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California teacher dies after being bitten by a bat inside her classroom
A central California teacher died last month after she was bitten by a bat that presumably had rabies inside her classroom, officials and a friend of the woman, marking the third such fatality in North America in recent weeks.
In the wake of Leah Seneng’s death on Nov. 22, public health officials are warning the public about the dangers of bats, which are the most common source of human rabies in the U.S. Even though fewer than 10 people in the country die from rabies each year, it is almost always fatal if not treated quickly.
Seneng, 60, found a bat in her classroom in mid-October, her friend Laura Splotch told KFSN-TV. She tried to scoop it up and take it outside but it bit her, Splotch said.
Seneng did not immediately have symptoms of rabies but she fell ill weeks later and was taken to the hospital, where she was put into a medically-induced coma and died days later, Splotch told the TV station.
“It’s devastating to see her in that state, with all the machines hooked up and everything, it was pretty upsetting and scary,” Splotch told KFSN.
According to her Facebook profile, Seneng was an art teacher at Bryant Middle School in Dos Palos, California. The Dos Palos-Oro Loma Joint Unified School District, called Seneng “a dedicated and compassionate educator.”
“We were shocked to learn that Leah’s passing was related to contracting rabies, most likely from being bitten by a bat and we are cooperating with the Merced County Department of Public Health on their investigation,” the school district said in a statement. “We live and work in a community known to have bats and other wildlife around school grounds, and we will continue to help educate our community regarding the dangers associated with coming into direct contact with any wild animal, including bats.”
Merced County confirmed the rabies exposure but, due to privacy laws, did not release the deceased’s name. The California Department of Public Health confirmed that the victim died after contracting rabies.
“Bites from bats can be incredibly small and difficult to see or to detect. It is important to wash your hands and look for any open wounds after touching a wild animal, and to seek immediate medical care if bitten,” CDPH Director Dr. Tomás J. Aragón said in a statement. “It is always safest to leave wild animals alone. Do not approach, touch, or try to feed any animals that you don’t know.”
At least two other people in North America have died of rabies after encountering a bat in recent weeks. Last month, health officials in Canada announced that a child died from rabies after being exposed to a bat in their room. About a week before that, officials announced a U.S. citizen died from rabies after being exposed to a bat in western Minnesota in July.
How is rabies spread and what are the symptoms?
Rabies is a deadly viral infection that attacks the nervous system in humans and animals, causing brain and spinal cord inflammation. It is typically spread to humans through direct contact with the saliva of an infected animal through scratching or biting.
Rabies is commonly found in bats, raccoons, foxes, skunks and some household pets. Without proper and prompt treatment after symptoms appear, rabies is nearly 100 percent fatal in both animals and humans, according to Haldimand and Norfolk Health Services, where the child was admitted.
Treatment has proven to be nearly 100% effective at preventing the disease if someone is exposed, though it must start before symptoms appear.
Bats pose a unique risk because their scratches can be hard to notice due to their small teeth, and bats cannot be vaccinated through provincial programs, health officials said.
If bitten by an animal suspected of carrying the virus, health officials advise washing the wound thoroughly with soap and water for 15 minutes and immediately seeking medical attention.
According to the CDC, the incubation period of rabies may last from weeks to months, depending on the location of exposure, severity of exposure and age.
“The first symptoms of rabies, called prodrome, maybe like the flu, including weakness, discomfort, fever, or headache. There also may be discomfort, prickling, or an itching sensation at the site of the bite. These symptoms may last for several days,” the CDC says.
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Trump’s “border czar” claims Mexican cartels killed a quarter-million Americans with fentanyl. Here’s a fact check.
President-elect Donald Trump has said halting fentanyl trafficking across the southern border is a top priority for his administration, vowing to impose 25% tariffs on all imports from Mexico until the flow of “drugs, particularly fentanyl, and illegal immigrants” into the United States is stopped to his liking.
Trump has claimed fentanyl overdoses kill 300,000 people annually, a toll he said is “probably much more,” while incoming “border czar” Tom Homan alleged in a Fox News interview this week that Mexican cartels have “killed a quarter of a million Americans with fentanyl.”
Synthetic opioids such as fentanyl have become the leading cause of overdose deaths since 2016, devastating communities across the U.S. and causing a major public health challenge, according to the National Institutes of Health. Mexican cartels are the main source of finished fentanyl in the U.S., officials say.
However, both Trump and Homan cite inflated figures, and Trump often makes a misleading connection between migrants illegally crossing the border and the flow of fentanyl.
According to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, over 334,000 people in the U.S. died from drug overdoses involving synthetic opioids, such as fentanyl, over a nearly 10-year period from 2013 to 2022. As of July, the CDC’s latest provisional data recorded over 73,000 fentanyl overdose deaths in 2023.
More than 86% of people convicted of fentanyl trafficking during the 2023 fiscal year were American citizens, according to the U.S. Sentencing Commission. Researchers say drug trafficking organizations hire U.S. citizens because they are subject to less scrutiny.
The Trump transition team did not respond to a request for comment at the time of publication.
The fentanyl crisis
Fentanyl, a synthetic opioid approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use as a pain reliever and anesthetic, is about 50 times more powerful than heroin, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration. It is frequently mixed with heroin and other substances and has been found in pills mimicking pharmaceutical drugs, such as oxycodone, the agency said.
Mexican cartels are the main source of finished fentanyl that is distributed into the U.S., with China being the main supplier of the precursor chemicals and pill presses the cartels use to produce the drugs, according to a report released in May by the DEA.
The Department of Homeland Security found that as of December 2023, more than 90% of fentanyl is stopped at ports of entry, which are designated areas where people can legally enter the country.
Customs and Border Protection data analyzed by the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, found 80% of people caught with fentanyl at ports of entry from 2019 to 2024 were U.S. citizens.
Analysis of CDC data showed opioid overdose deaths increased year-over-year by 56% in 2020, and then rose by another 22% in 2021 when most migrants were prohibited from crossing the border under Title 42, a pandemic-era measure.
Combating drugs smuggled across the border
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has urged Trump against addressing migration and drug consumption in the U.S. through tariffs, vowing to retaliate with its own.
The CBP reported record fentanyl seizures in 2023 and 2024 and launched Operation Plaza Spike in April, a multi-agency effort targeting Mexican cartels and their logistics hubs to disrupt fentanyl trafficking.
Drug policy experts say preventing all drugs from being brought across the border may be difficult.
“We want to make it difficult for criminal organizations to conduct their business, but we have to be realistic about how difficult it would be to make it truly impossible,” said Dr. Jonathan Caulkins, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College of Information Systems and Public Policy.”Fentanyl is so extraordinarily potent that very small quantities can be sold for enormous sums of money.”
The flow of synthetic drugs is also difficult to stop because traffickers can easily replace any drug that is lost, according to Caulkins.
“If we prioritize attacking the most violent and corrupting organizations, we can reduce the harms that the overall drug supply chain creates in a matter that is also valuable to efforts to restrict the total quantity of fentanyl that comes into the country,” Caulkins said.
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South Korean lawmakers are deciding whether to impeach the president over his martial law bid
South Korean lawmakers on Saturday began meeting to vote on whether to impeach President Yoon Suk Yeol over his short-lived attempt to impose martial law, as protests grew nationwide calling for his removal.
They gathered in the National Assembly hours after Yoon issued a public apology over the move, saying he won’t shirk legal or political responsibility for the declaration and promising not to make another attempt to impose martial law.
In a brief televised address, Yoon said he would leave it to his party to chart a course through the country’s political turmoil, “including matters related to my term in office.”
“The declaration of this martial law was made out of my desperation. But in the course of its implementation, it caused anxiety and inconveniences to the public. I feel very sorry over that and truly apologize to the people who must have been shocked a lot,” Yoon said.
Since taking office in 2022, Yoon, a conservative, has struggled to push his agenda through an opposition-controlled parliament and grappled with low approval ratings amid scandals involving himself and his wife. In his martial law announcement on Tuesday night, Yoon called parliament a “den of criminals” bogging down state affairs and vowed to eliminate “shameless North Korea followers and anti-state forces.”
It isn’t immediately clear whether the motion to impeach Yoon will get the two-thirds support needed to pass. The opposition parties that jointly brought the impeachment motion control 192 of the legislature’s 300 seats, meaning they need at least eight additional votes from Yoon’s People Power Party.
That appeared more likely after the chair of Yoon’s party called for his removal on Friday, but the party remained formally opposed to impeachment.
Lawmakers on Saturday first voted on a bill appointing a special prosecutor to investigate stock price manipulation allegations surrounding Yoon’s wife. Some lawmakers from Yoon’s party were seen leaving the hall after that vote, triggering angry shouts from opposition lawmakers.
If Yoon is impeached, his powers will be suspended until the Constitutional Court decides whether to remove him from office. If he is removed, an election to replace him must take place within 60 days.
The turmoil resulting from Yoon’s bizarre and poorly-thought-out stunt has paralyzed South Korean politics and sparked alarm among key diplomatic partners, including neighboring Japan and Seoul’s top ally the United States, as one of the strongest democracies in Asia faces a political crisis that could unseat its leader.
Tuesday night saw special forces troops encircling the parliament building and army helicopters hovering over it, but the military withdrew after the National Assembly unanimously voted to overturn the decree, forcing Yoon to lift it before daybreak Wednesday. The declaration of martial law was the first of its kind in more than 40 years in South Korea.
Seemingly tens of thousands of people packed streets near the National Assembly, waving banners, shouting slogans and dancing and singing along to K-pop songs with lyrics changed to call for Yoon’s ouster. The protests were growing Saturday afternoon, with subway trains not stopping at the stations near the Assembly because of the sudden increase in crowds.
A smaller crowd of Yoon’s supporters, which still seemed to be in the thousands, rallied in separate streets in Seoul, decrying the impeachment attempt they saw as unconstitutional.
Opposition lawmakers say that Yoon’s attempt at martial law amounted to a self-coup, and drafted the impeachment motion around rebellion charges.
Lee Jae-myung, the leader of the main liberal opposition Democratic Party, told reporters that Yoon’s speech was “greatly disappointing” and that the only way forward is his immediate resignation or impeachment.
It’s not clear if members of Yoon’s PPP will break ranks to vote for impeachment. Eighteen lawmakers from a minority faction of the party joined the unanimous vote to cancel martial law, which passed 190-0. However, the party has decided to oppose the impeachment.
Experts say the PPP fears Yoon’s impeachment and possible removal from office would leave the conservatives in disarray and easily losing a presidential by-election to liberals.
On Friday, PPP chair Han Dong-hun, who also heads the minority faction that helped cancel martial law, called for suspending Yoon’s constitutional powers, describing him as unfit to hold the office and capable of taking more extreme actions. But Han is not a lawmaker and the party’s position remains anti-impeachment.
Han said he had received intelligence that during the brief period of martial law Yoon ordered the country’s defense counterintelligence commander to arrest and detain unspecified key politicians based on accusations of “anti-state activities.”
Following Yoon’s televised address, Han reiterated his call for him to step down, saying that the president wasn’t in a state where he could normally carry out official duties. “President Yoon Suk Yeol’s early resignation is inevitable,” Han told reporters.
Hong Jang-won, first deputy director of South Korea’s National Intelligence Service, later told lawmakers in a closed-door briefing that Yoon called after imposing martial law and ordered him to help the defense counterintelligence unit to detain key politicians. The targeted politicians included Han, Lee and National Assembly speaker Woo Won Shik, according to Kim Byung-kee, one of the lawmakers who attended the meeting.
The Defense Ministry said it had suspended the defense counterintelligence commander, Yeo In-hyung, who Han alleged had received orders from Yoon to detain the politicians. The ministry also suspended the commanders of the capital defense command and the special warfare command over their involvement in enforcing martial law.
Former Defense Minister Kim Yong Hyun, who has been accused of recommending Yoon enforce martial law, has been placed under a travel ban and faces an investigation by prosecutors over rebellion charges.
Vice Defense Minister Kim Seon Ho has testified to parliament that it was Kim Yong Hyun who ordered troops to be deployed to the National Assembly after Yoon imposed martial law.