Leoaai Elghareeb, a lawyer, was arrested after a man entered a Waitrose store in west London’s Hammersmith area on...
Pennsylvania men had 1.4 pounds of cocaine, nearly 2 pounds of pot in SUV, police say
Two Lebanon County men were had 1.4 pounds of suspected cocaine and nearly 2 pounds of suspected marijuana in an Acura MDX that was pulled over for speeding just before 11 a.m. Wednesday on Interstate 78 West in Lower Saucon Township, court papers say. A Pennsylvania State Police trooper was...
New urgency to airlift after Kabul blasts kill more than 100
KABUL, Afghanistan — Evacuation flights from Afghanistan resumed with new urgency Friday, a day after two suicide bombings targeted the thousands of desperate people fleeing the Taliban takeover and killed more than 100. The U.S. warned more attacks could come ahead of the Tuesday deadline for foreign troops to leave,...
Fire at chemical factory kills 10 in southern Pakistan
KARACHI, Pakistan — A massive fire broke out at a chemical factory in Pakistan’s southern port city of Karachi on Friday, killing at least 10 workers and injuring several others, police and a government spokesman said. It was not immediately clear what caused the fire in the congested Mehran Town...
3 endangered Sumatran tigers found dead in Indonesia
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia — Three critically endangered Sumatran tigers, including two cubs, were found dead in a conservation area on Indonesia’s Sumatra island after being caught in traps apparently set by a poacher, authorities said Friday. The mother and a female cub were found dead Tuesday in the Leuser Ecosystem...
Supreme Court allows evictions to resume during pandemic
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court’s conservative majority is allowing evictions to resume across the United States, blocking the Biden administration from enforcing a temporary ban that was put in place because of the coronavirus pandemic. The court’s action late Thursday ends protections for roughly 3.5 million people in the United...
U.S. closing troubled NYC jail where Epstein killed himself
The U.S. government said Thursday it is shutting down an embattled federal jail in New York City after a slew of problems that came to light following disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide there two years ago. The federal Bureau of Prisons said the Metropolitan Correctional Center in lower Manhattan will...
Capitol Police officers sue Trump, allies over insurrection
U.S. Capitol Police officers who were attacked and beaten during the Capitol riot filed a lawsuit Thursday against former President Donald Trump, his allies and members of far-right extremist groups, accusing them of intentionally sending a violent mob on Jan. 6 to disrupt the congressional certification of the election. The...
GOP legislative leaders reject Gov. Tom Wolf’s urgent call to consider mask mandate
Republican legislative leaders are standing firm in their position that when it comes to mask mandates in K-12 classrooms and child-care centers, local officials are better positioned to make those calls. In a hand-delivered letter to Gov. Tom Wolf, Republican leaders of the GOP-controlled General Assembly on Thursday turned down...
