President Obama Affirms His Support for Same Sex Marriage
President Obama today announced that he now supports same-sex marriage, reversing his longstanding opposition amid growing pressure from the Democratic base and even his own vice president.
President Obama today announced that he now supports same-sex marriage, reversing his longstanding opposition amid growing pressure from the Democratic base and even his own vice president.
The planet continues to experience a massive loss in forest land as the world warms and allows severe wildfires to run rampant in regions spanning the globe. Overall, forest fires are getting worse worldwide, according to a new report released Wednesday by Global Forest Watch, a forest monitoring platform led by the World Resources Institute. The data captures stand-replacing fires, which kill all or most of the living overstory trees in a forest, and includes wildfires, escaped fires from human activities such as agriculture and hunting and intentionally set fires that result in tree cover loss.
Since the monkeypox vaccine began being distributed in New York City, the rollout has been plagued with issues. The city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has cycled through several scheduling platforms in a matter of weeks, which have experienced crashes as people tried to book appointments. "My general thought about the rollout is that it is a hard situation," Dr. Dana Mazo, an infectious diseases specialist and clinical associate professor of medicine at NYU Langone Health, told ABC News.
Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., is projected to have lost her primary on Tuesday to Donald Trump-backed Harriet Hageman, ABC News reports, after Cheney built her political profile -- and her campaign -- around criticizing the former president as an existential threat to American democracy. Cheney's defeat was largely expected, given the partisan makeup of her seat and polling that showed her trailing Hageman. Trump won Wyoming in the last presidential election with some 70% of the vote.
A captain of the Rochester Fire Department who was accused of taking firefighters to a party filled with racist tropes has retired. Following an investigation by the City of Rochester, Capt. Jeffrey Krywy was forced to leave the department by the city, Mayor Malik Evans announced Tuesday, according to ABC News Rochester affiliate WHAM. "As of Monday, he has chosen to retire before termination proceedings begin," Evans said in a statement to WHAM.
Newly updated COVID-19 boosters tailored to target a dominant strain of the virus will be available in the next three weeks or so, assuming the Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention work through their processes for authorization as expected. In late June, the FDA directed Moderna and Pfizer to make vaccines for the upcoming winter that targeted the more contagious BA.5 omicron subvariant, along with the original COVID strain.
Monkeypox and related viruses are known for their ability to transmit between humans and animals, but with increasing global spread, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that household pets may be at risk after a dog in France apparently contracted monkeypox from its owners in July, according to a report published in The Lancet journal. This is the first reported case of human-to-pet transmission of monkeypox. The CDC says it's not clear if other animals, like cats, can develop monkeypox, but recommends that people sick with monkeypox take precautions around all animals to be safe.
Federal government officials announced a more severe water shortage level in the Colorado River Basin Tuesday, saying it is essential that states like Arizona dramatically reduce water use before drinking water supplies or power production are affected. "The system is approaching a tipping point and, without action, we cannot protect the system and the millions of Americans who rely on this critical resource," Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Touton said in a briefing with reporters. Reservoirs in the Colorado Basin, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, are both at historically low levels after 23 years in drought conditions.
The New York City Department of Education will no longer randomly test students for COVID-19 when the new school year begins Sept. 8, the department said Tuesday. Instead, test kits will be sent home for students, parents and teachers to use if they are exposed to the virus. As part of the department's new COVID-19 protocols, students will no longer be required to submit a daily health screening form.
President Joe Biden on Tuesday signed the Democrats' massive climate, health and tax bill into law, marking a major accomplishment for his domestic agenda less than three months before midterm elections. Speaking from the White House State Dining Room, Biden touted the Inflation Reduction Act as "further proof that the soul of America is vibrant, the future of America is bright and the promise of America is real and just beginning." Taking advantage of some political momentum, Biden interrupted his summer vacation for the signing just days after the House approved the measure, following Senate passage by just one vote amid some political drama.
Former White House counsel Pat Cipollone and former deputy White House counsel Pat Philbin have been interviewed by the FBI regarding documents that were stored at former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News. Cipollone and Philbin are the most senior former administration officials known to have spoken with the FBI about Trump's handling of documents to date.
On Monday, the U.K. became the first country to approve a bivalent vaccine booster shot for adults, which would target both the original COVID virus and the Omicron variant. This vaccine, which is likely going to be available in the U.S. starting in the fall, is expected to provide increased and longer-lasting protection against COVID and the new variants. START HERE: Yesterday the U.K. became the first country on Earth to approve a new type of vaccine, a vaccine that was engineered with a more recent variant of COVID in mind.
Six people, including four teenagers, were shot in related incidents in Memphis overnight, police said. The first shooting was around midnight Tuesday, when officers heard multiple shots and saw a white SUV fleeing the scene, Memphis police said. Officers responded to where the shots were fired and found an empty white Infiniti SUV in an apartment complex, police said.
A federal judge in West Virginia on Tuesday rejected the plea deals of Jonathan Toebbe, a former nuclear engineer for the U.S. Navy, and his wife Diana, because she said they did not allow for enough prison time. Jonathan Toebbe's plea agreement called for a sentence of 12-17 years and Diana Toebbe's plea agreement called for a sentence of three years after they pleaded guilty to offering to sell secrets about submarine nuclear propulsion systems to a foreign country.
With U.S. monkeypox cases surpassing 11,000 in the past week, many are asking how to best protect themselves and reduce their risk. ABC News consulted with specialists who have studied or treated monkeypox, including ABC contributors Dr. Darien Sutton and John Brownstein, Ph.D, to categorize various behaviors and activities into different risk levels. Researchers warn that in the midst of an ongoing outbreak, the medical community is learning more about how this virus spreads in real-time.
The Democratic chairs of the House Homeland Security and House Oversight committees on Tuesday threatened the Department of Homeland Security inspector general with a subpoena, accusing him of delaying responding to the committee's request for answers regarding missing Secret Service text messages on and around the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. "If you continue to obstruct, we will have no choice but to consider alternate means to ensure compliance," Rep. Bennie Thompson and Rep. Carolyn Maloney, both Democrats, write to Joseph Cuffari in a letter dated Aug. 16. This is the second letter they have jointly sent to the DHS IG requesting information, amid new allegations that career staff in Cuffari's office prepared a notice to Congress earlier this year about their difficulty obtaining Secret Service text messages connected to Jan. 6, but the notice was not included in the government watchdog's required regular report to lawmakers.
Air travel fares may be starting to drop from their summer highs, but customers could pay the price to see family and take long-awaited vacations in the post-pandemic world, travel experts say. Hopper predicts this upcoming winter holiday season will be the most expensive in the last five years. Hopper anticipates 12.6 million people will fly over Labor Day weekend.
Novavax has submitted an application to the Food and Drug Administration for Emergency Use Authorization of its COVID-19 vaccine as a booster in adults that can be used on top of its primary vaccine series or to mix and match with a different primary series, the company announced. "It's important for people to have a choice as they evaluate how to stay protected against COVID-19, and boosters are an invaluable tool to build upon immunity obtained from previous vaccinations," Stanley C. Erck, President and Chief Executive Officer of Novavax, said in a statement on Monday. "Based on the data presented to the FDA's VRBPAC and the CDC ACIP, we believe our vaccine offers a broad, long-lasting immune response against a range of variants," Erck said.
Salma Hayek posted a fresh-faced photo of herself on Instagram over the weekend, and fans are eating it up. The actress posted the makeup-free photo on Sunday, wearing a pink bikini top and straw hat -- and, of course, her glowing skin. The image caught the attention (and likes) of more than 278,000 Instagram users, many of whom shared their love for Hayek's all-natural beauty.
Sal's Shoe Repair in Merrick, New York, was doing more than fixing heels and worn soles. The Genovese organized crime family operated an illegal gambling operation out of the shop, generating "substantial revenue," which was then laundered through cash transfers, federal prosecutors in Brooklyn said. Nine purported members and associates of the Genovese and Bonanno organized crime families were charged Tuesday with racketeering and illegal gambling offenses for running gambling parlors out of other legitimate-seeming establishments in Queens and on Long Island, including a coffee bar and La Nazionale Soccer Club.
Adam Foss, a former prosecutor in Boston whose TED Talk brought him into partnership with singer John Legend on criminal justice reform, raped a woman in a New York City hotel, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office said Tuesday. According to court documents and statements made on the record in court, Foss, 42, met the 25-year-old woman at a Midtown Manhattan hotel after exchanging calls and texts for approximately one month. “I thank this brave survivor, who had the courage to come forward and share her story,” said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.