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  • Reports: Trump told Mar-a-Lago member about calls with foreign leaders | CNN Politics

    Reports: Trump told Mar-a-Lago member about calls with foreign leaders | CNN Politics

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    Washington
    CNN
     — 

    Mar-a-Lago member and Australian billionaire Anthony Pratt said then-President Donald Trump told him about his private calls with the leaders of Ukraine and Iraq, according to reports published Sunday about private recordings of Pratt, a key prosecution witness in Trump’s classified documents case.

    The reports from The New York Times and “60 Minutes Australia” revealed previously unknown recordings of Pratt candidly recalling his conversations with Trump – and build on existing allegations that Trump overshared sensitive government material.

    In the tapes, Pratt says Trump shared insider details about his phone calls with world leaders during his presidency. Pratt also offers searing critiques of Trump’s personal ethics.

    CNN previously reported that Pratt gave an interview to special counsel Jack Smith, who charged Trump with mishandling national security materials by hoarding dozens of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago in Florida. (Trump pleaded not guilty.) Pratt is also on Smith’s witness list for the trial, which is scheduled for May.

    Concerns about Trump’s freewheeling approach to state secrets are at the center of that case. Past reports from ABC News said Trump discussed potentially sensitive information with Pratt about US nuclear submarines. The new reports Sunday expand what is known about Pratt’s recounting of their conversations to include foreign policy matters.

    “It hadn’t even been on the news yet, and he said, ‘I just bombed Iraq today,’” Pratt said in one recording that was made public Sunday, recalling a conversation with Trump.

    Pratt then recalled Trump’s description of his December 2019 call with Iraqi President Barham Salih. According to Pratt, Trump said, “The president of Iraq called me up and said, ‘You just leveled my city. … I said to him, ‘OK, what are you going to do about it?’”

    The recordings also indicate that Trump spoke with Pratt about his now-infamous September 2019 call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, in which Trump pressured Zelensky to help him win the 2020 election by publicly launching unfounded corruption probes into Joe Biden. That phone call formed the basis of Trump’s first impeachment.

    “That was nothing compared to what I usually do,” Trump told Pratt about the Zelensky call, according to the tape. “That’s nothing compared to what we usually talk about.”

    In statements to The New York Times, Trump pointed out that Pratt is “from a friendly country in Australia, one of our great allies,” though he didn’t deny the conversations described in the tapes. A Trump spokesperson said the tapes “lack proper context.”

    CNN has reached out to the Trump campaign and Pratt’s company, Visy, for comment.

    These latest disclosures could be used by Smith’s prosecutors as evidence that Trump had a pattern of sharing sensitive government information with unauthorized people, including political donors and well-connected businessmen in his orbit. It’s unclear whether prosecutors already had possession of the tapes that were made public on Sunday.

    The new recordings also shed light on Pratt’s candid, private thoughts about Trump’s behavior. It’s unclear who Pratt was speaking to, but Pratt said in one tape that Trump “says outrageous things nonstop,” and compared his business practices to “the mafia.”

    “He knows exactly what to say — and what not to say — so that he avoids jail. But gets so close to it that it looks to everyone like he’s breaking the law,” Pratt said in one tape.

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  • How toy and game companies are winning back their grown-up former customers | CNN Business

    How toy and game companies are winning back their grown-up former customers | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    I was on vacation and hanging out quietly in the hotel room with my friend when, out of nowhere, she screamed “Zoo Pals are back!”

    We immediately tried to buy some. But to our misfortune, they were sold out. For days we refreshed the page to see if they were back in stock. Sure enough, I got my Zoo Pals a few weeks later.

    I’m almost embarrassed to share that Zoo Pals are paper plates that feature the bright, adorable faces of animals like pigs, turtles, ducks and whales. Each plate has one main section and two subsections for the animal’s ears or feet. In 2014, Hefty, the maker of Zoo Pals, discontinued them.

    As a child, Zoo Pals were a game-changer. That meant broccoli didn’t have to, God forbid, touch my chicken nuggets, and they also provided a special area for dipping the nuggets in ketchup. And I had an incentive to finish my plate so I could see my Zoo Pal’s face again.

    As an adult, I no longer have such needs. But $6.99 was a small price to pay for a walk down memory lane.

    Adults are increasingly shelling out for relics of their youth and for items, ranging from flip phones to film cameras to Tamagotchis, that evoke a late 20th-century or turn-of-the century nostalgia. That demand has created a treasure-trove of sales in particular for toys and products, like my Zoo Pals, originally geared to children.

    Toy recipients ages 18 and up — also known as “kidults” — represented about 17% of total toy sales in the United States for the 12 months ending in June 2023, according to data consumer research group Circana shared with CNN. That’s up four percentage points from 2021 and up a whopping eight percentage points from 2019.

    In total, toy sales for adults increased by $1.7 billion to $6.4 billion from June 2021 to June 2023, according to Circana data.

    The trend of adults buying toys for themselves is relatively new, but longing for the glory days of childhood is not. So how come adults lately have been willing to spend so much money on toys to relive the past?

    The pandemic drove more people to revisit their youth

    Adults started purchasing more toys for themselves after the pandemic began. Covid ushered in heightened levels of anxiety and it caused people to think about dying more, explains Krystine Batcho, a licensed psychologist who teaches at Le Moyne College in Syracuse, New York.

    Both factors are associated with “greater nostalgia,” said Batcho, whose research focuses on the psychology of nostalgia. Batcho created the Nostalgia Inventory, a survey that’s been widely used to assess what makes someone more inclined to feel nostalgic.

    For instance, her research and other research she’s studied point to millenials and members of Gen Z being in life stages that are prime for feeling nostalgic. “The transition away from childhood and adolescence to adulthood entails a bittersweet conflict between the desire to grow into independence and the desire for the carefree innocence and security of childhood,” she said.

    And, in general, people become more nostalgic during difficult times and in threatening circumstances, Batcho added.

    During the pandemic, as people were looking for ways to entertain themselves at home or in small groups they turned to social media for ideas, Juli Lennett, Circana’s toy industry advisor, told CNN. That helped fuel an increase in purchases for games, puzzles, collectibles, trading cards, building sets and more, she said.

    “Consumers found like-minded toy consumers and tribes formed around certain toy categories and brands. It continues to this day,” Lennett said.

    In 2021, Lego launched an entire product line designed for adults that can be found under the “Adults Welcome” section of its site. “In a world of distractions, LEGO Sets for Adults offer a focused, hands-on, mindful activity. A creative recharge. A zone of zen. A place to find your flow,” a post on Lego’s site states.

    A growing share of adults are buying toys for themselves.

    Mattel Inc.’s American Girl doll line has also seen an influx of purchases made by kidults over the past few years, “and it continues to grow in popularity,” Jamie Cygielman, the president of American Girl, told CNN.

    That started to take off in 2021 when American Girl re-released six of the original dolls the company had produced to celebrate its 35th anniversary. The dolls, priced at $150, began to sell out the first day they were listed online, said Cygielman. More than half of those purchases “were women purchasing for themselves, not for a child,” she said based on a subsequent survey American Girl conducted.

    American Girl first started selling alcohol at its first retail store café in Chicago in 1998. Now all nine of its cafés either have full liquor licenses or serve beer and wine, making it a popular destination for Gen Z and millennial customers to celebrate bachelorettes and birthdays, often with their dolls.

    “So we started really leaning into it a bit more,” she said. That meant re-releasing more dolls and doll outfits adults grew up with as well as adding more alcoholic beverages and food items that appeal to adults to its in-store café menus.

    “Any given day as you walk into our café, you’ll see tables of young adults with not a child in sight,” said Cygielman. Many of them come there to celebrate birthdays and bachelorette parties, often with their dolls sitting in clip-on chairs beside them.

    Most recently, American Girl re-released two doll outfits that were originally sold in 1999.

    TikTokers and Instagramers had a field day seeing those and rushed to post about it.

    Since American Girl creates individual stories featuring historical eras like the Colonial period or World War II to complement the dolls they sell, users on social media started posting things like, “We need an American Girl doll who went to college in 2016.”

    The TikTok account that posted that request, @inbloombyemily, received nearly 200,000 likes on her video where she described the doll’s story and curated outfits and accessories which included a Svedka bottle of strawberry lemonade vodka.

    In February, American Girl rereleased the two outfits on the dolls pictured in the middle that were originally sold in 1999. It's part of the company's efforts to attract more nostalgic adults to make purchases for themselves.

    American Girl hasn’t seized the opportunity to actually make most of the dolls the memes capture, said Cygielman.

    “It’s a sincere form of flattery, but we don’t necessarily want to author it ourselves,” she said. “We’re still laser-focused on our core customer, which is that young girl and her caregiver gift giver.”

    As for the kidult trend, there are some signs that it could slow, Lennett said.

    “As consumers have less money in their wallets due to macroeconomic conditions, they are spending less on discretionary categories like toys,” she said. “If the conditions continue, we can expect a pullback in toy spending for adults.”

    But Batcho, the psychologist, notes that nostalgia can be healthy in hard times.

    “Nostalgic memories remind people of better times and can encourage them to seek solutions and move toward a more optimistic future,” she said. “Nostalgia has also been found to increase a sense of meaning and purpose in life. By strengthening social connectedness and feelings of belonging, nostalgia counteracts loneliness.”

    Even though the darkest days of the pandemic are, for the most part, in the rearview mirror there’s still “a nostalgic longing for the security and stability of pre-pandemic life,” Batcho said.

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  • ABC: Trump allegedly discussed sensitive nuclear submarine information with a Mar-a-Lago member | CNN Politics

    ABC: Trump allegedly discussed sensitive nuclear submarine information with a Mar-a-Lago member | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    Former President Donald Trump allegedly discussed potentially sensitive information about US nuclear submarines with a member of his Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Florida, following his presidency, ABC reported Thursday.

    The member is Australian billionaire Anthony Pratt, sources told ABC. A source familiar with the matter confirmed to CNN’s Kaitlan Collins that Pratt, who had a close relationship with Trump when he occupied the Oval Office, was interviewed by the special counsel probing Trump’s retention of classified documents after leaving office. Another source told CNN’s Kristen Holmes that Pratt is on the list of potential witnesses for when the trial begins.

    Sources told ABC that Pratt allegedly went on to share the information he received from the former president during an April 2021 meeting with “more than a dozen foreign officials, several of his own employees, and a handful of journalists.”

    ABC also reported that according to sources, a former Mar-a-Lago employee told investigations that he was “bothered” by the former president disclosing such information to someone who is not a US citizen. He added that he heard Pratt sharing potentially sensitive information minutes after his meeting with the former president, sources told ABC.

    These allegations were not included in special counsel Jack Smith’s indictment of Trump over his handling of classified documents. But the incident was reported to and investigated by Smith’s team, according to ABC.

    A Trump spokesperson slammed ABC’s report, telling CNN that the claims “lack proper context and relevant information.”

    “The Department of Justice should investigate the criminal leaking, instead of perpetrating their baseless witch-hunts while knowing that President Trump did nothing wrong, has always insisted on truth and transparency, and acted in a proper manner, according to the law,” the spokesperson said.

    CNN has reached out to Pratt, who did not respond to multiple requests for comment. A spokesperson for Smith declined to comment.

    Pratt allegedly told investigators that after he told Trump that Australia should buy submarines from the US, the former president went on to share how many nuclear warheads US submarines carry and “how close they can get to a Russian submarine without being detected,” sources told ABC. But Pratt told investigators that he was not shown any government documents, the sources said.

    His company, Pratt Industries, opened a plant in Ohio while Trump was president. Trump attended the opening and praised the businessman in his remarks.

    Another source told CNN’s Collins that during that visit, Pratt planned to unveil two plaques, an official one celebrating the plant’s opening in the US and a second one that he had told Trump about beforehand. The second plaque, which Pratt kept a secret until the day of the visit, read, “Make America and Australia Great Again.” But officials attending the plant’s opening quickly pulled it down and advised Pratt against the move, that source said.

    CNN previously obtained an audio of a July 2021 meeting Trump had in his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club, during which the former president acknowledged that he held on to a classified Pentagon document about a potential attack on Iran. The audio, exclusively reported by CNN, was a critical piece of evidence in the special counsel’s indictment.

    Trump is facing 40 counts in the classified documents case, including willful retention of national defense information and conspiracy to obstruct justice. It is one of four cases in which the former president has been indicted.

    Trump, who is seeking to return to the White House and remains the GOP front-runner, asked the judge presiding over the case late Wednesday to delay the trial until after the 2024 elections. A similar request was previously denied.

    This story has been updated with additional reporting.

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  • Convicted killer who escaped Pennsylvania prison was spotted overnight and changed his appearance, police say | CNN

    Convicted killer who escaped Pennsylvania prison was spotted overnight and changed his appearance, police say | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Danelo Cavalcante, the convicted killer who escaped from a Pennsylvania prison, was seen overnight Saturday, according to state police, who said the fugitive had “changed his appearance” as the manhunt enters its 11th day.

    “He is now clean-shaven and wearing a yellow or green hooded sweatshirt, black baseball cap, green prison pants, and white shoes,” Pennsylvania State Police said in a statement early Sunday, adding he was spotted near in northern Chester County near Phoenixville.

    Cavalcante, 34, is also said to be driving a 2020 white Ford Transit van with Pennsylvania plates and a refrigeration unit on top, according to police. The van had been reported stolen by a local dairy farm, the Chester County District Attorney’s Office said.

    Nearly 400 officers have joined the round-the-clock search operation for Cavalcante, who fled Chester County Prison on August 31 by “crab walking” between two walls, scaling a fence and traversing razor wire.

    The sighting Saturday is just the latest: Police Lt. Col. George Bivens, who is leading the search, told reporters Friday there had been “probably eight or nine” other credible sightings since Cavalcante’s escape. Two sightings on Friday were confirmed within the general perimeter where tactical teams, K-9 dogs and a helicopter are scouring for any sign of the fugitive, according to Pennsylvania State Police Trooper James Grothey.

    Cavalcante’s escape came about two weeks after he was convicted of first-degree murder for the 2021 killing of his former girlfriend, Deborah Brandão, 33, in Chester County. Authorities said Cavalcante stabbed Brandão 38 times in front of her two children, who are now in the care of her sister.

    Cavalcante is also wanted in a 2017 homicide case in Brazil, his native country, a US Marshals Service official has said.

    The inmate’s escape from the prison about 30 miles west of Philadelphia has instilled fear within his victim’s family and distressed nearby residents like Ryan Drummond, who told CNN he saw Cavalcante in his Pocopson Township home the night of September 1.

    Describing it as an “acute moment of terror,” Drummond said he heard noise in his house and noticed an old French door off the side of their deck was slightly ajar.

    “That’s when my stomach dropped,” he told CNN’s Michael Smerconish.

    Drummond told his wife to call 911, he said, and saw Cavalcante “walking methodically” out of the kitchen into his living room before leaving the house via the French door.

    Cavalcante was seen in or around Chester County’s Longwood Gardens – about 3 miles from the prison – several times last week. On September 2, the fugitive was seen on surveillance video about 1.5 miles from the prison, authorities said. On Monday, a security camera recorded the fugitive at Longwood Gardens, authorities said.

    An area resident then reported seeing Cavalcante on Tuesday in a creek bed on the resident’s property. On Wednesday, a trail camera image showed Cavalcante in or around Longwood Gardens, but officials learned about this sighting Thursday evening, according to Bivens.

    Guests were asked to leave the botanical gardens Thursday as the entire venue closed for the manhunt. Police swarmed the botanical gardens, but did not catch the killer.

    Despite Cavalcante’s elusive streak, Bivens said he is confident the fugitive will be caught.

    “We’ve got a large perimeter secured,” he said Friday. “That is a pretty secure perimeter that we can push hard against with the tactical team.”

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  • Hurricane Lee is forecast to restrengthen as East Coast faces hazardous beach conditions this week | CNN

    Hurricane Lee is forecast to restrengthen as East Coast faces hazardous beach conditions this week | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    As Hurricane Lee fluctuates in intensity over open Atlantic waters, its effects may soon be felt at beaches up and down the East Coast in the form of life-threatening rip currents and dangerous shoreline conditions.

    Lee is forecast to continue moving well north of Puerto Rico, the British and US Virgin Islands and the northern Leeward Islands, but it will have an impact there and at other Caribbean islands. It remains too early to determine its long-term track for later this week and how significant the impacts could be for northeastern US states, Bermuda and Atlantic Canada.

    The East Coast, however, is expected to face large swells and rip currents in an increasing manner through this week – much as the Caribbean is being affected now.

    “Swells generated by Lee are affecting portions of the Lesser Antilles,” the National Hurricane Center warned Friday night. The British and US Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, Hispaniola, the Turks and Caicos Islands, the Bahamas and Bermuda also face swells this weekend that can bring life-threatening surf and rip conditions.

    Waves breaking at 6 to 10 feet were forecast for Sunday, according to the National Weather Service office in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Larger waves were expected this week along east- and north-facing beaches.

    “Beach erosion and coastal flooding is possible,” the office posted on social media.

    Lee, which was a Category 1 storm Thursday, intensified with exceptional speed into Category 5 status as it moved west across the Atlantic, more than doubling its wind speeds to 165 mph in just a day.

    Vertical wind shear and an eyewall replacement cycle – a process that occurs with the majority of long-lived major hurricanes – has since led to the weakening of Lee, the hurricane center said.

    Now a Category 2 storm with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph, forecasters expect Lee to regain strength “during the next couple of days, followed by gradual weakening,” the hurricane center said early Sunday. Lee is centered around 280 miles northeast of the northern Leeward Islands as of 5 a.m. ET Sunday and moving in a west-northwest direction at 9 mph.

    Computer model trends for Lee have shown the hurricane taking a turn to the north early this week. But exactly when that turn occurs and how far west Lee will manage to track by then will play a huge role in how close it gets to the US.

    Several steering factors at the surface and upper levels of the atmosphere will determine how close Lee will get to the East Coast.

    An area of high pressure over the Atlantic, known as the Bermuda High, will have a major influence on how quickly Lee turns. A strong Bermuda High would keep Lee on its current west-northwestward track and slow it down a bit.

    As the high pressure weakens this week, it will allow Lee to start moving northward. Once that turn to the north occurs, the position of the jet stream – strong upper-level winds that can change the direction of a hurricane’s path – will influence how closely Lee is steered to the US.

    Scenario: Out to Sea

    Track Scenario: An area of high pressure (yellow circle) to the east of Lee and the jet stream (silver arrows) to the west of Lee, can force the storm to track between the two, away from the US coast.

    Lee could make a quick turn to the north early this week if high pressure weakens significantly.

    If the jet stream sets up along the East Coast, it will act as a barrier that prevents Lee from approaching the coast. This scenario would keep Lee farther away from the US coast but could bring the storm closer to Bermuda.

    Scenario: Close to East Coast

    Track Scenario: An area of high pressure (yellow circle) to the east of Lee and the jet stream (silver arrows) to the west of Lee, can force the storm to track between the two, closer to the US coast.

    Lee could make a slower turn to the north because the high pressure remains robust, and the jet stream sets up farther inland over the Eastern US. This scenario would leave portions of the East Coast, mainly north of the Carolinas, vulnerable to a much closer approach from Lee.

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  • Biden administration cancels years-long attempt to drill in Alaska National Wildlife Refuge | CNN Politics

    Biden administration cancels years-long attempt to drill in Alaska National Wildlife Refuge | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    The Biden administration announced Wednesday it will cancel seven Trump-era oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and protect more than 13 million acres in the federal National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, stymieing a years-long attempt to drill in the protected region.

    The cancellation will affect Alaska’s state-owned oil development agency, the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, which bought the leases covering about 365,000 acres on ANWR’s Coastal Plain during the Trump administration.

    “With today’s action, no one will have rights to drill for oil in one of the most sensitive landscapes on Earth,” Interior Secretary Deb Haaland told reporters on a press call. “Public lands belong to all Americans, and there are some places where oil and gas drilling and industrial development simply do not belong.”

    President Joe Biden echoed Haaland’s comments in a statement and said that his administration will “continue to take bold action” on climate change.

    Wednesday’s actions, Biden said, “will help preserve our Arctic lands and wildlife, while honoring the culture, history, and enduring wisdom of Alaska Natives who have lived on these lands since time immemorial.”

    The 2017 GOP tax bill opened a small part of the pristine wildlife refuge for drilling, a measure championed by Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a Republican. But it was never developed or drilled – or came close to doing so. Haaland suspended the leases in June 2021, and some major oil companies, including Chevron, canceled their leases in the area the following year.

    However, the 2017 tax law mandates leasing in ANWR, meaning the Biden administration will have to launch a new leasing process and hold another lease sale by the end of 2024, albeit likely with tighter environmental provisions.

    “We intend to comply with the law,” a senior Biden administration official said, adding they didn’t have a timeline for an additional lease sale apart from the law’s deadline of holding one by December 2024.

    The Interior Department is also proposing federal protections for 13 million acres of land in the NPR-A, limiting future oil and gas development and taking steps to implement conservation protections it announced in March, alongside the controversial Willow oil drilling project. The proposed rule would expressly prohibit new oil and gas leasing in 10.6 million acres, or over 40% of the NPR-A, according to an Interior Department press release.

    The protected area would span areas including Teshekpuk Lake, Utukok Uplands, Colville River, Kasegaluk Lagoon and Peard Bay Special Areas – home to migrating caribou, polar and grizzly bears and migratory birds.

    The new regulations would also reverse a Trump-era rule expanding oil and gas development in the area and shrinking protections for habitat and animals, while also protecting subsistence hunting and gathering from Alaska Native communities who live in the area.

    Haaland and White House senior adviser John Podesta pointed to the impacts of climate change quickening warming in the area.

    “Alaska is ground zero for climate change,” Podesta told reporters. “The Arctic is warming more than twice as fast as the rest of the planet. Today’s actions help protect their future, America’s future and they build on President Biden’s historic climate and conservation record.”

    The administration’s initial suspension of the leases was challenged in court by Alaska’s state-owned oil developer, but AEIDA lost their lawsuit in early August.

    AEIDA did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment.

    The Biden administration’s move on Wednesday was cheered by environmental groups and some Democrats in Congress.

    “It’s a significant step to permanent protection of the Arctic refuge, but it’s not mission accomplished,” Rep. Jared Huffman, a Democrat from California, told CNN. “That terrible law requires them to do a leasing process, but not on a deeply flawed environmental review and not without considering more protective alternatives and the best available science.”

    Although Alaska Natives are split on Arctic drilling, some groups commended the Biden administration and urged Congress to undo the 2017 law mandating drilling in ANWR.

    “We urge the administration and our leaders in Congress to repeal the oil and gas program and permanently protect the Arctic Refuge,” Bernadette Dementieff, executive director of the Gwich’in Steering Committee, said in a statement.

    This story has been updated with additional information.

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  • 2 dead, 2 injured from fire rescue helicopter crash in Pompano Beach, Florida | CNN

    2 dead, 2 injured from fire rescue helicopter crash in Pompano Beach, Florida | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    A Broward County, Florida, sheriff’s fire rescue helicopter crashed into an apartment complex Monday morning, leaving two people dead and two others injured.

    Authorities identified the dead as Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue Captain Terryson Jackson, who was in the helicopter, and an unnamed adult woman who lived in the apartment complex.

    The crash occurred near an airfield just north of Fort Lauderdale as the helicopter was on its way to an emergency call, authorities said.

    “At approximately 8:46 a.m., emergency personnel responded to a call of an aircraft alert located southwest of the Pompano Beach Airpark. The helicopter involved in the crash is a BSO Fire Rescue helicopter. Pompano Beach Fire Rescue transported two people to an area hospital,” the Broward County Sheriff’s department said in a news release.

    A total of three Broward Sheriff Fire Rescue personnel were on board the helicopter “that crashed into a structure following an in-flight fire one-half mile from Pompano Beach Airpark,” according to the National Transportation Safety Board.

    Just before it crashed, the aircraft was smoking and on fire near the rear, video posted to CNN affiliate WPLG appeared to show.

    The two injured victims are being treated at the hospital and “do not have life-threatening injuries and are listed in fair condition,” officials said.

    Terryson Jackson, 50, had worked in fire rescue in Broward County for 19 years, according to a Facebook post from the sheriff’s office.

    “As a flight paramedic, he impacted the community daily, providing critical patients with the highest pre-hospital care,” reads the post. “He consistently showed an unmatched passion for the job. He always provided expert care, compassion and reassurance to those during their most significant time of need.”

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  • Fact check: The first Republican presidential debate of the 2024 election | CNN Politics

    Fact check: The first Republican presidential debate of the 2024 election | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    Republican presidential candidates delivered a smattering of false and misleading claims at the first debate of the 2024 election – though none of the eight candidates on stage in Milwaukee delivered anything close to the bombardment of false statements that typically characterized the debate performances of former President Donald Trump, the Republican front-runner who skipped the Wednesday event.

    Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina inaccurately described the state of the economy in early 2021 and repeated a long-ago-debunked false claim about the Biden-era Justice Department. Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie misstated the sentence attached to a gun law relevant to the investigation into the president’s son Hunter Biden. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis misled about his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, omitting mention of his early pandemic restrictions.

    Below is a fact check of those claims and various others from the debate, some of which left out key context. In addition, below is a brief fact check of some of Trump’s claims from a pre-taped interview he did with Tucker Carlson, which was posted online shortly before the debate aired. Trump made a variety of statements that were not true.

    DeSantis and the pandemic

    DeSantis criticized the federal government for its handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, claiming it had locked down the economy, and then said: “In Florida, we led the country out of lockdown, and we kept our state free and open.”

    Facts First: DeSantis’s claim is misleading at best. Before he became a vocal opponent of pandemic restrictions, DeSantis imposed significant restrictions on individuals, businesses and other entities in Florida in March 2020 and April 2020; some of them extended months later into 2020. He did then open up the state, with a gradual phased approach, but he did not keep it open from the start.

    DeSantis received criticism in March 2020 for what some critics perceived as a lax approach to the pandemic, which intensified as Florida beaches were packed during Spring Break. But that month and the month following, DeSantis issued a series of major restrictions. For example, DeSantis:

    • Closed Florida’s schools, first with a short-term closure in March 2020 and then, in April 2020, with a shutdown through the end of the school year. (In June 2020, he announced a plan for schools to reopen for the next school year that began in August. By October 2020, he was publicly denouncing school closures, calling them a major mistake and saying all the information hadn’t been available that March.)
    • On March 14, 2020, announced a ban on most visits to nursing homes. (He lifted the ban in September 2020.)
    • On March 17, 2020, ordered bars and nightclubs to close for 30 days and restaurants to operate at half-capacity. (He later approved a phased reopening plan that took effect in May 2020, then issued an order in September 2020 allowing these establishments to operate at full capacity.)
    • On March 17, 2020, ordered gatherings on public beaches to be limited to a maximum of 10 people staying at least six feet apart, then, three days later, ordered a shutdown of public beaches in two populous counties, Broward and Palm Beach. (He permitted those counties’ beaches to reopen by the last half of May.)
    • On March 20, 2020, prohibited “any medically unnecessary, non-urgent or non-emergency” medical procedures. (The prohibition was lifted in early May 2020.)
    • On March 23, 2020, ordered that anyone flying to Florida from an area with “substantial community spread” of the virus, “to include the New York Tri-State Area (Connecticut, New Jersey and New York),” isolate or quarantine for 14 days or the duration of their stay in Florida, whichever was shorter, or face possible jail time or a fine. Later that week, he added Louisiana to the list. (He lifted the Louisiana restriction in June 2020 and the rest in August 2020.)
    • On April 3, 2020, imposed a statewide stay-home order that temporarily required people in Florida to “limit their movements and personal interactions outside of their home to only those necessary to obtain or provide essential services or conduct essential activities.” (Beginning in May 2020, the state switched to a phased reopening plan that, for months, included major restrictions on the operations of businesses and other entities; DeSantis described it at the time as a “very slow and methodical approach” to reopening.)

    -From CNN’s Daniel Dale

    Nikki Haley, the former South Carolina governor and US ambassador to the United Nations, said: “Donald Trump added $8 trillion to our debt, and our kids are never going to forgive us for this.”

    Facts First: Haley’s figure is accurate. The total public debt stood at about $19.9 trillion on the day Trump took office in 2017 and then increased by about $7.8 trillion over Trump’s four years, to about $27.8 trillion on the day he left office in 2021.

    It’s worth noting, however, that the increase in the debt during any president’s tenure is not the fault of that president alone. A significant amount of spending under any president is the result of decisions made by their predecessors – such as the creation of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid decades ago – and by circumstances out of a president’s control, notably including the global Covid-19 pandemic under Trump; the debt spiked in 2020 after Trump approved trillions in emergency pandemic relief spending that Congress had passed with overwhelming bipartisan support.

    Still, Trump did choose to approve that spending. And his 2017 tax cuts, unanimously opposed by congressional Democrats, were another major contributor to the debt spike.

    -From CNN’s Daniel Dale and Katie Lobosco

    North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum claimed that Biden’s signature climate bill costs $1.2 trillion dollars and is “just subsidizing China.”

    Facts First: This claim needs context. The clean energy pieces of the Inflation Reduction Act – Democrats’ climate bill – passed with an initial price tag of nearly $370 billion. However, since that bill is made up of tax incentives, that price tag could go up depending on how many consumers take advantage of tax credits to buy electric vehicles and put solar panels on their homes, and how many businesses use the subsidies to install new utility scale wind and solar in the United States.

    Burgum’s figure comes from a Goldman Sachs report, which estimated the IRA could provide $1.2 trillion in clean energy tax incentives by 2032 – about a decade from now.

    On Burgum’s claim that Biden’s clean energy agenda will be a boon to China, the IRA was specifically written to move the manufacturing supply chain for clean energy technology like solar panels and EV batteries away from China and to the United States.

    In the year since it was passed, the IRA has spurred 83 new or expanded manufacturing facilities in the US, and close to 30,000 new clean energy manufacturing jobs, according to a tally from trade group American Clean Power.

    -From CNN’s Ella Nilsen

    With the economy as one of the main topics on the forefront of voters’ minds, Scott aimed to make a case for Republican policies, misleadingly suggesting they left the US economy in record shape before Biden took office.

    “There is no doubt that during the Trump administration, when we were dealing with the COVID virus, we spent more money,” Scott said. “But here’s what happened at the end of our time in the majority: we had low unemployment, record low unemployment, 3.5% for the majority of the population, and a 70-year low for women. African Americans, Hispanics, and Asians had an all-time low.”

    Facts First: This is false. Scott’s claims don’t accurately reflect the state of the US economy at the end of the Republican majority in the Senate. And in some cases, his exaggerations echo what Trump himself frequently touted about the economy under his leadership.

    By the time Trump left office and the Republicans lost the Senate majority in January 2021, US unemployment was not at a record low. The US unemployment rate dropped to a seasonally adjusted rate of 3.5% in September 2019, the country’s lowest in 50 years. While it hovered around that level for five months, Scott’s assertion ignores the coronavirus pandemic-induced economic destruction that followed. In April 2020, the unemployment rate spiked to 14.7% — the highest level since monthly records began in 1948. As of December 2020, the unemployment rate was at 6.7%.

    Nor was the unemployment rate for women at a 70-year low by the end of Trump’s time in office. It reached a 66-year low during certain months of 2019, at 3.4% in April and 3.6% in August, but by December 2020, unemployment for women was at 6.7%.

    The unemployment rates for African Americans, Hispanics, and Asians were also not at all-time lows at the end of 2020, but they did reach record lows during Trump’s tenure as president.

    -From CNN’s Tara Subramaniam

    Scott said that the Justice Department under President Joe Biden is targeting “parents that show up at school board meetings. They are called, under this DOJ, they’re called domestic terrorists.”

    Facts First: It is false that the Justice Department referred to parents as domestic terrorists. The claim has been debunked several times – during the uproar at school boards over Covid-19 restrictions and anti-racism curriculums; after Kevin McCarthy claimed Republicans would investigate Merrick Garland with a majority in the House; and even by a federal judge. The Justice Department never called parents terrorists for attending or wanting to attend school board meetings.

    The claim stems from a 2021 letter from The National School Boards Associations asking the Justice Department to “deal with” the uptick in threats against education officials and saying that “acts of malice, violence, and threats against public school officials” could be classified as “the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes.” In response, Garland released a memo encouraging federal and local authorities to work together against the harassment campaigns levied at schools, but never endorsed the “domestic terrorism” notion.

    A federal judge even threw out a lawsuit over the accusation, ruling that Garland’s memo did little more than announce a “series of measures” that directed federal authorities to address increasing threats targeting school board members, teachers and other school employees.

    -From CNN’s Hannah Rabinowitz

    Haley, the former ambassador to the United Nations and governor of South Carolina, said the US is spending “less than three and a half percent of our defense budget” on Ukraine aid, and that in terms of financial aid relative to GDP, “11 of the European countries have given more than the US.”

    Facts First: This is partly true. Haley’s claim regarding the US aid to Ukraine compared to the total defense budget is slightly under the actual percentage, but it is accurate that 11 European countries have given more aid to Ukraine as a percentage of their total GDP than the US.

    As of August 14, the US has committed more than $43 billion in military aid to Ukraine since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, according to the Defense Department. In comparison, the Fiscal Year 2023 defense budget was $858 billion – making aid to Ukraine just over 5% of the total US defense budget.

    As of May 2023, according to a Council of Foreign Relations tracker, 11 countries were providing a higher share in aid to Ukraine relative to their GDP than the US – led by Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland.

    -From CNN’s Haley Britzky

    Former Vice President Mike Pence said Wednesday that the Trump administration “spent funding to backfill on the military cuts of the Obama administration.”

    Facts First: This is misleading. While military spending decreased under the Obama administration, it was largely due to the 2011 Budget Control Act, which received Republican support and resulted in automatic spending cuts to the defense budget.

    Mike Pence, a senator at the time, voted in favor of the Budget Control Act.

    -From CNN’s Haley Britzky

    Christie said President Biden’s son Hunter Biden was “facing a 10-year mandatory minimum” for lying on a federal form when he purchased a gun in 2018.

    Facts First: Christie, a former federal prosecutor, clearly misstated the law. This crime can lead to a maximum prison sentence of 10 years, but it doesn’t have a 10-year mandatory minimum.

    These comments are related to the highly scrutinized Justice Department investigation into Hunter Biden, which is currently ongoing after a plea deal fell apart earlier this summer.

    As part of the now-defunct deal, Hunter Biden agreed to plead guilty to two tax misdemeanors and enter into a “diversion agreement” with prosecutors, who would drop the gun possession charge in two years if he consistently stayed out of legal trouble and passed drug tests.

    The law in question makes it a crime to purchase a firearm while using or addicted to illegal drugs. Hunter Biden has acknowledged struggling with crack cocaine addiction at the time, and admitted at a court hearing and in court papers that he violated this law by signing the form.

    The US Sentencing Commission says, “The statutory maximum penalty for the offense is ten years of imprisonment.” There isn’t a mandatory 10-year punishment, as Christie claimed.

    During his answer, Christie also criticized the Justice Department for agreeing to a deal in June where Hunter Biden could avoid prosecution on the felony gun offense. That deal was negotiated by special counsel David Weiss, who was first appointed to the Justice Department by former President Donald Trump.

    -From CNN’s Marshall Cohen

    Burgum and Scott got into a back and forth over IRS staffing with Burgum saying that the “Biden administration wanted to put 87,000 people in the IRS,” and Scott suggesting they “fire the 87,000 IRS agents.”

    Facts First: This figure needs context.

    The Inflation Reduction Act, which passed last year without any Republican votes, authorized $80 billion in new funding for the IRS to be delivered over the course of a decade.

    The 87,000 figure comes from a 2021 Treasury report that estimated the IRS could hire 86,852 full-time employees with a nearly $80 billion investment over 10 years.

    While the funding may well allow for the hiring of tens of thousands of IRS employees over time, far from all of these employees will be IRS agents conducting audits and investigations.

    Many other employees will be hired for the non-agent roles, from customer service to information technology, that make up most of the IRS workforce. And a significant number of the hires are expected to fill the vacant posts left by retirements and other attrition, not take newly created positions.

    The IRS has not said precisely how many new “agents” will be hired with the funding. But it is already clear that the total won’t approach 87,000. And it’s worth noting that the IRS may not receive all of the $80 billion after Republicans were able to claw back $20 billion of the new funding as part of a deal to address the debt ceiling made earlier this year.

    -From CNN’s Katie Lobosco

    Trump repeated a frequent claim during his interview with Carlson that streamed during the GOP debate that his retention of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago after leaving the White House was “covered” under the Presidential Records Act and that he is “allowed to do exactly that.”

    Facts First: This is false. The Presidential Records Act says the exact opposite – that the moment presidents leave office, all presidential records are to be turned over to the federal government. Keeping documents at Mar-a-Lago after his presidency concluded was in clear contravention of that law.

    According to the Presidential Records Act, “upon the conclusion of a President’s term of office, or if a President serves consecutive terms upon the conclusion of the last term, the Archivist of the United States shall assume responsibility for the custody, control, and preservation of, and access to, the Presidential records of that President.”

    The sentence makes clear that a president has no authority to keep documents after leaving the White House.

    The National Archives even released a statement refuting the notion that Trump’s retention of documents was covered by the Presidential Records Act, writing in a June news release that “the PRA requires that all records created by Presidents (and Vice-Presidents) be turned over to the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) at the end of their administrations.”

    -From CNN’s Hannah Rabinowitz

    While discussing electric vehicles, Trump claimed that California “is in a big brownout because their grid is a disaster,” adding that the state’s ambitious electric vehicle goals won’t work with the grid in such shape.

    Facts First: Trump’s claim that California’s grid is currently in a “big brownout” and is a “disaster” isn’t true. California’s grid suffered rolling blackouts in 2020, but it has performed quite well in the face of extreme heat this summer, owing in large part to a massive influx of renewable energy including battery storage. These big batteries keep energy from wind and solar running when the wind isn’t blowing and sun isn’t shining. (Batteries are also being deployed at a rapid rate in Texas, a red state.)

    Another reason California’s grid has stayed stable this year even during extreme temperature spikes is the fact that a deluge of snow and rain this winter and spring has refilled reservoirs that generate electricity using hydropower.

    As Trump insinuated, there are real questions about how well the state’s grid will hold up as California’s drivers shift to electric vehicles by the millions by 2035 – the same year it will phase out selling new gas-powered cars. California state officials say they are preparing by adding new capacity to the grid and urging more people to charge their vehicles overnight and during times of the day when fewer people are using energy. But independent experts say the state needs to exponentially increase its clean energy while also building out huge amounts of new EV chargers to achieve its goals.

    -From CNN’s Ella Nilsen

    Trump and the border wall

    Trump claimed to Carlson, “I had the strongest border in the history of our country, and I built almost 500 miles of wall. You know, they’d like to say, ‘Oh, was it less?’ No, I built 500 miles. In fact, if you check with the authorities on the border, we built almost 500 miles of wall.”

    Facts First: This needs context. Trump and his critics are talking about different things when they use different figures for how much border wall was built during his presidency. Trump is referring to all of the wall built on the southern border during his administration, even in areas that already had some sort of barrier before. His critics are only counting the Trump-era wall that was built in parts of the border that did not have any previous barrier.

    A total of 458 miles of southern border wall was built under Trump, according to a federal report written two days after Trump left office and obtained by CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez. That is 52 miles of “primary” wall built where no barriers previously existed, plus 33 miles of “secondary” wall that was built in spots where no barriers previously existed, plus another 373 miles of primary and secondary wall that was built to replace previous barriers the federal government says had become “dilapidated and/or outdated.”

    Some of Trump’s rival candidates, such DeSantis and Christie, have used figures around 50 miles while criticizing Trump for failing to finish the wall – counting only the primary wall built where no barriers previously existed.

    While some Trump critics have scoffed at the replacement wall, the Trump-era construction was generally much more formidable than the older barriers it replaced, which were often designed to deter vehicles rather than people on foot. Washington Post reporter Nick Miroff tweeted in 2020: “As someone who has spent a lot of time lately in the shadow of the border wall, I need to puncture this notion that ‘replacement’ sections are ‘not new.’ There is really no comparison between vehicle barriers made from old rail ties and 30-foot bollards.”

    Ideally, both Trump and his opponents would be clearer about what they are talking about: Trump that he is including replacement barriers, his opponents that they are excluding those barriers.

    -From CNN’s Daniel Dale

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  • World’s smallest bear finally has its time in the sun. But is that a good thing? | CNN

    World’s smallest bear finally has its time in the sun. But is that a good thing? | CNN

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    Hong Kong
    CNN
     — 

    The world’s smallest bear is finally having its moment in the sun – thanks to a viral video that sparked a conspiracy theory on Chinese social media.

    Public interest in sun bears, one of Asia’s most endangered and intriguing animals, has rocketed after video footage emerged showing a bear named Angela in her enclosure at the Hangzhou zoo in eastern China standing upright on a rock and waving her paw.

    The video sparked a global debate about the bear’s uncannily human-like appearance, so much so that conspiracy theories began emerging that Angela was really a human dressed in a bear costume.

    Experts have since debunked those theories, attributing the misunderstandings in part to the relative obscurity of the sun bear, whose numbers in the wild are thought to have dwindled to between 1,000 and 2,500, according to conservation groups.

    Various wildlife conservationists told CNN that they now hope all the attention surrounding Angela will help to raise awareness about the sun bear’s plight – they face threats including deforestation and poaching for the illegal wildlife trade.

    The bears are also commonly used in commercial bear bile farming – kept alive in tiny cages so their intestinal bile can be harvested and extracted in painful ways for use in traditional Chinese medicine.

    “They are among the least known bears in the world – a forgotten species,” said wildlife biologist Wong Siew Te who founded the Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Center (BSBCC) in Sabah, Malaysia.

    Wong has dedicated his life to researching, rescuing and rehabilitating sun bears and told CNN that he was encouraged to see “so much chatter and debate” about their behavior following the viral video.

    “Sun bears are finally having their moment in the spotlight,” he said. “There is a lot to love about them which many people do not know about and they play important ecological roles. They are threatened by man and need more global attention and awareness to save the species.”

    Since the videos of Angela spread across the internet, zoos in countries around the world have reported a wave of interest in the bears, which are native to Southeast Asia and named for the crescent shaped yellow, orange, amber or cream colored patches on their chests.

    The Hangzhou zoo reported a 30 per cent surge in visitors to its sun bear enclosure following the videos, while an official at Taronga Zoo in Sydney, Australia, told CNN that it had been “all about sun bears” the past week.

    Taronga zookeeper Logan Dudley said there had been an “uptick of people” this week showing interest in their resident sun bear Mary.

    “They are a lesser known bear species… and are vulnerable and endangered,” she said. “With all the media attention surrounding the (sun bear videos) we have a good opportunity to further educate ourselves to save this species.”

    Taronga Zoo is not alone. In a nod to the viral video, the Singapore Zoo shared footage of its own sun bears and confirmed they were “very real.”

    Afiqah Nasir, a mother of two who visited Singapore Zoo on Friday, told CNN that the videos had amused her children and sparked their curiosity.

    “We’re here because of that,” she said. “They now know that these are actual bears called sun bears and are not make believe, like people in T-rex costumes.”

    Conservation director Bosco Chan at the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in Hong Kong said that it was now “crucial to step up protection of sun bears in the wild” and stop the illegal trade of their body parts.

    “Sun bears are extremely rare and close to extinction. Their forest habitats, where destruction by industrial agriculture such as oil palm and rubber plantations remains rampant, must be strictly protected,” Chan said.

    A sun bear inside at the Vietnam bear rescue centre, in Tam Dao national park, Vinh Phuc, Vietnam, 09 July 2019.

    Aside from being mistaken as people in costume, experts say sun bears are also sometimes mistaken as big dogs due to their size.

    The bears, also sometimes known as the “honey bear,” stand about 28 inches tall and weigh between 55 lbs to 143 lbs.

    This relatively compact size, for a bear, makes them a target of the illegal wildlife pet trade.

    Cubs are especially cute and docile and can be easily tamed compared to bigger and more aggressive bears, said bear expert Dave Garshelis, chair of the IUCN SSC Bear Specialist Group.

    “Poaching has escalated in recent years but sun bears are also threatened by the pet trade,” he said.

    British colonial officer Thomas Stamford Raffles, who founded Singapore in 1819, is reputed to have kept a sun bear from Indonesia as a pet for two years, Garshelis noted.

    A couple of centuries later and instances of people keeping the bears as pets continue to appear in media reports.

    In 2019, a live sun bear was discovered in an apartment in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It came to authorities’ attention after neighbors heard it whimpering and holding its paws out of the window. The owner claimed to have mistaken the bear “for a dog” and was fined $6,000 by a court.

    Another woman was prosecuted for keeping a sun bear in her house in Singapore in 1993. She was fined $2,000 by the authorities and the animal was confiscated.

    Will the viral videos actually help save these amazing bears?

    Garshelis has “mixed feelings” about the newfound fame of the sun bears. He fears it could encourage people to take them as pets and doubts it will lead to meaningful conservation efforts.

    “All most people have learned is that sun bears often stand, have wrinkled skin and may even seem to wave their paws,” he said.

    “In fact, it’s even possible that all this exposure has made people (consider them) as pets – there might be a small zoo somewhere looking to buy one to attract more visitors.”

    “But they are a fascinating species,” he added.

    “There’s so much more (to them) than standing and waving in a zoo.”

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  • A Florida man is charged with murder in the death of his wife, whose remains were found in suitcases | CNN

    A Florida man is charged with murder in the death of his wife, whose remains were found in suitcases | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    A Florida man has been charged with first-degree murder on suspicion of killing and dismembering his wife, whose remains were found in suitcases at a beach last month, authorities said Thursday.

    William Lowe, who was arrested Wednesday, is accused of killing his 80-year-old wife, Aydil Barbosa Fontes, Delray Beach police Detective Mike Liberta said in a news conference Thursday.

    Investigators allege Lowe, 78, fatally shot Fontes in the head, dismembered her body at their apartment in Delray Beach and placed the remains in suitcases and a tote-like bag before discarding them at their local beach, Liberta said. Authorities believe Fontes was killed sometime between July 17 and July 20, police said previously.

    During his first court appearance Thursday, Lowe pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder and abuse of a dead body, online court records show.

    Marc Shiner, an attorney representing Lowe, told CNN in an email Thursday that Lowe is a “former Marine who honorably served our country.” Shiner added the defendant “is looking forward for the entire truth to come out in the courtroom.”

    Lowe was being held without bond Thursday at Palm Beach County’s jail.

    The investigation started July 21, when police received calls from people reporting seeing suitcases they thought contained human remains at or near the Intracoastal Waterway at Delray Beach, about 9 miles north of Boca Raton, according to a probable cause affidavit.

    The tips led detectives to three suitcases filled with human body parts that day. Police first found one suitcase floating in the water, and shortly after, they found two more suitcases at nearby locations along the beach, police have said.

    A tote-type bag with more remains was found during a search of the waterway the next day, the affidavit reads.

    02 delray beach human remains suitcases

    “This is probably the worst I’ve seen,” Liberta said.

    Video surveillance of the area where the bags were found and witness statements helped police locate the defendant, Liberta said.

    Witnesses told police they saw an older White man apparently look at one of the suitcases, and one witness said the man was there five or six times over a three-day period before authorities found the remains, according to the affidavit.

    Witnesses also told police about a vehicle they’d seen a man with the same description get into near where a suitcase was dumped on the same day police found it, the affidavit states. A detective reported seeing a similar vehicle in the area, and the vehicle’s tag revealed it belonged to Lowe, according to the affidavit.

    Upon questioning, Lowe told police on Monday his wife had been in Brazil for “about three weeks,” according to the document.

    Police searched Lowe’s apartment and spotted large amounts of blood in multiple areas in the home. A search of the suspect’s storage unit revealed a chainsaw police believe was used in the dismembering, Liberta said.

    “Detectives observed blood spatter throughout the residence to include the living room, dining room, hallway, both bathrooms and the master bedroom. Blood was detected in the master bath shower drain as well as the tub of the second bathroom,” the affidavit states.

    Police also saw drag marks in the living room, hallway and master bathroom along with numerous cleaning supplies, the affidavit notes.

    Investigators don’t know of a motive in the killing, Liberta said.

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  • Taj Mahal Fast Facts | CNN

    Taj Mahal Fast Facts | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Here’s a look at the Taj Mahal, India’s most popular tourist attraction. The monument is located on the banks of the Yamuna River in Agra, India.

    The Taj Mahal was built in the 17th century by Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan to honor his third wife, Mumtaz Mahal, who died in childbirth.

    “Taj Mahal” means “crown of palaces” in Urdu and Persian.

    In fiscal year 2021-2022, more than 3 million people visited the Taj Mahal, according to statistics from the Indian Ministry of Tourism.

    The site is maintained by the Archaeological Survey of India, which has organized multi-year cleaning projects to restore discolored areas on the Taj Mahal’s facade caused by air pollution and excretions from insects coming from the adjacent Yamuna River.

    The most recognizable feature of the Taj Mahal is the large, white, domed mausoleum, which is surrounded by four tall minarets on each corner. The exterior is made of white marble.

    The main building contains two cenotaphs memorializing Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal. A cenotaph is a Greek word that means “empty tomb.” The couple is actually interred in sarcophagi underneath.

    The cenotaphs and the screen surrounding them are covered in intricately designed mosaics made of semi-precious stones.

    On either side of the Taj Mahal are two buildings made of red sandstone: a mosque and an assembly hall.

    The grounds also include gardens and a long reflecting pool.

    1628 – Shah Jahan becomes emperor as part of the Mughal dynasty, ruling northern India.

    1631 – His wife, Mumtaz Mahal, dies during childbirth.

    1632 – Construction of the Taj Mahal begins. It is estimated that 20,000 workers helped build the structure.

    1648 – The main mausoleum of the Taj Mahal is completed.

    1653 – Additional features, including a mosque, guest house and courtyard are completed.

    1666 – Shah Jahan dies and his remains are interred next to Mumtaz Mahal beneath the Taj Mahal complex.

    1861 – The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) is founded in order to help preserve and restore Indian monuments and historical sites.

    1899-1905 – Britain’s Lord Curzon serves as the Viceroy of India. During his tenure, he orders the restoration of certain historic places, including the Taj Mahal.

    1983 – UNESCO designates the Taj Mahal as a World Heritage site.

    July 7, 2007 – The Taj Mahal is named one of the “New Seven Wonders of the World.” as part of an online marketing campaign.

    April 1, 2018 – A three-hour limit for Taj Mahal visitors is implemented.

    May 9, 2018 – India’s Supreme Court orders the ASI to do a better job with its restoration plan, as discoloration and stains on the Taj Mahal’s exterior have not been resolved as promised.

    March 17, 2020 – The ASI orders all monuments and museums to close due to the threat of coronavirus, including the Taj Mahal.

    June 14, 2021 – The ASI issues a statement that the monuments and museums closed due to the coronavirus pandemic will reopen June 16, with protective guidelines in place.

    Pollution is damaging iconic Taj Mahal

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  • Chris Christie Fast Facts | CNN Politics

    Chris Christie Fast Facts | CNN Politics

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    Here’s a look at the life of former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie.

    Birth date: September 6, 1962

    Birth place: Newark, New Jersey

    Birth name: Christopher James Christie

    Father: Wilbur “Bill” Christie, an accountant

    Mother: Sondra (Grasso) Christie

    Marriage: Mary Pat (Foster) Christie (1986-present)

    Children: Bridget, Patrick, Sarah and Andrew

    Education: University of Delaware, B.A., 1984; Seton Hall University, J.D., 1987

    Religion: Roman Catholic

    While serving as the US attorney for New Jersey, Christie prosecuted more than 130 public officials for corruption.

    A fan of Bruce Springsteen, Christie claims to have attended more than 100 of the New Jersey rocker’s performances.

    1977 – Volunteers for Republican Tom Kean’s gubernatorial campaign.

    1987-2002 – Attorney at the law firm of Dughi and Hewit, later named Dughi, Hewit & Palatucci PC.

    1992 – Co-coordinates the New Jersey reelection efforts of US President George H.W. Bush.

    1993 – Becomes a partner at Dughi and Hewit.

    1995-1997 – Member of the Morris County Board of Chosen Freeholders.

    1997 – Director of the Freeholder Board.

    2002-2008 – US attorney for New Jersey. Earns a reputation for being tough on corruption.

    November 3, 2009 – Defeats Democrat Jon Corzine, winning the election for governor.

    January 19, 2010-January 16, 2018 – Republican Governor of New Jersey.

    October 31, 2012 – Two days after Hurricane Sandy hits New Jersey, President Barack Obama visits the Garden State and tours devastated beach towns with Christie.

    February 4, 2013 – During an appearance on the “Late Show with David Letterman,” Christie pulls a doughnut out of his pocket and begins eating it mid-interview. Christie’s weight has often been commented on in the media and mocked by comedians.

    May 7, 2013 – Christie reveals to the New York Post that he secretly underwent lap-band surgery for the sake of his wife and kids.

    November 5, 2013 – Wins reelection.

    November 21, 2013 – Becomes the 2014 chairman of the Republican Governors Association.

    January 8, 2014 – Emails emerge from Christie’s top aides bolstering suggestions that George Washington Bridge lane closures last year that tied up traffic stemmed from a political vendetta and not bureaucratic incompetence as his administration claimed. The scandal is dubbed Bridgegate.

    June 30, 2015 – Formally announces he is running for the Republican presidential nomination during a speech in Livingston, New Jersey. On February 10, 2016, announces that he is suspending his campaign.

    February 26, 2016 – Endorses Donald Trump for president of the United States.

    May 9, 2016 – Trump announces that Christie will lead his presidential transition team, serving as chairman of the group tasked with finding candidates for jobs in a potential Trump administration.

    August 10, 2016 – In a text message, a Christie aide declares the governor “flat out lied” during a 2013 Bridgegate press conference, according to court documents filed in the criminal case against two Christie staffers accused of plotting to create a traffic jam in Fort Lee.

    November 11, 2016 – After Trump wins the election, he shakes up his transition team, demoting Christie to a supporting role and selecting Vice President-elect Mike Pence to take Christie’s place as chair.

    December 6, 2016 – A Quinnipiac University Poll indicates that 19% of voters approve of Christie’s job performance as governor and 77% disapprove. That’s the lowest score for a governor in 20 years of Quinnipiac’s polls of 11 different states.

    January 27, 2017 – The Bergen County prosecutor’s office says it won’t pursue charges of official misconduct against Christie in the Bridgegate case.

    February 16, 2017 – A Bergen County municipal judge rules that a misconduct case against Christie, stemming from a citizen’s complaint related to Bridgegate, can proceed in court.

    March 29, 2017 – Trump announces that Christie has been tapped to chair a commission that will seek ways to address the opioid crisis. On the same day, Christie’s former staffers, Bill Baroni and Bridget Anne Kelly are sentenced for their roles in the Bridgegate scandal. Baroni is sentenced to two years in prison while Kelly is initially sentenced to 18 months behind bars.

    July 1, 2017 – Due to a dispute over a Christie-backed bill that would allow the state to control how Horizon Blue Cross/Blue Shield spends its cash reserve funds, the legislature fails to break an impasse during budget talks. As a result, Christie orders a government shutdown, closing state parks, courts, motor vehicle commission offices and unemployment offices statewide. Christie says the Democrats in the legislature created the crisis.

    July 2, 2017 – As the government shutdown continues, Christie and his family vacation at one of the state parks that is closed during the holiday weekend. Island Beach State Park has a private governor’s residence, where Christie, his wife and other family members soak up sun on an empty beach. During the afternoon, the governor travels via state helicopter to Trenton to hold a news conference and denies that he has been enjoying the beach amid the crisis. Photos published by NJ Advance Media show that Christie was sitting on a beach chair earlier in the day.

    July 3-4, 2017 – The state legislature reaches a deal to reopen the government and Christie signs the budget into law. During a press conference, Christie says that the backlash over the beach photos was unwarranted. He says that he was transparent about his plans to visit the oceanfront residence during the weekend and questions the news value of the pictures.

    January 16, 2018 – Christie leaves office after two terms, and turns control of New Jersey’s state government over to Democrats for the first time in eight years.

    January 29, 2019 – Christie’s memoir “Let Me Finish: Trump, the Kushners, Bannon, New Jersey, and the Power of In-Your-Face Politics” is published.

    April 24, 2019 – Bridget Anne Kelly, Christie’s former chief of staff, is sentenced to 13 months in prison for her involvement in the “Bridgegate” scandal. She was previously sentenced to 18 months but appealed her conviction. Following her sentencing, Kelly makes a statement: “Mr. Christie, you are a bully and the days of you calling me a liar and destroying my life are over.”

    May 7, 2020 – The US Supreme Court throws out fraud convictions against Kelly and Baroni, who were involved in the “Bridgegate” political scandal. Writing for a unanimous court, Justice Elena Kagan says the move “jeopardized the safety of the town’s residents,” but concludes that “not every corrupt act by state or local officials is a federal crime.”

    October 3, 2020 – Christie tells CNN he checked himself into a hospital as a precautionary measure after announcing earlier in the day that he had tested positive for Covid-19. Christie was among a group of senior Trump campaign staffers who were tested following news of the President’s positive diagnosis.

    October 15, 2020 – In a statement, Christie says he spent seven days in an intensive care unit before recovering from Covid-19.

    October 21, 2020 – In a Wall Street Journal op-ed titled “I Should Have Worn a Mask,” Christie writes that mask wearing is not a “partisan or cultural symbol,” and that he was “wrong” not to wear a mask at the Supreme Court nomination ceremony of Judge Amy Coney Barrett and during debate prep with Trump.

    December 16, 2020 – In an ad paid for by the COVID Collaborative, Christie says that he regrets not wearing a mask while visiting the White House, a choice he acknowledges led to him contracting the coronavirus and spending a week in the ICU.

    November 16, 2021 – Christie’s book “Republican Rescue: Saving the Party From Truth Deniers, Conspiracy Theorists, and the Dangerous Policies of Joe Biden” is published.

    June 6, 2023 – Announces that he’s running for the Republican presidential nomination at a New Hampshire town hall event. Christie suspends his campaign on January 10, 2024.

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  • What happened this week and what’s next in Trump legal world | CNN Politics

    What happened this week and what’s next in Trump legal world | CNN Politics

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    CNN
     — 

    Donald Trump’s legal schedule is getting fuller by the day as the political season heats up, with the former president facing multiple criminal charges with more possibly on the way.

    This week, Trump was indicted on charges of leading a conspiracy to overturn his 2020 presidential election defeat and had to travel to Washington, DC, to plead not guilty in federal court.

    Now comes a flurry of legal filings and the possibility of yet another indictment, this time in Georgia, where a grand jury is looking at efforts to flip his defeat in the Peach State.

    READ: Tracking the criminal indictments in one place

    Here’s what happened this week and what’s next:

    Special counsel Jack Smith dropped the hammer against Trump on Tuesday, charging the former president with conspiracy and attempting to obstruct Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s electoral victory. That effort ultimately led to the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.

    “(F)or more than two months following election day on November 3, 2020, the defendant spread lies that there had been outcome-determinative fraud in the election and that he had actually won,” the indictment states.

    “These claims were false, and the Defendant knew they were false,” it adds, referring to Trump. “But the defendant disseminated them anyway – to make his knowingly false claims appear legitimate, create an intense atmosphere of mistrust and anger, and erode public faith in the administration of the election.”

    READ: CNN’s annotation of the indictment

    Trump took the short trip from his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club to appear in federal court on Thursday to enter a not guilty plea to all charges.

    The arraignment was at a courthouse that’s been central to the efforts to hold people accountable for the January 6 riot. Over 1,000 people charged in Capitol riot cases have made a similar appearance as Trump’s – the building is located within sight of the Capitol and judges there have overseen trials or sentencing of the rioters.

    One of the next major issues in the Trump case will be when to set a trial date. Judge Tanya Chutkan – who has sentenced multiple rioters – appears to be moving quickly on that front.

    The Trump team signaled Thursday that it doesn’t think this case can be sent to trial in the normal timeline as dictated under a federal law known the Speedy Trial Act that allows for exemptions in certain circumstance. The special counsel’s office disagrees.

    Trump has until Tuesday to file a motion that would pause the clock under the Speedy Trial Act, which would help to slow the pace down, and prosecutors have until August 13 to issue any objection to the request.

    Another critical filing will be next Thursday, when the special counsel must propose a trial date and say how long it will likely take them to put on their case before the jury. Trump must respond by August 17.

    The next hearing – the first before Chutkan – will be August 28. Trump does not have to appear in person.

    Meanwhile, the first Republican primary debate is August 23, though it’s unclear if Trump will participate.

    Meanwhile, Smith’s indictment cites six unnamed co-conspirators who allegedly worked with Trump to support his efforts. CNN can identify five of the six.

    “Co-Conspirator 1” is former Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani. “2” is former Trump lawyer John Eastman, who masterminded the plan to appoint false electors and is now facing disbarment proceedings in California. “3” is former Trump lawyer Sidney Powell, who worked with Giuliani in court. “4” is former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark, who Trump at one point hoped to install as acting attorney general to help him overturn the election. “5” is pro-Trump lawyer Kenneth Chesebro, who sent an email to Giuliani about the fake electors plot.

    The identity of “6” is unclear. The indictment says this person is a political consultant who is tied to the fake elector slate in Pennsylvania.

    The next moment in the criminal case against Trump is Thursday, August 10, when a magistrate judge in Florida will hear the plea of Mar-a-Lago maintenance worker Carlos De Oliveira, who allegedly attempted to delete security camera footage at the former president’s resort after the Justice Department issued a subpoena for it.

    Trump, via court filing Friday, pleaded not guilty to the charges recently added to the case and indicated to the court that he would not be physically present for the arraignment.

    Lawyers for co-defendant Walt Nauta will be present to enter their client’s plea to the new counts.

    READ: Mar-a-lago indictment annotated

    A grand jury hearing evidence in Smith’s investigation returned the superseding indictment in late July against Trump, who had already faced 37 criminal charges, charging the former president with one additional count of willful retention of national defense information and two additional obstruction counts.

    Also next week, Trump’s lawyers will have a chance to respond to claims by prosecutors that he is unwilling to travel to a secured facility to access classified documents being turned over to the defense for the case. By August 10, Trump will have to respond to Smith’s proposal for a protective order restricting access to classified discovery in the case, and in the filings with the proposal, prosecutors have said that Trump has requested to view the documents in Mar-a-Lago or Bedminster – a request Smith’s team opposes.

    Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is expected to ask a grand jury to file charges by September 1 in her probe into efforts by Trump and allies to overturn Georgia’s 2020 presidential election result.

    “The work is accomplished,” Willis told CNN affiliate WXIA at a back-to-school event. “We’ve been working for two and half years. We’re ready to go.”

    Security at the Fulton County courthouse has notably increased in anticipation of Willis’ actions.

    READ: Timeline of Trump’s efforts in Georgia to overturn the election

    A federal judge last week dismissed a $475 million defamation lawsuit Trump brought against CNN that accused the network of defaming him by using the phrase “the big lie” and allegedly comparing him to Adolf Hitler.

    District Judge Raag Singhal, a 2019 appointee of Trump’s, said that use of the phrase or similar statements are opinion that don’t meet the standard for defamation.

    “CNN’s use of the phrase ‘the Big Lie’ in connection with Trump’s election challenges does not give rise to a plausible inference that Trump advocates the persecution and genocide of Jews or any other group of people. No reasonable viewer could (or should) plausibly make that reference,” Singhal wrote.

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  • We’re going to need a bigger drone: The technology keeping swimmers safe at one New York beach | CNN Business

    We’re going to need a bigger drone: The technology keeping swimmers safe at one New York beach | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Warmer and cleaner waters off the coast of Long Island, New York, in recent years have brought growing numbers of bait fish to the area — and with them, the bigger fish that eat them, including sharks. In some ways, it’s a good sign for the environment. But it’s a different story for swimmers, surfers and beach goers.

    Safety officials at one New York beach are ramping up the use of drones to try to prevent potentially dangerous interactions between humans and sharks.

    Lifeguards and New York State Park Police officers at Jones Beach — a state park that stretches 6.5 miles along the Southern coast of Long Island and sees six million visitors a year — are using the technology to monitor the waters off the shore. When they spot sharks or unusual sea life activity, they can warn swimmers to stay on the beach.

    The tracking program began in 2017 but has taken on new urgency following a rash of shark attacks at New York beaches this summer. While the risk of being attacked by a shark remains low, just this week, a 65-year-old woman was hospitalized after being bitten by a shark at Rockaway Beach in Queens. The next day, lifeguards at Jones Beach closed the water three times after possible shark sightings, two of which were made with drones.

    “I can’t predict whether or not there’s going to be more bites or shark attacks, but what I can tell you is … the more drones that are flying in the air, there’s more of a chance of seeing these animals in their natural habitat,” Park Police Captain Rishi Basdeo told CNN last month, prior to the latest attack (which occurred at a different beach from where his team monitors). “Just by merely warning people, that in itself is [paying] dividends,” he said.

    With more sharks along the beach, police are using these drones to protect swimmers

    The New York State Park Police operates a fleet of 19 drones along Jones Beach, used by lifeguards with backup from officers who can do more enhanced monitoring via a mobile command center that travels up and down the beach if something unusual has been spotted in the water. Inside the command center van, officers can watch a livestream of the drone footage on a TV screen to determine if swimmers should be removed from the water.

    “You’re getting with the drone a real supreme aerial view of what’s going on in real time on the waterway,” Basdeo said, adding that if a shark is within 400 feet of the shore, officials consider closing the water. “If a shark is in close proximity to the bathing area — or even before we get schools [of fish] there — we are already making that decision … and the lifeguards will stop people from swimming and just safely guide people out of the water.”

    On the day last month that Park Police officers gave CNN a demonstration of the drone tracking program, the cameras picked up only a few skate fish just off the shore. But the drones — which have cameras powerful enough to see beneath the surface of the water even from about 25 feet in the air — have previously caught footage of sharks swimming solo and feeding on large schools of fish.

    Operating the program is not cheap — even the more low-tech drone kits used by lifeguards to do regular monitoring cost around $6,000 each and require operators trained in Federal Aviation Administration rules, according to Basdeo. But he says it’s worth it to avoid safety risks to people enjoying the beach. And, he added, “It’s actually cheaper than calling in a police helicopter.”

    New York State Park Police officers are using drones to monitor for sharks off the coast of Long Island, New York, like this one spotted in 2022.

    The technology has uses beyond searching for sharks, too. The drones can be augmented with an infrared camera, spotlights and speakers to help in search and rescue capacities, and could even carry a life preserver out to a distressed swimmer before a lifeguard could get to them.

    For example, “If we get a report that an individual is missing at night, we have an ability aside from calling in a police helicopter … we can send our drones up and put in the infrared capability in the camera and actually see in the dark,” Basdeo said. “Five years ago, we didn’t have this drone capability in our agency, but now it’s spreading and it’s catching on.”

    Basdeo also stressed that the drones are used for only limited, safety-related applications.

    “We’re on strict guidelines when we fly and operate these drones. It is not used to surveil the public. It is used to keep them safe,” Basdeo said. “We don’t fly, or we try not to fly, over large groups of people. There are designated emergency lanes on the beach … where it’s sparsely populated” that operators use to navigate the drones out to the water, he said.

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  • Chinese zoo denies its sun bears are people in costume | CNN

    Chinese zoo denies its sun bears are people in costume | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    A zoo in eastern China has denied suggestions that some of its bears were people dressed in costume after videos of a Malayan sun bear standing on its hind legs – and looking uncannily human – went viral, fueling rumors and conspiracy theories on Chinese social media.

    In a statement written from the perspective of a sun bear named “Angela,” officials from Hangzhou zoo said people “didn’t understand” the species.

    “I’m Angela the sun bear – I got a call after work yesterday from the head of the zoo asking if I was being lazy and skipped work today and found a human to take my place,” the statement read.

    “Let me reiterate again to everyone that I am a sun bear – not a black bear, not a dog – a sun bear!”

    In videos shared on the popular Chinese microblogging site Weibo, a sun bear was seen standing upright on a rock and looking out of its enclosure.

    Many Weibo users noted the animal’s upright posture, as well as folds of loose fur on its behind – making the bear look somewhat odd and fueling speculation that a human imposter might be masquerading in its place.

    It might sound like an implausible gambit. But zoos in China have courted public ridicule in the past for trying to pass off pets like dogs as wild animals.

    In 2013, a city zoo in the central Henan province angered visitors by trying to pass off a Tibetan Mastiff dog as a lion. Visitors who had approached the enclosure expressed shock when they heard the “lion” bark.

    Visitors at another Chinese zoo, in Sichuan province, were shocked to discover a golden retriever sitting in a cage labeled as an African lion enclosure.

    Native to the tropical forests of Southeast Asia, sun bears are the world’s smallest bear species. Adult bears stand at heights of up to 70 centimeters tall (28 inches) and weigh between 25 to 65 kilograms (55 to 143 pounds), experts say.

    They do not hibernate and are also characterized by amber colored crescent shaped fur patches on their chests and long tongues which help them extract honey from bee hives – earning them the name “beruang madu” (honey bear) in Malaysia and Indonesia.

    Their numbers in the wild are at threat by poachers and deforestation, declining by 35% over the past three decades, according to conservation groups like the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and Bornean Sun Bear Conservation Center (BSCC) in Sabah, Malaysia.

    Sun bears are listed as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

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  • Deadly extreme heat is on the rise in national parks — a growing risk for America’s great outdoors | CNN

    Deadly extreme heat is on the rise in national parks — a growing risk for America’s great outdoors | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Extreme heat appears to be killing people in America’s national parks at an alarming pace this year, highlighting both its severity and the changing calculus of personal risk in the country’s natural places as climate change fuels more weather extremes.

    More people are suspected to have died since June 1 from heat-related causes in national parks than an average entire year, according to park service press releases and preliminary National Park Service data provided to CNN. No other year had five heat-related deaths by July 23, park mortality data that dates to 2007 shows, and the deadliest month for heat in parks – August – is yet to come.

    The deaths reported so far are still under investigation, but all five died in temperatures that hit 100 degrees, a searing microcosm of a much more widespread pattern of extreme heat that has broken more than 3,000 high temperature records across the US since early June.

    That kind of heat has proven an indiscriminate killer in the nation’s parks:

    • A 14-year-old boy died on a trail in southwest Texas’ Big Bend National Park in 119-degree heat, his 31-year-old father died seeking help to save him.
    • A 65 year-or-older man died hiking on June 1 in Big Bend.
    • A 57-year-old woman died hiking a trail in Arizona’s Grand Canyon National Park.
    • A 71-year-old man collapsed and died outside a restroom in California’s Death Valley National Park after park rangers believe he hiked a nearby trail.
    • A 65-year-old man was found dead in his disabled vehicle on the side of the road in Death Valley National Park, with park rangers suspecting he succumbed to heat illness while driving and then baked in temperatures as high as 126 degrees.

    Heat is the deadliest type of weather, killing on average more than twice as many people each year as hurricanes and tornadoes combined. But heat deaths are notoriously difficult to track in the US, with one 2020 study estimating that they were undercounted in some of the most populous counties.

    The National Park Service faces the same challenges, and told CNN that the true toll of this year’s extreme heat and recent past heat may be even higher. They need to collect and corroborate death reports with hundreds of individual parks and the equally vast and complex web of local and state officials that medically determine cause of death.

    As a result, some of the most recent death statistics from 2020 to 2023 could “change significantly,” park spokespeople said.

    That’s already proven true. Two of this year’s five deaths happened after the park service provided the data to CNN in early July. Still, the current statistics offer a glimpse into the deadly potential of this unrelenting heat, especially in its epicenter: the Southwest.

    All of this year’s suspected heat-related deaths took place in just three national parks: Grand Canyon, Death Valley and Big Bend. These three parks are also responsible for more than half of the 68 heat-related deaths reported by the park service since 2007.

    And that’s no surprise – all three parks are located in the nation’s oven, the Southwest, and all but one of the deaths happened west of the Mississippi River.

    It’s normal for the Southwest to be hot. But the heat this year, especially the longevity of it, is far from normal. Phoenix, just a few hours south of the Grand Canyon, shattered its record for consecutive days at 110 degrees-plus and only dropped to 97 degrees overnight at times during the streak, a record warm low temperature.

    A recent report from Climate Central, a non-profit research group, found that the Southwest heat wave in the first half of July was made at least five times more likely by human-caused climate change.

    Average annual temperatures across the Southwest increased by 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit between 1901 and 2016, according to the Fourth National Climate Assessment, the federal government’s periodic climate change report. The climate crisis has also worsened the region’s most severe drought in centuries, which created an ongoing crisis over water supplies from the river that etched the Grand Canyon into the earth. And projections show that temperatures will continue to rise to the tune of 8.6 degrees – resulting in 45 more days over 90 degrees each year for parts of the region by 2100 under the worst-case scenarios.

    The country’s national parks are ground zero for this warming. A 2018 study found that they had warmed twice as fast as the rest of the US from 1895 to 2010 due to human-caused climate change.

    National parks in the Southwest and in Alaska were the “most severely damaged by human-caused climate change” and experienced the most pronounced warming, said Patrick Gonzalez, climate scientist at the University of California at Berkeley and the study’s author. But he also said that damage was happening “all across America and all across our national parks.”

    “Carbon pollution from cars, power plants and deforestation – human sources – has already damaged our national parks, and in years like this we see the potential acute damage, severe one year damage,” Gonzalez told CNN.

    Heat risk and damage to national parks will only increase if unabated carbon pollution continues, Gonzalez said. That’s changing the personal risk calculus for summer recreation now and in the future in increasingly hotter national parks.

    The 300 million-plus people who visit the parks each year are already encountering warmer temperatures and are at a greater risk for heat illness as a result. Park visitation also peaks during the summer, furthering that risk.

    The park service doesn’t universally keep track of heat-related illnesses that don’t result in death, but multiple park representatives said the number of heat illnesses was much greater than heat mortality. Multiple medical responses a week that are “probably heat-related” happen during the summer at Death Valley National Park, park spokesperson Abby Wines told CNN.

    Grand Canyon National Park doesn’t track heat-specific illness, but carries out hundreds of rescues and so-called “hiker assists” for less-severe issues most commonly because of “lack of physical conditioning,” park spokesperson Joelle Baird told CNN.

    Baird said they see a spike in ranger responses to heat-related illnesses when temperatures reach 95 degrees on trails at the midway point between the top and the bottom of the canyon.

    Extreme heat can trigger heat illness in as little as 20 to 30 minutes for people doing anything strenuous outdoors, like hiking, because heat acts as a “perfect storm,” which overloads the body until it eventually short-circuits and shuts down, Dr. Matthew Levy, a professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, told CNN.

    Hiking was the most common cause of heat-related death in the national parks data, representing more than 60% of all deaths. Park spokespeople said that typically, less-experienced hikers find themselves in compromising situations by overestimating their abilities or underpreparing for the heat, but heat illness and death can and has happened in experienced hikers, too.

    Maggie Peikon is a self-proclaimed “avid hiker” who has climbed some of the country’s highest mountains and even scaled an active volcano in Indonesia.

    She said part of the allure of hiking for experienced hikers is to “challenge my will.” But even so, she said, hiking in this kind of heat isn’t worth it.

    “Most of the challenges I’ve pushed myself to do, there’s a level of enjoyment there, and it just feels like a punishment to go out when it’s that hot,” said Peikon, who works as the manager of communications at the American Hiking Society.

    “I think I’ve just learned what I’m capable of, and that’s not just from a physical standpoint, hiking is very mental as well,” Peikon told CNN. “That was something that has stuck with me on every single hike that I do, especially the challenging ones: What you’re capable of is entirely up to you.”

    Tourists stand next to an unofficial heat reading at Furnace Creek Visitor Center during a heat wave in Death Valley National Park.

    Personal responsibility weighs heavily in the policy direction the individual national parks take when dealing with the heat.

    Parks proactively message visitors about the heat online and in signage posted at the trails that warns of the dangerous and “tragic” consequences of high temperatures. Death Valley posts bright red “STOP Extreme Heat Danger” signs at low elevation trailheads, which urge people to stay off trails after 10 a.m. and to hike only at high elevations, where temperatures are lowest.

    “People are responsible for their own safety,” Death Valley spokesperson Abby Wines told CNN. “We try to get information out to people so they’re aware, but one of the problems with heat, I think, is that often people think it’s a matter of being tough enough. They think ‘oh, I might be uncomfortable, but that’s all and I can push through it.’ But heat is deadly.”

    It’s so hot in Death Valley that the park warns visitors that it can’t and won’t rescue people.

    “We don’t want to put our own staff at risk of heat fatality by doing a physical carry out in extreme heat conditions,” Wines said, adding that the medical helicopter can’t get enough lift to take off because temperatures are so hot.

    That was the case in the most recent death in Death Valley on July 19 when the temperature was 117 degrees, a park release notes.

    What parks seem to rarely do is close trails because of the heat. The park representatives CNN spoke to said there is no national policy or guidance to close if temperatures reach a certain level.

    Trails do close because of other kinds of extreme weather, including winter storms and tropical systems. Park officials said those decisions are made at the individual park level based on the hazards there and that it was technically possible individual parks could choose to close trails or limit access if the heat got too extreme.

    Trails in Lake Mead National Recreational area in Arizona and Nevada do close seasonally because of the heat, and Grand Canyon National Park has at least entertained the idea to close trails.

    “It is something that I’ve heard come up every single year, this time of year, so I don’t think it’s beyond the National Park Service or Grand Canyon,” Baird, Grand Canyon National Park’s spokesperson, told CNN. “I think the thought and stance has always been to push out more hiker education to try to change and influence people’s behavior rather than having a reactionary decision to close trails, because people can hike successfully. We just have to provide enough information and tools for them to be successful.”

    Grand Canyon is the deadliest park for extreme heat with 16 deaths since 2007, the preliminary data from the National Park Service would suggest, a toll Baird said would be “much higher” if the park didn’t also have one of the most robust and proactive responses to heat.

    Grand Canyon pioneered a Preventative Search and Rescue team after a particularly dangerous and taxing year for rescue teams in 1996.

    Emergency Services Coordinator James Thompson observes and directs operations during a search and rescue training exercise at the Grand Canyon.

    The teams are medically trained and meet hikers at the start of trails to make sure they are adequately prepared for the journey, provide assistance with water or snacks and even contact and check in with hikers once they’re on the trails.

    This preventative approach has decreased the number of expensive, “last resort” search and rescues that are typically done via helicopter. But despite these efforts, there are still between 300 and 350 search and rescues each year at Grand Canyon and there have been 172 so far this year, with around 70 coming since Memorial Day.

    “Grand Canyon is an amazing place, everyone should hike into the canyon if they have the ability to do so,” Baird said. “However, this time of year is not optimal.”

    Park officials and hiking experts recommended checking the weather and park alerts before going out on the trail, to get acclimated to heat before your trip and know your personal limits, to shorten activities outdoors, carry more water than you think you might need, find shadier trails, tour the park by air-conditioned car or even just skip the hike altogether to reduce the chance that heat continues to turn deadly.

    “It’s not worth the risk of experiencing heat illness because of the outcomes,” Andrea Walton, Southeast Region Public Affairs Specialist for the park service, told CNN. “At minimum you’re going to feel really bad the next day” or worse, “potentially ending up in the hospital, or worst case, experiencing a fatal incident.”

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  • The Columbus Zoo thought this gorilla was a male — then it gave birth to a baby | CNN

    The Columbus Zoo thought this gorilla was a male — then it gave birth to a baby | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Zookeepers at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium arrived to a pair of unexpected discoveries Thursday morning: a newborn baby gorilla and the news that its mother wasn’t a male gorilla.

    The gorilla, Sully, has lived at the facility with her mother since 2019 and was thought to be male until “the gorilla care team discovered her holding the unexpected baby gorilla early Thursday,” the zoo announced in a news release.

    But how could the facility not know 8-year-old Sully was actually a female? And that she was pregnant?

    Well, gorillas “don’t have prominent sex organs” and males and females look mostly alike until around age 8, the zoo said in the release, noting it’s only later in life that males develop their large size, silver backs and distinctive head bumps.

    Along with the hard-to-distinguish features, veterinarians at the zoo where the gorilla was born took a “hands-off approach” with their care and allowed the primate to be cared for by its mother, the Columbus Zoo noted.

    When Sully arrived in Columbus, she was a “young and healthy animal” and didn’t require any medical procedures that would have led to the discovery sooner, the zoo said.

    The pregnancy was also missed because “gorillas rarely show outward signs” they are carrying because “newborns are smaller than human babies and gorillas naturally have large abdomens,” the release notes.

    With the gestation period for gorillas being eight and a half months, the zoo estimates Sully became pregnant in the fall.

    The zoo says the adorable infant appears to be a healthy female. “The veterinary and animal care teams have not yet approached the infant, giving them time to bond with one another and with the rest of the troop, but will conduct a wellness exam soon,” the facility said in the release.

    A DNA test will be performed later to determine the newborn’s father.

    The new mother and baby will be on display for guests at the zoo’s gorilla habitat starting Friday, according to the release.

    Western lowland gorillas – the subspecies that lives at the Columbus Zoo – are critically endangered, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. There are an estimated 100,000 left in the wild across central Africa, says the Columbus Zoo. Their population has been depleted due to habitat loss, deforestation and hunting for bushmeat.

    The surprise discovery builds on a history of gorilla conservation at the Columbus Zoo. The facility “was the first zoo in the world to welcome the birth of a baby gorilla” in 1956, according to the release.

    Sully’s yet-to be named infant is the 34th gorilla born at the zoo, says the release. “She’s an important part of our work to conserve these magnificent animals,” the facility wrote.

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  • Investigators in Gilgo Beach case operating on theory that the killings occurred in suspect’s home | CNN

    Investigators in Gilgo Beach case operating on theory that the killings occurred in suspect’s home | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    Since the spring of this year, investigators looking into the Gilgo Beach serial killings case have been operating on the theory that the suspect, Rex Heuermann, committed the killings in his Massapequa Park, New York, home.

    A source involved in the investigation told CNN the fact that the disappearances occurred during times his family was out of town suggests he may have lured victims to the Long Island home.

    Investigators believe committing the killings at home would have given Heuermann control of the environment and access to materials that were found at the crime scene, including tape and burlap bags, the source said.

    One of the reasons the search of the suspect’s home has taken so long is because investigators are also combing for trace evidence that may be linked to the victims, multiple sources said.

    Heuermann was arrested in New York City last week and charged with murder in the deaths of three of the “Gilgo Four,” a group of four women whose remains were found along a short stretch of Long Island’s Gilgo Beach in 2010.

    The 59-year-old architect has pleaded not guilty in the killings of Melissa Barthelemy, Megan Waterman and Amber Lynn Costello.

    In a news conference last Friday, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney said Heuermann’s wife and children were both traveling when the killings were committed and the suspect was “alone in the tri-state area” during those times.

    Heuermann is also the prime suspect in the 2007 disappearance and killing of the fourth victim, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, according to a bail application from prosecutors. He has yet to be charged in that homicide case but the investigation “is expected to be resolved soon,” the document says.

    Barthelemy’s phone communicated with a burner cellphone several times before July 10, 2009, which was the last day she was seen alive, authorities said in Heuermann’s bail application.

    On that day, cell tower records show the burner phone traveled from Massapequa Park to Midtown Manhattan and later that day, Barthelemy’s phone traveled from Midtown Manhattan to Massapequa, the application says.

    Barthelemy’s last phone location was recorded in Massapequa on July 11, 2009, at roughly 1:43 a.m., the court document says.

    Less than a year later, on June 6, 2010, Waterman was seen on surveillance footage leaving a hotel in the area of Hauppauge around 1:31 a.m., according to the bail application. It was the last time she was seen alive.

    Waterman’s phone also communicated with a burner cell phone at around the same time she left her hotel, according to the bail application.

    Cell tower records show her phone traveled to Massapequa Park, with its last location recorded in that area at around 3:11 a.m. “in the vicinity of the residence of” Heuermann, the bail application says. She was never seen alive again.

    In the case of Costello’s killing, police say a burner phone contacted her the day before she vanished. In those communications, the burner phone connected to cell towers in West Amityville and Massapequa Park, the bail application says.

    Around the time of the communications, witnesses said “a prostitution client” went to Costello’s residence, where a person pretended to be her “outraged boyfriend” as part of a ruse and got the client to leave, the application says.

    The burner phone, which was located in Massapequa Park, messaged Costello’s phone early the next day, on September 2, 2010, saying, “That was not nice,” according to the document.

    Later that day, Costello was again contacted by the burner phone, which was at Massapequa Park, the bail application says. That night, the burner phone traveled to the area of the woman’s house, according to the document.

    On the night of September 2, Costello walked outside her home, leaving her phone behind, and was never seen alive again.

    As investigators in New York work to build their case against Heuermann, police in Las Vegas and South Carolina, where the suspect owned property, are reviewing their unsolved cases for any possible connection.

    In Rock Hill, South Carolina, police are reviewing the disappearance of Aaliyah Bell, who was 18 when she went missing in November 2014, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

    “So far, there is no indication that leads us to identify Heuermann as a suspect in this case. We will continue to investigate Bell’s disappearance and follow up on all tips and leads,” Rock Hill Police Department spokesperson Lt. Michael Chavis said.

    Nothing specifically prompted the review, Chavis noted. “This was a proactive approach after learning of Heuermann’s arrest and his ties to an area not far from us in South Carolina,” he said.

    Rock Hill sits in York County, which borders Chester County, an area where Heuermann owns four large parcels of land, tax records show.

    The sheriff’s office in Chester County said it has been gathering evidence for the Gilgo Beach investigative task force since before Heuermann’s arrest.

    Late last week, authorities were seen towing a truck belonging to Heuermann’s brother, a neighbor who lives adjacent to Heuermann’s land told CNN.

    In Las Vegas, where Heuermann and his wife purchased two timeshare condos, police said they are also reviewing their roster of unsolved cases for any possible connection.

    The condos were purchased between 2003 and 2005, property records show. The couple has since sold the first property, the records show, and it is unclear whether they still own the second.

    Strands of hair were among the key evidence that helped investigators bring Heuermann into custody.

    In the initial examination of Waterman’s skeletal remains, investigators found a male hair from the “bottom of the burlap” the killer used to wrap her body, prosecutors said.

    In addition, female hair now believed to be from Heuermann’s wife was found on or near three of the victims, prosecutors allege in the bail application.

    But when they were found in 2010, the hairs were degraded, and DNA testing at the time couldn’t yield the results investigators hoped for.

    It wasn’t until more than a decade later that improved technology offered answers.

    Once authorities identified Heuermann as a suspect in early 2022 using cell phone data, witness descriptions and other information, they began watching him and his family, and collected DNA samples from items in their trash.

    They got a complete sample of his DNA from leftover crust in a pizza box he discarded – and it matched the one from the male hair investigators had collected so many years ago, Tierney, the district attorney, has said.

    Heuermann’s family was shocked, disgusted and embarrassed when authorities informed them of the crimes he is accused of, Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison told CNN’s Erica Hill on Monday.

    “I don’t believe that they knew about this double life that Mr. Heuermann was living,” Harrison said.

    On Wednesday – less than a week since Heuermann’s arrest – his wife, Asa Ellerup, filed for divorce, her attorney said. The two were married in April 1996 and lived since then in the suspect’s childhood home in the Long Island suburb of Massapequa Park with their daughter and Heuermann’s stepson.

    Ellerup “and her family are going through a devastating time in their lives,” a Thursday statement from her attorneys said. “The sensitive nature of her husband’s arrest is taking an emotional toll on the immediate and extended family, especially their elderly family members.”

    “Ms. Ellerup does not wish to comment further and has requested the public and press to please respect the family’s privacy at this time.”

    No one has visited Heuermann in jail other than his attorneys, Suffolk County Sheriff Errol D. Toulon, Jr. told CNN Thursday night.

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  • Mystery cylinder on Western Australia beach likely space junk, authorities say | CNN

    Mystery cylinder on Western Australia beach likely space junk, authorities say | CNN

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    Hong Kong
    CNN
     — 

    A mystery object that washed ashore on Australia’s western coast sparking a flurry of local excitement and speculation over its origin is most likely space junk, police said Tuesday.

    Since it has turned up on a beach at Green Head, a coastal town 250 kilometers (155 miles) north of Perth, the copper-colored cylinder had drawn in curious local residents eager to catch a glimpse of the unidentified object.

    Speculation also erupted online with people posting a host of theories about where it might have come from.

    The Western Australia Police Force said in a statement on Tuesday that the item is believed to be “space debris”, echoing similar comments from the country’s space agency which was working on the same hypothesis.

    Police were initially cautious, throwing up a cordon around the object and telling locals to keep away.

    But in a new update on Tuesday, police said an analysis by the Department of Fire and Emergency Service and Chemistry Centre of Western Australia had found the object to be safe, posing no current risk to the community.

    Police added they were discussing ways with relevant agencies to safely remove and store the object, while working on finalizing their findings.

    But space junk looks the most likely explanation.

    “The object could be from a foreign space launch vehicle and we are liaising with global counterparts who may be able to provide more information,” the Australian Space Agency tweeted on Monday.

    The bulky cylinder, which stands taller than a human, appears to be damaged at one end and is covered with barnacles, suggesting it has spent a significant amount of time at sea before washing up.

    The space agency urged people to avoid handling and moving the object due to its unknown origin and to report any further discovery of suspected debris.

    Police said previously that the item did not appear to originate from a commercial aircraft and vowed to guard it until its removal.

    Alice Gorman, a space archaeologist from Flinders University in Adelaide, said the cylinder is likely the third phase of a polar satellite launch vehicle previously launched by India.

    “It is identical in dimension and materials,” Gorman told CNN, comparing it with launch vehicles used by India since 2010.

    Space rockets are multi-stage, meaning they are made up of various compartments carrying fuel, each of which are dumped in a sequential order when the propellant runs out, with much of the debris falling back to Earth.

    Gorman also said the largely intact color and shape of the cylinder suggests that it did not reach outer space before it detached, sparing it from intense burn with the atmosphere on re-entry. It may have landed in the ocean about five to 10 years ago until a recent deep sea storm pushed it to the shore, she added.

    Gorman said the cylinder runs on solid fuel, which only releases toxic substances under high temperature. But she advised local residents to err on the side of caution.

    “Just as general rule, you don’t touch space junk unless you need to,” she said.

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  • A suspect was charged in the Gilgo Beach serial killings cold case. Here’s a timeline of the case and the investigation | CNN

    A suspect was charged in the Gilgo Beach serial killings cold case. Here’s a timeline of the case and the investigation | CNN

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    CNN
     — 

    For more than a decade, a string of unsolved killings known as the Gilgo Beach murders terrorized residents and confounded authorities on Long Island’s South Shore after a woman’s 2010 disappearance led investigators to find at least 10 sets of human remains and launched the hunt for a possible serial killer.

    Authorities announced a major breakthrough in the case on Friday, charging New York architect Rex Heuermann, 59, with murder in connection to the killings of three of the four women who became known as the “Gilgo Four.”

    The suspect was taken into custody Thursday night, authorities said. He has been indicted on one count of first-degree murder and one count of second-degree murder in each of the three killings – Melissa Barthelemy in 2009, and Megan Waterman and Amber Costello in 2010, according to the Suffolk County District Attorney.

    Heuermann, who told his attorney he is not the killer, is also the prime suspect in the 2007 disappearance and death of a fourth woman, Maureen Brainard-Barnes, according to a bail application from prosecutors. He has not been charged in that homicide but the investigation “is expected to be resolved soon,” the document says.

    Authorities said once Heuermann was identified in early 2022 as a suspect, they watched him and his family, getting DNA samples from items in their trash as they built a case.

    He was remanded without bail Friday. He entered a not guilty plea through his attorney. His next court date is scheduled for August 1.

    Here is a timeline of the Gilgo Beach murders, how the investigation unfolded and what ultimately led to Heuermann’s arrest.

    Police discovered the first set of female remains in bushes along an isolated strip of waterfront property on Gilgo Beach while searching for another missing woman: Shannan Gilbert, a 23-year-old from Jersey City, New Jersey who hadn’t been seen since May 2010.

    The remains of Melissa Barthelemy, 24, were the first to be discovered in the case during the search on December 11, 2010, according to Suffolk County officials. Two days later, investigators discovered the remains of three additional victims – Maureen Brainard-Barnes, Amber Costello and Megan Waterman – strewn across a half-mile stretch on Gilgo Beach.

    The four women, who were wrapped in camouflaged burlap, worked as escorts who advertised on Craigslist and were last seen between July 2007 and September 2010, officials said.

    On March 29, 2011, the partial skeletal remains of another woman were found several miles east of where the bodies of the “Gilgo Four” were discovered.

    The woman was first known as Jane Doe #5 before investigators identified her as Jessica Taylor, another escort whose partial remains were previously discovered in Manorville in 2003, police said.

    The following month, on April 4, 2011, three more sets of remains were found on a stretch of Ocean Parkway in Suffolk County near the beach. They included a female toddler, an unidentified Asian male and a woman initially referred to as Jane Doe #6, investigators said.

    One week later, two additional sets of human remains were found in Nassau County, about 40 miles east of New York City, one of which was identified as the mother of the toddler through DNA analysis. The mother’s partial remains were first discovered in 1997, officials said.

    The other set of remains “genetically matched” with remains found in 1996 on Fire Island, “significantly expanding the timeline and geographic reach” of the investigation, officials said.

    In December 2011, Gilbert’s body was found in the wooded marshes of Suffolk County’s Oak Beach. That beach is about 9 miles from where the 10 other sets of human remains were found.

    Authorities later said they believed Gilbert’s death may have been accidental and not related to the Gilgo Beach slayings.

    In January 2020, Suffolk County police released photos of what it said could be a significant piece of evidence: a black leather belt embossed with the letters “WH” or “HM.” The department also launched a website to collect new tips in the investigation.

    “We believe the belt was handled by the suspect and did not belong to any of the victims,” former Suffolk County Police Commissioner Geraldine Hart told reporters at the time.

    On May 28, 2020, New York’s Suffolk County Police Department identified “Jane Doe #6” as Valerie Mack, a 24-year-old Philadelphia mother who went missing two decades earlier.

    The FBI helped identify Mack’s remains using advanced forensic DNA technology, officials said.

    Using samples from her remains, Suffolk County investigators were able to find Mack’s biological relatives through genetic genealogy, which ultimately led to her adoptive family and son, Hart said to reporters at the time.

    In February 2022, Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison formed a multi-agency task force to investigate the Gilgo Beach killings.

    The task force included the Suffolk County Police Department, the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Office, the New York State Police and the FBI.

    On March 14, 2022, Heuermann was first mentioned as a possible suspect in the Gilgo Beach murder case after a New York state investigator identified him in a database, according to Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney.

    On July 13, 2023, a suspect connected to some of the Gilgo Beach murders was taken into custody in New York City, marking the first arrest in the case, according to Harrison. He was transported back to Suffolk County Police headquarters in the hamlet of Yaphank on Long Island, the police commissioner said.

    A day later, authorities identified the suspect as Heuermann, a registered architect who has owned the New York City-based architecture and consulting firm, RH Consultants & Associates, since 1994, according to his company’s website.

    The case against Heuermann came together over two years with the restart of the investigation, in which investigators used “the power of the grand jury,” including more than 300 subpoenas and search warrants, to collect evidence and tie Heuermann conclusively to the murders, Tierney said during a news conference.

    And authorities have hinted more charges could be coming, noting in court documents Heuermann has been tied to at least one other disappearance – that of Brainard-Barnes – of a woman who was later found dead.

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