(NEW YORK) — Peloton is recalling over two million bikes, warning that the bike seat post assembly could break and cause users to fall.
The Peloton Bikes Model PL01 is the one being recalled. Users are told to immediately stop using the bike and call Peloton for a free repair.
There have been 35 reports of people falling off their bikes with 13 injuries, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
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(LONDON) — The prime suspect in the unsolved 2005 disappearance of American teenager Natalee Holloway could soon be extradited from Peru to face criminal charges in the United States, ABC News has learned.
The Peruvian government issued an executive order on Wednesday accepting a request by U.S. authorities for the temporary extradition of jailed Dutch citizen Joran van der Sloot, who has been serving a 28-year sentence in Peru for the 2010 murder of Stephany Flores, a 21-year-old college student from a prominent Peruvian family. Upon arrival in the U.S., van der Sloot will face a federal trial on extortion and wire fraud charges stemming from an accusation that he tried to profit from his connection to the Holloway case.
“We will continue to collaborate on legal issues with allies such as the United States, and many others with which we have extradition treaties,” Edgar Alfredo Rebaza, director of Peru’s Office of International Judicial Cooperation and Extraditions of the National Prosecutor’s Office, said in a statement on Wednesday.
A source familiar with the matter told ABC News on Wednesday that van der Sloot’s extradition flight could happen as early as this weekend but will likely happen within a week. U.S. Marshals will accompany van der Sloot on the flight, which will depart from Lima. It was not immediately clear where exactly the plane would land in the U.S.
If van der Sloot is found not guilty of the charges, he will be returned to Peru to serve the remainder of his sentence there. If he is convicted, the Peruvian and U.S. governments will have to agree on where he serves his U.S. sentence as well as the rest of his Peruvian sentence.
Holloway, an 18-year-old from Mountain Brook, Alabama, vanished on the night of May 30, 2005, while celebrating her high school graduation with classmates on the Dutch Caribbean Island of Aruba. She was last seen leaving a bar called Carlos’n Charlie’s in Oranjestad and getting in a grey Honda with then-17-year-old van der Sloot and two of his friends.
Van der Sloot was identified as a suspect and detained weeks later but ultimately released without charge due to a lack of evidence. An Alabama judge later declared Holloway dead, though her body was never found. No charges have been filed in the case.
On June 30, 2010, a federal grand jury in Alabama indicted van der Sloot for allegedly trying to extort hundreds of thousands of dollars from Holloway’s family after her disappearance.
Federal prosecutors alleged that on March 29, 2010, van der Sloot contacted Beth Holloway through her lawyer and claimed he would reveal the location of her daughter’s remains in exchange for $250,000 — $25,000 up front. During a recorded sting operation with the FBI, Beth Holloway’s attorney, John Q. Kelly, met with van der Sloot in a hotel room on Aruba, giving him $10,000 in cash as Beth Holloway wired $15,000 to van der Sloot’s bank account, according to prosecutors.
Then van der Sloot led Kelly to a location away from the hotel and changed his story about the night he had been with Natalee Holloway, prosecutors said. He now claimed he had picked her up but that she had demanded to be put down, so he threw her to the ground. He said her head hit a rock and she was killed instantly by the impact, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors said van der Sloot then took Kelly to a nearby home and claimed that his father, who had since died, buried Natalee Holloway’s body in the building’s foundation. Van der Sloot parted ways with Kelly after the exchange and later emailed him saying the information he had provided was “worthless,” according to prosecutors. Within days, van der Sloot had slipped away to Peru.
Natalee Holloway’s mother released a statement on Wednesday reacting to the news that van der Sloot, now 35, would be temporarily extradited from Peru to the U.S.
“I was blessed to have had Natalee in my life for 18 years, and as of this month, I have been without her for exactly 18 years. She would be 36 years old now,” Beth Holloway said. “It has been a very long and painful journey, but the persistence of many is going to pay off. Together, we are finally getting justice for Natalee.”
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(MILAN) — A parked van exploded in a busy section of central Milan in Italy on Thursday morning.
The carabinieri — or Italian police — said that it was not clear what caused the van to explode in the Porta Romana neighborhood of the city and that no further details are currently available.
The explosion left several other nearby vehicles on fire as black smoke billowed into the sky in the downtown area.
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(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump sat down for a prime-time town hall on CNN on Wednesday, a day after he was found liable for battery and defamation in the E. Jean Carroll civil case.
A New York jury awarded Carroll a total of $5 million in the lawsuit, finding that they found Trump did not rape Carroll but sexually abused her. When directly asked Wednesday night about the verdict by moderator Kaitlan Collins, CNN This Morning anchor and former CNN chief White House correspondent, Trump continued to deny knowing Carroll, at one point declaring “I swear on my children.”
In the exchange with Collins, Trump also mocked the version of the sexual assault incident that Carroll’s lawyers told jurors.
The live town hall was held in New Hampshire, home to the first-in-the-nation GOP primary. The audience at Saint Anselm College in Goffstown was made up of Republicans and undeclared voters — those who are not registered as Democrats or Republicans — who plan to vote in the state’s 2024 GOP presidential primary, CNN said. No questions were off the table, Collins said Wednesday night.
In addition to the Carroll case, myriad legal issues loom over the twice-impeached former president’s third White House bid. Trump was indicted by a Manhattan grand jury last month, becoming the first former U.S. president to face criminal charges. He pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records.
Trump additionally faces multiple investigations, including into his efforts to overturn the 2020 election and the handling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago residence.
During the roughly hour-long town hall, Collins asked Trump if he still has any classified documents in his possession.
“I don’t have any,” Trump responded. “I have no classified documents.”
Trump, the current GOP primary front-runner, is the first candidate CNN provided a town hall setting to as part of a series of such forums during the 2024 presidential cycle. It marks the first time Trump appeared on CNN since the 2016 presidential campaign.
Critics of CNN said it should not be giving Trump a live, prime-time platform — normalizing him as just another presidential candidate — while CNN has stated it was only giving Trump the same platform it would be giving other 2024 presidential hopefuls.
President Joe Biden took to social media following the town hall to campaign for his re-election bid, tweeting: “It’s simple, folks. Do you want four more years of that? If you don’t, pitch in to our campaign.”
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(NEW YORK) — Uber will soon allow customers to book plane tickets directly through its app.
The new feature powered by online travel agent Hopper will roll out for users in the United Kingdom this summer. Customers can enter their destination and travel dates, select their desired flights and then pay directly on the Uber app. The company said users will also be able to choose their seat assignments in the app on flights with major carriers.
U.K. users can already book cars, buses, trains and boat transportation through the app.
Uber would not say if the program will be launched in the U.S.
“For now, we’re focused on piloting this ticketing feature in the U.K. and we’ll be closely monitoring customer engagement before we commit to a timeline to expand the feature to other markets,” a spokesperson from Uber told ABC News.
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(NEW YORK) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is taking drastic measures to limit pollutants coming from industries that cause the most environmental harm in an effort to bring the country closer to its climate goals.
The EPA plans to announce Thursday new regulation to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, which are currently unregulated despite being the second-largest source of emissions in the country.
The new rule will apply to some, but not all, existing natural gas power plants. It will also apply to any new natural gas plants as well as facilities that burn coal or oil, according to the EPA.
“The proposed limits and guidelines would require ambitious reductions in carbon pollution based on proven and cost-effective control technologies that can be applied directly to power plants,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a briefing with reporters on Wednesday.
The power sector produced 25% of the country’s greenhouse gas emissions in 2021. The rule, which is expected to go into effect in 2030, allows power plants to use carbon capture to reduce their emissions while continuing to burn fossil fuels.
The administration says tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act will help reduce the cost of carbon capture technology, which up to this point has been seen as too expensive for wide-scale deployment.
The rule will prevent up to 617 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions through 2042, the equivalent of reducing the emissions of half the cars in the U.S., the EPA said. It would also generate an estimated $85 billion in net benefits to the climate and health benefits from reducing other types of pollution.
The power sector has reduced its emissions 35% since 2005, according to the EPA.
The federal rule is another push toward making the country’s power sector completely carbon-free, Brian Murray, director of Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment & Sustainability at Duke University, told reporters on Wednesday.
“I think this is going to lead to over the next two decades, fossil units that are still around are going to be they’re going to have adopted some technology to keep carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere,” Murray added.
This is not the first time the federal government has attempted to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants but there are no current regulations in place. The centerpiece proposal from the Obama administration, the Clean Power Plan, never went into effect.
The Supreme Court ruled last year that law went too far and exceeded EPA’s authority by telling utilities they had to shift power generation away from fossil fuels.
Under the Biden Administration, the EPA is taking a more straightforward approach by saying that power plants must reduce their emissions but leaving the decision of how to do that up to companies. EPA projects that some coal power plants will retire as a result of this rule but those decisions will be made by the companies, not the government.
That decision forced EPA to focus on more traditional approaches to controlling pollution, Jay Duffy, litigation director for Clean Air Task Force, told ABC News.
“EPA has authority under the Clean Air Act to reduce emissions commensurate with the best technologies that are available,” Duffy said. “That’s the end of its authority.”
The EPA expects a negligible impact on energy prices as a result of this rule, Regan said.
Even though the benefits from the proposal are described as through 2042, Regan and National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi said they’re confident it will help the country reach the climate commitments under the Paris Climate Agreement — and set by President Joe Biden — to reduce emissions 50% to 52% by 2030.
The proposal reinforces the country’s ability to meet the goal in a critical sector of the economy, the power sector, Zaidi said.
“Every action that we take that reinforces that trajectory, firms up our footing, firms up our path to achieve that goal and increases the odds that we will unlock the full economic upside and public health gains associated with meeting that target,” Zaidi said on a call with reporters.
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(CHICAGO) — Four teenagers, including a 16-year-old, have been charged in the murder of a beloved 24-year-old Chicago police officer, authorities announced Wednesday.
Officer Aréanah Preston had just finished her shift and was still in uniform when she was shot and killed at about 1:42 a.m. Saturday, according to Chicago police.
The four suspects — ages 19, 19, 18 and 16 — “were out looking for victims” that night and are believed to be connected to multiple robberies and a car theft in the hours leading up to Preston’s murder, interim Chicago Police Superintendent Eric Carter said at a news conference.
As Preston was returning home, the teens pulled up in a stolen car, and at least two of the teens allegedly fired at her, according to police.
Preston returned fire, but the teens continued to shoot, and they allegedly stole Preston’s gun before fleeing, Carter said.
Preston’s gun has not yet been recovered, police said.
Police identified three of the four suspects Wednesday as Trevell Breeland, 19; Joseph Brooks, 19, Jakwon Buchanan, 18. The 16-year-old was not named.
The four suspects were all charged with first-degree murder and face other charges, including armed robbery and arson, police said. The 16-year-old will be charged as an adult, police said.
Carter said Preston was a “beloved, daughter, sister and friend who wanted to make a difference in this world” and “create a better future for Chicago.”
Police Officer Aréanah M. Preston
End of Watch: May 6, 2023We join Officer Preston’s family and loved ones in mourning the loss of our fallen hero. Our hearts are heavy, but through our grief, we will carry on her legacy of service to Chicago and its people. pic.twitter.com/cZOTrGKZzS
— Chicago Police (@Chicago_Police) May 8, 2023
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(DENVER) — Denver Police Department officials said they’re investigating a shooting that left five people injured, including one critically.
The shooting was reported on East Girard Avenue, a mostly residential street southeast of central Denver, officials said on Twitter Wednesday night.
Four men and a woman were injured, police said. The circumstances behind the shooting and information about the suspect are under investigation, authorities said.
“It is possible that the suspect(s) are among those injured,” police said.
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(EL PASO, Texas) — U.S. Customs and Border Protection facilities in most regions along the southern border are over capacity even as the number of those in custody has declined, Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz said Wednesday.
As of Wednesday, there were 26,354 people in CBP custody, which Ortiz said was, “several thousand less” compared to earlier in the morning.
Five of the nine Border Patrol sectors in the southwest are over 125% capacity.
“But that means that there are four sectors that aren’t,” Ortiz said, adding that Border Patrol has been flying migrants from high-traffic areas to facilities with more capacity.
From the Mexico side of the border in Ciudad Juarez, the number migrants crossing into the El Paso area has declined since the weekend.
“The officials in Texas and other places in the US are exaggerating what is happening here for political reasons. There is no crisis here at the moment,” a city government spokesperson said. “We’ve had many other immigration waves that were far more impactful, when all of our shelter space was full and people were on the streets.”
Overall, Ortiz said authorities are tracking around 65K migrants in northern areas of Mexico and that the surge CBP has been expecting may soon subside.
“The increase that we have seen in the last 5 to 7 days was really the surge … I think that what we see now is a continued effort by some to message incorrectly that once Title 42 goes away, it’s going to be a free for all along the border,” Ortiz said. “I don’t see that being the case. Our agents will be out there performing their duties.”
Title 42, the pandemic-era policy which allowed the U.S. to expel upward of two million migrants from the border, expires Thursday.
Currently, 4,000 beds remain open in Ciudad Juarez shelters — well below 50% capacity. That number has been dropping for two weeks and continues to fall.
Ortiz said he believes the administration has shifted to a strategy that prioritizes enforcement and shows migrants the consequences of crossing illegally.
Asked whether heavy-handed measures were necessary for migrants sleeping in the streets of El Paso, Ortiz stood by his approach.
“It wasn’t about chasing people around down the streets, into churches, into a protected areas,” Ortiz said. “It was a very methodical approach. And I was very proud of everyone.”
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(CLEVELAND) — The Cleveland Police Department has asked the public to help find a Cleveland EMT worker who’s missing and may be in danger.
Authorities said that 30-year-old Lachelle Jordan has been missing since May 6 and was last seen near Fairport Avenue in Cleveland.
Authorities said that at the time of her disappearance, Jordan was last seen wearing “a blue and white East Cleveland Fire Department sweatshirt with ECFD on the back and the Fire logo on the front, green and white tie dye pants and rainbow-colored Croc shoes.”
Mark Barrett, president of the Cleveland EMS Union, told ABC News that Jordan was a new employee and had filed reports with her job that she was being stalked.
Jordan’s job removed her from the truck where she worked and brought her to headquarters due to safety concerns for her and her co-workers, Barrett said.
Days before Jordan’s disappearance, Cleveland prosecutors charged 65-year-old Michael Stennett with stalking and violating an order of protection, according to a Cleveland Municipal Court case summary document.
A family member of Jordan’s told Cleveland 19 News that Jordan was going to testify in a rape case against Stennett, who was indicted on two counts of rape and one count of abduction in May 2022, according to Cuyahoga County court records.
Cleveland police said currently there isn’t any evidence connecting Stennett to Jordan’s disappearance, according to Cleveland 19 News.
According to ABC News Cleveland affiliate WEWS, prior to going missing, Jordan was planning to attend Stennett’s pre-trial hearing on Monday.
According to an arrest warrant for Stennett obtained by WEWS, Jordan noticed that Stennett followed her multiple times while she was in her personal vehicle when she was working, as well as waiting outside her home.
The arrest warrant stated that, two days before she went missing, Jordan allegedly noticed Stennett sitting outside her home, according to WEWS.
Stennett’s attorney did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
Crimestoppers is offering a $5,000 reward to anyone who has information on Jordan’s location. People can leave an anonymous tip by calling 216-252-7463.
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