Chinese hacking effort is far more pervasive than previously reported, sources say

(LOS ANGELES) — An apparent tornado touched down in a small Northern California city Saturday, flipping cars, causing significant damage and sending several people to the hospital.

The National Weather Service said the apparent tornado touched down at about 1:40 p.m. local time in Scotts Valley, about 30 miles south of San Jose.

Several people were taken to the hospital with injuries, but there are no reported deaths, according to a press release from the Scotts Valley Police Department.

“Emergency medical teams are prioritizing those most in need of care, and we continue to monitor the situation closely,” police said in the news release.

The tornado caused “significant damage” in several areas, police said.

Photos shared by police on social media showed multiple cars turned on their sides along the roadway and in a shopping center parking lot.

The weather service confirmed the tornado based on videos, photos, witness accounts and radar and said a survey team would further investigate damage on the ground to determine how strong it was.

California averages about 11 tornadoes a year, typically in the fall and spring, according to the weather service.

Earlier Saturday morning, the weather service issued the first tornado warning for San Francisco, amid a strong storm that knocked out power for thousands, according to ABC station KGO.

The tornado warning in San Francisco was lifted about 20 minutes later.

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(NEW YORK) — Opening statements will begin Friday in the trial of subway rider Daniel Penny charged in the May 2023 choking death of Jordan Neely, a homeless man, in a New York City subway car.

The jury was seated Wednesday. The trial is expected to last between four and six weeks, according to Judge Max Wiley.

Penny, a former Marine, has pleaded not guilty to the charges of second-degree manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide in Neely’s death.

Wiley denied Penny’s bid to dismiss his involuntary manslaughter case in January.

Penny put Neely, 30, in a fatal chokehold “that lasted approximately 6 minutes and continued well past the point at which Mr. Neely had stopped purposeful movement,” prosecutors with the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office have said.

Penny’s attorneys said they were “saddened at the loss of human life” but that Penny saw “a genuine threat and took action to protect the lives of others,” arguing that Neely was “insanely threatening” to passengers aboard the F train in Manhattan.

Witness accounts differ on Neely’s behavior on the train, prosecutors say.

They note that many witnesses relayed that Neely expressed that he was homeless, hungry and thirsty, and most of the witnesses recount that Neely indicated a willingness to go to jail or prison.

Some witnesses report that Neely threatened to hurt people on the train, while others did not report hearing those threats, according to police sources.

Some witnesses told police that Neely was yelling and harassing passengers on the train; however, others have said though Neely had exhibited erratic behavior, he had not been threatening anyone in particular and had not become violent, police sources also told ABC News following the incident.

Some passengers on the train that day said they didn’t feel threatened — one “wasn’t really worried about what was going on” and another called it “like another day typically in New York. That’s what I’m used to seeing. I wasn’t really looking at it if I was going to be threatened or anything to that nature, but it was a little different because, you know, you don’t really hear anybody saying anything like that,” according to court filings by the prosecution.

Other passengers described their fear in court filings. One passenger said they “have encountered many things, but nothing that put fear into me like that.” Another said Neely was making “half-lunge movements” and coming within a “half a foot of people.”

Neely, who was homeless at the time of his death, had a documented mental health history and a history of arrests, including alleged instances of disorderly conduct, fare evasion and assault, according to police sources.

Less than 30 seconds after Penny allegedly put Neely into a chokehold, the train arrived at the Broadway-Lafayette Station: “Passengers who had felt fearful on account of being trapped on the train were now free to exit the train. The defendant continued holding Mr. Neely around the neck,” said prosecutor Joshua Steinglass in a court filing against Penny’s dismissal request.

According to prosecutors, footage of the interaction, which began about 2 minutes after the incident started, captures Penny holding Neely for about 4 minutes and 57 seconds on a relatively empty train with a couple of passengers nearby.

Prosecutors said that about 3 minutes and 10 seconds into the video, Neely ceases all purposeful movement.

“After that moment, Mr. Neely’s movements are best described as ‘twitching and the kind of agonal movement that you see around death,'” the prosecutor said.

The defense argued Penny had no intent to kill, but Steinglass noted that the second-degree manslaughter charge only requires prosecutors to prove Penny acted recklessly, not intentionally.

“We are confident that a jury, aware of Danny’s actions in putting aside his own safety to protect the lives of his fellow riders, will deliver a just verdict,” Penny’s lawyers, Steven Raiser and Thomas Kenniff, said after Penny’s request to dismiss the charge was denied.

In a past statement to ABC News, an attorney representing Neely’s family said, “This case is simple. Someone got on a train and was screaming so someone else choked them to death. Those two things do not and will never balance. There is no justification.”

“Jordan had the right to take up his own space. He was allowed to be on that train and even to scream. He did not touch anyone. He was not a visitor on that train, in New York, or in this country,” attorney Donte Mills said.

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(NEW YORK) — New video obtained by ABC News shows UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson’s killer waiting for him moments before shooting him outside a Midtown Manhattan hotel.

The video shows others pass by, and then, when the masked gunman sees Thompson, he runs across the street and opens fire.

The video, which has not previously been seen publicly, appears to support the police narrative that the shooter targeted Thompson in the Wednesday morning attack because he loitered while others wandered by.

Police haven’t established a motive but said they haven’t uncovered evidence that would show the killing had anything to do with Thompson’s private life.

The unidentified suspect appeared to have planned his movements with precision, but law enforcement is “on the right track,” Mayor Eric Adams told New York ABC station WABC on Sunday.

“As I say, the net is closing and closing,” Adams said. “This was an extremely challenging investigation. A fully masked person. The amount of detective work it took to put the pieces together — we feel we’re getting closer and closer.”

NYPD detectives arrived this weekend in Georgia. Investigators have said the suspect took a bus to New York, arriving on Nov. 24 from Atlanta, although it was unclear if his travels began in that city. And the FBI is assisting the nationwide manhunt, according to law enforcement sources.

Back in New York on Sunday, members of the New York Police Department’s dive team were again searching underwater in the Central Park. They were seen in the water near the Bethesda Fountain.

The masked gunman shot Thompson at point-blank range at 6:44 a.m. on Dec. 4 outside the New York Hilton Midtown, where Thompson’s company was holding an investors conference. NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch described the attack as “brazen” and “targeted.”

Adams on Sunday declined to comment on specific evidence, saying only that “every piece is important.” And he spoke generally about the ongoing underwater search.

“Everywhere is important. Everyplace is important,” Adams said, adding a moment later, “It’s dark down there, you know.”

The suspect’s backpack — with Monopoly money inside — was found nearby in Central Park. Police have not yet recovered the distinctive gun used in the shooting.

On Wednesday morning, right after the shooting, the suspect fled by bike through Central Park to the Upper West Side. He then took a taxi to the Port Authority bus facility at 178th Street and boarded a bus out of New York City, according to police.

NYPD officials released new images this weekend of the suspect in the back of a taxi, where he could be seen peering through the open slider in the partition between the seats. Another photo appeared to show the man walking by the window of a cab.

“I don’t want to do anything that’s going to tip him off that we’re on his trail, but we feel really good where we are,” Adams said on Sunday. “Finding the knapsack, getting the cab photos, looking at some of the evidence that we have available to us, we feel really good where we are.”

ABC News’ Bill Hutchinson, Jon Haworth, Ivan Pereira and David Brennan contributed to this report.

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