(WASHINGTON) — Matt Gaetz said Friday he will not return to Congress after withdrawing his name from consideration to be President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general.
In an interview with conservative commentator Charlie Kirk on “Real America’s Voice,” Gaetz said he is “still going to be in the fight but it’s going to be from a new perch.”
“I do not intend to join the 119th Congress,” he said. “There are a number of fantastic Floridians who’ve stepped up to run for my seat, people who have inspired with their heroism, with their public service. And I’m actually excited to see northwest Florida go to new heights and have great representation.”
Questions swirled about Gaetz’s future after he dropped his confirmation bid on Thursday amid sexual misconduct allegations. While he’d resigned from the 118th Congress just hours after being tapped by Trump to serve in the administration, he won reelection to serve in the 119th Congress beginning in January.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — Judge Juan Merchan has delayed President-elect Donald Trump’s Nov. 26 sentencing date in his criminal hush money case, according to a brief order issued Friday.
The judge is allowing the defense to file a motion to dismiss the case and he laid out a briefing schedule. The defense motion is due Dec. 2.
Trump was scheduled to be sentenced next week after he was found guilty in May on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in order to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election.
(NEW YORK) — Actor Jonathan Majors and his ex-girlfriend Grace Jabbari have agreed to resolve her civil claims that followed his misdemeanor assault conviction in New York, according to a court filing.
Majors and Jabbari stipulated to a dismissal of her lawsuit for defamation and assault that she brought against him in March, the filing said. A reason was not given.
Jabbari sued Majors about the same time he was sentenced to domestic violence intervention classes in April. She alleged he physically abused her and then defamed her by denying the assault in an interview with ABC News.
Majors was found guilty of one count of misdemeanor third-degree assault and one count of second-degree harassment, but acquitted of two other counts of assault and aggravated harassment in a split verdict.
Since the verdict, Majors has been dropped from his management and PR firms. In addition, he was cut from future Marvel films and his role as Kang in “Avengers: Kang Dynasty.”
As part of his sentencing, Majors was ordered to complete 52-week in-person batterers intervention program in Los Angeles, continue mental health counseling and stay away from Jabbari.
(NEW YORK) — Tech billionaire Elon Musk has kept busy since Election Day, advising President-elect Donald Trump and receiving an appointment to co-lead a new government efficiency commission.
Musk has also found time to promote Trump in scores of posts on the social media platform X, formerly Twitter, which he owns. But such advocacy appears to have driven some X users to seek alternatives.
One such app, Bluesky, has drawn attention as a possible X rival and has amassed a total of 20 million users to date. Its growth accelerated in the aftermath of the election, when Bluesky added one million users in a single week.
Launched by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Bluesky has attracted some prominent users in recent days, including comedian Ben Stiller, author Stephen King, and pop star Lizzo.
Here’s what to know about Bluesky, and how to join:
What is Bluesky?
Bluesky is a text-oriented social media platform on which users can post messages as long as 300 characters. Like X, the messages posted on Bluesky appear on a newsfeed displayed to users. The app is available on iOS and Android.
The platform operates on an open framework, meaning that users can post their messages to a server tailored for specific interests or communities. The system design resembles that which is used on another text-first app, Mastodon, as well as the decentralized platform Discord.
Bluesky began in 2019 as a venture at Twitter overseen by Dorsey, and was launched as an independent company in 2022, the year after he left Twitter.
Development of the site started after a 2020 tweet from Dorsey announcing Twitter’s plans to fund a decentralized social media platform, Bluesky said in a blog post. The eventual leaders at Bluesky were among those who sent direct messages to Dorsey in response to his post, the blog added.
Who owns Bluesky?
The board of directors at Bluesky features Dorsey as well as Jeremie Miller, the founder in the late 1990s of a free instant messaging service called Jabber.
Bluesky’s CEO is Jay Graber, who formerly founded an events-oriented social media site called Happening and worked as a software engineer on a cryptocurrency called Zcash, according to LinkedIn. She also serves on the Bluesky board.
The company is owned by Graber as well as “the Bluesky team,” the Bluesky website says.
While Bluesky has retained a traditional corporate structure featuring a board and chief executive, the company said it aspires to take control of content away from a top-down entity and return it to creators.
“Traditional social networks are often closed platforms with a central authority,” the website says. “There’s a small group of people who control those companies, and they have total control over how users can use the platform and what developers can build.”
Dorsey criticized Musk’s leadership at Twitter on Bluesky last year, saying that things “all went south” at the platform after Musk’s acquisition, CNBC reported.
Is Bluesky a viable alternative to X?
The steady growth of Bluesky has made it a destination for an increasing number of celebrities, elected officials and government entities. But the platform remains much smaller than X or the Meta-owned competitor, Threads.
Bluesky boasts roughly 20 million users, which amounts to less than 10% of the 229 million daily active users disclosed by Twitter in a June 2022 earnings report. X’s user data is no longer publicly available since Musk took the company private.
In July, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that Threads had exceeded 175 million monthly active users.
How do you join Bluesky?
During Bluesky’s initial years, users could only join the platform if they received an invitation. The policy aimed to limit the app’s user base as it underwent testing.
In February, however, the platform made itself available to all users. Individuals or organizations can navigate to the platform and follow instructions to create an account.
(NEW YORK) — Some hospitals in the U.S. are seeing an increase in RSV and higher levels of “walking pneumonia” among young children despite overall respiratory illness activity remaining low nationally.
Cook Children’s Medical Centers in Texas reported a “steep increase” in children visiting the emergency room due to respiratory-related illnesses.
On Tuesday, at the health system’s Fort Worth location alone, there were 572 patients — a near-record-high number — in the emergency department. Officials said the increase in hospital visits is due to a spread of RSV and walking pneumonia in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Additionally, University of North Carolina hospitals reported 40 walking pneumonia cases in the last week of October compared to no cases the same time last year.
Infectious disease specialists say that although parents should stay alert when it comes to respiratory illnesses spreading, this season also may also be marking a return to typical seasons seen before the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s the calm before the storm,” Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, a professor of medicine and infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, told ABC News. “It feels that there’s so much going on … that we almost forget about respiratory viruses, but they’re very regular. They’re kind of falling back into normal pre-pandemic cadence.”
Walking pneumonia seeing cyclical increase
So-called “walking pneumonia” is a respiratory tract bacterial infection caused by the bacteria Mycoplasma pneumoniae (M. pneumoniae), according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Infections are generally mild, and people may seem better than expected for those with a lung infection, hence the term walking pneumonia, the CDC said. Sometimes serious complications, however, emerge requiring hospitalization.
For the week ending Nov. 2, the latest for which CDC data is available, 2.8% of all pneumonia-associated ED visits led to an M. pneumoniae diagnosis, up from just 2% at the end of September.
Rates were highest among those ages 1 and younger, making up 7.8% of all pneumonia-associated ED visits with an M. pneumoniae diagnosis for the week ending Nov. 2.
Experts say mycoplasma infections have a cyclical nature and tend to surge every three to seven years.
“Just like other respiratory viruses, there was not a lot of exposure during the pandemic years because of social distancing and people staying away from each other, and so we’re catching up to that,” Chin-Hong said. “Mycoplasma may also be one of these things where you’re kind of seeing the perfect storm. So, it comes back every four or five years and people are getting back to their normal lives.”
RSV activity returning to pre-pandemic levels
Respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, is a common respiratory virus with most children affected by their second birthday, according to the CDC.
Although it typically causes mild, cold-like symptoms and most people recover in one to two weeks, it can be a serious infection for infants and older adults, resulting in hospitalization, the CDC said.
Current levels remain lower than those seen at the same time during the past few seasons.
“While RSV activity is increasing in certain regions, particularly among young children, it’s important to remember that we’re seeing a return to more typical pre-pandemic patterns,” said Dr. John Brownstein, an epidemiologist and chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor.
“This year’s season is starting later and progressing more slowly compared to the past few years, which were marked by earlier and more severe outbreaks,” he added.
Brownstein pointed out that while national levels remain low, certain regions in the southern U.S. and eastern U.S. are seeing localized surges, especially among young children.
When to go to the emergency room
Chin-Hong said if symptoms are mild, including low-grade fever, dry cough, sore throat, headaches and mild aches and pains, parents can keep their children home and contact their primary care provider with any questions.
However, when symptoms become more severe including difficulty breathing, a long-lasting fever or lethargy, then it might be time to visit the emergency room.
If you have “a child who’s having a cough for more than seven days and maybe they’re not shaking that off, then you worry about something like walking pneumonia,” Chin-Hong said.
How to prevent RSV and walking pneumonia
To prevent RSV, there are three vaccines approved for adults ages 60 and older as well as some adults between the ages 50 and 59 who are at higher risk. There is also a vaccine available for pregnant women between 32 weeks and 36 weeks of pregnancy.
For babies under eight months, there are two monoclonal antibody products available. Monoclonal antibodies are proteins manufactured in a lab that mimic the antibodies the body naturally creates when fighting an infection.
“For walking pneumonia. or mycoplasma, there’s no vaccine for that, but by getting vaccines for RSV, COVID [and] influenza, you reduce the probability of co-infections that can make things worse,” Chin-Hong said.
Experts also recommended applying lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic, such as wearing a mask in spaces with poor ventilation.
“Practicing good hygiene, like frequent hand-washing and covering coughs and sneezes, remains essential in preventing the spread of respiratory infections,” Brownstein said.
(NEW YORK) — Authorities investigating the rash of recent burglaries at the homes of professional athletes have recovered a watch belonging to Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce in Providence, Rhode Island, sources familiar with the case told ABC News.
Kelce’s Leawood, Kansas, home was burglarized as the Chiefs were about to kick off Monday Night Football against the New Orleans Saints hours apart from a burglary at the home of Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes.
Police had not previously disclosed a watch was taken from Kelce but did confirm that $20,000 cash was stolen.
Police believe the athletes are being targeted based on their game schedules and are working to determine whether a crime ring is targeting them along with other luxury homeowners.
So far all of these thefts have occurred while nobody is home. There is a concern about what happens if the athlete or his/her family members are present, a security source told ABC News.
The burglars conduct extensive surveillance, sometimes posing as delivery men, maintenance workers or joggers to learn about residences, neighborhoods and security systems, according to an NFL memo obtained by ABC News.
One security source told ABC News the burglars appear to know what they’re looking for, where it is in the home and are in and out within 15 minutes.
U.S. Embassy in London, United Kingdom (L. Toshio Kishiyama/Getty Images)
(LONDON) — A suspicious package was discovered outside the United States embassy in London on Friday morning, police said.
The London Metropolitan Police immediately closed Ponton Road outside of the embassy in “an abundance of caution,” according to their statement, before they destroyed it in a controlled explosion.
“We’re aware of speculation online about an incident in the vicinity of the US Embassy in Nine Elms,” the Met Police said. “Cordons are in place in the area as a precaution while officers investigate a suspect package.”
Authorities updated the situation approximately an hour later after reports of a “loud bang” began circulating online.
“We can confirm that the ‘loud bang’ reported in the area a short time ago was a controlled explosion carried out by officers. Enquiries are still ongoing and cordons will remain in place for the time being,” police said.
The U.S. embassy in London moved to a brand-new purpose-built location in January 2018. The 12-story government office — complete with a moat surrounding it — cost approximately $1 billion to construct and was funded entirely from proceeds of sale from other U.S. government property in London, according to the U.S. government.
(WASHINGTON) — South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds introduced the “Returning Education Back to Our States Act” on Thursday, signaling a commitment to deliver on President-elect Donald Trump’s vow to dismantle the Department of Education.
In the conservative movement to return education back to local control, Rounds said the legislation would “eliminate” the department while redistributing all critical federal programs to other agencies.
Rounds’ announcement was first reported by Fox News.
“For years, I’ve worked toward removing the federal Department of Education,” the Republican senator wrote in a statement, adding “I’m pleased that President-elect Trump shares this vision, and I’m excited to work with him and Republican majorities in the Senate and House to make this a reality. This legislation is a roadmap to eliminating the federal Department of Education by practically rehoming these federal programs in the departments where they belong, which will be critical as we move into next year.”
In his statement, Rounds said the United States spends too much on education for students’ test scores to be lagging behind other countries in standardized assessments. He called the DOE ineffective and earmarked the department’s responsibilities for the Departments of Interior, Treasury, Health and Human Services, Labor and State, according to the bill text.
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and aid programs under Title VIII of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act will be transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services, the Office of Indian Education of the Department of Education will be transferred to the Department of the Interior, the Federal Pell Grant and other higher education loan programs will be transferred to the Department of the Treasury.
According to the bill, the treasury department will allocate Block grants to states for K-12 and postsecondary education. The treasury secretary also has the power to withhold these funds if they are mishandled by the states. The Justice Department will oversee federal civil rights laws that were previously under Title VI.
Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie told ABC News Thursday morning that he would also bring forward legislation to abolish the DOE within the “first few weeks” of the 119th Congress.
“There’ll be one sentence – only thing that will change is the date: The Department of Education shall terminate on December 31, 2026,” Massie told ABC News.
Massie has been pushing to defund the U.S. Department of Education since the start of 2023 when he introduced H.R. 899. Massie’s bill wasn’t voted on in the House last year.
However, education analyst Neal McCluskey at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, argued Massie’s one-sentence bill was not realistic.
“You’ve got to figure out what to do with all the legislation that feeds into the Department of Education,” McCluskey said.
“If Congress were to pass that law that says, abolish the Department of Education, technically the department would go away, but then you’d have all sorts of questions, well, who’s going to administrate or be administrator for all these programs,” he said.
In March 2023, Massie wrote an amendment H.Amendment 124 in H.R. 5, the “Parents Bill of Rights Act” – the House’s signature K-12 education policy – to abolish the department. That amendment failed as all Democrats and 60 House Republicans voted against it.
Here are ways to gut the department
Even as Republicans hold majorities in both chambers next Congress, the Senate typically needs 60 votes to do anything, according to McCluskey. McCluskey said, “There’s no chance they’re going to be at 60, and so it’s going to be tough [to abolish the department legislatively].”
“The Department of Education administers a whole lot of laws, and then those laws have to be changed about who runs student aid and who is tasked with making decisions about canceling student debt, and who decides or who administers Title I and lots of these other federal programs,” McCluskey told ABC News.
“He [President-elect Trump] can certainly use the bully pulpit to drive this a lot. He could provide legislative blueprints if he wanted to. But ultimately this has to come through Congress,” McCluskey underscored.
Meanwhile, Augustus Mays, vice president for partnerships and engagement at the advocacy group The Education Trust, told ABC News that the president-elect could also ask Congress to gut federal programs like Title 1, the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), and others, in his congressional budget request.
Public education, particularly in high-need districts, would effectively be drained of millions of dollars, according to Mays.
“It would really cripple the ability to function and aid the support that these students need to really succeed from an academic standpoint,” Mays said.
(NEW YORK) — On the same day that former Rep. Matt Gaetz withdrew from consideration as President-elect Donald Trump’s attorney general, Trump announced that he will pick former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to fill that role in his administration.
Bondi, 59, has remained in Trump’s inner circle for years and has continued to advise him on legal matters. She was one of the lawyers who defended Trump during his first Senate impeachment trial.
“I have known Pam for many years — She is smart and tough, and is an AMERICA FIRST Fighter, who will do a terrific job as Attorney General!” Trump said in a Truth Social post.
Bondi’s nomination must be confirmed by the Senate. She did not immediately comment about Trump’s announcement.
For more than a decade, Bondi has been a key Trump supporter and has been involved in some controversies, including the “big lie,” pushed by Trump in 2020.
In 2013, the Trump Foundation sent a $25,000 donation to Bondi’s fundraising committee for her attorney general reelection campaign. Around the same time, Bondi’s office had been considering reviewing a lawsuit filed by the New York attorney general’s office that probed Trump and Trump University, but it ultimately did not join the suit.
Bondi and Trump both denied allegations that the donation led to her decision to not join the lawsuit. She endorsed Trump for his presidential run and spoke at the 2016 Republican National Convention leading a “lock her up chant” against then-Secretary of State Hilary Clinton. She also served as a co-chair of Trump’s 2020 reelection bid.
Bondi left the Florida Attorney General’s office in 2019 and a year later was named part of Trump’s defense team for his first impeachment trial. He was acquitted in the Senate.
Bondi continued to be part of Trump’s legal team during the 2020 election and repeatedly made false claims about voter fraud when he lost to Joe Biden.
Recently, she has been a member of the conservative think tank America First Policy Institute where she serves as the chair for the Center for Litigation, and co-chair of the Center for Law and Justice, according to the think tank’s website.
(NEW YORK) — If you are nearing retirement, you will soon be able to stash even more money into your nest egg — if you can afford it.
The Internal Revenue Service announced that the maximum amount individuals can contribute to their 401(k) or similar plans in 2025 will increase to $23,500, up from $23,000 for 2024.
The federal government already lets those 50 and older make extra contributions so that they can save more as they near retirement age. This is known as a “catch-up” contribution.
In 2025, the standard catch-up contribution will stay the same, with a max of $7,500, according to the IRS.
But starting next year, workers ages 60 to 63 will be able to make “super” catch-up contributions, up to $11,250 annually, which is an additional $3,750.
That means they can potentially contribute up to $34,750 in total, each year, to a workplace retirement account.
The substantially higher catch-up contributions are part of SECURE 2.0, which President Joe Biden signed into law in 2022 as part of a $1.7 trillion omnibus spending package.
“While anything that encourages more investing is generally a good thing, I’m afraid this rule change probably won’t make a big impact, ” Bankrate’s Senior Industry Analyst Ted Rossman, told ABC News. “There has to be a very small population between the ages of 60 and 63 who were maxing out their accounts and can now go higher.”
In 2023, just 14% of retirement plan participants maxed out their 401(k) limits, according to Vanguard Research.
Even those who have always maxed out their retirement savings contributions may need to reallocate funds as they age and start to face extra expenses, like sending children to college or caring for aging parents.
Aside from 401(k) plans and similar employee-sponsored plans, the limit on annual Individual Retirement Account contributions is unchanged next year, at $7,000, while the catch-up contribution for people 50 and older will remain $1,000.
Those limits apply to both traditional IRAs, which may offer a tax deduction depending on income, and to Roth IRAs, which don’t come with a tax deduction but do offer tax-free growth and withdrawals in retirement.
An aging population, coupled with fewer companies offering pensions, means that a smaller portion of the population overall is prepared for retirement.
The typical household headed by someone ages 55 to 64 has just $10,000 saved in a retirement account, according to an analysis of federal data by the Economic Policy Institute and the Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis.
“Not to discourage investing at any age, but there’s a reason why Einstein said compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world,” Rossman said. “Investing is more powerful when you’re young.”
Still, catch-up contributions can be a valuable way to grow your retirement fund and enjoy the tax benefits.
Rossman said it’s also important to contribute regularly to your 401(k) and gradually increase your contributions. He suggested putting reminders in your calendar to increase your 401(k) contribution every year.
“The idea is that you’re less likely to miss the extra money if you do it gradually or if you do it in tandem with a pay raise,” Rossman said.
For instance, he said, if you’re currently contributing 5% of your salary, could you bump that up to 6% or 7% next year?
“Gradually dialing up your percentage makes it more likely that you’ll stick with the approach,” Rossman added, “and you won’t diminish your standard of living.”
