Capt Smit Machchhar said he screamed for help as he reached to open the cockpit door on flight FZ1073

A recording from Allison Gill's live video

Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown has joined a coalition of 18 other attorneys general in moving to intervene in a lawsuit against the US Department of Defense and Secretary Pete Hegseth for unlawfully freezing routine reviews of land-based wind energy projects across the country. These projects are required by federal law to be reviewed for…

Like in many states, Texans can register to vote or update their registration when renewing their driver’s license or getting a new one. But the state of Texas has blamed a software glitch related to this system for more than half a million voter registration delays. The extensive backlog of voting registration applications, which reportedly began to accumulate a year ago, is now the subject of a lawsuit filed by a pair of voter advocacy groups: the League of Women Voters Texas and MOVE Texas Civic Fund. The state says it has already fixed the issue and filed the applications. The suit characterizes the delay as part of a pattern of voter suppression that has disenfranchised voters in Texas. Filed in Bexar County, Texas, the lawsuit names Texas Secretary of State Robert S. Howden and his office, as well as the Department of Public Safety and its director Freeman F. Martin. More from CNET Meanwhile, the office of the Texas Secretary of State told media this week that the delayed applications were filed to voters’ home districts and that the problem has been fixed. As a safeguard, a spokesperson for the secretary of state said anyone still affected by the problem will be able to file a provisional ballot. But according to a report from The Texas Tribune, county officials have found another system error has caused issues with another 15,000 registrations over the last month. Now, counties are scrambling to fix those issues ahead of the start of early voting in the state on Oct. 19 for a high-profile midterm election season that has put the state in the national spotlight. Chris McGinn, executive director of the Texas Association of County Election Officials, told the Tribune, “Just when most counties were seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, another unexpected backlog is being dropped on county voter registrars.” Representatives from the secretary of state and DPS office did not immediately return a request for comment. ## Heated election season, unanswered questions The state has not given details on what kind of technical problem caused the voter registration backlog in the first place. At first, it was attributed to a “computer glitch,” but subsequent reports have the secretary of state’s office describing it as a programming error arriving in a software update to the DPS driver’s license online portal. The registration problems come five years after voting groups won a suit against the state that forced it to comply with the National Voter Registration Act, which guarantees the right to register to vote while updating a driver’s license online. The new suit claims the registration delays are a violation of those safeguards. Texas has for years been a reliably red state, but polls put several Republican candidates up for election this year behind Democratic challengers, most notably a US Senate race between Attorney General Ken Paxton and State Representative James Talarico. That race in particular has become so hotly contested that the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, has spent nearly $160 million to back Republican candidates in the state. The vast amount of money spent on the Texas races and the unpredictability of the outcomes is drawing more scrutiny to potential voter suppression in the state. Omar Gallaga Omar Gallaga has covered technology, digital culture and other topics for outlets including CNET, NPR, Wired, Texas Monthly, MSNBC, Consumer Reports, The Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, The Atlantic and the Austin American-Statesman, where he was a longtime tech reporter, editor and podcaster. He lives in the Texas Hill Country. See full bio ### The Latest from Omar * Texas Says It’s Fixed a Glitch That Delayed Nearly 600,000 Voter Registrations * An Entire Swedish TV Show Got Deleted, and AI Got Blamed * Android Strengthens Scam Defenses for Calls and Texts ## LATEST IN NEWS See all news ### Disneyland and Disney World: New Lands, Rides and Areas in 2026 and Beyond ### Yes, You’re Probably Paying More for Phone Service. Here’s Where Your Money Is Going ### This Is My Favorite Microsoft 365 Replacement and It’s Free on Linux, Mac and Windows ### I Test Home Security Tech. Here Are 4 Devices I Rely on to Guard My Porch

In TODAY.com’s Expert Tip of the Day, a geriatrician reveals the top modifiable risk factor for dementia during mid-life, and how to address it.

AP Photo/Susan Walsh Barbara Bush, daughter of former President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush, attends an event to welcome the 2022 NBA champions, the Golden State Warriors, to the East Room of the White House in Washington, Tuesday, Jan 17, 2023. Barbara Bush, the daughter of former President George W. Bush, donated to a political action committee that supports state Rep. James Talarico, the Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate for Texas, according to campaign finance records. The 2026 third quarter report to the Federal Election Commission for Lone Star Rising PAC shows a donation from the younger Barbara Bush in the amount of $2,500, dated Sept. 23. "I would imagine that somebody in such a prominent political family, if she wanted to ensure that her contribution was anonymous or not visible, that any number of lawyers that they probably have at their disposal could have told her how," said Andrew Cates, a political attorney and campaign finance expert based in central Texas. "She didn’t give it to a [501] (c)(4), in which her contribution would have been completely anonymous. She gave it to a PAC that reports all the money in and out." Sign up for the Hello, Houston! daily newsletter to get local reports like this delivered directly to your inbox. View Fullscreen Skip to PDF content The Bush family did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Cates said that $2,500 is a drop in the bucket for a campaign that has seen hundreds of millions of dollars raised, but it does have potential symbolic importance. "It’s not like Elon Musk money, obviously," Cates said, "but it is it is interesting and maybe potentially a little bit telling on where the center GOP establishment is leaning and where they feel like the race is headed." Most polling shows the contest between Talarico and his Republican opponent, Attorney General Ken Paxton to be either statistically tied or with a slight lead for Talarico.

Hinojosa staged an impromptu "debate" Thursday outside the Texas Governor’s Mansion. She had an empty lectern to protest Gov. Greg Abbott’s refusal to debate her.

The number of Texans registered to vote jumped 2% from March even as the state struggles to process backlogged voter records.

Generative AI can increase the quantity and quality of malign foreign influence campaigns. However, questions remain as to whether these campaigns influence public opinion.