(WASHINGTON) — A U.S. military drone strike in northwest Syria has killed the top ISIS leader in Syria, U.S. Central Command said Tuesday.
The drone strike is the latest in a series of operations targeting terrorist leaders who have found refuge in a region of the country controlled by rebel forces affiliated with Islamic extremists groups.
U.S. Central Command said in a statement that the strike occurred on Tuesday outside of Jindayris in northwest Syria targeting two senior ISIS leaders.
“Maher al-Agal, one of the top five ISIS leaders and the leader of ISIS in Syria, was killed in the strike,” said the statement.
“A senior ISIS official closely associated with Maher was seriously injured during the strike,” it added. “Extensive planning went into this operation to ensure its successful execution. An initial review indicates there were no civilian casualties.”
Al-Agal was also described as “aggressively pursuing the development of ISIS networks outside of Iraq and Syria.”
“This strike reaffirms CENTCOM’s steadfast commitment to the region and the enduring defeat of ISIS,” said Col. Joe Buccino, a CENTCOM spokesperson. “The removal of these ISIS leaders will disrupt the terrorist organization’s ability to further plot and carry out global attacks.”
The strike is the latest in a series of U.S. military operations in northwest Syria over the past month targeting the leaders of Islamic terrorist groups who have found refuge in a corner of Syria still controlled by rebel forces belonging to Islamic extremist groups.
On June 15, a rare ground raid into northwest Syria carried out by elite special operations forces captured a Hani Ahmed al-Kurdi, a senior ISIS leader involved in actively planning ISIS operations.
Two weeks later, a drone strike killed Abu Hamzah al Yemeni, a senior leader of an al-Qaida-affiliated terrorist group, officials said.
“ISIS continues to represent a threat to the U.S. and partners in the region,” said Buccino, the CENTCOM spokesman.
“CENTCOM maintains a sufficient and sustainable presence in the region and will continue to counter threats against regional security,” the spokesman said.
(WASHINGTON) — First lady Jill Biden apologized Tuesday through her spokesperson after receiving public backlash for saying in a speech Monday that Latinos are “as unique as breakfast tacos.”
Spokesperson Michael LaRosa tweeted a brief apology on Tuesday morning following an onslaught of criticism from conservatives and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists.
“The First Lady apologizes that her words conveyed anything but pure admiration and love for the Latino community,” the tweet read.
The First Lady apologizes that her words conveyed anything but pure admiration and love for the Latino community.
Biden’s invocation of breakfast tacos came at the UnidosUS annual conference, titled “Siempre Adelante: Our Quest for Equity,” in San Antonio on Monday evening, while speaking to the nation’s largest Latino civil rights and advocacy group.
The first lady noted in her remarks that the group’s longtime leader, Raul Yzaguirre, had “helped build this organization with the understanding that the diversity of this community — as distinct as the bodegas of the Bronx, as beautiful as the blossoms of Miami, and as unique as the breakfast tacos here in San Antonio — is your strength.”
Republicans pounced on social media, saying she was comparing Latinos to tacos, and the National Association of Hispanic Journalists also clapped back, sending a message to the first lady to “not reduce us to stereotypes.”
NAHJ encourages @FLOTUS & her communications team to take time to better understand the complexities of our people & communities.
We are not tacos.
Our heritage as Latinos is shaped by various diasporas, cultures & food traditions.
“NAHJ encourages @FLOTUS & her communications team to take time to better understand the complexities of our people & communities. We are not tacos. Our heritage as Latinos is shaped by various diasporas, cultures & food traditions. Do not reduce us to stereotypes,” it said.
Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida responded by changing his Twitter profile picture to an image of a taco and tweeting, “#NewProfilePic.”
But Janet Murguía, the current president and CEO of UnidosUS, tweeted after Biden’s speech that the group was “honored” to host her, calling her “a great educator in, and a great amiga to, our community for years,” and adding she was, “Privileged to call her a friend.”
The analogy and apology from the first lady come at a time with President Joe Biden and Democrats are seeking to reach out to Hispanic voters ahead of the midterm elections and ahead of Biden meeting Tuesday with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador at the White House.
(NAPLES, Italy) — An American tourist fell into Mount Vesuvius, an active volcano in Italy, after trespassing to take a selfie, officials said.
The 23-year-old man, who dropped his phone and tried to retrieve it after the selfie, fell several meters into the ash of the crater before being saved by nearby park officials on Saturday.
He sustained only minor injuries, officials said.
The man, who has not been named, allegedly walked on an unauthorized path to reach the summit of Mount Vesuvius at 1,281 meters, according to a spokesperson from the Carabinieri of the Forestry department of the Park of Vesuvius.
The spokesperson told ABC News he believes the man went on the unmarked path because tickets for visiting Vesuvius, which cost $2,500 per day, were all booked.
The man had come to the opposite side of the crater, where visitors are not permitted, the spokesperson said.
At around 3 p.m., local news sources reported the park’s volcanological guides had spotted some people on the upper part of the crater, an area forbidden for solo access.
The guides immediately started moving toward the area and were able to come to the man’s rescue after seeing him attempt to retrieve his cellphone, according to Carabinieri’s spokesperson.
The guides also performed first aid on the man’s minor injuries to his legs, arms and back.
According to Carabinieri’s spokesperson, two other Americans, two Brits and one Austrian were with the American man who fell.
Some local sources have reported that there were three family members with him, but the spokesperson believes only one of the other Americans is related to the man who fell.
The Branch of Carabinieri arrived at the scene after the man was rescued, taking him and the others into custody. They were charged with encroachment on public land or land for public use, Italian news reported.
The president of the Volcano Vesuvius Permanent Presidium and Figav-Confesercenti, Paolo Cappelli, told the Corriere Della Sera that he was grateful for the guides’ work.
“[The guides] are always on the crater to safeguard the safety of tourists. So, recognizing the promptness and professionalism shown on this occasion as well seemed the right thing to do,” Cappelli said.
“Having spoken directly with those who provided the rescue, I can safely say that last Saturday on Mount Vesuvius they saved a human life. I officially thank the whole group of guides belonging to the Presidio Permanente Vulcano Vesuvio, always ready and operational in any condition,” Cappelli added.
A spokesperson from the Carabinieri of the Forestry department of the Park of Vesuvius told ABC News that the man could have fallen 300 meters if he wasn’t stopped by the nearby guides.
He said that on the opposite side of the crater, where visitors are permitted, there are barriers around the opening, but where this man was there were none.
According to the spokesperson, it is extremely rare that visitors stray from the authorized path.
He added that he does not think any kind of legal action will be taken against the man, except for a fine.
(TOKYO) — Crowds gathered on Tuesday to pay respects and lay flowers near former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s private funeral at Zojoji temple in Tokyo.
Abe was shot and killed in Nara on Friday while campaigning for a Liberal Democratic Party candidate.
Officials identified the gunman as 41-year-old Tetsuya Yamagami. Police are still investigating possible motives, but so far Yamagami has told the police he had “a grudge” against a “certain group.” But the authorities haven’t identified the organization or explained its connection to Abe.
The assassination — which was carried out using a homemade gun that police said may have been built by following an online tutorial — has shocked the nation. Gun use is strictly prohibited in Japan without a license, which are limited to hunting, sport or industrial purposes.
“Mr. Abe is one of the greatest prime ministers in Japan’s history. A lot of people look up to him. We are so sad that we lost him,” Shinki Kitaoka, who stood in a crowd in front of the Zojoji temple to commemorate Abe, told ABC News.
When asked about the apparent murder of the leader, Kitaoka said, “Everybody around me, all of my friends and family are shocked. The day I heard the news I just started crying immediately. It was so shocking.”
Yutaka Takeda, another onlooker who came to see the ex-prime minister off, described the shock he felt after the news broke last Friday as being similar to the shock he felt when he heard of U.S. President John F. Kennedy’s assassination in 1963.
“Almost everyone here in Japan is experiencing deep sorrow,” Yutaka said.
A limited number of family members and those who were close to the former prime minister attended the temple funeral, according to Japanese media.
“I have lost my brother. But at the same time, Japan has lost an irreplaceable leader,” Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi, Abe’s brother, said in a statement, calling the assassination an “act of terrorism.”
“You were supposed to be the one giving the memorial address at my funeral. I enjoyed going often to drink and play golf together,” Deputy Prime Minister Taro Aso said in his memorial address.
Abe’s body was carried in a hearse from the temple and through the streets of Tokyo. Mourners lined the roadway and deeply bowed as the motorcade passed by.
The hearse made brief stops at the former leader’s Liberal Democratic Party headquarters, the prime minister’s office, and the parliament building, before arriving at the Kirigaya Funeral Hall, where Abe would be cremated.
ABC News’ Anthony Trotter, Hakyung Kate Lee, Eunseo Nam and Hyerim Lee contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, ending nearly five decades of a precedent that protected the constitutional right to an abortion, there has been a lot of public debate and confusion over what constitutes an abortion and what is considered legal.
Emergency contraceptive medications such as Plan B, also known as the morning-after pill, taken to prevent pregnancy after unprotected intercourse, have also been falsely interpreted by some as a form of abortion.
With no exact consensus, some states have defined “life” as beginning at conception or fertilization — the moment egg meets sperm. Meanwhile, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) — the nation’s leading physician group for OB-GYNs — says complex medical concepts are being “misused” by state legislators.
“Conception and pregnancy are not the same thing,” said Dr. Elizabeth Schmidt, assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology and director of family planning at North Shore University Hospital in New York. “Conception is not a medically recognized term.”
But doctors say the debate about when life begins shouldn’t have any bearing on Plan B, which works to stop pregnancy even earlier in the process — before fertilization, or conception.
What is Plan B?
Plan B is a progesterone hormone, which prevents ovulation or the release of an egg when taken at the appropriate time. This effectively prevents fertilization or the meeting of the sperm and egg for pregnancy. If taken after ovulation has already occurred, Plan B has no effect and there is no evidence that it harms an already established pregnancy, according to ACOG.
“Pregnant people make progesterone, and Plan B is a type of progesterone, so it makes sense that it would have no effect on a developing embryo,” Schmidt told ABC News.
Why is it confused with abortion?
Some of the confusion may stem from the Food and Drug Administration’s own website, which explains that Plan B “may prevent a fertilized egg from attaching to the womb (implantation).” The problem, experts say, is that this description is not accurate.
When the FDA first approved emergency contraception back in the late 1990s, it wasn’t totally clear how the pills prevented pregnancy, said Susan F. Wood, Ph.D., George Washington University professor and former director of the FDA’s Office of Women’s Health.
Now, she said, “new evidence [that has] been around for about 10 years now has shown that actually, Plan B works, probably essentially only through that first mechanism — blocking ovulation.”
Still, the FDA’s statement has been interpreted by some to imply abortion, resulting in objections to Plan B.
How does Plan B work?
“When used as emergency contraception, Plan B only affects ovulation,” Schmidt said. “Studies have failed to show any effect from levonorgestrel on the uterine lining when used as a one-time dose in emergency contraception.”
In a 2001 study published in Contraception, scientists looked at 45 women who were treated with short-term levonorgestrel administration — the same hormone found in Plan B — and observed no impairment in the lining of the uterus whether levonorgestrel was administered around or after ovulation. Previous studies on monkeys and rats have also failed to show a significant effect of the levonorgestrel hormone on uterine lining to prevent the implantation of a fertilized egg.
Taken collectively, this evidence suggests Plan B works primarily on the first step in the process — preventing the body from releasing an egg in the first place, or ovulating.
If the body has already released an egg prior to taking Plan B, the drug does not stop an egg from meeting sperm, and it does nothing to prevent a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus.
Wood said given the current legal environment, the FDA should consider updating the language on its website “to pull Plan B out of the line of fire” from anti-abortion groups.
When reached for comment by ABC News, an FDA spokesperson did not comment directly on the language on its website but emphasized that “emergency contraception is used to reduce the chance of pregnancy after unprotected sex.”
“Plan B is an extremely safe medication and there are no medical contraindications to its use. It is safer than Tylenol — which is sold over the counter without restriction,” Schmidt said.
Although contraception currently remains legal throughout the U.S., the growing abortion restrictions in the country are now bringing some forms of contraception into question.
In his concurring opinion on the overturning of Roe v. Wade, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas wrote that in the future, the court should reconsider other “demonstrably erroneous” precedents, including the 1965 ruling in Griswold v. Connecticut, which protects the right of married couples to buy and use contraception without government restriction.
“Limiting access to any medical care can have disastrous effects on communities,” Schmidt said. “It has been shown that states with restricted access to abortion also have higher rates of maternal and infant mortality. The situation is going to get even worse by prohibiting access to emergency contraception and abortion, which will disproportionately affect the most vulnerable and disadvantaged.”
Dr. Esra Demirel is a fellow in Minimally Invasive Gynecologic Surgery at NYU Langone Health and is a contributor to the ABC News Medical Unit.
ABC News’ Anne Flaherty contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — A French-based pharmaceutical company announced Monday that it has asked the Food and Drug Administration to sell over-the-counter birth control pills in the U.S., making it the first business to file an official application.
Perrigo’s HRA Pharma said it hopes that regulatory approval comes early next year.
“This historic application marks a groundbreaking moment in contraceptive access and reproductive equity,” Frédérique Welgryn, chief strategic operations and innovation officer at HRA Pharma, said in a statement.
“More than 60 years ago, prescription birth control pills in the U.S. empowered women to plan if and when they want to get pregnant,” Welgryn said. “Moving a safe and effective prescription birth control pill to OTC will help even more women and people access contraception without facing unnecessary barriers.”
Currently, hormone-based birth control pills require a doctor’s prescription because of health concerns such as blood clotting in some women. But most doctors say the risk is minimal for the vast majority of the population and note that pregnancy can carry its own significant health risks.
Reproductive rights advocates say an over-the-counter pill would make it easier for women without access to health care to obtain contraceptives.
“In the wake of the overturn of Roe v. Wade, we must pull out all the stops to make it easier and more affordable for everyone to secure contraception and take bold steps to protect women by ensuring that health — not politics — guides medical decisions,” said Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat.
The FDA did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 65.3% of women aged 15 to 49 use contraception, with 14% taking pills.
The move comes weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, which granted people a constitutional right to an abortion for nearly 50 years.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell had said it was a relief, calling Roe v. Wade “one of the most egregious legal and moral mistakes of the 20th century.”
The fallout from Roe’s reversal has many people worried that the Supreme Court will overturn other constitutionally protected rights.
In his concurrent opinion, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas called for the court to reconsider other cases, including Griswold v. Connecticut, which gave married couples the right to use contraception.
He also asked the court to reconsider Lawrence v. Texas, which protects the right to same-sex romantic relationships; and Obergefell v. Hodges, which establishes the right to same-sex marriage.
“In future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell. Because any substantive due process decision is “demonstrably erroneous,” we have a duty to “correct the error” established in those precedents,” Thomas wrote.
ABC News’ Kiara Alfonseca contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Health officials are once again raising the alarm about the threat of a resurgence of COVID-19 infections across the country, as concerns grow about the new omicron subvariant, BA.5, which is now the dominant viral strain in the U.S.
The BA.5 variant, first detected in South Africa earlier this year, is currently estimated to account for more than half — 53.6% — of all new COVID-19 cases in the states, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
BA.5 appears to have a growth advantage over the original omicron variant, according to the World Health Organization, and scientists are closely monitoring the increase in reported cases observed in many countries across the globe.
At this time, BA.5 does not appear to have increased in severity, but officials have previously stressed that research on the new subvariant is still in its “early days,” and much remains to be learned about it.
As BA.5 spreads, a growing proportion of U.S. counties are seeing increases in infections and related hospital admissions.
Nearly three-quarters of the U.S. population is now living in a county with a high or medium community risk level for COVID-19, as defined by the CDC, federal data shows. About one-third of those people — 31.9%– are living in a high-risk community, while 41.6% are living in a medium-risk county.
A high community level suggests there is a “high potential for health care system strain” and a “high level of severe disease,” and the CDC recommends that people wear a mask in public indoor settings, including schools. A medium-risk level suggests there is “some impact on [the] health care system,” and “more people with severe disease.” Under the CDC’s official guidance, individuals considered at “increased risk” are advised to speak with their health care provider about whether to wear a mask.
Counties on both coasts — most notably in California, Montana, New Mexico and Oregon — are moving up and entering the high-risk level. In Florida, nearly every county is currently considered high risk. Puerto Rico and California currently lead the nation in new cases per capita, followed by New York City, where officials are once again urging residents to wear high-quality masks in indoor public settings and around crowds outside, amid a renewed surge of infections in the city.
“We’re currently seeing high levels of COVID-19 in NYC. To help slow the spread, all New Yorkers should wear a high-quality mask, such as an N95, KN95 or KF94 in all public indoor settings and around crowds outside,” the New York City Health Department wrote in a tweet on Friday, after the city moved back into the high-risk level.
The average number of new cases across New York City is up by 25% in the last two weeks, according to federal data. City data also shows that an average of 15% of reported tests are now coming back positive, marking the highest seven-day positivity rate in months.
Nationally, the country is currently reporting an average of more than 100,000 new cases each day. However, health officials say that the total is likely significantly undercounted.
As previously reported, dozens of states have moved to shutter public testing sites, with more at-home COVID-19 tests now available in pharmacies and through the federal testing program. Most Americans are not reporting their results to officials, and, thus, experts said infection totals are likely significantly undercounted.
Last week, White House COVID Response Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha told NBC News that hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 infections are likely going undercounted.
“There’s no question in my mind we are missing the vast majority of infections right now,” Jha said. “The truth is there are probably several hundred thousand — 400,000; 500,000 infections a day happening across the country.”
The concerns over BA.5 come amid the nation’s continued push to get people vaccinated. Although the U.S. is set to roll out new bivalent vaccines in the fall, which will address omicron, millions of eligible Americans are still without their additional shots.
To date, less than half of eligible Americans — 49.5% or 108.6 million people — have received their first booster. Similarly, less than one-third — 29.5% or 42.2 million — of eligible Americans over the age of 50 have received their second booster.
Overall hospitalization numbers and death rates have yet to see a significant resurgence, though experts say metrics may also be undercounted, due to a lack of reporting from states.
As of July 5, about 34,000 patients are currently receiving care in U.S. hospitals across the country. This still marks one of the highest numbers of patients hospitalized with the virus since March.
On average, more than 5,200 virus-positive Americans are entering the hospital each day — the highest number of daily admissions since February. Hospital admissions in the Southwest and the South are up by more than 10%, respectively, in the past week.
The average number of daily COVID-19-related deaths remains just below 300 reported each day. Totals are still much lower than during prior COVID-19 surges.
However, thousands of Americans are still losing their lives every week. Over the last seven days, the U.S. has reported nearly 2,000 deaths.
(WASHINGTON) — The White House on Monday cited some of its past successes as it played down a new New York Times/Siena College poll showing President Joe Biden’s approval rating almost scraping 30% — and Democrats pushing, at this point some two years out, for a different candidate in the 2024 race.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters that the administration remains focused on the issues at hand despite the latest survey, which showed only 33% of respondents approve of the job Biden is doing and 64% of Democratic voters saying they want someone else to be the party nominee in the next presidential election.
“Not to get into politics from here or get into any political analysis, [but] this is not something — there’s going to be many polls. They’re going to go up, they’re going to go down, this is not the thing that we are solely focused on,” Jean-Pierre said at Monday’s press briefing before noting Biden’s celebration of a bipartisan anti-gun violence package earlier in the day.
“We are focused on things like today, signing this bipartisan gun reform legislation, which will, again, save lives. Do we have more work to do? Absolutely. I was talking about inflation and how … that is a priority for this president, how we have seen gas prices go down by close to 30 cents per gallon the past 25-plus days,” Jean-Pierre said. “That is something that the president is going to continue to work on because we still need to give Americans relief.”
The press secretary rattled off other priorities, like maintaining job growth and pushing a bill to increase competitiveness with China, insisting that Biden will remain locked on those issues in spite of any poor polling — which, administration supporters were also quick to note, did show him winning a hypothetical rematch with Donald Trump.
“We’re not gonna pay attention to polls, it’s not what we’re going to do here. But [what] we’re going to focus on is delivering for the American people,” Jean-Pierre said.
“There is so much work to be done that the president is going to focus on and deliver as well,” she said.
Still, Jean-Pierre recognized the widespread dissatisfaction exemplified in the poll, with more than 75% of respondents saying America was headed in the wrong direction — though, given the country’s polarization, it is surely for varying and contradictory reasons.
“We understand what the American people are feeling. We understand that. We understand that inflation is hurting families when they are around the kitchen table. When they are trying to figure out, you know, how they are going to deal with gas prices at the pump, how they’re going to deal with food prices as well,” Jean-Pierre said.
The latest poll comes amid a spate of poor surveys for Biden, whose approval rating has sunk under the pressure of stubbornly high inflation, the expensive cost of gasoline and more even as the administration has touted what it says is a little-credited economic recovery, with robust employment, and other legislative breakthroughs including on guns and infrastructure.
The Times/Sienna polling — as well as the fact that Biden, at 79 years old, is already the country’s oldest-ever president — has refueled concerns from some Democrats over his viability to win reelection in two years.
But as the Times poll also showed, Biden narrowly comes out on top — 44 to 41 — in the expected matchup with former President Trump.
In a further sign that defeating Trump would be a top priority for Democratic voters, over any particular policy, 92% of Democrats in the poll said they would stick with Biden in such a contest.
(WASHINGTON) — A federal judge on Monday rejected a series of explanations by former Trump White House adviser Steve Bannon as to why he failed to comply with a subpoena issued by the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, reinforcing the legal challenges that Bannon is currently facing.
Bannon was charged last year with two counts of criminal contempt of Congress after defying the panel’s subpoena, and Judge Carl Nichols said in Monday’s pretrial hearing that he would not delay Bannon’s trial, which is set to begin next Monday.
“I see no reason for extending this case any further,” said Nichols.
On the eve of the Monday’s pretrial hearing, Bannon — who for months had refused to comply with the subpoena by claiming absolute “immunity” from congressional subpoenas due to his previous role within the Trump White House — suddenly offered to testify before the Jan. 6 committee, a move that prosecutors in a court filing have described as a “last-ditch effort to avoid accountability.”
The hearing also followed a revelation by the Justice Department that federal investigators interviewed former Trump attorney Justin Clark two weeks ago in connection with Bannon’s case.
Among the overarching arguments that Nichols rejected was Bannon’s claim that he defied the subpoena because former President Donald Trump had asserted executive privilege over his testimony, an argument Bannon’s lawyers said was based on DOJ Office of Legal Counsel opinions. Judge Nichols noted that the opinions referenced do not apply in Bannon’s case because they do not pertain to someone in Bannon’s position as a former White House official to a former president. Bannon has not worked in the White House since 2017.
In a blow to Bannon’s defense, Nichols ruled that Bannon cannot present to the jury evidence that he relied on those internal Justice Department opinions — or on his counsel’s advice — as the reason for declining to appear, saying those factors don’t serve as appropriate reasons for Bannon’s decision not to comply.
Nichols also rejected Bannon’s “entrapped by estoppel” defense, which argued that he was “tricked” into believing he was entitled to ignore the subpoenas due to the DOJ opinions, on the grounds that the DOJ opinions do not specifically deal with Bannon’s situation.
In addition, the judge ruled that Bannon cannot present a “public authority” defense, because Trump was no longer a federal official by the time Bannon was subpoenaed.
“The former president, in his civilian capacity, is by definition not a federal official” and “never instructed Mr. Bannon not to show up altogether,” the judge ruled.
The judge also rejected Bannon’s defense that prosecutors would need to show that he knew his conduct was unlawful, saying that prosecutors only need to prove that Bannon acted “deliberately” and “intentionally” to defy the Jan. 6 panel.
Bannon’s attorney, David Schoen, questioned the judge’s rulings.
“What’s the point in going to trial here if there are no defenses?” Schoen said before the judge.
In a win for Bannon, Nichols said he will allow his defense team to present evidence about prior subpoenas regarding whether Bannon thought the date was flexible, allowing Bannon to argue that he misunderstood the subpoena’s due date or believed in good faith that the deadline could be extended.
The judge also ruled that he would allow Bannon’s defense team to cross examine certain witnesses to introduce evidence of “political bias.”
However, Nichols granted a motion from the House committee to quash 16 trial subpoenas that Bannon’s attorneys had sent to 12 members of Congress and four staffers, and he rejected the defense’s assertion that the Jan 6. Committee is not “properly composed,” saying “the entire House has on multiple occasions ratified that the committee is validly constituted.”
Following the hearing, Schoen suggested to reporters that he might appeal Nichols’ rulings.
“That’s why they have a court of appeals,” said Schoen when asked how he felt about the judge’s decisions.
In their filing overnight, prosecutors said the timing of Bannon’s sudden offer to testify suggests that “the only thing that has really changed since he refused to comply with the subpoena in October 2021 is that he is finally about to face the consequences of his decision to default.”
(NEW YORK) — A new report found a “statistically significant” excess of cancer cases among people of all ages living within a Long Island school district compared to similar areas of the state.
The report, from the New York State Department of Health, looked at cancer cases over 20 years within the Northport-East Northport School District in Suffolk County — about 45 miles from Manhattan.
Researchers say the investigation is still in its early stages and does not mean people living in these areas need to immediately get cancer screenings.
Looking at data from the New York State Cancer Registry, researchers conducted an analysis comparing the number of cancer cases found with the number of cases that would be expected to be found.
Within the entire district, the report identified 4,593 total cancer cases, a 3% excess than the 4,454 cases that would be expected. Specifically, the DOH found “significant excesses in numbers of cases of pancreatic cancer, malignant melanoma of the skin, uterine (corpus) cancer and prostate cancer.”
“Cancer clusters are certainly an area of intrigue because we want to be able to identify if there are certain hotspots for cancer,” Dr. Arif Kamal, chief patient officer of the American Cancer Society, told ABC News.
Kamal said the interesting aspect of this case is that “if you look at the particular cancers that are represented, there’s not a single factor that tied them all together,” indicating a “mixture of explanations.”
When looking specifically at the Northport Middle School District, researchers detected 2,655 total cases of cancer, a 7% excess than the 2,486 cases expected, with “significantly greater than expected numbers of cases of malignant melanoma and prostate cancer.” However, the report found that the East Northport Middle School area did not have a significantly different total number of cancer cases from the number expected.
The department said it initiated the investigation in 2019 after members of the community shared a concerning number of graduates in the Northport High School class of 2016 who had been diagnosed with leukemia. Officials found around five graduates were diagnosed with leukemia, which was “statistically unusual” and much higher than the two cases that would be expected.
The DOH said it does not believe the study should cause alarm and that the higher number of leukemia cases may be “due to chance.”
Kamal said the higher number of leukemia cases is “concerning, but it’s a little early to make conclusions about what it means.”
“Leukemia can be a canary in a coal mine because a lot of environmental exposures can lead to it, but it needs to be followed over time to really understand,” he said. “If after five to 10 years those rates increase, you really should be worried.”
The district has battled concerns about toxic chemicals on school grounds for years and, in September 2020, parents filed a class action lawsuit against the district citing negligence. In the lawsuit, they allege the district “knew or should have known about the presence” of the presence of “contaminants” on its campus including benzene, mold, chlordane, mercury, lead, carbon monoxide and petroleum products.
Tara Mackey, the lead plaintiff, told ABC News her daughter attended Northport Middle School from 2015 to 2018. The lawsuit claims that in 2017, the district notified parents about a chemical spill beneath classrooms in the school’s K-wing.
“My daughter was in seventh grade when they told us about the chemicals they found under the K-wing,” she said. “She was suffering from migraines. Some days it would be so bad she would come home, and she would vomit.”
Mackey said she took her daughter to the pediatrician to be tested, and when the pediatrician called her back, she was shocked by the blood test results.
“My seventh-grade daughter had carbon monoxide levels equal to a two-, three-pack-a-day smoker,” Mackey said.
Mackey’s daughter just graduated high school in North Carolina, and although she currently does not suffer from migraines, she did develop asthma while attending Northport Middle School.
When the district was contacted by ABC News, Syntax Communication Group — which represents the district — replied, “The Northport-East Northport School District does not comment on active litigation and will not be providing comment.”
