(KUWAIT CITY) — An American soldier was killed in a non-combat rollover accident in Kuwait, U.S. officials said late Friday.
Spc. Jayson Reed Haven, 20, of Aiken, South Carolina, died from a rollover accident that occurred in a non-combat situation on Thursday at Camp Buehring in the northwestern desert of Kuwait, about 20 miles from the southern border of Iraq.
The fatal incident remains under investigation, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Defense. Further details were not immediately available.
The news of Haven’s death came just days before Memorial Day, a federal holiday for honoring and mourning those who have died while serving in the United States Armed Forces.
“There are no words that can adequately express how deeply saddened I am at the loss of one of our own,” Maj. Gen. Van McCarty told Haven’s hometown newspaper, the Aiken Standard. “SPC Jayson R. Haven was more than just a member of the South Carolina National Guard; he was family.”
Haven, a machine gunner, had received multiple medals and awards during his service with the South Carolina National Guard. He was assigned to Company B, 1st Battalion, 118th Infantry Regiment, 218th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade, based in Charleston. He initially joined the U.S. Army in 2020, according to the Aiken Standard.
Haven was deployed to Kuwait to support Operation Spartan Shield, an effort to strengthen U.S. defensive relationships throughout Southwest Asia, according to the Army.
Vehicle accidents involving rollovers are a leading cause of death for the U.S. military.
While rollovers only account for a quarter of vehicle accidents, they contribute to 63% of accidents involving a death between 2010 and 2019, according to a 2021 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office.
That same report found that the military did not take sufficient action during that time frame to reduce the often preventable accidents, which accounted for 123 deaths for the Army and Marines between 2010 and 2019.
(DELRAY BEACH, Fla.) — A missing youth basketball coach in Florida was found dead nearly a week after police said he was last seen going for a run.
Makuach Yak, 31, was found dead Friday evening inside the Delray Oaks Natural Area, a park in Delray Beach, Florida, local authorities said.
“Right now, it appears his death is not criminal in nature,” the Delray Beach Police Department said in a social media post.
The medical examiner will determine Yak’s cause of death, and the investigation remains open, police said.
Yak, a youth basketball coach from Delray Beach, was supposed to coach on May 20 but was nowhere to be found, his friend and business partner, Tate VanRoekel, told ABC West Palm Beach affiliate WPBF.
Home security footage shared with WPBF recorded Yak in his front yard around 6:30 a.m. that day in a purple shirt and black shorts, the station reported.
VanRoekel told WPBF that Yak’s wallet, keys, cellphone and Apple Watch were “all on the counter, just sitting there.”
In the days since he was reported missing, friends and family have held search parties throughout Delray Beach, a city on Florida’s east coast located between West Palm Beach and Boca Raton.
Friends also spread the word through a Facebook group, Missing: Find Coach Yak.
“We ask that you pray for his family and all who loved him. We are devastated,” the group posted on Friday.
Yak, a native of South Sudan who was also known by the name Paul, coached youth basketball in the South Florida region. He competed in cross country at Augustana University in South Dakota and once had ambitions to compete in the Olympics, according to a 2018 Des Moines Register profile of the runner.
(NEW YORK) — Top teachers across the country say they face major hurdles in the classroom — including staffing shortages, the pinch of low pay and addressing students’ mental health — many of which stem from closures during the COVID-19 pandemic, a recent ABC News survey found.
“I think teachers are just the fabric of our communities,” Rebecka Peterson, the 2023 educator of the year, told ABC News earlier this year. “And I think we have to think of big and small ways that we can wrap our arms around teachers and remind them how important they are to us individually and to us as communities.”
For this story, ABC News solicited responses from each state teacher of the year winner to see what they viewed as the greatest current challenge facing educators.
Thirty-five out of the 55 teachers answered and the rest elected not to participate, according to a spokesperson for the Council of Chief State School Officers, which runs the state teacher of the year program.
The issues that the group highlighted include navigating advancements in technology, teaching larger class sizes and more.
The two most common answers were meeting students’ social, emotional and academic needs and solving the staffing shortage.
Despite emerging cultural flashpoints in the classroom like instruction on LGBTQ topics, book bans and the appropriateness of discussing critical race theory, the teachers instead pointed to student mental health, low pay and burnout as causes for concern.
Iowa’s teacher of the year, Krystal Colbert, described the latter as a “real” and “recognizable” crisis that deserves more attention.
Meeting students where they are
Nine respondents said what deserves the most attention is how to reach students who may be struggling amid broader emotional challenges, whether it’s what they called a youth mental health crisis or trauma brought on by the pandemic.
Maine’s Matt Bernstein believes it’s time to maximize this moment.
“Meeting the needs of all students is a responsibility that educators are proud to take on, but it is challenging and takes a lot of work, energy, and dedication,” Bernstein, a professional learning coach, wrote in the survey.
He and other educators stressed how cultivating relationships is also a solution for a problem they described as largely created by social isolation and distance learning when schools shuttered three years ago to limit the health risks of COVID-19.
“By building solid relationships and comprehensively investing in education, we have a better chance of ensuring that every student can achieve their full potential and contribute to the success of our society,” wrote Alabama fifth-grade teacher Reggie LeDon White.
Washington, D.C.’s Jermar Rountree, a health and physical education teacher and 2023 national finalist, explained that kids also need movement, which will help them handle their emotions.
“We as teachers need the support to be able to handle the traumatic experiences that our students are coming to school with,” Rountree wrote “Teachers are constantly swimming upstream to meet students where they are, but after the pandemic we do not even know where to begin. However, one place to start would be to prepare our new teachers on what to expect and how they can be severely helpful to our veteran teachers. Giving all teachers the tools to be successful increases the [professional] lifespan of a teacher 2 times over.”
Teachers have to accommodate students not only in their lessons but in all aspects of life, according to Stephane Camacho Concepcion, a Guam elementary school teacher.
“Educators have to be able to be counselors, social workers, and etc to ensure that they [children] have all they need to have a successful academic journey,” she wrote.
Recruiting and retaining teachers
According to experts, education departments, agencies and associations, 42 states and territories report ongoing shortages this school year.
Seven teacher of the year respondents — from rural Alaska to New Jersey — indicated they’re feeling that strain.
“Shortages have always been fairly normal, but the past few years have seen the shortages drastically increase,” wrote Alaska first-grade teacher Harlee Harvey, a 2023 national finalist. “This provides issues for several reasons. First, students are without highly qualified teachers in their classrooms, which will negatively impact the quality of instruction. Second, it puts an additional burden on teachers and paraeducators who have stayed, increasing the stress of their jobs and the likelihood that they will step away from our schools as well,” she added.
Arizona’s Ty White, who teaches high school chemistry, explained that the “massive” shortage is more pronounced in rural districts in the U.S., especially for aspiring educators.
“Since most university driven teaching programs are located in larger cities, many teachers aren’t familiar with rural communities to begin with,” White wrote. “When these new teachers start job searching and find rural job postings, they are often less attractive because in states with Local Education Agency control, salaries are not competitive with larger communities.”
In New Jersey, where state officials have said special education, science and math teachers are in high demand, Christine Girtain called for better funding practices that would help instructors earn more amid the shortage.
The National Education Association (NEA) found that teachers make thousands less than they did a decade ago when adjusted for inflation. The average salary of classroom teachers declined by an estimated 6.4% over the past decade, according to NEA data.
“Teachers should not have to work 2nd & 3rd jobs to afford to live,” Girtain, a high school science teacher and director of authentic science research, wrote. “We need larger nationwide investment in funding education and paying teachers a living wage.”
School safety
Two respondents included school safety in their answers to this survey. Still, recent fears of gun violence also has other teachers on edge.
Melissa Collins said learning loss was this nation’s greatest education challenge. But in the wake of the mass shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, Collins said she hopes the massacre prompts legislators to pass more gun reform.
“I don’t have a hand to carry a gun,” the state’s teacher of the year told “Good Morning America” in March. “My hands are full because I am carrying our future leaders.”
Respecting the profession
Respect remains a major challenge facing public educators, too, the surveyed teachers said.
Rebecka Peterson, this year’s national teacher of the year, aims to use her platform to share positive messages about education. But recently she told ABC News that many teachers still feel they aren’t valued as much as they should be.
“What every teacher says when I ask them the recruit and retain [question], right, they come back to respecting and appreciating the profession,” Peterson said last month before being honored with a crystal apple at the White House.
Most teachers in Peterson’s cohort agree: The lack of appreciation is undeserving of the job.
“In any other profession, professionals are treated with respect and dignity,” Kentucky sixth-grade English Language Arts teacher Mandy Perez wrote in the ABC News survey. “We deserve to be treated with the same importance and value,” she wrote.
Tara Hughes believes respecting education could even improve working conditions for teachers. “Uplifting the education profession and retaining teachers will lead to smaller class sizes, resulting in higher student engagement, the ability to meet academic and social-emotional needs, and a decrease in teacher burnout,” Hughes, who teaches Pre-K in New Mexico, wrote.
Working with the community to respect and prioritize students’ needs is at the top of Missouri English teacher Christina Andrade Melly’s agenda.
“Public education is a public good – we have to respect it and invest in it for our students to thrive,” Melly wrote, adding, “All of us want our students to be successful, and we must remember how to work together towards that goal.”
(NEW YORK) — Board games like Monopoly, Clue and The Game of Life are iconic in many Americans’ lives and in pop culture. Now some designers are exploring a wider range of topics, including how to use games to spark discussion about bigger issues.
One of those games, Daybreak, is set to launch this spring after years of development to tackle one of the most complex topics of all, how to bring the world together to combat climate change.
“The game started from a conversation on what could we do about climate change as game designers,” game designer Matteo Menapace told ABC News. “We felt we can use games to talk about climate change, to model this big problem in a way that is playable, that is understandable by players and in a way that gives people agency over their choices.”
In Daybreak, players take on the role of world powers like the United States, European Union and China and have to negotiate ways to achieve drawdown, which is the point when greenhouse gas emissions are reduced enough to prevent temperatures from continuing to rise. Instead of playing against each other players work together to win against the game, but the whole group will lose if any player has too many communities in crisis from the impacts of climate change.
Designers Menapace and Matt Leacock, who also designed the game Pandemic, said they were overwhelmed by all the problems associated with climate change at first, but wanted to use their skills to help do something about it.
They said the game became a way for them, and they hope for players as well, to process their feelings about climate change and better understand the possible solutions.
“I think that just watching it kind of play out through the dynamics of the game made it also easier to kind of understand and get my arms around and feel better about. So it was a very positive thing for me to develop it. And I’m kind of hoping that people who play the game will have a similar experience,” Leacock said.
Board games surged in popularity in recent years, with a 33% increase in sales in the first year of the pandemic, according to market research firm Circana. Several independently designed games like Cascadia and Wingspan have taken on nature-related themes and have been recognized with multiple design awards.
But even with the gains in popularity, it actually isn’t the first time board games have been used to help players interact with or learn more about nature.
Sherri Sheu curated an exhibit at the Science History Institute in Philadelphia focused on environmental board games. Sheu’s work as a historian focuses on environmental history and she said there are clear parallels between what you see in games from decades like the 1960s and 70s and the conversation about environmental issues going on at the time.
“I think most people tend to think of board games as fun family entertainment. As things that we’re just we play on a Saturday night with our friends or we’re playing at home with our families and usually we’re thinking more about, more in terms of who’s cheating at Monopoly than we’re thinking about what we’re learning from these games,” Sheu said.
“But what we discovered is actually that game makers and game designers have just been fascinated by environmental issues and have made a lot of games about environmental issues over the last 50 years,” Sheu said.
She said some of those games, like Litterbug a children’s game that teaches about the consequences of littering or Clean Water, a game created after the passage of the Clean Water Act, came at a time in the 1970s when people were becoming a lot more politically engaged and aware of environmental issues.
“These board games really serve as a way of both harnessing this really strong energy that people are having about protecting the environment, that they want to get out there, that they want to do something about it, and also showing that these issues can often be quite complex,” she told ABC News.
Adam Procter, a professor at the University of Southampton’s Winchester School of Art who teaches game design, said he sees a similar energy in his students today who come to work with him because of his focus on using gameplay to tackle difficult topics.
Procter and his students helped test Daybreak. In those sessions, he said he noticed that even losing the game sparked conversations that relate to climate solutions in the real world.
“Afterwards, the conversation about what they think they should do better and that .. they want to play like almost straight away again, too, because they suddenly realize ‘oh okay, we need to collaborate on this. We should definitely have done more of that. I think we need to invest in this technology or these things’,” Procter told ABC News.
“And so the conversation after the game is really interesting because they certainly are having conversations about the climate crisis, which is not just, it’s not a topic you just want to bring up,” Procter said.
Leacock and Menapace said that despite the serious nature of the subject matter, the game had to be fun. And that in addition to providing a fun experience with friends and family, the game can help people navigate the anxiety and sense of overwhelm that’s often connected to climate change.
Leacock said the game provides a safe space to talk about climate-related topics and they also plan to include links to resources to learn about the real world equivalents of the scenarios in the game.
“You’re seeing that you can actually make a difference or that people, society can make a difference. So you’re less likely to be caught up in a feeling of doom and that can feel pretty empowering,” he said.
Daybreak will be shipped to people who pre-ordered it in June and is expected to be available online and in stores later this spring.
(NASSAU, Bahamas) — A recent high school graduate from Louisiana is missing after going overboard while on a trip to the Bahamas, school officials said.
Cameron Robbins, who attended University Laboratory School in Baton Rouge, was on a trip with a group of students when he went overboard on Wednesday night, according to school officials.
“As of this interview right now he has not been located,” Kevin George, director of the Laboratory School, told ABC Baton Rouge affiliate WBRZ midday Thursday.
The incident occurred around 9:40 p.m. local time near the area of Athol Island, according to the Royal Bahamas Police Force.
The 18-year-old “reportedly jumped from a pleasure vessel,” the Royal Bahamas Police Force said in a statement.
The United States Coast Guard said Thursday that it was assisting with search efforts for a missing U.S. citizen “believed to have fallen overboard from a sunset cruise near Nassau” on Wednesday. A Coast Guard spokesperson confirmed to ABC News that the search was for Robbins.
The Coast Guard provided air assistance in the search and rescue mission, which was being led by the Royal Bahamas Defence Force, according to Petty Officer 3rd Class Ryan Estrada. But on Friday evening, the Coast Guard was informed by the Royal Bahamas Defence Force that they were suspending the “active search efforts” for Robbins “pending further developments” and were no longer requesting assistance from the Coast Guard after notifying Robbins family, according to Lt. Cmdr. John W. Beal.
“We offer our sincerest condolences to Cameron Robbins’ family and friends,” Beal said in a statement.
The Bahamas vacation was not a school-sanctioned trip but included students from several high schools in the area, including between 10 and 15 students from the Laboratory School, George said.
The school just held its graduation on Sunday.
George described Robbins as a “great kid” and athlete who had been with the school for 13 years, since the start of his education.
“Just one of those kids that you’re so proud of once they cross the stage,” George said.
Students held a prayer circle for Robbins on Thursday morning following news that he was reported missing, holding hands outside the Laboratory School, located on the main campus of Louisiana State University.
“It’s a tight-knit family,” George said. “The kids reached out to us wanting to know, could they do a prayer circle. Obviously we agreed. We really appreciated their leadership in this trying time.”
Robbins has a sister who is a junior at the school, according to George, who said he spoke to their father on Thursday morning.
“It’s just a really emotional time for us right now,” George said. “Just trying to send up our prayers and give our support.”
“Let’s continue to pray and pray that we find Cameron safe and sound,” he added.
Foo Fighters’ return to the stage continued Friday night as the band headlined Boston Calling, where they got some help from family.
Just like he did at their opening show in New Hampshire earlier in the week, the set included Dave Grohl performing “Cold Day in the Sun,” the In Your Honor track featuring their late drummer Taylor Hawkins on vocals. According to Consequence, he told the crowd, “I tried to do it the other night, and I’m gonna try to do it again,” adding. “And I’m gonna do it for Taylor’s family, and I’m gonna do it for Taylor.”
And turns out Taylor’s family was at the show to witness it, with the band bringing out his son Shane Hawkins to get behind the drumkit for the classic tune “I’ll Stick Around.”
And Taylor’s son wasn’t the only Foo offspring at the show. Grohl’s daughter Violet Grohl came out to join the band on two songs, “Shame, Shame” and “Rope.”
As for new drummer Josh Freese, he continues to prove he has the right sense of humor to be a member of the band. At the New Hampshire show he wore a T-shirt that read “Employee of the Month,” while at Boston Calling he donned a tee that read, “Fingers crossed for the new guy.”
Both the New Hampshire show and Boston Calling were the Foos’ first concerts since Hawkins’ death in March of 2022. Their next show is happening May 28 at the Sonic Temple Arts & Music Festival in Columbus, Ohio. A complete list of dates can be found at foofighters.com.
Coldplay and Metallica are among the most in-demand touring artists of the summer, according to StubHub.
Chris Martin and company come in at #5 on the list, followed by the “Enter Sandman” metallers at #8. To no one’s surprise, Taylor Swift is #1.
The ranking was determined by cumulative global ticket sales on StubHub and viagogo for concerts taking place between Memorial Day, May 29, and Labor Day, September 4.
Among group acts, Coldplay has sold the most summer tour tickets, followed by Dead & Company, Metallica, Depeche Mode, Blink-182, Matchbox Twenty, Nickelback, Guns N’ Roses, Dave Matthews Band and Arctic Monkeys.
As part of the ongoing 50th anniversary celebration of The Dark Side of the Moon, Pink Floyd recently held a special event that coincided with a rare solar eclipse. That event is now being turned into a documentary, and the band is giving fans their first peek at it.
The rockers just released a teaser trailer for Pink Floyd – The Dark Side Of The Moon 50th Ningaloo Eclipse, which lets fans experience the once-in-a-lifetime event at a secluded beach at Ningaloo (Nyinggulu) Marine Park in Exmouth, Western Australia, in April.
A handful of fans won a trip to the beach, where they listened to Dark Side in full — timed so that the closing line, “but the sun is eclipsed by the moon,” would play at the exact moment of the eclipse.
So far the documentary doesn’t have an exact release date, but it is expected to be out sometime in September.
(WASHINGTON) — Two members of a climate activist group were arrested and charged Friday for allegedly defacing an art exhibit at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., during a protest last month.
Timothy Martin of North Carolina, and Joanna Smith of New York, both 53, surrendered to authorities after they were indicted on conspiracy to commit an offense against the United States and injury to a National Gallery of Art exhibit, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.
On April 27, the pair, members of climate activist group Declare Emergency, allegedly entered the gallery and threw red and black paint on the case of the Edgar Degas sculpture “Little Danger Aged Fourteen,” according to prosecutors.
The pair then sat in front of the defaced exhibit with the paint still on their hands and posed for photos, which were later posted on Declare Emergency’s site, investigators said.
“The conspiracy specifically targeted the Little Dancer based on her fragility,” the U.S. Attorney’s office said in a statement.
Prosecutors said Martin and Smith’s alleged actions caused approximately $2,400 in damage and the exhibit was removed from public display for 10 days so that it could be repaired.
Attorney information for the defendants wasn’t immediately available.
Other protesters who were involved in the museum defacing haven’t been named or charged.
If convicted, Martin and Smith face up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
A few days before the museum incident, Declare Emergency shut down a section of the George Washington Memorial Parkway, causing heavy traffic jams around Washington, D.C.
Museums and art exhibits have become a growing target for climate activists around the world in the last couple of months.
In October, climate activists threw soup over Vincent van Gogh’s “Sunflowers” in London’s National Gallery to protest fossil fuel extraction.
In November, two climate activists were arrested after they tried to glue themselves to Edvard Munch’s “The Scream” in an Oslo, Norway, museum.
Later that month, protesters from threw a black oily liquid on Gustav Klimt’s painting “Tod und Leben” at the Leopold museum in Vienna, Austria, before gluing their hands to the frame.
ABC News’ Julia Jacobo contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — The LSU Tigers women’s basketball team’s national championship celebration at the White House on Friday was marked by a scary moment when a player fainted during the event.
Sa’Myah Smith, a freshman forward, seemed to signal she was in distress before she collapsed. The event paused for several moments while medical staff attended to her,
Eventually, applause broke out when Smith was helped to a chair and wheeled out of the event. Later on, head coach Kim Mulkey assured the crowd she was alright and more embarrassed than anything.
“That’s not the first time that’s happened,” President Joe Biden said. “Not to her but to a lot of folks standing on that stage.”
Aside from the scare, the event also saw some mending of fences between team co-captain Angel Reese and Dr. Jill Biden.
The tiff began after the first lady suggested she would invite both LSU and the team it defeated to the White House. Reese called that a “joke” and suggested that she would not come to the White House before ultimately agreeing to attend.
Reese helped present jerseys to the Bidens and gave them hugs.
“Watching you was pure magic,” the first lady said of the team’s performance in the NCAA championship. “The way you pass, like you can read each other’s thoughts. The air crackling with the electricity of that connection. The crowd seemed to breath with one breath. Our hearts racing to the rhythm of each thump of the ball.”
“Every basket was pure joy, and I kept thinking about how far women’s sports have come,” she continued.
The president also gave Reese a shout out in his remarks, saying he “wasn’t surprised” when she was named the most outstanding player.
“You know, you made it more expensive for people to come. The cost of tickets went up 10 times. 10 times. And more than the men’s games,” Biden said to laughter.
Present at the event were two top debt ceiling negotiators and Louisiana natives: Rep. Garret Graves and Office of Budget and Management Director Shalanda Young. Both took a break from ongoing talks to commemorate the team.
“She’s now helping lead the critical budget talks we’re in the middle of now. But she said, ‘I’m not – I’m leaving the talks to be here,'” Biden said of Young in what was his only reference to the budget talks during the event.
The Tigers dominated the Iowa Hawkeyes to win their first basketball title in school history.
