miami, florida — Hurricane Oscar formed Saturday off the coast of the Bahamas, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida. It characterized the storm as “tiny.” 

The government of the Bahamas has issued a hurricane warning for the Turks and Caicos Islands and the southeastern Bahamas. The government of Cuba has issued a hurricane watch for the provinces of Guantanamo, Holguin, and Las Tunas. 

Locally heavy rainfall is expected across the Turks and Caicos Islands and the southeastern Bahamas later Saturday, according to the latest advisory. Heavy rain is expected to spread to eastern Cuba on Sunday. 

The storm’s maximum sustained winds were clocked at 80 miles per hour (130 kilometers per hour) with higher gusts. Its center was located about 165 miles (260 kilometers) east-southeast of the southeastern Bahamas and about 470 miles (755 kilometers) east of Camaguey, Cuba. 

Hours earlier, Tropical Storm Nadine formed off Mexico’s southern Caribbean coast and was moving inland across Belize. Heavy rain and tropical storm conditions were occurring over parts of Belize and the Yucatan peninsula. 

A tropical storm warning is in effect for Belize City and from Belize to Cancun, Mexico, including the popular tourist destination, Cozumel. 

The hurricane center said Nadine was located about 20 miles (35 kilometers) east of Belize City, with winds of 13 mph (20 kph). Its maximum sustained winds were at 50 mph (85 kph). 

Nadine was expected to move across Belize, northern Guatemala, and southern Mexico through Sunday, the center added. 
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WASHINGTON — Over the past four years, judges at Washington’s federal courthouse have punished hundreds of rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol in an unprecedented assault on the nation’s democracy. On the cusp of the next presidential election, some of those judges fear another burst of political violence could be coming.

Before recently sentencing a rioter to prison, U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton said he prays Americans accept the outcome of next month’s election. But the veteran judge expressed concern that Donald Trump and his allies are spreading the same sort of conspiracy theories that fueled the mob’s January 6, 2021, riot.

“That sore loser is saying the same things he said before,” Walton said earlier this month without mentioning the Republican presidential nominee by name. “He’s riling up the troops again, so if he doesn’t get what he wants, it’s not inconceivable that we will experience that same situation again. And who knows? It could be worse.”

‘It scares me’

Walton, a nominee of President George W. Bush, is not alone. Other judges have said the political climate is ripe for another attack like the one that injured more than 100 police officers at the Capitol. As Election Day nears, judges are frequently stressing the need to send a message beyond their courtrooms that political violence can’t be tolerated.

“It scares me to think about what will happen if anyone on either side is not happy with the results of the election,” Judge Jia Cobb, a nominee of President Joe Biden, said during a sentencing hearing last month for four Capitol rioters.

Judge Rudolph Contreras lamented the potential for more politically motivated violence as he sentenced a Colorado man, Jeffrey Sabol, who helped other rioters drag a police officer into the mob. Sabol later told FBI agents that a “call to battle was announced” and that he had “answered the call because he was a patriot warrior.”

“It doesn’t take much imagination to imagine a similar call coming out in the coming months, and the court would be concerned that Mr. Sabol would answer that call in the same way,” Contreras, a President Barack Obama nominee, said in March before sentencing Sabol to more than five years in prison.

Trump’s distortion of the January 6 attack has been a cornerstone of his bid to reclaim the White House. The former president has denied any responsibility for the crimes of supporters who smashed windows, assaulted police officers and sent lawmakers running into hiding as they met to certify Biden’s 2020 victory.

‘Patriots’ and ‘hostages’

Trump has vowed to pardon rioters, whom he calls “patriots” and “hostages,” if he wins in November. And he said he would accept the results of the upcoming election only if it’s “free and fair,” casting doubts reminiscent of his baseless claims in 2020.

Judges have repeatedly used their platform on the bench to denounce those efforts to downplay the violence on January 6 and cast the rioters as political prisoners. And some have raised concerns about what such rhetoric means for the future of the country and its democracy.

“We’re in a real difficult time in our country, and I hope we can survive it,” Walton said this month while sentencing a Tennessee nurse who used a pair of medical scissors to smash a glass door at the Capitol.

“I’ve got a young daughter, I’ve got a young grandson, and I would like for America to be available to them and be as good to them as it has been to me,” he said. “But I don’t know if we survive with the mentality that took place that day.”

More than 1,500 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the January 6 siege, which disrupted the peaceful transfer of presidential power for the first time in the nation’s history. Over 1,000 rioters have been convicted and sentenced. Roughly 650 of them received prison time ranging from a few days to 22 years.

Justice Department prosecutors have argued in many cases that a prison sentence is necessary to deter convicted Capitol rioters from engaging in more politically motivated violence.

“With the 2024 presidential election approaching and many loud voices in the media and online continuing to sow discord and distrust, the potential for a repeat of January 6 looms ominously,” prosecutors have repeatedly warned in court filings.

‘I’d do it all over again’

Prosecutors argue that defendants who have shown little or no remorse for their actions on January 6 could break the law again. Some rioters even seem to be proud of their crimes.

The first rioter to enter the Capitol texted his mother, “I’ll go again given the opportunity.”

A man from Washington state who stormed the Capitol with fellow Proud Boys extremist group members told a judge, “You can give me 100 years, and I’d do it all over again.” A Kentucky nurse who joined the riot told a television interviewer that she would “do it again tomorrow.”

A Colorado woman known to her social media followers as the “J6 praying grandma” avoided a prison sentence in August when a magistrate judge sentenced her for disorderly conduct and trespassing on Capitol grounds. Rebecca Lavrenz told the judge that God, not Trump, led her to Washington on January 6.

“And she has all but promised to do it all over again,” said prosecutor Terence Parker.

Prosecutors had sought 10 months behind bars. After her April trial conviction, Lavrenz went on a “media blitz” to defend the mob, spread misinformation, undermine confidence in the courts and boost her celebrity in a community that believes January 6 “was a good day for this country,” Parker said.

Magistrate Zia Faruqui sentenced Lavrenz to six months of home confinement and fined her $103,000, stressing the need to “lower the volume” before the next election.

“These outside influences, the people that are tearing our country apart, they’re not going to help you,” Faruqui told her.
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Asheville, north carolina — A rare copy of the U.S. Constitution printed 237 years ago and sent to the states to be ratified has been sold for $9 million at an auction in North Carolina. 

Brunk Auctions sold the document, the only copy of its type thought to be privately owned, at the private auction Thursday. The name of the buyer was not immediately released. 

Bidding took just over seven minutes, with bids coming in at $500,000 intervals, mostly over the phone. There was a pause at $8.5 million, then another after someone on the phone bid $9 million. 

“Just another second or two. Savor it a little bit, selling here at $9 million,” said auctioneer and auction house owner Andrew Brunk. 

Brunk was thankful. The auction was originally set for September 28 but was delayed after Hurricane Helene caused catastrophic damage throughout Asheville and western North Carolina. 

“It’s a privilege to have it here. It’s been quite a ride,” Brunk said. 

The copy was printed after the Constitutional Convention finished drafting the proposed framework of the nation’s government in 1787 and sent it to the Congress of the ineffective first American government under the Articles of Confederation, requesting it be sent to the states to be ratified by the people. 

It’s one of about 100 copies printed by the secretary of that Congress, Charles Thomson. Just eight are known to still exist and the other seven are publicly owned. 

Thomson likely signed two copies for each of the original 13 states, essentially certifying them. 

What happened to the document up for auction Thursday between Thomson’s signature and 2022 is not known. 

Two years ago, a property was being cleared out in Edenton in eastern North Carolina that was once owned by Samuel Johnston. He was the governor of North Carolina from 1787 to 1789 and oversaw the state convention during his last year in office that ratified the Constitution. 

The copy was found inside a squat, two-drawer metal filing cabinet with a can of stain on top, in a long-neglected room piled high with old chairs and a dusty book case, before the old Johnston house was preserved. The document was a broad sheet that could be folded one time like a book. 

Along with the Constitution on the broad sheet, printed front and back, is a letter from George Washington asking for ratification. He acknowledged there would have to be compromise and that certain rights the states enjoyed would have to be given up for the nation’s long-term health. 

The Constitution copy wasn’t the only seven-figure purchase Thursday. A watermarked 1776 first draft of the Articles of Confederation went for $1 million. 

Also sold was a 1788 Journal of the Convention of North Carolina at Hillsborough, where representatives spent two weeks debating whether ratifying the Constitution would put too much power with the federal government instead of the states. The document sold for $85,000.

Auction officials were not sure what the Constitution document would go for because there is so little to compare it to. The last time a copy of the Constitution that was sent to the states sold, it was for $400 in 1891. 

In 2021, Sotheby’s of New York sold one of only 14 remaining copies of the Constitution printed for the Continental Congress and delegates to the Constitutional Convention for $43.2 million, a record for a book or document.
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WASHINGTON — As the United States prepares for a presidential election next month, the idyllic New York suburb of Teaneck, New Jersey, is gearing up for elections that reflect a broader trend in U.S. politics.

Two Muslim women are running for local office in Teaneck, a town of 41,000 residents with a significant Muslim population. They are among hundreds of Muslim candidates in local, state and federal elections around the country.

Teaneck once had a Muslim mayor but never a Muslim woman on its city council.

Reshma Khan, a longtime local activist of Indian origin and a council candidate, is aiming to change that.

“I don’t take that lightly,” Khan, 47, said in a recent phone interview from her makeshift canvassing base in Teaneck. “It’s one of great responsibility as a Muslim.”

Nadia Hussain, a Trinidadian American high school teacher, is the other Muslim candidate in Teaneck’s nonpartisan local elections. She is hoping to be the first Muslim woman elected to the local school board.

The two hijab-wearing, everyday working American moms represent a growing trend of Muslim Americans seeking office, reflecting a larger national pattern of more diverse candidates.

“There is a saying that we have: ‘If you’re not at the table, then you’re on the menu,’ so engagement is a must,” Hussain said in an interview with VOA.

Muslims’ political engagement surges

The U.S. has roughly 3.5 million Muslims from diverse ethnic backgrounds. Though most vote Democratic, a growing number have leaned Republican in recent elections.

Muslim elected officials, once a rarity, have become increasingly common in recent years. This surge in political engagement is driven by a mix of factors, from a concern about Islamophobia to a desire for political representation, experts say.

“If voter turnout of American Muslims is any indication of further political participation, Muslims running for office seems to parallel that trend,” said Nura Sediqe, an assistant professor of political science at Michigan State University.

Some experts trace the surge of Muslim political engagement to 2018, when Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib shattered glass ceilings by becoming the first Muslim women elected to Congress. Their success, coupled with that of numerous local candidates, ignited a wave of Muslim political activism.

The ripple effects have continued in the years since. In 2021, Boston and New York City elected their first Muslim council members. The following year, Dearborn, Michigan, a city with a substantial Arab and Muslim population, inaugurated its first Muslim mayor. Meanwhile, state legislatures from Maine to Texas have welcomed about 50 Muslim members into their ranks.

“Every cycle we’re seeing an increase in the number of people running,” said Basim Elkarra, executive director of CAIR Action, himself a school board president near the Sacramento, California, area. “You’re seeing more local races, more school board races and more city council races where folks are running in.”

Last year, CAIR, a civil rights group promoting American-Islamic relations, tallied 235 Muslim elected officials, including nearly 50 in New Jersey, home to the largest Muslim population per capita in the country. This year, the group expects the total number to surpass 250, a record.

Local races, like school board and city council elections, account for most of the recent growth. A city council member may not wield the power of a member of Congress, but in a country where “all politics is local,” these races can have a huge impact on local communities.

Recounting her talking points to voters, Khan said, “We say, yes, the presidential election is important, but more important is local elections.”

A consummate activist, Khan views a future role on the city council as an extension of her activism rather than a political position. Her goal, she said, is to inspire future generations of Muslim women.

“I’m not doing this for myself,” Khan said. “I am doing this for the Fatimas and the Muhammads and the Ahmads who are going to come 50 years from now.”

Candidate aims to challenge stereotypes

Khan wasn’t always a hijabi woman. Born in Chennai, India, she attended a Catholic school. After earning an master’s degree in business administration from an Indian university, she moved to the U.S. in early 2001 to take a marketing job in New Jersey.

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, changed her outlook. To challenge stereotypes about Muslims, she began wearing a hijab.

“I wanted to show that there are peaceful Muslims,” she said.

Nearly 20 years ago, Khan and her husband, Arif, moved to Teaneck, where she immersed herself in community activism: attending city council meetings, serving on the council’s community relations board and leading a school Parent Teacher Association.

Then in 2021, she was thrust into the spotlight after helping lead a ballot initiative to move local elections from May to November when turnout is higher. She credits her marketing skills for the success of the “One Town, One Vote” campaign.

“At this point, I had become such an icon in Teaneck, because even though the movement was not started by me, I brought my marketing skills,” she said.

The following year, she considered running for town council but decided to wait while she was raising three young daughters. This year, though, she took the plunge, inspired by the success of other Muslim women in New Jersey and a sense the council wasn’t listening to her community.

“I felt that I should be the leader for my community, so my community finds a voice in American politics,” she said.

Teaneck is an ethnically and religiously diverse town, with about 40% of the population Jewish, more than 25% Muslim, and the rest mostly Blacks and Latinos.

The war in Gaza, ignited by Hamas’ terror attack on Israel last October, sparked tensions after the council passed a resolution in support of Israel but not one “designed to speak for Palestinian voices,” Khan said.

Teaneck’s Muslims, Khan said, “feel let down by the local leadership because the local leadership has only spoken for one community.”

Teaneck Mayor Mike Pagan did not respond to repeated requests from VOA for comment.

A self-described “bridge builder,” Khan said she has formed a broad coalition of supporters from Teaneck’s major communities, using young canvassers to go door to door.

Whether that’s enough to win remains to be seen. With local elections now held in November, winning a council seat requires substantially more votes. But whether she wins or not, Khan said she wants to be remembered “as a woman in her hijab who’s a Muslim and has galvanized support from every community in the town, not because she is a Muslim person but because she is someone who stands for equity.”
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A day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy presented a “victory plan” to European Union leaders and NATO defense ministers, the nation’s allies are giving it qualified support, with one leader saying it will be reconsidered after the U.S. election next month.

Zelenskyy’s plan, which he unveiled to Ukraine’s parliament Wednesday, calls first for an unconditional invitation to join NATO, along with the deployment of a nonnuclear deterrent to Russian aggression, among other points. He maintains the plan could end the war no later than next year.

While NATO allies and leadership insist Ukraine’s future is with NATO, a formal invitation to join the alliance has not been made. NATO allies have said the nation cannot become a member while it is at war, and the focus has been on providing Ukraine with the support it needs to win.

The NATO-Ukraine Council met late Thursday, following Zelenskyy’s presentation to the defense ministerial meeting. At a Friday news conference in Brussels, new NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said the focus of that meeting was “to get massive military aid into Ukraine” from Western allies.

“Obviously, we all know that Ukraine will become a member of NATO, so the question is exactly when and when the invitation will take place,” Rutte said. “But that was not the main issue of the debate last night.”

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was asked about Zelenskyy’s plan during a briefing in Brussels Friday. “The victory plan is President Zelenskyy’s plan, and we’re going to do everything that we can and provide security assistance to support the president as he tries to accomplish his objectives,” Austin said.

Austin added, “It is not my position to evaluate publicly his plan. We have been supporting him by providing security assistance in a major way for over two and a half years. We are going to continue to do that.”

U.S. President Joe Biden was in Berlin Friday for meetings with the leaders of Britain, Germany and France. Support for Ukraine was a focus of their talks.

On the sidelines of that meeting, U.S. national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters the White House is still reviewing Zelenskyy’s plan.

He said while he did not want to go through every detail, the United States supports “President Zelenskyy’s plan for a just peace. It’s critical that whatever that peace looks like, it has to be acceptable to him and to the Ukrainian people.”

Ukrainian media reported that Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk spoke to reporters Friday following European Union talks in Brussels and said there was “no consensus” on the plan among EU leaders. He said it was difficult to tell how realistic it is because “much depends on the outcome of the U.S. presidential election.”

Tusk added that the plan would be reassessed after the U.S. elections next month. Former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president, has indicated he does not support continuing U.S. military aid for Ukraine, at least not at current levels.

Also Friday, Ukraine’s military said Russian forces Thursday suffered their second deadliest day since the start of Russia’s invasion in February 2022.

On its account on the Facebook social media platform, the General Staff of Ukraine’s armed forces reported 1,530 Russian casualties since Thursday.

Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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The Biden administration is shelling out billions of dollars for clean energy and approving major offshore wind projects as officials race to secure major climate initiatives before President Joe Biden’s term comes to an end.

Biden wants to establish a legacy for climate action that includes locking in a trajectory for reducing the nation’s planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions. Former President Donald Trump has pledged to rescind unspent funds in Biden’s landmark climate and health care bill and stop offshore wind development if he returns to the White House in January.

Vice President Kamala Harris, who became the Democratic nominee after Biden dropped from the race this summer, has said she will pursue a climate agenda similar to Biden’s, focused on reducing emissions, deploying renewables and creating clean energy jobs.

Announcements of major environmental grants and project approvals have speeded up in recent months as White House Deputy Chief of Staff Natalie Quillian said Biden is “sprinting to the finish” and delivering on promises to promote clean energy and slow climate change:

The Environmental Protection Agency made $20 billion from a federal “green bank” available this summer for clean energy projects such as residential heat pumps, electric vehicle charging stations and community cooling centers.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management approved the nation’s 10th large offshore wind farm, the Maryland Offshore Wind Project, in September, reaching the halfway mark for Biden’s goal of 30 gigawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030. On Oct. 1, the agency gave a key approval to an offshore wind farm project in New Jersey.

In the past month alone, the Energy Department has made six announcements of a billion dollars or more, including more than $3 billion for battery manufacturing projects and a $1.5 billion loan to restart a nuclear plant in Michigan. And just last week, Biden set a 10-year deadline for cities to replace their lead pipes, with $2.6 billion available from the EPA to help communities comply.

Besides the climate law, formally known as the Inflation Reduction Act, Biden is seeking to spend billions in projects approved under the bipartisan infrastructure law in 2021 and the 2022 CHIPS and Science Act. The $1 trillion infrastructure law includes cash for roads, bridges, ports and more, while the CHIPS law aims to reinvigorate the computer chip sector in the United States through tens of billions of dollars in government support.

Energy experts say the rush of announcements is not surprising.

“I’m sure the prospect of a change in the White House, and a change in agency leadership, is creating an increased sense of urgency to get those programs stood up and implemented,” said Trevor Houser, a partner at the Rhodium Group research firm.

There’s an undeniable pressure to lock in as many energy transition benefits as possible before the end of the year, said Matt Lockwood, vice president of strategic market areas and accounts at DNV, which advises companies on energy issues. It’s been two years since the climate legislation passed, so federal agencies are starting to churn through these transactions at a faster pace, he said.

The climate legislation put the country on a path to cutting greenhouse gas emissions to try to meet targets in the Paris climate accord. The investments are expected to reduce U.S. emissions by about 40% by 2030.

A new analysis by global consultant Baringa found that Trump would stall the transition from fossil fuels, though by how much would depend on whether the House or Senate is controlled by Democrats who could temper climate rollbacks. Trump, if unrestrained, could permanently alter the trajectory of the energy transition by repealing the climate legislation, substantially slowing renewable rollout and leaving the U.S. wedded to coal and gas for far longer, said Caspian Conran, an economist at Baringa who co-authored the analysis published Wednesday.

As vice president, Harris cast the tiebreaking vote on the Inflation Reduction Act, which was approved with only Democratic support. As a senator from California, she was an early sponsor of the Green New Deal, sweeping proposals meant to swiftly move the United States fully to green energy.

At a presidential debate last month, however, Harris boasted that the administration has overseen “the largest increase in domestic oil production in history because of an approach that recognizes that we cannot over-rely on foreign oil.”

Trump’s policies, meanwhile, could raise emissions by about 12% by 2030 compared to those favored by Harris or Biden, Baringa’s report said, equivalent to roughly 660 million tons of carbon dioxide.

“This is a race against time to certain extent,” Conran said in an interview. “So even if you’re saying we’re delaying the transition (to clean energy) by five years, maybe that doesn’t seem like a lot. But actually that’s quite profound.”

The U.S. is the world’s second-largest emitter of planet-warming carbon dioxide. Baringa says Trump’s first-term policies caused emissions to rise 9%, while Biden’s policies lowered emissions by 11%.

Companies have announced about 340 major clean energy projects across the country in the past two years, according to E2, a nonpartisan environmental research group. Sixty percent of those, representing 82% of the investments and 69% of the jobs, are in Republican congressional districts despite unanimous GOP opposition to the law, E2 said.

Eighteen House Republicans, including several in close races for reelection, told the House speaker in August they want to protect energy tax credits in Biden’s climate legislation that are creating jobs. “Energy tax credits have spurred innovation, incentivized investment and created good jobs in many parts of the country – including many districts represented by members of our conference,” the lawmakers wrote.

To get the clean energy transition right, the U.S. needs to commit to it across election cycles, from one administration to the next, and through sessions of Congress, said Conrad Schneider, senior director at the Clean Air Task Force, an advocacy group.

“We’re trying to publicize the fact that (clean energy) is really beneficial for communities all over the country, whatever political geography,” he said. “And so we hope that will mean these programs can be sustained through any combination of electoral outcomes.”
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Buenos Aires, Argentina — The death of Liam Payne, who shot to stardom as a member of British boy band One Direction and grappled with intense global fame while still in his teens, sent shockwaves across the world Thursday as Argentine investigators continued their investigation at the scene.

Fans, music-industry figures and fellow musicians paid tribute to Payne, 31, who died after falling from a hotel balcony in Argentina.

As fans and media bombarded the Casa Sur Hotel in the trendy Palermo neighborhood of Argentina’s capital, the forensics unit worked inside on Thursday collecting evidence.

The Buenos Aires police said they found Payne’s hotel room “in complete disarray,” with packs of clonazepam, a central nervous system depressant, as well as energy supplements and other over-the-counter drugs strewn about and “various items broken.” They added that a whiskey bottle, lighter and cellphone were retrieved from the internal hotel courtyard where Payne’s body was found.

The day before, police said that Payne “had jumped from the balcony of his room,” without elaborating on how they came to that conclusion. The Associated Press could not confirm details of the incident, as the investigation is ongoing. The medical examiner’s office said it was conducting an autopsy.

Police said they had rushed to the hotel Wednesday in response to an emergency call just after 5 p.m. local time that had warned of an “aggressive man who could be under the influence of drugs or alcohol.”

A hotel manager can be heard on a 911 call recording obtained by The Associated Press saying the hotel has “a guest who is overwhelmed with drugs and alcohol … He’s destroying the entire room and, well, we need you to send someone, please.” The manager’s voice becomes more anxious as the call goes on, noting the room has a balcony.

Payne was known as the tousle-headed, sensible one of the quintet that went from a TV talent show to a pop phenomenon with a huge international following of swooning fans. In recent years he had acknowledged struggling with alcoholism, saying in a YouTube video posted in July 2023 that he had been sober for six months after receiving treatment. Representatives for Payne did not immediately return emails and calls.

Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood, who performed with One Direction in 2014, said he was “shocked and saddened.”

“God bless Liam, thinking of all his loved ones. He will be dearly missed,” Wood wrote on X.

Paris Hilton also sent condolences on X, saying the news was “so upsetting.” The Backstreet Boys said in a social media post that their hearts go out to “Directioners around the world.”

Dozens of One Direction fans flocked to the Casa Sur Hotel after the news broke, forming lines that spilled into the cordoned-off street outside, where police stood sentinel. Forensic investigators were seen leaving the building, from where Payne’s body was removed around three hours after the fall. Young women filming with their cellphones expressed shock and heartbreak as a makeshift memorial with rows of candles and bouquets quickly grew.

“I didn’t think he was going to die so young,” 21-year-old Isabella Milesi told the AP.

Payne was one of five members of One Direction, which formed after each auditioned for the British singing competition “The X Factor” in 2010, two years after Payne’s first attempt to get on the show. Aged 16 the second time around, Payne sang Michael Bublé’s version of “Cry Me a River,” appearing nervous at the start but warming up with the audience’s cheers and applause.

After each singer failed to make it through the competition as a solo act, Simon Cowell and his fellow judges combined Payne, Zayn Malik, Harry Styles, Niall Horan and Louis Tomlinson into what would become one of the most successful boy bands ever — even though they lost the competition.

Each member had his own persona, with Payne — who hailed from Wolverhampton in England’s West Midlands region — known as the responsible one. The band became known for their pop sound and romantic hits including “What Makes You Beautiful,” “Night Changes” and “Story of My Life.”

Payne had prominent solos on songs including “Stole My Heart” and “Change Your Ticket,” co-writing several of the band’s hits. One Direction had six Top 10 hits on the Billboard charts by the time they disbanded in 2016 and a highly loyal fan base, known as “Directioners,” many of them teen girls.

“I’ve always loved One Direction since I was little,” said 18-year-old Juana Relh, another fan outside Payne’s hotel. “To see that he died and that there will never be another reunion of the boys is unbelievable, it kills me.”

With his meteoric rise to fame, Payne had said that it took some time to adjust to life in the public eye.

“I don’t think you can ever deal with that. It’s all a bit crazy for us to see that people get in that sort of state of mind about us and what we do,” he said in a 2013 interview with the AP after recounting an experience where a fan was in a state of shock upon meeting him.

One Direction announced an indefinite “hiatus” in 2016, and Payne — like each of his erstwhile bandmates — pursued a solo career, shifting toward EDM and hip-hop.

While Styles became a huge solo star, the others had more modest success. Payne’s 2017 single “Strip That Down,” featuring Quavo, reached the Billboard Top 10, and stayed on the charts for several months. He put out an album “LP1” in 2019, and his last release — a single called “Teardrops” — was released in March.

In 2020, to mark the 10th anniversary of One Direction, Payne shared a screenshot of a text message he sent to his father on the day he joined the group, which read: “I’m in a boyband.”

“What a journey … I had no idea what we were in for when I sent this text to my dad years ago at this exact time the band was formed,” he wrote.

Payne had a 7-year-old son, Bear Grey Payne, with his former girlfriend, the musician Cheryl, who was known as Cheryl Cole when she performed with Girls Aloud. She was an “X Factor” judge during One Direction’s season, although their relationship began years later.

Payne was previously engaged to Maya Henry, from August 2020 to early 2022. Henry released a novel earlier this year that she said was based on their relationship.

In addition to his son, he is survived by his parents, Geoff and Karen Payne, and his two older sisters, Ruth and Nicola.
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LOS ANGELES — The Archdiocese of Los Angeles has agreed to pay $880 million to victims of clergy sexual abuse dating back decades, in what an attorney said was the largest single child sex abuse settlement with a Catholic archdiocese, it was announced Wednesday.

After the announcement of the agreement in principle, Archbishop José H. Gomez said in a statement, “I am sorry for every one of these incidents, from the bottom of my heart.”

“My hope is that this settlement will provide some measure of healing for what these men and women have suffered,” the archbishop added. “I believe that we have come to a resolution of these claims that will provide just compensation to the survivor-victims of these past abuses.”

Attorneys for 1,353 people who allege that they suffered horrific abuse at the hands of local Catholic priests reached the settlement after months of negotiations with the archdiocese, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The agreement caps a quarter-century of litigation against the most populous archdiocese in the United States.

Attorneys in the Plaintiffs’ Liaison Committee said in a joint statement, “While there is no amount of money that can replace what was taken from these 1,353 brave individuals who have suffered in silence for decades, there is justice in accountability.”

Under the settlement, the plaintiffs will engage in a process— that will not involve the archdiocese — to allocate the settlement amount among the participants.

The archdiocese has previously paid $740 million to victims in various settlements and had pledged to better protect its church members, so this settlement would put the total payout at more than $1.5 billion, the Times said.

Attorney Morgan Stewart, who led the negotiations, said in a statement that the settlement is the largest single child sex abuse settlement with a Catholic archdiocese.

“These survivors have suffered for decades in the aftermath of the abuse. Dozens of the survivors have died. They are aging, and many of those with knowledge of the abuse within the church are too. It was time to get this resolved,” Stewart told the Times.

The settlement will be funded by archdiocese investments, accumulated reserves, bank financing, and other assets. According to the archdiocese, certain religious orders and others named in the litigation will also cover some of the cost of the settlement, the Times said.
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washington — U.S. President Joe Biden joined former Democratic presidents and others to honor longtime human rights advocate and storied political family matriarch Ethel Kennedy at a memorial service in Washington on Wednesday after her death last week at age 96.

The widow of Robert F. Kennedy — a former U.S. attorney general and U.S. senator, who was assassinated while seeking the Democratic presidential nomination in 1968 — founded a human rights center to carry on her husband’s work.

She never remarried and went on to raise her 11 children, enduring a host of other family tragedies along the way, including separate plane crashes that killed her parents, brother and nephew, as well as the untimely deaths of several of her children, grandchildren and a great-grandchild.

She and her husband were devastated by the assassination of his brother, President John F. Kennedy, in Dallas in 1963.

Biden, a fellow Irish Catholic who has leaned on his faith amid his own losses, including the death of his son Beau, said the Democratic family matriarch was there for him at his time of tragedy. He said her husband had been one of his heroes.

“Ethel was a hero in her own right,” Biden said in remarks at the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle in Washington, just blocks from the White House.

Former Democratic presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, as well as former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and others, also reflected on her life.

The son of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., who was assassinated just two months before Robert Kennedy, noted the two families’ shared journey and understanding of sacrifice amid their work for social justice.

“Faith and history knitted us together. Respect and love has kept us together,” Martin Luther King III told the crowd.

The Kennedys were known for their parties and Wednesday’s service was no different, with scores of relatives filling the pews and high-profile attendees remembering the infectious spirit highlighted by her children and grandchildren.

“She was a spitfire,” Obama said. “As serious as Ethel was about righting wrongs, she never seemed to take herself too seriously.”

Other Democratic attendees included California Governor Gavin Newsom and former top U.S. diplomat and presidential candidate John Kerry. Country star Kenny Chesney sang “You Are My Sunshine” while Sting surprised guests with “Fragile” and Stevie Wonder with “Isn’t She Lovely.”

Over the decades, Kennedy took up many causes championed by her late husband, including fighting poverty, working for social justice and protecting the environment. Obama awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2014. She died on October 10 from complications following a stroke, her family said.

Her daughter Kathleen Kennedy Townsend was Maryland’s lieutenant governor, while her son Joseph P. Kennedy II represented Massachusetts in the U.S. House of Representatives. Her grandson, former U.S. Representative Joseph P. Kennedy III, serves as special envoy to Northern Ireland.

Her son Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine advocate and former independent presidential candidate, broke from his family’s long Democratic ties to endorse Donald Trump in November’s election.

Many members of the Kennedy clan have denounced his election politics and backed the Democratic ticket, now led by U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris after Biden stepped aside in July. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. attended Wednesday’s service alongside his family but made no remarks.
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A nationwide recall of meat and poultry products potentially contaminated with listeria has expanded to nearly 15.4 million kilograms (12 million pounds) and now includes ready-to-eat meals sent to U.S. schools, restaurants and major retailers, federal officials said.

The updated recall includes prepared salads, burritos and other foods sold at stores including Costco, Trader Joe’s, Target, Walmart and Kroger. The meat used in those products was processed at a Durant, Oklahoma, manufacturing plant operated by BrucePac. The Woodburn, Oregon-based company sells precooked meat and poultry to industrial, foodservice and retail companies across the country.

Routine testing found potentially dangerous listeria bacteria in samples of BrucePac chicken, officials with the U.S. Agriculture Department said. No illnesses have been confirmed in connection with the recall, USDA officials said. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has not launched an outbreak investigation, a spokesperson said.

The recall, issued on October 9, includes foods produced between May 31 and October 8. The USDA has posted a 342-page list of hundreds of potentially affected foods, including chicken wraps sold at Trader Joe’s, chicken burritos sold at Costco and many types of salads sold at stores such as Target and Walmart. The foods were also sent to school districts and restaurants across the country.

The recalled foods can be identified by establishment numbers “51205 or P-51205” inside or under the USDA mark of inspection. Consumers can search on the USDA recall site to find potentially affected products. Such foods should be thrown away or returned to stores for refunds, officials said.

Eating foods contaminated with listeria can cause potentially serious illness. About 1,600 people are infected with listeria bacteria each year in the U.S. and about 260 die, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Listeria infections typically cause fever, muscle aches and tiredness and may cause stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance and convulsions. Symptoms can occur quickly or to up to 10 weeks after eating contaminated food. The infections are especially dangerous for older people, those with weakened immune systems or who are pregnant.

The same type of bacteria is responsible for an outbreak tied to Boar’s Head deli meat that has killed at least 10 people since May.
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OMAHA, Neb. — Nebraska’s top election official had no authority to declare unconstitutional a state law that restored the voting rights of those who have been convicted of a felony, the state Supreme Court ruled Wednesday in a decision with implications for the approaching election.

In July, Secretary of State Bob Evnen ordered county election officials to reject the voter registrations of those with felony convictions, citing an opinion issued by Attorney General Mike Hilgers. That opinion, which Evnen had requested, deemed as unconstitutional a law passed this year by the Legislature immediately restoring the voting rights of people who have completed the terms of their felony sentences.

Evnen’s order could have kept 7,000 or more Nebraska residents from voting in the upcoming election, the American Civil Liberties Union said. Many of them reside in Nebraska’s Omaha-centered 2nd Congressional District, where both the race for president and Congress could be in play.

In an otherwise reliably Republican state that, unlike most others, splits its electoral votes, the district has twice awarded an electoral vote to Democratic presidential candidates — once to Barack Obama in 2008 and again to Joe Biden in 2020. In a presidential race shown by polling to be a dead heat, a single electoral vote could determine who wins.

Given the Omaha district’s history, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and Democratic groups have spent millions in the district in the hopes of securing the electoral vote — far more than former President Donald Trump and Republican groups.

The last day to register to vote for the 2024 general election in Nebraska is Oct. 25 and must be done in person at a voter’s county election commission office. Election Day is Nov. 5.

Hilgers’ opinion had said the new law violates the state constitution’s separation of powers, saying only the state Board of Pardons under the control of the executive branch can restore voting rights through pardons.

Pardons are exceedingly rare in Nebraska. Evnen, Hilgers and Gov. Jim Pillen make up the three-member Board of Pardons. All three are Republicans.

The opinion also found unconstitutional a 2005 state law that restored the voting rights of people with felony convictions two years after they complete the terms of their sentences. 

The ACLU is representing advocacy group Civic Nebraska and two Nebraska residents, a Republican and an independent, who would be denied the right to vote under Evnen’s directive. Because Evnen’s move came only weeks ahead of the November election, the ACLU asked to take the lawsuit directly to the Nebraska Supreme Court, and the high court agreed. 

Restoring the voting rights of former felons has drawn national attention in recent years. In Florida, lawmakers weakened a 2018 voter-approved constitutional amendment to restore the voting rights of most convicted felons. Following that, an election police unit championed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis arrested 20 former felons. Several of them said they were confused by the arrests because they had been allowed to register to vote. 

In Tennessee, lawmakers killed a bipartisan bill this year that would have let residents convicted of felonies apply to vote again without also restoring their gun rights. 

Dozens of states allow people living with felony convictions to vote, either for those not currently in prison or upon completion of their sentences. Two states, Maine and Vermont, allow everyone, even those in prison, to vote. But despite a recent trend toward restoration of rights, felony disenfranchisement laws prevent around 5.85 million people across the country from voting, according to the ACLU. 

Felony disenfranchisement laws date to the Jim Crow era and mainly targeted Black people, according to experts. Black registered voters have an overwhelmingly positive view of Harris, according to a recent poll from the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
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ATLANTA — A judge has blocked a new rule that requires Georgia Election Day ballots to be counted by hand after the close of voting. The ruling came a day after the same judge ruled that county election officials must certify election results by the deadline set in law.

The State Election Board last month passed the rule requiring that three poll workers each count the paper ballots — not votes — by hand after the polls close.

The county election board in Cobb County, in Atlanta’s suburbs, had filed a lawsuit seeking to have a judge declare that rule and five others recently passed by the state board invalid, saying they exceed the state board’s authority, weren’t adopted in compliance with the law and are unreasonable.

In a ruling late Tuesday, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney wrote, that the so-called hand count rule “is too much, too late” and blocked its enforcement while he considers the merits of the case.

McBurney on Monday had ruled in a separate case that “no election superintendent (or member of a board of elections and registration) may refuse to certify or abstain from certifying election results under any circumstance.” While they are entitled to inspect the conduct of an election and to review related documents, he wrote, “any delay in receiving such information is not a basis for refusing to certify the election results or abstaining from doing so.”

Georgia law says county election superintendents — generally multimember boards — “shall” certify election results by 5 p.m. on the Monday after an election, or the Tuesday if Monday is a holiday as it is this year.

The two rulings came as early in-person voting began Tuesday in Georgia.

They are victories for Democrats, liberal voting rights groups and some legal experts who have raised concerns that Donald Trump’s allies could refuse to certify the results if the former president loses to Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in next month’s presidential election. They have also argued that new rules enacted by the Trump-endorsed majority on the State Election Board could be used to stop or delay certification and to undermine public confidence in the results.

In blocking the hand count rule, McBurney noted that there are no guidelines or training tools for its implementation and that the secretary of state had said the rule was passed too late for his office to provide meaningful training or support. The judge also wrote that no allowances have been made in county election budgets to provide for additional personnel or expenses associated with the rule.

“The administrative chaos that will — not may — ensue is entirely inconsistent with the obligations of our boards of elections (and the SEB) to ensure that our elections are fair legal, and orderly,” he wrote.

The state board may be right that the rule is smart policy, McBurney wrote, but the timing of its passage makes implementing it now “quite wrong.” He invoked the memory of the riot at the U.S. Capitol by people seeking to stop the certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential victory on Jan. 6, 2021, writing, “Anything that adds uncertainty and disorder to the electoral process disserves the public.”

During a hearing earlier Tuesday, Robert Thomas, a lawyer for the State Election Board, argued that the process isn’t complicated and that estimates show that it would take extra minutes, not hours, to complete. He also said memory cards from the scanners, which are used to tally the votes, could be sent to the tabulation center while the hand count is happening so reporting of results wouldn’t be delayed.

State and national Democratic groups that had joined the suit on the side of the Cobb election board, along with the Harris campaign, celebrated McBurney’s ruling in a joint statement: “From the beginning, this rule was an effort to delay election results to sow doubt in the outcome, and our democracy is stronger thanks to this decision to block it.”

The certification ruling stemmed from a lawsuit filed by Julie Adams, a Republican member of the election board in Fulton County, which includes most of the city of Atlanta and is a Democratic stronghold. Adams sought a declaration that her duties as an election board member were discretionary and that she is entitled to “full access” to “election materials.”

Long an administrative task that attracted little attention, certification of election results has become politicized since Trump tried to overturn his loss to Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 general election. Republicans in several swing states, including Adams, refused to certify results earlier this year and some have sued to keep from being forced to sign off on election results.

Adams’ suit, backed by the Trump-aligned America First Policy Institute, argued county election board members have the discretion to reject certification. In court earlier this month, her lawyers also argued county election officials could certify results without including certain ballots if they suspect problems.

Judge McBurney wrote that nothing in Georgia law gives county election officials the authority to determine that fraud has occurred or what should be done about it. Instead, he wrote, state law says a county election official’s “concerns about fraud or systemic error are to be noted and shared with the appropriate authorities but they are not a basis for a superintendent to decline to certify.”

The Democratic National Committee and Democratic Party of Georgia had joined the lawsuit as defendants with the support of Harris’ campaign. The campaign called the ruling a “major legal win.”

Adams said in a statement that McBurney’s ruling has made it clear that she and other county election officials “cannot be barred from access to elections in their counties.”

A flurry of election rules passed by the State Election Board since August has generated a crush of lawsuits. McBurney earlier this month heard a challenge to two rules having to do with certification brought by the state and national Democratic parties. Another Fulton County judge is set to hear arguments in two challenges to rules tomorrow — one brought by the Democratic groups and another filed by a group headed by a former Republican lawmaker. And separate challenges are also pending in at least two other counties.

 
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