(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. response to a drone attack that killed three American service members in Jordan last weekend will be carried out “over the course of several days” and striking “multiple targets,” a U.S. official told ABC News Tuesday.
“These are going to be very deliberate targets — deliberate strikes on facilities that enabled these attacks” on U.S. forces, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity in order to discuss sensitive details.
Officials would not say whether any of the targets would be inside or outside Iran.
Leaving the White House Tuesday morning, President Joe Biden said he had decided how the U.S. would respond to the attack by Iran-backed militants, but gave no more details.
When asked if Iran is responsible, he said Tehran is arming these proxy groups. “I do hold them responsible in that they’re supplying the weapons to the people who did it,” he said.
At the same time, he told reporters the U.S. is not “looking for” a “wider war in the Middle East.
Details about how an enemy attack drone was able to reach a remote U.S. military base in Jordan were still trickling in Tuesday, as the military continued its investigation.
According to three officials, speaking on condition of anonymity in order to discuss sensitive battlefield details, the one-way enemy attack drone approached the base around the same time as a U.S. surveillance drone, causing confusion and preventing the U.S. from deploying air defenses.
The enemy drone hit the living quarters of the base early in the morning Sunday while troops were still sleeping, wounding at least 40 and killing three.
The Pentagon on Monday announced the names of the three Army reservists killed as Sgt. William Jerome Rivers, 46, of Carrollton, Georgia.; Spc. Kennedy Ladon Sanders, 24, of Waycross, Georgia.; and Spc. Breonna Alexsondria Moffett, 23, of Savannah, Georgia., all from an Army Reserve engineering unit from Georgia.
The deadly attack, which several officials have described as simple luck by the enemy, is a dramatic escalation in the months-long tension between Iran-back militants and US forces stationed in Iraq and Syria.
Since mid October, there have been at least 165 attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq, Syria and Jordan. The U.S. has launched several retaliatory strikes, including in Iraq.
In response to the strikes, a spokesperson for the Iranian Mission for the U.N. said late Sunday, “Iran has nothing to do with the attacks in questions. The conflict has been initiated by the United States military against resistance groups in Iraq and Syria; and such operations are reciprocal between them.”
Gen. Robert Abrams, a retired combatant commander, said U.S. Central Command, which oversees forces in the region, will be trying to provide several military strike options to the president.
“Biden needs to send a message, but he also doesn’t want to escalate the tensions … That’s the hard conversation that is happening right now between the Pentagon, CENTCOM and the White House,” Abrams told ABC News Live.
Some Republicans have questioned Biden’s strategy in the Middle East so far, suggesting he should attack Iran more directly. Officials ABC News spoke with Tuesday would not say where the U.S. strikes might occur or whether they would target Iranian officials directly.
“We need a major reset of our Middle East policy to protect our national security interests and restore deterrence,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul said in a statement as House Speaker Mike Johnson called for “a crystal clear message across the globe that attacks on our troops will not be tolerated.”
In an interview taped last week with ABC’s “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz, Gen. CQ Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was asked if Americans being killed in the Middle East would impact his decision making.
He said the military was doing “everything we can to protect our forces” and noted the U.S. does not want “broader conflict” in the region — and that he doesn’t believe Iran wants war with the U.S., either.
“We don’t want to go down a path of greater escalation that drives to a much broader conflict within the region,” Brown said.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday that the “could be multi-leveled, come in stages, and be sustained over time.”
“We’ve taken steps to defend ourselves and defend our partners, as well as prevent escalation,” he added. “And the president has been crystal clear: we will respond decisively to any aggression, and we will hold responsible the people who attacked our troops and do so at a time and place of our choosing.”
ABC News’ Shannon Crawford contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — When then-President Donald Trump falsely declared victory days after Election Night in 2020, dozens of CEOs at the nation’s top companies assembled on a Zoom call to prevent what they feared could be the end of democracy in the U.S.
As Trump stands poised to win the Republican nomination in the 2024 contest, however, some prominent chief executives appear to have softened their stance toward him.
Rattling off Trump’s policies on topics ranging from the economy to China, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon told CNBC earlier this month that Trump “wasn’t wrong about some of these critical issues.” Dimon did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
Former company executives and advocacy group leaders expressed concern to ABC News about the posture toward Trump taken up by prominent CEOs in recent weeks, saying the executives appear to be prioritizing the short-term interests of their companies over the long-term health of the nation’s democracy and, in turn, a stable free market economy.
In private, many CEOs acknowledge that Trump poses a threat to democracy, but they likely remain reluctant to weigh in out of fear for an appearance of partisanship or even backlash from Trump should he become president, some of the former executives and advocacy group leaders said.
“CEOs are hedging their bets,” Tom Rogers, the founder of CNBC and an attendee at the Zoom call in November 2020, told ABC News.
“People think being on the wrong side of Trump was a bad move for individual companies. People may fear that if he is unleashed in a second term, his willingness to take on individual companies could be even more extreme,” Rogers added.
As another presidential election nears, Trump continues to deny the outcome of the previous election and vows to vigorously fight scores of felony charges, including allegations in two separate indictments of an illegal attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election outcome.
He has pleaded not guilty to all charges and has denied wrongdoing in response to all related allegations.
In recent weeks, a series of high-profile CEOs have spoken confidently about the prospects for their businesses or the country under Trump.
“The reality is, hey, we are the same company, regardless of when that election is going to occur. And regardless of who that president will be,” Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff told Bloomberg earlier this month.
Also speaking this month, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman told Bloomberg, “I believe America is going to be fine no matter what happens in this election.”
Benioff did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment. Neither did Altman.
Tom Glocer, the former CEO of Thomson Reuters, who also attended the November 2020 Zoom meeting, said some of the public comments from CEOs suggest that they’re “backing away.”
“It worries me,” Glocer told ABC News, citing what he considers Trump’s politicization of the judicial system and denial of the 2020 election.
“That’s bad for U.S. business,” he added.
Last year, a rating agency downgraded U.S. credit for the second time in the nation’s history. Fitch Ratings cited the ballooning U.S. debt load and a weakening of governance, as well as the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, as considerations in their decision.
Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, who convened the November 2020 conference call with top CEOs, rebuked the notion that the recent remarks from chief executives about Trump suggest a shift in their posture. “None whatsoever,” Sonnenfeld told ABC News.
Business leaders do not consider it their role to weigh in on partisan issues, Sonnenfeld added, saying their willingness to defend democracy in 2020 aligns with the views expressed in recent weeks.
The former executives and advocates have also warned about overstating the alarm.
“We shouldn’t take it as the overarching or final perspective from the business community,” said Daniella Ballou-Aares, CEO and co-founder of the Leadership Now Project, a membership organization made up of business leaders concerned about the future of U.S. democracy.
Business leaders have spearheaded efforts to safeguard democracy in swing states where the election will likely be decided, Ballou-Aares added. Last week, for example, nearly 70 business leaders in Ohio signed a public letter aiming to remove politicians from the redistricting process.
Elizabeth Doty, the director of the Erb Institute’s Corporate Political Responsibility Taskforce at the University of Michigan, echoed this view.
“We’ll see fewer dramatic statements but more quiet commitments,” Doty told ABC News.
For his part, Glocer said worried onlookers risk overstating the importance of statements from CEOs. Their capacity to influence public sentiment, Glocer added, pales in comparison to that of a pop superstar like Taylor Swift.
A Palestinian elderly woman crosses a street which has been bulldozed by the Israeli forces during a raid in Jenin in the occupied West Bank on January 29, 2024 amid ongoing battles between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza. (Photo by ZAIN JAAFAR/AFP via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — More than 100 days 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:
Jan 30, 3:11 PM
Israel channeling water into Gaza tunnels
The Israel Defense Forces said its soldiers are sending “large volumes of water” into Gaza tunnels to try to stop terrorist infrastructure.
“The pumping of water was only carried out in tunnel routes and locations that were suitable, matching the method of operation to each case,” the IDF said in a statement. “This project was developed following combat procedures, accelerated force-building efforts, and while training forces with technological expertise.”
“This tool represents a significant engineering and technological breakthrough in combating the threat of underground terror infrastructure and is the result of a collaborative effort between various bodies in Israel’s security establishment,” the IDF added.
Jan 30, 12:52 PM
Proposed hostage deal includes at least 6-week pause in hostilities: US officials
The latest proposed hostage deal includes an at least six-week pause in hostilities, during which the remaining civilian hostages in Gaza would be returned in phases, with the elderly, women and any remaining children released first, two U.S. officials confirmed to ABC News.
When the six-week truce nears the end, the framework calls for the parties to begin discussing: the return of all Israeli soldiers detained by Hamas; paving the way for all hostages in Gaza to be freed; and possibly extending the pause, the U.S. officials said.
The framework also includes the release of a large number of Palestinian prisoners held in Israel and additional humanitarian provisions for civilians in Gaza, the officials said.
According to an Israeli source, Israel has rejected this current hostage and cease-fire deal on the table.
Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said Tuesday the group is studying a proposal for a hostage and cease-fire deal that was put forward during talks this weekend in Paris. He said he would visit Egypt to discuss the plan and ways to implement it.
The White House is expressing confidence to secure the release of the remaining hostages being held by Hamas even after Israel rejected the current deal.
“The president’s view is we got to continue to do everything we can to get those hostages out,” National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said Tuesday. “We are making progress on trying to get an extended pause in place so that we can get those hostages out. And the president’s not going to wait on that.”
Kirby would not say if President Joe Biden was disappointed that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would not release thousands of prisoners and pull troops out of Gaza as part of the deal.
“I think we’ll let the prime minister speak for himself. There’s no reason for us to change course here. We still believe that this is the right thing to do,” he said.
Kirby said national security adviser Jake Sullivan met with Amir Sheikh Al Thani of Qatar Tuesday to discuss the war and efforts to get a hostage deal in place. Sullivan is also meeting Tuesday with the families of hostages being held by Hamas.
ABC News’ Shannon Crawford and Justin Gomez
Jan 30, 12:08 PM
Israel rejects current hostage deal on the table: Israeli source
Israel has rejected the current hostage and cease-fire deal that was on the table, an Israeli source told ABC News Tuesday.
The deal included the release of women, the elderly and the injured hostages. This is likely to be the terms of the first round of a future deal, the source said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday, “I hear talk about all kinds of deals. I would like to make it clear: We will not conclude this war without achieving all of its goals. This means eliminating Hamas, returning all of our hostages and ensuring that Gaza never again constitutes a threat to Israel.”
Meanwhile, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said Tuesday the group is studying a proposal for a hostage and cease-fire deal that was put forward during talks this weekend in Paris. He said he would visit Egypt to discuss the plan and ways to implement it.
ABC News’ Jordana Miller, Ayat Al-Tawy and Dana Savir
Jan 30, 6:41 AM
UNRWA funding cuts threaten Palestinian lives, NGOs warn
Twenty aid organizations have joined together to express deep concern and outrage that some of the largest donors suspended funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the largest humanitarian agency in the Gaza Strip and the main provider for millions of Palestinians in the wider region.
A wave of countries, including the United States, have cut funding for UNRWA in recent days over Israel’s accusations that 13 UNRWA staff members in Gaza were involved in the Oct. 7 terror attack. UNRWA said it is investigating the allegations.
In a joint statement released Monday, 20 non-governmental organizations, including Oxfam and Save the Children, urged the donor states to reverse their suspensions and warned that not doing so could lead to “a complete collapse of the already restricted humanitarian response in Gaza.”
“We are shocked by the reckless decision to cut a lifeline for an entire population by some of the very countries that had called for aid in Gaza to be stepped up and for humanitarians to be protected while doing their job,” the NGOs said. “This decision comes as the International Court of Justice ordered immediate and effective action to ensure the provision of humanitarian assistance to civilians in Gaza.”
The NGOs warned: “If the funding suspensions are not reversed we may see a complete collapse of the already restricted humanitarian response in Gaza.”
“The suspension of funding by donor states will impact life-saving assistance for over two million civilians, over half of whom are children, who rely on UNRWA aid in Gaza,” they added. “The population faces starvation, looming famine and an outbreak of disease under Israel’s continued indiscriminate bombardment and deliberate deprivation of aid in Gaza.”
Jan 30, 5:35 AM
Israeli soldiers dressed in disguise kill 3 in raid at hospital in West Bank
The Palestinian Ministry of Health on Tuesday released security camera footage showing Israeli troops in disguise as they raideda hospital in the occupied West Bank overnight.
In the video, soldiers are seen dressed as doctors and patients while holding rifles and walking through the corridors of Ibn Sina Hospital in the city of Jenin. The Palestinian Ministry of Health said three people were killed during the raid, which it called a “flagrant violation of all international norms and laws.”
The Israel Defense Forces confirmed the overnight raid in a statement early Tuesday, saying its troops “neutralized” three “terrorists” who were “hiding” inside Ibn Sina Hospital, one of whom was a member of Hamas and was allegedly planning an attack “inspired by the October 7th massacre.”
“For a long time, wanted suspects have been hiding in hospitals and using them as a base for planning terrorist activities and carrying out terror attacks, while they assume that the exploitation of hospitals will serve as protection against counterterrorism activities of Israeli security forces,” the IDF said. “This is another example of the cynical use of civilian areas and hospitals as shelters and human shields by terrorist organisations.”
Jan 29, 3:29 PM
Qatari prime minister: Hostage talks in ‘much better place’ now than a few weeks ago
The Qatari prime minister said Monday that the hostage talks between Israel and Hamas are in a “much better place” now than they were “a few weeks ago,” according to Reuters.
He also said he hoped the drone attack by Iran-backed militants that killed three American service members in Jordan won’t derail progress that’s been made on a hostage deal.
“I hope that nothing would undermine the efforts that we are doing or jeopardize that process,” Qatari Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdulrahman Bin Jassim Al-Thani said at a think tank event in Washington, D.C., according to Reuters. “Yet it will definitely have an impact on it and one way or another, it will have an impact on the regional security and we hope that things get contained and not to get escalated beyond control.”
Jan 29, 12:30 PM
IDF: Quarter of Hamas terrorists killed
One “quarter of Hamas’ terrorists have been killed and at least another quarter are wounded,” Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said Monday while visiting troops at the Gaza border.
Gallant said fighting the remaining terrorists “will take months.”
“On the other hand,” he continued, “the terrorists don’t have supplies, they don’t have ammunition, they don’t have reinforcements.”
ABC News’ Dana Savir
Jan 29, 11:50 AM
Dossier from Israel alleges 4 UNRWA employees involved in kidnappings
A dossier from the Israeli military has revealed new allegations against employees of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees who are accused of being involved in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
The report obtained by ABC News alleges that 13 UNRWA employees participated in the Oct. 7 attack, including six employees who allegedly infiltrated Israel.
Four UNRWA employees were allegedly involved in kidnappings and one employee allegedly supplied logistical support, the report said.
One UNRWA teacher is accused of kidnapping a hostage, who has returned to Israel and identified the UNRWA teacher, the report said.
Nine countries, including the U.S., have paused funding for the UNRWA in wake of the allegations. The commissioner-general of UNRWA is investigating.
ABC News’ Matt Gutman
Jan 29, 7:00 AM
IDF general answers questions about alleged war crimes in southern Gaza
ABC News embedded with Brig. Gen. Dan Goldfus, commander of the Israel Defense Forces’ 98th Division that currently controls the southern Gaza Strip, and questioned him about alleged war crimes, the recent killing of an unarmed Palestinian carrying a white flag and the controversial buffer zone.
On Saturday, ABC News met with Goldfus in what looked like a post-apocalyptic neighborhood in Khan Younis, where machine guns chattered, detonations thundered and the blasts of tank fire rang out. Some of the explosions were so powerful that they blew in the curtains of the commandeered Palestinian home that the general and his staff have turned into a temporary headquarters.
Outside the headquarters were a series of arena-sized basins. One was about 60 feet deep and larger than a football field. A month ago, it was a multi-acre cemetery. Flanking the destroyed cemetery was the remains of a mosque — half of a dome listing on its side like a sinking ship. Goldfus told ABC News that his troops had dug up most of the cemetery looking for tunnel shafts belonging to Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that rules Gaza. The general pointed out where he said they found tunnel shafts, but ABC News could not visually verify due to the depth of the pit.
When asked what his troops do with the bodies if they dig up graves while hunting for tunnel shafts, Goldfus told ABC News: “We’ll put them aside.”
The intentional destruction of religious sites, such as cemeteries, without military necessity violates international law and could amount to war crimes. But Goldfus said he’s not concerned because Hamas had turned the cemetery and the adjacent mosque into a “military compound” that was “used to attack my forces again and again and again.”
“I’m not digging up a cemetery, I’m digging up a military compound,” he added.
When asked what he would say to the families of the people who were buried there, the general told ABC News: “I’m very sorry about it. Your relatives are being used as a human shield.”
Last week, British television network ITV captured what it said were Israeli snipers in Khan Younis gunning down an unarmed Palestinian man carrying a white flag who had moments earlier told the news team that he was trying to cross the battle lines to reach his family. At the time, Israel claimed the ITV video was edited and that there was no way of telling who fired the shots. However, while speaking to ABC News on Saturday, Goldfus appeared to take responsibility for the incident.
“Yes, it was my troops and I’m investigating that incident,” he told ABC News. “That is not the way we carry out rules of engagement. No, we don’t fire people waving white flags. We don’t fire at civilians.”
When pressed on the fact that Israeli troops have killed civilians in Gaza, the general said: “They are mistakes. It is war.”
Asked whether Israeli soldiers could face criminal charges for the fatal shooting, Goldfus told ABC News that “it depends.”
“We investigate every mistake that is done,” he added.
The general also answered questions about the buffer zone the IDF is creating inside Gaza along the coastal enclave’s border with Israel.
“This is part of the area that will become a buffer zone … to dismantle Hamas and prevent any entity that will try to carry out any terror attacks against our people,” he told ABC News while looking at a table-sized aerial map of the Gaza-Israel border.
Goldfus said the buffer zone will create an area inside Gaza that is under Israel’s control.
-ABC News’ Matt Gutman and Sohel Uddin
Jan 28, 2:24 PM
‘Constructive meeting’ with officials but ‘gaps’ remain, Israeli PM’s office says
The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office released a statement on Sunday’s talks between CIA Director Bill Burns, the prime minister of Qatar and intelligence officials from Israel and Egypt.
The meeting was “constructive” but “significant gaps” remain, the statement said, adding that more meetings are expected this coming week.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
Jan 28, 4:40 AM
UN chief appeals for continued UNRWA funding
The secretary-general of the United Nations appealed on Sunday for continuing funding for the U.N. aid agency responsible for Gaza.
Nine countries, including the United States, paused their funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees after Israel accused 12 of its employees of being involved in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.
Mark Regev, an Israeli spokesman, told ABC News in a phone interview Sunday that Israel gathered intelligence about the alleged connection to terrorism through videos released by Hamas and others during the Oct. 7 attack and claimed there’s “clear unrefutable evidence that U.N. paid staff were involved in crimes against humanity.”
About 2 million people in Gaza depend on the agency for daily survival, Secretary-General António Guterres said in a statement Sunday.
According to Guterres, “Of the 12 people implicated, nine were immediately identified and terminated by the Commissioner-General of UNRWA, Philippe Lazzarini; one is confirmed dead, and the identity of the two others is being clarified.”
“The abhorrent alleged acts of these staff members must have consequences,” he said in the statement.
He added, “But the tens of thousands of men and women who work for UNRWA, many in some of the most dangerous situations for humanitarian workers, should not be penalized. The dire needs of the desperate populations they serve must be met.”
-ABC News’ Matt Gutman, Edward Szekeres and Kevin Shalvey
Jan 27, 5:13 PM
9 nations suspend contributions to UNRWA due to Oct. 7 allegations
The number of nations pausing funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East has risen to 9 — an unprecedented number for a UN agency. This withdrawal of funding comes amid allegations from Israeli officials that some of the agency’s staff were involved in the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks.
On Saturday, Britain, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Finland joined the U.S., Australia and Canada in pausing funding to UNRWA.
“UNRWA lifesaving assistance is about to end following countries decisions to cut their funding to the Agency. Our humanitarian operation, on which 2 million people depend as a lifeline in Gaza, is collapsing. I am shocked such decisions are taken based on alleged behavior of a few individuals and as the war continues, needs are deepening & famine looms,” the commissioner general of UNRWA said in a statement.
“Palestinians in Gaza did not need this additional collective punishment. This stains all of us,” the statement said.
(NEW YORK) — A “game jam” is an online competition for people who make games, whether tabletop games like Dungeons & Dragons or video games like Minecraft or Call of Duty. But most game jam submissions are a lot smaller than those titles. Teams are often small, and they usually only have a few weeks to develop their games.
“You see a lot of first-time game designers, because it’s a very approachable way of designing your first game, because the expectations are very low,” Randy Lubin, who has helped organize game jams for a few years, tells ABC Audio. “Because it’s just something that’s being produced over the course of a weekend, or maybe a week or so, nobody’s expecting the highest quality, highest caliber game content.”
Still, the smaller scale hasn’t impacted the popularity of game jams.
“These have gotten immensely popular in the last half decade if not longer, with there being dedicated sites online just to game jams,” says Lubin.
Video games can be based on all kinds of things, from Pokémon to Spider-Man. But small game developers, like those who participate in jams, often don’t have the money to license those properties from the copyright owners. That’s why some are turning to the public domain, a set of laws that designate when movies, artwork, music, and books become free to use.
“If you locked up works indefinitely, then you are preventing the opportunity for others to build on those works to create new works, which is something that we as a society see to be beneficial,” says Aaron Moss, a copyright attorney based in Los Angeles.
Certain versions of Sherlock Holmes, Frankenstein, Winnie the Pooh and more are currently available to artists because of the public domain, giving rise to a fresh crop of movies, music, writing, and, of course, games.
Lubin is one of the organizers behind Gaming Like It’s 1928, alongside co-organizers Leigh Beadon and Mike Masnick. It’s a game jam that requires participants to create games incorporating works that have recently entered the public domain.
Characters like Sherlock Holmes, Frankenstein, even Winnie the Pooh have all entered the public domain in recent years. But Masnick says this year promises to be a big one.
“1928 has been on the radar of copyright folks for a long time,” he says.
That’s because Steamboat Willie came out that year — the animated, black and white Disney short film that marks the classic cartoon debut of Mickey Mouse.
Mickey Mouse is more than just the mascot of Disney, the parent company of ABC News. It’s also a character that’s been the subject of years of lobbying and negotiation. Masnick says Disney has retained the rights of the Steamboat Willie cartoon up to this year through a law known as the Copyright Term Extension Act.
“In fact, people kind of jokingly, or condescendingly, referred to the last Copyright Term Extension Act as the Mickey Mouse Protection Act,” says Masnick.
But as of January 1, Steamboat Willie is now in the public domain. However, game designers and other artists don’t have free rein on the Mickey Mouse character.
“When you have a character like Mickey Mouse, that has changed over time, later works in which the character has appeared may and still are protected by copyright,” says Moss.
Steamboat Willie features the original design of Mickey Mouse, which means that iteration of the character is free to use. But the later Fantasia cartoon, for example, features an updated look for Mickey. That version is still owned by Disney – and therefore still subject to the same penalties.
“If there are damages that make it worthwhile for the copyright owner to file a lawsuit, [they] could theoretically file a lawsuit,” says Moss.
Regarding Steamboat Willie entering the public domain, Disney told ABC Audio in a statement that “people have associated the character with Disney’s stories, experiences, and authentic products. That will not change when the copyright in the Steamboat Willie film expires.” The statement goes on to say, “We will, of course, continue to protect our rights in the more modern versions of Mickey Mouse and other works that remain subject to copyright, and we will work to safeguard against consumer confusion caused by unauthorized uses of Mickey.”
But the Gaming Like It’s 1928 crew says fights over copyright are not something they’ve had to deal with.
“Not yet! You know, my fingers are crossed,” says Beadon.
“We are always watching for that and wondering if it will happen,” says Masnick, adding, “we try to be pretty clear with the folks who are entering the game jam about the limitations. And to make sure that they do their best to understand what is allowed and what is not. But to date, we have not had any copyright holders complain.”
What’s more, Beadon says the hype around Steamboat Willie this year may end up being overblown.
“We do expect a lot of games using Mickey Mouse, but sometimes we’re surprised,” he says. “We expected to get almost all games using Winnie The Pooh when he entered the public domain, but there were fewer than we thought.”
Already, Mickey has appeared in one of the Game Jam submissions. But there’s also more obscure works, like “Author Tycoon,” a game where players are tasked with selling books and short stories from 1928. There’s also “In Old Arizona,” a tabletop game based on a movie from that year.
“We all love that, when someone finds an obscure, really out there work,” says Beadon. “You can go to the Internet Archive or somewhere like that and search for works published in 1928 and find, like, scientific studies, and municipal journals of sewage design. And you never know when one of these might yield some really interesting diagram or some really interesting something that you can use to make a game.”
In fact, Lubin says they even have a category dedicated to the super obscure.
“One of our favorite sub-prizes, sub-awards, is for ‘Deep Cut.’ Which is something that nobody ever – or nobody living – has probably ever heard of,” says Lubin.
They also award prizes for best visuals, and best tabletop game.
Gaming Like It’s 1928 stops taking submissions at the end of this month. Winners will be announced in mid-February. But Lubin says whichever entries take home prizes, the game jam has a promising future, as works from the 1930s begin entering the public domain.
“Some of the more famous Charlie Chaplin movies, ‘Gone With The Wind,’ ‘The Wizard Of Oz,’ and so I think that will enable new and different types of remixing original content into games. That’ll be really exciting,” says Lubin.
(NEW YORK) — Ohio lawmakers have introduced a bill that would allow execution by nitrogen gas, a controversial practice critics call untested and lacking in evidence that it’s more humane than lethal injection, after Alabama became the first state to execute someone with nitrogen gas.
Ohio state Reps. Phil Plummer and Brian Stewart, both Republicans, introduced legislation during a press conference Tuesday that would allow executions to be conducted via nitrogen gas, known as nitrogen hypoxia.
“Nitrogen hypoxia is an alternative method for carrying out capital punishment that has been made available in other states,” Stewart told reporters. “The legislation introduced by Rep. Plummer and I will authorize the state of Ohio to utilize nitrogen hypoxia, in addition to lethal injection, and directed [that] it shall be used in instances where lethal injection is not an available means of carrying out a capital sentence.”
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost expressed his support for the bill during the press conference and said he believes some crimes are “so heinous” they deserve the “ultimate punishment.”
“I am aware of the moral weight of this debate, but this is law of the land,” Yost said. “If we wish to break the promises that we made to the families of all these victims over all these years, if we wish to not keep faith with the jurors that we asked to take this heavy weight on to make a judgment, then we owe it to our society and to all those that are involved to own our decision to change our minds.”
Yost previously expressed support for the nitrogen gas method after Kenneth Smith, 58, a convicted murderer, was put to death Thursday in Alabama. Three states — Alabama, Mississippi and Oklahoma — have approved nitrogen gas as a form of execution.
The protocol in Alabama called for Smith to be strapped to a gurney and fitted with a mask and a breathing tube. The mask is meant to administer 100% pure nitrogen, depriving the person of oxygen until they die.
“Perhaps nitrogen — widely available and easy to manufacture — can break the impasse of unavailability of drugs for lethal injection,” Yost wrote Friday on the platform X, previously known as Twitter. “Death row inmates are in greater danger of dying of old age than their sentence.”
Ohio currently has 129 people on death row, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a nonprofit that provides data and analysis on capital punishment.
The state has not executed anyone since 2018, when a de-facto moratorium was put in place. At the time, the governor’s office claimed there was a lack of access to certain drugs used for lethal injection.
Stewart on Tuesday criticized Gov. Mike DeWine, a Republican, for issuing several reprieves and questioned whether it was actually difficult to obtain lethal injection drugs.
“Florida has been using lethal injection drugs during that entire period of time; other states have, as well, including the federal government,” he said during the press conference. “I think we have a reasonable question as to whether it’s actually a[n] impossibility to find those drugs if all the other states and the federal government are able to do so.”
DeWine told The Associated Press in 2020 that “[l]ethal injection appears to us to be impossible from a practical point of view today,” and said he was unsure if capital punishment is a crime deterrent.
Tennessee inmate on death row for 28 years fights for his freedom
Yost told reporters Tuesday that nitrogen gas is widely available commercially, can be manufactured easily and that he believes the state should be able to secure a contract to obtain the gas.
While Alabama officials said execution by nitrogen gas was a more humane and painless form of death, medical and legal experts previously told ABC News there was no evidence to suggest this.
Additionally, eyewitnesses to Smith’s execution said it took 22 minutes to complete, The Associated Press reported, and that, “for at least two minutes, he appeared to shake and writhe on the gurney, sometimes pulling against the restraints.” State officials had said Smith would lose consciousnesses within seconds and die within minutes.
In Ohio, not everyone is in support of resuming executions, In September 2023, a bipartisan group of state lawmakers introduced a bill that would abolish the death penalty and make the maximum sentence for a crime be life in prison without parole.
(NEW YORK) — Elon Musk announced that his company Neuralink implanted a brain chip in a human in a preliminary clinical study. If research studies continue to look promising, devices like these could one day be a “game changer” for people with limited motor function, experts told ABC News.
Neuralink says its goal is to help people living with debilitating conditions, including paralysis, communicate and control external devices with their thoughts.
The patient who received the implant is “recovering well,” Musk said in a post on X Tuesday.
Musk’s company is not alone in developing this type of technology. In recent years, research teams from across the globe have announced early but promising studies of brain-machine interface devices.
Here’s what else to know about Neuralink:
Neuralink’s implant
Neuralink was founded in 2016 by Musk and a team of scientists and engineers. The company says its mission is to “create a generalized brain interface to restore autonomy to those with unmet medical needs,” according to its website.
The company says its device can interpret neural activity so a person can operate a computer or smartphone by simply thinking.
People paralyzed from a stroke, a traumatic brain injury or a spinal cord injury could see the benefits, the company says.
“This would be a major game changer if it could be proven to be safe and effective,” Dr. Leah Croll, a neurologist and assistant professor at Temple University, told ABC News.
Human trials after animal testing
The FDA approved Neuralink for human trials in May after years of testing on animals.
The company has previously demonstrated the ability of the implant to stimulate movement in pigs and monkeys, even demonstrating a monkey with a brain chip playing a video game.
Musk said the first human users will be those who lost the use of their limbs.
“Imagine if Stephen Hawking could communicate faster than a speed typist or auctioneer, that is the goal,” Musk said.
Science fiction into reality
Neuralink’s engineers aren’t the only ones exploring this emerging science.
Last year, Swiss researchers said they combined artificial intelligence and brain and spine implants to help a man paralyzed in a motorcycle accident walk again.
And a woman who had lost her voice to paralysis was able to have a conversation with her husband again, with the help of a mind-controlled avatar, the Swiss researchers said.
“I really do think that in my lifetime as a physician I’ll be able to use this type of technology to help my patients and I cannot wait for that day to come,” Croll said after Musk’s announcement Tuesday.
(NEW YORK) — An 11-year-old is being praised for her quick action after a man allegedly attempted to kidnap her in an incident that was caught on camera in Glendale, Arizona, on Friday.
In security camera footage obtained by the Glendale Police Department, a driver in a car is seen making a sharp U-turn before pulling up next to a fifth-grader walking to school. Seconds later, the driver gets out of the car and appears to try to grab the girl as she sprints away and screams for help.
“In that moment, this male jumped out and started running towards her with his arms extended towards her as if trying to grab her, which caused her obviously to flee,” Glendale Police Public Information Officer Moroni Mendez explained.
With the help of the video and the girl’s description, authorities identified the suspect as 37-year-old Joseph Leroy Ruiz, who they said lives in the same apartment complex as the girl.
Ruiz was arrested on charges of attempted kidnapping and custodial interference. He is currently being held under $250,000 bond.
According to court documents, the girl said she first spotted Ruiz outside her home and claimed he gave her an “odd look.” She said she then ran towards her school, where police say Ruiz pulled up in his car, got out and lunged at her.
“We just want to praise her and congratulate her for doing such a good job and protecting her own life,” Mendez said. “She was aware of everything that was going on around her and observed that the male was actively trying to grab her.”
Mendez shared tips for parents who may be concerned about letting their kids walk to school, including getting to know one’s surroundings, letting kids know it’s OK to run away and scream if they feel uncomfortable and to use codewords if necessary.
“Walk with your child, walk with your student on the path they’re going to take to school so that they’re aware of it, so that they know where they can run to if need be,” Mendez said.
“Make sure the child knows the parent’s phone number or ways of contacting them,” Mendez added. “Also let them know that at school, there’s a lot of great people, that they’re going to want the best for them and their well-being and their safety, so they can confide in those teachers and upper management staff.”
(NEW YORK) — Two brothers have been arrested after police found homemade explosives along with a hit list and an arsenal of ghost guns in the apartment they shared with their mother and another brother, authorities say.
Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that two New York City residents — 39-year-old Andrew Hatziagelis and 51-year-old Angelo Hatziagelis — have been indicted on 130 counts of criminal possession of a weapon and related charges stemming from the discovery of “an arsenal of improvised explosive devices and ghost guns, including assault rifles, was found inside an Astoria apartment they shared with their mother and another brother.”
“Instructions for making a variety of bombs, anarchist propaganda and a ‘hit list,’ with ‘cops, judges, politicians, celebrities’ and ‘banker scum’ scrawled on it, were also found during a search of the home,” Katz said in her statement announcing details of the case against the Hatziagelis brothers.
The defendants are now awaiting arraignment on the litany 130-count indictment, including “eight counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the first degree, nine counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree, 47 counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree, six counts of criminal possession of a firearm, eight counts of reckless endangerment in the second degree, 14 counts of criminal possession of a weapon in the fourth degree, six counts of criminal sale of a firearm in the third degree, 15 counts of make/transport/dispose/deface weapons and dangerous weapons, three counts of unlawful purchase of body armor, one count of attempted criminal possession of a weapon in the third degree, one count of attempted criminal possession of a firearm, and three counts of unlawful possession of a pistol or revolver ammunition, and nine counts of unlawfully dealing with fireworks and dangerous fireworks,” according to the Queens district attorney.
“Today’s charges underscore the harsh reality that our communities contain a small number of people who conceivably harbor evil intent. This cache of weapons – including explosives and untraceable, 3D-printed ghost guns – had the potential to wreak horrendous carnage,” said NYPD Commissioner Edward A. Caban. “Along with our NYPD investigators, I thank all of our local, state, and federal law enforcement partners for their persistence in identifying, investigating, and holding fully accountable anyone who poses a risk to New Yorkers’ safety and well-being.”
Once inside the property, police ended up seizing eight operational improvised explosive devices (IEDs), one partially constructed trip-wire IED, two loaded AR-15 style ghost gun assault weapons, each with a detachable magazine, muzzle compensator and threaded barrel, two loaded 9 mm semiautomatic ghost gun pistols, two loaded 9 mm semiautomatic 3D-printed ghost gun pistols, a partially constructed AK-47 style ghost gun, more than 600 rounds of ammunition for each of the firearms above, a 3D printer, three sets of body armor, along with a radio set to the frequency of the 114th Precinct in Astoria and notebooks and manuals on how to build explosive devices, officials said.
“The city is safer today. My Crime Strategies and Intelligence Bureau launches investigations every day so that we find illegal weapons, including guns and in this case explosive devices,” District Attorney Katz said in her statement. “We cannot measure the number of lives that were saved, but we do know that these weapons will never hurt anyone. My Crime Strategies and Intelligence Bureau launched this investigation. Upon securing a search warrant we worked with the NYPD, Homeland Security, State Police and uncovered eight fully operable bombs, several guns and numerous other weapons.”
The defendants’ next court date is Feb. 15 and, if convicted, they each face up to 25 years in prison.
Said Homeland Security Investigations New York Acting Special Agent in Charge Erin Keegan: “HSI New York is committed to supporting our law enforcement partners when they call. In this case, the collaboration among various law enforcement agencies led to a discovery that most certainly could have saved lives. I thank the members of the HSI Border Enforcement Security Task Force (BEST) and the Queens District Attorney’s Office, along with the NYPD, ATF, and the New York State Police, for their outstanding efforts to resolve a potentially dangerous situation.”
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Tuesday faced increasing pressure to forcefully respond to Sunday’s drone attack by Iran-backed militants that killed three American service members and wounded at least 40 others, without deepening the conflict in the Middle East.
“We are not looking for a war with Iran,” National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said at Monday’s White House press briefing.
“We are not seeking a conflict with the regime in the military way,” Kirby continued. “We’re not looking to escalate here. This attack over the weekend was escalatory, make no mistake about it. And it requires a response.”
The president vowed Sunday that the U.S. would respond, and Monday met with members of his national security team in the White House Situation Room to discuss the latest developments on the attack in Jordan near the borders with Syria and Iraq, according to the White House.
Among those in the meeting were national security adviser Jake Sullivan, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines and chief of staff Jeff Zients.
Biden is now faced with a difficult decision on how best to respond to the attack that killed the first U.S. service members since the start of the Israel-Hamas conflict, without igniting a broader conflict in the region, something the administration has been steadfastly trying to avoid for months.
The White House would not confirm or deny if direct strikes against Iran were on the table, but a senior U.S. official told ABC News that Biden has deep misgivings about retaliatory strikes on Iran itself.
“There’s no easy answer here,” Kirby told reporters.
“That’s why the president is meeting with his national security team, weighing the options before him. He’ll do that as he’s done in the past in a very careful, deliberate way, so that our national security answers– our interests are best preserved,” Kirby said.
In a press conference Monday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken suggested the U.S. response “could be multi-leveled, come in stages, and be sustained over time.”
Prior to Sunday’s deadly attack, there had been at least 164 attacks on U.S. forces in the region since mid-October.
The U.S. has launched repeated retaliatory strikes — nine in Yemen since Jan. 11 and four in Iraq and three in Syria since mid-October — although the president has noted they did little to deter future attacks.
Many Republicans have called on the administration to take stronger action against Iran, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
“The entire world now watches for signs that the President is finally prepared to exercise American strength to compel Iran to change its behavior. Our enemies are emboldened. And they will remain so until the United States imposes serious, crippling costs – not only on front-line terrorist proxies, but on their Iranian sponsors who wear American blood as a badge of honor,” he said in a statement.
Complicating matters further is the conflict between Israel and Hamas, and the ongoing hostage negotiations that the U.S. and other countries have been working to facilitate.
Kirby said Monday the talks were headed in a good direction, and the White House saw “no reason” that any U.S. response to these attacks should affect the negotiations. Still, he acknowledged it could.
“We’re not cocky. We understand there’s a lot of hard work ahead. And that work ahead of us, diplomatically certainly, might be affected by– by events elsewhere in the region. Not just — not just what happened in Jordan and what- what might come as a result of that, but there’s no reason why it shouldn’t. And that’s why we’re gonna stay at that task,” Kirby said.
A growing conflict could also have major impacts on Biden’s reelection efforts. He has already faced political pressure on the campaign trail from pro-Palestinian protests at his events calling for a cease-fire.
At a recent event in Virginia, Biden faced more than a dozen interruptions from the crowd calling for an end to the conflict.
When asked whether politics would play a role in the president’s response, Kirby was adamant it wouldn’t.
“He’s not looking at political calculations, or the polling, or the electoral calendar as he works to protect our troops ashore and our ships at sea — and any suggestion to the contrary is offensive,” he said.
(PHILADELPHIA) — The Philadelphia Department of Public Health is warning that several people may have recently been exposed to hepatitis A at a grocery store.
An employee at a ShopRite, located in the northeast part of the city, was confirmed to have “acute hepatitis A” and was working behind the meat counter between Jan. 4 and Jan. 21 while possibly contagious, said officials.
“The store is aware of the situation and is working collaboratively with the Health Department,” the agency wrote in a statement.
While calling the risk of infection “very low,” the health department says beef or pork purchased from the store during this period and since frozen “should be discarded as a precaution.” Additionally, anyone who has handled or eaten raw or undercooked beef or pork purchased from the store’s meat counter between Jan. 4 and Jan. 21 should be vaccinated against hepatitis A “as soon as possible,” the health department says.
“People who have previously received two doses of Hepatitis A vaccine OR have had Hepatitis A in the past do not need to be vaccinated,” the department of health further notes.
No details about the infected worker are available, and it’s unclear how many people may have been exposed to the hepatitis A virus due to possible secondary exposures from people who brought meat home or potential cross-contamination at the store, a spokesperson for the Philadelphia Department of Public Health told ABC News. It’s assumed that the infected employee was unvaccinated, the spokesperson said.
So far, there have been no additional reports of hepatitis A and no other ShopRite locations have been affected, according to the Philadelphia Department of Health.
The Philadelphia Department of Health began offering free hepatitis A vaccines on Saturday to anyone who may have been exposed, with 61 people vaccinated as of Monday morning, the spokesperson told ABC News.
Hepatitis A is a very contagious infection that affects the liver and is caused by the hepatitis A virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The virus is found in the stool and blood of infected people and is spread through close, personal contact with an infected patient or by eating contaminated food and drink, even in microscopic amounts, the CDC says.
The CDC says a person can transmit hepatitis A without showing symptoms and can do so up to two weeks before symptoms appear. Symptoms include yellowing of the skin or eyes, loss of appetite, stomach pain, nausea, vomiting, fever and diarrhea.
There are no specific treatments for hepatitis A, with doctors typically recommending rest, adequate nutrition, and fluids, according to the CDC.
Most people recover completely, but in rare cases, hepatitis A can lead to liver failure and death, but this is more common among those with underlying conditions such as chronic liver disease, according to the CDC.
To protect against hepatitis A, the CDC recommends receiving the hepatitis A vaccine. There are two types: one given as two shots six months apart, and the other a combination vaccine that protects against hepatitis A and B and that is given as three shots over six months.
If someone has been exposed to the virus, experts say a single shot of the hepatitis A vaccine given within two weeks may prevent the virus from taking hold.
