Anne, the only daughter of the queen and the late Prince Philip, was by her mother’s side as the queen’s coffin made its journey from Balmoral Castle in Scotland to Edinburgh and then to Buckingham Palace in London.
In Wednesday’s procession escorting the queen’s coffin from the palace to Westminster Hall, Anne, wearing military dress, was the only female member of the royal family to walk behind the coffin. She will do the same on Monday, when the queen’s state funeral is held at Westminster Abbey.
Anne, now 72, is 16th in line to the throne, even though she is the queen and Philip’s second-oldest child.
As a woman, Anne was leap-frogged in the line of succession by Andrew and Edward.
She was born decades before a law called the Succession to the Crown Act went into effect in 2013, ending the centuries-old practice of a younger son superseding an elder daughter in the line of succession.
As the princess royal, Anne also has a different title than the ones given to her brothers.
The title of princess royal is typically, but not automatically, bestowed to the eldest daughter of the monarch.
Anne, who was nearly 3 when her mom became queen, has carried the title for nearly her entire life, and she will continue to hold it after the queen’s death.
As the father of two sons, Charles will not bestow the title of princess royal during his reign.
Charles’ eldest son, Prince William, the heir to the throne, may choose to bestow the title on his only daughter, Princess Charlotte, when he becomes king.
Anne chose not to give her two children, Peter Phillips and Zara Phillips Tindall, royal titles when they were born, an option she would have been given by the queen had she wished to do so.
“I think it was probably easier for them, and I think most people would argue that there are downsides to having titles,” she said. “So I think that was probably the right thing to do.”
Phillips and Tindall, whose father is Anne’s first husband, Mark Phillips, are the only two of the queen’s eight grandchildren to not have royal titles.
Tindall, a mother of three, shares a love of horses with the queen and Anne, who competed in equestrian for Great Britain in the 1976 Montreal Olympics.
Tindall competed in the same event at the 2012 London Olympics and won a silver medal, which was presented by Anne.
Phillips, the queen’s eldest grandchild, is a father of two.
He walked side by side with his cousins William and Prince Harry in Wednesday’s procession for the queen.
(TUPELO, MS) — A Mississippi man faces federal charges after allegedly stealing a plane and threatening to crash it into a Walmart earlier this month.
Cory Patterson, 29, was arrested by local authorities on Sept. 3 after the small plane landed in a field after circling over Tupelo for several hours. Tupelo police had warned residents early that morning that the plane’s pilot was threatening to intentionally crash into a Walmart.
Patterson, an unlicensed pilot, allegedly stole the small plane from the Tupelo Regional Airport, where he worked as an employee of Tupelo Aviation, police said.
He was charged on Sept. 3 with grand larceny and making terroristic threats by local authorities.
He was additionally charged in federal court on Monday with destruction of aircraft and threats involving the destruction of aircraft.
ABC News did not immediately receive a response from Patterson’s attorney to an email seeking comment on the federal charges.
According to the affidavit, Patterson had previously taken flying lessons and claimed to have watched YouTube videos to figure out how to fly.
He allegedly called 911 on his cellphone and “threatened to crash the airplane” into the Tupelo Walmart, according to an affidavit from an FBI agent.
When the 911 operator asked if it was intentional that he was about to crash the plane, Patterson reportedly responded, “Oh yeah,” the affidavit stated.
“When asked what his motive was, Patterson stated, ‘l just don’t want to live anymore and want to cause chaos while I’m at it,'” the affidavit continued.
Patterson reportedly told the 911 operator “he did not want to hurt anyone else,” according to the affidavit.
Police said that negotiators spoke to Patterson and were able to convince him to land the aircraft at Tupelo Regional Airport.
Patterson received “instruction” over the phone on how to land the plane from a professional pilot, the affidavit stated. Patterson was able to lower the landing gear and made an approach to the airport but aborted the landing, it stated.
He eventually crash-landed the plane — a Beechcraft King Air C-90 twin-engine aircraft — in a soybean field in Ripley, Mississippi, authorities said.
No one was harmed and only the pilot was on board the aircraft, police said.
An instructor pilot who saw the plane after it landed assessed that the aircraft was a “total loss” and would likely be sold for parts, according to the affidavit.
Patterson appeared in Oxford federal court on Wednesday and was remanded to U.S. Marshal custody pending a preliminary and detention hearing or psychiatric evaluation, court records show.
His attorney has filed a motion for a psychological exam, court records show.
(LONDON) — 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.”
Charles’ efforts have also included championing initiatives to engage businesses around conversations about sustainability and, most importantly, focusing on trying to find solutions that work, Bob Ward, policy and communications director at The London School of Economics and Political Science’s Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, told ABC News.
“He’s used his position to raise awareness — not just in the U.K., but around the world,” Ward said. “He has, for a long, long time, probably earlier than many politicians, understood the importance of this issue.”
Due to his “extensive background” on environment and sustainability issues, there is “no doubt” that the depth of Charles’ commitment to it runs deep, Alden Meyer, a senior associate working on U.S. and international climate policy and politics at E3G, a London-based think tank on climate policy, told ABC News.
Here is why experts say Charles III will be known as the United Kingdom’s first “climate king”:
King Charles III began his environmental activism long before words like “sustainable,” “organic” and “grass-fed” were trendy. In fact, much of the British public viewed his passion for the environment as an “oddity” when it first began, Ward said.
“He was talking about this before it was cool,” Meyer said.
One of the “most interesting” tidbits about Charles’ history of engagement with environmental issues is the push he has made around landscapes, especially surrounding managing landscapes and the role of natural, working land has in absorbing carbon, as well as the role architecture plays in absorbing carbon, Victor said.
Charles’ gardens at Highgrove House, the estate in Gloucestershire he purchased in 1980, are a prime example of his early commitment to sustainability. The grounds feature organically maintained gardens, including a kitchen garden, formal garden and wild garden, the latter which serves as a sustainable habitat for birds and wildlife. Solar panels have also been installed, and waste from the house is filtered through a natural sewage system.
By doing this, the king has moved the conversation surrounding sustainability from focusing solely on industrial emissions to how climate change is also embedded into the landscape, Victor said.
In 1989, Charles wrote the book “A Vision of Britain,” in which he argued that the traditional methods of architecture and aesthetics used in the past in Britain should be used more in the future. That vision resulted in an experimental planned community of 3,500 in Dorset, a county on England’s southwest coast, which implemented traditional approaches and techniques honed over thousands of years in the U.K.
The community, named Poundbury, generally uses the development principles of New Urbanism, a framework that emphasizes walkability in cities. Sustainable methods of transportation, such as walking, biking and public transit, are key to incorporating a sustainable lifestyle, climate experts say.
Charles’ commitment to mitigating climate change has even been evident in recent years and months. He has been especially vocal about the climate crisis in the past five years.
In June 2021, before the G-7 summit commenced in Cornwall, Charles urged businesses to tackle the climate emergency alongside government, adding that unlocking cash within the private sector was the key to winning the battle against global warming and biodiversity loss.
Charles remained outspoken in the lead-up to COP26, the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference that began converging in Glasgow, Scotland, in October.
Weeks before the conference began, Charles implored world leaders to do more than “just talk” at the climate summit, which was billed by environmentalists as one of the last chances to change the trajectory of global warming.
From Prince George’s Wood, an arboretum Charles has created in the gardens of his house on the Balmoral estate in Aberdeenshire, the-then Prince of Wales said it had taken “far too long” for the world to make the climate crisis a priority, adding that following his example of going meat- and fish-free two days a week and dairy-free one day a week could “reduce a lot of the pressure” on the collective carbon footprint.
The Prince of Wales Foundation and other entities and charities that Charles has been involved with have been deeply engaged, particularly in reaching out to the business community in the private sector and finance and encouraging them to step up their game, Meyer said.
Charles also attended a series of events at COP26, as did Queen Elizabeth II and Prince William and his wife, Catherine, then the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
Charles’ passion even extends past the Earth’s own atmosphere. In July, the king-in-waiting called for an “Astro Carta” to establish sustainable space exploration, working with the Space Directorate of the U.K.’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) to reduce emissions for future missions. That same month, he again urged for climate action as Europe experienced record-breaking heat waves, in which he described the temperatures as “alarming.”
Charles inherited his passion for conservation from his parents, and he has now passed it to his son and heir, Prince William, the new Prince of Wales, Ward said.
One of the most noted characteristics of Queen Elizabeth II was her love of dogs and horses, and her husband, Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, was a “very strong voice” for wildlife, even serving as patron for the World Wildlife Fund for much of his time as a working royal. In the 1950s, Charles and Princess Anne were photographed while meeting famed biologist and natural historian David Attenborough, and Charles has maintained the relationship with the former BBC broadcaster — even awarding the 96-year-old his second knighthood earlier this year.
The notion of being environmentally conscious is a very “British trait,” Ward said, adding that former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was the first major world leader to talk about climate change at the United Nations in 1989.
While the queen was also interested in these issues, Meyer does not believe her ambition matches the extent of her son, a monarch who is now “deeply engaged, committed and knowledgable,” Meyer said.
“Charles is coming from a family that is, has expressed, you know, and use their voice frequently about environmental issues,” Ward said. “And his views on the environment are very much shared by wider society in the U.K.”
When the U.K. hosted COP26, the queen urged world leaders attending the summit to “rise above the politics of the moment” to find solutions to mitigate climate change.
Charles seems to have passed down his enthusiasm for the environment to Prince William. As the new Prince of Wales, William is currently head of the Earthshot Prize, which aims to promote impactful approaches to the world’s most pressing environmental challenges, and is currently a WildAid ambassador for sharks, rhinos and elephants, of which he has been especially vocal in his efforts to protect the species from extinction.
“Charles has created a legacy within his own family,” Ward said.
The sentiment even extended to the queen’s death. After some of the thousands of mourners began to leave Paddington Bears and marmalade sandwiches in honor of the skit the queen filmed for the Platinum Jubilee in June, the Royal Parks issued a statement requesting that well-wishers only leave organic or compostable material, as well as flowers sans plastic wrap, in “the interests of sustainability.”
“We would prefer visitors not to bring non-floral objects/artefacts such as teddy bears or balloons,” the statement read.
As Prince of Wales, Charles was permitted to be more vocal about his ardor for protecting the environment. But now that he is king, Charles may be required to rein in his enthusiasm, the experts said.
“I think he will be careful about what he says in public,” Ward said. “He will know that there are limits on what he could and should be saying.”
Charles will likely have the most impact within his own realms, especially since, unlike in the U.S., every major business in the United Kingdom already knows they need to be “serious” about pushing sustainable practices, Victor said.
“He’s already pushing an open door,” Victor said.
Still, there’s a possibility that prompts and nudges from Charles to do more for the environment will not be fruitful.
“The king doesn’t actually have a huge amount of impact on the economy,” Victor said. “And, if anything, the monarchy has been paying very special attention to not overreaching, overstepping its role [of] what is normally considered the function of government.”
The institution’s tendency to take a step back and remain silent may be reinforced for Charles, who ascended the throne as a less popular monarch than his mother, the experts said.
Still, Charles will have the ears of major players who can make a difference, such as corporate leaders and top members of the government, such as Prime Minister Liz Truss, with whom he will conduct weekly audiences.
“That’s an opportunity for the monarch to ask questions about government policy, make recommendations, do a little advocacy privately,” Meyer said. “But that’s very different than the kind of public role that he’s had in his foundations.”
In addition, Ward said he expects that Charles will continue to deliver subtle messages supporting environmentalism in his annual televised Christmas speech.
“I would imagine that King Charles will continue that tradition, where he will talk about issues that are of importance,” Ward said.
The United Kingdom got a new prime minister and monarch in a matter of days.
Charles will now be working with Truss, who does not have a great track record of promoting environmentally friendly policies, the experts said.
“You’ve got a new prime minister coming in who is probably less committed and passionate about this issue than the outgoing prime minister,” Meyer said, adding that while Boris Johnson was not deeply passionate about environmental issues when he first took office, that changed as the need for developed countries to whittle their emissions down to net-zero became clear.
In addition, the U.K. is still in the middle of Brexit and disconnecting from the European economy — at the same time, the West is disconnecting from the Chinese economy, Victor said.
This could be a hindrance to the climate fight, as having access to a global economy will be necessary to implement the best and lowest-cost technologies into industries, Victor added.
“What’s going to be particularly interesting is what Charles says and does with regard to Britain’s place in the world concerning its interaction with the economies of other countries in the role of Britain and cooperating with other countries,” Victor said.
The king has a long-standing appreciation of the importance of environmental issues and has a deeper connection to the environment than most, but that experience may be connected to his privilege, the experts said.
Charles will need to toe the line as he encourages the masses to live sustainably, especially since most are not afforded the wealth, influence and privilege to do so, they added.
While Charles was a pioneer in organic farming, he had the means to completely transform the overgrown land he purchased at Highgrove and employ top architects and gardeners to help him see his vision through, Victor said. In addition, the average person cannot transform their Aston Martin to run on biodiesel, let alone even own a luxury vehicle.
“That’s something you can do if you have a lot of land and a lot of money,” Victor said. “The bigger challenge for deep decarbonization and for managing landscape is what you do with the large fraction of the public that can’t afford to eat that way.”
Striking the right tone will be especially crucial as the U.K. reels from the energy crisis that resulted from the aftereffects of eliminating coal consumption combined with its dependence on Russian oil. Analysts are expecting a tough winter for the majority of residents in the United Kingdom as gas prices continue to skyrocket, sending the costs to heat homes even higher, Meyer said.
Still, Victor believes the world will underestimate Charles and his ability to encourage advances in the climate fight.
“It’s very hard to judge a public figure, especially a public figure who is an institution that requires you to be quiet,” he added.
(BISMARCK, ND) — In November, there won’t be a Democrat running against incumbent GOP Rep. Kelly Armstrong for North Dakota’s sole congressional seat. The former nominee, Mark Haugen, announced earlier this month that he would drop out of the race due to what he called pressure from top members of his party to make room for Cara Mund, a 28-year-old former Republican congressional intern and 2018 Miss America who last week officially qualified for the race as a pro-abortion access independent.
The details of Mund’s late bid were surprising for political observers, especially when big-name North Dakota Democrats suggested their candidate leave the race as she jumped in.
But it’s her candidacy, some of those same state Democrats say, that reflects a more important reality: After the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the politics of abortion access have roiled races even in deeply conservative parts of the country — and abortion supporters appear increasingly galvanized while abortion opponents have seen some of their potential electoral victories, in Kansas and elsewhere, limited.
The big question is what will happen in November, when Democrats hope to protect their fragile majorities in the House and Senate from a resurgent GOP.
A victory for political newcomer Mund against the well-funded, two-term Armstrong — switching the seat from a Republican lawmaker to an independent — would be seen as a win, even as state Democrats insist they will have no role supporting her.
Armstrong, who opposes abortion, last won his seat with 69% of the vote.
“This cycle isn’t really the cycle for pro-life Democrats,” the state’s party chairman, Patrick Hart, told ABC News. “We had a long talk about viability, and in the end, Mark decided to drop out of the race.”
In early August, 59% of voters in historically Republican Kansas voted against an amendment that would strip abortion rights from the state constitution. And in Alaska, Mary Peltola — after also campaigning on abortion access — became the first Democrat in decades to win the state’s House seat over former governor and Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin.
Then, in another special election — this one for New York’s 19th District, a longtime swing seat — Democrat Pat Ryan won after largely campaigning on a pro-abortion rights message against Republican Marc Molinaro.
“Really, as we look what happened in Kansas and Alaska — there is a lot of energy for women’s health,” Hart said. “And we’ll see what happens in North Dakota at the ballot box this fall.”
On Sept. 3, two months ahead of November’s midterms, Haugen had a jarring Saturday morning breakfast meeting with Hart.
A few hours later, Haugen said that he received a call from North Dakota’s former Democratic Rep. Earl Pomeroy. Shortly after that, he said, he was contacted by the state’s former Democratic Sen. Kent Conrad.
According to Haugen, all three suggested that he should drop out of the race. Pomeroy later told the Forum of Fargo-Moorhead that he “didn’t lean on him [Haugen]” to drop out, but noted that in their conversation, he wanted to “maximize the contrast with the incumbent.” (Conrad’s office did not respond to a request for comment.)
Haugen announced the next day that he would quit. Last week, Mund qualified to appear on the November ballot against Armstrong.
“They want to give a clear shot for Cara Mund to be able to go up against Kelly Armstrong in the race,” Haugen said in an interview with ABC News. “I could have stayed in the race, but I just didn’t see a viable path to victory now with much of my base kind of not there.”
Mund, with a nominal war chest and no party backing, would need to earn a wild-card victory.
She told ABC News that she’s never been contacted by leading state Democrats like Conrad, Hart or Pomeroy, and she has no expectations of an endorsement or financial backing from the state party.
Hart said Democrats do not plan on supporting Mund and do not plan on putting up another candidate in the race.
Other North Dakota Democrats are watching Mund with interest — but not yet open arms.
“I’m saddened because there will not be a Democratic-NPL (North Dakota Democratic-Nonpartisan League Party) candidate on the ballot. If we are going to rebuild the two party system in Red States like North Dakota we need to run Democratic-NPL candidates. Plus, Mark has been a warrior for the Democratic-NPL brand and his willingness to take on a tough ‘red state’ race cannot be under appreciated,” former North Dakota Democratic Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, who has not endorsed Mund, said in a statement to ABC News.
But Heitkamp said that Mund “represents a new generation of leaders who do not want to be defined by allegiance to the two party system. This is ‘new generational energy” not only in North Dakota but nationwide.”
“Where I appreciate her position on reproductive health care, I will need to learn more about her position on Native American Rights, income and wealth disparity, health care and investment in education before I consider an endorsement.” Heitkamp said.
Haugen said his own conversations with some of North Dakota’s top Democrats featured mentions of Alaska and Kansas, where the party saw persuasive signs of how the issue of abortion was motivating voters even in deep-red states.
Haugen also said there was talk of Evan McMullin, a former GOP congressional staffer and supporter of abortion access running as an independent Senate candidate in Utah against Republican incumbent Mike Lee.
Utah Democrats have endorsed McMullin instead of putting up their own candidate.
In his conversations with others in his party, Haugen said, “They brought up the [Supreme Court’s] Dobbs decision, because I’m pro-life and what’s happened across the vote in Kansas recently.” Raising that issue surprised him, he said.
In July, the policy committee of the North Dakota Democratic-Nonpartisan League Party voted down a resolution calling for the party to pull support from Haugen’s candidacy over his anti-abortion stance.
“It failed and failed miserably. So I thought this was over,” Haugen said.
Hart, though, said the party kept hearing about abortion from residents.
In traveling as the party chair over the past few months, Hart told ABC News, many constituents brought up Haugen’s support of the Supreme Court overturning Roe and North Dakota’s resulting “trigger” law, which would ban nearly all abortions in the state. (It’s currently being challenged in court.)
“I’ve been hearing a lot of questions about Mark’s viewpoint and really about the state party being a part of that,” Hart acknowledged.
In deeply conservative North Dakota, where the GOP has held the at-large House seat since 2011, Mund told ABC she sees a certain legislative data point as an inroad for her potential victory: on the ballot in 2014 was a constitutional amendment on personhood, defining it as at the time of conception.
That proposal was defeated by 64% of voters.
“I think there’s the silent majority that just didn’t feel empowered, it didn’t feel like we’ll be represented,” Mund said. “It’s still an uphill battle. But it’s not an impossible battle. And especially after Kansas, after Alaska, don’t be surprised if there’s a big ‘Roe-vember.'”
“At this point in time, there has to be someone on the ballot who who identifies with a woman’s right to choose,” Mund said. “And especially after Dobbs, it just felt like there was really no hope, when you have both the Democratic candidate and the GOP candidate as pro-life.”
Mund said she remembers where she was when the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision came out that reversed Roe after some five decades.
The Harvard Law School graduate — who met the 1,000-signature threshold for listing on the ballot on Sept. 8, two days after she turned in more than 2,600 signatures to the North Dakota secretary of state — was preparing for the bar exam at home in Bismarck.
“I think like a lot of us that were studying thought … now what happens on the bar exam when the Supreme Court has overturned precedent and everything we’ve studied for?” she said.
Mund took the North Dakota bar in July but said she had begun thinking about her bid for the House seat months earlier. Her aspirations of running for office began as she took a class in law school on campaigns and elections — but she never thought she’d jump in this cycle.
When the draft opinion of Dobbs was leaked in May, however, she started moving forward on her campaign.
Mund said she has identified as a Republican for most of her life. After attending Brown University as an undergraduate, she interned for GOP Sen. John Hoeven in 2016 — she said the longtime North Dakota Republican is still one of her political heroes. (Hoeven did not respond to a request for comment.)
Mund said she was mulling a staff job with Hoeven before she jumped into the Miss America pageant — another dream. She attended the 2018 State of the Union address as Hoeven’s guest, following her Miss America victory.
“Coming from a state like North Dakota that had never won, people were constantly underestimating me. And here we are in 2022 and they’re still underestimating me,” Mund said.
If elected, she’d be North Dakota’s first woman in the House.
When she entered the race, Mund said she’d initially thought she would caucus with Republicans. She now says that while she could still vote with the GOP, she isn’t sure she would be embraced by the party — referring to a state Republican rule which bars candidates who have run as independents from seeking the party’s endorsement for six years.
Mund also stressed that her abortion politics set her apart from Republicans.
“I worked for a Republican senator, I grew up with a lot of conservative values,” she said. “But being pro-choice, I knew that there was no way that the party would ever endorse me.”
But Mund’s opponent has hesitations about the independent’s sometimes cloudy ideological stances.
“Running as an independent is not the same as being moderate. The democratic leadership in North Dakota did not chase out their moderate candidate for a more moderate candidate,” Armstrong said in a statement to ABC News.
She said she admires outgoing Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney’s courage to challenge former President Donald Trump because “he’s not above the law.”
Mund, who is her own campaign manager, lacks robust fundraising mechanisms. “It would have been so much easier to go with a party. But I did not want a party to tell me what’s best for our people,” she said.
Heitkamp, the former senator, applauded her ambition despite their other differences. “Cara Mund is taking on the ‘Good Old Boys’ political establishment in North Dakota,” Heitkamp said in her statement. “She has proven herself to be someone who will call out the unfairness of institutions, whether it is in the political system or the Miss America world. She is very smart and very consistent in her beliefs.”
(NEW YORK) — New York City is “reassessing” longstanding procedures that stem from a law requiring the city to shelter undomiciled people.
It follows an influx of more than 11,000 asylum seekers who have been bussed from Texas, the mayor’s chief counsel said Thursday after touring the city’s first Asylum Seeker Resource Navigation Center.
“We are reassessing the city’s practices with respect to the right to shelter,” Brendan McGuire, the chief counsel, said. “It is important — because we don’t exist in a vacuum — to reconsider the practices that the city developed that flow from the right to shelter.”
McGuire declined to elaborate what, specifically, might need to change but the city’s prior practices involving mainly people experiencing homelessness “never contemplated the bussing of thousands of people into New York,” Mayor Adams said earlier this week. “We expect thousands more to arrive every week going forward. The city’s system is nearing its breaking point.”
The comments followed the failure of the city’s shelter system to offer beds to 60 men who arrived Monday at the men’s intake shelter on E 30 St.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, since early May, has been sending busloads of migrants out of Texas to cities with Democrat leaders, including New York City and Washington, D.C. The Republican governor says he started the busing programs in response to the Biden administration’s immigration policies which he claims inadequately secure the border, forcing states like his to bear the brunt of migrant waves.
Officials said Texas authorities have not coordinated with New York officials, meaning that officials are unaware of when buses will arrive or how many individuals will be on the buses.
“They’re not letting us know what are the needs of the people on the bus. They’re not giving us any information, so we’re unable to really provide service to the people en route,” Adams told ABC affiliate WABC earlier this summer.
The mayor and his chief counsel have each stressed the city is not reneging on the obligation to shelter itself, which the courts have guaranteed for three dozen years.
“There’s no ambiguity there, so it’s an important distinction. We are not reassessing the right to shelter. We are reassessing [the] practices around the right to shelter,” McGuire said.
Homeless advocates aren’t so sure and warned the mayor not to end any practice that would force people onto the streets.
“@NYCMayor challenging the right to shelter is dangerous. Without this right tens of thousands of people will be on the street,” the Safety Net Project of the Urban Justice Center wrote on Twitter.
Adams announced the opening of New York City’s first Asylum Seeker Resource Navigation Center on Thursday.
The center, according to the city, “will support individuals and families who have arrived in New York City on or after January 1, 2022. The center will serve as a central place where newly arrived asylum seekers will receive free and confidential help accessing a variety of important services and resources that will help them integrate and thrive in New York City.”
“Our city continues to welcome the thousands of families who have arrived in New York City in the last few months, but, today, we are announcing a one-stop-shop for those seeking asylum to receive free and confidential help accessing the important services and resources that will help them integrate and thrive in New York City,” Adams said Thursday.
“We are always willing to work with the City on ways to improve services for anyone in need of shelter, including asylum seekers, so long as any proposal complies with well-established court orders and New York State’s Constitution, which require the City to provide homeless individuals and families placement in a safe and accessible shelter,” The Legal Aid Society and Coalition for the Homeless said in a statement Thursday. “We were glad to hear City officials affirming their commitment to those obligations this morning.”
ABC News’ William Mansell, Briana Alvarado and Kyla Guilfoil contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Thursday took a political victory lap after railway companies and unions reached a tentative labor agreement overnight — averting a strike that threatened to paralyze the nation’s supply chain and transportation rail service.
Speaking from the White House Rose Garden, Biden called the agreement a “big win for America” as the White House highlighted how he used his influence to avoid a crisis less than two months before the midterm elections.
“To the American people, this agreement can avert a significant damage that any shutdown would have brought,” Biden said. “Our nation’s rail system is the backbone of our supply chain.”
Biden said “every good you need” from clean water to food to liquefied natural gas gets delivered via rail.
“This agreement allows us to continue to rebuild a better America with an economy that truly works for working people and their families,” he said.
Before delivering remarks, Biden met with the negotiators who brokered the railway labor agreement in the Oval Office.
Administration officials hosted contract talks all day Wednesday hoping to broker a deal, negotiating for more than 20 consecutive hours, Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh said on Thursday. He described the deal as “hard-fought” and “mutually-beneficial.”
A White House official told reporters on Thursday that Biden called into Labor Department-led talks around 9 p.m. on Thursday to say a shutdown of railways was unacceptable and underscored the far-reaching economic consequences a strike would have. At 2 a.m., the official said, Walsh called the White House and said things were coming together. One union had to wake up their board to get sign off, the official added.
Biden thanked both sides for working in “good faith” to reach an agreement.
“In fact, the negotiators here today, I don’t think they’ve been to bed yet,” Biden said.
Unions will now vote on the agreement.
The Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers Trainmen (BLET) and the SMART Transportation Division (SMART-TD) — the two largest rail unions and the final remaining union holdouts — confirmed the tentative agreement in a statement on Thursday.
The agreement includes one key sticking point throughout the negotiations: policies that allow workers to take a sick day or attend to a doctor’s appointment without being penalized.
“We listened when our members told us that a final agreement would require improvements to their quality of life as well as economic gains,” BELT and SMART-TD said in their joint statement.
Biden said on Thursday the workers “earned and deserved these benefits.”
“This agreement is validation of what I’ve always believed: unions and management can work together, can work together for the benefit of everyone,” he said.
Congress debated stepping into the fray to avoid the strike this week. Republican Sens. Wicker and Burr on Thursday attempted to push through a resolution that would have forced unions to accept the deal. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., blocked the measure, arguing workers have the right to strike over working conditions.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi applauded the tentative agreement on Thursday morning, stating Congress was ready to step in but “thankfully this action may not be necessary.”
“We congratulate the unions and railroads for coming to an agreement, because it is in the national interest that essential transportation services be maintained,” she said.
(TALLAHASSEE, Fla.) — Florida GOP Gov. Ron DeSantis has activated the Florida National Guard to address staffing shortages at the state’s correctional facilities.
“Members of the Guard have the training and capability to assist Florida’s correctional officers with certain duties, such as manning guard towers, perimeter patrols, and control stations, which will allow the correctional officers to concentrate on directly supervising and caring for inmates,” an executive order DeSantis signed Friday said.
The order said the Guard will remain in Florida correctional facilities on a “short term basis” and notes current hiring efforts have “shown early signs of success.”
Florida’s staffing shortage has resulted in the “temporary closure of 176 inmate dorms and suspension of 431 supervised work squads,” it said. “This shortage threatens the safety of officers, inmates, and the public.”
The Florida Department of Corrections is authorized to hire 20,000 correction and probation officers — nearly one quarter of the state’s employees.
There is a severe staffing shortage at federal prisons nationwide as well.
“The unprecedented and remarkable steps taken by Governor DeSantis in sending the National Guard to assist the Florida Department of Corrections is indicative of a profession in crisis with nationwide public safety implications,” Shane Fausey, President of the National Council of Prison Locals 33, the union that represents federal corrections officers around the country.
“The Bureau of Prisons, much like our state and county counterparts, have seen an ominous exodus from our agency, aggravated by serious difficulties in recruiting and hiring,” he said.
Fausey said the Bureau of Prisons saw a departure of nearly 3,000 correctional officers and employees in 2021, and is on course to lose an additional 3,000 by the end of 2022, nearly 20% of its total workforce.
The BOP declined to comment on staffing issues to ABC News.
“I implore executive action by the White House administration, coupled with emergency actions of Congress, be implemented immediately to address our inadequate pay bands, crippling staffing shortages, and incentivize the retention of our most experienced officers and employees,” Fausey said.
(NEW YORK) — Lawmakers are seeking to limit the sale of diet pills and weight loss supplements to children with the introduction of new bills in California and New York.
The bills in California and New York would prohibit retailers from selling dietary supplements for weight loss and over-the-counter diet pills to anyone under the age of 18 without a prescription. Such supplements and pills aren’t required to be reviewed or approved by the Food and Drug Administration and the federal agency has warned the public of the dangers of certain weight loss products, highlighting contaminated pills that have been tainted with dangerous ingredients.
Overall, the diet pill industry in the United States is largely unregulated.
Women between the ages of 14 to 36 who used diet pills were five times more likely to develop an eating disorder in the next one to three years than those who did not take pills, according a study released in 2020 in the American Journal of Public Health that examined data from over 10,000 women from 2001 to 2016.
More research is still needed to determine the correlation between weight loss supplement and diet pill use and eating disorders.
“Observation and association does not prove cause and effect. So we don’t know whether the eating disorder caused the dietary supplement or pill use or vice versa,” ABC News Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton said Thursday on “Good Morning America.”
“Also, doctors don’t normally write prescriptions for over-the-counter supplements. But the intention here [behind the bills] is a good one, which is to try to protect this vulnerable population,” Ashton added.
For parents concerned about their kids possibly using unregulated diet pills, Ashton recommends that they find out what children are saying and doing and have conversations with them about healthy body perceptions.
“I think parents need to be on the lookout … and not just in girls but in boys as well. So I think they need to pay attention to what their children and their teens are saying and doing. Talk to them. Keep that dialogue in line of communication open and emphasize that health is really just as much internal as it is, if not more than, what you can see,” Ashton said.
In addition to ongoing discussions, parents should also model and encourage healthy eating habits, physical activity and sufficient sleep habits.
(NORFOLK, England) — Prince William and Kate, the Princess of Wales, made a trip to Norfolk, England, Thursday to view tributes left to Queen Elizabeth II, who died Sept. 8 at the age of 96.
William and Kate viewed floral tributes left by the public outside Sandringham Estate, the queen’s Norfolk retreat, where she and family members regularly spent time, including a decades-long tradition of gathering there for Christmas.
A reporter on the scene who spoke to a woman who met William Thursday said the prince told her the death of his grandmother brought back memories of the death of his mother, Diana, the Princess of Wales.
William and his brother Prince Harry walked in a procession behind Diana’s coffin after her death on Aug. 31, 1997, following a car crash in Paris.
On Wednesday, almost exactly 25 years later, William and Harry walked in a procession behind the queen’s coffin as it was moved from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall.
“He told us yesterday had been particularly difficult and following the coffin had reminded him of his mother’s funeral, of Diana,” said Jane Wells, who had come to lay flowers for the queen at Sandringham. “He said it had been very difficult.”
Wells continued, “I said, ‘Your mother would be so proud of you and thank you for sharing your grief with us,’ and he said, ‘I’m learning that she was everyone’s grandmother, the way people have reacted.'”
Another person in the crowd told William she was close to tears, to which he replied, according to reports, “Don’t cry now. You’ll start me.”
William and Kate viewed an overflowing tribute of flowers for the queen outside the gates of Sandringham, which is located close to their own country home, Anmer Hall, where they spend down time as a family with their three children, Princes George and Louis and Princess Charlotte.
Kate is believed to have worn to Norfolk a pair of diamond and pearl drop earrings that belonged to the queen.
Norfolk is located around 100 miles from Windsor, England, where William and Kate now have their primary home on the grounds of Windsor Castle, where the queen also spent much of her time during her 70-year reign.
In the 24 hours since the queen’s coffin was moved from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall, thousands of people have lined up in London to pay their respects to Britain’s longest-reigning monarch.
The queen’s coffin will lie in state at Westminster Hall until her funeral on Sept. 19, at Westminster Abbey.
Tributes like those William and Kate viewed at Sandringham have grown across the U.K. in the week since the queen’s death.
The queen’s daughter Anne, the Princess Royal, traveled to Glasgow, Scotland, to view tributes left to the queen and to meet with representatives of organizations of which the queen was patron.
Anne traveled with her mother’s coffin earlier this week on its journey from Balmoral Castle in Scotland, where the queen died, to London.
Prince Edward, the queen’s youngest child, and his wife Sophie, the Countess of Wessex, spent time Thursday in Manchester, England, where they viewed tributes left at St. Ann’s Square and met with community members.
Members of the royal family and invited guests will gather on Monday for a final goodbye to the queen.
Her state funeral is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. local time Monday at Westminster Abbey, making the queen the first sovereign to have a funeral there since 1760.
(NEW YORK) — Tropical Storm Fiona is taking aim on the Caribbean and is set to bring heavy rain and possible flash flooding and mudslides to Puerto Rico this weekend.
Puerto Rico will see the first impacts from Fiona early Saturday morning. By Saturday afternoon and evening, the heavy rain will move in as the core of the storm churns just south of the island.
The heavy rain will continue into Sunday morning with the threat of flash flooding and mudslides lingering.
Most of the island could see 3 to 6 inches of rain, but the mountains could see 6 to 10 inches.
