Police said they were investigating the discovery of a decomposed body inside a residence Wednesday in the Frankford section of Philadelphia.
Police responded to the 1500 block of Foulkrod Street around 12:15 p.m., and the person was pronounced dead by medics at the scene.
The scene was secured and the investigation was ongoing, police said.
No other details were available.
Edmundo Sosa took full ownership of the baserunning mistake he made in the ninth inning of Tuesday’s 6-5 loss to the Astros.
Sitting in the Phillies dugout pregame on Wednesday, Sosa said through team interpreter Diego D’Aniello that “a lack of focus” is why he did not run hard out of the batter’s box after sending a slider off the right-center field wall. Sosa took a few slow steps, watched the ball fly at first, and what could have been a triple ended up as a double.
The next three batters flew or popped out, and while Sosa stole third base, he was unable to score what would have been the tying run.
“I totally forgot to run the bases there, and I only focused on where the ball was going, and that’s what caused me not to get to third base, and that’s a big mistake that might have cost us the game right there,” Sosa said.
Sosa said he didn’t think the ball was hit out of the park. Typically, the utility player will skip once out of the batter’s box after hitting a homer, and he didn’t do that on Tuesday.
“It’s just a lack of focus and a lack of thinking about the running the bases there,” he said.
Interim manager Don Mattingly, who said after the game that he was “surprised” not to see Sosa wind up on third on the play, spoke to Sosa in a private conversation about the mistake.
“I respect the game a lot, and I try to show that,” Sosa said. “And that’s one of the things that I don’t tolerate from the game, the lack of hustle and not running the bases there, not running at full speed. I think that’s something I don’t want to happen again. … I think that’s something that shows no respect to the game, and I try to respect the game every time I play it. So I just leave it at that and say it’s not happening again.”
Mattingly also had a separate conversation with Brandon Marsh, who misread a hard liner from J.T. Realmuto and was doubled off at second base in the seventh inning on Tuesday. Mattingly said for the most part the players know where they erred, but it’s important to have the one-on-one conversations as a reminder.
“Make sure we’re thinking correctly. Most of the time, you’re asking about what they’re thinking in that situation,” he said.
It’s not the first time he’s had to have those conversations recently. During the Phillies’ West Coast trip last week, Mattingly spoke to Derek Hill about missing a stop sign from third base coach Anthony Contreras, and to Marsh about trying to advance to third on a grounder to shortstop.
Like Sosa, Marsh took accountability for his Tuesday mistake.
“It’s unacceptable for me to take a step toward third,” Marsh said after the game. “It’s a huge mistake by me. Really no excuse. Just a really bad play on my part.”
While the recent blunders have been especially ugly, Mattingly remains confident that the Phillies will be able to clean up their act on the base paths. In fact, statistically the club is still one of the stronger baserunning teams in the league.
According to the StatCast metric of baserunning run value, the Phillies rank fourth in baseball with plus-8 baserunning runs created. Six of those are from stolen bases, while the other two are from non-steal plays where an extra base was taken.
The only teams ahead of the Phillies in this metric are the Diamondbacks (plus-11), Nationals (plus-9), and Brewers (plus-9).
A major contributor to the team’s overall success is Bryson Stott, who ranks third overall with a baserunning run value of plus-7 and is a perfect 24-for-24 on stolen base attempts.
“The Phillies have actually rated out over the last few years a really good baserunning team, one of the best in baseball,” Mattingly said. “This has been a good baserunning team, and not that it’s bad now, but I think you have to keep teaching, and keep making sure everybody understands what you look for in that situation, and hopefully you learn from it, and those mistakes don’t happen again.”
Left-hander Nestor Cortes appeared in his first official game Tuesday since Sept. 3, 2025, pitching one inning for single-A Clearwater. He struck out two and allowed one run on one hit. His four-seam topped out at 91.4 mph.
“It was OK,” Mattingly said. “So [Wednesday’s] the day to see how he bounces back, and then what happens next.”
Bryce Harper had a planned day at designated hitter Wednesday, with Kyle Schwarber playing first and Bryan De La Cruz taking over in right field. … Several Flyers players, including Cam York, Tyson Foerster, Owen Tippett, Christian Dvorak, Nick Seeler, and Noel Acciari were at Citizens Bank Park pregame on Wednesday, meeting Phillies and taking batting practice. … Zack Wheeler (12-5, 3.23 ERA) is scheduled to start Thursday’s series finale against the Astros, while Houston’s starter has not yet been announced. The Phillies will stay on turn for their upcoming series in Atlanta, with Aaron Nola, Jesús Luzardo, and Andrew Painter lined up for the three games against the Braves.
After a second-round appearance in the 2026 Stanley Cup playoffs, the Flyers will aim to continue their upward trajectory, fielding a similar roster to last season.
Still one of the youngest squads in the NHL, the second year of the Rick Tocchet era will begin with high expectations as youngsters Porter Martone, Alex Bump, Denver Barkey, and David Jiříček look to make their mark, while Matvei Michkov has his sights set on a bounce-back season in the last year of his entry-level contract.
Here’s everything you need to know about the Flyers’ 2026-27 training camp and preseason.
The Flyers will hit the ice for the first time bright and early next Thursday at their training center in Voorhees.
It is a new era with the preseason shortened and the NHL kick-starting things on Sept. 29. Training camp will run through the final preseason game on Sept. 26, when the Flyers host the Washington Capitals at Xfinity Mobile Arena. They lift the lid on the season on Sept. 30 at home, hosting the Pittsburgh Penguins (7:30 p.m., TNT, truTV, HBO Max) in a rematch of their first-round series, which the Flyers won in six games.
The Flyers will be broken into three groups: Groups A, B, and C to start camp, with groupings expected to be disclosed next week. They will not skate on Sept. 20, 25, or 28, and the timing for practice on Sept. 27 will be announced at a later date. No morning skate is scheduled for Sept. 26, with the game at 5 p.m., and there is not a nongame group listed, which suggests that the last preseason game will feature most of the final roster.
All on-ice sessions are free and open to the public.
^Groups A and B will skate on opposite rinks at 10:20 a.m. and then scrimmage on the Flyers rink at 10:40 a.m.
With a shortened camp, the number of invitees has been trimmed. Last season, 33 forwards, 18 defensemen and seven goalies were in camp. This year it will be 26 forwards, 16 defensemen, and four goalies, with Dan Vladař and Joseph Woll expected to suit up for the Flyers and Aleksei Kolosov and Carson Bjarnason slated to be the tandem for Lehigh Valley of the American Hockey League.
Usually, the main camp sees some junior players stick around; however, as of Wednesday, everyone but Maksim Sokolovskii, the Flyers’ first-rounder from June, will be sent back after rookie camp. Because the 6-foot-7 defenseman, who has looked impressive in preseason games for London of the Ontario Hockey League, is an unsigned Canadian Hockey League player selected in the first three rounds, he can remain with the Flyers until the start of their season. It will not impact his NCAA eligibility with the University of Maine for the 2027-28 season.
Forwards (26): Noel Acciari, Zach Aston-Reese, Denver Barkey, Alex Bump, Noah Cates, Sean Couturier, Christian Dvorak, Tyson Foerster, Nolan Foote, Jacob Gaucher, Nikita Grebenkin, Carl Grundström, Devin Kaplan, Danila Klimovich, Cole Knuble, Travis Konecny, Jett Luchanko, Porter Martone, Matvei Michkov, Noah Powell, Jack Studnicka, Riley Thompson, Owen Tippett, Garrett Wilson*, Zayde Wisdom*, Trevor Zegras
Defensemen (16): Simon Benoît, Oliver Bonk, Cam Dineen, Jamie Drysdale, Jackson Edward, Spencer Gill, Helge Grans, David Jiříček, Hunter McDonald, Ty Murchison, Andrew Perrott*, Rasmus Ristolainen, Travis Sanheim, Nick Seeler, Maksim Sokolovskii, Cam York
Goalies (4): Carson Bjarnason, Aleksei Kolosov, Dan Vladař, Joseph Woll
*Signed to AHL deal
A shortened preseason also brings fewer games. The Flyers will play four preseason games, including a game against Washington at the home of the Capitals’ American Hockey League affiliate, the Hershey Bears, on Sept. 21.
After more than a decade as a must-visit eatery for Mafia aficionados in South Jersey, Collingswood’s Kitchen Consigliere has run into some financial troubles.
The mob-themed Italian restaurant on the borough’s bustling Haddon Avenue, named and designed to play up owner Angelo Lutz’s ties to the Philadelphia mob, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Sept. 2.
“Like a lot of small businesses, we’ve gone through some very difficult financial periods,” Lutz said in a statement posted to social media Wednesday. “I made decisions along the way to keep our staff working, pay our vendors, keep the lights and gas on, and keep this restaurant operating.”
“We fell behind on certain obligations, including taxes owed to the State of New Jersey and I take full responsibility for that. We are addressing those obligations and have been working through a payment plan,” Lutz said, before emphasizing that the restaurant is operating as usual and all gift cards will be honored.
“The food, the recipes and the experience people have come to know and love are not changing one bit,” he said. “For me, this restaurant has always been more than the food. … It’s about the people who work here and the customers we love to serve — who have supported us over the number of years.”
Lutz first opened Kitchen Consigliere as an 11-table cafe in 2010, but it soon outgrew its original location on Powell Lane. Boosted by an online crowdfunding campaign, he was eventually able to expand to the restaurant’s current home at 700 Haddon Ave. in 2013.
Lutz’s culinary career began in earnest following a seven-year stint in prison on various charges related to organized crime.
The mobster-turned-restaurateur was tried in 1999 along with Joseph Merlino, Frank Gambino, and other high-ranking members of Philadelphia’s Mafia.
When embarking on his second act, Lutz did not shy away from his criminal past — a consigliere is a trusted adviser or right-hand man to Mafia leadership, and the restaurant’s signage is styled to resemble the font used with The Godfather trilogy.
Now, Kitchen Consigliere Cafe LLC’s estimated assets total less than $50,000 while the company owes up to $500,000 to dozens of creditors, according to the bankruptcy filing.
The company’s largest outstanding debt, $117,663.73, is owed to S&M Provisions Inc., a West Philadelphia-based food and deli supply company.
Kitchen Consigliere is disputing the next two largest creditor claims listed in the filing: $102,000 owed to New Jersey’s taxation division and $58,503 owed to regional utility service provider PSE&G.
The next hearing in the case is a meeting of the creditors on Oct. 5 at 10:30 a.m., according to the court docket.
A man allegedly shot his wife and then himself in what authorities said was a domestic dispute that unfolded Wednesday afternoon inside a car on Broad Street in North Philadelphia.
In a separate shooting about 40 minutes later, a man was fatally wounded on the 4900 block of Old York Road in the city’s Logan section, police said.
Just before 2:50 p.m., police responded to the 2900 block of North Broad Street near West Glenwood Avenue for a shooting and found a 36-year-old woman who had been shot twice, including in her face.
Police took her to Temple University Hospital, where she was listed in critical condition.
The gunman, 41, was taken by SEPTA Transit Police to Temple, where he also was listed in critical condition with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to his head, police said.
Police said the man shot his wife inside a Volvo on Broad Street. A gun was recovered from the scene.
No other details were immediately available.
In the shooting on Old York Road, the man who was shot was taken by private vehicle to nearby Jefferson Einstein Philadelphia Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 3:37 p.m.
The man was not identified.
A group seeking to block Missouri from using a new congressional map that favors Republicans in November’s midterm elections has asked the Supreme Court to intervene.
The appeal is the latest twist in an extraordinary legal fight that has plunged the state into electoral confusion just as it was supposed to finalize ballots and shortly before it begins distributing mail-in versions to voters.
People Not Politicians, an anti-gerrymandering group, asked the Supreme Court to review the case late Wednesday afternoon, just minutes after its appeal was rejected by a federal appeals court.
In a brief ruling, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit said they did not have jurisdiction, or the plaintiffs had not met the legal bar, to obtain an injunction against Missouri’s use of the new map.
The legal uncertainty has left voters and election administrators unsure about what Missouri map will be in play less than two months before voters head to the polls on Nov. 3.
Roy Temple, a longtime Democratic strategist in Missouri and former head of the state Democratic Party, said voters “can’t possibly understand who they’re going to be voting for.”
“There is a great deal of chaos,” Temple said. “The sad part is that it’s almost entirely inflicted by people whose responsibility was to ensure the orderly conduct of elections.”
The appeals court ruling came after a furious night of legal developments Tuesday, as Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh and a federal judge in Missouri issued conflicting rulings less than a half-hour apart about whether the state could use the new map.
Republicans currently hold six of Missouri’s eight congressional seats, and the new map, adopted by the GOP-controlled state legislature, is designed to give the party a good shot at picking up an additional seat.
Kavanaugh denied an appeal by Missouri Secretary of State Denny Hoskins to overturn a Missouri Supreme Court ruling last week blocking the new map, without giving his reasoning. The state high court had ordered Missouri to use a 2022 map that gives Democrats a better chance of keeping two seats.
But soon after Kavanaugh denied the appeal, a federal judge, Stephen Clark, a Trump appointee in the St. Louis area, ordered Hoskins in a separate case to use the new, more GOP-friendly electoral map.
Hoskins and the state’s Republican leadership quickly announced that they would abide by that ruling. But the anti-gerrymandering group, People Not Politicians, appealed Clark’s temporary restraining order to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit.
“If the TRO remains in effect, elections officials will effectively be in contempt of either the Missouri Supreme Court or the federal district court if they implement either HB 1 or the 2022 map, leaving ballots and voters in flux,” attorneys for People not Politicians wrote in the group’s filing.
HB1 refers to the law that created the new map. It was adopted by the legislature last year at the behest of President Donald Trump, who has urged GOP-controlled states to draw maps more favorable to Republicans to help the party retain control of Congress in a difficult election year.
The result has been a nationwide redistricting war in which at least 20 states have redrawn — or are in the process of redrawing — legislative maps to favor one party or the other.
The Missouri Supreme Court also threatened to hold Hoskins, the state’s top election official, in contempt late Tuesday. The state’s high court ordered Hoskins to explain why he approved the new congressional map favoring the GOP despite its order blocking it. It was set hold a hearing on the issue on Thursday.
People Not Politicians collected more than 300,000 signatures to force a statewide referendum on the new Missouri map in November’s election.
Hoskins rejected the petitions, saying the state constitution did not permit referendums on congressional redistricting. People Not Politicians sued.
A federal judge upheld Hoskins’s move, and the state held its August primaries for November’s contests using the GOP-friendly map. Afterward, the state Supreme Court issued its ruling blocking the use of the new map.
Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway, a Republican, said in a statement that this would leave state officials in an impossible position: holding a general election using different maps than were used in the primaries.
“We maintain that changing the congressional map in between the primary and general elections is simply not feasible and profoundly unjust to Missouri voters,” Hanaway said.
State Sen. Rick Brattin, the GOP nominee in the district redrawn to favor Republicans, said in a social media post that he was disappointed in the U.S. Supreme Court ruling. He is taking on Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver.
Brattin praised the temporary restraining order from the lower court that preserves the maps used in the primaries, saying it would ensure that “voters will not be disenfranchised by being forced to vote in a different district for November.”
“The stakes are high for our nation in the upcoming election,” Brattin posted on X, “and I look forward to continuing to campaign across the 5th District, where I know many voters feel like it’s time to send eleven-term incumbent Emanuel Cleaver home.”
Former U.S. senator Claire McCaskill, a Democrat, called Hoskins “lawless” and said he had intentionally waited to act until “he thought it was too late for anybody to do anything about it.”
It was extraordinary that the conservative state Supreme Court ruled against him, McCaskill said, noting that five of its seven members were appointed by Republicans.
“So it was really a very strong signal that they had gone too far, but according to the new Republican Party, the law is a mere nuisance that can be avoided if there is political gain to be made,” McCaskill said.
Boone County court clerk Brianna L. Lennon said that she has been left “in a holding pattern” while the various courts and officials decide the shape of this fall’s elections.
“I am hoping that they move quickly,” Lennon said, adding that her county and its 125,000 voters are “heavily impacted by which map we’re going to use.”
About 40% of Boone County voters are directly affected, she said, both because the congressional district numbers change depending on which map is in effect and because the boundary shifts across the entire county.
Because the situation has been fluid for much of the year, Boone County has preset its election systems with both maps, Lennon said. That process involves manually linking each street address to a particular precinct based on each of the competing maps, she said, so that every voter has double precinct assignments until the situation is resolved.
“So the question is not, ‘Oh my gosh, what do we do?’ It’s just, ‘Tell us which map to use,’” she said.
But the clock is ticking. Missouri uses paper ballots, and court clerks have been in regular contact with printing vendors to ensure there’s time to get them prepared. Ballots have to go to military and overseas voters by Sept. 18, Lennon said, and early absentee voting begins Sept. 22.
In Boone County, the practice is to test voting equipment three to four weeks before Election Day, which means officials will need paper ballots by then. Election Day — Nov. 3 — is now seven weeks away.
“So it will be a crunch, I think, to get the ballots printed,” Lennon said. “But it’s still doable at this time.”
BELLEFONTE, Pa. — Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky appeared in court remotely Tuesday, where he said he agreed with his lawyers not to go forward with testimony from an accuser who wants to recant allegations that Sandusky sexually abused him years ago.
The hearing was part of the latest bid by Sandusky’s lawyers to secure a new trial for him as his lawyers prepare to seek one in federal court after failing repeatedly in state courts.
In court, Sandusky, 82, appeared on a video screen in a spare room in Laurel Highlands state prison, seated at a small table in a maroon-colored shirt looking up at the camera through glasses.
Under questioning, he told Centre County Court Judge Maureen Skerda he had consulted with his lawyers about the decision not to present the accuser’s testimony recanting the allegations from Sandusky’s 2012 trial.
“I’m making this decision on advice of counsel,” Sandusky said, his arms on the table in front of him, a notepad between them. “Is there anything wrong with that?”
Sandusky has been serving a decades-long prison sentence since he was convicted of 45 counts of sexual abuse in 2012, after eight young men testified about what happened to them as boys.
Sandusky’s lawyer, Jerry Russo, told reporters later that state courts frown on granting new trials based on a witness recantation, seeing it as “inherently unreliable.”
Instead, Russo said, he plans to take Sandusky’s broader claims for a new trial to federal court — Sandusky has made at least three attempts in state courts — after one more procedural appeal in state court.
Last year, Sandusky’s lawyers had asked for a new trial, claiming that there were inconsistencies in the accusers’ testimony and that their testimony was driven by the possibility of financial gain, coaching by prosecutors, and “therapy intended to [help] them reconstruct memories of alleged abuse.”
Skerda months ago had refused to hear the claims, except for the recantation of the victim identified in court documents as R.R.
On Tuesday, Russo suggested that it was not worth taking the time for the judge to hear and consider the recantation testimony if it has no chance to win a new trial in a state court.
“If that’s the only issue that remains for us to litigate, there’s no purpose being served litigating it here in state court,” Russo said.
Skerda told Russo and Sandusky that withdrawing the request to present the recantation from the accuser, identified in court documents as R.R., meant that it could not be litigated again in state or federal court.
Russo agreed with that assessment, saying “technically” it is true, but also suggested that the recantation could find its way into federal court, saying that “there are other witnesses that can testify” about R.R.’s recantation.
The Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General had said that the supposed recantation was “highly suspect” and that it had prepared to rebut the recantation claim with testimony from six witnesses and other evidence.
In a statement, Attorney General David Sunday called Sandusky a “convicted child predator” and said he is making another attempt to “avoid accountability and escape punishment for years of abuse he perpetrated.”
Sandusky was the defensive coordinator at one of the country’s top football programs under Hall of Fame head coach Joe Paterno. The scandal led to Paterno’s firing, and the university paid more than $100 million to people who said they were abused by Sandusky.
Authorities said he found and groomed boys at the Second Mile, a charity he founded for at-risk youth. Sandusky has repeatedly declared his innocence.
R.R., who was 25 years old at trial, testified that when he was 11, Sandusky sexually abused him in the coach’s basement in 1998, a transcript shows.
Federal prosecutors are now involved in the case of a Camden County woman accused of trying to hire a hit man she met on the dating app Tinder to kill her police officer ex-boyfriend and his teenage daughter.
Jaclyn Diiorio, 28, of Runnemede, was charged this month with two counts of using interstate commerce facilities — in her case, a cell phone — in an attempt to commission a murder-for-hire, according to an indictment unsealed Wednesday.
Federal prosecutors will be tasked with prosecuting Diiorio after Camden County dropped its case against her in response to the charges.
It is the latest development in a story that captured national attention from true-crime enthusiasts and curious readers alike.
In April 2025, Diiorio was charged with two counts of attempted murder, conspiracy, and related crimes in the plot, which Camden County prosecutors said involved Diiorio trying to have both her ex-boyfriend, Philadelphia Police Officer Matthew O’Hanlon, and his 19-year-old daughter killed.
Prosecutors said Diiorio met the would-be hit man on Tinder. After days of exchanging messages and calls, they said, the two met in the parking lot of a Dollar General store in Gloucester Township, where Diiorio gave the man $500 of a proposed $12,000 payment before being swiftly arrested.
The hit man, prosecutors said, was actually an informant working with Camden County detectives who had tipped them off to Diiorio’s request days earlier.
It was not Diiorio’s first attempt at having O’Hanlon and his daughter killed, prosecutors said.
They alleged the New Jersey hairdresser told the informant she had previously been misled by others who had given her “fake pictures” of a supposed completed contract killing.
Prosecutors said the tumultuous relationship between Diiorio and O’Hanlon ended about a month before the murder-for-hire plot fizzled.
The federal indictment, filed Sept. 3 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, offers few new details in the case.
It says Diiorio used a cell phone to facilitate an interstate plan to kill two individuals identified as Person #1 and Person #2.
Communications took place between March 30 and April 5, 2025, in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey, according to the document.
Diiorio’s defense attorney, Robert Gamburg, said his client planned to plead not guilty to the charges during a detention hearing before U.S. Magistrate Judge Scott W. Reid on Monday.
Earlier this year, Gamburg sought to dismiss charges in Diiorio’s Camden County case when he filed a motion accusing prosecutors of relying on information that he said had been gathered by entrapment.
Gamburg said the informant who led police to Diiorio was desperate for money, and frequently brought unsolicited information to the sheriff’s department in exchange for cash.
The filing also describes the informant as a rogue operator, one whose phone and text conversations with Diiorio went unmonitored by detectives for days as they orchestrated her arrest.
County prosecutors declined to comment on the allegations at the time and said the matter would be resolved in court.
Reached by email Wednesday, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania declined to comment on the indictment.
A conviction for using interstate commerce facilities to commission a murder-for-hire has a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
CUPERTINO, Calif. — Apple on Wednesday unveiled its latest generation of iPhones, including a widely anticipated foldable version called Duo.
The company’s new CEO, John Ternus, who took over from Tim Cook on Sept. 1, introduced the latest lineup at the company’s Cupertino, Calif., headquarters.
After cycling through other updates to the iPhone, the Apple Watch and AirPods, Ternus told the audience inside the Steve Jobs Theater that “actually there is one more thing,” in a nod to the trademark phrase from Jobs that the company’s legendary late founder himself borrowed from the 1970s detective show Columbo.
The foldable phone has the “largest display ever on an iPhone, yet fits into your pocket,” Ternus said.
The phone opens to a 7.6-inch display that is 80% larger than the newest iPhone 18 Pro. It will let people use an Apple Pencil on the phone, a capability previously reserved for iPad users. Duo, Ternus said, “will redefine the experience of using a foldable phone.”
The Duo lets users split the screen to use two different apps on the device, or two windows of the same website for things like comparison shopping. With a starting price of $1,999, it is the most expensive iPhone yet.
The Duo “was always going to eclipse Apple’s other announcements at the event,” said Ben Wood, chief analyst at CCS Insight. “The device adds a distinctive new design to the iPhone lineup and marks the company’s entry into the niche foldable smartphone category.”
Wood said that while there is certain to be demand for the Duo, which costs less than some analysts had anticipated, foldables still account for less than 5% of the overall smartphone market.
The iPhone 18 Pro and 18 Pro Max, Ternus said, bring improvements to the battery, camera, and performance. They will start at $1,199 and $1,299, respectively. Customers can preorder the phones starting on Sept. 12 and they will be available on Sept. 18, although the Duo will be available on Oct. 23.
The new models feature a long battery life — 45 hours of video playback for the Pro Max — and faster charging. The camera offers what Apple called “cinematic effects” from regular video captured on the phone, as well as new options for manual controls and “smart focus tracking,” which lets users focus on a single moving subject, such as a kid during a soccer game.
Apple is also focusing on Siri’s new AI capabilities with the new phones, emphasizing privacy and security to stand apart from rivals who are further along in incorporating AI.
Many of Apple’s biggest rivals, such as Samsung, Motorola, and Google, have already come out with foldable smartphones. But Apple is not one to rush on new technologies.
“The foldable launch is straight out of Apple’s playbook: Wait for the product to work out its kinks and for the market to offer glimpses of viability, then enter and shape the category,” said Forrester analyst Dipanjan Chatterjee. But, he added, the question will be whether it can expand demand for what’s still a niche product category.
Compared with earlier generations, the iPhone 18 costs about $100 more due partly to a global memory chip shortage. The iPhone 17’s price ranges from $799 to $1,999 depending on the model.
Earlier this year, Apple unveiled artificial intelligence advances, including upgrades to its Siri assistant, emphasizing a focus on privacy and day-to-day use as the company tries to catch up with rivals on AI.
The keynote address for Ternus was his opportunity to set the tone for his vision of Apple’s future, Chatterjee said.
“John Ternus inherits perhaps the most successful consumer technology juggernaut in modern times. That is both a boon and a burden for him. Tim Cook’s perfected execution, scale, and monetization set a high bar, and Ternus must extend that run,” Chatterjee said. “But he must sustain that momentum while positioning Apple to disrupt itself in the near future, when the iPhone, or any smartphone for that matter, will cease to be the consumer’s primary conduit to the world.”
Wood noted that, with all the excitement around the Duo, the official arrival of Ternus as CEO “felt like less of a story” than he’d expected.
“This event marks a seamless transition from Tim Cook, and its timing to coincide with the iPhone Duo was undoubtedly planned,” Wood said. “However, despite the media frenzy about this new device, it is the broader strength of Apple’s hardware, software and services that will drive the company forward.”
Collingswood neighbors could soon seek licenses for backyard hens after an 18-year push from advocates.
During their monthly meeting Tuesday, Collingswood’s three commissioners introduced a proposed amendment that would undo the ban on fowl passed back in 2008. Both Mayor Daniela Solano-Ward and Commissioner Amy Henderson Riley, elected in May, expressed support.
Solano-Ward said 19 other Camden County towns have allowed backyard hens with little issue. With their support, the ordinance will move forward for a vote next month.
“We don’t see any data or reason to stand in the way of it any longer,” Solano-Ward said.
Commissioner Jim Maley, a former mayor of Collingswood, long oversaw the borough’s previous fights for backyard chickens and helped pass the original 2008 ban. On Tuesday, Maley voted against moving the ordinance forward.
“No, I’m gonna go ‘no,’” Maley said. “The reason is because I believe that a change like this in our borough, there should be a requirement within the ordinance that there’s notification provided to neighbors.”
The ordinance, like most other backyard chicken codes in the county, does not require notice to neighbors. But there are plenty of other rules, including taking an hours-long online course and undergoing inspections.
Collingswood could distribute only 30 total backyard chicken licenses at a time (among the borough’s estimated 6,500 households), and no roosters would be permitted. The number of hens allowed on a given property would depend on its size — a lot of fewer than 4,000 square feet could not have any hens, and a lot of 9,000 square feet or more would be capped at 12 hens.
The proposal also sets requirements for the coop’s structure and its distance from other property lines, bans the sale of eggs and the slaughter of chickens, and would create a resident-led Backyard Hen Advisory Board to monitor complaints and enforce rules. Violations could come with a fine of up to $1,250 or up to 90 days in prison.
Henderson Riley, who took the three-hour backyard chicken course to test the waters, said the ordinance does not make it easy to get hens.
“It required me to pay attention,” Henderson Riley said. “I didn’t get 100%.”
A few attendees spoke up with concerns about the pitched program, but worries about the chickens’ impact on health and neighboring homes were mostly addressed by conditions set in the ordinance.
Larry DiGiovanni, a Collingswood resident, asked the commissioners about oversight of potential chicken licensees and how bird droppings could create an unsafe environment for community members.
“I’ve known people who have done this, and it is kind of a daunting task because it’s a lot to take care of,” DiGiovanni said. “And sometimes, you can get a little bit out of control.”
Graham Patterson, 35, sat quietly at the meeting Tuesday with two of his fellow Camden County chicken advocates, including the “Chicken Lady of South Jersey,” Gwenne Baile, who has fought for backyard hen ordinances across New Jersey since 2009.
When he moved to Collingswood in 2023, Patterson, a software engineer, wanted to start a chicken coop to give his two children the chance to take up more responsibility and get a closer look at the food they eat. If the proposal passes in October, Patterson will become the chairperson of the Backyard Hen Advisory Board.
Patterson said he does not think the program should require notice to neighbors, since residents would not have to bypass zoning rules to have a coop. His goal is to make sure the program makes the borough happy from the jump.
“If we bear a few bad eggs in the program, that’s not really advantageous for us,” Patterson said. “We want the program to be successful. We want to be compliant. We want neighbors to be completely indifferent to whether people have chickens on their property.”