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  • This mini pig has a big job

    This mini pig has a big job

    In the Beaux-Arts grandeur of Union Station’s main hall, beneath the gold-leafed ceiling, towering columns, and 46 Roman centurion statues, there is a pig.

    She is very small (5.2 pounds) and very young (7 months).

    Her name is Synergy.

    Her footsteps click-clack as she toddles on the marble floor, and she can’t walk more than a few yards before someone stops her to take a photo. Today, she’s on the job.

    About 100,000 people pass through Union Station in Washington, D.C., daily — tourists hoisting duffel bags, or locals bustling to their offices. Train stations also tend to attract a disproportionate share of unhoused people, who come for amenities that are hard to access when you’re without a physical home: air-conditioning, heat, Wi-Fi, bathrooms, restaurants, and, occasionally, generous strangers.

    Union Station is also the headquarters of the h3 Project, a crisis intervention and anti-human-trafficking group, founded in 2020. Ami M. Angell started the project, which stands for home, health, and happiness.

    Synergy is her pig. Angell is her real last name.

    “It is a little pig! I’ve always wanted one!” shouts Logan McGraw, Angell’s client, from across the plaza.

    He makes toward Angell with his wife, Evone. As they scratch behind her ears, Synergy rubs her back against the foot pedal of Evone’s wheelchair.

    “Can I take her home with me?” she asks.

    In the last year, Angell has matched 93 individuals with housing, administered 217 doses of the overdose reversal drug Narcan, and ordered 537 documents, including legal identification. But the year also brought challenges, including decreased funding, directives from a Trump task force to sweep homeless encampments. and the long-standing notion that homelessness outreach organizations attract more unhoused people.

    Angell has long partnered with Amtrak police, who know to call her team if they witness someone experiencing a crisis. She says the influx of federal law enforcement officers at Union Station, most of whom are unfamiliar with her work, has led to heightened interactions between armed guards and her clients, often at their worst moments.

    But Angell’s clients have also adapted. Several have told her that instead of posting up somewhere semi-permanently, they break down their tent every morning and wait to pitch it until late at night.

    “Our folks are so resilient,” she says.

    Difficult moments require creative solutions. Synergy, for example.

    ‘Moving forward because of Synergy’

    Angell isn’t a smoker, but she always keeps a pack in her bag. She can’t count how many times she’s offered a cigarette to someone in a crisis, often mental-health- or substance-induced. It buys her the time and calming distraction she needs to de-escalate and provide case management.

    “We have to think outside the box, because every individual is unique,” she says. “What works for one individual may not work for another person. It’s figuring out the way in, and if you can get that door open a little, then you can get it open a lot larger.”

    So when a friend of a friend told her about Juliana pigs — a hypoallergenic, friendly breed colloquially known as mini pigs — she started thinking about her clients.

    “A lot of the folks that we work with, they’ve never seen a pig, let alone touched one,” she says. “With pigs, it doesn’t matter your age, your race, your gender; they love you equally.”

    She found a breeder in Michigan and waited for a litter to be born in late December. Synergy moved into her home in March.

    Every day that Angell goes to work, Synergy tags along. In the h3 Project office donated by Union Station, she’s hidden now under a mountain of blankets. The vast space is crowded with shelves and bins of donations — tees and sneakers organized by size, toothbrushes and deodorant stashed in boxes. And in the center is Synergy’s pen, with a litter box and a bowl of apple juice.

    “Synergy!” Angell calls.

    Up pops a little pink head with blue-gray eyes and a perpetual smile. Her flat nose is damp, and her skin is wrinkled and covered in wiry hair, a miniature Benjamin Button.

    “Want a treat?” Angell asks.

    Synergy presses her snout to a green button atop the carpet, which chimes out “Yes yes yes yes yes.”

    “Do you want it right now?”

    “Yes, baby!” says Synergy via a button. Angell obliges with a treat.

    At her young age, Synergy already knows how to pass a tunnel-and-ring agility course and play a toy piano. She’s learning how to skateboard. Like many toddlers, she is still learning how to like vegetables.

    Angell says she’s already helping people.

    One woman in her late 60s, whom Angell has known for seven years, has continually refused case management. “She’s not rude or anything,” Angell says. “She just wasn’t ready.”

    When she saw Synergy, her face erupted into a smile, and she shook her head. It was the icebreaker Angell needed.

    “Now she wants to work with me,” she says. “As long as the pig is right there, she will answer my questions, she will do the work with me. She’s moving forward because of Synergy.”

    ‘That’s my pig!’

    The pig is, notably, not called Babe or Wilbur. Angell instead chose a name that spoke to what she hoped her pig would be. We are where we are, Angell says, because of our positive and negative experiences.

    “There is a synergy to it all,” she says. “I just wanted her to ground folks and remind them that there’s always more to life and more to be than what is right now. For my homeless, they aren’t defined by who they are now. This is just one piece of their life. They deserve to be somewhere better.”

    And it seems like Synergy knows it, too. Because now, as Angell and her pig take the elevator down to Union Station’s west porch to work with clients, her stringlike tail is wagging.

    “That’s my pig!” says Randall Baldree, with whom Angell has worked for several years.

    “Well, you’ve definitely kissed her more than anyone,” Angell responds.

    Baldree describes himself as “one of the originals of h3.” He’s among Synergy’s biggest fans.

    “She helps me when I’m down, helps me when I am depressed and when I can’t get through life,” he says. “I have somebody to depend on.”

    According to Angell, pets are a lifeline for some unhoused people — they can help prevent substance use or motivate people to seek stability. A man most people know by the name Cheez It (legally Joshua Bunker) has been working with h3 for eight months but is just meeting Synergy today. He didn’t bring his pit bull, Dot Dot, but thinks they would get along.

    “I’ve always had dogs, and a bird, and a turtle,” he says. “They say what humans can’t say. They see what humans can’t see.”

    Working, please do not disturb

    When they see Synergy tip-tapping through Union Station, people tend to react as if they’ve seen a celebrity — phone cameras whip out, hands cover open mouths, gasps of delighted shock erupt.

    With her nails painted red and her pink cheetah print harness, she does look like a diva.

    As she’s working with clients, Angell tends to brush off other conversations with a business card that links to information about h3 and Synergy’s Instagram. She trades Synergy’s leash sash from one that reads “I Am Working, Please Do Not Disturb” to one that reads “Wellness Ambassador for the Homeless.”

    The questions come immediately.

    “Can I get a picture?” asks one traveler.

    “How old is she?” questions another.

    “Will you be able to carry her forever?”

    “It’s diet and genetics,” Angell answers, over and over again. “One parent is 12 inches tall, one is 13 inches tall. She will get bigger.”

    But to Angell, the best questions are the ones that give her an opportunity to talk about the h3 Project.

    “Are you a vet?” says Wendy Lesko, who was shopping in the station.

    Angell responds that she worked in international law. “I came here for human trafficking, but in D.C., homelessness is closely intertwined.”

    Synergy isn’t just a way in for unhoused people — she’s also a conversation starter with the public at large. And for the people who work with h3, she can be the difference between accepting help and going it alone.

    “Hey little piggy!” calls one of Angell’s clients, Dannitta Jenkins.

    Her voice echoes under the stone awning. “She’s such a cutie pie!”

    “I can’t believe you haven’t met Synergy,” Angell responds as Jenkins hustles over.

    Jenkins goes in for a hug. Synergy, cradled snugly in Angell’s arms, aims a lick at Jenkins’s bag of cinnamon sugar pretzels.

    “I’m so glad you’re in your house now,” Angell whispers. “It’s been a long time.”

  • Nearly 150,000 mail ballots rejected in California’s primary despite efforts to count every vote

    Nearly 150,000 mail ballots rejected in California’s primary despite efforts to count every vote

    LOS ANGELES — Nearly 150,000 California voters had their mail-in ballots rejected for the state’s June primary, a spike from recent elections even as the state attempts to make voting easier with the goal of boosting participation and counting every ballot.

    California has become notorious for its ponderously slow vote counts that can drag on for weeks and sometimes longer, largely the result of multiple changes over the years that were intended to increase turnout but have done little to achieve that. Among the changes: Every voter receives a mail-in ballot that can arrive at an election office seven days late and still be counted, provided the envelope is postmarked by Election Day.

    Yet even with that generous weeklong window, the primary driver of the higher rejection numbers is late-arriving ballots, according to data compiled by the secretary of state’s office. Voting experts suspect the main problem is postmarks on ballots that came after Election Day, making them ineligible to be counted. The culprit could be U.S. Postal Service changes that might affect the timing of when postmarks are applied.

    Late-arriving ballots drove the rejections

    According to state data, 148,241 mail ballots were rejected in the June election, or a rate of 1.73% of all mail ballots.

    In raw numbers, that’s up from the 2024 primary, when 108,982 mail ballots were rejected, or a 1.56% rate. In 2022, 105,818 mail ballots were voided during the primary, or a rate similar to 2024.

    Lateness accounted for 93,479 rejected ballots in June, by far the largest category for disqualifying a ballot. That was up from about 70,000 in the 2022 primary and about 76,000 in the 2024 primary, though turnout in those elections was smaller compared to last June.

    Kim Alexander, president of the nonpartisan California Voter Foundation, said the jump in rejected ballots because of lateness is a major concern that — along with postal procedures — might also be connected to a late surge in ballots in June. Many voters waited until the final days to make a decision in a wide-open and chaotic race for governor.

    “Ballots rejected due to lateness are caused primarily to being postmarked too late to count, not because they arrived too late to count,” Alexander wrote in an email.

    Rejection rates have fluctuated over time, but the growing number of those set aside for lateness compared to recent elections “does really demand the question why this is happening,” said Mindy Romero, director of the Center for Inclusive Democracy, a nonpartisan research group.

    Lawmakers concerned about USPS postmark changes

    In January, a group of mostly Democratic U.S. senators sent a letter to the U.S. Postal Service, alarmed that mail-processing changes might affect postmark dates for mail-in ballots during an election year that will determine control of Congress.

    Updated agency policy says postmarks might not indicate the first day the Postal Service received the mail, but rather the day it was handled in one of its processing centers. Those centers are increasingly likely to be further away from certain communities because of recent consolidations within the Postal Service, which could further delay postmarks.

    On Thursday, two Wisconsin Democrats, U.S. Sen. Tammy Baldwin and Gov. Tony Evers, called on the Postal Service to address delays that caused hundreds of ballots to arrive after Election Day in the state in April. In June, a federal judge halted President Donald Trump’s executive order that sought to create a federal voter list and limit who can receive a mail ballot.

    Earlier this year, California election officials urged voters to send their mail ballots early, warning that Postal Service changes could lead to slower mail service.

    In California, the highest mail ballot rejection rate in June — 3.52% — was in Tulare County, in the agriculture-heavy Central Valley. It was followed by Alpine County, south of Lake Tahoe, and Merced County, also in the Central Valley, which both notched a 3.36% rejection rate.

    Mismatched signatures and multiple ballots in an envelope

    Nearly 44,000 ballots were set aside because the voter’s signature didn’t match the one on record with county officials. Over 8,300 ballots were rejected because there was no signature on the returned ballot envelope.

    In 743 cases, the voter had already cast a ballot, so the mail ballot was voided. Other reasons for rejection included a ballot being missing from the return envelope, or multiple ballots were sent back in a single envelope.

    The data didn’t break down the uncounted ballots by party registration.

    Florida, Texas and other large population states quickly wrap up vote counting, while California is a national laggard.

    After the June primary, President Donald Trump seized on California’s reputation as the national slowpoke in vote counting to renew his long-standing criticism of the state’s elections, while the Republican’s Department of Justice launched an investigation into Los Angeles County’s elections.

    There is no indication of any widespread problems with mail voting, which has gained in popularity among Democrats and Republicans alike. A report by the Brookings Institution published in 2025 found that the number of cases of mail voting fraud was minuscule — about four cases per 10 million mail ballots.

  • CDC expands largest known U.S. cyclospora outbreak to 9 states, including Pennsylvania

    CDC expands largest known U.S. cyclospora outbreak to 9 states, including Pennsylvania

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has linked four additional states to a multistate cyclosporiasis outbreak traced to shredded iceberg lettuce sourced from central Mexico, according to two individuals familiar with the investigation.

    The newly linked states — Illinois, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Pennsylvania — join Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and West Virginia, and expand the nation’s largest known cyclosporiasis outbreak.

    The addition of more states suggests investigators are beginning to connect thousands of illnesses scattered across the country, bringing them closer to reconstructing how a contaminated product or products moved through the food supply and whether additional restaurants, retailers, or distributors received the same products.

    The patients in the four additional states may have gotten sick around the same time as the patients in the first five. But investigators may have needed more time to determine which illnesses were part of the same outbreak, one of the individuals said.

    The latest development means federal investigators have now traced shredded iceberg lettuce served at Taco Bell restaurants in nine states to a single supplier in Mexico. Taylor Farms de Mexico says it has completed a voluntary recall of iceberg lettuce sourced and processed from central Mexico from the U.S. market.

    Cyclospora infections have been reported in at least 41 states this year, but investigators are still working to determine how many are part of the nine-state outbreak linked to shredded iceberg lettuce supplied by Taylor Farms and served at Taco Bell restaurants and how many represent separate clusters or unrelated illnesses. The investigations include comparing patients’ food histories, laboratory findings, and supply-chain records.

    In North Carolina, for example, state health officials have identified illnesses that do not appear to be linked to shredded iceberg lettuce served at Taco Bell restaurants. Instead, officials this week pointed to preliminary evidence suggesting parsley and cilantro as possible sources there. Parsley and, especially, cilantro have been implicated in previous U.S. cyclospora outbreaks.

    “Those items do pop up frequently and that is not necessarily to say that’s proof that that’s the cause, but it’s one of those situations where if something keeps showing up repeatedly — a certain type of herb like parsley or cilantro or a certain type of vegetable like lettuce — we can start to think that that’s probably implicated or that may be implicated and that’s when we start collecting information on where was it purchased and that we can share with our partners … for a possible traceback,” Carl Williams, with the North Carolina state health department, said at a news conference earlier this week.

    North Carolina data updated Tuesday show 561 cases have been reported since May 1, up from 307 a week earlier, according to the North Carolina Division of Public Health.

    The Food and Drug Administration disclosed a new cyclospora outbreak that has sickened at least 72 people, according to an update posted to its website Wednesday. The FDA did not identify the location of the illnesses or the suspected food source.

    Parsley and cilantro have not emerged as national signals in the broader federal investigation, underscoring how investigators are still sorting through multiple clusters of illnesses that may have different sources, the individual said.

    Earlier this week the CDC more than doubled its national confirmed case count, adding more than 4,000 confirmed illnesses and acknowledging more than 7,400 additional reported illnesses still under review.

    Even before Friday’s update, the confirmed domestic cases had already exceeded the total number of cyclosporiasis cases reported nationwide during all of 2025.

    The increase does not mean thousands of people became sick in recent days. Cyclosporiasis reports typically lag because symptoms can take up to two weeks to appear, and testing and investigations often take weeks more.

    In previous cyclospora outbreaks, sometimes one batch of contaminated product is mixed with uncontaminated product that subsequently becomes contaminated, or a piece of equipment causes the contamination.

    The microscopic parasite is spread through human fecal contamination.

    Food safety experts say contamination can often occur before harvest, when fresh produce is exposed to contaminated irrigation water or other water used in growing or processing. Flooding can heighten the risk by disrupting sanitation systems and washing contaminated water into fields or produce-growing areas.

  • Russian ballistic strike kills 10 after Ukraine’s Zelensky hosts U.S. company making Patriots

    Russian ballistic strike kills 10 after Ukraine’s Zelensky hosts U.S. company making Patriots

    KYIV, Ukraine — A Russian attack Friday on a site near Kyiv that was hosting a defense industry event killed at least 10 people and wounded nearly 100 others, Ukrainian government and industry officials said.

    The ballistic missile strike came a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met in Kyiv with senior representatives of Raytheon, the U.S. company that makes the Patriot air defense systems that Ukraine desperately needs to counter the devastating ballistic missiles Russia uses to advance its invasion. Raytheon didn’t immediately respond to an email inquiring whether any of its workers were at the event.

    “Missiles for Patriot systems are the number one priority,” Zelensky said on social media, where he reported the attack.

    The attack hit the grounds of a privately operated military training site that was hosting an event, acting regional military administration head Ruslan Oliinyk wrote on Facebook, citing preliminary information. The site is about 12-19 miles from central Kyiv, in the Bucha district.

    Emergency crews responded to the area, where 27 homes and 44 vehicles also were damaged, Oliinyk said.

    The Ukrainian Defense Industry Council, which describes itself as the country’s largest association of private defense manufacturers, said industry representatives were at the site when it was hit, although it did not immediately provide further details.

    Ruslan Kravchenko, the country’s prosecutor general, opened a war crimes investigation into the attack and a separate criminal case over possible negligence in organizing the event.

    Investigators will examine who approved its location, timing, and format, and whether adequate precautions were taken, Kravchenko said.

    The Ukrainian government imposed reporting restrictions on the attack.

    Meanwhile, a Ukrainian attack on a military plant in Russia killed six people and wounded 26 others, the regional governor said.

    Zelensky meets with delegation from U.S. company Raytheon

    The Raytheon meeting came less than three weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump vowed to give Ukraine a license to produce Patriots. The pledge marked an important shift, as Trump recently adopted a more positive tone toward Zelensky.

    In another sign that Ukraine is changing minds in Washington, ardent Trump ally Laura Loomer met with Zelensky in Kyiv on Thursday. After years of minimizing the invasion, she rebuked Russian President Vladimir Putin for missile attacks on Ukraine.

    The Ukrainian leader said late Thursday that he held talks with a Raytheon delegation, adding that the company was ready to jointly produce Patriot interceptors with Ukraine. The system is comprised of radars, command-and-control systems, and different types of interceptor missiles.

    The company made no immediate comment about the meeting on its website or social media accounts.

    “Our teams — both at the government level and from the private sector — will stay in close touch to work (it) out,” Zelensky said on social media.

    Zelensky is keen to move quickly on a coproduction agreement as Russia relentlessly fires ballistic missiles that are hard to stop and cause civilian casualties as well as inflicting huge damage on civilian areas.

    Zelensky has for several years been pleading for more and quicker Patriot deliveries from Western partners. Ukraine has developed its own innovative air defenses, but large-scale production is vital.

    Even so, experts and Kyiv officials have cautioned that setting up production in Ukraine would likely take years.

    Ukraine hits another hub of Russia’s biggest online retailer

    When the Trump administration engaged in a diplomatic effort to end the war last year, Putin portrayed Russia as negotiating from a position of strength. The peace efforts have produced no results so far.

    But since first attacking its neighbor in 2014, Russia has captured only around 20% of the country.

    Now, the Russian army’s advance is stalling due to Ukraine’s successful front-line and mid- and long-range attacks using cutting-edge drone technology it has developed at home and that is now coveted by other countries, Western officials and analysts say.

    Ukraine has expanded its campaign of disruption with bigger and increasingly frequent drone attacks inside Russia that are hitting high-profile targets, causing fuel shortages and piling pressure on Putin.

    Ukrainian forces again targeted the logistical hubs of Wildberries, Russia’s biggest online retailer that is often compared to Amazon, the company’s founder said Friday.

    Founder Tatyana Kim said Wildberries logistical facilities came under attack in St. Petersburg, the adjacent Leningrad region, and in Simferopol — a city in illegally annexed Crimea.

    Photos and videos published by Russian media showed massive plumes of smoke rising over St. Petersburg.

    Ukraine struck four other Wildberries warehouses across Russia in recent days, sparking massive fires.

    Kyiv officials want ordinary Russians to feel the consequences of the war and question whether Putin can keep them safe. The almost daily attacks have caused consternation in Russia.

    Ukraine keeps targeting Russian oil facilities, weapons plants

    Ukrainian long-range weapons hit an oil facility nearly 840 miles from the Ukrainian border, as well as a military plant, Zelensky said Friday.

    The plant in Russia’s Kirov region makes components for aircraft and missiles used in attacks on Ukrainian cities, he said.

    The Ukrainian attack on the military plant killed six people and wounded 26 others, regional governor Alexander Sokolov said. He didn’t identify the plant, but Astra online news outlet said it was the Avitec plant, which makes air defense missiles and aircraft components.

    The Russian Defense Ministry reported Friday that its air defenses shot down 571 Ukrainian drones overnight.

  • EU finds TikTok violates its digital rule book by failing to protect privacy of minors

    EU finds TikTok violates its digital rule book by failing to protect privacy of minors

    BRUSSELS — The European Commission on Friday said it found TikTok had not adequately protected children’s privacy rights on its platform by allowing adults to view the accounts of minors.

    The action exposed children to cyberbullying, unwanted contact and predatory behavior, commission spokesperson Thomas Regnier said.

    “Children’s content must never be visible to strangers,” he said. If TikTok does not take steps called for by the European Union’s landmark Digital Services Act, “minors are exposed to predators, to grooming and to cyberbullying,” Regnier said, adding that children aged 13 to 15 can “easily” change their accounts from private to public and the private accounts of minors aged 16 to 17 can be seen by anyone on the internet. “We do not accept this,” Regnier said. “Putting default settings for minors is not a beauty contest under the DSA. It must be effective.”

    The investigation comes on the heels of back-to-back crackdowns on Big Tech by Brussels, which has led the world in regulating tech behemoths including Meta and Apple.

    TikTok can now defend itself and reply to the findings. If unsatisfied with the Chinese firm’s response, the European Commission could issue a so-called non-compliance decision and possible fine worth up to 6% of the company’s total annual revenue.

    The Chinese social media firm, whose parent company ByteDance is based in Beijing, said in a statement it would review Brussels’ findings and “continue to engage constructively with the Commission.”

    “Protecting minors online is a goal we share, and we are committed to building on our strong track record of continuous improvement,” TikTok said in a statement.

    If unsatisfied with the firm’s response, the commission could issue a so-called non-compliance decision and possible fine worth up to 6% of the company’s total annual revenue.

    The commission estimates most of TikTok’s 170 million users in the EU are children, with 7% of children aged 12 to 15 spending four to five hours daily on the app.

    The 27-nation European Union found in February that TikTok had breached another aspect of its digital rule book with an “addictive design” of features such as autoplay and infinite scrolling that could harm the physical and mental health of users and minors especially.

  • Letters to the Editor | July 24, 2026

    Letters to the Editor | July 24, 2026

    Transparent leadership

    On its face, the fact that more than 6,000 people who were not U.S. citizens were able to register to vote in New Jersey — and approximately 400 of them did cast ballots — was rightfully big news. Lost in the headlines, I believe, was the fact that Gov. Mikie Sherrill learned about this last week and, within six days, went public, knowing it would look bad for all those involved. This leadership — in which transparency and accountability are prioritized over political gain — is exactly what is needed in a situation such as this. I can speak to that as a resident of New Jersey and say I am proud to have Gov. Sherrill leading the way.

    Steve Clayton, Ocean, N.J.

    Flip-flops

    I read Mike Sielski’s recent column suggesting that in order for soccer to become a staple sport in the United States, “flopping” must be eliminated.

    I respectfully disagree. Flopping has little to do with soccer’s struggle to gain a major foothold here. Instead, it is the lack of scoring that turns American fans away. Americans are accustomed to the high level of excitement that comes from scoring in our most popular sports. We want the thrill of touchdowns in football, high-scoring basketball games, and more offense than a typical 1-0 baseball or hockey game.

    The key to increasing soccer’s popularity in the U.S. is to increase scoring. This could be achieved by changing the rules to favor offense, or increasing the width and height of the goals.

    Soccer is a beautiful game. Making it more exciting through more scoring will truly enhance its growth.

    Iz Cakrane, Haddon Heights

    Nuclear proliferation

    The Trump-Kushner cabal has decided to use the U.S. government to promote a Saudi nuclear enrichment program. Curious.

    Saudi Arabia is an autocratic kingdom run by a violent young Saudi prince, Mohammed bin Salman, whose wealth and power are much admired by President Donald Trump. Also, bin Salman’s financial tentacles directly enrich the president and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

    The Saudi Sunni branch of Islam operates madrassas dedicated to ideals that have faced criticism from human rights groups — misogynistic, homophobic, anti-democratic, and opposed to “decadent” Western humanist values.

    Now, in return for undisclosed financial considerations, President Trump promotes a Saudi nuclear enrichment program. Will there be meaningful oversight of the president’s business partner to prevent weapons-grade nuclear enrichment? Why empower the Saudi nuclear program? What will we do when China or Russia decide to enable proliferation in Iran? What about other nations seeking nuclear weapons to guard against a fickle U.S. regime?

    Will Congress exert restraint on the president’s nuclear business deal? Doubtful. More likely, history will witness this cultish Republican Congress unleash global nuclear proliferation. How will Americans respond?

    Mike Shivers, Altoona

    Join the conversation: Send letters to letters@inquirer.com. Limit length to 150 words and include home address and day and evening phone number. Letters run in The Inquirer six days a week on the editorial pages and online.

  • Horoscopes: Friday, July 24, 2026

    ARIES (March 21-April 19). Different interpretations begin to converge. Now people can coordinate their efforts and move forward together. Cooperation will get a little easier each day from here because everyone is working from the same understanding.

    TAURUS (April 20-May 20). Many people enter new social situations trying to fit in. You’ll have more success letting people discover who you already are. Genuine connections form faster when there is less translation required.

    GEMINI (May 21-June 21). Today, assess people based on their curiosity, not their knowledge. What they ask — or if they ask anything at all — will tell you much more about their interests and motivation than what you might learn in an answer.

    CANCER (June 22-July 22). Today brings themes of entitlement versus contribution. Judgments about who deserves what are often tangled up with people’s self-image and personal biases. Many who think they should get more have less claim to it. Merit and self-confidence don’t always go together.

    LEO (July 23-Aug. 22). Love doesn’t happen to you so much as through you. It moves you to act because you care. Decisions made from love rather than fear will lead somewhere worthwhile. Acts of love have long consequences.

    VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22). The current situation calls for strategic thinking. Resist the urge to focus only on the immediate outcome. Sometimes the real victory is gaining experience you’ll be able to use long after this particular challenge is over.

    LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 23). You lived the past, you imagine the future and now is the only moment in which you can really affect destiny. Three different times seem to exist simultaneously today. It’s how you know you are, at your core, timeless.

    SCORPIO (Oct. 24-Nov. 21). There are two paths: one bathed in sunlight, promising warmth and familiarity, the other shrouded in moonlight, fog and the allure of the unknown. You don’t have to decide; your feet already know.

    SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21). When your brain is trying to hold too many open loops, you can feel overwhelmed. Write it out and the feeling of overload will decrease even before a single problem is solved just because you move the problem out of your head and onto paper.

    CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19). Make a request. Use clear language and say the thing that lets everyone know where you’re coming from and what you want. You’ll be pleased by how quickly circumstances improve once people understand exactly what you need.

    AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18). You don’t have all the information, and that’s OK. Focus on taking care of yourself instead of trying to figure everything out. Events will reveal something you couldn’t have anticipated, and that change will ultimately put you on a better path.

    PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20). You may be tempted to keep thinking about a problem that’s already been solved. Not because the answer is unclear, but because it’s not the answer you wanted. Accept it, deal with it and move on. The next chapter is waiting.

    TODAY’S BIRTHDAY (July 24). It’s your Year of the Exceptional Standard, in which you’re the one who gets to decide what quality looks like. As your expectations become your everyday reality, you’ll find yourself eating, sleeping, working, loving and living better. More highlights: You’ll attract both admirers and eager students. New styles and environments. Your inner life gets stronger in the same way muscles do: repetition. Libra and Capricorn adore you. Your lucky numbers are: 1, 13, 11, 17 and 26.

  • Dear Abby | Husband’s career struggles impact couple’s marriage

    DEAR ABBY: My husband and I have been married for 11 years and have two children. When we met, he worked two union jobs, paid his bills, saved his money and took care of his mother and grandmother when they needed his financial support. About six years ago, he decided he didn’t want to work with the union anymore, and I supported him in exploring alternative career paths. He has tried currency trading, personal training and used car sales. Nothing seems to stick.

    I work five days a week and have a part-time job on the weekends to bring in extra income. We are unable to make ends meet, and my extended family often has to bail us out because we can’t pay our bills. I told my husband I need him to start making a decent income again. He said he would, but I see little effort from him in terms of gaining solid employment.

    Our relationship is not going well. I have lost faith in him. I want to stay together, but I need him to provide for his family. I don’t know how much more of this I can tolerate. Please help.

    — OVERWORKED AND UNDERWHELMED

    DEAR O & U: Your husband has gotten comfortable with letting you do the heavy lifting in the family. If you don’t give him specific goals and deadlines, he’s not likely to clean up his act.

    State the exact monthly income you need him to provide, even if he ends up working several part-time jobs to do so. Then give him a certain number of job applications he must complete each day. If he doesn’t reach these goals by a certain date, the next step will be separation. This may seem harsh, but remember that you and your kids are suffering because he isn’t pulling his weight.

    ** ** **

    DEAR ABBY: I have been married to a wonderful man for 36 years. During the last 12 years, he has had heart surgery and some depression. He refuses to get out of his easy chair and do anything. He won’t bathe or shower and insists that washing off in the sink is good enough. He smells, and I’m embarrassed to go places with him because of it.

    I have tried to encourage him and let him know how I love a clean-scented man. He just doesn’t care. I won’t even kiss him. He refuses to help around the house and expects me to do everything. I still work, and we are raising a granddaughter. I’m no longer in love with him but I do love him. I have wanted a divorce for a while now, but, financially, I can’t afford to live on my own. Thank you for any advice.

    — ALL WASHED UP

    DEAR ALL WASHED UP: You need to discuss this with a doctor who can advise you about the options for treating depression and apathy after heart surgery, as well as an attorney who can help you determine if enough assets have been acquired during your 36-year marriage to allow you to live independently. Once you have that information, you may be able to give your husband an ultimatum and force him out of the easy chair and into a healthier lifestyle, which could add years to his life.

  • U.S. military says it’s launching new strikes on Iran as clashes escalate over shipping routes

    U.S. military says it’s launching new strikes on Iran as clashes escalate over shipping routes

    CAIRO — The U.S. military announced Thursday that it is conducting the 13th night of strikes against Iran as clashes escalate over shipping routes. Earlier Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels said they attacked two Saudi oil tankers in the Red Sea, potentially widening the Iran war as international oil topped $100 a barrel.

    U.S. Central Command said the latest attacks are designed to “further degrade Iran’s ability to threaten civilian mariners and commercial vessels transiting regional waters” as the Americans push to regain control over the Strait of Hormuz and restore the flow of international shipping.

    A short time later, Iranian state media reported explosions along the strait in Bandar Abbas and Qeshm, as well as to the northwest near Andimeshk and Omidiyeh.

    Meanwhile, the Houthis threatened to shut down another key trade route, with the world economy already reeling from Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The threat came as Iran and the U.S. have stepped up attacks as they vie for control of the strait, through which a fifth of the world’s oil and gas transited in peacetime, setting off a scramble for alternative routes.

    President Donald Trump threatened “major military punishment” against the Houthis if their attacks on ships continue.

    “If they do this again, the U.S. will hold Iran responsible, in that the Houthis are a Surrogate and/or Proxy of Iran, and major military punishment will be inflicted upon Iran and, of course, the Houthis, themselves,” Trump wrote on social media.

    As the rhetoric escalated, so did the economic fallout. The price of Brent crude oil, the international standard, spiked more than 6% Thursday, to about $100 a barrel. That is the highest level since May, before the two sides reached a preliminary peace agreement last month that has since collapsed.

    Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi of Iraq, which has close ties to both the U.S. and Iran, was in Tehran on Thursday to call for peace and dialogue, and he promised not to allow Iraqi territory to be used for attacks on Iran, his office said. Al-Zaidi met with Trump earlier this month in Washington.

    U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres warned Thursday that the region is being pulled “into an ever-widening circle of confrontation” with one crisis feeding another and every escalation triggering the next.

    “Diplomacy is the only way forward,” Guterres told the U.N. Security Council. He called for Pakistan’s efforts to mediate an end to the war to be strengthened.

    Houthi attacks are a ‘double whammy’ on oil shipments

    The Houthis’ SABA news agency said the rebels had struck two tankers, the Encelia and the Layla, in the Red Sea, causing fires on both. There were no reports of casualties.

    It was the first reported Houthi attack on a vessel since they announced a blockade of Saudi-linked shipping through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait earlier this week in retaliation for the kingdom’s blockade on Yemen and a recent attack on the international airport in Yemen’s rebel-held capital, Sanaa.

    Bab el-Mandeb, at the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula, is a vital shipping chokepoint connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. Around 12% of the world’s trade, including a fourth of global container traffic, passes through there, moving between Europe and Asia via Egypt’s Suez Canal.

    The state-run Saudi Press Agency reported an attack set the Encelia ablaze overnight in the Red Sea. It did not mention the Layla.

    The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Center said it received a report of a tanker being struck by “an unknown projectile” 80 miles southwest of Al Shuqaiq, Saudi Arabia, in the Red Sea.

    The Houthi attacks put at risk oil shipments from Saudi Arabia’s Yanbu port on the Red Sea and present a “double whammy” on top of the disruption in the Strait of Hormuz, said maritime data and analysis firm Lloyd’s List Intelligence.

    Saudi Arabia has diverted millions of barrels a day of oil exports to Yanbu via an overland pipeline as the war has bottled up the Persian Gulf.

    The Houthi threat “raises questions on the viability of this route,” Lloyd’s said in slides accompanying an online webinar Thursday.

    The rebels say they are blockading Saudi Arabia, but during their announced blockade of Israel at the height of the war in Gaza, they targeted many vessels with little or no connection to that conflict, disrupting global trade.

    Both sides dig in over Strait of Hormuz

    Iran says it has the right to manage traffic and potentially charge fees in the Strait of Hormuz, which was open to all toll-free before the war. It has attacked ships using a route through the strait that is overseen by U.S. forces and intended to be outside Tehran’s control.

    Trump said on social media Thursday that sanctioned Iranian funds in the possession of the U.S. will cover the expense of fixing boats damaged in the war.

    “Please let this statement serve to represent, until further notice, that from this point forth, any and all damages done to Ships, Cargo, or anything related thereto, will be paid for by Iranian Money that the United States has in its possession, and controls,” Trump said.

    It was unclear what legal mechanisms Trump would use to access and spend the funds, but he said that doing so would be “the fair and equitable thing to do.”

    In response to Iran’s attacks, the U.S. began the widening campaign of strikes across Iran and restored a naval blockade of Iran’s ports. U.S. Central Command said it has redirected about a dozen commercial vessels and disabled one since the blockade resumed.

    The war of words has also escalated. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran would adopt an “eye for an eye” policy on U.S. strikes against its infrastructure. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio retorted that Trump’s policy is “a head for an eye.”

    “The price will continue to get higher every single night until they come to their senses,” Rubio told reporters while traveling in the Philippines for a regional summit.

    Iran’s health ministry said Thursday that 55 people have been killed and 629 have been wounded since renewed U.S. airstrikes began on June 27.

    Iran has responded to U.S. attacks by targeting energy infrastructure and desalination plants providing drinking water in parched neighboring Gulf countries.

    Polls have shown the war is unpopular among Americans, a fact reflected in the narrow passage Thursday of a resolution in the U.S. House to halt the war. Though a handful of Republicans crossed party lines to support the measure, the vote remained largely symbolic.

  • Government withdraws subpoenas of 3 reporters for the New York Times after admitting legal errors

    Government withdraws subpoenas of 3 reporters for the New York Times after admitting legal errors

    NEW YORK — Criticized by a federal judge for sloppy legal work, the government on Thursday grudgingly withdrew subpoenas that would have compelled three New York Times reporters to testify about their sources for articles about President Donald Trump’s Qatari-gifted Air Force One jet.

    The withdrawals in U.S. District Court followed a remarkable back and forth between a visibly irritated Judge Arun Subramanian and government lawyers. They come at a time when the Trump administration is vigorously going after news organizations whose reporting and coverage it doesn’t like — and also trying to crack down on leaks inside the government.

    The government’s retreat in the face of vigorous legal opposition and a stern reprimand from a judge marked the latest instance of the Justice Department pulling back on its aggressive efforts to compel journalists to identify their sources before a grand jury. The administration recently withdrew similar subpoenas that sought to compel testimony in Virginia from journalists for the Washington Post and the Wall Street Journal related to separate national security coverage.

    Subramanian said he otherwise would have granted the newspaper’s request to reject the subpoenas because laws and regulations pertaining to subpoenas served on journalists maintain that they should be issued as a last resort in an investigation.

    “Subpoenas are the last step, not the first step, but the last step,” the judge said, citing rules set to protect against violations of the First Amendment. He said the government’s actions had turned the law and the regulations “on its head.”

    “When you see something like this, if this were a civil proceeding, what I would normally do is ask the parties to show causes why sanctions should not be issued,” the judge said, referencing punishment for lawyers for egregious actions.

    After the hearing, the Justice Department lashed out at the judge in a statement, saying he “threatened our attorneys with sanctions unless subpoenas were withdrawn, and blocked us from presenting the meticulous process of this investigation.”

    “The grand jury has a right to hear testimony from all material witnesses in a federal criminal investigation. This judge’s conduct overrides clear longstanding principles and common sense — blocking the grand jury from receiving core evidence in a national security investigation,” the statement said.

    “Make no mistake,” it added, “this investigation remains ongoing, and we will pursue justice against those threatening national security by leaking classified information, a serious federal crime.”

    Government attorneys upbraided by judge

    Subramanian noted that with protections for journalists at stake, the government was required to ensure it could not obtain what it needed from any other sources before issuing subpoenas to journalists.

    A Justice Department lawyer, Sean Buckley, cast the government’s missteps as inadvertent errors and said “no one was trying to pull a fast one.” Buckley apologized for other subpoenas that sought records for phone numbers belonging to one reporter’s mother and two of the journalists’ spouses.

    “That was an error, judge, which we own,” Buckley said. “It was a consequence of trying to move quickly.”

    “These things are starting to pile up,” Subramanian said, becoming increasingly testy.

    The hearing was held publicly despite efforts by the Trump administration to keep secret the litigation spawned by subpoenas it served on the Times’ journalists to try to get them to divulge their sources.

    The newspaper’s lawyers had challenged the validity of the grand jury subpoenas, along with subpoenas issued for phone records of several Times journalists and some of their relatives. Senior Times officials, including the paper’s managing editor and general counsel, sat in the gallery watching during Thursday’s proceedings.

    The request for phone records raised questions about the extent of the investigation being carried out by the Justice Department.

    David McCraw, the Times’ chief newsroom lawyer, said after the hearing in a statement that it “was an important affirmation of our country’s commitment to a free press.”

    “We are pleased that the government finally conceded that the subpoenas violated the law, but they should never have been issued in the first place,” he said. “We will not be deterred in the face of tactics like these.”

    Court action comes after reporting on new Air Force One jet

    The new jet in question, a present from Qatar that Trump’s administration spent $400 million to retrofit and upgrade, recently entered service. But Trump used an older model Air Force One jet to leave a NATO summit in Turkey earlier this month.

    The Times, citing anonymous sources, reported that the switch had come at the urging of the Secret Service and that the newer plane lacked some of the advanced security features of the older Air Force One aircraft, including antimissile capabilities. On social media, Trump rejected claims of security concerns.

    The Times wrote in a letter to the judge several days ago that two subpoenas seek records beginning on Jan. 1, long before the newspaper published articles on July 8 and July 9 that became the basis for the grand jury subpoenas.

    It said that lengthy stretch of records sought would indicate that the purpose of the subpoenas might have been “to forage for information about the Journalists’ source relationships more broadly.”

    The Times argued for the phone records subpoenas to be disallowed on the grounds that the government had acted in “bad faith” and ignored its own protocols by not giving the journalists advance notice that records were being sought and by demanding the information “without first conducting any serious investigation.”

    The Justice Department has justified the grand jury subpoenas by saying that “reporters are not the targets, those leaking classified information are.”

    The Justice Department also said it had complied with its own regulations in issuing the subpoenas and had taken investigative steps before seeking them. It said it was authorized to delay disclosing the subpoenas but decided to alert the journalists’ lawyers so they could challenge them.

    In fighting the subpoenas, the Times’ lawyers highlighted how the government’s carelessness could have exposed sensitive information that had nothing to do with the journalists. The mother whose phone records were mistakenly sought is a mental health professional with confidential client relationships and one of the two spouses is the general counsel of a law firm, the lawyers said.

    At Thursday’s hearing, a final rebuke from the judge to the government came when he asked its lawyers to assure him that it won’t repeat a scenario that left one journalist being served a subpoena by an FBI agent while he was home watching the family-friendly movie The Sheep Detectives, about sheep on a quest to solve the murder of their shepherd.

    Said the judge, to loud courtroom laughter: “I can’t think of anything more inconsistent with ‘Sheep Detective’ than an FBI agent showing up at your door.”