(BOSTON) — A guilty verdict was reached Friday afternoon in the trial of John Wilson and Gamal Abdelaziz, two wealthy fathers charged with paying bribes to secure prestigious college spots for their kids under false pretenses.
Wilson and Abdelaziz were the first defendants among about five dozen to stand trial in Boston for charges stemming from the sweeping Operation Varsity Blues scheme.
They pleaded not guilty to fraud and bribery conspiracy charges in the case.
Abdelaziz, a former casino executive from Las Vegas, allegedly paid $300,000 to get his daughter into the University of Southern California as a basketball recruit even though she didn’t make her high school varsity team.
Wilson, a former Staples executive, allegedly paid $220,000 to have his son designated as a USC water polo recruit and gave an additional $1 million to get his twin daughters into Harvard and Stanford.
While the two men argued they thought their payments to scheme mastermind Rick Singer were legitimate donations, the jury agreed with prosecutors that they amounted to bribes to buy their kids’ way into those schools.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen Frank told jurors during closing arguments: “These parents were not willing to take ‘no’ for an answer, and to get to ‘yes’ they crossed a line. In crossing that line, they broke the law.”
Jurors deliberated for nearly 11 hours over two days. Abdelaziz will be sentenced Feb. 16 and Wilson on Feb. 17.
The trial featured audio recordings of phone calls between Singer, who pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate in the investigation, and each of the men. Prosecutors argued the calls showed that the fathers understood they were partaking in a scheme.
On a phone call where Abdelaziz is heard saying, “Sabrina is loving USC!” Singer also is heard saying, “I’m not going to tell the IRS that your $300,000 was paid to Donna Heinel at USC to get Sabrina into school even though she wasn’t a legitimate basketball player at that level.”
“You’re OK with that right?” Singer asked.
“Of course,” Abdelaziz replied.
“I’m going to say your $300,000 payment was made to our foundation to help underserved kids,” Singer said. “I just want to make sure you’re OK with that.”
“I am,” Abdelaziz replied.
Three other parents are expected to face trials in January, and three coaches are scheduled for trails in November.
Four dozen other defendants, including the actresses Lori Loughlin and Felicity Huffman, opted to plead guilty, and many have already served their sentences.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden has restored the original boundaries of three U.S. national monuments that had their size drastically reduced by former President Donald Trump, saying Friday that Americans must protect the country together.
“These protections provide a bridge to our past, but they also build a bridge to a safer, more sustainable future,” he said.
The White House said Biden’s move “is fulfilling a key promise and upholding the longstanding principle that America’s national parks, monuments, and other protected areas are to be protected for all time and for all people.”
The orders Biden signed on Friday, alongside Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, restore Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante national monuments in Utah to their original boundaries and will restore protections to the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine Monument in Rhode Island. Biden joked that making the changes “might be the easiest thing I’ve ever done so far as president.”
Haaland, the first Native American to ever serve as a Cabinet secretary, played a leading role in encouraging the restoration of the original boundaries.
“Thank you Mr. president, for the profound action you are taking today to permanently protect the homelands of our ancestors. Our songs, our languages, and our cultures are strong, and many people from many Indian tribes have sung and spoken in unison to protect this sacred place,” she said.
The monuments were created by former President Barack Obama using the Antiquities Act, which allows presidents to create national monuments. Trump was the first president to use that law to reduce protections for a monument.
Trump drastically reduced the size of the two Utah monuments in 2017, calling it an overreach of power to put so much land and resources under the control of the federal government. Native American tribes, conservation groups and scientists opposed the decision, saying the area needed protections to preserve the historic sites and sensitive ecosystems.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, a Republican, confirmed reports about Biden’s move in a statement on Thursday, saying he’s disappointed about the decision.
Biden said he spoke to both Utah senators — Republicans Mitt Romney and Mike Lee — about the decision.
“The protection of public lands… must not become, I should say, a pendulum that swings back and forth depending on who’s in public office. It’s not a partisan issue,” Biden said in remarks Friday.
Conservation groups applauded Biden’s decision to restore the original boundaries of the monuments, saying it will preserve the important natural, historical and cultural resources in the area and shows respect to Native American tribes who first called for the creation of Bears Ears National Monument.
(WASHINGTON) — It’s been nearly one month since the U.S. withdrew all U.S. troops from Afghanistan on President Joe Biden’s order to leave by Aug. 31, ending a chaotic evacuation operation after the Afghan government collapsed and the Taliban seized the capital Kabul.
Top Pentagon leaders are appearing before the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday amid bipartisan criticism of the chaotic withdrawal and on the failure to anticipate the Taliban’s swift takeover of the country.
In their appearance Tuesday — the leaders’ first before Congress since the withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Afghanistan — Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley and Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, commander of U.S. Central Command, candidly admitted that they had recommended to Biden that the U.S. should keep a troop presence there, appearing to contradict his assertions to ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos.
Here are the latest developments. All times Eastern:
Oct 08, 1:57 pm
ISIS-K claims responsibility of suicide attack at mosque
ISIS-K have claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing at a mosque in Kunduz on Friday, according to SITE Intelligence Group.
A local source told ABC News’ Aleem Agha the attack left at least 50 killed and more than 100 wounded. It was carried out during Friday prayers while the mosque was packed with worshippers, according to Kunduz provincial spokesman Matiullah Rohani.
An Afghan man films inside a mosque after a blast, in Kunduz, Afghanistan, Oct. 8, 2021.
According to a translation from SITE Intelligence Group, ISIS-K said in a statement that the attacker was of Uighur origin.
-ABC News’ Aleem Agha and Cindy Smith
Oct 08, 10:04 am
Suicide bombing during Friday prayers kills scores
A suicide bombing at a mosque in the city of Kunduz, about 200 miles north of Kabul, has left scores of people dead or wounded.
According to Kunduz provincial spokesman Matiullah Rohani, the attack was carried out during Friday prayers while the mosque was packed with worshippers.
At least 60 people were killed and 100 injured, officials said, though the exact number was not immediately clear and is expected to climb. A health official at the Kunduz provincial hospital told ABC News that it had received 26 bodies.
-ABC News’ Aleem Agha
Oct 05, 3:18 pm
UK officials meet senior Taliban leaders in Afghanistan
United Kingdom officials have traveled to Afghanistan to meet senior Taliban members, the U.K. Foreign Office said Tuesday.
“The Prime Minister’s High Representative for Afghan Transition, Sir Simon Gass, and Chargé d’Affaires of the UK Mission to Afghanistan in Doha, Dr Martin Longden, traveled to Afghanistan today to hold talks with the Taliban,” the UK Foreign Office said in a statement. “They met senior members of the Taliban, including Mawlawi Amir Khan Muttaqi, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar Akhund and Mawlawi Abdul-Salam Hanafi.”
The statement said the diplomats “discussed how the UK could help Afghanistan to address the humanitarian crisis, the importance of preventing the country from becoming an incubator for terrorism, and the need for continued safe passage for those who want to leave the country. They also raised the treatment of minorities and the rights of women and girls.”
“The government continues to do all it can to ensure safe passage for those who wish to leave, and is committed to supporting the people of Afghanistan,” it added.
-ABC News’ Sohel Uddin
Oct 03, 12:54 pm
5th Qatari evacuation flight, with Americans onboard, takes off from Kabul
The Qataris have confirmed to ABC News that there were Americans on board the fifth evacuation flight from Kabul since the U.S. troop withdrawal.
“The State of Qatar is pleased to have worked with a number of parties on the ground as well as its international partners to make this flight possible,” a senior Qatari government official said in a statement to ABC News.
The government said the flight carried 235 passengers, which is the second-largest Qatari passenger evacuation flight since the Aug. 31 deadline.
The majority of passengers onboard were Afghan citizens, while there were also citizens from several other countries, the official said. The number of Americans onboard the flight is not yet known.
“Upon arriving to Qatar, the passengers will be transported to the compound facility currently hosting Afghan civilians and other evacuees,” the official said. “There, they will be able to take a COVID-19 test, rest and remain in Doha until departing to their final destinations.”
-ABC News’ Sohel Uddin
Sep 29, 2:50 pm
House hearing adjourned
The House Armed Services Committee hearing has adjourned with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, commander of U.S. Central Command, closing out a second day of questions from congressional lawmakers on the U.S. military’s chaotic exit from Afghanistan.
Several Republicans dug into Milley and McKenzie saying they had recommended leaving approximately 2,500 troops behind as a residual force in Afghanistan, appearing to contradict Biden’s comments to ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos that the opinion of his military advisers was “split” and that he didn’t recall being told 2,500 troops would allow for a “stable” situation.
Austin repeated his acknowledgments of “uncomfortable truths” about the two-decade-old U.S. military mission in Afghanistan, of which he is a veteran, but was careful not to contradict the president.
Sep 29, 1:30 pm
GOP lawmaker, an Air Force veteran, blasts Biden for alleged ‘falsehood’ on residual troops
Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., a 30-year veteran of the U.S. Air Force, nearly choked up when speaking in the House hearing on Afghanistan and offered some harsh words for Biden and the committee, which he said under both Democrat and Republican presidents cautioned against a premature withdrawal from Afghanistan.
“I think most veterans feel heartbroken knowing the blood and the treasure spilled ended up in a ‘strategic failure,'” Bacon said, quoting witness Gen. Mark Milley. “I think we’re enraged by it.”
“Then to have the president come out and say that this was a success, and he had no regrets — this does not break our hearts, that makes us mad as hell,” Bacon continued.
“The fact that President Biden on ABC said that no one that he can recall advised him to keep a force of about 2,500 troops in Afghanistan, it’s not true. We heard yesterday, and we’ve heard today that the chairman of the Joint Chiefs and the CENTCOM commander advise differently,” he said. “I have no other view to see this as a lie. A falsehood from our president — that makes us mad as hell too.”
Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., pushed back on Bacon’s interpretation of Biden’s interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, by focusing on the world “stable.”
“He was asked, could they stay there in a stable environment. That is the option he said wasn’t on the table, not because it wasn’t offered, but because it didn’t exist,” Smith said.
Sep 29, 12:57 pm
Defense secretary says he ‘did not support staying in Afghanistan forever’
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told lawmakers at a House Armed Services Committee hearing he wouldn’t absolutely rule out sending troops back into Afghanistan, and added, “If we do, the military will provide good credible options to be able to do that and to be effective.”
While maintaining that he wouldn’t talk about his recommendation to President Biden on leaving a residual force, Austin said he “did not support staying in Afghanistan forever” and that keeping a presence there would have required more troops for force protection if the Taliban started attacking the U.S. military as it had promised to do.
“Let me be clear that I support the president’s decision to end the war in Afghanistan. I did not support staying in Afghanistan forever. And let me also say we’ve talked about the process that we used to provide input to the president,” Austin said.
“I will always keep my recommendations to the president confidential but I would say that in my view there is no, was no risk-free status quo option. I think that the Taliban had been clear that if we stayed there longer, they were going to recommence attacks on our forces,” Austin added.
“I think while it’s conceivable that you could stay there, my view is that you would have had to deploy more forces in order to protect ourselves and accomplish any missions we would have been assigned. It’s also my view, Mister Chairman, the best way to end this war was through a negotiated settlement and sadly that did not happen.”
Sep 29, 11:21 am
GOP links failed drone strike to ‘over-the-horizon’ capabilities
Rep. Michael Turner, R-Ohio, raising the August U.S. drone strike in Kabul that killed 10 Afghan civilians, including seven children, took direct issue with the U.S. military’s ability to conduct “over the horizon” drone strike capabilities in Afghanistan.
“What we know from your prior statements is that you did not know who it was, who was in the car, whose house it was,” Turner said. “This greatly concerns me as we look to the over horizon claims that the administration has of its ability for counterterrorism.”
Gen. Frank McKenzie, the commander of U.S. Central Command, told House lawmakers he took “full responsibility” for the strike.
“That strike was a mistake and I take full responsibility for that strike. I was under no pressure from any quarter to conduct the strike,” McKenzie said.
“While in many cases we were right with our intelligence and forestalled ISIS- K attacks, in this case we were wrong, tragically wrong,” he added.
“Over-the-horizon” capabilities are a cornerstone of the U.S. military’s counterterrorism strategy in Afghanistan. The top Pentagon commanders said the U.S. will continue to investigate the intelligence that led to the August strike and will be transparent with their findings.
Sep 29, 10:47 am
Milley praises Afghanistan War veterans, defends calls to China
Echoing Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in his opening testimony that lawmakers can debate the decisions surrounding the Afghanistan withdrawal but that the courage of U.S. service members is not up for debate.
“Over the course of four presidents, 12 secretaries of defense, seven chairmen, 10 CENTCOM commanders, 20 commanders in Afghanistan, hundreds of congressional delegation visits, and 20 years of congressional oversight, there are many lessons to be learned,” Milley said.
“One lesson we can never forget: every soldier, sailor, airman and Marine who served there for 20 years, protected our country against attack by terrorists, and for that we all should be forever grateful, and they should be forever proud,” he said.
Milley again took the chance to push back on recent characterizations of phone calls to China’s top military official in the final days of former President Donald Trump’s presidency.
“At no time was I attempting to change or influence the process, usurp authority, or insert myself into the chain of command. But I am expected to give my advice and ensure that the president was fully informed on military affairs,” he said.
Sep 29, 10:18 am
Defense secretary delivers opening testimony for House lawmakers
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, facing a House panel on Wednesday, repeated his opening testimony given to Senate lawmakers at Wednesday’s hearing, in which Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, commander of U.S. Central Command, appeared to contradict Biden by saying they recommended keeping a residual force of 2,500 troops behind in Afghanistan.
Austin again defended leaving Bagram Airfield, saying it would have required at least 5,000 troops and would have “contributed little” to the mission of protecting the embassy in Kabul, which ultimately fell to Taliban control.
“Staying in Baghram even for counterterrorism purposes meant staying at war in Afghanistan, something that the president made clear that he would not do,” Austin said.
He again walked through some “uncomfortable truths” about the two-decade U.S. military mission in Afghanistan, of which he is a veteran.
“We helped build a state, but we could not forge a nation. The fact that the Afghan army that we and our partners trained simply melted away, in many cases without firing a shot, took us all by surprise and it would be dishonest to claim otherwise,” he said.
Sep 29, 10:12 am
Heated House hearing underway with residual force in focus
House Armed Services Chair Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., opened Wednesday’s hearing on Afghanistan with a defense of Biden for ending America’s longest war — and with a preemptive strike on the panel’s Republicans, who he said would spend the day trying to get the military leaders to contradict the commander in chief.
“The option of keeping 2,500 troops in Afghanistan in a peaceful and stable environment did not exist,” Smith said, opening the hearing.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, commander of U.S. Central Command, face a second day of questions from congressional lawmakers on the U.S. military’s chaotic exit from Afghanistan.
Ranking Republican member Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., said he “could not disagree more” with Smith and called Biden “delusional” before the leaders gave their opening testimonies.
Sep 29, 9:22 am
Top military leaders face more questions in House hearing
The nation’s top military leaders are back on Capitol Hill at 9:30 a.m. before the House Armed Services Committee — where Republicans are expected to seize on their comments from Tuesday that they recommended Biden keep a residual force of 2,500 troops in Afghanistan, appearing to contradict the president’s comments to ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos.
Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. Frank McKenzie, the commander of U.S. Central Command, candidly admitted in a Senate hearing on Tuesday — their first appearance before lawmakers since the withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Afghanistan — that they had recommended the U.S. keep a small troop presence there, with Milley openly advising presidents not to assign complete withdrawal dates without conditions.
In the six-hour hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Milley also characterized that the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan as “a strategic failure” and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin acknowledged that it was time to acknowledged some “uncomfortable truths” about the two-decade U.S. military mission there. House lawmakers are expected to follow up on the revelations on Wednesday.
Sep 28, 3:53 pm
1st Senate hearing with top commanders on Afghanistan adjourns
After nearly six hours of testimonies and tough questions, the Senate Armed Services Committee has adjourned its hearing with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, commander of U.S. Central Command — their first since the Afghanistan withdrawal.
Senators sunk into Milley and McKenzie saying they had recommended leaving 2,500 troops behind as a residual force in Afghanistan ahead of the chaotic evacuation effort. Several GOP senators called on the leaders to resign, to which Milley offered a powerful rebuttal.
“It would be an incredible act of political defiance for a commissioned officer to just resign because my advice is not taken,” Milley said. “My dad didn’t get a choice to resign at Iwo Jima.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki, during the hearing, defended Biden’s interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos in which the president said the views of his advisers were “split,” saying, “There was no one who said, ‘Five years from now, we could have 2,500 troops, and that would be sustainable.’”
“That was not a decision the president was going to make,” Psaki added. “Ultimately, it’s up to the commander in chief to make a decision. He made a decision it was time to end a 20-year war.”
It’s been nearly one month since Biden withdrew all U.S. troops, ending a chaotic evacuation operation after the Afghan government collapsed and the Taliban seized the capital Kabul.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden signed into law a bill that provides financial assistance and better health care to victims of “Havana syndrome,” the mysterious health incidents affecting dozens of U.S. personnel first identified in Cuba and now including several countries.
After a closed-door signing ceremony, Biden said in a statement that his administration is marshalling the U.S. government’s “full resources” to care for victims and “to get to the bottom of these incidents, including to determine the cause and who is responsible” — a mystery that has confounded U.S. officials for nearly five years now.
The HAVANA Act authorizes the CIA director and the secretary of state to provide affected employees with financial support for brain injuries under detailed criteria. It also requires both agencies to report to Congress on how those payments are being made and whether additional action is needed to aid victims.
Several affected personnel have complained privately, and in some cases publicly, that they have not been able to access proper medical care — in some cases questioning whether the U.S. government believes they are injured.
“For far too long, U.S. public servants and their loved ones who’ve suffered from directed energy attacks have been denied the care they need and deserve. That’s unacceptable,” said Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., one of the law’s co-authors who has advocated for victims for years. Its enactment will help “by removing barriers to critical medical attention and paving the way for personnel with brain injuries to recover,” she added.
American diplomats, spies and other officials have reported strange experiences and debilitating symptoms in several countries now. Symptoms include headaches, dizziness, cognitive difficulties, tinnitus, vertigo and trouble with seeing, hearing, or balancing. Many officials have suffered symptoms years after reporting an incident while some have been diagnosed with traumatic brain injuries.
In some cases, especially those first reported in Cuba in late 2016 and throughout 2017, U.S. officials described intense feelings of pressure or vibration and, at times, a screeching or chirping sound.
It’s unclear how many U.S. officials have confirmed medical symptoms, but new cases have been allegedly reported in several more countries in recent weeks, including India, Serbia and Germany. One reported incident in Vietnam delayed Vice President Kamala Harris’s trip there in August. Beyond more than 40 affected staffers in Cuba, the U.S. government has officially acknowledged reported incidents in China, Russia, Uzbekistan, Austria and the United States, although the White House said the vast majority have been reported overseas.
“Addressing these incidents has been a top priority for my Administration. We are bringing to bear the full resources of the U.S. Government to make available first-class medical care to those affected and to get to the bottom of these incidents, including to determine the cause and who is responsible,” Biden said in his statement Friday.
His National Security Council is leading a government-wide probe, while both the CIA and the State Department have their own internal task forces to coordinate their responses, too.
Many victims of “Havana syndrome,” which the U.S. government now refers to as “anomalous health incidents,” have struggled for years to get the health care they seek. Many others, including State Department officials who haven’t been affected, have been frustrated by the Trump and Biden administrations’ lack of information about reported cases — instead often learning about reported incidents in the press.
In his first note to all staff about the issue in August, Secretary of State Antony Blinken acknowledged the administration “can and will do a better job keeping you informed of our efforts to get answers, support those affected, and protect our people,” according to the note, obtained first by ABC News.
But the lack of information stems in part from how little the U.S. government knows about what was once referred to as “health attacks,” including what is causing them.
Last December, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine issued a report that concluded that “directed, pulsed radio frequency energy appears to be the most plausible mechanism in explaining these cases, especially in individuals with the distinct early symptoms.”
CIA Director Bill Burns, who has met with his agency’s affected personnel and escalated efforts to solve this mystery, has boosted that finding as well — telling NPR in July there’s “certainly a very strong possibility” that some actor is behind the incidents.
But last week, the State Department declassified a secret 2018 report that cast doubt on that theory in some corners. Conducted by JASON, an independent scientific advisory group created during the Cold War to consult the U.S. government on defense science and technology, it concluded that radio or microwave energy could not produce the sound recorded by some U.S. diplomats in Cuba and their reported medical symptoms.
Instead, it said, the sounds were “mechanical or biological in origin, rather than electronic. The most likely source is the Indies short-tailed cricket, Anurogryllis celerinictus.”
But a senior administration official told BuzzFeed News, which filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the JASON report and first reported on it, that its findings are “not aligned with the Biden-Harris administration’s understanding of AHI (anomalous health incidents) and it has not informed our response.”
Either way, the report — written before incidents were reported in several other countries — determined that the sounds themselves were not injuring diplomats and could instead have been “introduced by an adversary as deception so as to mask an entirely unrelated mode of causing illness in diplomatic personnel.”
ABC News’s Molly Nagle contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — The United States has been facing a COVID-19 surge as the more contagious delta variant continues to spread.
More than 710,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 while over 4.8 million people have died from the disease worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Just 65.8% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the CDC.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Oct 08, 1:50 pm
CDC committee to meet on Moderna, J&J boosters
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s independent advisory committee plans to meet on Oct. 20 and Oct. 21 to discuss the Moderna and Johnson &Johnson vaccine boosters. This will follow the Food and Drug Administration’s independent advisers who are set to meet and vote on boosters on Oct. 14 and Oct. 15.
That means Moderna and J&J boosters could be authorized, recommended and available as soon as Oct. 22.
The CDC committee is also set to meet on Nov. 2 and Nov. 3 to discuss pediatric vaccinations.
-ABC News’ Eric M. Strauss
Oct 08, 12:32 pm
LSU ends COVID protocols for football games
Louisiana State University said Friday that fans at its football games will no longer need to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test beginning with the Oct. 16 game.
LSU said the change is due to a “consistent and significant decline in COVID-19 infections and hospitalizations across the state of Louisiana and in the Baton Rouge area.”
Masks will still be required for all attendees.
Oct 08, 8:13 am
Former CDC head ‘cautiously optimistic’ about vaccines for kids
Dr. Richard Besser, a pediatrician and former acting director of the CDC, told “Good Morning America” Friday that he’s “cautiously optimistic” about vaccine approval for young children, adding that he’ll be closely watching the reviews by the FDA and CDC.
“Thankfully children have been impacted by COVID less severely than adults and I want to make sure, as a pediatrician, before I recommend this to my patients, I’m convinced that it’s safe and it’s effective,” Besser said. “The information I’ve seen so far gives me a lot of hope.”
The Florida Board of Education has authorized the state’s education commissioner to sanction the board members of eight school districts that have continued to require masks for students in defiance of state rules.
In the latest development in the state’s battle over mask mandates, board members in Florida’s largest districts — Miami-Dade, Palm Beach and Broward — as well as Alachua, Brevard, Duval, Leon and Orange will have their salaries withheld following Thursday’s vote, officials said.
“For nearly two months now, these school districts have barred from the school house doors thousands of children, many of whom have significant disabilities or health-related reasons that prevent them from learning with a face mask on,” Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran said in a statement.
Corcoran also slammed the Broward and Alachua districts, which were previously sanctioned in August and September, for accepting funds from the Biden administration to make up for lost paychecks, calling it “political bailouts from federal co-conspirators.”
(CAPITOL HEIGHTS, Md.) — Two victims are dead following a shooting at a senior living facility in Prince George’s County, Maryland, Friday morning, police said.
The suspect has been taken into custody without incident, Prince George’s County police said.
The scene at National Church Residences – Gateway Village has been secured, police said, adding that there’s no ongoing threat to community.
“We heard a ‘pow’ … I looked and I saw his hand go up and he shot twice. And I just ran,” one woman told ABC Washington, D.C., affiliate WJLA. “I’m nervous now ’cause my mother-in-law is still in the building on lockdown.”
One victim was found in a corridor and the other was recovered in an office, police said.
The suspect and victims have not been identified.
As of Thursday night, Prince George’s County surpassed 100 homicides for the year.
(ELLICOTT CITY, Md.) — A Maryland man has been charged with allegedly killing his brother, a pharmacist, after going to confront him about “the government poisoning people with COVID vaccines,” according to court documents.
Jeffrey Burnham allegedly killed his sister-in-law, another woman and his brother, who administered vaccines, saying he was “killing people,” according to charging documents filed in Howard County, Maryland.
Burnham went to the Ellicott City, Maryland, home of his brother, Brian Robinette, and sister-in-law, Kelly Robinette, who were later found dead of apparent gunshot wounds on Sept. 30, authorities allege.
Burnham wanted to confront his brother about the vaccine and said that “Brian knows something!,” according to investigators.
He took off in his brother’s Corvette, authorities said, and was pursued when the vehicle’s EZ Pass was used and a tipster alerted authorities of seeing him. Burham was arrested in West Virginia and extradited back to Maryland on Tuesday.
Police also believe that Burham may have killed one elderly woman, Rebecca Reynolds, in Cumberland, Maryland, before taking her car and traveling to the home of his brother. Reynolds was found with a deep laceration to her throat inside her home, according to ABC News affiliate WMAR.
Burham has been charged with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of second-degree murder and use of a handgun in Howard County, Maryland. He was also charged with first degree murder and car theft in Allegany County, Maryland.
Burnham has not pleaded to the charges. His attorney did not not immediately respond to request for comment.
(NEW YORK) — Google is cracking down on ads that deny climate change science after advertisers and digital creators complained about them running alongside their own content.
The company also said it’s no longer going to allow content with false claims about climate change to be monetized, and that the new policy also applies to YouTube, likely part of a larger effort to curb the spread of misinformation.
The move, announced in a company blogpost late Thursday, comes amid mounting public pressure on the private sector to take action on climate change.
It also comes in the wake of a recent report from a United Nations panel — U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres called it a “code red for humanity” — that warned of dire consequences should immediate action not be taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
“Advertisers simply don’t want their ads to appear next to this content,” the blogpost stated. “And publishers and creators don’t want ads promoting these claims to appear on their pages or videos.”
The new monetization policy for advertisers, publishers and YouTube creators will “prohibit ads for, and monetization of, content that contradicts well-established scientific consensus around the existence and causes of climate change,” the blogpost added.
This includes content that refers to climate change as a hoax or a scam, claims that deny that long-term trends show the global climate is warming, and claims that deny that greenhouse gas emissions or human activity contribute to climate change, according to the company.
“When evaluating content against this new policy, we’ll look carefully at the context in which claims are made, differentiating between content that states a false claim as fact, versus content that reports on or discusses that claim,” the blogpost added. “We will also continue to allow ads and monetization on other climate-related topics, including public debates on climate policy, the varying impacts of climate change, new research and more.”
Google said it consulted experts who have contributed to the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Assessment Reports when creating the new policy.
Consumers and shareholders have been putting more pressure on firms to address climate change as scientists and activists ring alarm bells. “Industry” accounted for a whopping 23% of greenhouse gas emissions in 2019, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, behind only transportation (29%) and electricity production (25%) — data many advocates have said highlights the need for large-scale industry changes rather than the onus to tackle climate change falling on individuals.
Climate activist organizations welcomed Google’s new policy, but highlighted that there’s still much more to do.
“Good news but nowhere near good enough,” Greenpeace said in Tweet responding to the Google news. “It’s time to take the microphone away from big polluters and their slick propaganda, and get on with the real climate action that we so desperately need.”
(MONTREAL) — A mom who went viral while sharing her battle with ovarian cancer on social media has died.
Dr. Nadia Chaudhri, 43, died on Oct. 5, according to Concordia University, where she worked as a neuroscientist and professor.
“Nadia was a force of nature,” Concordia president Graham Carr said in a statement. “She was an incredibly talented researcher with a passion for teaching and student success matched only by her commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.”
Chaudhri, of Montreal, Canada, battled stage 3 ovarian cancer for the past year, undergoing a hysterectomy and several rounds of chemotherapy.
She gained more than 148,000 followers on Twitter during her cancer battle, which she bravely shared publicly.
@DrNadiaChaudhri passed away yesterday evening, having reached the end of her road with ovarian cancer. She leaves behind her Sun and Moon, a loving extended family, colleagues and students, friends around the world, and so many others who have been touched by her & her story 1/n pic.twitter.com/qf1q0Bfbj1
In May, when Chaudhri learned the cancer had returned, she shared on social media what it was like to tell her 6-year-old son that she was dying. On social media, she called her husband and son her Moon and Sun.
“My husband and I made the decision that we needed to tell our son what is going on because all the treatments are failing me,” she told “Good Morning America” at the time. “He already knew that I had cancer. He knew that I was still taking chemotherapy medication and trying to get better, but I don’t think he had a sense of how bad it is.”
Our hearts broke. We cried a lot. And then the healing began. My son is brave. He is bright. He will be okay. And I will watch him grow from wherever I am. Today was the hardest day of my life. Thank you for all for your love. pic.twitter.com/sCZFW9d8T5
— Dr. Nadia Chaudhri (@DrNadiaChaudhri) May 11, 2021
Several months later, in September, Chaudhri went viral again with a series of tweets detailing the many months it took for her to get a diagnosis of ovarian cancer and what she wanted other women to know.
“Know your bodies,” Chaudhri urged women. “Pay attention to fatigue and changes in bowel/urinary tract movements. Make sure you understand all the words on a medical report. Do not dismiss your pain or malaise. Find the expert doctors.”
As Chaudhri gained followers on social media, she used her platform to educate people on ovarian cancer and the work and causes near to her heart.
Chaudhri, who moved from Pakistan to the U.S. at age 17 to attend college, raised money to allow young scientists to be able to continue the research she was doing on drug addiction.
She also turned her frustration with not being able to work into an opportunity to raise money for underrepresented scholars in her field.
Her efforts raised more than $600,000 and became the Nadia Chaudhri Wingspan Award at Concordia University, an annual scholarship to “support the training of neuroscientists from underrepresented backgrounds and honor Nadia Chaudhri’s legacy of academic achievement and mentorship,” according to the university.
(BODEGA BAY, Calif.) — Surfer Eric Steinley is recovering in the hospital after he was bitten by a great white shark in Bodega Bay, California.
The 38-year-old told ABC News he was on his surfboard Sunday at Salmon Creek Beach waiting to catch a wave when the harrowing incident occurred.
“I was in a lot of pain and still thinking, you know, I’m either going to lose my leg or I’m gonna die,” Steinley said. “I just felt this heavy thing pull on me and it was like a clamp right around my leg. And we went underwater together in slow motion.”
Another surfer who was nearby in the water, Jared Davis, said he saw “the tail fin of a shark. They were kind of going down into the water.”
As Steinley was under the surface and bleeding, he fought back.
“I punched this thing. And I mean, you can see just from grazing its teeth. I cut my hand. But it was such a measly punch compared to how big this creature was,” he explained.
The shark loosened its bite, according to Steinley, who then came up for air and warned other surfers.
“He was saying, ‘shark,’ he was saying ‘out,’ he was saying ‘help,'” Davis recalled.
Nearly a five minute paddle from shore, Steinley said he questioned his own fate.
“I started to see spots and then I know, you know, [thought] I’m definitely I’m not going to make it,” he said. “And I catch up to Jared and he paddles next to me.”
When Davis saw Steinley’s leg, he said it looked like there was a red stripe on his wetsuit.
“He goes, ‘You going to make it, don’t look at your leg, let’s just keep going.’ And then we paddled in together until a wave came, and then I gave it my all,” Steinley said of the moment he fought to get to safety.
Nearly a dozen surfers rushed in to help once they got to shore, using surfboard leashes as a makeshift tourniquet to help stop the bleeding.
“All of the surfers that were with me out in the water came out altogether and grabbed this big, long board and put me on that long board,” Steinley said. The group “held me on the board, kept up the board and carried me all the way up the steps, saving time for when the ambulance got there.”
Timothy Saluzzom, a paramedic who responded on the scene, said the care Steinley got prior to his arrival “really helped to save his leg.”
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife confirmed that this was a great white shark, at least 10-feet long, based on the DNA and bite radius from Steinley’s surfboard.
Dave Bader, chief operations and education officer at the Marine Mammal Care Center, said bites from great white sharks can be severe. Steinley “was lucky enough to be in and around a space where there were other people that were there to help him.”
He added, “Eric did all the right things by being in a space where he could get that immediate help.”
Steinley is out of the ICU after two surgeries with a long recovery ahead. While surfing may not be the same, he said he wants to get back up on the board at least one more time.
“I still want to be part of the lifestyle,” Steinley explained. “I’m just so thankful … and still in disbelief that I’m alive because of it.”
