(MIAMI) — U.S. authorities in South Florida are stepping up efforts to crackdown on a recent surge in weapons smuggling to Haiti and the Caribbean, according to Homeland Security officials.
An unusual uptick in the number of high-caliber weapons coming out of the U.S. is believed to be connected with spikes in violence driven by transnational criminal organizations.
“It’s been alarming and disturbing to see the spike of violence coincide with a spike in weapons trafficking out of Miami towards Haiti,” Anthony Salisbury, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations Miami, told ABC News.
HSI is actively pursuing dozens of open investigations in the region related to smuggling. Officials are hesitant to release exact numbers and specifics to avoid compromising prosecutions.
“We will push these investigations as far as we can,” Salisbury said. “It’s not just the people buying guns, it’s not just the people shipping guns — we will go after and, if we can, prosecute the individuals who are receiving the guns out of these countries. That does include both trying to extradite them back to the United States in some cases and working our foreign offices and our foreign counterparts to help prosecute them down in these countries.”
The enforcement crackdown has been coordinated through multiple federal agencies that are part of specialized teams including Customs and Border Protection, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Department of Commerce.
One area of particular focus is the Miami river, home to one of the most unique ports of entry in the United States due to the distance it spans into the interior of the United States.
The Haitian freighters that dock along the 3-4 mile stretch of river are different than the hyper-organized container ships typically seen at large ports. These smaller vessels that dock along the Miami river are more like giant tugboats. Individual packages are often loaded by hand, making it a prime situation for smuggling.
“We’re not going to tolerate this activity,” Salisbury said. “We’re not going to let South Florida willingly be a launching pad for weapons heading down to these countries.”
Last month marked one year since the assassination of Haitian President Jovenel Moïse which led to a scourge of gang violence that persists today.
Hurricane season, which runs from June to November in the Caribbean, also threatens to further destabilized the island nation. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has forecasted an increased likelihood of tropical storms turning into major hurricanes.
ABC News’ Ahmad Hemingway contributed to this report.
(COLUMBUS, Ohio) — The Columbus teachers union in Ohio is on strike after a vote on Sunday, just days away from the district’s first day of school on Wednesday.
Teachers began picketing outside over a dozen of the district’s schools on Monday morning. The union said it will gather outside schools from 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. every day until a deal is reached.
The Columbus Education Association, with 4,000 members, reached a 94% majority on the vote Sunday.
“It is with a full understanding of the sacrifices that students, parents, and teachers will make together to win the schools Columbus Students Deserve that CEA members overwhelmingly rejected the Board’s last, best and final offer tonight and voted to strike,” Columbus Education Association spokesperson Regina Fuentes said on Sunday in statement.
The Columbus Board of Education called the decision to strike “incredibly disappointing” in a statement on Sunday.
Fuentes said Sunday the board has “tried desperately” to make the compromise about teacher salary, teacher professional development and teacher leaves.
“Let me be clear,” Fuentes said. “This strike is about our students who deserve a commitment to modern schools with heating and air conditioning, smaller class sizes, and a well-rounded curriculum that includes art, music and P.E.”
Jennifer Adair, Columbus Board of Education President, said in a statement on Sunday the board’s offer “put children first and prioritized their education and their growth.”
Adair said the board offered a generous compensation package for teachers and responded to the concerns raised by the teacher’s union during the negotiations process.
The union and board last met in a mediated discussion on Aug. 18, where the board offered guaranteed raises of 3% annually for three years and $2,000 per CEA member in retention and recruitment bonuses.
According to the board, by the end of the contract, a teacher with a current average salary of $74,000 will earn more than $91,000.
The board’s last offer also stated that it committed funds to install air conditioning in every school, with the exception of one that already has central air in about 50% of the building and is slated to be replaced by a new school in a proposed facilities master plan, the board said.
With the 2022-2023 school year scheduled to begin on Wednesday, the board has decided to make back-to-school virtual, led by substitute teachers, in order to begin instruction on time, according to their statement on Sunday.
Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther said in a statement Sunday night that there needs to be another negotiation, in order to get students back in the classroom.
Ginther said the past few years have “underscored the value of our teachers, the resiliency of our kids and the need for Columbus City Schools to position itself for the future.”
He added the pandemic, “more than anything,” made clear that it is essential to get students back into the physical classroom.
“A responsible solution is within reach, but only if negotiations restart now,” Ginther said.
(DALLAS) — Flash flood warnings are in effect in Dallas Monday morning as three months’ worth of rain pounded the region overnight.
Eastern Dallas has been hit with more than 9 inches of rain within six hours — and more rain is on the way Monday morning. During an average summer, Dallas sees a total of 8 inches of rain.
At one point overnight, the rainfall rate was more than 5 inches per hour, forcing drivers to abandon their cars on roads.
Dallas Fort Worth International Airport issued a ground stop Monday morning due to thunderstorms.
Dallas’ school district warned that some buses may be delayed on Monday due to flooded streets.
The flood watch now stretches across central and northeastern Texas, where 2 to 5 inches of rain is expected. More than 8 inches is possible in isolated areas that see stalling, heavy rain.
The extreme rainfall has made this the third-wettest August on record for Dallas/Fort Worth area, based on records dating back to 1899.
This comes after the Dallas area faced an exceptional drought, the highest category assigned by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
This rain will slowly push east; heavy rain and flooding will likely continue into the Shreveport, Louisiana, area for Tuesday morning.
ABC News’ Kenton Gewecke contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Dr. Anthony Fauci will step down from his roles of director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden this December, he announced Monday.
“While I am moving on from my current positions, I am not retiring,” Fauci said in a statement. “After more than 50 years of government service, I plan to pursue the next phase of my career while I still have so much energy and passion for my field.”
Fauci, who turns 82 in December, has said for months that he plans to step away from his public role as a national leader on the pandemic once COVID-19 reaches a “steady state.”
Biden, commending Fauci’s work not just on the current pandemic, but for the six presidents before him, said in a statement Monday that Fauci’s “commitment to the work is unwavering, and he does it with an unparalleled spirit, energy, and scientific integrity.”
“As he leaves his position in the U.S. Government, I know the American people and the entire world will continue to benefit from Dr. Fauci’s expertise in whatever he does next,” Biden said. “The United States of America is stronger, more resilient, and healthier because of him.”
Fauci has been director of the NIAID for 38 years, beginning his tenure under President Ronald Reagan.
Before the COVID-19 pandemic, Fauci was famous for his work on HIV and AIDS, as well as Ebola and Zika, among other threats like West Nile Virus and the anthrax attacks in 2001.
“It has been the honor of a lifetime to have led the NIAID, an extraordinary institution, for so many years and through so many scientific and public health challenges. I am very proud of our many accomplishments,” Fauci said in a statement.
Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, who oversees Fauci’s department, said Fauci’s decision is one “we all knew would eventually come but hoped never would.”
“When I arrived at HHS, the world was one year into the COVID-19 pandemic. I quickly came to rely on Dr. Fauci’s wisdom and counsel in our response, and along with his scientific acumen, I treasure his ability to break down complex science in simple terms to the American people to save lives,” Becerra said.
Back in July, Fauci explained that he didn’t intend to leave the public health field for a while, but that he wanted to conserve his remaining years to work on personal projects, teaching and writing.
“Obviously, you can’t go on forever. I do want to do other things in my career. Even though I’m at a rather advanced age, I have the energy and the passion to continue to want to pursue other aspects of my professional career. And I’m going to do that sometime. I’m not exactly sure when, but I don’t see myself being in this job to the point where I can’t do anything else after that,” Fauci said on CNN at the time.
“So that’s the reason. It has nothing to do with pressures, nothing to do with all the other nonsense that you hear about, that has no influence on me,” Fauci said in the same interview.
In a Washington Post interview published on Monday, shortly after Fauci announced his imminent role change, Fauci said he was interested in teaching higher education and lecturing about the lessons he’s learned throughout his career. In the past, he’s also mentioned an interest in writing a memoir about growing up in Brooklyn in the 1940s and ’50s.
“I love everything about this place. … But even with that, I said I’m going to have to leave some time,” Fauci told The Washington Post. “I don’t want to be here so long that I get to the point where I lose a step.”
ABC News’ Emily Shapiro contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Tesla is raising the price of its “Full Self Driving” software to $15,000, Elon Musk said in a tweet on Sunday.
Tesla is facing scrutiny from federal and state officials over how it has advertised its self-driving technology, as well as concern over safety risks involved with the self-driving capability.
Customers who order the Full Self Driving, or FSD, software before Sept. 5 will receive the product under the current price, Musk, Tesla’s CEO, said in the tweet. The $3K price bump arrives as Tesla introduces FSD beta 10.69, a new iteration that boasts “improved overall driving smoothness” and “reduced false slowdowns near crosswalks,” according to the company.
The FSD software doesn’t make a car fully self-driving. Rather, users must remain focused on the road and keep their hands on the driving wheel. The Autopilot system, meanwhile, offers navigation to and from user-provided destinations, as well as suggestions for lane changes and other maneuvers to optimize a trip.
Tesla has come under sharp criticism over its marketing of the FSD software and Autopilot.
Earlier this month, the California Department of Motor Vehicles alleged that the company deceptively advertises the products as fully autonomous, according to two filings with California’s Office of Administrative Hearings. The filings were first reported by The Los Angeles Times.
Similarly, Senators Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) last year called on the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Tesla’s advertising of the FSD software and Autopilot.
“Tesla’s marketing has repeatedly overstated the capabilities of its vehicles, and these statements increasingly pose a threat to motorists and other users of the road,” Markey and Blumenthal said in a letter to FTC Chair Lina Khan.
In response to the letter, Tesla Senior Director of Public Policy Rohan Patel said in March: “Tesla’s Autopilot and FSD Capability features enhance the ability of our cusotmes [sic] to drive safer than the average driver in the U.S.” The response was first reported by Reuters.
Tesla vehicles operating under the Autopilot system were involved in 273 reported crashes over roughly a yearlong period ending in June, according to data released that month by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Tesla vehicles comprised almost 70% of the crashes involving advanced driver-assisted systems over that period, the data showed.
(LONDON) — A new era is beginning for Prince William and his family.
Prince William and his wife, Catherine, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, have chosen to move from Kensington Palace to Windsor, and their children will attend a new school nearby.
Kensington Palace announced Monday that the Cambridges’ three children, Princes George and Louis and Princess Charlotte, will attend Lambrook School in Berkshire, starting in September.
The new school will be closer to the Cambridge family’s new home, Adelaide Cottage, a four-bedroom cottage on the grounds of Windsor Castle.
For the past several years, George, 9, and Charlotte, 7, have attended Thomas’s Battersea School in London, which was a short distance from the family’s home at Kensington Palace.
“Their Royal Highnesses are hugely grateful to Thomas’s Battersea where George and Charlotte have had a happy start to their education since 2017 and 2019 respectively and are pleased to have found a school for all three of their children which shares a similar ethos and values to Thomas’s,” the palace said in a statement.
Lambrook School is described as one of the country’s leading prep schools. According to its website, the school aims to have students leave “as confident, happy, engaging, mature, considerate and thoughtful young adults who are outward looking global citizens.”
“We are delighted that Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis will be joining us this coming September and very much look forward to welcoming the family, as well as all of our new pupils, to our school community,” Jonathan Perry, headmaster of Lambrook School, said in a statement shared by Kensington Palace.
This year marks the first year that Louis, 4, will attend the same school as his older siblings.
A senior royal source told ABC News the Cambridges’ move to the country was primarily driven by their choice of school, and a desire to give their children as “normal” an upbringing as possible.
The Duchess of Cambridge attended prep school in Berkshire and her parents, Michael and Carole Middleton, still live in the county. The Middletons’ home in Bucklebury is about 45 minutes from Windsor, making visiting with grandparents that bit easier.
“This move puts them much closer to the Middletons and Kate is very close to her family,” said Victoria Murphy, ABC News royal contributor. “It also emulates in many ways the upbringing [Kate] had in rural Berkshire, which she has spoken fondly of and I think has always had a big influence over how the Cambridges have shaped their family life.”
The Cambridges have used Kensington Palace, where Prince William also grew up, as their official residence since they renovated an apartment there in 2013.
They have lived there as a family since 2017, when Prince George started school at St. Thomas’s Battersea.
“As the children get older and more independent you can see why they would feel they have more breathing space in Windsor,” said Murphy. “Kensington Palace and gardens is a major tourist attraction which you are right in the middle of as soon as you step out of the private areas.”
A royal source explained that the family will also use their Norfolk home, Anmer Hall, on the Queen’s Sandringham estate, whenever they can.
With their move to Adelaide Cottage, the Cambridges now have three homes: Kensington Palace, Anmer Hall and Adelaide Cottage.
“I think this move might attract some criticism as they are gaining an additional property,” said Murphy. “But this has been driven by what William and Kate want for their children and they have always been resolved to try and have a normal family life.”
Prince William will be joining a royal enclave with his family’s move to the grounds of Windsor Castle.
William’s brother, Prince Harry, who lives in California with his wife Meghan and their two kids, still calls Windsor’s Frogmore Cottage his home in the United Kingdom. And William’s uncle, Prince Andrew, and his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, live in Royal Lodge, not far from the Cambridges’ new home.
William’s grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, also spends much of her time now at Windsor Castle.
The Cambridges’ new home, Adelaide Cottage, was built in 1831 as a retreat for William IV’s consort Queen Adelaide, according to ABC News royal contributor Robert Jobson, who described the home as, “relatively modest in royal terms, with just four bedrooms.”
As well as it being a sound move for his family, Jobson highlighted another reason why the move will be beneficial for Prince William,
“William wants to be in Windsor to be nearer the queen too, as Windsor Castle is the new royal hub as Buckingham Palace is still undergoing renovations,” said Jobson.
(NEW YORK) — Dr. Martha Gulati will never forget the first time she saw a young, healthy athlete die of heat stroke.
It was 1995 in Chicago, in the middle of a heat wave that would ultimately claim nearly 700 lives. In the decades that followed, Gulati watched in alarm as the climate warmed and heat catastrophes grew even more intense.
“The medical community was not prepared for what these temperatures would do to people; we were ultimately learning on the fly,” said Gulati, now associate director of the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and president of the American Society of Preventive Cardiology.
Since that heat wave in 1995, climate change has intensified globally with wildfires, hurricanes, droughts, heat waves and cold spells leading to famine and drought. As a result of these extreme changes, the medical community is noticing an increasing rate of heart disease.
“The world we live in right now is not a very hospitable environment for the heart,” Gulati said. “With heart disease prevention, we tend to focus on controlling blood pressure and lipids, but we should consider the other aspects of prevention, like our environment.”
Sixty-two percent of deaths attributed to climate change were from cardiovascular disease, according to a study published in Lancet in 2020.
“We know that air pollution is a cause of heart disease.” said Dr. Sadeer Al-Kindi, a cardiologist at University Hospitals in Ohio and assistant professor at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. “Evidence shows that air pollution increases heart disease, heart failure and insulin resistance.”
Particulate matter, tiny particles in the air invisible to the naked eye, are produced by greenhouse gasses and carbon emissions. These particles can enter your lungs and bloodstream, wreaking havoc on tissues that are vital to a healthy cardiovascular system. Over time, prolonged exposure to pollution can contribute to increased clotting, high blood pressure and sleep disturbances.
Dr. Kai Chen, assistant professor at the Yale School of Public Health and director of research at the Yale Center on Climate Change and Health, said that when inhaled, these pollutants cause stress and inflammation in the body that can result in cardiometabolic syndromes, such as hypertension, high cholesterol and diabetes.
Experts say it’s difficult to directly blame individual heart attacks on heat waves based on currently available data. However, there is research to suggest a close relationship, as regions with excessive heat or freezing temperature had alarmingly higher episodes of heart attack, according to a June study in Nature Reviews Cardiology.
It’s not clear exactly why temperature shifts are correlated with higher rates of heart attacks. Experts believe that temperature shifts affect the body’s ability to regulate normal body temperatures in response to the extreme temperatures.
Al-Kindi said that a concept called “climate penalty” could explain these patterns. Extreme weather conditions from climate change are able to increase and distribute those invisible molecules that are detrimental to our body, he said.
“Fires, winds, heat and cold driven by climate change increases the production and distribution of these pollutants,” Al-Kindi said. “[Climate change] both directly elevates the number of particles in the air that people breathe in, but also indirectly by causing droughts, famine, malnutrition and limiting accessibility to care.”
A study published earlier this month in the journal Nature Cardiovascular Research found that even medications used to treat heart disease may work differently during heat waves.
Chen, who was the lead author in the study, found that patients who were taking two medications used to treat heart disease had higher rates of heart attacks on days with record heat waves.
Regardless of the age, people who were on beta blockers and antiplatelet medications had a number of heart attacks, explained Chen.
“What is interesting,” Chen said, “is that young people on the same medications, who we typically do not expect to have heart disease, also had higher episodes of heart attacks than those who were not taking these medications.”
Al-Kindi, who was not involved in the study, believes this paradox of medications treating heart disease causing more heart attacks on extremely hot days could be from blunting our nervous system that regulates our “fight or flight” response and regulates the way we respond to temperature.
While avoiding cigarettes, eating healthy, sleeping well and exercising are ways to prevent heart disease, doctors agree that protecting yourself from the impacts of climate change is essential to your heart health.
Experts advise changes should be made as a community by reducing plastic waste, using public transport, recycling, avoiding red meat and advocating for policies to help prevent worsening climate change.
On an individual level, Al-Kindi said people should stay inside on extremely hot and cold days, avoid pollutants by wearing a mask, move away from fossil fuels and move toward clean energy.
“The impact of climate change is not a question of whether it’s happening — it is happening and we are seeing evidence of it every day,” said Gulati. “If we don’t act now, we won’t save lives and our job as physicians is to save lives.”
Lily Nedda Dastmalchi, D.O., M.A., is a cardiology fellow at Temple University Hospital and a contributor to the ABC News Medical Unit.
(NEW YORK) — The New York State Department of Health reported its first known case of monkeypox in a child in New York.
According to the new data, one child under the age of 18 has tested positive for monkeypox. The age of the child or the county where the case was reported was not specified in the report. The case was not reported in New York City.
According to the latest data reported by the NYC Department of Health on Thursday, no cases of monkeypox in children have been found in the city.
There are a total of 2,798 confirmed monkeypox cases in New York as of Friday, according to the NYSDOH. Of those, 2,596 are in New York City.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and other health officials declared monekypox to be the “epicenter of the outbreak” in July. Hochul declared a State Disaster Emergency executive order in response to the growing outbreak.
“My team and I are working around the clock to secure more vaccines, expand testing capacity and responsibly educate the public on how to stay safe during this outbreak,” Hochul said in a statement.
(KYIV, Ukraine) — Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 and children’s book author Kateryna Yehorushkina decided that she would write a book to help the country’s children cope with the trauma of the war that will hit its six-month mark on Wednesday.
“I feel that it’s very important to talk about this war,” she told ABC News reporter Britt Clennett. “I feel like I’m doing my part.”
The goal of this book is to tell a story about the Russian war in Ukraine for children in a way that is “not traumatic for them,” she said.
Yehorushkina is the author of 15 other children’s books including a book called “The Chest,” about the 1932-22 famine in Ukraine imposed by the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. She is also trained in philology and psychology.
“I felt I could join and mix this knowledge to help kids to overcome this trauma,” she said. “To know [about the war], to have memories, but not to be traumatized a lot.”
The war has dramatically impacted more than 5 million Ukrainian children, with UNICEF estimating that more than 3 million children living inside the country and more than 2 million living as refugees need humanitarian assistance.
The story is told through the perspective of 10-year-old Vera, who lives in an unidentified part of Ukraine near Kyiv that has just been invaded by the Russian army. Vera is keeping a diary to describe how her family is responding to the invasion.
Yehorushkina placed events in her book that will be recognizable for children who have gone through the experience of invasion and occupation, such as putting tape over windows, which is said to protect a window from shattering during a blast, putting pillows in the bathroom, to hold over their heads in the case of bombardment, and eventually taking refuge in a basement.
Vera and her family live in the basement of their home for two weeks and Vera’s father works as a volunteer, delivering supplies such as groceries and pet food across the city.
Yehorushkina has also placed objects like a doll of the Disney character Elsa from the film “Frozen” in her illustrations, she said, so that children can see themselves in the narrative.
The illustrations purposefully have no dark colors and have been kept very light and bright, she said.
The process of writing the book is “not easy,” she said, adding that she has to be in a “very calm psychological state” while writing.
Yehorushkina lives in Vyshhorod, Ukraine, and is currently separated from her two young children, who helped provide some of the inspiration for writing this book. Her daughter and her friends would recreate their homes and cities using the video game Minecraft, she said, which inspired a scene in this book.
Yehorushkina is also a licensed art therapist, working with Ukrainian children in different settings. One of the activities she does with children is to draw angels, which they imagine are defending their cities and loved ones.
“Their mental health is a very high priority for me,” she said.
As a mother of two children, she has seen first-hand the devastating psychological impacts of living through a war.
“I said to [my daughter], ‘all your emotions are normal,'” she recounted. “It’s very important to say what we feel.”
(ATLANTA) — A federal appeals court on Sunday temporarily halted a lower court’s ruling mandating that Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., testify before a grand jury in Georgia that is investigating pro-Trump efforts to sway the state’s 2020 presidential election results.
In a brief order, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sent the ruling back down to the district court, instructing the judge there to weigh any potential changes to Fulton County’s grand jury subpoena to Graham in alignment with the Constitution’s speech and debate clause.
The clause, which offers lawmakers certain legal protections when they are acting in their official capacities, is at the heart of Graham’s challenge to the subpoena for his testimony.
Graham had been scheduled to testify Tuesday.
The appellate circuit ruled that the district court should “determine whether [Graham] is entitled to a partial quashal [rejection] or modification of the subpoena to appear before the special purpose grand jury based on any protections afforded by the Speech or Debate Clause of the United States Constitution.”
“Following resolution of the partial-quashal issue on limited remand, the matter will be returned to this Court for further consideration,” the appellate judges wrote.
The ruling is the latest development in Fulton County’s investigation of efforts to overturn the 2020 race — a probe that turned into a pitched legal battle with Graham after Georgia prosecutors sought his testimony earlier this year.
District Court Judge Leigh Martin May had ruled on Friday that “further delay of … Graham’s testimony would greatly compound the overall delay in carrying out the grand jury’s investigation” and “thus poses a significant risk of overall hindrance to the grand jury’s investigation.”
“The Court therefore finds that granting a stay would almost certainly result in material injury to the grand jury and its investigation,” May wrote.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, a Democrat leading the investigation, first sought Graham’s testimony in July.
The South Carolina legislator, a staunch ally of former President Donald Trump, became embroiled in the case over two calls he made to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger shortly after the last presidential race.
Graham has since insisted that he was inquiring over how signatures on Georgia mail-in ballots were verified and was not pushing for any votes to be tossed in support of Trump. Graham’s legal team says his calls should be protected under the speech and debate clause, arguing they were related to legislative work under his role as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee at the time.
The Georgia grand jury probe was launched after Raffensperger, a Republican and the state’s top elections overseer, was lobbied by Trump to “find 11,780 votes” — the number the then-president needed to win the state over Joe Biden, who won Georgia (which was later re-confirmed by a full manual recount).
In seeking a grand jury earlier this year, Willis wrote to the court that she had reason to believe there was “a reasonable probability that the State of Georgia’s administration of elections in 2020 … was subject to possible criminal disruptions.”
The Fulton County grand jury can make recommendations but does not have the power to indict, which would be up to another grand jury to weigh after the investigation.
Trump has insisted his pressure campaign in Georgia was appropriate and he did nothing wrong, claiming Willis is politically persecuting him.
ABC News’ Alexander Mallin and Will Steakin contributed to this report.
