(NEW YORK) — A person is in custody in connection with the death of Orsolya Gaal, the New York City mother found stabbed to death inside a duffel bag, police sources told ABC News.
Gaal was found in a duffel bag in Queens on Saturday morning. The 51-year-old was stabbed dozens of times, according to police sources.
Story developing…
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(NEW YORK) — Over 20,000 car seats are being recalled due to loose pieces of foam that can present a choking hazard to kids.
The recall impacts certain CYBEX Sirona M Convertible Child Car Seats, which were manufactured between Nov. 3, 2017, and Aug. 31, 2018, and include model numbers 518000385, 518002153, 518000387, 518002145, 518002149, 518002151 and 519000211.
The recall, posted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), impacts about 20,526 car seats. The documents said children can pick pieces of foam from the child seat headrest pad, posing a choking hazard.
To fix the issue, Columbus Trading-Partners USA, Inc will mail a kit with instructions on how to seal the headrest foam, free of charge.
CYBEX did not immediately respond to request for comment.
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(NEW YORK) — As summer approaches, travelers are preparing for trips in huge numbers after many people put off vacations for years during the COVID-19 pandemic — and that’s being reflected in the prices.
“This summer, Americans can expect to pay more for airfare than they have paid in the last 10 years,” Hayley Berg, an economist at Hopper, an online booking platform, told ABC News’ Good Morning America. “Right now, domestic round trip travel costs about $360, and that’s up 15% versus 2019, the last normal year of travel before the pandemic, and up significantly since the start of the year.”
But even though prices for travel are up amid the increased demand for travel, travelers can still get good deals, according to travel experts, who have a few key tips for locking in low airfare rates as summer travel heats up.
Berg recommends customers book summer flights by the first week of May. After that, “prices will just continue to rise,” Berg said.
“If you’re planning a trip right now, be aggressive, start planning early and take a look at your route that you’re flying and how busy it is,” added Willis Orlando, senior product operations specialist for Scott’s Cheap Flights.
Although you can wait for a sale or a day when fares have dropped on popular routes where there is a lot of competition, booking early is especially important if you are booking a trip in a region or route that does not have a lot of competition, Orlando told GMA.
“If your route is served by one or two airlines at most, you don’t have that competition, you can expect these high prices to persist,” Orlando said. “In that case, start monitoring it early, and as soon as you see a dip to a reasonable level, lock it in, because you’re not likely to see a drop much further than that.”
When shopping for airfare, flexibility in terms of dates and locations can mean better prices, whether that means leaving on a different day of the week or flying into a smaller, regional airport.
“Try booking your departing flight on a Tuesday or Wednesday, when prices are typically the lowest,” Berg said. “Or if you’re flexible on where you fly into or out of, check out more regional airports. Oftentimes, lower cost carriers will fly out of regional airports.”
Another good way to get a good deal is to track prices for preferred flights.
“Use a price monitoring tool, so you’re updated on where prices are and how they’re changing,” Berg said.
Another concern that experts point to are pilot shortages, which have led to some airlines trimming summer flight schedules as well as delays and cancellations across the industry.
To avoid that, experts say to book on off-peak days and to book flights for the morning. If you’re traveling for a wedding or other specific event, Berg recommends arriving a day or two early, in case there are delays or cancellations.
“The biggest thing you can do is be flexible and fly kind of off-peak, so if you’re flying out of try flying on a Tuesday or Wednesday or Saturday. It is a little less busy those days, which means that if there is a problem somewhere, it’s less likely to cascade into a kind of mass cancellation event,” Orlando said.
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(NEW YORK) — Barbie is officially releasing a Queen Elizabeth II doll to celebrate both the queen’s 96th birthday and her Platinum Jubilee, which marks 70 years on the throne.
The Queen Elizabeth II Barbie doll, part of Barbie’s Tribute Collection series, will go on sale Thursday, which is April 21, the queen’s birthday.
It marks the first Barbie made in Queen Elizabeth’s likeness, according to Mattel.
The doll is dressed in an ivory gown inspired by the “style and color of a gown that she’s favored in royal portraits of herself,” Mattel said in a statement.
The Queen Elizabeth II doll also features regal details, such as Queen Mary’s fringe tiara, which Queen Elizabeth wore on her wedding day, and medallions of the orders of the royal family.
The doll’s packaging is inspired by Buckingham Palace, the queen’s residence in London, with red carpeting, a crest-shaped logo and a badge marking the queen’s Platinum Jubilee, according to Mattel.
“In 1952, when she came to the throne, women were not encouraged to work and politicians expressed doubts about a young female monarch — but she showed them wrong, proved herself an adept leader and diplomat,” Kate Williams, author of Our Queen Elizabeth, a picture book on the queen, said in a statement provided by Mattel. “As Her Majesty celebrates this milestone jubilee, it is wonderful to see an iconic brand like Barbie share important historical female figures impact as leaders, creators and pioneers to new generations.”
Queen Elizabeth ascended to the throne on Feb. 6, 1952, following the death of her father, King George VI.
Her 70-year reign makes her the longest-ruling monarch in Britain’s history.
The Queen Elizabeth II Barbie doll will retail for $75 and will be sold on Mattel’s website as well as retailers including Amazon, Target and Walmart.
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(NEW YORK) — After decades of work fighting to save African animals, Jane Goodall is turning her attention to the environmental and political impact left on technology.
The anthropologist spoke with ABC News’ Linsey Davis Tuesday about her recent partnership with Apple to encourage customers to recycle their devices. Goodall said reusing the metals and chemicals inside a phone, tablet or computer goes a long way to reduce peoples’ carbon footprint and will cut down on unnecessary mineral mining around the world.
“So many businesses are just ramping forward and not caring about the long-term environmental protection as much as short-term profit. Yes, people need to make money, but it is possible to make money without destroying the planet,” Goodall told ABC News. “We’ve gone so far in destroying the planet that it’s shocking.”
Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of environment, policy and social initiatives, told ABC News that an iPhone contains more than 100 chemicals.
Jackson, the former administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said that the tech company has been pushing to reduce its environmental waste through its recycling program and has seen some success.
Last year, 20% of materials in Apple devices were recycled materials, she said.
“We want to see that number continue to grow and the only way that happens is if users and customers bring back their devices at the end of their life,” Jackson said.
Goodall noted that one of the materials used in modern devices is coltan, and mining for the material has not only harmed the environment but also leads to deadly and unethical working conditions in places like the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“It’s underground tunnels [where] it’s dug. They’re not properly shored up. Children, basically, slaves are sent down in the tunnels. So many get killed,” she said.
Jackson pointed out that Apple ensures that the company is not using conflict minerals and dangerous supply lines in its products.
Apple is working with Goodall’s Roots and Shoots program, which works with young people in different communities to combat the climate crisis.
“What I love so much about Jane, Dr. Goodall, is that she challenges us every day to think more about the future, and she never lets us give up hope. Those two things together are the most powerful device, the most powerful thing we can do for the planet,” Jackson said.
Goodall echoed this message and encouraged people to stay hopeful for the planet.
“If you give nature a chance, it’s amazingly resilient,” she said.
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(NEW YORK) — Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” into neighboring Ukraine began on Feb. 24, with Russian forces invading from Belarus, to the north, and Russia, to the east. Ukrainian troops have offered “stiff resistance,” according to U.S. officials.
Russian forces have since retreated from northern Ukraine, leaving behind a trail of death and destruction. The United States and many European countries accused Russia of committing war crimes after graphic images emerged of dead civilians in the town of Bucha, near Kyiv. The Russian military has now launched a full-scale ground offensive in eastern Ukraine’s disputed Donbas region, as it attempts to capture the strategic port city of Mariupol and secure a coastal corridor to the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Apr 21, 6:44 am
Putin claims ‘success’ in Mariupol siege
Russian President Vladimir Putin declared on Thursday that his siege of Mariupol had been a success, congratulating his defense minister and thanking Russian troops.
“The completion of the combat work to liberate Mariupol is a success,” Putin said. “I congratulate you. Convey words of gratitude to the troops.”
Putin’s claim of victory came as he ordered troops to abandon their assault on the Azovstal Iron and Steel Works plant, the last holdout for Ukrainian troops in the port city.
A Ukrainian commander of the regiment at the site said Ukrainian troops there are ready to surrender, if their safety can be guaranteed by a third party and they are allowed to take the bodies of their dead with them.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office called for negotiations inside Mariupol to get anyone left in the factory out of the area alive.
Apr 21, 5:13 am
Putin cancels Mariupol plant attack, orders site blocked off
Russian President Vladimir Putin canceled his military’s attack on a Mariupol steel plant, one of the last areas in the port city held by Ukrainian forces, ordering his troops to instead seal all exit routes from the sprawling plant.
“I consider the proposed assault on the industrial zone impractical,” Putin told Sergei Shoigu, his defense minister, during a meeting televised on Thursday by Russian state media, according to a translation of the Kremlin’s official transcript.
The Mariupol city council claimed Tuesday that there are at least 1,000 civilians, mostly women with children and the elderly, seeking shelter in the Azovstal Steel and Iron Works plant. It was unclear how many Ukrainian troops were defending the site.
Putin in the televised meeting ordered his troops to “block” the industrial zone. He repeated the claim that Moscow would let troops leave unharmed if they lay down their weapons and surrender.
“There is no need to climb into these catacombs and crawl underground on these industrial facilities,” Putin said. “Block this industrial area so that the fly does not fly.”
Apr 20, 4:37 pm
Delegations walk out on Russian official
During a G20 meeting of economic and finance ministers on Wednesday, delegations from several countries, including U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, walked out of the room while Russia’s delegate began his remarks, the White House confirmed.
Canada’s Finance Minister, Chrystia Freeland, tweeted a photo of several officials, including herself, Yellen, U.S. Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell and European Central Bank president Christine Lagarde, outside of the meeting room, standing in solidarity with Ukrainian Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko.
“It’s an indication of the fact that President Putin and Russia has become a pariah on the global stage,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters.
The Treasury also unveiled new sanctions Wednesday against dozens of Russian and Belarusian people and institutions, including a key commercial bank and a virtual currency mining company.
“This is part of our stepped-up effort to crack down on those attempting to evade our unprecedented sanctions,” Psaki said.
The State Department has also imposed visa restrictions on over 600 Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainian separatists backed by the Kremlin, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said.
Apr 20, 3:59 pm
UN chief seeks peace talks with Putin, Zelenskyy
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres wrote separate letters to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday asking to meet “to discuss urgent steps to bring about peace in Ukraine,” a UN spokesperson said on Wednesday.
Mykhailo Podoliak, adviser to the head of the president’s office, tweeted that Ukraine is ready to hold a special round of negotiations in Mariupol.
Apr 20, 3:25 pm
Thousands more Russians enter Donbas: US official
Four more Russian battalions, each made up of roughly 800 to 1,000 troops, have crossed into Ukraine over the last 24 hours, a senior U.S. defense official said Wednesday. Three of those battalions — or up to 3,000 troops — moved to the disputed Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, the official said.
Four flights carrying military aid, including artillery, from the Biden administration’s most recent $800 million package arrived in Ukraine over the last 24 hours, the official said. More supplies are set to arrive over the next day, the official said.
When ABC News asked why the U.S. decided to send artillery, the official responded: “We’re mindful of the importance of artillery in the fight that they’re in right now and in the fighting in the days to come because of the terrain, and because of what we think they’re going to be up against with Russian forces.”
Another reason was “the fact that it wouldn’t require an onerous amount of training for the Ukrainians to know how to use them” and the ability to ship them quickly, according to the official.
Apr 20, 2:12 pm
Humanitarian corridor from Mariupol didn’t work as planned Wednesday
Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said Wednesday’s humanitarian corridor from Mariupol didn’t work as planned but evacuation efforts will continue Thursday morning.
“Due to the lack of control over their own military on the ground, the occupiers were unable to ensure a proper ceasefire,” Vereshchuk said in a statement.
There also wasn’t “timely transportation of people to the point where dozens of our buses and ambulances were waiting,” Vereshchuk said.
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(NEW YORK) — Almost half of Americans — 137 million people — are experiencing more days of “very unhealthy” and “hazardous” air quality than in the previous two decades combined, according to a report published this week by the American Lung Association.
The annual “State of the Air” report looked at Americans’ exposure to two types of air pollution: ozone, also known as “smog,” and particle pollution, also known as “soot.” It found that over 63 million Americans are now impacted by deadly particle pollution, an increase of nearly nine million people from previous years.
This particle pollution or “particulate matter” comes from wildfires, wood-burning stoves, coal-fired power plants and diesel engines, and can cause multiple health problems, including asthma attacks, heart attacks and strokes. With repeated exposure, it can cause lung cancer.
“We’ve seen much better air quality in most areas today than when we started the report. But over the last five years, we’ve seen an uptick, and we attribute a lot of that to climate change. We’ve had some of the hottest years on record — creating dry conditions that lead to drought and wildfires,” said Paul Billings, senior vice president of public policy for the American Lung Association.
Last summer, over 100 wildfires in the West carried smoke and ash thousands of miles, affecting places as far as New York City, where the air quality index (AQI) for fine particulate matter reached levels greater than 150, which is 10 times above health exposure recommendations, according to the World Health Organization’s 2021 updated Air Quality Guidelines. The new guidelines reflect strong evidence that air pollution can have major health consequences, including premature death, at even lower concentrations than previously understood.
Dr. John Balmes, a professor of environmental health sciences at the University of California in Berkeley and a volunteer medical spokesperson for the ALA, has studied the effects of California’s air pollution for over three decades and said all the progress in the Mountain West “has pretty much been undone by wildfires.”
Fresno, California, displaced Fairbanks, Alaska, as the metropolitan area with the worst daily spikes in particle pollution, and Bakersfield, California, continued in the most-polluted slot for year-round particle pollution for the third year in a row.
Balmes said his wife has “fairly severe asthma,” and because of the wildfires in California, they’ve had to increase the central filtration in their ventilation system and now have two portable HEPA filters.
“She always wears an N95 when she goes out during wildfires, and she tries not to go out,” he said.
Echoing earlier research, the report also found that people of color were 61% more likely than white people to live in a county with a failing grade for at least one pollutant. Balmes said that because of where they live, “Low-income communities of color have the highest exposure to diesel exhaust” and often do not have “ventilation and filtration appliances to reduce exposure in their homes.”
Dr. Franziska Rosser, assistant professor of pediatrics in the division of pulmonary medicine at University of Pittsburgh, researches the effects of air pollution on children with asthma. She recommends that parents of children with asthma check the AQI by going to AirNow.gov and to either avoid outdoor air pollution exposure when it reaches unhealthy levels or choose activities where kids are not breathing as heavily.
But when it comes to creating real change, Rosser said, “Personal interventions for air pollution are unfair. Air pollution cannot be controlled by one person. It is a societal problem and a global problem. The absolute best interventions for air pollution are policy.”
Balmes said it’s time to double down on climate emergency solutions, which includes reducing reliance on fossil fuel for transportation and power generation. He also recommends more investment in forest management.
“We’ve long advocated for much more protective standards,” Billings added, noting that the organization is asking the Biden administration to strengthen the national limits on particulate matter air pollution.
“The public has a right to know when air pollution threatens their health and the health of their children, seniors and families,” he said.
In a statement, the Environmental Protection Agency said, “Improving air quality is a major priority for EPA and we appreciate the ALA’s focus and attention on air quality and health.”
To learn more about U.S. air quality, go to the EPA website AirNow.gov or download the AirNow.gov app, which contains air pollution forecasts on the local level and historical air pollution data.
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(ALANTA) — Attorneys for Robert Aaron Long, the suspect in the Atlanta spa shootings case, are seeking to dismiss the death penalty as he awaits trial on multiple murder charges for the March 2021 massacre.
Long, 23, was indicted last year for the deaths of four women that occurred at Gold Spa and Aromatherapy Spa in Fulton County, Georgia.
He previously pleaded guilty to four other murders that took place the same day at Young’s Asian Massage in Cherokee County. He was sentenced to life in prison without parole, plus an additional 35 years.
Long pleaded not guilty in Fulton County last year to four counts of murder, among other charges. Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has said she’d seek the death penalty and hate crime charges against Long.
Long appeared in Fulton County court Tuesday for a motions hearing. His attorneys have filed dozens of motions on his behalf ahead of the trial, which is expected to start this fall.
In seeking to dismiss the death penalty, his attorneys argued that the death penalty statute violates his constitutional rights and that the capital jury process could be biased against him.
They also argued that Long’s age should bar the death penalty.
“The Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishment protects Mr. Long from disproportionate and excessive punishment,” defense attorneys Jerilyn Bell and Christian Lamar wrote. “Mr. Long’s youth at the time of the offense — he was 21 years old — substantially lessens his culpability, and a sentence of death would be disproportionate to his diminished moral blameworthiness.”
In announcing that she would seek the death penalty, Willis told reporters that the case “warrants the ultimate penalty.”
Willis also filed sentencing enhancements under Georgia’s hate crime law, which offers guidelines for anyone convicted of targeting a person based on race, color, religion and gender. Willis said at the time that race and gender played a role in the shooting.
In the shooting spree, which occurred across two spas on March 16, 2021, six out of the eight people killed were Asian women.
The victims in Fulton County were Suncha Kim, 69; Soon Chung Park, 74; Hyun Jung Grant, 51; and Yong Ae Yue, 63.
Paul Michels, 54; Xiaojie “Emily” Tan, 49; Daoyou Feng, 44; and Delaina Yaun, 33, were killed in the shooting in Cherokee County.
When he entered his guilty plea in Cherokee County court last year, Long said he loathed his sex addiction and that he blamed it on the spas he claims to have frequented for sex.
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(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department said Wednesday it will appeal a court ruling by a Florida judge that struck down the federal government’s order to wear masks while traveling, after the administration’s top public health officials insisted the mandate was still necessary “at this time.”
The move is unlikely to force masks back on travelers just yet. The legal fight could take weeks or even months to resolve, and the federal government has said it’s not currently enforcing the mandate, which was set to expire on May 3.
But the Biden administration’s announcement makes clear that it wants to fight the ruling to retain the power to mandate masks aboard planes, inside airports and other transportation hubs to prevent the spread of disease.
“It is CDC’s continuing assessment that at this time an order requiring masking in the indoor transportation corridor remains necessary for the public health… CDC believes this is a lawful order, well within CDC’s legal authority to protect public health,” the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention wrote in a statement.
Earlier this month, the CDC had extended the mask mandate for an extra two weeks, saying it needed more time to assess a recent uptick in cases and citing the unique risks posed by travel. But that plan was tossed out Monday after a Trump-appointed judge declared the latest extension of the mandate unlawful and said the agency hadn’t gone through the proper administrative process.
While many travelers cheered the move, the decision injected uncertainty into Americans’ travel plans and sowed confusion. Some people even said they were mid-flight when their pilot announced masks were suddenly optional. An estimated 3% of Americans are immunocompromised and more vulnerable to complications of the virus, even if vaccinated. Also, children under age 5 remain ineligible for the vaccine.
“It wouldn’t bother me as much if the removal of the mask mandate had come from a medical source — someone with perhaps a medical degree or a career spent studying viruses, causes and cures,” said John Shepard, an Uber driver in Winter Haven, Florida, who says he is immunocompromised.
“But to me, this was just a political move by a Trump-appointed judge who wanted to score political points, and it’s putting millions of people at risk,” he added.
Public health experts said it was possible the CDC was going to let the mandate lapse after May 3 anyway — if hospitalization numbers remained flat — but that it would want the power to reinstate it in the future.
“This change in policy sets a really challenging precedent for how public health is done in this country. A single judge overturning a mandate driven by public health professionals means that we’re unnecessarily putting many people at risk,” said John Brownstein, chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC contributor.
The case is not a slam dunk for the administration. The next step is for the Justice Department to file its appeal with the 11th Circuit, and legal experts say it’s likely the decision will eventually end up with the Supreme Court, which has been skeptical in the past of federal powers related to the pandemic.
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(TALLAHASSEE, Fla.) — The dispute between Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ and The Walt Disney Company continued to play out in public on Wednesday when the Florida state Senate passed a bill that would eliminate Walt Disney World’s special district in the state.
The legislation, which was voted on during a special session of the legislature focused on redistricting, was put forward by Republicans after Disney opposed Florida’s highly controversial Parental Rights in Education Law, dubbed by critics as the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
“I am announcing today that we are expanding the call of what they are going to be considering this week. And so yes, they will be considering the congressional map but they also will be considering termination of all special districts that were enacted in Florida prior to 1968, and that includes the Reedy Creek Improvement District,” DeSantis said Tuesday, referring to Disney’s district.
The Florida Senate passed the bill in a 23-16 vote, and it’s expected to go to the House swiftly for a vote by Thursday.
If passed by the House and signed into law, it would terminate the special district that Walt Disney World uses to operate as its own municipality and could set up a court battle over the theme parks’ future.
ABC News is owned by The Walt Disney Company, which also owns Walt Disney World.
State Rep. Randy Fine, a sponsor of the measure, was in committee Wednesday to face questions from colleagues about the bill, and some asked whether the intent was to target the Walt Disney Company.
Rep. Carlos Guillermo Smith asked Fine about what would happen to the other special districts that would be eliminated under the legislation and if they would become a “casualty of this vendetta against Disney.”
Fine pushed back, saying Republicans were looking into all special districts, not just Disney’s.
The Reedy Creek Improvement District is one of six districts the bill would eliminate. It stretches 25,000 acres and oversees its own land use and environmental protections as well as provides essential public services such as emergency medical services and fire protection.
Disney’s status became the subject of DeSantis’ public scrutiny after the media conglomerate spoke out about Florida’s new law that limits the teaching of gender identity and sexual orientation in classrooms and which DeSantis signed into law in late March. The Walt Disney Company vowed to help appeal it.
“Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ bill, should never have passed and should never have been signed into law. Our goal as a company is for this law to be repealed by the legislature or struck down in the courts, and we remain committed to supporting the national and state organizations working to achieve that. We are dedicated to standing up for the rights and safety of LGBTQ+ members of the Disney family, as well as the LGBTQ+ community in Florida and across the country,” said a Disney spokesperson at the time.
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