The U.S. Department of Justice has ratcheted up its pressure campaign on California election officials to ferret out alleged voter fraud ahead of the Nov. 3 midterm election, demanding that officials statewide prove the U.S. citizenship of voters flagged by the federal government as potential noncitizens, or withhold or set aside their ballots.

Acting Deputy Attorney General R. Trent McCotter made the demand — which experts called highly questionable at a time when votes are already being cast — in letters to state elections officials Tuesday, including California Secretary of State Shirley Weber and Dean Logan, head of the L.A. County Registrar-Recorder/County Clerk’s office.

The letters, reviewed by the Los Angeles Times, call on the state officials to respond to the Justice Department within 48 hours.

McCotter wrote that the Justice Department had provided Logan’s office with a “password-protected thumb drive with a list of names the Federal Government believes are likely noncitizens who were sent a vote-by-mail ballot” for the Nov. 3 election.

“We request that you review the list within 48 hours to determine whether any citizens are listed. For individuals whom you cannot independently confirm citizenship status, we request that you immediately instruct the appropriate elections officials to segregate — not cancel — those individuals’ vote-by-mail ballots until their citizenship status can be determined,” McCotter wrote to both Weber and Logan.

Voters on the federal list who haven’t already been sent a ballot should not be sent one until their citizenship is verified, while ballots already returned by voters on the list should not be counted until their citizenship is verified, McCotter wrote.

Neither Weber’s office nor Logan’s office immediately responded to a request for comment Wednesday.

South Carolina

Mace’s ex, other men charged with assault

U.S. Rep. Nancy Mace’s former fiance and two of his business associates were charged with sex crimes and voyeurism on Wednesday over an episode the South Carolina congresswoman described in detail during a speech last year on the House floor about how crimes against women are not investigated thoroughly.

John Douglas Osborne committed sex acts on a 23-year-old incapacitated and intoxicated woman while Mace’s ex-fiance Patrick Bryant and Eric Bernard Bowman watched, according to sworn statements by agents from the State Law Enforcement Division, which brought the charges.

Osborne, 46, is charged with first-degree assault and battery and two counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct. Bryant, 53, and Bowman, 46, are each charged with voyeurism.

Bryant didn’t return a message seeking comment on Wednesday, and attorneys who have been listed as representing Bowman and Osborne in other cases did not return messages.

Mace, a Republican, described the assault at length in a nearly hourlong speech in February 2025 that named the men and described other photos and videos found when she looked at Bryant’s cellphone when they were still together.

Saudi Arabia

Houthi missile hits oil company Hq

Iran-backed Houthi rebels hit the headquarters of the Saudi state-owned oil company Aramco in an overnight strike, two regional officials said Wednesday, damaging the offices of the firm’s chief executive and other top officials.

The strike, in the eastern Saudi Arabian city of Dhahran, was the latest demonstration of the Houthis’ ability to attack high-profile targets.

There were no casualties in the attack, which the officials said damaged the building’s top three floors. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss the matter with the media.

The Houthis had warned earlier they were targeting Dhahran with a ballistic missile.

The Saudi energy ministry reported a “limited fire” at the Aramco building Tuesday night. Aramco didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Chicago

Sex assault at frat house reported

A 21-year-old woman reported that she was sexually assaulted last weekend at a fraternity house near the University of Chicago, city police said, putting another campus on edge over accusations of misconduct tied to Greek life organizations.

The woman said the assault occurred in the early hours of Sunday during a party at the Alpha Epsilon Pi fraternity, police said, though neither the victim nor the suspect were students at the school. One witness said in an interview that she had interrupted an attack. That prompted the suspect to flee the house, according to the university, which called the episode “deeply concerning.”

The Chicago city police are investigating and did not provide further details, nor say whether there had been an arrest.

The University of Chicagocame after a reported gang rape and lawsuit at Cornell University in New York in 2024 propelled the issue back into the national debate.

Kenya

Second Ebola case confirmed

Kenya’s Health Ministry confirmed the country’s second Ebola case Wednesday, saying a relative of the man who died two days after arriving from Congo had tested positive while in quarantine.

The ministry said the 39-year-old man had been identified as a close relative of Kenya’s first Ebola case and developed symptoms Tuesday. The first patient, a 40-year-old Kenyan, had been living in Congo, where he fell ill and was treated at two health facilities.

Health officials identified about 128 contacts linked to the first case, and placed 108 of them in quarantine. Five of the contacts are outside Kenya, and authorities in those countries have been notified, according to Kenya’s Ministry of Health.

Iran

Separatist militant attacks surge

Iran is battling a surge in attacks by separatist militants in its southeast, compounding the country’s security challenges while it’s on alert amid U.S. threats of renewed airstrikes.

At least eight members of Iran’s security forces have been killed in the past three weeks in the Sistan and Baluchestan province, according to state media. The province is a Sunni-majority region that shares a porous border with Pakistan and Afghanistan and is also home to Iran’s Baluch ethnic minority.

A police officer and female member of Iran’s Basij militia were the latest to be killed in an attack by armed militants close to the town of Mehrestan on Wednesday, the semi-official Fars news agency reported.

nato

Fraud allegedly tied to defense contracts

Five people were arrested in Norway and searches were carried out in Germany and Romania as part of an investigation into suspected fraud and bribery linked to contracts for ships used for NATO missions, the European Union’s criminal justice agency said Wednesday.

Eurojust said the arrests and searches involved a company and subcontractors linked to it which are suspected of submitting fraudulent invoices for shore-based work.

Eurojust estimated that NATO member countries suffered losses of around one million euros ($1.1 million), although the full amount of the fraud is not yet known.

Ireland

Civil servants strike for higher wages

Hundreds of thousands of teachers, doctors and civil servants walked off the job in Ireland on Wednesday, crippling public services across the country as workers demand higher wages to offset the rising cost of living.

Most schools, colleges and universities are closed and thousands of medical appointments have been canceled because of the one-day strike, which was called to pressure Prime Minister Micheál Martin to intervene in the talks, which have been stalled since June.

Consumer price inflation accelerated to 4.1% in the 12 months through September, the highest rate since January 2024, Ireland’s Central Statistics Office said last week.

New York

Central Park buggy rides to be banned

New York City lawmakers plan to ban horse-drawn carriages from Central Park, ending their more than 150-year run as aniconic, old-timey tourist attraction, following decades of opposition from animal welfare activists and the death of a teenage tourist last spring.

The City Council is expected to approve a bill next week that would end the rides by 2028. Three consecutive mayors had called for an end to the carriage rides because of safety concerns, only to have lawmakers yank back the reins.

A spokesperson for Julie Menin, the council speaker, confirmed the incoming vote and said the proposal had enough support to pass. Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s office said he had reached a deal with the speaker on the legislation.

“The horse carriage industry is coming to an end in New York City,” Mamdani said in a social media post.

— From news services