(WASHINGTON) — The first full-color image from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has been released.
The images, the full set of which will be released Tuesday morning, will be the deepest and highest resolution ever taken of the universe, according to NASA.
The telescope will help scientists study the formation of the universe’s earliest galaxies, how they compare to today’s galaxies, how our solar system developed and if there is life on other planets.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
President Joe Biden unveiled the first full-color image taken by the James Webb Space Telescope.
The image, revealed during a press event held at the White House Monday and also attended by Vice President Kamala Harris, shows multiple galaxies.
It is the highest-resolution image of the universe ever captured, officials said.
“Today is a historic day,” said Biden. “It’s a new window into the history of our universe and today we’re going to get a first glimpse of the light to shine through that window.”
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said the light seen on the image has been traveling for over 13 billion years.
Jul 11, 4:46 pm
NASA says all of the telescope’s instruments are ‘ready’
NASA announced Monday all four of the James Webb Space Telescope’s scientific instruments are ready to start being used.
The space agency said there are 17 modes, or ways, to operate the instruments. All have been examined and are “ready to begin full scientific operations.”
The last step was was checking the the telescope’s NIRCam, which block starlight so scientists can detect other nearby structures, such as exoplanets.
Jul 11, 4:00 pm
Test image from telescope offers preview
A test image taken by the James Webb Telescope offers a preview of what’s to come ahead of the release of the first full-color images.
NASA shared the photo last week taken by one of the telescope’s instruments, the Fine Guidance Sensor, or FGS, to demonstrate how strong, clear and sharp Webb’s images will be.
According to the space agency, the “false-color mosaic” is made up of 72 exposures taken over a 32-hour period.
NASA noted that the primary focus of the FGS is not even to capture images but to make sure the telescope is pointing precisely at its target.
Jul 11, 3:30 pm
What to know about the Webb telescope
The James Webb Space Telescope was jointly developed by NASA, the European Space Agency and the Canadian Space Agency.
Development began in 1996 but ran into several delays before it was completed in 2016 at a final cost of $10 billion.
The telescope was launched on Christmas Day and is orbiting 1 million miles from Earth.
It used infrared radiation to detect objects that are invisible to the human eye.
The four goals of the telescope are to study how the first stars and galaxies formed right after the Big Bang, comparing the galaxies from the past to those of today, how planetary systems formed and if there is any sign of life on other planets.
(NEW YORK) — The wildfire that is threatening an iconic grove of sequoia trees in Yosemite National Park could now affect human health hundreds of miles in the opposite direction.
An air quality advisory has been issued for California’s Bay Area, specifically the North Bay and East Bay regions, as the Washburn Fire continues to grow on the southern portion of Yosemite National Park.
The fire, which sparked Thursday near the Washburn Trail in Yosemite’s Mariposa Grove, had expanded to more than 2,700 acres by Monday — inching dangerously close to sequoia trees that have been in the region for thousands of years. More than 2,000 of the acres burned are located in the national park, according to Yosemite Fire and Aviation Management.
In the regions surrounding the San Francisco Bay about 200 miles west of the fire, the Bay Area Air Quality Management District is warning residents of pollutant levels that are expected to be in the moderate range.
Satellite images show significant amounts of smoke wafting over Northern California’s Pacific coast.
Despite the significant smog, air quality is not expected to worsen beyond federal health standards, according to the agency.
The fire is expected to continue “moderately” over the next 12 hours, but fire activity will increase and “actively” spread through the week due to warming temperatures and subsequent drying, according to Yosemite Fire.
The management of the fire is progressing at a relatively slow pace as firefighters set off backfires to clear the fuel that compiled in the region over a large tree mortality event between 2013 and 2015.
Since the fire is slow-moving and not affecting human safety, firefighters are able to take the time to clear the fuel, which consists of both standing trees and dead leaves and brush that have fallen to the ground, fire experts told ABC News.
About 360 firefighters are battling the Washburn Fire, according to Yosemite Fire.
The fuel, however, is posing a significant safety threat to firefighters on the ground, the experts said. The spread may also slow once the fire reaches some of the recent fire scars, according to Yosemite Fire.
The Mariposa Grove, one of the most popular destinations in Yosemite National Park and home to more than 500 mature giant sequoia trees, remains closed, as does the Highway 41 entrance into Yosemite National Park. Sequoias, native to the Sierra Nevada mountain range in California, are adaptive to fire, but intense fire amplified by the dry fuel could kill them, according to experts.
No reports of damage to any of the named trees in the grove have been released, and some tree trunks have been wrapped in fire-resistant foil as protection, a method used in September when the KNP Complex Fire threatened trees in Sequoia National Park’s Giant Forest.
Sprinklers have also been set up around several trees, including the Grizzly Giant, the most famous giant sequoia at Yosemite, which stands at 209 feet. Fire officials hope the steady stream of water, combined with prescribed burns, will be enough to protect the trees from a fatal encounter with the wildfire.
Wildfires sparked by lightning have killed about 20% of the 75,000 large sequoias in the West in recent years, The Associated Press reported. Protections for the Mariposa Grove began as early as 1864, when President Abraham Lincoln signed legislation to conserve the grove, marking the first time the U.S. federal government set aside a natural wonder so that future generations could enjoy it.
That initiative later became the model for the National Park system.
ABC News’ Jenna Harrison contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — An Ohio man who accused Joe Biden, other Democrats, and the mainstream media of “treason” is set to testify in a public hearing Tuesday before the House committee investigating the attack on the U.S. Capitol last year, according to a source familiar with the matter.
The hearing is expected to focus on the rise of radical extremism in the United States, and the source said one of the key witnesses will be Stephen Ayres of Warren, Ohio, who recently pleaded admitted to illegally entering the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
A former spokesman for the Oath Keepers militia group, Jason Van Tatenhove, will also be testifying Tuesday, the source said.
In court documents filed last month, Ayres acknowledged that the day before the riot, he drove to Washington, D.C., to protest Congress’ certification of the 2020 presidential election results.
On Facebook, Ayres had spotlighted then-President Donald Trump’s call for supporters to descend on Washington on Jan. 6, which Trump said will “be wild” in a Tweet he posted on Dec. 19, 2020.
During Tuesday’s hearing, the committee hopes to explore the impact that Tweet had on Trump’s supporters, committee aides said. The hearing is expected to also include clips from former White House counsel Pat Cipollone’s deposition with congressional investigators last week, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
Two days before he left for the nation’s capital, Ayres posted a message on Facebook saying, “Mainstream media, social media, Democrat party, FISA courts, Chief Justice John Roberts, Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, etc….all have committed TREASON against a sitting U.S. president!!! All are now put on notice by ‘We The People!'”
In the week before that, Ayres said in social media posts that it was “time for us to start standing up to tyranny!” and he warned that “If the [deep state] robs president Trump!!! Civil War will ensue!” according to the FBI.
Ayres joined the mob outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, then entered the building that afternoon, court documents say.
Last month, he pleaded guilty to one federal charge of disorderly conduct inside a restricted building. His sentencing is scheduled for September.
An attorney representing Ayres declined to comment when contacted by ABC News.
(AUSTIN, Texas) — A chorus of Texas state leaders on Monday called on law enforcement officials to release surveillance video from inside Robb Elementary School during the May 24 mass shooting, including Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who is running for reelection.
“That video needs to be released, as well as the audio,” Abbott told Austin ABC affiliate KVUE in an interview Monday afternoon. “The Texans need to know. But, frankly, the people of Uvalde, they deserve to get to know exactly what happened. And I urge that it happen very quickly.”
The deluge of support from top politicians capped a day of finger-pointing and about-faces from state leaders. At a hearing in Austin on Monday morning, a key Texas state legislator suggested that an agreement between law enforcement and local officials to disclose a portion of the footage had been struck — only for one of the parties to the supposed agreement to quickly rebuff that claim.
Rep. Dustin Burrows, the chairman of a special Texas House panel investigating the Robb Elementary shooting, announced Monday morning that the Texas Department of Public Safety and the mayor of Uvalde had reached a deal to disclose surveillance video showing officers gathered in the hallway outside of the classroom containing the 21-year-old gunman.
But within hours of Burrows’ comment, the Texas Department of Public Safety gave ABC News a July 8 letter it sent to the chairman informing him that the law enforcement agency could not unilaterally grant his request for the tapes, citing instruction from the Uvalde-area district attorney, Christina Busbee.
“[Busbee] has objected to releasing the video and has instructed us not to do so,” according to the letter, which was signed by DPS Deputy Director Freeman Martin. “As the individual with authority to consider whether any criminal prosecution should result from the events in Uvalde, we are guided by her professional judgment regarding the potential impact of releasing the video.”
After Monday’s hearing concluded, Burrows clarified his earlier comments, telling ABC News, “We’re still working on getting the video released, but no agreements.” He later tweeted, “It is my intention to show the hallway video to the people of Uvalde, regardless of any agreement. I will not release it to the public until the people of Uvalde have seen it for themselves.”
Busbee did not respond to ABC News’ requests for comment.
This latest round of confusion is certain to exacerbate frustration within the Uvalde community. More than six weeks after the shooting, which ended the lives of 19 students and two teachers, several questions remain about the 77 minutes that elapsed between the time the shooter entered the school, and the moment law enforcement officers breached the classroom and killed him.
Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw characterized the police response as “an abject failure” during testimony before a Texas Senate panel last month, raising the stakes for officials to release video footage.
On Sunday, families of the victims gathered in Uvalde’s town square to voice their frustrations with state and local leaders over their handling of the shooting and subsequent investigations. The event was called The Unheard Voices March & Rally, as a reflection of the sentiment shared by many residents of the small West Texas town.
The public back-and-forth over whether and what investigative evidence to publicly share from inside the school has become a source of conflict between some family members of the victims and officials who claimed to represent their interests. Busbee has said that releasing footage could hinder her ongoing probe into whether the shooting warrants any criminal charges.
Over the weekend, Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin accused Busbee of misleading family members about McLaughlin’s support for releasing certain footage showing the police response during the rampage.
On Friday, McLaughlin affirmed his support for the release of “all videos,” including “the entire 77-minute hallway video … up the moment of the breach.” But less than 24 hours later, he issued a follow-up statement clarifying that he only sought the release of video showing the police response — not any children or any images from the classroom.
In the course of his about-face, McLaughlin claimed that Busbee had been “advising” families of the victims that he supported releasing videos showing deceased children, and accused her of “not telling the truth.”
McLaughlin later told ABC News that video from the hallway inside of Robb would “contradict misconceptions that Uvalde police were the only ones inside with weapons,” and releasing the tape would “provide transparency to everyone.”
On Monday, Rep. Burrows said he would “continue to put pressure on the situation and consider all options in making sure that video gets out for the public to view,” but did not commit to a timeline for a public release.
“I can tell people all day long what it is I saw, the committee can tell people all day long what we saw, but it’s very different to see it for yourself,” Burrows said. “And we think that’s very important.”
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden was briefly interrupted by a parent whose son was killed in a mass school shooting as he hosted hundreds impacted by gun violence on the White House South Lawn Monday to tout the first major bipartisan gun legislation to pass through Congress in nearly 30 years.
Before he spoke, Dr. Roy Guerrero, a Uvalde pediatrician who treated the victims of the Robb Elementary School mass shooting, and Garnell Whitfield, Jr., son of the oldest Buffalo massacre victim Ruth Whitfield, first offered brief remarks to introduce Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.
“The dried white roses and the sun-bleached teddy bears have been taken away and stored. What remains is a hollow feeling in our gut,” Guerrero said.
“It’s been tough being a pediatrician in a community where children do not want to return to school, and parents don’t want to send them there with the fear of a future attack,” he added. “I spend half my days convincing kids that no one is coming for them and that they are safe knowing that they’re safe — but how do I say that knowing that the very weapons used in the attack are still freely available? Let this only be the start of the movement towards the banning of assault weapons.”
Whitfield read the names of the victims in the Buffalo shooting, which took the life of his 86-year-old mother, and while he praised Biden and Harris for their work to mitigate gun violence said, “We know that this is only the first step.”
Biden signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act into law last month, but the signing was overshadowed since it came one day after the Supreme Court released its decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Monday provided the president a new opportunity to take a victory lap — but it also came one week after another mass shooting at a July Fourth parade in Highland Park, Illinois, left seven dead and dozens wounded.
About one week to the hour of the Highland Park shooting, Biden took the podium on the South Lawn, wearing a ribbon on his lapel to honor gun violence victims.
Not long after he started speaking, Manuel Oliver, whose 17-year-old son Joaquin was killed in the Parkland mass shooting, interrupted Biden’s remarks in an apparent protest. Oliver has publicly criticized the legislation.
“We have to do more than that!” Oliver shouted. “I’ve been trying to tell you this for years!”
Biden said, “Let him talk,” before continuing with his prepared remarks as Oliver was escorted away by a staffer.
Later, speaking to reporters, Oliver defended his decision to interrupt Biden — taking issue with the White House making this bipartisan achievement into a “celebration” — and pointing to the community of Uvalde still mourning the loss of the 19 children and two teachers who were killed.
“The word celebration has been used in the wrong way. We were invited to Uvalde this week. Mothers are still crying in Uvalde,” he said. “And meanwhile, we, some way, by being here, clapping and standing ovation, these types of bills, which by the way I welcome, because it will save some lives, while we do that, other people are just getting shot. We cannot accept that.”
Biden named the leaders of the bipartisan Senate negotiations which crafted the legislation, including Sens. Kyrsten Sinema, Chrisy Murphy, and Thom Tillis, and joked that he hoped he doesn’t get Republican John Cornyn of Texas “in trouble” for praising him, too. Biden and Cornyn shook hands after his remarks.
President Biden said none of the actions he’s calling for infringe on Second Amendment rights, even repeating his support for the Second Amendment, but that “we can’t just stand by” when guns are the “number one killer of children in the United States.”
“Guns are the number one killer of children in the United States of America … And over the last two decades more high school children have died from gunshots and on-duty police officers on active duty military combined,” Biden said. “We can’t let it happen any longer.”
“With rights come responsibilities. Yes, there’s a right to bear arms. But we also have a right to live freely, without fear for our lives in a grocery store, in a classroom, in a playground, and a house of worship, in a store, at a workplace, a nightclub, a festival, in our neighborhoods, in our streets,” he added. “The right to bear arms is not an absolute right that dominates all others.”
Gun violence survivors and family members of victims of recent mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York, attended, as well as survivors and family members from the Columbine, Sandy Hook and Parkland mass shootings, among others. But some gun safety advocates lament that it doesn’t go far enough.
Ahead of Monday’s event, Biden asked Americans in a tweet to text him their stories of how gun violence has impacted their communities, looking to tout how the new law will help stop similar violence.
The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act includes $13 billion in new spending for mental health programs and for securing schools. It also makes background checks stricter for gun buyers under 21, helps to close the so-called boyfriend loophole to restrict domestic violence offenders from purchasing guns, and incentivizes red flag laws to remove firearms from people deemed to be a danger to themselves or others.
But it doesn’t go as far as many wanted, including Biden, lacking measures such as universal background checks and a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.
As the president marked progress on gun reform Monday, he also called on Congress to act further.
He called for legislation that would ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, strengthen background checks and enact safe storage laws.
“We’re living in a country awash in weapons of war. Weapons that were designed to hunt are not being used; the weapons designed that they’re purchasing are designed as weapons of war, to take out an enemy,” he said. “What is the rationale for these weapons outside war zones?”
The president’s ask for more congressional action comes as the Senate returns from its July Fourth recess Monday. Notably, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer was not at Biden’s event because he is isolated with COVID-19.
ABC News’ Justin Gomez and Alexandra Hutzler contributed to this report.
A Harry Styles conspiracy theory dropped. TikTok influencerAbigail Henry started the viral rumor that Harry might actually be bald. Fans are honing in on some suspect photos of Harry dancing that show a suspicious hairline. Abigail adds Harry once boasted about being able to escape public notice very easily and — as she asks –what could be easier than removing a toupee?
Meghan Trainor has a sweet message for her younger self. Taking to TikTok, the Grammy winner wrote, “Little insecure me would be so proud of where I am now” and shared a video montage of all her achievements, from winning a Grammy to starting a family with husband Daryl Sabara.
After Shawn Mendes had to postpone a few tour dates for his mental health, a source tells People the “Stitches” singer is “getting help.” They add, “Shawn is a very sensitive and caring guy. When he gets frustrated with things around him, he turns inward and suffers. He said he is getting help so that is admirable.”
Ed Sheeran was onstage in Cardiff for his tour during the final soccer match of the UEFA Champions League Championship — which saw Liverpool take on Real Madrid — and he revealed on TikTok that he technically didn’t miss the match. He said that while he was on stage, “I was actually getting the results of this game in my ears” and that he “asked for the score inbetween [sic] each song.”
Elton John has added a tour stop to Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium on November 1, marking his first time at the venue. The press release states that Vegas is near and dear to Sir Elton because he’s played “close to 500 shows including two highly successful multi-year residencies.” Tickets go on sale Monday, July 18, at 10 a.m. local time.
(UVALDE, Texas) — State and local officials have agreed to release surveillance footage from inside the hallway of Robb Elementary School during the May 24 mass shooting that ended the lives of 19 students and two teachers, a key Texas state legislator said Monday.
The development appears to end a weeks-long dispute between the Texas Department of Public Safety and the mayor of Uvalde over how to handle the sensitive video, although it is not clear when the video will be made public.
The public back-and-forth ultimately became a source of conflict between some family members of the victims and officials who claimed to represent their interests.
At a Monday hearing in Austin, Rep. Dustin Burrows, the chairman of a special Texas House panel investigating the Robb shooting, said the video “would contain no graphic images or depictions of violence,” but supported releasing footage of the police response to help the public better understand what happened inside the school.
“I can tell people all day long what it is I saw, the committee can tell people all day long what we saw, but it’s very different to see it for yourself,” Burrows said. “And we think that’s very important.”
Burrows did not say when the video would be released, but committed to “continue to put pressure on the situation and consider all options in making sure that video gets out for the public to view.”
More than six weeks after the massacre, questions remain about the response of the police and the 77 minutes that elapsed between the time the shooter entered the school and when law enforcement breached the classroom and killed him.
(NEW YORK) — A 15-year-old boy has been charged with murder stemming from the fatal stabbing of a 14-year-old boy on a New York City subway platform, authorities said.
The teen suspect, whose name was not released because he is charged as a minor, is also charged with criminal possession of a weapon, according to the New York Police Department.
Police identified the victim as Ethan Reyes, 14, of Yonkers, New York.
The stabbing unfolded around 3 p.m. Saturday when officers responded to a report of “a crime in progress” inside the West 137th Street-City College train station in the city’s upper Manhattan neighborhood, according to the NYPD.
Officers found Reyes on the northbound No. 1 line platform with a stab wound to the abdomen. He was taken by ambulance to nearby Mount Sinai Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, NYPD Transit Chief Jason Wilcox said at a news conference Saturday night.
Wilcox said the suspect, initially identified as a person of interest in the homicide, was taken into custody for questioning after being found at West 173rd St. and Broadway suffering wounds to the back, abdomen and left hip, Wilcox said. He said the individual was taken to a hospital for treatment and is expected to survive, police said.
A preliminary investigation found that a fight or dispute between the suspect and victim began outside and spilled into the West 137th St. station, where investigators believe Reyes was stabbed on the subway platform, police said.
Wilcox said the NYPD Crime Scene Unit recovered a knife and a broomstick from the crime scene.
It was not immediately clear what the fatal fight was about.
The slaying followed a series of recent high-profile crimes that have taken place in the New York City subway system, including some captured by passengers on cell phone video.
In April, a 62-year-old man was arrested and indicted on federal terrorism charges after he allegedly detonated a smoke bomb and shot 10 passengers on a Manhattan-bound N subway train during the morning rush-hour commute.
In March, a 25-year-old man was charged with murder after police alleged he abruptly pulled a gun and randomly shot a 48-year-old stranger on a Q line train heading from Brooklyn to Manhattan, according to prosecutors.
In January, a 40-year-old woman died after she was pushed onto the subway tracks and struck by an oncoming train at the Times Square-42nd Street station. A 61-year-old man, described by police as homeless, was charged with second-degree murder, but has since been declared mentally unfit to stand trial and placed in a psychiatric facility indefinitely.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden will host hundreds impacted by gun violence on the White House South Lawn Monday to tout the first major bipartisan gun legislation to pass through Congress in nearly 30 years.
Biden signed the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act into law last month, but the signing was somewhat overshadowed, coming one day after the Supreme Court released its decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Monday provides the president a new opportunity to take a victory lap — but it comes one week after another mass shooting at a July Fourth parade in Highland Park, Illinois, left seven dead and dozens wounded.
“I recently signed the first major bipartisan gun reform legislation in almost 30 years into law, which includes actions that will save lives,” Biden said in the Roosevelt Room addressing the latest mass shooting. “But there is much more work to do, and I’m not going to give up fighting the epidemic of gun violence.”
Gun violence survivors and family members of victims of recent mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York, are expected to attend, as well as survivors and family members from the Columbine, Sandy Hook and Parkland mass shootings, among others. But while many in attendance are expected to praise the legislation, some gun safety advocates lament that it doesn’t go far enough.
Guns Down America and other gun violence advocacy groups are expected to host a counter-programming event Monday outside the White House calling on Biden to establish an office at the White House to more urgently address gun violence.
Ahead of Monday’s event, Biden asked Americans in a tweet to text him their stories of how gun violence has impacted their communities, looking to tout how the new law will help stop similar violence.
The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act includes $13 billion in new spending for mental health programs and for securing schools. It also makes background checks stricter for gun buyers under 21, helps to close the so-called boyfriend loophole to restrict domestic violence offenders from purchasing guns, and incentivizes red flag laws to remove firearms from people deemed to be a danger to themselves or others.
But it doesn’t go as far as many wanted, including Biden, lacking measures such as universal background checks and a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.
As the president marks progress on gun reform Monday, he will also call on Congress to act further.
Biden is expected to urge Congress to confirm Steve Dettelbach to serve as director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
He will also call on Congress to bring him “legislation that would ban assault weapons and high capacity magazines, strengthen background checks, and enact safe storage laws,” according to the White House.
The president’s call for more congressional action comes as the Senate returns from its July Fourth recess Monday. Notably, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will not be at Biden’s event, as he is isolated with COVID-19.
Schumer’s positive test serves as a reminder that COVID is still a looming threat, though the close spacing of chairs on the White House South Lawn Monday doesn’t appear to reflect that concern.
ABC News’ Alexandra Hutzler contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Dangerous heat is enveloping a large swath of the U.S., with temperatures forecast to climb above 100 degrees Monday from California to Arizona to Texas to Missouri.
Temperatures on Monday could reach a scorching 111 degrees in Redding, California; 114 in Palm Springs; 112 in Las Vegas; and 115 in Phoenix.
East of the Rockies, the humidity combined with the heat will make it feel oppressive. The heat index — what temperature it feels like with humidity — is forecast to skyrocket to 111 degrees in Austin, Texas; 109 in Houston; 105 in Dallas; 104 in St. Louis and 99 in Memphis, Tennessee.
College Station, Texas, reached a record high temperature of 111 degrees this weekend. At Camp Mabry, a military base in the Austin area, the temperature reached a July record high of 110.
More record highs are possible Monday in Texas, Northern California and Oregon.
Some of this heat will stretch into the mid-Atlantic and Northeast on Tuesday and Wednesday, with a forecast of 92 degrees in Washington, D.C., and Philadelphia and 91 degrees in New York. With humidity, it will feel like the upper 90s in some areas.
