- Mother of 8-year-old girl who died in Border Patrol custody says pleas for hospital care were denied The Associated Press
- Mother of 8-year-old girl who died in Border Patrol custody says agents denied pleas for hospital care: report Fox News
- Second child dies in US Border Patrol’s custody NewsNation Now
- Mother of child who died in Border Patrol custody speaks out: ‘They didn’t do anything for her’ The Hill
- ‘They killed my daughter’: Mother of child who died in Border Patrol custody says pleas were ignored Yahoo News
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Tag Archives: Pleas
Russian Propagandists Make Desperate Pleas Over Ukraine War Failures on State TV
Russia’s ill-conceived invasion of Ukraine has so far failed to yield the goals set out by Russian President Vladimir Putin, and his top propagandists are struggling to hide their growing sense of panic.
On Monday, head of RT Margarita Simonyan appeared on The Evening With Vladimir Solovyov and admitted that the Kremlin’s collaborationist elite has concerns about the possibility of being tried for war crimes. After disingenuously claiming that neither the Russian leadership nor her fellow propagandists in the studio ever wanted to conduct strikes against Ukraine’s critical infrastructure, Simonyan said, “I am amazed by our people—and I unfortunately know many of them—including those in very high circles, who are afraid of this and are scared to call things by their proper names because of what people over there may think.”
Simonyan defiantly asserted: “We could spit on what they think over there! People who are afraid of the Hague—listen, you should be afraid to lose, to be humiliated and be afraid to betray your people. Let me tell you that if we manage to lose, the Hague—whether real or hypothetical—will come even for a street cleaner who is sweeping the cobblestones behind the Kremlin.”
In her rant, Simonyan contradicted her earlier claim of Russian forces not seeking to bomb civilian infrastructure and surmised that one more Kyiv district being left in the dark won’t change the potential of the future war crimes trials, or the “catastrophe” that will befall Russia if it loses its war against Ukraine.
Host Vladimir Solovyov immediately reverted to his old and tired routine of threatening nuclear strikes if things don’t go Russia’s way: “There won’t be any Hague if this happens, there won’t be anything at all. The whole world will be reduced to ashes.”
During Wednesday’s broadcast of 60 Minutes, host Olga Skabeeva carried on with the same theme. “God forbid, we can’t allow it and don’t even say it out loud but suppose that suddenly something happens and our country is unable to achieve victory: then we should proceed from the premise that everyone with no exception will be held accountable—whether they are located within the Russian Federation or abroad. Those abroad will most likely be immediately arrested. Whether he is a collaborator of Putin’s regime or was just passing by, it doesn’t matter. All of us will be considered guilty. What’s at stake is not only the existence of the country, but also the carefree existence of every citizen of the Russian Federation—our future is on the line.”
Skabeeva added: “In order to avoid the Hague tribunals, the initiation of criminal cases, compensation, reparations—in order to avoid all this, we need a total intensification of military actions, we have to squeeze and pressure them so much that they approach us about a truce or a peace process… Otherwise, they will insist on capitulation.”
During the most recent broadcast of Sunday Evening With Vladimir Solovyov, Margarita Simonyan put in another appearance and delivered the new directive: in order to protect Russia’s already tattered image as a military superpower, any supply problems concerning equipment, weapons and ammunition are to be discussed behind closed doors and not on-air. She unwittingly confirmed that the said issues were systematic and serious by urging the government to take extreme measures to secure the funds for the troops.
Simonyan described those who are not mobilized to serve on the frontlines as the people who aren’t fulfilling their duty to their country. “How can we sleep while knowing that we aren’t sharing and aren’t participating?,” she asked. “Rich people should get a hold of themselves and remember that we can’t continue living the way we’ve been living since the disintegration of the Soviet Union. We have to restore social equality.” RT’s head urged the rich to forego buying Chanel purses and “adopt” dozens or hundreds of needy families for whom they can provide.
Describing herself as a well-to-do person, Simonyan said she had a hard time looking at people who refuse to share their wealth, many of whom she knows personally. “I am calling on you, citizens: you have to share!,” she urged.
Never daring to question why the country’s exorbitant military budget has proven to be for Russia’s wartime needs—while Putin’s circle has no shortage of palatial abodes or yachts—Simonyan noted that the invading troops are being supplied with donations from the civilian population. Deeming that to be inadequate, she demanded “an involuntary vaccination of conscience,” adding, “Raise the taxes on the rich and the well-to-do people. What is there to be afraid of? Raise the taxes!”
FDA approves first ALS drug in 5 years after pleas from patients
“Anything that shows any amount of efficacy is important,” the resident of Pico, Tex., added. Even a small change, Brous said, “might be the difference between signing my own name and someone else signing it for me.”
The newly approved therapy, which will be sold under the brand name Relyvrio, is designed to slow the disease by protecting nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord destroyed by ALS — amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. The ailment paralyzes patients, robbing them of their ability to walk, talk and eventually breathe. Patients typically die within three to five years, though some live much longer with the condition sometimes called “Lou Gehrig’s disease” for the renowned baseball player diagnosed in 1939.
“This approval provides another important treatment option for ALS, a life-threatening disease that currently has no cure,” Billy Dunn, director of the FDA’s Office of Neuroscience, said in a statement.
The agency said the efficacy of Relyvrio was demonstrated in a 24-week study in which 137 patients were randomized to receive Relyvrio or placebo. The patients treated with the drug experienced a 25 percent slower rate of decline in performing essential activities such as walking, talking and cutting food compared with those receiving a placebo.
In addition, the FDA said, a long-term analysis showed that patients who originally received Relyvrio versus those who took the placebo lived longer. Amylyx, the Cambridge, Mass., biotech that makes the drug, said that survival benefit was a median of about 10 months.
During reviews of the drug, the FDA staff expressed concerns about the medication’s effectiveness and posed questions about the clinical trial. On Thursday, the agency acknowledged there were “limitations” to the data that resulted in uncertainty about the drug’s degree of effectiveness. But the agency said that regulatory flexibility was acceptable because of the “serious and life-threatening nature of ALS and the substantial unmet need” for treatments.
Amylyx officials said they plan to move as quickly as possible to make the drug available.
“Amylyx’ goal is that every person who is eligible for Relyvrio will have access as quickly and efficiently as possible as we know people with ALS and their families have no time to wait,” co-chief executive officers Josh Cohen and Justin Klee said in a statement.
The company said information on the price would be coming soon.
Patients, advocates and ALS specialists hailed what they called a landmark approval, saying the drug represents the kind of modest advance needed to make progress against the disease. About 30,000 people in the United States have ALS, with 6,000 new cases diagnosed every year. Two other drugs are approved for the ailment but have extremely limited effectiveness.
Some drug policy experts, however, said insufficient evidence exists that the drug works. A trial with 600 patients won’t be completed until late 2023 or early 2024.
“There is some evidence to support the efficacy of the product, but I don’t think it hits the bar that the FDA typically requires,” said G. Caleb Alexander, an internist and epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health who serves on the FDA advisory committee that reviewed the drug. “How much should the FDA lower the bar — if at all — for products for a devastating disease” that lacks effective treatments?
Diana Zuckerman, president of the of National Center for Health Research, a think tank, agreed.
“How many ineffective ALS drugs do we need?” Zuckerman said. “It would be better to have one that has been proven to make a meaningful difference to live longer.”
But Jinsy A. Andrews, an associate professor of neurology and director of neuromuscular clinical trials at Columbia University, applauded the approval and said she plans to start prescribing the drug as soon as it is available. Other ALS specialists agreed.
“I see patients living with this disease, and I diagnose them every day,” Andrews said. “So to have another therapy for the tool kit is helpful.” Andrews is an investigator in the large trial for the drug now underway.
The drug, the first new therapy approved for ALS in five years, consists of two components — a prescription drug called sodium phenylbutyrate used to treat rare liver disorders and a nutritional supplement called taurursodiol. The drug comes in a powder that is dissolved in water and can be swallowed or given through a feeding tube.
Two Brown University undergraduates — Cohen and Klee — came up with the idea for the therapy almost a decade ago, initially thinking it would be for Alzheimer’s disease.
ALS advocates said the approval shows the importance of patients and advocates getting involved in efforts to bring drugs to the market.
“We still have a lot of work to do to cure ALS, but this new treatment is a significant step in that fight,” said Calaneet Balas, president and chief executive officer of the ALS Association.
In 2014, the organization raised $115 million in six weeks from the Ice Bucket Challenge and provided $2.2 million of that to help pay for testing AMX0035, the drug’s name during development. The medication is the first funded by the organization to receive FDA approval. Amylyx has agreed to use proceeds from sales of the medication to repay the organization 150 percent of its investment.
In 2019, Brian Wallach, a staffer in the Obama White House, and his wife founded a group named I AM ALS after Wallach was diagnosed. That organization made getting the Amylyx drug onto the market a priority.
The two groups pressed the FDA to be faster and more flexible in clearing ALS drugs, saying patients would accept treatments with increased safety risks in return for even a small benefit — a viewpoint incorporated into the agency’s 2019 guidance to the pharmaceutical industry on developing ALS therapies. In 2020, the two ALS organizations submitted more than 50,000 signatures to the FDA calling for approval of AMX0035.
In a do-it-yourself effort, some ALS patients in the United States already are taking the ingredients of the medication. Because sodium phenylbutyrate was already approved, doctors may prescribe it off-label to ALS patients. The nutritional supplement taurursodiol, also called TUDCA, can be bought online.
Steve Kowalski, 58, who lives in Boston and takes the components of the drug, along with the other two approved ALS drugs, credits the regimen for slowing his deterioration. With careful planning and the help of his three adult children, he can still go see his beloved Red Sox but is exhausted when he gets home, he said.
Kowalski welcomed the FDA action on the drug. He prefers to get a high-quality, approved version of the medication rather than having to buy a supplement online.
The company’s application to the FDA was based largely on the single 24-week clinical trial and follow-up data from an “open label” study in which all trial participants were offered the drug.
Typically, the FDA expects drugmakers to submit “substantial evidence of effectiveness” provided by two well-designed clinical investigations. But the agency says a single trial may be sufficient if the study demonstrates a “clinically meaningful and statistically very persuasive effect” on extending survival or some other aspect of the disease.
In March, however, the FDA staff issued a mostly negative assessment — suggesting the data was not persuasive — and the agency’s advisers agreed, voting 6-4 to recommend against FDA approval. Patients and advocates flooded the FDA with more than 10,000 emails pleading for approval, advocates said.
In a rare move, the FDA held a second advisory meeting this month to consider additional analyses submitted by the company. Once again, the FDA staff suggested in a memo that there was not enough evidence of effectiveness to approve the drug.
But the tone of the meeting differed markedly from that of the first session. At the outset, Dunn acknowledged the data for the drug raised numerous questions but also stressed the “tremendous unmet medical need” for ALS and the seriousness of the disease. He said the agency had the legal authority to be flexible. And in a highly unusual move, Dunn asked the Amylyx officials whether they would voluntarily withdraw the drug from the market if the large trial failed; they said they would.
With a few of the outside experts on the advisory committee changing their position, the panel recommended approval 7-2.
The debate over the drug has echoes of the battle over Aduhelm, the controversial Alzheimer’s drug approved by the agency in June 2021. Critics said there was scant evidence of efficacy for that medication, and Medicare declined to cover it except in trials. The drug collapsed in the marketplace, never gaining traction with patients or physicians.
But ALS doctors insist the ALS drug is different. It reached its primary goal in the trial, even if the benefit was modest, they noted. And even small gains are meaningful to people with the disease, they argued.
The FDA said the drug did not pose major safety concerns; the most common adverse reactions were diarrhea, abdominal pain, nausea and upper respiratory tract infection. The agency added that taurursodiol, a bile acid, may cause worsening diarrhea in patients with disorders that interfere with bile acid circulation and urged those individuals to talk to a specialist before taking the treatment.
Canada recently approved AMX0035 on a conditional basis. Amylyx can sell the drug there, as long as the treatment’s benefits are confirmed by the larger trial.
‘We’re on our own.’ Urgent pleas for monkeypox vaccines from gay men feeling neglected by the government
They wear face masks, and keep a social distance from others, obeying the ground rules from the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic — when the desperate need for vaccines far outweighed what federal and state governments could supply.
Many however will leave empty-handed as local hospitals and clinics have had to rely on an inconsistent and insufficient supply of vaccines, a dilemma that has infuriated patients and advocates.
San Francisco General opens the clinic doors at 8 a.m. and the line inches forward slowly. The hospital will distribute the available doses until the supply runs out.
For Cody Aarons, 31, it was his third attempt. He stood calmly with more than 100 people already in front of him.
“I was in New York for the past month for work, and I tried with their online portal system and was unsuccessful in getting a vaccine,” said the health care worker who thought he might have a better chance in San Francisco.
But 45 minutes after starting the day’s distribution, a hospital staff member passed by with an announcement. “Folks we have reached our limit for today,” he shouted. “However, we will try to find you more shots.”
Although with no guarantee of getting the monkeypox vaccine that day, Aarons — and just about everyone in line — stayed put.
“People want their vaccine,” said Rafael Mandelman, a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. “I know one person who was in that line four different days before he finally got his vaccination.”
Mandelman, who got up at 4:30 a.m. and waited for hours before getting his vaccine shot days earlier, is frustrated with the rollout.
“After having come through a pandemic where we were able to discover a new vaccine, [and] distribute tens of millions of doses within a matter of months, the fact that with an existing known vaccine we cannot get more than these paltry little dribbles out is very frustrating to people,” he said.
In California, the vast majority of those infected — more than 98% — are men, with more than 91% of patients identifying as LGBTQ. Mandelman feels he and others in the gay community have been left to advocate on their own, without support from the federal government.
Desperate and fearful
For health care workers, the outbreak is a frustrating new chapter after the punishing Covid-19 pandemic.
“At the peak of Covid vaccinations, we averaged 1,400 to 1,500 (doses) a day. So we are completely used to the mass vaccination process,” nurse manager Merjo Roca said.
But Roca and her staff are limited in what they can do given the vaccine shortage.
San Francisco health officials initially requested 35,000 doses, but say they’ve only gotten 12,000 from the federal stockpile. The state of California informed city leaders that San Francisco will receive 10,700 more in the next allotment, yet there’s no clear indication when those doses will arrive or how many will reach San Francisco General Hospital for distribution.
“I think one of our biggest challenges is really just the inconsistency of the supply,” Roca said. “Our vaccine clinic prides itself on being able to help and vaccinate people when they come through our doors. So, it’s super hard for all of our staff not to be able to do that and have to turn people away and not even have information to say when we will get the doses next.”
With many of those in line fearful about monkeypox’s rapid rise in cases, the clinic staff feel an added burden by not being able to deliver for everyone.
“It’s very hard to listen to someone explaining why they want the vaccine and why they need the vaccine and we just don’t have it,” Roca added.
“It was like someone taking a hole-puncher all over my body”
The government argues it acted urgently and with the data. And there are clear differences between the response now and the response to HIV/AIDS. But some advocates say the perceived lack of governmental urgency in addressing a public health crisis that impacts queer communities today mirrors what gay men were experiencing decades ago.
Between October 1980 and May 1981, five young men from across Los Angeles — described by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at the time as “active homosexuals” — were diagnosed with an unusual lung infection and two of them died.
It was the first time acquired immunodeficiency syndrome — the devastating advanced-stage of HIV infection that would go on to claim the lives of more than 40 million people globally — was first reported in the US.
Exchanges between then-President Ronald Reagan’s press secretary and reporters in 1982 and 1983 indicate that the nation’s top officials and mainstream society viewed the disease as a joke and not an issue of great concern.
That stemmed from the perception of AIDS as a “gay plague” — a condition thought to be tied to the lifestyles and behaviors of gay men — even though cases had also been reported in women, infants, those with hemophilia and people who injected drugs.
Now, more than 40 years later, the gay community is once again grappling with feeling ostracized and neglected by their own government.
“We have a responsibility to not further stigmatize or politicize this issue for a community that has long faced many issues, has long been marginalized in our community,” said Tyler TerMeer, CEO of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation. “Dating all the way back to the earliest days of the HIV epidemic in our country, we saw our community abandoned by federal government in their response,” he said.
The foundation opened its doors in 1982 “in a moment of crisis in our community, when the federal government abandoned us … there are parallels between that moment and this one,” according to TerMeer.
“President Biden has called on us to explore every option on the table to combat the monkeypox outbreak and protect communities at risk,” said White House National Monkeypox Response Coordinator Robert Fenton. “We are applying lessons learned from the battles we’ve fought — from COVID response to wildfires to measles, and will tackle this outbreak with the urgency this moment demands.”
Monkeypox is a poxvirus, related to smallpox and cowpox and it generally causes pimple- or blister-like lesions and flu-like symptoms such as fever, according to the CDC.
The lesions typically concentrate on the arms and legs, but in the latest outbreak, they’re showing up more frequently on the genital and perianal area, which has raised some concerns that monkeypox lesions may be confused with STDs.
“I had between 600 to 800 lesions all over my body … It was like someone taking a hole-puncher all over my body. There were points where I couldn’t walk, couldn’t touch things,” said Kevin Kwong, who recently recovered from monkeypox after being diagnosed in early July.
He chronicled his ordeal on social media to bring awareness to the outbreak and now wants to “focus on destigmatizing the gay community.”
The first case of monkeypox in the US was announced on May 18 in a patient hospitalized in Massachusetts who had traveled to Canada in private transportation.
Less than three months later there are more than 7,000 confirmed cases of the outbreak across the country, identified in all but two states — Montana and Wyoming, according to the CDC.
Since the start of June, the CDC says it has been doing extensive education and outreach to the LGBTQ community, including working with local Pride organizations, releasing educational videos and creating campaigns on social media sites and dating apps popular in the gay community.
According to the World Health Organization, there have been 25,054 cases confirmed by a laboratory as of August 3, and 122 probable cases.
“For the moment this is an outbreak that’s concentrated among men who have sex with men, especially those who have multiple partners,” World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in late July when WHO declared monkeypox a public health emergency of international concern.
But while the outbreak has disproportionately impacted some gay communities, there is growing concern over the spread of infection.
The CDC in late July reported the first two monkeypox cases in children. Two other pediatric cases have been confirmed in Indiana, and another in Long Beach, California, earlier this week.
“This is a reminder that everyone, regardless of age or sexual orientation, can get monkeypox if they come into contact with the virus,” the City of Long Beach cautioned, echoing CDC guidance that while the risk of infection in children is low, they are “more likely to be exposed to monkeypox if they live in or have recently traveled to a community with higher rates of infection.”
There are over 500 cases of the outbreak identified across California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, New York and Texas, the latest CDC figures show. New York has the distinction of having the most cases — 1,748 — followed by California with 826 confirmed cases.
“We need everyone to be rallying behind this issue and quickly,” TerMeer said “There is an imminent window of time by which we can get ahead of the fast spread of monkeypox across our country and that window continues to close.”
CNN’s Harmeet Kaur, Augie Martin, Jen Christiansen, Carma Hassan, and Carolyn Sung contributed to this story.
Joe Nathan James: Alabama executed a death row inmate despite pleas from the victim’s family not to
“Justice has been served. Joe James was put to death for the heinous act he committed nearly three decades ago: the cold-blooded murder of an innocent young mother, Faith Hall,” Attorney General Steve Marshall said Thursday in a news release.
James’ time of death was 9:27 p.m. local time Thursday and he was executed by lethal injection, according to a news release from the state’s corrections department.
On Thursday, James did not make any special requests, had no visitors and had three phone calls with attorneys, the state’s corrections department added.
James was convicted and sentenced to death for fatally shooting 26-year-old Smith, whom he had dated in the early 1990s.
Earlier this week, Smith’s daughter, Terrlyn Hall, told CNN affiliate WBMA that the family hoped James would be sentenced to life in prison without parole instead.
“She was a loving, forgiving person,” Hall said of her mother. “I’m quite sure if she was here today, or if she were in this situation, she would want to forgive.”
“We don’t think (execution) is called for because it won’t bring her back,” she added.
Helvetius Hall, Smith’s brother, also pushed for a prison sentence instead of death.
“He did a horrible thing,” he told the local news outlet. “He has suffered enough and I don’t think that taking his life is gonna make our life any better.”
The execution happened after more than 25 years of legal appeals in James’ case.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey in a statement said Hall was “the victim of repetitive harassment, serious threats and ultimately, cold-blooded murder” by James.
“Tonight, a fair and lawful sentence was carried out, and an unmistakable message was sent that Alabama stands with victims of domestic violence,” Ivey said. CNN has reached out to the governor for further comment.
James and Smith had a “volatile” relationship, according to a US Court of Appeals filing summarizing the case. After they broke up, he stalked and harassed her, went to her home uninvited and threatened to kill her and her ex-husband, the filing detailed. In 1994, he followed her to a friend’s home and then shot her three times, killing her, the filing states.
A jury in Jefferson County found him guilty of Smith’s murder and recommended the death penalty in 1996, but the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals overturned the conviction based on erroneous admission of hearsay evidence, the appeals court states.
Before the retrial, James’ legal team arranged a plea deal with prosecutors in which he’d receive life in prison in exchange for a guilty plea, but James rejected that plan, the filing states.
“James explained that he had it pretty good on death row — he had his own room, his own television that he could control to watch what he wanted, and plenty of reading material,” the filing says. “He did not have to worry about being attacked by other prisoners, because he was always one-on-one with the guards.”
At the retrial, a jury again convicted James of capital murder and sentenced him to death in 1999, and appeals courts have affirmed the decision. In 2020, the US Court of Appeals upheld the conviction and rejected James’ claim of ineffective counsel.
A motion to stay his execution was denied by the US Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit on Tuesday.
The state of Alabama last executed a man in January after the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to overturn a lower-court ruling to block the execution. Matthew Reeves, who had been convicted of the robbery and killing of Willie Johnson in 1996, was executed less than two hours later.
Alabama currently has 166 people on death row. The state’s next planned execution is for Alan Eugene Miller on September 22, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
CNN’s Tina Burnside and Aya Elamroussi contributed to this report.
Trump watched Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot unfold on TV, ignored pleas to call for peace
WASHINGTON, July 21 (Reuters) – Donald Trump sat for hours watching the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol unfold on live TV, ignoring pleas by his children and other close advisers to urge his supporters to stop the violence, witnesses told a congressional hearing on Thursday.
The House of Representatives Select Committee used its eighth hearing this summer to detail what members said was Trump’s refusal to act for the 187 minutes between the end of his inflammatory speech at a rally urging supporters to march on the Capitol, and the release of a video telling them to go home.
“President Trump sat at his dining table and watched the attack on television while his senior-most staff, closest advisors and family members begged him to do what is expected of any American president,” said Democratic Representative Elaine Luria.
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The panel played videotaped testimony from White House aides and security staff discussing the events of the day.
Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone was asked question after question in the recorded testimony about Trump’s actions: did he call the secretary of defense? The attorney general? The head of Homeland Security? Cipollone answered “no” to each query.
“He’s got to condemn this shit ASAP,” Trump’s eldest son, Don Jr., appealed in a text message to Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows. “They will try to fuck his entire legacy on this if it gets worse.”
The onslaught on the Capitol, as Vice President Mike Pence met with lawmakers, led to several deaths, injured more than 140 police officers and delayed certification of Democratic President Joe Biden’s victory in the November 2020 election.
Representative Adam Kinzinger, one of two Republicans on the committee, said Trump had no interest in calling off the rioters.
“The mob was accomplishing President Trump’s purpose, so of course he didn’t intervene,” Kinzinger said.
Trump remains popular among Republican voters and continues to flirt with the possibility of running for president again in 2024. But a Reuters/Ipsos poll concluded on Thursday found his standing among Republicans has weakened slightly since the hearings began six weeks ago. Some 40% of Republicans now say he is at least partially to blame for the riot, up from 33% in a poll conducted as the congressional hearings were getting underway. read more
Trump denies wrongdoing and continues to claim falsely that he lost because of widespread fraud. “These hearings are as fake and illegitimate as Joe Biden — they can’t do anything without a teleprompter,” Trump spokesperson Liz Harrington said in a post on his Truth Social social media site during the hearing.
OFFICERS FEARED FOR THEIR LIVESScheduled during the evening to reach a broad television audience, the hearing was shown on most of the major U.S. television networks. Another round of hearings will begin in September, said the panel’s Republican vice chairperson, Representative Liz Cheney.
Timeline between former U.S. President Donald Trump’s statements is seen on a screen during a public hearing of the U.S. House Select Committee to investigate the January 6 Attack on the U.S. Capitol, on Capitol Hill, in Washington, U.S., July 21, 2022. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
Witnesses in the room were Matthew Pottinger, a deputy national security adviser under Trump, and Sarah Matthews, a deputy press secretary in his White House. Both resigned in the hours following the riot.
“If the president had wanted to make a statement and address the American people, he could have been on camera almost immediately,” Matthews testified. “If he had wanted to make an address from the Oval Office, we could have assembled the White House press corps within minutes.”
The panel of seven Democratic and two Republican House members has been investigating the attack for the past year, interviewing more than 1,000 witnesses and amassing tens of thousands of documents.
It has used the hearings to build a case that Trump’s efforts to overturn his defeat by Biden in 2020 constitute dereliction of duty and illegal conduct, far beyond normal politics.
Audio testimony from a White House security official whose identity was shielded bolstered previous testimony that administration officials knew there were multiple reports of weapons in the crowd of supporters who gathered for Trump’s rally speech.
The committee showed video of several White House officials describing their dismay that afternoon at seeing a Twitter post by Trump to his supporters in which he blamed Pence for not stopping the certification.
“Trump was pouring gasoline on the fire,” Matthews said.
The security official said some of Pence’s bodyguards began to fear for their own lives. “There were calls to say goodbye to family members,” the security official said. “The VP detail thought this was about to get very ugly.”
The attack on the Capitol led to several deaths. More than 850 people have been charged with taking part in the riot, with more than 325 guilty pleas so far.
Near the end of the hearing, the committee showed outtakes of a video Trump made on Jan. 7 addressing what he called “the heinous attack.” But he refused to say in the speech that the election was over.
Trump eventually left Washington on Jan. 20 rather than attend Biden’s inauguration that day.
Asked for his assessment of the riot, Cipollone said in the testimony shown on Thursday that it could not be justified in any way. “It was wrong and it was tragic and it was a terrible day for this country.”
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Reporting by Patricia Zengerle and Richard Cowan; Additional reporting by Jason Lange, Doina Chiacu, Moira Warburton and Rose Horowitch; Editing by Scott Malone and Daniel Wallis
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Jan. 6: Trump spurned aides’ pleas to call off Capitol mob
WASHINGTON (AP) — Despite desperate pleas from aides, allies, a Republican congressional leader and even his family, Donald Trump refused to call off the Jan. 6 mob attack on the Capitol, instead “pouring gasoline on the fire” by aggressively tweeting his false claims of a stolen election and celebrating his crowd of supporters as “very special,” the House investigating committee showed Thursday night.
The next day, he declared anew, “I don’t want to say the election is over.” That was in a previously unaired outtake of an address to the nation he was to give, shown at the prime-time hearing of the committee.
The panel documented how for some 187 minutes, from the time Trump left a rally stage sending his supporters to the Capitol to the time he ultimately appeared in the Rose Garden video that day, nothing could compel the defeated president to act. Instead, he watched the violence unfold on TV.
“President Trump didn’t fail to act,” said Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a fellow Republican but frequent Trump critic who flew combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan. “He chose not to act.”
After months of work and weeks of hearings, the prime-time session started the way the committee began — laying blame for the deadly attack on Trump himself for summoning the mob to Washington and sending them to Capitol Hill.
The defeated president turned his supporters’ “love of country into a weapon,” said the panel’s Republican vice chair Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming.
Far from finishing its work after Thursday’s hearing, probably the last of the summer, the panel will start up again in September as more witnesses and information emerge. Cheney said “the dam has begun to break” on revealing what happened that fateful day, at the White House as well as in the violence at the Capitol.
“Donald Trump made a purposeful choice to violate his oath of office,” Cheney declared.
“Every American must consider this: Can a president who is willing to make the choices Donald Trump made during the violence of Jan. 6 ever be trusted in any position of authority in our great nation?” she asked.
Trump, who is considering another White House run, dismissed the committee as a “Kangaroo court,” and name-called the panel and witnesses for “many lies and misrepresentations.”
Plunging into its second prime-time hearing on the Capitol attack, the committee aimed to show a “minute by minute” accounting of Trump’s actions with new testimony, including from two White House aides, never-before-heard security radio transmissions of Secret Service officers fearing for their lives and behind-the-scenes discussions at the White House.
With the Capitol siege raging, Trump was “giving the green light” to his supporters by tweeting condemnation of Vice President Mike Pence’s refusal to go along with his plan to stop the certification of Joe Biden’s victory, a former White House aide told the committee.
Two aides resigned on the spot.
“I thought that Jan. 6 2021, was one of the darkest days in our nation’s history,” Sarah Matthews told the panel. “And President Trump was treating it as a celebratory occasion. So it just further cemented my decision to resign.”
The committee played audio of Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, reacting with surprise to the president’s inaction during the attack.
“You’re the commander-in-chief. You’ve got an assault going on on the Capitol of the United States of America. And there’s Nothing? No call? Nothing, Zero?” he said.
On Jan. 6, an irate Trump demanded to be taken to the Capitol after his supporters had stormed the building, well aware of the deadly attack, but his security team refused.
“Within 15 minutes of leaving the stage, President Trump knew that the Capitol was besieged and under attack,” said Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va.
At the Capitol, the mob was chanting “Hang Mike Pence,” testified Matt Pottinger, the former deputy national security adviser, as Trump tweeted his condemnation of his vice president.
Pottinger, testifying Thursday, said that when he saw Trump’s tweet he immediately decided to resign, as did Matthews, who said she was a lifelong Republican but could not go along with what was going on. She was the witness who called the tweet “a green light” and “pouring gasoline on the fire.”
Meanwhile, recordings of Secret Service radio transmissions revealed agents at the Capitol trying to whisk Pence to safety amid the mayhem and asking for messages to be relayed telling their own families goodbye.
The panel showed previously unseen testimony from the president’s son, Donald Trump, Jr., with a text message to his father’s chief of staff Mark Meadows urging the president to call off the mob.
Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner also testified in a recorded video of a “scared” GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy calling him for help.
And in a gripping moment, the panel showed Trump refusing to deliver a speech the next day declaring the election was over, despite his daughter, Ivanka Trump, heard off camera, encouraging him to read the script.
“The president’s words matter,” said Luria, D-Va., a former Naval officer on the panel. “We know that many of the rioters were listening to President Trump.”
Luria said the panel had received testimony confirming the powerful previous account of former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson of an altercation involving Trump as he insisted the Secret Service drive him to the Capitol.
Among the witnesses testifying Thursday in a recorded video was retired District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department Sgt. Mark Robinson who told the committee that Trump was well aware of the number of weapons in the crowd of his supporters but wanted to go regardless.
“The only description that I received was that the president was upset, and that he was adamant about going to the Capitol and that there was a heated discussion about that,” Robinson said.
Chairman Bennie Thompson, appearing virtually as he self-isolates with COVID-19, opened Thursday’s hearing saying Trump as president did “everything in his power to overturn the election” he lost to Joe Biden, including before and during the deadly Capitol attack.
“He lied, he bullied, he betrayed his oath,” charged Thompson, D-Miss.
“Our investigation goes forward,” said Thompson. “There needs to be accountability.”
The hearing room was packed, including with several police officers who fought off the mob that day, and the family of one officer who died the day after the attack.
While the committee cannot make criminal charges, the Justice Department is monitoring its work.
So far, more than 840 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Capitol riot. Over 330 of them have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanors. Of the more than 200 defendants to be sentenced, approximately 100 received terms of imprisonment.
No former president has ever been federally prosecuted by the Justice Department.
Attorney General Merrick Garland said Wednesday that Jan. 6 is “the most wide-ranging investigation and the most important investigation that the Justice Department has ever entered into.”
Five people died that day as Trump supporters battled the police in gory hand-to-hand combat to storm the Capitol. One officer has testified that she was “slipping in other people’s blood” as they tried to hold back the mob. One Trump supporter was shot and killed by police.
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Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick, Kevin Freking, Mike Balsamo, Chris Megerian in Washington and Jill Colvin in New York contributed to this report.
Follow AP’s coverage of the Jan. 6 committee hearings at https://apnews.com/hub/capitol-siege.
CNN Exclusive: Republicans who texted Meadows with urgent pleas on January 6 say Trump could have stopped the violence
“POTUS needs to calm this shit down,” GOP Rep. Jeff Duncan of South Carolina wrote at 3:04 p.m.
“TELL THEM TO GO HOME !!!” former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus messaged at 3:09 p.m.
“POTUS should go on air and defuse this. Extremely important,” Tom Price, former Trump health and human services secretary and a former GOP representative from Georgia, texted at 3:13 p.m.
“Fix this now,” wrote GOP Rep. Chip Roy of Texas at 3:15 p.m.
One of the key questions the January 6 House committee is expected to raise in its June hearings is why Trump failed to publicly condemn the attack for hours, and whether that failure is proof of “dereliction of duty” and evidence that Trump tried to obstruct Congress’ certification of the election.
The Meadows texts show that even those closest to the former President believed he had the power to stop the violence in real time.
CNN obtained the 2,319 text messages that Meadows selectively handed over to the January 6 committee in December before he stopped cooperating with the investigation. According to a source familiar with the committee’s investigation, the texts provide a valuable “road map” and show how Meadows was an enabler of Trump, despite being told there was no widespread election fraud.
Seventeen months later, CNN spoke to more than a dozen people who had texted Meadows that day, including former White House officials, Republican members of Congress and political veterans. Without exception, each said they stood by their texts and that they believed Trump had the power and responsibility to try to stop the attack immediately.
“I thought the President could stop it and was the only person who could stop it,” said Alyssa Farah Griffin, who was Trump’s director of strategic communications until she left the White House in December 2020. Farah Griffin is now a CNN political commentator.
“When he finally tweeted something hours and hours later, there are reports of people inside the building saying, ‘He’s saying to go home.’ They would have listened to him,” she added.
Farah Griffin texted Meadows at 3:13 p.m. that day: “Potus has to come out firmly and tell protesters to dissipate. Someone is going to get killed.”
Trump’s former acting White House chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, also texted Meadows on January 6: “Mark: he needs to stop this, now. Can I do anything to help?”
Mulvaney told CNN he stands by his text. “I wish someone had responded to my outreach,” he said.
Most of the people who spoke to CNN about their texts on January 6 would be quoted only anonymously. Some said it was because of their jobs. Some said they were afraid Trump would be reelected. One said they just didn’t want to go through “the misery of being targeted by Trump supporters.”
Their words were blunt, emotional and damning, even those who remain staunch Trump allies.
“I thought there was only one person who could stop it and that was the President,” said a senior Republican. “I don’t know that I can think of another situation that was as grave for the nation, or as affecting for the nation, where the President didn’t say something.”
A Meadows associate said Trump had waited too long to act: “Two hours is just inexcusable … when the safety of the federal government is in question you have the duty immediately to speak out. And Trump was derelict in that duty.”
Another political veteran said Trump’s silence made him complicit: “I think he knew he could stop it, which is why he remained silent.”
And a former Trump administration official summed it up with this stark assessment: “He failed at being the president.”
An attorney for Meadows did not respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for the January 6 committee also did not respond to a request for comment.
‘I’m very worried about the next 48 hours’
The Meadows text logs present a dramatic timeline of how friends, colleagues and Republican allies were pleading for help on January 6.
Rioters stormed police barriers around the Capitol just after 1 p.m. that day. The House and Senate fled their chambers around 2:20 p.m. Yet it took Trump until 4:17 p.m. to release a video on Twitter telling the rioters to go home.
The upcoming January 6 hearings are expected to focus on the gap of 187 minutes it took Trump to release the video — as well as highlight some of the most notable texts that Meadows received and sent that day.
The logs are not a complete record of Meadows’ texts — he withheld more than 1,000 messages, claiming executive privilege, according to the committee. But the messages Meadows did hand over show his responses were often terse and emotionless, if he replied at all.
Two sources familiar with the committee’s investigation said it was remarkable that Meadows never seemed alarmed in the messages he sent on January 6, and that even in the midst of the violence, he appeared unwilling to stand up to Trump. “Even Don Jr. knew the right thing to do,” one source told CNN.
On January 5, the Meadows text logs show that the chief of staff was still actively involved with plans to object to the congressional certification of Joe Biden’s election victory, encouraging Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene to pass on evidence of voter fraud.
“Last night Sen Graham told me that if I found 100 names of dead voters in GA that he would object. I have 100 dead voters names!! Tell President Trump!” Greene, a Georgia Republican, texted Meadows at 2:30 p.m.
“Send them to him,” Meadows responded, making sure she had Graham’s cell phone number.
At 10:29 p.m., Fox’s Sean Hannity chimed in with an apprehensive message over what was to come.
“I’m very worried about the next 48 hours,” Hannity texted Meadows. “Pence pressure. WH counsel will leave.”
Meadows did not reply directly, but he appeared to have called Hannity, who texted that he couldn’t pick up the phone.
“On with boss,” Hannity texted, an apparent reference to Trump.
The last message Meadows received on January 5 is from his close friend and Trump ally Rep. Jim Jordan of Ohio. Shortly before midnight, Jordan forwarded a message making the case that Vice President Mike Pence “should call out all electoral votes that he believes are unconstitutional as no electoral votes at all.”
‘I have pushed for this’
The morning of January 6, Meadows woke up to three problems: logistics for that day’s rally on the Ellipse, Pence’s refusal to join Trump’s attempts to subvert the election and the US Senate runoffs the day before in Georgia, where both Republicans were trailing.
At 7:30 a.m., Meadows responded to Jordan’s message from the night before, acknowledging his support for Pence to reject the electoral votes. “I have pushed for this,” Meadows wrote back. “Not sure it is going to happen.”
Meadows then turned his attention to the January 6 rally, where Trump was slated to speak later that morning. Meadows had been involved with the fraught internal drama over the speaker’s list in the days leading up to the event.
Meadows checked in to make sure one of the speakers, Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama, knew he was supposed to appear.
“You are speaking this am. Are you aware,” Meadows asked at 8:08 a.m.
Brooks, who gave one of the more incendiary speeches of the day, responded at 9:33 a.m., after leaving the stage: “Did it in 10m. Thanks! Crowd roaring.”
Jordan and Brooks are two of five House Republicans who have been subpoenaed by the January 6 committee.
At 11 a.m., Trump campaign spokesman Jason Miller shared a tweet with Meadows and other top Trump aides capturing the darkening mood inside Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell’s camp with Democrats poised to take control of the Senate.
“Emotions running high among McConnell-aligned Republicans early Wednesday am — after reality of what transpired in Georgia settled in,” National Journal reporter Josh Kraushaar wrote in the tweet. “May be the heat of the moment, but mood is for declaring war on Team Trump.”
‘Someone is going to get killed’
At 1:05 p.m., while Trump was still addressing the crowd at the Ellipse, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi gaveled in the joint session inside the Capitol to begin certifying Biden’s Electoral College win. Outside the Capitol, pro-Trump supporters were already breaking through police barriers.
Roughly an hour later, rioters clashed with police and breached the Capitol doors, forcing the House and Senate to abruptly gavel out of session and evacuate the chambers.
According to court filings, at 2:02 p.m. Meadows’ deputy Ben Williamson sent his boss a text message about the violence unfolding at the Capitol. The text is not included in the logs Meadows turned over, but Williamson provided it to the committee.
“Would recommend POTUS put out a tweet about respecting the police over at the Capitol — getting a little hairy over there,” Williamson wrote.
Williamson said he had then spoken to Meadows in person and that Meadows had immediately gone toward the Oval Office to inform Trump, according to court documents.
Shortly afterward, Meadows began receiving messages about the mob at the door.
“Will potus say something to tamp things down?” wrote CNN’s Jim Acosta at 2:12 p.m.
Despite Williamson’s advice urging the President to send a message about respecting the police, Trump tweeted again at 2:24 p.m., attacking his vice president.
“Mike Pence didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done to protect our Country and our Constitution, giving States a chance to certify a corrected set of facts, not the fraudulent or inaccurate ones which they were asked to previously certify. USA demands the truth!” Trump tweeted.
Four minutes later, Trump’s allies began imploring Meadows to convince the President to do something. The first message came from Greene.
“Mark I was just told there is an active shooter on the first floor of the Capitol Please tell the President to calm people This isn’t the way to solve anything,” Greene wrote at 2:28 p.m.
Fox’s Laura Ingraham texted Meadows at 2:32 p.m., “Hey Mark, The president needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home. This is hurting all of us.”
Meadows heard from local contacts, too, including one who castigated the White House chief of staff for his role leading up to the insurrection.
At 2:34 p.m., North Carolina-based Republican strategist Carlton Huffman wrote, “You’ve earned a special place in infamy for the events of today. And if you’re the Christian you claim to be in your heart you know that.”
“It’s really bad up here on the hill,” texted Rep. Barry Loudermilk of Georgia at 2:44 p.m.
At 2:46 p.m., GOP Rep. Will Timmons of South Carolina wrote to Meadows: “The president needs to stop this ASAP.”
Several who texted Meadows told CNN they hoped their messages would convince the chief of staff to stand up to Trump and get him to stop the violence.
‘We love you, you’re very special’
At 2:48 p.m., Meadows responded to Loudermilk that “POTUS is engaging.” But Trump would not tell the rioters to leave the Capitol for another hour and a half as messages continued to pour in from Trump allies, Meadows associates and reporters seeking a White House response.
Jonathan Karl of ABC News texted at 2:53 p.m., “What are you going to do to stop this? What is the president going to do?”
Karl said of his text to Meadows, “I was asking a question as a reporter who wanted to know what was happening inside the White House as the Capitol was being attacked. But I was also asking as an American horrified by what I was witnessing.”
Meadows received more messages from contacts in his home state urging Trump to intervene.
At 3:42 p.m., North Carolina-based lobbyist Tom Cors wrote, “Pls have POTUS call this off at the Capitol. Urge rioters to disperse. I pray to you.”
At 3:52 p.m., North Carolina lawyer Jay Leutze texted, “Mark, this assault in the Capitol is tragic for the country. Please call it off so the Congress can resume its peaceful debate.”
Finally, at 4:17 p.m., Trump released a video message telling the rioters to leave the Capitol. The video he tweeted was just over a minute long.
“I know your pain. I know you’re hurt,” Trump said. “We have to have peace. We have to have law and order. We have to respect our great people in law and order. We don’t want anybody hurt.”
Trump concluded, “So go home. We love you, you’re very special. You’ve seen what happens, you see the way others are treated that are so bad and so evil. I know how you feel, but go home and go home in peace.”
‘Good that you made that video’
Trump’s video helped ease some of the pressure being directed toward Meadows. Priebus, a former White House chief of staff, told Meadows at 4:20 p.m., “Good that you made that video.”
The video also wasn’t Trump’s final word. At 6:01 p.m., he sent another tweet once again falsely claiming fraud. Trump’s Twitter account was suspended a little over an hour later before he was ultimately banned from the platform.
“These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long,” Trump tweeted. “Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever!”
That evening, Meadows received numerous queries from reporters asking about the fallout of the insurrection, such as questions about whether Cabinet secretaries were resigning or considering invoking the 25th Amendment to remove Trump from office. He was asked about Pence’s situation, too, including by Hannity, who texted at 7:57 p.m., “Wth is happening with VPOTUS.” Meadows does not appear to have responded.
Several reporters also texted Meadows asking whether he personally was considering resigning.
“Off the record. No,” he responded at 10:21 p.m. to reporter Al Weaver of The Hill.
‘Mrs. Trump has also signed off’
While rioters were still being cleared from the Capitol, there were questions about whether the House and Senate would reconvene to finish counting the electoral votes. Republican and Democratic leaders in both chambers vowed to do so.
At 8:06 p.m., Pence gaveled the Senate back into session.
“Today was a dark day in the history of the United States Capitol,” he began from the Senate dais.
The vice president condemned the violence and said the reassembled lawmakers were there to defend and support the Constitution. “Let’s get back to work,” he concluded to loud cheers.
After two months of trying to overturn the 2020 election, the Meadows text logs show, Trump’s team had prepared a draft statement once the certification was complete, which said there “will be an orderly transition on January 20th.”
In a group text at 10:01 p.m., Trump campaign spokesman Miller reached out to Meadows, Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and Trump aide Dan Scavino. “Chief, Jared, Dan – below please find an approved statement from the President to go out right as they’re finalizing the votes, which we’re expecting to be 3am, though with some Members caving it could happen earlier,” Miller texted. “Mrs. Trump has also signed off.”
Kushner weighed in with a suggestion about how to release the statement. “Why don’t we post on his Facebook page since he isn’t locked out there,” Kushner wrote, after Trump had been suspended from Twitter a few hours earlier.
“I’ll be up,” responded Scavino, “let me know when ok to drop, and it’s official…just got off w/them.”
In the end, Scavino tweeted the statement from his personal account at 3:49 a.m. on January 7, five minutes after Biden’s win was finally certified and Pence gaveled out the joint session of Congress.
Texas shooting latest news: Police ‘waited outside despite pleas for action’
Texas elementary school shooting: Live from Uvalde, Texas
Onlookers have said they urged police to move into the primary school as officers stood by while a gunman was carrying out his rampage, which killed 19 students and two teachers.
The father of 10-year-old victim Jacklyn Cazares said he even suggested to go in himself with other bystanders as he was frustrated police were not doing it themselves.
Details are starting to emerge of the attack and the 18-year-old shooter behind it.
The teenage gunman, identified as Salvador Ramos, barricaded himself inside a classroom before killing the fourth-grade students at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde on Tuesday.
The suspect, with no known criminal history or history of mental illness, was shot dead by an officer on the scene after around 60 minutes.
Facebook has confirmed that he sent a direct message online around 10 minutes before the attack warning that he was going to shoot up an elementary school.
ICYMI: Teenage gunman posted ‘lil secret’ Instagram message before shooting 21 people dead
The Texas school shooter who gunned down 19 children and two teachers messaged a woman online just hours earlier saying: “I got a lil secret I wanna tell you.”
Salvador Ramos, 18, appeared to hint at his plans to attack at Robb Elementary in Uvalde in an alleged private Instagram chat with the woman, telling her “I’m about to.”
Read more on this story here:
Chiara Giordano26 May 2022 09:25
ICYMI: Gunman ‘wasn’t violent person’, mother says
The shooter’s gunman has broken her silence following the school attack that killed 19 students and two teachers and says that her son “wasn’t a violent person”, Graeme Massie reports.
Zoe Tidman26 May 2022 08:58
Tributes paid to victims
Tributes and memorials are being paid to the 21 victims of the shooting. See here:
Flowers are placed on a makeshift memorial in front of Robb Elementary School
(AFP via Getty Images)
A woman holds a photo of Nevaeh Bravo, who was killed in the mass shooting, during a vigil for the victims of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde
(AFP via Getty Images)
Zoe Tidman26 May 2022 08:36
Who are the victims?
Nineteen children and two teachers were killed in the school shooting on Tuesday.
Zoe Tidman26 May 2022 08:18
ICYMI: Texas teen arrested with pistol at school day after mass shooting
Texas police arrested a boy in posession of an AK-47-style pistol and a toy AR-15-style rifle at school on Wednesday, the day after a mass shooting in the state left 21 dead at an elementary school in the small town of Uvalde, Josh Marcus reports.
Police were called on Wednesday morning in the town of Richardson, a Dallas suburb, on reports that a male was seen walking towards Berkner High School holding what looked like a rifle.
Zoe Tidman26 May 2022 08:03
‘Second amendment not absolute’
President Joe Biden said Wednesday that “the Second Amendment is not absolute” as he called for new gun control measures in the wake of this week’s massacre at a Texas elementary school.
When the amendment was approved, “you couldn’t own a cannon. You couldn’t own certain kinds of weapons. There’s always been limitations,” said the president while speaking at the White House before signing an executive order on policing on the second anniversary of George Floyd’s death.
US President Joe Biden signs an executive order enacting further police reform in the East Room of the White House on 25 May 2022 in Washington, DC
(Getty Images)
He that he would visit Texas with first lady Jill Biden in the coming days to “hopefully bring some little comfort to the community.”
“As a nation, I think we must all be there for them,” the president added. “And we must ask, when in God’s name will we do what’s needed to be done.”
Namita Singh26 May 2022 06:55
States divided on gun controls law
After Tuesday’s massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Democratic governors and lawmakers across the country issued impassioned pleas for Congress and their own legislatures to pass gun restrictions.
But aside from a few Democratic-controlled states, the majority have taken no action on gun control in recent years or have moved aggressively to expand gun rights.
That’s because they are either controlled politically by Republicans who oppose gun restrictions or are politically divided, leading to a stalemate.
“Here I am in a position where I can do something, I can introduce legislation, and yet to know that it almost certainly is not going to go anywhere is a feeling of helplessness,” said state senator Greg Leding, a Democrat in the GOP-controlled Arkansas Legislature. He has pushed unsuccessfully for red flag laws that would allow authorities to remove firearms from those determined to be a danger to themselves or others.
Republicans, including Texas governor Greg Abbott, have mostly called for amping up the efforts to address mental health and increase protections at school.
Read more in this report:
Namita Singh26 May 2022 06:52
Schumer sets in motion firearms background check bills
Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer has quickly set in motion a pair of firearms background check bills in response to the elementary school shooting in Texas.
“Please, please, please damn it — put yourselves in the shoes of these parents just for once,” said Mr Schumer as he implored his Republican colleagues to cast aside the powerful gun lobby.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer speaks to reporters at the US Capitol 24 May 2022 in Washington
(Getty Images)
“If the slaughter of schoolchildren can’t convince Republicans to buck the NRA, what can we do?”
Earlier on Tuesday night, president Joe Biden told the nation it was time to “turn this pain into action” and change gun laws.
“Why are we willing to live with this carnage?” he said, hoarsely and visibly emotional. “Where in God’s name is our backbone, to have the courage to deal with this and stand up to the [gun] lobbies?”
Namita Singh26 May 2022 06:44
Majority of Americans support tighter gun control laws, finds a poll
While most Americans support tighter gun laws, fewer are confident that politicians will take action, found a Reuter-Ipsos poll released on Wednesday.
In the poll conducted one day after a Texas gunman killed 21 people at an elementary school, about 84 per cent of respondents said they supported background checks for all firearms sales.
Gun-control advocates hold a vigil outside of the National Rifle Association (NRA) headquarters following the recent mass shooting at Robb Elementary School on 25 May 2022 in Fairfax, Virginia
(Getty Images)
About 70 per cent of 940 participants said they backed “red flag” laws that would allow authorities to confiscate guns from people found to be a threat to public safety. Another 72 per cent supported raising the age to buy a gun from 18 to 21.
However, only 35 per cent of the respondents felt that Congress will act to strengthen gun laws this year, while 49 per cent said they were “not confident” this would happen.
A majority of participants, about 65 per cent, believed that mass shooting incidents happened frequently because of the easy availability of firearms.
Namita Singh26 May 2022 06:13
Texas school shooting aches Newtown parents
Michele Gay was devastated by the massacre at a Texas elementary school and its aching parallels to the 2012 attack in Connecticut when she lost her daughter at Sandy Hook.
Like the Newtown gunman, the attacker in Texas was a young man who shot an older family member he lived with before opening fire with an AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle inside a nearby elementary school, slaughtering small and defenseless children.
It was all the more saddening in light of the work she has invested in the years since to promote school safety.
“This one has been particularly devastating for me, for my family, for our community, Sandy Hook. We’re just literally transported back in time,” said Ms Gay, co-founder of the nonprofit Safe and Sound Schools. “I’ve got to dig deep. I’m not going to lie.”
In the decade since 20 children and six educators were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary, some of their loved ones who channeled grief into advocacy have claimed success, gradually, in areas including gun safety, attitudes around gun violence, and mental health awareness. The attack in Uvalde has tested their resolve like no other.
As details of Tuesday’s shooting emerged, Matt Vogl was texting with Jennifer Hensel, whose daughter Avielle was killed in Newtown, and others involved in an advocacy effort named in the girl’s honor, the Avielle Initiative, which promotes efforts to make mental health care more widely available through technology.
“We were all just crying and texting. It’s brutal because it triggers some of the darkest memories we have,” said Mr Vogl, executive director at the National Mental Health Innovation Center in Colorado, where the program is based.
The effort was launched after the Newtown attack by Hensel and her husband, Jeremy Richman, who died by suicide in 2019.
“If I can’t stay optimistic I need to quit and find something else to do. On days like today it’s all you got. The vast majority of people don’t go into schools and shoot them up,” he said.
‘I’ve got to dig deep’: Texas shooting tests Newtown parents
Some relatives of the victims of the 2012 attack on the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, who channeled grief into advocacy have claimed success, gradually, in areas including gun safety, attitudes around gun violence, and mental health awareness
Namita Singh26 May 2022 05:56
Pleas and Regrets in Russian Hospital as Coronavirus Rages
For nearly 20 straight months, Yevgeny Ryabov has watched coronavirus patients come through the doors of his hospital in central Moscow. Lately, most are unvaccinated.
The Covid-ward coordinator observes how the virus ravages their bodies and, time after time, he hears the dying say they regret not getting the jab.
“They usually give some excuse — that they wanted to do it tomorrow,” Ryabov says. “Unfortunately, tomorrow came today.”
And the sick keep coming.
On commutes home, Ryabov witnesses Russia’s largest city and the epicentre of the country’s outbreak act as if there is nothing to fear, with bars, restaurants and theatres open as usual.
“You drive and see people without masks, people having fun — both old and young — and it’s upsetting because you’re working for them. Unfortunately they don’t understand,” he says.
“In those cases I want to scream,” adds the 54-year-old, who lost five colleagues to the virus before a vaccine became available.
While the pandemic is receding in many Western countries, Russia’s outbreak is worse than ever, with authorities saying the latest surge of the virus has spread at its most rapid pace yet among a population that is only 35-percent fully vaccinated.
As Ryabov spoke to AFP at the Sklifosovsky Research Institute of Emergency Medicine’s hospital on Wednesday morning, Russia set its sixth record in seven days for coronavirus deaths over 24 hours.
By the afternoon, President Vladimir Putin had ordered a nationwide week-long paid holiday starting from October 30 to curb infections, calling on Russians to show “responsibility” and get one of the country’s several jabs that have been available for months for free.
But the surging caseload has come with no real pandemic restrictions in place, and with more than a week left until the holiday — a measure that has been criticised by experts as ineffective — coronavirus patients will continue packing Moscow’s hospitals.
Holding strong
Doctors at the Sklifosovsky Research Institute of Emergency Medicine said they were holding strong, but begged the two-thirds of Russians who have not yet been vaccinated to get the jab.
“We need to vaccinate to beat this disease already,” said Alexander Shakotko, who heads up the hospital’s intensive care unit (ICU). “We need social responsibility.”
The unvaccinated treated at his ward are watched over by portraits of the 20th century Russian priest Saint John of Shanghai and San Francisco, also known as Saint John the Wonderworker.
Some of the patients say they have experienced miracles.
“I know I wouldn’t be here if they didn’t save me,” Olga Ryzhko, a 51-year-old architect, told AFP from her hospital bed.
She said she is not a “Covid dissident” and that she had planned on getting vaccinated, but had just kept putting it off.
Not everyone is as lucky.
Besides doctors, Ryzhko said a woman who shared her ICU room over the past month kept her going in the battle against the disease with positivity and encouragement.
But the woman couldn’t save herself. On Monday, she succumbed to the disease.
“It’s been truly horrible,” Ryzhko says.
Anatoly Polyakov, a retired police officer who spent two weeks in the ICU and said he was several days away from leaving hospital, also had not got the vaccine.
He explained he and his wife had been waiting for a “strong” one to come around.
“We waited and waited, and this is what we got,” the 76-year-old said.
“I really regret it after everything I lived through,” he added. “When I get out I will tell everyone to get vaccinated.”
His doctors do not hold out much hope that the tide might turn in any near future.
“The first two waves we thought’ just a bit more and that’s it, we’ll return to normal life,” Shakotko said.
“Now we don’t even think about it. This is just the new normal.”