News – Page 543 – 105.7 WDNY

Karen Read, alleged to have killed police officer boyfriend, retrial set to begin after earlier mistrial

April 1, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(BOSTON) — Karen Read’s second trial is set to begin Tuesday, seven months after a first prosecution in the alleged murder of her police officer boyfriend ended with the jury unable to reach a verdict.

Read is accused of killing her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, in January 2022. Prosecutors alleged Read hit O’Keefe with her vehicle and left him to die as Boston was hit with a major blizzard. Read has denied the allegations and maintained her innocence.

At least four jurors who served on her first trial last year confirmed that she was found not guilty of second-degree murder and leaving a scene of personal injury and death, according to Read’s attorneys.

Read was also charged with manslaughter while operating a motor vehicle under the influence.

She pleaded not guilty to all three charges.

Jury selection in the retrial begins on Tuesday. Jury selection could last weeks. Her first trial lasted more than two months, including deliberations, and drew widespread national coverage.

In a surprise twist this week, Read added one of the alternate jurors from her first trial to her legal team for the retrial. Victoria George, the alternate juror, is a licensed civil attorney in Massachusetts.

Last August, a judge declined to dismiss the two charges in her retrial, saying no verdict was announced in court so she was not acquitted of any charges — despite her attorneys’ claim the jury found her not guilty in deliberations. Read filed several appeals to state and federal courts to get the charges dropped, without success.

Read and O’Keefe met friends for drinks at a local sports bar before the storm and then went to another nearby bar, Read told ABC News.

Around midnight, O’Keefe and some others elected to leave after they were invited to the home of Brian Albert, a fellow Boston police officer, she said.

Read, who said she was tired, claims she dropped O’Keefe off outside Albert’s residence and then drove her SUV to O’Keefe’s house and fell asleep.

Albert and others who attended the gathering at his home say that O’Keefe never went inside the home.

Read said she awoke alone and anxiously called O’Keefe’s friends to say he never came home.

Read said she drove around Canton for 20 minutes before meeting up with two friends of O’Keefe — Kerry Roberts and Jennifer McCabe, sister-in-law of Brian Albert — and returning to O’Keefe’s house thinking he may have made his way home.

Not finding him at the house, the trio drove back to the home where Read said she dropped him off. They found his body lying motionless on the front snowbank, according to her.

He was taken to the hospital and pronounced dead that morning. An autopsy found that he died of hypothermia and blunt force injuries to the head.

Prosecutors have alleged Read hit O’Keefe with her car and left him to die in the middle of a snowstorm after the two got into an argument earlier that day.

Damning testimony during Read’s trial led to the suspension of Massachusetts State Police Officer Michael Proctor last July. Trial testimony revealed Proctor was communicating with Canton Police Officer Kevin Albert during the investigation ahead of Read’s murder trial.

Albert is the brother of Brian Albert, who hosted the party at the house where O’Keefe’s body was found outside.

Kevin Albert was also placed on administrative leave last July, according to Boston ABC affiliate WCVB.

ABC News’ Meghan Mariani contributed to this report.

ICE admits to an ‘administrative error’ after Maryland man sent to El Salvador prison

April 1, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(BALTIMORE) — A Maryland man with protected legal status was sent to the notorious prison in El Salvador following an “administrative error,” a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official admitted in a sworn declaration on Monday.

Kilmer Armado Abrego-Garcia who has a U.S. citizen wife and 5-year-old child is currently at CECOT, the notorious prison in El Salvador.

The filing is part of a new lawsuit filed by Abrego-Garcia’s attorneys who are requesting that the government of El Salvador return him to the U.S. after being sent there “because of an administrative error.”

In response, the government has acknowledged the error but said in a filing that because Abrego-Garcia is no longer in U.S. custody, the court cannot order him to be returned to the U.S. nor can the court order El Salvador to return him.

According to Abrego-Garcia’s attorneys, in 2019, a confidential informant “had advised that Abrego Garcia was an active member” of the gang MS-13. He later filed an I-589 application for asylum and although Abrego Garcia was found removable, an immigration judge “granted him withholding of removal to El Salvador.”

But earlier this month, Abrego-Garcia was stopped by ICE officers who “informed him that his immigration status had changed.” After being detained over gang affiliations, he was transferred to a detention center in Texas. He was then sent to El Salvador on March 15.

“Abrego-Garcia, a native and citizen of El Salvador, was on the third flight and thus had his removal order to El Salvador executed,” said Robert L. Cerna, acting field office director for ICE in a sworn declaration. “This removal was an error.”

Abrego-Garcia’s attorneys said that he “is not a member of or has no affiliation with Tren de Aragua, MS-13, or any other criminal or street gang” and said that the U.S. government “has never produced an iota of evidence to support this unfounded accusation.”

In response, the government said Abrego Garcia had the opportunity to present evidence to show he was not a part of MS-13. “Abrego Garcia had a full and fair opportunity to litigate the issue,” the government said. “He had the opportunity to give evidence tending to show he was not part of MS-13, which he did not proffer.”

Vice President JD Vance said in a statement on X that Abrego Garcia was a “convicted MS-13 gang member with no legal right” to be in the U.S. Vance added that “it’s gross to get fired up about gang members getting deported while ignoring citizens they victimize.”

In the filing, Yaakov M. Roth Acting Assistant Attorney General Civil Division for the Department of Justice said the court lacks jurisdiction to review the removal of Abrego Garcia and said that the plaintiffs are seeking his release from Salvadoran custody by “financial pressure and diplomacy.”

Roth also added in the filing that there is no clear showing that “Abrego Garcia himself is likely to be tortured or killed in CECOT.”

“While there may be allegations of abuses in other Salvadoran prisons — very few in relation to the large number of detainees — there is no clear showing that Abrego Garcia himself is likely to be tortured or killed in CECOT,” Roth said. “More fundamentally, this Court should defer to the government’s determination that Abrego Garcia will not likely be tortured or killed in El Salvador.”

In the sworn declaration, Cerna said the removal was “carried out in good faith.”

“This was an oversight, and the removal was carried out in good faith based on the existence of a final order of removal and Abrego-Garcia’s purported membership in MS-13,” Cerna said.

ABC News’ Justin Gomez contributed to this report.

12 months and 70 cases since the first human bird flu infection: Are we any safer?

April 1, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — One year ago, the first bird flu infection in a human in the United States was reported in a Texas dairy worker, just weeks after the virus had been found in cattle for the first time ever.

While the virus has spread in birds for decades, in recent years it has started to infect more and more mammals including cows, bears and racoons — and even house cats are getting sick.

In the 12 months since the first human case, at least 70 people have been infected. There was one death linked to a human infected with bird flu in Louisiana.

ABC News’ medical correspondent Dr. Darien Sutton was granted rare access inside the race to stop bird flu at Michigan State University’s Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory. He aimed to better understand how researchers are trying to curb the spread in animals — and why that may help protect us from an outbreak among humans.

“We’re a network of more than 60 academic, state and federal laboratories that are the first line of defense in the case of a high consequence animal disease outbreak,” Dr. Kimberly Dodd, dean of the college of veterinary medicine at Michigan State University, told Sutton.

So far, the outbreak has had a devastating impact on animals with 168 million birds affected in every state. Since March of last year, nearly 1,000 cattle herds have been infected as well.

With rapid detection of cases, culling of infected birds and isolation of sick cows, there has not been a major outbreak in the last month.

But Dodd points out as springtime approaches, we may see increasing spread as wild birds begin to migrate.

“Birds don’t recognize the state borders. This is a national problem. We have to be able to work together,” Dodd said.

While most of the human cases in the U.S. have been mild, scientists like Dodd’s team continue to track the virus for any mutations that may change that risk.

“We are continually tracking not just the virus in animals, but then also monitoring [people] who may have been exposed to those infected animals and birds,” she said. “This allows us to have a better understanding if the risk to humans is changing or increasing.”

The risk to the general public has so far remained low, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Yet, health officials and experts have long warned that as the virus continues to spread in the environment, it leads to greater chances of mutating and potentially adapting to spread between people, which has not occurred yet.

The widespread nature of the virus has also devastated many farming communities and lead to skyrocketing egg prices in the last year.

Doug Corwin’s family run duck farm in Long Island, New York, was forced to euthanize 100,000 birds in late January after the virus was found on their property.

“It was devastating — disease, sickness, death, like I’ve never seen in my life,” Corwin told Sutton during a visit this week. “It was just an ugly, awful, sad time.”

Typically, Corwin’s farm sells around a million ducks a year that are served in high-end restaurants. Now, he’s left with no income for at least 18 months as he tries to salvage his remaining flock. He was also forced to lay off 45 of his employees.

“To try to explain to them why we weren’t going to be able to work tomorrow … was a tearful, hard thing,” Corwin said.

“I’ve never had a more tearful day. It was just a shocking, shocking experience,” he added.

ABC News’ medical correspondent Dr. Darien Sutton contributed to this report.

SpaceX successfully launches 1st humans to travel over Earth’s poles

April 1, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(MERRITT ISLAND, FL) — With the successful launch of SpaceX’s Fram2 mission on Monday night, an all-civilian crew is attempting to do what professional astronauts have never tried — orbit the Earth from pole to pole.

Riding on top of a Falcon 9 rocket, a SpaceX Dragon lifted off from Launch Complex 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida just after 9:46 p.m. and carried the team into a 90-degree polar orbit.

During the three to five-day mission, the autonomous Dragon will repeatedly travel from the North Pole to the South Pole at an altitude of 267 miles, with each orbit taking about 46 minutes.

The privately funded mission is being led by Maltese cryptocurrency entrepreneur Chun Wang. Wang is joined by Jannicke Mikkelsen, a Norwegian film director and cinematographer, Rabea Rogge, a robotics researcher from Berlin and Eric Philips, a self-described professional polar adventurer. This will be the first time in space for the quartet.

After liftoff, the Falcon 9’s first-stage booster landed on a SpaceX droneship in the Atlantic Ocean for reuse in future launches.

Named for the famous Norwegian polar exploration ship Fram, meaning “forward,” the Fram2 website says the team plans to view and photograph Earth’s polar regions from low-Earth orbit and conduct 22 experiments focused on “advancing human health and performance in space, particularly for future long-duration missions” including being the first mission to take x-rays of the human body in space, growing mushrooms in microgravity and studying atmospheric phenomena.

“After extensive training and dedication from our entire crew, we are honored to continue the legacy of the Fram name in an exciting era of commercial space exploration,” Wang said in a press release. “We are thankful for this opportunity, and we are grateful to SpaceX for making this mission a reality – we are excited to be the first crew to view and capture the Earth’s polar regions from low-Earth orbit and support important research to help advance humanity’s capabilities for long-duration space exploration.”

Mikkelsen, the mission’s vehicle commander, is a Norwegian film director and cinematographer specializing in next-generation technology for filming in hazardous and remote environments like the Earth’s poles.

Berlin-born Rogge, a robotics researcher, will serve as Fram2’s pilot, while Eric Philips, a professional polar adventurer and guide from Australia, will serve as Fram2’s mission specialist and medical officer.

The crew will observe Earth’s polar regions over 430 kilometers (267 miles) above the surface, allowing the Crew Dragon Resilience to travel from the North to the South Pole in under an hour. This route provides extensive coverage, enabling observation of areas and phenomena other missions cannot access.

Throughout Fram2’s time in orbit, the crew will take the first x-ray in space, perform exercise studies to maintain muscle and skeletal mass, and grow mushrooms in microgravity.

An exact landing date has not yet been announced, but the mission is expected to last nearly four days.

SpaceX says this will be the first west coast recovery of a Dragon crew. The capsule will splash down in the Pacific Ocean off the southern California coast. This is the fourth flight of this Dragon capsule.

Venezuelan migrant recently deported to El Salvador had final order of removal

April 1, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(GUANTANAMO BAY) — One of the Venezuelan migrants who is believed to be among the latest group sent to El Salvador on Sunday night was in Guantanamo Bay and had a final order of removal, according to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

Maiker Espinoza Escalona was the lead plaintiff in one of the Guantanamo cases brought by the ACLU against the Department of Homeland Security filed last month. His partner is currently detained in a detention center in Texas and his two-year-old daughter is in HHS custody, according to the ACLU.

“The government opposed our request for TRO on the ground that he was not in imminent danger of being sent from the U.S. to Guantanamo, but told the Court they would alert it within 2 business days if he or other Plaintiffs were transferred to Guantanamo,” Lee Gelernt, an attorney for the ACLU told ABC News. “The government has apparently chosen to use a loophole and transfer him on a Friday night, thereby avoiding notice to the Court at this point. He has apparently now been transferred to the notorious Salvadoran prison.”

Gelernt said he has serious concerns about the government’s “sudden allegations” against Escalona. “He and others being sent to the Salvadoran prison must be given due process to test the government’s assertions,” Gelernt added.

A White House official tells ABC News that the 17 alleged gang members who were deported to El Salvador last night were not deported under the Alien Enemies Act but under different authorities, including under Title 8 authorities.

It’s not clear whether the individuals including Escalona who were deported would have been protected by the Temporary Restraining Order issued by a federal judge on Friday that blocked the deportation of migrants to countries other than their own without giving them a chance to argue their removal in immigration court.

In a sworn declaration filed in early March before he was allegedly sent to Guantanamo, Escalona said he had been in immigration detention since May 22, 2024, in El Paso, Texas. He entered the country on May 14 and requested asylum, according to his declaration.

“I believe that I am at risk of being transferred because I have a final order of deportation and am from Venezuela,” Escalona said in the sworn declaration. “I also believe that I am going to be transferred to Guantanamo because of my tattoos, even though they have nothing to do with gangs. I have twenty tattoos.”

Escalona went on to list his tattoos he has that include a cross, a crown, the ghost icon for the social media app Snapchat, his niece’s name and the word “Faith” in Spanish.

“I do not want to be transferred to or detained at Guantanamo,” Escalona said in the declaration files in early March. I am afraid of what will happen to me when I get there. “I want access to an attorney to help me get out of detention and figure out what options I have in my immigration case.”

According to Escalona’s sworn declaration and the ACLU, his partner is currently detained in El Paso and his two-year-old daughter is under the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement.

“If I am transferred to Guantanamo, I will be separated from my family,” Escalona said.

Trump administration reviewing alleged antisemitism at Harvard University

April 1, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(BOSTON) — The Department of Education and other agencies are reviewing Harvard University for fostering antisemitism on its campus, Secretary Linda McMahon said Monday.

“Harvard’s failure to protect students on campus from anti-Semitic discrimination — all while promoting divisive ideologies over free inquiry — has put its reputation in serious jeopardy,” McMahon said in a release.

“Harvard can right these wrongs and restore itself to a campus dedicated to academic excellence and truth-seeking, where all students feel safe on its campus,” she said.

The Education Department, the Department of Health and Human Services and the General Services Administration are joining in the comprehensive review of the school.

The move comes as the administration’s joint task force doubles down on removing antisemitic conduct and harassment from elite universities. The administration stripped Columbia University of $400 million in grants earlier this month after a task force investigation found inaction by the school to protect Jewish students.

Monday’s actions against Harvard come after a similar review led to Columbia agreeing to comply with nine preconditions for further negotiations regarding a return of canceled federal funds, according to the release.

The task force will review hundreds of millions of dollars in grants to Harvard and its affiliates, according to the release.

The agencies will also review another nearly $9 billion in grants to Harvard to ensure it’s in compliance with “federal regulations” and “civil rights responsibilities,” the release said.

In response to the review, Harvard President Alan Garber released a statement saying, “We fully embrace the important goal of combatting antisemitism, one of the most insidious forms of bigotry.”

“It is present on our campus,” Garber continued, “I have experienced antisemitism directly, even while serving as president, and I know how damaging it can be to a student who has come to learn and make friends at a college or university.”

Garber said, however, that the $9 billion in federal funding that is “at stake” as the university works to combat antisemitism could halt “life-saving research and imperil important scientific research and innovation.”

“As an institution and as a community, we acknowledge our shortcomings, pursue needed change, and build stronger bonds that enable all to thrive,” Garber added.

Harvard alum Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Calif., told ABC News he believes too many universities have gone unchecked for tent encampments and hostile demonstrations that involved students overtaking buildings on campus in response to the Israel-Hamas conflict that broke out after Hamas launched a surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.

Kiley, who sits on the House Education and Workforce Committee, called the administration’s review “incredibly refreshing” and a proactive solution to protect the civil rights and safety of Harvard’s Jewish students.

“We need to make sure that the rules are enforced, that civil rights laws are abided by and that there are consequences for illegal activity,” Kiley said.

Oregon Democratic Rep. Suzanne Bonamici is also a member of the Education and Workforce Committee and alongside Rep. Kiley, Bonamici serves on the subcommittee on higher education.

Bonamici told ABC News she believes the administration has been pushing a concerning attack on institutions of higher education.

She said threatening federal funding is a bridge too far. “There are ways to address anti-Semitism that don’t involve this type of threat,” Bonamici said, adding, “What they’re trying to do is intimidate these universities, like they’re doing with law firms, intimidate them into taking positions that are antithetical to higher education and free thought and critical thinking, so it’s extremely concerning.”

Protests erupted on college campuses around the country after civilian casualties mounted in Gaza as Israel launched a military campaign in response to Oct. 7, vowing to eradicate Hamas — which the U.S. has designated a terrorist organization.

The federal response comes after President Donald Trump signed an executive order directing McMahon to abolish the Department of Education and another order that takes measures to “vigorously” combat antisemitism.

The Harvard review also highlights the administration’s promise to ensure colleges would suffer the federal consequences if they foster antisemitic protests and demonstrations in the wake of Oct. 7.

On the campaign trail, Trump said, “My promise to Jewish Americans is this: With your vote, I will be your defender, your protector, and I will be the best friend Jewish Americans have ever had in the White House.”

Meanwhile, Congress is investigating Harvard and nearly a dozen other schools for allegedly fostering antisemitism on campus.

A House Education and Workforce Committee report last fall found many universities have failed to adequately discipline antisemitic conduct. A summary of the more than 100-page report alleges the “overwhelming majority” of students accused of antisemitic harassment or other acts of antisemitism on campuses faced minimal disciplinary action for their alleged violations.

Intermittent fasting can be hit or miss, but research suggests ‘sweet spot’ can help some stick to their diet

April 1, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Cutting back on calories three days a week may lead to more weight loss than daily dieting and may be more effective than other types of so-called “intermittent fasting,” a new study suggests.

In a new study published in the Annals of Internal Medicine, researchers asked participants to reduce their calorie intake by 80% of what their body needed to maintain weight on three non-consecutive days each week. On the remaining days, they had no calorie restrictions, but were still encouraged to make healthy choices.

Over the course of a year, people in the intermittent fasting group lost nearly 17 pounds—about 60% more than those who were asked to trim back their daily calories by one-third, according to the study.

This style of intermittent fasting “appears to be easier to adhere to over time,” Dr. Victoria Catenacci, lead author of the study and an associate professor of medicine at the University of Colorado, told ABC News.

“It’s really hard to restrict calories every day,” she says. “It’s just another strategy for people to consider.”

Neither group hit their calorie targets, she noted, but those who fasted a few days a week ended up eating fewer calories overall and were more likely to stick with the plan.

Danielle Ostendorf, another of the study’s authors and an assistant professor at the University of Knoxville, said she suspects that intermittent fasting hasn’t shown this level of success in past studies because the number of fasting days was often too few or too many—making the plans either ineffective or hard to follow.

Fasting for three days, Ostendorf says, is “something like a sweet spot.”

Participants also took part in a comprehensive lifestyle program focused on behavior change. They set exercise goals, attended frequent group meetings led by dieticians, and received personalized support.

The authors emphasize that the additional support made a big difference. “This program really provided accountability for the participants, and like social support. They were able to learn from each other,” Ostendorf shared.

No participant reported any downsides to the diet itself. However, the study included only healthy adults and excluded people with serious conditions like diabetes.

The authors recommended that anyone considering this type of fasting talk to their doctor and a registered dietician. Joining a support group may also help with encouragement and accountability, they advised.

Dr. Amy Rothberg, an endocrinologist and director of the University of Michigan Weight Management Program, supports patients trying new diets as long as they still balance healthy foods. “If that’s something that they think they can do, I’m all for it,” she said.

“If you don’t want to count calories, track and log your food intake,” intermittent fasting “may be beneficial for some people,” she said. Still, she stressed that people should choose diets they can stick with long-term.

The study did not track participants beyond one year to see if weight loss was maintained.

“There’s no superior dietary approach,” Rothberg said. “So you need to find an approach that is tailored to that individual.”

Catenacci takes a similar view with her own patients, recommending a variety of strategies based on what someone is interested in.

“At the end of the day, the best diet for any given person is the one that they feel they can adhere to over time,” Catenacci said.

Dr. Alice Gao, MD, MPH, is a family medicine resident at Temple Northwest Community Family Medicine and a member of the ABC News Medical Unit.

Trump grants clemency to 2 of Hunter Biden’s ex-associates

April 1, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump has granted clemency to a pair of Hunter Biden’s former business partners, both of whom accused former President Joe Biden’s son of improperly leveraging his father’s political power to broker overseas business relationships.

Last Tuesday, Trump issued a full pardon to Devon Archer, who was sentenced to more than a year in prison for defrauding a Native American tribal entity in 2022.

Later in the week, Trump commuted the 189-month sentence of Jason Galanis for his role in multiple fraudulent schemes.

Archer and Galanis charted a similar path to their presidential pardons: Both men brokered business ties with Hunter Biden, were later found guilty of unrelated fraud schemes, pleaded with the Biden administration for executive clemency, and, when rebuffed, publicly accused Hunter Biden of improperly trading on his family name to secure overseas business deals.

Galanis went a step further than Archer by retaining a high-powered Washington lawyer with close ties to the Trump political machine: Mark Paoletta, whom Trump recently tapped for general counsel at the White House Office of Management and Budget.

Paoletta did not respond to a request for comment regarding Galanis’ commutation.

Last year, Galanis testified before the House Oversight Committee about the Biden family’s business arrangements from a jail cell in Alabama. He asserted that Joe Biden was more engaged in Hunter Biden’s business dealings than the former president publicly let on, and that “the entire value add of Hunter Biden to our business was his family name and his access to his father, Vice President Joe Biden.”

Joe Biden has forcefully denied any wrongdoing and Republicans were unable to find evidence that he used his political perch to support his son’s businesses. A House impeachment inquiry concluded last August without any articles of impeachment drawn up.

Matthew Schwartz, an attorney for Archer, told ABC News that “the American jury system is an amazing thing, but as the trial judge held in finding serious questions about Devon Archer’s innocence, sometimes juries get it wrong.”

Schwartz said that Trump’s “pardon corrects a serious injustice, and finally allows an innocent man to be free of the threat of misguided prosecution. Mr. Archer is deeply appreciative of the President.”

Everyone has ‘responsibility’ for Starliner test flight failures, NASA astronaut says

April 1, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(HOUSTON) — One of the astronauts who returned to Earth after an unexpected nine months in space said on Monday that everyone holds “responsibility” for what may have gone wrong with Boeing’s Starliner test flight.

Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams performed the first astronaut-crewed flight of Starliner to the International Space Station (ISS) in June 2024.

However, what was supposed to be a mission lasting about one week turned into a nine-month stay aboard the ISS due to several issues with Starliner before they returned home in mid-March 2024.

In response to a question during a press briefing at the Johnson Space Center in Houston on Monday about who is to “blame” for what went wrong, Wilmore said everyone holds some “responsibility.”

“I’ll start with me,” Wilmore said. “There were questions that I, as a commander of the spacecraft, that I should have asked, and I did not. At the time, I didn’t know I needed to. And maybe you could call that hindsight. But I’ll start and point the finger, and I’ll blame me. I could’ve asked some questions, and the answers to those questions could have turned the tide.”

“‘Blame’ … I don’t like that term, but certainly there’s responsibility throughout all the programs, and certainly you can start with me,” he continued. “Responsibility with Boeing, yes. Responsibility with NASA, yes, all the way up and down the chain. We all are responsible. We all own this.”

Issues with the spacecraft prompted NASA and Boeing to send Starliner back to Earth uncrewed and keep Wilmore and Williams onboard the ISS until early 2025, when they would return home on a SpaceX Crew-9 Dragon spacecraft once Crew-10 arrived at the ISS.

The SpaceX Crew-9 undocked in the early hours of Tuesday, March 18, and deorbited in the afternoon, before returning to Earth Tuesday evening.

Williams said they were “surprised” by the public interest in their mission.

“It’s interesting. We go and launch, we knew it was a little bit unique, obviously, first time flying on a new spacecraft,” she said. “But, you know, then life goes on up there and … we pivoted, and we were International Space Station crew members, and we’re doing what all of our other friends and in the astronaut, office do is go and work and train and do science.”

“And so you’re not really aware of what else is going on down here. But, I think we were just really focused on what we were doing and trying to be part of the team and making sure we pulled our weight for the team,” Williams said. “So no, I don’t think we were aware to the degree — honored and humbled by the fact of when we came home like, ‘Wow, there’s, there are a lot of people who are interested.'”

The pair were also asked about how they felt about being pulled into the middle of a political battle.

During a Fox News interview with Sean Hannity in February, President Donald Trump falsely claimed that the astronauts has been abandoned in space by then-president Joe Biden.

“They didn’t have the go-ahead with Biden,” Trump said. “He was going to leave them in space. I think he was going to leave them in space. … He didn’t want the publicity. Can you believe it?”

During the Hannity interview, Musk said SpaceX was “accelerating” the return of Wilmore and Williams at Trump’s request, adding that “they were left up there for political reasons, which is not good.”

These comments were made despite confirmation from NASA in August 2024 that Wilmore and Williams would return on the SpaceX Crew 9 spacecraft in early 2025.

NASA astronaut Nick Hague, who returned with Wilmore and Williams on Crew-9 said the politics “don’t make it up” to the ISS, but that there was always a plan to bring the astronauts home.

“We were planning from day one to return toward the end of end of February,” he said. “That all predicated on the fact that we would have a replacement crew show up, and we’d have adequate hand over that’s important to maintain the mission of the International Space Station, to continue pushing research and exploration, and that was never in question the entire time.”

Wilmore said although the Starliner mission did not go as originally planned, there were “contingencies” In place.

“We said this before; we had a plan, right? The plan went way off what we had planned,” he said. “But because we’re in human spaceflight, we prepare for any number of contingencies, because this is a curvy road. You never know where it’s going to go, we prepare for this.”

US pledges $2 million for Myanmar quake, but China already filled the void

April 1, 2025 by WDNY Radio

US pledges million for Myanmar quake, but China already filled the void

US pledges $2 million for Myanmar quake, but China already filled the void — U.S. Indo-Pacific Command military personnel continue to work alongside Thai military and first responders near the collapsed State Audit Office building in Bangkok, Thailand, which fell after a 7.7 magnitude earthquake, March 28, 2025. (U.S. Indo-Pacific Command)

(WASHINGTON) — As a U.S. team of experts heads to Myanmar to assist in recovery from the devastating earthquake that killed more than 2,000 people in Southeast Asia on Friday, international teams, including those from China and Russia, are filling the void in the U.S. absence.

The U.S. said Monday that it would provide $2 million in aid and a small U.S. Agency for International Development emergency response team has been deployed to assess the situation in Myanmar, but officials said that it had not yet been able to enter the country as of Monday morning.

While the dollar amount of initial aid is in line with what the U.S. has pledged in the past, the overall pace of the response has been slower. In the aftermath of the 2023 earthquake in Morrocco, for example, a USAID Disaster Assistance Response Team was deployed just hours later, although Morrocco did not ultimately ask for DARTs.

That same year when Libya endured catastrophic floodings, DARTs were deployed the same day. And when a major earthquake struck Turkey and Syria that same year, the DART teams were also launched just a few hours after the disaster hit. In both cases, the DARTs took a few days to get on the ground.

The U.S. response comes amid President Donald Trump’s efforts to remake the federal government and dismantle USAID, laying off thousands of employees, revoking funding for more than 80% of its programs and closing its headquarters, although those efforts are being is being challenged in multiple court cases.

On Friday, the State Department announced it was officially shuttering the agency and taking over “many of USAID’s functions and its ongoing programming.”

The State Department has pushed back on the assessment that cuts to USAID have limited the earthquake response, but officials say there has been at least some logistical impact caused by the reorganization, rather than a lack of funding.

“I would reject the notion this is obviously a result of the USAID cuts and that kind of funding,” State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said Monday. “We’re certainly in the region.”

In the meantime, it was Chinese teams that arrived 18 hours after the quake and more than 400 Chinese personnel are now on the ground in the region. Beijing has in sent planes full of supplies, providing $14 million in aid. China also has multiple teams in Thailand.

It’s a propaganda win for China, showing it can be a reliable partner when its neighbors are in crisis.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning on Monday posted on X photos and videos of Chinese workers on the ground, rescuing survivors and delivering supplies, saying, “China, a friend in need.”

At the site where a 34-story building collapsed on Sunday in Bangkok, a group of U.S. military personnel were coming and going from the search area throughout Monday. The American team is working with Israeli soldiers to seach for survivor, sending drones into areas too dangerous for rescue workers to reach.

“We’re learning a lot from the Americans, and they’re bringing in a lot of good equipment,” said Choktong Issarangkool, one of the volunteers in the rescue and search teams who is also acting as a translator for the American teams.

Thais are grateful for the American assistance, something this region has become accustomed to following a natural disaster: U.S. aid teams have always been among the first on the ground to help.

State Department officials said discussions regarding a more extensive response to the earthquake are ongoing, including the possibility of sending a DART team, although it might be smaller than in past efforts.

“Our disaster experts, including those based in Bangkok, Manila and Washington, D.C., continue to monitor the situation with coordination with U.S. government counterparts in the region,” Bruce said.

She emphasized that the $2 million of initial support would be implemented through partner organizations that were already working in the impacted areas.

+ More