(NEW YORK) — You can now wear Facebook on your face – kind of.
The Ray Ban “Stories” are the result of a collaboration between the famous sunglasses company and social media giant Facebook. The new shades have tiny, forward-facing cameras that can take photos and videos, as well as speakers built into the arms that allow wearers to listen to music, podcasts – and even take phone calls – without the need for headphones.
Facebook isn’t the first to show off smart glasses. Google Glass was met with enthusiasm – and derision – in the early 2010s. Snap, meanwhile, is on it’s fourth generation of Spectacles, which are currently being tested by developers and select Snapchat creators. Engadget Senior Editor Karissa Bell says, while the design of those devices stands out – Facebook is taking a subtler approach.
“What makes these a little different is obviously Facebook partnered with Ray Ban, so they look and feel like Ray Bans, which, you know, are very popular sunglasses. So that’s probably a good thing for Facebook,” says Bell.
What’s more, Google Glass and the latest generation of Snap Spectacles make use of augmented reality technology – projecting information onto the inside of the glasses’ lenses. Ray Ban Stories are limited to snapping pictures or capturing 30-second videos through dual 5-megapixel cameras. Users can review what they’ve recorded through the accompanying smartphone app, “View.” Naturally, the app can also post that content to Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
Ray Ban Stories start at $299 – but Bell says Facebook has aspirations beyond simply selling units.
“They’re more concerned with trying to get this out there, trying to encourage adoption, get[ting] people excited about this technology and where it’s going more than they are about actually just trying to make money off the hardware itself,” says Bell.
Facebook could have a tough road ahead of it. The familiar Ray Ban design allows the shades to more easily blend in with conventional sunglasses – a potential privacy concern when recording devices are involved.
“Being able to take photos out in public in this kind of new format – it looks like sunglasses, it doesn’t look like a camera to people – I think that just kind of on it’s own raises some privacy issues,” says Bell.
Facebook, for it’s part, has integrated some security features into the Ray Ban Stories, such as a small white light that illuminates when the cameras are activated. Additionally, the company says all photos and videos are encrypted. But the glasses do collect some data on wearers, though only to “make your glasses work and function,” according to a blog post from the company. That data could include users’ Facebook login information, battery status, and WiFi connectivity.
(NORTH KOREA) — North Korea hosted its 73rd anniversary parade late Wednesday going into early Thursday morning, with a display of soldiers in bright orange hazmat suits and gas masks marching in Pyongyang, according to the Korea Central News Agency, the nation’s state media.
Along with top officials, a thinner Kim Jong Un appeared in the square, where he “extended warm greetings” and waved back to the crowds, KCNA reported. Parachutists came down from the sky, there was a fireworks display and tractors hauled artillery behind soldiers, the news agency reported, though photos depict only fire trucks and tractors.
But the image of a strong, healthy regime painted by the country’s state media is the opposite of what the parade truly showcased, according to Gordon Chang, author of “Nuclear Showdown: North Korea Takes on the World.” The parade indicated a much less ambitious North Korea, Chang said, one that has been decimated by the coronavirus pandemic despite zero cases reported by the country.
“All those guys in the red hazmat suits, which were really striking, that wasn’t directed to us, that was directed to the North Korean people basically saying that the regime has this well in hand because it obviously doesn’t,” he said.
The pandemic and international sanctions have damaged the economy and caused widespread famine. In July, South Korea’s central bank released its 2020 economic estimates for its northern neighbor, finding that North Korea’s economy shrunk by 4.5% last year — the largest decrease in at least 10 years, according to the report.
Photos of Kim at the parade also showed that his weight loss has continued since he began slimming down this summer.
Martyn Williams, a researcher at 38 North, which provides analysis about the country, tweeted that “It’s striking how much healthier Kim is looking in these photos from yesterday. However he is doing it — and there are theories — he looks a lot better than he did a few months ago.”
Chang also speculated as to why Kim had lost weight.
“I think he’s either realized it doesn’t look good from a public relations point of view to be overly heavy, or he’s just dealing with a personal health problem,” he said.
Aside from the apocalyptic looking hazmat suits, the parade lacked North Korea’s signature missiles, which are routinely used to boast the regime’s military might.
This was the nation’s first military parade since President Joe Biden took office. North Korea has been very quiet on the international scene in recent months — which is very uncharacteristic, according to Chang.
“They have been very, very quiet for a long time which means we should start to worry about what’s going on because something is not right,” he said.
(AFGHANISTAN) — For girls and young women accustomed to mountain climbing and physical fitness training six times a week, being confined in a crowded wedding hall near an airport in northern Afghanistan is a different kind of challenge — one with their fates at stake.
It’s the new reality for dozens of them affiliated with Ascend, an organization that teaches Afghan women and girls athletic-based leadership skills. They came to the airport in Mazar-e-Sharif 10 days ago for evacuation flights the Taliban have blocked, heightening their fears they’ll be left behind.
“We’re trying to remind them we haven’t forgotten you. The world hasn’t forgotten you,” Marina LeGree, founder and executive director of Ascend told ABC News. “But some of them are losing hope.”
While the first passenger flight out of Kabul since the Taliban seized power took off on Thursday, carrying some U.S. citizens and other Westerners on board, life-and-death concerns loom for at-risk Afghans still in the country, especially for women like those of Ascend who have exercised independence in the last 20 years, free from Taliban rule.
Founded in 2014, Ascend is a U.S.-based nonprofit operating in Afghanistan that recruits a new group of Afghan girls and young women aged 15-24 each year to embark on a two-year mountaineering program. The recruits — who have trained in Ghaza Stadium, used by the last Taliban government for public punishment — have a mission of fostering leadership, volunteerism, and physical and mental well-being for the next generation.
But if the group in Mazar-e-Sharif is left behind, LaGree fears they’ll be married off to Taliban fighters — or worse.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden will announce on Thursday that federal government employees and contractors will now be required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration will create a rule for private businesses with 100 or more employees to require their employees to be vaccinated or undergo weekly testing, according to senior administration officials.
Biden will lay out his new six-part strategy to combat the delta variant in remarks at 5 p.m. ET.
A senior administration official estimated that this new OSHA requirement will cover about 80 million workers and businesses that do not comply with the agency’s rule can face substantial fees — up to $14,000. OSHA will require these employers to offer paid time off for vaccination.
As part of his effort to vaccinate the federal executive branch, the Department of Defense, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Indian Health Service and the National Institutes of Health will complete implementation of their previously announced vaccination requirements that cover 2.5 million people, a source familiar with the plans said.
This is an escalation of the president’s action in July calling for federal workers to attest to their vaccination status and submit to mitigation efforts if they are not vaccinated, such as mask usage and regular testing.
The president is also expected to announce that the Transportation Security Administration and interstate travel mask mandate will be extended through Jan. 18, the fine for noncompliance will double and health care facilities that receive Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement must require their employees to be vaccinated. This will cover about 17 million health care workers across the country.
“In total, the new vaccination requirements in the president’s plan cover about 100 million workers, that’s two thirds of all workers in the United States,” a senior administration official said on a briefing call with reporters Thursday afternoon.
Speaking at her daily briefing Wednesday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Biden would “outline the next phase in the fight against the virus and what that looks like, including measures to work with the public and private sector.”
She said he would be “building on the steps that we’ve already announced, the steps we’ve taken over the last few months, requiring more vaccinations, boosting important testing measures and more, making it safer for kids to go to school, all at a time when the American people are listening. Again, this will be six steps that we’ll work to be implementing over the months ahead.”
According to a White House official, the president’s plan will include six areas of focus: vaccinating the unvaccinated; furthering protection for the vaccinated; keeping schools safely open; increasing testing and requiring masking; protecting the economy’s recovery; and improving care for those with COVID-19.
Psaki confirmed there will be new components as part of the president’s announcement but wouldn’t go much beyond general comments about testing access, mandates and making sure kids are protected from the highly transmissible virus as they return to school and Americans return from summer vacations.
She said plans were still being finalized as Biden met with with his COVID-19 response team Wednesday afternoon.
“Will any of those new steps influence the average American’s day-to-day life? Should we expect any new mitigation recommendations, as an example?” a reporter asked.
“It depends on if you’re vaccinated or not,” Psaki replied, but gave no further details.
She highlighted efforts the administration already has taken to try and get the delta variant under control.
“We’ve been at war with the delta variant over the course of the last couple of months. And just to remind you of some of the steps that we have announced, we have announced new government mandates on DOD, our military forces, NIH, other — the VA, the Veterans Affairs — Department of Veterans Affairs, folks who are serving on the front lines on the health — on health — in health roles in that department. We’ve also incentivized additional mandates, whether it is in home — in health care facilities, nursing homes, and others,” Psaki said.
“And we’ve also lifted up and — and incentivized private sector — private sector mandates, because we’ve seen that they have been effective. We’ve also deployed over 700 surge response teams across the country and work closely, again, with the private sector to institute more requirements on vaccinations,” she continued.
“We have more work to do, and we are still at war with the virus and with the delta variant,” she added. “So, we’re going to build on that work. And he’s speaking to it now, because this issue, of course, is on front of mind, top of mind to Americans across the country. People are returning to schools. Workplaces are either reopening, some brick and mortar, or some people are just returning to work after spending some time with family or loved ones over the summer.”
But besides ordering the nation’s 2.1 million federal employees and 1.3 million active duty service members get vaccinated, Biden has limited legal authority to institute a broad vaccine mandate for most Americans.
About 75% of the adult U.S. population has received at least one vaccine dose and 64.4% of the adult U.S. population is fully vaccinated as of Wednesday, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
On Tuesday, Psaki did seem to suggest that Biden will call on the private sector to institute more vaccine mandates. Major corporations such as Facebook, Google and Citigroup have already announced vaccination requirements.
“I will note that we’ve seen that there are a range of ways that we have increased vaccinations across the country, or vaccinations have increased, I should say. One of them is private sector companies mandating in different capacities that their employees get vaccinated. Or certain school districts mandate,” Psaki said.
Biden previewed some of what he planned to say when he spoke about the August jobs numbers, which were much lower than predicted.
“There’s no question the delta variant is why today’s jobs report isn’t stronger. I know people were looking, and I was hoping, for a higher number. But next week, I’ll lay out the next steps that are going to — we’re going to need to combat the delta variant, to address some of those fears and concerns,” Biden said Friday.
A recent ABC News/Washington Post poll showed Americans in August souring on Biden’s handling of the pandemic, with his approval rating for his handling or the response dropping 10 points from June, down to 52%
Biden’s remarks are scheduled for just 11 days before the administration is set to begin widely rolling out booster shots of Pfizer on Sept. 20, a process mired by confusion as some public health experts say the data doesn’t yet support the need for boosters.
(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department has filed suit against the state of Texas to block its restrictive law against abortions, Attorney General Merrick Garland said on Thursday, setting up a high-stakes legal battle after the Supreme Court allowed the law to go into effect earlier this month.
“That act is clearly unconstitutional under long-standing Supreme Court precedent,” Garland said at a news conference. “Those precedents hold, in the words of Planned Parenthood versus Casey, that ‘regardless of whether exceptions are made for particular circumstances, a state may not prohibit any woman from making the ultimate decision to terminate her pregnancy before viability.'”
He accused Texas Republicans of crafting a “statutory scheme” through the law “to nullify the Constitution of the United States.”
“It does not rely on the state’s executive branch to enforce the law, as is the norm in Texas and everywhere else. Rather, the snatcher deputizes all private citizens without any showing a personal connection or injury to serve as bounty hunters authorized to recover at least $10,000 per claim from individuals who facilitate a woman’s exercise of our constitutional rights,” he said.
As part of its lawsuit, Garland said the DOJ is seeking an immediate court order preventing the enforcement of SB8 in Texas.
Garland also made clear that the department won’t hesitate to take similar legal action against other states who might pursue a similar route to restrict abortions in the state.
“The additional risk here is that other states will follow similar models,” Garland said, and he denied that the decision to file the suit now was in any way based on political pressure from Democrats or the White House.
The lawsuit accuses Texas lawmakers of enacting the law “in open defiance of the Constitution.”
“The United States has the authority and responsibility to ensure that Texas cannot evade its obligations under the Constitution and deprive individuals of their constitutional rights by adopting a statutory scheme designed specifically to evade traditional mechanisms of federal judicial review,” the lawsuit says. “The federal government therefore brings this suit directly against the State of Texas to obtain a declaration that S.B. 8 is invalid, to enjoin its enforcement, and to protect the rights that Texas has violated.”
The suit also alleges that the law conflicts with federal law by intending to prohibit federal agencies from carrying out their responsibilities related to abortion services.
“Because S.B. 8 does not contain an exception for cases of rape or incest, its terms purport to prohibit the federal government and its employees and agents from performing, funding, reimbursing, or facilitating abortions in such cases,” the lawsuit says.
Garland cautioned that the Texas law should concern all Americans, regardless of their politics.
“This kind of scheme to nullify the Constitution of the United States is one that all Americans, whatever their politics or party, should fear. If it prevails, it may become a model for action in other areas by other states and with respect to other constitutional rights and judicial precedents,” he said. “Nor one need think hard or long to realize the damage that would be done to our society if states were allowed to implement laws that empower any private individual to infringe on another’s constitutionally protected rights in this way. The United States has the authority and the responsibility to ensure that no state can deprive individuals of their constitutional rights through a legislative scheme specifically designed to prevent the vindication of those rights.”
The Texas statute, which is the most restrictive abortion law in the country, bars physicians from providing abortions after a fetal heartbeat is detected, or as soon as six weeks into a pregnancy — often before a woman would even know they were pregnant. There is an exception for medical emergencies, but not in cases of rape or incest.
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court formally rejected a request by Texas abortion providers to block the state’s severe new law as legal challenges continue.
The unsigned order from the court said the providers had “raised serious questions regarding the constitutionality of the Texas law at issue,” but added “their application also presents complex and novel antecedent procedural questions” that they were unable to resolve.
The new law has triggered outrage from those who support a women’s right to an abortion nationwide. Companies like Uber and Lyft have offered to pay legal fees for any driver who is sued under the law and dating apps Match and Bumble, both headquartered in Texas, pledged to support women seeking abortions.
On the other side, many state lawmakers have said they intend to copy the wording of the Texas law in order to enact similar bans in their states.
(WASHINGTON) — Former President Donald Trump has endorsed Harriet Hageman, a primary challenger to incumbent Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., ahead of Hageman’s Thursday afternoon announcement that she will run for Cheney’s seat in the House of Representatives.
His endorsement both strikes back at Cheney, who voted for Trump’s impeachment in January and is serving on the Jan. 6 House select commitee, and is another test of how much weight his backing carries in primary races.
“Unlike RINO [Republican in name only] Liz Cheney, Harriet is all in for America First. Harriet has my Complete and Total Endorsement in replacing the Democrats number one provider of sound bites, Liz Cheney. Make America Great Again!” Trump said in a statement on Thursday morning through his Save America political action committee.
Trump also said that Hageman “is strong on Crime and Borders, powerfully supports the Second Amendment, loves our Military and our Vets, and will fight for Election Integrity and Energy Independence.”
POLITICO reported last month that that Trump and Hageman, who ran for governor in 2018, were going to meet to discuss a congressional bid.
Hageman, an attorney and former national committeewoman for Wyoming on the Republican National Committee, supported Cheney in previous campaigns. But in a statement on her campaign website, she said Cheney had lost her support.
“Like many Wyomingites, I supported Liz Cheney when she ran for Congress. But then she betrayed Wyoming, she betrayed this country, and she betrayed me,” Hageman said. “Every time Wyomingites see President Biden fail us and harm the interests of our nation and our state, they have Liz Cheney to thank.”
Cheney fired back at Trump’s endorsement on Twitter, posting a picture of Trump’s statement with “number one provider of sound bites, Liz Cheney” highlighted in yellow.
“Here’s a sound bite for you: Bring it,” Cheney wrote.
“I am honored to represent the people of Wyoming and proud of my strong conservative record,” Cheney said in a statement to ABC News.
“It is tragic that some in this race have sacrificed those principles, and their duty to the people of Wyoming, out of fear and in favor of loyalty to a former president who deliberately misled the American people about the 2020 election, provoked an attack on the U.S. Capitol, and failed to perform his duties as president as the violence ensued.”
The upcoming Republican primary in Wyoming, which only has one congressional district, will pit Cheney against multiple primary challengers.
Wyofile, a Wyoming-based news service, reported on Wednesday that voters in the state have been receiving illegal robocalls asking about Cheney’s primary challengers. The Wyoming Republican Party has said the calls “are not being generated on behalf of any Wyoming Republican state or county party.”
ABC News’ Meg Cunningham and John Parkinson contributed reporting.
(TEXAS) — Just one week after a law took effect in Texas that bans nearly all abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, the state is close to enacting another restriction on abortion.
A bill that would shorten the time in which a pregnant person could have a medication abortion is now on the desk of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican who has defended his state’s new law that bans most abortions, including in cases of incest and rape.
The bill awaiting Abbott’s signature, Senate Bill 4, would limit the time window for physicians to offer abortion-inducing medication to seven weeks of pregnancy instead of 10 weeks of pregnancy. This would mean that if a person misses the six-week window for a procedure-based abortion, they would have one more additional week to have access to medication abortion.
Access to medication abortion — the use of oral medications mifepristone and misoprostol to end a pregnancy — has become a major focus point since Texas’ controversial law went into effect. The law, and the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to not block it amid legal challenges, marked a significant moment in the United States’ history of reproductive rights, experts say.
And now, many experts are keeping their eyes on Texas — a state with a long history of debating abortion rights — to see if its actions encourage other states to impose more restrictions on medication abortion with the goal of limiting abortion access overall.
“Texas looms so large when it comes to abortion rights and access and what we’re really seeing is this coordinated strategy of layering bans and restrictions to very nearly ban abortion,” said Elizabeth Nash, interim associate director of state issues at the Guttmacher institute, a reproductive rights organization. “Medication abortion has been a very high priority in state legislatures in 2021.”
In South Dakota this week, Gov. Kristi Noem, a Republican, issued an executive order directing the state’s Department of Health to establish rules requiring that abortion-inducing drugs only be prescribed and dispensed by a state-licensed physician after an in-person examination. Noem said she also plans to pass legislation next year that makes “these and other protocols permanent.”
Across the country, more than 30 states require clinicians who administer medication abortion to be physicians, while 19 states require the clinician providing a medication abortion to be physically present when the medication is administered, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
The rising restrictions, which began to increase about a decade ago, according to Nash, come as more people are turning to medication abortion.
Medication abortion is now the most common method used for abortions in the first 10 weeks of pregnancy, and accounted for almost 40% of all abortions in 2017, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
Medication abortions were first approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2000. FDA guidelines advise that abortion-inducing pills are safe to use up to 70 days, or 10 weeks, after conception, though evidence shows it can be safe even later in pregnancy, according to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG).
In most cases in a medication abortion, mifepristone is taken first to stop the pregnancy from growing. Then, a second pill, misoprostol, is then taken to empty the uterus.
Of the two medications, mifepristone is more restricted by the FDA. Since 2011, the agency has applied a risk evaluation and mitigation strategy (REMS) to mifepristone, preventing it from being distributed at pharmacies or delivered by mail like other prescription drugs.
It must be ordered, prescribed and dispensed by a health care provider who meets certain qualifications, and may only be distributed in clinics, medical offices, and hospitals by a certified health care provider, according to FDA guidelines.
The FDA’s rules, combined with state restrictions like the one that appears close to becoming a law in Texas, have the effect of not only limiting when, where and how people can get abortions, but also potentially misguiding people on the safety of medication abortion, according to Dr. Jamila Perritt, an OBGYN based in Washington, D.C., and president and CEO of Physicians for Reproductive Health.
“The important thing to know about mifepristone is that it’s regulated as if it were a highly unsafe medication, which is the opposite of the truth,” said Perritt. “It’s actually a very, very safe medication and we have decades of medical evidence that shows people can use it on their own.”
“None of this is about safety,” she said. “It’s all about limiting access to abortion.”
The restrictions around medication abortion also limit the use of telemedicine, which is effectively banned in 19 states, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
Complications from at-home medication abortions are rare, happening in less than 1% of cases in one study of nearly 20,000 medication abortions, according to ACOG, which says medication abortion “can be provided safely and effectively by telemedicine.”
Last year, during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, and amid a rise in telemedicine, ACOG, an organization that counts more than 60,000 obstetrician–gynecologists as members, joined other groups to urge the FDA to suspend the requirement that mifepristone be dispensed in a medical clinic.
The request for the FDA to temporarily suspend the mifepristone requirement was upheld last year in lower courts. In January, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 6-3 to reinstate the restrictions.
In April, the FDA, under the Biden administration, said it would stop enforcing the in-person dispensing requirement during the pandemic. States though can still set laws about dispensing mifepristone within their state.
Proponents of the FDA’s decision say that allowing greater access to medication abortion, including via telemedicine, gives more options to the people who need them the most.
Around 75% of abortion patients are low-income residents, and nearly 60% of U.S. women of reproductive age live in states where access to abortion is restricted, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
“Restrictions shape who is able to access [abortion],” said Perritt, noting that people of color, young people, immigrants and people living on low-income communities are the most affected, and adding, “We’re going to continue to see a worsening outcome for them because of it.”
ABC News’ Alexandra Svokos contributed to this report.
(POLK COUNTY, Fla.)A young girl who was “tortured” and shot multiple times when a former Marine sharpshooter allegedly invaded her home and killed four members of her family, including her baby brother, told investigators she survived by playing dead, authorities said on Thursday.
The 11-year-old is expected to recover from her injuries, but authorities said what she experienced may haunt her for the rest of her life.
Polk County, Florida, authorities said the girl witnessed Bryan Riley, 33, allegedly shoot her father, Justice Gleason, 40; her dad’s girlfriend, Theresa Lanham, 33; and her 3-month-old brother in the Sunday morning massacre near Lakeland, 35 miles east of Tampa. Riley is also accused of killing Lanham’s 62-year-old mother, Catherine Delgado.
Riley allegedly shot and killed the family’s dog, too, officials said.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said Gleason’s daughter, the sole survivor of the attack, told investigators how she avoided being killed, after allegedly being tortured and shot by the stranger who had zero connection to her family.
“This 11-year-old was very brave and very smart, and she out-thought him. She said, ‘I played dead and I prayed,'” Judd said at a news conference Thursday.
Riley is charged with four counts of first-degree murder, one count of attempted first-degree murder, seven counts of attempted first-degree murder on a law enforcement officer, shooting into an occupied dwelling, two counts of armed burglary with battery, arson and cruelty to an animal. He is being held without bond.
The sheriff said Riley has shown no remorse. “He’s evil,” Judd said.
Judd said Riley first showed up at the home around 7 p.m. Saturday after picking up a first-aid kit from a friend who lives nearby, which he claimed he planned to donate to a Hurricane Ida relief organization.
Upon leaving his friend’s home, he saw Gleason mowing his front yard and stopped. He allegedly told Gleason that God sent him to speak to a girl named Amber, who he claimed was suicidal and being held as a sex-trafficking victim, Judd said. He was told no one by that name lived at the address and was ordered to leave.
The family called deputies, but they could not find Riley, Judd said. He said Riley returned to the home about 4:30 a.m. Sunday armed with three guns and in full-body armor.
Judd said Riley, who as a Marine was deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq, allegedly told investigators that he “created an ops plan.'”
“In his confession, he said, ‘You know what that means? You have to kill everybody,'” said Judd, adding that Riley’s girlfriend told investigators he suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder.
He said the suspect broke into an in-law unit behind the main house and killed Delgado. Riley allegedly shot his way into the main house and found Gleason, Lanham, her baby and the girl hiding in a bathroom, according to the sheriff.
After allegedly killing Gleason, Lanham and the baby, Judd said, Riley took the girl into the living room and questioned her about the whereabouts of Amber, Judd said. When the girl told him she didn’t know Amber, he allegedly counted down, “three, two, one” and shot her in the stomach, Judd said. When she again denied knowing Amber, Riley allegedly shot her in the hand and legs before firing what he wrongly believed to be the fatal shot, Judd said.
When deputies arrived, a shootout ensued. Riley was hit in the stomach and surrendered, Judd said.
Judd said the sheriff’s department is collecting donations to help the family with funeral costs and the young survivor’s hospital bills. He said his agency has established an online page to accept contributions.
(LOS ANGELES) — The Los Angeles Unified School District’s Board of Education will vote Thursday on a vaccine mandate for all eligible students in the nation’s second-largest district.
The vote, slated for 2 p.m. local time, would be a landmark move for the district, which has over 600,000 students and operates 1,200 schools in the LA area.
If the resolution is approved, all students ages 12 and up must receive their first vaccine dose no later than Nov. 21 and their second dose no later than Dec. 19. Students who participate in in-person extracurricular programs will have to get a vaccine earlier, with a deadline for the first dose by October 3.
All other students must receive their first vaccine dose 30 days after their 12th birthday and their second dose eight weeks after their 12th birthday.
The district told ABC News in a statement: “Science clearly shows that vaccinations are an essential part of protecting our communities. Further details will be forthcoming after the vote.”
The majority of board members said they will approve the measure or are leaning toward it, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Under the proposal, all eligible students in the district would be required to be inoculated excluding those with “qualified and approved exemptions.”
The district said passing the proposal “will result in the safest school environment possible and minimize disruption to full-time, in-person instruction brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Children ages 12 and up are only eligible for the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. Though the Pfizer vaccine was fully authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration last month, it remains under emergency use authorization for individuals 12 through 15.
The vote comes a week after LA County health officials said more than 5,200 COVID-19 cases were detected among K-12 students in the county over the past two weeks. The county’s public health director, Barbara Ferrer, called the number “sobering.”
The district’s COVID-19 testing dashboard shows 1,357 positive cases among students and staff and a staff and student case rate of 9.93 per 100,000 residents, significantly lower than the county case rate of 20.03 cases per 100,000 individuals.
So far in LA County, 60% of 12 to 15-year-olds have received at least one dose of the vaccine and 68% of 16 to 17-year-olds have received at least one dose, according to the county’s vaccine tracker.
Nationwide, pediatric hospital admissions remain at one of their highest points of the pandemic, with more than 2,200 children receiving care across the country for confirmed or suspected COVID-19. Additionally, the average daily COVID-19 case rate is now higher among children and adolescents ages 5 to 17 years than all adult age groups.
The move to mandate student vaccines is also supported by United Teachers Los Angeles union, which represents more than 30,000 teachers, counselors, nurses and librarians.
The union said in a statement last week, “UTLA announced support for a vaccine mandate for eligible students … This aligns with UTLA support for the educator vaccine mandate implemented by LAUSD and will keep our schools safer as well as positively contributing to the higher community vaccination rates needed to reverse the surge in infections.”
LAUSD is already facing legal backlash for its robust COVID-19 safety measures currently in place, including requiring weekly testing for all students and employees, masks indoors and outdoors and requiring all employees to be vaccinated.
Passing a vaccine mandate may bring an onslaught of further legal challenges.
Mandates related to the pandemic, such as requiring face coverings in classrooms, have led to lawsuits and heated debates between school districts, parents and lawmakers, as in Texas and Florida.
Los Angeles would not be the first to impose a vaccine mandate.
It was already adopted by the Culver City Unified district with a Nov. 19 deadline to take effect, in anticipation that the FDA will grant full approval for school-aged students to get the vaccine, local Los Angeles ABC station KABC reported.
In the Oakland Unified School District, Sam Davis, the Vice President of the Board and Director of District 1, proposed a vaccine mandate at a board meeting Wednesday night. The proposal will be discussed at a Sept. 22 meeting with a potential vote, he told ABC News.
“Vaccination is key to keeping teenagers healthy, in school and learning, and keeping their families healthy as well,” he said during the meeting. “We’re lucky to live in a place with comparatively high vaccination rates. In Oakland, 73% of those aged 12-17 have received at least one dose, compared to less than 50% nationwide. So we’re doing well but we could do much better.”
It’s too soon to tell if other districts will follow suit.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a press conference Thursday there’s no plans for a vaccine mandate for eligible students in the city, which has the largest school district in the nation.
“We just don’t think that’s the right thing to do … but teachers are mandated to,” he said Thursday. “We can keep any option on the table, but right now, no. We want every kid in school.”
Similarly in Chicago, which has the third-largest school district in the nation, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said a vaccine mandate for students would be “premature” during an Aug. 30 press conference.
“Obviously we don’t have a vaccine for children who that younger than 12, so it’s a little premature I think to be talking about that,” the mayor said.
(KUWAIT CITY) — The United States has not seen evidence that the Taliban’s newly formed government will be as inclusive as promised, and it appears to be “more of the same” with “many of the same actors,” according to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
“I think the whole international community was hopeful that they would be inclusive as they kind of said they would be weeks and months ago,” Austin told a small group of reporters traveling with him to the Middle East. “But we’ve not seen evidence of that early on, and so it appears to be many of the same actors.”
Austin said the U.S. and the international community would continue “to listen to what they’re saying, but we’re watching what they’re doing and right now it just seems that it’s more of the same.”
The Taliban’s new government includes several leaders of the Haqqani network, including the group’s de facto leader Sirajuddin Haqqani, who was named as interior minister. The Haqqani network has been directly tied to violent attacks against American troops over the last two decades.
“We don’t get a choice, a vote in that but, but certainly these are people that I don’t look favorably upon personally, but again, it’s the Taliban government,” Austin said when asked about the inclusion of Haqqani network leaders in the government.
Austin said the United States has “put the Taliban on notice” that it expects them not to allow al-Qaida to regenerate — something he said would demonstrate that they “are serious about being a bona fide government and respected in the international community.”
“They want sanctions lifted, and that sort of business so they have goals and aspirations,” said Austin. “If they demonstrate that they’re going to harbor terrorism, and in Afghanistan, all of that will be very very difficult for them to achieve.”
“I think the international community will hold them to task, quite frankly,” Austin said. “But again our goal is to make sure that that terror cannot be exported from the spaces in Afghanistan to the homeland, and we will remain focused.”
But he acknowledged that al-Qaida and ISIS-Khorasan “will always attempt to find space to grow and regenerate, whether it’s there, whether it’s in Somalia, whether it’s in any on any other ungoverned space,” he said. “I think that’s the nature of the organization.”
He added that the U.S. military would address any terrorism threats to the United States with its “over the horizon” counterterrorism drone strike capability.
But not having U.S. troops or U.S. intelligence on the ground in Afghanistan may make it more difficult to identify threats and carry out such strikes, something Austin acknowledged to reporters earlier this week.
A veteran of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past two decades and a former commander of U.S. Central Command, Austin embarked on his trip to thank the leaders of Persian Gulf states that provided assistance for the airlift that evacuated 124,000 people from Afghanistan.
“The ability to shuttle back and forth and lift out as many people as we did as fast as we as we did could not have happened without partners and in this region, and in Europe,” said Austin.
Beyond the airlift, his goal is “to always reassure them that first of all, we’re a global nation of global interests, and, and this region will always be important to us,” he said.
“We will have to shift our stance from time to time to focus on what we describe as our main effort and and that’s understandable,” Austin said. “But, but we will always be interested in what is going on in this region.”
