Kate Middleton announced Monday that she is now “cancer free.”

“I cannot tell you what a relief it is to have finally completed my chemotherapy treatment,” the Princess of Wales announced in a statement on X.

“Doing what I can to stay cancer free is now my focus. Although I have finished chemotherapy, my path to healing and full recovery is long and I must continue to take each day as it comes.”

The 42-year-old royal has been in hiding for most of the year after revealing in March that she was being treated for an undisclosed type of cancer.

The mother-of-three said she was now “looking forward to being back at work and undertaking a few more public engagements in the coming months when I can.”

Kate went on to thank those who have supported her in her months-long battle with the disease.

“The last nine months have been incredibly tough for us as a family. Life as you know it can change in an instant and we have had to find a way to navigate the stormy waters and road unknown,” she said.

“The cancer journey is complex, scary and unpredictable for everyone, especially those closest to you. With humility, it also brings you face to face with your own vulnerabilities in a way you have never considered before, and with that, a new perspective on everything.”

“Despite all that has gone before I enter this new phase of recovery with a renewed sense of hope and appreciation of life,” the royal added.

As part of the major health update, Kensington Palace also released rare, loved-up footage of the future queen with her husband, William, and their three children – Prince George, 11, Charlotte, 9, and Prince Louis, 6.

The three-minute clip, which was shot in Norfolk over the summer, offered a glimpse of Kate and William holding hands, kissing and embracing.

Kate Middleton, the Princess of Wales, announces that she has successfully completed chemotherapy. pic.twitter.com/AvOTQaA7ha

— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) September 9, 2024

The Hollywood-style footage also captured the royals playing and laughing with their kids.

Kate, who has previously acknowledged that she’d had good days and bad days while undergoing treatment, last appeared in public for the men’s final at Wimbledon back in July alongside her daughter, Princess Charlotte.

She was later spotted heading to a morning service at Crathie Kirk church in the Scottish village of Crathie, near the family’s Balmoral Estate, late last month.

The princess’ health update comes as her father-in-law, King Charles II, continues his own cancer treatment.

The 75-year-old monarch was diagnosed with a form of cancer back in February.

After taking a break from royal duties to focus on treatment, Charles returned to public-facing duties in April.

The Kamala Harris/Tim Walz campaign website has released a policy page seven weeks after the Democratic nominees entered the 2024 race.

The Kamala Harris campaign has taken criticism in recent days for being big on vibes and rhetoric while being light on policy. Just seven weeks after she entered the race amid Biden’s withdrawal, the campaign site finally includes a policy page.

People took note of it online.

NEW

VP Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign now has a policy page up. https://t.co/XF5aWsgdJm pic.twitter.com/yB1b24ATFY

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) September 9, 2024

The policies most notably feature sections that compare and contrast Kamala’s position with that of “Project 2025,” which the Democrats have been trying to pin on former President Donald Trump for weeks now. The “Ensure Safety and Justice for All” section gets particularly spicy.

“Donald Trump is a convicted criminal who only cares about himself. He’s proven that time and time again – from caving to the gun lobby and doing nothing to address gun violence to killing the bipartisan border security deal that would secure our border and keep America safe, just to help himself politically,” the section says.

“If elected president, Trump will implement his Project 2025 agenda to consolidate power, bring the Department of Justice and the FBI under his direct control so he can give himself unchecked legal power and go after his opponents, and rule as a dictator on ‘day one,’” it continues.

While her proposals make mention, of LGBTQ rights, particularly on discrimination and housing, it makes no mention of transgender ideology, specifically for the transitioning of minors.

On Israel, the campaign says that Kamala Harris will defend the Jewish state’s right to exist and will work to end the war in Gaza.

“Vice President Harris will always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself and she will always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself. She and President Biden are working to end the war in Gaza, such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom, and self-determination,” it says.

Election analyst Nate Silver gave former President Donald Trump a record-high probability of winning against Vice President Kamala Harris.

The bump came partially as a result of Sunday’s New York Times/Sienna poll, which Silver has as one of the highest-rated pollsters. Silver’s newest rating has Trump with a 63.8% probability, compared to Harris’s 36%. The former president is also favored to win every swing state.

Silver’s current odds give Trump a 64% chance of winning Pennsylvania, 54% for Michigan, 53% for Wisconsin, 77% for Arizona, 75% for North Carolina, 68% for Georgia, and 61% for Nevada.

The new probability total is a nearly five-point boost for Trump since Thursday, when he was given a 58.2% probability, itself a boost from the 52.4% a week prior. The prediction shows a further eroding of Harris’s honeymoon support since President Joe Biden dropped out in July.

In a Substack post, Silver explained that the new poll was such bad news for Harris due to the large sample size and reliability of the poll, which he ranks as the second best. He said the new poll “confirms the model’s view that there’s been some sort of a shift in momentum in the race.”

The election analyst zeroed in on perceptions that Harris is too progressive as especially alarming for Democrats — the poll found that 47% of likely voters believe that Harris is too liberal, compared to 32% who see Trump as too conservative.

“I’m not a messaging-and-tactics guy like Dan Pfieffer, but I’m not quite sure how Harris is supposed to spin her way out of this perception,” he wrote.

“Her convention speech was aggressively centrist and aimed at male voters, which I thought was smart. But there’s a track record here of progressive policy advocacy on the 2019 campaign trail and in her voting record in the Senate.”

Her attempt to mitigate this issue presents a problem in itself, Silver argued.

“The flip-flopping may explain why Harris has been weirdly reluctant to do media hits or articulate policy specifics,” he continued. “This strategy may have worked well enough when she was riding high off the vibes of the Democrats’ candidate swap, but it’s causing her more problems now.”

The New York Times/Sienna poll interviewed 1,695 registered voters nationwide from Sept. 3-6, with a margin of error of +/- 2.8%.

New York Democratic Rep. Grace Meng has longstanding ties to an organization reportedly linked to a Chinese intelligence agency and alleged Communist Party operatives, the Daily Caller News Foundation found.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Tuesday indicted Linda Sun, who served in two New York governors’ offices as well as Meng’s chief of staff while she served in the state assembly, for allegedly acting as an unregistered foreign agent of China and money laundering.

The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday that Sun met the “heads of key groups identifiable in the indictment as being United Front-linked, including the U.S. Federation of Chinese-American Entrepreneurs and the Henan Association of Eastern America.”

China’s so-called “United Front” strategy of influence and intelligence collection is overseen by a Chinese intelligence service called the United Front Work Department.

The heads of these groups were “supervised, directed, and controlled by [Chinese] government officials,” DOJ alleges.

Meng has been associated with Henan Association Of Eastern America (HAEA), a New York-based organization, for over a decade. She previously served as “deputy chairwoman,” according to an archived version of HAEA’s website, and the group now prominently identifies the congresswoman as an “honorary chairwoman.”

The DOJ’s indictment, however, does note that one of Sun’s alleged unnamed co-conspirators, known as CC-1, “served as the president of an association of persons from Henan Province, PRC located in the New York metropolitan area.”

The indictment describes CC-1’s organization, “Association-1,” as “a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization closely associated with the United Front Work Department (‘UFWD’) and the Chinese Communist Party (‘CCP’).”

“Over the last forty years, a network of pro-CCP Chinese-American organizations operating in coordination with the Chinese Consulate has been established, which now has enormous influence on New York’s business and political climate, basically providing an outpost and pro-CCP personnel for directly executing China’s foreign policy from within the United States,” Dr. Lawrence Sellin, a national security and United Front expert, told the DCNF.

Henan Association Of Eastern America

Founded in 1973, HAEA aims to support Chinese participation in politics as well as cultural exchange and trade between the U.S. and China, according to its website.

For more than a decade, Meng has held various roles with HAEA, according to records on the group’s website. Meng and her mother, who is a native of China’s Henan province, were first listed as HAEA members in 2008, the nonprofit’s records state.

Between 2008 and 2012, Meng served as HAEA’s “deputy chairwoman,” according to its website. HAEA later began identifying Meng as “honorary chairwoman” in February 2012, the month before Meng launched her congressional campaign in March 2012, HAEA’s records show.

Meng’s photo and title are currently pictured at the top of HAEA’s website alongside its president.

Sun has not been listed on HAEA’s member roster, but photos on HAEA’s website show Meng with Sun together at events as far back as 2009, the DCNF found.

For instance, Meng and Sun were photographed together at a December 2009 karaoke fundraiser for Meng, who then served in the New York State Assembly.

Photos also show Meng and Sun together at HAEA’s annual Chinese New Year meeting in February 2010.

Sun is accused of having “actively concealed that she took actions at the order, request, or direction of [the Chinese] government and CCP representatives,” the DOJ’s indictment states. “Thus, neither the NYS government nor the greater New York and American public had the opportunity to evaluate her conduct, considering her long-standing relationships with the [Chinese] government and the CCP and her status as their agent.”
In 2019, Sun was allegedly hired as a committee member for the All-China Federation Of Returned Overseas Chinese (ACFROC), according to the DOJ’s indictment.

ACFROC is an “agency” of the CCP’s United Front Work Department, which attempts to “manage relationships with and generate support for the CCP among elite individuals inside and outside the PRC, including by gathering human intelligence,” the DOJ’s indictment states.

Dr. June Teufel Dreyer, former commissioner of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, told the DCNF that ACFROC is “unquestionably an organization through which the CCP, through the United Front Work Department, seeks to shape the opinions of the Chinese diaspora to its views.”

‘Co-Conspirator’

Sun previously served as “Asian Outreach Director” for former New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and, most recently, served as New York Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul’s deputy chief of staff, government records show.

While working for the two New York governors, the DOJ’s indictment alleges that Sun also worked in secret for a man identified only as a “co-conspirator” who had direct contact with multiple officials in the Chinese government.

Sun’s work with the co-conspirator allegedly “included fraudulently obtaining letters that purported to be from the [New York governor’s office] inviting delegations of PRC officials to visit New York, which the government officials used to unlawfully obtain visas to enter the United States,” according to the DOJ’s indictment.

The invited officials were from China’s Henan province, according to the indictment.

In return, Chinese officials and co-conspirators allegedly funneled contracts to businesses in Henan run by Sun’s husband, Chris Hu, who was also arrested by the FBI and charged by the DOJ.

Congress is staring down a time crunch to avert a shutdown, with both parties digging in their heels and some Republicans expressing skepticism about their own party’s plans less than a month before government funding is set to run out.

Lawmakers return to Washington on Monday facing a Sept. 30 deadline to avert a government shutdown. And while the coming elections are thought to lessen the chances of a funding lapse, House Republicans are already preparing to square off against the Democratic-led Senate in what could be a messy, weeks-long debate over issues like voting requirements and spending.

House GOP leadership Friday rolled out a plan that involves linking a six-month stopgap, also known as a continuing resolution (CR), with legislation backed by former President Trump and hard-line conservatives that calls for stricter proof-of-citizenship requirements to register to vote.

“Today, House Republicans are taking a critically important step to keep the federal government funded and to secure our federal election process,” Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said after the bill was unveiled.

“Congress has a responsibility to do both, and we must ensure that only American citizens can decide American elections.”

Conservatives have been ramping up calls in recent months for a stopgap that extends past December, hoping that Trump returns to the Oval Office in January and aiming to avoid a massive end-of-year omnibus spending bill negotiated by leadership in both chambers.

House Republicans are expected to move quickly on the proposal, but Johnson has already faced some skepticism about the strategy’s chances of success.

Some in the party are warning not to make assumptions about how November’s elections will turn out. And one House Republican told The Hill last week that they worry about leaving a complicated appropriations process to a brand-new Congress.

“You’re going to put brand-new members that just got elected on a really tough vote on an appropriations package when they don’t even understand the appropriations process,” the member said, noting Congress will also have to deal with the debt limit in January.

And still others in the party questioned attaching the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility (SAVE) Act to a CR, noting that such a measure is all but certain to be rejected by the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Meanwhile, two conservatives have already come out against the CR. Johnson can only afford to lose four Republican votes on any partisan bills.

“If Schumer wanted, he could bring the SAVE Act up for a vote and pass it. But he won’t. He wants illegals to vote in American elections,” Rep. Matt Rosendale (R-Mont.) said in a post on the social platform X, referring to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).

“We should be focusing on passing ALL 12 appropriations bills!” he added.

Others, however, want to see GOP leaders plow forward with the push, particularly after the party struggled to pass more than a handful of its partisan funding bills before leaving for recess in late July amid internal divides over spending policy.

“Republicans can sit around hand-wringing and do their usual claptrap, or they can get on board, unite and then figure out how we’re going to strategize through the next two months,” Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), lead sponsor of the SAVE Act, told The Hill in an interview ahead of the rollout.

“But we got to figure out what we’re going to do about government funding, and we got to figure out what we’re going to do about picking a fight that differentiates us from Democrats.”

Democrats have pushed back strongly on the partisan CR plan.

“There is a clear, bipartisan path to responsibly fund the government, but instead Congressional Republicans are wasting time,” Shalanda Young, director of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, said in a statement responding to the GOP-backed proposal.

“Their 6-month CR approach ignores pressing needs that have real consequences for our defense, our veterans, and our communities. We urge Congress to quickly pass a bill to keep the government open and provide emergency funding for disaster needs across the country, as they have done on a bipartisan basis many times in the past.”

The spending fight also comes as lawmakers on both sides have raised alarm over a roughly $3 billion budget shortfall facing the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), another hurdle Congress must confront this month.

The agency warned lawmakers earlier this summer that millions of veterans and survivors are at risk of seeing disruptions in benefit payments in October if Congress doesn’t act by Sept. 20 — little more than a week before the government shutdown deadline.

The VA cited the PACT Act, a landmark law that passed with bipartisan support in 2022, as the key driver behind the budget shortfall, pointing to increases in enrollment in VA health care, appointments and applications benefits.

Sen. John Boozman (Ark.), the top Republican on the subcommittee that crafts annual VA funding, was pressed before recess about using the expected stopgap funding bill as a vehicle for legislation tackling the nearly $3 billion shortfall.

“I think the only problem there is that nobody really knows when that’s going to happen, but this is something that we want to make sure that we take care of veterans, and they don’t miss a check, which many of them totally depend on,” Boozman said, although he noted there’s a “possibility” of the emergency funds riding on a CR.

Senators on both sides had hoped to pass legislation addressing the budget shortfall before leaving town last month, but the effort sputtered amid increased scrutiny on what some Republicans have alleged is mismanagement at the agency.

House Republicans rolled out Friday an emergency funding plan to address the shortfall, but the party hasn’t detailed when the bill could come up for a vote.

Two women who say they were raped and strangled by the controversial social media influencer Andrew Tate have spoken to the BBC about their experiences.
Another woman has alleged, for the first time, she was raped by Mr Tate’s younger brother, Tristan – also an influencer with millions of followers.

The Tate brothers, aged 37 and 36, currently face charges in Romania of human trafficking and forming an organised group to sexually exploit women. Andrew Tate is also charged with rape.

If found guilty, the two men could be jailed for more than 10 years. They strongly deny the charges against them.

Warning: Contains distressing content and descriptions of sexual violence

Andrew Tate is currently under house arrest in Romania. In addition to the charges he already faces, prosecutors are considering new allegations against him, including having sex with a minor and trafficking underage persons. Both brothers are also being investigated for trafficking 34 more women.

Now, in a new BBC Panorama programme, two British women not involved with the Romanian case against the Tate brothers, have given detailed first-hand accounts of alleged rape and sexual violence by Andrew Tate. The allegations date back at least 10 years, to when Mr Tate was living in Luton.

Another British woman has made a new allegation of rape against Tristan Tate, saying he put his hands around her throat as he did so.

Anna (not her real name) told us she went out with Andrew Tate in Luton in 2013. After a few dates, she says she went back to his house.

“He started kissing me… and he just looked up at the ceiling and said, ‘I’m just debating whether I should rape you or not. Out of the blue he just grabbed me by the throat, smashed me to the back of the bed, strangling me extremely hard.”

Anna says he then raped her.

She says after the attack, Mr Tate sent her disturbing text messages and voice notes about rape and sexual violence.

“Am I a bad person? Because the more you didn’t like it, the more I enjoyed it,” he said in a voice note.

In a text he wrote: “I love raping you.”

Anna says he also tried to pass the strangulation episode off as a joke: “Are you seriously so offended I strangled you a little bit?”

In 2014, Anna told Bedfordshire Police about the alleged attack. Two other women made similar allegations, and the investigation was taken over by Hertfordshire Police.

In 2019, a file was sent to the Crown Prosecution Service, but it was decided there was not enough evidence to bring charges.
Another woman, who we are calling Sienna, describes a similar story.

She says she first met Andrew Tate a decade ago in Luton: “We got on really well and we had a few drinks.”

She says they had what she describes as “a standard one-night stand”.

A few months later, Sienna says she met Mr Tate again.

She claims that on this occasion he attacked her.

“We went to my bedroom… and we started having sex,” she says. “That was when he put his hands around my throat.”

Sienna says she struggled for air, and then lost consciousness. When she came to, she says he was still having sex with her.

“I was absolutely terrified,” she says. “I just remember gasping for air… It was rape.”

In the morning, she says she had a bloodshot eye.

“One of the whites of my eyes had just gone completely red – apparently it’s quite common in domestic abuse cases where there’s been strangulation.”

A friend of Sienna has confirmed to the BBC that she told him about the incident at the time. He also says he saw her eye injury.

Sienna didn’t go to the police and says she regrets it.

BBC Panorama is aware of a total of five women in the UK who say they were strangled by Mr Tate during sex.

When we interviewed him in June last year, he denied ever having strangled or having had sex with a woman without her consent.

“I know I’ve never hurt anybody. It’s not in my nature to hurt people,” he said.

In the second half of the last decade, Andrew Tate began his rise to online fame.

The self-proclaimed misogynist’s videos on YouTube and TikTok, and posts on Twitter, gained him millions of followers and a worldwide profile.

He preached a message aimed at boys and young men that women should be dominated.

In one video, he said women were “intrinsically lazy” and added: “There’s no way you can be rooted in reality and not be sexist.”

Mr Tate has been singled out by authorities in the UK for the effect he has had in spreading misogyny online.

His videos also showed off the high-rolling lifestyle he claimed to lead in Romania.

Andrew and Tristan Tate are thought to have moved to the country around 2016.

They had been running a webcamming business in Luton – where women chat and strip online for money.

Romania has one of the largest webcam industries in the world, with over half a million employees in the sector. The brothers’ move there apparently saw the business taking off.

At one point, Andrew Tate claimed he was making £400,000 per month from webcamming and that “75 women worked for him at the peak of it all”.

However, when he spoke to the BBC last year, he downplayed these boasts, claiming they had been exaggerations and lies.

The adult entertainment business is central to the criminal case brought against them in Romania.

Prosecutors allege the brothers were trafficking women into the country – in other words, recruiting them, arranging their transport and providing accommodation in Bucharest for the purpose of exploitation. Two of the women named in the case file were brought to Romania from the UK.

Another British woman, not involved in any of the legal proceedings, told Panorama about her experience of working for the Tates. It is the first time she has spoken publicly.

Daisy (not her real name) says that in 2017 she had been dating Tristan Tate in the UK, when he encouraged her to work for the brothers’ webcam business in Bucharest. We have seen evidence that Tristan booked her flight to Bucharest.

Daisy went of her own accord, knowing and agreeing to be involved in the webcamming business. She describes a controlling environment where she and other webcammers lived and worked together.

“The girls had their own rooms, but it wasn’t their personal space. Everything was Tristan’s and Andrew’s, the bedrooms that the girls worked in were also the bedrooms that the brothers would sleep in.”

There were strict rules for all the women, says Daisy with almost every aspect of their lives monitored.

This description is echoed by a Romanian webcam model, who has also spoken to us.

“Raluca” says she was on the Tates’ books in 2021. She claims that “control and manipulation” played a primary role in their business model.

Most of the models working for the Tates “were dating them”, according to Raluca. She adds that some of them were women brought over from the UK.

The Romanian prosecutors say they have statements from three women who describe feeling “controlled” by the brothers. In the case file, some of the women say they were not allowed to leave the house “on their own”.

When Andrew Tate spoke to the BBC last year, he denied such allegations and claimed the women worked for themselves. He said that his role was simply to “help them find a cameraman”.

A few days after arriving in Romania, Daisy says she broke up with Tristan Tate, but she claims it did not stop him trying to have sex with her.
“I told him, ‘no’ 10 to 15 times that I didn’t want to.”

He put his hands around her throat and raped her, she says.

Daisy has not reported her allegation to police.

The BBC has spoken to one of her friends who says that after Daisy returned to the UK she was upset and told him that Tristan Tate had been forceful with her sexually.

The Tates’ legal troubles have deepened this year.

As well as the existing charges in Romania, and the new investigation announced last month, they face a number of legal threats elsewhere.

In the UK, Bedfordshire Police have begun extradition proceedings against both brothers on allegations of rape and human trafficking, dating back to 2012-2015. None of these are connected to the women we spoke to.

And in a civil case brought by Devon and Cornwall Police, a magistrate is expected to rule next month on whether the Tates owe millions in unpaid tax on their online businesses.

Sienna and Anna are now suing Andrew Tate, and their case is due to be heard in the High Court in London. Along with two other women, they accuse him of rape and sexual assault. He intends to contest the claims.

Patti Scialfa, the wife of Bruce Springsteen, has been battling a form of blood cancer since 2018.

Scialfa, 71, revealed her diagnosis with multiple myeloma in her husband’s new documentary, “Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band,” which premiered Sunday night at the Toronto Film Festival.

The guitarist explained that her health issues are the reason why she’s taken a step back from her and Springsteen’s E Street Band.

“Touring has become a challenge for me,” Scialfa said in the doc. “This affects my immune system so I just have to be careful what I choose to do and where I choose to go.”

“Every once in a while, I come to a show or two and I can sing a few songs on stage, and that’s been a treat,” Scialfa added. “That’s the new normal for me right now, and I’m OK with that.”

Scialfa has been a member of E Street Band since 1984 and married Springsteen in 1991.

As she revealed in the doc, Scialfa was diagnosed with blood cancer during the run of the “Springsteen on Broadway” concert residency.

The New Jersey native said that she’s been absent for most of E Street Band’s current tour, which began in February 2023 and ends in July 2025, to focus on her health.

Multiple myeloma is a cancer that forms in a type of white blood cell called a plasma cell. Symptoms include bone pain, loss of appetite, nausea, tiredness, infections, weight loss and mental fogginess, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Last year, Scialfa told Asbury Park Press that her break from the tour was due to her working on a solo album and spending time with her and Springsteen’s first grandchild. Their son, Sam, welcomed his daughter, Lily, in July 2022.

“I didn’t feel as needed in a way because there were a lot of musicians on stage,” she said in the Oct. 2023 interview. “I did the first couple of shows, and as I saw how it was all rolling, I thought, ‘This is good. This is completely intact. There’s not much room for me to add anything special.’ “

Scialfa continued, “And the main thing was I have a record that I couldn’t have finished when Bruce was home because he’s in the studio all the time. So I took that opportunity to do my record.”

Springsteen, 74, has dealt with his own issues throughout his band’s ongoing tour.

The “Dancing in the Dark” singer was forced to postpone his tour dates from Sept. to Dec. 2023 due to peptic ulcer disease.

After a six-month break, the world tour resumed this past March, although he rescheduled three European shows in May due to “vocal issues.”

Springsteen’s new documentary includes footage from his latest tour and interviews with the rest of E Street Band, including guitarist Steven Van Zandt and drummer Max Weinberg.

The beloved rock star also opens up about his future in performing in the documentary.

“Road Diary: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band” will begin streaming on Hulu and Disney+ on Oct. 25.

Discount retailer Big Lots has filed for bankruptcy and agreed to sell its assets to an affiliate of private equity firm Nexus Capital Management, the companies announced Monday.

The home goods retailer is the latest brand to stumble amid a pandemic-era run-up of inflation and interest rates. Joann, the sewing and crafts chain, filed for Chapter 11 protection in March, followed by the shopping mall staple Express in April. Both have since emerged from bankruptcy proceedings.

Big Lots said the economic trends have been particularly challenging because its core customers have pulled back on discretionary purchases, especially on home and seasonal products, which make up a significant portion of its revenue.

Neil Saunders, a retail analyst and managing director at GlobalData, said bankruptcy was an “inevitable destination” for the chain. The company had 16 consecutive quarters of comparable sales declines.

The Chapter 11 filing and sale “will enable us to move forward with new owners who believe in our business and provide financial stability, while we optimize our operational footprint, accelerate improvement in our performance, and deliver on our promise to be the leader in extreme value,” Big Lots chief executive Bruce Thorn said in a statement.

The company also disclosed Monday that the New York Stock Exchange suspended trading of its shares. The stock closed Friday just shy of 50 cents, down more than 93 percent since the start of the year.

In the 13-week period ending May, Big Lots reported a net loss of $205 million on $1 billion in net sales. In a court filing, it estimated assets of $3.17 billion and debts totaling $3.09 billion. It recently delayed reporting its second-quarter earnings.

Saunders pointed to two shortfalls that have steered the chain toward bankruptcy: value and assortment.

“Many of the items it sells are not high-end and are not drastically expensive, but equivalents can often be found much cheaper at other stores, including Walmart,” he said. And the inventory is “jumbled and muddled,” with too many options and “not nearly enough treasure for consumers to be enticed by.”

These factors create a lackluster shopping experience, especially in comparison to such off-price competitors as T.J. Maxx, Marshalls and HomeGoods.

Big Lots will soon enter a sale process supervised by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware and close an unspecified number of stores. It had 1,392 locations as of May 4, compared with 1,427 the year before, according to a recent Securities and Exchange Commission filing.

An affiliate of Nexus has agreed to buy substantially all of Big Lots’ assets while the retailer restructures its debts. The process, known as a “stalking horse” bid, is subject to better offers and court approval.

Big Lots said it has secured $707.5 million in financing as part of that process. The company could still entertain offers from competing bidders under an auction supervised by the court.

For the first time in weeks, former President Donald Trump pulled ahead of Vice President Kamala Harris in one of the most-watched national polls — raising the prospect that her momentum has fizzled out just ahead of their debate.

Trump edged out Harris 48% to 47% among likely voters nationally, according to a New York Times/Siena College poll.

The poll mirrors the surveys from late July when Trump led Harris among likely voters just after President Biden dropped out of the race. Other polls have similarly begun to show the 45th president regaining ground against his rival weeks after the Democratic National Convention wrapped up.

Trump’s renewed razor-thin lead comes despite the fact that 70% of voters and 37% of those backing him felt that the 45th president had uttered something they found offensive.

Harris had surged in the polls across the board after getting jolted to the top of the ticket and captured the lead over Trump in the RealClearPolitics aggregate of polling. She also gained ground in the battleground state polls, which still remain largely a tossup.

On the issues, voters trust Harris more than Trump on abortion (54% to 49%) and democracy (50% to 45%), but trust the 45th president more on the economy (55% to 42%) and immigration (53% to 43%), the New York Times/Siena College poll found.

Top issues for voters were the economy (21%), abortion (14%), immigration (12%), inflation and the cost of living (7%) as well as democracy (7%).

Democrats enjoy a slight lead over Republicans on enthusiasm — 91% to 85%, per the poll.

Moreover, most of the poll respondents — 56% — said they do not believe Harris represents a change from the unpopular Biden administration. Just 25% said Harris represents major change and 15% said she would be a minor change. That’s relative to 51% who felt that Trump represents major change, 10% who indicted minor change and 35% more of the same.

Political strategists including James Carville have said whomever can position themselves as the changemaker candidate is best positioned to emerge victorious. To that end, Carville recently suggested in an op-ed that she needs to break from Biden publicly on major policy.

Additionally, Trump’s approval ratings appear to have ticked down slightly with 46% viewing him as either very favorably (27%) or somewhat favorably (19%), compared to 52% who see him as somewhat unfavorably (10%) or very unfavorably (42%).

That’s down from 48% who viewed favorably back in July.

Notably, Harris’ favorability trailed Trump’s — 45% viewed her favorably, with just 24% having very favorable views of her. About half of poll respondents viewed her unfavorably, with 37% saying their views of her were very unfavorable.

Back in July, she scored 46% favorable to 49% unfavorable.

“Highest-rated pollster in the country and a large sample size, too. Fortunately for Harris she has the debate this week and none of this will matter if she has a good night,” election data guru Nate Silver mused on X about the recent poll.

Silver’s 2024 election forecast gives Trump higher odds of winning the Electoral College relative to Harris, though she is favored to win the popular vote.

Republicans haven’t won the popular vote for president since 2004. Trump had been roundly besting Biden in popular vote polls before the incumbent dropped out on July 21.

Harris still retains the advantage in the RCP aggregate of polling nationally, with a 1.4 percentage point edge over Trump in a head-to-head matchup.

The New York Times/Siena College poll sampled 1,695 voters from Sept. 3–6 with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points.

Shortly after Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed Harris, Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio sent out a memo predicting that the vice president would enjoy a “honeymoon” in the polls.

Harris has consistently maintained that she is the “underdog” in the race and that she is taking nothing for granted. Her campaign has touted momentum, including her topping Trump in the fundraising cricut with a $361 million haul in August against Trump’s $130 million across their campaigns and aligned committees.

Trump and Harris are slated to square off in the Tuesday debate hosted by ABC News in Philadelphia, which will mark the first time the two will have ever crossed paths in person.

The debate will have the potential to dramatically shakeup what appears to be a tossup race for the presidency, with about eight weeks to go until Nov. 5.

California State Sen. Marie Alvarado-Gil is facing a civil lawsuit filed by her ex-chief of staff who alleges the senator forced him to do sexual favors while she was his boss and he suffered a back injury because of it.

Alvardo-Gil, who represents parts of Eastern California and the Central Valley, recently changed her party affiliation from Democratic to Republican.

Her former chief of staff, Chad Condit, filed the civil lawsuit in Sacramento Superior Court on Thursday. The lawsuit includes allegations of sexual harassment, discrimination, retaliation and violations of other state labor laws. Condit portrayed Alvardo-Gil as an erratic, controlling, sexually abusive authority figure. “This was a sex-based quid pro quo relationship of unwelcome advances and sexual behaviors coupled with punishment and flexing of power,” Condit alleged.

Condit worked for Alvarado-Gil first on her campaign when she ran as a Democrat for Senate District 4 in 2022. He became her chief of staff when she got elected and he was fired in December 2023.

Condit, who is married, claimed he was pressured to perform oral sex on Alvarado-Gil when they traveled together for work. Condit said he did it to protect his job. Condit said during the final time, he suffered a back injury while performing oral sex on her in the seat of a car. As a result, Condit claims he suffered three herniated discs in his back and a collapsed hip.

The complaint said Condit “was demeaned and made to feel empty and subordinate to his boss, a California state senator, with power over his career and livelihood.”

Condit said he began to reject Alvardo-Gil’s demands for oral sex, using his back injury as an excuse. By August 2023, he said he made clear that her advances were not welcome. Condit said the senator began punishing him by threatening his job. Condit said Alvardo-Gil wrote him up and was issued a “bogus disciplinary letter with accusations of inappropriate behavior made by Alvarado-Gil against him.”

Condit had back surgery in October 2023 and said Alvarado-Gil fired him in December 2023. Condit claims prior to being fired, Alvardo-Gil threatened to hire his wife to get him to resign.

“A disgruntled former employee has fabricated an outlandish story, presented without evidence, to get a payday,” said Ognian Gavrilov, Alvardo-Gil’s attorney. “We expect that the Senator will be fully cleared of any wrongdoing of these bogus, financially motivated claims.”

The California State Senate is also named in the lawsuit.

“The Secretary of the Senate blindly accepted Alvarado-Gil’s retaliatory actions and ratified her abuse of him,” the lawsuit claims.

“The Senate has not been served in this matter, but we are in discussions with counsel to assess next steps,” secretary of the Senate Erika Contreras said in a statement. “The Senate takes all complaints incredibly seriously but is unable to comment on matters involving pending litigation.”

“Senator Alvarado-Gil is fully cooperating,” said Jacqui Nguyen, press secretary for the California State Senate Republican Caucus. “This is a lawsuit regarding a former employee, so we need to allow the judicial process to go through its course.”

Condit is the son of former Congressman Gary Condit, who faced scrutiny in the high-profile death of Chandra Levy in 2001.

College football fans who were tailgating at several universities this weekend were in for a surprise when planes carrying Election 2024 messages flew over their respective parking lots and stadiums.

On Saturday, the second week of the 2024 college football season, planes carrying banner messages specific for three universities flew across the sky, courtesy of the Democratic National Committee.

Starting four hours before each kickoff, airborne messages tying Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and running mate J.D. Vance to Project 2025 flew over the University of Michigan’s Michigan Stadium and Penn State’s Beaver Stadium, with a plane set to fly later in the day over University of Wisconsin’s Camp Randall Stadium. A fourth plane had been panned to fly over the University of Georgia’s Sanford Stadium, but was grounded Saturday morning due to weather.

The messages, respectively, read as follows: “JD Vance <3 Ohio State + Project 2025”; “Bulldogs: Beat Trump, Sack Project 2025”; “Penn St: Beat Trump, Sack Project 2025”; “Jump Around! Beat Trump + Project 2025.”

The goal of the stunt was to remind college students and football fans that a vote for Trump is “the same as losing the game thanks to his dangerous and extreme Project 2025 plans,” says the campaign for Trump’s opponent, Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.

“It’s college football Saturday, and fans are ready to sack the competition and beat Project 2025, which would give Trump unprecedented power, allow Trump to ban abortion nationwide, allow the government to monitor pregnancies, and give tax giveaways for billionaires,” DNC Deputy Communications Director Abhi Rahman said in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter.

“The DNC is reaching voters where they are in swing states across the country by flying Project 2025 banners over the Big House in Michigan, Sanford Stadium in Georgia, Beaver Stadium at Penn State, and Camp Randall Stadium in Wisconsin.

“These banners carry a message that resonates with fans and reminds them that the most important contest is still to come in November,” Rahman continued. “The contrast in this election couldn’t be clearer, and we have a winning playbook: Tackle Project 2025, make a goal-line stand and drive 99 yards the other way towards a more just and equal America for all.”

“You ever see a document that could kill a small animal and democracy at the same time? Here it is,” said Saturday Night Live comedian and DNC speaker Kenan Thompson when he took the stage during the third night of the convention this summer. During his onstage bit, he took calls from voters and informed them of their current rights that they stand to lose under Project 2025, including protections for LGBTQ+ Americans. “Right back to the Stone Age, I’m afraid so.”

The following day, Trump told Fox News he had “no idea” about Project 2025. “They know I have nothing to do with it,” he said on Fox & Friends. “A group of people got together, they drew up some conservative values, very conservative values. In some case perhaps they went over the line, perhaps they didn’t. I have no idea what Project 25 is.”

Trump spokeswoman, Karoline Leavitt, previously told The New York Times, “The truth is President Trump has said repeatedly Project 2025 has nothing to do with his campaign.”

The father of accused Georgia school shooter Colt Gray should get the death penalty for his role in the massacre, the boy’s furious grandfather says.

Charles Polhamus, the 14-year-old alleged gunman’s maternal grandfather, told The Post over the weekend that former son-in-law Colin Gray should bear much of the blame for last week’s bloodbath at Apalachee High School that left two teens and two teachers dead.

“Spending 11 years with that son of a bitch screaming and hollering every day — it can affect anybody,” Polhamus, 81, said of his 54-year-old ex-son-in-law, who was married to his daughter Marcee.

“He’s evil,” Polhamus said of Gray.

“They couldn’t, they didn’t survive in it,” he said of the family.

“Colt has to pay for what he did, but I’m telling you, he was driven, no question in my mind,” Polhamus said. “He was driven by his father to do what he did. That’s as plain as I can put it, and I know I’m right.

“[Colin Gray] got what he deserved, too,” he added of the dad, who was charged with four counts of manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children for being an alleged accessory in the school shooting.

Gray gave his troubled son an AR-15-style rifle for Christmas — the weapon that Colt ended up using in Wednesday’s slaughter, authorities have said.

“He needs the death penalty,” the grandpa said of Gray.

Gray faces up to 180 years behind bars if convicted in the heinous crime.

Colt is charged with four counts of murder and will be tried as an adult over the bloody rampage, prosecutors said. He faces up to life in prison if convicted.

“Colt is like a lot of young kids these days with the tablets and some of the garbage they pull up, the blood and all the fighting,” Polhamus said. “If you don’t think that has an impact on young kids, you’re missing the boat, and that was also part of Colt’s problem.

“It’s part of it — and living with a dysfunctional dad who was a screamer and a hollerer,” he added. “No question about it. Prior to going through this, he was a good kid. I will preach that forever.”

Polhamus said Gray squandered the family’s finances and ended up losing their “half million dollar farm” because of drug addiction after suffering a back injury.

The granddd said his daughter, Marcee Gray, 43, was also pulled into addiction, which ultimately cost her custody of Colt and the couple’s other children. But she remained committed to her kids, he insisted.

“She is a good person and a mom,” Polhamus said. “But I’m back to what I said about narcissists: They can change anybody.

“Marcee never did anything to Colt,” he added. “All she did is help him out.”

Marcee Gray has a lengthy rap sheet full of drug and domestic-violence arrests.

A former neighbor told The Post last week, “There were nights where the mom would lock him and his sister out the house.

“And they would be banging on the back door, just screaming like, ‘Mom! Mom! Mom!’ and crying. It was absolutely devastating,” the woman said, adding Colt would come to her back door at other times dressed in filthy clothes begging for food.

Colt lived with his father by the time of the shooting.

Marcee Grey told The Post on Saturday that she was devastated by her son’s allegedly actions.

“It’s horrible,” she said at her father’s home about three hours from Atlanta. “It’s absolutely horrible.”

The distraught mom flew into a panic Wednesday morning when she received a troubling text from her son, with the teen writing, “I’m sorry mom.”

She desperately called Apalachee High School to report an “extreme emergency,” but it was too late.

Former President George W. Bush does not plan to reveal whom he will vote for in the upcoming 2024 election.

“No,” the former president’s office said when asked by NBC News whether he or former First Lady Laura Bush would endorse a candidate publicly. “President Bush retired from presidential politics years ago.”

Bush’s refusal to make a public endorsement comes just a day after his former vice president, Dick Cheney, announced that he would go against his party’s candidate and support Vice President Kamala Harris in November.

“In our nation’s 248-year history, there has never been an individual who is a greater threat to our republic than Donald Trump,” Cheney said in a statement. “He tried to steal the last election using lies and violence to keep himself in power after the voters had rejected him. He can never be trusted with power again.”

Trump responded to Cheney’s endorsement by calling the former vice president “an irrelevant RINO” in a Truth Social post shortly after Cheney’s announcement.

Speaking to reporters Sunday, Harris said she was “honored” to have Cheney’s endorsement, adding that it “really reinforces for them that we love our country, and we have more in common than what separates.”

While Bush’s office argued the former president “retired from presidential politics years ago,” he has made endorsements of Republican presidential candidates in the past. In 2008, he supported then-Senator John McCain’s bid against former President Barack Obama and also threw his weight behind the 2012 candidacy of Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah.

Bush’s stance on presidential politics seemingly changed with the emergence of former President Donald Trump in 2016, whom Bush avoided commenting on. Bush instead focused on supporting Republican senators. In November, his office said that he and the former first lady did not vote for either major party candidate in the 2016 election.

After Trump’s failed bid for re-election in 2020, Bush said that he had written in former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in that year’s race.

China’s leader Xi Jinping has upped the ante in his efforts to enlist the Global South in his anti-West “New World Order.”

Xi is promising almost $51 billion in financing to African countries over the next three years, and pledging to put them at the forefront of a global “renewable energy revolution.”

His administration used this week’s Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Beijing, attended by 50 African leaders and which the Chinese foreign ministry labeled “the largest diplomatic event China has hosted in recent years,” to strengthen trade and military ties with African countries.

The Chinese leader also promised to help “create at least 1 million jobs for Africa” and $141 million in grants for military assistance, saying Beijing would “provide training for 6,000 military personnel and 1,000 police and law enforcement officers from Africa.”

But, in between all the pledges and promises, in Xi’s private meetings with several African leaders, he stressed the importance of Africa allying with China against “Western hegemony.”

In a joint statement, Xi and African leaders including Cyril Ramaphosa, president of the continent’s largest economy, South Africa, agreed to “work together to build an equal and orderly multipolar world and universally beneficial and inclusive economic globalization.”

Michael Schuman, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Global China Hub, told The Epoch Times this is “diplomatic code for saying the world’s unequal and disorderly because of Western dominance and it’s time for Chinese-led alternatives.”

Using its global development program, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), China has showered Africa for more than a decade with multibillion-dollar infrastructure projects, which have also left many nations heavily indebted to Beijing.

According to data released by Boston University, China has loaned $182 billion to 49 African governments since 2000.

But China’s economy has slowed in recent years, with Beijing scaling down on financing megaprojects while simultaneously demanding loan repayments that often result in African countries cutting spending on vital public services such as health care.

Kenya, East Africa’s biggest economy, alone owes China $8 billion.

Li Hangwei, a senior researcher at the German Institute of Development and Sustainability, told The Epoch Times that China has become “very wary” of criticism of its activities in Africa.

“For many years we’ve heard of the so-called ‘debt trap’ that China is allegedly setting for developing countries, and we’ve heard how China is mining African minerals and precious metals and taking them back home for its own benefit, with very little value added in Africa,” she said.

“At FOCAC the signs were clear that China wants to move away from this. Going forward it’s likely that it funds a lot of smaller projects, like beautifying African cities, boosting agriculture, and reducing poverty.

“It’s still going to give Africa a lot of money, but the money’s going to spread around a lot.”

Over the past 20 years, according to the World Economic Forum, China has become sub-Saharan Africa’s largest bilateral trading partner.
The International Monetary Fund said around 20 percent of the region’s exports now go to China and about 16 percent of Africa’s imports come from China, amounting to a record $282 billion in total trade volume in 2023.

Metals, mineral products, and fuel represent about three-fifths of Africa’s exports to China, while it mostly imports Chinese manufactured goods, electronics, and machinery.

“Xi and before him, Hu Jintao, were the first global leaders to recognize how important Africa’s minerals, metals, and fuels are going to be in the future,” said Cobus van Staden, head of the China-Africa Project at South Africa’s Wits University.

Rare-earth minerals, such as cobalt and lithium, are critical to the manufacture of modern-day technologies including computers, cell phones, and renewable energy components such as batteries for electric vehicles and wind turbines.

Sub-Saharan Africa holds the greatest concentration of these minerals and metals, with China already dominating the region’s processing and supply.

“Xi has also been very clever in exploiting the geopolitical frustrations of African countries, who feel excluded from real decision-making in international forums like the United Nations, and unfairly treated economically by the IMF and World Bank,” Van Staden told The Epoch Times.

“Xi is offering the Global South a chance to take another path and break away from so-called Western hegemony by joining an anti-Western rebellion of sorts to exert more influence over world affairs,” he added.

“If this happens, China is also strengthened economically and politically, of course.”

Over the past two years, Xi’s approach to the developing world has undergone a significant change, said Eric Olander, director of the China-Global South Project, a non-profit based in New York that explores China’s engagement with Africa.

“Xi, and of course the Chinese Communist Party as a whole, are fixated on geopolitical competition with the United States and its allies and partners,” he told The Epoch Times.

This shift, said Olander, will have major consequences for Beijing’s relations with the Africa and the Global South as a whole.

Schuman said the anti-Americanism that now characterized Xi’s foreign policy risks undermining his development efforts in Africa.

He added: “Xi wants to undermine the U.S.-led rules-based international order by creating a Chinese-led alternative order based on illiberal political principles that can roll back U.S. influence and shape global governance through international institutions and forums.”

Update:

Authorities in Laurel County, Kentucky, believe they have contained the person of interest in a shooting that occurred about eight miles north of London on Interstate 75 Saturday evening within their search area, said Gilbert Acciardo, a spokesperson for the Laurel County Sheriff’s Department.

6:30 p.m.: Kentucky authorities continue search, pausing efforts at dark

Acciardo said in a 5 p.m. news briefing that search efforts for Couch will continue until nightfall but pose a safety risk to first responders after dark, especially due to the rough terrain.

“The plan right now is to continue doing what we’re doing while we have some daylight there, to continue to beat the bushes and try to find this suspect,” Accriardo said. “We want to get him.”

He continued, saying no items “of any significance” have been located since the AR-15 on Sunday afternoon and they believe it was a planned event without “outside assistance.”

London’s Mayor Randall Weddle said the five victims remain hospitalized, some with serious injuries. He said one of the victims was from Bell County, and he believes the others were from across the commonwealth. None of the victims were from London or Laurel County, Weddle said.

6 p.m.: School canceled Monday for Laurel County students amid shooting investigation

Laurel County Public Schools will be closed Monday, as police continue to look for Joseph Couch, suspect in the ongoing shooting investigation. District officials said they canceled in-person classes “out of an abundance of caution.”

The decision comes as London residents deal with tragedy following a shooting that injured five people Saturday.

4 p.m.: School districts consulting with police before making Monday decision

In a message to families Sunday afternoon, Laurel County Public Schools said it has not yet made a decision to open or close schools Monday, as it is waiting to learn more information from law enforcement officials regarding the shooting investigation. An announcement would come in a “timely manner,” according to a Facebook post.

“The safety of our students and staff is our top priority,” the district posted at 2:31 p.m., adding additional announcements would be shared on Facebook and the district’s website.

Rockcastle County Schools has also said it is waiting to be advised by law enforcement before making a decision to open or close schools.

“We will keep our community updated as more information is received and a plan for tomorrow is solidified,” the district wrote on Facebook at 12:56 p.m.

3 p.m. update

Joseph A. Couch is now considered to be a suspect in a police investigation of the shooting near I-75 Saturday evening, Acciardo said at a 3 p.m. news conference. Couch’s car, a silver Honda CRV, was found in a wooded area near the interstate. An AR-15 and a loaded magazine were also located there.

“We think that he (Couch) is still in that area, but he could not be in that area. He could be somewhere else, anywhere else,” Acciardo said, urging residents to be aware of their surroundings while police continue to investigate.

Police are also investigating in neighboring Whitley County, where Couch resides, Acciardo said. Couch’s family is believed to be cooperating with authorities.

1:30 p.m. update

Law enforcement officials seized an AR-15 on Sunday afternoon they believe the shooter could have fired from a wooded area near I-75, Acciardo told reporters during an update on the investigation.

Officers also discovered fully loaded magazines in the wooded area. Acciardo said he could not confirm whether the AR-15 was loaded when it was found.

A vehicle registered to Joseph A. Couch, a person of interest, was found Saturday night in the wooded area near the interstate. Police located a gun case inside the vehicle.

Acciardo said the next news conference is scheduled for 3 p.m.

Noon update

Dense foliage and rocky terrain have impeded law enforcement’s search of the wooded area where Joseph A. Couch, identified as a person of interest in the Saturday shooting, is believed to be hiding, Acciardo told reporters in an 11 a.m. update on the ongoing investigation.

A drone with an infrared detector is flying above the area, but the foliage is so thick that “sometimes it can’t pick up what we want it to pick up,” Acciardo added. The area also has several large road cuts, where Couch could potentially be hiding underneath and therefore be blocked from view and the aerial sensor.

Approximately 30 to 40 officers are involved in the active search, including agents on the state and federal level.

“We have really skilled, dedicated individuals that are there, and they’re trained to handle situations like this,” Acciardo said.

Acciardo said authorities are confident Couch is in those woods, but added that the community should stay vigilant and aware of their own surroundings to err on the side of caution.

“You know, he could pop up anywhere. I hate to say that, but he could,” Acciardo said.

Multiple businesses in London have closed indoor service and are only operating drive-throughs due to the active search.

Original:

Police are searching the woods near Interstate 75 just north of London, Kentucky, after “numerous persons” were shot on the highway around 6 p.m. near exit 49, officials confirmed Saturday evening.

Joseph A. Couch, 32, a person of interest in the shooting, is considered armed and dangerous, police said.

“If you have any information regarding the whereabouts or location on this individual please contact the London-Laurel County 911 Center by calling 911 or 606-878-7000,” the London Police Department said.

The department warned that Couch shouldn’t be approached. He is described as a White man about 5 foot 10 inches, weighing around 154 pounds.

London Mayor Randall Weddle in an update said he had been told that seven people were injured in the shooting, but not all of them were shot.

“Some of them was due to an accident,” he said, adding that no deaths have been reported.

The Laurel County Sheriff’s Office said the highway was closed near the exit, which is nine miles north of London.

Police had originally responded to reports that a suspect was shooting at drivers from an overpass or a wooded area, multiple media accounts said.

London, around 80 miles south of Lexington, Kentucky, has a population of about 7,600.

Police officers will be escorting ambulances in and out of the area to take shooting victims to hospitals, FOX 56 reported, adding that a police helicopter is available.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear told people to avoid the area.

“Kentucky, we are aware of a shooting on I-75 in Laurel County,” Beshear said. “Law enforcement has shut the interstate down in both directions at exit 49. Please avoid the area. We will provide more details once they are available.”

The governor said he was receiving updates from the Kentucky State Police and the Kentucky Office of Homeland Security. “[T]ogether we are actively monitoring the situation and offering support in any way possible. Please pray for everyone involved,” he wrote.

The highway was closed between exits 41 and 59, FOX 56 reported, citing the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet.

Kentucky, we are aware of a shooting on I-75 in Laurel County. Law enforcement has shut the interstate down in both directions at exit 49. Please avoid the area. We will provide more details once they are available.

— Governor Andy Beshear (@GovAndyBeshear) September 7, 2024

Weddle added that all first responders at the scene are safe and that both Gov. Beshear’s office and the White House had reached out to offer support.

“Just keep our first responders in your prayers,” he said.

“That is some rugged terrain and a lot of treeline,” the mayor added of the search for the suspect.

He said that residents should be “vigilant” while police search for Couch. “I’m not asking anybody to panic, there is no immediate danger here in the city, but again…we are asking everybody to be safe.”

Of the response from agencies in surrounding communities, he said “this goes back to showing you what a great, great state that we live in, what a great community we live in and all the residents that’s asked ‘What can we do?’”

Miami Dolphins star wide receiver Tyreek Hill appeared to be detained by police on Sunday morning just hours before the team was set to host the Jacksonville Jaguars to start the season.

Videos on social media showed Hill in handcuffs with several police officers around him. Other photos showed Hill on the sidewalk with the stadium in the background. Hill was seen in gray sweatpants and a white tank top.

Hill’s agent, Drew Rosenhaus, told ESPN that the star NFL player had been detained by police over an alleged driving violation.

“I just left Tyreek and he is getting ready to play today,” Rosenhaus.

Miami released a statement.

“This morning, WR Tyreek Hill was pulled over for a traffic incident about one block from the stadium and briefly detained by police,” the team said on X. “He has since been released. Several teammates saw the incident and stopped to offer support.

“Tyreek and all other players involved have safely arrived to the stadium and will be available for today’s game.”

Videos emerging of Tyreek Hill was arrested on his way to the stadium this morning. Oh my. pic.twitter.com/C8yqjEQde9

— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) September 8, 2024

This morning, WR Tyreek Hill was pulled over for a traffic incident about one block from the stadium and briefly detained by police. He has since been released. Several teammates saw the incident and stopped to offer support. Tyreek and all other players involved have safely…

— Miami Dolphins (@MiamiDolphins) September 8, 2024

The five-time All-Pro is looking to build upon a fantastic 2023 season. He was garnering MVP attention through most of last season. He finished the year with 119 catches for 1,799 receiving yards and 13 touchdown receptions. He led the league in receiving yards and touchdown catches.

Hill will be in his third season with the Dolphins, but Miami is still looking for that elusive playoff victory.

Miami has not won a playoff game since the 2000 season – an AFC Wild Card victory over the Indianapolis Colts.

Three Israeli men were killed in a terrorist shooting attack at the Allenby Bridge Crossing between Jordan and the West Bank on Sunday morning, authorities said.

The attack was carried out by a Jordanian truck driver who had arrived from Jordan.

The crossing, also known as the King Hussein Bridge, is the West Bank’s sole crossing with Jordan.

The three victims were named Yohanan Shchori, 61, a father of six from the West Bank settlement of Ma’ale Efraim, Yuri Birnbaum, 65, from the settlement of Na’ama, and Adrian Marcelo Podzamczer, from the settlement city of Ariel.

According to the military and Israel Airports Authority officials — the latter of which manages the land crossing — the gunman got out of the truck he was driving during an inspection at the terminal and opened fire at several of the crossing’s workers, killing three.

IAA security guards returned fire at the terrorist, killing him.

He was identified by Israeli security sources as Maher Dhiab Hussein al-Jazi, 39, a Jordanian national from the southern Jordan town of Udhruh, east of Petra.

The Magen David Adom ambulance service said its medics treated the three men at the scene, but were forced to declare their deaths.

Footage circulating online purported to show the moment of the attack.

Watch:

תיעוד | פיגוע הירי במעבר אלנבי@bokeralmog

צילום: סעיף 27 א’ לחוק זכויות יוצרים pic.twitter.com/9KW4WUsXZx

— החדשות – N12 (@N12News) September 8, 2024

The Israel Defense Forces described the shooting as a terror attack. It published an image of the handgun used by the terrorist.

IDF sappers dispatched to the scene later ruled out suspicions that the truck in which a terrorist arrived had been rigged with explosives, the military said.

Terror groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad both welcomed the attack.

Hamas hailed the attacker as “one of Jordan’s brave men.”

In a statement, it said that the attack was a “natural response to the holocaust carried out by the Nazi Zionist enemy against our people in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, and its plans for the Judaization of the Al Aqsa mosque.”

The terror group further called on people in Arab and Muslim countries to rise up in support of Palestinians.

On its Telegram channel, the PIJ described the attacker as a “hero” and said the assault is an “expression of the sentiments of the Jordanian people and the Arab and Muslim peoples towards the brutal massacres committed by the enemy.”

“This heroic attack and similar ones are the only response that the American administration understands,” the statement added, accusing the United States of being an “accomplice” to Israel.

Israeli and Jordanian authorities both announced that the crossing had been closed until further notice following the deadly shooting attack.

The Jordanian interior ministry also said that authorities had begun an investigation into the attack.

The IAA said that in addition to the closure of Allenby Bridge, the other land crossings with Jordan — the Rabin Crossing near Eilat and the Jordan River Crossing near Beit She’an — were closed at the request of security authorities.

Palestinians can only use the Allenby Bridge Crossing to enter Jordan from the West Bank, while Israelis generally use the Rabin and Jordan River crossings.

Violence in the West Bank has surged in the past year, following the October 7 Hamas terror onslaught in southern Israel, in which some 1,200 people were massacred and 251 were taken hostage.

Since October 7, troops have arrested some 5,000 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank, including more than 2,000 affiliated with Hamas.

According to the Palestinian Authority health ministry, more than 670 West Bank Palestinians have been killed in that time. The IDF says the vast majority of them were gunmen killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops or terrorists carrying out attacks.

During the same period, 32 people, including Israeli security personnel, have been killed in terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank. Another six members of the security forces were killed in clashes with terror operatives in the West Bank.

The first showdown between Vice President Harris and former President Trump showcases a far different race than the debate that sunk President Biden’s campaign if voter enthusiasm is any measure.

Since Biden bowed out following his shaky debate performance, Harris has erased Trump’s comfortable lead in the polls, setting up a razor-thin election with less than two months to go.

The face-off Tuesday in Philadelphia’s National Constitution Center won’t have a live audience and also won’t feature live mics despite Harris’ push for the feature.

“Vice President Harris, a former prosecutor, will be fundamentally disadvantaged by this format, which will serve to shield Donald Trump from direct exchanges with the Vice President,” her campaign told ABC in a letter The Washington Post obtained.

“We suspect this is the primary reason for his campaign’s insistence on muted microphones.”

Jason Miller, a Trump campaign senior adviser, told Axios in a statement that the campaign “accepted the ABC debate under the exact same terms as the CNN debate” planned when President Biden was still in the race.

The 90-minute debate will be moderated by “World News Tonight” anchor David Muir and ABC News Live “Prime” anchor Linsey Davis.

It will run at 9pm ET on ABC News with two commercial breaks and stream on ABC News Live, Disney+ and Hulu, per ABC News. Other networks, including Fox News, will also carry the debate live.

A coin flip that Trump won on Tuesday earned him the privilege of choosing either podium placement or closing statement order, ABC News reported.

The former president opted to go last, giving Harris her selection of podium positioning. Hers will be on the right side of the screen.

Rules dictate much of the structure of the debate from where candidates will stand (behind their podiums) to what they will be given (water, a pen and pad of paper.)

ABC maintains no candidate will have access to topics or questions early, there won’t be opening statements, and closing statements will be held to two minutes for each candidate.

No props or earlier drafted notes are allowed, and candidates won’t be able to ask each other questions.

They will have two minutes to respond to questions, the same for rebuttals, and they will have an extra minute for any followup.

The chief spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Southern District of New York (SDNY) was caught tearing into Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and other prosecutors for carrying out a “perversion of justice” in targeting former President Donald Trump, hidden camera footage captured by an undercover journalist revealed.

Nicholas Biase, the public affairs director for the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of New York (SDNY), spilled his feelings about the liberal DA when speaking to an unidentified operative with podcaster Steven Crowder’s “Mug Club” on multiple occasions.

In one July 31 clip from what appears to be a bar, Biase said, “To be honest with you, I think the case is nonsense,” after Trump was convicted of 34 felonies for allegedly falsifying business records.

Telling the undercover woman he had known Bragg for 15 years as they used to work together in the SDNY office, Biase accused the DA of “stacking charges [against Trump] and, like, rearranging things just to make it fit a case.”

“He wants to be something … a mayor? I’m not sure what he wants to be, but I know he’s not happy just being the DA of New York County. Before he decided to prosecute Trump, did you know who he was? You do now,” the DOJ official said.

Another clip–this one from August 14–shared by Crowder shows Biase saying the “state level is like the f*cking wild west… they’re like idiots, they don’t care, they’re all political”:

“[Bragg] is probably gonna try to lock [Trump] up… it’s going to be ugly,” he said. “They’re so obsessed with getting him.”

“Who is they?” the operative asked.

Biase replied, “The Democrats.”

Another clip showed him saying, “Those felonies did nothing to stop Trump from running … In fact, they made him more relevant.”

He even commented on the separate civil fraud case about inflating asset value brought against Trump by state Attorney General Letitia James.

“Every real estate person in New York does what he [Trump] did. Nobody’s ever been charged with this … You know, it’s a perversion of justice.”

He also blasted Fulton County, Georgia, District Attorney Fani Willis for carrying out a “travesty of justice” for indicting him on charges of conspiring to overturn the 2020 election.

“To put it mildly, it’s a mockery of justice. She is a joke … The whole thing is disgusting. They’re just out to get him [Trump],” the spokesman said of Willis.

After the videos went viral on social media, Biase told the New York Post that he had only “just met” the woman and was just trying to “impress” her with his remarks.

“I was recently made aware of a video where I regretfully made some statements in a private and social setting that don’t reflect my views about two local and state prosecutions,” he said in a statement.

“I said these things in an effort to please and impress someone I just met, who was secretly filming me. I’m deeply sorry to the local and state law enforcement officials working on these matters, who deserve more respect than I showed them. I should have known better.”

Evacuations were expanded Saturday as a wildfire with leaping flames scorched the foothills of a national forest east of Los Angeles, amid a days-long heat wave that pushed temperatures into the triple digits across the region.

The so-called Line Fire was burning uncontrolled along the edge of the San Bernardino National Forest, about 65 miles east of LA.

As of Saturday afternoon, the blaze charred about 11 square miles of grass and chaparral, leaving a thick cloud of dark smoke blanketing the area.

The fire began Thursday evening, and the cause is under investigation.

About 500 firefighters were battling the blaze, supported by water-dropping helicopters that hovered over homes and hillsides, along with aircraft.

Firefighters said the blaze had the “potential for large fire growth” in the next 12 hours.

The fire produced coiling clouds of dense smoke, and flames could be seen cresting hillside ridges.

No injuries were reported, and no homes or other structures had been damaged or destroyed.

The National Weather Service said downtown Los Angeles hit a high of 112 degrees Fahrenheit Friday, which marked the third time since 1877 that a high of 112 degrees or more has been reached there.