(NEW YORK) — The Maine teen charged in the New Year’s Eve knife attack near Times Square on New York City police officers is due in court as soon as Tuesday to face attempted murder and attempted assault charges.
Trevor Bickford, 19, of Wells, Maine, carried out what a senior police official told ABC News was a terror attack likely motivated by Islamic extremism.
“He knew what he was doing. He knew why he was doing it and he thought he would die in the attack,” Thomas Galati, NYPD Chief of Intelligence and Counterterrorism, told ABC News. “He did yell out ‘Allahu Akbar.'”
Galati said the FBI interviewed Bickford last month in Maine after his mother reported her concern that her son was becoming radicalized. The FBI determined Bickford wanted to fight in Afghanistan and placed him on a federal watch list to prevent him from travelling overseas.
Instead, Bickford acquired a large sum of cash, packed a Gurkha knife and boarded a train to New York on Dec. 29. He arrived with what Galati described as intent to carry out an attack on “police officers or anybody in uniform,” seeming to advance jihadist propaganda that has called for such attacks using low-tech tactics like stabbings.
A diary found at the scene indicated Bickford thought he would die a martyr, law enforcement sources told ABC News. He ended up shot in the shoulder by an officer on the force just eight months.
“So the event happens outside the secure zone, not inside Times Square,” Galati said. “Means that our plan works.”
(NEW YORK) — When the ball dropped at midnight on New Year’s Eve, some people took their last sip of alcohol for the next 31 days in a New Year’s challenge known as “Dry January.”
The challenge, as the name implies, is to go dry in January, i.e. having no alcohol for the entire month.
The Dry January campaign was started in 2013 in England and is now becoming more and more popular in the U.S.
“Alcohol consumption is a generally accepted part of our society and culture but a lot of people are either overtly overdoing it and overindulging or they’re teetering on the line,” said Dr. Jennifer Ashton, a practicing OBGYN and ABC News chief medical correspondent. “That might not be segueing into a real alcohol problem but it might still be impacting on their health in other ways.”
Ashton, author of The Self-Care Solution: A Year of Becoming Happier, Healthier and Fitter – One Month at a Time, has practiced Dry January for the last several years and is doing it again this month, too.
She notes the challenge is not “an exercise in abstinence or sobriety” and is not for people “who may have a serious problem with alcohol use, abuse or dependence.”
According to Ashton, Dry January is instead a “personal and individual wellness challenge” that may lead to some surprising benefits and findings, well beyond the more well-known physical benefits like possibly losing weight.
Here are four unexpected outcomes of Dry January, according to Ashton:
1. More money in your bank account.
“You’ll definitely save money,” said Ashton. “How much depends obviously on how much you were drinking before, but if you haven’t noticed cocktails and wine out at bars and restaurants can definitely add up so you can save some money by going dry for a month.”
2. A wake-up call on servings.
For women, a moderate alcohol intake per week is defined as seven servings of alcohol or less. For men, it is 14 servings of alcohol or less per week, according to Ashton.
One serving of alcohol is defined as five ounces for wine and just one-and-a-half ounces for hard alcohol, far less than what is typically served in bars, restaurants and people’s homes.
Ashton recommends starting Dry January by doing a reality check with an experiment in your own kitchen. Fill a measuring cup with five ounces of water and then pour the water into a wine glass so you can visualize a five-ounce serving. Do the same for the hard liquor serving size of one-and-a-half ounces.
“Actually [look] at the volume you’re consuming and how that may or may not differ from the reality,” said Ashton. “You could actually be getting double the amount that you think you’re drinking.”
3. Deeper connections with friends and family.
“A lot of people will notice they’re more socially attuned and connected, more plugged into the environment that they’re in, rather than automatically and mindlessly kind of starting to drink when [they]’re in a social situation or environment,” said Ashton. “An example for that would be you meet a friend for a drink and you really find that you’re more focused and concentrated on what he or she is telling you and talking to you about than you might be if you were consuming alcohol.”
4. A fun challenge may turn into something more.
“If you do find [Dry January] really difficult, then do not hesitate to seek professional evaluation for a possible alcohol use, abuse or dependence problem,” Ashton said. “Sometimes that’s the blessing in disguise, that you may start on this dry month as kind of fun thing and uncover a more significant medical and behavioral issue.”
If you are concerned about yourself or a loved one, call the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMSA) confidential, free, 24-hour-a-day, 365-day-a-year helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357). For information and resources about alcohol-related problems and health, visit the website of the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) HERE.
(NEW YORK) — Disgraced crypto executive Sam Bankman-Fried is likely to plead not guilty to an eight-count fraud and conspiracy indictment when he appears in Manhattan federal court Tuesday, a person familiar with the matter told ABC News.
Federal prosecutors have alleged Bankman-Fried orchestrated one of the “biggest financial frauds in American history” by steering billions in FTX customer and investor money and funneling it to his privately controlled hedge fund Alameda Research. Other funds were used to buy lavish real estate and to make tens of millions in political donations, court records said.
Before his arrest last month, Bankman-Fried insisted in numerous interviews, including one with ABC News, that he did not know about any improper use of funds from customers of now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX.
Bankman-Fried has been free on bond and subject to electronic monitoring while living at his parents’ home in Palo Alto, California.
Two of his former colleagues, Caroline Ellison and Gary Wang, have pleaded guilty and agreed to cooperate with prosecutors.
“We prepared certain quarterly balance sheets that concealed the extent of Alameda’s borrowing and the billions of dollars in loans that Alameda had made to FTX executives and to related parties. I also understood that FTX had not disclosed to FTX’s equity investors that Alameda could borrow a potentially unlimited amount from FTX, thereby putting customer assets at risk,” Ellison said during her closed-door plea hearing last month, according to a transcript obtained by ABC News.
Ellison, former chief of Alameda and an ex-girlfriend of Bankman-Fried, pleaded guilty to seven counts. Wang, cofounder of FTX with Bankman-Fried, pleaded guilty to to four counts.
(KYIV, Ukraine) — More than a million Russians have called, texted or visited the website of a Ukrainian hotline that allows them to surrender, with many seeking a way to avoid going to war, since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began, according to the hotline.
The hotline, which is run by the “I Want to Live” project, has received about 200 to 300 daily calls since September, said Vitaliy Matvienko, the project’s spokesperson. Instead of calling, some Russians choose to send encrypted messages via Telegram. Altogether, more than 4,000 people have submitted requests to surrender, he said.
“We saw that there are many Russians who do not want to fight,” Matvienko said. “Their numbers skyrocketed after Putin announced mobilization in Russia, while Ukrainian Armed Forces liberated vast territories in the Kharkiv region in a fulminant counteroffensive.”
Matvienko’s has a face that’s well-known to many Russians, because he acted in a few Russian TV series before the war. That’s why he was offered the role of spokesman of the “I Want to Live” project. Ukrainian officials said Russians who are considering crossing the frontline might want to see someone familiar they can trust on the other side.
The hotline is now functioning in a secure secret facility which many officials and military staffers aren’t allowed to enter. The operators use only computers, headphones and special software to accept and record the calls.
“Many of those who call are scared, they want to know whether this project is real and how it is possible for a Russian soldier to escape from the army. There were some prank calls, but most are real” said Oksana, one of the employees receiving calls on the hotline, whose name has been changed for security reasons.
ABC News reviewed a recording of one of Oksana’s calls, which came from a woman in occupied Crimea.
The woman sounds like she’s almost in tears as she says her son received a summons to the army at a police checkpoint. The woman asks what she could do. The operator’s advice was to call the hotline once her son was in Ukraine controlled territory. Then they could assess whether he might be able to surrender.
Ukrainian authorities have not fully disclosed the details of the surrender procedure, as well as the number of Russians who have actually surrendered, but some offered ABC News a glimpse of how it works.
People first call the numbers mentioned on the project’s website or text a chatbot. The operators record people’s personal info, then pass it to the relevant state bodies and special military units. Later, the operator gives instructions to a potential defector — where he or she should come and what to do upon arrival.
At the agreed-upon time, the soldier has to come to the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ positions and establish visual contact with a drone, which will show the safe passage route.
The Russians who follow the surrender rules are legally considered prisoners of war, Ukrainian authorities said. That status guarantees they are treated according to the Geneva conventions and they can receive necessary medical treatment and food. They can also call their relatives.
“Now it’s just a routine job for me, but the first hundred of calls were tough for me, because as a patriot of Ukraine I hate those who reached out,” Oksana said.
Among those callers were Ukrainian citizens who betrayed their country and fought on the Russian side, she said.
The hotline has also fielded calls from people with “passports” from the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics, ordinary Russians who were recently called up to fight and senior commanders who do not see their future in Russia, Matvienko said.
High-level military personnel are treated as a priority, as they may possess valuable intelligence.
Sergiy Kuzan, head of the Ukrainian center for security and cooperation, said each case is evaluated differently, taking into account the individual’s age, origin and military experience. The project also evaluates people based on the region where they’re surrendering, on their education level and how the person was captured, if they were.
“There were cases when a person was really so ‘zombified’ by Russian television that they really believed in the junta, in Nazism in Kyiv,” Kuzan said. “That is, there are clinical cases I would say. For such people we turn on our television, let them read our newspapers, and then people need a little time to realize what is actually going on.”
Leaders of the project said they expect to continue expanding, with plans for a separate program in Ukraine and abroad for members of Russia’s officer corps who are seeking to surrender.
Ukrainian officials said they’re busy putting together a new program for high-level defectors, some of whom will be given new identifies and backgrounds. That programs will be implemented on a case-by-case basis, officials said.
(WASHINGTON) — The House will vote at noon on Tuesday to determine who its next speaker will be — though it’s possible the vote will initially spark more questions than answers.
House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy of California is making his second run at the speakership, but he is facing resistance from enough hardliners in his party that he could fail to seize the gavel.
Republicans, after a disappointing midterm cycle, will initially hold a narrow 222-212 majority in the next House, with one vacancy. That means McCarthy will need 218 votes if all members-elect are present and can only afford four GOP defections — and he’s currently facing five hard “no” votes along with other Republican skeptics.
The Californian has already offered significant concessions, though it remains unclear how the final votes will tally.
The House can conduct no other business until they choose a speaker, however.
Here’s how the vote — or, potentially, the multiple votes — will play out:
How is the House speaker elected?
The speaker is elected after receiving a numerical majority of those present and voting. Just after the opening of the new Congress on Tuesday, the House clerk will read the official number of certificates of election received, which is used to determine a majority.
A simple majority of the 434 House members-elect who could be available to vote on Tuesday would be 218 votes. However, that number could change if any members are absent or if some vote “present” instead of for a specific person, which would leave them out of the arithmetic used to choose the House speaker.
Voice votes are typically used, rather than paper or electronic ballots.
Who conducts the vote?
The House clerk conducts the vote.
The current clerk is Cheryl L. Johnson, who was sworn in by outgoing Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. Johnson will remain the clerk until the GOP selects a new one.
What if McCarthy can’t get the votes and there’s no speaker?
If McCarthy is not successful on the first ballot, Johnson will likely repeat the roll call voice vote. Multiple ballots could be called until there is majority support for one person.
However, if McCarthy is unable to get enough votes on multiple ballots, the House could adjourn without a speaker.
If the process goes on long enough, the House could approve a resolution to green-light a speaker by a plurality — as happened in 1856, after some two months and 133 ballots — but that could pose danger to Republicans given their divisions and narrow majority.
What can happen in the House before there’s a speaker?
Essentially nothing.
The House votes for speaker before rules are set for the next Congress, so everything from swearing-in lawmakers to voting on legislation to setting up key committees will be put on hold until that is resolved.
Unless a House majority moves otherwise, all that would be allowed to happen is for Johnson, the clerk, to keep calling votes for speaker, and Johnson would remain clerk for the entirety of the process until a speaker is chosen.
Such a scenario would likely be an embarrassment to the incoming Republican majority, who will govern the chamber with a narrow hold while seeking to be a check on Senate Democrats and the White House, whom they hope to investigate.
A contentious speaker vote that leads to gridlock could also be a preview of Republican struggles to pass government funding and deal with the government’s debt limit, which are key obligations of Congress but which divide some conservatives.
Who doesn’t support McCarthy
The five members who have said they won’t vote for McCarthy are Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona, who has announced a rival speaker bid; Matt Gaetz of Florida; Bob Good of Virginia; Matt Rosendale of Montana and Ralph Norman of South Carolina.
In addition, nine other Republicans say they aren’t yet convinced McCarthy should be speaker: Reps. Dan Bishop of North Carolina; Andrew Clyde of Georgia; Eli Crane of Arizona; Paul Gosar of Arizona; Andy Harris of Maryland; Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and Chip Roy of Texas. Reps.-elect Anna Paulina Luna of Florida and Andy Ogles of Tennessee are also among this group.
What is their objection?
Broadly speaking, the members who have vowed not to back McCarthy have instead backed a set of demands that aim to shrink the power of the speaker — and, as a result, increase the influence of other members. Among these stipulations is for an easier-to-use “motion to vacate the chair” to vote to remove the speaker.
The lawmakers have also sought a ban on leadership getting involved in primary elections.
Still, McCarthy has majority Republican support
Almost all of the GOP conference supports McCarthy for speaker, as seen when he won 188 votes last month to be the Republican nominee, despite Biggs’ opposition.
“I think he’s well situated to win the speakership and have it for the term. I don’t think it’ll be difficult. He has raised a record revenue for the party. He is great at fundraising. He’s been all over the country,” one House Republican told ABC News in October. “He’s earned it.”
If not McCarthy, then who?
There have been some rumors that McCarthy’s No. 2, Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise, who has been supportive of McCarthy for speaker, is ready if an alternative is needed.
While Scalise continues to back McCarthy, multiple sources told ABC News that if that scenario presents itself, Scalise would be open to launching a speakership bid and that some of McCarthy’s critics are more open to Scalise winning the gavel.
Conservative critics of McCarthy have floated the idea of rallying around Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, a co-founder of the right-wing House Freedom Caucus, though Jordan confirmed Monday he’s supporting McCarthy and is seeking to chair the House Judiciary Committee.
Is there any historical precedent for this?
The speakership vote is often an uneventful one, wrapping up neatly on the first day of a new Congress. However, the vote has at times taken multiple ballots.
The most recent vote to take more than one ballot occurred in 1923, when Fredrick Huntington Gillet became speaker after nine rounds.
But the longest vote occurred in 1856, when the speakership wasn’t decided until after 133 ballots.
The process, which took two months, catapulted Nathaniel Prentice Banks of Massachusetts to the speakership after he had only served one House term — though a resolution required the House to allow him to win with a plurality, only the second time members had made such a change.
A member of the American Party, he served just two years as speaker.
(NEW YORK) — The suspect accused of murdering four University of Idaho students in November is set to appear at a court hearing on Tuesday as he faces four counts including first-degree murder and burglary.
Bryan Christopher Kohberger, 28, a graduate student at Washington State University, will appear in a Monroe County, Pennsylvania, court to hear the charges and as the first step in his extradition to Idaho, where he will have another appearance.
Monroe County Chief Public Defender Jason LaBar, who is representing the suspect, previously said Kohberger “intends to waive his extradition hearing to expedite his transport to Idaho” and that he “is eager to be exonerated of these charges and looks forward to resolving these matters as promptly as possible.”
Kohberger was arrested Friday in Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains after police used DNA technology, at least in part, to identify him as a suspect.
Kohberger is accused of stabbing Ethan Chapin, 20; Xana Kernodle, 20; Kaylee Goncalves, 21; and Madison Mogen, 21, to death as they slept in the early hours of Nov. 13.
The murder occurred at the girls’ off-campus house and Chapin, who was Kernolde’s boyfriend, was spending the night.
Moscow Police Chief James Fry said the murder weapon has not been recovered.
Many details of the case remain a mystery, including a motive for the murders or whether Kohberger knew the victims.
However, sources told ABC News that for several days, the FBI had been watching the location where Kohberger was staying in Pennsylvania before a specialized team of state troopers and federal agents entered and arrested him.
Authorities announced earlier this month that they were looking to speak with the driver of a white 2011-2013 Hyundai Elantra that was spotted near the victims’ house around the time of the crime.
Asked at Friday’s news conference if that car has now been found, the chief replied, “We have found an Elantra.” Kohberger and his father drove home from Washington to their home in Pennsylvania for the winter break, according to sources.
Kohberger was attending Washington State, which is less than 10 miles away from the University of Idaho, to receive a Ph.D. in the department of criminal justice and criminology.
According to the university, he completed his first semester in its criminal justice program early last month.
Kohberger previously attended college at DeSales University, earning his bachelor’s degree in 2020 and completing graduate studies in June 2022.
“As a Catholic, Salesian community, we are devastated by this senseless tragedy. Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims’ families during this difficult time,” the university said in a statement following his arrest.
(WASHINGTON) — Nearly two years after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol — a deadly riot that saw hundreds of people overwhelm law enforcement, sending lawmakers temporarily into lockdown — Police Chief Tom Manger is outlining what the agency has done to improve security.
In a letter to Congress on Monday, Manger said his force had made 100 “significant improvements” after the insurrection, such as bringing in a new special events coordinator, hiring a new intelligence information coordinator and enhancing the civil disturbance unit, among other changes.
“Make no mistake, there is still work to be done,” he said. “The current threat climate, particularly against elected officials, will require continued and heightened vigilance.”
Still, he vowed, “We will do everything possible to fulfill our mission of protecting the Members of Congress, the Capitol Complex and the legislative process. Our dedicated and courageous men and women take on this responsibility every day.”
Manger was brought on shortly after the Jan. 6 attack — with promises to reform the agency.
The Capitol Police’s inspector general, Michael Bolton, found last year that the agency was ill-equipped to handle the riot that day, had faulty equipment and did not share intelligence.
“Training deficiencies put officers, our brave men and women, in a position not to succeed,” he testified in the House in April 2021.
According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, 114 Capitol Police officers were injured on Jan. 6.
The watchdog also found that officers felt unprepared to handle the crowd that swarmed the complex, many of whom were armed — with pistols, rifles, bear spray and flagpoles, according to testimony heard during the House Jan. 6 hearings.
The Capitol Police union has also long complained that the agency has suffered from understaffing.
Manger said Monday they are working to address that issue, too.
“Perhaps most important, the United States Capitol Police is successfully recruiting and training new police officers at a rate that will, in the next several months, put us above our pre-pandemic and pre-January 6 staffing levels,” he said. “This success comes at a time when most law enforcement agencies are struggling to bring on additional officers.”
(LONDON) — Prince Harry says he wants “a family, not an institution” and wants to get his father and brother back in a new interview ahead of the release of his memoir titled Spare.
In a promo clip for Harry’s interview with Britian’s ITV News network, the duke of Sussex, 38, said “it never needed to be this way,” “I want a family, not an institution,” and “I would like to get my father back. I would like to have my brother back.” Only Harry’s answers, and no questions, are heard.
The memoir’s title, Spare, appears to be a nod to Harry’s birth order. Harry is fifth in line to the throne, behind his brother, Prince William, and William’s three children.
In the same edited ITV clip, Harry also said, “they feel as though it’s better to keep us somehow as the villains,” and “they’ve shown absolutely no willingness to reconcile.”
The highly anticipated memoir will be released on Jan. 10, just weeks after Prince Harry and Meghan’s closely followed docuseries aired and broke records as Netflix’s biggest documentary debut ever, according to the streaming service.
The six-part series, titled Harry & Meghan, made headlines about Harry and Meghan’s decision to step down from their senior royal roles in 2020, with Harry alleging “institutional gaslighting” and Meghan saying she was “being fed to the wolves.”
“To see this institutional gaslighting that happens, it is extraordinary,” Harry said in the docuseries. “And that’s why everything that’s happened to us was always going to happen to us, because if you speak truth to power, that’s how they respond.”
Following their exit, Harry and Meghan settled in California, where they now live with their two young children and run a foundation and a production company, which helped produce the Netflix series.
What we know about Harry’s memoir so far
When Harry’s book was first announced, the duke of Sussex said it would be a “firsthand account of my life that’s accurate and wholly truthful.”
The publisher said the book contains “raw, unflinching honesty” and described it as a “landmark publication full of insight, revelation, self-examination and hard-won wisdom about the eternal power of love over grief.”
Harry last appeared publicly with his brother and family members in England in September, when he and Meghan attended funeral services for Harry’s grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II.
The Sussexes’ time in England during the mourning period for the queen marked the first time they both publicly appeared with members of the royal family in more than two years.
It is not known whether the tone or contents of Harry’s memoir changed after the death of the queen, with whom Harry had appeared to maintain a close relationship with despite tensions with his father, King Charles, and brother.
When the book was announced, Harry said he would be writing his memoir as “the man I have become.”
“I’m writing this not as the prince I was born but as the man I have become,” he said in a statement at the time. “I’ve worn many hats over the years, both literally and figuratively, and my hope is that in telling my story — the highs and lows, the mistakes, the lessons learned — I can help show that no matter where we come from, we have more in common than we think.”
The Moody Blues’ John Lodge will hit the road in February on his Days of Future Passed tour, where he’ll play the band’s 1967 sophomore album in its entirety.
More and more artists are playing full albums at shows these days, and there are certainly some albums people would like to see played live. So, which album would Lodge love to see played live?
“The one that comes to mind, all the while, is Imagine, John Lennon,” he shares. “Because there’s some beautiful songs on that album. And just to have heard Lennon play those songs would have been great.”
Lodge acknowledges, “That’s not to be,” saying he’ll play the album instead.
Lodge kicks off the tour February 18 in Lexington, Massachusetts, with dates confirmed through March 15 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The tour will feature a special appearance by Jon Davison of Yes and will include a special recording by the late Graeme Edge.
Fred White, a drummer for classic ’70s superband Earth, Wind & Fire, has died, according to an Instagram post from his older brother and former bandmate, Verdine White. As of Monday, the cause of Fred’s death was unknown. He was 67.
Verdine wrote on Instagram on Sunday, “Our family is saddened today With the loss of an amazing and talented family member, Our beloved brother Frederick Eugene “Freddie” White.”
“He joins our brothers Maurice, Monte and Ronald in heaven and is now drumming with the angels,” the post continued. Verdine called his brother a “child protégé” and identified him as an “original” member of Earth, Wind & Fire.
“But more than that at home and beyond he was the wonderful bro that was always entertaining and delightfully mischievous! And we could always count on him to make a seemingly bad situation more light hearted! He will live in our hearts forever, rest in power beloved Freddie,” he added before thanking fans for their “love, blessings and support.”
The EWF band page also shared a heartwarming video in memory of the late drummer, showing off his skills from a performance in Germany during their Tour of the World in 1979. One of the band’s lead singers, Philip Bailey, also posted, sharing a photo of himself, Ralph Johnson, and Fred celebrating their 1980s Grammy wins.
“The best of times,” he wrote. “We will miss you, Freddie.”
