(GEORGIA) — A Georgia teen honored his late mother through a graduation photoshoot.
KJ Morgan’s mother Teresa Colbert died from cancer on May 19, 2019, near the end of his freshman year at Northside High School. In preparation for his graduation this May, Morgan, 17, did a photoshoot with his mom’s portrait and wore a custom stole with photos of her on it.
“When she was here, we’d always talk about how I was going to graduate and I was going to be the one crying and she was going to be the one laughing and screaming,” Morgan told “Good Morning America.”
Morgan was supposed to graduate in May 2022, he said, but his mom’s death pushed him to work harder and graduate a year early.
“She was already not here,” he said. “So I was like, ‘Why don’t you just graduate early and make it 10 times more better?'”
In order to accomplish that, Morgan said he took college classes at Central Georgia Technical College in addition to his regular high school course load.
“From January to May, I took eight classes and for the summer semester I had five classes,” he said.
Morgan’s early graduation was even more special to him he said, because he had to miss class to take care of his mom.
“I missed so many school days taking care of my mom,” he said. “So my ninth grade year, I was failing classes back to back yet I still managed to graduate a whole year early. It just put the cherry on top for me. It did it for me to know that my mom wouldn’t be disappointed in me. … I just wanted to make her proud and this was my way of making her proud.”
(MISSISSIPPI) — More than 20,000 students across Mississippi are in quarantine after the first week of in-person classes.
Mississippi, which has the lowest vaccination rate among all states — about 34%, according to state data — is reeling from rising COVID-19 cases and the highly transmissible delta variant. Last week, a 13-year-old eighth grader died after testing positive — the fifth Mississippi child to die during the pandemic.
Some schools reopened last week, and so far 4,521 students have tested positive for COVID-19 and 20,334 have been quarantined due to exposure — about 5% of the state’s public school students, according to data compiled by the state Aug. 9 to Aug. 13 from over 800 schools.
Additionally, 948 teachers or staffers tested positive last week and 1,463 were quarantined due to exposure, according to state data.
Dr. Paul Byers, the state epidemiologist, painted a somber picture of the crisis unfolding in real time during a call with state pediatricians on Wednesday.
“These are dramatic numbers,” he added. “We are clearly at the worst part of the pandemic that we’ve seen throughout, and it’s continuing to worsen.”
Gov. Tate Reeves has not mandated masks in schools, instead letting districts decide for themselves.
About 600 schools have implemented universal masking for indoor settings following the recent spike in cases and isolations, Mississippi newspaper The Clarion-Ledger reported. The Biloxi school board, and the Gulfport and Hancock districts are among those requiring students to wear masks.
Governors and school districts throughout the U.S. have sparred over mandating masks in classrooms even as children younger than 12 still can’t be vaccinated.
New COVID-19 infections among 5-to-17-year-olds in Mississippi have risen steadily since March, accounting for about 20% of new cases through July, according to state data.
On Saturday, 13-year-old Mkayla Robinson died in Smith County, according to ABC Jackson affiliate WAPT.
“She was loved by all of her teachers,” Smith County Schools Superintendent Nick Hillman told WAPT. “She was an honor student, a band student. Everybody says if they had 30 kids in the classroom like her, they have the perfect classroom.”
(NEW YORK) — Nearly 90% of parents in the United States plan to send their children to school in person this fall, an increase since May, even with the delta variant spreading across the country and more children falling sick from COVID-19.
At the same time, almost one-third of parents say they don’t know their child’s school’s COVID-19 safety plan, and 60% say they’d like to know about the measures their school is taking to keep kids safe.
The numbers are from a survey of more than 3,000 parents, conducted this summer by the RAND Corporation and commissioned by the Rockefeller Foundation, aimed at finding out how hesitant adults are to send their children to school in person this year. The report, Will Students Come Back? was released Wednesday.
Andrew Sweet, managing director of COVID-19 response and recovery at the Rockefeller Foundation, said he was surprised to see more parents commit to in-person learning this summer than in the spring.
“I think we’re at a breaking point and a lot of parents just can’t afford to keep their kids at home. They don’t have time. A lot of parents have to go to work. You can’t work in a grocery store remotely,” he said.
Parents with children under 12 years old — and not yet authorized to receive a COVID-19 vaccine — are just as likely to send their children to school in person as parents whose children were 12 or over, the survey found.
Fifty-seven percent of parents said they would get their child vaccinated when the shot is authorized for their age. Meanwhile, 52% of parents with children 12 and over — who made up roughly two-thirds of all those surveyed — said their child had received the vaccine.
Parents differed along racial lines: 94% of white parents surveyed said they would send their children to school in-person, compared to 83% of Hispanic and 82% of Black parents.
Additionally, parents of color were substantially more likely to require certain school safety measures — like classroom ventilation, mandatory masking and vaccinated teachers — to allow their kids to return to school buildings this fall.
Parents of color were twice as likely as white parents to support mask requirements, an issue that has flared recently in states like Florida, Texas and Arizona, where governors have attempted to ban schools from mandating face coverings for kids.
The survey found that only 27% of parents know in detail which safety measures their child’s school is adopting, suggesting a glaring lack of communication that has most of the surveyed parents wanting more information about how their child will be protected from COVID-19 in the classroom.
“I think there is confusion because there are so many messengers,” said Sweet.
Most parents in the survey said they’d prefer to get information about school safety from a school staff member, with 44% of them preferring to hear from a principal.
Yet educators might not be the most effective messengers of health guidance to parents and students, suggested Sweet.
“It’s hard to be an educator but also a public health communicator. We’ve asked so much of our teachers over the course of the pandemic, and to add another piece to it to speak about ventilation systems or antigen testing … that’s not part of their vocation. That’s not really what they signed up to do. And so it’s asking them to do yet another thing,” he said.
The public school district in New Orleans began weekly press conferences with the superintendent this summer to help communicate safety decisions to families. The district is also using social media to spread information, and is encouraging parents to speak to one another and contact their child’s school directly.
“It is always our challenge to make sure the nitty-gritty details get to our parents, which is unfortunate and hard at times,” Dina Hasiotis, senior adviser to the Superintendent of NOLA Public Schools, said in a roundtable streamed by the Rockefeller Foundation on Wednesday.
(WASHINGTON) — Could you live on Mars for an entire year? Or, could you at least pretend?
NASA is on the search for four people to live in a 1,700-square-foot habitat, created by a 3D-printer, at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, to simulate a year-long stay on Mars.
Applications to participate as part of the crew are being accepted through Sept. 17, 2021 for the one-year mission that starts in late 2022.
According to NASA’s website, finalists will undergo medical evaluations, psychological testing and psychiatric screening to determine suitability for the physically and mentally demanding isolation mission.
“The CHAPEA missions are designed to collect critical health and performance data to characterize risks associated with going to Mars,” said Shaneequa Vereen, public affairs officer for the Human Health and Performance Directorate at the NASA Johnson Space Center. “These analog missions will entail a good number of the challenges associated with a Mars mission, such as a Mars-realistic spaceflight food system, time-delayed communication, crew isolation and confinement, and resource restrictions.”
But NASA isn’t looking for just anyone to join this mission. The qualifications are intense and applicants must have a Master’s degree in a science, engineering or math field or pilot experience.
Additionally, only U.S. residents between the ages of 30 and 55 with no dietary or physical health issues will be eligible. Motion sickness? Sorry, but no can do.
“Living on Mars is going to entail a large number of challenges,” Vereen added. “By conducting analog missions we are able obtain data that enables us to better characterize risks before sending astronauts all the way to Mars.”
The Mars Dune Alpha experiment will be carried out in three phases, with the first beginning next fall. The exploration trip will also be complete with spacewalks and ready-to-eat space food. There will even be an area to grow plants and other vegetation.
(WASHINGTON) — The Cannon House Office Building, a congressional office building in Washington, D.C., was evacuated via underground routes Thursday morning due to a suspicious vehicle, according to a law enforcement sources.
The Capitol Police in a tweet called it “an active bomb threat investigation.”
Messages have been sent to congressional staffers asking that they “remain calm and relocate to Longworth House Office Building using the underground tunnels.”
The Library of Congress is also being evacuated, sources told ABC News.
The FBI said it’s responding. The White House is monitoring the situation and is receiving updates from law enforcement, according to an administration official.
Congress is in recess.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — Several governmental buildings in Washington, D.C., were evacuated Thursday morning due to a suspicious vehicle and what Capitol Police call “an active bomb threat investigation.”
Law enforcement negotiators are working to make contact with the person in the vehicle, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger said in a press conference around noon local time that negotiations are still ongoing to have a “peaceful resolution” and the suspect’s motives were unknown.
The suspect told responding police he had a bomb, and responding officers said he had what appeared to be a detonator in his hand, Manger said.
The Cannon House Office Building, a congressional office building, was evacuated via underground routes. The Library of Congress and Supreme Court building were also evacuated. Both the Supreme Court and Congress are on recess.
Messages have been sent to congressional staffers asking that they “remain calm and relocate to Longworth House Office Building using the underground tunnels.”
Senate staff were asked in a message to “remain clear of the police activity” and to “please move indoors” if they were outside on Capitol grounds.
The FBI said it’s responding. The White House is monitoring the situation and is receiving updates from law enforcement, according to an administration official.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — Several governmental buildings in Washington, D.C., were evacuated Thursday morning due to what Capitol Police call “an active bomb threat investigation” after a man drove a pickup truck onto a sidewalk.
The bomb threat suspect, 49-year-old Floyd Ray Roseberry of North Carolina, surrendered Thursday afternoon and is in police custody, Capitol Police Chief J. Thomas Manger said.
It’s still unclear if there were explosives in the truck, Manger said in an afternoon news conference.
The suspect had been sitting in his truck for several hours in front of the Library of Congress and said he had explosives, Manger said.
Responding officers said he had what appeared to be a detonator in his hand, Manger said.
Authorities tried to negotiate with the suspect by writing messages on a whiteboard, Manger said. Authorities then used a robot to give the suspect a phone, but he wouldn’t use it, Manger said.
The suspect then exited his truck and surrendered without incident, Manger said.
Authorities are also investigating a video posted to Facebook that purports to have been posted by the man in the vehicle.
The Cannon House Office Building, a congressional office building, was evacuated via underground routes. The Library of Congress and Supreme Court building were also evacuated. Both the Supreme Court and Congress are on recess.
Messages were sent to congressional staffers asking that they “remain calm and relocate to Longworth House Office Building using the underground tunnels.”
Senate staff were asked in a message to “remain clear of the police activity” and to “please move indoors” if they were outside on Capitol grounds.
The FBI said it was responding. The White House is monitoring the situation and is receiving updates from law enforcement, according to an administration official.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — Travel looks different in 2021 with changes at hotels like charges for amenities and services.
Some hotels have stripped-down room rates to the bare minimum, tacking on extras like access to the gym or pool for a fee.
MCR Hotels, one of the largest hotel owners in the country with 110 properties in 33 states, said it will experiment with this new feature at New York’s High Line Hotel and the retro hit TWA Hotel located at JFK airport.
The hotel will charge $25 to use the pool on weekends or a day pass at the gym. For guests who want an early check in, that will come with a $20 fee and breakfast will run an additional $10 to $25.
Tyler Morse, CEO of MCR hotels told Good Morning America that this new model tailors the appropriate cost of a stay to fit various guests and their needs.
“There’s business travelers, leisure travelers. Some people want to go to the pool. Some people want to go to the gym. Some people don’t want to do either,” he said. “But by having all of the products together for one price, it forces some people to pay for products that they don’t want or never going to consume.”
These new changes could also save some travelers money if they aren’t planning to use any amenities.
“By going to our cart model, it unbundles the product, it allows us to charge a lower rate for those who just want a sleeping room,” Morse explained. “You can buy the products that you want.”
The hotel and travel industry has been hit hard by the pandemic and now faces labor shortages. Those in the industry are looking for ways to experiment with new options to recover losses and win back business.
“There is going to be quite a long period before we’re back to pre-pandemic levels,” Melanie Lieberman, senior editor of The Points Guy told GMA. She added: “it’s not surprising to see this type of model roll out right now as hotels are looking for ways to ways to save money and generate new revenue.”
Other hotel giants like Marriott and Hilton have yet to jump on the a la carte fee model.
“I think the hotel industry is going to take a cautious approach to doing this — but certainly the more brands, the more major players and the hotel space that start to participate in this type of pricing model, the faster it’s going to take off,” Lieberman said.
Before booking your next stay, she suggested to think about what you actually need for the type of trip you want.
“It certainly goes back to this concept of, if you think you want the whole buffet, you shouldn’t be ordering a la carte,” Lieberman said. “There’s a ton of choice out there for travelers right now. And they’re really going to have to choose at their discretion what kind of experience they want.”
(KABUL, Afghanistan) — Chaos has enveloped Kabul after Afghanistan’s government’s collapsed and the Taliban seized control, all but ending America’s 20-year campaign as it began: under Taliban rule.
As the crisis intensifies, with images from Kabul showing Afghans storming the airport tarmac and climbing onto military planes after the U.S. assumed control of the airport, President Joe Biden briefly left Camp David to address the nation from the White House on Monday.
Biden returned to Washington on Wednesday and sat down with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos for an exclusive one-on-one interview at the White House, the president’s first interview since the withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The Pentagon said that 6,000 U.S. troops have been deployed to the country’s capital as the military races to evacuate people from an increasingly chaotic Kabul. Despite criticism, the Biden administration is sticking by its decision to withdraw troops from the country, though he told Stephanopoulos the stay might extend beyond the original Aug. 31 date if it takes longer to get all Americans out of the country.
Here are some key developments. All times Eastern:
Aug 19, 9:57 am
Protests consume Kabul, Taliban fighters respond with force
Hundreds of people took to the streets of Kabul on Thursday as Afghanistan’s annual Independence Day is met with new Taliban control of the country.
Taliban fighters cracked down on the crowds with batons and fired gunshots into the air as Afghan civilians, women included, flew the Afghanistan national flag in an apparent acts of defiance.
The U.S. military said Wednesday its focus will remain on maintaining the perimeter at the airport, as opposed to sending envoys into Kabul to pick up Americans and Afghan civilians who may have difficulty getting to the airport.
“I don’t have the capability to go out and extend operations currently into Kabul,” Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said in a Pentagon briefing at which officials also said “nothing” could predict the collapse of the Afghanistan government in 11 days
As the race to evacuate as many as 11,000 Americans and tens of thousands of Afghans from the country continues, the State Department on Wednesday sent an email alert to Americans in Afghanistan directing them to go to the airport but adding the U.S. “cannot provide safe passage” there.
After sitting down with an exclusive one-on-one interview with George Stephanopoulos, Biden on Thursday has no public events on his schedule but is meeting with his national security team.
Since Saturday, the U.S. has evacuated nearly 6,000 people, according to the White House — so far, falling short of the Pentagon’s goal of evacuating 6,000 to 9,000 individuals a day.
Aug 19, 8:55 am
Biden doubles down on Afghanistan amid struggling evacuation effort
Amid intense backlash on the handling of the troop withdrawal and the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, the president argued that the commotion of the past few days was inevitable.
“The idea that somehow, there’s a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing, I don’t know how that happens,” Biden told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos in an exclusive interview.
Biden indicated an investigation of the intelligence surrounding the topic would take place, but stopped short of saying that the intelligence was wrong. Biden also denied reports that top military advisers warned against his withdrawal timeline.
Biden’s defense of his administration’s actions come as significant numbers of Americans and Afghan civilian personnel struggle to access the Kabul airport and escape the war-torn nation.
“We’re going to do everything we can to continue to try to deconflict and create passageways for them to get to the airfield. I don’t have the capability to go out and extend operations currently into Kabul,” Secretary of Defense General Lloyd Austin said to reporters Wednesday.
Much about the progress on evacuation efforts remains murky. In his interview with ABC News, Biden was certain that Americans in Afghanistan and American military members would be taken out of the country but seemed noncommittal on how many Afghan allies the U.S. would be able to rescue. Another unknown is if evacuations can realistically be completed before the Aug. 31 deadline. Biden offered a caveat that is unlikely to comfort those on the ground pleading to evacuate.
“It depends on where we are and whether we can get — ramp these numbers up to five to 7,000 a day coming out,” Biden said. “If that’s the case, they’ll all be out.”
Aug 18, 9:22 pm
US troops will stay until all Americans are out of Afghanistan, even if past Aug. 31 deadline: Biden
In an exclusive interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, President Joe Biden said the U.S. is committed to getting every American out of Afghanistan — even if it means potentially extending the mission beyond his Aug. 31 deadline for a total withdrawal.
“We’ve got like 10 to 15,000 Americans in the country right now. Right? And are you committed to making sure that the troops stay until every American who wants to be out is out?” Stephanopoulos asked Biden.
“Yes,” Biden replied.
The president cautioned that his focus is on completing the mission by Aug. 31, but when pressed by Stephanopoulos, conceded the mission could take longer.
Aug 18, 7:16 pm
Congressional leaders calling for briefings
Top Republican Leaders Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell are calling on the Biden administration for a “Gang of Eight” classified briefing on Afghanistan.
The so-called “Gang of Eight” includes the top House and Senate leaders, including the heads of the intel committees in both the House and Senate.
Separately, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has also requested three briefings on Afghanistan in the coming days, according to a source. They include a briefing by phone Friday for all members, a classified, in-person briefing Tuesday and a similar “Gang of Eight” briefing.
-ABC News’ Mariam Khan
Aug 18, 2:14 pm
State Department alerts Americans it ‘cannot ensure safe passage’ to airport
The State Department has directed American citizens to the airport in Kabul for departing evacuation flights — but with a stark warning.
“The United States government cannot ensure safe passage to the Hamid Karzai International Airport,” the agency said in an alert to American citizens still in Afghanistan.
“The security situation in Kabul continues to change quickly, including at the airport,” the agency added.
As many as 11,000 Americans and tens of thousands of Afghans are still desperately trying to leave the country, ABC News Senior Foreign Correspondent Ian Pannell has reported.
Aug 18, 1:44 pm
Biden, Harris briefed by top Pentagon officials
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby confirmed to reporters that Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris received a briefing on Afghanistan at the White House on Wednesday.
The White House said the group, which also included Secretary of State Antony Blinken, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, Commander of U.S. Central Command Gen. Kenneth McKenzie and CIA Director William Burns, discussed “efforts to accelerate evacuations” and “to facilitate safe passage to HKIA [Hamid Karzai International Airport].”
The readout from the White House also said the group discussed “monitoring for any potential terrorist threats in Afghanistan.”
-ABC News’ Sarah Kolinovsky
Aug 18, 1:30 pm
Senior intel official: Afghan government ‘unraveled even more quickly than we anticipated’
A senior U.S. intelligence official acknowledged to ABC News that the “rapid collapse” of the Afghanistan government “unraveled even more quickly” than U.S. intelligence officials had anticipated.
“We consistently identified the risk of a rapid collapse of the Afghan government. We also grew more pessimistic about the government’s survival as the fighting season progressed. This was less an issue of Afghan military capabilities and more a reflection of Afghan leadership, cohesion and willpower,” the official told ABC News. “That said, the Afghan government unraveled even more quickly than we anticipated.”
Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani and his family fled Kabul on Sunday as the Taliban moved closer to the presidential palace and then claimed the formation of the “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.”
-ABC News’ Cindy Smith
Aug 18, 1:09 pm
Pentagon responds to distressing scenes outside airport in Kabul
Ahead of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley holding a briefing at 3 p.m., Pentagon press secretary John Kirby spoke to reporters on Wednesday about the distressing scenes outside the airport in Kabul.
He said U.S. military officials were aware of reports that Taliban fighters are not letting Afghans through to the airport and that’s one reason the top American commander in Kabul, Adm. Peter Vasely, has reached out to his Taliban counterpart.
Asked what more can be done to ensure safe passage of Afghans to the airport, Kirby said only that the Pentagon is working “very hard” on the issue.
“I don’t have a specific next step for you,” he said. “We are in communication with the Taliban. We want to see this process go more smoothly.”
Kirby also confirmed incidents overnight in which some American troops providing security at the perimeter of the airport fired their weapons in the air as part of “crowd control measures.”
He said the U.S. goal to evacuate 5,000 to 9,000 individuals a day can be accomplished “when we’re at full throttle.”
Aug 18, 11:51 am
One Afghan family’s harrowing account of getting to Kabul’s airport
“Khan,” a computer scientist who worked with a U.S. contractor on the mission in Afghanistan and whose name is being withheld to protect his identity, boarded a U.S. military aircraft on Wednesday with his 3-year-old son and wife, who is 35 weeks pregnant, according to his lawyer.
It was their third attempt to reach the Kabul airport after they picked up their Special Immigrant Visas on Saturday, hours before the U.S. embassy shuttered.
The chaos on Sunday kept them away, and on Tuesday, there were too many Taliban fighters to get close to the gates. Khan spent several hours on Wednesday trying to reach multiple gates.
The north gate was mobbed, with U.S. troops firing warning shots into the air or deploying tear gas to disperse the crowds, according to his lawyer, who was on FaceTime with him.
There were hours when it seemed like Khan and his family wouldn’t be able to get through, forcing him to consider trying alone and leaving them behind, his lawyer told ABC News’ Conor Finnegan, but “ultimately, it was his persistence that got them in.”
Once inside the airport, the process was efficient, his lawyer said. Two of her clients and their families were on flights within 30 minutes of being processed and entering the airport.
But the chaos outside is horrific, and Afghans are receiving conflicting correspondence from the U.S. embassy — some being told to shelter in place, others given specific instructions on which gates to proceed to — but that situation changing rapidly too, his lawyer said.
Aug 18, 11:01 am
Taliban seen forcefully patrolling area near Kabul airport
Thousands were still outside the airport in Kabul as the U.S. continues its evacuation efforts Wednesday and the Taliban patrolled the surrounding streets, only allowing foreigners through and occasionally firing warning shots, ABC News Senior Foreign Correspondent Ian Pannell reported.
The Taliban on Tuesday promised an “amnesty” for those who worked with the U.S. government and said it would allow for their safe passage to the airport, but on the ground on Wednesday, members of the Taliban were seen whipping Afghan civilians.
As many as 11,000 Americans and tens of thousands of Afghans still are desperately trying to leave the country. The U.S. said late Tuesday it had evacuated 3,200 people from Afghanistan including all U.S. Embassy personnel except for a core group of diplomats. Officials have said they plan to launch one flight per hour to hopefully evacuate up to 9,000 people each day.
Still, the situation remains tense across Afghanistan, with the international community paying close attention to the Taliban’s every move.
Outside of Kabul, about 90 miles away in the eastern city of Jalalabad, anti-Taliban protesters were met with violence from fighters after replacing the Taliban flag in the city’s main square with the Afghan national flag, The Associated Press reported.
Aug 18, 9:58 am
Former Afghan president in United Arab Emirates on ‘humanitarian grounds’
The United Arab Emirates Foreign Ministry has confirmed in a statement that former Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani is in the United Arab Emirates, days after fleeing his home country.
Ghani and his family left Kabul on Sunday as the Taliban surged closer to the presidential palace. The Taliban ultimately overtook the building and has claimed the formation of the “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.”
Aug 18, 8:39 am
Few answers from Biden administration on Afghanistan despite pressure
Days removed from the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul and after a lengthy news conference with national security adviser Jake Sullivan, there is still little clarity on how conditions degraded so quickly in Afghanistan.
When ABC News Correspondent Stephanie Ramos asked Sullivan about reports that Biden administration officials were informed the Taliban could overwhelm the country, the national security adviser denied seeing it.
“I’m not actually familiar with the intelligence assessments you’re describing,” said Sullivan.
The administration plans to conduct an evaluation of the calamity once evacuations are completed.
“We’ll look at everything that happened, in this entire operation, from start to finish, and the areas of improvement where we can do better,” Sullivan told reporters Tuesday. “Where we can find holes or weaknesses and plug them as we go forward” that analysis will be shared.
Lawmakers are also putting pressure on the Biden administration for answers. Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee penned a letter to Biden demanding withdrawal plan details, plainly accusing the president of not having a concrete plan.
“For months, we have been asking you for a plan on your withdrawal from Afghanistan. You failed to provide us with one and based on the horrific events currently unfolding in Afghanistan, we are confident that we never received your plan because you never had one,” the letter reads. “The security and humanitarian crisis now unfolding in Afghanistan could have been avoided if you had done any planning.”
Aug 18, 7:52 am
Trauma injuries on the rise in Afghanistan, WHO warns
Months of violence in Afghanistan “have taken a heavy toll” on the country’s people and fragile health system, the World Health Organization warned Wednesday.
“As a result of the recent conflict, trauma injuries have increased, requiring scaled up emergency medical and surgical services,” Dr. Ahmed Al-Mandhari, the WHO’s regional director for the Eastern Mediterranean, said in a statement.
In July, some 13,897 conflict-related trauma cases were received at 70 WHO-supported health facilities in Afghanistan, compared with 4,057 cases during the same time last year, according to the WHO.
In Kabul and other areas where people have fled to seek safety and shelter, field reports indicate rising cases of diarrhea, malnutrition, high blood pressure, COVID-19-like symptoms and reproductive health complications. The country’s hospitals were already facing shortages in essential supplies amid the coronavirus pandemic, Al-Mandhari said.
Attacks on health care infrastructure and staff also remain a major challenge. From January to July, 26 health facilities and 31 health care workers were affected, while 12 workers were killed, according to the WHO.
“Delays and disruptions to health care will increase the risk of disease outbreaks and prevent some of the most vulnerable groups from seeking life-saving health care,” Al-Mandhari said. “There is an immediate need to ensure continuity of health services across the country, with a focus on ensuring women have access to female health workers.”
“The people of Afghanistan need support and solidarity today more than ever,” he added. “The gains of the past 20 years cannot be turned back.”
Aug 18, 7:40 am
ABC to interview Biden Wednesday
Biden will sit down with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos one-on-one on Wednesday at the White House for the president’s first interview since the withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The interview will air on ABC’s World News Tonight on Wednesday and Good Morning America on Thursday.
Aug 18, 6:23 am
Taliban delegation meets with former Afghan president in Doha
A high-level Taliban delegation has met with Afghanistan’s former president, Hamid Karzai, and the head of the High Council for National Reconciliation, Abdullah Abdullah, in Qatar’s capital and assured them of security, a Taliban source told ABC News on Wednesday.
The Taliban has said there is a general amnesty for all in Afghanistan, including former government officials, and that no one should flee the country.
Aug 18, 5:51 am
UK to take in 20,000 Afghan refugees over 5 years
The United Kingdom announced Tuesday a plan to welcome 20,000 Afghan refugees over five years.
The resettlement program will prioritize women, children and religious minorities.
“We have an enduring commitment to the Afghan people, and we will honour it,” British Prime Minister Boris Johnson wrote on Twitter. “A new resettlement scheme will create a safe and legal route for those in most need to come and live safely in the UK.”
While addressing members of parliament on Wednesday morning, Johnson said his government has so far secured the safe return of 306 U.K. nationals and 2,052 Afghan citizens as part of the resettlement program, with a further 2,000 applications for Afghan nationals completed “and many more being processed.” An additional 800 British troops will be deployed to Afghanistan’s main international airport in Kabul to “support this evacuation operation,” according to Johnson.
“We are proud to bring these brave Afghans to our shores — and we continue to appeal for more to come forwards,” he said.
Aug 17, 11:55 pm
US Embassy destroyed some Afghans’ passports during evacuation
Last week when the U.S. Embassy in Kabul ordered staff to destroy sensitive material, including documents, passports were destroyed as well.
During the evacuation, embassy personnel destroyed the passports of Afghans that had been submitted for visa processing, according to a Democratic lawmaker’s office.
Rep. Andy Kim, D-NJ, has been compiling requests for assistance for Afghans on the ground, with his office funneling pleas for help through an email address. In the email’s response note, obtained by ABC News, it says, “Passports that were in the Embassy’s possession have been destroyed. Currently, it is not possible to provide further visa services in Afghanistan.”
A State Department spokesperson acknowledged that was true, but called it “standard operating procedure” during an evacuation and said it “will not prevent people who are otherwise eligible for evacuation from traveling.
Aug 17, 9:38 pm
House Armed Services Committee Republicans request Biden’s plan for Afghanistan
Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee sent a letter to Biden requesting information about his “plan” for Afghanistan.
“For months, we have been asking you for a plan on your withdrawal from Afghanistan. You failed to provide us with one and based on the horrific events currently unfolding in Afghanistan, we are confident that we never received your plan because you never had one,” the letter says.
“The security and humanitarian crisis now unfolding in Afghanistan could have been avoided if you had done any planning. Pretending this isn’t your problem will only make things worse. We remain gravely concerned the void left in Afghanistan will be rapidly filled by terror groups. The Taliban now control the country. Al Qaeda used Afghanistan to plot and execute the 9/11 attacks and other acts of terrorism,” the letter continues. “You cannot let this happen again.”
Notably, Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo. — a member of the committee — has also signed the letter.
Cheney appeared on ABC’s This Week Sunday and said that Biden “absolutely” bears responsibility for the Taliban’s rapid takeover of Afghanistan, as does former President Donald Trump and his administration.
“What we’re watching right now in Afghanistan is what happens when America withdraws from the world,” Cheney told ABC This Week co-anchor Jonathan Karl. “So everybody who has been saying, ‘America needs to withdraw, America needs to retreat,’ we are getting a devastating, catastrophic real-time lesson in what that means.”
(WASHINGTON) — Fines for unruly behavior during flights have soared in 2021, with the Federal Aviation Administration reporting Thursday that it has proposed more than $1 million in penalties this year alone.
The FAA has received almost 4,000 reports of aggressive behavior from airlines since the beginning of 2021.
Airline crews have reported incidents in which visibly drunk passengers verbally abused them, shoved them, kicked seats, threw trash at them, defiled the restrooms and in some cases even punched them in the face.
The agency said 71% of the reported incidents involve passengers who refuse to comply with the federal mask mandate.
The FAA had hoped its zero-tolerance policy for in-flight disruptions, which could lead to fines as high as $52,500 and up to 20 years in prison, would be enough to deter potential offenders, but they’ve still seen hundreds of incidents per month.
In-flight tensions are unlikely to wane as the mask requirement for planes was extended just this week from September into January.
Two weeks ago, FAA Administrator Steve Dickson urged airport police to arrest more people who are unruly or violent on flights.
“While the FAA has levied civil fines against unruly passengers, it has no authority to prosecute criminal cases,” Dickson told airport executives.
He said they see many passengers — some who physically assaulted flight attendants — interviewed by local police and then released “without criminal charges of any kind.”
“When this occurs, we miss a key opportunity to hold unruly passengers accountable for their unacceptable and dangerous behavior,” he said.
The agency has looked into more than 682 potential violations of federal law so far this year — the highest number since the agency began keeping records in 1995. But it is unclear how many people have actually paid the FAA’s proposed fines.
Those on the front lines, the nation’s flight attendants, are bearing the brunt of the violence.
They are increasingly turning to self-defense training to learn how to defuse situations as well as protect themselves and their passengers.
“I think people are just kind of just at a tipping point with the pandemic,” Robin Gilinger, a flight attendant, said. “And when they’re up in the air at 35,000 feet, there’s no one to stop them. There’s no police officer on the corner they can go to. It’s just the flight attendants.”
Gilinger recently attended a crew member self-defense training course taught by federal air marshals in West Orange, New Jersey.
The courses had been paused amid the pandemic, but now they’re back up and running with four times the amount of classes and double the number of attendees as before.
“We’re not here to beat our passengers. We’re here to stop the unrest that has precipitated through this pandemic,” Gilinger said. “And this provides really good, basic tools, not just for the aircraft.”
While this type of training is free, flight attendants must come on their own time and pay for their travel and lodging. The head of the country’s largest flight attendant union is now pushing for the course to be federally mandated.
