(ANN ARBOR, Mich.) — As the Detroit Auto Show in Michigan makes a comeback after a three-year hiatus, ABC News hit the ground in the city as well as the University of Michigan campus to speak to voters on the most important issues that are on their minds.
The state is gearing up to be ground zero of a battle over abortion rights after the state Supreme Court ordered an abortion ballot initiative, which seeks to enshrine abortion rights in the state and will be voted on in November. It was originally deadlocked by the board of canvassers in August.
Zaynab Alsalman, a senior at the University of Michigan, says the decision to have an abortion should not be decided by the government.
“I do think a woman should have the ability to choose whether or not they want to have an abortion,” said Alsalman to ABC News. “It’s a very personal choice and it’s very vulnerable to make that decision. It’s just a personal choice.”
Sam Dubose and Stephen Oduro, also seniors at the University of Michigan, identify as pro-abortion rights and they say the topic of abortion will influence many people to head to the polls on Election Day.
“I think restricting people from things like abortion, that’s just pretty dangerous, in my opinion,” said Oduro to ABC News. “As a male, I don’t think it’s my position to be saying, ‘Oh no, you can’t be doing this with your body.’ I think it’s a whole messed up situation personally.”
“I’m going to vote my conscience,” said Dubose to ABC News. “I know what I’m going to do.”
President Joe Biden also visited the city’s Auto Show on Wednesday, touting the future of electric cars in America but some, like Michigan native Gary Novak, is unconvinced about transitioning vehicles away from gas.
“I just don’t think the infrastructure is there yet,” said Novak to ABC News, who identifies as a conservative and formerly worked in the automotive industry. “I still think we’re a long way off. And I don’t think people are going to want to sit for a long recharge time.”
Hannah, a student at the University of Michigan who says she mostly votes Democratic and did not give a last name, disagrees with skeptics of electrical vehicles.
“I really appreciate the way that [the Biden] administration is handling that sort of transition from fuel vehicles to EVs,” Hannah said to ABC News.
“The climate crisis that we’re in today, it’s important to shift focus to other sources of power,” she added.
The consequences of inflation on the economy are also on the minds of voters, including Ralph Johnson, a Democrat from Detroit.
“I would like to see the prices go down even though everybody is working but it seems like the prices are going up,” Johnson told ABC News.
“Now you have to be very specific in what you get,” he added.
(LONDON) — Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II “died peacefully” on Thursday, Sept. 8, at Balmoral Castle, the British royal family’s estate in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, according to a statement from Buckingham Palace. She was 96.
Elizabeth was Britain’s longest-reigning monarch. She ascended to the throne in 1952 and, in June, celebrated her Platinum Jubilee, marking 70 years as queen.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Sep 17, 1:34 PM EDT
Queen’s grandchildren hold vigil inside Westminster Hall
The queen’s grandchildren gathered for a vigil in Westminster Hall on Saturday as mourners passed through and paid their respects.
Sep 17, 1:34 PM EDT
Prince Andrew, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle will not attend State Reception
Despite earlier reports that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle were invited to a State Reception of World Leaders on Sunday, only working members of the royal family have been invited.
Sep 17, 1:31 PM EDT
King Charles II meets with Commonwealth prime ministers
King Charles II met with prime ministers of Commonwealth countries Canada, Australia, the Bahamas, Jamaica and New Zealand on Saturday, according to Buckingham Palace.
These were the king’s first meetings with country leaders as head of state.
Sep 17, 1:09 PM EDT
Princesses Beatrice, Eugenie pay tribute to the queen
Prince Andrew’s daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, released their first public statement since the death of the queen, saying it has been the honor of their lives to be her granddaughters.
“We, like many, thought you’d be here forever. And we all miss you terribly,” the princesses said in a statement.
They went on, “For now dear Grannie, all we want to say is thank you. Thank you for making us laugh, for including us, for picking heather and raspberries, for marching soldiers, for our teas, for comfort, for joy. You, being you, will never know the impact you have had on our family and so many people around the world.”
Sep 17, 10:35 AM EDT
Bidens depart for UK ahead of queen’s funeral
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden departed from the White House on Saturday and are headed to London to attend Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral on Monday.
Sep 17, 9:00 AM EDT
King Charles III, Prince William make surprise visit to Westminster
King Charles III and Prince William made a surprise visit to Westminster Hall, meeting with mourners who stood in line to view the queen’s coffin.
Mourners took photographs of Charles and William, pressing up against metal barriers to speak to them and shake hands.
Sep 17, 7:53 AM EDT
King Charles III schedules more meetings at Buckingham Palace on Saturday
The newly-crowned monarch will undertake several audiences at Buckingham Palace today.
At 5:45 a.m. ET, the King received the First Sea Lord, Chief of the Air Staff, Chief of the General Staff, Chief of the Defence Staff, Vice Chief of Defence Staff and the Commander of United Kingdom Strategic Command. They met in the 1844 Room of Buckingham Palace.
Then at 8 a.m. ET, King Charles III will meet with the Governors General of the Realms for a reception and lunch.
Following the meal, the King is scheduled to receive the Prime Ministers of the Realms at 10:45 a.m., which will also take place in the 1844 Room.
Sep 16, 3:30 PM EDT
Man who fought Windsor Castle fire waits in line to pay respects
Peter Stratford, one of the firefighters who battled the blaze at Windsor Castle in 1992, joined the queue to pay his respects to Queen Elizabeth II.
Stratford, from Surrey, said he met the queen five years later when he was invited to a reception at Windsor Castle to celebrate its restoration.
“She was so lovely,” Stratford told ABC News on Friday as he waited in line.
“I’m 70 years of age,” he said. “Seventy years she’s been my queen. It’s very touching.”
Sep 16, 2:55 PM EDT
King Charles, Princess Anne, Princes Andrew and Edward hold vigil at queen’s coffin
Queen Elizabeth’s children — King Charles, Princess Anne and Princes Andrew and Edward — have arrived at Westminster Hall to hold vigil in front of their mother’s coffin.
Members of the public remained in line and silently filed past the queen’s children as other members of the royal family — including Camilla, the Queen Consort, and grandchildren of Queen Elizabeth — watched.
Andrew, who served in the Royal Navy and flew in the Falklands War, was permitted to wear his military uniform for the vigil even though he was stripped of his honorary military roles following his alleged involvement in the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking scandal.
Queen Elizabeth’s eight grandchildren will hold vigil at her coffin on Saturday, including the heir to the throne, William, the Prince of Wales, and his brother, Harry, the Duke of Sussex. King Charles requested that William and Harry both wear military uniforms at the vigil, which will mark the first event since the queen’s death that Harry is seen in uniform. (Harry has a decadelong career in the military, including two tours of duty in Afghanistan, but he’s no longer a working royal).
Sep 16, 2:04 PM EDT
King Charles speaks on diversity
King Charles said to faith leaders at Buckingham Palace on Friday, “I am a committed Anglican Christian, and at my Coronation I will take an oath relating to the settlement of the Church of England.”
But he also spoke of diversity in Britain.
“I have always thought of Britain as a ‘community of communities,'” he said.
Charles said he feels the sovereign has a “duty to protect the diversity of our country, including by protecting the space for Faith itself and its practice through the religions, cultures, traditions and beliefs to which our hearts and minds direct us as individuals.”
Sep 16, 11:50 AM EDT
Queen’s youngest son on ‘precious’ family memories
Prince Edward, Queen Elizabeth’s youngest child, opened up in a personal statement Friday, saying, “The Queen’s passing has left an unimaginable void in all our lives.”
“Sophie and I have taken huge pleasure in seeing our [children] James and Louise enjoying the places and activities that their grandparents loved so much. Given that my mama let us spend so much time with her, I think she also rather enjoyed watching those passions blossom,” he said. “Those times together, those happy memories, have now become massively precious to each and every one of us.”
Edward said he’s “overwhelmed by the tide of emotion that has engulfed us and the sheer number of people who have gone out of their way to express their own love, admiration and respect to such a very special and unique person who was always there for us.”
He also looked to the future, ending his statement with, “May God bless Her Majesty and may her memory be long cherished even as the baton she has carried for these past 70 years now passes to the next generation and to my brother, Charles. Long Live The King.”
Sep 16, 11:06 AM EDT
Prince and Princess of Wales thank troops
William, the prince of Wales, and his wife Kate, the princess of Wales, are in Surrey to thank troops from the Commonwealth who are in the United Kingdom to participate in Monday’s funeral.
Sep 16, 9:50 AM EDT
David Beckham joins queue
Soccer star David Beckham was spotted waiting with fellow Brits in the hourslong queue to pay his respects to Queen Elizabeth II.
Sep 16, 8:37 AM EDT
King says Prince of Wales title ‘was a privilege’
King Charles and Camilla, the Queen Consort, are in Wales on Friday to meet with leaders and members of the public.
To the Welsh leaders, the king said, “Through all the years of her reign, the land of Wales could not have been closer to my mother’s heart.”
“It was a privilege to be Prince of Wales for so long,” Charles said. “Now my son, William, will bear the title. He has a deep love for Wales.”
“I take up my new duties with immense gratitude for the privilege of having been able to serve as Prince of Wales,” he said. “That ancient title, dating from the time of those great Welsh rulers, like Llywelyn ap Gruffudd, whose memory is still rightly honoured, I now pass to my son, William, whose love for this corner of the Earth is made all the greater by the years he himself has spent here.”
Sep 16, 5:18 AM EDT
UK government says line to view queen lying in state is currently full
The British government has said that nobody may join the line to view the queen lying in state at Westminster Hall for at least six hours because the queue is full.
At the moment, the line is over 5 miles long, the longest it has been so far since people started queueing on Wednesday. The estimated wait time in line is approximately 14 hours and it stretches all the way out to Southwark Park.
Sep 15, 8:35 AM EDT
What to expect Thursday
The public won’t see King Charles on Thursday as he takes a day to “collect and reflect.”
Queen Elizabeth II’s casket is lying in state all day at Westminster Hall and members of the public have lined up for miles to get a chance to pay their respects.
William, prince of Wales, and Kate, princess of Wales, are in Sandringham on Thursday to view tributes, while Prince Edward and his wife Sophie, the countess of Wessex, are viewing tributes in Manchester.
Sep 15, 8:24 AM EDT
Members of the public queue for miles to see coffin
The line for members of the public to view the late Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin was approximately 4 miles long by Thursday afternoon, according to the U.K. Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport.
A mother holding her baby was among the thousands of mourners waiting for hours to pay their respects.
The late monarch is lying in state at London’s Westminster Hall until her funeral on Monday.
Sep 15, 8:20 AM EDT
Will and Kate visit Sandringham to see tributes to queen
William, prince of Wales, and Kate, princess of Wales, are in Sandringham on Thursday to view the tributes to William’s grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II.
Sep 15, 8:04 AM EDT
Charles III will be known as first climate king, experts say
King Charles III wants to protect the planet for future generations — a passion he has highlighted throughout his decades as monarch-in-waiting.
Now, Charles ascends the throne as the longest-serving prince of Wales in British history. And in those six decades, he not only voiced his concerns about the destructive processes that are harming the Earth but implemented sustainable, organic practices in his own homes.
“His mother took the crown at a very young age, and nobody knew what she stood for,” David Victor, a professor of innovation and public policy at the University of California at San Diego’s School of Global Policy and Strategy and author of Fixing the Climate: Strategies for an Uncertain World, told ABC News. “Whereas he is taking the crown very late in age, and everybody knows what he stands for — and for a whole range of topics.”
Sep 15, 7:47 AM EDT
Royal guard faints at queen’s lying-in-state
A royal guard apparently fainted as he watched over the coffin holding the late Queen Elizabeth II at London’s Westminster Hall.
The incident was captured on BBC News’ live streaming broadcast early Thursday at around 1 a.m. local time. A guard, who was standing at the foot of the coffin, appeared to faint and fall to the ground.
BBC suspended its livestream following the incident.
Guards clad in ceremonial uniform are maintaining a 24-hour vigil around the coffin inside Westminster Hall.
Sep 14, 12:08 PM EDT
Doors of Westminster Hall open to public
The doors of Westminster Hall have now been opened to the public to allow people to pay their respects to the late Queen Elizabeth as she lies in state.
Lines have been forming for the last 24 hours as Londoners hope to get the chance to walk by the queen’s casket.
The last member of the royal family to lie in state at Westminster Hall was Queen Elizabeth’s mother, who died in 2002.
Sep 14, 10:42 AM EDT
Biden calls King Charles, offers condolences
President Joe Biden spoke Wednesday with King Charles III to offer his condolences, according to a statement from the White House.
Biden hopes “to continue a close relationship with the King,” the statement said.
“The President recalled fondly the Queen’s kindness and hospitality, including when she hosted him and the First Lady at Windsor Castle last June,” the statement said. “He also conveyed the great admiration of the American people for the Queen, whose dignity and constancy deepened the enduring friendship and special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom.”
Sep 14, 10:11 AM EDT
Procession from Buckingham Palace ends at Westminster Hall
Queen Elizabeth’s coffin has arrived at Westminster Hall following a procession from Buckingham Palace.
The royal family will now take part in a brief service.
Then Westminster Hall will open to the public to allow people to pay respects to the queen.
Sep 14, 9:25 AM EDT
Queen’s children, grandsons walk behind coffin
Queen Elizabeth’s four children — King Charles, Princess Anne and Princes Andrew and Edward — are walking directly behind the coffin during the procession.
Walking behind the queen’s children are: William, the prince of Wales; his brother Harry, the duke of Sussex; and the brothers’ cousin, Peter Phillips. This marked the second time since the queen’s death that William and Harry were seen in public together amid reports of tension between the brothers.
Several spouses of the children and grandchildren are traveling by car: Camilla, the queen consort; Kate, the princess of Wales; Meghan, the duchess of Sussex; and Sophie, the countess of Wessex.
Members of the queen’s close personal staff are also participating in the procession.
Londoners have lined the route to watch the solemn procession. Big Ben is tolling at one-minute intervals and minute guns are firing from Hyde Park.
Sep 14, 8:31 AM EDT
What to expect Wednesday
On Wednesday, a procession will take Queen Elizabeth’s coffin from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall, where it will lie in state until her funeral on Monday, Sept. 19.
The procession, which begins at 9:22 a.m. ET, includes King Charles and members of the royal family.
The coffin will arrive at Westminster Hall at 10 a.m. ET which will be followed by a short service.
At 6 p.m. ET, Westminster Hall will open to the public to allow them to pay their respects as Queen Elizabeth lies in state.
Sep 14, 5:14 AM EDT
Heathrow flights to be delayed during queen’s coffin procession on Wednesday
Heathrow Airport flights will be delayed so they do not disturb the Queen’s coffin procession on Wednesday. The west London airport said in a statement that “out of respect” for the mourning period it will be making “appropriate alterations to our operation”.
These include flights being disrupted between 1:50 p.m. and 3:40 p.m. on Wednesday to “ensure silence over central London as the ceremonial procession moves from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall.”
Sep 13, 6:46 PM EDT
Who’s set to march in Wednesday’s procession of queen’s coffin
The procession of Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin on Wednesday will leave from Buckingham Palace at 9:22 a.m. ET and arrive at Westminster Hall at 10 a.m. ET, a palace spokesperson said.
Members of the royal family who will be in the procession include King Charles III; Prince Andrew, duke of York; Anne, princess Royal; Prince Edward, earl of Wessex; William, prince of Wales; and Harry, duke of Sussex, among others, the spokesperson said.
Other members of the royal family will travel to the hall by car, including Camilla, queen consort; Sophie, countess of Wessex; Catherine, princess of Wales; and Meghan, duchess of Sussex, according to the spokesperson.
Once they arrive at Westminster Hall, the archbishop of Canterbury will lead a short service. The queen’s lying in state will begin at noon ET.
Sep 13, 3:13 PM EDT
Coffin arrives at Buckingham Palace
The public cheered as the hearse carrying Queen Elizabeth’s coffin pulled into Buckingham Palace Tuesday.
Queen Elizabeth’s children and grandchildren were to meet the late queen’s casket as it arrived at Buckingham Palace, according to the palace.
Huge crowd of mourners gathers as Queen Elizabeth II’s coffin arrives home at Buckingham Palace.
Sep 13, 2:38 PM EDT
Hearse carrying queen’s coffin en route to Buckingham Palace
After the plane carrying Queen Elizabeth’s coffin landed at Royal Air Force Northolt in England, the coffin was moved to a state hearse.
The hearse is headed to Buckingham Palace where the coffin will be greeted by King Charles and his family.
The state hearse was designed by The Royal Household and Jaguar Land Rover, and Queen Elizabeth was consulted on the plans, according to a palace spokesperson. The hearse was designed to allow members of the public to have a clear view of the coffin, the spokesperson said.
Sep 13, 2:15 PM EDT
Canada announces national day of mourning
Canada will mark the death of Queen Elizabeth with a national day of mourning on the day of the funeral, Monday, Sept. 19.
“There are still a few details to be worked out, but declaring an opportunity for Canadians to mourn on Monday is going to be important,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said at a news conference in New Brunswick Tuesday. “For our part, we will be letting federal employees know that Monday will be a day of mourning.”
Sep 13, 2:12 PM EDT
Princess Anne releases statement on queen’s death
Princess Anne, Queen Elizabeth’s only daughter, said in a statement Tuesday, “I was fortunate to share the last 24 hours of my dearest Mother’s life.”
Anne, who has been accompanying her mother’s casket from Scotland to England said, “The love and respect shown by so many on these journeys has been both humbling and uplifting.”
She added, “I am also so grateful for the support and understanding offered to my dear brother Charles as he accepts the added responsibilities of The Monarch. To my mother, The Queen, thank you.”
Sep 13, 1:55 PM EDT
Plane carrying queen’s coffin lands in England
The plane carrying Queen Elizabeth’s coffin has landed at Royal Air Force Northolt in England. A hearse will now carry the coffin to Buckingham Palace where it will be greeted by King Charles and his family.
The plane carrying Queen Elizabeth’s coffin has departed from Edinburgh Airport to head to London.
Princess Anne is traveling to London alongside the coffin.
Meanwhile, King Charles has left Northern Ireland to return to London.
Charles and his family will greet the coffin at Buckingham Palace.
Sep 13, 11:58 AM EDT
People line up in London to see queen more than 24 hours before doors open
People have already started lining up in London to see Queen Elizabeth lying in state, even though the first mourners will not be let in until 5 p.m. local time Wednesday.
About one dozen people are in line so far, most with camping chairs.
They are ready to wait all night under the rain, worried that otherwise they risk missing their chance to pay their respects.
Glyn Norris, 63, who was setting up to wait, told ABC News it was a “no-brainer” to be there already.
“She’s reigned for 70 years — 24 hours in the rain isn’t going to hurt me,” he said. “She’s been with me for 63 years. She’s like a grandmother that I’ve never met.”
People in the line are not allowed to camp in tents, so he and others will just be in coats or sitting up in sleeping bags.
“I have pretty much everything I need for the next day and a half,” Norris said. “I’ve got an umbrella, I’ve got chargers, I’ve got batteries, I’ve got food, I’ve got drink, I’ve got warm clothing for the evening, gloves, fleece, over jacket, hat.”
He said of the queen, “I think she’s done a fantastic job. And I’m very proud to be British.”
-ABC News’ Patrick Reevell
Sep 13, 11:37 AM EDT
US House to honor queen with moment of silence
The House of Representatives will hold a moment of silence on the floor Tuesday evening to recognize Queen Elizabeth II.
Sep 13, 9:10 AM EDT
What to expect Tuesday: Coffin to arrive at Buckingham Palace
As King Charles III and his wife Camilla, the queen consort, visit Northern Ireland Tuesday, the coffin of the king’s late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, remains at St. Giles’ Cathedral in Scotland.
Around noon ET, Queen Elizabeth’s coffin will be taken by hearse from St. Giles’ Cathedral to Edinburgh Airport. At about 1 p.m. ET, the plane carrying the coffin will take off for London, with Princess Anne, Queen Elizabeth’s only daughter, on board.
The coffin is set to arrive at Buckingham Palace at about 3 p.m. ET. King Charles, Camilla and other members of the royal family will greet the coffin as it arrives.
People are expected to line the streets of London to watch the hearse drive by on its way to Buckingham Palace.
Sep 13, 7:33 AM EDT
King, queen consort arrive in Northern Ireland
King Charles III and his wife Camilla, the queen consort, are in Belfast in Northern Ireland on Tuesday to meet with leaders and attend a service in honor of the king’s late mother, Queen Elizabeth II.
During Tuesday’s trip, Charles will meet with the secretary of state for Northern Ireland, the speaker of the Northern Ireland Assembly and the leaders of Northern Ireland’s five biggest political parties. The king and queen consort will then attend a service at St. Anne’s Cathedral in Belfast before flying to London.
Sep 13, 5:36 AM EDT
Queen Elizabeth II set to make final journey to London on Tuesday
Thousands of well-wishers in Scotland have been paying their respects to Queen Elizabeth II as her coffin currently remains at St. Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh until 12 p.m. ET. The queen, accompanied by the Princess Royal, will then will start her final journey to London.
The queen’s coffin is expected to land at RAF Northolt at approximately 2 p.m. ET. It will then be driven to London before arriving at Buckingham Palace at 2:50 p.m. The route she will take to the palace has been publicized and large crowds are expected, along with an outpouring of emotion, as the queen returns to her capital for the last time.
Queen Elizabeth II will lie in state at Westminster Hall for four days beginning on Wednesday at 12 p.m. ET.
Sep 12, 4:10 PM EDT
Queen’s children hold vigil at her coffin
King Charles III and his siblings, Princess Anne and Princes Andrew and Edward, held a vigil at their mother’s coffin at St. Giles’ Cathedral in Scotland.
On Tuesday, Princess Anne will travel with the queen’s coffin to London.
Sep 12, 1:48 PM EDT
King Charles addresses Scottish Parliament
King Charles III was greeted by Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon when he arrived at Scottish Parliament on Monday.
Charles said to Parliament members, “I know that the Scottish Parliament and the people of Scotland share with me a profound sense of grief at the death of my beloved mother. Through all the years of her reign, The Queen, like so many generations of our family before her, found in the hills of this land, and in the hearts of its people, a haven and a home. My mother felt, as I do, the greatest admiration for the Scottish people, for their magnificent achievements and their indomitable spirit.”
Charles said he’s passing to his son Prince William the title of “Duke of Rothesay, and the other Scottish titles which I have had the honour to carry for so long.”
He continued, “I take up my new duties with thankfulness for all that Scotland has given me, with resolve to seek always the welfare of our country and its people, and with wholehearted trust in your goodwill and good counsel as we take forward that task together.”
Sep 12, 10:32 AM EDT
Queen’s coffin brought inside St. Giles’ Cathedral
The queen’s coffin has arrived inside St. Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh, Scotland.
The wreath of flowers on the coffin includes dried white heather from the queen’s beloved Balmoral Castle in Scotland.
After the service, the coffin will remain at the cathedral for 24 hours so the people of Scotland can pay their respects.
Sep 12, 10:22 AM EDT
Queen’s children follow coffin from Holyroodhouse to St. Giles’ Cathedral
Queen Elizabeth II’s four children — the new King Charles III, Princess Anne and Princes Andrew and Edward — are walking behind the hearse carrying her coffin from Palace of Holyroodhouse to St. Giles’ Cathedral in Scotland.
The walk is nearly one mile.
The people of Scotland have lined up to silently watch the procession.
The coffin will lie in rest at St. Giles’ Cathedral on Monday. The coffin will be flown to London on Tuesday.
Sep 12, 10:08 AM EDT
24-hour access for public to attend queen’s lying-in-state in London
Members of the public will be able to pay their final respects to Queen Elizabeth II later this week, as the late monarch lies in state at the U.K. Houses of Parliament in London for four days.
According to a press release from the U.K. government on Monday, people will be allowed to “file past the coffin 24 hours a day” inside Westminster Hall from 5 p.m. local time on Wednesday until 6:30 a.m. local time on Sept. 19, the day of the funeral.
“Those wishing to attend will be required to queue for many hours, possibly overnight,” the government added. “Large crowds are expected and people are encouraged to check ahead, plan accordingly and be prepared for long wait times.”
All attendees must go through “airport-style security and there are tight restrictions on what you can take in, with only small bags permitted,” according to the government.
Sep 12, 10:05 AM EDT
Queen’s children follow coffin from Holyroodhouse to St. Giles’ Cathedral
Queen Elizabeth II’s four children — the new King Charles III, Princess Anne and Princes Andrew and Edward — are walking behind the hearse carrying her coffin from Palace of Holyroodhouse to St. Giles’ Cathedral in Scotland.
The walk is nearly one mile.
The people of Scotland have lined up to silently watch the procession.
The coffin will lie in rest at St. Giles’ Cathedral on Monday. The coffin will be flown to London on Tuesday.
Sep 12, 9:52 AM EDT
King Charles given keys to city of Edinburgh
King Charles III was presented with keys to the city of Edinburgh after he arrived in Scotland on Monday, as a part of the Ceremony of the Keys tradition as monarch. Edinburgh Lord Provost Robert Aldridge welcomed the new king to his “ancient and hereditary kingdom of Scotland.”
Sep 12, 7:37 AM EDT
King Charles III and Camilla, Queen Consort, arrive in Edinburgh
Britain’s King Charles III and his wife Camilla, Queen Consort, traveled on Monday from London to Edinburgh, where they will walk behind his mother’s coffin as it is transported in a procession through the Scottish capital.
Thousands of people have lined the streets since the coffin carrying the late Queen Elizabeth II began its final journey from Balmoral Castle in Scotland, where the 96-year-old monarch died last Thursday. On Monday, the coffin will be moved from the Palace of Holyroodhouse to St. Giles’ Cathedral, with Charles and Camilla walking behind it along Edinburgh’s Royal Mile.
A service to celebrate the late queen’s life will take place Monday afternoon at St. Giles’ Cathedral, where members of the public will be able to pay their respects and view the coffin for 24 hours before it is flown to London on Tuesday.
Charles and Camilla will also hold a vigil at St. Giles Cathedral on Monday evening.
Sep 12, 6:00 AM EDT
King Charles III addresses UK Parliament for 1st time
King Charles III addressed the U.K. Houses of Parliament for the first time as sovereign on Monday morning.
Speakers from both Houses of Parliament addressed the new king at Westminster Hall in London. Charles, accompanied by his wife Camilla, Queen Consort, then gave a reply in front of some 1,200 people gathered inside.
“As I stand before you today, I cannot help but feel the weight of history which surrounds us and which reminds us of the vital parliamentary traditions to which members of both Houses dedicate yourselves, with such personal commitment for the betterment of us all,” Charles said in a brief speech.
“We gather today in remembrance of the remarkable span of the queen’s dedicated service to her nations and peoples. While very young, her late majesty pledged herself to serve her country and her people and to maintain the precious principles of constitutional government which lie at the heart of our nation,” he added. “This vow she kept with unsurpassed devotion. She set an example of selfless duty which, with God’s help and your counsels, I am resolved faithfully to follow.”
Sep 12, 5:34 AM EDT
Prince Harry pays tribute to queen in 1st statement since her death
Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, paid tribute to his grandmother on Monday in his first statement since her death, thanking the late queen for her “commitment to service,” “sound advice” and “infectious smile.”
“In celebrating the life of my grandmother, Her Majesty The Queen—and in mourning her loss—we are all reminded of the guiding compass she was to so many in her commitment to service and duty,” Harry said. “She was globally admired and respected. Her unwavering grace and dignity remained true throughout her life and now her everlasting legacy. Let us echo the words she spoke after the passing of her husband, Prince Philip, words which can bring comfort to all of us now: ‘Life, of course, consists of final partings as well as first meetings.'”
“Granny, while this final parting brings us great sadness, I am forever grateful for all of our first meetings — from my earliest childhood memories with you, to meeting you for the first time as my Commander-in-Chief, to the first moment you met my darling wife and hugged your beloved great- grandchildren,” he continued. “I cherish these times shared with you, and the many other special moments in between. You are already sorely missed, not just by us, but by the world over. And as it comes to first meetings, we now honour my father in his new role as King Charles III.”
“Thank you for your commitment to service. Thank you for your sound advice. Thank you for your infectious smile,” he added. “We, too, smile knowing that you and grandpa are reunited now, and both together in peace.”
Sep 11, 10:54 PM EDT
How the public can attend Queen Elizabeth’s lying in state at Westminster Hall
The U.K. government has released details on how members of the public can pay their respects to the late Queen Elizabeth II, who will lie in state at Westminster Hall from Wednesday until Monday, Sept. 19.
The queen’s coffin will travel in a ceremonial procession from Buckingham Palace to the Palace of Westminster for the lying in state, the U.K. government said on its website, where it will rest on a raised platform and “be draped in the Royal Standard with the Orb and Sceptre placed on top.”
“Each corner of the platform will be guarded around the clock by a vigil of units from the Sovereign’s Bodyguard, the Household Division, or Yeoman Warders of the Tower of London,” the government said.
Members of the public will be able to file past the coffin 24 hours a day, starting at 5 p.m. local time on Wednesday until 6:30 a.m. on the day of the queen’s funeral, Sept. 19.
The government advised the public to expect to wait in line for long hours, “possibly overnight,” and that there would be “airport-style security” and only small bags permitted, as well as restrictions on what can be taken inside.
President Joe Biden has formally accepted an invitation to attend Queen Elizabeth’s funeral on Sept. 19 at Westminster Abbey in London, the White House said Sunday.
“This morning, President Biden formally accepted an invitation to attend the State Funeral Service of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II on September 19. He will be accompanied by the First Lady,” the statement from the White House reads.
Sep 10, 12:50 PM EDT
Prince William, Princess Kate, Prince Harry, Meghan Markle view flowers together
Prince William and Prince Harry, and their wives, Princess Kate and Meghan Markle, viewed flowers together outside Windsor Castle Saturday.
This is the first time the four have been seen together in public since Harry and Meghan stepped down as senior members of the royal family and moved to the United States.
A representative for William, the Prince of Wales told ABC News the prince invited the Duke and Duchess to join him and the Princess of Wales.
Sep 10, 12:21 PM EDT
Queen’s funeral to be held Sept. 19
Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral will be held on Sept. 19, Buckingham Palace announced Saturday.
Sep 10, 12:07 PM EDT
William, Prince of Wales, makes 1st statement since the queen’s death
William, Prince of Wales said he is grateful for the queen’s presence in his life, in his first statement since the death of the queen. William said that he recognized the world lost an “extraordinary leader.”
“I, however, have lost a grandmother. And while I will grieve her loss, I also feel incredibly grateful. I have had the benefit of The Queen’s wisdom and reassurance into my fifth decade. My wife has had twenty years of her guidance and support. My three children have got to spend holidays with her and create memories that will last their whole lives,” William said.
“She was by my side at my happiest moments. And she was by my side during the saddest days of my life. I knew this day would come, but it will be some time before the reality of life without Grannie will truly feel real,” William said.
“I thank her for the kindness she showed my family and me. And I thank her on behalf of my generation for providing an example of service and dignity in public life that was from a different age, but always relevant to us all,” William said.
Sep 10, 7:20 AM EDT
King Charles III officially proclaimed king by Accession Council at St James’s Palace in London
King Charles III has been formally proclaimed monarch at a historic Accession Council in the State Apartments of St James’s Palace at 5 a.m. on Saturday. The ceremony is being televised for the first time in history.
A Principal Proclamation will then be read in public for the first time by the Garter King of Arms in the open air from the balcony overlooking Friary Court at St James’s an hour later at 6 a.m. ET.
It will be followed by a flurry of Proclamations around the country, with the second one at City of London at the Royal Exchange at midday on Saturday, and further Proclamations in Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales at midday on Sunday.
Buckingham Palace issued details of the arrangements, considered the first official orders of business of a new reign, on Friday.
Charles automatically became King on the death of his mother, but the Accession Council is usually convened at St James’s in London within 24 hours of the death of a sovereign.
Historically, the entire Privy Council is summoned to the Accession Council to oversee the formal proclamation of a new monarch.
But with the number of privy counsellors –- who are lifetime members and mostly past and present politicians –- now standing at more than 700, restrictions have been put in place. This does not affect the constitutional process.
Sep 10, 4:59 AM EDT
King Charles III to receive several key audiences today at Buckingham Palace
King Charles III will undertake a number of important meetings at Buckingham Palace today following his formal proclamation as king this morning.
The king is scheduled to meet with Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury, at 9 a.m. ET followed by a meeting with the U.K.’s newly appointed prime minister, Liz Truss, and members of her cabinet at 9:30 a.m. ET.
At 10 a.m. ET, King Charles II will receive the leaders of the opposition parties at Buckingham Palace before his final scheduled meeting of the day at 11 a.m. ET where he will receive David Hoyle, the Dean of Westminster.
Sep 09, 8:02 PM EDT
A look at Queen Elizabeth’s lifelong love of corgis
Perhaps no animal has been so closely associated with a world figure as corgis were with Queen Elizabeth II.
Her death sparked an outpouring of photographs and drawings of her and her dogs throughout the years.
Fellow dog owners are also planning to celebrate the queen’s life of service with a corgi parade outside of Buckingham Palace next month, the U.K. newspaper The Daily Mirror reported.
Sep 09, 1:52 PM EDT
Biden says he will attend the queen’s funeral
President Joe Biden told reporters Friday that he will be attending Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral.
“Yes. I don’t know what the details are yet, but I’ll be going,” Biden told reporters on the tarmac of Ohio’s Columbus International Airport.
Buckingham Palace has not yet announced when the queen’s funeral will be held.
Asked if he had spoken to King Charles III yet, Biden said, “I know him, I haven’t spoken to him. I did not call him yet.”
Sep 09, 1:36 PM EDT
King Charles III pledges to uphold Britain’s constitutional principals
In his first speech as monarch, King Charles III pledged to follow in the footsteps of Queen Elizabeth II, upholding Britain’s Constitution.
“As the queen herself did with such unswerving devotion, I too now solemnly pledge myself throughout the remaining time God grants me, to uphold the constitutional principles at the heart of our nation,” King Charles III said.
“And, wherever you may live in the United Kingdom, or in the realms and territories across the world, and whatever may be your background or beliefs, I shall endeavor to serve you with loyalty, respect and love as I have throughout my life,” he added.
The king also recognized his new role, and the changes it will bring.
“My life will, of course, change as I take up my new responsibilities. It will no longer be possible for me to give so much of my time and energies to the charities and issues for which I care so deeply. But, I know this important work will go on in the trusted hands of others,” the king later said.
Sep 09, 1:18 PM EDT
New titles announced for Prince William and Catherine
King Charles III announced new titles for his son, Prince William, and his son’s wife, Catherine, previously the duke and duchess of Cambridge.
They are now the new prince and princess of Wales, the new king announced in a speech from Buckingham Palace Friday.
“Our new prince and princess of Wales will, I know, continue to inspire and lead our national conversations,” King Charles said in the prerecorded message.
William’s mother, Diana, was the last princess of Wales. Charles’ wife, Camilla, never took the title. With Charles’ ascension, her title is now queen consort.
King Charles also mentioned his younger son, Prince Harry, and his wife, Meghan, the duke and duchess of Sussex.
“I want also to express my love for Harry and Meghan, as they continue to build their lives overseas,” the king said.
Sep 09, 1:17 PM EDT
‘Thank you for your love and devotion,’ King Charles III remembers the queen
In his first address, King Charles III ended his address thanking his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, for her lifetime of service and her love and devotion.
“To my darling mama, as you begin your gray last journey to join my dear late papa, I want simply to say this. Thank you. Thank you for your love and devotion to our family, and to the family of nations you have served so diligently all these years,” King Charles III said.
The king also expressed his gratitude for the “condolences and support” that his family has received after the passing of the queen.
Sep 09, 1:10 PM EDT
King Charles III expresses ‘profound grief’ after death of the queen
King Charles III delivered his first address as monarch Friday, in remembrance of his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, saying her death has brought him “profound sorrow” and “great sadness.”
“Throughout her life, her majesty, the queen, my beloved mother, was an inspiration. An example to me and to all my family. And we owe her the most heartfelt debt any family could owe to their mother for her love, affection, guidance, understanding and example,” King Charles said.
The king said the queen’s affection, admiration and respect were a hallmark of her reign.
“I pay tribute to my mother’s memory and I honor her service,” he later added.
Sep 09, 12:25 PM EDT
Prime Minister Liz Truss meets with king
British Prime Minister Liz Truss met with King Charles III Friday, shortly after he arrived at Buckingham Palace.
Sep 09, 11:13 AM EDT
English Premier League postpones weekend matches
England’s top soccer league has postponed its slate of matches this weekend in tribute to the queen’s death.
“We and our clubs would like to pay tribute to Her Majesty’s long and unwavering service to our country,” Premier League Chief Executive Richard Masters said in a statement. “As our longest-serving monarch, she has been an inspiration and leaves behind an incredible legacy following a life of dedication.”
He continued, “This is a tremendously sad time for not just the nation, but also for the millions of people around the world who admired her, and we join together with all those in mourning her passing.”
The queen never made her “football” allegiances clear over her reign, but the new king, Charles III, has been public about his support for Burnley Football Club. With the postponements, he’ll have to hold off on watching their next match against Norwich City.
The EPL said it would announce any further postponements, such as on the day of the queen’s funeral, “in due course.”
Sep 09, 9:43 AM EDT
King Charles III views flowers outside Buckingham Palace
King Charles III has landed in London, returning from Balmoral Castle where the queen was when she died. The king walked outside Buckingham Palace, shaking hands and greeting people who gathered to share their condolences.
The king and Camila, the queen consort, walked outside the gates of Buckingham Palace viewing flowers left by people mourning the death of the queen.
As the king arrived outside, the Royal Standard was raised above Buckingham Palace for the first time during his reign.
Sep 09, 8:53 AM EDT
British Parliament members pays tribute to the queen
Both British houses of Parliament are meeting Friday for members to pay tribute to the queen in a special session of condolence.
Politics in both Houses will be on hold for a period of mourning.
“For the 70 glorious years of her reign, our queen was at the heart of this nation’s life,” Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer said. “She did not simply reign over us, she lived alongside us.”
“It seems impossible to imagine a Britain without her,” he added.
There will also be a rare Saturday meeting where senior members of Parliament can take an oath of allegiance to the king. The meeting will end with an address to the king expressing condolences following his mother’s death.
House of Commons Speaker Sir Lindsay Hoyle will determine the timetable in the House for the following days, which is expected to be significantly reduced until after the state funeral for the queen.
This means new laws cannot be passed until Parliament returns, though it could be recalled for pressing matters.
-ABC News’ Zoe Magee
Sep 09, 8:37 AM EDT
King Charles III set to deliver remarks today
King Charles III will return to London this afternoon to record a televised address to the nation from Buckingham Palace. The speech will air at 1 p.m. ET before he attends the national service of thanksgiving for his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, at St. Paul’s Cathedral at 2 p.m. ET.
King Charles will be officially proclaimed king at 6 a.m. ET on Saturday from the balcony at St James’ Palace. The first son of Queen Elizabeth II became king the minute his mother died but the formal announcement will be made on Saturday.
Sep 09, 7:24 AM EDT
Sec. of State Antony Blinken comments on death of Queen Elizabeth II
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has shared the following statement to the people of the United Kingdom following the death of Queen Elizabeth II on Sept. 8, 2022:
Together with the American people, I extend my deepest sympathies to His Majesty The King, the entire Royal Family, the people of the United Kingdom, and the peoples of the Commonwealth on the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
For more than 70 years – a period during which the United Kingdom and the world witnessed unprecedented change – Queen Elizabeth personified a sense of stability. During a time of tremendous division, she was a source of unity.
Her influence extended well beyond the Commonwealth. As Queen, she visited more than 120 countries, including the United States, where she made a point of meeting not only with leaders, but with people from all walks of life. She was the embodiment of the special relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom, and a symbol of the enduring alliance that has seen our nations through the greatest tests of the 20th and 21st centuries.
We join people around the world in mourning her passing, and we will forever be inspired by the memory of her service, leadership, and friendship.
Sep 09, 5:17 AM EDT
The queen’s final moments
Prince Charles and Princess Anne were with their mother in her final hours.
Prince Andrew and Prince Edward and his wife Sophie raced to be by her side, as did her grandsons Prince William and Prince Harry but they did not get there in time.
Sep 09, 12:36 AM EDT
World reacts to Queen Elizabeth II’s death
Cities around the world joined in mourning Queen Elizabeth II’s death on Thursday.
With Queen Elizabeth II’s death, Camilla becomes queen consort
With the death of Queen Elizabeth II, her eldest son Charles becomes king and his wife Camilla becomes queen consort.
The queen made the request for the title in February, saying that “it is my sincere wish that, when that time comes, Camilla will be known as Queen Consort as she continues her own loyal service.”
The statement marked the first time the queen had publicly addressed her daughter-in-law’s role in the future monarchy.
The eldest son of Britain’s longest-reigning monarch has taken his late mother’s place on the throne.
King Charles III is the first child of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. Upon the death of his mother on Sept. 8, Charles succeeded her as king of the United Kingdom and the other Commonwealth realms.
Charles, 73, was born at Buckingham Palace in London in 1948. He was just 3 years old when he became the heir apparent as his mother acceded to the throne as queen, following the death of her father, King George VI.
Sep 08, 3:26 PM EDT
Biden orders flags to half-staff
In a new proclamation, President Joe Biden has ordered flags to be flown at half-staff “until sunset, on the day of interment,” as a “mark of the respect for the memory of Queen Elizabeth II.”
“I hereby order that the flag of the United States shall be flown at half-staff at the White House and upon all public buildings and grounds, at all military posts and naval stations, and on all naval vessels of the Federal Government in the District of Columbia and throughout the United States and its Territories and possessions until sunset, on the day of interment,” the proclamation reads.
He continued, “I also direct that the flag shall be flown at half-staff for the same length of time at all United States embassies, legations, consular offices, and other facilities abroad, including all military facilities and naval vessels and stations.”
-ABC News’ Molly Nagle
Sep 08, 3:15 PM EDT
Former US presidents react over queen’s death
Former presidents of the United States have released statements in reaction to the death of Queen Elizabeth II, Britain’s longest-reigning monarch.
President Bill Clinton said in a statement that he and former first lady Hillary Clinton are mourning the passing of Her Majesty with the royal family and the rest of the world, describing her life as “extraordinary.”
“Throughout her remarkable 70-year reign, she led Britain through great transformations with unfailing grace, dignity, and genuine care for the welfare of all its people,” Bill Clinton said. “In sunshine or storm, she was a source of stability, serenity and strength.”
Bill Clinton added that he and Hillary Clinton “will always be grateful” to the kindness the queen showed them during visits to Buckingham Palace in 1995 and 2000.
President George W. Bush said in a statement that he and former first lady Laura Bush were “honored” to know the queen, describing her as a “woman of great intellect, charm and wit.”
“Spending time at Buckingham Palace, and having tea with Her Majesty — and her Corgis — is among our fondest memories of the presidency,” George W. Bush said.
The queen was able to lead the U.K. through dark moments with “her confidence in her people and her vision for a brighter tomorrow,” George W. Bush said.
“Our world benefitted from her steady resolve, and we are grateful for her decades of service as sovereign,” George W. Bush said. “Americans in particular appreciate her strong and steadfast friendship.”
President Barack Obama said in a statement that he and former first lady Michelle Obama were “lucky enough to come to know Her Majesty,” adding that the queen “meant a great deal to” to them.
“Back when we were just beginning to navigate life as President and First Lady, she welcomed us to the world stage with open arms and extraordinary generosity,” Barack Obama said. “Time and again, we were struck by her warmth, the way she put people at ease, and how she brought her considerable humor and charm to moments of great pomp and circumstance.”
Barack Obama continued, “Like so many, Michelle and I are grateful to have witnessed Her Majesty’s dedicated leadership, and we are awed by her legacy of tireless, dignified public service. Our thoughts are with her family and the people of the United Kingdom at this difficult time.”
President Donald Trump also released a statement following the news of the queen’s death, saying that he and former first lady Melania Trump will always cherish their time together with the queen and will “never forget Her Majesty’s generous friendship, great wisdom, and wonderful sense of humor.”
“Melania and I are deeply saddened to learn of the loss of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II,” Donald Trump said on Truth Social, his social media platform. “Together with our family and fellow Americans, we send our sincere condolences to the Royal Family and the people of the United Kingdom during this time of great sorrow and grief. Queen Elizabeth’s historic and remarkable reign left a tremendous legacy of peace and prosperity for Great Britain.”
Sep 08, 2:47 PM EDT
UK thrived under Elizabeth’s reign, says Liz Truss
The newly appointed prime minister of the United Kingdom, Liz Truss, emphasized the importance of Queen Elizabeth II’s rule while addressing the death of Britain’s longest-reigning monarch on Thursday.
“Queen Elizabeth II was the rock on which modern Britain was built,” Truss said outside of 10 Downing Street on Thursday. “Our country has grown and flourished under her reign. Britain is the great country it is today because of her.”
Among the accomplishments Truss highlighted were Elizabeth’s accomplishment of growing the Commonwealth from a small group of seven countries to a “family of 56 nations” as well as visiting more than 100 countries as sovereign.
The queen, who met with Truss on Tuesday at Balmoral, invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party, to form a new government as prime minister, an act emblematic of the queen’s devotion to duty, Truss said.
“Earlier this week, at 96, she remained determined to carry out her duties as she appointed me as her 15th prime minister,” Truss said, describing her as the “the very spirit of Great Britain.”
Truss also extended condolences to the now-King Charles III, calling for the country to support him in the passing of the crown.
“We offer him our loyalty, and devotion, just as his mother devoted so much to so many for so long,” Truss said.
Sep 08, 2:21 PM EDT
Charles on queen’s passing: ‘A moment of the greatest sadness’
The queen’s eldest son and new king of England — who will be known as King Charles III — released a statement following his mother’s passing.
“The death of my beloved Mother, Her Majesty The Queen, is a moment of the greatest sadness for me and all members of my family,” Charles said.
“I know her loss will be deeply felt throughout the country, the Realms and the Commonwealth, and by countless people around the world,” the statement continued.
Sep 08, 2:06 PM EDT
UK lowers flags to half-mast as rainbows appear
The U.K. ordered all flags to fly at half-mast in the wake of the queen’s death Thursday.
In a bit of fortuitous timing, the rain clouds eased up following the announcement and rainbows appeared over Buckingham Palace.
U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi also ordered the flags to fly at half-mast over the Capitol in tribute to the monarch, according to her deputy chief of staff.
Sep 08, 2:02 PM EDT
How the British royal line of succession changes
With the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, there is a new line of succession to the British throne.
The queen’s oldest son, Charles, the Prince of Wales, is now the new king. Members of his direct family — including his sons, Princes William and Harry — are now higher in the line of succession.
In general, succession falls to the first-born child of the heir and their children, followed by the next oldest sibling of the heir and their offspring and so on.
Sep 08, 1:51 PM EDT
What comes next after queen’s passing?
With the queen’s death come questions about what happens next, as the world has not witnessed a changeover in Britain’s monarchy in 70 years.
The U.K. government and the royal family have been planning for years to ensure a smooth transition after the queen’s death, and to appropriately honor her history-making reign.
Buckingham Palace announced Thursday that Queen Elizabeth II has died. She was 96.
“The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon,” the palace said in a statement. “The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow.”
Elizabeth is survived by her three sons, Charles, Prince of Wales; Prince Andrew, Duke of York; and Prince Edward, Earl of Wessex; her daughter, Anne, Princess Royal; her eight grandchildren, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge; Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex; Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie; Peter and Zara Phillips; Lady Louise Windsor; and James, Viscount Severn. She is also survived by 12 great-grandchildren.
Her oldest son, Charles, succeeds her as king. His wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, is expected to become queen consort, a title that Elizabeth requested at the time of her Platinum Jubilee in June.
Charles’s oldest son, William, is now heir apparent to the throne.
Sep 08, 1:10 PM EDT
Biden briefed on queen’s health, White House says
U.S. President Joe Biden has been briefed on Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II and “will be updated throughout the day concerning news out of the United Kingdom,” given the reports of her health, White House spokesperson John Kirby said Thursday
“His and the first lady’s thoughts are solidly and squarely with the queen today and her family,” Kirby told reporters.
Biden also expressed that his thoughts are with U.K. Prime Minister Liz Truss, who took office on Tuesday and is currently taking part in a previously scheduled phone call with Biden and other allies focused on “continued support for Ukraine,” according to Kirby.
“I can tell you that in this video conference that the president is having as we speak, I can tell you that he did convey to Prime Minister Truss, who is on the video teleconference, that he and Dr. Biden are thinking very much of the queen and the family and the people of the United Kingdom,” Kirby said.
-ABC News’ Molly Nagle
Sep 08, 10:05 AM EDT
UK prime minister ‘deeply concerned’ about queen
U.K. Prime Minister Liz Truss took to Twitter on Thursday to say that her “thoughts — and the thoughts of people across our United Kingdom — are with Her Majesty The Queen and her family at this time.”
“The whole country will be deeply concerned by the news from Buckingham Palace this lunchtime,” Truss tweeted.
Truss, who was recently selected as the new leader of the United Kingdom’s ruling Conservative Party, had an audience with the queen at Balmoral Castle in Scotland on Tuesday, during which she was formally asked to form a new government as prime minister after Boris Johnson’s official resignation. It was the first time in the queen’s 70-year reign that the ceremonial transfer of power was held at Balmoral, rather than at Buckingham Palace in London.
Sep 08, 9:41 AM EDT
Senior royals head to Balmoral Castle
Senior members of the British royal family are either at or on their way to Balmoral Castle in Scotland, where Queen Elizabeth II remains “under medical supervision.”
The queen’s oldest child and the heir to her throne, Charles, prince of Wales; and his wife, Camilla, duchess of Cornwall; as well as the queen’s daughter, Princess Anne, are already at Balmoral, according to their respective spokespersons.
Meanwhile, the queen’s other sons, Prince Andrew, duke of York; and Prince Edward, earl of Wessex; as well as Edward’s wife, Sophie, countess of Wessex; Charles’ two sons, Prince William, duke of Cambridge; Prince Harry, duke of Sussex; and Harry’s wife, Meghan, duchess of Sussex, are all on their way to Balmoral, their respective spokespersons confirmed.
(BOULDER COUNTY, Colo) — Three people are confirmed dead after two small aircraft collided mid-air in Colorado Saturday, authorities said.
Multiple 911 callers reported seeing two planes collide over Boulder County shortly before 9 a.m. local time, the Boulder County Sheriff’s Office said.
The aircraft collided and crashed near Vance Brand Airport in Longmont at 8:50 a.m., according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
The collision involved a single-engine Cessna 172 and a Sonex Xenos aircraft, a type of motor glider, the National Transportation Safety Board said.
NTSB investigating the Sept. 17, mid-air collision of a Cessna 172 with a Sonex Xenos aircraft near Longmont, Colorado.
First responders found two separate crash sites near Niwot Road, the sheriff’s office said.
Two people were on board the Cessna 172, the FAA said. The sheriff’s office also said it confirmed two people were on board the plane, both of whom were found dead at the scene.
The sheriff’s office said at this time one person was confirmed to be in the aircraft, who was also found dead at the scene. The FAA said it is unknown how many people were on board the second aircraft.
The victims have yet to be identified, the sheriff’s office said. Once identified, their names will be released pending next-of-kin notification.
The FAA and NTSB are investigating the cause of the crash.
The roads near the crash sites will be closed amid the investigation, according to the Mount View Fire Department, which asked people to avoid the area.
(NEW YORK) — Judge Aileen Cannon has appointed an independent arbiter to review documents seized from former President Donald Trump’s Florida residence.
Raymond Dearie, a senior district judge for the Eastern District of New York, has been named the “special master” in the case to sift through all of the materials taken by federal agents during the Aug. 8 raid at Mar-a-Lago, including the roughly 100 documents bearing classification markings.
Dearie was one of the two candidates Trump’s legal team proposed to serve as special master.
The Department of Justice, which also submitted two names for consideration to Judge Cannon, had deemed Dearie was an adequate choice, writing he and their picks all had “substantial judicial experience.”
But the DOJ has said overall that a special master appointment was unnecessary and would delay the government’s review, potentially causing “irreparable harm to our national security and intelligence interests.”
The DOJ on Friday appealed to the 11th Circuit for a partial stay on Cannon’s order, which halted the government’s ability to use the classified documents and other materials seized in its ongoing criminal investigation. The DOJ is asking the appeals court to permit it to continue working with the classified records and not disclose them for review by the special master.
Here’s what to know about Dearie and the role he’ll be playing in the high-profile Trump investigation.
Who is Dearie?
Dearie, 78, started his career in private practice after graduating from St. John’s University School of Law in 1969. He then served in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Eastern District of New York for six years as chief of the appeals division.
He was also the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York before being tapped by President Ronald Reagan in 1986 to serve on the federal bench. He was the chief judge of the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of New York for four years before assuming senior status in 2011.
Dearie also served on the U.S. Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, or FISA court, which considers applications from the government for the collection of electronic surveillance or physical searches.
During his time on the FISA court, Dearie approved of a warrant for the DOJ and FBI to surveil Carter Page — a former campaign aide for Trump — during special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation after the 2016 election. The FISA court’s ruling was heavily criticized by Trump and his Republican allies.
What will he be doing?
Dearie will be reviewing the seized materials from Mar-a-Lago for any personal items and will examine documents for certain types of privileges, namely attorney-client and executive privilege, that should not be used in the DOJ probe.
Judge Cannon said the special master will prioritize reviewing the classified documents, and requested they submit interim reports and recommendations “as appropriate.”
Dearie also had 10 days after the Sept. 15 order to consult with lawyers for both the DOJ and Trump’s team and then provide Judge Cannon with a timeline for the review.
The DOJ argued in court the special master wasn’t needed because a “filter team” has already completed its review of material possibly covered by attorney-client privilege. The federal agency also questioned whether Trump’s claims of executive privilege — a tool presidents possess to shield communications from courts or Congress — were warranted given he’s no longer in office.
Dearie has until Nov. 30 to finish his work, several weeks longer than the DOJ wanted.
Trump is 100% responsible for “the professional fees and expenses of the Special Master and any professionals, support staff, and expert consultants engaged at the Special Master’s request,” Cannon ruled.
(NEW YORK) — Tropical Storm Fiona is headed for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands after battering the Caribbean Islands.
As of Saturday afternoon, over 45,000 customers were already without power. The island’s emergency management office even had a blackout during its Saturday morning press conference.
Hurricane watches and a flood watch have been issued for Puerto Rico. A flood watch is also in place for the U.S. Virgin Islands and the eastern side of the Dominican Republic.
The storm continues to move west at 13 miles per hour.
Fiona’s center moved through the island of Guadeloupe on Friday night, bringing heavy rain and gusty winds across the Leeward Islands.
Six to 10 inches of rain are expected for much of Puerto Rico, with the heaviest rainfall occurring overnight Saturday as Fiona passes to the south.
Sustained winds of 45 to 60 miles per hour are expected for parts of southwest Puerto Rico and St. Croix Sunday night with gusts as high as 85 miles per hour.
Rain and wind pick up after sunset Saturday in Puerto Rico, with the worst conditions lasting through Sunday afternoon. Rain and gusty winds will continue for Puerto Rico through Monday morning before conditions taper off in the afternoon.
The worst conditions in the Dominican Republic are expected late Sunday morning.
It is still uncertain which track Fiona will take after leaving the Caribbean. It is expected to become a category 1 hurricane by Tuesday evening. While most models indicate it will head toward sea, some suggest it will meander near the East Coast into the later part of next week.
The rain has already saturated areas in the southeastern part of Puerto Rico, along with the mountainous areas, where potential mudslides and winds could cause the most damage.
“We shouldn’t underestimate this storm,” Puerto Rico Gov. Pedro Pierluisi said in a briefing Saturday.
Resident Magda Diaz told ABC News outside a San Juan Walmart that she expects to be without power. Diaz said she loses power regularly, especially during smaller storms, and was recently in the dark for three days.
A LUMA Energy official told ABC News Saturday the company has been fixing the grid and is ready to get the grid back online if the system fails. LUMA Energy is in charge of transmission and distribution of electricity on the island.
“We were expecting power outages from Fiona … and we’re bringing in 100 more workers from our parent companies that will be landing Sunday,” LUMA official Don Cortez said.
(NEW YORK) — A powerful storm is bearing down on western Alaska, with historic tidal surges, damaging winds and widespread power outages expected throughout the weekend.
As is typical for fall storms in Alaska, this one was a typhoon at one point. The remnants of post-tropical typhoon Merbok are tracking northeastward through the Bering Strait.
The center of ex-typhoon Merbok is about to make its way through the Bering Strait and enter the Chukchi Sea this morning. GOES water vapor imagery from the overnight hours. #akwxpic.twitter.com/bpoMSRhQeH
Historic coastal flooding is forecast for many communities in the region Saturday into Sunday, according to Rick Thoman, a climate specialist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
“There hasn’t been a September storm this strong in the northern Bering Sea region in the past 70 years,” he said on Twitter.
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy said Saturday that he has verbally declared a disaster for communities impacted by the storm.
“We will continue to monitor the storm and update Alaskans as much as possible,” he said on Twitter, noting that the state has not received any reports of injuries at this time.
The National Weather Service has issued coastal flood warnings for much of the northwestern coast of Alaska.
In the Yukon Delta, some regions have seen high winds, floods and power outages. Footage out of Hooper Bay shows homes floating off foundations.
“Significant” coastal flooding is also forecast for the Seward Peninsula, where a number of remote communities are already threatened by erosion. Water levels are expected to be as high as 18 feet above the normal high tide line in the communities of Elim and Koyuk, near Nome.
“Major” flooding has been reported in the region in Golovin, the National Weather Service said Saturday.
“The highest water levels not expected until this afternoon, flooding will get worse,” it said. “Water is surrounding the school, homes and structures are flooded, at least a couple homes floating off the foundation, some older fuel tanks are tilted over.”
Across the bay in Shaktoolik, south of the Seward Peninsula, residents have evacuated to the local school and clinic as “significant waves” have started to break and are getting close to homes, the National Weather Service said Saturday.
Peak levels in and around Nome are expected Saturday afternoon through Sunday morning, the National Weather Service warned. Many roads are likely to close and homes, businesses and local airports “inundated,” it said.
High wind warnings also are in effect into Saturday evening, with some regions in the Yukon Delta and Bering Straight Coast expected to see hurricane-force wind gusts of up to 90 mph, according to the National Weather Service. Widespread power outages are expected.
(NEW YORK) — Even as healthcare professionals battle the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, with more than 300 Americans dying each day on average from the virus, doctors nationwide are raising awareness about the growing epidemic of suicide within their ranks.
Saturday, Sept. 17, is National Physician Suicide Awareness Day. It’s a day marking a sobering fact: physicians have a higher suicide rate than the general population, according to an article published in the science journal PLOS One.
Doctors dying by suicide means that patients lose good physicians. The growing number of suicides is a public health crisis, health professionals say.
According to a 2019 study in the Journal of the American Medical Association, depressed physicians may also commit more medical mistakes. Many physicians are hesitant to seek treatment due to the stigma and fear of losing their jobs.
“It’s a culture that rewards toughness” and “the emphasis is on caring for others, not for yourself,” said Dr. Mimi Winsberg, a psychiatrist and chief medical officer of Brightside, an online therapy organization.
Dr. Sansea Jacobson, a psychiatrist and program director of the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, says suicide is more likely to occur when multiple risk factors pile up.
“And most importantly, when they’re unaddressed or under addressed mental health issues,” said Jacobson.
She added, “We know as doctors that we have all the stressors and risk factors of the general public. Plus, we have our own unique stressors, like the pandemic, patient deaths, medical errors, and malpractice lawsuits.”
In response to the crisis, President Joe Biden signed the Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act into law in March. The law establishes grants to promote and study ways to improve mental health for health care providers.
The bill was named after Dr. Lorna Breen, an emergency medicine physician who died of suicide in April 2020, at the beginning of the pandemic. She may have feared losing her medical license and did not get help, according to a foundation set up in her honor.
The Dr. Lorna Breen Heroes’ Foundation recently helped to launch ALL IN, a campaign that hopes to remove mental health questions from forms that doctors fill out prior to getting a medical license.
There are several steps that a physician, or anyone dealing with a mental health crisis, can take, experts say.
“The first thing to do is to take an assessment. I always say that’s what gets measured gets managed, so I think understanding the scope of what you’re feeling is really important. And then the second thing is to seek help,” said Winsberg.
One silver lining of the pandemic is that it raised awareness of these issues, Winsberg said. She added, “Reducing stigma has made it more normal to express feelings of loneliness and depression and anxiety. I hope that that will spill over into the medical profession as well.”
Doctors can reach out on the Physician Support Line at 1 (888) 409-0141. The free and confidential hotline connects physicians to psychiatrists from 8:00 a.m. to 1:00 a.m. Eastern, 7 days a week.
Anyone struggling with mental health is also encouraged to dial 988, a nationwide number to connect to the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline.
Evelyn Huang, MD is a resident physician in emergency medicine from Northwestern Memorial Hospital, and a member of the ABC News Medical journalism rotation.
After close to a decade serving in the Marine Corps, Ron Self could knot a rope that was strong enough to drag military vehicles across combat zones in Africa. But serving time in a prison cell years later, he couldn’t get the bedsheets he’d tied together to hold.
“When I attempted to hang myself and the rope broke and I was on my knees and I realized immediately this is not — this was not — the solution,” he told ABC News.
After more than a decade of incarceration for a freeway shooting, Self said he was still processing the anger and shame of his arrest.
He is not alone: One-third of veterans say they have been arrested, according to a new report by the Council on Criminal Justice, citing a 2017 study focused on military service and crime.
“When you separate and you’re no longer part of something that’s bigger than anything you’ve ever been a part of your entire life — which is military service — and you don’t have that camaraderie anymore, it can take a, definitely, a dark turn,” Self said.
That’s what happened to him, he said: Self was a decorated Marine, awarded for his bravery in a helicopter crash in South Korea, by the time he was being medically discharged in the ’90s. But, he said, he felt increasingly unstable and estranged from civilian life. Which he thinks is why, in part, he agreed to be a hired gun and attempt to take someone’s life during their commute to work.
“I was laying in the back of a truck in a sniper hole built into this truck,” Self remembers of the 1994 incident, in which he armed himself on the freeway with a sniper rifle. “I was looking at him [the victim] through the crosshairs of the telescope on the rifle and I remember thinking how easy that would be, to just do that, and then take the off-ramp and go.”
Instead, Self said he aimed for the lower-right corner of the car windshield and shot two rounds, several seconds apart, in what he says was an attempt to avoid taking the man’s life.
“My intent was to make it public so that [the person who wanted him killed] couldn’t do it with someone else when this failed,” Self said.
He can still remember the reaction of a woman in a nearby car.
“The terror on her face from that windshield exploding and the gunshots — that terror is something I’ve only ever seen in combat,” he said. “The difference was we were there to stop the people causing it, and in that moment, it was me … I can’t even articulate how that hit me psychologically.”
The driver behind the shot-through windshield was injured but alive. Self was later arrested on charges of conspiracy to commit murder, attempted murder and firing a weapon within city limits.
“The fact that I did what I did, I think at a subconscious level, was me removing myself from society because I felt I didn’t belong in society,” he said.
Self was convicted and initially sentenced to 32 years to life in prison, with the possibility of parole.
After attempting to kill himself while incarcerated, he decided that he couldn’t let other former service members experience the same anguish.
“The solution would be a program that would help other veterans not make the poor choices I did,” he said.
While in prison, Self created a peer-to-peer mentor program, Veterans Healing Veterans from the Inside Out, to support other former service members navigating incarceration, past trauma and suicidal ideation.
He was later able to successfully argue in a parole hearing that he was attempting to avoid taking anyone’s life on the freeway and was released from prison in 2017 after serving 23 years.
The former Marine recently joined the Council on Criminal Justice as an inaugural member of the Veterans Justice Commission, which launched last month.
Self will work alongside two former defense secretaries, Chuck Hagel and Leon Panetta, as a part of a 15-member body investigating veteran arrest rates. The two-year long commission will also make policy recommendations to better support former service members.
“There’s been an injustice suffered here,” Hagel told ABC, adding “no one’s paid attention.”
He believes the council provides “a strength, a position, a structure that we can work within and we can work on to attract some of the best minds in the country on this issue.”
“We need to do a better job,” he said of society supporting veterans returning from war. “And it’s not good enough to just say, well, we can do more. With this commission, hopefully what we can do is we can be specific.”
The commission recognizes more than 181,500 veterans in prison or jails across the U.S., citing the latest count estimated in 2011-2012 by the Department of Justice. According to the same data, 8% of people incarcerated in local jails and state and federal prisons in the U.S. are veterans.
The majority of incarcerated veterans are sentenced for violent crimes and close to twice as many veterans are serving life sentences than their non-veterans counterparts, according to the commission’s report, citing a 2016 survey by the DOJ.
The commission defined unique risk factors among people returning from war that make them more likely to engage in criminal activity. These factors include post-traumatic stress disorders, traumatic brain injuries, heightened mental health concerns, more frequent substance misuse and financial insecurity.
Federal, state and local programs have been established to assist incarcerated veterans. The Veterans Justice Outreach Program was launched in 2009 by the Department of Veterans Affairs to better identify incarcerated veterans and connect them to appropriate resources. While the U.S. House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs references 138,000 veterans served by this program over a four-year period, the commission also acknowledges a pervasive lack of awareness from service members of what support systems are available to them both before and after their arrests.
When Self was being processed through his medical discharge after his military service, he said he was not made aware of all of the resources available to him.
“I had no clue that I had a potentiality for service-connected benefits or actual monetary benefit,” he said. “I had no idea about any of that.”
“I don’t want to blame the military,” Self continued. “And I’m not. And I’m not playing the victim. I own a very poor decision I made. But I also take into consideration now — I made this decision five months after several people I served with were killed, and I never processed that.”
After years in the military, the Marine Corps had become his family, where he said he found “people that have basically chewed the same dirt, spit the same bud.”
The chronic pain he faced that caused his eventual medical discharge from the Marines, he says now, was more tolerable overseas because of his relationships with his fellow service members. “To be removed from that — it was an absolute loss of identity.”
“It’s an inappropriate cry for help,” Self said of service members committing crimes.
He recognizes his unique position as a formerly incarcerated veteran on the commission to answer those cries.
“Everyone that raised their hand to serve was trusted to carry a weapon in defense of this country. I violated that trust by doing what I did,” he said of his shooting. “I may not ever be able to regain that level of trust. I can definitely spend the rest of my life trying to.”
Self believes the commission will be an important next step in studying the larger issue and ensuring incarcerated veterans know they are not alone or beyond correction and rehabilitation.
“We all have the ability for redemption. We all have the ability to change how we frame and view our past,” Self said of fellow service members who may have found themselves in a similar position to him. “If we can reframe how that drives us through the rest of our lives, it could be a lot more helpful to all people leaving the military and the society in which we fought for.”
(WASHINGTON) — Confused yet on where the abortion debate stands? If not, you probably should be.
Three months after securing the biggest victory in their political lives at the Supreme Court, a close ally of former President Donald Trump and a major anti-abortion rights group proposed a federal ban on abortion after 15 weeks.
The plan by Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America included some exceptions for rape and incest, and got a nod from former Vice President Mike Pence, a hero of the cause.
Yet, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the vast majority of abortions occur by 15 weeks. In fact, 93% of abortions happen before 13 weeks.
That means that after decades of promising to end abortions, a major slice of the anti-abortion rights movement just rallied around legislation that would curb only a fraction of them. Why?
“It’s political opportunism by Graham, who is trying to give Republicans a place to stand,” said Chuck Coughlin, a Republican strategist who runs the Arizona-based consulting firm HighGround.
“But it’s like standing in the middle of a highway,” he added. “There’s no base that’s going to support that.”
It’s an unexpected twist in the never-ending U.S. debate on abortion: As Republicans in statehouses, including those in Georgia, Indiana and West Virginia, embrace near-total abortion bans, strategists are warning these hard-line positions could spook more moderate and independent voters.
With midterm elections on the horizon, several GOP candidates have begun avoiding the issue with at least one — Arizona Senate candidate Blake Masters — scrubbing his website of a previous declaration that he is “100% pro life.”
To political strategists like Coughlin, Graham’s proposal was clearly aimed as a lifeline to flailing conservative candidates, even as the Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said he had no intention of trying to get a floor vote on the bill.
“I think that’s where the country is at. So, I don’t mind talking about pro-life issues,” Graham said Wednesday, adding, “I think my proposal over time will be supported by the public at large.”
Polls show that a majority of Americans support upholding Roe v. Wade, which ruled a right to an abortion up until viability of a fetus, usually around 24 weeks. At the same time, support for abortion rights dwindle as a woman’s pregnancy continues.
Mallory Carroll, vice president of communications for Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, told ABC News that it opted to swing behind Graham’s proposal as a way of setting a “federal minimum” that showed strong voter support.
The proposed legislation includes a provision that would still allow states to enact tougher restrictions.
“Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America has consistently urged elected officials at the federal and state level to be as ambitious as possible to save unborn children while using the tools of democracy to debate and arrive at a consensus,” Carroll wrote in a statement.
Another benefit of Graham’s legislation to his fellow Republicans, some strategists say, could have been to turn the tables on Democrats by asking them to explain their support for second-trimester abortions.
As the CDC data show, such procedures are extremely rare and doctors say they can occur because of severe abnormalities with the fetus or because of risks to their own health.
Yet, as this week wore on, all of that nuance was lost.
GOP lawmakers in Washington and candidates in the field dodged questions on the bill, while Democrats cited a federal ban as extreme. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi quipped that Republicans “think that life begins at the candlelight dinner the night before.”
Sarah Isgur, a former Trump administration official and now an ABC News contributor, said that at the end of the day, Graham’s political move just didn’t make sense.
“He’s dividing the GOP base even among pro-life Republicans, and he’s nationalizing a conversation that conservatives argued for decades they wanted decided at the state level,” she said.
Also, Republicans fare better when talking about issues like inflation and crime, she added.
“So why is Graham trying to keep abortion — an issue that clearly energizes Democratic voters more than Republican ones–at the top of the agenda?” Isgur said.
Either way, the underlying message from both parties this week to voters: Let’s not get too caught up in the details on abortion.
“I, for one, want to focus on the inflation numbers that came out today” and the possible railway strike, Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina told reporters at one point.
(NEW YORK) — A disgruntled man upset about Merriam-Webster dictionary’s update to their definitions of gender pronouns and adjectives to make them more fluid has pleaded guilty in a federal court to making bomb threats and for threatening to kill the company’s employees in a mass shooting.
The U.S. Attorney’s in the District of Massachusetts alleges that Jeremy David Hanson, 34, of Rossmoor, CA, anonymously sent “various threatening messages and comments demonstrating bias against specific gender identities submitted through its website’s ‘Contact Us’ page and in the comments section on its webpages that corresponded to the word entries for ‘Girl’ and ‘Woman,’” between the dates of Oct. 2 and Oct. 8, 2021. Authorities later identified the user as Hanson.
“Specifically, on Oct. 2, 2021, Hanson used the handle ‘@anonYmous’ to post the following comment on the dictionary’s website definition of ‘female:’ ‘It is absolutely sickening that Merriam-Webster now tells blatant lies and promotes anti-science propaganda. There is no such thing as ‘gender identity.’ The imbecile who wrote this entry should be hunted down and shot,’” authorities said in the statement.
A short time later, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Hanson sent them another message, this time via the “Contact Us” page on their website.
“You [sic] headquarters should be shot up and bombed. It is sickening that you have caved to the cultural Marxist, anti-science … agenda and altered the definition of ‘female’ as part of the Left’s efforts to corrupt and degrade the English language and deny reality,” the second online threat read in part. “It would be poetic justice to have someone storm your offices and shoot up the place.”
A third threat was sent to Merriam-Webster as a comment on their website on Oct. 8, 2021 which read: “I am going to shoot up and bomb your offices for lying and creating fake definitions,” the message said. “Boys aren’t girls, and girls aren’t boys … I will assassinate your top editor.”
Following these specific and credible threats, Merriam-Webster closed its offices in Springfield, MA, as well as in New York City for five days.
Hanson also admitted in court this week that he often selected the object of his threatening communications because of the “gender, gender identity and/or sexual orientation of various persons,” said the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
“Every member of our community has a right to live and exist authentically as themselves without fear. Hate motivated threats of violence that infringe upon that right are not tolerated in Massachusetts in any capacity,” said United States Attorney Rachael S. Rollins. “This conviction represents my office’s dedication to protecting targeted communities and bringing accountability and justice when those who aim to endanger act upon their hatred.”
Hanson pleaded guilty on Wednesday to one count of interstate communication of threatening communications to commit violence against the employees of Merriam-Webster, which carries a potential sentence of up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000, according to a statement released by U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Massachusetts.
“Jeremy Hanson is now a convicted felon after admitting to making hate-fueled threats of violence related to the LGBTQ+ community,” said Joseph R. Bonavolonta, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Boston Division. “If you believe you are a victim or a witness to similar conduct, we encourage you to report it to the FBI so we can hold the perpetrators behind these crimes accountable for their actions, like we did in this case.”
Hanson is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 5, 2023.
