(NEW YORK) — The United States has been facing a COVID-19 surge as the more contagious delta variant continues to spread.
More than 681,000 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. The average number of daily deaths in the U.S. has risen about 20% in the last week, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The U.S. is continuing to sink on the list of global vaccination rates, currently ranking No. 45, according to data compiled by The Financial Times. Just 64% 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 23, 6:38 am
COVID-19 hospitalizations reach another all-time high in Iowa for 2021
More people are currently hospitalized with COVID-19 in Iowa than at any other point
this year so far, according to weekly data released by the Iowa Department of Public Health on Wednesday.
The data shows that there are now 638 people hospitalized with the disease statewide, up from 578 last week. Although the figure is nowhere near Iowa’s peak of more than 1,500 in mid-November last year, it’s the highest number of COVID-19 hospitalizations that the Hawkeye State has recorded since December.
Sep 22, 7:48 pm
FDA authorizes Pfizer booster dose for those who are 65 and up, high-risk
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has authorized a third booster dose of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for people who are 65 and older or at high risk of severe COVID-19, the agency announced Wednesday.
The dose is authorized to be administered at least six months after the second shot. High-risk recipients must be at least 18 years old.
The announcement comes days after a similar recommendation from FDA advisers.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s advisory board is scheduled to vote on booster recommendations Thursday.
Sep 22, 6:04 pm
Florida letting parents choose whether to quarantine asymptomatic, close-contact children
The Florida Department of Health issued an emergency rule Wednesday that lets parents choose whether to quarantine their children if they are deemed a close contact of someone who tested positive for COVID-19.
In such cases, parents can let their children “attend school, school-sponsored activities, or be on school property, without restrictions or disparate treatment, so long as the student remains asymptomatic,” the emergency rule stated.
The move is the state’s latest to empower parents when it comes to coronavirus measures in schools. In July, Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an executive order giving parents the choice of whether to send their kids to school with masks, setting off an intense back-and-forth between the state and districts that mandated masks in the weeks since.
DeSantis touted the new “symptoms-based approach” during a press briefing Wednesday.
“Quarantining healthy students is incredibly damaging to their educational advancement,” he said. “It’s also incredibly disruptive for families all throughout the state of Florida.”
At least one superintendent in Florida has spoken out against the new quarantine rule.
“I find it ironic that the new state rule begins with the phrase ‘Because of an increase in COVID-19 infections, largely due to the spread of the COVID-19 delta variant,'” Carlee Simon, superintendent of Alachua County Public Schools, said in a statement posted to Twitter Wednesday.
“In fact, this rule is likely to promote the spread of COVID-19 by preventing schools from implementing the common-sense masking and quarantine policies recommended by the vast majority of health care professionals, including those here in Alachua County,” she added.
(WASHINGTON) — Even as the Biden administration makes progress toward dispersing the large group of mostly Haitian nationals gathered in Del Rio, Texas, government officials are facing internal divisions over how the migrants have been treated.
“As we speak out against the cruel, the inhumane, and the flat out racist treatment of our Haitian brothers and sisters at the southern border we cannot and we must not look away in this moment,” Democratic Rep. Ayanna Pressley said Wednesday.
Joined by a growing chorus of Democratic leaders in Congress, Pressley was referring to the striking images of Border Patrol agents on horseback confronting migrants and snapping their reins aggressively.
Some Democrats are also calling on the Biden administration to immediately stop repatriating the Haitians back to their island nation, citing concerns about safety. As of Wednesday afternoon, officials report there were just over 5,547 migrants left in the encampment under an international bridge in the South Texas town of Del Rio, as the Biden administration scrambles to track, process and remove the group that at one point ballooned to more than 14,000 people.
Rep. Pressley on situation at U.S. southern border: “Haitian lives are Black lives, and if we truly believe that Black lives matter, then we must reverse course.”
“Despite the Administration’s rapid deployment of personnel and resources in response to this crisis, much of the strategy to address the care of these vulnerable individuals is deeply concerning,” Democratic Reps. Bennie Thompson and Gregory W. Meeks said in a joint statement on Wednesday. “Specifically, we urge the Administration to halt repatriations to Haiti until the country recovers from these devastating crises.”
The Department of Homeland Security has a limited number of options after agents encounter unauthorized migrants in the border region. Some are referred to ICE custody for detention or deportation while many are released to U.S. resettlement organizations and given a future date to report or appear in court.
DHS extended temporary protections for Haitian nationals over the summer. But it only moved the deadline to apply to July 29. That means those who have arrived more recently do not qualify for the Temporary Protected Status designation even if they fled Haiti before the deadline, and thay are subject to removal under what’s called Title 42.
“We have looked at the country conditions and made a determination that in fact we can return individuals who’ve arrived,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said.
DHS provided a statement to ABC News Wednesday evening saying removal flights from Texas to Haiti will continue, noting that more than 1,000 migrants have already been flown back.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the government has rapidly expelled hundreds of thousands of migrants from the U.S. under a decades-old part of the public health code known as Title 42. These expulsions have gravely concerned immigrant advocates who say the process cuts off access to the humanitarian protections some migrants are due.
Immigration officials have cited the protocols as a necessary tool in managing the migration challenges, but resources on the border have remained strained and agents have been pushed to their limits in an attempt to manage the influx in Del Rio.
At the same time, images of the tactics used by Border Patrol agents on horseback have stirred outrage from Democrats, with some drawing connections to extremist views.
“Congress must do the work of investigating and ensuring accountability of the egregious and white supremacist behavior of border patrol agents in Del Rio Texas,” Pressley said at the Wednesday press conference.
Mayorkas addressed the images of the horse mounted patrol at the beginning of Wednesday’s House Homeland Security Committee hearing and reiterated that the agents in question won’t be interacting with migrants while the agency investigates.
“The facts will drive the actions that we take,” Mayorkas said. “We ourselves will pull no punches, and we need to conduct this investigation thoroughly, but very quickly.”
“I’m unhappy, and I’m not just unhappy with the cowboys who were running down Haitians and using their reins to whip them. I’m unhappy with this administration,” Rep. Maxine Waters says at a news conference on the situation at the U.S. southern border. https://t.co/tUeqoESHTPpic.twitter.com/BuWTMs8ilf
He said he expects the investigation to wrap up “in days and not weeks.”
Mayorkas was pressed again Wednesday about providing data that explains what has happened to migrants after they’ve been arrested or detained by border officials. When asked repeatedly by Republican Rep. Carlos Gimenez of Florida, he declined to provide specifics or estimations, citing concerns over accuracy.
“Congressman, I want to be precise in my communication of data to the United States Congress and to you specifically having posed the question,” Mayorkas said.
White House Press Secretary Jenn Psaki was also questioned Wednesday on the lack of information coming out of DHS about where the Haitian nationals are ending up, including how many have been released into the U.S.
“I certainly understand why you’re asking and understand why people have been asking Secretary Mayorkas,” Psaki said. “Those are numbers that are — the secretary — the Department of Homeland Security would have the most up-to-date numbers.”
“But why is it so hard to keep track of a simple number like that?” asked ABC News White House Correspondent Cecilia Vega. “Why can’t you give it? Why can’t he give it? It’s been two days now he’s been asked that.”
“I’m certain they will provide it. It’s an absolutely fair question to ask, and I’m certain he just wanted to have the most up-to-date numbers to provide,” Psaki responded.
Vice President Kamala Harris spoke to Mayorkas on Tuesday, expressing her concerns about the treatment of migrants at the hands of agents for Border Patrol, a subdivision of the Department of Homeland Security.
Mayorkas promised her an update on the investigation into the incident involving Border Patrol agents on horseback and said the department is taking its obligations to provide humanitarian support seriously, according to a readout of the conversation from the vice president’s office.
ABC News’ Kenneth Moton, Luke Barr, Sarah Kolinovsky contributed to this report.
(TEXAS) — A mounting crisis is unfolding at the U.S.-Mexico border where thousands of migrants, many from Haiti, have trekked across dozens of countries, facing blistering heat and other dangers to seek refuge in the United States.
But entering the land of the free has proved difficult after migrants waded across the border. They were met by Border Patrol agents and deportation efforts.
All eyes are on the small town of Del Rio, Texas, where at one point more than 14,000 migrants, the majority from Haiti, were sheltering under a bridge.
One of the migrants, Jean Baptiste Wilvens, told ABC News he crossed 11 countries to get to the U.S. after he and his family had been living in Chile for the last four years.
“I’m scared to go back there because right now I cannot live in my country,” he said.
His pregnant wife and 10-year-old daughter are now back on the Mexican side of the border. He said they had made it to the U.S. camp but called it “hell.”
On the U.S. side, Wilvens said they were only given a burrito and a bottle of water per day, but in Mexico, several people came to the camp to give away food, which some migrants got into a fight over.
The mayor of Del Rio, Bruno Lozano, called the scenes unfolding,”heartbreaking.”
“The fact that they’re putting their lives at risk is telling of the situation that they come from,” he said.
Like so many migrants who arrive at the U.S.’ southern border, the current wave has come from Central or South America. Many of them are Haitian refugees who left their country after the 2010 earthquake.
“For a variety of reasons, perhaps mostly economic, the economy suffered with COVID, we have seen them migrate up over the last few months to our southern border,” said Elizabeth Neuman, a former Department of Homeland Security assistant secretary and ABC News contributor.
Now, the world watches to see how the Biden administration handles the influx.
For years after the 2010 earthquake, Haitians living inside the U.S. had been granted temporary protected status. The Trump administration let that designation expire.
However, after the assassination of Haitian President Jovenal Moise in July and another devastating earthquake earlier in August, the Biden administration restored that special status to Haitians.
“While that TPS is only applicable for people that are already here in the United States, that might have given the Haitian community hope that if they somehow got into the United States, maybe they could take advantage of that TPS as well,” Neumann said.
Some of the migrants have claimed asylum and are awaiting the immigration process inside the U.S., but many have already been loaded onto planes and deported back to Haiti.
The Biden administration says one to three flights are leaving a day removing migrants who do not have a valid claim to stay in the U.S. based on Title 42, a Trump-era law prohibiting migrants from seeking asylum in the U.S., citing COVID concerns.
“If you come to the United States illegally, you will be returned. Your journey will not succeed, and you will be endangering your life and your family’s lives,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a Monday press conference.
“Title 42 is actually not immigration law as much as it is public health law that allows an emergency to be declared and basically the borders to be closed,” Neumann said. “A year ago, you could definitely see the case. We did not have vaccines. We did not have a robust testing capability. We have those things now.”
However, unaccompanied minors, and many families are exempt from Title 42. Still, migrant advocates like Guerline Jozef with the Haitian Bridge Alliance say that’s not enough.
“Title 42 should not be used as a way to trap migrants, as a way to trap asylum seekers,” she said. “Why can’t we make sure they are tested, they are vaccinated and provide them the access? Jozef said.
On Capitol Hill, some lawmakers have called for the end of the use of Title 42.
“I urge President Biden and Secretary Mayorkas to immediately put a stop to these expulsions and to end this Title 42 policy at our southern border,” Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Tuesday on the Senate floor.
Now, many migrants are living in fear of being sent back to Haiti after their exhaustive and perilous journeys.
One migrant named Josef, a social studies school teacher and father of three who didn’t want to share his last name, told Nightline he crossed 10 countries to get to the U.S. to give his children the chance at a better life.
“When I saw that my child would not get the education that I wanted, I had to think that maybe the U.S., as a superpower, could give me some wisdom, and that my child could get social protection, a protection for education,” Josef said.
Wilvens compared how the U.S. has welcomed Afghan refugees, but is turning away Haitians.
“The U.S. gives nearly 30,000 Afghans the ability to be refugees in the U.S. but Haitians are deported. Why is that?” Wilvens said.
Neumann said that “we have a debt that we owe the Afghan people,” with the withdrawal of American troops in wake of the swift Taliban takeover and end of 10-year war in Afghanistan.
“There is a slightly different sentiment for those trying to reach us from the Southern Hemisphere. And I think that it’s a good question for us to ask ourselves why,” she said.
Harrowing images from the border have emerged over the past week showing border patrol agents on horseback aggressively attempting to push back migrants as they cross the Rio Grande into the U.S.
One image showed an agent on horseback grabbing a man by the back of his shirt.
“As I saw this, this image brought me back to slavery,” Jozef with the Haitian Bridge Alliance said, overcome with emotion.
“As a Black woman, as a descendant of slaves, as a woman from Haiti whose forefathers and ancestors fought to end slavery, fought for freedom of all Black people, it is painful because we keep on being reminded that our lives do not matter, our pain [does] not matter,” she said.
U.S. Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz initially defended the agents, saying, “We do not know who are the smugglers or who are the migrants. So it’s important that the Border Patrol agents maintain a level of security,” during a press conference Monday.
Homeland Security later slammed the video as “extremely troubling,” saying a “full investigation, which will be conducted swiftly, will define the appropriate disciplinary actions.”
President Joe Biden said he found the videos of tactics used by Border Patrol agents on horseback against Haitian migrants at the Texas border “horrific and horrible,” said White House press secretary Jen Psaki.
But, Biden doubled down on the handling of the chaos at the border.
“We will get it under control,” he said when asked about the crisis by reporters at the United Nations headquarters Tuesday.
Vice President Kamala Harris condemned the treatment of migrants at the border on Tuesday saying, “Human beings should never be treated that way. I was deeply troubled by it.”
Meanwhile, the Del Rio mayor said of the images, “We don’t know the situation that came out that caused that, that contrast to happen, but I can tell you what I’ve seen is, it’s been a humanitarian effort of proportions that I’ve never seen in my life.”
The union representing Border Patrol agents defended the images, arguing that’s part of their training.
DHS says it now has agency monitors on the ground at the border to make sure policies are being followed.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott visited Del Rio Tuesday and asked the Biden administration for an emergency declaration.
“These border patrol officers are overwhelmed with the amount of work they are ordered to do and they’re suffering the consequences of an administration that is not providing either the personnel or the resources they need,” he said.
Neumann said she hopes the crisis will lead to “public pressure on Congress to once and for all address things that we are now on four presidents that have been trying to address this.”
“We’ve got to fix it because the problem is just going to get worse,” she said. “These are human beings that deserve to be treated better than we’re capable of treating them today.”
Jozef with the Haitian Bridge Alliance said people are coming to the border as a last resort.
“Because they are in need of protection, because they are dying, because they need support,” she said.
Their desire for a better life often makes them vulnerable to smugglers and coyotes who have been known to charge migrants anywhere up to $15,000 per person to take them over the border, she said.
“If those people haven’t had an avenue to properly present themselves to want to seek asylum, there would be no need for them to be engaged with those coyotes, to be engaged with those human traffickers, frankly, to be engaged with people who do not have their best interests at heart,” Jozef added.
For families like those of Haitian school teacher Josef, making this treacherous journey for a chance at a better life is one of the last options they have left.
“I went through all these dangers with my family, my wife and my children, because the United States, I think, it’s the last journey for us to make our dreams come true,” Josef said.
(WASHINGTON) — The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol could issue its first subpoenas in the coming days, possibly targeting several former high-level aides to President Donald Trump for records and information, sources tell ABC News.
Former GOP congressman and Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows and White House aides Dan Scavino and Stephen Miller are among those of interest to the committee, sources familiar with the matter have told ABC News.
Trump’s former campaign manager Brad Parscale, who, like the other aides, remains close to the former president, could also be subpoenaed by the panel, sources said.
Sources also said that John Eastman, a lawyer who worked with Trump’s legal team last year, could also be subpoenaed for records and testimony by the committee.
Eastman was the author of a controversial memo obtained by Washington Post reporters Bob Woodward and Robert Costa that encouraged Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the election results on Jan. 6 to keep Trump in office by rejecting the electors in nearly a dozen states.
A spokesperson for the committee declined to comment when reached by ABC News.
Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., told reporters on Monday that the first subpoenas could be issued “within a week.”
Lawmakers were briefed on the status of the probe by committee staff for more than five hours Monday night in the Capitol, meeting in person for the first time in weeks to walk through the complex inquiry via PowerPoint slides.
Thompson said the committee has scheduled testimony with persons of interest, but would not say who those people are and whether they have officially accepted the invitations from the committee.
Committee investigators are in the process of reviewing thousands of pages of documents obtained in response to requests issued in recent weeks to federal government agencies and 35 social media and communications companies.
The panel has also requested documents from the National Archives, which maintains and preserves White House records. National Archives officials said they’re in the process of reviewing the request and have yet to turn over any documents to the committee for their review.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden for the first time admitted the diplomatic fallout with France over a recent defense deal could have been better handled, the White House said Wednesday in a joint statement with French President Emmanuel Macron’s office.
Biden and Macron spoke on the phone Wednesday, in a bid to smooth over the diplomatic fallout from a defense partnership the U.S. struck with Australia and the United Kingdom.
“The two leaders agreed that the situation would have benefitted from open consultations among allies on matters of strategic interest to France and our European partners,” the statement from the White House and Élysée Palace said. “President Biden conveyed his ongoing commitment in that regard.”
The reconciliatory note could signal that France may tone down its criticism of Biden after he agreed to share nuclear submarine technology with Australia.
France’s leaders have compared Biden to his predecessor, President Donald Trump, saying the U.S. surprised France, a key ally, with the agreement — which resulted in Australia scuttling a major deal that had been underway with France.
Biden and Macron plan to meet in Europe in October, according to the statement. Biden is set to head to Glasgow, Scotland, that month for a summit on the climate crisis, although the two sides did not say where the leaders planned to meet.
Meanwhile, Macron will return the French ambassador to Washington next week — France had recalled him in response to the defense news — and the ambassador will who will “then start intensive work with senior U.S, officials,” the statement reads.
The two leaders “have decided to open a process of in-depth consultations, aimed at creating the conditions for ensuring confidence and proposing concrete measures toward common objectives,” the White House and Élysée Palace said. “They will meet in Europe at the end of October to reach shared understandings and maintain momentum in this process.”
The statement also said Biden “reaffirms the strategic importance of French and European engagement in the Indo-Pacific region.”
(WASHINGTON) — Months before the Haitian migrant surge at the southern border, Border Patrol agents on the front lines in Texas sounded alarms that Del Rio was vulnerable and resources could become overwhelmed, according to email messages reviewed by ABC News.
Despite the warnings, officials say preparations for the migrant surge only began when large waves started showing up this week. Now the Biden administration is scrambling to track, process and remove those gathered under an international bridge in the South Texas town of Del Rio that at one point ballooned to more than 14,000.
In one email to Del Rio sector management dated June 1, 2021, members of the National Border Patrol Council expressed the need for additional measures to process migrants in the field in the event that facilities became overwhelmed. Agents offered specific suggestions including the use of digital tablets to allow for early initiation of the migrant intake process immediately after encounters with Customs and Border Protection.
In a second email days later, the Del Rio agents went so far as to ensure the tablets had wireless data capabilities with the right network provider so they could be used along the international boundary line.
The emails were sent to Del Rio Sector Border Patrol management, an arm of the Department of Homeland Security. Management responded weeks later to the June emails with a single line in red typeface:
“This is being explored, several other platforms are being considered which are more efficient.”
“The agency did indeed consider the tablets, but it never materialized into anything of substance,” said Jon Anfinsen, National Border Patrol Council vice president. “As the months went on, the groups continued to increase in size and frequency, but the temporary facilities are only now starting to come online over the past few days, after things had already spun out of control.”
Anfinsen said the groundwork for the migrant surge only began last week as the border became overwhelmed.
Asked by Republican Rep. Michael McCaul on Wednesday about the emails, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said his Department does track migration in Central and South America but that the rate at which this group came together at the border was unprecedented.
“We watch the flow of individuals who are seeking to migrate irregularly through Mexico from the Northern Triangle countries, and further south we do indeed track it,” Mayorkas said. “And nevertheless, a congressman, as I previously articulated the speed with which this materialized is unprecedented.”
“Did you see this threat coming? And if so — what if anything did you do?” McCaul pressed.
“We have not seen before such a rapid migration — irregular migration — of individuals as we have observed and experienced with respect to the Haitians who have crossed the border in Del Rio Texas,” Mayorkas said. “That has been an unprecedented speed.”
The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request to comment on the email exchange. U.S. Customs and Border Protection declined to comment.
There were other early warning signs, including reports of large migrants groups moving into Panama in the early weeks of summer. Panama’s foreign minister was concerned about the mounting pressure after the country’s migration division reported a 477% increase in border crossings between January and April, according to a June report from Bloomberg News.
Haitian migrants have been leaving the island nation in large numbers since the massive earthquake of January 2010. Many moved to reside in Brazil and Chile but have faced a lack of economic stability and security in South America.
Arrests at the border have neared record levels over the summer. CBP has made more than 1.5 million arrests or detentions so far this budget year. Immigration officials point out a significant portion, sometimes as much as a third, of those arrests involve repeat offenders and the administration has taken steps to send migrants further into the interior of Mexico to prevent recidivism.
Haiti has been devastated by natural disasters and political unrest with two major earthquakes in roughly the past decade. The first in 2010 sent thousands seeking refuge in South America. A less expansive, but still deadly, earthquake last month killed more than 2,200. But this most recent quake occurred after the July 29 deadline set by the Biden administration for any Haitians to receive refuge in the U.S.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Wednesday worked to salvage his sweeping legislative agenda as Democratic infighting imperiled his ambitious goals on infrastructure, climate change, and Americans’ relationship with government into peril.
The president planned to host a series of Democratic congressional leaders and factions at the White House, with the goal of pushing two pieces of legislation to the finish line: the bipartisan $1.2 trillion physical infrastructure bill that already passed the Senate but faces challenges in the House, and a potentially much larger bill with hundreds of billions of dollars for “human infrastructure” — funding for child care, eldercare, universal preschool, free community college, combating climate change, and a host of other Democratic priorities.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told reporters late Tuesday that she intends to put the bipartisan infrastructure bill on the floor next week — as early as Monday — for consideration, but it’s unclear if and when the lower chamber will vote on the bill.
Pelosi and Democratic leadership have urged their entire caucus to support the bill, despite the fact that the $3.5 trillion bill is still weeks away from completion and progressives have said they won’t support the bipartisan bill unless the larger social bill is passed. Historically, Pelosi is loath to put a bill on the floor that will fail, so leadership must decide soon how they intend to play this.
Congressional Progressive Caucus chair Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., who met with Pelosi on Tuesday for 90 minutes in her office and is expected to meet with Biden later Wednesday — told ABC News that more than half of her caucus, which stands at nearly 100 members, is ready to tank the bipartisan infrastructure bill if the larger progressive bill isn’t ready by next week.
Meanwhile, moderate Democrats in both houses of Congress oppose some specific items in the larger bill — which Biden calls his “Build Back Better agenda” — as well as its overall price tag. They’ve threatened to tank that bill if significant changes aren’t made to it — changes the progressives adamantly oppose.
“Our belief is that it’s not, it’s not a random number, it’s about what we are putting into the bill and what we’re willing to take out. So if there are people who say they want a smaller bill, are they going to take out childcare or are they going to take out housing or are they going to take out climate change efforts? What is it that we’re going to take out? For us, it’s never been a $3.5 trillion bill. It’s a $0 bill, because there was plenty of money to pay for the entire thing,” Jayapal told ABC News.
With his agenda at risk, Biden planned to host Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer at 2 p.m., followed by House Democratic moderates and Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who has been leading the charge against the larger spending bill, according to people familiar with the meetings. Later, at 5:30 p.m., he’ll meet with Jayapal of Washington, according to a person familiar with the meeting.
“I hope he is the secret sauce,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said of Biden late Tuesday night.
“The president of the United States is always a very influential figure, and I know he wants both bills passed,” Hoyer told reporters.
Biden senior adviser Kate Bedingfield, the White House communications director, will travel to the Hill to meet with House Democrats around 3 p.m., according to a person familiar with that meeting.
Manchin has said for months he believes there should be a “strategic pause” before Congress takes up the reconciliation bill, citing his concerns about spending. His opposition to the price tag runs in tandem with Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. Either one of them could tank the progressive bill from becoming law.
Separately, progressives are insisting that a pathway to citizenship is included in the bill. The Senate parliamentarian dealt a blow to Democrats late Sunday after ruling that immigration reform does not have a direct budgetary impact and therefor could not be included in the reconciliation bill.
Schumer and other Democrats expressed deep disappointment and vowed to continue fighting for new pathways to citizenship for immigrants in the country illegally.
The messy legislative fight carries high stakes with next year’s midterms looming and the president hoping to chalk up a major win Democrats can point to as his approval sags after a much criticized withdrawal from Afghanistan and amid the continuing coronavirus pandemic.
Biden must also contend with a looming possible government shutdown on Oct. 1. Democrats in the House passed a short-term spending bill late Tuesday that would punt the shutdown fight to Dec. 3. The legislation also provides billions in aid for emergency disaster relief and Afghan evacuees. It also suspends the debt limit to December 2022.
But Senate Republicans have vowed to block any legislation that would lift or suspend the debt limit.
Senate Republicans say they oppose suspending the debt limit because of additional spending measures Democrats are currently crafting — even though the debt limit does not authorize new spending and is instead paying off previous debt, much of it incurred during the Trump administration.
Senate Democrats have countered that they have lifted the debt limit with Republicans under the Trump administration on multiple occasions and say it’s a bipartisan responsibility.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has said if Congress does not act to raise the debt limit, the U.S. could default on its debt sometime in October, potentially triggering an “economic catastrophe.”
Republicans, led by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, have said for weeks they will oppose any measure that raises the debt ceiling, insisting that Democrats can do it alone given their control over all three branches of government.
“Since Democrats decided to go it alone, they will not get Senate Republicans’ help with raising the debt limit. I’ve explained this clearly and consistently for over two months,” McConnell said on the Senate floor earlier this week.
Biden has often touted the deal-making skills he honed over decades in the Senate, and the next few days will put his abilities to the test.
(NEW YORK) — A mom who is in the final stage in her fight against ovarian cancer is sharing the details of her “gritty story” to help educate and inform women.
Dr. Nadia Chaudhri, a 44-year-old neuroscientist and professor from Montreal, Canada, has been battling Stage 3 ovarian cancer for the past year, undergoing a hysterectomy and several rounds of chemotherapy.
In May, Chaudhri, the mom of a 6-year-old son, was hospitalized again and learned the cancer had returned, forcing her to tell her son that her cancer was now terminal.
She shared on Twitter this month that she is now receiving palliative care and preparing herself and her family for the reality that she will not be “coming home from this hospital visit.”
I am flooding my Sun with presents. Anything that will remind him of Mama. Today as he left the hospital he said ‘see you tomorrow, although you might also be dead.’ That hurt until I realized he knew I wasn’t coming home from this hospital visit. pic.twitter.com/jP4QKTN1vV
Chaudhri is using her time in the hospital to send a powerful message to women about ovarian cancer, which causes more deaths each year than any other gynecologic cancer in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
“Ovarian cancer comes in many forms & treatments are more advanced for some forms than others, but he bottom line is that ovarian cancer research is underfunded,” she wrote. “We also need more awareness of symptoms because early detection improves prognosis dramatically.”
Chaudhri’s six-month journey to an ovarian cancer diagnosis began in January 2020 when she started to feel symptoms like fatigue, abdominal pain, lower back pain and changes in urination.
After being treated with three courses of antibiotics for what was misdiagnosed as a urinary tract infection, Chaudhri said she continued to have symptoms like fatigue and abdominal pain.
The topic of cancer only came up once she underwent a second ultrasound.
She showed the results to her uncle, a gynecologist, who suggested a blood test for cancer markers, which led to further tests, according to Chaudhri.
“Two weeks later I had a laparotomy. They cut me open from sternum to pubic bone. Indeed, I had cancer,” she wrote. “They removed all of the visible disease in a four hour surgery. It happened on June 10 2020. About 6 months after I first started ‘feeling bad.’”
In January 2020 I started feeling unwell. I was tired, had vague abdominal pain, severe lower back pain & a mild increase in frequency to urinate.
Chaudhri went on to describe the details of her treatment for ovarian cancer, including multiple rounds of chemotherapy and several attempts at clinical trials.
“Know your bodies,” Chaudhri urged women. “Pay attention to fatigue and changes in bowel/urinary tract movements. Make sure you understand all the words on a medical report. Do not dismiss your pain or malaise. Find the expert doctors.”
What women should know about ovarian cancer
Ovarian cancer originates in the ovaries, which make female hormones and produce eggs, or in the nearby areas of the fallopian tubes and the peritoneum, the tissue that lines your abdominal wall, according to the CDC.
A woman’s risk of getting ovarian cancer during her lifetime is about 1 in 78, while her lifetime chance of dying from ovarian cancer is about 1 in 108, according to the American Cancer Society (ACS).
Ovarian cancer can affect females of all ages and races but is most common in women ages 63 and older and is more common in white women than Black women, according to the ACS.
While early signs of ovarian cancer can be vague, the main symptoms are abdominal pain or pelvic pain, bloating and an increase in urination, according to Dr. Jennifer Ashton, ABC News chief medical correspondent and a board-certified OBGYN.
“If these symptoms or others last for more than half the month you want to alert a gynecologist and, again, talk about the fact that it could possibly be ovarian cancer,” Ashton said on “Good Morning America” in June, after Christiane Amanpour, chief international anchor for CNN, announced her own ovarian cancer diagnosis.
It is particularly important for women to pay attention to symptoms of ovarian cancer and speak openly with their doctor because there is currently no reliable way to screen for the disease, according to Ashton.
In some cases, targeted use of pelvic scans and sonograms or a CA-125 blood test may be used to detect ovarian cancer, but additional testing is “not one size fits all and it is not recommended for all women,” explained Ashton.
Treatment for ovarian cancer usually involves a combination of surgery and chemotherapy, according to the CDC.
While there is no known way to prevent ovarian cancer, there are things associated with lowering the risk of getting ovarian cancer, including using birth control for five or more years, having given birth, breastfeeding, having had a hysterectomy, having had your ovaries removed and having had a tubal litigation, according to the CDC.
If you’ve watched Pink‘s documentary All I Know So Far, you know that her two kids, Willow and Jameson, can be a handful sometimes — especially Jameson. But now she claims she’s found a way to get them to take it down a notch.
Pink has partnered with the Calm app to promote its lineup of children’s bedtime stories, read by celebrities like Kate Winslet, Leona Lewis, Anna Kendrick, LeVar Burton and more. She’s done a one-minute voiceover for an ad, in which she says, “Hi, I’m Pink, and I’ve got a bedtime secret that’ll make you think/Once upon a #CalmKids in a land chockful of snooze/Sleep stories help gets your nights back/with calming tales kids get to choose.”
After describing some of the stories that are on offer on the app, Pink concludes, “Sleep stories that entertain, soothe and create laughter/and once the lights are all turned off/It’s sleepily ever after.” Pink’s voice is pretty calming, too, though it’s unclear whether she’ll be reading a book for the app in the future.
“I am SO proud to partner with @Calm to help parents and caregivers everywhere find their sleepily ever after with #CalmKids,” Pink writes on her socials. “Turns out…my kids now look forward to an early bedtime.”
(SALT LAKE CITY) — A massive search is continuing in southern 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 Tuesday as the body discovered on Sunday 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 September 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.
Sep 22, 12:44 pm
Underwater recovery team dispatched to Carlton Reserve
The Sarasota County Sheriff’s Office confirmed on Twitter Wednesday that its Underwater Recovery Force team has been dispatched to the Carlton Reserve near North Port, where the search for Laundrie is focused.
The sheriff’s office, one of multiple law enforcement agencies involved in the search, did not elaborate on why the team was needed at the search site.
We continue to respond to requests for mutual aid from neighboring law enforcement agencies & federal partners. To confirm, yes, members of our Sheriff’s Underwater Recovery Force have responded to Carlton Reserve. This in addition to our Emergency Response Team, Air-1 & patrol. pic.twitter.com/LcagDcofLL
“We continue to respond to requests for mutual aid from neighboring law enforcement agencies & federal partners. To confirm, yes, members of our Sheriff’s Underwater Recovery Force have responded to Carlton Reserve,” reads the agency’s tweet.
Sep 22, 12:42 pm
2nd witness corroborates domestic dispute between couple
The Moab, Utah, police department has released a report from a second witness claiming he saw Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie engaged in a domestic dispute in Moab on Aug. 12.
The witness told police he observed a man and a woman, later identified Petito and Laundrie, arguing over a cellphone about 4:30 in the afternoon outside a grocery store in Moab, according to a statement from police.
“They were talking aggressively @ each other & something seemed off. At one point they were sort of fighting over a phone — I think the male took the female’s phone. It appeared that he didn’t want her in the white van. He got into the driver’s seat & she followed him. At one point she was punching him in the arm and/or face & trying to get into the van,” the witness wrote in the police report.
The witness, according to the statement, said the woman eventually climbed over the driver to get into the passenger seat and that she was overheard saying, “Why do you have to be so mean”?
“I wasn’t sure how serious this was — it was hard to tell if it was sort of play fighting, but from my point of view something definitely didn’t seem right. It was as if this guy was trying to leave her, and maybe take her phone? Not sure but wanted to help out,” the witness wrote.
Around the same time, a 911 caller told a Grand County, Utah, Sheriff’s Office dispatcher that he witnessed Laundrie allegedly “slapping” Petito and chasing her up and down a sidewalk hitting her, according to a recording released by the sheriff’s office.
Sep 22, 10:54 am
Search for Brian Laundrie presses on as Petito family plans funeral
As a massive search continued Wednesday for Brian Laundrie in south Florida’s Carlton Reserve, the family of Gabby Petito was making arrangements to bring her remains home to her native New York for a funeral.
A large team of law enforcement officers and police K-9 units resumed their search of the roughly 25,000-acre preserve near North Port, Florida, where Laundrie’s relatives told police he claimed he was headed to when they last spoke to him on September 14.
Photos posted on Twitter Wednesday morning by the North Port Police Department showed officers from multiple agencies plotting areas to search, along with other images of high-water vehicles and search dogs.
Sep 21, 11:44 pm
Search ends for another day with ‘nothing of note’ found
The North Port Police Department said it had ended its search of the Carlton Reserve as darkness closed in with nothing found.
“Search of the Carlton & nearby lands concluded for the evening. Nothing of note,” the police department shared in a tweet. “The current plan is to return Wednesday with a similar operation.”
Search of the Carlton & nearby lands concluded for the evening. Nothing of note. The current plan is to return Wednesday with a similar operation. We join the FBI in asking for continued public assistance by sharing any info 1-800-CALL FBI or https://t.co/vlIagGIoHcpic.twitter.com/5DWopahBI8
Police shared a photo of the search operation’s base in the reserve as well as one of the bloodhounds being used to look for the missing person of interest in conjunction with the death of his girlfriend.
Gabby Petito’s body was officially identified on Tuesday evening after it was found near Grand Teton National Park on Sunday. The Teton County coroner said Petito died via homicide, but did not yet announce a cause of death.
Sarasota police also later debunked a rumor that Laundrie had been taken into custody. It said on Twitter that they had received several tips about him being seen, but none of them panned out.
