(NEW YORK) — Wednesday is a day of celebration as New York City gears up for a ticker tape parade honoring the heroes of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Hometown Heroes Parade starts at 11 a.m. along the Canyon of Heroes in lower Manhattan, about 16 months after New York City became the nation’s first COVID-19 epicenter.
The parade is a way “to celebrate and appreciate the heroes who often go unsung,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said last month.
“Floats for health care workers, first responders, educators, municipal workers, transportation workers, grocery and bodega workers, delivery people, you name it,” the mayor said. “All the essential workers who made it happen.”
Here is how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Jul 07, 8:49 am
Pittsburgh nurse who came to NYC for COVID returns to ride on float
Justin Davis, a traveling nurse with AMN Healthcare, left his wife and three children behind in Pittsburgh to care for COVID-19 patients in an overwhelmed Manhattan hospital when the pandemic began.
“Never seen anything like it,” said Davis, who trained as an Army field medic and has been a nurse for 17 years. “I had more bodies, not enough people to take care. There were unqualified people there because there was nobody else.”
When New York’s crisis subsided, he moved to COVID hot spots in Orlando and Buffalo.
He will ride atop one of 14 floats that will make its way through the shower of confetti on Wednesday.
Davis told ABC News the parade is also a way to put his pandemic work behind him.
“I’ll accept the thanks,” he said.
Jul 07, 7:53 am
Ceremony scaled back due to heat
The City Hall ceremony at the end of the parade will be “a much smaller, stripped down version” than originally planned due to the heat, Mayor de Blasio said Tuesday.
“We will be greeting the marchers at the end of the parade and thanking them,” de Blasio said. “Not a big ceremony, but the parade itself of course will be the central salute to our heroes.”
“We will be adding additional cooling centers and water stations along the route,” the mayor added.
Jul 07, 7:24 am
New York to hold first ticker tape parade in two years
Ticker tape parades along the Canyon of Heroes are a historical part of New York City. These parades have honored people from Amelia Earhart in 1932 to Winston Churchill in 1946. The most recent ticker tape parade was in 2019 for the U.S. women’s national soccer team after they won the World Cup.
“Ticker tape parades up the Canyon of Heroes, they’ve happened for generations,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said last month. “But this one will have a special spirit to it, a special heart and soul, because it’s about celebrating everyday New Yorkers who did something heroic and need our thanks.”
(PHILADELPHIA) — A construction worker has died after a drilling rig that was being used to move heavy equipment fell on top of him while he was working.
The deadly incident happened on Tuesday at approximately 8:30 p.m. local time in downtown Philadelphia near a train station. Heavy equipment was being moved off a tractor-trailer to a construction site when a drilling rig that was being used to lift equipment in the area fell onto a worker, fire officials told ABC Philadelphia station WPVI-TV.
Officials have not yet named the 55-year-old man but said he became trapped beneath the equipment and that it took about 15 minutes to free him from the scene of the accident, according to WPVI.
The man was immediately taken to a local hospital, where he died from his injuries suffered in the construction accident. The rig operator was also injured in the incident and was hospitalized for treatment but their condition was unknown.
“It’s fortunate that it was this time of the evening where this is a high traffic area during the day and it could have been a lot more potential for danger to many folks, but still there were two individuals who were hurt here so that’s still tragic,” Philadelphia Assistant Fire Chief Charles Walker told WPVI on Tuesday night.
Officials said the rig fell away from the building site, meaning no property was damaged and that the area was clear of pedestrians at the time of the accident, according to WPVI.
Officials said there was fuel leaking from the equipment in the aftermath of the accident and that Philadelphia’s Department of Licenses and Inspections was called in to investigate.
The incident is currently under investigation but the construction site was still active on Wednesday, even as the drilling rig that fell over remains on its side.
(WORCESTER, Mass.) — A police chase of a woman in a stolen truck ended at a McDonald’s drive-thru as she attempted to order some food amid the pursuit.
The incident occurred at approximately 8:45 a.m. local time on Tuesday, July 6, in Worcester, Massachusetts — about 42 miles west of Boston. The Worcester Police Department said it received a 911 call about a stolen pick-up truck in the eastern part of the city.
When officers arrived on scene, they spoke with the man who made the call and he informed them that a woman, whom he said he did not know, climbed into his vehicle and drove away. But he told the officers that his pick-up truck had GPS and he could see its location.
As the officers made their way to the area of the stolen vehicle, they were flagged down by another driver who told them that their car had been hit by the pick-up truck only minutes before, according to police.
With that information plus tracking the vehicle by GPS, it didn’t take long for officers to find the suspect — identified as 38-year-old Johanna Gardell of Worcester — in the stolen pick-up truck only a few blocks away.
But the chase didn’t end there.
“The officer activated his blue lights, got out of his cruiser, and approached the stolen vehicle,” the Worcester Police Department said in a statement. “The operator … drove away as the officer walked toward her. The officer got back into his cruiser and followed her at a low rate of speed, but she did not stop. Ms. Gardell began to increase her speed on Main St and drove through red lights. The officer deactivated his lights and sirens and stopped following her for safety reasons.”
Gardell then came upon heavy traffic before deciding to crossover into the wrong lane, as well as oncoming traffic, and subsequently ended up driving into a van with the stolen pick-up truck, according to police.
“At this point, two officers working a detail and another officer in the area approached the vehicle in an attempt to extract Ms. Gardell,” the Worcester Police Department said. “She backed up the vehicle at a high rate of speed and struck a cruiser behind her, and knocked down and dragged one of the detail officers. Officers pursued the stolen vehicle at a low rate of speed before the pursuit was called off for safety reasons.”
Gardell then pulled into the drive-thru at a nearby McDonald’s restaurant in an attempt to order food but officers again were able to locate her and attempt to arrest her, according to police.
Officers approached her in two vehicles but she intentionally struck one before veering off the road and getting the stolen pick-up truck stuck in a pile of mulch that was on the McDonald’s property, police said.
Officers were then able to pull Gardell out of the vehicle as she fought and struggled with them during the arrest, according to police.
Gardell is facing a litany of charges including failure to stop for police, leaving the scene of an accident with personal injury, assault and battery by means of a dangerous weapon, malicious mischief to motor vehicle, disturbing the peace, disorderly conduct and use of motor vehicle without authority, among several others.
The Worcester Police Department said that Gardell will now be arraigned in court and the investigation into the incident is ongoing.
(NEW YORK) — Tropical storm Elsa is slamming the Sunshine State with gusty winds and heavy rain as it barrels north near Florida’s west coast.
Elsa is expected to make landfall later Wednesday morning by Florida’s Big Bend.
A hurricane warning is in effect for Florida’s west coast from the Chassahowitzka River to the Steinhatchee River.
Wet grounds and rough winds have already caused some downed trees in Hillsborough County, which encompasses Tampa.
Tampa Bay is among areas under a storm surge warning.
Tropical storm warnings have been issued in Savannah, Georgia and Charleston, South Carolina.
After blowing through the South, the storm is expected to move up the East Coast, bringing heavy rain and gusty winds to the mid-Atlantic, New Jersey shore, New York City, Long Island and New England.
By Thursday night, Elsa will reach the mid-Atlantic dropping flooding rain and gusty winds near Washington, D.C., and into Philadelphia.
By Friday morning, Elsa will be dropping heavy rain and rough winds along the Jersey shore, New York City and Long Island.
Elsa will move into New England late Friday morning into Friday afternoon. Boston and Portland, Maine, could face strong winds, power outages and flooding.
Flooding is possible in Philadelphia, New York City, Connecticut, Massachusetts and northern New England. Some areas could see up to 5 inches of rain.
(NEW YORK) — Wednesday is a day of celebration as New York City gears up for a ticker tape parade honoring the heroes of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Hometown Heroes Parade starts at 11 a.m. along the Canyon of Heroes in lower Manhattan, about 16 months after New York City became the nation’s first COVID-19 epicenter.
The parade is a way “to celebrate and appreciate the heroes who often go unsung,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said last month.
“Floats for health care workers, first responders, educators, municipal workers, transportation workers, grocery and bodega workers, delivery people, you name it,” the mayor said. “All the essential workers who made it happen.”
Here is how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Jul 07, 7:53 am
Ceremony scaled back due to heat
The City Hall ceremony at the end of the parade will be “a much smaller, stripped down version” than originally planned due to the heat, Mayor de Blasio said Tuesday.
“We will be greeting the marchers at the end of the parade and thanking them,” de Blasio said. “Not a big ceremony, but the parade itself of course will be the central salute to our heroes.”
“We will be adding additional cooling centers and water stations along the route,” the mayor added.
Jul 07, 7:24 am
New York to hold first ticker tape parade in two years
Ticker tape parades along the Canyon of Heroes are a historical part of New York City. These parades have honored people from Amelia Earhart in 1932 to Winston Churchill in 1946. The most recent ticker tape parade was in 2019 for the U.S. women’s national soccer team after they won the World Cup.
“Ticker tape parades up the Canyon of Heroes, they’ve happened for generations,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said last month. “But this one will have a special spirit to it, a special heart and soul, because it’s about celebrating everyday New Yorkers who did something heroic and need our thanks.”
(LONDON) — Haitian President Jovenel Moise was killed in an attack at his home before dawn on Wednesday, the country’s interim premier said.
A group of unidentified individuals, some of whom spoke Spanish, raided Moise’s private residence in Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince, at around 1 a.m. local time. They gunned down the head of state and wounded his wife, Martine Moise, who remains hospitalized, according to a statement from Haitian interim Prime Minister Claude Joseph.
Joseph, who condemned what he described as a “hateful, inhumane and barbaric act,” said the Caribbean country’s national police force and military had the situation under control.
The Toussaint Louverture International Airport near Port-au-Prince has been closed in the wake of the deadly attack.
Eva Marie Uzcategui Trinkl/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
(SURFSIDE, Fla.) — At least 36 people, including three children, have been confirmed dead and 109 others remain unaccounted for after a 12-story residential building partially collapsed in South Florida’s Miami-Dade County last month.
The disaster occurred on June 24 around 1:15 a.m. local time at the Champlain Towers South condominium in the small, beachside town of Surfside, about 6 miles north of Miami Beach. Approximately 55 of the oceanfront complex’s 136 units were destroyed, according to officials. Since then, hundreds of first responders have been carefully combing through the pancaked piles of debris in hopes of finding survivors.
Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava announced Tuesday morning that four more bodies were recovered from the rubble. In the evening, she announced another four bodies had been recovered, bringing the official death toll to 36. Twenty-six of the victims have been identified.
Meanwhile, investigators have confirmed that 70 of the 109 people who are still missing were in fact inside of the condominium at the time of the partial collapse. Another 191 people who were living or staying in the building at that time have been accounted for and are safe, according to Levine Cava, who has stressed that the figures are “very fluid” and “will continue to change” as detectives continuously audit the list.
Although officials wouldn’t say when the search and rescue operation will formally transition into a recovery mission, Levine Cava told reporters that the crews will “continue as now to thoroughly, carefully sift through these piles,” looking for “bodies and belongings.” The process is a “very thorough and exhaustive” one, she said.
Crews have hauled away nearly 5 million pounds of concrete from the vast scene of wreckage, but large piles of rubble still remain. Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Chief Alan Cominsky said the rescue workers have been “aggressively” searching for any voids or “liveable spaces” within the debris where there could be trapped survivors but that they are “not coming across that.” No survivors have been discovered in the wreckage of the building since the morning it partially collapsed.
“We’re not seeing anything positive,” Cominsky told reporters on Tuesday morning.
The massive search and rescue mission is now in its 13th day, as teams are able to operate at full capacity and search in areas that were previously inaccessible.
The part of the building that remained standing was cleared of any people or pets before it was demolished on Sunday night, due to concerns about its structural integrity. However, it was too dangerous for surviving residents to enter the building to retrieve their belongings, officials said.
Video released by the Miami-Dade Fire Rescue on Monday night showed crews working atop the piles, braving the elements as Tropical Storm Elsa approached the Sunshine State.
The incoming storm, which has weakened from a hurricane, initiated the discussion about demolishing the rest of the building and fast-tracked the process, according to Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett. Elsa made landfall in Cuba on Monday and by Tuesday morning the storm’s center was moving through Key West with maximum sustained winds of 60 miles per hour, according to the National Weather Service.
Prior to the demolition, the search and rescue operation was halted for almost an entire day last week due to safety concerns for the crews regarding the remaining structure. Poor weather conditions have also forced them to temporarily pause working.
The cause of the partial collapse to a building that has withstood decades of hurricanes remains unknown and is under investigation. Built in the 1980s, the Champlain Towers South was up for its 40-year recertification and had been undergoing roof work — with more renovations planned — when it partially collapsed, according to officials.
“The whole world wants to know what happened here,” Levine Cava told reporters on Tuesday morning. “I look forward to learning the truth, as do we all, but I think it’ll be a while before it is understood.”
(NEW YORK) — A highly contagious variant of the novel coronavirus that was initially identified in India is now the dominant strain in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Data updated by the CDC on Tuesday evening shows the so-called delta variant, also known as B.1.617.2, was estimated to account for 51.7% of all new cases of COVID-19 across the country as of July 3.
The variant, which has been detected in all 50 states, was also estimated to account for more than 50% of new cases in five of the 10 regions into which the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services divides the country. HHS Region 7 — compromising Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska — had the highest at 80.7%.
“Variant proportions are dynamic and difficult to predict due to reporting delays, the presence of multiple variants, and changing incidence,” the CDC told ABC News in a statement on Tuesday evening.
A little over a month ago, CDC data showed the delta variant was estimated to account for just 3% of all new cases in the U.S..
Health officials and experts alike have warned that the delta variant is a more infectious version of the disease, and preliminary data indicates it may increase the risk of hospitalization. The variant has also shown to be particularly dangerous to those who are unvaccinated or partially vaccinated against COVID-19.
However, current evidence suggests that the full dosage of a COVID-19 vaccine is highly effective in preventing hospitalizations and serious illness.
After being initially identified in India in October, the delta variant has since been reported in at least 98 countries around the globe, according to the World Health Organization. It was first detected in the U.S. in March.
The WHO declared delta a “variant of concern” in May, and the CDC upgraded its classification of the strain last month from “variant of interest” to a “variant of concern.” Both the WHO and the CDC say that variants of concern have shown to spread more easily than others and cause more severe disease.
During a press briefing on July 2, WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Gebreyesus warned that the delta variant is “spreading quickly in countries with low and high vaccination coverage.” He noted that the variant continues to evolve and mutate, which requires constant evaluation and “careful adjustment of the public health response.”
“We are in a very dangerous period of the pandemic,” Tedros said.
CDC director Rochelle Walensky said health officials are concerned about the delta variant mutating to a point where it evades the existing COVID-19 vaccines.
“That’s really what we’re actively trying to prevent, which is why we’re really encouraging people to get vaccinated,” Walensky told ABC News in an interview last month. “I will say, as worrisome as this delta strain is with regard to its hyper-transmissibility, our vaccines work. Right now, they are working and they require actually two doses or to be fully vaccinated to work. So I would encourage all Americans to get your first shot and when you’re for your second, get your second shot and you’ll be protected against this delta variant.”
Since the start of the pandemic, the U.S. has reported more than 33.7 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 and over 605,000 deaths from the disease, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University.
More than 182 million people in the U.S. have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, including over 157 million — 47.5% of the population — who are fully vaccinated, according to the CDC.
(WASHINGTON) — Hundreds of Afghan troops fled across the country’s northern border to safety, as the Taliban continue a swift offensive to seize districts amid the U.S. military withdrawal.
The rapidly deteriorating security situation has alarmed U.S. officials in Washington, D.C. and Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital, where the government of President Ashraf Ghani is trying to project calm and regroup its forces.
But the Taliban, the militant group that has been at war with the U.S. and Afghan government since the 2001 American invasion, is gaining more territory by the day, ignoring calls for a ceasefire or resumed negotiations.
President Joe Biden has also shown no second thoughts about his decision to withdraw all 2,500 remaining U.S. forces, except for 650 troops that will stay to protect the U.S. embassy and, at least initially, Kabul’s international airport.
That withdrawal is now 90% complete, according to the Pentagon. But although most troops have left, the Department of Defense said the withdrawal won’t be finished until late August.
Amid the Taliban offensive, there’s growing concern about the safety of the U.S. embassy in Kabul, which said it has “well-developed security plans to safely protect our personnel and facilities,” but has “no plans to close.”
There’s also deep concern for the Afghan interpreters, guides and other contractors who worked for the U.S. and now say their lives are at risk from the Taliban. The Biden administration has said it will relocate a group of them out of Afghanistan, but it’s unclear how many, when and to where.
A U.S. official confirmed to ABC News on Friday that the group may be moved to Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan — three of Afghanistan’s northern neighbors in Central Asia — but stressed that the planning was still early and no decisions had been made yet.
There are approximately 18,000 Afghans seeking a Special Immigrant Visa, which gives those who worked for the U.S. military or diplomatic mission in Afghanistan and Iraq the chance to move themselves and their families to the U.S. In recent years, the surge in interest and a years-long backlog has put these Afghans’ lives at risk, according to U.S. lawmakers and advocates, who have urged an evacuation to a safe location while their applications are processed.
A senior U.S. administration official declined to provide details on numbers or timing, but told ABC News on Thursday that they had “identified a group of SIV applicants … to be relocated to another location outside of Afghanistan before we complete our military drawdown by September.”
Before those plans get moving, however, more than 1,300 Afghan border police and soldiers crossed the border to Tajikistan to escape the Taliban in recent days, according to local Afghan security sources. The Taliban have seized dozens of districts since Biden’s withdrawal announcement in April and their offensive among northern provinces has resulted in hundreds of Afghan forces surrendering or being killed.
In the last six days, the Taliban have taken control of nearly 10% of Afghanistan’s districts, with nearly half of them now in Taliban control and another third contested between the militants and the government, according to the war monitor the Long War Journal.
Afghan national security adviser Hamdullah Mohib said Tuesday during a press conference that those Afghan forces that fled “are coming back and are once again going to be in the service of the people and in the defense of Faizabad,” the capital of Badakhshan province.
While some of those returns may begin, the rush of refugees across the border alarmed several governments in the region, who have feared a refugee crisis and regional upheaval as the U.S. exits and the Taliban seizes territory and possibly targets Kabul.
Tajikistan mobilized 20,000 military reservists to strengthen security on its southern border with Afghanistan, according to state media, while its president Emomali Rakhmon called both Ghani and Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the “alarming” situation. Russia pledged assistance, according to the Kremlin, including from its enormous and well-armed military base in Tajikistan.
Much of the Afghan-Tajik border is now controlled by the Taliban, which has been collecting revenue from cross-border commerce at their own mobile customs checkpoints on major highways, according to local Afghan security sources.
But despite the Taliban’s major gains on the battlefield, the Biden administration is still refusing to address the declining security situation.
Asked about a Taliban takeover, Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said Tuesday, “That’s a big ‘if,’ that’s a hypothetical and I don’t think it’s helpful for anybody right now to engage in hypothesizing about what might happen months and years from now.”
Over at the State Department, spokesperson Ned Price told reporters, “I am not going to offer an assessment or any sort of feedback of our reaction from here.”
Price also declined to speak to what contingency plans are in place at the U.S. embassy, including shutting down the massive compound and evacuating its 1,400 U.S. staffers. Two former U.S. officials told ABC News that the embassy would be reviewing its emergency evacuation plans with a daily review based on ever-evolving intelligence assessments, especially as more U.S. forces leave Afghanistan and the embassy with a smaller reactionary force to come assist.
“The State Department, the Department of Defense — these are planning organizations. We’re always planning for any contingency,” Price said, declining to offer more details.
Despite growing Taliban control, Price added that it seemed the militant group “understands that only through diplomacy can they garner any sort of legitimacy, can they expect to be accepted by the international community.”
But talks between the Taliban and Afghan government delegations, which met for the first time last September, have yet to yield anything but an agenda. And while some meetings in Doha, Qatar, continue, the peace process is all but dead despite committed paper statements from both sides.
Pressed on that, Price said Tuesday, “Believe me, I’m not out here to offer false hope when it comes to what the Taliban may seek or what they’re up to now.”
(MEMPHIS, Tenn.) — They were called the “path of least resistance” by energy giants proposing a new crude oil pipeline. Now, after months of activism and resistance, a Black community in Memphis, Tennessee is celebrating the announcement that construction of the pipeline has been called off.
“This is a significant victory for our community, and for all people who have been pushed to the margins of our society,” Justin J. Pearson, a local resident and one of the co-founders of the grassroots group Memphis Community Against the Pipeline (MCAP), told ABC News on Tuesday, adding that the community responded to the news by erupting in “jubilation.”
“It’s an extraordinary feat for people who were called the path of least resistance to have pushed back and beat back two billion-dollar crude oil pipeline companies,” he added. “You can walk through the neighborhood and see all these signs and the spirit that endures, showing that we really are the path of resilience.”
Plans for the Byhalia Connection pipeline, a joint venture from Plains All American and Valero Energy, were officially called off last Friday. The proposed 49-mile crude oil conduit faced mounting community opposition, and lawmakers and celebrities also added their voices to the resistance movement.
Brad Leone, the director of communications at Plains All American, said in a statement posted to the Byhalia Connection’s website that the company was no longer pursuing construction of the project “primarily due to lower U.S. oil production resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.”
“We value the relationships we’ve built through the development of this project, and appreciate those that supported the project and would have shared in its ongoing benefits including our customers, communities, energy consumers, landowners, area contractors and suppliers,” the statement added.
The pipeline initially threatened to cut through predominantly Black communities that have historical significance to those who live there — such as Boxtown, an area in Southwest Memphis that got its name after formerly enslaved people built their homes there out of train boxcars.
A representative of the pipeline company initially told the community the route was chosen because it was the “path of least resistance.” A company spokesperson later clarified to ABC News that, “What should have been said is that we looked for the path with the fewest collective impacts.”
Still, community members protesting the project said they were tired of bearing the brunt of industrial projects and potential pollutants in their backyard.
Former Vice President Al Gore, who attended anti-pipeline rallies, reacted to the cancellation news on Twitter. Gore congratulated MCAP and the community, “who made their voices heard to stop this reckless, racist ripoff!”
Byhalia Pipeline canceled! Congrats to @MemphisCAP_org & the community of SW Memphis who made their voices heard to stop this reckless, racist ripoff! No more oil in our soil!https://t.co/kEw56NYEWG
The Southern Environmental Law Center, which represented MCAP and other community organizations as they fought state and federal permits for the project, applauded the news as “a victory for the people of Southwest Memphis, for the city’s drinking water, and perhaps most monumentally, it is a triumph for environmental justice,” according to a statement from Amanda Garcia, the group’s Tennessee office director.
Pearson, who was at the forefront of the pipeline resistance movement over the past several months, said the battles for environmental justice for all are not over. Still, he said he hopes others can see this victory as inspiration to fight for what they believe in.
“There’s no power more powerful than people power,” Pearson told ABC News. “Even when we don’t have as much money or clout as these billion-dollar businesses, we have our bodies, we have our voices, we have our time. We have our spirits, which cannot be broken.”
