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(LOS ANGELES) — First responders in Los Angeles County say they were able to rescue a man who drove off a 400-foot cliff on Friday after receiving an alert triggered by his phone.

The driver, who rescuers found at the bottom of a ravine, was “bleeding profusely” but survived the incident, according to Mike Leum, a search and rescue group leader for the LA County Sheriff’s Department.

“The majority of calls we get there over the sides usually are fatal,” Leum told ABC News about the crash site, which was off a windy road along Mount Wilson.

Volunteer search and rescue responders with the LA County Sheriff’s Department first received a report about the crash around 11 p.m. on Friday.

Leum said dispatchers learned about the incident due to the driver’s iPhone 14 crash detection program. Recent iPhones and Apple Watches have a program that automatically alerts authorities if the phone’s sensors suggest the device’s owner might be in a crash or hard fall.

“We’re talking about hundreds of miles of mountain roads where these people could have gone over the side,” Leum said about the incident on Friday and other similar incidents involving the crash detection program. “So I’m not convinced that they would have ever been found.”

Locating the car’s skid marks and a damaged guardrail, rescuers were eventually able to make audio contact with the driver, according to Leum. Once they located him at the bottom of the 400-foot cliff, rescuers used an airlift to send the driver to a local trauma center.

The driver’s car, found pancaked at the bottom of the ravine, was unrecognizable, according to Leum. Apart from the head laceration, the driver had no other major injuries such as broken bones, he said.

The California Highway Patrol could not be immediately reached about the cause of the crash.

“This guy on Friday would have bled out,” Leum said about the severity of his injuries.

Apple released its crash detection feature in September 2022, though its rollout was followed by some reports about false positive alerts issued by the device. While users can cancel the alert within 20 seconds of the perceived crash, some alerts were reported to have accidentally contacted authorities while users were riding roller coasters or skiing.

An Apple representative told ABC News that the company is aware of the reported issues and have rolled out multiple software updates to reduce the number of false positives. Leum added that his department has worked with the company to prevent such instances.

Leum cited at least four victims he believes rescuers would not have been able to reach in time but for the crash detection program.

“Nobody saw the crashes, so who knows how long it would have taken for someone to file a missing person report and for some agency to backtrack and try and locate these people,” he said.

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(MASSAPEQUA, N.Y.) — Authorities have concluded their search at the “cluttered” house belonging to Gilgo Beach, New York, murder suspect Rex Heuermann, authorities said Tuesday.

Investigators “obtained a massive amount of material” at the suburban Massapequa Park, Long Island, home and will now sift through the evidence, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said, though he did not elaborate on what was seized.

Authorities have still not ruled in or ruled out whether any alleged victims were killed at Heuermann’s house, Tierney said at a news conference.

Investigators dug up the backyard this week as they searched for evidence, and Tierney said “there was nothing of note taken from the backyard as far as remains.”

Approximately 279 guns were recovered at Heuermann’s house, including long guns, Tierney said.

Some of the guns were kept inside a walk-in vault in the basement, according to authorities. Tierney would not say if any other items were recovered from the vault.

Heuermann, a New York City architect and father of two, was arrested on July 13 for the murders of three sex workers — Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Costello — whose bodies were found covered in burlap on Long Island’s South Shore in 2010. The young women disappeared in 2009 and 2010.

Heuermann’s attorney entered a not guilty plea on his behalf. His next court date is Aug. 1.

Heuermann is also the prime suspect in the death of a fourth victim, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, who vanished in 2007, though he has not been charged in that case.

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(NEW YORK) — The Mega Millions jackpot has ballooned to an estimated $820 million ahead of Tuesday night’s drawing, marking the eighth-largest top prize in U.S. lotto history.

The jackpot has grown by $100 million after Friday’s drawing saw no ticket claim the top prize.

There have been no Mega Millions jackpot winners in 27 consecutive drawings, since the grand prize was last won on April 18. Players must match all five numbers plus the Mega Ball number to claim the jackpot.

The cash option of the jackpot is an estimated $422 million — offered as a one-time, lump-sum payment. Otherwise the winnings can be paid out as one immediate payment followed by 29 annual payments, with the annuity option.

The estimated $820 million prize is the fifth-largest jackpot in Mega Millions history, and eighth largest in U.S. lotto history when also factoring in Powerball jackpots.

The previous four times the Mega Millions jackpot crossed $700 million, it grew to over $1 billion, with winners in 2018, 2021, 2022 and January 2023.

The odds of winning the top prize are 1 in 302.6 million, while the odds of winning any Mega Millions prize is 1 in 24.

Mega Millions is played in 45 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Tickets are $2 for one play. Tuesday’s drawing is at 11 p.m. ET.

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(WASHINGTON) — A former close business associate of Hunter Biden is expected to sit for closed-door testimony with the House Oversight committee next week, sources confirm to ABC News, as Republicans continue their investigations into President Joe Biden and his family.

Devon Archer is set to speak to GOP lawmakers behind closed doors on Monday, and will provide details related to the president’s sons’ business dealings in Ukraine, a source said.

In June, the committee subpoenaed Archer to appear for a deposition because he “played a significant role in the Biden family’s business deals abroad, including but not limited to China, Russia, and Ukraine,” according to the subpoena.

Republicans on the committee have long claimed that President Biden was more involved in his son’s business dealings than he has disclosed — and Monday’s interview with Archer will likely be the latest attempt for Republicans to back up those claims.

During his 2020 campaign Biden told reporters, “I have never discussed with my son or my brother or anyone else, anything having to do with their businesses.”

In a statement on Monday, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., said, “The Oversight Committee will continue to follow the facts to provide the transparency and accountability that the American people demand and deserve. We look forward to speaking soon with Devon Archer about Joe Biden’s involvement in his family’s business affairs.”

Asked Monday about a New York Post report claiming that Hunter Biden had put his father on speakerphone with business associates during the elder Biden’s time as vice president, White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre reiterated that the president “was never in business with his son.”

News of the scheduled interview comes as Republicans have ramped up their probe into the Biden family in recent weeks. During congressional testimony last week, two IRS whistleblowers claimed the Justice Department slow-walked the investigation into the president’s son.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, also released a confidential FBI informant’s unverified claim that, years ago, the Biden family “pushed” a Ukrainian oligarch to pay them $10 million.

In a memo to House Democrats obtained by ABC News, Democrats on the House Oversight committee blasted Grassley and Comer over the release of the FBI form and called it an attempt to “breathe new life into years-old conspiracy theories.”

“Chairman Comer’s and Sen. Grassley’s decision to publicly release the form is in brazen disregard of the safety of FBI human sources and the integrity of its investigations,” read the memo. “Contrary to Republican messaging, the form provides no new or additional support for their corruption allegations against the President or Hunter Biden.”

“Instead, its release merely seeks to breathe new life into years-old conspiracy theories, initially peddled by Rudy Giuliani, that have been thoroughly debunked,” the memo said.

On Wednesday, Hunter Biden will appear in a Delaware courthouse to formally agree to the plea deal he negotiated last month with federal prosecutors who have been probing his business dealings.

The younger Biden in June agreed to plead guilty to a pair of misdemeanor tax charges and enter into a pretrial diversion program that will allow him to avoid prosecution on a separate felony gun charge.

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(NEW YORK) — A relentless heat wave that has had a swath of the southwestern United States in its chokehold is stretching into the Midwest on its way to the Northeast this week.

The National Weather Service has issued heat alerts that are in effect on Tuesday for 45 million Americans across a dozen states, from Southern California to Montana, through the Great Plains and back down to South Florida.

The weather forecast for Tuesday shows temperatures will reach or exceed 110 degrees in cities like Palm Springs, California; Phoenix, Arizona; and Las Vegas, Nevada. Temperatures in the 100s are expected from Texas to Nebraska.

Heat index values — a measure of how hot it really feels when relative humidity is combined with the air temperature — are forecast to be in the 100s for even more places, including Kansas City, Missouri. It’s the hottest time of the year for this area and these high temperatures aren’t too out of the ordinary there.

Arizona’s capital is on a record stretch of 25 consecutive days with temperatures at or above 110 degrees. Overnight temperatures in Phoenix have also not dropped below 90 degrees for at least 15 days.

Staff at Valleywise Health Medical Center in Phoenix told ABC News on Monday that the burn unit has been consistently full amid the brutal heat. They said about a third of the burn patients they are currently treating are people who have contact burns from falling and getting burned from the hot ground. The Arizona Burn Center is a standalone facility within Valleywise Health Medical Center and is the state’s only nationally-verified burn center.

Doctors there told ABC News that a majority of the weather-related contact burns they are seeing are to homeless people who have been outside for a prolonged period of time or, in some cases, are on drugs or alcohol, which is extremely dangerous in scorching temperatures. Valleywise Health Medical Center has taken a portion of its emergency room — previously used as an overflow unit for COVID-19 patients during the peak of the pandemic — and converted it into an area to treat the most severe or near death cases of heat exhaustion. About a handful of people a day meet that criteria, doctors said.

Meanwhile, Tucson, Arizona, has been at or above 100 degrees for 39 days, tying its record set in 2013. The city is expected to break that record on Tuesday.

El Paso, Texas, has been on a record-smashing stretch of 39 straight days with temperatures at or above 100 degrees. This is expected to continue this week and may finally come to an end over the weekend. The city’s previous record of 23 consecutive days was set in 1994.

Miami, Florida, has had a heat index high of 100 degrees for a record 44 days in a row, well past the previous record of 32 days set in 2020.

Marathon, Florida, hit 99 degrees on Monday, tying its record set earlier this month for the hottest temperature ever recorded in the city.

For many Americans, temperatures will only get hotter as the week goes on. By Thursday, heat index values are forecast to top 100 degrees in Kansas City, Missouri; reach 100 in Minneapolis, Minnesota; and be near 100 along the Interstate 95 travel corridor from Richmond, Virginia, to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and New York, New York. It could be the first heat wave of the summer in the Northeast with three days in the 90s, though it will be short-lived.

The weather forecast for next week shows temperatures will remain hot in the South and West, while the Midwest and Northeast get a reprieve from the extreme heat.

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(NEW YORK) — The dangerous heat waves currently plaguing North America and Europe would be “virtually impossible” without anthropogenic, or human-caused, climate change, according to a new report.

Intense weeks-long heat waves have been continuously breaking heat records on both continents, with no relief in sight. In Europe, prolonged sizzling temperatures are expected in countries like Italy, Spain, France, Germany and Poland, the European Space Agency announced last week. Regions in the U.S. that have been experiencing record-breaking heat, including the Southwest and Southeast, will continue to experience scorching temperatures for the foreseeable future, forecasts show.

The heat waves occurring in Europe, North America and China throughout July would not have been possible without global warming, according to a rapid attribution analysis by World Weather Attribution, an academic collaboration that uses weather observations and climate models to calculate how climate change influences the intensity and likelihood of extreme weather events.

Temperatures have skyrocketed to 45 degrees Celsius — or 113 degrees Fahrenheit — in some regions, prompting heat alerts, wildfires and heat-related hospital admissions and deaths, the researchers said.

The recent heat waves are no longer considered “unusual,” as the continued warming from greenhouse gas emissions will cause future heat waves to be even hotter unless emissions are drastically cut, according to the report.

Climate change has made heatwaves hotter, longer and more frequent, evidence shows. The researchers studied the periods of most dangerous heat in each of the regions, and found that these heat waves are no longer rare due to warming caused by burning fossils and other human activities, the report found.

The study also found that climate change made the current heatwave in China at least 50 times more likely and that current temperatures in Europe and North America would not have been impossible without the effects of burning coal, oil and gas, deforestation and other human activities.

Temperatures in Europe have measured about 2.5 degrees Celsius — or 36.5 degrees Fahrenheit — more than normal, while the heat wave in North America was about 2 degrees Celsius — or 35.6 degrees Fahrenheit — higher, the analysis found. China was also at 1 degree Celsius — or 33.8 degrees Fahrenheit — higher, according to the report.

Events like these now have a 10% chance of occurring any given year in Europe and about a 6.7% chance of occurring in any given year in the U.S., the analysis found. Without human-induced climate change, extreme heat would likely be limited to just once every 250 years, while heat waves of the magnitude of what has been experienced in July would have been virtually impossible.

Because these heat events are expected to become more frequent, the need for humans to adapt and increase greenhouse gas mitigation efforts is vital, the researchers said.

“Our adaptation to that rapid change hasn’t occurred fast enough that we are able to see them as common events at this point,” Julie Arrighi, manager of the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre in The Netherlands, told reporters during a news conference on Monday. “And so it underscores the need for our systems to adapt much faster, because the risks are rising faster than we are adapting.”

If global temperatures reach a 2-degree Celsius rise in temperatures since the 1800s, the heat waves will become even more frequent and extreme and occur every two to five years, according to the report. Temperatures have already risen about 1.2 Celsius since the late 1800s, according to climate scientists.

“In the past, these events would have been extremely rare,” Friederike Otto, senior lecturer in climate science at the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment at Imperial College London, told reporters in a news conference on Monday. “So it would have been basically impossible that they would happen at the same time.”

It is unclear how long the record-smashing temperatures will last, as the accuracy for forecasts decreases after a week. While the El Nino event is likely contributing somewhat to the additional heat, increased global temperatures from burning fossil fuels is the main reason the heatwaves are so severe, the researchers said.

However, the heat waves are not evidence of “runaway warming” or climate collapse, Otto said, adding that there is still time to move the needle on greenhouse gas mitigation.

“We still have time to secure a safe and healthy future, but we urgently need to stop burning fossil fuels and invest in decreasing vulnerability,” Otto said. “If we do not, tens of thousands of people will keep dying from heat-related causes each year.”

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(NEW YORK) — Human remains were found inside three separate suitcases on Friday in Florida, according to law enforcement officials seeking information related to the gruesome discovery.

The Delray Beach Police Department responded to a 911 call from a person who said they saw something strange in the Intracoastal Waterway, police said.

Detectives discovered a suitcase that had human remains inside, according to Delray Beach Police Department.

The remains are that of “a white or Hispanic middle-aged woman with brown hair and approximately 5’4″ tall,” according to a statement from police.

Shortly after discovering the remains, police discovered additional human remains inside two other suitcases near the Intracoastal Waterway.

The remains in all three suitcases are that of the same woman, according to police.

Delray Beach Police said the victim was wearing a floral tank top with a black undershirt and black mid-thigh shorts.

In a brief update Monday afternoon, Delray police asked for the public’s help in reviewing any possible surveillance video from the time frame of July 17 through July 20.

The woman, believed to be between 35-55 years of age, was placed into the water during that timeframe, based on her condition, police said.

The area of interest is about one mile long, with police telling the public to look for any unusual vehicles, people, or anyone carrying or moving luggage during that time.

It’s believed to be an isolated incident, according to police.

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call Delray Beach Police Detective Mike Liberta at 561-243-7874.

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(SWANSBORO, N.C.) — Make way for the ducks of Swansboro, North Carolina.

The town’s population of Muscovy ducks has “exponentially multiplied” since last year, and hundreds have taken up residence in the town’s downtown area, according to Swansboro Mayor John Davis.

The insurgency of ducks has coincided with the town’s peak tourist season and recent federal wildlife protections, pitting the demands of Mother Nature against the red tape and requirements of the town’s seasonal economy.

“People love to see the ducks, and it is part of what people are used to seeing when they come to downtown Swansboro, but the nuisance level has kind of hit a crescendo,” Davis described to ABC News.

Susan Casper, 82, who runs a local marina in town, described that her workers and customers have to deal with the repercussions of the duck population on a daily basis.

“Every morning, our docks are covered with duck [poop]…..Nobody wants duck poop on their boat,” she described.

The ducks themselves have called Swansboro home for years, according to residents.

Having to stop one’s car to allow a family of ducks to pass is a normal occurrence, and residents advise checking under one’s tires before leaving a parking spot, according to Mercedes Ryba, who works at a local boutique.

The town’s proximity to water and its ample supply of natural food sources makes it a good habitat for ducks, according to Davis. Add a steady supply of tourists who are willing to feed the friendly birds, and the small town had a duck baby boom.

“We’ve created an optimum environment for them to reproduce,” Davis said.

The town does not have reliable numbers for the total number of ducks in the town over the last few years, but the number of ducks rescued by local Possumwood Acres Wildlife Sanctuary suggests a gradual increase in the downtown area, according to the sanctuary’s rehab coordinator Courtney Cole.

The sanctuary rescued 16 ducks in 2020, 21 ducks in 2021 and 51 ducks in 2022. In 2023 alone, the sanctuary has rescued 32 ducks so far, and Cole estimates they will surpass 2022’s number of rescued ducks.

The exact cause of the increase is unclear, but Cole said warmer winters and a lack of natural predators might have contributed to the boom.

Additionally, the town now lacks much recourse to limit the population. During past spikes, the town was able to relocate the birds to nearby farms, according to Davis.

However, the migratory birds were added to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act in 2010, according to North Carolina’s Wildlife Resources Commission. While North Carolina state law treats the birds akin to domestic animals rather than a protected species, the town itself is limited by the complicated framework of regulations.

Notably, the option to simply relocate the ducks is off the table according to Davis.

“I would hate to see us get in a situation where we’re having to euthanize the ducks,” Davis said.

As the town navigates the red tape of the problem, the implications of the sheer number of ducks in a crowded tourist town is unavoidable, according to residents.

A local florist in downtown Swansboro described the volume of duck poop can be unsanitary, as it is tracked into local businesses. Davis described how the situation is impacting the town’s public works department, that is regularly tasked with cleaning the remnants of ducks hit by cars.

“You have somebody that comes out first thing in the morning to grab the paper, and they have a deceased duck basically in their front yard,” Davis said.

However, Cole said the town might be able to embrace relatively simple solutions to resolve its problem. Notably, removing eggs prior to hatching and limiting feeding areas, which will not only limit the duck population, but also confine them to a more manageable area, according to Cole.

“We all love the ducks,” one local worker said, optimistic the town can quickly find a solution.

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(NEW YORK) — Robert Hadden, the former Columbia University gynecologist who prosecutors said “abused his position of power to assault patient after patient, year after year,” is slated to be sentenced to 20 years in prison, but a federal court judge is mulling a request from his attorneys to speak.

Hadden was convicted in January for sexually abusing four of his patients, including a minor, and two who were pregnant.

Judge Richard M. Berman ordered that Hadden serve the four 20-year sentences, the maximum amount for “enticing and inducing individuals to travel interstate to engage in illegal sexual activity,” concurrently.

“This case is like no other in my experience in terms of horrendous, beyond extraordinary, depraved sexual assault,” Judge Berman said at the sentencing.

However, the judge didn’t formally impose the sentence after he agreed to consider a last-minute request from Hadden’s attorneys to have their client speak when court resumes Tuesday morning.

If the judge approves the request, it would mark the first time that Hadden has spoken in court about his charges.

Prosecutors previously asked for at least 25 years in prison contending that “the magnitude of the defendant’s crimes is staggering and warrants a commensurate sentence.”

“In this case in particular, the court must impose a sentence that will reflect the seriousness of the offense, provide just punishment and general and specific deterrence, promote respect for the law, and protect the public from further crimes by the defendant,” the prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo.

Hadden, who worked at Columbia University and New York-Presbyterian Hospital, pled not guilty in September 2020 after he was indicted in federal court on charges he enticed and induced victims to his medical offices and subjected them to unlawful sexual abuse.

Federal prosecutors alleged Hadden also assaulted “dozens of female patients, including multiple minors” between 1993 and 2012 while pretending to medically examine them.

“Over the course of his 25-year career as an OB/GYN, Hadden sexually abused dozens of victims, some repeatedly, hiding behind his position of power, authority and trust as a physician, as well as the guise of purported gynecological exams, in order to carry out countless acts of sexual abuse and assault,” prosecutors said.

Hadden developed a relationship with his victims before engaging in a course of increasingly abusive conduct, which he tried to mask under the guise of legitimate medical care. He invited victims to meet with him alone in his office, sent nurses and medical assistants out of the examination room for periods of time and, according to the indictment, enticed and coerced four women to travel to New York City from another state to engage in illegal sexual activity.

He was convicted on January 24, during a three-week trial.

The defense conceded Hadden caused victims “immeasurable” pain but asked for a far lower sentence.

“In its zeal to persuade this court to give Mr. Hadden the equivalent of a life sentence, no matter what the facts or law, the government takes extreme positions better suited to our current political discourse than a brief from a litigant with special responsibilities in our system of justice,” defense attorneys wrote in their sentencing memorandum.

Some of Hadden’s victims were outside the courthouse Monday and consoled each other after learning of the sentence.

In October, Columbia University Irving Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian announced it had reached $230 million settlement with more than 200 of Hadden’s patients who reported instances of sexual abuse or misconduct.

ABC News’ Ivan Pereira contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — A “swarm of boulders” was sent careening into space after NASA successfully disrupted the orbit of an asteroid last year, according to the space agency.

The Double Asteroid Redirection Test spacecraft, or DART, collided with Dimorphos, a small asteroid that is the moon of a bigger space rock, Didymos, at about 14,000 miles per hour.

Not only did the test successfully change the trajectory of the orbit but about 37 boulders were shaken off the asteroid in images captured by the Hubble telescope, NASA said.

The boulders range in size from three feet to 22 feet across and are drifting away from the asteroid at about half a mile per hour.

David Jewett, a planetary scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, who has been tracking changes after the DART mission with the Hubble telescope, told ABC News the trail of the impact had been studied for months and no boulders were noticed.

“So, you know, the impact was at the end of September and I noticed the boulders in data from December, so it’s a long time after — you would think — everything should be over,” he said. “Impact is an impulse, it’s an instantaneous bang. So you would think, naively, you will be able to see it all straight away.”

What’s more, he said the boulders were not in any predictions for what the impact would look like.

The boulders were likely already scattered across the surface of the asteroid rather than chunks of the asteroid that broke off after the impact, according to NASA.

While the boulders are not a threat to Earth, the images are a reminder that future asteroid impact missions could have similar aftereffects.

Jewitt said this is among the first times scientists know just about all details of the impact and are able to see what happens when it’s caused by humans.

“We’ve seen other examples of impact between one asteroid and another and the trouble there is we don’t know when the impact occurred,” Jewitt said. “We see the debris but at some uncertain time after the impact, so the interpretation is clouded by not knowing when it happened, not knowing how big or how energetic the two asteroids were when they collided and so on, so it’s not very well characterized.”

“So, this is a case where, you know, we know the mass of the spacecraft, we know the speed of the spacecraft, so we know the energy. We know quite a lot about the impact,” he continued. “And then the idea is to look at the consequences of a well-calibrated impact to see how the asteroid responds.”

Jewitt added this will be something the European Space Agency’s upcoming Hera mission will investigate.

The Hera mission will examine the asteroid for future asteroid deflection missions, although the mission is launching on October 2024 and will not reach the sight of the impact until December 2026, according to the ESA.

“They’re gonna fly through these boulders on the way to seeing the targeted asteroid called Dimorphos and so … maybe they can study some of these boulders and figure out their properties better than we can get them from the ground,” Jewitt said. “It’s just a question of characterizing the products of a manmade impact into an asteroid to the best possibility that we can.”

ABC News’ Max Zahn contributed to this report.

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