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Israel-Gaza live updates: ‘Hundreds’ of sex crimes testimonies from Oct. 7, IDF says

December 5, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(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 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.”

Atmospheric river threatening West Coast with floods, heavy rain

December 5, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — An atmospheric river will continue to impact the West Coast over the next 24 hours.

A record amount of moisture is hitting the Pacific Northwest as the powerful system continues to bring heavy rainfall to the region.

Up to a half foot of rain has already fallen in parts of Washington, with several cities reporting daily record rainfall on Monday, according to the National Weather Service.

Atmospheric rivers are essentially rivers in the sky that collect moisture from tropical areas and redistribute the water to other latitudes.

The weather phenomenon occurs frequently around the globe, but they cause 80% of flood damage at an average estimated cost of $1.1 billion annually on the West Coast of the United States, according to researchers at Phys.org.

The current plume of moisture in the Pacific Northwest will continue into Washington on Tuesday morning and then will move into Oregon in the afternoon and evening, bringing an additional 4 to 6 inches of rain, forecasts show.

The National Weather Service has issued flood alerts for Washington, Oregon, Northern California and Idaho for river and stream flooding.

By Wednesday morning and afternoon, some of the rain is expected to move into northern California and the San Francisco Bay area. Major flooding is not expected in California.

More storms are expected to hit the West Coast on Thursday and then again on Saturday, with more rain at the coast and lower elevations.

With the storms later in the week, the air mass will be colder, so the snow will fall in lower elevations, possibly covering I-90 and I-80 in snow, which could make commutes dangerous.

Essential herbicide, but at what cost? Paraquat remains in US despite bans elsewhere

December 5, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — The number of nations where paraquat, an agricultural herbicide, is allowed to be used continues to dwindle, yet paraquat continues to receive stamps of approval from federal regulators in the United States.

“Contrary to these dozens of countries, which have looked at the exact same data and have found that paraquat is too dangerous [and] too toxic to continue using, the United States Environmental Protection Agency reached the exact opposite conclusion,” said Jonathan Kalmuss-Katz, a senior attorney with Earthjustice, a non-profit environmental law firm.

Paraquat, which is often distributed under the name Gramoxone in the U.S. by Syngenta, is a restricted use herbicide known for its effectiveness in killing weeds.

Farmers across the country are only allowed to use paraquat if they have been trained and certified, and when applying it to farmland, they are told to wear protective gear and not ingest any amount of the herbicide due to its toxicity.

Frank Garcia didn’t think twice about using paraquat on his Arizona farm in the late 1970s and early 1980s. He says that he got the necessary certification to use paraquat, but does not remember whether he or his wife Maria wore respirators when using the herbicide.

“You could see the results in a few hours,” Garcia said. “In a day or two, [the weeds] would be shriveled up pretty well.”

Decades later, Maria Garcia is battling Parkinson’s disease, and she believes it’s because she was exposed to paraquat during her time on the farm. She is one of more than 4,000 people who have sued Syngenta and Chevron, alleging negligence and failure to warn of a product liability.

Syngenta rejects these concerns, telling ABC News, “In short, the hypothesis that paraquat causes Parkinson’s is not accepted in the medical community or peer-reviewed science, nor has it been accepted at any time in the past.”

‘They continue to sell it here’

The use of paraquat tripled in the U.S. between 2008 and 2018, with estimates from the U.S. Geological Survey showing that in 2018, the use of the herbicide was particularly common in areas such as California’s Central Valley, Iowa and the Mississippi River Valley.

In 2019, Thailand issued a ban on paraquat, with Brazil, Chile, Malaysia, Peru and Taiwan each following with various prohibitions. China also banned the domestic use of paraquat, despite a state-owned Chinese chemical company acquiring Syngenta in a record $43 billion deal in 2017.

“The Chinese government essentially owns Syngenta, but doesn’t use [paraquat] in their own country,” Peter Flowers, co-lead counsel in the multidistrict litigation against Syngenta and Chevron involving more than 4,000 plaintiffs, told ABC News.

“They continue to sell it here,” he continued. “We as Americans should be outraged by this.”

Paraquat bans now apply to more than 50 countries, an ABC News analysis found.

To use paraquat products like Gramoxone, the EPA says that Americans must be certified pesticide applicators and complete an hour-long online safety training every three years.

“EPA’s assumption that existing regulations would be sufficient to protect people is just not grounded in reality and not supported by science,” said Kalmuss-Katz.

Syngenta says that Gramoxone does not pose a danger when used properly.

Chevron, which distributed Gramoxone in the U.S. between 1966 and 1986 before ceasing its involvement in the paraquat market, has also denied liability. They told ABC News in a statement that they quit selling paraquat for commercial reasons due to increased competition, not health concerns.

“To this day, and despite hundreds of studies being conducted in the past 20 or so years, a causal link between Paraquat and Parkinson’s disease has not been established,” Chevron’s statement said.

‘This would be really bad for them’

The EPA has insisted that its most recent thorough review of scientific studies on paraquat has found no clear link between the herbicide and Parkinson’s.

Both the agency and Syngenta have pointed to a 2020 Agricultural Health Study sponsored in part by the National Institute of Health, which found “that there was no evidence of an association between paraquat exposure and Parkinson’s disease.”

But in their petition, Earthjustice argued that the EPA “misinterpreted the evidence” when they dismissed the connection between paraquat and Parkinson’s disease, and that their risk assessment was “flawed” and “one-sided,” which could leave more people “likely to develop Parkinson’s disease.”

Dr. Deborah Cory-Slechta, a widely respected University of Rochester neurotoxicologist, conducted several of her own paraquat studies on mice and reached a conclusion that was different from what the EPA found.

“We saw things that were convincing to us that paraquat could indeed be a risk factor for Parkinson’s disease,” Cory-Slechta told ABC News.

Cory-Slechta’s work examining what effect paraquat has on the brains of mice is frequently cited as evidence suggesting a link between paraquat and Parkinson’s.

“The human studies … show links between paraquat and Parkinson’s disease over and over again,” she said. “The animal studies continue to show those links including the loss of dopamine neurons, so you have a correspondence between the human and the animal studies that’s very compelling.”

Cory-Slechta was being considered by the EPA as a potential candidate nearly 20 years ago for a scientific advisory panel regarding pesticides, but Carey Gillam, a contributor to The Guardian and the managing editor for The New Lede, an environmental news website supported by the Environmental Working Group, said the internal Syngenta communications she obtained showed that Syngenta did not want that to happen.

“Syngenta got wind of this and realized that this would be really bad for them,” Gillam said, pointing to a 2005 email in which Syngenta asked “what action can be taken” to keep Cory-Slechta off the EPA panel. “You can see through the emails how they develop this plan that they want to convince the EPA to kick her off or to not appoint her to any of their panels.”

Syngenta maintains that it “acted appropriately with regard to Dr. Cory-Slechta.”

In other internal communications obtained by Gillam, the company asked industry lobbying group CropLife America to, “in such a way that they cannot be attributed to Syngenta,” tell the EPA that Cory-Slechta was unwilling to “enter into objective scientific debate with industry regarding her data.”

When ABC News reached out to ask about Cory-Slechta, Syngenta said they continue to stand by this position.

“I think Syngenta’s efforts are very similar to what I’ve seen over the years from many chemical companies whose efforts are to either discredit the science or to mitigate its potential impact,” Cory-Slechta said.

Federal lobbying disclosures show CropLife America spent almost $2 million last year on lobbying efforts. Some of that money was associated with legislation like the Protect America’s Children from Toxic Pesticides Act, which would ban pesticides like paraquat from the U.S.

CropLife America told ABC News that it “routinely represents our members by reflecting their views in our comments on these nominees, as we do on dozens of other regulatory matters on which EPA requests public comment.”

A reconsideration by regulators

In 2021, the EPA issued an interim decision to allow for paraquat’s continued use in the U.S. for another 15 years while requiring additional safety precautions.

Since then, after being sued by Earthjustice, which is representing The Michael J. Fox Foundation and other organizations in this effort, the EPA said that they would reconsider their decision.

“Now [the] EPA has a chance to go back to fix the mistakes that it made during the prior risk evaluation, to reject Syngenta’s interference and to provide the protections law requires,” Kalmuss-Katz of Earthjustice said. “We’re waiting to see whether [the] EPA lives up to that.”

In the meantime, more than 2,300 miles away from EPA headquarters, each day continues to be a challenge for Maria Garcia as she copes with the effects of Parkinson’s in her Arizona home.

Tricia, Maria’s daughter-in-law, is hoping that the agency will take action.

“I would urge the EPA and any other decision makers to please ban this product from being used in the United States and save the lives of the future farmers,” she said.

What to expect after CVS changes drug pricing formula

December 5, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — CVS is the latest pharmacy to change its drug pricing formula, a move it said would increase transparency and simplify costs.

The company will now base drug costs on the amount that it pays for a drug — limiting the markup and service fee to customers.

“What CVS is doing — at the pharmacy and at the PBM [pharmacy benefit managers] — is rewiring or resetting how reimbursement happens in an industry that has become very complex and largely follows a model based on how things used to be a decade ago,” a CVS Pharmacy spokesperson told ABC News. “Only we can take this kind of step forward, given our leadership on the PBM and pharmacy. It is a necessary foundational step to make this entire system more consumer-friendly, preserve choice for payers, and maintain a viable retail pharmacy industry.”

Dr. John Brownstein, chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor, said the announcement by CVS aligns with the industry’s decision to be more straightforward with drug prices.

“By basing drug costs on their actual acquisition price, CVS is taking a crucial foundational step to make healthcare more consumer-friendly and ensure the viability of retail pharmacies,” he said.

Many consumers may not be impacted immediately by this change. The earliest consumer impact would be the first half of 2024 for those using cash pharmacy discount cards at a CVS Pharmacy.

In 2025, CVS Pharmacy said it will launch this model with pharmacy benefit managers. Savings will mostly be seen on the payer or plan sponsor side but will depend on exactly how the model is adopted, individual client use and how the plan is applied to an individual’s benefits.

Dr. Lucas Berenbrok, an associate professor of pharmacy and therapeutics at the University of Pittsburgh, said pharmacies and consumers alike will benefit from these new pricing models. Pharmacies will have a more predictable reimbursement rate and consumers may be less likely to overpay for generic drugs, he noted.

“I think it could give patients in the public even more trust that someone’s looking out for them and that they’re able to get medications at a fair price,” Berenbrok told ABC News.

The CVS pricing model is similar to the cost-based pricing for prescription drugs at Express Scripts announced last month.

“It’s encouraging to see major players like CVS and Express Scripts taking steps to eliminate the complexity in drug pricing, ultimately benefiting consumers and payors alike,” Brownstein said.

Dr. Jade A. Cobern, MD, MPH, is a board-certified pediatrician specialized in preventive medicine and a member of the ABC News Medical Unit.

At least 63 dead following deadly flooding, landslides in Tanzania

December 5, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(LONDON) — At least 63 people have died and 116 have been injured after torrential rains triggered deadly flash floods and landslides in northern Tanzania, Tanzania’s prime minister has announced.

“We have received the blessing of heavy rain in the Katesh area, Hanang district, Manyara region which unfortunately has also brought a flood disaster,” said Tanzania’s President Samia Suluhu Hasan writing on X — formerly known as Twitter. “I have directed our disaster response agencies in this area where they have already started work to help rescue and prevent more disasters from happening.”

Zuhura Yunus, spokesperson for Tanzania’s president’s office, said that at least 1,150 households and 5,600 people have been affected and at least 750 acres of farmland destroyed.

Footage broadcast on local media showed vehicles and debris being swept down roads by currents of water, civilians wading through water and cars stuck in thick mud.

Tanzania’s Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa visited the Manyara region on Monday to assess the situation and meet victims and local officials.

On Tuesday paying a temporary camp in the Manyara Region where victims of the flooding, many of whose houses were damaged in the flood disaster, were seeking shelter.

Tanzania’s President Samia Sululu Hasan, who was in Dubai attending the COP28 climate conference, cut short her trip to attend to the crisis following the disaster.

Speaking at the climate conference, she warned that implementing a global goal on adaptation framework is a “matter of urgency, not choice.

“The decision is therefore ours to adhere to science or face the consequences,” said Saluhu.

Tanzania, which has one of the smallest carbon footprints in Africa, has suffered increasing climate-related disasters with at least 15,700 people having died so far in extreme weather disasters in Africa in 2023, according to Carbon Brief.

U.S. Ambassador to Tanzania Michael Battle said he is “deeply saddened” by the mudslides that occurred in Tanzania’s Manyara region.

“We grieve with Tanzanians across the country at this tragic loss of life and livelihoods. The thoughts and prayers of the entire U.S. Mission to Tanzania are with all those impacted by this natural disaster,” said Battle.

Tanzania’s Prime Minister’s Office announced that search and rescue operations will continue and that Tanzania’s defence forces and rescue teams are searching for survivors and the bodies of those killed as damaged roads and bridges are complicating rescue efforts.

Israel-Gaza live updates: Doctor describes conditions of Hamas hostages

December 5, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — The temporary cease-fire between Hamas and Israel ended early Friday, and Israel has resumed its bombardment of Gaza.

Here’s how the news is developing: