(FRANKFORT, Ky.) — Strong rain continued to fall early Tuesday in Kentucky, as officials and first responders worked to find perhaps hundreds of people who were reported missing amid floods that have killed at least 37.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear on Monday evening warned that a “series of complex storms” were moving overnight through counties already ravaged by flooding.
“The biggest concern is overnight flooding,” he said on Twitter. “Please, if you are in an area that has suffered flooding seek shelter on higher ground. Be weather-aware and stay safe.”
The National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center early on Tuesday warned of flash floods throughout Kentucky, along with areas in Tennessee, Virginia, Illinois and Indiana.
The Kentucky governor’s office said Beshear on Tuesday would visit three eastern counties hit by the flooding. He was expected to meet with local officials, volunteers and families.
At least 37 people were reported dead as of Monday, Beshear said. He had said earlier in the day that there were “hundreds of unaccounted for people, minimum,” but cautioned that the number wasn’t exact.
Almost 600 people had been rescued from flooded areas by Monday, with thousands more expected to lose their homes, the governor’s office said.
The National Weather Service issued a new flash flood warning for “most” of Kentucky at about 2:30 a.m. local time. South-central Illinois and far southern Indiana were also expected to get heavy rains that could result in flash flooding, the center said.
Some areas in Kentucky had seen from 4 to 8 inches of rain in six hours prior to 2 a.m., the center said.
“Instances of flash flooding are likely to continue and expand through dawn, possibly becoming significant to extreme locally near the IL/IN/KY border region,” the center said.
Beshear’s office said the governor will brief media at the Capitol at 8 a.m. local time, offering details on the state’s response.
(WASHINGTON) — Six men were shot and one was killed in a shooting in northeast Washington, D.C. on Monday, police said.
“We appear to have a large group of people who were in the area when the shots rang out,” Metropolitan Police Department Chief Robert Contee told reporters, adding, “We have no idea why the shots were fired at this point.”
Police said it’s still unclear if the victims knew each other, or if this shooting is related to any other incidents in the city. However, Contee did say the “common denominator” is “illegal firearms in the hands of people who shouldn’t have them and when disputes get resolved as a result of a gun being used.”
The ATF Washington Field Division was on the scene assisting police in the ongoing investigation.
According to the D.C. Police Union, this is the sixth mass shooting in the city in 2022.
When asked about the community’s frustration with violent crime, Contee told reporters he’s also frustrated.
“I’m angered and I’m sad. I’m angered at the fact that residents had to experience this in their community tonight. The residents didn’t deserve this,” he said. “They did not deserve to have people shot in the communities where they live. I’m saddened because I know of all of the investments that the city has made in violence interruption efforts.”
“We have people who are in our communities who just have lost their sense of humanity. And that really saddens me,” Contee added.
Within the last three weeks, D.C police, council members and other local officials met specifically about the apartment building where Monday’s shooting occurred.
(LAS VEGAS, N.M.) — As his city stands on the brink of running out of water, Las Vegas, New Mexico, Mayor Louie Trujillo said the fires that initiated the problem could have been avoided.
“The government is 100% responsible for this disaster and we intend to hold them accountable, to pay for every expense and discomfort that the citizens are suffering right now, even if it includes legal recourse,” Trujillo said.
The city is in a state of emergency after intense flooding at the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire “burn scar” area led to contamination in water reservoirs from ash, soot, burned trees, pine needles, rocks and boulders.
The two fires were set by the U.S. Forest Service but became uncontrollable, New Mexico officials said.
Now, the Gallinas Reservoir, where the people of Las Vegas get the majority of their drinking water, is expected to be out of usable water within 50 days.
The first fire was set in late 2021 and wasn’t properly extinguished, allowing it to reignite in April, Trujillo said. That fire then joined together with another that was set by the service in April.
The second fire was originally ignited to try to thin dense pine needles, but it was set during windy conditions.
The combined Hermit’s Peak-Calf Canyon Fire is now the largest New Mexico blaze in history, officials said.
“The destruction that continues to befall New Mexico communities affected by the U.S. Forest Service planned burns from earlier this year is unfathomable,” Grisham said in a statement.
Trujillo said he has met with Washington officials about the issue, including President Joe Biden, who made a visit to the area in June.
“We are going to insist that they continue to assist our residents with what we need,” Trujillo said.
The U.S. Forest Service has not responded to ABC News’ request for comment.
New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham declared a state of emergency on Friday, leading to an executive order of $2.25 million to address the water crisis.
“New Mexicans in San Miguel County have been through enough — we will continue to do everything we can to support them and prevent additional damage as a result of the wildfires,” Grisham said in a statement.
The funds will be used to help the local government with emergency measures, repairs and prevention plans.
Along with Gallinas, Las Vegas allocates some parts of Storrie Lake for its water.
The governor’s order will permit a temporary pre-treatment system that will allow officials to pump and treat water from the lake to augment the remaining usable water from the river.
Hundreds of people are working on this initiative, Trujillo said, as the city is also preparing for its college student population to return in the fall. New Mexico Highlands University, with an enrollment of over 3,700 students, is located in the city.
The systems are important for long-term solutions, as this will impact the water source into next year, the mayor said.
Because the area has had one of the most fruitful monsoon seasons so far in years, the damage to the water is even more frustrating, Trujillo said. Las Vegas’ current filtration system does not allow officials to filter the turbulent water that is flowing from the flood into the river, Trujillo explained.
“We’ve had rain almost every single day in the area of the burn scar. We haven’t had a fruitful monsoon season in years and this is the year that we’re getting it and we can’t use any of that water for our purposes,” Trujillo told ABC News.
(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge on Monday sentenced the first Capitol rioter convicted at trial to 87 months, or just over seven years in prison — the longest term of incarceration thus far for a defendant in the Justice Department’s criminal investigation of the Jan. 6 assault on Congress.
Guy Wesley Reffitt, 49, of Wylie, Texas, was convicted by a federal jury in March of five felony counts, including obstruction of justice as well as entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds with a firearm.
Federal prosecutors with the U.S. Department of Justice had asked that Reffitt be sentenced to 15 years in prison. Prosecutors had also — for the first time — asked a federal district court judge to apply a terrorism enhancement, which would effectively define under law that a rioter’s actions amounted to domestic terrorism.
“We do believe that what he was doing that day was domestic terrorism and we do believe that he’s a domestic terrorist,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Nestler said Monday.
But the judge overseeing Reffitt’s case, Dabney Friedrich, turned down the request, saying that there have been multiple other defendants from the Jan. 6 attack where DOJ chose not to pursue the terrorism enhancement, despite their conduct appearing to be much more serious and threatening than what Reffitt was convicted of at trial.
Reffitt’s attorney, Clinton Broden, argued the DOJ was unfairly seeking to make an example of Reffitt simply because he took his case to trial.
“This is the only case where the government has asked for the terrorism enhancement, and this is the only case where the defendant has gone to trial,” Broden said. “I don’t think it takes a rocket scientist to figure that out.”
Reffitt is among the more than 850 people who have been charged in connection with the deadly breach of the Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021, which disrupted a joint session of Congress convened to ascertain and count the electoral votes related to the 2020 presidential election. Over 200 defendants have already pleaded guilty to a variety of misdemeanors and felony charges, with some being sentenced to years in federal prison.
Reffitt’s attorney, Clinton Broden, asked that his client be sentenced to no more than two years. He said he was shocked by the prosecution’s recommendation, since his client wasn’t accused of entering the Capitol or assaulting any police officers that day.
“It’s absolutely absurd,” Broden told The Associated Press during a telephone interview last month. “I certainly don’t condone what Mr. Reffitt did. And I think everybody realizes the seriousness of the offenses. But at the same point, there has to be some proportionality here.”
Federal sentencing guidelines in Reffitt’s case called for a prison sentence ranging from nine years to 11 years and three months.
During the trial, prosecutors sought to cast Reffitt, a member of the Texas Three Percenters militia group, as a ringleader of one of the first waves of the mob that breached the Capitol from the building’s west side.
Videos played in court showed Reffitt climbing a stone banister near where scaffolding had been put up in advance of President Joe Biden’s inauguration, and Reffitt confronting U.S. Capitol Police officers who warned him to back down before they fired less-than-lethal ammunition and pepper spray to stop his advance. Other videos presented in court showed Reffitt gesturing to the crowd behind him in what appeared to be an attempt to get them to move up the stairs toward multiple entryways that lead into the building.
At one point in the trial, prosecutors played first-person footage that Reffitt had recorded with a 360-degree camera mounted on his helmet while in the crowd at the “Save America” rally prior to the attack.
“We’re taking the Capitol before the day is out,” Reffitt says in the video. “Everybody is in the same harmony on that … dragging ’em out kicking and f***ing screaming.”
“I didn’t come here to play games … I just want to see Pelosi’s head hit every f***ing stair on the way out,” he says later. “I think we have the numbers to make it happen … without firing a single shot.”
The Justice Department’s case also relied on two key witnesses: Rocky Hardie, a former member of the Texas Three Percenters, who testified against Reffitt in exchange for immunity to cooperate, and Reffitt’s 19-year-old son, Jackson, who submitted an online tip to the FBI first alerting them to his father’s plans weeks before the riot, ultimately leading to Reffitt’s arrest on Jan. 16, 2021.
During an interview with ABC News from jail last December, Reffitt said he “never expected anything like this to happen.”
“This has been disastrous for me and my family, especially for my girls, my son — actually, all of my family,” Reffitt told ABC News
(WASHINGTON) — Senators are hopeful that within days they’ll again approve a bill that would offer millions of veterans expanded health care and disability payments for illnesses induced by exposure to burn pits during their service.
The proposal, known as the Honoring Our PACT Act, has been at the center of heated debate on Capitol Hill after Republicans, in a reversal, last week blocked the legislation following its bipartisan passage in June before a technical change in the House-passed version forced another Senate vote.
Twenty-six Republicans, led by Pennsylvania Sen. Pat Toomey changed their votes the second time around after the bill initially passed 84-14. It won only 55 votes last week, falling short of the 60 votes needed to overcome a filibuster.
In total, the legislation would institute some $280 billion in new spending, over a decade, for veterans’ health.
The dispute — which drew the ire of veterans and activists like comedian Jon Stewart, who derided Republicans’ change of heart as cowardly — is over what Toomey called a Democratic “budget gimmick”: how $400 billion in existing funds already being used for veterans is being accounted.
“My concern about this bill has nothing to do with the purpose of the bill,” Toomey said on the Senate floor ahead of the vote last week.
“What I’m trying to do is change a government accounting methodology that is designed to allow our Democratic colleagues to go on an unrelated $400 billion spending spree that has nothing to do with veterans and won’t be in the veterans space,” Toomey added Sunday on CNN.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has said he will offer Toomey a vote on an amendment to the bill to address his concerns.
“We offered Toomey — he’s standing in the way — the ability to do an amendment at 60 votes, just like the bill is a 60-vote bill. He insisted, at least in conversations with some others, saying, ‘No, no, no. If you don’t put it in the bill’ — which will kill the bill — ‘I’m not going to be for it,'” Schumer said at a news conference last week.
“I stand by the offer,” he said.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Wednesday he supported Toomey’s position, arguing in a statement that the PACT Act “could … allow Democrats to effectively spend the same money twice and enable hundreds of billions in new, unrelated spending.”
He told NBC News on Monday that the legislation would “pass this week.”
The congressional back-and-forth has received heightened media coverage after Stewart, a major veterans advocate, held a press conference and gave media interviews that swiftly went viral.
“America’s heroes who fought in our wars outside sweating their assess off with oxygen, battling all kinds of ailments while these motherf—— sit in the air conditioning walled off from any of it,” Stewart said on Thursday, lambasting the GOP blockade. “They don’t have to hear it, they don’t have to see it. They don’t have to understand that these are human beings.”
Appearing on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, Stewart said the winding course of the bill, despite the bipartisan support, was baffling.
“This is so bananas. Nothing changed. So I don’t understand any of this,” he said.
On Monday afternoon, Stewart joined a small group of protesters, many of them veterans, in front of the Senate ahead of planned votes.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., spoke with Stewart about the legislation along with Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott. Blumenthal said he believed but wasn’t certain that the Senate could act on the proposal in about 48 hours.
Burn pits have been used in U.S. military installations outside the country to dispose of waste, and the smoke from those sites has been linked to various respiratory illnesses and even cancer in troops who were exposed.
(NEW YORK) — Medical examiners are investigating whether the deaths of 10 people who died during a brutal heat wave in the Pacific Northwest last week were heat related, according to officials.
Temperatures in the triple digits were recorded across much of the Pacific Northwest that started Tuesday and lasted through the weekend — a region that is rarely used to seeing temperatures exceed the 90-degree mark.
As of Sunday, potential heat-related deaths were reported in Multnomah County, which includes Portland, as well as Umatilla County, Marion County and Clackamas County, according to a statement from the Oregon state medical examiner’s office. The deaths occurred from Thursday through Saturday, officials said.
Excessive heat warnings were in effect for much of the region last week. On Tuesday, Portland hit 102 degrees, while temperatures reached 102 degrees in Redding, California, and 107 degrees in Yakima, Washington.
Heat is the No. 1 weather-related killer. On average, more people in the U.S. die from extreme heat than any other severe weather event, including tornadoes, hurricanes and flooding combined, according to the National Weather Service.
Portland saw temperatures exceeding 95 degrees for seven days straight, beating a previous record of six days.
Vulnerable populations, including impoverished and marginalized communities and those with pre-existing health conditions such as asthma and heart disease, are most at risk when temperatures begin to skyrocket, Ladd Keith, an assistant professor in the School of Landscape Architecture and Planning at the University of Arizona, told ABC News in June.
The extreme heat prompted Oregon Gov. Kate Brown to declare a state of emergency that lasted through Sunday. The majority of households in the Pacific Northwest are not equipped with central air conditioning.
Last week’s heat wave drew parallels to the two historic heat waves that hit the region in the summer of 2021. Scientists later found that these heat waves would have been “virtually impossible” had it not been for climate change and rising global temperatures.
The heat is expected to move out of the Pacific Northwest on Monday and toward eastern Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana, where triple-digit high temperatures are possible.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden announced Monday that the U.S. had killed al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in a drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan, over the weekend. He hailed the operation as a significant win in the fight against terror groups overseas — including in countries where the U.S. no longer maintains a military presence.
“Justice has been delivered, and this terrorist leader is no more. People around the world no longer need to fear the vicious and determined killer,” Biden said, speaking from the White House where he is isolating with COVID-19.
“The United States continues to demonstrate our resolve and our capacity to defend the American people against those who seek to do us harm,” he said. “We make it clear again tonight that no matter how long it takes, no matter where you hide, if you are a threat to our people, the United States will find you and take you out.”
The president said al-Zawahiri had returned to the Afghan capital to be with family and was killed on Sunday morning local time. Al-Zawahiri was named the leader of al-Qaeda after Osama bin Laden was killed by U.S. forces in 2011 and officials believe he was a key part of the group’s international activities for decades.
“He was deeply involved in the planning of 9/11, one of the most responsible for the attacks that killed 2,977 people on American soil. For decades, he was the mastermind behind attacks against Americans,” Biden said. “He carved a trail of murder and violence against American citizens, American service members, American diplomats and American interests.”
Biden said he hoped al-Zawahiri’s killing could offer a moment of relief for those who had family members killed in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
“We continue to mourn every innocent life that was stolen on 9/11 and honor their memories,” he said. “To the families who lost fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, sons and daughters, brothers and sisters, friends and coworkers on that searing September day, it is my hope that this decisive action will bring one more measure of closure.”
The U.S. drone strike comes after collaboration from various parts of the counterterrorism community, a senior administration official told reporters earlier Monday. A separate source told ABC News the operation was carried out by the CIA.
Biden was first briefed on al-Zawahiri’s whereabouts in April and was ultimately briefed on a proposed operation on July 1, the administration official told reporters. Key Cabinet members and advisers were convened on July 25 to receive a final updated briefing on the intelligence assessment, which the official said continued to strengthen on a daily basis.
“The president received an updated operational report and pressed at a granular level. He asked again about any other options that would reduce collateral or civilian casualties. He wanted to understand more about the layout of rooms [of al-Zawahiri’s safe house in Kabul] behind the door and windows on the third floor of the building,” the official said.
“At the conclusion of the meeting, the president authorized a precise tailored airstrike on the condition that a strike minimize to the greatest extent possible the risk of civilian casualties. This authorization meant that the U.S. government could conduct an airstrike once an opportunity was available,” the official said.
The U.S. is confident through intelligence sources and “multiple streams of intelligence that he was killed “and no other individual,” the official said.
The successful remote strike against al-Zawahiri comes nearly a year after Biden presided over the turbulent U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan following two decades of war. He and his administration insisted then that the cost of involvement wasn’t worth the chaos and that the U.S. would still have the capability to track and eliminate terror threats without forces on the ground.
“We showed that without American forces on the ground in Afghanistan and in harm’s way we remain able to identify and locate even the world’s most wanted terrorists and then take action to remove him from the battlefield,” the senior administration official said Monday.
The exit from Afghanistan, which had been negotiated during the Trump administration, took place against the backdrop of an unexpectedly rapid takeover of the country by the Taliban, the armed group the U.S. had fought after invading in 2001. Biden faced sharp criticism from Republicans and others over his handling of the withdrawal.
Evacuation efforts were also marred by an Islamic State attack at an airport checkpoint in Kabul as the U.S. military and others worked to ferry out civilians. Thirteen U.S. troops and dozens of Afghans were killed.
On Monday, the senior administration official told reporters that al-Zawahiri had been staying in one of Kabul’s most affluent and prominent neighborhoods, near various diplomatic centers and international companies. The official confirmed that the ruling Taliban were aware of his presence in the area, knowledge that could further strain already tenuous relations with Washington.
The official said that the Taliban sought to cover up al-Zawahiri’s presence at his safe house after the strike.
“This is a very important point for us to make clear to the Taliban: that we expect them to abide by the terms of the Doha agreement, and the presence of al-Zawahiri in downtown Kabul is a clear violation of that,” the senior official said, referring to the agreement the Taliban negotiated with President Donald Trump in Doha, Qatar.
“My administration will continue to vigilantly monitor and address threats from al-Qaeda, no matter where they emanate from,” Biden said in his speech from the White House. “The United States did not seek this war against terror, it came to us, and we answered with the same principles and resolve that have shaped us for generation upon generation: to protect [the] innocent, defend liberty, and we keep the light of freedom burning — a beacon for the rest of the entire world.”
ABC News’ Justin Gomez and Luis Martinez contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — The White House said Monday that China was seemingly laying the groundwork to carry out “military provocations” in response to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s potential visit to Taiwan.
“China appears to be positioning itself to potentially take further steps in the coming days and perhaps over longer time horizons,” White House spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
He cast the escalating tensions as fueled by China, which the U.S. was “not threatening,” and he insisted that a potential visit from Pelosi would have precedent and would not “change the status quo” regarding China and Taiwan.
Under the “One China” policy, the U.S. recognizes Beijing as China’s government and does not support an independent Taiwan, considering the matter “unsettled,” though the U.S. is militarily supportive of the self-governing island and maintains informal ties.
“We, and countries around the world, believe escalation serves no one,” Kirby said. “Beijing’s actions could have unintended consequences that only serve to increase tensions.”
“The world should reject any [Chinese] effort to use it to do so,” Kirby said, referring to a possible Pelosi appearance in Taiwan. “We will not take the bait or engage in saber rattling. At the same time, we will not be intimated. We will keep operating in the seas and skies of the western pacific, as we have for decades.”
Pelosi landed in Singapore early Monday local time for a tour of Asia that her office said will also bring her to Malaysia, South Korea and Japan. Neither her office nor the White House has confirmed her reported plans to visit Taiwan.
Kirby said that the “potential steps” China may take in response to Pelosi’s possible visit to the island — which China claims as part of its territory — “could include military provocations, such as firing missiles in the Taiwan Strait or around Taiwan, operations that break historical norms such as a large-scale air entry into Taiwan’s air defense identification zone” or “air or naval activities that crossed the median line; military exercises that could be highly publicized.”
He noted that the last time Beijing fired missiles into the Taiwan Strait was in 1995 and 1996.
“Some of these actions would continue concerning trend lines that we’ve seen in recent years,” Kirby said, adding that “some could be of a different scope and scale.”
There could also be measures taken “in the diplomatic and economic space, … like Beijing’s public assertions last month that the Taiwan Strait is not an international waterway.”
Asked what planning was “being done in advance to ensure there won’t be any dangerous fallout if she does indeed go to Taiwan,” Kirby said he could “assure” that Pelosi would be able to “travel safely and securely.”
“We take our security commitments in the region very, very seriously,” Kirby later said on Fox News. “And we have ample capabilities in the region should we need them.”
At Monday’s briefing, Kirby said President Joe Biden had not spoken directly with Pelosi about her trip to Asia. He also took issue with a reporter who asked why Pelosi was “being urged not to go.”
“I don’t know that she was urged not to go,” Kirby said. “Who urged her not to go?”
“The president did not speak directly with the speaker about this trip,” he said.
The reporter clarified she had been asking about Biden saying previously that the military did not think it was a good idea for Pelosi to go to Taiwan.
“The speaker makes her own decisions,” Kirby said. “And what we did was provide her context, analysis, facts [and] information so that she could make the best decision possible for every stop, for every overseas travel.”
“We have been clear from the very beginning that she will make her own decisions and that Congress is an independent branch of government,” he said.
(NEW YORK) — At least four children in the U.S. have now tested positive for monkeypox, officials have confirmed.
Amidst a growing emergence of cases across the country, state officials in Indiana confirmed late last week that two children had tested positive for monkeypox. At this time, no additional information has been made available due to patient privacy concerns, the Indiana Department of Health wrote in a statement.
“Like many other states, Indiana has seen an increase in monkeypox cases over the past month,” State Health Commissioner Dr. Kris Box said in a statement.
Federal officials had previously confirmed, last month, that two other children in the U.S had tested positive for monkeypox.
One case was confirmed in a toddler, who is a resident of California, and the other was reported in an infant, a non-U.S. resident, who was tested while traveling through Washington, D.C. The two cases are unrelated, located in different jurisdictions, and were likely the result of household transmission.
Although no information is available about the current status of the virus-positive children in Indiana, both of the other children, who have been diagnosed with monkeypox, were said to have been in good health.
However, there are concerns among health officials about how monkeypox could impact young children.
Over the weekend, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned in a health alert that there is some preliminary evidence to suggest children younger than 8 years-old could develop more severe illness, if infected with monkeypox.
At this time, the majority of monkey cases confirmed domestically and globally in the current outbreak have been detected in gay, bisexual or other men who have sex with men. However, health officials have repeatedly stressed that the virus does not discriminate, and anyone exposed to monkeypox can contract the virus.
People are most commonly infected by close person-to-person contact, including intimate contact, though it is possible for the disease to also spread through respiratory secretions or by “touching objects, fabrics (clothing, bedding, or towels), and surfaces that have been used by someone with monkeypox,” according to the CDC.
The news of additional pediatric monkeypox cases come amidst growing pressure from officials across the country for the U.S. to declare a public health emergence for the outbreak.
On Monday, Illinois became the second state in the country to declare monkeypox a public health emergency, and thus, designating Illinois a “disaster area” for the virus, Gov. J.B. Pritzker announced in a press release.
“[Monkeypox virus] is a rare, but potentially serious disease that requires the full mobilization of all available public health resources to prevent the spread,” Pritzker wrote in a statement. “That’s why I am declaring a state of emergency to ensure smooth coordination between state agencies and all levels of government, thereby increasing our ability to prevent and treat the disease quickly.”
The governor’s declaration will allow the Illinois Department of Public Health to expand access to resources, such as vaccines and testing, in the state’s efforts to combat the virus.
“We have seen this virus disproportionately impact the LGBTQ+ community in its initial spread. Here in Illinois we will ensure our LGBTQ+ community has the resources they need to stay safe while ensuring members are not stigmatized as they access critical health care,” Pritzker added.
Last week, New York became the first state to declare monkeypox a “disaster emergency,” with officials calling New York City the “epicenter of the outbreak.”
Across the country, in San Francisco officials have also implemented a local emergency declaration for monkeypox.
Globally, more than 22,000 cases reported globally, including nearly 5,200 cases reported in the U.S., according to the CDC.
Monkeypox cases have now been reported in nearly every state in the country, with Montana, Vermont, and Wyoming now the only states that have yet to confirm cases.
(WASHINGTON) — The leader of al-Qaeda, one of the FBI’s most wanted terrorists, was killed in a drone strike in Kabul over the weekend, ABC News can confirm through sources familiar with the operation.
A source briefed on the operation confirmed that al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed in the U.S. strike in Afghanistan.
A senior administration official said earlier Monday that the U.S. conducted a successful counterterrorism operation against a “significant” al-Qaeda target in Afghanistan over the weekend, adding that there were no civilian casualties.
The counterterrorism attack took place in Wazir Akbar Khan, one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in Kabul and literally walking distance to the main diplomatic areas, including the U.S. Embassy.
President Joe Biden is expected to deliver remarks on the operation tonight at 7:30 p.m. ET.
Al-Zawahiri, who was born in Cairo in 1951, trained as a physician before founding the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, the FBI said. His organization had sought to overthrow the Egyptian government “through violent means” before merging with al-Qaeda between 1998 and 1999, the U.N. Security Council said.
As Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda deputy, al-Zawahiri helped coordinate the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people in the United States, the U.S. Justice Department said.
Al-Zawahiri and bin Laden appeared together the day after the attacks in a video, in which an al-Qaeda spokesperson threatened the West, saying a “great army is gathering against you,” U.S. officials said.
The Justice Department named al-Zawahiri and bin Laden as unindicted co-conspirators for their roles in coordinating the attacks.
Both had been indicted in the Southern District of New York in 1999 for the bombing of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed 224 people the previous year.
After bin Laden’s death in 2011, al-Zawahiri took over as al-Qaeda’s leader, officials said.
The FBI had placed al-Zawahiri, who was sometimes known as “The Doctor” or “The Teacher,” on its list of Most Wanted Terrorists, offering a $25 million reward for his capture.
The strike that killed al-Zawahiri is a major success of U.S. counterterrorism efforts and the result of countless hours of intelligence collection over many years.
This mission shows the tenacity and absolute dedication of U.S. intelligence and military professionals toward pursuing those responsible for the attacks of 9/11.
The message for al-Qaeda and its affiliates should be that the U.S. will never relent in its mission to hold those accountable who would seek to harm America and its people.
ABC News’ Mick Mulroy, Martha Raddatz, Sohel Uddin and Kevin Shalvey contributed to this report.
