How an NBA player’s genetic heart disease led to advocacy for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

How an NBA player’s genetic heart disease led to advocacy for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
How an NBA player’s genetic heart disease led to advocacy for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
Alex Goodlett/Getty Images

(NEW YORK) — A healthy athlete all his life, Jared Butler entered his college basketball physical exam as the last step before he could step on the court. But an unexpected diagnosis of a potentially lethal heart condition put him on the sidelines while he anxiously wondered if his basketball career was over.

“After a month of testing, we found out that I had hypertrophic cardiomyopathy,” Butler told ABC News. “I had never heard the term before. I was worried what this would mean for my playing career — and ultimately my life.”

That was three years ago. Today, Butler is coming off a starring role in an NCAA championship run at Baylor University and playing as a rookie in the NBA for the Utah Jazz. He has been able to continue his career thanks to routine cardiac evaluation and support by his family, doctors and team.

Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy is this most common genetically inherited heart disease, estimated to affect between 1 in 200 and 1 in 500 people worldwide, according to a 2015 study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology. The condition causes the heart muscle to become too thick, which could lead to life-altering conditions such as arrhythmias, heart failure, stroke or death.

Dr. Steve Ommen, cardiologist and medical director of the Mayo Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, said the disease is not gender-selective and has no ethnic or geographic hotspots.

“The disease can manifest at any time and at any age among family members carrying the mutation,” said Dr. Seema Mital, pediatric cardiologist and head of cardiovascular research at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto. “Some may even go without any evidence of the disease throughout their lifetime.”

Once someone, like Butler, is found to have the disease, immediate family members are tested for the genetic mutation. In Butler’s case, his mother, Juanea, also tested positive for genetic markers of the disease. She will also be monitored regularly by a cardiologist.

“I found out that I am the culprit. I am the one who carries the gene” said Juanea. “I was really confused and in a state of shock. I grew up active as well and never had symptoms or noted to have heart problems.”

Mother and son were symptom-free their whole lives. But Dr. Michael Ackerman, genetic cardiologist at the Mayo Clinic and Jared Butler’s physician, said people and physicians should be aware of the most-concerning symptoms, including chest pain, fainting and shortness of breath.

The disease can be especially risky for professional athletes because it increases the risk of sudden cardiac death. But thanks to the medical field having a better understanding of this disease, not every athlete needs to give up their career.

“Every athlete [with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy] doesn’t need to give up what they’re doing,” said Mital. “Having the disease means you are going to be followed medically to make sure we can prevent heart failure and death. In fact, we now know that patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy can live a long, healthy life without any complications.”

Ackerman has treated over 700 athletes with genetic cardiac conditions, a majority of whom do not require extensive medical procedures.

“For Jared, we made a plan with him, his family and his team and reassess that plan frequently and alter it as needed,” said Ackerman. “This is not the new and improved way, this is just the approved and best way.”

Ommen added that “shared decision-making” between a doctor and patient is meant to educate patients about the potential risks and make a group decision that is best for them.

He’s more concerned about the 85% of the patients — assuming 1 in 500 Americans have the condition — who are living undiagnosed. To raise awareness, Butler and his mom decided to launch a campaign, “Could it be HCM?” in conjunction with Bristol Myers Squibb.

Ackerman added the second aspect of the campaign is knowing your family history. Having that knowledge about the sudden death of a family member could be life saving information

“Young patients come to the doctor complaining of shortness of breath, or chest pressure, and they are mistakenly diagnosed with exercise-induced asthma,” said Ommen. “Campaigns like ‘Could it be HCM?’ are trying to raise awareness that if a young person does come in with symptoms, think about hypertrophic cardiomyopathy as one of the potential causes.”

There is no cure, but Mital said that there are medications and surgical techniques to help alleviate symptoms and a lot of research invested in finding treatments to slow progression of the disease is in the future.

“Finding out you have the condition is just the beginning. It has been a long journey, and it has changed my life,” said Butler. “But I find myself lucky that I do not have symptoms and I can continue playing basketball.”

Lily Nedda Dastmalchi, D.O., M.A., is a physician and cardiology fellow at Temple University Hospital and a contributor to the ABC News Medical Unit.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

AG Garland instructs US attorneys to prioritize unruly airplane passenger prosecution

AG Garland instructs US attorneys to prioritize unruly airplane passenger prosecution
AG Garland instructs US attorneys to prioritize unruly airplane passenger prosecution
ViktorCap/iStock

(WASHINGTON) — As people travel to visit loved ones for the holiday season, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland is warning that unruly passengers on flights will not be tolerated and may face prosecution.

“Passengers who assault, intimidate or threaten violence against flight crews and flight attendants do more than harm those employees; they prevent the performance of critical duties that help ensure safe air travel,” the Attorney General wrote in a memo to U.S. Attorneys on Wednesday. “Similarly, when passengers commit violent acts against other passengers in the close confines of a commercial aircraft, the conduct endangers everyone aboard.”

He urged all 52 U.S. attorney’s offices to prioritize the prosecution of federal crimes that “endanger the safety of passengers, flight crews, and flight attendants.”

On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) screened 2.3 million people, according to an agency spokesperson.

“The figure represents 88% versus pre-pandemic volume screened in 2019 for that same day of the week,” the administration said.

Airline crews have reported incidents in which visibly drunk passengers verbally abused them, shoved them, threw trash at them, kicked seats, defiled restrooms and, in some cases, even punched them in the face.

A Federal Aviation Administration spokesperson confirmed to ABC News earlier this month that the administration has referred 37 of the “most egregious” cases to the FBI out of the 227 unruly passenger cases they’ve initiated enforcement action on.

Representatives from the Justice Department and FAA began meeting in August, according to a joint statement, “to develop an efficient method for referring the most serious unruly-passenger cases for potential criminal prosecution.”

The FAA said it has received more than 5,000 reports from airlines of unruly passengers since the start of the year.

In his memo on Wednesday, Garland urged U.S. attorney’s offices to talk to state and local law enforcement. He directed them to “reaffirm” the DOJ’s willingness to help.

“The Department of Justice is committed to using resources to do it’s part to prevent violence, intimidation, threats of violence, and other criminal behavior that endangers the safety of passengers, flight crews, flight attendants, on commercial aircraft,” Garland wrote.

ABC News Mina Kaji and Amanda Maile contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Germany and Austria seeing COVID cases rise among unvaccinated population

Germany and Austria seeing COVID cases rise among unvaccinated population
Germany and Austria seeing COVID cases rise among unvaccinated population
Okan Celik/iStock

(BERLIN) — Germany passed a grim milestone on Thursday: 100,000 deaths from COVID-19. In recent weeks, the situation has spiraled out of control as cases have spiked and intensive care beds have become scarce in some regions.

The country has one of the lowest rates vaccination rates in western Europe — only 68% of the population has been vaccinated, according to recent health statistics.

“Sadly, the coronavirus still hasn’t been beaten. Every day we see new records as far as the number of infections are concerned,” newly elected German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said at a press conference on Wednesday.

As of Friday morning, the country’s disease control agency, the RKI, said a record 76,414 cases had been reported in the past 24 hours.

With winter around the corner, Europe has once again become the epicenter of the coronavirus crisis. Last week, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported deaths due to COVID-19 had reached 4,200 a day, double the death rate at the end of September. The organization warned that a further 700,000 people in the European region could die by March given the current trend.

The rise in cases is mainly do to the more contagious Delta variant and the fact that more people are staying indoors as winter begins. The number of people who remain unvaccinated is around 54%, according to WHO Executive Director Robb Butler.

“Let me be absolutely clear, the majority of people in ICU, in intensive care units and ICU today, are the unvaccinated” Butler said in an interview with Sky News.

Germany, like many countries around Europe, has moved ahead with stricter measures to cope, some of which apply to the entire country. Most blanket rules affect the unvaccinated population, which now need to show proof of vaccination, recent recovery or a negative COVID-19 test to enter public transport. Germany already had rules in place requiring similar proof when entering indoor spaces like bars, restaurants and entertainment facilities.

Yet each of Germany’s 16 states can also choose to implement their own measures. In Bavaria and Saxony where vaccination rates are low and hospitalization rates are rising to worrying levels, stricter lockdowns have been put in place. The seasonally popular Christmas markets were canceled for the second year in a row.

In Bavaria, a region with 13 million residents, politicians face grave crises in dealing with the growing number of cases.

“The situation is overwhelming and just keeps escalating,” the region’s leader, Markus Söder, told reporters. News agency DPA reported that a military plane will fly seriously ill patients from the Bavarian town of Memmingen to the state of North Rhine-Westphalia on Friday afternoon.

Söder is a proponent of making vaccinations mandatory.

“Compulsory vaccination does not violate the right to freedom — far more, it is a precondition for us to win back our freedom,” he wrote in an op-ed with politician Winfried Kretschmann of German region Baden-Württemberg in Tuesday’s newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

Germany is mulling compulsory vaccination after Austria became the first European country to announce a vaccine mandate. It will go into effect February 2022. The announcement brought tens of thousands of people out to protest on the streets of Vienna last weekend.

On Monday, the country went into its fourth national lockdown, set to last for 10 days and likely to be extended to 20 days. Although less strict than previous lockdowns of 2020, citizens may only leave their houses for specific purposes, such as buying groceries, exercising or going to the doctor. Only 66% of the country of 8.9 million people have been vaccinated.

With the rise in COVID cases, particularly in northern Europe, and the introduction of new measures restricting access of unvaccinated people from public life, tensions seem to be flaring up in certain populations. Belgium and the Netherlands saw violent protests against lockdown measures last weekend.

Complicating matters is a worrying new virus variant B.1.1.529 which been discovered in southern Africa. As of Friday morning, a number of countries have implemented travel bans, including Germany, Italy and the U.K.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

COVID-19 live updates: First European case of new variant from South Africa confirmed

COVID-19 live updates: First European case of new variant from South Africa confirmed
COVID-19 live updates: First European case of new variant from South Africa confirmed
CasPhotography/iStock

(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.1 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 775,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.

Just 59.1% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Here’s how the new is developing. All times Eastern:

Nov 26, 9:24 am
Belgium confirms 1st European case of new variant

Belgium’s health department has confirmed its first case of the new B.1.1.529 variant.

The patient, a woman, had traveled to Belgium from Egypt via Istanbul. She developed symptoms 11 days after her return and was not vaccinated. Her family members have tested negative for COVID and the woman is not in a life-threatening condition, officials said.

Hong Kong has two confirmed cases and Israel has one other confirmed case of the B.1.1.529 variant. Several cases have been reported in South Africa and Botswana.

The World Health Organization is meeting Friday to discuss the new variant.

Nov 26, 4:04 am
EU to propose travel ban on southern Africa over new variant

The European Union’s executive branch said Friday that it wants to suspend air travel to the bloc from southern Africa due to concerns over a newly identified variant of the novel coronavirus.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen made the announcement via Twitter, saying a proposal “to activate the emergency brake to stop air travel from the Southern Africa region” will be made “in close coordination” with EU member states.

The variant, called B.1.1.529, was first detected in South Africa earlier this week and has quickly spread. At least 22 cases have been confirmed in the country so far, according to South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases. South African scientist Tulio de Oliveira told reporters Thursday that the new variant carries “a very high number of mutations,” but it’s unclear whether it will limit the effectiveness of vaccines.

Several cases of B.1.1.529 have since been confirmed in neighboring Botswana as well as in Hong Kong and Israel. The cases detected in Hong Kong and Israel were linked to travelers who had arrived from southern Africa.

The World Health Organization will meet on Friday to assess B.1.1.529 and determine whether it should be designated a variant “of interest” or “of concern.”

Nov 25, 8:01 pm
UK issues travel restrictions due to concerns over new variant

The United Kingdom announced Thursday new travel restrictions for six countries over concerns about a new variant of the novel coronavirus that emerged in South Africa.

The variant, known as B.1.1.529, has also been found in Botswana and Hong Kong in travelers from southern Africa. It has not yet been detected in the U.K., officials said.

“The early indications we have of this variant is that it may be more transmissible than the delta variant, and the vaccines that we currently have may be less effective against it,” U.K. Health Secretary Sajid Javid said during a briefing Thursday.

Starting midday on Friday, all flights from six southern African countries — South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Zimbabwe and Botswana — will be temporarily suspended, and travelers entering the U.K. from those countries after 4 a.m. on Sunday must quarantine in a government-approved hotel for 10 days.

Currently, B.1.1.529 is not designated by the World Health Organization as a variant “of concern” or “of interest.” So far, 22 cases have been confirmed in South Africa, according to the country’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases.

The WHO’s technical working group is scheduled to meet Friday to assess the new variant and may decide whether to give it a name from the Greek alphabet, based on its naming system for variants of concern and variants of interest.

The virus evolves as it spreads and many new variants, including those with worrying mutations, often just die out. Scientists monitor for possible changes that could be more transmissible or deadly, but sorting out whether new variants will have a public health impact can take time.

Nov 25, 10:18 am
Arizona hospital enters ‘crisis care’ operating mode

The Copper Queen Community Hospital in Bisbee, Arizona, is “operating in crisis care” due to the latest surge of COVID-19 cases in the state, local ABC affiliate KNXV reported.

The hospital only had 13 beds available and was “really struggling,” according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.

The state reported its 84,813th COVID-19 hospitalization on Tuesday, according to health department data. Arizona reported more than 4,000 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Prosecutors in Ahmaud Arbery trial say cellphone video was key for verdicts

Prosecutors in Ahmaud Arbery trial say cellphone video was key for verdicts
Prosecutors in Ahmaud Arbery trial say cellphone video was key for verdicts
jsmith/iStock

(BRUNSWICK, Ga.) — Prosecutors for the three white men convicted of murdering Ahmaud Arbery said they believe the cellphone video showing Arbery’s final moments and his death was the evidence that clinched the guilty verdict.

“Not a lot of homicides are on video,” Larissa Ollivierre, a Cobb County assistant district attorney who prosecuted the case, told 20/20. “I think for this case in particular, that was really important because I just don’t know that we would’ve gotten the verdict that we did had it not been for that video.”

On Wednesday, Travis McMichael, who fatally shot Arbery in February 2020, was convicted by a Glynn County jury on all nine charges, including malice murder and four counts of felony murder.

His father, Gregory McMichael, was found not guilty of malice murder but was convicted on all other charges, including four counts of felony murder.

The McMichaels’ neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan, who recorded the incident on a cellphone, was found guilty on six charges, including three of the felony murder counts.

All three men face up to life in prison. A sentencing date has yet to be announced.

Bryan shot the cellphone video from the driver’s seat of his pickup truck as he followed Arbery, who can be seen running alongside a residential street in the Satilla Shores neighborhood outside of Brunswick, Georgia. The video then shows Arbery tussling with Travis McMichael over the shotgun he was holding, as his father, Gregory McMichael stood in the bed of his pickup truck, also holding a gun. A gunshot is heard, and the video shows Arbery struggling with Travis McMichael for the shotgun. There is a second shot, and Arbery can be seen punching Travis McMichael, who then fires a shot at point-blank range, killing Arbery.

In addition to the video, Cobb County senior assistant district attorney Linda Dunikoski said the statements the defendants made after Arbery was killed was another key piece of evidence for their case. Travis McMichael claimed that he and his father suspected Arbery had just burglarized a home under construction in their neighborhood.

Defense attorneys had argued that Arbery was shot in self-defense when he resisted a citizen’s arrest. Prosecutors, meanwhile, alleged the defendants pursued and murdered Arbery because of incorrect “assumptions and driveway decisions” they made that the Black man running through their neighborhood had committed a burglary.

“Those statements were very, very important because those statements showed that they had absolutely no knowledge of any crime that he had committed,” Dunikoski said.

Initially after the incident, police questioned and then released the McMichaels, as well as Bryan. It wasn’t until the video was leaked online months later, sparking a widespread public outcry, and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation took over the case that the three men were eventually arrested and charged with murder.

Dunikoski and Cobb County assistant district attorney Paul Camarillo said they were concerned at first about the racial makeup of the jury in this case, which was almost entirely white except for one Black person.

“But I think deep down, we knew as a team, it wasn’t going to matter,” Camarillo said. “I had faith that … we were going to get a conviction, no matter what the makeup of the jury was.”

When the guilty verdicts were announced, Dunikoski said it was a “very, very emotional” moment for Arbery’s family, especially his mother, Wanda Cooper-Jones, who refused to give up her crusade for getting justice for her son.

“We could tell that the waves of relief were resonating through their bodies,” she said. “Wanda Cooper-Jones took one look at us and you could tell just everything fell away from her. She was crying and sobbing … but I think it was some relief that she’d finally gotten the justice that she was so desperately hoping for.”

Ahmaud Arbery’s mother said she is feeling especially thankful this Thanksgiving, after the three men were found guilty of her son’s murder.

“Today is Thanksgiving and I’m really, really thankful. My family and I are really, really thankful for the verdict we got yesterday,” Wanda Cooper-Jones told Good Morning America.

Arbery’s father Marcus Arbery told ABC News Wednesday that he had been skeptical that the case would result in any guilty verdicts.

Following the verdicts, attorneys for the McMichaels said they will appeal — a process that can start once sentencing is done.

“This is a very difficult day for Travis McMichael and Greg McMichael,” Travis McMichael’s defense attorney Jason Sheffield told reporters. “These are two men who honestly believe that what they were doing was the right thing to do. However, the Glynn County jury has spoken, they have found them guilty and they will be sentenced.”

Bryan’s attorney, Kevin Gough, told reporters he was “very disappointed” in the verdict.

“But we have to respect that verdict. That’s the American way,” he said, adding that he plans to file a motion for a new trial on behalf of Bryan next week.

ABC News’ Sabina Ghebremedhin, William Hutchinson and Morgan Winsor contributed to this report.

Watch the full story on the Ahmaud Arbery case and trial on “20/20” Friday at 9 p.m. ET

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Mom fatally shot at memorial for son killed days earlier in Chicago

Mom fatally shot at memorial for son killed days earlier in Chicago
Mom fatally shot at memorial for son killed days earlier in Chicago
Alex_Schmidt/iStock

(CHICAGO) — Delisa Tucker was just steps away from her son’s memorial in Chicago early Wednesday morning when she was fatally shot.

She had lost 14-year-old Kevin Tinker to gun violence the Sunday before, and friends said she was tending to his memorial when she was gunned down.

“While she was lighting candles for her son, her life was taken,” wrote Michelle Tharpe, a family friend, on the GoFundMe page set up to help pay the family’s funeral expenses. “This world is so cold.”

Police responded to a ShotSpotter alert at around 12:15 a.m. and found Tucker, 31, lying on a sidewalk in the 200 block of West 110th Place. She was transported to Roseland Hospital and pronounced dead, according to officials.

They reported finding no one on the block who saw the shooting, and no one’s been taken into custody for that attack or the one on her son.

On Sunday, her son was shot several times at the exact same location and pronounced dead on the scene, according to police.

“He was a quiet boy,” Tharpe wrote in the GoFundMe page. “Rest well Lil Kevin.”

CPD said investigations for both shooting are ongoing. Chicago police declined to comment on whether the shootings are connected, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

Tucker leaves behind five other children, according to Tharpe.

Shootings have spiked in Chicago this year, according to CPD crime data. As of Nov. 8, there had been 3,105 incidents in 2021, an increase of 10% over 2020 and a 66% increase compared with 2019.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

COVID-19 live updates: Only one in four health workers fully vaccinated in this region

COVID-19 live updates: First European case of new variant from South Africa confirmed
COVID-19 live updates: First European case of new variant from South Africa confirmed
CasPhotography/iStock

(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.1 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 775,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.

Just 59.1% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Here’s how the new is developing. All times Eastern:

Nov 26, 4:04 am
EU to propose travel ban on southern Africa over new variant

The European Union’s executive branch said Friday that it wants to suspend air travel to the bloc from southern Africa due to concerns over a newly identified variant of the novel coronavirus.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen made the announcement via Twitter, saying a proposal “to activate the emergency brake to stop air travel from the Southern Africa region” will be made “in close coordination” with EU member states.

The variant, called B.1.1.529, was first detected in South Africa earlier this week and has quickly spread. At least 22 cases have been confirmed in the country so far, according to South Africa’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases. South African scientist Tulio de Oliveira told reporters Thursday that the new variant carries “a very high number of mutations,” but it’s unclear whether it will limit the effectiveness of vaccines.

Several cases of B.1.1.529 have since been confirmed in neighboring Botswana as well as in Hong Kong and Israel. The cases detected in Hong Kong and Israel were linked to travelers who had arrived from southern Africa.

The World Health Organization will meet on Friday to assess B.1.1.529 and determine whether it should be designated a variant “of interest” or “of concern.”

Nov 25, 8:01 pm
UK issues travel restrictions due to concerns over new variant

The United Kingdom announced Thursday new travel restrictions for six countries over concerns about a new variant of the novel coronavirus that emerged in South Africa.

The variant, known as B.1.1.529, has also been found in Botswana and Hong Kong in travelers from southern Africa. It has not yet been detected in the U.K., officials said.

“The early indications we have of this variant is that it may be more transmissible than the delta variant, and the vaccines that we currently have may be less effective against it,” U.K. Health Secretary Sajid Javid said during a briefing Thursday.

Starting midday on Friday, all flights from six southern African countries — South Africa, Namibia, Lesotho, Eswatini, Zimbabwe and Botswana — will be temporarily suspended, and travelers entering the U.K. from those countries after 4 a.m. on Sunday must quarantine in a government-approved hotel for 10 days.

Currently, B.1.1.529 is not designated by the World Health Organization as a variant “of concern” or “of interest.” So far, 22 cases have been confirmed in South Africa, according to the country’s National Institute for Communicable Diseases.

The WHO’s technical working group is scheduled to meet Friday to assess the new variant and may decide whether to give it a name from the Greek alphabet, based on its naming system for variants of concern and variants of interest.

The virus evolves as it spreads and many new variants, including those with worrying mutations, often just die out. Scientists monitor for possible changes that could be more transmissible or deadly, but sorting out whether new variants will have a public health impact can take time.

Nov 25, 10:18 am
Arizona hospital enters ‘crisis care’ operating mode

The Copper Queen Community Hospital in Bisbee, Arizona, is “operating in crisis care” due to the latest surge of COVID-19 cases in the state, local ABC affiliate KNXV reported.

The hospital only had 13 beds available and was “really struggling,” according to the Arizona Department of Health Services.

The state reported its 84,813th COVID-19 hospitalization on Tuesday, according to health department data. Arizona reported more than 4,000 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday.

Copyright © 2021, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Honduras votes in elections critical to country’s future and Biden’s agenda

Honduras votes in elections critical to country’s future and Biden’s agenda
Honduras votes in elections critical to country’s future and Biden’s agenda
Manuel Chinchilla/iStock

(NEW YORK) — Honduras teeters on the edge of democracy.

In one of the most consequential elections in the Western Hemisphere, in one of Central America’s poorest countries, Hondurans head to the polls Sunday to choose a new president, new lawmakers, new mayors and new city council members.

“The elections this Sunday, November 28th, definitely present our golden opportunity, the only one, to rescue democracy in this country,” Clara López, a voter in the country’s capital Tegucigalpa, told ABC News. “It’s now or never.”

Honduras’ recent history of election-related violence has many on edge. Among them, President Joe Biden’s administration will be watching for a peaceful election outcome, a possible new partner to work with, and any effect on migration issues to the southern U.S. border.

The State Department also deployed a top U.S. diplomat to Honduras this week, who told ABC News the U.S. is prepared to act if there are any irregularities in the election.

There are 11 candidates in total for the presidency, but the race has really come down to two: Tegucigalpa’s mayor Nasry Asfura, who would extend the right-wing party’s hold on power, but faces allegations of corruption; and Xiomara Castro, a popular former first lady who has united a left-wing coalition and could become Honduras’s first female leader and Latin America’s only current female head of state.

But tensions have risen across Honduras, with a recent spate of election-related violence, including assassinations of candidates. Looming large over the elections, too, are last year’s back-to-back hurricanes and history’s shadow — a 2009 coup that forced Castro’s husband from power and the 2017 elections, riddled with irregularities, according to the Organization of American States, the region’s bloc.

Despite the OAS’ call for a new vote in 2017, presidential incumbent Juan Orlando Hernández was declared the winner, sparking protests that led to days of violent, deadly clashes.

Amid apparent concerns over the potential for more violence, the U.S. deployed the top diplomat for the Western Hemisphere, Assistant Secretary of State Brian Nichols, to Honduras for a three-day trip. But after his meetings, including with both Castro and Asfura, Nichols expressed optimism that the country can hold free and fair elections.

“We will call things as we see them. We believe this is going to be a free and fair process that reflects the will of the Honduran people. If we see something that deviates from that — well, then we’ll take the appropriate steps, but I’m confident that this is going to be a peaceful, free, fair election,” Nichols told ABC News in an exclusive interview.

To many Hondurans, however, recent years have chased away any confidence. Just 30% of Hondurans believe democracy is preferable to all other forms of government, according to Latinobarometro’s 2021 report — the lowest in all of Latin America — while four-fifths of Hondurans believe the country is on the wrong path.

“The people are in a critical state,” Salvador Nasralla, Castro’s running mate and Hernández’s opponent in 2017, told ABC News. “I do not dismiss the possibility of a civil war in the country.”

In the 2017 elections, Nasralla was ahead in the polls and largely expected to win, making the Supreme Electoral Tribunal’s declaration that Hernández won after a delayed count that much more suspicious to many Hondurans. But the Trump administration backed Hernández’s claim to victory, dismissing concerns from the OAS and other international election observers about irregularities.

This time around, Nasralla, a popular former sportscaster, said he felt compelled to join Castro’s ticket to try to ensure a left-wing victory.

“It wouldn’t be winning if I subtracted votes from the opposition, and that would’ve made me a bad Honduran,” he told ABC News in his only interview with an English-language outlet.

Castro herself has become a force in Honduran politics, leading the movement against the 2009 coup where the military deposed her husband Manuel Zelaya after he pushed a referendum to change the constitution and abolish its one-term limit.

Backed by her new liberal party, she has been ahead in the polls in recent weeks, especially after Nasralla’s surprising endorsement.

But Asfura remains a potent opponent, boosted by his own party’s hold on government and promises “to create jobs and opportunities so that people can bring food to their homes, health, and education,” as he said in a recent rally.

Asfura’s popularity comes despite allegations against him in the recent Pandora Papers which revealed he used offshore tax loopholes, and local officials accused him of embezzling funds from the capital city’s municipal government.

They’re not the first charges against the ruling National Party’s leaders. Hernández was named by a U.S. federal court as a co-conspirator in a huge narcotics trafficking case that saw his brother, former congressman Tony Hernández, sentenced to life in prison. The president has denied wrongdoing and has not faced criminal charges.

Despite those allegations, the Biden administration has tried to work with Hernández and other Central American governments to stem migration from the region, which has surged during his presidency. Nearly 1.7 million migrants reached the southern U.S. border in fiscal year 2021, which covers October 2020 through September 2021, and one-fifth of them — 308,931 in total — were Honduran.

“Honduras doesn’t guarantee its citizens a dignified life within its territory, and it forces them to flee,” said López, the Tegucigalpa voter who is backing Castro’s campaign.

During his own 2020 U.S. presidential campaign, Biden pledged to invest $4 billion in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala — sometimes called the Northern Triangle countries — to improve the quality of life, including the rule of law and countering corruption, and give their citizens reasons to stay in their communities.
PHOTO: The president of the National Electoral Council of Honduras, Kevin Izaguirre (R), and the Chief of the Armed Forces of that country, Tito Livio Moreno, carry a box with electoral material for the elections in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Nov. 23, 2021.
Gustavo Amador/EPA via ShutterstockGustavo Amador/EPA via Shutterstock
The president of the National Electoral Council of Honduras, Kevin Izaguirre (R), and the…

While that money has started to flow, corrupt and increasingly power-grabbing political leaders in all three countries have made it difficult for the U.S. to find partners to work with.

Free and fair elections, a peaceful transfer of power and a new leadership partner in Honduras are important to Biden’s agenda, particularly because if the situation deteriorates, even more Hondurans could flee in search of a better life to the north.

“Everything is at stake here. For the first time, you have a very clearly differentiated path that is being put forward by the proposals of both parties,” said Sergio Bahr, a Honduran sociologist. “This election will define the direction in which the country goes in the next 10 to 20 years.”

That’s why the State Department deployed its top diplomat for the region to Honduras. Nichols, the assistant secretary for Western Hemisphere affairs, met with Honduras’ national electoral council, its chief of defense, and its attorney general, among others, saying he was assured they’re taking “all measures necessary” to secure the election and prevent violence like 2017.

“We certainly will be looking to Honduran electoral authorities to carry out their responsibilities professionally and transparently, and they’ve assured their own people as well as the international community of the same,” he told ABC News.

For voters like Ela Rubio, that’s all that they want, she said.

“We want democracy. We want transparent elections,” said Rubio, an Asfura supporter.” We don’t want to regress. We want to move forward. We want to keep going, and to show the world that not everything in Honduras is bad.”

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Death of 14-year-old Florida boy ruled a homicide

Death of 14-year-old Florida boy ruled a homicide
Death of 14-year-old Florida boy ruled a homicide
iStock/tillsonburg

(FLORIDA) — The death of a 14-year-old Florida boy whose body was found last week has been ruled a homicide by local police.

Ryan Rogers of Palm Beach Gardens was found dead Nov. 16 around 9 a.m. local time near an Interstate 95 overpass by a passerby who spotted the boy’s bike lying in the grass.

“We now know that Ryan Rogers’ death was not an accident, but a deliberate act,” the Palm Beach Gardens Police Department said in a statement Wednesday.

ABC West Palm Beach affiliate WPBF reported that an autopsy on Saturday revealed Rogers’ death was not from a bicycle accident.

Palm Beach Gardens PD, Fire Rescue Foundation and Crime Stoppers are seeking evidence and witnesses, and offering a reward of $8,000 for any information on the case.

Police are urging potential witnesses, or anyone who has a dashcam in their car and was traveling near the Central Boulevard and Interstate 95 area from 6:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Nov. 15, to contact them.

“No amount of information is too small,” police added.

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‘They make me proud’: Biden meets with Coast Guard after virtual meeting with service members

‘They make me proud’: Biden meets with Coast Guard after virtual meeting with service members
‘They make me proud’: Biden meets with Coast Guard after virtual meeting with service members
Getty/MANDEL NGAN

(Nantucket, MA) — President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden spent the first part of their holiday hosting a virtual meeting with service members from around the world to wish them a happy Thanksgiving and thank them for their service.

From Coast Guard Station Brant Point in Nantucket, Massachusetts, the Bidens addressed members representing all six military branches — the Marine Corps, Army, Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard and Space Force.

After that, the president met outside with roughly two dozen members of the Coast Guard, shaking their hands and presenting them with challenge coins, which are historically collectible pieces.

The president said the “blessings of Thanksgiving are especially meaningful” this year after so many families and friends couldn’t gather last year because of surging COVID-19 cases.

“We also keep in our hearts those who we’ve lost,” the president said. “And those who have an empty seat at their kitchen table or their dining room table this year because of this virus, or another cruel twist of fate or accident, we pray for them.”

Thanksgiving in Nantucket is a decades-long tradition for the Biden family. The first lady also confirmed that they would be taking part once again in the annual Christmas tree lighting ceremony Friday afternoon.

“We’re all going to be there,” she said. “We’re all going together.”
 

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