(NEW YORK) — The post-pandemic travel boom has sparked some ambitious and necessary changes within the airline industry due to the influx of frequent flyers who are seeking more from their pre-flight routines, be it enrolling in expedited security lines or enjoying access to airport lounges.
Delta Airlines previously recognized that the steady stream of customers was causing overcrowding at some of its Sky Club lounges, prompting the company to adjust its entry policies, but now the Atlanta-based carrier is opening the first of many doors to a new category of higher tier lounges.
Delta debuts first Delta One Lounge, new premium airport experience
The new Delta One Lounge in Terminal 4 at John F. Kennedy International Airport, which officially opens Wednesday to customers departing or arriving in the Delta One cabin, is the largest of any existing Delta Sky Club and boasts an array of elevated amenities and experiences including shower suites, spa treatments, relaxation pods, an outdoor terrace, a signature bar and a full service brasserie-style restaurant.
Claude Roussel, vice president of Delta Sky Clubs and Lounge Experience, called this a “new era for Delta,” adding that the airline is “raising the bar across the board.”
“We want our guests to feel the difference here; Moreover, we want them to feel welcomed and valued from the moment they step through the door,” he said.
The opening is just the beginning for Delta’s latest premium strategy, with at least two more Delta One Lounge outposts expected to open this fall in Los Angeles and Boston.
Guests enter and pass the concierge desk before walking into the sprawling 39,707-square foot space with modern interior design, high ceilings, brass accents, floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the tarmac and an area for every type of pre-flight experience.
Beyond the entrance sits a fireplace lounge accented with pillows, vases and coffee table books from the famed Italian fashion house Missoni, Delta One’s newest onboard partner; an art deco-inspired Icon Bar with signature drinks like the Woodford Reserve Peach Tree Old Fashioned, a nod to the airline’s Georgia roots; a year-round terrace with bar cart services; a large grab-and-go market and bakery; a business lounge with plug-and-play monitors; and tucked in the farthest corner is the wellness area with a quiet serenity lounge, shower suites outfitted with Grown Alchemist products and a hidden closet to utilize the lounge’s valet steaming service that will refresh any garments.
The standout 140-seat brasserie sets the new Delta One Lounge apart from its existing Sky Clubs and from other business lounge competitors, offering a seated three-course dining service with seasonally inspired dishes from chef Nickolas Martinez such as hamachi crudo, corn agnolotti, seared salmon, steak frites and desserts like chocolate soufflé.
The culinary collaboration comes from Restaurant Associates and Union Square Events, a concept from famed New York restaurateur Danny Meyer.
For those who want a more casual eating experience, the Market and Bakery has pre-plated bites for convenient walk-up service, offering everything from small sandwiches to custom made salads, fresh flatbread pizzas and a juice bar.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange hugs his wife, Stella Assange, after arriving at Canberra Airport in Canberra on June 26, 2024. (William West/AFP via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Julian Assange arrived on Wednesday in his native Australia, with the WikiLeaks founder stepping off the plane in Canberra and hugging his wife, Stella.
“Touchdown!” WikiLeaks said on social media. “After enduring nearly 14 years of arbitrary detention in the UK, 5 years in maximum security prison, for his groundbreaking publishing work with WikiLeaks, Julian Assange has arrived home on Australian soil.”
Assange waved to a gathered crowd as he walked along the tarmac. He paused and offered a double thumbs up before entering a terminal building.
Assange had pleaded guilty to a single felony in a U.S. court in the Northern Mariana Islands on Wednesday and left a free man.
Assange’s release follows a yearslong fight by the U.S. government to extradite him on charges related to documents published by WikiLeaks in 2010.
U.S. prosecutors had accused Assange of conspiring with Chelsea Manning, who, as an intelligence analyst in the U.S. Army, leaked to Assange hundreds of thousands of classified documents, including about 250,000 U.S. Department of State cables.
The Justice Department said Monday it had reached an agreement with Assange to plead guilty to a single felony count of conspiring to unlawfully obtain and disseminate classified information.
Anthony Albanese, the Australian prime minister, who had advocated for the charges to be dropped, said in a statement on Wednesday that he’d spoken with Assange, welcoming him home during a phone call.
Albanese also thanked the United States and United Kingdom for making Assange’s return possible.
“As Prime Minister, I have been clear — regardless of what you think of his activities, Mr. Assange’s case had dragged on for too long,” he said. “I have clearly and consistently — at every opportunity and at every level — advocated for Mr Assange’s case to be concluded.”
U.S. journalist Evan Gershkovich, accused of espionage, looks out from inside a glass defendants’ cage prior to a hearing in Yekaterinburg’s Sverdlovsk Regional Court on June 26, 2024. (NATALIA KOLESNIKOVA/AFP via Getty Images)
(LONDON) — The trial of Evan Gershkovich, an American journalist charged with espionage in Russia, was convened on Wednesday behind closed doors, as U.S. officials accused the Kremlin of using the case “to achieve its political objectives.”
The proceedings in Sverdlovsk Regional Court in Yekaterinburg, a city hundreds of miles from Moscow, will mark the first time prosecutors have laid out their evidence against the Wall Street Journal reporter, who they’ve accused of working for the CIA.
The case against the journalist has been widely denounced by U.S. officials and press-freedom advocates, along with Gershkovich’s editor and publisher.
“When his case comes before a judge this week, it will not be a trial as we understand it, with a presumption of innocence and a search for the truth,” Emma Tucker, the Journal’s editor-in-chief, wrote in an open letter published Tuesday.
Gershkovich was arrested in March 2023 while reporting in the Sverdlovsk region, where Russian officials claimed he was collecting secrets on the “production and repair of military equipment” for the CIA. The indictment against Gershkovich was approved by prosecutors earlier this month, sending the case to the regional court for trial.
The reporter appeared in court on Wednesday with a shaved head, briefly smiling at the gathered photographers from inside the glass cage common for defendants in Russian courtrooms. The press were expected to be asked to leave the courtroom prior to the start of the secret trial.
Officials from the U.S. Embassy in Moscow traveled to the courthouse on Wednesday and were given brief access to Gershkovich before the proceedings began, according to a statement. Russian authorities have failed to provide evidence supporting the charges, the statement said.
“His case is not about evidence, procedural norms, or the rule of law,” the statement said. “It is about the Kremlin using American citizens to achieve its political objectives.”
U.S. officials declared in April 2023 that Gershkovich’s detention was wrongful, accusing Russia at the time of attempting to quiet opposition voices and conducting an “ongoing war against the truth.”
The Kremlin’s efforts to suppress dissent have in the last year become “even more oppressive,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in March, as he marked a year since the journalist’s arrest.
“To date, Russia has provided no evidence of wrongdoing for a simple reason: Evan did nothing wrong,” Blinken said. “Journalism is not a crime.”
Gershkovich and his lawyers attempted to appeal for release several times over the the 15 months, but those appeals were all denied. His pre-trial detention had been extended until June 30.
“They have made false claims about his behavior, about his actions, about associations with the United States government that simply aren’t true,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters during a briefing on Tuesday in Washington.
As Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly made clear, he wants to trade Gershkovich, most likely as a prison exchange for Russians held in the United States.
Russia and the United States carried out similar high-profile swaps in 2022, when WBNA star Brittney Griner was exchanged for Viktor Bout, a convicted Russian arms trafficker, and a former U.S. Marine, Trevor Reed, was traded for a pilot convicted of drug smuggling.
Negotiations between Russia and the U.S. continue but so far have not produced a result. A senior Russian official last week claimed Russia had made a proposal to the U.S. but alleged that it appeared for now the U.S. was unwilling to accept it.
The Biden administration has said it considers Gershkovich and the case of another American held in Russia, former Marine Paul Whelan, as top priorities and is continuing to negotiate with Russia for their release.
“Russia should stop using individuals like Evan Gershkovich or Paul Whelan as bargaining chips,” the U.S. Embassy in Moscow said in its Wednesday statement. “They should both be released immediately.”
(WASHINGTON) — U.S. officials are defending President Joe Biden’s decision to build a $230 million temporary pier off Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid as a better-than-nothing solution to the worsening crisis there, even as rough waves have forced its closure several times in the past month and aid workers on shore say it’s nearly impossible to distribute the supplies due to safety concerns.
According to the military, which invited reporters to tour the pier for the first time on Tuesday, the structure has enabled the delivery of some 13.6 million pounds of food to a United Nations-run warehouse on shore. The amount is roughly equivalent to what the U.N. says can fit inside 200 to 600 of its ground trucks — less than half of what aid organizations say Gaza’s two million residents might need in a day.
“This is a temporary solution to help rush aid into the zone, again recognizing the dire security situation there. But we’re going to continue to look at all ways to get security in there,” said Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon’s press secretary.
Biden’s decision to build the pier came amid frustration with the Israelis that they were allowing too few aid trucks inside Gaza, citing security concerns. The plan was that the pier would enable some two million meals a day — or 150 trucks — that could augment ground convoys carrying supplies through border crossings like Kerem Shalom in Israel and Rafah in Egypt.
But that hasn’t happened.
Since being anchored in mid-May, the pier has been operational about half the time it has been in place. The temporary structure, built to rise and fall with the waves, has had to be moved twice to the Israeli port of Ashdod due to rough seas — including once because portions of the pier broke and it had to be repaired.
In an interview with ABC News, Army Col. Samuel Miller, commander of the 7th Transportation Brigade, said the hope is that seas are calmer in July. He said it’s possible though that weather will become more of a factor in August and into fall.
“We knew coming here there were going to be challenges. And we’ve seen just about every one of those challenges,” Miller told ABC News Chief Global Affairs Correspondent Martha Raddatz in an interview on Tuesday from the pier.
For now, he later added, “We’re resolute and we’re back out here.”
Officials say the military warned the White House beforehand of the likely complications, including high seas, that would make the pier inoperable. But with few other options, Biden announced his decision during his State of the Union speech last March and ordered 1,000 U.S. troops to deploy to facilitate the maritime corridor.
Aid organizations say an even bigger problem is that there’s no system to distribute the aid once it arrives. The U.N.’s World Food Programme had struck an agreement with the military to deliver the aid that arrives via the pier, as Biden has insisted that no U.S. troops deploy on shore in Gaza. But WFP temporarily suspended operations earlier this month, pending a security review, and has not resumed operations.
“The risks, frankly, are becoming increasingly intolerable,” Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for the U.N. secretary-general, told reporters on Tuesday.
Kate Phillips-Barrasso, vice president of global policy and advocacy for Mercy Corps, which operates inside Gaza, said the issue isn’t with the pier itself but the “complete lack” of safety guarantees to aid workers from the Israelis.
“It doesn’t matter if the aid comes in over land or through the sea. It’s impossible to deliver at a scale that would prevent massive food insecurity and potential famine” without guarantees given to aid workers and safe corridors, Phillips-Barrasso said.
When asked about the U.N. potentially suspending humanitarian operations across Gaza, the Pentagon’s Ryder said there were no plans for U.S. service members to fill that role should that happen.
“We’re going to continue to work with humanitarian organizations via USAID and other regional partners to ensure that we can find a way to get that,” he said.
In the meantime, Col. Miller said the military troops tending to the pier will keep going until they are told to stop.
“We’re out here to do our mission — to move those pallets — and those above us will make those decisions,” he said.
(NEW YORK) — An American who traveled to the Bahamas to attend a yoga retreat has been missing for nearly a week, her family and police said.
Taylor Casey, 41, of Chicago, was last seen on June 19 in the area of Paradise Island, according to the Royal Bahamas Police Force.
The search for Casey continued on Tuesday, with authorities searching by ground and with drones, the police force told ABC News.
Her family said she disappeared while attending a yoga retreat on Paradise Island and that they are “deeply concerned” for her safety.
“I believe Taylor is in danger because she was eager to share her yoga retreat experience with others upon her return,” her mother, Colette Seymore, said in a statement on Monday. “Taylor would never disappear like this.”
Casey, who has been practicing yoga for 15 years, was last seen at the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat Bahamas, her family said.
She was attending a yoga certification retreat when she failed to attend classes on the morning of June 20, the yoga retreat said. She was last seen the evening of June 19 at the retreat, according to the organization, which said it asked police to investigate.
“The Ashram is asking anyone with information on Ms. Casey to contact the local police,” the Sivananda Ashram Yoga Retreat Bahamas said in a statement to ABC News on Tuesday. “In the interim it is collaborating with the authorities on their investigation.”
The organization said it also advised Casey’s family and the U.S. Embassy about her disappearance.
A State Department spokesperson told ABC News that they are aware of reports of a U.S. citizen missing in the Bahamas.
“When a U.S. citizen is missing, we work closely with local authorities as they carry out their search efforts, and we share information with families however we can,” the spokesperson said. “The Department of State has no higher priority than the welfare and safety of U.S. citizens abroad. We stand ready to provide assistance to U.S. citizens in need and to their families.”
The spokesperson said the State Department had no further comment due to privacy concerns.
Casey is described as a light-skinned Black woman, approximately 5 feet 10 inches tall and 145 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. She has natural hair that is often covered by a durag, her family said.
Her family urged anyone with information on Casey’s whereabouts to come forward.
“We are deeply concerned for Taylor’s safety and well-being,” her mother said. “We love Taylor and want her home.”
High water levels at the Rapidan Dam on the Blue Earth River in Mankato, Minn., June 24, 2024. (Ben Brewer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — As southern Minnesota battles an onslaught of rain and severe flooding, the fate of the Rapidan Dam hangs in the balance, with officials saying the dam is in “imminent failure condition.”
The Rapidan Dam, built in 1910, is located on the Blue Earth River, which begins in Iowa and runs outside Mankato, Minnesota, about 85 miles southwest of Minneapolis.
The Blue Earth County Sheriff’s Office reported the dam was in precarious standing amid the overflow of the river, which has caused “erosion and slope-cutting” to the dam as well as a buildup of debris in the area.
The sheriff’s office reported a “partial failure” of the dam on the west abutment on Monday.
“We do not know if it will totally fail or if it will remain in place, however, we determined it was necessary to issue this notification to advise downstream residents and the correct regulatory agencies and other local agencies,” the office wrote in an alert on Facebook Monday.
“Public Works, Emergency Management and Sheriffs Offices are implementing steps outlined in the Rapidan Dam Emergency Action Plan for Imminent Failure of the Dam including notification of potentially affected residents, impacted regulatory agencies and other local agencies,” the office said.
On Monday, river levels peaked at 34,800 cubic feet per second and have lowered to 33,000 cubic feet per second as of Tuesday while officials continue assessment and evaluation of the dam.
An Xcel Energy substation, which supplies power to 600 customers, was swept downriver during the overflow Monday, according to the company.
“Our teams have been working diligently since floodwaters knocked out the Rapidan substation this morning to bring power back to homes and businesses in the area — more than 170 Xcel Energy employees arrived at the scene to assist,” Ryan Long, president of Xcel Energy–Minnesota, said in a press release Monday.
“We know people depend on electricity, especially during warm days and severe weather,” Long said, adding, “We urge residents to stay safe as our crews work by avoiding any damaged electrical equipment and following all flooding precautions.”
In April 2023, the National Inventory of Dams gave Rapidan Dam a “poor condition” rating with the hazard potential classification as “significant.”
Minnesota has faced over 18 inches of rain over the last few weeks, affecting 40 counties, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz said during a press conference Monday, warning forecasts for more rain could lead to further damage.
“We’re making sure, first and foremost, people are safe, protecting property and protecting public infrastructure,” Walz said.
Walz signaled he would request a presidential disaster declaration if the damage in the state reached the federal threshold.
Blue Earth County Road 9 bridge that crosses the river remains closed to traffic for public safety, according to the Blue Earth County Sheriff’s Office update on Tuesday.
At this time, the department has not issued any mass evacuation plans.
The United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas V rocket with Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft launches from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on June 5, 2024. (Miguel J. Rodriguez Carrillo/AFP via Getty Images, FILE)
(NEW YORK) — Two NASA astronauts have no set date to return to Earth and are stuck waiting aboard the International Space Station (ISS) due to several mechanical issues with Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft.
Starliner launched on June 5 from the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Cape Canaveral, Florida, with flight commander Barry “Butch” Wilmore and flight pilot Sunita “Suni” Williams onboard, arriving at the ISS one day later.
The mission is part of the larger Commercial Crew Program at NASA, which was testing if Boeing’s spacecrafts could be certified to perform routine missions to and from the ISS.
The pair were originally scheduled to return on June 14 but have since had their return delayed multiple times, and currently do not have a planned date to return to Earth.
“We are taking our time and following our standard mission management team process,” Steve Stich, manager of NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said in a statement. “We are letting the data drive our decision making relative to managing the small helium system leaks and thruster performance we observed during rendezvous and docking.”
Boeing and NASA have said the crew is currently not in danger because they are aboard the ISS with plenty of supplies in orbit, and the station’s schedule is relatively open through mid-August.
NASA and Boeing say Wilmore and Williams are “integrated” with the Expedition 71 crew aboard the ISS and are helping the crew with station operations as needed as well as completing “objectives” needed for NASA’s possible certification of Starliner.
“The crew’s feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, and they know that every bit of learning we do on the Crew Flight Test will improve and sharpen our experience for future crews,” Mark Nappi, vice president and program manager of Boeing’s Starliner program, said in a statement.
Starliner has been plagued by issues even before launch. The flight test was originally tentatively scheduled for May 6, but was scrubbed after a problem with an oxygen valve on a rocket from United Launch Alliance (ULA), which manufactures and operates the rockets that launch spacecraft into orbit.
A new launch date had been set for May 25, but a small helium leak was discovered in the service module, which contains support systems and instruments for operating a spacecraft.
Helium leaks and a thruster issue then threatened to delay Starliner’s docking. Five days after docking at the ISS, NASA and Boeing said the spacecraft was experiencing five “small” helium leaks and, at the time, said enough helium was available for the return mission.
A satellite truck is parked in front of a sign advertising the CNN presidential debate outside of their studios on June 25, 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump will face off in-person Thursday for the first of two presidential debates this year, offering the two a high-profile opportunity to try to gain an edge in a race characterized by persistently narrow polling margins.
The debate, moderated by CNN, is occurring unusually early in the election cycle and features the atypical combination of a president and a former president both having to defend their White House records. They will also be clashing under unique circumstances — CNN will have the ability to mute candidates’ microphones when they’re not talking, and there will be no studio audience.
Debates in the past have produced signature moments that helped alter the course of the presidential race, while others have failed to make a dent. Biden and Trump both come into the debate with widespread worries over the fitness for office and character, as well as universal name recognition — and thus hardened voter opinions — that leave few opportunities for fluctuations in the White House contest.
Here are five things to watch Thursday:
Do any gaffes or knockout punches break through?
Traditionally, most parts of debates are forgotten by the time voters head to the polls in November. But marquee moments have the potential to break through.
Gaffes — think Rick Perry’s “oops” moment in a 2011 GOP primary debate — or knockout punches — think Ronald Reagan citing his opponent’s “youth and inexperience” in 1984 — have been able to pierce the national consciousness and live on throughout history, even beyond the years in which those elections took place.
Radars for such moments will be particularly high in Thursday’s debate, as worries over the two candidates’ fitness for office are staples in the race.
Biden, the country’s oldest president ever at 81 years old, is the target of ceaseless attacks over his mental acuity from Trump and his allies, who at times disseminate misleadingly edited videos to appear as if he’s lost during public appearances.
Trump, meanwhile, has made a series of flubs on the trail, including confusing or forgetting people’s names, though polls show worries over his mental fitness for office aren’t as widespread over concerns about Biden.
Strategists said a bad gaffe could damage either campaigns’ chances of victory in November, but that a strong performance, especially for Biden, could help mitigate worries over his age.
Biden “can’t stumble around words. He can’t drift off into these incoherent little tangents that he occasionally does because all he has to do is screw up once, and that’s going to be the thing that lives,” said veteran GOP strategist David Kochel. “I just think there’s a huge opportunity for him to put a lot of things to rest. But it’s also a minefield.”
Character or policy?
Both candidates have ping ponged back and forth between hitting each other on character and policy, still searching for the playbook that’ll put their opponent away.
Biden has repeatedly cast Trump as a threat to democracy, citing his role in inciting the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on Capitol Hill and his vow to be a “dictator” on his first day in office — a comment Trump’s allies say was made in jest. He also more recently began highlighting Trump’s recent conviction on 34 felony counts in New York.
He’s also sought to knock the former president on abortion, a key animating policy issue for Democrats, COVID-era economic slumps and for helping dash a bipartisan immigration bill in Congress earlier this year.
Trump, meanwhile, has focused on the president’s age and dubbed him the head of the “Biden crime family,” citing both unfounded allegations of corruption and the president’s son’s recent conviction on gun charges.
Trump also has spoken to voter frustrations over inflation and the border.
“If he says the word reproductive rights or abortion less than 100 times over the course of the 90 minutes, he’s probably failing. But I expect he’ll raise that in almost every answer. If they ask him about tax policy, he’s going to talk about abortion,” GOP strategist Alex Conant said of Biden. “I think beyond that, he’s going to want to remind people about Jan. 6.”
“Trump’s obviously gonna try to talk about inflation as much as possible,” he added.
Whichever tact the candidates take — an emphasis on character or policy — could indicate where they think their opponents are most vulnerable.
Offense vs. defense
The unique nature of a president clashing with his predecessor also leaves it unclear who will be able to seize the offensive.
Traditionally during a presidential reelection campaign, debates are characterized by the president defending his record in the White House, while a challenger is on the offensive while also defending a record in the Senate or governor’s mansion — less impactful and relatable to everyday voters.
Now, though, both candidates will have White House records to back up, leaving it unclear whether either will be able to seize the offensive — and if one or the other will end up stuck on their back foot for the 90-minute tete-a-tete.
Already, millions of dollars have been dumped into ads tearing into the candidates’ respective records — but being seen as a superior attacker on stage could pay dividends for either contender.
Early timing
Thursday’s debate is happening atypically early for a general presidential election, the impacts of which are unclear.
On the one hand, strategists speculated, the timing of the debate has a chance to set the tone for the race in voters’ minds before they truly start tuning in.
“I think it makes the debate more important, because it’s it’ll set the tone for the rest of the campaign. For Biden, who is desperate to make this a choice, not a referendum, it frames the race early on in a way that his campaign wants to frame it. And I think Trump is looking for a knockout punch,” Conant said.
However, the debate will be taking place months before Labor Day, the unofficial day highlighted by politicos as the earliest that most voters start paying attention to the race in earnest. And five months is a political lifetime, meaning the debate could be flushed from voters’ minds by ever-changing news cycles.
“It’s hard to see how there is a big shift or a big thing in this race where there’s also a lot of fairway left to play,” Republican pollster Robert Blizzard said.
Who does the novel format help?
The new format for the debate — which both campaigns agreed to — marks a significant departure from past clashes.
Recently dominated by crosstalk and crowd appeals, this Thursday’s event will in theory be tamer. Microphones will be turned off when candidates are not answering questions, and no audience will be present to cheer or jeer.
The conventional wisdom among operatives in both parties is that the new rules favor Biden by robbing Trump of the ability to feed off an audience or devolve the event into inaudible crosstalk.
“[Trump] is the king, undisputed, undefeated king of crosstalk at a debate. Rewrote the rules basically about it. But he also likes to feed off of a crowd. And so, you take away the feeding off the crowd, you don’t know how President Trump’s going to react to not having that instant feedback from a crowd,” said Chip Saltsman, a strategist who worked on former Vice President Mike Pence’s now-suspended presidential campaign.
However, Republicans also said they hope that limiting crosstalk could make Trump appear less like a bully — at least to the audience at home. There’s still nothing to stop the former president from at least talking during Biden’s answers.
President Joe Biden speaks at an event in the East Room at the White House, June 18, 2024, in Washington. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden announced Tuesday that he will pardon U.S. veterans who were convicted by the military under a regulation that allowed people to be kicked out for being gay.
The White House says the move will impact thousands of military veterans, though officials declined to give a specific number.
“Today, I am righting an historic wrong by using my clemency authority to pardon many former service members who were convicted simply for being themselves,” Biden said in a statement.
“Despite their courage and great sacrifice, thousands of LGBTQI+ service members were forced out of the military because of their sexual orientation or gender identity,” Biden added. “Some of these patriotic Americans were subject to court-martial, and have carried the burden of this great injustice for decades.”
Biden’s clemency of LGBTQ veterans is a symbolic effort to correct for an era when the military prosecuted people under Article 125 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which prohibited gay sex. It was in place from 1951 to 2013.
An estimated 100,000 service members since World War II have been kicked out of the military because of their sexual orientation, officials say, including more than 13,000 under the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy between 1994 and 2011.
The practical impact of offering clemency to people who were convicted is that it could allow veterans to take advantage of benefits they’ve been denied, such as military pensions, home loans and college tuition benefits.
But veterans will not automatically have their convictions wiped — they have to apply and go through a military approval process.
“Once they apply for that certificate of pardon, they can then use that certificate of pardon to apply to have their discharge characterization changed with the relevant military branch. And that for many of them should unlock, down the road, access to critical benefits,” a senior administration official said on a call with reporters on Tuesday.
Asked if the administration is doing outreach to contact veterans who might’ve been discharged from the military decades ago and are unaware they can have their charges wiped, an official was sparse on details but said the White House and the Department of Veterans Affairs are working on plans.
Wednesday’s announcement comes on the heels of multiple other efforts since Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was repealed to address the injustices endured by LGBTQ service members.
Since 2012, for example, service members who were kicked out have been able to apply to a military board for a chance to have official records upgraded to remove references to sexual orientation and qualify for more benefits.
But only one-in-four eligible veterans has done so, according to the Pentagon.
And in 2023, the Biden administration announced that the military would for the first time begin proactively reviewing discharge records to identify and help those who were kicked out and have not come forward. But that, too, required veterans to apply for their records to be altered.
Veteran advocates have criticized application-based relief as too obstructive, putting the onus on veterans to fix the military’s wrongs and limiting the reach of the policy.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden’s executive action on asylum, which was rolled out three weeks ago, has decreased encounters along the border by 40%, the Biden administration said.
The executive action established a rule to turn away migrants who are claiming asylum between ports of entry after there have been seven consecutive days of more than 2,500 encounters along the southern border.
The restrictions on asylum claims would remain in place for an additional 14 days once daily encounters at the border fall to a seven-day average of 1,500 or less.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the Texas Civil Rights Project and other civil rights organizations filed a federal complaint challenging the rule, saying it puts vulnerable migrants at risk.
The administration claims the new rule is having an impact, but said the rule is “no substitute” for the bipartisan border bill which failed to advance in the Senate in May.
The daily average of encounters along the border are 2,400 a day — not enough to lift the asylum restrictions but trending downward, the administration said.
The numbers come as Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas will be along the southwest border on Wednesday, touring operations.
Since the executive action was implemented, DHS has removed and returned more than 24,000 individuals to more than 20 countries, including by operating more than 100 international repatriation flights.
