(NEWARK, N.J.) — If you travel more than a mile to a supermarket, supercenter, or large grocery store with affordable and healthy food options in an urban area, and more than 20 miles in a rural area, you live in what’s considered the definition of a food desert by the U.S Department of Agriculture.
This lack of access impacts roughly 17 million Americans according to the Food Access Research Atlas. The data also shows people who live a half mile or more from food options in urban areas, or 10 miles in rural areas, increases that number to more than 53 million Americans, including those in New Jersey.
In January 2021, New Jersey Governor, Phil Murphy, signed into law the Food Desert Relief Act, part of the Economic Recovery Act, which will provide about $240 million in funding to combat this issue in the state.
The Food Desert Relief Act provides tax breaks to stores that open in under-served areas, grants loans and other assistance for stores of all types to operate in food deserts.
The Community Food Bank of New Jersey estimates that 800,000 New Jersey residents are dealing with food insecurity, and almost 200,000 of them are children.
53-year-old Robert Brown from Newark, NJ, makes a two-mile commute from his home to a ShopRite, without a car, telling ABC News that pricing and options are a factor “I live like 20 blocks away, but we have a store downstairs, where I live at, but they’re so high, I come here. There’s no need in spending my money there, and I’m getting a little bit of nothing when I can get everything I need.”
45-year-old Katrina Moseley must take it a step farther, as the two-mile journey to ShopRite, is her second grocery shopping trip of the day, “I started at 8oclock this morning, I went to Walmart, got back home like 1130, rest for a little bit, caught the bus what time is it, I got here like 12 something, 12 or one something. Shopped. I take my time in the store to go thru stuff, and now I’m waiting for transportation to go home.”
Moseley depends on two different bus lines, taxis, and relatives to pick her up, as she spends her day-off from work to feed her family of four, including a daughter with a baby on the way, “So I go to Walmart to get the bulk of the meat because it lasts, you can make like… One of their packets of meat you can make like 2-3 meals out of it, all depends on how you do it.”
Transportation back is also an issue for Brown, knowing some options are not practical, “f I would’ve tried to get on the bus with this, it would be too much, it would be too much.”
Tara Colton, the Executive Vice President for Economic Security for New Jersey’s Economic Development Authority, says that addressing food deserts, a product of structural racism, neighborhood redlining, and disinvestment, is not as simple as building a supermarket, “You can live next door to the most amazing market or farmer’s market but if you can’t afford to buy
the food that’s in there, or they don’t accept federal nutrition programs like snap, then its inaccessible to you.”
Sustain & Serve NJ initially began as a $2million pilot program to help with food security, in conjunction with supporting the states restaurant industry in 2020. The program has evolved into a $45 million initiative, paying restaurants to deliver ready to eat meals directly to those in need. Colton told ABC News, “I often say it isn’t about bringing people to food, it’s about bringing food to people. And there’s a lot of ways to do that. They can go into a big building, and buy it put it into the truck of a car, but you can also bring it to them more centrally.”
Colton touts the program, “That one dollar you’re spending is keeping the restaurant open, the workers employed and is giving people who often can’t access this kind of food, a healthy fresh nutritious homemade meal.”
For those like Moseley who prefer to cook their own meals, despite the miles long odyssey to multiple supermarkets, the focus isn’t on feeling disenfranchised, but doing what’s necessary for her family, “Those who I gotta worry about, so this is what I do for them, shop. Getting it done, out of the way.”
(WASHINGTON) — The Department of Homeland Security inspector general met with members of the Jan. 6 committee behind closed doors on Friday amid revelations about deleted Secret Service texts from the day before and the day of the attack on the U.S. Capitol.
The meeting comes after Inspector General Joseph Cuffari earlier this week sent a memo to the committee notifying them the Secret Service had deleted text messages from Jan. 5 and 6, 2021.
After Friday’s meeting, members called for transparency, with Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., telling ABC News Congressional Correspondent Rachel Scott, “We need to get to the bottom of it, but if those texts are gone, we are determined to find them.
“We just don’t know where the texts are. We don’t know whether the texts have vanished or not vanished. We don’t know what the context was for their vanishing if they did vanish — we just don’t know,” he said. “But we’re going to get to the bottom of it and we’re going to make a full report to the American people.”
Committee chair Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said lawmakers still don’t know if there are more messages missing beyond those from Jan 5 and 6.
“We’re not sure. The IG indicated that they had made a significant request for information. And obviously, since he was not able to get it — we just really don’t know,” Thompson said.
Thompson said it’s “obvious” the Secret Service is not being cooperative.
In earlier testimony, former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson alleged she was told then-President Donald Trump physically assaulted members of his Secret Service detail when they declined to take him to the Capitol on Jan. 6.
A source close to the Secret Service does not dispute the former president demanded to go to the Capitol just after his rally on the Ellipse that day.
The Secret Service, in a lengthy statement on Thursday night, blasted the inspector general’s letter to the committee.
“The insinuation that the Secret Service maliciously deleted text messages following a request is false,” Anthony Gugliemi, the agency’s chief of communications, said in a statement. “In fact, the Secret Service has been fully cooperating with the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General (DHS OIG) in every respect — whether it be interviews, documents, emails, or texts.”
Gugliemi said that in February 2021, the Secret Service began to reset its mobile phones to factory settings as part of a previously planned, three-month system migration. In that process, data resident on some phones was lost, he said.
The DHS inspector general did not immediately respond to an ABC News request for comment.
ABC News’ Katherine Faulders, Rachel Scott and Allison Pecorin contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Mexican drug kingpin Rafael Caro-Quintero, wanted in the 1985 killing of a U.S. anti-narcotics agent, has been detained in Mexico, multiple law enforcement sources told ABC News Friday evening.
Caro-Quintero, the former leader of the Guadalajara Cartel, has been wanted over his alleged involvement in the kidnapping and murder of Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent Enrique Camarena in Mexico. Camarena’s capture and torture were dramatized in the Netflix show “Narcos.”
Caro-Quintero has been on the FBI’s 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list since 2018. In addition to the kidnapping and murder of a federal agent, he was wanted for violent crimes in aid of racketeering, among other alleged federal violations.
The FBI was offering a $20 million reward for information leading to his arrest or capture and warned that he should be considered “armed and extremely dangerous.”
Caro-Quintero allegedly is involved in the Sinaloa Cartel and the Caro-Quintero Drug Trafficking Organization in the region of Badiraguato in Sinaloa, Mexico, the FBI said.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether Caro-Quintero would be extradited to the United States.
Word of the capture comes just days after President Joe Biden met with his Mexican counterpart in Washington, D.C.
Mexican President Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has been loath to go after cartel leaders because, he has said, he is more interested in reducing violence in Mexico.
(NEW YORK) — Elon Musk asked a Delaware court on Friday to reject Twitter’s attempt to put the $44 billion merger case on trial in September, arguing it’s an “unjustifiable” timeframe.
Twitter sued Musk in an attempt to force him to complete his purchase of the company, after declaring he was walking away from the deal.
Twitter sought a four-day trial in September, arguing the deal faces an October deadline to close.
“Twitter’s bid for extreme expedition rests on the false premise that the Termination Date in the merger agreement is October 24, glossing over that this date is automatically stayed if either party files litigation. By filing its complaint, Plaintiff has rendered its supposed need for a September trial moot,” Musk’s attorney, Alex Spiro, wrote in a Friday court filing.
Delaware Chancery Court will determine whether Musk remains obligated to purchase Twitter or whether he was entitled to walk away because the company failed to provide him data he requested.
“Twitter’s sudden request for warp speed after two months of foot-dragging and obfuscation is its latest tactic to shroud the truth about spam accounts long enough to railroad Defendants into closing,” the filing said.
Musk has claimed Twitter failed to disclose the number of fake accounts on the platform. Twitter has said 5% of active users are bots but Musk has said he does not believe the figure.
“Post-signing, Defendants promptly sought to understand Twitter’s process for identifying false or spam accounts. In a May 6 meeting with Twitter executives, Musk was flabbergasted to learn just how meager Twitter’s process was,” Musk’s filing said.
Musk asked the court to set a trial date no earlier than mid-February.
(CHEYENNE, Wyo.) — Lyle Neiberger would have turned 33 this year. But he is forever 17, frozen in his father Lance’s memory.
“I’ve never been angry at my son. I’ve always been angry at me. Why didn’t I see it? What if I would have done something different?” he lamented, while sitting in his woodshop at his home in central Wyoming.
It’s been 16 years since Lyle died by suicide. Lance Neiberger had no idea his son was contemplating suicide and Lyle left no note behind.
Memories of Lyle line the walls of Neiberger’s woodshop – a hobby father and son bonded over. “We’re all in the cowboy-up attitude, you know. Real men don’t cry. Real men don’t have problems,” he said.
Here in Wyoming, nicknamed the Cowboy State, “real men” are taught that when they have a problem, they pick up and fix it without looking back, Neiberger said.
“We all have something go wrong, and we all need help at times. And when you learn that you don’t need help and you just go on, maybe that makes life a lot tougher,” Neiberger said.
U.S. suicide rates are the highest they’ve been since World War II. At 30.5 per 100,000 persons in 2020, Wyoming’s rate is more than double that of the national average and the highest rate per capita in the nation, according to the Wyoming Department of Health.
At 71, Neiberger has taken on the responsibility of helping to curb Wyoming’s high suicide rate by telling Lyle’s story to schools in the surrounding area and by heading the Natrona County Suicide Prevention Task Force. He hopes he can save at least one life.
The task force meets once a month in Casper, Wyoming, to plan events, pool resources and keep track of the lives lost.
At nearly 60,000 residents, Casper is Wyoming’s second largest city. Casper Police Chief Keith McPheeters told ABC News that his officers respond to suicide calls twice as often as they do for shoplifting.
“I just want to go over the statistics that we are showing. Year to date last year, my officers had responded to 256 persons who were considering suicide and, this year, we have seen an absolute negligible change; so, year to date from May 15, 253,” he said at a recent task force meeting.
Sixteen years ago, one of those calls came from Lance Neiberger – when he found Lyle at home. Neiberger said he had no idea his son was suicidal.
“There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about him. Now, after his death, it was horrible. It was just miserable. It was crying. It was the whys, the kicking yourself, everything. Today, I can often think about Lyle just with a smile on my face. I came to a point where I realized that it was Lyle’s decision and his decision only,” he said.
When asked why he thinks the suicide rate in Wyoming is so high, he had many reasons, one of them the state’s rural landscape.
Wyoming, accounting for its land mass, is the tenth largest state in the country; by population, it’s the smallest. So, even if you wanted help – help might be a long way from you.
Andrea Summerville, the executive director of the Wyoming Association of Mental Health & Substance Abuse Centers, showed ABC News’ Trevor Ault the area right outside of Casper. She pointed out miles and miles of sweeping plains with very few people in sight.
“You’ll hit a major town about every hundred miles. And when I say a town, I mean a town of 5,000 people,” she said. “You might get a call from somebody that’s 100 miles away from the nearest town, but you might also just not have the mental health professionals. Wyoming has been a mental health professional shortage area, always, designated by the Rural Health Agency. The entire state. Not just an area, not just a town, but the entire state.”
Now federal legislation to help any American in crisis reach a counselor by phone is set to launch July 16. It will transition the ten-digit suicide hotline into a three-digit number, 988. But in Wyoming, even that will be an uphill climb to adopt.
“There are some logistics tied with 988, specifically things like geo location. So with 911, everybody knows if you call 911 they know where you’re at to locate your cellphone. You’re not going to find a cell tower every 50 miles or so here. And so making sure that we are meeting those infrastructure challenges is probably going to be our biggest, most expensive long-term project,” Summerville said.
The 988 hotline is being touted as a one stop shop for anyone experiencing a mental health crisis, but funding the project so that health care providers are ready for the influx of calls is proving to be challenging.
Similarly to 911, 988 will be funded by a monthly fee on all phone lines. The fee is determined by each state.
The Department of Health and Human Services expects the volume of calls to double within the first year. However, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, only Colorado, Nevada, Washington, and Virginia have enacted a comprehensive plan for funding.
The Central Wyoming Counseling Center is one of two suicide hotlines centers already up and running in Wyoming. It opened two years ago.
The workers know this state’s layout, its culture, its resources or lack thereof– which is essential in a crisis.
They’ve secured $2.1 million to expand the suicide hotline to a 24-hour service, most of it federal money from the American Rescue Plan Act that Wisconsin Gov. Mark Gordon appropriated, but with the state legislature refusing to expand Medicaid, federal funding will soon run out.
Summerville told ABC News they currently only have the funding to continue 988 for two more years. “In terms of putting it into operation in Wyoming, It’s going to take a lot of work. We only have four crisis stabilization centers across the state. So how do we move people across the state?”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, of the 45,979 who died by suicide in the United States in 2020, nearly 70% were white men. Men are less likely to reach out for help, a fact that Dr. Amanda DeDiego, an Assistant Professor at the University of Wyoming, is all too aware of.
“There’s that heavy, heavy stigma about help seeking behavior. And then there’s not a lot of options for you to be able to seek care in these rural communities and have your confidentiality. It’s not that your provider is not honoring the confidentiality. It’s just that everybody knows everything,” DeDeigo said.
Along with Lisa Scroggins, the Executive Director of the Natrona County Library, she is spearheading a new project to create spaces that sidestep the issue of stigma. It’s called Wyoming Public Access to Telehealth Services or WyPATHS. It will be a booth placed in local libraries that is soundproof and provides a space for people to be able to connect through telehealth to their health care providers.
They plan on training library staff across Wyoming in suicide prevention.
“A big part of the training is being empathetic to your fellow citizen or resident. So seeing the person who walks into the door and realizing their situation may be different than yours and looking for signs that a person may be needing help and then saying, ‘Hey, right here, here’s your help,’” said Scroggins.
Lance Neiberger still thinks about how Lyle didn’t come to him about his negative thoughts when he reflects on the loss of his son.
“He didn’t feel comfortable enough to come to me and say, ‘Dad, life’s kicking my butt. I’m really struggling here.’ So, I think what he was doing was acting up and as his drama increased, I got angry. I didn’t like the drama. We weren’t communicating about the problem. So he took his drama to another level and I took my anger to another level. And at the time of his death and when he needed me the most, I wasn’t there for him because we were going in opposite directions instead of working together,” he said.
Neiberger said he considered taking his own life during the six months after Lyle died. “It wasn’t until our daughter gave birth to our granddaughter that I really realized what I would have missed had I not lived back then.”
As Neiberger stared at Lyle’s gravestone, decorated with mementos from friends and family, he couldn’t help but wonder what his son’s life would have been like had he lived past 17. But he is determined to keep having these very uncomfortable conversations in the hopes that Lyle’s death will not be in vain.
“That’s what keeps me going. My faith in the fact that I truly believe I’ll see him again someday. I’ll be with him. That’s what’s given me the hope to continue,” he said.
If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide or worried about a friend or loved one, help is available. Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 [TALK] for free, confidential emotional support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The rollout of the national 988 mental health hotline is expected on July 16.
Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
(NEW YORK) — As the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline prepared for the launch of a nationwide three-digit number on Saturday, local, state and federal government officials gathered in Philadelphia Friday to discuss the effort to get the new nationwide 988 calling code.
“There’s been a lot of work to get to this day,” Jessica Rosenworcel, chairwoman of the Federal Communications Commission, said. “But what we’ve done is we’ve made it easy. 988 is easy to remember. Now we have to make it clear to the entire country that it is a sign of strength to call it and use it, and not a sign of weakness.”
The Lifeline has been in operation at a ten-digit number (1-800-283-TALK) since 2005, has taken over 20 million calls in that time, and that number will continue to route callers to the Lifeline following the launch of 988. However, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (a division of HHS) anticipates the increased ease of use for the three-digit number will dramatically increase calls to the service.
Tim Jansen, chief executive officer of Community Crisis Services Inc. in Hyattsville, Maryland, told ABC News that call volume at his facility has gone up over the last few years, and he expects the increase will continue amid the launch of 988.
“I think we’re going to see a significant uptick in calls,” Jansen said, adding that his facility has been working to increase their staff over the last six months in preparation. “I think the big thing is [988 will] make the number much easier to remember.”
The Biden administration has put an unprecedented amount of funding toward launching the new number for the Lifeline. Following the addition of $150 million for the Lifeline as part of the recently passed gun safety legislation, the federal investment in 988 stands at $432 million.
Jansen says that funding, along with about $5 million in funding from Maryland that will be distributed across the state this fiscal year, has helped his facility increase the salary of existing staff and hire about 150 new employees. CCSI now has about 225 employees available to answer calls, chats and texts for the Lifeline in its capacity as both a local center and one of the national backup call centers.
Experts say that, ideally, Lifeline calls should be answered at the local level so callers can be more easily connected with follow-up resources in their area, but there are several national backup centers (such as CCSI) that can field calls from anywhere in the country if a particular center is unable to answer.
Jansen explained that local centers have about 30 seconds to answer a call before it is forwarded to the next nearest local or regional call center. If it is not answered by that center within about three minutes, he added, it then goes to the national backup network.
Nationwide, HHS officials say, the influx of federal funding for the Lifeline has enabled call centers to field 17,000 more calls, 37,000 more chats and 3,000 more texts in June of this year, compared to 2021.
While the federal funding has increased the ability of the Lifeline to respond nationwide, answer rates still vary from state to state, as much of the funding for these call centers happens at the state level.
When Congress designated 988 as the new number for the Lifeline in 2020, it gave states the authority to levy fees on cell phone bills to help sustainably fund the service, similar to how 911 call centers are funded.
So far, only four states have passed that legislation. Some others, like Maryland, have allocated some funding for the launch. Experts worry, however, that many states will not be able to accommodate the volume of calls anticipated after the new number launches.
HHS officials continue to emphasize the need for state-level investment for this system to be built out long-term and able to handle the volume of calls.
“Failure is not an option,” HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra said at the launch news conference on Friday.
“988 is a three digit number, but it really is more.” Becerra said. “It’s a message — when you need someone, we will be there.”
The transition to a fully reimagined mental health crisis care system — the ultimate goal of 988 — will take time, officials say.
While most of the callers reaching out to the Lifeline during a mental health crisis can be deescalated over the phone, some require additional care, which can include a visit from a mobile crisis response team, a trip to a crisis stabilization unit or in some cases, inpatient hospitalization.
Those additional elements of what experts call the “crisis care continuum” are currently available in some cities across the country, but that portion of the crisis care system will take additional time to build out, they say.
“One of the challenges with 988 is it’s going to expose the fact that there are not enough vendors, not enough therapists, not enough counselors,” Jansen said.
Despite the expected hiccups in the overall nationwide rollout, he said, “To me, one life saved is success,” adding, “But I think that the ultimate gauge of what makes [988] successful is if we ultimately see a reduction in the rates of suicide. That’s going to take some time.”
An employee for nearly 26 years at the center he now runs, Jansen said, “It’s one call, one text, one chat at a time … [Every day] You can walk out of here knowing that I helped somebody with a safety plan. Somebody said that their only option was dying and now they have other options.”
If you are experiencing suicidal, substance use or other mental health crises please call or text the new three digit code at 9-8-8. You will reach a trained crisis counselor for free, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You can also go to 988lifeline.org or dial the current toll free number 800-273-8255 [TALK].
(JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia) — President Joe Biden on Friday, after a much-criticized meeting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, said he had raised the murder of Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi with the de-facto Saudi leader.
“I raised it at the top of the meeting,” Biden said of the case of Khashoggi, a Washington Post columnist based in the U.S., “making it clear what I thought of it at the time, and what I think of it now.”
“I was straightforward and direct in discussing it. I made my new crystal clear. I said very straightforwardly, for an American president to be silent on an issue of human rights is inconsistent with who we are and who I am,” he added.
Mohammed bin Salman’s response was that he was not personally responsible, Biden said. “I indicated I thought he was,” Biden continued about the 2018 killing at the Saudi embassy in Turkey that U.S. intelligence says the crown prince approved.
Before the meeting, Biden had declined to commit to raising Khashoggi’s murder and the Saudi record on human rights in general.
Hatice Cengiz, Khashoggi’s fiancee, previously described Biden’s decision to visit Saudi Arabia as “heartbreaking.” On Friday, she criticized Biden’s seemingly warm welcome with the crown prince, adding a photo of them fist bumping.
“What Jamal Khashoggi would tweet today,” Cengiz wrote on Twitter. “Hey @POTUS, Is this the accountability you promised for my murder? The blood of MBS’s next victim is on your hands.”
When asked about her statement, Biden said she was “sorry she feels that way” and continued to condemn Khashoggi’s killing as “outrageous.”
BREAKING: Pres. Biden says he raised murder of Jamal Khashoggi at top of meeting in Saudi Arabia: “I was straightforward and direct in discussing it. I made my view crystal clear…I’ll always stand up for our values.” https://t.co/o4hQ2HoBg4pic.twitter.com/DaHI2Pv6B8
“The fist bump between President Biden and Mohammed bin Salman was worse than a handshake—it was shameful,” Washington Post Publisher and CEO Fred Ryan said in a statement. “It projected a level of intimacy and comfort that delivers to MBS the unwarranted redemption he has been desperately seeking.”
The meeting comes three years after Biden vowed, as a presidential candidate, to make the Saudis and MBS, as he’s known, a global “pariah.”
Nevertheless, Biden was given a warm reception on Friday in Jeddah as he sat across from the Saudi crown prince.
“Mr. President, welcome to Saudi Arabia,” said a smiling crown price, clearly delighted that Biden made the trip to his turf.
Mohammed bin Salman and members of the Saudi delegation appeared pleasant throughout their brief discussion, with the powerful Saudi leader appearing to nod as Biden spoke to him.
Before reporters were ushered out, they peppered the leaders, unsuccessfully, with questions, asking the crown prince if he would apologize to the Khashoggi’s family.
When one reporter asked Biden if Saudia Arabia is still a pariah state, a noticeable smirk was briefly spotted on Mohammed bin Salman’s face.
Biden, continuing his first visit to the Middle East as president, shared a fist bump with Mohammed bin Salman upon meeting him outside the Al Salam Royal Palace,, ahead of their highly-anticipated meeting despite criticism around the Saudi Arabia stop. The close-up photo of the moment was provided by the Saudis, who wanted it seen around the world.
Biden met, separately, with the prince’s father, King Salman.
Earlier, the president stepped off Air Force One in Jeddah and onto a lavender carpet — symbolic of blooming flowers in the Saudi Kingdom — shortly after 11 a.m. ET, descending the steps and greeted immediately by two individuals. He fist bumped the first greeter and shook hands with others. He then walked towards the “Beast” — the armored presidential limousine — stopping to greet a few other officials lined up for his arrival, accompanied by national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
Sullivan pushed back again Friday on a reporter’s suggestion that Biden was “dancing around” whether he would directly address Khashoggi’s murder, despite the slain journalist’s fiancé saying the White House assured her his specific case would be raised.
“I think it’s wrong to say the president was dancing around it,” Sullivan said, ticking through Biden’s statement on the matter.
“First statement, he doesn’t describe the details of what he is going to raise in meetings, particularly before he’s had them, because he wants to go have those meetings. Second statement, he always raises issues of human rights, and this will be no different,” Sullivan said.
Although, as a presidential candidate, Biden vowed to make oil-rich Saudi Arabia a “pariah” state over Khashoggi’s murder, the rapprochement in U.S.-Saudi Arabia relations comes at a time when gas prices have skyrocketed as the West has attempted to boycott Russian oil, ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, and as Biden faces calls to balance security interests with human rights concerns.
Biden has defended his trip to the oil-rich nation, writing in an op-ed for The Washington Post published ahead of his visit that “my aim was to reorient — but not rupture — relations with a country that’s been a strategic partner for 80 years.”
“As president, it is my job to keep our country strong and secure,” he wrote. “We have to counter Russia’s aggression, put ourselves in the best possible position to outcompete China, and work for greater stability in a consequential region of the world.”
But Sullivan on Friday ahead of the meeting downplayed any chance of an agreement from Saudi Arabia to increase oil production as a result of Biden’s meetings in the kingdom.
“I don’t think you should expect a particular announcement here bilaterally,” he told reporters on AF1. “We will discuss energy security at this meeting,” he said broadly, when asked if the public should expect an agreement.
Since taking office, Biden has spoken twice with King Salman, the crown prince’s father, who officially rules the country, but had dispatched Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to serve as his administration’s point of contact with the crown prince, in what was widely perceived as a snub to the powerful Saudi leader.
On Saturday, Biden plans to attend a summit of Arab leaders in Jeddah, a meeting that the crown prince will also attend, though it’s not yet clear how the two leaders will interact or engage there.
Biden noted in his op-ed he would be the first U.S. president to fly from Israel to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, describing it as a “small symbol” of the deepening ties between Israel and the Arab world.
ABC News’ Ben Gittleson contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Brittney Griner’s attorney presented new evidence on the fourth day of her trial in Russia, where the WNBA star has been detained for nearly five months.
The lawyer had a letter from an American doctor giving Griner permission to use cannabis to reduce chronic pain.
Griner was expected to testify but her testimony was delayed until July 26 at the request of her legal team so she can have more time to prepare.
Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, was visiting Russia to play basketball in the off-season when she was detained at Sheremetyevo International Airport after being accused of having vape cartridges containing hashish oil, which is illegal in the country.
If convicted, Griner, 31, faces up to 10 years in prison and also has a right to an appeal.
Griner pleaded guilty on drug charges in court last week, saying that the vape cartridges containing hashish oil were in her luggage mistakenly.
Griner, who has been detained in Russia since Feb. 17, said she had no “intention” of breaking Russian law and did not mean to leave the cartridges in her bag.
Her legal team told ABC News in a statement last week that her “guilty” plea was recommended by her Russian attorneys.
“Brittney sets an example of being brave. She decided to take full responsibility for her actions as she knows that she is a role model for many people,” they said in the statement. “Considering the nature of her case, the insignificant amount of the substance and BG’s personality and history of positive contributions to global and Russian sport, the defense hopes that the plea will be considered by the court as a mitigating factor and there will be no severe sentence.”
Her trial, which is taking place in Khimki, a suburb of Moscow, began on July 1 as the U.S. government works to secure her release.
At the trial on Thursday, several Russian individuals testified as character witnesses about their experience with the Phoenix Mercury player, who also played in the WNBA offseason for UMMC, a Russian basketball club in the city of Yekaterinburg.
The first witness was Maxim Ryabkov, the director of UMMC. The second witness was team doctor Anatoly Galabin, who said that Griner never tested positive for doping while playing for the team. A third witness, Evgenia Belyakova, one of Griner’s Russian teammates, said that Griner was the leader of the team.
The U.S. government classified Griner’s case on May 3 as “wrongfully detained.”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters last week that Griner’s guilty plea will have “no impact” on any of the negotiations to bring her home.
Calls to free Griner escalated following the release of U.S. Marine veteran Trevor Reed last month, who was freed from a Russian prison as part of a prisoner exchange. Former Marine Paul Whelan has also been detained in Russia since 2019.
“We’re going to do everything that we can to bring home Brittney Griner safely, and to also make sure that we bring Paul Whelan back home, as well,” Jean-Pierre said.
ABC News’ Joseph Simonetti, Tanya Stukalova, Patrick Reevell and Henderson Hewes contributed to this report.
(KANSAS CITY, Mo.) — A pilot who landed his plane on a Missouri highway early Friday after running out of fuel was arrested for allegedly flying while intoxicated, authorities said.
Troopers responded to reports of a small plane blocking the westbound lanes of I-70 near the Kansas City suburb of Grain Valley around 3 a.m. local time.
“Interstate 70 (westbound lanes) BLOCKED by an AIRCRAFT!” Missouri State Highway Patrol tweeted while warning commuters to expect delays.
The plane managed to avoid hitting any vehicles but had a “minor collision” with a guardrail, Missouri State Highway Patrol said. The pilot, who was the only person on board, suffered minor injuries, it said.
Authorities determined that the plane had run out of fuel when the pilot radioed in and made an emergency landing on the highway.
Interstate 70 (westbound lanes) BLOCKED by an AIRCRAFT!
Initial report is a small plane landed on the highway for an unknown reason. The pilot was the only person onboard w/ minor injuries. NO vehicles were hit!@MoDOT_KC is responding due to lane closure. Expect delays. pic.twitter.com/Q6SIIJhXRk
The pilot, identified by authorities as 35-year-old John Seesing was arrested after he was “found to be intoxicated,” Missouri State Highway Patrol said.
Sgt. Andy Bell, a public information officer for Missouri State Highway Patrol, said troopers suspected impairment by a combination of alcohol and drugs.
Missouri State Highway Patrol records show that Seesing, of Prairie Village, Kanas, was arrested on charges including DWI, careless and imprudent driving involving a crash, felony possession of a controlled substance, felony unlawful possession of a firearm, possession of less than 10 grams of marijuana and unlawful possession of drug paraphernalia.
Seesing was treated at a local hospital for his injuries and underwent blood testing in connection with the charges, Bell said. He has since been released, he said.
It is unclear if Seesing has an attorney.
The single-engine Piper plane was towed from the scene and all lanes on the highway had reopened by 5:30 a.m.
Troopers believe the pilot was flying from Florida to the Kansas City Downtown Airport.
Flight Aware records show the plane left the Kansas City area early Thursday morning before arriving in Daytona Beach, Florida, then started making its way back toward the Kansas City area later that night.
The Federal Aviation Administration is also investigating the incident.
(NEW YORK) — Car manufacturer Ford is recalling over 100,000 SUVs and trucks because of fire risks in the engine, nearly a month after recalling millions of its vehicles.
The company is recalling some of its 2020-2022 Ford Escapes, 2021-2022 Lincoln Corsairs and 2022 Mavericks equipped with 2.5-liter hybrid or plug-in hybrid powertrains, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
If engine failure occurs, engine oil and fuel vapor could be released into the chamber where the engine is stored and collected around ignition sources such as the engine and exhaust components.
People who own any of the vehicles affected should park and turn off the engines “as quickly as possible” when they hear “unexpected engine noises, notice a reduction in vehicle power, or see smoke,” NHTSA said.
There have been no reported injuries, Ford said.
In May, Ford recalled over 39,000 Ford Expeditions and Lincoln Navigators because they ran the risk of catching fire under the hood even when parked or turned off. The company expanded that recall to include 66,000 more vehicles after it received reports of five more fires, according to the Associated Press.
Last month, the company recalled 2.9 million vehicles with transmission issues that increased the risk of rolling away even when parked.
