Flock cameras are under new scrutiny in the Senate as a privacy backlash against the law enforcement technology grows.

The Senate Judiciary Committee’s panel on Crime and Counterterrorism will hold a hearing on Wednesday focused on the automated license plate readers, subcommittee Chairman Josh Hawley, R-Mo., announced Friday.

He invited the CEOs of Flock and three other surveillance and security-focused companies to testify at the hearing, though he did not specify if the executives had agreed to testify.

In a statement, Hawley’s office said that Garrett Langley of Flock Safety, Rick Smith of Axon Enterprise, Greg Brown of Motorola Solutions and Filip Kaliszan of Verkada were invited.

A spokesperson for Verkada said Kaliszan could not attend, but the company is providing information to the subcommittee. The spokesperson also stressed that no national Verkada network exists and that customers “can only access the data in their own systems.”

Comment from the other companies was not available.

Wyoming

Truck driver attack spurs racial fears

The stabbing of a truck driver at a remote Wyoming rest stop had U.S. Sikhs on edge Friday amid rising anti-immigrant vitriol against the religious community and its truck drivers in particular.

The Sikh victim was attacked from behind early Sunday while in a restroom at the Bitter Creek rest stop on Interstate 80 midway between Cheyenne, Wyo., and Salt Lake City, according to court documents. He suffered stabs to the neck and chest and over a dozen other cuts but survived.

While police say the motive is unknown, the attack came after deadly crashes involving Sikh truck drivers led to debate about commercial driver’s licensing requirements — sparking hatred toward Sikhs as a group, community leaders said.

Police were still investigating what prompted the Wyoming attack by a man who left the rest area driving a truck-trailer combination, Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Department spokesperson Jeff Sheaman said.

Congo

Ebola aid workers get vaccines

Congo on Saturday began vaccinating healthcare staff against Ebola in Bunia, the epicenter of the fastest-growing outbreak of the disease in history as they are “particularly exposed and deeply involved in the response,” the provincial governor said.

Health workers and other front-line workers in the Ebola response are being prioritized to receive the Ervebo vaccine that was effective in past Ebola outbreaks caused by a different, more common type of virus. Clinical trials are ongoing to find a licensed vaccine for the current outbreak, caused by the Bundibugyo virus, which has no licensed vaccine or treatment.

The rollout is targeting the Bunia and Mongbwalu zones in Ituri province, health authorities said Saturday. Both areas are among the hardest-hit by the virus.

Israel

Soldier in deadly attack pardoned

Israel’s president Saturday pardoned the combat medic who fatally shot at close range a badly wounded Palestinian attacker who had stabbed a soldier in the occupied West Bank a decade ago.

Elor Azaria’s conviction for manslaughter and his release after serving two-thirds of his sentence drew enormous attention in Israel, where military service is compulsory for most Jewish men. In his first interview after his release, Azaria said “I would act exactly the same, because that’s how I needed to act.”

President Isaac Herzog in a statement said he acted on the recommendation of Defense Minister Israel Katz and cited the time that had passed, and the spirit of the approaching Yom Kippur, or Day of Atonement, on Monday as among the factors in his decision.

Katz in a separate statement called it a “right, humane, and fitting decision” and said Azaria had been in a “complex operational mission.”

Pakistan

Police end 20-hour deadly standoff

Pakistani security forces ended on Saturday a standoff with militants holed up inside a police compound in northwestern Pakistan, officials said. The confrontation began Friday after a suicide bomber rammed an explosives-laden vehicle into a mosque, and gunmen stormed the facility, killing 21 people and wounding 103 others.

The coordinated attack occurred at a compound in Kohat in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan. Many of the casualties were police officers and people attending prayers at a mosque.

Several militants took up positions inside the complex, and a shootout with security officers ensued, police official Mohammad Sadiq said.

Sadiq said the operation ended after 20 hours.

Netherlands

Police disperse right-wing protest

Dutch riot police dispersed several hundred far-right protesters in The Hague on Saturday after violence erupted and local authorities banned a planned march in the city against immigration and asylum policies.

Police officers made several arrests after some protesters started throwing fireworks and other projectiles at them.

Justice Minister David van Weel called on X for an “extremely firm” response to what he described as “disgusting scenes” at the protest. He said that demonstrators made Nazi salutes, chanted antisemitic slogans, attacked police and threw fireworks at riot officers.

The Hague municipality banned the march after violence broke out among demonstrators gathered at the Malieveld, a park in the city center, and later ordered the crowd to disperse.

Russia

Election observer faints in custody

Russia’s liberal opposition Yabloko party said that one of its election observers lost consciousness while being arrested by police at a St. Petersburg polling station on Saturday, the second day of a tightly controlled parliamentary election.

The voting to elect members of the State Duma is Russia’s first parliamentary election since Moscow launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. The three-day election, which began Friday and ends Sunday, features virtually no opposition and is all but certain to secure the Kremlin’s political dominance.

Yabloko said that officials at the polling station accused a party election observer of attempting to “disrupt the elections” and called the police, which “used force” against him.

Russian officials didn’t comment on the incident.

Eritrea

Targeted U.S. sanctions lifted

The United States lifted sanctions against Eritrea’s ruling party and the military that the former Biden administration imposed, according to the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

The sanctions were issued in 2021 over humanitarian and human rights concerns during a violent conflict in the northern Ethiopian region of Tigray. Eritrean forces backed Ethiopian troops against fighters loyal to the regional government of Tigray in the conflict that ended with a peace accord in November 2022.

Many people in northern Ethiopia, including the neighboring regions of Amhara and Afar, were uprooted from their homes and tens of thousands of were believed to have been killed.

The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control said in a Friday statement that sanctions against some Eritrean individuals, including Hagos Ghebrehiwet, a key financial official, were removed. The Red Sea Trading Corporation, linked to the ruling party, also had sanctions lifted.

— From news services