(WASHINGTON) — An Air Force veteran who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for joining the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol was sentenced Wednesday to 45 days in jail — marking the first misdemeanor plea to lead to jail time for a Jan. 6 rioter who was not held prior to sentencing.
Derek Jancart, who was among members of the pro-Trump mob that entered the Capitol and made it as far as Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s conference room, had pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct. He was not accused of participating in any violence during the riot.
The Justice Department had asked that he be sentenced to four months in jail, more than they have requested for other lower-level misdemeanor defendants. Prosecutors noted Jancart’s former service in the military, saying he “swore an oath to defend the country, and instead participated on an attack against democracy itself.”
Jancart and his attorney countered by asking Judge James Boasberg to instead sentence him to probation.
At Wednesday’s hearing, Jancart apologized to the court for his actions at the Capitol, saying he “didn’t go there to hurt anybody.”
“I did get caught up in the moment … I wish in hindsight I had stayed back,” Jancart told the court.” I love this country and I feel ashamed of my actions.”
The George Washington University Project on Extremism says that 71 of the more than 600 people charged so far in connection with the Capitol attack have claimed to have military experience. Jancart is the first Jan. 6 defendant with military service to be sentenced for joining in the insurrection.
A co-defendant of Jancart’s, Erik Rau, was also sentenced Wednesday to 45 days in jail.
Rau cried as he addressed the court, saying that his involvement in the Jan. 6 attack had taken a toll on his family.
“I am first of all very sorry that you are having to spend your morning having to deal with me,” Rau said. He told the court that “there is no excuse” for his actions during the insurrection.
To date, more than 80 rioters have pleaded guilty to the charges against them, based on a tally by ABC News. Of the seven other defendants sentenced after pleading guilty to misdemeanor offenses, none have been ordered to spend time in jail, with the exception of two sentenced to time served after they received pretrial detention.
In recent hearings, several judges have expressed concern that the Justice Department is not seeking harsh enough punishments for some of those charged in connection with the attack.
(NORTH PORT, Fla.) — A massive search is continuing in Florida for Brian Laundrie, the boyfriend of Gabby Petito, the 22-year-old woman who went missing on a cross-country trip and who authorities confirmed as the body discovered in the Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming.
The search for the 23-year-old Laundrie is centered around North Port, Florida, where investigators said Laundrie returned to his home on Sept. 1 without Petito but driving her 2012 Ford Transit.
Laundrie has been named by police as a “person of interest” in Petito’s disappearance. Laundrie has refused to speak to the police and has not been seen since Tuesday, Sept. 14, according to law enforcement officials.
The search for Laundrie is the latest twist in the case that has grabbed national attention as he and Petito had been traveling across the country since June, documenting the trip on social media.
Petito’s parents, who live in Long Island, New York, reported her missing on Sept. 11 after not hearing from her for two weeks.
Here are the latest developments. All times Eastern:
Sep 29, 11:00 am
Brian Laundrie and parents went camping after he returned home without Gabby Petito
The nationwide search for Brian Laundrie has turned to a Florida campground, where the wanted fugitive’s family attorney confirmed to ABC News he went camping with his parents about a week after returning home from a cross-country trip without his girlfriend, Gabby Petito.
Steven Bertolino, the attorney for the Laundrie family, said Brian Laundrie, his father, Christopher, and mother, Roberta, all went camping in early September at the Fort De Soto Park in Pinellas County.
Bertolino confirmed the family went on the camping trip after ABC affiliate station WFTS in Tampa obtained the Fort De Soto Park reservation log under the Freedom of Information Act, which showed Roberta Laundrie checked in on Sept. 6 and checked out on Sept. 8.
A Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office helicopter was spotted circling Fort De Soto Park Monday night between 11:40 p.m. until 12:40 a.m., WFTS reported. The sheriff’s office only said the helicopter search of the park was part of an active investigation.
Bertolino said Laundrie returned to his family’s home in North Port, Florida, following the camping excursion. The parents, through their attorney, denied doing anything to help their son elude the FBI.
(NEW YORK) — The United States has been facing a COVID-19 surge as the more contagious delta variant continues to spread.
More than 693,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 while over 4.7 million people have died from the disease worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.
Just 64.9% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the CDC.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Sep 29, 12:37 pm
CDC urges pregnant women to get vaccinated
The CDC on Wednesday issued an urgent health advisory to try to increase vaccinations among women who are pregnant, recently pregnant or may become pregnant.
Just 31% of pregnant people have been vaccinated, the CDC said.
As of Monday, pregnant people accounted for 125,000 COVID-19 cases and 161 deaths, the CDC said.
“Cases of COVID-19 in symptomatic, pregnant people have a two-fold risk of admission into intensive care and a 70 percent increased risk of death,” the CDC said.
The agency said it’s calling “on health departments and clinicians to educate pregnant people on the benefits of vaccination and the safety of recommended vaccines.”
Sep 29, 12:16 pm
About 118 million Americans remain unvaccinated
Approximately 118 million Americans remain completely unvaccinated, including 70 million over the age of 12, according to federal data.
On Wednesday, the U.S. is likely to reach a significant vaccine milestone of 200 million adults vaccinated with at least one dose.
Alaska currently has the country’s highest infection rate with daily cases up by nearly 2,500% since mid-July, according to federal data.
West Virginia, once a model for its vaccine rollout, now has more hospitalized patients than at any point in the pandemic.
But states including Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and Georgia appear to be improving, federal data show.
Nationwide, around 79,000 people are hospitalized, down by more than 20% since the beginning of September. Even so, ICU capacities in several states, including Alabama, Georgia, Idaho, Kentucky and Texas, remain at critical levels.
Sep 29, 8:44 am
United Airlines to fire 593 unvaccinated employees
United Airlines plans to immediately terminate up to 593 employees who chose not to get vaccinated under the airline’s mandate.
United said more than 99% of its employees chose to get vaccinated.
Roughly 2,000 employees sought a medical or religious exemption. Because of ongoing litigation, United said it will not reveal how many employees were granted exemptions. United says anyone who applied for an exemption will still be allowed to go to work until a final decision is made on how to handle their cases. The airline expects a decision by Oct. 15.
Sep 28, 7:29 pm
FDA approval for kids’ vaccinations could take longer: Source
The Food and Drug Administration’s approval for the Pfizer vaccine for children between 5 and 11 years old could begin in November, possibly before Thanksgiving, a federal official with knowledge of the agency’s process told ABC News.
This prediction comes after Dr. Anthony Fauci said Tuesday kids will likely start getting vaccinated by late October.
Another official told ABC News that Pfizer has yet to complete its full submission, and that the FDA is not going to be rushed on this.
Pfizer submitted it initial data on younger children to the FDA earlier Tuesday.
The FDA already has scientists reviewing that initial data submitted by Pfizer, according to the official.
Sep 28, 5:07 pm
Forecasters expect US pandemic to continue to improve
The COVID-19 Forecast Hub’s ensemble forecast, used by the CDC, predicts that U.S. hospitalizations will continue to fall — perhaps to as low as 4,600 per day — by Oct. 11.
Forecasters say around 1,600 fewer people are likely to die over the next two weeks than during the past two weeks. In the two weeks ending Sept. 25, at least 27,755 people died from COVID-19 in the U.S. Over the next two weeks ending Oct. 19, just over 26,000 deaths are expected.
Sep 28, 4:33 pm
Pfizer CEO says timeline on shots for kids up to FDA
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla told The Atlantic Tuesday that the timeline on shots for children ages 5 to 11 is up to the FDA.
“I think it’s not appropriate for me to comment how long FDA will take to review the data. They should take as much time as they think it’s appropriate for them to have high levels of comfort,” Bourla said.
“If approved, we will be ready to have the vaccine available,” he added.
Vaccines may be authorized and available for 5- to 11-year-olds in October or November.
Bourla said he thinks once kids get vaccinated, the U.S. will get a “strong push” toward herd immunity.
Bourla said he thinks booster protection from Pfizer vaccines will likely last one year.
(NEW YORK) — Conditions at New York City’s jail complex, Rikers Island, are so bad that Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance has directed prosecutors not to ask for bail in nonviolent crimes and when a defendant’s record does not demonstrate recent violence — even if it risks an increase in additional “low-level” crime.
The directive comes amid a spate of deaths and a culture of violence that have spurred calls for emergency action.
The district attorney’s office said the conditions at Rikers “are of deep concern” and “will inform our bail practices for at least the next few weeks.”
“We hope that the conditions on Rikers Island improve quickly,” executive assistant district attorney Joan Illuzzi said in a memo obtained by ABC News. “While we are duty bound to insure public safety, we are also aware that no one can avert their eyes from the conditions being reported at Rikers. In light of the conditions faced by those individuals detained at Rikers, we have endeavored to ensure that our practices are as equitable as possible, even though we understand that releasing some individuals may, unfortunately, lead to additional low level crime.”
In a follow-up email obtained by ABC News, assistant district attorney Andrew Warshawer said prosecutors won’t ask for monetary bail, for the time being, when: the crime is legally and factually nonviolent and doesn’t implicate risk of physical harm; and the defendant isn’t a violent felon and doesn’t have sex crimes or violent misdemeanor convictions within the last 10 years; and the defendant hasn’t failed to appear for the case.
Warshawer said the office will still ask for supervised release and other non-cash conditions.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday, “It has to be very, very carefully approached.”
“There are some low-level offenses where — I’ve said this for a long time — people do not belong in a jail setting. We can use supervised release, we can use a lot of other tools,” he said. “But when it particularly comes to anything regarding violent crime or serious crime, I would be very, very careful.”
(MOSCOW) — Russia’s state censor has threatened to block YouTube in the country in retaliation for the Google-owned video platform deleting two German-language channels belonging to the Kremlin-funded broadcaster RT for allegedly publishing misinformation around COVID-19.
The Russian censor, Roskomnadzor, sent a letter to Google warning that if it did not swiftly restore the two RT YouTube channels, then it faced a complete or partial block, according to Russian state news agencies that published parts of the letter Wednesday.
YouTube this week deleted the two RT channels, RT DE and Der Fehlende Part, for posting what it said was misinformation on the coronavirus pandemic. YouTube in a statement said RT DE had initially received a week-long suspension, blocking it from uploading videos, because it had violated misinformation rules.
But the platform said RT DE then tried to circumvent the restriction by using the other channel, Der Fehlende Part, to upload videos, a violation of YouTube’s user terms, which resulted in both channels being permanently banned.
Russia’s government has responded with fury and a torrent of threats to retaliate. The Russian foreign ministry on Tuesday called the deletions an “act of unprecedented information aggression” and asked the state censor to take actions against YouTube and German media in Russia.
RT’s editor in chief, Margarita Simonyan, claimed the bans amounted to a “true media war” by Germany on Russia and said she was “looking forward” to Russia banning the main German public television broadcasters, ARD, ZDF and Deutsche Welle.
Germany’s government on Wednesday said it had no involvement with YouTube’s decision to delete the RT channels and and criticized Russia’s threats to retaliate against German media.
“I want to say in crystal-clear terms that this is a decision by YouTube, and the German government, or representatives of the German government, have nothing to do with this decision,” Steffan Seibert, the German government’s spokesman told reporters, according to Euronews.
Seibert said anyone calling for retaliation against German media “doesn’t show a good relationship with press freedom, from our point of view.”
Russian authorities have sought to pressure German state news media in Russia over the past two years amid a broader crackdown on free media. Russian officials have previously publicly threatened to withdraw the accreditation of Deutsche Welle, the foreign-focused public news agency, that has a Russian-language service.
The Kremlin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday said that in blocking the RT channels, “there are signs” YouTube had “grossly” violated Russian laws.
He told reporters that if Russian law enforcement agencies concluded the same then it couldn’t be excluded that measures might be taken to “oblige this platform to fulfil our laws.”
The threats to block YouTube come amid an escalating campaign by Russian authorities to pressure American tech companies, as the Kremlin seeks to take tighter control over Russia’s internet.
Just over a week ago, Google and Apple bowed to Kremlin demands to remove some content relating to a tactical voting campaign promoted by the jailed opposition leader Alexey Navalny during Russia’s parliamentary elections.
Google removed an app as well as two videos from YouTube related to the campaign, called Smart Voting.
The move was seen as the biggest concession the tech giants have made to Kremlin demands to delete content from opponents and it has alarmed liberal Russians that it is a step toward the companies accepting broader censorship in Russia.
Apple and Google have largely declined to comment on the matter, except to indicate they were following local laws.
Russia’s government has pressed Google, Facebook and Twitter for years to remove more content critical of president Vladimir Putin’s rule, imposing hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines on the companies. But the Kremlin had stopped short of blocking the platforms, partly because it lacked the technical capacity to do so and because it feared a backlash at home and internationally.
Some experts believe that calculus has shifted though, and that the government is now prepared to take a hard line. Since earlier this year, Roskomnadzor has slowed down Twitter, causing videos and photos to load poorly.
Google, in particular, has faced increased pressure in recent weeks. In the days before the company deleted the Navalny voting content, bailiffs visited its Moscow office to demand unpaid fines imposed by the censor. Google and Apple representatives were also summoned before a committee of the Russian senate, where the companies were accused of enabling “election interference.” The New York Times reported that Google deleted the Navalny materials after Russian authorities threatened to prosecute specific employees at its Moscow office.
(WASHINGTON) — The Department of Homeland Security on Wednesday announced the formation of the Law Enforcement Coordination Council — an effort to “institutionalize best practices in law enforcement,” Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in an interview with ABC News.
The LECC, chaired by Mayorkas, is the “first ever” department-wide body that will serve as a governing organization for the department’s agencies like the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Mayorkas said.
During his previous stint at the department starting in 2009, best practices for law enforcement training and use-of-force policies have been a subject of Mayorkas’ portfolio.
“We are bringing a greater, in my opinion, a greater degree of organization, cohesion to [law enforcement policies],” Mayorkas said. “And the Law Enforcement Coordinating Council is comprised not only of the agencies that perform the law enforcement mission, but also offices within our department that have significant equities oversight offices as well, for example, such as the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, the office of privacy and the office of the inspector general.”
The commission being announced Wednesday was not influenced by photos of border patrol agents on horseback aggresively pursuing migrants attempting to cross the southern border, Mayorkas said.
“These efforts began well before the incident at issue,” Mayorkas said.
“We have received broader inquires for some time now, with respect to our training, our practices and procedures are policies to include use of force … and as we are communicating in response to those inquiries, we felt it appropriate in the service of transparency, to communicate directly to the public,” he said.
Mayorkas said that he doesn’t have a sense of timing on when the investigation into the border patrol agents on horseback will be complete.
“I know that the investigators understand the need to move both thoroughly and quickly, and they’re conducting the investigation independently,” he said.
Mayorkas explained that the results of the commission and best practices will be integrated into the department’s federal law enforcement training center.
Many state and local law enforcement agencies train at the training center, the Secretary said so, while not directly applying to local departments, he said his hope is they will be able to receive best practices from the department.
Mayorkas also said that the commission will look into various Department of Homeland Security agency policies, to ensure that any law enforcement policy discrepancies between agencies is “intentional” to fit the needs of that agency.
Mayorkas said the department will move with “deliberate speed” in getting these policies up and running and sharing them with the public but did not offer any concrete timeline.
(NEW YORK) — Recent cases of lead poisoning have been associated with the use of traditional or handmade ceramic ware, a recent health advisory from the New York City Department of Health and Hygiene found.
On Monday, the department issued an announcement saying that it had identified 15 new cases of lead poisoning in children and adults, with elevated blood lead levels as high as 53 micrograms per deciliter, associated with the use of traditional ceramic ware used for cooking and serving foods or drinks.
According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, there is no identified safe blood level, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that doctors monitor children who have a blood lead level measured as 5 micrograms per deciliter and take steps to reduce the exposure to lead.
Exposure to lead can cause serious health problems. While patients may not look or feel sick, lead exposure can cause learning and behavior problems in children. For adults, it can increase blood pressure and affect the brain, kidneys and reproductive organs. For women who are pregnant, it can increase the risk of miscarriage and affect the unborn baby.
The NYC Department of Health and Hygiene identified that ceramic ware from countries including Mexico, Ecuador, Turkey, Morocco and Uzbekistan, have been found to contain lead levels thousands of times higher than regulatory limits.
To control the exposure of lead, the New York City Department of Health is asking health care providers to “ask their patients, particularly individuals of Latin American, North African and Eastern European descent,” about the type of ceramic ware used to prepare, cook, store or serve foods. If patients indicate that they indeed use these types of cookware, health care providers should consider giving patients a blood lead test and advise them to immediately stop use.
The full-time position is based at Kensington Palace, where William and Kate live with their three young children.
The personal assistant role would provide an up-close look at William and Kate’s lives. The role is responsible for managing the royals’ schedules, arranging meetings, drafting letters and emails and assisting with events and travel, according to the listing.
“Excellent organization and communication skills are essential, as is attention to detail and a willingness to undertake a wide variety of tasks,” the listing reads. “The ability to maintain confidentiality and exercise discretion at all times is essential.”
The job listing does not include a salary for the role.
The personal assistant would join what the listing describes as a “busy team” supporting William and Kate, the future king and queen.
In just the last two days alone, William and Kate have attended a global movie premiere and traveled to Ireland.
The Cambridges walked the red carpet Tuesday night alongside William’s father, Prince Charles, and his wife, Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, at the premiere of the latest James Bond movie, No Time to Die.
The next morning, William and Kate traveled to Northern Ireland.
In their first-ever visit to Derry-Londonderry, the royals met with nursing and medical students at a local university and visited a rugby club that is working to bridge divides among people of different religious backgrounds.
(WASHINGTON) — It’s been nearly one month since the U.S. withdrew all U.S. troops from Afghanistan on President Joe Biden’s order to leave by Aug. 31, ending a chaotic evacuation operation after the Afghan government collapsed and the Taliban seized the capital Kabul.
Top Pentagon leaders are appearing before the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday amid bipartisan criticism of the chaotic withdrawal and on the failure to anticipate the Taliban’s swift takeover of the country.
In their appearance before Congress on Tuesday — their first since the withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Afghanistan — the leaders candidly admitted to the Senate Armed Services Committee that they had recommended to Biden that the U.S. should keep a troop presence there, appearing to contradict his assertions to ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos.
Here are the latest developments. All times Eastern:
Sep 29, 11:21 am
GOP links failed drone strike to ‘over-the-horizon’ capabilities
Rep. Michael Turner, R-Ohio, raising the August U.S. drone strike in Kabul that killed 10 Afghan civilians, including seven children, took direct issue with the U.S. military’s ability to conduct “over the horizon” drone strike capabilities in Afghanistan.
“What we know from your prior statements is that you did not know who it was, who was in the car, whose house it was,” Turner said. “This greatly concerns me as we look to the over horizon claims that the administration has of its ability for counterterrorism.”
Gen. Frank McKenzie, the commander of U.S. Central Command, told House lawmakers he took “full responsibility” for the strike.
“That strike was a mistake and I take full responsibility for that strike. I was under no pressure from any quarter to conduct the strike,” McKenzie said.
“While in many cases we were right with our intelligence and forestalled ISIS- K attacks, in this case we were wrong, tragically wrong,” he added.
“Over-the-horizon” capabilities are a cornerstone of the U.S. military’s counterterrorism strategy in Afghanistan. The top Pentagon commanders said the U.S. will continue to investigate the intelligence that led to the August strike and will be transparent with their findings.
Sep 29, 10:47 am
Milley praises Afghanistan War veterans, defends calls to China
Echoing Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in his opening testimony that lawmakers can debate the decisions surrounding the Afghanistan withdrawal but that the courage of U.S. service members is not up for debate.
“Over the course of four presidents, 12 secretaries of defense, seven chairmen, 10 CENTCOM commanders, 20 commanders in Afghanistan, hundreds of congressional delegation visits, and 20 years of congressional oversight, there are many lessons to be learned,” Milley said.
“One lesson we can never forget: every soldier, sailor, airman and Marine who served there for 20 years, protected our country against attack by terrorists, and for that we all should be forever grateful, and they should be forever proud,” he said.
Milley again took the chance to push back on recent characterizations of phone calls to China’s top military official in the final days of former President Donald Trump’s presidency.
“At no time was I attempting to change or influence the process, usurp authority, or insert myself into the chain of command. But I am expected to give my advice and ensure that the president was fully informed on military affairs,” he said.
Sep 29, 10:18 am
Defense secretary delivers opening testimony for House lawmakers
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, facing a House panel on Wednesday, repeated his opening testimony given to Senate lawmakers at Wednesday’s hearing, in which Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, commander of U.S. Central Command, appeared to contradict Biden by saying they recommended keeping a residual force of 2,500 troops behind in Afghanistan.
Austin again defended leaving Bagram Airfield, saying it would have required at least 5,000 troops and would have “contributed little” to the mission of protecting the embassy in Kabul, which ultimately fell to Taliban control.
“Staying in Baghram even for counterterrorism purposes meant staying at war in Afghanistan, something that the president made clear that he would not do,” Austin said.
He again walked through some “uncomfortable truths” about the two-decade U.S. military mission in Afghanistan, of which he is a veteran.
“We helped build a state, but we could not forge a nation. The fact that the Afghan army that we and our partners trained simply melted away, in many cases without firing a shot, took us all by surprise and it would be dishonest to claim otherwise,” he said.
Sep 29, 10:12 am
Heated House hearing underway with residual force in focus
House Armed Services Chair Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., opened Wednesday’s hearing on Afghanistan with a defense of Biden for ending America’s longest war — and with a preemptive strike on the panel’s Republicans, who he said would spend the day trying to get the military leaders to contradict the commander in chief.
“The option of keeping 2,500 troops in Afghanistan in a peaceful and stable environment did not exist,” Smith said, opening the hearing.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, commander of U.S. Central Command, face a second day of questions from congressional lawmakers on the U.S. military’s chaotic exit from Afghanistan.
Ranking Republican member Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., said he “could not disagree more” with Smith and called Biden “delusional” before the leaders gave their opening testimonies.
Sep 29, 9:22 am
Top military leaders face more questions in House hearing
The nation’s top military leaders are back on Capitol Hill at 9:30 a.m. before the House Armed Services Committee — where Republicans are expected to seize on their comments from Tuesday that they recommended Biden keep a residual force of 2,500 troops in Afghanistan, appearing to contradict the president’s comments to ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos.
Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Gen. Frank McKenzie, the commander of U.S. Central Command, candidly admitted in a Senate hearing on Tuesday — their first appearance before lawmakers since the withdrawal of all U.S. forces from Afghanistan — that they had recommended the U.S. keep a small troop presence there, with Milley openly advising presidents not to assign complete withdrawal dates without conditions.
In the six-hour hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Milley also characterized that the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan as “a strategic failure” and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin acknowledged that it was time to acknowledged some “uncomfortable truths” about the two-decade U.S. military mission there. House lawmakers are expected to follow up on the revelations on Wednesday.
Sep 28, 3:53 pm
1st Senate hearing with top commanders on Afghanistan adjourns
After nearly six hours of testimonies and tough questions, the Senate Armed Services Committee has adjourned its hearing with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, commander of U.S. Central Command — their first since the Afghanistan withdrawal.
Senators sunk into Milley and McKenzie saying they had recommended leaving 2,500 troops behind as a residual force in Afghanistan ahead of the chaotic evacuation effort. Several GOP senators called on the leaders to resign, to which Milley offered a powerful rebuttal.
“It would be an incredible act of political defiance for a commissioned officer to just resign because my advice is not taken,” Milley said. “My dad didn’t get a choice to resign at Iwo Jima.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki, during the hearing, defended Biden’s interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos in which the president said the views of his advisers were “split,” saying, “There was no one who said, ‘Five years from now, we could have 2,500 troops, and that would be sustainable.’”
“That was not a decision the president was going to make,” Psaki added. “Ultimately, it’s up to the commander in chief to make a decision. He made a decision it was time to end a 20-year war.”
It’s been nearly one month since Biden withdrew all U.S. troops, ending a chaotic evacuation operation after the Afghan government collapsed and the Taliban seized the capital Kabul.
(NEW YORK) — With schools back in session again, many parents around the country on edge — dreading the news of a positive coronavirus case in their children’s classes.
Coronavirus outbreaks have led to hundreds temporary school closures across the country, with tens of thousands of students forced to quarantine, just within the first weeks of school year.
With more than 48 million children under the age of 12 still ineligible to be vaccinated, and another 14 million eligible adolescents still unvaccinated, the quarantine process has left many families and educators frustrated at the prospect of another school year spent partially online, disruptions to work schedules and additional childcare expenses.
While many school districts are following guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which recommends that those who are unvaccinated and had close contact with an infected individual quarantine for 14 days, some are adopting a different approach called “Test to Stay.”
Under that protocol, being adopted by school districts from Utah to Massachusetts, asymptomatic students who are identified as close contacts of an infected student or staffer are allowed to remain in school, provided they take a daily rapid test for seven days, and adhere to other mitigations, such as mask wearing. If the student tests negative, they are cleared to be at school for the day.
It’s a protocol that has yet to be endorsed by the CDC, which is awaiting more data, but has the support of some parents, educators and medical experts.
Here’s what we know:
Test to Stay lauded by educators and experts
The new program has been supported by several studies, including recent findings out of the United Kingdom, which suggests that daily contact testing, following exposure at school, is “a safe alternative to home isolation.” According to the study, the rates of infection in school-based contacts were quite low.
The new protocol is currently used statewide in Massachusetts, and at The Park School, in Brookline, where weekly pool tests are administered for students and staff and the Test to Stay program is used when there is a case.
“We’ve actually had a number of cases, as we’ve come back into the school year,” Scott Young, the head of school at Park, told ABC News.
Outside the school building, socially distanced students, who may have been in contact with a COVID-19 positive person at school, are given rapid antigen tests. It takes 15 minutes for the test to register, and if it comes back negative, students are allowed in class.
In Utah, state law mandates that schools initiate Test to Stay when schools with 1,500 or more students have 2% of their students test positive for COVID-19, and when schools with fewer than 1,500 students have 30 students test positive for COVID-19, within a 14-day period.
Earlier this month, one high school in Tooele, Utah was forced to hold a Test to Stay event after a number of students tested positive. District school officials considered the program a “success” after it detected 30 cases among students when the testing session at Tooele High School.
“Last year, we had so many days where we had kids out of classes. And we see that in our data, we had numbers drop this year. A lot of this comes from our governor saying, our focus is education. We really want our students to be in class. We want our teachers teaching,” Marie Denson, a representative for the Tooele County School District told ABC News.
Such daily rapid testing has been shown to be an effective tool in prioritizing in-person learning, while seeking to maintain a safe learning environment, particularly when layered with additional measures, like masking and good ventilation, according to John Brownstein, Ph.D., an epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor.
“While rapid tests aren’t perfect, they do provide a robust measure of viral shedding which is a key measure of concern when trying to limit spread in a school,” Brownstein said. “If the goal is to keep kids in schools while reducing transmission, rapid tests actually may provide more value. And when you add the issue of improved timeliness and reduced costs, the utility of rapid tests becomes even more obvious.”
In addition, the seven consecutive days of testing diminishes the danger stemming from potential false negatives, Brownstein added.
Quarantines are highly disruptive, some say
Jami Wolf-Dolan, a psychologist and parent of two young children currently attending an elementary school in Brooklyn, New York, knows firsthand how incredibly disruptive quarantining can be for the entire family, explaining that she is “beyond slammed, right now,” after her son was abruptly shifted to remote schooling, when a classmate became infected in the first weeks of school.
“I have no childcare, I work from home and I have another kid in Pre-K. The impact of this reverberates,” she said.
Across the country, with pediatric coronavirus cases surging, thousands of children are being forced back into quarantine.
While over 21,000 K-12 students have tested positive since the onset of the school year in South Carolina, another 86,000 had to quarantine because of close contact with an infected individual, according to state data. And in Texas, more than 183,000 students have tested positive for the virus, since the onset of the academic year, impacting tens of thousands of other families.
Removing COVID-19 negative students from in-person learning for prolonged periods of time can affect a student’s educational, social and mental well-being, according to educational experts.
“The optimal place for students to learn is in school, because they are social beings, and that human connection is one of the things that is at the foundation, one of the most important components of effective instruction,” said Young. “When students are remote, they lose out on that human connection, on the opportunity to collaborate, the opportunity to work with their teacher closely, for the teacher to really be able to observe them closely.”
Lydia Alvarez, another parent in Brookyln, New York, concurred, explaining that her 7-year old son was forced to quarantine after attending school for only four days. The quarantine was an unwelcome reminder of last year, when remote learning forced her to quit her job to help her son with school.
“He absorbed nothing,” Alvarez told ABC News in regard to the last school year. “The greatest negative impact of homeschooling was a real resistance to learning. There was no joy associated with learning. I feel now that each time he gets yanked out for five days, that joy of learning gets kind of receded.”
“The best way for families to be supported is for them to know that their children can be in school,” Young said.
Mixed support among officials, but parents applaud the efforts to keep kids in school
Dr. Lee Savio Beers, the president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, has expressed her support for the “Test to Stay” approach.
“I think that it can be a really effective strategy to help make sure children are in school as much as possible. Again it has to be in the context of other important strategies, including vaccination and at least for right now masking, but testing can really help us keep our kids in school,” Beers said, testifying before Congress for a House at a subcommittee hearing on pediatric COVID, earlier this month.
The CDC, on the other hand, is not yet on-board with the Test to Stay protocol, awaiting more evidence before endorsing it.
“At this time, CDC does not recommend or endorse a Test to Stay program. CDC recommends all identified close contacts in the K–12 setting follow current quarantine guidance,” the CDC wrote in a statement to ABC News. “However, to gather more information, CDC is working with multiple jurisdictions who have chosen to use these approaches of more frequent testing to allow close contacts to remain in the classroom.”
But for many parents, the Test to Stay program is an effective way for children to experience the critical continuity and regularity of in-person school.
“The reaction of the community has been incredibly positive,” said Young. Parents, he said, “feel both a sense of safety, which is important, and they really do value the fact that their children can be in school, knowing that it is the best place for them.”
