(MOBILE, Ala.) — One person has died after an Amtrak train hit a car that was on the tracks at a Mobile, Alabama, rail crossing Wednesday night, police said.
A collision involving a train at the intersection of Navco Road and Dog River Drive North was reported around 6:30 p.m., the Mobile Police Department said in a statement.
A 28-year-old driver, Chadwick Timmons, “was heading south on Navco Road when he allegedly attempted to cross the rail crossing despite the safety arms being activated and indicating an oncoming train,” according to police.
“As a result, his vehicle collided with an Amtrak train, and the impact caused the train to come to a stop,” police said. “The collision caused the vehicle to catch fire, which resulted in further damage.”
Timmons was pronounced dead at the scene, police said.
It wasn’t immediately clear how many people were on the Amtrak train.
(NEW YORK) — The United States Coast Guard is searching for a cruise ship passenger from Australia who went overboard a few hundred miles off the coast of Hawaii.
The incident occurred at approximately 11:03 p.m. on Tuesday night when the Joint Rescue Coordination Center Honolulu received a report from the Quantum of the Seas cruise ship that a man had gone overboard about 500 miles south of Kailua Kona, Big Island, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.
“The crew of the cruise ship remained on scene to search for approximately two hours, deploying six life rings,” the Coast Guard said in a statement on Wednesday. “After six hours on scene, the crew returned to Air Station Barbers Point for fuel replenishment. The search will resume at first light Thursday morning.”
A Coast Guard Air Station Barbers Point C-130 Hercules aircrew launched at 7:00 a.m. on Wednesday morning and arrived on scene at approximately 9:00 a.m. to begin searching but authorities have not yet had any luck on finding the missing man.
Quantum of the Seas departed from Brisbane, Australia, on April 12 and is scheduled to arrive in Honolulu on April 28.
Royal Caribbean — who operates Quantum of the Seas — also released a statement on Wednesday confirming that the search for the missing man is ongoing.
“While on its trans-pacific sailing, a guest onboard Quantum of the Seas went overboard,” Royal Caribbean said. “The ship’s crew immediately launched a search and rescue operation and is working closely with local authorities.”
Authorities did not give any further details on how the man may have ended up going overboard but the investigation into the incident is ongoing.
(WASHINGTON) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is set to take a major step closer to announcing that he’s running for president in 2024, with plans in the works to launch an exploratory committee as early as mid-May, sources familiar tell ABC News.
DeSantis’ official announcement would come soon after, with the governor currently eyeing mid-June, the sources said. The news was first reported by NBC News.
A spokesperson for DeSantis did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The governor has long been seen as former President Donald Trump’s main rival for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination.
ABC News previously reported that DeSantis has privately indicated to allies that he intends to launch a run for the White House.
The governor has suggested that any political decision would have to wait until after his state’s Legislature has adjourned this year, which will be in early May.
“This is going to be the most productive legislative session we have had across the board, and I think people are going to be really excited,” he said on Fox & Friends in February, during which he also touted his new book and accompanying tour. “As we get beyond that, then we can decide from there,” he said then.
While Florida currently has a “resign-to-run” law that would require DeSantis to step down if he launched a White House bid, a state senator this week introduced an amendment to exempt “persons seeking the office of President or Vice President of the United States.”
DeSantis, both popular and controversial, easily won reelection in November and has since sought to share Florida’s “blueprint” for success with other parts of the country.
At the same time, he has focused on culture war issues — such as restricting classroom discussion of sexual orientation and gender — while fighting what he calls excessive “wokeness” in America, driven by liberals.
(WASHINGTON) — A federal appeals panel on Wednesday rejected an effort from former President Donald Trump to prevent former Vice President Mike Pence from testifying before the special counsel investigating Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
The order from a three-judge panel at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit — the details of which remain under seal — would clear the way for Pence to testify before special counsel Jack Smith should Trump’s legal team not seek any further appeal before the full Circuit or the Supreme Court.
Trump previously sought to assert executive privilege in an attempt to block Pence’s testimony, but late last month the chief judge for the D.C. district court, James Boasberg, rejected his team’s arguments and ordered Pence to testify and provide records to Smith.
Boasberg, however, did narrowly uphold parts of a separate legal challenge brought by Pence himself, who argued he should be shielded from having to testify on certain aspects related to his role as president of the Senate overseeing the certification of the 2020 election on Jan. 6, 2021.
Pence was subpoenaed by the special counsel in February, following months of negotiations between federal prosecutors and Pence’s legal team.
Pence said this month that he would not seek further appeal, though said he was unsure whether Trump’s team would continue their own fight to prevent his testimony and bring their executive privilege claims before the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.
In previous instances where Trump’s team has sought intervention from the D.C. Circuit, judges there acted swiftly to order legal briefs from his team and the special counsel before rejecting his legal challenges.
A spokesperson for the special counsel’s office declined to comment to ABC News.
(NEW YORK) — The prosecutor in the Irvo Otieno case on Wednesday filed a motion seeking one trial for all 10 people accused in Otieno’s killing in Virginia in March.
Otieno, a Richmond resident, died in police custody after he was held down by seven Henrico County, Virginia, sheriff’s deputies and three hospital employees for about 12 minutes, according to Ann Cabell Baskervill, the commonwealth’s attorney for Dinwiddie County.
The 10 have been charged with second-degree murder.
Each of the defendants will be able to argue for or against the motion at their pretrial hearings. G. Russell Stone Jr., who is representing defendant Brandon Edwards Rodgers, told ABC News that he has received the motion and will be reviewing it.
ABC News has contacted each of the attorneys for the other defendants in the case. None of the 10 have yet entered pleas.
Cabell Baskervill described the incident as “cruel and a demonstration of power that is unlawful.” She said Otieno’s preliminary cause of death was positional and mechanical asphyxia with restraints.
Virginia State Police were not called for three-and-a-half hours after Otieno’s death, the commonwealth’s attorney has said. In that time, his body was moved, his handcuffs and leg irons were removed and washed and a funeral home had been called instead of the medical examiner’s office.
In the commonwealth’s motion for one trial for all 10 defendants, Cabell Baskervill argued that “the cause and dynamics of Otieno’s death support a joined trial in ways that, say, a single gunshot wound might not.”
Cabell Baskervill wrote in the motion that Otieno’s asphyxiation “reflects severe compression of the chest by a heavy weight. Here, that heavy weight was the Henrico deputies and the Central State staff.”
She wrote that the 10 defendants allegedly acted together causing the death of Otieno. The autopsy couldn’t determine which defendant “was on which of Otieno’s body parts at any given time. The most culpable persons as first degree principals would be those on his torso.”
“If one person here had acted differently, then Otieno may very well have been able to survive,” Cabell Baskervill wrote.
(NEW YORK) — Four people, including an unlicensed teenage driver, were seriously injured when their car crashed head-on into a school bus in New York state on Wednesday, authorities said.
The incident occurred around 2:13 p.m. local time in Westchester County, in the area of Mount Kisco.
The New Castle Police Department said officers responded to a “head-on accident” involving a Yorktown Central School District bus and a 2016 Honda Accord driven by an unlicensed 16-year-old from Bedford Hills.
The preliminary investigation found that the driver of the Honda Accord “lost control while rounding a curve, crossed into oncoming traffic and struck the bus head-on,” the New Castle Police Department said in a statement.
The driver and his three passengers were transported to Westchester Medical Center with life-threatening injuries, police said, who did not specify how many people were on board.
Westchester Medical Center told ABC New York station WABC that nine people total were injured in the crash.
Aerial footage from the scene showed extensive damage to the front of the Honda Accord and the school bus.
Multiple police, fire and EMS agencies responded to the scene.
Residents were advised to avoid the area “due to a serious accident and investigation.”
The Westchester County District Attorney’s Office is assisting with an investigation into the crash, police said.
(SUDAN) — A second American has been killed in the violence in Sudan, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby confirmed on Wednesday.
While Kirby did not name the victim, a family spokesperson identified him to ABC News as Bushra Ibnauf Sulieman, a doctor who was helping educate physicians in Sudan and whose children live in the U.S.
“We can confirm the death of a second American citizen yesterday. We extend our deepest condolences to the family,” Kirby said. “We continue to make clear, at the highest levels of our government, to the leadership of both the Sudanese armed forces and the rapid support forces, that they are responsible for ensuring the protection of civilians and non-combatants, including people from third countries and humanitarian staff that are working to save lives.”
Kirby did not elaborate on the circumstances of Sulieman’s death, but a press release from his family stated that the University of Khartoum professor of internal medicine was killed while escorting his father to a dialysis appointment.
Kirby also indicated the ceasefire is largely holding despite sporadic reports of gunfire.
“I know you’ve heard that there was a ceasefire that the U.S. brokered started at midnight on the 24th. Although there are some reports of violence and sporadic shelling and firing, we’re glad to see that the levels generally appeared, levels of violence generally appear to have gone significantly down. We urge both military factions that fully uphold this ceasefire, and to further extend it,” he said.
Sulieman, a father of four, had been in Sudan with his wife and two young children taking care of his parents, teaching and practicing medicine in a much-needed area of Sudan, his longtime friend, Dr. Khidir Dalouk, told ABC News.
Dalouk said the doctor was stabbed to death Tuesday.
“I think that the world, not just Sudan or his family, it has lost a human soul. A good person who did not think about himself. He always thought about his family first, his patients first, his students first,” an emotional Dalouk said. “We’re sorry that he’s gone”
Last week the State Department confirmed that one American died in the conflict in Sudan.
As of Tuesday evening, five United Nations staffers were also among the hundreds that have been killed amid the ongoing clashes between forces loyal to two rival generals, according to officials.
Kirby also said the U.S. is actively facilitating the departure of a “relatively small number of Americans” who have indicated their desire to leave the country.
“We continue to deploy U.S. intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets on manned assets to support land evacuation routes, which Americans are using, and we’re still moving naval assets within the region to provide support along the coast. American citizens are arriving in Port Sudan, and we are helping to facilitate their onward travel as appropriate,” Kirby said.
An estimated 16,000 Americans — most of whom are dual U.S.-Sudanese citizens — remain in Sudan, according to Kirby.
“These are people that grew up in Sudan, work in Sudan, families are in Sudan and they want to stay in Sudan, so it’s a number that is difficult to plan to specifically,” Kirby told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos in an interview Monday on “Good Morning America.”
Kirby did not have much to offer on the growing concern over the need for humanitarian assistance in Sudan. He noted USAID has a team on the ground, but deferred to USAID Ambassador Samantha Power on any effort to increase humanitarian aid, saying the ceasefire really needs to hold, in order to expand.
ABC News’ Katherine Carroll, Morgan Winsor and Teddy Grant contributed to this report.
(CALIFORNIA) — Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes will not have to report to prison this week after filing an appeal with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco.
Holmes, who was convicted of four counts of fraud in January 2022 and sentenced to 11 years and three months in prison by U.S. District Judge Edward Davila in January, had filed a motion earlier this month to remain out of prison pending appeal. However, Davila denied that motion and ordered Holmes begin serving her sentence on Thursday.
However, with her appeal filed Tuesday night, Holmes is challenging that ruling and due to a rule within the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, she will remain free on bail until the court makes a decision.
In the appeal, Holmes’ attorneys state that her conviction was the result of “prejudicial errors that warrant reversal and a new trial.” They argue that Davila’s denial of her release pending appeal “reflects numerous, inexplicable errors” including the courts referral to Holmes’ “patient fraud convictions,” of which Holmes was actually acquitted. They also argue that the court “used the wrong legal standard to assess whether key issues presented were likely to result in reversal.”
The government has 10 days to respond to the motion.
This appeal comes after an amicus brief was filed earlier this week by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, a nonprofit bar association that works on behalf of criminal defense attorneys to ensure justice and due process for accused criminals. In their brief, filed with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in support of Holmes, they argue that the court should reverse the decision and have a new trial due to what they say is a violation of The Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure and Evidence by the government.
Their brief echos the arguments from Holmes’ appeal of her conviction, filed last week allowing the use of a former Theranos lab director as an expert witness. Holmes’ attorneys also argued that prosecution’s case “largely parroted the public narrative” and that they “lacked the data necessary to present a comprehensive, scientifically reliable expert analysis of Theranos’ technology.”
The government has until May 3 to respond to Holmes’ appeal of the conviction.
Meanwhile, Holmes’ former boyfriend and Theranos COO, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani reported to prison on April 20 after being denied his motion for release pending appeal by the Ninth Circuit, within three weeks. Balwani was originally ordered to report on March 16 but that was delayed due to the automatic stay from the Ninth Circuit. Balwani is set to serve 13 years at Terminal Island prison, a minimum-security facility in San Pedro, California.
Balwani was convicted in July 2022.
“This is a sad day for Mr. Balwani and for the cause of justice…A nearly 13-year sentence is truly draconian for a man whose sole focus was helping to create a great company without ever putting himself first. We will continue to fight for Mr. Balwani, and are optimistic that the Court of Appeals will correct this injustice when it hears the case,” Jeff Coopersmith, Balwani’s attorney, told ABC News in a statement when he reported to prison.
It is historically rare for an appeals court to allow a defendant to remain free pending their appeal because the likelihood of granting a new trial is rare, according to criminal defense attorney Caroline Polisi.
“The standard is that the government was lacking evidence to such a degree that it is likely that an appeals court would overturn the conviction, that just doesn’t happen very frequently,” Polisi told ABC News, adding, “Appeals courts are loath to second guess jury decisions.”
If Holmes’ appeal of Davila’s denial of her release pending appeal is rejected then she will likely report to the Federal Prison Camp at Bryan, Texas, which is a minimum security prison about 100 miles from where Holmes grew up.
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — House Republicans on Wednesday passed a bill to increase the nation’s debt ceiling while cutting federal government spending — and while the legislation has no prospect of becoming law, GOP leaders hope it will help force negotiations with Democrats.
The proposal, known as the Limit, Save, Grow Act, passed 217-215, with four Republicans joining all Democrats in voting no.
If enacted, the bill would increase the debt limit by $1.5 trillion, reduce funding for federal agencies to 2022 fiscal year levels, limit growth in government spending to 1% per year and block various measures backed by the White House, such as federal student debt cancellation and new funding for the IRS.
“We cannot sit back and ignore the problem like the president has. I know he does it with the border, and I know he is now doing it with the fiscal policy of America,” McCarthy told reporters on Tuesday before the vote.
“We want to sit down and work together, and that is exactly what this bill does,” he said, noting that “we are sitting at $31 trillion of debt.”
The proposed debt limit increase would last through March 2024 — a shorter extension than preferred by President Joe Biden — in exchange for spending cuts and policy changes.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has said the bill has no chance in his chamber and the president has vowed to veto it. Democrats have repeatedly insisted the debt ceiling should be raised separate from any compromise on government spending and policy.
“Congress is going to need to raise the debt limit without — without — conditions and it’s just that simple,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in January. She recently labeled the House bill a “ransom note.”
In remarks at a news conference on Wednesday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell acknowledged the House GOP bill couldn’t clear the Senate but said that McCarthy and Biden must come to some compromise. “We must never default, and the agreement needs to be reached between the speaker and the president,” he said.
Citing past debt ceiling negotiations that involved Biden during the Obama administration, McConnell said Biden “knows that sometimes in divided government, you don’t get things exactly the way you want them.”
On Wednesday afternoon, before the House voted, Biden was asked a shouted question about negotiating on the debt ceiling as he left a press conference with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol, who is visiting Washington.
“They haven’t figured out the debt limit yet,” Biden said, somewhat sarcastically.
When a reporter asked if he would meet with McCarthy, the president said yes — but made it clear, once again, that he views increasing the debt ceiling as “not negotiable.”
“I’m happy to meet with McCarthy, but not on whether or not the debt limit gets extended,” he said.
ABC News’ Sarah Kolinovsky and Allison Pecorin contributed to this report.
This is a developing story. Please return for updates.
(NEW YORK) — The seismic exit of Fox News host Tucker Carlson this week elicited reaction from politicians as varied as former President Donald Trump and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.
But the move also sent shockwaves across Wall Street.
Shares of Fox News-parent company Fox Corporation on Monday tumbled more than 3%, which amounts to hundreds of millions in value.
Nielsen data on Tuesday showed a roughly 20% drop in audience for the first show featuring temporary replacement host Brian Kilmeade, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The departure of Carlson, the nation’s most-watched primetime cable news host, could cause significant financial damage for Fox Corporation through diminished stock value, weakened income from cable carriers and lower advertising revenue, some analysts told ABC News.
“It has the potential to be massive,” Matthew Tuttle, the CEO and CIO of Tuttle Capital Management, who closely follows the media industry, told ABC News. “There’s going to be a very large impact from this. I don’t think you can dress it up as positive.”
However, some media industry analysts downplayed the potential damage since the company has overcome previous departures of high-profile hosts and the move offers an opportunity for the 8 p.m. show to draw corporate advertisers alienated by Carlson’s controversial programming, experts said.
When asked if the company would prove resilient, Huber Research analyst Doug Arthur told ABC News, “There’s no doubt in my mind. The company has survived these kinds of talent hits before.”
Following Carlson’s departure, Fox News told ABC News it’s still the most watched cable news network.
“For more than 21 years, FOX News Channel has been cable news’ most-watched network in all categories with more Democrats, Independents and Republicans now tuning in than either CNN or MSNBC,” a Fox News spokesperson told ABC News. “Attracting more of than 50% of the cable news viewing audience with the top 12 programs in cable news, FOX News’ powerhouse team of journalists, analysts and opinion hosts are trusted more by viewers than any other news source.”
The Fox Corporation did not respond to a request for comment. Carlson has yet to comment on his exit from the company.
Here’s how the departure of Carlson could impact Fox Corporation, according to analysts:
Stock value
After news of the Carlson exit broke on Monday morning, shares of Fox Corporation fell more than 3% by the close of trading that day. The following morning, the decline ticked past 3.5%, amounting to a lost value of more than $500 million.
“The initial stock move was all Tucker,” Tuttle said.
The market reaction stems from the loss of a high-profile star and anticipated attrition among his viewers, analysts said.
On average, Carlson’s 8 p.m. show reached about 3.25 million nightly viewers over the first four months of this year, outpacing competitors in the time slot and other nighttime hosts on Fox News, according to Nielsen.
“He was their ratings leader in primetime,” Huber said. “That’s going to hurt.”
The departure of Carlson compounds the financial damage and uncertainty caused by Fox News’ recent $787.5 million settlement with Dominion Voting Systems, Huber said.
“There’s a black cloud over the stock right now,” he added.
Still, the stock stabilized in trading on Wednesday, ticking up slightly for the day.
“The initial reaction seemed a little bit overdone,” Brandon Nispel, an analyst with KeyBanc Capital Markets, told ABC News. “I heard questions from investors: ‘Is Fox worth anything without Tucker.'”
“The answer is ‘yes,'” he added. “But it’s clearly worth something modestly less than when they had Tucker.”
Fees paid by cable carriers
Fox Corporation sales depend in part on fees paid by cable carriers like Comcast and Dish Network that distribute the company’s broadcasts.
Over the three months ending in December, such fees delivered $1.7 billion or 37% of Fox Corporation revenue, the company’s latest earnings report showed.
Analysts differed over the potential effect that the loss of Carlson poses for carrier fees.
Without Carlson and the promise of his sizable audience, the company will enter its next round of negotiations with cable carriers in a weakened position, potentially hurting the fees it can command, Tuttle said.
“That is a major concern because at least in the short term, they’re going to lose viewers,” he said. “There’s going to be an impact.”
However, the overall lead in audience enjoyed by Fox News in primetime will reassure cable carriers, limiting the effect of the personnel move, Arthur said.
“Their ratings lead is so large at night that I don’t think any distributor is going to screw around with having Fox News fall off of their network,” he said.
Nispel echoed the sentiment, saying he expects a limited effect on carrier fees.
“If anything, it will be a small margin of negative impact,” he said, noting that Fox Corporation already renegotiated several carrier agreements over the past year.
Advertising revenue
Fox Corporation derives the majority of its revenue from advertising, which made up 54% of sales over the final three months of 2022, an earnings report showed.
Since it boasts the largest primetime audience, Carlson’s show generated more advertising revenue last year than each of the 8 p.m. shows on CNN and MSNBC, as well as each of the other primetime shows on Fox News, a New York Times analysis of Vivvixx data showed.
In all, Carlson’s show delivered $77.5 million in advertising revenue last year, according to Vivvixx data.
The likely decline in audience for the 8 p.m. time slot at Fox News, at least in the short term, will hurt advertising revenue, analysts said.
“It creates a lot of uncertainty,” Nispel said. “They’re losing their leader in their primetime lineup.”
However, the move opens up an opportunity for the channel to attract corporate advertisers that previously balked at the controversial views expressed by Carlson, they added.
“It’s going to hurt in the short term,” Arthur said. But he later noted: “The point of strong ratings is to have strong advertising. If you have strong ratings but lousy advertising, what’s the point?”
The opening may attract a more moderate host who reassures major advertisers, Tuttle said, but he cautioned that a replacement would feel pressure to take up similarly controversial positions as a means of gaining a large audience.
“We’re in a society where controversy sells,” Tuttle said.
