(ISTANBUL) — At least six people are dead and 53 injured following a terrorist bomb attack in Istanbul on Sunday, according to Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
He did not say who was responsible for the attack.
“The United States strongly condemns the act of violence that took place today in Istanbul, Turkiye. Our thoughts are with those who were injured and our deepest condolences go to those who lost loved ones,” the White House said in a statement Sunday afternoon. “We stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our NATO Ally Turkiye in countering terrorism.”
The explosion occurred on the city’s busy Taksim Istiklal Street. Turkish security forces have sealed off the street, officials said.
“Our wounded are being treated,” said Governor Ali Yerlikaya in a Tweet about the incident. “We wish God’s mercy on those who lost their lives and a speedy recovery to the injured.”
ABC News’ Patrick Reevell contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Newly reelected New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu on Sunday described the outcome of the midterm elections, with a stronger-than-anticipated performance by Democrats, as a “rejection of extremism.”
“I think the Democrats did a very good job of defining a lot of these candidates before they even had a chance to introduce themselves and then, obviously, you have all this other national stuff happening that I think scared a lot of folks, this extremism that’s out there,” Sununu, a Republican, told ABC “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos in an exclusive interview.
Sununu easily defeated Democratic state Sen. Tom Sherman on Tuesday, becoming only the second governor in New Hampshire history to win a fourth term. By contrast, the state’s Republican Senate nominee, Donald Trump-backed Don Bolduc, lost by a 10-point margin to Democratic incumbent Maggie Hassan.
“How do you explain that?” Stephanopoulos asked.
“Candidate quality matters. You know, there’s a chance of extremism that I think a lot of Republicans were painted with, rightfully or not,” Sununu said. He also said he had no regrets about choosing not to run against Hassan himself: “Look, with all due respect, the Senate’s the B-team compared to being a governor.”
He criticized the unpopularity of some “policies out of D.C.,” like on inflation, but said that voters had other priorities with their ballots.
“What I think people said was, ‘Look, we can work on these policies later, but as Americans, we got to fix extremism right now,'” he said.
“By extremism, do you mean the politics espoused by Donald Trump?” Stephanopoulos asked.
Sununu responded: “I think there’s an extreme left and an extreme right. In this sense, I think a lot of folks are saying, ‘Look, it’s not about payback, it’s about solving problems,’ right?”
A national abortion ban proposed by Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham and the attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband had underlined the public’s concerns, he said.
“They [voters] said, ‘Look, enough of this. We have to start putting in folks that are definitely going to come together and work across the aisle,'” he said.
“America has been asking for more moderation for quite some time,” Sununu said. “There’s just, you know, certain parts of the Republican Party that haven’t listened so well. We’ve just got to get back to basics. It’s not unfixable.”
Stephanopoulos noted that prominent election deniers running in key elections across the country lost their races. He asked Sununu if the party needed to move past that messaging “once and for all.”
“We should have been moving on from that stuff immediately,” said Sununu, who was quick to break with others in his party by affirming Joe Biden’s election win in November 2020.
Questioning elections “taps into an extreme base and a fire that’s there with some folks, but at the end of the day, you can’t govern if you don’t win,” he said, adding that some losing candidates “went way too far right in some of their primaries” and “let the other side define them.”
Sununu has said Trump should not announce another presidential bid before Christmas, a view he echoed on “This Week” when Stephanopoulos asked if he thought Trump’s impending announcement of a 2024 comeback was a good idea.
Sources have told ABC News Trump could launch his campaign as early as this week. The former president teased last week that he’d be making a “very big” announcement on Tuesday at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida.
“I think it’s a terrible idea for him,” Sununu said, citing a desire that many people have to move away from politics during the holiday season. “So now’s just a horrible time for big political statements. ‘Save that for early 2023’ would be my message.”
“But can you see any circumstance by which you would support Donald Trump in 2024?” Stephanopoulos asked.
“Not really, because I think there’s going to be a lot of great candidates out there,” Sununu said.
When Stephanopoulos raised the prospect of Sununu running for president himself, given how prominent New Hampshire is in the primary process, the governor said that he’s focused on his current job.
“A lot of folks are talking about that,” he said, “but look, I’ve got a state to run.”
(WASHINGTON) — Speaker Nancy Pelosi demurred on Sunday during an appearance on ABC’s “This Week” about whether she intends to run for her position again if Democrats hang onto the House.
Pelosi’s comments to anchor George Stephanopoulos come after a stronger-than-anticipated performance by Democrats in the midterms in which they bucked historical trends to keep the Senate and still have a path to narrowly keep the House as vote counting continues.
“Right now I’m not making any comments until this election is finished, and we have a little more time to go,” she said of her future role in House leadership. “I wish it [the counting] was faster.”As of Sunday, ABC News estimates that Democrats will win 206 seats in the House to 211 for the Republicans. Eighteen seats have not been projected. Democrats would need to win 12 for the majority.
In 2018, in order to win the necessary votes to become speaker for a second time, Pelosi said she would limit her speakership for two terms, with her second term finishing this January. She has not said recently whether she will abide by that pledge.
Looking forward to 2024, Stephanopoulos asked Pelosi, “Do you think President [Joe] Biden should run again?”
“Yes, I do. … He has accomplished so much: over 10 million jobs under his leadership, working with the private sector, of course. He has just done so many things that are so great,” she said, adding: “He put money in people’s pockets, vaccines in their arms, children back to school, people back to work.”
Heading into Election Day, race experts at FiveThirtyEight and elsewhere had predicted Democrats could be running into a “red wave” that would deliver a yawning majority for Republicans, given how past midterm cycles had gone and voters’ sour feelings about the Biden White House and inflation.
Instead, Democrats in the House and Senate both defended incumbents in tight races and flipped seats held by Republicans, though the GOP could still win a razor-thin majority in the next Congress.
Democrats’ over-performance, Pelosi said on “This Week,” was fueled by ignoring the conventional wisdom and running on a playbook centered around protection of abortion access and democracy while emphasizing a kitchen-table focus on lowering prices.
“We never accepted when the pundits in Washington said we couldn’t win because history, history, history. Elections are about the future,” she said.
“I’m very proud of our candidates. … They had courage, they had purpose and they understood their district,” she continued.
Still, Pelosi said she was “disappointed” about the election results in New York, where Republicans flipped four House seats after an aggressive Democratic gerrymander was tossed in court.The GOP’s wins in New York are now key to whether they retake the lower chamber in Congress. Stephanopoulos asked Pelosi how she sees Republican leader Kevin McCarthy governing his caucus, as speaker, if he holds a small majority.
Pelosi noted that Democrats currently maintain a similar margin and have been successful in passing legislation.
“It depends on their purpose. In our House, we had those kinds of numbers. But we were united,” she said.
She said that it would be “very important” during the lame-duck session of Congress, before the new class of lawmakers is sworn in in January, to extend the country’s debt limit to avoid financial face-offs, as under President Barack Obama, when Republican lawmakers sought cuts to federal spending in order to increase the limit.
“Madam Speaker, if you do decide to step away from Congress, how do you want your speakerships to be remembered?” Stephanopoulos asked.
“Well, I don’t have any plans to step away from Congress. You asked me about running for leadership,” Pelosi said.
As for her legacy, she pointed to the passage of the Affordable Care Act: “When we had the opportunity to expand health care for all Americans, that has to be my major accomplishment. I take great pride in that.”
Meanwhile, as former President Donald Trump prepares for a comeback bid, Pelosi said his candidacy would be “bad news for the country.”
“This is a person who has undermined the integrity of our elections, has not honored his oath of office, who has encouraged people, strange kinds of people, to run for office who do not share the values of our democracy,” she said. “So he’s not been a force for good.”
(DENPASAR, Indonesia) — President Joe Biden often describes his relationship with China’s President Xi Jinping in terms of miles — the thousands he says they traveled together when they were vice presidents.
But despite their personal history, the two have never met in person in their current roles. That will change Monday when they come together for a highly anticipated summit in Indonesia.
As they meet on the sidelines of the annual gathering of the Group of 20 leaders, this year held on the island of Bali, each man will have the wind at his back: Biden following Democrats’ surprising performance in the midterm elections, and Xi after securing a third term in office with the approval of the country’s Communist Party.
Biden told reporters Sunday that “I know I’m coming in stronger, but I don’t need that.” He cited his long relationship with Xi and noted, too, that Xi’s “circumstance has changed, to state the obvious, at home.”
“I’ve always had straightforward discussions with him,” Biden said during a visit to Phnom Penh, Cambodia. “There’s never any miscalculation about what each of us — where each of us stand. And I think that’s critically important in our relationship.”
The U.S. and China have expressed a desire to effectively manage their ties and tensions, and the White House said this meeting will focus on maintaining communication about areas of contention — and cooperating on areas of mutual interest.
“Having the two presidents actually be able to sit face-to-face, and not face-to-face with a video screen between them, for the first time in President Biden’s presidency — it just takes the conversation to a different level, strategically,” Biden’s top national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said Friday.
On the agenda: Trade, Ukraine and more
Amid China’s military and economic rise, Biden and Xi are expected to discuss how to “responsibly manage competition, and work together where our interests align, especially on transnational challenges that affect the international community,” according to White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
“What I want to do with him, when we talk,” Biden told reporters Wednesday, “is lay out … what each of our red lines are, understand what he believes to be in the critical national interest of China, what I know to be the critical interest of the United States and determine whether or not they conflict with one another. And if they do, how do we resolve it and how to work it out.”
Economic competition is a key component of that. China has taken issue with American tariffs on Chinese goods, while the U.S. accuses Beijing of engaging in unfair trade practices.
Sullivan told reporters on Air Force One, while en route to Bali, that the president intends “to make clear in the meeting [with Xi] that the United States is prepared for stiff competition with China but does not seek conflict, does not seek confrontation, wants to make sure that we manage that competition responsibly.”
Sullivan said that their meeting could last multiple hours.
The leaders will also discuss Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to the White House.
Xi has spent years building a bond with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Beijing has largely toed Moscow’s line on the war — while declining both to provide military assistance to Putin’s forces or to join widespread sanctions on his country.
But there have been some recent cracks in China’s position. Xi did recently state, publicly, that he was opposed to threatening the use of nuclear weapons.
That apparent disapproval of Putin’s saber-rattling drew praise from Sullivan, who on Thursday called the comment “constructive.”
Lingering distrust, but a desire to talk
Despite lingering distrust and a resentment of the U.S. government since the Trump administration initiated a trade war on China, Xi’s most important bilateral relationship remains with the United States even as issues remain over China’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, Hong Kong, Taiwan and human rights in its Xinjiang region.
After House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited the self-governing island of Taiwan in August, the Chinese retaliated by largely freezing all exchanges with the United States.
Taiwan, which Beijing considers part of China, has been a third rail for Xi, and in the lead-up to China’s crucial Communist Party congress in mid-October, Xi had to demonstrate his resolve to his fellow party members — especially over Taiwan.
But after he secured his third term as leader, cementing his near-absolute authority over the party and the country, a flurry of activity signaled his desire to stabilize, if not mend, his country’s relationship with the U.S.
Within days of the conclusion of the party congress, Xi sent a personal message of reconciliation to an annual dinner held by the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations, a nonprofit group headquartered in New York.
“China stands ready to work with the United States to find the right way to get along with each other in the new era on the basis of mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation, which will benefit not only the two countries but also the whole world,” Xi said.
He then added that he hoped the attendees of the annual gathering would “play an active role in helping Sino-U.S. relations return to the track of healthy and stable development.”
Chinese diplomats have started to once again engage with their American counterparts, and in the weeks that followed Xi’s message, a flurry of meetings took place — absent the rancor that had permeated the relationship in the preceding months.
China’s ambassador to the U.S., Qin Gang, paid a visit to the official residence of the American ambassador to China, Nicholas Burns. Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who was newly elevated to China’s all-powerful Politburo Standing Committee, and Chinese climate envoy Xie Zhenhua connected with his American counterpart, John Kerry, on the sidelines of the U.N. climate conference known as COP27, in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt.
The Chinese previously suspended talks with the U.S. on climate issues — the countries’ sole area of agreement — to protest Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan.
Low expectations
The White House has warned reporters to expect no major announcements or a joint statement from the countries following the Biden-Xi meeting on Monday.
“It’s about the leaders coming to a better understanding and then tasking their teams to do intensive work,” Sullivan said Friday.
And despite its overtures, Beijing has portrayed the meeting as the United States’ idea.
“The Chinese side takes seriously the U.S. proposal for a meeting between the two presidents in Bali,” a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, Zhao Lijian, said Thursday. “The teams on both sides are in communication on this.”
Both the U.S. and China are hoping to find enough common ground to keep their relationship from deteriorating beyond repair, especially over Taiwan.
ABC News’ Sarah Kolinovsky contributed to this report.
(LOS ANGELES) — Rachel Castillo, a mother of two, disappeared last week under suspicious circumstances from her home in Simi Valley, California, leaving behind “a significant amount of blood” at the scene, according to local police.
Simi Valley Police believe Castillo is in danger, and the family is desperately seeking answers.
“Upon further investigation, a significant amount of blood was located in her home. Rachel’s whereabouts are unknown. Given the circumstances, it is believed Rachel is at risk,” the Simi Valley Police Department said in a statement.
Castillo, 25, has two children and lives with her sister just miles away from their parents, her family told ABC affiliate KABC.
She had dropped off her children to their father Thursday morning, before she disappeared, her family told KABC.
“As soon as I saw the blood, that’s when I realized something wasn’t right,” Emily Castillo, her sister, told the local station. She had returned home Thursday night. “So I called my mom to let her know to come over and then I immediately called 911.”
Many of her belongings – including phone, keys and car – were still at the home, her family said.
Detectives said Castillo is 5 feet 2 inches tall, and weighs 105 pounds. She has brown hair and eyes.
Anyone with information regarding her whereabouts can contact the Simi Valley Police Department at (805) 583-6950.
(DALLAS) — A collision occurred at a World War II airshow in Dallas on Saturday, authorities said.
The crash occurred at the event Wings Over Dallas at the Dallas Executive Airport, which was holding flying demonstrations of WWII fighter planes.
A Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and a Bell P-63 Kingcobra collided and crashed around 1:20 p.m. local time, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. It is unclear how many people were on board the bomber and fighter aircraft, it said.
The airport said there was an “incident” during the show and that Dallas Fire and Rescue is responding.
Bystanders captured a cloud of black smoke following the crash. Debris from the planes could also be seen littering a nearby highway.
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the collision.
The airshow, timed to coincide with Veteran’s Day, is organized by the Commemorative Air Force, an education association focused on American military aviation.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott called the incident a “tragedy” while updating on Twitter that state agencies were assisting local officials in the response.
ABC News’ Amanda Maile contributed to this report.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(KYIV, Ukraine) — Freedom of speech in Ukraine has not faded away and has survived the ongoing Russian aggression against the country, Ukrainian officials said.
“We live in times when the main news is coming from the frontlines,” Oleksandr Tkachenko, the Ukrainian Minister of Culture and Information Policy, told a crowd at a recent conference on media freedom in Kyiv.
Government officials have put some limitations on media freedoms, including restrictions on reporting on the military, but media experts said those limitations shouldn’t be transformed into restrictions on political reporting, according to a group of Ukrainian government, parliament, media and NGO members who gathered for a “National Media Talk” conference.
Andriy Kulykov, who chairs the Commission on Journalistic Ethics, said he wanted to dispel some of the lingering doubts about restrictions, pointing out that the Ukrainian society, with two recent revolutions behind its back, is learning and will not let political censorship take over.
The media audience in Ukraine still has a variety of information sources to choose from — unlike on the territories currently occupied by Russia, the experts said.
“This is not a limitation on the freedom of speech — let’s call it forced moderation during the war,” Oleksii Reznikov, Ukraine’s defense minister, said.
The function of journalism in Ukraine has changed since the beginning of the war, Reznikov added, as journalism today could serve as just another weapon. And Ukraine is struggling with propagandists from the Russian side. He highlighted the role of journalism in uncovering counter-propaganda and fake news, he said.
Reznikov also explained the rationale behind information silence or control in Ukraine — most evident on social media — saying Russian army reports to the Kremlin facts from the frontline roughly two and a half days after the given event. It is vital to make sure that the Russians will not be provided with valuable information in that time frame, before the Ukrainian army is ready to make its next move, Reznikov said.
Despite the maintained levels of information control, Reznikov said he does not “foresee any danger of information dictatorship in Ukraine.”
Journalists in Ukraine are fighting “on their battlefield,” the Ukrainian defense minister told ABC News.
But the lines have been further blurred for some journalists who’ve enlisted in the military, according to Lesya Ganzha and Maksym Skubenko, former media representatives currently fighting in the Ukrainian army.
Another former journalist who joined the fighting, Artem Kolosov, said, “It is anger that I feel.”
Denys Bihus, a former investigative reporter and editor, said, “The simplicity of war means that complicated questions you easily solve by a 120-mm mortar.” Bihus said he believes that currently enlisted journalists will come back from the war more angry and more radicalized, which may change the media landscape in coming years.
Yet according to Mykyta Poturayev, a lawmaker leading the charge in adopting a new law on media development, free media after the war will not only be about freedom, but also about responsibility.
“All this talk about online anarchy somewhere else in the world is over. These times are gone,” he said. “Now, everybody understands the danger of that poison that is poured through the online space and out of Moscow on all democratic and civilized countries.”
(ATLANTA) — A passenger on a Frontier Airlines flight who allegedly boarded the plane with two box cutters and was seen acting erratically was taken into custody after an emergency landing Friday night, according to the airline and the Transportation Security Administration.
Several passengers on the flight, including military veterans and a former law enforcement officer, helped crew members subdue the man after they landed, according to eyewitnesses.
The flight was en route to Tampa from the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport when it was diverted to Atlanta “after a passenger on board the aircraft was observed in possession of a box cutter,” Frontier said in a statement.
TSA said in a statement on Saturday that the plane was diverted around 9:30 p.m. “after a disturbance involving a disruptive passenger, in possession of a box cutter was declared.” Following a search, a second box cutter was found in the unidentified passenger’s carry-on, according to TSA.
Atlanta police assisted federal partners in detaining the suspect, Atlanta Police Department spokesperson Officer John Predmore said. Predmore directed further questions to the FBI, which is leading the investigation.
The FBI declined to comment and instead referred ABC News to the TSA statement.
No injuries to passengers or crew have been reported, the airline said. The Federal Aviation Administration, which is also investigating, said the plane landed safely “after the crew declared an emergency due to an unruly passenger.”
Before the emergency landing, multiple passengers noticed the man acting erratically, eyewitnesses said.
Passenger Ben Mutz told ABC News he spoke to the person who was in the window seat next to the man after they deplaned. The passenger told Mutz that the man “flashed a box knife at me and said, ‘I want to kill or I want to stab people,'” Mutz said.
Larry Cumberbatch was seated in the third row, flying from Cincinnati to Tampa to visit his son for his birthday. He told ABC News that a woman who was initially sitting in an aisle seat next to the man reported seeing “some kind of knife” and was afraid for her safety.
Flight attendants asked if anyone had any military or police background and would switch seats or go to the back of the plane, he said. Cumberbatch, a Navy veteran, volunteered to switch seats with the woman, he said.
At the back of the plane, Cumberbatch found the man leaning against the window-seat passenger with his feet up in the aisle seat, before getting up to go to the bathroom.
When the man exited the bathroom, he confronted Cumberbatch in the aisle, in what Cumberbatch described as a “showdown.”
“People back there, you could literally see they’re afraid. So that’s why I stood there, to give them a calming presence and let this guy know there’s somebody watching, someone who you will have to deal with if you take it to the next level,” Cumberbatch said.
Cumberbatch said a former law enforcement member talked to the man during the landing to calm him down.
Once the plane touched down, passengers were told to leave without taking any of their belongings, according to Mutz. He said he and others were unaware they had made an emergency landing until they turned on their phones and realized they were in Atlanta.
Cumberbatch and an Army veteran remained on the plane while the former officer helped escort the man down the aisle, he said. When police officers arrived, the man “got agitated” and the former officer gave him a warning before tackling him, Cumberbatch said.
“In my mind, he was really the hero right at that moment,” Cumberbatch said.
The man was then taken into custody by police, according to Cumberbatch, who said he spoke to FBI agents following the incident.
Cumberbatch said he “wasn’t surprised” that veterans responded in the moment.
“We’re going to take control of any situation that we’re in,” he said.
The passengers on the flight were provided hotel accommodations and rebooked on a new flight to Tampa on Saturday morning.
Box cutters are banned in the cabin, but allowed in checked luggage.
TSA said it is conducting an internal review of the incident and will examine surveillance footage and “airport security checkpoint processes/operations.”
(NEW YORK) — Sen. Mark Kelly is projected to win reelection, ABC News reports, securing a full six-year term to the Senate after pitching himself as an independent-minded candidate with bipartisan success. Kelly cast his opponent, Republican Blake Masters who was backed by former President Donald Trump, as too extreme for Arizona.
With Kelly’s win, Democrats are closer to maintaining their slim majority in the Senate, and Arizona keeps its purple hue.
“Thank you to the people of Arizona for re-electing me to the United States Senate,” Kelly said in a release Friday, after a large drop of votes from Maricopa County in his favor. “From day one, this campaign has been about the many Arizonans – Democrats, Independents, and Republicans – who believe in working together to tackle the significant challenges we face. That’s exactly what I’ve done in my first two years in office and what I will continue to do for as long as I’m there.”
“It’s been one of the great honors of my life to serve as Arizona’s Senator,” he said. “I’m humbled by the trust our state has placed in me to continue this work.”
Kelly, a former NASA astronaut and Navy combat pilot, who is married to former Rep. Gabby Giffords, ran a well-funded campaign with nearly $80 million fundraised to Masters’ $12 million. In a tranche of TV ads, the junior senator told Arizonans he’s focused on job creation, protecting abortion rights, and securing the southern border, supporting barriers on the southern border “when appropriate.” He said he stands up to President Joe Biden and Democrats “when they’re wrong.”
“I stand up for Arizona,” Kelly told ABC News on the stump. “When they’re making what I think is a poor decision, I tell them, and in some cases, I drop legislation to prevent them from doing the thing that is the mistake.”
He ran on legislative victories in the Senate, including the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the CHIPS Act, and explained measures in the Inflation Reduction Act that would help Arizonans such as drought relief measures and capped prescription drugs costs for seniors.
Masters, a 36-year-old venture capitalist from Tucson backed by Trump and tech billionaire Peter Thiel, went after Kelly on loyalty to Biden, record-high border crossings, fentanyl deaths and inflation. With Trump’s endorsement in June, he had beat out five other Republican candidates in the August primary, but after swinging far-right to stand out in the bunch, Masters faced criticism for an apparent pivot, including changing his website to soften stances on key issues.
Kelly often used Masters’ words from the primary trail against him, arguing he would support a federal abortion ban, privatizing social security, and spread baseless doubts about American elections since he has alleged, without evidence, that the 2020 presidential race was corrupt.
“I think Trump won in 2020,” Masters said in a campaign ad last year. He changed that stance publicly during the Arizona Senate debate to say he hadn’t seen widespread voter fraud but believes “Trump would be in the White House today if big tech and big media and the FBI didn’t work together to put the thumb on the scale to get Joe Biden in there.”
Kelly warned, on the same debate stage, that the “wheels” could “come off our democracy” if candidates like Masters, who continue questioning the integrity of American elections, rose to power.
Kelly also argued that Masters would be beholden to Trump, who Arizonans notably rejected in 2020, though by his slimmest of losing margins. In the final days of Kelly’s campaign, he added into his stump speech a mention of a phone call Trump made to Masters after their Senate debate, when Trump told him he should’ve gone harder on the “rigged” election conspiracy theory. The scene aired in Tucker Carlson’s documentary’s “The Candidate: Blake Masters.”
Masters told supporters Thursday that he would “come back and win,” but seemed disappointed with vote drops as early as Election Night, seeing as he didn’t take the stage before supporters once.
Arizonans, ultimately, stuck with the incumbent.
“No matter how the rest of the results shake out, our government will remain closely divided with a lot more to do. That can feel daunting. But that’s democracy,” Kelly said Tuesday at a watch party in Tucson. “The way to solve these problems isn’t by pointing fingers and dividing people. It’s by listening and finding common ground.”
Kelly was first elected to the Senate in a special election in 2020, flipping the late Republican Sen. John McCain’s seat, and giving Democrats control of both of Arizona’s Senate seats for the first time in nearly 70 years.
“There is not a day that goes by that I don’t think about the fact that I am sitting in the former Senator John McCain’s Senate seat,” Kelly said Monday at a campaign event with Republicans. “Senator McCain’s legacy is one that we should all strive to live up to — because Arizona deserves nothing less than a leader committed to always putting country first.”
It’s a message of unity that clearly resonated with Arizona’s electorate, who also pride themselves on being willing to split a ticket. And it’s another blow to Trump’s ticket.
An outstanding race in Nevada and runoff in Georgia will now determine the balance of power in the Senate.
(NEW YORK) — A Michigan pediatric hospital is reporting it is completely full due to a surge of cases linked to respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV.
C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor — which is about 44 miles west of Detroit — said it has seen 259 children sick with RSV this season, a 46% spike from the same number seen this time last year.
Hospital officials said they are worried that this surge — coupled with an earlier flu season and a potential new COVID-19 wave — could put more stress on the health care system.
“We have been 100% full, I think we’re going on our sixth week, and RSV seems to have emerged earlier this year and in higher numbers this year,” Luanne Thomas Ewald, chief operating officer at Mott Children’s Hospital, told ABC News. “And the fact that we’re already full is concerning to us because we’re just starting to see flu in our emergency room.”
She continued, “Some reports have told us that we will also see an increase in COVID in kids during this flu season. So we haven’t really even seen the full impacts of the flu and COVID — and we’re already at capacity.”
The situation in Michigan is just the latest example of some hospitals across the country reporting they have reached capacity due to a high number of RSV cases.
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, weekly RSV cases nationwide have risen from 5,872 the week ending Oct. 1 to 8,597 the week ending Nov. 5.
In Michigan, the 5-week average of positive RSV tests has increased from 95.7 the week ending Oct. 1 to 257 the week ending Oct. 29, the latest date for which CDC data is available.
Because of this, officials say wait times in the emergency department at Mott Children’s Hospital are much longer than usual.
To ease the burden on emergency room staff, Ewald said she and other hospital officials are asking parents to call their children’s primary care physician first to determine whether they need such treatment.
“Most pediatricians can diagnose RSV and can treat RSV, and most kids recover really, really well with rest and hydration,” Ewald said. “We’re really trying to tell the community throughout the state of Michigan, please partner with your pediatrician. Let’s use our urgent cares as well and only come to the emergency room when absolutely necessary.”
Although it’s rare, between 100 and 500 pediatric deaths occur from RSV every year, according to the CDC. Deaths among children from RSV have already been reported in states including Michigan and Virginia.
Ewald said the hospital is working to increase capacity by treating children in rooms traditionally used to draw blood and in stretchers lined up in the hallway, and they’re doubling up stretchers in private rooms. The hospital is also looking at transferring patients to local medical centers.
“We are working very closely with our community hospitals. Some of our community hospitals do have some pediatric beds available,” Ewald said. “So we’re really trying to take a statewide approach to make sure we’re taking care of these kids in our state.”
She also encouraged parents to make sure their children are up to date on their flu and COVID-19 vaccines, practice good hand hygiene and to consider masking indoors.
