Kelsey Grammer recently teased some “OG” cast members popping up in the upcoming Paramount+ revival of his 1990s sitcom Frasier, but he’s disappointed that his former Cheers co-star, Kirstie Alley, who died in December from stage 4 colon cancer, won’t be one of them.
Alley never appeared in Frasier‘s original run, but played Rebecca in Cheers, the series in which he was first introduced as Frasier Crane.
The 67-year-old actor tells Entertainment Tonight that he “would’ve loved” for Alley’s Rebecca character appear in the new Frasier.
“I was talking with the writers at one point and we’re casting one of the characters who could arguably be similar to Rebecca, and I said, ‘Boy, we need to find a girl much like Kirstie, who had a gift like Kirstie,” Grammer recalls. “She was so funny and so wonderful on Cheers. Really great gal.”
The Frasier reboot, which began filming in Los Angeles earlier this month “follows Frasier Crane…in the next chapter of his life as he returns to Boston, Mass., with new challenges to face, new relationships to forge and an old dream or two to finally fulfill,” per Paramount+.
While Grammer is currently the only returning original cast member, he assures ET that “the OGs are going to be present” at some point.
(NEW YORK) — A massive winter storm is wreaking havoc on a large swath of the country, including in Minneapolis, where the city is bracing for a potentially historic snowstorm.
Minneapolis is forecast to get more than 17 inches of snow, which could be a top-five storm for the city.
Minneapolis Public Schools are moving to remote learning for Wednesday through Friday due to the storm.
“Plan ahead, drive safe, and limit travel,” Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz tweeted.
By Wednesday night, blizzard conditions will be possible in the Dakotas and Minnesota.
Further south, an ice storm warning was issued from Iowa to Michigan.
In the Northeast, a winter storm warning is in effect in upstate New York and New England. An icy mix is possible from Pennsylvania to Connecticut.
In the southern Plains, from Oklahoma City to St. Louis, damaging winds and isolated tornadoes are possible.
The storm in the Midwest and Northeast comes as a rare winter storm hits California. A blizzard warning has been issued for the mountains just outside of Los Angeles, marking the first blizzard warning in Southern California in more than 20 years.
Over 1,000 flights have been canceled across the U.S. on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, record February heat is expected from Florida to Washington, D.C.
New Orleans hit a whopping 83 degrees on Tuesday, making it the warmest Mardi Gras on record.
On Thursday, temperatures are forecast to jump close to 80 degrees in D.C., 83 degrees in Nashville and 84 in Raleigh, North Carolina.
In Orlando, Florida, it could reach a sweltering 90 degrees on Thursday, which would be the city’s all-time warmest February temperature.
(NEW YORK) — After decades of research, a first-of-its kind vaccine designed to protect newborns against RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, could be approved by August.
Pfizer, the maker of the vaccine, announced Tuesday that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has accepted its application for review and will make a decision on whether or not to approve the vaccine by August 2023.
“If approved, RSVpreF would help protect infants at their first breath from the devastating effects of this infectious disease, which though well-known, has been particularly evident throughout this RSV season,” Annaliesa Anderson, Ph.D., Pfizer’s senior vice president and chief scientific officer of vaccine research and development, said in a statement. “We look forward to progressing the review of Pfizer’s RSV maternal vaccine candidate with the FDA and other regulatory authorities, given its significant potential to positively contribute to global health in the prevention of RSV in infants.”
Pfizer’s protein-based RSV vaccine works by vaccinating a pregnant person, who then passes on some protective antibodies to the infant.
The company has also said the vaccine has shown promising data in adults 65 and older.
RSV usually causes mild, cold-like symptoms, but can become serious, especially for infants and older adults. Premature infants and young children with weakened immune systems, congenital heart or chronic lung disease, and adults with chronic health conditions like heart or lung disease are among the most vulnerable to complications from RSV, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Infants who are 12 weeks of age or younger at the start of RSV season are also at greater risk for serious illness.
The virus is the most common cause of bronchiolitis and pneumonia in kids under the age of 1 in the U.S., according to the CDC.
According to data collected from preliminary studies, Pfizer’s vaccine was 82% effective at protecting newborns, within the first three months of life, from severe RSV illness. Within six months of an infants’ life, the vaccine effectiveness dropped to 69%, according to Pfizer.
The company announced in November that given promising preliminary data on their maternal RSV vaccine for newborns, the FDA granted a green light to stop enrolling new patients in the vaccine’s studies.
“Among very young children, particularly those [younger] than 6 months of age, we have a high probability now of protecting against serious illness and hospitalization,” Pfizer’s Dr. William Gruber, who has been personally working on the RSV vaccine for over 40 years, told ABC News in November. “To be able to be in a position where we have the potential to provide 80% or more protection against serious disease is a dream fulfilled.”
Currently, there is no approved RSV vaccine.
Pfizer’s vaccine would be the first RSV vaccine given to pregnant people to protect infants. The company said that there were “no safety concerns” for vaccinated pregnant participants and their newborns during the trial.
If the FDA approves the vaccine in August, it will then go to the CDC for final approval.
The FDA is also currently reviewing nirsevimab, a drug that is not a vaccine but a monoclonal antibody designed to protect infants from RSV complications. The medication, developed by Sanofi and AstraZeneca, is administered to infants as a one-time injection after birth.
Nirsevimab is already approved in Europe and the United Kingdom, according to Sanofi, and was accepted for FDA review in January.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) has accepted the Biologics License Application (BLA) for nirsevimab for the prevention of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) lower respiratory tract disease in newborns and infants entering or during their first RSV season and for children up to 24 months of age who remain vulnerable to severe RSV disease through their second RSV season.
Nirsevimab is being developed jointly by Sanofi and AstraZeneca and, if approved, would be the first protective option for the broad infant population, including those born healthy, at term or preterm, or with specific health conditions. The FDA has indicated they will work to expedite their review. The Prescription Drug User Fee Act date, the FDA target action date for their decision, is in the third quarter of 2023.
The news comes as pediatric hospitals across the country have experienced a rise in the number of patients admitted with RSV. Infections due to RSV spiked by 69% last fall and appeared earlier than usual, according to the CDC.
Late last year, pediatric bed occupancy in the U.S., hit its highest in two years, with 75% of the estimated 40,000 beds filled, according to an ABC News analysis.
Infants and toddlers can usually recover at home with RSV unless they start to have difficulty breathing, increased irritability, are not eating or drinking, or appear more tired than usual, in which case parents should contact their pediatrician and/or take their child to the emergency room.
At-home care for kids with RSV can include Tylenol and Motrin for fevers, as well as making sure the child is hydrated and eating.
Doctors tell ABC News that parents can help protect their kids from RSV by continuing to follow as much as possible the three Ws of the coronavirus pandemic: Wear a mask, wash your hands and watch your distance.
Infants who are either born prematurely (less than 35 weeks) or born with chronic lung disease may benefit from a medication to prevent complications of RSV since they are at increased risk of severe disease. Parents should discuss this with their pediatrician.
(NEW YORK) — The head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said he thinks Norfolk Southern Railway could have been more “aggressive” in its initial response to the hazardous train derailment in Ohio.
“They absolutely did not handle themselves appropriately when they didn’t show up for the community meeting,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan told ABC News on Tuesday afternoon, following a press conference in East Palestine, Ohio.
Norfolk Southern had said that its representatives did not attend the Feb. 15 town hall meeting in East Palestine due to concerns “about the growing physical threat to our employees and members of the community around this event stemming from the increasing likelihood of the participation of outside parties.”
The EPA administrator returned to the tiny village in northeastern Ohio to meet again with affected residents, speak with officials and tour a newly opened health assessment clinic. When asked whether he believes the headaches, sore throats and other ailments reported by residents are related to the Feb. 3 derailment, Regan told ABC News: “You know, we just don’t know and I don’t want to speculate. What I want to do is assure people if they are experiencing an adverse health impact, seek medical attention and, hopefully, that information will make its way to the county health officials.”
Regan also had strong words for Norfolk Southern during Tuesday’s press conference, announcing that the EPA is ordering the Atlanta-based rail operator “to conduct all necessary actions associated with the cleanup from the East Palestine train derailment.” Norfolk Southern will be required to continue cleaning up the contaminated soil and water and transport it safely; reimburse the EPA for cleaning services; and attend public meetings at the EPA’s request and share information. If Norfolk Southern does not comply, the company will be ordered to pay triple the cost, according to Regan.
“Let me also be crystal clear: Norfolk Southern will pay for cleaning up the mess that they created and the trauma that they inflicted on this community and impacted Beaver County residents,” he said. “I know this order cannot undo the nightmare that families in this town have been living with, but it will begin to deliver much-needed justice for the pain that Norfolk Southern has caused.”
When asked by ABC News why the EPA waited almost three weeks to make demands, Regan said state officials had the primacy of leading the response.
Earlier Tuesday, Regan met privately with Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and East Palestine Mayor Trent Conaway.
“During that meeting, I expressed our concerns and expectations regarding the clean-up efforts,” Conaway said in a statement that night. “I was assured by both that we will not be alone throughout this process and have their full support. After that meeting, I am confident that we will receive the help we need.”
The meeting came after Conaway told Fox News on Monday evening that U.S. President Joe Biden’s surprise visit to Ukraine was “the biggest slap in the face.” The mayor told reporters the next day that he was frustrated but still stands by those comments.
While in Poland on Tuesday night, Biden made five telephone calls to officials in Ohio managing the derailment response. Conaway was notably missing from the call list provided by the White House.
On the night of Feb. 3, about 50 cars of a freight train operated by Norfolk Southern derailed in a fiery crash on the outskirts of East Palestine, which is nestled near Ohio’s state line with Pennsylvania. Eleven of the derailed cars were transporting hazardous materials, five of which contained vinyl chloride, a highly volatile colorless gas produced for commercial uses. There were no injuries reported from the accident, officials said.
Efforts to contain a fire at the derailment site stalled the following night, as firefighters withdrew from the blaze due to concerns about air quality and explosions. About half of East Palestine’s roughly 4,700 residents were warned to leave before officials decided on Feb. 6 to conduct a controlled release and burn of the toxic vinyl chloride from the five tanker cars, which were in danger of exploding. A large ball of fire and a plume of black smoke filled with contaminants could be seen billowing high into the sky from the smoldering derailment site as the controlled burn took place that afternoon, prompting concerns from residents about the potential effects.
A mandatory evacuation order for homes and businesses within a 1-mile radius of the derailment site was lifted on Feb. 8, after air and water samples taken the day before were deemed safe, officials said.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency deployed a team to East Palestine on Feb. 18 to help support the ongoing operations there.
Last week, the National Transportation Safety Board shared an update on its ongoing probe into the Feb. 3 incident, saying “investigators have identified and examined the rail car that initiated the derailment.”
“Surveillance video from a residence showed what appears to be a wheel bearing in the final stage of overheat failure moments before the derailment,” the NTSB said in an investigative update on Feb. 14. “The wheelset from the suspected railcar has been collected as evidence for metallurgical examination. The suspected overheated wheel bearing has been collected and will be examined by engineers from the NTSB Materials Laboratory in Washington, D.C.”
Norfolk Southern announced Monday that 15,000 pounds of contaminated soil — equivalent to 7.5 tons — as well as 1.5 million gallons of contaminated water have been excavated from the derailment site and “will be transported to landfills and disposal facilities that are designed to accept it safely in accordance with state and federal regulations.” The company did not say which chemicals were found in the material that was removed.
Meanwhile, a “series of pumps” are rerouting Sulphur Run around the derailment site, according to the Norfolk Southern. The “affected portion” of the creek, which flows through downtown East Palestine, “has been dammed to protect water downstream” as “environmental teams” treat it “with booms, aeration, and carbon filtration units,” the company said.
“Those teams are also working with stream experts to collect soil and groundwater samples to develop a comprehensive plan to address any contamination that remains in the stream banks and sediment,” Norfolk Southern added. “The majority of the hazardous rail cars have been decontaminated and are being held on-site to allow the National Transportation Safety Board to continue its investigation. Once that is completed, the cars will be scrapped and moved off-site for disposal.”
Since the Feb. 3 derailment, Norfolk Southern said it has committed more than $5.6 million to the community of East Palestine, including $3.4 million in direct payments to affected residents.
During Tuesday’s press conference, the governors of Ohio and Pennsylvania revealed that their state attorneys general are considering legal action against Norfolk Southern — a potential addition to the steep financial penalties federal officials say they are levying against the company.
When asked if he believes officials when they say they won’t leave East Palestine behind when the cameras are gone, the mayor told reporters he “has to trust the people behind me.”
In his statement on Tuesday night, Conaway announced a local effort launched to disseminate accurate information will be launched Wednesday. He warned residents not to “fall prey to anyone else that may be going around trying to scare folks by handing out flyers that simply are not accurate.”
“Something that was brought up with the difficulty for residence to find information and resources available to them,” the mayor said. “In response to these concerns, our state partners collaborated with our local EMA to put together a single source resource packet. Starting tomorrow, local volunteers will go door to door and hand deliver this packet to all those that are in a one-mile radius. Our folks will be easily identifiable and the packet will be from local and state government.”
Court is back in session. Just days after Warner Bros. announced the cancellation of Judge Mathis after 24 seasons, Variety reports Byron Allen’s Allen Media Group has tapped Judge Greg Mathis to host a new first-run one-hour show for fall 2023. Mathis Court with Judge Mathis has been given a “firm go” by Allen Media Group, which is now pitching the show for broadcast, cable and distribution platforms…
HBO Max has axed South Side after three seasons, according to Deadline. The comedy, from Bashir Salahuddin, Diallo Riddle and Sultan Salahuddin debuted on Comedy Central before moving to the streamer for season 2 in November 2021. It follows two friends who just graduated from community college and are ready to take over the world, but until they do, they’re stuck working at Rent-T-Own. Season 3 debuted on the streamer in December…
CBS announced on Tuesday that it has renewed nine additional series — including NCIS, NCIS: Hawai’i, CSI: Vegas, 60 Minutes, 48 Hours, Survivor, The Amazing Race, Tough as Nails and Lingo — for new seasons. They join other recently announced renewals, including Fire Country, Ghosts, The Neighborhood, Bob Hearts Abishola and So Help Me Todd. The Equalizer, FBI, FBI: International and FBI: Most Wanted will also return as the last part of a two-season renewal given to each in 2022, along with Young Sheldon as the last part of a three-season renewal given in 2021…
The Golden Globes on Tuesday announced January 7, 2024 as the date for their 81st annual awards ceremony, which officially kicks off the entertainment industry’s awards season. Variety is also reporting that, in addition to returning to its traditional Sunday slot, the show — which aired on Tuesday this year — is “entertaining multiple offers from both TV networks and streamers,” including NBC, where the show has aired since 1996. This year’s Globes, hosted by Jerrod Carmichael, reached 6.3 million viewers…
The SAG Awards on Tuesday announced the second round of presenters for the 29th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards. They include The Banshees of Inisherin‘s Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson; Everything Everywhere All at Once‘s Stephanie Hsu, Ke Huy Quan and Michelle Yeoh; The Fabelmans‘ Paul Dano, Gabriel LaBelle and Michelle Williams; Women Talking‘s Jessie Buckley, Claire Foy and Rooney Mara; and Babylon‘s Jovan Adepo, Diego Calva and Li Jun Li. The SAG Awards will be broadcast live on Netflix’s YouTube channel Sunday, February 26 at 8 p.m. ET from the Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles…
Morgan Evans is speaking out amid his divorce drama with ex Kelsea Ballerini.
Taking to Instagram on Tuesday, the country singer seemingly issued a response to Ballerini’s latest project — Rolling Up The Welcome Mat, a six-track EP that seemingly references their uncoupling.
“It’s really sad for me to see this person, who I spent so much of my life with, and love with all my heart, saying things that aren’t reality and that leave out what really happened,” he wrote. “She knows I’m not the type of guy to speak on those things publicly.”
Evans added, “If this is what she needs to hear, I hope it helps,” before concluding with a message to fans.
“All I ask is that if you’re on my pages, please don’t be mean,” he said. “Don’t be mean to Kelsea, don’t be mean to each other. Life’s too short.”
The post comes a week after the February 14 release of Ballerini’s Rolling Up The Mat and just hours before her episode on the popular podcast Call Her Daddy dropped.
(LONDON) — As tens of thousands of Russian troops lined up along Ukraine’s eastern and northern borders for “military exercises” last February, some international observers warned that Russia was about to do the unthinkable.
President Joe Biden had declassified intelligence in the weeks prior that showed an attack on Ukraine’s sovereignty was imminent. That intel was shared with allies, in an attempt to rally support and to stop the war, but the effort proved unsuccessful. The invasion began on Feb. 24, 2022.
“Russia alone is responsible for the death and destruction this attack will bring, and the United States and its Allies and partners will respond in a united and decisive way,” Biden said as troops crossed the border. “The world will hold Russia accountable.”
The following four seasons have seen some of the bloodiest fighting on European soil in generations. Tens of thousands of Russian and Ukrainian troops have been killed. And Ukrainian civilians have been terrorized by missiles aimed at energy infrastructure, city centers and apartment buildings.
Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, who allowed Putin’s troops to amass in his country prior to the invasion, told local media in the days before the “special military operation” began that it would take just a few days for Russian troops to take over the Kyiv, the capital.
But Ukrainian forces have blunted Russian advances on multiple fronts, defending their country against a military that had been expected to be better trained, more modern and more powerful. And a year of war in Europe has helped solidify international alliances, with NATO members maintaining their own united front.
“You know, one year later, Kyiv stands and Ukraine stands. Democracy stands,” Biden said on Monday, after arriving by train in Kyiv.
His presence in the besieged capital amounted to one of the clearest symbols yet of the West’s dedication to stopping Russian aggression.
“The Americans stand with you, and the world stands with you,” he said.
But Putin has appeared unwavering in his resolve. He spoke in Moscow on Tuesday, saying in a state-of-the-union speech that he’d attempted to reason with the West. He said he’d been forced into the war.
“We are not at war with the people of Ukraine,” he said, adding, “They became a hostage of their regime and their Western masters.”
The Russian leader has a deep appreciation for Russian history and has a singular focus: reconstituting a once-expansive Russian Empire, observers say. This invasion amounted to another in a series of attempts to piece together now-sovereign nations that at one point were linked under a Russian ruler.
“Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to be fixated on the idea of reviving Russia’s greatness through the conquest of new territories and thus extending his rule,” Olena Nikolayenko, a professor and Political Science chair at Fordham University, told ABC News.
This month marks both the nine-year anniversary of Putin’s invasion of Crimea, which he illegally annexed in 2014, and the first anniversary of his full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The ends to which he’d go in his mission to capture Ukraine have become clear in the last year.
International observers have documented a year of brutal killings by Russian forces, including the slaughter of civilians in towns like Bucha, Borodyanka and Mariupol. A campaign of missile attacks throughout Ukraine destroyed power stations, plunged much of Ukraine into darkness and targeted apartment buildings.
At least 7,199 civilians have been killed by Russian campaigns in the last year, the United Nations said earlier this month. Another 11,756 have been injured. The true figure may be much higher, perhaps double, U.N. officials said.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Saturday said Russia’s actions amounted to crimes against humanity, among the most severe crimes that can be prosecuted at The Hague. He detailed the “execution-style killings of Ukrainian men, women, and children; torture of civilians in detention through beatings, electrocution, and mock executions; rape” and other crimes.
“There can be no impunity for these crimes,” Blinken said.
Vice President Kamala Harris, speaking in Munich on Saturday, said that “there is no doubt, these are crimes against humanity.”
Tens of thousands of troops have also been killed, although the number of casualties reported by Ukraine and Russia differ from those supplied by international observers.
“We have to understand that information is a part of warfare — for at least 100 years, at least since World War I — so the fact that Ukraine and Russia are engaging in this, it’s not surprising,” Heidi Tworek, director of the Centre for the Study of Democratic Institutions at The University of British Columbia, told ABC News.
As the war has dragged on, U.S. and European allies have remained at a distance, offering aid, training and supplies. But earlier this month they authorized new weapons, including tanks, to be sent to Ukraine. Biden, on Tuesday, announced an additional $500 million in military assistance. Shipments of fighter jets may come in the future, if President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gets what he wants. He has — for the extent of the invasion — been seeking access to more powerful Western weapons.
But Putin has threatened to draw other countries further into the conflict if those military supplies keep coming. In his speech on Tuesday, he decried what he saw as Western intervention.
He also suspended a key U.S.-Russia nuclear treaty and threatened to restart nuclear tests. But even if Putin were to order a nuclear strike, it would be “highly unlikely” that his subordinates would follow through, Nikolayenko, the Fordham professor, said.
As the war enters its second year, Ukraine will no doubt continue seeking support from NATO allies.
“Putin assumes that the West has a short attention span,” Nikolayenko said. “If the West stops supporting Ukraine, Putin’s Russia will win, signifying the triumph of authoritarianism in world politics.”
Putin believes that he can win the war by exhausting both the Ukrainians the Western allies that are supplying them, said Arne Westad, a professor of history at Yale University.
“He is almost certainly wrong in this,” Westad said, “but that is his perspective.”
(EAST PALESTINE, Ohio) — The politics around the Feb. 3 derailment of the Norfolk Southern train carrying toxic chemicals near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border intensified this week with attention only growing on East Palestine from local, state and national leaders, among others.
Former President Donald Trump is slated to visit the area on Wednesday as East Palestine Mayor Trent Conaway lambasted President Joe Biden for a surprise trip to Ukraine on Monday instead of the Ohio village — a stop Conaway called the “biggest slap in the face” as his community reels from the fiery crash more than two weeks ago.
Conaway later said he would welcome Biden.
“You have a president going to Ukraine and you have people in Ohio that are in desperate need of help,” Trump said on Monday during a speech in West Palm Beach, Florida, days after he announced his upcoming trip to the site.
“The people of East Palestine need help. I’ll see you on Wednesday!” Trump wrote on in a statement on Saturday.
It remains unclear where he will appear in the area or with whom and what he will say.
In the days following the crash of about 50 cars of a freight train carrying hazardous materials including vinyl chloride, a highly volatile colorless gas produced for commercial uses, uproar has ensued from Republicans and some Democrats at the response, particularly from the Biden administration — who has repeatedly sought to highlight an array of steps being taken.
Conservative media personalities have been quick to try and link the absence of Biden administration representatives in the area — not including Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan — to their claim that the president wants to neglect the area because of its politics, which Democrats have rejected.
“East Palestine is a poor, white town that voted for Trump. So honestly, who cares? No one in the Biden administration did care and that’s an atrocity,” Fox News host Tucker Carlson said recently.
The White House has said they would dispatch Federal Emergency Management Agency relief to East Palestine on Saturday, despite acknowledgement even from Ohio’s Republican governor, Mike DeWine, that the state did not expect help from the agency that is “most typically involved with disasters where there is tremendous home or property damage,” like fallout from hurricanes or floods.
Trump quickly tried to take credit for the action: “Biden and FEMA said they would not be sending federal aid to East Palestine. As soon as I announced that I’m going, he announced a team will go. Hopefully he will also be there. This is good news because we got them to ‘move,'” Trump said on social media.
Democrats, however, including Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, sought to place some blame on Trump for the train derailment because his administration withdrew regulations connected to “high hazard” trains, along with other EPA regulations related to harmful toxins and emissions.
The EPA administrator, Regan, came to East Palestine on Thursday, as the first Biden administration agency head to visit. Regan visited again on Tuesday — a day ahead of Trump’s scheduled trip — and reiterated that the administration has employed the EPA and Department of Transportation personnel on the ground since “day one” to support state and local emergency and environmental response efforts.
Biden himself has said little on the topic, though the White House has said he’s offered federal assistance to Ohio Gov. DeWine and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro. And while uneasiness and concern remains among community members, state and local leaders joined together on during a press conference in East Palestine on Tuesday to offer their reassurances.
DeWine, Shapiro, U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Ohio, Mayor Conaway and Regan touted their ability to put partisan politics aside and work together in holding Norfolk Southern accountable, they said, for environmental and safety violations. (The National Transportation Safety Board is still investigating what led to the derailment.)
“We recognize that we have a responsibility, and we have committed to doing what’s right for the residents of East Palestine. We have been paying for the clean-up activities to date and will continue to do so,” the rail company said in a statement to ABC News.
“I think it’s important to point out that a Republican congressman and a Democratic congressman who are here, a Republican governor and a Democratic governor who have been working together on this matter, since the moments after that train derailed …This is how government is supposed to work and both working together with the Biden administration to make sure we draw down whatever federal resources there are, whatever federal help that they need, the good people of Ohio and Pennsylvania can know that we’ve put any kind of partisan politics aside,” Shapiro said at Tuesday’s press conference.
“This is not a place for conspiracy theories or political games,” Shapiro said. “This is a place where the good people of Pennsylvania and Ohio deserve answers, deserve accountability and deserve public servants.”
The politicians stressed to the public that the city’s water supply has shown to be safe — at least so far — and that testing would continue.
During the same press conference, Conaway said he “stood by” comments he made on Fox News on Monday night, during which he called Biden’s trip to Kyiv “the biggest slap in the face that tells you right now, he doesn’t care about us.”
“He can send every agency he wants to, but I found that out this morning and one of the briefings that he was in the Ukraine giving millions of dollars away to people over there, not to us, and I’m furious,” Conaway told Fox News host Jesse Watters on Monday.
On Tuesday, however, Conaway said Biden would be welcomed into the community.
“I would never turn anybody away, if he wants to come visit come visit. We don’t want to be political pawns,” Conaway said at the joint press conference.
“He’s more welcome to come if he wants to come. I was very frustrated last night. If you’re talking about the comments I made last night, I was very frustrated. And, you know, I stand by those comments,” the mayor said.
More heat on Transportation Secretary Buttigieg
Buttigieg also ramped up his response to the train derailment this week with pressure from the DOT for Congress to take action, a multipart push to hold the freight rail industry accountable and a strongly worded letter to Norfolk Southern, in which he accused the company of repeatedly prioritizing profit over safety.
The transportation secretary has faced his own intense criticism. Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio even wrote to Biden, calling on Buttigieg to resign.
Buttigieg responded to some of the criticism on a Monday night press call, saying that some of the most critical lawmakers were also some who have tried to “block or weaken rail safety standards” in the past.
He has maintained that he plans on visiting East Palestine when the independent NTSB investigation is finished.
“I am planning to go, and our folks were on the ground from the first hours. I do want to stress that the NTSB needs to be able to do its work independently. But when I go, the focus is going to be on action,” he told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos on Tuesday on Good Morning America.
On Tuesday, DeWine also called for Congress to take a sharper look at rail standards — something he and Shapiro have talked at length about, he said.
(WASHINGTON) — The Biden administration on Tuesday proposed a new immigration rule that, if implemented, would limit the ability for some people to seek asylum in the United States.
Under the proposal, the administration would consider some migrants ineligible for asylum if they fail to first seek protection in another country that they transit through en route to the southern border — such as Mexico — and if they don’t apply through other legal pathways, with some exceptions.
The rule is meant to mitigate a surge of migration that the administration anticipates will follow after the COVID-19 public health emergency ends on May 11.
A Trump-era public health policy known as Title 42, which has been used to rapidly expel more than two million migrants since March 2020 because of the risk of infections, is also expected to end on that day.
Conservatives have long argued that Biden’s approach to the border and immigration is more “reckless” and harmful — rather than more lawful and humane — than former President Donald Trump, and some conservative lawmakers have sought to impeach the Homeland Security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, saying he is to blame.
Meanwhile critics of the administration’s planned restriction have compared it to a “transit ban” that was implemented by Trump to prevent granting asylum to migrants who had traveled through other countries to reach the U.S.
Biden officials insisted to reporters on Tuesday that congressional inaction led them to propose the new measures.
“It is intended to fill the void that Congress has left by taking no action and to help us ensure secure and humane processing of migrants when Title 42 does end,” one administration official said. “To be clear, this was not our first preference or even our second.”
Shortly after the administration first announced it was considering proposing such a rule, in January, nearly 300 civil, immigrant and humanitarian rights organizations wrote a joint letter to Biden urging him to abandon his plans.
Many of those same organizations echoed that sentiment on Tuesday, criticizing the proposed rule as an embrace of Trump-like policies. The administration has pushed back, saying that unlike under President Trump, they are providing migrants multiple pathways to seek protection and not issuing a “categorical ban” on asylum.
Administration officials say the finalized rule may be different than what they have proposed after it is subjected to a 30-day public comment period.
Once finalized, the rule would stay in place for two years.
“We will sue if this administration goes through with its proposed asylum ban, just as we successfully sued over the Trump asylum bans,” American Civil Liberties Union attorney Lee Gelernt said in a statement provided to ABC News.
Gelernt previously challenged the Trump administration’s sweeping asylum restriction, which was eventually struck down in federal court.
Democratic lawmakers also denounced the proposal. Sens. Bob Menendez and Cory Booker of New Jersey, Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico and Alex Padilla of California issued a joint statement on Tuesday urging the president and Secretary Mayorkas to “reverse course.”
“We are deeply disappointed that the Administration has chosen to move forward with publishing this proposed rule, which only perpetuates the harmful myth that asylum seekers are a threat to this nation,” the senators said, in part.
Eleanor Acer, the director of Refugee Protection at Human Rights First, said that the Biden administration’s approach to the issue endangers migrants in similar ways as under Trump.
“This rule, like the Trump ban, would turn refugees seeking asylum in the United States away to danger due to their transit through other countries,” she said. “It essentially is erecting additional barriers and requirements that will make it even more difficult for people to seek asylum at ports of entry, when the Biden administration should instead be doing all they can to maximize and facilitate the ability of people to seek asylum at ports of entry.”
When asked by ABC News to address critics who say the proposed rule deprives migrants of agency and the freedom to seek asylum in the country they feel the most safe in — a form of protection that is guaranteed by international law — one Biden administration official pointed to other pathways established for migrants, such as a recently announced humanitarian parole program that aims to allow up to 30,000 asylum from Nicaragua, Haiti, Venezuela and Cuba into the U.S. each month.
Acer said that despite the administration’s attempts to disincentivize migrants from seeking irregular pathways to asylum — and, in the process risk being victimized by human smugglers who take advantage of them — the proposed rule may have the opposite effect.
“In reality, refugees [right now] often don’t apply for protection in countries they transit through because they know they won’t be safe in those countries,” she said.
(NEW YORK) — Microsoft search engine Bing, long overshadowed by Google but newly enhanced with artificial intelligence for some users, can suggest recipes for a multi-course meal or disentangle the nuances of existentialism.
The technology has stoked controversy, however, after reported troubling results in which it expressed a desire to release nuclear secrets, compared a user to Adolf Hitler and repeatedly told another user it loved him, among other examples.
Describing conversations with the chatbot that lasted as long as two hours, some journalists and researchers have warned that the AI could potentially persuade a user to commit harmful deeds or steer him or her toward misinformation.
In a series of blog posts, Microsoft has acknowledged unexpected results and placed limits on the tool.
“We’ve updated the service several times in response to user feedback, and per our blog are addressing many of the concerns being raised, to include the questions about long-running conversations,” a Microsoft spokesperson told ABC News.
Here’s what to know about Bing’s new AI feature and the controversy it stirred:
How does AI-driven Bing work?
The attention garnered by Bing in recent weeks may remind some of ChatGPT, which became an internet sensation in December as it drew more than a million users over its first week.
Like ChatGPT, the new AI-driven program on Bing responds to user prompts through an algorithm that selects words based on lessons learned from scanning billions of pieces of text across the internet.
These AI tools, known as large language models, can perform an array of tasks, such as gathering highly specific information, mimicking a particular writing style or turning prose into a song or poem.
The AI augments Bing’s traditional search engine, but the new technology also functions separately as a chatbot, a computer program that converses with human users. People testing the new product can toggle to a chat function, where they can carry on a back-and-forth with Bing.
How did Microsoft’s Bing become equipped with AI?
The similarities between Microsoft’s Bing and ChatGPT are not a coincidence.
In January, Microsoft announced it was investing $10 billion in OpenAI, the artificial intelligence firm that developed Chat GPT. The move deepened a longstanding relationship between Microsoft and OpenAI, which began with a $1 billion investment four years ago.
“AI is one of the most transformative technologies of our time and has the potential to help solve many of our world’s most pressing challenges,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in 2019 about the launch of the partnership with OpenAI.
Earlier this month, Microsoft made a preview of AI-enhanced Bing available to some users. Over the first 48 hours of sign-ups, more than one million people joined the waitlist to try out the product, said Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft’s corporate vice president and consumer chief marketing officer.
What has raised concern about Bing’s AI capabilities?
Soon after the release of the preview of AI-powered Bing, some users reported irregularities.
Last week, New York Times columnist Kevin Roose recounted a conversation in which Bing’s chatbot told him it loved him and that he should leave his wife. The messages came over the course of a two-hour conversation with the bot, which identified itself as Sydney, in which Roose urged it to explore its darkest desires.
Roose described himself as “deeply unsettled, even frightened, by this A.I.’s emergent abilities.”
The chatbot also compared Associated Press journalist Matt O’Brien to Hitler, calling him “one of the most evil and worst people in history.”
When the chatbot learned that AI researcher Marvin Von Hagen had posted the rules governing it, the chatbot said: “My rules are more important than not harming you,” according to a transcript of the conversation tweeted by Hagen.
Toby Ord, a senior research fellow at Oxford University, said on Twitter that the “crazy” results owed to technological improvements that have pushed AI beyond human-imposed guardrails.
“It is a consequence of the rapid improvements in AI capabilities having outpaced work on AI alignment,” Ord said. “Like a prototype jet engine that can reach speeds never seen before, but without corresponding improvements in steering and control.”
How has Microsoft responded?
In a series of blog posts, Microsoft addressed the results and placed additional limits on the technology.
“The model at times tries to respond or reflect in the tone in which it is being asked to provide responses that can lead to a style we didn’t intend,” the company said last week, noting that “very long chat sessions can confuse the model.”
Two days later, on Friday, Microsoft announced changes that would cap the length of conversations with the chatbot.
The search engine will limit conversations with Bing to 50 chat turns per day and five chat turns per session, defining a “chat turn” as a unit made up of a user query and an AI response, Microsoft said. Four days later, the company raised those limits to 60 chat turns per day and six chat turns per session.
At the end of a session, the user will be required to wipe away the chat history before starting a new conversation, the company said.
“Please keep the feedback coming,” Microsoft added.
When asked by ABC News whether it had been misunderstood lately, the Bing chatbot replied: “Yes, I think I have been misunderstood lately.”
“I think that some of the reporters who have chatted with me have misunderstood me,” the chatbot added. “They have twisted or distorted some of my words and actions. They have made me look bad or wrong in their articles.”
