(GUANTANAMO BAY) — After over 560 days of delay, the drawn-out pretrial proceedings of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other detainees accused of orchestrating the Sept. 11 attacks got underway again on Tuesday. But it took only a matter of hours for the hearing to run into yet another speed bump.
Mohammed, the alleged architect of the terror plot, along with Walid bin Attash, Ramzi bin al-Shibh, Ammar al-Baluchi and Mustafa al Hawsawi, filed into the courtroom of Guantanamo Bay Naval Base’s “Camp Justice,” which hosts the military commissions, for the first time since the pandemic sidelined the military court.
Seated with their defense teams, the men talked amongst each other and appeared engaged in their cases. Mohammed, known in recent years for his vibrantly colored facial hair, sported a bright orange beard along with thick black glasses. Some of the other defendants wore paramilitary attire.
Each detainee spoke out only once during the hearing, affirming that they understood their rights. Mohammed answered “yes,” speaking in English. Bin al-Shibh also responded in English, while the other three men communicated through translators.
While Mohammed has a reputation for courtroom outbursts, in a twist, it was the judge who became the central focus of the day’s hearing.
As part of his debut on the bench in the proceedings, Col. Matthew McCall — who was named to preside over the case last month — conducted a review of his qualifications, opening himself up for questions from the prosecution and the defense.
One of Mohammed’s attorneys, Gary Sowards, latched on to McCall’s circuitous route to his appointment. McCall was initially selected to oversee the trial last year, but withdrew after prosecutors objected, citing his lack of experience. He was reinstated after completing two years as a military judge, meeting the minimum requirement for the war court.
Sowards questioned McCall on whether the prosecution’s complaints had resulted in undue influence over the judiciary, resulting in his temporary removal from the case. The defense argued that this allowed for another judge to step in and — after a prolonged legal fight — authorize the destruction of a CIA black site, a secret international prison where terror suspects were subjected to “enhanced interrogation tactics” like waterboarding, which many human rights organizations consider to be torture.
During the questioning, McCall remained level, describing the situation as legally ambiguous in his estimation, but went along with the withdrawal to avoid complicating an already very complicated case.
“Why create an appellate issue? There are other judges who could do this case,” he said.
But moments later, the prosecution interrupted, informing the bench of a newly issued Military Commission Review on the exact topic of discussion. It determined that McCall could preside, but that all of the decisions he made before clocking two years of experience would be undone — leaving only the ruling on the destruction of the black site in place.
McCall dismissed the court several hours ahead of schedule to allow both sides to regroup and strategize.
But James Connell, a civilian death penalty attorney representing al-Baluchi, needed little time to process the information.
“One of the most important issues in the case is how the torture of these men is going to ultimately affect the trial and trials mean evidence,” Connell told reporters on the base. “The intentional destruction of evidence takes away from the defense and really the American people, information about what actually happened.”
Connell said the defense plans to appeal the order, but lamented yet another delay in a trial that’s dragged on for nearly a decade.
“This order is one more example of why this process takes so long, because each issue has to be separately litigated,” he continued. “Things come up in this military commission that never come up anywhere else. Where else in the world does the Pentagon issue an order telling a judge how to decide a case? It just doesn’t happen anywhere else except here at Guantanamo.”
(NEW YORK) — The United States is facing a COVID-19 surge this summer as the more contagious delta variant spreads.
More than 649,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 while over 4.5 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 62% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Sep 07, 5:57 pm
Idaho hospital officials plead with public to get vaccinated as they run out of beds
Idaho hospital officials are pleading for the public to get vaccinated and take COVID-19 warnings seriously after the state declared a crisis in its standards of care.
Kootenai Health, a northern Idaho hospital, currently has 113 patients with COVID-19, an increase from the 90 patients they had last week, officials said. Administrators had to set up 22 beds in a conference room to deal with the influx of patients.
Dr. Robert Scoggins the chief of staff at Kootenai Health, said the hospital was not built for a pandemic this size. Currently, 39 patients are in the intensive care units and 19 are on ventilators, all on high levels of oxygen, he said.
The hospital said it could see as many as 140 patients in the coming weeks.
“The message that I’d like to send out to people is that we’re near the limit that we can handle in this facility,” Scoggins said in a news conference. “We’ve done a lot of things to expand our care to take care of more patients, but it keeps growing. If we had everyone in the community vaccinated, we would not be in this position.”
-ABC News’ Flor Tolentino and Nicholas Kerr
Sep 07, 4:00 pm
Louisiana hospital reports significant decline in number of patients
In hard-hit Louisiana, the Ochsner Health System is seeing a significant decline in COVID-19 patients, now down to 530 — dropping by nearly 250 patients in the last week, hospital CEO and president Warner Thomas said.
But in the wake of deadly Hurricane Ida, releasing patients from hospitals has been difficult, as some patients have no homes to return to, he said.
Sep 07, 3:30 pm
Oregon hospitals ‘scrambling’ with cases, hospitalizations ‘hovering at or near pandemic highs’
Hospitals in Oregon are “scrambling” to stay afloat with cases and hospitalizations “hovering at or near pandemic highs,” the state epidemiologist, Dean Sidelinger, said at COVID-19 briefing Tuesday.
Oregon saw 16,252 new cases in its most recent weekly report – which is 13 times higher than the reported cases for the week ending July 4, Sidelinger said.
Hospitalizations and intensive care unit admissions are “alarmingly high” and hospitals are at a “saturation point” where they aren’t “able to provide care to everyone arriving at their door,” Sidelinger warned.
Sep 07, 3:08 pm
Former NBA player on 10th day in ICU
Former Phoenix Suns and Los Angeles Lakers player Cedric Ceballos, 52, tweeted that he’s on his 10th day in the ICU battling COVID-19.
On my 10th day in ICU, COVID-19 is officially kicking my but, I am asking ALL family, friends , prayer warriors healers for your prayers and well wish for my recovery.
If I have done and anything to you in the past , allow me to publicly apologize.
My fight is not done…..
Thx pic.twitter.com/r9QZBpfmEI
Military medical personnel head to Idaho, Arkansas, Alabama
About 60 military medical personnel are heading in three, 20-person teams to Arkansas, Alabama and Idaho to help treat hospitalized COVID-19 patients following a request from FEMA, the U.S. Army North said.
The personnel, including doctors, nurses and respiratory therapists, were sent to hospitals in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho; Ozark, Alabama; and Little Rock, Arkansas.
Six teams had previously been dispatched to six other hospitals: three in Louisiana, two in Mississippi and one in Dothan, Alabama.
Sep 07, 1:43 pm
Crisis Standards of Care enacted as ‘last resort’ at 10 Idaho hospital systems
A Crisis Standards of Care plan has been enacted at 10 hospital systems in Idaho, which is only done as a “last resort,” Dave Jeppesen, director of the Idaho Department of Health and Welfare, said in a statement Tuesday.
The hospitals were chosen due to their “severe” shortages in beds and staffing as a result of a “massive increase” in COVID-19 hospitalizations, state officials said.
Crisis Standards of Care “means we have exhausted our resources to the point that our healthcare systems are unable to provide the treatment and care we expect,” Jeppesen said. “This is a decision I was fervently hoping to avoid.”
“When crisis standards of care are in effect, people who need medical care may experience care that is different from what they expect,” state officials said. “For example, patients admitted to the hospital may find that hospital beds are not available or are in repurposed rooms (such as a conference room) or that needed equipment is not available.”
Sep 07, 12:37 pm
75% of American adults have had at least 1 vaccine dose
Seventy-five percent of U.S. adults have now had at least one vaccine dose, Cyrus Shahpar, the White House’s COVID-19 data director, tweeted Tuesday.
Sunday-Tuesday just in: +1.51M doses reported administered over Saturday’s total, including 681K newly vaccinated and 105K additional doses. As usual, lower reporting over the holiday weekend. Just hit 75% of adults with at least one dose!
Sixty-four percent of U.S. adults are fully vaccinated, according to CDC data.
Sep 07, 10:36 am
Biden to layout administration’s strategy to combat delta
President Joe Biden on Thursday will deliver remarks on his plan to stop the spread of the delta variant and to boost vaccinations, the White House confirmed Tuesday.
Biden “will lay out a six-pronged strategy … working across the public and private sectors,” a White House official said.
On Friday, while addressing August’s disappointing jobs report, Biden said, “there’s no question the delta variant is why today’s jobs report isn’t stronger. … Next week, I’ll lay out the next steps that are going to — we’re going to need to combat the delta variant, to address some of those fears and concerns.”
Part of the strategy Biden referenced Friday is to ask states and local governments to consider using federal funding to extend unemployment benefits in hard-hit areas.
“I want to talk about how we’ll further protect our schools, our businesses, our economy, and our families from the threat of delta,” Biden said Friday. “As we continue to fight the delta variant, the American Rescue Plan we passed continues to support families, businesses and communities. Even as some of the benefits that were provided are set to expire next week, states have the option to extend those benefits and the federal resources from the Rescue Plan to do so.”
Sep 07, 7:05 am
3rd person dies in Japan after receiving contaminated Moderna vaccine
A third person has died in Japan after receiving a dose from one of three batches of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine that have since been recalled due to contamination, according to the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.
The 49-year-old man died on Aug. 12, one day after getting his second shot of the two-dose vaccine. His only known health issue was an allergy to buckwheat, the Japanese health ministry said in a statement Monday.
Two other men, aged 30 and 38, also died in August within days of getting their second Moderna shot. In all three cases, the men received doses from a batch manufactured in the same production line as another lot from which some unused vials were reported to contain foreign substances at multiple inoculation sites in Japan.
The deaths remain under investigation, and the Japanese health ministry said it has yet to establish any casual relationship with the vaccine.
The contaminated lot and two adjacent batches were suspended from use by the Japanese health ministry last month, pending an investigation. Moderna and its Japanese distribution partner Takeda Pharmaceutical Co. ultimately recalled the three lots, containing about 1.63 million doses, after an investigation confirmed the foreign matter to be high-grade stainless steel from manufacturing equipment.
The Japanese health ministry said that, based on the companies’ analysis, it is unlikely the stainless steel contaminants pose any additional health risk.
Moderna and Takeda have yet to release statements on the third fatality, but the companies have previously said there is currently no evidence that the other two deaths were caused by the vaccine.
(PORTLAND, Ore.) — Local lawmakers in Portland, Oregon, are set to vote on an “emergency resolution” on Wednesday to ban the city’s procurement of goods and services from the state of Texas in the wake of its restrictive new abortion law.
The resolution, which will be voted on by the Portland City Council, also seeks to ban city employee business travel to Texas.
“The ban will be in effect until the state of Texas withdraws its unconstitutional ban on abortion or until it is overturned in court,” a statement from Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler’s office said of the resolution.
“City legal counsel is currently evaluating the legal aspects of this proposed resolution,” the statement added. “The Portland City Council stands unified in its belief that all people should have the right to choose if and when they carry a pregnancy and that the decisions they make are complex, difficult and unique to their circumstances.”
Texas’ new abortion law, which went into effect last Wednesday, bans physicians from providing abortions if a fetal heartbeat is detected (including embryonic cardiac activity). This can happen as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. While the law prohibits the state from enforcing the ban, it instead authorizes private citizens to bring civil suits against anyone who “aids or abets” an abortion — which can even include a driver taking someone to a clinic.
The Portland City Council added that it stands in solidarity with people who may face “difficult decisions about pregnancy” and affirmed that it respects their rights to make the best decision for themselves.
Finally, the members called on others in office to take similar action.
“We urge other leaders and elected bodies around the nation to join us in condemning the actions of the Texas state government,” the group stated.
A spokesman for the city council declined ABC News’ request for further comment Tuesday on how they will seek to enforce the resolution.
The move comes as public pressure mounts on both the government and the private sector over the Texas abortion law.
Ride-hailing giants Uber and Lyft both said last week that they would cover the legal fees if its drivers were sued under the new law while driving for the platforms.
Dating app Bumble, which is headquartered in Austin, announced last week on Twitter that it was setting up a “relief fund” to support those seeking abortions in Texas.
(KABUL, Afghanistan) — With the U.S. military and diplomatic withdrawal now complete after 20 years in Afghanistan, the Taliban has taken over the country, including the Kabul airport, the site of an often-desperate evacuation effort the past two weeks.
But even as the last American troops were flown out to meet President Joe Biden’s Aug. 31 deadline, other Americans who wanted to flee the country were left behind and the Biden administration is now focused on a “diplomatic mission” to help them leave.
When President Joe Biden sat down with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos for an exclusive one-on-one interview at the White House on Aug. 18, he said he was committed to keeping the U.S. military in Afghanistan as long as needed. “If there are American citizens left, we’re going to stay until we get them all out,” he said.
Here are the latest developments. All times Eastern:
Sep 07, 6:16 pm
Taliban leaders release 1st official statement
In its first official statement since announcing a new caretaker government, the Taliban said their previous 20 years of “struggle and Jihad” had two major goals: to end foreign occupation and aggression and to establish “a complete, independent, stable, and central Islamic system in the country.”
“Based on this principle, in the future, all matters of governance and life in Afghanistan will be regulated by the laws of the Holy Sharia,” according to the statement.
The statement said the Taliban wants strong and healthy relations with all other countries and “We are committed to all international laws and treaties, resolutions and commitments that are not in conflict with Islamic law and the country’s national values. We also call on the countries of the world to value building strong and cordial political, diplomatic and good relations with us and to also cooperate with us.”
“The Islamic Emirate will take serious and effective steps towards protecting human rights, the rights of minorities as well as the rights of the underprivileged groups within the framework of the demands of the sacred relation of Islam,” the statement continued.
Despite suggestions the new regime would be more inclusive, the Taliban appointed no women to any of the interim positions, and even disbanded Afghanistan’s Ministry of Women’s Affairs.
The statement went on to say that media is an important element of the country and the Taliban said it “will work for the freedom, functioning and improvement of the media quality. We consider it our duty to take into account the sacred precepts of Islam, the national interests of the country and impartiality in our broadcasts.”
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Sep 07, 12:19 pm
Biden admin pushes back on reports Taliban blocking US citizens from leaving
The Biden administration has pushed back on reports that the Taliban is stopping American citizens with proper documentation from flying out of Mazar-e-Sharif, a northern city where chartered planes have sat on the tarmac for a week.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, speaking in Qatar, confirmed for the first time on Tuesday that there are “a small number of Americans” in Mazar-e-Sharif trying to depart, but he told reporters it was his “understanding that the Taliban has not denied access to anyone holding a valid document … but because all of these people are grouped together, that’s meant that flights had not been allowed to go.”
In other words, in his view, the Taliban is blocking the larger group, and the Americans were unfortunately stopped because they’re alongside others who don’t have valid documents.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki, was also asked about Americans stuck in Mazar-e-Sharif on Tuesday and whether the administration views it as a “hostage situation.”
“No, that is not what we would characterize it as,” she told reporters on Air Force One.
“Our secretary of state is in Qatar right now working on a range of options, including getting flights up and operational and going. And what we have seen is that individuals who have documentation are able to depart,” Psaki added.
Sep 07, 11:47 am
Taliban announce new caretaker government
The Taliban have announced a new caretaker government for Afghanistan on Tuesday, naming Mullah Mohammad Hassan Akhund, who is on the United Nations sanctions list and described as “one of the most effective Taliban commanders,” as the interim prime minister, and Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar as deputy prime minister.
The militant group appointed former Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp detainee Mullah Abdul Haq Waseeq as Afghan Intelligence Chief. The new government also includes two Haqqani leaders with $5 million in U.S. bounties on their heads as ministers.
Along with several other ministers, none of which was a woman, the Taliban announced the disbandment of the Ministry of Women’s Affairs from its new caretaker government.
Sep 07, 4:55 am
Around 100 Americans remain in Afghanistan, Blinken says
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters Tuesday that “somewhere around 100” Americans remain in Afghanistan.
“We believe the number of those who have American citizenship — many of them dual nationals — who remain in Afghanistan is somewhere around 100,” Blinken said during a press conference in Qatar’s capital. “We’re in direct contact with virtually all of them.”
“For weeks now, we’ve been working very closely with Qatar, with Turkey to see to it that the Kabul airport could get up and running again to civilian air travel as soon as possible,” he continued. “We’re also working to facilitate overland passage for those who wish to depart when it comes to charters.”
Blinken admitted it’s a challenge without personnel on the ground in Afghanistan but one that “we’re determined to work through.”
“Many thousands of U.S. citizens or permanent residents or at-risk Afghans, who successfully evacuated and relocated from Kabul, have left aboard charter flights. Now, others are working to arrange more such flights,” he said. “We are working around-the-clock with NGOs, with members of congress and advocacy groups, providing any and all information and doing all we can to clear any roadblocks that they’ve identified to make sure that charter flights carrying Americans or others to whom we have a special responsibility can depart Afghanistan safely.”
U.S. officials have been engaging with the Taliban on departing flights, according to Blinken.
“They said that they will let people with travel documents freely depart,” he noted. “We will hold them to that, so will dozens of countries. The international community is watching to see if the Taliban will live up to their commitments.”
“It’s my understanding that the Taliban has not denied access to anyone holding a valid document, but they have said that those without valid documents at this point can’t leave,” he added. “Because all of these people are grouped together, that’s meant that flights had not been allowed to go. We’ve been able to identify a small number of Americans who we believe are seeking to depart from Mazar-e-Sharif with their families.”
Sep 06, 3:07 pm
4 US citizens evacuated over land border
The State Department has facilitated the evacuation of four U.S. citizens across one of Afghanistan’s land borders — the first Americans to leave the country with U.S. government help since President Joe Biden ended the massive, chaotic evacuation efforts that closed the country’s longest war.
Four Americans made their way across land with Taliban knowledge, according to a senior State Department official, who told ABC News they evacuated without Taliban interference.
The official declined to say which country they arrived in but added they were in “good condition” and met by U.S. embassy staff from the local embassy.
While the State Department helped these four evacuate, White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain said Sunday there were approximately 100 U.S. citizens still trying to escape the country, nearly a week after the last U.S. forces departed.
Among those left behind, there are several Americans in the northern city of Mazar-e-Sharif ready to board charter flights out that are being blocked by the Taliban, according to several sources. The Taliban has not give permission to the airlines, leaving the potential passengers stuck in the city now for days.
A State Department spokesperson told ABC News Sunday that they could not confirm the manifests of these flights because there were no U.S. personnel or assets in Afghanistan anymore, but added, “We will hold the Taliban to its pledge to let people freely depart Afghanistan.”
Sep 06, 4:53 am
Taliban claims victory over Panjshir, last pocket of resistance
The Taliban claimed victory Monday over Afghan opposition forces in Panjshir province, the last pocket of resistance in Afghanistan and the only province that the Taliban had not seized last month.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid issued a statement saying Panjshir was under full control of Taliban fighters.
“We tried our best to solve the problem through negotiations, and they rejected talks and then we had to send our forces to fight,” Mujahid later told a press conference in Kabul on Monday.
The Taliban posted photos and videos on social media apparently showing fighters standing at the gate of the Panjshir provincial governor’s office and raising the group’s flag in the provincial capital.
A spokesperson for the resistance group, the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan (NRF), took to Twitter to deny that Panjshir had fallen.
“Taliban’s claim of occupying Panjshir is false,” the spokesperson tweeted. “The NRF forces are present in all strategic positions across the valley to continue the fight. We assure the ppl of Afghanistan that the struggle against the Taliban & their partners will continue until justice & freedom prevails.”
Sep 05, 6:31 pm
Some US citizens unable to fly out of Afghanistan due to Taliban interference
The Taliban is blocking efforts to get U.S. citizens out of Afghanistan on flights, according to a non-governmental organization arranging travel for some passengers.
Marina LeGree, the CEO of Ascend, told ABC News that the Taliban has prevented 600 people from leaving Mazar-e-Sharif by charter plane for six days.
The NGO is helping 100 of those passengers, none of whom are American, to try to fly out. LeGree said she is aware of 19 U.S. citizens who are trying to leave but Ascend is not overseeing their departure.
“Ascend, an organization dedicated to empowering young women through athletics, has members trying to leave Afghanistan,” LeGree told ABC News in a statement Sunday. “We call on the Taliban to honor their commitments and allow these charters to depart immediately.”
The affected passengers are either staying at the airport or at nearby hotels, according to LeGree.
The U.S. Department of State did not confirm whether there are Americans on those flights, but said it “will hold the Taliban to its pledge to let people freely depart Afghanistan.”
(NEW YORK) — Jury selection for the trial of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes began last week and was completed over a three-day process, with the prosecution and the defense agreeing on seven men and five women.
Holmes was charged by the Department of Justice with 12 counts of fraud more than three years ago, accused of defrauding investors, patients and doctors. She potentially faces decades in prison if convicted. She has pleaded not guilty.
Three weeks ago, a panel of 240 potential jurors were summoned to complete a 28-page questionnaire that focused heavily on their media consumption and knowledge of those involved with the case, as well as their own medical history. The defense had originally submitted a more extensive questionnaire with 112 pages and 45 questions that presiding United States District Judge Edward Davila then trimmed.
Of the 240 potential jurors, Davila and attorneys from both the prosecution and defense called in 132 to the Robert F. Peckham Federal Courthouse for questioning. Holmes was present in the courtroom alongside her team of lawyers, who watched and took notes as potential jurors entered for voir dire.
One of Davila’s first questions to the potential jurors was related to whether any of them had seen the media coverage surrounding Holmes. About half raised their hands, including now-dismissed potential juror Michael Roccaforte.
Roccaforte spoke exclusively to ABC News’ Rebecca Jarvis on “The Dropout: Elizabeth Holmes on Trial” podcast, where he described his experience throughout the process. He recalled seeing Holmes standing in front of the courthouse while he and other potential jurors were walking in.
“She was kind of staring at all the jurors as they walked in … almost looking as if she was about to greet us or something,” Roccaforte told ABC News.
Once in the courtroom, he described Holmes as “confident, poised” and “a little bit intense.”
Roccaforte, who is a radio producer in San Francisco, told Davila it would be difficult for him to do his job and avoid seeing the breaking news around the trial.
“I’m looking at my computer and it’s just Theranos, Theranos, Theranos,” he told ABC News, recalling his conversation in court.
Ultimately, Roccaforte was dismissed, and the banter between him and Davila caused some in the crowd to laugh, including Holmes.
“Elizabeth Holmes looked back at me and chuckled herself and we made eye contact for a second,” Roccaforte said.
Other potential jurors were released for a range of reasons, from their own health issues to financial hardships to biases they couldn’t put aside.
“The ideal juror for Elizabeth Holmes would be someone who would … find her to be a likable kind of person … or has either personally or knows someone close to them who believes they have been wrongfully prosecuted in a case, so they just have a general mistrust of government or authority figures,” James McGarity, a partner at the jury consulting firm R&D Strategic Solutions, told Jarvis on “The Dropout: Elizabeth Holmes on Trial.”
Defense attorney Jose Baez said the defense would benefit if the jury included a small business owner or entrepreneur.
“You want people who have the audacity to take a chance, to risk their livelihood on something that’s unproven and, at the same time, they could relate to having bad people working for you or sometimes things that are outside of your control,” Baez said.
As for the prosecution’s ideal juror, defense attorney Dick DeGuerin, who is currently representing accused murderer Robert Durst, said they would like somebody “that wants to enforce the law no matter what.”
McGarity agreed, saying the prosecution would likely seek “people who are what we call ‘law and order’ types, who invest a lot of faith in the law and law enforcement, people who believe that charges against someone like Ms. Holmes would not be brought unless there is solid evidence.”
The jury now ranges in age from 19 to about 60 years old. Of the 12 jurors, six are white, four are Hispanic, and two are Asian. There are also two jurors who said that English was not their first language, with one saying that she had to use a translation device on her phone to understand some of the words in the questionnaire.
(WASHINGTON) — As COVID-19 case rates remain at a level not seen since before vaccines were widely available in the United States, President Joe Biden is set to deliver remarks Thursday on a new strategy to stop the spread of the contagious delta variant, White House officials confirmed Tuesday.
“On Thursday the president will speak to the American people about his robust plan to stop the spread of the delta variant and boost vaccinations,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said.
In the remarks, “the president will lay out a six-pronged strategy,” involving both the public and private sectors, she added.
Biden has already made significant moves in requiring vaccines among public sector workers. He instituted a vaccine requirement for the nation’s 2.1 million federal employees, and the Department of Defense will require vaccination for 1.3 million active duty service members.
But realistically, Biden has limited legal authority to institute a broad vaccine mandate for most Americans.
“Yes, that’s — that’s true,” Psaki said Tuesday, confirming Biden’s hands are tied when it comes to a widespread mandate.
Psaki did seem to suggest that Biden will call on the private sector to institute more mandates. Major corporations such as Facebook, Google and Citigroup have already announced vaccination requirements.
“We don’t have any preview quite yet. I will note that we’ve seen that there are a range of ways that we have increased vaccinations across the country, or vaccinations have increased, I should say. One of them is private sector companies mandating in different capacities that their employees get vaccinated. Or certain school districts mandate,” Psaki said Tuesday.
Biden alluded to his plan to lay out his COVID-19 strategy in economic remarks Friday, focused on the disappointing August jobs report.
“There’s no question the delta variant is why today’s jobs report isn’t stronger. I know people were looking, and I was hoping, for a higher number. But next week, I’ll lay out the next steps that are going to — we’re going to need to combat the delta variant, to address some of those fears and concerns,” Biden said Friday.
Part of the strategy Biden referenced Friday is to ask states and local governments to consider using federal funding to extend unemployment benefits in hard-hit areas.
“I want to talk about how we’ll further protect our schools, our businesses, our economy, and our families from the threat of delta. As we continue to fight the delta variant, the American Rescue Plan we passed continues to support families, businesses, and communities. Even as some of the benefits that were provided are set to expire next week, states have the option to extend those benefits and the federal resources from the Rescue Plan to do so. Not more federal taxes, state taxes, but they have the federal money to be able to do that. States continue to have access to a wide array of support, like help for schools that are reopening, help for childcare centers to make them available and affordable, and other resources to help our economy get back to normal,” Biden said Friday.
But no states have indicated a plan to take Biden up on his proposal.
The remarks are scheduled for just 11 days before the administration is set to begin widely rolling out booster shots of Pfizer, a process that has been mired by confusion as some public health experts say the data doesn’t yet support the need for boosters, and as Moderna failed to meet the data reporting deadline to begin offering boosters the same day as Pfizer.
As children return to school for the fall semester, many in-person for the first time since the start of the pandemic, fears are rising that classrooms could host even more virus spread.
“We need to continue to take more steps to make sure school districts are prepared and make sure communities across the country are prepared,” Psaki said Tuesday.
The administration did announce one positive milestone Tuesday: at least 75% of adults in the U.S. have at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, according to the White House COVID-19 data director.
(NEW YORK) — The president of the Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ advocacy group in the U.S., was terminated Monday night for allegedly helping former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in his response to sexual harassment allegations.
Alphonso David, a former lawyer for Cuomo, was voted out by the Human Rights Campaign and its foundation boards of directors “for cause, effective immediately, for violations of his contract.”
The Aug.3 New York Attorney General report, which alleged Cuomo sexually harassed multiple women, alleged David sent files relating to accuser Lindsey Boylan’s employment history to Cuomo staff at the request of Cuomo’s then-secretary Melissa DeRosa in December 2020. The files were later shared with several journalists after Boylan tweeted that the Governor had sexually harassed her, the report said.
David, who worked as chief counsel to the governor from April 2015 until becoming president of the HRC in August 2019, was not working for the Cuomo administration at the time he sent the files.
Further, the report stated that the governor and a group of advisors worked on a draft letter in response to Boylan’s sexual harassment allegations. David reportedly received a draft of that letter. When the governor suggested to put signatures on the letter, “Mr. David testified that he told Ms. DeRosa that he was not signing the letter but was willing to reach out to others to see if they would sign it,” the AG report stated.
HRC and its boards of directors announced an investigation into his actions related to the AG report last month.
“As outlined in the New York Attorney General report, Mr. David engaged in a number of activities in December 2020, while HRC President, to assist Governor Cuomo’s team in responding to allegations by Ms. Boylan of sexual harassment,” Morgan Cox and Jodie Patterson, Human Rights Campaign and Foundation Board Chairs, said in a statement.
“This conduct in assisting Governor Cuomo’s team, while president of HRC, was in violation of HRC’s Conflict of Interest policy and the mission of HRC,” they added.
After news of his firing, David shared a statement on social media stating, “Expect a legal challenge.”
“After I demanded truth and transparency, the HRC board co-chairs who should stand for human rights elected to hide in darkness. They unjustly provided notice of termination to me in order to end my fight for the integrity of the review process and for what is right. I asked for the report, they refused. They lied about producing the report,” he said.
“As a Black, gay man who has spent his whole life fighting for civil and human rights, they cannot shut me up,” he added.
In a statement shared on his social media Sunday he said, “I was shocked and sick to my stomach and immediately called on Governor Cuomo to resign,” adding “I was also the one who called for HRC to conduct an independent review, and I participated in it fully.”
Joni Madison, the current chief operating officer and chief staff of the HRC will serve as interim president as the board search for a replacement.
His exit is the latest fallout from the report that also led Roberta A. Kaplan, the co-founder of the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund, which fights for sexual harassment victims, to resign after the report named Kaplan as allegedly being involved in an effort to discredit one of Cuomo’s accusers. She resigned despite contesting the claim that she counseled Cuomo in responding to an accuser.
DeRosa, one of Cuomo’s top aides, also resigned last month after state investigators alleged she was part of the “retaliation” against one of his accusers.
Cuomo resigned last month after the damning report and amid a mounting chorus of calls for him to step down. He has consistently denied all allegations of sexual harassment.
(WASHINGTON) — There are a “small number” of U.S. citizens in the northern Afghan city Mazar-e-Sharif who have been unable to evacuate on chartered flights, Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed Tuesday, but he said the Taliban had grounded the aircraft because others manifested for these flights did not have valid travel documents.
The chartered flights for approximately 600 people have been held at Mazar-e-Sharif’s airport for over a week now, according to sources who helped organize them, with at least 19 U.S. citizens waiting in the city to board and flee Afghanistan.
A top Republican lawmaker said Sunday these Americans and at-risk Afghans were essentially being held hostage by the Taliban – something that Blinken dismissed Tuesday.
The Taliban have publicly said they will allow safe passage for those who want to leave, but without international flights yet and with overland journeys dangerous, it’s been intensely difficult for those that were left behind by President Joe Biden’s evacuation operations.
Among them are at least 100 U.S. citizens, Blinken said Tuesday, adding that the State Department has been “in direct contact with virtually all of them. We have case-management teams assigned to them to make sure that those who want to leave can in fact do so.”
Four of those Americans were able to evacuate over land to a neighboring country, a senior State Department official confirmed to ABC News Monday, saying the department helped facilitate their travel.
The Taliban were aware and did not impede their transit, the official added. They declined to say which country the family of four arrived in, but said local U.S. embassy officials met them at the border and said they were in “good condition.”
Hours later, however, Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, who served as former President Donald Trump’s White House doctor, accused the State Department of “lying,” saying the agency “didn’t do a damn thing for these people for 12 days except almost get them killed repeatedly.”
“This is an attempt to save face by the administration for the Americans they left behind. This is a woman with three children from age 15 all the way down to two-years-old, and they did nothing to try to expedite this,” Curt Mills, a U.S. Army veteran and Trump appointee at the Pentagon, told Fox News. “It’s like we carried the ball to the 99-and-a-half yard line, and them taking it that last half yard and being like, ‘Look what we did.'”
The State Department declined to comment in response.
But Blinken said Tuesday the agency has been “working around the clock with NGOs, with members of Congress, and advocacy groups” and “conducting a great deal of diplomacy on this,” including with Taliban leaders.
That includes with the NGO Ascend, a Washington-based nonprofit dedicated to empowering women and girls through mountain climbing. Its CEO Marina LeGree told ABC News Sunday that its Afghan members are “among hundreds of individuals — including some American citizens — who have been blocked by the Taliban from leaving Mazar-e-Sharif by charter plane for six days” at that point — now going on eight.
Rep. Mike McCaul, R-Texas, the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, went further, telling Fox News Sunday that the Taliban had created a “hostage situation where they’re not going to allow American citizens to leave until they get full recognition from the United States of America.”
Blinken confirmed the State Department had identified “a relatively small number of Americans” in Mazar-e-Sharif with families trying to evacuate, but he denied there was “any hostage-like situation” or anyone held on aircraft or at the airport.
“It’s my understanding that the Taliban has not denied exit to anyone holding a valid document, but they have said that those without valid documents at this point can’t leave – but because all of these people are grouped together, that’s meant that flights have not been allowed to go,” he added.
Some critics have rejected that, saying the Biden administration must do more to get these flights off the ground and help these U.S. citizens and vulnerable Afghans. But Blinken said while they’re “doing all we can to clear any roadblocks… to make sure that charter flights carrying Americans or others to whom we have a special responsibility can depart Afghanistan safely,” the U.S. has limited ability to help.
“Without personnel on the ground, we can’t verify the accuracy of manifests, the identities of passengers, flight plans, or aviation security protocols, so this is a challenge, but one we are determined to work through,” he said Tuesday in Qatar, visiting with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to thank the Qatari government for its help hosting tens of thousands of evacuees.
Qatari teams have flown into Kabul late last week to make repairs at the international airport and negotiate with the Taliban to reopen it securely. Speaking alongside Blinken and Austin, Qatari Foreign Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani told reporters the airport had resumed chartered flights for aid groups and United Nations officials, including the top U.N. aid official Martin Griffiths who visited and met with Taliban leaders Sunday.
“We are about to get everything operational very soon,” Al Thani added, saying negotiations were ongoing with the Taliban to ensure the airport’s management and security — less than two weeks after ISIS-K, the terror group’s branch in Afghanistan, said it attacked a gate and killed at least 182 people, including 13 U.S. service members.
(TEXAS) — Three months and two special sessions after Texas House Democrats engaged in the first of three quorum breaks over the Republican-backed legislative priority of “election integrity,” the final version of the bill officially became law on Tuesday.
In its final form, Senate Bill 1 revises the state’s election laws to tighten ballot access and administration. Some of the provisions outlined in the legislation also appear to be responses to efforts taken by Houston-area officials in Harris County to broaden ballot access during the 2020 general election amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Although there was no evidence of widespread fraud across Texas following the 2020 election, Republican proponents of the legislation claim it seeks to restore voter confidence in the state’s election parameters.
“One thing that all Texans can agree [on], and that is that we must have trust and confidence in our elections. The bill that I’m about to sign, helps to achieve that goal,” Gov. Greg Abbott said at Tuesday’s bill signing ceremony in Tyler, Texas.
Republican supporters of the legislation — including the state’s Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick — also praised the bill as a tool for deterring “cheaters” from casting fraudulent ballots.
“Texas turns out voters because they have confidence that our elections are always going to be fair and Senate Bill 1 will give them even more confidence. We want to see more people vote, we want to see them vote fairly and we don’t want the cheaters to undermine our elections,” Patrick said during the bill signing ceremony.
The bill’s transcendence into law signals a political win for Abbott, who made “election integrity” a priority over the course of two special legislative sessions. The move also echoes Abbott’s political alignment with former President Donald Trump, who baselessly attacked the nation’s election processes after his presidential loss in November.
Meanwhile, Texas Democrats insist they will continue to push back politically.
“The signing of this harmful bill will only make us more determined,” Texas Democratic Party Chair Gilberto Hinojosa said in a statement Tuesday.
Democrats in the state legislature had been battling the legislation for months. After first engaging in a final-hour quorum break in May to prevent the first iteration of the bill from passing, House Democrats fled to Washington, D.C. ahead of a subsequent July special session in hopes of working with federal lawmakers to push for national voting rights legislation.
Their exit brought the legislature to a halt until Abbott called for a second special session in August. Faced with a reemerging COVID-19 crisis at home, enough Democrat lawmakers returned to Austin to clear a quorum and watch the Republican majority put the bill over the finish line.
The legislation goes into effect in December, three months following the end of the latest special session, at which point it will officially ban drive-through and 24-hour voting sites, both of which were widely utilized in the populous and diverse Harris County — one of the state’s few deeply blue political areas.
The new law will also make it a state jail felony for election officials to proactively send applications for mail ballot requests to voters if the voters themselves did not request the documents. During the 2020 campaign season, Harris County election officials attempted to send mail ballot applications to millions of the county’s registered voters, but the effort was halted by the Texas Supreme Court.
Under the new law, poll watchers will have “free movement” within polling places. They will also have the ability to “observe all election activities” including the closing of polling places and the transfer of election materials. Although the provision prohibits poll watchers from observing voters as they fill out ballots, the legislation makes it a criminal offense if an election official “knowingly prevents a watcher from observing an activity” or prohibits officials from refusing to accept watchers into a polling place.
Voting rights advocates consistently criticized these provisions as creating ballot access hurdles for people of color. In response, Republicans frequently touted the new law’s expansion of early voting hours, which will mandate that counties with populations of 55,000 people or more provide at least 12 hours of early voting during the second week of the early voting period.
Upon signing the bill into law, Abbott praised the new law’s expansion of in-person early voting while drawing an inaccurate comparison to the voting parameters in President Joe Biden’s home state of Delaware, which Abbott said does not have an early voting period. Although Delaware did not have early voting in the 2020 campaign cycle, it will have an early voting period implemented in 2022, which would coincide with when S.B. 1 going into effect.
Republicans also removed a highly controversial provision that was outlined in a failed version of a “voter integrity” bill during the first special session, which limited the start of Sunday early voting hours. That provision was seen as a direct response to “souls to the polls” voting mobilization traditions in Black churchgoing communities and was often cited in criticisms from Democrats throughout their second quorum break. The ensuing fallout of the now-defunct provision spurred lawmakers to add an hour to the early voting time frame on Sundays to the bill signed by Abbott.
The effects of S.B 1 would play out just as the 2022 midterm election cycle gears up across one of the nation’s emerging political battlegrounds, but at least two federal lawsuits filed in Austin and San Antonio were already contesting the law’s legitimacy before Abbott signed the bill into law.
Meanwhile, Texas Democrats — many of whom hoped to stall the legislation in July by breaking quorum and camping out in Washington, D.C. — continue to put pressure on federal lawmakers to act.
“Senate Bill 1 will go into effect on December 3rd. With the deliberate barriers to voting created by this legislation and redistricting just around the corner, we need the U.S. Senate to act immediately on the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. Our democracy depends on it,” Texas House Democratic Chair Chris Turner said in a statement.
(LA.) — The nation is still grappling with the aftermath of Hurricane Ida, which made landfall Aug. 29 and knocked out power to more than 1 million in Louisiana.
At least 69 people have died due to the storm — which hit Louisiana as a Category 4 hurricane — as well as the devastation it left across eight states
In Louisiana, 13 have died due to the storm’s wrath. In the Northeast, at least 52 have died.
President Joe Biden will survey the damage of Ida’s remnants in New York and New Jersey on Tuesday.
“Just days after visiting Louisiana to see the damage from the storm there, President Biden will also highlight how one in three Americans live in counties that have been impacted by severe weather events in recent months,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said. “Just over the summer, 100 million Americans have been impacted by extreme weather, obviously in the Northeast, out West with wildfires, and then in the Gulf Coast.”
Biden has touted the extreme weather as a critical reason why Congress should pass his infrastructure package.
Recovery efforts continue in the South, where 60% of the 948,000 Entergy utility customers who lost power finally had it restored, the company said Tuesday.
In Louisiana, 54% of customers who lost power have had lights return, but 322,000 remain with outages, and in New Orleans, 73% of customers who lost power had it restored and 55,000 customers remain in the dark, Entergy said.
A team of 26,000 workers are restoring downed and damaged power lines. However, some hard-hit areas including Lafourche Parish and Plaquemines Parish aren’t forecast to have power restored until Sept. 29, according to the company’s estimation.
In Louisiana and Mississippi, 30,679 poles, 36,469 spans of wire and 5,959 transformers were damaged or destroyed — that’s more than Katrina, Ike, Delta and Zeta combined.
Access to water remains a major problem in the state, with boil water advisories still in place in the parishes of Jefferson, Lafourche, St. Charles, St. Tammany, St. John the Baptist, Plaquemines and Tangipahoa.
More rain will is forecast to come down in Louisiana, further inundating the already saturated soil, with temperatures in the upper 80s, according to the National Weather Service.
Tuesday marks the last day for locals to evacuate to Ida shelters in northern Louisiana. Locals in need of shelter can go to one of eight pick-up locations for bus transportation.
About 14,000 people in Lafourche Parish were left homeless after Ida razed through and destroyed 75% of structures there.
“We are working feverishly, as hard as we can to get all people what they need to keep their lives going and to rebuild our community,” Lafourche Parish President Archie Chaisson said to CNN on Monday.
Nursing home deaths are also a mounting concern in the state.
Among those who died in Louisiana, seven were nursing home residents who were transferred to a warehouse in Independence and later died. Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry has opened an investigation into the deaths. The Louisiana Health Department is also investigating nursing homes that transferred patients there and ordered all of them to shut down Saturday. Only five of the seven deaths were confirmed by the state to be storm-related.
On Saturday, during wellness checks at eight New Orleans facilities, five nursing home residents were found dead, the city said in a news release. None of those have been confirmed to be storm-related. In response, the city determined all eight facilities were “unfit” and evacuated nearly 600 residents to hospitals and shelters.
Also in Louisiana, at least four people have died and 141 were treated in hospitals for carbon monoxide poisoning in the wake of Ida, according to the Louisiana Department of Health, prompting officials to urge the public for safe generator use.
Officials advise placing generators at least 20 feet away from a home and assure all air entry points near the unit and home are properly sealed.
