(OAKLAND, Calif.) — Former U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer was assaulted and robbed in Oakland Monday afternoon, her representatives tweeted.
“The assailant pushed her in the back, stole her cell phone and jumped in a waiting car. She is thankful that she was not seriously injured,” the tweet read.
The Oakland Police Department said in a statement to ABC News that it is investigating the incident, which took place around 1:15 p.m.
“The suspect forcefully took loss from the victim, and fled in a nearby waiting vehicle,” the police said in a statement.
Boxer, 80, served as California’s U.S. Senate representative from 1993 to 2017. She also served in the House of Representatives for a decade.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(HOUSTON) — A horrific act of domestic violence unfolded at a soccer tournament near Houston when a pregnant woman and her boyfriend were gunned down in front of witnesses allegedly by her ex-husband, who later died by apparent suicide, according to authorities.
The shooting occurred around 10:15 a.m. on Sunday at a park in Harris County, northeast of Houston.
“Heartbreaking!” is how Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez described the killings.
The pregnant woman and her boyfriend were shot in the parking lot of the park soon after they arrived to watch the woman’s son play soccer, according to sheriff’s department officials.
Witnesses told investigators that the woman’s 42-year-old ex-husband was already at the tournament watching their son play when he saw her and her boyfriend in the parking lot and went to confront them, according to a statement from the Harris County Sheriff’s Office.
“The ex-husband walked up to them and shot both of them multiple times with a silver revolver. The ex-husband then walked to his vehicle and drove away,” the sheriff’s office statement reads.
The boyfriend died at the scene while the woman was taken to Houston Northwest Medical Center, where she and her unborn child were both pronounced dead, according to the statement.
“There were at least 100 people out here at the soccer field at the time that the shooting occurred,” Sgt. Ben Beall of the sheriff’s office told ABC station KTRK-TV in Houston.
Beall said relatives of the pregnant woman told investigators that the suspected shooter was the victim’s ex-husband.
The sheriff’s office immediately launched a search for the ex-husband.
Around noon on Sunday, a relative of the alleged gunman called sheriff’s investigators to report the suspect contacted them by phone and was threatening to take his own life, authorities said. They directed the sheriff’s office to go to a mobile home within the city limits of Houston to check on the man.
“The deputies located a Hispanic male, believed to be the ex-husband, behind the trailer, dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head,” the statement from the sheriff’s office reads.
A silver revolver matching the one used in the double homicide was found on the ground next to the man, authorities said.
The names of the victims and the alleged gunman were being withheld by authorities pending confirmation by the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences.
The shootings come amid skyrocketing gun violence that has swept the nation in recent months.
An ABC News investigation published on Sunday analyzed data from the Gun Violence Archive, an online site that tracks gun violence, and found that between Saturday, July 17, and Friday, July 23, at least 1,018 shooting incidents occurred nationwide — which calculates to a shooting every 10 minutes. At least 404 people were killed in the incidents and 928 wounded.
Many of the shootings involved domestic violence, the report found.
Last year marked the deadliest year for shooting-related incidents in the United States in at least two decades, according to Gun Violence Archive data with more than 43,000 gun deaths. The data suggests 2021 is on track to surpass those figures with more than 24,000 gun fatalities already reported.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden said the U.S. is “not going to be, by the end of the year, in a combat mission” in Iraq.
The president, while meeting with Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Al-Kadhimi Monday afternoon, said the U.S. role there will be focused on training and assisting to combat the Islamic State group.
“Our shared fight against ISIS is critical for the stability of our region and our counterterrorism cooperation will continue, even as we shift to this new phase we’re going to be talking about,” Biden said.
A U.S. official told ABC News Thursday the change in mission is more of a semantic one and the number of U.S. troops in Iraq will not dramatically differ as they shift their emphasis to training and assisting.
As with anywhere around the world, the official added, U.S. troops reserve the right to defend themselves too.
Iraqi Ambassador to the U.S. Fareed Yasseen told ABC News last week that Iraqi forces will continue to request direct U.S. assistance for intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and training.
Several U.S. officials have said the 2,500 U.S. troops in Iraq are already largely in that kind of advise-and-assist role.
Both sides have repeatedly committed to U.S. troops exiting once the coalition to defeat ISIS completes its work, essentially kicking the can down a long road now to appease political pressure in Iraq, fueled by Iranian-backed factions and militias and U.S. air strikes against them.
During the Trump administration, a tit-for-tat series of attacks between Iraqi militias and U.S. forces in Iraq to fight ISIS precipitated an assault on the U.S. embassy in Baghdad in January 2020. While the Shiite militias were able to breach an outer perimeter, no one was injured in the attack.
Days later, President Donald Trump ordered the airstrike that killed Iran’s most powerful general Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ elite Quds Force. The strike outside Baghdad International Airport further inflamed anti-American sentiment among Shiite militias and Iraq’s government responded by denouncing it as another U.S. violation of its sovereignty.
With a majority in parliament, Shiite lawmakers voted to expel U.S. troops that month. While the resolution was non-binding, there’s been strong political pressure on the Iraqi government since then to see an end to the U.S. military presence, especially after the two governments and the defeat ISIS coalition declared the end of the terror group’s so-called caliphate.
In a series of “strategic dialogues” since then, they have negotiated ways to strengthen U.S.-Iraqi cooperation on other issues, including trade, energy and diplomacy with Iraq’s Arab neighbors, while repeatedly committing to pulling American forces out one day.
Biden on Monday also noted that the U.S. is sending Iraq 500,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines, which the president said should be arriving “in a couple of weeks.”
With Monday’s announcement, that day could be closer — but it’s still not here yet.
That much was clear to those Iranian-backed Iraqi militias, also known as Popular Mobilization Forces. The spokesperson for one group, the Nujaba Movement, said in a statement that the change in mission was a “cheap trick.”
They “will not differentiate between advisers of the occupation or soldiers of the occupation, for all of them are important targets for the weapons of the resistance, until the last occupying soldier leaves the land of Iraq,” said the spokesperson, Nasser al Shammari.
ABC News’ Libby Cathey contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — New Hampshire residents cannot be required to get a COVID-19 vaccine in order to “access any public facility, any public benefit, or any public service” according to a new bill signed into law by Republican Gov. Chris Sununu.
The so-called “medical freedom” bill does not override state vaccine law, which “requires that all children enrolled in any school, pre-school, or child care have certain immunizations to protect them and those around them from vaccine preventable diseases,” according to the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services.
The COVID-19 vaccine is not currently listed as a requirement for attending school, nor is it approved for children younger than 12.
Other exceptions to the new law include correctional facilities, such as jails and prisons, where immunizations can be mandated “when a direct threat exists,” as well as county nursing homes and medical facilities operated by the state.
The governor’s office did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
New Hampshire’s law stands in contrast to some other parts of the Northeast, which have edged toward mandatory vaccinations in recent days.
In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Monday that COVID-19 vaccination would be compulsory for all city workers, including police officers, firefighters and teachers, starting Sept. 13. City workers will have the option of getting tested weekly for COVID-19 if they choose not to get vaccinated.
“We’re doing this out of a sense of urgency,” de Blasio said. “It is about protecting the workforce, their health and safety, and the people they serve.”
New Hampshire’s vaccination rate is slightly higher than the national average. As of Sunday, 64% of residents had received at least one dose, and 58% were fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. By comparison, 57% of Americans have gotten at least one shot, and 49% are fully vaccinated.
ABC News’ Aaron Katersky contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — The United States is facing a COVID-19 summer surge as the delta variant spreads.
More than 610,000 Americans have died from COVID-19, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Just 57% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
COVID-19 has infected more than 194 million people worldwide and killed over 4.1 million.
Here’s how the news is developing Monday. All times Eastern:
Jul 26, 3:46 pm
US moved into ‘high’ community transmission category per CDC
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is now categorizing the U.S. as having “high” community transmission, with nearly 62% of counties in the nation reporting high (43.79%) or substantial (18.17%) transmission.
New York County, which includes Manhattan, is among those now reporting substantial community transmission.
One month ago, only 8% of counties were reporting high transmission.
Louisiana, Florida, and Arkansas have the country’s highest case rate with over 300 new cases per 100,000 residents. Missouri follows closely behind with 200 new cases per 100,000 residents.
Hospitalization numbers are also rising. More than 27,300 COVID-10 patients are in hospitals across the country — a 36.8% jump in the last week.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Jul 26, 2:44 pm
Dept. of Veterans Affairs mandates vaccine
Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Denis McDonough announced Monday that COVID-19 vaccines will be mandatory for the department’s health care personnel.
Four VA employees, all of whom were unvaccinated, died in recent weeks, the department said. At least three of those cases were linked to the delta variant.
VA employees will have eight weeks to be fully vaccinated.
McDonough said this mandate is “the best way to keep Veterans safe, especially as the Delta variant spreads across the country.”
-ABC News’ Cindy Smith
Jul 26, 2:06 pm
Unvaccinated NYC municipal workers will have to get weekly testing
All unvaccinated New York City municipal workers will have to get weekly testing by the start of school in September, according to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office.
The new requirement will apply to all city workers, including police officers, firefighters and teachers. The new rule will go into effect on Sept. 13, when students are expected to return to public schools.
The New York Police Department has a 43% vaccination rate while about 55% of New York City Fire Department employees are vaccinated.
Workers in publicly run residential or congregate care facilities, like nursing homes, must present proof of vaccination even earlier, on Aug. 16.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a similar mandate on Monday. Beginning in August, state employees and health care workers must show proof of vaccination or get tested regularly.
In California, 75% of those eligible have received at least one dose.
“Everyone that can get vaccinated—should,” Newsom tweeted.
-ABC News’ Aaron Katersky
Jul 26, 11:23 am
Savannah reinstates mask mandate indoors
An indoor mask mandate has been reinstated in Savannah, Georgia, effective immediately, amid a steep rise in the daily number of COVID-19 cases, Mayor Van Johnson said.
The increase is likely due to the delta variant, relatively low vaccination rates and gatherings where people let their guard down, officials said.
“Are we effectively punishing those who did the right thing who took the vaccine?” the mayor said. “Yes, we probably are.”
To those still hesitant to get the vaccine, Johnson said, “The wait and see time is over.”
-ABC News’ Alexandra Faul
Jul 26, 10:49 am
Orlando area in ‘crisis mode’ as cases skyrocket
Orange County, Florida, which includes the city of Orlando, is in “crisis mode” as COVID-19 cases skyrocket, Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings said Monday.
The county is now seeing 1,000 new cases per day – which is what was recorded there during the highest peak in 2020, Demings said.
-ABC News’ Ben Stein
Jul 26, 10:35 am
US not lifting travel restrictions due to surge in delta variant cases
The White House will leave in place existing travel restrictions due to the surge in cases from the delta variant, a White House official confirmed to ABC News.
This news was first reported by Reuters Monday morning.
The official said the “reopening process is guided by the science and public health,” adding that cases of the delta variant are rising in the U.S. and globally, mostly among the unvaccinated, and “appear likely to continue [to] increase in the weeks ahead.”
-ABC News’ Justin Gomez
Jul 26, 10:00 am
Unvaccinated NYC municipal workers will have to get weekly testing
All unvaccinated New York City municipal workers will have to get weekly testing by the start of school in September, according to Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office.
The new requirement will apply to all city workers, including police officers, firefighters and teachers. The new rule will go into effect on Sept. 13, when students are expected to return to public schools.
The New York Police Department has a 43% vaccination rate while about 55% of New York City Fire Department employees are vaccinated.
Workers in publicly run residential or congregate care facilities, like nursing homes, must present proof of vaccination even earlier, on Aug. 16.
Jul 26, 9:11 am
Symptomatic breakthrough infections rare, CDC data estimates
New data shows how rare COVID-19 breakthrough infections likely are.
With more than 156 million Americans fully vaccinated, about 153,000 symptomatic breakthrough cases are estimated to have occurred as of last week, representing approximately 0.098% of those fully vaccinated, according to an unpublished internal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention document obtained by ABC News. These estimates reflect only the adult population and do not include asymptomatic breakthrough infections.
But in Provincetown, on Massachusetts’ Cape Cod, at least 551 COVID-19 infections, many of them breakthroughs, were confirmed after the July Fourth weekend. Of the Massachusetts residents who tested positive as a result of the Provincetown cluster, 69% reported to be fully vaccinated, according to local officials.
Most people were symptomatic. Apart from three hospitalizations, symptoms from cases associated with this cluster were known to be mild and without complication, said Alex Morse, the town manager for Provincetown.
(SUNRISE, Fla.) — The remains of the last victim of the Surfside, Florida, condo collapse have been identified, a relative confirmed to ABC News Monday.
Estelle Hedaya, 54, was the final person to be unaccounted for. The death toll from the June 24 collapse now stands at 98.
(WASHINGTON) — On the day before a House committee was set to open its investigation of the Jan. 6 Capitol assault, House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy kept up his effort to dismiss the probe and attack the Republicans who’ve agreed to serve with Democrats.
When asked on Monday if he’ll punish the two Republican members — Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois — McCarthy said “we’ll see,” amid speculation their fellow Republicans might try to remove them from House committee assignments for accepting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s invitation.
Speaking with reporters after a bipartisan White House even celebrating the Americans with Disabilities Act, McCarthy called them “Pelosi Republicans.”
“Couldn’t tell you,” he said, when asked the last time he spoke to Cheney and Kinzinger.
When asked for his take on the first witnesses — law enforcement officers who defended the Capitol against the pro-Trump mob — McCarthy replied, “I don’t know.”
Back on Capitol Hill, Cheney shot back at McCarthy.
“We’ve got very serious business here. We have important work to do. And I think that’s pretty childish,” she told reporters.
Kinzinger on Monday slammed other Republicans in response to McCarthy’s dig.
“If the conference decides, or if Kevin decides they want to punish Liz Cheney and I for getting into the bottom and telling the truth, I think that probably says more about them than it does for us,” he said.
Kinzinger added his preference was the independent commission negotiated and then blocked by GOP leaders.
“It’s become obvious that there are some that just simply don’t want answers, and that to me is unacceptable,” he told reporters.
Earlier Monday, committee members checked out the Cannon Office Building hearing room ahead of Tuesday’s start at 9:30 a.m.
Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and Cheney will each deliver opening statements in Tuesday’s hearing before the police officers testify, according to a congressional aide. The committee will hear from Capitol Police Officers Harry Dunn and Aquilino Gonell and Michael Fanone and Daniel Hodges of the Metropolitan Police Department.
Normally, the ranking member — or top Republican — would be given an opportunity to make opening remarks after the committee chair speaks. But Republican leaders have pulled their members from the panel, leaving only Cheney and Kinzinger as the only GOP members.
Cheney and Kinzinger are the only two House Republicans who voted to form a select committee after Senate Republicans killed a proposal for a bipartisan, independent commission. Like Cheney, Kinzinger is among the 10 Republicans to vote to impeach Trump for “incitement of insurrection.”
Tuesday’s hearing is expected to go two to three hours and will feature video elements, according to an aide.
McCarthy has vowed that his GOP appointments won’t participate after Pelosi rejected two of them — Republican Reps. Jim Banks of Indiana and Jim Jordan of Ohio — citing statements made and actions taken, she said, would threaten the credibility of the committee.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at a briefing Monday that President Joe Biden will be “kept abreast” of Tuesday’s committee hearing.
“In his view, in our view, tomorrow’s hearing will be an opportunity to hear firsthand from the men and women in the Capitol Police and the Metropolitan Police Department who bravely protected our Capitol on that day. His goal is the same goal that Speaker Pelosi has, which is to get to the bottom of what happened and prevent it from happening in the future, and he trusts her leadership to do exactly that,” she said.
Dunn, one of the police officers who is scheduled to testify Tuesday, tweeted out Monday asking for “good vibes.”
Mark Zaid, the whistleblower attorney who is also representing Dunn, late last week posted this Twitter thread flagging that after Fox News host Tucker Carlson attacked Dunn on his show as an “angry left-wing political activist” he received “numerous vile/racist” messages, with some citing Carlson’s comments.
Fanone, an officer with the Metropolitan Police Department who was brutally attacked by rioters on Jan. 6, video shows, told ABC News Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott that he plans to testify in uniform Tuesday and said he won’t let politics hinder his appearance.
“I don’t get care what the vehicle is — as long as the truth comes out,” he said, when asked about Republicans who are throwing cold water on the committee. Fanone was at the Capitol Monday to prepare for the hearing.
He added, he supports any investigation that is looking for a “factual account” of what happened that day.
Back in May, Fanone and Dunn escorted the family of fallen Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick door-to-door on Capitol Hill pleading with Republicans for an independent commission.
ABC News’s Justin Gomez contributed to this report.
(LOS ANGELES) — Pfizer and Moderna are expanding the size of their COVID-19 vaccine studies in children ages 5 to 11, according to a new report.
The decision, which came after a push from the Food and Drug Administration, according to The New York Times, is intended to detect rare side effects in young people under the age of 30, such as myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle) and pericarditis (inflammation of the outer lining of the heart). The original size of the studies was too small to detect those rare side effects.
Pfizer declined to comment on The Times’ report to ABC News and pointed to a vaccine timeline the pharmaceutical company had previously released. Testing on 5- to 11-year-olds began in early June, Pfizer said, and on kids younger than 5 on June 21. The company anticipates having initial Phase 2 and 3 results for 5- to 11-year-olds in September.
Moderna told ABC News in a statement: “It is our intent to expand the trial and we are actively discussing a proposal with the FDA.”
It’s unclear what effect these changes might have on the timeline for emergency use authorization for COVID-19 vaccines in children. “The objective is to enroll a larger safety database which increases the likelihood of detecting rarer events,” according to Moderna. “Timelines are regularly reevaluated based on agency discussions and requests.”
Moderna said it expects to seek emergency use authorization by the end of 2021 or in early 2022.
“Some of the advisory committee members have said they’d like to see a longer median follow up time after vaccination – more than the 2 months used to support FDA’s emergency use authorizations for older age groups – in the trials in the younger ages, which is something that the agency intends to take into consideration, though it is not bound by the recommendations of advisory committees or statements from advisory committee members during the course of scientific discussions,” the FDA said to ABC News in a statement last week.
(LOS ANGELES) — Dry lightning is posing the threat for new fires to spark in a region already plagued by dozens of largely uncontained wildfires.
The thunderstorms could generate after moisture as the deadly monsoons in the Southwest U.S. push north to areas such as southern Oregon, where the Bootleg Fire rages on, and northern California and Nevada. Officials are concerned that the lightning strikes could generate new fires as firefighters are struggling to contain the existing blazes.
There are currently at least 89 large wildfires burning in the U.S., most of them in the West.
The Dixie Fire near the Feather River Canyon in Northern California had grown to nearly 193,000 acres by Monday morning and was 21% contained. Over the weekend, the Dixie Fire surpassed the Beckwourth Complex Fire in Doyle, California, as the state’s largest wildfire.
More than 8,300 people in Northern California are currently under evacuation orders, according to the California Governor’s Office of Emergency Services.
The Bootleg Fire in southern Oregon, currently the largest in the country and the third-largest in state history, had burned through nearly 410,000 acres and was 53% contained by Monday.
The Tamarack Fire near Gardnerville, Nevada, had scorched more than 67,000 acres by Monday and was 45% contained.
The monsoon strikes expected to generate dry lightning began over the weekend, killing at least seven in Utah after a sandstorm triggered by the monsoons caused a series of car crashes.
In Arizona, a 16-year-old is missing as a result of flash flooding. The teen had called 911 to ask for help after her car was stranded in floodwater, but as first responders attempted to rescue her, she was swept from her car and washed away, officials said. Phoenix is having its wettest month on more than two years as a result of the storms
Flash flooding is expected Monday in Southern California and parts of Nevada as the monsoon storms continue.
ABC News’ Sarah Hermina and Daniel Manzo contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — The chair of former President Donald Trump’s inaugural committee, Tom Barrack, pleaded not guilty Monday to charges he used his connection to Trump to illegally lobby for the United Arab Emirates.
Barrack flew across the country from California, where he was arrested last week, for his arraignment in Brooklyn federal court.
Barrack was released on a $250 million bond, secured by $5 million in cash. The judge ordered that his travel be limited to New York, California and Colorado, where he will live pending trial.
He was also ordered to take only commercial flights, with no private jets, and is prohibited from making any foreign financial transactions or from making domestic transactions above $50 thousand.
The bail package was requested by Assistant U.S. Attorney Nathan Reilly, who asked for a bail package “substantially similar” to what was imposed on Barrack in California.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
