(NEW YORK) — Five men were killed in separate shootings that erupted on the streets of New York City during a violent four-hour streak, police said.
The slayings occurred between 9 p.m. Tuesday and 1 a.m. Wednesday, including three in the city’s Brooklyn borough and two in the Bronx, according to the New York Police Department.
No arrests have been announced in any of the homicides.
The latest killing occurred just after 1 a.m. Wednesday in the Fordham Heights neighborhood of the Bronx when police said two gunmen on dirt bikes opened fire on a 34-year-old man standing in front of his apartment building, police said.
Officers called to the scene found the man shot in the torso and unconscious, according to the NYPD. The victim, identified as Melquan Cooper, was taken to Saint Barnabas Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said.
About a half-hour earlier, a 24-year-old man was found shot in the torso outside a home in the Cypress Hills neighborhood of Brooklyn, police said. The man, whose name was not immediately released, was pronounced dead at Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, police said. No further details were released on the homicide.
The string of fatal shootings started around 9:13 p.m. Tuesday, when police officers were called to investigate a report of shots fired in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn and found a 26-year-old man with a gunshot wound to the chest outside a New York City Housing Authority complex, according to the NYPD. The man was taken to Brookdale Hospital Medical Center, where he died, police said.
The man’s name was not immediately released and homicide investigators were working Wednesday to identify suspects.
More gunfire rang out at 10:46 p.m. Tuesday outside an apartment building in the Wakefield neighborhood of the Bronx, police said. Officers, who responded to a 911 call of a person shot, discovered a 31-year-old man unconscious and with a gunshot wound to the torso, according to the NYPD. The victim was pronounced dead at Saint Barnabas Hospital, police said.
The victim’s name was not immediately released, pending notification of his relatives.
Another fatal shooting happened about 11:10 p.m. Tuesday outside an apartment building in the Ocean Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn, police said. Officers discovered a 29-year-old man suffering from a gunshot wound to the leg.
The victim, whose name was not immediately released, was taken to Brookdale Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, authorities said.
The latest NYPD crime statistics show that as of Sunday, 222 homicides have occurred across New York City this year, a nearly 8% decrease from the same period as last year.
(AKRON, Ohio) — Jayland Walker’s funeral took place Wednesday, as Akron, Ohio, recognizes an official citywide day of mourning for the police shooting victim declared by city officials days earlier.
Services began midday Wednesday with musical performances. Singers and speakers were flanked by photos of Walker in the Akron Civic Theatre.
“Jayland was a kind and gentle soul who loved to make others laugh,” said Pastor Marlon Walker. “A true family man, Jayland cheers the time he spent with his mother, sister and grandmother. He had a zeal for life and love, traveling with his beloved fiancee. He loved underground music and basketball. He was just beginning to live his life, saving money to become a successful entrepreneur with aspirations of starting a business.”
Speakers took to the stage to not only honor Walker’s life, but also call for accountability in his death.
“One of the things that we cannot do, we must not do, is — we must not normalize this,” said Bishop Timothy Clarke. “We cannot make the deaths of our sons and daughters at such an early age the normal thing. … We should not be here and Jayland should not be in that box.”
The ceremony will be followed by a press conference with representatives of the family, who plan to discuss Walker’s death.
Walker’s sister previously told Good Morning America about how she remembers her brother as a funny, kind brother who looked out for his family and had big goals for his future.
“It’s hard to just talk about somebody who you expect to live your life out with,” Jada Walker said.
The 25-year-old unarmed Black man was fatally shot by officers of the Akron Police Department on June 27.
Officials said they attempted to pull over Walker for a traffic violation and an equipment violation with his car. He allegedly refused to stop, which set off a chase that ended in his death.
Officials said a flash of light seen in body camera footage appeared to be the muzzle flash of a gun coming from the driver’s side of Walker’s car.
In a second body camera video, officers are heard radioing that they heard a shot being fired from Walker’s car. The footage shows the officer following Walker’s Buick off Route 8 and continuing the pursuit on side streets.
At one point, Walker slowed down and jumped out of the passenger side door before it came to a full stop. As Walker ran away from police, several officers simultaneously fired several bullets, fatally shooting him.
The officers involved in the shooting are on paid administrative leave, pending the outcome of the investigation being led by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, officials said.
His death has prompted weeks of protests across the city.
“Tomorrow, Jayland Walker, a beloved son, brother, nephew, and friend will be laid to rest,” said Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan on Tuesday. “I want to thank Akron City Council for passing this resolution declaring tomorrow a day of mourning, in support of Jayland’s family and friends and to respect them in their time of grief. I know our entire city is also grieving. I offer my sincerest condolences to Jayland’s mom, sister, family, and friends during this difficult time.”
The citywide day of mourning aims to address ongoing unrest concerning Walker’s death.
“The City encourages robust discussions about difficult topics and supports advocacy to change unjust laws, and supports those who press for meaningful change, by engaging their local, state, and federal legislatures,” the resolution to enact the honorary day reads.
In it, officials also call for peaceful protesting and healing throughout the community: “The City urges that the friends and family of Jayland Walker, and the entire Akron community, be surrounded with love and peace, and that the City would begin to heal.”
(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — Gavin Newsom has never been afraid to throw an elbow.
During the surge of the delta variant, California’s Democratic governor sat on the glossy sound stage of The Late Late Show with James Corden, surrounded by Christmas lights, and slammed Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis over what Newsom called his lax coronavirus policies.
“California’s example versus Florida? It’s not even close in terms out of the outcome if you care about life, and you care about the economy,” Newsom told Corden, adding later that “clearly” DeSantis is running for president to scoop up the Trump-aligned Republican vote, pointing to DeSantis’ policies as a “litmus test” to win attention from conservative-aligned news networks.
His criticism of DeSantis is one of many made over the course of the pandemic, but Newsom’s recent $105,000 advertising buy that ran in Florida, certainly an unusual move for a politician who is running a reelection campaign of his own, has spun the question of presidential aspirations toward Newsom.
During an interview with ABC News’ Zohreen Shah prior to the ad placement, Newsom, 54, insisted he had no White House ambitions, although several California-based political advisers told ABC News that claim doesn’t totally hold water, and the ad campaign was a fool-proof way to elevate his profile and test public appetite as Biden’s stock with Democrats continues to dive.
Picking a fight across state lines is “very vintage” Newsom, consistent with his appetite to be a part of the national conversation in elevating California above other states, said Jessica Levinson, a California-based legal expert and former president of the Los Angeles Ethics Commission.
“He’s always talking about California as a nation-state. And I think he fancies himself the executive of a nation-state in some ways. And he really wants to put a stake in the ground and say California is different and better and therefore, I am different and better,” said Levinson.
His vision of his state as a shining “city on a hill” is clear from his Florida ad, in which he urges residents of the Sunshine State to “join the fight” against Republican leaders or “join us in California, where we still believe in freedom,” a clear knock at DeSantis’ “free state of Florida” mantra.
Levinson said Newsom has a penchant for wanting to be a beat ahead, almost defiant, of national Democrats on key issues, as when he began issuing same-sex marriage licenses as mayor of San Fransisco in 2004 to the chagrin of conservatives, and testing the waters with a high-profile attack on DeSantis is part of that calculus.
“And if that means my political career ends, so be it,” Newsom said nearly a decade ago.
But that defiance propelled him to the governor’s mansion, and now, possibly, if the tide shifts in his direction, toward the White House.
The idea that Newsom wouldn’t run for president is “total bull—,” said Levinson, who explained that he likely sees himself as the kind of lawmaker who could “fill a leadership vacuum” if given the opportunity.
And members of Newsom’s party may be looking for candidates to fill that vacuum as well. New polling from The New York Times/Siena College shows that nearly three-quarters of the Democratic party want a new nominee at the top of the ticket. Even more bleak for the White House, 94% of Democrats under 30 said they’d prefer a fresh face.
Dan Schnur, a veteran strategist in California who worked on Sen. John McCain’s presidential bid and former Gov. Pete Wilson’s team, told ABC News that Newsom’s toe-dip into the national news-cycle is great political posturing, given the uncertainty of the Democratic leadership.
“Whether Newsom runs in two years, or in 2028, he’s now a part of that conversation. If Biden, 79, decides not to run again, Newsom is ready to pounce. And if Biden does run for reelection, Newsom certainly can lay the groundwork for four years after that,” Schnur said.
Biden has made it clear he intends to run for reelection with Vice President Kamala Harris by his side, but slipping approval numbers and concerns over age and health are determinate factors that, coupled from pressure from within his own party, could force him to reconsider.
Some of that pressure has come from Newsom himself. A day after Politico reported the contents of a leaked Supreme Court draft that would overturn Roe, Newsom slammed Democrats for not taking decisive action to codify access to abortion with a biting exclamation: “Where the hell is my party? Where’s the Democratic Party?”
“Why aren’t we standing up more firmly, more resolutely?,” Newsom questioned. “Why aren’t we calling this out? “This is a concerted, coordinated effort and yes, they’re winning. They are, they have been … We need to stand up, where is the counter offensive?”
And casting himself as a hero is what Newsom does best, said Rob Stutzman, a Republican strategist who worked for former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
“Where Newsom thrives is when he’s able to be in contrast to a Republican that he can lead a progressive coalition against,” said Stutzman. “He’s going to go after the guy he perceives as the Republican frontrunner.”
(NEW YORK) — When Jarvis Claiborne and his wife Renada were pre-approved for a mortgage in February, they were excited to start shopping for their first home in Houston, Texas. But that excitement quickly turned to shock and frustration as they realized they couldn’t compete with all-cash offers that were often tens of thousands of dollars above a home’s listing price.
“We really just weren’t willing to pay the prices that people were asking and that people were paying,” Jarvis Claiborne told ABC News. “Most of the houses, we didn’t even have a chance to bid on. As soon as they were coming on the market, they would just get snatched up.”
Jarvis Claiborne, who works in the oil and gas industry and Renada, a private investigator, decided to walk away from their home search in June, as mortgage rates climbed above 6%.
After two years of housing-hunting and getting outbid, often by all-cash offers, Tinesha Feiton, a single mom from Brooklyn, New York, is in contract to buy a three bedroom home in West Orange, New Jersey.
“It feels a little surreal,” Feiton told ABC News about finally having a seller accept her offer. An information technology consultant, Feiton is paying $46,000 above the asking price of $479,000.
“I still feel kind of worried because I’m just thinking to myself, well, is the house going to appraise for that value. You know, I don’t want my first home to actually be a lemon,” she said.
Feiton said it was important that she be settled in a home in time for her 5-year-old son Mason to start kindergarten in his new school this fall.
Record home prices and higher mortgage rates made May the most expensive month to buy a home since 2006, according to the National Association of Realtors’ Housing-Affordability Index. The index incorporates median existing-home prices, median family incomes and average mortgage rates. The median price of a home in the U.S. reached a record $407,600 in May, according to the NAR, as mortgage rates more than doubled since January to the highest level in 13 years.
That pushed the typical monthly mortgage payment to $1,842 in May, up from $1,297 in January, according to the NAR, assuming a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage and a 20% down payment. Despite the rising cost to finance a home, there are fresh signs that the housing market is slowly becoming more buyer-friendly.
Sales of previously owned homes fell in May for the fourth straight month as more buyers give up, pressuring sellers to cut asking prices. More than one in five homeowners dropped their asking price in May, according to the real estate brokerage Redfin, and for the first time in three years, Realtor.com said the number of homes for sale is on the rise, up 21% in June compared to a year ago.
The real estate firm’s Chief Economist, Danielle Hale, told ABC News there are two reasons for the rise in inventory.
“One, we’ve got more homeowners deciding that now is the time to sell their home, and the other reason is that buyers are getting a little bit choosier as the cost of housing goes up,” she said.
According to Redfin, bidding wars are slowing down and searches for “homes for sale” on Google are down nearly 14% from a year ago.
“A couple of months ago, it wasn’t unusual for a home to get 10 to 20 offers,” said Sarah Drennan, executive vice president at Terrie O’Connor Realtors in Northern New Jersey. “Now, they’re still getting a number of offers, but it’s less than 10.”
Mortgage applications sank 16% in June and are now less than half what they were a year ago, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association.
Drennan said a growing number of sellers now recognize new limits to their pricing power, as the days of sellers asking — and getting — their “make me move price” begin to fade.
“We’re not seeing a price reduction, we’re seeing just a deceleration of price increases,” said Drennan. “So prices are still increasing, just not at double digit rates like we were seeing just a few months ago.”
While home prices are still trending higher nationally, Realtor.com found that prices have begun falling in many smaller Rust Belt cities. In Toledo, Ohio, home prices plunged 18.7% in May. They sank 15.4% in Detroit and fell 13.4% in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Demand for second-homes is also showing signs of softening. Patty Magie has been selling homes in Pennsylvania’s lake region of the Pocono Mountains for 30 years. She told ABC News she never saw demand for housing like she did at the height of the pandemic.
“People were buying site unseen, waiving appraisals and home inspections,” she said.
Eager for more space to work and school remotely, Magie remembers giving buyers home tours via FaceTime as they chased a small number of available homes. That scenario is changing.
“The current inventory has doubled from what it was in March and April; however, it is still about a third of what it was three to four months ago. There have been more price reductions and fewer bidding wars,” she added.
Potential buyers who have given up their search in favor of renting aren’t finding much, if any, relief. In fact, in some markets, rental prices are outstripping the monthly cost of financing a home, according to Miller Samuel, Inc. The real estate appraiser reported the average rental price in Manhattan cracked a record $4,000 per month in June.
“It’s expensive and getting more expensive in the city,” Jonathan Miller, CEO of Miller Samuel, Inc., told ABC News. “It’s interesting because office towers are two-thirds empty in the city, but yet you’re still seeing record leasing activity for the residential rental market.”
Still, experts say for some buyers, timing the housing market for that “perfect price” could backfire.
“If you have more flexibility in your timeline, you may be able to wait it out and negotiate with sellers,” said Hale, “but keep in mind that mortgage rates are also still climbing so you may end up with a higher mortgage rate if it takes you longer to find a home.”
(NEW YORK) — A Manhattan bar agreed Wednesday to pay $500,000 to current and former employees who said managers called them “cows,” remarked on their underwear and used racial slurs to refer to colleagues of certain origin, according to the New York Attorney General’s Office.
The bar, Sweet and Vicious in the Nolita neighborhood, maintained what the attorney general’s office called “a hostile and discriminatory workplace” that subjected employees to sex discrimination, sexual and gender-based harassment and race and national origin discrimination.
The bar’s owner, Hakan Karamahmutoglu, was accused of making inappropriate comments regarding employees’ race, sexuality, bodies and appearances. Employees suffered unwelcomed sexual advances from managers and customers, according to the attorney general’s office.
“This settlement is a reminder that no matter the perpetrator, we will not tolerate sexual harassment, discrimination, or wage theft of any form in the workplace,” said Attorney General Letitia James. “For far too long, workers in the hospitality industry have been forced to weather a pervasive culture of sexual harassment and discrimination that has gone unreported.”
The agreement is the culmination of a 16-month investigation into allegations against Karamahmutoglu and Sweet and Vicious. Documents, records and interviews with current and former employees revealed a pervasive culture of discrimination and repeated pattern of harassment, the attorney general’s office said.
According to investigators, Karamahmutoglu routinely insulted female employees, calling them “b——” and “cows” and scrutinized their appearance, commenting on their bodies and clothing. Multiple female employees were sexually harassed by male managers who made unwanted sexual advances, including an instance of an employee announcing the color of a female bartender’s underwear and saying he wanted to engage her in a sexual manner as well as a manager repeatedly finding opportunities to rub himself up against a female employee.
Several female bartenders said they experienced frequent harassment by violent customers who would threaten to stab, rape and beat them.
“I wish I could say this was the first time I was harassed by my employer in the service industry, or even the first time I’ve received a settlement for nonpayment of wages. This case is emblematic of intersecting national problems: the subjugation of workers, and sexual harassment of women in the workplace,” said Veronica Leventhal, a former Sweet and Vicious employee. “Sweet and Vicious is not an anomaly — it is a prime example of how men with unchecked power take advantage of their employees.”
Karamahmutoglu allegedly called Black employees “gangsters” and referred to a Puerto Rican manager as a “terrorist” and “Puerto Rican trash.” The owner and managers also frequently used anti-gay slurs.
In addition to paying $500,000 to the workers, the agreement requires the revision of anti-discrimination and harassment training materials and the display and distribution of notices regarding anti-discrimination and harassment rights and responsibilities. Sweet and Vicious will also be subject to periodic monitoring and oversight, including the submission of reports to the attorney general’s office to certify compliance.
“The time that I spent working at Sweet and Vicious has reinforced traumas that I will undoubtedly spend years trying to overcome in therapy. It was, without a doubt, the most abusive company that I have ever had the misfortune of working for,” said a former Sweet and Vicious employee identified only as former employee No. 2. “The racial, sexual and gendered humiliation and degradation that myself and my coworkers silently endured is more than anyone should ever have to experience while trying to earn a livable wage.”
(PRETORIA, South Africa) — Three people have been arrested in connection with the mysterious deaths of 21 teenagers at a popular nightclub in South Africa, authorities said Wednesday.
According to a statement from the South African Police Service, the 52-year-old owner of the Enyobeni Tavern as well as two employees, aged 33 and 34, were taken into custody over the weekend and on Tuesday afternoon by a team of detectives investigating the incident in Scenery Park, a suburb on the edge of the coastal city of East London in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province. The names of the suspects were not released.
Police said the arrests were made after the Eastern Cape Liquor Board opened a criminal case against the Enyobeni Tavern for allegedly selling alcohol to minors. Investigators subsequently issued fines of 2,000 South African rand (about $118) to the two employees and served a summons to the owner for his immediate arrest and appearance in a court of law, according to police.
The owner is scheduled to appear in East London Magistrate Court on Aug. 19. Each of the employees were given an option to pay the fine; but should they fail to do so, they will be required to appear in the same court on the same day, police said.
What caused the deaths of the 21 teens — 12 girls and nine boys — remains unknown. They were found at the Enyobeni Tavern in Scenery Park in the predawn hours of June 26. Seventeen of the victims were pronounced dead at the scene, while four others died when they were hospitalized or being transported to hospitals, according to police.
Police said the victims ranged in age from 13 to 17 — all under South Africa’s legal drinking age of 18.
The local government, the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality, held a mass funeral for the victims in East London last week. Thousands of people attended the symbolic service, including South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, who gave the eulogy for the young victims. The bodies were buried in private ceremonies at various cemeteries.
Toxicology reports were still pending as of Wednesday. A stampede has been ruled out because the bodies did not show any serious injuries, according to police.
Police have declined to comment on possible causes of deaths or the circumstances surrounding the incident, citing the ongoing investigation.
“Just as we said in the beginning, investigation is a process and needs to be treated with extreme care and wisdom so that we can achieve the desired outcomes which all of us will be proud of,” the South African Police Service’s commissioner for Eastern Cape province, Lt. Gen. Nomthetheleli Mene, said in a statement Wednesday. “This is the beginning of the great work we are doing behind the scene.”
The Daily Dispatch, a South African newspaper published in East London, reported that the teens were attending a party at the Enyobeni Tavern to celebrate the end of June school exams. Their bodies were reportedly found strewn across tables, chairs and the dance floor with no visible signs of injuries.
A 22-year-old Scenery Park resident, Sibongile Mtsewu, told ABC News that he was at the Enyobeni Tavern when the deadly incident unfolded. He said he was ordering drinks at the crowded club when suddenly the doors were closed and some type of chemical agent, such as tear gas or pepper spray, was released into the air.
“There was no way out,” Mtsewu told ABC News in a telephone interview earlier this month. “There was no chance to breathe.”
(NEW YORK) — Treyvon Murphy, a 40-year-old homeless man, was arrested Wednesday in connection with a series of stabbings targeting homeless people in Manhattan, according to the New York City Police Department.
Murphy was spotted by a passerby sitting at a bus stop on 125th Street in Harlem, near St. Nicholas Park, early Wednesday. As police approached him, he started to amble away, but officers caught up with him and he was taken into custody without incident, according to police.
When he was apprehended, the suspect was dressed in the same neon sneakers and gray backpack worn during all three stabbing incidents. He was also wearing a black hoodie with “Innocence Project” written on it, which footage shows he was wearing during two of the three stabbings, police said during a press conference.
Murphy was also in possession of a knife when he was taken into custody and identified himself to investigators in still images related to the attacks, according to police.
“I want to thank the commissioner and her team for apprehending a dangerous person that assaulted our vulnerable New Yorkers. It really highlights how imperative it is to move people into safe spaces, into shelters and eventually into permanent housing,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams said during a press conference Wednesday.
As detectives had suspected, Murphy appeared to be homeless. He provided a last known address of a hotel in Queens that is housing the homeless, according to NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell.
The suspect has a prior drug conviction in Tennessee, for which he was on probation. Officials said he violated that probation and is wanted on an outstanding warrant for that violation. Tennessee will be extraditing the suspect for the active warrant, police said.
Murphy was also released on his own recognizance after stabbing his roommate in Queens in April and was due back in court on July 22, according to Sewell.
“This man was praying on the vulnerable and we are thankful for the combined effort to apprehend this subject quickly and safely,” Sewell said during the press conference.
Police said the investigation is still ongoing and the suspect is being questioned by police. Police have not yet worked out a motive for the attacks and charges have yet to be filed against the man.
The suspect was wanted in connection with the fatal stabbing of a 34-year-old homeless man on July 5 and for the stabbing of two other men experiencing homelessness in the last few days, police said.
A 59-year-old man was stabbed in the stomach in midtown Manhattan on Friday; on Monday, a 28-year-old man was also stabbed in the stomach at a park in the city’s Upper East Side neighborhood. Both men were taken to area hospitals and are in stable condition, police said.
All three men were asleep at the time of the attacks. The NYPD said they have video and photos of the suspected stabber at all three locations near the times of the stabbings, WABC reported.
The 28-year-old victim told authorities that he recognized the suspect, referring to the person as “Delly,” WABC reported.
It’s not yet clear how much the pandemic has impacted the number of unhoused people in the U.S.
ABC News’ Kiara Alfonseca contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Mexico on Tuesday agreed to contribute $1.5 billion to a joint initiative with the U.S. to improve infrastructure along the U.S.-Mexico border, according to a person familiar with the commitment.
The agreement came on the same day President Joe Biden hosted his Mexican counterpart, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, for a meeting in the Oval Office.
Part of their discussions were expected to include a commitment from the two countries to carry out “a multi-year, joint, U.S.-Mexico border infrastructure modernization effort for projects along the 2,000 mile border,” a senior Biden administration official told reporters on Monday ahead of the meeting.
The infrastructure project is intended to improve processing and security along the border, the person familiar with the agreement said.
Biden alluded to Mexico’s investment in remarks alongside López Obrador before their meeting, saying, “We’re also making historic investments in infrastructure modernization across our 2,000-mile border with Mexico.”
He noted the $1.2 trillion infrastructure law he championed last year was “delivering $3.4 billion to major construction projects at the ports of entry between our two countries to make our border safer and more efficient for people, trade and commerce.”
“And the American people should know, Mr. President,” Biden told López Obrador, “that you’re also making a significant investment on your side of the border to improve infrastructure to meet the needs of our times and the future.”
The collaboration signifies something of a reset between Mexico and the U.S., as Biden tries to distance himself from the Trump administration’s contentious relationship with Mexico.
In 2019, then-President Donald Trump threatened to impose tariffs on Mexican imports “until Mexico substantially stops the illegal inflow of aliens coming through its territory.”
When Trump launched his presidential campaign in 2015, he promised: “I will build a great, great wall on our southern border. And I will have Mexico pay for that wall.”
It was a promise he repeated time and time again throughout his run and his presidency, ultimately building more than 450 miles of new wall with money that had originally been allocated to the Pentagon. But the project ended when Trump was voted out of office; Mexico never paid for any of it.
When asked to comment on the commitment, a White House official said, “Core to the prior administration’s immigration strategy was to build a wall, and they couldn’t even accomplish that in four years, let alone get Mexico to pay for it. By contrast, President Biden is taking unprecedented action to secure the border.”
Still, Biden has faced political roadblocks in implementing his immigration agenda.
Although the Supreme Court ruled in favor of allowing him to end “Remain in Mexico” — a Trump-era immigration policy that made more than 70,000 migrants wait in Mexico as their asylum claims were processed in the U.S. — another Trump policy, Title 42, has prevented hundreds of thousands of migrants from accessing the asylum system citing increased public health risk due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Wednesday arrives in the Middle East for the first time as president, visiting Israel, the occupied West Bank and Saudi Arabia in a trip centered on encouraging the growing ties between Israel and Arab countries, while resetting his administration’s relationship with Saudi Arabia.
Coming as his administration has focused on countering China’s rise in Asia and uniting Europe against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Biden’s visit underscores the volatile region’s strategic importance to U.S. foreign policy and the global economy, analysts told ABC News.
From Biden’s highly-anticipated meeting with Saudi Arabia’s de-facto leader, to his efforts to address high gas prices at home and reaffirm the U.S. commitment to Israel’s security, here are seven things to watch on the trip this week.
A Saudi reset?
As a presidential candidate, Biden vowed to make oil-rich Saudi Arabia a “pariah” state over the 2018 murder of Saudi dissident and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi – an operation U.S. intelligence agencies later concluded was authorized by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who is also known as “MBS” and who effectively runs the Gulf nation.
Biden also pledged to “reassess” the traditionally close U.S.-Saudi alliance, amid calls from families of Sept. 11 attack victims to hold the kingdom “accountable” for links to the hijackers behind the terror attacks – and a push from within his own party to pressure Saudi Arabia to end its intervention in Yemen’s civil war, which according to the United Nations has led to one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world.
Since taking office, Biden has spoken twice with King Salman, the crown prince’s father, who officially rules the country.
But he had also dispatched Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to serve as his administration’s point of contact with the crown prince, in what was widely perceived as a snub to the powerful Saudi leader.
Relations between the two countries reached a low point last spring when the Wall Street Journal reported that Prince Mohammed and his Emirati counterpart declined to schedule a phone call with Biden over frustrations with U.S. policy in the region. (The White House at the time told reporters there were “no rebuffed calls.”)
On Saturday, Biden plans to attend a summit of Arab leaders in Jeddah, a meeting that the crown prince will also attend, though it’s not yet clear how the two leaders will interact or engage.
The White House has said that Prince Mohammed is expected to attend a bilateral meeting Biden will hold with King Salman and the king’s “leadership team” on Friday. But U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Monday declined to say if the public would see Biden and the crown prince shake hands.
Oil, Ukraine force Biden’s hand, experts say
Several experts told ABC News the rapprochement between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia was inevitable, given the kingdom’s influence in the region – and its status as one of the world’s largest oil producers at a time when gas prices have skyrocketed and the West has attempted to boycott Russian oil.
“Without the Ukraine war, there would be a lot less focus [on Saudi Arabia]. There’s no question about it,” Dr. Gregory Gause, a Saudi Arabia expert and head of Department of International Affairs at The George Bush School of Government and Public Service at Texas A&M University, told ABC News.
Biden has defended his approach, writing in an op-ed for The Washington Post published Saturday that “my aim was to reorient — but not rupture — relations with a country that’s been a strategic partner for 80 years.”
“As president, it is my job to keep our country strong and secure,” he wrote. “We have to counter Russia’s aggression, put ourselves in the best possible position to outcompete China, and work for greater stability in a consequential region of the world.
“To do these things,” he continued, “we have to engage directly with countries that can impact those outcomes. Saudi Arabia is one of them, and when I meet with Saudi leaders on Friday, my aim will be to strengthen a strategic partnership going forward that’s based on mutual interests and responsibilities, while also holding true to fundamental American values.”
Will the Saudi visit itself lower gas prices? Probably not, experts say
Biden plans to attend a summit of leaders from the Gulf Cooperation Council, a union of Arab states, who will also be joined by the leaders from Egypt, Iraq, and Jordan; the grouping is being referred to as the “GCC+3.”
Sullivan said Monday the White House believes the oil-producing Gulf states have “a capacity for further steps that could be taken” to increase oil output, although he would not say if Biden planned to ask Saudi Arabia and the other countries to raise production by a certain amount.
Experts have told ABC News that it is not clear that Saudi Arabia could really do much to impact gas prices in the U.S., which have already started dropping in recent weeks — as demand falls off — from record $5 per gallon averages.
“There are things the Saudis can do,” Gause, the expert on Saudi Arabia, said. “But I don’t think that even if they really opened the spigots, it would bring prices down to, you know, where they were… in the midst of COVID.”
Amy Meyers Jaffe, the managing director of the Climate Policy Lab at The Fletcher School at Tufts University, said it’s most important to ensure “that the supply that’s already in the market stays in the market.”
“Part of that is engaging with the producers of the Middle East, because it’s not clear to me how much more they can all produce,” she told ABC News.
In fact, French President Emmanuel Macron was reportedly overheard last month telling Biden that the United Arab Emirates was already at “maximum” production capacity, and that the Saudis could only increase output by a relatively small 150,000 barrels per day in the short term.
A new Middle East?
When Biden first visited Israel nearly 50 years ago, the country was at war with much of the Arab world.
Now, following several peace agreements brokered by the Trump administration known as the Abraham Accords, Israel has diplomatic ties with the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco — in addition to existing peace treaties with Jordan and Egypt.
Israel, Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf states share a mutual enemy in Iran: Israel considers Iran’s nuclear program an existential threat, while the country’s ballistic missiles and regional proxies have targeted Saudi and Emirati oil infrastructure.
While a major diplomatic breakthrough isn’t expected on this trip, Biden’s visit could help move Saudi Arabia and Israel toward normalized relations and greater coordination on regional security — at a time when renewed negotiations to limit Iran’s nuclear program have stalled.
“The region is watching to see how far the Saudis are willing to go,” Jacob Walles, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace who served as U.S. ambassador to Tunisia, told ABC News.
Walles said that while Saudi Arabia’s crown prince has signaled support for inching closer to Israel, significant diplomatic progress could take time, given Saudi public opinion and opposition to Israel.
The 86-year-old King Salman would also likely “limit” any breakthrough with Israel absent progress in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, which has traditionally been a sticking point in relations between Israel and its neighbors, Walles said.
In his Washington Post op-ed, Biden noted that he will be the first U.S. president to fly from Israel to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, describing it as a “small symbol” of the deepening ties between Israel and the Arab world.
“The Israelis believe it’s really important that I make the trip,” Biden told reporters at a press conference last month.
Walking a fine line on human rights
As Biden pursues rapprochement with Saudi Arabia and a strong relationship with Israel, he must balance economic and security interests with human rights concerns.
The U.S. has walked a fine line in the wake of the death of Palestinian American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, a well known Al Jazeera correspondent killed in May while covering an Israeli military raid in the occupied West Bank.
During her funeral, Israeli police beat mourners and pallbearers — drawing widespread, global condemnation.
The State Department said on July 4 that after reviewing U.S. and Palestinian investigations into Abu Akleh’s death, it found that Israeli military gunfire likely killed her — but that it “found no reason to believe that this was intentional but rather the result of tragic circumstances.”
Asked if Biden planned to press Israeli officials on the case during his visit, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that “we want to see accountability.”
But Abu Akleh’s brother wrote in a letter to Biden late last week that “your administration’s engagement has served to whitewash Shireen’s killing and perpetuate impunity,” Reuters reported. He asked for Biden to meet with his family while in the region.
Meanwhile, Khashoggi’s 2018 murder was the reason Biden pledged to make Saudi Arabia a “pariah,” but the White House has repeatedly declined to say whether the president will even bring it up with the crown prince when he meets with him.
Biden constantly argues that the world is at an inflection point between democracy and autocracy, and his trip to Saudi Arabia shows that democracies may feel forced to kowtow to autocratic nations when economic and security interests are at stake.
“For an American president to go to [Saudi Arabia] is very, very humiliating,” Hossein Askari, an economist and Professor Emeritus of International Business and International Affairs at George Washington University, told ABC News.
“Maybe the American people don’t see that,” he continued. “But in the eyes of dictators around the world, and in the eyes of the Middle East, people will be laughing.”
What about the peace process?
The Abraham Accords between Israel and several Arab nations are one of the few foreign policies pursued by President Donald Trump that Biden has praised.
But the agreements cast aside longstanding doctrine that elevated the Palestinian issue in any normalization talks with Israel, cutting the Palestinians themselves out of talks — although the Arab nations did seek concessions from Israel favorable to the Palestinians.
Experts do not expect any breakthroughs in Israeli-Palestinian relations this week – nor has the Biden administration telegraphed any expected developments.
There have been, though, reports of discussions over Saudi Arabia allowing Israeli planes to fly over its territory — and U.S.-backed diplomacy aimed at resolving an international dispute over islands in the Red Sea.
And the Biden administration has reversed several Trump policies that downgraded the U.S. relationship with the Palestinians — such as resuming funding for a U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees — although he has not delivered on a promise to reopen an American consulate in Jerusalem for Palestinians that Trump closed. Other Palestinian desires – reopening an office in Washington and resolving other funding issues — are subject to congressional action that has not materialized, according to Michael Koplow, the chief policy officer of Israel Policy Forum.
Israel’s unstable political dynamics have also worked to lower expectations for the peace process on the trip, experts told ABC News — adding uncertainty and diverting attention from the U.S. commander-in-chief’s trip among Israelis.
The country will hold its fifth election in four years in November, following the collapse of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s fragile governing coalition — a mix of right wing, centrist, liberal and Arab parties with little in common besides a shared opposition to former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The right-wing leader, a fixture in Israeli politics for decades, could make his way back into power as prime minister this fall, despite his ongoing corruption trial.
In Israel during the campaign season, Biden will meet with interim Prime Minister Yair Lapid — a moderate serving in the role through the next election — and is expected to meet with other key leaders on the trip, including Netanyahu.
He will also meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, and is expected to visit a hospital catering to Palestinian patients, as his administration reverses the Trump administration’s decision to cut off hundreds of millions of dollars in aid to Palestinians.
Yemen war a major focus
Yemen’s civil war has paused for the last four months as the result of a negotiated truce.
It’s the longest ceasefire in the nearly eight-year war that caused what the United Nations has labeled the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.
Saudi Arabia has led a coalition that has backed Yemen’s government in its fight against a rebel group called the Houthis, who are backed by Iran. The U.S. has supported Saudi Arabia’s involvement, which has relied heavily on airstrikes.
Biden had ended offensive weapons sales to Saudi Arabia, though, over its handling of the war, and accused the kingdom of “murdering children” in Yemen as a presidential candidate.
While Sullivan told ABC News Monday that that ban would remain for now, the White House has in recent weeks praised Prince Mohammed’s role in bringing about the ongoing ceasefire as it works to improve relations with Saudi Arabia.
White House officials have said the war in Yemen will be a major focus for Biden while he visits Saudi Arabia – but human rights advocates and members of his own party have called on him to speak out more forcefully against Saudi involvement in the conflict while he’s in the region.
The battery to a Tesla Model s Plaid on display. – Munro Live, Munro & Associates
(NEW YORK) — The intense heat hitting most of the nation is already invoking warnings about power outages and health impacts.
But there is also another danger posed to drivers, as record temperatures lead to a greater risk of battery failure and degradation, according to engineers.
“Batteries are like humans, they don’t like high heat or low heat,” Anna Stefanopoulou, the William Clay Ford professor of technology at the University of Michigan, told ABC News. “The best temperature is the one humans are comfortable with.”
While there is little drivers can do to contain their cars’ temperatures during heat waves, Stefanopoulou and other experts who have been studying the advances in car technology told ABC News that manufacturers are hard at work finding new ways to beat the rising heat.
Stefanopoulou said that manufacturers constantly put their batteries to the limit during the testing phase since their vehicles are sold all over the world. Even though the batteries can withstand extreme benchmarks, she said there is only so much reliability within the laws of chemistry and engineering.
For example, if a car’s internal temperature reaches above 45 degrees Celsius, or 115 degrees Fahrenheit, the battery is prone to more wear and decreases the life of the cell, she said. Driving in those conditions will also test the limits of the battery, according to Stefanopoulou.
“High-temperature conditions are problematic because it affects the range. Some of the battery will go to keeping the AC … and that drains the battery,” she said.
This week, some parts of the country, including Palm Springs, Las Vegas and Phoenix, will see high temperatures above 110 degrees, according to the forecast.
Heat is a bigger issue when it comes to electric vehicles, which rely entirely on the power of the battery. EV batteries and systems have measures in place to prevent them from puckering under extreme temperatures, according to experts.
Cory Steuben, the president of the Michigan-based engineering consulting firm Munro & Associates, told ABC News that many EV manufacturers are using new types of batteries with thermal management.
The new batteries, such as ones with cylindrical, prismatic and pouch form factors, are engineered to keep the heat within the cell from rising too much.
“These are expensive, complex, very well-controlled machines,” Steuben, whose firm has acquired, taken apart and analyzed parts of several EVs, told ABC News.
He noted that EVs also have additional technologies to keep the car cool, particularly Teslas. The company’s models are equipped with data tracking that keeps an eye on the battery’s temperature, the ambient temperature and the temperatures of its charging stations, according to Steuben.
The car’s alert system has the option to tell a driver when and where to stop to recharge the car to prevent overheating while they’re on the road, Steuben said.
“Imagine if you had a 1980 Ford Bronco with a regular car battery. No one knows what is going on in your car and where it goes. Now we have the technology to constantly monitor the battery and make changes as you drive,” he said.
At the same time, Steuben said that some manufacturers have implemented new tech to keep batteries cool. BMW, for example, has opted to place the battery in the trunk instead of the engine to reduce the heat, he said.
“It requires an expensive cable, but it is a better climate-controlled environment,” Steuben said of the trunk. “It’s essentially the same temperature as the cabin.”
Other methods include cooling systems that pump liquid coolant throughout the engine to keep it from overheating, he said.
Stefanopoulou said the best solution for motorists is to park their vehicle in the shade or, if possible, in a location with a controlled climate — like an indoor garage.
For EVs, she recommended owners charge the car during hot days because those chargers and batteries have safeguards to prevent overheating.
Stefanopoulou acknowledged that the method can lead to bigger problems as it will tax power grids during a high heat event.
“It’s a self-propagating problem,” she said. “The higher the temperatures, the more energy we need to use to cool our vehicles. And that energy is lost and that will heat the environment.”
“That’s why it’s crucial that we continue to improve the battery technology and the power grid,” she added.
