(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. agency that oversees highway safety officially has launched a formal probe into Tesla’s Autopilot systems after identifying 11 separate crashes involving the feature over approximately four years.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration told ABC News in a statement Monday that it is “opening a preliminary evaluation into Tesla Autopilot systems and the technologies and methods used to monitor, assist, and enforce the driver’s engagement with driving while Autopilot is in use.”
“A preliminary evaluation starts the agency’s fact-finding mission and allows additional information and data to be collected — in this case about Tesla Autopilot,” the statement added. “Specifically, this investigation stems from 11 separate crashes beginning in 2018, in which various Tesla models crashed where first responders were active, including some that crashed directly into the vehicles of first responders.”
In a separate document on the investigation posted to its website Monday, the agency said the probe will include 2014 through 2021 Tesla Model Y, Model X, Model S and Model 3 vehicles.
There were 17 injuries and one fatality associated with the 11 crashes, the document stated. The crashes took place in nine states, and most of the incidents took place after dark.
The NHTSA said that in all of these cases, the Tesla vehicles had either Autopilot or Traffic Aware Cruise Control engaged just prior to the crashes.
Tesla did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment Monday.
The company, and its eccentric CEO Elon Musk, have long defended Autopilot systems as safe.
On its website, the company has released internal data that suggests vehicles with Autopilot turned on are involved in fewer accidents per mile than those without Autopilot engaged.
In its statement to ABC News, the NHTSA reminded the public that “no commercially available motor vehicles today are capable of driving themselves” and all vehicles require a human driver to be in control at all times.
(WASHINGTON) — The Taliban’s return to power has ended America’s two-decade effort to build a democratic society in its mold in Afghanistan. But that effort, despite its billions of dollars and tens of thousands of lives, was doomed virtually from the start by a galling failure to understand the country and a willful disregard for local realities on the ground, according to a scathing new report.
The U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, or SIGAR, blasted successive U.S. administrations for lacking the “necessary mindset, expertise, and resources to develop and manage the strategy to rebuild Afghanistan,” in its latest report released Tuesday.
The report, prepared before Kabul’s fall, found that while the U.S. achieved some important successes for the Afghan people, those gains would be lost if the Taliban took control.
“The U.S. government struggled to develop a coherent strategy, understand how long the reconstruction mission would take, ensure its projects were sustainable, staff the mission with trained professionals, account for the challenges posed by insecurity, tailor efforts to the Afghan context, and understand the impact of programs,” the report said.
More than 140 pages long, the report details how 20 years and $145 billion of effort were often wasted because projects weren’t tailored to the complex realities on the ground. Essentially, the U.S. government kept trying to force Afghanistan into a box that it didn’t — and couldn’t — fit into, the report found.
“We were devoid of a fundamental understanding of Afghanistan,” Douglas Lute, who oversaw the war for Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama from 2007 to 2013, told SIGAR. “We didn’t know what we were doing.”
“It’s really much worse than you think,” he added. “There (was) a fundamental gap of understanding on the front end, overstated objectives, an overreliance on the military, and a lack of understanding of the resources necessary.”
This is the 11th annual lessons-learned report released by SIGAR, which has 13 years of oversight work now. John Sopko, the special inspector general, has highlighted failures throughout the U.S. war in Afghanistan, from waste and fraud to a lack of transparency.
These failures in reconstruction, in particular, had critical impacts on a local level, according to the report, undermining U.S. efforts to erode support for the Taliban and build faith in the Afghan government.
“In the majority of districts, we never even heard the real problems of the people,” Jabar Naimee, who served as governor of three Afghan provinces, told SIGAR. “We made assumptions, conducted military operations, brought in government staff, and assumed it would lead to security and stability.”
But it did not. The report argued that since the U.S. government did not pay attention to the local context when projects were implemented, they often stoked local conflicts because one interest group was prioritized over another, which allowed insurgents to create alliances.
Staffing failures exacerbated those problems, according to the inspector general’s report. U.S. reconstruction projects were created and funded — and then officials were ordered to find individuals to carry them out — leading to unqualified workers and construction efforts that were often abandoned before completion.
“DOD police advisors watched American TV shows to learn about policing, civil affairs teams were mass-produced via PowerPoint presentations, and every agency experienced annual lobotomies as staff constantly rotated out, leaving successors to start from scratch and make similar mistakes all over again,” the report said.
Those failures at the program-level and below were mirrored by “policymakers’ ignorance of the Afghan context at the highest strategic levels,” according to the report, with the influence of politics always behind the scenes.
“U.S. officials also prioritized their own political preferences for what they wanted reconstruction to look like, rather than what they could realistically achieve,” the report said.
Afghan officials are to blame as well, the report said, especially for corruption. But the vast amount of American money flowing to reconstruction projects would often fuel that problem.
“The ultimate point of failure for our efforts wasn’t an insurgency,” Ryan Crocker, who served as ambassador to Afghanistan, told SIGAR. “It was the weight of endemic corruption.”
Because the U.S. government refused to create a successful peace process, “the Taliban soon rebuilt itself as a powerful insurgency,” according to the report.
That may now doom the Afghan people to a return to darker days.
“There is no doubt, however, that the lives of millions of Afghans have been improved by U.S. government interventions,” the report said, including gains in life expectancy, the mortality of children under five, GDP per capita, and literacy rates. But the report argued that these gains were neither proportional to the massive U.S. investment nor sustainable with the U.S. military now leaving.
(NEW YORK) — Throughout much of 2020, parents took comfort in a single silver lining the pandemic: The virus seemed to spare young people, particularly children and toddlers, whose symptoms were considerably milder than the adults around them.
The precise reason for this was never quite clear. One theory was that children had fewer “receptors” that could become infected with the virus. Some wondered if kids had better immunity because of frequent exposure to other coronaviruses. Children also were less likely to be burdened by the kind of underlying health conditions plaguing older adults, according to health experts.
But the arrival of the delta variant seems to have changed that equation in just a matter of months. Health officials are warning of the steepest surge in COVID hospitalizations among children since the pandemic began, with rates 4.6 times higher than it was just five weeks ago. Those rates now put pediatric hospitalizations on par with the height of the pandemic.
But are children now at greater risk than they were last year?
Health experts said the research on the impact of delta isn’t solid yet. It’s possible the delta variant is so wildly transmissible that children are facing repeated exposure. It’s also possible that people have grown more careless — abandoning masks and social distancing, with much of the country itching to return to normal.
Dr. Edward Behrens, chief of the division of rheumatology at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said a big issue is that people wrongly assumed children were never at risk in the first place.
“It was a comforting narrative that was never true. They [children] always had the potential to be a reservoir for virus,” he said.
While hospitals continue to collect the data, others say they remain alarmed by what they are seeing. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, COVID deaths among children this year were twice as high as flu deaths.
“Many of us (in pediatrics) around the country are struck by the fact that we’re seeing otherwise healthy kids are getting sick and requiring oxygen, ending up in the ICU,” Dr. Andrew Pavia, chief of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at the University of Utah, told ABC News.
So while the studies may be inconclusive, “our clinical impression is that (delta) may actually be worse, and that it’s not just a very larger number of kids are getting infected,” Pavia said.
“This summer we’ve seen many more kids with severe symptoms of COVID compared to what we saw last year and then more concerning what we’ve seen this summer is really young children,” Dr. Kenneth Paris, associate professor of pediatrics at LSU Health Sciences Center in New Orleans, told ABC News.
In Dallas, that sudden spike meant the city ran out of intensive care beds for children last Friday.
“That means if your child’s in a car wreck, or more likely if they have COVID and need an ICU bed, we don’t have one,” Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said in a news conference Friday.
“Your child will wait for another child to die. Your child will just not get on the ventilator,” he added.
Dr. Cindy Bowens, medical director of the pediatric ICU at Children’s Medical Center in Dallas, said they are still encouraging parents to bring their children to the hospital if they are sick.
“We will find care for every kid who comes to the hospital,” she said.
Overall, children are still considered significantly less likely than adults to experience bad outcomes from COVID-19. According to an estimate by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association, less than 2% of all child COVID-19 cases resulted in hospitalization.
Deaths are even more rare — almost extraordinarily so — with less than .03% of cases involving children.
Still, health experts say it’s the wrong approach to assume risk to children is minimal because it’s so much lower than the risk to older adults. That goes for teens and young adults who qualify for the vaccine, too.
“If you are young and healthy, should you be super worried that you’re going to die of this disease? No,” said Dr. David Dowdy, associate professor of epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “But if your goal is to be reasonably healthy and to avoid the potential for symptoms that could last for weeks or months, it’s definitely a better idea to get the vaccine.”
In other words, “just because it’s not going to kill you, doesn’t mean that you can’t get really sick,” he said.
Dowdy said he’s also not convinced delta’s superpowers are behind the sudden surge in kids getting sick either. He points to the widespread change in behaviors this spring when vaccinations became widely available and people dropped their masks and began gathering again in large groups whether they were vaccinated or not.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert and President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, told ABC News anchor David Muir last week: “What is absolutely clear is that more children are getting infected. And as more children get infected, you will naturally see more children get hospitalized.”
Dr. Mark Kline, physician-in-chief of Children’s Hospital New Orleans, said he is alarmed at the number of critically ill children, including infants and toddlers, in his care who are struggling with COVID-19. He said children have become the “collateral damage” of adults who are refusing to wear masks or get vaccinated.
“Children currently have no way out of this pandemic other than through the advocacy and personal responsibility of their parents and all adults,” he said. “So far, we are failing them miserably.”
(NEW YORK) — As parents across the country brace for another school year upended by the coronavirus pandemic, they are also face rising concerns over kids’ safety amid the delta variant and the vulnerability of unvaccinated children.
One of those parents preparing his children for an unpredictable school year is Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist, chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital and ABC News contributor.
We asked Brownstein, also an ABC News’ contributor, how is he preparing to send his two children, ages 10 and 11, safely back to school in-person later this month.
“My view is still that we will likely be able to keep our kids in person, but this virus has to keep us humble and things might change,” he said. “As long as we recognize it’s not one size fits all, and that we’re flexible and nuanced, I think we can still aim to have a great year for our kids.”
Here are four steps Brownstein said he is taking for his kids’ new school year:
1. I’m having my kids wear face masks.
Brownstein said his children’s school is asking all students, teachers and staff to wear face masks, regardless of vaccination status, which he supports as a way to help keep people safe and allow for in-person learning.
His children are too young to be vaccinated as currently only children ages 12 and older are eligible to receive a COVID-19 vaccine in the United States.
“We know that there is substantial high transmission of COVID happening around this country right now, and when you have a lot of transmission in the community, that will spill over into schools,” he said. “If parents consider the individual risk of their kids, but on top of that the risk of having to go virtual [learning], it makes sense for them to consider masking their kids, as a way to make sure to preserve the school year ahead.”
Brownstein said his kids were able to do in-person learning last year by wearing face masks, of which he recommends families have a large collection, so kids have continual access to clean face masks.
“We went with cloth masks because our kids had more affinity for them and we knew that they would adhere to it,” he said. “And through the year, we found that our kids were incredibly adherent … and generally speaking, they were able to have a normal school year, despite having this cloth on their face all day.”
2. I’m asking school administrators questions.
Brownstein said he has kept an open dialogue with the leaders of his kids’ school over the past nearly two years of the pandemic.
“What we found is school administrators do have the essential objective of keeping kids safe and keeping the school going and everyone wants that for our kids,” he said. “And the teachers, above all, are looking to keep their classrooms in person, so having conversations with administrators, with teachers about understanding protocols, why decisions have been made and being an active voice in making some of those decisions is critical.”
“Parents can be a really effective advocate for making sure that the kids can have a safe school year ahead,” he added.
Brownstein said some of the questions parents may want to ask include:
What are the school’s mask guidelines? At what points in the school day can kids take mask breaks?
When will students gather in indoor settings, like auditoriums, gymnasiums and lunchrooms? What is the masking requirement in those environments?
What is the school doing to make sure there is adequate ventilation?
Are there any COVID-19 testing requirements?
Are teachers and staff required to be vaccinated? What is the status of vaccination among students who are eligible for the vaccine?
3. I’m not stressing about cleaning groceries, surfaces at home.
While many parents were worried about disinfecting everything from groceries to countertops in the beginning of the pandemic, that can be much less of a concern for parents now, according to Brownstein.
“What we now know is that transmission is really driven by respiratory air droplets and aerosols, and the other modes of transmission are just far and away less of a concern,” he said. “If we want to give our kids a normal year and we want to try to get back to normal, we should be aiming to focus on those high-transmission events.”
“That’s why the focus has been on masking and social distancing and ventilation, because those are really the places in which transmission can take place,” Brownstein added. “Some of those other activities I really do think that we can do away with for this year.”
4. I’m staying flexible and optimistic.
Brownstein says he is looking at the return to school in the context of the need to keep kids, families and teachers safe, while keeping in perspective kids’ relative low risk of severe complications from COVID-19, balanced with the need to give kids a fulfilling school year.
“With that balance, we can’t live in fear,” he said. “We have to make sure to be flexible and nuanced as we approach the school year, and recognize that it still might not be a normal year, but we should aim for the most normal experience.”
Brownstein added that he and fellow parents still, “have to be reasonable if things change, if we have to cancel certain activities, and certain types of events can’t take place because of the level of transmission in the community.”
(NEW YORK) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention listed the COVID-19 delta variant as one of its “variants of concern” (VOCs) on June 15. According to the CDC, VOCs can be more contagious, more dangerous, less susceptible to available treatments or harder to detect.
The current VOCs all have mutations in the virus’s spike protein, which acts as a key to break into cells to infect them. And that’s a potential concern because the spike protein from the original version of the virus is what scientists used to design all three authorized vaccines. It’s also what monoclonal antibody treatments latch on to so the virus can’t get into your cells, effectively “neutralizing” the threat. So far none of these mutations have changed the virus enough to undercut the vaccines.
The uncontrolled spread of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, means the virus is mutating quickly. That’s why many new variants are being discovered in places with the highest infection rates and large numbers of unvaccinated individuals, like the United States, the United Kingdom, India and Brazil.
“Viruses mutate; they change their form all the time,” said ABC News medical contributor, Dr. Simone Wildes, a board-certified infectious disease physician and public health expert at South Shore Health in Weymouth, Massachusetts.
“We’re not just dealing with one virus, we’re dealing with a lot of viruses. Because there’s been uncontrolled replication around the world for the last year and a half, we’ve created variants beyond variants,” said Dr. Todd Ellerin, ABC News medical contributor and Director of Infectious Diseases at South Shore Health.
Thousands of variants exist around the world, but most of them do not change the way the virus acts. Experts are constantly working to figure out which variants we should focus on and how they change how we combat COVID-19. Right now, there are only a handful of concerning COVID-19 variants.
Alpha variant (B.1.1.7)
The alpha variant was first identified in the U.K. and thought to have emerged in September 2020. It spread in Europe before arriving in the U.S. in December 2020 and was the dominant viral strain in American until early June this year.
Compared to the original Wuhan strain, the alpha variant is about 50% more contagious and led to an increase in hospitalizations and deaths in the U.K. However, the alpha variant is susceptible to available vaccines, according to the CDC. Treatments called monoclonal antibodies, which are designed specifically to combat the virus, also still work against the alpha variant.
Beta variant (B.1.351, B.1.351.2, B.1.351.3)
The beta variant was first identified in South Africa in October 2020 before arriving in the U.S. in January 2021. Like the alpha variant, it is about 50% more transmissible than the original strain. It is also better at evading neutralizing antibodies, meaning our defense systems– natural immunity after infection, vaccines, and monoclonal antibodies– have a hard time stopping the virus from breaking into cells. This makes the beta variant more difficult to treat and more likely to cause reinfection or breakthrough infection compared to the original strain. Early studies from South Africa and countries in the European Union report that it might potentially lead to more hospitalizations and death in people under 60.
While beta made up a minority of infections in early 2021, currently, there are now few, if any, documented cases of the beta variant in the U.S.
Gamma variant (P.1, P.1.1, P.1.2)
The gamma variant was identified in Japan in four travelers arriving from Brazil in November 2020, and was found in the U.S. in January 2021. Despite the current spread in Brazil, it only accounts for 1% of infections in the U.S.
Like the beta variant, mutations in the gamma variant’s spike protein make it better at escaping neutralizing antibodies, so people who previously had COVID-19 or are vaccinated may still experience reinfection or breakthrough infection. Studies from the E.U. suggest the gamma variant may cause more hospitalizations and deaths compared to the original strain.
Delta variant (B.1.617.2, AY.1, AY.2, AY.3)
The delta variant was identified in India in October 2020. It gained dominance quickly after it was first reported in the U.S. in April 2021. In fact, delta has now spread so much that it has splintered into several sub variants, referred to as “delta plus.” Delta plus variants have a mutation in the spike protein found in both the beta and gamma variants that may help to evade neutralizing antibodies. While around 13% of infections in the U.S. are from delta plus variants (AY.1, AY.2, and AY.3), it behaves similarly to the delta variant. Collectively, all the delta lineages make up 80-95% of sequenced infections in the country.
Like other VOCs, delta has multiple mutations in its spike protein. What makes delta unique is that it is much more efficient at latching onto your cells and is much more contagious.
“The delta variant is clearly the most contagious variant we’ve dealt with,” Ellerin said. “You ultimately have survival of the fittest … the more ‘fit’ viruses, those with a replication advantage, ultimately win out. Currently, that’s what we’re facing with delta.”
According to the CDC, delta is about twice as infectious as the original strain and estimated to be 60% more infectious than alpha. People infected with the delta variant have been reported to have viral loads 1,000 times higher than other variants. This contributed to the CDC changing its guidance on masks for vaccinated people.
“Masks decrease the likelihood of acquiring COVID-19 and act as source control,” Ellerin said. “Which means if you have it, you are less likely to spread it.”
Studies are still looking at how well vaccines and monoclonal antibodies can neutralize the threat of delta.
“The vaccines are really very effective,” Wildes said. “For those who are on the fence, I think this has really helped me and a lot of people around me to remind them that if you get COVID and you’ve been vaccinated, you’re clearly not as sick as the people I’m seeing in the ICU each day that have not been vaccinated.”
Lauren R. Richter, MD, a pediatrician and pediatric endocrinologist, is a postdoctoral research fellow in biomedical informatics at Columbia University and a contributor to the ABC News Medical Unit.
(SAVANNAH, Ga.) — Martin and Trina Daniel, married for over 20 years, both died of COVID-19 within hours of each other, leaving behind two teenage children facing an unimaginable loss.
The Daniels met at Savannah State University in the 1990s before Martin Daniel headed to Tuskegee University in Alabama for graduate school, their nephew, Cornelius Daniel, told ABC News.
The couple settled in Savannah, Georgia, where they raised two children: Miles, now 18, and Marina, 15.
Trina was a stay-at-home mom who loved supporting her immediate and extended family while Martin worked as a chemist, Cornelius Daniel said.
“He loved being a chemist,” he said. “One of the reasons I went to Tuskegee was because he went there.”
The Daniels’ niece, Quintella Daniel, added that she went to Savannah State because of her uncle.
“He was just a very motivational person,” she said.
When the COVID-19 pandemic erupted, Quinella, a nurse, headed to New York City, the first U.S. epicenter, calling it “a life-changing experience.”
“You may have a lot of people, 10 or 20 people, waiting for one to die to get on a ventilator,” she said. “I thank God every day that about 35 tests I took there … I never had COVID.”
Martin, 53, Trina, 49, and their teenagers — all unvaccinated — contracted COVID-19 in June, the family said.
Cornelius Daniel said his aunt and uncle were hesitant to get vaccinated in part due to the legacy of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, which charted syphilis progression in unknowing Black men from the 1930s to the 1970s.
Martin Daniel had “a stubborn attitude toward vaccines in general,” Cornelius said.
“He trusted the vaccines that had been around for awhile,” like for polio, but felt the COVID-19 vaccines were developed too quickly, Cornelius said. (The quick COVID-19 vaccine development was possible because of decades of prior scientific studies demonstrating safety, as well as an unprecedented multibillion-dollar commitment by the federal government to accelerate research.)
The Daniels eventually came around to the idea and were scheduled to get the vaccine in mid-July — the week after they died, their nephew said. The Daniels’ symptoms hit at the end of June and quickly “spiraled out of control” around July 4.
Martin Daniel died at home on July 6. Trina was hospitalized and died that night, the family said.
“We were already taken aback by his passing, but to have to endure the passing of her … was traumatizing,” Cornelius said.
Miles and Marina, battling COVID-19 while their parents died, went to the hospital on July 7 for treatment. They were released hours later, Cornelius said, but had to quarantine for two weeks while dealing with the loss of both parents.
After a painful month, both teens are “doing well” and “adjusting to the new normal,” Cornelius said.
The family dropped off Miles at college this weekend and Marina is beginning her sophomore year of high school.
Miles and Marina now plan to get vaccinated, Cornelius said, adding that he hopes others who haven’t yet gotten the shot will follow the teens’ lead.
“The only bullets we have right now in our gun are the vaccines,” Cornelius said. “So I would prefer a vaccine over a ventilator every day. Too many families have already experienced the pain that we’re feeling.”
(NEW YORK) — The United States is facing a COVID-19 surge this summer as the more contagious delta variant spreads.
More than 622,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 and over 4.3 million people have died from the disease worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Just 59.3% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here’s how the news is developing Tuesday. All times Eastern:
Aug 17, 4:56 am
US reports over 200,000 new cases in a day for 3rd time this month
There were 209,988 new cases of COVID-19 confirmed in the United States on Monday, according to a real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University.
It’s the third time this month that the U.S. has reported more than 200,000 newly confirmed infections in a single day.
Meanwhile, Johns Hopkins data shows an additional 683 fatalities from the disease were registered nationwide on Monday, down from this month’s peak of 1,889 new deaths on Aug. 13.
A total of 36,888,978 people in the U.S. have been diagnosed with COVID-19 since the pandemic began, and at least 622,321 have died, according to Johns Hopkins data. The cases include people from all 50 U.S. states, Washington, D.C., and other U.S. territories as well as repatriated citizens.
Aug 17, 4:38 am
Bangladesh extends COVID-19 vaccines to Rohingya refugees
Bangladesh has launched a COVID-19 vaccination program for Rohingya refugees housed in one of the world’s largest and most densely populated camps in Cox’s Bazar, according to a press release from the World Health Organization.
The campaign, led by the Bangladeshi government with technical support from the WHO and other partners, is initially targeting nearly 48,000 Rohingya refugees who are 55 and older. It’s part of Bangladesh’s national deployment and vaccination plan to ensure equity and fair allocation of vaccines across the country.
“Bangladesh is demonstrating what WHO has been advocating for — equitable access to vaccines,” Dr. Poonam Khetrapal Singh, regional director of the WHO South-East Asia Region, said in a statement Monday. “Inclusion is key to protecting vulnerable populations like the refugees, for safeguarding their health and that of their host communities and societies.”
More than 1 million Rohingya — a stateless ethnic group who predominantly practice Islam — are sheltering in crowded camps in Bangladesh after fleeing persecution in Buddhist-majority Myanmar.
Aug 16, 11:38 pm
Biden admin expected to recommend boosters for all Americans
The Biden administration could soon be urging Americans to get a booster shot eight months after completing their original vaccination, a source familiar with the discussions told ABC News Monday.
Federal health officials and experts are currently coalescing around the idea that all Americans should receive a booster, the source said. Those booster shots could be rolled out as soon as mid to late September — pending Food and Drug Administration authorization.
The announcement, first reported by The New York Times and The Washington Post, could come as soon as this week.
The new timeline for the booster shots in a significant shift for the administration, which previously had been non-comital on when boosters for the majority of Americans would be needed.
Aug 16, 10:20 pm
El Paso sues state of Texas over ban on mask mandates
The city of El Paso has filed a lawsuit challenging Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s ban on mask mandates in the state to allow for local protective measures to be ordered in the county.
Starting Wednesday at 12:01 a.m., a local health authority order will mandate that all individuals over the age of 2 wear some form of face covering while in public indoor spaces.
The parents of children under the age of 10 will be responsible for appropriately masking their children while outside their home, city officials said.
The order comes after El Paso City-County Health Authority Dr. Hector Ocaranza recommended masks at all indoor facilities in the county.
A face covering is not required on those who are eating or drinking or anyone who has trouble breathing, has a medical condition or disability that prevents wearing a face covering.
(KABUL, Afghanistan) — Chaos has enveloped Kabul after Afghanistan’s president fled the country over the weekend and the Taliban seized control of the presidential palace there, all but ending America’s 20-year campaign as it began: under Taliban rule.
As the crisis intensifies, with images from Kabul showing Afghans storming the airport tarmac and climbing onto military planes after the U.S. assumed control of the airport, President Joe Biden cut his time at Camp David short and headed back to the White House to address the nation Monday afternoon.
The Pentagon said that 6,000 U.S. troops would soon be in the country’s capital as the military races to evacuate diplomats and civilians from an increasingly chaotic Kabul. Despite criticism, the Biden administration is sticking by its decision to withdraw troops from the country by Aug. 31, ending America’s longest war.
Here are some key developments. All times Eastern:
Aug 17, 6:39 am
US ambassador to Afghanistan says he has not fled
Ross Wilson, acting U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, said he is still in Kabul despite media reports that he had fled as the country descended into chaos.
Wilson took to Twitter on Tuesday morning to address the “false reports,” saying he remains in Afghanistan’s capital “working hard to help [thousands] of U.S. citizens and vulnerable Afghans.”
“Our commitment to the Afghan people endures,” Wilson tweeted.
Aug 17, 6:23 am
Taliban declares ‘amnesty,’ urges women to join government
The Taliban on Tuesday declared an “amnesty” for all in Afghanistan and encouraged women to join their government.
“The Islamic Emirate doesn’t want women to be victims,” Enamullah Samangani, a member of the Taliban’s cultural commission, said on Afghan state television, using the group’s phrase “Islamic Emirate” to refer to the country of Afghanistan. “They should be in the government structure according to Shariah law.”
“The structure of government is not fully clear,” he added, “but based on experience, there should be a fully Islamic leadership, and all sides should join.”
There are fears that the militants will seek revenge on those who worked for the toppled Afghan government or foreign nations, such as the United States. There are also concerns for the future of girls and women under the Taliban’s government, which stripped them of nearly all their rights when it previously ruled Afghanistan.
Aug 17, 5:41 am
Former Afghan interpreters for US speak out: ‘It’s a nightmare’
Some former Afghan interpreters for the U.S. government are speaking out while they watch in fear from afar as the Taliban seizes control of their country.
Ismail Khan, a former interpreter for American troops in Afghanistan who worked with the U.S. Army as a translator from 2006 to 2012, described the situation as chaotic and dire.
“It’s a nightmare,” Khan told San Francisco ABC station KGO in an interview on Monday. “We never thought it would come to this.”
Khan, who is now the special immigrant visa ambassador for Seattle-based nationwide nonprofit No One Left Behind, said that any Afghans who have worked for or helped the U.S. government are at risk of being killed by the Taliban — and it’s not just interpreters.
“Cooks, cleaners, there are security guards, there are mechanics, there are laundry guys,” he explained. “There are a lot of people that worked with U.S. forces, and not only their lives but their family’s lives are also in danger.”
“People are going to die,” he added. “They (the Taliban) are going door-to-door to slaughter those who raised their hand and wanted to help.”
Khan believes there are more than 60,000 Afghans who need to be evacuated “right now,” but the Biden administration has only approved visas for a few thousand.
“They’re begging for help,” he said. “We should stand up and do something about it. It’s a matter of life and death.”
Another former interpreter, Muhammad, who withheld his last name for fear of retribution, said his wife and five children are still in Kabul. Muhammad worked as an interpreter for the U.S. embassy there until moving to Philadelphia in 2019. He and his family returned to Afghanistan’s capital this summer to visit relatives.
Muhammad went back to the United States last week while his family stayed behind, after receiving assurances from his contacts at the U.S. embassy that his wife and children would be safely evacuated. Now, they can’t get out.
“I cannot live without my family,” Muhammad told Philadelphia ABC station WPVI in an interview on Monday. “They are concerned, they are scared, but they have no option.”
Aug 16, 10:53 pm
Former President Bush calls on America to help Afghan refugees
Former President George W. Bush and former first lady Laura Bush released a statement late Monday night calling on America and its allies to aid the people of Afghanistan as the Taliban has taken over the country.
They said the Biden administration has the authority to help now.
“The Afghans now at the greatest risk are the same ones who have been on the forefront of progress inside their nation. President Biden has promised to evacuate these Afghans, along with American citizens and our allies,” they said in a statement. “The United States government has the legal authority to cut the red tape for refugees during urgent humanitarian crises. And we have the responsibility and the resources to secure safe passage for them now, without bureaucratic delay. Our most stalwart allies, along with private NGOs, are ready to help.”
Despite the sudden collapse of the Afghan government, the Bush’s said they remain hopeful for the country and its people.
“In times like these, it can be hard to remain optimistic. Laura and I will steadfastly remain so. Like our country, Afghanistan is also made up of resilient, vibrant people,” their statement said. “Nearly 65 percent of the population is under twenty-five years old. The choices they will make for opportunity, education, and liberty will also determine Afghanistan’s future.”
Aug 16, 8:11 pm
Details about C-17 flight mobbed by thousands at Kabul airport
In a dramatic video, hundreds of Afghan civilians surrounded a U.S. C-17 military transport aircraft as it taxied on the runway at Kabul’s airport.
A U.S. defense official said these were not special visa applicants, but people who had breached the runway from the civilian side of the airport.
According to the official, the C-17 had landed with cargo and as the landing crew attempted to unload, it was rushed by hundreds of Afghan civilians. The aircrew decided it was not safe to unload and began taxiing to fly away to safety.
(NEW YORK) — Federal officials have declared a shortage in Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the country that serves tens of millions of residents in the West and northern Mexico, amid a historic decades long “mega-drought” in the region.
The Bureau of Reclamation announced the first-ever water shortage for the lower Colorado River basin on Monday, which will prompt a reduction in water releases to Arizona, Nevada and Mexico in 2022 to make sure there is enough water in the reservoir to keep generating power and provide water for essential uses.
Lake Mead will be under a Tier 1 shortage, meaning that starting next year, Arizona will receive about 18% less water from the Colorado River than in a typical year. Nevada’s water allowance will be reduced by about 7%, and Mexico’s by about 5%, according to the Bureau of Reclamation. States, local agencies, tribes and water users will negotiate which users see the most reductions.
In Arizona, for example, farmers will bear the brunt of the reductions, while cities and one tribe will see small reductions under the state’s drought contingency plan, though some have also made voluntary efforts to reduce water use.
The impacts of the water cuts to Central Arizona farmers will be serious and representatives from the irrigation districts anticipate as much as 30% of the farmland in Pinal County could be left unplanted next year, Kevin Moran, senior director of the Colorado River Program for the Environmental Defense Fund, told ABC News.
He said that it will be crucial for states and water users to continue to work together to adapt and conserve as much of the watersheds out west as possible to prepare for worsening conditions in the future.
“I think it’s a wake up call for everyone that we need to start planning for the river that scientists tell us we’re probably going to have not the one we remember or might wish for,” he said.
The reservoir hit its lowest water levels in history this summer, the bureau announced in June. The Colorado River system currently has only 40% of the amount of water it can store, down from 49% last year.
The lowering water levels in several reservoirs in the West have been exacerbated by severe drought, meaning less snowpack to feed into rivers, streams and lakes in areas surrounding the mountains. And what little runoff there is from snow in the spring is immediately sopped up by the arid soil before it can reach important bodies of water.
After 22 years of drought conditions, the water levels at the Hoover and Glen Canyon Dam reservoirs hit the lowest water levels since they were filled, Interior Assistant Secretary for Water and Science Tanya Trujillo told reporters in a press briefing Monday.
“We are seeing the effects of climate change in the Colorado River Basin through extended drought, extreme temperatures, expansive wildfires, and in some places flooding and landslides, and now is the time to take action to respond to them,” Trujillo said.
The Bureau of Reclamation, states, tribes, and water users have been planning for drought conditions to become more severe and created contingency plans on who would have their water allowance reduced first. In addition to helping farmers and other water users voluntarily reduce water use.
Levels of Lake Mead are projected to hit a level that could require additional cuts in July 2023. State officials said they will have to make difficult decisions to adapt to more limited water resources going into the future and that states will need to work together to come up with innovative solutions, according to the new analysis released by the Bureau of Reclamation.
“Today’s Colorado River hydrology is not the same hydrology this basin knew a century ago. Every community, every sector, every industry that uses Colorado River water must do more to conserve and protect this critical water resource upon which 40 million Americans depend,” said John Entsminger, general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority.
Tom Buschatzke, director of the Arizona Department of Water Resources, called the declaration and projections a “serious turn of events” but not a crisis, saying the state and stakeholders can make changes to limit water usage into the future.
“The challenge before us, to help protect the lake further and to protect 1020 elevation will be daunting, but we can and will address these issues, and be successful together in partnership,” he said.
But the conditions have worsened faster than expected, prompting the shortage declaration this year and possibly more reductions and actions in the future if drought conditions continue.
“The announcement today is a recognition that the hydrology that was planned for years ago but we hoped we would never see, is here,” said Bureau of Reclamation Deputy Commissioner Camille Touton.
Moran said the shortage declaration shows the river is “ground zero” for climate change in the US.
“We’re seeing the impact of climate change and the interconnected crises of drought, wildfires and extreme heat, and we need to adapt on an accelerated basis to those impacts,” he told ABC News.
Moran added that he thinks the world is at a point of “accelerated climate change” that is forcing them to “grapple with the health of the hydrologic system and what it can actually sustain.”
“We’re having to face that in ways we have, we have been able to avoid, at least in significant ways until now,” he added.
But Moran said the Bureau of Reclamation and water users were able to come together to plan for this water shortage, adding that “failure is not an option” going forward.
(CAPE SAN BLAS, Fla.) — Tropical storm Fred made landfall near Cape San Blas, along the Florida Panhandle, on Monday afternoon with winds near 65 mph.
One foot of rain is possible in the Florida Panhandle. Fred then is forecast to barrel north through Alabama and Georgia, delivering up to 10 inches of rain.
The flash flood threat will stretch to Atlanta and could even reach Richmond, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., by Wednesday.
President Joe Biden warned last week that the hurricane-prone states also are ones with surging COVID-19 cases.
“Let me be clear. If you’re in a state where hurricanes often strike, a vital part of preparing for hurricane season is to get vaccinated now. Everything is more complicated if you’re not vaccinated and a hurricane or natural disaster hits. If you wind up having to evacuate, if you wind up having to stay in a shelter, you don’t want to add COVID-19 to the list of dangers that you’re going to be confronting,” Biden said at a briefing alongside Federal Emergency Management Agency officials.
Fred isn’t the only storm moving through the Atlantic Ocean.
Tropical depression Grace is targeting Haiti, where residents are dealing with a devastating 7.2-magnitude earthquake this weekend that killed nearly 1,300 people.
Gusty winds and heavy rain are expected in Haiti Monday and Jamaica on Tuesday.
And a new tropical depression formed near Bermuda on Monday morning that could become Tropical Storm Henri later in the day.
A tropical depression near Bermuda could cause high waves and rip currents along the East Coast of the U.S.
Henri is expected to circle around Bermuda, where a tropical storm watch is in effect. Henri’s only impact on the U.S. could be high waves and rip currents along the East Coast.
