(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Wedneday’s sports events:
NATIONAL BASKETBALL ASSOCIATION
Cleveland 115, Milwaukee 99
LA Clippers 111, Orlando 102
Charlotte 158, Indiana 126
Atlanta 121, Sacramento 104
Miami 110, New York 96
Chicago 111, Toronto 105
Denver 124, Brooklyn 118
Memphis 118, San Antonio 110
Dallas 132, Portland 112
Phoenix 105, Utah 97
NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE
San Jose 4, Washington 1
Calgary 6, Columbus 0
Toronto 4, Anaheim 3 (SO)
Chicago 8, Detroit 5
Colorado 4, Boston 3 (OT)
TOP-25 COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Providence 65, Xavier 62
Tennessee 78, Florida 71
LSU 70, Texas A&M 64
Marquette 73, Seton Hall 63
Iowa St. 84, Oklahoma St. 81
VCU 70, Davidson 68
Meagan Redman,Jake Lefferman, Zach Fannin, and Libby Cathey, ABC News
(HOLLOMAN AIR FORCE BASE, N.M.) — Thousands of miles away from her native Afghanistan, Laila finds relief in small comforts like a warm meal inside a makeshift tent camp in a desert in New Mexico.
Laila, whose name has been changed for safety concerns, is among thousands of Afghan refugees who have found a temporary home cycling through the “Aman Omid Village” on Holloman Air Force Base, one of several military installations in the U.S. designated to provide housing to Afghan refugees while they transition into more permanent homes. The camp’s name which is in Dari — an Afghan dialect — expresses what they are searching for in the United States: peace and hope.
Watch the full story on “Nightline” TONIGHT at 12 p.m. ET on ABC.
“The first very important thing about the camp that I and everyone else here likes is the safety that they are giving us,” Laila told ABC News “Nightline” co-anchor Juju Chang in a recent interview. “Safety is something that we didn’t have for years in Afghanistan.”
Laila is one of the tens of thousands who were forced to flee her native country last summer, leaving behind family and friends, as the U.S. ended its longest war the same way it started: under Taliban rule.
She says it feels like only weeks ago that she fled the swift takeover.
“I was in the bank waiting to withdraw some money. I heard gunshots,” Laila recalled.
“Everyone was like, Taliban are in here, and we were hiding under the desks after I got out,” she said. “Everyone was, like, panicking.”
President Joe Biden, who has long opposed the war in Afghanistan, inherited a deal with the Taliban to withdraw U.S. forces as the U.S. approached the 20-year anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, despite pressure from lawmakers and other allied nations to extend the mission. As his August deadline neared, the Taliban seized power and overtook the presidential palace in Kabul, signaling the collapse of the Afghan government and igniting chaos.
“Every time that there is a knock on the door, I think they are coming for me because I have worked with international agencies,” Laila told ABC News in a video diary at the time.
In many respects, she was exactly what the Taliban feared: A college-educated woman who flourished with the freedom gained during the 20 years of U.S. intervention.
Struggle to flee
Laila was a young girl when the Taliban last came to power and said she remembers being taught to hide her education from the group that governs the country under a strict interpretation of Shariah, or Islamic law.
“My mother and a friend of my mom would teach us how to read and write, like we would hide our books and notebooks inside the Quran. And then we would go to my mother’s friend’s house and then learn how to read and write there,” she told ABC News.
She said she was given no reason to believe this reign would be different — so she and her husband, Yusuf, whose name has been changed for safety concerns, escaped with some 76,000 other Afghans, many of whom worked for American or Western allies that the U.S. evacuated under the Biden’s administration’s mission, “Operation Allies Welcome.”
Though she said she suspected she might be pregnant at the time, Laila left her home with nothing but a small backpack.
When she landed at a U.S. base in Doha, Qatar, she was given a pregnancy test which confirmed that she was pregnant. She later learned she’ll be having twins — which made her all the more grateful to have escaped. Tens of thousands of Afghans, who also had valid paperwork, were left behind in the chaos — and to a new order of power.
“In Afghanistan, it was scary because I didn’t want to have a baby in that situation, especially with the Taliban,” she said.
Human Rights Watch, an international human rights advocacy organization, estimates that the Taliban have already killed over 100 Afghans at the top of their list for revenge for helping Americans.
Military base offers peace, hope
“Aman Omid Village,” the massive refugee camp at Holloman Air Force Base, was just months ago a barren desert. Rows of tents spanning 50-acres were erected in the final days of the fall of Kabul as officials prepared for refugees like Laila.
The commune operates as a de facto American boot camp for new arrivals and offers resources to prepare refugees for their new lives in the U.S. Residents can participate in classes from English to sewing and receive training on how to pay taxes and avoid spam calls, for instance.
At least half of the refugees there are children who often take advantage of the open area for games and recreation.
“This is sort of that shining place for them to come to,” Air Force Brigadier Gen. Daniel Gabrielli, who heads operations at the camp, told ABC News.
Gabrielli, a commercial pilot who volunteered to deploy as part of his National Guard Service, completed three tours of duty in Afghanistan. In his 33-year military career, he said helping Afghan refugees at the base has been the most gratifying experience.
“I think it is because we’re taking care of people who’ve taken care of us, right?” he said. “What they have sacrificed for our security which is a large amount.”
“My grandfather came over after World War I from Italy, so there’s no difference in this migration, and that migration,” Gabrielli said, when asked about any resistance to their arrivals. “It is just the latest in the Great American story.”
To the general and many others, the compound in New Mexico has transformed into a modern-day Ellis Island, with people like Laila among its first immigrants — but many will never find the same refuge.
More than 3.5 million people have been displaced by conflict inside Afghanistan, including 700,000 from 2021 alone, while the war-torn country continues to face conflict, famine and COVID-19.
Writing her own American dream
The resettlement agency handling Laila’s case told her that her new home would be in South Carolina.
Organizations tasked with helping Afghans arriving in the U.S. have said they are scrambling to ramp up operations following years of downsizing due to the Trump administration’s slashed refugee program. Despite some delays to her own move, Laila expressed to ABC News her excitement at the potential.
“I don’t care if it’s South Carolina or if it’s New York, it is just a new country, a new culture, a new land, a new people,” she said.
At least, for her time there, she made the refugee camp feel like home. In the cafeteria on base, she would eat regularly with young ladies she fondly calls the “three musketeers.”
“When I came here, I was kind of like, you know, depressed from all that happened, and they were the ones that really helped me,” she said. “Every day, they would come to me and because they knew I was having twins, they would take good care of me.”
Finally, after months of waiting at Holloman Air Force Base, Laila and Yusef got permanently resettled in South Carolina in January.
Now 24 weeks pregnant, Laila says she is grateful to embark on a new life on American soil, but part of her heart will always be back home, especially with the women and girls of Afghanistan.
Veteran Canadian rocker Aldo Nova, best known for his 1982 hit “Fantasy,” has unveiled plans for two album projects that will be released in April.
The first is a 10-track EP titled The Life and Times of Eddie Gage that’s due out April 1 and will serve as the first chapter of a planned rock opera.
The Life and Times of Eddie Gage tells the fictional story of a talented young rocker who is tempted and exploited by various characters as he tries to break into the music business. He initially succumbs to drugs, alcohol and other excesses before finding redemption when he delves into spirituality.
Nova began working on the rock opera in 2008, and the final project will encompass 25 songs. Aldo wrote, produced, arranged, engineered and mixed all of the EP’s tracks, and the recording includes a 40-piece orchestra and a full gospel choir.
“The record was done from pure inspiration,” Nova says. “I was truly channeling some place away from myself. It was almost as if something above connected to me and gave me these songs.”
The second project is a three-disc set titled Aldo Nova 2.0 Reloaded that will be released on April 19.
The collection features updated versions of nine tunes from Nova’s back catalog on the first disc, and those same tracks mixed without vocals and without guitar, respectively, on the second and third discs.
“Nobody’s ever done this,” Aldo says of Reloaded. “You can basically sing with me as your backing band or play along as a backing track…I want to encourage kids to improvise and learn.”
Here’s the EP’s track list:
“Hey Ladi Dadi”
“Free Your Mind”
“Follow the Road”
“King of Deceit”
“The Bitch in Black”
“On the Way to the Psycho Ward”
“When All Is Said and Done”
“Say a Little Prayer”
“Burn Like the Sun”
Bonus Track:
“Les Anges”
And here’s the track list for Aldo Nova 2.0 Reloaded:
Disc One:
“Blood on the Bricks”
“Monkey on Your Back”
“Under the Gun – War Suite”
“Foolin’ Yourself”
“Ball and Chain”
“Paradise”
“Modern World”
“Fantasy”
“I’m a Survivor”
Disc Two (No Lead Vocal):
“Blood on the Bricks”
“Monkey on Your Back”
“Under the Gun – War Suite”
“Foolin’ Yourself”
“Ball and Chain”
“Modern World”
“Fantasy”
“I’m a Survivor”
(NEW YORK) — After 139 child deaths since 2010, new safety standards for crib mattresses will go into effect this fall.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission approved a new rule Wednesday to address potential hazards like lacerations, suffocation and entrapment.
“This is intended to reduce the risk of injury,” CPSC spokesperson Jason Levine told ABC News. “The crib is the safest place for your infant, yet what this does is it takes another step in the right direction in terms of ensuring that the mattress itself is as safe as can be.”
New mattresses will be required to comply with the standard this fall, Levine said. The rule covers crib mattresses as well as mattresses in play yards and bassinets.
“Today’s vote means crib mattresses of all sizes will be required to meet safety standards,” CPSC Chair Alex Hoehn-Saric said in a statement. “This will improve safety for babies sleeping in cribs and play yards.”
CPSC said it was aware of at least 494 incidents, including 139 fatalities and 355 nonfatal incidents, related to crib mattresses between January 2010 and April 2021.
Just last week, the CPSC also warned consumers about certain Leachco Podster infant loungers after two children died “due to a change in position” that obstructed the infants’ nose and mouth.
(NEW YORK) — After 139 child deaths since 2010, new safety standards for crib mattresses will go into effect this fall.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission approved a new rule Wednesday to address potential hazards like lacerations, suffocation and entrapment.
“This is intended to reduce the risk of injury,” CPSC spokesperson Jason Levine told ABC News. “The crib is the safest place for your infant, yet what this does is it takes another step in the right direction in terms of ensuring that the mattress itself is as safe as can be.”
New mattresses will be required to comply with the standard this fall, Levine said. The rule covers crib mattresses as well as mattresses in play yards and bassinets.
“Today’s vote means crib mattresses of all sizes will be required to meet safety standards,” CPSC Chair Alex Hoehn-Saric said in a statement. “This will improve safety for babies sleeping in cribs and play yards.”
CPSC said it was aware of at least 494 incidents, including 139 fatalities and 355 nonfatal incidents, related to crib mattresses between January 2010 and April 2021.
Just last week, the CPSC also warned consumers about certain Leachco Podster infant loungers after two children died “due to a change in position” that obstructed the infants’ nose and mouth.
(FAYETTEVILLE, Ga.) — When Jilea Hemmings’ oldest son was diagnosed with autism, she and her husband, Jamie, started experimenting with food that seemed to help improve their child’s performance.
The Georgia couple used plant-based substitutes to create their son’s favorite dishes, including mac and cheese and spaghetti and meatballs.
Soon, they began selling their products at a farmers’ market, and their customers asked if the food was sold in grocery stores, too.
“From there, the rest is history,” Hemmings told ABC News.
The couple just opened Nourish + Bloom Market in Fayetteville, Georgia, believed to be the first Black-owned autonomous grocery store in the nation. Hemmings said their mantra is “real food and real products for real people.”
After moving from Chicago to Fayetteville, the Hemmings family said they realized they were in a food desert — an area where there is limited access to affordable and nutritious food — and decided to use their prior food and technology knowledge to open a market of their own.
Nourish + Bloom Market features a “frictionless shopping” experience where customers can walk in, grab what they need and leave without waiting in line or stopping to scan and pay.
Hemmings has a background in technology and software building, and to bring her and her husband’s vision to life, the market partnered with different companies such as Microsoft, USC Technologies, Nova Dynamics and Intel.
Although the store is fully autonomous, the owners still wanted the store “to feel warm” by having employees that assist customers throughout the market.
“People think that autonomous means that you’re taking jobs away,” Hemmings said. “It actually is not. We are changing the way their jobs are done.”
They also have delivery robots, named Nourish and Bloom, to deliver products in temperature-controlled compartments. With autonomous shopping, vending and robotic delivery, the market can offer 24/7 access to real food and environmentally friendly products.
“The community response has been overwhelming,” Hemmings said. “They are just so proud to see a Black family doing this, and then also to experience the technology, people have been very excited about that.”
The couple plans to franchise Nourish + Bloom Markets around the country, hoping to reach a goal of 800 stores in total.
(BOSTON) — The family of a Boston man is speaking out after they say their 31-year-old son was struck from a waitlist for a heart transplant because he was not vaccinated against COVID-19.
DJ Ferguson, who was diagnosed with arrhythmia four years ago, was admitted to Brigham and Women’s Hospital after suffering heart failure this winter, his parents told ABC News. But after reviewing Ferguson’s medical history, which showed he had not received a coronavirus shot, hospital staff told Ferguson that his vaccination status made him ineligible for a new heart, according to his parents.
Tracey and David Ferguson insisted their son does not oppose vaccines; he just worries the COVID-19 shot would complicate his heart condition, they said.
“He’s not an anti-vaxxer. He has all of his vaccines, and he’s an informed patient who is concerned because of his current cardiac crisis,” Tracey Ferguson said.
However, doctors say the risk of severe illness and inflammation of the heart from contracting COVID-19 is much more likely than the low risk of heart inflammation from the vaccine, which is usually temporary.
National transplant associations recommend the COVID-19 vaccines before transplants, as do many medical centers, because after a transplant, the patient’s immune system can become compromised from medications necessary to keep the organ and the patient alive, making the individual at risk for severe illness and death if they become infected with COVID-19.
The coronavirus vaccine is just one of several vaccinations required for patients who receive a transplant at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, a spokesperson at the facility told ABC News. These requirements “create both the best chance for a successful operation and optimize the patient’s survival after transplantation, given that their immune system is dramatically suppressed,” spokesperson Serena Bronda wrote in an email.
Since only about half of people waiting for an organ transplant will receive one, according to the hospital, doctors try to ensure that the organs go to people with the best chance of survival after the operation.
While the hospital could not comment on Ferguson’s case, citing HIPAA privacy law, Bronda said that all patients seeking transplants undergo a “comprehensive evaluation” to determine if they are eligible for the operation.
Transplant seekers are also screened for certain “lifestyle behaviors” that might disqualify them, such as substance use and active smoking, she added.
Evaluating patients seeking organ transplants is a common practice in most hospitals — and a necessary one, experts told ABC News, as there are not enough organs for everyone who needs one.
“You’re trying to get the most life saved with a very, very scarce resource,” Dr. Arthur Caplan, a professor of bioethics at New York University, said. “This is not about discrimination.”
Jennifer Miller, a bioethicist at Yale, told ABC News that hospitals must “allocate prudently” when it comes to organ transplants. “If you end up giving a heart to somebody who then dies, not only that person died, another person didn’t get that heart,” she said.
On Tuesday, DJ Ferguson was in open-heart surgery to receive a mechanical heart pump, called a left ventricular assist device, which should keep him alive for up to five years, according to his parents, who worry about the toll the device will have on their son’s quality of life.
“For the foreseeable future, he won’t be able to shower, he won’t be able to swim. He won’t be able to have a life,” David Ferguson said.
Tracey Ferguson said it was “devastating” when she learned that her son was not eligible to receive a new heart.
(MIAMI) — One body has been recovered as a search continued Wednesday morning for 38 other passengers believed to have been on a human-smuggling boat that capsized in the northern Straits of Florida, officials said.
During a news conference Wednesday morning, a U.S. Coast Guard official said search and rescue crews are in a race against time to find any survivors.
“It is dire. The longer they remain in the water without food, without water, exposed to the marine environment, the sun, the sea conditions, every moment that passes it becomes much more dire and unlikely that anyone could survive in those conditions,” said Capt. Jo-Ann Burdian, commander of the Sector Miami Coast Guard.
The 25-foot capsized boat was discovered around 8 a.m. on Tuesday roughly 40 miles east of Florida’s Fort Pierce Inlet when a commercial tug-in barge operator radioed in that one survivor was found clinging to the hull of the overturned vessel.
“We often rely on sometimes heroic acts of good Samaritans operating in the marine environment and this case is no exception,” Burdian said. “We’re deeply grateful that the mariner located the survivor in this case and saved his life and called us so that we could continue to search for survivors.”
Burdian said the survivor was in a hospital in stable condition on Wednesday and was being interviewed by federal Homeland Security investigators. The survivor said a total of 40 people were aboard the boat when it flipped over in treacherous sea conditions after launching from Bimini Island in the Bahamas on Saturday evening, Burdian said.
“The survivor was not wearing a life jacket and reported that no one else on board was wearing a life jacket,” Burdian said.
Joshua Nelson, operations manager for the tug-in barge dubbed the “Signet Intruder” that rescued the man, said the survivor told the crew that his sister was on the boat and among those unaccounted for. Nelson, who was not on the barge owned by Signet Maritime Corp. when the rescue was made, told ABC News that his crew reported that the man was dehydrated and “was very malnourished and very distraught.”
“We’ve had other vessels and other crew members in some of our other divisions that have encountered this before,” Nelson said. “Nothing really prepares (you) in regards to this, but they felt relieved that they were able to get him on board.”
Burdian said the Coast Guard along with federal, state and local partners immediately initiated a search involving multiple Coast Guard cutters and Navy aircraft.
“We did recover a deceased body, who will be transferred to shore today in Fort Pierce and we continue to search for other survivors,” Burdian said.
She said crews have already searched an area of about 7,500 nautical miles or about the size of New Jersey.
Burdian said aircraft crews have reported seeing some debris fields with items consistent with the number of people believed to have been on board the vessel.
“We do suspect that this is a case of human smuggling,” Burdian said. “This event occurred in a normal route for human smuggling from the Bahamas into the southeast U.S.”
She said the waters in the Florida straits can be quite treacherous.
“In cases like this, small vessels, overloaded, inexperienced operators at night in bad weather is incredibly dangerous,” Burdian said.
Burdian would not comment on the origins or nationalities of the people believed to have been on the vessel.
“My focus remains on search and rescue,” Burdian said.
She said the search will continue throughout Wednesday, but cautioned, “the search can’t go on forever” and that the rescue operation will be re-evaluated on a daily basis.
“Without life jackets, anyone is disadvantaged to survive in the water,” Burdian said. “Life jackets save lives.”
(HARTFORD, Conn.) — Investigators say they discovered over 100 bags of fentanyl in the bedroom of a Connecticut teen who overdosed and died earlier this month and are seeking any information on the person who provided the drugs.
The Hartford Police Department said Wednesday that the bags recovered from the room matched 60 bags found at the Sports and Medical Science Academy, a magnet school in Hartford where the unidentified 13-year-old overdosed on Jan. 13. He died the following Saturday, police said.
“This fentanyl was packaged in the same manner as the bags located at the school, had the same identifying stamp, and tested at an even higher purity level (60% purity),” the Hartford police said in a statement.
Fentanyl is a Schedule II prescription drug used to treat patients suffering from severe pain after surgery, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse. It is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, according to the institute.
The rate of drug overdose deaths involving synthetic opioids other than methadone, such as fentanyl, increased 56%, from 11.4 per 100,000 in 2019 to 17.8 per 100,000 in 2020, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Two other students at the public school were sickened after apparently being exposed to the drug, but both recovered, investigators said.
The police said there is no evidence that anyone other than the 13-year-old brought the drugs to the school, police said.
An “individual who has history at the residence” and narcotics history is a person of interest but hasn’t been labeled a suspect, according to the police. Investigators have also interviewed the teen’s mother, who they say has been cooperating.
“At this time, we have no evidence to support her having any prior knowledge of her son’s possession of the fentanyl,” the police said in a statement.
(COLLEYVILLE, Texas) — A man faces a federal charge for allegedly selling the gun used in the Texas synagogue hostage situation earlier this month, authorities said.
Henry Williams, 32, faces one charge of being a felon in possession of a firearm in connection with the hostage crisis at Congregation Beth Israel in the Fort Worth suburb of Colleyville on Jan. 15.
The armed suspect, identified by authorities as 44-year-old British citizen Malik Faisal Akram, died in the incident when an FBI hostage rescue team breached the synagogue after an 11-hour standoff.
Investigators allege Williams sold Akram a Taurus G2C pistol on Jan. 13, two days before the hostage incident.
The FBI said it discovered Williams’ alleged ties to Akram through an analysis of Akram’s phone records after his death.
Agents first interviewed Williams on Jan. 16, during which he allegedly said he recalled meeting “a man with a British accent,” the Department of Justice said.
Agents interviewed Williams again after his arrest on an outstanding state warrant on Monday, during which he allegedly confirmed he sold Akram the handgun at an intersection in South Dallas after viewing a photo of the suspect, according to the Justice Department.
“Williams allegedly admitted to officers that Mr. Akram told him the gun was going to be used for ‘intimidation’ to get money from someone with an outstanding debt,” the Department of Justice said in a statement.
Cellphone records for both men also show their phones were in close proximity on Jan. 13, according to prosecutors.
Williams was arrested Tuesday on the firearm charge and made his first appearance before a magistrate judge Wednesday afternoon. According to the Department of Justice, Williams was previously convicted of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and attempted possession of a controlled substance.
“Federal firearm laws are designed to keep guns from falling into dangerous hands. As a convicted felon, Mr. Williams was prohibited from carrying, acquiring, or selling firearms,” U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Chad Meacham said in a statement. “Whether or not he knew of his buyer’s nefarious intent is largely irrelevant — felons cannot have guns, period, and the Justice Department is committed to prosecuting those who do.”
A detention hearing has been scheduled for Monday. ABC News has reached out to Williams’ attorney for comment.
A rabbi and three members of the synagogue were taken hostage during the incident. All four managed to escape unharmed.
FBI agents said the suspect was demanding the release of a convicted terrorist and believe the location was intentionally targeted because it was the closest synagogue to Carswell Air Force Base near Fort Worth, where the prisoner is being held.
Multiple law enforcement sources told ABC News the suspect was demanding the release of Aafia Siddiqui, who was convicted of assault and attempted murder of a U.S. soldier in 2010 and sentenced to 86 years in prison.
In the weeks since the incident, investigators have been digging into the suspect’s social media and personal devices to try and find out more about his travel and associates.
Four men have also been arrested in England within the past week as part of the probe, British authorities said.
