(NEW YORK) — With thousands of people expected to converge on Rockefeller Center for Wednesday evening’s Christmas tree lighting ceremony, New York City police counterterrorism officials have issued a confidential warning that protests prompted by the Israel-Hamas war could disrupt the annual event.
The threat assessment advisory was issued by the NYPD Intelligence and Counterterrorism Bureau (ICB) to law enforcement and government agencies and says there is currently no specific or credible threat reporting regarding the tree lighting ceremony, but noted the United States “continues to face a heightened and dynamic risk environment from a variety of extremists.”
“Malicious actors may view mass gatherings, iconic locations and high-profile events as targets of opportunity during the holiday season,” the threat assessment warns.
The document, obtained by ABC News, comes in the wake of a disruption by demonstrators at last week’s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade and the weekend shooting incident in Vermont of three college students of Palestinian descent that is being investigated as a possible hate crime.
The bulletin states there is considerable chatter from entities trying to incite followers from different points on the political and ideological spectrum to act out violently, but it also notes that such online content is typical during the holiday season.
“The ICB continues to observe numerous propaganda graphics from FTOs [foreign terrorist organizations] and their supporters calling for violence against US interests, ostensibly in retribution for US support of Israel,” the bulletin states. “For example, on November 24, al-Qa’ida’s as-Sahab Media Foundation released a publication in which it incited attacks against military targets in both the Middle East and the West, as well as broadly against those who ‘support the Jews in their war on Gaza.'”
The document also says that in December 2022, pro-ISIS online users redistributed propaganda urging followers to attack crowds at Christmas and New Year’s celebrations, displaying images of people surrounding a Christmas tree with a truck driving toward them.
The document stresses that demonstrators could use the Rockefeller tree lighting ceremony, which will be televised nationally, “as an opportunity to draw attention to their own causes.”
“While many of these actions would likely constitute First Amendment protected activity, they could prove disruptive to the event and potentially pose a security risk,” according to the assessment.
During the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, demonstrators dressed in white jumpsuits splashed fake blood and attempted to glue their hands to the pavement in order to disrupt the parade, the bulletin states. The NYPD arrested 34 individuals in connection with the incident on charges including harassment, obstruction of governmental administration, resisting arrest, trespass and disorderly conduct, according to the document.
The assessment also notes that on Nov. 24, individuals protesting Israeli operations in Gaza disrupted a tree-lighting ceremony in Seattle.
Experts are raising the alarm about the rise of extremism in popular online games and how easy it can be for children to stumble upon hateful or violent content.
A 2023 report from New York University concluded that “extremists are exploiting online gaming and gaming-adjacent sites to promote hatred and violence.”
“The features of these sites are such that they are particularly useful to people who would happen to spread bad ideas or try to recruit people into conspiracies or even particular acts of violence,” Paul Barrett, a deputy director of the Center for Business and Human Rights at NYU’s Stern School of Business, told “Good Morning America.”
The FBI told ABC News online platforms such as gaming sites are one of the biggest challenges the federal agency faces in its efforts to counter violent extremism.
The FBI said those platforms “have all contributed to the increased speed, dissemination, efficiency, and accessibility of violent extremist content.”
Julia Ebner, a senior resident research fellow at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue and a researcher of extremism, said hobby groups like gaming communities are specifically being targeted as a recruiting tactic.
“Increasingly, you see minors and even school kids being lured into these spaces and not realizing what is happening to them, that they’re actually slowly being radicalized toward neo-Nazism and or toward white supremacy,” Ebner said.
One way children can be influenced, according to Ebner, is through “mods” — popular games that can be modified by users to include hateful content.
Ebner showed “GMA” one mod of the popular video game series “Call of Duty,” published by Activision.
“This is now a modification of ‘Call of Duty’ where the players can choose to play on the side of the Nazis,” Ebner explained.
Activision declined to comment to ABC News about such mods.
Similar content can be found on other online platforms like the social and messaging app and site Discord, where users often go to discuss games.
Experts say there are steps parents can take to help protect their kids. Both parents and children can sit down together to explore online spaces and test out safety controls. In some cases, parents can also turn off the option for kids to communicate with other players online or block specific games on a child’s device if it’s not age appropriate.
Online extremism can have real consequences. According to the New York Attorney General’s office, the 18-year-old behind the racially motivated May 2022 mass shooting at a Tops Friendly Market in Buffalo used Twitch, an online platform used by video game streamers, to broadcast the attack, which left 10 Black people dead.
Twitch took the livestream down within minutes and released a statement condemning the violence at the time.
“We take our responsibility to protect our community extremely seriously, and trust and safety is a major area of investment,” Twitch said in its statement, adding that it would examine the attack and committed to “sharing those learnings with our peers in the industry to support a safer internet overall.”
Twitch, Discord and the trade group Entertainment Software Association have individually told ABC News they are committed to combating hateful content and taking a multifaceted approach to meet challenges, including banning users, developing technology to identify hateful content and working with law enforcement.
But some experts say leaving the industry to address problems may not be enough.
“We need regulation,” Barrett said. “Greater publicity and public understanding about what’s going on has the potential to create pressure on the companies to do what they should be doing on their own.”
(NEW YORK) — It is against the law to use paraquat in China, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and dozens of other countries. Many countries have banned the herbicide due to its extreme toxicity, while others have expressed concerns over the possible risk for Parkinson’s disease.
Yet the herbicide, manufactured by a Swiss company that is owned by the Chinese state, is still widely used throughout the United States in part because it is a highly effective way to kill weeds.
The company, Syngenta, says that paraquat, which it produces under the name Gramoxone, “is safe for its intended and labelled use.”
Clayton Tucholke, who used Gramoxone for years on his farm in LaBolt, South Dakota, and has since been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, says otherwise.
“It should have been pulled, I think, you know, so it didn’t happen to somebody else,” Tucholke told ABC News.
A 76-year-old father and grandfather, Tucholke lived on his farm with his wife Denise, but as the symptoms of Parkinson’s have worsened, he says he was forced to give up his career in agriculture and had to move to the nearby town of Milbank to be closer to medical professionals.
Daily tasks have become arduous for Tucholke, who now has to travel to physical therapy three times a week to slow the progression of his symptoms.
“This man was so independent,” Denise Tucholke said. “And his independence has been taken from him, which is unfair.”
The Tucholkes are among the more than 4,000 Americans who have filed lawsuits as part of a multi-district litigation against Syngenta, which currently manufactures Gramoxone, and Chevron, which distributed it in the U.S. from 1966 until 1986.
Although Syngenta and Chevron told ABC News that there is no scientific evidence that supports a causal link between paraquat and Parkinson’s disease, the Tucholkes and other plaintiffs allege that such a link exists, arguing that Syngenta and Chevron knew or should have known that the herbicide could “cause severe neurological injuries.”
“Our daughter and son-in-law are still farming. I think any time [a] chemical is applied to the fields that they have to use, they should know what’s going to happen,” Denise Tucholke said.
“All the generations that are coming up afterwards need to know,” she said.
‘You have to be careful where you spray’
Gramoxone was initially manufactured by Imperial Chemical Industries, a British company that eventually evolved alongside other firms into Syngenta, which in turn was acquired by the China National Chemical Corporation in 2017.
To the Tucholkes, paraquat was highly effective at removing weeds when they used it throughout the 1970s and 1980s. It even killed weeds that had developed resistance to other herbicides.
“[It] kills vegetation, doesn’t matter what,” Denise Tucholke said. “You don’t want it to drift to crops. You have to be careful where you spray.”
Frank Garcia, a retired farmer living in Arizona, says he and his family used paraquat for years as well. He says his family knew paraquat was highly toxic if swallowed, but added that they were not warned of possible effects that could come from other forms of exposure to the herbicide.
“They should’ve told us the consequences of this, and they didn’t,” Garcia said. “That just burns me to a crisp.”
Like Clayton Tucholke, Garcia’s wife Maria was also diagnosed with Parkinson’s.
Paraquat containers include warnings that one sip of the product can kill, and the EPA cautions that there is no known antidote to this toxic substance. During training, those seeking certification are told to wear proper protective equipment, including respirators, when handling paraquat.
Aside from its immediate toxicity, some of the world’s leading scientists believe that exposure to environmental toxins, including pesticides like paraquat, could be associated with an elevated risk of developing Parkinson’s disease.
‘Something that was really disturbing’
In their claims against Syngenta, the Tucholkes and Garcias say that paraquat products were not accompanied by proper warnings regarding its possible health effects, including developing Parkinson’s disease as a result of exposure. Both families told ABC News that they did not remember if they wore respirators when they applied paraquat.
The lawsuits brought by the Tucholkes and Garcias are not the only ones that Syngenta and Chevron have faced over paraquat.
In 2017, they were sued by plaintiffs with Parkinson’s disease. According to Syngeneta’s financial statements, they settled a number of lawsuits for a combined $187.5 million in response to claims they said have no merit.
Carey Gillam, a contributor to The Guardian and the managing editor for The New Lede, an environmental news website supported by the Environmental Working Group, followed the trial.
She says she obtained thousands of pages of internal documents from the case when they were left outside her home; documents she alleges show that Syngenta and Chevron management have known about possible risks associated with paraquat for decades.
“The level of knowledge that they had so long ago was something that was really disturbing,” Gillam said, adding that Chevron executives were “talking about the chronic effects possibly causing them legal problems back in the 1970s.”
In 1974, the notes from a Chevron meeting involving several senior members from different departments show that they were discussing how state regulators were concerned about the “potential long term chronic effects of workers … breathing in low doses of paraquat from spray mist.”
The files show that an attorney believed that there was “evidence now that paraquat could cause industrial injury” and that “Chevron could face suits totaling millions of dollars.”
By 1985, a Chevron internal memo was flagging an article about how pesticides, including paraquat, “may be implicated” as a cause for Parkinson’s disease.
“We can hope that another chemical or cause will explain the correlation,” the memo said, and that, “I trust that Chevron is watching this closely… and, perhaps, doing a little testing for the sake of its customers and stockholders.”
The next year, Chevron stopped selling paraquat completely.
A Chevron spokesperson said in part in response to questions from ABC News that the company “met or exceeded all federal and state requirements for product-safety testing before and after release.” They say that they stopped selling paraquat for commercial reasons, and not because of health concerns.
But paraquat continued to be a lucrative product for Syngenta, with one internal memo in 1985 noting that they depended on it as a “major product” and would do whatever possible to defend it.
“They wanted to develop sort of a counterattack, a counter-strategy,” Gillam said. “They talk about developing scientific studies that they can use in their defense of paraquat. They talk about influencing strategies with regulators.”
‘Her quality of life is almost non-existent’
More than four decades since paraquat was used on their Arizona farm, Maria Garcia now has to rely on family members like her daughter-in-law Tricia to assist with everything from walking around the house to preparing meals, all while facing growing medical bills.
“Her quality of life is almost non-existent,” Tricia Garcia said.
“We have great sympathy for the health issues faced by the plaintiffs and others suffering from the debilitating effects of Parkinson’s disease,” Syngenta told ABC News in a statement. “But it is important to note that paraquat is safe when used as directed.”
The company claims it is being targeted by what it calls a “mass tort machine” of plaintiffs’ lawyers.
“Syngenta will not sell a product if it is not safe for its intended use,” the company continued. “Paraquat contributes less than 2% of total sales, and less than 2% of overall profit for Syngenta. But it is an important product for farmers in their quest to produce food for an increasingly populated world.”
Frank Garcia disagrees. What’s more, he says that he doesn’t comprehend how regulators like the EPA, which just renewed paraquat’s U.S. registration in 2021, can still allow it to be used.
The EPA strengthened safety requirements at the time, but has not found that paraquat is unsafe to use when those requirements are followed nor has the EPA found there is a link between Parkinson’s and paraquat, prompting appeals from advocates.
“I can’t understand [why] the United States does not ban this,” he said.
(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump is on trial in New York in a $250 million civil lawsuit that could alter the personal fortune and real estate empire that helped propel Trump to the White House.
Trump, his sons Eric Trump and and Donald Trump Jr., and other top Trump Organization executives are accused by New York Attorney General Letitia James of engaging in a decade-long scheme in which they used “numerous acts of fraud and misrepresentation” to inflate Trump’s net worth in order get more favorable loan terms. The trial comes after the judge in the case ruled in a partial summary judgment that Trump had submitted “fraudulent valuations” for his assets, leaving the trial to determine additional actions and what penalty, if any, the defendants should receive.
The former president has denied all wrongdoing and his attorneys have argued that Trump’s alleged inflated valuations were a product of his business skill.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Nov 28, 9:24 AM EST
Deutsche Bank executives to testify for defense
A day after Trump lawyer Chris Kise asserted that the only person who believes the former president committed fraud in his business transactions is New York Attorney General Letitia James, that claim will face a key test over the next two days as Trump’s lawyers call four executives from Deutsche Bank, Trump’s primary lender at the time of the alleged conduct.
Trump’s lawyers claim that the executives will prove that the bank would have still done business with Trump despite his inflated claims about his assets.
“They’re skipping over the part where they have to establish that the gains are ill-gotten, meaning that the loans would not have been issued in the first place or that the terms would have been different,” Kise said in November during an argument for a directed verdict.
James, however, says that the banks lost millions in potential interest based on Trump’s inflated valuations.
Nov 27, 6:52 PM EST
Trump Organization VP returns to witness stand
Trump Organization Vice President Patrick Birney returned to the witness stand to describe his role preparing Trump’s statement of financial condition between 2016 and 2021.
“Every new year, I would just copy and paste the spreadsheet from the year before,” Birney said, testifying this time for the defense.
Birney largely testified about the spreadsheets of supporting data he prepared, as well as the supporting data he cited from year to year.
Court was adjourned for the day following Birney’s testimony. He is set to return to the witness stand later this week after the court hears from witnesses from Deutsche Bank.
Nov 27, 5:59 PM EST
Trump exec disputes independent monitor’s findings
Trump Hotels chief operating officer Mark Hawthorn disputed an August 2023 report from the Trump Organization’s independent monitor that said the company continued to provide incomplete information to lenders.
Hawthorn had earlier testified that the monitor never communicated that they “uncovered fraud or any irregularities.”
State attorney Andrew Amer confronted Hawthorn with the letter from the Trump Organization’s independent monitor Barbara Jones flagging inconsistencies.
“Were you aware that Judge Jones had identified such inconsistencies?” Amer asked.
“Yes,” Hawthorn answered — but said that he stood by his initial statement that the monitor never uncovered fraud, claiming that the flagged issues were consistent with accounting practices.
“Did the monitor accuse the Trump Organization of disseminating false and misleading information?” defense attorney Clifford Robert asked on redirect examination.
“No,” Hawthorne said.
Trump defense attorney Chris Kise used the disagreement about the monitor’s findings to renew his request to question Jones, which Judge Engoron denied earlier in the afternoon.
“What the monitor thinks is clearly and squarely at issue,” Kise said, describing the Trump Organization’s issues as “minor accounting discrepancies which happen in a large corporation all the time.”
“Every time you talk, there’s a campaign speech,” Engoron quipped following Kise’s lengthy argument.
Engoron ultimately stood by his initial ruling, but said he would allow Kise to present cases, if they exist, supporting the defense’s right to call the monitor.
“I will decide what reports mean and what implications there are,” Engoron said about the monitor’s findings.
Nov 27, 3:44 PM EST
Donald Trump to return to witness stand in December
Defense lawyers plan to call Donald Trump as their final witnesses in the former president’s civil fraud trial.
Asked to confirm the final witnesses for the defense’s case, defense attorney Chris Kise said that Trump is likely to testify on Dec. 11.
“I think we can make that work,” Kise said, adding that Trump’s exact schedule might change.
Eric Trump will also return to the witness stand on Dec. 6, according to Kise.
Those dates might change if Judge Engoron limits testimony from any of the remaining witnesses.
State attorney Kevin Wallace said that the New York attorney general may present a “minimal” rebuttal case.
Nov 27, 2:43 PM EST
Judge blocks testimony from independent monitor
Judge Arthur Engoron blocked the defense team’s plan to call the Trump Organization’s independent monitor, describing the last-minute change to the defense’s witness list as “untimely” and “inappropriate.”
The judge’s ruling came after defense lawyer Clifford Robert announced the plan to call former federal Judge Barbara Jones and her associate to testify for the defense.
Before Engoron issuing his ruling from the bench, attorneys from both sides appeared to privately meet with the judge in his chambers.
“I hereby preclude their testimony,” Engoron said from the bench, regarding Jones and her associate.
Engoron said that he determined that Jones and her staff are effectively “arms of the court” and thus cannot be called to testify.
He also expressed concern that Jones’ testimony could create conflicts of interest that force her to step away from her role overseeing the Trump Organization’s finances.
Nov 27, 2:27 PM EST
Defense plans to call Trump Organization’s independent monitor
Donald Trump’s lawyers plan to call former federal Judge Barbara Jones — who has served as the Trump Organization’s independent monitor since 2022 — as a witness for the defense case, according to defense attorney Clifford Robert.
Jones was installed as the firm’s independent monitor last November at the request of New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Though Jones was not originally included in the defense’s witness list, Robert flagged the change to the court near the end of the direct examination of Trump Hotels chief operating officer Mark Hawthorn.
Hawthorn testified that he has regularly met with Jones since her appointment, and that the two have a transparent and cooperative relationship.
“We believe everything they deemed as an objection we have responded to diligently and very accurately,” Hawthorn said. “No one from that team has ever communicated to us that they have uncovered fraud or any irregularities.”
Jones, however, wrote in an August 2023 report that the Trump Organization provided “incomplete” information and did not consistently provide necessary certifications to lenders, prompting Judge Engoron to chastise the defendants in his summary judgment order.
“Even with a preliminary injunction in place, and with an independent monitor overseeing their compliance, defendants have continued to disseminate false and misleading information while conducting business,” Engoron wrote.
Robert did not provide a timeline for when Jones might testify, and state attorney Andrew Amer reserved a right to object to the defense team calling Jones as a witness.
Nov 27, 1:53 PM EST
Threats against clerk are ‘just part of the game,’ said Trump lawyer
In their filing this morning arguing against the trial’s limited gag order, Trump attorneys Clifford Robert, Chris Kise, and Alina Habba downplayed Trump’s connection to the threats against Judge Engoron and his clerk, and argued that they do not justify the gag order’s limit on Trump’s constitutional right to free speech.
The arguments appeared to be foreshadowed by remarks made to reporters earlier this month by Habba, who has been a forceful voice for the former president both in and out of court.
“The president has never threatened her safety,” Habba said of Engoron’s clerk. “This is a high profile case, and unfortunately, this is what comes with it. There is not a day that I don’t get a threat. It’s just part of the game.”
“If she had a real threat, she should get off the bench and stop having her photograph taken, but she hasn’t done that,” Habba added.
Nov 27, 12:54 PM EST
Trump’s lawyers disavow threats against judge, clerk
Donald Trump’s lawyers, in a court filing this morning, doubled down on their criticism of the trial’s limited gag order while distancing Trump and his co-defendants from what they called the “vile and reprehensible” threats against Judge Arthur Engoron and his principal law clerk.
In a filing arguing against the limited gag order, defense lawyer Clifford Robert said that the attacks — which he said Trump neither condoned nor directed — do not justify the gag order’s unconstitutional restraint on Trump’s free speech.
“Respondents’ sole cognizable justification for the Gag Orders is that an unknown third party may react in a hostile or offensive manner to Petitioners’ speech,” Robert wrote.
While Robert characterized the threats as “disturbing, derogatory, and indefensible,” he argued that it could not be proven that Trump’s Truth Social post on Oct. 3 — which prompted the limited gag order prohibiting statements about the judge’s staff — led to an increase in threats. Trump and his lawyers have never called for violence, condoned the attacks, or encouraged threatening behavior, Robert said.
The threatening behavior “merits appropriate security measures,” Robert wrote. “However, it does not justify the wholesale abrogation of Petitioners’ First Amendment rights in a proceeding of immense stakes to Petitioners,” which Robert argued has been “compromised by the introduction of partisan bias on the bench.”
Nov 27, 11:58 AM EST
Eric Trump asked hotel exec to revamp firm’s outdated bookkeeping
Eric Trump needed help with the Trump Organization’s finances after the company’s chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg was removed from his role following his indictment in 2021, according to Trump Hotels executive Mark Hawthorn.
According to Hawthorn’s testimony, the company relied on an outdated and inefficient approach to bookkeeping, including authorizing only three individuals — Weisselberg, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump — to write checks for the Trump Organization until as late as 2021.
Weisselberg signed most of the company’s disbursements, leaving Eric and Don Jr. in uncharted waters once Weisselberg was removed, Hawthorn said.
“He had a stack of checks [on his desk] to sign that was very high,” Hawthorn recalled regarding a summer 2021 meeting during which he said Eric Trump requested Hawthorn’s help applying his experience running Trump’s hotel division.
“Mark, how do you do this in the hotel division?” Eric asked, according to Hawthorn.
“We don’t do it like this,” Hawthorn said he replied.
The meeting, according to Hawthorn, prompted him to begin an effort to revise the Trump’s Organization’s bookkeeping policies to replicate his work in Trump’s hotel division, which he ran as its chief operating officer. Following Eric Trump’s request, he imposed a standardized paperless approach to bookkeeping, so entities could be compared on an “apples to apples basis,” Hawthorn testified.
Nov 27, 9:26 AM EST
Trump Organization execs to return to witness stand
Two current Trump Organization executives are scheduled to return to the witness stand today as part of the defense’s case as the trial resumes following the Thanksgiving holiday.
Mark Hawthorn, Trump Hotels’ chief financial officer, initially testified for the state’s case in October. State attorney Andrew Amer used his testimony as an opportunity to highlight that the Trump Organization had a qualified accountant who could have worked on Trump’s statement of financial condition, instead of the top executives who had less accounting experience.
“If any of them had asked you to work with them on preparing Mr. Trump’s statement of financial condition, would you have had the knowledge and experience to do so?” Amer asked.
“Yes,” Hawthorn responded, adding he was never asked to assist with preparing the statements that are at the center of the attorney general’s case.
Patrick Birney, an assistant vice president at the Trump Organization who also testified in October, offered some of the only testimony that supports the attorney general’s allegation of a conspiracy to inflate Trump’s net worth.
“Did Allen Weisselberg ever tell you that Mr. Trump wanted his net worth on the statement of financial condition to go up?” state attorney Eric Haren asked Birney.
“Yes, I think that happened in Allen Weisselberg’s office,” Birney said, prompting an objection from Trump’s lawyers.
Nov 22, 5:28 PM EST
Judge, clerk subjected to daily threats, official says in gag order filing
An attorney for Judge Arthur Engoron also filed in support of the gag order in Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial, arguing that violent threats have increased since the gag order was lifted.
The limited gag order, which prohibited Donald Trump and his attorneys from publicly commenting about Engoron’s staff, was issued by the judge last month after Trump posted about the judge’s law clerk on social media. Judge David Friedman of the appellate division’s First Department stayed the order on Thursday, citing constitutional concerns over Trump’s free speech rights.
Engoron’s filing includes a report from Charles Hollon of the Judicial Threats Assessment Unit of the New York State Court System’s Department of Public Safety. According to the report, Engoron and his principal law clerk, Allison Greenfield, have been inundated with credible, violent and antisemitic threats since Trump began criticizing Greenfield.
“The threats against Justice Engoron and Ms. Greenfield are considered to be serious and credible and not hypothetical or speculative,” Hollon wrote in the report.
Greenfield has been the victim of daily doxing of her personal email address and phone number, receiving dozens of calls, emails and social media messages daily, according to Hollon. Approximately half the harassing messages have been antisemitic, according to Greenfield.
In the report, Hollon wrote that Engoron was the subject of credible threats before the trial had started, but Trump’s Oct. 3 Truth Social post directed at Greenfield exponentially increased the number of threats directed at her.
The report included multiple examples of voicemails that were left on the telephone in Engoron’s chambers.
Hollon said the messages have created an “ongoing security risk” for Engoron, his staff and family, but that the gag order had been effective in lowering the number of threats.
“The implementation of the limited gag orders resulted in a decrease in the number of threats, harassment and disparaging messages that the judge and his staff received,” Hollon said in the report. “However, when Mr. Trump violated the gag orders, the number of threatening, harassing and disparaging messages increased.”
Engoron’s lawyer, Lisa Evans, said the threats detailed in Hollon’s affirmation justify the gag order, which functions as a reasonable limit on free speech.
“The First Amendment does not prohibit courts from limiting speech that threatens the safety of the court’s staff,” Evans wrote.
Trump’s reply to the filing is due on Nov. 27, after which the First Department will decide whether to fully lift the gag order.
Nov 22, 4:53 PM EST
NY AG argues for limited gag order in court filing
A lawyer for New York Attorney General Letitia James, in a court filing Wednesday, argued in favor of maintaining the judge’s limited gag after an appeals court temporarily lifted the order last week.
The limited gag order, which prohibited Donald Trump and his attorneys from publicly commenting about Judge Arthur Engoron’s staff, was issued by the judge last month after Trump posted about the judge’s law clerk on social media. Judge David Friedman of the appellate division’s First Department stayed the order on Thursday, citing constitutional concerns over Trump’s free speech rights.
James’ court filing Wednesday alleges that Trump and his lawyers continue to harass Engoron’s law clerk “as part of an improper tactic to disrupt trial and undermine the proceedings.”
James said the gag order is a necessary and “exceedingly limited restraint” to protect Engoron’s staff, and Trump’s lawyers failed to prove that attacks on judicial staff during a trial are protected by the First Amendment.
“A speedy denial is necessary to ensure the safety of [the] Supreme Court’s staff and the integrity and the orderly administration of the proceedings through the end of the trial,” James wrote, describing Trump’s attacks as “extraordinary and dangerous.”
Arguing that Trump has engaged in a “pattern” of attacking civil servants involved in proceedings against him, James cited his attacks on the former lieutenant governor of Georgia, as well as officials in his federal election interference case. She also mentioned Trump’s renewed attacks against the clerk over the last week since the gag order was lifted, including calling for her prosecution, sharing an article suggesting she engaged in drug use, and describing her as “crooked and highly partisan.”
Trump’s lawyers have defended such attacks as constitutionally protected speech and argued that Engoron failed to articulate how the attacks present a “clear and present danger” to the clerk.
Trump personally sued Engoron last week using a provision of state law called Article 78, which is generally used to challenge New York government agencies. Trump unsuccessfully attempted to use an Article 78 proceeding on the eve of the trial to delay the proceeding; however, his most recent attempt successfully resulted in a temporary stay of the gag order.
Trump’s reply to the filing is due on Nov. 27, after which the First Department will decide whether to fully lift the gag order.
Nov 21, 3:27 PM EST
Court adjourns for extended Thanksgiving break
After two days of testimony for the defense, former Trump Organization controller Jeff McConney stepped off the witness stand.
Judge Arthur Engoron then adjourned court until Monday.
When court resumes after the Thanksgiving break, the defense plans to call two Trump Organization executives, followed by several Deutsche Bank employees.
(NEW YORK) — Lake effect snow warnings and winter weather advisories are in effect in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and New York Tuesday morning as intense snowfall slams the region.
In Ohio, schools including the Cleveland Metropolitan School District are closed on Tuesday due to the weather.
Snowfall rates have been as high as 2 inches per hour in the most intense snow bands in western New York.
More than 15 inches of snow already fell south of Buffalo, New York, near Lake Erie, while up to 13 inches of snow fell overnight in New York east of Lake Ontario. Up to 9 inches of snow fell north of Traverse City, Michigan.
Another 1 foot of snow is possible near Lake Ontario and up to 6 inches is possible south of Buffalo. An additional 1 to 4 inches is possible in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Michigan.
This snowstorm comes as some of the coldest air of the season hits the Midwest, Great Lakes and Northeast.
On Tuesday morning, the wind chill — what the temperature feels like — was forecast to plunge to 1 degree in Minneapolis, 3 degrees in Chicago, 14 degrees in Pittsburgh and 26 in New York City.
On Wednesday morning, the wind chill is forecast to drop to 16 degrees in New York City; 37 degrees in Charleston, South Carolina; 23 degrees in Atlanta; and 31 degrees in Tallahassee, Florida.
(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump is on trial in New York in a $250 million civil lawsuit that could alter the personal fortune and real estate empire that helped propel Trump to the White House.
Trump, his sons Eric Trump and and Donald Trump Jr., and other top Trump Organization executives are accused by New York Attorney General Letitia James of engaging in a decade-long scheme in which they used “numerous acts of fraud and misrepresentation” to inflate Trump’s net worth in order get more favorable loan terms. The trial comes after the judge in the case ruled in a partial summary judgment that Trump had submitted “fraudulent valuations” for his assets, leaving the trial to determine additional actions and what penalty, if any, the defendants should receive.
The former president has denied all wrongdoing and his attorneys have argued that Trump’s alleged inflated valuations were a product of his business skill.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Nov 27, 6:52 PM EST
Trump Organization VP returns to witness stand
Trump Organization Vice President Patrick Birney returned to the witness stand to describe his role preparing Trump’s statement of financial condition between 2016 and 2021.
“Every new year, I would just copy and paste the spreadsheet from the year before,” Birney said, testifying this time for the defense.
Birney largely testified about the spreadsheets of supporting data he prepared, as well as the supporting data he cited from year to year.
Court was adjourned for the day following Birney’s testimony. He is set to return to the witness stand later this week after the court hears from witnesses from Deutsche Bank.
Nov 27, 5:59 PM EST
Trump exec disputes independent monitor’s findings
Trump Hotels chief operating officer Mark Hawthorn disputed an August 2023 report from the Trump Organization’s independent monitor that said the company continued to provide incomplete information to lenders.
Hawthorn had earlier testified that the monitor never communicated that they “uncovered fraud or any irregularities.”
State attorney Andrew Amer confronted Hawthorn with the letter from the Trump Organization’s independent monitor Barbara Jones flagging inconsistencies.
“Were you aware that Judge Jones had identified such inconsistencies?” Amer asked.
“Yes,” Hawthorn answered — but said that he stood by his initial statement that the monitor never uncovered fraud, claiming that the flagged issues were consistent with accounting practices.
“Did the monitor accuse the Trump Organization of disseminating false and misleading information?” defense attorney Clifford Robert asked on redirect examination.
“No,” Hawthorne said.
Trump defense attorney Chris Kise used the disagreement about the monitor’s findings to renew his request to question Jones, which Judge Engoron denied earlier in the afternoon.
“What the monitor thinks is clearly and squarely at issue,” Kise said, describing the Trump Organization’s issues as “minor accounting discrepancies which happen in a large corporation all the time.”
“Every time you talk, there’s a campaign speech,” Engoron quipped following Kise’s lengthy argument.
Engoron ultimately stood by his initial ruling, but said he would allow Kise to present cases, if they exist, supporting the defense’s right to call the monitor.
“I will decide what reports mean and what implications there are,” Engoron said about the monitor’s findings.
Nov 27, 3:44 PM EST
Donald Trump to return to witness stand in December
Defense lawyers plan to call Donald Trump as their final witnesses in the former president’s civil fraud trial.
Asked to confirm the final witnesses for the defense’s case, defense attorney Chris Kise said that Trump is likely to testify on Dec. 11.
“I think we can make that work,” Kise said, adding that Trump’s exact schedule might change.
Eric Trump will also return to the witness stand on Dec. 6, according to Kise.
Those dates might change if Judge Engoron limits testimony from any of the remaining witnesses.
State attorney Kevin Wallace said that the New York attorney general may present a “minimal” rebuttal case.
Nov 27, 2:43 PM EST
Judge blocks testimony from independent monitor
Judge Arthur Engoron blocked the defense team’s plan to call the Trump Organization’s independent monitor, describing the last-minute change to the defense’s witness list as “untimely” and “inappropriate.”
The judge’s ruling came after defense lawyer Clifford Robert announced the plan to call former federal Judge Barbara Jones and her associate to testify for the defense.
Before Engoron issuing his ruling from the bench, attorneys from both sides appeared to privately meet with the judge in his chambers.
“I hereby preclude their testimony,” Engoron said from the bench, regarding Jones and her associate.
Engoron said that he determined that Jones and her staff are effectively “arms of the court” and thus cannot be called to testify.
He also expressed concern that Jones’ testimony could create conflicts of interest that force her to step away from her role overseeing the Trump Organization’s finances.
Nov 27, 2:27 PM EST
Defense plans to call Trump Organization’s independent monitor
Donald Trump’s lawyers plan to call former federal Judge Barbara Jones — who has served as the Trump Organization’s independent monitor since 2022 — as a witness for the defense case, according to defense attorney Clifford Robert.
Jones was installed as the firm’s independent monitor last November at the request of New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Though Jones was not originally included in the defense’s witness list, Robert flagged the change to the court near the end of the direct examination of Trump Hotels chief operating officer Mark Hawthorn.
Hawthorn testified that he has regularly met with Jones since her appointment, and that the two have a transparent and cooperative relationship.
“We believe everything they deemed as an objection we have responded to diligently and very accurately,” Hawthorn said. “No one from that team has ever communicated to us that they have uncovered fraud or any irregularities.”
Jones, however, wrote in an August 2023 report that the Trump Organization provided “incomplete” information and did not consistently provide necessary certifications to lenders, prompting Judge Engoron to chastise the defendants in his summary judgment order.
“Even with a preliminary injunction in place, and with an independent monitor overseeing their compliance, defendants have continued to disseminate false and misleading information while conducting business,” Engoron wrote.
Robert did not provide a timeline for when Jones might testify, and state attorney Andrew Amer reserved a right to object to the defense team calling Jones as a witness.
Nov 27, 1:53 PM EST
Threats against clerk are ‘just part of the game,’ said Trump lawyer
In their filing this morning arguing against the trial’s limited gag order, Trump attorneys Clifford Robert, Chris Kise, and Alina Habba downplayed Trump’s connection to the threats against Judge Engoron and his clerk, and argued that they do not justify the gag order’s limit on Trump’s constitutional right to free speech.
The arguments appeared to be foreshadowed by remarks made to reporters earlier this month by Habba, who has been a forceful voice for the former president both in and out of court.
“The president has never threatened her safety,” Habba said of Engoron’s clerk. “This is a high profile case, and unfortunately, this is what comes with it. There is not a day that I don’t get a threat. It’s just part of the game.”
“If she had a real threat, she should get off the bench and stop having her photograph taken, but she hasn’t done that,” Habba added.
Nov 27, 12:54 PM EST
Trump’s lawyers disavow threats against judge, clerk
Donald Trump’s lawyers, in a court filing this morning, doubled down on their criticism of the trial’s limited gag order while distancing Trump and his co-defendants from what they called the “vile and reprehensible” threats against Judge Arthur Engoron and his principal law clerk.
In a filing arguing against the limited gag order, defense lawyer Clifford Robert said that the attacks — which he said Trump neither condoned nor directed — do not justify the gag order’s unconstitutional restraint on Trump’s free speech.
“Respondents’ sole cognizable justification for the Gag Orders is that an unknown third party may react in a hostile or offensive manner to Petitioners’ speech,” Robert wrote.
While Robert characterized the threats as “disturbing, derogatory, and indefensible,” he argued that it could not be proven that Trump’s Truth Social post on Oct. 3 — which prompted the limited gag order prohibiting statements about the judge’s staff — led to an increase in threats. Trump and his lawyers have never called for violence, condoned the attacks, or encouraged threatening behavior, Robert said.
The threatening behavior “merits appropriate security measures,” Robert wrote. “However, it does not justify the wholesale abrogation of Petitioners’ First Amendment rights in a proceeding of immense stakes to Petitioners,” which Robert argued has been “compromised by the introduction of partisan bias on the bench.”
Nov 27, 11:58 AM EST
Eric Trump asked hotel exec to revamp firm’s outdated bookkeeping
Eric Trump needed help with the Trump Organization’s finances after the company’s chief financial officer Allen Weisselberg was removed from his role following his indictment in 2021, according to Trump Hotels executive Mark Hawthorn.
According to Hawthorn’s testimony, the company relied on an outdated and inefficient approach to bookkeeping, including authorizing only three individuals — Weisselberg, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump — to write checks for the Trump Organization until as late as 2021.
Weisselberg signed most of the company’s disbursements, leaving Eric and Don Jr. in uncharted waters once Weisselberg was removed, Hawthorn said.
“He had a stack of checks [on his desk] to sign that was very high,” Hawthorn recalled regarding a summer 2021 meeting during which he said Eric Trump requested Hawthorn’s help applying his experience running Trump’s hotel division.
“Mark, how do you do this in the hotel division?” Eric asked, according to Hawthorn.
“We don’t do it like this,” Hawthorn said he replied.
The meeting, according to Hawthorn, prompted him to begin an effort to revise the Trump’s Organization’s bookkeeping policies to replicate his work in Trump’s hotel division, which he ran as its chief operating officer. Following Eric Trump’s request, he imposed a standardized paperless approach to bookkeeping, so entities could be compared on an “apples to apples basis,” Hawthorn testified.
Nov 27, 9:26 AM EST
Trump Organization execs to return to witness stand
Two current Trump Organization executives are scheduled to return to the witness stand today as part of the defense’s case as the trial resumes following the Thanksgiving holiday.
Mark Hawthorn, Trump Hotels’ chief financial officer, initially testified for the state’s case in October. State attorney Andrew Amer used his testimony as an opportunity to highlight that the Trump Organization had a qualified accountant who could have worked on Trump’s statement of financial condition, instead of the top executives who had less accounting experience.
“If any of them had asked you to work with them on preparing Mr. Trump’s statement of financial condition, would you have had the knowledge and experience to do so?” Amer asked.
“Yes,” Hawthorn responded, adding he was never asked to assist with preparing the statements that are at the center of the attorney general’s case.
Patrick Birney, an assistant vice president at the Trump Organization who also testified in October, offered some of the only testimony that supports the attorney general’s allegation of a conspiracy to inflate Trump’s net worth.
“Did Allen Weisselberg ever tell you that Mr. Trump wanted his net worth on the statement of financial condition to go up?” state attorney Eric Haren asked Birney.
“Yes, I think that happened in Allen Weisselberg’s office,” Birney said, prompting an objection from Trump’s lawyers.
Nov 22, 5:28 PM EST
Judge, clerk subjected to daily threats, official says in gag order filing
An attorney for Judge Arthur Engoron also filed in support of the gag order in Donald Trump’s civil fraud trial, arguing that violent threats have increased since the gag order was lifted.
The limited gag order, which prohibited Donald Trump and his attorneys from publicly commenting about Engoron’s staff, was issued by the judge last month after Trump posted about the judge’s law clerk on social media. Judge David Friedman of the appellate division’s First Department stayed the order on Thursday, citing constitutional concerns over Trump’s free speech rights.
Engoron’s filing includes a report from Charles Hollon of the Judicial Threats Assessment Unit of the New York State Court System’s Department of Public Safety. According to the report, Engoron and his principal law clerk, Allison Greenfield, have been inundated with credible, violent and antisemitic threats since Trump began criticizing Greenfield.
“The threats against Justice Engoron and Ms. Greenfield are considered to be serious and credible and not hypothetical or speculative,” Hollon wrote in the report.
Greenfield has been the victim of daily doxing of her personal email address and phone number, receiving dozens of calls, emails and social media messages daily, according to Hollon. Approximately half the harassing messages have been antisemitic, according to Greenfield.
In the report, Hollon wrote that Engoron was the subject of credible threats before the trial had started, but Trump’s Oct. 3 Truth Social post directed at Greenfield exponentially increased the number of threats directed at her.
The report included multiple examples of voicemails that were left on the telephone in Engoron’s chambers.
Hollon said the messages have created an “ongoing security risk” for Engoron, his staff and family, but that the gag order had been effective in lowering the number of threats.
“The implementation of the limited gag orders resulted in a decrease in the number of threats, harassment and disparaging messages that the judge and his staff received,” Hollon said in the report. “However, when Mr. Trump violated the gag orders, the number of threatening, harassing and disparaging messages increased.”
Engoron’s lawyer, Lisa Evans, said the threats detailed in Hollon’s affirmation justify the gag order, which functions as a reasonable limit on free speech.
“The First Amendment does not prohibit courts from limiting speech that threatens the safety of the court’s staff,” Evans wrote.
Trump’s reply to the filing is due on Nov. 27, after which the First Department will decide whether to fully lift the gag order.
Nov 22, 4:53 PM EST
NY AG argues for limited gag order in court filing
A lawyer for New York Attorney General Letitia James, in a court filing Wednesday, argued in favor of maintaining the judge’s limited gag after an appeals court temporarily lifted the order last week.
The limited gag order, which prohibited Donald Trump and his attorneys from publicly commenting about Judge Arthur Engoron’s staff, was issued by the judge last month after Trump posted about the judge’s law clerk on social media. Judge David Friedman of the appellate division’s First Department stayed the order on Thursday, citing constitutional concerns over Trump’s free speech rights.
James’ court filing Wednesday alleges that Trump and his lawyers continue to harass Engoron’s law clerk “as part of an improper tactic to disrupt trial and undermine the proceedings.”
James said the gag order is a necessary and “exceedingly limited restraint” to protect Engoron’s staff, and Trump’s lawyers failed to prove that attacks on judicial staff during a trial are protected by the First Amendment.
“A speedy denial is necessary to ensure the safety of [the] Supreme Court’s staff and the integrity and the orderly administration of the proceedings through the end of the trial,” James wrote, describing Trump’s attacks as “extraordinary and dangerous.”
Arguing that Trump has engaged in a “pattern” of attacking civil servants involved in proceedings against him, James cited his attacks on the former lieutenant governor of Georgia, as well as officials in his federal election interference case. She also mentioned Trump’s renewed attacks against the clerk over the last week since the gag order was lifted, including calling for her prosecution, sharing an article suggesting she engaged in drug use, and describing her as “crooked and highly partisan.”
Trump’s lawyers have defended such attacks as constitutionally protected speech and argued that Engoron failed to articulate how the attacks present a “clear and present danger” to the clerk.
Trump personally sued Engoron last week using a provision of state law called Article 78, which is generally used to challenge New York government agencies. Trump unsuccessfully attempted to use an Article 78 proceeding on the eve of the trial to delay the proceeding; however, his most recent attempt successfully resulted in a temporary stay of the gag order.
Trump’s reply to the filing is due on Nov. 27, after which the First Department will decide whether to fully lift the gag order.
Nov 21, 3:27 PM EST
Court adjourns for extended Thanksgiving break
After two days of testimony for the defense, former Trump Organization controller Jeff McConney stepped off the witness stand.
Judge Arthur Engoron then adjourned court until Monday.
When court resumes after the Thanksgiving break, the defense plans to call two Trump Organization executives, followed by several Deutsche Bank employees.
(AUSTIN, Texas) — The Texas Supreme Court is set to hear arguments Tuesday in an ongoing lawsuit filed by women against the state over its multiple abortion bans. The suit, first filed by the Center for Reproductive Rights in March, was filed by women who say their lives were put in danger due to the state’s multiple bans.
Texas has several abortion laws in place prohibiting nearly all abortions, except in medical emergencies, which the laws do not define. Women filing the lawsuit say they were denied care despite having dangerous pregnancy complications. One of the bans — called SB 8 — prohibits abortions after cardiac activity is detected, which generally occurs at around six weeks of pregnancy, keeping several plaintiffs from accessing care despite their pregnancies being nonviable, according to the suit.
The state Supreme Court will decide whether a partial block of Texas’ abortion bans — which would allow abortions to resume in cases of medical emergencies and fatal fetal diagnoses while litigation continues — can go into effect.
After hearing emotional testimony from some of the women filing the suit, a lower court judge issued a ruling in August temporarily blocking the implementation of abortion bans in cases of medical emergencies and fatal fetal anomalies while the lawsuit continues. That ruling was quickly put on hold when state prosecutors filed an appeal.
The Texas Supreme Court will also issue a decision on state prosecutors’ request to throw out the case entirely. Judge Jessica Mangrum, the lower court judge who issued the injunction, had denied the state’s request to throw out the case.
If the Texas Supreme Court denies the state’s request to dismiss the case — in whole or in part — then the suit will return to district court for litigation.
“There is the possibility that the Texas Supreme Court will side with the state and rule that the only relief pregnant people in Texas have is to go ask their Texas legislators for a change. In that case, it wouldn’t return [the case to district court] and we have to pursue other avenues,” Nick Kabat, staff attorney with the CRR, told ABC News earlier this month.
This lawsuit, filed by the Center for Reproductive Rights, was first filed by five women in March. More women have since been added to the lawsuit. Of the 22 plaintiffs, 20 are women who say they have been impacted by the bans, and two others are physicians suing on behalf of themselves and their patients.
The lawsuit is asking the court to temporarily and permanently block Texas’ abortion bans due to uncertainty surrounding the meaning of the exceptions to the laws.
(NEW YORK) — More than 40,000 Oregon students returned to classes Monday for the first time this month as Portland teachers ended the longest U.S. teachers strike in 2023.
Over the weekend, Portland Public Schools (PPS), the largest school district in the state, reached a tentative agreement to end the more than three-week strike that started on Nov. 1. However, the $175 million contract agreement still needs to be approved by the union as classes resume.
“This contract is a watershed moment for Portland students, families, and educators,” Portland Association of Teachers (PAT) President Angela Bonilla said in a statement to ABC News. “Educators walked picket lines alongside families, students, and allies — and because of that, our schools are getting the added investment they need,” Bonilla added.
Veteran teacher Tiffany Koyama Lane was swarmed by her third grade students and parents when she returned to Sunnyside Environmental School today.
“I walked out this morning – as did every other teacher at my school – and like, the families and kids cheered and started crying and like, tackled me in like one giant group hug,” Koyama Lane told ABC News. “The magnitude of the community showing up so strongly. That’s something that I’m still sitting with and processing – like it was – it was really beautiful.”
The city’s first-ever strike lasted 11 instructional days when factoring in weekends and holidays. After months of negotiations, Portland’s nearly 4,000 educators received “key wins” for mental health support, smaller class sizes and cost of living compensation increases, according to the statement.
Oregon Education Association (OEA) President Reed Scott-Schwalbach called the tentative agreement “historic.”
“This is a transformative deal that will improve the lives of students in Portland and have far-reaching positive effects for our students across the rest of the state,” Scott-Schwalbach wrote.
In recent strikes across the nation, teachers have demanded fair wages and called attention to other grievances included in the negotiations, like guaranteed planning time. Many teachers have said their prep periods were stripped from them due to a massive teaching shortage during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Portland’s teachers also agreed to a roughly 14% overall pay raise over three years, $20 million dollars for classroom renovations and a first-ever contract article dedicated to special education.
Posting to X (formally known as Twitter), Suzanne Bonamici, D-Oregon, said post-pandemic teaching remains a challenge as more students have greater academic and social needs. The proposed agreement “fairly compensates PPS teachers and gives them the resources and support they need to provide their students with a path to success,” Bonamici added.
Students and teachers will make up the missed class time over winter break and throughout the new year.
(NEW YORK) — Less than two weeks before its maiden voyage, Life at Sea Cruises announced it had canceled its three-year voyage after delays and logistical challenges, leaving passengers who spent tens of thousands of dollars stranded.
Life at Sea Cruises said it will make repayments in monthly installments to passengers from mid-December, but customers who had prepared for the trip of a lifetime are speaking out about the implications of the sudden cancellation.
The cruise was finally due to set sail on Nov. 30 from Amsterdam, after the original Nov. 1 departure from Istanbul was delayed and rescheduled.
Meredith Shay, a retired flight attendant who had been preparing for the adventure, told “Good Morning America” she was on a payment plan of $35,000 per month to stay in one of the biggest rooms on the ship.
“How did I feel about it? Devastated, disappointed, sad. I packed up my belongings, put them in storage, sent four boxes to Miray Cruises,” Shay explained of her efforts before the trip was canceled.
ABC News obtained messages passengers received from the owners of Life at Sea’s parent company Miray Cruises saying the company was unable to purchase a ship after “investors declined to support us further due to unrest in [the] Middle East.”
On Nov. 20, in another update from Miray Cruises owner Vedat Ugurlu to passengers, he said the Life at Sea Cruise trip was canceled.
However, in a statement to ABC News, Ugurlu said nothing had been canceled, only postponed until the spring.
“We just had to extend our approval,” he said. “Because as you know, three year cruises is a mega project. The reason for this is our vessel capacity — needed to exceed more than 600 cabins. And right now we only have 104 cabins.”
The company also told ABC News that anyone who wants a refund will receive it, including money spent on acquiring visas and other travel expenses. They also said people who have already paid will have a cabin when they set sail in May 2024. They are also inviting everyone on a separate, shorter cruise free of charge next summer.
The cruise was set to make stops in 135 countries on all seven continents. Prices started at $87,000 per year for double occupancy, according to the company’s website.
Keri Witman told “GMA” that she already paid $32,000 toward the trip and sold her home.
“The minute I saw an ad, I thought, ‘This is really right up my alley,'” Witman said. “I owned a house. I had needed knee surgery, so I expedited all of those things. I sold my house. Got rid of most of my things.”
Leading up to the cancellation, the cruise line kept passengers informed with frequent webinars.
During a webinar on Sept. 6, 2022, former CEO Kendra Holmes said, “What percent of cabins have been sold? We’re right around 50% right now so we’re making good pace for where we want to be at this point in time.
But Miray Cruises’ owner told ABC News this week they had only 150 passengers for a vessel with over 600 cabins.
Holmes resigned last week, according to CNN, days before Ugurlu officially announced the cancellation.
Ashley Kosciolek, a senior cruise writer at The Points Guy, told “GMA,” “It was three years or nothing. I think any time somebody tells you you have to fully commit, sight unseen, it should give you pause.”
(NEW YORK) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is warning consumers about a multistate salmonella outbreak linked to some cantaloupes.
The CDC published a food safety alert on Friday, after multiple retailers and brands — including Trufresh, Crown Jewels Produce, Vinyard Fruit and Vegetable Company, CF Dallas, ALDI and Pacific Trellis Fruit — issued recalls for both whole and pre-cut cantaloupes.
The cantaloupes were sold by some retailers with labels or stickers that read “Malichita” or “Rudy,” and by others in clear containers or cups, pre-cut or sliced into cubes. (More specific information is included below.)
The CDC also released investigation details citing epidemiologic and laboratory data that showed “cantaloupes are contaminated with Salmonella and are making people in this outbreak sick.” Canada is also investigating the outbreak, the CDC said, and “has linked illness … with the same Salmonella strain to cantaloupes.”
As of time of publication, there have been 99 reported illnesses, 45 hospitalizations and two deaths across 32 U.S. states connected to the outbreak, according to the CDC.
The two deaths were reported in Minnesota.
The agency said the illnesses were reported between Oct. 17 and Nov. 10, however the CDC noted the number of people with illnesses connected to the outbreak is likely higher than current figures suggest.
“Recent illnesses may not yet be reported as it usually takes 3 to 4 weeks to determine if a sick person is part of an outbreak,” the CDC stated. “The true number of sick people in this outbreak is also likely much higher than the number reported. This is because many people recover without medical care and are not tested for Salmonella.”
The CDC has advised people not to eat, sell or serve any recalled fruit.
Whole cantaloupes
Last week, Trufresh, operating under parent company Sofia Produce LLC., expanded an earlier Nov. 8 recall to include all Malichita brand and Rudy brand whole cantaloupes sold between Oct. 10 and Nov. 3. The affected products were distributed directly to states including Arizona, California, Connecticut, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Utah, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Texas and Florida, as well as Canada.
On Nov. 22, Crown Jewels Produce also recalled Malichita brand whole cantaloupes that were distributed to retailers and wholesalers in Ohio and California and sold between Oct. 31 and Nov. 9 due to possible salmonella contamination, according to a company announcement on the FDA website.
Pacific Trellis Fruit issued a similar recall on Nov. 24. According to a company announcement on the FDA website, the recall involves “4,872 cases of Malichita brand whole cantaloupe” packed in corrugated cartons and distributed between Oct. 18-26 in California, Illinois, Oklahoma, Texas and Wisconsin, and sold in various retail supermarkets.
Whole cantaloupes included in the above recalls “might have a sticker that says ‘Malichita’ or ‘Rudy,’ with the number ‘4050,’ and ‘Product of Mexico/produit du Mexique,'” according to the CDC.
Sliced or pre-cut cantaloupe products
In coordination with Sofia Produce, CF Dallas voluntarily recalled pre-cut fruit products sold under the Freshness Guaranteed and RaceTrac brand names that may have contained the recalled cantaloupes. The affected products were packaged in clear square or round plastic containers with best-by dates between Nov. 7-12. The products were sold in Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, North Carolina, Ohio, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia.
In a statement on the FDA website, CF Dallas noted that the “fresh-cut fruit products associated with the recalled whole cantaloupe have expired, however consumers who have purchased these items and may have frozen them for later use are urged not to consume the products and to dispose of them immediately or return the items to their local store for a full refund.”
Vinyard Fruit and Vegetable Company, located in Oklahoma City, issued a recall earlier this month on pre-cut cantaloupe, which included cantaloupe cubes, melon medleys and fruit medleys that were sold in Oklahoma stores between Oct. 30 and Nov. 10. A company statement on the FDA website notes that the recall was issued in relation to the earlier Sofia Produce whole cantaloupes recall.
On Nov. 14, ALDI issued a recall in association with Sofia Produce on both whole cantaloupe and pre-cut fruit products in clamshell packaging with best-by dates between Oct. 27-31 that were sold in ALDI stores in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan and Wisconsin. Click here for full recall details.
“Investigators are working to identify any additional cantaloupe products that may be contaminated,” the CDC said in its food safety alert on Friday.
If you can’t tell if your cantaloupe was impacted by the current recalls and food safety alert, throw it away and do not consume it. The CDC has advised people to wash items and any surfaces that may have come into contact with the fruit “using hot soapy water or a dishwasher,” and to “call your healthcare provider if you have any … severe Salmonella symptoms.”
Symptoms and treatment of salmonella sickness
Salmonella is a bacteria that can make people sick, and most types cause an illness called salmonellosis, according to the CDC.
Most people with salmonellosis experience symptoms such as diarrhea, fever and stomach cramps, which may occur hours to days after infection, the CDC states, though some do not develop symptoms for several weeks.
Infections are diagnosed through lab testing. Most people recover within four to seven days without antibiotics, according to the CDC. Antibiotic treatment is recommended for people with severe illness, those with weakened immune systems, adults 50 and older with medical issues like heart disease, as well as infants, and adults older than 65, the agency states.
