(NEW YORK) — Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie plans on announcing a Republican bid for the 2024 presidency next week, sources familiar confirm to ABC News.
Christie will make his announcement at St. Anselm College on June 6 at 6:30 p.m. during a town hall event.
His bid will be shepherded by long-time aides Maria Comella and Mike DuHaime. The news comes a day after Christie allies launched a super PAC to support his candidacy.
The details of the campaign launch were first reported by Axios.
Christie, who also ran in 2016, joins an ever-expanding group of GOP hopefuls who must knock former President Donald Trump out of front-runner status to make real inroads with Republican voters. His soft pitch in the past several weeks — as he’s made the rounds on national media and visits to consequential primary states — is that he might very well be the only Republican willing and able to bring that force.
“In American politics, if you want to beat somebody, you’ve got to go get them, and you got to make the case,” Christie told a group of New England voters in April. “So what I’m saying tonight, I think, is the beginning of the case against Donald Trump. And that’s the first task for Republican primary voters — decide who we’re going to nominate. And if we are willing to put up with that level of policy, and character failure, then we’re going to get what we deserve.”
Trump, former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, biotech entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, radio host Larry Elder and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson have formally announced their bids for the Republican nomination.
(NEW YORK) — If you’re a female who loves fitness you may have heard the term “cycle syncing,” the idea that you should change up your workouts based on where you are in your menstrual cycle.
The impact of the menstrual cycle in women’s sports has been prominent among professional athletes over the last few years with the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team tracking their periods ahead of their 2018 World Cup win as a strategy to maximize performance. This year, Orlando Pride, a National Women’s Soccer League team based in Florida, changed their uniforms from white shorts to black shorts to help players feel more “comfortable and confident” while playing on their periods.
Now, curiosity over how the menstrual cycle impacts performance has gone mainstream. The hashtag #cyclesyncing has been used more than 280 million times on TikTok with millions of women sharing how changing their workouts each month based on where they are in their menstrual cycle has benefited their personal health.
Cycle syncing focuses on four main phases of the menstrual cycle: the menstrual phase, follicular phase, ovulatory phase and luteal phase. This training regimen recommends doing different types of workouts for the four different stages of your cycle.
The breakdown of the average cycle syncing training regimen, according to Nike trainer Lauren Schramm, looks like this:
Menstrual phase: Lasts three to seven days. Rest on days one and two of your period, then use optimal movement for when energy levels are low and rest needed is high with activities such as yoga, walking, and barre.
Follicular phase: Lasts around seven days. Focus on speed, power and optimal movement for when energy levels are low to moderate and rest needed is moderate with activities such as heavy lifting, HIIT, boxing, dance and track workouts.
Ovulatory phase: Lasts around three to seven days. Focus on aerobic, endurance and optimal movement for when energy levels are the highest and rest needed is low with activities such as a group fitness classes, long runs, cycling and hot yoga.
Luteal phase: Lasts around seven days. Focus on mobility, recovery and optimal moment for when energy levels are low to moderate and rest needed is moderate to high. Activities can include mobility training, stretching, breath work, yoga and massage.
Does cycle syncing your workouts really help your performance? How can you effectively track your cycle? Is it one size fits all? We asked the experts.
What experts know about cycle syncing
Dr. Ellen Casey, a sports medicine physician from the Department of Physiatry and the Women’s Sports Medicine Center at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City, spoke with ABC News’ Good Morning America about her thoughts on the science of cycle syncing.
While your menstrual cycle will impact your physical performance and energy levels, Casey, who has been researching this topic since 2009, says there are benefits for female athletes to track their cycles, but adds there is not enough scientific evidence to show this structured “cycle syncing” method works for everyone.
“I do think it’s very important for female athletes to track their cycles,” Casey says. “It’s when you try to give a sort of group recommendation that I think [is] where we’re falling short to date in the literature, and where I worry that there may be some overselling of cycle tracking and conforming that to your workouts, because we don’t have the data to support that as a group effect at this time.”
Casey said that everyone’s cycle is different — things like the length of phases and estrogen levels vary for every person. This makes it difficult to track the change in phases without using an ovulation stick every morning, which she said can be expensive and time consuming.
“Even if we know exactly that everybody’s on day 10 of their follicular phase, it’s still going to be different, because my level of estrogen might be totally different than yours,” Casey said.
While the cycle syncing method can be used as a baseline, Casey said without proper equipment, like using an ovulation stick each day, there is no sure, scientific way to tell what phase of your cycle your body is in.
“What would be nice is for everybody to be like, ‘Cool, this is where I’m really going to push my strength gains, and this is where I’m going to do endurance work.’ I think at some point you know, when we can check these markers in saliva or whatever … [but] we’re not there yet with the science,” she said.
How tracking your period can influence your workouts
While Casey said the science is not there for a one size fits all cycle syncing program just yet, she does recommend tracking your cycle to figure out how to get best results for yourself.
“I do think there’s value in individual following,” she said.
Referring to cycle syncing, she added, “I think it’s such a fascinating area and I love that people are thinking of it. So, embrace that interest.”
Schramm said she began tracking her cycles when she noticed she wasn’t able to train in the same way and get the same consistent results that her male coworkers and clients were getting.
“I believe cycle-syncing is something that can be taken as far as you desire, and if it’s of interest to begin experimenting with yourself, after clearance from your doctor is obtained, then I think it’s an ideal approach to movement as someone with monthly hormonal fluctuations,” Schramm said.
Schramm said she has seen improvements in her own training by tracking her cycle and following the cycle syncing method of training.
“Understanding the hormonal fluctuations … has clarified why some days I feel my strongest, have unlimited energy and could workout for hours and then the following week, it’s a struggle to get through my warmup,” Schramm said.
Where to start
If you’d like to start monitoring your cycle in relation to your workouts, here several ways you can get started:
Consult with a doctor or trainer: If you are looking to begin a cycle syncing-type process, start by making observations regarding your own menstrual cycle, then consult with a trainer or doctor about the best ways to be active while still respecting your body’s needs for rest and energy.
Track your cycle with apps: Start tracking your cycles. The FitrWoman app, designed by Dr. Georgie Bruinvels, breaks down the four phases of the menstrual cycle and uses evidence-based research to match symptoms and solutions to each phase. This app was used by the U.S. Women’s National Team when training for the World Cup. Other period tracking apps such as MyFlo, Cycles and Period Tracker Lite will help you track your cycle and follow how you feel turning workouts at different points of your cycle.
Use cycle-friendly training tools: More and more fitness brands are adding cycle syncing training as an option in their training programs. Nike has started a “NikeSync” training program with physiologist Stacy Sims, Ph.D., which includes training plans and nutrition suggestions for every phase of the menstrual cycle. Fitness membership program Les Mills + contains a cyclical training guide that includes four workouts to match each week of cycle. Adidas also offer a free “PE(riod)” lesson plan online developed by Buinvels that helps you better understand working out during your menstrual cycle and gives recommendations for each of the four phases.
(LONDON) — An airline is asking passengers to weigh in before flights in a survey that will take place for nearly five weeks and involve more than 10,000 passengers.
Air New Zealand will be asking over 10,000 of its customers traveling internationally on their flights between May 29 and July 2 to weigh in before they travel on the airline.
“The survey is essential to the safe and efficient operation of the aircraft and is a Civil Aviation Authority requirement,” according to a statement from Air New Zealand announcing the survey.
“We weigh everything that goes on the aircraft from the cargo to the meals onboard, to the luggage in the hold,” Air New Zealand Load Control Improvement Specialist Alastair James explained. “For customers, crew and cabin bags, we use average weights, which we get from doing this survey.”
This isn’t the first time the airline has done a similar survey.
“Customers on Air New Zealand’s domestic network were weighed in 2021. Now that international travel is back up and running, it’s time for international flyers to weigh in,” the airline said in their statement.
But there is one big caveat that should put the thousands of customers who are asked to weigh in at ease.
“We know stepping on the scales can be daunting. We want to reassure our customers there is no visible display anywhere. No one can see your weight — not even us! It’s completely anonymous,” said James. “It’s simple, it’s voluntary, and by weighing in, you’ll be helping us to fly you safely and efficiently, every time.”
The planned survey will be taking place at the entrance to the gate lounge of certain Air New Zealand flights departing from Auckland International Airport beginning this past Monday.
(NEW YORK) — Mayron Hollis said she had just started taking contraceptives when she found out she was pregnant again a few months after giving birth in February 2022. Despite the surprise, Hollis and her husband say they were excited about the pregnancy and eager to add another child to their growing family.
Hollis, 32, had no idea the excitement would turn into a fight for her baby’s life and her own.
The Tennessee woman would end up needing a lifesaving emergency hysterectomy, ending her opportunity to give birth to more children, after she says she was denied medically necessary abortion care at a hospital in her home state for life-threatening complications earlier in her pregnancy.
“[My doctor] told me I needed to do the surgery. If I didn’t, I could die; the baby could die,” Hollis said.
Because she had delivered by cesarean section and the two pregnancies were so close together, Hollis’ OB-GYN was worried she could develop a cesarean scar pregnancy, a type of ectopic pregnancy where the fertilized egg is implanted in the cesarean scar after a previous C-section, which can cause the uterus to rupture, leading to excessive bleeding and even death, according to the National Institutes of Health.
In August, Hollis found out that she did have a cesarean scar pregnancy, with the pregnancy bulging out of her uterus, and a placenta accreta — a serious pregnancy complication in which the placenta grows too deeply into the uterine wall and part or all of the placenta then remains attached to the uterine wall during delivery. The condition can cause severe blood loss after delivery, according to the Mayo Clinic.
“I [could] hemorrhage, because that was already bulging out,” Hollis said. “It was scary.”
Hollis was eight weeks pregnant when she met with a maternal fetal medicine specialist, who confirmed that she had a cesarean scar pregnancy and sent her back to Vanderbilt University Medical Center for care.
Vanderbilt University Medical Center said it would not comment on the case.
Because she wanted the baby, Hollis said it took her and her husband time before they were able to decide that they wanted to end the pregnancy because the risk it posed to her life was too high.
Hollis said she was unaware of the changing landscape in Tennessee after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, ending federal protections for abortion rights. A trigger ban prohibiting nearly all abortions went into effect in Tennessee on Aug. 24, 2022.
Hollis said her doctor did not explain to her that there was a narrow window in which she could receive care before the ban went into effect.
One day before the ban went into effect, medical records show that in the early weeks of her pregnancy, Hollis’ placenta accreta had progressed and was “concerning,” according to her medical records. She was 11 weeks pregnant at the time.
“It was a hard pregnancy. It was scary the whole time,” Hollis said.
“They thought they were gonna have to reconstruct my bladder. They didn’t know if it was gonna touch any other organs — if they could even stop the bleeding if I did start to hemorrhage,” Hollis said.
When the couple realized how big the risk was to Hollis’ life, they decided it was best to end the pregnancy.
Hollis had been offered abortion care since the ban had not yet gone into effect. But when she reached out to her OB-GYN to ask for the care on Aug. 24, it was too late. That was the day Tennessee’s trigger ban prohibiting all abortions went into effect.
The ban criminalizes performing an abortion, making it a felony. An exception to save the life of the mother or prevent serious and permanent bodily injury only comes into play when a physician is defending themselves in court after they have been charged with the felony. A separate so-called “heartbeat ban” that prohibited all abortions after fetal cardiac activity is detected was also in effect.
Physicians told ABC News the exception is unclear and many worry about the consequences they could face for providing essential care.
The procedure Hollis needed was complex and required a number of physicians from different specialties to perform. Not enough physicians were willing to provide the care with the ban in effect, according to Hollis.
A specialist would have needed to inject the pregnancy with something to stop the heart before physicians from other specialties could provide abortion care that would preserve Hollis’ fertility, Dr. Sarah Osmundson, a maternal fetal medicine specialist in Tennessee who treated Hollis later in her pregnancy, told ABC News.
There is a very narrow window in which pregnancies with placenta accreta can be terminated without the need for a hysterectomy, due to the excessive bleeding that the condition causes, according to Osmundson. The window generally closes at around 12 weeks of pregnancy, Osmundson said.
Few facilities would have been able provide the complex care needed to preserve her fertility, according to Osmundson.
Hollis was recommended a facility in Pittsburgh, but she said traveling for care wasn’t an option because Hollis and her husband both needed to work and couldn’t afford to take time off.
Under the ban, Hollis was told the only way doctors could intervene was if her life was in danger, so she had to continue her pregnancy.
“Because of everything that was going on, they didn’t know what was the right thing to do was. So the only way to save me was for something bad to happen to me,” Hollis said. “That’s how it felt anyways.”
“They really had no answer for me the whole time I was pregnant. It was the scariest thing I ever did. [Doctors were] telling me that my pregnancy wasn’t viable, but we can’t send you anywhere and we can’t do anything to help you. So it’s just a lot of prayers for me. Reading up and just having a lot of faith,” Hollis said.
Procedure to deliver and save her life
As her pregnancy progressed, it had gradually attached to her bladder and her accreta progressed to placenta percreta — meaning her placenta grew through the uterine wall and attached to surrounding organs, Hollis said.
At one point she had to be put on bedrest because doctors were worried her uterus could rupture, Hollis said.
Hollis was admitted to the hospital at 25 weeks pregnant after she began excessively bleeding, according to medical records. After staying in the hospital for four days, Hollis said she went home. It was almost Christmas.
One day after returning home, Hollis was taken back to the hospital after she began significantly bleeding again, according to medical records.
Before she had the hysterectomy, Hollis said she had to write a will and tell doctors whose life to prioritize if they could only save her or the baby.
She had a cesarean delivery and an emergency hysterectomy in one procedure, according to medical records.
“I didn’t want the hysterectomy. But they said that was the only way that they could stop the bleeding to help me, so I didn’t have a choice,” Hollis said.
Hollis said she lost so much blood that doctors set up IV lines in both arms, both legs and her neck, allowing for a large transfusion of blood. Medical records show she was given eight units of packed red blood cells and six units of fresh frozen plasma. Hollis probably lost at least 2 liters of blood, Osmundson said.
“She could have easily died at another institution,” Osmundson said.
By the time Hollis was 26 weeks along, there was no other option than to perform an emergency hysterectomy to be able to stop the bleeding, Osmundson said.
An amendment was recently added to the Tennessee ban allowing abortions for ectopic pregnancies, so physicians are now able to treat patients with complications similar to Hollis, but Osmundson said there are still other cases where doctors are unsure how to act.
“So much of medicine is gray areas,” Osmundson said. “Regulating these complex decisions will result in people getting hurt and will result in people dying.”
Hollis’ baby, whom she named Alayna, was delivered so premature she was in an incubator for a month, Hollis said. She slowly graduated to different beds at the hospital. The baby was delivered on Dec. 13, but she was only able to go home on Feb. 23, needing oxygen and other interventions at the hospital.
Since the newborn returned home in February, she has been taken back to the hospital five times, Hollis said. The longest she has been at home since February was for two weeks.
“I thought I lost her one time for like five minutes. She turned colors and I had to wait on the ambulance to get here, doing CPR and an off-duty cop showed up,” Hollis said. “He did CPR on the hood of his car and saved her life.”
Hollis said the baby’s lungs are not fully formed and she is not growing as fast as she could be. She had only been eating through a feeding tube through her nose, but just started taking food by mouth, according to Hollis.
“[I’ve] just been stressed out a little bit not knowing what’s going to go on with my daughter, how I’m gonna get her what she needs and what’s gonna happen next. So I’m just trying to hang in there,” Hollis said.
“I’m very adamant to make sure that I’m on top of her care,” Hollis said. “It’s been really hard to go back to work because I don’t have the means to pay for the adequate care that she needs. So I’ve been trying to get help.”
(LONDON) — Negotiations between Sudan’s warring parties fell apart Wednesday as both sides accused each other of cease-fire violations.
ABC News has reached out to the Sudanese Armed Forces for comment.
There was no immediate comment Saudi Arabia or the United States, which have been mediating the talks.
In response to the military’s move, the Rapid Support Forces said in a statement that it “unconditionally backs the Saudi-U.S. inititive” and the “recent SAF violations have not deterred us from honoring our commitments.”
(PARKLAND, Fla.) — Jury selection is set to begin Wednesday in the trial of a former school resource officer charged with felony child neglect for allegedly failing to confront the Parkland school shooter.
Scot Peterson was assigned to Marjory Stoneman Douglas in Parkland as a school resource officer when a gunman opened fire at the South Florida high school on Feb. 14, 2018, killing 14 students and three staff members.
Peterson, 60, was terminated from his position and charged with multiple counts of child neglect in 2019 after an internal investigation found that he retreated while students were under attack.
Peterson faces up to 95 years in a state prison if convicted on all charges — including seven counts of child neglect, three counts of culpable negligence and one count of perjury — a Broward County judge said during a pre-trial status hearing on Tuesday.
Peterson has pleaded not guilty to all counts.
An internal probe by the Broward County Sheriff’s Office found that Peterson “did absolutely nothing to mitigate the [Marjory Stoneman Douglas] shooting,” according to a statement released by the agency. Surveillance video and police radio transmissions showed that as the teenage gunman opened fire inside the school’s Building 12, Peterson remained outside and did not enter the school to confront the gunman.
Peterson’s charges stem from the six people killed and four wounded on the third floor of Building 12, after the officer had arrived at the building. Prosecutors say that he also made a false statement, claiming that he did not hear gunfire.
During Tuesday’s status hearing at a Fort Lauderdale courthouse, attorneys debated whether the jury should see the third floor; the defense argued that being in the building is “traumatizing” and that the prejudicial effect would be “extraordinary,” while the state maintained that jurors should be allowed to because all but one of the charges emanated from what happened there.
The judge said he plans to issue a written order on the matter by June 5, ABC Miami affiliate WPLG-TV reported.
Peterson had been a sheriff’s deputy in Broward County for more than 30 years until he was terminated from his position when the criminal complaint was filed against him in June 2019.
At the time of his arrest, legal experts called the charges unprecedented. The move was largely applauded by the Parkland community, with the parent of one teen who was killed on the third floor calling Peterson a “coward.”
The gunman, Nikolas Cruz, a former student at the high school, was sentenced to life in prison last year after pleading guilty to 17 counts of first-degree murder and 17 counts of attempted first-degree murder.
(NEW YORK) — A retired New York City Police Department sergeant and two purported Chinese agents used an elderly father as bait in an alleged plot to repatriate a former Chinese government official living in New Jersey, according to federal prosecutors in Brooklyn, where trial opens Wednesday.
The retired sergeant, Michael McMahon, and two men charged with acting as agents of China, are the first defendants to stand trial in the U.S. over what the Chinese government called Operation Fox Hunt, a worldwide attempt to coerce Chinese nationals living abroad to return to China through tactics including harassment, stalking and threats.
The victim in this case is identified only as John Doe-1 and China said he was wanted for corruption. Instead of operating with the approval and coordination of the U.S. government, federal prosecutors said China dispatched its own prosecutor and police officer “to engage in unsanctioned and illegal conduct on behalf of the PRC to coerce the targeted victims to return to the PRC.”
According to court records, McMahon, Yong Zhu, Congying Zhen and others forced John Doe-1’s elderly father to travel from China so he could warn his son, in a surprise visit, about the consequences of refusing to return to China. Zhu is accused of hiring McMahon, a private investigator, to surveil John Doe-1. Zheng is accused of harassing John Doe-1 and his adult daughter.
According to the criminal complaint, McMahon at one point suggested the men could “harass [John Doe-1]. Park outside his home and let him know we are there.” At another point, two conspirators, including Zheng, “visited John Doe-1’s residence, banged on his front door, walked into his yard, and ultimately left a message taped to the residence that threatened John Doe-1 and John Doe-1’s family with dire consequences should they fail to return to the PRC,” according to the complaint.
McMahon, who has pleaded not guilty, argued he was unaware of the alleged scheme’s true intent.
“Mr. McMahon agreed to investigate and conduct surveillance, as he is legally permitted to do as a licensed private investigator – not that Mr. McMahon agreed to, or was even aware, that the investigation was at the direction or control of a foreign government or official,” defense attorney Lawrence Lustberg wrote.
The Department of Justice said in April that there was evidence of expanding espionage and security activity by the Chinese government on U.S. soil.
“[It] shows how brazen they are, how unwilling they are to work under the laws that apply in free democracies,” David Newman, the principal deputy assistant attorney general for National Security at the Department of Justice, told ABC News’ Chief Justice Correspondent Pierre Thomas at the time. “And it demonstrates that they choose to project their authoritarian system outside their borders.”
(ST. PETERSBURG, Fla.) — More than 50 years ago, a woman was found dead inside a trunk that had been left in a field in St. Petersburg, Florida. Her identity has remained a mystery — until now.
“This is a case that has perplexed the department for a long time,” Assistant Chief Mike Kovacsev of the St. Petersburg Police Department said during a press conference on Tuesday. “This was always known as the ‘trunk lady’ case.”
The woman has been identified as Sylvia June Atherton, 41, of Tucson, Arizona. She left behind five children, according to Kovacsev.
Atherton’s body was found wrapped in plastic inside the trunk on Oct. 31, 1969, which was Halloween. Witnesses told police at the time that they saw two men arrive in a pickup truck and place the trunk in the field before driving away, Kovacsev said.
For years, detectives searched for missing person reports that matched the description of the victim, but to no avail. The case went cold and Atherton’s body was buried as a “Jane Doe” in a local cemetery, according to Kovacsev.
In 2010, as part of an effort to identify unknown victims, police exhumed Atherton’s body to try to get a DNA sample. But the remains were “too degraded and, again, the case went cold,” Kovacsev said.
In late 2022 and early 2023, detectives revisited the case and found a hair sample that was never tested. They sent the sample to a private laboratory, which was able to produce a DNA profile. The lab was then able to run the DNA profile through a genealogy database, which led police to identify Atherton and locate some of her living relatives, according to Kovacsev.
“That is one of the things I want to highlight with cold cases — it takes persistence,” Kovacsev said. “It takes going back and looking at things that may not have been available to individuals back in 1969. But more importantly, … what could we have missed.”
Detectives learned that Atherton had five children and seemingly no ties to St. Petersburg, which is part of Florida’s Tampa Bay area. Prior to her death, she left Tucson, Arizona with her children and took two of them to her ex-husband in Chicago. She was never seen by her children again, Kovacsev said.
“We don’t have the resolution on who killed her yet,” Kovacsev noted. “This is where like amateur sleuths will come in. This is where we’re asking for assistance to kind of put the pieces together.”
Detectives now know that the trunk Atherton’s body was found in belonged to her. They also know that she was remarried and her husband never reported her missing. He died in 1999, according to Kovacsev.
“So you can see there’s some inferences there that we have to kind of fill in the gaps,” he added. “But mainly, we want to bring forward the fact that she has a name now after 53 years.”
Atherton’s daughter, Syllen Gates, told Tampa ABC affiliate WFTS-TV that she feels “relief.”
“A sad relief that they finally found her,” Gates said, “and, of course, this was a terrible way to die.”
(SEOUL, South Korea) — North Korea acknowledged on Wednesday its failure to launch a military spy satellite, an attempt that U.S. officials called a “brazen violation” of U.N. resolutions.
After admitting the failure in an unusually short time, North Korea’s state news agency reported that a second launch attempt will be made as soon as possible.
The satellite crashed into the West Sea as it lost its thrust due to an abnormality in the start of the two-stage mover after the first stage was separated during a normal flight, according to state media.
The satellite essentially blew up in the air, an embarrassment for Kim Jong Un’s government, a senior U.S. official told ABC News. North Korea said in 2018 that it put a satellite into space, but international analysts later said that wasn’t true.
Citizens in Seoul, South Korea received a “presidential alert” phone message early on Wednesday morning, shortly after the satellite launch, from the Seoul Metropolitan Government which noted that “all citizens should be ready to evacuate.”
Twenty-two minutes later, the Ministry of Interior and Safety in charge of sending disaster alerts across the country sent another alert noting that the initial message to Seoul was “an erroneous alert.”
Another 22 minutes later, Seoul Metropolitan Government clarified that their earlier message was due to a “North Korean missile launch” and “the alert has been lifted.”
Some citizens whose phones’ operating systems were set up in English received messages titled “wartime alert,” which sent jitters across the foreign community.
The confusing alert messages from the city and the government raised criticisms over whether the authorities were overreacting or actively administering.
“Unlike North Korea’s usual launch into the East Sea, the Seoul Metropolitan Government, which is responsible for the safety of 10 million citizens in the situation of launching south this time, decided that immediate action is necessary and issued an alert,” Oh Se-hoon, the mayor of Seoul, said.
“South Korean people are not trained nor have they been carrying out drills to prepare for such attacks. The problem is, cases like this will most likely happen again more frequently,” Park Jae Wan, professor of Security Strategy at Seoul-based Kookmin University in Seoul, told ABC News.
President Joe Biden and his national security team are assessing the launch in close coordination with allies and partners, according to National Security Council spokesperson Adam Hodge.
The launch used ballistic missile technology, “which is a brazen violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions, raises tensions, and risks destabilizing the security situation in the region and beyond,” Hodge said in a statement.
“We urge all countries to condemn this launch and call on the DPRK to come to the table for serious negotiations,” Hodge said. “The door has not closed on diplomacy but Pyongyang must immediately cease its provocative actions and instead choose engagement.”
South Korea’s military retrieved parts of North Korea’s satellite wreckage from the sea and plans to analyze the technology used in the projectile which North Korea claims to be a “satellite.”
North Korea’s National Space Development Administration is analyzing the cause of the accident.
Wednesday’s launch also prompted brief evacuation alerts in Japan.
(NEW YORK) — A young couple who were living together have been shot dead by their landlord following a dispute with the man who was 30 years their elder, police say.
Police in Hamilton, Canada, initially received a call at approximately 5:40 p.m. on Saturday evening and responded to a residence on Jones Road in Stoney Creek, Ontario — located 45 miles south of Toronto.
But when officers from the Hamilton Police Service arrived on site, they found two deceased victims — a 27-year-old female and a 28-year-old male who would later be identified by the Hamilton Police Service as Carissa MacDonald of Stoney Creek, but formerly of Huntsville, and Aaron Stone from Hamilton.
The suspect involved in the double homicide was the 57-year-old landlord who had allegedly committed the crime before police arrived, according to the Hamilton Police Service.
“The 57-year-old landlord barricaded himself in the residence with firearms that were registered to him. Hamilton Police Emergency Response Unit contained the area, while negotiators engaged in contact with the male in an attempt to peacefully resolve the incident,” police said. “At one point during the negotiations, the suspect fired at the Hamilton Police [armored] vehicle. The suspect later fired additional rounds, which resulted in an interaction with police.”
The threat was neutralized by the police and authorities say Special Investigations Unit was subsequently contacted and invoked their mandate over the investigation. It was unclear whether the suspect had been taken into custody alive.
Families of both victims have been notified, police said, and several witnesses have already been interviewed by the Homicide Unit and have been cooperative with the ongoing investigation as police continue to appeal for more witnesses.
Anybody with information is asked to contact Detective Robert DiIanni of the Hamilton Police Service at 905-546-3836.
