MAUMERE, Indonesia — A powerful magnitude 7.7 earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia early Saturday, killing at least 47 people, collapsing buildings, and causing panic in a region prone to deadly quakes. Authorities said dozens more residents were injured and warned that the death toll would almost certainly rise.
Authorities issued a tsunami warning and urged coastal residents to move to higher ground, but later lifted the warning when Indonesia’s meteorological agency said monitoring showed no significant sea-level changes that posed a threat to coastal communities. Some smaller tsunamis were reported.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake hit eastern Indonesia’s Flores region at a depth of 6 miles at 5:58 a.m. local time. Its epicenter was 42 miles north-northwest of the city of Ende in East Nusa Tenggara province.
Wuake triggers landslides, generates small tsunamis
The meteorological agency said the quake was followed by at least 235 aftershocks, with the largest recorded at magnitude 6.2.
The agency’s sea-level monitoring stations acknowledged some small tsunamis reached coastal villages in Manggarai and East Manggarai regencies. Videos obtained by the Associated Press showed the coastal village of Riung in Ngada regency blanketed in mud and debris after what the agency described as a 5.3-foot tsunami. Fishing boats were stranded ashore, infrastructure damaged, and homes surrounded by sediment left by receding waters.
Waves measuring 3.1 feet were observed in Maurole, Ende Regency.
Tsunami waves exceeding 1.6 feet were detected in Bulukumba, South Sulawesi, and Sape in Bima Regency.
A strong, land-based earthquake of 6.9 magnitude hit North Sumatra province in western Indonesia on Saturday afternoon, according to the USGS. It struck 107 miles beneath the earth’s surface, meaning it was too deep to cause significant damage or casualties, Indonesian authorities said.
The quake has caused buildings to collapse
East Nusa Tenggara Police Chief Rudi Darmoko said power outages hampered the spread of information about the impact of the earthquake in cities and villages, complicating search and rescue efforts.
“We are continuing to collect reports of damage and casualties, but there are communication disruptions,” Darmoko said. He said quake-triggered landslides in Ende regency blocked the Trans-Flores highway, a roughly 435-mile paved mountain road spanning Flores Island, from Labuan Bajo to Larantuka.
The head of the National Disaster Management Agency, Suharyanto, said rescuers have recovered at least 47 bodies, mostly in Sikka, Manggarai, and East Manggarai, and at least 50 people were taken to hospitals.
Suharyanto, who like many Indonesians uses a single name, said the quake flattened at least 157 houses and damaged nearly 200 more, forcing about 2,000 villagers to abandon their homes and move to temporary shelters. The powerful temblor also destroyed more than 100 public facilities, including schools, medical centers, and churches.
The death toll could rise because landslides triggered by the earthquake buried or cut off many remote villages across six regencies on Flores Island, said Fathur Rahman, who heads the Search and Rescue Office in Maumere, the capital of Sikka.
Some remote villages are completely buried, he said, and damaged infrastructure and a lack of heavy equipment were hindering rescue efforts.
Authorities deployed three helicopters and a rescue vessel to support logistics and emergency response operations, including potential evacuations. East Nusa Tenggara consists of numerous islands and presents significant transportation and access challenges.
Residents ran for their lives when quake struck
The quake was felt across much of Flores island with initial reports indicating heavy damage.
Yohanna Embu, who lives in Sikka, said people ran in a panic to higher ground.
“Many buildings here were damaged … I saw that the waiting room at the port terminal in Maumere had collapsed,” she said.
Students at St. Peter Major Seminary in Sikka who were attending morning Mass fled when the roof of an assembly hall collapsed, said the Rev. Guidelbertus Tanga, rector of the seminary, known locally as Ritapiret Seminary, on the predominantly Catholic island of Flores.
“Our students and nuns ran out in panic beneath a collapsing roof,” Tanga said. “At least one priest suffered a broken leg after jumping from the second floor of a building during the quake.”
The quake also struck Labuan Bajo, a gateway town to eastern Indonesia’s Komodo National Park, one of the country’s best-known attractions. Damage was reported in Bima, a city in neighboring West Nusa Tenggara province, and in parts of southern Sulawesi island.
Indonesian authorities initially issued a tsunami warning for parts of East Nusa Tenggara, West Nusa Tenggara, South Sulawesi, and Southeast Sulawesi provinces, and urged residents to stay away from beaches and riverbanks. The agency located the shallow undersea quake near Flores island.
Indonesia, a vast archipelago of more than 17,000 islands, is prone to earthquakes and volcanic activity because of its location on the Ring of Fire, an arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin.
Most notably, a powerful earthquake caused a tsunami in 1992 that killed about 2,500 people on Flores, part of a group of islands in the eastern half of Indonesia, while in 2018, a magnitude 7.5 quake spawned a large localized tsunami that wiped out coastal areas, killing more than 4,400 people.
In December 2004, a massive magnitude 9.1 earthquake off Sumatra in western Indonesia triggered a tsunami that killed 230,000 people in a dozen countries.
WASHINGTON — Faced with an increasingly bellicose Iran as talks to end the war have stalled, the Trump administration appears to be reaching out to a broader swath of countries that might be able to help pressure Tehran or ease its hardline position where traditional mediators have not succeeded so far.
While discussions between Iran and Oman, as well as between Iran and Pakistan, Turkey, and Qatar, persist at an uneven and unpredictable pace, the U.S. administration quietly has expanded its outreach to include perhaps unlikely interlocutors in Europe.
Just this week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio met in person in Washington with the foreign minister of Austria on Tuesday and held a call with the foreign minister of Greece on Wednesday.
Those interactions were not notable beyond the normal course of relations between the U.S. and two close European allies. The official State Department readouts of the discussions were bland and vague and did not mention Iran by name as a topic of conversation.
But it then emerged that both foreign ministers — almost immediately after their talks with Rubio — spoke Thursday with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi.
A desperate push is on to break the diplomatic logjam
The entry by Austria and Greece is likely less of a formal mediation attempt, analysts say, and more reflective of a desperate push to halt the conflict because of the impact it has on an increasing number of countries, beyond those in the Middle East.
“Everyone is just urging both sides to stop this reckless game of chicken,” said Ali Vaez, Iran project director at the International Crisis Group.
It also shows how much Iran’s effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz has forced countries, which otherwise were neutral bystanders to the larger conflict, to exercise any diplomatic sway they may have on their Iranian and American counterparts to kick-start a lasting resolution.
Mona Yacoubian, director of the Middle East Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, warned that any efforts by Greece, Austria, or any other nonmediating country could prove to be futile.
“While the calls to both sides may entail encouraging both Iran and the U.S. back to the negotiating table, such efforts fall short of mediation, which is a very complex endeavor and requires trust to be built by the mediator with both sides,” Yacoubian said.
She added that it’s not something that any country can “just jump into.”
Rubio discussed Iran with his Austrian and Greek counterparts
The State Department said Friday that it could not comment on the timing of calls by other countries’ foreign ministers and maintained that Rubio had made no requests of either to get in touch with Iran or pass messages to Araghchi.
One European diplomat, who was briefed on the matter and spoke on condition of anonymity to detail sensitive diplomatic conversations, said the timing of the calls was not an accident.
The State Department did allow, however, that Iran had been a topic of conversation in Rubio’s discussions, which occurred as Trump is facing serious political headwinds over a war for which he has offered shifting objectives.
No longer purely about making Iran incapable of producing a nuclear weapon, the immediate goal has become reopening the Strait of Hormuz, where a fifth of the world’s oil usually passes through and which was open before the U.S. and Israel launched attacks on Iran on Feb. 28.
“That’s goal number one: Keep oil and gas cheap for Americans all over our country,” Vice President JD Vance said in an interview Thursday on Fox News Channel. But he did not say anything about the strait being open and toll-free for transiting ships, as he had in the past.
The second goal, Vance said, is to ensure that Iran will never get a nuclear weapon.
The two European countries have key connections to war’s fallout
Austria and Greece may not be obvious choices to assist on the Iran portfolio, but Vienna is home to the International Atomic Energy Agency, which will play a key role in any resolution to the Iran’s nuclear program, and hosted the final negotiations that resulted in the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Greece is a major maritime nation in the Mediterranean and has significant shipping interests in the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea.
In statements from the Austrian, Greek, and Iranian foreign ministries, it was clear that Iran had been a top topic in all of the conversations this week.
The Greek foreign ministry said Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis had been briefed by Araghchi on “regional developments, and in particular on the ongoing talks regarding the Strait of Hormuz.” It said Gerapetritis “underlined the importance of freedom of navigation and maritime security.”
The Austrian foreign ministry offered Austria’s services as a venue for further potential talks with Iran and said Foreign Minister Beate Meinl-Reisinger had stressed to Araghchi “the urgency of restoring stability in the region through serious diplomatic efforts.”
“There can be no military solution,” it said. “A diplomatic solution remains possible. Our priority is to safeguard freedom of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz.”
Iran’s foreign ministry, expectedly, took a different tack in explaining the calls.
It said Friday that in Araghchi’s calls with his European counterparts they discussed “mechanisms for the future management of the Strait of Hormuz,” which he said had been disrupted by the “unlawful aggression by the United States and the Israeli regime against Iran.”
In both calls, he accused the U.S. of violating the interim deal signed by both sides in June to end the immediate hostilities and begin broader talks to end the war.
Cheltenham’s new police chief is a longtime crisis negotiator who led one of the township’s most famous criminal investigations.
Richard Schaffer will be sworn in as Cheltenham’s new police chief next week to replace John Slavin, who is retiring after 37 years with the department. The salary range for the new chief was listed as $180,000 to $195,000 in the township’s job posting.
Schaffer has led a variety of community policing efforts in his 26 years at Cheltenham, spending more than two decades as a crisis negotiator and heading the township’s gun violence task force.
In 2024, he embedded a county mental health worker into the police department to assist in cases with behavioral health concerns.
Schaffer, who holds a master’s degree in criminal justice from St. Joseph’s University, made the case for community policing in a speech at a school board meeting this week.
The new chief takes the reins at a tumultuous time for Cheltenham School District, which has faced a range of safety concerns in recent years — most notably two alleged assaults in a high school locker room last year that led to criminal charges for four football coaches and six players.
“We have not lived up to our shared ideals. We must acknowledge the victims from recent cases, and we must promise to do things better not only for them but for future students,” Schaffer said.
“I would urge parents and the board to commit to a greater partnership with the police department.”
Some Cheltenham residents have advocated for removing a physical police presence from schools in recent years.
Schaffer pledged at the meeting to “push back on some of those who sought to drive the police from the schools.”
“Police interacting with students, faculty, and staff is a good thing,” Schaffer said. “We want to be proactive by leveraging information and our relationships to get ahead of problems.”
District spokesperson Kevin Kaufman did not answer questions Friday about the current status of security programs at Cheltenham schools.
Schaffer also led the 2005 investigation into allegations that Bill Cosby drugged and assaulted Andrea Constand at his Cheltenham home.
Although the Montgomery County district attorney declined to press charges at the time, the case was reopened in 2015, and Schaffer was eventually called to testify.
He testified in 2018 that he had believed Constand’s allegations at the time, and still did.
Cosby’s conviction was overturned in 2021 on procedural grounds.
This suburban content is produced with support from the Leslie Miller and Richard Worley Foundation and The Lenfest Institute for Journalism. Editorial content is created independently of the project donors. Gifts to support The Inquirer’s high-impact journalism can be made at inquirer.com/donate. A list of Lenfest Institute donors can be found at lenfestinstitute.org/supporters.
It’s not exactly must-see TV, but that’s where the Eagles will be Saturday night to kick off their preseason schedule against the Baltimore Ravens (7 p.m., NBC10).
Count the Eagles among the teams that rarely let their offensive stars take the field before the start of the real season. The last time Jalen Hurts took a preseason snap was 2022, and even then he was on the field just one series.
On top of that, teams often use limited playbooks to avoid advance scouting and rely on joint practices to run plays and evaluate players. That might allow “talent to show,” as Green Bay Packers defender and Philly native Zaire Franklin recently told reporters, but it tends to make an already meaningless game way more boring.
“That’s just the nature of preseason these days,” said Ross Tucker, who will call Saturday’s game. “Fortunately I follow the Eagles year-round and follow their backups closely exactly for these three weeks.”
None of that will stop Eagles fans from tuning in. Last season’s first preseason game on NBC10 garnered 1.06 million viewers and aired in 669,000 households, according to Nielsen numbers shared by the station. That’s roughly 21% of the entire Philly TV market tuning in to watch a meaningless Eagles game. Not too shabby.
“I grew up a big-time Eagles fan. Ninety-five percent of my friends and family are Eagles fans,” Tucker said. “I get a bunch of texts doing Eagles preseason games from all sorts of people, including my fourth-grade teacher. … It’s really neat to get feedback from people.”
How to watch the Eagles-Ravens preseason game
Nick Sirianni is entering his sixth season as Eagles head coach. Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer
The Eagles’ first preseason game will air in and around Philly on NBC10, with Tucker calling the game alongside former Phillies announcer Scott Graham. But that’s not the only spot you’ll find it.
Regionally, the preseason game will air on a number of local stations, including:
Elsewhere, the game will also be available on WBAL-TV in Baltimore, WLKY in Louisville, Ky. (due to Lamar Jackson’s collegiate connection to the region), and KHII in Honolulu, Hawaii (whose parent company is airing 13 NFL preseason games).
Fans can also listen to the game on 94.1 WIP, where beloved Eagles announcer Merrill Reese is entering his 50th season calling Birds games. He’ll once again be joined by longtime partner and former Eagles wide receiver Mike Quick.
The game can also be heard nationally on SiriusXM NFL Radio.
Where can I stream the Eagles-Ravens preseason game?
Tonight’s game will be free to stream on the Eagles app and PhiladelphiaEagles.com if you live in the Philadelphia or Baltimore TV market.
The game will also stream in the Philadelphia market on any so-called skinny bundle that carries NBC10, including YouTube TV and Hulu + Live TV. Most offer a free trial. You can also stream it on the NBC app, but a cable login is required.
You can also watch NBC10 for free using a digital antenna if you live in and around Philadelphia.
Fans living outside the Philadelphia market can stream the game on NFL+, the league streaming service. It’ll set you back $6.99 a month, though there is a free seven-day trial.
The marred fields of Lemon Hill Park are the remaining signs of the longest summer party the city has ever seen. Half a million people gathered in the park for 39 days straight, dancing to the All-American Rejects, cheering on World Cup matches, and sharing meals on blankets across more than a million square feet of the Fairmount park.
The FIFA Fan Festival, by most accounts from the city, tourists, and residents, was a resounding success, offering a premium World Cup experience at a sliver of the cost of attending a game. Philly’s fan experience was considered one of the most affordable and popular in the country.
Soccer fans gather to watch Mexico play South Africa on a giant screen during the opening day of the FIFA Fan Festival at Lemon Hill on June 11.Jose F. Moreno / Staff Photographer
Now that the party is wrapped, the caretakers of Lemon Hill and nearby residents are hoping the city makes good on a promise to restore the park to its former glory, if not better.
Philadelphia Soccer 2026, organizer of the FIFA Fan Festival, committed $4 million to park upgrades, from new picnic pavilions and a playground to safer sidewalks and traffic-calming measures at intersections. Additional funding will come from the city, but when asked, a city spokesperson declined to reveal the total budget and said more details will come during a groundbreaking celebration in September.
The city gathered input from the community across nine public engagement sessions beginning in 2024 that netted 350 comments from 200 participants that helped shape which improvements would be prioritized.
While residents and caretakers welcome park improvements, it is not lost on them that financial backing comes only after large companies use the space, though locals have been requesting help for years, said Shaun Cerborino, a co-organizer of Lemon Hill’s volunteer parks group. What’s more, without long-term maintenance funding, the upkeep of the park and its new upgrades will fall to caretakers once again.
Large grass-less sections remain following FIFA Fan Festival at Lemon Hill on July 28. Fan Fest wrapped up on July 19.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
Deferred maintenance billed as ‘legacy projects’
A month after the World Cup ended, the largest Lemon Hill field thatstaged the festival is still mostly filled with dirt, patches of wilting grass, and the occasional leftover screw and other small construction waste. The city began aerating and preparing the soil for regrowth in July.
The grass will grow back, said Cerborino and Nissa Eisenberg, Fairmount residents and co-organizers of the Lemon Hill Neighbors Association, which provides regular volunteer maintenance to the park. But what caretakers truly are concerned about is long-term support after the city finishes its upgrades months from now.
Additionally, many of the improvements considered legacy projects are really “deferred maintenance” that had been requested for years, and came about only when corporations needed to use the park, Cerborino said.
Large grass-less sections remain following FIFA Fan Festival at Lemon Hill on July 28. Fan Fest wrapped up on July 19.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
“Instead of properly funding Parks and Recreation, the city looks toward private ventures to help keep the lights on and generate enough money to maintain — which we’re barely doing anyway,” Cerborino said.
In Philadelphia, there is no dedicated budget for parks and open space; instead, the city and volunteers rely on the Philadelphia Parks and Recreation budget to maintain parks. They also look to grants, private nonprofits, and thousands of volunteers who weed, fix, and maintain trails and park space as part of “Friends” groups. Philadelphia relies on volunteers at more than twice the national average.
Since taking office, Mayor Cherelle L. Parker has raised the parks and recreation department’s budget each year, doubling its spending from $53 per resident on parks in 2024 to $110 per resident in 2026. And while 97% of Philadelphians can walk 10 minutes and find a park, far exceeding the national average, Philadelphia still spends about half as much on its parks as the national average, according to the Trust for Public Land.
Improvements like upgraded sidewalks, lighting, signage, and recreation areas are standards that should already be met by the city, which is home to some of the highest-ranked parks in the country, Cerborino said.
Small holes line sections of the park, possibly following aeration, after FIFA Fan Festival at Lemon Hill on July 28. Fan Fest wrapped up on July 19.Monica Herndon / Staff Photographer
Residents may have their park back, but restoration is far from over
Fairmount residents are all but back to their usual park routines after the festival equipment was removed, but they say it is still a long way before Lemon Hill is back to normal.
Last month,Samantha Tartaglino was walking her German shepherd, Marley, through the flattened fields. Marley sprinted through swaths of dead, brown grass, unfazed by the patches. Tartaglino said Marley was just happy to be back in wide-open spaces, as the dog had to make do with a smaller park nearby for weeks.
Lemon Hill’s open fields are a key reason for why many move to this part of Fairmount, Tartaglino said, but even before the fan festival, residents felt the park was not being supported to its fullest potential.
“I feel like FIFA and World Cup put the city under pressure and kicked them into gear,” Tartaglino said.
The city has already put into place many of its legacy commitments, like new ADA-compliant sidewalks and ramps along Sedgley Drive, traffic-calming measures at the intersection of Sedgley and Poplar Drives, and additional lighting fixtures.
But the community’s request for permanent bathrooms, water fountains, and portable water stations has gone unanswered, Eisenberg said. The city says those things can happen only if there is an on-site park staffer due to concerns about maintenance and vandalism.
A project with a longer timeline will be a new 43,500-square-foot playground, with construction expected to stretch into April 2027, according to Philadelphia Soccer 2026 and the city. And while construction is underway, the playground and basketball courts will be closed.
Eisenberg lamented that. What was once presented as a plan for residents to give up park space for two months during the World Cup will now last much longer, she said, as grass fields will need to grow back and other amenities are closed for renovation.
“The basketball court is one of the most heavily used assets of the park, but they’re planning to use the court as a staging area for the construction,” Eisenberg said. “Which I get because it’s conveniently located, but you just put on this multimillion-dollar event; I’m sure you can find another area to stage construction materials so that at least the basketball court isn’t offline all winter.”
City officials say the plan is worth the wait.
“We expect the legacy improvements to be completed next spring and are excited for neighbors and future visitors to enjoy a renewed Lemon Hill … that builds on the excitement of this summer while serving Philadelphians for years to come,” acity spokesperson said.
The playground and basketball courts at Lemon Hill Park in the Fairmount neighborhood of Philadelphia. Since the 2026 World Cup has ended and the FIFA Fan Festival staged at the park has left, restoration efforts are underway with funding from various private and public stakeholders.Henry Savage / Staff
Lack of long-term maintenance funding
While projects such as renovating the playgrounds, basketball courts, and baseball fields are welcome, the Lemon Hill Neighbors Association fears that once city crews finish the work, the caretakers will be right back where they started — working off “love and duct tape” with little financial support.
This means park improvements come only after long periods of push and pull between Philadelphia Parks and Recreation staffers and volunteer park caretakers, leaving long-termmaintenance to fall to volunteer groups that dedicate their time and money to keeping parks usable.
“We understand that a lot of times Parks and Recreation is understaffed or underfunded, but then that means we’re going to have to pick up that role,” Eisenberg said. “We need help, and the Parks and Recreation budget needs to reflect it.”
Earlier this week, Temple graduate student Kyle McCurly was lounging in the undamaged grass surrounding the large field that just housed the festival. Having grown up in rural Georgia and recently back from a trip to Austin, Texas, McCurly said Philly’s parks could be so much more with long-term maintenance, and not just at Lemon Hill. Henoted that Austin invests twice as much money as Philadelphia does in its parks per resident, according to the Trust for Public Land.
“Everyone’s going to have different opinions on how the funding itself is created,” McCurly said. “But I think that it’s worth consistent investment to make green spaces more accessible and enjoyable in the city.”
Federal investigators last summer subpoenaed records about William F. Dunbar Sr., a Philly lobbyist who was key to Mayor Parker’s 2023 campaign.None of the sources said they were aware of an investigation centered on Parker.
Three Philly men allegedly stole hundreds of federal government checks between 2024 and 2026, reselling them online. Federal prosecutors said their haul totaled $68 million.
Upper Merion Township’s Board of Supervisors unanimously rejected a data center campus proposal that had sparked a backlash from constituents.
A Main Line psychiatrist who lost her medical license following an investigation into a sexual relationship with a patient can keep working while she appeals that decision, a judge ruled.
Iemad Saifo, the owner of Zena’s American Mediterranean Cuisine in Collingswood, was released from ICE detention.
Kensington High School will temporarily close its building over asbestos concerns. Students and staff will move into the old Austin Meehan Middle School.
Aramark, one of the region’s major employers, struck a deal directly with Penn Medicine to provide more affordable healthcare to its workers.
A reader asked: I have family visiting and they want an “authentic Philly cheesesteak.” Should I take the entire day, battle traffic and parking, and shuttle them down to South Philly? Or can I order takeout from our local pizza place in the burbs? Is there that much difference?
To help, we enlisted the palates of features columnist Stephanie Farr and programming editor Tommy Rowan.
Farr admitted she took the local pizza shop route when her dad came to town, but now laments her decision. “Missteaks were made, obviously,” Farr said.
Rowan, a cheesesteak connoisseur in his own right, described himself as picky. “If you are passionate about something you have rules,” he said.
They also touched on an important ingredient that flavors the cheesesteak experience in Philly: the people you meet.
In this week’s Shackamaxon, Inquirer columnist Daniel Pearson unpacks how data centers are shaping the election landscape.
Gov. Josh Shapiro, for example, has shifted his stance from an early embrace of data centers. The issue is testing his high approval ratings in Pennsylvania.
“Of course, there’s a certain opportunism to state Treasurer Stacy Garrity’s embrace of the techlash,” Pearson writes of Shapiro’s gubernatorial opponent.
Cheers to Deborah Solo who correctly guessed Friday’s answer: Dito van Reigersberg. Two new scholarships named for the beloved artist — who performed as Philly’s legendary drag queen Martha Graham Cracker — will support local artists in drag, cabaret, and theater.
Before the Phillies bested the Minnesota Twins in Dyersville, Iowa, this week, the players and their families had a chance to visit the set of the 1989 baseball classic Field of Dreams.
This story contains references to suicide. If you or someone you know is thinking of suicide, call or text 988.
Whether they’re seeking treatment for a sprained ankle, stomach pain, or a panic attack, teenagers who come to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia emergency department are handed a 10-minute health survey with questions about depression and self harm.
About one in three reports symptoms of depression or suicidal thoughts that may otherwise have gone unnoticed.
Asking all patients aged 12 to 19 about mental health challenges has improved CHOP’s early detection of needs, especially among teens and adolescents being treated for physical ailments.
“There’s this tension of we don’t want to ask a 12-year-old these questions, these are grown-up questions,” said Polina Krass, a pediatric emergency medicine attending physician at CHOP, who helped develop the survey. “But then we miss the mark and are getting kids the help they need only when they’re already in crisis.”
CHOP’s screening initiative, launched in 2011, targets a problem hospitals across the region and country are facing: Mental health issues account for about one out of every eight emergency department visits, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Yet hospitals are often ill-prepared to respond to these patients’ complex needs, which can put patient and staff safety at risk.
Safety experts say that one of the most meaningful solutions is for hospitals to treat suicide risk and mental health issues as a core patient safety issue that all staff are trained to recognize, akin to postpartum hemorrhage, heart attack, or stroke.
“This isn’t just a behavioral health issue — this is a system-wide patient safety priority,” said Shannon Kooker, vice president of clinical excellence and patient safety at ECRI, a patient safety organization in Fort Washington.
Suicide risk in emergency departments
Patients at risk of suicide often turn to emergency departments for care, according to a new ECRI report.
ECRI analyzed patient safety incident reports from hospitals, outpatient clinics, and behavioral health programs between 2021 and 2025, looking specifically at suicide deaths and attempts, and instances in which patients expressed having thoughts of killing themselves.
Nearly three-quarters of the 406 incidents ECRI analyzed occurred in emergency departments. That’s partly because hospitals have established protocols for reporting incidents, whereas urgent care and ambulatory centers may be less likely to self-report, Kooker said.
People experiencing a mental health crisis may also be more likely to seek care at hospitals, which typically have specialized behavioral health workers on staff, she said.
Deaths were rare, accounting for just 2.7% of cases analyzed by ECRI. Much more common were cases in which a patient tried to kill themselves or expressed a desire to — a sign that providers have an opportunity to intervene before harm occurs, if they can identify risks quickly, ECRI analysts found.
A system-wide approach to mental health safety
Improving safety for patients at risk of self harm should be a hospital-wide effort, Kooker said.
That can mean changing the emergency room environment, such as installing breakaway doors that open upon impact to reduce the risk of patients harming themselves and using paper scrubs that can’t be knotted into ropes.
More importantly, hospitals should make suicide prevention part of their safety culture, emphasized at the highest leadership levels, she said.
She urged hospitals to standardize policies for responding to mental health emergencies.
That starts with training all staff to recognize warning signs, such as being extremely agitated or anxious, acting erratically or withdrawn, or expressing feelings of being a nuisance or burden to others.
Not every patient needs to be screened for suicide risk, but staff should quickly call for help when they recognize troubling behaviors, Kooker said.
“It shouldn’t be a question mark to the staff — it should be standardized and tested,” she said.
CHOP targets youth mental health
At CHOP, about 10% of emergency department visits involve patients whose primary concern is a mental health issue.
Krass worries about the many more teens and adolescents whose mental health needs may go unnoticed in emergency departments because no one thought to ask.
The optional behavioral health screening survey — now taken by some 600 patients a month at CHOP’s Philadelphia and King of Prussia emergency departments — is designed to better identify those individuals, said Krass, a research scholar at CHOP’s Center for Violence Prevention.
When a patient’s survey answers indicate anxiety, depression, or other mental health concerns, doctors connect them with a behavioral health specialist or social worker for follow-up care.
Patients can complete the 37-question survey on their phone or on a tablet provided by the hospital. Krass and her colleagues have found that youth are more likely to share details about their mental health through this quasi-private format than if doctors ask questions directly.
One of the survey’s final questions is whether it’s a good idea for CHOP to probe so deeply into their young patients’ mental health.
Almost all answer yes.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct the year CHOP began its behavioral health screening initiative.
INTERCOURSE, Pa. — A young Amish woman stood barefoot in the back right corner of a grassy volleyball court, spinning a ball in her hands.
She wore a simple green dress with a black apron, and when she leapt and hammered a serve over the net with a grunt, her prayer covering looked as white as the passing clouds.
On this beautiful afternoon in late June, the coed competitors were among the hundreds of young Amish players from Pennsylvania, Ohio, and other states who converged on Intercourse Community Park, about 60 miles west of Philadelphia, in Lancaster County, for the annual volleyball tournament. Hundreds gathered around the courts in lawn chairs to watch, including Amish men with long beards alongside “English” children in sneakers and sports jerseys.
Teams high-five each other after a volleyball match during the first day of the Heritage Days Volleyball Tournament at Intercourse Community Park in Gordonville, Pa., on June 19.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
The Amish in Pennsylvania, for reasons few could fully explain, love competitive volleyball. Some simply shrugged their shoulders when asked why. Others said they play volleyball because previous generations played too, a skill they learned just by watching, much the same as shoeing buggy horses or baking whoopie pies.
“I guess it’s just part of our culture,” said Ray Beiler, the tournament’s organizer. ”Competition-wise, though, it’s slow-pitch and volleyball, but volleyball is probably the biggest.”
The Amish also dabble in ice hockey when ponds freeze, Beiler said, and, in Indiana, they play basketball, of course. In Intercourse, the sharp pop of pickleball paddles on this Friday afternoon revealed another growing sport among the Amish.
Volleyball, it seems, has always been there, some said.
Ray Beiler updates the scores and standings during the Intercourse Heritage Days and Heritage Days Volleyball Tournament at Intercourse Community Park in Gordonville, Pa., on June 19.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
“I grew up with it,” said competitor Irv Beiler, 18, of Christiana, Lancaster County. “It’s a team game.”
One older Amish man said he grew up playing softball, but reckoned volleyball was a new phenomenon. When asked his name, the man spoke to his wife in Pennsylvania Dutch, and declined to answer.
The Amish do have a traditional game called cornerball, or “eck balle” in Pennsylvania Dutch, that looks like a cross between baseball and dodgeball, but is played in a cow pen. According to AmishAmerica.com, the sport was originally played with homemade balls made by “wrapping a quarter-sized steel nut in twine and covering it with black tire tape.”
According to the website, eck balle is a disappearing sport.
Erik Wesner, founder of AmishAmerica.com, said the purpose of volleyball and other sports in Amish communities is mostly about socialization, not competition.
“This is a game that’s played commonly at the Sunday youth group gatherings or meetings at church members’ houses for dinner,” he said. “It’s a way for teens and young adults to interact.”
Older Amish in Intercourse didn’t know much about the rise in popularity, but, ever efficient and resourceful, said volleyball takes up little room, compared to say, soccer, and can keep a lot of children busy at a gathering.
Irv Beiler serves the ball during the Heritage Days Volleyball Tournament at Intercourse Community Park in Gordonville, Pa., on June 19.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
John Lapp, 51, of Gap, Lancaster County, said there are “volleyball barns” in the area where the more serious players gather in the winter.
“I played softball,” he said. “Volleyball was just a sport that took hold, I suppose.”
There doesn’t appear to be much trash talk in the competitive world of Amish volleyball, unless you understand Pennsylvania Dutch, but the talent is plain as day. That makes sense, locals said, if you consider the day-to-day life of Amish youth. They’re wrangling calves, riding kick scooters, and lifting hay, building muscle and balance the whole time.
“I used to play too,” said Simon Stoltzfus. “I just can’t jump as high as I could or stay up there as long.”
Wesner said sports tend to be more prevalent in progressive Amish communities, like in Lancaster County, and less so in more conservative areas, like Mifflin and Clearfield Counties.
Serious play during the Heritage Days Volleyball Tournament at Intercourse Community Park in Gordonville, Pa., on June 19.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
Last year, The Inquirer spoke to Melvin Byler, who grew up Amish in Western Pennsylvania, after he won the Professional Bull Riding event in Reading. Byler had to leave his Amish community to pursue bull riding as a profession.
“I didn’t even see bull riding until I was 14, and when I told my parents I wanted to do it, they said it was a phase,” Byler said.
Steven Nolt, an Elizabethtown College professor who has researched and written about the Amish extensively, said situations like Byler’s are rare. Ray Beiler said a college coach came to one of the Intercourse tournaments and said many of the competitors could play at higher levels, but Nolt said it’s unlikely that even the most talented volleyball players would pursue the sport more competitively.
“It would be hard to imagine,” Nolt said. “They’d be making a choice not to join the Amish.”
Chris Haley oversaw the pickleball tournament at the Intercourse Heritage Days, where there are new courts. He said the Amish quickly took up that sport, too, and some have makeshift courts at their house.
“They are talented and determined,” Haley said.
They compete in sports for the fun of it, not for the prospects of future scholarships, and, at a tournament as big as Intercourse, the socializing was front and center. Young Amish slipped off their black leather boots and Crocs for sneakers or went barefoot, dozens chatting up one another in both English and Pennsylvania Dutch.
“This tournament is most definitely for the fun of it,” said Wilmer Stoltzfus, 20.
Friends and family watch the play during the Heritage Days Volleyball Tournament at Intercourse Community Park in Gordonville, Pa., on June 19.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
The players took big gulps from jugs of water and walked onto one of several courts spread out over several acres in the park. Some of the men wore thick, black work pants with suspenders, but others wore shorts. When one young Amish man dove for a dig and missed, his teammates rushed to help him up.
“Good job,” they said.
By Saturday night, only one net would remain, and a few thousand spectators would be crowding the court for the finals. The winners would get tall trophies housed in an exhibition room, with silver and gold volleyballs fastened to the tops.
They’d also get bragging rights until next year, maybe.
“Not bragging, no,” said Wilmer Stoltzfus. “We don’t really brag.”
Serious play during day one of the Heritage Days Volleyball Tournament at Intercourse Community Park in Gordonville, Pa., on June 19.Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
As of 2:15 p.m. Friday, a post from the Eagles’ official Twitter/X account showing a slow-motion replay of Quinyon Mitchell intercepting a Jalen Hurts pass during practice Wednesday had accumulated nearly 17 million views on the site. There are no typographical errors in that sentence. An interception at practice garnered 17 million views without Christopher Nolan or Abraham Zapruder having filmed the sequence.
X users reposted the clip more than 3,000 times. Many of them included comments suggesting, or saying outright, that the interception was indicative of the quality of Hurts’ play or that the Eagles were disloyal or disrespectful to Hurts for posting the clip at all.
Former Eagles linebacker Emmanuel Acho, now a professional podcaster and poo-stirrer, wrote that “given my experience with the lengths people go to protect Jalen, somebody getting cussed out for sure and then may get fired.” ESPN’s Mike Golic Jr. quipped: “guys, people can see this.” Ben DiNucci, whose NFL career comprised three games with the Cowboys in 2020, wrote: “Why would they post this lol These social teams have a direct impact on what fans think / believe / see.”
A lot can be said about these people and those who responded similarly to the interception post. None of what can be said is kind. DiNucci at least tiptoed toward a reasonable and accurate point: That many fans, especially those so hungry for information and insights about their favorite teams that they spend hours scrolling through social media in the middle of the day, would blow such a play out of proportion. That’s fine. They’re fans. No one should expect them to be measured and reasonable.
But if you’re going to hold yourself up as an expert and try to earn a living from that purported expertise — and that’s what these media members and influencers and former players are doing — then you ought to have enough knowledge and integrity to treat an interception in practice with the gravity it deserves. Which is to say, next to none. If training camp mattered that much, Paul Turner would be closing in on his 11th consecutive season with at least 1,500 receiving yards, and Sam Bradford would have been a Super Bowl MVP before Hurts or Nick Foles.
Hurts has his strengths as a quarterback, and he has his shortcomings, and, yes, this will be an interesting and important season that could chart the course of his future with the Eagles. But no matter how sensitive Hurts and his camp might be, he has handled situations that were far more pressure-packed than a post intended to praise one of his teammates. And the notion that throwing a pick during training camp should serve as any kind of referendum on any NFL starting quarterback is so stupid that it could gain traction only on X.
It was practice, people. Cue the Allen Iverson rant, and go freak out over another not-so-big deal.
So the NFL has scheduled one game on the night before Thanksgiving, three on Thanksgiving itself, one on Black Friday, one on Christmas Eve (between the Eagles and Texans at 8:15 p.m.), and three on Christmas. Meanwhile, the NBA has nine games on Thanksgiving Eve, 11 on Black Friday, and five on Christmas.
Sorry, count me out, or as out as I can be as someone who covers the Eagles and 76ers. These leagues are attempting to capitalize on the captive audience they believe they’ll have on these holidays, but having those days and the traditions within them consumed by a bunch of games is crass and greedy. The only benefit to this overstuffed sports schedule is that it might keep family members and friends from arguing about politics over the apps and turkey.
Quick hitters
For the Sixers’ sake, it’s good to see so many LeBron James murals popping up around the city. They should serve as a nice counterbalance to the one at 30th St. and Eighth Avenue, around the corner from Madison Square Garden, that depicts Mitchell Robinson — a key member of the New York Knicks’ 2025-26 championship team — dunking over Joel Embiid. …
Based on their offensive output in their 7-1 win over the Twins on Thursday night in Iowa, the Phillies should play all their remaining home games this season at Shady Brook Farm. …
Oh, and for the record, Field of Dreams is among the most overrated sports movies ever. Joe Jackson hit left-handed, not right-handed as the film depicts him. Kevin Costner’s Ray Kinsella was an unsympathetic jerk to his father. And James Earl Jones’s “People will come, Ray” speech is overwrought. Costner’s “Dad, wanna have a catch?” scene is touching, but it does a lot of heavy lifting in making the film watchable. Give me The Natural, Eight Men Out, and Bull Durham every time.
MINNEAPOLIS — John Middleton got up from his seat in the front row behind the visitor’s dugout at Wrigley Field when a Phillies fan approached.
“You’ve got to believe!” the fan said.
“Listen, I believe,” the owner replied. “But we’ve got to play better.”
Middleton retells the story every so often because he knows now that it has a happy ending. But nobody foresaw a World Series run in the Phillies’ future on Sept. 29, 2022. Not after a sweep by the Cubs left them clutching a half-game lead for the last National League wild card with six games remaining.
So if you’re down on the Phillies now, think about how you felt then. They hadn’t been to the postseason in a decade, a drought that weighed heavy and negated all benefit of the doubt. Things seemed bleak.
Four years later, they’ve been through some stuff. And because the guts of the roster hasn’t changed, Kyle Schwarber believes they can lean on those experiences to guide them through the season’s final six weeks.
But the Phillies also entered the weekend here against the Twins with four losses in seven games. They were 11-15 since the All-Star break, a skid that took them from two games behind the division-leading Braves to a tie with the Diamondbacks for the last NL wild card.
Everything feels like it’s headed in the wrong direction.
The Phillies won Thursday, 7-1, over the Twins in the third iteration of MLB’s Field of Dreams Game in Dyersville, Iowa.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
And for the first time since 2022, it might come down to the final week of the regular season.
“I think we know what’s at stake,” Schwarber said. “We all know the writing on the wall. We know that, for where we need to go, that we need to step up in a lot of different ways, in a lot of different areas. And I feel like our team is ready for that.”
But now, it’s a 39-game sprint to the finish. The Phillies started 9-19 and got their manager fired. They went on a 45-24 heater under Don Mattingly to climb back into the race. And the latest stumble has them in a five-team cluster for two wild-card spots.
The Braves, Brewers, and Dodgers lead the NL East, Central, and West, respectively. The Cubs are comfortably atop the wild-card standings, with a seven-game lead through Friday.
Behind them, the Padres are surging. The Phillies are trying to ward off challenges from the Diamondbacks, Marlins and Cardinals. It didn’t help that they lost two of three in St. Louis this week.
Kyle Schwarber (right) got the Phillies started with a leadoff home run in the Field of Dreams Game on Thursday night in Iowa.Yong Kim / Staff Photographer
Entering the weekend, the Phillies had an 87.9% chance to make the playoffs, based on Baseball Prospectus’ PECOTA projection model. Baseball Reference had them at 61.2%. Fangraphs split the difference, at 73.9%. A good week at home in back-to-back series against the Marlins and Cardinals would go a long way to boosting those odds.
“We know the road ahead that we’re going to have, and we know that everyone’s going to be pulling on that same rope every single day and trying to find different ways to execute and win ballgames,” Schwarber said. “It doesn’t have to be one area every single day. I feel like that all different areas are going to be coming together at a really good time.”
Said Bryson Stott: “We know we have to win games, especially now and coming down the stretch. We’re in a tight race right now.”
It feels like the right time, then, to look closer at the race for the last two wild-card spots. Let’s dive in, with all numbers through Friday’s games.
Fernando Tatis Jr. has been hot since the All-Star break for the surging Padres.Gregory Bull
Padres
Record: 66-57, second place in NL West, second in wild card (one-game lead).
Strength of remaining schedule: .496
Playoff odds: 59% Fangraphs; 58% Baseball Prospectus; 51.1% Baseball Reference.
Key series: Sept. 25-27 vs. the Diamondbacks.
The big question: Will A.J. Preller’s go-for-it trade deadline spur San Diego’s third consecutive playoff berth and fourth in five years?
Ten days before the deadline, officials from multiple teams were still guessing about Preller’s approach. But the Padres went 8-1 against the Marlins, Rockies, and Giants, and allowed Preller to be Preller. Not only did the hyperaggressive executive hold star closer Mason Miller and reliever Adrián Morejón, but he sacrificed two of the organization’s top four prospects for rental starters Robbie Ray and Casey Mize, who joined Michael King and soon-to-return Joe Musgrove in an experienced rotation. The Padres came into the weekend having won six games in a row and 16 of 20.
Outlook: Remember the team that went 0-6 in a span of 11 days against the Phillies in late May and early June? Well, these aren’t your father’s Padres. For one thing, their stars have shined. Entering the weekend, Fernando Tatis Jr. had seven homers and a 1.002 OPS since the All-Star break; Jackson Merrill was batting .343 with a 1.032 OPS. Imagine if Manny Machado ever figures it out this season.
Starting pitchers Cristopher Sánchez (left) and Jesús Luzardo (right) would make the Phillies a formidable postseason team in a short series. Elizabeth Robertson / Staff Photographer
Phillies
Record: 65-58, second place in NL East, tied for third in wild card.
Strength of remaining schedule: .506
Playoff odds: 73.9% Fangraphs; 87.9% Baseball Prospectus; 61.2% Baseball Reference.
Key series: Aug. 31-Sept. 2, at Diamondbacks.
The big question: Will they run out of major league-quality pitching?
In the playoffs, with short series and frequent days off, the Phillies are a dangerous opponent because of their Three Aces — Cristopher Sánchez, Zack Wheeler, and Jesús Luzardo — and stud closer Jhoan Duran. That’s enough pitching to scare even the Dodgers. But it takes a stockpile of arms to make the playoffs. Dave Dombrowski came up empty at the deadline for a starter (from among a bountiful supply of available starters) and a setup reliever. And so, it’s hardly catastrophizing to wonder if Mattingly has enough trustworthy pitching at his disposal to navigate the next six weeks.
Outlook: At various times, Bryce Harper has used four words that may as well serve as the Phillies’ rallying cry: “Just get us in.” Never mind the divisional-round disappointments of the last two Octobers. The Phillies are actually built for the postseason, with a Jenga-tower roster that’s top heavy with stars. But getting there requires layers of depth on the roster and in the farm system. One injury, especially in the pitching ranks, could cause the whole thing to unravel. Keep an eye, too, on Harper and Schwarber, who have dealt with a sore knee and lower back, respectively.
Diamondbacks shortstop Geraldo Perdomo leads a high-powered offense in Arizona.Sue Ogrocki
Diamondbacks
Record: 65-58, third place in NL West, tied for third in the wild card.
The Diamondbacks were close to adding righty Clay Holmes to their rotation, but the Mets reportedly backed out over health concerns about one of the prospects in the deal. Arizona’s lone deadline move was for lefty-hitting outfielder Lars Nootbaar, and general manager Mike Hazen didn’t hide his frustration. “In the end, I could have kept adding,” he said in a radio interview. “I could have kept putting more in to get the deals done and it just didn’t happen.”
Outlook: Unless these Phillies finally win it all, they will be haunted by the 2023 NL Championship Series, when they lost Game 6 and 7 at home. Three years later, the Diamondbacks present many of the same challenges, notably a pesky offense led by Corbin Carroll, Geraldo Perdomo, Ketel Marte, and Gabriel Moreno. They added Nolan Arenado this year, and he’s pushing 20 homers. But the lineup may have to carry them given the rotation depth behind Eduardo Rodríguez. Rookie lefty Brandyn Garcia recently took over as closer and has been dominant.
Eury Pérez is one anchor of the Marlins’ starting rotation, along with veteran Sandy Alcantara.Marta Lavandier
Marlins
Record: 62-61, third place in the NL East, fifth in wild card (three games back)
Strength of remaining schedule: .510
Playoff odds: 11.4% Fangraphs; 10.8% Baseball Prospectus; 17.1% Baseball Reference.
Key series: Sept. 14-16 at Diamondbacks
The big question: Can they reel off another hot streak?
Since June 17, the Marlins won 16 of 20 games, lost 12 in a row, won six out of seven, lost four straight, and won four straight before losing Thursday and Friday. If they were an amusement park ride, they would leave their patrons nauseous. It’s probably the sign of a young team that’s not quite ready for primetime. And the competition will harden, especially in September. The Marlins’ last 15 games are against the Dodgers, Diamondbacks, Padres, Cubs, and Braves. How’s that for a gauntlet?
Outlook: The 12-game losing streak turned the Marlins from potential deadline buyers to fence-sitters who leaned toward selling. If they get on a roll, it will be because of the starting pitching, led by Sandy Alcantara and Eury Pérez. Max Meyer, an All-Star and emerging ace, has been sidelined with a neck strain since July 19. It’s unclear whether he will return before the end of the season. The Marlins traded catcher Liam Hicks to the Rays but held on to Otto Lopez and Xavier Edwards, the most underrated middle infield in the sport.
Alec Burleson and the Cardinals won three series in a row after they were sellers at the trade deadline.Scott Kane
Cardinals
Record: 61-61, third place in the NL Central, sixth in wild card (3½ games back)
Strength of remaining schedule: .499
Playoff odds: 8.6% Fangraphs; 4.2% Baseball Prospectus; 15.8% Baseball Reference.
Key series: Aug. 21-23 at Phillies
The big question: Can an accidental contender keep contending?
Not only didn’t the Cardinals plan on contending this season, but at the trade deadline, president of baseball operations Chaim Bloom acted as if they weren’t. In addition to sending Nootbaar to the Diamondbacks, Bloom packaged starter Dustin May and reliever JoJo Romero to the rival Brewers for prospects. Yet the Cardinals won three series in a row since the deadline, taking two of three from the Yankees, Rockies, and Phillies. If they’re still in the race after next weekend’s series in Philadelphia, maybe they will actually have staying power in September.
Outlook: The Cardinals have balance in the top half of the lineup, with rookie sensation JJ Wetherholt and Alec Burleson from the left side of the plate and Home Run Derby champ Jordan Walker and Iván Herrera from the right. And they’re calling up outfield prospect Joshua Báez, who is bringing 34 homers from triple A to the majors this weekend. But an unexpected strength has been the young starting pitchers, chiefly Andre Pallante, Kyle Leahy, and Michael McGreevy. Never heard of them? If the Cardinals are able to hang in there, they will be big reasons why.
