RICHMOND, Va. — The U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against Virginia election officials Friday that accuses the state of striking names from voter rolls in violation of federal election law.

The lawsuit filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Alexandria says that an executive order issued in August by Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin requiring daily updates to voter lists to remove ineligible voters violates federal law. The National Voter Registration Act requires a 90-day “quiet period” ahead of elections for the maintenance of voter rolls.

“Congress adopted the National Voter Registration Act’s quiet period restriction to prevent error-prone, eleventh hour efforts that all too often disenfranchise qualified voters,” Assistant U.S. Attorney General Kristen Clarke said in a statement. “The right to vote is the cornerstone of our democracy and the Justice Department will continue to ensure that the rights of qualified voters are protected.”

A similar lawsuit was filed earlier this week by a coalition of immigrant-rights groups and the League of Women Voters.

In its lawsuit, the Justice Department said the quiet-period provision reduces the risk that errors in maintaining registration lists will disenfranchise eligible voters by ensuring they have enough time to address errors before the election.

On Aug. 7 — 90 days before the Nov. 5 federal election — Youngkin’s order formalized a systemic process to remove people who are “unable to verify that they are citizens” to the state Department of Motor Vehicles from the statewide voter registration list.

Virginia election officials are using data from the Department of Motor Vehicles to determine a voter’s citizenship and eligibility, according to the filing. The lawsuit alleges the DMV data can be inaccurate or outdated, but officials have not been taking additional steps to verify a person’s purported noncitizen status before mailing them a notice of canceling their voter eligibility.

In a statement on Friday, Youngkin said that state officials were properly enforcing state law requiring the removal of noncitizens from voter rolls.

“Virginians — and Americans — will see this for exactly what it is: a desperate attempt to attack the legitimacy of the elections in the Commonwealth, the very crucible of American Democracy,” Youngkin said of the Justice Department’s lawsuit.

“With the support of our Attorney General, we will defend these commonsense steps, that we are legally required to take, with every resource available to us. Virginia’s election will be secure and fair, and I will not stand idly by as this politically motivated action tries to interfere in our elections, period,” Youngkin said.

Across the country, conservatives have challenged the legitimacy of large numbers of voter registrations ahead of the Nov. 5 election. The Republican National Committee, newly reconstituted under Trump, has also been involved in efforts to challenge voter rolls before the November election.

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Boeing will cut about 17,000 jobs and delay the first delivery of its 777X jet as the plane maker confronts deepening losses and the effects of a weekslong strike by its largest labour union.

Chief executive Kelly Ortberg announced the cuts, equivalent to 10 per cent of its workforce, in a message to staff on Friday. “Our business is in a difficult position, and it is hard to overstate the challenges we face together,” he said.

Financial troubles have escalated at Boeing since the start of the year, when a door panel blew off one of its 737 Max jets on a passenger flight. Regulators demanded a slowdown in manufacturing to fix quality problems, which reduced the amount of cash flowing into the company.

Last month, 33,000 workers walked out of Boeing plants in Washington state after members of the machinists’ union overwhelmingly rejected a new contract. The work stoppage halted production of the company’s 767 and 777 planes, further cutting revenue, putting strain on its suppliers and customers.

The debt rating agency S&P this week warned of a possible downgrade of Boeing’s bonds to junk status. Analysts expect the company to look to raise at least $10bn in new equity to shore up its financial position.

In a separate statement after the market closed on Friday, Boeing warned investors that its third-quarter results, which are due on October 23, would “recognise impacts” related to the strike as well as charges in both its commercial and defence divisions.

The company said it had $10.5bn in cash and marketable securities at the end of September after burning through $1.3bn in cash during the quarter. Losses for the period totalled nearly $10 per share, in part reflecting pre-tax charges of $5bn in the quarter, including $3bn on the 777X and 767 commercial plane programmes and $2bn for its defence, space and security business.

Boeing said revenues for the quarter would come in at $17.8bn, a figure that would fall short of analysts’ expectations by about 3 per cent.

Ortberg, a former CEO of avionics manufacturer Rockwell Collins, was appointed in late July to replace Dave Calhoun. He arrived soon after Boeing had pleaded guilty to misleading US regulators about a flight control system that caused two fatal crashes of the 737 Max in 2018 and 2019.

Boeing continues to face federal investigations over the 737 Max accident on an Alaska Airlines flight in January, which killed no passengers but led to new questions about quality control inside the company.

The machinists strike came after union members turned down a 30 per cent pay increase offered by the company. In an attempt to conserve cash, Boeing had begun stopping purchase orders with suppliers, freezing new hiring and furloughing tens of thousands of employees.

Ortberg said that, because of the planned job cuts, the company would not proceed with the next round of furloughs. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers union did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Boeing needed “to reset our workforce levels to align with our financial reality and to a more focused set of priorities”, he said, adding that the cuts would include executives, managers and employees. Boeing had 171,000 employees at the end of 2023.

Ortberg announced that first delivery of Boeing’s 777X jet — which was first due to enter commercial service in 2020 — would be delayed again, from 2025 to 2026.

Boeing shares were down about 1.7 per cent in after-hours trading.

In the fall of 2021, 67-year-old Nancy Piness couldn’t bring herself to pick up the phone and call her friend, even though they had known each other for decades.

Earlier that year, they had something of a falling out. There was no one terrible thing that happened, but over the years they had disagreements, differences of opinion and tension. One day, it just became too much and they stopped talking.

“I deliberately avoided her street,” Piness said. “I deliberately hoped I wouldn’t run into her at the grocery store.”

This time of year, Piness thinks about her friend a lot.

That’s because Friday night marks the beginning of Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) — the holiest day of the Jewish year. It’s observed with fasting, prayer and deep introspection.

“Yom Kippur is seen as this really special window where if you express an actual regret and you ask to be absolved, then God will absolve anything — literally anything,” explains Rabbi Chana Leslie Glazer, interim rabbi at a congregation in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania.

“There is one little caveat, though. If you don’t make right with the other people that you’ve hurt, then that can’t be forgiven,” said Glazer.

This idea is central to the Jewish High Holidays. And in the weeks leading up to Yom Kippur, many Jews try to repair broken relationships.

“There are a lot of people who will go around,” said Glazer, ”writing up a list of all the people that they need to ask forgiveness from and that they want to apologize to.”

But this process requires preparation.

One way this is done is through a service called selichot, which happens within the week before the Jewish New Year (Rosh Hashanah). The word selichot means pardons, and the service is designed to help one reflect on the ways in which they’ve fallen short in the past year.

For the sins we have committed

On a humid Saturday night in northwest Washington, DC a small group of congregants gather together at Temple Micah. Nancy Piness was one of them.

Standing in a circle, they lit a braided candle, sipped from a ceremonial cup of wine, smelled sweet spices and recited the blessings that mark the ending of Shabbat. Then they filed into the sanctuary, and began the selichot service.

One of the prayers they recited is the Al Chet — a communal confession of sins which is said many times over the course of the High Holidays. It pairs with another prayer called Ashamnu, in which many congregants clench their right hand in a fist and pound their heart as they recite each sin.

This is the fourth High Holiday season that Piness has been out of regular contact with her friend, who isn’t Jewish. This year, she finally feels ready to have a conversation. And she’s been thinking a lot about what she’ll say.

“I can tell it’s emotional now and I can feel the lump in my throat and I may burst into tears, which she doesn’t always understand,” said Piness. When she finally picks up the phone to call or text, she said her message will be something like: “Too much time has gone by. I miss you. And I hope we can find some time soon to talk.”

Forgiveness is a process

The Jewish philosopher Maimonides outlined four steps that make up the process of seeking atonement or forgiveness. Glazer explains that the first step is to recognize the improper action and stop. Second, to verbally confess. Third, to genuinely regret the action. And the fourth is to make sure not to do it again.

For years, Piness was stuck between those steps.

“I could be in services for hours on end and think about things. But I’m a feeler, and I’m a doer. And it’s time to act,” said Piness.

So this year, she finally did reach out.

“I was anxious,” said Piness. “I was really anxious. And I didn’t want to pick up the phone and call because she’s not a phone person. And so I texted.”

She asked how her friend was doing and if they could talk in person.

“She wrote back minutes later. And she said, ‘Hi Nancy — thank you for being in touch. I’m willing to get together, but right now I’m the one with too many things going on.’”

Piness plans to sit down with her friend, as soon as they both can. But she knows there’s still a lot of work to do, and it won’t be done before Yom Kippur begins at sundown on Friday. 

Glazer advises a lot of people who are having trouble making amends, and who may feel pressure to do it on deadline around Yom Kippur.

“We talk about at the end of Yom Kippur that it’s the closing of the gates and that’s the end of your window. And that’s more meant to inspire people to really think deeply, as deeply as they possibly can about what they’ve done and to really go as far as they can with it,” Glazer said.

“But also it’s important to understand that if you don’t quite get all the way there by the end of Yom Kippur, it’s perfectly fine to go in later and do the rest of your work.”

Piness is relieved that even though things aren’t completely resolved, at least she’s taken these first steps.