Justin Timberlake’s DWI case in Sag Harbor, New York, has been adjourned until Aug. 2.
At that time Justin will be arraigned on misdemeanor charges of driving while intoxicated and failing to keep right, WABC-TV reports. The new arraignment is due to a problem with the way Justin was initially charged. He did not appear in court on Friday, according to WABC-TV.
Justin will now appear virtually Aug. 2 in Sag Harbor Village Justice Court. He’s been accused of running a stop sign and swerving out of his lane while leaving The American Hotel in his BMW.
According to WABC-TV, in his first public comments since the arrest, Timberlake’s attorney Ed Burke contended Justin “was not intoxicated,” adding, “I’ll say it again. Justin Timberlake was not intoxicated. And we are very confident that charge, that criminal charge, will be dismissed.”
Burke argued in court that the case should be thrown out due to a “defective accusatory instrument,” which is another way of saying there was an issue with the way that Justin was charged.
“The police made a number of very significant errors in this case … and there are many others,” Burke continued. “Sometimes the police, like every one of us, make mistakes. And that’s the case in this very instance.”
According to the criminal complaint, Justin “was driving drunk, had bloodshot, glassy eyes, slowed speech, was unsteady on his feet and performed poorly on a field sobriety test.” He told the arresting officer he’d only had one drink and refused to take a chemical test, WABC-TV reports.
The next date of Justin’s Forget Tomorrow World Tour is Friday in Poland.
(LOS ANGELES) — Wildfires are exploding across the West, especially in California, where the Park Fire has now grown to be the biggest in the state this year.
There are currently 11 wildfires over 1,000 acres burning in California, according to Cal Fire. The largest of those is the Park Fire, burning in Butte and Tehama counties, just north of Chico, which grew to over 164,000 acres on Friday with just 3% containment.
Ronnie Dean Stout II, 48, has been arrested on suspicion of arson for starting the Park Fire after he allegedly pushed a burning car into a gully in Bidwell Park, near Chico, according to Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey.
There are more than 1,150 personnel, six helicopters and 153 fire engines assigned just to the Park Fire.
The Lake Fire, in Santa Barbara County, is the second-largest burning in the state at the moment at over 38,000 acres, though it is 90% contained after sparking July 5.
Meanwhile, farther north, the Durkee Fire in Oregon had grown to over 288,000 acres on Friday morning with 20% containment, according to the Oregon/Washington Bureau of Land Management. It was sparked on July 17 by a lightning strike and has grown to the largest fire in the country this year.
There are more than 500 people fighting the fire, as rain fell overnight in the area, providing some relief for firefighters.
Smoke spreads across several western states
The smoke from fires in Northern California and Oregon is spreading across several states, including Idaho, Montana and North Dakota, which will all see regions under “very heavy” smoke conditions — the second-worst level.
The Air Quality Index is expected to rise above 150 in Boise, Idaho, on Friday, which would put it in the “unhealthy” category, the fourth of six levels. In Butte, Montana, the Air Quality Index was forecast to be in the 100 to 150 range and “unhealthy for sensitive groups.”
(WASHINGTON) — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a potential vice presidential contender, has emerged among labor unions as a popular pick to join Kamala Harris on the Democratic ticket, four union officials and a political consultant told ABC News.
Walz, a former public school teacher and union member, has drawn support for his record of pro-labor legislation in a blue-leaning state and his potential appeal with voters in nearby Midwest battlegrounds Wisconsin and Michigan, they said.
Still, some added, labor unions lack a consensus choice in part because it is difficult to determine which candidate will deliver the best chance of a Democratic victory in the November election.
“People are high on Walz,” Steve Rosenthal, president of political consulting firm The Organizing Group, who has spoken with unions about the potential vice presidential nominee, told ABC News. “People in the labor movement would be very comfortable with him.”
However, Rosenthal added: “Mostly people understand the desperate need to win. It’s not like there’s somebody who’s the union candidate and people have coalesced around that.”
Walz has signed into law a series of measures viewed as pro-worker. Last year, Minnesota established paid sick and medical leave, banned non-compete agreements and expanded protections for Amazon warehouse workers. In May, Minnesota enacted a measure providing a raise for Uber and Lyft drivers while averting a threat made by those companies to stop doing business in the state.
Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, told ABC News that she considers Walz one of two top candidates for the vice presidential nod.
“He got the workers from Uber involved before passing the bill to support workers rights in the gig economy,” Nelson said. “That trust of workers and that understanding of the engagement of working people is absolutely something we’re looking for.”
In addition to Walz, Nelson said she backs Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear as a potential VP pick, citing his willingness to walk the picket line in a red state and his legislative record on issues important to the working class such as an expansion of healthcare access.
“Those two should really rise to the top,” Nelson said of Walz and Beshear, adding that she had communicated that view to the Harris campaign. “It makes a lot of sense to lean in harder on workers’ rights when the MAGA talking points are trying to say they’re for working people.”
Representatives for Walz and Beshear did not immediately respond to ABC News’ requests for comment.
Labor unions, a key part of the Democratic coalition, issued a flurry of endorsements for Harris over the days following her entry into the race. Harris spoke on Thursday in Houston at the national convention of the American Federation of Teachers, a teachers’ union.
“One of the best ways to keep our nation moving forward is to give workers a voice — to protect the freedom to organize,” Harris said.
A senior staff member at a private sector union that backs Harris, who has participated in labor discussions about the vice presidential pick, said enthusiasm about Walz among union officials has grown in recent days. The person requested that their name not be used due to the sensitivity surrounding the Harris campaign’s selection of a vice president.
“Walz may not be as splashy as some of the other potential folks, but I think he will really relate with working class voters, especially in the states we need to win in November,” the person said.
Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wa., a labor ally, said on Thursday that she favors Walz for the vice presidential nomination due in large part to his record on worker issues.
To be sure, labor officials have not agreed upon a preferred candidate for the position, according to people familiar with the matter.
The Service Employees International Union, the largest private sector union, declined to respond to ABC News’ request for comment on the vice presidential selection. The AFL-CIO, the largest labor organization, also declined to comment.
Concern emerged in recent days over the potential selection of Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly due to his previous unwillingness to back the PRO Act, a major labor reform measure. On Wednesday, Kelly said he would vote for the legislation if it came to the Senate floor. His comments were first reported by the Huffington Post.
A representative for Kelly declined to respond to a request for comment. In response to a previous request from ABC News, Kelly’s office said the Arizona senator has robustly backed labor.
“Senator Kelly is the son of two union police officers and has been a strong supporter of workers throughout his time in the Senate,” Kelly spokesperson Jacob Peters said.
Rosenthal, of The Organizing Group, said the shift in Kelly’s position warded off a concerted opposition campaign from organized labor.
“Had Kelly not taken the position he did, there would be a significant amount of pushback from labor unions,” Rosenthal said, later adding: “Overall, it’s really about winning.”
Jim McLaughlin, president of United Food and Commercial Workers Local 99, the largest private sector union in Arizona, praised Kelly in a post on X on Wednesday. “Unions in Arizona know [Kelly] for his commitment to the state and to our nation,” McLaughlin said. “I respect Senator Kelly and am encouraged by the consideration he is being given by the [Kamala Harris] campaign.
At least one labor leader took issue with Kelly after his newfound support for the PRO Act. “If he changed his position on the PRO Act, he would’ve signed onto it,” Transport Workers Union President John Samuelsen told ABC News on Thursday.
“I’ve heard talk about Walz from other union presidents,” Samuelsen added. “And Tim Walz certainly sounds like a dream come true relative to Mark Kelly.”
A labor leader, who has endorsed Harris, voiced praise for Walz’s pro-labor legislative accomplishments and his potential appeal in the Midwest. At the same time, the person lauded Kelly as a skilled campaigner who would perform well as a running mate. The person requested that ABC News not use their name due to the sensitivity surrounding Harris’s selection of a vice presidential nominee.
The decision should ultimately come down to which of vice presidential choices best helps Harris win the election, the person added. “It’s hard to know,” they said.
(NEW YORK) — A special encore “20/20” airing Friday, July 26, at 9 p.m. ET, which originally aired in 2020, revisits the case of missing Utah mom Susan Powell. The show looks at the continued hunt for Susan’s body and the heartbreaking details surrounding the murders of her two sons at the hands of her husband, Josh, who died by suicide after killing the boys.
Chuck and Judy Cox have spent the past eight years in agony while trying to find some semblance of justice after their son-in-law, Josh Powell, murdered their two young grandsons.
When it finally seemed like they were on the verge of finding some closure earlier this year, the coronavirus pandemic brought everything to a halt.
“I don’t know anything else I could have done and they’re still dead. My daughter’s still missing, and now the children are dead,” said Chuck Cox. “I had them safe… They were in my care.”
His daughter, Josh Powell’s wife Susan Powell, was the mother of Braden and Charlie Powell. She disappeared under suspicious circumstances in 2009 and her body has never been found.
In February 2012, Josh Powell killed himself along with Braden, 5, and Charlie, 7, in a house explosion during a supervised visit. Josh Powell locked out the social worker from the home upon their arrival.
“Why take the kids, why? It makes absolutely no sense,” said Cox.
After the house explosion, Chuck and Judy Cox sued the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) in civil court, alleging that its negligence contributed to the deaths of their grandsons. The lawsuit was thrown out in 2015 but was appealed and revived in 2019 by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
“The fact of the matter is they’re the only ones who could have protected the children at that point,” Cox said of the child welfare agency run by DSHS. “They’re the ones with responsibility.”
The wrongful death civil trial began in February in Tacoma, Washington, but was interrupted in March as COVID-19 swept through the nation.
“We have been robbed of three precious lives and it’s just devastating to think the same person did it,” Denise Cox-Ernest, Susan Powell’s sister, told ABC affiliate KOMO-TV in 2012.
What happened to Susan Powell remains a mystery to this day.
She was reported missing in December 2009 when the family was living in West Valley City, Utah. That night, Josh Powell claimed he had gone on a camping trip in the middle of the night with their sons. Susan Powell, he said, stayed home because she was tired.
“As soon as I heard that he was back and Susan was not with them, I instantly said to myself, ‘What has he done?’” Kiirsi Hellewell, Susan Powell’s friend. “Susan would have never allowed him to ever take the boys out in the winter to the desert, in the middle of the night. Never. I never believed his story at all.”
West Valley City Police Det. Ellis Maxwell, who led the investigation into Susan Powell’s disappearance, said that when investigators arrived at the house, there were no signs of a disturbance or physical altercations.
At the bank in which she’d worked, inside a safe deposit box that belonged to her, investigators discovered a handwritten will and testament. In the will, Susan Powell had written about how bad her marriage had become and that Josh Powell had taken out a $1 million life insurance policy on her.
“If I die,” her note said, “it may not be an accident.”
Police discovered a safety deposit box that contained Susan Powell’s makeshift last will and testament. She wrote about her “extreme marital stress” and a note to her boys: “I would never leave you!”
“That is our biggest piece of evidence,” Maxwell said. “It’s her last words. There was no doubt that this document was authored by Susan.”
Authorities also determined that Josh Powell had filed paperwork to withdraw money from her retirement account about 10 days after she had disappeared.
At the time of her disappearance, Susan Powell’s close friends said her marriage had been in turmoil for years and that she had even seen a divorce lawyer.
“She’d been really happy. He’d been a great husband, and she said that he really changed. He became not affectionate,” said the Cox family attorney, Anne Bremner.
Her friends also said Susan Powell would complain about a lack of intimacy from her husband.
“He kept her at arm’s length. He wouldn’t kiss her anymore. He wouldn’t touch her. He wouldn’t hold her hand,” said Hellewell.
“Josh and Susan’s marriage reaches rock bottom in the summer of 2008. Josh and Susan are constantly fighting. They’re arguing in front of the kids. Josh is exhibiting extreme control over Susan,” said Dave Cawley, the host of “Cold,” an investigative podcast on the case.
Hellewell said Susan Powell would email her a lot, saying she wants “to do everything in my power to save my marriage before I walk away.”
Chuck Cox said that after his daughter’s will was found, he felt “frustrated” that authorities didn’t arrest Josh Powell.
“I felt they had plenty of evidence to arrest him,” Chuck Cox said.
Police publicly declared Josh Powell as a “person of interest” about a week after his wife went missing. However, despite suspicions, Josh Powell was never charged in Susan Powell’s disappearance.
Those close to the family say Josh Powell acted strangely in the wake of his wife’s disappearance. He was observed cleaning his minivan and the garage.
“It was really odd to me because he was running around the house grabbing piles of towels and putting them in the washer And finally, we’re like, you’ve got to go to your interview with the police,” said Jennifer Graves, Josh Powell’s sister.
Friends and close relatives also said that he never participated in search efforts or showed urgency to find his wife.
“There was no point at which Josh ever seemed to even be concerned that Susan was missing,” said Hellewell. “He never participated in any of the massive, massive efforts that myself and relatives and friends launched to put out flyers in malls and parking lots.”
When detectives pushed Josh Powell on the details from the night his wife went missing, he said he could not remember the events leading up to her disappearance.
“I just don’t remember what activity we were doing,” he had told Maxwell.
Investigators also questioned then 4-year-old Charlie the day after his mother disappeared.
Charlie confirmed to investigators that he went “camping” the night his mother vanished, saying “my dad and my mom and my little brother” were also there.
“The children said, ‘Mommy was in the van but didn’t come back with us,’ a pretty significant thing for a 4-year-old to tell a detective,” said Rebecca Morris, who authored a book about the case titled “If I Can’t Have You.”
“My mom stayed at Dinosaur National Park. My mom stayed where the crystals are,” Charlie had also said.
Many people interpreted Charlie’s statement to mean that his mother was dead. However, the toddler also made comments that were clearly false, including taking an airplane to go camping.
“There’s a pile of circumstantial evidence,” said Maxwell. “Is there enough there to arrest him and book him into jail and hold him accountable? Absolutely, there is. Could we? No.”
Maxwell said that the Salt Lake County district attorney refused to file charges without a body until a year had passed.
ABC News reached out to the district attorney at the time, but they declined to respond to this claim and refused to comment on this case.
In January 2010, less than a month after his wife disappeared, Josh Powell said he had sought to get away from media attention and moved with his sons into his father Steven Powell’s house in Puyallup, Washington.
In an effort to get more information for authorities, Graves wore a wire and confronted her brother about his wife’s disappearance.
“Suddenly I just shoved Josh into the bathroom and at that point, I was like, ‘Drop all pretense. Just tell me where her body is,’” said Graves.
He continued to deny knowing anything about Susan Powell’s disappearance and the situation escalated. Steven Powell then kicked Graves out of the house.
“I regret not getting the confession, but I don’t regret going,” said Graves.
“Suddenly, I just shoved Josh into the bathroom,” Jennifer Graves recalled about confronting Powell. “At that point, I was like, ‘Drop all pretense. Just tell me where her body is.’“
In 2010, about a year after investigators first spoke to Charlie on the day after his mother’s disappearance, they sat down with the 5-year-old again and asked him about what he remembers from that night.
“We can’t talk about Susan or camping. I always keep things as secrets,” Charlie said in the interview. “I didn’t want to talk to you on this long, I mean this many minutes. Now I’m done.”
“The only thing we got out of [Charlie] that time was that he said that she went camping, but she didn’t come home with them. Then, he kinda clammed up after that,” said Det. Sgt. Gary Sanders of the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department.
All the while new details began to emerge about Steven Powell’s unusual fixation and inappropriate behavior toward his daughter-in-law, Susan Powell.
In a 2011 interview with ABC News, he alleged that Susan Powell had made sexual advances toward him.
“She told me that part of the reason they moved to Utah was to get away from her father-in-law, Steven Powell. She was like, ‘He is the most filthy, foul, sick, disgusting pervert the world has ever seen. He’s in love with me,’” said Hellewell.
“Susan was very, very sexual with me. She was very flirtatious,” Steven Powell told ABC News. “We interacted in a lot of sexual ways because Susan enjoys doing that. I enjoy doing that.”
“Why are you telling everyone that? That’s not to your benefit,” Graves said of her father. “But somehow in my dad’s own twisted mind, he thought that that was the greatest strategy to keep the dogs off Josh or something. I don’t know.”
Denise Cox-Ernest said her sister, Susan Powell, had complained about her father-in-law’s inappropriate advances and that she had told Josh Powell about them, too.
“She was extremely upset about that and disturbed, but even more disturbed when Josh just said that, you know, that’s his dad,” said Cox-Ernest.
Shortly after ABC News’ interview, Utah police searched the Powell family home in Puyallup, where Josh Powell and his sons were living at the time. Investigators found home videos taken by Steven Powell that showed secret recordings of his daughter-in-law’s body parts and video diaries in which he smelled her underwear and expressed his love and sexual feelings toward her. The search also yielded dozens of computer disks containing images of women and young girls that focused on their private parts, according to prosecutors.
Police arrested Steven Powell in November 2011 and charged him with voyeurism and possession of child pornography. Josh Powell was named as a “subject” in the child pornography investigation.
Following Steven Powell’s arrest, Josh Powell lost custody of his two sons. Chuck and Judy Cox were awarded temporary custody of the children in which they acted essentially as foster parents — the state had official custody — and Josh Powell was given weekly supervised visitation.
“Because of all the things that the police encountered in the search of the Steven Powell home, it became apparent, eventually, these boys were at imminent risk of harm,” Ted Buck, another attorney for the Cox family.
In February 2012, new evidence emerged that a laptop from Josh Powell’s Utah home contained images of cartoon pornography. A judge then ordered Josh Powell to undergo a psychosexual evaluation and take a polygraph test.
But before Josh Powell could take the evaluation or polygraph test, he killed himself and the two boys. On Feb. 5, 2012, a state caseworker brought the boys to Powell’s home for a supervised visit. He locked the official out, incapacitated the 5- and 7-year-old children with a hatchet, poured gasoline on them and around the house and then caused an explosion, according to authorities.
A few months later, in June 2012, Steven Powell was convicted on the voyeurism charges and sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison. The trial court had initially dismissed the charge for possession of child pornography in 2012, but the state’s court of appeals reinstated the charge in 2014. He was convicted of possession of child pornography in 2015 and spent another two years in prison.
Steven Powell served a total of seven years in prison before being released in July 2017. He died of heart problems a year later.
Maxwell believes that Josh Powell’s murder-suicide was “definitely an admission of guilt” for Susan Powell’s murder.
“She was going to divorce him. If he can’t have her, nobody will,” he said. “So he essentially kidnaps Susan and most likely murders her and disposes of her body. Where? I have no idea. Nobody knows.”
The Cox family civil case reconvened at the end of July this year. In August, the jury awarded the family a record $98.5 million award against the State Department of Social and Health Services.
Chuck Cox said he is going to use the reward money to honor his late grandchildren.
“I intend to … use the award to try and help other people, [so] that we can save more children,” said Chuck Cox.
The judge presiding over the case has since reduced the reward to $32 million — $16 million for Charlie and $16 million for their other grandson Braden. The Cox family will appeal the court’s decision to reduce the jury’s verdict, their attorney said.
Graves said Susan Powell’s story “will continue to live on and inspire others to move in the right direction. To move towards good relationships and get out of bad situations — abusive situations.”
(KYIV, Ukraine) — Solomiya Fomeniuk, 16, recalled the Russian missile strike on the Okhmatdyt pediatric hospital in Ukraine earlier this month with horror, but also as a case of miraculous survival.
The girl was one of five children in the dialysis department at the moment of the attack on July 8. Two people — a doctor and a teacher — died as a result of the strike. A 7-year-old boy died later after he was transported away from the site, officials said.
Solomiya is disabled due to spinal hernia. The girl was admitted to the Kyiv hospital in late May 2022 after kidney failure.
“It’s the best clinic in Ukraine with a dialysis department and the only one where we can actually live to receive treatment regularly,” Solomiya’s mother, Oksana Fomeniuk, told ABC.
July 8 started as usual, she said, adding that even when the sirens went off, it didn’t initially scare the parents nor hospital staff.
“We’ve been here for a while, there were at least two impacts nearby during the past two years, but we always thought that a hospital is a safe place,” she said. “We are always anxious of course, but the kids learned to be courageous and patient since dialysis lasts for 4 to 5 hours and they can’t move during the procedure”.
However, when the first missiles hit the ground a couple kilometers from the hospital Oksana and others quickly went down to the shelter while doctors and nurses decided to go into the room to switch the kids off from the dialysis equipment and take them downstairs too. At that moment the missile hit.
“The first thing I saw was a piece of ceiling above me,” Solomiya recalled. “The equipment around prevented it from falling on me. I even raised my hands to try to hold it. I couldn’t breathe, there was dust and hot air around. And this smell…”
The girl saw two injured female doctors and a nurse lying on the floor bleeding, she said.
“One doctor, Anastasia, shook up from our cries, stood up and came up to pull me from the rubbles,” Solomiya said. “She is so tiny herself, but somehow managed to carry me to the window where men who ran from the street were already helping.”
Most of all the girl was worried about her mom, she confessed. Oksana herself barely got out of the rubble as the missile hit right at the foundation of the building.
“I smelled death,” she said. “I was in the rubble by the knees and couldn’t breathe because of the dust and the smell of the fuel.”
Oksana managed to run out through the back door.
“The second thing that shocked me was the scale of the damage,” she said. “Everything was in a black smoke, the building was destroyed, others half damaged. And all I could think about was where my Solomiya were.”
Oksana saw pieces of furniture and mattresses around, a body inside the premise, children coming out of the building through the broken windows, nurses carrying them out — and said she couldn’t believe that her daughter was alive.
“The nurse was running and shouting that Solomiya was OK and she was taken to another building, but I only believed that when I saw her there. I’m telling you, God saved us. Because if my girl were in another bed, as before, she could have died.”
Svitlana Lukyanchuk, a 30-year-old nephrologist, was later identified as the woman who had died in the room. The head of the dialysis department, Olha Babicheva, was also severely injured, officials said.
Young surgeon Oleh Golubchenko also said he believed he was lucky to be alive. Photos and videos of him in a white bloody uniform as he helped to search the debris went viral.
“My grandma carefully washed and whitened the robe right on the day before. I think I haven’t even thrown it away yet,” Golubchenko said, laughing both bitterly and with relief.
He had been performing a halo rhinoplasty on a 5-month-old patient on the morning of July 8.
“It’s a complicated procedure, but very interesting for me as a specialist. I pre-planned everything on the weekend, designed a model of the expected result,” Golubchenko told ABC.
The surgeon, anesthesiologist Yaroslav Ivanov, second surgeon Ihor Kolodko and nurse Olha Baranovych were halfway through the surgery when the siren went off in Kyiv.
“We don’t start operations during the air raid alert, but if we have already started we have to continue because you can’t move the patient quickly, especially a kid. So we carried on, stayed calm and even joked,” Golubchenko recalled.
When the missile hit the nearby building the wave threw him a couple of meters away from the operating table. “I was shocked for a few seconds and then saw everyone on the floor, bleeding. I shouted, ‘Is everyone alive?’ Olha, the nurse, was apparently severely injured, I saw her face really damaged. Yaroslav was bleeding too but got up.”
The doctors rushed to their little patient covered by surgical gowns. The boy was intubated, so Golubchenko couldn’t check if he was actually OK.
“I ran in the corridor to find an Ambu bag. The boy’s mom was there, shouting hysterically … I found the bag, the anesthesiologist disconnected the boy and quickly carried him away, I followed him … on my way I stopped to help another nurse as she was bleeding, so I bandaged her … There was such a chaos, total mess,” he said.
When Oleh went outside, the first person to call him was his friend, Rostyslav, who is also a surgeon, as he heard of the strike.
“I asked him to pick my patient and finish the surgery,” Golubchenko said. “He literally was here in 15 minutes and took the boy.” Taras, the boy who had been in surgery, and his parents are well now, Golubchenko said.
Only later did Golubchenko notice that he himself was covered in blood.
“I just felt something warm on my back and legs. Those were all small wounds from the glass. The doctors took everything away and said I had a concussion. I think I escaped with a fright. Big fright,” the surgeon said, sighing. “You know, before the surgery, the patient’s father asked me whether I believed in God. What a question! But now my outlook has transformed. I’m telling you, I went to the church the following day and prayed as I could.”
It’s painful for Golubchenko to see his department damaged as it had been just renovated. It was even more painful for many Ukrainians. Okhmatdyt, which in Ukrainian means protection of motherhood and childhood, is the best pediatric hospital in Ukraine. The doctors say they received incredible support from the management, while parents admit everything was done from the heart here, with great love to kids so that they experience as much fun and comfort here as possible.
In just one day, people and businesses raised more than $7 million for Okhmatdyt through the joint project of the UNITED24 presidential fundraising platform and Monobank. Germany accepted kids from the Kyiv hospital and pledged about 10 million euros for the reconstruction of the hospital.
Oleh Holubchenko said he himself received calls from his American colleagues who have helped a lot, in particular Smile Train, the world’s largest cleft-focused organization, and American Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Association
Fomeniuk and her daughter, Solomiya, said their hopes for Solomiya’s kidney transplantation, which they have been waiting for since last fall, have now now faded a bit due to the strike. But they still showed their support for the hospital and optimism for the doctors, who they hope keep going.
The attack on Okhmatdyt on July 8 was one of more than 1,800 such strikes in Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion began in February 2022, according to the World Health Organizaition.
Oksana confessed she sometimes thinks that horrible strike didn’t actually happen and it was just a horror movie because it doesn’t seem real.
“The missiles flying in Kyiv are not something normal by default,” she said. “When kids who are fighting for their lives have to suffer even more during the attacks is something totally, totally over the line.”
(PHOENIX) — Before Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly emerged as one of the lead contenders for vice president on the Democratic ticket, the former NASA astronaut earned more than a million dollars on the speaking circuit by regaling companies and colleges with tales of his triumphs in space.
Kelly, who was a U.S. Navy attack pilot before spending a decade as a NASA Space Shuttle pilot, earned more than $1.7 million in speaking fees over the two years before he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2020, financial disclosures show.
The senator, who has been floated as one of the possible candidates to be Vice President Kamala Harris’ running mate, earned additional income from book deals and business consulting, according to the disclosures.
The $1.7 million came from 62 public speaking engagements from 2018 to 2019 — during which time Kelly sometimes delivered multiple speeches per day in different states, records show. On Nov. 18, 2018, for example, Kelly made $72,250 from three separate speeches in California, Minnesota, and Oregon.
Among those that paid Kelly for speeches were the American Society of Dermatological Surgery, which paid him $25,500, Chobani, the yogurt company, which paid him $58,250, and the Sexual Medicine Society of North America, which paid him $29,750.
Kelly later returned $55,250 that he made from a speech for Pink Tank, a Dubai-based consulting company, after it was made public that the event was sponsored by the Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi. At the time, a spokesperson for Kelly’s Senate campaign said Kelly’s speech was “focused entirely on Mark sharing experiences in space and discussing our countries’ space programs.”
In 2019, the Arizona senator also reported $1.5 million in income from Kelly Aerospace Consulting LLC, an Arizona limited liability company he registered in 2017, along with other income he earned from board member positions and from consulting.
The financial disclosures from that year show that Kelly held 16 positions for which he was compensated, including a position with Space X, the spacecraft manufacturer owned by Elon Musk.
According to disclosures from 2020 to 2022, Kelly stepped away from most of his board member positions and stopped doing paid public speaking engagements.
Since 2020, Kelly’s income has mostly come from his investments and stocks, and from royalties and advances from his several books.
In 2021, Kelly reported six royalty agreements for books he has written or co-written, which include several children’s books as well as the book “Gabby,” a book written with his wife, former Rep. Gabby Giffords, that recounts the 2011 mass shooting that left her partly paralyzed and with difficulty speaking.
Kelly’s most recent financial disclosures are from 2022. He requested an extension to file his disclosures for 2023.
Jonathan and Mercedes Sandhu are the parents of identical quadruplets, who are all now home after three months in the NICU. — Texas Children’s Hospital/The Sandhu Family
(HOUSTON) — A family in Texas has welcomed home all four of their rare identical quadruplets after the infants spent over three months in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
The sisters — named Hannah Grace, Lucy Marie, Rebecca Claire and Petra Anne — were born on May 1, after their mom, Mercedes Sandhu, delivered them at 29 weeks and three days.
Sandhu carried what is known as a monochorionic pregnancy, meaning all four babies shared the same placenta, according to Texas Children’s Hospital, where Sandhu gave birth.
The babies were born just before Mother’s Day, but Sandhu did not have all four daughters at home until Thursday, when Rebecca was discharged from the NICU.
Hannah and Petra were discharged on July 12, followed by Lucy nearly one week later.
“We’re so happy they can be together too,” the babies’ father, Jonathan Sandhu, told Good Morning America. “The past few weeks are the only moments they have ever been apart. Even in the NICU, they were always within a few feet of each other.”
The quadruplets’ reunion at home was also the first time all four sisters got to meet their older brothers, Luke, 4, and Aaron, nearly 2, who were not allowed in the NICU because of their ages, according to Jonathan Sandhu.
“The best part has been watching our boys welcome their baby sisters … They are obsessed with the girls,” he said. “Seeing our little family come together has been the most heartwarming moment of our lives.”
The quadruplets’ birth on May 1, meant the Sandhus had welcomed six kids in a span of four years. The quadruplets were conceived naturally, without the help of fertility treatments.
When it comes to being able to differentiate the quadruplets, Jonathan Sandhu said they are able to tell two of the babies apart because they were born with hemangiomas, a benign growth of extra blood cells in the skin that is one of the most common skin conditions among infants, according to Texas Children’s Hospital.
The couple also keeps the babies in labeled bassinets and lines them up in birth order — Hannah, Lucy, Rebecca, Petra, for feedings.
“Because they’re identical, they literally have the exact same DNA so keeping them correctly identified is pretty important,” Jonathan Sandhu told GMA.
The Sandhus have been documenting the journey of their “miracle” babies on their Instagram account, @thesandhucrew.
They said the babies are proving to be healthy and happy at home, with no ongoing medical needs after their time in the NICU.
“With high order multiples, all sharing one placenta, they were at elevated risks for nearly all the bad things that can accompany premature infants,” Jonathan Sandhu said. “We’ve had a few little bumps, but nothing that ever became life-threatening or would need life-long care.”
Jonathan Sandhu said he and his wife are dealing with the normal challenges that accompany a newborn — like sleep deprivation — but multiplied by four.
“If you’ve ever taken care of a newborn at night, imagine that, but with a few more crying mouths and dirty diapers,” he explained. “My wife and I take shifts at night and one person feeding and changing multiple babies can take two hours. Then you have to repeat it all a few hours later.”
(PARIS) — The 2024 Paris Summer games are set to formally kickoff Friday in what will be an opening ceremony like no other before its time.
There will be all of the pageantry and spectacle you’d come to expect from an Olympics opening ceremony, only there will be one big difference. Instead of parading around a stadium, some 10,000 plus athletes will get on boats and sail down the heart of Paris on the Seine River.
Olympic organizers say this will be the first time in the history of the Summer Games that it will be held outside of a stadium.
Roaring back from the pandemic era
The Paris Games somewhat represent a return to normalcy. The last Summer Olympics in Tokyo occurred in 2021, delayed a year amid a global pandemic, which for the Games meant large-scale restrictions — no spectators, quiet stadiums and mask mandates.
Paris aims to offer a stark contrast.
According to Paris’ Tourism Board, some 11 million tourists are expected to visit the French capital for the Games.
Paris 2024 Olympic Organizers on Thursday said that Paris Games broke the record for most tickets sold or allocated in the event’s history, the AP reported.
In total, 9.7 million tickets have been so far for this year’s Olympic and Paralympic Games, breaking the previous ticket sales record set in 1996 during the Atlanta Games when 8.3 million were sold.
Massive security operation
Paris officials knew that floating the opening ceremony down the Seine would not come without security risks and as the Games are about to officially open, the streets are flooded with 45,000 police officers and an additional 10,000 soldiers — including search dogs, bomb squads and tactical teams — essentially transforming the French capital into a maximum security site, complete with checkpoints and metal barricades.
As it gets closer to the ceremony, the airspace in and around the Seine will close, stretching some 93 miles. Four nearby airports will also be shuttered as a result, including Paris Charles de Gaulle, one of Europe’s three largest airports.
Floating down the Seine River
More than 300,000 spectators are expected to gather along the Seine River to watch the historic opening ceremony on Friday night as dozens of team boats will ferry 10,000 Olympic athletes from east to west along the river, a route that extends nearly four miles, passing famed landmarks and bridges along the way.
There, the Eiffel Tower will serve as an illustrious backdrop for the remainder of the ceremony.
Coco Gauff and LeBron James picked as Team USA flagbearers
Tennis star Coco Gauff will represent Team USA as the female flag bearer at the opening ceremony, joining NBA star LeBron James.
Gauff will make history as the first American tennis player to carry the flag.
“I had no idea and it was definitely very shocking,” Gauff told ABC News when recounting the moment she found out she would be carrying the flag.
“And I haven’t met LeBron yet,” she added. “but I am excited to meet him.”
First Lady Jill Biden arrived in Paris on Thursday, the eve of the opening ceremony, and spent the day meeting Olympic athletes and their families before representing the United States at the opening ceremony on Friday evening.
Vice President Kamala Harris and Former President Barack Obama attend an event to mark the 2010 passage of the Affordable Care Act in the East Room of the White House, Apr. 5, 2022, in Washington. — Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Former President Barack Obama officially endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday to be the Democratic Party’s 2024 nominee.
Obama was one of the only high-profile Democrats who had yet to endorse Harris, who quickly secured enough delegate support to clinch the nomination so long as the delegates do not change their mind before the Democratic National Convention’s virtual roll next month.
When President Joe Biden announced Sunday he was exiting the 2024 race, he quickly endorsed Harris to take his place.
In more extensive remarks on his decision delivered from the Oval Office on Wednesday night, Biden said he believed “the best way forward is to pass the torch to a new generation” and now was the time for “fresh” and “younger” voices.
“I made my choice. I’ve made my views known. I’d like to thank our great vice president, Kamala Harris,” Biden said. “She’s experienced, she’s tough, she’s capable. She’s been an incredible partner to me, and a leader for our country. Now, the choice is up to you, the American people.”
After Biden backed Harris, many Democrats across the country quickly fell in line behind her and she faces no major opposition yet for the party’s nomination. Focus has already shifted to who she may select to be her vice presidential running mate in challenging former President Donald Trump and JD Vance.
Several days before Obama’s endorsement, Democratic leaders, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, publicly endorsed Harris. Jeffries and Schumer both spoke about Harris earning the nomination “from the grassroots up and not the top down.”
Obama, too, appeared to want to let the “process” play out before announcing his support. In his initial response to Biden’s decision to drop out, Obama said the party would be “navigating uncharted waters in the days ahead.”
“But I have extraordinary confidence that the leaders of our party will be able to create a process from which an outstanding nominee emerges,” Obama said at the time.
Though a source told ABC News Senior White House Correspondent Selina Wang that Harris had spoken to Obama, along with other leaders, in the 24 hours after Biden stepped down from the race.
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at the American Federation of Teachers’ 88th National Convention on July 25, 2024 in Houston, Texas. — Montinique Monroe/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Vice President Kamala Harris’ replacement of President Joe Biden on the Democratic ticket could keep the electoral battlefield confined to the typical handful of swing states after the electoral map appeared to be mushrooming in Republicans’ favor.
After Biden’s ruinous debate performance last month, Republicans boasted and Democrats feared that blue and blue-leaning states like New Hampshire, New Mexico, Virginia and even New Jersey were suddenly in play. But now, operatives in both parties predicted that having a Democratic nominee who’s not dogged by such weighty baggage takes those states back off the table, recalibrating the race back to the Rust and Sun Belts.
“She definitely helps us play less defense,” one source familiar with Harris’ campaign’s strategy said. “States that were blue-leaning states that became more competitive post-debate based on early polling seem to be shifting back.”
Democratic alarm was high after last month’s debate, when Biden’s bumbling performance sent Democrats into a tizzy and had Republicans dreaming about a landslide victory.
Handwringing over traditional swing states like Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin in the Rust Belt and Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and North Carolina in the Sun Belt was exacerbated by discussions of having to bolster states where Democrats should waltz to victory but could prove competitive as Biden’s poll numbers cratered.
“I was getting calls pretty much on a daily basis with concern,” said Henry Roybal, the chair of the Santa Fe County Democratic Party in New Mexico.
Now, “New Mexico is off the map,” he said.
The story is the same elsewhere.
Conversations with operatives in traditionally noncompetitive states echoed Roybal’s account, even if they believe that former President Donald Trump still would have struggled to carry their electoral votes and there wasn’t definitive polling to prove he could.
After the debate, one senior New Jersey Democratic strategist insisted Biden could have won their state by a mid-single-digit margin after winning it by about 16 points in 2020. The state is now “completely off the table,” the person said.
Some Republicans aren’t entirely convinced.
Harris ran a dysfunctional 2020 presidential campaign and had to drop out before any primary votes were cast, and her approval ratings at the start of her nascent campaign are low. And while the blue-leaning states are still safer for Harris than traditional swing states, Republicans maintain any slip ups could keep them in play.
“It all depends upon how Kamala Harris runs her campaign and how she performs under the enormous pressure of a presidential contest. She did not acquit herself well when she ran for the 2020 nomination,” said GOP pollster Whit Ayres.” If she’s a whole lot better than she was then, then conceivably, those states could be off the table again. On the other hand, if she does not perform well, I think all those states are potential Trump pickups.”
Trump is not giving up on those states. He is blitzing Harris with attacks on her record, labeling her a “California liberal,” and will hold his second joint rally with Ohio Sen. JD Vance, his running mate, in St. Cloud, Minn, on Saturday, firing up his voters in a state no Republican presidential candidate has won since 1972.
“As more voters understand how dangerously liberal Kamala Harris is, President Trump’s chances in these traditionally-Democrat strongholds will only get better,” said Trump campaign spokesperson Karoline Leavitt.
Still, other Republicans concede that Harris’ candidacy introduces stiffer headwinds than existed when Biden topped Democrats’ ticket. Underscoring the point, a New York Times/Siena College poll released Thursday found Harris and Trump statistically tied, an improvement from earlier this month when the same poll found Trump ahead of Biden by 6 points.
“I expect Harris will be stronger. I mean, you just can’t help but be stronger, regardless of performance level,” said New Hampshire GOP strategist Mike Dennehy. “And so now it’s just a question of how well she does on the stump and in debates.”
“It’s too early to know exactly, but my overall summary is she probably stems the bleeding and raises the floor, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that she’s going to be able to put away states that she needs to,” Virginia-based Republican strategist Zack Roday added.
Now, the race is expected to shift back to the seven swing states that were at the top of the battleground map at the start of the race, with the source familiar with the campaign’s strategy telling ABC News “we’re seeing a reversion to what we expected this race to be pre-presidential debate.”
All seven states are anticipated to be decided by razor-thin margins, with millions of dollars dumped in by both campaigns. Already, Harris has hit the campaign trail in Wisconsin, a marquee swing state.
Harris’ campaign released a memo Wednesday saying it “intend[s] to play offense in each of these states, and have the resources and campaign infrastructure to do so.”
“This campaign will be close, it will be hard fought, but Vice President Harris is in a position of strength – and she’s going to win,” Campaign manager Jennifer O’Malley Dillon wrote.
Taking Republicans’ stretch states off the table as much as she can is a key part of remaining competitive in the true battlegrounds. The universe of campaign finance is gargantuan but finite — and every dollar spent in New Jersey or New Mexico is one not spent in Arizona or Michigan.
“The one thing it likely changes is, right now, the ground game,” said one national GOP strategist. “Are they going to shift resources out of specific swing states into other states because the map doesn’t feel as large for Democrats anymore to have to defend territory?”
And Harris’ ability to prevent a landslide for Trump is not just key for her — it’s also important for Democrats’ hopes for the House of Representatives and Senate.
Several key down-ballot races are being held in both swing states and blue-leaning states, and Harris’ ability to keep the margin at the top of the ticket competitive in battlegrounds and expansive in states she wins — rather than a blowout for Trump, as was speculated with Biden — would be a massive boon to congressional contenders.
“It’s critical. If you’re a Senate or a governor candidate or a congressional candidate, you can run ahead of the top of the ticket by a handful of points, three or four. You can’t run ahead at the top of the ticket by 10 or 12 points,” Ayres said.
Biden, he added, “definitely could have gotten blown out.”
