Former President Donald Trump was supposed to be a drag on Republicans in 2021, particularly in states he lost by 10 points (Virginia) or 15 points (New Jersey) a year ago.
That script could get flipped on Tuesday, depending on election results in those two states and a handful of other key races. It’s President Joe Biden and the stalled Democratic agenda in Washington that appear to be holding down Democrats, while Republicans maintain a fragile unity in key races.
In Virginia, Republican Glenn Youngkin is closing with polling momentum and feeling good enough about his chances to play into national messaging.
“We are going to send a shockwave across this country,” Youngkin said over the weekend, “and there’s not going to be a Democrat in any seat anywhere in this nation who’s going to think that his or her seat is safe.”
That’s an overstatement, but the extent of Democrats’ concerns about Biden’s standing isn’t. An ABC News/Ipsos poll out Sunday underscored the extent to which the president’s approval rating has been battered across a range of issues, with a slide that began over the summer continuing on the force of independents in particular.
Asked about the political environment Sunday, Biden said “polls are going to go up and down and up and down,” and noted that all presidents see their numbers fluctuate.
Passing their spending bills may give Democrats something to run on, though the same ABC News/Ipsos poll showed how much salesmanship they have to do from here. In the meantime, the stakes of the midterm year will come into sharper focus based on election results — not just polls.
It’s not often that write-in campaigns make waves, but in Buffalo, New York, incumbent and write-in candidate Mayor Byron Brown could come out on top when voters cast their ballots Tuesday.
Brown, who has served four terms as mayor, lost in the primary to Democratic Socialist India Walton in June. He’s counting on write-in votes to keep his post dubbing his write-in campaign “Write Down Byron Brown.”
Walton, who has the endorsement of Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, came to prominence during protests after the murder of George Floyd and advocated for redirecting funding away from police.
Walton has shifted her messaging since the height of the protests, but many believe talk of defunding the police has only fueled Brown’s write-in effort.
It comes as mayoral races in cities around the country center public safety as a closing message amid spikes in crime. In Minneapolis, where George Floyd was killed at the hands of police, voters will decide if the city will do away with the police department all together in addition to choosing the next mayor.
Texas’ unprecedented anti-abortion law, SB8, will be back in the legal spotlight on Monday, as the Supreme Court takes up the law which was specifically designed to avoid constitutional review by a federal court.
As reported by ABC’s Devin Dwyer, two hours of oral arguments are scheduled against a backdrop of likely protests and demonstrations. The arguments will be livestreamed to the public, and the justices are expected to review whether abortion rights advocates and the federal government have the ability to sue Texas over the law given the way it’s designed.
The law — which bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, before many people know they are pregnant — is enforced through the deputization of private citizens, allowing Texans to bring lawsuits against anyone who “aids or abets” an abortion. Given that the law’s enforcement centers on the involvement of private citizens, Texas officials claim they cannot be targeted in court. Meanwhile, abortion providers say the law has a chilling effect on clinics and could inspire similar bills to be implemented across the country, thereby threatening other constitutionally protected rights.
Although Monday’s review by the Supreme Court will solely examine how the law is enforced, rather than a woman’s right to get an abortion, the court is also scheduled to review Roe v. Wade in a separate case from Mississippi set for December.
ONE MORE THING
Negotiations on the infrastructure and social program bills have consumed Capitol Hill for months. Still, a new ABC News/Ipsos poll out Sunday finds Democrats are failing to sell the legislation to the public, who are broadly unaware of what is in the spending packages or skeptical they would help people like themselves, or the economy, if signed into law. Although a majority (55%) of the public is following news about the negotiations at least somewhat closely, about 7 in 10 (69%) Americans said they know just some or little to nothing about what’s in both bills. Americans also do not feel like these bills would help them or the U.S. economy if they become law.
THE PLAYLIST
ABC News’ “Start Here” podcast. Monday morning’s episode features President Biden’s high-stakes trip overseas from the G20 to a climate summit in Glasgow. ABC News White House Correspondent Karen Travers joins us from Rome. Then, there are fears among economists about a chip shortage that could last for years, says ABC News Business Correspondent Deirdre Bolton. And, this week in Minneapolis, voters will decide on the future of policing in the city. ABC News’ Zachary Kiesch talks about the nuanced opinion of “defund the police” on the ground. http://apple.co/2HPocUL
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY
In the morning, President Joe Biden departs Italy for Scotland to participate in a summit on climate change. He meets with the British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres in Glasgow, attends the COP opening session, delivers a statement and attends an event on action and solidarity on climate change. In the early afternoon, he holds a bilateral meeting with Indonesian President Joko Widodo, and later attends a reception hosted by Johnson in Glasgow.
Republican nominee for governor of Virginia Glenn Youngkin holds campaign rallies in Roanoke at 8:30 a.m., Richmond at 11:30 a.m., Virginia Beach at 5 p.m. and Leesburg at 8:30 p.m.
Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., deliver keynote addresses at the National Conservatism Conference in Orlando, Florida, at 9 a.m.
Democratic nominee for governor of Virginia Terry McAuliffe holds get out the vote events in Roanoke at 10 a.m., Virginia Beach at 12:45 p.m., Richmond at 3 p.m. and Northern Virginia at 6:45 p.m.
Download the ABC News app and select “The Note” as an item of interest to receive the day’s sharpest political analysis.
The Note is a daily ABC News feature that highlights the day’s top stories in politics. Please check back tomorrow for the latest.
D.C. firefighters Will Jones and Katie Fuertes on firefighters facing losing their jobs by refusing COVID vaccinations
Six New York City firefighters have been suspended without pay for four weeks after driving their truck to a state senator’s office to protest Mayor Bill de Blasio’s vaccine mandate.
The members of Ladder 113 in the city’s Brooklyn borough were on-duty at the time of the incident Friday outside the office of State Senator Zellnor Myrie, Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro told the New York Post.
“This is a highly inappropriate act by on-duty members of this Department who should only be concerned with responding to emergencies and helping New Yorkers and not harassing an elected official and his staff,” Nigro added in a statement obtained by Fox News.
Ladder 113 in New York City’s Brooklyn borough. (Google Maps)
At Myrie’s Brooklyn office, the firefighters allegedly warned staff they would have “blood on their hands” after the implementation of a city worker vaccine mandate, the New York Post reports, citing a fire department spokesperson.
The spokesperson also reportedly told the newspaper that the firefighters said to Myrie’s staff they wouldn’t respond if a blaze broke out at the New York state senator’s home.
Protestors gathered outside Gracie Mansion Thursday morning to protest Mayor Bill de Blasio’s vaccine mandate. (Rebecca Rosenberg/Fox News Digital)
A fire department spokesperson told Fox News on Monday that the six members have now been suspended without pay for four weeks.
The mandate, which went into effect this morning, has forced at least 9,000 municipal workers into unpaid leave for their refusal to get at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine.
Myrie later told NBC4 he was “outraged” over the incident.
“One, that on duty officers who were supposed to be focused on keeping us safe and responding to emergencies would attempt to use their uniforms and their fire truck to intimidate my staff,” he said, “and secondly, it is disturbing that they would approach a state elected official for a city mandate and would I think to offer veiled threats about my own safety by asking where I live personally.”
The Supreme Court allowed a Texas law that bars most abortions after six weeks to remain in place last month, but it agreed to hear oral arguments on the law today.
The law, banning abortions often before a woman knows she is pregnant is in stark contrast to Roe v. Wade, the 1973 landmark decision legalizing abortion nationwide prior to viability, which can occur at around 24 weeks of pregnancy.
In agreeing to hear the case under such an expedited time frame, the court said that it would focus specifically on the unusual way in which the Texas legislature crafted the law. It also said it will review whether the US Justice Department can challenge the law in court.
Texas officials are barred from enforcing it. Instead, private citizens — from anywhere in the country — can bring a civil suit against anyone who assists a pregnant person seeking an abortion in violation of the law.
In court papers, lawyers for the clinics have detailed the impact of the law on women in Texas.
In sworn declarations, abortion providers said the law has had a chilling effect because staff are “plagued by fear and instability” and “remain seriously concerned that even providing abortions in compliance with S.B. 8 will draw lawsuits from anti-abortion vigilantes or others seeking financial gain” under the law’s enforcement provision, which offers at least $10,000 in damages.
Providers in neighboring states said under oath that they have been overwhelmed with patients traveling from Texas seeking abortions. When Judge Robert Pitman of the US District Court for the Western District of Texas temporarily blocked the law earlier this month, he said that from the moment it went into effect, “women have been unlawfully prevented from exercising control over their lives in ways that are protected by the Constitution.”
The 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals, however, stayed Pitman’s ruling, allowing the law to go back into effect.
Almost a third of Republicans believe violence may be necessary to “save” the US, according to a new poll.
Researchers at the Public Religion Research Institute, a nonprofit, found that 30% of Republicans agreed with the statement “Because things have gotten so far off track, true American patriots may have to resort to violence in order to save our country”.
Among Americans who believe the 2020 election was “stolen” from Donald Trump, which it was not, 39% believe violence may be required.
The troubling statistics show the post-election rancour that led to the violent insurrection at the US Capitol on 6 January is still very much in place.
Republicans are most likely to believe “true American patriots may have to resort to violence”, PRRI found, with just 11% of Democrats and 17% of independents agreeing with the statement. Among all Americans, 18% agreed.
PRRI said 2,508 adults, living in all 50 states, were interviewed for the survey between 16 and 29 September.
“It is an alarming finding,” Robert Jones, chief executive and founder of PRRI, told Yahoo News. “I’ve been doing this a while, for decades, and it’s not the kind of finding that as a sociologist, a public opinion pollster, that you’re used to seeing.”
Jones said the responses illustrate the “significant and rapidly increasing polarisation in the United States”.
“As we’ve gotten some distance [from the 6 January], one might hope cooler heads would prevail, but we really haven’t seen that,” Jones said. “If anything, it looks like people are doubling down and views are getting kind of locked in.”
The PRRI poll is not the first to discover an apparent readiness for violence among Republican voters.
In February a survey by the American Enterprise Institute found that 39% of Republicans thought that “if elected leaders will not protect America, the people must do it themselves, even if it requires violent actions”.
Among all Americans, 29% agreed with that statement. Some 31% of independent voters and 17% of Democrats thought violent action might be required.
More than 650 people have been criminally charged for their role in the Capitol attack, in which five people died.
Trump is resisting attempts to investigate from a House select committee, most recently suing the national archives to stop the release of White House documents.
MILWAUKEE — Kyle Rittenhouse will go on trial Monday in the shooting of three people, two fatally, during a protest against police brutality after the shooting of Jacob Blake.
Since then, the case and its characters have provided a constant stream of intrigue, outrage and propaganda, in both mainstream and niche conservative media outlets where he has occasionally been portrayed as a patriot and symbol of gun rights as well as a self-defense hero and boy-next-door.
Rittenhouse has been charged with intentional, reckless and attempted homicide, reckless endangerment and curfew violation. He’s also charged with possessing a firearm as a minor, which is a misdemeanor.
Kenosha County Circuit Judge Bruce is presiding in his large second-floor courtroom. Masks are not required inside the Kenosha County Courthouse, and social distancing is not enforced. Schroeder has set aside two weeks for the trial.
Rittenhouse charged with multiple counts, including homicide
Rittenhouse faces five felonies, a misdemeanor and a curfew ticket from the events of Aug. 25, 2020. Using an AR-15-type rifle, he killed Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, Anthony Huber, 26, and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz. His lawyers say he acted in lawful self-defense.
The most serious charge was first-degree intentional homicide for the fatal shooting of Huber, the second victim, who prosecutors say was shot in the chest while trying to pull Rittenhouse’s gun from him.
Rittenhouse is also charged with endangering the safety of a reporter for The Daily Caller who was recording from nearby when Rosenbaum was shot and an unidentified man Rittenhouse shot at as the man tried to kick him.
Rittenhouse considered himself a militia member trying to protect life and property, according to videos, interviews and social media posts. He was 17 at the time of the shooting but has since turned 18.
The night of the shooting, Rittenhouse told reporters that he was armed with a rifle to protect a local parking lot. Wisconsin law allows for gun owners to carry their firearms in public, though it is unclear whether the Illinois 17-year-old would have been prohibited as a minor.
Neither side sought to have the trial elsewhere
Rittenhouse’s trial on homicide and other charges is set to start Monday in Kenosha, Wisconsin, at 9 a.m. with jury selection.
In a typical criminal felony trial, most clerks of court will summon 30-60 people from the county as potential jurors, selected randomly from state driver’s license and ID card records.
For trials for cases that have generated lots of publicity, it’s not uncommon for defendants to seek a change of venue — to have the trial held in a different county, or before jurors brought in from another county.
Perhaps because the Rittenhouse case has generated a super-high level of national publicity, neither side sought to have the trial elsewhere, knowing that potential jurors in almost any part of Wisconsin would be familiar with the case.
Judge has sparked controversy before
Schroeder is the longest-serving current judge in Wisconsin. He’s also becoming a polarizing national figure for his early decisions in the Rittenhouse trial.
Schroeder, 75, said last week the people shot by Rittenhouse could not be called “victims” — a term he routinely bans in his trials unless someone has been convicted of a crime against the person. But after Schroeder also didn’t ban defense lawyers from calling the men “looters, rioters, arsonists or any other pejorative term,” national scrutiny followed.
Schroeder has presided over other high-profile trials, including a major reversal in one of them. He also prompted controversy recently after he quoted a racial slur, a moment caught on camera during online streaming of court proceedings last year.
CourtTV, a streaming news site that used to be a cable channel, plans to cover the entire trial. Schroeder and county officials have let CourtTV set up three cameras, and its audio and video will serve as the feed to other news outlets.
The trial will stream live — supplemented with CourtTV’s own commentary — on CourtTV.com.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, part of the USA TODAY Network, will have multiple reporters providing coverage, including via a live blog at jsonline.com
Contributing: Gina Barton and Cary Spiva, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; The Associated Press.
The future of the Minneapolis Police Department may be decided on Tuesday.
A ballot measure is asking voters if the city should amend its charter to replace the police department with the Department of Public Safety, which would take a “comprehensive public health approach.”
The new department could include police officers, but there wouldn’t be a required minimum number to employ. The MPD had 588 officers as of mid-October and was authorized for up to 888, according to The Associated Press.
The charter amendment would replace the police chief with a commissioner nominated by the mayor and approved by the City Council. By state law, the charter amendment would go into effect 30 days after it passes.
“It’s a vote for us to all reimagine public safety and to move away from the type of systems that have not produced safety for all communities,” said Rashad Robinson, a spokesperson for Color of Change PAC, which organized in support of the ballot measure.
City Council member Jeremiah Ellison told ABC News that the police department would become a division of law enforcement within the Department of Public Safety.
“Question two is about are we locked into our current system of public safety, this police only model,” he said. “Are we locked into this model, that’s what voting no does, or do we have an ability to transform public safety into the future? That’s what a yes does.”
While supporters of the charter amendment connect it to the calls for police reform that followed George Floyd’s killing last year, opponents, including those who want reform, have said the measure is ill-defined and crafted without enough community input.
“We skipped over a lot of steps that would normally happen when you’re bringing about a change of this magnitude, and people are being sold a proposal that has no plan attached to it,” said Nekima Levy Armstrong, a Minneapolis civil rights attorney and activist. “There’s no certainty of what this new department will actually look like, how it will function and whether it will actually address the underlying public safety issues.”
Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo similarly criticized the charter amendment at a press conference on Wednesday.
“It will not eliminate tragic incidents between police and community from ever occurring in our city,” he said. “It will not suddenly change the culture of the police department that has been in existence for 155 years.”
Voters appear divided. North Minneapolis resident Tallaya Byers said that she supports the public safety charter amendment because she feels current police officers aren’t trained to handle certain situations, like those involving people who use drugs or have a mental illness.
“It will bring an element to where they can identify and analyze situations, to where people are not seen as such a threat,” Byers said. “For me, it’s going to help the police officers do their job, analyze situations, have a conversation. It’s that simple.”
Teto Wilson, a North Minneapolis resident who owns a barbershop, said that he plans to vote against the ballot measure because proponents haven’t elaborated on how it will affect people of color.
“I think policing needs to be radically reformed, and they’re proposing this charter amendment like it’s a radical change to policing, but how can you say that you haven’t told us what that means,” he said. “What’s going to be in this Department of Public Safety?”
He added: “They have not told us what it would look like other than, you know, we’re gonna have mental health workers that are going to show up on calls. I can’t see how that’s going to solve our problems.”
Some council members have pushed back on claims that they haven’t explained the proposal thoroughly. Council member Phillipe Cunningham tweeted in August that the city attorney advised council members to not engage on an outline of the ordinance that would explain the functions of the proposed Department of Public Safety because it could be seen as advocacy.
“A charter change is supposed to be as barebones as possible,” he said. “You’re not going to put a bunch of details that might need to be flexible in the charter, you’re going to put a skeleton language in the charter.”
Ellison added that amending the charter would not reallocate funds. According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the most recent police budget approved was $164 million, with an additional $11 million accessible if approved by the City Council.
Wilson said he was worried neighborhood crime may increase with fewer officers. Armstrong mentioned a similar concern.
“Many in our community feel as though we have already been underserved when it comes to having to call 911 or receiving an adequate response when there is a crisis,” she added.
Robinson, the Color of Change spokesperson, said that the charter amendment gives the city more tools for approaching public safety issues.
“The community has been doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result,” he said. “This is putting something new on the table and hoping to build some new ways of really bringing about safety and bringing about justice.”
But Armstrong, a local organizer, pushed back on that idea.
“It’s a false dichotomy between voting ‘no’ and keeping things the same, or voting ‘yes’ and agreeing to this new public safety charter amendment,” she said. “Really, we should have had a community engagement process. We should have had evidence-based practices and we should have had options in terms of what kind of structure, you know, the MPD should become, versus being boxed into voting ‘no’ or voting ‘yes.'”
ABC News’ Zachary Kiesch and Briana Stewart contributed to this report.
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — Fireworks boomed as visitors at Shanghai Disneyland waited for COVID-19 test results, surrounded by health care workers dressed from head to toe in white protective suits.
Shanghai Disneyland announced suddenly Sunday evening that it was no longer accepting any new visitors and was cooperating with an epidemiological investigation from another province. They then locked down the park as Shanghai city healthcare workers and police rushed to conduct a mass testing of the visitors already inside.
After testing everyone, the park will remain shut on Monday and Tuesday as it continues to cooperate with pandemic prevention efforts, Shanghai Disneyland said in a statement Monday.
The park’s sudden lockdown and temporary closure underscored just how serious China is about enforcing its zero-tolerance pandemic prevention strategy.
Globally, many countries have turned to living with the virus, whether out of choice or necessity, although as virus surges come and go, many face overburdened health care systems and additional deaths.
In China, which has kept its borders sealed since March 2020, the response has been to cut the chain of transmission of the virus as quickly as possible. With a strict quarantine-on-arrival policy, the authorities have aimed to stamp out each local outbreak to zero — helping China keep its reported totals to 4,636 deaths and 97,243 cases since the pandemic began.
The case that may have prompted Disneyland’s actions involved one person whose illness was discovered in the nearby city of Hangzhou and had visited the theme park on Saturday, local media reported.
For hours on Sunday night, tens of thousands of families and visitors were stuck in the park as they waited for a negative test result that would allow them to leave.
The city announced Monday morning that all 33,863 people who had been at the park over the weekend had tested negative for COVID-19. They will be asked to get tested again and their health will be monitored.
One Disney fan, who gave her family name as Chen, said she was inside the park when she heard an announcement at 5 p.m. that everyone must get tested.
“No one complained, and everyone behaved really well,” Chen said. She said she holds an annual membership and visits the park at least once a month. She is waiting at a hotel for her second COVID-19 test before she can go back to Beijing.
Shanghai Disneyland is just the latest example of how far Chinese authorities will go to stop the spread of the virus.
Last Thursday, Beijing Railway authorities told health authorities in Jinan to stop a train that was traveling from Shanghai to Beijing because one passenger was a close contact of someone who had tested positive for COVID-19.
Jinan health authorities then sent health care workers, transportation workers and police rushing to the station to quarantine the passengers and disinfect the train. They sent 212 people into centralized quarantine, including the close contact.
___
Associated Press news assistant Caroline Chen in Beijing contributed to this report.
___
This story corrects that Chen is waiting for her second test, not her second test result.
Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what’s clicking on Foxnews.com.
President Joe Biden once again appeared to call on a pre-approved list of reporters after meeting with the press following the G20 summit in Rome.
On Sunday, Biden discussed meeting with other world leaders in Rome to enact climate change initiatives. After his talk, he opened the floor to questions but admitted that he was told to start with the Associated Press.
“And now I’m happy to take some questions. And I’m told I should start with AP, Zeke Miller,” Biden said.
Biden has previously alluded to the idea that he had a list of pre-approved reporters to call on back in June following his Geneva visit with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“I’ll take your questions, and as usual, folks, they gave me a list of the people I’m going to call on,” Biden told the press.
U.S President Joe Biden speaks during a press conference in the G20 leaders’ summit in Rome, Italy October 31, 2021. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque (Reuters)
The same interaction continued in August when Biden took questions for the first time following the Kabul terror attacks that killed more than a dozen U.S. servicemen.
“Ladies and gentlemen, they gave me a list here. The first person I was instructed to call on was Kelly O’Donnell from NBC,” Biden said.
U.S President Joe Biden looks up during a press conference in the G20 leaders’ summit in Rome, Italy October 31, 2021. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque (Reuters)
This pattern has been noticed by reporters since Biden’s first formal press conference in January where he seemed to call on a pre-selected list of journalists from The Associated Press, The Washington Post, NBC News, Reuters, and Bloomberg News.
When Fox News originally asked about this pattern in January, White House press secretary Jen Psaki responded: “In an effort to make sure we are rotating through reporters in the pool, the president took questions from wire reporters, one print outlet and a few network correspondents today and will look forward to taking additional questions again soon.”
President Joe Biden speaks during the first formal press conference of his presidency in the East Room of the White House in Washington, D.C. on Thursday, March 25, 2021. (Photo by Oliver Contreras/Sipa USA) (Reuters)
This began what many people viewed as evidence that Biden is not actually in charge of when or where he can take questions from the press. He has frequently garnered criticism from journalists on both political parties for ignoring questions and refusing to respond to ongoing issues.
Average global temperatures have already risen about 1.1 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit), compared with preindustrial levels, locking in an immediate future of rising seas, destructive storms and floods, ferocious fires and more severe drought and heat.
At least 85 percent of the planet’s population has already begun to experience the effects of climate change, according to research published in the journal Nature Climate Change. This summer alone, more than 150 people died in violent flooding in Germany and Belgium. In central China, the worst flooding on record displaced 250,000 people. In Siberia, summer temperatures reached as high as 100 degrees, feeding enormous blazes that thawed what was once permanently frozen ground.
“Clearly, we are in a climate emergency. Clearly, we need to address it,” Patricia Espinosa, head of the U.N. climate agency, said Sunday as she welcomed delegates to Glasgow. “Clearly, we need to support the most vulnerable to cope. To do so successfully, greater ambition is now critical.”
If the planet heats even a half-degree more, it could lead to water and food shortages, mass extinctions of plants and animals, and more deadly heat and storms, scientists say.
Sara Noordeen is the chief climate envoy for the Maldives, an archipelago in the Indian Ocean. Most of the country comprises coral islands that sit only about three feet above sea level. Rising seas as a result of climate change mean the Maldives, which has been inhabited for thousands of years, could be submerged within a few generations.
Mr. Biden’s election has brought “a lot of hope” to countries like hers, Ms. Noordeen said. But, she added, “he needs that legislation to go through as well.”
(CNN)Kyle Rittenhouse, the armed Illinois teenager who killed two people and wounded another during unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last summer, is set to go on trial Monday on homicide charges, in a case that will test the distinction between self-defense and vigilante killings.
More than 5 million people have died from Covid-19 in less than two years, as the world continues to battle the highly infectious delta strain of the virus and watches for new mutations.
There have been 5,000,425 Covid-19 related deaths recorded across the globe, according to data collected by John Hopkins University early Monday. In the U.S., 745,836 people have died due to Covid-19, making it the country with the highest number of recorded deaths.
The coronavirus pandemic, which first emerged in China in late 2019, continues to take a deadly toll across the world.
It comes as many countries lift pandemic restrictions and end lockdowns that were imposed, to varying degrees, throughout 2020 in a bid to stop the spread of the virus.
The rapid development of Covid vaccines, which are clinically proven to greatly reduce severe infection, hospitalization and death from the coronavirus, has helped to dramatically reduce the number of people dying from Covid, particularly in Western nations where the vaccination programs are at an advanced stage.
Nonetheless, there have been increasing concerns in recent months about a rise in infections, hospitalizations and deaths as winter approaches not only among the unvaccinated, who are far more at risk of serious complications from Covid, but also among the elderly (who were among the first to be vaccinated) as vaccine immunity wanes over time.
Delta plus
The Covid-19 virus has gone through several significant mutations that have caused it to spread faster, sparking new waves of infections in the U.S., Europe and Asia.
Two mutations, now named the alpha and delta variants, have gone on to be dominant globally. A new mutation of the delta variant is currently being assessed to see if it could make the virus even more infectious.
This so-called “delta plus” variant is being reported in an increasing number of countries, including the U.S., U.K. and Australia.
Last week, the WHO said it was closely tracking the delta subvariant, known formally AY.4.2, and that it had been reported in 42 countries so far.
“An increase in AY.4.2 sequence submissions has been observed since July,” the World Health Organization said in its last weekly epidemiological update. The majority of cases stemming from the AY.4.2 variant have been detected in the U.K., and these are increasing in frequency, it said.
“A gradual increase in the proportional contribution of AY.4.2 has been observed [in the U.K.]; accounting for an estimated 5.9% of overall Delta cases reported in the week beginning 3 October 2021,” the WHO said.
It said epidemiological and laboratory studies are ongoing to assess if AY.4.2 makes the virus more transmissible or make antibodies against the virus less effective.
This is a breaking news story, please check for further updates.
An American Airlines flight attendant had broken bones after a passenger attacked her last week.
Transportation Secretary Buttigieg told CNN a “no-fly list” should be an option for such passengers.
Air crews have been dealing with a sharp increase in violence and unruly behavior this year.
Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg said Sunday that adding unruly passengers to a “no-fly list” should be an option after the latest incident involving the assault of a flight attendant.
On CNN’s State of the Union, Dana Bash asked Buttigieg if there should be a “federal no-fly list for people who behave like this.”
“I think that should be on the table,” Buttigieg said. “It is completely unacceptable to mistreat, abuse, or even disrespect flight crews.”
“There is absolutely no excuse for this kind of treatment of flight crews in the air, or any of the essential workers from bus drivers to air crews, who get people to where they need to be.”
He said the FAA, which is housed in the transportation department, is proposing harsh penalties and fines for those who disrupt flights. In August, the agency said it had already fined unruly passengers a total of $1 million this year.
Flight attendants have said they are exhausted and afraid as a result of the passenger behavior they’re dealing with on the job. Several told Insider’s Allana Akhtar earlier this year the “unprecedented” rise in violence has taken a toll on their mental health.
At least three people are dead and 27 were injured in shootings at Halloween parties across the country this weekend, authorities confirmed
In an overnight shooting at a suburban Chicago Halloween party, two people were killed and more than a dozen were injured, authorities said Sunday. A patrol sergeant heard roughly a dozen gunshots after 12:30 a.m. in Joliet, Illinois, which is about 45 miles southwest of Chicago, according to the Will County Sheriff’s Office.
The sergeant went to a home and found more than 100 people fleeing a party. Additional officers arrived and found victims in the backyard and at nearby homes, and more shots were heard nearby, authorities said.
The Will County Sheriff’s Office said more than a dozen people were hospitalized. Two were confirmed dead and four others were seriously hurt. Police estimated about 200 people attended a Halloween party at the home and the shooting occurred outside near a DJ booth set up in the backyard.
Authorities said it appeared the shooting happened from “an elevated position on a porch looking down over the crowd.”
In eastern Texas, a shooting late Saturday left a 20-year-old man dead and nine wounded. Around 200 people were at a party at an event center in Texarkana, Texas, when gunfire erupted, according to police. The suspected shooter, Keuntae McElroy, 21, of Texarkana, Arkansas, turned himself in Sunday morning.
Meanwhile, four people were shot and wounded in a large house party in Albuquerque, New Mexico around 1 a.m. Saturday, according to police. The victims at the party suffered gunshot wounds to their legs, although police said none of the injuries were life-threatening.
Albuquerque Police Chief Harold Medina said it’s the second time in two months that large house parties resulted in a barrage of gunfire.
A 19-year-old woman told police she was shot in the left leg at a Halloween party in a shopping center in Columbus, Ohio. No arrests have been made in connection to the shooting.
In Pasadena, California, north of Los Angeles, police were looking for three men after a fight at a Halloween party left multiple people injured, including a woman who was shot. A few hundred people attended the party at a commercial building.
At around 2:30 a.m. Saturday, one woman was shot once and another was struck with the blunt end of a pistol after a fight broke out among a group of people, said Pasadena police Lt. Mario Ortiz.
The three men suspected in the shooting fled the scene, injuring a few others as they left, Ortiz said.
ABC7 reported in 2019 that the city of Los Angeles sees an average of about 150 more crimes on Halloween than on a normal day, a 26% increase, according to 2014-2018 data from the Los Angeles Police Department.
Emergency workers and police officers are seen at a train station in Tokyo on Sunday, after a man brandishing a knife on a commuter train stabbed several passengers before starting a fire.
Kyodo News via AP
hide caption
toggle caption
Kyodo News via AP
Emergency workers and police officers are seen at a train station in Tokyo on Sunday, after a man brandishing a knife on a commuter train stabbed several passengers before starting a fire.
Kyodo News via AP
TOKYO — A man dressed in a Joker costume and brandishing a knife stabbed at least one passenger on a Tokyo commuter train before starting a fire, injuring passengers and sending people scrambling to escape and jumping from windows, police and witnesses said.
The Tokyo Fire Department said 17 passengers were injured, including three seriously. Not all of them were stabbed and most of the other injuries were not serious, the fire department said.
The attacker, whom police identified as 24-year-old Kyota Hattori, was arrested on the spot after Sunday’s attack and was being investigated on suspicion of attempted murder, the Tokyo metropolitan police department said Monday.
The attacker, riding an express train headed to Tokyo’s Shinjuku station, abruptly took out a knife and stabbed a seated passenger — a man in his 70s — in the right chest, police said. Injury details of other 16 passengers are still being investigated, police said.
Police said he told authorities that he wanted to kill people and get the death penalty. Nippon Television said he also said that he used an earlier train stabbing case as an example.
Witnesses told police that the attacker was wearing a bright outfit — a green shirt, a blue suit and a purple coat — like the Joker villain in Batman comics or someone going to a Halloween event, according to media reports.
A video posted by a witness on social media showed the suspect seated, with his leg crossed and smoking in one of the train cars, presumably after the attack.
Tokyo police officials said the attack happened inside the Keio train near the Kokuryo station.
Television footage showed a number of firefighters, police officials and paramedics rescuing the passengers, many of whom escaped through train windows. In one video, passengers were running from another car that was in flames.
NHK said the suspect, after stabbing passengers, poured a liquid resembling oil from a plastic bottle and set fire, which partially burned seats.
Shunsuke Kimura, who filmed the video, told NHK that he saw passengers desperately running and while he was trying to figure out what happened, he heard an explosive noise and saw smoke wafting. He also jumped from a window but fell on the platform and hurt his shoulder.
“Train doors were closed and we had no idea what was happening, and we jumped from the windows,” Kimura said. “It was horrifying.”
The attack was the second involving a knife on a Tokyo train in three months.
In August, the day before the Tokyo Olympics closing ceremony, a 36-year-old man stabbed 10 passengers on a commuter train in Tokyo in a random burst of violence. The suspect later told police that he wanted to attack women who looked happy.
While shooting deaths are rare in Japan, the country has had a series of high-profile knife killings in recent years.
In 2019, a man carrying two knives attacked a group of schoolgirls waiting at a bus stop just outside Tokyo, killing two people and injuring 17 before killing himself. In 2018, a man killed a passenger and injuring two others in a knife attack on a bullet train. In 2016, a former employee at a home for the disabled killed 19 people and injured more than 20.
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki says she has contracted COVID-19 and is experiencing mild symptoms.
In a statement on Sunday, Psaki said she was last in contact with United States President Joe Biden on Tuesday, when she met him in the White House, where they were more than 6 feet apart and wearing masks.
Biden, who is tested frequently, last tested negative on Saturday, according to the White House.
Psaki, 42, did not accompany Biden on his trip abroad to Rome this weekend for the Group of 20 summit and Glasgow, Scotland, on Monday for a United Nations climate summit.
Psaki said she had planned to travel with the president but scrapped the trip just as he was set to depart for Europe after learning that members of her household had tested positive for COVID-19.
“Since then, I have quarantined and tested negative [via PCR] for COVID on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday,” Psaki said in the statement. “However, today, I tested positive for COVID.”
Psaki, who is fully vaccinated, said she is only exhibiting mild symptoms.
“While I have not had close contact in person with the President or senior members of the White House staff since Wednesday – and tested negative for four days after that last contact – I am disclosing today’s positive test out of an abundance of transparency,” the press secretary said.
White House staff and others travelling with the president have been undergoing daily tests for COVID-19 since before departing Washington, DC, and are all fully vaccinated. Many officials have also received booster shots due to the close-quarters environment and frequent travel associated with their work.
Biden got his COVID-19 booster on September 27, shortly after federal regulators approved the third dose for many Americans.
Biden has been accompanied on the trip by Principal Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
Psaki is the most high-profile person in the Biden administration known to have contracted COVID-19 since he took office in January.
She said she would return to work in person after a 10-day quarantine and following a negative rapid test.
This is a widget area - If you go to "Appearance" in your WP-Admin you can change the content of this box in "Widgets", or you can remove this box completely under "Theme Options"
