(WASHINGTON) — In a new letter to President Joe Biden and CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, progressive members of Congress are calling for the CDC to “leverage every authority available to extend the eviction moratorium” after the House failed to take action Friday to extend the eviction ban set to expire Saturday at midnight.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., along with Reps. Cori Bush, D-Mo., Jimmy Gomez, D-Calif., Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., and Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., signed on to the letter, seen first by ABC News, urging the administration, which has said its hands are tied by a June Supreme Court ruling, to act.
In June, the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to allow the eviction ban to continue through the end of July but signaled in its ruling that it would block any further extensions unless there was “clear and specific congressional authorization.”
In a statement Thursday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden would have supported the CDC extending the ban, but “the Supreme Court has made clear that this option is no longer available,” and called on Congress to take action.
That led to criticism by some progressive members of Congress that the call to action for addressing a known problem came too late, just as Congress was about to recess.
House Democrats launched a last-minute effort to pass legislation that would keep the protections in place but failed to pass it before gaveling out of session for recess Friday evening.
In their letter Saturday, the lawmakers said they will continue to work legislatively to address the expiring moratorium, as well as to get billions in previously approved funding out to help renters and landlords — a process that has gotten off to a slow start.
“In the meantime, we are continuing to work diligently to push for legislative action and ensure that states and localities in our districts are disbursing the billions in critical emergency rental assistance to renters and property owners that Congress passed most recently as part of the American Rescue Plan,” the lawmakers write.
“Extending the eviction moratorium is a matter of life and death for the communities we represent. The eviction moratorium expires tonight at midnight. We implore you to act with the urgency this moment demands,” they add.
Bush, who previously struggled with homelessness, took her protest to Capitol Hill Friday night, sleeping on the steps of the Capitol after Congress failed to act.
“This is personal for me. I lived in a car! I lived out of a car with two babies and my partner. I know what that’s like. And I will not sit by and allow it to happen to other people because it happened to me. I won’t,” Bush told ABC News in an interview Saturday.
“I will show up and I will speak up, not only me — Congresswoman Ayanna Presley was out here with us last night. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar was out here with us last night. We are making sure that people know this is not OK and we won’t sit by,” she added.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren took to the Senate Floor Saturday to urge action as well, and later joined Bush outside the Capitol.
“Look, I agree that the eviction moratorium is not a long-term solution. But let me be very clear, it is the right, short-term action is how we keep families safely in their homes while states deliver emergency aid,” Warren said.
(WASHINGTON) — In a new letter to President Joe Biden and CDC Director Rochelle Walensky, progressive members of Congress are calling for the CDC to “leverage every authority available to extend the eviction moratorium” after the House failed to take action Friday to extend the eviction ban set to expire Saturday at midnight.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley, D-Mass., along with Reps. Cori Bush, D-Mo., Jimmy Gomez, D-Calif., Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., and Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., signed on to the letter, seen first by ABC News, urging the administration, which has said its hands are tied by a June Supreme Court ruling, to act.
In June, the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to allow the eviction ban to continue through the end of July but signaled in its ruling that it would block any further extensions unless there was “clear and specific congressional authorization.”
In a statement Thursday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Biden would have supported the CDC extending the ban, but “the Supreme Court has made clear that this option is no longer available,” and called on Congress to take action.
That led to criticism by some progressive members of Congress that the call to action for addressing a known problem came too late, just as Congress was about to recess.
House Democrats launched a last-minute effort to pass legislation that would keep the protections in place but failed to pass it before gaveling out of session for recess Friday evening.
In their letter Saturday, the lawmakers said they will continue to work legislatively to address the expiring moratorium, as well as to get billions in previously approved funding out to help renters and landlords — a process that has gotten off to a slow start.
“In the meantime, we are continuing to work diligently to push for legislative action and ensure that states and localities in our districts are disbursing the billions in critical emergency rental assistance to renters and property owners that Congress passed most recently as part of the American Rescue Plan,” the lawmakers write.
“Extending the eviction moratorium is a matter of life and death for the communities we represent. The eviction moratorium expires tonight at midnight. We implore you to act with the urgency this moment demands,” they add.
Bush, who previously struggled with homelessness, took her protest to Capitol Hill Friday night, sleeping on the steps of the Capitol after Congress failed to act.
“This is personal for me. I lived in a car! I lived out of a car with two babies and my partner. I know what that’s like. And I will not sit by and allow it to happen to other people because it happened to me. I won’t,” Bush told ABC News in an interview Saturday.
“I will show up and I will speak up, not only me — Congresswoman Ayanna Presley was out here with us last night. Congresswoman Ilhan Omar was out here with us last night. We are making sure that people know this is not OK and we won’t sit by,” she added.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren took to the Senate Floor Saturday to urge action as well, and later joined Bush outside the Capitol.
“Look, I agree that the eviction moratorium is not a long-term solution. But let me be very clear, it is the right, short-term action is how we keep families safely in their homes while states deliver emergency aid,” Warren said.
“This means that given all the impact the pandemic had on our way of life and on emissions, it couldn’t undo these deeply rooted disparities,” said Dr. Gaige Kerr, lead author of the study and a scientist in the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at George Washington University.
Overall, the pandemic took an uneven toll on minority communities, especially African Americans who had twice the risk of COVID-19 at the height of the pandemic, compared to white populations.
Although pollution levels decreased throughout urban areas during the pandemic, nitrogen dioxide levels were still elevated in primarily minority neighborhoods. The same finding held true when comparing income and educational attainment, though, it was not as significant as race and ethnicity.
“Exposure to air pollution has been linked to a number of health problems including asthma, heart disease, preterm birth and mortality,” said Dr. Stephanie Lovinsky-Desir, director of the Pediatric Pulmonary Division at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, as well as a volunteer medical spokesperson for the American Lung Association. Lovinsky-Desir was not a part of the research team.
The new pollution study analyzed various demographics of 15 urban cities throughout the United States including Los Angeles, Atlanta, Detroit and New York City.
Researchers analyzed levels of nitrogen dioxide, an air pollutant related to traffic and associated with health impacts, such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. For children and the elderly exposed to these emissions, their risk of developing these conditions increases.
“Neighborhoods near highways and dense urban corridors are the areas at the greatest risk of high levels of exposure and adverse health effects,” said Dr. Renee Crichlow, chief medical officer, Codman Square Health Center and vice-chair of health equity at Boston University Medical School.
And nitrogen dioxide has a “direct impact on the lungs,” said Crichlow, potentially causing “irritation and inflammation of the lining of the respiratory system.”
It’s not surprising minority communities are clustered in higher-pollution areas, Kerr says.
“When we look at the history of the U.S. in the 20th century going all the way back to the days of red-lining, a lot of the ways that our urban areas were constructed, where highway interstates are, which neighborhoods are located by certain industries, that is years and years of racism that’s again woven into the fabric of cities,” he said.
“It’s going to take a lot of policy efforts to rethink the way that our emissions are distributed throughout the city equally and try to undo years and decades’ worth of environmental injustices.”
Researchers are hoping for broader policies to help curb pollution disparities. But in the meantime, there are small things everyone can do to aid this nationwide issue.
Kerr suggests rerouting heavy-duty trucks out of certain city neighborhoods. Also: “Driving less, support greener public transportation options, such as electric buses and rails, and have tighter emissions control on both personal vehicles and industrial processes,” are other suggestions Crichlow proposed.
“Together we can actually make a difference in the health of our children and communities,” Crichlow said.
Alexis E. Carrington, M.D. is an ABC News Medical Unit Associate Producer and a rising dermatology resident at George Washington University.
(TOKYO) — Jamaica swept the women’s 100m at Tokyo 2020 — repeating a feat only the Caribbean island nation has accomplished in Olympic history.
Elaine Thompson-Herah defended her 2016 gold medal with an Olympic record and personal best of 10.61 seconds, and assumed the title of world’s fastest woman alive.
She bested the previous Olympic record of 10.62 seconds set by American Florence Griffith Joyner at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
“Just a lil girl from BANANA GROUND who liked to run,” Thompson-Herah tweeted after her victory. “Believe In your dreams work hard and have faith in God.”
Just a lil girl from BANANA GROUND who liked to run. Believe In your dreams work hard and have faith in God…ETH pic.twitter.com/UrR7UuGZGO
Thompson-Herah’s teammates joined her on the podium, with Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce taking silver with her time of 10.74 seconds and Shericka Jackson the bronze with 10.76 seconds.
With her latest medal, Fraser-Pryce became the first athlete to win four Olympic medals in the women’s 100m.
“Congrats to Elaine on successfully defending her title,” Fraser-Pryce said on Facebook. “Grateful to make the podium for a 4th final.”
The three sprinters are also competing in the 200m and are in the relay pool for the 4x100m relay, both next week.
After the 100m, retired Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, regarded as the fastest man on the planet, acknowledged the medal sweep, tweeting “1.2.3” with three Jamaican flags.
Notably absent from the race was Sha’Carri Richardson. The American sprinter was seen as a medal contender after winning the U.S. Olympic trials in June with a time of 10.86 seconds, until she was barred from competing in Tokyo after testing positive for marijuana following the event.
Jamaica last swept the women’s 100m at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
This is the second time during the Tokyo Games that a team swept an event, after Switzerland took home all three medals in the women’s cross-country mountain bike race earlier this week.
(ATLANTA) — A woman and her dog were brutally stabbed to death early Wednesday at Atlanta’s Piedmont Park in what police described as a “gruesome” scene.
Katherine Janness, 40, was found dead at the park around 1 a.m., along with her slain dog Bowie. Police said that Janness had been stabbed multiple times.
Janess’ parter of seven years Emma Clark said that Janness went to walk Bowie after dinner but never returned, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. When she didn’t come home, Clark tracked her phone’s location and went to the park, where she discovered her girlfriend dead.
The FBI confirmed with ABC News it is now joining the Atlanta Police Department’s investigation into her death, So far, no arrests have been made in the case.
Police have shared a surveillance image showing Janness crossing a street near the park before she was found dead.
On Thursday more than 100 people attended a vigil for Janness at the park, where her partner’s father described the killer as a “monster.”
“What they did to her is ridiculous. There is a monster on the loose in the city of Atlanta,” Joe Clark said according to ABC Atlanta affiliate WSB-TV.
“It’s a gruesome scene,” deputy police Chief Charles Hampton said to the outlet on the murder.
Police have since added five mounted patrol units to the park, a popular area for locals and dog walkers. Police have combed the area this week and divers went in and out of the lake for hours Wednesday searching for potential evidence.
A $10,000 reward is being offered for information that could help lead to an arrest.
If you can help, please call the Atlanta Police Homicide Unit or Crime Stoppers at 404-577-8477.
(TOKYO) — Female athletes are breaking with their sports’ apparel conventions — if not regulations — to prioritize their comfort during competitions, and making major statements in the process.
In Tokyo this week, members of the German women’s gymnastics team sported full-length bodysuits, as opposed to more ubiquitous — and revealing — leotards, while competing at the 2020 Olympics.
The team first debuted the unitards this past spring at the European Championships in Basel, Switzerland, in what the athletes said was a stand against the “sexualization of gymnastics.”
“It’s about what feels comfortable,” three-time Olympian Elisabeth Seitz said in a statement. “We wanted to show that every woman, everybody, should decide what to wear.”
While not an Olympic sport, the Norway women’s beach handball team took a similar stand when they wore shorts — instead of the requisite bikini bottoms — while competing at the Beach Handball EURO 2021 in Bulgaria earlier this month.
The attire defied International Handball Federation regulations — which require female beach handball players to wear sports bras and bikini bottoms, while men can wear tank tops and shorts — and the Disciplinary Committee of the European Handball Federation fined the Norwegian Handball Federation 1,500 euros — 150 euros for each player who wore shorts.
I’m VERY proud of the Norwegian female beach handball team FOR PROTESTING THE VERY SEXIST RULES ABOUT THEIR “uniform”. The European handball federation SHOULD BE FINED FOR SEXISM. Good on ya, ladies. I’ll be happy to pay your fines for you. Keep it up.
The ruling drew international attention, including from pop star Pink, who applauded the team for protesting the “sexist rules” while offering to pay the fines.
“We are overwhelmed by the attention and support from all over the world!” the team said after the game. “We really hope this will result in a change of this nonsense rule!”
These incidents are part of a larger narrative of female athletes in recent years “finding their voices and speaking out about a variety of issues — whether it’s mental health, sexual abuse, how they are feeling objectified in their respective uniform,” Kim Bissell, a professor and associate dean for research in the College of Communication and Information Sciences at the University of Alabama, told ABC News.
Wearing shorts or a unitard can be a way to denounce latent objectification in their respective sports, especially at a showcase as high-profile as the Olympics.
“There’s a lot of male gaze, particularly in the Olympics, because that’s when we actually get to see women’s sports in media,” Lindsey Maxwell, an associate professor in the School of Communication at the University of Southern Mississippi, told ABC News. “The most prominent showcasing of women’s bodies in sport is the Olympics, and so now they’re taking this opportunity to push back.”
That objectification has translated to the production of women’s sports, said Bissell, who has done research across multiple Olympics on how female beach volleyball athletes are covered differently than their male counterparts.
“With the female athletes, you would see just overt zooming in on body parts,” Bissell said. “It’s the same sport, so why are we covering it differently?
The importance of mental health has been another focus of Olympic athletes, including Naomi Osaka, who competed in Tokyo after withdrawing from two Grand Slam tournaments this year and taking a monthslong break from competitive tennis, and gymnast Simone Biles.
“I just never felt like this going into a competition before,” Biles said at a press conference Tuesday after she withdrew from the team final at the Tokyo Olympics. “I tried to go out here and have fun, and warm up in the back went a little bit better, but once I came out here I was like, ‘No, mental is not there.'”
“I didn’t want to do something silly out there and get injured,” she added.
Biles, who also withdrew from the individual all-around this week, spoke out about the stress she was feeling as an Olympian, and the need to prioritize her safety — a decision several of her predecessors praised as one they felt they never could make.
Biles has been open about her mental health struggles before. She told “Good Morning America” that she sought out professional therapy and began taking anxiety medicine after she revealed she was one of dozens of gymnasts who were sexually abused by former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar, who was sentenced in 2018 to up to 175 years in prison.
Biles, who has also spoken about the depression she experienced after the abuse, has said one of the reasons she went to the Olympics was to be a voice for survivors of abuse.
Changing the power dynamic
On the power of breaking with uniform conventions, Maxwell pointed to Serena Williams’ custom catsuit at the French Open in 2018 as a touchstone. The compression bodysuit helped with blood circulation after the tennis great suffered from a pulmonary embolism after giving birth the year before, but it drew criticism from tennis officials as going “too far.” Williams has only continued to push boundaries in tennis fashion, including wearing a tutu weeks after the French Open.
“We’re spiraling out of Serena Williams taking a stand with the catsuit,” Maxwell said.
Whether it’s about attire or serious allegations, professional athletes may be fearful of using their voice for fear of retribution, such as not making a team or losing a sponsor, Bissell said.
“It’s a difficult power dynamic, where the athletes ultimately don’t have much of that power,” Bissell said.
She pointed to the case of track and field Olympian Kara Goucher. The distance runner told Women’s Running she was harassed and lost a six-figure sponsorship contract after publicly accusing her former coach, Alberto Salazar, of doping violations in 2015 because she was “considered controversial.” Salazar ultimately faced a four-year ban for doping-related offenses. This week, the U.S. Center for SafeSport permanently banned him, subject to appeal, citing sexual and emotional misconduct — allegations the coach has denied. Goucher was one of several athletes who also had accused him of abuse.
High-profile athletes continuing to use their platform to speak out can help pave the way for others to “find their voice” and reduce a “climate of silencing,” Bissell said.
Change also comes down to who ultimately is making the decisions, such as at the federation level.
“Who can we give a voice to, and do we want current athletes, former athletes?” Bissell said. “We’ve got to diversify that group of people who are making decisions.”
After the fine over the Norway women’s beach handball team’s uniform caused an uproar, European Handball Federation President Michael Wiederer said the organization would “do all it can to ensure that a change of athlete uniform regulations can be implemented” — a change he said can only come down from the International Handball Federation.
For the time being, the European Handball Federation said this week that it donated the fine to “a major international sports foundation which supports equality for women and girls in sports.”
“Babysteps,” the team said in response. “We believe that a change is in motion.”
(NEW YORK) — In a society where women face all kinds of disparities, there is one gap that women may not know about, even though it can lead to shame, guilt and unanswered questions.
That is the “orgasm gap,” a term coined by health experts based on data that shows that, in heterosexual relationships, women on average are having fewer orgasms than men, by as much as 95% for men compared to 65% for women, according to one study.
Lesbian women also have significantly more orgasms, while for men, the orgasm rate doesn’t vary much with sexual orientation, the data shows.
“There’s a huge discrepancy and part of the reason is lack of knowledge,” said Dr. Nita Landry, a Los Angeles-based OBGYN. “We just have to talk about it or, otherwise, we’re just going to keep having the sex life that we have overall as women, and that gap is going to continue to be there and nothing is going to change.”
An orgasm, considered the peak of sexual pleasure, is a physical reflex that happens when muscles tighten during sexual arousal.
The miseducation around women and orgasms goes back centuries, according to Katharine Smyth, a Brooklyn-based author whose own self-doubt about not being able to orgasm led her to research the topic for an article titled “The Tyranny of the Female Orgasm-Industrial Complex.”
“Going back as far as Aristotle, who believed that only women with fair skin and fair hair could have orgasms, it’s been shrouded in just a series of misconceptions, one after the other,” said Smyth. “And another thing I realized when I was doing the research is that a lot of women just don’t … know that much about their bodies.”
The historically male-dominated medical field hasn’t helped women completely either, as researchers and doctors have not solved the puzzle of what prevents orgasm in women, and how to treat it medically.
“I think it all started a long time when someone just laid down this narrative about what sex was supposed to look like, and when they spelled out the narrative … they really focused on men,” said Landry. “They looked at what a sexual encounter looked like for a typical man and what brought that man pleasure and then they just said, ‘Oh, by the way, this is going to work for women too.'”
“The problem is, that’s not how it works,” she said.
Here are five myths about female orgasms explained and corrected by Landry and Smyth.
Myth #1: Women need to orgasm to have pleasurable sex.
When Smyth got divorced at age 34 and started dating again, she says she encountered a series of men who did not believe she was enjoying sex without orgasming.
“Some actually broke up with me, because I couldn’t have an orgasm,” she said. “The thing that was really frustrating for me was that they kept saying, ‘You’re not enjoying sex enough?’ and I would say, ‘No, I’m really enjoying sex. I’m having a great time.'”
“That was just such a frustrating feeling to kind of be told that I wasn’t enjoying myself enough,” recalled Smyth.
An orgasm is something that happens to some women, but not all, and is not the only sign of a successful sexual experience, according to Landry.
“You definitely can have sex that is super enjoyable without having an orgasm,” she said. “When a woman is OK with not having an orgasm, when a woman is enjoying the emotional connection, or the non-orgasmic pleasure associated with having sex, then that’s 100% okay.”
Don’t make the orgasm, the goal, make pleasure the goal
Landry explained, “A big part of it is making pleasure your goal. Don’t make the orgasm, the goal, make pleasure the goal.”
Myth #2: Women can only orgasm through penetrative sex.
While popular culture tells us otherwise, for women, having an orgasm through penetrative sex, or intercourse, is much less of a guarantee than it is for men.
A long held piece of data, published in Elisabeth A. Lloyd’s 2006 book, “The Case of the Female Orgasm,” found that around 75% of all women never reach orgasm from intercourse alone.
More recent data, published in The Journal of Sex and Marital Therapy in 2017, found that just 18% of women in the United States orgasmed through intercourse alone. Nearly 40% of women meanwhile required clitoral stimulation to experience orgasm.
The clitoris is the pleasure center of the vulva, the outer part of female genitals. In many cases, due to women’s anatomy, the clitoris does not get adequate stimulation with penetration, according to Landry.
“When patients come to see me, a lot of times some of them actually come in disappointed that they’re not able to have an orgasm from just penetration.,” she said. “And then I’ll say, ‘Okay, well, can you have an orgasm with clitoral stimulation?, ‘and they’re like, ‘Oh, yeah, well, that’s fine,’ but that’s not the orgasm that they want.”
“It’s a matter of just educating them and just making sure that they understand they are not broken, they are not abnormal,” continued Landry. “It’s just that they’ve been taught that that’s what sex is supposed to look like for everybody, when that’s not the case.”
Myth #3: Women have to just fake it until they make it.
Meg Ryan’s famous orgasm scene in “When Harry Met Sally” may have put faking an orgasm in the spotlight forever, but women don’t need to fake it.
While there is not yet a pill or prescription for the female orgasm, there are things that can be done to help, if that is what a woman wants, according to Landry.
“Based on the research that we do have, your best treatment options are going to be centered on therapy,” she said, noting a specific option called cognitive behavioral sex therapy. “A lot of times [therapists] will start with education and educating women about their bodies, and helping women to figure out what they like … and they’ll also talk about behavioral stuff and relationship stuff.”
Women can also do things on their own, like exploring their own bodies to know their pleasure points and practicing mindfulness outside the bedroom.
“You can start by doing simple things like when you are eating, just being in that moment, and paying attention to how the food feels in your mouth and how that tastes,” said Landry, adding that if your mind wanders, practice bringing it back to the moment. “It’s a skill that you learn, and then you take that into the bedroom.”
Landry also recommends that women look at what could be putting the brakes on their sex life, which can include everything from certain medications and medical issues like endometriosis to body issues, relationship conflicts, stress and a history of abuse or trauma.
“You want to address anything that you can address, anything that is going to ‘press on the brake,'” she said.
Misconception #4: It’s up to a man to decide how a woman is pleasured:
“It’s not the fact that you don’t have an orgasm. It’s how you feel about the fact that you’re not having an orgasm,” said Landry. “And if you are OK with pleasure, if that’s good enough for you, that should be good enough for [your partner].”
Communication is lubrication.
Landry uses the phrase “communication is lubrication” with her patients to let them know they need to express their sexual desires and pleasures with their partners.
“When it comes to female pleasure, it is very important for you to know what you like so that you can communicate that to your partner,” she said. “Sometimes what happens is men will come into a relationship knowing what worked for their other partner or partners, and they’ll try those same things that might not work for you.”
“So when you get in a situation where you’re not willing to communicate, or you fake an orgasm, he thinks that he’s doing something that you really like and that goes to that becomes his go to signature move,” Landry continued. “Then you’re in a situation where you’re not able to enjoy your sexuality the way that you should be able to.”
Myth #5: Women who don’t have orgasms are broken.
Smyth’s article on female orgasms prompted the biggest response she said she has received on any article she’s ever written.
“The majority were women who were saying, ‘Thank you so much for writing this. I thought there was something wrong with me, I thought I was broken,'” said Smyth. “There were a lot of people whose partners had broken up with them because of it, or had made them sort of feel inadequate because of it.”
Not only are women who either don’t orgasm or don’t worry about orgasming not broken, they’re perfectly normal and actually in the majority, according to the data.
“I’ve now been with a man for a year and he couldn’t be more generous, couldn’t be more accepting,” said Smyth. “So one thing I would say to women in my position is that there are definitely men out there who do possess the necessary generosity, the necessary maturity.”
“And if you’re feeling frustrated about your orgasm, try and fix that for you, not for a man,” she said.
GoodMorningAmerica.com is tackling a different taboo women’s health topic each month, breaking down stigmas on everything from mental health to infertility, STDs, orgasms and alcoholism.
(TOKYO) — American gymnast Simone Biles has pulled out of the individual competitions in vault and uneven bars, according to USA Gymnastics.
Biles was a heavy favorite in the vault event final coming into the Olympics.
“Today, after further consultation with medical staff, Simone Biles has decided to withdraw from the event finals for vault and the uneven bars,” USA Gymnastics said in a statement. “She will continue to be evaluated daily to determine whether to compete in the finals for floor exercise and balance beam. MyKayla Skinner, who had the fourth highest score in vault during qualifications, will compete in vault finals for the U.S. alongside Jade Carey, who finished with the second highest score.”
The American, who won the gold medal in the vault in Rio 2016, pulled out of the team all-around competition on Tuesday after she said she got lost in the air during a vault on the opening rotation. USA Gymnastics later said in a statement that she would withdraw to focus on her mental health.
USA Gymnastics reiterated its support for Biles on Friday night.
“We remain in awe of Simone, who continues to handle this situation with courage and grace, and all of the athletes who have stepped up during these unexpected circumstances,” the organization said.
The four-time Olympic gold medalist and 19-time world championships gold medalist pulled out of the individual all-around competition on Thursday.
Only two athletes from each country can compete in an individual apparatus final, regardless of whether they finish in the top eight, so Skinner was the unlucky loser despite her fourth-best vault in qualifications. But with Biles’ withdrawal, she will now get to compete for a medal on vault.
“Looks like I get to put a competition Leo on just one more time,” Skinner tweeted Friday night. “Can’t wait to compete in vault finals. Doing this for us @Simone_Biles. It’s go time baby!”
The 24-year-old admitted Thursday that she was dealing with the “twisties,” a term gymnasts use to describe losing their orientation while in midair. In Biles’ opening vault in the team competition, she completed just 1 1/2 twists in the air when she intended to do 2 1/2.
“For anyone saying I quit. I didn’t quit my mind & body are simply not in sync,” she wrote on Instagram Thursday.
“I don’t think you realize how dangerous this is on hard/competition surface,” she added. “Nor do I have to explain why I put my health first. Physical health is mental health.”
Biles has continued to practice hoping to be ready in time for the event finals, but admitted she’s had this problem in the past and it usually takes a couple weeks before she again feels confident of herself in the air.
She was the 2016 gold medalist in floor exercise, but her routine includes flips no one besides her has ever even attempted before in competition.
ABC News’ Kate Hodgson, Rachel Katz and Rosa Sanchez contributed to this report.
(TOKYO) — Caeleb Dressel set a new world record in swimming at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Two days after setting an American record in the 100-meter freestyle, Dressel one-upped himself with a world record in winning gold in the 100-meter butterfly.
Dressel broke his own world record by swimming 49.45 seconds in the final for his second individual gold of the games, and his Olympic career. He had set a record of 49.5 seconds in July 2019. Dressel actually set a new Olympic record, now smashed, in the semifinals.
The Florida-based swimmer won the 100-meter freestyle on Wednesday, in which he won in 47.02 seconds.
Dressel was visibly emotional at the conclusion of the 100-meter race, telling NBC in an interview immediately after getting out of the pool, “It’s a really tough year, just really hard, so to have the results show up, I mean, it really came together, so I’m happy.”
In addition to setting the Olympic record, Dressel finished with the gold medal. Australian Kyle Chalmers was close behind, finishing in 47.08, and Kliment Kolesnikov, an athlete from Russia, won the bronze in 47.44.
Dressel went into the race already having won one medal in Tokyo as part of the U.S. 4×100-meter freestyle relay team.
He had a successful Olympic debut in 2016, earning a gold medal along with a team medal in the 4×100-meter freestyle relay, in which Dressel handed off to swimming legend Michael Phelps.
But Dressel really made a name for himself in 2019, when he smashed a world record previously held by Phelps, who retired after the games in Rio, in the 100-meter butterfly.
The 24-year-old has faced many comparisons to Phelps as he emerges as a powerhouse in the swim world, although Dressel specializes in sprints — shorter, faster races.
Dressel came to Tokyo having qualified for three individual events, the 50-meter freestyle, the 100-meter freestyle and the 100-meter butterfly, in addition to relay team possibilities.
During the Olympic trials in June to secure his individual spots, he set a record for the fastest 100-meter butterfly swum on American soil.
(WASHINGTON) — House Democrats’ attempt to pass an extension of the eviction moratorium via unanimous consent request failed late Friday ahead of a six-week recess. The moratorium will end Saturday.
The measure was objected to by Republicans, none of whom supported the bid.
“We are proud and pleased that, overwhelmingly, House Democrats have understood the hardship caused by rental evictions and support extending the eviction moratorium to October 18, 2021,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Whip James E. Clyburn said in a joint statement after the failed bid. “Unfortunately, not a single Republican would support this measure.”
The eleventh-hour attempt to pass an extension came after hours of delay as leaders tried to scramble support for the extension.
In a letter to colleagues earlier Friday, Pelosi said the October date would align with the public health emergency declaration that was issued by the Department of Health and Human Services.
Previously, Democrats had floated extending the moratorium through the end of the year, but some moderates had complained that the timeframe was too long.
“Congress has the power to direct the CDC to extend the eviction moratorium, as we encourage state and local governments to distribute the money that we allocated,” Pelosi wrote.
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky noted in a statement last month that the July extension would be the final one.
Pelosi also called on states and localities to distribute the Congress-approved rental assistance, of which there is more than $40 billion remaining in the pot.
Progressives lashed out at the White House and party leaders for their failed last-minute scramble to extend the eviction moratorium.
“Everybody knew this was happening. We were sounding the alarm about this issue,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, D-N.Y., told reporters in a gaggle outside Pelosi’s office. She was joined by Rep. Cori Bush, D-Mo., who has been outspoken about the time she spent homeless in pushing for the extension of the moratorium.
“The court order was not yesterday, the court order was not Monday, the court order was a month ago,” Ocasio Cortez continued. “We had a financial services hearing about it, members were bringing alarms to the administration about it.”
“The fact that the [White House] statement came out just yesterday is unacceptable. It is unacceptable,” she said. “I want to make that very clear, because the excuses that we’ve been hearing about it, I do not accept them.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement Thursday, “Given the recent spread of the Delta variant, including among those Americans both most likely to face evictions and lacking vaccinations, President Biden would have strongly supported a decision by the CDC to further extend this eviction moratorium to protect renters at this moment of heightened vulnerability.”
Pelosi told reporters Friday following the defeat that the extension of the eviction moratorium failed in part due to the last-minute notice from the White House about the need for Congress to fix the issue with legislation.
“Really, we only learned about this yesterday. Not really enough time to socialize it within our caucus to build … the consensus necessary,” Pelosi said. “We’ve had beautiful conversations with our members … when it comes, though, to the technicalities of legislation, we just need more time.”
Hoyer added, “There were obviously some concerns about landlords getting payments, as well as the renters.”
Hoyer said an “overwhelming number” of Democrats wanted to pass the extension, but some had concerns about getting payments to landlords who have not been able to enforce rent collections.
“This is really so unfair” to the landlords, housing providers, as well as renters, Pelosi added.
Pelosi warned that further legislative action is possible in August.
