(NEW YORK) — Domestic violent extremists across the ideological spectrum pose a “heightened threat” to the 2022 midterms, according to a joint intelligence bulletin obtained by ABC News.
The Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, the National Counterterrorism Center and the U.S. Capitol Police also warn that following the midterms, “perceptions” of election fraud could cause violence.
“We assess that election-related perceptions of fraud and DVE reactions to divisive topics will likely drive sporadic DVE plotting of violence and broader efforts to justify violence in the lead up to and following the 2022 midterm election cycle,” the bulletin dated Friday said. “Following the 2022 midterm election, perceptions of election-related fraud and dissatisfaction with electoral outcomes likely will result in heightened threats of violence against a broad range of targets―such as ideological opponents and election workers.”
Domestic violent extremism activity leading up and during the midterms are likely to focus on “election-related infrastructure, personnel, and voters involved in the election process as attractive targets—including at publicly accessible locations like polling places, ballot drop-box locations, voter registration sites, campaign events, and political party offices.”
“Potential targets of DVE violence include candidates running for public office, elected officials, election workers, political rallies, political party representatives, racial and religious minorities, or perceived ideological opponents.”
The hope, the law enforcement agencies say, is possibly to sway voter habits, undermine perceptions of legitimate elections or prompt a particular government reaction.
“Enduring” ideological grievances and the “perceptions” of election fraud are “likely” driving the potential for DVE violence.
Certain factors that are likely to increase a DVE attack during the election cycle are people urging violent action, threats related to perceived illegitimate elections, perceptions of voter suppression and attacks on one group or party.
The federal government bulletin comes as the NYPD warned this week that poll workers could be targets and urged vigilance.
“However, hostile rhetoric and an abundance of generalized threats from likeminded [extremists] and malicious actors in chat groups, encrypted messaging channels, and other online forums may effectively create echo chambers that circulate and reinforce false narratives and establish a permissive environment for violent action against election-related infrastructure and personnel,” the NYPD bulletin dated on Wednesday and was first reported by ABC News states.
The number of domestic terrorism investigations nearly doubled from 2020 to 2021, largely due to the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, according to a report released Friday by the FBI and DHS.
(NEW YORK) — Flu season is making an early comeback as flu-related hospitalizations are the highest in over a decade for this point in the season, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
There have been an estimated 880,000 cases of lab-confirmed influenza illnesses, 6,900 hospitalizations and 360 flu-related deaths nationally this season, according to data released on Friday.
Just this past week, there were 2,332 newly-admitted patients in hospitals, over a third of the total 6,900 flu hospitalizations this season already.
H3N2 is the predominant viral strain currently spreading. Previous seasons with mostly H3N2 viruses have been of higher severity, particularly for older adults and young children, the CDC says. It’s still too early to tell if this trend will continue.
The U.S. has not seen this high of a burden since the 2009 H1N1 swine flu pandemic. The national public health agency uses this as a metric to estimate a season’s severity based on laboratory-confirmed cases, doctor visits, hospitalizations and deaths.
Hospitalization rates are highest in adults over the age of 65 and young children, a level consistent with prior flu seasons for older adults, but a relatively new high for children.
This early flu season is additionally concerning with the pediatric surge of respiratory illnesses like RSV already filling up 75% of pediatric beds and surges of activity at the nation’s emergency departments.
“What worries me is the fact that we’re seeing flu [cases] increase. We have a lot of kids admitted right now with RSV…and you layer on a subset of kids who now are going to end up with flu,” said Dr. Melanie Kitagawa, medical director of the pediatric ICU at Texas Children’s Hospital.
Pediatric hospital beds in 9 states and Washington, D.C., are already above 80% capacity, with another five states over 90%, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.
Experts note that the pediatric surge is something that has been steadily growing over time with an already overtaxed healthcare system.
“This has been kind of a problem that’s been brewing for even several years. We know that hospital beds when it comes to the ability to care for children have decreased especially in our rural communities,” said Dr. Elizabeth Murray, a spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics and pediatric emergency medicine physician at the Gaza Children’s Hospital in Rochester, New York.
The potential for a COVID-19 surge, which we have not seen yet, could compound the threat.
Currently, COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths have slightly increased over the past week. There are still nearly 400 deaths from the disease daily.
Experts say that vaccines and therapeutics are available for both the flu and COVID.
“Many doctors will prescribe an antiviral, such as Tamiflu. And that will reduce their likelihood of developing the complications of influenza and help keep them out of the hospital,” said Dr. William Schaffner, a professor of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
Flu vaccination coverage among children and pregnant people has decreased during the past two years. Lower coverage and little flu circulation during the pandemic may have reduced population immunity, especially in young kids, which could lead to more flu illnesses this season, and potentially more severe illness, the CDC says.
The flu vaccine is recommended for everyone 6 months and older and the COVID booster is recommended for anyone over the age of 5. The best time to get your shots is before Halloween – or as soon as possible, health officials say.
(WASHINGTON) — A federal jury Friday returned a guilty verdict on one count of obstruction of justice against a former Capitol Police officer charged with aiding a rioter who participated in the Jan.6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Michael Riley, a 26-year veteran of the Capitol Police, was charged last year after he allegedly encouraged a participant in the attack to delete social media posts that showed the person joining the pro-Trump mob storming the Capitol.
Investigators said Riley reached out to the rioter, Jacob Hiles, over Facebook on Jan. 7, and encouraged him to delete posts that showed him inside the Capitol the day before.
“I’m a capitol police officer who agrees with your political stance,” Riley’s message said. “Take down the part about being in the building, they are currently investigating and everyone who was in the building is going to be charged. Just looking out!”
Riley was found guilty on one count of obstruction related to his attempts to cover up his messages with Hiles after news reports surfaced of Hiles’ arrest.
The jury failed to reach a verdict on a second count related to Riley’s communication with Hiles on Jan. 7.
He faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
(NEW YORK) — A New York City law will require companies with at least four employees to post salary ranges in job listings in an effort to increase pay transparency starting Tuesday.
Employers advertising jobs in the city who have at least one employee currently located there must include a “good faith salary range,” according to the New York City Commission on Human Rights, which is enforcing the law. Employers must include a minimum and maximum salary.
There is no fine for a first-time offense, though companies and employment agencies found to violate the law could face civil penalties of up to $250,000 if not corrected within 30 days of receiving notice of the violation.
Temporary staffing agencies are exempt from the law because they already disclose this information under the New York State Wage Theft Prevention Act.
Starting November 1, 2022, the NYC Human Rights Law requires employers to include a good faith pay range in all job postings – another step toward pay equity for New Yorkers.
The new law, which passed the New York City Council late last year, was set to go into effect in May, though the start date was delayed following criticism from business groups and companies who said they were not consulted about the legislation beforehand and that the language of the law was vague.
The law was also amended to waive a penalty for a first-time violation and clarify that it would not apply to jobs that cannot or will not be performed in New York City, among other changes.
The city follows other jurisdictions that have passed laws to increase pay transparency. Among them, Colorado, Connecticut and Nevada started mandating salary ranges on job postings last year, and similar salary requirement laws will go into effect in California, Rhode Island and Washington state in 2023.
Several companies have already started complying with the New York City law, including Amazon, American Express, Citigroup and Zillow.
Pay transparency advocates who were involved in the new law called it a “game changer for the city’s workers,” in particular those who face wage disparities, including Black and Latina women.
“With salary ranges out in the open, employers must think critically about how they set pay at the front end of their process before they insert unconscious biases. At the same time, women and people of color have more leverage to advocate for themselves and more information to make better decisions about jobs and industries to pursue, helping to combat occupational segregation,” Beverly Cooper Neufeld, president of PowHer New York, and Seher Khawaja, senior attorney for economic empowerment at Legal Momentum, wrote in an opinion piece published in the New York Daily News on Thursday.
The chambers of commerce in each borough and the Partnership for New York City, an organization that represents the city’s business leadership, had unsuccessfully pushed for the law to exempt industries with severe labor shortages, as well as only require minimum salary postings for highly compensated jobs.
“New York City is a highly competitive labor market, where most employers are committed to gender and racial pay parity,” they wrote in a joint letter in April, arguing that the inclusion of a salary range is “not necessarily the most appropriate tool for the New York labor market.”
(NEW YORK) — The enduring debate about whether UFOs are caused by extraterrestrial beings will once again be front and center next week as U.S. intelligence agencies will provide Congress with an updated report on UFO incidents over the past year.
Meanwhile, it appears that other more recent incidents are being attributed to weather balloons, other airborne clutter, and foreign surveillance, according to a U.S. official.
Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines has until Monday to provide Congress with its first annual unclassified update on Unexplained Aerial Phenomena, the new term for UFOs, that includes all new UAP incidents over the past year and any previously unreported incidents.
The report was required by the 2022 Defense Bill that mandated that the DNI provide an annual declassified update and a classified annex by Oct. 31 of every year through 2026.
The update follows the DNI’s first-ever report released in June 2022 that listed 144 UAP incidents, only one of which could be explained. At a congressional hearing earlier this year Pentagon officials said that the number of UAP incidents under investigation had risen to more than 400.
While it is unclear how many new reports will be included in the upcoming update, a U.S. official told ABC News that the most recent UAP incidents can be explained as a mix of weather balloons, airborne clutter, and foreign surveillance. But the official stressed that other incidents still cannot be explained.
The official added that it cannot be determined who is behind the foreign surveillance but the most likely candidates would be China and Russia since they have the most interest in monitoring the U.S. military.
“There is no single explanation that addresses the majority of UAP reports,” Sue Gough, a Defense Department spokesperson, said in a statement. “We are collecting as much data as we can, following the data where it leads, and will share our findings whenever possible. We will not rush to conclusions in our analysis”
“In many cases, observed phenomena are classified as ‘unidentified’ simply because sensors were not able to collect enough information to make a positive attribution,” said Gough. “We are working to mitigate these shortfalls for the future and to ensure we have sufficient data for our analysis.”
Analysis of more recent UAP incidents is helped by the amount of information and data available as compared to older incidents.
The U.S. official told ABC News that two of the three videos declassified by the Pentagon in 2020 and recorded from the sensors aboard fighter aircraft now have plausible explanations.
In the “Go Fast” video Navy pilots are heard exclaiming how fast an object is moving above the water. According to the U.S. official, the leading assessment from experts is that what the pilots saw on their video screens was actually an optical illusion of an object that was not moving very fast at all. The illusion was created by the angle and height at which the object was viewed by the sensors as it moved above the water.
The “gimbal” video taken in 2015 by a jet fighter crew that shows an object rotating in the clouds. The official says it’s now believed that the object’s strange movements and observed spinning was caused by the sensor aboard the plane that captured that image.
There is no assessment for what is being seen in the third video commonly referred to as the “Flir” video that was taken in 2004.
The general public’s appetite for UFOs is sure to continue, and just last week NASA announced the 16 people who would serve on a new panel tasked with studying UAPs. Their report, based on unclassified information, is slated to be released in mid-2023.
(WASHINGTON) — In her 2003 opinion upholding affirmative action in higher education, former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor famously predicted that in 25 years “the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary” in America.
Next week, years after that milestone and with lingering gaps in minority college acceptance and achievement, a new group of justices will decide whether to overrule O’Connor — and more than 40 years of precedent — to declare that admissions policies must be race-blind.
“That would be a sea change in American law with huge implications across society,” said Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center.
In a pair of oral arguments Monday, the justices will take up race-conscious admissions policies at Harvard University, the nation’s oldest private college, and the University of North Carolina, the nation’s oldest public university.
It is the first test for affirmative action before the current court with its six-justice conservative majority and three justices of color, including the first-ever Black woman justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson.
“I think we have to be realistic in that this is a very conservative Supreme Court,” said David Lewis, a Harvard University junior and member of the school’s Black Students Association. “But this issue has been tried over and over again at the court, and the precedent has still been upheld.”
Students for Fair Admissions, a conservative and multiracial coalition of 22,000 students and parents, sued the schools in 2014 alleging intentional discrimination toward Asian American applicants in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
The group, led by longtime affirmative action critic Edward Blum, is asking the Supreme Court to outlaw consideration of race in admission to public and private colleges and universities nationwide.
“There are better ways of achieving racial diversity than treating people differently by race,” Blum, who is white, told ABC News in an interview.
He argues race-neutral approaches, like a focus on socio-economic background, could meet the same objectives.
The high court has previously resisted those arguments.
In a landmark 1978 decision, a five-justice majority said that race was a permissible factor in admissions so long as a school did not use a quota system. Twenty-five years later, Justice O’Connor reaffirmed that principle in a 5-4 decision that said a school’s use of race must be narrowly-tailored. And in 2016, a similarly divided court again upheld the use of race at the University of Texas.
“Every justice on the Supreme Court and the justices that have served over the last 30 or 40 years have voted to overturn precedent,” Blum said. “It is far overdue for the Supreme Court to revisit the use of race and ethnicity in higher education, and we hope that the court will rein in that practice.”
Lower federal courts have sided with Harvard and UNC, ruling that neither broke from the Supreme Court’s long-standing precedent, which permits the limited use of race as one factor in a holistic review of individual applicants’ qualifications for admission.
“An applicant’s race is only one among dozens of factors,” UNC wrote in its brief to the high court, as admissions officers bring “together a class that is diverse along numerous dimensions — including geography, military status, and socioeconomic background.”
Harvard University argues separately that the Constitution “does not require us to disregard the commonsense reality that race is one among many things that shape life experiences in meaningful ways.”
“Nothing in the text or history of the 14th Amendment suggests that universities must uniquely exclude race from the multitude of factors considered in assembling a class of students best able to learn from each other,” the school wrote in its brief.
The 14th Amendment was drafted and ratified after the Civil War with the express purpose of extending equal rights of citizenship to former slaves and other Black Americans.
The lower courts also affirmed the schools’ “compelling interest” in pursuing educational benefits from a diverse student body and agreed that race-neutral alternatives may fall short. Blum and Students for Fair Admissions dispute those conclusions.
“In UNC’s academic judgment, diversity is central to the education it aims to provide,” the school told the court. “Ideally, UNC could achieve this diversity without consideration of race … [but it] remains necessary.”
A varied approach to race in university admissions
Since 1996, 10 states have banned the use of race in public university admissions. But roughly one-in-five U.S. public universities still consider race during the admissions process, according to a report by Ballotpedia.
“There’s something very particular about growing up in this country dealing with the ways that you were underestimated, the educational opportunities you’re denied,” said Fordham University President Tania Tetlow, the first woman to lead the Jesuit institution in its 181-year history.
“When a student comes to us having overcome all of that and succeeding,” Tetlow said, “we’re even more eager for them to be here. And the idea that we’re supposed to ignore that I just don’t understand.”
Fordham has been among the biggest defenders of affirmative action, seeing the policy as much a moral imperative as a critical tool for building a diverse campus. The undergraduate student body is 64% white, according to the school.
But not all institutions see race-conscious admissions as an imperative.
Baruch College, part of the City University of New York located in lower Manhattan, is one of the most racially diverse campuses in the country, with more than 70% students of color. The school does not consider race in admissions.
“It’s a tool to achieve the kind of campus diversity that we’re talking about, but it’s not the only tool,” said Baruch College president David Wu, the first Asian American to lead a school within the City University of New York.
Wu argues that a more effective approach is targeted recruitment in underserved communities much earlier in high school.
“By the time you get into the admission policy of diversifying the student body, that’s a little bit too late,” Wu said. “Before all that happens, you need to put in the effort to build that pipeline.”
A key contrast between schools like Fordham and Baruch is cost. The private university charges roughly $56,000 a year in tuition; the public school is around $7,000 a year.
“Race has to be part of the conversation. I also think socioeconomic status is really important, and we need to find a way to talk about both of them in a nuanced way,” said Jake Moreno Coplon, CEO of America Needs You, a nonprofit that helps first-generation college students get accepted to college and navigate the transition.
“It’s hard to know what the impact of the erasure of affirmative action will do to the higher education landscape,” Coplon added.
A 2020 study of public universities that have banned affirmative action found long-term decline in black, Latino and Native American representation on those campuses — on average more than 15 percentage points lower than among state high school graduates in just the first year a ban was implemented.
At the University of California-Berkeley, which eliminated race as a factor in its admissions 1996, the admissions rate for Black students dropped from 50% to 20% in the first year and from 45% to 21% for Latinx students, according to the ACLU.
Public supports diversity but cool to affirmative action
While most Americans say they support promotion of racial diversity on college and university campuses, strong majorities also oppose the use of race as a factor in admissions decisions.
More than 60% of Americans said they would support a ban on race-based affirmative action, according to a Washington Post-Schar School poll released this month.
The views appear to be shared by majorities across racial and political groups. A Pew Research Center study earlier this year found 68% of Hispanics, 63% of Asian Americans and 59% of African Americans oppose the use of race or ethnicity in college admissions.
“There’s just talent everywhere, and if they look in the right places, they’ll find it,” said German Ortega, a Fordham University freshman and son of a Mexican immigrant from Corona, Queens, who grapples with the pros and cons of affirmative action.
Ortega is attending Fordham on a scholarship specifically earmarked for Hispanic students.
“It’s sad that I got a full ride because I’m Hispanic,” Ortega said. “It’s good for me, but you know, it says a lot.”
Lewis, the Harvard junior, said minority students should never be ashamed about consideration of their race as a factor in admissions.
“Our race is not just liek a color or like a checkbox on our college applications,” Lewis said. “It tells us a whole history about what opportunities you had access to. We know how powerful systemic racism is in this country. To overcome that, and to be part of this small group of people being considered at these institutions shows that you do have incredible merit.”
Forty years of precedent on race in admissions
Affirmative Action was developed in the 1960s and 70s in part to ensure opportunity after decades of inequality and racism kept students of color on the margins of higher education.
For Baruch College in New York City, enrolling a diverse mix of students has not been difficult, but at Fordham University, Harvard, UNC and dozens of other institutions across the country, it remains a challenge.
“If the court were to follow settled precedent, our side would prevail, and we are asking the court to hold the line,” said Yasmin Cader, ACLU deputy legal director, which is backing the schools. “We are not asking or seeking advancement, just seeking that they don’t overturn efforts to achieve equality.”
Critics of affirmative action say the precedent was wrongly decided from the start and is now ripe for correction.
“A lot of the devil is going to be in the details, the scope of the rule,” said Roman Martinez, a former clerk to Chief Justice John Roberts and then-judge Brett Kavanaugh and veteran Supreme Court litigator.
If precedent is overturned, Martinez said, a key question will be what options universities will have to pursue their goals.
“Will they be able to use approaches that do not explicitly take race into account but are adopted, in part, to promote diversity? There’s a lot of play in the joints,” he said.
A key figure in it all could be Justice Jackson. She recused herself from the Harvard case because of a past role on the University’s board of overseers but will fully participate in the UNC case. The court’s ultimate decision is expected to take her views and vote into account.
“I think it’s important to hear from the first black female justice on the Supreme Court of the U.S. how she feels about race consciousness in American life,” said Devon Westhill, president and general counsel at the Center for Equal Opportunity, a group that opposes race-conscious admissions. “We don’t have a good record of what her thoughts are on that.”
(WASHINGTON) — An attack on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband has left Washington rattled amid an overall rise in threats against members of Congress.
Paul Pelosi was hospitalized after being “violently assaulted” by an intruder who broke into the couple’s residence in San Francisco early Friday morning, a spokesman for Pelosi said. Sources told ABC News the attack is suspected to be targeted, and the suspect was apparently looking for Pelosi herself.
The House speaker was in Washington with her protective detail at the time, according to U.S. Capitol Police.
U.S. Capitol Police on Friday confirmed statistics showing concerning statements and threats have more than doubled since 2017.
That year, the agency reported 3,939 cases of both concerning statements and threats. In June 2017, a gunman opened a fire as Republican politicians practiced for the annual congressional baseball game, severely wounding House GOP Whip Steve Scalise and injuring three others.
The number of threats and concerning statements rose each year after, police said, totaling 8,613 cases in 2020 and 9,625 cases in 2021.
In the first three months of this year alone, the U.S. Capitol Police opened roughly 1,820 cases.
Former Capitol Police Inspector General Michael Bolton, confronted with the rising numbers during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing last year, said the agency was working on bettering their response to such threats. Those steps included opening field offices in Florida and San Francisco.
“We still have a ways to go, but we are making improvements. We’re taking our steps now,” Bolton told the panel.
This summer, the House sergeant-at-arms’ office began covering the costs of installing and maintaining security equipment at all lawmakers’ homes. A memo obtained by ABC News showed the program would cover up to $10,000 in upgrades and monthly monitoring fees starting Aug. 15.
Pelosi herself been the target of several threats. In the days after the Jan. 6 attack at the U.S. Capitol, a man was arrested and sentenced to 28 months in prison for threatening to shoot Pelosi. In April of this year, a man was sentenced to 18 months in prison for threatening to behead Pelosi and New York Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.
Some members of Congress have been outspoken about the threats they’ve received.
Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., in June revealed on ABC’s “This Week” that someone wrote a letter threatening to execute him, his wife and their 5-month-old baby. Kinzinger, one of two Republicans on the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack, warned there would be “”violence in the future” — “Until we get a grip on telling people the truth, we can’t expect any differently,” he said.
Kinzinger, responding to the assault against Paul Pelosi, said Friday “every GOP candidate and elected official must speak out, and now.”
GOP Sen. Susan Collins, whose home was once broken into, told the New York Times earlier this month that she “wouldn’t be surprised if a senator or House member were killed.”
“What started with abusive phone calls is now translating into active threats of violence and real violence,” she told the newspaper.
Many lawmakers on both sides of the aisle were quick Friday to condemn the attack against Pelosi.
President Joe Biden called Pelosi on Friday to express his support, the White House said in a statement, and he continues to “condemn all violence, and asks that the family’s desire for privacy be respected.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he was “horrified and disgusted” by the reports of Paul Pelosi’s assault. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Pelosi’s main rival in the chamber, reached out to her to check in on Paul and said he’s praying for a full recovery and is thankful they caught the assailant,” McCarthy spokesperson Mark Bednar said.
“We can have our political differences, but violence is always wrong [and] unacceptable,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, wrote on Twitter.
But Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, appeared to make light of the attack while speaking at a rally with 7th Congressional District GOP U.S. House candidate Yesli Vega.
“There’s no room for violence anywhere, but we’re going to send her back to be with him in California,” Youngkin said on Friday. “That’s what we’re gonna go do. That’s what we’re gonna go do.”
– ABC News’ Isabella Murray contributed to this report.
(SAN FRANCISCO) — Tesla CEO Elon Musk has closed a deal to acquire Twitter, ending a monthslong saga that cast Musk as suitor, critic, legal adversary and ultimately owner of the social media platform.
A source familiar with the matter confirmed the deal closure to ABC News on Friday morning. Some of Twitter’s top executives were fired, including CEO Parag Agrawal, chief financial officer Ned Segal, chief legal officer Vijaya Gadde and general counsel Sam Edgett, and the company will likely be launching an internal investigation, according to the source.
On Friday, Segal recounted his tenure at the company and vowed to remain active as a user of the platform.
“The last 5 years have been the most fulfilling of my career,” Segal said. “The people, the potential, and the importance of Twitter. The shifts in technology, politics, culture. This will be hard to beat.”
Meanwhile, an employee leaving Twitter headquarters in San Francisco on Friday told ABC station KGO he’d been terminated during a Zoom meeting.
Former President Donald Trump applauded Musk’s takeover of Twitter. Musk has said in the past he would rescind the ban on the former president, but Trump did not say Friday whether he would return to the platform.
“I am very happy that Twitter is now in sane hands,” Trump said in a post on Truth Social, a platform launched by Trump. “Twitter must now work hard to rid itself of all of the bots and fake accounts that have hurt it so badly.”
Trump told Fox News in April, when news of Musk’s bid to buy Twitter emerged, that he would not return to the platform if his ban was lifted and was committed to growing Truth Social.
Musk said on Friday that he will forgo any significant content moderation or account reinstatement decisions until after the formation of a new committee devoted to the issues.
“Twitter will be forming a content moderation council with widely diverse viewpoints,” Musk tweeted. “No major content decisions or account reinstatements will happen before that council convenes.”
The New York Stock Exchange confirmed on Friday morning that Twitter shares are now suspended for trading, which means the social media platform is headed for delisting and is no longer a public company.
On Thursday night, Musk tweeted: “The bird is freed.”
The Washington Post, The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal were among the first outlets to report the purchase had gone through on Thursday evening, also citing sources familiar with the matter.
Musk — the richest person in the world, according to Forbes — reportedly acquired Twitter at his original offer price of $54.20 a share at a total cost of roughly $44 billion.
On Wednesday, Musk posted a video of himself walking into Twitter’s offices with a sink, with the tagline: “Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in!”
After initially reaching an acquisition deal with Twitter in April, Musk moved to terminate the agreement in July, citing concerns over spam accounts on the platform.
Soon after, Twitter filed a lawsuit against Musk over his effort to nix the deal. The judge in the trial, set to take place in Delaware Chancery Court, gave Musk a deadline of Friday to reach a deal or proceed with the trial.
The deal completes a courtship that started in January when the billionaire first invested in Twitter.
By March, Musk had become the largest stakeholder in Twitter with the social media company announcing in April that Musk would join its board. Days later, however, Musk said he had decided against joining the board.
In April, Musk offered to buy Twitter at $54.20 per share, valuing the company at about $44 billion. The offer amounted to a 38% premium above where the price stood a day before Musk’s investment in Twitter became public. Roughly 10 days later, Twitter accepted Musk’s offer.
One month later, however, Musk said he had put the deal “temporarily on hold,” citing concern over what he said was the prevalence of bot and spam accounts on the platform. Roughly two hours later, Musk said he was “still committed” to the deal.
Twitter said it had provided Musk with information in accordance with conditions set out in the acquisition deal.
Eventually, Musk moved to terminate the deal in July. Soon after, Twitter sued Musk in Chancery Court in Delaware to force him to complete the deal.
A scheduling decision made by the court in July — to hold the trial over five days in October — appeared to align more closely with a timeline requested by Twitter, which had sought a four-day trial in September. Musk asked the court to set a trial date no earlier than mid-February 2023.
(SAN FRANCISCO) — Paul Pelosi, husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, was “violently assaulted” by a man who broke into his San Francisco home early Friday, according to her spokesperson.
The suspect, 42-year-old David Depape, attacked Paul Pelosi with a hammer when officers responded to a priority well-being check at 2:27 a.m. local time, San Francisco police said. Officers tackled the suspect and disarmed him, police said.
Paul Pelosi, 82, is in the hospital and “is expected to make a full recovery,” the speaker’s spokesperson, Drew Hammill, said in a statement. But two sources familiar with the matter told ABC News his injuries are “significant.”
Depape allegedly entered the house through a sliding glass door, law enforcement sources familiar with the matter told ABC News. The suspect shouted “Where’s Nancy?” before allegedly striking Paul Pelosi, according to two sources familiar with the matter.
Nancy Pelosi was in Washington, D.C., with her protective detail at the time, according to the Capitol Police.
Depape, who was hospitalized with injuries, will be booked on charges including attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, burglary and elderly abuse, police said.
The motive is under investigation, Hammill said.
The Capitol Police, FBI and San Francisco Police Department are all involved in the investigation. The San Francisco District Attorney’s Office said the case will be handled locally. Charges are forthcoming but have not yet been filed, the district attorney’s office said.
“The Speaker and her family are grateful to the first responders and medical professionals involved, and request privacy at this time,” Hammill added.
President Joe Biden spoke with Nancy Pelosi Friday morning “to express his support after this horrible attack,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement, “What happened to Paul Pelosi was a dastardly act. I spoke with Speaker Pelosi earlier this morning and conveyed my deepest concern and heartfelt wishes to her husband and their family, and I wish him a speedy recovery.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell tweeted that he’s “horrified and disgusted” by the attack, adding, “Grateful to hear that Paul is on track to make a full recovery.”
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy reached out to Nancy Pelosi to “check in on Paul and said he’s praying for a full recovery,” according to his spokesperson.
ABC News’ Trish Turner, Pierre Thomas, Rachel Scott and Alex Stone contributed to this report.
(BROKEN ARROW, Okla.) — Six children were killed in an apparent murder-suicide at their home in a Tulsa, Oklahoma, suburb, according to police.
The two adult suspects were also found dead at the home in Broken Arrow after crews responded to a fire at the house Thursday afternoon, Broken Arrow Police Chief Brandon Berryhill said at a news conference Friday.
The children ranged in age from 1 to 13 years old, the chief said.
Officials don’t believe any of the victims died from the fire, but the medical examiner will make the final determination, Broken Arrow Fire Chief Jeremy Moore said. Guns have been recovered from the home, Berryhill said.
Fire crews responded to the house around 4:05 p.m. and found two adults in the front of the house “obviously deceased,” and their deaths appeared criminal in nature, Moore said. The fire was focused on one room in the back of the house, and while trying to extinguish that fire, responders found the children, Moore said.
There’s no threat to the public, Berryhill said.
Police have not been called to this home in recent years, Berryhill said.
