Dick Harpootlian’s brutal cross-examination of state’s crime scene expert gets graphic
Dick Harpootlian Monday grilled the SLED special agent who oversaw evidence collection at the crime scene after the murders of Paul and Maggie Murdaugh.
“Wasn’t his brain laying at his feet?” Harpootlian asked Worley.
“It was beside his left leg,” she replied. Paul’s bloody footprints were found near his body likely when he stumbled toward the door of the feedroom after the first shotgun blast.
The second shot blew off his head. “His brain flew out,” Harpootlian said. “There’s hair and blood and pieces of skull in the ceiling around him.”
Harpootlian asked Melinda Worley, a tire and shoe impression expert, whether a deputy’s bloody footprint found near Paul’s body was “preservation of the scene to your standards?”
“Not exactly, no,” she replied. The bloody footprint that didn’t belong to Paul likely came from a deputy on the scene.
“Do you know what other evidence they may have destroyed?” Harpootlian asked of Colleton County deputies, who were the first responders on the scene.
“I have no idea,” she answered.
Harpootlian also confronted her with a photo that showed what may have been a footprint on Maggie’s calf.
He questioned why there was only one photo of this, and there’s no scale indicating the impression’s size.
“This was not done according to procedure?” asked Harpootlian.
“I did not know about this on the scene,” she replied before acknowledging she was present at the crime scene when the photograph was taken. At the time, no one appreciated that it was a footwear impression, she said.
Worley added that even if she had multiple photos of the suspected footprint, she wouldn’t have been able to “attribute it to a type of footwear.”
The witness also conceded that Alex’s white T-shirt was not completely clean and had what appeared to be dirt smudges.
1. Scores of Russian soldiers killed in Donetsk missile attack
Scores of Russian soldiers have been killed in a Ukrainian strike on the occupied city of Makiivka, Russia’s defence ministry admitted on Monday.
Kyiv claimed that around 400 Russian soldiers died and 300 more were injured in the incident, which happened at a temporary accommodation centre in the eastern Donetsk region.
Russia acknowledged that 63 troops were killed, making it one of the deadliest strikes in the Ukraine war so far.
Euronews is unable to independently verify either casualty claim.
A spokesman for Russia’s defence ministry said four missiles hit the structure but did not give a date for the attack.
Nationalist bloggers in Russia, who yield a sizable influence, have called on military commanders to be punished for allegedly housing soldiers alongside an ammunition dump.
They claimed the huge destruction was because ammo was stored near a barracks, despite top brass knowing it was within range of Ukrainian rockets.
Russian-backed Donetsk official Daniil Bezsonov said US-made HIMARS rockets hit the centre on 1 January.
“Apparently, the high command is still not aware of the capabilities of this weapon (HIMARS),” he wrote on Telegram. “I hope that the perpetrators who made the decision to use this facility will be punished. In the Donbas, there are enough abandoned facilities with strong buildings and basements where you can disperse the placement of personnel. And if everything is busy, then for a long time it was possible to dig bunkers with mine construction equipment.”
2. Russia launches more overnight attacks on Ukraine’s capital
A new airstrike targeted Kyiv in the early hours of Monday, according to authorities in the Ukrainian capital.
Ukraine claimed it shot down tens of drones launched by Russia n an unprecedented third straight night of air strikes against civilian targets in Kyiv and other cities.
Officials in Ukraine said their success in shooting down these targets proved that Moscow’s tactic of hammering the country’s energy infrastructure was increasingly a failure, amid moves by Kyiv to strengthen its air defences.
The attack comes after a New Year’s Day marked by dozens of Russian strikes that left at least four people dead and 50 injured in the capital and elsewhere in the country.
Russia continues to target critical infrastructure, claiming it was aiming for unmanned aircraft manufacturing facilities.
It has launched dozens of Iranian-made ‘Shahid’ (martyr) drones, prompting the EU to sanction Tehran.
Russia has been attacking Ukraine’s energy infrastructure for months, with millions losing power amid sub-zero wintry temperatures in the country.
3. Europe gas prices at their lowest since start of war
Europe’s wholesale natural gas price fell to its lowest level since the start of the war in Ukraine on Monday, continuing its decline on the back of a relatively warm winter.
The benchmark contract for the continent, the TTF on the Dutch market, fell another 4.67% to €72.75 per megawatt-hour (MWh) for delivery in February.
At around 09:35 Monday morning, the price the lowest since 21 February. That’s compared to its peak in August 2022, when it sat at around €342 per MWh.
Gas prices began to rise in the autumn of 2021, with the start of a reduction in Russian gas deliveries to Europe, then took a very sharp upturn following the invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022. Since then, gas pipelines between Russia and Europe have almost all shut down.
Volumes traded on Monday were weak as the main commodity market, London, was closed.
In France, the price of wholesale electricity for delivery in 2023, which had exceeded €1000 per MWh at the end of August, fell to €240 on Friday, the lowest since April.
But these variations in wholesale prices are not directly reflected in the prices charged to consumers, as electricity suppliers smooth their rates, especially during this period when prices can jump from one day to the next.
4. Russia risks causing new year IT worker flight with remote work law
Russia’s IT sector risks losing more workers in the New Year because of planned legislation on remote working, as authorities try to lure back some of the tens of thousands who have gone to work abroad.
IT workers featured prominently among the many Russians who fled after Moscow sent its army into Ukraine on February 24 and the hundreds of thousands who followed when a military call-up began in September.
The government estimates that 100,000 IT specialists currently work for Russian companies from overseas locations.
Now, legislation is being mooted for early next year that could ban remote working for some professions.
Some lawmakers, fearful that more Russian IT professionals could end up working in NATO countries and inadvertently sharing sensitive security information, have proposed banning some IT specialists from leaving Russia.
5. Ukrainian drone knocks power out in Russian region
A Ukrainian drone attack hit an electricty facilty in southwest Russia on Monday, cutting off power for temporarily, according a regional govenor.
Ukraine’s ariel strike damaged an electricity facility in Russia’s southwest Bryansk region on the Ukrainian border, cutting power for several hours.
“A Ukrainian drone attack was carried out this morning on the Klimovsky district,” said regional govenor Alexander Bogomaz on Telegram.
“As a result of the strike, a power supply facility was damaged,” he added.
Bogomaz said the power supply in the district had been fully restored around 12 hours later.
Euronews could not able to independently verify the report.
Russia has accused Ukraine of conducting a number of high profile strikes in Russian-controlled territory, such as on a Russian airbase on the Crimean penisular, though Ukraine did not claim responsibility for these attacks.
Boxes of petitions against proposed reforms that solar energy advocates claim would handicap the rooftop solar market are displayed before being taken to the governor’s office during a rally at the Capitol in Sacramento on Dec. 8, 2021. Photo by Rich Pedroncelli, AP Photo
The California Public Utilities Commission today overhauled the state’s rooftop solar regulations, reducing payments to homeowners for excess power but providing nearly a billion dollars in incentives to encourage more solar projects for low-income homes.
Commissioners called the new rules — adopted unanimouslyafter hours of highly charged public comments that were almost entirely opposed — a much-needed course-correction to California’s 27-year-old residential solar rules.
Both the power companies and the solar industry criticized the new rules that outline details of the financial incentives to encourage people to build rooftop solar. Utilities did not get all the concessions they hoped for to lower bills for non-solar customers. And solar developers say the rules will discourage people from installing solar panels.
A victory for the solar industry came earlier this year, when the commission dropped an unpopular plan to charge homeowners an 8% per kilowatt-hour tax for newsolar systems.
In remarks before the vote, commissioners acknowledged how divisive the matter has been. Commissioner John Reynolds said the decision was a “heavy one,” saying “nothing in energy policy is black and white, and nothing in this decision has been.”
Commissioner Clifford Rechtschaffen said the agency faced “competing and challenging priorities.” He called it a “responsible and forward-looking decision.”
The new regulations will:
For new customers, reduce the amount utilities pay them for excess power by at least 75% compared to current rates, starting in April. The change would not apply to residents with existing solar systems.
Fund $900 million in new incentive payments to residents to help them purchase rooftop solar systems. Two thirds of the funds, $630 million, will be set aside for low-income households. The remainder provides funding for paired solar-battery storage systems.
Set rates that aim to shift all consumers’ use of power to the times of day that improve grid reliability.
California’s original rules, called Net Metering, were implemented in 1995. They established a framework for utilities to buy excess solar energy from homeowners and supplement power to the grid.
The overhaul comes as California needs to lean more heavily on renewable energy to meet state targets to produce zero-carbon electricity by 2045 and end use of fossil fuels.
About 1.5 million rooftop solar systems are installed on California’s houses, schools and small businesses. About 14% of California’s total electricity comes from large-scale solar projects; another 10% of the state’s power comes from rooftop residential solar.
Solar companies and environmental groups say the policy could undermine the state’s booming solar industry by raising the costs of operating panels on homes and small businesses. They say that in states where similar rate shifts have been adopted, solar system installation has plummeted.
Bernadette Del Chiaro, executive director of the California Solar & Storage Association, called the decision a backward step.
“The CPUC’s final proposal is a loser for California on many levels,” she said in a statement. “For the solar industry, it will result in business closures and the loss of green jobs. For middle class and working class neighborhoods where solar is growing fastest, it puts clean energy further out of reach.”
Woody Hastings, The Climate Center’s energy program manager, said “California needs more solar power — not less.”
“Just as more middle and lower-income Californians are putting solar panels on their rooftops, the new rules adopted by the CPUC today threaten to slow the growth of clean energy across the state,” he said.
The years-long fight was played out across social media and opinion pages. The complex process of revising the rules elicited tens of thousands of public comments and was, at one point, arbitrated by Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Today’s meeting began with three hours of lively public comment. Callers to the virtual meeting gave the five commissioners an earful, with the vast majority asking the panel to vote no.
Some callers made the point that the provision to nudge consumers to install solar systems with batteries will have the unintended consequence of quashing new solar systems because the cost of storage systems is beyond the financial reach of many homeowners. Only about 15% of current rooftop systems currently have storage, the commission said.
Many of the arguments on either side focus on fairness. Utility companies say demand for rooftop solar is strong enough in California that the industry doesn’t need more help. They say the retail rate they pay to solar customers for their excess power is too high and doesn’t reflect the value of their power, which is produced during daytime hours.
Because residents and businesses with solar panels generally have smaller energy bills, they contribute less to a utility company’s fixed costs, such as transmission and distribution networks, which are passed on to ratepayers. As a result, non-solar residents, including low-income residents and renters, carry more of the cost burden.
“This final decision was a missed opportunity that will prolong the harm to low-income Californians and renters for decades to come,” said Kathy Fairbanks, spokesperson for Affordable Clean Energy for All, a coalition that includes the state’s three largest utility companies.
Reverend Frank Jackson, chief executive officer of Village Solutions Foundation, a community development corporation, said “the CPUC got this vote very wrong.”
“Low-income families are struggling to buy gas, put food on their table, and pay for everything, including utilities. Continuing to pay hundreds more a year to subsidize mostly wealthy Californians is unfair,” he said.
The solar rules increased bills for customers who do not have rooftop solar by $3.37 billion in 2021, growing to $4.5 billion so far this year, according to the CPUC’s Public Advocates Office.
Solar “customers should pay their fair share of grid, wildfire, and other related costs,” the public advocates office said in an analysis. “Customers with rooftop solar depend on the … grid to use electricity when their rooftop solar systems are not generating electricity. The compensation that (solar) customers receive is greater than the value of the energy.”
Matt Baker, director of the office, said San Diego Gas & Electric customers without rooftop solar pay about 20% of their bill to cover those fixed costs; for Pacific Gas & Electric customers it’s 12% and about 11% for Southern California Edison ratepayers.
Solar advocates dispute the commission’s cost shift equations, challenging the details and pointing out that such calculations fail to consider the benefits of rooftop solar, including the need to construct costly infrastructure such as power plants.
Advocates say the widespread adoption of rooftop systems provides a valuable service to both the grid and the battle against climate change. They call the commission’s new policy a “solar cliff.”
Rather than viewing the new policy as punishing the solar industry, Baker said the new direction highlights the success of solar adoption in California.
“They have succeeded, we won, it’s amazing,” Baker said in an interview. “We have outgrown the subsidies for a solar-only system and now it’s time to pivot to solar plus storage.”
The commission said the rules would save residents with solar-plus-battery systems about $130 on their monthly bills.
The CPUC is required under state law to update its net metering rules, which triggered a prolonged, complex and politically thorny process. The commission’s proposal earlier this year was attacked by both the solar industry and utilities as unfair and inadequate.
The changes take into account evolving consumer habits: Heavy power use has shifted to evenings, when people return home and plug in a myriad of electronic devices.
This demand shift is reflected in the price of power and the availability of solar energy. Solar power is abundant during the day and the cost of electricity is about 5 cents per kilowatt-hour. In the evening, when the sun goes down and demand soars, the price for power can increase more than 20-fold, officials say.
The commission’s decision to reduce the amount utilities pay for excess power is driven by a revised cost calculator. The lower rates paid to rooftop solar owners take into account the real value of the power, the commission said, which is produced during the day when electricity is cheaper.
The program had the right intentions when it was established in 1995, Baker said, encouraging adoption of rooftop solar and compensating those residents with a retail rate for power they provided during the day, when the grid carried its heaviest load.
“At the time that was being done it was fair and equitable,” Baker said, but in ensuing years costs to install solar have dropped dramatically.
Solar and other sources of renewable energy are gradually supplanting power derived from coal and gas, which are fossil fuels that the state aims to banish from the grid by 2045.
While drought, wildfires, heatwaves and utility blackouts have prolonged the life of some natural gas-fired power plants, the state is inching toward that goal: On May 8, 100% of California’s power grid was running on renewable energy for a few hours, a record.
CalMatters.org is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media venture explaining California policies and politics.
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Gov. DeSantis urges Florida residents in Hurricane Ian path to evacuate: ‘This is your last chance’
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis provided an update to residents on Hurricane Ian during a presser with other emergency response officials late Tuesday evening.
DeSantis warned residents to exercise caution or to leave their homes if they are expected to be directly impacted by the storm.
“You need to evacuate now,” the Republican governor warned as residents as the storm is set to make landfall tomorrow afternoon or evening. “Now is the time to act.”
“This is a lot of nasty weather we’re in store for over the next few days,” he said, noting the “strong Category 3” is located about 170 miles south-southwest of Punta Gorda, Charlotte County.
Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Kevin Guthrie added: “This storm will only continue to intensify. If you want to leave, as the governor has said, now is your last chance.”
The governor warned the severe storm was moving north at 10 mph and had sustained winds of 120 mph.
“The storm has had severe impacts in south Florida and those impacts are going to continue throughout the whole state,” he said.
DeSantis said the government has made 176 shelters available, including 50 special needs shelters, across the state to house those displaced by the storm.
“More will likely be added,” he said. “There are now over 30,000 personnel stationed and standing by to help with power restoration,” the governor added.
“Right now, there are about 8,000 customers without power. But, that number will likely be in the millions shortly,” he predicted.
DeSantis said he expected the storm to downgrade when it makes landfall over Florida, but cautioned it would still bring enormous rainfall. The storm is projected to cross over Florida and enter the Atlantic Ocean, where it could travel north and impact other states.
The severe storm has already caused at least two radar-indicated tornadoes in the state, including those in Palm Beach and more possible tornadoes in Broward County.
“Tornado watches are in effect in central and south Florida until 5 a.m.,” DeSantis said.
Hurricane Ian is expected to leave Florida on Friday morning.
Former President Donald Trump said the FBI demanded that all security cameras be turned off during the Mar-a-Lago raid last week.
“What is that all about?” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. “We said no!”
Lawrence Jones: Justice Department owes Americans ‘some type of explaining’ over Trump raid
‘Lawrence Jones Cross Country’ host Lawrence Jones joined ‘Fox & Friends’ to discuss the latest on the FBI’s Trump raid and Joe Rogan’s thoughts on the motive behind the incident.
Alina Habba: I do not believe this judge will reveal the affidavit
Attorney for former
President Donald Trump Alina Habba shares her insight on how the judge in the case of the Mar-a-Lago raid will treat proceedings on “Jesse Watters Primetime.”
For more on this story: Alina Habba: I do not believe this judge will reveal the affidavit
What the affidavit for the FBI’s Trump raid may reveal: Alan Dershowitz
Harvard law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz described the questions that the affidavit in the FBI’s Trump raid may answer Tuesday on “Hannity.”
For more on this story: What the affidavit for the FBI’s Trump raid may reveal: Alan Dershowitz
Trump troubles could still backfire on his critics, while Biden briefly breaks through
Is the news really all bad for Donald Trump?
Well, mostly. But there are two key reasons why the Mar-a-Lago mess might wind up boosting him politically.
For more on this story: Trump troubles could still backfire on his critics, while Biden briefly breaks through
Trump blasts Liz Cheney after primary loss to Harriet Hagerman: ‘The people have spoken’
Former President Donald Trump took a victory lap on social media after his endorsed congressional candidate in Wyoming Harriet Hageman defeated Rep. Liz Cheney in the state’s Republican primary.
In a series of posts, Trump applauded the “very decisive win” and lambasted Cheney, who he described as “spiteful” and “a fool.” He also thanked Wyoming voters for the “very decisive win.”
“Congratulations to Harriet Hageman on her great and very decisive WIN in Wyoming,” Trump wrote on TRUTH Social shortly after the race was called. “This is a wonderful result for America, and a complete rebuke of the Unselect Committee of political Hacks and Thugs.”
For more on this story: Trump blasts Liz Cheney after primary loss to Harriet Hagerman: ‘The people have spoken’
Trump says DOJ, FBI returned passports, makes comparison to ‘common criminal’
Former President Trump on Tuesday said the Department of Justice and FBI had returned his passports.
“Thank you! Unfortunately, when they Raided my home, Mar-a-Lago, 8 days ago, they just opened their arms and grabbed everything in sight, much as a common criminal would do,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post. “This shouldn’t happen in America!”
CBS’ Norah O’Donnell sets off uproar with tweet about FBI not having Trump passports
CBS News anchor Norah O’Donnell took heat for a tweet that stated the FBI did not have former President Trump’s passports, with critics blasting her for leaving up a tweet after it was seemingly debunked.
Trump alleged the FBI “stole” three of his passports on Monday, calling it an “assault on a political opponent at a level never seen before in our country.”
Read more.
Former Trump adviser Mick Mulvaney says he hopes Trump does not run in 2024
Former acting chief of staff for President Donald Trump Mick Mulvaney said he hopes Trump does not run in 2024 in a Monday evening appearance on Newsnation’s, “Banfield.”
“I don’t think we should be offering Donald Trump,” Mulvaney told anchor Ashleigh Banfield. “I also think it’s also a time actually for the next generation to take over anyway.”
Mulvaney, who resigned from his White House position in January 2021 citing the Jan. 6 riots, said he would have a “hard time” voting for the former president if Trump were the 2024 Republican candidate.
For more on this story: Former Trump adviser Mick Mulvaney says he hopes Trump does not run in 2024
Judge schedules hearing on unsealing FBI Mar-a-Lago search records
U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart scheduled an in-person hearing on Thursday in Florida regarding the unsealing of FBI records related to last week’s raid of former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home.
The hearing is set to be held Aug. 18 in the West Palm Beach Division. Reinhart will discuss with the government and Trump’s legal team the motion to unseal the search warrant materials and attachments—the affidavit for the search warrant likely is included in that material.
Media organizations are asking Reinhart to unseal the affidavit despite objections by the Department of Justice. Reinhart has not ruled on the matter yet.
For more on this story: Judge schedules hearing on unsealing FBI Mar-a-Lago search records
Washington Post column: Midterms looking ‘much better’ for Democrats because of Trump
After months of polling that showed a red wave could be imminent, Democrats could see a possible comeback in the midterms, according to a Washington Post column.
“Suddenly, the 2022 midterms are looking much better for Democrats, and there’s a simple explanation: Donald Trump is back on the ballot, metaphorically speaking,” columnist Dana Milbank wrote on Monday.
Describing the recent shift as a “historical anomaly,” Milbank noted that momentum has shifted in the direction of an incumbent president’s party late in the game of an election year—for the first time in modern history.
For more on this story:
Washington Post column: Midterms looking ‘much better’ for Democrats because of Trump
Judge schedules hearing on potentially unsealing FBI Mar-a-Lago search records
A Florida judge has scheduled a hearing Thursday in Florida regarding the matter of unsealing FBI records related to last week’s raid of Mar-a-Lago.
President Trump’s team
, on the Truth Social network, called for the unredacted release of the affidavit related to the search, but the Justice Department has opposed doing so, arguing that it will jeopardize the ongoing investigation.
Trump’s vacation plans were nearly thwarted after FBI seized his passports
Former President Donald Trump nearly had his summer vacation plans thwarted after the FBI raided his Mar-a-Lago resort and took his passports.
The FBI initially seized three passports from Trump, two of which were expired. The organization then contacted the former president and returned them on Tuesday. Trump reportedly plans to visit one of his golf resorts in the U.K. in the coming weeks.
Trump posted about the loss of his passports prior to having them returned on Monday. He incorrectly stated that only one of the passports was expired.
For more on this story: Trump’s vacation plans were nearly thwarted after FBI seized his passports
Neil Parrott takes aim at David Trone, says he’s not worried about primary challenger’s endorsements
Neil Parrott, a member of the Maryland House of Delegates, aims to defeat his challengers in Tuesday’s GOP primary election to represent the Sixth District, telling Fox News Digital that he is not concerned with the “out of state” endorsements that one of his primary challengers has received.
Asked whether he was worried about endorsements that have been given to Matthew Foldi, a 25-year-old journalist hoping to garner the GOP nomination to represent the Sixth District, Parrott said, “Not at all.”
Foldi has racked up a number of endorsements from prominent Republicans, including ones from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., House GOP Conference chairwoman Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., Maryland GOP Gov. Larry Hogan, and former Ambassador to Germany Richard Grenell. Last week, Foldi received endorsements from Donald Trump Jr. and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.
“His endorsements are people out of the state,” Parrott said. “He’s getting endorsements from people out in California, but that doesn’t impact this district. People care about their pocketbooks, they care about who is invested in this area, western Maryland. He’s not from here.”
Parrott also took aim at incumbent Democratic Rep. David Trone, who he is likely to face in the November general election should he advance from the primary on Tuesday.
“He doesn’t live in the district. Never has,” Parrott said of Trone. “He’s just not from here. He can’t relate to the people in this district. He’s not one of us. He’s a D.C., inside the beltway elitist and that doesn’t do a good job representing western and central Maryland.”
“David Trone thinks that he can come in here and buy this seat,” Parrott added. “He dumped in $2 million a couple months ago and this last month he’s dumped in $10 million. … His support is weak.”
Air Force One arrives at King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Breaking News
Biden reverses Trump policy on aid to Palestinians, fails to condemn terror wave against Israelis
JERUSALEM, Israel – President Biden reaffirmed his commitment to a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians and announced plans to bolster U.S. financial aid to the Palestinian people, reversing multiple policies implemented by former President Trump.
After spending time with Israeli leaders in Jerusalem, Biden met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and other top Palestinian officials before visiting the Church of the Nativity, the place Christians cite as the birthplace of Jesus.
During his comments, the president touched upon his administration’s plans to implement a series of economic and confidence building measures aimed at improving daily life for Palestinian people living in the West Bank and Gaza, but he stopped short of condemning Palestinian terrorism that has hampered peace efforts in the past and sparked countless rounds of violence with Israel.
The president also said the U.S. would increase financial contributions to the controversial U.N. agency, UNRWA, that supports and advocates for Palestinian refugees, adding $200 million to its budget to become the largest donor country.
Biden stresses commitment to two-state solution in meeting with Palestinian President Abbas
President Biden stressed his continued commitment to the two-state solution in a Friday meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank.
The Palestinian people deserve a state of their own with an “equal measure of freedom and dignity” as Israel, he said.
He said while the goal of a two-state solution may seem “far away” and Americans can feel the “grief and frustration” of Palestinians, the U.S. will “never give up on the work of peace.”
The U.S. “won’t give up on trying to bring Israel and Palestine closer together,” he added.
He said there “must be an end to the violence” that has devastated “too many families.”
Developing Story
Iran military spokesperson: Biden will ‘pay the price’ after saying he’d use force as ‘last resort’
Iranian military spokesperson Shakarchi says US President Biden will “pay the price” after saying he would use force as “last resort” to keep Iran from nuclear weapons.
Iranian Armed Forces Spokesman, Brigadier General Abul-Fadl Shakarchi: “The use of the term force against #Iran by the US President and the Prime Minister of the Zionist entity is a psychological war for which the enemy will pay.”
Translated From ARABIC: المتحدث باسم القوات المسلحة الإيرانية العميد أبو الفضل شكارتشي: استخدام رئيس أميركا ورئيس وزراء الكيان الصهيوني مصطلح القوة ضد #إيران حرب نفسية سيدفع العدو ثمنها جاده إيران Jadeh Iran @jadehiran
Israeli PM Lapid thanks Biden for ‘commitment’ to Israel, wishes him ‘success’ in Saudi Arabia
Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid on Friday thanked President Biden for his visit to Israel this week.
He said that after the leaders signed the “Jerusalem Declaration,” “deepening America’s commitment to Israel’s security, the fight against the Iranian nuclear program and the advancing of normalization initiatives of the Abraham Accords and the Negev Summit,” Saudi Arabia has opened Saudi airspace to Israeli airlines.
“I would like to thank the President of the United States, Joe Biden, for a visit that moved our entire country and for his commitment to Israel’s military and diplomatic strength,” he said.
He wished Biden “success” at the Jeddah summit in Saudi Arabia and thanked Saudi leadership “for the opening of Saudi airspace. This is only the first step. We will continue working with necessary caution, for the sake of Israel’s economy, security and the good of our citizens.”
Biden says US is giving $100 million to East Jerusalem hospital network that treats Palestinians
President Biden spoke at Augusta Victoria Hospital in East Jerusalem Friday morning. The hospital is part of the East Jerusalem Hospital Network, which Biden called the “backbone of the Palestinian healthcare system.”
Dr. Fadi Atrash, CEO of Augusta Victoria Hospital, introduced Biden and called his visit a “courageous statement of support for the Palestinian people.”
The president announced that the U.S. would give an additional $100 million to the hospital system which he said he hoped would ensure its “long-term financial stability.”
He added that Israelis and Palestinians both deserve equal measures of “dignity” and said the U.S. will continue to work with Palestinian leadership.
White House won’t say if Biden will bring up Jamal Khashoggi in Saudi meeting
The White House won’t say whether President Biden will bring up Jamal Khashoggi’s name during meetings with Saudi officials this week, despite Khashoggi’s widow saying the administration assured her he would.
Biden will meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) Friday following appearances in Israel.
Khashoggi’s widow, Hanan Elatr Khashoggi, met with White House officials last week, and she told Fox News host Bill Hemmer that they assured her that Khashoggi’s name would come up.
“Yes, they did assure me that the human rights issue, and on top of it my husband’s tragedy — it will come up,” she told Hemmer on Thursday.
Read more: White House won’t say if Biden will bring up Jamal Khashoggi in Saudi meeting after widow breaks silence
Biden says Democrats who believe Israel is an ‘apartheid state’ are ‘wrong’: ‘Israel is a democracy’
President Biden called out members of his own party who believe that Israel is an “apartheid state.” during an interview in Israel Wednesday.
Biden was asked to respond to “voices” within the Democratic Party who believe “Israel is an apartheid state” and call for an end of “unconditional aid” to Israel.
Biden said that the “few” voices within the Democratic Party who refer to Israel as an apartheid state are “wrong.”
Read more: Biden says Democrats who believe Israel is an ‘apartheid state’ are ‘wrong’: ‘Israel is a democracy’
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Brad Raffensperger bests Trump-backed challenger
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger will handily defeat Trump-backed challenger Rep. Jody Hice in the GOP primary for secretary of State, the Associated Press projects.
It appears Raffensperger will avoid a runoff, as he leads with 52% of the vote (above the 50% threshold to avoid a runoff). Hice came in a distant second with 33.6%, with 94.4% of votes counted.
Breaking News
Britt and Brooks to face off in Alabama Senate runoff, after no candidate reaches 50%
Former Senate staffer Katie Britt and Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., will face off next month in a runoff for Alabama’s Republican nomination for U.S. Senate, the Associated Press projects.
Britt holds a commanding lead in the primary day votes, but will not reach the 50% threshold necessary to avoid a runoff. Brooks, meanwhile, leads veteran Mike Durant by enough to secure a second-place finish and a matchup against Britt that will likely decide Alabama’s next U.S. senator.
“It is clear tonight that Alabamians want new blood. Yes. They want someone to go to Washington, DC and shake it up,” Britt said to supporters, according to Fox News’ Ben Florence.
“Two months ago, the experts declared our campaign dead in the water,” Brooks said. “Today? Call me Lazarus! Back from the dead, resurrected by Alabama citizens who figured out who the real MAGA conservative is, and voted for America First. Thank you!”
Trump spokesman touts ‘huge victories’ for endorsed candidates, despite major loss in Georgia
Former President Donald Trump’s spokesman Taylor Budowich Tuesday touted the strength of Trump’s endorsement, even as one of his biggest foes in the Republican Party beat a Trump-backed opponent.
“President Trump is continuing to win everywhere after having another huge night of victories for his endorsed candidates,” Budowich said according to Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser. “Americans are clearly united around restoring the leadership and policies of President Trump in 2022 and beyond.”
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, who resisted Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election, Tuesday handily beat former Sen. David Perdue, the former president’s handpicked candidate to challenge the governor. Kemp’s win was the biggest so far by a GOP candidate running against a Trump-endorsed opponent.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who also fought against Trump’s false claims the presidential election was stolen in 2020, also leads his race over Rep. Jody Hice, R-Ga., who Trump endorsed. That race was not yet called as of 11 p.m. Tuesday.
Trump’s record on endorsements in Republican primaries is still stellar, however.
As of May 18, 96% of Trump-supported candidates won their primaries. Just this year, Trump’s endorsement powered Ohio GOP Senate nominee JD Vance to a major comeback victory last month and set Pennsylvania senate candidate Mehmet Oz up as a frontrunner in his race, which isn’t yet called a week after the primary.
Kemp says ‘battle is far from over,’ says he wants to block Abrams from being governor, president
GOP Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp Tuesday told supporters at his victory party that after his primary victory over former Sen. David Perdue, the real fight is beginning against Democrat nominee Stacey Abrams
“Our battle is far from over,” he said. “Tonight, the fight for the soul of our state begins to make sure that Stacey Abrams is not going to be our governor or the next president.”
Lucy McBath beats Carolyn Bourdeaux in member-on-member Georgia House Democrat primary
Rep. Lucy McBath, D-Ga., beat Rep. Carolyn Bourdeaux, D-Ga., in a member-on-member primary in Georgia Tuesday, the Associated Press projects, making Bourdeaux the latest incumbent casualty of the midterms.
Due to redistricting in Georgia, McBath was forced out of her district and into a face-off with Bourdeaux.
Bourdeaux is a member of the moderate Blue Dog Coalition, and her loss will slightly weaken the strength of moderate House Democrats in Congress.
Sarah Sanders wins Republican nomination for Arkansas governor
Former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders is projected to win the Arkansas Republican gubernatorial primary, the Associated Press projects.
Endorsed early on in the race by former President Trump, Sanders is hoping to replace incumbent Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who is term-limited and has served as governor of the state since 2015.
To read more from Fox News’ Kyle Morris, click here
Breaking News
Trump-backed Ken Paxton wins Texas AG primary, leaving last Bush in elected office without a job
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton Tuesday successfully fought off a primary challenge from Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush, meaning the last member of the Bush political dynasty in elected office will soon be without a job.
Paxton’s victory, projected by the Associated Press, is also a victory for former President Donald Trump, who endorsed the attorney general for reelection. Trump saw his picks in Georgia’s governor race and secretary of state race lose earlier Tuesday night.
Paxton is best known nationally for trying to legally upend the 2020 presidential election results and for his aggressive actions in taking on President Biden’s administration in court. But he is saddled with a slew of corruption allegations as he seeks a third four-year term as Texas attorney general.
To read more from Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser and Tyler Olson, click here
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene wins primary after establishment-backed primary challenge
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., Tuesday won the GOP nomination for her seat after an establishment-backed primary challenge from businesswoman Jennifer Strahan.
Greene earned significant criticism from many in the GOP for her past controversial comments, including some which were anti-Semitic. Greene has apologized for many of her past comments, but nevertheless was removed from her House committees by congressional Democrats.
Strahan was backed by the Republican Jewish Coalition and other establishment DC figures like Sen. Bill Cassidy, R-La. But that wasn’t enough to power her over the firebrand Trump-supporter Greene in her deep-red north Georgia district.
In Arkansas, Sarah Sanders favored to win GOP nomination and Boozman hopes to retain Senate seat
Polls in Arkansas have closed as former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders is favored to win the GOP nomination for governor and incumbent Sen. John Boozman hopes to fend off his primary challengers in a contentious race.
Endorsed early on in the race by former President Trump, Sanders hopes to clinch her party’s nomination in an attempt to replace incumbent Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who is term-limited and has served as governor of the state since 2015.
Ahead of Tuesday’s election, Sanders, who announced she was running for governor in January 2021, consistently polled ahead of Francis “Doc” Washburn, her primary challenger. Washburn is a former radio talk show host who now has his own national podcast.
To read more from Fox News’ Kyle Morris, click here
Breaking News
Kemp beats Perdue in Georgia governor primary, striking blow to Trump endorsement power
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp Tuesday beat former Sen. David Perdue in a GOP gubernatorial primary, striking the most significant blow yet to a candidate endorsed by former President Donald Trump.
Kemp’s victory over Perdue, projected by the Associated Press, breaks a trend of significant success for Trump with his primary endorsements. As of May 18, 96% of Trump-supported candidates won their primaries. Trump’s endorsement powered Ohio GOP Senate nominee JD Vance to a major comeback victory last month and set Pennsylvania senate candidate Mehmet Oz up as a frontrunner in his race, which isn’t yet called a week after the primary.
But now Kemp, one of the Republicans Trump has attacked the most since 2020, is headed to a general election matchup against Democrat Stacey Abrams and Perdue is out of public office for now.
“I just called the governor and I congratulated him,” Perdue said Tuesday. “I am fully supporting Brian Kemp…tomorrow morning you are going to hear me going to work…to make damn sure Stacey Abrams is not the next governor of Georgia.”
To read more from Fox News’ Tyler Olson and Paul Steinhauser, click here
Facing corruption allegations, Paxton seeks to fend off primary challenge from George P. Bush
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is facing primary challenge from George P. Bush on Tuesday in the Republican primary runoff for the Lone Star state’s top law enforcement officer.
Paxton, who is backed by former President Donald Trump, is known nationally for trying to legally upend the 2020 presidential election results and for his aggressive actions in taking on President Biden’s administration in court. But he is saddled with a slew of corruption allegations as he seeks a third four-year term as Texas attorney general.
Bush, twice elected to statewide office as Texas land commissioner, is the last elected member of his family’s political dynasty — which over four generations has produced two family members who rose to become president, George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush, and one who became a senator, Prescott Bush.
To read more from Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser, click here
Brooks, Britt and Durant vie for runoff spots in Alabama GOP Senate primary
Polls in Alabama have closed as one candidate who recently surged in polling aims to obtain a seat held by longtime Alabama Republican Sen. Richard Shelby, who is retiring at the end of his term.
Ahead of the election on Tuesday, leading contenders for the Republican nomination in the Alabama Senate race were Katie Boyd Britt, Shelby’s former chief of staff who once led the Business Council of Alabama; Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., an outspoken conservative in Congress who received an endorsement from Trump but later lost it; and Mike Durant, a business owner in the state and a former Army pilot who was involved in the “Black Hawk Down” incident.
The contentious GOP primary race for the Senate is likely to lead to a runoff election on June 21 should no candidate garner more than 50% of Tuesday’s vote.
To read more from Fox News’ Kyle Morris, click here
Hershel Walker wins Georgia GOP Senate primary, setting up November clash with Warnock
Former football star Herschel Walker won Georgia’s Republican Senate primary Tuesday, as he seeks to unseat Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., in November.
Walker is a rare candidate to unite both the MAGA wing and the establishment win of the Republican party. He earned endorsements from both former President Donald Trump and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., in the GOP primary race.
Polls close in Texas and Alabama, where Bush dynasty, spot in Senate runoff, hang in balance
Polls closed for primary voters in Texas and Alabama at 8 p.m. ET Tuesday, with several key primary races at stake in the two southern states.
In Alabama, former Senate staffer Katie Britt, Rep. Mo Brooks and veteran Mike Durant are vying for what will likely be two spots in a runnoff set for next month.
Meanwhile in Texas, George P. Bush — the last member of the Bush family in public office — is mounting a primary challenge against Trump-supported Attorney General Ken Paxton.
Polls in Texas closed at 7 p.m. CT except for the two most Western districts, which close 7 p.m. MT.
Sen. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., Tuesday won his primary election against challenger Tamara Johnson-Shealy, setting the senator up to defend his seat November.
Warnock, who is expected to have to face off against GOP frontrunner Herschel Walker, is considered one of the most endangered Democrats in the Senate, as Democrats struggle to make their case to voters amid rising inflation and low approval for President Biden.
Stacey Abrams is projected to win Georgia’s Democrat gubernatorial primary, according to the Associated Press, setting her up to face the winner of the Brian Kemp-David Perdue Republican primary in November.
Abrams, a former state lawmaker, narrowly lost to Kemp in the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial race.
Trump backs primary challengers in crucial GOP races in Georgia
The Georgia race grabbing the most attention from coast to coast is GOP gubernatorial primary, where conservative Gov. Brian Kemp is being challenged by Trump-backed former Sen. David Perdue.
Four years ago, with the support of the then-president, Kemp narrowly defeated Democrat Stacey Abrams. But Kemp earned Trump’s ire after certifying the 2020 presidential election results in Georgia following two recounts of the vote. Last year, Trump repeatedly urged Perdue to primary challenge the governor and endorsed him the day after the former senator announced his bid in December.
Perdue jumped into the race days after Abrams, a rising star in the Democratic Party and a nationally known champion of voter rights, launched her second straight gubernatorial bid. Abrams is unopposed in the Democratic primary.
Trump traveled to Georgia in late March to headline a rally for Perdue, starred in his campaign commercials, and called into two tele-rallies this month. But even though Trump retains immense sway over the GOP, his full court press hasn’t boosted Perdue in his uphill challenge of Kemp.
To read more from Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser, click here
Breaking News
Polls close in Georgia, with key GOP nominations for governor, secretary of state on the line
Polls closed for voters in Georgia at 7 p.m. ET Tuesday, with yet another test of former President Donald Trump’s endorsement clout on deck in the state’s gubernatorial and secretary of state primaries.
Trump-endorsed former Sen. David Perdue is taking on Gov. Brian Kemp, who’s supported by former Vice President Mike Pence. Meanwhile, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger looks to hold off a Trump-backed Rep. Jody Hice, R-Ga. Both contests will be a major test of Trump’s sway in the GOP and whether Republican voters continue to be focused on the 2020 election.
Also in Georgia, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., is facing a primary challenge from businesswoman Jennifer Strahan. Strahan’s campaign got some national GOP attention, but it’s not clear if she’ll be able to best the incumbent Greene.
Trump looms large over Tuesday primaries in Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, and runoff in Texas
ATLANTA – Former President Donald Trump has targeted Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp for nearly a year and a half.
And on the eve of the Peach State’s primary – with Trump backing Kemp challenger former Sen. David Perdue – the former president took aim at the governor one last time before voters headed to the polls
“Brian Kemp is truly an embarrassment to the Republican Party because of what’s taken place in your great state, Georgia,” Trump charged during a tele-rally Monday evening on behalf of Perdue. “And David will make a massive upgrade as your governor.”
Georgia, a crucial general election battleground, is one of three states holding primaries on Tuesday, along with Alabama and Arkansas. And voters are also heading to the polls in Texas, where there are primary runoffs for attorney general and Congress. And while Trump is not on the ballot, his presence looms large over many of the high-profile GOP showdowns.
To read more from Fox News’ Paul Steinhauser, click here
This week, a House of Representatives subcommittee on intelligence and counterterrorism gathered to discuss unidentified aerial phenomena. This was, on one level, a very unusual event—the rare congressional hearing about UFOs, the first in more than 50 years. And yet it proceeded as many others do on Capitol Hill: dryly, politely, and uneventfully. Which seemed odd. Shouldn’t there have been a little more to it? You know, alien stuff?
The hearing featured more than an hour of congressional probing of two very important people, the undersecretary of defense for intelligence and security and the deputy director of naval intelligence, before moving to a closed, classified setting. There was footage of mysterious objects moving around in the sky. Yet a comment on a livestream summed up the whole affair quite nicely: “Well, this all seems rather anticlimactic,” the viewer wrote. “Are they trying to make it boring?”
The witnesses did mention aliens—but only to say that American military officials had found no proof of them in the 400 modern-day reports of UFO sightings that they currently have on the books, from military pilots and some civilians. This week’s hearing was not about disclosing, once and for all, incontrovertible visual evidence of extraterrestrial craft whizzing through Earth’s atmosphere. It was meant to check in on the progress of a task force that the Department of Defense formed in 2020 “to detect, analyze and catalog UAPs”—unidentified aerial phenomena—“that could potentially pose a threat to U.S. national security.”
And yet, when we hear something like the first congressional hearing on UFOs in half a century, we, the viewers, might expect more. Representative Adam Schiff, a member of the intelligence subcommittee, called the hearing’s subject “one of the world’s most enduring mysteries”—at least give us a new and spooky clue, then! If casual observers have outsize expectations for an event like this, it’s because they’re being exposed to it without any real context.
And this story desperately needs context. Without it, we can miss important details, believe information when we should be skeptical, and see things that aren’t really there.
Read: Just don’t call them UFOs
There’s no way around the fact that, in popular usage, the term UFO—unidentified flying object—is synonymous with alien spaceships and has been for decades. The assumption that UFOs could represent something truly otherworldly is right there in the language that people use to scrutinize alleged footage; they “debunk” initial sightings, suggesting that, before close examination, they could be the real deal. (The government has tried to tiptoe away from the grabbiest version of UFO discourse, preferring to use the term UAP instead, which somehow sounds even more mysterious.)
But the reality is that unidentified flying objects, or unidentified aerial phenomena, are just that, and there’s no reason to assume, right away, that they’re something all that interesting. In the same way that astronomers must run through a checklist of possible explanations for a strange new phenomenon in space before considering the extraterrestrial option, aviation experts have a number of more mundane culprits at their disposal: drones, experimental aircraft, weather events, birds, balloons—even the planet Venus, appearing extra bright and ethereal through the haze of our planet’s atmosphere. The alternatives to aliens are certainly more boring, but the alternatives are out there, and they always have been. The report at the center of the previous UFO hearing, in the late 1960s, found that the lights observed over a military base were birds and weather conditions.
Indeed, the mysterious objects in one of the videos shown at this week’s hearing, glowing triangles in the night sky, turned out to be the result of an artifact of the camera equipment that captured the footage. Most of the reports that have been brought to the Pentagon task force remain unexplained, but Ronald Moultrie, the undersecretary of defense for intelligence and security, said that doesn’t mean that the answer must be something extraordinary. “We have insufficient data either on the event itself [or] the object itself,” Moultrie said at this week’s hearing. “So it’s a data issue that we’re facing.”
Read: If aliens are out there, they’re way out there
The next point of context, often missing, is why anyone is talking about aliens at all in the year 2022. The latest spike in UFO interest began in 2017, when The New York Times published a story headlined “Glowing Auras and ‘Black Money’: The Pentagon’s Mysterious UFO Program,” about a shadowy government effort to catalog UAPs, along with two Navy videos featuring UAPs. But the breathlessness of the coverage in the past few years hasn’t matched the breadth of the evidence for an extraterrestrial explanation, of which there isn’t much. (One of those videos would later go on to be explained away by an independent video analyst, and eventually, by Pentagon officials.) Plenty of outlets followed the Times’ lead, letting the thrill of writing about UFOs with a big wink overtake their normal sense of propriety. “Reporters have taken sources at their word without corroborating data, let documented contradictions slide by, and glossed over the motivations of both outside agitators and government insiders,” Sarah Scoles, a science journalist and the author of They Are Already Here: UFO Culture and Why We See Saucers, wrote in The Atlantic last year. “If these stories did not outright say the word aliens, many indulged in what-if-ing, while glazing over the limits of the actual facts available.”
Many of the stories, Scoles said, took certain people’s credentials—say, the former director of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program—as face-value evidence that their claims about the extraterrestrial origins of UFOs were true. Similarly, part of the reason that the astrophysicist Avi Loeb receives so much coverage for his alien-tinged discussion of weird-shaped interstellar objects is because he is a tenured Harvard professor. So when people see a UFO story in The New York Times, they’re inclined to trust the paper. But these articles appear without much-needed context: The Times’ go-to reporters on the UFO beat, who broke the story on the Pentagon’s previously undisclosed program, are long-time UFO activists who have advocated for the idea that such objects might have extraterrestrial explanations.
People might read the latest news that the government has 400 reports of UFOs and imagine a recent explosion in sightings. After all, when the Pentagon and UFOs made headlines last summer, defense officials said they were taking a look at just 144 reports! Context matters here too. The increase is because the Defense Department solicited reports from service members in a more deliberate way, and vowed, at least publicly, to take their accounts seriously. Unexplainable things in the sky are indeed matters of national security; an unrecognizable technology could belong to an adversarial nation. Expect the Pentagon to report higher numbers, but understand why those numbers are higher. “The implication will be, ‘Oh my God, they were hiding something. I knew it!’ as if that means ‘These things are aliens’ as opposed to ‘The military is secretive, and now you know it was secretive,’” Jason Wright, an astronomer at Penn State University who works in the field of SETI, the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, told me in an interview last year.
Whenever I see a news story or TV interview about UFOs that cries out for more context, I think of Edward Ruppelt, an Air Force officer who worked on one of the Pentagon’s earliest efforts to understand strange, fast-moving stuff in the sky. Ruppelt came up with the term UFO in the early 1950s. In 1956, Ruppelt wrote a book-length report on UFOs. No one asked him to do it, but he was frustrated with the “secrecy and confusion” and wanted the public to have all the facts. He ended the document on a hopeful note. “I wouldn’t want to hazard a guess as to what the final outcome of the UFO investigation will be, but I am sure that within a few years there will be a proven answer.” Within a few years! Sorry, Ruppelt.
FILE – In this Oct. 21, 2015, file photo, cage-free chickens walk in a fenced pasture at an organic farm near Waukon, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)
OAN NEWSROOM UPDATED 11:19 AM PT – Tuesday, May 17, 2022
A severe outbreak of bird flu has continued to hit bird farms across the nation. On Monday, Pennsylvania reported the thirteenth farm in the state had been affected by the outbreak, which has now hit over 4 million birds in the Keystone State alone.
In Iowa, a turkey farmer described the outbreak as extremely severe. He said it’s worse than a similar outbreak in 2015 because despite having to kill two-thirds of the birds back then, he didn’t really know what was happening. However, now he knows exactly how it will play out. The farmer said he doesn’t think humans are in danger because of the outbreak.
“I don’t think it’s a human threat because a lot of people don’t have the chickens and stuff inside their house or anything like that,” explained farmer rad Moline. “They are outside or they’re out in well ventilated barns and stuff, so I think the human threat is very, very low.”
Unfortunately, when commercial breaks occur, it impacts more birds than in the backyard flocks. As of May 13, 628,300 commercial poultry have been lost this month to #birdflu, as opposed to 1,892 birds in backyard flocks. According to data collected by @APHIS_USDA.
— Corey Munson (@CMunson_News) May 17, 2022
According to the USDA, the latest bird flu outbreak has affected over 37 million birds across 34 states.
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