(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden rolled out the red carpet Thursday for Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India for the third state visit of his presidency.
The visit will put on full display the “deep and close partnership” between the U.S. and India, the White House said, despite concerns India’s democratic principles have eroded under Modi’s leadership.
The relationship has been described by Biden as “one of the most important” of this century as the U.S. rebalances its foreign policy focus to the Indo-Pacific in the face of an increasingly aggressive China. Just ahead of Modi’s visit, President Biden suggested Chinese President Xi Jinping was a “dictator.”
“There’s a strategic imperative in the region,” Tanvi Madan, the director of The India Project at the Brookings Institution, told ABC News. “Multiple administrations have seen India as a geopolitical counterbalance, an economic alternative and a democratic contrast to China.”
President Biden and the first lady welcomed Modi to the White House Wednesday evening and hosted him for a private dinner.
On Thursday, the two leaders greeted each other warmly on the South Lawn in a welcome featuring marching bands and honor guards, despite rainy weather. Vice President Kamala Harris, the first person of Indian descent in her role, and second gentleman Doug Emhoff were also there to greet the prime minister.
“The challenges and opportunities facing the world in this century require that India and the United States work and lead together, and we are,” Biden said.
Modi said the partnership between the U.S. and India “will be instrumental in enhancing the strength of the whole world.”
Biden and Modi met in the Oval Office and will hold a brief news conference.
Modi will later appear on Capitol Hill to address a joint meeting of Congress before a state dinner at the White House Thursday night.
About 400 guests are expected to attend the dinner, the White House said, which will include a plant-based menu and a mixture of American and Indian decor. There will be performances from American violinist Joshua Bell and from Penn Masala, a South Asian a cappella group from the University of Pennsylvania.
The last time Modi visited the U.S. was in 2019, when he appeared alongside former President Donald Trump at a “Howdy Modi” rally in Texas attended by tens of thousands of people.
Kenneth Juster, who served as the U.S. ambassador to India during the Trump administration, said he expects a set of “substantive discussions that will take the strategic partnership to the next level, especially in the areas of defense and technology.”
Modi’s trip to Washington, though, isn’t without controversy as the prime minister’s been criticized for a rise in violence against religious minorities as well as a crackdown on the press and dissenters.
Some democracy watchdogs have downgraded India’s rating in recent years. The U.S.-based Freedom House rated India as “partly free” in its 2023 report, and the Sweden-based Varieties of Democracy called India an “electoral autocracy.”
“He’s got a mixed record,” Richard Rossow, chair U.S.-India Policy Studies at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said of Modi. “We do see at times he feels politically weak domestically, he’s initiated steps that directly or indirectly seem to stoke the fears of religious intolerance by him and his party. And we’ve also seen crackdown on civil society to some extent.”
Human rights advocates and at least 70 lawmakers have called on Biden to directly address human rights violations during Modi’s visit. Experts told ABC News any human rights or democratic issues will likely be taken up in private between the two leaders.
Biden, as he welcomed Modi, took a moment to tout what he said were “core principles” shared between the two countries — specifically highlighting freedom of speech and religion.
“As democracies, we can better tap into the full talent of all of our people and attract investments as true and trusted partners as leading nations with our greatest export being the power of our example,” the president said. “Equity under the law, freedom of expression, religious pluralism, diversity of our people — these core principles have endured and evolved even as they face challenges throughout each of our nation’s histories and will fuel our strength, depth and future.”
There’s also the issue of Russia. India, which has long relied on Russian oil and weapons, has avoided outrightly condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
But experts noted Modi’s slight change in tone when it comes to Russia’s invasion, such as his recent statements on the importance of territorial integrity and sovereignty.
“Both Washington and New Delhi understand that they will not necessarily see eye to eye on Russia,” Juster said. “But they can discuss that issue candidly with each other, and it is not going to have a negative impact on their broader strategic partnership.”
A senior Biden official said the White House would “engage actively” with India on issues related to Russia and Ukraine, specifically India’s efforts to diversify away from Russian military equipment.
Talks between Biden and Modi are also expected to include trade, climate and space.
The two leaders are expected to announce a joint space mission, investments in semiconducter tech in India, a commitment from India to purhase drones from the U.S. and more.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking to the U.S.-India Business Council last week, touted trade between the two nations reached a record $191 billion. Blinken noted the U.S. is India’s largest trading partner, and Indian companies invested more than $40 billion in the U.S. in IT, pharmaceuticals and more.
Though Juster said be believed there is still more work to do to advance on the trade front.
“For the world’s largest economy, the United States, and its fifth largest economy, India, I believe that their bilateral trade relationship does not fulfill all of its potential. I am hoping that the two countries can continue to advance their trade and investment relationship both bilaterally and regionally, because economic issues are so important in the Indo-Pacific and China has a robust economic strategy for the region,” he said.
Prior to landing in Washington, Modi met with Tesla CEO Elon Musk as well as other business leaders and health care experts.
He also marked International Day of Yoga by participating in a group session on the lawn of the United Nations headquarters.
“Almost every nationality is represented here today,” he said. “And what an amazing cause to bring us all together: yoga. Yoga means to unite.”
ABC News’ Ben Gittleson contributed to this report.
Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
(EMERYVILLE, Calif.) — After years of research and rigorous testing, cell-cultivated meat will officially become part of the U.S. food system.
Emeryville, California-based manufacturer UPSIDE Foods, which gave ABC News a look inside its facilities earlier this year, and Good Meat a cultivated meat division of the plant-based egg substitute food technology company Eat Just, are the first U.S. Department of Agriculture-approved cell-cultivated chicken meat producer and has been fully approved by the U.S. government for commercial sales nationwide.
The food and agriculture manufacturing industry has hailed this as a “historic” moment — after years of investment in UPSIDE Foods from Bill Gates, Richard Branson and Whole Foods founder John Mackey — as scientists tout the lab-cultivated meat as a possible solution for global warming, inhumane treatment of animals and growing global hunger.
Good Meat, which previously won multiple regulatory approvals to sell its chicken in Singapore, will begin production for the American market and launch with restaurateur and chef partner José Andrés.
The Alameda, California-based company called the latest USDA and FDA approvals a “watershed moment for the burgeoning cultivated meat, poultry and seafood sector, and for the global food industry.”
“We have been the only company selling cultivated meat anywhere in the world since we launched in Singapore in 2020, and now it’s approved to sell to consumers in the world’s largest economy,” Josh Tetrick, co-founder and CEO of GOOD Meat and Eat Just said in a statement.
UPSIDE Foods says it will begin cultivation and sales of real chicken meat grown from animal cells in bioreactors.
It will first reach consumers on the menu of a San Francisco restaurant, Bar Crenn, helmed by James Beard Award-winning chef, restaurateur and activist Dominique Crenn, who is hoping to help mainstream the innovative protein.
Crenn is also the first and only female chef in the U.S. ever to be awarded three Michelin Stars, and only one of five total to achieve the distinction in the world.
In a blog post Wednesday, UPSIDE Foods called the historic milestone “the culmination of years of dedication, ingenuity, and resilience from our team and supporters and marks the beginning of a whole new era in meat production.”
Neither UPSIDE Foods nor Good Meat have a released date of first availability, but are working with their respective restaurant partners to bring it to market.
“Soon, Americans will be able to enjoy delicious meat that doesn’t involve the slaughter of billions of animals every year,” UPSIDE Foods wrote in the post.
The UPSIDE Foods team and Good Meat have now achieved all three key regulatory milestones: A “No Questions” Letter from the FDA, a USDA Label Approval, and the USDA Grant of Inspection.
Dan Glickman, Good Meat Advisory Board member and former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture and member of the U.S. House of Representatives, said in a statement Wednesday that his previous experiences gave him “the opportunity to work with countless individuals at the USDA who were committed to accelerating agricultural innovation and economic opportunity as well as promoting initiatives to better nourish Americans and feed people around the globe.”
“I commend the agency’s current leadership for working collaboratively with their FDA colleagues and the GOOD Meat team to reach this significant regulatory milestone,” Glickman continued. “Today’s approval demonstrates that the United States is a global leader in the promising alternative protein space while also continuing to support family farmers’ efforts to feed the world through conventional food and agriculture techniques.”
(NEW YORK) — Eager to test a submersible one month before its first trip to the deep-sea ruins of the Titanic, in the spring of 2018, OceanGate hit a snag: lightning storms and harsh winds that battered the Bahamas for weeks and rendered the test impossible, according to the company’s blog.
OceanGate canceled the initial Titanic voyage, pushing it back to the following year, the company said.
“While we are disappointed by the need to reschedule the expedition, we are not willing to shortcut the testing process due to a condensed timeline,” the company said. “We are 100% committed to safety.”
Five years after that called-off test, OceanGate has drawn international attention as rescue vessels search for the same submersible, called Titan, which went missing during the company’s latest trip to the famous shipwrecked ruins. The craft has five passengers on board, among them the company’s founder and CEO, Stockton Rush.
The oxygen in the submersible was set to run out on Thursday morning. OceanGate did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
OceanGate, founded in 2009, offers tourists the opportunity to travel on submersibles into the ocean’s depths for a closeup look at shipwrecks and underwater canyons. A spot on one of the trips can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Decades earlier, in the 1980s, Rush became the world’s youngest jet transport rated pilot, at age 19, the OceanGate website says. In the ensuing years, he earned a bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering from Princeton University and an M.B.A. from the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.
Rush said he launched OceanGate after an epiphany that the deep sea offered a sense of discovery he once thought only attainable for astronauts, according to an instructional video taped in collaboration with the nonprofit EarthEcho International in 2020.
“I had a realization in my early 40s that what I really wanted to be was an explorer,” Rush said. “All those things that I thought were in space were actually in the ocean.”
Seeking investment, OceanGate raised nearly $500,000 in 2014 and $19.3 million in 2020, government filings show.
The company ultimately assembled a fleet of three five-person submersibles named Antipodes, Cyclops 1, and most recently, Titan.
OceanGate, based in Everett, Washington, has conducted over 14 expeditions and more than 200 dives across the Pacific, Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico, according to the company’s website.
The trip to the ruins of the Titanic lasts eight days, launching from St. John’s Newfoundland, Canada, and traveling 380 miles offshore and 3,800 meters below the surface of the ocean, according to the company’s website.
The journey does not require previous diving experience but passengers must be at least 17 years old, the website says. The trip costs $250,000 per passenger.
The company’s description of the trip online offers passengers an experience like the one that Rush said he sought when launching OceanGate.
“Become an underwater explorer,” says a company web page that details the Titanic voyage.
(WASHINGTON) — Former Texas Rep. Will Hurd is running for president, he said Thursday, joining a field of more than a dozen candidates who are vying for the Republican primary nomination.
“We live in complicated times and we need common sense,” Hurd said on CBS Mornings, pointing to what he called “generational, defining challenges” such as China’s rising global influence and the economic drag from inflation.
“To be frank, I’m pissed that we’re not talking about these things. I’m pissed that our elected officials are telling us to hate our neighbors,” he said.
“I believe the Republican Party can be the party that talks about the future, not the past. We should be putting out a vision of how do we have unprecedented peace, how do we have a thriving economy?” he continued.
“America is better together,” he said, “and way more unites us than divides us.”
Hurd acknowledged he was a “dark horse candidate” but said he wouldn’t be “afraid of Donald Trump” in the primary race, unlike other candidates. What’s more, he said, his past experience as a candidate shows he can connect with voters and expand the GOP’s appeal.
Hurd, who was the only Black Republican in the House in his 2015-2021 tenure, will face competitors including former President Trump, the early front-runner, and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, along with former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, former Vice President Mike Pence, South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott.
A moderate Republican and former CIA clandestine officer, Hurd is expected to join Christie and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson in trying to carve out a path to success as a vocally anti-Trump GOP hopeful.
Hurd was one of the few intraparty critics of then-President Trump during his time in the House, when he represented more than a third of the U.S.-Mexico border as part of Texas’s 23rd District. At the time, Hurd was particularly outspoken against a border wall.
After the Jan. 6 insurrection, Hurd tweeted that the U.S. Capitol riot should be considered a coup spearheaded by Trump, who denied wrongdoing.
Hurd has been similarly critical of Trump since leaving office, including reacting to the 37 federal charges Trump faces for his alleged mishandling of government secrets after leaving the White House. Trump has pleaded not guilty.
“We can have a conversation about whether or not the DOJ should be doing something or not be doing something. That’s a valid conversation as a former CIA guy, right?” Hurd said on a recent CNN This Morning panel.
He continued: “Yes, you’re innocent until proven guilty. … But let’s be honest, if the GOP is supposed to be the party of law in order, then we need to be the party of law in order when it comes to our own folks.”
Hurd said Thursday, when asked, that he would not promise to pardon Trump if he is elected and Trump is convicted. Some other GOP primary candidates have said they would promise pardons.
Hurd has been publicly flirting with the idea of jumping in the race for some time, with his first recorded trip to an early voting state in January, when he visited New Hampshire. He’s since taken multiple trips there, along with a swing through Iowa.
“Ultimately here is what I think: Options are always good,” Hurd said during a recent Fox News appearance. “I don’t subscribe to this narrative that too many candidates in the race are going to ultimately help Donald Trump. The Republican Party is not the party of group-think.”
He published a book, American Reboot — which details his vision for a sort of overhaul of American politics — in 2022. His policy platform focuses on technology, education and foreign policy.
File image of the Titan submersible prior to commence diving. (Ocean Gate)
(NEW YORK) — The search is intensifying for a submersible carrying five people that vanished while heading to tour the Titanic wreckage site off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.
The 21-foot deep-sea vessel, operated by OceanGate Expeditions, lost contact about an hour and 45 minutes after submerging on Sunday morning with a 96-hour oxygen supply. That oxygen is forecast to run out Thursday morning.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Jun 22, 7:19 AM EDT
Canadian ROV begins search on sea floor
The U.S. Coast Guard announced via Twitter early Thursday that a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) deployed by the Canadian vessel Horizon Arctic has reached the sea floor, beginning its search for the missing submersible.
Meanwhile, the French vessel L’Atalante is preparing its ROV to enter the water in the search area, the U.S. Coast Guard said.
Jun 22, 6:29 AM EDT
Search becomes dire as time runs out
Time is running out as rescuers race to locate and save five people trapped in a submersible that vanished during a tour of the Titanic wreckage on Sunday morning.
The deep-sea vessel submerged at 8 a.m. ET on Sunday with a 96-hour oxygen supply, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. That amount of breathable air is forecast to run out on Thursday morning.
The search and rescue mission remains ongoing.
Jun 22, 12:21 AM EDT
Wife of missing OceanGate CEO is great-great-granddaughter of couple who died on Titanic: NYT
The New York Times traced the lineage of Wendy Rush, wife of missing OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, and found that she’s the great-great-granddaughter of a couple who died on the Titanic, Isidor and Ida Straus.
The executive director of the Straus Historical Society told ABC News that The Times article, which cites archival records, is largely correct with regard to Wendy Weil Rush’s heritage.
Jun 21, 5:44 PM EDT
US Navy crane in Newfoundland but awaiting ship
A U.S. Navy portable crane system capable of bringing up items from as deep as 20,000 feet has arrived in St. John’s, Newfoundland, but is waiting to be welded onto a chartered ship to take it to the search area for the missing submersible, according to a U.S. Navy official.
The Navy has not yet contracted a ship for the salvage system, known as Fly Away Deep Ocean Salvage System or FADOSS, the official told reporters Wednesday. Once the ship is contracted, Navy teams will spend approximately 24 hours working around the clock to weld the system aboard the ship before it can leave port, the official said.
FADOSS is the salvage system the U.S. Navy uses for all of its deep-water recoveries. Last year, it was able to bring up an F/A-18 aircraft that had fallen into the waters of the Mediterranean Sea.
-ABC News’ Luis Martinez
Jun 21, 2:56 PM EDT
Head of Horizon Maritime, which owns the Polar Prince boat, holding out hope
The co-founder and Board chair of Horizon Maritime, the company that owns the Polar Prince boat that took the Titan submersible out to sea, is speaking out.
“We have been supporting the Titanic expeditions for several years,” Sean Leet said, calling the Polar Prince “an iconic former Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker that has been upgraded with advanced technology.”
“All protocols were followed” for the submersible’s mission, he said at a news conference Wednesday, calling the missing sub an “unprecedented” situation.
Equipment heading to search site can reach the depths of the submersible and potentially take it to the surface, he said.
“We wish to thank everyone involved in this rescue mission, especially the U.S. and Canadian Coast Guards, the organizations that have made their marina assets available including the French government … [and] the many private companies that have dropped everything at a moment’s notice,” Leet said.
“Our thoughts and focus remain with the crew of the Titan and their families,” he said.
Leet said he is holding out hope that the five-person crew will be brought home safely.
“We’ll continue to hold out hope until the very end,” he said.
Jun 21, 1:34 PM EDT
Coast Guard searching in area where noise was detected
As crews scour the Atlantic for the missing submersible, the Coast Guard said it’s searching in the area where a noise was detected.
The unidentified noise was detected Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.
The data on the noise was sent to the U.S. Navy to be examined, he said.
“We have to remain optimistic and hopeful when we’re in a search and rescue mission,” Capt. Jamie Frederick, the First Coast Guard District response coordinator, said at a news conference Wednesday.
The five crew members submerged underwater Sunday morning with about 96 hours of oxygen available to them. That oxygen is forecast to run out Thursday morning.
When asked about the search becoming a recovery mission, Frederick said Wednesday, “We’re not there yet.”
Jun 21, 1:21 PM EDT
Coast Guard searching in area where noise was detected
As crews scour the Atlantic for the missing submersible, the Coast Guard said it’s searching in the area where a noise was detected.
The unidentified noise was detected Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.
“We have to remain optimistic and hopeful when we’re in a search and rescue mission,” Capt. Jamie Frederick, the First Coast Guard District response coordinator, said at a news conference Wednesday.
The five crew members submerged underwater Sunday morning with about 96 hours of oxygen available to them. That oxygen is forecast to run out Thursday morning.
When asked about the search becoming a recovery mission, Frederick said Wednesday, “We’re not there yet.”
Jun 21, 12:56 PM EDT
Canada sends ship with advanced, deep sonar
One of the ships the Canadian Coast Guard sent to the rescue effort, the John Cabot, is equipped with advanced, deep sonar, said Joyce Murray, minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard.
“We’ve sent so many assets to the search team to help,” Murray said. “Authorities still have hope in the mission.”
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
Jun 21, 12:47 PM EDT
Former passenger says his sub lost contact with host ship on all 4 trips
Mike Reiss, who has done four, 10-hour dives with OceanGate, including one to the Titanic, told ABC News his sub lost contact with the host ship on every dive.
“Every time they lost communication — that seems to be just something baked into the system,” he said.
With no GPS, Reiss said it took his crew three hours to find the Titanic despite landing just 500 yards from the ship.
Reiss said he signed “a waiver that mentions death three times on the first page.”
“It is always in the back of your head that this is dangerous, and any small problem will turn into a major catastrophe,” he said.
He said the submersible is built simply and is “just propelled by two fans on the outside.”
“Even I was able to steer and navigate the sub for a while,” he noted.
Reiss said his greatest fear was that the sub wouldn’t be able to release the weights that force it to submerge once it was time to rise to the surface.
-ABC News’ Gio Benitez and Sam Sweeney
Jun 21, 9:00 AM EDT
Would-be crew member of missing sub speaks out
Digital marketing tycoon Chris Brown originally planned to go on Sunday’s submersible tour of the Titanic wreckage but withdrew due to safety concerns. His friend, Hamish Harding, is among those aboard the missing vessel.
Brown, who described himself as a “modern day adventurer,” admitted that he knew “very little” about the tour operator, OceanGate Expeditions, prior to signing up. But he said the deep-sea trip initially sounded “like a great idea.”
“The Titanic’s obviously an iconic wreck,” Brown told ABC News’ Michael Strahan during an interview Wednesday on Good Morning America.
“OceanGate had put forward this program to go down and do a 3D scan of the wreck,” he added. “So it’s a chance for an expedition, exploration and adding a bit of science into the situation.”
Brown said safety concerns ultimately led him to pull out of the trip, but he declined to go into detail.
“I’m not really sure that this is the time to be going into that sort of thing,” he added. “I think that the focus right now has to be on trying to rescue these people. It’s not fair on the families and friends to be making speculation about what might’ve happened or how it happened at this point.”
Brown said he feels “no” apprehension about joining similar projects in the future but noted that it’s important to “think about all the risks.”
“If you don’t have an appetite for those risks, then you might not go ahead,” he said. “You may try and mitigate those by bringing in some expertise from outside. You might have other risks or dangers that could be mitigated by changing the time of when you go out there.”
Jun 21, 7:33 AM EDT
New details emerge about how the missing sub navigated the ocean
The submersible that was reported missing while on a tour of the underwater wreckage of the Titanic is an unorthodox vessel with a relatively unproven history, according to company press materials and experts familiar with underwater vehicles.
News of the vessel’s disappearance prompted a flurry of interest in the company OceanGate Expeditions and its deep-sea submersible called the Titan.
The company’s founder and CEO, Stockton Rush, who is one of the five people aboard the missing vessel, manned the Titan’s first “validation dive” to 4,000 meters in 2018, according to the company. The company then began offering tourists the opportunity to dive to the depths of the Titanic in the following years, selling tickets for the 2023 journey for $250,000.
Jun 21, 6:57 AM EDT
‘Banging’ picked up by sonar in search area, source says
A source familiar confirmed to ABC News that there were reports of “banging” that were picked up by sonar in the search area on Tuesday morning, but nothing has yet been found.
The U.S. Coast Guard had said early Wednesday that an aircraft with sonar capability “detected underwater noises in the search area,” but remotely operated vehicles were unable to find the origin of the sound.
Jun 21, 6:34 AM EDT
Titanic mapping company ‘fully mobilized’ to help
Magellan, an international exploration company that digitally mapped the Titanic wreckage last year, said Wednesday that it is “ready to support” the search for the missing submersible and is “fully mobilized to help.”
The U.K.-based company told ABC News that it was contacted by the submersible’s operator, OceanGate Expeditions, early Monday and “immediately offered our knowledge of the specific site and also our expertise operating at depth considerably in advance of what is required for this incident.”
“We have been working full-time with U.K. and U.S. agencies to secure the necessary air support to move our specialist equipment and support crew,” Magellan said in a statement.
When asked for comment about media reports that U.S. authorities have failed to give Magellan the necessary permits to participate in the search, the company told ABC News it “does not not wish to comment on any specific media report.”
Jun 21, 12:34 AM EDT
USCG: Canadian aircraft detected ‘underwater noises’ but search ‘yielded negative results’
“Canadian P-3 aircraft detected underwater noises in the search area,” the U.S. Coast Guard tweeted early Wednesday morning. “As a result, ROV operations were relocated in an attempt to explore the origin of the noises. Those ROV searches have yielded negative results but continue.”
The data from the P-3 has been shared with U.S. Navy experts for further analysis, the Coast Guard added.
Jun 21, 12:34 AM EDT
Lawsuit alleged flaws with Titanic sub now missing
A former employee of OceanGate alleged in a 2018 counterclaim lawsuit that he was fired for raising concerns about quality control and testing of potential flaws in the same experimental submersible that went missing this week.
David Lochridge, an engineer and submarine pilot, claimed in his counterclaim against OceanGate that he was hired in 2015 by the Everett, Washington, company to ensure the safety of all crew and clients during the submersible and surface operations of the vessel called Titan. But when he expressed concerns about the design and testing of the minisub’s hull, he said he was terminated by the company.
OceanGate had initially sued Lochridge alleging, among other things, breach of contract, fraud and misappropriation of trade secrets — all claims he denied.
In its lawsuit, OceanGate accused Lochridge of breaching his contract by discussing the company’s confidential information with the Occupational Health and Safety Administration “when he filed a false report claiming that he was discharged in retaliation for being a whistleblower.”
Jun 20, 10:15 PM EDT
Latest Coast Guard bulletin spells out timeline for missing sub search
The U.S. Coast Guard sent out its latest release Tuesday night on the search for the missing submersible at the Titanic crash site.
According to the latest release:
Sunday, June 18, 8 a.m. ET: Submersible launches, supposed to resurface at 3 p.m., but an hour and 45 minutes into the dive, it loses contact.
Sunday, June 18, 5:40 p.m. ET: Coast Guard receives report of overdue submersible.
Monday, June 19: Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, North Carolina, and C-130 Hercules aircraft, as well as a Canadian P8 aircraft equipped with underwater sonar capability, search for the missing submersible, according to a previous release.
Tuesday, June 20, 7 a.m. ET: Bahamian research vessel Deep Energy arrives.
Tuesday, June 20, 4 p.m. ET: C-130 crew from Air National Guard 106th arrives.
Jun 20, 8:33 PM EDT
Experts expressed Titan safety concerns in 2018 letter
Members of a committee specializing in submersibles expressed “unanimous concern regarding the development” of Titan in a 2018 letter addressed to OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, who is one of the passengers aboard the missing vessel.
The letter was obtained by The New York Times and was later authenticated by ABC News.
The letter warned of possible “catastrophic” problems with Titan’s development that could have “serious consequences for everyone in the industry.” The letter goes on to say that OceanGate’s safety claims were “misleading to the public” and insisted Titan be reviewed by a third-party organization.
The letter, which was addressed from the Marine Technology Society, was never approved to be sent to OceanGate though was quickly leaked to its CEO, according to committee chair William Kohnen.
“The letter did represent in 2018 the consensus by many people in the industry that they were not considering following the standard safety protocols and designs that the industry uses,” Kohnen told ABC News.
Though he wishes it was not leaked at the time, nor now to The New York Times, Kohnen said he stands by the letter and its warnings.
“The company had indicated that their state of innovation was beyond, beyond what was allowable within the regulatory standards we have today and that they would proceed without certification,” Kohnen said. “That worried a number of people in the industry.”
Kohnen acknowledged that OceanGate did “heed” some of the comments made in the 2018 letter.
-ABC News’ Amanda Maile and Victor Ordoñez
Jun 20, 6:02 PM EDT
NASA weighs in on missing submersible
NASA released a statement Tuesday on the Titan, saying it remains “hopeful the crew will be found unharmed.”
“NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center had a Space Act Agreement with OceanGate, and consulted on materials and manufacturing processes for the submersible. NASA did not conduct testing and manufacturing via its workforce or facilities,” the agency said.
-ABC News’ Gina Sunseri
Jun 20, 6:17 PM EDT
Search teams have covered 7,600 square miles
Search and rescue teams have now covered 7,600 square miles — an area bigger than the state of Connecticut — as they scour the ocean for the missing submersible, Coast Guard officials said.
A grid depicting the expanding search area is expected Tuesday night, according to a public information affairs lieutenant for the First District of the U.S. Coast Guard.
-ABC News’ Miles Cohen
Jun 20, 3:09 PM EDT
US Navy sending salvage experts, equipment to help with submersible
The U.S. Navy said it’s sending to the search site experts and equipment “designed to provide reliable deep ocean lifting capacity for the recovery of large, bulky, and heavy undersea objects.”
The equipment, which can lift up to 60,000 pounds, and the experts will arrive in Canada Tuesday night, the Navy said.
National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said earlier Tuesday that the Navy was”on standby” to help with the search for the missing submersible, because the Navy has “some deep-water capabilities that the Coast Guard wouldn’t necessarily have.”
President Joe Biden is “watching events closely,” Kirby said, adding that Biden and the White House offer their thoughts “to the crew onboard, as well as to the — what is no doubt — worried family members back on shore.”
Jun 20, 1:24 PM EDT
3 Air Force C-17’s transporting equipment to Newfoundland
Three U.S. Air Force C-17 cargo aircraft will be transporting commercial equipment from Buffalo, New York, to Newfoundland, Canada, to help with the search efforts, according to a U.S. official.
-ABC News’ Luis Martinez
Jun 20, 1:16 PM EDT
Search area larger than Connecticut, about 41 hours of oxygen left
Efforts to locate the missing submersible are ongoing, and the “complex” search covers an area larger than the state of Connecticut, Coast Guard Capt. Jamie Frederick said at a news conference Tuesday.
Crews are scouring the ocean 900 miles east of Cape Cod and 400 miles south of St. John’s, Canada, he said.
The missing five-person crew on the submersible has about 41 hours of oxygen left, Frederick noted.
“We will do everything in our power to effect a rescue,” Frederick said.
“We have a group of our nation’s best experts,” he said, and once the sub is located, “those experts will be looking at what the next course of action is” to rescue the crew members.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the crew and their families and their loved ones,” Frederick added.
Jun 20, 12:58 PM EDT
Former ABC News correspondent recounts moment his sub was trapped in Titanic’s propeller
In 2000, Dr. Michael Guillen, then an ABC News correspondent, was filming from the wreck of the Titanic when his vessel became trapped in the propeller.
“When we collided with the propeller, and I started seeing those big chunks of metal raining down on us … the first reaction I had was, ‘This can’t be happening,'” he recalled to ABC News on Tuesday.
“We got caught by this underwater turn and just drove us right into the blades,” Guillen said.
“This voice came into my head and said, you know, ‘This is how it’s going to end for you,'” he recalled. “I’ll never forget those words.”
“I’m very aware of what these poor souls on board the ship the Titan are experiencing,” he said. “I am just heartbroken about it.”
Jun 20, 11:35 AM EDT
French sending assistance
At the request of French President Emmanuel Macron, a French ship named Atalante is diverting to the area of the missing submissive and should reach the area Wednesday night.
The ship has an exploration robot that can dive up to 4,000 meters, according to a spokesman for France’s Ifremer Institute.
Jun 20, 9:04 AM EDT
‘It’s a race against time’
Per Wimmer, an explorer and global financier, told ABC News he was “shocked” and “horrified” to hear of the missing submersible.
“It felt very personal. … I’ve been wanting to go down to the Titanic for more than a decade,” Wimmer said.
He estimated that there’s been between 150 and 200 missions to the Titanic.
There “are very, very few submersibles in the whole world that can go down to the depth of Titanic, which sits at 3,800 meters, or about 12,000 feet,” Wimmer said. “It’s very deep — most submersibles can go down to about 1,000 meters.”
“It’s a race against time, because there’s only 96 hours of oxygen on board. And after that, if you haven’t reached the surface, you starve of oxygen,” he said.
“Our best hope at the moment is that the safety mechanism will be activated,” he said. “It is supposed to be able to float to the surface, little by little, and then they can open the hatch and hopefully get out again. That is the only hope we have, because you do not have enough time to get another submersible that can go that deep.”
Jun 20, 8:19 AM EDT
What to know about the 5 people aboard the missing sub
Renowned explorers and a father-son duo were among the five people aboard a submersible that disappeared in the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday while touring the Titanic wreckage, ABC News has learned.
ABC News has confirmed and identified four of those on aboard as Hamish Harding, a British businessman, pilot and space tourist; Paul-Henri Nargeolet, a French diver and Titanic expert; Shahzada Dawood, a Pakistani businessman, and his son Suleman Dawood.
Jun 20, 7:48 AM EDT
US Coast Guard commander talks search for missing sub
The United States Coast Guard commander leading the search for a missing submersible off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, said Tuesday morning that crews in multiple aircraft have flown over an area of the Atlantic Ocean “roughly about the size of Connecticut” while “looking for any signs of surfacing.”
“As we continue on with the search, we’re expanding our capabilities to be able to search under the water as well,” Rear Adm. John Mauger, commander of the First Coast Guard District, told ABC News’ Robin Roberts during an interview on Good Morning America.
A commercial vessel with remotely operated vehicles is now on scene that will allow rescuers to search underwater, according to Mauger.
“This is a complex case,” he added. “The Coast Guard doesn’t have all the resources to be able to affect this kind of rescue, although this is an area that’s within our search zone.”
In many cases, Mauger said, the Coast Guard’s role is to coordinate all of the assets and technical expertise that can be used in a search, in addition to operating aircraft or ships when necessary.
“In this particular case, we’ve established a unified command with the United States Navy, with the Canadian Armed Forces, with the Canadian Coast Guard and with the private operator OceanGate Expeditions to make sure that we understand what’s needed and deploy all available equipment to the scene that could be used to locate this submersible, whether it’s on the surface or down beneath the surface,” he said.
Crews have been working “around the clock” to locate the deep-sea vessel since it lost contact with its operator on Sunday morning, according to Mauger.
In the last 24 hours, a Canadian aircraft has been dropping sonar buoys into the water that can pick up sound the submersible may be emitting. Vessels that have the capability to listen with their own sonar equipment are also on scene, according to Mauger.
“If they are making sound, that’s certainly one of the ways that we’re going to use to locate them,” he said.
Jun 20, 6:18 AM EDT
Missing sub is believed to be deeper than NATO rescue capability
A tourist submersible that disappeared in the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday is believed to be at depths that greatly exceed the capabilities of the NATO Submarine Rescue System (NSRS), according to a spokesperson for the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defense.
“As the host nation for NATO’s multinational submarine rescue capability, we continue to monitor the incident in the North Atlantic and will guide and assist in any response activity as appropriate,” the spokesperson told ABC News in a statement on Tuesday.
The U.K. has not been approached to offer assistance in the ongoing search for the deep-sea vessel off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, according to the spokesperson.
Initial reports indicate that the depths of water involved greatly exceed that which the NSRS team can safely operate — 610 meters for the NSRS submersible and 1,000 meters for the NSRS remotely operated vehicle, according to the spokesperson.
The NSRS is based at the home of the U.K. Royal Navy Submarine Service in HM Naval Base Clyde, the U.K. Royal Navy’s headquarters in Scotland. Introduced in 2006, the tri-national capability team can respond to a stricken submarine in rescuable water which is capable of mating with the NSRS submarine rescue vehicle, according to the spokesperson.
Jun 20, 5:03 AM EDT
Former Navy sub captain on rescue options
Rescuers racing against the clock to save the five people trapped in a tourist submersible nearly two miles deep in the Atlantic Ocean are facing major obstacles that could make saving the people onboard extremely difficult, according to a former U.S. Navy submarine commander.
Retired Capt. David Marquet told ABC News on Monday that this type of rescue operation is complicated because there aren’t nearby U.S. or Canadian underwater vessels that can go as deep as the Titanic wreckage, which sits 13,400 feet below the ocean’s surface. Also, the ocean is pitch black at that depth.
“The odds are against them,” Marquet said. “There’s a ship in Boston that has this ability to either lower cable and connect to it or have a claw. It’s still a thousand miles away.”
Even if a vessel was able to locate the submersible and lower a cable, it’s extremely difficult to safely navigate the waters and attach it, according to Marquet.
“You’ve got to get it exactly right,” he told ABC News. “It’s sort of like … getting one of those toys out of those arcade machines. In general, you miss.”
Rescuers do have one advantage, Marquet said, as weather conditions off the coast of Newfoundland are not rough and will not disturb any boat or vessel there.
Marquet added that if the five people aboard are still alive, they would be asked to sleep to conserve their oxygen.
“We would put the vast majority of the crew to sleep because that’s when you’re using the least amount of oxygen and you’re expelling the least amount of carbon dioxide,” he said.
Jun 20, 4:27 AM EDT
What to know about the missing sub
A submersible on a tour of the Titanic wreckage was reported overdue by its operator OceanGate Expeditions on Sunday, prompting the United States Coast Guard to launch a search and rescue effort for the 22-foot, 23,000-pound vessel.
Designed with life support to sustain five crew members for 96 hours, the submersible would need to be rescued in three days to save its five passengers, according to the Coast Guard.
Stockton Rush founded Washington-based OceanGate in 2009 to make deep-sea exploration more accessible to scientists and tourists. Fourteen years, more than 200 dives and three submersible designs later, the company now finds itself in a desperate search to recover the submersible carrying five people aboard that’s gone missing off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.
OceanGate confirmed Monday it had lost contact with a submersible, saying in a statement: “We are exploring and mobilizing all options to bring the crew back safely. Our entire focus is on the crewmembers in the submersible and their families. We are working toward the safe return of the crewmembers.”
(NEW YORK) — With the rise of artificial intelligence, more people across the country are falling victim to kidnapping and other scams. A cybersecurity expert spoke to ABC News about ways people can protect their families and themselves from the increasingly believable scams.
Pete Nicoletti of Check Point Software Technologies, one of the largest cybersecurity firms in the nation, spoke to ABC’s Whit Johnson, to explain the rapidly evolving technology. With a basic headshot and photos from social media, Nicoletti was able to alter reality.
“So here you are, this is Mississippi in front of a terrible tornado, but with artificial intelligence, you can just say, ‘Hey, I wanna put Whit in front Canadian wildfires,’” said Nicoletti. “It’s very realistic.”
Nicoletti also explained that criminals can take just 10 minutes of a voice sample and use AI to create a false message, usually asking for money.
“[The false message] would come in as a voice message and the criminals can easily impersonate your phone number,” said Nicoletti.
“There [are] tools where you can actually type it in and use your voice,” Nicoletti added.
Nicoletti suggested all family members should adopt a “safe word” that can be used when trying to communicate with a loved one who has supposedly been kidnapped.
Former FBI special agent Rich Frankel said artificial intelligence cybercrime is hard to stop. He said to call authorities immediately, even if you think it’s just a scam, and recommends recording any type of call that seems suspicious and trying to reach a loved one directly if they appear to be involved.
“I would call law enforcement right away because if it is a real kidnapping, you want law enforcement involved,” he said. “And if it’s a scam, you wanna know about it right away.”
(NEW YORK) — A postal worker died on Tuesday while working his route in a Dallas neighborhood, according to the U.S. Postal Service, as Texas continues to experience record-high temperatures.
“The Postal Service is deeply saddened by the loss of life suffered yesterday involving a Lakewood Post Office Letter Carrier,” the USPS told ABC News in a statement. “Our thoughts are with his family, friends and colleagues at this time.”
USPS said it’s implemented its Heat Illness Prevention Program for employees, and gives mandatory heat-related and safety training to all its employees.
“Our carriers deliver the mail throughout the year during varying temperatures and climatic conditions. This includes during the summer months when the temperatures rise throughout the country. The safety of our employees is a top priority, and the Postal Service has implemented a national Heat Illness Prevention Program (HIPP) for all employees,” USPS said in a statement.
New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana are under heat alerts Wednesday with the heat index — what the temperature feels like with humidity — expected to reach as high as 122 degrees in some areas.
One heat-related death in Louisiana, health department says
The Louisiana Department of Health late Wednesday confirmed one storm-related death in Caddo Parish: a 62-year-old woman who was discovered in an area that did not have power for an extended period of time, officials said.
The cause of death was heat related, the state department of health said.
This comes as more than 500,000 customers are without power across the southern U.S., including 400,000 out in Texas, mostly from new outages, according to PowerOutage.us.
Record temps in Texas
Temperatures hit records on Tuesday and more are possible across Texas on Wednesday, including in Houston, where it could be up to 99 degrees; San Angelo, where it could be up to 110 degrees; Midland, where it could be up to 108 degrees; and Laredo, where it could be up to 113 degrees.
Temperatures in San Angelo and Del Rio, Texas, hit all-time record highs on Tuesday, reaching 114 degrees and 113 degrees, respectively.
The hottest place in the country Tuesday was Rio Grande Village, Texas, where temperatures reached 118 degrees. Record highs were reported all the way to North Dakota. Grand Forks hit 100 degrees, while Fargo reached 98 degrees and Jamestown hit 99.
Also, a new round of severe weather is expected Wednesday in the western Plains from South Dakota to western Texas, with the biggest threat being damaging winds and large hail.
Temperatures will cool slightly after Wednesday with thunderstorms rolling through, but temperatures are still expected to be above seasonal norms. Extreme heat will be back by next week.
Heavy rain in the Southeast
Six states from Florida to Virginia are under flood alerts for more heavy rain over the next 48 to 72 hours.
Some areas could see additional 5 to 7 inches of rain and more flooding is expected.
(NEW YORK) — Saturday marks one year since the U.S. Supreme Court issued a landmark ruling overturning Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that guaranteed the right to an abortion.
As a result, the landscape of abortion access has shifted dramatically over the past year, with the decision of access left up to each state.
Some states had trigger laws banning abortion that went into effect once the decision came down from the Court. Others guaranteed the right to an abortion in their state laws or constitutions.
One year post-Roe, here is where abortion laws stand in each state, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that focuses on sexual and reproductive health, and further reporting:
Alabama
Alabama is one of the 15 states that has ceased nearly all abortion services, in this case under a so-called “trigger law” that went into effect immediately after Roe v. Wade was overturned.
The state constitution also “explicitly excludes abortion rights,” according to the Guttmacher Institute.
Alaska
The right to an abortion remains protected by state law and constitution. Abortion in Alaska is legal at all stages of pregnancy, as long as it is performed by a licensed physician, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
Arizona
Abortion is banned at 15 weeks and later following a judge’s ruling last September that upheld a century-old ban on abortion. The 1901 law, which has language that can be tracked back to 1864, provides no exceptions for rape, incest or fetal abnormalities and makes performing abortions punishable by two to five years in prison.
The only exception is if the mother’s life is in danger.
Arkansas
Abortion is nearly completely banned in Arkansas due to a trigger law that went into effect following the overturning of Roe v. Wade. The Arkansas Human Life Protection Act, or Act 180, makes performing or attempting to perform an abortion a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $100,000.
The only exception is if the mother’s life is in danger.
California
The right to abortion is protected by updated state laws.
Colorado
The right to abortion is protected by updated state laws.
Connecticut
Abortion is allowed up until a fetus becomes “viable,” which is typically around 24 week to 26 weeks. The state, “has a shield law to protect abortion providers from investigations by other states,” according to the Guttmacher Institute.
Delaware
Like in Connecticut, abortion is allowed up to the point of fetal viability in Delaware. The state also has a so-called shield law to protect abortion providers.
Florida
Abortion is banned after 15 weeks of pregnancy, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a six-week ban into law in April 2023, but it will not go into effect until 30 days after the state’s Supreme Court rules on a case that challenges the current 15-week ban.
Georgia
Abortion is banned at six weeks of pregnancy.
Hawaii
Abortion is allowed up to the point of fetal viability, and Hawaii also has a so-called shield law to protect abortion providers.
Idaho
Abortion is nearly completely banned. The state, “requires an ‘affirmative defense,’ meaning a provider has to prove in court that an abortion met the criteria for a legal exception,” according to the Guttmacher Institute.
Illinois
Abortion is allowed up to the point of fetal viability, and abortions can be performed by “qualified health care physicians,” not just solely physicians.
In January 2023, Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed comprehensive reproductive health care legislation into law that protects out-of-state abortion seekers and allows them to get an abortion.
Indiana
Abortion is allowed up to 22 weeks of pregnancy, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
Last year, state lawmakers passed a near-total ban on abortion, but for now the procedure remains legal while the law is challenged in court.
Iowa
Abortion is allowed up to 22 weeks of pregnancy.
Earlier this month, the Iowa Supreme Court prevented a six-week abortion ban that was signed into law several years ago from going into effect. The court was split in a 3-3 decision on the case, meaning abortion remains legal in the state.
Kansas
Abortion is allowed up to 22 weeks of pregnancy.
Last November, Kansas voters decisively rejected a bid to remove abortion protections from its state constitution.
Kentucky
Abortion is nearly completely banned. The only exception is if the mother’s life is in danger.
Louisiana
Abortion is banned with very limited exceptions. The state had several trigger laws that went into effect immediately after Roe was overturned.
Maine
Abortion is currently allowed until a fetus becomes viable.
Maryland
Abortion is allowed up to the point of fetal viability.
Massachusetts
Abortion is allowed up to 24 weeks of pregnancy.
Michigan
Abortion is protected in the state constitution and allowed up to the point of fetal viability.
In April, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer signed a bill repealing the state’s 1931 law that criminalized abortion.
Minnesota
Abortion is allowed up to the point of fetal viability.
Mississippi
Abortion is banned, with very limited exceptions, in Mississippi, the state that was at the center of the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
In the case, Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the state asked the justices to overturn longstanding legal precedent that restrictions on abortion access before a fetus is viable outside the womb — around 24 to 26 weeks of pregnancy — are categorically unconstitutional.
Missouri
Abortion is nearly completely banned. The state, “requires an ‘affirmative defense,’ meaning a provider has to prove in court that an abortion met the criteria for a legal exception,” according to the Guttmacher Institute.
Montana
Abortion is currently legal in Montana until fetal viability.
In May 2023, Gov. Greg Gianforte signed a bill banning abortion after 15 weeks. However, it was swiftly blocked by a judge from going into effect just 48 hours later, according to the Montana Free Press.
Nebraska
In May 2023, Gov. Jim Pillen signed a bill into law banning abortion after 12 weeks.
The only exceptions are if the pregnancy is the result of rape and/or incest, to prevent a risk to the mother’s physical health or if the life of the mother is in danger.
Nevada
In Nevada, abortion is legal up until 24 weeks, according to the state’s Department of Health and Human Services.
Providers may perform abortions after 24 weeks if a physician has reasonable cause to believe the life or health of the mother is in danger.
New Hampshire
Abortions are legal in New Hampshire up to 24 weeks of pregnancy unless there is a “medical emergency,” meaning the life of the mother is in danger due to “a physical disorder, physical illness, or physical injury” including from the pregnancy itself.
The exception also applies if “continuation of the pregnancy will create a serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function.”
New Jersey
Abortions are allowed to be performed at all stages of pregnancy.
New Mexico
There is no restriction on gestational age for when abortions can be performed.
New York
New York allows abortions to be performed until fetal viability.
North Carolina
Republican lawmakers in North Carolina passed a 12-week abortion ban in May 2023, reducing the limit from 20 weeks to the end of the first trimester.
Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed the bill, but Republicans were able to override the veto due to their super majority in both the Senate and the House.
North Dakota
Gov. Doug Burgum signed a bill into law in April 2023 banning abortion with very limited exceptions.
Abortions can be performed due to rape and/or incest or the health or life of the mother is in danger, but only up until six weeks’ gestation.
Ohio
Currently, abortions are legal in Ohio through 22 weeks, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
A “heartbeat bill” was passed last year that bans abortions after cardiac activity can be defected, which occurs as early as six weeks of pregnancy, before many women know they’re pregnant, but it remains blocked as legal challenges play out.
Oklahoma
Last month, the state’s Supreme Court ruled that two abortion bans were unconstitutional but the procedure is still legal in nearly all circumstances due to a century-old law.
The 1910 law, which was never struck off the books after Roe was passed, makes it a felony to perform or help obtain an abortion, punishable by up to five years in prison, unless it is necessary “to preserve” the life of the pregnant person.
Oregon
Oregon does not have any limitations regarding when an abortion can be performed.
Pennsylvania
Under Pennsylvania law, abortions can be performed through the 23rd week of pregnancy, according to the state’s Department of Health.
If continuing the pregnancy poses a serious health risk or threatens the life of the pregnant person, abortions can be obtained beyond 23 weeks.
Rhode Island
In Rhode Island, abortions are legal up until fetal viability, state law shows.
South Carolina
Abortions can be performed in South Carolina up to 22 weeks, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
Earlier this year, a six-week abortion ban was passed, but it was blocked by a judge in May 2023 until it can be reviewed by the state’s Supreme Court.
South Dakota
Following the Dobbs decision, a trigger law went into effect in South Dakota that bans abortion in all cases except when the life of the mother is endangered.
Tennessee
A trigger law went into effect in August 2022, banning abortion at all stages of pregnancy after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.
In April 2023, Gov. Bill Lee signed a new law allowing limited exceptions including for ectopic or molar pregnancies; miscarriages; to save the life of the pregnant patient; and to prevent “substantial and irreversible” harm to the body of the pregnant person.
Texas
Texas also had a trigger law go into effect in August 2022, banning abortion at nearly all stages — and making it a felony punishable by up to life in prison — except to save the life of the pregnant person.
Utah
Abortion is currently legal up to 18 weeks of pregnancy, after a 2019 law went into effect following the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
Gov. Spencer Cox then signed a bill into law in March 2023 requiring abortion clinics to close either by the end of the year or when their licensee expires, whichever comes first, but a state court blocked the law from going into effect in May.
Vermont
In Vermont, there is no limit on abortions based on how far along a person is in their pregnancy.
Virginia
Under Virginia law, abortions can be performed until the third trimester. Exceptions include saving the life or health of the mother.
Washington
Abortions are legal, in Washington state, up until fetal viability.
West Virginia
Gov. Jim Justice signed a bill into law in September 2022 that banned abortion at all stages of pregnancies except for ectopic pregnancies, fetuses that are not viable and medical emergencies.
There are also exceptions for pregnancies that are the result of rape and incest, but only up to 14 weeks of pregnancy.
Wisconsin
In Wisconsin, abortion services have stopped “due to legal uncertainty around the status of the state’s pre-Roe ban,” according to the Guttmacher Institute.
Wyoming
Abortions are allowed up until fetal viability.
A ban that forbids abortion at all stages of pregnancy except in cases of rape or incest, where the crime is reported to police, or to save the mother’s life, went into effect in March 2023. However, it was blocked days later by a judge and is currently facing legal challenges.
File image of the Titan submersible prior to commence diving. (Ocean Gate)
(NEW YORK) — The search is intensifying for a submersible carrying five people that vanished while heading to tour the Titanic wreckage site off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.
The 21-foot deep-sea vessel, operated by OceanGate Expeditions, lost contact about an hour and 45 minutes after submerging on Sunday morning with a 96-hour oxygen supply. That oxygen is forecast to run out Thursday morning.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Jun 22, 6:29 AM EDT
Search becomes dire as time runs out
Time is running out as rescuers race to locate and save five people trapped in a submersible that vanished during a tour of the Titanic wreckage on Sunday morning.
The deep-sea vessel submerged at 8 a.m. ET on Sunday with a 96-hour oxygen supply, according to the U.S. Coast Guard. That amount of breathable air is forecast to run out on Thursday morning.
The search and rescue mission remains ongoing.
Jun 22, 12:21 AM EDT
Wife of missing OceanGate CEO is great-great-granddaughter of couple who died on Titanic: NYT
The New York Times traced the lineage of Wendy Rush, wife of missing OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, and found that she’s the great-great-granddaughter of a couple who died on the Titanic, Isidor and Ida Straus.
The executive director of the Straus Historical Society told ABC News that The Times article, which cites archival records, is largely correct with regard to Wendy Weil Rush’s heritage.
Jun 21, 5:44 PM EDT
US Navy crane in Newfoundland but awaiting ship
A U.S. Navy portable crane system capable of bringing up items from as deep as 20,000 feet has arrived in St. John’s, Newfoundland, but is waiting to be welded onto a chartered ship to take it to the search area for the missing submersible, according to a U.S. Navy official.
The Navy has not yet contracted a ship for the salvage system, known as Fly Away Deep Ocean Salvage System or FADOSS, the official told reporters Wednesday. Once the ship is contracted, Navy teams will spend approximately 24 hours working around the clock to weld the system aboard the ship before it can leave port, the official said.
FADOSS is the salvage system the U.S. Navy uses for all of its deep-water recoveries. Last year, it was able to bring up an F/A-18 aircraft that had fallen into the waters of the Mediterranean Sea.
-ABC News’ Luis Martinez
Jun 21, 2:56 PM EDT
Head of Horizon Maritime, which owns the Polar Prince boat, holding out hope
The co-founder and Board chair of Horizon Maritime, the company that owns the Polar Prince boat that took the Titan submersible out to sea, is speaking out.
“We have been supporting the Titanic expeditions for several years,” Sean Leet said, calling the Polar Prince “an iconic former Canadian Coast Guard icebreaker that has been upgraded with advanced technology.”
“All protocols were followed” for the submersible’s mission, he said at a news conference Wednesday, calling the missing sub an “unprecedented” situation.
Equipment heading to search site can reach the depths of the submersible and potentially take it to the surface, he said.
“We wish to thank everyone involved in this rescue mission, especially the U.S. and Canadian Coast Guards, the organizations that have made their marina assets available including the French government … [and] the many private companies that have dropped everything at a moment’s notice,” Leet said.
“Our thoughts and focus remain with the crew of the Titan and their families,” he said.
Leet said he is holding out hope that the five-person crew will be brought home safely.
“We’ll continue to hold out hope until the very end,” he said.
Jun 21, 1:34 PM EDT
Coast Guard searching in area where noise was detected
As crews scour the Atlantic for the missing submersible, the Coast Guard said it’s searching in the area where a noise was detected.
The unidentified noise was detected Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.
The data on the noise was sent to the U.S. Navy to be examined, he said.
“We have to remain optimistic and hopeful when we’re in a search and rescue mission,” Capt. Jamie Frederick, the First Coast Guard District response coordinator, said at a news conference Wednesday.
The five crew members submerged underwater Sunday morning with about 96 hours of oxygen available to them. That oxygen is forecast to run out Thursday morning.
When asked about the search becoming a recovery mission, Frederick said Wednesday, “We’re not there yet.”
Jun 21, 1:21 PM EDT
Coast Guard searching in area where noise was detected
As crews scour the Atlantic for the missing submersible, the Coast Guard said it’s searching in the area where a noise was detected.
The unidentified noise was detected Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.
“We have to remain optimistic and hopeful when we’re in a search and rescue mission,” Capt. Jamie Frederick, the First Coast Guard District response coordinator, said at a news conference Wednesday.
The five crew members submerged underwater Sunday morning with about 96 hours of oxygen available to them. That oxygen is forecast to run out Thursday morning.
When asked about the search becoming a recovery mission, Frederick said Wednesday, “We’re not there yet.”
Jun 21, 12:56 PM EDT
Canada sends ship with advanced, deep sonar
One of the ships the Canadian Coast Guard sent to the rescue effort, the John Cabot, is equipped with advanced, deep sonar, said Joyce Murray, minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard.
“We’ve sent so many assets to the search team to help,” Murray said. “Authorities still have hope in the mission.”
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
Jun 21, 12:47 PM EDT
Former passenger says his sub lost contact with host ship on all 4 trips
Mike Reiss, who has done four, 10-hour dives with OceanGate, including one to the Titanic, told ABC News his sub lost contact with the host ship on every dive.
“Every time they lost communication — that seems to be just something baked into the system,” he said.
With no GPS, Reiss said it took his crew three hours to find the Titanic despite landing just 500 yards from the ship.
Reiss said he signed “a waiver that mentions death three times on the first page.”
“It is always in the back of your head that this is dangerous, and any small problem will turn into a major catastrophe,” he said.
He said the submersible is built simply and is “just propelled by two fans on the outside.”
“Even I was able to steer and navigate the sub for a while,” he noted.
Reiss said his greatest fear was that the sub wouldn’t be able to release the weights that force it to submerge once it was time to rise to the surface.
-ABC News’ Gio Benitez and Sam Sweeney
Jun 21, 9:00 AM EDT
Would-be crew member of missing sub speaks out
Digital marketing tycoon Chris Brown originally planned to go on Sunday’s submersible tour of the Titanic wreckage but withdrew due to safety concerns. His friend, Hamish Harding, is among those aboard the missing vessel.
Brown, who described himself as a “modern day adventurer,” admitted that he knew “very little” about the tour operator, OceanGate Expeditions, prior to signing up. But he said the deep-sea trip initially sounded “like a great idea.”
“The Titanic’s obviously an iconic wreck,” Brown told ABC News’ Michael Strahan during an interview Wednesday on Good Morning America.
“OceanGate had put forward this program to go down and do a 3D scan of the wreck,” he added. “So it’s a chance for an expedition, exploration and adding a bit of science into the situation.”
Brown said safety concerns ultimately led him to pull out of the trip, but he declined to go into detail.
“I’m not really sure that this is the time to be going into that sort of thing,” he added. “I think that the focus right now has to be on trying to rescue these people. It’s not fair on the families and friends to be making speculation about what might’ve happened or how it happened at this point.”
Brown said he feels “no” apprehension about joining similar projects in the future but noted that it’s important to “think about all the risks.”
“If you don’t have an appetite for those risks, then you might not go ahead,” he said. “You may try and mitigate those by bringing in some expertise from outside. You might have other risks or dangers that could be mitigated by changing the time of when you go out there.”
Jun 21, 7:33 AM EDT
New details emerge about how the missing sub navigated the ocean
The submersible that was reported missing while on a tour of the underwater wreckage of the Titanic is an unorthodox vessel with a relatively unproven history, according to company press materials and experts familiar with underwater vehicles.
News of the vessel’s disappearance prompted a flurry of interest in the company OceanGate Expeditions and its deep-sea submersible called the Titan.
The company’s founder and CEO, Stockton Rush, who is one of the five people aboard the missing vessel, manned the Titan’s first “validation dive” to 4,000 meters in 2018, according to the company. The company then began offering tourists the opportunity to dive to the depths of the Titanic in the following years, selling tickets for the 2023 journey for $250,000.
Jun 21, 6:57 AM EDT
‘Banging’ picked up by sonar in search area, source says
A source familiar confirmed to ABC News that there were reports of “banging” that were picked up by sonar in the search area on Tuesday morning, but nothing has yet been found.
The U.S. Coast Guard had said early Wednesday that an aircraft with sonar capability “detected underwater noises in the search area,” but remotely operated vehicles were unable to find the origin of the sound.
Jun 21, 6:34 AM EDT
Titanic mapping company ‘fully mobilized’ to help
Magellan, an international exploration company that digitally mapped the Titanic wreckage last year, said Wednesday that it is “ready to support” the search for the missing submersible and is “fully mobilized to help.”
The U.K.-based company told ABC News that it was contacted by the submersible’s operator, OceanGate Expeditions, early Monday and “immediately offered our knowledge of the specific site and also our expertise operating at depth considerably in advance of what is required for this incident.”
“We have been working full-time with U.K. and U.S. agencies to secure the necessary air support to move our specialist equipment and support crew,” Magellan said in a statement.
When asked for comment about media reports that U.S. authorities have failed to give Magellan the necessary permits to participate in the search, the company told ABC News it “does not not wish to comment on any specific media report.”
Jun 21, 12:34 AM EDT
USCG: Canadian aircraft detected ‘underwater noises’ but search ‘yielded negative results’
“Canadian P-3 aircraft detected underwater noises in the search area,” the U.S. Coast Guard tweeted early Wednesday morning. “As a result, ROV operations were relocated in an attempt to explore the origin of the noises. Those ROV searches have yielded negative results but continue.”
The data from the P-3 has been shared with U.S. Navy experts for further analysis, the Coast Guard added.
Jun 21, 12:34 AM EDT
Lawsuit alleged flaws with Titanic sub now missing
A former employee of OceanGate alleged in a 2018 counterclaim lawsuit that he was fired for raising concerns about quality control and testing of potential flaws in the same experimental submersible that went missing this week.
David Lochridge, an engineer and submarine pilot, claimed in his counterclaim against OceanGate that he was hired in 2015 by the Everett, Washington, company to ensure the safety of all crew and clients during the submersible and surface operations of the vessel called Titan. But when he expressed concerns about the design and testing of the minisub’s hull, he said he was terminated by the company.
OceanGate had initially sued Lochridge alleging, among other things, breach of contract, fraud and misappropriation of trade secrets — all claims he denied.
In its lawsuit, OceanGate accused Lochridge of breaching his contract by discussing the company’s confidential information with the Occupational Health and Safety Administration “when he filed a false report claiming that he was discharged in retaliation for being a whistleblower.”
Jun 20, 10:15 PM EDT
Latest Coast Guard bulletin spells out timeline for missing sub search
The U.S. Coast Guard sent out its latest release Tuesday night on the search for the missing submersible at the Titanic crash site.
According to the latest release:
Sunday, June 18, 8 a.m. ET: Submersible launches, supposed to resurface at 3 p.m., but an hour and 45 minutes into the dive, it loses contact.
Sunday, June 18, 5:40 p.m. ET: Coast Guard receives report of overdue submersible.
Monday, June 19: Coast Guard Air Station Elizabeth City, North Carolina, and C-130 Hercules aircraft, as well as a Canadian P8 aircraft equipped with underwater sonar capability, search for the missing submersible, according to a previous release.
Tuesday, June 20, 7 a.m. ET: Bahamian research vessel Deep Energy arrives.
Tuesday, June 20, 4 p.m. ET: C-130 crew from Air National Guard 106th arrives.
Jun 20, 8:33 PM EDT
Experts expressed Titan safety concerns in 2018 letter
Members of a committee specializing in submersibles expressed “unanimous concern regarding the development” of Titan in a 2018 letter addressed to OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush, who is one of the passengers aboard the missing vessel.
The letter was obtained by The New York Times and was later authenticated by ABC News.
The letter warned of possible “catastrophic” problems with Titan’s development that could have “serious consequences for everyone in the industry.” The letter goes on to say that OceanGate’s safety claims were “misleading to the public” and insisted Titan be reviewed by a third-party organization.
The letter, which was addressed from the Marine Technology Society, was never approved to be sent to OceanGate though was quickly leaked to its CEO, according to committee chair William Kohnen.
“The letter did represent in 2018 the consensus by many people in the industry that they were not considering following the standard safety protocols and designs that the industry uses,” Kohnen told ABC News.
Though he wishes it was not leaked at the time, nor now to The New York Times, Kohnen said he stands by the letter and its warnings.
“The company had indicated that their state of innovation was beyond, beyond what was allowable within the regulatory standards we have today and that they would proceed without certification,” Kohnen said. “That worried a number of people in the industry.”
Kohnen acknowledged that OceanGate did “heed” some of the comments made in the 2018 letter.
-ABC News’ Amanda Maile and Victor Ordoñez
Jun 20, 6:02 PM EDT
NASA weighs in on missing submersible
NASA released a statement Tuesday on the Titan, saying it remains “hopeful the crew will be found unharmed.”
“NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center had a Space Act Agreement with OceanGate, and consulted on materials and manufacturing processes for the submersible. NASA did not conduct testing and manufacturing via its workforce or facilities,” the agency said.
-ABC News’ Gina Sunseri
Jun 20, 6:17 PM EDT
Search teams have covered 7,600 square miles
Search and rescue teams have now covered 7,600 square miles — an area bigger than the state of Connecticut — as they scour the ocean for the missing submersible, Coast Guard officials said.
A grid depicting the expanding search area is expected Tuesday night, according to a public information affairs lieutenant for the First District of the U.S. Coast Guard.
-ABC News’ Miles Cohen
Jun 20, 3:09 PM EDT
US Navy sending salvage experts, equipment to help with submersible
The U.S. Navy said it’s sending to the search site experts and equipment “designed to provide reliable deep ocean lifting capacity for the recovery of large, bulky, and heavy undersea objects.”
The equipment, which can lift up to 60,000 pounds, and the experts will arrive in Canada Tuesday night, the Navy said.
National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said earlier Tuesday that the Navy was”on standby” to help with the search for the missing submersible, because the Navy has “some deep-water capabilities that the Coast Guard wouldn’t necessarily have.”
President Joe Biden is “watching events closely,” Kirby said, adding that Biden and the White House offer their thoughts “to the crew onboard, as well as to the — what is no doubt — worried family members back on shore.”
Jun 20, 1:24 PM EDT
3 Air Force C-17’s transporting equipment to Newfoundland
Three U.S. Air Force C-17 cargo aircraft will be transporting commercial equipment from Buffalo, New York, to Newfoundland, Canada, to help with the search efforts, according to a U.S. official.
-ABC News’ Luis Martinez
Jun 20, 1:16 PM EDT
Search area larger than Connecticut, about 41 hours of oxygen left
Efforts to locate the missing submersible are ongoing, and the “complex” search covers an area larger than the state of Connecticut, Coast Guard Capt. Jamie Frederick said at a news conference Tuesday.
Crews are scouring the ocean 900 miles east of Cape Cod and 400 miles south of St. John’s, Canada, he said.
The missing five-person crew on the submersible has about 41 hours of oxygen left, Frederick noted.
“We will do everything in our power to effect a rescue,” Frederick said.
“We have a group of our nation’s best experts,” he said, and once the sub is located, “those experts will be looking at what the next course of action is” to rescue the crew members.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the crew and their families and their loved ones,” Frederick added.
Jun 20, 12:58 PM EDT
Former ABC News correspondent recounts moment his sub was trapped in Titanic’s propeller
In 2000, Dr. Michael Guillen, then an ABC News correspondent, was filming from the wreck of the Titanic when his vessel became trapped in the propeller.
“When we collided with the propeller, and I started seeing those big chunks of metal raining down on us … the first reaction I had was, ‘This can’t be happening,'” he recalled to ABC News on Tuesday.
“We got caught by this underwater turn and just drove us right into the blades,” Guillen said.
“This voice came into my head and said, you know, ‘This is how it’s going to end for you,'” he recalled. “I’ll never forget those words.”
“I’m very aware of what these poor souls on board the ship the Titan are experiencing,” he said. “I am just heartbroken about it.”
Jun 20, 11:35 AM EDT
French sending assistance
At the request of French President Emmanuel Macron, a French ship named Atalante is diverting to the area of the missing submissive and should reach the area Wednesday night.
The ship has an exploration robot that can dive up to 4,000 meters, according to a spokesman for France’s Ifremer Institute.
Jun 20, 9:04 AM EDT
‘It’s a race against time’
Per Wimmer, an explorer and global financier, told ABC News he was “shocked” and “horrified” to hear of the missing submersible.
“It felt very personal. … I’ve been wanting to go down to the Titanic for more than a decade,” Wimmer said.
He estimated that there’s been between 150 and 200 missions to the Titanic.
There “are very, very few submersibles in the whole world that can go down to the depth of Titanic, which sits at 3,800 meters, or about 12,000 feet,” Wimmer said. “It’s very deep — most submersibles can go down to about 1,000 meters.”
“It’s a race against time, because there’s only 96 hours of oxygen on board. And after that, if you haven’t reached the surface, you starve of oxygen,” he said.
“Our best hope at the moment is that the safety mechanism will be activated,” he said. “It is supposed to be able to float to the surface, little by little, and then they can open the hatch and hopefully get out again. That is the only hope we have, because you do not have enough time to get another submersible that can go that deep.”
Jun 20, 8:19 AM EDT
What to know about the 5 people aboard the missing sub
Renowned explorers and a father-son duo were among the five people aboard a submersible that disappeared in the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday while touring the Titanic wreckage, ABC News has learned.
ABC News has confirmed and identified four of those on aboard as Hamish Harding, a British businessman, pilot and space tourist; Paul-Henri Nargeolet, a French diver and Titanic expert; Shahzada Dawood, a Pakistani businessman, and his son Suleman Dawood.
Jun 20, 7:48 AM EDT
US Coast Guard commander talks search for missing sub
The United States Coast Guard commander leading the search for a missing submersible off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, said Tuesday morning that crews in multiple aircraft have flown over an area of the Atlantic Ocean “roughly about the size of Connecticut” while “looking for any signs of surfacing.”
“As we continue on with the search, we’re expanding our capabilities to be able to search under the water as well,” Rear Adm. John Mauger, commander of the First Coast Guard District, told ABC News’ Robin Roberts during an interview on Good Morning America.
A commercial vessel with remotely operated vehicles is now on scene that will allow rescuers to search underwater, according to Mauger.
“This is a complex case,” he added. “The Coast Guard doesn’t have all the resources to be able to affect this kind of rescue, although this is an area that’s within our search zone.”
In many cases, Mauger said, the Coast Guard’s role is to coordinate all of the assets and technical expertise that can be used in a search, in addition to operating aircraft or ships when necessary.
“In this particular case, we’ve established a unified command with the United States Navy, with the Canadian Armed Forces, with the Canadian Coast Guard and with the private operator OceanGate Expeditions to make sure that we understand what’s needed and deploy all available equipment to the scene that could be used to locate this submersible, whether it’s on the surface or down beneath the surface,” he said.
Crews have been working “around the clock” to locate the deep-sea vessel since it lost contact with its operator on Sunday morning, according to Mauger.
In the last 24 hours, a Canadian aircraft has been dropping sonar buoys into the water that can pick up sound the submersible may be emitting. Vessels that have the capability to listen with their own sonar equipment are also on scene, according to Mauger.
“If they are making sound, that’s certainly one of the ways that we’re going to use to locate them,” he said.
Jun 20, 6:18 AM EDT
Missing sub is believed to be deeper than NATO rescue capability
A tourist submersible that disappeared in the Atlantic Ocean on Sunday is believed to be at depths that greatly exceed the capabilities of the NATO Submarine Rescue System (NSRS), according to a spokesperson for the United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defense.
“As the host nation for NATO’s multinational submarine rescue capability, we continue to monitor the incident in the North Atlantic and will guide and assist in any response activity as appropriate,” the spokesperson told ABC News in a statement on Tuesday.
The U.K. has not been approached to offer assistance in the ongoing search for the deep-sea vessel off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, according to the spokesperson.
Initial reports indicate that the depths of water involved greatly exceed that which the NSRS team can safely operate — 610 meters for the NSRS submersible and 1,000 meters for the NSRS remotely operated vehicle, according to the spokesperson.
The NSRS is based at the home of the U.K. Royal Navy Submarine Service in HM Naval Base Clyde, the U.K. Royal Navy’s headquarters in Scotland. Introduced in 2006, the tri-national capability team can respond to a stricken submarine in rescuable water which is capable of mating with the NSRS submarine rescue vehicle, according to the spokesperson.
Jun 20, 5:03 AM EDT
Former Navy sub captain on rescue options
Rescuers racing against the clock to save the five people trapped in a tourist submersible nearly two miles deep in the Atlantic Ocean are facing major obstacles that could make saving the people onboard extremely difficult, according to a former U.S. Navy submarine commander.
Retired Capt. David Marquet told ABC News on Monday that this type of rescue operation is complicated because there aren’t nearby U.S. or Canadian underwater vessels that can go as deep as the Titanic wreckage, which sits 13,400 feet below the ocean’s surface. Also, the ocean is pitch black at that depth.
“The odds are against them,” Marquet said. “There’s a ship in Boston that has this ability to either lower cable and connect to it or have a claw. It’s still a thousand miles away.”
Even if a vessel was able to locate the submersible and lower a cable, it’s extremely difficult to safely navigate the waters and attach it, according to Marquet.
“You’ve got to get it exactly right,” he told ABC News. “It’s sort of like … getting one of those toys out of those arcade machines. In general, you miss.”
Rescuers do have one advantage, Marquet said, as weather conditions off the coast of Newfoundland are not rough and will not disturb any boat or vessel there.
Marquet added that if the five people aboard are still alive, they would be asked to sleep to conserve their oxygen.
“We would put the vast majority of the crew to sleep because that’s when you’re using the least amount of oxygen and you’re expelling the least amount of carbon dioxide,” he said.
Jun 20, 4:27 AM EDT
What to know about the missing sub
A submersible on a tour of the Titanic wreckage was reported overdue by its operator OceanGate Expeditions on Sunday, prompting the United States Coast Guard to launch a search and rescue effort for the 22-foot, 23,000-pound vessel.
Designed with life support to sustain five crew members for 96 hours, the submersible would need to be rescued in three days to save its five passengers, according to the Coast Guard.
Stockton Rush founded Washington-based OceanGate in 2009 to make deep-sea exploration more accessible to scientists and tourists. Fourteen years, more than 200 dives and three submersible designs later, the company now finds itself in a desperate search to recover the submersible carrying five people aboard that’s gone missing off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada.
OceanGate confirmed Monday it had lost contact with a submersible, saying in a statement: “We are exploring and mobilizing all options to bring the crew back safely. Our entire focus is on the crewmembers in the submersible and their families. We are working toward the safe return of the crewmembers.”
(NEW YORK) — At least four people were killed and 10 others were injured when a tornado tore through a tiny town in northern Texas on Wednesday night, officials said.
Matador, some 80 miles northeast of Lubbock, and its less than 600 residents were under a tornado warning as a powerful storm brought gusty winds and softball-sized hail to the Rolling Plains area after 8 p.m. local time. Local and state authorities reported seeing at least one tornado that touched down in Matador that night, though the National Weather Service will investigate.
Matador Mayor Pat Smith told ABC News early Thursday that there were at least three storm-related deaths. At least four people had been killed, Lubbock Fire Rescue later said.
Lubbock ABC affiliate KAMC-TV, citing the Texas Department of Public Safety, reported 10 storm-related injuries in Matador, with all residents accounted for.
Brendan Moore, the senior water superintendent for Matador and a volunteer firefighter, told ABC News late Wednesday that approximately 15 structures were destroyed and the entire west side was “wiped out,” including the town’s only cafe and convenience stores. There was also no power or water in the town at the time. Officials were working in complete darkness to locate and identify any casualties, he said.
Meanwhile, several hundred miles southeast of Matador, a freight train derailed near Corsicana in Texas’ Navarro County on Wednesday evening as wind gusts got up to 80 miles per hour.
“No one was hurt and nothing was spilled,” the train’s operator, Union Pacific, said in a statement. “The cause is under investigation, but initial reports indicate weather was a factor.”
Parts of Texas had winds as high as 109 mph on Wednesday. Gusts of up to 97 mph were reported at George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston.
Texas was not the only U.S. state to be hit with severe weather on Wednesday. There were a total of 11 reported tornadoes across four states — Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado and Texas, according to the National Weather Service. Hundreds of thousands of customers were without power across the South amid dangerous storms and sweltering heat, according to data collected by PowerOutage.us.
A 62-year-old woman died due to the heat in Caddo Parish, Louisiana, on Wednesday. The area was without power for an extended period of time, according to the Louisiana Department of Health.
Baseball-sized hail stuck and injured dozens of concertgoers at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Morrison, Colorado, on Wednesday night. A total of 80 to 90 people were treated on scene while seven were transported to local hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries, including cuts and broken bones, according to the West Metro Fire Rescue.
