Nation and world news in brief for September 12

Johnson scraps vote on spending plan

WASHINGTON (NYT) — Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday abruptly canceled a vote on his initial plan to avert a government shutdown, as opposition to the six-month stopgap funding measure piled up in both parties.

It was a bruising setback for Johnson coming only a few weeks before a Sept. 30 deadline Congress faces to fund the government or face a shutdown.

In short remarks just off the House floor around midday Wednesday, Johnson told reporters that he would not go ahead with the planned afternoon vote on the spending plan, saying that “we are in the consensus-building business” and adding that he was working with a slim majority.

Election officials raise questions about USPS ballot delivery plans

WASHINGTON (Reuters) — A group of about three dozen state and local election officials on Wednesday raised serious concerns about the U.S. Postal Service’s ability to deliver millions of ballots for the 2024 presidential election.

The letter, from the National Association of State Election Directors and other state and local election officials, said election officials “have raised serious questions about processing facility operations, lost or delayed election mail, and front-line training deficiencies impacting USPS’s ability to deliver election mail in a timely and accurate manner.”

The officials said that, despite repeated meetings with USPS election staff, “we have not seen improvement or concerted efforts to remediate our concerns.”

The letter added that over the past two years in nearly every state local election officials are receiving postmarked ballots “well outside the three to five business days USPS claims as the First-Class delivery standard.”’

USPS said it is “committed to the timely and secure delivery of the nation’s Election Mail.”

USPS said on average it is currently delivering mail in 2.7 days but continues “to recommend as a common-sense measure that voters should mail their completed ballot before Election Day, and at least one week prior to their state’s deadline.”

The USPS inspector general’s office has said 46% of votes were cast by mail in the November 2020 presidential election, compared with 21% in the 2016 election.

Hurricane Francine strengthens to Category 2 as it hits Louisiana coast

NEW ORLEANS (Reuters) — Hurricane Francine strengthened to a Category 2 storm on Wednesday just before it made landfall in Louisiana, threatening New Orleans and the wider Gulf Coast with powerful winds, rain and a storm surge that led to evacuation orders for thousands of people.

Francine packed maximum sustained winds of 100 miles per hour (155 kph) as the eye of the storm reached the southern Louisiana coast near Morgan City, Louisiana, about 90 miles (145 km) southwest of New Orleans, the U.S. National Hurricane Center said.

The hurricane center upgraded the storm from Category 1 previously on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale. It classifies a Category 2 hurricane as producing extremely dangerous winds that will cause extensive damage. Little change in strength was expected before landfall later on Wednesday.

Hamas says it’s ready to implement ceasefire without new conditions

CAIRO (Reuters) — The Palestinian Hamas group said on Wednesday that its negotiators reiterated its readiness to implement an “immediate” ceasefire with Israel in Gaza based on a previous U.S. proposal without new conditions from any party.

The Palestinian group said in a statement that their negotiation team, led by senior official Khalil al-Hayya, met mediators on Wednesday including Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and Egypt’s intelligence chief Abbas Kamel in Doha to discuss the latest developments in Gaza.

Talks have so far failed to reach a deal to end the 11-month-old war. Lingering issue include control of the Philadelphi corridor, a narrow stretch of land on Gaza’s border with Egypt, persisting.

CIA Director William Burns, who is also the chief U.S. negotiator on Gaza, said on Saturday that a more detailed ceasefire proposal would be made in the next several days.

The previous proposal put forward by U.S. President Joe Biden in June laid out a three-phase ceasefire in return for the release of Israeli hostages.

Dozens arrested as Melbourne anti-war protests turn violent

SYDNEY (Reuters) — Anti-war protesters and police clashed outside a defense exhibition in Australia’s second-largest city of Melbourne on Wednesday, with dozens arrested as police used sponge grenades, flash-bang devices and irritant sprays to control parts of the hostile crowd.

Police were pelted with rocks, horse manure and bottles filled with liquid as they tried to protect attendees of the expo, some of whom were assaulted by protesters, a Victoria state police spokesperson said in a statement.

Two dozen police officers required medical treatment and 39 people had been arrested for offenses, Shane Patton Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police told a press conference.