Texas Democratic candidate Jasmine Crockett says ‘people were disenfranchised’ in state after voting rules change sparks confusion; North Carolina US Senate candidates set for November showdown

• Texas Senate seat fight heads to runoff after Republicans fail to secure required votes

• Democratic rivals in close Senate primary amid Texas polling confusion

• North Carolina: Roy Cooper and Michael Whatley win primaries to set up Senate contest

North Carolina’s election results will be delayed at least an hour because a rural county will be open late after workers couldn’t get equipment working earlier in the day.

In Halifax county, the electronic poll books synchronized for 90 minutes and didn’t use any backup measures to let people vote, according to notes from an emergency meeting held by the state’s board of elections.

US president said Tuesday he ‘might have forced Israel’s hand’ in attack Iran, day after Rubio said Israel planned to strike Iran first

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In a late night post on Truth Social, Donald Trump said that the US munition stockpiles “at the medium and upper medium grade” have “never been higher or better”.

He added that the US has a “virtually unlimited supply of these weapons”, meaning that “wars can be fought ‘forever’”.

Today show host acknowledges reports of alleged ransom letter and calls for safe return of 84-year-old mother online

Today show host Savannah Guthrie, along with her siblings Annie and Cameron, has published a video statement calling for the safe return of their 84-year-old mother Nancy Guthrie, who was reported missing on Sunday.

In a video posted to Instagram on Wednesday, the siblings said that their mother is in poor health and is without her medication. Savannah Guthrie also acknowledged reports about a reported ransom letter from alleged kidnappers.

Philando Castile, a lawful gun owner, was shot and killed by a police officer in 2016 – gun rights groups were largely silent

The killing of Alex Pretti by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis has sparked a thorny conversation among gun rights groups and Trump administration officials about the second amendment and the right to carry concealed firearms at protests and demonstrations. Among the questions is which cases the movement rallies behind – and which it doesn’t.

In the hours and days after Pretti’s killing, dozens of local national and local gun rights groups lambasted federal officials including Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, and Gregory Bovino, a senior border patrol official, who baselessly claimed that Pretti’s carrying of a handgun proved that he planned to harm and kill border patrol agents. Prominent gun rights organizations, including Gun Owners of America (GOA) and the National Rifle Association (NRA), called for an independent investigation into the shooting and defended Pretti’s right to carry a gun.

Trump loyalists are upset the administration has blamed Pretti’s shooting on him exercising his right to carry a gun

Gun rights groups have long been among Donald Trump’s most loyal allies. But following the killing of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, the alliance is showing rare cracks.

In the days since the shooting, the movement has forcefully defended its stance that the second amendment is a means to keep Americans safe from government overreach and abuse and has stood fast in its fight to expand Americans’ right to carry concealed firearms in public and private spaces, even as Trump administration officials, and Trump himself, suggested otherwise.

The 550lb black bear was drawn out with paintball guns after it had resided under the home for more than a month

Getting rid of an unwanted houseguest can be difficult, but seldom does it involve a paintball gun and an electrified mat. A 550lb black bear that took residence under a southern California home for more than a month has finally been removed, KTLA has reported.

Altadena resident Ken Johnson first noticed the bear was living in the crawl space below his home in late November.

Justice department translated recordings made in Portuguese by man believed to be behind killings

The man accused of killing an MIT professor and two students at Brown University left behind video recordings in which he says he had planned the attack for years, the US Department of Justice said on Tuesday.

The shooter in the 13 and 15 December attacks was a former Brown student and Portuguese national, whom law enforcement found dead in a New Hampshire storage facility days after the shootings.

In damaging intelligence breach, Ames admitted to passing information to Moscow for nearly a decade

Aldrich Ames, the CIA agent who spied for the Soviet Union and Russia in one of the most damaging intelligence breaches in US history, has died in a Maryland prison. He was 84. His death on Monday was confirmed by the Bureau of Prisons.

Ames is best known as an ex-CIA agent who spied on the US on behalf of the Soviet Union. Ames, along with his wife, Rosario Ames, was arrested in February 1994 and pleaded guilty without a trial to espionage and tax evasion. Aldrich was charged with espionage, and his wife with aiding and abetting his activities.

Ninth circuit sides with gun owner that ban in counties with more than 200,000 people violates second amendment

A US appeals court on Friday ruled that California’s ban on openly carrying firearms in most parts of the state was unconstitutional.

A panel of the San Francisco-based ninth US circuit court of appeals sided 2-1 with a gun owner in ruling that the state’s prohibition against open carry in counties with more than 200,000 people violated the US constitution’s second amendment right to keep and bear arms.

Marcus Alexander Muench Casanova, 19, died on the Devil’s Backbone trail after reportedly falling 500ft

A 19-year-old college freshman has been identified as one of the hikers whose remains were found on California’s Mount Baldy on Monday.

The San Bernardino county sheriff announced this week that Marcus Alexander Muench Casanova, a resident of Seal Beach, California, was discovered along a mountain trail known as the Devil’s Backbone.