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(NEW YORK) — The United States is facing a COVID-19 surge this summer as the more contagious delta variant spreads.

More than 614,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 and over 4.2 million people have died worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

Just 58.2% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC last week, citing new science on the transmissibility of the delta variant, changed its mask guidance to now recommend everyone in areas with substantial or high levels of transmission — vaccinated or not — wear a face covering in public, indoor settings.

Here’s how the news is developing Wednesday. All times Eastern:

Aug 04, 10:01 am
WHO chief: No booster shots until at least end of September

The World Health Organization is calling for a moratorium on booster shots until more people from low-income countries have received a vaccine.

Low-income countries have only been able to administer 1.5 shots for every 100 people due to lack of supply, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, said Wednesday.

A moratorium on boosters until at least the end of September will “enable at least 10% of the population of every country to be vaccinated,” he said.

Aug 04, 9:20 am
Alabama hospital sees deadliest day of pandemic

Four COVID-19 patients at Regional Medical Center in Anniston, Alabama — all unvaccinated — died within 24 hours, marking the hospital’s deadliest day of the pandemic, The Anniston Star reported.

As delta surges, patients are now getting sicker faster, a doctor at the hospital told the newspaper.

Only 28% of residents in Calhoun County are fully vaccinated, according to The Anniston Star.

Aug 04, 8:24 am
Obama to ‘significantly scale back’ 60th birthday party

Former President Barack Obama has decided to “significantly scale back” his 60th birthday party on Martha’s Vineyard due to the spread of the delta variant, according to a spokesperson. Hundreds of guests were expected to attend.

“This outdoor event was planned months ago in accordance with all public health guidelines and with covid safeguards in place. Due to the new spread of the delta variant over the past week, the President and Mrs. Obama have decided to significantly scale back the event to include only family and close friends,” spokesperson Hannah Hankins said in a statement.

Obama’s office did not give a new estimate of how many guests will attend.

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(NEW YORK) — Charlotte Bennett, a former aide to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and one of the 11 women accusing him of sexual misconduct, is calling for the governor’s immediate impeachment.

“September is not soon enough,” Bennett, 25, said Wednesday on Good Morning America. “This needs to happen now. He’s a danger.”

On Aug. 3, a months-long probe by New York State Attorney General Letitia James found that Cuomo sexually harassed multiple women, including current and former state employees. Following the announcement, Cuomo released a recorded video in which he denied any sexual misconduct and addressed Bennett directly.

“It wasn’t an apology and he didn’t take accountability for his actions,” Bennett said. “He blamed me and said that I simply misinterpreted what he had said.”

After working with the governor last year, Bennett lodged a harassment complaint, saying that the governor asked her inappropriate questions and made her feel uncomfortable.

“His line of questioning was not appropriate,” she said. “He was coming onto me and he insinuated that survivors of trauma and sexual assault can’t tell the difference between mentorship and leadership and sexual harassment itself — which is not only insulting to me but every survivor who listened to him yesterday.”

She added, “The victim blaming is not OK.”

Bennett’s complaint was the second of two sexual misconduct accusations against Cuomo at the time and it sparked the attorney general investigation. The first person to accuse Cuomo, Lindsey Boylan, tweeted her allegations in December 2020.

“I actually DM’ed her on Twitter and we had a private conversation in which I told her what I was experiencing and why I left public service earlier that same year,” Bennett said. “And, you know, when there are two women, there are more than two. We know from experience that it’s not just one person and that’s why we need to believe every woman who makes these allegations.”

After watching Cuomo’s response to the attorney general’s findings, Bennett said she felt “overwhelmed but mostly vindicated.”

“I had just listened to the New York State attorney general tell me and the 10 other women that we were believed … that was powerful and so much more important than anything the governor had to say,” she said.

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(MIAMI) — Five Miami Beach police officers are now facing criminal charges after they were seen on body camera and security video kicking a handcuffed Black man in a hotel lobby and tackling and pummeling a Black witness who was recording the incident on his cellphone.

Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle announced the officers have been suspended and charged with first-degree misdemeanor battery.

“Excessive force can never, ever, ever be an acceptable foundation for policing in any community,” Fernandez Rundle said at a news conference on Monday. “Officers who forget that fact do a grave disservice to the people they have sworn to serve.”

Fernandez Rundle, with Miami Beach Police Chief Richard Clements standing behind her, played a four-minute compilation of body camera and security camera footage showing the episode that unfolded in the early hours of July 26 in the lobby of the Royal Palm Hotel in South Beach.

The state attorney went over the footage in detail, stopping and rewinding it several times to point out the individual officers who were charged and even running the video in slow motion to show two officers kicking the handcuffed detainee in the head.

“With my team, when we saw that kick to the head, and then we replayed it and saw all the kicks that preceded it — it was just unfathomable. It was unspeakable. It was just inexcusable,” Fernandez Rundle said.

She said the incident started when a police officer chased 24-year-old Dalonta Crudup into the hotel and stopped him at gunpoint as he tried to take an elevator.

A police report obtained by Miami ABC affiliate WPLG alleged that Crudup was involved in a confrontation with a Miami Beach bicycle police officer over illegally parking a motorized scooter and allegedly struck the officer with the scooter. Fernandez Rundle said the officer’s leg was injured in the encounter with Crudup and that he had to be hospitalized.

Once stopped by a police lieutenant inside the hotel, security camera footage showed Crudup appearing to comply with the officer’s orders to step out of an elevator with his hands up.

“Crudup exits the elevator with his hands raised and drops down to the ground with his arms outstretched in front of him,” Fernandez Rundle said.

After he was handcuffed with his arms behind his back, the security video showed 21 officers rushing into the lobby, swarming around Crudup and assisting in his arrest, Fernandez Rundle said.

“It is at this point the situation begins to change, in our opinion, from a legitimate arrest of a criminal suspect into an ongoing investigation of the use of force by five Miami Beach police officers,” Fernandez Rundle said.

The security video appeared to show Sgt. Jose Perez allegedly kick Crudup in the head while he was face down on the ground with other officers on top of him. At one point, Perez appears to also be seen in the video lifting Crudup and slamming him to the ground.

The video showed Perez walk away briefly twice before returning and appearing to kick Crudup in the head.

The hotel security video allegedly showed Officer Kevin Perez, who Fernandez Rundle said is not related to Jose Perez, kicking Crudup at least four times.

Other officers then turned their attention to 28-year-old Khalid Vaughn, who Fernandez Rundle said was standing 12 to 15 feet away recording Crudup’s arrest.

Body camera video appeared to show officers Robert Sabater allegedly tackling Vaughn, who was backing away. Officers David Rivas and Steven Serrano allegedly helped Sabater pin Vaughn against a concrete pillar. The body camera video appears to show Sabarter, Rivas and Serrano taking turns pummeling Vaughn with body blows.

“Body-worn cameras played a critical role in this case,” Fernandez Rundle said.

She said Vaughn was initially arrested on charges of impeding, provoking and harassing officers. Fernandez Rundle said those charges were dropped as soon after she viewed the videos.

She said the investigation is ongoing and the officers could face more charges.

Fernandez Rundle praised Clements for taking swift action and immediately informing her office of the incident.

“This is by no means at all a reflection of the dedicated men and women of the Miami Beach Police Department,” Clements said at Monday’s news conference. “Moving forward, I can tell you that my staff and I promise you, as individuals and as an agency, that we will learn from this. And we will grow from this.”

Upon his release from custody, Crudup told WPLG, “I got beat up, I got stitches, went to the hospital.” He denied parking the scooter illegally and striking the officer with it.

Vaughn told WPLG he started video recording the incident after Crudup was already handcuffed and on the ground.

“They beat him, turned around, charged me down, beat me … punched me, elbowed me in the face,” Vaughn told WPLG. “I literally got jumped by officers.”

Paul Ozeata, president of the Fraternal Order of Police, told the Miami Herald that the five charged officers are being represented by the police union’s attorneys. He told the newspaper that he hadn’t viewed the video evidence close enough to comment on the officers’ actions.

“They deserve their day in court, just as everyone else does,” Ozeata said.

In an interview with ABC News Live Prime anchor Linsey Davis, Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber said he viewed the video footage and called the incident “unacceptable in every way.”

“This is not who our department is,” Gelber said, adding, “And what our department did was exactly the right thing they should do, which is relieved the officers of duty immediately, and then within hours refer the entire matter to the state attorney’s office for a review.”

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(SURFSIDE, Fla.) — The screams of people shouting for help can be heard in newly released body cam footage from police officers responding to the collapse of Champlain Towers South in the minutes after the Surfside, Florida, building fell to the ground.

Ninety-eight people were killed when the 12-story condominium building collapsed in the early morning of June 24. Investigators are still trying to determine the cause of the collapse.

The three videos released by the Town of Surfside on Tuesday show the chaos and shock as first responders and bystanders try to grasp what had just happened.

The footage begins at around 1:24 am, minutes after the collapse of the building.

The videos show Surfside Police officers arriving at the scene, speaking for the first time with survivors and witnesses, and working with other first responders to secure the area.

In one video, Officer Craig Lovellete is seen arriving at the site of the collapse at around 1:27 a.m. He walks up to other officers and asks if there was a fire.

“No,” one officer replies. “The building collapsed.”

Lovellete peeks over a concrete wall and sees the fallen garage with debris everywhere. Screaming can be heard in the background.

Back in his car, he says, “Oh my god” and sighs heavily.

Later Lovellete encounters Champlain Towers South security guard Shamoka Furman, who was in the building when it came down. Furman describes explosion-type noises she says she heard right before the collapse of the building. In another video clip, Officer Kemuel Gambirazio joins parts of the conversation.

“I hear a boom-boom but I’m thinking it’s the elevator … no beeps or nothing goes off … another boom-boom,'” Furman says. She makes hand motions to show Lovellete that after she heard the noises, the building came down.

After seeing two residents exit the building after the loud noise, Furman said she called 911.

“This never happens, I didn’t even know we had earthquakes — I don’t even know what this was,” Furman says. “I don’t even know how I made it out of there … through the grace of God.”

Asked if the building had any work done lately, Furman says she only works overnight.

Officer Ariol Lage’s body cam footage also shows him encountering Furman earlier, while she was still covered in debris.

“What collapsed?” Lage asks.

“I don’t know, I don’t know,” Furman says. “All I heard was boom. The garage, the pool — if they don’t get out…”

“It’s OK, fire rescue is here,” Lage replies.

Lage’s bodycam footage also shows him at the garage, which was the area of the building that collapsed first.

“There’s a lot of dust, I can barely see anything,” Lage says into his radio. He then hears a woman scream so he calls out for survivors, shining a flash light toward the noise. A woman is seen next to an overturned car, but cars and debris block Lage from getting to her.

“Are you OK?” Lage asks.

“No,” the woman replies.

Footage then shows Lage leaving the garage and making his way to a colleague, and the two walk around the building trying to determine how to get closer as screams can be heard from people in the area. It’s unclear what happened to them.

Lage and his colleagues are also seen trying to move bystanders away from the scene, fearing that the rest of the building could fall. They encounter a woman who appears to be in shock, standing in front of the building.

When told to move back, the woman replies slowly, “I’m just standing here cause I’m the building president and if you need something…”

Lage interrupts the woman and tells her the rest of the building might collapse, then ushers her away.

Another clip shows Officer Gambirazio talking with a someone who says he just made his way down from the 12th floor penthouse.

The man, who appears to be in shock and out of breath, says he was on his phone watching YouTube when he heard something falling.

He says he initially thought it wasn’t a big deal, but then “all of a sudden, I hear, like, it was a jet right through the front of my balcony. So I get up, and was like, ‘Was that a plane?'”

The video shows another person running toward Gambirazio from the direction of the collapse. The man, appearing distressed and shocked, keeps pointing and shouting toward the direction of the building.

As another officer tries to calm him down, Gambirazio tells him, “Listen, right now, we were told by Rescue not even we can help right now. … They’re coordinating something to help get everybody out.”

“Please” the man says, pointing toward the collapsed structure, but Gambirazio interrupts him and says, “I understand, but we have to do whatever they say.”

The man asks the officers if he can make a call to the building, and Gambirazio responds that he can, but adds that he can’t let him back into the area.

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(ST. LOUIS, Mo.) — Missouri Gov. Mike Parson announced Tuesday that he had pardoned Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the St. Louis couple who were charged with waving guns at a group of Black Lives Matter protesters outside their home last year.

Mark McCloskey was seen holding a semi-automatic rifle while his wife was holding a handgun on their property on June 28, 2020, as a group of protesters passed by their house, prosecutors said. The couple were filmed shouting “Get out” to the crowd, but there was no physical confrontation between them and the protesters.

They contended they were protecting their property during the protests.

Several prominent conservative leaders, including President Donald Trump, defended the couple. The McCloskeys were guest speakers at the 2020 Republican National Convention.

A grand jury indicted the couple in October and Pearson told reporters he would consider pardoning them.

The couple pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault and harassment charges in June. They surrendered their weapons and Patricia McCloskey was fined $2,000 while her husband was fined $750.

When Judge David Mason asked Mark McCloskey if he acknowledged that his actions put people at risk of personal injury, McCloskey replied, “I sure did, your honor.”

Mark McCloskey, who announced in May he was running for U.S. Senate, told reporters outside the courthouse after the hearing that he’d do it again.

“Any time the mob approaches me, I’ll do what I can to put them in imminent threat of physical injury because that’s what kept them from destroying my house and my family,” he said.

The couple and the governor didn’t immediately provide statements about the pardons.

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