(WASHINGTON) — Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley is addressing former President Donald Trump’s mocking jabs at her husband, Maj. Michael Haley, who is serving a one-year deployment overseas in the South Carolina National Guard.
In a new interview with ABC News’ co-anchor Eva Pilgrim, Nikki Haley discussed the comments about her husband from the former president, suggesting they were offensive to military families across the country.
“It’s not personal for me and Michael; we can handle that,” Haley told Pilgrim on Wednesday. “It’s personal when you think of military families. They go through a lot. They don’t complain.”
Haley’s husband, who was deployed last year to Africa, was recently targeted by Trump, who seemingly implied during a campaign event in Conway, South Carolina, earlier this month that he is in Africa to get away.
“What happened to her husband? What happened to her husband? Where is he? He’s gone. He knew. He knew,” Trump said then.
He later doubled down on singling out Haley’s husband, saying, “I think he should come back home to help save her dying campaign.”
“And so, for someone to mock or make light of that, it cuts deep no matter what because military families, military spouses and their kids go through so much during this deployment,” Nikki Haley told Pilgrim on Wednesday. “Don’t make light of that.”
In her interview, Haley also reflected on her 26-year marriage to her husband.
“I’ve never done anything without him, we met when I was 17 … he’s all I ever known,” Haley said. “He’s the last person I think about when I go to bed because safety is front of mind. But also, I’m just grateful for him and so many other men and women who believe our country is worth fighting for.”
Having now run a presidential campaign for a year, Haley said that it has not been easy on her family but they understand the “sacrifice.”
“Our kids know we’re a family of service. They’ve watched their dad get deployed before. They’ve watched me run for office before, and they know this is all about sacrifice and service,” she said. “And so, I’m incredibly proud of Michael [and] I’m incredibly proud of the kids and how they continue to just stay humble and true to themselves.”
(NEW YORK) — The parents of Gabby Petitio, the 22-year-old travel blogger who was killed by her fiancé Brian Laundrie, settled Wednesday with Laundrie’s parents and their attorney in an emotional distress lawsuit and will avoid a civil trial, according to a statement.
Nichole Schmidt and Joseph Petito, Gabby Petito’s parents, filed a lawsuit against Brian Laundrie’s parents, Christopher and Roberta Laundrie, and their attorney, Steven Bertolino, for intentional infliction of emotional distress in March 2022. They claimed the Laundries were aware of Gabby Petito’s murder soon after her death in August 2021 and chose to do nothing other than issue a statement through Bertolino expressing hope she would be found.
On Wednesday, the two sides came to an agreement to avoid a civil trial that would have begun in May.
“After a long day of mediation, a confidential resolution has been reached between the parents of Gabby Petito, the parents of Brian Laundrie and Attorney Steven Bertolino to which all parties reluctantly agreed in order to avoid further legal expenses and prolonged personal conflict. Our hope is to close this chapter of our lives to allow us to move on and continue to honor the legacy of our beautiful daughter, Gabby,” a statement from Joseph and Tara Petito and Nichole and James Schmidt read.
Bertolino said in a statement that he and the Landries participated in mediation and that the terms of the resolution were confidential.
“We look forward to putting this matter behind us,” Bertolino’s statement read in part.
Petito’s family reported her missing on Sept. 11, 2021, while she was on a cross-country road trip with Laundrie. Her body was found about a week later in Wyoming’s Bridger-Teton National Forest, with a coroner ruling that she had died of “blunt-force injuries to the head and neck, with manual strangulation.”
Brian Laundrie, who was later found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in Florida’s Myakkahatchee Creek Environmental Park, wrote in a notebook that he killed Petito, according to the FBI.
U.S. President Joe Biden pays a visit to Culver City for his campaign at Julian Dixon in Los Angeles, California, United States on Feb. 21, 2024. (Grace Yoon/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden touted a new pathway for debt relief that kicked into gear Wednesday for 153,000 student loan borrowers, calling it a ticket to “chase dreams” in a speech in Culver City, California, and highlighting a key part of his 2024 campaign strategy.
“Folks, I’m happy to have been able to forgive these loans because when we realize and relieve Americans of their student debt, they’re free to chase their dreams,” Biden told a small group gathered at Julian Dixon Public Library.
The debt relief announced Wednesday is for those enrolled in a new student debt repayment plan rolled out this past fall, who took out a small initial balance and have been paying it down for a decade or longer.
“This action will be a huge help to graduates of community college and borrowers with smaller loans, putting them back on track faster for debt forgiveness than ever before,” Biden said.
The Department of Education has estimated that 85% of community college students would be debt free within 10 years if they enrolled in the new plan, called SAVE.
Roughly 7.5 million people are currently enrolled in SAVE so far, so the roughly 150,000 people who qualify equates to only 2% of all enrollees. Another four million people in the SAVE Plan have also had their monthly payments reduced to $0 a month because their incomes are below minimum wage.
The plan also shields borrowers from unpaid interest accrual, one of the largest additional fees that borrowers face on their loans, because unpaid interest is forgiven so long as qualified borrowers make their monthly payments on the loan itself — even if their required payment is $0.
Starting this summer, the plan will also cut down the amount that borrowers have to make on their monthly payments by half — from 10% of their discretionary income to 5%.
“This plan is the most generous repayment program ever and today we’re doing it even faster and quicker than ever before,” Biden said.
College debt is a major 2024 campaign issue for young voters, and many were left disappointed when Biden couldn’t follow through on his pledge to cancel $10,000 to $20,000 in debt last year after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned his sweeping debt relief policy.
Biden’s continued efforts to cancel debt in a more piecemeal fashion have now reached nearly 3.9 million borrowers, which he continues to highlight on the campaign trail in an attempt to gain support from a key voting group.
“This is the kind of relief that can be life changing for individuals and for their families. And it’s good for the economy as a whole. By freeing millions of Americans from the crushing debt of student loan programs it means they can finally get on with their lives instead of getting their lives being put on hold,” Biden said on Wednesday.
Some of the other approaches the Biden administration has taken on debt relief include fixing programs like Public Service Loan Forgiveness and income-driven repayment plans, or going after colleges that have defrauded students.
And the administration is continuing to work on a plan B to Biden’s initial debt relief proposal that was rejected by the Supreme Court, taking a narrower approach that could cancel debt for people most constrained by it.
The administration hopes this more bureaucratic approach will not be overturned by the court yet again — though borrowers should be cognizant that it is almost certain to face lawsuits once it reaches its final stages this summer.
The number of borrowers who may receive student loan debt forgiveness under the new policy proposal is vast: it could range from automatic cancellation for people who are on the edge of defaulting on their loans in the near future to application-based relief that could be used on more individualized cases, like people who are struggling to pay down their debts because of costs like health care or housing.
But it doesn’t stop there. Other factors include looking at the amount borrowers are paying toward their student loans compared to how much money borrowers have, including income and assets, as well as loans they have outside of higher education and whether they’ve been able to pay those down.
The department also wants to look at whether borrowers received a Pell Grant, designed for low-income college students, and whether they use any other government support programs.
Other aspects of the proposal, which are less sweeping but had been discussed in the past three monthly meetings held by the Department of Education, focus on borrowers who have more debt now than they initially took out, have loans that they first took out over 25 years ago, have large loans from schools that provided insufficient career advancement opportunities and who qualify for debt relief already under programs like Public Service Loan Forgiveness or income-driven repayment plans — but haven’t received it.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden is looking at the possibility of taking executive action to tighten asylum restrictions, an administration official confirms to ABC.
One of the possibilities under consideration would be to bar migrants from seeking asylum if they crossed into the U.S. illegally between ports of entry. The migrants would instead have to prove they had a basis to remain through other avenues, such as a medical emergency.
However, the potential changes are far from decided and it is possible that this does not come to pass.
CNN was first to report the consideration.
The discussion comes after Republicans on Capitol Hill, under pressure from Donald Trump, killed a bipartisan border deal in the Senate that was tied to tens of billions in foreign aid.
While President Biden has sought to stress his focus on southern border security, tightening asylum restrictions could also put him at odds with progressives in his own party who will likely argue that these kinds of changes are reminiscent of Trump-era immigration policies that Biden campaigned against.
“The Administration spent months negotiating in good faith to deliver the toughest and fairest bipartisan border security bill in decades because we need Congress to make significant policy reforms and to provide additional funding to secure our border and fix our broken immigration system,” White House spokesperson Angelo Fernández Hernández said in a statement, referring to the Senate agreement that was rejected by many conservatives as insufficient.
“Congressional Republicans chose to put partisan politics ahead of our national security, rejected what border agents have said they need, and then gave themselves a two-week vacation,” Hernández contended.
He went on to stress that the administration feels Biden can only do so much as “no executive action, no matter how aggressive, can deliver the significant policy reforms and additional resources Congress can provide.”
(WASHINGTON) — The indictment of Alexander Smirnov, a former FBI informant, is roiling the ongoing impeachment inquiry being led by House Republicans against President Joe Biden.
Smirnov, once touted as a star witness by Republicans, was charged last week for allegedly making false statements about Biden and his son Hunter, including a story about both men taking $5 million in bribes from Burisma, a Ukrainian energy company.
New Justice Department court documents unveiled Tuesday allege Smirnov told investigators that Russian intelligence officials were involved in passing the story.
“I think the Smirnov revelations destroy the entire case,” Rep. Jamie Raskin, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, told ABC News Senior Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas on Wednesday.
“Smirnov was the foundation of the whole thing,” Raskin continued. “He was the one who came forward to say that Burisma had given Joe Biden $5 million, and that was just concocted in thin air.”
Republican Rep. Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, was also pressed by ABC News’ Thomas about the allegations surrounding Smirnov.
“Well, all I’m saying is you got to ask the FBI about that,” Jordan said. “He may, in fact, have given false I don’t know. But what I do know is everything we knew ahead of time.”
Jordan also told reporters that the Smirnov development “doesn’t change the fundamental facts.”
The comments came as the House Oversight Committee gathered Wednesday for a closed-door deposition with James Biden, President Biden’s brother. James Biden told lawmakers the president “has never had any involvement or any direct or indirect financial interest” in his family’s business ventures.
The Republican chairman of the Oversight Committee, James Comer, also sought to downplay the impact the Smirnov allegations would have on the impeachment probe.
In a statement last week, Comer said the “inquiry is not reliant” on Smirnov.
“It is based on a large record of evidence, including bank records and witness testimony, revealing that Joe Biden knew of and participated in his family’s business dealings,” Comer said.
Republicans have alleged that President Biden was directly involved in and benefited from his family’s business dealings — accusations staunchly denied by the White House — though they have not found evidence of a crime committed by the president.
Since formalizing the impeachment inquiry in mid-December, Republicans have held one public hearing and interviewed other witnesses, some of whom have similarly said President Biden wasn’t involved in his family’s business endeavors.
“It was that foundation that the whole house of cards has been built on and the entire thing has collapsed,” Raskin said Wednesday of the Smirnov revelations. “But of course, we don’t even have to rely on Smirnov’s own words because there have been somewhere near a dozen witnesses who have completely repudiated and refuted these essential allegations.”
(WASHINGTON) — Former Trump White House adviser Peter Navarro has been ordered by a federal judge to return presidential records he has in his possession.
Navarro, who was then-President Donald Trump’s White House trade adviser, “continues to possess Presidential records that have not been produced to their rightful owner, the United States,” U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly wrote on Tuesday.
The case is separate from Navarro’s criminal contempt of Congress conviction, where he was sentenced to four months in jail and ordered to pay a $9,500 fine for defying a congressional subpoena to cooperate with the House Select Committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
In a six-page opinion regarding the presidential records, Kollar-Kotelly asked Navarro to “show cause why he should not be held in contempt of the Court’s judgment” after he defied her order to return the records.
“Defendant is ordered to SHOW CAUSE why he should not be held in contempt of the Court’s judgment, on or before March 21, 2024,” wrote Kollar-Kotelly.
Navarro also has until March 20 to “reprocess” the remaining records in his possession, which the filing says amounts to approximately 600 records.
In testimony during Navarro’s contempt of Congress trial, former Jan. 6 committee staff director David Buckley said the panel was seeking to question Navarro about efforts to delay Congress’ certification of the 2020 election, a plan Navarro dubbed the “Green Bay Sweep” in his book, In Trump Time.
Earlier this month, a judge denied Navarro’s request to remain out of prison while he appeals his contempt of Congress conviction. The Bureau of Prisons has not yet set a date for Navarro to report to prison.
(NEW YORK) — By spring, Ukraine faces a potentially catastrophic shortage of ammunition and air defenses that could effectively turn the tide of the war and lend Russian President Vladimir Putin a significant advantage, according to an internal U.S. estimate.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, two U.S. officials described “late March” as being a particularly crucial time for the fate of Ukrainian troops if Congress doesn’t pass a new aid bill. A third official said it would be difficult to pinpoint exactly when the situation for Ukrainian troops could worsen but noted that the shortages were expected to grow more dire through spring.
“The juncture starts now and it just keeps getting worse progressively through the spring and into summer. So, this time period that we are entering is a critical time period,” said a senior U.S. defense official.
The U.S. assessment comes nearly two years after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and as support for Ukraine in Congress and in the American public is fading. The once-steady flow of cash and weapons from the U.S. — totaling some $44 billion since the invasion — has mostly dried up. A separate $60 billion aid package requested by President Joe Biden and passed by the Senate is in limbo in the House as some Republicans loyal to Donald Trump question America’s commitment to another far-away conflict entering its third year.
The White House this week directly blamed the hold up for Russia’s victory in the eastern city of Avdiivka. The town fell last weekend after Ukrainian troops there were forced to ration ammunition, handing the Kremlin its first major military victory since last May.
“It was because of congressional inaction,” said White House National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby on Ukraine’s loss. “And we’ve been warning Congress that if they didn’t act, Ukraine would suffer losses on the battlefield and here you go. That’s what happened this weekend.”
U.S. officials predict similar scenarios will play out elsewhere in Ukraine as the government there is forced to make tough choices on where to put its remaining air defenses — and as Russia makes greater use of its airpower, including lobbing satellite-guided glide-bombs much as it was in Avdiivka.
“The things that are protected today — they will not be able to protect all of these locations in the future if they don’t maintain supplies of interceptors,” the senior defense official said. And if Russia gains control of the skies, “it completely changes the nature of this fight.”
Added one Ukrainian official: “Our primary goal is to deter Russian aviation. If we can’t do that, it’s time to pack our things.”
The $44 billion in U.S. security assistance for Ukraine has supplied Kyiv with a long list of sophisticated weaponry including Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, Bradley and Stryker fighting vehicles, a Patriot air defense battery, advanced rocket launchers known as “HIMARS,” and 31 M1 Abrams tanks. The U.S. also is helping to train the first batch of Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16 fighter jets donated by Denmark and the Netherlands.
But officials say Ukraine urgently needs both small and large munitions, including the GPS-guided rockets that make the HIMARS launchers effective.
Another concern is Ukraine’s air defense capability, including supplies to protect the donated F-16 jets slated for deployment later this year. Officials say the country also still needs money to build the infrastructure to support the fighters — including runways and hangers to store the jets. And while the U.S. is helping to train some pilots — described by one U.S. official as “fewer than 10” — there wouldn’t be enough money to bring on more in the future without additional U.S. aid.
Behind much of the GOP hesitation to support Ukraine is Trump, who has said it would be “stupid” to provide foreign aid to countries instead of loans. He also has encouraged Russia to attack NATO allies if they don’t contribute enough to their defense spending — a provocation quickly decried by U.S. allies in Europe as dangerous.
Complicating matters in the U.S. is that the Pentagon itself is set to run out of money on March 8 if Congress is unable to agree on annual spending legislation. House Republicans have insisted upon unspecified border policy provisions and deep cuts in domestic spending opposed by the Senate and White House.
Meanwhile, the Biden administration is trying to make the case to lawmakers that Ukraine isn’t a lost cause.
The U.S. estimates Russian has spent up to $211 billion on military operations in the war and losing $10 billion in arms sales. That’s in addition to the heavy casualties: Of the 360,000 Russian fighters available before the war began, some 315,000 Russian fighters have been killed or wounded.
A separate Dec. 8 estimate by the Defense Intelligence Agency, provided to Congress and described by a person familiar with the findings, concluded that Russia has lost some 2,200 tanks out of the 3,500 it had in stock before the war began.
Analysts say those losses haven’t crippled Russian forces though because Moscow has been able to pull Soviet-era vehicles out of storage while also manufacturing new ones. At the same time, Russia’s economic alliance with China has been able to help the country to shrug off many international sanctions, keeping its economy and military industrial base afloat.
In one recent analysis, the International Institute for Strategic Studies didn’t see any sign Russia was buckling under the weight of such hefty losses on the battlefield.
“Russia will be able to sustain its assault on Ukraine at current attrition rates for another 2–3 years, and maybe even longer,” the institute wrote.
(NEW YORK) — More than four months since Hamas terrorists invaded Israel on Oct. 7, the Israeli military continues its bombardment of the neighboring Gaza Strip.
The conflict, now the deadliest between the warring sides since Israel’s founding in 1948, shows no signs of letting up soon and the brief cease-fire that allowed for over 100 hostages to be freed from Gaza remains a distant memory.
Here’s how the news is developing:
Feb 22, 3:35 AM One dead, several injured in shooting near Jerusalem, Israeli authorities say
At least one person was killed and several others were injured Thursday in a shooting on a main road just outside Jerusalem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, according to Israeli authorities.
Highway 1 was packed with cars when gunfire erupted Thursday morning near a checkpoint between Jerusalem and the Israeli settlement of Ma’ale Adumim. Three “terrorists” armed with automatic weapons pulled up in a vehicle, got out and opened fire at cars that were standing still in the traffic jam, according to the Israel Police.
Israeli security forces who were already on scene “neutralized” two of the suspects, police said. A third suspect who had tried to escape was later found and also “neutralized,” according to police.
Medics arrived and “ran from vehicle to vehicle” searching for victims, according to Israel’s rescue service MDA. A man in his 20s was pronounced dead at the scene while several others were transported to area hospitals, including four people who were moderately injured with gunshot wounds, MDA said.
Feb 21, 2:59 PM Israeli Minister Gantz expresses cautious optimism about new hostage deal
Israeli Minister Benny Gantz on Wednesday expressed cautious optimism that a new outline for a possible hostage deal could move forward.
Gantz, a member of the Israeli war cabinet, said at Israel’s Defense Headquarters Wednesday that there are “attempts” to “promote a new outline” for a hostage deal, and there are “initial signs that indicate the possibility of moving forward.”
“We will not stop looking for the way, and we will not miss any opportunity to bring the girls and boys home,” Gantz said.
-ABC News’ Ellie Kaufman and Dana Savir
Feb 21, 1:02 PM 8 bodies remain in Nasser Medical Complex among living patients, Gaza Ministry of Health says
Eight patients who died because of a lack of electricity at Nasser Medical Complex in Gaza are still in their beds inside of the hospital among living patients, the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health said Wednesday.
The Ministry of Health said the bodies are still in the hospital because Israeli forces refuse to remove them.
The bodies “have begun to swell and show signs of decomposition, posing a danger to other patients,” the Ministry of Health said in a statement.
Israeli authorities denied these claims and said no bodies are still inside Nasser Hospital.
The Israel Defense Forces has been operating inside of Nasser Hospital for the last week. On Monday, the IDF announced its soldiers had arrested 200 suspected Hamas members at Nasser Hospital.
ABC News’ Ellie Kaufman and Camilla Alcini
Feb 21, 8:28 AM Israel considering sending delegation to Egypt for new round of talks, source says
Israel is weighing the possibility of sending a delegation back to Egypt for continued negotiations over a potential cease-fire or hostage deal with Hamas, an Israeli political source told ABC News on Wednesday.
There is some cautious optimism over the latest round of talks in Cairo, the source said.
Egypt, along with Qatar and the United States, has been mediating talks between the warring sides.
Feb 21, 8:14 AM Israel preparing to reopen Karni border crossing to facilitate aid to northern Gaza, source says
Israel is preparing to reopen the Karni border crossing to facilitate the entry of humanitarian aid into the northern Gaza Strip, an Israeli political source told ABC News on Wednesday.
Israel shuttered the Karni crossing, located on the border between southwestern Israel and northeastern Gaza, when Palestinian militant group Hamas came to power in the enclave in 2007 before permanently closing the crossing in 2011.
Northern Gaza has been isolated by the Israeli military and almost completely cut off from aid for weeks, according to the United Nations.
Feb 21, 7:56 AM UN food agency pauses deliveries to northern Gaza
The World Food Program, the food assistance arm of the United Nations, announced Tuesday that it is pausing deliveries of food aid to the northern Gaza Strip “until conditions are in place that allow for safe distribution.”
The decision came after a WFP convoy heading north from Gaza City was “surrounded by crowds of hungry people close to the Wadi Gaza checkpoint” on Sunday, the agency said. The same convoy faced “complete chaos and violence due to the collapse of civil order” when it tried to resume its journey north on Monday, according to the WFP.
“Several trucks were looted between Khan Yunis and Deir al-Balah and a truck driver was beaten. The remaining flour was spontaneously distributed off the trucks in Gaza City, amidst high tension and explosive anger,” the WFP said in a statement Tuesday. “The decision to pause deliveries to the north of the Gaza Strip has not been taken lightly, as we know it means the situation there will deteriorate further and more people risk dying of hunger.”
An analysis released Monday by the Global Nutrition Cluster, a humanitarian aid partnership led by the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), found that 15.6% of children under the age of 2 are acutely malnourished in northern Gaza, which has been isolated by the Israeli military and almost completely cut off from aid for weeks, compared to 5% in southern Gaza, where most aid enters the war-torn enclave. The acute malnutrition rate across Gaza was less than 1% before the war began last October, according to the report.
Feb 20, 2:21 PM Hostages held in Gaza have received medicine, Qatar says
Qatari officials said hostages held by Hamas in Gaza have received the medication that was part of a deal brokered last month.
The Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said it has asked Qatar for evidence that the medicine was delivered.
“Israel will examine the credibility of the report and will continue to work for the peace of our abductees,” the office said in a statement.
Feb 20, 12:21 PM US draft resolution calls for temporary cease-fire
The U.S. voted against a resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire at Wednesday’s United Nations Security Council meeting, The Associated Press reported.
The U.S. was the only nation of the 15 permanent Security Council members to vote against the measure, according to the AP.
U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield said “an unconditional cease-fire without any obligation for Hamas to release hostages” was irresponsible.
“While we cannot support a resolution that would put sensitive negotiations in jeopardy, we look forward to engaging on a text that we believe will address so many of the concerns we all share — a text that can and should be adopted by the council, so that we can have a temporary cease-fire as soon as practicable, based on the formula of all hostages being released,” she said.
The U.S. has been circulating its own draft resolution on Gaza that calls for a temporary cease-fire conditioned on the release of all hostages, while also condemning Hamas for the Oct. 7 attack that sparked the war, according to senior administration officials familiar with the matter.
If the proposal were to be adopted by the U.N. Security Council, it would mark the first time the body has formally condemned Hamas’ actions.
The officials say the draft also makes clear “that under current circumstances a major ground offensive into Rafah should not proceed” and that there can be no reduction in territory in the Gaza Strip or any forced displacement of Palestinians, while also calling on Israel “to lift all barriers to the provision of humanitarian assistance, open additional humanitarian routes, and to keep current crossings open.”
The senior officials signaled that American diplomats wouldn’t rush the text to a vote and that they intended on “allowing time for negotiations.”
While hostage talks have sputtered over the past couple of weeks, senior administration officials said they were making some progress.
“The differences between the parties, they have been narrowed. They haven’t been sufficiently narrowed to get us to a deal, but we are still hopeful and we are confident that there is the basis for an agreement between the parties,” one official said.
ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Feb 20, 11:34 AM US votes against immediate cease-fire
The U.S. voted against a resolution calling for an immediate cease-fire at Wednesday’s United Nations Security Council meeting, The Associated Press reported.
The U.S. was the only nation of the 15 permanent Security Council members to vote against the measure, according to the AP.
The U.S. has said an immediate cease-fire could impede the negotiations looking to free hostages and agree to a pause in fighting, the AP said.
Feb 20, 11:07 AM IDF operating inside Al-Amal Hospital
Israeli forces, which already entered Gaza’s Nasser Hospital, are also now operating inside the nearby Al-Amal Hospital, the Israel Defense Forces confirmed to ABC News.
“Al-Amal Hospital is currently under multiple attacks, as Israeli forces have directly targeted the third floor of the hospital, resulting in the burning of two rooms,” and “the hospital’s water lines were targeted,” the Palestine Red Crescent Society said.
Over 8,000 patients were evacuated from the hospital earlier this month, but almost 100 patients still remain inside, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said.
Feb 20, 7:13 AM WHO helps transfer 32 critical patients out of Gaza’s besieged Nasser Hospital
The World Health Organization said Tuesday that it has helped to successfully transfer 32 critically ill patients, including two children, from besieged Nasser Hospital in the southern Gaza Strip.
The WHO said its staff led two “life-saving,” “high-risk” missions at the medical complex in Khan Younis on Sunday and Monday, in close partnership with the Palestine Red Crescent Society and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, “amid ongoing hostilities and access restrictions.” Staff at Nasser Hospital had requested the transfer of patients after the facility became “non-functional” following an Israeli military raid on Feb. 14 after a weeklong siege, according to the WHO.
“Weak and frail patients were transferred amidst active conflict near the aid convoy,” the WHO said in a statement. “Road conditions hindered the swift movement of ambulances, placing the health of patients at further risk.”
“Nasser Hospital has no electricity or running water, and medical waste and garbage are creating a breeding ground for disease,” the organization added. “WHO staff said the destruction around the hospital was ‘indescribable.’ The area was surrounded by burnt and destroyed buildings, heavy layers of debris, with no stretch of intact road.”
The WHO estimates that 130 sick and injured patients and at least 15 doctors and nurses remain inside Nasser Hospital. As the facility’s intensive care unit was no longer functioning, the only remaining ICU patient was transferred to a different part of the complex where other patients are receiving basic care, according to the WHO.
“WHO fears for the safety and well-being of the patients and health workers remaining in the hospital and warns that further disruption to lifesaving care for the sick and injured would lead to more deaths,” the organization said. “Efforts to facilitate further patient referrals amidst the ongoing hostilities are in process.”
Prior to the missions on Sunday and Monday, the WHO said it “received two consecutive denials to access the hospital for medical assessment, causing delays in urgently needed patient referral.” At least five patients reportedly died in Nasser Hospital’s ICU before any missions or transfers were possible, according to the WHO.
Nasser Hospital is the main medical center serving southern Gaza. Ground troops from the Israel Defense Forces stormed the facility last week, looking for members of Hamas who the IDF alleges have been conducting military operations out of the hospital. Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that governs Gaza and is at war with neighboring Israel, denies the claims.
“The dismantling and degradation of the Nasser Medical Complex is a massive blow to Gaza’s health system,” the WHO said. “Facilities in the south are already operating well beyond maximum capacity and are barely able to receive more patients.”
Feb 20, 5:26 AM Aid groups warn of potential ‘explosion in preventable child deaths’ in Gaza
A new analysis by the Global Nutrition Cluster, a humanitarian aid partnership led by the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund, found that 90% of children under the age of 2 in the war-torn Gaza Strip face severe food poverty, meaning they eat two or fewer food groups a day.
The same was true for 95% of pregnant and breastfeeding women in Gaza, according to the report released Monday. And at least 90% of children under 5 are affected by one or more infectious disease, with 70% experiencing diarrhea in the past two weeks, the report said.
In Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, where most humanitarian aid enters, 5% of children under 2 are acutely malnourished, compared to more than 15% in northern Gaza, which has been isolated by the Israeli military and almost completely cut off from aid for weeks, the report said. Before war broke out last October between Israel and Gaza’s militant rulers, Hamas, the acute malnutrition rate across the coastal enclave was less than 1%, according to the report.
The report also found that more than 80% of homes in Gaza lack clean and safe water, with the average household having one liter per person per day.
“The Gaza Strip is poised to witness an explosion in preventable child deaths which would compound the already unbearable level of child deaths in Gaza,” Ted Chaiban, deputy executive director for humanitarian action and supply operations at UNICEF, said in a statement. “We’ve been warning for weeks that the Gaza Strip is on the brink of a nutrition crisis. If the conflict doesn’t end now, children’s nutrition will continue to plummet, leading to preventable deaths or health issues which will affect the children of Gaza for the rest of their lives and have potential intergenerational consequences.”
Feb 19, 12:31 PM Gaza’s health ministry accuses IDF of turning Nasser Hospital into ‘military barracks’
Israeli troops have turned Nasser Hospital, the main medical center serving the southern Gaza Strip, into a “military barracks” and are “endangering the lives of patients and medical staff,” according to Gaza’s Hamas-run Ministry of Health.
The health ministry said Monday that patients and medical staff inside Nasser Hospital are now without electricity, water, food, oxygen and treatment capabilities for difficult cases since Israeli ground troops raided the facility in the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis last week.
The World Health Organization, which warned on Sunday that Nasser Hospital “is not functional anymore,” said more than 180 patients and 15 doctors and nurses remain inside the hospital.
The WHO said it has evacuated 14 critical patients from the hospital to receive treatment elsewhere.
The Israel Defense Forces alleges that Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that governs Gaza, has been conducting military operations out of Nasser Hospital and other medical centers in the war-torn enclave — claims which Hamas denies.
(PHOENIX) — Investigators believe they have solved a decades-old cold case, identifying the woman who allegedly killed her newborn baby and left her in an Arizona airport bathroom in 2005.
The baby’s mother, 51-year-old Annie Anderson, is in custody in Washington state on a warrant related to the investigation. She is now awaiting extradition before she is formally charged in Maricopa County, Arizona.
Genetic genealogy databases were used to identify family matches to the profile of the baby’s mother based on DNA evidence they had found at the scene. After identifying a possible relative through genetic genealogy, police approached the person, who then consented to providing a DNA sample.
The investigation began on Oct. 10, 2005, when police responded to a report of a dead baby in a Terminal 4 bathroom at the Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, Phoenix police Lt. James Hester said at a press conference.
On the scene, police found a dead female newborn wrapped in newspapers and a white towel stuffed in a plastic bag with red Marriott lettering, Hester said. Police said it was likely the birth did not happen at the airport, according to evidence on the scene.
At the time, police were unsuccessful in identifying a suspect, Hester said. The medical examiner’s office determined the baby, dubbed Baby Skylar, died as a result of suffocation, ruling the death a homicide, Hester said.
DNA from the scene — that police identified as being from the mother — was run against DNA evidence in police databases, but authorities were unable to identify the suspect at the time, he said.
In 2020, the case was identified as one in which genetic genealogy could be used to identify new leads, according to Dan Horan, a supervisory special agent for the FBI’s Phoenix office.
After investigators were able to piece together a family tree for the suspect, she was confronted by investigators. Anderson identified herself has the mother of the baby and told police her account of what had occurred, ultimately admitting to killing the baby.
Anderson told police she was in Arizona on business at the time of the murder. The father of the baby has been identified, but police said they have no reason to believe he has criminal culpability in the murder.
(NEW YORK) — Poverty in New York City is rising at a startling rate and it’s affecting the city’s most vulnerable residents — children, according to a newly released report.
More than half of New York City residents, including a quarter of all children, live in poverty or are low-income, according to the Poverty Tracker Annual Report from Columbia University and the philanthropic organization Robin Hood.
Researchers surveyed a sample of 3,000 New York households for three months to track data on employment, assets, debts and health.
Overall, the city’s poverty rate increased from 18% to 23% and the number of New Yorkers living in poverty grew from 1.5 million to 2 million between 2021 and 2022, marking the largest single-year jump in poverty rates in a decade, according to the report.
The child poverty rate increased 66% from the previous year, according to the report.
Factors that influenced the poverty rate were the end of pandemic-era policies such as the Child Tax Credit and federal stimulus payments, the report noted.
“A clear path out of poverty requires a stronger safety net— and a policy of real investment in families with universal childcare,” Roberto Cordero, executive director of Grand Street Settlement, a nonprofit organization in New York, said in a press release. “One hundred percent of the 18,000 New Yorkers we serve at Grand Street are low income due to low wage jobs, inflation, and the cost of quality childcare and housing.”
The report also highlighted the disproportional rate at which minorities are experiencing poverty in relation to white New Yorkers.
Latino residents are twice as likely to live in poverty compared to white residents — 26% compared to 13%, according to the report.
Researchers said poverty rates for Asian and Black residents increased as well, by 24 and 23%, respectively.
The report found that women were more likely than men to be unable to afford their basic needs. It’s based on a metric called the Supplemental Poverty Measure, or poverty line, which is $43,890 per year. This figure represents what is needed for a NYC household with two adults and two children to afford a minimal basic standard of need.
The poverty threshold for a single adult renter was $20,340 in annual income, according to the report.
Poverty in New York City is nearly twice as high as the national poverty rate, which is 12%.
This is the sixth comprehensive Poverty Tracker Annual Report since 2012. Researchers monitored the impacts that COVID-19 and the related economic decline have had on New York City residents since the beginning of the pandemic.
“Our city is in the midst of an affordability crisis,” Richard R. Buery Jr., CEO of Robin Hood, said in a statement. “This would be deeply troubling at any point, but it is particularly disturbing given the steady progress New York City has made to reduce poverty in years prior.”
Buery noted that “temporary, stabilizing government policies” during the COVID-19 pandemic were able to help 500,000 children avoid poverty.
“But we have lacked the will to keep these policies in force,” he added. “We know that fully refundable tax credits, housing vouchers, and childcare subsidies can move millions out of poverty and hardship. We are calling on lawmakers to make investments that will help our neighbors live lives of opportunity.”
