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(BRUNSWICK, Ga.) — Hundreds of pastors gathered and prayed Thursday outside the Georgia courthouse where the trial over Ahmaud Arbery’s killing is underway, a week after a defense attorney said there shouldn’t be “any more Black pastors” in the courtroom.

Rev. Al Sharpton, whose presence in the courtroom prompted the attorney’s denied request to prevent pastors from sitting with Arbery’s family during the trial, called on clergy “across ecumenical lines” to join him outside the Glynn County Courthouse for a “power of prayer vigil” in solidarity with the family.

“No lawyer can knock us out. Because wherever you are, God is always there,” Sharpton told the crowd. “I’m here this week. … And we’re going to keep coming until we get justice.”

Judge in trial over death of Ahmaud Arbery admonishes defense attorney over his comments about Rev. Al Sharpton’s presence in courtroom gallery, after the attorney said, “We don’t want any more black pastors coming in here.” https://t.co/XIbLQnBhwY pic.twitter.com/8NBnKzL3XP

— ABC News (@ABC) November 12, 2021

Arbery’s parents thanked the pastors for their support.

“My heart is full of just joy in the midst of this broken heart,” his mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, told the crowd.

Sharpton said he was joined in Brunswick by hundreds of Black pastors from “all over the world,” shouting out Seattle, Philadelphia and New York City. Also in attendance were human rights advocate Martin Luther King III, the son of slain civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., and the Arbery family’s attorneys.

Protesters also gathered alongside the clergy, holding signs that said “Black pastors matter” and “Justice for Ahmaud.”

The rally was announced last Friday, a day after defense attorney Kevin Gough told Superior Court Judge Timothy Walmsley that he took major offense over the fact that Sharpton had been in the courtroom with Arbery’s family that week. Gough called Sharpton’s presence “improper,” “intimidating to the jury” and “an attempt to influence.”

“We have all kinds of pastors in this town, over 100. And the idea that we’re going to be serially bringing these people in to sit with the victim’s family, one after another, obviously there’s only so many pastors they can have,” Gough said. “If their pastor’s Al Sharpton right now, that’s fine. But then that’s it. We don’t want any more Black pastors coming in here.”

Gough later apologized, saying in court that his statements had been “overly broad.”

“My apologies to anyone who might’ve been inadvertently offended,” he said.

In an interview with ABC News’ Linsey Davis this week, Sharpton said the comments were “one of the more outrageous things I’ve ever heard.”

“He didn’t just say, ‘We don’t want ministers,’ or, ‘We don’t want civil rights leaders’ — ‘We don’t want Black pastors,'” he said. “And I think that that is one of the most bigoted and biased things I’ve heard.”

Gough is representing William “Roddie” Bryan, who filmed Gregory McMichael and his son, Travis McMichael, chasing down Arbery while the 25-year-old Black man was out for a jog last year. Arbery was fatally shot during the confrontation.

The three defendants have pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, aggravated assault and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment.

The high-profile trial entered its 10th day Thursday, with Travis McMichael taking to the stand for the second time to testify as the defense’s first witness. The defense rested its case in the afternoon, and court is adjourned until Monday morning.

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(BRUNSWICK, Ga.) — Travis McMichael returned to the witness stand on Thursday and under cross-examination from the prosecutor repeated that Ahmaud Arbery never verbally threatened him or brandished a weapon during the five minutes he, his father and their neighbor chased Arbery before McMichael fatally shot him.

Prosecutor Linda Dunikoski attempted to undermind the 35-year-old McMichael’s credibility by getting him to concede to inconsistencies between what he told police the day of the shooting and what he told the Brunswick, Georgia, jury during his direct testimony on Wednesday.

“Not once in your statement to police did you say that you and your father were trying to arrest Mr. Arbery?” Dunikoski asked after inquiring about the defendant’s training on probable cause during his time in the Coast Guard.

Travis McMichael acknowledged that in none of his statements did he tell police that he and his father were attempting to make a citizens’ arrest of Arbery. He also conceded that he had suspected another individual of stealing a pistol from his truck on Jan. 1, 2020, and that he had also surmised that person, not Arbery, was the one responsible for a spike in crime in his Satilla Shores neighborhood near Brunswick.

Dunikoski grilled Travis McMichael on why he suspected Arbery of burglarizing a home under construction on the day of the killing, writing on a flipchart a series of assumptions and statements in which he said “maybe” a neighbor had seen him in the unfinished home, “maybe” he had broken in, “maybe” he was running from a crime, “maybe” Arbery had been caught in the act.

Travis McMichael testified that he based his suspicions on a totality of circumstances, including a brief encounter at the construction site in his neighborhood he had on Feb. 11, 2020, with a man that turned out to be Arbery, whom he thought was armed because he reached into his pants.

Travis McMichael, his 65-year-old father, Gregory McMichael, and their neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan, 53, have pleaded not guilty to charges of murder, aggravated assault and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment.

Complaint about Rev. Jesse Jackson

During Travis McMichael’s testimony on Thursday, the Rev. Jesse Jackson sat in the courtroom gallery with Arbery’s parents, raising the latest of several recent objections from Bryan’s attorney, Kevin Gough, that the presence of prominent Black ministers in the court was an attempt to intimidate the jury.

Judge Walmsley said he has already ruled twice on Gough’s motions to bar the Black ministers from the courtroom, finding that they have not been disruptive to the proceedings.

In an apparent reaction to Gough’s complaints, hundreds of Black ministers held a prayer vigil outside the courthouse on Thursday as the trial was going on.

The chase

Dunikoski directed Travis McMichael’s attention to the pursuit of Arbery that he and his father, Gregory McMichael, initiated after his dad saw Arbery running past their home on Feb. 23, 2020, causing them both to grab their guns.

During his direct testimony on Wednesday, Travis McMichael testified that he walked out of his house with his shotgun and saw a neighbor pointing in his direction as if signaling where he saw the young Black man running.

Travis McMichael testified on Thursday that at no time did he go and speak to the neighbor about what had occurred before he and his father jumped in his truck with their guns and set out after Arbery.

He testified that he drove close enough to Arbery on three separate occasions to ask him to stop running so he could speak to him, but in each instance, Arbery kept running, never said a word to him and altered his course in an apparent attempt to get away from the McMichaels.

“When you first see him, he’s not reaching into his pockets?” Dunikoski asked.

Travis McMichael answered, “No, ma’am.”

Dunikoski continued her line of questioning, saying, “And he never yelled at you guys, never threatened you at all?”

Travis McMichael responded, “Did not threaten me verbally.”

He agreed that Abery never brandished a knife, gun, or had anything in his hands at any time during the pursuit, testifying, “He was just running.”

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(NEW YORK) — One of the men convicted in connection with the 1965 assassination of Malcolm X appeared in court Thursday where a judge cleared his name.

Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance moved to throw out the convictions of Muhammad Aziz, 83, and Khalil Islam, who died in 2009, based on “newly discovered evidence and the failure to disclose exculpatory evidence,” according to a joint motion Vance’s office filed with the defense.

“We are moving today to vacate the convictions and dismiss the indictments,” Vance said. “I apologize for what were serious, unacceptable violations of law and the public trust.”

Aziz, previously known as Norman Butler, spent 22 years in prison before he was paroled in 1985. Confessed assassin Thomas Hagan, who served 45 years in prison, had long said neither man participated in killing the fiery civil rights leader.

Vance said that certain witnesses, acting under orders from then-FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, were ordered not to reveal they were FBI informants.

“Mr. Aziz and Mr. Islam were wrongly convicted of this crime,” Vance said.

Aziz sat at the defense table wearing a white mask next to his attorney, David Shanies, who called Aziz and Islam “innocent young Black men” and accused the New York Police Department and the FBI of covering up evidence.

“Most of the men who murdered Malcolm X never faced justice,” Shanies said.

Aziz read from a statement in court, saying, “The events that led to my conviction and wrongful imprisonment should never have happened. Those events were the result of a process that was corrupt to its core — one that is all too familiar — even in 2021.”

“While I do not need a court, prosecutors, or a piece of paper to tell me I am innocent, I am glad that my family, my friends, and the attorneys who have worked and supported me all these years are finally seeing the truth we have all known officially recognized,” he continued.

The exoneration resulted from a nearly two-year investigation by the district attorney’s office and the Innocence Project that uncovered FBI documents that revealed a description of the killers that did not match Aziz or Islam, an admission that the only witnesses who fingered Aziz and Islam were FBI informants and a report that said sources reviewed photos of Islam and failed to place him in the Audubon Ballroom where Malcolm X was assassinated on Feb. 21, 1965.

“In short, it is unknown whether the identification procedures used in this case were properly conducted,” the motion to vacate said.

The district attorney’s office stopped short of proclaiming the actual innocence of Aziz and Islam, citing the deaths of witnesses, co-conspirators and police officers, the missing identification and physical and other evidence.

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(OKLAHOMA CITY) — After spending the past 20 years fighting for his life on death row, Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt commuted Julius Jones’ sentence to life without the possibility of parole the day Jones was scheduled to be executed.

“After prayerful consideration and reviewing materials presented by all sides of this case, I have determined to commute Julius Jones’ sentence to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole,” Stitt said in a statement released Thursday.

Last week, a federal appeals court rejected Jones’ final appeal, which meant the decision to spare his life lay only with Stitt, who could have accepted the parole board’s recommendation to grant Jones clemency. Jones’ execution date was slated for Nov. 18.

In September, the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board recommended Stitt commute Jones’ sentence to life in prison with the possibility of parole. Stitt said at the time he was waiting for a clemency hearing to make a decision.

Nearly two months later, on Nov. 1, the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board voted to recommend clemency for Jones in a 3-1 favor.

“Nightline” spoke to Jones’ family in September following the parole board’s recommendation to commute Jones’ death sentence. Jones’ mother, Madeline Davis-Jones, said the parole board’s decision had given the family hope in the eleventh hour.

Antoinette Jones said in September that her brother was calm when he heard the parole board’s recommendation.

“He said, ‘I’m good. I’ll be even better when I get out and I can hug y’all and we can start helping change the world,'” Antoinette Jones said.

Julius Jones was 19 years old when he was arrested for the 1999 murder of Oklahoma businessman Paul Howell, and sentenced to death in 2002. What followed were decades of public scrutiny and relentless work from his legal team.

Jones, 41, has spent most of his life behind bars. Before he was in prison, friends and teachers knew him as a champion high school basketball player who attended the University of Oklahoma on an academic scholarship.

That all changed in 1999 when Howell, 45, was shot in his family’s driveway after a car-jacking in the wealthy suburb of Edmond, Oklahoma.

Howell’s GMC Suburban went missing and his sister, Megan Tobey, was the only eyewitness.

“Megan Tobey described the shooter as a young Black man wearing a red bandana, a white shirt and a stocking cap or skullcap. She was not able to identify the shooter’s face because it was covered,” Bass told ABC News in 2018.

Two days after Howell was killed, police found his Suburban parked in a grocery store parking lot. They learned later that a man named Ladell King had been offering to sell the car.

King named Chris Jordan and Julius Jones to investigators and said the two men had asked him to help them sell the stolen Suburban.

“Ladell was interviewed by the lead detectives in this case. He told the police that on the night of the crime, a guy named Chris Jordan comes to his apartment. A few minutes later, according to Ladell King, Julius Jones drives up,” attorney Dale Baich told ABC News in 2018.

King accused Jordan of being the driver and claimed that he and Jones were looking for Suburbans to steal, but it was Jones who shot Howell.

“Both Ladell King and Christopher Jordan were directing police’s attention to the home of Julius Jones’ parents as a place that would have incriminating items of evidence,” Bass said.

Investigators found a gun wrapped in a red bandana in the crawl space of Jones’ family home. The next day, Jones was arrested for capital murder.

Jones’ attorneys say the evidence police found could have been planted by Jordan. They say Jordan had stayed at Jones’ house the night after the murder, but Jordan denied those claims during the trial.

In the years since, Jones’ defense team has argued that racial bias and missteps from his then-public defense team played a role.

Jones’ team submitted files to the parole board that they said proved his innocence, including affidavits and taped video interviews with inmates who had served time in prison with Jordan. They said they allegedly heard Jordan confess to Howell’s murder.

In a statement to ABC News in September, Jordan’s attorney, Billy Bock, said: “Chris Jordan maintains his position that his role in the death of Paul Howell was as an accomplice to Julius Jones. Mr. Jordan testified truthfully in the jury trial of Mr. Jones and denies ‘confessing’ to anyone.”

Jordan served 15 years in prison before he was released.

In 2020, Jones’ story was thrown back into the spotlight when unlikely legal ally Kim Kardashian drew public attention to his case. Kardashian, who is studying to take California’s bar exam, has been vocal on the issue of the death penalty and prison reform and has campaigned to free a number of men and women who were incarcerated.

“Kim Kardashian, I felt like may be one of my sorority sisters … she was down to earth,” Davis-Jones said.

Antoinette Jones said Kardashian put in the effort to help her brother.

“She sat down and she broke down my brother’s case. That means that she actually did the work,” Jones said. “She did the work to go back and check certain things, to point out certain things.”

“The fact that she told me that she was able to go see my brother, it was almost like she took a piece of him and brought it to us and then we could feel like he was there with us,” Jones added.

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(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.1 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 767,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.

Just 68.9% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:

Nov 18, 12:27 pm
Florida governor signs legislation prohibiting private employer vaccine mandates

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday signed legislation that prohibits private employer vaccine mandates and says employers that violate the ruling will be fined.

The legislation also states educational institutions can’t require students to be vaccinated; school districts can’t have face mask policies or quarantine healthy students; and families can “sue violating school districts.”

“Nobody should lose their job due to heavy-handed COVID mandates,” DeSantis, a Republican, said in a statement.

Nov 18, 9:58 am
New York governor calls on workers to go back to the office

New York Gov. Kathy Hochul is calling on workers to head back to the office in the new year.

“How about this New Year’s resolution: that in the days after New Year’s, that we say everybody back in the office. You can have a flex time, but we need you back, at least the majority of the week,” Hochul told industry leaders at the Association for a Better New York breakfast.

Hochul also said she would be in Times Square on New Year’s Eve.

Times Square is reopening this New Year’s Eve after being closed last year due to the pandemic. Revelers must bring proof of full vaccination and a photo ID.

“I can’t wait to put 2020 – 2021 behind us,” the governor said.

ABC News’ Aaron Katersky

Nov 18, 9:17 am
Doctors stress importance of pediatric vaccinations, COVID ‘one of the top 10 leading causes of death in children’

COVID-19 “is one of the top ten leading causes of death in children” and vaccines are a “safe and simple intervention” to significantly lower the risk of severe illness, emergency physician Dr. Leana Wen and professor of health policy and management at GW said at a National Press Foundation briefing Wednesday.

Dr. Sean O’Leary, vice chair of the committee on infectious diseases for the American Academy of Pediatrics, said he believes that the fear surrounding the vaccine is largely based on misinformation.

Both doctors also pointed to the problem of access to vaccines, with many Americans in rural areas living in “pharmacy deserts.”

“We should not assume that these people don’t want the vaccine. A lot of it is access,” Leary said.

Officials need to hold clinics in places like schools, Wen added.

ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos

Nov 18, 4:38 am
Disney Cruise Line to require guests ages 5 and up be vaccinated

Disney Cruise Line said it will require all passengers ages 5 and up to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 starting next year.

Guests who are not vaccine-eligible because of their age will have to provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test result taken between three days and 24 hours their sail date.

“We are resuming sailing in a gradual, phased approach that emphasizes multiple layers of health and safety measures, considering guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other medical experts,” Disney Cruise Line said Wednesday in an updated policy on its website. “Under this guidance, we’ve reimagined your cruise experience so we all can enjoy the magic responsibly.”

The vaccine mandate will take effect Jan. 13 and will apply to sailings both in the United States and abroad.

Currently, passengers ages 12 and older as well as all crew members must be fully vaccinated, while unvaccinated guests ages 5 to 11 must take a pre-departure COVID-19 test.

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(BALTIMORE) — Two former Maryland police officers are now the subject of a manhunt by their former boss, and police said they should be considered armed and dangerous.

The alleged crimes began at a home in York County, Pennsylvania, this week, when former Baltimore County police officer Robert Vicosa allegedly held a woman at gunpoint, stole her car and fled with his two daughters, ages 6 and 7, police in York said. The stolen car was found in Red Lion, Pennsylvania, police said.

On Wednesday afternoon, Vicosa and Baltimore County police officer Tia Bynum allegedly committed a kidnapping and robbery in the Cockeysville, Maryland, area, the Baltimore County Police Department said.

Vicosa was allegedly armed with a semi-automatic handgun, police said, adding that his daughters were present during the robbery.

The suspects allegedly carjacked a man and forced him to drive them, before releasing the victim unharmed, Baltimore County Police Chief Melissa Hyatt said.

Baltimore County police said Vicosa was fired in August 2021. Police said Bynum, who was in the criminal investigations bureau, is currently suspended and stripped of police powers.

Vicosa and Bynum are wanted and considered armed and dangerous, police said, adding that they’re “armed with at least one handgun and possibly several semi-automatic rifles.”

Chief Hyatt began her remarks at a news conference Thursday with a personal plea to Bynum.

“Our priority is the safety and wellbeing of [Vicosa’s daughters] Giana and Aaminah. Please get these two innocent and precious children to a safe location,” Hyatt said. “We want to work with you on a safe and peaceful resolution.”

She urged both suspects to “peacefully surrender to authorities.”

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Attorneys representing Elijah McClain’s family and the City of Aurora have reached an agreement that the city will pay out $15 million in the civil rights lawsuit filed over McClain’s violent arrest and subsequent death, an official briefed on the matter told ABC News.

This will be the highest police settlement in the history of Colorado, the official said.

The agreement comes over a year after the family filed a 106-page federal lawsuit in the U.S. District Court of Colorado that accused several first responders involved in the incident of violating Elijah McClain’s civil rights and causing his death.

The money will be divided between Elijah McClain’s mother and father. ABC News has reached out to their attorneys for comment.

McClain, 23, was confronted by police on Aug. 24, 2019, while walking home from a convenience store after a 911 caller told authorities they had seen someone “sketchy” in the area.

McClain was unarmed and wearing a ski mask at the time. His family says he had anemia, a blood condition that can make people feel cold more easily.

According to an independent review of his death, officers placed McClain in a carotid chokehold that restricts the carotid artery and cuts off blood to the brain.

The independent review found that McClain had pleaded with officers, crying out in pain, apologizing, and attempting to explain himself.

When EMTs arrived, he was administered a shot of 500 milligrams of ketamine and placed in an ambulance where he had a heart attack, according to officials. He died on Aug. 30, three days after doctors pronounced him brain dead and he was removed from life support, officials said.

The legal battle over McClain’s death is not over: A state grand jury filed a 32-count indictment against the three officers and two paramedics in September, accusing them of several charges, including manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.

The defendants’ next court date is on Jan. 7, when they are expected to enter their pleas on the charges.

The Aurora Police Association Board of Directors has defended the officers, saying in a past statement: “There is no evidence that APD officers caused his death. The hysterical overreaction to this case has severely damaged the police department.”

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(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.1 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 767,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.

Just 68.9% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:

Nov 18, 4:38 am
Disney Cruise Line to require guests ages 5 and up be vaccinated

Disney Cruise Line said it will require all passengers ages 5 and up to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 starting next year.

Guests who are not vaccine-eligible because of their age will have to provide proof of a negative COVID-19 test result taken between three days and 24 hours their sail date.

“We are resuming sailing in a gradual, phased approach that emphasizes multiple layers of health and safety measures, considering guidance from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other medical experts,” Disney Cruise Line said Wednesday in an updated policy on its website. “Under this guidance, we’ve reimagined your cruise experience so we all can enjoy the magic responsibly.”

The vaccine mandate will take effect Jan. 13 and will apply to sailings both in the United States and abroad.

Currently, passengers ages 12 and older as well as all crew members must be fully vaccinated, while unvaccinated guests ages 5 to 11 must take a pre-departure COVID-19 test.

Nov 17, 6:27 pm
FDA expected to authorize Pfizer, Moderna boosters for all adults soon: Source

The Food and Drug Administration is expected to authorize Pfizer’s and Moderna’s COVID-19 booster doses for all adults as soon as Thursday, a government official with direct knowledge of the process told ABC News.

That would come in time for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s advisory panel meeting this Friday to discuss booster recommendations regarding all adults for both manufacturers.

The CDC previously signed off on a third dose of both vaccines for certain populations, as well as a booster of the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine for anyone 18 years and older.

ABC News’ Eric Strauss

Nov 17, 2:26 pm
Moderna asks FDA to authorize booster for all adults

Moderna has now asked the FDA to authorize its COVID-19 booster for all adults.

Pfizer has already asked the FDA to amend its booster authorization to all adults.

The FDA could make an authorization decision by Friday. The CDC also needs to sign off. The CDC’s advisory committee will meet on Friday to discuss new booster recommendations.

Johnson & Johnson boosters are already authorized for everyone 18 and older.

ABC News’ Sony Salzman

Nov 17, 1:24 pm
2.6 million kids to be vaccinated by end of day: White House

Nearly 10% of the 28 million eligible 5- to 11-year-olds will be partially vaccinated by the end of Wednesday, White House COVID coordinator Jeff Zients said at a White House briefing.

The kids vaccine program has been operational for about 10 days.

ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett

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(ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.) — COVID-19 cases in New Mexico are “trending in a worrisome direction,” health officials said this week, as they called on residents to get vaccinated amid the surge.

New Mexico reported 1,530 new cases and 539 hospitalizations Wednesday, rivaling numbers last seen in December and January, during the state’s last COVID-19 wave.

“Things are not going well in our hospitals,” Dr. David Scrase, acting cabinet secretary of the New Mexico Department of Health, said during a COVID-19 briefing Wednesday, noting the state is “facing some very serious problems,” including with intensive care unit capacity.

“Last week, we had only eight ICU beds, now we’re up to 10 — still nowhere near enough ICU beds,” he said. “What this does mean is someone having a heart attack right now may or may not have access to ICU care in New Mexico, and frankly, as cases start rising again in other states, we may not find a bed there.”

Six hospitals across the state have activated crisis standards of care in recent weeks, including the University of New Mexico Health System’s and Presbyterian Healthcare Services’ Albuquerque metro hospitals, as they are being stretched to the limit in terms of space and staffing due to increasing COVID-19 hospitalizations and a high volume of patients with acute conditions, officials said.

The decision means that nonessential medical procedures could be delayed by up to 90 days, and patients may need to get treated at different regional hospitals, or possibly out of state, hospital officials said.

Given the high risk for exposure and rising hospitalizations, New Mexico was one of the first in a growing number of states to urge all fully vaccinated adults to get boosters once they meet the six- or two-month thresholds, ahead of federal authorization.

“I want folks to get their boosters,” New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said during the briefing. “Until we get to that 80, 85, 90% of individuals who are eligible for a booster, we are going to see these risks where we have breakthrough infections.”

Over 21% of fully vaccinated residents have gotten a booster dose, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Health officials have cited waning immunity among fully vaccinated residents as one of the factors fueling the surge in COVID-19 cases, along with transmission of the highly contagious delta variant, increased tourism to the region and colder weather driving people indoors.

Amid the surge, health officials are also focused on getting shots to people who have yet to get a first dose. Unvaccinated residents remain a major driver of transmission and make up the bulk of hospitalizations, with over 71% of new COVID-19 cases and nearly 80% of hospitalizations reported from Oct. 18 to Nov. 15 in unvaccinated people, according to state data.

“Full vaccination is still New Mexico’s first priority,” Dr. Laura Parajón, deputy secretary for the New Mexico Department of Health, said during the briefing. “If you look at the whole of New Mexico, the whole population, 61.4% of all New Mexicans are vaccinated. However, we are having a surge, because 38.6% of people still remain unvaccinated.”

COVID-19 cases across New Mexico are currently “trending in a worrisome direction,” according to Dr. Christine Ross, the state epidemiologist, with the positivity rate at about 12.5%.

“What this means to us is there’s a very high burden of disease in our communities,” she said during the briefing, noting that transmission among school-aged children in particular is “very concerning.”

Over 25% of COVID-19 infections in the past week in New Mexico were pediatric cases, according to Ross. With children ages 5 to 11 newly eligible to get vaccinated, health officials urged parents to get their children vaccinated.

“We know that children are at low risk for serious outcomes, but they are not at zero risk,” Ross said. “These vaccines are safe and highly effective. This is the best tool to protect your kids and to prevent onward transmission of the virus and to help us end the pandemic.”

Scrase said he is excited by the prospect of outpatient oral antiviral treatments for COVID-19, such as molnupiravir, though they’re not available yet.

For now, he urged people to continue to follow measures like social distancing and mask-wearing. New Mexico is one of a handful of states that still have mask mandates in effect. The state’s health department extended an order requiring masks while in indoor public settings through Dec. 10, due to the significant COVID-19 case counts and strained hospital capacity.

Scrase also warned against unproven treatments for COVID-19, noting that New Mexico saw a third death since August from ivermectin, an anti-parasite medicine that is not authorized by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of COVID-19. The man took 150 milligrams of a horse formulation of ivermectin and suffered from liver and kidney failure, according to Scrase.

Health officials said they’re continuing to work with community health workers and local organizations to combat misinformation and vaccine hesitancy.

“We’re really trying to meet people where they’re at,” Parajón said.

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(PAUMA VALLEY, Calif.) — The key to helping curb greenhouse gas emissions from the agriculture industry may be hidden just beneath the surface.

While in the past century farming has transformed to be faster and on a larger scale, the newfound efficiency came at a cost to the environment. Farmers extracted more nutrients from the soil than what was being replaced, and the fertilizers used to aid crop growth are responsible for one of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions from global agriculture industry, according to experts.

In the U.S. alone, the use of nitrogen fertilizers are responsible for about 195 million metric tons of greenhouse gases annually, comparable to the emissions of 41 million passenger vehicles per year, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Some farmers believe the solution to making the agriculture industry more environmental-friendly lies in revitalizing the soil in which they grow crops, rather than traditional methods, such as fertilizer and conventional tilling.

One of the ways to do this is the no-till method, an old practice where the soil structure is not disturbed, experts and officials say. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, continuous no-till practices can save money, improve soil health and conserve resources such as fuel and labor investments. Practicing no-till management for multiple years allows fields to have a higher water holding capacity than conventionally tilled fields, which is particularly important in areas prone to drought, according to the USDA.

And the agency has said that soil disturbance stimulates the microbes that release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

Adoption of the method, which the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service has encouraged, has been increasing, about 8% from 2012 to 2017 according to the latest Census of Agriculture, and accounted for more than 100 million acres. Intensive tillage declined 35% during the same time.

‘Healing process’

It is important for farmers to look at their land and pay attention to “what it’s telling you,” Nan Cavazos, co-owner of Solidarity Farm in Pauma Valley, California, told ABC News. That includes looking at what kind of weeds are growing and improving the health of the soil based on that, he added.

“When you touch the soil, there’s a healing process that happens between soil and humans,” Cavazos said.

Workers at Solidarity Farm stopped plowing the soil in order to encourage more resilient arable land — so that the soil can “hold life” and create better quality crops, Cavazo said. Tilling destroys the soil structure, which makes it difficult for organisms in the soil to survive, Leah Penniman, co-executive director of Soul Fire Farm, a New York-based farm committed to social justice and ending racism in the food industry, told ABC News.

“And if the soil holds life, it’s easier for growing produce, and probably healthier produce,” he said.

As the effects of climate change intensify and threaten future food supplies, young farmers are reimagining their farms to withstand the increase of natural disasters, Sophie Ackoff, co-executive director of the Young Farmers Coalition, told ABC News. They think about conservation as they build their businesses, such as capturing water in the soil to prepare for a hotter and drier future, Ackoff added.

“Young farmers are imagining farming their entire lives in climate change conditions,” Ackoff said. “They’re already experiencing climate change on their farms.”

The variable climate in Southern California, which can include days ranging from 60 to 100 degrees, depending on the time of year, can have a detrimental effect on number and quality of crops, Cavazos said.

“Which makes it really hard for certain crops, you know?” Cavazos said. “The crops are all happy and then at a sudden, like, the sun comes out, and you’re like, ‘Whoa. What just happened?”

‘Cushion’ of protection

Beds of soil that are well-nourished can resist harsher temperatures and are more resilient to the heat because there is a “cushion” of protection, Cavazos said.

Diversifying the number of crops also makes for healthier soil, Cavazos said, adding that his farm grows between 50 and 60 different types of vegetable crops every year.

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Industrial and corporate agriculture prioritize efficiency, and the current food and much of the agriculture system in the U.S. is a result of decades of federal farm policies that incentivized industrialization and consolidation, Ackoff said.

“As soon as you take a step back and look at a five or five year or more timespan, you’ll see that this system is not very resilient,” Penniman said. “If there’s a drought, if there’s a flood or hurricane, heat wave, pest outbreak, that system starts to break down because it has such a narrow margin of conditions in which it can be successful.”

The U.S. Department of Agriculture did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment.

Regenerative agriculture is an indigenous practice of farming that improves the land that is being utilized, Penniman said. The methodology involves leaving the soil better than it was found, she added.

“Take care of your soil, take care of your place, and it will take care of you,” he added.

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