(HAMPTON, N.H.) — The U.S. Coast Guard is searching the waters off New England for four people reported missing after they sailed for a fishing trip Wednesday.
Michael Sai and three unidentified passengers departed Hampton, New Hampshire, in a 17-foot white center console boat, according to the Coast Guard.
“Their reported destination was fishing grounds near Jeffreys Ledge, approx. 50 miles offshore,” the Coast Guard tweeted.
A Coast Guard helicopter, plane and two boats were deployed to search for the missing people, the agency said.
On Thursday, an aircraft found an overturned vessel seven miles northeast of Cape Ann, but no people in the water were observed, according to the Coast Guard.
Anyone with information is asked to call Sector Northern New England at (207) 767-0303.
(DADEVILLE, Ala.) — Five people, including three teenagers, have been arrested in connection with a deadly shooting at a birthday party in Alabama over the weekend where four victims were killed and 32 others were injured.
The most recent arrest was 19-year-old Willie George Brown Jr. of Auburn. The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency announced Thursday that he’s been charged with four counts of reckless murder.
Ty Reik McCullough, 17, and Travis McCullough, 16, both of Tuskegee, were each charged with four counts of reckless murder on Tuesday. They have both been charged as adults.
Wilson LaMar Hill Jr., 20, of Auburn, was arrested on Wednesday and also charged with four counts of reckless murder. Johnny Letron Brown, 20, of Tuskegee, was arrested and formally charged with four counts of reckless murder on Thursday, according to the ALEA.
Four victims are still in the hospital in critical condition.
The shooting took place at a crowded birthday party in the small town of Dadeville, located approximately 60 miles northeast of Montgomery, according toauthorities.
“Make no mistake, this is Alabama and when you pull out a gun, and you start shooting people, we’re gonna put you in jail,” Alabama Law Enforcement Agency Sgt. Jeremy Burkett said at a press conference Wednesday.
Officials said they are still in the early stages of the investigation and more charges will be coming. Officials asked anyone who has information or was present at the shooting to come forward.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” said Mike Segrest, district attorney for the Fifth Judicial Circuit of Alabama. “We’re going to make sure every one of those victims has justice and not just the deceased.”
Officials did not reveal whether they have identified a motive for the shooting.
One of the victims killed in the shooting — 18-year-old Philstavious Dowdell — was attending his sister’s 16th birthday party, according to Segrest.
“There were so many kids in this venue and what they saw, they’re victims in this. Their families are victims of this,” Segrest said at a press conference Wednesday.
In addition to Dowdell, the three others killed in the shooting were identified as 23-year-old Corbin Dahmontrey Holston, 19-year-old Marsiah Emmanuel Collins and 17-year-old Shaunkivia Nicole Smith.
(SEOUL, South Korea) — South Korea’s presidential office confirmed that the ongoing machine gun bullets, battle tank shell, and reactive armor exports deal to Poland will continue as planned amid controversy after President Yoon Suk Yeol signaled his intentions to send weapons directly to Ukraine if a large-scale attack on civilians is carried out by Russia.
President Yoon’s comments were strongly criticized by Russian officials saying “such actions would definitely ruin Russian-Korean relations.”
In Yoon’s interview with Reuters, he said that if there were to be a large-scale attack on Ukrainian civilians, a massacre or a serious violation of the laws of war by Russia, that it might be difficult for South Korea to insist only on humanitarian or financial support.
The presidential office immediately clarified that President Yoon was merely referring to a “hypothetical situation” and explained to reporters “what South Korea does in the future will depend on Russia’s action.”
President Yoon is expected to meet President Joe Biden at the White House for his second bilateral summit next week and the two leaders are expected to “discuss a shared vision of a strong and deeply integrated U.S.-ROK Alliance that maintains peace, stability, and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific and beyond,” the White House announced on Wednesday.
South Korean companies have begun to wade into the global arms market to fill the gap in the international arms shortage. Last year, South Korea’s arms exports rose to a record $17.3 billion and Hanwha Aerospace, the largest defense company in South Korea, accounts for more than half of overseas arms exports in the country, according to South Korea’s Defense Ministry.
In the case of Poland, South Korea currently exports tanks, fighter jets, howitzers and multiple rocket launchers as Poland has been sending its conventional weapons to Ukraine.
The arms exported to Poland include 180 K2 main battle tanks by Hyundai Rotem and Hanwha Aerospace’s 672 K9 A1 self-propelled howitzers. The first 24 of Hanwha’s howitzers were delivered to Poland’s soil last December while the company looks for ways to manufacture a portion of their product in Poland as well.
“We have 10 K2 tanks and 24 K9 howitzers on Polish soil. I emphasize that this is only the first batch of equipment that is to be delivered to Poland. There will be more deliveries next year,” Mariusz Błaszczak, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of National Defense said during the collection of equipment from South Korea last December.
It took less than half a year for Hanwha Aerospace to land an export deal and deliver the product to Poland — an unprecedented speed in signing and executing an arms contract since it is a process that normally takes four to five years. For Hanwha, it was the largest order from overseas.
“The Ukrainian war is draining inventory of conventional weapons, such as self-propelled guns, missiles, and shells, which are most commonly used in actual war. Since major weapons-producing countries like the U.S. and Germany have reduced production lines for conventional weapons, it will take years to meet the demand, but South Korea was ready,” Chae Woo-suk, the president of the Korea Defense Industry Association, told ABC News. “Poland imported new weapons to defend themselves from South Korea to cover the short supply after they have exhausted a lot of old existing weapons supporting the Ukrainian war.”
A subsidiary of South Korean conglomerate Hanwha Group, Hanwha Aerospace provides most howitzers and fighting vehicles for the country’s military. As one of the few countries in the world that is technically still at war, South Korea’s arsenal companies have been maintaining and upgrading the conventional weapons production to equip the more than 3.6 million army personnel.
Despite playing second fiddle in the arsenal industry to companies in the West, South Korean companies like Hanwha have a comparative advantage in their production capabilities. Hanwha explained their biggest advantage is that they can meet the demands in a shorter period of time because they are relatively free from the global logistics disturbance when assembling their howitzers and war vehicles. For instance, 92% of Hanwha’s K9 howitzer parts are manufactured within South Korea.
“Our strong local manufacturing ecosystem has enabled us to be a key player providing high-quality weapon systems like our artillery and armored vehicles. And localization rate reaches over 80%,” Dae-young Kim, Executive Vice President of Hanwha Aerospace told ABC News. “Many thought that conventional weapons like battle tanks and artillery systems do not necessarily belong to the battle environment in the 21st century. But as seen in the Ukraine war, the artillery capabilities still play an essential role, and Hanwha Aerospace has strength in providing them.”
Hanwha’s export deal with Poland has expanded its production line in Changwon and around 50 more workers were committed to the K9 Howitzer production in March to increase production capacity to meet export demand.
“It takes approximately 100 days to complete one K9 howitzer-starting from laying the foundation plate and running a road test,” production manager Cha Yong-su at Hanwha Aerospace Changwon manufacturing plant, told ABC News. “Skilled workers as well as the automated robots who enable the hectic schedule.”
The South Korean government has reiterated its official position that they will not send Ukraine any direct lethal aid in the midst of the current controversy.
(NEW YORK) — High inflation, interest rate hikes and recession worries pummeled stocks last year.
The market has rebounded in 2023, though, even as each of those problems continues to vex the economy. Compounding those concerns, the banking sector underwent a crisis last month and a debt ceiling dispute in Congress risks financial distress.
Still, the tech-heavy Nasdaq has climbed more than 15% this year, while the S&P 500 has jumped more than 7%. The Dow has ticked up about 2% since the outset of the year.
The gains in recent months owe in part to the poor performance last year, since investors already responded to the grim economic conditions with a sell-off, stock analysts told ABC News.
Investors flocked back to the market as inflation eased and rate hikes slowed, even if those market headwinds persist and the threat of a recession looms, they said.
“The stock market is obviously performing better than the vast majority of people would’ve expected,” Tom Essaye, president of financial data firm Sevens Report Research, told ABC News.
“The market has proven very impressively resilient, despite bad news,” he added.
Analysts differed about the outlook for stocks going forward, however, as some said they expect the rally to endure for the remainder of the year while others predicted a recession that would render the good times short-lived.
Over the last year, the Federal Reserve has imposed an aggressive string of interest rate hikes last seen in the 1980s.
The policy aims to slash inflation but risks slowing the economy and bringing about a recession.
So far, the approach has succeeded in cooling price hikes but fallen short of the Fed’s goal.
Consumer prices rose 5% last month compared to a year ago, extending a monthslong slowdown of price increases but leaving inflation more than double the target rate of 2%.
The progress in slashing inflation has left investors confident that the Fed will soon stop raising interest rates and may even begin to lower rates by the end of the year, analysts told ABC News.
“The theme we’re seeing in 2023 is ‘The end is near,'” Adam Turnquist, chief technical strategist at LPL Financial, told ABC News.
Softening inflation and rate hikes have coincided with resilient economic performance, fueling investor optimism, analysts said.
The U.S. added 236,000 jobs in March, which marks robust job growth but a reduction from an average of 334,000 jobs added each month over the previous six months, according to government data released last week.
Meanwhile, U.S. retail sales fell moderately in February but remained solid, suggesting that households still retain some pandemic-era savings.
When asked about rising stock prices this year, Tigress Financial market analyst Ivan Feinseth said: “The key fundamental reason is the economy is still strong. The world hasn’t come to an end.”
Still, the economy remains under threat of a recession.
Fed economists said in March that they anticipate a “mild” recession later this year, escalating a previous forecast, central bank meeting minutes showed.
Sixty-five percent of economists expect a recession within the next year, according to a Bloomberg survey last month.
Still, many stock investors hold out hope that the economy could avert a downturn or expect that a mild recession would cause little economic upheaval, said Turnquist, of LPL Financial.
“We’re seeing a message from the market that we could still potentially avoid a recession,” he said.
Some analysts said each of the major stock indexes would end the year at a higher price than its current level, since resilient economic activity would buoy corporate profits, the key focus for stock forecasters.
“The market is teetering on a major breakout,” said Feinseth, of Tigress Financial. “I think we’re going to see a powerful second half of the year.”
Essaye, of Sevens Report Research, offered a more pessimistic outlook, saying the S&P 500 could fall as much as 10% by the end of the year if the economy turns downward.
“It’s extremely difficult to execute a soft landing,” he said, referring to an outcome in which the Fed raises rates to bring down inflation but avoids causing a recession. “There has only been one executed successfully in the last 40 years.”
Despite the glum forecast, Essaye said the current moment offers an opportunity for patient investors to jump into the market.
“We’re pricing in the bad news now and getting ready for a positive surprise in the long term,” he said. “The U.S. economy isn’t going to break.”
ABC News’ Elizabeth Schulze contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — As air travel soars, the number of guns found at airport checkpoints is up, with the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) reporting a more than 10% increase in recovered firearms for the first quarter of 2023 compared to the same time last year.
TSA said officers intercepted 1,508 guns at airport security checkpoints from Jan. 1 to March 31 of this year, averaging 16.8 firearms a day — more than 93% of which were loaded. The agency found 1,367 during the same months in 2022, according to a press release from the agency.
“Firearms at TSA security checkpoints present an unacceptable safety and security risk to other passengers and I am deeply concerned that the majority of these firearms our [officers] catch are loaded,” TSA Administrator David Pekoske said in a press release.
While the number of guns found at checkpoints is up, the rate at which they’re found has decreased. TSA said it found 7.9 firearms per one million passengers this year, down from the same time last year when the rate of discovery was 8.6 firearms per one million passengers.
This comes as air travel continues to rebound towards pre-pandemic levels – TSA says it screened 191 million passengers during Q1 of this year, up more than 20% from the 158 million screened in the first quarter of 2022.
While air travel numbers plunged during the pandemic, the rate of firearms discovered increased. TSA found a total of 3,257 firearms in carry-ons in 2020 — approximately 10 guns per million passengers screened. In 2021, the agency detected 5,972 guns. The rate of discovery that year was 10.2 firearms per million passengers.
Pre-pandemic numbers show the agency found 4,432 firearms in 2019 at a rate of five firearms per million passengers screened.
Passengers caught with guns in carry-ons can face fines up to $14,950.
“If you carry a firearm to the checkpoint, our [officers] will see it and there will be significant penalties, to include federal penalties and additional screening, which may prolong the security screening process,” Pekoske said. “You may still travel with a firearm — it just must be properly packed in your checked baggage and you must declare it to the airline.”
(TALLAHASSEE, Fla.) — Florida officials are apologizing and pledging to remove the company responsible for sending Florida residents emergency alerts on their cellphones after much of the state was woken up to an alarm at 4:45 a.m. on Thursday.
Officials said the alert, which included wording that it was a test, was intended to be on TV.
“The Division understands that unexpected 4:45 AM wake up calls are frustrating and would like to apologize for the early morning text,” the Florida Division of Emergency Management said in a statement to ABC News.
“We are taking the appropriate action to remove the company responsible for submitting the alert this morning. We want to stress that while this wake up call was unwarranted, disasters can happen at any time and having a way to receive emergency alerts can save lives,” the division said.
Florida’s emergency management agency said it tests emergency alerts on a variety of platforms, including radio, television and text alerts.
“We are taking the appropriate action to ensure this will never happen again and that only true emergencies are sent as alerts in the middle of the night,” the division said in a tweet.
Gov. Ron DeSantis echoed that he would “bring swift accountability” to those responsible.
“This was a completely inappropriate use of this system,” he said in a tweet.
(NEW YORK) — Sea level rise is likely presenting more threats to an already vulnerable marine species, according to new research.
As waters from the ocean push further and further onto shore, the flooding is washing away the nesting sites for sea turtles in places like the United States, Australia, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic, according to a study published Thursday in Scientific Reports.
Researchers estimated the probability of flooding under moderate and high greenhouse gas emission scenarios could impact 2,835 sea turtle nest locations within seven breeding grounds between 2010 and 2100. They found that under a moderate emissions scenario, breeding grounds located on flat beaches were most vulnerable to flooding — with 100% likelihood of flooding of nests in Raine Island, Australia; Saona Island, Dominican Republic; St George Island, Florida; and Mondonguillo beach, Costa Rica, according to the study.
Flooding of nests in some those areas are expected by 2050, the researchers said.
Nests in Raine Island and Saona Island will likely be “completely vanished” in the next several decades, Marga Rivas, a biodiversity and nature conservation researcher at the University of Cadiz in Spain and author of the study, told ABC News.
In Sint Eustatius, a Dutch island in the Caribbean, 50% of leatherback, 18% of hawksbill and 13% of green turtle nest locations could be vulnerable to flooding by 2050.
Within breeding grounds used by multiple turtle species, leatherback turtle nests may be particularly vulnerable to flooding due to their tendency to nest in open areas near the high tide line, according to the study. Hawksbill and green turtles tend to nest at higher elevations closer to dunes and steep cliffs, the researchers said.
As female sea turtles return to nest on the same beaches they hatched on, sea level rises could lead to many turtles nesting on flooded beaches, which could negatively impact the number of turtles hatching, according to the study.
Coastlines in places like Costa Rica and South America have been shrinking significantly in the last several years, Rivas said. The fact that turtle nests will likely disappear in alarming rates on several islands so far away from one another prove how widespread and dangerous the threat is, she said.
Rivas also warned against relocating turtle nests to higher ground because without temperature control, this well-meaning action could cause skewing sex ratios — causing all of the eggs that hatch to be females. The temperature of the developing eggs determines whether the offspring will be male or female.
“They put it anywhere, and they are producing 100% of females in those places,” Rivas said.
Sea level rise is adding to the severe threat sea turtles already face by overfishing and plastic ingestion, Rivas said.
“We need to help protect their nesting population because without those, with the high mortality they’re suffering, it’s impossible to to keep their species for the future,” Rivas said.
Loggerhead turtles are listed as vulnerable and multiple subspecies of leatherback turtles are listed as critical on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species.
(ATLANTA) — An investigation into the death of a man whose family claims he was “eaten alive by insects and bedbugs” in an Atlanta jail has led to “sweeping changes,” according to the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office.
Sheriff Patrick “Pat” Labat said in a statement Monday that he’s asked for and received the resignations of multiple employees of the Fulton County Jail: the chief jailer, assistant chief jailer and the assistant chief jailer of the site’s Criminal Investigative Division.
The resignations come after the lawyer of LaShawn Thompson’s family said last week that Thompson’s body was discovered in a “filthy jail cell” on Sept. 13, 2022, after medical staff allegedly ignored his declining health. According to family attorney Ben Crump, authorities found Thompson with over 1,000 insect bites “all over his body.”
“They literally watched his health decline until he died. When his body was found, one of the detention officers refused to administer CPR because in her words, she ‘freaked out,'” the family’s attorney, Michael Harper, wrote in an April 12 Facebook post. “He did not deserve this. Someone has to be held accountable for his death.”
Although there are graphic images of Thompson’s jail cell and his body and face after he was found, the medical examiner could not determine the cause of death, according to family attorneys.
Thompson was arrested on June 12, 2022, for simple battery against police officials, according to jail records.
In the statement, posted to its Facebook page, the sheriff’s office said the executive team that’s been in place “has more than 65 years of jail administration and law enforcement experience.”
“When leveraged at its very best, that experience can be invaluable. However, it can also lend itself to complacency, stagnation and settling for the status quo,” it said.
“It’s clear to me that it’s time, past time, to clean house,” Labat said in the statement.
According to Harper, Thompson suffered from mental health issues and was diagnosed with schizophrenia. He was placed in a psychiatric ward in jail three months before his death.
Family attorneys, community members and family held a press conference Thursday to demand the Department of Justice investigate the jail.
Thompson’s family also has called for the jail to be closed.
“He wasn’t the only one who was affected by those insects and bedbugs in that entire wing, but he was the only one that we know of who died,” Harper said during the press conference.
Thompson’s younger sister Shenita Thompson spoke at the press conference, sharing she’d been calling authorities for months to get answers regarding the death of her brother, but was unable to get answers until Harper stepped in to help.
“I want to get down to the truth of what happened to my brother,” Shenita said.
Thompson’s aunt spoke as well, detailing the bites she found over her nephew’s body at the funeral home.
The Fulton County Sheriff’s Office says it’s exploring its options to change medical vendors and to partner with a provider that can “compassionately” deliver care, officials said.
Sheriff Labat joined the family at the Thursday press conference, offering his condolences and answering questions from the community.
“The family asked me to come out here and stand with them. We have prayed together. We understand and I’ve said this publicly. This is absolutely unconscionable. Point blank,” he said.
An investigation is being conducted by the Office of Professional Standards, as well as by the Atlanta Police Department, authorities said. The Georgia Bureau of Investigations will ultimately review a “full investigative package” once the probes are complete, the sheriff’s office said.
According to Harper, Senator Jon Ossoff also called for the DOJ to begin an investigation and Labat shared at the press conference that he has been “in contact” with Ossoff’s office.
“In terms of the timeline, it’s important to know what I don’t want to do is, I don’t want to for the sake of expediency rush through. I want to get it right,” Labat said. “The family deserve it. We need to make sure we get it right every step of the way.
Crump announced at the press conference that he will be conducting an independent autopsy done for Thompson with help from former NFL star and activist Colin Kapernick, who contacted the family assuring that he will pay for it “no matter what.”
“We didn’t want our brother to be shown to the public like this, but the public need to see,” said Brad McCrae, younger brother of Thompson. “Everybody need to see. Everybody needs to wake up and somebody needs to be held accountable.”
(NEW YORK) — If former President Donald Trump opts not to attend his trial next week in which he stands accused of defaming and battering writer E. Jean Carroll, a federal judge ruled Thursday that his lawyer can make no mention of the “burdens” that might spare New York City.
Trump attorney Joe Tacopina had asked the judge on Wednesday to inform the jury that if Trump didn’t appear for the trail in lower Manhattan, it would be to avoid the “logistical and financial burdens upon New York City, its residents, and court itself.”
Judge Lewis Kaplan, who is presiding over Carroll’s lawsuit against Trump, said Thursday that the decision whether to attend the trial or testify is Trump’s alone, and that Trump has had “ample time” to make the necessary arrangements.
“Moreover, the Court notes from Mr. Trump’s campaign web site and media reports that he announced earlier this week that he will speak at a campaign event in New Hampshire on April 27, 2023, the third day of the scheduled trial in this case,” Kaplan said in his ruling. “If the Secret Service can protect him at that event, certainly the Secret Service, the Marshals Service, and the City of New York can see to his security in this very secure federal courthouse.”
Kaplan said it was premature to tell the jury anything about Trump’s presence or absence.
“Should he elect not to appear or testify, his counsel may renew the request,” Kaplan said. “In the meantime, there shall be no reference by counsel for Mr. Trump in the presence of the jury panel or the trial jury to Mr. Trump’s alleged desire to testify or to the burdens that any absence on his part allegedly might spare, or might have spared, the Court of the city of New York.”
In her lawsuit, brought in November, Carroll alleges that Trump defamed her by calling her a liar when he denied her claim that he raped her in a department store dressing room in the 1990s. She added a charge of battery under a recently adopted New York law that allows adult survivors of sexual abuse to sue their alleged attacker regardless of the statute of limitations.
A judge last week denied Trump’s attempt to delay the start of the trial, which is scheduled to get underway in New York on Tuesday.
Trump has repeatedly denied Carroll’s allegations.
An attorney for Carroll chided Tacopina’s request on Wednesday, writing in a separate letter that “the notion that Mr. Trump would not appear as some sort of favor to the City of New York — and that the jury should be instructed as much — taxes the credulity of the credulous.”
The judge had given Trump until the end of the day Thursday to let the court know for sure whether he’d attend the trial, but Tacopina said in a letter to the court Thursday afternoon that Trump would make that decision while the trial is in progress.
“Because the decision of the defendant, who is not required to appear as a civil litigant, will be made during the course of the trial. we are not yet in a position to advise the Court in this regard,” Tacopina said. “However, we will inform the Court as soon as a decision is reached, particularly in light of the logistical concerns that will need to be addressed in coordination with the Secret Service, the Marshals Service, and the City of New York.”
“Your consideration in this matter is greatly appreciated,” Tacopina said in the letter.
(SANTA FE, N.M.) — Charges against Alec Baldwin have been dropped in the fatal on-set “Rust” shooting, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Baldwin, 65, had been charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter after fatally shooting cinematographer Halyna Hutchins, 42, on the New Mexico set of the Western in October 2021. The actor was practicing a cross-draw when the gun fired, striking the cinematographer and director Joel Souza, who suffered a non-life-threatening injury.
“We are pleased with the decision to dismiss the case against Alec Baldwin and we encourage a proper investigation into the facts and circumstances of this tragic accident,” Luke Nikas and Alex Spiro, the attorneys for Alec Baldwin, said in a statement.
Baldwin’s next court appearance in the case had been set for May 3. Baldwin already waived his right to appear at the preliminary hearing.
The film’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, was also charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter over Hutchins’ death.
Gun enhancement charges filed in the case against both Baldwin and Gutierrez-Reed were dropped in late February.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
