A bipartisan group of senators has reached an "agreement" on a gun reform framework, which targets states’ background checks and "red flag" laws.
The mysterious deaths of 21 teenagers at a popular nightclub in South Africa has swirled speculation and left many unanswered questions. The South African Police Service said its officers were called to the Enyobeni Tavern in Scenery Park, a suburb on the edge of East London in Eastern Cape province, on Sunday morning at around 4 a.m. local time. The local government, the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality, has offered burial assistance to the victims' families.
Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, the most senior member of the U.S. Supreme Court's liberal wing, said he will officially step down from the bench at noon on Thursday, relinquishing his duties as a justice and clearing the way for the swearing-in of the nation's first Black female justice, Ketanji Brown Jackson. "It has been my great honor to participate as a judge in the effort to maintain our Constitution and the Rule of Law," Breyer wrote in a letter to President Joe Biden dated Wednesday. Breyer's retirement fulfills the wish of Democrats who lobbied for his exit to make way for Biden's first nominee to the court.
Federal investigators are working to determine if an Amtrak train was traveling at a speed limit of 90 mph when it plowed into a dump truck at a Missouri railroad crossing, killing four people and injuring 150, officials said. Jennifer Homendy, chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said she expects investigators to know by the end of Wednesday the exact speed of the train after analyzing information from its event recorder. "In this area the speed limit is 90 miles per hour," Homendy said at a news conference on Tuesday afternoon.
The Supreme Court's landmark ruling overturning Roe v. Wade has sparked protests and fiery debates across the country -- even putting families at odds over the issue. Jessica Stamas, daughter of a Republican state senator from Michigan, posted a video on TikTok Friday after the ruling calling on women who have family members who are senators and representatives to "show them this affects their lives too," likely referring to a possible state decision on abortion. Stamas specifically called out Michigan's Democratic governor in her post.
Chris Pratt has addressed, for the first time, online backlash he received from a previous comment he made about his wife and eldest daughter. In November, Pratt had posted a photo of himself and wife Katherine Schwarzenegger on Instagram, gushing about their relationship in the caption and thanking Schwarzenegger for, among other things, giving him "a gorgeous healthy daughter," referring to their first child together, Lyla. In a new interview with Men's Health, Pratt discussed how he felt about those reactions.
Former Trump White House aide Cassidy Hutchinson's testimony before the House Jan. 6 committee Tuesday added a new layer of political consequences for Donald Trump after she detailed a defiant president she said wanted to lead supporters from his rally on the Ellipse to the Capitol even after being warned they were armed. There are political ramifications as well for several vulnerable members of Congress, notably five of the 35 GOP members of the House of Representatives who voted in May 2021 in favor of a bipartisan commission to probe what surrounded the attack on U.S. Capitol and who faced a primary or runoff contest Tuesday night. Inconsistent results in these primaries show Republican voters' political fealty is unclear: Are they steadfastly loyal to Trump or are they satisfied with elements of Trumpism paired with more home-grown politics?
A spike in internet searches for abortion pills may indicate women in the United States will try to obtain the medication without a doctor's oversight, a new study finds. Researchers from Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania and the University of California, San Diego examined online searches following a leaked draft opinion on May 2 from the Supreme Court indicating Roe v. Wade would be overturned. The team analyzed Google search trends that mentioned "abortion pill" or "abortion medications" from Jan. 1, 2004 -- when the search engine first began collecting data -- through May 8, 2022.
A Virginia father died by an apparent suicide after finding his son dead inside his hot car, authorities said. It appears the father accidentally left the 18-month-old in the car for at least three hours on Tuesday, leading to the child's death, Lt. Col. Christopher Hensley of the Chesterfield Police Department said at a news conference.
After testing positive for COVID-19 earlier this month, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Tuesday that he has joined a growing group of people experiencing a Paxlovid rebound, following treatment with Pfizer's antiviral. Fauci, 81, said that when he first tested positive two weeks ago, he had very minimal symptoms. Other than fatigue and a bit of congestion, Fauci reported that he felt "really quite well," and after his five-day course of Paxlovid, he tested negative with a rapid test.
At least 700 firefighters are battling the Rices Fire in northern California on Wednesday, where hundreds of residents have been evacuated from their homes, officials said. The fire, which has burned 769 acres and is 0% contained as of Wednesday morning, has led to mandatory and warning evacuation orders, according to the Nevada County Sheriff's Office. The fire is expected to be fully contained on July 1, according to a Cal Fire Nevada-Yuba-Placer Unit report on Wednesday.
Country singer Ashley McBryde is taking a break from the road for a few weeks. According to a statement posted by her team on Facebook Tuesday, McBryde will not be performing for the next several weeks due to "personal reasons." The singer had dates scheduled across the U.S. and Canada in the month of July as part of Dierks Bentley's Beers on Me Tour, as well as an appearance at Blame My Roots Country Music Festival in Ohio on July 16, among other shows.
Two women have been arrested in Thailand for allegedly attempting to smuggle at least 109 live animals in their luggage -- including porcupines, armadillos, turtles, chameleons and snakes -- as they tried to board a flight to India. The incident occurred on Monday at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport as two Indian women tried to make their way through airport security when officials spotted a couple of suspicious items in their suitcases following a routine x-ray inspection, according to a statement released by Thailand’s Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation. Upon further investigation, authorities discovered a total of at least 109 animals including “two white porcupines, two armadillos, 35 turtles, 50 chameleons and 20 snakes,” read the statement.
Mandy Moore says she's putting her health first amid her pregnancy and canceling the remainder of her tour. Taking to Instagram Tuesday, the singer and actress, who is expecting her second child with husband Taylor Goldsmith, shared, "It is with a heavy heart and much consideration that I have to let you all know that I am cancelling my remaining show dates in 2022." "It has been an honor and an absolute dream to return to the stage again this past month, performing for all of you," she continued.
Three tropical systems are churning in the Atlantic basin that could develop into a tropical storm or tropical depression over the next two days. It has a 40% chance of strengthening into a tropical depression as it moves on shore just south of Houston in the next 24 hours. Up to six inches of rain is possible south of Houston and three to four inches is expected for Houston itself Wednesday night through Friday morning.
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 26-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.
