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(NEW YORK) — Reality TV star Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino and his wife, Lauren Sorrentino, jumped into action recently when their son started choking.

The Sorrentinos shared video footage of the incident on Instagram Sunday as a warning to other parents.

Mike Sorrentino said the scary moment started as a typical, everyday dinner for his family last Thursday, but he grew alert when he heard his 2-year-old son, Romeo, starting to make choking noises.

“If I hear a cough during dinner, I assume it’s a problem. So I immediately jumped up,” the “Jersey Shore” alum recalled to “Good Morning America.”

Sorrentino said he picked up Romeo and started patting him on the back while his wife walked to the kitchen to retrieve an anti-choking device they kept in a drawer.

“I knew I didn’t want to hit him too hard when he was upright because I thought maybe that could maybe lodge the food even further,” the father of two said. “So that’s why I had got him upright and ready for when my wife had gotten the anti-choking device.”

In the video clip, taken by a security camera, Lauren Sorrentino is then seen using the anti-choking device on their son successfully.

Sorrentino told “GMA” that he’s still processing what happened, and called the incident “the scariest moment” of both his life and his wife’s.

“To be honest with you, I’ve tingles right now talking about it because everything was kind of textbook and we didn’t even know it,” he said.

Today, Sorrentino said Romeo is doing “amazing.”

“It was definitely a very, very scary close call for sure,” Sorrentino said. “We worked in synergy as a team and I couldn’t be prouder of my wife. I’m gonna break down. But she’s a superhero.”

Experts say when a baby is choking, you should place them belly-down over your forearm or thigh, supporting their head with one hand and delivering sharp blows to their back between their shoulder blades with the other, according to the National Institutes of Health. For an older child, you should give them an abdominal thrust or use the Heimlich maneuver, placing a fist above the belly button and then thrusting it inward and upward in a J shape.

“Crying after an event like this is a really good sign,” Dr. Jade Cobern, a board-certified pediatrician, said of the child’s reaction. “But it doesn’t mean you’re out of the clear. Getting an exam by a medical provider is really important after an episode like this so they can really listen to all the parts of the lungs, examine the child and be confident that they’re good to go.”

 

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(NEW YORK) — Earth may have already passed 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming and could be soon heading for 2 degrees of warming, researchers have found after studying sea sponges in the Caribbean.

The study of 300 years of ocean temperature records kept preserved within sea sponges in the Caribbean indicate that global mean surface temperatures may have already exceeded 1.5 degrees Celsius and that a 2-degree Celsius rise could be possible by the end of the decade, according to a paper published in Nature Climate Change on Monday.

While limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius since the Industrial Revolution was outlined when the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change created the Paris Agreement, the exact figure is less important than keeping global warming as far below that figure as possible. The likelihood of doing so is waning, though, according to climate scientists.

Samples of sclerosponge skeletons found in the eastern Caribbean, where the natural variability of temperatures is less than at other locations, indicate that the pre-industrial period can be defined by stable temperatures from 1700 to 1790 and from 1840 to 1860, with the gap defined by cooling related to volcanic activity, according to the study. The sea sponges revealed that warming related to human activity commenced from the mid-1860s, with clear emergence by the mid-1870s, about 80 years before the period indicated by instrumental sea surface records.

The sclerosponge is a long-lived species that records chemical changes in its calcium carbonate skeleton, serving as a natural archive of ocean temperatures, according to the paper.

The sponges only exist in the Caribbean off the east coast of Brazil, Amos Winter, a professor at Indiana State University’s department of earth and environmental systems, told reporters at a news conference on Friday. Divers ventured up to 100 meters below the sea surface to obtain the sponges, Winter said.

The findings have implications for current projections of global warming, the researchers said. The authors estimate that 1.5 Celsius of warming may have been reached and that a mean surface warming of 1.7 Celsius could have occurred between 2018 and 2022.

“The industrial era of warming commenced earlier than we then was thought — in the mid 1860s,” Malcolm McCulloch, a professor of isotope geobiochemistry at the University of Western Australia and lead author of the study, told reporters during a news conference on Thursday. “Since then, the increasing global mean surface temperatures, which means global warming, has been half a degree greater than the current accepted estimates.”

 

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(NEW YORK) — When her firstborn child estranged herself from the family after getting married, Glenda Boone, 61, thought her daughter’s new husband was to blame for turning her child against her.

It took Boone’s second daughter, Lauren, 32, to explain to her that even though their mother and father were always physically present and provided for their children, they never felt she was emotionally present. Her children felt alienated from her, and their mental health suffered because of it, according to Lauren.

“I never thought about taking care of my mental health because my generation was taught when you talked about mental health, you automatically thought mental illness,” Glenda, a marketing executive, told Deborah Roberts during a “Good Morning America” interview. “So, for me, it was more of a suppression. From [my time as] a small child, even my emotions, you suppress them. You suck it up.”

Black women in America are disproportionately burdened with the mental health syndrome known as superwoman schema, or SWS. It involves the perceived obligation to quell emotion, convey strength, suppress dependence and vulnerability, and to prioritize caregiving over self-care, according to the National Institutes of Health. SWS can cause severe mental distress, but African Americans are less likely to receive mental health services compared to their white counterparts, according to 2022 data from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

“’Everything that comes my way, I should be able to handle it,’” Dr. Zoeann Finzi-Adams, a licensed psychologist and assistant professor at Howard University, said when describing the typical thought process of a person dealing with SWS. “And that’s exhausting because no one is able to do everything. No one is able to, and that is such a big barrier for getting any kind of support.”

Former Destiny’s Child singer Michelle Williams, who speaks openly about her history of depression, said mental health struggles can look different in women of color.

“Irritability is a missed symptom of depression. Because we think depression is just sadness,” Williams said. “Once I started getting in therapy more consistently, it started giving me language to everything that I internalize.”

Glenda Boone said that her daughters suggested she find support by scheduling her first meeting with a mental health therapist. If she didn’t, Glenda knew she was at risk of losing Lauren, too. She said it took a while to find the right therapist, and to let her guard down during therapy sessions. But once she did, Glenda said she felt a freedom that she had never before experienced.

“I learned how to remove the mask,” she said. “I was allowed to free myself, release myself. The mask of superwoman was mine. I could be all things to all people …. But my daughters let me know, and Lauren in particular … ‘You were there. But you weren’t present.’”

For her part, Lauren Boone says she began to see a change in her mother that she’d longed for nearly her entire life.

“I felt like the little girl in me was getting what she always wanted from her mom, which was the emotional connection,” said Lauren, who is also a mental health care clinician.

Williams said she can relate to the liberation felt after seeking help from a mental health expert.

“There is strength in vulnerability. I can’t tell you how strong you are when you can say, ‘I need help,’ versus thinking your strength is acting out,” Williams said. “The quality of life is so much better when you’re not triggered all the time.”

Lauren Boone saw so much improvement in her mother that she even convinced her to share her progress on Lauren’s YouTube channel. Though Glenda Boone is still estranged from her oldest daughter, she hopes one day that her firstborn will see the progress that she’s made and feel comfortable enough to have a conversation with her.

“We think that everything’s fine with our child,” Glenda said. “So, when stuff happens, normally, it’s a crisis, so we think it’s that event that caused it when in actuality, it wasn’t. Our children might have been trying to communicate something to us before and we weren’t listening.”

 

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(NEW YORK) — Three migrants were arrested in the Bronx overnight Monday for a citywide crime spree that included stealing women’s phones off the street, police said.

The New York Police Department executed a search warrant at the suspected safe house and made the arrests.

They are expected to be charged with multiple robberies and grand larcenies and more individuals are being sought.

The suspects are all believed to be from Venezuela, authorities said.

The men were linked to a pattern of at least 62 incidents of women having their pocketbooks and phones snatched, police said.

Detectives believe the suspects were snatching the phones to access the Apple Pay feature, and using credit cards linked to the phones to buy items.

“Most migrants come to NYC in search of a better life. Sadly, some come to commit crime,” NYPD Assistant Commissioner Kaz Daughtry wrote on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. “Today we made tremendous progress in the largest robbery pattern plaguing our city. Our message is simple — commit a crime in our city and we will find you and bring you to justice!”

The arrests are the second prominent case involving migrants in the city in as many weeks. Last week, at least six asylum-seekers were arrested for assaulting police officers in Times Square in a case caught on video. More suspects involved in the attack are still being sought, officials said.

Police and prosecutors from the Manhattan district attorney’s office are also investigating whether the first four defendants, who were released without bail, subsequently boarded a bus to California using fake names.

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(NEW YORK) — A second round of back-to-back atmospheric rivers is bringing dangerous weather conditions to nearly the entire state of California this week.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has issued a state of emergency for Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, where floodwaters inundated roads and high winds knocked down power lines and trees.

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

Feb 05, 5:49 AM
Over 634,000 customers without power in California

Power is out for hundreds of thousands of electric customers in California amid severe weather.

As of 2:40 a.m. PT on Monday, more than 634,000 customers were without power across the Golden State, according to data collected by PowerOutage.us.

-ABC News’ Morgan Winsor

Feb 05, 5:34 AM
Man killed by falling redwood tree in Yuba City, police say

A man was killed by a falling redwood tree in his backyard in Yuba City in Northern California on Sunday, authorities said.

The Yuba City Police Department identified the victim as 82-year-old David Gomes.

A neighbor, who reported the incident, told the responding officers that they last saw Gomes at around 3 p.m. PT and believed they heard the tree fall about two hours later, according to police.

“Through the investigation, it appeared Gomes was possibly using a ladder to try and clear the tree away from his residence when it fell on him,” police said in a statement.

-ABC News’ Marilyn Heck and Morgan Winsor

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(NEW YORK) — A second storm within one week is pummeling nearly the entire state of California with heavy rain and life-threatening flooding.

Gov. Gavin Newsom has issued a state of emergency for Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, where floodwaters have inundated roads and high winds are knocking down power lines and trees.

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

Feb 05, 9:25 AM
Latest forecast

Los Angeles recorded more than 4 inches of rain on Sunday, beating the city’s daily record of 2.55 inches set in 1927.

The relentless rainfall and life-threatening flooding are ongoing across the Los Angeles area on Monday morning and will continue throughout the day.

A flash flood warning is in effect from Malibu to Beverly Hills to Brentwood to Hollywood to Burbank.

By Tuesday morning, the heaviest rain will be targeting areas east of San Diego.

On Tuesday afternoon, scattered downpours continue throughout California, and by Wednesday, just a few light showers and sprinkles will remain.

Feb 05, 7:37 AM
4 million under flash flood warning in Southern California

The National Weather Service has a flood watch in effect Monday morning for some 40 million residents in California, where more than a month’s worth of rain has fallen in the past 24 hours.

There was also a flash flood warning in effect until at least 9 a.m. PT for more than 4 million residents in Southern California, from the Santa Monica Mountains to the Hollywood Hills and Griffith Park, including the areas of Hollywood, Malibu, Beverly Hills, Burbank, Santa Monica, Encino and Brentwood. There were reports of numerous damaging landslides, inundated roadways, submerged vehicles as well as flooded creeks and streams within the region.

Automated rain gauges indicate between 5 and 8 inches of rain have already accumulated in the warning area, with rainfall continuing. An additional 1 to 4 inches of rain was possible there.

-ABC News’ Kenton Gewecke and Morgan Winsor

Feb 05, 5:49 AM
Over 634,000 customers without power in California

Power is out for hundreds of thousands of electric customers in California amid severe weather.

As of 2:40 a.m. PT on Monday, more than 634,000 customers were without power across the Golden State, according to data collected by PowerOutage.us.

-ABC News’ Morgan Winsor

Feb 05, 5:34 AM
Man killed by falling redwood tree in Yuba City, police say

A man was killed by a falling redwood tree in his backyard in Yuba City in Northern California on Sunday, authorities said.

The Yuba City Police Department identified the victim as 82-year-old David Gomes.

A neighbor, who reported the incident, told the responding officers that they last saw Gomes at around 3 p.m. PT and believed they heard the tree fall about two hours later, according to police.

“Through the investigation, it appeared Gomes was possibly using a ladder to try and clear the tree away from his residence when it fell on him,” police said in a statement.

-ABC News’ Marilyn Heck and Morgan Winsor

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(ATLANTA) — An 8-year-old girl has died after being struck by a car while boarding her school bus, Georgia State Patrol confirmed Saturday.

The incident took place in Henry County on Thursday when the young girl was struck by a Ford Fusion, driven by 25-year-old Kaylee Andre, on Jackson Lake Road, according to GSP.

The identity of the victim has not been released. She was a student at Rock Springs Elementary School, according to Atlanta affiliate WSB-TV.

Troopers say the school bus had its red flashing lights activated and the stop sign displayed to the front and rear when Andre’s vehicle hit the victim while she was attempting to cross the roadway.

The victim received life-saving measures at the scene by Henry County EMS personnel but was airlifted to Egleston Children’s Hospital in Atlanta in critical condition, according to GSP.

The victim was pronounced dead from her injuries on Feb. 2, according to GSP.

On Saturday, GSP troopers arrested Andre and charged her with homicide by vehicle in the first degree, failure to stop for a school bus loading and unloading, and failure to exercise due care.

Andre is currently being held at Henry County Jail, according to court records.

WSB-TV’s Tom Jones interviewed a Rock Springs Elementary School parent, Lindsay Bridges, on Friday, who became emotional over the tragedy.

“It’s crazy to think about something like that happening to a child when you have kids. Well, even if you don’t have kids. It’s very, very sad to hear about. But I can just imagine what those parents are going through,” Bridges told Jones.

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(LOS ANGELES) — Michael Render, also known as rapper Killer Mike, was arrested on a misdemeanor charge Sunday night shortly after winning three Grammys.

Render was detained and handcuffed by police just after 4 p.m. PT. Police took him into custody over an alleged physical altercation at the 700 block of Chick Hearn Court, one of the streets just outside the Crypto.com arena, which is where the Grammys were held.

Render was placed under arrest and taken to Central Division.

He was booked on misdemeanor battery.

Authorities said Sunday night that Render was in the process of being released.

A rep for the artist didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News.

Killer Mike won Grammys for rap album for “Michael,” and rap performance and best song for “Scientists & Engineers.”

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

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(LOS ANGELES) — A French bulldog’s whereabouts remain unknown despite the Los Angeles Police Department making an arrest in connection with the dog’s theft, a department spokesperson told ABC News Sunday.

The dog theft on Jan. 18 left the dog’s owner, Ali Zacharias, clinging to the hood of the suspect’s car as it sped away in a failed attempt to stop the dognapping, according to police and seen in bystander video.

On Saturday, the LAPD announced that the suspect, Sadie Slater, was arrested in Inglewood. The 21-year-old was booked for robbery with bail set at $70,000.

However, the French bulldog, Onyx, has not been located, the spokesperson said.

In a post shared on X, LAPD’s gang and narcotics division said US Marshals worked “through the night to locate and arrest the suspect wanted for this crime” and shared photos of the suspect’s arrest and the dog owner’s attempt to stop the dognapping.

The dognapping took place on Jan. 18 around 3:45 p.m. local time when Zacharias was eating outside of the Whole Foods on South Grand Avenue while Onyx was with her on leash, according to a police press release on Jan. 29.

A female suspect picked up Onyx and fled into a white, KIA Forte sedan, which was driven by an additional suspect, police previously said in the release. The vehicle began driving southbound on Grand Avenue, however, Zacharias “attempted to stop the suspects by jumping on the hood of the vehicle.”

Zacharias eventually fell from the car while the suspects fled with Onyx. She was treated for minor abrasions by paramedics, according to the release.

“I thought I was going to die. I just was like, ‘This is it,'” Zacharias told ABC Los Angeles station KABC. “I didn’t want the car to drive away, so I ran and stood in front of it. They drove into me, and I fell on top of the hood and just started to grab on… Before I knew it, they were like backing up and taking off,” she said.

The French bulldog is one of the world’s most popular small-dog breeds, especially among city dwellers, according to the American Kennel Club, which notes that French bulldogs, nicknamed “Frenchies,” are the No. 1 target for thieves, ahead of both Labrador retrievers and Yorkshire terriers.

The average cost of a French Bulldog in the US is between $1,500 and $3,000, according to the Canine Journal.

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(PITTSBURGH) — A baby shower in Pittsburgh’s Fairywood neighborhood turned deadly on Saturday evening, after a dispute left a 19-year-old man dead and two other people injured, the Pittsburgh Public Safety Department said.

Officers responded to the Salvation Army’s Pittsburgh Westside and Worship Center on Broadhead Fording Road at 6:15 p.m. after receiving reports of six to seven gunshots ringing out where a private baby shower was taking place, the Pittsburgh Public Safety Department said in a statement posted to Facebook.

Police said they discovered two male victims with gunshot wounds upon arrival. Medics pronounced Antoine Dorsey dead at the scene while the other victim was transported to a local hospital in critical condition, according to the public safety department and the Allegheny County medical examiner.

A third victim left the shower location and went to a residence on Glen Mawr Street, police said. He was located later Saturday evening and taken to a hospital in stable condition, according to police.

Pittsburgh Public Information Officer Cara Cruz told ABC News the dispute is still under active investigation by Violent Crime Unit detectives and no arrests have been made.

The Salvation Army gave a statement to ABC News on Sunday regarding the shooting, saying it’s “saddened to confirm that there was a tragic shooting at its Pittsburgh Westside Worship and Service Center yesterday evening.”

“The incident occurred during a private function being hosted at the Center and did not involve any members of The Salvation Army,” the organization said. “We are grieved by this senseless act of violence in our church and pray for the victims of the shooting and their families. The Salvation Army is cooperating with the local authorities investigating the incident.”

“The Pittsburgh Westside Worship and Service Center will be closed until further notice,” it added.

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