(NEW YORK) — No criminal charges will be filed in connection with a deadly National Guard helicopter crash that occurred near the U.S.-Mexico border in March.
The Starr County Sheriff’s Office in Texas has closed its investigation into the March 8 incident, which involved a UH-72 Lakota chopper assigned to Washington, D.C.’s Army National Guard.
“No criminality was found,” Major Carlos Delgado of the Starr County Sheriff’s Office told ABC News by email.
The crash killed U.S. Border Patrol agent Chris Luna along with Casey Frankoski and John Grassia, both of whom held the rank of Chief Warrant Officer 2 with the New York Army National Guard.
National Guardsman Jacob Pratt survived the collision and was transferred less than a month later to Brooke Army Medical Center to recover from his injuries, according to a report by ABC affiliate KRGV-TV.
The Pentagon could not immediately be reached for comment.
The existence of the sheriff’s office’s investigation, which is separate from the Army’s safety probe, was disclosed in the spring after ABC News filed a request under the Texas Public Information Act seeking public records associated with the incident.
The county initially denied the request, citing a Texas law that says that the “release of the information would interfere with the detection, investigation, or prosecution of crime.”
With the criminal investigation having concluded without charges, the sheriff’s office released body-worn camera videos of the response to the crash to ABC News on Friday.
The videos show the crumbled remains of the helicopter in a remote field alongside a dirt road, but do not shed additional insight into the cause of the incident.
“What a tragedy,” a sheriff’s deputy can be heard saying.
(NEW YORK) — A man hiking in the Grand Canyon has died after being found unresponsive over the weekend, marking the third death in the national park within the last three weeks.
A 50-year-old unresponsive male hiker was found on the Bright Angel Trail in the Grand Canyon about 100 feet from the trail head on Sunday, according to the Grand Canyon Regional Communications Center.
Bystanders began CPR while emergency personnel responded to the scene, but efforts to resuscitate the hiker were unsuccessful.
The hiker was a San Angelo, Texas, native and had been attempting to reach the rim from an overnight stay at Havasupai Gardens. He has not been identified by authorities.
The National Park Service is conducting an investigation into the incident.
Two other hikers have died in the Grand Canyon in recent weeks.
A 41-year-old man was found unresponsive on the Bright Angel Trail on June 16 and attempts to resuscitate him were unsuccessful. The hiker was also hiking from an overnight stay.
A semi-responsive 69-year-old hiker was found on the River Trail in the Grand Canyon on July 1, and later became unresponsive. Attempts from bystanders and National Park Service personnel to resuscitate him were unsuccessful.
The hiker was identified as Scott Sims of Austin, Texas, and he had been attempting to reach Phantom Ranch.
Last week, the NPS said temperatures on exposed parts of the trail can reach over 120 degrees in the shade. The NPS does not advise hiking in the inner canyon during the heat of the day between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.
The NPS also said efforts to assist hikers may be delayed during the summer months because of limited staff, the number of rescue calls, employee safety requirements and limited helicopter flying capability during periods of extreme heat or inclement weather.
(NEW YORK) — One of nature’s most awe-inspiring creatures, the rare and giant blue whale, was seen off the coast of Massachusetts in a rare back-to-back sighting.
Cape Ann Whale Watch, a touring group based in Gloucester, Massachusetts, took to Facebook on Monday to share footage of one of two blue whale sightings that day.
“We got to see this ‘largest animal on our planet’ on both of our trips today,” the group wrote alongside footage of the blue whale spouting water and breaching to the surface.
Blue whales are indeed the largest animals on Earth, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which reports in the North Atlantic and North Pacific, blue whales can grow up to about 90 feet and are over 100,000 pounds.
The agency notes that blue whales are found in all oceans except the Arctic, generally migrating based on the season between feeding in the summer and breeding in the winter.
Cape Ann Whale Watch noted that blue whale sightings are incredibly rare in the region, believing there hasn’t been a known occurrence in two decades.
“This whale is not common to our waters at all,” the group wrote, adding, “I believe the last time we heard of a blue whale sighting in our waters was over 20 years ago.”
The reaction to seeing the blue whale was very emotional, according to the group, “Our naturalist shed tears and could barely speak,” they wrote, adding, “Interns too had tears and were in total awe.”
Blue whales are listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act and protected under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, according to NOAA, which they note has led to population increases worldwide.
Commercial whaling was a major threat to the species throughout the 1900s before these protections were instated. According to NOAA, the primary threats blue whale populations currently face are vessel strikes and getting entangled in fishing gear.
During the back-to-back whale watching trips Monday, Cape Ann Whale Watch reported seeing several wildlife species in addition to the blue whale, including a small pod of harbor porpoise, humpback whales, fin whales, lots of huge basking sharks and a pod of common dolphins.
“My main goal on the boat is to get people curious about nature,” Christina McMahon Foley, senior naturalist with Cape Ann Whale Watch, told ABC News. “And this was like a little gift from mother nature,” she said of the blue whale sighting.
(NEW YORK) — As the popularity of drugs used for weight loss continues to explode, a new study is shedding light on which drug is most effective for weight loss.
Mounjaro, a drug with the main active ingredient tirzepatide, was found to be more helpful in helping people lose weight and maintain their weight loss, according to a study published Monday in JAMA Internal Medicine.
Individuals taking Mounjaro were three times as likely to lose 15% or more of total body weight, 2.5 times as likely to experience 10% or more weight loss, and 1.8 times as likely to experience 5% or more weight loss compared to those taking semaglutide, the active ingredient found in Ozempic.
This finding was sustained at 12 months of follow-up, according to the study, which analyzed more than 18,000 patients with obesity, both with and without Type 2 diabetes.
The study found that patients without diabetes lost more weight than patients with diabetes.
According to the study’s authors, more research is needed to understand why Mounjaro, with the active ingredient tirzepatide, was found to be more effective for weight loss.
Tirzepatide targets both the GLP 1 and the GIP receptor agonist, while semaglutide mimics only the GLP-1 receptor agonist, a type of hormone in the body that impacts everything from the brain to muscle to the pancreas, stomach and liver.
Both Ozempic and Mounjaro are approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat Type 2 diabetes, but some doctors prescribe the medication “off-label” for weight loss, as is permissible by the FDA.
When these drugs are used “off-label,” it is usually not covered by insurance and can be costly, running as much as $1,000 per month.
There are also now two drugs on the market that are FDA-approved for weight loss — Wegovy, a medication that contains the same main ingredient, semaglutide, as Ozempic, and Zepbound, a medication that contains the same main ingredient, tirzepatide, as Mounjaro.
The drugs, typically taken once weekly as injections, work by helping the pancreas increase the production of insulin to move sugar from the blood into body tissues.
They also slow down the movement of food through the stomach and curb appetite, thereby causing weight loss.
Past clinical studies have shown users of the medications can lose between 5% and 20% of their body weight on the medications over time.
Medical specialists point out that using medication to lose weight also requires cardio and strength training and changing your diet to one that includes proteins and less processed foods with added sugars.
The most commonly reported side effects of medications used for weight loss are nausea and constipation, but gallbladder and pancreatic disease are also reported. Makers of these drugs recommend having a conversation about the side effect profile and personalized risks with a healthcare professional before starting.
Barbra Streisand publicly asks Melissa McCarthy about Ozempic, sparking debate on weight and shaming The study found there was no difference in the number of adverse gastrointestinal effects between people with and without Type 2 diabetes in the study.
Prapti Chatterjee-Murphy, M.D., a member of the ABC News Medical Unit, contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Russia will attempt to influence the 2024 presidential election in favor of a past preferred candidate, according to U.S. officials who briefed reporters on election threats on Tuesday
“We have not observed a shift in Russia’s preferences for the presidential race from past elections, given the role the U.S. is playing with regard to Ukraine and broader policy toward Russia,” according to an Office of the Director of National Intelligence official.
The official did not mention any specific candidate by name, despite reporters pressing for a name.
During the 2016 election, the intelligence community assessed Russia attempted to influence the U.S. election in favor of candidate Donald Trump.
Officials from a vast swath of federal agencies said that Russia is taking a “whole of government approach” to influence the election that includes the presidential race, congressional races and public opinion, according to officials.
“We anticipate them to increase their activities as we get closer to the election,” according to the ODNI official.
The Justice Department on Tuesday released information about a Russian influence campaign related to the Ukrainian war, which officials pointed to as an example of how the U.S. says Russia is hoping to influence the election.
Russia seeks to “undermine electoral integrity and amplify domestic divisions.”
“To accomplish this, Moscow is using a variety of approaches to bolster its messaging and lend an air of authenticity to its efforts,” the official said. “Russian influence actors are planning to overtly use social media to amplify narratives, to sway U.S. public opinion in U.S. swing states, and diminish U.S. support for Ukraine.”
The campaigns and candidates have been kept abreast of these efforts, according to officials.
China and Iran are also make up the “big three” of threat actors the intelligence community is focusing on.
“Russia is the preeminent threat. Iran is a chaos agent and China is holding in the presidential race,” the ODNI official said.
China, according to U.S. officials, is taking a wait-and-see approach and may not attempt to influence the outcome of the presidential race “but we are monitoring the possibility of down ballot influence activities,” as they did in 2022.
They are also focusing on their data collection on U.S. social media platforms.
Iran is seeking to sow “chaos” in the United States, official said.
“Iran seeks to stoke social divisions and undermine confidence in the US democratic institutions around the elections. Iran has demonstrated a long standing interest in exploiting U.S. political and social tensions for a variety of means, including social media. In particular, we are monitoring Iranian actors who are seeking to exacerbate tensions with Israel,” according to an ODNI official.
(NEW HAVEN, Conn.) — A new report released by Yale Law School and Yale School of Medicine criticizes the often-cited Cass Review on gender-affirming care for transgender youth, commissioned by the National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom.
The review, released in April, was performed by Dr. Hillary Cass, a former president of the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health, amid a rise in referrals to NHS’ gender services. Her review – which calls for more research, more support, and more caution around gender-affirming care – has been cited in the NHS decision to restrict the prescribing of puberty-pausing medications, also known as puberty blockers, to children and young people under 18 years old in the U.K.
In the U.S., gender-affirming care remains a hot-button issue in the political and medical arenas. At least 25 states have enacted restrictions on care for transgender youth since 2022, according to the Human Rights Campaign.
The Cass review was cited in recent, successful legislative efforts in Indiana to uphold a 2023 law that prohibited physicians from providing “gender transition procedures” to anyone younger than 18 years old, with certain medical exceptions.
The Yale report – which states it was authored by a team of researchers and clinicians that has “86 years of experience working with 4,800 transgender youth,” and “has published 278 peer-reviewed studies, 168 of which are related to gender-affirming care” – takes issue with several aspects of the Cass Review in their critique, saying that it “obscures key findings, misrepresents its own data, and is rife with misapplications of the scientific method.” It also accuses the Review of speculating about data on transgender patients, and criticizes certain statements made in the Review about concern over gender care referrals, early medical intervention, and more.
Yet despite being cited in the NHS decision to restrict prescribing puberty blockers to minors, the Yale report notes that the Cass Review does not recommend a ban on trans youth care. It also notes that it consistently makes recommendations that are in line with international gender-affirming medical care guidelines by the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) and the Endocrine Society, a professional medical organization that is “dedicated to providing the field of endocrinology with timely, evidence-based recommendations for clinical care and practice,” according to its website.
In response to an ABC News request for comment, the team that authored the Cass Review said in a statement that the research that “underpins” the Review’s findings “looked at 237 papers from 18 countries, providing information on a total of 113,269 children and adolescents,” and was subject to peer review.
“In making her recommendations, Dr. Cass had to rely on the currently available evidence and think about how the NHS can respond safely, effectively, and compassionately,” the Review team told ABC News.
The statement continued, “The body of research on gender care for children and young people was strikingly poor compared to other areas of child and adolescent healthcare where life changing interventions are given, meaning there is not a reliable evidence base upon which to make clinical decisions, or for children and their families to make informed choices.”
Spike in gender service referrals
The Cass Review repeatedly claims that the increase of referrals for gender-affirming care in the U.K. was “exponential,” and that social acceptance of transgender identities is unlikely to be the sole explanation for the rise.
“While it certainly seems to be the case that there is much greater acceptance of trans identities, particularly among younger generations, which may account for some of the increase in numbers, the exponential change in referrals over a particularly short five-year timeframe is very much faster than would be expected for normal evolution of acceptance of a minority group,” Cass states.
In their report, Yale researchers counter that the increase in referrals to the U.K.’s Gender Identity Service is not exponential, and points to Cass’s own data on referrals, which they say actually shows the number of referrals plateaued, and then decreased starting in 2017. A graph included in the Cass Review that shows a spike from 2021 to 2022 in child and adolescent referrals for gender dysphoria is accompanied by a note that states there is “a strong possibility that there was double counting” of referrals during the time period.
“While there certainly is an increase in referrals, describing this increase as ‘exponential’ is a serious error that fuels concern that the Review is too often more interested in subjective polemics than in scientific accuracy,” the Yale report says.
Research quality on gender-affirming care
The Cass Review also criticized the evidence supporting the need for gender-affirming care. It concluded that “while a considerable amount of research has been published in this field, systematic evidence reviews demonstrated the poor quality of the published studies, meaning there is not a reliable evidence base upon which to make clinical decisions, or for children and their families to make informed choices.”
Yale experts counter in their report that the Cass Review’s “recommendations are informed by a flawed concept of evidence.” It says the Review “fails to recognize the nuances of evidence quality measures”; that it “does not follow established standards for evaluating evidence and evidence quality”; that it “casually discusses evidence quality and does not define it, contravening standard practice in scientific evaluations of medical research”; and that it “fails to contextualize the evidence for gender-affirming care with the evidence base for other areas of pediatric medicine.”
“If high-quality evidence were a prerequisite for medical care, we would all be worse off,” the Yale report further states. “Moderate, low, and very low-quality evidence,” as defined by what the report says is “one of the most widely accepted frameworks for determining evidence quality,” and “informs necessary, high-value care at every stage of life.”
The Cass Review team states in an online FAQ that “the approach to the assessment of study quality was the same as would be applied to other areas of clinical practice – the bar was not set higher for this Review.”
A subsequent clarification in the FAQ further states: “The same level of rigor should be expected when looking at the best treatment approaches for this population as for any other population so as not to perpetuate the disadvantaged position this group have been placed in when looking for information on treatment options.”
Early intervention concerns
The Yale report also takes issue with what it calls “unfounded speculation” in the Cass Review that “social transition and puberty-pausing medications may cause harm by putting youth onto a medical path.” It further notes instances in which they assert the Cass Review “expresses concern that early supportive interventions, such as social transition and puberty-pausing medications, lock young people into irreversible care.”
For example, while stating that for some young patients, the “best outcome” will be gender transitioning, the Review also argues that “those who had socially transitioned at an earlier age and/or prior to being seen in clinic were more likely to proceed to a medical pathway,” and that “the vast majority of people started on puberty blockers proceed from puberty blockers to masculinizing/feminizing hormones” – an “altered trajectory, culminating in medical intervention which will have life-long implications.”
The Cass Review also cautions that young people who transition before they experience life as the gender with which they do not identify “may have no frame of reference to cause them to regret or detransition, but at the same time they may have had a different outcome without medical intervention and would not have needed to take life-long hormones.”
“It is completely unscientific and inappropriate to expect a young person, regardless of their gender identity, to ‘try out’ life as a gender they do not identify with – as the Review supposes transgender youth should,” the Yale report states. It further says that “The Review’s own data show that most referred patients are never subsequently referred to pediatric endocrinology and even fewer receive medical interventions.”
The Yale report argues that continuing care isn’t necessarily cause for alarm or concern, and that “The Review does not consider the most likely explanation for why most youth who receive early, supportive interventions continue onto gender-affirming hormone therapy: that they are indeed transgender.”
“It is not social transition and puberty-pausing medications that drive a persistent transgender identity,” the Yale report asserts. “It is a transgender identity that drives social transition and subsequent medical interventions.”
Detransitioning and regret
The Cass Review asserts that “the percentage of people treated with hormones who subsequently detransition remains unknown due to the lack of long-term follow-up studies, although there is suggestion that numbers are increasing.”
However, in the Review’s audit of 3,306 patients who were discharged from the U.K. Gender Identity Service (GIDS), fewer than 10 patients transitioned back to their birth-registered gender – which Yale researchers note is “a ‘detransition’ date of 0.3%.”
The Yale report also states that it is “exceedingly rare that an individual would later determine that they are not transgender” after receiving clinical transgender care and support. “A person who regrets receiving care may continue to identify as transgender; another who stops medications may not experience regret, and one who stops identifying as transgender may not regret receiving medical care,” the report says.
A report in JAMA Pediatrics noted by the Yale report found that 1% of youth who received gender-affirming medications in the study re-identified with their assigned sex at birth.
In another study noted in the Yale report, this one in the LGBT Health journal, 82.5% of those surveyed “reported familial pressure, social pressure, employment difficulty, inability to access care, and financial reasons” as the reason they presented themselves as their sex assigned at birth.
(NEW YORK) — The ongoing scorching heat in the West caused a road to buckle in Washington this week while at least a dozen California cities broke all-time high-temperature records.
A heat wave enveloping much of the nation has been especially sweltering on the West Coast, where some areas have experienced multiple days of triple-digit weather that has turned deadly.
More than 70 million people are under heat alerts in the West as a scorching heat wave continues.
In Oregon, the Multnomah County Medical Examiner’s Office reported Monday that it is investigating at least four suspected heat-related deaths since the state of emergency was declared on July 5 amid dangerously hot temperatures.
Those who perished in the soaring heat included an 87-year-old man, a 75-year-old man and a 64-year-old man, all living in the Portland area, the medical examiner’s office said. A 33-year-old man was taken to a Portland hospital from outside Multnomah County, and also died from a suspected heat-related illness.
The temperature hit 101 degrees in Portland on Monday and 104 degrees in Eugene and Salem, Oregon, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). All three cities set new daily high-temperature records, the weather service said.
Portland is forecast to see its fourth straight day of triple-digit weather on Tuesday, where thermometers are expected to climb to 105 degrees, according to the NWS.
Road buckles in Washington
In Washington, extreme temperatures caused State Route 111 in Skagit County to buckle on Monday, creating potentially dangerous conditions for drivers, according to the Washington State Department of Transportation.
“Our crews were dispatched and found that the concrete panels under the asphalt had buckled due to the heat,” Madison Sehlke, a spokesperson for the Washington State Department of Transportation, told ABC affiliate station KOMO in Seattle.
Washington saw temperatures on Monday climb to the high 90s in some areas. In Olympia, the temperature hit 99 degrees on Monday, breaking a daily record set in 2010, according to the National Weather Service. Seattle also broke a daily temperature record on Monday when the temperature reached 91 degrees, according to the NWS.
Excessive heat warnings in most of California
The entire state of California was either under an excessive heat warning or a heat advisory on Tuesday.
Palm Springs, which set an all-time heat record on Sunday when the temperature peaked at 124 degrees, was forecast to reach 121 degrees on Tuesday, according to the NWS.
A long-duration heat wave is expected to continue through this week in California’s Central San Joaquin Valley.
Fresno is forecast on Tuesday to see its seventh straight day of temperatures hitting 105 degrees or higher, Andy Bollenbacher of the NWS office in Hanford, California, told ABC News.
Bollenbacher said the record for consecutive days of 105 degrees or higher in Fresno is 14. He said the extended forecast shows a temperature in Fresno of 105 degrees or higher lasting through at least Sunday.
The temperature on Tuesday in Fresno is forecast to hit 109 degrees, Bollenbacher said.
Death Valley, California, remains the hottest spot in the nation. At 11 a.m. local time on Tuesday, the temperature in Death Valley was 112 degrees and forecast to reach 128, according to the NWS.
The highest temperature ever recorded in Death Valley was 134 degrees set in 1913, which is also the highest temperature ever recorded on Earth, according to the NWS.
At least 12 cities in California have seen all-time heat records broken since Saturday, including Redding in Northern California which hit 119 degrees on Monday and Dagget in Southern California which reached 118 on Sunday, according to the National Weather Service.
Dangerous heat to drag on in Arizona
Oppressive heat is forecast to continue through the remainder of the week in Arizona, where an excessive heat warning was extended for the Phoenix metro area.
In Phoenix, the temperature is expected to peak at 117 degrees on Tuesday and remain above 109 degrees through at least Monday, according to the NWS. Lake Havasu City is forecast to hit 120 degrees on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday before cooling down to 117 on Friday and 110 on Sunday, according to the NWS.
A 50-year-old man hiking in the Grand Canyon died after being found unresponsive over the weekend, marking the third death in the national park within the last three weeks.
A man was unresponsive when he was found on the Bright Angel Trail in the Grand Canyon about 100 feet from the trailhead on Sunday, according to the Grand Canyon Regional Communications Center.
NPS said temperatures on exposed parts of the trail can reach over 120 degrees in the shade.
Las Vegas expected to break consecutive hot-day record
Just days after recording its hottest day ever, Las Vegas is aiming to break another record: consecutive days of 110 degrees or higher.
The NWS is forecasting high temperatures of 114 to 118 degrees for the rest of this week, putting Las Vegas in a position to break the current record of five straight days of 110 degrees or higher.
Las Vegas has a 90% chance of breaking its all-time record for consecutive days of 110 degrees or above, meteorologist Matt Woods of the NWS office in Las Vegas told ABC News.
Tuesday’s temperature in Las Vegas is forecast to reach 117, making it the seventh straight day it surpassed the 110-degree mark, Woods said.
Las Vegas’ record of 10 consecutive days of 110-degree weather was set in 1961 and tied in July 2023.
“Tomorrow through Saturday we have a 90% chance of reaching a 110,” Woods said. “So it’s very likely we’re going to shatter the record.”
On Sunday, Las Vegas reached 120 degrees, breaking the record for the city’s hottest day ever.
Hot weather in other parts of the nation
By this weekend, the record heat will move into the Rockies, where cities like Denver, Colorado, and Rapid City, South Dakota, could see record highs.
Numerous cities along the East Coast are forecast to hit the century mark or get close.
In Washington, D.C., the temperature hit 98 degrees on Tuesday afternoon and is forecast to reach 96 degrees on Wednesday. Philadelphia hit 94 degrees on Tuesday afternoon. Further south, the temperature Tuesday afternoon in Richmond, Virginia, climbed to 95 degrees and it was 94 in Charlotte, North Carolina, according to the NWS.
(NEW YORK) — Gold bars and hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash the FBI found in Sen. Bob Menendez’s home were not given to him as a bribe, a defense attorney insisted Tuesday during closing arguments in the New Jersey senator’s federal corruption trial.
While waving his arms and pacing in front of the jury box, the defense attorney, Adam Fee, used a sarcastic tone to mock the government’s case as “cherry-picked nonsense.”
Fee accused prosecutors of “fudging” the facts and said the story they told about Menendez is false and insufficient to convict.
“The only honest verdict I submit here is to acquit him on each count,” Fee told the jury during closing arguments Tuesday in the Manhattan federal courthouse. “His actions were lawful, normal and good for the country.”
Prosecutors painted a much different picture of Menendez, whom they accused of corruption on a “massive scale” and of selling his office to businessmen willing to pay.
“The buck stops here. Thousands upon thousands of bucks stop here. It’s time to hold him responsible,” prosecutor Paul Monteleoni said as he wrapped his closing argument on Tuesday.
While Fee said he would not blame jurors for believing “something fishy” was going on after they saw multiple photographs of the nearly $500,000 seized from Menendez’s home stuffed in boots, jackets and bags, he urged the jury to resist a “knee-jerk” reaction.
“The story the prosecutors tell is that it is so weird … it is so inherently unusual and suspicious that Bob must have known it was a bribe,” Fee said. “That is false.”
The defense insisted Menendez hoarded cash because of his father’s experience in Cuba and that it was “common” for his wife to have gold.
The defense also attempted to exploit a weakness in the government’s case: the lack of direct evidence linking Menendez to bribe payments.
“What text, what email, what document suggests to you that that story is credible?” Fee asked the jury. “They have not supplied to you any compelling evidence for the theory they have offered you.”
Prosecutors claimed the cash, gold and a luxury convertible were all bribes from Menendez’s co-defendants, Fred Daibes and Wael Hana, and accused the senator of using his power to benefit the New Jersey businessmen and foreign governments.
All three defendants have pleaded not guilty to their charges.
Closing arguments for Daibes and Hana are expected to follow on Wednesday.
(WASHINGTON) — Iranian government actors are seeking to “take advantage” of pro-Palestinian protests in the United States, according to the director of National Intelligence, including providing financial support to some protesters.
“In recent weeks, Iranian government actors have sought to opportunistically take advantage of ongoing protests regarding the war in Gaza, using a playbook we’ve seen other actors use over the years,” DNI Avril Haines said in a statement. “We have observed actors tied to Iran’s government posing as activists online, seeking to encourage protests, and even providing financial support to protesters.”
This is all part of Iran’s efforts to influence “our democratic process” according to Haines.
“The freedom to express diverse views, when done peacefully, is essential to our democracy, but it is also important to warn of foreign actors who seek to exploit our debate for their own purposes,” Haines said.
During the spring and into the summer, pro-Palestinian protesters have protested on college campuses and in other places.
“Iran is becoming increasingly aggressive in their foreign influence efforts, seeking to stoke discord and undermine confidence in our democratic institutions, as we have seen them do in the past, including in prior election cycles,” she said. “They continue to adapt their cyber and influence activities, using social media platforms and issuing threats. It is likely they will continue to rely on their intelligence services in these efforts, as well as Iran-based online influencers, to promote their narratives.”
In the 2020 election cycle Iranian actors sent spoof text messages around purporting to be the Proud Boys.
(SEATTLE) — A Seattle mom who lost her 3-year-old son in a drowning incident has now established a nonprofit organization dedicated to saving lives through water safety education, legislation and increasing equitable access to swimming lessons.
Chezik Tsunoda created “No More Under” to increase awareness about drowning dangers and to offer access to swim lessons after her son Yori Tsunoda died in 2018.
In 2018, Tsunoda took Yori on a playdate with someone they knew from the preschool he attended, who happened to have a pool in their backyard. When they got to the pool, she said everybody just jumped in.
Yori slipped beneath the surface of the pool, the mom told ABC News. Tsunoda said that kids and adults were all around the pool when they noticed Yori floating face down. He was unresponsive when pulled out of the water, but first responders were able to revive him with CPR and transfer him to Seattle Children’s Hospital where medics pronounced him dead.
According to Dr. Ben Hoffman, President of the American Academy of Pediatrics, drowning is the leading cause of death for children ages 1 to 4 years old. He also said drowning is 100% preventable.
Wanting to bring awareness to water safety and stop needless drownings, Tsunoda founded No More Under in 2019, a year after Yori died.
“We are really dedicated to saving lives through education, legislation and providing access and equity in aquatics,” Tsunoda said. “We’re out handing out water watcher badges, stickers and coloring books that just remind everyone to be safe.”
The organization has been providing swim lessons for the last three years in partnership with YMCAs and local city pools, Tsunoda said, teaching more than 5,000 lessons.
“If you talk about drowning, people turn their heads,” Tsunoda said. “Imagine if we normalized and took some of the shame away from this and really had some understanding of what we can do to save all of these lives. I feel like Yori is changing the world.”
