(CLINTON COUNTY, Ind.) — Two people are dead following a shooting in a parking lot outside a factory in Indiana, according to the Clinton County Sheriff’s Office.
The alleged suspect is in custody, authorities said.
Both victims were women, law enforcement said at a press conference Wednesday afternoon, and all three were employees at the plant.
The sheriff’s office said the call came in at 4:15 p.m. local time. Shortly after, it warned residents to avoid the area due to the “active scene.”
The suspect jumped in a car after the shooting and drove away from the scene, but was tracked down by police about a minute later, authorities said. The suspect crashed his car and was taken into custody. He was not injured in the minor accident, Clinton County Sheriff Richard Kelly said.
An investigation is ongoing and the sheriff had no information on a motive. Authorities were still working to contact the next of kin of those who were killed and will not release information on the victims until they do so.
The shooting took place in the parking lot of NHK Seating of America in Frankfurt, Indiana. The plant manufacturers seats and seating parts for a Subaru plant in nearby Lafayette.
“Please avoid the area of our new NHK,” the sheriff’s office wrote shortly after the incident began. “This is an active scene.”
ABC News’ Will Gretsky contributed to this report.
(MEMPHIS, Tenn.) — The family and attorney of a Black man shot to death by a security guard, allegedly over a dispute about loud music, are demanding Kroger and the third-party security guard company it employed to also face charges.
Alvin Motley Jr., 48, was at a Kroger gas station in Memphis, Tennessee, with his girlfriend on Aug. 7 when Gregory Livingston, who is white, allegedly approached him about the volume of music coming from their car. After the initial argument between Motley and Livingston, Motley walked toward the security guard holding a beer can and a lit cigarette asking Livingston, “Let’s talk like men,” according to the affidavit. Shortly after, Livingston shot Motley in the chest, prosecutors said.
Motley’s attorney Ben Crump and the Rev. Al Sharpton said Wednesday that Kroger must be charged alongside Livingston and Allied Universal for facilitating the contract that resulted in the death of Motley. Livingston has been charged with second-degree murder.
“Kroger, you can’t pass the buck saying that this is an issue for the Motley family or the security company. It’s an issue for your company. … You have a duty to provide safety and have qualified employees and contractors who won’t kill Black people over loud music,” Crump said.
Crump and Sharpton called on the civil rights community to play loud music in front of Kroger grocery chain stores across the country in protest of Motley’s death.
A Kroger spokesperson said in an email statement that after an internal review of the incident, Kroger made the decision to end its relationship with Allied Universal Security in Memphis.
“We are deeply saddened, extremely angry and horrified by this senseless violence. At Kroger, nothing is more important to us than the safety of our associates and customers, and our hearts are with the Motley family and we stand with them in their calls for justice,” a Kroger spokesperson told ABC News.
When asked, Kroger did not respond specifically to Crump’s comments. Allied Universal has not responded to requests for comment from ABC News.
Crump and Sharpton said the shooting was racially motivated.
“I cannot imagine if the shoe was on the other foot and these were young white men listening to rock and roll or country music, nobody would say it was justified to kill them,” Crump said at Wednesday’s press conference. “So if you can’t justify killing them over music, you can’t justify killing us over hip hop music.”
Livingston’s attorney, Leslie Ballin, told ABC News that the shooting was neither racially motivated nor about loud music.
“Let it be known that we do not agree that this incident was about loud music,” Ballin said. “I don’t know of any facts that would lead to the conclusion that this event was racially motivated. If there are such facts, I’m ready to be educated.”
The surveillance footage at the Kroger gas station allegedly captured the incident but has not yet been released to the family or the public. Ballin said he objects to the release of any evidence, including the video footage, in fear that it could contaminate a potential jury pool.
Livingston’s attorneys requested their client’s $1.8 million bail be reduced, claiming the amount is excessive and therefore unconstitutional.
“My son was truly my best friend and I’ll forever hold him in my thoughts,” Alvin Motley Sr. said during the press conference before his son’s memorial Wednesday. “I just want justice for my son.”
(NEW YORK) — The United States is facing a COVID-19 surge this summer as the more contagious delta variant spreads.
More than 623,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 while over 4.3 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 59.4% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here’s how the news is developing Wednesday. All times Eastern:
Aug 18, 6:50 pm
J&J looking into booster of its single-dose vaccine
Johnson & Johnson said Wednesday it is “engaging” with the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other health authorities on a booster of its single-dose COVID-19 vaccine.
The company said it “will share new data shortly regarding boosting” with its vaccine, which one study suggests provides immunity for at least eight months.
The statement comes after the Biden administration said Wednesday it is preparing to roll out booster shots of Pfizer’s and Moderna’s vaccines to more Americans next month.
Aug 18, 6:29 pm
California to require proof of vaccination or negative test for large indoor events
People attending large-scale indoor events in California soon will be required to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination or a recent negative COVID-19 test, state officials announced Wednesday.
The new rules apply to indoor events with more than 1,000 people beginning Sept. 20. Tests must be administered within 72 hours of the event.
Currently, attendees have to self-attest to either having the vaccine or a negative test to attend events with more than 5,000 people.
Health officials pointed to the highly transmissible nature of the delta variant in updating the rules.
Aug 18, 5:11 pm
Biden will issue memo to block Republican anti-mask efforts in schools
President Joe Biden plans to issue a memo to Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona Wednesday to counter the Republican governors who have blocked mask mandates in their states.
“Some state governments have adopted policies and laws that interfere with the ability of schools and districts to keep our children safe during in-person learning, with some going as far as to try to block school officials from adopting safety protocols aligned with recommendations from the CDC,” according to a fact sheet released by the White House Wednesday.
Biden’s memo will ensure the department of education “is doing everything it can to prevent anything from standing in the way of local leaders and school leaders taking steps to keep all students safe in full-time, in-person learning, without compromising students’ health or the health of their families or communities,” the fact sheet continues.
-ABC News’ Justin Gomez
Aug 18, 5:16 pm
Biden to announce nursing homes must require employee vaccination to get federal funding
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services plans to require nursing homes participating in Medicare or Medicaid to have all workers be vaccinated for COVID-19, a Biden administration official confirmed to ABC News Wednesday.
The new rule, which will impact more than 15,000 nursing homes and 1.3 million workers, will go into effect in late September. Nursing homes that don’t comply could lose federal funding.
-ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett
Aug 18, 2:33 pm
NYC restaurant owners sue city over indoor vaccine mandate
A group small businesses in New York City is suing the city on the grounds that its new indoor vaccine mandate will severely impact their “business, life savings, and livelihood,” according to a lawsuit filed in Richmond County Supreme Court Tuesday.
The plaintiffs also took issue with the fact the the mandate does not permit medical or religious exemptions to COVID-19 vaccination.
New York City’s first-in-the-nation mandate, which went into effect Tuesday, applies to everyone 12 and older and includes nearly every public indoor activity, from gyms to bowling alleys to movie theaters to concert venues and more, according to the city.
The plaintiffs include Deluca’s Italian Restaurant in Staten Island, Pasticceria Rocco in Brooklyn and Staten Island Judo Jujitsu.
Aug 18, 12:36 pm
All but 2 states reporting high community transmission
All but two states — New Hampshire and Vermont — are reporting high community transmission, according to federal data.
U.S. hospitalizations are now at the highest point in over six months, with more than 91,000 COVID-19 patients currently in hospitals, according to federal data. More than 11,200 patients are being admitted to the hospital each day, the most since January.
Pediatric COVID-19 related admissions per capita have climbed to the highest point of the pandemic and are now nearly six times higher than on July 4.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Aug 18, 11:53 am
Delta likely contributed to vaccine’s waning protection: Murthy
U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy announced at Wednesday’s White House briefing, “Having reviewed the most current data, it is now our clinical judgment that the time to lay out a plan for COVID-19 boosters is now.”
Murthy said protection against mild disease has decreased, likely a combination of waning vaccine protection over time and the strength of the delta variant, and that the administration is “concerned” that protection could continue to erode.
“Even though this new data affirms that vaccine protection remains high against the worst outcomes of COVID, we are concerned that this pattern of decline we’re seeing will continue in the months ahead, which could lead to reduced protection against severe disease, hospitalization and death,” Murthy said.
“That is why, today, we are announcing our plan to stay ahead of this virus by being prepared to offer COVID-19 booster shots to fully vaccinated adults 18 years and older,” Murthy said. “They would be eligible for their booster shot eight months after receiving their second dose of the Pfizer or Modern mRNA vaccines.”
The boosters are set to begin Sept. 20, but Murthy emphasized that this is pending FDA authorization and also reiterated that does not yet apply to J&J recipients.
-ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslet
Aug 18, 11:27 am
How New York City botched COVID-19 response: Report
New York City botched its COVID-19 response, according to an investigation conducted by Scott Stringer, the city’s comptroller, who released findings from his inquiry Wednesday.
According to Stringer, key emergency response agencies, including the health department and the NYPD, were intentionally excluded from communications and decision-making “when time was of the essence.”
The comptroller also described persistent confusion about the chain of command between agencies and a significantly delayed response to the pandemic.
Officials waited until late February to even begin planning for a worst-case scenario, despite knowing about the impending crisis in January. Stringer called on the mayor, as well as the future mayor, to conduct a thorough review of the city’s emergency planning process.
“We cannot erase the mistakes of the past,” he said. “But we can make sure we are prepared for future emergencies.”
-ABC News’ Aaron Katersky
Aug 18, 11:14 am
mRNA vaccine efficacy dropped ‘significantly’ among nursing home residents: CDC
A new CDC analysis found that Pfizer and Moderna vaccine efficacy dropped “significantly” among nursing home residents from March to July, as the delta variant became the predominant strain in the United States.
Researchers analyzed weekly reports from thousands of nursing home facilities in the U.S. and found that mRNA vaccines were roughly 75% effective against preventing any infection in late winter/early spring of 2021, early in the mass vaccination rollout and prior to the emergence of the delta variant. By summer of this year, effectiveness against any infection had dropped to 53%.
Crucially, this doesn’t mean vaccines aren’t working for nursing home residents, but the significant drop in effectiveness from March to July may support the use of booster doses for them, according to the CDC report.
A second analysis found that the mRNA vaccines are holding up well against hospitalizations for COVID-19. The research, which was conducted across 21 U.S. hospitals, found that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines remained between 84% and 86% effective against potential hospitalizations from March to July of this year. A third analysis, conducted in New York State, found that all three authorized vaccines remained more than 90% effective at preventing hospitalization from early May to late June.
-ABC News’ Sony Salzman, Eric Strauss
Aug 18, 11:06 am
Leading public health officials lay out plan for boosters
The U.S. is prepared to offer booster shots for all Americans beginning the week of Sept. 20, top health officials announced Wednesday. Starting eight months after a person’s second dose, they are eligible for a booster.
“At that time, the individuals who were fully vaccinated earliest in the vaccination rollout, including many health care providers, nursing home residents, and other seniors, will likely be eligible,” Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC; Janet Woodcock, acting FDA commissioner; Dr. Vivek Murthy, surgeon general; Francis Collins, director of the NIH; and Anthony Fauci, director of the NIAID, said in a joint statement.
The data behind the decision is expected to be released at 11 a.m. EST during the White House COVID briefing, but public health officials said it’s clear that vaccines are waning over time and “we are starting to see evidence of reduced protection against mild and moderate disease.”
With regard to the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, officials stressed that more data will be released in the next few weeks. “We will keep the public informed with a timely plan for J&J booster shots,” they said.
-ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett
Aug 18, 10:09 am
El Paso mask mandate goes into effect after judge blocks Abbott
A mask mandate in El Paso, Texas, which, took effect at 12:01 Wednesday, requires people 2 and older to cover their faces in indoor public spaces. Failure to comply with the new rule is a misdemeanor carrying a fine of $500.
The mandate comes after a judge blocked Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s executive order late Tuesday night, which had forbid masks mandates in the state of Texas. The news comes also within hours of Abbott, who is fully vaccinated, testing positive for COVID-19.
Aug 18, 8:33 am
CDC advisory committee to discuss extra vaccine doses, booster shots
An advisory committee to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will meet next week to discuss additional doses of COVID-19 vaccines, including booster shots.
The meeting is scheduled for Aug. 24.
Aug 18, 5:21 am
New Zealand confirms 1st case of delta variant in growing cluster
New Zealand’s first instance of COVID-19 transmission in six months has been identified as the highly contagious delta variant.
“We are dealing with a delta variant,” New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced during a press conference in Wellington on Wednesday. “Our case has originated in Australia.”
The case, which was detected in the community on Tuesday, prompted New Zealand to immediately impose a nationwide lockdown. More community cases have emerged since then, with the cluster growing to 10 by Wednesday afternoon, according to data from New Zealand’s Ministry of Health.
Ardern said genomic sequencing has linked the initial case to an outbreak of the delta variant in neighboring Australia’s New South Wales state.
“Now, the job we have is to work through how and when it got here,” she said.
It’s the first time that the island nation of 5 million people has confirmed the presence of the delta variant, which was initially identified in India last October. At least 148 countries around the globe have reported cases of the delta variant, according to the World Health Organization.
It’s also the first time in more than a year that New Zealand has had a snap level four lockdown, the highest level of restrictions.
In total, the country has reported 2,936 confirmed cases of COVID-19 since the start of the pandemic, including 26 deaths, according to health ministry data.
Aug 18, 3:55 am
Chicago reinstates indoor mask mandate amid rising cases
Everyone in Chicago who is 2 years of age and older must wear a face mask indoors starting Friday, regardless of whether they have been vaccinated against COVID-19.
Chicago health officials announced the reinstatement of the indoor mask mandate on Tuesday, after the Windy City saw its daily average of newly diagnosed COVID-19 cases surpass 400 — a metric that moves the city from “substantial risk” to “higher risk.”
“With the highly transmissible delta variant causing case rates to increase, now is the time to re-institute this measure to prevent further spread and save lives,” Dr. Allison Arwady, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Public Health, said in a statement. “We continue to track the data closely and are hopeful this will only be temporary and we can bend the COVID curve, as we’ve done in the past.”
During a press conference Tuesday, Arwady noted that other COVID-19 metrics, such as the city’s test positivity average and hospitalizations, remain at “lower risk.”
“A high case count does not automatically translate to a high hospitalization count and a high death count,” she told reporters, “and we’re hopeful that having the mask in place for everybody will get us through delta while we keep working on getting folks vaccinated.”
Masks will be required citywide in all indoor public settings, including bars, restaurants, gyms, hair salons, private clubs and common areas in residential buildings. As with previous mask mandates, the face coverings can be temporarily taken off for certain activities that require their removal, such as eating and drinking or for facials and beard shaves.
Masks can also be removed by employees in settings that are not open to the public, such as office cubicles, so long as the individuals are static and maintaining at least 6 feet from others. The face coverings remain mandatory on public transportation as well as in educational, health care, correctional and congregate settings.
The new mandate does not include capacity limits at public places, and masks will remain optional in outdoor settings.
“We are not anticipating, at this point, adding additional business restrictions. However, we’re watching what happens with these metrics,” Arwady told reporters. “Our goal is to remain open but careful.”
Aug 17, 11:40 pm
‘What we’re dealing with now is completely different,’ says pulmonologist who lost 3 patients in week
An Alabama doctor is seeing young, healthy patients die from COVID-19 amid the surge of the delta variant.
Dr. Jenna Carpenter, a pulmonary care physician at Marshall Medical South in Guntersville, Alabama, has lost three patients under the age of 40 in the past week from complications related to COVID-19, she told ABC Huntsville, Alabama, affiliate WAAY.
“The young man I lost this week was perfectly healthy,” she said. “He wasn’t overweight. He did not have any known medical issues and that was a tragedy.”
The worst phone call the physicians have to make is to inform family members that their loved one has taken a turn for the worst, Carpenter added.
“In our heart we know this is going to be the last time these folks talk to their families,” she said.
The state currently has more ICU patients than beds, and frontline workers are also getting sick from the highly contagious variant, WAAY reported.
“Last week we were down to 35 or 40 ICU beds. Now we are down at the single digits,” Dr. Don Williamson, a former state health officer who is now the president and CEO of the Alabama Hospital Association, told the station. “It doesn’t matter if it is six or two, we could even be negative ICU beds.”
Aug 17, 9:26 pm
Mass vaccine site for booster shots opens in Detroit
Detroit has opened a mass vaccine site for boosters at its convention center.
The TCF Center has played an integral role for Detroit residents during the pandemic, first acting as a mass testing site, a field hospital and eventually a mass vaccination site.
It is currently the only location in the city to get a third booster shot.
(WASHINGTON) — In an exclusive interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, and the president’s first since the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban, President Joe Biden stood firm in his defense of the United States’ withdrawal, but asserted for the first time that he believes the chaos was unavoidable.
“So you don’t think this could have been handled — this exit could have been handled better in any way, no mistakes?” Stephanopoulos asked Biden.
“No, I don’t think it could have been handled in a way that, we’re gonna go back in hindsight and look — but the idea that somehow, there’s a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing, I don’t know how that happens. I don’t know how that happened,” Biden replied.
“So for you, that was always priced into the decision?” Stephanopoulos asked.
“Yes,” Biden replied, but then amended his answer.
“Now exactly what happened, I’ve not priced in,” he said. “But I knew that they’re going to have an enormous — Look, one of the things we didn’t know is what the Taliban would do in terms of trying to keep people from getting out. What they would do. What are they doing now? They’re cooperating, letting American citizens get out, American personnel get out, embassies get out, et cetera, but they’re having — we’re having some more difficulty having those who helped us when we were in there.”
Biden’s decision to withdraw has led to scenes of pandemonium in Afghanistan, with as many as 11,000 Americans and tens of thousands of endangered Afghans scrambling to evacuate the country. Scenes of civilians swamping planes on the runway at the Kabul airport, desperate for escape, have triggered bipartisan criticism that the Biden administration handled the hasty exit poorly.
Biden grew defensive when Stephanopoulos referred to the scenes of distress.
“We’ve all seen the pictures. We’ve seen those hundreds of people packed in a C-17. We’ve seen Afghans falling –“
“That was four days ago, five days ago!” Biden interjected, although the photo Stephanopoulos referred to, of hundreds of evacuees packed into a C-17 cargo plane, was taken Monday.
“What did you think when you first saw those pictures?” Stephanopoulos asked.
“What I thought was, we have to gain control of this. We have to move this more quickly. We have to move in a way in which we can take control of that airport. And we did,” Biden said.
The U.S. said late Tuesday it has successfully evacuated 3,200 people from Afghanistan, including all U.S. Embassy personnel, except for a core group of diplomats at the Kabul airport. Officials have said they hope to ramp up to being able to evacuate 9,000 people each day.
But the U.S. government is not currently providing American citizens in Afghanistan with safe transport to the airport, and it remains unclear how many will be able to safely reach the airport, as Taliban checkpoints continue to harden.
Despite the reality in Afghanistan, Biden was adamant in defending his decision.
“When you look at what’s happened over the last week, was it a failure of intelligence, planning, execution or judgment?” Stephanopoulos asked.
“Look, it was a simple choice, George,” Biden said. “When you had the government of Afghanistan, the leader of that government, get in a plane and taking off and going to another country; when you saw the significant collapse of the Afghan troops we had trained, up to 300,000 of them, just leaving their equipment and taking off — that was, you know, I’m not, that’s what happened. That’s simply what happened. And so the question was, in the beginning, the threshold question was, do we commit to leave within the timeframe we set, do we extend it to Sept. 1, or do we put significantly more troops in?”
Biden noted that violent attacks in Afghanistan had paused in recent months due to a deal negotiated by the Trump administration with Taliban leaders that was predicated upon an eventual U.S. withdrawal.
“I hear people say, well you had 2,500 folks in there and nothing was happening. You know, there wasn’t any more — but guess what, the fact was, that the reason that wasn’t happening, was the last president negotiated a year earlier that he’d be out by May 1st and that the return, there’d be no attack on American forces. That’s what was done. That’s why nothing was happening,” Biden said.
“I had a simple choice. If I said, ‘we’re gonna stay,’ then we’d better be prepared to
(HAITI) — Luria Civil’s wails could be heard outside of the cemetery. As shovels scraped dirt onto her daughter’s grave, she chanted and sobbed.
She lost two children after Saturday’s 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit Haiti. Her house had collapsed on top of her and her family, she told ABC News. She, her husband, and her severely wounded son, who was medevacked to port au Prince, survived. But she still had to dig her two other children, now lifeless, out of the rubble.
The scenes across Haiti are devastating. Coffins strapped to the backs of motorbikes are being driven out of earthquake battered villages. Boulders the size of bulldozers are blocking roads. Landslides following Tropical Storm Grace have reshaped the landscape, mutating sides of mountains.
The death toll in Haiti, now at 1,941, keeps climbing, according to the Haiti Office of Civil Protection. While search and rescue teams on the ground keep pushing forward, hoping to find more survivors and provide much needed medical help, ABC News reports that thousands are still sleeping under tents, surgeries are being performed outdoors and hospitals in rural areas are in desperate need of the basics, including water, electricity, gloves and donated blood.
While Saturday’s earthquake is not as devastating as the 2010 earthquake, which killed more than 200,000 people, Haiti is facing multiple crises as the same time. The country has been reeling from the assassination of its president, leaving the government politically unstable. The coronavirus vaccination rate is less than 0.1%. And experts say gang violence is at its worst in two decades, according to the Associated Press.
Following the earthquake, United States response teams were activated, but due to the tropical storm, they had to suspend their critical operations on Monday, according to U.S. Agency for International Development Bureau of Humanitarian Affairs Assistant Administrator Sarah Charles.
“The safety and security of our partners and our operations is of the utmost importance, but our top priority really is getting assistance and assistance at scale to people,” Charles said. She later added that “the [Disaster Assistance Response Team] is now on the ground working to urgently assess needs and deliver life-saving assistance.”
Both USAID DART and the elite Fairfax County’s Urban Search and Rescue team are now on the ground in Haiti, helping local and international efforts to provide food, medical care, shelter, and search and rescue efforts.
The number of injured and homeless keeps rising, too, according to the Haitian agency. More than 9,900 people have been injured, and even more are left homeless. The earthquake left much of the countryside damaged, destroying more than 7,000 homes and damaging nearly 5,000.
The teams on the ground said they haven’t rescued any people still alive and trapped in buildings.
“We have not yet since found any signs of persons alive trapped in buildings,” John Morrison, the public information officer for Fairfax County’s Urban Search and Rescue team, said on Tuesday’s media call. He caveated his statement by adding that in previous earthquakes, his rescue team has managed to save people 8-10 days after a building collapse.
Getting supplies to the people of Haiti is a priority, officials said.
As of Tuesday evening, “the U.S. Coast Guard has flown 72 sorties [trips], saved 67 people, and assisted 89 people,” according to a USAID spokesperson. “They have also transported 143 medical and search and rescue staff, including members of the USAID DART, and 5,500 pounds of medical supplies into the area.”
“Food, healthcare services, safe drinking water, hygiene and sanitation, and shelter are all priority needs,” Morrison added.
Following the 2010 earthquake, USAID has been working closely with partners on the ground in Haiti for years to make sure local response capabilities can be immediately activated in case another disaster strikes, including being able to immediately provide food and types of shelter, officials said. Charles indicated that this pre-planning allowed USAID local partners to respond quickly following Saturday’s earthquake.
While USAID is already working with international organizations to provide significant humanitarian needs in Haiti, they hope to receive more help in the upcoming days and weeks, according to Charles.
The Pentagon announced Monday that eight U.S. military helicopters would be sent to assist in Haiti. Two U.S. Navy ships, seven more Coast Guard cutters, two reconnaissance aircraft, and four field hospitals are also being sent. This military equipment arrived on Wednesday morning, officials said.
This isn’t the first crisis Haiti has faced this summer. Just last month, President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated, which left the country in a political upheaval.
“We continue to work closely with Haiti’s interim government to assist with the investigation into the assassination,” State Department’s Western Hemisphere Affairs Acting Deputy Assistant Secretary Laura Lochman said on a media briefing call Tuesday. She also emphasized the U.S. government’s support in finding and creating Haitian-led solutions that are in the interest of the Haitian people.
“The United States stands ready to offer all appropriate assistance, and we’ll continue to work closely with our Haitian partners to determine how we can best support recovery efforts,” Lochman later added.
While teams on the ground are working non-stop, there just isn’t enough aid to go around.
“It’s just pure chaos,” Canadian paramedic Brian Johnston told ABC News. Johnston said he and Haitian medics know that if anyone has a cardiac arrest or internal bleeding in rural, countryside towns, “they’ll die here.”
Luria Civil took ABC News to what was left of her house. During the walk, she pointed to her neighbors’ homes, now all flattened. A set of twins were killed in the house next door.
A crowd had gathered around her home. When asked where they were sleeping, they all said, “outside on the street.”
ABC News’ Conor Finnegan, Luis Martinez, Matt Gutman, and Brandon Baur contributed to this report.
(KABUL, Afghanistan) — It was on the third attempt that “Khan,” his pregnant wife and their 3-year old son made to get to Kabul’s international airport — the most harrowing yet, but finally successful.
Khan, whose real name ABC News is not using for his security, made it on a U.S. military flight out of Afghanistan on Wednesday, according to his U.S. lawyer, fleeing the Taliban takeover and the threats its fighters had made against him for years because of his service to the U.S.
Tens of thousands of Afghans remain behind in anguish and fear. The Biden administration has promised to evacuate “as many Afghans as we possibly can for as long as we can,” in the words of State Department spokesperson Ned Price, but the task remains immense and chaotic — not least because Taliban fighters continue to block access to the airport.
It’s unclear how many Afghans the administration is committed to evacuating, where they be brought to safety and who qualifies for a coveted seat on military and chartered flights.
Khan, a computer scientist by training who worked for a U.S. defense contractor alongside his brother “Mohammad,” had spent years waiting for a special immigrant visa.
After waiting 10 years for a visa, Mohammad finally learned last December that he was granted approval. Less than a month later, he was gunned down on his way to work, his 10-year old son by his side in the car. Khan was supposed to travel with them but had to run errands that morning in January.
He has spent recent months in hiding, receiving death threats by phone and text message and waiting for his family’s special immigrant visas to be finalized. On Saturday, hours before the U.S. Embassy in Kabul closed its doors, he and his family were able to pick up their visas.
But that is only half the battle. For U.S. citizens and Afghans with visas, reaching the airport and getting inside has been a nearly impossible task.
The State Department has informed a tranche of American citizens and Afghan visa holders to travel to the airport, warning in capital letters that they “cannot guarantee your security as you make this trip,” according to the embassy email notice.
Khan and his family made their first attempt on Sunday and tried again Tuesday, but there were too many Taliban fighters pushing back crowds to even get close.
On Wednesday, they tried a different approach, nearing a gate on the north side, only to encounter U.S. troops trying to disperse crowds by shooting into the air and using tear gas, according to Khan’s U.S. lawyer Julie Kornfeld from the International Refugee Assistance Project, who was FaceTiming with him during the episode.
IRAP has filed several petitions to order the State Department to evacuate all Afghans who have applied for special immigrant visas and their families — some 100,000 Afghans in total, the legal advocacy group estimates.
“The timing could not be more urgent. Now that the Afghan government has collapsed and the Talban have taken over, time is quickly running out. We need to get as many people on flights out of the country before it is too late, and the U.S. has a legal and a moral obligation to do so,” said Becca Heller, IRAP’s executive director.
Heller called on the U.S. government to secure safe passage to Kabul’s airport for Americans and Afghans like Khan. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Tuesday that the U.S. had an agreement with the Taliban to ensure safe passage, but several Afghans on the ground have told ABC News they have been blocked. In some cases, Taliban fighters beat back crowds with chains or by firing sporadic gunfire into the air.
But with their visas in hand, Khan and his family were determined to get through to the airport, according to Kornfeld, who told ABC News, “Ultimately, it was his persistence that got them in.”
In the hours when it seemed like it wouldn’t happen, Kornfeld said they considered other options, including Khan leaving his pregnant wife and son behind to see if he could push ahead and come back to get them — an agonizing decision, she said.
“It’s a dynamic situation. Things are rapidly changing on the ground, and one client’s success story of where the access points are is not going to hold up,” Kornfeld added.
Once inside, the process was more efficient, she added, with two of her clients and their families on flights within 30 minutes of entering the airport and being processed. Sullivan said Tuesday that since the U.S. military was able to secure the airport late Monday, more evacuation flights have been flowing in “one after another, hot unloading and hot offloading,” he told reporters.
But outside the airport, chaos continues to reign.
An alert from the U.S. embassy late Wednesday advised U.S. citizens and lawful permanent residents, or green card holders, they “should consider” travelling to the airport — sparking crowds of people rushing there again.
Crowds broke into the compound on Monday, rushing the tarmac and surrounding a U.S. military aircraft that was preparing for takeoff. Several civilians died in the incident, and the U.S. military eventually had to clear 15,000 people from the tarmac, according to a defense official.
“The unwillingness of the U.S. government to protect our allies after they sacrificed their safety and in many cases their lives is a historically unprecedented failure that only a sustained attempt to hold the airport and meaningfully evacuate people can begin to remedy,” said Heller.
The U.S. has surged diplomatic personnel, doubling the number of consular officers and dispatching former ambassador to Afghanistan John Bass to the airport to coordinate the chaotic evacuation effort even as all but a core team from the U.S. embassy were evacuated from the compound Tuesday.
(NEW YORK) –Attention, beauty enthusiasts! Ulta Beauty and Target have joined forces and this is not a drill.
The new Ulta Beauty shop-in-shop concept has officially started to roll out at over 50 locations.
Intrigued shoppers can also get a look at the full product assortment of offerings on Target’s website, which features over 50 prestige brands.
Standout brands include Clinique skin care, Urban Decay makeup, Tracee Ellis Ross’ Pattern hair care brand and many more.
Following the initial openings, this shop-in-a-shop format is slated to open in hundreds of other locations as well as online for years to come.
The Ulta Beauty specialty shops are located near existing Target beauty sections and feature specialized displays, season-specific buys and discovery zones for on-trend products.
There will also be trained staff available to help those looking for expert recommendations.
“Ulta Beauty at Target is unmatched in the industry, bringing guests the opportunity to discover new prestige brands while they shop Target’s incredible beauty assortment,” Christina Hennington, Target’s executive vice president and chief growth officer, said in a statement.
She continued, “This unique partnership is another way we continue to elevate the guest experience across our multi-category business to drive traffic and preference as we meet guests’ needs in innovative ways.
“With two powerhouse retailers, our collective brand love, loyalty and omnichannel expertise will inspire guests and raise the bar for the beauty shopping experience,” Hennington added.
Beauty lovers will also get to benefit from two rewards programs — Target Circle and Ultamate Rewards — with this new concept.
Ulta Beauty joins Target’s roster of partnerships with other big-name brands, such as Disney, CVS, Starbucks and more.
“As the retail and beauty industries continue to evolve, we take pride in being leaders that continually redefine and elevate guest experiences,” said Ulta Beauty Chief Operating Officer Kecia Steelman.
She continued, “Ulta Beauty at Target reflects our commitment to drive the industry forward and keep our guests meaningfully engaged. Our dynamic teams have worked together to create a disruptive, exciting way to discover prestige beauty with a thoughtfully curated assortment and knowledgeable, approachable experts to serve as beauty gurus.”
Ulta Beauty at Target has opened at locations throughout California, Florida, Georgia, New York, Texas and many more coming soon.
Walt Disney Co. is the parent company of ABC News and “Good Morning America.”
(NEW YORK) — Seven months after he was granted a pardon by then-President Donald Trump, Ken Kurson, a friend of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and a former associate of Rudy Giuliani, was arrested Wednesday in New York on new, state felony charges.
Kurson received the pardon from Trump not long after federal prosecutors in Brooklyn charged him in October 2020 with cyberstalking related to his 2015 divorce.
Kurson now faces charges of eavesdropping and computer trespassing filed by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, which took up the case almost immediately after the pardon was announced on Trump’s final day in office.
Manhattan prosecutors looked at the same alleged conduct as federal prosecutors and accused Kurson of spying on his ex-wife by unlawfully accessing her computer. The alleged eavesdropping and computer trespass occurred from Kurson’s work computer while he was still editor at The New York Observer.
“Mr. Kurson’s ex-wife wrote on his behalf that she never wanted this investigation or arrest and ‘repeatedly asked for the FBI to drop it,'” the Trump White House said in announcing Kurson’s pardon on Jan. 20.
“I hired a lawyer to protect me from being forced into yet another round of questioning,” the White House quoted her as writing. “My disgust with this arrest and the subsequent articles is bottomless.”
The pardon announcement also said that the investigation was only undertaken because Kurson was nominated for a role within the Trump administration.
According to both the current and prior charging documents, the FBI discovered Kurson’s allegedly illegal conduct during a background check after the Trump administration offered him a seat on the board of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Kurson helped manage Giuliani’s unsuccessful presidential campaign in 2008, and in 2013 was named the editor of The New York Observer by Kushner, who owned the newspaper. Kurson resigned from that position in 2017.
In the federal indictment, Kurson stood accused of harassing three unnamed people, including his ex-wife and another person he blamed for his divorce. Kurson, who denied wrongdoing, allegedly targeted the individual with negative reviews on Yelp along with threatening messages and anonymous calls.
“We will not accept presidential pardons as get-out-of-jail-free cards for the well-connected in New York,” District Attorney Cy Vance said in a statement. “As alleged in the complaint, Mr. Kurson launched a campaign of cybercrime, manipulation, and abuse from his perch at the New York Observer, and now the people of New York will hold him accountable. We encourage all survivors and witnesses of this type of cybercrime and intimate partner abuse to report these crimes to our Office.”
(NEW YORK) — Seven months after he was pardoned by then-President Donald Trump, Ken Kurson, who is a friend of Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner and an associate of Rudy Giuliani, was arrested in New York on state-level felony charges.
Kurson’s pardon came shortly after federal prosecutors in Brooklyn charged him in October with cyberstalking related to his 2015 divorce.
Kurson now faces charges of eavesdropping and computer trespassing filed by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office.
“Mr. Kurson’s ex-wife wrote on his behalf that she never wanted this investigation or arrest and ‘repeatedly asked for the FBI to drop it,'” the Trump White House said in announcing Kurson’s pardon on January 20.
The pardon announcement said the investigation was because Kurson was nominated for a role within the Trump administration.
According to the charging documents, the FBI came across Kurson’s allegedly illegal conduct during a background check following the Trump administration offer of a seat on the board of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Kurson helped manage Giuliani’s presidential campaign in 2008, and in 2013 he was named the editor of The New York Observer by Kushner, who owned the newspaper.
In the federal indictment, Kurson stood accused of harassing three unnamed people, including his ex-wife and another person he blamed for his divorce. Kurson has denied the allegations.
(LAS VEGAS) — For some patients, it’s the little things.
Brooke Johns, 40, is an emergency room nurse at Southern Hills Hospital in Las Vegas. On her days off, she heads back to the hospital to provide patients with some genuine human connection, brushing out their hair and just talking with them.
“I feel like there’s something very special about brushing somebody’s hair,” Johns told “Good Morning America.” “It’s something just relaxing and very connecting.”
Johns started these acts of kindness earlier this year, when a friend of hers was in the hospital with COVID-19, she said. The hospital didn’t allow patients with the virus to have any visitors, so all of their human contact came from staff.
“Her hair was very matted in the back,” Johns said of her friend. “She was so weak, and wasn’t able to brush it out herself, so I just said, ‘Do you want me to brush your hair?'”
As patients are usually laying on their backs in their hospital beds, Johns said their movements can easily snarl their hair.
“It took me an hour and a half to brush out her hair,” she said. “Then I asked her, ‘Do you want me to braid it so that it doesn’t get like that again?’ And she said, ‘Yes.'”
Afterward, Johns said she noticed a change in her friend’s demeanor.
“She was a different person when I left,” Johns said. “The thought just popped into my head that if my friend benefitted so much from this, I bet there’s a hospital full of people that need some sort of human connection.
“We’re all hard-wired for connection. We’re social beings and we need that.”
Sierra Stein, 24, knows all too well how important it is to have genuine connections and distractions in the hospital. She said she contracted COVID-19 last summer and became paralyzed in her legs, which required her to stay in the hospital for a few months as she received treatment.
“It was miserable because you couldn’t have anyone there,” Stein said. “You’re isolated, you’re lonely. It’s a really dark place.”
Stein was later released and regained the ability to walk, but more pain in her legs again required an emergency room visit in July 2021, she said.
Based on her previous experiences, she tried to avoid a longer hospital stay but her attending nurse, Johns, sat with her for over 10 minutes, soothed her worries and convinced her to go.
While Stein was receiving treatment, she said staff mentioned that there was a nurse going around and braiding patients’ hair.
“They were like, ‘Do you want to get your hair braided?’ and I said, ‘Oh yeah, of course,'” Stein said. “That’s when I saw Brooke again.”
According to Johns, ER nurses see a high volume of people and and often don’t know what happens after they leave the ER.
To find patients, Johns goes to her director and sends out a broadcast to staff asking if they have any patients who want to get their hair braided. Johns’ colleagues then text her with patients’ room numbers, and she goes to them one by one.
“We never get to see the end of the story, which is why Sierra was such a special situation — that never happens,” Johns said. “We either help people to the point where they get to go home or we help people to the point where they need to be admitted to the hospital, and that’s where our access to them stops.”
The human contact from a person who cared made a world of difference to Stein.
“It’s such a nice distraction from your illness,” Stein said. “When you’re in the hospital your mental health kind of gets shut down.”
She continued, “It’s really just amazing that there are fairy godmothers going around in the hospital who actually care and take the time to sprinkle a little sunshine on you. … It makes you feel like you’re at home again.”
Beyond providing an important level of connection for patients, Johns said she does this because we don’t know what a person may be going through and wants to make people feel like they’re loved.
“Everybody has a story that will bring you to your knees,” Johns said. “Life is hard and that’s why I think it’s so important to be kind and patient and spend time with people.”
Alexis Mussi, Southern Hills’ CEO, told “GMA” that other nurses were inspired by Johns and are now giving back in a similar manner.
“This past year our care team became the spouse, the family member, the friend, the everything for our patients,” Mussi said. “When there isn’t someone here holding that hand at the bedside, it really became our team doing that, so having people like Brooke really helped.”
