(NEW YORK) — Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and other massive digital platforms, announced Thursday that since 2017 they disrupted more than 200 global networks engaging in coordinated inauthentic behavior (CIB).
Two-thirds of the 200-plus networks that Meta stopped focused on U.S. audiences, according to the company’s newest threat report, released on Thursday.
Meta has defined some CIB attempts as “efforts to manipulate public debate for a strategic goal where fake accounts are central to the operation.”
Russia was a major driver of the coordinated digital activity, Meta found. Nathaniel Gleicher, the head of security policy, said that “Ukraine was the most frequent target of Russian operations, followed by Russian operations targeting Africa broadly. The U.S. [as a target] was third.”
Meta’s report states that more than 100 countries have been targeted by at least one CIB network since 2017. The most frequent target was the U.S. — by 34 networks — followed by Ukraine, which was targeted by 20 networks.
Most of the CIB networks originated in three countries, according to the Meta report: Russia, home to 34 of them, which included Meta’s first and 200th takedown; Iran, which had 29; and 13 in Mexico.
Guy Rosen, chief information security officer for Meta, said that in 2023, “you should expect us to double down to address the threat in a few areas.” The company — which has long drawn attention and scrutiny for its security efforts because of its enormous user base — expects “a rise in off-platform targeting attempts that then compromise social media accounts,” Rosen said.
One of the ways the social media giant is looking to combat such attacks will be through a live chat support option. The company said it has tested the new chat support with more than a million people in eight countries, with plans to expand testing into 30 other countries.
Among the threats Meta found on its platforms were surveillance-for-hire or commercial spyware vendors — threat actors who provide powerful surveillance capabilities to a client.
These vendors have been based in Russia, Israel, India, China and the U.S. and targeted people in 200 countries, including journalists, political opposition figures and human rights activists.
Gleicher said, “This industry effectively democratizes surveillance, making it available to many more government and non-government groups that could build them on their own. So they’re exponentially increasing the supply of threat actors in the world.”
Meta’s view is that solutions to this should flow from governments like the U.S., Rosen told reporters on Wednesday: “We really believe that we need a concerted regulatory response by democratic governments.”
As one example of its threat disruption work, during the 2020 midterm elections, Meta discovered a Chinese operation targeting public debate in the U.S. which Gleicher described as an “evolution of techniques and tactics” even though it was “quite small” and “pretty unsuccessful.”
Meta said they are heavily invested in countering influence operations. Gleicher told ABC News that in response to such efforts “bad actors are looking to move away from the major platforms to smaller websites, to smaller platforms.”
“We’ve seen some increase in targeting of petition websites or sort of fundraising websites where people gather to make their voice known and advocate for a particular issue,” he said.
(KYIV, Ukraine) — Suedi Murekezi, an American who was freed from Russian-controlled territory on Wednesday, said he has since been in contact with U.S. officials.
Murekezi told ABC News on Thursday that he’s in Kyiv and “going through the protocol” of being debriefed and is in contact with U.S. and Ukrainian officials.
He said he has spoken to his family and they’re really happy he’s out of Russian-controlled territory.
He is not sure how long it will be until he can travel home to Minnesota.
Suedi had been arrested by the Russian-controlled authorities and spent weeks in a basement. He also spent three months in a prison in Donetsk city. He was later released by the Russians, but he was without his U.S. passport and was effectively trapped in Russian-controlled territory, living in the main city of Donetsk.
In an exclusive interview with ABC News on Wednesday, just minutes after he was rescued from Russian-occupied territory in a swap, Murekezi said the emotion was “overwhelming.”
“I can’t wait to see my family,” he said, adding that he wanted a “a hot shower” and a “peanut butter sandwich.”
Over the last few weeks he “felt trapped” in Russian-controlled territory, he said. Living in a safe house in the city of Donetsk without any documents, he said he tried to avoid thinking about his family potentially spending Christmas without him.
“I was trying to ignore emotions that were making me sad,” he said, adding, “Now I’m in Ukrainian [controlled] land, so it’s quite overwhelming.”
(NEW YORK) — Three people are dead in the wake of tornadoes that swept through Louisiana, according to the state Department of Health.
The latest fatality was reported in St. Charles Parish on Wednesday evening. A 56-year-old woman died after a tornado “destroyed her house in the Killona area,” the state Department of Health tweeted, noting that the fatality brings the total number of confirmed storm-related deaths to three.
The woman was found outside her home, and authorities have not yet confirmed her cause of death, St. Charles Parish Sheriff Greg Champagne said.
Several other people are seeking treatment at St. Charles Hospital for non-life-threatening injuries in the wake of the storm, Champagne said.
Authorities believe a tornado touched down at 2:21 p.m. near Nelson Coleman Correctional Facility in Killona, St. Charles Parish President Matthew Jewell said. The tornado then moved north toward Montz, with surveys of preliminary damage suggesting that the worst of the damage is in Killona, Jewell said.
“This community got hit really hard during Ida,” Champagne said. “They didn’t need this again.”
At least 15 to 20 families in Killona have had their homes damaged by the storm, Jewell said.
The sheriff called Wednesday’s storm “horrific and violent,” as authorities continue their search-and-rescue efforts. “They just can’t seem to catch a break,” he said.
Mother and son killed
The deadly tornado in St. Charles Parish comes after a woman and her 8-year-old son were killed when a tornado swept through their town on Tuesday, officials said.
The body of Yoshiko Smith, 30, was found under debris one street over from her destroyed home in Keithville, according to the sheriff’s office and coroner’s office in Caddo Parish.
The body of her son, Nikolus Little, was found in a wooded area near their house, officials said.
Both were killed by blunt force trauma, according to the Louisiana Department of Health.
These deadly tornadoes were among at least 42 reported twisters across the South since Tuesday afternoon. More tornadoes are expected on Wednesday overnight and Thursday as the storm moves east.
Four people in New Orleans were injured after a possible tornado touched down near the West Bank of the Mississippi River, Collin Arnold, director of New Orleans Homeland Security & Emergency Preparedness, told ABC News on Wednesday.
All four who were injured were transported to area hospitals, Arnold said, adding that none were children and all are in stable condition.
Damage assessments continue, Arnold said, but there are currently several downed power lines in Algiers caused by the strong winds of the storm, making it difficult for crews to safely restore power and survey all possible damage.
Officials in St. Bernard Parish, east of the French Quarter, confirmed that a tornado touched down in Arabi and caused significant damage. Police and firefighters were assessing the damage.
Nearly 45,000 customers were without power as of Wednesday night, according to electric company Entergy.
(NEW YORK) — The final three episodes of Prince Harry and Meghan’s closely followed docuseries aired Thursday on Netflix.
The latest episodes of the six-part series, titled Harry & Meghan, focus on Harry and Meghan’s decision to step down from their senior royal roles in 2020, with Harry alleging “institutional gaslighting,” and Meghan saying she was “being fed to the wolves.”
Following their exit, Harry and Meghan settled with their two children in California, where they now run a foundation and a production company, which helped produce the Netflix series.
The series’ first three episodes, which aired on Dec. 8, were Netflix’s biggest documentary debut ever, according to the streaming company.
Here is everything we know so far about the final three episodes of Harry & Meghan:
Harry shares his side of ‘terrifying’ family meeting at Sandringham
Harry, fifth in line to the British throne, shares for the first time details of the family meeting at Sandringham convened by Queen Elizabeth II after Harry and Meghan announced their decision in January 2020 to step back from their senior royal roles.
The so-called family summit included the queen as well as Harry’s father, who is now King Charles III, and his brother Prince William, now the heir to the throne. Meghan said she was not included in the summit.
“Imagine a conversation, a roundtable discussion, about the future of your life when the stakes are this high, and you as the mom and the wife, and the target in many regards, aren’t invited to have a seat at the table,” Meghan said, with Harry adding, “It was clear to me that they planned it so you weren’t in the room.”
Harry said he had “happy memories” of Sandringham, where the royal family traditionally celebrates Christmas, noting the contrast with returning there “under very different circumstances” for the family summit.
He said he was given five options at the meeting and chose the third option, which he described as a “half in, half out” model that would allow him and Meghan to have their “own jobs,” but still work “in support of the queen.” But he said he saw that goal was “not up for discussion or debate.”
“It was terrifying to have my brother scream and shout at me and my father say things that just simply weren’t true, and my grandmother, you know, quietly sit there and and sort of take it all in,” Harry said. “But you have to understand, from the family’s perspective, especially from hers, there are ways of doing things and her ultimate sort of mission, goal, slash responsibility is the institution.”
He continued, “People around her are telling her, ‘By the way, that proposal, or these two doing X, Y, Z, is going to be seen as an attack on the institution,’ then she’s going to go on the advice that she’s given.”
The royal family has not commented on the docuseries.
According to Netflix, interviews for the series were completed by August, one month before the Sept. 8 death of the queen at age 96.
“It was really hard,” Harry said of the meeting. “That meeting finished without any like solidified action plan.”
He said of his family members, “I think from their perspective they had to believe that it was more about us, and maybe the issues that we had, as opposed to their partner, the media, and themselves and that relationship that was causing so much pain for us. They saw what they wanted to see.”
Harry says statement denying bullying gave him and Meghan ‘no other option’
Harry said in the docuseries that after the meeting at Sandringham, some news headlines said William had “bullied” him and Meghan out of the royal family.
According to Harry, soon after, a joint statement was released from both him and William denying the bullying claims, but Harry says he never agreed to the statement.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Harry said. “No one had asked me. No one had asked me to put my name to a statement like that.”
Harry said he called Meghan, whom he described as equally upset.
“She burst into floods of tears because within four hours, they were happy to lie to protect my brother, and yet for three years, they were never willing to tell the truth to protect us,” Harry said, presumably referring to the palace.
Meghan said she had a revelation at that moment that, “It’s never going to stop.”
“Every rumor, every negative thing, every lie, everything that I knew wasn’t true and that the palace knew wasn’t true and internally they knew wasn’t true, that was just being allowed to fester,” she said.
Harry said he realized, “There was no other option at this point,” adding, “I said we need to get out of here.”
In the series, Harry fights back against media coverage and public speculation that it was Meghan who pushed the couple out of their royal roles.
“It was my decision. She never asked to leave,” he said. “I was the one that had to see it for myself.”
In a January 2020, it was announced that Harry and Meghan would still be known as the duke and duchess of Sussex and would remain members of the royal family, but they would no longer travel on behalf of the queen and would not receive any public money. In addition, Harry, a military veteran, lost his military titles and patronages.
Meghan says tabloid lawsuit led to ‘unraveling’ with royals
A London-based attorney who represented the Sussexes says in the series there was a “war against Meghan.”
“There was a real kind of war against Meghan, and I’ve certainly seen evidence that there was negative briefing from the palace against Harry and Meghan to suit other people’s agendas,” says Jenny Afia, identified onscreen as a partner at Schillings, a London-based law firm. “This barrage of negative articles about the breakdown of the relationship with her father was the final straw in a campaign of negative, nasty coverage about her.”
Schillings represented Harry and Meghan in the couple’s lawsuit against a U.K. tabloid publisher over the publication of Meghan’s handwritten letter to her estranged father Thomas Markle.
A U.K. judge ruled in Meghan’s favor in the case last year.
Meghan says it was the queen and Charles who suggested that she write her dad a letter amid their estrangement following her wedding to Harry, which he did not attend. She said that the signature that accepted the letter did not match that of her father’s, and then the entire letter was made public.
According to Meghan, when the royal institution did not follow up on her request to take legal action against the tabloid that published the letter, she and Harry filed their own lawsuit.
“Everything changed after that,” said Meghan. “That litigation was the catalyst probably for all of the unraveling.”
Shortly after, Harry and Meghan chose to spend the final months of 2019 in Vancouver Island, Canada, forgoing the tradition of spending Christmas with Harry’s family at Sandringham.
Meghan described as ‘scapegoat for the palace’
Lucy Fraser, identified in the docuseries as a friend of Meghan, alleges that stories about Meghan were fed to the press on purpose.
“Meg became this scapegoat for the palace,” Fraser says. “So they would feed stories on her, whether they were true or not, to avoid other less favorable stories being printed.”
The docuseries does not give additional context on Fraser’s allegation, nor does it make clear to whom she was referring: Buckingham Palace; the household of Charles and Camilla, the queen consort; or Kensington Palace, the household of William and Kate, the princess of Wales.
Royal family has remained silent on the docuseries so far
Members of the royal family have not commented on Harry and Meghan’s docuseries.
In the opening seconds of the first episode of Harry & Meghan, Netflix states that members of Britain’s royal family “declined to comment on the content within this series.”
Royal sources told ABC News last week “that neither Buckingham Palace nor Kensington Palace nor any members of the royal family were approached for comment on the content of the series.”
According to royal sources, Kensington Palace, the household of Harry’s brother Prince William and his wife Kate, the princess of Wales, received an email purporting to be from a third-party production company, via a different, unknown organization’s email address.
The palace contacted Harry and Meghan’s production company, Archewell Productions, and Netflix to attempt to verify the authenticity of the email, but received no response, sources said.
According to the sources, without being able to verify the email’s authenticity, the palace was “unable” to provide any response.
A source at Netflix, meanwhile, told ABC News that communications offices for Charles and William were contacted in advance and given the right to reply to claims within the series.
(NEW YORK) — A University of Virginia football player is speaking out after surviving a shooting that killed three of his teammates, telling ABC News’ Good Morning America co-anchor Michael Strahan he’s “doin’ it for my brothers I lost.”
Running back Michael Hollins Jr. said he and another teammate initially got off the bus on Nov. 13 when they heard gunshots break out, but then he realized they were the only two who had been able to run away.
“It was just literally an instinct and a reaction to go back,” he told Strahan in an interview airing Thursday morning on Good Morning America.
Hollins said he was “just three or four steps on the bus” when he saw the suspect coming off.
“I felt so hopeless and so powerless in that moment,” he said. “I felt him hit me in my back. But I just, I knew I wasn’t goin’ down without a fight.”
Christopher Darnell Jones Jr. is accused of opening fire on the loaded charter bus, killing three football players and injuring two other classmates. He’s charged with three felony counts of second-degree murder and two felony counts of malicious wounding, among others, and has yet to enter a plea.
Hollins thinks he was hit in the small intestines and kidney, he said.
“By the grace of God, it missed my spine by I think 2 centimeters or something like that,” he said.
Hollins said he went straight into surgery and didn’t find out about his teammates who were killed — wide receivers Lavel Davis Jr. and Devin Chandler and linebacker D’Sean Perry — until two days later.
“I’ve never cried like that before. I mean, I really, I lost a brother that day,” Hollins said, saying he loved his teammates “with all my heart,” but Perry — “that was my brother. So, it was tragic hearin’ that he was gone.”
In the wake of the tragedy, Hollins said he’s sharing his emotions and isn’t afraid to tell his friends or teammates “I love you” and “‘lookin’ forward to seeing you again,’ and really meanin’ it now.”
“I’m still doin’ it for the people I love, for the people that were on that bus. And everything I do from here on will be, you know, in their name, in their light. And I just want to do as much as I can to keep their, you know, their flame lit,” he added.
(NEW YORK) — Over the last few weeks, COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations have been steadily increasing in Los Angeles County.
Public health experts told ABC News that newer subvariants circulating plus low booster uptake has led to a surge and it may be time to mask up again.
Average daily infections currently sit at 3,028, a 129% increase from the 1,322 average cases recorded one month ago, according to an ABC News analysis of data from the county’s Department of Public Health.
What’s more, hospitalizations currently sit at 1,304, a jump from the 580 hospitalizations reported one month ago, the analysis found.
‘In a winter surge’
“What we’re seeing here in Los Angeles is what we’ll describe as a winter surge,” Dr. Armando Dorian, CEO of USC Verdugo Hills Hospital and an emergency medicine physician, told ABC News. “We were at a point where we had zero COVID patients in the hospital and over the last couple of weeks, there’s been a steady increase in the number of inpatients with COVID as either the diagnosis or part of their diagnosis.”
Dorian said the surge, both at his hospital and in the county as a whole, is not like previous surges that have occurred during the winter, which overwhelmed hospitals, but that the numbers are not insignificant.
“Currently, we’re sitting just under I think around 18% of the patients in the hospital are COVID-positive,” he said.
Dr. Soniya Gandhi, associate chief medical officer at Cedars-Sinai, told ABC News it’s a similar situation at her hospital.
However, this surge is different compared to previous surges because hospitals are also dealing with flu and RSV cases, in what’s been described as a “tripledemic.”
“We’re seeing now the other circulating viruses like flu and RSV, which we hadn’t experienced in prior surges,” Gandhi said. “So, we are starting to see a lot of COVID in the community. We’re starting and have been seeing a lot of flu as well in the community. Our flu positivity rate was as high as 30% last week, which is incredibly high compared to [past] years.”
However, in some good news, RSV cases appear to have peaked in early November and are now on the decline in California, data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows.
New variants and low booster update
Experts said there are a few reasons for the rising number of COVID-19 cases in the community, one of them being new variants.
“We have newer subvariants, namely BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 that are cousins of the prior omicron variant,” Gandhi said. “They’re more infectious, and they’re increasingly prevalent in the community.”
Data from the CDC shows that in Region 9, where Los Angeles is located, the two variants make up 67.8% of all new infections.
Additionally, more people are gathering in crowded indoor spaces due to the colder weather and the holiday season, which increases the risk of spread.
However, another factor is that vaccination and booster rates are lower than what doctors would like to see. Department of Public Health data shows only 13% of those aged 5 and older have received an updated booster dose.
“The true reason to get the booster or vaccinated is so that you potentially keep yourself from getting really ill from it and avoiding hospitalization,” Dorian said. “We do see a percentage of people that potentially could have definitely prevented themselves from getting admitted to the hospital, or even getting significantly ill because they did not get boosted or vaccinated.”
Are mask mandates coming back?
Meanwhile, the potential return of an indoor mask mandate hangs over the county.
Last week, Public Health Director Dr. Barbara Ferrer said during a press conference a mask mandate would not be implemented even as the county entered the “high” COVID-19 community transmission category, as defined by the CDC.
This was a reversal from a previous policy that moving into the high category would trigger a mandate. Instead, Ferrer said the mandate would be reinstated if certain hospital metrics were met such as 10% of county hospital beds filled with COVID patients.
Experts said right now the county is trending in the direction of a mask mandate.
“I think if we continue to trend in the direction, where we seem to be going, I think based on the previously outlined criteria, a mask mandate could certainly return and probably would need to be seriously considered,” Gandhi said. “That being said, I don’t think individuals should wait for a mask mandate to practice common sense.”
Dorian agreed, saying that implementing a mask mandate would be polarizing and that people should consider their own risk level and the level of those around them when considering masking.
“Do we really need somebody to tell us when to put a mask on is the question,” Dorian said. “I think if you’re not feeling well, or you’re potentially immunocompromised, or you’re going into a space where there’s a lot of people, you should just mask.”
He continued, “So, I think just continuously educating the community on why we’re asking and why there’s an increase and making sure we protect the vulnerable.”
(NEW YORK) — A devastating year for the stock market is hurtling toward its end, but not before December delivers a final verdict for investors.
After rallying in October and November, the S&P 500 fell for five consecutive days earlier this month. Each of the major indexes has dropped at least 1.5% in December, but an end-of-year surge known as the Santa Claus rally could end the year on a positive note.
The uncertain near-term outlook for the U.S. economy has amplified market volatility, as recession fears weigh on expectations for company earnings, analysts told ABC News. However, reason for long-term market optimism has emerged after a monthslong streak of declining inflation and an anticipated slowing of rate increases at the Federal Reserve, some analysts said.
“December for many is the hardest month to trade,” Ed Moya, a senior market analyst at broker OANDA, told ABC News. “This year, a lot of investors are unsure about the fate of the U.S. economy.”
Still, next year offers hope that a possible downturn will give way to a bounce back for stocks, Adam Turnquist, chief technical strategist at LPL Financial, told ABC News.
“While there is downside risk, overall things are looking more constructive for equities as we look ahead to 2023,” he said.
Here’s what you need to know about stock market performance in December, and what it says about the stock market going forward:
How stocks perform in December
In recent decades, the stock market has typically ended the year on the rise.
Since 1950, the S&P 500 has generated average returns of more than 1.5% in December, LPL Financial said in a report on Monday.
The losses so far this month shouldn’t necessarily deter investors, since the returns usually arrive in the second half of the month, the report said.
The Santa Clause Rally, a seven-day period at the end of December and beginning of January, has historically delivered stock market gains comparable to a strong month, the report added.
This time around, market performance will depend on investors’ reaction to the latest inflation data and the policy response from the Federal Reserve, analysts said.
A government report on Tuesday revealed that inflation stood at 7.1% last month compared with a year prior, continuing a months-long decline from a 40-year record reached over the summer.
However, inflation remains at a level more than triple the Fed’s target rate of 2%.
The inflation news nevertheless bolstered hopes among some investors that the U.S. could achieve a “soft landing,” in which inflation returns to normal levels while the economy averts a recession.
A day later, the Federal Reserve said it was raising its short-term borrowing rate another 0.5%, slowing an aggressive series of rate increases while continuing an effort to cool the economy and dial back inflation.
Borrowing cost increases usually weigh on stocks, since the moves aim to slash inflation by slowing the economy and choking demand. But the latest rate hike pulled the Fed back from three consecutive 0.75% increases, signaling confidence that the central bank can bring sky-high inflation down to normal levels.
Despite the positive sign, each of the major stock indexes fell nearly 1% on the news, in part because the Fed also signaled that it would not begin cutting rates until 2024.
The market outlook going into 2023
Analysts said they expect market volatility and a potential recession between now and the first half of next year. Still, some predicted that a strong finish to the year would buoy the economy and markets.
“There’s potential for markets to gyrate up or down quite a bit,” Dave Sekera, chief U.S. market strategist at Morningstar, told ABC News.
“Our U.S. economics team does believe if there is a recession, it will be short and shallow,” he added. “In our outlook for the second half of 2023, we do think the economy will rebound.”
Moya, of OANDA, said persistent volatility stems from a host of factors, such as the zero-COVID policy in China, the movement of inflation and the possibility of a recession.
“We’re probably going to see more choppy conditions,” he said. “This is a difficult economy to get excited about.”
(WASHINGTON) — The Biden administration on Thursday will relaunch its website for ordering free COVID-19 rapid tests.
Each household will be able to order four at-home rapid tests and orders will begin to ship out next week, a senior administration official said in a call with reporters on Wednesday to preview the White House’s winter preparedness plan for the virus.
COVIDTests.Gov had been shut down for about three months, after officials said they needed to hold onto the remaining supply of tests for a potential wave of cases this winter.
The site first launched in January, when President Joe Biden pledged to give out one billion free rapid tests to combat the omicron surge.
But the ordering form was taken offline in September, when the administration said that without more COVID-19 funding from Congress, it couldn’t allow the test supply to diminish any further. Since then, the fight for money has remained in a stalemate, with Republican lawmakers skeptical of its value.
The administration does appear to have found more funds for rapid tests within existing COVID-19 allocations and will not only open up ordering for the tests that still remained back in the stockpile in September but also purchase more, the senior official said.
The official wouldn’t say from what other pandemic-era programs the funds for new tests were pulled or how many tests will be available through the website. Americans ordered about 600 million tests before the government shut down the site in September, or about 60% of the one billion free tests Biden pledged to make available.
“Procurements are ongoing, so I can’t give you exact numbers on how this is going to land. But we feel confident that we’re going to have enough tests to get through this next round for four [tests] per household in the coming weeks,” the official said.
Prior to the portal shutting down, Americans had the opportunity to order 16 total tests per household over three different rounds.
But COVIDTests.gov is not the only way to secure free tests. People can also still purchase up to eight rapid tests per month at drug stores and supermarkets, fully reimbursable by insurance. And though there are less and less in recent months, there are still free government-run testing sites, which can be found on COVID.Gov/Tests.
The administration on Wednesday also announced a handful of other winter preparedness measures, though none amounted to significant new efforts that haven’t been tried throughout the pandemic.
“We know what to do in this moment. We have the tools and infrastructure and know how we need to effectively manage this time to prevent hospitalizations and deaths, minimize disruptions and respond to challenges. Everyone just has to do their part,” the official said.
The administration will encourage governors to set up more vaccination and testing sites, as well as “Test to Treat” sites, where people can get tested for COVID-19 and then prescribed Paxlovid, the antiviral medication that significantly reduces the risk of hospitalization and death for high-risk people if taken within five days of infection.
If necessary, the federal government said they will send teams and medical personnel to alleviate strains on hospitals. The White House also plans to distribute a winter playbook for nursing homes — often sites of significant spread and death, given the age of the people living there — which the administration official described as “a shorthand document focused on updated vaccinations, treatment for residents testing positive and improving indoor air quality.”
The White House’s rollout of a winter preparedness plan comes as cases, hospitalizations and deaths are all on the rise post-Thanksgiving gatherings — and though all three metrics are still lower than they were this time last year, at the beginning of the omicron surge, there is also new public health pressure this year from a sharp rise in cases of flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
The newest COVID-19 booster shot, a potential mitigation tool, has seen minimal interest, with uptake sitting at just 13.5% of people over 5 years old, according to government data.
(NEW YORK) — A federal judge in New York has decided it’s best to let a jury define what beer actually is.
The judge denied a request for summary judgment from Modelo, which is seeking to hold Constellation Brands liable for selling Corona-branded hard seltzer.
Modelo has allowed Constellation Brands to use the Corona name on certain beers, but Modelo has said hard seltzer products fall outside of a trademark licensing agreement.
The outcome of the case depends on whether the hard seltzer products constitute “beer” and therefore fall within the licensing agreement, as Constellation Brands argued. Modelo argued no reasonable jury could confuse beer for hard seltzer.
In his ruling, Judge Lewis Kaplan conceded Modelo may have the better argument, but he said the word “beer” is too ambiguous.
“Modelo has more dictionaries on its side of this debate over the meaning of ‘beer’ than does [Constellation Brands],” Kaplan wrote. “But the fact remains that the dictionaries, however important, do not resolve this case.”
(NEW YORK) — A ruptured ascending aortic aneurysm — the reported cause of death of American soccer writer Grant Wahl — is a rare but deadly medical condition.
Wahl, 49, a prominent journalist in the U.S. soccer community, collapsed on Dec. 9 while covering the World Cup in Qatar and could not be revived. On Wednesday, his wife, Dr. Celine Gounder, revealed that Wahl’s unexpected death was due to the rupture of an undetected ascending aortic aneurysm with hemopericardium, following an autopsy performed by the New York City Medical Examiner’s Office.
“Grant died from the rupture of a slowly growing, undetected ascending aortic aneurysm with hemopericardium,” Gounder wrote in a post on Substack. “No amount of CPR or shocks would have saved him.”
When someone who is young and otherwise appears to be healthy dies suddenly, “we worry about the possibility of underlying health conditions,” Dr. Eric Isselbacher, the co-director of the Thoracic Aortic Center at Massachusetts General Hospital, told ABC News.
“There’s no good way to know, in a case like this, until the autopsy exactly what happened. But we do see things like this happening in young people and it’s a sobering reminder of aortic aneurysms, particularly when people don’t know about them, because it can cause rupture and death,” he said.
What is an aortic aneurysm?
The aorta is the main artery that carries blood away from the heart to the rest of the body and brain. An aortic aneurysm is a balloon-like bulge in the aorta. An aneurysm weakens that portion of the artery, allowing blood to dissect or separate its walls and can cause it to rupture. An ascending aortic aneurysm is one where there is bulging and weakening of a section of the aorta before it curves into the aortic arch.
Hemopericardium means that there was blood found in the tissue surrounding the heart that is most likely related to the aortic aneurysm. If enough blood gets in this tissue around the heart, it can prevent the heart from pumping properly.
Doctors say aortic aneurysms that develop slowly over time, like Wahl’s, may not have any related symptoms until it gets large, dissects or ruptures. If an aneurysm dissects or ruptures, someone may feel sharp chest pain, have trouble breathing, become confused or pass out.
It is reported that Wahl was recently experiencing some cold symptoms and was treated for bronchitis.
“The chest pressure he experienced shortly before his death may have represented the initial symptoms,” Gounder also wrote.
Doctors say it is possible that some symptoms of a growing aortic aneurysm could mimic symptoms of a respiratory infection like cough or chest discomfort, but it is not known if that is what happened in Wahl’s case.
It is also unlikely that an automated external defibrillator would have saved Wahl’s life during the medical emergency; only surgery can repair a ruptured aortic aneurysm.
Who is at risk?
This condition is rare. There is no routine screening test recommended for an ascending aortic aneurysm. While it is unclear exactly how many people have this condition, one recent study estimated the prevalence of thoracic aortic aneurysms, including the ascending type, is around 0.16% of the population.
Nearly 10,000 people died from aortic aneurysms or aortic dissections in 2019, reported the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Abdominal aortic aneurysms, located in a lower section of the aorta, have “very clear risk factors” — tending to occur in people in their late 60s and 70s, in smokers and people with high blood pressure or high cholesterol, Isselbacher said. Aneurysms that are in the chest, such as an ascending aortic aneurysm, however, are generally not due to those typical risk factors and tend to be due to an abnormality of the aorta from birth or inherited conditions, he said.
“The problem with those is because they don’t have the typical risk factors, people don’t know if they might have them or not,” he said. “But there are a few clues that you’re at risk for them.”
For Isselbacher, it’s important for people to know their family history, including if there is a relative with heart rhythm issues or one who died at a young age from sudden death, and if you have a bicuspid aortic valve, as that could go along with an enlarged aorta, he said.
“Because if you can catch that, you can do something about it,” he said.
Though the “vast majority” of patients with aortic aneurysms detect them incidentally from an imaging study ordered for another reason, he said.
“They had a cough, so they got a chest X-ray. They were smokers, so they got a lung cancer screening CT scan. They had some palpitations, they got an echocardiogram. And then those studies, incidentally, show the enlarged aorta,” he said.
According to the CDC, ascending aortic aneurysms can also be associated with high blood pressure, sudden injury and inherited connective tissue disorders like Marfan syndrome or Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, though they can also happen in people with no known risk factors. It is not known if Wahl was diagnosed with any related genetic conditions.
People who are known to have a risk factor like Marfan syndrome or Ehlers-Danlos do often get routine imaging done to see if underlying problems like aneurysms are present. But there are others who don’t know they have an underlying risk factor or an aneurysm until they have a problem like this.
According to the American Heart Association, if an aortic aneurysm is found, the decision of when to repair it can depend on related symptoms, the size of the aneurysm, how fast it grows and the person’s underlying health conditions. The two main treatment options are medications and surgery.
