(BEVERLY, Mass.) — A convict was indicted Wednesday in the murder of a college student who was found strangled to death more than 35 years ago, officials said.
The body of 20-year-old Claire Gravel was discovered in the woods on June 30, 1986, in Beverly, Massachusetts.
In the intervening years, authorities have interviewed dozens of witnesses and persons of interest in the cold case, Essex District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett told reporters during a press briefing Wednesday.
A grand jury indicted 63-year-old John Carey in her death Wednesday morning, Blodgett said. Carey is currently serving a 20-year sentence at a Concord prison after he was convicted in 2008 of attempting to strangle another woman to death in Massachusetts.
“For 36 years, Claire Gravel’s family and friends have had nothing but questions about her death,” Blodgett said. “Today, we were able to give them some of the answers.”
Evidence recovered from Gravel’s clothing “was instrumental in solving this case,” Blodgett said, noting that investigators continually review cold cases “hoping that new techniques and a fresh look would result in a breakthrough.”
Carey, who had been a person of interest in the case, will be arraigned on a first-degree murder charge at a later date, Blodgett said. It is unclear if the suspect has an attorney.
Blodgett said prosecutors have not yet speculated on a motive in Gravel’s murder, but said “we feel confident” based on the evidence presented to the grand jury “that we have the right person.”
Gravel, a student at Salem State from North Andover, was last seen alive the day before her body was found. After a night at a local bar with members of her softball team, a friend dropped Gravel off at her apartment at around 1:30 a.m. on June 29. Three workers found her body in the woods off Route 128 in Beverly on the afternoon of June 30. The medical examiner determined that she had been strangled to death.
Blodgett said he has been in touch with Gravel’s family, who expressed “relief” that a suspect has been identified in her murder.
“I want to thank everyone for their tireless and relentless pursuit of justice for Claire,” he said.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden announced Wednesday that his administration is forgiving some student loan debt for U.S. borrowers and extending the federal student loan repayment pause until Dec. 31, both actions that have been highly anticipated and closely watched by millions of Americans.
The move comes a week before the pause on student loan repayments was set to expire on Aug. 31. The measure was put in place in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic and was designed to relieve borrowers from defaulting on student loans and allow them to begin repayments in good standing when the state of the economy improved.
The new changes could “provide relief to up to 43 million borrowers, including cancelling the full remaining balance for roughly 20 million borrowers,” according to a White House fact sheet.
The move could be of particular benefit to women, who hold nearly two-thirds of all student loan debt in the U.S., according to the American Association of University Women, and Black borrowers, who are disproportionately burdened by student loan debt, according to the National Consumer Law Center.
Below are some of the top questions surrounding student loan forgiveness and what experts say borrowers should consider.
How much in student loans can be forgiven?
The president tweeted an outline of the changes on Wednesday, which include forgiving up to $20,000 in student loan debt for Americans who attended colleges and universities on federal Pell grants and up to $10,000 for Americans who did not attend schools on Pell grants. This would only apply to borrowers who earn $125,000 or less per year.
When does student loan repayment start?
The federal student loan pause ends on Dec. 31. Those with student loans will have to start making repayments in January 2023.
Additionally, those with undergraduate loans will be able to cap their repayments at 5% of their monthly income.
How many Americans have student loan debt?
The federal government estimates that more than 45 million Americans have approximately $1.6 trillion in student loan debt, according to the White House fact sheet published Wednesday.
What is the average amount of student loan debt?
According to data from the U.S. Department of Education, American undergraduates hold nearly $25,000 in student loans after graduation.
Who do you contact when it’s time to enroll in a repayment plan?
Borrowers should contact their loan servicer(s) to determine how to begin or resume making repayments and to discuss specific conditions of repayments. If a borrower was using an auto-debit service previously, they should not expect the service to proceed again automatically.
What happens when you refinance a student loan?
Student loans can be federal student loans that are funded by the federal government or private loans managed by a lender like a bank, school, state agency, or other institution. Private student loans are not included in Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan.
A federal student loan can be refinanced or reorganized into a private loan with different terms, but borrowers should carefully consider the benefits and drawbacks before doing so. There are advantages a borrower may have to give up if refinancing, including qualifying for temporary loan payment relief, no interest periods, potential loan forgiveness and discharges, according to the Department of Education.
What is the best student loan repayment plan?
There are several types of student loans and a borrower will need to take a closer look at what types of loans they have — whether federal or private — and the different terms for each loan.
How else can a borrower get student loan forgiveness?
The federal government is giving borrowers until Oct. 31 to apply for a waiver and credits for past repayment periods under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, a federal program that forgives student loan balances after a borrower, who has worked full-time for a qualifying employer, has completed 120 qualifying payments. These payments can be ones made under income-driven repayment plans.
Under the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2018, the federal government also established a Temporary Expanded Public Service Loan Forgiveness program which may apply to borrowers who don’t necessarily qualify for the PSLF program.
Borrowers can visit the StudentAid.gov website to see if they qualify for or to apply for the PSLF/TEPSLF program and/or waivers and credits.
For additional information on the student loan forgiveness program changes and for more details that will be released in the coming weeks, borrowers can visit the StudentAid.gov website.
Paul Bersebach/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Some states and jurisdictions are hitting early bumps in their rollout of the U.S. government’s new approach to expand access and supply of monkeypox vaccines to more at-risk Americans, local officials have told ABC News, as providers face a steep learning curve with the new inoculation method.
Earlier this month, the Biden administration announced it was launching a new plan to increase the country’s monkeypox vaccine supply by shifting the way the shots were administered from a traditional subcutaneous injection in the arm, to an intradermal technique of smaller, shallower injections.
The new intradermal technique requires just a fraction of a vaccine per shot. Instead of using one vial per vaccination, the approach produces a total of five vaccinations per vial, according to federal officials. At the time, these officials acknowledged that giving shots this way would require more technical skill.
Now, several state and local officials from across the country have told ABC News that some of their clinicians are struggling to extract all five doses from the vial.
“We have also heard reports from some of our providers that they have been only able to extract three or four doses per vial,” Nikki Ostergaard, from the Washington State Department of Health, told ABC News.
Health officials in Texas confirmed to ABC News that although some providers have been able to successfully extract five doses from the vials, others “cannot get five doses.” In Maryland, a representative for the health department also confirmed it has heard anecdotal reports of the issues.
The Association of Immunization Managers (AIM) confirmed to ABC News that its executive director, Claire Hannan, has also heard that some clinicians are running into trouble with the extraction process, and thus, the organization is working to educate health officials to prepare them for the injection process better.
“The needles that are used make a difference. And AIM hopes that as clinicians get more proficient with the ID technique, this will improve,” a representative for the organization said in a statement.
White House National Monkeypox Response Deputy Coordinator Dr. Demetre Daskalakis told Stat News that his team has “definitely” heard of the issues arising from local jurisdictions, adding there has been a range in the number of doses clinicians are able to extract, with most reporting that they are getting between three and five doses.
Concerns about the intradermal approach from local officials
In the weeks after the U.S. government announced the shift in vaccination strategy, local officials have had some initial concerns about training health care providers on how to administer the shots with the new technique.
New York State Health Commissioner Dr. Mary T. Bassett said during a press conference this week, with Gov. Kathy Hochul, that it is “not as pleasant” to get an intradermal injection, as it can scar and is “more painful.”
“They’re more complications at the site, that these aren’t serious, but they’re unpleasant,” Bassett said.
But officials said given the ongoing crisis, vaccinating as many people as possible is crucial.
“We have been struggling with not having enough doses. And our obligation in public health is always to do the most good for the most people and intradermal administration will vastly expand our access to a scarce resource,” Bassett said at the press conference.
Hochul noted this is “an interim approach until the supply chain challenges break,” and when an unlimited number of vaccines becomes available, the state may consider going back to the original way of administering the shots.
In New York City, Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan said Wednesday that it will take “some weeks” for the city to transition fully to an intradermal approach as they educate local clinics on the practice, but the transition is necessary because it is “really being mandated by the federal government.”
“It’s not optional,” Vasan said at a city council meeting. “The federal government has made it clear that we won’t get more vaccines until we make the switch and so we’re making the switch.”
(NEW YORK) — Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” into neighboring Ukraine began on Feb. 24, with Russian forces invading from Belarus, to the north, and Russia, to the east. Ukrainian troops have offered “stiff resistance,” according to U.S. officials.
The Russian military has since launched a full-scale ground offensive in eastern Ukraine’s disputed Donbas region, capturing the strategic port city of Mariupol and securing a coastal corridor to the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Aug 24, 4:56 PM EDT
21 killed in Russian missile strike on train station
Twenty-one people were killed and another 22 were injured in a Russian missile strike on a train station in Chaplyne, in the central Ukraine region of Dnipropetrovsk, said Kyrylo Tymoshenko, deputy head of the president’s office.
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou and Max Uzol
Aug 24, 2:55 PM EDT
Russia may hold sham referenda in occupied Ukrainian territory: White House
The White House said the U.S. believes Russia could hold “sham referenda” in occupied Ukrainian territory within days or weeks.
White House spokesman John Kirby said last month that Russia was “installing illegitimate proxy officials in the areas of Ukraine that are under its control” who would then arrange “sham referenda” as a precursor to annexation.
Kirby told reporters Wednesday that the U.S. government believes “these referenda could begin in a matter of days or weeks.”
“We have information that Russia continues to prepare to hold these sham referenda in Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics,” Kirby said. “We’ve also learned that Russian leadership has instructed officials to begin preparing to hold these sham referenda, particularly in Kharkiv, as well.”
“We expect Russia to try to manipulate the results of these referenda to falsely claim that the Ukrainian people want to join Russia,” he continued. “It will be critical to call out and counter this disinformation in real time.”
“Any claim that the Ukrainian people somehow want to join Russia is simply not true,” Kirby said, citing polling data. It’s clear, he added, that Ukrainians “value and treasure their independence.”
President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will speak on the phone on Thursday, Kirby said.
-ABC News’ Ben Gittleson
Aug 24, 1:41 PM EDT
Queen Elizabeth marks Ukrainian Independence Day
Queen Elizabeth released a statement Wednesday marking Ukrainian Independence Day.
“It gives me great pleasure to send Your Excellency and the people of Ukraine my warmest greetings on the celebration of your Independence Day,” she said. “In this most challenging year, I hope that today will be a time for the Ukrainian people, both in Ukraine and around the world, to celebrate their culture, history and identity. May we look to better times in the future.”
Aug 24, 9:13 AM EDT
Biden announces new aid package, congratulates Ukraine on Independence Day
President Joe Biden in a statement Wednesday said he was “proud to announce our biggest tranche of security assistance to date” to Ukraine: “approximately $2.98 billion of weapons and equipment.”
“This will allow Ukraine to acquire air defense systems, artillery systems and munitions, counter-unmanned aerial systems, and radars to ensure it can continue to defend itself over the long term,” Biden said.
Biden confirmed the money would come through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative. The USAI money can be spent on contracts with the defense industry to produce new equipment for Ukraine.
Biden in his statement also marked Ukrainian Independence Day, saying, “Ukrainians have inspired the world with their extraordinary courage and dedication to freedom.”
“Today is not only a celebration of the past but a resounding affirmation that Ukraine proudly remains — and will remain — a sovereign and independent nation,” he said.
He continued, “I know this Independence Day is bittersweet for many Ukrainians as thousands have been killed or wounded, millions have been displaced from their homes, and so many others have fallen victim to Russian atrocities and attacks.”
“Today and every day, we stand with the Ukrainian people to proclaim that the darkness that drives autocracy is no match for the flame of liberty that lights the souls of free people everywhere,” Biden said.
Aug 23, 4:39 PM EDT
2 Zaporizhzhya power plant employees killed in shelling in city of Enerhodar
Two Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant employees were killed on their day off when Russian forces shelled the city of Enerhodar, officials said.
-ABC News’ Yuriy Zaliznyak and Dada Jovanovic
Aug 23, 2:35 PM EDT
US to announce its largest single aid package for Ukraine
The U.S. will announce its largest single aid package for Ukraine on Wednesday, according to two U.S. officials. The package is expected to be valued at roughly $3 billion — though one official told ABC News some changes could be made overnight, and $3 billion is on the higher end of the estimates.
A senior U.S. official told ABC News the package will come from Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative funds. Unlike presidential drawdown packages, which pull from existing U.S. equipment stocks, the USAI money can be spent on contracts with the defense industry to produce new equipment for Ukraine.
The U.S. has committed about $10.6 billion in military aid to Ukraine since the beginning of the Biden administration.
-ABC News’ Matt Seyler and Shannon Crawford
Aug 23, 1:54 PM EDT
Americans urged to leave Ukraine over Russian strikes on civilians
The United States is once again urging its citizens to leave Ukraine amid concerns Russia is ramping up attacks on civilians in the war-torn country.
In a security alert posted Tuesday on its website, the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv urged Americans “to depart Ukraine now using privately available ground transportation options if it is safe to do so.”
“The Department of State has information that Russia is stepping up efforts to launch strikes against Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure and government facilities in the coming days,” the embassy said in the alert. “Russian strikes in Ukraine pose a continued threat to civilians and civilian infrastructure.”
Sources within the State Department said the heightened risk of a Russian strike on highly populated centers is most directly tied to Ukraine’s Independence Day on Wednesday.
“The risks are really high,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told ABC News. “We are receiving information that there may be a provocation by the Russian Federation, by the occupiers. Therefore, we do not want large gatherings on such days. The days are beautiful, but … our neighbors are not.”
Aug 23, 9:10 AM EDT
Americans urged to leave Ukraine over Russian strikes on civilians
The United States is once again urging its citizens to leave Ukraine amid concerns Russia is ramping up attacks on civilians in the war-torn country.
In a security alert posted Tuesday on its website, the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv urged Americans “to depart Ukraine now using privately available ground transportation options if it is safe to do so.”
“The Department of State has information that Russia is stepping up efforts to launch strikes against Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure and government facilities in the coming days,” the embassy said in the alert. “Russian strikes in Ukraine pose a continued threat to civilians and civilian infrastructure.”
Aug 22, 10:59 AM EDT
FSB accuses Ukrainian special services of assassinating Darya Dugina
Russia’s FSB is accusing Ukrainian special services of assassinating Darya Dugina, the daughter of Putin ally Alexander Dugina, who was killed by an explosive this weekend.
The FSB said a Ukrainian national arrived in Russia on July 23 with her 12-year-old daughter and rented an apartment in the same Moscow building where Dugina lived, Russia’s state-run RIA Novosti reported. The woman allegedly trailed Dugina for nearly a month and then immediately left for Estonia with her daughter just after this weekend’s bombing.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a statement that Darya Dugina was “a bright, talented person with a real Russian heart – kind, loving, sympathetic and open.”
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said Ukraine is working under the assumption that Russian secret services are behind the killing, saying “Ru-propaganda lives in a fictional world.”
-ABC News’ Anastasia Bagaeva and Oleksii Shemyskyo
Aug 22, 9:13 AM EDT
Air raid sirens sound across Ukraine
Air raid sirens are sounding across Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned Russia could launch a “particularly ugly” provocation this week as Ukraine approaches its Independence Day on Wednesday.
In Kyiv, all public events are canceled and government employees have been told to work from home through the week.
In Kramatorsk, public events have been canceled for Tuesday through Thursday and public transportation has been stopped.
Aug 22, 6:16 AM EDT
Explosive under Putin ally’s car was remotely triggered, investigators say
An explosive device planted on the underside of Putin ally Alexander Dugin’s vehicle was remotely triggered, Russian investigators said.
Dugin’s daughter, Daria Dugina, was killed in a blast near Moscow on Saturday.
“A presumed explosive device planted on a Toyota Land Cruiser went off when the car was moving at full speed past Bolshiye Vyazemy in the Odintsovo urban district at about 9 p.m. on August 20, and the car caught fire,” the Russian Investigative Committee said in a statement posted to Telegram. “The woman driving the car died instantly. The victim was identified as journalist, political analyst Daria Dugina.”
Alexander and Daria attended a traditional patriotic festival on Saturday afternoon, according to the Odinstovo administration. They’d planned to leave together in the same vehicle, but Daria instead drove alone.
The Russian Investigative Committee’s press service told Interfax that Daria was assassinated.
Detectives established that the bomb was planted on the underside of the driver’s side of the vehicle, the committee said. Russian media outlets had reported that the SUV belonged to Dugin.
“Detectives and specialists from the Main Forensic Department of the Russian Investigative Committee are continuing to examine the incident scene. In particular, a forensic technician examined the charred vehicle before it was taken to a special parking lot,” the Committee said.
Biological, genetic, physical, chemical and explosive examinations have been scheduled, the committee said.
-ABC News’ Anastasia Bagaeva
Aug 21, 3:12 PM EDT
Daughter of Putin ally killed in car bomb; Schiff hopes it wasn’t ‘from Ukraine’
U.S. officials do not know who to blame for the car bomb that killed the daughter of political theorist Alexander Dugin, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Rep. Adam Schiff, the Democratic chair of the House Intelligence Committee, said during an interview Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Daria Dugina, a 29-year-old TV commentator, was killed on the Mozhaisk Highway in the outskirts of Moscow on Saturday night by an explosive that had been planted in the Toyota Land Cruiser she was driving, Russia’s state-run news agency TASS reported.
Alexander Dugin, often referred to as “Putin’s brain,” had just attended “Tradition” cultural festival with his daughter, according to TASS. Russian media outlets reported that the SUV belonged to Dugin.
The Russian Investigative Committee press office told TASS Dugina’s killing was planned and contracted.
Schiff said Sunday that he had not yet been briefed on the killing and that he “couldn’t say” who is behind it, adding that he hoped it was an “internal Russian affair” rather than something “emanating from Ukraine.”
“There are so many factions and internecine warfare within Russian society, within the Russian government,” Schiff said. “Anything is possible.”
Adviser to the Ukrainian presidential office Mikhail Podolyak denied Kyiv was involved in the explosion that killed Dugina during a televised interview on Sunday.
“I emphasize that Ukraine certainly has nothing to do with this, because we are not a criminal state like the Russian Federation, and even less a terrorist state,” Podolyak said.
-ABC News’ Ben Gittleson and Patrick Reevell
Aug 20, 2:10 PM EDT
Videos circulating online show smoke over Sevastopol
Videos circulating online show smoke rising over Sevastopol, the largest city in Crimea and a major port on the Black Sea.
The city’s Russian-appointed governor said a drone was struck down and fell through the roof of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet Headquarters. Ukraine has not commented on the strike.
-ABC News’ Layla Ferris
Aug 19, 3:31 PM EDT
US to offer new $775M aid package to Ukraine
The U.S. has authorized a new $775 million military aid package for Ukraine, the Department of Defense announced on Friday.
The package will include more High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) ammunition and howitzers, as well as some firsts, including ScanEagle reconnaissance drones and Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles.
The 15 ScanEagle drones are intended to help Ukraine identify targets and put the HIMARS and howitzers to better use, according to a senior U.S. defense official.
The 40 MRAP vehicles and other mine-clearing equipment will help Ukrainian troops cross dangerous terrain, according to the official.
“We know that Russia has heavily mined areas in parts of southern and eastern Ukraine. We know there’s a significant amount of unexploded ordinance,” the official said.
The new aid package follows a $1 billion package announced on Aug. 8.
(NEW YORK) — Indiana’s new abortion law will go into effect on Sept. 15, which would ban abortion in nearly all cases with limited exceptions including rape and incest.
Indiana was the first state to pass new legislation restricting reproductive rights after Roe v. Wade was overturned on June 24.
Dr. Katherine McHugh, a practicing doctor who provides abortion services in Indiana, spoke with ABC News’ podcast “Start Here” about how her practice has been shifting following the overturning of Roe v. Wade and how the new state law will impact her practice.
START HERE: Dr. McHugh, can you just tell me about where you work and what the last couple months have been like?
MCHUGH: Yeah, absolutely. Thanks so much for having me and for taking on this issue. I am primarily in Indianapolis, although I travel all over the state of Indiana providing abortion care. And over the last two months, we have seen a real change in our patient demographic. We’ve seen an influx of patients from outside of the state, they are coming to us from other states that have already banned abortion.
And this has all been in the setting of anticipating an abortion ban in Indiana as well. So we’ve been able to increase access over the last few months and been very fortunate that we have been able to take care of a lot of people that needed healthcare and at the same time, working with collaborative networks and strengthening those referral places because we know that we will be sending our own patients away in just a few short weeks.
The patients that we’re seeing are the ones that can afford childcare, that can afford the gas money, they can afford to take time off of work. We’re also seeing much earlier patients, patients whose pregnancies are much earlier in their gestation. People are scared. People are nervous about what it means to be pregnant in a place or in a time when all of their options are not available to them. So that is probably the most common thing that I talked about with patients, is how scared they are to be pregnant.
START HERE: That makes me curious, if there’s this fear of pregnancy from women seeking abortions, I’m wondering about the fears of women who are pregnant who aren’t seeking abortions or don’t know if they want an abortion. Is it getting more complicated, for example, for women I was mentioning earlier, who are suffering miscarriages or other abnormalities early on?
MCHUGH: That has been a complicated topic for physicians and certainly a very challenging experience for patients. Patients who have a miscarriage that is diagnosed, but the fetus still has a heartbeat– that is very complicated in states like Kentucky and Ohio that have what they’re called heartbeat bans, which means that they can’t have an abortion after the time that you can see fetal cardiac activity. So that means that even if the patient is bleeding, even if the cervix is open, and there is no way that the pregnancy is able to continue, they cannot interfere, the physicians cannot interact.
START HERE: Oh, there’s still technically a heartbeat.
MCHUGH: There is a heartbeat even though there is not a viable pregnancy. I’ve seen several people coming from surrounding states where the physicians in those states are unclear enough about the legality of interfering in what is, in the legal sense, a continuing pregnancy even though medically speaking it is not a viable pregnancy, that the patients have to come to Indiana where that doesn’t exist yet. It doesn’t have that same legal impact here in Indiana.
I saw a patient recently who came to me from out-of-state and she had a situation where she was pregnant, and she was bleeding so she went to an emergency room and had an ultrasound to evaluate what was going on. What the doctors there saw was that her pregnancy was inside the uterus, so it wasn’t an ectopic pregnancy, but she had significant bleeding and the cervix had started to open. The pregnancy already had and still had a heartbeat. She was about seven weeks pregnant.
So at this point the doctors were faced with a really challenging moment where they didn’t know what they were allowed to do legally. Could they offer what is standard of care, which would be to offer some sort of termination of this pregnancy? And they decided they could not. The reason that this situation would warrant terminating a pregnancy is called an inevitable abortion or a pregnancy that is not able to be continued. And in the intervening time, the woman or the pregnant person can lose a lot of blood and become infected, can get very very sick and can even die from this.
START HERE: So it feels like you’re sentencing this woman to, best-case scenario, a very painful miscarriage, worst-case scenario is much worse than that. And those are the two options.
MCHUGH: Exactly right. And so this is a very common scenario we diagnose inevitable abortion all the time. For this particular patient, she was able to come to Indiana, she saw me in one of my clinics, and we were able to provide that pregnancy termination for her, save her uterus and potentially save her life. But in her home, state physicians did not feel that they were legally able to do that. So they sent her away.
START HERE: Wow, I see and then they come to you because right now it’s legal where you are. But on September 15th, I believe, this new law goes into effect in Indiana. It outlaws virtually all abortions that are not the result of rape or incest or that endanger the life of the mother. Even in those circumstances, though, there are timelines to deal with. And I found this interesting, there are also timelines for fetal abnormalities, right, what happens in those situations?
MCHUGH: Yeah, great question. That part of the new law echoes our previous laws, where we had the ability to terminate a pregnancy up to 22 weeks. However, what’s different is under the new law, if the government doesn’t agree with the medical opinion that this was a lethal anomaly, suddenly instead of it just you know, quote unquote being a medical decision that is controversial, now it’s a felony. So this becomes much more complicated to navigate from a medical perspective. You know, it’s already very complicated and very emotional to tell a patient with a desired pregnancy that the baby they’re carrying is not going to live, that they are carrying a baby with profound anomalies that is not able to live outside. That is a devastating day for everyone involved.
And now we are also faced with telling patients that offering them their options which include abortion, which is a compassionate way to treat this pregnancy and this fetal anomaly, and yet if the government does not agree with our medical diagnosis or medical plan of care, treatment plan, then we have the threat of a felony charge which carries six years in jail.
START HERE: So if the stakes are that high for someone like you all of a sudden, what are you going to do starting September 15th?
MCHUGH: After this ban goes into effect, I will no longer be able to provide abortion care in Indiana. This is an integral part of my practice and reason for going into obstetrics and gynecology and so I will move that part of my practice out of state.
START HERE: Oh, you’re gonna have to like move your practice because of this?
MCHUGH: Yeah, the closest state to me is Illinois, so I will work to find a place in Illinois where I can work. The rest of my career will also adjust, to accommodate for the travel and so forth.
START HERE: It’s the moment that your state becomes one of the states that you have been helping up until now.
MCHUGH: Exactly right.
START HERE: Dr. Katie McHugh in Indiana, for now, thank you so much.
(LOS ANGELES) — After closing arguments concluded, the jury began deliberations Wednesday in Vanessa Bryant’s invasion of privacy trial over photos taken at the scene of the 2020 helicopter crash that killed her husband, basketball star Kobe Bryant, and their 13-year-old daughter, Gianna.
Bryant and Orange County financial adviser Chris Chester, whose wife and daughter were also killed in the crash, are suing Los Angeles County for negligence and violation of privacy, alleging that first responders took graphic photos of human remains at the scene as “souvenirs” and shared them with others.
Bryant filed the lawsuit several months after the 2020 crash and U.S. District Judge John Walter in July decided to consolidate Bryant’s and Chester’s cases into one trial.
The judge instructed the jury to consider liability and any damages due in the case separately; meaning one or both the Los Angeles Fire Department and the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department can be found liable, and one or both Bryant and Chester can be found to warrant damages.
Jury deliberations officially began at 11:24 a.m. local time. Judge Walter asked attorneys for both sides to remain in the building. If a decision is reached, Walter said he wants to move quickly with the proceedings.
Throughout the trial, the defense maintained that the photos have not surfaced online since the tragedy. Multiple county fire and sheriff’s personnel have also testified that they deleted whatever crash-site pictures they had on their cellphones.
Both Bryant’s and Chester’s lawsuits argue that the photos were shared before being deleted by first responders.
Bryant is claiming she suffered emotional distress and is suing for an undisclosed amount of damages.
Kobe and Gianna Bryant were headed to a basketball game at his Mamba Sports Academy in Thousand Oaks, California, along with others connected to the basketball program on Jan. 26, 2020, when the helicopter they were traveling in crashed north of Los Angeles. All 9 people on board were killed.
(NEW YORK) — As alarms over inflation and a possible recession sounded in recent months, a stock market rally offered a source of optimism — until this week.
The S&P 500 fell 2.1% on Monday, its worst day in more than two months. As of trading on Wednesday afternoon, the index had recovered some of its losses but remained down for the week.
The recent drop marks the latest swing of this year’s market seesaw. Bouncing back from a historic plunge over the first half of 2022, the S&P 500 rose more than 15% during a two-month period beginning in mid-June. Over that same period, the tech-heavy Nasdaq spiked more than 17% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose nearly 14%.
In fact, that rally makes up a key reason for the downturn in recent days, as investors determined that stocks became overpriced, market analysts said. The plunge also stems from fear that the Federal Reserve will continue a series of aggressive rate hikes, which aim to slash inflation by slowing the economy but risk tipping the U.S. into a recession, they added.
But analysts differed over whether this week’s downturn marks a brief hiccup or a sign of more losses to come, suggesting that murky economic data supports varied interpretations about the outlook of the economy and in turn corporate profits, the key focus for stock forecasters.
“Markets don’t go up or down forever,” Ed Yardeni, the president of market advisory firm Yardeni Research and former chief investment strategist at Deutsche Bank’s U.S. equities division, told ABC News. “At some point, buyers get exhausted and new buyers think things have gotten expensive and are waiting for a pullback.”
“It’s a tug of war between the bulls and the bears,” he added. “For a while, the bears were gaining ground. Over the last couple months, the bulls gained ground and now we may be at a standoff for a while.”
The volatility in markets owes in large part to looming concern that sky-high inflation will require the Fed to pursue ongoing, sizable hikes to interest rates, which would slow the economy and risk a recession, the analysts said.
Typically, the market has climbed in response to news about slowing inflation and a potential softening of rate increases; inflation spikes and rate moves are a common cause of selloffs.
For instance, lower-than-expected inflation data released earlier this month sent the S&P 500 soaring to its highest level in three months, reflecting optimism that price increases have peaked.
At meetings in each of the past two months, the central bank has increased its benchmark interest rate 0.75% — dramatic hikes last matched in 1994.
The rate increases may have contributed to a slowdown in price hikes. While still elevated, price increases last month waned from the near-historic pace reached in June, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The consumer price index, or CPI, rose 8.5% over the past year as of July, a marked slowdown from a 9.1% year-over-year rate measured in June, the bureau said.
Still, Fed officials have signaled in recent days that the central bank intends to continue a series of rate hikes, aiming to bring inflation back down to its target of 2%. Last Thursday, San Francisco Federal Reserve President Mary Daly told CNN that a 50- or 75-point basis hike at the central bank’s meeting next month would be “reasonable” and that rate hikes would continue into at least 2023.
Such signals from the Fed have contributed to the market decline this week, Ivan Feinseth, a market analyst at Tigress Financial, told ABC News.
“There’s fear that the Fed will have to raise rates aggressively to fend off inflation, but also fear of overreaching and the Fed in and of itself decimating the economy,” he said.
Market forecasters also face the challenge of murky economic data, Guggenheim analyst John DiFucci told ABC News.
Inflation remains near a 40-year high and GDP has slowed, raising the specter of stagflation, a damaging combination of high prices and anemic growth. But observers can take solace in employment data, which persists at robust levels, as the economy added a blockbuster 528,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate stands at 3.5%.
“Things look pretty strong in certain indicators of the macro economy, whereas things look pretty weak in other indicators,” he said. “That’s the schizophrenic behavior of the market.”
Analysts offered conflicting assessments of the market outlook, in part because the murky market data sets an uncertain future for the economy.
The Fed may ease off of its aggressive rate hikes if inflation continues to fall, which could send stocks higher toward the end of the year, said Feinseth of Tigress Financial.
“We could see a new all-time high in the stock market by the end of year,” he said.
A potential recession, however, would hammer corporate profits, causing a prolonged downturn in the market, said DiFucci of Guggenheim.
“If we’re going to go through a longer period of weakness, stocks that typically trade at higher multiples are likely to moderate or come down,” he said. “It’s as simple as that.”
Yardeni, who identifies as “right in the middle” on the spectrum between market bears and bulls, predicted that stocks would move “sideways.”
“Everyone is asking these days if the market will be up or down,” he said. “The third option is nowhere fast.”
(LONDON) — The internet personality and former kickboxer Andrew Tate has spoken out after being banned from Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok this week, accused of misogyny.
Tate, who first came into the public eye when he was ejected from the U.K. reality show Big Brother in 2016, has gone viral across these platforms over the last few months, amassing hundreds of thousands of followers in the process.
The ban comes after the 35-year-old’s comments were branded to be “wildly misogynistic” by activist groups.
In videos originally uploaded to YouTube, Tate appeared to claim that women should “stay at home” and that women “belong” to their male partners.
He was banned from Twitter in 2017, after allegedly saying that victims of sexual assault must ‘bear some responsibility’ in response to the rise of the #MeToo movement.
Before being banned from Instagram, Tate had managed to acquire 4.7 million followers on his Instagram and over 760,000 subscribers on YouTube, according to HypeAuditor, an analytics website.
As well as his popularity on his social media accounts, Tate has amassed over 100,000 subscribers on his website ‘Hustler’s University.’
The online platform gives subscribers classes on topics such as cryptocurrency and personal finance for a $49 monthly fee.
Users were encouraged to share Tate’s controversial content in order to get more sign-ups for Hustler’s University through their personal affiliate links, earning them a commission. The affiliate system was shut down this week after Tate’s ban from Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram.
A spokesperson from Meta told ABC News that he had ‘violated [their] policies’ which resulted in the ban.
Although his official account is banned, the hashtag #AndrewTate on TikTok has 14.1 billion views.
Some of these videos are clips of Tate shared by his supporters, however many of them are individuals’ reactions to Tate’s controversial views, which in turn has amplified his messaging.
“Misogyny is a hateful ideology that is not tolerated on TikTok,” a spokesperson for the social platform told ABC News. “Our investigation into this content is ongoing, as we continue to remove violative accounts and videos, and pursue measures to strengthen our enforcement, including our detection models, against this type of content.”
YouTube did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News. The video platform told the Independent, “We terminated channels associated with Andrew Tate for multiple violations of our community guidelines and terms of service, including our hate speech policy. If a channel is terminated, the uploader is unable to use, own or create any other YouTube channels.”
In a video shared on Vimeo on Wednesday, Tate discusses how he believes that other creators edited videos of him out of context in order to get views.
“They understood that if they can make a YouTube video purporting a lie about me or saying bad things about me, it’s more likely to get clicks,” he said. “People, through their own selfish desires of trying to piggyback off the back of my massive fame and becoming the most famous man on the planet, have decided that making a bunch of negative videos is a fantastic way for them to personally gain clout.”
Despite denying the allegations, Tate states that he does have “some responsibility to bear.”
Asked about the decision to ban Tate, Michael Bronski, a professor in women and gender studies at Harvard University, told ABC News: “I’m less worried about banning people than I am about thinking of ways to make people act better.”
“The real problem comes from the normalisation of it, where this behaviour simply becomes acceptable because it’s so common,” she added. “Even though it’s been contested by some people, the prevalence of It makes it acceptable.”
HOPE Not Hate, a charity which aims to ‘oppose far right extremism’ had campaigned for Tate’s de-platforming. In a statement on their website, they have stated that their campaign had been “hugely successful, but it’s not over yet.”
“Tate is a symptom of wider societal misogyny, and we all have to do more to combat its corrosive impact on society and the very real dangers it poses to women,” the organization said in a statement.
(HOMELAND, Md.) — A Black couple whose home valuation increased nearly $300,000 after their Homeland, Maryland, property was re-appraised with a white colleague serving as the homeowner is suing two firms alleging racial discrimination.
Nathan Connolly and Shani Mott, who are both professors at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, allege that Shane Lanham of 20/20 Valuations racially discriminated against them by undervaluing their 2,600-square-foot home at $472,000. That’s just over the $450,000 they paid for the home in 2017, according to the lawsuit. Their complaint states that they invested more than $50,000 in renovations and improvements between 2020 and 2021.
The couple is also suing loanDepot, alleging the company discriminated against them by using the 20/20 Valuations appraisal to deny them a refinance loan.
“My jaw dropped. I was like, this is racism. Because we had done the research, right?” said Mott, during an interview with ABC News Live. “We didn’t go into this process, this refinance process, blindly.”
A spokesperson for loanDepot issued a statement to ABC News.
“We strongly oppose bias in the home finance process and support the plans to combat appraisal bias and promote more sustainable, affordable housing for minority and low- to moderate-income families and communities put forth by the Interagency Task Force on Property Appraisal and Valuation Equity and by the Mortgage Bankers Association. While appraisals are performed independently by outside expert appraisal firms, all participants in the home finance process must work to find ways to contribute to eradicating bias.”
Lanham declined a request for comment.
Mott, an Africana Studies lecturer, said she and Connolly, a professor of history focusing on racism, capitalism and notions of property, had reviewed several comparable homes and educated themselves on what to expect. Based in their research, the couple found the $472,000 valuation “impossible.” Earlier this year, they looked to another lender for an appraisal, this time removing their children’s artwork, artifacts and other signs that indicated a Black family resided in the home. Then, Connolly and Mott had a white colleague answer the door when the new appraiser arrived.
The new home appraisal was $750,000.
“We were aware that there were examples of whitewashing being effective in helping Black families get the value that they were entitled to,” Connolly said of how the couple came to “curate” the house to appeal to appraisers’ potential expectations of a more valuable home.
Paige Glotzer, the author of “How the Suburbs Were Segregated: Developers and the Business of Exclusionary Housing – 1890-1960,” told ABC News that they see a deeply rooted connection in Connolly and Mott’s lawsuit to racially exclusive housing covenants that once prohibited Black residents from living in Homeland, a still predominantly white neighborhood. Glotzer is also an assistant professor and the John W. and Jeanne M. Rowe Chair in the History of American Politics, Institutions, and Political Economy at University of Wisconsin-Madison. Glotzer is also Connolly’s former Ph.D. advisee.
“The creation of Homeland was so bound up with the codification of discrimination in a national real estate industry,” Glotzer said. “That was a moment where you really had everyone, both consumers and home buyers, acknowledging that race was a part of property value.”
According to Glotzer, signs of Blackness in the home from books, art, and decorations are as significant in marking a ‘Black home’ as the physical presence of Black homeowners.
“And part of this process, it really did require us to think about what whiteness represents. Right? If you whitewash your house, you’re going in with historical awareness of what is it that your average kind of white appraiser would want to see,” Mott said. “We kind of tapped into our historical imagination, but also our historical knowledge and kind of set out on a course to do that.”
Gabriel Diaz, an attorney at civil rights law firm Relman Colfax PLLC who is representing the family, told ABC News that his clients’ case “illustrates how pervasive this issue is” and highlights the emotional and financial harm it may cause. He said this lawsuit is about making sure people understand how disparate appraisals like Connolly and Mott’s happen so that they don’t happen again.
ABC News’ Victoria Moll-Ramirez and Milan Miller contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — A worldwide drought has devastated communities across the globe, but it also has fascinated millions as historic artifacts have come to the surface, igniting memories from decades to centuries before.
Let’s go prehistoric…
This August, Texas’ Dinosaur Valley State Park saw rare dinosaur tracks that are usually covered by water and sediment. With the Paluxy River running through only a portion of its usual berth, tracks from Acrocanthosaurus dinosaurs have come to the light.
Jeff Davis, parks superintendent at Dinosaur Valley, told ABC News these tracks could date back millions of years. Davis added that Sauroposeidon tracks have become visible on the opposite side of the park, adding to the season’s remarkable attractions.
With heavy rainfall hitting Texas, Davis says these tracks will likely be covered by water again soon. However, that might be best for their livelihood.
“It’s the river that will bring in silt and sediment and pile those on top of the tracks. That’s what preserves them, that’s why they’re still here after 113 million years or so,” Davis said.
A masterpiece with an unknown creator
Amid a devastating drought in the country, a Spanish ‘stonehenge’ has become fully visible for the second time since it became covered in water in the 1960s.
The striking circle of dozens of megalithic stones, officially called the Dolmen of Guadalperal, has existed since 5000 BC.
However, it was first discovered by German archaeologist Hugo Obermaier in 1926 before it became flooded in 1963 due to a rural development project under Francisco Franco’s dictatorship.
No one knows who created the dolmen.
Now, the structure sits in a corner of the Valdecanas reservoir located in the country’s central province of Caceres.
As Spain faces its worst drought in 60 years, officials say the water level in the reservoir has dropped to 28% capacity.
Remnants of WWII surface
Going east, Europe’s sizzling summer drought left over a dozen Nazi ships surfacing on the drying Danube River near Prahavo, Serbia.
The ships were part of Nazi Germany’s Black Sea fleet in 1944 as they retreated from advancing Soviet forces, officials said.
Many of the ships still hold ammunition and explosives, posing a risk to shipping on the river, officials said.
The vessels have limited the navigable section of the stretch near Prahova to 100 meters, significantly slimmer than the prior 180 meters ships had access to. Serbian officials have taken to dredging along the river to salvage the usable navigation lanes, authorities said.
The Danube levels near Prahovo are less than half their average for this time of the summer, experts say.
Buddhist relics emerge in China
The Far East isn’t escaping the scorching season. On China’s Yangtze River, a formerly submerged island has emerged with a trio of Buddhist statues believed to be 600 years old.
Officials believe the statues were built during the Ming and Qing dynasties, state media Xinhua reported. One statue depicts a monk sitting on a lotus pedestal.
The statues have emerged on the river near the southwestern city of Chongqing.
Experts say the Yangtze is about 45% lower than its normal height. The state broadcaster CCTV said that as many as 66 rivers across 34 counties in Chongqing have dried up.
A bridge once traveled…
An ancient bridge in Yorkshire, England, has risen back over the water that has covered it since the 1950s.
Members of the public were seen crossing what was an ancient packhorse bridge in August. The bridge has been invisible since it was flooded to build the Baitings Reservoir in the 1950s.
Now, record high temperatures and low water levels at the reservoir have revealed the remains of the ancient road.
Experts say the Baitings settlement expanded rapidly in the Industrial Revolution, but had been long in decline by the time it was flooded.
Reminders from droughts come before
“Hunger stones” have become revealed in Germany on Rhine River, rekindling memories of past droughts.
The stones bear dates and people’s initials. Dates visible on stones seen in Worms, south of Frankfurt, and Rheindorf, near Leverkusen, included 1947, 1959, 2003 and 2018, Reuters reports.
The tradition of hunger stones dates back to the 15th century, experts say. They were embedded into dried-up riverbeds to warn people in the future that hard times were near.
A 2013 study about droughts in Czech history explains the phenomenon through one of the most famous hunger stones.
“It expressed that drought had brought a bad harvest, lack of food, high prices, and hunger for poor people. Before 1900, the following droughts are commemorated on the stone: 1417, 1616, 1707, 1746, 1790, 1800, 1811, 1830, 1842, 1868, 1892, and 1893,” the study read.
The ever-alarming Lake Mead
The U.S.’s largest reservoir has raised concern as its water levels have reached record lows to reveal alarming remnants. Since May, officials have found five sets of human remains in Lake Mead.
The fifth set of remains were found on Aug. 15 at Swim Beach in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area around 8:00 p.m., according to the National Park Service.
Along with the shocking collection of human remains found amid the shrinking water levels, officials reported a sunken WWII era vessel to have emerged from the reservoir.
The vessel, a Higgins boat used for beach landings during WWII, comes to the surface after the same receding waters have revealed multiple bodies, sunken pleasure boats and a myriad of previously-submerged items.
Officials said the water levels are so depleted in the lake, they could soon reach “dead pool” status, in which the water is too low to flow downstream to the Hoover Dam. According to the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation, the minimum water surface level needed to generate power at the dam is 1,050 feet.
