Election officers in Louisiana and Oklahoma receive a powdery substance, prompting evacuations

The FBI and the US Postal Inspection Service are investigating letters sent to state officials and election offices across the country containing an “unknown substance”.

Just weeks before November’s US midterm elections, election officers in Louisiana and Oklahoma received envelopes containing a powdery substance, leading to evacuations. A similar package containing white powder was also sent to the Ohio secretary of state, but the US Postal Service intercepted the package.

• Former QB fought with 69-year-old last October

• Fox Sports parted ways with Sanchez over incident

• Sanchez was charged over Indianapolis confrontation

Former NFL quarterback and Fox Sports analyst Mark Sanchez has reached an agreement in principle with the truck driver who stabbed him during an altercation last October, according to the Athletic.

Sanchez was stabbed and pepper sprayed by Perry Tole, who was 69 at the time, during the incident in Indianapolis, where the former New York Jets star was due to cover an NFL game between the Colts and Las Vegas Raiders. Prosecutors said Tole used pepper spray and a knife to defend himself ​after Sanchez attempted to enter ‌his truck during an argument over a parking spot.

Father of toddler killed in Erie mass shooting says reported gunman never seemed distressed or out of the ordinary

The man who killed eight people, before turning the gun on himself, in a mass shooting in a home in Erie, Pennsylvania, on Friday was a grandfather who had not shown signs that he was capable of such violence, according to people who knew the shooter.

A man whose toddler was among those killed said on Sunday that the man never seemed distressed or out of the ordinary, the Associated Press reports.

Governor halts execution of William Lee Thompson, after Christa Pike survived failed lethal injections

Ron DeSantis cancelled a planned execution in the state on Friday, days before a 74-year-old man was due to be killed by lethal injection.

The move – the first time Florida’s governor has withdrawn a death warrant in his nearly eight years in office – comes just over a week after the botched execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee.

Authorities say they arrested an 18-year-old who was planning a shooting attack at the Mall of America

FBI officials stopped a potential terrorist attack on the Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, authorities announced Wednesday. An 18-year-old was arrested on one count of obtaining a firearm to carry out an act of terrorism.

Sheikhdoon Abdullahi Mohamud had been investigated over the last nearly two years by the FBI. He was arrested Tuesday in a public park after he paid $600 to an undercover FBI employee posing as a member of the Islamic State for an AK-47 and 200 rounds of ammunition, according to the criminal complaint.

Lawyers seek preservation of evidence after prisoner received two doses of pentobarbital on 30 September

Christa Pike, a Tennessee prisoner who survived the state’s attempt to execute her, is awake and speaking as she receives treatment at a hospital, her attorneys said, as they head to court on Wednesday seeking a court order requiring preservation of all evidence relating to the botched exercise by the state.

Pike, 50, survived two doses of pentobarbital, a sedative, as Tennessee officials attempted to put her to death last Wednesday in a case that shocked many in America and created headlines around the world. She was set to be the first woman executed in Tennessee in more than 200 years.

Nidal Hasan sentenced to death by military jury in 2013 for carrying out deadly shooting attack at army base in Texas

Donald Trump has approved the execution by US army firing squad of Nidal Hasan, who was sentenced to death for killing 13 people at Fort Hood in 2009, chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a social media post.

Hasan, who was an army psychiatrist, would become the first US soldier to be executed by the US military in more than 60 years.

President’s U-turn comes after Democrats and Republicans condemned use of tax dollars for pro-Trump ads

Donald Trump said on Monday he would pay for taxpayer-funded, pro-Trump ads “with money I raised for MAGA, Inc.”, a political action committee, after the television advertisements glorifying himself sparked a major backlash.

In a social media post, Trump characterized the ads, which cost at least $1.5m in federal funds, as “a positive promotion for our Great U.S.A.” and called them “a rather standard thing to do”.

Shavdon Gayden killed Eddimar Hernandez-Chacon in broad daylight while walking with her older sister

A woman has been charged with murder after allegedly stabbing a seven-year-old girl, with police describing it as an unprovoked attack on a sidewalk in Chicago.

Shavon Gayden, 48, has been charged with one count of first-degree murder, Chicago police said in a statement on Sunday. The killing happened just before noon on Saturday in the Chatham neighborhood. The victim has been identified by local media and the medical examiner’s office as Eddimar Hernandez-Chacon.

• Indiana GM said team’s fans were unfairly attacked

• Former player Brianna Turner says fans are an issue

• Kelsey Mitchell says some fans do not like her

Indiana Fever players past and present have pushed back on an assertion that the team’s fans are not an issue.

On Saturday the Fever’s general manager, Amber Cox, defended Indiana’s fanbase after a series of criticisms over their conduct this season.