(NEW YORK) — Two people are being treated for gunshot wounds following a shooting at Heritage High School in Newport News, Virginia, according to police. Their injuries are not considered life-threatening.
Students at the high school were evacuated and sent to the tennis courts, according to the Newport News Police Department.
Police said at 11:30 a.m., they responded to a shooting call at the school. “Four, maybe five” students were sent to area hospitals. Of those, two were being treated for gunshot wounds.
The two gunshot victims are 17 years old. One male was shot in the face and a female was shot in the lower leg, police said at a press conference Monday afternoon.
Another student is being treated after falling during the chaotic scene, while another was transported for breathing issues related to asthma, police said.
No suspect is in custody, police said.
Police said they are going through footage and evidence recovered from the scene as they hunt for the suspect. Police officers said they don’t believe the suspect is a threat to other members of the community and it seems there was some type of altercation that led to the shooting, but they’re still investigating.
An official with the FBI Field Office in Norfolk, Virginia, tells ABC News they are aware and providing assistance to local authorities. The ATF said it is also assisting.
Police have not publicly released the name of the suspect or victims.
(NEW YORK) — Nearly 90 new companies — including multinational corporate giant Procter & Gamble, tech behemoth HP and cloud-computing titan Salesforce — have signed onto the Climate Pledge, an Amazon-backed initiative that asks firms to commit to achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2040.
Organizers of the Climate Pledge announced Monday a total of 86 new signatories, bringing the total number of companies involved to 201. The new commitments come as the United Nations General Assembly kicks off in New York City, with climate change talks expected to take center stage among the high-profile meeting of world leaders.
It also comes in the wake of a recent report from a U.N. panel — that U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres called a “code red for humanity” — warning of dire environmental consequences if immediate action is not taken to cut back greenhouse gas emissions.
ASOS, Nespresso and Selfridges are among some of the other household names who joined the pledge Monday. Altogether, pledge signatories employ more than 7 million employees across 26 industries in 21 countries.
“I believe that now, more than ever, companies like Amazon have an obligation to lead the fight for our planet,” Andy Jassy, Amazon’s CEO, said in a statement Monday.
“But, solving this challenge cannot be accomplished by one company; it requires all of us to act together, and it’s one of the reasons we’re so excited to announce that more than 200 businesses have joined us in signing The Climate Pledge — a commitment to reach the goals of the Paris Agreement 10 years early,” Jassy added.
David S. Taylor, Procter & Gamble’s CEO and president, echoed Jassy’s sentiments in a separate statement, saying that addressing climate change effectively, “requires collaboration across industries and credible science-based actions.”
“P&G has made significant progress over the past decade and we know we must do more,” Taylor added. “The task ahead is urgent, difficult, and much bigger than any single company can solve alone. P&G is proud to join The Climate Pledge as we work together to preserve our shared home for generations to come.”
If all of the firms followed through on their promise, they would collectively mitigate some 1.98 billion metric tons of carbon emissions by 2040, according to an estimate from initiative organizers, or 5.4% of the current global annual emissions.
The firms have committed to measuring and reporting their greenhouse gas emissions on a regular basis, implement decarbonization strategies in line with the Paris Agreement’s goalposts, and neutralize any remaining emissions with additional and quantifiable offsets.
A report issued last month by a U.N. panel that warned that the impacts of human-caused climate change are severe and widespread — and that while there is still a chance to limit that warming, some impacts will continue to be felt for centuries.
The report from the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change called for “immediate, rapid and large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions” in order to limit future warming to 2 degrees Celsius over pre-industrial levels, as is the goal of the Paris Agreement by 2050. The report also warned that unless greenhouse gas emissions are drastically reduced, the world will exceed 1.5 degrees of warming in the next 20 years.
When calling the report a “code red,” U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres added that, “The alarm bells are deafening, and the evidence is irrefutable: greenhouse‑gas emissions from fossil-fuel burning and deforestation are choking our planet and putting billions of people at immediate risk.”
Jeff Bezos, Amazon’s then-CEO, announced the Climate Pledge and the company’s plan to commit to net-zero carbon emissions by 2040 — a decade ahead of the international Paris Agreement — in 2019. At the time, Bezos said that if Amazon “can meet the Paris Agreement 10 years early, then any company can.”
Christiana Figueres, the U.N.’s former climate chief and now founding partner of Global Optimism — the advocacy group spearheading the Climate Pledge with Amazon — said in a statement Monday that the IPCC report is the starkest warning yet that “the window of time to act decisively is narrowing.”
“This wake-up call from science must be faced with courage and conviction,” she added. “In this light, it’s encouraging that 86 more companies — some of the largest household names in the world — are now joining The Climate Pledge, committing to accelerate their actions to tackle climate change in a timely fashion, and playing their part in building a low-carbon economy.”
The private sector has faced immense pressure from consumers and even shareholders in recent years to address climate change. “Industry” accounted for a whopping 23% of greenhouse gas emissions in 2019, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, behind only transportation (29%) and electricity production (25%) — data some advocates say highlights the need for large-scale industry changes vs. putting the onus to tackle climate change solely on individuals.
(NEW YORK) — One Arizona woman is on a mission to educate others about influential Latin women — by using her TikTok.
Fernanda Cortes, 23, immigrated to Phoenix with her family from Guadalajara, Mexico, when she was in elementary school. Growing up, to connect her to her culture, Cortes said her family made sure to teach her about influential Latinas.
“I think it wasn’t necessarily them trying to teach me history, but they’re just trying to teach me about these cultural icons that touched so many people in my culture,” Cortes said.
Like many 20-somethings, Cortes downloaded TikTok during the pandemic and began to get ideas for videos she could make. While millions of others were learning the latest dance crazes, she decided to make it a space where she could teach others about Latinas who changed the course of history.
“I just decided to start talking about these women that inspired me,” Cortes said. “I felt like they weren’t being recognized or acknowledged. … I wanted to put their names out there, their stories out there and hopefully connect with someone and have another young Latina find someone that they can see themselves in.”
Cortes began a series on her account called “Bad a— Latinas in History.” In every video Cortes highlights a different Latina and shares how she helped change the world. She began her series honoring Mexican film actress María Félix and has now highlighted nearly 100 influential Latina woman through her videos.
“I’ve talked about Rita Moreno, how she was the first Latina to win an Oscar, or Sylvia Mendez who and her and her mom helped end segregation in California, which set a precedent to end segregation in the entire country,” Cortes said. “I felt like their stories were so important. … So I wanted to put them out there and hopefully connect with someone who had never heard about them before.”
(NEW YORK) — Former President Trump’s top military adviser was “not going rogue” when he held secret phone calls with his Chinese counterpart before and after the 2020 election, Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Robert Costa said on “Good Morning America” Monday.
“He was not going rogue,” Costa told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos in an exclusive interview. “He was reading people in throughout the national security community, trying to contain a situation and a president he believed was in serious mental decline.”
According to their new book “Peril,” which chronicles the end of the Trump administration, Army Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called Chinese Gen. Li Zuocheng in October 2020 and January 2021 to dispel Chinese fears that Trump was planning a secret attack and to assure him the U.S. was not on the verge of collapse after the Capitol riot.
“If we’re going to attack, I’m going to call you ahead of time. It’s not going to be a surprise,” Milley said on the October call, according to the book.
While Trump and Republicans accused Milley of treason and called on President Joe Biden to fire him amid reports of his phone calls, Costa told Stephanopoulos that Milley was “reading people in” on his conversations, suggesting that their reporting in the book was being misconstrued.
Even though the calls “were held on a top secret back channel, they were not secret,” Costa said. “This was not someone who was working in isolation.”
Added Woodward: “Two days after the insurrection at the Capitol was a moment of maximum tension.”
Speaking to The Associated Press last week in Greece, Milley said the calls were “routine” and done “to reassure both allies and adversaries in this case in order to ensure strategic stability.”
He said he was prepared to defend his actions in testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee next week.
The new book, which goes on sale Sep. 21, also details how former Vice President Mike Pence grappled with his duties to certify the election results on Jan. 6, as Trump repeatedly pressured him to overturn Biden’s victory.
Pence consulted the Senate parliamentarian and former Vice President Dan Quayle on how to approach his ceremonial role presiding over the electoral vote count.
“You don’t know the position I’m in,” Pence told Quayle.
“I do know the position you’re in,” Quayle replied, according to the book. “I also know what the law is. You listen to the parliamentarian. That’s all you do. You have no power.”
Pence, who is eyeing a 2024 White House bid, was “trying to ride both horses,” Woodward said. He was trying to “do his constitutional duty but also keep the avenues to Trump open,” Woodward added.
Woodward and Costa conducted more than 200 deep background interviews with witnesses or firsthand participants in events described in the book.
(NEW YORK) — The White House on Monday announced a new international air travel system starting in early November, requiring all foreign nationals traveling to the United States to be fully vaccinated and show proof of vaccination before boarding a U.S. bound plane — ending the separation of some families since March 2020.
The new system, along with the vaccine requirement, would include stepped up testing, contact tracing and masking, officials said.
For fully vaccinated international travelers, the 14-day quarantine would go away. The specific vaccines that qualify a traveler as “fully vaccinated” will be determined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to Jeff Zients, the White House coronavirus response coordinator.
”This new system allows us to implement strict protocols to prevent the spread of COVID from passengers flying internationally into the United States or requiring adult foreign nationals traveling to the United States to be fully vaccinated. It’s based on public health. It requires fully vaccinated individuals. And so this is based on individuals rather than a country-based approach, so is a strong system,” Zients said.
The announcement came as President Joe Biden prepared to head to the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Monday and a day before he was to meet at the White House with U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
(NEW YORK) — As millions of children across the country remain unvaccinated against COVID-19 due to their age, new data shows the Pfizer and BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine is safe and effective for children ages 5 to 11, according to the two companies.
“In participants 5 to 11 years of age, the vaccine was safe, well-tolerated and showed robust neutralizing antibody responses,” the companies said in a news release, sharing the results of a trial that involved more than 2,200 kids ages 5 to 11.
Pfizer and BioNTech also confirmed they plan to soon submit a request for emergency use authorization with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
The FDA approved the Pfizer vaccine for people ages 16 and older in August. It is currently authorized for emergency use in children ages 12 to 15.
The news from Pfizer and BioNTech about their vaccine comes as the U.S. faces a COVID-19 surge as the more contagious delta variant spreads and vaccination rates remain low for some age groups.
The surge is also happening as students are back in school and many remain unvaccinated, leading to a spike in pediatric cases.
More than 1.2 million children have tested positive for COVID-19 since they returned to classrooms in late July, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association.
The two other vaccines currently available in the U.S., Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, are currently available only for people 18 years and older.
Here are 10 questions answered about the COVID-19 vaccines and kids as families seek to make the best decisions.
1. What is the science behind the COVID-19 vaccine?
Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines use mRNA technology, which does not enter the nucleus of the cells and doesn’t alter human DNA. Instead, it sends a genetic “instruction manual” that prompts cells to create proteins that look like the outside of the virus — a way for the body to learn and develop defenses against future infection.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine uses an inactivated adenovirus vector, Ad26, that cannot replicate. The Ad26 vector carries a piece of DNA with instructions to make the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein that triggers an immune response.
This same type of vaccine has been authorized for Ebola, and has been studied extensively for other illnesses — and for how it affects women who are pregnant or breastfeeding.
Neither of these vaccine platforms can cause COVID-19.
2. What is the status of vaccine eligibility for kids?
In general, federal and industry officials said they expect the first vaccine shots for children ages 5-11 could happen by the end of this year or early 2022. Timing on a vaccine for children younger than 5 is less certain, but officials have said they hope a greenlight for toddlers and infants will follow soon after.
NIH Director Dr. Francis Collins told “Good Morning America” in August that he expects kids ages 5 to 11 will get access to the vaccine in “late 2021.”
Pfizer said it plans to submit its authorization request for 5 to 11-year-olds to the FDA “with urgency.”
Moderna filed for emergency use authorization with the FDA for its vaccine in adolescents in June but is still awaiting a decision. The company said it will submit vaccine safety data on 5- to 11-year-olds this fall.
Pfizer and BioNTech said results from two other ongoing trials — one of children ages 2 to 5 and one of children 6 months to 2 years old — are expected as soon as later this year.
3. Why do kids need to be vaccinated against COVID-19?
While there have not been as many deaths from COVID-19 among children as adults, particularly adults in high-risk categories, kids can still get the virus and just as importantly, they can transmit the virus to adults.
“There are really two big reasons why kids need to get the vaccine,” explained Dr. Jennifer Ashton, ABC News chief medical correspondent.
“One of them is that it is possible that they could be infected and then unknowingly pass COVID-19 to someone with a serious or underlying, pre-existing medical condition,” she said. “And also, though it’s very uncommon and unlikely, it is still possible that children infected with COVID-19 could become seriously ill or worse. We have seen that.”
“It’s important to think in ripple effects, outside the box,” Ashton added. “It’s not just your home environment that you need to worry about.”
4. Will kids experience the same vaccine side effects as adults?
In announcing its trial results, Pfizer and BioNTech said the vaccine was “well-tolerated” in kids ages 5 to 11.
Adolescents experienced a similar range of side effects to the vaccine as seen in older teens and young adults — generally seen as cold-like symptoms in the two to three days after the second dose — and had an “excellent safety profile,” Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, said in August.
Moderna has said its COVID-19 study with teens ages 12 to under 18 identified no “significant safety concerns.” The most common side effects from the vaccine were injection site pain, headache, fatigue, muscle pain and chills, according to the company.
The FDA will scrutinize Moderna’s clinical data before authorizing the use in anyone under 18.
5. Have there been vaccine complications reported for teens and young adults?
There have been more than 300 confirmed cases of heart inflammation in teens and young adults who have received COVID-19 vaccines, but the nation’s leading health experts say the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines remain safe for use.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said on “Good Morning America” in June the benefits of the vaccine for young people “overwhelmingly outweigh the risk,” echoing the findings of researchers at a CDC advisory committee meeting in June on vaccines.
The rare instances of heart inflammation occurred about 12.6 times out of every million second dose administered and were mostly among younger males about a week after the second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, according to researchers at the CDC advisory committee.
6. How effective are the vaccines in children?
Pfizer announced in late March that its clinical trials showed the vaccine was safe and 100% effective in children ages 12-15, similar to the 95% efficacy among adult clinical trial participants.
Marks confirmed on May 10 that after a trial with over 2,000 children, Pfizer found no cases of infection among the children who had been given the vaccine and 16 cases of infection among the children who received a placebo.
No cases of COVID occurred in the 1,005 adolescents that received the vaccine, while there were 16 cases of COVID among the 978 kids who received the placebo, “thus indicating the vaccine was 100% effective in preventing COVID-19 In this trial,” said Marks.
Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine is 100% effective in children ages 12 to under 18, the company said last month, in announcing results of their latest clinical trials.
In addition to its efficacy, the vaccine showed “no significant safety concerns” in the trial of more than 3,700 adolescent participants, according to Moderna.
7. Will kids get the same dose of the vaccines as adults?
Children ages 5 to 11 in the Pfizer and BioNTech trial still received two doses of the vaccine, but received a lesser dose than the amount given to people ages 12 and older, for the “safety, tolerability and immunogenicity” of younger children, according to the companies.
For 12- to 15-year-olds, the FDA has authorized the same dosing as adults with the Pfizer two-dose vaccine.
8. Could COVID-19 vaccines impact puberty, menstruation?
There is currently no clinical evidence to suggest the vaccines can have long-term effects on puberty or fertility, according to Ashton, a practicing, board-certified OBGYN.
Ashton noted that while there has been anecdotal discussion of the emotional event of finally receiving the vaccine temporarily impacting menstruation for adult women, the idea of the cause being from the vaccine itself “defies science and biology.”
It is really important to understand basic biology here,” Ashton said. “Women can have changes in their menstrual cycle and also have gotten the vaccine, that does not mean that one caused the other.”
“Right now there is no puberty concern. There is no fertility concern,” she added.
9. Will the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine be available for kids?
Johnson & Johnson announced in April that it had begun vaccinating a “small number of adolescents aged 16-17 years” in a Phase 2a clinical trial.
As of April, the trial was enrolling participants only in Spain and the United Kingdom, with plans to expand enrollment to the U.S., the Netherlands and Canada, followed by Brazil and Argentina.
10. Will COVID-19 vaccines be required by schools?
It is up to each state’s government to decide whether a COVID-19 vaccine is required for school entry. Many colleges and universities in the U.S. are already requiring students to be vaccinated from COVID-19.
ABC News’ Sasha Pezenik, Anne Flaherty, Eric Strauss, Cheyenne Haslett and Jade A. Cobern, MD, a member of the ABC News Medical Unit, contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — A massive search is continuing in southern Florida for Brian Laundrie, the boyfriend of Gabby Petito, the 22-year-old woman who went missing on a cross-country trip and who authorities say is “consistent with the description” of a body discovered on Sunday in the Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming.
The search for the 23-year-old Laundrie is centered around North Port, Florida, where investigators said Laundrie returned to his home on Sept. 1 without Petito but driving her 2012 Ford Transit.
Laundrie has been named by police as a “person of interest” in Petito’s disappearance. Laundrie has refused to speak to the police and has not been seen since Tuesday, Sept. 14, according to law enforcement officials.
The search for Laundrie is the latest twist in the case that has grabbed national attention as he and Petito had been traveling across the country since June, documenting the trip on social media.
Petito’s parents, who live in Long Island, New York, reported her missing on Sept. 11 after not hearing from her for two weeks.
Sep 20, 10:33 am
Search of vast Florida swamp preserve ‘exhausted’: Police
The North Port, Florida, Police Department said on Monday that a search for Laundrie in the vast Carlton Reserve near North Port has been “exhausted.”
Josh Taylor, a spokesperson for the North Port Police Department, told ABC News that the two-day search of the nearly 25,000-acre swampland preserve turned up no sign of Laundrie.
Taylor said search dogs did not pick up the sent of Laundrie while searching the preserve, which authorities described as alligator infested.
“At this time, we currently believe we have exhausted all avenues in searching of the grounds there,” Taylor said in a statement. “Law enforcement agencies continue to search for Brian Laundrie.”
(WASHINGTON) — Russian President Vladimir Putin complained to President Joe Biden about calling him a “killer” in an ABC News interview, according to a new book.
“I’m upset you called me a killer,” Putin said to Biden on an April 13 phone call, Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa wrote in their new book, Peril.
Biden told Putin his comment, made in a March 16 interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, was “not something premeditated,” according to the book.
“I was asked a question. I gave an answer. It was an interview on a totally different topic,” Biden said, before he invited Putin to meet with him in person.
Stephanopoulos interviewed Woodward and Costa Monday on Good Morning America, in their first interview about the book’s contents.
The book, obtained by ABC News ahead of its Sept. 21 release, recounts the 2020 presidential election and the chaos of the final months of the Trump administration — before and after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot — based on more than 200 interviews with firsthand witnesses and participants.
Peril also chronicles the first several months of Biden’s presidency, detailing his administration’s efforts to respond to the coronavirus pandemic, early efforts to work with Congress and internal deliberations over the American withdrawal from Afghanistan.
This includes how Biden has apparently adjusted to life in the White House, which he reportedly called “the tomb” and likened to the Waldorf Astoria hotel.
“It was lonely. Cold. The virus made social events impossible, at least at the start,” Woodward and Costa wrote, adding that Biden preferred “relaxing with the grandkids back in Delaware.”
“Being upstairs at the White House feels like you’re staying at someone else’s house,” White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain is quoted as telling others, according to the book.
The book also describes how Biden and his aides reportedly refer to Trump in private: The president and his advisers “hated to utter Trump’s name,” and aides avoided using “the ‘T’ word,” the authors claim.
“Trump’s existence permeated the White House, even the residence. One night, Biden wandered into a room where a huge video screen covered the wall. To relax, Trump used to upload programs to virtually play the world’s most famous golf courses,” they wrote. “‘What a f—— a——,’ Biden once said as he surveyed the former president’s toys.”
Biden’s aides “noticed he could be prickly and tough at times and would walk into the Oval Office unhappy some mornings about another round of Trump talk on MSNBC’s pundit roundtable, ‘Morning Joe’,” Woodward and Costa wrote in the book.
Woodward and Costa claimed Biden’s aides worked to keep him away from “unscripted events or long interviews” to avoid gaffes, a “cocooning of the president” known as “the wall,” they wrote.
On Afghanistan, Biden eventually overruled Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in his decision to withdraw U.S. troops, after both secretaries suggested a phased pullout to try to encourage a political settlement with the Taliban, according to “Peril.”
“Our mission is to stop Afghanistan from being a base for attacking the homeland and US allies by al Qaeda or other terrorist groups, not to deliver a death blow to the Taliban,” Biden said in a National Security Council meeting, according to the book.
Biden “said he did not know what would come next. The outcome was unclear, he acknowledged,” they claimed in the book.
(LONDON) — After spending more than a year behind bars and standing trial, the man who inspired the acclaimed 2004 film Hotel Rwanda was found guilty of terrorism-related charges on Monday.
Former hotelier Paul Rusesabagina, 67, was tried in Rwanda’s high court alongside 20 other defendants on a number of charges, including forming an illegal armed group, murder, abduction and armed robbery as an act of terrorism. While reading the verdict before the Kigali courtroom, Judge Beatrice Mukamurenzi said evidence shows that Rusesabagina and the co-accused were part of a terrorist group and committed acts of terrorism, “which they later bragged about in different announcements and videos.”
“They attacked people in their homes, or even in their cars on the road traveling,” Mukamurenzi added.
So far, Rusesabagina has been convicted of forming an illegal armed group, being a member of a terrorist group and financing a terrorist group. The three-judge panel was still reading out the verdict on the other charges.
The charges that Rusesabagina faces stem from his leadership of an exiled opposition coalition called the Rwandan Movement for Democratic Change, known by its French acronym MRCD. In 2018, there were a series of deadly attacks on villages in southern Rwanda, near the country’s border with Burundi, and Rwandan authorities inculpated the National Liberation Front, or FLN, which is the armed wing of the MRCD. In a video statement released later that year, Rusesabagina pledged his “unreserved support” for the FLN, declared Kagame’s government to be “the enemy of the Rwandan people” and called for “any means possible to bring about change.”
Rusesabagina has acknowledged that the MRCD had an armed wing but denied his involvement and has maintained his innocence on all charges. The 20 other defendants in the trial were accused of being FLN organizers and fighters.
Rusesabagina’s family and attorneys have condemned the closely watched trial as a “sham” and said they were expecting a conviction.
“We are happy that the charade of the trial is ending,” the Rusesabagina family told ABC News in a statement ahead of the verdict. “We have told the world over and over that there is no fair trial process in Rwanda, and the past months have shown that. There is no independent judiciary, and there will be no justice for our father. All we can do now is make this clear to everyone — a dictator will be jailing a humanitarian.”
A decision in the high-profile case was expected a month ago but was postponed, with no reason given for the delay. Rusesabagina, who has been boycotting the court proceedings since March claiming he was not getting a fair trial, did not physically attend Monday’s session, according to his family and lawyers.
Rusesabagina, a married father of six, was the manager of the Hotel des Mille Collines in Kigali during the Rwandan genocide of 1994, when divisions between the East African nation’s two main ethnic groups came to a head. The Rwandan government, controlled by extremist members of the Hutu ethnic majority, launched a systemic campaign with its allied Hutu militias to wipe out the Tutsi ethnic minority, slaughtering more than 800,000 people over the course of 100 days, mostly Tutsis and the moderate Hutus who tried to protect them, according to estimates from the United Nations.
More than 1,200 people took shelter in the Hotel des Mille Collines during what is often described as the darkest chapter of Rwanda’s history. Rusesabagina, who is of both Hutu and Tutsi descent, said he used his job and connections with the Hutu elite to protect the hotel’s guests from massacre. The events were later immortalized in “Hotel Rwanda,” with American actor Don Cheadle’s portrayal of Rusesabagina earning an Academy Award nomination for best actor in 2005.
After the movie’s release, Rusesabagina rose to fame and was lauded as a hero. He also became a prominent and outspoken critic of Rwandan President Paul Kagame, who has been in office for the last two decades. Some genocide survivors who stayed at the Hotel des Mille Collines have since accused Rusesabagina of exaggerating his role in saving them or even profiting from it.
Rusesabagina, who fled Rwanda with his family in 1996 and is now a Belgian citizen and permanent U.S. resident, traveled to Dubai on Aug. 27, 2020, to meet up with a Burundi-born pastor who Rusesabagina alleges had invited him to speak at churches in Burundi about his experience during the Rwandan genocide. Later that night, the pair hopped on a private jet that Rusesabagina believed would take them to Burundi’s capital, according to Rusesabagina’s international legal team.
Rusesabagina did not know that the pastor was working as an informant for the Rwanda Investigation Bureau (RIB) and had tricked him into boarding a chartered flight to Kigali.
Rwandan prosecutors allege that Rusesabagina wanted to go to Burundi to coordinate with rebel groups based there and in the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Rusesabagina’s whereabouts were unknown for several days until Rwandan authorities paraded him in handcuffs during a press conference at the RIB’s headquarters in Kigali on Aug. 31, 2020. Rusesabagina alleges he was bound and blindfolded by RIB agents who took him from the plane to an undisclosed location where he was gagged and tortured before being jailed, according to an affidavit that includes a memorialization of a conversation between Rusesabagina and one of his Rwandan lawyers. The RIB has denied the claims.
Since then, Rusesabagina has been held at a prison in Rwanda’s capital, including more than eight months in solitary confinement, according to his international legal team. The U.N.’s Nelson Mandela Rules state that keeping someone in solitary confinement for more than 15 consecutive days is torture.
Rusesabagina’s family and legal representatives have accused Rwandan authorities of kidnapping him and bringing him to the country illegally. The Rwandan government has admitted to paying for the plane that took Rusesabagina to Kigali, but Kagame said there was no wrongdoing because he was “brought here on the basis of what he believed and wanted to do.”
Rusesabagina’s trial in his home country has captured worldwide attention since it began in February, with his family and attorneys calling on the international community to intervene. They said his privileged documents are routinely confiscated in prison and he has been denied access to his international legal team, including his lead counsel, Kate Gibson, who has previously represented Rwandan accused before the U.N. International Criminal Tribunals for Rwanda.
“Paul Rusesabagina’s inevitable conviction is the end of a script that was written even before he was kidnapped in August 2020,” Gibson told ABC News in a statement ahead of Monday’s verdict. “The only thing that has been surprising in watching this horror show unfold over the last year, has been the brazenness and openness with which the Rwandan authorities have been willing to systematically violate all of the fair trial rights to which Paul was entitled.”
“The Rwandans had every opportunity to showcase their judicial system and put on the fairest of fair trials,” she added. “They did the opposite.”
Rusesabagina’s family and lawyers have also expressed concern about his health and treatment behind bars. They said he is a cancer survivor who suffers from hypertension and cardiovascular disease, and that he has been denied his prescribed medication.
“If the international community does not step in,” the family said, “he will probably be in jail for the rest of his life.”
(NEW YORK) — In the spring of 2020, U.S. airlines started touting electrostatic spraying, more frequent cleaning, and advanced filtration systems onboard in an attempt to convince passengers that flying is safe amid the pandemic.
But as the nation battles new variants of the virus and people consider buying tickets for the holidays — do these measures help prevent the spread of COVID-19?
“The evidence is pretty good with respect to cleaning materials that airlines use for the most part it’s going to kill a lot of the virus, and hopefully all of it,” Dr. Jay Bhatt, an internal medicine physician, an instructor at the University of Illinois School of Public Health and an ABC News contributor, said in an interview with ABC News. “But that still doesn’t take away the issue of being in close proximity to others, as you’re traveling, getting out of planes getting seated, getting up and leaving grabbing your bag. There’s a lot of different exposure risk and possibility there.”
While there are no longer any distancing policies on planes, carriers say the HEPA filtration systems on flights help curb the spread of the virus by making the air quality comparable to that of an operating room.
“Planes are using hyperfiltration and are requiring masking — those are both really good things to help reduce the risk of infection,” Bhatt said.
But the best way to mitigate any potential risk is by getting vaccinated, masking up, and resisting dropping your mask to eat or drink. And not all masks are created equal, Bhatt said.
“The difference between a high-grade quality mask or double masking compared to one blue surgical mask is about 10 to 12% more protective,” Bhatt.
Bhatt said it’s still important to be cautious while traveling over the holidays and recommends getting tested three days before a trip for those who are fully vaccinated.
“There’s higher risk during the holidays because of the amount of people traveling, the in and out of people in colleges and universities, and as well as in school with adolescence and younger kids,” he said. “The other issue is that in many parts of the country, there are folks that think the pandemic is over. And let’s be clear, we are still very much in a pandemic.”
The holiday travel season also comes on the heels of comments made by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, who said he would support a vaccine requirement for air travel.
“I would support that,” Dr. Fauci told The Skimm podcast last week. “If you want to get on a plane and travel with other people … you should be vaccinated.”
Bhatt said a vaccine requirement would decrease the risk of infection while traveling even further.
“It’s certainly something important to think about and given that we’ve seen certain actions be taken around accelerating vaccinations via mandates employer, actions, and even airlines employees are being mandated to be vaccinated,” Bhatt said.
The U.S. Travel Association responded to Fauci’s comments, saying while it supports people getting vaccinated, it has “long maintained that there should be no mandatory vaccination requirement for domestic travel.”
The group said the current federal mask mandate is enough to keep passengers safe — pointing to a study conducted by the Department of Defense in partnership with United Airlines.
The study found that the risk of COVID-19 exposure onboard an aircraft is “virtually non-existent,” and when masks are worn, there is only a 0.003% chance particles from a passenger can enter the breathing space of a passenger sitting beside them.
“My advice is get vaccinated if you’re not, I would say look at the level of community transmission, and think about places you might be able to go and outdoors when you’re traveling, and most importantly, have your mask,” Bhatt said.
