Chinese officials say they will “not sit idly by” if House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visits Taiwan. ABC News foreign policy contributor Mick Mulroy breaks down why the visit is raising tensions.
Just days before people planned to protest this Saturday's fundraiser hosted by an NRA-aligned group near the site of the May 24 elementary school massacre in southwest Texas, the city council in Hondo announced Monday that it revoked permission for the organization's use of the space where they planned to host the event. Jazmin Cazares, older sister to Jackie Cazares, who was killed at Robb Elementary School, said the planned event was "a slap in the face" to her community about 40 miles west of Hondo. Polly Flores, who lost two nieces in the massacre, called the event an "insult," saying the Uvalde community was ready to "boycott all of Hondo's businesses" if action wasn't taken.
"We appear to have a large group of people who were in the area when the shots rang out," Metropolitan Police Department Chief Robert Contee told reporters, adding, "We have no idea why the shots were fired at this point." The ATF Washington Field Division was on the scene assisting police in the ongoing investigation. According to the D.C. Police Union, this is the sixth mass shooting in the city in 2022.
Beyoncé will remove a lyric from "Heated," one of her songs on "Renaissance," after it was criticized for being "ableist." "The word, not used intentionally in a harmful way, will be replaced," a representative for Beyoncé said in a statement to "Good Morning America." The decision to change the lyric comes after Lizzo similarly came under fire for using the same word in her song "GRRRLS."
In handing down an 87-month sentence to Guy Wesley Reffitt, U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich declined to characterize the defendant as a domestic terrorist, as prosecutors had requested. Prosecutors had sought a 15-year prison term for Reffitt, predicated on the use of an increasingly rare legal tool called the "terrorism enhancement," which empowers judges to issue sentences above the federal guidelines for certain crimes. On Monday, Friedrich brushed aside the government's motion for a terrorism enhancement, citing other Jan.6-related defendants whose conduct appeared to be more serious than Reffitt's -- and for whom the Justice Department chose not to pursue the terrorism enhancement.
President Joe Biden announced Monday that the U.S. had killed al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in a drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan, over the weekend. "The United States continues to demonstrate our resolve and our capacity to defend the American people against those who seek to do us harm," he said.
The leader of al-Qaeda, one of the FBI's most wanted terrorists, was killed in a drone strike in Kabul over the weekend, President Joe Biden announced Monday night. ABC News also confirmed through sources familiar with the operation that al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was killed in the U.S. strike in Afghanistan. A senior administration official said earlier Monday that the U.S. conducted a successful counterterrorism operation against a "significant" al-Qaeda target, adding that there were no civilian casualties.
A 52-year-old Minnesota man was ordered on Monday to be held on a $1 million cash bail after homicide charges were filed against him stemming from a weekend stabbing incident on a Wisconsin river that left a 17-year-old boy dead and four other people seriously injured. The suspect, Nicolae Miu of Prior Lake, Minnesota, made his first court appearance Monday afternoon via Zoom from the St. Croix County, Wisconsin, jail. A prosecutor had asked Judge R. Michael Waterman to set Miu's bail at $500,000 cash, but the judge doubled that, citing the serious nature of the crimes and concern for the safety of the community.
Amid an ongoing legal battle over the 2020 election probe in Georgia, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) has added former President Donald Trump's first White House counsel, Donald McGahn, to his legal team. Graham continues to fight a subpoena ordering him to appear before a grand jury in Fulton County's criminal investigation into efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election in the state.
As his city stands on the brink of running out of water, Las Vegas, New Mexico, Mayor Louie Trujillo said the fires that initiated the problem could have been avoided. "The government is 100% responsible for this disaster and we intend to hold them accountable, to pay for every expense and discomfort that the citizens are suffering right now, even if it includes legal recourse," Trujillo said. The city is in a state of emergency after intense flooding at the Hermits Peak-Calf Canyon Fire "burn scar" area led to contamination in water reservoirs from ash, soot, burned trees, pine needles, rocks and boulders.
The new docuseries "Light & Magic" on Disney+ takes movie fans behind the scenes of some of the most awe-inspiring moments from cinema history. The six-part event gives viewers a glimpse into Industrial Light & Magic, the special effects company founded by George Lucas in 1975 when he was working on the first "Star Wars" film nearly 50 years ago. In addition to making lightsabers a reality and the Millennium Falcon fly through space, ILM has been behind the visual effects for iconic movies such as the T-1000 in 1991's "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" and the dinosaurs in 1993's "Jurassic Park," as well as the "Avatar" films and numerous Marvel Cinematic Universe offerings.
Families of the Parkland mass shooting victims are addressing the jury during the penalty phase of confessed shooter Nikolas Cruz's trial. The penalty phase of the trial is to determine if Cruz will be sentenced to death for gunning down 14 students and three staff members at his former South Florida school, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, on Feb. 14, 2018. Patricia Oliver, whose 17-year-old son, Joaquin Oliver, was killed, called her slain son "the missing link of our family."
For the past two months, Sean Peacock, a small business owner in Eastman, Georgia, and his team have worked overtime to make 21 custom memorial benches by hand, one for each of the victims of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. Over the weekend, the benches were driven in a donated U-Haul trailer over 1,200 miles from Eastman to Uvalde, where Peacock is now personally delivering them to each victim's family. Peacock, the owner of the graphic arts business Jass Graphix, said he had no connection to Uvalde prior to receiving an order inquiry in late May from April Elrod, the mother of 10-year-old Makenna Lee Elrod, one of the 19 students who died in the May 24 shooting, along with two of their teachers.
A federal judge on Monday sentenced the first Capitol rioter convicted at trial to 87 months, or just over seven years in prison -- the longest term of incarceration thus far for a defendant in the Justice Department's criminal investigation of the Jan. 6 assault on Congress. Guy Wesley Reffitt, 49, of Wylie, Texas, was convicted by a federal jury in March of five felony counts, including obstruction of justice as well as entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds with a firearm. Federal prosecutors with the U.S. Department of Justice had asked that Reffitt be sentenced to 15 years in prison.
"Full House" alum Jodie Sweetin married her boyfriend Mescal Wasilewski on Saturday, confirming the news on social media the following day. On Sunday, the 40-year-old actress posted a photo from the wedding on Instagram.
President Joe Biden "continues to feel well" and is still in isolation after experiencing a rebound case of COVID-19, according to a letter from White House physician Dr. Kevin O'Connor on Monday. O'Connor wrote in a memo released by the White House that Biden tested positive on an antigen test Monday morning, a result he said "could be anticipated." Biden had previously tested negative Tuesday evening, Wednesday morning, Thursday morning and Friday morning before again testing positive on Saturday.
Doctors and other health care providers are being warned to look out for symptoms of a virus that can cause seizures and severe illness in infants. Nearly two dozen infants were admitted to a Tennessee hospital this spring due to parechovirus, a virus that is especially dangerous for babies under 3 months old, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). While the majority of the infants, ages 5 months and under, recovered without complications, two may have long-term complications, including hearing loss and severe developmental delay, from the virus, the CDC said.
Medical examiners are investigating whether the deaths of 10 people who died during a brutal heat wave in the Pacific Northwest last week were heat related, according to officials. Temperatures in the triple digits were recorded across much of the Pacific Northwest that started Tuesday and lasted through the weekend -- a region that is rarely used to seeing temperatures exceed the 90-degree mark. As of Sunday, potential heat-related deaths were reported in Multnomah County, which includes Portland, as well as Umatilla County, Marion County and Clackamas County, according to a statement from the Oregon state medical examiner's office.
The death toll from the devastating flooding that hit eastern Kentucky continues to rise as more rain hits the region, according to officials. A total of 37 people have been confirmed dead, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said Monday evening. Beshear said Monday morning that "there are hundreds of unaccounted for people, minimum."
New Zealand fully has reopened its borders for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, making it the final Western country to do so. The reopening, which went into effect at midnight local time Sunday, means tourists from all over the world and international students will be allowed to enter the country. Cruise ships and foreign yachts will also be able to dock at ports.
The family of Fanta Bility, an 8-year-old girl who was fatally shot by police last year, is expressing outrage over the release of a heavily redacted report about their daughter’s shooting in Sharon Hill, Pennsylvania, a suburb of Philadelphia. .The highly anticipated report, which outlines the findings of an independent investigation into the police policies and procedures related to the shooting, was released by the Sharon Hill Borough Council on Friday but many of its findings and recommendations were redacted. Bruce Castor, the attorney for Fanta’s family, told ABC News in a statement on Sunday that the redacted report is “unacceptable” and “an insult to the memory of Fanta.”