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  • TSA begins Real ID enforcement amid air travel chaos

    TSA begins Real ID enforcement amid air travel chaos


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    • Beauty influencer Jackie Miller James shares update after stroke

      05:15

    • Child orders 70,000 lollipops from Amazon for $4,000

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    • Carney tells Trump Canada is ‘never for sale’

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    • WeightWatchers files for bankruptcy to shed $1B+ in debt

      02:31

    • Fan catches homerun ball — but another grabs it during celebration

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      A second US Navy jet falls off the same aircraft carrier in 8 days

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    • Nuclear neighbors India and Pakistan exchange fire, killing civilians

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    • What would Pope Francis want to see in his successor?

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    • How two musicians are working to teach students classical music

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    • See the athletes inducted in Olympic, Paralympic 2025 Hall of Fame

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    • Olympian Gary Hall Jr. receives replacement medals after wildfires

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    • Shingles vaccine lowers risk of cardiovascular events, study shows

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    • Florida man and his dog killed in bear attack

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    • See Prince Louis copy big brother’s hair flip at VE Day

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    • Fan who fell from stands takes first steps since hospitalization

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    • FDA recalls tomatoes in 14 states over possible salmonella risk

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    • The Real ID deadline is here: What to know

      05:07

    • Man drives into front gate of Jennifer Aniston’s Bel-Air home

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    • How cardinals are preparing for private conclave ahead of 1st vote

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    A veteran Newark airspace controller tells NBC News that a temporary blackout of both radios and radar systems from last week happened at least two other times since August. The Department of Transportation is set to unveil plans to overhaul a decades-old ATC system nationwide, but it will take time. All of this comes as the Real ID requirement is now in place for travelers across the country. NBC’s Tom Costello reports for TODAY.May 7, 2025

    • Beauty influencer Jackie Miller James shares update after stroke

      05:15

    • Child orders 70,000 lollipops from Amazon for $4,000

      01:03

    • Carney tells Trump Canada is ‘never for sale’

      00:55

    • WeightWatchers files for bankruptcy to shed $1B+ in debt

      02:31

    • Fan catches homerun ball — but another grabs it during celebration

      00:51

    • Now Playing

      Newark Airport saw two other blackouts before latest incident

      02:36

    • UP NEXT

      A second US Navy jet falls off the same aircraft carrier in 8 days

      01:14

    • Nuclear neighbors India and Pakistan exchange fire, killing civilians

      01:58

    • What would Pope Francis want to see in his successor?

      03:18

    • How two musicians are working to teach students classical music

      04:44

    • See the athletes inducted in Olympic, Paralympic 2025 Hall of Fame

      01:04

    • Olympian Gary Hall Jr. receives replacement medals after wildfires

      00:58

    • Shingles vaccine lowers risk of cardiovascular events, study shows

      02:27

    • Florida man and his dog killed in bear attack

      00:28

    • See Prince Louis copy big brother’s hair flip at VE Day

      01:37

    • Fan who fell from stands takes first steps since hospitalization

      00:28

    • FDA recalls tomatoes in 14 states over possible salmonella risk

      00:27

    • The Real ID deadline is here: What to know

      05:07

    • Man drives into front gate of Jennifer Aniston’s Bel-Air home

      01:58

    • How cardinals are preparing for private conclave ahead of 1st vote

      02:03



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  • Utah judge to decide if convicted killer with dementia can be executed

    Utah judge to decide if convicted killer with dementia can be executed



    SALT LAKE CITY — Attorneys for a Utah man who has been on death row for 37 years are due before a state judge Wednesday as they seek to spare the convicted murderer from execution because he has dementia.

    Ralph Leroy Menzies was sentenced to die in 1988 for the killing of Maurine Hunsaker, a mother of three. His attorneys say the 67-year-old inmate’s dementia is so severe that he cannot understand why he’s facing execution.

    If he is deemed competent, Menzies could be one of the next U.S. prisoners executed by firing squad after the method was used on two South Carolina men in recent weeks: a man convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend’s parents in 2001 and a man who killed an off duty police officer in 2004.

    Medical experts brought in by prosecutors say Menzies still has the mental capacity to understand his situation, while those brought in by the defense say he does not. The hearing Wednesday will be the last in Menzies’ competency case before Judge Matthew Bates issues an opinion, said Eric Zuckerman, a lawyer for Menzies.

    Menzies is not the first person to receive a dementia diagnosis while awaiting execution.

    The U.S. Supreme Court in 2019 blocked the execution of a man with dementia in Alabama, ruling Vernon Madison was protected against execution under a constitutional prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment. Madison, who killed a police officer in 1985, died in prison in 2020.

    That case followed earlier Supreme Court rulings barring executions of people with severe mental illness. If a defendant cannot understand why they are dying, the Supreme Court said, then an execution is not carrying out the retribution that society is seeking.

    “It’s not just about mental illness. It can be also the consequence of brain damage or stroke or dementia — the fundamental question being whether he has a rational understanding of the reasons he is being executed,” said Robin Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center.

    More than half of all prisoners sentenced to death in the U.S. spend more than 18 years on death row, according to the organization.

    Menzies earlier chose a firing squad as his method of execution. Utah death row inmates sentenced before May 2004 were given a choice between that and lethal injection. For inmates sentenced in the state after that date, lethal injection is the default method of execution unless the drugs are unavailable.

    Since 1977 only five prisoners in the U.S have been executed by firing squad. Three were in Utah, most recently in 2010, and the others in South Carolina.

    Hunsaker, a 26-year-old married mother of three, was abducted by Menzies from the gas station where she worked. She was later found strangled and her throat cut at a picnic area in the Wasatch Mountains of northern Utah. Menzies had Hunsaker’s wallet and several other belongings when he was jailed on unrelated matters. He was convicted of first-degree murder and other crimes.

    Over nearly four decades, attorneys for Menzies filed multiple appeals that delayed his death sentence, which had been scheduled at least twice before it was pushed back.

    Zuckerman said there will be further hearings before any execution warrant can be issued.



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  • Auction of gems found with Buddha’s remains is postponed after India objects

    Auction of gems found with Buddha’s remains is postponed after India objects


    HONG KONG — Sotheby’s has postponed the auction of a collection of ancient gems linked to the Buddha’s remains after the Indian government threatened legal action and demanded their repatriation.

    The auction of the Piprahwa Gems of the Historical Buddha has been postponed “with the agreement of the consignors,” three descendants of a British colonial landowner who excavated them, Sotheby’s said in a statement Wednesday.

    “This will allow for discussions between the parties, and we look forward to sharing any updates as appropriate,” the auction house said.

    India had slammed the planned auction of the gems, which William Claxton Peppé dug up on his northern Indian estate in 1898, as offensive to the world’s 500 million Buddhists and a violation of Indian and international law and United Nations conventions.

    The Piprahwa gemstones, part of a dazzling cache of more than 1,800 artifacts that are now mostly housed at the Indian Museum in Kolkata, are named after the town in what is now the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh where they were buried in a stupa, or funerary monument, around 200-240 BC.

    The gems were said to be enshrined on top of the existing cremated remains of Buddha, who died around 200 years earlier, and many Buddhists believe they are imbued with his presence.

    The 334 gems had been scheduled to go on sale Wednesday in Hong Kong, where Sotheby’s put them on display in a public exhibition. They were expected to sell for about 100 million Hong Kong dollars ($12.9 million).

    Gemstones linked to the Buddha’s remains on display at Sotheby’s headquarters in Hong Kong on Tuesday.
    Gemstones linked to the Buddha’s remains on display at Sotheby’s headquarters in Hong Kong on Tuesday.Mithil Aggarwal / NBC News

    Secured in three glass cases and surrounded by a trove of other Buddhist artifacts, the display included shimmering penny-sized silver and gold-leaf stars embossed with symbols, along with pearls, beads and flowers cut from precious stones including amethyst, topaz, garnet, coral and crystal.

    “Nothing of comparable importance in early Buddhism has ever appeared at auction,” Sotheby’s said on its website, which on Wednesday was no longer promoting the sale. 

    In a letter dated Monday and shared online, the Indian Ministry of Culture said the gems were sacred relics and “not separable from the remains they accompany,” according to Buddhist theology and archaeological standards.

    “To separate and sell them violates religious doctrine and international ethical norms for handling sacred remains,” the letter said.

    The sale was also condemned by Buddhist scholars and religious leaders.

    The Piprahwa Gems of the Historical Buddha, Mauryan Empire, Ashokan era, circa 240-200 BC
    The Piprahwa gemstones are part of a dazzling cache of more than 1,800 artifacts that are mostly housed at the Indian Museum in Kolkata.via Sotheby’s

    At the time of the discovery, the British Crown claimed the find under the 1878 Indian Treasure Trove Act, giving the bones and ashes to Buddhist King Chulalongkorn of Thailand. But the Peppé family was allowed to keep a fifth of the relics, and they have been passed down for generations.

    “I hope they will go to someone who really values them,” Chris Peppé, Peppé’s great-grandson, wrote in a February piece for Sotheby’s accompanying the auction catalogue.

    The Indian government said Peppé, a TV director and film editor based in Los Angeles, lacked authority to sell the gems and that by facilitating the sale, Sotheby’s was “participating in continued colonial exploitation.” It said if Peppé no longer wished to have custody of the gems, they should be offered first to India.

    Peppé did not respond to a request for comment. He told the BBC that his family had explored the possibility of donating the relics but had run into obstacles and that an auction seemed to be the “fairest and most transparent way to transfer these relics to Buddhists.”





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  • Joe Biden slams Trump for ‘foolish’ appeasement of Putin

    Joe Biden slams Trump for ‘foolish’ appeasement of Putin


    Former President Joe Biden has accused the Trump administration of “modern-day appeasement” in its dealings with Russia’s Vladimir Putin and of risking the transatlantic alliance that has prevented a world war for 80 years.

    In his first interview since leaving office in January, Biden told BBC Radio 4’s “Today” programme that it was “foolish” to think that Putin would be satisfied by permanently gaining the territory his forces seized after the 2022 invasion, which President Donald Trump and senior officials have said may be necessary to secure a peace deal.

    In the wide-ranging interview broadcast on Wednesday morning, Biden also made an impassioned defense of his record on the economy and on U.S. aid for Ukraine, while offering strongly worded attacks on the current administration.

    At times Biden sounded hoarse and at one point apologized for a persistent cough and at other times he seemed to slur his words, a reminder of the disastrous presidential debate with Trump that ended his campaign for reelection in July last year.

    “I just don’t understand how people think that if we allow a dictator, a thug, to decide he’s going to take significant portions of land that aren’t his and that’s gonna satisfy him, I don’t quite understand,” Biden said, speaking from his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware.

    “It is modern-day appeasement,” he said, referring to the policy of Britain and other nations towards Nazi Germany in the 1930s, in which leaders hoped that war could be avoided if Adolf Hitler was allowed to make a series of territorial gains.

    “What this man wants to do is reestablish the Warsaw Pact — he can’t stand the fact that the Russian dictatorship that he runs, that the Soviet Union has collapsed. And anybody that thinks he’s just gonna stop is foolish,” Biden said.

    Biden was speaking to mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day, which marks the Allied victory in Europe at the end of World War II and argued that NATO had successfully kept Europe and the wider world safe since then.

    Trump has criticized NATO, favoring an isolationist “America first” foreign policy, and signaled a major change in U.S. policy towards the alliance, including potentially ending U.S. command of NATO operations in Europe.

    Asked whether the alliance could die out, he said: “It’s a grave concern, I think it would change the modern history of the world if that occurs.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy surrounded by world leaders at the NATO 75th anniversary summit
    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the NATO summit in Washington in July 2024. Samuel Corum / AFP via Getty Images file

    “We’re the only nation in the position to have the capacity to bring people together and lead the world. Otherwise you’re going to have China and the former Soviet Union, Russia, stepping up.”

    He added that there was now a more grave threat to democracy than at any time since WWII and that without the buffer of NATO — all members must militarily defend any member that is attacked, under the treaty’s Article 5 — Putin would not have stopped at Ukraine.

    “Look at the number of European leaders wondering, ‘What do I do now? What’s the best route for me to take? Can I rely on the United States, are they gonna be there?’ Instead of democracies expanding around the world, they are receding,” he said.

    Biden said the extraordinary argument between Trump and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in February was “beneath America” and said it was part of a wider trend of the Trump administration breaking with long-held traditions and norms.

    “They way we talk about the Gulf of America, or we need to take back Panama, maybe we need to acquire Greenland, maybe Canada. What the hell’s going on here? What president ever talks like that?” Biden said.

    Asked whether Trump was acting more like a king than a president, Biden said: “I’d rather not comment. He’s not behaving like a Republican president.”

    Some critics have argued that Biden’s reluctance to arm Ukraine, particularly with long-range missiles in the early stages of Russia’s invasion, meant that Kyiv failed to defeat Putin’s forces on the battlefield.

    Trump has also blamed Biden for the war in Ukraine, which began when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of its smaller neighbor, and said it wouldn’t have happened had he been president.

    During the interview, Biden argued that his administration managed to avoid a world war between nuclear powers and “gave them everything they needed for their independence” and that he would have responded “more aggressively if in fact Putin moved again.”

    On whether he was right to walk away from the Democratic nomination and endorse Kamala Harris — or whether he should have listened to critics and done so sooner — Biden admitted it was a difficult choice.

    “Things moved so quickly that it made it difficult to walk away. And it was a hard decision,” he said. “I think it was the right decision. I think that… it was just a difficult decision.”



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  • Salt Lake City backs 3 new flags to get around Utah ban on Pride flags

    Salt Lake City backs 3 new flags to get around Utah ban on Pride flags


    Salt Lake City adopted three new city flags Tuesday, an effort to circumvent a new Utah law that effectively banned flying LGBTQ Pride and other flags at public buildings in the state.

    Mayor Erin Mendenhall, a Democrat, presented the proposal to the City Council, which adopted it at its meeting Tuesday night. It incorporates the city’s flag into designs celebrating Juneteenth, LGBTQ rights and trans rights.

    Follow live politics coverage here

    In March, Utah became the first state to make it illegal to fly such flags at all public schools and universities and government buildings, triggering outrage among Democratic officials and civil rights groups in the state. That law prohibits unsanctioned flag displays and was widely interpreted to ban flags celebrating various communities in Salt Lake City, a blue spot in socially and politically conservative Utah.

    One of the proposed flags, dubbed the Sego Belonging Flag, is intended to honor the city’s LGBTQ residents, while another, which officials called the Sego Visibility Flag, is intended to recognize the city’s trans community. The third proposed flag, dubbed the Sego Celebration Flag, is intended to honor the city’s Black residents, as well as the history surrounding the Juneteenth holiday.

    Salt Lake City adopts flags to represent residents, visitors
    Salt Lake City adopted three new flags. The original is in the upper-left corner. The new ones celebrate trans rights, the LGBTQ community and Juneteenth.

    “Our City flags are powerful symbols representing Salt Lake City’s values,” Mendenhall said in a statement Tuesday night. “I want all Salt Lakers to be able to look up at these flags and be reminded that we value inclusion and acceptance — leaving no doubt that we are united as a city and people, moving forward together.”

    “Like other civic symbols, these flags reflect our shared humanity and the values that help everyone feel they belong — no matter their background, orientation or beliefs,” Salt Lake City Council Chair Chris Wharton added in a statement.

    The state law, which is scheduled to formally take effect Wednesday, imposes a $500 fine per day on state or local government buildings that fly any flag that is not the U.S. flag, the state flag, a military flag or a flag from a brief list of exempted ones that lawmakers had approved. They include the Olympic and Paralympic flags and flags for Native American nations. Under the law, political flags were also prohibited.

    Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican, expressed concerns about the law but allowed it to take effect without his signature.

    In a letter in March outlining his decision, Cox told lawmakers he agreed with the bill’s “intent” to push “political neutrality,” especially in schools, but he said it went too far in its attempt to regulate local government. He also wrote that by addressing only flags, the bill failed to take on other forms of political expression, like posters, signs and drawings.

    In his letter, he also specifically addressed the “LGBTQ community,” writing, “I want you to know that I love and appreciate you and I am grateful that you are part of our state.”

    “I know these words may ring hollow to many of you,” he added, “but please know that I mean them sincerely.”

    Adam Edelman

    Adam Edelman is a politics reporter for NBC News.

    Amanda Terkel contributed.





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  • Nevada hearing may give first public view into legal spat over control of Murdoch media empire

    Nevada hearing may give first public view into legal spat over control of Murdoch media empire



    CARSON CITY, Nev. — A hearing Wednesday before Nevada’s high court could provide the first public window into a secretive legal dispute over who will control Rupert Murdoch’s powerful media empire after he dies.

    The case has been unfolding behind closed doors in state court in Reno, with most documents under seal. But reporting by The New York Times, which said it obtained some of the documents, revealed Murdoch’s efforts to keep just one of his sons, Lachlan, in charge and ensure that Fox News maintains its conservative editorial slant.

    Media outlets including the Times and The Associated Press are now asking the Nevada Supreme Court to unseal the case and make future hearings public. The court is scheduled to hear arguments in the afternoon in Carson City, the capital.

    Murdoch’s media empire, which also includes The Wall Street Journal and New York Post, spans continents and helped to shape modern American politics. Lachlan Murdoch has been the head of Fox News and News Corp. since his father stepped down in 2023.

    The issue at the center of the case is Rupert Murdoch’s family trust, which after his death would divide control of the company equally among four of his children — Lachlan, Prudence, Elisabeth and James.

    Irrevocable trusts are typically used to limit estate taxes, among other reasons, and can’t be changed without permission from the beneficiaries or via a court order.

    Rupert Murdoch has attempted to alter the trust, however, and Prudence, Elisabeth and James have united to try to stop that. James and Elisabeth are both known to have less conservative political views than their father or brother, potentially complicating the media mogul’s desire to keep Fox News’s political tone.

    The dispute has had many twists and turns, including a probate commissioner ruling against Rupert Murdoch in December.

    In a 96-page opinion, the commissioner characterized the plan to change the trust as a “carefully crafted charade” to “permanently cement Lachlan Murdoch’s executive roles” inside the empire “regardless of the impacts such control would have over the companies or the beneficiaries” of the family trust, according to the Times.

    Adam Streisand, a lawyer for Rupert Murdoch, told the newspaper at the time that they were disappointed with the ruling and intended to appeal. Another evidentiary hearing is scheduled for this month.



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  • WeightWatchers files for bankruptcy protection to eliminate debt burden

    WeightWatchers files for bankruptcy protection to eliminate debt burden



    NEW YORK — WeightWatchers said Tuesday it is filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection to eliminate $1.15 billion in debt and focus on its transition into a telehealth services provider.

    Parent WW International Inc. said it has the support of nearly three-quarters of its debt holders. It expects to emerge from bankruptcy within 45 days, if not sooner.

    WeightWatchers, which was founded more than 60 years ago, has struggled recently. In 2023, the company moved into the prescription drug weight loss business — particularly with the $106 million acquisition of Sequence, now WeightWatchers Clinic, a telehealth service that helps users get prescriptions for drugs like Ozempic, Wegovy and Trulicity.

    Its latest earnings report Tuesday showed that first-quarter revenue declined 10% while its loss on an adjusted basis totaled 47 cents per share. However, clinical subscription revenue — or weight-loss medications — jumped 57% year over year to $29.5 million.

    In September, WW International CEO Sima Sistani resigned, and the New York company named Tara Comonte, a WeightWatchers board member and former Shake Shack executive, interim chief executive.

    Comonte, now CEO, said in a statement Tuesday that, “As the conversation around weight shifts toward long-term health, our commitment to delivering the most trusted, science-backed, and holistic solutions —grounded in community support and lasting results — has never been stronger, or more important.”

    Shares of the company have traded at under $1 since early February. In after-hours trading, the stock plunged by half to 39 cents.

    The bankruptcy filing was made in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware.



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  • Alligator near Florida lake attacks and kills woman in small boat, authorities say

    Alligator near Florida lake attacks and kills woman in small boat, authorities say


    An alligator attacked and killed a woman in a small boat in the water near a popular Florida lake Tuesday, authorities said.

    The woman was in the boat in the mouth of Tiger Creek where it meets Lake Kissimmee, roughly 70 miles south of Orlando, when she was attacked just after 4 p.m., the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said.

    The woman went into the water and wasn’t seen again until her body was recovered nearby, the commission said in a statement.

    wind boat airboat lake kissimmee florida investigation water aerial
    Authorities investigate a fatal alligator attack on a kayaker on Lake Kissimmee in Osceola County, Fla., on Tuesday.WESH

    The response included Fish and Wildlife Conservation officers and Polk County sheriff’s deputies, the commission said.

    The sheriff’s office said in a separate statement that the woman was in a kayak, distinguished by an enclosed hull, with another person who wasn’t reported injured. But a commission spokesperson said the agency believes it was a canoe — also a paddle-powered vessel, but one with an open hull.

    An alligator trapper was dispatched to the scene, the commission said. There were no immediate reports that the animal involved in the attack had been found.

    The attack was under investigation, the commission said.

    The woman’s identity was unavailable, and the Polk County medical examiner’s office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday night.

    Dennis Romero

    Dennis Romero is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital.

    John Filippelli contributed.



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  • Kentucky firefighters make daring rescue to save truck dangling on overpass

    Kentucky firefighters make daring rescue to save truck dangling on overpass


    It was a heart-stopping scene in Louisville, Kentucky.

    The cab of a crashed tractor-trailer precariously dangled from an overpass on I-65 — with the driver inside.

    He can be heard pleading for help in an emotional 911 call from Sunday morning. 

    “I’m just hanging over the bridge, I don’t want to die,” the driver said.

    He asked the operator to stay on the line.

    “If I don’t survive, can you just leave the recording to my family?” the driver asked.

    Martyna Wohner was on the other end, reassuring him throughout the more than 18-minute phone call. “They’re going to get you out,” she said.

    And that’s what they did.

    daring rescue air dangle dangling firefighter
    A Louisville Fire Department firefighter prepares to rescue the driver of a 18-wheeler whose rig dangles precariously over the side of an overpass, in Ky., on Tuesday.Louisville Fire Department

    Once the Louisville Fire Department stabilized the truck with chains, a firefighter was gingerly lowered into the cab using a rope system connected to a tower ladder.

    Fire Chief Brian O’Neill described the operation as “fundamentally dangerous.”

    “Once [the firefighter was] in there, he has to get that climb harness on to the victim and then tie him in, so that it can then hoist them out of there,” O’Neill said.

    In all, it took just over 30 minutes.

    O’Neill said has only witnessed this kind of operation once before in his 24-year career. Last March, the department made another big-rig rescue with the driver hanging over the Ohio River. 

    Remarkably, in both incidents, authorities say everyone made it out OK.

    Video shows that the driver in the latest incident, who has yet to be identified by officials, even flashed a thumbs-up as he was lowered to the ground.

    “We see people oftentimes on their worst day,” O’Neill said. “And so when you get to know that this person who had this … terrifying moment that has now gone to safety, gets to be reunited with his family, that’s exactly why we do the job.”



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  • JD Vance’s half brother Cory Bowman advances in Cincinnati mayor’s race

    JD Vance’s half brother Cory Bowman advances in Cincinnati mayor’s race



    COLUMBUS, Ohio — Cincinnati Mayor Aftab Pureval will face Cory Bowman, the half brother of Vice President JD Vance, this fall after the pair were the top two vote-getters in Tuesday’s primary.

    Pureval placed a dominant first in the nonpartisan three-way contest, in which third-place finisher Republican Brian Frank was eliminated. Under the rules of the southwest Ohio city’s nonpartisan primaries, only the top two primary finishers advance to the November general election.

    With more than 80% of the votes counted, Pureval led Bowman by about 70 percentage points Tuesday night, highlighting the uphill fight that Bowman will face in November.

    Follow live politics coverage here

    If Bowman pulls an upset in this predominantly Democratic city, he would be the latest family member of a president or vice president to serve in office. That includes the brother of Mike Pence, President Donald Trump’s first vice president, elected to Congress during their previous administration.

    In a statement, Pureval said the city deserves a “substantive and healthy debate of ideas about the future of our city” headed into the fall.

    “There is work ahead of us in Cincinnati, but I am incredibly proud of what we’ve accomplished over the past few years,” he said. “We have made meaningful, tangible progress for folks across our community, and this is a moment to keep building on the momentum we’ve worked so hard to create.”

    Bowman did not have an immediate comment. He has said he wants to improve his city, not get involved in national politics.

    Pureval, 42, is viewed as a Democratic up-and-comer. A former special assistant U.S. attorney, congressional candidate and Hamilton County clerk of courts. He won the 2021 mayor’s race with nearly 66% of the vote to lead Ohio’s third-largest city.

    Bowman, 36, founded an evangelical church on the city’s West End and owns a coffee shop. He has never held public office but says his half brother’s inauguration inspired him to enter politics.

    Vance didn’t take an active role in the campaign, but he posted a message of support for Bowman on Tuesday.

    “He’s a good guy with a heart for serving his community,” the vice president wrote on X. “Get out there and vote for him!” Bowman thanked Vance in reply: “Love you brother!”

    Voters in Cincinnati and across Ohio also approved State Issue 2 on Tuesday, the reauthorization of a program that will provide $2.5 billion for roads, bridges and other needed local infrastructure projects over the next decade.



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