(AMBOVOMBE, Madagascar) — “Kere” is a word that echoes around southern Madagascar. It means hunger, and the people here know it all too well.
For the past four years, the lack of food has become a constant in their lives.
But unlike other countries, where extreme hunger and near-famine conditions are caused by war, conflict, or isolated weather events, in this part of Madagascar, the cause is so far unique: southern Madagascar is on the verge of becoming the world’s first climate-change induced near-famine in modern history.
Arduino Mangoni, the deputy country director of the World Food Programme in Madagascar, told ABC News he had “never seen people, especially children, in this situation that we’re seeing here.”
“I have seen people eating cactus leaves, insects, and surviving upon nothing, and the lack of water is probably the most striking element,” he said.
“World News Tonight” anchor David Muir and his team traveled to Madagascar to report on the worsening situation, as aid organizations and the Malagasy government rush to fill in the gaps of food and water in this region.
Southern Madagascar is experiencing its worst drought in 40 years, making the land here too arid to farm and leading to crop failure. For the past four years, the severe lack of rain has led to depleted food sources and dried-up rivers. Climate change has also led to sandstorms affecting these lands, covering formerly arable land and rendering it infertile.
“As they cannot plant, it’s affecting their food security,” Patrick Vercammen, the World Food Programme’s emergency coordinator here, told Muir during a visit to Akanka Fokotany, an affected village. “Having sandstorms in this kind of landscape is not something usual and having the effects of sandstorms shows that nature is changing, the environment is changing, and the climate change is affecting this area more than the rest of Madagascar.”
The situation has led to widespread malnutrition affecting more than 1 million people, and pockets of what the United Nations classifies “catastrophic” food insecurity signaling deepening hunger.
Madagascar has produced 0.01 percent of the world’s annual carbon emissions in the last eight decades, but it is suffering some of the worst effects.
“It is not fair…these people have not contributed to climate change because they do not have electricity, they do not have cars etc., and they’re paying probably the highest price in terms of the consequences of climate change,” Mangoni said.
The children are the most affected, with at least half a million kids under the age of five expected to be acutely malnourished, according to the World Food Programme and UNICEF.
In fact, the agencies say about 110,000 children are already in severe condition, suffering irreversible damage to their growth.
As the country enters the lean season – that dangerous time during which people wait for the next successful harvest — the need to provide food to those at risk of starvation has become more urgent. Aid workers warning that, without action, they could run out of food resources by the end of the year.
The World Food Programme is working together with the Malagasy government to alleviate some of the most acute needs in this region; prevent and treat children experiencing malnutrition; and build infrastructure and knowledge to make the population of southern Madagascar more resilient in the face of drought. They’re supporting more than 700,000 people in dire need, and the need is expected to grow.
(NEW YORK) — Elon Musk’s SpaceX is gearing up to send a crew of astronauts to the International Space Station for the fourth time.
The mission, dubbed Crew-3, will carry NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn and Kayla Barron, along with European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer, to the ISS for a six-month stay in orbit.
The spaceflight, moved to Wednesday from Sunday because of weather, will be the first for three of the four crew members.
The veteran on the mission is Marshburn. The doctor and former NASA flight surgeon, making his third trip to space, said this research could one day answer bigger questions about human existence.
“It’s every one of us who has looked into the night sky and wondered, ‘How does the universe work, and how did life come to our planet Earth?'” Marshburn told ABC News.
Barron, an astronaut who has experience on submarines, said her time in Navy has helped prepare her for this moment — and that she made a playlist for the ride out.
“There are some strong millennial favorites on my playlist and throwbacks to the ’90s,” she joked.
They will launch aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft and Falcon 9 rocket.
The crew is scheduled to spend 22 hours in the capsule before docking with the ISS. The team decided to call the new capsule “Endurance” — a tribute to the human spirit and a historic sailing vessel used by Antarctic explorer Ernest Shackleton.
SpaceX launched two NASA astronauts to the ISS successfully for the first time in June 2020, which cleared them to continue conducting flights with their rocket and Crew Dragon. It was the first crewed launch to depart from American soil in nearly a decade.
Last month SpaceX’s Inspiration4 mission made history as civilians traveled the greatest distance away from Earth — 367 miles — even farther than the International Space Station.
But on that flight they discovered an issue with the toilet inside the Crew Dragon that almost hampered the Crew-3 launch. A tube became unglued and spilled urine onto fans beneath the floor.
“It had no impact on Inspiration4 at all,” William Gerstenmair, SpaceX’s vice president, said during a press conference. “We didn’t really even notice it, the crew didn’t notice it, until we got the vehicle back and we looked under the floor and we saw the fact that there was contamination.”
Engineers eventually fixed the problem.
SpaceX is contracted to launch up to six crewed flights for NASA, with two more scheduled for 2022.
(NEW YORK) — Two trials over killings that have garnered national attention are now going on simultaneously and legal experts said they expect both will hinge on video evidence.
Jury selection in the trial of 18-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse, who is accused of killing two white people and wounding a third during a protest over the police shooting of a Black man in Kenosha, Wisconsin, began on Monday.
At the same time, jury selection is ongoing for the trial of three white men accused of chasing down and killing Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man who was jogging in Brunswick, Georgia.
Opening statements in both cases could commence by the end of this week.
Chris Slobogin, a law professor at Vanderbilt University in Nashville and director of the school’s Criminal Justice Program, told ABC News that he is not aware of two major murder trials such as these occurring at the same time.
Although the allegations are vastly different, video is expected to play a major role in both trials.
“The prevalence of video in this day and age has made many criminal cases much different than was the case 10, 20, 30 years ago,” Slobogin said.
But Slobogin said the video evidence does not necessarily mean a slam dunk for prosecutors in either case.
“Visual evidence isn’t necessarily the truth in the sense that there are a lot of different angles to any given event and the only angle you’re getting when you have video is the angle that the camera was pointed from,” Slobogin said.
Rittenhouse, who was 17 at the time of his alleged crimes, is claiming he used deadly force because he was being attacked by a mob and feared for his life.
The Antioch, Illinois teen Rittenhouse, has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree reckless homicide, first-degree intentional homicide and attempted first-degree intentional homicide. He has also pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor charge of possession of a firearm by an individual under the age of 18.
Rittenhouse, according to his attorneys, answered “his patriotic and civil duty to serve” when an online call was put out by a former Kenosha city alderman for “patriots” to take up arms and help protect lives and property in the city against looting and rioting that occurred in August 2020.
Angry protests broke out in Kenosha after a police officer there shot Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, multiple times in the back, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. The local district attorney declined to charge the officer after he was cleared in an investigation by the state Department of Justice.
Rittenhouse, who is white, is accused of using an AR-style semiautomatic rifle to fatally shoot two men, Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, during an Aug. 25, 2020, protest in Kenosha. He is also accused of shooting and severely wounding another white protester Gaige Grosskreutz, 27.
“We have a situation where a 17-year-old boy, who is not even legally able to carry a weapon, was allegedly in town to protect property that did not belong to him. That’s extraordinary,” veteran Michigan defense attorney Jamie White told ABC News. “Clearly, he (Rittenhouse) was under some form of assault when you look at the video in an acute sense. But when you look at the entirety of the situation, he just should not have been there.”
The Arbery case
In the Arbery case, the defendants Gregory McMichael, 65, a retired police officer, his son, Travis McMichael, 35, and their neighbor, William “Roddie” Bryan, 52, are accused of trying to make a citizens’ arrest when Travis McMichael allegedly shot the unarmed Arbery three times with a shotgun, killing him.
Travis McMichael is also expected to claim self-defense, arguing the use of deadly force was justified when the 25-year-old Black man violently resisted a citizens’ arrest under a law that existed at the time. The pre-Civil War-era law that was repealed in May primarily due to the Arbery killing gave civilian vigilantes the power to arrest someone they “reasonably suspected” of trying to escape from a felony.
Gregory McMichael, according to his attorneys, claims he thought Arbery, who was jogging past his house, matched the description of a neighborhood burglary suspect. Both he and his son allegedly brandished firearms while chasing Arbery in Travis McMichael’s pickup truck that prosecutors allege had a vanity plate featuring a Confederate flag.
Bryan recorded a cellphone video of the confrontation that partly captured Travis McMichael shooting Arbery during a struggle and is expected to be the key evidence prosecutors plan to present at trial.
Bryan’s lawyer claims he was just a witness to the incident, but prosecutors alleged he was an active participant in “hunting down” Arbery. Prosecutors also allege that Bryan told investigators he overheard Travis McMichael yell a racial slur at Arbery as he lay dying in the street, an allegation the younger McMichael denies.
Prosecutors say the evidence will show Arbery was just out for a Sunday jog when he was allegedly murdered.
All three men have pleaded not guilty to state charges of murder, aggravated assault, false imprisonment, and criminal attempt to commit false imprisonment stemming from the Feb. 23, 2020, fatal shooting in the unincorporated Satilla Shores neighborhood near Brunswick.
The three men were also indicted on federal hate crime charges in April and have all pleaded not guilty.
“We have men who had no property interest in the home where the deceased was apparently trespassing at the worst-case scenario and ended up shot to death,” said White, the Michigan trial attorney, referring to a home that was under construction Arbery was caught on surveillance video leaving empty-handed just before he was killed.
‘I just shot somebody’
Video evidence expected to be presented in the Kenosha case could prove favorable in the defense of Rittenhouse, Obear said.
“You know the old saying, a picture speaks a thousand words, a video speaks a million. Having watched the videos, I think it’s very apparent exactly what the defense argument will be: ‘You just have to watch the videos,'” Obear said. “He’s basically naturally in a position where he would seem to be defending himself with people approaching him in that manner.”
Cellphone videos played at earlier court hearings, partly captured two confrontations the teenager was involved in. In the first, Rosenbaum allegedly followed Rittenhouse into a used car lot and confronted him in an attempt to disarm him before he was shot to death, according to a criminal complaint. As Rosenbaum lay on the ground, Rittenhouse was recorded in a video running away while allegedly calling a friend and telling them, “I shot somebody.”
Defense attorneys have cited what appears to be the muzzle flash of a gun in the video before Rittenhouse fired his first shot.
Other videos recorded after Rosenbaum was shot show people chasing Rittenhouse down a street and him apparently being hit by Huber with a skateboard and falling to the ground. The video shows Rittenhouse allegedly shooting Huber, who apparently tried to take his gun away and firing at Grosskreutz, who investigators said was armed with a handgun. Grosskreutz suffered a severe wound to his arm when he tried to grab Rittenhouse’s rifle, prosecutors said.
The videos prompted then-President Donald Trump to comment on the Rittenhouse case in August 2020, saying it appeared he was acting in self-defense.
“He was trying to get away from them, I guess, it looks like,” Trump said during a news conference. “I guess he was in very big trouble. He probably would have been killed.”
A number of conservatives and gun-rights advocates rallied to Rittenhouse’s defense, contributing to his defense fund and putting up $2 million to cover his bail.
Judge’s controversial ruling
During what was expected to be the final hearing before the Rittenhouse trial begins, Kenosha County Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder made a series of rulings that White said appeared to help the defense.
Schroeder ruled that defense attorneys can refer to the two men who were killed and the one wounded as “looters” and “rioters,” but barred prosecutors from referring to them as “victims” or even “alleged victims” during the trial, saying they must be called “complaining witnesses” or “decedent.”
The judge also granted the defense permission to call an expert witness in police use of force, even though the testimony will pertain to a civilian’s use of force.
“We do see the judge already acting in a way that could be arguably biased,” White said.
But Obear said much is being made over what he described as a “pretty standard” ruling.
“No one is a ‘victim’ until there’s an adjudication of guilt and the prosecutors like to throw that term around as if it’s a prejudged sort of situation,” Obear said. “But it’s a loaded term. When people hear the term victim it naturally conjures sympathy.”
Both White and Obear agreed that allowing the defense to call an expert on the use of force is a “huge win” for Rittenhouse.
“I think that what Mr. Rittenhouse did on this occasion is so extraordinary that to allow a third party to come in and make commentary about that from a legal point of view is certainly going to be powerful and probably will persuade the jury in one way or the other,” White said.
Obear added, “If this all has to do with what was going on inside of Kyle Rittenhouse’s mind the only way to solve that question is to let a jury decide this.”
“What possible reasonable resolution could there be here? We’re talking about homicides and his position is, ‘I didn’t do anything wrong, and self-defense is an absolute defense,’” Obear said. “If that’s correctly posited to the jury, they’ll find him not guilty, and he’ll go home.”
Will Rittenhouse take the witness stand?
Legal experts interviewed by ABC News were split on whether defense lawyers should put Rittenhouse on the witness stand.
“This is a case where I can actually see the defense prevailing here without putting him on the stand,” Obear said, citing the video evidence.
But White believes Rittenhouse should testify.
“He’s a child … and anytime you can present someone who’s vulnerable in that kind of way it’s going to benefit the defense from the standpoint of a jury,” White said.
Slobogin, however, said that if Rittenhouse testifies, he runs the risk of opening the door for prosecutors to raise broader questions about his actions and intentions.
(NEW YORK) — The U.S. was gripped by two public health crises in 2020: the COVID-19 pandemic and a historic rise in gun violence.
Even as cities locked down, people retreated into their homes and life was seemingly put on pause last year, 2020 still marked the deadliest year for gun violence in at least two decades, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
There were more than 19,400 homicides involving a gun and accidental fatal shootings — a 25% increase from 2019, according to data from the Gun Violence Archive. Gun suicides reached 24,000 last year, matching the year prior.
Experts say it’s not easy to identify one precise reason for the rise in gun violence.
Rather, 2020 was a turbulent time that presented COVID-19 concerns and economic downturn as well as a racial reckoning that rocked communities in multiple ways, including massive protests and civil unrest.
It also was a time when an estimated 23 million guns were purchased — a 65% increase from 2019, according to Small Arms Analytics, a consulting firm that tracks gun sales. It is unclear if the increase in gun purchases was linked to the increase in gun violence and research is split on the connection generally.
The violence unfolded across the country, big and small cities alike. Overall, 57% of 129 law enforcement agencies surveyed across the nation by the Police Executive Research Forum reported an increase in gun homicides from 2019 to 2020, according to the January 2021 report.
The agencies serving the biggest cities reported a 75% increase in firearm homicides in 2020 compared to 2019, and all surveyed agencies also reported a nearly 70% increase in nonfatal shootings.
Colorado mother-of-three Ana Thallas’ life changed forever amid the pandemic when her daughter Isabella was fatally shot while walking her dog with her boyfriend in a Denver park on June 10, 2020, just two days after her 21st birthday. Her boyfriend was shot twice by the suspect but survived.
The Denver District Attorney’s office said that Michael Close, 37, allegedly got into an argument with the couple “over a command they used to have their dog defecate,” and he opened fire with an assault rifle.
“I never thought my daughter would be slaughtered mid-morning walking a dog in the middle of the city,” Thallas told ABC News. “This pandemic has created fear within people. Just having to be secluded, cooped up and isolated contributed to the mental health crisis. Fear turns into anger, and the anger turns into violence.”
2020 was a ‘perfect storm’
Dr. Daniel Webster, the director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research, said 2020 was the “perfect storm” of conditions where “everything bad happened at the same time — you had the COVID outbreak, huge economic disruption, people were scared.”
At the same time, after-school programs and violence disruption programs were greatly restricted, plus 2020 was an election year, during which gun purchases tend to rise for fear that the new administration will change gun policies, Webster said.
“It’s particularly challenging to know with certainty which of these things independently is associated with the increased violence. Rather it was the ‘cascade’ of events all unfolding in a similar time frame,” he added.
For instance, as kids moved to at-home online learning due to school closures and many parents either lost jobs or had to work remotely — all while grappling with financial stress and social isolation — there was gun violence in some of their homes.
From March to December 2020, unintentional shooting deaths by children rose 31% over the same time in 2019, resulting in 128 gun deaths, according to the Everytown #NotAnAccident Index.
Unsafe storage likely played a role, experts say. A January study by the University of California, Davis violence prevention research program found “more than 50,000 Californians said they had started storing at least one of their firearms in the least secure way — loaded and not locked up,” Nicole Kravitz-Wirtz, an assistant professor with VPRP who led the study said. “Approximately half of those respondents lived in homes with children or teens.”
People changed how they stored guns based on “fear and anxiety and pandemic-induced uncertainty about the future,” the study found.
But storing a firearm unsecured is a massive risk, Kravitz-Wirtz said, especially for unintentional shootings and suicide. Approximately 60% of gun deaths are suicides according to CDC data.
Although preliminary CDC data shows that overall suicides in the U.S. slightly decreased in 2020 compared to the year prior, gun suicides still surpassed 24,000, just as they did in 2019.
Another way gun violence played out in homes was through domestic violence incidents.
A study entitled “Firearm purchasing and firearm violence during the coronavirus pandemic in the U.S.” analyzed data from March through July 2020 and found that excess firearm purchasing was associated with an increase in firearm injuries from domestic violence in April and May, “particularly during the early months where social distancing was at its highest point,” said Julia P. Schleimer, the main author of the report with UC Davis’ violence prevention research program. The authors say that linking firearm violence to civil unrest and other factors during summer of 2020 had to be studied further.
The pandemic led to an 8% increase in calls for domestic violence services in March, April and May, the initial three months of the pandemic, in 14 large U.S. cities, according to a study published in Journal of Public Economics.
The Domestic Violence Hotline also received the highest incoming volume in its history, with over 636,000 calls, chats and texts in 2020, including a 19% rise in callers experiencing the use or threat of firearms last year, according to the organization.
The pandemic may have put many people in a vulnerable situation as research shows that access to a gun makes it five times more likely that a woman will die at the hands of a domestic abuser, according to the Educational Fund to Stop Gun Violence.
Impact on Black and Latino communities
An analysis of nine U.S. cities found that over 85% of the increase in gun violence from 2019 to 2020 was in predominantly Black and Hispanic neighborhoods.
These groups had to deal with the converging crises in 2020: coronavirus and gun violence. They were already disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, with Black and Hispanic people nearly twice as likely to die from COVID-19, according to CDC data.
At the same time, Black people are 10 times more likely to die from gun homicide than white people, according to an Everytown analysis of the CDC’s Underlying Cause of Death database. In 2019, Latino people were nearly twice as likely to be killed by guns than non-Hispanic whites, according to a study from the Violence Policy Center.
In the pandemic, these groups also were disproportionately affected by job loss and financial strife compared to white households, according to a summer 2020 poll by NPR, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Further, these more than half of all Black, Latino and Native American workers hold essential and nonessential jobs that must be done in person, compared to 41% of white workers, even as many jobs went remote out of safety precautions, according to a December 2020 report by the Urban Institute.
John Donohue, a Stanford University law professor who studies gun violence, said time periods of stress are associated with more shootings.
“It does seem that the dislocations of the pandemic were in neighborhoods that were more vulnerable to both the economic insecurities and just pressures of a more stressful life,” Donahue said. “The pandemic was a major disruption.”
Kravitz-Wirtz told ABC News that the violence was concentrated “in neighborhoods that have experienced systemic racism and disinvestment.”
The closure of community centers and suspension of many violence prevention organizations also led to “destabilization that can really create the conditions for violence to emerge,” she added.
As gun violence played out in homes and communities, law enforcement also faced challenges responding to crime due to COVID-19 concerns and tensions with the public.
Donohue said civil unrest and police played a role in the storm.
Officers couldn’t be “as effective in stopping crime,” because they were responding to protests around the country in 2020 decrying racism and police brutality in the wake of George Floyd’s death by Minneapolis police, Donohue said.
Several police agencies also reported they scaled back proactive enforcement due to the pandemic, such as making fewer traffic stops and suspending gun buyback programs, the Police Executive Research Forum said in their January 2021 report.
“You had police departments overtaxed in response to COVID because their officers were getting sick. Then you had the George Floyd murder and ripple effects from protests and then often violent response by law enforcement,” Webster said. “There is a clear connection between trust in police and community safety, all of this takes a toll on public safety.”
Increase in gun ownership
Researchers at the UC Davis violence prevention research program issued a statewide survey in July 2020 that asked respondents specifically if they acquired a gun due to the pandemic as well as their concerns about violence in the health crisis. They found that an estimated 110,000 California adults acquired a firearm in response to fears stemming from the pandemic, including 47,000 new firearm owners, according to the January study.
The survey respondents who bought firearms mainly did so for protection, with 76% saying they were concerned about lawlessness, 56% about prisoner releases and 49% that the government was going too far due to changes during the pandemic.
One in 10 residents surveyed also expressed fear that someone they knew may intentionally harm someone or themselves due to pandemic losses including losing a loved one, job or housing.
Experts are split on whether the stunning rise in gun purchases will fuel future firearm violence.
While there is a broad field of research that provides evidence that gun availability increases the risk for firearm violence, 2020 is unique in that other compounding factors are at play.
Last year’s trends have already continued into 2021, with over 31,000 gun violence deaths recorded, according to Gun Violence Archive data, and over 27 million background checks initiated so far, according to National Instant Criminal Background Check System data.
Schleimer, who studied firearm purchases and firearm violence in 2020, said it’s possible that increased firearm access and continuing stressors could “result in an increased risk of firearm violence moving forward.”
The US can ‘shift the trajectory’
Donohue, though, forecasts some of the violence could taper off with the end of the pandemic.
“As the pandemic recedes, you’ll get some restoration of normality,” he said. “But we still are going to have to contend with the politicians, growing power of weaponry and its increasing availability and tensions between the public and the police — all unhelpful for restricting crime.”
Kravitz-Wirtz said there’s been “positive momentum” to reverse the pandemic’s trend of gun violence. But she warned that root issues of inequality need to be addressed through “thriving wage” jobs, housing security and youth empowerment programs especially in Black and brown communities.
“There’s a real opportunity now,” Kravitz-Wirtz said. “We can really shift the trajectory that we’ve been experiencing in positive directions if we can follow through on the data-informed and community wisdom-informed strategies.”
On a national and state level, there have been efforts to mitigate gun violence. U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland announced federal strike forces in five major cities to take down gun trafficking corridors over the summer, and President Joe Biden unveiled several executive actions to combat the rise in shootings. The administration has also allowed coronavirus relief funds to be used for community violence intervention.
In Colorado, Thallas helped get the Isabella Joy Act passed in honor of her daughter. It requires gun owners to report lost or stolen firearms to law enforcement within five days of realizing the weapon is missing. The Denver Police Department said the shooter in Isabella’s case had taken a rifle from a friend’s home without their knowledge or permission, CBS Denver affiliate KCNC reported.
Thallas is now calling for the act, which went into effect last month, to be implemented nationally.
“Unfortunately I don’t see an end to this [gun] epidemic. Encouraging responsible gun ownership would be more realistic,” Thallas said. “It’s our family that pays the life sentence with Isabella’s death. Don’t doubt this couldn’t be you. Be proactive, not reactive.”
(NEW YORK) — Exactly two months after allowing Texas to impose a near-total ban on abortions, the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday was taking a closer look at the groundbreaking state law deliberately designed by its sponsors to evade constitutional review in federal court.
SB8, which outlaws most abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, has succeeded — at least temporarily — because it is enforced through an unprecedented scheme that deputizes private citizens to bring lawsuits against anyone who “aids or abets” an unlawful abortion.
The arrangement has made it difficult for abortion clinics, patients and their advocates to preemptively show concrete harm in court and identify whom, specifically, a court should enjoin from bringing lawsuits.
During two hours of scheduled oral arguments, which were livestreamed to the public, the justices were expected to examine whether abortion rights advocates and the federal government have the ability to sue Texas over the law given the way it’s designed.
State officials insist they have no role in implementation of the law and therefore cannot be targeted in court. They also claim that it does not impose an “undue burden” on women seeking abortion care, since they are still free to do so up to six weeks of pregnancy and can freely travel out of state to seek services elsewhere.
Texas abortion providers argue SB8 has had a chilling effect on clinics and imposed irreversible harm on women patients, many of whom don’t have the financial means to travel long distances to seek abortions. They also warn that if the law stands, copycat bills in other states could threaten other constitutionally-protected rights without any chance of legal recourse.
The Justice Department, which filed suit in a separate case against the law this fall, said the federal government has also been directly harmed by the law and has a responsibility to defend the rights of all citizens from plainly unconstitutional state laws under the Supremacy Clause.
A federal district court judge in early October sided with the DOJ, saying SB8’s enforcement mechanism created “offensive deprivation” of a constitutionally-protected right. Several days later, a panel of appeals court judges put the decision on hold.
SB8 will remain in effect across Texas until the Supreme Court rules. The court’s decision to expedite the case demonstrates rare speed not seen since the Bush v. Gore case in 2000; a ruling is widely expected before the end of the year.
The design of SB8 makes it unique from similar pre-viability abortion bans enacted by other states for which enforcement is handled by state officials; those have all been subsequently blocked by federal courts.
A majority of Supreme Court justices in early September said “complex and novel antecedent procedural questions” made it difficult to intervene in the Texas case, even though “serious questions” about the law’s constitutionality exist.
Longstanding precedent clearly renders the six-week abortion ban unconstitutional. The scope of abortion rights in America are not directly under review by the court in the Texas cases, but the justices are scheduled to revisit Roe v. Wade in a separate case from Mississippi set for December.
(NEW YORK) — American Airlines has canceled more than 2,000 flights since Friday — stranding tens of thousands of passengers temporarily at U.S. airports across the country. American is just the latest airline to suffer crippling logistical failures amid staffing shortages.
The airline said high winds at its Dallas-Fort Worth hub on Thursday left flight crews out of their regular position and sparked the dayslong cancellations.
“The problem with most of the large airlines is if they if one hub sneezes, the other hubs catch colds,” aviation expert Henry Harteveldt told ABC News. “The airlines’ networks are all interconnected.”
American COO David Seymour said in an internal memo that in order to provide scheduling certainty for their crews, they were forced to proactively cancel some flights “for the last few days this month.”
American has already canceled 300 flights Monday morning, but anticipates they will get through “the brief irregular ops period quickly with the start of a new month.”
“Unfortunately, when bad weather hits an airline at the end of the month, the problems are exacerbated because often crews are out of the legal amount of time they’re allowed to work,” Harteveldt said.
A staffing boost from the 1,800 American flight attendants set to return from leave Monday should help American re-stabilize this week, experts said.
Southwest had a similar operational meltdown three weeks ago when the airline canceled 2,000 flights over three days.
The airline blamed the multi-day mess on air traffic control issues, bad weather and “other external constraints.”
In response, Southwest said it’s going to hire more than 5,000 employees by the end of the year to mitigate future issues and has 50% of the goal met.
Experts are worried American and Southwest’s inability to stabilize their schedules quickly is a potential warning of what’s to come this winter.
With airlines booking their flights to 100% capacity, experts are concerned there is no wiggle room left in the system to recover if a major airline suffers any logistical failure during the busy travel season.
“The chaos that is the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday travel season will be even more chaotic this year,” Harteveldt said.
ABC News’ Annie Ochitwa and Sam Sweeney contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — In New York City, where a vaccine mandate for municipal workers is now in effect, 18 fire companies are out of service due to sick calls Monday, but no firehouses are closed and the mayor said there were no immediate disruptions to city services.
Nearly all New York City municipal workers, including police officers, firefighters and EMTs, had until 5 p.m. Friday to get at least one shot or be placed on unpaid leave, starting Monday. While the official deadline was Friday, those who got vaccinated over the weekend will not be placed on leave.
FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro said he couldn’t say how many fire companies were understaffed Monday morning because it “changes by the minute.” But Nigro did call on firefighters to stop misusing sick leave and report to work.
“There are understaffed units. That understaffing could end immediately if members stopped going sick when they weren’t sick,” Nigro said. “Once the members come to their senses and stop using medical leave improperly, they can help out not just the citizens of the city but their brothers and sisters staffing the units.”
Firefighters Association President Andrew Ansbro and FDNY-Fire Officers Association President Jim McCarthy said at a Monday news conference that they tried to negotiate for more time for members to be able to file for exemptions, decide on retirement or get the shot.
About 9,000 municipal workers were on leave without pay Monday, representing about 6% of the total city workforce, said Danielle Filson, the mayor’s press secretary.
“Mandates work,” Filson said. “That number will continue to decrease. The remaining have pending accommodations/exemption requests. They are working and subject to weekly testing.”
Of the municipal departments, the Department of Corrections, which faces a later compliance deadline, currently has the most unvaccinated workers, followed by the FDNY, which has an 80% vaccination rate.
ABC News’ Alexandra Faul contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 746,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
Just 67.8% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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Kids’ shots not widely available until Nov. 8
Several million vaccines for kids ages 5 to 11 were en route Monday to large pharmacies, medical centers and other select locations, with shots expected to begin as early as Wednesday if the CDC signs off on them this week.
However, the program for pediatric vaccinations probably won’t be “fully up and running” until the week of Nov. 8, Jeff Zients, the White House coordinator on COVID-19, said Monday.
“We are planning on some vaccinations towards the end of this week, but the program for kids ages 5 through 11 [will] really [be] hitting full strength the week of Nov. 8,” he said.
“Since FDA’s authorization last Friday, there hasn’t been a moment our teams have not been picking, packing and shipping vaccines,” Zients said. “They’ve been working 24/7 and will continue to do so.”
An initial shipment of 15 million doses for kids ages 5 to 11 began moving from Pfizer’s freezers this weekend following last week’s authorization by the FDA. Packed in dry ice, the doses are labeled for tracking before shipping out. The doses are a third the size of adult shots and given orange caps to prevent potential mix ups.
When pressed by ABC News on why shots won’t be more widely available earlier, administration officials said shipments couldn’t start until FDA authorization and that moving 15 million doses take time.
-ABC News’ Anne Flaherty
Nov 01, 1:10 pm
‘Important milestone’: 70% of US adults now fully vaccinated
CDC director Rochelle Walensky said the U.S. “hit two important milestones” Monday with 70% of adults now fully vaccinated and 80% of adults who have had at least their first shot.
In the last two days, 2 million Americans received a booster shot, and now a total of 20 million Americans have had a booster, Walensky said at Monday’s White House briefing.
Walensky added that pediatric vaccines are “safe and highly effective.”
“Parents should feel comforted not just that their children will be protected, but that this vaccine has gone through the necessary and rigorous evaluation that ensures the vaccine is safe and highly effective,” she said.
-ABC News’ Anne Flaherty
Nov 01, 12:58 pm
‘Very likely’ everyone will be booster-eligible within ‘reasonable amount of time’: Fauci
Dr. Anthony Fauci said at a White House briefing that it’s “very likely” everyone will be eligible for a booster shot “within a reasonable amount of time.”
Fauci added that people who don’t yet have a booster are “really quite protected” against severe disease and hospitalization, but he said boosters are about staying ahead of the virus.
CDC director Rochelle Walensky added that new cases in the U.S. are “overwhelmingly” among unvaccinated people.
-ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett
Nov 01, 6:52 am
Biden tests negative after White House press secretary contracts COVID-19
U.S. President Joe Biden has tested negative for COVID-19, after White House press secretary Jen Psaki contracted the disease.
White House principal deputy press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre confirmed to reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Scotland on Monday morning that Biden took a PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test on Sunday, which came back negative. A negative PCR test was required for entry to the United Kingdom.
Psaki, who is fully vaccinated, revealed in a statement on Sunday evening that she tested positive for COVID-19 and has been experiencing “mild symptoms.” She said she chose not to travel with Biden to the Group of 20 summit in Rome after members of her household tested positive last week. Jean-Pierre has instead accompanied the president on his high-stakes trip overseas.
Psaki said she quarantined and tested negative on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday; but on Sunday, she tested positive.
Biden will arrive in Glasgow on Monday for the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP26.
-ABC News’ Sarah Kolinovsky and Ben Siegel
Nov 01, 5:35 am
Global death toll from COVID-19 tops 5 million
The worldwide number of people who have died from COVID-19 surpassed 5 million on Monday, less than two years after the pandemic began.
The global death toll from the disease now stands at 5,000,425, according to a count kept by Johns Hopkins University. The staggering figure is believed to be an undercount due to limitations in testing and record-keeping, especially in poor countries like India. Nevertheless, COVID-19 is now the third leading cause of death globally, after ischemic heart disease and stroke.
The United States alone has recorded 745,836 fatalities, the highest of any country. Brazil and India are not far behind with tallies at 607,824 and 458,437, respectively, according to Johns Hopkins data.
(NEW YORK) — Leaders from nearly every country in the world have converged upon Glasgow, Scotland, for COP26, the United Nations Climate Change Conference that experts are touting as the most important environmental summit in history.
The conference, delayed by a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was designed as the check-in for the progress countries are making after entering the Paris Agreement, which aims to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius, a value that would be disastrous to exceed, according to climate scientists. More ambitious efforts aim to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
Not one country is going into COP26 on track to meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement, according to experts. They will need to work together to find collective solutions that will drastically cut down on greenhouse gas emissions.
“We need to move from commitments into action,” Jim Harmon, chairman of the World Resources Institute, told ABC News. “The path to a better future is still possible, but time is running out.”
All eyes will be on the biggest emitters: China, the U.S. and India. While China is responsible for about 26% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, more than all other developed countries combined, the cumulative emissions from the U.S. over the past century are likely twice that of China’s, David Sandalow, a senior research scholar at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy, told ABC News.
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Nov 01, 1:39 pm
Biden meets leaders from Indonesia, Estonia
President Joe Biden met with Indonesian President Joko Widodo, exchanging general pleasantries and discussing next year’s G20 summit, which will be held in Bali, Indonesia.
Widodo congratulated Biden on his January 2020 victory, to which he replied, “Thank you very much. Thank you for recognizing it.”
Although not a part of his official COP26 schedule, Biden also met with Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas.
Estonia was one of the last G20 countries to sign on to the agreement, along with Ireland and Hungary.
According to a readout sent by the White House, the leaders spoke about the cooperation between the two countries on climate and defense.
Biden “conveyed his support for Prime Minister Kallas’ efforts to promote trusted connectivity and high-standards infrastructure investment in Europe and around the world,” the readout said.
-ABC News’ Molly Nagle and Sarah Kolinovsky
Nov 01, 1:33 pm
‘It’ll take trillions,’ Jeff Bezos says of his $10 billion climate pledge
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos may be donating $10 billion to aid the global climate fight, but the second richest man in the world acknowledged that it will take much more to slow down global warming.
When asked by ABC News’ Maggie Rulli whether $10 billion will “make a dent in climate change,” Bezos replied, “It’ll take trillions of dollars to make a dent in climate change.”
“And it’s gonna take nation states, it’s gonna take companies, and it’ll take NGOs and nonprofits as well,” Bezos said. “What philanthropic dollars can do is move very quickly. There’s things we can do.”
In February 2020, Bezos announced his $10 billion pledge to climate change but updated that commitment in March to say he would spend the $10 billion by 2030.
-ABC News’ Stephanie Ebbs, Bruno Roeber and Maggie Rulli
Nov 01, 1:23 pm
US submits long-term strategy to UN
The U.S. submitted a revised strategy to the United Nations that lays out how the nation will meet its climate goals
Officials have submitted two documents to the UN that are part of updating its commitments to the Paris Agreement. This is the first time the U.S. has updated these submissions to the UN since 2016.
The country’s path to net zero by 2050 requires “transformative actions” this decade, according to the report. The transition will rely on five key areas: Decarbonizing electricity and installing more wind and solar energy; switching to cleaner fuels and electrifying wherever possible, like in transportation and buildings; cutting energy waste and moving to energy sources that can fill the same energy demand more efficiently; reducing methane and other types of emissions that cause even more warming than carbon dioxide; and scaling up carbon dioxide removal technology.
“Near-term actions to accelerate this transition are being implemented rapidly, rooted in actions from across the federal government and other governmental and non-governmental actors in the United States,” the long-term strategy states.
-ABC News’ Stephanie Ebbs
Nov 01, 12:54 pm
Biden apologizes for Trump administration pulling out of the Paris Agreement
President Joe Biden apologized to fellow world leaders at COP26 for the decision made by his predecessor to pull out of the Paris Agreement.
Following his planned remarks at the summit, he made unscripted remarks at a smaller session hosted by U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, where he offered a candid apology for the lack of leadership from the U.S. in the climate fight.
“I guess I shouldn’t apologize, but I do apologize for the fact the United States, the last administration, pulled out of the Paris Accord and put us sort of behind on the eight ball,” Biden said.
Biden was forthcoming with world leaders that he will need to convince Congress to approve additional funding to help nations around the world fight climate change.
In June 2017, then-President Donald Trump announced plans to withdraw from the agreement claiming that could be economically detrimental and cost 2.5 million Americans their jobs by 2025.
The withdrawal became official on Nov. 4, one day after Election Day.
Re-entering the Paris Accord was among the first actions Biden took upon swearing in as president on Inauguration Day on Jan. 20.
-ABC News’ Molly Nagle and Sarah Kolinovsky
Nov 01, 12:36 pm
Bloomberg pledges $10 million to ‘America is All In’
Mike Bloomberg, a member of the UN Special Envoy, and Gina McCarthy, the White House’s national climate adviser, were some of the guests that joined the Biden administration on stage for the launch of the U.S. Center, a public diplomacy initiative, at COP26.
Highlighting the goal to cut emissions by 50% in nine years by 2030, Bloomberg said the world can’t set goals for 2050, a year “which, I at age 79, am not likely to see.”
Bloomberg announced Bloomberg Philanthropies’ intention to close a quarter of all the world’s existing coal plants and cancel all proposed new coal plants by 2025. He also committed $10 million to the “America is All In” coalition to mobilize climate action.
“Of course, now that we have a strong partner in the White House, we can raise the bar higher, we can do more and we can do it faster,” Bloomberg said. “What we can’t do is sit back and wait for Congress to act.”
Nov 01, 11:51 am
Biden emphasizes urgency to fight climate change: ‘The science is clear’
President Joe Biden addressed leaders at the COP26 conference, declaring that countries need to act and act now.
“It’s simple,” the president said. “Will we act? Will we do what is necessary? Will we seize the enormous opportunity before us? Will we, or will we condemn future generations to suffer?”
The upcoming decade will determine whether collective transformative action around the globe will be enough to curb global warming, Biden said.
“We only have a brief window left before us to raise our ambitions,” Biden said, adding that the time frame is “rapidly narrowing.”
The effects of the pandemic made “painfully clear” that “no nation can wall itself from borderless threats,” Biden said, adding that no one can escape the worse consequences of climate change.
But it is in the self-interest of every country to create green energy and healthier ecosystems for the planet, he said.
“We’re standing at an inflection point in world history,” Biden said.
Biden stated that the U.S. will be able to meet its ambitious target to reduce emissions by 50% to 52% by 2030 but called on the rest of the world to do the same.
“We can do this, so let’s get to work,” the president said.
Nov 01, 10:48 am
Greta Thunberg leads demonstrations in Glasgow
Youth climate activist Greta Thunberg has been making has been making her way around the COP26 summit.
Thunberg was seen meeting with Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon and also took part in a student-led climate demonstration, leading the rally near the COP26 venue.
Nov 01, 9:38 am
David Attenborough calls for a new industrial revolution of sustainable innovation
British natural historian and broadcaster Sir David Frederick Attenborough told leaders at COP26 that we should be motivated by hope rather than fear.
Humanity can “turn this tragedy into a triumph,” Attenborough said.
“We are after all the greatest problem solvers to have ever existed on Earth,” he said. “We now understand this problem and know how to stop this number rising and put it in reverse.”
He pointed to world leaders in the room, saying, “That desperate hope is why the world is looking to you and why you are here.”
-ABC News’ Stephanie Ebbs
Nov 01, 9:29 am
‘Time has run out’: Prince Charles addresses COP26
In lieu of Queen Elizabeth II, who canceled her COP26 appearance due to health risks, Prince Charles gave a speech during the conference’s opening session.
Addressing the global leaders in attendance, Charles said, “I know you all carry a heavy burden on your shoulders and you do not need me to tell you that the eyes and hopes of the world are upon you.”
Charles highlighted the importance of collaboration and pleaded with world leaders to come together to fight climate change.
“There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the private sector is ready to play its part and to work with government to find a way forward,” he said.
Nov 01, 9:08 am
COP26 opening ceremony commences
After a quick greeting with Biden, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson kickstarted COP26 with opening remarks.
Johnson said that while the average age of leaders in the room was over 60, the results of the COP26 conference will be judged by the young people outside and children who are not yet born.
“If we fail they will not forgive us. They will know that Glasgow was the historic turning point when history failed to turn,” Johnson said.
U.N. Secretary-General Anthony Guterres echoed the need for urgency in his remarks, highlighting the need to mitigate and reduce global emissions by 45% by 2030.
“Enough of treating nature like a toilet,” Guterres said. “Enough of burning and drilling and mining our way deeper. We are digging our own graves.”
ABC News’ Stephanie Ebbs contributed to this report.
Nov 01, 8:54 am
Seen at COP26: Summit provides reusable coffee cups, water bottles to attendees
Organizers of COP26, the most crucial climate conference, have gone the extra mile and placed carts for the its reusable coffee and tea cups around the venue.
Nov 01, 8:37 am
China’s President Xi will not attend
The president of the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gas emissions will not be present at COP26.
Chinese President Xi Jinping has not left the country since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and will be absent from the conference. He will instead send the country’s influential climate envoy Xie Zhenhua, according to reports.
Nov 01, 7:58 am
Harris, Granholm to announce $199 million stimulus to reduce car, truck emissions
Vice President Kamala Harris and U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm will announce the U.S. Department of Energy’s $199 million funding package for projects to reduce emissions from cars and trucks today.
The money will fund 25 projects which aim to lower carbon emissions through alternative-fuel technologies, the electrification of long-haul trucks and the improvement of electric vehicle charging infrastructure.
“This investment and the innovations that come from it will help shape our clean energy future and strengthen domestic manufacturing that support good-paying careers for hardworking Americans,” Granholm said in a statement.
The funding is split between the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s ongoing SuperTruck Initiative and the Low Greenhouse Gas funding selections.
According to the press release, carbon pollution from transportation accounts for nearly 29% of all U.S. emissions, more than any other single sector.
Nov 01, 7:31 am
Biden arrives in Scotland for conference
President Joe Biden has landed in Edinburgh, Scotland, ahead of the COP26 summit.
Air Force One landed just before 7 a.m. ET. Biden traveled to the United Kingdom after attending mass in Rome Monday morning at the Villa Taverna in observance of All Saints Day.
The president did not take any questions after he arrived but chatted briefly with the greeters before getting in his motorcade.
-ABC News’ Molly Nagle
Nov 01, 7:13 am
US on ‘strong footing’ going into COP26, White House officials say
President Biden is entering the COP26 summit on “strong footing” due to his unprecedented efforts on climate change, including the Build Back Better framework that marks the largest investment in climate policy in history, said White House National Climate adviser Gina McCarthy told reporters on Monday.
“This is a message you’re going to see from the president over the next two days and from dozens of Cabinet officials will be in Glasgow over the next two weeks,” McCarthy said. “The United States is back at the table. We’re back hoping to rally the world to tackle the climate crisis. And we’re going to bring back jobs and economic prosperity to our workers in our families in the United States.”
On Monday, the U.S. will release its long-term strategy report that details how the country will achieve net zero emissions by 2050. The report illustrates the actions needed — including decarbonizing the power sector, electrifying transportation and buildings, transforming industry reducing non-CO2 emissions and reinvigorating natural lands — to reach carbon neutrality within the next three decades.
The release of the report is part of a deal the U.S. made with China, McCarthy said.
(GLASGOW, Scotland.) — COP26 is underway with President Biden looking to put the United States back at the center of the global effort on climate change.
After leading the globe with the signing of the Paris Climate Accords, a groundbreaking climate agreement changed signed by nearly 200 countries during the Obama presidency, The United States took a step back when President Trump was in office. The former president pulled the United States out of the Paris agreement, removed clean water protections, and opened up federal land for gas and oil drilling.
President Biden has put climate change at the center of his domestic agenda and foreign policy and has re-entered the Paris agreement. The president has pledged to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030, and the president’s human infrastructure bill would put $555 billion toward clean energy and climate investments.
Climate experts say that may not be enough.
“We do need to find a way to increase our ambition in the US,” said Radley Horton, a climate scientist at Columbia University. “People are looking to the US. Historically, the US has been responsible for an outsized share per capita of greenhouse gas emissions.”
President Biden will sit down with world leaders at COP26, but he will not be able to sit down with the leaders of two high-pollution, China and Russia. Both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping will be participating virtually, citing the Covid situation in each country.
The goal of COP26 is to set new targets for cutting emissions to limit warming to 1.5 degrees celsius and recommitting to help developing nations tackle climate change.
“Responsibility rests with each and every country, and we must all play our part. Because on climate, the world will succeed, or fail, as one,” said Alok Sharma, President of COP 26, during a recent speech.
Climate activists are calling for immediate, large-scale action to cut emissions and reverse global warming trends.
“They need to show they’ve understood the science, listen to their people and go much further than they’ve been stating thus far,” said Jennifer Morgan, the executive director of Greenpeace International.
World leaders hope to build on the 2015 Paris agreement when they pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to limit the warming of the planet to below 2 degrees Celsius, the number scientists say is needed to avoid the worst effects of climate change.
But experts say the commitments are inadequate.
“It’s been estimated that very few countries, just a handful, had large enough ambitious enough targets, to begin with,“ said Horton.
A recent analysis by the United Nations found that even if nations meet their current promises, the planet will still be on pace to see an average temperature increase of 2.7 degrees Celsius by the end of this century. The UN Emissions Gap report found that current commitments will only reduce greenhouse gases by 7.5% by 2030 when 55% percent is needed to achieve the Paris goal.
“The climate crisis is pummeling the planet,” United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said during his speech at the UN General assembly.
Climate activists say the Glasgow Summit needs to produce significant actions and not just rhetoric from world leaders.
“All we hear from our so-called leaders is words — words that sound great but so far has led to no action,” said teen activist Greta Thunberg, during the Youth4Climate conference in Milan, Italy earlier this month. “Our hopes and dreams drown in their empty words and promises.”
The United States has seen the effects of climate change first hand this year. Nearly every part of the country has seen record-breaking wildfires, storms, or flooding this year.
“[The] extreme weather that we’re seeing is only going to come more frequently and with more ferocity,” the president said during a trip to Colorado in September. “We’re blinking code red as a nation.”
As of October 8th, the United States has seen 18 weather or climate events that have caused at least a billion dollars in damages, according to NOAA. This year is outpacing 2021, which had 22 billion-dollar disasters, the most of all time.
