(WASHINGTON) — Domestic airfare is up 40% from the start of the year and is expected to climb another 10% next month, according to online booking platform Hopper.
Last month, average airfare in the U.S. went up 5.2%, the third largest one-month jump since 1999, according to Scott Keyes, founder of Scott’s Cheap Flights.
Hopper said the cost of a domestic round trip is averaging $330 — 7% above 2019 prices. For international trips, the average round trip cost is $810, up 25% from the start of the year.
Pent-up demand and rising prices of jet fuel are driving the change.
“A tremendous amount of demand [is] from travelers who have not been able to travel the last two spring and summer seasons,” Haley Berg, economist at Hopper, said in an interview with ABC News. “And the second factor is jet fuel. Jet fuel prices are also up 40% since the beginning of the year and up 75% since this time last year. Demand and higher jet fuel prices together are really driving overall domestic airfare up.”
But it’s not all bad news. Keyes said average airfare doesn’t tell the whole story.
“A lot of folks see that headlines about airfares going up, and they’re worried that they’re not going to get any cheap flights anymore. And I actually think that’s the that’s the wrong way to look at things,” Keyes said in an interview with ABC News.
In the past two weeks, Keyes has found deals like $215 round trip to Hawaii, $395 round trip to Milan and $579 round trip to Australia.
“While it’s creeping back up, it’s important to remember we are still living in the golden age of cheap flights. Tickets are significantly cheaper than they used to be even a decade or two ago,” Keyes said.
To get those cheap fares, Keyes said it’s important to book one to three months in advance for domestic trips and two to eight months ahead for international trips.
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — The return of tourists to Capitol Hill — and their discarded food and trash — should have been a “telltail” sign.
Following several “aggressive” incidents, Capitol Police warned the public Tuesday not to approach any foxes reportedly raising alarms around the Capitol complex.
“We have received several reports of aggressive fox encounters on or near the grounds of the U.S. Capitol,” Capitol Police tweeted at 12:50 p.m. on Tuesday. “For your safety, please do not approach any foxes. Animal Control Officers are working to trap and relocate any foxes they find.”
A Capitol Police spokesman told ABC News that a fox “bit or nipped” at least six people, including one lawmaker.
The office of the House Sergeant at Arms had also warned lawmakers in a memo about the fox reportedly biting people and said: “There are possibly several fox dens on Capitol Grounds.”
Pictures of the cute — but potentially dangerous — creature first popped up on social media on Monday. The fox was spotted scavenging on the streets nearby Tuesday afternoon, despite the area being crowded with tourists now that the Capitol complex reopened to the public last month after being mostly closed for two years because of the pandemic.
After workers spent hours trying to find the animal in question, Capitol Police tweeted a photo at 3:36 p.m. of the culprit in a cage with the line “Captured.”
— U.S. Capitol Police (@CapitolPolice) April 5, 2022
Some on the internet were quick to call for the fox — who was captured with the help of the Humane Rescue Alliance — to be freed. One social media account cosplaying as the “Capitol Fox” also appeared on Twitter Tuesday, even releasing a statement on what the fox called its “illegal arrest.”
“As a fox, I cannot speak. And too often — I have nobody to speak for me. They mock me in songs, they wear me as clothes, and they hunt me down like a criminal in my home. For what, I ask you?” the statement said.
Notably, foxes are susceptible to rabies and can transmit the disease to humans, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — a fact one lawmaker knows now all too well.
While Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, told reporters she had a close encounter with the fox Monday evening and showed a video she took of the usually nocturnal animal, for Rep. Ami Bera, D-Calif., the encounter was far closer: Bera was bitten.
The congressman’s office confirmed that he was “nipped on the leg” in a statement to ABC News and admitted to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center where he received several shots.
Bera, who is a physician, tweeted a warning a light-hearted warning about his close call.
What does the fox say? Last night, I found out…
Joking aside, animal bites are extremely serious. In the case of an encounter, please speak with a physician immediately: https://t.co/J4tmdlZzQI.
(NEW YORK) — The flashlights of the Ukrainian army followed Zi Faámelu, a transgender woman from Ukraine, as she walked through a swamp and hid from the military while crossing the Romanian border.
Tall, sharp bushes scratched the singer’s face, and the rough waters from the river pulled her body in the opposite direction. She knew it was the only chance she had to escape.
She was carrying only her passport, wrapped in a trash bag to protect it from the water. Her passport identified her as male, making it illegal for her to flee Ukraine after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ordered all men to join the army.
Once she made it to the other side, Faámelu could only think of the fact she made it alive.
“I knew this was my last chance of survival and I had to do something like this real quick,” she told ABC News.
“I was almost drowning and I drank so much water. And I was very exhausted and I swam. I thought I [wouldn’t] make it. But somehow I reached the other side.”
At the first checkpoint, Faámelu said the guards took a photo of her passport and sent it across the border to prevent her from leaving the country. The treatment she received at the border, she said, was similar to the reality she faced for being a trans woman in Ukraine.
“My story is not like popular opinion right now because I know the inside of it all. And it’s not pretty,” she said. “It’s ugly. So I know the world stands with Ukraine, but they don’t know what’s going on inside the country.”
Throughout her life, Faámelu said she faced discrimination and transphobia. The invasion made things worse, she said, and she found herself stuck inside her apartment due to fear of persecution.
“At first, I wanted to leave Kyiv because there were bombings, but there was a group of dangerous people moving around this city. Homophobic, transphobic people that were preying on LGBTQ folks,” she said.
Faámelu is not the only one who says she fears for her safety. Olha Raiter traveled with her ex-partner, Uliana, and their 7-month-old son to Berlin from Ukraine by car. The trip took about 68 hours, and their car became a temporary home as they saw their country being shelled.
“I tried to stay positive because you could just die in one second if you just imagine what’s going on,” Raiter said.
“We have to be positive. We have to believe,” she added.
Raiter always wanted to have kids, but she said it was difficult to make it a reality because of how it would be viewed by society.
“I couldn’t get married,” she said. “We are all discriminated against in Ukraine because we cannot get the same rights. We have Damien together, but officially, she’s nobody to him, even if she’s a mother the same as me … and she was there from the very beginning and she was there when I was delivering him. But she still, according to Ukrainian law, … she’s nobody.”
Raiter says, “We were moving in the right direction. We put pressure on our government, and it changes. I didn’t have a feeling that this was a country that didn’t want me.” Despite the hardships and the rough reality members of the LGBTQ community say they face in Ukraine, Raiter did not leave the country because she felt unwanted, but feared raising a child among war. She hopes to return to her home country one day to raise Damien.
“I want [Damien] to … grow up in Ukraine, and I think it’s important because it’s important for me. I know it’s possible,” Raiter said.
Svetlana Shaytanova works for Quarteera, a nonprofit organization creating a safe space for members of the Russian-speaking LGBTQ community in Germany. She focuses her work on spreading awareness and sharing the harsh realities faced by queer people, like Faámelu.
The reality for trans people in Ukraine and across Europe, Shaytanova said, is that it’s harder than it might appear.
“They don’t want us to exist,” Shaytanova said.
“It’s not the government that persecutes people; they put laws in place that allow the general population to be openly aggressive against queer people.”
Faámelu is currently staying with a German family – and she says she feels lucky.
“It’s a perfect place for me right now. It’s just luck, … because I could’ve died [at the border],” she said.
When Faámelu crossed the border, she left everything behind – her clothes, belongings and even her art pieces. In the midst of the chaos, she still hopes to keep making music and continue her activism within the trans community.
“[My voice] is the only thing I have now … because I have nothing. They took everything away from me,” she said.
Faámelu says change must be made so others don’t have to be discriminated against and fight for their lives as she did at the border. The issue, she said, is beyond the Russian invasion.
“We’re fighting for our lives as trans people,” Faámelu said. “It’s a war for recognition, for getting noticed, for getting hurt. But we are humans. We deserve our rights.
(WASHINGTON) — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin got into a fiery exchange with Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz during a House Armed Services Committee budget hearing Tuesday, as Gaetz accused the Pentagon of strategic failures due to misplaced focus on alleged “wokeism.”
Gaetz began by asking Austin why taxpayers should fund lectures supporting socialism at the DOD-funded National Defense University, a reference to a recent virtual event hosted by the school titled “Responding to China: The Case For Global Justice and Democratic Socialism,” presented by French economist Thomas Piketty.
Austin said he was unaware of the lecture.
“So now that you know that they did this, would you agree that embracing socialism is not an effective strategy to combat China?” Gatez asked.
“I certainly don’t agree with embracing socialism,” Austin replied.
Gaetz continued, asking, “So why would we invite people we don’t agree with to evangelize views and values that we don’t share at the National Defense University, when we should be learning strategy about how to combat our enemies and make assessments that are accurate?”
Austin responded that learning strategy and other relevant subjects is the focus of military universities.
Decorum began to crumble as the two men started talking over one another, Gaetz reiterating the controversial content of the lecture, Austin reiterating that the Pentagon does not embrace socialism.
“I control the time!” Gaetz protested.
The Florida congressman proceeded to accuse the Defense Department of making poor predictions about the invasion of Ukraine and the fall of Afghanistan.
“You guys told us that Russia couldn’t lose. You told us that the Taliban couldn’t immediately win. And so I guess I’m wondering what in the $773 billion that you’re requesting today is going to help you make assessments that are accurate in the face of so many blown calls.
Austin paused for nearly six seconds before responding.
“You’ve seen what’s in our budget, you’ve seen how the budget matches the strategy, and so I’ll let that speak for itself,” he said.
The secretary then grew visibly annoyed when Gaetz said the U.S. has fallen behind other countries in terms of hypersonic weapons.
“What do you mean we’re behind in hypersonics? How do you make that assessment?” Austin said.
“Your own people brief us that we are behind and that China is winning. Are you aware of the briefings we get on hypersonics?” Gaetz asked.
Austin responded, “I am certainly aware of briefings that we provide to Congress.”
MORE: China’s reported hypersonic weapon test raises security concerns
Gaetz again attacked the Pentagon’s priorities.
“While everyone else in the world seems to be developing capabilities and being more strategic, we’ve got time to embrace critical race theory at West Point, to embrace socialism at the National Defense University, to do mandatory pronoun training,” he said.
Austin fired back: “This is the most capable, the most combat-credible force in the world. It has been and it will be so going forward. And this budget helps us to do that.”
“Not if we embrace socialism,” Gaetz said.
Austin then implied Gaetz was being unpatriotic.
“The fact that you are embarrassed by your country, by your military, I am sorry for that,” Austin said.
Gaetz retorted as Austin was still speaking: “Oh no, no, I’m embarrassed by your leadership, I am not embarrassed for my country.”
“It’s what you’re saying, it’s what you’re saying,” Austin said.
“I wish we were not losing to China … That is so disgraceful that you would sit here and conflate your failures with the failures of the uniformed service members. You guys said that Russia would overrun Ukraine in 36 days. You said that the Taliban would be kept at bay for months. You totally blew those calls. And maybe we would be better at them if the National Defense University actually worked a little more on strategy and a little less on wokeism,” Gaetz said.
“Has it occurred to you that Russia has not overrun Ukraine because of what we’ve done and our allies have done? Have you ever even thought about that?” Austin said.
Gaetz used his remaining seconds to reply: “But that was baked into your flawed assessment. And so I saw that the Obama administration tried to destroy our military by starving it of resources, and it seems the Biden administration is trying to destroy our military by force feeding it wokeism. I yield back.”
(BERLIN) — German authorities took down the world’s largest illegal marketplace on the darknet with the help of U.S. law enforcement agencies, they said.
Hydra Market was a Russian-language marketplace that had operated via the Tor network since at least 2015 and was known for extensive drug trafficking, according to German authorities. The market’s 17 million known customers were also known to buy and sell forged documents and stolen credit cards, they said. In 2020, its sales amounted to well over $1 billion euros.
German authorities said they seized Hydra’s server infrastructure and about $25 million in bitcoin on Tuesday.
“The seizures carried out today were preceded by extensive investigations that have been conducted…since August 2021 and in which several US authorities were involved,” the German federal police announced.
Numerous U.S. agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Administration, the IRS Criminal Investigation and others were involved in the operation, they said.
The investigation targeted the operators and administrators of Hydra, according to German authorities. Among other things, authorities said the market was being used for criminal transactions, money laundering and abundant sales of illegal narcotics.
Hydra was the illegal marketplace with the highest turnover worldwide, German authorities said. Its sales amounted to at least 1.23 billion euros in 2020 alone. It also offered a service for obfuscating digital transactions, complicating crypto investigations for law enforcement agencies.
In addition to the law enforcement actions taking down Hydra’s illegal marketplace, the U.S. sanctioned the company, along with a virtual currency exchange based in Estonia, the U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement.
“The global threat of cybercrime and ransomware that originates in Russia, and the ability of criminal leaders to operate there with impunity, is deeply concerning to the United States,” Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in the statement. “Our actions send a message today to criminals that you cannot hide on the darknet or their forums, and you cannot hide in Russia or anywhere else in the world.”
Hydra accounted for some 86% of illicit Bitcoin transactions in Russia in 2019, according to the U.S. Treasury, while Estonian exchange Garantex was used for over $100 million in virtual currency transactions associated with illicit actors. Estonian authorities stripped Garantex of its license in February, but it continued to operate “through unscrupulous means,” the department said.
These sanctions are an attempt by the Biden administration to show that virtual currency will not be able to evade U.S. and international sanctions on Russia or other criminal actors.
The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control “is closely monitoring any efforts to circumvent or violate Russia-related sanctions, including through the use of virtual currency, and is committed to using its broad enforcement authorities to act against violations and to promote compliance,” the department said.
(OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla.) — Oklahoma passed a bill Tuesday that would make performing an abortion a felony, punishable by up to several years in prison.
The bill was passed in the state House 70-14 without a single Democratic vote after passing the Senate last year. Just one Republican state representative voted against the bill.
It is now heading to the desk of Gov. Kevin Stitt, a Republican, who is expected to sign it into law.
Under the bill, any medical provider who performs an abortion would face a fine of $100,000 and up to 10 years in prison. The only exceptions for performing an abortion would be if the mother’s life is in danger.
State Rep. Jim Olsen, who sponsored the bill, did not return ABC News’ request for comment.
However, he did stress to the Associated Press that penalties would only be imposed on medical professionals who perform abortions, not on women who receive them.
Passage of the bill occurred the same day a “Bans Off Oklahoma” rally was held at the state Capitol in support of abortion rights.
“These legislators have continued their relentless attacks on our freedoms,” Emily Wales, interim president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Plains Votes — which organized the rally — told the Associated Press. “These restrictions are not about improving the safety of the work that we do. They are about shaming and stigmatizing people who need and deserve abortion access.”
In the past few years, anti-abortion bills have passed in Oklahoma Legislature, only to be overturned by the courts who deem them unconstitutional.
It’s unclear whether this bill will face the same challenges, but it comes on the heels of several Republican-led states passing legislation ahead of a Supreme Court decision in June that will decide the future of Roe v. Wade.
The court will review a 15-week ban in Mississippi and decide whether or not it is constitutional.
In preparation for Roe to be overturned, or gutted, Arizona and Kentucky moved forward on 15-week abortion bans last week.
The Arizona legislation, which was signed by Gov. Doug Ducey, only includes exemptions for medical emergencies when continuing with the pregnancy would “create serious risk of substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function” for the mother.
Meanwhile, in Kentucky, the ban passed along with other anti-abortion measures including making it illegal to send drugs for medical abortions through the mail and requiring the names of physicians who provide medication abortions to be published online.
Additionally, last month, Idaho became the first state to pass and sign legislation modeled after the recent law passed in Texas that bans abortions after six weeks.
Since the law in Texas went into effect in September 2021, thousands of women have flocked to Oklahoma to receive the procedure.
A recent study from the Texas Policy Evaluation Project at the University of Texas Austin found that of the 1,500 women that traveled out of state every month to receive abortion since September, 45% visited Oklahoma.
(NEW YORK) — Severe weather continues to strike the South with damaging winds, tornados and huge hail.
Chunks of hail the size of golf balls were reported Monday night in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.
On Tuesday afternoon severe thunderstorms will move into Georgia, South Carolina and Florida.
A tornado already touched down overnight in Jackson County, Texas, near the town of Joshua.
A tornado watch will be in effect until 7 p.m. CT across the South.
Six tornadoes were also reported in central Mississippi and Alabama. One of the confirmed tornadoes caused some structure and tree damage near the town of Newtown and Highway I-2.
Tornado warnings are ongoing in Alabama.
Thousands are without power in Washington state as a major storm moved through the area, producing wind gusts near 81 mph.
As this storm system moves east, wind and snow alerts are issued from the Rockies into the Plains with high fire danger from Texas to South Dakota. Red flag warnings have been issued for the Plains where winds could gust up to 70 mph.
California’s first major heat wave of the season is expected soon; a heat advisory was issued for Los Angeles and San Diego with high wind alerts posted for the mountain areas.
The heat wave will begin Wednesday with highs in the lower to middle 90s.
(INDIANAPOLIS) — Police have named a man who died in 2013 as the serial killer responsible for the deaths of three women in the late 1980s.
Harry Edward Greenwell was identified as the man known as the “I-65” or “Days Inn” killer, an elusive figure who killed three motel clerks along Interstate 65 in Indiana and Kentucky, Indiana State Police spokesperson Sgt. Glen Fifield told reporters at a news conference Tuesday.
The case began on Feb. 21, 1987, after the murder of Vicki Heath, a 41-year-old mother who would had recently gotten engaged and was working the night shift at the Super 8 motel in Elizabethtown, Kentucky, Fifield said. By March 3, 1989, Indiana State Police were investigating two more murders that occurred under similar circumstances on the same day Heath was killed, Fifield said.
Margaret Gill, also known as Peggy Gill, was murdered while working the night shift at the Days Inn in Merrillville, Indiana, while Jean Gilbert was murdered while working the night shift at the Days Inn in Remington, Indiana, Fifield said. Gill, who was 24 at the time, had been promoted from maid to night auditor, while Gilbert, a mother of two, had traded shifts to watch her daughter’s last game as a cheerleader, the Indy Star reported.
The women were raped before they were killed, the Indy Star reported.
On Jan. 2, 1990, a clerk working in the Days Inn in Columbus, Indiana, was attacked in a similar manner as the previous three victims, but she was able to escape her attacker and survived, later giving authorities “an excellent physical description of the suspect and details of the crime,” Fifield said. The clerk was sexually assaulted and stabbed in the attack, the Indy Star reported.
The primary factor that linked the four cases together was the proximity to Interstate 65. Numerous pieces of forensic evidence were collected and preserved to include DNA, clothing, hairs, fibers and ballistic evidence from the cases, allowing investigators to match ballistic evidence linking the Gill and Gilbert murders and to later match DNA evidence linking the Heath and Gilbert murders to the case of the surviving victim, Fifield said.
Decades after the murders took place, Indiana State Police and the FBI were able to use genetic genealogy to generate investigative leads on the killer. Greenwell — who was born on Dec. 9, 1944, and died in January 2013 — had an “extensive criminal history” and had been “in and out of prison several times,” Fifield said.
Investigators were able to put together a timeline of Greenwell’s movements through police reports, newspaper archives and “some self-reporting by him” Fifield said. Greenwell is feared to be responsible for additional murders, rapes, robberies and assaults stretching from Gary, Indiana, down to Mobile, Alabama, the length of Interstate 65, Fifield said.
Indiana State Police Superintendent Doug Carter addressed the family members of the victims, saying he hopes the announcement “might bring a little bit of solace to you to know that the animal that did this is no longer on this earth.”
Carter described the decadeslong investigation as a “relentless and dogged pursuit” that had detectives chasing leads all over the country. Advances in technology finally allowed investigators to solve the cold case, Carter said.
“It’s amazing what happens over the course of generations,” Carter said. “There’s detectives in this very room that have been involved in this in some form or another, literally for generations. And they’re owed a debt of gratitude that we could never possibly repay. But, you know, their effort was for you.”
ABC News’ Ahmad Hemingway and Beatrice Peterson contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Three Republican senators — Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Mitt Romney of Utah — have taken the political risk of breaking from their party to vote for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s confirmation to the Supreme Court this week, elevating the first Black woman to the nation’s highest court in its 233-year history.
Democrats on Monday were able to advance Jackson’s nomination out of the Senate Judiciary Committee by a 53-47 vote, with the help of those three Republicans, putting President Joe Biden’s nominee on a clear path to being confirmed later this week by the full Senate.
But it’s unclear if they will face blowback from constituents or colleagues as they continue to explain their reasoning.
Collins was the first Republican to pledge her support to Jackson last week, after meeting twice with the nominee who she said alleviated her concerns. Murkowski and Romney’s endorsements followed on Monday, to the relief of the Biden White House, which had pushed for a bipartisan vote.
Jackson left “quite an impression” on Murkowski during her Judiciary Committee hearings, where “she was put under some pretty, pretty intense scrutiny, and I think you saw grace under pressure there,” Murkowski said.
“There was a level of personal attack that was not warranted,” she added, also calling out corrosive politics around the confirmation process.
“This is an awful process it’s just awful,” Murkowski said. “We’re strapped into it, we’re so divided now. We are to that point where it is almost automatic where if it is a president who is not of my party puts forth a nominee I am somehow obligated to just barely even give consideration.”
Moments after Murkowski announced her intention Monday, Romney followed suit — becoming the only Republican to reverse course and announce plans to support Jackson after previously voting against her confirmation to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit last year. He told reporters Tuesday that he got to yes after becoming convinced she’s within the “mainstream.”
“In her previous confirmation votes I had concerns about whether she was in the mainstream and having spent time with her personally and reviewing her testimony before Congress I became convinced that she is in the mainstream,” Romney said.
While Jackson did, then, get the support of Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on that vote, Graham said he will vote no this time around, adding that Jackson wouldn’t have been given hearings had Republicans controlled the Senate.
Republicans, led by Sen Josh Hawley, R-Mo., repeatedly challenged Jackson’s sentencing of child porn offenders during the proceedings in an effort to paint her as “soft on crime” — a label Democrats dismissed as false (A handful of offenders received sentences below federal guidelines from Jackson, but the prison terms were above those recommended by the probation officer, putting her in the mainstream of judicial action).
Romney, like Collins and Murkowski, also lamented Tuesday that the process of confirming Supreme Court nominees has becoming increasingly politicized.
“I think, perhaps, we are going to have to reconsider the process that we are going to pursue in the future in part because you could have a setting where you have a president of one party and a Senate of another, and maybe there will be a change,” Romney said. “But at this stage, I was convinced that Judge Jackson is well qualified, intelligent capable, and I became convinced that she is within the mainstream.”
Collins said she was “delighted” to learn that her colleagues had “reached a similar conclusion” on Jackson’s confirmation, adding she’d had “some conversations” with the two before they announced their positions but only learned of their support “earlier yesterday.”
She also raised concerns with the, at times, combative process wrecking the court’s credibility.
“I hope we can get back to a time where we have bipartisan support for qualified Supreme Court nominees because it is important for public confidence in the court,” Collins said. “The court is not supposed to be a politicized institution, and if the nomination process leading up to confirmation is overly political, I believe it undermines the public’s confidence in our courts and regrettably that’s what we’ve seen with the last few nominees.”
While Collins aired concerns with some of Jackson’s sentences, she said in a statement that the fact she “will not agree with every vote that she casts as a Justice…is not disqualifying.”
(NEW YORK) –Through lockdowns, remote working, travel restrictions and school closures — many have not had a cold in two years. Now cold and flu rates appear to be on the rise as Americans return to pre-COVID activities sans masks.
Dr. Peter Chin Hong at UC San Francisco says his hospital is seeing an influx of cold and flu complaints.
“Usually we’ve gotten several colds a year for most people,” he told ABC News. “I think not having them means when you do get one it lasts a little bit longer.”
While cold and flu symptoms can often resemble COVID-19 symptoms, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says testing may be necessary to confirm a diagnosis.
Dr. Hong stressed the importance of returning to public life with caution.
“It’s really crucial to keep up your street smarts not just about COVID, but these other pathogens that you can transmit,” he said.
