Trump may have started the election-truther movement. But what was once the province of an aggrieved former president has spread far beyond him, infecting elections at every level with vague, unspecified claims that future races are already rigged. It’s a fiction that’s poised to factor heavily in the midterm elections and in 2024 — providing Republican candidates with a rallying cry for the rank-and-file, and priming the electorate for future challenges to races the GOP may lose.
“The fever has not broken,” said Benjamin Ginsberg, an elections lawyer who has represented past Republican presidential nominees. “If anything, it’s spreading. People I knew as rational and principled feel they have to say our elections are not reliable because polls show that is the ante for contested Republican primaries and motivating the base in general elections. California recall results aside, it comes at the expense of the principle that our leaders should not make allegations that corrode American democracy without any credible evidence.”
For Republicans, the fantasy that Trump did not lose in 2020 but had the election stolen from him was once viewed as a largely backward-looking concern. Other than the twice-impeached former president, its most prominent promoters were Trump’s discredited hangers-on — the Rudy Giulianis, Lin Woods, Mike Lindells and Sidney Powells of the GOP. But what is animating some in the party today is different — a political grift to placate base voters and to discredit the results of races that do not go their way. It’s not simply that a significant number of House and Senate candidates have supported Trump’s baseless allegations about the last election. They’re already laying the foundation to repeat similar claims of their own.
“That is a simply terrible development for our democracy,” said Trevor Potter, a former chair of the Federal Election Commission who served as general counsel to Republican John McCain’s two presidential campaigns.
It may ultimately be terrible for the Republican Party, too. In Georgia last year, Trump’s baseless claims about rigged elections depressed Republican turnout in two critical Senate runoffs, the loss of which cost Republicans their Senate majority. An erosion in GOP voter confidence in election integrity could once again persuade some of them to stay home in competitive House and Senate races next year — and in the presidential race in 2024 — with nothing less than the balance of power in Washington at risk.
“You pick a state, you pick an election, you pick a national election, and if we try the same approach, we will come in the same second place that we just did,” said Georgia’s Republican lieutenant governor, Geoff Duncan, a Trump critic who is not seeking reelection. “And that’s code language for ‘lost.’”
The potential harm was not lost on Republicans in California last week, where, on the eve of the recall election, Republicans in Orange County issued a plea to vote that both nodded to — and braced against — concerns about voter fraud: “This Election Can Only Be Stolen If You Don’t Vote.”
In Democratic-heavy California, the recall likely wouldn’t have succeeded no matter what Republicans said about voter fraud. The problem for Republicans everywhere else is that, for primary audiences, the Trumpian position on the issue is the only politically acceptable position that they can take. Two-thirds of Republicans still believe, despite considerable evidence to the contrary, that Joe Biden was illegitimately elected president. And it’s that untethering from reality that’s undergirding Republican candidates’ obsession with claims that the other side cheats.
“There are normal people, and then there are politicians,” said Stephen Richer, the Republican recorder of Maricopa County, Ariz., and a fierce critic of the Arizona state Senate-led review of the 2020 election in his county. “Politicians are motivated by, I think unfortunately, a different set of Maslow’s hierarchy [of needs]. And two of those high-ranking factors are fundraising and followers. And I think the ‘Stop the Steal’ crowd seemingly plays well for both of them.”
In Michigan, Garrett Soldano, a Republican candidate for governor, assured supporters at a rally that “your vote is going to count,” but only because “there are going to be so many Americans that are watching. … They are not going to get away with what they got away with this past election in the future.”
And then there’s the group of Trump supporters who worked to undermine the 2020 election and have all launched secretary of state bids in their home states. Trump has endorsed three of them: Rep. Jody Hice in Georgia, who is primarying incumbent Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger; Michigan’s Kristina Karamo; and Arizona state Rep. Mark Finchem, all three of whom have made spreading falsehoods about Trump’s defeat — and subsequently his endorsement — major parts of their campaigns and fundraising efforts. If elected, Republicans who sought to undermine public confidence in the last election will be the very ones overseeing future contests.
“A good campaign, especially with survey data, listens to what the electorate wants to hear and gives it to them,” said John Thomas, a Republican strategist who works on House campaigns across the country.
If there’s a price to be paid in depressing general election turnout, he said, “That’s the double-edged sword, and I don’t think the Republicans have kind of cracked that nut or figured out how to solve that incongruity yet. It’s hard. It’s real hard.”
Thomas said he advises candidates to respond to questions about voter fraud by saying, “Voting irregularities happen. They’re real. We have to try to strengthen the integrity of the system when we can. But we have to move more of our people to the polls than theirs so that we can overcome any of the cheating and shenanigans they may try in the homestretch. We have to win by such margins, such a landslide, that there’s no amount of irregularities that could overcome it.”
It’s possible that the effect of election fraud rhetoric on turnout next year will not be as significant as it was in Georgia. The denialism in that state immediately after the presidential election was especially pronounced, as Republicans there, like in Arizona, saw their long-red state flip Democratic for the first time in years.
Midterm elections traditionally function as a referendum on the sitting president, and by 2022, Biden will have been in office for two years, with a record for Republicans to run against. The economy, the coronavirus pandemic or any number of issues other than election fraud may be top of voters’ minds.
It’s also possible that by November 2022, Republican voters’ distrust in elections will subside. One opportunity for that, paradoxically, may come in the fallout from ongoing, Trump-friendly reviews of the presidential vote in Arizona and other states. If Trump’s allies can’t prove his claims in Arizona, Ginsberg said, “they can’t prove them anywhere and election denialism’s potency starts to fade.”
That’s the optimistic view, and even Ginsberg’s assessment is that “it would take an election cycle or two to wash through.” The alternative prospect is more dire — a proliferation next year of localized versions of Trump’s effort to subvert the last election. Former New Jersey Gov. Christine Todd Whitman, a Republican and outspoken critic of Trump, said Republicans now spreading false election claims are trying “to undercut the 2022 and 2024 elections.”
Potter, the former FEC chair who now heads the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center, foresees potential confrontations not only in court, but at polling places in the midterms and in the next presidential election.
“I think we’ve got to have Republican candidates who stand up and say, ‘Bunk, there is no election fraud, we lost the election fair and square,’” said Dick Wadhams, a former Colorado Republican Party chair and longtime party strategist. “And it’s time to look at ourselves and why we lost, and it’s because of an incumbent president who could not restrain himself and handed the White House to the Democrats and handed the Senate to the Democrats.”
Wadhams, who voted for Trump both in 2016 and 2020, became so fed up with far-fetched claims about the 2020 election that he wrote a column in The Denver Post last week criticizing Republicans who he said were “hell-bent to mire the party in stolen election conspiracy theories and to alienate the 1.6 million unaffiliated voters who represent 43% of the electorate” in Colorado.
The day before the column ran, he said, “This notion that Republicans are never going to lose an election again, if we lose it’s because it was stolen, No. 1, it never addresses why we really lose elections, but No. 2, it undermines the process we’ve had for a couple of hundred years in this nation.”
NORTH PORT, Fla. (WFLA) — Law enforcement agencies swarmed the home of Brian Laundrie’s family on Monday as the fiancé of Gabby Petito, who was identified by police as a person of interest in her disappearance, remains missing.
WFLA’s Christine McLarty was outside the Laundrie family home in North Port Monday morning and reported seeing about 15 FBI and North Port police units swarm and tape off the home around 10 a.m. ET.
“The FBI is executing a court-authorized search warrant [Monday] at the Laundrie residence in North Port, FL relevant to the Gabrielle ‘Gabby’ Petito investigation,” the FBI said in a statement. “No further details can be provided since this is an active and ongoing investigation.”
Agents were seen going inside the Laundrie’s house carrying suitcases and documents.
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As WFLA’s Eagle 8 news helicopter flew over the scene, photojournalist Paul Lamison witnessed agents come out of the home to walk the perimeter of and photograph a shed in the backyard.
The law enforcement activity comes hours after North Port police said they were no longer searching Carlton Reserve for Brian Laundrie, who was reported missing by his family on Friday. According to police, family members last saw him leave home Tuesday wearing hiking gear.
“At this time, we currently believe we have exhausted all avenues in searching of the grounds there,” North Port police PIO Josh Taylor said in a statement. “Law enforcement agencies continue to search for Brian Laundrie.”
Laundrie is the fiancé of Gabby Petito, who disappeared during a cross-country trip the two went on together this summer. Police say Laundrie returned home to North Port alone on Sept. 1 and was later named a person of interest in the missing person case involving 22-year-old Petito.
A body found in Wyoming on Sunday matches Petito’s description, according to FBI agents. However, a full forensic identification has not been completed to “confirm 100% that we found Gabby.”
The US will lift Covid-19 travel restrictions to allow fully vaccinated passengers from the UK and most European Union (EU) countries to travel into the country from early November, the White House has announced.
The move signals the end of a travel ban imposed by Donald Trump more than 18 months ago in the early stages of the pandemic, and comes after intense lobbying from Brussels and London.
In addition to the UK and the 26 Schengen countries in Europe, the easing of restrictions will also apply to Ireland, China, Iran, Brazil, South Africa and India.
It was welcomed by Boris Johnson, the British prime minister, who tweeted: “It’s a fantastic boost for business and trade, and great that family and friends on both sides of the pond can be reunited once again.”
Under current policy, only US citizens, their immediate families, green card holders and those with national interest exemptions (NIE) can travel into the US if they have been in the UK or EU in the previous two weeks.
The White House coronavirus response coordinator, Jeff Zients, said on Monday international travellers will require proof of full vaccination before boarding a flight and a negative Covid-19 test within 72 hours of departure. They will not be required to quarantine upon arrival.
There will be some exceptions to the vaccine policy including for children not yet eligible to be vaccinated. The new rules do not yet apply to travellers crossing land borders with Mexico and Canada.
“This new international travel system follows the science to keep Americans and international air travel safe,” Zients told reporters. “By requiring foreign nationals to be fully vaccinated in order to fly to the United States and in implementing additional strict safety protocols, we will protect Americans here at home and enhance the safety of international travel.”
“This is based on individuals rather than a country-based approach.”
The new policy will take effect in “early November”, Zients added, to allow airlines and travel partners time to prepare to implement the new protocols.
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will issue a contact tracing order that obliges airlines to collect a phone number, email address and other information from US-bound travellers.
Zients explained: “This will enable the CDC and state and local public health officials to follow up with inbound travelers and those around them if someone has potentially been exposed to Covid-19.”
The changes will be part of a new travel system the US, including updated rules on contact tracing and masking that will mean unvaccinated Americans will face stricter testing requirements.
Restrictions were first imposed on travellers from China in January 2020 by Trump and then extended to other countries in the following months, without any clear metrics for how and when to lift them.
In April this year Joe Biden added new restrictions on India, barring most non-American citizens from entering the US. He also reversed plans by Trump to lift restrictions on European countries.
This caused growing frustration in Europe, especially after its vaccination rate recovered from a slow start to overtake that in America. Airlines were unsuccessful in their efforts to persuade the White House to lift the restrictions for the summer travel season.
Biden had been likely to face renewed pressure when he comes face to face with Johnson and other European leaders at the United Nations general assembly in New York this week. Around 3.8m British nationals visited the US every year prior to the pandemic, according to the foreign office.
Dame Karen Pierce, the British ambassador to Washington, said: “Today’s travel announcement is great news for families and businesses on both sides of the Atlantic. We are grateful the US has recognized the progress the UK has made against Covid-19, including high vaccination rates and declining cases.”
She added: “This decision means that more Brits can reunite with loved ones in the United States, more British holidaymakers can spend their hard-earned pounds in the American tourism sector, and more business activity can boost both of our economies.”
A state department official denied that the change in policy was an attempt to mollify Europe following the falling out between the US and France over the Aukus Australian submarine deal, which Washington negotiated without Paris’s knowledge, prompting France to recall its ambassador to the US.
Erica Barks-Ruggles, a senior official in the Bureau of International Organization Affairs, said: “This is really driven by the science of Covid and as more people are being vaccinated around the world, we of course want people to be able to travel more freely.”
Speaking during a briefing call with reporters ahead of the United Nations general assembly, Barkes-Ruggles said: “We’re really always being driven by the science, and we continue to do that.”
The EU and UK had moved to allow vaccinated Americans travellers into their territories without quarantines, in an effort to boost business and tourism travel. But the EU recommended last month that some travel restrictions be reimposed on US travellers because of the spread of the Delta variant.
The US announcement also came in the context of Biden pushing other countries to join the US in donating vaccines to the global Covax initiative. The president is set to host a summit on the sidelines of the UN general assembly.
The US has begun flying Haitians camped in a Texas border town back to their homeland and blocking others from crossing from Mexico, in the beginning of what could be one of America’s swiftest, large-scale expulsions of migrants or refugees in decades.
More than 320 migrants arrived in Port-au-Prince on three flights on Sunday. Haiti said six flights were expected on Tuesday. US authorities were moving to expel many of the more 12,000 migrants who camped around a bridge in Del Rio, Texas after crossing from Ciudad Acuña, Mexico.
Some people arriving on the first flight into Haiti covered their heads as they walked to a large bus parked next to the plane. Dozens lined up to receive a plate of rice, beans, chicken and plantains.
All were given $100 and tested for Covid-19, though authorities were not planning to put them into quarantine, said Marie-Lourde Jean-Charles with the Haitian Office of National Migration.
Gary Monplaisir, 26, said his parents and sister lived in Port-au-Prince but to reach their house he, his wife and their five-year-old daughter would have to cross a gang-controlled area called Martissant where killings are routine.
“I’m scared,” he said. “I don’t have a plan.”
He said he moved to Chile in 2017, as he was about to earn an accounting degree, to work as a tow truck driver. He paid for his wife and daughter to join him. They tried to reach the US because he thought he could get a better job and help his family in Haiti.
“We’re always looking for better opportunities,” he said.
Some said they were planning to leave Haiti again as soon as possible. Valeria Ternission, 29, said she and her husband want to travel with their four-year-old son back to Chile, where she worked as a bakery cashier.
“I am truly worried, especially for the child,” she said. “I can’t do anything here.”
The US plans to begin seven expulsion flights daily on Wednesday, four to Port-au-Prince and three to Cap-Haïtien, according to a US official. Flights will depart from San Antonio but authorities may add El Paso, a federal official said.
The only obvious parallel for such an expulsion without opportunity to seek asylum was in 1992 when the US coast guard intercepted Haitian refugees at sea, said Yael Schacher, senior US advocate at Refugees International.
Similarly large numbers of Mexicans have been sent home during peak years of immigration but over land and not so suddenly.
Central Americans have also crossed the border in comparable numbers without being subject to mass expulsion, although Mexico has agreed to accept them from the US under pandemic-related authority since March 2020. Mexico does not accept expelled Haitians.
When the border was closed on Sunday, the migrants initially found other ways to cross until they were confronted by law enforcement. An Associated Press reporter saw Haitian immigrants crossing the river into the US east of the previous spot, but they were stopped.
Mexico said on Sunday it would also begin deporting Haitians. A government official said the flights would be from towns near the US border and the border with Guatemala, where the largest group remains.
Some of the migrants at the Del Rio camp said the recent devastating earthquake in Haiti and the assassination of the president, Jovenel Moïse, made them afraid to return.
Since Friday, 3,300 migrants have been removed from Del Rio to planes or detention centers, the US border patrol chief, Raul Ortiz, said on Sunday. He expected to move 3,000 of the approximately 12,600 remaining migrants within a day, and aimed for the rest to go within the week.
“We are working around the clock to expeditiously move migrants out of the heat, elements and from underneath this bridge to our processing facilities in order to quickly process and remove individuals from the United States consistent with our laws and our policies,” Ortiz said.
The rapid expulsions were made possible by a pandemic-related authority adopted by the former president, Donald Trump, allowing for migrants to be immediately removed without an opportunity to seek asylum. The Biden administration exempted unaccompanied children but let the order stand.
Any Haitians not expelled are subject to immigration laws, which include rights to seek asylum and other humanitarian protection. Families are quickly released in the US because the government cannot generally hold children.
In recent months, Renz secured his own online talk show and has joined associates of Trump such as former national security adviser and retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell and veteran political operative Roger Stone on a national speaking tour titled “ReAwaken America.” He has made more than 100 appearances on conservative media outlets over the past year, a Post review found, including on One America News, Newsmax and Infowars.
“Change will come in the books, in the Islamic books,” Mohammad Tariq said. “Certain subjects will be eliminated for girls: engineering, government studies, cooking, vocational education. The main subjects will remain.”
Mr. Mujahid, the Taliban spokesman, denied that any specific subjects would be removed from schools’ curriculum.
For many girls, the end of their educational freedom also means shutting down their dreams. Zayba, the 12th grader, said she had planned since childhood to study for a career as a surgeon.
But last month, she said, her future seemed to evaporate.
“The day the Taliban took control, I was thinking: This is the end of life for women,” she said.
Police in Florida are searching for the missing fiance of Gabby Petito, whose body appears to have been found in a wilderness camping area in Wyoming.
The disappearance of Petito, 22, during a four-month cross-country trip by van has fixated the US media. Her fiance, Brian Laundrie, 23, returned alone without her and had declined to be interviewed by police after the alarm was raised by her family. Laundrie himself was reported missing by his parents on Friday.
Interest in the case has been fuelled by the apparent disconnect between idealised images of the increasingly popular nomadic “van life” – on social media sites such as Instagram – that the couple had promoted on their social media accounts and the more fractious reality that has emerged from police cam footage of an emotional encounter with the couple during a fight between the pair.
Human remains, which the FBI has indicated were most likely Petito’s, were found on Sunday in Bridger-Teton national forest on the east boundary of Grand Teton national park
The body recovered on Sunday resembles Petito’s description, but a cause of death has yet to be determined, FBI agent Charles Jones told a news conference.
Jones said Petito’s family had been notified of the discovery, but that authorities would not be able to confirm that the body was her until after forensic analysis.
“On behalf of the FBI personnel and our partners, I would like to extend sincere, sincere and heartfelt condolences to Gabby’s family,” said Jones
“As every parent can imagine, this is an incredibly difficult time for the family and friends. Our thoughts and prayers are with them. We ask that you all respect their privacy as they mourn the loss of their daughter.”
Petito last contacted her family to inform them that she was in the Grand Teton national park in Wyoming in August and authorities say she had not been heard from since.
Moab police department video shows Gabby Petito talking to a police officer after being pulled over with her boyfriend, Brian Laundrie, near the entrance to Arches national park, Utah, in August. Photograph: AP
Laundrie had returned alone to their home in Florida on 1 September and it was 10 days later that Petito’s family filed a missing-persons report.
After Petito’s disappearance authorities expressed “frustration” about not being able to speak to Laundrie. Police have identified him as a person of interest in the case.
According to local police and the FBI, Laundrie, who had declined to be interviewed about Petito’s disappearance through a lawyer, went missing over the weekend with police saying they were searching a large nature reserve in Florida among other locations.
Underlining the mystery over what occurred had been the release last week by police in Utah of video of a traffic stop of the couple, that showed Petito weeping.
Laundrie had acknowledged that the couple had scuffled after he got into the van with dirty feet and described the “emotional strain” of sharing the small space of their van.
However, both asked the police to treat the incident as a “mental/emotional health break” rather than as a domestic assault, with Petito telling police she suffered from anxiety.
The body was found after police had increasingly focused their search on the Spread Creek Road dispersed camp in Grand Teton national park one of several that Petito had said the couple planned to visit.
The search of the campsite came after another couple, Jenn and Kyle Bethune, had posted video describing coming across a vehicle similar to that owned by Petito and Laundrie in August.
“This is at the Spread Creek dispersed camping area. We got there and there was a huge gravel lot and we decided we wanted to try to drive more toward the back because we’d heard the views were better back here. So we were heading back on this long dirt, gravel road,” Bethune said, narrating the video he posted on Saturday night.
His wife continued: “And we came across a white van that had Florida plates, a small white van. We were going to stop and say hi because we’re from Florida too, but the van was completely dark there was nobody there so we decided to continue on our way.”
Interest in a downsised “van life” lifestyle has exploded in recent years driven by social media accounts and vlogs portraying an idyllic life on the road and the business of converting the vehicles.
Laundrie had posted on Instagram how the couple were “downsising our life into this itty bitty van” decorating it with plants, small pieces of art and photos.
Once rare, school shootings have become more common in Russia in recent years. This was the second mass shooting at a Russian school this year. In May, an attacker killed seven students and two school employees in Kazan, another provincial Russian city.
But there were no initial indications of a political motive in the shooting. The Kremlin said the gunman was likely disturbed, but declined to comment further.
University spokeswoman Natalia Pechishcheva initially said the attacker had been “liquidated,” but revised the account later and said he was in police custody.
The campus, which has about 13,000 students, was equipped with an alarm system to alert them to danger. But it was not immediately activated because the gunman shot a security guard near an entrance whose job it was to trigger the alert, RBK, a Russian newspaper, reported.
As authorities continue searching for Brian Laundrie in Florida and work to confirm that a body found Sunday in Wyoming is that of Gabby Petito, internet sleuths have pointed out footage of Laundrie reading a book about women who go missing.
In a video called “VAN LIFE | Beginning Our van Life Journey,” posted to Petito’s YouTube channel Nomadic Statik on August 19, Laundrie is briefly seen reading the book Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer. In the novel, four women travel into an uninhabited area. Three of women die, and the fourth stays in the area permanently.
The detail was commented upon by, among others, YouTube users and TikTok user @alyssaest93. “So many people have said that that information needs to be handed over to the police,” she said in a video she posted to the platform a few days ago, explaining why she believes the book is related to the case. She called the footage “disturbing.”
However, some other TikTok users were skeptical of the connection, saying that video was reaching.
“This book ‘Annihilation’ 10000% has nothing to do with this case,” wrote @julezandtherollerz. “It’s literally about aliens. This is almost just offensive at this point.”
“Don’t dig into the little details of the book,” @alyssaest93 responded. “Just look at it as a whole.”
On Sunday, authorities said in a press conference that human remains were found in the Spread Creek area of Wyoming “consistent” with Petito, but a full forensic identification has not yet been completed.
“Full forensic identification has not been completed to confirm 100% that we found Gabby, but her family has been notified,” said FBI Supervisory Special Agent Charles Jones on Sunday, according to the Associated Press. “This is an incredibly difficult time for (Petito’s) family and friends.”
Petito, 22, is believed to have gone missing while headed to the park with Laundrie in August. She was first reported missing September 11 after he had returned to their shared North Port home alone on September 1.
She was reportedly last seen August 24 at the Fairfield Inn & Suites in Salt Lake City. The couple had been making their way from Utah’s Arches National Park to Grand Teton. She was last in contact with her family on August 25 via FaceTime.
“Brian is not missing, he is hiding. Gabby is missing,” the statement by the law office of Richard Stafford said, tweeted by ABC News.
He was reported missing Friday, and police believe he could survive in the swampland for months, if he’s there.
Earlier in the week, the Moab City Police Department released body-cam video filmed after an altercation between Petito and Laundrie which showed Petito looking visibly upset and Laundrie with scratches on his face. She was seen talking to an officer about her mental health and how the altercation began after he locked her out of the van.
In a September 15 press release, the North Port Police Department named Laundrie a person of interest in Petito’s disappearance, though he is not wanted for a crime.
Many amateur sleuths have joined in on the search online, sharing theories and tracking developments in the case.
Internet sleuths have pointed out a brief scene in a Gabby Petito video in which Brian Laundrie is reading “Annihilation,” a book about women who explore uncharted territory and go missing. Here, the parents of Gabby Petito and the North Port police hold a press conference on September 16. Octavio Jones/Getty Images
This story has been updated with information from the FBI’s Sunday press briefing.
TETON COUNTY, Wyo. — The FBI announced Sunday afternoon that a body found in a camping area outside Grand Teton National Park is “consistent” with the description of Gabby Petito.
However, the agency said they are awaiting full forensic confirmation on the identity. The cause of death has also not yet been determined.
And while they haven’t confirmed that the remains were hers, the FBI said it has notified Petito’s family and expressed condolences to them.
“This is an incredibly difficult time for them, and our thoughts are with them as they mourn the loss of their daughter,” an agency spokesperson said.
Her father tweeted a photo of her following the announcement with the caption: “she touched the world.”
National media outlets, such as Fox and ABC News, had confirmed earlier that a coroner responded to the area in Bridger-Teton National Forest where the search for Petito was underway, and that search dogs had left the area.
Investigators are still asking anyone who saw Petito, Laundrie or their vehicle in the Spread Creek Dispersed Camping Area — just east of the national park’s boundaries — between Aug. 27-30 to call their tip line at 1-800-CALL-FBI.
The camping area remains closed as they continue the investigation.
The USS Missouri, pictured in Hawaii earlier this month, is one of the U.S. Navy’s nuclear-powered submarines. The U.S., U.K. and Australia signed into a partnership last week that will provide Australia with eight nuclear-powered submarines.
Chief Mass Communication Specialist Amanda R. Gray/U.S. Navy via AP
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Chief Mass Communication Specialist Amanda R. Gray/U.S. Navy via AP
The USS Missouri, pictured in Hawaii earlier this month, is one of the U.S. Navy’s nuclear-powered submarines. The U.S., U.K. and Australia signed into a partnership last week that will provide Australia with eight nuclear-powered submarines.
Chief Mass Communication Specialist Amanda R. Gray/U.S. Navy via AP
Australia bailed on a submarine contract with France worth $66 billion last week, choosing instead to work with the United States and the United Kingdom. Outraged, France recalled its ambassadors to the U.S. and Australia.
The Australian Navy’s six Collins-class submarines are set to reach the end of their service life in 2036. And in 2016, France was chosen over Germany and Japan to help Australia replace its older subs with 12 new diesel-electric submarines. At the time, the Australian government called the Future Submarine project the largest and most complex defense acquisition in the nation’s history.
But that was five years ago. And tensions are on the rise in the Indo-Pacific region, which spans from America’s west coast to the shores of Australia and India. China’s military and political interests in the region have grown, as has its military fleet, which has more than doubled since 2015, making it the largest naval force on the planet. As a result, Australia said it needs a type of submarine France cannot provide.
“The security challenges in the Indo-Pacific region have grown significantly. Military modernization is occurring at an unprecedented rate and capabilities are rapidly advancing and their reach expanding,” read an Australian media statement on Thursday. “The technological edge enjoyed by Australia and our partners is narrowing.”
Australia announced it would join the U.S. and the U.K. in a trilateral security partnership, AUKUS, which lists the development of nuclear submarines for Australia as priority No. 1. Over the next 18 months, Australia’s Department of Defense will establish a task force to guide the coalition’s goal to become a “reliable steward” of nuclear technology.
China has called the partnership and, more specifically, the sharing of nuclear technology, irresponsible. Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Zhao Lijian said the new agreement threatens the stability of the Indo-Pacific.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said nuclear-powered marines are no just a want, but a need: They’re faster, stronger and stealthier, exactly what Australia needs to protect both its interests and its people. And though he understands the disappointment the French government is feeling, Morrison said in a press conference Sunday that he had raised submarine capability concerns with France in recent months.
“Ultimately, this was a decision about whether the submarines that were being built, at great cost to the Australian taxpayer, were going to be able to do a job that we needed it to do when they went into service,” Morrison said. “And, our strategic judgment, based on the best possible intelligence and defence advice, was that it would not.”
The Australian government has long stood against nuclear weapons. In 1970, it chose to abandon any pursuits for nuclear weapons by signing the United Nation’s Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. The development of the new submarines will be Australia’s first time utilizing nuclear technology. But the subs will be nuclear-powered, not nuclear-armed. “Australia has no interest in that. No plans for it, no policy for it, no contemplation of it. It’s not on our agenda,” Morrison explained.
However, backing out of the deal has left France feeling betrayed, as well as set back a by a costly investment. The London-based policy think tank Chatham House said the broken deal will affect thousands of workers in France’s defense industry. More importantly, the institute said, Australia’s new deal with the U.K. and U.S. has left France seemingly alone on the strategic landscape.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian described the new partnership as “unacceptable behavior between allies and partners” Friday. And the Associated Press reported Sunday that French President Emmanuel Macron is set to speak with President Joe Biden in the coming days about the botched billion-dollar-deal. French government spokesperson Gabriel Attal said the surprise was initially met with “shock” and “anger,” but that it’s important to move forward.
The phone call came at the request of Biden, the AP reported, but spokesman Attal said Macron will press the president about what led to Australia’s new endeavor with the U.S.
“This whole abortion legislation has changed the dynamics incredibly,” he said.
In the 2018 campaign, Mr. O’Rourke showed that he was able to energize Democrats, raise significant sums of money and campaign aggressively across Texas, a large and notoriously difficult place to run a statewide campaign.
Even in defeat, his margin against the incumbent Mr. Cruz — 51 to 48 percent — helped lift Democratic candidates in local races and led to gains in the State Legislature that year. The prospect of a run by Mr. O’Rourke against Mr. Abbott — reported by Axios on Sunday — would present Democrats with the biggest and most direct test yet in their attempts to loosen the Republican grip on power in Texas.
During his failed presidential run, Mr. O’Rourke took positions, including a hard line on confiscating assault weapons, that could make him vulnerable in any new campaign in Texas. “Hell yes, we’re going to take your AR-15, your AK-47,” Mr. O’Rourke said during a Democratic debate in Houston in 2019, referring to military-style rifles that have been used in mass shootings.
David Carney, a campaign adviser to Mr. Abbott and a longtime Republican political consultant, said that he would not be surprised if Mr. O’Rourke jumped into the race.
“O’Rourke has been planning to run since he got crushed in his presidential flop,” Mr. Carney said. “He is a target-rich environment with positions way, way out of the mainstream.”
“We will continue to work with the F.B.I. in the search for more answers,” they said.
Ms. Petito left with Mr. Laundrie in July in a white Ford van outfitted for a cross-country adventure. On Sept. 1, Mr. Laundrie returned to the home in North Port, Fla., where he lived with his parents and Ms. Petito, in the white van that the couple had used for the trip and that had been registered to Ms. Petito.
Ten days later, Ms. Petito was reported missing by her parents on Sept. 11, according to the police.
In the days after Ms. Petito was reported missing, the authorities expressed “frustration” in their efforts to speak to Mr. Laundrie, who has not been declared a suspect in the case.
The case has drawn widespread attention, as reporters have gathered outside Mr. Laundrie’s house and some in the public have scoured the couple’s Instagram accounts, which depicted a seemingly carefree, nomadic “van life” in the American West.
Ms. Petito and Mr. Laundrie left New York on July 2 for what was supposed to be a four-month, cross-country trip visiting national parks, said Ms. Petito’s stepfather, Jim Schmidt. The couple posted photos and cheerful updates on Instagram and YouTube, and outfitted the van with a bed, tiny bookcases and plants and art.
Jorge Rios, 28, and his cousins have been guarding their family property in Mexico since early this week when the first cascades of migrants washed over this small town. Local police asked Rios’s family to open a passage to the river embankment behind their home. Migrants, press and police are the only ones allowed through. Rios stopped a pair of Mexican teens warning them not to trespass on his property: “Mexicanos, no,” he said. “Migrantes, si.”
A body “consistent with the description of” Gabby Petito, the 22-year-old woman who went missing while on a cross-country road trip with her boyfriend, was discovered in the Bridger-Teton National Forest in Wyoming.
The FBI Denver, the National Park Service and law enforcement made the announcement during a news conference Sunday evening in Grand Teton National Park. Charles Jones, the FBI’s supervisory senior resident agent, said that a full forensic identification hasn’t yet been completed, but investigators did notify Petito’s parents.
A cause of death was also undetermined. Jones declined to comment further on the investigation.
“We continue to seek information from anyone who utilized the Spread Creek Dispersed Camping Area between the dates of August 27 and August 30. Anyone that may have had contact with Gabby, or her boyfriend or who may have seen their vehicle in that area, please share any new information with the FBI,” Jones said.
An attorney for the Petito family released a statement Sunday evening asking for privacy to grieve and also thanking the agencies that assisted in the search.
“Your tireless work and determination helped bring Gabby home to her parents,” the statement said. “The family and I will be forever grateful.”
North Port Police tweeted that it will be working with the FBI in its investigation.
“Our focus from the start, along with the FBI, and national partners, has been to bring her home,” the department tweeted.
The Teton County coroner confirmed to ABC News on Sunday afternoon that the agency dispatched resources to a body found in the national forest. No further details were disclosed.
Petito’s parents reported her missing on Sept. 11 after not speaking with her for two weeks.
Laundrie had been named by police as a “person of interest” in Petito’s disappearance. The 23-year-old Laundrie, who returned home more than two weeks ago without Petito and has refused to speak to police, has not been seen since Tuesday, according to law enforcement officials.
The Laundrie family attorney said in a statement Sunday evening, “The news about Gabby Petito is heartbreaking. The Laundrie family prays for Gabby and her family.”
As the sun beat down Sunday in Port-au-Prince, more than 300 of the newly returned migrants milled close together around a white tent, looked dazed and exhausted as they waited to be processed — and despondent at finding themselves back at Square 1. Some held babies as toddlers ran around playing. Some of the children were crying.
Many said their only hope was to once again follow the long, arduous road of migration.
“I’m not going to stay in Haiti,” said Elène Jean-Baptiste, 28, who traveled with her 3-year-old son, Steshanley Sylvain, who was born in Chile and has a Chilean passport, and her husband, Stevenson Sylvain.
Like Ms. Jean-Baptiste, many had fled Haiti years ago, in the years after the country was devastated an earlier earthquake, in 2010. Most had headed to South America, hoping to find jobs and rebuild a life in countries like Chile and Brazil.
Recently, facing economic turmoil and discrimination in South America and hearing that it might be easier to cross into the United States under the Biden administration, they decided to make the trek north.
From Mexico, they crossed the Rio Grande into the United States — only to find themselves detained and returned to a country that is mired in a deep political and humanitarian crisis.
In July, the Haitian president, Jovenel Moïse, was assassinated, setting off a battle for power. A month later, the impoverished southern peninsula was devastated by a 7.2 magnitude earthquake, and the Caribbean nation’s shaky government was ill-equipped to handle the aftermath.
According to a United Nations report released last week, 800,000 people have been affected by the quake. A month after it struck, 650,000 still need emergency humanitarian assistance.
Abortion rights activists rally at the Texas State Capitol on Sept. 11, 2021 in Austin.
Jordan Vonderhaar/Getty Images
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Jordan Vonderhaar/Getty Images
Abortion rights activists rally at the Texas State Capitol on Sept. 11, 2021 in Austin.
Jordan Vonderhaar/Getty Images
Texas outlawed abortions past the six-week mark in a law that went into effect on Sept. 1. Dr. Alan Braid, a Texas physician, says he performed one anyway just a few days later.
In an opinion piece for The Washington Post on Saturday, Braid, who’s been practicing for more than 40 years, explained his decision as a matter of “duty of care.” The new law, known as S.B. 8, not only makes performing an abortion after about six weeks illegal, but makes it so that anyone who aids anyone else in getting one — by performing the procedure or even by giving them a ride to the clinic where they have the procedure done — runs the risk of being sued for at least $10,000.
Braid says he performed an abortion anyway on Sept. 6, on a patient who was still in her first trimester but further along than six weeks. That patient, he wrote, “has a fundamental right to receive this care.”
“I have daughters, granddaughters and nieces. I believe abortion is an essential part of health care,” his piece concluded. “I have spent the past 50 years treating and helping patients. I can’t just sit back and watch us return to 1972,” which was before the Supreme Court’s Roe v. Wade decision.
The Supreme Court let the Texas law stand earlier this month while leaving the door open for future legal challenges.
Braid could be sued under the new law
In accordance with the new law, any citizen could now sue Braid for performing the abortion and, if they win, could walk away with a minimum of $10,000. In Texas, the law allows private citizens to sue without having any connection to the abortion in question. A website set up by the anti-abortion-rights group Texas Right to Life also makes it easy to anonymously report those suspected of violating the ban.
If he does get sued, the abortion-rights advocacy group Center for Reproductive Rights pledged to defend him. The group is already representing Braid’s clinics in a separate lawsuit.
“Dr. Braid has courageously stood up against this blatantly unconstitutional law,” Center for Reproductive Rights president and CEO Nancy Northup said in a statement. “We stand ready to defend him against the vigilante lawsuits that S.B. 8 threatens to unleash against those providing or supporting access to constitutionally protected abortion care.”
Texas Right to Life did not immediately respond to an email from NPR, but in statements to news outlets said it was “looking into this claim but we are dubious that this is just a legal stunt.”
Clinics that Braid owns are co-plaintiffs along with other abortion providers, physicians, clergy members, and others in an ongoing lawsuit to block S.B. 8. The Justice Department has also sued the state of Texas over the ban, while abortion-rights supporters have flooded a Texas Right to Life website with false reports.
Abortion providers have been fearing the worst
Even before the law went into effect, many physicians were worried. Dr. Ghazaleh Moayedi, a Texas-based OB/GYN and abortion provider, described the bill as being “100% about putting fear in physicians and putting fear in abortion funds and intimidating us.”
“This law threatens my livelihood,” she told All Things Considered. “It threatens my ability to care for my family. It threatens my career simply for doing what I was trained to do right here in Texas.”
Abortion providers in Texas are now turning patients away and directing them to obtain services in different states, something Braid said he has also had to do.
Historically, it isn’t uncommon for abortion providers to be subject to harassment and violence. Harassment against abortion providers saw a spike in 2019, according to the National Abortion Federation. The FBI reported last year that violent threats against abortion providers had risen partly because of a “recent rise in state legislative activities related to abortion services and access.”
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