*By Carlo Versano*
Two more suspicious devices were intercepted on Thursday ー one in Delaware en route to former VP Joe Biden and the other at the restaurant and office of actor Robert De Niro in Lower Manhattan ー the eighth and ninth to be sent to high-profile critics of President Trump in a period of three days.
NBC's New York affiliate reported early Thursday morning that police were responding to a suspicious package at a Tribeca building that is owned by De Niro and houses his office and the Tribeca Grill. The station said a maintenance worker at the building called police after seeing the news from Wednesday and remembering that he had handled a similar package the day before.
De Niro is a frequent Trump critic who drew headlines in June for blasting the president from the stage of the live-televised Tony Awards with the expletive, 'Fー- Trump.'
Around the same time, multiple outlets also reported that authorities had been dispatched to a postal facility in New Castle, Del. to investigate a package that resembled the suspicious parcels discovered Wednesday and was addressed to Joe Biden. Helicopter footage from the NBC affiliate in Philadelphia, Pa., showed a bomb squad member inspecting something with the help of a robot outside a postal facility.
On Wednesday, Trump held a relatively subdued political rally in which he told the crowd he was "trying to be nice" in light of an apparent assassination attempt on his political rivals. But by Thursday morning, he was blasting the media in a [tweet](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1055418269270716418) for creating a divisive political environment: "A very big part of the Anger we see today in our society is caused by the purposely false and inaccurate reporting of the Mainstream Media that I refer to as Fake News."
John Brennan, the former CIA director to whom a device sent to CNN's New York offices was addressed, [replied](https://twitter.com/JohnBrennan/status/1055436953129246720): "Stop blaming others. Look in the mirror. Your inflammatory rhetoric, insults, lies, & encouragement of physical violence are disgraceful."
California's reparations task force voted to approve recommendations for how the state should compensate Black residents for discriminatory policies.
As fears of a national debt default rise, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told NBC's "Meet the Press" that he isn't ruling out a short-term bill to raise the debt ceiling. At the same time, he said he doesn't think "the responsible thing is to kick the can down the road."
The Biden administration is starting work on new regulations it says will expand the rights of airline passengers.
In a TV interview Sunday, Yellen didn't rule out President Joe Biden acting on his own to try to avert a first-ever federal default.
North Carolina lawmakers on Thursday approved and sent to the governor a ban on nearly all abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy, down from the current 20 weeks, in response to last year’s overturning of Roe v. Wade at the U.S. Supreme Court.
Associate Justice Clarence Thomas joins other members of the Supreme Court as they pose for a new group portrait, at the Supreme Court building in Washington, Oct. 7, 2022. A Republican megadonor paid two years of private school tuition for a child raised by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who did not disclose the payments, a lawyer who has represented Thomas and his wife acknowledged Thursday. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and three other members of the far-right extremist group were convicted Thursday of a plot to attack the U.S. Capitol.
Florida Republicans on Wednesday approved bills to ban diversity programs in colleges and prevent students and teachers from being required to use pronouns that don't correspond to someone's sex, building on top priorities of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis.
New York state is banning natural gas stoves and furnaces in most new buildings in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Authorities in the U.S. and Europe arrested nearly 300 people, confiscated over $53 million, and seized a dark web marketplace as part of an international crackdown on drug trafficking that officials say was the largest operation of its kind.
