Nikki Haley, former ambassador to the United Nations and 2024 Republican presidential candidate, speaks during a caucus night watch party in West Des Moines, Iowa, U.S., on Monday, Jan. 15, 2024. (Rachel Mummey/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — ABC News and WMUR are canceling their planned Republican primary debate in New Hampshire on Thursday, citing a lack of candidate participation.
“Our intent was to host a debate coming out of the Iowa caucuses, but we always knew that would be contingent on the candidates and the outcome of the race,” an ABC News spokesperson said in a statement. “As a result, while our robust election coverage will continue, ABC News and WMUR-TV will not be moving forward with Thursday’s Republican presidential primary debate in New Hampshire.”
The decision comes shortly after a deadline set by ABC News and New Hampshire TV station WMUR for both former President Donald Trump and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley to respond to their invitations to the debate by Tuesday afternoon.
Neither campaign confirmed they would attend.
Four Republicans had qualified for the debate under previously announced criteria. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie previously confirmed participation — then Christie left the race last week.
Earlier on Tuesday, in the wake of Trump dominating the Iowa caucuses, Haley said in a statement that she would debate only Trump or President Joe Biden — suggesting she would skip a showdown with rival DeSantis in New Hampshire ahead of its Jan. 23 primary.
“We’ve had five great debates in this campaign,” the former South Carolina governor said. “Unfortunately, Donald Trump has ducked all of them. He has nowhere left to hide. The next debate I do will either be with Donald Trump or with Joe Biden. I look forward to it.”
Haley’s statement came after a third-place showing in Iowa’s caucuses where she got 19% of the vote — behind DeSantis with 21% and Trump with 51%.
MORE: Trump dominates with Republicans, and 5 other takeaways from Iowa caucuses
After Haley’s statement, DeSantis fired back, posting on X that Haley “is afraid to debate because she doesn’t want to answer the tough questions.”
“The reality is that she is not running for the nomination, she’s running to be Trump’s VP,” DeSantis wrote.
Appearing on CNN later on Tuesday, Haley echoed her statement. “If he’s [Trump] on that stage, I’m there.”
Trump has not participated in any of the GOP debates so far, saying he saw no point given his large polling lead.
“President Trump’s statement was that he would not attend the debates,” adviser Chris LaCivita said after the second GOP debate. “Plural … And that’s his position until it’s not.”
Instead, Trump has favored counterprogramming events such as rallies or televised interviews.
The South Carolina Republican has seen a consistent bump in polling since September, including recent polls that showed her narrowly ahead of DeSantis in Iowa and one that had her closing the gap with Trump in New Hampshire.
The narrow divide in Monday’s caucus results between her and DeSantis means that no candidate can claim the clear mantle of Trump alternative.
Haley has turned her focus to New Hampshire, where the GOP primary is set for Jan. 23. Haley’s campaign is betting big on a performance next Tuesday that could propel her campaign forward.
Both Haley and DeSantis vowed to carry on after losing to Trump in the Iowa caucuses.
“We’re gonna make you proud, and we’re off to New Hampshire,” Haley told supporters Monday night.
On Monday night, Haley’s campaign released a memo that said she would take on Trump and Biden and “go the distance in a long campaign.”
“The Iowa results and the New Hampshire polls show Donald Trump is more vulnerable than commonly believed. He is the polarizing figure he has long been,” campaign manager Betsy Ankeny wrote in the memo. “Trump and Biden are the two most disliked politicians in America.”
ABC News’ Nicholas Kerr contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — The snowstorms pummeling much of the country — including D.C. — will keep the majority of the federal government at home Tuesday, but not the Senate, whose members are expected to brave the weather to cast the first in a series of votes that they hope will stave off a partial government shutdown at week’s end.
Though travel delays may prevent many senators from participating in Tuesday night’s vote, time is not a luxury this Congress has as the shutdown looms — meaning many will have to lace up their snow boots.
The procedural vote the Senate will take Tuesday night will be on a stopgap funding bill that lawmakers hope will buy them more time to complete work on yearlong appropriations. It comes just three days before funding for four of the 12 bills that fund the government are slated to run out.
Details of the short-term plan were announced jointly by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Mike Johnson on Sunday.
The short-term bill, if passed, will move the deadlines to fund the government by more than a month: the four funding bills that were set to expire this Friday would run out of funding on March 1; the remaining eight bills currently set to expire on Feb. 2 would run out on March 8.
This stopgap spending bill should have relatively little trouble clearing the Senate, where it’s expected to receive bipartisan support. Still, things could potentially come down to the wire in the Senate where passage of bills can require multiple procedural votes and multiple days of work.
Passing the stopgap bill before funding partially runs out on Friday night will require the cooperation of all senators. The objection of any one senator to expediting passage of the bill could cause a final vote to potentially bleed into the weekend. That’s why the Senate can’t afford a snow day.
Johnson will need Democrats’ help
In the House, the short-term extension should also sail to passage relatively easily once it’s brought up for a vote. However, Johnson will be in the unenviable position of having to rely on the votes of Democrats to pass it, a move that leaves him vulnerable to his right flank.
Johnson’s predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, was ousted from his role as speaker for relying on Democrats to pass a similar short-term extension of government funding. While there’s been less of a groundswell of Republicans threatening to oust Johnson so far, he’ll likely have some hell to pay with hard-right Republicans.
Unlike the Senate, the House leaders called off votes in the lower chamber Tuesday night because of the storms. The House will need to wait for the Senate to complete its work on the short-term bill before its members can consider it.
This is the third time Congress will seek to kick the can on funding this fiscal year.
Congressional leaders hope this latest deadline extension will buy lawmakers the time they need to finally complete their work on and pass annual appropriations bills that will fund the government through the end of September.
The top-line spending deal reached by Schumer and Johnson last weekend was a major step forward toward finalizing those spending bills, but leaders are calling for this short-term funding bill to buy them a bit more time to finalize legislative text based on that deal.
That agreement holds constant spending levels previously agreed to by President Joe Biden and then-Speaker McCarthy during negotiations that raised the federal debt limit.
“The bipartisan topline funding agreement reached ensures that America will be able to address many of the major challenges our country faces at home and abroad,” Schumer said in a statement. “It is clear that a Continuing Resolution is necessary to give the Appropriations Committee additional time to finish drafting their bills to reflect the new agreement.”
Johnson, while touting the $6 billion in COVID funds and expediting a $10 billion cut in funding to the IRS in the top-line spending deal, also said the stopgap spending bill that the Senate will work to advance Tuesday would be necessary.
“Because the completion deadlines are upon us, a short continuing resolution is required to complete what House Republicans are working hard to achieve: an end to governance by omnibus, meaningful policy wins, and better stewardship of American tax dollars,” Johnson said in the statement.
Johnson has previously said he would not take up any additional short-term bills, and many in his right flank are angry about the underlying top-line deal Johnson struck, contending it does not do enough to secure steep cuts they wanted.
The House Freedom Caucus took only moments to make their objection to the stopgap funding bill known.
“This is what surrender looks like,” the House Freedom Caucus posted on X moments after Schumer and Johnson announced their intent to hold votes to move the funding deadlines.
ABC News’ Lauren Peller contributed to this report.
Former President Donald Trump speaks at his caucus night event at the Iowa Events Center, Jan. 15, 2024 in Des Moines, Iowa. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump is on trial this week in New York City to determine whether he will have to pay former Elle magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll additional damages for defaming her in 2019 when he denied her allegations of sexual assault.
Last year, in a separate trial, a jury determined that Trump was liable for sexually assaulting Carroll in the dressing room of a Manhattan department store in the 1990s, and that he defamed her in a 2022 social media post by calling her allegations “a Hoax and a lie” and saying “This woman is not my type!”
Trump has denied all wrongdoing and has said he doesn’t know who Carroll is.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Jan 16, 4:00 PM
Trump ‘unleashed his followers,’ Carroll’s attorney says
Donald Trump’s lies about E. Jean Carroll “unleashed his followers to go after her,” and as Trump campaigns for president he “continues to lie about Ms. Carroll,” Carroll’s attorney said in her opening statement.
“How much money will it take to make him stop?” Carroll’s attorney, Shawn Crowley, said. “He kept up those very same lies even after a federal jury sat in this courtroom and unanimously found that he sexually assaulted her and defamed her.”
Crowley reminded the jury that Trump “was president when he made those statements and he used the world’s biggest microphone to humiliate her” — the result of which was that he “wrecked” Carroll’s reputation in a matter of days, Crowley said.
“Donald Trump’s response was swift and brutal,” Crowley said. “Donald Trump did not just deny the assault. He went much, much further.”
She quoted Trump’s statements from June 22, 2019: “‘People should pay dearly for making up accusations” about him.
Crowley also quoted Trump saying “she’s not my type” on that day in 2019. “In other words, she was too ugly to assault. She must have been lying because she was too unattractive for Mr. Trump to sexually assault,” Crowley said.
Carroll, who is now 80, sat at the plaintiff’s table as her attorney showed the jury messages Trump’s followers posted calling her ugly and urging her to kill herself.
“When Donald Trump called Ms. Carroll a fraud and a liar, they listened and they believed and they decided to go after her,” Crowley said. “Donald Trump knew exactly what he was unleashing.”
Jan 16, 3:40 PM
‘This is not a do-over,’ judge instructs jury
Judge Lewis Kaplan told the nine jurors that they must accept as true that Trump forcibly sexually assaulted E. Jean Carroll and defamed her when he denied it.
“Ms. Carroll did not make up her claim of forcible sexual abuse,” Judge Kaplan told the panel. “His false statements tended to disparage Ms. Carroll or tended to expose her to hatred or to induce an unsavory opinion of her.”
The judge made it clear the jury was only determining damages related to two defamatory statements Trump made in June 2019 when he denied Carroll’s rape allegation. He said the trial was not an opportunity to re-litigate the prior trial, in which a jury found Trump liable for defamation and sexual assault.
“This trial is not a do-over of the previous trial which determined those facts,” Kaplan said.
Jan 16, 3:18 PM
Trump departs before opening statements
Former President Trump has departed Manhattan federal court prior to the delivery of opening statements in his defamation damages trial.
Trump voluntarily showed up to court for jury selection this morning, and did not return after the lunch break. He has a campaign event scheduled later today in New Hampshire.
His attorney suggested Trump would return to court for at least part of tomorrow’s proceedings, when E. Jean Carroll is expected to be the first witness.
The jury has been sworn in, with opening statements to begin following instructions from the judge.
Jan 16, 2:08 PM
2 election deniers don’t make cut as jury is seated
A jury of nine has been selected to hear the evidence in the case.
One juror is a married father of two grown children who works in the subway system. and said he is an avid local news viewer. Another juror is a German native who emigrated to the United States and said she does not watch the news.
The jury also includes a newlywed who works in property management and gets his news from social media, a woman with a master’s degree who works as a publicist for a tech firm, and a single man who works in television.
Two people who said they believed that the election was stolen from Donald Trump by President Joe Biden did not make the jury. Nor did a man who said he believed Trump was being treated unfairly by the United States court system.
Opening arguments will begin follow the lunch break. As they exited the courtroom, Trump and Carroll came within feet of each other but appeared to ignore one another.
Jan 16, 12:11 PM
Prospective jurors questioned about political leanings
Former President Trump has been twisting and turning in his seat at the defense table as prospective jurors answer the judge’s questions about their political affiliations, voting habits, campaign donations, and any experience with sexual assault — and whether they ever watched The Apprentice or read E. Jean Carroll’s advice column in Elle magazine.
As another columnist was known to say, “Only in New York, kids.”
One prospective juror, number 68, affirmed that he donated to Trump’s campaign, followed him on social media, and believed that the 2020 election was stolen from Trump by President Joe Biden.
Prospective juror 63 was excused after he said that his knowledge of Trump’s criminal indictments — of which there are four that the former president is currently facing — would impact his ability to be fair and impartial.
The majority of prospective jurors signaled they were registered to vote, prompting the judge to ask if they had voted in 2016 and 2020. Trump turned to look at those who answered in the affirmative.
Three prospective jurors said they had donated to Trump’s campaign. Eleven said they donated to either the Obama, Clinton or Biden campaigns. At least ten watched The Apprentice.
Jan 16, 11:32 AM
Judge explains case to prospective jurors
Judge Kaplan explained the case to prospective jurors, saying, “Ms. Carroll sued Mr. Trump for defamation for certain statements he made” shortly after she publicly accused him of raping her.
“This trial is limited to the issue of the money damages, if any, that Ms. Carroll should receive for those publications. The reason that’s so is that the court determined in a previous decision that Mr. Trump is liable,” Kaplan said. “It has been determined already that Mr. Trump did sexually assault Ms. Carroll.”
To whittle down the jury pool, Kaplan began with this question: “Having heard what you have heard about this case so far, would you be unable to give both sides a fair trial and to decide this case solely on the basis of the evidence you hear during this trial and the instructions I give you?”
Three prospective jurors were immediately excused for signaling they could not be fair.
One woman said she worked for Ivanka Trump’s company from 2017 to 2018. “Would that experience have any effect on your ability to be fair and impartial to both sides in this case?” Judge Kaplan asked regarding her connection to Trump’s eldest daughter. “No,” the woman replied.
After the judge asked if anyone else had worked for Trump or his family, a man indicated he was an officer in the U.S. Navy while Trump was commander in chief. The man said it would have no impact on his ability to be fair.
Jan 16, 11:23 AM
Prospective jurors enter courtroom to begin selection process
As prospective jurors filed into the courtroom for jury selection, Donald Trump surveyed the group. One woman appeared to smile upon recognizing Trump. A man leaned forward and appeared to stare for several seconds.
“You’ve been summoned for possible service in a civil case,” Judge Kaplan said before introducing the plaintiff and defendant. “This case is between a writer, advice columnist E. Jean Carroll, and former President Donald Trump,” he said.
Jurors were told the case is expected to last three to five days and that they would sit through Thursday and, if necessary, return on Monday. They were also told they will be anonymous.
“That means neither your names nor the names of the jurors who are ultimately selected will be made public,” Judge Kaplan said. He had earlier cited Trump’s rhetoric as among the reasons for the anonymous jury.
Jurors will assemble daily at an off-site location and be driven to court under guard, the judge said.
“This is for your own protection. As you may understand, this case has attracted media attention and that’s likely to continue,” Kaplan said.
Jan 16, 10:40 AM
Layout of courtroom has Trump sitting 2 tables behind Carroll
Unlike courtrooms where the counsel tables are arranged side by side, the counsel tables in the courtroom this morning are arranged behind one another, with Trump and his attorneys seated two tables behind Carroll and her counsel.
Trump appeared to take note of that arrangement when he entered the courtroom.
He appeared to point at Carroll, then he and his team asked a man seated at the table between them to slide over — possibly to block Trump’s view of Carroll, or to provide a better view of the proceedings.
Jan 16, 10:27 AM
Judge again declines to delay trial
On Friday, Judge Kaplan denied a request from Trump’s attorneys to postpone the trial for a week so Trump could attend Thursday’s funeral of Amalija Knavs, the mother of former first lady Melania Trump, who died last Tuesday after a long health battle.
In court this morning, Trump attorney Alina Habba repeated her request for an adjournment so Trump can attend Knavs’ funeral.
“You asked me for a week’s adjournment and I denied it,” Judge Kaplan said. “The repetition is not accomplishing anything.”
The judge said Friday that he would grant a continuance so the trial, which was initially scheduled to conclude this week, would be extended so Trump could testify on Monday, Jan. 22.
Jan 16, 10:12 AM
Defense lodges several objections as court gets underway
“The court has made a number of rulings precluding evidence and argument,” said Judge Lewis Kaplan as court got underway, asking each side’s lead attorney to affirm that the parties understood the rules.
The defense objected, arguing that the court lacked jurisdiction. Kaplan quickly dispensed with the objection, saying, “Overruled.” Kaplan, who has a reputation as a no-nonsense judge, also overruled several other defense objections.
“I do think these are issues that will become an issue on appeal. We still don’t know what witnesses are coming in and which aren’t,” Trump attorney Alina Habba said, before Kaplan interrupted, saying, “Ms. Habba you have had a witness list for months.”
Habba pressed on, with Kaplan noting her objections.
“I have heard you, I have considered what you have to say and I have ruled,” Judge Kaplan said.
Jan 16, 9:56 AM
Trump seated in courtroom
Donald Trump has taken a seat in court, where jury selection in his defamation trial is scheduled to get underway this morning.
His decision to attend this trial is a clear shift for the former president, whose lawyers portrayed his absence from last year’s defamation and battery trial as a service to New York City, saying the city would not have to suffer the “logistical and financial burdens” of Trump’s attendance.
Carroll’s attorneys, however, pounced on Trump’s absence.
“He didn’t even bother to show up here in person,” attorney Roberta Kaplan told the jury.
Writing on social media last month, Trump blamed his absence at the trial on “not good advice” from his then-lawyer Joe Tacopina.
“I was asked by my lawyer not to attend–‘It was beneath me, and they have no case.’ That was not good advice,” Trump wrote.
Trump attorney Alina Habba is serving as Trump’s lead defense attorney for this week’s trial.
Jan 16, 9:21 AM
Carroll arrives for trial
E. Jean Carroll has arrived at the courthouse for the first day of the trial.
She smiled to reporters as she entered court.
Jan 16, 9:03 AM
Trump arrives at courthouse
Following his victory in Iowa, former President Trump landed at 3:30 a.m. in New York and just arrived at his civil defamation trial in lower Manhattan.
Trump is not required to attend the trial, though his decision not to attend last year’s defamation and battery trial by the same plaintiff, writer E. Jean Carroll, was mocked by Carroll’s attorney.
Trump’s motorcade pulled up to the courthouse this morning at at 8:50 a.m. ET.
Jan 16, 8:51 AM
On heels of Iowa victory, Trump is back on trial
When Donald Trump’s federal defamation trial gets underway in lower Manhattan this morning, it will be only about 11 hours since the former president claimed victory in the Iowa caucuses.
The trial is expected to take about a week, which could take Trump right to the doorstep of the New Hampshire Primary, scheduled for next Tuesday.
Trump has said that he plans to attend the trial at some point during the week, but has not indicted when.
The former president did not attend last year’s trial, held at the same courthouse, where a New York jury found him liable for sexually assaulting E. Jean Carroll and defaming her when he denied her accusation in a 2022 social media post.
(NEW YORK) — More than 100 million Americans are on alert Tuesday for dangerous wind chills, while a weather system ended yearslong snow droughts in cities including New York and Washington, D.C.
Weather-related school closures are affecting more than a million students nationwide on Tuesday amid a major winter blast of brutal wind chills, record low temperatures, record snow in parts of the South and dangerous ice.
More than 2,100 flights have been canceled as of Tuesday afternoon, following nearly 3,500 cancellations on Monday, according to FlightAware.
Snow from north to south
Snow has turned to ice across much of the Interstate 95 corridor, with snow and icy conditions expected to continue in parts of New England through the evening.
The weather system is forecast to keep pushing north and snowfall should end in New York City by 5 p.m. ET and in Boston by 8 p.m. ET. There could be a light glaze of ice with freezing rain or drizzle in those areas as temperatures warm back up near the freezing mark.
Up to 6 inches of snow is possible for Washington, D.C., and Baltimore, while 1 to 4 inches could accumulate from New York City to Boston. Maine could end up with up to a foot of snow in some places.
The snow drought has officially ended after 728 days in Washington, D.C., with 3.4 inches on Monday, after 716 days in Baltimore with 4.1 inches on Monday, after 715 days in Philadelphia with 1.5 inches on Monday and after 701 days in New York City with 1 inch on Tuesday so far. An area must get at least 1 inch of snowfall in a single day to break the drought.
Lake-effect snowfall could dump an additional 1 to 3 feet in Buffalo, New York, from Wednesday morning through Thursday night.
Elsewhere, parts of Tennessee such as Nashville and Knoxville saw up to 9 inches of snow on Monday, while 3 to 5 inches accumulated in western Virginia and through Maryland.
Avalanche warnings are also in effect in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains, including the ski resort towns of Aspen and Vail, through Thursday.
Frigid chill in the South and Midwest
There are wind chill alerts alone for 100 million Americans that stretch through the middle of the country from the northern border to the southern border.
The wind chill — what the temperature feels like — was below zero as far south as Dallas Tuesday morning.
Record low temperatures were recorded Tuesday in Tulsa, Oklahoma (minus 2 degrees) and Fayetteville, Arkansas (minus 10 degrees).
The low in Kansas City, Missouri, Tuesday morning was minus 10 degrees — marking the fourth consecutive day of temperatures reaching minus 10 degrees or lower in the city.
Wind chill alerts remain in effect through Wednesday morning for the Great Lakes to the Deep South, while hard freeze warnings are in effect from Texas to Florida.
Temperatures are forecast to get a bit warmer later in the week but will still be brutally cold for many. On Friday morning, the wind chill is expected to be around minus 20 degrees in Kansas City and minus 15 in Chicago.
Next cross-country storm
Another winter storm is expected to move into the Pacific Northwest later Tuesday and unleash rain from Seattle to San Francisco as well as snow to the Cascade mountain range.
An ice storm warning is in effect for Portland, Oregon, for freezing rain Tuesday night into Wednesday.
The new system is forecast to bring more snow to the Rockies on Wednesday, to the Plains of the Dakotas, Nebraska and Missouri on Thursday and possibly even to Washington, D.C., by Friday.
A man holds the body of a small child as he and others mourn while collecting the bodies of friends and relatives killed in an airstrike on January 13, 2024 in Rafah, Gaza. (Photo by Ahmad Hasaballah/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — The end of the cease-fire came after Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that governs Gaza, freed over 100 of the more than 200 people its militants took hostage during the Oct. 7 surprise attack on southern Israel. In exchange, Israel released more than 200 Palestinians from Israeli prisons.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Jan 16, 3:35 PM
Qatar says it’s brokered deal to allow medicine, aid into Gaza
Qatar said Tuesday it has mediated a deal between Israel and Hamas to deliver medicine to Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip.
Medicine and other humanitarian aid will also be delivered to civilians “in the most affected and vulnerable areas” of the Gaza Strip as part of the deal, Qatar said.
The medication and aid is expected to depart Doha on board two Qatari Armed Forces aircraft on Wednesday, bound for Arish, Egypt, before being transported to the Gaza Strip, Qatar said.
Jan 16, 3:22 PM
2 Israeli hostages who appeared in Hamas video confirmed dead: Kibbutz
Itay Svirsky, 35, and Yossi Sharabi, 53 — two hostages who appeared in a video released by Hamas earlier this week — have been confirmed dead, according to Kibbutz Be’eri.
“Their bodies are in the hands of Hamas, we will demand their return with the rest of our abductees,” Kibbutz Be’eri, one of the communities attacked by the terrorist group on Oct. 7, said in a statement on Tuesday. “Our hearts are with the families in their immense pain. May they rest in peace.”
Svirsky was at his parents’ home in the kibbutz when he was abducted, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
Hamas released a video on Sunday showing the two men, as well as 26-year-old Noa Argamani, while calling on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the war on Gaza.
Following the release of the hostage video, the IDF said they told the men’s families that “there is grave concern for their lives” and denied Hamas’ claims that Israeli forces shot Svirsky.
Jan 16, 12:07 PM
Jordan accuses Israel of hindering aid delivery to Gaza
Jordanian Minister of Foreign Affairs Ayman Safadi said Tuesday that Israel is creating hurdles to the entry of aid into the war-torn Gaza Strip.
Jordan is working in coordination with the United Nations to deliver aid to Gaza, but only 10% of the total needs of the more than 2 million Palestinians who live there are currently being met, according to Safadi.
“The reality now is that Israeli measures are preventing sufficient aid from arriving and only a fraction is being delivered,” Safadi said during a press conference in Amman.
ABC News’ Will Gretsky and Morgan Winsor
Jan 15, 1:27 PM
At least 1 dead, 17 injured in car-ramming attacks in Israel, police say
At least one person was killed and 17 others were injured on Monday afternoon in car-ramming attacks that took place in various locations across Ra’anana, Israel, authorities said.
Two suspects — identified as a pair of Palestinian men from the Hebron area in the Israeli-occupied West Bank — allegedly stole multiple vehicles before ramming them into crowds of pedestrians in Ra’anana, about 13 miles north of Tel Aviv, according to the Israel Police.
Both suspects have since been arrested. The incidents and the motive remains under investigation, police said.
The victim killed was an elderly woman, according to police.
Fourteen of the 17 injured remained hospitalized Monday evening, officials said. At least seven children were among the injured.
ABC News’ Jordana Miller, Bruno Nota, Dana Savir and Morgan Winsor
Jan 15, 11:59 AM
What life is like for displaced Palestinians in Rafah’s tent city
Ahmad Ismael said his “whole world turned upside down” after Oct. 7.
The Palestinian father of four now lives with his family in a tent in Rafah, the southernmost region of the Gaza Strip. They are among the almost 1.9 million people — 85% of Gaza’s population — who are displaced from their homes, nearly half of whom are crammed inside Rafah.
“We want the tragic situation we are living in to end,” Ismael told ABC News in an interview Sunday. “We hope from God that the war will stop.”
Ismael said Israel’s intense bombardment forced him and his family to flee their home in northern Gaza. They have been living in Rafah’s tent city for the past 70 days, he said.
“We fled with only our souls,” he told ABC News. “We didn’t bring anything with us.”
Ismael showed ABC News around his family’s makeshift shelter and explained what life is like there amid the latest outbreak of war between Israel and Gaza’s militant rulers, Hamas.
“People wake up at 5 or 6 in the morning,” he told ABC News. “You wake up to think about the situation of the tent. Is there water flowing or not? Because of the rain, how will we provide wood for the fire? How will we provide today’s food for the children?”
Ismael said they receive some canned food from a U.N. agency’s warehouse every two or three days. But it’s not enough to feed his family, so they must try to buy other food and cook it over an open fire.
“Everything is expensive and scarce,” he told ABC News. “We used to buy this oil for 7 or 6 shekels. Today, I buy this for 20 shekels. One day you find it and the next day you don’t.”
“Firewood is also very expensive, not cheap, and even I can no longer afford it,” he continued.
“What I’m telling you is not just about my life,” he added, “but the lives of all of us here.”
ABC News’ Rashid Haddou-Riffi, Morgan Winsor and Sami Zayara
Jan 15, 10:52 AM
Another communications blackout in Gaza
NetBlocks, a London-based nonprofit that covers internet connectivity around the world, said Monday that the Gaza Strip has been “largely offline” for the past 72 hours.
“The disruption is the longest sustained telecoms blackout on record since the onset of the Hamas-Israel war, and is likely to significantly limit visibility into events on the ground,” NetBlocks wrote in a post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
ABC News’ Will Gretsky and Morgan Winsor
Jan 15, 9:22 AM
At least 1 dead, 16 injured in car-ramming attacks in Israel, police say
At least one person was killed and 16 others were injured on Monday afternoon in car-ramming attacks that took place in various locations across Ra’anana, Israel, authorities said.
Two suspects — identified as a pair of Palestinian men from the Hebron area in the Israeli-occupied West Bank — allegedly stole multiple vehicles before ramming them into crowds of pedestrians in Ra’anana, about 13 miles north of Tel Aviv, according to the Israel Police.
Both suspects have since been arrested. The incidents and the motive remains under investigation, police said.
At least four of the wounded victims were hospitalized in critical condition, according to Israel’s rescue service MDA.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller, Bruno Nota, Dana Savir and Morgan Winsor
Jan 15, 5:07 AM
What we know about the conflict
The Israel-Hamas war has reached the three-month mark.
In the Gaza Strip, at least 24,100 people have been killed and 60,834 others have been wounded by Israeli forces since Oct. 7, according to Gaza’s Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health.
In Israel, at least 1,200 people have been killed and 6,900 others have been injured by Hamas and other Palestinian militants since Oct. 7, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
There has also been a surge in violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israeli forces have killed at least 297 people in the territory since Oct. 7, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
Jan 15, 4:59 AM
Shots fired as crowd seeks humanitarian aid in Gaza
Gunshots rang out as hundreds of thousands of Palestinians sought food from humanitarian aid trucks in the war-torn Gaza Strip on Sunday.
Video of the incident in Sheikh Iljlin, a neighborhood in southern Gaza City, shows a large crowd gathering to receive flour from aid trucks parked near an Israeli military checkpoint. Then the sound of gunfire erupts and people are seen frantically running.
ABC News was not able to independently verify who fired the shots and whether anyone was killed or injured.
The Israel Defense Forces did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment on Monday.
-ABC News’ Felicia Alvarez, Nasser Atta, Helena Skinner and Morgan Winsor
Jan 14, 7:29 PM
Hamas releases video showing 3 Israeli hostages in captivity
Hamas released a video on Sunday showing three Israeli hostages who are still being held in captivity in Gaza.
The three hostages that appear in the video are 26-year-old Noa Argamani, 35-year-old Itai Svirsky and 53-year-old Yossi Sharabi.
The video released by Hamas called on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to end the war on Gaza.
-ABC News’ Ellie Kaufman
Jan 14, 6:47 PM
100 days into war, IDF says its ‘goals are complex to achieve and will take a long time’
As the Israel-Hamas war reached its 100th day Sunday, the Israel Defense Forces says it’s goals “will take a long time” to achieve.
“To achieve real results, we must continue to operate in enemy territory, not to allow extortion attempts for a cease-fire,” IDF Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi said in a televised address Saturday.
“We must continue applying pressure and that is exactly what we are doing,” he said. “[Our] goals are complex to achieve and will take a long time. To dismantle Hamas, patience is both necessary and essential.”
The IDF also said it’s now moving to intensify its operations in southern Gaza, where it believes Hamas’ leadership is hiding.
-ABC News’ Patrick Reevell
Jan 13, 4:56 PM
Netanyahu says Israel will pursue war with Hamas until victory
Israel will pursue its war against Hamas until victory and will not be stopped by anyone, including the world court, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a defiant speech Saturday evening.
Netanyahu spoke after the International Court of Justice at The Hague held two days of hearings on South Africa’s allegations that Israel is committing genocide against Palestinians, a charge Israel has rejected as libelous and hypocritical.
South Africa asked the court to order Israel to halt its blistering air and ground offensive in an interim step.
“No one will stop us, not The Hague, not the axis of evil and not anyone else,” Netanyahu said in televised remarks, referring to Iran and its allied militias.
The case before the world court is expected to go on for years, but a ruling on interim steps could come within weeks. Court rulings are binding but difficult to enforce.
Netanyahu made clear that Israel would ignore orders to halt the fighting, potentially deepening its isolation. Netanyahu also said a decision had yet to be made about a potential military takeover of the “Philadelphi Corridor” along the Gaza Strip’s border with Egypt.
-ABC News’ Bruno Nota
Jan 13, 2:44 PM
Israel-Hamas war reaches 100th day
Saturday marked 100 days since the beginning of the Israel-Hamas war, the deadliest conflict between the two sides in recent history.
The fighting began on Oct. 7 when Hamas launched a surprise attack in southern Israel. Since then, Israel has launched numerous airstrikes and a ground offensive. The Israeli government has previously claimed it is defending itself.
More than 23,300 people have been killed in Gaza since the war began, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry. Meanwhile, 1,200 people have been killed in Israel along with 520 Israel Defense Forces officers since Oct. 7.
Philippe Lazzarini, head of the U.N’s Palestinian Relief Agency, issued a statement marking 100 days of the war, saying there are now 1.4 million people in U.N. shelters in Gaza and facing a “looming famine.”
Meanwhile, families of the Israeli hostages still held in Gaza are holding a series of events Saturday to mark 100 days since their captivity began.
-ABC News’ Mary Kekatos and Patrick Reevell
Jan 13, 8:22 AM
More than half a million people are starving in Gaza, UN says
About 577,000 people in Gaza, equal to a quarter of the population, are now starving, Arif Husain, chief economist for the U.N.’s World Food program, told ABC News.
Hussain has worked as an expert assessing hunger crises for 20 years and said, in terms of scale of severity and speed, he has never seen what is unfolding in Gaza right now, calling it “unprecedented.”
Even before the war with Israel, Gaza relied on humanitarian assistance to meet around 75% to 80% of its needs. With Israel now allowing very few supplies into Gaza, it has quickly run into massive shortages.
“If things continue as they are, or if things worsen, we are looking at a full fledged famine within the next six months,” he said.
-ABC News’ Patrick Reevell
Jan 12, 12:59 PM
Deal reached to get medicine to hostages, Israel says
A deal has been reached to get medicine to the hostages held by Hamas in Gaza over the next few days, according to the Israeli Prime Minister’s office.
The families of the hostages are insisting that the Israeli war cabinet “demand visual proof that the medications did indeed reach the abductees, as a condition for any return from Israel.”
“After 98 days in the Hamas tunnels, all the abductees are in immediate danger and need life-saving medication,” the families said in a statement.
Jan 12, 9:30 AM
Israel rejects genocide charges at UN’s top court
Israel on Friday called on the United Nations’ top court to dismiss South Africa’s request to halt its offensive in the Gaza Strip amid “grossly distorted” accusations of genocide.
During opening statements to a panel of judges at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Israeli legal adviser Tal Becker said the country is fighting a “war it did not start and did not want.”
“In these circumstances, there can hardly be a charge more false and more malevolent than the allegation against Israel of genocide,” Becker added.
He noted that “Israel is in a war of defense against Hamas, not against the Palestinian people,” and that the suffering of civilians during wartime does not amount to genocide.
“The key component of genocide, the intent to destroy a people in whole or in part, is totally lacking,” he said.
-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres and Morgan Winsor
Jan 11, 12:18 PM
Blinken says he found new willingness to discuss Gaza’s future, denies conflict is escalating
As Secretary of State Antony Blinken wrapped up his trip to the Middle East, he said he encountered a new appetite among Middle Eastern leaders to discuss contributing to what he often refers to as “the day after” in Gaza.
“I have to say what was different about this trip is that on our previous trips here, I think there was a reluctance to talk about some of the day after issues and long-term stability and security on a regional basis, but now we’re finding that our partners are very focused on that and wanting to engage on those questions,” Blinken said.
On his major goal of preventing the Israeli-Hamas war from spreading across the region, Blinken was optimistic.
“I don’t think the conflict is escalating. There are lots of danger points; we’re trying to deal with each of them,” he said.
ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Jan 11, 12:11 PM
Hostage families beg for Israel to ‘take the deal’: ‘This is hell’
The families of hostages held by Hamas came together for a news conference Thursday demanding that the Israeli war cabinet prioritize their loved ones’ return and approve any deal that would lead to their release.
“I demand the cabinet take any deal on the table,” said Shay Wenkert, whose son, Omer Wenkert, was kidnapped from the music festival on Oct. 7.
“My son has colitis,” Wenkert said. “This is hell. I’m begging you — you had opportunities for other deals and didn’t take them. Take action. You have to take the deal. Bring them home now.”
“No one is doing us any favors in Israel. They must do everything to release the hostages, at any price,” said Gilad and Nitza Corngold, parents of Tal Shoham, who was kidnapped from Kibbutz Be’eri. “I suggest anyone who says ‘It’s not worth it’ to bring a family member of theirs and make a personal exchange with me — to give me their son and take mine out. Their time is running out.”
Jan 11, 11:48 AM
Genocide case against Israel begins at UN’s top court
Israel is defending itself in the United Nations’ top court starting Thursday against allegations that its ongoing military campaign in the neighboring Gaza Strip amounts to genocide of the Palestinian people — a claim that Israel vehemently denies.
South Africa, which brought forward the allegations, is initially asking the Netherlands-based International Court of Justice to order an immediate suspension of the Israeli military offensive against Gaza’s militant rulers, Hamas, as part of a landmark case that is likely to take years to resolve.
“Genocides are never declared in advance, but this court has the benefit of the past 13 weeks of evidence that shows incontrovertibly a pattern of conduct and related intention that justifies as a plausible claim of genocidal acts,” South African attorney Adila Hassim told the panel of judges inside a packed courtroom in The Hague during Thursday’s opening statements. “Nothing will stop the suffering except an order from this court.”
South Africa insists Israel is committing genocide by design and that the country’s latest war in Gaza is part of its decadeslong oppression of Palestinians. South Africa’s ruling political party, the African National Congress, has a long history of solidarity with the Palestinian cause and sees parallels with its own struggle against the apartheid regime of white minority rule that ended in 1994.
“The violence and the destruction in Palestine and Israel did not begin on Oct. 7, 2023,” South African Justice Minister Ronald Lamola said. “The Palestinians have experienced systematic oppression and violence for the last 76 years.”
Israeli President Isaac Herzog has called South Africa’s allegations “atrocious and preposterous,” while Secretary of State Antony Blinken has dismissed the case as “meritless.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in response Thursday called South Africa’s allegations “upside-down.”
“Israel is fighting against murderous terrorists who have committed terrible crimes against humanity: they slaughtered, they raped, they burned, they dismembered, they killed children, women, the elderly, young men, young women. A terrorist organization that committed the most terrible crime against the Jewish people since the Holocaust, and now there are those who come to defend it in the name of the Holocaust,” Netanyahu said. “We will continue to fight the terrorists, we will continue to repel the lies, we will continue to maintain our right to defend ourselves and secure our future.”
Lawyers for Israel will address the court on Friday.
ABC News’ Joe Simonetti, Edward Szekeres and Morgan Winsor
Jan 11, 11:08 AM
Man who lost entire family sifts through rubble in Gaza
The main highway connecting south and north Gaza, Salah al-Din Road, which Israeli forces used for a civilian corridor, has become impassable in Deir al Balah in central Gaza.
“When we came here, we were surprised — Salah al-Din is a main road connecting the north and the south in four directions, 70 meters wide,” Gaza resident Yahya Deeb Al-Laham told ABC News. Now there’s “no infrastructure, no electricity, no roads, buildings and areas are non-existent … there is nothing here, there are no signs of life. Homes for families have completely disappeared and not a single one of them remains.”
The Israelis have recently left the area.
One of the families who followed Israeli military instructions, evacuating from northern Gaza to Deir al Balah, has been completely wiped out.
The surviving family member, Muhammad Fouad Abu Safi, returned to the site to sift through the rubble and try to find what might be left of his family.
“They left me no family member, no sister, no brother, no cousin, no child,” he told ABC News. “There were about 50 people here. Only three children, girls, came out alive … the rest here were taken out as body parts or decomposing bodies.”
“Humanity has ended, mercy has ended,” he said. “Neither from America nor from any country, there is no humanity or mercy.”
ABC News’ Samy Zayara
Jan 11, 8:32 AM
UN court opens hearings on South Africa’s accusation that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza
Israel is defending itself in the United Nations’ top court starting Thursday against allegations that its ongoing military campaign in the neighboring Gaza Strip amounts to genocide of the Palestinian people — a claim that Israel vehemently denies.
South Africa, which brought forward the allegations, is initially asking the International Criminal Court of Justice to order an immediate suspension of the Israeli military offensive in Gaza as part of a landmark case that is likely to take years to resolve.
“Genocides are never declared in advance, but this court has the benefit of the past 13 weeks of evidence that shows incontrovertibly a pattern of conduct and related intention that justifies as a plausible claim of genocidal acts,” South African attorney Adila Hassim told the panel of judges in a packed courtroom at The Hague during Thursday’s opening statements. “Nothing will stop the suffering except an order from this court.”
South Africa insists Israel is committing genocide by design and that the country’s latest war in Gaza is part of its decadeslong oppression of Palestinians. South Africa’s ruling political party, the African National Congress, has a long history of solidarity with the Palestinian cause and sees parallels with its own struggle against the apartheid regime of white minority rule that ended in 1994.
“The violence and the destruction in Palestine and Israel did not begin on Oct. 7, 2023,” South African Justice Minister Ronald Lamola said. “The Palestinians have experienced systematic oppression and violence for the last 76 years.”
Lawyers for Israel will address the court on Friday.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog has called South Africa’s allegations “atrocious and preposterous,” while U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has dismissed the case as “meritless.”
Jan 10, 1:31 PM
Hamas official says hostages won’t return alive if Netanyahu doesn’t accept cease-fire
Hamas leader Osama Hamdan said in a statement that the Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza “will not return alive to their families” unless Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Israeli leaders respond to Hamas’ conditions, “the first of which is a comprehensive and complete cessation of their aggression against the Gaza Strip.”
Jan 10, 11:50 AM
Israelis in Egypt for hostage talks: Egyptian security source
A delegation from Israel is in Egypt on Wednesday for new discussions on swapping Israeli hostages held by Hamas in Gaza for Palestinians in prison in Israel, an Egyptian security source confirmed to ABC News.
Jan 10, 11:18 AM
Israeli minister warns ‘Hamas will regain control’ if combat in Gaza stops
Israeli War Cabinet Minister Benny Gantz warned Wednesday that “Hamas will regain control” of the Gaza Strip if the Israeli military ceases combat operations there.
“We must go on. If we stop now, Hamas will regain control,” Gantz, a retired army general who previously served as Israel’s defense minister and alternate prime minister, said during a press conference in Tel Aviv. “In most areas, we have completed the phase of operational takeover and now, we are deep in the phase of dismantling the terrorist infrastructure, which will lead to the demilitarization of the strip.”
However, Gantz noted that “the most urgent thing is the return of the abductees.” More than 100 Israeli citizens are believed to still be held hostage by militants in Gaza after being taken captive during the Hamas-led Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel.
“This has precedence over every move in combat,” he said.
Gantz also warned that the Israeli military “will act in southern Lebanon as we act in northern Gaza” if the neighboring country “continues to serve as an Iranian terrorist outpost.” His remarks came as Israeli forces continue to exchange fire with Hezbollah, an Iran-backed Lebanese militant group, amid fears that regional tensions could escalate into a wider war in the Middle East.
“This is not a threat to Lebanon,” Gantz added. “It is a promise to the residents of [northern Israel].”
Israel’s war cabinet is expected to meet on Wednesday evening, followed by a meeting of the wider security cabinet.
ABC News’ Dana Savir and Morgan Winsor
Jan 10, 10:06 AM
IDF claims to have found ‘further evidence of Hamas’ exploitation’
The Israel Defense Forces on Wednesday claimed to have found “further evidence of Hamas’ exploitation of the civilian population for terrorist activity across the Gaza Strip.”
The 55th Brigade combat team made the alleged discovery in recent days while “operating to destroy terror infrastructure” in the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza, according to the IDF.
“During the operations on the military targets, the soldiers located a UAV launch post, a loaded rifle underneath a child’s bed, along with grenades, cartridges, Hamas uniforms, and many intelligence materials inside the residences of terrorist operatives,” the IDF said in a statement. “During the operation, the soldiers found a tunnel shaft near a school, a rocket launcher near a kindergarten, and a training compound near a mosque.”
Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that governs Gaza, has denied Israel’s claims that it deliberately shelters behind civilians by hiding its fighters, infrastructure and weapons in hospitals, schools and other areas populated by civilians.
ABC News’ Morgan Winsor
Jan 10, 9:49 AM
At least 40 killed in Israeli strike near Gaza hospital, Hamas says
More than 40 people, including a journalist, were killed Wednesday when Israeli forces bombed an inhabited house across the street from Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the central Gaza Strip, according to the Hamas Government Media Office.
Hamas claimed the Israeli military had declared the city of Deir al-Balah safe before striking the area.
There was no immediate comment from the Israel Defense Forces.
Earlier Wednesday, the IDF said its aircraft and ground troops were continuing to operate against Hamas in central Gaza within the area of the Maghazi refugee camp, a couple miles north of Deir al-Balah.
Yemeni protestors loyal to the Houthi movement march as they participate in a protest held against Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza. CREDIT: Mohammed Hamoud/Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — The U.S. has carried out another airstrike targeting a Houthi missile facility in Yemen, according to a U.S. official.
Tomahawk missiles were used to strike at the site that housed anti-ship missile cruise missiles being used in the Houthis attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, the official said.
On Thursday night, the U.S. and United Kingdom used Tomahawk missiles and fighter aircraft to strike at nearly 30 Houthi locations associated with the Houthi drone and missile attacks on commercial shipping.
The U.S. carried out a second night of retaliatory strikes on Friday night following a Houthi missile attack on a commercial that failed after the missile landed in the ocean.
News of the new airstrike was first reported by Reuters.
This is a developing story, Please check back for updates.
A dhow was identified, Jan. 10, 2024, and an assessment was made that the dhow was in the process of smuggling. CREDIT: USCENTCOM
(NEW YORK) — The two U.S. Navy SEALs missing in the Gulf of Aden off Somalia were on a mission to board a dhow that led to the seizure of Iranian-made ballistic and cruise missile components headed to Houthi militants in Yemen, according to U.S. Central Command.
The risky nighttime mission last Thursday to board the dhow in rough waters continued even after one of the SEALs fell into the water and the second SEAL, following protocol, jumped into the water to rescue his teammate.
Search and rescue operations for the two missing SEALs are continuing in the Gulf of Aden with U.S. Navy aircraft and ships participating in the search.
For years the U.S. Navy has intercepted dhows, the name for small fishing or cargo vessels used in the region, believed to be carrying Iranian-made weapons to the Houthis.
During these missions, boarding teams typically pull aside the dhows to undertake a “flag verification” mission if the dhow is unflagged or has replaced its flag to mask their smuggling mission.
This latest seizure was the first since the Houthis began to carry out the more than 30 drone and missile attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea, most of which have been repelled by U.S., French, and British warships.
On Thursday, Jan. 11 “Navy forces conducted a night-time seizure of a dhow conducting illegal transport of advanced lethal aid from Iran to resupply Houthi forces in Yemen as part of the Houthis’ ongoing campaign of attacks against international merchant shipping,” said a CENTCOM statement.
The SEALs were operating from the expeditionary sea base USS Lewis B Puller (ESB 3), a converted freighter topped with landing decks for helicopters and capable of releasing small watercraft used by SEALs when they approached the dhow.
With helicopters and drones flying overhead they “executed a complex boarding of the dhow near the coast of Somalia in international waters of the Arabian Sea seizing Iranian-made ballistic missile and cruise missiles components.”
They included components for propulsion, guidance, and warheads for Houthi medium range ballistic missiles and anti-ship cruise missiles, as well as air defense associated components.
“Initial analysis indicates these same weapons have been employed by the Houthis to threaten and attack innocent mariners on international merchant ships transiting in the Red Sea,” said CENTCOM.
The seizure marked the first time since November, 2019 that the U.S. Navy has seized Iranian-made ballistic missile and cruise missile components headed for the Houthis.
Nighttime ship boardings by boat, carried out in pitch black, are some of the most difficult missions that a SEAL can undertake and require constant training according to a retired SEAL commander
“You have the the risk of of your boat capsizing in close proximity to larger vessels, you have to establish a solid ladder point, you have to climb a ladder at night over the open ocean between two ships, they’re smashing into each other, and then get on board,” said Eric Oehlerich, an ABC News contributor.
“And then your problem starts with what you’re going to do it with whomever is on board that boat,” he added.
Oehlerich said the risk to SEALs undertaking these missions in the Gulf of Aden and the Somali Basin increases during this time of year when ocean waves are especially high.
“In the wintertime, the sea state is typically eight to 12 feet,” said Oehlerich. “The horizon is flat, so 8-12 feet is eight feet above the flat horizon, and then eight feet, it’s like a 16 foot wave.”
After the dhow’s seizure it was deemed unsafe and sunk by U.S. naval forces, the fate of the 14 crewmembers is still to be determined.
“It is clear that Iran continues shipment of advanced lethal aid to the Houthis. This is yet another example of how Iran actively sows instability throughout the region in direct violation of U.N. Security Resolution 2216 and international law,” said CENTCOM commander Gen. Michael Erik Kurilla,
“We will continue to work with regional and international partners to expose and interdict these efforts, and ultimately to reestablish freedom of navigation,” he added.
(NEW YORK) — Prosecutors charged alleged serial killer Rex Heuermann on Tuesday with murdering Maureen Brainard-Barnes, who disappeared in 2007 while working as an escort, linking him to her death through DNA and other evidence.
Defense attorney Michael Brown entered a not guilty plea on Heuermann’s behalf to the second-degree murder charge in Suffolk County Court. Heuermann was once again remanded to Suffolk County jail, and the judge set the next court date for Feb. 6.
The former architect has already been charged with murdering three other escorts on New York’s Long Island. Like Megan Waterman, Amber Costello and Melissa Barthelemy, the remains of Brainard-Barnes were found in a desolate spot along the ocean near Gilgo Beach.
The New York City architect who lived on Long Island with his wife and children was arrested in July 2023.
“Today, Defendant Rex A. Heuermann stands before this Court charged by the Grand Jury in a Superseding Indictment, which incorporates not only the above counts, but the additional charge of: MURDER IN THE SECOND DEGREE, in violation of New York State Penal Law Section 125.25(1), a class A-I violent felony for the death of Maureen Brainard-Barnes on or about July 9, 2007,” Suffolk County prosecutors wrote in a court filing.
Prosecutors said Heuermann’s now-estranged wife, Asa Ellerup, and his children were out of town when Brainard-Barnes disappeared and was killed, fitting an alleged pattern of Heuermann being home alone when the other three killed.
“As set forth in Exhibit A, travel and cellular telephone billing records had previously established that Defendant Heuermann’s wife and children were out of the state during the disappearances and murders of three of the four victims, specifically, Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman, and Amber Costello,” prosecutors said, citing documents they obtained during a search of a storage unit leased by Heuermann.
The documents include a credit card statement that shows Ellerup checked into an Atlantic City hotel July 6, 2007 and stayed through July 20.
“Based on the foregoing, the murders of all four victims occurred at times when Defendant Heuermann’s wife and children were traveling out of state, which allowed Defendant Heuermann unfettered time to execute his plans for each victim without any fear that his family would uncover or learn of his involvement in these crimes,” prosecutors said.
The new filing also revealed that prosecutors seized two phones from Heuermann at the time of his arrest that they said were held by him “in fictitious names and used for illicit activities.” Prosecutors said Heuermann “utilized these phones in furtherance of hundreds of contacts with sex-workers between 2020 and 2023.”
Prosecutors additionally revealed Tuesday they seized hundreds of electronic devices from Heuermann’s Massapequa Park home and Manhattan office following his arrest.
Heuermann used the devices to search for the deceased victims and their family members; the status of the instant investigation; for software that would assist in wiping or erasing data from computers and other similar digital devices and purchase digital masking and forensic wiping tools, prosecutors said.
“Defendant’s devices also contained the following: A collection of violent, bondage, and torture pornography preceding, during, and subsequent to the disappearances and murders of the aforementioned victims between 2007 and 2010; and prostitution-related searches preceding, during, and subsequent to the disappearances and murders of the aforementioned victims between 2007 and 2010,” the filing says
The new court filing also outlines the lengths prosecutors went to obtain DNA from Heuermann’s family, including tracking his adult daughter, Victoria, on a Long Island Railroad train drinking from a gold-colored energy drink can.
Investigators saw her toss the can into the trash. They recovered it and took it for analysis, prosecutors said.
In the indictment from Heuermann’s July 2023 arrest, investigators said he was the “prime suspect” in Brainard-Barnes’ death. There are six other Gilgo Beach victims whose deaths remain unsolved.
(NEW YORK) — Former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson is ending his 2024 race for president after a dismal sixth-place showing in the Iowa caucuses underscored how little he had been embraced by Republican voters.
With 99% of the expected results in, Hutchinson secured just 191 votes in the Iowa caucuses and zero pledged delegates as of Tuesday morning, appearing to underperform his .07% polling average in the Hawkeye State and trailing little-known pastor Ryan Binkley, who has no national profile to speak of.
“My message of being a principled Republican with experience and telling the truth about the current front runner did not sell in Iowa,” Hutchinson said in a statement, referring to Donald Trump. “I stand by the campaign I ran. I answered every question, sounded the warning to the GOP about the risks in 2024 and presented hope for our country’s future.”
Hutchinson said he had congratulated Trump on the latter’s victory in Iowa and added, “[My wife] Susan and I are blessed beyond measure, and we are grateful for the opportunity to have fought in the political arena for America.”
Heading into Iowa’s contest, Hutchinson had wanted to make it into the top four and beat businessman Vivek Ramaswamy, who has since dropped out.
Since launching his campaign in April 2023, Hutchinson never managed to build significant momentum in the polls or with donors and he failed to meet the requirements for each of the Republican primary debates following the first stage last August.
He initially vowed to stay in the race through Thanksgiving, testing to see whether he would break 4% in an early voting state, a goal he did not meet.
But he kept his bid going well beyond that self-imposed deadline — holding dozens of Iowa meet-and-greets in what he called a “Return to Normal” tour during what would be his campaign’s final weeks.
“It’s important to have an alternative voice,” he told ABC News at a diner in Des Moines on Monday. “There’s storm clouds that are gathering over a Trump candidacy — and we need to be forewarned about that could lead us to disaster up and down the ticket later this year.”
Hutchinson was the first GOP candidate to call for former President Trump to step aside, arguing Trump’s campaign and his many legal issues distract from the issues facing Americans. (Trump denies all wrongdoing.) Hutchinson ultimately outlasted former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who had a similar message to conservative voters and similarly failed to persuade many of them.
“We don’t need to go down the path of Donald Trump for another four years. It will destroy the party,” Hutchinson told reporters in September in New Hampshire, faced with questions on whether he’d drop out. “I’m fighting for things that are important to me and to our country — things I fought for for 40 years — and so you don’t give up on that lightly.”
Lacking the name recognition of some of his rivals, like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Hutchinson campaigned as what he called a “consistent conservative.” But crowds did not flock to him: Campaign events across key early-voting states might see a dozen attendees, or as little as two.
“Even if you find six people there, I enjoy it, because you have a question and answer, you get to know them,” he said at a press conference over the summer in Washington, D.C.
Hutchinson was hoping to outlast Trump — whom he supported while governor of Arkansas but broke from after Jan. 6, 2021 — betting that, between multiple criminal indictments and other baggage, the former president would be toppled by external forces or sour with voters.
But with Trump winning the Iowa caucuses and Hutchinson failing to receive any delegates, he finally called it quits.
“If [Hutchinson] had asked me, I would have advised him not to run,” said Layne Provine, a political consultant to Republicans across the South. “It’s not anything against him personally, it’s just that his politics don’t match the politics of the moment. It’s not where the Republican voters are now.”
Branding his ‘breadth of experience’
On the trail, towering but soft-spoken, often in a suit or, sometimes, a white “Asa for America” baseball cap, Hutchinson would humbly introduce himself to dinergoers and festival-attendees in the early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire who did not recognize him — or had never heard of him before.
He would tell them his presidential bid brings “a breadth of experience unmatched in this race” and recall he began his career in public service when President Ronald Reagan appointed him the youngest U.S. attorney in the nation.
He would not mention his failed bid to the U.S. Senate — a campaign he began from the same steps in Arkansas where he launched his presidential run — but he’d talk about his three terms in the U.S. House, before then-President George W. Bush. appointed him to lead the Drug Enforcement Administration, and later, to serve as the nation’s first undersecretary of homeland security for border protection.
But resumes don’t always resonate with voters, and Hutchinson’s traditional experience and approach seemed out of step with where the party’s base wants to go, some observers said.
“I don’t think there’s anything he could have done,” said Barry Bennett, Ben Carson’s 2016 presidential campaign manager and later an outside adviser to Trump. “I don’t think he made any mistakes. The electorate is just really angry, especially with Washington, and they’re looking for a fight. And that’s just not Asa’s nature.”
‘Too normal’ to be running?
Hutchinson stuck to familiar conservative policies — building a strong national defense, lowering the deficit, securing the border and increasing U.S. energy production — as opposed to feeding on culture war issues.
In his campaign launch, he promised to create an independent commission to study the future of Social Security and Medicare and to lift penalties for people who continue working after the age of 62, insisting the programs need reform. He also vowed to reduce the federal civilian workforce by 10% and to expand computer science education into every grade school, initiatives he pushed as governor, too.
He released several policy initiatives on the trail: One was a plan to overhaul federal law enforcement through restructuring, to increase transparency, and another was to allow states to implement work-visa programs to aid with the flow of legal immigration.
Hutchinson also denounced voices within the GOP calling to defund federal law enforcement and to impeach President Joe Biden, unpopular positions among those in the party’s “MAGA” base claiming a “two-tiered justice system” in light of Trump’s prosecutions.
“The GOP is under threat today,” he told Iowans at an event last July. “As it stands right now, you will be voting in Iowa while multiple criminal cases are pending against former President Trump. Iowa has an opportunity to say, ‘We as a party, we need a new direction for America and for the GOP.'”
That wasn’t the only time he gave such a warning — and not the only time he was booed for it, either.
“As someone who has been in the courtroom for over 25 years as a federal prosecutor and also in defending some of the most serious federal criminal cases, I can say that there is a significant likelihood that Donald Trump will be found guilty by a jury on a felony offense next year,” he said in Orlando in November.
“As a party, we must support the rule of law. We cannot win as a country without the integrity of the White House,” he said. “And while some will ignore the destructive behavior of the former president, I assure you we ignore it at our own peril.”
He’d often tell a story in his stump speech about a voter telling him he seemed “too normal” to be running for president, inspiring the name of his final campaign tour, but potentially also the reason he didn’t catch on, some said.
“It’s not only what people are looking for, but we are, in essence, running with an incumbent president inside the primary,” said Ed Brookover, a Republican consultant who advised Carson and Trump’s campaigns in the 2016 cycle. “I think that many Republican candidates for president misread the strength of [former] President Trump in this primary.”
“If it had been more of an open seat, Governor Hutchinson may have had a better opportunity at that,” he added.
It’s unclear whether this will be the end of Hutchinson’s career in public service — or if he’ll endorse another candidate for president.
“The one thing about running for president is there is no losing,” Bennett, the former Carson campaign manager, told ABC News. “He may not have succeeded, but he’s better known, better liked and better positioned for whatever he wants to do next.”
ABC News’ Oren Oppenheim contributed to this report.
Former President Donald Trump speaks at his caucus night event at the Iowa Events Center, Jan. 15, 2024 in Des Moines, Iowa. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump is on trial this week in New York City to determine whether he will have to pay former Elle magazine columnist E. Jean Carroll additional damages for defaming her in 2019 when he denied her allegations of sexual assault.
Last year, in a separate trial, a jury determined that Trump was liable for sexually assaulting Carroll in the dressing room of a Manhattan department store in the 1990s, and that he defamed her in a 2022 social media post by calling her allegations “a Hoax and a lie” and saying “This woman is not my type!”
Trump has denied all wrongdoing and has said he doesn’t know who Carroll is.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Jan 16, 9:56 AM
Trump seated in courtroom
Donald Trump has taken a seat in court, where jury selection in his defamation trial is scheduled to get underway this morning.
His decision to attend this trial is a clear shift for the former president, whose lawyers portrayed his absence from last year’s defamation and battery trial as a service to New York City, saying the city would not have to suffer the “logistical and financial burdens” of Trump’s attendance.
Carroll’s attorneys, however, pounced on Trump’s absence.
“He didn’t even bother to show up here in person,” attorney Roberta Kaplan told the jury.
Writing on social media last month, Trump blamed his absence at the trial on “not good advice” from his then-lawyer Joe Tacopina.
“I was asked by my lawyer not to attend–‘It was beneath me, and they have no case.’ That was not good advice,” Trump wrote.
Trump attorney Alina Habba is serving as Trump’s lead defense attorney for this week’s trial.
Jan 16, 9:21 AM
Carroll arrives for trial
E. Jean Carroll has arrived at the courthouse for the first day of the trial.
She smiled to reporters as she entered court.
Jan 16, 9:03 AM
Trump arrives at courthouse
Following his victory in Iowa, former President Trump landed at 3:30 a.m. in New York and just arrived at his civil defamation trial in lower Manhattan.
Trump is not required to attend the trial, though his decision not to attend last year’s defamation and battery trial by the same plaintiff, writer E. Jean Carroll, was mocked by Carroll’s attorney.
Trump’s motorcade pulled up to the courthouse this morning at at 8:50 a.m. ET.
Jan 16, 8:51 AM
On heels of Iowa victory, Trump is back on trial
When Donald Trump’s federal defamation trial gets underway in lower Manhattan this morning, it will be only about 11 hours since the former president claimed victory in the Iowa caucuses.
The trial is expected to take about a week, which could take Trump right to the doorstep of the New Hampshire Primary, scheduled for next Tuesday.
Trump has said that he plans to attend the trial at some point during the week, but has not indicted when.
The former president did not attend last year’s trial, held at the same courthouse, where a New York jury found him liable for sexually assaulting E. Jean Carroll and defaming her when he denied her accusation in a 2022 social media post.
