(NEW YORK) — An off-duty pilot who admitted to taking psychedelic mushrooms two days before he was accused of trying to shut down the engines of an Alaska Airlines jet in mid-flight from a cockpit jumpseat pleaded not guilty Thursday to 84 charges stemming from the attempted sabotage.
Joseph David Emerson was arraigned in Multnomah County Court in Portland, Oregon, on 83 counts of recklessly endangering another person and one count of endangering aircraft in the first degree — charges connected to the Oct. 22 emergency that unfolded aboard Flight 2059 from Everett, Washington, to San Francisco.
A not-guilty plea to all of the charges was entered on Emerson’s behalf by his attorney, Levi Horst.
A judge approved Emerson’s release from custody after Horst and prosecutors informed the court that Emerson agreed to abide by seven conditions of his release, including having no contact within 30 feet of any operable aircraft.
Emerson also agreed to post a $50,000 security bond and is required to engage in mental health services and avoid taking any intoxicants, including alcohol.
Emerson of Pleasant Hill, California, was initially arrested on 83 counts of attempted murder based on the number of people aboard the plane, but a Multnomah County grand jury that heard evidence in the case indicted him on lesser charges, prosecutors announced on Tuesday.
The 44-year-old pilot was charged in Oregon because the flight was diverted to Portland, where he was arrested.
Emerson was seated in a flight deck jumpseat in the cockpit of the 737 jet, hitching a ride to San Francisco, when he allegedly tried to shut down the engines by attempting to pull the fire extinguisher handles on the engines, according to a criminal complaint filed in the case. He was allegedly overheard saying, “I’m not okay,” before attempting to sabotage the flight, according to the complaint.
The two pilots flying the plane stopped Emerson before he could fully activate the engine fire extinguishers, grabbing his wrists and wresting with him in the cockpit for 25 to 30 seconds before subduing him, the complaint alleges.
Emerson’s attorneys previously said he “suffered a panic attack” while on the flight and was in a dream-like state during the incident. They also said he had taken “a small amount of psilocybin,” which is found in mushrooms, two days prior to the flight.
The pilot told investigators he had not slept for 40 hours prior to the incident and believed he was having a “nervous breakdown,” according to the criminal complaint.
In a statement on the grand jury indictment, the defense attorneys said Emerson “never intended to hurt another person or put anyone at risk — he just wanted to return home to his wife and children.”
“Simply put: Captain Emerson thought he was in a dream; his actions were taken in a single-minded effort to wake up from that dream and return home to his family,” the statement said.
Emerson’s attorneys said they were “disappointed” that the grand jury indicted the pilot on 84 counts.
“Captain Emerson had no criminal intent, and we look forward to being able to present a fulsome defense at trial and bring forth all the facts and circumstances to a jury,” his attorneys said in the statement.
(NEW YORK ) — Dangerous antimicrobial-resistant bacteria are spreading among patients in Ukraine amid the country’s war with Russia, new federal data shows.
High rates of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, along with a rise in traumatic wounds and overwhelmed health care systems, has led to increased detection of multi-drug resistant infections in Ukraine and surrounding countries, according to a new report published Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Antimicrobials are medicines used to prevent and treat infectious diseases and include antibiotics, antivirals, antifungals and antiparasitics.
AMR occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites stop responding to the drugs, causing the infections to become difficult, or even impossible, to treat.
AMR is considered one of the top global public health threats, according to the World Health Organization. Bacterial AMR causes more deaths around the world than HIV or malaria, according to several studies.
For the report published Thursday, the Center for Public Health of Ukraine (UPHC) and regional partners looked at infections in three regional hospitals in the Ternopi and Khmelnytskyi regions in western Ukraine and the Vinnytsia region in western-central Ukraine. The data was then reviewed by the CDC.
Between November and December 2022, of 353 patients surveyed, 50, or 14% of, patients on surveyed wards had health care-associated infections and, of that group, there were high rates of antimicrobial resistance, according to the report.
Of the AMR group, 60% had an infection with an organism resistant to carbapenems, a class of antibiotics. Among patients with Klebsiella pneumoniae, a common type of bacteria found in the intestines that can become dangerous if it spreads, all were resistant to carbapenems and third-generation cephalosporins, another class of antibiotics, the data showed.
In comparison with a European Union-wide survey from 2016 to 2017, just 5.5% of patients had health care-associated infections and, of those related to a family of bacteria that include Klebsiella, just 6.2% were resistant to carbapenems, according to the report.
The report also found gaps in infection prevention and control, as well as laboratory capacity, which raises the risk of delaying diagnosing and causing these organisms to spread.
The authors say more capacity is needed to prevent, detect and respond to antimicrobial resistance to “save lives within Ukraine and limit international spread.”
Among the hospitals in the regions surveyed, the UPHC is working to improve this detection by creating routine surveillance, upgrading laboratory equipment, providing technical training for staff and increasing availability and use of hand-hygiene disinfectants, according to the report.
Partners are also working to help provide Ukraine with additional supplies due to increased demand during wartime and to help laboratories be capable of testing for bacterial susceptibility to newer-generation antibiotics.
“Antimicrobial resistance is an urgent global public health threat,” the CDC said in a release. “During times of war, this threat can be intensified because of challenges conflicts pose for health care system infrastructure. Collaborative efforts are underway to strengthen health care capacity for infection prevention and control, laboratory detection of antimicrobial resistance, and clinical management of infected patients. These efforts need ongoing support to be scaled nationally.”
Editor’s note: This report contains graphic descriptions of sexual violence.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden has blamed Hamas’ refusal to release civilian female hostages for the end of a temporary cease-fire, and he called reports of women allegedly sexually assaulted by Hamas “appalling.”
“We had a report in the earliest days that Hamas used rape to terrorize women and girls during the attack on October the 7th in Israel,” Biden said, according to pool reports of his remarks Tuesday at a closed-door fundraiser in the Boston area.
“Over the past few weeks, survivors and witnesses of the attacks have shared the horrific accounts of unimaginable cruelty,” he said. “Reports of women raped — repeatedly raped — and their bodies being mutilated while still alive — of women corpses being desecrated, Hamas terrorists inflicting as much pain and suffering on women and girls as possible and then murdering them. It is appalling.”
Biden spoke about the reported assaults amid controversy over what critics said was a failure by the United Nations, women’s rights organizations and a Democratic lawmaker who has criticized Israel to quickly and flatly condemn the alleged attacks.
“Ending violence against women and sexual assault has been one of the causes of my life. … But the world can’t just look away at what’s going on. It’s on all of us — government, international organizations, civil society and businesses — to forcefully condemn the sexual violence of Hamas terrorists without equivocation. Without equivocation, without exception,” Biden said.
On CNN’s State of the Union Sunday, anchor Dana Bash challenged Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal, who strongly supports Palestinian rights, on why progressive leaders, Bash said, had been silent about what she called Hamas using rape as a weapon of war.
“I said it’s horrific,” Jayapal said. “And I think that rape is horrific. Sexual assault is horrific.” I think that it happens in war situations. Terrorist organizations like Hamas obviously are using these as tools.”
“However, I think we have to be balanced about bringing in the outrages against Palestinians,” she continued, adding, “Fifteen-thousand Palestinians have been killed in Israeli airstrikes, three-quarters of whom are women and children.”
More than 16,000 people have been killed in Gaza, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, while 1,200 have been killed in Israel, according to the Israeli prime minister’s office.
Shortly after Biden spoke Tuesday, Jayapal issued a statement on X attempting to clarify her remarks.
“Let me be completely clear that I unequivocally condemn Hamas’ use of rape and sexual violence as an act of war,” she said, in part.
“My comment abut balance was not about rape, and not intended to minimize rape and sexual assault in any way, she added.
Biden spoke about the same time Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held a news conference and the Israel Defense Forces released a document detailing what it said was evidence and eyewitness testimony of sexual violence and other atrocities committed by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7.
“I have heard, and you have also heard, about sexual abuse and cases of rape that are brutal like none other,” Netanyahu said.
“But I must say that until a few days ago, I did not hear the human rights organizations, I did not hear the women’s organizations, I did not hear the United Nations. I did not hear their cry. And I say to them: ‘Where are you? Are you silent because these are Jewish women?” he asked.
“I say to the women’s rights organizations, to the human rights organizations, you’ve heard of the rape of Israeli women, horrible atrocities, sexual mutilation,” he continued. “OK — where the hell are you? I expect all civilized leaders, governments, nations, to speak up against this atrocity.”
Hamas put out a statement rejecting Israel’s claims.
“We categorically reject the false allegations of rape propagated by the occupation, aimed at distorting the resistance and deflecting attention from the humane and ethical treatment accorded to released detainees,” the statement said.
In recent days, the United Nations Secretary-General and U.N. Women — the arm of the organization responsible for promoting gender equality — have issued calls for all acts of gender-based violence committed on or after Oct. 7 to be investigated and prosecuted.
An ongoing U.N. commission of inquiry probing alleged war crimes on both sides of the conflict is also set to include a focus on Hamas’ alleged use of sexual violence. But so far, Israel has not cooperated with the investigation, claiming the council leading it harbors an anti-Israeli bias.
When speaking about the remaining female hostages Biden did not address suggestions made by State Department spokesman Matt Miller on Monday that Hamas was holding them to keep them from talking about sexual violence.
“It seems that one of the reasons they don’t want to turn women over that they’ve been holding hostage — and the reason this pause fell apart — is that they don’t want these women to be able to talk about what happened to them during their time in custody,” Miller said, later adding it was not a “definitive assessment.”
“These are civilian women, mostly between the ages of 20 and 39, whom Hamas has refused to let go under the deal that paused the fighting, which I helped negotiate with the Qataris,” Biden said. “I spent hours with the Qataris and others to broker, sustain and extend that deal. I got more than 100 hostages out.”
“Let me be crystal clear: Hamas’ refusal to release the remaining young women is what broke this deal and ended the pause in the fighting,” he said.
“These women and everyone still being held hostage by Hamas need to be returned to their families immediately,” he said. “We’re not going to stop — we’re not going to stop until we bring every one of them home and it’s going to be a long process.”
(NEW YORK) — The temporary cease-fire between Hamas and Israel ended early Friday, and Israel has resumed its bombardment of Gaza.
The end of the cease-fire came after Hamas freed over 100 of the more than 200 people its militants took hostage during the Oct. 7 surprise attack on Israel. In exchange, Israel released more than 200 Palestinians from Israeli prisons.
Here’s how the news is developing:
Dec 07, 11:00 AM EST
More dead than injured arriving at Gaza hospital
For the first time, more dead than injured arrived at Gaza’s Al-Aqsa Hospital on Wednesday, according to Doctors Without Borders.
The hospital has been receiving approximately 150 to 200 injured people per day over the last week. Now, 115 arrived dead at the hospital in 24 hours, Doctors Without Borders said.
“The hospital is full, the morgue is full,” Doctors Without Borders said. “We call on Israeli Forces to stop the indiscriminate bombing of the Gaza Strip and protect civilians and civilian infrastructure. We need a cease-fire now.”
Dec 07, 10:43 AM EST
Egypt intensifies efforts to reinstate truce
Egypt is intensifying efforts with all parties to reinstate the truce between Hamas and Israel as soon as possible, Diaa Rashwan, the head of Egypt’s State Information Service, said Thursday.
Dec 07, 9:00 AM EST
350 killed in Gaza in past day, health ministry says
Gaza’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health said Thursday that 350 people have been killed there in the past 24 hours, bringing the death toll since Oct. 7 to over 17,000.
Dec 07, 6:28 AM EST
IDF says it’s fighting Hamas throughout Gaza, from Khan Yunis to Jabalya
The Israel Defense Forces said Thursday morning that its “troops killed Hamas terrorists and struck dozens of terror targets” during operations in Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip over the past day.
“IDF troops engaged with a terrorist cell that exited from a tunnel shaft, killed two terrorists in combat and struck the shaft,” the IDF said in a statement.
Israeli troops also “conducted a targeted raid on a military compound belonging to Hamas’ Central Jabalya Battalion” during operations in Jabalya in northern Gaza, according to the IDF.
“A number of terrorists were killed as part of the activity,” the IDF added. “Furthermore, the forces located a network of underground tunnels that lead out of the compound, as well as a training area and weapons storage facility in the area of the compound.”
In addition to the ground operations in Gaza, Israeli warships over the past day “struck Hamas military compounds and infrastructure using precise ammunition and firing shells,” according to the IDF.
Dec 06, 9:44 PM EST
Over 80% of people in Gaza have inadequate food consumption, WFP report says
Around 83% of households in southern Gaza suffering from inadequate food consumption, according to a new report from the World Food Programme.
The organization also reported Wednesday that 97% of households in northern Gaza have inadequate food consumption.
As a result, 95% of households are adopting extreme food consumption strategies to cope with food shortages in northern Gaza, the report said, with 82% of households doing the same in southern Gaza.
Dec 06, 5:25 PM EST
US, G7 partners call for opening of Gaza crossings into Israel
The United States and its Group of Seven allies called for crossings from Gaza into Israel to be opened for the transfer of humanitarian aid in a statement released Wednesday evening following a virtual meeting.
“The population is increasingly vulnerable, and with winter approaching, we must continue to increase the flow of humanitarian aid to Gaza to meet fully the needs on the ground, including by opening additional crossings,” the G7 leaders said in the statement.
Only the Rafah crossing into Egypt is open, while all of the other crossings into Gaza border Israel and have been closed. The White House provided its readout of the meeting but did not mention this joint call for the opening of additional crossings.
The White House said the leaders “expressed deep regret that Hamas refused to release all of its women hostages and military operations resume.”
“Hamas offers nothing but suffering to the Palestinian people, and it is an obstacle to a better future for them and for the region. We will continue to coordinate our efforts to isolate Hamas and ensure it cannot threaten Israel,” the G7 leaders said in its statement.
Dec 06, 2:26 PM EST
Kids in Gaza share their experiences through art
Children in Gaza are sharing their traumatic experiences from the war through drawings.
The Palestine Red Crescent Society said it organized the event to help children process their complicated feelings.
The art was displayed in the rubble of a bombed house.
The children’s art included portraits of families and drawings of homes. One showed an injured person in a hospital bed, and another depicted a journalist’s camera and bulletproof vest.
Dec 06, 2:15 PM EST
Israeli soldiers fighting in southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis
Israeli soldiers are fighting for the first time in the heart of Khan Yunis, a city in southern Gaza, the Israel Defense Forces said.
“The city of Khan Yunis is a terrorist stronghold,” the IDF said. “The entire leadership of the Hamas terrorist organization — both military and political — proliferated in the area of Khan Yunis.”
Israeli troops have eliminated terrorists and their infrastructure in the area, the IDF said. One strike was on a mosque that the IDF said was being used to store weapons.
Dec 06, 1:22 PM EST
UN secretary-general invokes Article 99, calls for humanitarian cease-fire
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said Wednesday that he’s invoked Article 99 of the U.N. Charter for the first time in his six years as leader.
Article 99 says that the secretary-general “may bring to the attention of the Security Council any matter which in his opinion may threaten the maintenance of international peace and security.”
“Facing a severe risk of collapse of the humanitarian system in Gaza, I urge the Council to help avert a humanitarian catastrophe & appeal for a humanitarian cease-fire to be declared,” Guterres said in a post on X.
In a letter to the U.N. Security Council president, Guterres said, “The situation is fast deteriorating into a catastrophe with potentially irreversible implications for Palestinians as a whole and for peace and security in the region. … The international community has a responsibility to use all its influence to prevent further escalation and end this crisis.”
Dec 06, 12:41 PM EST
IDF encircling Hamas leader’s house: Netanyahu
Israeli forces are now “encircling” the house belonging to Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
“It’s only a matter of time until we catch him,” Netanyahu said.
The prime minister also said Israel is exerting pressure to allow Red Cross workers to visit the more than 100 hostages still being held by Hamas.
Dec 06, 11:24 AM EST
Biden calls reports of Hamas’ sexual violence against Israeli women ‘appalling’
Editor’s note: This report contains graphic descriptions of sexual violence.
President Joe Biden has blamed Hamas’ refusal to release civilian female hostages for the end of a temporary cease-fire and called reports of women allegedly sexually assaulted by Hamas “appalling.”
“We had a report in the earliest days that Hamas used rape to terrorize women and girls during the attack on October the 7th in Israel,” Biden said, according to pool reports of his remarks Tuesday at a closed-door fundraiser.
“Over the past few weeks, survivors and witnesses of the attacks have shared the horrific accounts of unimaginable cruelty,” he said. “Reports of women raped — repeatedly raped — and their bodies being mutilated while still alive — of women corpses being desecrated, Hamas terrorists inflicting as much pain and suffering on women and girls as possible and then murdering them. It is appalling.”
It’s on all of us — government, international organizations, civil society and businesses — to forcefully condemn the sexual violence of Hamas terrorists without equivocation — without equivocation, without exception,” Biden said.
ABC News’ Libby Cathey
Dec 06, 9:02 AM EST
IDF says it struck 250 targets in Gaza over last day amid ‘intensive battles’
The Israel Defense Forces said Wednesday morning that its aircraft had bombed “approximately 250 terror targets in the Gaza Strip” over the last day amid what it described as “intensive battles.”
“During these strikes, terrorists from the Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist organizations were eliminated, and a number of terrorist infrastructure were destroyed,” the IDF said in a statement.
Israeli soldiers also located “one of the largest weapons depots” in Gaza “near a clinic and a school” in the northern part of the Hamas-controlled territory, according to the IDF.
“The depot contained hundreds of RPG missiles and launchers of various types, dozens of anti-tank missiles, dozens of explosive devices, long-range missiles aimed at central Israel, dozens of grenades and UAVs,” the IDF added. “All of the terrorist infrastructure was found close to civilian buildings in the heart of a civilian population. This is additional proof of Hamas’ cynical use of the residents of the Gaza Strip as human shields.”
Hamas has denied Israel’s claims that it deliberately shelters behind civilians in Gaza.
Dec 06, 7:37 AM EST
US believes eight American hostages remain in Gaza, Kirby says
The United States believes eight Americans are still being held hostage by militants in the war-torn Gaza Strip, according to White House National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby.
“We think there’s about eight hostages that are Americans. We know of at least one woman in that group,” Kirby told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos in an interview Wednesday on Good Morning America.
“We’re doing everything we can to try to get them released,” he continued. “We’re constantly engaged with our partners in the region to try to get this humanitarian pause back in place, so that the flow of hostages can renew.”
Although a temporary cease-fire between Israel and Gaza’s militant rulers, Hamas, ended last week, the U.S. is “still flowing in humanitarian assistance” to civilians in Gaza, according to Kirby.
“And we’re trying to get it up to the level that it was during the pause,” he noted.
When asked about what Israel’s “endgame” might be in its war against Hamas as Israeli troops expand their offensive across all of Gaza, Kirby said: “That’s really something for the Israeli’s to speak to.”
“We obviously want to see Hamas eliminated as a threat to the Israeli people,” he added. “That hasn’t been achieved yet. They’re going after the leadership as best they can. They believe they need to operate in the south. We’ve told them you know we’ll continue to support their military operations but we want to make sure that as they do that they’re factoring in those innocent civilian lives as much as possible.”
Dec 06, 7:16 AM EST
Gaza hospital says it’s ‘besieged’ by Israeli forces
Al-Awda Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip is “besieged” by Israeli forces, a spokesperson said Wednesday.
There are currently 95 employees and 38 patients inside the hospital in the city of Jabalia, north of Gaza City, according to the spokesperson.
Just four hospitals remain operational in the north, according to the Gaza’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health.
Dec 06, 5:32 AM EST
Gaza hospital receives scores of dead, wounded in past 24 hours
A hospital in the Middle Area of the Gaza Strip has seen an influx of dead and wounded arrive at its doors over the last day, according to Palestinian health officials.
Gaza’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health said Wednesday morning that the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital has received 73 dead and 123 injured patients in the past 24 hours amid intense bombardment by the Israeli military.
Dec 05, 6:12 PM EST
Over 1,000 Americans and family members seeking to depart Gaza: State Department
More than 1,000 Americans and their family members are still stranded in Gaza, more than a month after the Rafah border crossing first opened to outbound traffic, according to the State Department.
“We know of approximately 1,050 individuals (about 350 U.S. citizens, plus lawful permanent residents and family members of U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents) who we are in touch with and who are seeking to depart Gaza,” a State Department spokesperson said in a statement to ABC News, adding it “remains a fluid and quickly evolving situation.”
These figures come a day after State Department spokesperson Matt Miller told reporters that the number of American citizens trying to exit the area stood at 220, and that there were 750 individuals eligible to leave Gaza who had not yet been able to depart.
Dec 05, 3:48 PM EST
State Dept. imposes visa restrictions on individuals ‘undermining peace’ in West Bank
Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced a new visa restriction policy on Tuesday “targeting individuals believed to have been involved in undermining peace, security or stability in the West Bank.”
The policy includes those “committing acts of violence or taking other actions that unduly restrict civilians’ access to essential services and basic necessities,” Blinken said in a statement.
The State Department has already started pursuing initial action against individuals and will designate others “in the coming days,” spokesperson Matt Miller told reporters Tuesday.
The department expects the policy will impact “dozens of individuals and potential their family members,” he said.
During a visit to Israel last week, Blinken said he “made clear that the United States is ready to take action using our own authorities” and that Israel must “take additional measures to protect Palestinian civilians from extremist attacks.”
He added that the U.S. would also continue to engage with the Palestinian Authority to stress that it needed “to do more to curb Palestinian attacks against Israelis.”
ABC News’ Shannon K. Crawford
Dec 05, 3:26 PM EST
Netanyahu says Gaza must be demilitarized through ‘sheer force’
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an address Tuesday that Gaza must be demilitarized and that he is not ready to accept an international force being responsible for Gaza post-war.
“Gaza must be demilitarized and the only country that can do this and ensure it lasts is Israel,” Netanyahu said. “I’m not ready to close my eyes and accept any other arrangement.”
The prime minister said half of Hamas’ battalions have already been “destroyed.”
Netanyahu also said a tactic of sheer force made sense for bringing home the remaining hostages.
“The only way to bring home the rest of the hostages is through massive military force in Gaza and that’s what we are doing,” he said.
He also criticized those calling for a short war, saying, “I say to our friends who call for a short war, the only way for the war to end quickly is by applying sheer force. So I say stand with us. Stand with Israel. Stand with civilization.”
Dec 05, 1:14 PM EST
State Dept. imposes visa restrictions on individuals ‘undermining peace’ in West Bank
Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced a new visa restriction policy on Tuesday “targeting individuals believed to have been involved in undermining peace, security or stability in the West Bank.”
The policy includes those “committing acts of violence or taking other actions that unduly restrict civilians’ access to essential services and basic necessities,” Blinken said in a statement.
During a visit to Israel last week, Blinken said he “made clear that the United States is ready to take action using our own authorities” and that Israel must “take additional measures to protect Palestinian civilians from extremist attacks.”
He added that the U.S. would also continue to engage with the Palestinian Authority to stress that it needed “to do more to curb Palestinian attacks against Israelis.”
ABC News’ Shannon K. Crawford
Dec 05, 10:43 AM EST
IDF says it has ‘hundreds of testimonies of rape and sex crimes’ from Oct. 7
Israeli authorities say they have collated “hundreds of testimonies of rape and sex crimes” they claim was committed by Hamas militants during the Oct. 7 terror attack.
A document from the Israel Defense Forces details allegations of sexual violence, with “almost all of the testimonies” coming from eyewitnesses and first responders who were present at the scene during or after atrocities, the document states. This is because “virtually all” of the victims of sexual violence were also murdered on Oct. 7, according to the document.
The IDF said the document offers “only a small part of an immense body of information of evidence of Hamas’ sex crimes” and said the evidence “proves beyond all doubt that Hamas and other … terrorists used rape and sexual violence systemically against Israeli women and children,” according to the IDF.
One IDF volunteer quoted in the document described seeing many young women “in bloody, shredded rags, or just in underwear.”
“Our team commander saw several (female) soldiers who were shot in the crotch and intimate areas,” the IDF volunteer said, according to the document.
The IDF alleges that some members of Hamas who were captured and then interrogated also gave testimony that women were sexually abused on Oct. 7.
An Israeli paramedic quoted in the document said they inspected the bodies of two teenage girls who had been murdered. One of the girls “had her pants pulled down towards her knees … and there’s the remains of semen on the lower part of her back,” the document states.
A survivor of the Oct. 7 attack, Gad Liebersohn, quoted in the document said that “for two hours I’m hiding and hearing people getting kidnapped and women getting raped … begging for their lives.”
Hamas, the militant group that governs the Gaza Strip, has denied the allegations that its fighters committed sexual violence during the Oct. 7 attack on neighboring southern Israel.
Cochav Elkayam-Levy, the head of Israel’s Civil Commission on Oct. 7 Crimes by Hamas Against Women and Children, has described what she called “widespread rape evidence.”
ABC News’ Tom Soufi Burridge
Dec 05, 8:57 AM EST
At least two injured after rocket hits Israeli residential building, authorities say
Rocket fire struck a residential building in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon on Tuesday afternoon, according to Israel’s emergency medical service MDA.
At least two people — a 67-year-old and a 60-year-old — were wounded by shrapnel while standing in the parking lot next to the building’s entrance, according to MDA, which said its staff provided treatment on site and transported the two victims to a nearby hospital.
Dec 05, 6:55 AM EST
Hospital in northern Gaza under siege, health ministry says
Another hospital in the northern Gaza Strip is under siege by Israeli troops, Gaza’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health said Tuesday.
Israeli tanks and snipers have surrounded Kamal Adwan Hospital, where more than 7,000 displaced people are sheltering, according to the health ministry. Israeli troops are allegedly firing at “anyone who moves,” the health ministry said.
The power was also cut from the hospital, according to the health ministry.
Dozens of wounded people as well as the bodies of at least 108 who have died are currently inside Kamal Adwan Hospital, according to the health ministry.
There was no immediate comment from the Israel Defense Forces.
Just four hospitals remain operational in northern Gaza, according to the health ministry, as medical services in the besieged enclave struggle to deal with the mounting casualty toll.
Dec 05, 6:28 AM EST
At least 30 killed in airstrike on school in southern Gaza, hospital says
Dozens of people were killed or wounded in an Israeli airstrike that allegedly targeted a school housing displaced families in the city of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip on Tuesday morning, according to local medical staff.
A spokesperson for Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis told ABC News that it had received scores of patients from the scene, including 30 who had died and dozens who were injured.
There was no immediate comment from the Israel Defense Forces.
The strike came on the heels of the IDF’s announcement that it would be expanding its offensive on Gaza’s militant rulers, Hamas, across the entire strip.
Dec 05, 1:38 AM EST
‘Nowhere is safe in Gaza’: WHO
The World Health Organization painted a bleak picture of the situation in Gaza on Monday night and called for Israel “to take every possible measure to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, as per the laws of war.”
According to the latest information from the WHO, there are only 18 functioning hospitals in Gaza, with three only providing first aid and the remainder just partial services.
With an increasing number of Palestinians displaced as the war continues, the WHO says, “syndromic surveillance has noted increases in infectious diseases, including acute respiratory infections, scabies, jaundice, diarrhoea, and bloody diarrhoea. Shelters in the south are also reporting cases of acute jaundice syndrome, a worrisome signal of hepatitis.”
The WHO previously said, “syndromic surveillance systems seek to use existing health data in real-time to provide immediate analysis and feedback to those charged with investigation and follow-up of potential outbreaks.”
The WHO warned thousands are likely to be cut off from health care services due to increased ground operations by Israel in southern Gaza. The open hospitals are operating beyond capacity, with the bed occupancy rate at 171% and intensive care units at 221%, the WHO said, based on data from the Hamas-run Ministry of Health.
WHO workers called the situation at the Nasser Medical Complex in Khan Younis “catastrophic, with the building and hospital grounds grossly overcrowded with patients and displaced people seeking shelter.”
The WHO said in a statement Monday night it has recorded 203 “attacks on hospitals, ambulances, medical supplies, and the detention of health-care workers attacks on hospitals, ambulances medical supplies” between Oct. 7 and Nov. 28.
“This is unacceptable,” the WHO’s statement read. “There are means to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure, and they should be instituted.”
(NEW YORK) — The House voted Thursday to censure Democrat Rep. Jamaal Bowman of New York for falsely pulling a fire alarm in a House office building in September.
The final vote was 214-191 with five members voting present. Three Democrats voted with Republicans to censure Bowman.
After the vote, Bowman stood in the well of the House surrounded by a large group of Democrats.
The New York congressman was caught on video pulling the fire alarm in the Cannon House Office Building on Sept. 30 — the day the House voted on funding the government. He later pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge for falsely triggering the alarm.
Thursday vote happened after a Democratic motion to table — or kill — the censure resolution failed by a vote of 201-216 Wednesday evening.
Rep. Lisa McClain, R-Mich., introduced the censure resolution as privileged on Tuesday — giving the House two legislative days to vote on it.
Bowman is the fifth House member censured in the 21st century, joining Reps. Charles Rangel, Paul Gosar, Adam Schiff and — most recently — Rashida Tlaib. Bowman would become the 27th House member censured in U.S. history, according to the Office of the House Historian.
Historically, censuring a House member is rare, but has been more recently used as a political tool.
During fiery House floor debate on the censure resolution Wednesday evening, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries defended Rep. Jamaal Bowman and called the resolution “fraudulent and fictitious.”
“The behavior of the extreme MAGA Republicans – censuring member after member after member has brought disgrace to the institution. To the House of Representatives,” Jeffries said.
Jeffries said the House is “wasting time talking about fire alarms.”
Jeffries even dared House Republicans to censure him.
“Going after Democrats repeatedly week after week after week, because you have nothing better to do — then I volunteer. Censure me next. Censure me next. That’s how worthless your censure effort is. It has no credibility, no integrity, no legitimacy. Censure me next. And I’ll take that censure and I’ll wear it — next week, next month, next year — like a badge of honor,” Jeffries said.
(NEW YORK) — The House Rules Committee announced Thursday it will consider a resolution next week to formalize Republicans’ impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said earlier this week that he believes that Republicans would get the votes they need to formalize their inquiry.
House Republicans have alleged, without proof, that Biden was directly involved in and benefited from his family’s business dealings. The White House has called the inquiry “extreme politics at its worst.”
Lawmakers have held one public hearing, which offered several contentious moments but no new evidence.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(DALLAS) — A judge granted a Texas woman’s request for an abortion for a pregnancy with a severe anomaly on Thursday.
The woman, Kate Cox, had filed a lawsuit against the state over its restrictive abortion bans, asking a judge to grant her a temporary restraining order that would allow her to get an abortion.
“The idea that Miss Cox wants desperately to be a parent, and this law might actually cause her to lose that ability is shocking, and would be a genuine miscarriage of justice,” Judge Maya Guerra Gamble said Thursday.
It’s the first publicized case of a woman suing for an emergency abortion since Roe vs Wade in 1973.
Cox is currently carrying a pregnancy with virtually no chance the baby — who has trisomy 18 — will survive to birth or long afterward. She’s said she has been denied the safest form of abortion care for her — a dilation and evacuation procedure.
The hearing was held in Travis County’s 459th District Court in Austin, and lasted about a half hour before the ruling was delivered.
Cox’s lawsuit stands separate from a suit filed by 20 women who say their lives were put in danger due to Texas’ abortion bans.
That suit is before the Texas state Supreme Court for a ruling on whether the challenge can continue and if a temporary hold on implementation of the bans in cases of fatal fetal anomalies and medical emergencies can go into effect.
Texas has multiple overlapping abortion bans in effect with severe punishments for violations of the bans.
Texas’ bans include exceptions that allow abortions in cases of medical emergencies and fatal fetal diagnoses, but doctors and patients claim, in another lawsuit filed in March, that they are unable to provide care or have been denied care, respectively, under the laws.
Under Texas’ bans, it is a second-degree felony to perform or attempt an abortion, punishable by up to life in prison and a fine of up to $10,000. The law also allows private citizens to sue anyone who “aids or abets” an abortion.
(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump is on trial in New York in a $250 million civil lawsuit that could alter the personal fortune and real estate empire that helped propel Trump to the White House.
Trump, his sons Eric Trump and and Donald Trump Jr., and other top Trump Organization executives are accused by New York Attorney General Letitia James of engaging in a decade-long scheme in which they used “numerous acts of fraud and misrepresentation” to inflate Trump’s net worth in order get more favorable loan terms. The trial comes after the judge in the case ruled in a partial summary judgment that Trump had submitted “fraudulent valuations” for his assets, leaving the trial to determine additional actions and what penalty, if any, the defendants should receive.
The former president has denied all wrongdoing and his attorneys have argued that Trump’s alleged inflated valuations were a product of his business skill.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Dec 07, 8:34 AM EST
Donald Trump set to attend trial today
Donald Trump is set to return to his civil fraud trial as a spectator today, marking the first time the former president has attended the proceeding in over a month.
Trump has attended eight of the trial’s 41 days, including when he testified as the last witness in the state’s case on Nov. 6. He is scheduled to return to the stand as the final witness in the defense’s case on Monday.
This morning, Trump’s lawyers will call New York University professor Eli Bartov as their second-to-last witness.
Trump attorney Chris Kise cited Bartov’s testimony in his opening statement as vital to proving that Trump fully complied with all accounting rules and regulations when he submitted his statements of financial condition, which underpin the attorney general’s allegations in the case.
“The statements are … the beginning, not the end, of a highly complex valuation process,” Kise said.
Dec 06, 4:42 PM EST
Potential for violence justifies gag order, judge’s lawyer argues
Judge Arthur Engoron’s attorney argues in a new court filing that the willingness of Donald Trump’s followers “to engage in violence to show their support” for Trump justifies the limited gag order in the former president’s civil fraud trial.
Trump filed an Article 78 proceeding against Engoron earlier this month to remove the gag orders the judge imposed prohibiting him from commenting on the judge’s staff, but a panel of judges vacated a temporary stay of the gag orders last week.
“It is undisputed that Mr. Trump has an inordinate ability to draw attention, fervor, and animosity to those he singles out for attention. Whether he seeks it or not, some of Mr. Trump’s followers are willing to engage in violence to show their support,” said Engoron’s attorney Michael Suidzinski, an assistant deputy counsel with the New York State Office of Court Administration.
Engoron’s attorney questioned Trump’s need to speak about the judge’s staff during the trial or his campaign, adding that the gag order still permits him to criticize Engoron, the attorney general, the case itself, witnesses, and the entire judicial process.
“It is unclear, however, how his ability to talk about Justice Engoron’s court staff is necessary for his campaign when this country faces a number of issues more worthy of debate,” Suidzinski wrote.
“Given the real and demonstrated likelihood of harm that could come to Justice Engoron’s court staff if the gag orders were annulled, Justice Engoron’s legitimate and justifiable interest in preventing such harm greatly outweighs the de minimis interference to Mr. Trump’s rights,” Suidzinski wrote.
Dec 06, 12:07 PM EST
Court is off today after Eric Trump’s testimony is called off
Court is not in session today after the defense yesterday called off the testimony of Eric Trump, who was scheduled to be today’s lone witness.
Donald Trump’s legal spokesperson, Alina Habba, said that testimony from Eric Trump was no longer needed because the court has heard sufficient testimony from defense experts and Deutsche Bank executives.
Eric Trump, who took the stand in the state’s case last month, was scheduled to testify for the defense today — but defense lawyers abruptly called off his testimony yesterday in order to streamline their case, defense attorney Clifford Robert said in court yesterday.
“Although Eric Trump was certainly prepared to testify again, his testimony is no longer necessary. He has already testified fully and well in the case,” Habba said.
In a social media post Tuesday night, Donald Trump said he directed Eric not to testify.
“I told my wonderful son, Eric, not to testify tomorrow at the RIGGED TRIAL,” Trump wrote.
Dec 06, 11:02 AM EST
Trump confirms he’ll testify Monday
Former President Trump has confirmed he plans to testify as a defense witness on Monday.
“I will be testifying on Monday,” Trump wrote on his social media platform.
Court is not in session today, but Trump is expected to be in attendance tomorrow.
Trump’s plan to testify was thrown into question on Tuesday after Judge Arthur Engoron denied a request from the defense to delay the testimony to accommodate Trump’s effort to appeal the limited gag order in the case that prohibits him from commenting on the judge’s staff.
“He is not capable of fully testifying because he is subject to the gag order,” Kise said, arguing for a delay.
“Absolutely not. No way, no how. It’s a nonstarter,” Engoron said in response to the defense’s request for a delay. “If he is going to testify, it’ll be Monday, and that’s that.”
While Trump’s lawyers have attempted to appeal the limited gag order to a higher court, their application to expedite the appeal was denied on Monday, ensuring that the limited gag order will be in place when Trump testifies.
During a campaign stop in Iowa, Trump repeated his claims that his opponents are trying to silence him, describing the gag order as an “honor.”
“In many ways, it’s an honor because if they wanted to hear me speak, they wouldn’t do the gag order,” Trump said.
When asked if he’s concerned about his scheduled court testimony, Trump said, “No, not at all.”
Trump is set to be the final witness for the defense case when he testifies on Monday.
Dec 05, 5:04 PM EST
Defense expert quotes John Lennon, compares Trump to MLK
Prior to his brief cross-examination, real estate valuation expert Lawrence Moens quoted John Lennon’s “Imagine” and compared Donald Trump to Martin Luther King Jr. at the conclusion of his direct testimony.
“You may say I am a dreamer, but I’m not the only one,” Moens said, quoting the “Imagine” lyrics before comparing Trump to Thomas Jefferson and Martin Luther King Jr.
“He’s a dreamer for sure. If you have a dream and are a great American, I don’t think that’s a bad thing,” Moens said of Trump, whose Mar-a-Lago estate he praised as “something breathtaking” and “amazing to see.”
Moens’ cellphone went off during his testimony, and he briefly interrupted his direct examination to answer a call.
“I’ll call you right back … love you,” Moens said in a quiet tone as Judge Engoron watched in disbelief.
Moen apologized to the judge, explaining that the call was from his elderly father.
Court was adjourned for the day after Moens stepped off the witness stand.
Dec 05, 4:45 PM EST
Mar-a-Lago valuation expert is also Mar-a-Lago member
During a short cross-examination of the defense’s real estate valuation expert, Lawrence Moens, state attorney Kevin Wallace attempted to highlight flaws in Moens’ analysis that valued Mar-a-Lago at $1.2 billion in 2021.
Wallace noted that Moens’ analysis added over $100 million in membership dues to the value of the property, while Trump’s own statements of financial conduction didn’t include the membership fees since they’re refundable.
“Some get paid back, and some are nonrefundable,” Moens said in response. “I don’t know what their methodology is in those numbers.”
Wallace also asked if Moens had a membership in the club he had been paid to value.
“Are you a member at the club?” Wallace asked.
“I am,” Moens said, adding that he joined in 1995 or 1996.
“I don’t go too often. I don’t like clubs,” he said.
Moens described his process for valuing properties as comparable to a baker making a cake by taste, rather than a recipe. By his own admission, the process was not replicable or scientific.
“You’re not running a process that is recreatable … is that fair?” Wallace asked.
“That’s fair,” Moens said.
Like during his direct examination, Moens appeared confident and playful on the stand, even taking a job at the profession of a colleague mentioned in an email.
“I think he is still a liar — I mean a lawyer,” Moens said. “Sorry, I apologize, it was really low.”
Dec 05, 3:51 PM EST
Eric Trump will not be called as defense witness
Defense attorney Clifford Robert said the defense team was able to “streamline” their case and cut Eric Trump from their witness list.
After being called to the stand by the state last month, Eric Trump had been scheduled to testify for the defense on Wednesday, but now he will not appear.
Trump lawyer Chris Kise also requested that Judge Engoron postpone Donald Trump’s testimony until the New York Court of Appeals rules on Trump’s appeal of the case’s gag order.
“He is not capable of fully testifying because he is subject to the gag order,” Kise said.
Engoron flatly denied the request to delay Trump’s testimony, which is scheduled for Monday.
“Absolutely not. No way, no how. It’s a nonstarter,” Engoron said. “If he is going to testify, it’ll be Monday, and that’s that.”
Dec 05, 3:03 PM EST
Defense expert says Mar-a-Lago was worth $1.2 billion
Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club was worth more than $1.2 billion in 2021 — roughly double the value listed in Trump’s statement of financial condition — according to defense expert Lawrence Moens.
Describing Mar-a-Lago as a castle nestled on 17.6 acres of waterfront property, Moens said he determined the value by considering nearby properties and adding the total value of the club’s 500 memberships, which in 2021 cost $350,000 each.
Between 2011 and 2021, Moens’ analysis found that Trump undervalued Mar-a-Lago in his statements of financial condition — but his analysis appeared to be based on Trump being able to sell the property to an individual to use it as a private residence, which the New York attorney general says Trump is prohibited from doing based on a 2002 deed he signed that would “forever extinguish their right to develop or use the Property for any purpose other than club use.”
Judge Engoron only qualified Moens as an expert on the value of residential real estate.
Moens spoke with confidence about his ability to value real estate in Palm Beach, saying that he has sold billions of dollars of real estate since his first sale as a broker in 1982. Asked if any broker has sold more Palm Beach real estate than he has, Moens replied, “They don’t exist.”
“I am on the front lines everyday of selling properties, and I have a pretty good handle of what is going on currently in the market,” Moens said.
He later added, “My numbers are usually right.”
Moens also put together a seven-minute promotional video about Mar-a-Lago, which was played during his testimony. Set to relaxing music, the video included high-resolution drone shots and dramatic panning shots of the property’s amenities. After the video played, Moens highlighted details such as hand-carved stones, gold decorations that cost millions to construct, and other details that required years of work from tradesmen.
“I invited the attorney general’s office to come see it anytime. The offer still stands,” Moens said. “I will make sure he is not there when you come,” he said of Trump.
Engoron appeared attentive to Moen’s testimony — but once Moens left the courtroom, he indicated that he wasn’t as concerned about Mar-a-Lago’s specific value as he was about whether it was misrepresented.
“I see this case about the documents — whether the defendants used false documents when transacting business,” Engoron said. “I am not trying to figure out what the value is … I don’t necessarily consider it relevant.”
Dec 05, 12:31 PM EST
Mar-a-Lago would be residence if club was abandoned, expert says
Defense expert John Shubin attempted to explain that a 1993 agreement preserved Donald Trump’s right to sell his Mar-a-Lago social club as a private residence.
The testimony came after Judge Engoron prevented Shubin from sharing his own conclusion about whether Mar-a-Lago was a residence, leading Shubin to read into the record several documents involving the issue.
Shubin suggested that a 1993 agreement between Trump and the town of Palm Beach included a provision that Trump’s property would revert from a social club to Trump’s private residence if the club was ever abandoned, despite Trump’s 2002 deed restricting the property’s use to a social club.
Shubin also read into the record documents related to a 2021 Town of Palm Beach town meeting concerning whether Trump could continue to live at Mar-a-Lago as his residence.
“In sum, it is argued that Mar-a-Lago is either a private residence or a club, but cannot be both,” Palm Beach Town Attorney John C. Randolph wrote in a report read by Shubin.
“If he is a bona fide employee of the Club, absent a specific restriction prohibiting former President Trump from residing at the club, it appears the Zoning Code permits him to reside at the Club,” Randolph’s report concluded.
According to Shubin, no action was taken by the town after the meeting, suggesting Town officials concluded that Trump had the right to use the club as a residence.
New York Attorney General Letitia James has accused Trump of valuing the property as a residence worth upwards of half a billion dollars in Trump’s financial statements, while treating it as social club worth between $18 million and $28 million for tax purposes.
Dec 05, 11:03 AM EST
‘No prohibition’ on using Mar-a-Lago as residence, expert says
Introduced as an expert on land use, planning, entitlements and zoning, a witness for the defense immediately pushed back on New York Attorney General Letitia James’ chief argument that Trump’s Mar-a-Lago property was restricted to use as a social club — a claim that Judge Engoron called the “ultimate issue on Mar-a-Lago.”
“There is absolutely no prohibition on the use of Mar-a-Lago as a single-family residence,” said defense witness John Shubin.
Engoron barred Shubin from testifying about legal conclusions and immediately sustained an objection from the state regarding the testimony.
“It absolutely is a legal conclusion,” Engoron said, prompting defense lawyer Clifford Robert to unsuccessfully try to rephrase his question.
“Why don’t we just look through the documents and run backwards?” defense lawyer Chris Kise suggested.
Shubin’s testimony runs contrary to evidence presented by state lawyers that Trump signed a 2002 deed that surrendered his right to develop the property “for any purpose other than club use.”
Dec 05, 9:36 AM EST
Defense focusing on value of Mar-a-Lago
Donald Trump’s lawyers plan to call two experts, Lawrence Moens and John Shubin, to testify on Trump’s valuation of his Mar-a-Lago property in Palm Beach, Florida.
Moens is a well-known real estate broker in Palm Beach, and Shubin is an expert on deeds and land restrictions.
The value of the property has been bitterly contested by Trump’s lawyers since the start of the trial, after Judge Arthur Engoron, in his pretrial partial summary judgment determined that Trump overvalued the property by at least 2,300%. When Trump testified in the trial in November, he repeatedly lashed out at Engoron for what he called a “crazy” assessment of the property.
“He said in his statement that Mar-a-Lago is worth $18 million and it’s worth 50 times to 100 times more than that, and everybody knows it. And everybody is watching this case. He called me a fraud and he didn’t know anything about me,” Trump said on the stand.
According to evidence shown at trial, Trump agreed in a 2002 deed to “forever extinguish [his] right to develop or use the Property for any purpose other than club use.” While Trump Organization executives were aware of the limited use of the property, they allegedly valued the property as a residence in Trump’s financial statements while treating it as a social club for tax purposes, according to New York Attorney General Letitia James.
In Trump’s statements of financial condition, he valued the property between $426 million and $612 million, despite a local tax assessor appraising the market value of the property between $18 and $27 million. Engoron, in his summary judgment ruling, wrote that James had proven that Trump was liable for a false valuation of the property.
Trump has repeatedly argued that Engoron misunderstood the purpose of a tax assessment, going as far as to call Engoron’s finding “fraud.”
“Are you paying taxes on an $18 million valuation of Mar-a-Lago or $1.5 billion?” state attorney Kevin Wallace asked Trump during his direct examination.
“You know that assessments are totally different from the valuation of property,” Trump responded.
(NEW YORK) — The number of patients in the U.S. traveling out of state to obtain abortion care has doubled since 2020. Nearly one in five patients in the first half of 2023 traveled to other states for abortion care, compared to one in 10 patients traveling out of state in 2020, according to new research from the Guttmacher Institute.
According to data gathered by Guttmacher, the number of people who traveled over state lines to access abortion care more than doubled in the first six months of 2023 — 92,100 patients traveled across state lines for abortion care, compared with 40,600 people who traveled in the first half of 2020.
Those people are mainly traveling to states that border states where bans have ceased nearly all abortion services, according to Guttmacher.
The Guttmacher Institute says this surge in travel is largely driven by abortion bans going into effect since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, overturning federal protections for abortion rights.
The state with the largest increase in the number of patients traveling from out of state for abortion care was Illinois, according to Guttmacher.
“Illinois is bordered by three states that ban abortion as well as the restrictive states of Iowa and Wisconsin — in 2020, 21% of the abortions that occurred in Illinois were to people coming from out of state, this increased to 42% in the first six months of 2023,” Rachel Jones, a principal research scientist at Guttmacher, told ABC News.
Illinois borders Indiana, Kentucky and Missouri. It also borders Wisconsin, which had ceased nearly all abortion services until a court decision last month issued a ruling that an 1849 law did not apply to abortion, but only applied to the termination of a pregnancy without the mother’s consent.
Two Planned Parenthood locations in Wisconsin have since resumed abortions.
At least 16 states have ceased nearly all abortion services since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
New Mexico also saw an increase in the number of patients who traveled across state lines for abortion care, with the state bordering Texas and Oklahoma, where nearly all abortions have ceased, according to the data.
Additionally, an estimated 8,230 patients from out of state received abortion care in New Mexico, data showed.
Despite an abortion ban being in place in Florida, the state still saw an uptick in the number of abortions that took place. According to data gathered by Guttmacher, an estimated 5,780 patients traveled to Florida for abortion care.
Florida has a 15-week abortion ban in place and a 6-week abortion ban that could go into effect if the 15-week ban is upheld by the state Supreme Court.
The data also showed the impact of bans going into effect.
“In South Carolina, the number of abortions provided in the formal health care system decreased by 79%—from 750 in August 2023 to 160 just one month later—after the state started enforcing a ban on abortions after six weeks gestation on August 23, 2023,” a Guttmacher policy analysis said.
But what the study doesn’t cover is what happened to patients who were unable to travel across state lines for care.
“We’re documenting an increase in abortion in states bordering those where abortion is banned, which demonstrates that there are lots of people — tens of thousands of people — have been able to travel to another state to get care. We know that there are thousands of people, maybe tens of thousands of people, who aren’t able to do that, who don’t have the resources or the logistical support to do that,” Jones said.
“And that’s what this study doesn’t tell us —who’s not able to overcome these barriers,” Jones said.
(NEW YORK) — Eligible adults can now receive free at-home rapid tests, telehealth sessions and at-home treatments for both COVID and influenza through a newly expanded federal government program.
Initially launched as a pilot program in select areas, the Home Test to Treat program from the National Institutes of Health is now available nationwide at test2treat.org.
Any adult with a current positive test for COVID or flu can enroll to receive free telehealth care and, if prescribed, medication delivered to their home. Follow-up care is also possible through the treatment process.
“If something comes up and [patients] want to have a follow up, they can return for a second telemedicine visit,” said Andrew Weitz, Ph.D., NIH lead for the Home Test to Treat program.
“We actually haven’t seen this happen at all yet,” he added.
Those not currently positive for COVID or flu can have free tests delivered if they are uninsured or insured through select federal programs such as Medicare, Medicaid, the VA health care system, or Indian Health Services.
“I think that these [telehealth] delivery mechanisms are going to be absolutely crucial to unburden the in-person offices and the lines that we have and wait times,” said Dr. Michael Mina, chief science officer at eMed, the company that helped implement the new Home Test to Treat program.
COVID tests can also be ordered through a separate program, covidtests.gov, which relaunched a few months ago allowing orders for an additional four tests per household, or eight tests for those who haven’t already placed an order yet this fall.
As the largest source of funding for medical research in the world, the NIH is also pursuing its research-oriented mission to explore how technology can be leveraged to improve health care access more broadly.
“We’re doing this to both benefit public health, but at the same time, being the NIH, which is really a research organization, one of our aims through this program is to better understand how technologies like at-home tests and telemedicine can improve health care access for people across the country,” Weitz said.
The program is set to expire in the spring of 2024, but it remains to be seen if the initiative will potentially transfer to the private sector.
“Whether or not a program like this could get enough interest from the public to be sustained by the commercial sector or is this something that needs sustained government investment… those are the types of research questions that we’re looking to answer from this program,” Weitz said.
The program will initially provide the Pfizer COVID-19 & Flu Home Test, the first FDA-authorized test that can detect both viruses in one swab at home.
Treatment for respiratory illnesses must typically begin within a short window of onset of symptoms or as soon as possible.
“By the time most people get to the doctor for [respiratory illnesses], they’re already outside of the therapeutic window where treatment could have helped and so then they’re kind of stuck, hoping that the body is going to clear the virus but some end up in the hospital,” Mina said.
Medication from the program delivered to the home will be available at no cost regardless of insurance status. If picked up from a pharmacy, patients may be asked to pay out of pocket or provide their insurance, but can ask the pharmacy if they have government procured treatments available at no cost.
“For acute respiratory viruses like COVID and influenza, really starting treatment as soon as possible after infection will help you to limit the growth that the virus will make in the first place and therefore help to limit the damage that it does to the cells of the body,” Mina said.
