Month: October 2020

Financial markets tumbled Wednesday as virus cases surged in the U.S.

Stocks took a tumble Wednesday morning amid uncertainty over rising virus cases and with less than a week to go before the U.S. presidential vote.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted more than 800 points, or approximately 3%, by midday Wednesday. The S&P 500 slipped 2.9% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq also slid 3% Wednesday morning.

The sell-off, which began earlier this week, comes amid a new surge in COVID-19 cases in the U.S. Last Friday, some seven months into the crisis, the nation hit a new all-time high of 83,757 new cases in a single day.

Randy Frederick, the vice president of trading and derivatives at Charles Schwab, told ABC News Wednesday that the primary concern among investors has been “this pretty sizable uptick in the virus, more than anything else.”

“It’s not just in the U.S., there have been a surge in cases all around the world with some rare exceptions,” he said. “I think that’s not something people anticipated, I think most people expected it to flatten out.”

“You can’t recover until you start seeing meaningful progress in slowing down the progression of the virus, and frankly, last week, we’ve seen we are not there yet,” Frederick added.

On Tuesday, there were 73,240 new cases identified in the U.S., according to a real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University. The latest daily tally is nearly 6,500 more than the previous day.

The spike in virus cases and the looming threat of further lockdown measures to quell its spread — that could potentially hit businesses hard — have also fueled the mounting uncertainty among investors. On Tuesday, Illinois announced new restrictions in response to the surge in cases, including banning all indoor dining.

The uncertainty has been compounded as hopes for new stimulus measures remain dim — further shaking investors’ confidence.

Frederick said that essentially the “clock has run out” for hopes of new stimulus measures being passed ahead of the election.

“The negotiations between Nancy Pelosi and Steven Mnuchin have pretty much been put on hold now that Congress has left D.C., so the odds of any form of new stimulus being enacted prior to election is pretty close to zero,” he said.

“The market tends to move more on what is expected to happen than what is happening, so constant reinforcement from both sides had kept the market buoyant,” he added. “And now, the clock has run out, and I think they’re continuing to say, ‘we’re still negotiating, we’re still talking,’ but the possibility of that occurring before the election is pretty small.”

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

The bus carrying school children crashed in Meigs County.

At least two people have been killed in a school bus accident in Meigs County, Tennessee, according to officials.

The Tennessee Highway Patrol said a 7-year-old passenger and the driver of the bus were killed in the accident. Five other children were injured, including a student in critical condition, police said. They were being treated at Children’s Hospital at Erlanger in Chattanooga.

The bus, which was carrying school children home for the day, crashed into a utility service vehicle on Highway 58 in Decatur, about an hour northeast of Chattanooga, according to the Tennessee Highway Patrol. The utility truck appears to have swerved into the southbound lane where it ran into the bus head-on.

Officials said there were 22 passengers on the bus at the time of the accident.

The Tennessee Department of Education sent condolences to the families of those lost in the accident.

“I and the entire staff at the Tennessee Department of Education are deeply saddened to hear about the fatal bus crash in Meigs County earlier this afternoon. No words can express our sympathies for those lives that were lost,” Tennessee Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn said in a statement. “We send our deepest condolences to the students, families, school staff and leaders, district staff and the entire Meigs County community affected by this tragic accident and wish healing for all those injured. The department has communicated with district leaders and staff in Meigs County and surrounding areas and is mobilizing to support this community in safety response and services.”

Meigs County Board of Education said all parents had been contacted and were either reunited with their children or taken to area hospitals.

“I’m deeply saddened to hear the news coming out of Meigs County this evening about a serious school bus crash,” Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke said in a statement on Twitter. “My thoughts are with these children and their families. Until we have more information, we will hope for the best and keep them in our prayers.”

The Category 1 hurricane is expected to hit Louisiana Wednesday evening.

Zeta, a fast-moving Category 1 hurricane racing toward the Gulf Coast, is expected to make landfall in eastern Louisiana between 5 p.m. and 7 pm. local time.

“You should be finalizing your preparations,” Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards said Wednesday morning.

The biggest threat will be storm surge of up to 7 feet in Louisiana and up to 9 feet in Alabama and Mississippi.

Wind gusts are expected to reach 75 to 100 mph in New Orleans. The city canceled all public school classes for the day.

New Orleans Regional Transit Authority is suspending all bus, streetcar and ferry services beginning at noon.

Louisiana has been especially hard-hit this hurricane season. Zeta will become the third hurricane to make landfall in Louisiana in two months.

After Wednesday, Zeta’s remnants will move into the Northeast bringing rain and snow. The first accumulating, widespread snowfall of the season is possible for Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New York’s Hudson Valley.

They allegedly acted at the direction of Chinese government officials.

Five people were arrested Wednesday, and one more was being sought, on charges they acted as illegal agents of China.

The six acted at the direction of Chinese government officials as they tried to force Chinese nationals in the United States to return to China through a multi-year campaign of stalking and harassment, according to federal prosecutors in Brooklyn.

Hongru Jin, Zhu Yong and Michael McMahon were arrested in the Northeast. Rong Jing and Zheng Congving were arrested in California. Zhu Feng remains at large.

“The defendants assisted PRC officials in a scheme to coerce certain individuals to return to the PRC against their will,” said acting United States Attorney Seth DuCharme.

The alleged campaign — known in China as either Operation Fox Hunt or Operation Skynet — targeted Chinese nationals living abroad who are alleged to have committed crimes in China. Rather than rely on official channels for repatriation, federal prosecutors said the campaign used “clandestine, unsanctioned and illegal conduct with the United States.”

Among the targets was a resident of New Jersey identified in court records as John Doe-1, whose elderly father was brought to the U.S. from China against his will “to use the surprise arrival … to threaten and attempt to coerce John Doe-1’s return to the PRC,” prosecutors said.

As part of the campaign to exert pressure on John Doe-1 his adult daughter was put under surveillance and targeted for online harassment, according to court records. Later, unsolicited packages were sent to his residence with letters and videos threatening harm to family members if he did not return.

“The United States will not tolerate the conduct of PRC official business on U.S. soil without notice to and coordination with the appropriate U.S. authorities. Nor will we tolerate the unlawful harassment and stalking of U.S. residents to further PRC objectives,” DuCharme said.

Adm. Brett Giroir, a member of the White House coronavirus task force who was charged with leading the country’s testing efforts at the beginning of the pandemic and has been careful not to break from the White House message, directly contradicted the president this morning when he acknowledged U.S. coronavirus cases are on the rise — and not due to testing.

Trump said Tuesday, as he has throughout the pandemic, that the virus is going away and cases are rising due to increased testing — but Giroir countered both of those points and warned “Draconian measures” may be required “if we don’t make a change.”

“We do believe and the data show that cases are going up. It’s not just a function of testing,” Giroir said in an interview this morning on NBC. “Yes, we’re getting more cases identified, but the cases are actually going up. And we know that, too, because hospitalizations are going up.”

“It’s not just a function of testing,” Giroir added, calling the current moment a “critical point” in the country’s pandemic response. He went on to remind Americans to practice social distancing, wear a face mask and avoid crowded, indoor spaces — CDC guidelines which the Trump campaign itself has scantily adhered to.

“If we don’t do those things, it may force local officials or government officials in the states to have more draconian measures because cases will go up if we don’t make a change,” Giroir warned. “The virus isn’t acting on its own.”

The president has increasingly sought to tune out that reality as he holds mass gatherings day-after-day in the final stretch of his campaign, including in some of the hardest hit states. At those rallies, Trump has lamented over media coverage of COVID-19, claiming the coverage is intended to hurt his reelection chances. It comes as the U.S. reported a record of more than 500,000 new cases over the past week alone.

-ABC News’ Brian Hartman

Two Orange County firefighters were injured while battling the Silverado Fire.

At least two fires are burning in Southern California and more than 90,000 homes have been evacuated as gusty winds continue Tuesday.

The Silverado Fire, which critically injured two Orange County firefighters Monday, has burned through more than 11,000 acres in Irvine, and is 5% contained.

The injured firefights are “fighting for their lives,” Orange County Fire Authority Chief Brian Fennessy said at a press conference Tuesday afternoon.

“It’s tough for any firefighter, especially the fire chief, to feel this helpless when you have your fire family fighting for their lives,” he said.

The Blue Ridge Fire, in Yorba Linda and Chino Hills, has scorched more than 15,000 acres and has destroyed one house, according to fire officials.

On Monday, winds gusted up to 96 mph in the Los Angeles County mountains and there were rapidly spreading brush fires in the area.

A red flag warning stretches from Southern Oregon down to western Arizona on Tuesday with high wind alerts for California, Nevada and Arizona. The wind conditions are expected to improve throughout the day.

The San Francisco Bay area is expected to see lighter winds, but the mountains and valleys outside of the city will see gusty winds and very dry conditions.

Winds in Southern California will not be as extreme as they were Monday, but with such dry conditions, any wind could help spread wildfires.

Some of the gusts today could reach 40-60 mph in the mountains and even 40-50 mph in some coastal areas.

A U.S. citizen living in Niger has been kidnapped, ABC News has learned.

A U.S. citizen living in Niger has been kidnapped, a Nigerien Ministry of Defense source told ABC News.

Philip Walton, 27, was kidnapped from his backyard in the West African nation after his assailants asked him for money but he only offered $40, according to the source. Walton lives with his wife and young daughter on a farm near Massalata, a small village in southern Niger near the country’s border with Nigeria.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State confirmed to ABC News that an American citizen has been abducted in Niger and that the U.S. government is “providing their family all possible consular assistance.” The spokesperson declined to comment further on the case, citing “privacy considerations,” but added, “When a U.S. citizen is missing, we work closely with local authorities as they carry out their search efforts, and we share information with families however we can.”

The Nigerien Ministry of Defense source told ABC News that the kidnappers are believed to be an armed group from neighboring Nigeria but, for now, the incident isn’t considered terror-related.

Niger, which is three times the size of California and home to some 22 million people, is one of many nations in Africa‘s Sahel region that is plagued by terrorism and instability. But the Nigerien military has been a close partner to the United States in the fight against regional jihadist groups, including affiliates of both al Qaeda and ISIS.

Last week, a United Nations-backed donor summit raised $1.7 billion to support governments in the Central Sahel region as U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned that a fast-growing humanitarian crisis created by a combination of conflict, climatic changes and poverty is at a “breaking point,” with 13.4 million people in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger who are in need of assistance and protection this year to survive.

The notion that prisons can be sealed from the outside is “magical thinking.”

Nearly half of South Dakota’s 3,347-person prison population has tested positive for COVID-19, according to the most recent data released by the state’s department of corrections Tuesday.

“Unfortunately, the result was predictable,” said Leo Beletsky, a professor of law and health sciences at Northeastern University. “In many states, the top hotspots for COVID spread have been prisons and jails.”

South Dakota’s concerning rate of COVID-19 in prisons is part of a larger narrative. Like so many aspects of the pandemic, the virus has shined a light on vulnerable communities and weak spots in the health care system. Prisons and jails, many of which are chronically overcrowded dormitory settings with shared toilets and showers, and where basic hygiene is hard to uphold, are primed for infectious disease outbreaks.

“People don’t even have access to soap,” Beletsky added.

Then there’s the population itself. Incarcerated people have higher rates of underlying conditions than the general population, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which puts them at risk for severe complications and death if they contract the virus.

“The reality is that people are living on top of each other and breathing infected air,” said Kate Chatfield, senior adviser for legislation and policy at The Justice Collaborative, a criminal justice research and advocacy organization.

In conjunction with the state health department, the corrections department is doing mass testing in all facilities, according to Mike Leidholt, secretary of corrections. In addition to screening for COVID-19 symptoms and quarantining those who test positive and their close contacts, they’ve restricted access to community work programs and suspended in-person visitation and volunteer opportunities.

In a statement to ABC News, Leidholt detailed additional changes, including: “revised schedules to increase social distancing, bolstered disinfection efforts and laundry services, implemented physical plant changes and adjusted admission and intake processes.”

“All inmates and staff are wearing masks,” Leidholt added.

Importantly, COVID-19 infections in South Dakota prisons don’t exist in a bubble. By every available metric, South Dakota’s COVID-19 outbreak is worsening. On Tuesday, daily infections, hospitalizations, testing positivity rate and deaths were all rising in South Dakota, according to an ABC News analysis of data from The COVID Tracking Project.

“This idea that a correctional facility can be cordoned off and sealed doesn’t reflect reality,” Beletsky said. “That’s magical thinking.”

Instead, prison staff enter and leave the premises, meaning they can seed infections at prisons and can also carry infections contracted at work into the community. “It’s worth mentioning that the folks behind bars aren’t the only ones affected,” Beletsky said. “This is also an occupational safety concern for the staff.”

In a rural state like South Dakota, community spread can be devastating. “Prisons tend to be in rural areas, and often rural areas do not have robust hospital and health care systems,” Chatfield said. Outbreaks in rural areas are especially scary, she added, because they strain the health care system.

Rural communities’ health resources were dwindling before the pandemic. Many rural communities that used to have hospitals recently lost them — 95 rural hospitals closed between January 2010 and January 2019, according to the Department of Health and Human Services’s Federal Office of Rural Health Policy. Of those facilities, 32 were critical access hospitals.

Nationwide, 152,955 people in prison had tested positive as of Oct. 20, according to data from the Marshall Project.

ABC News’ Soorin Kim, Brian Hartman, Benjamin Bell and Arielle Mitropoulos contributed to this report.

What to know about the coronavirus:

How it started and how to protect yourself: Coronavirus explained

What to do if you have symptoms: Coronavirus symptoms

Tracking the spread in the U.S. and worldwide: Coronavirus map

Tune into ABC at 1 p.m. ET and ABC News Live at 4 p.m. ET every weekday for special coverage of the novel coronavirus with the full ABC News team, including the latest news, context and analysis.

The French president had called Islam a “religion in crisis.”

PARIS — Several Arab countries are condemning French President Emmanuel Macron after he said he would propose legislation to tackle Islamist separatism and paid tribute to history teacher Samuel Paty, who was murdered after showing caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad in class. Macron has previously called Islam a “religion in crisis.”

Thousands of protesters took to the streets in Bangladesh and the Gaza Strip this week after Macron’s comments led to social media channels to be flooded with the hashtags #BoycottFrenchProducts and #NeverTheProphet.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan publicly called for the boycott of French products on Tuesday, decrying “rising Islamophobia in Europe.” Some shops have already removed dozens of French brands from their shelves. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Monday the French ambassador to Turkey would be called back to Paris for consultation amid rising diplomatic tensions.

Leaders and officials in Iran, Pakistan and Qatar have also come out to denounce Macron’s support of the Prophet Muhammad cartoons, which many Muslims find disrespectful. Pakistan’s prime minister, Imran Khan, even called on Facebook to place a ban on Islamophobia and hate speech against Islam “given the rampant abuse and vilification of Muslims on social media platforms.”

The Qatari State has condemned an escalation of “populist rhetoric inciting the abuse of religions.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif said insulting 1.9 billion Muslims for “the abhorrent crimes of such extremists is an opportunistic abuse of freedom of speech.”

The Oct. 16 killing of Paty has led to protests across France. The French Council for the Muslim Faith denounced the history teacher’s murder as “a betrayal of the message of the prophet” but said “forcing [the cartoons] on everyone by projecting them on public buildings or showing them to children in a compulsory education setting is another thing.”

On Sunday, Macron pleaded for unity.

“We are united,” he tweeted, adding, “We will not give in, ever” in both English and Arabic.

Debate around Islam is raging as the French government seeks to implement strong measures against radical Islamism.

Meanwhile, European leaders are standing behind France. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas called Erdogan’s comments “completely unacceptable” and European Union High Representative Josep Borelles said Turkey needs to “stop this dangerous spiral of confrontation.”

New recommendations from the United States Preventive Services Task Force aim to offset what experts call an alarming trend in American health: a rising number of young people are getting diagnosed with, and dying from, colorectal cancer.

The Task Force announced Tuesday morning their proposal to lower the suggested age for when to start colorectal screenings, moving it up five years, from 50, to 45 years old. The move may indicate a growing call for awareness and accelerate action amongst an age group that may not know they’re at risk.

“The prognosis is so much better if you catch it at an earlier stage,” Dr. Kimmie Ng, the director of the Young-Onset Colorectal Cancer Center at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, told ABC News. “These new guidelines are hugely significant. They support and validate the alarming epidemiologic trends we’ve been seeing: This cancer is rising at about a rate of 2% per year, in people under the age of 50, since the 1990s.”

Colorectal cancer impacts the gastrointestinal system’s final segment. While lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in the U.S., colorectal cancer comes second, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — and yet, it remains one of the most treatable, even curable cancers, when caught in its early stages.

“Way too young” were the words resounding across the globe late this summer, when news broke that actor Chadwick Boseman, at just 43 years old, had died of colon cancer. Boseman had kept his long, difficult battle mostly private, but the shock of his loss was compounded by a common misconception: that the disease only strikes older people.

Even though overall incidence and mortality rates for colorectal cancer have decreased over the past few decades, colorectal cancer deaths among younger adults continue to climb. It’s a concerning trend, experts told ABC News, pointing out the importance of testing and early intervention.

In 2018, the American Cancer Society updated their guidelines, recommending that those at average risk of colorectal cancer begin regular screening at age 45. Experts hope the Task Force’s update shines a light on the importance of the issue.

For years prior, screening was not generally recommended for the below-50 crowd. This led to potentially vulnerable, or even sick adults putting off testing thinking their symptoms did not rise to the level of firm diagnosis. Because of this lack of awareness, pernicious, possibly cancerous growths remained undetected for too long, experts say, and now, young patients are suffering from more advanced, harder to treat cancers.

“Cancer is simply not on their radar,” Ng said, speaking more specifically about colon cancer. “They’re otherwise young and healthy. So we need to emphasize that yes, this can happen in young people.”

Nearly 25% of screening-eligible Americans have never been screened for colon cancer, and yet, it is expected to cause over 53,000 American deaths this year alone. Of the roughly 148,000 individuals who will be diagnosed with colorectal cancer in 2020, about 18,000 of those cases will be young people, according to the American Cancer Society. And although most commonly diagnosed in older adults, about one in every 10 new cases occur in people under 50, according to data collected from the CDC’s National Program of Cancer Registries.

And the trend seems to have no end in sight, as the rate of new colorectal cancer cases in young patients is expected to double by 2030.

The diagnosis strikes younger patients at a different stage in their lives, catching them unaware. Dr. Nancy You, a colorectal surgical oncologist at the MD Anderson Cancer Center, said she’s been “in the trenches” with younger patients, and that tension between life and unexpected sickness.

“The emotions are high when these younger patients walk in the door,” You told ABC. “It catches them completely off guard. They’re finishing school, trying to make a career, building relationships, families, and then this.”

“So, if we’re able to move the needle at all, lowering the stage they’re diagnosed, or when the tumor is smaller, hopefully, that’s a window of intervention such that we never get to invasive cancer.”

The new USPSTF guidelines are not yet final: For the next four weeks, the public will have the chance to peer review for feedback on the recommendation to the Task Force.

“We really approach this in an open way,” Dr. Michael Barry, USPSTF member and director of Informed Medical Decisions in the Health Decision Sciences Center at Massachusetts General Hospital. “We really try to be transparent and take different perspectives into account, before we make a final recommendation. This is an opportunity for clarification.”

With the adoption of this recommendation, more patients in an expanded age bracket will have access to screenings without having to worry about the out-of-pocket cost. Insurance coverage is “directly tied to this Task Force’s recommendations,” Ng said.

So, why has the median age for colorectal cancer shifted lower? “That is really the million dollar question we’re working to understand,” Ng said. One’s diet and one’s lifestyle choices are both suspected to have an impact, but Ng said, the “vast majority” of the younger patients she and her colleagues see live active, healthy lifestyles and have no family history.

There’s another issue, one intertwined with the socioeconomic disparity linked to nutrition and quality of life: Rates of colorectal cancer are higher in Black people, according to the Task Force and experts on the matter.

“We see these well-known disparities in the incidence of colon cancer and mortality from colorectal cancer by race,” Ng said, “Black people are much more likely to get this disease — and at a younger age — than white people, and more likely to die of colorectal cancer than white people. These new guidelines hopefully will contribute to helping to mitigate some of that.”

Colon cancer screening methods run the gamut from clinical visits to at-home collection. Experts agree, the “best” test is the one that optimizes screening and understanding.

“The best test is the one that the patient will do,” Barry said.

Ng also said that while a colonoscopy is considered the “gold standard,” it just isn’t for everybody. And not everybody will do it, as we’ve seen, because compliance rates with colorectal cancer screening across the U.S. are currently only about 60%.

Screening for colon cancer earlier won’t have a specific downside: The risk of bleeding, or tears in the intestinal lining, that occur with colonoscopy occur more frequently in older patients, experts say. But the current guidelines — even the new ones — won’t sweep worries or undiagnosed cases off the table.

“For a lot of people diagnosed under the age of 45, like Boseman, these new guidelines still won’t help those younger patients,” Ng said. “And so, research really has to continue, into who exactly we should target and why this is happening.”