floressantillana (floressantillana)

Days of non-stop terror The deadly blast came as Kyiv has endured more than two days of near non-stop Russian attacks. According to a CNN tally, there were 28 air raid alerts between midnight on Thursday and midday on Saturday, lasting more than 28 hours in total. A two-year old girl who was seriously wounded in one of the many attacks on Saturday died of her injuries, Kyiv’s mayor Vitali Klitschko said. Five others were injured across the city. There were also strikes on other regions overnight into Saturday, with attacks reported Odesa, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy, Kherson, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Donetsk, and Chernihiv regions. More than 260 attack drones were involved, as well as Banderol drones, Zelensky said. While some missile strikes were recorded on Thursday, most of the attacks over the past few days were by jet-powered drones. These are a relatively new addition to Russia’s arsenal, having been first spotted around the start of the year.

• 1 reply
• 2 recasts
• 5 reactions

Tornado and hail hits northern Italian city, injuring dozens of people Dozens of people were injured after a tornado and hail hit the northern Italian city of Cremona, causing widespread damage. Like much of Europe, Italy has faced a relentless period of extreme weather, with the country sweltering under its fifth heatwave of the summer. Ten churches, including the city’s main cathedral, were damaged, according to Italy’s fire brigade, which responded to more than 500 emergency calls within hours. A spire fell from one of the cathedral’s towers, altering the city’s most famous landmark. Many of the historic churches suffered extensive damage to their windows and skylights. Twelve families were evacuated after their homes were damaged either by flying debris or the loss of roofs. Hundreds of trees fell, and many homes suffered roof damage, and 10,000 cars were damaged due to a hailstorm and falling trees after the tornado passed, the fire brigade said.

• 0 replies
• 2 recasts
• 5 reactions

Trump asks Supreme Court to OK sweeping changes for mail ballots President Donald Trump’s administration asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to give the US Postal Service sweeping power to withhold delivery of mail ballots, setting up an extraordinary showdown over voting at the high court less than two months before the November midterm election. The emergency appeal, which leapfrogged lower courts still considering the case, is the culmination of a monthslong legal fight over an executive order the president signed in March that gave federal agencies an unprecedented role in elections. Voter advocacy groups and a coalition of 23 Democratic-led states challenged that order in federal court, arguing that neither the president nor the post office should have a role in choosing which mail ballots reach voters.

• 1 reply
• 2 recasts
• 2 reactions

The road ahead as states prepare for midterms The court requested a response in the case by Tuesday morning, a sign that it is unlikely to decide the administration’s request immediately. The Trump administration will need to clear a procedural hurdle before it can get the court to look at the USPS regulation closely. A lower court had blocked the USPS rule with a temporary order that is not normally appealable. However, the high court has sometimes allowed such appeals in the past, and Solicitor General D. John Sauer, the top appellate attorney for the administration, said it should do so in this case. Trump, and several Republican states that support him, have framed the executive order as a minimal series of changes in postal rules to ensure a more secure election. In its appeal Thursday, the administration leaned into the idea that the changes are necessary to prevent fraud, echoing the president’s long stated false assertions of widespread voter fraud.

• 0 replies
• 1 recast
• 3 reactions