(SEOUL, South Korea) — A North Korean defector group in Seoul claimed on Tuesday to have launched air balloons carrying medical supplies near the inter-Korean border.
The Fighters for Free North Korea, an activist group of North Korean defectors who send anti-propaganda leaflets across the border, said they flew 20 air balloons carrying 50,000 pain relief pills, 30,000 vitamin C and 20,000 N-95 masks. Dispatching unauthorized materials at the border is against the law in South Korea.
“In order to help the miserable mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters in North Korea who are dying without any medicine, the Fighters for Free North Korea is temporarily halting the anti-Pyongyang leaflet sending, and will send medical supplies to help with COVID situation in the North,” Park Sang Hak, a North Korean defector who leads the activist group, told ABC News.
The South Korean government since 2020 has banned sending leaflets across the border. Sending them carries a maximum prison term of three years or fines up to $27,400.
The non-government organization has been gathering help from human rights support groups based in Seoul and the U.S. to send medical supplies to the North since the Kim Jong Un regime acknowledged the outbreak on May 13.
North Korea remains one of the only two nations without COVID vaccines. Ever since admitting that it had its first COVID patient, the isolated regime has been announcing the number of ‘fever patients’ and COVID-related deaths through its state media daily. Lacking medical supplies to treat the pandemic, Pyongyang’s main newspaper, Roding Sinmun, advised people to use traditional remedies such as drinking willow or honeysuckle leaf tea.
“In South Korea, even animals are given medicine to treat diseases, the North Korean regime is uncivilized at the worst level,” Park told ABC News. “All we want for the families and friends in North Korea is for them to be treated with real medicine to fight COVID-19.”
An official from the Unification Ministry told ABC News that police and other authorities were working to confirm Tuesday’s balloon launch.
“The ministry understands the intent of the distribution, but believe in the need [for the group] to restrain its activities considering the sensitive inter-Korean relationship and the government’s effort for cooperation in the inter-Korean disinfection, and whether [the activities] could actually help the North Korean people,” the official said.
The group claims that it’s the second time this month they have sent air balloons with medical supplies to the North, and will continue to do so.
(NEW YORK) — Updated COVID-19 vaccines that could better match the more recent variants are on the way.
On Tuesday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s committee of independent advisors met and recommended that the vaccines should target the latest omicron variant, kicking off the process for distribution of the new vaccines this fall.
That could be good news for the fight against the virus. But the next few months hold a lot of uncertainty.
Many vaccine scientists agree that as the virus evolves, vaccines should be updated along with it. But scientists caution that planning ahead in this pandemic is challenging. A new variant could emerge by the fall, rendering even new vaccines old by then.
There’s also a question of how many people will get the shot — both because the government doesn’t have enough funding to secure vaccines for everyone, and because less than half of eligible Americans have received their first booster shots.
That said, the vaccine companies have been testing different strategies for a new-and-improved booster shot.
On Tuesday, the FDA’s advisers reviewed the data and favored a bivalent vaccine — a type of vaccine that targets two strains of virus in the same shot. They recommended that it include the latest omicron subvariant and the original strain, generally supporting it because it could protect more broadly against future variants.
FDA leadership will announce the final decision sometime in early July, incorporating the advisers’ discussion from Tuesday.
Health officials are aiming to roll out the newly designed vaccines in early October, said Dr. Peter Marks, who oversees the FDA’s vaccine department.
The goal is to get ahead of a potential surge next winter.
“That combination of waning immunity, combined with the potential emergence of novel variants during a time this winter when we will move inside as a population, increases our risk of a major COVID-19 outbreak,” Marks said.
“And for that reason, we have to give serious consideration to a booster campaign this fall to help protect us during this period from another COVID-19 surge,” he said.
How much better will the new vaccines be?
Scientists cautioned that existing vaccines are still working well to prevent severe illness.
And while newer shots will help, they might not be significantly better at preventing more mild breakthrough illness.
“It will be better than what we have now, but I don’t think we are going to see 94% again,” said Dr. Paul Goepfert, professor of medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.
The current vaccines, designed to match the original Wuhan virus, initially showed efficacy of 94% — but that’s now thought to be an untenable goal because of rapidly-evolving new variants, Goepfert said.
“It’s essentially an arms race,” said Dr. Dan Barouch, author on the recent study and director of the Center for Virology and Vaccine Research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. “As the population becomes more immune, the virus becomes more and more immune evasive.”
Updated vaccines “will be helpful,” Barouch said, but are unlikely to be a “game changer” that end the need for future boosters.
The political snag getting in the way
The other major caveat to the rollout of new vaccines this fall is funding — the battle over which has been stuck in a stalemate on Capitol Hill since the winter.
The White House has since pulled funds out of COVID test manufacturing and put it toward contract negotiations for the newest vaccines, but the decision leaves the US vulnerable to a testing shortage, and still doesn’t fully do the job.
“It’s very clear we’re not going to have enough vaccines for every adult who wants one,” Dr. Ashish Jha, the White House’s COVID coordinator, said last week.
Jha called the decision to move money away from testing “incredibly painful,” but necessary to avoid missing out on orders entirely as other countries placed theirs.
“Contract negotiators on behalf of the US government are going to enter into contract negotiations with Moderna and Pfizer with the resources that we’ve been able to … cobble together for vaccines for the fall,” Jha said.
The government will purchase enough for high-risk Americans to get the latest vaccines, Jha said.
But it’s unclear how the rest of the population will get access to the vaccines. On one hand, demand for vaccines has continued to drop since the initial doses. If that trend continues and fewer people want a vaccine, it’s possible that the government’s smaller order could still cover people who want one.
And some experts don’t think everyone will need a booster in the fall, like Dr. Paul Offitt, the director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, who said he thinks re-upping antibody levels ahead of a likely winter surge would be beneficial for high-risk groups, but not necessary for everybody.
Another option is for insurance companies to step in and cover vaccines, rather than the government distributing them for free. Jha dismissed this option, though, calling it too soon to switch to the private market because there’s still too much competition for ordering doses among countries and insurance companies wouldn’t have enough leverage.
“There is not a commercialization plan that somehow would be ready in time for this fall and winter,” Jha said.
Yet vaccine companies have indicated that they’re ready to distribute their vaccines through insurance companies and won’t leave the American market behind.
Though it’s still months away, both the White House and the vaccine companies have committed to devising a plan as fall draws closer.
(NEW YORK) — Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” into neighboring Ukraine began on Feb. 24, with Russian forces invading from Belarus, to the north, and Russia, to the east. Ukrainian troops have offered “stiff resistance,” according to U.S. officials.
The Russian military has since launched a full-scale ground offensive in eastern Ukraine’s disputed Donbas region, capturing the strategic port city of Mariupol and securing a coastal corridor to the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Jun 29, 8:28 am
NATO to identify Russia as its ‘main threat,’ Spanish PM says
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, who is hosting a NATO summit in Madrid, said Russia will be identified as the alliance’s “main threat” in its new strategic concept unveiled during the summit.
“The strategic concept of Madrid will be naming Russia as the main threat of the allies,” Sánchez told Spanish media on Wednesday. NATO previously considered Russia a strategic partner.
Sánchez stressed that Russian President Vladimir Putin was the only person “responsible for this substantive change.”
During a speech at the NATO summit on Wednesday, the Spanish Prime Minister said the summit carried a clear signal for Putin.
“We are sending a strong message to Putin: ‘You will not win,’” Sánchez said.
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said on Facebook on Tuesday that thousands of Ukrainian soldiers had mastered the use of weapons supplied by Western countries, while other troops are in ongoing training.
Reznikov said Ukrainian specialists were training on aviation and other types of high-tech weaponry, including artillery systems and means of reconnaissance.
“We are learning at a fast pace,” the defense minister added. “Any weapon in the hands of the [Ukrainian] Armed Forces becomes even more effective.”
In his speech at the NATO summit on Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy repeated his plea for more weapons supplies, highlighting Ukraine’s need for more modern artillery systems.
To break Russia’s artillery advantage, Ukraine needs “much more modern systems, modern artillery,” Zelenskyy said.
-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Max Uzol and Yuriy Zaliznyak
Jun 29, 7:39 am
Missile strike on mall may have been mistake
Russia’s recent missile strike on a shopping mall in the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk, which killed at least 20 people, may have been “intended to hit a nearby infrastructure target,” the U.K. Ministry of Defense said Wednesday in an intelligence update.
The ministry called it “a realistic possibility” and noted that “Russia’s inaccuracy in conducting long range strikes has previously resulted in mass civilian casualty incidents, including at Kramatorsk railway station” on April 9.
“Russian planners highly likely remain willing to accept a high level of collateral damage when they perceive military necessity in striking a target,” the ministry said. “It is almost certain that Russia will continue to conduct strikes in an effort to interdict the resupplying of Ukrainian frontline forces.”
“Russia’s shortage of more modern precision strike weapons and the professional shortcomings of their targeting planners will highly likely result in further civilian casualties,” the ministry warned.
Jun 28, 4:51 pm
20 dead, 40 still missing from mall strike
Twenty people are dead and 59 are wounded from Russia’s missile strike on Monday at a mall in the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk, according to Kyrilo Tymoshenko, the deputy head of the Office of the President of Ukraine.
Forty people remain missing, Tymoshenko said.
“Several fragments of bodies have been found ripped off limbs and feet of the people,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the United Nations Security Council.
He said if Russia denies the devastation was wrought by one of its missiles, he asked the U.N. send an independent representative to the site of the attack to verify for itself.
First Deputy Permanent Representative of Russia to the U.N., Dmitry Polyanskiy, flatly denied carrying out strikes against any civilian target.
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford, Oleksii Pshemysko and Fidel Pavlenko
Jun 28, 12:58 pm
Sean Penn meets with Zelenskyy
Sean Penn met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Tuesday after the actor arrived in Ukraine to shoot a documentary, according to Zelenskyy’s office.
Penn, who first came to Ukraine on the day Russia invaded in February, wants to “visit settlements in Ukraine affected by Russian aggression,” according to Zelenskyy’s office.
Jun 28, 4:13 pm
Biden: Ukraine ‘standing up’ to Putin ‘in ways that I don’t think anyone anticipated’
President Joe Biden and Spanish President Pedro Sanchez delivered remarks Tuesday on new areas of cooperation between the two countries and efforts to keep supporting Ukraine against Russia’s invasion.
Biden did not mention Monday’s strike on the Ukraine mall that killed 18, but said the invasion has “shattered peace in Europe and every norm since WWII.”
Biden said he and Sanchez discussed the need to continue to provide weapons to Ukraine.
The Ukrainians “are standing up in ways that I don’t think anyone anticipated, showing enormous bravery, enormous resolve,” Biden said.
He said he believes Putin’s objective is to “wipe out the culture of Ukraine.”
Biden said NATO allies will be “standing as one” to support Ukraine and teased more military posture commitments in Europe. Biden said the U.S. and Spain are working on an agreement to increase the number of Navy destroyers stationed at Rota Naval Base in Spain.
(WASHINGTON) — Former Trump White House lawyer Eric Herschmann is claiming that a handwritten note regarding a potential statement for then-President Donald Trump to release during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol was written by him during a meeting at the White House that afternoon, and not by White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News.
At Tuesday’s Jan. 6 committee hearing, Rep. Liz Cheney displayed a handwritten note which Hutchinson testified she wrote after Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows handed her a note card and pen to take his dictation.
Sources familiar with the matter said that Herschmann had previously told the committee that he had penned the note.
“The handwritten note that Cassidy Hutchinson testified was written by her was in fact written by Eric Herschmann on January 6, 2021,” a spokesperson for Herschmann told ABC News Tuesday evening.
“All sources with direct knowledge and law enforcement have and will confirm that it was written by Mr. Herschmann,” the spokesperson said.
At Tuesday’s hearing, Hutchinson, testifying about the note, said, “That’s a note that I wrote at the direction of the chief of staff on Jan. 6, likely around 3 o’clock.”
“And it’s written on the chief of staff note card, but that’s your handwriting, Ms. Hutchinson?” Rep. Cheney asked.
“That’s my handwriting,” Hutchinson replied.
Hutchinson, a former top aide to Meadows, said that Meadows handed her the note card and a pen and started dictating a potential statement for Trump to release amid the Capitol riot.
Hutchinson also said that Herschmann had suggested changing the statement and to “put ‘without legal authority.'”
In response to Herschmann’s claim, a spokesperson for the Jan. 6 committee said, “The committee has done its diligence on this and found Ms. Hutchinson’s account of this matter credible. While we understand that she and Mr. Herschmann may have differing recollections of who wrote the note, what’s ultimately important is that both White House officials believed that the President should have immediately instructed his supporters to leave the Capitol building.”
“The note memorialized this,” the committee spokesperson said. “But Mr. Trump did not take that action at the time.”
The Jan. 6 committee has repeatedly relied on Herschmann’s candid and sometimes vulgar testimony throughout the hearings in June, including when the former White House lawyer testified that he shot down former Trump Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark’s plan to overturn the 2020 election.
Herschmann, a former Trump White House lawyer, also defended former President Trump during Trump’s first impeachment trial and worked in the West Wing as a senior adviser.
An attorney for Hutchinson did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News, nor did Meadows.
(SAN ANTONIO) — At least 51 people are dead after dozens were found inside a tractor-trailer in San Antonio on Monday evening in a suspected case of human smuggling, authorities said.
Of the 51 bodies in the custody of the medical examiner’s office, 39 are men and 12 are women, Rebeca Clay-Flores, the Bexar County Precinct 1 commissioner, said at a press conference Tuesday. Some of those found are under the age of 18, likely teenagers, she added.
At least 34 of the victims have been identified as of Tuesday afternoon, officials said.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confirmed in a statement to ABC News on Tuesday that the total number of victims was 51 and that those who have been identified so far were from Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras. The criminal investigation remains ongoing, as Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and partners continue to work to identify all of the victims, according to ICE.
It’s the deadliest incident of human smuggling in U.S. history, an HSI spokesperson told ABC News on Tuesday.
Mexican Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard, citing information provided by U.S. authorities, said the death toll was at least 50, including 22 Mexican citizens, seven Guatemalan citizens and two Honduran citizens. The other victims have yet to be identified and Mexico is working with the U.S. on an investigation, according to Ebrard.
“We are in mourning,” Ebrard said in a statement Tuesday via Twitter. “Huge tragedy.”
The incident unfolded in the south-central Texas city on Monday evening at around 5:50 p.m. local time, when a nearby worker heard a cry for help and found the tractor-trailer with the doors partially opened and the bodies of 46 people inside, according to San Antonio Police Chief Bill McManus and San Antonio Fire Department Chief Charles Hood.
An additional 16 people — 12 adults and four children — were transported to area hospitals in what officials called a “mass casualty event.”
Chris Magnus, the commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), told reporters he was “horrified” by the incident.
“Horrified at this tragic loss of life near San Antonio,” Magnus said Monday. “This speaks to the desperation of migrants who would put their lives in the hands of callous human smugglers who show no regard for human life.”
The trailer was refrigerated but did not have a visibly working air-conditioning unit and there were no signs of water inside, according to Hood.
Three people are in custody in connection with the incident, according to McManus, who added that the case is now a federal investigation. One of the suspects was a driver who was spotted fleeing the scene by an eyewitness who called 911, McManus told ABC News.
Hood told ABC News that the the smell of meat tenderizer, which was reportedly put on top of the bodies before the suspects fled, was overwhelming.
The victims taken to hospitals were hot to the touch and all suffering from heat stroke and heat exhaustion, Hood said. There were no child fatalities that authorities know of so far, he added.
“They suffered, horrendously, could have been for hours,” Hood said.
Hood said there were personal items near where the bodies were found, including prayer cards in Spanish and a new pair of Air Jordan’s.
U.S. President Joe Biden issued a statement Tuesday calling the deaths “horrifying and heartbreaking,” blaming the criminal smuggling industry for preying on migrants. Biden also highlighted the anti-smuggling campaign the U.S. has launched with its partners, saying they have made over 2,400 arrests.
“Exploiting vulnerable individuals for profit is shameful, as is political grandstanding around tragedy, and my Administration will continue to do everything possible to stop human smugglers and traffickers from taking advantage of people who are seeking to enter the United States between ports of entry,” Biden said.
ICE said initially that HSI agents found more than 40 deceased individuals upon arrival at the scene on Monday when responding to a call from the San Antonio Police Department regarding “an alleged human smuggling event.”
“HSI continues its enforcement efforts to ensure the safety and well-being of our communities,” ICE said in its statement. “We will continue to address the serious public safety threat posed by human smuggling organizations and their reckless disregard for the health and safety of those smuggled. To report suspicious activity, we encourage people to call the HSI Tip Line at 1-866-DHS-2ICE. All calls are kept confidential.”
The San Antonio Fire Department confirmed to ABC News that HSI and CBP are taking over the investigation from local authorities.
CBP is the umbrella agency of the U.S. Border Patrol, which responded to assist at the scene and is supporting ICE in the federal investigation, according to Magnus, the CBP commissioner.
“We will be working with our federal, state and local partners to assist in every way possible with this investigation,” Magnus told reporters Monday night.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the Biden administration will “continue to take action to disrupt human smuggling networks which have no regard for lives.”
“Our prayers are with those who tragically lost their lives, their loved ones, as well as those still fighting for their lives. We are also grateful for the swift work of federal, state and local first responders,” Jean-Pierre told reporters Tuesday.
When asked about the criticism from Republicans, including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who say Biden’s border policies have led to dangerous journeys for immigrants, Jean-Pierre said the White House is focused on the victims and their families.
“But the fact of the matter is, the border is closed, which is in part why you see people trying to make this dangerous journey using smuggling networks,” Jean-Pierre said.
Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas took to Twitter to say that he was “heartbroken by the tragic loss of life today and am praying for those still fighting for their lives.”
“Far too many lives have been lost as individuals — including families, women, and children — take this dangerous journey,” he tweeted Monday night. “Human smugglers are callous individuals who have no regard for the vulnerable people they exploit and endanger in order to make a profit. We will work alongside our partners to hold those responsible for this tragedy accountable and continue to take action to disrupt smuggling networks.”
Earlier this month, the Department of Homeland Security released more details on the Biden administration’s efforts to combat human smuggling and unauthorized migration in conjunction with the Summit of the Americas held in Los Angeles.
The series of operations launched across the Western Hemisphere is part of the largest human smuggling crackdown ever seen in the region, with more than 1,300 deployed personnel and nearly 2,000 smugglers arrested in just two months.
Agencies from across the administration, including the intelligence community and the U.S. Treasury Department, have engaged to disrupt smuggling operations in real-time and strip down the financial backing of the transnational criminal organizations that coordinate these crimes.
“The Biden administration is focused on putting these organizations out of business,” DHS said in a recent statement prior to Monday’s incident. “But human smuggling is, by definition, a transnational problem and we are committed to working with our regional partners in the Americas to commit our collective expertise and resources to put an end to human smuggling.”
ABC News’ Luke Barr, Marilyn Heck, Matt Gutman, Robert Zepeda, Anne Laurent and Josh Margolin contributed to this report.
(NEW HAVEN, Conn.) — Civil rights attorney Ben Crump has joined the legal team of Richard “Randy” Cox, a 36-year-old Black man who was injured while being transported by New Haven police in the back of a van.
Crump held a news conference with Cox’s family members in Connecticut Tuesday, along with co-counsel Jack O’Donnell and Louis Rubano, as well as local government and civil rights leaders.
New Haven police arrested Cox on June 18 for allegedly unlawfully possessing a firearm, without incident, after a person attending a block party reported that Cox was carrying a gun. Video of the arrest shows the officers then placed Cox in the back of a police van without seatbelts.
During an abrupt stop, Cox was thrown head-first into the back wall of the van, his lawyers said, and the video shows. When the van arrived at the police station, the video shows, he was still lying on the floor of the vehicle. Cox can be heard in the video telling the officers that he couldn’t move.
The surveillance video of the incident indicates that the officer driving the van and other officers present flouted protocol, the police department and Cox’s lawyers said, failing to wait for medical assistance and dismissing Cox’s pleas for help, allegedly assuming he was drunk.
In the video, one of the officers can be heard saying, “He just drank too much” and then later asks Cox, “Did you have any drugs or alcohol?” and “How much did you have to drink?” The footage also shows the officers dragging Cox by his feet and throwing him into a wheelchair, which his lawyers said could have exacerbated his already life-threatening injuries.
The case has prompted a state investigation and resulted in the officers involved being placed on administrative duty.
Crump said Cox’s case reminded him of the death of Freddie Gray, a Black man who was killed in 2015 while also being transported in a police van. Gray’s death was ascribed to injuries to his spinal cord.
“This is the Freddie Gray case on video,” Crump said. “Thank God, we got the video, so they can’t deny what happens. They can’t deny that they had a man handcuffed and put him in the back of this paddy wagon inappropriately and drove.”
Cox’s oldest sister, LaQuavius LeGrant, 39, said although he is in stable condition, Cox is currently paralyzed from the neck down, requiring a ventilator, breathing tube and feeding tube to survive. He is currently unable to talk and is unlikely to walk again, she said.
“It’s absolutely heartbreaking to go to that hospital room, the ICU, to look in his eyes — his eyes are awake — and can’t do anything about it,” she said. “Knowing that he would never walk again possibly, it’s disheartening. What happened is unacceptable and it’s inexcusable.”
Through tears, Doreen Coleman, Cox’s mother, said she and her family are nevertheless praying for Cox’s full recovery.
“I don’t want to see my son in that damn room with that thing on his neck, on his face,” she said. “I want him to keep coming in and out of the house, saying, ‘You alright? You need to go eat,’ or ‘You need something?’ Now I don’t know how long it’s going to be before he gets to go outside.”
LaToya Boomer, another one of Cox’s sisters, said she could barely finish watching the surveillance video of her brother. She demanded that the officers be held accountable for their actions.
“I’m calling for the officers involved to be fired and arrested,” she said. “And I’m calling for any bystanders that was watching but didn’t participate, that didn’t say anything, for them to be suspended and retrained because I always say, if you see something, say something, intervene.”
“Nobody said anything,” she added.
Crump also raised allegations that the officer driving the van could have been speeding or texting while driving. He said Cox’s family and legal team are demanding transparency from the police department about whether this was, in fact, the case.
The New Haven Police Department did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment. ABC News also reached out to the New Haven Police Union.
“We want the cell phone records. We want the transcripts from the inner department communications. We want the policies and procedures,” Crump said. “We’re going to fully explore … every possible legal remedy to give full justice, not just partial justice, but full justice to the family of Randy Cox and Randy Cox himself.”
(NEW YORK) — Jey Austen, a brand designer at a fintech company, lost their job about two weeks ago. But the layoff didn’t come as a surprise, said Austen, 27, who is trans and uses they/them pronouns.
A market downturn in recent months has hammered the tech industry, eliciting a wave of layoffs. Austen, whose lease on an apartment in Austin, Texas ends in August, will receive three weeks of severance pay but otherwise lacks savings, they said.
“Worst comes to worst, I’ll sleep in my car,” said Austen, who was making $80,000 a year. “It’s a sucky situation all around.”
Compounding the stress, Austen will likely struggle to afford their usual weekly therapy appointments, they said. To save money, they’re considering a reduction to bi-weekly or monthly appointments. “Therapy was already expensive,” Austen said.
Austen is hardly alone. So far this year, more than 21,000 tech workers have been laid off, according to Crunchbase. While notable, the layoffs make up a small fraction of the 8.9 million tech employees nationwide, according to an employment tally from the industry trade group CompTIA.
Across the economy, acute financial distress could grow as the Federal Reserve pursues a series of rate hikes that aim to dial back sky-high inflation but risk tipping the economy into a recession, experts told ABC News earlier this month.
Nearly 70% of economists believe that a recession will begin at some point next year, according to a survey of 49 macroeconomists conducted by the Financial Times and Chicago University’s Booth School of Business this month.
Research has linked economic recessions — a shrinking of economic output that lasts at least several months — with a rise in mental health issues, such as anxiety, depression and even suicide, experts told ABC News. In hard economic times, the prevalence of potentially catastrophic financial events — such as job loss or foreclosure — exacerbates preexisting mental health challenges and gives rise to new ones, worsening such challenges further if a financial downturn persists over many months or years.
Moreover, since the U.S. healthcare system largely ties insurance to employment, the loss of a job often compromises access to mental health support when a person needs it most, the experts said. The prospect of heightened mental health issues — combined with inadequate support — poses added concern in light of the pandemic, which has already taken a toll on the psyches of many people, the experts added.
“After COVID, there was an unprecedented rise in mental health issues,” Ronald Kessler, a professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School, told ABC News. “This coming in the wake of that is a real double whammy.”
Typically, the economy loses millions of jobs in a recession. During the Great Recession, between 2007 and 2009, nonfarm employment dropped by 6.8 million jobs while the unemployment rate rose from 4.8% to 9.6%, according to the Federal Reserve of St. Louis.
A robust, decades-long body of research links economic downturns with a rise in mental health issues, establishing the role played by a spike in major hardships tied to employment, housing, and other financial supports, experts told ABC News.
A 2019 study published in the Association for Psychological Science — which examined individuals affected by the Great Recession — found an increase in depression, anxiety, and problematic drug use among those who underwent even a single major hardship, such as job loss or foreclosure, let alone multiple incidents.
The loss of a job during the Great Recession increased the risk of a mood disorder in the U.S. by 22%, according to a study released last year by researchers at the University of Alberta that examined the available literature on the subject. The researchers also found found 1.2 to 5.8 times higher odds of a major depressive episode associated with the experience of home foreclosure during the Great Recession.
“Pre-existing mental health issues get worse, and mental health issues newly arise for some undergoing economic hardship,” Ralph Catalano, a professor of public health at the University of California, Berkeley, told ABC News. “How would you feel if you lost your job?”
Chris Ruhm, a economics and public policy professor at the University of Virginia who specializes in the health effects of economic downturns, put it bluntly: “When the economy gets worse, mental health gets worse,” he said
One alarming finding shows a correlation between recessions and increased rates of suicide, Ruhm said. Between 2008 and 2010, the first three years following the financial crisis, the suicide rate rose at a pace more than four times higher than it had over the eight years prior to the crisis, according to a 2012 study in The Lancet. “We’ve known for many years that the suicide rate goes up reliably with the unemployment rate,” Ruhm said.
The adverse mental health effects of an economic downturn fall disproportionately on low-income people and minorities, since they’re less likely to have built up savings or alternative sources of wealth that could soften the blow, experts said.
“People of lower socioeconomic status are always more adversely affected by things like this,” Catalano said. “They have a more difficult time when recessions come.”
The scale of such mental health effects depends on the severity and duration of a recession, experts said. A long recession can prolong the time that individuals spend out of work, deepening mental health struggles as a person grapples with financial stress and possible feelings of self-blame, experts said. “When there’s a more severe recession, the effects are going to be more severe,” said Ruhm, the economics professor at the University of Virginia.
To be sure, the U.S. economy could avoid a recession altogether. If a recession does occur, it could prove short and mild, some economists predict. A mild downturn would blunt many of the worst mental health effects, in part because people are better equipped to withstand a brief financial challenge with savings or government support, experts said.
“With economic downturns that are short, it’s not an enormous effect,” said Kessler, the professor at Harvard Medical School. “A lot of resources are there to buffer for those types of things.”
Still, a potential recession brings stress, in part because the extent of financial difficulty remains uncertain, even for those in the middle and upper-middle class, Ruhm said. “In general, people live with a degree of anxiety and uncertainty,” he said.
A New York City-based employee at the cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase — who was laid off this month and requested anonymity due to the terms of a severance agreement — said the prospect of a recession worries her because it could dry up job prospects after the severance pay runs out.
“What if a recession happens and I don’t get something?” she said. “How will I pay the rent?”
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.
(IDAHO FALLS, Idaho) — A 34-year-old man is recovering from injuries sustained at Yellowstone National Park after he was charged at and brutally gored by a bison when he and his family got too close to the animal.
The incident occurred near Giant Geyser at Old Faithful on Monday when the unidentified man from Colorado Springs, Colorado, was walking with his family on a boardwalk at Yellowstone National Park when a bull bison began charging at them, according to a press release issued by the park.
“Family members did not leave the area, and the bull bison continued to charge and gored the male,” the statement from Yellowstone continued. “The male sustained an injury to his arm and was transported by ambulance to the Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center.”
It is unclear whether the family had gotten too close to the animal or if the attack was unprovoked but Yellowstone officials confirmed that the incident remains under investigation and did not disclose any further information on the man’s condition.
Yellowstone warned that park regulations mandate people stay at least 25 yards away from bison at all times because they are unpredictable animals and can run three times faster than humans can.
“This is the second reported incident in 2022 of a visitor getting too close to the animal and the bison responding to the perceived threat by goring the individual,” said Yellowstone National Park.
That incident occurred just last month on May 30 when a 25-year-old woman from Grove City, Ohio, approached a bison within 10 feet near Black Sand Basin, located just north of Old Faithful at Yellowstone, causing the animal to charge at her. The victim was subsequently gored by the bison and tossed 10 feet into the air before she was immediately taken to the hospital for treatment, according to a statement from Yellowstone National Park released at the time of the incident.
“Yellowstone’s scenic wonders are sure to take your breath away: don’t let them take your life,” warns Yellowstone National Park on its page online for park safety. Some of the rules highlighted by the park include never approach wildlife, stay on boardwalks and trails in thermal areas, and never feed wildlife.
“Bison have injured more people in Yellowstone than any other animal,” says the park. “Always stay at least 25 yards (23 m) away from bison.”
Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Singer and convicted sexual predator R. Kelly will appear before a judge today for sentencing in a Brooklyn federal court for racketeering that involved a dozen separate criminal acts, including sex with underage girls.
The former R&B crooner, whose real name is Robert Kelly, could spend the rest of his life in prison. Federal prosecutors say he deserves to be sentenced in “excess of 25 years” due to the severe nature of his offenses.
In September, during his sex-trafficking trial, a jury found Kelly, 55, guilty on nine counts, including leading a criminal enterprise that recruited women and children for sex, which prosecutors called “calculated” and “methodical.”
During his trial, nearly four dozen witnesses testified for the prosecution, alleging that he preyed upon children and women for his sexual gratification.
He was also convicted in a bribery scheme involving a public official to get a fake ID for the late singer Aaliyah, so the two could marry when she was 15 and he was 27. Kelly believed Aaliyah was pregnant at the time, prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo.
Kelly produced Aaliyah’s debut album, titled “Age Ain’t Nothing but a Number.” She died in a plane crash in 2001 at 22 years old.
“Kelly relied upon his fame, money and popularity as an R&B recording star and used the large network of people his status afforded him — including his business managers, security guards and bouncers, runners, lawyers, accountants and assistants to both carry out and conceal his crimes,” prosecutors said. “He continued his crimes and avoided punishment for them for almost 30 years and must now be held to account.”
The singer declined to testify at the six-week trial but could speak during Wednesday’s sentencing hearing. His defense team is asking for less than 14 years in prison, citing Kelly’s traumatic childhood.
In 2016, he revealed in a GQ interview that a female family member sexually abused him.
The defense also cast his accusers as motivated by money.
(WASHINGTON) — The House Jan. 6 committee’s surprise hearing on Tuesday featured highly-anticipated and explosive testimony from someone who was inside the White House both as the Capitol attack unfolded and in the days before.
Cassidy Hutchinson, a former top adviser to then-President Donald Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows, spent some two hours divulging details about what went on behind-the-scenes leading up to, during and after the attack.
Committee members and even some former Trump staffers hailed the 25-year-old for showing the courage to deliver her testimony publicly. Chair Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., said members felt it important to offer her “firsthand” accounts “immediately.”
“It hasn’t always been easy to get that information, because the same people who drove the former president’s pressure campaign to overturn the election are now trying to cover up the truth about Jan. 6,” Thompson said. “But thanks to the courage of certain individuals, the truth won’t be buried. The American people won’t be left in the dark.”
With Hutchinson’s testimony, Vice Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., argued that Trump and Meadows were well aware of the potential for violence at the Capitol last year yet ultimately dismissed the warnings. Trump even demanded to be taken to the Capitol alongside his supporters, Hutchinson said, despite concerns of legality and security from his team.
Here are some key takeaways from Hutchinson’s testimony:
Trump’s chief of staff knew Jan. 6 might get ‘real, real bad’
Kicking off her revelatory account before the committee, Hutchinson said that Meadows had warned her on Jan. 2, 2021, that “things might get real, real bad on Jan. 6.”
She said Meadows made the remarks to Hutchinson after meeting with Rudy Giuliani, who was at that point a central figure in Trump’s campaign to overturn the election. After the meeting, Giuliani talked enthusiastically to Hutchinson about plans to go to the Capitol, she said.
“It’s going to be great,” Giuliani said to her, Hutchinson said. “The president’s going to be there. He’s going to look powerful.”
When she walked into Meadows’ office to relay what Giuliani told her, she said Meadows responded with the remark about how “bad” the situation may be on Jan. 6.
“That evening was the first moment that I remember feeling scared and nervous for what could happen on Jan. 6,” she told the panel.
Hutchinson testified that Meadows generally knew about the potential for violence on Jan. 6 but failed to act. Both Meadows and Giuliani expressed an interest in seeking pardons over the events of Jan. 6, Hutchinson testified. Giuliani on Tuesday denied asking for a pardon. Meadows has not commented on Hutchinson’s testimony.
White House lawyers worried about criminal charges
Several White House staffers expressed concerns about the legality of what Trump intended to do on Jan. 6, Hutchinson told the committee. Specific crimes they were concerned about, she said, included defrauding the electoral count or obstructing justice.
One point of contention was Trump’s speech at the Ellipse, Hutchinson said. She recalled Trump lawyer Eric Herschmann urging speechwriters to avoid “foolish” language that Trump requested be included, such as the phrases “fight for me” and “we’re going to march to the Capitol.”
On the morning of Jan. 6, Hutchinson said White House counsel Pat Cipollone was adamant that Trump shouldn’t accompany his supporters to the Capitol.
“We’re going to get charged with every crime imaginable if we make that movement happen,” she recalled Cipollone telling her at the time.
Trump knew his supporters were armed
With the committee displaying texts from Jan. 6 as visual aids, Hutchinson recalled how Trump was “furious” with the crowd size of his rally at the Ellipse on Jan. 6 and with advisers who didn’t want to let in individuals who had weapons. Those weapons included pistols, rifles, bear spray and flagpoles with spears attached to them, officials warned, according to Hutchinson.
Trump, she said, wanted the metal detectors to be taken away.
“I was in the vicinity of a conversation where I overheard the president say something to the effect of, you know, “I don’t f—— care that they have weapons. They’re not here to hurt me. Take the f—— mags away. Let my people in,” she recalled. “They can march to the Capitol from here. Let the people in. Take the f—— mags away.”
Cheney said Hutchinson’s testimony established that Trump “was aware that a number of individuals in the crowd had weapons and were wearing body armor” when he spoke at the rally and urged them to then march to the Capitol.
She asked Americans to “reflect on that for a moment”
An ‘irate’ Trump grabbed the wheel inside presidential SUV
In one of the hearing’s most shocking moments, Hutchinson recalled hearing how Trump turned “irate” as he was driven away from the Ellipse after being told by his security that he could not go to the Capitol to meet supporters.
Hutchinson was not in the SUV at the time but said she heard the account from Tony Ornato, a senior Secret Service official, when everyone was back at the White House. Also in the room was Bobby Engel, the head of Trump’s security detail, Hutchinson said
“The president said something to the effect of, ‘I’m the effing president, take me up to the Capitol now’ — to which Bobby responded, ‘Sir, we have to go back to the West Wing,'” she continued. “The president reached up toward the front of the vehicle to grab at the steering wheel. Mr. Engel grabbed his arm and said, ‘Sir, you need to take your hand off the steering wheel. We’re going back to the West Wing. We’re not going to the Capitol.’
“Mr. Trump then used his free hand to lunge toward Bobby Engel and when Mr. Ornato recounted this story to me, he motioned toward his clavicles,” she said.
In a statement later Tuesday, the Secret Service reiterated that it had been cooperating and intended to continue to cooperate with the House committee, “including by responding on the record” to Hutchinson’s testimony.
Two sources familiar confirmed to ABC News that Trump had indeed requested to go to Capitol on Jan. 6 and that the Secret Service refused due to security concerns. One of those sources said that the former president did return to his vehicle after his speech at the Ellipse and asked Engel if he could go to the Capitol, with Engel responding, essentially, that it was unwise.
In another alleged incident of Trump having an outburst, Hutchinson told the committee Tuesday that he threw his lunch at the wall in the White House dining room after learning about then-Attorney General Bill Barr’s interview with the Associated Press in which Barr made it clear the Department of Justice found no evidence of widespread fraud in the election. It wasn’t the first time Trump threw a dish or tablecloth in anger, Hutchinson said.
Meadows wanted to go to the ‘war room’ on Jan. 5
Hutchinson testified that the White House was aware of a “war room” assembled in the Willard Hotel in Washington on the night of Jan. 5.
Hutchinson said Trump asked Meadows to speak by phone with Roger Stone, a longtime Trump aide, and former national security adviser Michael Flynn the day before the rally, and that Meadows asked her to look into setting up Secret Service for him to go to the nerve center of the “Stop the Steal” movement that night.
She said she expressed to Meadows she didn’t think was a “smart idea” or “something appropriate for the White House chief of staff to attend or be involved in,” coming days after she overheard Guiliani mentioning “Oath Keepers” and “Proud Boys,” she testified earlier.
Eventually, Meadows dropped the request and said he would dial into a meeting, Hutchinson recalled.
Stone, for his part, said through his attorney that he and Meadows did not talk. “Unequivocally stated, Mr. Stone did not speak to or otherwise communicate with Mr. Meadows on January 5th or 6th. Additionally, Mr. Stone did not receive a call from Mr. Meadows on either day,” Grant Smith exclusively told ABC News.
Flynn, who Trump pardoned in December 2020 for lying to the FBI about conversations with the Russian ambassador, previously appeared before the committee and repeatedly invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
In a clip played by the committee, Cheney asked Flynn if he “believed in the peaceful transition of power.”
“The Fifth,” Flynn replied.
ABC News’ Luke Barr, Ali Dukakis, Katherine Faulders, Ben Siegel and Pierre Thomas contributed to this report.
