(NEW YORK) — Tropical Storm Elsa has made landfall along Florida’s Gulf Coast and is now charging up the entire East Coast through Friday.
Elsa made landfall at about 11 a.m. Wednesday in Taylor County, in Florida’s Big Bend region.
Elsa, which is slamming Florida with gusty winds and heavy rain, strengthened to a Category 1 hurricane Tuesday night before weakening back to a tropical storm.
A boat capsized near Key West as Elsa blew through on Tuesday, according to the Coast Guard. Nine people remain missing.
As of Wednesday morning, Florida had no reports of fatalities or significant structural damage, Gov. Ron DeSantis said.
About 26,000 customers in Florida were without power, he added.
Elsa is now barreling up the East Coast, set to bring heavy rain and flash flooding from Georgia to Maine through Friday.
The latest path shows Elsa moving over Georgia Wednesday night, South Carolina Thursday morning and North Carolina Thursday night.
Elsa is forecast to weaken to a tropical depression by Thursday morning as it brings rain and wind to Charleston, Myrtle Beach and Wilmington.
By Thursday night Elsa will be blowing through Virginia, Maryland and Delaware with heavy rain, gusty winds and flooding. Elsa will hit New Jersey overnight Thursday into Friday.
On Friday morning, Elsa will head up the Interstate 95 corridor with heavy rain and gusty winds from New York City to Boston.
(MINNEAPOLIS) — The teen who filmed the murder of George Floyd by former police officer Derek Chauvin said that her uncle was killed Tuesday in a fatal car crash involving Minneapolis police.
In a Facebook post, 18-year-old Darnella Frazier said her uncle Leneal Lamont Frazier died after police collided with his car while they were chasing a carjacked vehicle. Officials from the Minneapolis Office of Police Information said the driver of the stolen car was involved in several robberies and refused to stop for police.
“Minneapolis police killed my uncle,” Darnella Frazier said in the post. “Another black man lost his life in the hands of the police … I couldn’t accept what I was hearing and still can’t. Some things just take time to process.”
The fatal collision took place at the intersection of 41st Avenue North and Lyndale Avenue North in Minneapolis, according to police. A third car was also caught up in the collision.
Minneapolis Office of Police Information officials said that both the driver of the uninvolved car and the officer were taken to the hospital, where the driver died shortly after. The officer was treated for non-life-threatening injuries.
In a statement, the Minnesota State Patrol said it will lead the investigation into the crash. It is an open and active investigation, and once completed, the state patrol said it will turn its findings over to the county attorney for review.
In her social media post, Darnella Frazier described her final moments with her uncle, saying Minneapolis police is responsible for the family’s “big loss.”
“I was just with you at the beach,” she wrote. “If I would’ve known that would be my last time seeing you, I would’ve hugged you so much longer, told you ‘I love you’ way harder.”
During the Chauvin murder trial, the teen took to the witness stand to recount the pain she said she has experienced since witnessing Floyd’s murder.
Chauvin, a former Minneapolis police officer, was convicted of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter and was sentenced to 22 1/2 years in prison for Floyd’s death.
Frazier, who was 17 at the time of the incident, told prosecutors in March that she continues to harbor a lot of guilt and trauma.
“When I look at George Floyd, I look at my dad, I look at my brothers, I look at my cousins, my uncles because they are all Black,” she told prosecutors. “And I look at that and I look at how that could have been one of them. I stayed up [at night] apologizing and apologizing to George Floyd for not doing more and not physically interacting, not saving his life.”
(NEW YORK) — Tropical Storm Elsa made landfall at about 11 a.m. Wednesday in Taylor County, Florida, along the Sunshine State’s Gulf Coast.
Taylor County, in Florida’s Big Bend region, is about 50 miles southeast of Tallahassee.
Elsa, which is slamming Florida with gusty winds and heavy rain, strengthened to a Category 1 hurricane Tuesday night before weakening back to a tropical storm.
A boat capsized near Key West as Elsa blew through on Tuesday, according to the Coast Guard. Nine people remain missing.
As of Wednesday morning, Florida had no reports of fatalities or significant structural damage, Gov. Ron DeSantis said.
About 26,000 customers in Florida are without power, he added.
A hurricane warning is in effect for Florida’s west coast from the Chassahowitzka River to the Steinhatchee River.
Wet grounds and rough winds have already caused some downed trees in Hillsborough County, which encompasses Tampa.
Tampa Bay is among the areas under a storm surge warning.
Tropical storm warnings have been issued in Savannah and Charleston.
After blowing through the South, the storm is expected to move up the East Coast, bringing heavy rain and gusty winds to the mid-Atlantic, New Jersey shore, New York City, Long Island and New England.
By Thursday night Elsa will reach mid-Atlantic, dropping flooding rain and gusty winds near Washington, D.C., and into Philadelphia.
By Friday morning, Elsa will be dropping heavy rain and rough winds along the Jersey shore, New York City and Long Island.
Elsa will move into New England late Friday morning into Friday afternoon. Boston and Portland, Maine, could face strong winds, power outages and flooding.
Flooding is possible in Philadelphia, New York City, Connecticut, Massachusetts and northern New England. Some areas could see up to 5 inches of rain.
(NEW YORK) — Confetti filled the streets of lower Manhattan on Wednesday as New Yorkers gathered for a ticker tape parade honoring the heroes of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Called the Hometown Heroes Parade, the event was held along the Canyon of Heroes, nearly 16 months after New York City became the nation’s first COVID-19 epicenter.
Here is how the news is developing. All times Eastern. Check back for updates.
Jul 07, 12:47 pm
Subway car from 1904 resurrected as parade float
Among the 14 floats is an old subway car from 1904 that was resurrected for MTA workers to ride in along the parade route.
Sarah Feinberg, interim president of New York City Transit, was overcome with emotion seeing how many people came to show their support.
“It’s just wonderful to see the city come out and thank our workforce,” she told ABC New York station WABC.
Jul 07, 11:50 am
Eric Adams joins parade festivities
Eric Adams, who was announced Tuesday as the winner of New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary, was among those joining parade festivities.
The former police captain declined to comment on the race to ABC New York station WABC, insisting the day was about essential workers.
“We need to honor them [essential workers] with pay equity … we need to show them the respect they deserve,” Adams said.
Mayor Bill de Blasio is also at the party.
Jul 07, 11:35 am
Sounds of marching band, cheers echo through the streets
As the confetti falls, the sounds of marching bands and revelers are echoing through the streets. New Yorkers are standing on the sides of the parade route, cheering, ringing bells and holding “Thank you” signs while the floats and bands move through.
While the COVID-19 pandemic is not over, New York City’s seven-day average positivity rate is now 0.96%. More than 605,000 people in the U.S. have died from COVID-19.
Jul 07, 11:00 am
Ticker tape parade underway
The ticker tape parade along lower Manhattan’s Canyon of Heroes is underway.
The 14 parade floats represent 260 groups of essential workers, including first responders, small business employees, delivery workers and childcare employees.
MTA workers have resurrected an old subway car from 1904 as their float.
Queens nurse Sandra Lindsay, who was the first person in the U.S. to get the COVID-19 vaccine, is the parade’s Grand Marshal.
Jul 07, 8:49 am
Pittsburgh nurse who came to NYC for COVID returns to ride on float
Justin Davis, a traveling nurse with AMN Healthcare, left his wife and three children behind in Pittsburgh to care for COVID-19 patients in an overwhelmed Manhattan hospital when the pandemic began.
“Never seen anything like it,” said Davis, who trained as an Army field medic and has been a nurse for 17 years. “I had more bodies, not enough people to take care. There were unqualified people there because there was nobody else.”
When New York’s crisis subsided, he moved to COVID hot spots in Orlando and Buffalo.
He will ride atop one of 14 floats that will make its way through the shower of confetti on Wednesday.
Davis told ABC News the parade is also a way to put his pandemic work behind him.
“I’ll accept the thanks,” he said.
Jul 07, 7:53 am
Ceremony scaled back due to heat
The City Hall ceremony at the end of the parade will be “a much smaller, stripped down version” than originally planned due to the heat, Mayor de Blasio said Tuesday.
“We will be greeting the marchers at the end of the parade and thanking them,” de Blasio said. “Not a big ceremony, but the parade itself of course will be the central salute to our heroes.”
“We will be adding additional cooling centers and water stations along the route,” the mayor added.
Jul 07, 7:24 am
New York to hold first ticker tape parade in two years
Ticker tape parades along the Canyon of Heroes are a historical part of New York City. These parades have honored people from Amelia Earhart in 1932 to Winston Churchill in 1946. The most recent ticker tape parade was in 2019 for the U.S. women’s national soccer team after they won the World Cup.
“Ticker tape parades up the Canyon of Heroes, they’ve happened for generations,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said last month. “But this one will have a special spirit to it, a special heart and soul, because it’s about celebrating everyday New Yorkers who did something heroic and need our thanks.”
(BEDMINSTER, N.J.) — Former President Donald Trump announced Wednesday he is filing class action lawsuits against three of the country’s largest tech companies — Facebook, Twitter, and Google — all of which have banned the former president from their social media platforms.
At a press conference at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club, Trump announced a “major class-action lawsuit” against the three companies, demanding “a stop to the blacklisting, banishing, and canceling that you know so well.”
The former president is currently banned from Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
“Today, in conjunction with the America First Policy Institute, I’m filing, as the lead class representative, a major class action lawsuit against the big tech giants, including Facebook, Google, and Twitter, as well as their CEOs, Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai, and Jack Dorsey, three real nice guys,” Trump said.
The former president said the lawsuits seek injunctive relief to “allow prompt restitution and, really, restoration.”
“In addition, we are asking the court to impose punitive damages on these social media giants,” he said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(LONDON) — Haitian President Jovenel Moise was killed in an attack at his home before dawn on Wednesday, the country’s interim premier said.
A group of unidentified individuals raided Moise’s private residence in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, at around 1 a.m. local time. They gunned down the 53-year-old head of state and wounded his wife, Martine Moise, who remains hospitalized, according to a statement from Haitian interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph.
Joseph, who condemned what he called a “hateful, inhumane and barbaric act,” said that the Caribbean country’s national police force and military had the situation under control and declared a state of emergency.
Reaction has been pouring in from around the world condemning the assassination, including from U.S. President Joe Biden, who called the situation “very worrisome.”
Reeling from the coronavirus pandemic, Haiti has also been in the midst of a constitutional crisis as Moise and opposition leaders disputed the end of his five-year presidential term and legislative elections remained interminably delayed.
Addressing the nation in a televised speech, Joseph called on the people of Haiti to “stay calm.” He chaired a meeting of the government’s ministers Wednesday morning, although the country’s line of succession is unclear, especially given its recent political turmoil.
“All the ministers and I have been working since the news broke and we want to assure you we will bring the killers of the president to justice,” he said. “Please stay calm and let the authorities do their work. We don’t want the country to plunge into chaos. This is a very sad day for our nation and for our people.”
Joseph’s initial paper statement said some attackers were speaking Spanish, but a second statement issued in English by the Haitian embassy in Washington made no mention of that. Instead, it said that the group was “highly trained and heavily armed” and called for an urgent United Nations Security Council meeting and an international investigation into the attack.
The streets of Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince were largely deserted Wednesday, and Toussaint Louverture International Airport has been closed in the wake of the assassination.
The U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince was also closed Wednesday, including for consular services, “due to an ongoing security situation,” it said in a security alert. The embassy also said it is restricting its American staff to its compounds “until further notice” and urged members of the public to avoid unnecessary travel to the area.
U.S. officials are “still gathering information” on the deadly attack, according to White House press secretary Jen Psaki, offering U.S. assistance “if there’s an investigation. We’re still assessing, still gathering information, and the president of course will be briefed by his national security team this morning.”
Hours later, the White House issued a statement from Biden condemning “this heinous act, and I am sending my sincere wishes for First Lady Moïse’s recovery. The United States offers condolences to the people of Haiti, and we stand ready to assist as we continue to work for a safe and secure Haiti.”
Haiti has been in a state of chaos for months now, with frequent gunfire and street skirmishes between armed groups, political demonstrations and strikes, and a coronavirus wave never brought under control. Cases of the virus were as high last month as they were one year ago, and the country has yet to distribute a single vaccine dose or receive any shipments from COVAX, the international program to provide vaccines to low- and middle-income countries.
That’s in part because of the governing crisis roiling Haiti. The country’s political opposition had argued that Moise’s five-year presidential term ended this February — five years after his election victory, but four years after he took office — while he said he had one more year left because the disputed 2016 election delayed his inauguration until 2017.
Moise had been governing by decree since January 2020, after the country failed to hold legislative elections and the legislature’s mandate expired. Opposition leaders accused him of wanting to return Haiti to a dictatorship.
Earlier this year, Moise ordered the retirement of three Supreme Court judges and the arrest of nearly two dozen people, including prominent officials, who he alleged were plotting a coup. Violent protests against Moise erupted, prompting the president to declare a state of emergency in parts of the country in March.
The political instability in addition to economic woes and escalating gang violence have undermined efforts to rebuild Haiti from a devastating earthquake in 2010 and Hurricane Matthew in 2016.
While the Biden administration backed Moise’s claim to have one more year in office, it had grown increasingly vocal in its opposition to his “one-man rule,” in the words of the top U.S. diplomat for the Western Hemisphere, including governing by decrees and refusing to hold those legislative elections.
While the White House has said it will provide Haiti some of the initial 80 million COVID-19 vaccines it has promised to share overseas, it has yet to announce when it will do so — with the worsening security situation now making it that much harder.
Eva Marie Uzcategui Trinkl/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Tropical Storm Elsa made landfall at about 11 a.m. Wednesday in Taylor County, Florida, along the Sunshine State’s Gulf Coast.
Taylor County, in Florida’s Big Bend region, is about 50 miles southeast of Tallahassee.
Elsa, which is slamming Florida with gusty winds and heavy rain, strengthened to a Category 1 hurricane Tuesday night before weakening back to a tropical storm.
A boat capsized near Key West as Elsa blew through on Tuesday, according to the Coast Guard. Nine people remain missing.
As of Wednesday morning, Florida had no reports of fatalities or significant structural damage, Gov. Ron DeSantis said.
About 26,000 customers in Florida are without power, he added.
A hurricane warning was issued for Florida’s west coast from the Chassahowitzka River to the Steinhatchee River.
Tampa Bay is among the areas under a storm surge warning.
Tropical storm warnings have been issued in Savannah and Charleston, and a tropical storm watch extends up to Sandy Hook, New Jersey.
After blowing through the South, the storm is expected to move up the East Coast, bringing heavy rain and gusty winds to the mid-Atlantic, New Jersey shore, New York City, Long Island and New England.
Elsa is forecast to weaken to a tropical depression as it moves up the East Coast, but it could regain tropical storm status as it passes over the waters of the mid-Atlantic.
By Thursday night Elsa will reach mid-Atlantic, dropping flooding rain and gusty winds near Washington, D.C., and into Philadelphia.
The latest path shows Elsa’s center passing right over the Interstate 95 corridor, heading just east of D.C. to near Philadelphia and then north over New York City.
Northerners should be prepared for gusty winds up to 50 mph, heavy rain and potential flash flooding.
By Friday morning, Elsa will be dropping heavy rain along the Jersey shore, New York City and Long Island.
Elsa will move into New England late Friday morning into Friday afternoon. Boston and Portland, Maine, could face strong winds, power outages and flooding.
Flooding is possible in Philadelphia, New York City, Connecticut, Massachusetts and northern New England. Some areas could see up to 5 inches of rain.
(NEW YORK) — As the Suns and the Bucks face off in the NBA Finals, Chipotle is giving away millions in free burritos.
Amid the on-court action of Tuesday’s Game 1 broadcast, Chipotle raised the stakes for the commercial breaks and hid a keyword that unlocked 10,000 free burritos at the end of its ad.
The fast-casual Mexican restaurant chain announced Wednesday that it has hidden up to $1 million — or possibly more, depending on if the teams go further than Game 4 — worth of free burritos in its TV ads.
As the series progresses, Chipotle will continue to offer a number of prizes that vary from game to game hidden in the end card of the commercial.
Now the word is officially out, the brand said it expects codes will go fast. To score a free entrée, fans will have to put a full court press on texting the keyword to 888-222.
“The final games of the basketball season are arguably some of the most entertaining moments of the year,” Chris Brandt, Chipotle’s Chief Marketing Officer said in a statement. “Along with the high-profile player matchups, off-court storylines, and fan interactions, our hidden code giveaway creates another ‘game within the game’ and elevates the viewing experience for our fans during breaks in the action.”
Check out the full NBA Finals schedule below to make sure you’re tuned in and ready to go.
Game 2 – Thursday, July 8: 10,000 free burritos
Game 3 – Sunday, July 11: 20,000 free burritos
Game 4 – Wednesday, July 14: 30,000 free burritos
Game 5 (If necessary) – Saturday, July 17: 40,000 free burritos
Game 6 (If necessary) – Tuesday, July 20: 10,000 free burritos
Game 7 (If necessary) – Thursday, July 22: 10,00 free burritos
Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for ULTA Beauty / KKW Beauty
(NEW YORK) — Kim Kardashian is saying goodbye to KKW Beauty.
Kim took to her Instagram Stories on Tuesday to announce that she’ll be temporarily shutting down the website and relaunching it “under a completely new brand with new formulas.”
“To our loyal customers, [i]t all started with a contour kit and expanded to eyes, lips, body and many incredible collections over the past four years,” she said in a statement.
“On August 1st at midnight we will be shutting down the KKWBeauty.com site so that we can come back to you under a completely new brand with new formulas that are more modern, innovative and packaged in an elevated and sustainable new look,” she continued.
The 40-year-old beauty and fashion mogul also teased a new “shopping experience,” which will allow customers to purchase all of her beauty and cosmetic products in one place.
“I’m excited to continue to develop and expand my product range and for you to finally be able to experience it the way that I have always envisioned,” she said. “In addition, my team is hard at work to improve the customer shopping experience where you will be able to purchase my beauty and cosmetic offerings in all categories from one single website.”
Kardashian launched her line in 2017. She sold 20% of the company to Coty in 2019 for $200 million, although the deal wasn’t finalized until this past January.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden is slated to meet with national security and government leaders Wednesday to discuss the latest ransomware threat that happened over the holiday weekend.
Kaseya, an information technology and management solutions company, said 50 of its 35,000 clients were affected by a ransomware breach.
“While impacting approximately 50 of Kaseya’s customers, this attack was never a threat nor had any impact to critical infrastructure,” the company said in a statement on Tuesday. “Many of Kaseya’s customers are managed service providers, using Kaseya’s technology to manage IT infrastructure for local and small businesses with less than 30 employees, such as dentists’ offices, small accounting offices and local restaurants. Of the approximately 800,000 to 1,000,000 local and small businesses that are managed by Kaseya’s customers, only about 800 to 1,500 have been compromised.”
It’s unknown who carried out the ransomware attack on Kaseya.
It’s not just critical infrastructure being targeted. The Republican National Committee said one of its computer system vendors was breached by criminal cyber activity but insists that no RNC data was accessed.
“Over the weekend, we were informed that Synnex, a third-party provider, had been breached. We immediately blocked all access from Synnex accounts to our cloud environment. Our team worked with Microsoft to conduct a review of our systems and after a thorough investigation, no RNC data was accessed. We will continue to work with Microsoft, as well as federal law enforcement officials on this matter,” RNC Chief of Staff Richard Walters said in a statement to ABC News.
The administration has put a renewed focus on cyber threats after a spate of ransomware attacks disrupted supply chains in various sectors, with the majority coming from hackers based in Russia.
“Even if there are criminal actors, even if it’s not the Russian government that attacks our critical infrastructure or our country through cyberattacks, we reserve the option to take action if they won’t do it on their own,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on MSNBC Wednesday morning. “The president reserves that option, meeting with some of his national security experts this morning to get an update, to have a discussion about ransomware, and we’ll see what we learn from there.”
In May, one of the nation’s largest pipeline companies, Colonial Pipeline, was hit with a ransomware attack, which prompted the administration to take action.
Biden signed an executive order shortly after the hack, which was aimed at modernizing the federal government’s response to cyberattacks by “improving information-sharing between the U.S. government and the private sector on cyber issues,” improving detection of hacks into federal systems and creating a “standardized playbook” for how the government responds to attacks, according to the White House.
In addition to the executive order, the Department of Homeland Security mandated that pipeline companies report cyber breaches to federal authorities within 12 hours. The directive came from the Transportation Security Administration.
Meat supplier JBS has also been hit with a ransomware attack, forcing its meat plants to stop operations for a few days.
Both JBS and Colonial Pipeline paid the ransom to get their systems back online.
“I made the decision to pay, and I made the decision to keep the information about the payment as confidential as possible,” Colonial Pipeline CEO Joesph Blunt told a Senate Committee in June. “It was the hardest decision I made in my 39 years in the energy industry, and I know how critical our pipeline is to the country, and I put the interest of the country first.”
