(TEXARKANA, TX.) — A search is ongoing in eastern Texas for a gunman who opened fire at a Halloween party attended by “at least a couple hundred” revelers, killing one and injuring nine, according to police.
The shooting started around 11:56 p.m. Saturday at Octavia’s Activity Center in Texarkana, according to a statement Sunday morning from the Texarkana Police Department.
“When they (police officers) got there, they encountered a large number of people running from the building and several inside suffering from gunshot wounds,” the police statement reads.
The gunman left the venue in a vehicle, setting off a massive search in eastern Texas.
A 20-year-old man, whose name was not immediately released, was mortally wounded and later pronounced dead at a hospital, police said.
Nine other people wounded in the shooting were taken to Wadley Regional Medical Center and CHRISTUS St. Michael Hospital by ambulance and private vehicles, authorities said. None of them initially appeared to suffer life-threatening injuries, police said.
Officer Shawn Vaughn of the Texarkana Police Department said numerous 911 calls were made, prompting all patrol officers working at the time to respond, while another patrol shift was summoned to handle calls on the street, according to ABC affiliate station KTBS in Shreveport, Louisiana.
“When we got here, I understand there was a large crowd in the parking lot involved in several fights,” Vaughn said. “So, we requested assistance from any and everybody that was available.”
(WASHINGTON) — There was a sense of danger and urgency in the air at Hamid Karzai International Airport on the evening of Aug. 26. Sixteen hours earlier, the U.S. Embassy had warned American citizens to stay away from the airport, and intelligence suggested an attack could be imminent.
But Marine Sgt. Tyler Andrews had decided to use his down time from his sniper team’s overwatch position at Hamid Karzai International Airport to help get Afghans inside to safety and eventual evacuation from a country taken over by the resurgent Taliban.
A fellow serviceman and friend of Andrews was walking toward Abbey Gate, along the southeast edge of the airport, to meet up with him when an ISIS-K terrorist detonated his suicide vest, killing 13 U.S. troops and nearly 170 Afghan civilians.
“It knocked me to the ground,” the friend, who asked not to be named, told ABC News. “I got up and turned around, and then I see the plume of smoke behind me.”
Looking toward the gate he saw a Marine engulfed in flames being pushed to the ground and rolled. He saw another running in his direction, covered in blood, calling for a corpsman. Eventually, among the casualties, he saw Andrews.
His friend was alive.
Though he survived, Tyler lost his entire left leg and his right arm just above the elbow. He was first moved to Germany for treatment, and later to the esteemed Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, where he continues to receive “emergency medical care,” according to the family.
The 23-year-old Marine made his first public statement since the attack on social media earlier this month, posted along with a photo from his hospital chair.
“Let me start by saying that these past almost 2 months have indeed been hard. I have been trying to figure out what I want to say and how to say it. The outpouring of support from friends, family, organizations, and even just complete strangers has been unreal. I won’t ever be able to thank everyone enough, but still, thank you,” Andrews wrote.
In a particularly wrenching segment of his statement, Andrews expressed his difficulty in sharing the recent picture.
“I hate the way I look right now and I’m working mentally on coming to terms with loss of my right arm and my left leg,” he wrote.
Putting aside the hospital setting and obvious injuries, Andrews looks like a model infantry Marine — tattooed, fit, with a well-manicured mustache and full coif of hair. Only when compared to older images does the extent of the change become evident.
A video shot at a gym in Saudi Arabia two weeks before the bombing shows Andrews deadlifting 530 pounds — arms, shoulders, chest bulging from his tank top.
“Laying in bed for almost 2 months has caused me to lose everything I had worked for physically,” he wrote.
Tyler has undergone 29 surgeries so far, “with numerous more ahead,” according to a family statement given to ABC News.
“His recovery efforts include extensive physical therapy and will take many years,” the statement said.
Despite all this, Tyler conveys a remarkably dogged, even humorous tone.
“Some days are better than others, but you best believe I will still strive to be the best version of myself regardless of these injuries. I just have new challenges now and physically am a different person, but I’ll see how far I can go with this new body haha,” Tyler wrote.
And he’ll have help throughout his recovery.
“He’s as tough as they come,” said Faun O’Neel, who runs a military and first responder support organization called Warfighter Overwatch with her husband, Danny.
The nonprofit has raised more than $25,000 to directly support Tyler and his family, according to O’Neel. A GoFundMe campaign created by members of Tyler’s unit has itself garnered more than $360,000 for the family.
Andrews is the last of the Marines injured in the Kabul suicide blast still at Walter Reed, which is far from both his hometown of Folsom, California, and his former duty station with 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines, at Camp Pendleton.
Visits and calls from comrades help stave off loneliness, and Warfighter Overwatch has used the funds it helped raise to rent an apartment just across from the hospital for his mother, an attorney in Folsom, as long as she needs it.
Warfighter Overwatch has also paired with Folsom-based Design Shop to renovate the family home to make it as comfortable as possible for his eventual return, O’Neel said.
Given the extent of his injuries, Andrews could be at Walter Reed for years.
But the last thing Andrews wants is pity, according to the friend who was walking to meet him when the bomb detonated in August. Based on recent phone calls to Walter Reed, Andrews sounds like a much better source of inspiration than pity.
“When we talked to him he was already like, ‘Yeah, man, I only got about a year and then I can start lifting again,'” the friend said.
(MEXICO CITY) — A large explosion attributed to a gas leak in east-central Mexico’s Puebla state has left at least one dead, 15 injured and damaged between 30 to 50 buildings, local government authorities are reporting.
Search and rescue crews are working to find people who could be trapped under collapsed buildings.
Around 1:34 a.m. local time, a gas leak was reported and around 2,000 people within 1 kilometer of the leak were evacuated, Puebla State Government officials said at a press conference Sunday.
The first of three explosions happened at 2:50 a.m., which officials said may have been caused by an illegal tap.
Of those hospitalized, four are minors and seven are adults. Five people are listed in serious condition, officials said.
“It is regrettable that one person has lost his/her life so far, and fifteen more are injured, due to the explosion of a Pemex pipeline in Puebla,” Mexico President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said in a statement Sunday. “Pemex has the fire under control and will ensure that families evicted from their homes remain safe.”
ABC News’ Anne Lauren contributed to this report.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is “optimistic” that the bipartisan infrastructure bill will pass the House and Senate, he said Sunday.
“We’re very optimistic the president put forward this framework because he believes that it will pass the House in the Senate and can get to his desk, and as soon as it does, it’s going to make such a difference in the lives of Americans,” Buttigieg told ABC “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos.
Congress was not able to reach a deal on President Joe Biden’s $1.1 trillion infrastructure bill as the House pushed off the vote before Biden left for his trip to the G20 summit in Italy.
In her dear colleague letter that she sent out Thursday, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) reiterated members’ support for the Bipartisan Infrastructure Framework, even though the vote has been postponed.
“The good news is that most members who were not prepared for a yes vote today have expressed their commitment to support the BIF.”
Even though there seems to be consensus among House members that they are prepared to pass the infrastructure bill, Stephanopoulos pointed out that a new ABC News/Ipsos poll shows that 69% of the public does not know much about what is in the bill, and 32% believe the bill will hurt them.
Buttigieg responded by focusing on the family-focused aspects of the bill, such as affordable child care, universal preschool and a possible child tax credit expansion. He addressed the audience directly saying, “[if] you have kids, nine out of 10 chance that you will personally benefit to the tune of hundreds or thousands of dollars from that child tax credit expansion.”
Stephanopoulos pressed Buttigieg over paid family leave being dropped from the bill and asked if there’s any chance of bringing the provision back.
“It’s definitely something that we believe in, and so while it is not in this framework, we’re gonna keep fighting for it,” Buttigieg said.
Despite the changes to the framework, Buttigieg defended the current state of the infrastructure package and said there’s a “sense of urgency” to get the bill passed because “American people are impatient to see pro-family policies.”
“It is the most transformative legislation for families, for health care, [and] for climate that we’ve seen, certainly in my lifetime, and it’s going to be an extraordinary achievement,” he said.
The secretary also mentioned an almost $12,500 discount on electric vehicles in an effort to “benefit the climate” and create more American jobs.
“So, look, whether you’re a policy wonk or whether you’re just trying to get through life raising your family, anybody who has ever driven on a road or a bridge, anybody who drinks water … anybody concerned about internet access coming to a neighborhood near you, this bill is for you,” Buttigieg said.
Even though Buttigieg is optimistic the bill will pass, Stephanopoulos pointed out that we have yet to see support for the bill from Democratic moderates Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., and Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va.
“Again, we’re the closest we have ever been,” Buttigieg said. “The president put forward this framework having talked to them and others throughout the progressive and moderate wings of our party, confident that it will pass.”
“I know you’re confident, but what are the consequences of failure?” Stephanopoulos pressed.
“Look, we just have to get this done. And I’m not just saying that politically. … We need bold action to set us up for success, not just getting through the winter but getting through the next decade and beyond,” Buttigieg said.
ABC News’ Quinn Scanlan contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Legendary ABC News journalist and political commentator Cokie Roberts has “two legacies,” said her husband of more than 50 years.
“The public Cokie and the private Cokie,” fellow journalist Steven Roberts said in an interview with ABC News’ Martha Raddatz. “The public Cokie was someone who was such a role model for women … but that was only half of her legacy.”
“The other half … [was her belief that] everybody can be a good person. Everybody can learn something about those private acts of generosity and charity and friendship,” he continued. “She lived the gospel every day, and some might say that’s the most important legacy she leaves.”
Cokie Roberts was a fixture on national television and radio for more than 40 years. She won countless awards, including three Emmys, throughout her decades-long career. She was inducted into the Broadcasting and Cable Hall of Fame and was cited by the American Women in Radio and Television as one of the 50 greatest women in the history of broadcasting. She also wrote five best-selling books focusing on the role of women in American history.
“I had so many people say to me, ‘I went to journalism because of Cokie,'” Steven Roberts said. “Countless young women saw her on TV, heard her on radio, and said, ‘I can be her, I could be that strong. I could be that smart. I don’t want have to hide who I am. I can be myself. I could be a strong independent woman.'”
His book, “Cokie: A Life Well Lived,” available Tuesday, is a tribute to his beloved wife after losing her to breast cancer in 2019. It documents their 53-year marriage, her public achievements as well as private life, which he feels was even more inspirational.
Cokie and Steven Roberts met very young while in college. He was 19 and at Harvard. She was 18 and attending Wellesley.
“We were at a student political meeting. I had known her sister. She had known my twin brother,” he recalled. “Our dorms back in Boston are only 12 and a half miles apart.”
Cokie was the daughter of political scions. Her parents, Hale and Lindy Boggs, both served in Congress, representing the city of New Orleans for a total of almost 50 years.
“The speaker of the House, Sam Rayburn, was a frequent dinner guest during her childhood in the 1950s (in the home I still live in), and President and Mrs. Johnson came to our wedding in 1966 (in the garden of that home),” writes Steven Roberts.
He joked that he fell in love with his future mother-in-law first and “eventually got to Cokie.”
She was a staunch Catholic, and he was Jewish. Roberts said it took him three years to propose. He was 23 and she was 22 at the time.
“My mother often said that the first Passover Seder she ever attended was at her Catholic daughter-in-law’s … and there was a joke in the family. She was the best Jew in the family,” he said.
After they got married, Steven Roberts said the couple moved four times over the next 11 years for his job as a New York Times correspondent, and yet, “everywhere we went, [Cokie] worked somehow.” She started her career as a radio foreign correspondent for CBS in the 1970s.
“When we lived in Greece … there was a coup in Cyprus. I flew off to Cyprus, but then … the Greek government fell and after seven years of military rule, it was the biggest story in the world that week,” he said. “[Cokie] started covering it for CBS… I come back to find I’m married to a veteran foreign correspondent.”
Cokie Robert then joined NPR as a full-time staff journalist, covering Capitol Hill and reporting on the Panama Canal Treaty. She was only 34 years old. In 1987, she was brought in for a onetime trial for ABC News’ “This Week’s” roundtable. It was the number one Sunday morning show, but it featured three white men — Sam Donaldson, George Will and David Brinkley — and there was pressure on ABC to make the cast more diverse.
Her one-time trial became a weekly appearance and she ultimately earned her chair at the table. Roberts co-anchored ABC’s “This Week” with Donaldson from 1996 to 2002. She also served as polictical commentator, chief congressional analyst and a commentator for “This Week” during her three decades at ABC.
Her husband believes that the real core of her appeal was to other women, who thought, “wait, somebody who thinks like me, somebody talks like me, somebody who sees the world the way I did.”
“And that was really the base of her success of ABC,” Roberts said.
He explains that in those days women thought they had to choose between a professional career and having a personal life. Cokie Roberts, with two children, six grandchildren and a long marriage, still managed to have the career she did.
Steven Roberts said she would tell women all the time as she helped them in their navigate the pitfalls and obstacles.
“She said, ‘you can do this. It is not possible to have everything all the time, but you can have it most of the time,’” he said.
Cokie Roberts was also, according to her husband, “very tough on men who she felt were dissembling or mistreating women.”
When President George W. Bush nominated former Sen. John Tower, R-Texas, for Secretary of Defense, Sam Donaldson brought up rumors of “womanizing” on the show. Tower turned to Roberts and demanded a definition of the term “womanizing.” She quickly retorted in one of the most memorable moments on television, “I think most women know it when they see it Senator.”
Steven Roberts noted that the reaction was “phenomenal,” particularly among women.
Cokie Roberts was also open about her long battle with breast cancer. She was first diagnosed in 2002, but long before then, she had become an advocate for breast cancer research when two of her friends, in their 50s, died of breast cancer in the same week.
“When she was diagnosed herself she knew all about it, and it was a devastating blow,” Steven Roberts said. “But she got a lot of good treatment and she lived for 14 years within remission.”
In “Cokie,” Steven Roberts wrote of his simple goal in honoring his wife.
“To tell stories, some will make you cheer or laugh or cry,” he wrote. “And some, I hope, will inspire you to be more like Cokie, to be a good person, to lead a good life.”
(WASHINGTON) — Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill., said Sunday he, Rep. Liz Cheney and “a few others” are the only House Republicans “telling the truth.”
“You can fight to try to tell the truth, you can fight against the cancer in the Republican Party of lies of conspiracy of dishonesty,” Kinzinger told ABC “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos in an exclusive interview. “There are about 190 people in the Republican Party that aren’t going to say a word, and there’s a leader of the Republican caucus that is embracing Donald Trump with all he can.”
Kinzinger announced Friday he will not seek reelection to Congress next term. Among House Republicans, the Illinois congressman is one of the most prominent critics of former President Donald Trump and was one of 10 Republicans in the House to vote to impeach Trump following the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6.
Kinzinger, who serves on the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack, said in a video posted to Twitter the “time is now” to move on from serving in Congress.
“In order to break the narrative, I cannot focus on both a real election to Congress and a broader fight nationwide,” he said in the five-minute video. “I want to make it clear, this isn’t the end of my political future, but the beginning.”
Stephanopoulos pressed Kinzinger on what led him to make the decision.
“Just a month ago, you were confident you were going to run again, what changed? Was it the redistricting plan that was put forward by Democrats in Illinois that basically squeezed you out of your district?” Stephanopoulos asked.
“It’s a couple of things — it’s sitting back and saying, ‘OK, what happens if I win again?’ I go back, and Republicans will probably be in the majority,” Kinzinger responded. “I’m going to be fighting even harder on some of these things, and it’s been obvious over the last 10 months that nobody … I haven’t seen any momentum in the party move away from lies and toward truth.”
“Ten years ago, the Democrats in Illinois came after me, and threw me with an incumbent Republican, and they did it again — I’m not complaining, it’s redistricting,” he added. “But when Democrats do say they want Republican partners to tell the truth, and then they specifically target me, it makes you wonder.”
Responding to the news, Trump wrote “2 down, 8 to go!” in a statement referencing the 10 GOP representatives who voted to impeach him. Kinzinger became the second of the group to announce they would not run for reelection after Rep. Anthony Gonzalez, R-Ohio, did so in September.
Stephanopoulos pressed Kinzinger on whether his announcement hands Trump “another win.”
“Potentially, but I don’t think it was my decision that would hand Donald Trump a win,” Kinzinger responded. “I think it is — it’s the situation we find ourselves in.”
Kinzinger said if Trump runs for president again in 2024, “he’ll be the front-runner no doubt.”
“The Republican establishment now — whether it’s the [National Republican Congressional Committee], whether it’s Kevin McCarthy — have held onto Donald Trump,” he said. “They have continued to breathe life into him, and so actually, it’s not handing a win as much to Donald Trump as it is to the cancerous kind of lies and conspiracy” that are now the “mainstream argument of the Republican Party.”
“It’s not on Liz Cheney and I to save the Republican Party,” Kinzinger added. “It’s on the 190 Republicans who haven’t said a dang word about it, and they put their head in the sand and hope somebody else comes along and does something.”
Kinzinger and Cheney are the sole Republicans on the Jan. 6 committee. A new court filing released early Saturday morning revealed some of the records Trump is attempting to block the National Archives from turning over to the committee.
“I think if you look at that archive request and what the former president is trying to block, it is very telling,” Kinzinger said. “We are going to fight as hard as we can to get that, and the president has no grounds to claim executive privilege as he is today.”
Pressed by Stephanopoulos on whether the committee will have enough evidence to prosecute the former president, Kinzinger said he’s not comfortable making that statement yet but said the committee is continuing to learn new information every day.
“If the president was aware of what was going to happen, didn’t do anything — didn’t lift a finger to do anything about it, that’s up to the DOJ to make that decision,” he said.
(NEW YORK) — For the next two weeks, governments around the world will convene for a highly anticipated summit on climate change that has been billed as the “last best chance” to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement and prevent the worsening effects of climate change.
Here’s how to make sense of all the news around the COP26 summit.
What is the climate summit?
The climate summit in Glasgow is called COP26, which stands for the 26th “Conference of the Parties” and represents a gathering of all the countries signed on to the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Paris Climate Agreement.
The group meets every year to discuss progress on the fight against climate change and negotiate how to fulfill the terms of climate agreements.
Last year’s in-person meeting was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic so COP26 will be the first time countries have met since the U.N.’s latest climate science report issued a dire warning that the impacts of climate change are getting more severe and that time is running out to meet the Paris Agreement goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
COP26 President Alok Sharma said the pressure is on world leaders to ramp up their ambition to tackle the climate crisis at the summit.
“We still have some of the most difficult questions to answer. And we’re effectively in the last half hour of the exam,” he told reporters at a press conference organized by Covering Climate Now, an organization that collaborates with journalists and newsrooms on climate coverage.
Who will be there?
President Joe Biden and more than 100 world leaders will speak in the first two days of the summit to lay out their countries’ plans to reduce emissions and possibly announce new goals or commitments on climate issues.
But some important leaders from countries that contribute the most global greenhouse gas emissions like President Xi Jinping of China and Russian President Vladimir Putin are not expected to attend, citing concerns about COVID-19.
Influential figures like former President Barack Obama and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are also expected to attend to discuss the importance of taking action to limit the impacts of climate change. Climate activists like Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg are expected to lead large protests outside the official venue, pressuring world leaders to do more.
After the high-profile remarks to start the summit, other officials and negotiators from each country will hammer out technical documents detailing their agreements on climate policy and higher-ranking officials like Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry will meet with their counterparts to try to negotiate any sticking points.
What’s on the agenda?
Negotiators for this year’s climate summit will face questions about how to limit the impact of climate change by reducing greenhouse gas emissions, as well as how to help countries adapt to climate change in parts of the world where the effects are getting more severe.
The most critical item on the agenda for the climate summit is increasing nearly every country’s commitments to decreasing climate-warming emissions as quickly as possible. Even with current promises to reduce emissions in line with the Paris Agreement, the U.N. says the world is set to miss that goal to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
The latest U.N. analysis says current commitments put the world on track for 2.1 to 2.7 degrees Celsius of warming, which would trigger more dangerous impacts of climate change like worsening severe weather and drought conditions that could start to hamper food production in parts of the world or make it more difficult for communities to survive.
“The time has passed for diplomatic niceties,” U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres said at a U.N. meeting on climate action this week.
“If governments — especially G-20 governments — do not stand up and lead this effort, we are headed for terrible human suffering,” he added.
In addition to ramping up efforts to prevent climate change from getting worse, negotiators will also confront questions about how to deal with impacts of climate change that are already being felt and how to support vulnerable countries struggling with changes like worsening storms and sea-level rise.
The Paris Agreement promised $100 billion a year in financial support for developing countries to combat climate change, but wealthier countries expected to contribute the most to that goal have not followed through, so negotiators will need to come up with a plan to meet that goal as well as discuss how much to increase it going forward as the impacts of climate change continue to worsen. That funding is meant to both help poorer countries build renewable energy infrastructure to avoid expanding fossil fuel use and make changes to adapt.
But representatives of those countries say even that isn’t enough.
Pelenise Alofa, national coordinator for the Climate Action Network in Kiribati, said COP26 will be important for the future of her island nation and the conversation about climate finance should include compensating countries experiencing effects of climate change for helping residents relocate or recover from worsening or more frequent severe storms.
Alofa said Kiribati and other island nations face an existential threat from climate change as sea-level rise and worsening tropical storms threaten their ability to live and produce food.
“As someone living in the islands in Kiribati, loss and damage from climate change is now a permanent feature of our lives. It is not about a one-time event or disaster. It is about rising sea levels that threaten to totally swallow our homes,” she told reporters in a briefing.
What does success look like?
The U.N. secretary general has said there is a “high risk of failure” from COP26, but there is not a single outcome that will solve all the challenges that come with the global climate crisis.
Experts say they’ll be watching to see if the Glasgow negotiations make tangible progress toward the goals of the Paris Agreement, including watching whether countries like China increase their commitments to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and burning fossil fuels, and if parties are able to agree on steps that can lead to real, measurable results.
But ultimately, even a successful COP26 will still be more of a step in the right direction than a final solution to the climate crisis.
“We have to have significantly turned the corner by next year or the year after or else we have no shot of keeping 1.5 [degrees Celsius] alive,” Jake Schmidt, senior director of the international climate program from the Natural Resources Defense Council, told ABC News.
(NEW YORK) — Negotiations on the infrastructure and social program bills have consumed Capitol Hill for months. Still, a new ABC News/Ipsos poll out Sunday finds Democrats are failing to sell the legislation to the public, who are broadly unaware of what is in the spending packages or skeptical they would help people like themselves, or the economy, if signed into law.
President Joe Biden was unable to secure a legislative win before departing on his second foreign trip since taking office, even after he laid out a framework for the package focused on social programs and climate change around which he believes Democrats can rally. He pitched that package, which no longer includes paid family and medical leave or free community college, as a “historic economic” opportunity on Thursday, but this poll reflects the continued confusion and intraparty mistrust over these bills.
Although a majority (55%) of the public is following news about the negotiations at least somewhat closely, about 7 in 10 (69%) Americans said they know just some or little to nothing about what’s in both bills. Fewer than half (31%) said they know a great deal or good amount. Despite Republicans having sat on the sidelines while the White House works exclusively with congressional Democrats to get both bills to the president’s desk, the lack of knowledge extends across all parties.
Americans also do not feel like these bills would help them or the U.S. economy if they become law.
The ABC News/Ipsos poll, which was conducted using Ipsos’ KnowledgePanel, found that a plurality (32%) of Americans think the bills would hurt people like them if they became law, while fewer (25%) think it would help them. Nearly 2 in 10 (18%) think the bills would make no difference, and 24% said they didn’t know.
Even among Democrats alone, fewer than half (47%) think the two bills would help people like them. A quarter of Democrats think the bills would make no difference for people like them and about 2 in 10 (22%) don’t know how they would impact their lives. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of Republicans think the bills would hurt people like them, and so do about 3 in 10 (29%) independents.
The American public is evenly divided — 34% to 34% — over whether they believe these bills would help or hurt the U.S. economy if they become law. Very few (6%) think the bills would have no effect on the economy, and a quarter don’t know. Democrats are much more likely to think the legislation would help the economy if enacted than Republicans and independents, 68% compared with 7% and 29%, respectively.
Biden’s inability to get these bills over the finish line has not helped the president’s mediocre approval ratings on an array of issues, which have solidified since the Sept. 24-28 ABC News/Ipsos poll.
His handling of the coronavirus pandemic and rebuilding the United States’ infrastructure are the only issues where a majority of the public approves of Biden — 56% and 52%, respectively — and neither is an improvement compared with the last ABC News/Ipsos poll. On both issues, he’s bolstered by near-universal support from members of his own party, as well as about half of independents.
Just under a majority of Americans approve of the president’s handling of climate change (48%) and the economic recovery (47%). Again, relatively high support among Democrats — 78% and 86%, respectively — keeps his approval from sinking too far.
Republicans are generally unified against the president on all issues, but overall approval for Biden takes the biggest hit on issues where Democrats’ and independents’ confidence drops.
While about half (49%) of independents approve of Biden’s handling of climate change, on other issues — economic recovery, gun violence, crime and taxes — independents’ approval hovers around 4 in 10.
The president’s overall approval dips below 40% on three issues: gun violence (39%), Afghanistan (34%) and immigration and the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border (31%).
Fewer than two-thirds (64%) of Democrats approve of Biden’s handling of gun violence. A similar share (62%) of Democrats approve of the president’s handling of Afghanistan. On immigration, Biden is barely holding onto majority support among his own party, with just 54% approving of him on this issue.
Only around 3 in 10 independents approve of Biden’s handling of immigration and Afghanistan, 29% and 31%, respectively.
METHODOLOGY: This ABC News/Ipsos poll was conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs’ KnowledgePanel® Oct. 29-30, 2021, in English and Spanish, among a random national sample of 514 adults. Results have a margin of sampling error of 4.7 points, including the design effect. Partisan divisions were 31%-24%-36%, Democrats-Republicans-independents. See the poll’s top-line results and details on the methodology here.
ABC News’ Ken Goldstein and Dan Merkle contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Stargazers in parts of the United States may be lucky enough to see the northern lights Saturday, thanks to a strong geomagnetic storm.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center issued a geomagnetic storm watch for Saturday and Sunday, following a “significant” solar flare on the sun two days ago that released a coronal mass ejection.
The coronal mass ejection — a large expulsion of plasma and magnetic field from the sun’s corona — is expected to reach Earth Saturday evening, with effects continuing into Sunday, NOAA said.
What that means for people on Earth is the chance to see the spectacular light display across the northern United States, in states as far south as Illinois — if clouds and light pollution don’t get in the way.
The strength of the storm “has the potential to drive the aurora further away from its normal polar residence and if other factors come together, the aurora might be seen over the far Northeast, to the upper Midwest, and over the state of Washington,” the Space Weather Prediction Center said.
The aurora may be visible late Saturday afternoon and into early Sunday, according to the National Weather Service.
The peak is predicted around 5 p.m. ET, according to planetary space scientist James O’Donoghue.
“You’ll want to look north, near to the horizon,” O’Donoghue tweeted Saturday. “Also, befriend your local weather reporter and ask for clear skies.”
“Good luck aurora hunters!” he added.
The storm is rated G3, on NOAA’s five-level geomagnetic storm scale. “Impacts to our technology from a G3 storm are generally nominal,” the Space Weather Prediction Center said.
(NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C.) — Three people are dead and a fourth was hospitalized after an Amtrak train collided with a car at a railroad crossing in South Carolina early Saturday.
A North Charleston police officer reported the accident shortly before 2:30 a.m. local time, according to the North Charleston Fire Department.
Responding officers and firefighters found a “vehicle off the roadway with heavy damage” and four people “in the area of the damaged vehicle,” the fire department said in a statement.
Three people were pronounced dead at the scene and a fourth was treated by firefighters before being transported to a local hospital, authorities said. The fire department did not have an update on the person’s condition Saturday afternoon.
All four are believed to have been in the car on the railroad crossing when the collision occurred, and the train was able to make a controlled emergency stop after the crash, authorities said.
There were no injuries reported aboard the train, which was carrying 500 passengers, the fire department said.
The North Charleston Police Department and railroad operator CSX are investigating the cause of the accident.
Amtrak did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
