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  • Montgomery County cop charged with manslaughter for killing a college student who accidentally knocked on the door of the wrong house

    Montgomery County cop charged with manslaughter for killing a college student who accidentally knocked on the door of the wrong house

    An Upper Pottsgrove police officer was charged with manslaughter Tuesday in the fatal shooting of a college student that prosecutors said was unjustified.

    Cpl. Sean Farrell, 58, shot Glenwood Pysher IV on Aug. 23 after Pysher accidentally knocked on the door of the wrong house after a night out drinking with friends. The residents, thinking Pysher was trying to break in, called police, authorities said.

    Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele said that Pysher was not a threat, and that Farrell’s use of force was criminal.

    “At the time the fatal shots were fired, Mr. Pysher had his hands up, he had no weapon, he did not charge the officer or act aggressively in any way,” Steele said. “This was not a legal use of force under Pennsylvania law.”

    Montgomery County District Attorney Kevin Steele shows a still image taken from the body-worn camera of Cpl. Sean Farrell. Steele said Farrell was not justified in using lethal force against Glenwood Pysher IV.Vinny Vella / Staff

    Body-camera footage recorded the entire encounter, which Steele said lasted “seconds, not minutes.”

    After the shooting, the DA said, Farrell told a colleague that Pysher acted aggressively, “charged” him, and ignored his commands.

    Steele said the footage contradicts Farrell’s account, and shows Pysher calmly listening to the officer.

    Even if Pysher had been aggressive, Steele said, Farrell could have used the nonlethal weapons he was carrying that night, including a Taser and a baton, rather than reaching for his gun.

    Pysher, 22, affectionately known as “Bubba,” was days away from returning to St. Elizabeth University in North Jersey for his senior year. He had a made a wrong turn while walking to a friend’s house, and didn’t realize he was at a stranger’s door, said his mother, Erin.

    Minutes later, Farrell responded to a 911 call reporting an attempted break-in. After arriving at the home, Farrell identified himself as a police officer and told Pysher to show him his hands and drop to the ground, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest.

    Pysher raised his hands and walked toward Farrell, who again told him to drop to the ground, the affidavit said. Farrell then yelled “stop or I’ll …” and fired his gun twice before finishing his warning.

    Pysher, who was no more than 20 feet away from Farrell, was struck in his chest and collapsed.

    The Montgomery County Coroner’s Office ruled the death a homicide.

    Farrell, who has served as an officer in Upper Pottsgrove since 2005, has been placed on administrative leave. He is a third-generation police officer, according to an interview he did with the Reading Eagle.

    During an arraignment Tuesday afternoon, District Judge Cathleen Kelly Rebar initially set Farrell’s bail at 10% of $75,000, but decided to keep Farrell in custody until he can surrender his personal firearms.

    His attorney, Michael Gottlieb, told the judge Farrell is “a decorated police officer” who “was out there doing his duty.”

    “He did not have any ill will” toward Pysher, the lawyer said. “He didn’t go there with intent to injure this young gentleman.”

    A lawyer the Pysher family, Ken Fulginiti, meanwhile, said Tuesday they are “grateful for the work of the Montgomery County District Attorney’s office and they are looking forward to justice in this horribly tragic, preventable and reckless conduct that took the life of their son.”

    In the days after the shooting, Pysher’s family expressed sadness and outrage and said they wondered why the officer didn’t take steps to de-escalate the situation.

    “It was a senseless loss, and it shouldn’t have happened,” Erin Pysher said in an interview. “I don’t know what the officer was thinking or doing that his first response was to shoot an unarmed kid.

    “This was all a huge mistake, and they killed him.”

  • Drones helped find people after Nepal floods but the search inside hydropower tunnels is a challenge

    Drones helped find people after Nepal floods but the search inside hydropower tunnels is a challenge

    KATHMANDU, Nepal — Drone pilot Manish Maharjan has helped rescue teams in Nepal find people missing after last week’s catastrophic floods, sometimes using speakers mounted on the devices to call out to or play music for those stranded on hillsides.

    But the search for hundreds of workers believed to be trapped in power plant tunnels — now a major focus of rescue operations — presents an entirely different challenge, he said.

    “We found tunnels were filled with mud like toothpaste in a tube,” Maharjan said. “There was no hollow or empty space inside.”

    Maharjan, who is also a filmmaker, joined the Nepal Army’s rescue efforts a day after the Aug. 26 flash floods, which have killed more than 1,000 people and left thousands missing in Nepal and Tibet.

    “We used microphone speakers to call out to them. In some places, we even played songs and then waited for a response,” Maharjan said. “That worked in a few cases and helped us locate people.”

    The torrent of water unleashed after a glacial collapse caused widespread damage to critical infrastructure, including roads, buildings, bridges, and hydropower plants — in the latest sign of the growing risks across the rapidly warming Himalayas. At least 900 workers are still missing from 12 hydropower projects buried under mud and debris. About 500 of them are believed to be trapped inside power plant tunnels.

    Some workers in the tunnels managed to call for help when the disaster struck, according to Mohan Kumar Dangi, president of the Independent Power Producers’ Association. But it was unclear whether rescuers have had any contact with the trapped workers since the initial calls for help.

    As time slips away, rescuers are finding it increasingly difficult to locate these missing people.

    Maharjan, who has been operating thermal drones in the tunnels, said the searches were challenging because of their difficult access and the absence of any empty space.

    “I can only fly drones in tunnels that are long and straight,” he said. “Once there are bends, turns, or zigzags, it becomes much harder to operate and search effectively.”

    At the Rasuwagadhi hydropower project on Monday, Maharjan managed to send a drone to search deep inside and all the way to the end of the tunnel but found no sign of any life.

    “We checked repeatedly but it was filled with mud and debris,” he said. “Looking at it, I could only imagine the force of the flood.”

  • House passes short-term funding bill to avoid a shutdown before the election

    House passes short-term funding bill to avoid a shutdown before the election

    WASHINGTON — The House passed a short-term measure Tuesday to fund the federal government into early December, a move designed to avoid a chaotic shutdown as lawmakers campaign for reelection.

    Lawmakers needed to act before the fiscal year concludes at the end of September to avoid a funding lapse. They were determined not to bump up against that deadline during the campaign season following this past year’s historic shutdowns.

    The House passed the bill by a vote of 370-48. The Senate has already overwhelmingly approved the measure, so it now moves to President Donald Trump’s desk for his signature.

    “It gives the nation and our constituents certainty, certainty that the government will remain open, certainty that our service members will be paid,” said Rep. Tom Cole, the Republican chairperson of the House Appropriations Committee.

    A record 43-day shutdown occurred last fall when the two parties disagreed on renewing an expiring tax credit that lowers the cost of health coverage obtained through Affordable Care Act marketplaces. Then came the shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security, which lasted 76 days before lawmakers agreed to fund much of the department but not its immigration enforcement operations.

    Lawmakers were wary of a repeat before voters go to the polls. They also blamed the other party for the recent impasses.

    “We’re going to avoid the threat of another Democratic shutdown,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters in advance of the vote.

    Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the lead Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, encouraged her Democratic colleagues to vote for the measure during a closed-door meeting Tuesday morning.

    She said the bill was much improved from the product that passed the House earlier this summer on a mostly party-line basis. For example, she said it prevents the Department of Homeland Security from transferring funds to the Border Patrol, and it delays a proposed rule that would give political appointees in the Trump administration more authority to stop federal grants from going out for programs they view as not in line with the president’s agenda. Those changes were made when the Senate approved its version of the bill.

    Democrats fear the administration will use the proposed regulation on grants to steer money away from Democratic-led states. DeLauro called the delay an important first step, but said more must be done to block the policy from taking effect.

    “Whether a community receives disaster relief should not depend on who they voted for in the last election,” DeLauro said.

    The short-term measure funds federal agencies generally at current levels through Dec. 11. It will give lawmakers more time to find compromise on a full-year measure, though that will likely be quite difficult.

    Republicans are seeking hundreds of billions of dollars in additional spending for the military while cutting most nondefense programs. Democrats say that’s a non-starter and insist on a bipartisan approach that treats domestic programs with parity.

  • How the Pentagon is getting into the Venezuelan oil business under Trump

    How the Pentagon is getting into the Venezuelan oil business under Trump

    WASHINGTON — As the U.S. government faced shortcomings in the country’s weapons manufacturing, the Pentagon set up a new office that would make investments to help boost defense industrial production.

    That effort, which began in 2022 during the Biden administration, is now taking a sharp turn with the Pentagon’s involvement in an oil production deal between the United States and Venezuela that President Donald Trump announced on Friday.

    The Pentagon’s little-known Office of Strategic Capital, which reports to the deputy defense secretary, is the leading U.S. government entity in forming a partnership with a private oil producer whose founder, Alejandro Betancourt López, is a powerful and polarizing figure in international commerce.

    Trump said Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, and Marco Rubio, the secretary of state and White House national security adviser, reached the agreement with the Venezuelan government on securing billions of barrels of oil reserves “through a partnership with private business.”

    The deal would give the U.S. government the option to take up to a 35% stake in the parent company of Betancourt’s firm, North American Blue Energy Partners. This would come in the form of a financial instrument known as a warrant, plus preferential access to much of the oil that the company produces.

    Warrants would give the government the right to buy shares in the oil company at a predetermined price. The value of warrants, which can be bought and sold, fluctuates based on the value of the company that issued them.

    In this case, the warrants would be what are known as penny warrants, according to two people familiar with the deal, meaning they could be converted into shares for very little money, often just 1 cent.

    Typically, companies issue warrants in exchange for something of value. During the coronavirus pandemic, for example, the federal government bailed out U.S. airlines with more than $50 billion in grants and loans to help the companies pay employees and cover other costs. In return, the Treasury Department received warrants from roughly a dozen airlines, most of which it later sold to private investors.

    In this case, the deal would come “all at zero cost to the United States,” the White House said in a statement Monday night. The federal government’s partnership and seal of approval could make it easier for the company to raise money from private investors and also shield it from legal scrutiny or political upheaval in Venezuela.

    In a statement, Betancourt said the deal would unleash Venezuela’s potential “to the great benefit of both Venezuelans and Americans.”

    During the Biden administration, the Office of Strategic Capital made loans to private companies to bolster strategic industrial production in the United States, and asked for repayment of the loans with interest at below-market federal rates. In the Trump administration, the office has typically asked companies to give it warrants as well as repay the loans.

    The office falls under Stephen A. Feinberg, the deputy secretary of defense. Feinberg, a billionaire businessperson and political appointee under Trump, has been tasked with trying to help rejuvenate the U.S. defense industrial base. Feinberg approves the office’s deals.

    The office was founded under the previous defense secretary, Lloyd Austin. At that time, in 2022, U.S. officials were concerned about the fact that critical items for certain weapons systems were made in China. They were also grappling with weaknesses in arms production exposed by Russia’s war against Ukraine and global supply chain problems exposed by the pandemic.

    Those issues have become even more acute, given the drawdown of U.S. weapons stockpiles during the war against Iran that Trump and Israel started six months ago.

    The office’s initial $1 billion loan authority has ballooned to $100 billion, largely because of a boost from Trump’s major domestic policy legislation that Congress passed in July 2025.

    The director of the office is now David Lorch, who worked at Cerberus Capital Management, the private equity firm cofounded by Feinberg. In November, the month Lorch started his job, the office announced a loan of $620 million to Vulcan Elements and one of $80 million to ReElement Technologies to increase domestic magnet production and “significantly bolster U.S. critical minerals supply chains.” The office said it would get warrants from those companies.

    That kind of financing would help the United States decrease its dependency on Chinese manufacturing. But Vulcan Elements has financial ties to the president’s oldest son, Donald Trump Jr., which prompted Democratic senators to criticize the arrangement. Peter Navarro, a White House aide and friend of the younger Trump, requested the financing, ProPublica reported.

    By July, the other company, ReElement Technologies, a rare earths firm, had withdrawn from the loan process because it was struggling to meet federal due diligence standards, Reuters reported.

    On Saturday, the chief Pentagon spokesperson, Sean Parnell, said in a statement that the office “does not take equity stakes in private companies.” The White House’s statement on Monday about the deal contradicts Parnell’s assertion.

    In addition to receiving warrants, the federal government would be guaranteed 20% of the oil that Betancourt’s company produces “at production cost,” according to the White House, meaning at a favorable price. The State Department would also have right of first refusal to buy the remaining 80% of the company’s output.

    That would put the State Department in an unusual role since it is oil companies and other traders who typically buy and sell oil. Any decision to buy oil to refill U.S. government stockpiles would require authorization, including from Congress, and typically be handled by the Energy Department.

    In any case, it would most likely take years for new projects in Venezuela to generate meaningful amounts of oil.

    Betancourt, the U.S. government’s partner, received no-bid oil contracts in Venezuela many years ago. He has been under investigation in Spain and Switzerland on accusations of money laundering and tax fraud. He usually lives in Britain and was barred from foreign travel by the British government while he was in that country because of an extradition agreement with Switzerland, where prosecutors had issued an arrest warrant.

    However, Rubio wanted to get Betancourt to Venezuela to work on oil deals and production, and the State Department in recent months pressed the Swiss and British governments to ease up on him, said a person with knowledge of that effort.

    “Mr. Betancourt has never been charged with a crime in any jurisdiction,” Sara Chouraqui, general counsel for North American Blue Energy Partners, said in a statement Saturday.

    This article originally appeared in the New York Times.

  • Wendell K. Daniels Sr., retired Air Force master sergeant and longtime basketball referee, has died at 68

    Wendell K. Daniels Sr., retired Air Force master sergeant and longtime basketball referee, has died at 68

    Wendell K. Daniels Sr., 68, formerly of Philadelphia, retired Air Force master sergeant, former facilities manager at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia, mentor, artist, chess wizard, golfer, and basketball player, coach, and referee, died Friday, Aug. 28, of cancer at a hospice center near his home in San Antonio, Texas.

    Born and reared in West Philadelphia, Sgt. Daniels joined the Air Force after graduating from West Philadelphia High School in 1976 and spent 24 years and six months serving at military bases in South Korea, Panama, Hawaii, California, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, and elsewhere.

    Before retiring in 2002, he worked in military intelligence at the Pentagon, was stationed at presidential retreat Camp David in Maryland, and took part in the 1989 operation that captured military dictator Manuel Noriega in Panama. He attended leadership programs in the Air Force, rose to master sergeant, and mentored young airmen and junior non-commissioned officers.

    He organized relief efforts after natural disasters and earned military awards and medals. He followed his father, uncle, and older brother into the Air Force by enlisting in 1978.

    “It was his sense of duty,” his daughter, Lyndell Anderson, said. “It was part of his family.”

    When parents die, even the mundane memories comfort their children. Here are their tales, as told to The Inquirer’s obit writer.

    A natural athlete — he played baseball, football, and basketball on West Philly playgrounds as a boy — Sgt. Daniels played basketball on Air Force base teams, coached women’s basketball base teams, and, certified as a referee, officiated at base games and college games in Philadelphia and elsewhere. He refereed summer camp games for the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers when he was stationed in Hawaii and smiled in pictures with Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal, and Jerry West.

    Sgt. Daniels played golf often and met President Barack Obama (right below) in 2023. Courtesy of the family

    He started drawing and painting in high school, and considered a career as a cartoonist. In 2023, he personally presented a rendering of President Barack Obama to the president at a golf outing.

    He was the best player on his junior high school chess team and later came close to becoming a master. He played golf for years and followed the Eagles and 76ers.

    Survivors give advice about mourning their loved ones, as told to The Inquirer’s obit writer

    Sgt. Daniels worked as a facilities manager at Langley after leaving the Air Force and settled in San Antonio in 2017. In February, he championed racial equality and more opportunities for Black college basketball officials on a podcast with fellow former college referee Ted Valentine.

    Sgt. Daniels graduated from West Philadelphia High School in 1976 (above) and married Lyndery Webb in 1978 (below). Courtesy of the family

    “He could be outgoing one minute and reflective the next,” his daughter said. “He liked reading and parties.”

    Wendell Kennedy Daniels was born Aug. 13, 1958. He collected autographs as a boy, played varsity baseball, and was a starting cornerback on the high school football team.

    Why did best-selling author Carol Saline email The Inquirer’s obit writer?

    He met Lyndery Webb after playing football with her brothers in the neighborhood, and they married in 1978 and had a daughter, Lyndell, and a son, Wendell Jr. He and his wife posed for wedding pictures on the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art and moved from base to base for more than two decades. But only after the children had finished the school year, his wife said.

    Sgt. Daniels officiated Los Angeles Lakers summer games in Hawaii (above) and posed with Kobe Bryant (left below) for a photo. Courtesy of the family

    He stayed in touch with high school friends and was active in West Philadelphia alumni events. “He was the life of the party,” his wife said. “But he was serious about making people happy.”

    In addition to his wife and children, Sgt. Daniels is survived by two sisters, two brothers, and other relatives. A brother died earlier.

    A celebration of his life is to be held later.

    Donations in his name may be made to the American Liver Foundation, Box 299, West Orange, N.J. 07052.

    Sergeant Daniels, left in the top photo, was comfortable with big players on the basketball court and with his small daughter, in the bottom photo, at home. Courtesy of the family
  • Germany blames Russia for last month’s attempted drone attack at Leipzig airport

    Germany blames Russia for last month’s attempted drone attack at Leipzig airport

    BERLIN — The German government on Tuesday blamed Russia for an attempted attack at Leipzig/Halle Airport last month using a drone laden with explosives, and announced that it would shut down a Russian consulate among other measures.

    The drone was found near a Ukrainian plane on Aug. 4 and the device was defused. German officials said at the time that the incident posed a new level of danger.

    Moscow has been widely accused by Western officials of running a campaign of sabotage and disruption with the aim of undermining support for Ukraine and destabilizing European nations.

    Minister says evidence points to a familiar pattern

    German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said authorities found elements such as the drone configuration, components, explosives, and detonator that are “known to us from other Russian hybrid operations and its war against Ukraine.” He said the device pointed to “a high degree of technical expertise” and painstaking planning, but carrying out the plan appears to have been left to “low-level” agents.

    Dobrindt told reporters that intelligence points to “people being involved who acted on behalf of Russian state entities,” though he didn’t specify which ones. “Taken together, the police investigations, the pattern, and intelligence findings prove a Russian responsibility for the attempted attack at Leipzig airport.”

    Germany will shut a Russian consulate

    Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said that “with the attempted attack in Leipzig, the Russian leadership decided deliberately to do significant damage again to our already massively burdened bilateral relationship.” He said the Russian consulate in Bonn will be closed effective Sept. 18 and the contract under which the Russian House cultural center in Berlin is operated will be rescinded.

    Germany will propose the addition of more people from Russia to European Union sanctions lists “in the context of hybrid attacks,” step up entry controls for people from Russia, and increase “pressure on the shadow fleet,” a reference to tankers suspected of shipping Russian oil in violation of international sanctions, Wadephul said. The EU has sanctioned hundreds of “shadow fleet” ships.

    The Russian ambassador was summoned to the Foreign Ministry in Berlin.

    Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said there would be a “fitting response” to the planned closures, Russian state news agency Tass reported.

    She rejected claims of Russian involvement in the attempted drone attack, calling them a “far-fetched and contrived pretext” for Berlin to escalate tensions and arguing that “as usual, no convincing or serious evidence has been presented whatsoever.”

    Around 200 incidents blamed on Russia

    Leipzig/Halle is a major hub for international freight and for providing support to Ukraine. The planes that regularly use it include Ukrainian Antonov transport aircraft.

    It is also home to NATO’s Strategic Airlift International Solution, or SALIS, which is currently operational almost every day in delivering equipment to NATO battle groups along its eastern flank from Finland to Romania and supporting EU and alliance nation missions.

    In 2024, an incendiary device ignited at a logistics center at the airport and set fire to a freight container before it could be loaded onto a cargo plane, part of a plot that Western security officials suspect was organized by Russian intelligence.

    The Associated Press has tracked around 200 incidents of sabotage and malign activity across Europe blamed on Russia by Western officials since the invasion of Ukraine.

    That includes organizing plots to set fire to warehouses, launching drones and trying to kill enemies abroad as well as stealing defense technology and carrying out cyberattacks on critical European infrastructure.

    In May, Russian President Vladimir Putin responded to the AP findings and said Moscow is not waging a sabotage campaign against Europe. He demanded that AP “name one proven fact.”

    Russia has faced many packages of EU sanctions

    The EU has slapped almost two dozen packages of sanctions on Russia over its war in Ukraine, targeting roughly 3,000 people and entities. EU foreign ministers will meet in Ireland Wednesday.

    European allies rallied around Germany after Tuesday’s announcement. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said in a post on X that he had spoken with Chancellor Friedrich Merz and “NATO stands in full solidarity with Germany after the Russian hybrid attack in Leipzig.”

    In mid-August, the German Cabinet approved plans to give the country’s intelligence services broader powers for actions such as disabling sabotage and hacking attempts. The planned reform, which had been in the works for months, still requires parliamentary approval.

    Hours before Tuesday’s German statement, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who has frequently warned that Russia is carrying out a campaign of sabotage against NATO countries, said Poland has been targeted by new acts of sabotage including arson within the past “dozens of hours.”

    He spoke the day after a fire broke out at WB Electronics, which the Polish government has described as Europe’s biggest drone manufacturer.

    Prosecutors said Monday they launched an investigation based on suspicions of the “participation of foreign intelligence activities against the Republic of Poland,” without elaborating on what country might be responsible. They said the fire in Skarżysko-Kamienna destroyed warehouse facilities and caused damage estimated at at least 15 million zlotys ($4 million).

  • Police identify the victim of the Times Square fatal stabbing as a 32-year-old Penn grad

    Police identify the victim of the Times Square fatal stabbing as a 32-year-old Penn grad

    Police have identified the victim killed in a knife-wielding spree in Times Square as a 32-year-old from Chester, N.J.

    Erin Piacenti was a vice president of business at Bank of America based out of Manhattan with a background in law, according to her LinkedIn profile. But before that, she was a singer at Penn.

    As a young girl, Piacenti, whose given name was Guiltinan, attended the private Catholic girls’ school in Morristown, N.J., Villa Walsh Academy. She went on to enroll in the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in 2016, and, later, Fordham University for law school in 2021.

    She had deep roots in New Jersey and made lifelong friends through her involvement in the New Jersey Youth Chorus and later, Penn’s Dischord A Cappella group. A spokesperson for the New Jersey Youth Chorus confirmed Piacenti’s involvement but declined to comment further, citing sensitivity and privacy.

    In Dischord, Piacenti was a frequent soloist with an explosive alto range, taking on renditions of big pop and R&B divas, from Ariana Grande to Tina Turner with confidence. Even when she wasn’t soloing, Piacenti often worked on Dischord’s song arrangements, according to credits from past performances.

    Piacenti recently celebrated her second wedding anniversary. The couple — who both attended Fordham law school — married in Manahawkin, N.J., in 2024. Piacenti’s husband could not immediately be reached for comment.

    “We are shocked and deeply saddened by the tragic loss of our colleague,” Bank of America told The Inquirer in an emailed statement. “She was ​a valued teammate who will ​be greatly missed. Our hearts go out ⁠to her family and all of ​her loved ones.”

    Piacenti was fatally stabbed by Pamela Cisneros of Queens, who reportedly had a documented history of mental health concerns, but no criminal history, NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch said at a news conference.

    Cisneros, 49, was caught on a string of now-viral videos waving around two large knives. Police fatally shot her Monday in the middle of Times Square after they said she injured two people at random: a 68-year-old man exiting the subway and, about 20 seconds later, Piacenti.

    Piacenti was rushed to the hospital with a puncture to her abdomen and was pronounced dead, according to Tisch. The male victim, who has not been publicly named, was separately hospitalized and is recovering, according to police.

    Tisch said that police attempted to negotiate with Cisneros, who held the knives toward officers for “four minutes,” but that she remained hostile and threatened to kill them instead. Responding officers deployed Tasers, but she advanced anyway, police said. Two officers opened fire at Cisneros, who was taken to the hospital where she died.

    Tom Harris, the president of the Times Square Alliance, which represents the area’s businesses, said the stabbings were a “tragedy.”

    “Our hearts go out to the victims and their families at this time,” Harris told the New York Times. “We are thankful that once again the NYPD was swift to act and put themselves in harm’s way to stop the perpetrator before more were injured.”

  • Russian finance minister, invited by Trump, draws objections at G20 meeting

    Russian finance minister, invited by Trump, draws objections at G20 meeting

    ASHEVILLE, N.C. — The appearance of Russia’s finance minister at a G20 meeting, his first in person since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, sparked protests Monday from European participants.

    Anton Siluanov and leaders of the Russian central bank were invited to the meeting of the G20 finance ministers and central bankers by the Trump administration.

    Moscow targeted civilian infrastructure in Ukrainian cities with ballistic missiles and drones on Monday for the fifth day in a row. European governments, opposed to Russia’s attempt to redraw the continent’s borders by force, have given Kyiv more than $250 billion in financial and military support since the February 2022 invasion.

    “I find the signal sent ​by ​receiving the ⁠Russian finance minister here quite troubling,” German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil ​told reporters in Asheville. “I ​would ⁠have wanted greater clarity from the American side that he ⁠should ​not be received ​here as a normal guest.”

    President Donald Trump defended the invitation Monday.

    “We’re going to see what happens, but we like getting along with everybody,” Trump said told reporters in the Oval Office. “One of the reasons that I’m so successful, I get along with everybody.”

    Erin Browne, the Treasury undersecretary for international affairs, said the delegation was invited because Russia is a member of the G20.

    “It’s important to have dialogue even during times of conflict,” she told the Washington Post. Asked about the Europeans’ concerns, she said: “We’ve had constructive dialogue around the table in the plenary session.”

    Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said he would reemphasize Trump’s peace plan for Ukraine during his meeting with Siluanov.

    Siluanov’s most recent previous appearance at a G20 meeting, by video link in April 2022, prompted several Western finance ministers to walk out in protest.

    Russia was expelled from the Group of Eight of most industrialized nations — subsequently, the G7 — after it illegally annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014, but it remains a member of the G20.

    European officials demanded Monday that Siluanov be excluded from the family photo, the traditional group picture of the leaders. It was taken without him.

    Siluanov’s appearance comes less than a week after CIA Director John Ratcliffe made a rare unannounced trip to Moscow. He warned Russia against ramping up its war against Ukraine, according to a person familiar with the matter.

    A Russian drone attack on a munitions depot in the Bucha district of Ukraine on Friday, three days after Ratcliffe’s visit to Moscow, triggered an explosion that killed 38 people.

    “People are dying every ​day,” Klingbeil said. “We have just seen another ​escalation in the attacks. … You cannot simply return to normality.”

    Russian drone incursions into neighboring European Union and NATO countries and sabotage attacks have rattled security on the continent. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Sunday his government was preparing a response to an attempted armed drone attack on Leipzig/Halle Airport this month that analysts and some governments say appears to have been the work of Russia.

    Former senior German security officials say the attack appeared to be part of a significant uptick in hybrid warfare by Moscow that has targeted weapons plants and other facilities in Europe supplying Ukraine as it seeks to sap Western support.

    Bessent planned to rally his foreign counterparts to focus on economic growth to beat back rising global debt and to encourage countries to sever economic ties with Iran as part of the administration’s Operation Economic Outcast.

    In sessions on Monday, participants discussed the global economic landscape, trade imbalances, and opportunities for growth, Browne told reporters. Several noted the risks to the global economy posed by Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a major chokepoint for the world’s oil supply, in response to U.S.-Israeli attacks.

    “It remains our ultimate objective to ensure that Iran never acquires a nuclear weapon,” she said. “Doing so will reduce long-term economic and market volatility.”

    The administration also invited several American CEOs, including Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon and JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, to the meeting to connect public officials with private sector leaders.

  • Vance wades into caustic Michigan Senate race, calling candidate ‘evil’

    Vance wades into caustic Michigan Senate race, calling candidate ‘evil’

    Vice President JD Vance on Monday amplified the already caustic tone of Michigan’s close Senate race, calling Democratic Senate nominee Abdul El-Sayed “a very, very evil” person who should “keep my wife’s name the hell out of your mouth.”

    Vance used a Republican rally in the suburbs of Detroit on Monday to respond to recent and months-old comments from El-Sayed about second lady Usha Vance, using El-Sayed’s biting jokes about the second couple as evidence the Democrat is “weird.”

    Standing before a “Protecting Americans” banner, Vance also painted the U.S.-born El-Sayed as more sympathetic to foreigners than Americans. And he described El-Sayed in dark terms that echoed anti-Islamic rhetoric conservatives have deployed against El-Sayed, who is Muslim.

    Michigan’s Senate race could determine which party holds power in the chamber, stakes that have drawn attention and huge amounts of campaign cash. And the swing state’s new status as an early presidential nominating state for Democrats intensified the partisan fervor.

    Against that heightened backdrop, the close race between El-Sayed and Republican nominee Mike Rogers has spawned unrepentant bipartisan vitriol.

    El-Sayed responded to Vance with a statement that said, “Michigan is better than being lectured to by sock puppets from Ohio.”

    “Evil is ripping healthcare away from working people in exchange for tax breaks for billionaires. Evil is making people pay more for groceries and gas while pushing for trade wars and actual war. Evil is dividing people for your own gain. Evil is selling out your morals for a little bit of power,” El-Sayed said.

    El-Sayed’s statement did not address anything he’s said about Usha Vance, who gave birth to the Vances’ fourth child in July. But earlier in the day, Rogers put out a campaign video calling El-Sayed “a conman” without further explanation, and resurfacing footage of El-Sayed discussing the awkward viral moment between Vance and his wife, when Vance greeted his spouse of 12 years with a pat on the knee.

    “What do you think is going through Usha’s head when he talks? She’s like, ‘Damn, I have to sleep with him,’” El-Sayed said in the clip from April.

    El-Sayed also brought up Usha Vance in a social media post last month, a response to Vance inaccurately saying El-Sayed advocated for sharia law. Vance said that if he went back in time his grandfather, an Appalachian Democrat whom he called Papaw, wouldn’t recognize the Democratic Party shaped by El-Sayed.

    El-Sayed shot back, “So do we think JD is taking Usha with him back in time to meet Papaw, or no …”

    Critics viewed the remark as bashing Usha Vance’s Indian heritage and insinuating she’d be rejected by Vance’s White ancestors, while El-Sayed said he was bashing Vance’s insinuation that you’re more American if you can trace your roots back generations.

    Rep. Lisa McClain (R., Mich.) told Republicans at the rally hosted by President Donald Trump’s $400 million super PAC, MAGA, Inc., that the Senate race has outsize importance: “I tell everybody this is a battle for the soul of this country.”

    Vance told the crowd he came with a message from Trump, Mike Rogers, and all Republicans: “We are running people who love and fight for and defend all Americans. We don’t care who you are, so long as you belong in this country, we’re going to fight for you.”

    The race’s tenor has often devolved into pettiness.

    Earlier this week, Rogers and El-Sayed traded barbs on X over which was voted football captain or seemed to peak in high school.

    El-Sayed on Monday continued to throw punches in his blistering critique of Republicans and Trump, who has put himself at the center of the midterm fight even as his approval ratings have sunk this year.

    At an event earlier in the day, El-Sayed characterized the Trump administration’s tariffs on Canada as an unnecessary war on affordability, pointing to data that shows Michigan is one of the states hit hardest by the president’s trade policy.

    “Canadians are like the only people in the world who are going to preemptively apologize for something they didn’t even do,” El-Sayed said. “So if you’re starting a trade war with Canada, it’s because you’re the a—.”

    And he took another off-color jab at Rogers campaigning with Vance, referencing the lewd and false internet story about the vice president being intimate with a couch cushion.

    “We don’t have more couches here than they have in Ohio, so I’m just trying to figure out why he would come and why you would bring him,” El-Sayed said.

    Republicans have framed El-Sayed’s populist Democratic policies as socialism, and placed a magnifying glass on both his views toward Israel and his political connection to provocative online streamer Hasan Piker, which has also drawn criticism from Democrats. El-Sayed calls the war in Gaza a genocide and called for an end to providing arms to foreign militaries, explicitly signaling out Israel and Egypt, the country from which his parents immigrated before he was born.

    Over the weekend, El-Sayed apologized to Jewish Democrats for comments he made earlier this year after an attack on Michigan synagogue. He condemned the attack, but many Jewish people saw his earlier comments as also explaining it away when he said “hurt people hurt people,” referring to the attacker.

    Republicans have used El-Sayed’s Muslim identity as a line of attack, and the Democrat has objected to Trump posting pictures of his wife, Sarah, in a hijab, calling it a dig to suggest the couple is un-American.

    Rogers, a former congressman who narrowly lost a Senate bid two years ago, cast the race as an imperative to “defend freedom” from progressive politics, saying, “Listen, Michigan, we have a state to save.”

    State Sen. Mallory McMorrow (D) — a former El-Sayed political rival who is working to unite Democrats behind him — also cast the contest as a high-stakes opportunity to hold Republicans and the Trump administration accountable for their policies.

    “So welcome to Michigan, JD Vance,” she said. “Don’t let the door hit you on the way out.”

  • ‘Obsolete’ 225-foot-long dam at Tyler State Park in Bucks County will be removed

    ‘Obsolete’ 225-foot-long dam at Tyler State Park in Bucks County will be removed

    A curved dam at Tyler State Park in Bucks County well known to anglers and hikers is coming down.

    Pennsylvania officials will begin removing the Spring Garden Mill Dam, which is 225 feet wide and 9 feet tall, on Sept. 8.

    It will be the second-largest dam ever removed in Pennsylvania. The largest, the Oakland Dam in Susquehanna County, was torn out in 2023.

    The Spring Garden Mill Dam, which spans Neshaminy Creek, no longer serves a purpose, impedes fish, and could present a danger because it can create a powerful current at its base, officials say.

    The Spring Garden Mill, once powered by the dam, still stands in the park near where Route 332 crosses Neshaminy Creek but now houses a community theater.

    The dam’s removal, which has been planned since at least 2023, is expected to take several weeks and is overseen by the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) and the Fish and Boat Commission (PFBC).

    The Neshaminy Weir Dam near the Boathouse and main parking lot at Tyler State Park will remain.

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    Mike Parker, a spokesperson for PFBC, said dams are being removed across the state to reduce impediments in rivers and to increase public safety.

    “In many cases there was once a function to a dam, whether it was used to impound water, power a mill for stone milling of grain,” Parker said. “But those functions became obsolete.”

    Parker said the budget for the dam’s removal is $1.3 million and is being funded by $750,000 from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and $550,000 from the DCNR.

    Officials say that the park, including the popular Fisherman’s parking lot, will remain open during the removal. But a section of trail along Tyler Park Drive near the dam will be temporarily closed.

    PFBC will temporarily remove and relocate red‑bellied turtles, which are classified as a threatened and endangered species, from the work zone.

    Parker said the dam’s removal will increase safety.

    He said that the low-head dam can create a dangerous condition for paddlers and anglers by creating a “boil” at its base. Boils can cause powerful churning currents sometimes referred to as the “washing machine effect” that traps people under water.

    The removal will also aid fish moving through Neshaminy Creek, Parker said.

    The creek is popular with anglers, but the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) issued an advisory in 2021 against eating fish from it because of PFAS contamination. As a result, it is no longer stocked.

    Further, officials say the dam does not provide any flood control.

    Tyler State Park spans 1,711 acres with its main entrance in Newtown, about 33 miles north of Center City. Its steep grade is known for its trails and a covered bridge. It is divided by Neshaminy Creek.

    On Memorial Day weekend in May 2025, Alec Campbell, a 38-year-old park resource ranger, was trying to place a buoy in the water when his kayak flipped near the Weir Dam at the park following powerful rains. His body was recovered after several days of search.