Appeals court upholds sex crimes conviction of Jeffrey Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell
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(NEW YORK) — A federal appeals court in New York on Tuesday upheld the sex crimes conviction of Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime associated of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Ghislaine, in March, asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to overturn her conviction and 20-year prison sentence for recruiting and grooming the underage girls who Epstein sexually abused, arguing she was immunized by an agreement federal prosecutors in Florida arranged with Epstein in 2007.
On Tuesday, the appeals court ruled that Maxwell was not covered by Epstein’s non-prosecution agreement and said the alleged crimes fell within the statute of limitations.
Maxwell’s attorneys had argued that she was made a “proxy” for Epstein, who died by suicide in prison while awaiting trial, to “satisfy public outrage” about his conduct.
Maxwell was convicted in 2021 after prosecutors said that, from 1994 to 2004, she worked together with Epstein to identify girls, groom them, and then transport them to Epstein’s properties in New York, Florida, New Mexico, and elsewhere. The girls — some of whom were as young as 14 years old — were then sexually abused, often under the guise of a “massage,” prosecutors said.
Maxwell is currently incarcerated in a low-security prison in Tallahassee and eligible for release in 2037.
(LOS ANGELES) — Human-amplified climate change is making it more likely that extreme heat to lasts longer into fall, as record-breaking temperatures for the month of October blanket much of the western U.S.
An unprecedented late season heat wave is in effect in the West, with October temperatures broken in major cities, several of which are still experiencing triple-digit heat.
On Tuesday, Palm Springs reached 117 degrees Fahrenheit; Phoenix hit 113 degrees while Tucson got up to 105 degrees.
Elsewhere in California, San Jose broke its daily record at 100 degrees; Oakland reached 96 degrees; Napa hit a daily record at 99 degrees; and downtown San Francisco reached 94 degrees, the hottest October temperature in the city in two years.
Some regions are expected to experience even hotter conditions on Wednesday. Heat alerts have been issued throughout California, Arizona and Nevada. Excessive heat warnings are also in place for San Francisco, Las Vegas and Phoenix, and a heat advisory has been issued in Los Angeles.
The geographic range of the record heat is expected to expand eastward, including Colorado, where Denver could reach a record-high of 90 degrees.
If Denver reaches the 90s, it will be the latest 90-degree temperature ever recorded in the city, records show.
The record heat is expected to last into the weekend for most of the West.
Fire danger is also high from California to Montana due to the dry, hot and windy conditions.
Human-amplified climate change is increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme heat events, according to climate scientists.
The average number of heat waves that major U.S. cities experience each year has doubled since the 1980s, according to the federal government’s Fifth National Climate Assessment, released last November.
The record-breaking temperature for the month of October set in Palm Springs and Phoenix on Monday were made at least five times more likely by human-amplified climate change, according to Climate Central’s Climate Shift Index.
Global warming is also helping fuel extreme heat that persists well into the fall season.
Fall nights have warmed by 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit, on average, from 1970 to 2023 in 212 U.S. cities, according to a Climate Central analysis.
Fall warming is widespread across the contiguous U.S., and most intense in the Southwest, according to a Climate Central analysis.
ABC News’ Matthew Glasser and Daniel Peck contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — NASA and SpaceX are set to launch a critical mission Saturday to bring home the two astronauts who flew Boeing’s Starliner to the International Space Station.
The SpaceX Crew-9 Dragon will take off with two empty seats and extra spacesuits for Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams, who have been in space since June. Wilmore and Williams performed the first crewed test flight of the Starliner and were supposed to be on the ISS for about a week.
NASA and Boeing officials decided to send Starliner back to Earth last month after several mechanical issues, keeping Wilmore and Williams onboard the ISS until February 2025.
The unmanned Starliner landed safely at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico in the early hours of Sept. 7.
The Dragon spacecraft was originally scheduled to travel to the ISS with four astronauts for a routine science mission. Astronauts Nick Hague and Aleksandr Gorbunov will crew the spacecraft to the ISS.
(NEW YORK) — Police in New York City are urging the public for help in identifying a suspect who shot five people at New York City’s West Indian American Day Parade on Monday in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Crown Heights.
One of the victims, a 25-year-old who was shot in the abdomen, has died, a spokesperson for the NYPD told ABC News on Tuesday. Police have not named the victims, but NYPD Chief of Patrol John Chell said during a press conference on Monday afternoon that of the five victims, four are males and one is female.
“Two are critical. Three are going to survive,” Chell said.
The event is one of the world’s largest festivals celebrating Caribbean culture, drawing more than a million participants and spectators, according to event organizers.
According to Chell, an unidentified gunman targeted a group of people in a shooting that took place at around 2:35 p.m. ET along the parade’s route near 301 Eastern Parkway.
“This was not random,” Chell said. “This was an intentional act by one person towards a group of people.”
“We do not by no means have any active shooter or anything of that nature running around Eastern Parkway as we speak,” he added and indicated that the parade would go on following the shooting.
According to WABC, the four other victims include a 69-year-old woman shot in the back right shoulder, a 64-year-old man shot in the right arm, a 36-year-old man shot in the head and a 16-year-old male who was shot in the left arm.
Chell described the suspect as a Black male in his 20s with a slim build, wearing a brown shirt with paint stains and a black bandana.
The NYPD is urging the public to share any photos of videos of the parade that could help the investigation.
“If you have any information at all about the individual who opened fire into the crowd of West Indian Day Parade revelers, we need you to call [NYPDTips] immediately,” the NYPD’s 77th precinct wrote in a Monday afternoon post on “X.” “If you have video or photo, it may be crucial to the investigation; please come forward with it.”
The festival, which is also known as J’Ouvert – a creole and French word that means “daybreak,” has been marred by gun violence in the past, according to ABC station in New York City, WABC.
The NYPD said that Labor Day weekend is “one of the toughest” weekends for police in the city, with multiple events taking place, including the festival.
“Our cops are working extremely hard, it’s been one of the safest months that we’ve had in a long time in New York City, and we have one of our safest weeks with shooting violence,” police said. “However, today, one person intentionally going after a group of people tried to ruin the day for everybody, and we’re not going to let that happen.”
ABC News’ Aaron Katersky contributed to this report.
