2 people detained after vehicles, buildings fired at in Raleigh: Police

(AUSTIN, Texas) — A 28-year-old Texas woman died in 2021 after her abortion care was delayed for over 40 hours as she was having a miscarriage, according to a new story from ProPublica.

Josseli Barnica was told that it would be a “crime” to intervene in her miscarriage because the fetus still had cardiac activity, despite her 17-week pregnancy already resulting in a miscarriage that was “in progress,” according to medical records obtained by ProPublica.

The medical team told Barnica that she had to wait until there was no heartbeat due to Texas’ new abortion ban, Barnica’s husband told ProPublica.

Despite Texas enacting several abortion bans after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, it was the first state to restrict the procedure by enacting a law that permitted citizens to sue physicians who provide abortion care after six weeks of pregnancy — before most women know they are pregnant — for $10,000.

Anyone who “aided and abetted” an abortion, by actions such as driving a woman to obtain abortion care, could also be sued.

Forty hours after Barnica had arrived at a Texas hospital, physicians could not detect fetal cardiac activity and she was given medication to speed up her labor, according to the report. She was discharged about eight hours later, according to ProPublica.

She continued bleeding but when she called the hospital she was told that was expected, the story said. When the bleeding grew heavier two days later, she rushed back to the hospital, according to ProPublica.

Three days after she passed the pregnancy, Barnica died of an infection, according to ProPublica.

More than a dozen medical experts who reviewed the medical records told ProPublica that her death was preventable.

“These experts said that there was a good chance she might have survived if she’d been treated earlier,” Kavitha Surana, the reporter who wrote the story for ProPublica, told ABC News Live. “No one can say for sure where the sepsis developed. But 40 hours with your cervix wide open in a hospital, that is not the standard of care to require someone to take that risk.”

After Roe was overturned, a stricter ban went into effect, penalizing doctors found guilty of providing abortions with up to 99 years in prison and fines up to $100,000.

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(NEW YORK) — A witness got emotional recounting the day of the doomed Titan submersible dive while testifying Thursday during the U.S. Coast Guard’s hearing into the deadly implosion.

Renata Rojas, a banker who had previously gone on a dive to the Titanic on the experimental vessel, was volunteering and assisting the surface crew during the 2023 expedition when the submersible catastrophically imploded on a deep-sea voyage to the shipwreck site, killing five people, including OceanGate founder Stockton Rush.

The hearing took an approximately 10-minute break on Thursday during Rojas’ testimony so that she could compose herself before discussing the June 18, 2023, dive.

“They were just very happy to go,” Rojas recalled of the passengers, crying during her testimony. “That’s the memory I have. Nobody was really nervous. They were excited about what they’re going to see.”

Rojas testified that beyond issues with a dinghy, there was nothing unusual about the day of the dive — everything was done on time and they had “wonderful weather.”

She said the submersible went into the water on schedule, around 9:15 a.m. local time. She said she was waiting to hear updates on the dive after breakfast a couple hours later, but they had no update on the communications with the sub.

There was a loss of communication with the Titan at approximately 10:47 a.m. local time, according to the Coast Guard. The sub was expected to surface at about 3 p.m. local time, the Coast Guard said.

Rojas said there didn’t seem to be anything of concern until about 5 or 6 p.m. local time.

“Usually they’re allowed at least an hour in the bottom. Could it be possible that if they were in front of the bow, everybody begged in the sub to take another hour?” she said. “Like if it was me in the sub, I probably would have said, ‘Please give me another hour.’ You have to take that into account.”

After three hours of searching the surface for the sub, per OceanGate loss-of-communications protocol, the surface ship Polar Prince contacted the Canadian Coast Guard at 7:10 p.m. local time, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

Debris from the Titan was found after a four-day search.

In addition to Rush, those killed in the implosion included French explorer Paul Henri Nargeolet, British businessman Hamish Harding, Pakistani businessman Shahzada Dawood and his 19-year-old son, Suleman.

Rojas said she had saved “for a long time” for her own expedition to the Titanic. She said she didn’t think it would ever happen until she was connected with OceanGate.

She said she signed up in 2016 or 2017 to go on a dive in 2018, though didn’t go until July 2022. She said OceanGate had to make a new carbon-fiber hull and the COVID-19 pandemic caused delays.

She said she knew the submersible was experimental but felt safe.

“I knew what I was doing was very risky. I never, at any point, felt unsafe by the operation,” she said.

Asked if any OceanGate employees or past employees ever brought up safety concerns to her, Rojas said there was one who told her she wouldn’t get in the sub.

“This is never really sold as a Disney ride,” she said. “This is an expedition where things happen, and you have to adapt to change. That was, at least for me, it was very clear.”

She said as a passenger, she felt she was given the opportunity to voice any safety concerns, though never did personally.

“I knew the risk that I was taking, and still decided to go,” she said.

She said she understood that the sub was not classified by a certification society.

“It was similar to the Apollo program — they tested by doing,” she said. “Neil Armstrong didn’t ask somebody, ‘Is this vessel classed?’ before he went to space. He just got in and went.”

“For me, it was the drive of exploration,” she said. “Exploration requires risks.”

Rojas had done several dives with OceanGate, including a 2016 dive to the Andrea Doria shipwreck on OceanGate’s Cyclops 1 submersible. She said she paid $20,000 to go on it.

David Lochridge, the former director of marine operations for OceanGate, testified on Tuesday that Rush was difficult to work with during that Andrea Doria dive. Lochridge said Rush, who was piloting the sub, ended up getting the vessel stuck in the wreck and panicked. Lochridge said Rush was behaving unprofessionally and refused to relinquish control until Rojas, with tears in her eyes, yelled at Rush to give Lochridge the “effing controller” that piloted the vessel.

Lochridge testified that Rush threw the PlayStation controller at his head and one of the buttons came off, though he said he was able to repair it and get them back to the surface.

Rojas refuted part of Lochridge’s testimony on Thursday, saying, “He must have gone on a different dive. Nobody was panicking, nobody was crying, and there was definitely no swearing and yelling.”

She said Rush put the controller on the floor at Lochridge’s feet, and she did not see it broken.

Rojas, an experienced scuba diver, said she went on other dives with OceanGate until the Titan was ready to go to the Titanic. She recounted a 2015 meeting with Rush.

“He told me a sub had not been made, that he had plans to make a sub to go to Titanic,” she said. “It was going to take time, but he wanted me to go out on other expeditions, and, you know, kind of test the waters of how they did things.”

She said she enjoyed being a mission specialist — what OceanGate called its paying customers.

“It was fun. I was learning a lot. I was working with amazing people,” she said. “Some of those people are the very hard-working individuals that were just trying to make dreams come true.”

Rojas is the first mission specialist to testify during the two-week hearing, which started on Monday. Another, Fred Hagen, is scheduled to testify on Friday.

“We all want to find out what happened,” Rojas said at the close of her testimony on Thursday.

“What we have all gone through — it’s still raw,” she said, crying. “Nothing is going to bring our friends back. I hope that this investigation creates an understanding that with exploration, there’s risk. And without taking that risk and the exploration, the world would still be flat. I hope that innovation continues so that we can make the oceans accessible to people like me.”

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(NEW YORK) — New York City Mayor Eric Adams has been charged with five counts in an alleged long-standing conspiracy connected to improper benefits, illegal campaign contributions and an attempted cover-up, according to a sweeping indictment unsealed Thursday morning.

Adams, 64, faces one count of wire fraud, one count of conspiracy, two counts of solicitation of a contribution from a foreign national and one count of bribery, according to the indictment, charges that expose the mayor to significant prison time if convicted.

Adams, who was elected in 2021, is the first sitting New York City mayor to ever face charges.

Many of the accusations relate to Adams’ relationship with wealthy foreign businesspeople and Turkish officials.

Prosecutors say Adams accepted more than $100,000 in improper benefits, many of which came in the form of flight upgrades and stays in luxury hotels, none of which were publicly divulged as required.

He also allegedly received illegal campaign contributions to his first run for mayor and ongoing fundraising for a reelection run.

“ERIC ADAMS, the defendant, sought and accepted illegal campaign contributions in the form of ‘nominee’ or ‘straw’ contributions, meaning that the true contributors conveyed their money through nominal donors, who falsely certified they were contributing their own money,” the indictment states.

“As a result of those false certifications, ADAMS’s 2021 mayoral campaign received more than $10,000,000 in public funds,” the indictment alleges.

Adams addressed the press shortly after the indictment was unsealed, alongside a group of supporters, maintaining his innocence and vowing to fight the charges.

“I ask New Yorkers to hear our defense before making any judgments,” he said at the news conference, during which he was shouted at by some hecklers.

Adams vowed to continue to serve his duties.

“My day-to-day will not change,” he said.

“Everyone who knows me knows I follow campaign rules and I follow the law,” he reiterated several times.

Damian Williams, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, however, alleged that Adams knowingly violated those laws for years.

Williams outlined allegations in the indictment in a news conference Thursday and alleged Adams provided special favors for Turkish business leaders and government officials in exchange for campaign funds and lavish gifts, including upgraded airline tickets and trips and lavish hotel rooms.

“Adams started accepting undisclosed luxury travel benefits at least as early as 2016. He took these benefits nearly every year through 2021,” he said.

The gifts were worth over $100,000 and none of it was disclosed, according to Willaims. In fact, in some cases he told staffers that he paid for the trips when that was a lie, the U.S. attorney alleged. Adams, when he was the Brooklyn borough president, allegedly solicited foreign campaign contributions while traveling in Turkey in January 2019.

“I want to be clear these upgrades and freebies were not part of some frequent flier or loyalty program available to the general public. As we alleged, this was a multi-year scheme to buy favor with a single New York City politician on the rise, Eric Adams,” Williams said.

The indictment alleges Adams used straw donations to apply for the city’s matching funds program, which gives candidates public funds to match small donations only from New York City residents for any political campaign. As early as 2018, Adams and an unidentified staff member were in communication with a Turkish businessperson who funneled tens of thousands of dollars to straw donors for Adams’ 2021 mayoral campaign, according to the indictment.

“All told, the 2021 Campaign reaped over $10 million in Matching Funds based on the false certifications that the campaign complied with the law, when in fact ERIC ADAMS, the defendant, knowingly and repeatedly relied on illegal contributions,” the indictment said.

In addition, Williams alleged that a Turkish government official tried to open a new high-rise building in 2021 in Manhattan that would house Turkey’s consulate and pushed Adams to speed up the construction permits. Despite warnings from New York City fire safety professionals, Adams pressured the fire department to open the building.

“The FDNY professionals were convinced that they would lose their jobs if they didn’t back down. And so they did. They got out of the way and let the building open. The Turkish official got what he wanted,” Williams said.

“Just four days after Adams held up his end of the bargain, he went right back to soliciting more travel benefits from the Turkish airline,” Williams added.

Adams’ lawyer, Alex Spiro, said in a statement: “We have known for some time that they would try to find a way to bring a case against Mayor Adams. Yesterday — more improper leaks. Today — they emailed us a summons (and created the spectacle of a bogus raid). And very soon they will no doubt hold an hour-long dog-and-pony show presser rather than appear in open court.”

He continued, “Federal judges call them out all the time for spinning in front of the cameras and tainting jurors. But they keep doing it because they can’t help themselves, the spotlight is just too exciting. We will see them in court.”

The alleged conduct predates Adams’ time as mayor, when he served as Brooklyn borough president, up through his campaign for mayor and during his time in office.

“In 2014, ERIC ADAMS, the defendant, became Brooklyn Borough President,” the indictment begins. “Thereafter, for nearly a decade, ADAMS sought and accepted improper valuable benefits, such as luxury international travel, including from wealthy foreign businesspeople and at least one Turkish government official seeking to gain influence over him.”

“By 2018, ADAMS-who had by then made known his plans to run for Mayor of New York City-not only accepted, but sought illegal campaign contributions to his 2021 mayoral campaign, as well as other things of value, from foreign nationals,” it continued. “As ADAMS’s prominence and power grew, his foreign-national benefactors sought to cash in on their corrupt relationships with him, particularly when, in 2021, it became clear that ADAMS would become New York City’s mayor.”

It continued, “ADAMS agreed, providing favorable treatment in exchange for the illicit benefits he received. After his inauguration as Mayor of New York City, ADAMS soon began preparing for his next election, including by planning to solicit more illegal contributions and granting requests from those who supported his 2021 mayoral campaign with such donations.”

Williams said the investigation is ongoing and there may be others charged.

Federal agents showed up at Gracie Mansion, the city’s mayoral residence, and seized the mayor’s phone Thursday morning, Spiro told ABC News.

“He has not been arrested and looks forward to his day in court,” Spiro said, “They send a dozen agents to pick up a phone when we would have happily turned it in.”

Adams called the accusations “entirely false” in a taped speech addressed to New Yorkers on Wednesday night and said he would fight the indictment with “every ounce of my strength and my spirit.” He also said he would not resign as mayor.

“I always knew that If I stood my ground for all of you that I would be a target — and a target I became,” Adams said.

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