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  • Blinken returns to Mideast as Israel-Hamas cease-fire proposal hangs in balance

    Blinken returns to Mideast as Israel-Hamas cease-fire proposal hangs in balance

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    Secretary of State Antony Blinken returned Monday to the Middle East as a proposed Israel-Hamas cease-fire deal hangs in the balance after the rescue of four Israeli hostages held in Gaza in a military raid and following the latest turmoil in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

    What You Need To Know

    • Secretary of State Antony Blinken returned to the Middle East on Monday as the proposed cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas hangs in the balance

    • Blinken met with President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi of Egypt, a key mediator with the militant Hamas group, and held talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

    • Blinken once again called on Hamas to accept the plan, which he said has wide international support


    With no firm public response yet from Hamas or Israel to the proposal they received 10 days ago, Blinken started his eighth visit to the region since the conflict began in October by meeting with President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi of Egypt, a key mediator with the militant Hamas group, and then talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

    Blinken once again called on Hamas to accept the plan, which he said has wide international support.

    “If you want a cease-fire, press Hamas to say ‘yes,’” he told reporters before leaving Cairo on the trip that will take him to Israel, Jordan and Qatar. Blinken said Israel has accepted the proposal, though Netanyahu has not said so directly.

    “I know that there are those who are pessimistic about the prospects,” Blinken said, putting the onus squarely on Hamas. “That’s understandable. Hamas continues to show extraordinary cynicism in its actions, a disinterest not only in the well-being and security of Israelis but also Palestinians.”

    Blinken said the plan on the table is the “single best way” to get to a cease-fire, release the remaining hostages and improve regional security.

    While President Joe Biden, Blinken and other U.S. officials have praised the hostage rescue, the operation resulted in the deaths of a large number of Palestinian civilians and may complicate the cease-fire push by emboldening Israel and hardening Hamas’ resolve to carry on fighting in the war it started with its Oct. 7 attack into Israel.

    “It’s hard to say how Hamas will process this particular operation and what it will do to its determination about whether it will say yes or not,” Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, said Sunday. “We are hopeful that with enough of a chorus, the international community all speaking with one voice, Hamas will get to the right answer,” Sullivan told ABC’s “This Week.”

    In his talks with el-Sissi, Blinken also discussed plans for post-conflict governance and reconstruction in Gaza, following massive destruction there.

    “It’s imperative that there be a plan, and that has to involve security, it has to involve governance, it has to involve reconstruction,” Blinken said.

    Netanyahu and his government have resisted calls for any ‘day after’ plan that would bar Israel from having some form of security presence in the territory. Blinken said he would urge Israel to come up with alternatives that would be acceptable.

    “It would be very good if Israel put forward its own ideas on this, and I’ll be talking to the government about that,” he said. “But one way or another, we’ve got to have these plans, we’ve got to have them in place, we’ve got to be ready to go if we want to take advantage of a cease-fire.”

    The three-phase cease-fire plan calls for the release of more hostages and a temporary pause in hostilities that will last as long as it takes to negotiate the second phase, which aims to bring the release of all hostages, a “full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza” and “a permanent end to hostilities,” according to an American-drafted resolution put before the U.N. Security Council. The third phase calls for reconstruction in Gaza.

    The Security Council is to vote Monday afternoon on the resolution, which welcomes the proposal and urges Hamas to accept it.

    But Hamas may not be the only obstacle.

    Although the deal has been described as an Israeli initiative and thousands of Israelis have demonstrated in support of it, Netanyahu has expressed skepticism, saying what has been presented publicly is not accurate and that Israel is still committed to destroying Hamas.

    Netanyahu’s far-right allies have threatened to collapse his government if he implements the plan. Benny Gantz, a popular centrist, resigned on Sunday from the three-member War Cabinet after saying he would do so if the prime minister did not formulate a new plan for postwar Gaza. In the aftermath of the hostage rescue, Netanyahu had urged him not to step down.

    Blinken has met with Netanyahu, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Gantz and Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid on nearly all his previous trips to Israel. Officials said Blinken is expected to meet with Gantz on Tuesday.

    Despite Blinken’s roughly once-a-month visits to the region since the war began, the conflict has ground on with more than 37,120 Palestinians killed, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, which does not differentiate between civilians and combatants in its counts. Hamas and other militants killed some 1,200 people in the Oct. 7 attack, mostly civilians, and took around 250 people hostage.

    The war has severely hindered the flow of food, medicine and other supplies to the Palestinians in Gaza, who are facing widespread hunger. U.N. agencies say more than 1 million people in the territory could experience the highest level of starvation by mid-July.

    In Jordan, Blinken will take part in an emergency international conference on improving the flow of aid to Gaza.

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    Associated Press

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  • Trump to undergo probation interview ahead of N.Y. sentencing

    Trump to undergo probation interview ahead of N.Y. sentencing

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    Former President Donald Trump is scheduled to be interviewed by New York probation officials Monday, a required step before his July sentencing in his criminal hush money case, according to three people familiar with the plan.

    What You Need To Know

    • Former President Donald Trump is scheduled to be interviewed by New York probation officials, a required step before his July sentencing in his criminal hush money case

    • Trump will do the interview via a computer video conference from his Florida home, according to those familiar with his planning

    • The usual purpose of a probation interview is to prepare a report that will tell the judge more about the defendant

    • People convicted of crimes in New York usually meet with probation officials without their lawyers, but the judge in Trump’s case, Juan Merchan, said in a letter Friday that he would allow Blanche’s presence


    Trump will do the interview via a computer video conference from his residence at the Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, the people told The Associated Press.

    One of Trump’s lawyers, Todd Blanche, will be present for the interview. People convicted of crimes in New York usually meet with probation officials without their lawyers, but the judge in Trump’s case, Juan Merchan, said in a letter Friday that he would allow Blanche’s presence.

    The usual purpose of a pre-sentencing probation interview is to prepare a report that will tell the judge more about the defendant, and potentially help determine the proper punishment for the crime.

    Such reports are typically prepared by a probation officer, a social worker or a psychologist working for the probation department who interviews the defendant and possibly that person’s family and friends, as well as people affected by the crime.

    Presentence reports include a defendant’s personal history, criminal record and recommendations for sentencing. It will also include information about employment and any obligations to help care for a family member. It is also a chance for a defendant to say why they think they deserve a lighter punishment.

    A jury convicted Trump of falsifying business records at his own company as part of a broader scheme to buy the silence of people who might have told embarrassing stories about him during the 2016 presidential campaign. One $130,000 payment went to a porn actor, Stormy Daniels, who claimed to have had a sexual encounter with Trump, which he denied.

    Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, says he is innocent of any crime and that the criminal case was brought to hurt his chances to regain the White House.

    Trump’s campaign spokesman, Steven Cheung, said in statement Sunday that President Joe Biden’s Democratic Party allies “continue to ramp up their ongoing Witch-Hunts, further abusing and misusing the power of their offices to interfere in the presidential election.”

    “President Trump and his legal team are already taking necessary steps to challenge and defeat the lawless Manhattan DA case,” he said.

    Merchan has scheduled Trump’s sentencing for July 11. He has discretion to impose a wide range of punishments, ranging from probation and community service to up to four years in prison.

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    Associated Press

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  • Ukraine uses U.S. weapons to strike inside Russia, official says

    Ukraine uses U.S. weapons to strike inside Russia, official says

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    Ukraine has used U.S weapons to strike inside Russia in recent days, according to a Western official familiar with the matter.

    What You Need To Know

    • A western official says that Ukraine has used U.S weapons to strike inside Russia in recent days

    • The weapons were used under recently approved guidance from President Joe Biden allowing American arms to be used to strike inside Russia for the limited purpose of defending Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city

    • Ukrainian officials had stepped up calls on the U.S. to allow Kyiv’s forces to defend themselves against attacks originating from Russian territory

    • In advancing in the northeast Kharkiv region, Russian forces have exploited a lengthy delay in the replenishment of U.S. military aid


    The weapons were used under recently approved guidance from President Joe Biden allowing American arms to be used to strike inside Russia for the limited purpose of defending Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.

    Biden’s directive allows for U.S.-supplied weapons to be used to strike Russian forces that are attacking or preparing to attack. It does not change U.S. policy that directs Ukraine not to use American-provided ATACMS or long-range missiles and other munitions to strike offensively inside Russia, U.S. officials have said.

    Ukrainian officials had stepped up calls on the U.S. to allow Kyiv’s forces to defend themselves against attacks originating from Russian territory. Kharkiv sits just 12 miles from the Russian border and has come under intensified Russian attack.

    In advancing in the northeast Kharkiv region, Russian forces have exploited a lengthy delay in the replenishment of U.S. military aid. In addition, Western Europe’s inadequate military production has slowed crucial deliveries to the battlefield for Ukraine.

    On Tuesday, White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters that he could not confirm that Ukraine had used U.S. weapons at targets in Russia.

    “We’re just not in a position on a day-to-day basis of knowing exactly what the Ukrainians are firing at what,” Kirby said. “It’s certainly at a tactical level.”

    According to a June 3 report from the Institute for the Study of War, Ukrainian forces struck a Russian S-300/400 air defense battery in Belgorod Oblast, likely with the High Mobility Artillery Rocket System, or HIMARS, on June 1 or June 2. The air defense system was located roughly about 40 miles from the current front line in northern Kharkiv Oblast and more than 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the city of Kharkiv, which is within the range of HIMARS, the institute reported.

    Confirmation of the strikes comes as Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, visited Qatar, which along with Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, has been a key mediators in prisoner swaps and other negotiations between Russia and Ukraine since the war began.

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    Associated Press

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  • Maternal death is higher in the U.S. than any other high-income country

    Maternal death is higher in the U.S. than any other high-income country

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    More women die from childbirth in the U.S. than any other high-income country.

    Black women experience the greatest percentage of deaths and Asian women experienced the least, according to an updated study from the Commonwealth Fund, based on the most recent data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    What You Need To Know

    • More women die from childbirth in the U.S. than any other high-income country, according to an updated study from the Commonwealth Fund

    • There were about 22 maternal deaths out of every 100,000 live births in the U.S. in 2022

    • Among Black women, there were almost 50 maternal deaths out of every 100,000 live births

    • Norway had no maternal deaths in 2022

    For their study, researchers looked at differences in maternal mortality, the maternal care workforce and postpartum care in Australia, Canada, Chile, France, Germany, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, /Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.

    In 2022, there were about 22 maternal deaths out of every 100,000 live births in the U.S. While the rate among Black women was more than twice as high, with almost 50 maternal deaths for every 100,000 live births, white and Hispanic mothers in the U.S. also experienced higher maternal death rates than any other country in the study. Asian women had the lowest maternal death rate in the U.S.

    The study attributed the high maternal mortality among Black women to worse-quality care compared with whites, including the ability to receive necessary care that is “often rooted in discrimination and clinician bias,” the study said

    The U.S. rate was more than double most other high-income countries. Norway had no maternal deaths in 2022. Switzerland, Sweden, the Netherlands, Japan, Australia and Germany all had a maternal death rate of 3.5 or less for every 100,000 live births.

    In the U.S., about 20% of maternal deaths occurred during pregnancy, most of them due to heart conditions and stroke.

    Nearly two-thirds of the deaths took place up to 42 days after the baby was born. The report found that one week after birth, infection, severe bleeding and high blood pressure were the most common conditions that led to maternal death.

    The researchers said women in the U.S. were the least likely to have postpartum support systems, such as guaranteed paid leave or home visits. They also have the fewest midwives and OB-GYNs.

    During the pandemic from 2020-2021, maternal death rates increased in four of the countries studied, including the U.S., where the highest increases were among Hispanic women. The Commonwealth Fund cited a study that found almost one third of Latino maternal deaths during that time period were related to COVID-19. The maternal death rate decreased in 2022.

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    Susan Carpenter

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  • Biden issues executive order limiting asylum

    Biden issues executive order limiting asylum

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    President Joe Biden on Tuesday issued an executive order that gives him the authority to limit crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border when a certain threshold is reached, an aggressive move to restrict encounters at the border — which have declined in recent months — and address a key issue on voters’ minds ahead of November’s election.

    The president’s actions will bar migrants who cross the border illegally from seeking asylum, shutting down the border when encounters hit a certain number, according to a senior administration official.

    What You Need To Know

    • President Joe Biden on Tuesday issued a restrictive executive order aimed at tightening security at the U.S.-Mexico border, the first actions taken since a bipartisan immigration bill was scuttled earlier this year

    • The president’s actions will bar migrants who cross the border illegally from seeking asylum, shutting down the border when encounters hit a certain number, according to a senior administration official

    • The restrictions will go into effect when the number of daily illegal crossings tops 2,500, and will stay in effect until two weeks after there are seven consecutive days of less than 1,500 daily encounters between ports of entry
    • The move was met with some support from Biden’s own party, but progressive Democrats and Republicans alike decried the action


    “We must face a simple truth, to protect America as a land that welcomes immigrants, we must first secure the border and secure it now,” Biden, flanked by members of Congress as well as local and state officials, said while announcing the executive order at a White House event on Tuesday. 

    “The simple truth is, there is a worldwide migrant crisis and if the United States doesn’t secure our border, there is no limit to the number of people who may try to come here,” he continued. 

    The restrictions will go into effect when the number of daily illegal crossings tops 2,500, and will stay in effect until two weeks after there are seven consecutive days of less than 1,500 daily encounters between ports of entry, as determined by the Secretary of Homeland Security. There are some humanitarian exceptions, including for unaccompanied children, victims of trafficking, an acute medical emergency or an imminent threat to life or safety.

    Migrants who make appointments using the CBP One app, created by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection which handles roughly 1,450 appointments per day, would also be exempt.

    Daily encounters are higher than the 2,500 figure, so it could be implemented as soon as it’s signed.

    A senior administration official said that the goal of Biden’s actions is to “significantly increase consequences for those who cross the southern border unlawfully, without authorization.”

    The president brought in members of Congress, governors and mayors who have been vocal on the issue to join him for the announcement. Among those in attendance was Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro mayorkas, about a dozen Texas mayors, a Texas sheriff, Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and Rep. Tom Suozzi, D-N.Y.

    The White House hailed the fact that “most” of the guests at Tuesday’s event are from border communities. While not on the border, New York has grappled with an influx of migrants, struggling to provide shelter and process asylum claims. 

    “They know the border is not a political issue to be weaponized,” Biden said of those he invited on Tuesday. “They don’t have time for the games played in Washington.” 

    It’s the most restrictive immigration policy put into place by any modern Democratic president, and Biden’s first major step to address border security since Republicans killed a bipartisan border security compromise earlier this year. 

    “I’ve come here today to do what the Republicans in Congress refuse to do: take the necessary steps to secure our border,” Biden said to open his remarks. 

    The legislation – negotiated over weeks by Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford, a Republican, Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat, and Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, an independent — died after former President Donald Trump came out against it. 

    “It was the strongest  border security agreement in decades but then, Republicans in Congress – not all but – walked away from it. Why? Because Donald Trump told him to,” Biden said, adding he didn’t want to fix the issue but rather use it to attack him. 

    “That’s the height of hypocrisy and the most cynical type of politics you can possibly expect,” Suozzi told reporters of Republicans’ response to the border bill after Tuesday’s event. 

    Biden on Tuesday also did not hold back in criticizing his predecessor and 2024 competition, referencing past comments and policies of Trump. 

    “I’ll never demonize immigrants, I’ll never refer to immigrants as poisoning the blood of the country and further I’ll never separate children from their families at the border,” the president said. 

    Prior to the announcement on Tuesday, Trump’s campaign panned Biden’s plan as “mass amnesty to destroy America.” On a press call, former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement Thomas Homan and Trump aides Jason Miller and Stephen Miller framed the order as part of a conspiratorial scheme by Biden and Democrats to flood the country with immigrants and turn them into Democratic voters. That claim is in line with the Great Replacement Theory, a false conspiracy theory that has inspired racist mass shootings in the U.S. and elsewhere.

    “The other thing that’s very important about this plan is it is a pro-child slavery, pro-child trafficking, pro-child sexual servitude,” Trump campaign senior advisor Jason Miller said on the call prior to Biden’s announcement, citing the exceptions in the executive order for unaccompanied minors and victims of trafficking. “So the message to the cartels and the smugglers is you have the greenest of green lights to smuggle and traffick children into this country into various forms of servitude, slavery, sex trafficking, labor trafficking and other forms of abuse, imprisonment and torture.”

    The action will no doubt face legal challenges, but an administration official said that they “look forward” to defending the rule. The American Civil Liberties Union already vowed Tuesday that it would sue the Biden administration over the order, saying it puts “tens of thousands of lives at risk.”

    “This action takes the same approach as the Trump administration’s asylum ban,” the ACLU wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “We will be challenging this order in court.”

    “I would expect them to sue,” Suozzi said when asked about potential legal challenges. “That’s why Congress has to act.” He added that the White House “vetted it” and “thought it through” on how to pass legal challenges.  

    The move was met with some support from Biden’s own party, particularly from those who backed the bipartisan border bill killed by Republicans.

    At the White House on Tuesday afternoon, Kelly called the order “a very good step forward” that will “make a big difference” at the border.

    “It’s important that the president is planning to take decisive action given the fact that extreme MAGA Republicans have decided to try to weaponize the challenges at the border,” said House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., at a press conference Tuesday morning.

    Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., chided his Republican colleagues for not taking action to enact legislation to address the border, saying that it “would have been the more effective way to go.”

    Schumer went on to say that Biden preferred to take the legislative route to address immigration, but: “given how obstinate Republicans have become, turning down any real opportunity for strong border legislation, the president is left with little choice but to act on his own.”

    The chairs of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of moderate House Democrats, called Biden’s action an “overdue step” but said that more needed to be done in order to secure the border, calling on the White House and other members of Congress to take action.

    “This job is far from over,” declared Washington Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Pérez, Maine Rep. Jared Golden and Alaska Rep. Mary Peltola, along with North Carolina Rep. Don Davis.

    Biden on Tuesday said the executive order is “not enough” and called on Congress to approve funding to hire new border security agents, immigration judges, asylum officers and machines that can screen and stop fentanyl from being smuggled into the U.S. 

    But progressive Democrats and Republicans alike decried the action — though for wildly different reasons.

    Texas Sen. John Cornyn, a member of Senate GOP leadership, questioned the timing of why Biden waited to unveil the order before responding to his own query by charging: “The simple answer is he’s not serious.”

    House Speaker Mike Johnson expressed a similar sentiment, calling Biden’s action “window dressing” while charging that the president and Mayorkas, who his chamber impeached earlier this year, “engineered” a border crisis.

    “If he was concerned about the border, he would have done this a long time ago,” Johnson said, while acknowledging that he had not yet seen the president’s order. “The devil will definitely be in the details here, I can assure you.”

    In a joint statement, House GOP leadership chalked the move up to a “political stunt.” 

    Polls show immigration has increasingly become a main concern of voters. A recent poll from the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found a majority of adults think Biden’s presidency has hurt the country on immigration and border security. 

    Meanwhile, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, called Biden’s actions “extremely disappointing.”

    “Democrats cannot buy into cruel enforcement-only measures that have failed for 30 years,” she wrote on social media ahead of the announcement. “We need real, humane reform that expands legal pathways.”

    “I’m disappointed that this is a direction that the President has decided to take,” California Rep. Nanette Barragan, the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, told reporters on Tuesday. “We think it needs to be paired with positive actions and protections for undocumented folks that have been here for a long time.”

    “For those who say the steps I’ve taken are too strict, I say to you be patient,” Biden adding that in the “weeks ahead” he will speak about how the U.S. can make our immigration system more fair. 

    “Doing nothing is not an option,” he added. “We have to act.”

    Spectrum News’ Joseph Konig contributed to this report.

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    Justin Tasolides

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  • Trump says he’s ‘OK’ with possible imprisonment

    Trump says he’s ‘OK’ with possible imprisonment

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    Days after he became the first former president convicted of a crime in U.S. history, Donald Trump said he would be “OK” with house arrest or jail.

    But the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee warned that “it’d be tough for the public to take,” adding: “At a certain point there’s a breaking point.”

    What You Need To Know

    • Days after he became the first former president convicted of a crime in U.S. history, Donald Trump said he would be “OK” with house arrest or jail
    • But the presumptive 2024 Republican presidential nominee warned “it’d be tough for the public to take” and “at a certain point there’s a breaking point”
    • Trump’s warning comes as multiple media outlets have reported about threats of violence towards the judge, the district attorney and the 12 jurors who voted to convict him on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in his criminal hush-money trial in New York City last week
    • The judge scheduled sentencing for July 11, with both the prosecution and defense expected to make their case in court filings in the interim
    • Each count of falsifying business records is punishable by up to four years behind bars, but it’s possible that Trump will get only fines or probation. Trump’s attorneys say they will appeal regardless


    “I’m OK with it,” Trump said at his Bedminister, N.J., golf club when asked by a host of Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” about facing possible imprisonment. “I don’t know that the public would stand it.”

    “I think it’d be tough for the public to take,” the former president said in the interview which aired Sunday. “You know, at a certain point there’s a breaking point.”

    Trump’s warning comes as multiple media outlets have reported about threats of violence — including on Trump’s social media network Truth Social — towards the judge, the district attorney and the 12 jurors who voted to convict him on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records in his criminal hush-money trial in New York City last week. Trump himself frequently attacked Judge Juan Merchan, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, witnesses and the judge’s daughter in public remarks and social media posts.

    Merchan scheduled sentencing for July 11, with both the prosecution and defense expected to make their case in court filings in the interim. Each count of falsifying business records is punishable by up to four years behind bars, but it’s possible that Trump will get only fines or probation. Beyond the unprecedented complications of imprisoning a former president and current candidate for president months before November’s election, Trump’s attorneys have said they will appeal and will fight the state case all the way to the Supreme Court if they can.

    “We’re going to be vigorously challenging this verdict on appeal. We think we have ample grounds,” said Will Scharf, a Republican candidate for Missouri secretary of state and an attorney for Trump in other cases, on ABC News’ “This Week” on Sunday. “I think Judge Merchan should have clearly recused, I think he was irretrievably biased and I think that came through in decisions throughout the conduct of this trial.”

    “I don’t think President Trump is going to end up being subjected to any sentence whatsoever,” he later added.

    But Trump’s lead trial attorney in the Manhattan case, former federal prosecutor Todd Blanche, acknowledged in an interview with The Associated Press this weekend that Trump may face jail time.

    “On the one hand, it would be extraordinary to send a 77-year-old to prison for a case like this. A first-time offender who was also president of the United States, I mean, I think almost unheard of,” Blanche said, while noting the “highly publicized” nature of the case and Trump’s three other yet-to-be-resolved prosecutions may weigh against his favor. “It’s going to be a very, I think, contentious sentencing where we’re going to obviously argue strenuously for a non-incarceratory sentence.”

    Trump faces a federal prosecution centered on his attempts to stay in power after his 2020 election loss and the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, as well as a racketeering prosecution in Georgia for his attempts to overturn his 2020 loss there and another federal prosecution in Florida for his handling of classified documents after leaving office. Those cases are in limbo as Trump’s legal team makes appeals and, for the federal cases, awaits word from the Supreme Court on their argument that presidents have total immunity for official acts conducted while in office. 

    In an interview of his own with “Fox News Sunday,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said congressional Republicans would continue investigations into Bragg and special prosecutor Jack Smith, who is overseeing Trump’s federal cases. Johnson said he believes Smith was “abusing his authority” and noted Judiciary Committee Chair Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, is trying to get Bragg and another Manhattan prosecutor to testify at Congress later this month.

    “We have to fight back and we will with everything in our arsenal, but we’ll do that within the confines of the rule of law,” Johnson said. “We’re not going to tolerate this you had and at the end of the day, people are losing their faith in our system of justice itself. And that’s a serious threat.”

    After Trump was arrested and arraigned last April, Bragg’s offices received racist emails, death threats and two packages containing white powder. Last August, the FBI killed a Utah man during an attempted arrest for violent threats to President Joe Biden, Bragg and others. The Long Island home of another New York judge overseeing Trump’s civil fraud trial received a bomb threat in January. 

    During the Manhattan criminal trial, Merchan hit Trump with a gag order preventing him from publicly addressing witnesses, jurors, court staff, Bragg’s staff and Merchan’s daughter, a Democratic operative who came under attack by Trump and his allies. Bragg and Merchan themselves were not protected by the order. Trump was held in contempt of court, fined $10,000 and threatened with jail time for violating the gag order ten times.

    Adapting to the gag order, Trump invited campaign surrogates, vice presidential hopefuls and members of Congress — including Johnson — to do his criticizing and insulting for him in remarks to the press outside the courthouse.

    Scharf argued on Sunday that Trump’s attacks on Merchan, often from a rally stage, and witnesses like his former attorney Michael Cohen shouldn’t factor into the sentencing.

    “I think it’s really important to note that President Trump is running for president of the United States of America and he has an absolute constitutional right to comment on matters of public importance,” Scharf said. “I think the fact that he labored under a gag order for as long as he did, was manifestly unjust… and I don’t see how anyone can really poke holes at that.”

    In his Fox News interview, Trump said the guilty verdicts were “tougher” on his family than him.

    “They’ve good people, all of them, everyone. I have a wonderful wife who has to listen to this stuff all the time. They do that for this reason. They do that, all these salacious names that they put in of these people. And I’m not even allowed to defend myself because of a gag order,” Trump said. “She’s fine, but I think it’s very hard for her. I mean, she’s fine. But it’s, you know, she has to read all this crap.”

    Trump was convicted of falsifying business records to cover up payments made during the 2016 campaign to adult film actress Stormy Daniels who testified she had an affair with the newly married businessman in 2006. Former First Lady Melania Trump did not attend the six-week trial.

    The former president blames much of his legal woes on President Joe Biden, who has no role in local New York City prosecutions and who refrained from commenting on the case publicly until after the verdict. On Saturday, he said “revenge will be success, and I mean that,” but did not rule out wielding the Department of Justice in the way he claims without evidence that Biden does.

    “It’s awfully hard when you see what they’ve done,” Trump said. “These people are so evil.”

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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    Joseph Konig

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  • Trump joins TikTok, the video-sharing app he once tried to ban as president

    Trump joins TikTok, the video-sharing app he once tried to ban as president

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    Donald Trump has joined the popular video-sharing app TikTok, a platform he once tried to ban while in the White House, and posted from a UFC fight two days after he became the first former president and presumptive major party nominee in U.S. history to be found guilty on felony charges.

    What You Need To Know

    • Donald Trump has joined TikTok, the video-sharing app he once tried to ban as president
    • He posted his first video from a UFC fight in New Jersey on Saturday night
    • That was two days after he had become the first former president in U.S. history to be found guilty on felony charges
    • In the video, Trump says “it’s an honor” and there is footage of him waving to fans and posing for selfies at the UFC fight
    • By Sunday morning, Trump had amassed more than 1.1 million followers on the platform and the post had garnered more than 1 million likes and 24 million views


    “It’s an honor,” Trump said in the TikTok video, which features footage of him waving to fans and posing for selfies at the Ultimate Fighting Championship fight in Newark, New Jersey, on Saturday night. The video ends with Trump telling the camera: “That was a good walk-on, right?”

    By Sunday morning, Trump had amassed more than 1.1 million followers on the platform and the post had garnered more than 1 million likes and 24 million views.

    “We will leave no front undefended and this represents the continued outreach to a younger audience consuming pro-Trump and anti-Biden content,” Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement about the campaign’s decision to join the platform.

    “There’s no place better than a UFC event to launch President Trump’s Tik Tok, where he received a hero’s welcome and thousands of fans cheered him on,” he added.

    Democratic President Joe Biden signed legislation in April that could ban TikTok in the U.S., even as his campaign joined in February and has tried to work with influencers.

    Trump received an enthusiastic welcome at the fight at Newark’s Prudential Center, where the crowd broke into chants of “We love Trump!” and another insulting Biden with an expletive.

    It was Trump’s first public outing since a jury in New York found him guilty Thursday on 34 charges of falsifying business records as part of a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election by covering up hush money payments made to a porn actor who claimed she and Trump had sex. Trump has maintained he did nothing wrong and plans to appeal the verdict. He will be sentenced on July 11.

    Throughout his campaign, Trump has used appearances at UFC fights to project an image of strength and to try to appeal to potential voters who may not closely follow politics or engage with traditional news sources. It’s also part of a broader effort to connect with young people and minority voters, particularly Latino and Black men.

    TikTok, owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, is another opportunity to reach those potential voters. The platform has about 170 million users in the U.S., most of whom skew younger — a demographic that is especially hard for campaigns to reach because they shun television.

    As president, Trump tried to ban TikTok through an executive order that said “the spread in the United States of mobile applications developed and owned” by Chinese companies was a national security threat. The courts blocked the action after TikTok sued.

    Both the FBI and the Federal Communications Commission have warned that ByteDance could share user data such as browsing history, location and biometric identifiers with China’s government. TikTok said it has never done that and would not, if asked.

    The platform was a hot topic of debate during the 2024 GOP primary campaign, with most candidates shunning its use. Many, including former Vice President Mike Pence, called for TikTok to be banned in the U.S. due to its connections with China

    Trump said earlier this year that he still believes TikTok posed a national security risk, but was opposed to banning it because that would help its rival, Facebook, which he continues to criticize over his 2020 election loss to Biden.

    “Frankly, there are a lot of people on TikTok that love it. There are a lot of young kids on TikTok who will go crazy without it,” Trump told CNBC.

    The legislation signed by Biden gives ByteDance nine months to sell the company, with a possible additional three months if a sale is in progress. If it doesn’t, TikTok will be banned. Biden barred the app on most government devices in December 2022.

    His reelection campaign nonetheless uses the app, which it joined the night of the Super Bowl in February. Aides argue that in an increasingly fragmented modern media environment, the campaign must get its message out to voters via as many platforms as possible, including TikTok as well as WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

    Biden’s “bidenhq” account currently has more than 330,000 followers and 4.5 million likes.

    Trump’s appearance at Saturday’s fight came after he had sat down for an interview with Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends Weekend” that aired Sunday.

    In that appearance, Trump said he was “OK” with the prospect of potential jail time or house arrest, saying it was “the way it is.’’’

    But he again suggested the public might not accept such a punishment for a former president now running to return to the White House.

    “I don’t know that the public would stand it, you know. I’m not sure the public would stand for it,” he said. “I think it would be tough for the public to take. You know, at a certain point there’s a breaking point.”

    Trump, as he has throughout the trial, maintained his innocence, saying he “did absolutely nothing wrong.”

    He was asked how his wife, former first lady Melania Trump, has taken the news.

    “She’s fine. But I think it’s very hard for her. I mean, she’s fine. But, you know, she has to read all this crap,” he said.

    She did not appear with Trump in court at any point during his seven-week trial.

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    Associated Press

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  • Trump joins TikTok, the video-sharing app he once tried to ban as president

    Trump joins TikTok, the video-sharing app he once tried to ban as president

    [ad_1]

    Donald Trump has joined the popular video-sharing app TikTok, a platform he once tried to ban while in the White House, and posted from a UFC fight two days after he became the first former president and presumptive major party nominee in U.S. history to be found guilty on felony charges.

    What You Need To Know

    • Donald Trump has joined TikTok, the video-sharing app he once tried to ban as president
    • He posted his first video from a UFC fight in New Jersey on Saturday night
    • That was two days after he had become the first former president in U.S. history to be found guilty on felony charges
    • In the video, Trump says “it’s an honor” and there is footage of him waving to fans and posing for selfies at the UFC fight
    • By Sunday morning, Trump had amassed more than 1.1 million followers on the platform and the post had garnered more than 1 million likes and 24 million views


    “It’s an honor,” Trump said in the TikTok video, which features footage of him waving to fans and posing for selfies at the Ultimate Fighting Championship fight in Newark, New Jersey, on Saturday night. The video ends with Trump telling the camera: “That was a good walk-on, right?”

    By Sunday morning, Trump had amassed more than 1.1 million followers on the platform and the post had garnered more than 1 million likes and 24 million views.

    “We will leave no front undefended and this represents the continued outreach to a younger audience consuming pro-Trump and anti-Biden content,” Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said in a statement about the campaign’s decision to join the platform.

    “There’s no place better than a UFC event to launch President Trump’s Tik Tok, where he received a hero’s welcome and thousands of fans cheered him on,” he added.

    Democratic President Joe Biden signed legislation in April that could ban TikTok in the U.S., even as his campaign joined in February and has tried to work with influencers.

    Trump received an enthusiastic welcome at the fight at Newark’s Prudential Center, where the crowd broke into chants of “We love Trump!” and another insulting Biden with an expletive.

    It was Trump’s first public outing since a jury in New York found him guilty Thursday on 34 charges of falsifying business records as part of a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election by covering up hush money payments made to a porn actor who claimed she and Trump had sex. Trump has maintained he did nothing wrong and plans to appeal the verdict. He will be sentenced on July 11.

    Throughout his campaign, Trump has used appearances at UFC fights to project an image of strength and to try to appeal to potential voters who may not closely follow politics or engage with traditional news sources. It’s also part of a broader effort to connect with young people and minority voters, particularly Latino and Black men.

    TikTok, owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, is another opportunity to reach those potential voters. The platform has about 170 million users in the U.S., most of whom skew younger — a demographic that is especially hard for campaigns to reach because they shun television.

    As president, Trump tried to ban TikTok through an executive order that said “the spread in the United States of mobile applications developed and owned” by Chinese companies was a national security threat. The courts blocked the action after TikTok sued.

    Both the FBI and the Federal Communications Commission have warned that ByteDance could share user data such as browsing history, location and biometric identifiers with China’s government. TikTok said it has never done that and would not, if asked.

    The platform was a hot topic of debate during the 2024 GOP primary campaign, with most candidates shunning its use. Many, including former Vice President Mike Pence, called for TikTok to be banned in the U.S. due to its connections with China

    Trump said earlier this year that he still believes TikTok posed a national security risk, but was opposed to banning it because that would help its rival, Facebook, which he continues to criticize over his 2020 election loss to Biden.

    “Frankly, there are a lot of people on TikTok that love it. There are a lot of young kids on TikTok who will go crazy without it,” Trump told CNBC.

    The legislation signed by Biden gives ByteDance nine months to sell the company, with a possible additional three months if a sale is in progress. If it doesn’t, TikTok will be banned. Biden barred the app on most government devices in December 2022.

    His reelection campaign nonetheless uses the app, which it joined the night of the Super Bowl in February. Aides argue that in an increasingly fragmented modern media environment, the campaign must get its message out to voters via as many platforms as possible, including TikTok as well as WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

    Biden’s “bidenhq” account currently has more than 330,000 followers and 4.5 million likes.

    Trump’s appearance at Saturday’s fight came after he had sat down for an interview with Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends Weekend” that aired Sunday.

    In that appearance, Trump said he was “OK” with the prospect of potential jail time or house arrest, saying it was “the way it is.’’’

    But he again suggested the public might not accept such a punishment for a former president now running to return to the White House.

    “I don’t know that the public would stand it, you know. I’m not sure the public would stand for it,” he said. “I think it would be tough for the public to take. You know, at a certain point there’s a breaking point.”

    Trump, as he has throughout the trial, maintained his innocence, saying he “did absolutely nothing wrong.”

    He was asked how his wife, former first lady Melania Trump, has taken the news.

    “She’s fine. But I think it’s very hard for her. I mean, she’s fine. But, you know, she has to read all this crap,” he said.

    She did not appear with Trump in court at any point during his seven-week trial.

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    Associated Press

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  • Analysis finds 2023 set record for U.S. heat deaths

    Analysis finds 2023 set record for U.S. heat deaths

    [ad_1]

    David Hom suffered from diabetes and felt nauseated before he went out to hang his laundry in 108-degree weather, another day in Arizona’s record-smashing, unrelenting July heat wave.

    His family found the 73-year-old lying on the ground, his lower body burned. Hom died at the hospital, his core body temperature at 107 degrees.

    What You Need To Know

    • An Associated Press analysis of federal data shows that about 2,300 people in the United States died in the summer of 2023 with their death certificates mentioning the effects of excessive heat

    • That’s the highest in 45 years of records. More than two dozen doctors, public health experts, meteorologists and other experts tell The AP the real death toll was higher

    • Coroner, hospital, ambulance and weather records show that last summer amped up America’s heat and health problem to a new level

    • The relentless warmth unusually killed more people in the South, which had been less prone to mass deaths

    The death certificates of more than 2,300 people who died in the United States last summer mention the effects of excessive heat, the highest number in 45 years of records, according to an Associated Press analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. With May already breaking heat records, 2024 could be even deadlier.

    And more than two dozen doctors, public health experts, and meteorologists told the AP that last year’s figure was only a fraction of the real death toll. Coroner, hospital, ambulance and weather records show America’s heat and health problem at an entirely new level.

    “We can be confident saying that 2023 was the worst year we’ve had from since … we’ve started having reliable reporting on that,” said Dr. John Balbus, director of the Office of Climate Change and Health Equity at the Department of Health and Human Services.

    Last year, ambulances were dispatched tens of thousands of times after people dropped from the heat. It was relentless and didn’t give people a break, especially at night. The heat of 2023 kept coming, and people kept dying.

    “It’s people that live the hot life. These are the ones who are dying. People who work outside, people that can’t air-condition their house,” said Texas A&M climate scientist Andrew Dessler, who was in hard-hit southern Texas. “It’s really quite, quite grim.”

    Dallas postal worker Eugene Gates Jr., loved working outdoors and at 7:30 a.m. June 20, the 66-year-old texted his wife that it was close to 90 degrees. He kept working in the heat that felt like 119 degrees with the humidity factored in and finally passed out in somebody’s yard. He ran a fever of 104.6 degrees and died, with the medical examiner saying heat contributed to his death.

    “The way that my husband died, it could have been prevented,” said Carla Gates.

    “There’s just very low awareness that heat kills. It’s the silent killer,” said University of Washington public health scientist Kristie Ebi, who helped write a United Nations special report on extreme weather. That 2012 report warned of future dangerous heat waves.

    Ebi said in the last few years, the heat “seems like it’s coming faster. It seems like it’s more severe than we expected.”

    Deaths down south

    Last summer’s heat wave killed differently than past ones that triggered mass deaths in northern cities where people weren’t used to the high temperatures and air conditioning wasn’t common. Several hundreds died in the Pacific Northwest in 2021, in Philadelphia in 1998 and in Chicago in 1995.

    Nearly three-quarters of the heat deaths last summer were in five southern states that were supposed to be used to the heat and planned for it. Except this time they couldn’t handle it, and it killed 874 people in Arizona, 450 in Texas, 226 in Nevada, 84 in Florida and 83 in Louisiana.

    Those five states accounted for 61% of the nation’s heat deaths in the last five years, skyrocketing past their 18% share of U.S. deaths from 1979 to 1999.

    At least 645 people were killed by the heat in Maricopa County, Arizona, alone, according to the medical examiner’s office. People were dying in their cars and especially on the streets, where homelessness, drug abuse and mental illness made matters worse.

    Three months after being evicted from her home, 64-year-old Diana Smith was found dead in the back of her car. Her cause of death was methamphetamine and fentanyl, worsened by heat exposure, Phoenix’s medical examiner ruled.

    “In the last five years, we are seeing this consistent and record kind of unprecedented upward trend. And I think it’s because the levels of heat that we have seen in the last several years have exceeded what we had seen in the last 20 or 30,” said Balbus, of the Office of Climate Change and Health Equity at the Department of Health and Human Services.

    Unrelenting heat

    Phoenix saw 20 consecutive days of extreme heat stress in July, the longest run of such dangerously hot days in the city since at least 1940, according to the data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service.

    Phoenix wasn’t alone.

    Last year the U.S. had the most heat waves since 1936. In the South and Southwest, Last year was the worst on record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

    “It was crazy,” said University of Miami tropical meteorology researcher Brian McNoldy, who spent the summer documenting how Miami broke its daily heat index record 40% of the days between mid-June and mid-October.

    Houston’s Hobby airport broke daily high temperature marks 43 times, meteorologists said. Nighttime lows set records for heat 57 times, they said. That didn’t give people’s bodies chances to recover.

    Across five southern states, the average rate of emergency department visits for heat illness in the summer of 2023 was over double that of the previous five summers, according to an analysis of data from the CDC.

    The deaths

    Experts warned that counting heat mortality based on death certificates leads to underestimates. Heat illness can be missed, or might not be mentioned.

    They pointed to “excess death” studies for a more realistic count. These are the type of long-accepted epidemiological studies that look at grand totals of deaths during unusual conditions — such as hot days, high air pollution or a spreading COVID-19 pandemic — and compare them to normal times, creating an expected trend line.

    Texas A&M’s Dessler and his colleague Jangho Lee published one such study early last year. According to their methods, Lee said, about 11,000 heat deaths likely occurred in 2023 in the U.S. — a figure that would represent a record since at least 1987 and is about five times the number reported on death certificates.

    Deaths are also up because of better reporting, and because Americans are getting older and more vulnerable to heat, Lee said. The population is also slowly shifting to cities, which are more exposed to heat.

    The future

    In some places, last year’s heat already rivals the worst on record. As of late May, Miami was on track to be 1.5 degrees warmer than the hottest May on record, according to McNoldy. Dallas’ Murphy pointed to maps saying conditions with a broiling Mexico are “eerily similar to what we saw last June” so he is worried about “a very brutal summer.”

    Texas A&M’s Dessler said last year’s heat was “a taste of the future.”

    “I just think in 20 years, you know, 2040 rolls around … we’re going to look back at 2023 and say, man, that was cool,” Dessler said. “The problem with climate change is if if it hasn’t pushed you over the edge yet, just wait.”

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    Associated Press

    Source link

  • Analysis finds 2023 set record for U.S. heat deaths

    Analysis finds 2023 set record for U.S. heat deaths

    [ad_1]

    David Hom suffered from diabetes and felt nauseated before he went out to hang his laundry in 108-degree weather, another day in Arizona’s record-smashing, unrelenting July heat wave.

    His family found the 73-year-old lying on the ground, his lower body burned. Hom died at the hospital, his core body temperature at 107 degrees.

    What You Need To Know

    • An Associated Press analysis of federal data shows that about 2,300 people in the United States died in the summer of 2023 with their death certificates mentioning the effects of excessive heat

    • That’s the highest in 45 years of records. More than two dozen doctors, public health experts, meteorologists and other experts tell The AP the real death toll was higher

    • Coroner, hospital, ambulance and weather records show that last summer amped up America’s heat and health problem to a new level

    • The relentless warmth unusually killed more people in the South, which had been less prone to mass deaths

    The death certificates of more than 2,300 people who died in the United States last summer mention the effects of excessive heat, the highest number in 45 years of records, according to an Associated Press analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. With May already breaking heat records, 2024 could be even deadlier.

    And more than two dozen doctors, public health experts, and meteorologists told the AP that last year’s figure was only a fraction of the real death toll. Coroner, hospital, ambulance and weather records show America’s heat and health problem at an entirely new level.

    “We can be confident saying that 2023 was the worst year we’ve had from since … we’ve started having reliable reporting on that,” said Dr. John Balbus, director of the Office of Climate Change and Health Equity at the Department of Health and Human Services.

    Last year, ambulances were dispatched tens of thousands of times after people dropped from the heat. It was relentless and didn’t give people a break, especially at night. The heat of 2023 kept coming, and people kept dying.

    “It’s people that live the hot life. These are the ones who are dying. People who work outside, people that can’t air-condition their house,” said Texas A&M climate scientist Andrew Dessler, who was in hard-hit southern Texas. “It’s really quite, quite grim.”

    Dallas postal worker Eugene Gates Jr., loved working outdoors and at 7:30 a.m. June 20, the 66-year-old texted his wife that it was close to 90 degrees. He kept working in the heat that felt like 119 degrees with the humidity factored in and finally passed out in somebody’s yard. He ran a fever of 104.6 degrees and died, with the medical examiner saying heat contributed to his death.

    “The way that my husband died, it could have been prevented,” said Carla Gates.

    “There’s just very low awareness that heat kills. It’s the silent killer,” said University of Washington public health scientist Kristie Ebi, who helped write a United Nations special report on extreme weather. That 2012 report warned of future dangerous heat waves.

    Ebi said in the last few years, the heat “seems like it’s coming faster. It seems like it’s more severe than we expected.”

    Deaths down south

    Last summer’s heat wave killed differently than past ones that triggered mass deaths in northern cities where people weren’t used to the high temperatures and air conditioning wasn’t common. Several hundreds died in the Pacific Northwest in 2021, in Philadelphia in 1998 and in Chicago in 1995.

    Nearly three-quarters of the heat deaths last summer were in five southern states that were supposed to be used to the heat and planned for it. Except this time they couldn’t handle it, and it killed 874 people in Arizona, 450 in Texas, 226 in Nevada, 84 in Florida and 83 in Louisiana.

    Those five states accounted for 61% of the nation’s heat deaths in the last five years, skyrocketing past their 18% share of U.S. deaths from 1979 to 1999.

    At least 645 people were killed by the heat in Maricopa County, Arizona, alone, according to the medical examiner’s office. People were dying in their cars and especially on the streets, where homelessness, drug abuse and mental illness made matters worse.

    Three months after being evicted from her home, 64-year-old Diana Smith was found dead in the back of her car. Her cause of death was methamphetamine and fentanyl, worsened by heat exposure, Phoenix’s medical examiner ruled.

    “In the last five years, we are seeing this consistent and record kind of unprecedented upward trend. And I think it’s because the levels of heat that we have seen in the last several years have exceeded what we had seen in the last 20 or 30,” said Balbus, of the Office of Climate Change and Health Equity at the Department of Health and Human Services.

    Unrelenting heat

    Phoenix saw 20 consecutive days of extreme heat stress in July, the longest run of such dangerously hot days in the city since at least 1940, according to the data from the Copernicus Climate Change Service.

    Phoenix wasn’t alone.

    Last year the U.S. had the most heat waves since 1936. In the South and Southwest, Last year was the worst on record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

    “It was crazy,” said University of Miami tropical meteorology researcher Brian McNoldy, who spent the summer documenting how Miami broke its daily heat index record 40% of the days between mid-June and mid-October.

    Houston’s Hobby airport broke daily high temperature marks 43 times, meteorologists said. Nighttime lows set records for heat 57 times, they said. That didn’t give people’s bodies chances to recover.

    Across five southern states, the average rate of emergency department visits for heat illness in the summer of 2023 was over double that of the previous five summers, according to an analysis of data from the CDC.

    The deaths

    Experts warned that counting heat mortality based on death certificates leads to underestimates. Heat illness can be missed, or might not be mentioned.

    They pointed to “excess death” studies for a more realistic count. These are the type of long-accepted epidemiological studies that look at grand totals of deaths during unusual conditions — such as hot days, high air pollution or a spreading COVID-19 pandemic — and compare them to normal times, creating an expected trend line.

    Texas A&M’s Dessler and his colleague Jangho Lee published one such study early last year. According to their methods, Lee said, about 11,000 heat deaths likely occurred in 2023 in the U.S. — a figure that would represent a record since at least 1987 and is about five times the number reported on death certificates.

    Deaths are also up because of better reporting, and because Americans are getting older and more vulnerable to heat, Lee said. The population is also slowly shifting to cities, which are more exposed to heat.

    The future

    In some places, last year’s heat already rivals the worst on record. As of late May, Miami was on track to be 1.5 degrees warmer than the hottest May on record, according to McNoldy. Dallas’ Murphy pointed to maps saying conditions with a broiling Mexico are “eerily similar to what we saw last June” so he is worried about “a very brutal summer.”

    Texas A&M’s Dessler said last year’s heat was “a taste of the future.”

    “I just think in 20 years, you know, 2040 rolls around … we’re going to look back at 2023 and say, man, that was cool,” Dessler said. “The problem with climate change is if if it hasn’t pushed you over the edge yet, just wait.”

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    Associated Press

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  • Man with suspended license appears for virtual court hearing while driving

    Man with suspended license appears for virtual court hearing while driving

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    A judge in Michigan appeared to be stunned when a man attended a virtual court hearing over a suspended license while driving.

    The incident happened at a Washtenaw County court hearing earlier this month. When Corey Harris, 44, dialed into the hearing virtually, it was clear that he was wearing a seatbelt and behind the wheel of a car.

    “Mr. Harris, are you driving?” asked Washtenaw County district court Judge J. Cedric Simpson.

    “Actually, I’m pulling into my doctor’s office actually, so just give me one second, I’m parking right now,” Harris replied.

    The judge was silent and appeared to shake his head before asking Harris if he was stationary.

    “I’m pulling in right now at this second — yes I am,” the defendant said, as the judge smiled.

    Afterwards, Natalie Pate, Harris’ attorney, requested an adjournment of three-to-four weeks.

    The judge pause briefly before saying: “So maybe I don’t understand something. This is a driver with a license suspended?”

    “Yes, your honor,” she replied.

    “And he was just driving?” Judge Simpson continued. “And he didn’t have a license?”

    “Uh,” Harris interjects, before Pate replies: “Those are the charges, your honor, yes.”

    “I’m looking at his record, he doesn’t have a license,” the judge says. “He’s suspended and he’s just driving.”

    “That is correct, your honor,” she said.

    “I don’t even know why he would do that,” Judge Simpson says, before revoking Harris’ bond and ordering him to report to the Washtenaw County jail by 6 p.m. that evening. “Failure to turn himself in will result in a bench warrant with no bond.”

    “Oh, my God,” Harris said, leaning his head back.

    According to The New York Times, citing court records, Harris booked himself into jail on the evening of May 15 and was released on bond. Another hearing is set for June, per the Times.

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    Justin Tasolides

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  • Amazon gets FAA approval to expand drone deliveries for online orders

    Amazon gets FAA approval to expand drone deliveries for online orders

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    Federal regulators have given Amazon key permission that will allow it to expand its drone delivery program, the company announced Thursday.

    In a blog post posted on its website, Amazon said that the Federal Aviation Administration has given its Prime Air delivery service the OK to operate drones “beyond visual line of sight,” removing a barrier that has prevented its drones from traveling longer distances. With the approval, Amazon pilots can now operate drones remotely without seeing it with their own eyes.

    What You Need To Know

    • Federal regulators have given Amazon key permission that will allow it to expand its drone delivery program

    • The company said Thursday the Federal Aviation Administration is now allowing its Prime Air delivery service approval to operate drones “beyond visual line of sight”

    • That removes a barrier that has prevented Amazon’s drones from traveling longer distances

    • Amazon has sought the approval for years

    Amazon, which has sought this permission for years, said it received permission from regulators after developing a strategy that ensures its drones could “detect and avoid obstacles in the air.”

    Furthermore, the company said it submitted other engineering information to the FAA and conducted flight demonstrations in front of federal inspectors. Those demonstrations were also done “in the presence of real planes, helicopters, and a hot air balloon to demonstrate how the drone safely navigated away from each of them,” Amazon said.

    The FAA’s approval marks a key step for the company, which has had ambitions to deliver online orders through drones for more than a decade. During a TV interview in 2013, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said drones would be flying to customer’s homes within five years. However, the company’s progress was delayed amid regulatory setbacks.

    In 2022, Amazon started performing a limited number of drone deliveries to customers in College Station, Texas and Lockeford, California. Last month, it said it would close its drone delivery site in Lockeford and open another one late this year in Tolleson, Arizona, a city located west of Phoenix.

    Businesses have wanted simpler rules that could open neighborhood’s skies to new commercial applications of drones, but privacy advocates and some airplane and balloon pilots remain wary.

    With the new authorization, Amazon says it will “immediately” scale its operations in College Station in an effort to reach customers in more densely populated areas. By the end of the decade, the company has a goal of delivering 500 million packages by drone every year.

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    Associated Press

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  • Inflation pressures lingering from pandemic are keeping Fed rate cuts on pause

    Inflation pressures lingering from pandemic are keeping Fed rate cuts on pause

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    Hopes for interest rate cuts this year by the Federal Reserve are steadily fading, with a stream of recent remarks by Fed officials underscoring their intention to keep borrowing costs high as long as needed to curb persistently elevated inflation.

    What You Need To Know

    • A stream of recent remarks by Fed officials underscore their intention to keep borrowing costs high as long as needed to curb persistently elevated inflation

    • A key reason for the delay in rate cuts is that the inflation pressures that are bedeviling the economy are being driven largely by lingering forces from the pandemic

    • Apartment rents, auto insurance and hospital prices remain high

    • Fed officials say they expect inflation in those areas to eventually cool, but they’ve signaled that they’re prepared to wait as long as it takes

    A key reason for the delay in rate cuts is that the inflation pressures that are bedeviling the economy are being driven largely by lingering forces from the pandemic — for items ranging from apartment rents to auto insurance to hospital prices. Though Fed officials say they expect inflation in those areas to eventually cool, they’ve signaled that they’re prepared to wait as long as it takes.

    Yet the policymakers’ willingness to keep their key rate at a two-decade peak — thereby keeping costs painfully high for mortgages, auto loans and other forms of consumer borrowing — carries its own risks.

    The Fed’s mandate is to strike a balance between keeping rates high enough to control inflation yet not so high as to damage the job market. While most measures show that growth and hiring remain healthy, some gauges of the economy have begun to reveal signs of weakness. The longer the Fed keeps its benchmark rate elevated, the greater the risk of causing a downturn.

    At the same time, with polls showing that costlier rents, groceries and gasoline are angering voters as the presidential campaign intensifies, Donald Trump has sought to pin the blame for higher prices squarely on President Joe Biden.

    The Fed, led by Chair Jerome Powell, raised its benchmark rate by 5 percentage points from March 2022 through June 2023 — the fastest such increase in four decades — to try to drive inflation back down to its 2% target. According to the Fed’s preferred measure, inflation has tumbled from 7.1% in June 2022 to 2.7% in March.

    That same gauge showed, though, that prices accelerated in the first three months of 2024, disrupting last year’s steady slowdown. On Friday, economists expect the government to report that this measure rose 2.7% in April from a year earlier.

    A separate inflation indicator that the government reported this month suggested that prices cooled slightly in April. But with inflation remaining stubbornly above the Fed’s target level, Wall Street traders now expect just one rate cut this year, in November. And even that is hardly a slam-dunk, with investors placing the likelihood of a cut in November at 63%, down from 77% a week ago.

    Last week, economists at Goldman Sachs became the latest analysts to give up on a rate cut in July, pushing back their forecast for the first of two cuts they expect this year to September. Oxford Economics made a similar call last month. Bank of America foresees just one Fed rate cut this year, in December. Just months ago, many economists had forecast the first rate cut for March of this year.

    “We will need to accumulate further data over the coming months to have a clearer picture of the inflation outlook,” Loretta Mester, president of Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, said this month. “I now believe that it will take longer to reach our 2% goal than I previously thought.” (Mester is among 12 officials who are voting on the Fed’s rate policy this year.)

    As further data accumulates, so do some signs that the economy is cooling a bit. More Americans, particularly younger adults, are falling behind on their credit card bills, for example, with the share of card debt 90 days or more overdue reaching 10.7% in the first quarter, according to the Fed’s New York branch. That’s the highest proportion in 14 years.

    Hiring is also slowing, with businesses posting fewer open jobs, though job advertisements remain high.

    And more companies, including Target, McDonalds and Burger King, are highlighting price cuts or cheaper deals to try to attract financially squeezed consumers. Their actions could help lower inflation in the coming months. But they also underscore the struggles that lower-income Americans face.

    “There’s a lot of signs that consumers are kind of losing some steam and hiring demand is cooling,” said Julia Coronado, a former Fed economist who is president of MacroPolicy Perspectives. “You could see more of a slowdown.”

    But Coronado and other economists also regard the latest trends as a sign that the economy may simply be normalizing after a period of rapid growth. Companies are still hiring, though at a more modest pace than at the start of the year. And data suggests that Americans traveled in record numbers over the Memorial Day weekend, a sign they’re confident in their finances.

    One reason why inflation remains above the Fed’s target is that distortions stemming from the pandemic are still keeping prices elevated in several areas even as much of the rest of the economy has moved past the pandemic.

    Housing costs, led by apartment rents, jumped two years ago after many Americans sought additional living space during the pandemic. Rental costs are now slowing: They rose 5.4% in April on an annual basis, down from 8.8% a year earlier. But they’re still rising faster than before the pandemic.

    Last month, rent and homeownership, along with hotel prices, accounted for two-thirds of the annual rise in “core” inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy costs. Powell and other Fed officials have acknowledged that they had expected rents to fall more quickly than they have.

    The cost of a new lease, though, has tumbled since mid-2022. A gauge of newly leased apartment rents calculated by the government shows that they rose just 0.4% in the first three months of 2024 compared with a year earlier. Yet it takes time for newer, lower-priced rents to feed into the government’s inflation measure.

    “Market rents adjust more quickly to economic conditions than what landlords charge their existing tenants,” Philip Jefferson, the Fed’s vice chair and a top lieutenant to Powell, said last week. “This lag suggests that the large increase in market rents during the pandemic is still being passed through to existing rents and may keep housing services inflation elevated for a while longer.”

    The cost of auto insurance has soared nearly 23% from a year earlier, a huge jump that reflects the surge in prices of new and used cars during the pandemic. Insurance companies now must pay more to replace totaled cars and as a result are charging their customers more.

    “This is about stuff that happened in 2021,” said Claudia Sahm, chief economist at New Century Advisors and a former Fed economist. “You cannot go back and change that.”

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    Associated Press

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  • Inflation pressures lingering from pandemic are keeping Fed rate cuts on pause

    Inflation pressures lingering from pandemic are keeping Fed rate cuts on pause

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    Hopes for interest rate cuts this year by the Federal Reserve are steadily fading, with a stream of recent remarks by Fed officials underscoring their intention to keep borrowing costs high as long as needed to curb persistently elevated inflation.

    What You Need To Know

    • A stream of recent remarks by Fed officials underscore their intention to keep borrowing costs high as long as needed to curb persistently elevated inflation

    • A key reason for the delay in rate cuts is that the inflation pressures that are bedeviling the economy are being driven largely by lingering forces from the pandemic

    • Apartment rents, auto insurance and hospital prices remain high

    • Fed officials say they expect inflation in those areas to eventually cool, but they’ve signaled that they’re prepared to wait as long as it takes

    A key reason for the delay in rate cuts is that the inflation pressures that are bedeviling the economy are being driven largely by lingering forces from the pandemic — for items ranging from apartment rents to auto insurance to hospital prices. Though Fed officials say they expect inflation in those areas to eventually cool, they’ve signaled that they’re prepared to wait as long as it takes.

    Yet the policymakers’ willingness to keep their key rate at a two-decade peak — thereby keeping costs painfully high for mortgages, auto loans and other forms of consumer borrowing — carries its own risks.

    The Fed’s mandate is to strike a balance between keeping rates high enough to control inflation yet not so high as to damage the job market. While most measures show that growth and hiring remain healthy, some gauges of the economy have begun to reveal signs of weakness. The longer the Fed keeps its benchmark rate elevated, the greater the risk of causing a downturn.

    At the same time, with polls showing that costlier rents, groceries and gasoline are angering voters as the presidential campaign intensifies, Donald Trump has sought to pin the blame for higher prices squarely on President Joe Biden.

    The Fed, led by Chair Jerome Powell, raised its benchmark rate by 5 percentage points from March 2022 through June 2023 — the fastest such increase in four decades — to try to drive inflation back down to its 2% target. According to the Fed’s preferred measure, inflation has tumbled from 7.1% in June 2022 to 2.7% in March.

    That same gauge showed, though, that prices accelerated in the first three months of 2024, disrupting last year’s steady slowdown. On Friday, economists expect the government to report that this measure rose 2.7% in April from a year earlier.

    A separate inflation indicator that the government reported this month suggested that prices cooled slightly in April. But with inflation remaining stubbornly above the Fed’s target level, Wall Street traders now expect just one rate cut this year, in November. And even that is hardly a slam-dunk, with investors placing the likelihood of a cut in November at 63%, down from 77% a week ago.

    Last week, economists at Goldman Sachs became the latest analysts to give up on a rate cut in July, pushing back their forecast for the first of two cuts they expect this year to September. Oxford Economics made a similar call last month. Bank of America foresees just one Fed rate cut this year, in December. Just months ago, many economists had forecast the first rate cut for March of this year.

    “We will need to accumulate further data over the coming months to have a clearer picture of the inflation outlook,” Loretta Mester, president of Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland, said this month. “I now believe that it will take longer to reach our 2% goal than I previously thought.” (Mester is among 12 officials who are voting on the Fed’s rate policy this year.)

    As further data accumulates, so do some signs that the economy is cooling a bit. More Americans, particularly younger adults, are falling behind on their credit card bills, for example, with the share of card debt 90 days or more overdue reaching 10.7% in the first quarter, according to the Fed’s New York branch. That’s the highest proportion in 14 years.

    Hiring is also slowing, with businesses posting fewer open jobs, though job advertisements remain high.

    And more companies, including Target, McDonalds and Burger King, are highlighting price cuts or cheaper deals to try to attract financially squeezed consumers. Their actions could help lower inflation in the coming months. But they also underscore the struggles that lower-income Americans face.

    “There’s a lot of signs that consumers are kind of losing some steam and hiring demand is cooling,” said Julia Coronado, a former Fed economist who is president of MacroPolicy Perspectives. “You could see more of a slowdown.”

    But Coronado and other economists also regard the latest trends as a sign that the economy may simply be normalizing after a period of rapid growth. Companies are still hiring, though at a more modest pace than at the start of the year. And data suggests that Americans traveled in record numbers over the Memorial Day weekend, a sign they’re confident in their finances.

    One reason why inflation remains above the Fed’s target is that distortions stemming from the pandemic are still keeping prices elevated in several areas even as much of the rest of the economy has moved past the pandemic.

    Housing costs, led by apartment rents, jumped two years ago after many Americans sought additional living space during the pandemic. Rental costs are now slowing: They rose 5.4% in April on an annual basis, down from 8.8% a year earlier. But they’re still rising faster than before the pandemic.

    Last month, rent and homeownership, along with hotel prices, accounted for two-thirds of the annual rise in “core” inflation, which excludes volatile food and energy costs. Powell and other Fed officials have acknowledged that they had expected rents to fall more quickly than they have.

    The cost of a new lease, though, has tumbled since mid-2022. A gauge of newly leased apartment rents calculated by the government shows that they rose just 0.4% in the first three months of 2024 compared with a year earlier. Yet it takes time for newer, lower-priced rents to feed into the government’s inflation measure.

    “Market rents adjust more quickly to economic conditions than what landlords charge their existing tenants,” Philip Jefferson, the Fed’s vice chair and a top lieutenant to Powell, said last week. “This lag suggests that the large increase in market rents during the pandemic is still being passed through to existing rents and may keep housing services inflation elevated for a while longer.”

    The cost of auto insurance has soared nearly 23% from a year earlier, a huge jump that reflects the surge in prices of new and used cars during the pandemic. Insurance companies now must pay more to replace totaled cars and as a result are charging their customers more.

    “This is about stuff that happened in 2021,” said Claudia Sahm, chief economist at New Century Advisors and a former Fed economist. “You cannot go back and change that.”

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    Associated Press

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  • Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin resumes duty after undergoing procedure

    Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin resumes duty after undergoing procedure

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    Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin underwent a medical procedure at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center Friday evening and has resumed duty after temporarily transferring power to his deputy, Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said in a statement.

    Austin is continuing to deal with bladder issues that arose in December following his treatment for prostate cancer, Ryder said.

    The procedure was successful, elective and minimally invasive, “is not related to his cancer diagnosis and has had no effect on his excellent cancer prognosis,” the press secretary said.

    Austin transferred authority to Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks for about two-and-a-half hours while he was indisposed, the Pentagon said.

    The Pentagon chief returned home after the procedure. “No changes in his official schedule are anticipated at this time, to include his participation in scheduled Memorial Day events,” Ryder said.

    Austin, 70, has had ongoing health issues since undergoing surgery to address a prostate cancer diagnosis. He spent two weeks in the hospital following complications from a prostatectomy. Austin faced criticism at the time for not immediately informing the president or Congress of either his diagnosis or hospitalization.

    Austin was taken back to Walter Reed in February for a bladder issue, admitted to intensive care for a second time and underwent a non-surgical procedure under general anesthesia at the time.

    The Pentagon has notified the White House and Congress, Ryder said.

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    Associated Press

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  • Severe weather could disrupt Memorial Day weekend travel

    Severe weather could disrupt Memorial Day weekend travel

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    If you’re traveling for Memorial Day weekend, the weather could affect your plans. Severe weather will develop across the central and southern Plains on Saturday before shifting east toward the mid-Mississippi and Ohio River Valley on Sunday.

    Dangerous and record-breaking heat is possible in South Texas, along the Gulf Coast to South Florida through Memorial Day.

    What You Need To Know

    • Severe weather is expected across the central U.S. on Saturday and Sunday

    • Parts of the southern U.S. could experience record-breaking heat

    • Wet weather and storms are expected across the eastern U.S. on Memorial Day

    Here’s what you need to know about the forecast this weekend.

    Saturday

    Severe weather is going to be the primary threat for holiday weekend travelers on Saturday. Storms will develop across the central and southern Plains on Saturday afternoon and evening capable of producing all types of severe weather.

    Oklahoma, Kansas and western Missouri will see the highest threat for severe weather, including several strong to violent tornadoes, extreme hail, damaging winds and heavy rainfall Saturday afternoon into the overnight hours.

    Scattered showers are possible across parts of the interior Northeast and Mid-Atlantic late Saturday.

    The Gulf Coast states, from South Texas to South Florida will experience summerlike heat with the potential for record highs. Heat impacts will likely be highest in South Texas, where heat index values will exceed 115 degrees through Memorial Day.

    The western U.S. will be cool to kick off the weekend, as highs stay 5 to 15 degrees below normal.

    Sunday

    The same complex of storms from the Plains on Saturday will shift east, bringing the highest severe threat across parts of the mid-Mississippi and Ohio River Valley on Sunday into Sunday night.

    Once again, it looks likely that storms will be capable of producing strong tornadoes, large hail, damaging winds and flash flooding. The highest threat will be for parts of eastern Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and western Kentucky.

    Other areas that will see rain and storms include Wisconsin and Ohio. A weak front could bring some scattered showers to parts of the upper Northeast and New England on Sunday morning, but it will dry out early.

    Dangerous heat remains in place across the southern states on Sunday. Heat index values will be highest in South Texas again as actual air temperatures climb into the upper 90s and even the triple digits. Overnight temperatures won’t cool off much with record warm lows, so little to no relief is expected to those without reliable cooling.

    Western parts of the country will warm up slightly as temperatures climb back near normal for late May while the East Coast remains around 10 degrees above normal, topping out in the upper 80s to low 90s.

    Monday

    Wet weather will spread east on Memorial Day, bringing widespread shower and storm chances to parts of the eastern U.S., including the Northeast, New England and Mid-Atlantic.

    Memorial Day will kick off with showers, likely across the Ohio River Valley and Mid-Atlantic. As the system moves northeastward, rain and storms will fill into the Northeast through the morning and New England through the afternoon.

    Temperatures will also be rain-cooled for these areas, so it will feel more seasonable around the Great Lakes. A few scattered showers and storms are possible in the southeast, too.

    The western U.S. also warms back up a few degrees above normal, and Texas and Florida continue to feel the summerlike heat with record highs possible and heat index values climbing well into the triple digits.

    Our team of meteorologists dives deep into the science of weather and breaks down timely weather data and information. To view more weather and climate stories, check out our weather blogs section.

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    Spectrum News Weather Staff

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  • Memorial Day travel jams could be much worse this year

    Memorial Day travel jams could be much worse this year

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    You didn’t think summer travel would be easy, did you?

    Highways and airports are likely to be jammed the next few days as Americans head out for Memorial Day weekend getaways and then return home.

    AAA predicts this will be the busiest start-of-summer weekend in nearly 20 years, with 43.8 million people expected to travel at least 50 miles from home between Thursday and Monday. The Transportation Security Administration says up to 3 million might pass through airport checkpoints on Friday alone.

    What You Need To Know

    • AAA predicts this will be the busiest start-of-summer weekend in nearly 20 years

    • 43.8 milion people are expected to travel a least 50 miles from home between Thursday and Monday

    • More than 3 million people might pass through airport checkpoints on Friday alone

    • U.S. airlines estimate that 271 million travelers will fly between June 1 and August 31

    And that is just a sample of what is to come. U.S. airlines expect to carry a record number of passengers this summer. Their trade group estimates that 271 million travelers will fly between June 1 and August 31, breaking the record of 255 million set – you guessed it – last summer.

    The annual expression of wanderlust is happening at a time when Americans tell pollsters they are worried about the economy and the direction of the country.

    A slowdown, and in some cases a retreat, from the big price increases of the last two years may be helping.

    Airfares are down 6% and hotel rates have dipped 0.4%, compared with a year ago, according to government figures released last week. Prices for renting a car or truck are down 10%. The nationwide price of gas is around $3.60 a gallon, about 6 cents higher than a year ago, according to AAA.

    Johannes Thomas, CEO of the hotel and travel search company Trivago, said he thinks more customers are feeling the pinch of prices that have plateaued but at much higher levels than before the pandemic. He said they are booking farther in advance, staying closer to home, taking shorter trips, and compromising on accommodations — staying in three-star hotels instead of five-star ones.

    Many travelers have their own cost-saving strategies, including combining work and pleasure on the same trip.

    “I have largely been able to adapt by traveling at strange hours. I’ll fly out late at night, come in early in the morning, stay longer than I intended, and work remotely,” said Lauren Hartle of Boston, an investor for a clean-energy venture firm.

    Hartle, who flew from Boston to Dallas on Wednesday for a work conference, plans to attend a summer family gathering in North Carolina but is otherwise considering trips closer to home — and maybe by train instead of plane.

    Catey Schast, a nanny and piano teacher in Maine, said her Boston-Dallas flight cost $386 round trip. “It wasn’t terrible,” but it was higher than the $200 to $300 she paid in the past to visit family in Texas, she said.

    Schast plans a beach vacation in Florida in July. High prices could discourage her from taking other trips, but “if I really want to go somewhere, I’m more of a how-can-I-make-this-happen type of person, as long as I have the time off work.”

    As in past years, most holiday travelers are expected to travel by car – more than 38 million of them, according to AAA. The organization advises motorists hoping to avoid the worst traffic to leave metropolitan areas early Thursday and Friday and to stay off the roads between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. Sunday and Monday.

    “We haven’t seen any pullback in travel since the pandemic. Year after year, we have seen these numbers continue to grow,” AAA spokesperson Aixa Diaz said. “We don’t know when it’s going to stop. There’s no sign of it yet.”

    There’s certainly no slowdown at airports. The number of people going through security checkpoints is up 3.2% this year. The TSA said it screened 2.85 million people last Friday and nearly as many on Sunday — the two busiest days of the year so far.

    TSA predicts it will screen more than 18 million travelers and airline crew members during the seven-day stretch that begins Thursday, up 6.4% from last year. Friday is expected to be the busiest day for air travel, with nearly 3 million people passing through checkpoints. The TSA record is 2.91 million, set on the Sunday after Thanksgiving last year.

    “We’re going to break those records this summer,” TSA Administrator David Pekoske said.

    The agency, which was created after the 9/11 terror attacks, has struggled at times with peak loads. Pekoske told The Associated Press that pay raises for front-line screeners have helped improve staffing by reducing attrition from more than 20% to less than 10%.

    Airlines say they also have staffed up since being caught short when travel began to rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring and summer of 2022.

    With any luck from the weather, travelers could see fewer canceled flights than in recent summers. So far this year, U.S. airlines have canceled 1.2% of their flights, according to FlightAware data, compared with 1.4% at this point last year and 2.8% in 2022 — a performance so poor it triggered complaints and increased scrutiny from Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

    Even before the holiday weekend started, however, storms caused widespread cancellations at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, the biggest hub for American Airlines. The carrier dropped more than 200 flights, or 5% of its schedule, by late afternoon.

    Stranded travelers were not happy.

    “Our flight got canceled right before the check-in. And now there’s no flights here until Friday because (open seats on other flights) went really quickly. We might wind up driving. Isn’t that terrible?” said Rosie Gutierrez of Allen, Texas, who was trying to get to Florida along with her son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter.

    American’s chief operating officer, David Seymour, said the airline has beefed up its staffing and technology in preparation for the seasonal rush.

    “It’s a long summer, but we’re ready for it. We have the right resources,” he said.

    American is offering its most ambitious summer schedule ever — 690,000 flights between May 17 and Sept. 3.

    United Airlines forecasts its biggest Memorial Day weekend, with nearly 10% more passengers than last year. Delta Air Lines expects to carry 5% more passengers this weekend, kicking off its heaviest summer schedule ever of international flights.

    According to AAA, the top domestic and international destinations are familiar ones. They include Orlando, Las Vegas, London, Paris and Rome.

    So what about nervousness over the economy?

    It’s important to note that people often say their own finances are better than average. In an AP survey from February, 54% said their personal situation was good — but only 30% felt the same about the nation’s economy.

    That could explain why they can afford to splurge on travel.

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    Associated Press

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  • Memorial Day travel jams could be much worse this year

    Memorial Day travel jams could be much worse this year

    [ad_1]

    You didn’t think summer travel would be easy, did you?

    Highways and airports are likely to be jammed the next few days as Americans head out for Memorial Day weekend getaways and then return home.

    AAA predicts this will be the busiest start-of-summer weekend in nearly 20 years, with 43.8 million people expected to travel at least 50 miles from home between Thursday and Monday. The Transportation Security Administration says up to 3 million might pass through airport checkpoints on Friday alone.

    What You Need To Know

    • AAA predicts this will be the busiest start-of-summer weekend in nearly 20 years

    • 43.8 milion people are expected to travel a least 50 miles from home between Thursday and Monday

    • More than 3 million people might pass through airport checkpoints on Friday alone

    • U.S. airlines estimate that 271 million travelers will fly between June 1 and August 31

    And that is just a sample of what is to come. U.S. airlines expect to carry a record number of passengers this summer. Their trade group estimates that 271 million travelers will fly between June 1 and August 31, breaking the record of 255 million set – you guessed it – last summer.

    The annual expression of wanderlust is happening at a time when Americans tell pollsters they are worried about the economy and the direction of the country.

    A slowdown, and in some cases a retreat, from the big price increases of the last two years may be helping.

    Airfares are down 6% and hotel rates have dipped 0.4%, compared with a year ago, according to government figures released last week. Prices for renting a car or truck are down 10%. The nationwide price of gas is around $3.60 a gallon, about 6 cents higher than a year ago, according to AAA.

    Johannes Thomas, CEO of the hotel and travel search company Trivago, said he thinks more customers are feeling the pinch of prices that have plateaued but at much higher levels than before the pandemic. He said they are booking farther in advance, staying closer to home, taking shorter trips, and compromising on accommodations — staying in three-star hotels instead of five-star ones.

    Many travelers have their own cost-saving strategies, including combining work and pleasure on the same trip.

    “I have largely been able to adapt by traveling at strange hours. I’ll fly out late at night, come in early in the morning, stay longer than I intended, and work remotely,” said Lauren Hartle of Boston, an investor for a clean-energy venture firm.

    Hartle, who flew from Boston to Dallas on Wednesday for a work conference, plans to attend a summer family gathering in North Carolina but is otherwise considering trips closer to home — and maybe by train instead of plane.

    Catey Schast, a nanny and piano teacher in Maine, said her Boston-Dallas flight cost $386 round trip. “It wasn’t terrible,” but it was higher than the $200 to $300 she paid in the past to visit family in Texas, she said.

    Schast plans a beach vacation in Florida in July. High prices could discourage her from taking other trips, but “if I really want to go somewhere, I’m more of a how-can-I-make-this-happen type of person, as long as I have the time off work.”

    As in past years, most holiday travelers are expected to travel by car – more than 38 million of them, according to AAA. The organization advises motorists hoping to avoid the worst traffic to leave metropolitan areas early Thursday and Friday and to stay off the roads between 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. Sunday and Monday.

    “We haven’t seen any pullback in travel since the pandemic. Year after year, we have seen these numbers continue to grow,” AAA spokesperson Aixa Diaz said. “We don’t know when it’s going to stop. There’s no sign of it yet.”

    There’s certainly no slowdown at airports. The number of people going through security checkpoints is up 3.2% this year. The TSA said it screened 2.85 million people last Friday and nearly as many on Sunday — the two busiest days of the year so far.

    TSA predicts it will screen more than 18 million travelers and airline crew members during the seven-day stretch that begins Thursday, up 6.4% from last year. Friday is expected to be the busiest day for air travel, with nearly 3 million people passing through checkpoints. The TSA record is 2.91 million, set on the Sunday after Thanksgiving last year.

    “We’re going to break those records this summer,” TSA Administrator David Pekoske said.

    The agency, which was created after the 9/11 terror attacks, has struggled at times with peak loads. Pekoske told The Associated Press that pay raises for front-line screeners have helped improve staffing by reducing attrition from more than 20% to less than 10%.

    Airlines say they also have staffed up since being caught short when travel began to rebound from the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring and summer of 2022.

    With any luck from the weather, travelers could see fewer canceled flights than in recent summers. So far this year, U.S. airlines have canceled 1.2% of their flights, according to FlightAware data, compared with 1.4% at this point last year and 2.8% in 2022 — a performance so poor it triggered complaints and increased scrutiny from Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.

    Even before the holiday weekend started, however, storms caused widespread cancellations at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, the biggest hub for American Airlines. The carrier dropped more than 200 flights, or 5% of its schedule, by late afternoon.

    Stranded travelers were not happy.

    “Our flight got canceled right before the check-in. And now there’s no flights here until Friday because (open seats on other flights) went really quickly. We might wind up driving. Isn’t that terrible?” said Rosie Gutierrez of Allen, Texas, who was trying to get to Florida along with her son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter.

    American’s chief operating officer, David Seymour, said the airline has beefed up its staffing and technology in preparation for the seasonal rush.

    “It’s a long summer, but we’re ready for it. We have the right resources,” he said.

    American is offering its most ambitious summer schedule ever — 690,000 flights between May 17 and Sept. 3.

    United Airlines forecasts its biggest Memorial Day weekend, with nearly 10% more passengers than last year. Delta Air Lines expects to carry 5% more passengers this weekend, kicking off its heaviest summer schedule ever of international flights.

    According to AAA, the top domestic and international destinations are familiar ones. They include Orlando, Las Vegas, London, Paris and Rome.

    So what about nervousness over the economy?

    It’s important to note that people often say their own finances are better than average. In an AP survey from February, 54% said their personal situation was good — but only 30% felt the same about the nation’s economy.

    That could explain why they can afford to splurge on travel.

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    Associated Press

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  • NOAA releases its 2024 Atlantic hurricane season outlook

    NOAA releases its 2024 Atlantic hurricane season outlook

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    The 2024 Atlantic hurricane season begins on Saturday, June 1, and NOAA just released its annual outlook. NOAA predicts above normal activity across the Atlantic basin this year.

    What You Need To Know

    • NOAA predicts above normal activity this hurricane season

    • Atlantic sea surface temperatures are experiencing record warmth

    • La Niña conditions are expected during the peak of hurricane season

    NOAA’s outlook predicts an 85% chance of an above normal season, a 10% chance of a near normal season and a 5% chance of a below normal season. 

    NOAA forecasts a likely range of 17 to 25 named storms, of which 8 to 13 could become hurricanes, including 4 to 7 major hurricanes, which are a Category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.

    NOAA provides these ranges with a 70% confidence.

    “This is the highest number of named storms NOAA has ever issued in its May forecast,” says Dr. Rick Spinrad, Ph.D., administrator, NOAA.

    Remember, predictions of the season’s activity are not predictions of exactly how many storms will make landfall in a particular place. Individual storms make impacts, regardless of how active (or not) a season is. Coastal residents should do what they can to make sure they’re prepared every year.

    As a reminder, this season has brought some new changes and a new list of names.

    You can learn more about 2024’s list of names here.

    Researchers look at a variety of factors to make their prediction.

    Current El Niño conditions are forecast to transition to La Niña conditions later this summer or fall, leading to more favorable conditions for tropical development.

    La Niña conditions typically favor more hurricane activity in the Atlantic because of weaker vertical wind shear and more instability across the main development region. 

    Sea surface temperatures are also running well above normal in the Gulf of Mexico and the tropical Atlantic, including the main development region. Some areas are experiencing record warmth.

    Warm ocean water helps fuel tropical systems, and combined with the effects of La Niña, it is expected to be an active Atlantic hurricane season.

    Here is the latest tropical update for the next 48 hours. 

    Learn More About Hurricanes

    Our team of meteorologists dives deep into the science of weather and breaks down timely weather data and information. To view more weather and climate stories, check out our weather blogs section.

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    Spectrum News Weather Staff

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  • NOAA releases its 2024 Atlantic hurricane season outlook

    NOAA releases its 2024 Atlantic hurricane season outlook

    [ad_1]

    The 2024 Atlantic hurricane season begins on Saturday, June 1, and NOAA just released its annual outlook. NOAA predicts above normal activity across the Atlantic basin this year.

    What You Need To Know

    • NOAA predicts above normal activity this hurricane season

    • Atlantic sea surface temperatures are experiencing record warmth

    • La Niña conditions are expected during the peak of hurricane season

    NOAA’s outlook predicts an 85% chance of an above normal season, a 10% chance of a near normal season and a 5% chance of a below normal season. 

    NOAA forecasts a likely range of 17 to 25 named storms, of which 8 to 13 could become hurricanes, including 4 to 7 major hurricanes, which are a Category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.

    NOAA provides these ranges with a 70% confidence.

    “This is the highest number of named storms NOAA has ever issued in its May forecast,” says Dr. Rick Spinrad, Ph.D., administrator, NOAA.

    Remember, predictions of the season’s activity are not predictions of exactly how many storms will make landfall in a particular place. Individual storms make impacts, regardless of how active (or not) a season is. Coastal residents should do what they can to make sure they’re prepared every year.

    As a reminder, this season has brought some new changes and a new list of names.

    You can learn more about 2024’s list of names here.

    Researchers look at a variety of factors to make their prediction.

    Current El Niño conditions are forecast to transition to La Niña conditions later this summer or fall, leading to more favorable conditions for tropical development.

    La Niña conditions typically favor more hurricane activity in the Atlantic because of weaker vertical wind shear and more instability across the main development region. 

    Sea surface temperatures are also running well above normal in the Gulf of Mexico and the tropical Atlantic, including the main development region. Some areas are experiencing record warmth.

    Warm ocean water helps fuel tropical systems, and combined with the effects of La Niña, it is expected to be an active Atlantic hurricane season.

    Here is the latest tropical update for the next 48 hours. 

    Learn More About Hurricanes

    Our team of meteorologists dives deep into the science of weather and breaks down timely weather data and information. To view more weather and climate stories, check out our weather blogs section.

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    Spectrum News Weather Staff

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