(NEW YORK) — Ride-sharing company Uber is launching a new service for teenagers in several major cities and ABC News’ Good Morning America has an exclusive look with one family who has been testing out the service.
Ruth Stern is a mom of two and like many parents, she usually has to figure out the different transportation needs each family member requires for their busy schedules.
“One kid needs to be picked up from school. Another kid needs to get to an activity. There’s a doctor’s appointment that you didn’t anticipate, so it’s a constant juggle,” Stern told ABC News consumer correspondent Becky Worley.
So when the opportunity came up recently, Stern decided to give Uber’s pilot program for teenagers a try.
“I couldn’t be two places at once and I could get my child home safely from a location and still be with my other child,” Stern said.
Stern used the pilot program from Uber to get a ride for her 15-year-old daughter Izzy while she herself went to drive her 10-year-old son to one of his activities.
Stern and her family have so far been a part of the pilot program for a few months.
Now, the ride-sharing company is formally launching the program to a wider customer base, letting parents and guardians add teenager riders to their Uber accounts under a family profile. Teens ages 13 to 17 are included in the program.
Uber’s Vice President of Product Management Sachin Kansal told GMA the process all begins through a parent’s phone.
“You open your Uber app, you go to the account tab at the bottom. Now with this new feature, you can add a teen,” Kansal explained.
To develop this new feature, Uber partnered with the nonprofit Safe Kids Worldwide to address safety concerns around the service.
“There are some nonnegotiables as they roll out this platform of making sure kids buckle up every ride, every time,” Safe Kids Worldwide President Torine Creppy said.
For parents and guardians, the thought of putting a child in a car with a stranger can still be daunting.
“I was nervous. Would the car show up? Would it be somebody she felt safe with?” Stern recalled thinking.
Stern’s daughter Izzy said she also felt nervous the first time she took an Uber ride by herself.
“As a girl, it’s scary. And sometimes, you don’t know what’s going to happen but I felt really comfortable once getting in,” Izzy said.
Uber said it has safety measures in place for teenage riders, including background checks on drivers. The company said it only selects tenured drivers with high ratings for the teen service and drivers are required to ask for a pin number at the start of a ride to make sure teens are getting into the correct Uber car.
Parents can also track their teen’s trip in real time and contact the Uber driver at any time. Families can also choose to opt into an encrypted audio recording of the entire trip with a teen rider. If anything were to happen, Uber said it can access that audio recording to determine what is going on.
With past news stories highlighting the potential dangers of an Uber ride gone wrong, Kansal said the company is committed to riders’ safety.
“I think it’s a high bar and we take the safety of every step very seriously. That’s something that I always ask myself and my team. Are we ready to meet that bar of a parent who’s going to be concerned about the safety of their child?” Kansal said.
Uber for teens is launching in 28 metropolitan areas across the U.S. and Canada.
(SLOVYANSK, Ukraine) — The frontlines in eastern Ukraine are shifting in significant ways, with Russia and Ukraine carrying out offensive operations in and around Bakhmut.
Russian forces inside the city have made further advances and claim to have full control of every district.
Ukraine claims its forces are still fighting in a small area in the western fringe of the city.
Meanwhile, the situation outside Bakhmut is dynamic, with Ukrainian forces reporting a counteroffensive to the north and south of the city.
ABC News was allowed inside a military command center this weekend at an undisclosed location in eastern Ukraine.
Our team watched multiple screens showing live drone feeds down onto the battlefield in eastern Ukraine as a Ukrainian counteroffensive played out in real time near Bakhmut.
Ukrainian soldiers could be seen clearing Russian positions. Dead Russian soldiers were also visible on one of several live video feeds, which are monitored by Ukrainian soldiers.
That operation, which took place on Saturday morning, was one of a series of assaults by Ukrainian forces near Bakhmut in recent days.
Crucially, Ukraine claims it has taken control of higher ground near the city, which could give an important advantage for further attacks.
A Ukrainian commander whose battalion spearheaded an operation south of Bakhmut last week promised there would be more offensive action soon in the area.
The officer, who goes by his callsign “Rolo,” commands as many as 700 men in the 1st Assault Battalion of Ukraine’s 3rd Assault Brigade, which has been operating in and around Bakhmut for several months.
He told ABC News his men stormed Russian positions early in the morning last Wednesday, claiming that, by Thursday, his men had taken half a square mile of land and killed around 50 Russian soldiers. ABC News cannot verify his claims.
“We outplayed them,” he said in an interview in a basement in eastern Ukraine.
The commander would not comment on whether the Ukrainian operation near Bakhmut was the precursor to a more significant counteroffensive by Ukrainian forces.
“Small steps lead to big results,” he said with a smile.
“If you ask me, should we expect more? Yes, we should. If you ask me where, that’s confidential. But you shall see it,” the commander said, adding that new Western weaponry was filtering through to the battlefield.
“We have the initiate now. We dictate the rules,” he boasted. “Now the enemy has to adjust to what we’re doing and act according to our actions.”
ABC News was also shown two US-supplied M113 armored personnel carriers which were badly damaged. According to Ukraine’s 1st Assault Brigade they were used in the operation on Wednesday and Thursday to the south of Bakhmut.
Back at the military command center hidden in a nondescript building in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas, the drone feed showed smoke rising over Bakhmut.
ABC News was unable to spot a building in the city on the live video feed which had not been badly damaged.
Most of the drones feeding the live frontline images back to the screens monitored by soldiers at the command center were commercial drones which can be purchased online, although many of the commercial drones are modified to carry and drop grenades.
The commander at the center, from Ukraine’s Adam Tactical Group, Yevhen Mezhevikin, said Ukrainian forces “in every direction” along the frontline were ready to go on a major counteroffensive “at any moment.”
Speculating that the directions of a future Ukrainian counteroffensive had “already been chosen” by top Ukrainian generals, but were still being kept top secret, he said he was confident about Ukraine’s chances.
He told ABC News that Ukrainian troops experienced successful counteroffensives earlier in the war, and argued that would give them an important edge.
“I’m sure we’ll be able to break through enemy defenses on the frontline and the enemy will have no success,” he said in an interview.
Medics prepare ahead of expected counteroffensive
Doctors and medics at a military field hospital in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas are also preparing for an inevitable spike in casualties when Ukraine launches a larger offensive.
“It is going to be difficult and we’re going to have [an increase in] casualties,” Dr. Oleh Tokarchuk, the lead doctor at the military medical facility, near to the frontlines, told ABC News.
“We’re going to be losing our loved ones and friends but I believe we will be able to make it,” he said.
Four wounded soldiers were brought back from frontline positions in military ambulances to receive treatment at the field hospital, in the roughly 90-minute period ABC News was there.
The soldiers were, according to medics, part of a tank crew which had been hit by Russian artillery.
One of the men had a serious shrapnel wound to his leg. Another, Vasily, who did not give his surname, had a minor injury to his arm.
“An artillery shell landed, some of us tried to take cover, some didn’t,” he said, looking visibly shaken but promising to return to the frontlines once he has recovered.
Tokarchuk said the number of casualties arriving at his facility had significantly reduced since the early months of this year when Russia captured the town of Soledar, near to Bakhmut.
However, he said, his team were ready and prepared for that to change once a major Ukrainian counteroffensive gets underway.
“This is not rocket science,” said Oleh Pankiv, a volunteer at the hospital who helps evacuate medical casualties away from the battle zone.
“When you have assault operations, you will always have many more injured people. But what can we do?” he asked.
“We need to stand our ground. We need to fight against the aggressor. And of course, we need to defend our country,” he added.
(MOSCOW, Idaho) — Bryan Kohberger, the suspect accused of killing four Idaho college students in an early morning attack, is expected on Monday to appear for an arraignment.
Kohberger, 28, is expected to enter a plea when he appears in court in Moscow, Idaho, on Monday. His hearing is scheduled for 9 a.m. local time, according to court records.
He was indicted last week on charges that included four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary, according to the documents filed in Latah County District Court.
Prosecutors allege that Kohberger, a Ph.D. student at Washington State University’s department of criminal justice and criminology, broke into a house where six University of Idaho students were staying early on Nov. 13, 2022.
He is alleged to have killed Ethan Chapin, 20; Madison Mogen, 21; Xana Kernodle, 20, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21. Two other students who were in the house at the time survived and were not treated as suspects.
In the months since the murders, prosecutors have laid out evidence that included Kohberger’s white Hyundai Elantra allegedly passing by the victims’ house several times prior to the murders, according to court documents.
The suspect’s cellphone had been on route to Moscow, but was turned off from 2:47 a.m. to 4:48 a.m., a timeframe during which the murders were committed, police said.
DNA matching Kohberger’s was found on a knife sheath left on one of the victim’s beds, officials said.
Kohberger, who is from Pennsylvania, drove across the country after the end of the semester. He was arrested on Dec. 30 at his parents’ home in the Pocono Mountains. He agreed to be extradited to Idaho in early January.
Monroe County Chief Public Defender Jason LaBar, who represented Kohberger in the extradition hearing, said in a statement at the time that his client “is eager to be exonerated of these charges and looks forward to resolving these matters as promptly as possible.”
(NEW YORK) — Kavian Thomas, a man currently incarcerated at Rice Street jail in Fulton County, Georgia, dug a hole in a shower wall, granting him access to the adjacent cell block, where he allegedly launched an attack on Derondney Russell, on May 17, according to the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office.
Thomas allegedly stabbed Russell multiple times once he tunneled through the wall and into Russell’s cell, the sheriff’s office said in a press release Thursday.
Russell sustained “superficial stab wounds to his upper body” and was treated in the medical unit of the jail for his injuries, officials said.
After the incident, officers checked both cells and discovered several weapons in both cells, some made “from parts of the dilapidated building infrastructure” according to the release.
“This jail has clearly outlived its useful life,” interim Fulton County Jail commander Curtis Clark said in the press release. “That reality makes it even more challenging for us to do our job providing the safest possible environment, not only for staff but for the inmates as well.”
The sheriff’s office said Thomas will face additional criminal charges for the attack.
(MOSCOW, Idaho) — A quadruple homicide rocked the quiet Idaho college hamlet of Moscow last year. But the financial repercussions are only now coming into focus.
“It was a tragic and horrible event that no one saw coming,” Moscow Mayor Art Bettge said. “A difficult six months.”
The city’s already slim budget is straining under the weight of the investigation’s mounting expenses. Even before the killings, the police department alone cost $7.2 million, Moscow officials told ABC News — several hundred thousand dollars more than the $6.9 million in property taxes brought in, police and city officials said.
The police department is the largest chunk of Moscow’s funding for basic government services, at more than a third of general fund expenditures, according to city budget reports reviewed by ABC News.
Now, overtime and other expenses are growing exponentially with the ongoing need for increased patrols and law enforcement work — and shouldered by a short-staffed force putting in long hours.
“Moscow is not awash in a funding excess,” the mayor told ABC News. “We run a very, very lean budget and the impact of the investigation has been felt on the budget.”
Bottom line, officials said: The ongoing cost of the killings has burned through cash that could have gone to benefit the community and fix up city infrastructure.
Around noon on Nov. 13, four University of Idaho students — Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin — were found stabbed to death at their off-campus house by officers responding at the scene. After an intensive hunt for more than six weeks, police zeroed in on a suspect: Bryan Kohberger, a 28-year-old criminology Ph.D. student at nearby Washington State University.
Kohberger was arrested on Dec. 30 in Pennsylvania, after driving cross-country to spend the holidays at his family home in Albrightsville, Pennsylvania.
Last Wednesday, a grand jury returned a multi-count indictment against Kohberger, including four counts of murder in the first degree. He is set to appear for his arraignment on Monday and enter a plea, according to court documents.
Even with a suspect in custody, the ongoing investigation has depleted Moscow’s coffers, and scrambled an already fragile balance sheet, city officials said.
“We weren’t prepared for this. This is such a horrific thing – how could you plan for this?” Moscow City Council member Sandra Kelly told ABC News.
“You budget for fires. You budget for floods. You prepare for natural disasters. This was not natural,” Kelly said. “The cost is astronomical. And of course you can’t skimp on keeping people safe. Yet, this is just not something you budget for – because it’s something you’d never dream could happen.”
Local business owner Mitchell Lopez, who co-owns the popular Main Street Mexican Restaurant “La Casa Lopez,” likened the effect of the killings to the COVID-19 pandemic’s pain.
“Owning and running a family business — we’ve always had our ups and downs — we’ve gone through two recessions, a pandemic and now, this unfortunate loss of life has caused the closest thing to the pandemic — in terms of financial loss — has been from these horrendous murders,” Lopez told ABC News.
His family moved to Moscow in 1994 and stayed for the vibrant culture and community atmosphere.
“We’ve all had some connection with these students — they ventured into our businesses, or they worked for us. We were all mourning. Completely heartbroken,” Lopez said. “This town emptied out so quickly, nobody would go out — they were scared. We’ve always been a very safe haven and this really caused a major financial burden on every business in the area.”
Before the killings, the mayor said his team had already planned to hike taxes by the allowed 3%, due to inflation and planned city improvement projects.
Investigating the four university murders diverts those additional dollars towards the extra police work.
“We’re just trying to tread fiscal water to avoid going under,” Bettge said.
After the killings, local law enforcement amped up their presence to ensure the safety of a community on edge, and to push forward the investigation. Security was posted outside the house where the four students were slain; patrols were increased on and around campus; and police accrued long overtime hours from round-the-clock work and evidence analyses even as they fielded an onslaught of national media attention.
Less than three weeks into the investigation last fall, the city had already incurred more than $70,000 in overtime and other expenses, according to a letter Mayor Bettge sent to Idaho Gov. Brad Little in early December, obtained by ABC.
That five-digit figure was expected to grow “to nearly $200,000 over the coming weeks as we face additional overtime, private security, data storage, and communications assistance costs,” Bettge wrote in the letter, and a further “significant financial burden” as the case unfolds.
Little has stepped in with roughly $93,000 reimbursement for public information expenses, overtime, security costs and electronic data storage, according to the governor’s office.
That will help but “does not cover the full, unanticipated impact on the budget,” Bettge said, adding, “That’s why we keep some reserves available to handle unexpected financial impacts.”
Some of those reserves come from money left over because of unfilled positions with the police department, the mayor said.
The Moscow Police Department has more than half a dozen vacant positions, Capt. Anthony Dahlinger said. They are down nine officers — a quarter of their full force.
When fully staffed, MPD has 36 sworn officers’ positions including the chief and command staff, Dahlinger told ABC News. They currently have 27 sworn and certified officers.
Those empty spots — and available, already appropriated financial resources — can offer a small financial “buffer” against unforeseen blows to their bottom line, Bettge said: Available “salary lapse” money from vacant MPD positions could be transferred toward upcoming infrastructure projects like renovating aging city buildings.
It now goes towards the homicide investigation, the mayor said.
“There was most certainly an impact due to the massive amount of hours worked,” Dahlinger said. “The true financial impact of the homicide investigation will not be known for quite some time as the case is still in process.”
While those other projects will eventually move forward, “it slows us down considerably and stops future investment in certain aspects of the city that clearly need to be done,” Bettge said, calling the situation a “complex puzzle” of “scarce resources.”
“It calls into question — if budgets really begin to get rough, where do you cut?” he said. “The community suffers … sooner or later something has to give, and I don’t know what that would be.”
The killings thrust Moscow into the national spotlight, with officials and citizens alike facing a flurry of media attention. With the case moving forward, Latah County will shoulder more of the financial burden, but meanwhile, grappling with the ongoing saga has required both additional dollars and manpower.
The city’s emergency medical services run on donated time: The Moscow Volunteer Fire Department’s roughly 60 emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and paramedics respond to as many as 2,000 medical calls a year on average, according to city statistics.
Moscow has contended with a “persistent” EMS staffing shortage, according to City Council strategic planning documents reviewed by ABC, which unaddressed, could create “significant damage” and have “widespread impact,” a majority of the city’s management leaders agreed.
“The Department is still trying to recruit/retain community volunteers and there are still challenges with paramedic coverage,” according to an April presentation of the Moscow Volunteer Fire Department Annual Report from fire chief Brian Nickerson.
The nearby university offers a seasonal labor pool for EMS volunteers that shrinks once classes let out — exacerbating that shortage, city officials told ABC.
“We do have less coverage when our student residents are out of school during breaks which does create challenges,” Nickerson said, “especially during the school breaks such as summer, Thanksgiving, Christmas and spring break,” even with the “very dedicated community volunteers” who work through those times.
The possibility of incentivizing summer volunteers with a weekly stipend is under discussion, officials said; where the money comes from remains an open question.
“You find cash for these major challenge areas that are identified as the truly important ones, and you make it happen. But stuff like this makes it a lot harder,” Bettge said.
This year, school lets out just as Kohberger’s highly scrutinized case is poised to move forward.
“For us, this is unknown territory. We’ve never gone through this before,” Bettge continued, pointing to his city’s resilience. “We’re feeling our way along as best we can to try to accommodate all of the needs — the competing needs: maintaining the city for our citizens — and seeing that justice is done.”
(NEW YORK) — When Jordan Neely was killed in a chokehold on the New York City subway by fellow subway passenger Daniel Penny, some conservative politicians declared him a “Good Samaritan” and “Superman” for his actions.
Neely, a homeless Black man, was allegedly ranting and yelling on a NYC subway train when Penny, a white former Marine, put him in a chokehold. Witness accounts say Neely had not become violent and had not been threatening anyone in particular.
Penny’s attorneys have maintained their client never intended to kill Neely and was just trying to protect himself and others as Neely was allegedly threatening him. Penny was placed under arrest for second-degree manslaughter. He did not enter a plea.
Elected officials have applauded Penny’s efforts to take his perceived idea of the law into his own hands. Those who study violence, power and vigilantism say they are alarmed.
Researchers told ABC News that Neely’s death highlights how marginalized groups are disproportionately impacted by vigilante efforts, which can manifest in violence and even death.
“There’s a power imbalance that determines who’s seen as upholding what’s good and what’s right … and who’s more likely to be seen as violating social norms or doing something that’s wrong?” said Regina Bateson, a political scientist and professor at the University of Ottawa, in an interview with ABC News.
The vigilante self-assigns the role of judge, jury and executioner, deciding who is breaking the law and enacting their punishment without the oversight of the criminal justice system, researchers say.
They argue the country’s history of terrorizing the Black community with lynchings and other violence is a prime example of vigilantism’s racial roots.
Lynchings were “to send a message of acceptable and unacceptable behavior,” and to “signify who is in power and who is disempowered,” said Amy Kate Bailey, a University of Illinois at Chicago professor and sociologist, in an interview with ABC News.
“These forms of collective violence and terror — the root of them across the board seems to be battles over access to power,” Bailey said.
With the influences of implicit and explicit bias, stereotyping, and more at play, the end result of vigilantism often leads to negative outcomes for marginalized people, according to experts.
Such an example was Gregory McMichael, and his son, Travis McMichael, being convicted of federal hate crimes in the death of Ahmaud Arbery which occurred in Feb. 2020. The McMichaels chased Arbery in their pickup truck after they saw him jogging in their neighborhood, falsely believing he had been responsible for several break-ins in coastal Georgia’s Satilla Shores neighborhood.
The McMichaels’ neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan, joined the chase and recorded video and was also convicted of federal hate crimes.
Another example was in 2012 when 17-year-old Black teen Trayvon Martin was fatally shot by George Zimmerman, a man who followed Martin during his walk home from the store. Zimmerman said he believed Martin was suspicious.
Zimmerman was acquitted on all charges connected to Martin’s death in July 2013 after asserting self defense.
Bailey’s research has found that social marginality increases the likelihood of being targeted in violence, through her studies of lynching victims.
Mark S. Brodin, a professor at Boston College Law School, said his research has caused him to analyze the invoking of self-defense in court, and who this is more likely to protect. He asks, if the perception of fear is rooted in racism, classism or some other systemic discrimination — how should that justify self-defense measures?
“The fear of the other in our society usually plays itself out as fear of people of color,” Brodin told ABC News.
Research has shown that Black people are more likely to be seen as threatening or dangerous.
“If you have people who, either consciously or unconsciously, carry these biases and stereotypes about Black criminality and the menace of Black individuals — unless you have some enforcement of the law and accountability every time they act out their vigilantism, then you’re just gonna have a society where killings without accountability are gonna just continue,” he said.
Brodin points to another infamous instance of vigilantism or proclaimed self-defense in the New York City subway in the 1980s. Bernhard Goetz shot four Black teenagers on the subway. One of the boys is said to have asked Goetz for $5, but Goetz said they were trying to rob him.
A jury acquitted Goetz of attempted murder and only convicted him for carrying an unlicensed handgun.
“Race is at the center of virtually everything that goes on in this society, including the justification of killing on the basis that you feared for your life,” Brodin said.
As “stand your ground” and “self-defense” laws continue to be the subject of debate in the U.S., researchers say they fear vigilante efforts may flourish.
“It falls within a broad trend toward increasingly undemocratic rhetoric in U.S. politics,” said Bateson. “It’s illegal. It’s often violent. It’s violating the rights of their targets. It’s undermining the rule of law. And, undermining state institutions as well.”
As more legislative efforts target transgender identities, reproductive care, homelessness and more, researchers also wonder how far vigilante efforts might go in targeting marginalized communities affected by the incoming legislation.
“There’s an alarming amount of violence associated with vigilantism,” said Bateson. “It’s really important to emphasize that vigilantism is a human rights problem. Vigilantes are violating the rights of their targets. There’s no proportionality in vigilantism. It’s very common that the punishment doesn’t fit the crime.”
(LONDON) — Facebook’s parent company, Meta, was fined €1.2 billion, or about $1.3 billion, for failing to comply with the European Union’s privacy policies.
The Irish Data Protection Commission announced the fine on Monday, saying Meta had violated the terms of General Data Protection Regulations, a set of rules for protecting customer privacy in the European Union.
The fine amounts to the largest ever imposed under GDPR, which has been enforced since May 2018. Regulators said data transfers made by Meta between the United States and European Union had failed to comply with “standard contractual clauses” in place since July 2020.
“The unprecedented fine is a strong signal to organisations that serious infringements have far-reaching consequences,” Andrea Jelinek, chair of the European Data Protection Board Chair, said in a statement.
ABC News has reached out to Meta, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, for comment.
(WASHINGTON) — Just ahead of what airlines say could be the busiest Memorial Day weekend for travel since before COVID-19, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is sharing how his department is prepping for the potentially record-breaking season.
“We know for sure that there is going to be a very high level of demand, a lot of traffic and a lot of pressure on the system,” Buttigieg said in an interview with ABC News.
Amid an ongoing air traffic controller shortage that’s been partly to blame for disruptions across the system, Buttigieg said the Transportation Department continues to hire and train controllers even as key facilities remain below targets.
“If you look at the optimal numbers, the numbers we like to be at, it is higher than where we are right now. That’s why we’re doing so much hiring, and it’s why we’re pushing to make sure that we get a budget as these negotiations go on [between the White House and Congress] that allow us to continue to pick up the pace on that hiring,” he said, referring to current spending talks on Capitol Hill.
Major U.S. airlines are touting their expected passenger numbers and schedules ahead of the holiday weekend. United Airlines said it’s preparing for its busiest Memorial Day in more than a decade, expecting to carry nearly 2.9 million passengers.
Meanwhile Delta Air Lines said it’s expecting to fly 2.8 million customers over the holiday — a 17% increase from last year. And American Airlines said it will carry more than 2.9 million customers, operating over 26,000 flights.
Those numbers underline the airline industry’s continued bounce-back from its pandemic low even as some service periods have been marred by major flight delays and cancellations.
When asked if he thinks airlines can meet the high demand, Buttigieg said his department has been “pressing” the companies to be more realistic with scheduling and actively supporting those efforts in order to avoid more headline-grabbing meltdowns.
“In the New York airspace, we worked with airlines to permit an approach that would allow there to be larger aircraft, which means more passengers with fewer departures, which can mean less congestion,” Buttigieg said.
“There’s always a question whether airlines are properly aligning their schedules that they’re promising with their resources and staffing that they bring to the table, including enough of a buffer to deal with situations that may come up,” he said. “Look, there’s always weather, and you have to be ready to absorb those issues and respond and get back to normal as quickly as possible.”
After increased delays and cancellations among U.S. carriers last summer, Buttigieg called such disruptions “unacceptable.”
Now, the secretary said he’s seen “a lot of improvements coming into this year” but it’s “no guarantee that summer is going to go well.”
“We’ve been pressing the airlines to do better and better on things that are under their control and collaborating.” Buttigieg said.
The Biden administration recently announced it would seek to require airlines to provide consumers with boosted compensation, including meals and hotels, if they are left stranded and it’s the airline’s fault.
Critics say if the rule is put in place, it would end up passing the cost on to consumers. Buttigieg said he doesn’t buy that.
“Look, any time that we do a rule or we try to hold companies accountable, they tend to say this. But we already know that this is an approach that can work because there are many other countries that have rules that require airlines to compensate passengers and also have very competitive airfares,” he said.
Heading into summer, negotiations are ongoing between various pilot groups and airlines, with some unions voting to authorize strikes.
While the probability of a pilot strike occurring in the U.S. is very slim, Buttigieg said, “We’re urging the parties to come to agreements in each of the areas where a contract is in play and understand that the pilots who are a very essential part of the aviation system expect to be compensated well, and their quality-of-life concerns, too. And airlines need to be able to run their business.”
(BAJA, Mexico) — At least 10 people were killed and nine were wounded when an apparent team of gunmen ambushed a car rally in Baja, Mexico, about 73 miles from the U.S. border, authorities said.
The horrific attack unfolded just after 2 p.m. on Saturday in San Vicente, near Ensenada, on the Pacific coast of the Baja Peninsula, the Reuters news agency reported.
The violence erupted during the last day of a two-day all-terrain car rally, local officials said. Video purportedly of the shooting was posted on social media, showing off-road vehicles lined up along a road and capturing the sounds of screams and numerous rounds of gunfire.
Several people who appeared to have been shot were seen in the online footage lying on the ground.
Multiple shooters wielding rifles emerged from at least two gray vans at a gas station and opened fire on participants of the car rally gathered there, according to Reuters, citing 911 calls.
Following the volley of gunshots, the perpetrators got back in the vans and fled the scene, which is about 86 miles from San Diego, California, according to Reuters.
There were no reports of any arrests being made.
Ensenada Mayor Armando Ayala Robles said state Attorney General Ricardo Ivan Carpio Sanchez commissioned a special group to investigate the massacre.
The car rally was organized by the group calling itself Cachanillazo, which posted a message to Instagram expressing sympathy to those affected by the tragedy, adding that “unfortunately, what happened during the tour was not in our hands.”
(NEW YORK) — Several regions in the U.S. are suffering from poor air quality as the smoke from the wildfires burning in Canada make its way south.
A large portion of the of the U.S. has been seeing smoky skies for days, presenting unhealthy conditions for residents with heart or lung conditions, officials said.
The National Weather Service has issued an air quality alert for all of Montana, as well as parts of Idaho, Colorado and Arizona.
The Utah Department of Environmental Quality urged residents on Friday to avoid outdoor activities in places with visible smoke and haze. Heavy smoke also began to pour into northeastern Colorado, including Denver, on Friday.
Health officials in Colorado and Montana issued air quality alerts through Saturday afternoon after conditions worsened.
The air quality index on the Front Rage in Colorado reached 168 on Friday, according to the state’s Department of Public Health and Environment. A reading between 151 and 200 indicates unhealthy conditions that affect sensitive groups as well as the general public, health officials say.
Idaho also saw widespread haze earlier in the week, according to the state’s Department of Environmental Quality.
The wildfires burning in Alberta have prompted thousands of residents to evacuate, especially due to the health impacts from the smoke. There are also fires burning in British Columbia.
The air quality alerts will remain in Colorado through the afternoon, health officials said.
Many places in the Northeast will also be experiencing a haze in the sky on Sunday due to smoke lingering in the upper atmosphere. However, the smoke should not cause breathing issues in the area, as it is lingering roughly 20,000 feet above the surface.
The main impact from the smoke for much of the U.S. will be orange-red sunrises and sunsets.
ABC News’ Daniel Amarante contributed to this report.
