(NEW YORK) — Annual heat-related deaths worldwide for people over 65 are projected to increase by 370% through the middle of the century if global temperatures rise by 2 degrees Celsius, a new report says.
The projection comes as heat-related deaths of adults over 65 have increased by 85% since the 1990s, according to the annual Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change report.
The hottest global temperatures in over 100,000 years were recorded in 2023 with the planet currently at 1.14°C of global heating, the report says.
Increasing global temperatures are linked to environmental changes like melting Arctic ice caps, drought and heat waves, and more intense hurricanes and wildfires. These stark changes are more than just ecological concerns; they also significantly impact human health, the report stressed.
This new Lancet report comes the same day as the new White House climate report, which flagged that climate-related hazards such as extreme heat, drought and wildfires will continue to grow and directly impact human health.
There were on average 86 days of health-threatening high temperatures in 2018-2022, according to the Lancet report. Human-caused climate change made more than 60% of those days more likely to have happened, the analysis showed.
“We’re already seeing climate change claiming lives or livelihoods in every part of the world. The impacts are happening here and now,” said Marina Romanello, the executive director of the Lancet Countdown and a climate change and health researcher at University College London, during a press briefing.
Droughts and heatwaves are increasing globally, leading to food insecurity and water scarcity, according to the researchers. There has been a 29% increase in areas of extreme drought since the 1950s. Around 127 million more people said that they experienced significant food insecurity in 2021 than annually between 1981 and 2010.
The report also warned that warming ocean temperatures are enabling the spread of the Vibrio bacteria, which can cause serious illness and death if people swim in water with open wounds or eat raw or contaminated seafood.
The coastline area suitable for Vibrio bacteria around the world has increased every year by 329 square kilometers since 1982, putting around 1.4 billion more people at risk of diarrheal disease, severe wound infections and sepsis by 2022.
“Climate breakdown has begun, and humanity is staring down the barrel of an intolerable future. We are already seeing a human catastrophe unfolding with the health and livelihoods of billions across the world endangered by record-breaking heat, crop-failing droughts, rising levels of hunger, growing infectious disease outbreaks, and deadly storms and floods,” said United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres in response to the Lancet report.
The Paris Agreement, the international treaty on climate change, calls for the world to keep global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius, with the aim of limiting the increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
The new report found that under the 2-degree warming scenario, there would be 525 million additional people experiencing significant food insecurity by 2031-2060. There would be 23–39% more cases of infection with Vibrio bacteria under the 2-degree warming scenario. There would also be a 37% increase in the spread of dengue, a mosquito-borne illness that can be life threatening, the report says.
“Continued warming could lead to those patterns spiraling out of control,” Romanello said to the projections outlined in the report.
The researchers behind the report say that there needs to be urgent action on climate change to mitigate the health impacts.
(NEW YORK) — Thousands of people have died and thousands more have been injured since the militant group Hamas launched an unprecedented surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7 and Israel retaliated with a bombing campaign and total siege of the neighboring Gaza Strip, leaving the region on the verge of all-out war.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Nov 15, 7:34 AM EST
IDF suggests it has not yet encountered Hamas fighters inside Al-Shifa Hospital
A senior Israeli defense official said Wednesday that so far Israeli troops have not engaged in combat inside Al-Shifa Hospital itself and suggested they have not yet encountered Hamas fighters within the vast medical complex, the largest in the Gaza Strip.
However, the Israel Defense Forces’ ground operation at Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City is ongoing and they have allegedly found evidence that Hamas, the militant group that rules the strip, is operating inside there, according to the official. More details will be revealed later Wednesday, the official said.
The official noted that Israeli soldiers went into the hospital to destroy Hamas infrastructure, not to go after Hamas leaders.
The official told reporters that four Hamas fighters were killed near Al-Shifa Hospital as Israeli troops approached, but they are still investigating if they came from inside the complex.
The official said Israeli forces are currently operating only in “one area” of the hospital but warned that they will enter other areas as needed. The IDF has “no intention” of sending its soldiers to fight “among the patients or the active personnel of the hospital,” according to the official.
The official told reporters that the hospital’s youngest patients — dozens of premature babies — are in a building of the complex not where Israeli troops are currently operating. Israeli soldiers delivered incubators and baby food at the front gate of the hospital in hopes that the staff there would take them, according to the official.
The official declined to say where exactly Israeli forces were operating within the complex, citing operational security.
Al-Shifa Hospital was designed by Israeli architects decades ago and the IDF knows its layout well.
Nov 15, 5:50 AM EST
UN official ‘appalled’ by Israeli raid on Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital
The head of the United Nations’ humanitarian relief operations condemned on Wednesday the Israeli military’s ongoing raid on the Gaza Strip’s largest hospital, saying he is “appalled” by the reports of the operations.
“I’m appalled by reports of military raids in Al Shifa hospital in #Gaza. The protection of newborns, patients, medical staff and all civilians must override all other concerns. Hospitals are not battlegrounds,” U.N. Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Martin Griffiths wrote in a post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
Nov 15, 5:23 AM EST
IDF continues hourslong raid on Gaza’s Al-Shifa Hospital
The Israel Defense Forces said Wednesday morning that its ground troops are continuing to carry out “a precise and targeted operation against Hamas in a specified area” of the largest hospital in the Gaza Strip.
“The activity in this specified area is based on operational necessities, as well as intelligence information that indicates Hamas terrorist activity is being directed from the area,” the IDF said in a statement. “Prior to their entry, the IDF troops encountered explosive devices and terrorist cells, and an engagement began in which terrorists were killed.”
The raid on Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City began after midnight local time, after Israeli forces had moved closer to the medical complex for several days. Gaza’s Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health said gunfire was heard on the hospital grounds and Israeli troops entered through the main building and the emergency department.
Thousands of civilians, along with hundreds of patients — most of whom are seriously ill — have been sheltering at Al-Shifa, according to hospital staff and Gaza health officials.
The IDF alleges that Hamas has placed its command centers under Al-Shifa and other hospitals in Gaza and is deliberately sheltering behind Palestinian civilians — claims which the militant group denies.
The IDF said Wednesday that its troops “are conducting searches for Hamas terror infrastructure and weapons” at Al-Shifa Hospital. They also “delivered humanitarian aid to the entrance of the hospital,” according to the IDF.
Doctors at Al-Shifa Hospital have been warning of its imminent collapse due to a lack of electricity as well as limited fuel and medical supplies.
Nov 14, 7:19 PM EST
IDF says it’s carrying out ‘targeted operation’ in Al-Shifa Hospital
The Israel Defense Forces said they are carrying out a “precise and targeted operation against Hamas” in an area in the Al-Shifa Hospital.
“The IDF forces include medical teams and Arabic speakers, who have undergone specified training to prepare for this complex and sensitive environment, with the intent that no harm is caused to the civilians being used by Hamas as human shields,” IDF said in a statement.
IDF called upon Hamas militants in the hospital to surrender.
The operation comes after IDF called for military activities in the hospital to “cease within 12 hours,” IDF said, adding: “Unfortunately, it did not.”
Nov 14, 6:35 PM EST
IDF says it will storm Al-Shifa Hospital soon, Gaza Health Ministry says
The Israel Defense Forces have informed the Gaza Health Ministry that they will storm the Al-Shifa Hospital in several minutes, Dr. Ashraf al Qadra, spokesman of the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry, said on Al-Jazeera TV.
-ABC News’ Nasser Atta
Nov 14, 5:53 PM EST
State Department grappling with dissent over US handling of conflict: Sources
State Department employees have sent multiple internal communications in recent days expressing concerns over the administration’s approach to the Israel-Hamas war, including at least one dissent cable, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
The dissent channel is a system that allows diplomats to confidentially register their opposition to specific policies with department leadership, but employees can also formally express their disagreement to high-level officials through other avenues.
State Department spokesperson Matt Miller confirmed Tuesday that Secretary of State Antony Blinken sent a department-wide email on Monday where he noted the tensions and different views among employees.
“He did address in that email…all the issues underlying our policy and made clear people understood what our policy is, just as he has done in meetings he’s had with a number of employees in the department,” Miller told reporters.
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Nov 14, 4:29 PM EST
Nearly 1,000 Americans and family members still possibly waiting to leave Gaza: State Department
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said Tuesday that just under 1,000 Americans and their family members may be waiting to leave Gaza, as hundreds have left so far through the Rafah border crossing.
“There are now over 600 American citizens and lawful permanent residents and their family members who have departed Gaza through Rafah gate,” Miller said during a briefing. “There are a little under 1,000 that we know of that are left now whose departure we hope to facilitate over the coming days should they wish to depart.”
The number of eligible individuals who may be looking to leave the enclave is higher than previously anticipated, based on previous State Department figures. Before the Rafah gate opened to outbound traffic, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said some 400 Americans and roughly 600 of their eligible family members were in contact with the department about leaving Gaza.
-ABC News’ Shannon K. Crawford
Nov 14, 4:11 PM EST
Israel claims Hamas has ‘lost control of Northern Gaza’
Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said during a briefing Tuesday that “Hamas has lost control of Northern Gaza.”
“We control Northern Gaza, especially Gaza City,” Gallant said.
Gallant said the Israel Defense Forces have uncovered 500 tunnels, including in schools, mosques and hospitals, as it seeks to remove Hamas’ leadership and military from Gaza.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
Nov 14, 2:56 PM EST
Breakthrough in hostage deal could come in next 48-72 hours: Israeli source
A senior Israeli political source said Tuesday that progress has been made on a hostage deal and a breakthrough could come in the next 48-72 hours.
The Israeli War Cabinet is meeting Tuesday night to discuss the deal, the source said.
Israeli officials have said as many as 239 Israelis are being held captive by Hamas in Gaza.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller
Nov 14, 2:55 PM EST
US intelligence shows Hamas using hospitals to support military operations, hold hostages: Kirby
The U.S. has intelligence that shows Hamas has used hospitals in Gaza to support its military operations and hold hostages, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby confirmed Tuesday.
“I can confirm for you that we have information that Hamas, and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, used some hospitals in the Gaza Strip — including Al-Shifa — and tunnels underneath them to conceal and to support their military operations and to hold hostages,” Kirby said during a gaggle on Air Force One.
Kirby said Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad operate a command and control node from Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City where “they have stored weapons there, and they’re prepared to respond to an Israeli military operation against that facility.”
Kirby said the information comes from a “variety” of intelligence sourcing.
He cautioned again that these actions by Hamas “do not lessen Israel’s responsibilities to protect civilians in Gaza.”
“This is something that we obviously are going to continue to have an active conversation with our counterparts about,” he said.
During a Pentagon briefing Tuesday, deputy Pentagon press secretary Sabrina Singh described the information as an independent U.S. intelligence assessment and “newly downgraded information that we felt was important to get out today because there have been a lot of questions about the hospital and how Hamas operates.”
Singh did not go into specifics on the intel but said “we feel very confident in our sourcing and what the intelligence community has gathered on this topic.”
-ABC News’ Justin Gomez and Luis Martinez
Nov 14, 2:42 PM EST
Fuel shortage stalls aid deliveries from Egypt into Gaza Strip, official says
A fuel shortage has stalled aid deliveries from Egypt into the Gaza Strip, a Rafah border crossing official told ABC News on Tuesday.
“No aid got in today because [the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees] trucks have no fuel,” Wael Abu Omar, the Palestinian spokesman for the Rafah border crossing, said.
The UNRWA, which is responsible for receiving and distributing humanitarian aid coming from Egypt in Gaza, said Monday its trucks ran out of fuel and it would not be able to to receive aid coming through Rafah on Tuesday.
Tuesday marks the first day no aid trucks crossed into Gaza through Egypt since Oct. 21 amid the war.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Palestine Red Crescent Society said it received the last convoy of trucks from Egypt on Monday, including 155 trucks, following the UNRWA’s announcement.
-ABC News’ Ayat Al-Tawy
Nov 14, 12:28 PM EST
Mass grave dug inside Al-Shifa Hospital, official says
A mass grave has been dug inside Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza to bury dozens of corpses after Israeli forces banned the Red Cross from collecting the bodies, according to Dr. Munir Al-Bursh, the director general of the Palestinian Health Ministry.
“There are approximately 100 corpses lying on the hospital courtyard that have rotted and decomposed,” Al-Bursh told Al-Hadath TV on Tuesday, speaking from inside the hospital, the largest in Gaza. “We are walking on worms and we fear there will be an epidemic.”
Medical staff and people sheltering inside the medical complex have dug a “large hole” to bury the dead bodies, he said. Dozens of other bodies stored in refrigerators at the facility will also be buried in the mass grave, he said.
“Israel tanks are at the gates of the hospital and we are burying bodies under gunfire and with tanks around,” Al-Bursh said.
The hospital ceased to function on Saturday after it ran out of fuel, and staff and health ministry officials inside say the facility has been under siege by Israeli forces for five days, with drones and snipers firing into it.
“We are trying to dig a mass grave to bury the martyrs inside Al-Shifa Hospital. Our efforts to remove the bodies of the martyrs from Al-Shifa complex have failed,” said Dr. Youssef Abu Al-Rish, undersecretary of the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health.
Israeli officials have said Hamas is operating a command center from under the hospital, something denied by Hamas.
-ABC News’ Ayat Al-Tawy and Morgan Winsor
Nov 14, 11:31 AM EST
Humanitarian corridor in Gaza is less than 1.5 miles long, Israeli officer says
One of two humanitarian corridors that the Israeli military has temporarily opened in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday is less than 1.5 miles long, according to an executive officer of an Israeli battalion in charge of the route.
The officer told ABC News that the corridor is a 2-kilometer stretch of Salah al-Din, the main highway connecting the north and south of Gaza. He said his troops have come under sniper fire and that “there were casualties.”
The Israeli military has distributed leaflets directing civilians in the north to routes that take them to the corridors, offering safe passage to evacuate to the south of the war-torn enclave within a designated window of time on Tuesday.
ABC News’ Matt Gutman, Becky Perlow and Juan Rentaria
Nov 14, 7:53 AM EST
IDF says it’s offered to transfer incubators to Gaza
The Israel Defense Forces announced Tuesday morning that it “is in the process of coordinating the transfer of incubators from a hospital in Israel to Gaza.”
“We are doing everything we can to minimize harm to civilians, assist in evacuation, and facilitate the transfer of medical supplies and food,” the IDF wrote in a post on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. “Our war is not with the people of Gaza.”
It was unknown whether the process to transfer incubators was underway and there was no confirmation of Israel’s offer from health officials or medical staff in the Gaza Strip. It was also unclear how the incubators would be powered at Gaza’s hospitals with little to no electricity and fuel.
The announcement came amid worldwide calls to save dozens of premature newborn babies at Gaza’s second-largest hospital.
Al-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City had been struggling to run with limited fuel for days as doctors warn of its imminent collapse. On Friday, fighting in the area intensified and a strike hit the courtyard outside the hospital.
Three of the 39 babies that were being cared for in Al-Shifa’s neonatal unit have died since their incubators stopped working on Saturday, according to the hospital’s head of plastic surgery, Dr. Ahmed Mokhallalati. The hospital staff has been trying their best to look after them, swaddling them and using what power is left to heat the room they are in.
In recent days, several hospitals across Gaza said they have been under attack as heavy fighting occurs between Israeli troops and the militant group that rules the enclave, Hamas. The IDF alleges that Hamas has placed its command centers in tunnels under hospitals in Gaza and is deliberately sheltering behind Palestinian civilians — claims which the group denies.
Nov 14, 5:11 AM EST
IDF announces two evacuation corridors open in Gaza on Tuesday
The Israel Defense Forces announced Tuesday the temporary opening of evacuation corridors in the war-torn Gaza Strip to allow more people in the north of the Hamas-run enclave to move south.
A “safe passage” will be open “for humanitarian purposes” via the Salah al-Din highway toward the area south of Wadi Gaza on Tuesday between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. local time, according to the IDF.
The IDF said it will also temporarily suspend military activities “for humanitarian purposes” in the neighborhoods of Al-Daraj and Al-Tuffah on Tuesday between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. local time.
“Please, for your safety, join the hundreds of thousands of residents who have moved south in recent days,” the IDF said in a statement. “We encourage you to seize the time and move south!”
The IDF also urged Gaza residents to “not surrender to Hamas,” alleging that the militant group “has lost control over the northern Gaza Strip area and is trying to do everything it can to prevent you from moving south and protect yourselves.”
Nov 13, 8:36 PM EST
Israel claims to have evidence of Hamas headquarters at hospital
Israeli military officials brought several journalists, including ABC’s Matt Gutman, into the Al-Rantisi Hospital inside Gaza, which had been hit with artillery.
The hospital, Gaza’s sole children’s hospital, was allegedly a Hamas command center, Israel’s chief military spokesperson Daniel Hagari, who led the tour, claimed.
The hospital was surrounded by Israeli tanks from Thursday into Friday, the director of Al-Rantisi Children’s Hospital said on Friday.
Inside the basement of the hospital, which officials said has been evacuated, were abandoned AK-47s, grenades and what Hagari said were suicide vests. In another room of the basement was a chair where Hagari claims a hostage was kept.
The spokesperson said the Israeli military was set to detonate the grenades and vests they claim they found inside and a forensic team was going to probe the hospital for more evidence.
The tour came after the hospital’s resources deteriorated due to nearby attacks, according to UNICEF.
The hospital’s operations almost ceased between Thursday and Friday, according to UNICEF.
By Friday, Al-Rantisi Hospital had only a small generator powering the intensive care and neonatal intensive care units, UNICEF said.
(NEW YORK) — Chris Josephs wakes up each morning, opens his laptop, and combs through last night’s stock trades.
Josephs, who lives in Santa Monica, California, is not keeping an eye on his own portfolio. Instead, the 20-something tech entrepreneur has spent years intensely following the stocks that are bought and sold by people on the other side of the country — members of the United States Congress.
“It all started off as infuriating,” he said. “You’re like, ‘what the, wait, how are they allowed to do it when other Americans can’t?’”
As long as a trade is reported within 45 days, there’s no law preventing members of the House or Senate from trading stocks, even if the bills they pass or committees they sit on could influence a company’s stock price.
Outraged at first, Josephs says he decided to get in on the action. He moved out West and with a handful of friends launched the app Autopilot.
Autopilot allows users to follow a politician’s trades and then copy them, automatically buying or selling that same stock a lawmaker does at whatever dollar amount they’d like. After less than a year, the company says it has users dedicating tens of millions of dollars to copy the trades certain politicians make.
“The reason why we initially set out with the politicians is because they were killing it,” Josephs told ABC News. “They were making a lot of money.”
In 2012, President Barack Obama signed the STOCK Act, banning members of Congress from trading with nonpublic information, meaning details they glean in their work that are not available to the general public.
But members can still trade. For example, a hypothetical lawmaker could vote for an infrastructure bill and then buy stock in a concrete company. Or they could sit on the Armed Services Committee and legally trade in the stock of defense contractors that receive sizable government contracts.
Josephs is part of a growing online community that’s begun posting on social media the trades members of Congress make, in an effort to show the American people what winners and losers lawmakers pick.
The most well-known name in that movement is the account Unusual Whales. The person behind the account spoke with ABC News [but asked that his name not be used], disguising his face and voice out of fear of blowback from the politicians whose trades he dissects and then publishes on his website and social media accounts that have gained millions of followers.
“One thing people always say is that members are very good at picking stocks, that’s often assumed…but to be quite frank, members were also quite good at avoiding losses,” he told ABC News in his first television interview.
He pointed ABC News to the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and the regional banking crisis. He tracked trades showing several members of Congress, who sit on the House and Senate committees that regulate the financial industry, who sold SVB and other bank stocks before they experienced their sharpest decline.
“I can’t know the intent, if that was what they were aiming to do,” he told ABC News. “But many of the members who were trading banking stocks during that time performed very, very well.”
Annual reviews of the trades of 535 members of the House and Senate, compiled by the Unusual Whales account, have found lawmakers’ stock portfolios consistently beat the S&P 500.
Several members of Congress who actively trade stocks and spoke with ABC News, but declined to be identified, said they never trade with nonpublic information. Some said their trades are made through financial advisers and often without their knowledge. Others said that trading stocks shouldn’t be banned because doing so would cut off a financial source that some politicians use to supplement their income.
ABC News found one trade, made by Victoria Kelly, the wife of Rep. Mike Kelly, R-Pa., which has been under investigation by the House Ethics Committee for more than two years.
A report by the Office of Congressional Ethics (OCE) alleges, in 2020, Victoria Kelly purchased between $15,000 and $50,000 worth of stock in Pennsylvania steel producer Cleveland-Cliffs Inc. She did that, the OCE alleges, after her husband, the congressman, learned the Trump Commerce Department had agreed to open a probe into foreign competitors of the company, which would have impacted the company’s stock price.
But according to investigators, Victoria Kelly bought the stock before that move was made public. The report alleges there is “substantial reason to believe” that stock was purchased with “confidential information.”
Lawyers for the congressman say there’s no evidence the congressman had “any involvement whatsoever in Mrs. Kelly’s decision” to buy the stock and the congressman’s office has said the purchase was Victoria Kelly’s attempt to “show her support” for the struggling company.
The ethics committee opened an investigation into the trade in October 2021. It is ongoing.
When asked by ABC News about the allegations, Rep. Kelly said he was “not going to comment,” citing the pending investigation.
ABC News also found other members of Congress whose trades are under scrutiny, like former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., who has reported millions of dollars in trades over the years, many made by her husband, a financier.
Chris Josephs estimates roughly $10 million in user money on his app Autopilot is specifically dedicated to copying the trades Pelosi discloses on official congressional forms.
In a statement, Pelosi’s office told ABC News she has “no prior knowledge or subsequent involvement in any transactions made by her husband” and was “fully supportive” of Democrat-led efforts last year to ban congressional stock trading.
But those efforts failed. And now there are renewed calls to ban members of Congress from trading stocks altogether.
Earlier this month, Rep. Abigail Spanberger, D-Va., who has long championed a bill to ban her colleagues from trading stocks, called on Speaker Mike Johnson to take action on the issue.
There is also a similar bill backed by Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., a hardline House conservative, and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., a fervent progressive.
“We have access to sensitive information,” Ocasio-Cortez told ABC News. “And to think that a [member of Congress] could then purchase individual stock and make bets and trades and personally benefit from that is, I think, in direct conflict with the spirit of public service that we’re here to do.”
Then, there’s the bipartisan duo from Colorado of Rep. Ken Buck, a Republican, and Rep. Joe Neguse, a Democrat, who, with 19 other Republicans and Democrats, signed a letter in May pushing congressional leaders to do something about stock trading.
“[Congressional stock trading] appears to be unethical, and it is wrong fundamentally and American people know it’s wrong,” Buck told ABC News in a rare joint interview, alongside Neguse.
“The American people expect members of Congress to be serving the American people. And the American public. And not their stock portfolios,” Neguse added.
But, despite public pressure, all the proposed bills to ban congressional stock trading have stalled in various House and Senate committees.
“Welcome to Congress,” Buck replied when asked by ABC News about the lack of progress.
“It has taken longer than we certainly would have liked, but we’re going to continue to push forward,” Neguse added, saying he remains optimistic. “More and more members have joined in this effort than perhaps ever before.”
Chris Josephs is less optimistic.
“I don’t think they’ll ban it. I think it’s all a smokescreen. I genuinely don’t think they’ll do it, because it doesn’t benefit them,” he said before turning to his laptop to watch the trades come through.
(NEW YORK) — Authorities say they are urgently searching the waters of the Gulf of Mexico after a man fell off a cruise ship.
Coast Guard Sector New Orleans watchstanders received a report at approximately 12:40 p.m. on Monday informing them that there was an unaccounted-for passenger from the Carnival Glory cruise ship, which was scheduled to stop at Grand Cayman Island and Cozumel, Mexico, before returning to New Orleans on Sunday, according to the ship’s itinerary.
“The unaccounted-for man has been identified by family members as Tyler Barnett of Houma, Louisiana,” read a statement from the United States Coast Guard released on Tuesday. “Carnival reported he was last seen on security camera at approximately midnight Monday morning.”
The United States Coast Guard District Eight watchstanders immediately launched a Coast Guard Aviation Training Center Mobile HC-144 Ocean Sentry aircrew and an Air Station Clearwater HC-130 Super Hercules aircrew to conduct searches of “a roughly 200-mile area following the path of the ships voyage,” authorities confirmed.
Watchstanders have also been transmitting urgent marine information broadcasts to mariners to make them aware of the missing man in case he is seen in the water and can be rescued by another vessel.
It is unclear how Barnett went overboard but the United States Coast Guard said that “new security footage discovered by Carnival Glory shows the man falling off the cruise ship” and that officials are combing through the search area located approximately 30 miles southwest of the Southwest Pass, in Louisiana.
The search had to be called off overnight due to “severe weather conditions and safety concerns,” authorities said. However, as of Tuesday morning, an Aviation Training Center Mobile HC-144 Ocean Sentry had resumed search efforts.
As of Wednesday, search efforts had not turned up any clues to where Barnett might be but the Coast Guard said they will continue searching for the missing passenger as weather conditions permit.
(NEW YORK) — Less than a week before back-to-back mass shootings in Maine last month, alleged gunman Robert Card threatened employees at a New Hampshire bakery that he might “snap” on them, according to a police report obtained by ABC News.
What could have been another clue for law enforcement days before the Oct. 25 mass shootings in Lewiston would come too late: the report of the incident was made to police after the fact, on Oct. 26.
Hudson police told ABC News that once the bakery employees saw Card on the news, they flagged their own encounters with him.
According to the report, Card had been making deliveries to the bakery in Hudson, New Hampshire for “approximately six months,” one of the employees told police.
This police report also answers, at least in part, what had remained an open question: where Card had been working in the time leading up to the shootings.
As ABC News has previously reported, Card had worked at the recycling plant where police ultimately found his body, but he had “left voluntarily late last spring,” according to the company.
On Thursday, Oct. 19, Card told bakery employees that he “knew” they “were talking about him,” and stated, “Maybe you will be the ones I snap on,” according to the police report.
One of the employees told police “It seemed [Card] may have been hearing voices,” as they had not been saying anything about him.
One employee told police Card did “get in his face” but that “no direct threats were made.”
Six days later on the evening of Oct. 25, Card would open fire at a bar and a bowling alley, claiming 18 lives and injuring 13 more, according to police.
For two days after the shootings, Card was on the run from authorities. While Card evaded police, the bakery staff made their report — his access to the delivery vehicle was something they specifically flagged.
One of the employees warned Card “may have access” to a delivery truck from the company he was employed by, Hudson police told ABC News.
The incident report notes the bakery employee “also advised the business should not be receiving any shipments tonight as Lewiston is locked down.”
Card had previously displayed erratic behavior while on his delivery route, bakery employees told police.
When he first began making the bakery’s deliveries, Card had made a “strange comment,” stating, “I’m not gay or a pedophile, but just show me where the bread goes,” according to the Oct. 26 incident report.
The last time the bakery staff said they saw Card was around 11:30 p.m. on Oct. 24, the night before the shootings, according to the incident report.
Hudson police told ABC News once they received information about Card from the bakery, it was forwarded to the FBI.
This latest revelation marks another in a growing string of missed warning signs ahead of the back-to-back bloodshed in Maine last month.
Card’s comments to the bakery employees echo others he had made — comments that had seriously concerned his family and his fellow soldiers alike — that he would, indeed, “snap.”
In May, Card’s ex-wife and their teenage son went to police with similar issues: Card’s son worried his father’s “mental health is in question” and was “likely hearing voices or starting to experience paranoia,” a “re-occurring theme” as Card claimed derogatory things were being said about him, “such as calling him a pedophile,” according to a separate incident report previously obtained by ABC News.
A mid-September letter from Card’s army reserve training supervisor to local law enforcement warned that Card had been “hearing voices calling him a pedophile, saying he has a small d**k, and other insults. This hearing voices started in the spring and has only gotten worse.”
A series of distraught text messages from one of Card’s fellow Army reservists warned their training supervisor that Card’s mental health was on the decline and that he could pose a “threat to the unit” and “other places,” that he was armed and dangerous, and that he “refused to get help,” according to documents previously obtained by ABC News.
“Change the passcode to the unit gate and be armed if sfc card does arrive. Please. I believe he’s messed up in the head,” those texts said.
“And yes he still has all of his weapons,” the texts continued. “I believe he’s going to snap and do a mass shooting.”
(NEW YORK) — The New York City Police Department has identified a person of interest in connection with an alleged bias attack at a Brooklyn playground last week, where a woman allegedly made anti-Islamic statements at a 40-year-old man who was with his toddler before throwing her phone and hot coffee at him, sources with knowledge of the investigation told ABC News.
The man, who is of Indian descent, claimed the suspect accused him of supporting Hamas after he went to retrieve his 18-month-old son who had wandered into the basketball courts while they were at the Edmonds Playground in Fort Greene on Nov. 7, police said.
The man and his son weren’t seriously hurt during the incident, which was filmed, according to police.
The NYPD released video of the incident which they said was a “hate crime assault” along with still images. The woman is seen wearing a black and white baseball cap, a black fanny pack, and sunglasses.
Detectives have probable cause to arrest the person of interest who was identified from numerous tips to CrimeStoppers, according to sources. The person of interest lives near the playground and detectives were actively looking for her as of Tuesday evening, the sources said.
(NEW YORK) — A Wisconsin woman accused of spiking her friend’s water bottle with a lethal dose of eye drops was found guilty Tuesday of first-degree intentional homicide.
The jury found Jessy Kurczewski, 39, guilty on all counts, including intentional homicide and theft, after deliberating over two days. Kurczewski broke down in tears as the verdict was read in Waukesha County court.
Kurczewski had been charged in connection with the death of 62-year-old Lynn Hernan, who was found dead in her home in Pewaukee in 2018.
Kurczewski was also accused of defrauding Hernan of nearly $300,000 in the two years leading up to her death, according to the criminal complaint.
Kurczewski had pleaded not guilty to first-degree intentional homicide and two counts of felony theft.
Hernan was found unconscious on Oct. 3, 2018, seated in her living room recliner next to a table filled with prescription pills with what appeared to be crushed medication on her chest, according to a police report. The case was initially ruled a drug overdose.
Kurczewski, Hernan’s friend and caregiver, called the police to report that she went to Hernan’s home and found her unresponsive and not breathing, according to the complaint. Kurczewski allegedly told police that she believed Hernan was suicidal because of her debilitating health conditions, the complaint stated.
The Waukesha County Sheriff’s Office reopened the investigation roughly three months after Hernan’s death when the toxicological report showed Hernan had a fatal dose of tetrahydrozoline, the main ingredient in over-the-counter eye drops, in her system, according to the criminal complaint.
Kurczewski was arrested and charged in June 2021.
During the weeks-long trial, prosecutors said that Kurczewski was one of the beneficiaries of Hernan’s will and argued that “Lynn Hernan became worth more dead than alive” to the defendant.
The defense claimed that Hernan wasn’t poisoned by Kurczewski.
“She just liked vodka. She also liked Visine. I have no idea why,” defense attorney Pablo Galaviz said of Hernan during opening statements last month.
Prosecutors said they were satisfied with the guilty verdict and said the medical examiner’s work provided “vital evidence” in the case.
“The defendant betrayed Lynn out of greed,” Waukesha County Deputy District Attorney Abbey Nickolie told reporters following the verdict. “This case highlighted the financial vulnerability of the victim and what a person would do to get what they want.”
The defense did not speak to the press following the verdict.
Kurczewski will be sentenced at a later date. She faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison.
“It’s been five years of stress. I’m just glad we finally have justice,” Anthony Pozza, a family friend who was another beneficiary of Hernan’s will, told reporters following the verdict.
(WASHINGTON) — When National Archives officials approached attorneys for President Joe Biden in the fall of 2022 seeking access to government records he still had in his possession — some of which, they had learned, might contain classified information — the archivists appeared to face little resistance.
“In terms of taking custody to any papers, yes, we are prepared to facilitate whatever access you need to accomplish NARA taking custody of whatever materials it seems appropriate,” wrote Patrick Moore, a onetime personal attorney for the president, at the time.
Other correspondence between Biden’s lawyers and the National Archives in November 2022 includes equally cooperative sentiments: Moore repeatedly used expressions such as “at your convenience,” and “I can be reached any time on my cell.”
Moore facilitated a search of the Washington, D.C.-based Penn Biden Center for National Archives staff, according to emails. He even helped them secure entry and parking at the facility.
“We can have access to the Penn Biden Center at your convenience tomorrow from just after 9 am through 4 pm or so (though we may ask the Center to facilitate access beyond that time if needed — these were just the times initially communicated to me),” Moore wrote in a Nov. 8, 2022, email to National Archives officials. “If Wednesday is preferred, we can facilitate that, too.”
The same day, emails show, Moore helped coordinate the transportation of nine additional boxes from his Boston law office to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library for safekeeping.
Those messages and others emerged Monday as part of a new batch of records related to the government’s earliest efforts to determine whether Biden had inappropriately retained classified information when he left the vice presidency in 2017.
The National Archives’ efforts later evolved into a special counsel investigation led by former U.S. Attorney Robert Hur, which remains ongoing. ABC News previously reported that Hur has interviewed as many as 100 witnesses in the probe, including President Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
The newly released records further demonstrate the contrast in how Biden’s team handled inquiries from the archivists compared to his predecessor, Donald Trump, who allegedly resisted government efforts to retrieve documents that could include closely guarded national secrets.
Federal prosecutors have accused Trump of deliberately withholding records he knew to be classified from investigators with the National Archives and later the FBI. Special counsel Jack Smith in June filed a 37-count indictment against Trump related to the matter, to which Trump has pleaded not guilty.
Trump has sought to link his circumstances to Biden’s by trying to draw an equivalence between their conduct and calling his prosecution the result of a justice system improperly targeting Republicans.
But the records released Monday by the National Archives add to a growing body of evidence showing that the former president and the current president handled government outreach in completely different manners.
Sarah Isgur, a former Department of Justice spokesperson, said “one big difference” between Trump’s and Biden’s legal situation has to do with the discrepancy in their cooperation.
“There would be no classified documents probe if Trump had simply given back the documents after they were discovered at Mar-a-Lago,” said Isgur, now an ABC News contributor.
“Biden’s team clearly hopes cooperation will bolster their defense that this was all inadvertent,” Isgur said. “But for Trump, it’s part of his political and legal strategy at this point to fight back on all fronts. Cooperation may have been legally wise a year ago, but at this point, the cake is baked.”
The government’s efforts to retrieve the documents held by Trump began in early 2022 when officials with the National Archives said they had retrieved 15 boxes of presidential records that Trump had “improperly” taken to his Mar-a-Lago estate after leaving the White House.
The former president had allegedly refused to give back some additional boxes to the Archives, according to an indictment filed by the special counsel, and at least on one occasion allegedly asked staff to not look for any classified documents at Mar-a-Lago.
Trump was then subpoenaed for the return of additional documents authorities said he still possessed, but prosecutors say that he rebuffed those overtures.
In June 2022, federal agents visited Mar-a-Lago to search for additional materials, after which prosecutors said an attorney for Trump signed a statement attesting that all classified documents at Mar-a-Lago had been turned over to federal investigators.
Two months later, FBI agents raided the South Florida estate and found more than 100 additional documents with classified markings that had not been turned over.
(WASHINGTON) — Rep. Angie Craig’s physical injuries healed relatively quickly after a February assault in her apartment building — but her “mental and emotional” recovery has taken “much longer” and is ongoing while she grapples with continued safety concerns, she said in a new victim impact statement.
Her remarks were filed by prosecutors on Tuesday ahead of Kendrid Hamlin’s sentencing in federal court in Washington. In June, he pleaded guilty to assault.
A police report previously obtained by ABC News stated the altercation began when Craig saw a man acting erratically in her building, as if “he was under the influence on an unknown substance.”
Craig said she told the man — Hamlin — “good morning,” according to the police report. She went to the elevator where he followed her, then started to do push-ups in the elevator.
In her victim impact statement this week, Craig detailed what happened that day.
“While this case has received much attention because I am a Member of Congress, that morning I was simply a woman followed into an elevator by a man and assaulted there,” Craig, a Minnesota Democrat, wrote in her statement.
She recalled how Hamlin “trapped me inside.”
“He grabbed my neck and slammed me into the steel wall. He punched me in the face. He attempted to pull me back as the doors opened, and I screamed for help,” she wrote.
During the attack, Craig fended Hamlin off by pouring hot coffee on him, but he escaped before officers could arrest him, according to the police report.
“Physically, the attack left bruising and a cut to my lip, as well as several days of soreness and discomfort,” Craig wrote in her victim impact statement.
“While my physical recovery was days, my mental and emotional recovery has taken much longer and is ongoing. My sense of safety and security has been significantly impacted,” she wrote.
Craig was left with “periodic anxiety” in the aftermath of the attack, which had “significantly broader consequences” than how he injured her, she wrote.
A media outlet disclosed the address of her apartment, forcing her to break her lease because of security concerns, she wrote. And “following comments by media personalities about my assault, I received a flurry of additional targeted physical violence and death threats to myself and my staff.”
Her wife and their four sons had been shaken, too.
Though she felt “very fortunate” to have escaped Hamlin’s assault without greater harm, she wrote that she wanted to highlight the suffering it did cause.
She also wrote that she hoped Hamlin can get mental health and addiction treatment while he is incarcerated.
“Until that occurs, given his history of previous convictions and my own experience, I believe he would continue to be a further threat to others,” she wrote.
A lawyer for Hamlin did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden said he will continue to pursue remedies to the threats caused by climate change following the release of the Fifth National Climate Assessment on Tuesday — but he acknowledged that it’s still not enough and that some Republicans are getting in the way of more progress.
“This assessment shows us in clear scientific terms, that climate change is impacting all regions, all sectors of the United States, not just some, all,” Biden said in his remarks Tuesday at the White House.
Biden said he’s seen the destruction firsthand as president when he’s visited states like Louisiana, New Jersey, New York and Florida after hurricanes and floods and talked with firefighters in Idaho, New Mexico, California and Colorado.
“The impacts we’re seeing are only going to get worse, more frequent, more ferocious, and more costly. Last year alone, natural disasters in America cost $178 billion — $178 billion — in damages. They hit everyone no matter what their circumstances, but the hit the most vulnerable the hardest,” he said.
But, he added, “none of this is inevitable.”
Biden also made a dig at past inaction on climate change, calling out Republicans and former President Donald Trump, who withdrew the U.S. from the Paris Climate Accords.
“We’ve come to the point where it’s foolish for anyone to deny the impacts of climate change anymore. But it’s simply a simple fact that there are a number of my colleagues and other side of the aisle, MAGA Republican leaders who still deny climate change, still deny that it’s a problem. My predecessor, much of the MAGA Republican Party, in fact, are still — feel very strongly about that,” he said.
“Anyone who willfully denies the impacts of climate change is condemning the American people to a very dangerous future,” he said.
White House National Climate Adviser Ali Zaidi also told ABC News Live that some Republicans in Congress want to “bury their heads in the sand.”
In response to the speech, some Republicans argued Biden has misplaced priorities.
“Biden believes climate change is the ‘ultimate threat to humanity.’ He should take the threats posed to Americans by Iran-backed terrorists and Chinese aggression as seriously,” Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, tweeted.
Biden said climate change was a recurring theme in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS Act. The White House also announced more than $6 billion in what it said was an effort to “strengthen climate resilience” on Tuesday, a large amount of which comes from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act, according to a White House fact sheet.
The funding includes $3.9 billion to “strengthen and modernize” the electric grid, $2 billion in EPA grants for community clean energy and environmental justice projects, $300 million from FEMA for communities impacted by catastrophic flooding, and $100 million in grants to support drought resilience in Western states.
“We’re just getting started. … All told, my investing in America Agenda and those bold climate laws are the most ambitious in American history,” he said.
“Today’s release — the Fifth National Climate Assessment — is a critical part of that effort. It lays out the threats and dangers, but most experts would acknowledge it also shows solutions are within reach,” he added.
Biden has frequently discussed the importance of climate change to his administration, but he has also faced criticism from climate activists for decisions like the approval of a controversial oil drilling project in Alaska and the fact that he has not declared a national emergency on climate change.
The report issued Tuesday, the Fifth National Climate Assessment, warns that all parts of the U.S. are already experiencing serious impacts of climate change, including more severe extreme weather events like heat waves and extreme rainfall. It says climate change is making it harder to “maintain safe homes and healthy families” in the U.S. and the country needs to do much more to adapt.
The report issues a stark warning that extreme events and harmful impacts of climate change that Americans are already experiencing, such as heat waves, wildfires, and extreme rainfall, will worsen as temperatures continue to rise. But it also found that while climate action is still incremental, there are areas for economic opportunity in the United States, including clean energy.
