NASA, SpaceX prepare to launch capsule to bring home Starliner astronauts
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(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 CITY) — Comedian Tony Hinchcliffe came under fire for comments made about Latinos and Puerto Rico at former President Donald Trump’s Sunday campaign rally in New York City’s Madison Square Garden.
After making a vulgar joke about how Latinos “love making babies,” Hinchcliffe later turned to the Caribbean island.
“I don’t know if you guys know this, but there’s literally a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean right now. I think it’s called Puerto Rico.”
That joke came after Trump made a similar comment last Thursday, calling the U.S. a “garbage can for the world” in an escalation of his anti-immigrant rhetoric.
Hispanic groups on both sides of the aisle called Hinchcliffe comments “derogatory,” “offensive” and “disrespectful.”
An estimated 36.2 million Latinos are eligible to vote this year, making up about 15% of the electorate, according to Pew Research Center. Puerto Ricans who live in the U.S. territory do not have the right to vote in the presidential election — but key swing states like Florida and North Carolina are home to prominent Hispanic and Latino communities.
“The Trump campaign’s tolerance for offensive humor, especially against Puerto Rico and its residents, highlights a disturbing pattern of disregard toward the island’s people and its challenges,” the League of United Latin American Citizens said in a statement to ABC News. “Such careless words not only deepen wounds but also normalize harmful rhetoric.”
The Republican National Hispanic Assembly also condemned the remarks.
“Such ignorant comments not only fail to capture Puerto Rico’s resilience but also misrepresent the commitment shown to the island by President Trump and his administration,” its statement read. “Puerto Ricans deserve respect and recognition for their resilience and contributions to this great Nation.”
Frankie Miranda, president and CEO of Hispanic Federation, noted in a statement to ABC News that the Trump campaign gave Hinchcliffe a platform to make his remarks on the same day the Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign introduced a plan for resolving issues impacting Puerto Rico.
“Millions of Puerto Ricans in states like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Florida and New York may no longer live on the island, but they still revere it as their ancestral and cultural home, and you cannot continue to disrespect us and think that we are not going to remember that when we go to the ballot box,” Miranda said.
Hinchcliffe also made jokes targeting other racial or religious minorities, including both the Black and Jewish communities. He defended his jokes online in a response to criticism from Democrats like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Harris’ running mate Tim Walz.
“These people have no sense of humor,” Hinchcliffe wrote in an X post. “Wild that a vice presidential candidate would take time out of his ‘busy schedule’ to analyze a joke taken out of context to make it seem racist. I love Puerto Rico and vacation there. I made fun of everyone … watch the whole set. I’m a comedian Tim … might be time to change your tampon.”
The Trump campaign distanced itself from Tony Hinchcliffe’s joke against Puerto Rico.
“This joke does not reflect the views of President Trump or the campaign,” Trump campaign senior adviser Danielle Alvarez wrote in a statement to ABC News.
Other GOP figures, including María Elvira Salazar, denounced the jokes online.
“This rhetoric does not reflect GOP values,” Salazar said on X.
The joke came shortly after Harris announced an “Opportunity Economy” plan for Puerto Rico, which was applauded online by prominent Hispanic figures with tens of millions of followers, including singers Bad Bunny, Jennifer Lopez and Luis Fonsi.
Her plan includes the creation of a new task force for Puerto Rico with the goal of rebuilding and modernizing the territory’s energy grid, expanding access to clean energy, building affordable housing and more.
Trump has been criticized for how he handled Hurricane Maria in 2017, during his first term. He’s long overstated how much disaster funding Puerto Rico received after the storm and also came under fire for infamously tossing paper towels into a crowd of Puerto Ricans at a relief center in the hurricane-ravaged territory after Maria hit.
Additionally, FEMA lost track of more than a quarter-billion dollars in food and supplies intended for Puerto Rico over the course of its response to 2017 hurricanes Irma and Maria, according to a Department of Homeland Security report that found delays and mismanagement in the disaster response efforts.
However, Trump’s White House approved nearly $13 billion in federal aid to help rebuild Puerto Rico’s electrical grid system and the education system in 2020.
(ERWIN, Tenn.) — At least 54 people were trapped on the roof of a hospital in Tennessee on Friday after floodwaters due to Hurricane Helene quickly surrounded the medical center.
Everyone was rescued safely, Sen. Bill Hagerty said in a statement.
Unicoi County Hospital — located in the northeastern part of the state on the border with North Carolina — took on so much flooding that those inside could no longer be safely evacuated and had to relocate to the roof.
In addition to the people trapped on the roof, seven people were in rescue boats. The National Guard and the Tennessee Emergency Management Agency (TEMA) are currently engaged in “a dangerous rescue operation,” according to Ballad Health, a health care company that runs a chain of hospitals.
“I don’t think very many people have seen something like this before,” Ballad Health CEO Alan Levine said while speaking at Unicoi County High School. “The most important thing is the safety of our employees and patients. Thank God, thanks to the great work of Tennessee and Virginia partnering to help us get this rescue underway, they’re all safe.”
Rep. Diana Harshbarger posted on the social platform X on Friday afternoon that helicopters had arrived to help evacuate people off the roof.
Ballad Health said in a statement on X on Friday that it received notice a little after 9:30 a.m. ET from the Unicoi County Emergency Management Agency that the hospital needed to be evacuated to the water from a nearby river rising quickly.
Although ambulances were quick to help evacuate patients, the hospital became flooded so quickly that the ambulances could not safely approach the hospital.
TEMA coordinated with local emergency management agencies so boats could be deployed to assist with the evacuation. However, water began flooding the hospital building causing an “extremely dangerous and impassable” that prevented boats from reaching the hospital.
What’s more, high winds had previously prevented helicopters from evacuating the hospital.
“We ask everyone to please pray for the people at Unicoi County Hospital, the first responders on-scene, the military leaders who are actively working to help, and our state leaders,” Ballad Health said in a statement. “Ballad Health appreciates the support and effort of Mayors Garland Evely, Patty Woodby and Joe Grandy, each of whom has offered assistance and have maintained ongoing contact with Ballad Health leadership.”
ABC News’ Alexandra Faul and Mike Noble contributed to this report.
Hunter Biden, son of U.S. President Joe Biden departs the J. Caleb Boggs Federal Building on June 03, 2024 in Wilmington, Del. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
(LOS ANGELES) — After hours of legal wrangling on Thursday, Hunter Biden pleaded guilty to nine tax-related charges in a last-minute bid to avoid a lengthy and potentially embarrassing trial, abandoning an earlier proposal to plead guilty while maintaining his innocence on the underlying conduct.
U.S. Judge Mark Scarsi accepted Hunter Biden’s guilty plea to his nine-count tax case. Sentencing in the case is scheduled for Dec. 16.
Scarsi clarified that Hunter Biden faces a maximum sentence of 17 years in prison and a fine of as much as $1.35 million.
“Do you agree that you committed every element of every crime alleged…in the indictment?” Judge Scarsi asked.
“Yes,” Hunter Biden said before pleading guilty to each count of the indictment.
It was perhaps the most stunning twist in a legal drama that has for years been defined by unexpected turns – and immediately raised the specter of a presidential pardon, despite President Joe Biden’s previous assurance that he would not grant his son clemency.
Prosecutors accused Hunter Biden in December of engaging in a four-year scheme to avoid paying $1.4 million in taxes while spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on exotic cars, clothing, escorts, drugs and luxury hotels.
Hunter Biden had originally pleaded not guilty to a nine-count indictment that includes six misdemeanor charges of failure to pay, plus a felony tax evasion charge and two felony charges of filing false returns.
But on Thursday, just moments before prospective jurors were to be summoned into the Los Angeles courtroom where his trial was scheduled to begin, Abbe Lowell, an attorney for Hunter Biden, announced his intention to submit a so-called “Alford plea,” which would allow Hunter Biden to plead guilty on all counts but preclude him from acknowledging guilt on the underlying conduct.
When prosecutors opposed that path – and Judge Scarsi expressed some hesitation in granting it – attorneys for Hunter Biden said he would enter a traditional guilty plea.
“Mr. Biden is prepared to proceed today and finish this,” Lowell said Thursday afternoon in court.
In pleading guilty to the tax charges, Hunter Biden managed to avoid what was expected to be a grueling and potentially embarrassing weekslong trial, during which prosecutors had planned to examine interludes from his time suffering drug addiction and his overseas business ventures.
Attorneys in special counsel David Weiss’ office had planned to introduce more than two dozen witnesses, including Hunter Biden’s ex-wife and her sister.
Dressed in a dark suit and thick-rimmed glasses, Hunter Biden on Thursday addressed the court to acknowledge that he understood the potential consequences of a guilty plea. His voice showed little emotion and he occasionally glanced into the gallery, where his wife, Melissa Cohen Biden, was seated.
Prosecutor Leo Wise, who earlier in the day called the Alford plea proposal “an injustice,” then read the entire 56-page indictment aloud in court to establish a factual record.
Thursday’s court appearance comes three months after Hunter Biden was convicted by a Delaware jury on three felony charges related to his purchase of a firearm in 2018 while allegedly addicted to drugs. His sentencing in that case is scheduled for Nov. 13.
What did prosecutors allege?
In their 56-page indictment, prosecutors alleged that Hunter Biden willfully avoided paying taxes by subverting his company’s own payroll system, that he failed to pay his taxes on time despite having the money to do so, and that he included false information in his 2018 tax returns.
“[T]he defendant spent this money on drugs, escorts and girlfriends, luxury hotels and rental properties, exotic cars, clothing, and other items of a personal nature, in short, everything but his taxes,” the indictment alleged.
Prosecutors also highlighted millions of dollars that Hunter Biden received from overseas business in Ukraine, China, and Romania in exchange for “almost no work.”
Although Hunter Biden eventually paid back all his back taxes and penalties with the help of a third party — identified by ABC News as Hunter Biden confidant Kevin Morris — Judge Scarsi blocked defense attorneys from introducing that information to the jury.
“Evidence of late payment here is irrelevant to Mr. Biden’s state of mind at the time he allegedly committed the charged crimes,” Scarsi wrote in an order last week.
Last June, Hunter Biden agreed to plead guilty to two misdemeanor offenses, acknowledging that he failed to pay taxes on income he received in 2017 and 2018. The deal also allowed him to enter into a pretrial diversion agreement to avoid criminal charges related to his 2018 firearm purchase.
Had the deal worked out, Hunter Biden would have likely faced probation for the tax offenses and had his gun charge dropped if he adhered to the terms of his diversion agreement.
However, the plea deal fell apart during a contentious hearing before U.S. District Judge Maryellen Noreika, who took issue with the structure of the deal.
By September, the special counsel had unsealed an indictment in Delaware charging Hunter Biden for lying on a federal form when he purchased a firearm in 2018.
The federal indictment in Los Angeles for the tax crimes followed in December.
ABC News’ Olivia Rubin contributed to this report.
