What you need to know about the Georgia runoff elections
ABC News is on the ground in Georgia, where a runoff election for a U.S. Senate seat takes place in December.
ABC News is on the ground in Georgia, where a runoff election for a U.S. Senate seat takes place in December.
At least one storm-related death was reported in Delaware on Saturday after a damaging tornado struck the state. The fatality was reported as a violent storm system that left nearly two dozen dead in the South and Midwest made its way into the Northeast. A confirmed tornado was located near Bridgeville in Sussex County, Delaware, shortly after 6 p.m. ET Saturday, moving east at 50 mph, according to the National Weather Service.
A federal judge in Tennessee has paused the state's new law restricting public drag performances just hours before the legislation was set to take effect. In a ruling on Friday night, Judge Thomas Parker delayed enforcement of H.B. 9 for 14 days while the court considers its constitutionality. The ruling marked a temporary victory for Friends of George, a theater company that puts on drag shows and claimed that the newly-passed legislation, which was signed by Gov. Bill Lee, R-Tenn., infringed on its First Amendment rights.
One person died and dozens were injured after the roof of a historic theater in Illinois collapsed during a suspected tornado Friday night, officials said. More than 40 people were injured in the incident at the Apollo Theatre in Belvidere, which was hosting a heavy metal concert at the time, officials said. Among those transported via ambulance from the venue were two with life-threatening injuries, two with severe injuries, 18 with moderate injuries and five with minor injuries, according to Dan Zaccard, emergency management director for Boone County.
At least 21 people are dead across six states and dozens have been hospitalized after a tornado outbreak moved through the Midwest and South on Friday night, according to local officials. Among the fatalities, five were in Arkansas, three died in Indiana, one died in Alabama and one died in Mississippi, local officials told ABC News. Adamsville, Tennessee, Mayor David Leckner told The Associated Press that seven people have died in McNairy County.
McCarthy pressed President Joe Biden to start more robust negotiations over raising the nation's borrowing limit ahead of the Congressional Budget Act’s April 15 deadline, marking the first major step in weeks on the issue. Biden suggested there's little point in a sit-down until House Republicans introduce a formal budget, which he called on them to do before the Easter recess.
Millions of people will begin to lose their health insurance on Saturday, as five states begin the unwinding of a pandemic-era protection that kept people from being removed from the Medicaid rosters. During the public health emergency, states were required to keep people on Medicaid without the often yearly reapplication process normally in place. "We're now in a position within just a couple of days where states can begin to disenroll people — to redo their rosters for Medicaid — and this continuous coverage requirement is no longer going to be in place," Dr. Avenel Joseph, vice president of policy for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, told ABC News.
Starting April 1, Twitter users who don’t subscribe to Twitter Blue are going to have to say goodbye to their blue check marks. Recent changes implemented under Elon Musk, the company’s CEO, mean anyone who subscribes to Twitter Blue gets a blue “check” icon next to their profile. Twitter’s check marks were originally intended to verify the authenticity of prominent accounts.
Encircled by camera-wielding supporters and journalists, Chris Smalls popped a bottle of champagne one year ago today to celebrate a watershed election that established the first-ever U.S. union at Amazon -- but the celebratory times for the union wouldn't last. Smalls, a former warehouse worker at the company's facility in Staten Island, New York, and the president of the Amazon Labor Union, or ALU, launched the campaign alongside his co-workers, raising money on GoFundMe as they sought improved pay, benefits and working conditions at the facility. In the months following the victory, labor campaigns were defeated overwhelmingly in elections at two other Amazon warehouses in New York.
Pope Francis left hospital on Saturday morning after spending three days recovering from bronchitis, according to the Vatican press office. The pope, standing on his feet, answered reporters' questions outside Rome' Gemelli hospital. Pope Francis also spoke to a couple, then got in the front passenger seat of a white Fiat 500.
The Justice Department on Friday announced the arrest of an Ohio man who allegedly sought to burn down a local church planning to host two drag show events this weekend. Prosecutors have charged 20-year-old Aimenn Penny with one count of malicious use of explosive materials and one count of possessing a destructive device. The Cleveland Field Office of the FBI gathered information that Penny was part of a White Lives Matter group that espouses racist, pro-Nazi and homophobic views.
The nine service members killed in two helicopter crashes earlier this week have been identified by the U.S. Army. The two Black Hawk helicopters were on a "routine training mission" when they crashed Wednesday night near Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Five service members were aboard one of the helicopters, and four were on the other, when the crash happened.
The clock is ticking for lawmakers to address Social Security's financial shortfall before Americans begin to see their checks reduced. The Old Age and Survivors Insurance Trust Fund, which is the trust fund for retirees, will only be able to make full payments until 2033 -- also a year earlier than previously projected -- the report stated. Medicare also faces serious financial headwinds but received slightly better projections in the newest report.
The judge overseeing Dominion Voting Systems' billion-dollar defamation suit against Fox News, in a major ruling Friday, ordered that the case will go to trial, rebuffing efforts by Fox to have it dismissed before a Delaware jury is seated in mid-April. Dominion's $1.6 billion suit accuses Fox News of knowingly pushing false conspiracy theories about the voting machine company in the wake of the 2020 election, in order to combat concerns over ratings and viewer retention. Attorneys for Fox News and Dominion presented arguments last week in dueling summary judgment motions each side had submitted earlier.
Self-proclaimed image architect Law Roach continues to take the fashion industry by storm. Since then, he's been busy, walking in Hugo Boss' Spring/Summer 2023 fashion show, working with Valentino, spending some well-deserved quality time with family -- and now, partnering with T.J. Maxx to spotlight designer offerings from the brand's "The Runway" collection. The Runway is T.J. Maxx's premium designer shop that features high-end fashion finds at accessible prices all year long.
The counsel for Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on Friday urged House Republicans to denounce former President Donald Trump's attacks on Bragg's office, saying they are collaborating with him to undermine his criminal probe. "You and many of your colleagues have chosen to collaborate with Mr. Trump's efforts to vilify and denigrate the integrity of elected state prosecutors and trial judges," the attorney for Bragg said in letter to Reps. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio., Bryan Steil, R-Wis., and James Comer, R-Ky. The three are chairmen of House committees probing the DA's investigation into Trump.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said multiple investigators in East Palestine, Ohio, fell ill while studying possible health impacts from the train derailment last month. Residents of the town and the surrounding area had been complaining of symptoms such as lethargy and headaches ever since a Norfolk Southern train derailed Feb. 3, releasing vinyl chloride, ethyl acrylate and isobutylene into the environment -- chemicals considered to be very toxic, possibly even carcinogenic with high exposure. First reported by CNN and confirmed by ABC News, seven investigators from the CDC and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry -- part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services -- started experiencing symptoms.
The head of a police union in the San Francisco Bay Area faces federal charges for allegedly smuggling thousands of synthetic opioids into the U.S. from multiple countries with the intent to distribute them. San Jose Police Officers Association Executive Director Joanne Marian Segovia, 64, has been charged with attempt to unlawfully import a controlled substance -- specifically valeryl fentanyl, a fentanyl analog -- according to a complaint filed in federal court earlier this week. Between 2015 and 2023, Segovia received 61 shipments that were labeled "Wedding Party Favors," "Shirts Tops," "Gift Makeup," "Chocolate and Sweets," "Food Supplement," "Health Product" and "Supplement," originating from countries including Hong Kong, Hungary, India and Singapore, according to the complaint.
The first assistant director for "Rust" has been sentenced to six months unsupervised probation as part of a plea deal in connection with the fatal on-set shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. David Halls, 63, was charged with negligent use of a deadly weapon in connection with the October 2021 shooting on the Santa Fe set of the Western. Halls had handed a Colt .45 revolver to Alec Baldwin that fired while the actor was practicing a cross-draw, striking Hutchins.
An orangutan at a Virginia zoo relied on a fellow mother, a human, to teach her how to breastfeed. The orangutan, named Zoe, did not have natural maternal instincts because she was orphaned at 9 months old when her mother died unexpectedly, according to Jessica Gring, a lead zookeeper at the Metro Richmond Zoo, where Zoe was born and raised. Zoe failed to nurse her first baby, a boy named Taavi, properly, and zookeepers had to step in and hand-raise the now 2-year-old orangutan.
Gabrielle Union and Zaya Wade turned heads in glowing looks at the 2023 GLAAD Media Awards on Thursday. Union dazzled in a vibrant hooded Moschino gown covered in colorful beadwork and embroidery while Zaya went for a Miu Miu matching set that included a jacket and mini skirt. While on the red carpet, Union spoke up about supporting Zaya, who is transgender, and whose father is former NBA star Dwyane Wade.