Nation and world news — at a glance — for August 31
Florida family spent $6M on fake Warhols, lawsuit claims
(NYTimes) — The first warning that there might be something wrong with the Andy Warhol works that a family of art collectors had been buying through a Miami gallery came in December. When the family decided to sell some of the works, it said in a lawsuit filed Thursday, Christie’s, the auction house, questioned their authenticity. The family’s art dealer, Leslie Roberts of Miami Fine Art Gallery, went to extraordinary lengths to try to reassure them that they were authentic, the lawsuit said. An email from a person the gallery said was its contact at the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts claimed the works were legitimate, the filing says.
Misdated mail-in ballots should still count, Pennsylvania court rules
(NYTimes) — Pennsylvania’s two most populous counties cannot throw out otherwise timely and eligible mail-in ballots because they are undated or do not have the correct date on the outer envelope, a state court ruled Friday. The Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania found that tossing ballots because they did not comport with a 2019 law requiring voters to date and sign the outer envelope would violate a state constitution clause guaranteeing “free and equal elections” and pose a “substantial threat of disenfranchisement.” The ruling could play a role in November in the battleground state, which polls show to be a toss-up between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump.
After 11 months of war, Gaza faces a new threat: Polio
(NYTimes) — War and disease have been cruelly intertwined for as long as humans have confronted one another on the battlefield, and in the Gaza Strip, polio is now stalking a population that for nearly 11 months has been on the run from relentless bombardment. Under ratcheting international pressure to prevent an outbreak of the crippling disease, Israel is moving with relative haste. Israeli officials agreed this week to temporary and localized pauses in fighting to allow United Nations aid workers to deliver vaccines to 640,000 children. Hamas says it will also abide by the staggered pauses in fighting, which are scheduled to begin Sunday.
Inmate revolts highlight failings and miseries of Russian prisons
(NYTimes) — After four knife-wielding inmates claiming to be aligned with the Islamic State group instigated a mutiny in a Russian prison last week, resulting in the deaths of 13 people, even the Kremlin’s most loyal lieutenants raised questions about how it could have happened. The uprising in the Volgograd region, in which all the instigators were killed, was the latest in a series of violent episodes in Russia in which Islamic extremists either claimed credit or were blamed by Russian authorities. The questions about why these attacks keep happening pose a challenge to President Vladimir Putin, given the size and power of the security services he oversees.
South Korea says an official leaked a classified spy roster to China
(NYTimes) — An official at South Korea’s top military intelligence agency leaked classified data, including a list of undercover operatives, to a suspected Chinese intelligence agent for years in exchange for cash, defense officials said Friday. The 49-year-old civilian employee, whose identity was not revealed by prosecutors, at the Korea Defense Intelligence Command was arrested last month and formally indicted Tuesday on charges including bribery and handing over sensitive data, via documents or voice messages, 30 times since 2019. The leak has raised awkward questions for South Korea because it comes at a time when the country is expanding military intelligence sharing with the United States and Japan.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
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