Larry Summers, president emeritus and professor at Harvard University, during an interview in New York City, Sept. 17, 2025. (Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers announced on Wednesday that he would resign from his academic and faculty appointments at Harvard University at the end of the academic year.
Summers — who has been on leave from the university since November — also resigned from his role as the co-director of the Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, according to a Harvard spokesperson.
The resignation was made “in connection with the ongoing review by the University of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein that were recently released by the government,” the spokesperson said.
“I have made the difficult decision to retire from my Harvard professorship at the end of this academic year,” Summers, a former Harvard president, said in a statement. “I will always be grateful to the thousands of students and colleagues I have been privileged to teach and work with since coming to Harvard as a graduate student 50 years ago.”
He added, “Free of formal responsibility, as President Emeritus and a retired professor, I look forward in time to engaging in research, analysis, and commentary on a range of global economic issues.”
The news was first reported by the Harvard Crimson.
Summers announced in November he was stepping back from public life after his apparent conversations with Epstein, the late sex offender who died by suicide in a Manhattan jail in 2019, were released by the House Oversight Committee.
“I am deeply ashamed of my actions and recognize the pain they have caused. I take full responsibility for my misguided decision to continue communicating with Mr. Epstein,” Summers said in a statement at the time.
ABC News previously reported that Summers maintained a relationship with Epstein for many years, particularly during Summers’ term as president of Harvard from 2001 to 2006.
He flew at least four times on Epstein’s aircraft, according to flight records made public during litigation against Epstein and he was the top official at Harvard during a time when the university received millions in gifts from the disgraced financier.
All of those gifts were received prior to Epstein’s guilty plea in Florida in 2008 to charges of solicitation of prostitution with a minor, according to the university’s review of its Epstein connections.
No Epstein survivor has alleged wrongdoing by Summers and there is no public record evidence to suggest Summers was involved in any of Epstein’s crimes.
Summers served as U.S. treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton from 1999 to 2001.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Stock photo of a child filling a glass of tap water. (Cavan Images/STOCK PHOTO/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Turning on the tap for a glass of water or to wash produce may become significantly less predictable because of climate change.
According to a study published in Communications Earth & Environment, climate change is making access to drinkable water more difficult in the United States.
Hazards intensified by climate change, like drought and flooding, threaten both the quantity and quality of drinking water across the U.S., according to the study.
As a result, water utilities serving 67 million customers across the U.S. are at high risk from climate hazards, roughly a fifth of the entire U.S. population.
Looking at 1,500 municipal water utilities across the country, researchers found that water utilities in every U.S. region are vulnerable to climate hazards. While drought impacts water utilities in the Western states more directly, saltwater from coastal flooding worsens groundwater quality, and extreme cold can wear on pipes. Additionally, water utilities in the upper Midwest and Northeast are particularly vulnerable to climate hazards due to older infrastructure.
“Much of our infrastructure was built many decades ago,” Costa Samaras, professor of civil environmental engineering at Carnegie Mellon University and co-author of the study, told ABC News. “It was built not for the climate that we’re experiencing now.”
Given the age of existing infrastructure and lack of adaptive capacities, water utilities are less likely to quickly recover from increasingly common climate hazards. According to the study, water utilities are already experiencing higher operating expenses and more revenue lost from hazards.
The study found that some of the largest water utilities in the country are also some of the most vulnerable to climate hazards. In Texas, where the most vulnerable utilities serve a growing number of customers, more investments in water utility infrastructure are key to keeping up with the increasing population.
To make matters worse, most drinking water utilities in the U.S. are not financially planning for future climate risks. As water utility companies try to keep their costs down, short-term emergency fixes are prioritized in order to resume service while investments to prevent more extreme future hazards get put on the back burner.
“When you’re not thinking strategically about asset management and long-term planning, it’s really easy to become stuck in a negative financial loop,” said Zia Lyle, postdoctoral researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and co-author of the study. Intensifying climate risks create larger financial burdens on utility companies to maintain service, limiting investments in future resilient infrastructure.
In addition to poor asset management, the study found that bond disclosures for the municipal water utilities do not typically include information on climate risks.
“The lack of disclosure here indicates a real systematic lack of climate risk assessments,” said Lyle. “When we interviewed drinking water utility managers, some of them were just unaware of how this range of hazards can affect all the different aspects of their system.”
Though it is becoming more common, only 30% of utilities discussed climate change in their bond statements in 2024. Without disclosure, those buying municipal bonds are left unaware of the risks their drinking water utilities face. In six states alone — Michigan, Illinois, California, Massachusetts, Virginia, and Texas — bond debt is currently around $500 million. Paired with decreased funding from the federal government, the lack of assessment and disclosure only increases the financial strain on drinking water utilities.
As climate hazards intensify, the financial risk combined with climate risks puts millions of customers and water utilities in a vulnerable position.
Some states are addressing the risks their drinking water utilities face. In Colorado, Denver Water is currently assessing the risks drought poses to their utilities so that they can plan appropriately and ensure water for their customers in the future.
Between appropriate risk assessment and increased investment from the state and federal governments, ensuring future access to drinking water is still possible.
“Now is the time for systems to invest,” said Dr. Zyle. “Overall, capital is more affordable now, and they can make these investments before it becomes too expensive.”
In this Oct. 30, 2025, file photo, superintendent Alberto Carvalho speaks at the LAUSD headquarters in downtown Los Angeles. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images, FILE)
(LOS ANGELES) — Law enforcement is executing a court-approved search warrant at the home of Alberto Carvalho, the superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation’s second-largest school district, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in LA.
Sources told ABC News that the allegations, while under court seal, are not violent in nature, and the search was conducted quickly.
Carvalho has been the district superintendent since 2022, the longest-serving LAUSD superintendent in over two decades.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
US President Donald Trump speaks during a press conference at the White House, Washington, D.C., US on February 20, 2026. Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — President Donald Trump rushed to enact new tariffs and vowed to preserve others after a recent Supreme Court ruling knocked out most of his levies.
Businesses and consumers now face a different set of tariffs, which amount to taxes paid by importers for goods shipped into the U.S. Oftentimes, importers pass along tariff-related costs to consumers, raising retail prices.
The nation’s overall tariff rate has dropped, meaning some products have gained relief from tariff-related price pressures, some analysts told ABC News. But levies remain in place for nearly all imported goods, including duties as high as 50%, hiking costs for some companies and shoppers, they added.
“In general, we’ve seen tariffs pushing up on prices. That won’t go away,” Jason Miller, a professor of supply chain management at Michigan State University, told ABC News.
The high court ruled on Friday that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEPPA) does not authorize Trump to impose levies, nullifying 70% of Trump’s tariffs after they collected more than $140 billion through December, the Yale Budget Lab found.
During his State of the Union speech on Tuesday, Trump criticized the Supreme Court decision, describing at as a “very unfortunate ruling,” and asserting that he retains the ability to impose tariffs under “fully approved and tested alternative legal statutes.”
In a social media post on Monday, Trump affirmed what he said was his authority to issue tariffs, saying he does not need to consult Congress before erecting new trade levies.
Trump also reiterated his commitment to his policy approach, warning other countries that they may face a “much higher Tariff, and worse.”
A 10% global tariff took effect on Tuesday, marking the first duty enacted by Trump since the high court’s decision. Trump issued the levy under Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, which allows the president to hike tariffs for 150 days as means of addressing “large and serious” balance-of-payments deficits, or disparities between a country’s total payments in transactions with other nations and its total earnings. In order to extend the Section 122 tariffs beyond 150 days, Trump would need to secure congressional approval.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said this week that Democrats would oppose an extension of Section 122 tariffs, which could deny Trump the 60 votes necessary to overcome a potential Senate filibuster.
Trump has vowed to hike the Section 122 tariff to 15%. As of Tuesday, however, the president had not issued an order formalizing that increase.
A 15% Section 122 tariff would result in price increases amounting to $800 in additional costs for an average U.S. household over the next 150 days, the Yale Budget Lab projected.
“That’s hundreds of dollars that you’re going to be paying as a result of these tariffs,” Raymond Robertson, professor for trade, economics and public policy at Texas A&M University, told ABC News.
Robertson noted the ultimate cost impact may be slightly lower than projected as consumers shift away from products that display noticeable tariff-induced price hikes. But, he added, tariff-impacted products will be all but impossible for shoppers to avoid.
“These tariffs are hitting across the board,” Robertson said.
The Trump administration also plans to maintain sector-specific tariffs imposed under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 and conclude pending investigations that could authorize additional levies, U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said in a statement on Friday.
That statute permits the White House to levy tariffs on products of importance to national security. Under the law, the White House must await the result of an investigation undertaken by the Commerce Department before imposing a tariff.
Under Section 232, for instance, steel and aluminum face a 50% tariff, putting upward pressure on prices for tableware, motorcycles, canned goods and assorted children’s products, analysts previously told ABC News.
A 50% tariff also applies to some copper products, while 25% tariffs remain for cars and auto parts. Those levies exclude a host of goods compliant with the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA, a free trade agreement.
To be sure, some products will experience a reduction of tariffs in the aftermath of the Supreme Court decision. Products from China, Brazil, Vietnam and India will likely gain notable tariff relief, since those nations faced significant tariffs under the legal authority that was struck down by the Supreme Court, Miller said.
Electronics and clothing are among the products that could benefit from softer tariffs.
If the Supreme Court had opted to uphold tariffs issued under IEPPA, the nation’s effective tariff rate would have remained at 16%, the Yale Budget Lab said. Taking into account Section 122 tariffs, the effective tariff rate now stands at 13.7%, the group said.
“The good news for consumers is there’s an overall decrease in tariff rates,” Miller said. “What creates a challenge is we don’t know exactly what the new landscape will look like.”
Red Carpet logos and atmosphere at The American Heart Association’s Red Dress Collection 2024 at Jazz at Lincoln Center on January 31, 2024 in New York City. Randy Brooke/Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — The number of women with risk factors for cardiovascular disease could significantly increase over the next 25 years, the American Heart Association (AHA) warned on Wednesday.
Without improving prevention and early detection tools, about six in 10 women could be diagnosed with hypertension or obesity by 2050, and risk factors could appear in children and teenagers as well, according to the AHA’s scientific statement.
“Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death, and fewer than half of women know that fact,” Dr. Stacey Rosen, executive director of Katz Institute for Women’s Health and volunteer president of the AHA, told ABC News. “And the percentage of awareness is even lower in African Americans and Hispanics.”
Published in the journal Circulation, the AHA’s projections suggest that 59.1% of women could have high blood pressure by 2050 — up from 48.6% in 2020 — even as diet, physical activity and smoking rates are projected to improve.
About one in four women may have diabetes in 2050, up from 14.9% in 2020, and more than 60% are estimated to have obesity, an increase from 43.9% over the same period, according to the report.
Heart health risk factors won’t hit all demographic groups of women equally, the report predicted.
High blood pressure will increase the most among Hispanic women with a projected rise of 15%, the report noted.
Additionally, more than 70% of Black women could have high blood pressure and obesity may increase the most among Asian women by nearly 26%.
Young women and girls may also see an increase in heart risk factors, partially driven by less opportunity for exercise as well as an abundance of inexpensive foods that often are not heart health.
Estimates also suggest that nearly one-third of girls between ages 2 and 19 will have obesity, an increase from 19.6% with obesity in 2020.
Dr. Jennifer Miao, a board-certified cardiologist, told ABC News that earlier hormonal changes in girls may also contribute to cardiovascular risk later in life.
“Several studies have also shown that starting menstruation at an early age can lead to increased risk of heart disease down the road,” she said.
Miao said she counsels parents that it’s never too early to start thinking of heart health for their children by “choosing good foods, physical activity over screen time and regular pediatrician check-ups.”
Despite the report’s predictions, Rosen stressed that meaningful progress for women’s heart health is still within reach.
“As a medical community, we have amazing tools to treat disease and detect it early, but lack when it comes to primary prevention,” Rosen said, adding that managing diseases like obesity requires a time intensive, multidisciplinary approach that the current U.S. health care system is not built to support.
She also said that optimizing health doesn’t require a costly gym membership or expensive organic foods.
“Every bit of movement counts, whether that means taking a walk or standing more if you work at a desk,” Rosen said.
Small, sustainable changes, like cutting back on sweetened beverages, can make a meaningful difference over time, she said.
Miao added that both the medical community and local leaders can do their part. By partnering with local health clinics, expanding home visit programs and leveraging telemedicine, health systems can extend their reach and bring essential care directly to isolated and underserved populations.
Takisha Morancy, MD, is a chief emergency medicine resident, medical ethics fellow and member of the ABC News Medical Unit.
Dr. Casey Means, nominee for the medical director in the Regular Corps of the Public Health Service and U.S. surgeon general, testifies at a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on Capitol Hill on February 25, 2026 in Washington, DC. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump’s surgeon general nominee is appearing before the Senate on Wednesday for her confirmation hearing.
Dr. Casey Means was originally scheduled to testify before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) committee in October, but it was postponed for four months after she went into labor.
If confirmed, Means would become the nation’s top doctor, leading more than 6,000 members of the U.S. Public Health Service, including physicians, nurses, scientists and engineers working at various federal health agencies.
Means’ views largely mirror those of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., with a focus on tackling the chronic disease epidemic, creating a healthier food supply and expressing vaccine skepticism.
Senators are expected to grill Means on her qualifications as well as her business endeavors. In prior filings, Means pledged that, if confirmed, she would resign from her position as an adviser for a wellness company and promised to stop working as an influencer promoting supplements and other wellness products.
“Dr. Means would clearly be an atypical or unusual person to serve in the role of surgeon general,” Dr. Richard Besser, former acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told ABC News. “Typically, the surgeon general has been viewed as the nation’s top doctor or America’s doctor, but Dr. Means has never practiced medicine, and so that is unusual. The part that’s not unusual is that the surgeon general’s impact is largely through influence. Dr. Means is skilled in this regard, when it comes to influence.”
Means graduated from Stanford School of Medicine in 2014 with plans to become an otolaryngology surgeon, also known as a head and neck surgeon, but she dropped out in her fifth year, according to her website.
Means went on to study functional medicine, which uses a holistic approach to prevent disease and illness by studying the root causes of health issues. The field has been criticized for promoting some interventions that are not evidence-based and for an overreliance on expensive supplements. Having never completed residency, Means is not board-certified in a medical specialty, and she does not hold an active medical license.
Over the course of her career, she co-founded Levels, an app that allows people to track their food, along with biometric data like sleep and glucose monitoring, to see how their diet is impacting their health.
Means wrote a book with her brother, Calley Means, titled “Good Energy,” which was published in May 2024 and claims to take a look at why Americans are sick and how to fix it.
The siblings rose to prominence within the Trump campaign in 2024 and among Trump allies, including Kennedy. They appeared at a September 2024 roundtable discussion on health with Kennedy hosted by Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc.
“The message I’m here to share and reiterate is that American health is getting destroyed,” Casey Means said during her opening remarks at the 2024 event. “It’s being destroyed because of chronic illness.”
Meanwhile, Calley Means currently serves as senior adviser for HHS. He has worked closely with Kennedy and has touted many of his health proposals. Calley Means has a Master of Business Administration degree from Harvard University and does not have medical training.
According to a copy of her prepared testimony for her original confirmation hearing in October, obtained by ABC News, Casey Means wrote that she would work to put “Americans back on the road toward wholeness and health.”
Like Kennedy, Casey Means has called for the removal of ultra-processed foods in school lunches and has advocated for organic foods and ingredients sourced from so-called regenerative farming practices in school meals.
In her “Good Energy” newsletter, she wrote that the U.S. needed to move away “from industrial agriculture that uses synthetic pesticides” in order to create “nutrient-rich food.”
“If she were to use the platform to truly work towards improving the school lunch program in America, that would be that would be terrific, because the Secretary talks a lot about nutrition, the importance of eating healthy food,” Besser said. “But if people can’t afford it, telling people to eat healthy food doesn’t lead to a healthier nation. and one of the ways that we could see big impact in that regard would be if the school lunch program were funded to the extent that every school could have a kitchen, and the people working in that kitchen could actually prepare real food, rather than handing out packaged food.”
While Casey Means’ nomination has received support from members of the administration, including Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, acting CDC acting director and head of the National Institutes of Health, others have expressed concern over some of her more controversial views.
On Tucker Carlson’s show in August 2024, Casey Means said birth control is being “prescribed like candy” and that Ozempic has a “stranglehold on the U.S. population.”
Means has expressed skepticism about the safety of childhood vaccines and has called for more research on the “safety of the cumulative effects” of vaccines when following the CDC vaccine schedule, she wrote in her newsletter.
“There is growing evidence that the total burden of the current extreme and growing vaccine schedule is causing health declines in vulnerable children. This needs to be investigated,” she continued.
Doctors and major medical organizations, such as the American Academy of Pediatrics, have said the previous childhood immunization schedule recommended by the CDC was safe and effective. The CDC recently changed the childhood immunization schedule, cutting the number of vaccines recommended for kids.
“I will be very eager to see whether the members of the health committee use this time to lift up concerns and to get Dr. Means’ perspective on the changes the Secretary has made to the vaccine system in America,” Besser said. “I’ll be interested to see if they ask Dr Means about her perspective on the changes that have taken place at CDC and the impact that these could have on health so that it’s clear coming in where she stands on the draconian cuts that the Secretary has made to our federal public health health system.”
Kennedy said on Monday he is “excited” for Casey Means’ confirmation hearing and that the health department has been waiting “a long time” for her to join the team.
“We’ve been waiting for a long time for Dr. Means to come on board,” Kennedy told ABC News on Monday at the department’s rare disease therapies event. “We are very, very excited about her coming on board. She has an extraordinary capacity to communicate to the American public — that is the function of the surgeon general.”
ABC News’ Youri Benadjaoud and Arthur Jones II contributed to this report.
Louvre Museum Director Laurence Des Cars attends a press conference at the Louvre Museum on April 23, 2024 in Paris, France. (Thierry Chesnot/Getty Images)
(PARIS) —The director of the Louvre Museum in France has resigned, months after $102 million in jewels were stolen, according to the office of the French president.
Laurence des Cars’ tenure has been under intense scrutiny since the heist and she has faced calls for resignation.
Christophe Leribault has been named the new director of the Louvre. Leribault’s resume includes running the Versailles Palace, another world-renowned French landmark and tourist attraction, and was also the previous head of Paris’ Orsay Museum.
Leribault will oversee a long-overdue multi-million-dollar renovation project.
A French government spokesperson said he’s the perfect choice, saying, “He will notably have to direct major projects for the future of the institution, on the one hand securing and modernizing the Louvre, and on the other, the continuation of the ‘Louvre — New Renaissance’ project.”
French President Emmanuel Macron praised des Cars’ resignation “as an act of responsibility at a time when the world’s largest museum needs both stability and a strong new impetus to successfully complete major security and modernization projects,” the Élysée said in a statement Tuesday.
“The President thanked her for her work and commitment over the past few years and, recognizing her undeniable scientific expertise, entrusted her with a mission within the framework of the French G7 presidency, focusing on cooperation between the major museums of the participating countries,” according to the statement.
At least seven suspects have been arrested in connection with the October robbery but the jewels have not been recovered.
Empress Eugénie’s crown was the only item the thieves did not escape with during the robbery. The thieves dropped it on the street outside the Louvre during the roughly five-minute long heist.
The crown “was crushed and significantly deformed” during the heist, the Louvre said in a statement earlier this month. However, “it remained largely intact,” meaning museum officials believe it can be fully restored.
In light of the robbery, security lapses at the museum have been exposed, including that the password to the world-famous museum’s video surveillance system was “Louvre,” according to a museum employee with knowledge of the system.
During testimony before a French Senate committee after the robbery, des Cars said the only camera installed outside the Apollo Gallery, where the stolen jewels were displayed, was facing west and did not cover the window where the thieves used power tools to break in and exit.
Des Cars said all of the museum’s alarms and video cameras work, but said there was a “weakness” in the museum’s perimeter security “due to underinvestment.”
A man on cross-country skis travels through Central Park after a historic blizzard hit parts of the East Coast, on February 24, 2026 in New York City. (Ryan Murphy/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Snow is moving through the Northeast Wednesday morning, though much of the snow is light with heavier bands of precipitation further inland and higher elevations.
In New York City, snow is expected to last a few hours before ending in the late morning with less than an inch of snow accumulation anticipated.
In Boston, snow should end by midday with less than an inch of snow expected and, in Portland, Maine, snow totals could be up to 2 to 3 inches.
There is a chance for lingering snow showers scattered across New England through the evening but without much additional accumulation expected.
Meanwhile, temperatures the rest of the week will likely reach above freezing each day from New York City to Boston, meaning there should be some daily melting and then an overnight re-freeze that could create black ice in areas.
The chance for heavy snow across the Northeast is dwindling as the storm looks to stay farther south and temperatures too warm for snow, meaning it is much more likely this will be a rain event for the South with little to no snow for areas north of there.
While there may be thunderstorms accompanying some of the rain, no flood or severe weather threat is anticipated.
Elsewhere, on Saturday there is a chance for snow from Bismarck, North Dakota, to Milwaukee, Wisconsin and through southern Michigan that should move quickly and dump a couple of inches of snow in these regions.
Some of that snow may linger into the Northeast on Sunday but, overall, it is looking weaker and light with about an inch or less expected for those experiencing the snow.
On Sunday and Monday nights, there is a chance for snow over parts of the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic but it is currently too soon to know how this storm will develop with another round of rain and snow possible on Tuesday for the East and Northeast.
(NEW YORK) — U.S. childhood and teen obesity rates have reached record-highs while adult obesity rates may be slowing, according to two new reports published early Wednesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Researchers used measured heights and weights from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) — run by the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics — to track trends over more than six decades.
In the first report, the team found that, in the most recent survey conducted between August 2021 and August 2023, 40.3% of adults aged 20 and older were found to be obese, including 9.7% with severe obesity and another 31.7% classified as overweight.
By comparison, for the survey conducted between 1988 and 1994, 22.9% adults aged 20 and older were found to be obese including 2.8% with severe obesity and 33.1% classified as overweight.
However, some of the newest estimates suggest the rapid rise seen in earlier decades may be slowing slightly.
In the 2017-2018 survey, 42.4% of adults were classified as obese, which is the highest figure ever recorded. The decrease between the two most recent surveys could be indicative of a downward trend. Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist and chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor, noted that it aligns with observations of electronic medical record data.
“So, we’re seeing, for the first time in decades, that there’s like a leveling off and even maybe a slight decrease and I think this is like challenging a major shift from the long-held expectation that obesity would just be climbing year after year,” he said.
According to Brownstein, the decrease is likely due to many factors including public health policies and education about healthier lifestyles as well as medications such as GLP-1s.
It can help produce more insulin, which reduces blood sugar and therefore helps control Type 2 diabetes. It can also interact with the brain and signal a person to feel full, which — when coupled with diet and exercise — can help reduce weight in those who are overweight or obese.
Many GLP-1s have become household names, including Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, Zepbound and Trulicity.
“I do think the advent of the GLP-1s are absolutely playing a role,” Brownstein said. “At that point in 2023, they weren’t as widespread as they are today. So, we expect that these factors could play even more significant role in more recent times.”
Dr. Justin Ryder, an associate professor of surgery and pediatrics at Northwestern Feinberg School of Medicine, said he’s cautiously optimistic about the slight decrease.
However, he added that it remains to be seen whether this is a blip or if the decrease is indicative of a longer-term trend.
“We’ve seen dips in the past and typically, when they do, in the next reporting period it goes right back up,” Ryder told ABC News. “And that’s because of how the sampling is done. This is a random sample of U.S. adults.”
He noted that the random sampling makes it difficult to draw firm conclusions.
“Could it just be the people who were sampled, or is it real?” he said. “And I think we won’t know that until we have another set or a larger set of data over either the same sampling period or a couple more years from now.”
Meanwhile, a second report found that more than one in five U.S. children and teenagers have obesity, which is the highest figure ever recorded.
The survey conducted between August 2021 and August 2023 found 21.1% of U.S. children and teenagers between ages 2 and 19 have obesity, up from 5.2% during the 1971-1974 survey.
Additionally, 7% of children live with severe obesity, an increase from the 1% seen 50 years ago, according to the report.
“This is exceptionally concerning,” Dr. David Ludwig, co-director of the New Balance Foundation Obesity Prevention Center at Boston Children’s Hospital and professor of nutrition at Harvard School of Public Health, told ABC News.
He added that in the 1970s, “children were certainly recognized [as obese] but it was the rare child, one in 20. And now we’re looking at one in five children with obesity.”
Ludwig said it had seemed for a short period of time that the prevalence of obesity was decreasing at least among 2-to-5-year-olds when rates declined from 12.1% in 2009-2010 to 9.4% in 2013-2014.
At the time, he viewed it as a “glimmer of hope” — but rates increased again and now sit at 14.9% for this age group.
“We saw that dip and we all got excited thinking that we were beginning to turn the tide,” Ludwig said. “In retrospect, that was more of a statistical aberration, more of mirage than a true glimmer of hope because the trend overall has continued upward.”
To reverse the trends among children, Ryder said the 2-to-5-year-old group will need lifestyle modifications such as healthier eating. The 6-to-11-year-old group will need similar methods although some medications are available, he said.
For children above age 12, Ryder said medications and bariatric surgery are options.
Nearly 23% of children ages 12 to 19 were considered obese in the most recent survey. Ryder said that means they meet the guidelines for intensive treatment, whether that’s lifestyle adjustments or in combination with medications or surgery.
“I think the only way that we’re going to see a downward trend in that number is if we take that adolescent group of 12- to 19-year-olds and actually start to apply the clinical practice guidelines and treat those kids seriously, offering them medications,” he said.
Ishani D. Premaratne, MD, is an integrated plastic & reconstructive surgery resident and member of the ABC News Medical Unit.
Retired Navy Captain E. Royce Williams acknowledges applause after receiving the Medal of Honor during U.S. President Trump’s State of the Union address during a Joint Session of Congress at the U.S. Capitol on February 24, 2026, in Washington, DC.(Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — During his State of the Union address Tuesday, President Donald Trump awarded two Congressional Medals of Honor, the nation’s highest decoration for valor in combat — one for heroism from more than 70 years ago and the other for heroism in the most recent U.S. military action.
One of the recipients was Chief Warrant Officer 5 Eric Slover, a special operations helicopter pilot severely wounded in the raid that captured Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro. As Slover’s Chinook swept in, rounds fired from the ground tore through the cockpit and into his legs and hip.
“Eric was hit very badly in the leg and hip, one bullet after another. He absorbed four agonizing shots, shredding his leg into numerous pieces,” Trump said as Slover stood with the aid of a walker.
Slover was presented the award by Lt. Gen. Jonathan Braga, the commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, a break from tradition in which the president personally presents the award.
In recent decades, the review and awarding the Medal of Honor comes after exhaustive reviews and interviews with witnesses that can drag on for years. That had become the norm with heroic actions that occurred in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
But the announcement of Slover’s award marks a break with that pattern as he was awarded the medal just 52 days after his mission, a short turnaround similar to what was seen in World War II.
First lady Melania Trump presented the second Medal of Honor to retired Navy Capt. E. Royce Williams, a 100-year-old retired Navy captain whose extraordinary dogfight during the Korean War remained classified for decades, even to his wife, as the encounter could have ignited World War III.
“At 100 years old, this brave Navy captain is finally getting the recognition he deserves,” Trump said. “He was a legend long before this evening.”
According to Navy records, on Nov. 18, 1952, during the Korean War, Williams launched from an aircraft carrier on what was supposed to be a routine patrol. Then came a warning that seven MiG-15s were inbound. The three other American aircraft in Williams’ formation were unable to engage with the MiGs.
The MiGs he faced were Soviet aircraft flown by Soviet pilots at a time when the Soviet Union was not officially a combatant in the conflict. Public acknowledgment of the clash risked escalating into direct confrontation between nuclear powers, a step that, in 1952, many feared could ignite a third world war.
What followed was 30-minutes of aerial combat. By the time it ended, he had shot down four enemy jets. His own aircraft, a F9F-5 Panther, was riddled with more than 250 bullet holes, yet he managed to guide it back to the carrier and land safely on deck.
There was no celebration waiting for Williams. Instead, he was told he could not speak about what had happened and the encounter was immediately classified. He didn’t even tell his wife until the 1990s, when the records of the fight were declassified.
ABC News’ Luis Martinez contributed to this report.
