Nation and world news in brief for October 31

US detects H5N1 bird flu in a pig for the first time

CHICAGO (Reuters) — H5N1 bird flu was confirmed in a pig on a backyard farm in Oregon, the first detection of the virus in swine in the country, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said on Wednesday.

Pigs represent a particular concern for the spread of bird flu because they can become co-infected with bird and human viruses, which could swap genes to form a new, more dangerous virus that can more easily infect humans.

The USDA said there is no risk to the nation’s pork supply from the Oregon case and that the risk to the public from bird flu remains low.

Pigs were the source of the H1N1 flu pandemic in 2009-2010, and have been implicated as the source of others, said Richard Webby, a St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital virologist who studies flu in animals and birds for the World Health Organization.

Spirit Airlines to furlough hundreds of pilots

CHICAGO (Reuters) — Spirit Airlines will furlough about 330 pilots on Jan. 31, 2025, a company spokesperson told Reuters, as part of its efforts to cut costs and shore up its finances.

The ultra-low-cost carrier has been losing money despite strong travel demand. It has failed to report a profit in the last five out of six quarters, raising doubts about its ability to manage looming debt maturities.

Spirit furloughed 186 pilots last month. It will also downgrade 120 captains to first officers on Jan. 31, the spokesperson said.

The company has been facing an uncertain future after the collapse of its $3.8 billion merger deal with JetBlue Airways. Spirit’s shares have slumped about 84% this year.

Bankman-Fried’s ex-deputy Singh avoids prison time over crypto fraud

NEW YORK (Reuters) — Former cryptocurrency executive Nishad Singh, who once shared a $35 million Bahamas penthouse with FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, was spared prison time by a judge on Wednesday for his role in the theft by his imprisoned former boss of about $8 billion in customer funds from the now-bankrupt exchange.

During a hearing in Manhattan federal court, U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan imposed no prison time but ordered three years of supervised release. Kaplan credited Singh for cooperating with prosecutors and coming clean about his actions in what the judge said “may have been the greatest financial fraud in American history.”

Singh, who had pleaded guilty to six felony counts of fraud and conspiracy, testified last year as a prosecution witness in the trial that led to Bankman-Fried’s conviction on fraud and other charges. Singh in a plea deal with prosecutors admitted to his role in the fraud and to serving as a “straw donor” in some of Bankman-Fried’s millions of dollars in political donations.

Prosecutors had urged leniency for the 29-year-old Singh, FTX’s former chief engineer, in light of his cooperation. His defense lawyers had recommended he serve no prison time.

Michigan strips two clerks of election duties over hand count plan

SOUTHFIELD, Michigan (Reuters) — Two election officials in a small Michigan town have been stripped of their duties overseeing Tuesday’s U.S. presidential election after they vowed to go ahead with a plan to hand count already tabulated ballots in an alleged violation of state law.

Tom Schierkolk and David LaMere, the clerk and deputy clerk in Rock River Township, were ordered by Michigan Bureau of Elections Director Jonathan Brater to refrain from administering the vote, according to a letter from Brater dated Oct. 28.

The development highlights lingering distrust of voting equipment among some officials following years of falsehoods by Republican former president Donald Trump about their integrity, including his claim without evidence that he lost in 2020 because they were rigged.

Machete-wielding Trump supporter arrested at Florida polling station

(TNS) — A teenage Trump supporter in northeast Florida has been arrested for brandishing a machete in a bid to intimidate Democratic voters outside a polling station, police said.

Caleb Williams, 18, was taken into custody on Tuesday outside Beaches Branch Library, an early voting location in Neptune Beach, roughly 20 miles east of Jacksonville. Williams was charged with felony aggravated assault on a person 65 or older and misdemeanor exhibition of a dangerous weapon.

The charges stem from allegations that he wielded an 18-inch blade at two unidentified women, ages 71 and 54, according to the Neptune Beach Police Department.

Williams was part of a group of eight teens, the rest of them either 16 or 17 years old, gathered at the site “to protest and antagonize the opposing political side,” Police Chief Michael Key Jr. told reporters at a news conference.

NY mom jumps into Niagara Falls with 2 kids, including baby

(TNS) — An upstate New York woman intentionally jumped into Niagara Falls with her two young children, including a 5-month-old baby, state police said Wednesday.

The incident occurred around 9 p.m. on Monday when officials with the New York State Park Police and New York State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation were called to an area near Goat Island, between the Bridal Veil and Horseshoe falls.

A subsequent investigation determined that three individuals — 33-year-old Chaianti Means, 9-year-old Roman Rossman and 5-month-old Mecca Means, all of Niagara Falls, New York — had gone over a safety guardrail and “went over Niagara Falls on Luna Island,” located off the north side of Goat Island.

The woman has been described as the mother of the two kids, according to multiple local reports.

While the circumstances surrounding the suspected jump remain under investigation, authorities believe the incident was “intentional in nature,” according to New York State Police Major Stanley J. Edwards, III.

Search-and-rescue teams — including park police unmanned aircraft and marine patrol, and NYSP’s aviation and underwater recovery units — are working to locate the three victims. Recovery efforts had so far been unsuccessful, Edwards said in a Wednesday morning update.

Infections linked to McDonald’s E. coli outbreak rise to 90, US CDC says

(Reuters) — The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Wednesday that the number of infected people from the E.coli outbreak linked to McDonald’s Quarter Pounder hamburgers has increased to 90 from 75.

The outbreak was first reported on Oct. 22 and on Wednesday, CDC said 27 persons have been hospitalized due to the illness, which has already killed one person.

Two of them developed hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS), a serious condition that can cause kidney failure, as of Oct. 24.

Arizona man indicted for shooting at DNC building

(Reuters) — An Arizona man who was arrested for shooting at the Democratic National Committee’s office in suburban Phoenix on three separate occasions was indicted on a terrorism charge, state officials said on Wednesday.

Prosecutors charged Jeffrey Michael Kelly, 60, with shooting at the DNC office in Tempe, Arizona, shortly after midnight, three times between Sept. 16 and Oct. 6.

The shootings did not cause injuries but highlighted the risk for political violence ahead of Tuesday’s U.S. election.