The full-time position is based at Kensington Palace, where William and Kate live with their three young children.
The personal assistant role would provide an up-close look at William and Kate’s lives. The role is responsible for managing the royals’ schedules, arranging meetings, drafting letters and emails and assisting with events and travel, according to the listing.
“Excellent organization and communication skills are essential, as is attention to detail and a willingness to undertake a wide variety of tasks,” the listing reads. “The ability to maintain confidentiality and exercise discretion at all times is essential.”
The job listing does not include a salary for the role.
The personal assistant would join what the listing describes as a “busy team” supporting William and Kate, the future king and queen.
In just the last two days alone, William and Kate have attended a global movie premiere and traveled to Ireland.
The Cambridges walked the red carpet Tuesday night alongside William’s father, Prince Charles, and his wife, Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, at the premiere of the latest James Bond movie, No Time to Die.
The next morning, William and Kate traveled to Northern Ireland.
In their first-ever visit to Derry-Londonderry, the royals met with nursing and medical students at a local university and visited a rugby club that is working to bridge divides among people of different religious backgrounds.
(WASHINGTON) — It’s been nearly one month since the U.S. withdrew all U.S. troops from Afghanistan on President Joe Biden’s order to leave by Aug. 31, ending a chaotic evacuation operation after the Afghan government collapsed and the Taliban seized the capital Kabul.
Top Pentagon leaders are appearing before the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday amid bipartisan criticism of the chaotic withdrawal and on the failure to anticipate the Taliban’s swift takeover of the country.
In their appearance before Congress on Tuesday — their first since the withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Afghanistan — the leaders candidly admitted to the Senate Armed Services Committee that they had recommended to Biden that the U.S. should keep a troop presence there, appearing to contradict his assertions to ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos.
Here are the latest developments. All times Eastern:
Sep 29, 11:21 am
GOP links failed drone strike to ‘over-the-horizon’ capabilities
Rep. Michael Turner, R-Ohio, raising the August U.S. drone strike in Kabul that killed 10 Afghan civilians, including seven children, took direct issue with the U.S. military’s ability to conduct “over the horizon” drone strike capabilities in Afghanistan.
“What we know from your prior statements is that you did not know who it was, who was in the car, whose house it was,” Turner said. “This greatly concerns me as we look to the over horizon claims that the administration has of its ability for counterterrorism.”
Gen. Frank McKenzie, the commander of U.S. Central Command, told House lawmakers he took “full responsibility” for the strike.
“That strike was a mistake and I take full responsibility for that strike. I was under no pressure from any quarter to conduct the strike,” McKenzie said.
“While in many cases we were right with our intelligence and forestalled ISIS- K attacks, in this case we were wrong, tragically wrong,” he added.
“Over-the-horizon” capabilities are a cornerstone of the U.S. military’s counterterrorism strategy in Afghanistan. The top Pentagon commanders said the U.S. will continue to investigate the intelligence that led to the August strike and will be transparent with their findings.
Sep 29, 10:47 am
Milley praises Afghanistan War veterans, defends calls to China
Echoing Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in his opening testimony that lawmakers can debate the decisions surrounding the Afghanistan withdrawal but that the courage of U.S. service members is not up for debate.
“Over the course of four presidents, 12 secretaries of defense, seven chairmen, 10 CENTCOM commanders, 20 commanders in Afghanistan, hundreds of congressional delegation visits, and 20 years of congressional oversight, there are many lessons to be learned,” Milley said.
“One lesson we can never forget: every soldier, sailor, airman and Marine who served there for 20 years, protected our country against attack by terrorists, and for that we all should be forever grateful, and they should be forever proud,” he said.
Milley again took the chance to push back on recent characterizations of phone calls to China’s top military official in the final days of former President Donald Trump’s presidency.
“At no time was I attempting to change or influence the process, usurp authority, or insert myself into the chain of command. But I am expected to give my advice and ensure that the president was fully informed on military affairs,” he said.
Sep 29, 10:18 am
Defense secretary delivers opening testimony for House lawmakers
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, facing a House panel on Wednesday, repeated his opening testimony given to Senate lawmakers at Wednesday’s hearing, in which Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, commander of U.S. Central Command, appeared to contradict Biden by saying they recommended keeping a residual force of 2,500 troops behind in Afghanistan.
Austin again defended leaving Bagram Airfield, saying it would have required at least 5,000 troops and would have “contributed little” to the mission of protecting the embassy in Kabul, which ultimately fell to Taliban control.
“Staying in Baghram even for counterterrorism purposes meant staying at war in Afghanistan, something that the president made clear that he would not do,” Austin said.
He again walked through some “uncomfortable truths” about the two-decade U.S. military mission in Afghanistan, of which he is a veteran.
“We helped build a state, but we could not forge a nation. The fact that the Afghan army that we and our partners trained simply melted away, in many cases without firing a shot, took us all by surprise and it would be dishonest to claim otherwise,” he said.
Sep 29, 10:12 am
Heated House hearing underway with residual force in focus
House Armed Services Chair Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., opened Wednesday’s hearing on Afghanistan with a defense of Biden for ending America’s longest war — and with a preemptive strike on the panel’s Republicans, who he said would spend the day trying to get the military leaders to contradict the commander in chief.
“The option of keeping 2,500 troops in Afghanistan in a peaceful and stable environment did not exist,” Smith said, opening the hearing.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, commander of U.S. Central Command, face a second day of questions from congressional lawmakers on the U.S. military’s chaotic exit from Afghanistan.
Ranking Republican member Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., said he “could not disagree more” with Smith and called Biden “delusional” before the leaders gave their opening testimonies.
Sep 29, 9:22 am
Top military leaders face more questions in House hearing
The nation’s top military leaders are back on Capitol Hill at 9:30 a.m. before the House Armed Services Committee — where Republicans are expected to seize on their comments from Tuesday that they recommended Biden keep a residual force of 2,500 troops in Afghanistan, appearing to contradict the president’s comments to ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos.
Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. Frank McKenzie, the commander of U.S. Central Command, candidly admitted in a Senate hearing on Tuesday — their first appearance before lawmakers since the withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Afghanistan — that they had recommended the U.S. keep a small troop presence there, with Milley openly advising presidents not to assign complete withdrawal dates without conditions.
In the six-hour hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Milley also characterized that the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan as “a strategic failure” and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin acknowledged that it was time to acknowledged some “uncomfortable truths” about the two-decade U.S. military mission there. House lawmakers are expected to follow up on the revelations on Wednesday.
Sep 28, 3:53 pm
1st Senate hearing with top commanders on Afghanistan adjourns
After nearly six hours of testimonies and tough questions, the Senate Armed Services Committee has adjourned its hearing with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, commander of U.S. Central Command — their first since the Afghanistan withdrawal.
Senators sunk into Milley and McKenzie saying they had recommended leaving 2,500 troops behind as a residual force in Afghanistan ahead of the chaotic evacuation effort. Several GOP senators called on the leaders to resign, to which Milley offered a powerful rebuttal.
“It would be an incredible act of political defiance for a commissioned officer to just resign because my advice is not taken,” Milley said. “My dad didn’t get a choice to resign at Iwo Jima.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki, during the hearing, defended Biden’s interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos in which the president said the views of his advisers were “split,” saying, “There was no one who said, ‘Five years from now, we could have 2,500 troops, and that would be sustainable.’”
“That was not a decision the president was going to make,” Psaki added. “Ultimately, it’s up to the commander in chief to make a decision. He made a decision it was time to end a 20-year war.”
It’s been nearly one month since Biden withdrew all U.S. troops, ending a chaotic evacuation operation after the Afghan government collapsed and the Taliban seized the capital Kabul.
(NEW YORK) — With schools back in session again, many parents around the country on edge — dreading the news of a positive coronavirus case in their children’s classes.
Coronavirus outbreaks have led to hundreds temporary school closures across the country, with tens of thousands of students forced to quarantine, just within the first weeks of school year.
With more than 48 million children under the age of 12 still ineligible to be vaccinated, and another 14 million eligible adolescents still unvaccinated, the quarantine process has left many families and educators frustrated at the prospect of another school year spent partially online, disruptions to work schedules and additional childcare expenses.
While many school districts are following guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which recommends that those who are unvaccinated and had close contact with an infected individual quarantine for 14 days, some are adopting a different approach called “Test to Stay.”
Under that protocol, being adopted by school districts from Utah to Massachusetts, asymptomatic students who are identified as close contacts of an infected student or staffer are allowed to remain in school, provided they take a daily rapid test for seven days, and adhere to other mitigations, such as mask wearing. If the student tests negative, they are cleared to be at school for the day.
It’s a protocol that has yet to be endorsed by the CDC, which is awaiting more data, but has the support of some parents, educators and medical experts.
Here’s what we know:
Test to Stay lauded by educators and experts
The new program has been supported by several studies, including recent findings out of the United Kingdom, which suggests that daily contact testing, following exposure at school, is “a safe alternative to home isolation.” According to the study, the rates of infection in school-based contacts were quite low.
The new protocol is currently used statewide in Massachusetts, and at The Park School, in Brookline, where weekly pool tests are administered for students and staff and the Test to Stay program is used when there is a case.
“We’ve actually had a number of cases, as we’ve come back into the school year,” Scott Young, the head of school at Park, told ABC News.
Outside the school building, socially distanced students, who may have been in contact with a COVID-19 positive person at school, are given rapid antigen tests. It takes 15 minutes for the test to register, and if it comes back negative, students are allowed in class.
In Utah, state law mandates that schools initiate Test to Stay when schools with 1,500 or more students have 2% of their students test positive for COVID-19, and when schools with fewer than 1,500 students have 30 students test positive for COVID-19, within a 14-day period.
Earlier this month, one high school in Tooele, Utah was forced to hold a Test to Stay event after a number of students tested positive. District school officials considered the program a “success” after it detected 30 cases among students when the testing session at Tooele High School.
“Last year, we had so many days where we had kids out of classes. And we see that in our data, we had numbers drop this year. A lot of this comes from our governor saying, our focus is education. We really want our students to be in class. We want our teachers teaching,” Marie Denson, a representative for the Tooele County School District told ABC News.
Such daily rapid testing has been shown to be an effective tool in prioritizing in-person learning, while seeking to maintain a safe learning environment, particularly when layered with additional measures, like masking and good ventilation, according to John Brownstein, Ph.D., an epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor.
“While rapid tests aren’t perfect, they do provide a robust measure of viral shedding which is a key measure of concern when trying to limit spread in a school,” Brownstein said. “If the goal is to keep kids in schools while reducing transmission, rapid tests actually may provide more value. And when you add the issue of improved timeliness and reduced costs, the utility of rapid tests becomes even more obvious.”
In addition, the seven consecutive days of testing diminishes the danger stemming from potential false negatives, Brownstein added.
Quarantines are highly disruptive, some say
Jami Wolf-Dolan, a psychologist and parent of two young children currently attending an elementary school in Brooklyn, New York, knows firsthand how incredibly disruptive quarantining can be for the entire family, explaining that she is “beyond slammed, right now,” after her son was abruptly shifted to remote schooling, when a classmate became infected in the first weeks of school.
“I have no childcare, I work from home and I have another kid in Pre-K. The impact of this reverberates,” she said.
Across the country, with pediatric coronavirus cases surging, thousands of children are being forced back into quarantine.
While over 21,000 K-12 students have tested positive since the onset of the school year in South Carolina, another 86,000 had to quarantine because of close contact with an infected individual, according to state data. And in Texas, more than 183,000 students have tested positive for the virus, since the onset of the academic year, impacting tens of thousands of other families.
Removing COVID-19 negative students from in-person learning for prolonged periods of time can affect a student’s educational, social and mental well-being, according to educational experts.
“The optimal place for students to learn is in school, because they are social beings, and that human connection is one of the things that is at the foundation, one of the most important components of effective instruction,” said Young. “When students are remote, they lose out on that human connection, on the opportunity to collaborate, the opportunity to work with their teacher closely, for the teacher to really be able to observe them closely.”
Lydia Alvarez, another parent in Brookyln, New York, concurred, explaining that her 7-year old son was forced to quarantine after attending school for only four days. The quarantine was an unwelcome reminder of last year, when remote learning forced her to quit her job to help her son with school.
“He absorbed nothing,” Alvarez told ABC News in regard to the last school year. “The greatest negative impact of homeschooling was a real resistance to learning. There was no joy associated with learning. I feel now that each time he gets yanked out for five days, that joy of learning gets kind of receded.”
“The best way for families to be supported is for them to know that their children can be in school,” Young said.
Mixed support among officials, but parents applaud the efforts to keep kids in school
Dr. Lee Savio Beers, the president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, has expressed her support for the “Test to Stay” approach.
“I think that it can be a really effective strategy to help make sure children are in school as much as possible. Again it has to be in the context of other important strategies, including vaccination and at least for right now masking, but testing can really help us keep our kids in school,” Beers said, testifying before Congress for a House at a subcommittee hearing on pediatric COVID, earlier this month.
The CDC, on the other hand, is not yet on-board with the Test to Stay protocol, awaiting more evidence before endorsing it.
“At this time, CDC does not recommend or endorse a Test to Stay program. CDC recommends all identified close contacts in the K–12 setting follow current quarantine guidance,” the CDC wrote in a statement to ABC News. “However, to gather more information, CDC is working with multiple jurisdictions who have chosen to use these approaches of more frequent testing to allow close contacts to remain in the classroom.”
But for many parents, the Test to Stay program is an effective way for children to experience the critical continuity and regularity of in-person school.
“The reaction of the community has been incredibly positive,” said Young. Parents, he said, “feel both a sense of safety, which is important, and they really do value the fact that their children can be in school, knowing that it is the best place for them.”
(NEW YORK) — The backup of container ships off the coast of major ports of entry has greatly slowed the nation’s supply chain, prompting new possible workarounds ahead of the busy holiday retail season.
Many shipping companies and retailers have struggled recently with the massive backlog of goods and soon consumers could bear the brunt of higher prices.
The onslaught of manufacturing and cargo disruptions has threatened shipping delays and epic shortages for in-demand products and retail experts have urged consumers to start holiday shopping now.
“We’re witnessing a pandemic-induced buying surge by the American consumer, the likes of which we’ve never seen,” Gene Seroka, executive director of the Port of Los Angeles, told Good Morning America.
The downward spiral first started when COVID-19-induced shutdowns in Asia drove shipping and production delays. That created shortages in shipping containers and was compounded by limited warehouse space, trucking issues and labor shortages.
“There are shortages across a number of industries, perhaps nowhere more acutely so than in front-line workers such as port workers and truck drivers,” Aaron Terrazas, convy director of economic research, explained to GMA.
Now large retailers like Costco, Walmart and Home Depot have started to take matters into their own hands by renting out their own shipping containers and looking for different ports of entry.
More container freights that would typically enter through Long Beach are being redirected to Oakland, Vancouver, Savannah or Houston, in order to circumvent the delays.
While it could take upwards of a month to continue to untangle the global mess, port officials in Long Beach said they have extended operating hours, including working weekends.
And experts reiterated a now resounding message to start shopping the holiday season early.
(KABUL, Afghanistan) — Over one month into Taliban control of Afghanistan, fears for women’s and girl’s rights and education have only grown — fueled further Tuesday by a top Taliban official’s comments that “women will not be allowed to come to universities or work.”
The tweets from the Taliban-appointed chancellor of Kabul University set off a fresh firestorm, prompting a clarification and a complaint about media coverage, before the outspoken chancellor deleted his Twitter account.
It’s a strange episode that says as much about the Taliban’s acute awareness of international perceptions as it does about what the future of Taliban rule holds for half of Afghanistan’s nearly 40 million people — its women and girls.
While the U.S. and other Western countries have called on the Taliban to respect women’s and girls’ rights, especially access to education, the Taliban have already taken steps to restrict them, including announcing earlier this month that certain subjects may be off limits and female students would be barred from studying with males. That could mean they’ll be excluded entirely, given the limited resources at Afghanistan’s schools and universities.
Already, the militant group has named an all-male cabinet and prohibited women from returning to work, saying there were security concerns that temporarily prevented it. A handful of women-led protests against Taliban rules have faced violent crackdowns in Kabul and other cities.
When the Taliban controlled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, they largely barred women and girls from public life without a male relative and excluded them from schools and universities entirely.
Kabul University chancellor Mohammad Ashraf Ghairat suggested a return to that policy Tuesday, tweeting, “As long as a real Islamic environment is not provided for all, women will not be allowed to come to universities or work. Islam first.”
After media outlets reported on his comments, he issued a second tweet, criticizing the New York Times in particular for what he called a “bad misunderstanding” of his comments.
“I haven’t said that we will never allow women to attend universities or go to work, I meant that until we create an Islamic environment, women will have to stay at home. We work hard to create safe Islamic environment soon,” wrote the 34-year old, who was named to his role earlier this month.
Hours later, his Twitter account was deleted entirely.
Zabihullah Mujahid, the Taliban’s chief spokesperson, spun Ghairat’s statement, seemingly keen to ease Western concerns about women’s education, even without denying it was true.
“It might be his own personal view,” Mujahid told the New York Times, according to the paper, which added that he would not give assurances about when the ban on women would be lifted. He only said the militant group was working on a “safer transportation system and an environment where female students are protected.”
Asked about Ghairat’s comments, a State Department spokesperson told ABC News, “Any government should demonstrate respect for and inclusion of women and girls, in all their diversity, including supporting their education. Equal access to higher education on the basis of merit for all individuals is one of the principles codified in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”
But it’s unclear what steps the U.S. or other government would be willing to take to ensure that equal access. The spokesperson didn’t address that issue, saying instead in their statement the U.S. “will continue to support Afghan women and girls.”
The Taliban is already under heavy international sanctions, and the former Afghan government’s U.S. assets, worth billions of dollars, remain frozen by the U.S., while the World Bank and International Monetary Fund suspended funding.
There’s growing pressure from Taliban leaders as well as some Afghan civilians to release those funds as the country’s economy teeters on collapse and millions are desperate for international aid.
During the U.S. mission in Afghanistan, there were enormous gains for women and girls, especially in education. The female literacy rate nearly doubled in a decade to 30% in 2018, according to a UNESCO report this year, and the number of girls in school went from nearly zero in 2001 to 2.5 million in 2018, making up nearly half of all primary students.
(WASHINGTON) — While the concept of the debt ceiling might seem “in the weeds,” it actually poses a very real threat to millions of Americans in a precarious economic period.
If lawmakers on Capitol Hill remain deadlocked on raising the debt ceiling, the government could go into default — essentially, unable to pay bills. That would directly impact the wallets of millions of Americans, including those who invest in the stock market and those who benefit from government programs such as Social Security and Medicaid.
“It would be disastrous for the American economy, for global financial markets, and for millions of families and workers whose financial security would be jeopardized by delayed payments,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned lawmakers in a hearing Tuesday.
Raising the debt ceiling, she said, is “necessary to avert a catastrophic event for our economy.”
But if you’ve ever wondered what exactly the debt ceiling is, you’re not alone. Here’s what it is and some of the real-world impacts it can have.
What is the debt ceiling?
The debt ceiling is a cap on the amount of money the U.S. government can borrow to pay its debts.
Every year, Congress passes a budget that includes government spending on infrastructure, programs such as Social Security and salaries for federal workers. Congress also taxes people to pay for all that spending. But for years, the government has been spending more than it takes in from taxes and other revenue, increasing the federal deficit.
The government needs to borrow money to continue paying out what Congress has already OK’d. The debt ceiling puts a limit on how much money the U.S. government can borrow to pay its bills.
Why should I care about this?
If the government cannot borrow money to continue paying for programs, there will be real-world effects for millions of Americans.
Here are some of those potential effects, according to Yellen, the White House and the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, a nonpartisan organization.
15 million seniors could stop receiving Social Security payments, or see delays.
30 million families could stop receiving President Joe Biden’s expanded Child Tax Credit payments, or see delays.
U.S. military servicemembers could stop receiving paychecks.
Veterans’ benefits could stop or be delayed.
Postal workers and federal employees could stop receiving paychecks.
The United States’ credit worthiness could be downgraded, spiking interest rates, which would raise mortgage, car and credit card payments.
Doubt in the typically reliable U.S. currency could tank the markets, hurting 401ks and other investments. (The S&P 500 lost 17% in the months surrounding the last debt ceiling standoff.)
FEMA funding for hurricane and wildfire victims could stop.
Public health funding for pandemic mitigation efforts could be cut off.
Child nutrition program and other food assistance could stop.
Moody’s Analytics has estimated that even a long impasse over the debt ceiling could cause the loss of nearly 6 million jobs, increase the unemployment rate to 9% (from 5.2% now) and cause the stock market to lose about a third of its value, wiping out $15 trillion in household wealth.
Would this be worse than a government shutdown?
Yes. This is an even bigger deal than a government shutdown. A government shutdown occurs when Congress does not approve a new spending bill for the next fiscal year, so new payments, such as paychecks, are stopped. In 2019, around 800,000 federal employees were impacted by a government shutdown, and markets dipped.
But the United States has never defaulted on its credit. This would be uncharted territory. The suspension of basically all previously approved government programs, and the ensuing economic shocks, would be unprecedented.
“Many more parties are not paid in a default,” the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget said. “Without enough money to pay its bills, any of the payments are at risk, including all government spending, mandatory payments, interest on our debt and payments to U.S. bondholders. While a government shutdown would be disruptive, a government default could be disastrous.”
Since the debt ceiling system was instituted in 1917, Congress has never not raised the debt ceiling. Congress has voted 80 times to raise or suspend the debt limit since 1960.
Why are we hitting the debt ceiling?
Technically, we already hit the debt ceiling on Aug. 1. But at that time, the Treasury Department started taking so-called “extraordinary measures” to continue to pay the government’s bills. Basically, there is some accounting and investing sleight of hand going on. But one day, the department will run out of tricks and out of cash. Yellen pegged that date as Oct. 18 in a letter to lawmakers Tuesday.
Right now, the federal debt is at $28.43 trillion, according to the Peter G. Peterson Foundation’s tracker. The current debt ceiling is actually $28.4 trillion — underscoring the pressure Yellen is under to continue paying the bills through “extraordinary measures.”
Does raising the debt ceiling allow the government to spend more?
Nope. Here’s how Yellen put it during a Tuesday hearing on Capitol Hill: “It has nothing to do with future programs of payments, it’s entirely about paying bills that have already been incurred by this Congress, in previous Congresses, and it’s about making good on past commitments — as you said, paying our credit card bill.”
Democrats, who are depending on Republican help to raise the debt ceiling, are frequently reiterating the point that raising the debt ceiling does not authorize new government spending. It only allows the government to borrow money to pay for spending that previous politicians have already OK’d, including former President Donald Trump and then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.
But the standoff over the debt ceiling is coming as lawmakers, in an extremely polarized environment, debate passing one of the largest government spending packages in history, Biden’s $3.5 trillion Build Back Better agenda.
The debate about government spending is leading to the politicization of raising the debt ceiling, and the negotiations have become completely intertwined. Republicans insist that if Democrats want to pass such a major spending bill through special budget rules that would require no Republican support, they can raise the debt ceiling on their own, too.
Why do we even have a debt ceiling?
One hundred years ago, Congress used to have to OK every instance of borrowing money — a major inconvenience.
So, in 1917, Congress passed a debt ceiling, which would allow the Treasury Department to borrow money for any approved spending without getting permission from Congress, up to a certain limit. The limit exists to ensure the “power of the purse,” or the ability to determine government spending, stays with the legislative branch, instead of shifting to the Treasury Department.
(NEW YORK) — As President Joe Biden faces a critical moment for his agenda, Americans’ confidence in his handling of a range of issues is eroding, a new ABC News/Ipsos poll finds.
Compared to an August ABC News/Ipsos poll, public approval of how Biden is handling key issues — the pandemic, immigration and the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border, gun violence and even rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure, the issue he’s pushing this week — is on the decline. Dissatisfaction among Republicans and independents is fueling the decline, but the president’s ratings are also hampered by more lackluster approval among members of his own party than presidents typically enjoy.
The poll, which was conducted Sept. 24-28 using Ipsos’ KnowledgePanel, comes roughly a month after the most difficult stretch of his presidency thus far — the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan. Thirteen U.S. service members were killed in a terrorist attack at Kabul’s Hamid Karzai International Airport during that drawdown, and for the first time since taking office, FiveThirtyEight’s tracker averaging presidential approval polls showed more Americans disapproved than approved of the job Biden was doing as president.
His overall approval rating now, measured by FiveThirtyEight’s average at 49% disapprove and 45% approve, has worsened since late August, and that sentiment is reflected in the issue-specific approvals measured in this most recent ABC News/Ipsos poll.
Biden’s performance on the coronavirus remains his strongest issue, with nearly six in 10 (57%) Americans still approving of how he is handling it. Still, compared to the ABC News/Ipsos poll in the field Aug. 27-28, Biden’s approval on this issue is down seven points overall and among independents, and down 14 points among Republicans. It’s also down 15 points from his late March record high on COVID-19 job performance in ABC News/Ipsos polling.
Although some Americans are now eligible for a third shot of the vaccine, following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendation of boosters for certain populations, vaccinating the unvaccinated remains a central challenge for Biden as his administration works to end the pandemic.
Children under 12 are not currently eligible for vaccines, but that’s likely to change soon. After submitting data on vaccine trials for 5- to 11-year-olds on Tuesday, Pfizer expects to formally request emergency use authorization from the FDA to vaccinate this population.
But this poll, which was weighted to reflect the CDC’s adult vaccination rate, highlights how persuading vaccine-hesitant parents to have their children inoculated will be an additional obstacle for the Biden administration.
A majority (56%) of parents with children under 12 say they are likely to have their child get the coronavirus vaccine when it is available for them. Still, over four in 10 (43%) say they are not likely to.
Even among parents who are vaccinated with at least one shot, approximately two in 10 (21%) say they are not likely to get their child vaccinated when they are eligible. Nearly all (89%) unvaccinated parents say they are not likely to have their child get the coronavirus vaccine when eligible.
About half of parents who have at most a high school degree or who attended some college, 49% and 48% respectively, say they are likely to get their child vaccinated when it’s available to their age group. Among parents with a bachelor’s degree or higher, seven in 10 say they are likely to have their child get the vaccine when possible.
Parents who are Democrats are most likely to be vaccinated with at least one dose themselves (86%) compared to parents who are independents (65%) and parents who are Republicans (55%). For parents who are Democrats and independents, 78% and 61% respectively say they are likely to get their child vaccinated once eligible. However, though a majority of parents who are Republicans are vaccinated, fewer than four in 10 (38%) say they will have their child get the vaccine when it’s available to their age group.
The economic recovery from the pandemic also continues to be a challenge for the president. About equal shares of the public approve and disapprove of his handling of the economic recovery, 51% to 48%. The percentage of Americans disapproving of Biden on the economy increased seven points since late August.
Besides the pandemic, enacting a bill to rebuild the nation’s infrastructure is the most pressing priority for Biden this week, as it will be brought up for a vote on the House floor Thursday. By an 11-point margin, Americans approve of Biden’s handling of this issue, 55% to 44%, but disapproval has increased by nine points since late August. Among Republicans and independents, approval dropped 10 and nine points, respectively.
Black and Hispanic Americans overwhelmingly support the president’s handling of the United States’ infrastructure, with 71% and 70% respectively approving, while a majority of white Americans (54%) disapprove.
In politics today, partisans usually are more unified in their support of or opposition to particular issues or people, but that is not the case for Biden on multiple issues. The vast majority of Democrats back the president on his handling of COVID-19 (91%), rebuilding U.S. infrastructure (87%) and the economic recovery (84%), but support among members of his party drops for his handling of Afghanistan (69%), gun violence (65%) and the immigration situation at the southern border (60%).
Without overwhelming support from his party, Biden’s approval among U.S. adults overall falls below 40% on all three of those issues — 38% on gun violence, 38% on Afghanistan and 33% on immigration and the situation at the border.
The humanitarian crisis at the southern border was thrust into the spotlight over the last two weeks after a surge of migrants, mostly from Haiti, were sheltering under a bridge in Del Rio, Texas, hoping to claim asylum and remain in the United States. That migrant camp was cleared as of Friday, but more than 17,400 remained in the U.S., according to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
While the secretary said Friday that about 12,400 of those migrants will have an opportunity to have their asylum cases heard before an immigration judge and about 5,000 were still being processed, thousands did not have that chance before being flown directly back to Haiti or returning on their own to Mexico. The administration has employed a controversial policy using a public health rationale to immediately expel unauthorized migrants at the border.
Most Americans (58%) believe the United States should allow migrants seeking asylum at the border to stay until their cases are heard while four in 10 believe they should be deported back to their native countries immediately, the ABC News/Ipsos poll found.
By party, a majority of Democrats (83%) and independents (57%) believe migrants seeking asylum should be allowed to remain in the United States while their cases are heard, but about seven in 10 (72%) Republicans believe they should be deported immediately.
Across racial groups, most Americans think these migrants should be allowed to stay until their asylum cases are heard, but white Americans (52%) are less likely to feel this way than Hispanic (66%) and Black (78%) Americans.
METHODOLOGY – This ABC News/Ipsos poll was conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs‘ KnowledgePanel® September 24-28, 2021, in English and Spanish, among a random national sample of 1,101 adults, including an oversample of 537 parents with children under the age of 12. The overall results have a margin of sampling error of 3.7 points, including the design effect. Results among parents have a margin of sampling error of 4.7 points, including the design effect. Partisan divisions are 31-24-36 percent, Democrats-Republicans-independents. See the poll’s topline results and details on the methodology here.
(NEW YORK) — The United States has been facing a COVID-19 surge as the more contagious delta variant continues to spread.
More than 690,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 while over 4.7 million people have died from the disease worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Just 64.8% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the CDC.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Sep 28, 7:29 pm
FDA approval for kids’ vaccinations could take longer: Source
The Food and Drug Administration’s approval for the Pfizer vaccine for children between 5 and 11 years old could begin in November, possibly before Thanksgiving, a federal official with knowledge of the agency’s process told ABC News.
This prediction comes after Dr. Anthony Fauci said Tuesday kids will likely start getting vaccinated by late October.
Another official told ABC News that Pfizer has yet to complete its full submission, and that the FDA is not going to be rushed on this.
Pfizer submitted it initial data on younger children to the FDA earlier Tuesday.
The FDA already has scientists reviewing that initial data submitted by Pfizer, according to the official.
-ABC News’ Anne Flaherty and Eric Strauss
Sep 28, 5:07 pm
Forecasters expect US pandemic to continue to improve
The COVID-19 Forecast Hub’s ensemble forecast, used by the CDC, predicts that U.S. hospitalizations will continue to fall — perhaps to as low as 4,600 per day — by Oct. 11.
Forecasters say around 1,600 fewer people are likely to die over the next two weeks than during the past two weeks. In the two weeks ending Sept. 25, at least 27,755 people died from COVID-19 in the U.S. Over the next two weeks ending Oct. 19, just over 26,000 deaths are expected.
-ABC News’ Brian Hartman
Sep 28, 4:33 pm
Pfizer CEO says timeline on shots for kids up to FDA
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told The Atlantic Tuesday that the timeline on shots for children ages 5 to 11 is up to the FDA.
“I think it’s not appropriate for me to comment how long FDA will take to review the data. They should take as much time as they think it’s appropriate for them to have high levels of comfort,” Bourla said.
“If approved, we will be ready to have the vaccine available,” he added.
Vaccines may be authorized and available for 5- to 11-year-olds in October or November.
Bourla said he thinks once kids get vaccinated, the U.S. will get a “strong push” toward herd immunity.
Bourla said he thinks booster protection from Pfizer vaccines will likely last one year.
-ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett
Sep 28, 3:46 pm
More data on mixing/matching vaccines is coming within weeks, Fauci says
At Tuesday’s White House briefing, Dr. Anthony Fauci gave a loose timeline for when the FDA could have enough data to consider approving mixing and matching vaccines.
Moderna has already submitted data about using its shot as a booster for people who have received the Pfizer or Johnson & Johnson vaccines. J&J will submit data on mixing its shot with the other vaccines in the next week, according to Fauci, and then Pfizer will submit its data within the first two weeks of October. Finally, the data will be examined by the FDA.
-ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett
Sep 28, 3:43 pm
More data on mixing/matching vaccines is coming within weeks, Fauci says
At Tuesday’s White House briefing, Dr. Anthony Fauci gave a loose timeline for when the FDA could have enough data to consider approving mixing and matching vaccines.
Moderna has already submitted data about using its shot as a booster for people who have received the Pfizer or Johnson & Johnson vaccines. J&J will submit data on mixing its shot with the other vaccines in the next week, according to Fauci, and then Pfizer will submit its data within the first two weeks of October. Finally, the data will be examined by the FDA.
-ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett
Sep 28, 2:37 pm
Over 400K Americans got booster shot at pharmacies this weekend: White House
Over 400,000 Americans received a booster shot at a pharmacy since Friday and nearly 1 million more have scheduled appointments in the next few weeks, according to the White House.
The U.S. is expected to hit a milestone of 200 million Americans with at least one shot on Wednesday, White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients said.
The White House also touted another important milestone: racial equity in vaccinations nationwide.
According to a new Kaiser Family Foundation poll, 73% of Latinos and 70% of Black Americans have now gotten at least one shot, compared to 71% of white Americans. In May, this same poll found that 65% of white Americans were vaccinated compared to 56% of Black Americans.
-ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett
Sep 28, 2:09 pm
US hospitalizations drop
At the beginning of the month, there were more than 104,000 patients hospitalized with COVID-19. As of Tuesday, there were 81,000 patients hospitalized — a drop of about 23,000 patients, according to federal data.
Nearly 50% of those patients — 11,000 — are from Florida, where cases and hospitalizations have been plummeting since mid-August.
In recent weeks, however, 16 states have reported higher hospital admission metrics, according to federal data: Colorado, Delaware, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and West Virginia.
Five states — Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky and Texas — have ICU capacities of 10% or less, according to federal data.
Alaska has the country’s highest case rate, followed by West Virginia, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, North Dakota and Kentucky.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Sep 28, 1:21 pm
Vaccine mandates work, NYC mayor says
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said there’s been a 45% increase in the daily vaccination rate since vaccine mandates were launched in July.
All city-run and private hospitals appear to be operating normally after health workers faced a midnight deadline to get vaccinated or risk losing their jobs. About 500 nurses for NYC Health + Hospitals are not at work.
NYC Health + Hospitals now has a 91% vaccination rate, up from 90% on Monday. City officials said about 5,000 employees were unvaccinated in the hospital system, down from more than 8,000 a week ago.
Northwell, New York state’s largest private hospital system, said it fired about two dozen “unvaccinated leaders,” management level or above, for not getting vaccinated.
“We are now beginning the process to exit the rest of our unvaccinated staff,” Northwell said in a statement.
-ABC News’ Aaron Katersky
Sep 28, 1:00 pm
3rd Pfizer dose has similar side effects to 2nd dose: Preliminary CDC data
A new preliminary CDC report of 306 people who received a third Pfizer dose found that side effects were similar to the second dose.
The most common side effects are fatigue, headache and a sore arm. These symptoms usually last one or two days.
The CDC will continue monitoring third doses for any potential new side effects or safety issues but says so far no “unexpected” patterns have been identified.
-ABC News’ Sony Salzman
Sep 28, 8:55 am
Pfizer submits initial child vaccine data to FDA
Pfizer on Tuesday submitted data for the Phase 2/3 vaccine trial for 5- to 11-year-olds to the FDA.
Pfizer will make a formal request for authorization in the coming weeks.
The FDA will review the data and make a decision, possibly by the end of October. The timeline for authorization is not set in stone.
A three-judge panel from the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has dissolved a temporary injunction that halted New York City’s vaccine mandate for school staff.
The panel offered no explanation and cleared the way for the city to enforcement the public school vaccine mandate.
“Vaccinations are our strongest tool in the fight against COVID-19 – this ruling is on the right side of the law and will protect our students and staff,” New York City’s Department of Education said in a statement.
As of Monday night, 87% of DOE employees, including 91% of teachers and 97% of principals, have at least one shot, according to the DOE.
Mayor Bill de Blasio said public school employees will have until the end of day Friday to get at least one dose of vaccine.
Michael Mulgrew, the president of the United Federation of Teachers, released a statement Monday night saying, “We will be working with our members to ensure, as far as possible, that our schools can open safely as the vaccine mandate is enforced.”
Sep 27, 7:02 pm
First lady Jill Biden receives booster shot
First lady Jill Biden received her COVID-19 booster shot Monday, according to Michael LaRosa, her spokesman.
The shot was administered at the White House in the afternoon, LaRosa told ABC News.
Sep 27, 6:10 pm
Judge rules Arizona ban on school mask mandate unconstitutional
An Arizona judge ruled Monday that the state’s ban on mask mandates in schools is unconstitutional.
Judge Katherine Cooper sided with the Arizona School Boards Association, which contended that the Arizona State Legislature’s law to ban school districts from issuing a mask mandate violates the state constitution’s title requirement and single subject rule.
The association argued that the legislature included policy regarding 30 subjects into one bill.
“The single subject rule precludes legislators from combining unrelated provisions into one bill to garner votes for disfavored measures. Together, these requirements promote transparency and the public’s access to information about legislative action,” the judge wrote in her decision.
The law was slated to go into effect on Sept. 29.
The state has until Nov. 1 to file an objection or response to the ruling.
Kent Nishimura / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — In their first appearance before Congress since the withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Afghanistan, the nation’s top military leaders candidly admitted to lawmakers that they had recommended to President Joe Biden that the U.S. should keep a troop presence there, appearing to contradict his assertions.
The testimony by Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. Frank McKenzie, the commander of U.S. Central Command, was at odds with Biden’s comments earlier this year to ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos that his military commanders did not recommend keeping a residual force.
The revelations came during at a six-hour hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee where Milley also characterized that the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan had been “a strategic failure” and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin acknowledged that it was time to acknowledged some “uncomfortable truths” about the two decade U.S. military mission in Afghanistan.
Here are some key takeaways:
Military commanders wanted to keep at least 2,500 troops in Afghanistan
While Milley and McKenzie said they would not disclose the content of private conversations with Biden, both generals offered their personal opinions that they said matched their recommendations.
“My assessment was back in the fall of ’20 and remained consistent throughout that we should keep a steady state of 2,500, could bounce up to 3,500,” Milley told Republican Sen. Tom Cotton of Arkansas.
“I recommended that we maintain 2,500 troops in Afghanistan, and I also recommended early in the fall of 2020 that we maintain 4,500 at that time, those were my personal views,” McKenzie said.
The generals’ statements were at odds with what Biden had told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos in an interview on Aug. 18.
“No one told — your military advisers did not tell you, “No, we should just keep 2,500 troops. It’s been a stable situation for the last several years. We can do that. We can continue to do that?,” Stephanopoulos asked Biden.
“No,” said Biden. “No one said that to me, that I can recall.”
Biden also said his military advisers were “split” on the matter.
McKenzie said he had also warned that the withdrawal of U.S. troops “would lead inevitably to the collapse of the Afghan government and the Afghan military.”
“I also had a view that the withdrawal of those forces would lead inevitably to the collapse of the Afghan military forces and eventually the Afghan government,” he said.
‘A strategic failure’
Austin and Milley told senators that the sudden collapse of the Afghan government, as well as the U.S. military’s mission in Afghanistan over the past two decades, should be examined to learn what may have gone wrong.
Milley became the first U.S. military leader to describe the American military mission in Afghanistan as “a strategic failure” that had developed over time.
“Outcomes in a war like this, an outcome that is a strategic failure — the enemy is in charge in Kabul, there’s no way else to describe that — that is a cumulative effect of 20 years,” Milley said.
The general speculated that the U.S. had trained an Afghan Army that “mirrored” the American military without taking into account local and cultural traditions and allowed it to becoe too dependent on American technology.
“We helped build a state, but we could not forge a nation,” said Austin. “The fact that the Afghan army, we and our partners trained, simply melted away – in many cases without firing a shot – took us all by surprise. It would be dishonest to claim otherwise.”
“We need to consider some uncomfortable truths,” he added. “That we did not fully comprehend the depth of corruption and poor leadership in their senior ranks, that we did not grasp the damaging effect of frequent and unexplained rotations by President Ghani of his commanders, that we did not anticipate the snowball effect caused by the deals that Taliban commanders struck with local leaders in the wake of the Doha agreement, that the Doha agreement itself had a demoralizing effect on Afghan soldiers, and that we failed to fully grasp that there was only so much for which – and for whom – many of the Afghan forces would fight. We provided the Afghan military with equipment and aircraft and the skills to use them.”
“Over the years, they often fought bravely,” said Austin. “Tens of thousands of Afghan soldiers and police officers died. But in the end, we couldn’t provide them with the will to win. At least not all of them.”
US intelligence did not predict the Taliban’s swift takeover, the generals said
The three leaders expressed surprise at how Afghan forces had quickly fallen apart leading to a Taliban takeover of the country in 11 days.
“I did not foresee it to be days. I thought it could take months,” said McKenzie, who added that he had anticipated that the Afghan military would be able to hold out against the Taliban until later this year and possibly into early next year.
“We certainly did not plan against a collapse of the government in 11 days,” Austin said.
“There’s no intel assessment that says the government is going to collapse and the military is going to collapse in 11 days that I’m aware of. And I’ve read I think all of them,” said Milley, who later described the failure to predict the scope and scale of the Taliban takeover as “a swing and a miss.”
Revelations in ‘the book’
In his opening statement, Milley explained how his two phone calls to his counterpart in China, first described in the book “Peril” by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Robert Costa, were authorized by then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper. Milley also said that the Trump national security team was fully briefed on the calls that were intended to reassure China that then-President Donald Trump was not planning a military attack.
“I know, I am certain, that President Trump did not intend to attack the Chinese, and it is my directed responsibility and it was my directed responsibility by the secretary, to convey that intent to the Chinese,” Milley said. “My task at that time was to de-escalate my message again was consistent, stay calm, steady and de-escalate. We are not going to attack you.”
He pushed back on another story in the book that, in a phone call with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi after the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, he agreed with her assessment that Trump was “crazy.”
“I’m not qualified to evaluate the mental fitness or the health of a former president, present president or anybody else or anybody in this room,” Milley said. “That’s not my job. That’s not what I do. And that’s not what I did.”
Several Republican senators took Milley to task for giving access to reporters and authors.
“I think what you did with making time to talk to these authors, burnishing your image, kind of building that bluster, but then not putting the focus on Afghanistan and what was happening there,” said Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. “General Milley, this is disappointing to me. I know it’s disappointing to people that have served with you or under you, under your command. It does not serve our nation.”
“You’re doing these interviews and doing them in 2021. Makes me wonder the books, were you a little distracted about what was going on in Afghanistan?” said GOP Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri who then demanded that Austin and Milley should resign.
(NEW YORK) — The parents and stepparents of slain travel blogger Gabby Petito not only asked on Tuesday for the public to help authorities locate Brian Laundrie, who has been named a person of interest in their daughter’s homicide, but also assist in helping other families find their missing loved ones.
“I want to ask people to help all of the people that are missing and need help,” Petito’s father, Joe Petito, said during a news conference at the office of the family’s lawyer in Long Island, New York. “It’s on all of you, everyone in this room, to do that and if you don’t do that for other people who are missing, that’s a shame because it’s not just Gabby that deserves that.”
Joe Petito joined his wife, Tara Petito, Gabby’s mother, Nicole Schmidt, her husband, Jim Schmidt, at the news conference in showing tattoos they each got Monday night to honor their daughter.
The parents each had the words “Let it Be” tattooed on their right forearms like one their daughter had. They also had tattoos on their left arms of flowers and the word “Believe” they said their daughter designed.
“I wanted to have her with me all the time,” Nicole Schmidt said of why she got the tattoos. “I feel that this helps that.”
Nicole Schmidt said she has been deeply moved by letters and messages her family received from people worldwide, touched by her daughter’s zeal for life and travel, and heartbroken by her death.
“I just hope that people are inspired by her,” the mother said. “It’s hard to put into words, but it means a lot to me that she’s touched so many. I’m so proud for her and we’re going to keep that light going and help a lot of people if we can.”
Rich Stafford, a lawyer for the family, said the parents have complete faith in the FBI to achieve justice for their daughter. However, he said the FBI has asked the family to refrain from speaking publicly about Laundrie and their relationship with his family.
“Justice for Gabby is that we see justice for her homicide,” Stafford said.
He also had a message for Laundrie if he was listening.
“Brian, we’re asking you to turn yourself into the FBI or the nearest law enforcement agency,” Stafford said.
Stafford declined to answer questions concerning Laundrie’s parents. Law enforcement officials have said they were uncooperative in their search for Petito after her family reported her missing on Sept. 11.
“The Laundries did not help us find Gabby. They are sure not going to help us find Brian,” Stafford said.
The Laundrie family issued a statement Monday evening through their attorney reiterating they do not know of their son’s whereabouts.
“They are concerned about Brian and hope the FBI can locate him,” the statement reads.
In response to a question from ABC News on whether the parents are bothered that the FBI has yet to name Laundrie as a suspect in their daughter’s death, Stafford would only say, “The parents are 100% happy with the FBI. They’ve been with us at every single step of the way.”
Jim Schmidt said the family has yet to bring their daughter’s remains back to New York from Wyoming, where they were recovered on Sept. 19 in the Bridger-Teton National Forest. He said the FBI and law enforcement agencies working on the homicide investigation in Wyoming asked the family if they could hold on to their daughter’s remains.
“We want to make sure that no matter what, we do not impede their investigation in any way,” Schmidt said. “We wanted her home immediately but we understand their position and we know that she’s safe with them.”
On Sunday, hundreds of friends, family, and strangers, some from as far away as California and Florida, attended a funeral for the 22-year-old woman near the Long Island town where she was raised.
The parents also spoke of the Gabby Petito Foundation they have established to assist other families going through the turmoil of having a loved one missing.
“We can’t let her name be taken in vain. We need positive stuff,” said Joe Petito. “Anything we can do to bring that up and help people, that’s what we want.”
