ABC’s Eva Pilgrim with a special look at the diversity and accomplishments of the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Island community of actors overcoming Hollywood stereotypes.
A North Korean defector group in Seoul claimed on Tuesday to have launched air balloons carrying medical supplies near the inter-Korean border. The Fighters for Free North Korea, an activist group of North Korean defectors who send anti-propaganda leaflets across the border, said they flew 20 air balloons carrying 50,000 pain relief pills, 30,000 vitamin C and 20,000 N-95 masks. Dispatching unauthorized materials at the border is against the law in South Korea.
Updated COVID-19 vaccines that could better match the more recent variants are on the way. On Tuesday, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's committee of independent advisors met and recommended that the vaccines should target the latest omicron variant, kicking off the process for distribution of the new vaccines this fall. Many vaccine scientists agree that as the virus evolves, vaccines should be updated along with it.
The House Jan. 6 committee's hearing on Tuesday featured highly-anticipated and explosive testimony from someone who was inside the White House both as the Capitol attack unfolded and in the days before. The surprise witness, Cassidy Hutchinson, a former top adviser to then-President Donald Trump's chief of staff Mark Meadows, spent some two hours divulging details about what she said went on behind-the-scenes leading up to, during and after the attack. Committee members and even some former Trump staffers hailed the 25-year-old for showing the courage to deliver her testimony publicly.
At least 51 people are dead after dozens were found inside a tractor-trailer in San Antonio on Monday evening in a suspected case of human smuggling, authorities said. At least 34 of the victims have been identified as of Tuesday afternoon, officials said. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) confirmed in a statement to ABC News on Tuesday that the total number of victims was 51 and that those who have been identified so far were from Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras.
Jey Austen, a brand designer at a fintech company, lost their job about two weeks ago. Austen, whose lease on an apartment in Austin, Texas ends in August, will receive three weeks of severance pay but otherwise lacks savings, they said. “Worst comes to worst, I’ll sleep in my car,” said Austen, who was making $80,000 a year.
Singer and convicted sexual predator R. Kelly will appear before a judge today for sentencing in a Brooklyn federal court for racketeering that involved a dozen separate criminal acts, including sex with underage girls. The former R&B crooner, whose real name is Robert Kelly, could spend the rest of his life in prison. Federal prosecutors say he deserves to be sentenced in "excess of 25 years" due to the severe nature of his offenses.
Elizabeth Olsen's Wanda Maximoff may have been causing multiversal chaos as the Scarlett Witch in "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness," but she doesn't see her character as a villain. The Marvel Cinematic Universe veteran recently stopped by "Good Morning America" to answer fan questions and, when asked about what it was like to play an evil character, Olsen said, "I will never think of her as a baddie." "I think she learns a lesson, but I think of her as she's just processing big emotions," she explained, drawing a parallel between her MCU persona and the protagonist of her and husband Robbie Arnett's new children's book, "Hattie Harmony: Worry Detective," out now.
A 34-year-old man is recovering from injuries sustained at Yellowstone National Park after he was charged at and brutally gored by a bison when he and his family got too close to the animal. The incident occurred near Giant Geyser at Old Faithful on Monday when the unidentified man from Colorado Springs, Colorado, was walking with his family on a boardwalk at Yellowstone National Park when a bull bison began charging at them, according to a press release issued by the park. “Family members did not leave the area, and the bull bison continued to charge and gored the male,” the statement from Yellowstone continued.
Former Trump White House lawyer Eric Herschmann is claiming that a handwritten note regarding a potential statement for then-President Donald Trump to release during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol was written by him during a meeting at the White House that afternoon, and not by White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson, sources familiar with the matter tell ABC News. At Tuesday's Jan. 6 committee hearing, Rep. Liz Cheney displayed a handwritten note which Hutchinson testified she wrote after Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows handed her a note card and pen to take his dictation.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump has joined the legal team of Richard "Randy" Cox, a 36-year-old Black man who was injured while being transported by New Haven police in the back of a van. New Haven police arrested Cox on June 18 for allegedly unlawfully possessing a firearm, without incident, after a person attending a block party reported that Cox was carrying a gun. Video of the arrest shows the officers then placed Cox in the back of a police van without seatbelts.
Colorado voters on Tuesday will choose party nominees in a variety of local and statewide races -- and put to the test a multimillion-dollar plan by left-leaning groups there hoping to gain an advantage in the November midterms by influencing the Republican primaries. Democratic-affiliated organizations have spent millions on political ad contracts to boost pro-Donald Trump candidates in the nominating contests, highlighting the platforms of those who deny the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election while attacking more moderate GOP politicians. It's the latest example of a familiar political plan that isn't just playing out in Colorado: The goal is try and help pick the Democratic opponent -- and in this case, to try to engineer the victory of ultra conservatives who may then prove weaker with the broader electorate.
The family of a former U.S. soldier captured in Ukraine said Tuesday he has contacted the U.S. State Department twice since the weekend to read statements that identified his captors as forces from the Donetsk People's Republic, a Russian-backed region in Ukraine. Alex Drueke, 40, left his home from outside Tuscaloosa, Alabama in mid-April, intending to join Ukrainian forces as a volunteer. Drueke last contacted his family on June 13, they said.
Startling testimony on Tuesday from former White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson before the House committee investigating Jan. 6 drew shock from Donald Trump's orbit as well as support for Hutchinson's character -- and a rebuke from the former president himself. Hutchinson, who worked as a top aide to Mark Meadows, Trump's last chief of staff, was the only witness at a surprise hearing on Tuesday.
The Biden administration is planning to send out hundreds of thousands of monkeypox vaccines in response to the outbreak of the rare disease that has been identified in multiple non-endemic countries. The Department of Health and Human Services announced Tuesday on a call with reporters that it will be sending out 296,000 doses of the JYNNEOS vaccine for prevention of the disease for people who have been exposed. Of that number, 56,000 doses will become available immediately and an additional 240,000 doses will become available in a few weeks.
Sam Asghari is opening up about his marriage to pop superstar Britney Spears after their wedding earlier this month. The Iranian-American actor, who sat down with “Good Morning America" correspondent Will Reeve about his new film, “Hot Seat," said life with Spears is a “fairytale.” “I have to wear this thing now,” Asghari joked, pointing to his ring.
Physicians in Illinois have said they are already preparing for a surge in patients seeking abortions and possible legal battles after neighboring Missouri's trigger laws immediately restricted legal abortion access after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Dr. Colleen McNicholas, the chief medical officer with Planned Parenthood of the St. Louis Region, told ABC News the staff at the clinic at Fairview Heights, Illinois, plans to add two to four hours a day to their schedules, and probably operate seven days a week to handle the increased demand. Planned Parenthood built the Fairview Heights clinic, which is roughly 15 miles away from St. Louis, in 2019 in anticipation of tightened restrictions on abortions in nearby states, according to McNicholas.
Last week's Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade and allowing states to ban abortion will not stop the U.S. military from permitting its medical providers to continue to perform abortions in cases of rape, incest or if the mother's life would be endangered by carrying the pregnancy to term, according to a Pentagon memo issued Tuesday. The Pentagon also said the court's decision would not affect its leave policy, which allows personnel to travel as needed to receive care for one of the covered abortions or, in other cases, at their own expense. The high court's decision, handed down Friday, had raised questions about whether the military's medical system would be allowed to provide access to covered abortions even in states that have banned or plan to ban the procedure.
Health Secretary Xavier Becerra told reporters Tuesday that there’s no “magic bullet” that could restore Americans’ constitutional right to abortion, but said the administration was still working with its top legal advisers to explore every option, including ways to increase access to medication abortion. Becerra has announced several steps aimed at protecting existing protections for women, including ensuring that pregnant patients can get emergency medical care and safeguarding patient privacy. In his remarks, Becerra also noted that federal law allows for abortions through its Medicaid program in cases of rape and incest -- a standard at odds with states like Arkansas.
Four people were killed and dozens were injured Monday when an Amtrak train derailed after hitting a dump truck that was in an uncontrolled public crossing in Mendon, Missouri, according to Amtrak and officials. Eight passenger cars and two locomotives derailed at about 12:42 p.m. local time, Amtrak said. Justin Dunn initially said two of the train's passengers were killed, along with someone who was in the dump truck.
Residents in the San Diego area took to social media after mysterious lights were spotted in the sky just off the coast Monday night. With no clear indication of what the lights could be, dozens began posting photos and videos on Twitter, questioning what was happening in their night sky. The San Diego Police Department told ABC News on Tuesday morning that the mysterious lights were actually flares being used for military exercises.
