New York legislators introduce gun ban bill
The bill would ban guns from Times Square, polling sites, schools and mass transit, among other places.
The bill would ban guns from Times Square, polling sites, schools and mass transit, among other places.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has returned home following his "non-surgical medical procedure" on Friday, and his since resumed his duties, said Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder, the Pentagon's top spokesman. Austin underwent the two-and-a-half hour procedure at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, during which his authorities were temporarily transferred to Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks. "He is now back home and will continue with his official schedule which includes events on Monday for Memorial Day," Ryder said, who announced the procedure in a statement issued Friday afternoon.
Special Counsel Jack Smith on Friday took the extraordinary step of seeking an order from the federal judge overseeing former President Donald Trump's classified documents case to bar Trump from making statements that could pose a significant risk to law enforcement. The request follows Trump's efforts to seize on an item of recently released discovery in the case that he falsely claims shows President Biden planned to assassinate him during the search of his Mar-a-Lago club in August 2022. "The Government moves to modify defendant Donald J. Trump’s conditions of release, to make clear that he may not make statements that pose a significant, imminent, and foreseeable danger to law enforcement agents participating in the investigation and prosecution of this case," the filings from Smith said.
Families of five Marines killed in a June 2022 Osprey crash in southern California have filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit, blaming companies that make the aircraft for the tragedy. The lawsuit, filed this week, names Boeing, Rolls Royce and Bell Textron, which are each involved in producing the "tiltrotor" V-22 Osprey, capable of both taking off vertically like a helicopter and flying like an airplane -- by changing the angle of its propellers. The investigation found the mishap was due to an "unpreventable" mechanical failure, and not any error on the part of pilots, crew, or maintenance personnel.
Kenyan President William Ruto is the first African leader to make an official state visit to the United States in over 15 years. On Thursday, the White House held a state dinner, honoring Kenyan President Ruto with stunning Washington, D.C. views, a high-class menu, and a dose of celebrity star power. President Ruto's visit to the U.S. was not just a diplomatic event, but also an aggressive engagement aimed at changing the narrative about Africa.
A New Mexico judge denied Alec Baldwin's motion to dismiss his involuntary manslaughter charge stemming from the 2021 fatal shooting on the set of "Rust" in an order on Friday. Judge Mary Marlowe Sommer found that the prosecutors did not act in "bad faith" to secure a grand jury indictment, as was alleged in the motion. The actor was practicing a cross-draw in a church on the set of the Western film when the Colt .45 revolver fired a live round, fatally striking 42-year-old cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.
If your last social media scroll was within the past 24 hours, you're one of more than half of Americans who say they use social media on a regular basis, according to a study released in January by the Pew Research Center. Whatever your social media of choice may be, a laundry list of platforms are stitched into the fabric of how Americans work, date, think and live. Ninety-five percent of teens have social media accounts, and one in three report using it "almost constantly," the Pew Research Center further reports.
Families of the Uvalde victims have filed a lawsuit against Daniel Defense, the makers of the AR-15 assault rifle, and Activision, the publisher of the first-person shooter video game series "Call of Duty," and Meta, the parent company of Instagram, over what they claim was their role in promoting the gun used in the shooting. Salvador Ramos -- the 18-year-old shooter who killed 19 students and two teachers and wounded 17 others -- purchased the DDM4V7 rifle a week before the shooting, months after he began playing a version of the game and made several Instagram posts about weapons, Josh Koskoff, the attorney representing the families, alleged. Daniel Defense, Activision and Meta did not immediately comment to ABC News on the lawsuit.
A split-screen showdown between the Republican Party's presumptive presidential nominee, Donald Trump, and independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will occur this weekend at the Libertarian National Convention in Washington, D.C., as each hopeful seeks to court the party's base. Kennedy addressed the convention Friday afternoon -- a day ahead of Trump's Saturday night appearance. The Libertarian Party, which has access to the ballot in at least 37 states, is a non-interventionist political party that has seen a number of variations since its inception in the 1970s.
Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has previously ruled out joining the Libertarian Party -- but as the party's national convention takes place this weekend, there's speculation that they could join forces in a move that could be a boon to Kennedy's ballot-access efforts. In April, Kennedy told ABC News that "we're not gonna have any problems getting on the ballot ourselves so we won't be running Libertarian." If the party's delegates vote for Kennedy, and if Kennedy reconsiders his recalcitrance to join with the party, it would mean he could possibly get on the ballot in enough states to theoretically net the 270 Electoral College votes needed to potentially qualify for the presidential debate state -- and even win the presidency.
Former Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley's supporters are still split after she said she will be voting for former President Donald Trump, some seeing it as a "greenlight" for them to vote for Trump as well, while others are still not convinced. After Haley suspended her campaign in March, Trump immediately became the presumptive GOP nominee but was faced with the task of bringing back Haley's supporters and reuniting the Republican Party without her endorsement, especially after months of bitter rivalry. Haley's announcement on Wednesday that she will be voting for Trump appeared to soften the lingering animosity between the two, with Trump himself saying during media interviews on Thursday that he appreciated Haley's comment – even saying he thinks she's "going to be on our team," while not specifying what he meant by "our team."
A wrongful death lawsuit alleges a 25-year-old woman died as a result of "gross negligence and reckless indifference" after eating a cookie sold by the grocery chain Stew Leonard's that was not properly labeled as containing peanuts. Órla Baxendale, a native of East Lancashire, United Kingdom, who had moved to New York to pursue a career as a dancer, died on Jan. 11 from complications of anaphylaxis due to a peanut allergy, according to the lawsuit. Baxendale had eaten a Florentine cookie sold by Stew Leonard's that was not labeled as containing peanuts, according to the lawsuit and Connecticut officials.
A blood test to screen for colorectal cancer is one step closer to receiving approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. An FDA advisory panel -- the Medical Devices Advisory Committee -- recommended FDA approval of the Shield blood test on Thursday night, finding it to be safe and effective and that the benefits of use outweighed potential risks. Guardant Health, the company that makes Shield, is seeking FDA premarket approval for the test to screen for colorectal cancer among people aged 45 and older at average risk.
The GOP civil war has reached a new beachhead: blood-red Missouri. The state's Republican attorney general primary is pitting incumbent Andrew Bailey against Will Scharf, a lawyer for Donald Trump. Bailey, who was appointed to his position in 2022 and has never had to defend himself at the ballot box, has used his office to toss red meat to the base, filing lawsuits on issues such as transgender athletes and immigration and demanding the Justice Department provide documents and communications regarding investigations into Trump.
Pioneering aviator Captain Theresa M. Claiborne has retired after 43 years of flying, first as a second lieutenant and the first Black female pilot in the U.S. Air Force, and then as a captain at United Airlines. Claiborne was hired by United in January 1990 after seven years of active duty with the Air Force and 13 years in the Air Force Reserves.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a summary on Friday that it is preparing for the "possibility of increased risk to human health" from bird flu following an outbreak among dairy cows and two confirmed human cases. Federal and state public health officials said in late March they were investigating an illness among primarily older dairy cows in Kansas, New Mexico and Texas and causing symptoms including decreased lactation and low appetite. The first case was confirmed in a U.S. farm worker in Texas and the second case in a Michigan farm worker who had regular exposure to livestock-infected bird flu.
Former President Donald Trump ratcheted up his anti-immigrant rhetoric at a rally in the South Bronx, where he claimed, without evidence, that migrants coming to the U.S. are forming an "army." The comments are part of the dark narrative Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, is advancing on the 2024 campaign trial that what is occurring at the southern border amounts to an invasion. With New York as his backdrop, a city that's reckoned with housing a surge of migrants seeking asylum in recent years, Trump continued to demonize immigrants.
It's been a very active week for severe storms and tornadoes -- and more rough weather is in the forecast for Memorial Day weekend. On Thursday, there were more than two dozen reported tornadoes across Illinois, Iowa, North Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas. Thursday also brought damaging winds that knocked down trees and power lines across Maine, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia.
The social media personality and youngest child of music legend Lionel Richie shared the news in an Instagram post shared Friday. In Richie Grainge's announcement, which featured a photo of hands holding her newborn's feet, she revealed her daughter's name is Eloise Samantha Grainge and she was born on May 20. Richie Grainge announced the news of her pregnancy in an exclusive with Vogue in January.
The daughter and son-in-law of Missouri state representative Ben Baker have been killed by a gang in Haiti, according to the lawmaker and officials in the country. Baker said his daughter, Natalie Lloyd, and son-in-law, Davy Lloyd, were missionaries in Haiti, where residents are facing unprecedented levels of gang violence.
American Bryan Hagerich was spared a lengthy prison sentence under Turks and Caicos' strict gun laws and will return to the U.S. after paying a fine. The father of two was caught with ammunition in his baggage earlier this year. A judge sentenced Hagerich on Friday to a suspended 52-week sentence with a fine of $6,700.