A sign is displayed outside of the Robert F. Kennedy U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) building on June, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kevin Carter/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Three Chinese nationals were charged with smuggling Nvidia and HP products to China, according to charges unsealed by the Justice Department on Thursday.
Starting in September of 2023, Hon Ning Ho, Brian Raymond, Cham Li and Jing Chen allegedly exported chips to China.
The Justice Department alleges that the three Chinese nationals and one American were involved in a scheme to ship these chips to third party countries — Thailand and Malaysia — that would then be shipped to China. The men allegedly set up a shell company to purchase these products.
The Commerce Department has banned China from acquiring these chips.
The Justice Department also alleges that the men discussed ways to “evade United States export laws and regulations.”
In exchange for these chips, the men received “kickbacks” for their alleged work.
In total, the men allegedly smuggled hundreds chips to China.
U.S. Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, D-Fla., speaks after being sworn in during a ceremony in the Broward County Commission chambers in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, on Jan. 27, 2025. (Joe Cavaretta/South Florida Sun Sentinel/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) —Democratic Rep. Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, of Florida, has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of stealing $5 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency funds, which she is accused of laundering to support her 2021 congressional campaign.
The indictment was announced by the Justice Department on Wednesday.
The indictment alleges Cherfilus-McCormick, 46, and her brother, Edwin Cherfilus, 51, received a $5 million overpayment in FEMA funds directed to their family health care company in connection with a contract for COVID-19 vaccination staffing in 2021.
Afterward, Cherfilus-McCormick and other co-defendants allegedly conspired to use the overpaid funds to benefit her campaign by routing it through multiple accounts to disguise its source, according to the DOJ.
They further are alleged to have arranged a series of straw donors that included their friends and relatives to funnel the COVID-19 contract money in the form of donations to her campaign.
“Using disaster relief funds for self-enrichment is a particularly selfish, cynical crime,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in a statement announcing the indictment. “No one is above the law, least of all powerful people who rob taxpayers for personal gain. We will follow the facts in this case and deliver justice.”
If convicted, Cherfilus-McCormick faces a maximum sentence of up to 53 years in prison.
She did not immediately have an attorney listed representing her on her case docket as of Wednesday evening.
The federal investigation into Cherfilus-McCormick dates back to the Biden administration, multiple current and former administration officials told ABC News.
The House Ethics Committee said publicly in January 2025 that it was also investigating Cherfilus-McCormick after receiving a referral from Office of Congressional Ethics in September 2023.
Speaking to reporters Wednesday evening, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Cherfilus-Mccormick is “innocent until proven guilty,” when asked for his reaction to the indictment and said he had yet to speak with her but planned to do so.
Cherfilus-Mccormick will “take leave” from her position as ranking member of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa “while this matter is ongoing,” Jeffries’ spokesperson Christie Stephenson said in a statement.
House Republican Rep. Greg Steube of Florida said Wednesday he will file a resolution Thursday morning to censure his Democratic counterpart.
The resolution would also remove the congresswoman for all her committee assignments, including Foreign Affairs and Veterans Affairs committees.
“This is one of the most egregious abuses of public trust I have ever seen,” Steube said in a statement on X. “Stealing $5 million in taxpayer disaster funds from FEMA of all places is beyond indefensible. Millions of Floridians have relied on FEMA after devastating hurricanes, and that money was supposed to help real disaster victims.”
ABC News’ Lauren Peller and Katherine Faulders contributed to this report.
‘The Hunger Game: Sunrise on the Reaping’ (Lionsgate)
We have our first look at The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping.
Lionsgate has released a teaser for the prequel film, which shows a young Haymitch Abernathy, played by Joseph Zada, being chosen as a tribute for the 50th Hunger Games.
The teaser shows glimpses of the arena and counts down from 10 as we see the tributes – 48 instead of the usual 24 – prepare to fight to the death.
There are also shots of Ralph Fiennes as President Snow, Jesse Plemons as Plutarch Heavensbee and Elle Fanning as Effie Trinket.
At the end of the teaser we hear the voice of Woody Harrelson — who played Haymitch in the original films — say, “I think these games are gonna be different.”
The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping is based on Suzanne Collins’ 2025 novel of the same name. It revisits the world of Panem almost 25 years before the events of the original book and film saga. Francis Lawrence, who was behind the camera for four out of the five previous movies in the franchise, is directing the film from a screenplay by Billy Ray.
The character of Haymitch eventually becomes the mentor for Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark, played by Jennifer Lawrence and Josh Hutcherson in the original films.
The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping arrives in theaters on Nov. 20, 2026.
(NEW YORK) — Employers hired far more workers than expected in September, defying a sharp slowdown over the summer that appeared to cool off the labor market.
The U.S. added 119,000 jobs in September, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That figure marked an acceleration from 22,000 jobs added in the previous month, and it exceeded an average of nearly 100,000 jobs added per month over the first half of 2025.
The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.4%, but it remained at a historically low level.
A stock market selloff over recent days underscored the uncertainty looming over the economy as some investors warned of an AI bubble. Blockbuster earnings unveiled by chip giant Nvidia late Wednesday, however, appeared to defy such concerns.
Still, mass layoffs at corporate giants like Amazon, UPS and Verizon in recent weeks have drawn attention to a sluggish labor market — and stoked fears that job losses may spread.
It is likely too early to panic, however, some economists previously told ABC News. While the layoffs reflect a weakened labor market and AI adoption in some corners of the tech industry, they added, the prospect of wider job losses remains highly uncertain.
Inflation has picked up in recent months while hiring has slowed, posing a risk of an economic double-whammy known as “stagflation.”
Those economic conditions have put the Federal Reserve in a bind, since the central bank must balance a dual mandate to keep inflation under control and maximize employment.
“We have the situation where the risks are to the upside for inflation and to the downside for employment. We have one tool,” Fed Chair Jerome Powell said at a press conference in Washington, D.C., last month. “You can’t address both of those at once.”
Still, Powell said, concern has tilted toward strain in the labor market, prompting the central bank to reduce interest rates a quarter of a percentage point at each of its last two meetings.
“A further reduction of the policy rate in December is not a foregone conclusion — in fact, far from it,” Powell told reporters.
Traders peg the chances interest rates will be left unchanged next month at about 66%, while the odds of a quarter-point rate cut stand at 33%, according to the CME FedWatch Tool, a measure of market sentiment.
On Wednesday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) said it would not release a full jobs report for the month of October due to lost capacity during the shutdown. Rather, partial jobs data for October will be released as part of the November report, the BLS said.
The upcoming espionage thriller series Ponies now has a premiere date. Peacock has announced that the show will debut to the platform on Jan. 15. The show is set in Moscow in the year 1977. Emilia Clarke and Haley LuRichardson star as two women who work as secretaries in the American Embassy. When their husbands are killed mysteriously in the USSR, the duo become CIA operatives …
Tulsa King is in need of a showrunner. Variety reports that the Sylvester Stallone-starring series, which was created by Taylor Sheridan, has no formal showrunner as production starts on season 4. Additionally, over two dozen crew members on the program have been let go amid what is described as a lack of clear leadership …
Heated Rivalry is skating over to HBO Max. The romantic drama series will premiere its first two episodes on Nov. 28. Based on Rachel Reid’s Game Changers book series, the show will debut new episodes weekly until the Dec. 26 season finale …
(NEW YORK) — The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) released a final version of its report on pediatric gender-affirming care on Wednesday, claiming it found “medical dangers posed to children,” which is receiving pushback from medical groups.
The report alleged that gender-affirming care — including puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and gender-affirming surgeries — caused significant, long-term damage.
It comes after HHS published in May an early version of what it referred to as a “comprehensive review” of transgender care for children and teens, in which it called for a broader use of psychotherapy for young people with gender dysphoria rather than gender-affirming medical interventions.
The HHS referred to the final version of the report as “peer-reviewed,” but some of those who reviewed the contents are researchers who have spoken against gender affirming care.
Some major medical groups have pushed back, stating that psychotherapy first is the standard approach in gender-affirming care and that additional care, such as hormonal therapies, only occurs after in-depth evaluations between patients and doctors.
The American Psychological Association (APA), which reviewed the report, argued it lacks transparency and that scientific research does not support the authors’ theories.
Experts in the gender-affirming care space questioned the validity of the findings, saying that studies have found that gender-affirming care is generally safe and that youth with gender dysphoria are typically evaluated, diagnosed and treated based on an individual assessment by qualified providers.
“This report does not add to the science. It adds to the noise around care for transgender young people, care that is provided by licensed clinicians according to a standard of care,” Kellan Baker, senior advisor for health policy at the Movement Advancement Project, an independent think tank that provides research, insight and analysis on LGBTQ+ issues, told ABC News.
“That standard of care is based on the same comparable quality of evidence as care across any other area of medicine,” Baker continued. “There is nothing new or unusual about care for transgender young people except for the extraordinary degree of political antagonism that is being focused on this very, very small group of young people.”
In a press release on Wednesday, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, director of the National Institutes of Health, called the report “a turning point for American medicine,” adding that “we are committed to ensuring that science, not ideology, guides America’s medical research.”
David Aizuss, MD, chair of the American Medical Association Board of Trustees and Susan J. Kressly, MD, FAAP, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, released a joint statement on Wednesday.
“We reject characterizations of our approach to gender-affirming care as negligent or ideologically driven, and take particular issue with the false assertion that our members have committed ‘malpractice’ or betrayed their oath in any way,” the statement read.
“These claims, rooted in politics and partisanship, misrepresent the consensus of medical science, undermine the professionalism of physicians, and risk harming vulnerable young people and their families,” Aizuss and Kressly added.
The final version of the HHS report listed nine authors, all of whom have expressed skeptical views of, or have opposed, pediatric gender-affirming care.
The initial May report did not list the names of its authors to “help maintain the integrity of this process.” Critics at the time pointed out that this prevented readers from gauging whether the names were credible or had any conflicts of interest.
The disclosures in the final report show that at least six of the nine authors have financial interests or have spoken out extensively opposing gender affirming care.
This includes authors who have been paid to offer expert testimony on legislative efforts to ban pediatric gender medicine and have published papers critical of pediatric gender medicine, including claims that such care does not improve depression or suicidality among trans youth.
The report included 10 reviewers, including individual physicians and medical groups, some of whom praised the report as “scientifically sound” and said the main findings and conclusions are “correct.”
Other reviewers were critical, including the APA, which accused the authors of the report of cherry-picking which studies it used in its findings and not justifying why other studies were excluded. Additionally, it says key findings in studies that were relied on were unexplained or absent.
“While the HHS Report purports to be a thorough, evidence-based assessment of gender-affirming care for transgender youth, its underlying methodology lacks sufficient transparency and clarity for its findings to be taken at face value,” the APA wrote in its review, found in the report’s supplement.
In conclusion, the group wrote, “the report’s claims fall short of the standard of methodological rigor that should be considered a prerequisite for policy guidance in clinical care.”
In a response to the report, the Endocrine Society said in a statement to ABC News that mental health care is already part of treating transgender and gender-diverse youth with health care protocols requiring initial mental health support and evaluations.
However, they add that access to medication such as hormone therapy can be used in conversations between patients, their families and their doctors. They add that such care is also relatively rare.
“The use of puberty-delaying medication or hormone therapy remains rare and reflects a cautious approach as recommended in our guideline,” the statement read. “Fewer than one in 1,000 U.S. adolescents with commercial insurance received either treatment during the five-year period from 2018 to 2022, according to a January 2025 study from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. And our 2017 guidelines recommend against prescribing any medication for gender dysphoria before puberty starts.”
Gender-affirming care is supported by multiple major medical organizations, including the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology (ACOG) and the APA, and the Endocrine Society.
Studies have shown that many of the treatment options are generally safe and that care can have a positive impact on mental health, which psychotherapy alone cannot provide, experts said.
Some experts have questioned the significance of interventions on long-term mental health as well as the possibility of regret and point out potential risks to future fertility.
Additionally, systematic reviews from Sweden, Finland and the U.K. have resulted in the three countries restricting gender-affirming care. England’s National Health Service ended prescribing puberty blockers for minors experiencing gender dysphoria outside of clinical trials. Sweden and Finland have followed psychotherapy-first models.
(NEW YORK) — A long-awaited jobs report to be released on Thursday will offer the latest look at the health of the labor market at a fraught moment for the U.S. economy.
Hiring slowed sharply over the summer, before a government shutdown paused the release of gold-standard federal data for weeks on end. A stock market selloff over recent days underscored the uncertainty looming over the economy as some investors warn of an AI bubble.
Economists expect the U.S. to have added 50,000 jobs in September, which would mark an acceleration from 22,000 jobs added in August, according to a Morningstar analysis of FactSet data.
Still, the anticipated figure would come in well below an average of 97,000 jobs added over the first six months of this year.
Mass layoffs at corporate giants like Amazon, UPS and Verizon in recent weeks have drawn attention to a sluggish labor market — and stoked fears that job losses may spread.
It is likely too early to panic, however, some economists previously told ABC News. While the layoffs reflect a weakened labor market and AI adoption in some corners of the tech industry, they added, the prospect of wider job losses remains highly uncertain.
Inflation has picked up in recent months while hiring has slowed, posing a risk of an economic double-whammy known as “stagflation.”
Those economic conditions have put the Federal Reserve in a bind, since the central bank must balance a dual mandate to keep inflation under control and maximize employment.
“We have the situation where the risks are to the upside for inflation and to the downside for employment. We have one tool,” Fed Chair Jerome Powell said at a press conference in Washington, D.C., last month. “You can’t address both of those at once.”
Still, Powell said, concern has tilted toward strain in the labor market, prompting the central bank to reduce interest rates a quarter of a percentage point at each of its last two meetings.
“A further reduction of the policy rate in December is not a foregone conclusion — in fact, far from it,” Powell told reporters.
Traders peg the chances interest rates will be left unchanged next month at about 66%, while the odds of a quarter-point rate cut stand at 33%, according to the CME FedWatch Tool, a measure of market sentiment.
On Wednesday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) said it would not release a full jobs report for the month of October due to lost capacity during the shutdown. Rather, partial jobs data for October will be released as part of the November report, the BLS said.
(NEW YORK) — Sea level rise caused by climate change could cause thousands of toxic sites in the U.S. to flood in the coming decades, according to new research.
Under a high greenhouse gas emissions scenario, more than 5,500 hazardous sites across the U.S. will be at risk of a 1-in-100-year flood by the year 2100, according to a paper published Thursday in Nature. These sites include facilities that handle sewage, toxic waste, oil and gas and other industrial pollutants as well as formerly used defense sites, according to a paper published Thursday in Nature.
Of the the at-risk sites, at least 3,800 locations are projected to flood by 2050, the study found.
Many of the U.S. coastlines are heavily industrialized for a variety of reasons, including access to raw materials and proximity to open seas transportation, Lara Cushing, an associate professor of environmental health science at the University of California Los Angeles and lead author of the paper, told ABC News.
In the past several decades, extreme flooding events caused by storms like Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and Hurricane Harvey in 2017 flooded industrial facilities, releasing toxic chemicals into the floodwaters and air, Cushing said.
Researchers at UCLA put together a database of industrial and contaminated sites, such as sewage treatment plants, active oil and gas refineries and other types of industrial facilities — a total of nearly 50,000 sites across 23 coastal U.S. states and Puerto Rico, Cushing said. They then estimated flood risks at those locations for the years 2050 and 2100 under greenhouse emissions scenarios: high emissions and moderate emissions.
The findings indicate that the states at most risk of flooding at toxic sites include Florida, New Jersey, California, Louisiana, New York, Massachusetts and Texas. Those seven states account for nearly 80% of the hazardous sites at risk by 2100, according to the paper.
“That gives us a sense of where we might want to focus our efforts,” Cushing said.
If these sites were to flood, they could pose serious threats to public health and neighboring communities, according to the paper.
Oil-related infrastructure, such as refineries, ports and terminals, are particularly risky due to the possibility of oil spills but also because of the chemicals that are used to refine the oil, Cushing said.
The researchers also found that residents in marginalized communities will likely be impacted by flooding at toxic sites at higher rates.
The researchers defined neighborhoods across the U.S. into census block groups, classifying them as either being near at-risk sites or not near at-risk sites, but still in coastal areas, Cushing said. They then compared the census geography to different metrics of social marginalization or vulnerability to flooding related to adverse outcomes, such as income, housing tenure, linguistic isolation, access to vehicles and other demographic factors.
They found that low-income communities, communities of color and communities with low levels of voter turnout and access to vehicles are more likely to live near sites of future flood risk due to sea level rise, Cushing said.
Human-amplified climate change is the primary cause for present-day rising sea levels, according to climate scientists. Sea level rise is also accelerating, with the U.S. coastline projected to experience an sea level rise of about 11 inches, according to the federal government’s Fifth National Climate Assessment. That amount of sea level rise previously took 100 years to reach, between 1920 and 2020.
The Gulf Coast — especially in states like Louisiana and Texas — is of particular concern due to the high concentration of petrochemical industries in low-lying areas, increased threat of strong hurricanes and projected level of sea level rise in the region, Cushing said.
By 2050, the eastern Gulf Coast is projected to experience an average sea level rise of 8 to 12 inches, with an even greater increases of 12 to 16 inches along the western Gulf Coast, according to the Fifth National Climate Assessment.
Much of the risk of sea level rise is already locked in due to past emissions, the researchers said. But mitigation for global warming is needed to prevent the most drastic outcomes, Cushing said.
“The implications of our research suggests that this issues needs more attention, both in terms of mitigation plans and emergency preparedness and also things like cleanup plans and standards for legacy contamination,” she said.
In addition, coastal communities, including underserved groups, need access to critical data and resources in order to effectively fortify their resilience to climate change, said Rachel Morello-Frosch, a professor of environmental health sciences community health sciences at UCLA and co-author of the paper.
“There are potential solutions, if policy makers are ready to move forward,” Morello-Frosch said in a statement. “And there is a clear need for disaster planning and land-use decision-making, as well as mitigation strategies to address the inequitable hazards and potential health threats posed by sea level rise.”
(WASHINGTON) — House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries batted away questions Wednesday about whether he’d sought campaign donations from Jeffrey Epstein, calling House Oversight Chairman James Comer a “stone cold liar” after Comer alleged Tuesday that Jeffries had solicited money from the convicted sex offender in 2013.
During floor debate on the Epstein files bill Tuesday afternoon, Comer took direct aim at Jeffries.
“Democrats have been silent about their colleague’s coordination with Epstein,” Comer, R-Ky., said. “Another email shows Democrat fundraisers invited Epstein to attend an event, or meet privately with Hakeem Jeffries in 2013 as part of their effort to build a Democrat House majority.”
Jeffries shot back.
“Was that a serious question or a serious statement from malignant clown James Comer that I had Jeffrey Epstein over for dinner, that I accepted money from Jeffrey Epstein?” Jeffries said. “What’s extraordinary to me about the clown show on the other side of the aisle is that they lie with impunity on things that are objectively verifiable.”
According to documents released by Oversight Republicans last week, Epstein received a campaign solicitation on May 7, 2013, from a fundraising firm touting Jeffries as “one of the rising stars in the New York Congressional delegation” and a “staunch supporter of President Obama.”
“Hakeem is committed to electing a Democratic majority in 2014 and is encouraging his friends to participate in the DCCC/DSCC fundraising dinner with President Obama this coming night,” the email said and shared directions with recipients who “would like to get involved with the dinner, or would like to get an opportunity to get to know Hakeem better.”
The email included the text of a NY1 profile of Jeffries and is signed by Darren Rigger, Lisa Rossi and Walter Swett of Dynamic SRG, which touts itself as a top political fundraising and public affairs firm for progressive candidates and causes in New York City.
Dynamic SRG did not respond to ABC News’ inquiry about whether Jeffries knew about the email.
On Wednesday, Jeffries did not directly answer whether he’d ever solicited donations from Epstein — contending instead that Republicans “have been burying the Epstein files” for months.
Pressed whether he had ever solicited money from Epstein in exchange for a meet-and-greet, Jeffries called Comer a “stone cold liar.”
“I have no idea what James Comer is talking about in terms of anything that any prior consultant may have sent,” Jeffries said. “I had no idea about that either, but James Comer apparently made the representation on the floor of the House that I sat down with Jeffrey Epstein, had dinner with Jeffrey Epstein, have contributions from Jeffrey Epstein. He’s a stone cold liar, and James Comer knows it.”
On Tuesday, Jeffries told CNN he didn’t recall the email and that he’d never met Epstein.
“I have no recollection of the email,” Jeffries said. “I’ve never had a conversation with him, never met him, know nothing about him other than the extreme things that he’s been convicted of doing.”
A Comer spokeswoman argued that the email released by the committee speaks for itself.
“Hakeem Jeffries is the stone cold liar,” she said. “The email, which came to light as a result of Chairman Comer’s subpoena to the Epstein estate, is real and speaks for itself. Hakeem’s fundraisers made a solicitation on his behalf to invite Jeffrey Epstein to a dinner or meet with him privately.”
The solicitation came years after Epstein had already registered as a sex offender in 2010, and after he pleaded guilty in 2008 to state charges of solicitation of prostitution and solicitation of prostitution with a minor.
ABC News could find no records of donations from Epstein to Jeffries or groups affiliated with him and Jeffries has never been accused of wrongdoing related to Epstein.
