(WASHINGTON) — New home sales ticked up in January, despite a twin burden imposed by elevated mortgage rates and expensive housing prices, according to U.S. Census data released on Monday.
Sales of new single-family homes rose 1.8% in January compared to the previous year, data showed. The survey found an estimated 661,000 homes were sold in January.
On a monthly basis, sales climbed 1.5% from December.
The fresh data offers a glimmer of optimism for an otherwise sluggish housing market.
By contrast, existing-home sales declined in January compared to the previous year, the National Association of Realtors said last week.
Mortgage-purchase applications fell 10% from a week earlier, data from the Mortgage Bankers Association on Wednesday showed.
The divergent trends for new and existing home sales trace back to elevated mortgage rates. The average interest rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage has soared to 6.9%, rebounding after a steady decline at the end of last year, according to a report from Freddie Mac on Thursday.
Homeowners are largely opting to stay in their current residences because they would rather stick with comparatively low-rate mortgages than shift to high-rate ones.
Mortgage rates track yields on 10-year Treasury bonds, which are highly sensitive to the benchmark interest rate set by the Federal Reserve.
The Fed says it expects to cut interest rates this year but so far has kept the rates at high levels, since inflation has resisted downward pressure in recent months.
The supply of new homes, on the other hand, is garnering interest from prospective buyers unable to find homeowners willing to sell.
The median sales price of new houses sold in January was $420,700.
(WASHINGTON) — An active-duty airman has died after authorities say he set himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C.
The man was identified by the Metropolitan Police Department as 25-year-old Aaron Bushnell of San Antonio.
The incident unfolded just before 1 p.m. ET outside the gates of the Israeli Embassy in northwest Washington, according to statements from the city’s Metropolitan Police Department and Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department.
“We arrived to find an apparent adult male who had been on fire,” the Fire and EMS Department said in its statement.
Members of the U.S. Secret Service Uniformed Division extinguished the flames before fire crews arrived, officials said. Later Sunday, the U.S. Air Force confirmed the man involved was an active duty airman.
Bushnell was unconscious when he was taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries, according to police.
Police officials did not comment on why the man set himself ablaze.
Police detectives, the Secret Service Uniformed Division and the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are investigating the incident.
The police department’s Explosive Ordinance Disposal Unit was also called to the scene as police investigated a suspicious vehicle in the area that authorities believe is linked to Bushnell. The vehicle was searched, but no hazardous material was found, police said.
The Israeli Embassy released a statement saying the man was “unknown” to embassy staff.
No embassy workers were injured in the incident, and all were reported safe, embassy officials said.
A similar incident occurred on Dec. 1 outside an Israeli Consulate office in Atlanta, where a woman wrapped in a Palestinian flag intentionally set herself on fire in an apparent political protest, according to police. The woman, who was critically injured, ignited herself after dousing herself with gasoline, police said. A security guard suffered burns when he attempted to put the fire out, according to police.
If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide or worried about a friend or loved one, call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 for free, confidential emotional support 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
ABC News’ Luke Barr, Sinead Hawkins and Luis Martinez contributed to this report.
Inmate Leon Ruffin in a mugshot from the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office
(HARVEY, La.) — A convicted felon who had been in custody on a second-degree murder charge escaped on Sunday after pepper spraying his transporting deputy and stealing her car, authorities said.
The inmate, Leon Ruffin, should be considered “armed and dangerous,” Sheriff Joseph Lopinto of the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office in Louisiana, told the media Sunday night at a press briefing.
Lopinto said he doesn’t believe the man “has anything to lose” as he could be facing life in prison if convicted on the second-degree murder charge.
Ruffin had been transferred from the medical facility in the corrections center to a local hospital around noon on Sunday on the advice of the medical team after suffering from a possible seizure. After being treated at the hospital, Ruffin created some type of disturbance as he was being driven out of the hospital parking lot, Lopinto said. The female deputy got out of the car and he pepper sprayed her, the official said. The suspect then took the deputy’s vehicle, he added.
The deputy fired shots at the car but does not know if Ruffin was hit.
At present, authorities do not know where the suspect got the pepper spray. The deputy still had her pepper spray, taser and weapon following his escape.
Authorities have contacted the family of the victim in Ruffin’s alleged second-degree murder case.
Prior to his trip to the hospital, Ruffin had been in the medical unit at the corrections facility, but Lopinto said they believed he was faking his injuries.
Republican presidential candidate, former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley delivers remarks at her primary-night rally at the Grappone Conference Center on January 23, 2024 in Concord, New Hampshire. — (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Americans For Prosperity Action, an advocacy organization backed by billionaire Charles Koch and his network of wealthy conservatives supporting Nikki Haley in the Republican presidential primary, will no longer spend money on behalf of her campaign.
Following Haley’s defeat in the early primary states — including her home state of South Carolina, on Saturday night — AFP has decided to refocus its mission on United States Senate and House races, according to an internal staff email sent by Americans For Prosperity CEO Emily Seidel and reviewed by ABC News.
Seidel wrote that AFP remains confident in its endorsement and still supports Haley but recognizes the challenges moving forward into the next primary states.
“She has made it clear that she will continue to fight and we wholeheartedly support her in this effort,” Seidel wrote. “But given the challenges in the primary states ahead, we don’t believe any outside group can make a material difference to widen her path to victory.”
Reacting to the news, the Haley campaign thanked the group for being an “ally in the fight for freedom and conservative government.”
“We thank them for their tremendous help in this race,” the statement from Haley’s campaign continued. “Our fight continues, and with more than $1 million coming in from grassroots conservatives in just the last 24 hours, we have plenty of fuel to keep going. We have a country to save.”
AFP had a hefty infrastructure in place to combat Haley’s rival, former President Donald Trump, which primarily focused on door-knocking and digital advertisements.
Seidel characterized their grassroots operations as a “force to be reckoned with” and congratulated staff for engaging with over 3 million voters.
The Koch-backed group stayed out of the 2016 and 2020 presidential cycles but utilized significant resources to try and boost Haley’s campaign. It is unclear how much money was spent over the last four months since its endorsement, but the group had cash on hand. It reported raising over $70 million in its last public filing in June, with $25 million coming from Koch himself and another $25 million from one of his nonprofit groups.
As the group turns its efforts to down-ballot races, Seidel suggested the “most important and hardest challenge” will be convincing independent voters who refuse to cast a ballot for Trump to support their Republican candidates.
Politico was first to report the news of AFP suspending funding for Haley.
RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel speaks at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation & Institute’s ‘A Time for Choosing Speaker Series’ at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library on April 20, 2023 in Simi Valley, California. — (Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — After seven years at the helm of the GOP, Ronna McDaniel will step down from her post as chair of the Republican National Committee on March 8, she said in a statement obtained by ABC News.
McDaniel’s resignation is expected to take effect after Super Tuesday on March 5.
McDaniel said that she would resign at the party’s spring training meeting in Houston, Texas, so as to “allow our nominee to select a Chair of their choosing.”
Hand-picked by Donald Trump to serve in the role shortly after his 2016 election, McDaniel is reported to have arranged her departure with the former president, who is far ahead of his sole primary challenger, Nikki Haley, in the delegate fight for the 2024 nomination.
“The RNC has historically undergone change once we have a nominee and it has always been my intention to honor that tradition,” McDaniel said. “I remain committed to winning back the White House and electing Republicans up and down the ballot in November.”
Trump endorsed current North Carolina GOP Chair and RNC general counsel Michael Whatley in early February to replace McDaniel as the new chair of the RNC. He endorsed his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, to replace current RNC co-chair Drew McKissick. RNC party rules mandate that their chair and co-chair must be of opposite sexes.
Trump also endorsed one of his senior advisers, Chris LaCivita, for chief operating officer. There is no one currently serving in that role for the RNC. When he announced his slate of RNC leadership endorsements, Trump predicted that the shakeup would come following the South Carolina GOP primary election, which he won on Saturday.
During remarks at his victory party in Columbia, Trump forecasted the election of Whatley, a strong supporter of his baseless claims of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. It “looks to me like he’s going to be going on to the national Republican party,” Trump said.
“That’s my kind of guy. He had hundreds of lawyers … to make sure they didn’t cheat and they didn’t cheat in North Carolina [during the 2020 election],” Trump said Saturday.
McDaniel’s resignation will take effect just days ahead of Super Tuesday, when a number of delegate-rich states vote in their presidential primaries, and over a week after her home state of Michigan will decide on a Republican nominee.
McKissick, who was also floated as a potential option to replace McDaniel as chair, dodged a question from ABC News on Saturday over whether he’d go against Whatley for the position, instead insisting he’s focused on working with the Trump campaign and the party on electing and supporting former President Donald Trump.
“I’m a team guy,” said McKissick, who was at Trump’s South Carolina victory party Saturday night, when asked about a possible bid against Whatley. “I’m going to work with the campaign and the RNC. Period. End of discussion.”
Some members of the RNC told ABC News over the weekend they expected the announcement of McDaniel’s resignation to come ahead of Michigan’s primary on Tuesday.
Haley has blasted Trump and his campaign for what she calls an attempt to take over the party, endorsing his political allies and family members for executive positions in the RNC and accusing the former president of planning to use the organization as a way to pay his legal bills.
On the day of the South Carolina GOP primary, when asked who she would endorse as chair of the RNC, Haley said, “it wouldn’t be a family member of a candidate.”
“I would hope that the people in the RNC know that they have the responsibility to put in people in the RNC who are going to look out in the best interest of all of the Republican Party, not just one person,” Haley said to reporters.
McDaniel’s resignation comes at a critical time for the national party. Following the former president’s endorsement of his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, she said in an interview that “every single penny” of RNC funds will be devoted to reelecting her father-in-law. Lara Trump’s statement led many to believe that there could be a possibility the RNC could pay some of the former president’s legal fees.
ABC News news previously reported that the former president’s campaign insists that RNC funds won’t cover his legal fees.
But some members of the RNC are working behind the scenes to ensure that does not happen.
Draft resolutions have been circulated to Republican National Committee members, which, if approved, would prevent the organization from covering his legal fees and would prohibit the party from treating him as the presumptive presidential nominee until he secures the required majority of 1,215 delegates, which is likely to take several more weeks.
McDaniel, the niece of Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, has shepherded the Republican party through seven years of profound transformation, including most of Trump’s tenure in the White House, the 2020 general election, the 2022 midterm elections, and the 2024 presidential primary, including early state voting in Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.
“It has been the honor and privilege of my life to serve the Republican National Committee for seven years as Chairwoman to elect Republicans and grow our Party,” McDaniel said in her statement.
“Some of my proudest accomplishments include firing Nancy Pelosi, winning the popular vote in 2022, creating an Election Integrity Department, building the committee’s first small dollar grassroots donor program, strengthening our state parties through our Growing Republican Organizations to Win program, expanding the Party through minority outreach at our community centers, and launching Bank Your Vote to get Republicans to commit to voting early,” she said.
Because McDaniel is stepping down from her role, the next step to elect a new chair and co-chair would be a vote from the majority of the 168 RNC members present at their next gathering, according to party rules, which would be the spring training meeting on March 8.
To have their names placed in nomination, a candidate should have at least the majority vote of the RNC in each of three states.
ABC News’ SooRin Kim and Lalee Ibssa contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — A man identified by the Air Force as an active-duty airman was hospitalized in critical condition Sunday after authorities say he set himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C.
The incident unfolded just before 1 p.m. ET outside the gates of the Israeli Embassy in northwest Washington, according to statements from the city’s Metropolitan Police Department and Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department.
“We arrived to find an apparent adult male who had been on fire,” the Fire and EMS Department said in its statement.
Members of the U.S. Secret Service Uniformed Division extinguished the flames before fire crews arrived, officials said. Later Sunday, the U.S. Airforce confirmed the man involved was an active duty airman.
The man, whose name was not immediately released, was taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries and is listed in critical condition, according to police.
It was not immediately clear why the man set himself ablaze.
Police detectives, the Secret Service Uniformed Division and the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are investigating the incident.
The police department’s Explosive Ordinance Disposal Unit was also called to the scene as police investigated a suspicious vehicle in the area that authorities believe is linked to the man. The vehicle was searched, but no hazardous material was found, police said.
The Israeli Embassy released a statement saying the man was “unknown” to embassy staff.
No embassy workers were injured in the incident, and all were reported safe, embassy officials said.
A similar incident occurred on Dec. 1 outside an Israeli Consulate office in Atlanta, where a woman wrapped in a Palestinian flag intentionally set herself on fire in an apparent political protest, according to police. The woman, who was critically injured, ignited herself after dousing herself with gasoline, police said. A security guard suffered burns when he attempted to put the fire out, according to police.
If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide or worried about a friend or loved one, call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 for free, confidential emotional support 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
ABC News’ Luke Barr, Sinead Hawkins and Luis Martinez contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — More than four months since Hamas terrorists invaded Israel on Oct. 7, the Israeli military continues its bombardment of the neighboring Gaza Strip.
The conflict, now the deadliest between the warring sides since Israel’s founding in 1948, shows no signs of letting up soon and the brief cease-fire that allowed for over 100 hostages to be freed from Gaza remains a distant memory.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Feb 25, 7:06 PM Netanyahu’s office presents war cabinet with plan to evacuate Gazans from ‘areas of fighting’
The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office has presented Israel’s war cabinet with a “plan for evacuating the population from the areas of fighting in the Gaza Strip,” a release from the office said early Monday local time.
“In addition, the plan for providing humanitarian assistance to the Gaza Strip in a manner that will prevent the looting that has occurred in the northern Strip and other areas was approved,” the statement added.
-ABC News’ Dana Savir
Feb 24, 4:34 PM Israel agrees to updated framework in cease-fire, hostage deal
Israel has agreed to an updated framework that would establish a six-week cease-fire in Gaza in exchange for the release of 40 hostages, an Israeli source told ABC News. The development follows talks in Paris, which includes officials from the U.S., Israel, Qatar and Egypt.
While Israel says it’s waiting to hear back from Hamas on whether it will accept the updated language from this weekend’s talks, Israel is pushing forward with plans to enter Rafah. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu posted on X that operational plans and evacuation plans in Rafah are ready to be approved by his cabinet.
As part of the proposed deal, Israel has agreed to release jailed Palestinians at a higher ratio than the previous deal, which was 3 to 1. Up to 400 Palestinian prisoners could be released in this new deal.
The Israel Defense Forces will redeploy but not withdraw from Gaza.
-ABC News’ Marcus Moore
Feb 23, 1:23 PM Blinken calls Israeli settlement expansion ‘inconsistent with international law’
Secretary of State Antony Blinken is signaling a possible shift back to a long-standing U.S. policy rejecting Israeli settlement expansion in the West Bank, calling it “inconsistent with international law.”
Asked at a press availability in Argentina for his response to Israel’s purported plans to build thousands of new settlement homes in the area, Blinken responded, “We’ve seen the reports, and I have to say we’re disappointed in the announcement.”
“It’s been long-standing U.S. policy under Republican and Democratic administration alike that new settlements are counterproductive to reaching an enduring peace. They’re also inconsistent with international law,” Blinken said. “Our administration maintains firm opposition to settlement expansion, and in our judgment, this only weakens — doesn’t strengthen — Israel security.”
The Biden administration has condemned Israeli expansion in the West Bank for years, but the State Department had not yet gone so far as to say they ran afoul of international law after Blinken’s predecessor, Mike Pompeo, said in 2019 that the U.S. would no longer view Israeli settlements in the West Bank, Golan Heights and East Jerusalem as violations.
But before delivering his rebuke, Blinken made note of what he called a “horrific terrorist attack” on a Jewish settlement in the West Bank this week and said the U.S. would continue to support Israel’s right to defend itself and its people.
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Feb 22, 2:57 PM Over 85,000 people in Gaza could die in next 6 months if war escalates, report finds
More than 85,000 people in Gaza could die over the next six months if the war between Israel and Hamas escalates, epidemiologists from Johns Hopkins University and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine found.
The epidemiologists presented findings about death tolls in three potential scenarios: if a cease-fire is reached, if the war remains as it is, and if the war escalates.
If a cease-fire is reached, more than 11,000 people will die over the next six months, the findings estimate, based on current conditions inside Gaza.
If the status quo of the war is maintained, more than 66,000 people will die during the same period, the findings show.
And in the worst-case scenario, if the war escalates, more than 85,000 people could die, the report found.
These numbers are in addition to the more than 29,000 people who have already died in Gaza since Oct. 7, according to Gaza’s Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health.
-ABC News’ Ellie Kaufman
Feb 22, 2:18 PM Israeli war cabinet approves sending negotiators to Paris talks
The Israeli war cabinet on Friday approved sending Israeli negotiators to hostage and cease-fire talks in Paris. The war cabinet’s decision will be brought to the Israeli security cabinet for approval later on Friday night.
Qatari, Egyptian and U.S. officials are also expected to be at Friday’s talks in Paris, according to reports.
Feb 22, 12:18 PM Israel concludes 1-week operation inside Nasser Hospital in Gaza
The Israeli Defense Forces said Thursday that its soldiers have concluded their one-week operation inside Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza, where the IDF said it arrested at least 200 suspected Hamas members.
The World Health Organization said earlier this week that it helped evacuate some of the critically ill patients from the hospital.
On Wednesday, the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health said eight patients who died because of a lack of electricity at Nasser Hospital were still in their beds inside of the hospital among living patients. The IDF denied these claims.
Feb 22, 3:35 AM One dead, several injured in shooting near Jerusalem, Israeli authorities say
At least one person was killed and several others were injured Thursday in a shooting on a main road just outside Jerusalem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, according to Israeli authorities.
Highway 1 was packed with cars when gunfire erupted Thursday morning near a checkpoint between Jerusalem and the Israeli settlement of Ma’ale Adumim. Three “terrorists” armed with automatic weapons pulled up in a vehicle, got out and opened fire at cars that were standing still in the traffic jam, according to the Israel Police.
Israeli security forces who were already on scene “neutralized” two of the suspects, police said. A third suspect who had tried to escape was later found and also “neutralized,” according to police.
Medics arrived and “ran from vehicle to vehicle” searching for victims, according to Israel’s rescue service MDA. A man in his 20s was pronounced dead at the scene while several others were transported to area hospitals, including four people who were moderately injured with gunshot wounds, MDA said.
Feb 21, 2:59 PM Israeli Minister Gantz expresses cautious optimism about new hostage deal
Israeli Minister Benny Gantz on Wednesday expressed cautious optimism that a new outline for a possible hostage deal could move forward.
Gantz, a member of the Israeli war cabinet, said at Israel’s Defense Headquarters Wednesday that there are “attempts” to “promote a new outline” for a hostage deal, and there are “initial signs that indicate the possibility of moving forward.”
“We will not stop looking for the way, and we will not miss any opportunity to bring the girls and boys home,” Gantz said.
-ABC News’ Ellie Kaufman and Dana Savir
Feb 21, 1:02 PM 8 bodies remain in Nasser Medical Complex among living patients, Gaza Ministry of Health says
Eight patients who died because of a lack of electricity at Nasser Medical Complex in Gaza are still in their beds inside of the hospital among living patients, the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health said Wednesday.
The Ministry of Health said the bodies are still in the hospital because Israeli forces refuse to remove them.
The bodies “have begun to swell and show signs of decomposition, posing a danger to other patients,” the Ministry of Health said in a statement.
Israeli authorities denied these claims and said no bodies are still inside Nasser Hospital.
The Israel Defense Forces has been operating inside of Nasser Hospital for the last week. On Monday, the IDF announced its soldiers had arrested 200 suspected Hamas members at Nasser Hospital.
ABC News’ Ellie Kaufman and Camilla Alcini
Feb 21, 8:28 AM Israel considering sending delegation to Egypt for new round of talks, source says
Israel is weighing the possibility of sending a delegation back to Egypt for continued negotiations over a potential cease-fire or hostage deal with Hamas, an Israeli political source told ABC News on Wednesday.
There is some cautious optimism over the latest round of talks in Cairo, the source said.
Egypt, along with Qatar and the United States, has been mediating talks between the warring sides.
Feb 21, 8:14 AM Israel preparing to reopen Karni border crossing to facilitate aid to northern Gaza, source says
Israel is preparing to reopen the Karni border crossing to facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid into the northern Gaza Strip, an Israeli political source told ABC News on Wednesday.
Israel shuttered the Karni crossing, located on the border between southwestern Israel and northeastern Gaza, when Palestinian militant group Hamas came to power in the enclave in 2007 before permanently closing the crossing in 2011.
Northern Gaza has been isolated by the Israeli military and almost completely cut off from aid for weeks, according to the United Nations.
Feb 21, 7:56 AM UN food agency pauses deliveries to northern Gaza
The World Food Program, the food assistance arm of the United Nations, announced Tuesday that it is pausing deliveries of food aid to the northern Gaza Strip “until conditions are in place that allow for safe distribution.”
The decision came after a WFP convoy heading north from Gaza City was “surrounded by crowds of hungry people close to the Wadi Gaza checkpoint” on Sunday, the agency said. The same convoy faced “complete chaos and violence due to the collapse of civil order” when it tried to resume its journey north on Monday, according to the WFP.
“Several trucks were looted between Khan Yunis and Deir al-Balah and a truck driver was beaten. The remaining flour was spontaneously distributed off the trucks in Gaza City, amidst high tension and explosive anger,” the WFP said in a statement Tuesday. “The decision to pause deliveries to the north of the Gaza Strip has not been taken lightly, as we know it means the situation there will deteriorate further and more people risk dying of hunger.”
An analysis released Monday by the Global Nutrition Cluster, a humanitarian aid partnership led by the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), found that 15.6% of children under the age of 2 are acutely malnourished in northern Gaza, which has been isolated by the Israeli military and almost completely cut off from aid for weeks, compared to 5% in southern Gaza, where most aid enters the war-torn enclave. The acute malnutrition rate across Gaza was less than 1% before the war began last October, according to the report.
Feb 20, 2:21 PM Hostages held in Gaza have received medicine, Qatar says
Qatari officials said hostages held by Hamas in Gaza have received the medication that was part of a deal brokered last month.
The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said it has asked Qatar for evidence that the medicine was delivered.
“Israel will examine the credibility of the report and will continue to work for the peace of our abductees,” the office said in a statement.
Feb 20, 12:21 PM US draft resolution calls for temporary cease-fire
The U.S. voted against a resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire at Wednesday’s United Nations Security Council meeting, The Associated Press reported.
The U.S. was the only nation of the 15 permanent Security Council members to vote against the measure, according to the AP.
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield said “an unconditional cease-fire without any obligation for Hamas to release hostages” was irresponsible.
“While we cannot support a resolution that would put sensitive negotiations in jeopardy, we look forward to engaging on a text that we believe will address so many of the concerns we all share — a text that can and should be adopted by the council, so that we can have a temporary cease-fire as soon as practicable, based on the formula of all hostages being released,” she said.
The U.S. has been circulating its own draft resolution on Gaza that calls for a temporary cease-fire conditioned on the release of all hostages, while also condemning Hamas for the Oct. 7 attack that sparked the war, according to senior administration officials familiar with the matter.
If the proposal were to be adopted by the U.N. Security Council, it would mark the first time the body has formally condemned Hamas’ actions.
The officials say the draft also makes clear “that under current circumstances a major ground offensive into Rafah should not proceed” and that there can be no reduction in territory in the Gaza Strip or any forced displacement of Palestinians, while also calling on Israel “to lift all barriers to the provision of humanitarian assistance, open additional humanitarian routes, and to keep current crossings open.”
The senior officials signaled that American diplomats wouldn’t rush the text to a vote and that they intended on “allowing time for negotiations.”
While hostage talks have sputtered over the past couple of weeks, senior administration officials said they were making some progress.
“The differences between the parties, they have been narrowed. They haven’t been sufficiently narrowed to get us to a deal, but we are still hopeful and we are confident that there is the basis for an agreement between the parties,” one official said.
ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Feb 20, 11:34 AM US votes against immediate cease-fire
The U.S. voted against a resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire at Wednesday’s United Nations Security Council meeting, The Associated Press reported.
The U.S. was the only nation of the 15 permanent Security Council members to vote against the measure, according to the AP.
The U.S. has said an immediate cease-fire could impede the negotiations looking to free hostages and agree to a pause in fighting, the AP said.
Feb 20, 11:07 AM IDF operating inside Al-Amal Hospital
Israeli forces, which already entered Gaza’s Nasser Hospital, are also now operating inside the nearby Al-Amal Hospital, the Israel Defense Forces confirmed to ABC News.
“Al-Amal Hospital is currently under multiple attacks, as Israeli forces have directly targeted the third floor of the hospital, resulting in the burning of two rooms,” and “the hospital’s water lines were targeted,” the Palestine Red Crescent Society said.
Over 8,000 patients were evacuated from the hospital earlier this month, but almost 100 patients still remain inside, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said.
Feb 20, 7:13 AM WHO helps transfer 32 critical patients out of Gaza’s besieged Nasser Hospital
The World Health Organization said Tuesday that it has helped to successfully transfer 32 critically ill patients, including two children, from besieged Nasser Hospital in the southern Gaza Strip.
The WHO said its staff led two “life-saving,” “high-risk” missions at the medical complex in Khan Younis on Sunday and Monday, in close partnership with the Palestine Red Crescent Society and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, “amid ongoing hostilities and access restrictions.” Staff at Nasser Hospital had requested the transfer of patients after the facility became “non-functional” following an Israeli military raid on Feb. 14 after a weeklong siege, according to the WHO.
“Weak and frail patients were transferred amidst active conflict near the aid convoy,” the WHO said in a statement. “Road conditions hindered the swift movement of ambulances, placing the health of patients at further risk.”
“Nasser Hospital has no electricity or running water, and medical waste and garbage are creating a breeding ground for disease,” the organization added. “WHO staff said the destruction around the hospital was ‘indescribable.’ The area was surrounded by burnt and destroyed buildings, heavy layers of debris, with no stretch of intact road.”
The WHO estimates that 130 sick and injured patients and at least 15 doctors and nurses remain inside Nasser Hospital. As the facility’s intensive care unit was no longer functioning, the only remaining ICU patient was transferred to a different part of the complex where other patients are receiving basic care, according to the WHO.
“WHO fears for the safety and well-being of the patients and health workers remaining in the hospital and warns that further disruption to lifesaving care for the sick and injured would lead to more deaths,” the organization said. “Efforts to facilitate further patient referrals amidst the ongoing hostilities are in process.”
Prior to the missions on Sunday and Monday, the WHO said it “received two consecutive denials to access the hospital for medical assessment, causing delays in urgently needed patient referral.” At least five patients reportedly died in Nasser Hospital’s ICU before any missions or transfers were possible, according to the WHO.
Nasser Hospital is the main medical center serving southern Gaza. Ground troops from the Israel Defense Forces stormed the facility last week, looking for members of Hamas who the IDF alleges have been conducting military operations out of the hospital. Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that governs Gaza and is at war with neighboring Israel, denies the claims.
“The dismantling and degradation of the Nasser Medical Complex is a massive blow to Gaza’s health system,” the WHO said. “Facilities in the south are already operating well beyond maximum capacity and are barely able to receive more patients.”
Feb 20, 5:26 AM Aid groups warn of potential ‘explosion in preventable child deaths’ in Gaza
A new analysis by the Global Nutrition Cluster, a humanitarian aid partnership led by the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, found that 90% of children under the age of 2 in the war-torn Gaza Strip face severe food poverty, meaning they eat two or fewer food groups a day.
The same was true for 95% of pregnant and breastfeeding women in Gaza, according to the report released Monday. And at least 90% of children under 5 are affected by one or more infectious disease, with 70% experiencing diarrhea in the past two weeks, the report said.
In Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, where most humanitarian aid enters, 5% of children under 2 are acutely malnourished, compared to more than 15% in northern Gaza, which has been isolated by the Israeli military and almost completely cut off from aid for weeks, the report said. Before war broke out last October between Israel and Gaza’s militant rulers, Hamas, the acute malnutrition rate across the coastal enclave was less than 1%, according to the report.
The report also found that more than 80% of homes in Gaza lack clean and safe water, with the average household having one liter per person per day.
“The Gaza Strip is poised to witness an explosion in preventable child deaths which would compound the already unbearable level of child deaths in Gaza,” Ted Chaiban, deputy executive director for humanitarian action and supply operations at UNICEF, said in a statement. “We’ve been warning for weeks that the Gaza Strip is on the brink of a nutrition crisis. If the conflict doesn’t end now, children’s nutrition will continue to plummet, leading to preventable deaths or health issues which will affect the children of Gaza for the rest of their lives and have potential intergenerational consequences.”
Feb 19, 12:31 PM Gaza’s health ministry accuses IDF of turning Nasser Hospital into ‘military barracks’
Israeli troops have turned Nasser Hospital, the main medical center serving the southern Gaza Strip, into a “military barracks” and are “endangering the lives of patients and medical staff,” according to Gaza’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health.
The health ministry said Monday that patients and medical staff inside Nasser Hospital are now without electricity, water, food, oxygen and treatment capabilities for difficult cases since Israeli ground troops raided the facility in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis last week.
The World Health Organization, which warned on Sunday that Nasser Hospital “is not functional anymore,” said more than 180 patients and 15 doctors and nurses remain inside the hospital.
The WHO said it has evacuated 14 critical patients from the hospital to receive treatment elsewhere.
The Israel Defense Forces alleges that Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that governs Gaza, has been conducting military operations out of Nasser Hospital and other medical centers in the war-torn enclave — claims which Hamas denies.
(NEW YORK) — Judge Lewis Kaplan has declined to grant a stay of Donald Trump’s $83.3 million judgment in his defamation case and requested a written response from columnist E. Jean Carroll’s lawyers.
“The Court declines to grant any stay, much less an unsecured stay, without first having afforded plaintiff a meaningful opportunity to be heard,” Kaplan wrote in an order filed Sunday morning. Kaplan set a Thursday deadline for Carroll’s response and a March 2 deadline for Trump’s reply.
A lawyer for the former president requested last week that Kaplan temporarily delay the judgment or permit Trump to post a bond for “an appropriate fraction” of the total damages.
Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba filed the motion on Friday, requesting a stay until 30 days after the resolution of his post-trial motions filed in early March, or grant a partially secured stay while Trump posts a reduced bond.
“There is a strong probability that the disposition of post-trial motions will substantially reduce, if not eliminate, the amount of the judgment,” Habba argued in the motion.
“Plaintiff failed to offer any evidence that her alleged distress was of any significant severity or duration, or that it resulted in any medical, physical, or clinical consequences—or even any extreme emotional effects,” Habba wrote about the emotional damage suffered by Carroll, who described living in a state of fear following Trump’s statements.
Habba suggested that the court should project a reduction of the total judgment to $22.25 million, for which Trump could post a $24.475 million bond.
“The figure awarded to Ms. Carroll is egregiously excessive,” Habba said in a statement to ABC News. “The Court must exercise its authority to prevent Ms. Carroll from enforcing this absurd judgment, which will not withstand appeal.”
The request comes amid a renewed spotlight on the former president’s finances following two costly New York civil trials. On Friday, New York’s Supreme Court entered the judgment in Trump’s civil fraud case, in which he owes $355 million in fines plus approximately $100 million in interest.
Trump has denied all wrongdoing and has said he doesn’t know who Carroll is.
(WASHINGTON) — A man was hospitalized in critical condition Sunday after authorities say he set himself on fire outside the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C.
The incident unfolded just before 1 p.m. ET outside the gates of the Israeli Embassy in northwest Washington, according to statements from the city’s Metropolitan Police Department and Fire and Emergency Medical Services Department.
“We arrived to find an apparent adult male who had been on fire,” the Fire and EMS Department said in its statement.
Members of the U.S. Secret Service Uniformed Division extinguished the flames before fire crews arrived, officials said.
The man, whose name was not immediately released, was taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries and is listed in critical condition, according to police.
It was not immediately clear why the man set himself ablaze.
Police detectives, the Secret Service Uniformed Division and the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are investigating the incident.
The police department’s Explosive Ordinance Disposal Unit was also called to the scene as police investigated a suspicious vehicle in the area that authorities believe is linked to the man. The vehicle was searched, but no hazardous material was found, police said.
The Israeli Embassy released a statement saying the man was “unknown” to embassy staff.
No embassy workers were injured in the incident, and all were reported safe, embassy officials said.
A similar incident occurred on Dec. 1 outside an Israeli Consulate office in Atlanta, where a woman wrapped in a Palestinian flag intentionally set herself on fire in an apparent political protest, according to police. The woman, who was critically injured, ignited herself after dousing herself with gasoline, police said. A security guard suffered burns when he attempted to put the fire out, according to police.
If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide or worried about a friend or loved one, call or text the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 for free, confidential emotional support 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
ABC News’ Luke Barr and Sinead Hawkins contributed to this report.
(MONTGOMERY, Ala.) — Dr. Beth Malizia, an Alabama physician, went through 12 years of training to provide patients with fertility care. But the doctor and co-owner of Alabama Fertility says her hands are tied after the Alabama Supreme Court issued a decision that frozen embryos are considered children.
The clinic is one of three facilities in the state that have halted in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatments amid concerns that their practices could run into legal troubles.
“Patients come first. That’s what we’re taught all the way through from the time we decide to go into medicine, and this is a decision that sort of takes that away from us,” Malizia said.
“The counsel, our lab director and all the physicians at Alabama Fertility have struggled with this for many hours and some made some really, really hard phone calls over the last couple of days,” said Malizia.
The clinic has paused all frozen embryo transfers, but will continue new patient visits, other standard fertility care, surgeries and continue care for patients currently on medications who are in the middle of a cycle, Malizia said.
Making calls to patients whose treatment the clinic paused has been “absolutely horrible” and “heart-wrenching,” she said.
In the ruling, the court said it would open door to civil and potentially criminal lawsuits over the mishandling of embryos. Physicians like Malizia say they are now fearful they could face wrongful death lawsuits — or potentially criminal charges — for discarding unused embryos, a routine part of IVF, or unintentionally mishandling embryos.
The ruling came as part of a lawsuit filed by couples whose embryos were destroyed after a patient wandered into a fertility clinic and dropped them. The couples tried to file a wrongful death suit, but a lower court had thrown out the case. The state Supreme Court then reversed that decision and set a new precedent that embryos are children.
In a concurring opinion, Alabama Chief Justice Tom Parker – who has a long record of issuing anti-abortion opinions – cited Scripture, writing that “human life cannot be wrongfully destroyed without incurring the wrath of a holy God.”
Among the three fertility providers that suspended IVF treatment is the state’s largest healthcare system, UAB Hospital. Four remaining providers have not suspended IVF treatment.
“We are in a position where we just don’t know what the legal ramifications are of an embryo that gets thawed. Embryos don’t always survive [transfer],” Malizia said.
Signs of more clarity began to surface on Friday, after a week of pushback on the ruling from families trying to conceive through IVF and an outpouring of criticism, particularly from Democrats and moderate Republicans.
Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, the state’s top law enforcement official, said he has no intention of “using the recent Alabama Supreme Court decision as a basis for prosecuting IVF families or providers,” the office’s Chief Counsel Katherin Robertson said in a statement Friday.
Alabama Governor Kay Ivey also said Friday that she’s “working on a solution” with Republican colleagues in the House and Senate to pass legislation that would guard IVF treatments in the state.
“Following the ruling from the Alabama Supreme Court, I said that in our state, we work to foster a culture of life. This certainly includes some couples hoping and praying to be parents who utilize IVF,” Governor Kay Ivey said in a statement to ABC News.
But the legal ruling has shown the fragility of IVF treatment in a post-Roe vs. Wade America, where the debate over when life begins has led many abortion rights advocates to speculate that IVF could become collateral damage.
Some physicians could be deterred from working in fertility in Alabama, said Sean Tipton, chief advocacy and policy officer at the American Society for Reproductive Medicine.
Tipon said physicians in the state are scared. “They are also angry, which is understandable, and they are also tremendously sad for their patients, in part because they don’t know what to tell their patients,” said Tipton.
“Just imagine being a physician who you’ve built your career on being able to help these people have babies, and you spend a lot of time reassuring, explaining, helping them understand and feel better about the process they’re going through — and now you can offer none of that,” Tipton said of physicians.
The fallout from the court ruling could spread beyond IVF treatment, Tipton said.
“I think the first impact with physicians is going to be young physicians choosing not to go there for their training. [And] University of Alabama Birmingham is one of the top public medical schools in the country,” Tipton said.
Tipton said the decision and risk of being sued could also discourage other medical workers, including nurses, from working in fertility clinics in the state; they would likely consider working in other specialties or even leaving the state.
Tipton heavily criticized the decision and its consequences.
“It absolutely makes no sense that people who loudly proclaim themselves to be ‘pro-life’ somehow oppose the use of what is the most ‘pro-life’ medical procedure there is out there. The only thing that in vitro fertilization does is help people have children,” Tipton said.
Patients struggle with news IVF has been paused
Patients interviewed by ABC News shared their heartbreak and concerns over not being able to continue their IVF treatments. For fertility patients in Alabama looking to start or expand their families, the past week has brought a lot of sudden changes to the carefully laid plans often required by the IVF process.
Gabbie Price, 26, and her husband have been financially planning to begin IVF for over a year, downsizing from a house to a camper van to cut costs and getting a new job because of the fertility benefits.
But their plan to start treatment in March has been halted by the ruling. Price said they’re now exploring options out-of-state because even if they found a clinic in Alabama to handle her care, she would be concerned about the potential liabilities.
“I’m terrified to have embryos here,” Price said at her home in Leeds, Alabama.
“I don’t know what that’s gonna look like, I don’t know what sort of rights we’re going to have over the embryos that we create,” she said.
Tucker Legerski and his wife, who live in nearby Tuscaloosa, Alabama, have been trying to have children since they got married in 2021. They began IVF about a year ago.
Their first embryo transfer ended with a miscarriage at eight weeks.
They were planning their second embryo transfer for some time in April, but the court decision upended their plans.
“Those embryos are our best hope for making kids right now. So that’s what hurts the most, I think,” Legerski said.
“If we aren’t able to use those embryos, then we have a much lower chance of having children,” Legerski said.
Angela Granger, 41, a Georgia resident who traveled to Alabama for IVF treatment to conceive her son, told ABC News she turned to the procedure after an ectopic pregnancy almost cost her one of her fallopian tubes.
Granger, who delivered her son in May 2021, and has been hoping to add another child to her family, decided after the state Supreme Court ruling that she wouldn’t pursue IVF in Alabama. While encouraged by lawmakers who say they will take action to protect the procedure, Granger said she needs to see legislation “in writing” before she is comfortable enough to undergo treatment or even store embryos there.
On Thursday, she was offered a job nearly 2,000 miles west, in Las Vegas, Nevada. She accepted.
“A big part of that is to get out of the south. If I wanted to really push and wait, I’m sure I could find a job down here. But this is just too much. I take it as a sign,” Granger said.
