(LOS ANGELES) — Rachel Castillo, a mother of two, disappeared last week under suspicious circumstances from her home in Simi Valley, California, leaving behind “a significant amount of blood” at the scene, according to local police.
Simi Valley Police believe Castillo is in danger, and the family is desperately seeking answers.
“Upon further investigation, a significant amount of blood was located in her home. Rachel’s whereabouts are unknown. Given the circumstances, it is believed Rachel is at risk,” the Simi Valley Police Department said in a statement.
Castillo, 25, has two children and lives with her sister just miles away from their parents, her family told ABC affiliate KABC.
She had dropped off her children to their father Thursday morning, before she disappeared, her family told KABC.
“As soon as I saw the blood, that’s when I realized something wasn’t right,” Emily Castillo, her sister, told the local station. She had returned home Thursday night. “So I called my mom to let her know to come over and then I immediately called 911.”
Many of her belongings – including phone, keys and car – were still at the home, her family said.
Detectives said Castillo is 5 feet 2 inches tall, and weighs 105 pounds. She has brown hair and eyes.
Anyone with information regarding her whereabouts can contact the Simi Valley Police Department at (805) 583-6950.
(DALLAS) — A collision occurred at a World War II airshow in Dallas on Saturday, authorities said.
The crash occurred at the event Wings Over Dallas at the Dallas Executive Airport, which was holding flying demonstrations of WWII fighter planes.
A Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress and a Bell P-63 Kingcobra collided and crashed around 1:20 p.m. local time, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. It is unclear how many people were on board the bomber and fighter aircraft, it said.
The airport said there was an “incident” during the show and that Dallas Fire and Rescue is responding.
Bystanders captured a cloud of black smoke following the crash. Debris from the planes could also be seen littering a nearby highway.
The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the collision.
The airshow, timed to coincide with Veteran’s Day, is organized by the Commemorative Air Force, an education association focused on American military aviation.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott called the incident a “tragedy” while updating on Twitter that state agencies were assisting local officials in the response.
ABC News’ Amanda Maile contributed to this report.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(KYIV, Ukraine) — Freedom of speech in Ukraine has not faded away and has survived the ongoing Russian aggression against the country, Ukrainian officials said.
“We live in times when the main news is coming from the frontlines,” Oleksandr Tkachenko, the Ukrainian Minister of Culture and Information Policy, told a crowd at a recent conference on media freedom in Kyiv.
Government officials have put some limitations on media freedoms, including restrictions on reporting on the military, but media experts said those limitations shouldn’t be transformed into restrictions on political reporting, according to a group of Ukrainian government, parliament, media and NGO members who gathered for a “National Media Talk” conference.
Andriy Kulykov, who chairs the Commission on Journalistic Ethics, said he wanted to dispel some of the lingering doubts about restrictions, pointing out that the Ukrainian society, with two recent revolutions behind its back, is learning and will not let political censorship take over.
The media audience in Ukraine still has a variety of information sources to choose from — unlike on the territories currently occupied by Russia, the experts said.
“This is not a limitation on the freedom of speech — let’s call it forced moderation during the war,” Oleksii Reznikov, Ukraine’s defense minister, said.
The function of journalism in Ukraine has changed since the beginning of the war, Reznikov added, as journalism today could serve as just another weapon. And Ukraine is struggling with propagandists from the Russian side. He highlighted the role of journalism in uncovering counter-propaganda and fake news, he said.
Reznikov also explained the rationale behind information silence or control in Ukraine — most evident on social media — saying Russian army reports to the Kremlin facts from the frontline roughly two and a half days after the given event. It is vital to make sure that the Russians will not be provided with valuable information in that time frame, before the Ukrainian army is ready to make its next move, Reznikov said.
Despite the maintained levels of information control, Reznikov said he does not “foresee any danger of information dictatorship in Ukraine.”
Journalists in Ukraine are fighting “on their battlefield,” the Ukrainian defense minister told ABC News.
But the lines have been further blurred for some journalists who’ve enlisted in the military, according to Lesya Ganzha and Maksym Skubenko, former media representatives currently fighting in the Ukrainian army.
Another former journalist who joined the fighting, Artem Kolosov, said, “It is anger that I feel.”
Denys Bihus, a former investigative reporter and editor, said, “The simplicity of war means that complicated questions you easily solve by a 120-mm mortar.” Bihus said he believes that currently enlisted journalists will come back from the war more angry and more radicalized, which may change the media landscape in coming years.
Yet according to Mykyta Poturayev, a lawmaker leading the charge in adopting a new law on media development, free media after the war will not only be about freedom, but also about responsibility.
“All this talk about online anarchy somewhere else in the world is over. These times are gone,” he said. “Now, everybody understands the danger of that poison that is poured through the online space and out of Moscow on all democratic and civilized countries.”
(ATLANTA) — A passenger on a Frontier Airlines flight who allegedly boarded the plane with two box cutters and was seen acting erratically was taken into custody after an emergency landing Friday night, according to the airline and the Transportation Security Administration.
Several passengers on the flight, including military veterans and a former law enforcement officer, helped crew members subdue the man after they landed, according to eyewitnesses.
The flight was en route to Tampa from the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport when it was diverted to Atlanta “after a passenger on board the aircraft was observed in possession of a box cutter,” Frontier said in a statement.
TSA said in a statement on Saturday that the plane was diverted around 9:30 p.m. “after a disturbance involving a disruptive passenger, in possession of a box cutter was declared.” Following a search, a second box cutter was found in the unidentified passenger’s carry-on, according to TSA.
Atlanta police assisted federal partners in detaining the suspect, Atlanta Police Department spokesperson Officer John Predmore said. Predmore directed further questions to the FBI, which is leading the investigation.
The FBI declined to comment and instead referred ABC News to the TSA statement.
No injuries to passengers or crew have been reported, the airline said. The Federal Aviation Administration, which is also investigating, said the plane landed safely “after the crew declared an emergency due to an unruly passenger.”
Before the emergency landing, multiple passengers noticed the man acting erratically, eyewitnesses said.
Passenger Ben Mutz told ABC News he spoke to the person who was in the window seat next to the man after they deplaned. The passenger told Mutz that the man “flashed a box knife at me and said, ‘I want to kill or I want to stab people,'” Mutz said.
Larry Cumberbatch was seated in the third row, flying from Cincinnati to Tampa to visit his son for his birthday. He told ABC News that a woman who was initially sitting in an aisle seat next to the man reported seeing “some kind of knife” and was afraid for her safety.
Flight attendants asked if anyone had any military or police background and would switch seats or go to the back of the plane, he said. Cumberbatch, a Navy veteran, volunteered to switch seats with the woman, he said.
At the back of the plane, Cumberbatch found the man leaning against the window-seat passenger with his feet up in the aisle seat, before getting up to go to the bathroom.
When the man exited the bathroom, he confronted Cumberbatch in the aisle, in what Cumberbatch described as a “showdown.”
“People back there, you could literally see they’re afraid. So that’s why I stood there, to give them a calming presence and let this guy know there’s somebody watching, someone who you will have to deal with if you take it to the next level,” Cumberbatch said.
Cumberbatch said a former law enforcement member talked to the man during the landing to calm him down.
Once the plane touched down, passengers were told to leave without taking any of their belongings, according to Mutz. He said he and others were unaware they had made an emergency landing until they turned on their phones and realized they were in Atlanta.
Cumberbatch and an Army veteran remained on the plane while the former officer helped escort the man down the aisle, he said. When police officers arrived, the man “got agitated” and the former officer gave him a warning before tackling him, Cumberbatch said.
“In my mind, he was really the hero right at that moment,” Cumberbatch said.
The man was then taken into custody by police, according to Cumberbatch, who said he spoke to FBI agents following the incident.
Cumberbatch said he “wasn’t surprised” that veterans responded in the moment.
“We’re going to take control of any situation that we’re in,” he said.
The passengers on the flight were provided hotel accommodations and rebooked on a new flight to Tampa on Saturday morning.
Box cutters are banned in the cabin, but allowed in checked luggage.
TSA said it is conducting an internal review of the incident and will examine surveillance footage and “airport security checkpoint processes/operations.”
(NEW YORK) — Sen. Mark Kelly is projected to win reelection, ABC News reports, securing a full six-year term to the Senate after pitching himself as an independent-minded candidate with bipartisan success. Kelly cast his opponent, Republican Blake Masters who was backed by former President Donald Trump, as too extreme for Arizona.
With Kelly’s win, Democrats are closer to maintaining their slim majority in the Senate, and Arizona keeps its purple hue.
“Thank you to the people of Arizona for re-electing me to the United States Senate,” Kelly said in a release Friday, after a large drop of votes from Maricopa County in his favor. “From day one, this campaign has been about the many Arizonans – Democrats, Independents, and Republicans – who believe in working together to tackle the significant challenges we face. That’s exactly what I’ve done in my first two years in office and what I will continue to do for as long as I’m there.”
“It’s been one of the great honors of my life to serve as Arizona’s Senator,” he said. “I’m humbled by the trust our state has placed in me to continue this work.”
Kelly, a former NASA astronaut and Navy combat pilot, who is married to former Rep. Gabby Giffords, ran a well-funded campaign with nearly $80 million fundraised to Masters’ $12 million. In a tranche of TV ads, the junior senator told Arizonans he’s focused on job creation, protecting abortion rights, and securing the southern border, supporting barriers on the southern border “when appropriate.” He said he stands up to President Joe Biden and Democrats “when they’re wrong.”
“I stand up for Arizona,” Kelly told ABC News on the stump. “When they’re making what I think is a poor decision, I tell them, and in some cases, I drop legislation to prevent them from doing the thing that is the mistake.”
He ran on legislative victories in the Senate, including the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the CHIPS Act, and explained measures in the Inflation Reduction Act that would help Arizonans such as drought relief measures and capped prescription drugs costs for seniors.
Masters, a 36-year-old venture capitalist from Tucson backed by Trump and tech billionaire Peter Thiel, went after Kelly on loyalty to Biden, record-high border crossings, fentanyl deaths and inflation. With Trump’s endorsement in June, he had beat out five other Republican candidates in the August primary, but after swinging far-right to stand out in the bunch, Masters faced criticism for an apparent pivot, including changing his website to soften stances on key issues.
Kelly often used Masters’ words from the primary trail against him, arguing he would support a federal abortion ban, privatizing social security, and spread baseless doubts about American elections since he has alleged, without evidence, that the 2020 presidential race was corrupt.
“I think Trump won in 2020,” Masters said in a campaign ad last year. He changed that stance publicly during the Arizona Senate debate to say he hadn’t seen widespread voter fraud but believes “Trump would be in the White House today if big tech and big media and the FBI didn’t work together to put the thumb on the scale to get Joe Biden in there.”
Kelly warned, on the same debate stage, that the “wheels” could “come off our democracy” if candidates like Masters, who continue questioning the integrity of American elections, rose to power.
Kelly also argued that Masters would be beholden to Trump, who Arizonans notably rejected in 2020, though by his slimmest of losing margins. In the final days of Kelly’s campaign, he added into his stump speech a mention of a phone call Trump made to Masters after their Senate debate, when Trump told him he should’ve gone harder on the “rigged” election conspiracy theory. The scene aired in Tucker Carlson’s documentary’s “The Candidate: Blake Masters.”
Masters told supporters Thursday that he would “come back and win,” but seemed disappointed with vote drops as early as Election Night, seeing as he didn’t take the stage before supporters once.
Arizonans, ultimately, stuck with the incumbent.
“No matter how the rest of the results shake out, our government will remain closely divided with a lot more to do. That can feel daunting. But that’s democracy,” Kelly said Tuesday at a watch party in Tucson. “The way to solve these problems isn’t by pointing fingers and dividing people. It’s by listening and finding common ground.”
Kelly was first elected to the Senate in a special election in 2020, flipping the late Republican Sen. John McCain’s seat, and giving Democrats control of both of Arizona’s Senate seats for the first time in nearly 70 years.
“There is not a day that goes by that I don’t think about the fact that I am sitting in the former Senator John McCain’s Senate seat,” Kelly said Monday at a campaign event with Republicans. “Senator McCain’s legacy is one that we should all strive to live up to — because Arizona deserves nothing less than a leader committed to always putting country first.”
It’s a message of unity that clearly resonated with Arizona’s electorate, who also pride themselves on being willing to split a ticket. And it’s another blow to Trump’s ticket.
An outstanding race in Nevada and runoff in Georgia will now determine the balance of power in the Senate.
Following Takeoff’s public memorial on Friday, Cardi B posted an emotional tribute to the slain Migos rapper.
“Takeoff your untimely passing has brought a great deal of pain and sorrow to so many lives,” she wrote on Instagram alongside a series of photos of Takeoff, the cousin of her husband Offset. “The impact you had in this world was so considerable and we have struggled to grasp this tragedy.”
“This has truly been a nightmare and the pain is incomparable,” she continued. “The emptiness your brothers are feeling is unbearable and I pray that you give Offset ,Quavo, and your friends and family the strength to keep going as they are trying to cope with this loss.”
She went on to say that it hurts her to look at pictures and videos of Migos together and hear their songs.
“It hurts because I know it will never be the same again—but I know your bros and y’all fans will make sure the world never forgets the impact you made,” she wrote.
Cardi ended with saying she will miss Takeoff and she hopes he is at peace. “Rest in power TakeOff,” she concluded. “I will also love you 4L & after.”
Takeoff was shot and killed in Houston on November 1 at age 28.
Slash, Paul McCartney, Queen‘s Brian May, Rush‘s Alex Lifeson, The Rolling Stones‘ Keith Richards and Ron Wood,and Halestorm’s Lzzy Hale are just some of the artists who are helping raise money for the Ukraine war relief effort this weekend.
Gibson created several limited-edition “Guitars for Peace” Les Paul custom guitars in the blue and yellow colors of the Ukrainian flag. They sent those guitars on tour with the various artists this summer, along with autograph books.
Through November 13, the guitars and the autograph books — which were also signed by artists and bands like Mark Knopfler, My Chemical Romance, Nile Rodgers and Madness — are being auctioned off by Juliens Auctions. Visit JuliensAuctions.com and navigate to their Icons & Idols: Rock ‘N’ Roll auction page for all the details.
Bidding on one of the guitars played onstage by Slash was up to $12,600 the last time we checked, while one played onstage by McCartney is at $22,500. One that’s signed by several of the artists — including Richards, Wood and May — comes with an autograph book with all the artists’ signatures. Bidding on that one is up to $9,000. Don’t want a guitar? You can bid on just an autograph book starting as low as $500.
One hundred percent of the money raised from the auction will go toward humanitarian aid for the people of Ukraine and the rebuilding efforts once the conflict ends.
“I’m happy to auction this beautiful guitar of mine to benefit the fine people of Ukraine,” says McCartney in a statement. “Hopefully it will help them through this aggressive Russian invasion.”
While the anticipated sequel only officially opened Friday, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever has already made nearly $60 million worldwide.
Ryan Coogler‘s Marvel Studios film opened on Wednesday and Thursday in a handful of overseas markets; foreign ticket sales, plus $31 million from Thursday sneak peeks Stateside, have pushed the movie’s take to $59.9 million as the movie heads into its debut weekend, Deadline reports.
The original Black Panther debuted to $192 million back in 2018 — the fifth-highest-grossing opening ever.
It remains to be seen if Wakanda Forever can top this year’s biggest debut, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which earned $182 million when it opened in May.
Marvel Studios is owned by Disney, the parent company of ABC News.
(NEW YORK) — A Michigan pediatric hospital is reporting it is completely full due to a surge of cases linked to respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV.
C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor — which is about 44 miles west of Detroit — said it has seen 259 children sick with RSV this season, a 46% spike from the same number seen this time last year.
Hospital officials said they are worried that this surge — coupled with an earlier flu season and a potential new COVID-19 wave — could put more stress on the health care system.
“We have been 100% full, I think we’re going on our sixth week, and RSV seems to have emerged earlier this year and in higher numbers this year,” Luanne Thomas Ewald, chief operating officer at Mott Children’s Hospital, told ABC News. “And the fact that we’re already full is concerning to us because we’re just starting to see flu in our emergency room.”
She continued, “Some reports have told us that we will also see an increase in COVID in kids during this flu season. So we haven’t really even seen the full impacts of the flu and COVID — and we’re already at capacity.”
The situation in Michigan is just the latest example of some hospitals across the country reporting they have reached capacity due to a high number of RSV cases.
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, weekly RSV cases nationwide have risen from 5,872 the week ending Oct. 1 to 8,597 the week ending Nov. 5.
In Michigan, the 5-week average of positive RSV tests has increased from 95.7 the week ending Oct. 1 to 257 the week ending Oct. 29, the latest date for which CDC data is available.
Because of this, officials say wait times in the emergency department at Mott Children’s Hospital are much longer than usual.
To ease the burden on emergency room staff, Ewald said she and other hospital officials are asking parents to call their children’s primary care physician first to determine whether they need such treatment.
“Most pediatricians can diagnose RSV and can treat RSV, and most kids recover really, really well with rest and hydration,” Ewald said. “We’re really trying to tell the community throughout the state of Michigan, please partner with your pediatrician. Let’s use our urgent cares as well and only come to the emergency room when absolutely necessary.”
Although it’s rare, between 100 and 500 pediatric deaths occur from RSV every year, according to the CDC. Deaths among children from RSV have already been reported in states including Michigan and Virginia.
Ewald said the hospital is working to increase capacity by treating children in rooms traditionally used to draw blood and in stretchers lined up in the hallway, and they’re doubling up stretchers in private rooms. The hospital is also looking at transferring patients to local medical centers.
“We are working very closely with our community hospitals. Some of our community hospitals do have some pediatric beds available,” Ewald said. “So we’re really trying to take a statewide approach to make sure we’re taking care of these kids in our state.”
She also encouraged parents to make sure their children are up to date on their flu and COVID-19 vaccines, practice good hand hygiene and to consider masking indoors.
(NEW YORK) — The Jewish community has been reeling from recent anti-Semitic comments made by Ye, formerly known as Kayne West, that have brought the rapper and designer into a storm of controversy.
Ye has been outspoken and controversial for decades. Yet his recent actions, including a string of anti-Semitic remarks and a stunt in which he showed up to a fashion show wearing a shirt that read “White Lives Matter,” have led to even his most devoted fans and collaborators, including designers Balenciaga and Adidas, taking a step back.
The rapper has also been spreading misinformation about the murder of George Floyd, leading the family to consider filing a lawsuit against the artist earlier this fall.
“Since this has happened, it’s been very, very tough for me,” Israel-based rapper Nissim Black told ABC News correspondent Ashan Singh.
The rapper, who is an orthodox Jewish Black man, spoke with Singh on the latest episode of “IMPACT x Nightline” about Ye’s downfall.
“It’s been very tough for me because he was one of my favorites, all-time,” said Black. “I felt very let-down.”
A number of activists within the Jewish community spoke in a roundtable discussion about the intersections of Jewish identity, Black identity and the impact of Ye’s inflammatory comments.
“I would say that I was a fan of Kanye West and I grew up on his music,” said Israeli-rights activist Rudy Rochman.
“I’m not wearing his shoes anymore and I’m not listening to his music,” said Rochman. “That is my personal choice. I think there’s a certain level where you have to decide how much respect you have for yourself.”
“I think it’s really important for us to call out hurtful, anti-Semitic rhetoric and then look at the individual as well,” said Yolanda Savage-Narva, assistant vice president of Racial Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion for the Union for Reform Judaism.
“We have to understand how these things manifest themselves,” she said, “and how as activists at this table, we do what we need to do to root them out and to move our communities, our collective communities, in the right direction.”
Kosha Dillz, a Jewish rapper known for his appearances on MTV’s Wild ‘n Out, released a diss track last month in response to Ye’s comments called “Death Con 3.”
“It was a big bummer,” Dillz told ABC News about the remarks. “Cause– I play Kanye. You know?” And now, he said, “he’s gone.”
According to the Anti-Defamation League, antisemitic incidents in the U.S. are at an all-time high, up 34% from 2020 to 2021 with more than 2,700 incidents happening last year.
“Did I ever hear him say racist things about people? Never,” Jason Lee, one of his former employees who quit this fall, told ABC News. Lee was the head of media and partnerships for Ye’s latest album.
But, Lee said, he noticed the rapper “didn’t have a regard for the impact of his words on social media because he was blinded with emotion from his divorce or for other things.”
Beth Kean, the CEO of the Holocaust Museum in Los Angeles, pointed out that “Kanye has over 30 million social media followers. That is twice as many Jews living on this Earth.”
“How can you use your platform to fuel hatred like that?” she said.
The Holocaust Museum extended an invitation for Ye to visit and to “understand just how words can incite horrific violence and genocides,” they wrote in a public statement. Ye declined the invitation publicly on a podcast.
Participants in the roundtable recounted the ongoing impact of the 2018 shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the deadliest antisemitic attack on U.S. soil.
“My brother and my niece and nephew live down the street from the Tree of Life Synagogue,” said arts and culture journalist Justin Joffe. “I remember in the aftermath of that shooting it felt very real to me.”
“To know at that age that a sector of the country hates you and doesn’t think you have a right to exist,” he said, referring to his young nieces, “is not something anybody in this country should have to grow up with.”
