Marco Piraccini/Archivio Marco Piraccini/Mondadori Portfolio via Getty Images
(LOS ANGELES) — The remains of Julian Sands have been found after the British actor was reported missing in the mountains of Southern California earlier this year, authorities said.
The 65-year-old Los Angeles resident disappeared while hiking Mount Baldy, the highest peak among the San Gabriel Mountains, located outside of Los Angeles. He was reported missing in the Baldy Bowl area on the evening of Jan. 13, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.
Unidentified human remains discovered by hikers on Saturday near where Sands went missing were positively identified as his, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said Tuesday.
“The manner of death is still under investigation, pending further test results,” the sheriff’s department said in a statement.
Ground and air search efforts occurred in the weeks following his disappearance before the search was temporarily suspended due to weather conditions.
Search efforts resumed on June 17, employing volunteers, deputies, helicopters and drone crews, the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department said.
“Despite the recent warmer weather, portions of the mountain remain inaccessible due to extreme alpine conditions,” the sheriff’s department said in a statement at the time. “Multiple areas include steep terrain and ravines, which still have 10-plus feet of ice and snow.”
Sands’ family released a statement on Jan. 23 amid search efforts, expressing “heartfelt thanks to the compassionate members of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department who are coordinating the search for our beloved Julian” and several other “heroic search teams … who are braving difficult conditions on the ground and in the air to bring Julian home.”
“We are deeply touched by the outpouring of love and support,” the family added.
Sands made dozens of appearances in both television and movies since the 1980s, including as George Emerson — opposite Helena Bonham-Carter’s Lucy — in the 1985 Academy Award-winning film “A Room with a View.” Sands also starred in “Warlock,” “Leaving Las Vegas” and a 1998 adaptation of “The Phantom of the Opera” as the title character.
ABC News’ Morgan Winsor contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the exiled former oligarch and one of Vladimir Putin’s best-known critics, has campaigned for years to end the Russian leader’s rule.
Over the weekend, as Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin’s rebellious fighters advanced towards Moscow, Khodorkovsky stood out among Russia’s liberal pro-democracy opposition in calling for people to support the mercenary revolt and to seize upon it as a chance to finally bring down Putin’s autocratic regime.
Despite it fizzling hours later, Khodorkovsky told ABC News that Prigozhin’s uprising had exposed Putin’s regime as extraordinarily weak and showed Russia’s democratic opposition should prepare now to take advantage of similar opportunities.
“A change in regime has become far more possible,” Khodorkovsky told ABC News by Zoom on Sunday. “We are far closer than two days ago. It has completely clearly demonstrated to everyone and to the democratic opposition, that the regime is weak, that it’s possible to use that weakness, that the regime in practically on the floor.”
“Now there will definitely be more such opportunities. But the next time, we just need to be more ready,” he said, adding that the democratic opposition should arm itself to be able to take advantage of them.
The weekend’s “situation showed that minimal armed formations are enough for the question of the transfer of power to be opened,” said Khodorkovsky.
He added, “The whole question is who will seize hold of that transfer of power. And the democratic opposition have every opportunity to seize hold of it, if only it will stop viewing the necessity to act with weapons as some kind of taboo.”
Khodorkovsky, a former oil tycoon once believed to be the wealthiest man in Russia, was arrested in 2003 on fraud and tax evasion charges and spent a decade in prison camps. His arrest was seen as a watershed moment for Putin’s regime, with the charges widely considered by his supporters and independent observers as retaliation for his efforts to enter politics and challenge Putin.
He was freed in 2013 after Putin pardoned him, and since then has helped bankroll efforts from abroad to support democratic efforts in Russia and undermine Putin’s rule.
Khodorkovsky said he had no doubt Prigozhin’s actions were a real coup attempt, saying “conspiracy theories” that it had been coordinated with Putin’s consent were being put out by the Kremlin as “damage control.”
Prigozhin declared a rebellion against Russia’s senior military leadership last Friday night, leading thousands of Wagner fighters into Russia from eastern Ukraine and by Saturday morning seizing the southern city of Rostov-on-Don. Columns of his troops then marched north towards Moscow, brushing aside attacks from Russian military aircraft and helicopters.
But on Saturday evening, 120 miles from the capital, Prigozhin abruptly halted his march and announced his forces were returning to camp, after a deal was reportedly brokered with the Kremlin through Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
Khodorkovsky said he believed Prigozhin had turned back because he understood his lacked the forces to seize Moscow, after other Russian military and security services units didn’t join him. The deal with the Kremlin was possible because Putin’s government was also looking for an exit from the crisis, understanding how destabilizing it was, he said, even if it was clear Prigozhin ultimately couldn’t win.
But he said Prigozhin’s almost unimpeded advance had destroyed the belief that Putin has mass support from the Russian public or that Russians were willing to sacrifice themselves for him.
“All along the route of the Wagner columns no one tried to hinder him, even the security services didn’t try to hinder him,” said Khodorkovsky. “That showed in fact that inside the country Putin has absolute void.”
Khodorkovsky faced criticism from other figures in the opposition for his calls to assist Prigozhin, an accused war criminal who has called for Russia to become more like North Korea.
He said he was calling only for democratic forces to use Prigozhin as a tool for bringing down Putin’s regime, saying Prigozhin is a “bandit and a war criminal.”
“Not to support Yevgeny Prigozhin. But to use the situation that he created,” he said, saying some democratic opposition had “slept through” the opportunity.
“If an uprising had started in Moscow to meet Prigozhin, say, then the situation could quite well have developed differently,” he said. “It was clear he would never have received any power personally, but it was possible to use this situation.”
Asked whether it meant he himself was now trying to form armed units, Khodorkovsky turned the question aside.
“Let’s not ascribe things to me I haven’t said,” he said. “Every person has their function. I’m a person who has quite minimal relation to the formation of armed structures. Nonetheless, I understand very well what has to be done. But no one is going to who or how it will be done no one will say publicly.”
He added, “The only problem for the democracy movement is that it has to take weapons in its hands. It doesn’t necessarily have to use them, as the mutiny showed, but it must take them up.”
(NEWTON, Mass.) — It was supposed to be a day of celebration with the renewal of the wedding vows they took 50 years ago, but when Bruno and Gilda “Jill” D’Amore failed to show up for the ceremony at their church on Sunday, a friend went to their Newton, Massachusetts, home and discovered the couple and Jill D’Amore’s 97-year-old mother stabbed and bludgeoned to death, authorities said.
Now, questions are swirling around why a 41-year-old man arrested Monday and charged in the triple homicide allegedly targeted the three elderly victims, described by their parish priest as “salt of the earth people.”
The suspect, Christopher Ferguson, was arraigned Tuesday afternoon in Newton District Court on one count of murder and two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon causing serious bodily injury. Ferguson’s attorney, Dmitry Lev, entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.
The single murder count is based on an autopsy by the state’s Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, which ruled 73-year-old Jill D’Amore’s death to be a homicide, Middlesex Assistant District Attorney Nicole Allain said in court. The autopsies for Jill D’Amore’s husband, 74-year-old Bruno D’Amore, and her mother, Lucia Arpino, are scheduled to be completed later Tuesday, and prosecutors said they anticipate filing two more murder counts against Ferguson.
Ferguson attended the hearing via Zoom. Lev did not object to the prosecution’s request to hold Ferguson without bail. Ferguson’s next court date is scheduled for July 25.
The brutal crime has shaken to the core residents in the Boston-area city ranked in a 2022 SafeWise report as the second safest city for families in America.
“At this time, we know of no established connections between the family members and Mr. Ferguson,” Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan said at a Monday night news conference announcing Ferguson’s arrest.
Police have described the crime as a possible “random” act of violence.
Ryan disclosed that an autopsy performed on Jill D’Amore determined she suffered more than 30 stab and blunt force trauma injuries, primarily to the upper part of her body and head. The prosecutor also said investigators found obvious signs of an intense struggle in one of the bedrooms of the D’Amore home, including broken furniture and a crystal paperweight covered in blood.
Ryan said video surveillance footage from a home near the D’Amore residence captured Ferguson in the neighborhood at 5:20 a.m. on Sunday shirtless, barefooted and walking with a staggering gait.
The prosecutor said several Newton police officers recognized Ferguson from prior contact with him. She said Ferguson is believed to live at a residence four-tenths of a mile from the D’Amore’s home.
A neighbor of the suspect told ABC Boston affiliate station WCVB that Ferguson “struggles with mental health issues.
“He needed more help than he was getting and people who love him dearly were trying to make that happen,” the neighbor said.
Ryan said Ferguson was hospitalized for an undisclosed reason following his arrest, but she declined to comment when asked about his possible mental health problems.
A friend found the bodies just after 10 a.m. on Sunday, Allain said in court. She said the friend entered the home through an unlocked side door and found all three family members dead in one bedroom and called 911.
Allain said police investigators found signs of a break-in in the basement of the D’Amore’s home.
“There was a window that was opened and screens were pulled out,” Allain said. “There was also a door on the garage which was open and there was a window screen that was dislodged there.”
Allain said forensics investigators used the chemical agent leucocrystal violet which enhances the visability of non-visible blood and found bare footprints on the tile floor in a hallway between the bedroom where the bodies were found and the kitchen door with blood droplets next to them. She said state police investigators determined that at least one of the footprints found in the hallway matched Ferguson’s footprint, which was obtained through a court-ordered warrant.
Allain said at least that footprints matching Ferguson were found inside the D’Amore home. She said fingerprints were taken from several of the windows and doorknobs of the home, which are still being analyzed.
The last time anyone had communication with the D’Amores was about 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, Allain said.
As investigators attempt to determine a motive in the slayings, those who knew Bruno and Jill D’Amore and Arpino are mourning their deaths.
“Three beloved parishioners — salt of the earth people, just great, great people — and it’s a terrible tragedy,” Rev. Dan Riley of Our Lady Help of Christians told WCVB.
Riley said the D’Amores were scheduled to celebrate their golden wedding anniversary and renew their vows at a ceremony scheduled Our Lady Help of Christians following Mass on Sunday morning.
“When they didn’t show up — I can’t go into the details about who discovered them — but we became notified, and myself and a number of the staff spent the day there” at the D’Amore home, Riley said.
In a statement released Monday by Our Lady Help of Christians Church called the slayings a “senseless act of violence.”
The D’Amores were the parents of three grown children and were dedicated to serving their church, according to the statement. Prior to the COVID pandemic, Arpino never missed a 10 a.m. mass in her more than 60 years as a parishioner, the statement said. Arpino and her late husband, Alberto Arpino, who died in 2014 at the age of 87, attended services together, always sitting in the north end section of the church, according to the statement.
Lucia Arpino participated in the church’s Mt. Carmel Festival weekend every summer, walking in the festival’s procession through the streets of her neighborhood in the Nonantum section of Newton well into her 90s, the statement reads.
Jill D’Amore took on the task of beautifying the church, spending countless hours caring for the flowers and decorations for the liturgical sessions, according to the statement. Bruno D’Amore was known for his big voice and “exuberant personality,” the statement says. He was also described as the church’s “head chef,” flipping burgers at church picnics, according to the statement.
The couple is also survived by five grandchildren, according to the statement.
Newton Mayor Ruthanne Fuller said in a statement that the slayings of the three family members have impacted residents of the community far beyond their church.
“I have heard from so many neighbors and friends about how much these three people meant to their tight-knit neighborhood. I speak for the people of Newton when I say our hearts and prayers are with you,” Fuller said of the family of the D’Amores and Arpino.
(WASHINGTON) — The federal government squandered more than $200 billion in potential fraud in its aggressive rush to prop up small businesses as the COVID-19 pandemic threatened to shatter the U.S. economy, according to a report published Tuesday by the inspector general of the Small Business Administration.
The hefty sum, which amounts to approximately 17% of the $1.2 trillion dispersed by SBA, updates previous estimates from the inspector general, Hannibal “Mike” Ware, as investigators from several federal agencies continue to trace and recover millions of dollars lost to fraud, waste and other abuses that occurred during the pandemic.
So far, nearly $30 billion of those fraudulent funds — about 15% of the fraud that’s been calculated as of May — has been reclaimed through collaboration between the inspector general’s office, the SBA, the U.S. Secret Service and other federal agencies, the report said.
Officials said the government watchdog report represents the first comprehensive estimate of fraud to date.
The report focuses on two programs created at the advent of the pandemic to support small businesses, both under the SBA’s purview: the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and the Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL).
According to the report, there was a higher potential fraud in the EIDL program, which was a low-interest disaster loan that would later require repayment. The inspector general’s office estimated there was $136 billion of potential fraud in the EIDL program, representing 33% of the total funds dispersed to businesses.
For PPP, which gave money to businesses that would later be forgiven — similar to a grant — the estimate of potential fraud was lower: around $64 billion, representing 8% of the total funds sent out.
The programs flooded businesses with easy access to cash that likely rescued the economy, experts say. But for all the jobs they helped rescue, these programs’ legacies may be tarnished by unprecedented amounts of fraud — a turn of events that experts fear may impair efforts to pass future emergency relief programs.
All government programs suffer some amount of fraud, experts have said. But emergency programs are even more susceptible, due to the inherent tension between the pressure to approve loans quickly and the need to screen applications and maintain other fraud-prevention measures that may prolong the process.
In an October 2020 report, Ware’s office found that “to expedite the process, SBA ‘lowered the guardrails’ or relaxed internal controls, which significantly increased the risk of program fraud.”
“A decision was made at the outset of the pandemic: speed was the key,” Michael Horowitz, the chairman of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC), a federal watchdog charged with tracking how much money was defrauded from the government during the pandemic, told ABC News in an interview on March 22. “It was a bad choice. It was the wrong choice. It never should have happened.”
Ware predicted in a 2021 interview with ABC News that, “in terms of the monetary value, the amount of fraud in these COVID relief programs is going to be larger than any government program that came before it.”
The latest estimate — $200 billion in fraudulent funds — puts the PPP and EIDL programs on track for such a record.
But the SBA, in a response included in the report, pushed back on that sum, saying that it welcomed the review but thought the report “contains serious flaws that significantly overestimate fraud and unintentionally mislead the public to believe that the work we did together had no significant impact in protecting against fraud.”
The inspector general’s review allowed for “a high percentage of false positives,” or potential fraud cases that, upon further inspection, were not fraud, Bailey DeVries, Acting Associate Administrator of the SBA, said in the response.
The administration used its own investigation of fraud, which landed on a much lower estimate of fraud, as evidence: The SBA’s own review, DeVries said, found over $400 billion “worthy of further investigation,” but further review “revealed that the body of loans likely to be fraudulent is approximately $36 billion across PPP and COVID-EIDL.”
DeVries also said the watchdog report “only minimally acknowledges a critical aspect of SBA’s fraud controls — the material fact that SBA’s fraud controls improved dramatically over time.”
“SBA acknowledges the prior administration made decisions to prioritize speed and unnecessarily deflated the control environment for PPP and COVID-EIDL for the first several months of the programs. However, SBA introduced additional fraud controls over time and implemented a strengthened anti-fraud control framework in 2021,” DeVries wrote.
For its part, the inspector general’s office said it holds firm in its estimate of $200 billion.
Ware will appear before Congress in July to discuss his findings under oath. Pandemic relief fraud has attracted attention from lawmakers across the political spectrum.
Many of those who defrauded the pandemic relief programs also victimized individual Americans in the process. Thousands of fraudsters who applied for funds used social security numbers stolen from innocent people, according to the PRAC. The committee wrote in a recent report that nearly 70,000 potentially suspect Social Security numbers were used to successfully apply for EIDL or Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funds.
Both the SBA and the White House have pledged to offer better assistance to victims in the future, and to improve fraud reporting systems by using multi-factor authentication and a new process to pause billing once someone has reported identity theft, SBA spokesperson Christina Carr said in a statement earlier this year.
Many of those reforms will be guided by an expected executive order from President Joe Biden, who pledged over a year ago to sign an order in the “coming weeks” that would direct “new actions to support the victims of identity fraud.”
Administration officials told ABC News that the action is still expected to come soon, though they didn’t provide concrete timing.
All told, the government has doled out an estimated $5 trillion in relief funds since the beginning of the pandemic, across several programs. The Justice Department has brought charges against more than 2,230 defendants for pandemic-related fraud crimes, the Associated Press recently reported, and the inspector general’s report specifies that at least 1,011 of those charges have been for EIDL and PPP fraud, as of May 2023.
Of those charges, there have been 803 arrests and 539 convictions, the inspector general’s report said.
(WASHINGTON) — Yevgeny Prigozhin used a false pretext to lead his Wagner Group forces in an armed insurrection against the Russian state, according to a senior U.S. official.
Prigozhin had been plotting ways to reverse his fortunes in the face of waning power and came up with a plan to claim his forces had been bombed, which he would then use to justify actions against Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Russian defense leaders, the senior official said.
The precipitating factor for Prigozhin’s military march was the directive that his forces be increasingly incorporated into the Russian military, the official said. Prigozhin did not know for certain whether it was Shoigu or President Vladimir Putin behind it but felt he was being leveraged and undermined, leaving him angry and determined, according to the official.
The plan came to fruition on Friday when Prigozhin said in a video that Wagner fighters had been killed by Russian missile strikes and vowed to punish Shoigu and Russia’s chief of general staff. The claim was “basically a hoax,” according to the senior official.
“There are 25,000 of us and we are coming to sort things out … Those who want to join us, it’s time to finish with this mess,” Prigozhin said.
His forces moved rapidly north in what he termed a “march of justice,” cutting through inexperienced Russian troops and units hollowed out by the war in Ukraine. The senior official said the convoy made it further than widely reported, coming within about 100 miles of Moscow.
“We will destroy anyone who stands in our way,” Prigozhin said on social media Saturday.
As the mercenaries got closer, Putin was deeply worried about his ability to stop Prigozhin, according to the official. But then key agencies like the ministry of interior and federal security service came out in support of the Russian president, making clear to Prigozhin that the battle for Moscow would be brutal. This led him to accept the idea of exile in Belarus when President Alexander Lukashenko urged him to give up the fight, the official said.
On Tuesday, Lukashenko confirmed Prigozhin had arrived in Belarus, though the senior official does not believe he will stay long.
Despite the Kremlin closing its criminal mutiny case against him, and despite still wielding a body of supporters, Prigozhin’s fate is unclear.
“His long-term survivability is hard to calculate,” the official said.
Putin’s position has also become more precarious, his aura of invincibility pierced and the weakness of his internal security made apparent. The official says the United States expects to see Putin try to bolster his strength in the coming weeks, noting that he is “quite vulnerable” after Prigozhin’s rebellious display.
Putin’s war effort might also suffer as front-line soldiers fighting in Ukraine learn what happened back home. Ukraine has also taken note of Russia’s internal scuffle, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying Saturday that Russia appeared to be suffering “full-scale weakness.”
“How do you motivate these guys who don’t want to be the last guy to die for a losing cause?” the senior U.S. official said.
(NEW YORK) — A new analysis from Consumer Reports found that some heavy metals in baby food have been on the decline but the report argues more can be done to make baby food safer overall.
Through random testing of baby food products, Consumer Reports found levels of some heavy metals such as arsenic, cadmium and lead in baby food have fallen since 2018.
Low exposure to heavy metals is not considered harmful but advocates have pushed for more regulation in baby food. A 2021 report from a House oversight committee warned of “dangerous levels of toxic heavy metals in even more baby foods” and the Food and Drug Administration launched a “Closer to Zero” initiative that aimed to reduce contaminants like heavy metals in baby food.
Consumer Reports noted that some foods still contain higher levels of heavy metals, including rice, sweet potatoes and snack foods like rice-based puffs and teething wafers.
Toxicologist Stephanie Widmer told ABC News the presence of heavy metals in baby food shouldn’t be a surprise since they are present in the soil used to grow crops.
“We have to remember that heavy metals are in the soil where crops grow; they are part of the Earth,” Widmer said. “Heavy metals are and always have been present in tons of different foods we consume and feed to our children.”
Widmer added, “Variety in our diets is key in limiting exposure to harmful heavy metals. It doesn’t mean we have to eliminate certain baby foods entirely — long-term effects from heavy metals come from repetitive exposure over very long periods of time. Parents should not be alarmed and should simply continue to ensure variety in the diet.”
(NEW YORK) — The amount of smoke being emitted from the wildfires burning in Canada has reached the highest-ever recorded in the country as plumes make their way across the Atlantic to Europe.
The typical wildfire season in Canada reaches its peak around mid-July, but the first of the hundreds of fires currently burning in the country began to spark at the beginning of May and are still burning with fervor.
Earlier this month, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau described the start of the country’s wildfire season as “unprecedented.” The warm and dry conditions will likely lead to “higher-than-normal fire activity across most of the country throughout the 2023 season,” according to fire season outlook issued by the Canadian government.
There are nearly 500 wildfires burning throughout Canada in places like British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and the Northwestern Territories in western Canada; as well as in Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia in eastern Canada, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. Nearly 260 of the active fires have been deemed out of control, and more than 17.7 million acres have been scorched so far this year, fire officials said.
The emissions from these wildfires are now measuring as the largest annual estimated emissions for Canada, according to a report published Tuesday by Copernicus, the European Union’s Earth observation program. About 160 megatons of carbon emissions have been released from the smoke, the highest annual total estimated for Canada since Copernicus’s Global Fire Assimilation System began measuring wildfire smoke emissions in 2003.
Not only did the wildfire season begin to flare much earlier than usual, there is currently no end in sight due to “unusually dry conditions and high temperatures,” according to Copernicus.
The smoke from these fires has led to “significantly degraded air quality” throughout North America and even began reaching across the Atlantic to the European coast in the second week of June, according to Copernicus.
In the U.S. on Tuesday, air quality alerts were issued for the Great Lakes region, with parts of Wisconsin ranking at the worst air quality in the world on Tuesday morning, according to IQAir, a website that publishes air quality data around the world.
For more than a month, the smoke from wildfires in different regions in Canada has been making its way to the U.S. In May, air quality alerts were issued in Montana, Idaho, Colorado and Arizona due to wildfires burning in Alberta. By May 31, smoke from wildfires burning on the other side of the country, in Nova Scotia, led to the first stretch of air quality alerts in the Northeast.
By June 6, major cities in the Northeast were breaking records for deteriorating air quality due to wildfires burning in Quebec — with New York City reaching 484, with the highest end of “hazardous” AQI ratings being 500. The AQI in places like India and China are around 150 on any given day, according to IQAir.
A further intensification in the wildfires on June 21 and 22 led to a “particularly strong episode of long-range smoke” with high values of aerosol optical depth and carbon monoxide to reach Europe by Monday. Air quality in the continent is expected to be affected until Thursday, according to Copernicus.
“Our monitoring of the scale and persistence of the wildfire emissions across Canada since early May has shown how unusual it has been when compared to the two decades of our dataset,” Copernicus senior scientist Mark Parrington said in a statement. “…It is a clear reflection of the intensity of the fires that such high values of aerosol optical depth and other pollutants associated with the plume are so high as it reaches this side of the Atlantic.”
ABC News’ Tracy Wholf and Ginger Zee contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — As Russia continues its nearly 16-month-long invasion of neighboring Ukraine, political turmoil has erupted in Moscow while Kyiv tries to take back territory.
A feud between Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Russian paramilitary organization Wagner Group, and Russia’s top military brass escalated as Prigozhin’s forces left the front line in Ukraine and marched across the border to seize a key Russian city. They then marched north toward Russia’s capital, seemingly unopposed, before turning around just hours later. The short-lived rebellion was described by international observers as the most significant challenge to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s authority in his more than 20 years of rule.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian troops are in the early stages of a counteroffensive to reclaim the almost one-fifth of Ukraine’s territory that is under Russian control.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Jun 27, 1:31 PM EDT
Belarus president talks about Wagner negotiations
Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko provided more details about his alleged role in negotiations between Wager Group leader’s Yevgeny Prigozhin and Russian President Vladimir Putin following the PMC’s rebellion.
Lukashenko claimed Prigozhin abandoned his demands, including the resignation of Shoigu, after they talked.
“[Prigozhin] told me ‘Alexander Grigoryevich, I will not demand from the president that he give up Shoigu and Gerasimov, and I will not even ask for a meeting,’ I say, ‘Well, that’s good. This is a very good move,'” Lukashenko claimed.
Lukashenko said that Wagner forces could join the Belarusian army but said that he won’t built camps for Wagner’s troops in his country.
“We don’t need to open any Wagner recruitment points,” he said.
-ABC News’ Victoria Beaule
Jun 27, 12:22 PM EDT
Belarus president says Prigozhin arrived in the country Tuesday
Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko said on state media Tuesday that Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin arrived in his country earlier in the day.
Lukashenko claimed on state media that “security guarantees” Russian President Vladimir Putin promised to Prigozhin were provided.
“Yes, indeed, he is in Belarus today. As I promised, if you want to stay with us for a while and so on, we will help you,” Lukashenko said.
-ABC News’ Victoria Beaule and Tanya Stukalova
Jun 27, 11:10 AM EDT
Ukraine makes gain on occupied bank across from Kherson
Ukrainian troops have reportedly seized a small village on the Russian-occupied eastern bank of Dneipr after crossing the river from the liberated city of Kherson, according to Russian accounts on Tuesday.
A small Ukrainian force has managed to dig in to the village of Dachi after making a landing there a few days ago and are trying to expand the beachhead. Ukrainian troops in small boats crossed the river and landed at the base of the ruined Antonivskiy Bridge, which they destroyed last year.
Russian military bloggers reported very heavy fighting on Tuesday, saying Russian airborne units have been trying unsuccessfully to dislodge the Ukrainians for the past four days. Russian aviation and heavy artillery have been firing on the Ukrainian position.
So far, the Russian side claims some 70 Ukrainian soldiers are dug in, covered by intense artillery fire from across the river. The Russian accounts say Ukraine is trying to move reinforcements across. Video released by Ukraine also shows a Russian APC being destroyed in the village of Oleshkjy, further south, indicating the bank south of Kherson is now contested.
Ukrainian troops have also managed to advance and liberate Rivnopil, a village on the Zaporozhzhia front, breaking through after more than two weeks of fighting. It’s notable because the Russians had been fighting hard to hold it.
Taken together the advance there, the landing in Kherson and advances near Bakhmut are small signs the Ukrainian counteroffensive may be starting to pick up steam and the Russians are coming under growing pressure.
-ABC News’ Patrick Reevell
Jun 27, 6:39 AM EDT
Military stopped ‘civil war,’ Putin says
The Russian military and security forces stopped what could have become a “civil war,” President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday.
“The Russian military in a difficult hour for the country stood in the way of turmoil, the result of which would be chaos,” Putin said at an event for military units, adding that “the military and law enforcement officers of the Russian Federation actually stopped the civil war.”
Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu, who the Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin’s had sought to have replaced, was present at Tuesday’s ceremony.
Jun 27, 5:15 AM EDT
Belarus was ‘combat’ ready during rebellion, president says
The military in Belarus was ordered to “full combat readiness” during the Wagner Group’s rebellion in neighboring Russia, President Alexander Lukashenko said.
Lukashenko, a longtime ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was said to have helped broker a deal to halt the choatic rebellion by Wagner leader Yevgeny Prigozhin.
“I will not hide, it was painful to watch the events that took place in the south of Russia,” Lukashenko said Tuesday during brief remarks before a military presentation. “Not only me. Many of our citizens took them to heart. Because the fatherland is one.”
The fatherland comment appeared to allude to Lukashenko’s longstanding belief that Russia and Belarus share a special bond.
He added, “I gave all orders to bring the army to full combat readiness.”
Jun 27, 5:01 AM EDT
Russia closes case against Wagner Group leader
The Russian Federal Security Service on Tuesday dropped the criminal case investigating the rebellion by Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin and his forces.
The FSB said it closed the case because it has been established that participants stopped actions directly aimed at committing a crime.
Jun 26, 6:28 PM EDT
US to announce 500M in military aid to Ukraine, official says
The U.S. will announce another military aid package for Ukraine Tuesday, a U.S. official told ABC News.
The $500 million aid package will include 30 Bradley Infantry Fighting Vehicles, 25 Stryker armored vehicles, missiles for the HIMARS system and the Patriot air defense system, TOW missiles, Javelins and more ammunition for artillery, according to the official.
This will be the 41st aid package under the Presidential Drawdown Authority that allows the transfer of weapons from U.S. military stockpiles to Ukraine.
-ABC News’ Luis Martinez
Jun 26, 3:42 PM EDT
Putin expresses defiance against attempted Wagner rebellion
Russian President Vladimir Putin offered his first public remarks after the Wagner Group attempted to march to Moscow and overthrow the government.
In a pre-recorded video statement, Putin thanked the Russians for their endurance, solidarity and patriotism during the ordeal and claimed that any blackmail attempt was doomed to fail.
Putin said an armed rebellion would have been suppressed.
“The organizers of the rebellion, betraying their country, their people, betrayed those who were drawn into the crime. They lied to them, pushed them to death, under fire, to shoot at their own,” Putin said.
The Russian president noted that the majority of Wagner fighters were “patriots.”
“I thank those soldiers and commanders of the Wagner Group who made the only right decision,” Putin said. “They did not go to fratricidal bloodshed, they stopped at the last line.”
Putin offered Wagner Group members who participated in the rebellion the option of joining the defense ministry or other law enforcement agencies or returning home.
Jun 26, 12:52 PM EDT
Biden says US, NATO not involved in Wagner rebellion
President Joe Biden spoke out addressed the Wagner Group’s actions over the weekend.
He said the U.S. and its allies convened on Friday when the rebellion began.
“They agreed with me that we had to make sure we gave Putin no excuse, let me emphasize, gave Putin no excuse to blame this on the West or to blame this on NATO,” Biden said at a news conference at the White House.
The president added that the incident was “part of a struggle within the Russian system.”
-ABC News’ Alexandra Hutzler
Jun 26, 12:44 PM EDT
European leaders respond to Wagner attempted rebellion
The European Union Foreign Affairs Council met Monday and discussed the attempted rebellion by the Wagner paramilitary group over the weekend.
Josep Borrell, the European Union High Representative for Foreign Affairs, told reporters at a news conference after the meeting that “the situation remains complex and unpredictable” and 27 EU states are remaining vigilant.
U.K. Foreign Minister James Cleverly released a statement Monday claiming the “Russian government’s lies have been exposed by one of President Putin’s own henchmen.”
“Prigozhin’s rebellion is an unprecedented challenge to President Putin’s authority, and it is clear that cracks are emerging in the Russian support for the war,” he said.
-ABC News’ Ellie Kaufman
Jun 26, 12:18 PM EDT
‘We had no goal of overthrowing’ the government: Prigozhin
Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin released an 11-minute recording Monday explaining why his troops reversed course on their campaign against Moscow over the weekend.
Prigozhin said the purpose of the “march” was to prevent losses of his troops “and to bring justice to all persons who, through their unprofessional actions, made a huge number of mistakes during” the war in Ukraine.
“We had no goal of overthrowing the regime,” he added, referring to Putin’s government.
Prigozhin said that the march escalated after their convoy was hit by a missile attack from Russian forces.
Prigozhin said that the marched stopped when his troops approached “Moscow deployed artillery.”
“We did not want to shed Russian blood. We went to demonstrate our protest and not to overthrow the government in the country,” he said.
He claimed that several of his troops were wounded and two were killed.
-ABC News’ Ellie Kaufman, Natalia Shumskaia and Tanya Stukalova
Jun 26, 5:47 AM EDT
Ukrainian forces appear to cross river into occupied Kherson
The Ukrainian military has landed troops on the Russian-held eastern bank of the Dnipro River across from the city of Kherson, according to Russian reports.
Media posted online by pro-Russian accounts suggested small boatloads of Ukrainian soldiers have managed to establish a small beachhead at the foot of the destroyed Antonivskiy Road Bridge that spanned the river before Ukraine brought it down last year.
The size of the Ukrainian force on the bank is unclear, but Russian accounts suggested it was relatively small.
Some Russian accounts posted dramatic video showing fighting on the eastern bank, including what appears to be a Russian armored vehicle firing intensively at Ukrainian soldiers as it recovers Russian wounded.
The video was undated but Russian reports suggested around several dozen Ukrainian troops landed on June 24 and Russian airborne units have been trying to dislodge them since.
Another video shows a small boat carrying perhaps a dozen Ukrainian soldiers landing by the ruined bridge, coming under shell fire.
The Russian military blogger account, Two Majors, reported a small group of Ukrainian soldiers had succeeded in digging in around the bridge. It noted Russian forces had been forced to pull back to a distance from the bank because their positions had been flooded after the Kakhovka dam was blown up earlier this month.
Russian military bloggers said Russian aircraft and artillery were firing on the Ukrainians Monday.
If Ukraine is able to keep hold of its foothold, it will put further pressure on Russia’s forces in the south, already battling to hold back Ukraine’s counteroffensive on the Zaporizhzhia front.
In the wake of Saturday’s short-lived attempted rebellion against the Kremlin by the Wagner private military company, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, an exiled oligarch considered one of Putin’s best-known opponents, told ABC News he supports the mutiny and encourages Russians to back the leader of the mercenary group.
Once Russia’s richest man, Khodorkovsky, a Putin opposition activist, spent 10 years imprisoned after he challenged Putin, his case now considered a foundational moment for Putin’s regime.
When Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin and his fighters marched on Moscow Saturday before making a sudden about-face, Khodorkovsky was notable among Russia’s pro-democracy opposition in calling on people to support Prigozhin, arguing that allowing him to remove Putin would create an opportunity for the democrats.
Khodorkovsky told ABC News he believed Prigozhin’s actions were a real coup attempt and that it had “seriously undermined” Putin’s power. He predicted that similar opportunities to collapse the regime will be launched soon.
“The blow to Putin’s reputation, to the authorities’ reputation, was absolutely fantastical,” Khodorkovsky said. “Putin’s government today is, without a doubt, strongly undermined by what happened — his authority, his ability to control the security services is seriously undermined.”
Khodorkovsky said Prigozhin’s march on Moscow had undermined Putin’s popularity, showing neither ordinary Russians nor the security services were prepared to act to protect him.
“Along the entire route of Wagner’s columns, no one in any way tried to hinder him (Prigozhin). Even the security forces did not try to stop him,” Khodorkovsky said. “It showed that, in fact, inside the country, Putin has an absolute void.”
Khodorkovsky said he did not support Prigozhin himself — considering him a “war criminal” — but that the democratic opposition should have sought to help him overthrow Putin, and then taken power from him after.
Khodorkovsky criticized other parts of the anti-Kremlin opposition who attacked him for calling on people to assist Prigozhin, saying he believed the opposition had “slept through” the opportunity and suggesting it should have sought to stage a rebellion in Moscow at the same time.
“There will definitely now be more such opportunities because of Putin’s weakening. But the next time we need to simply be more ready,” said Khodorkovsky, who is living in exile in England. “If an uprising had started in Moscow to meet Prigozhin then a situation could have developed quite differently.
-ABC News’ Patrick Reevell
Jun 24, 6:53 PM EDT
US official says it’s a ‘mystery’ why Prigozhin stopped march to Moscow
A senior U.S. official says it is a mystery as to why Yevgeny Prigozhin stopped his march to Moscow given that he was seemingly in a dominant position.
The official said he was greeted as a hero in Rostov-on-Don. However, the senior official told ABC News that Prigozhin is in an “emotional state,” and perhaps did it because he thought this would destroy Russia, or because he glimpsed his own end. It is impossible to tell whether Prigozhin thinks Russian President Vladimir Putin will actually honor their deal which included allowing Wagner group soldiers to be folded into the Russian military.
The official said that Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko was very effective, telling Prigozhin and Putin that this was all a misunderstanding and that they are both patriots and aligned for the same goals.
Putin is said to be completely shocked by how fast Wagner Group moved through Russia. For now, he is just trying to secure his position. He does not want to be seen negotiating over his defense minister, but the official says the U.S. believes concessions were made over Sergei Shoigu’s future as well as others.
-ABC News’ Martha Raddatz
Jun 25, 3:56 AM EDT
Moscow highway restrictions remain, Russian media reports
Travel restrictions remained in place on Sunday on the major M-4 highway near Moscow, according to Russia’s state-run media.
“According to the previously issued regional decisions, traffic restrictions remain in force on the M-4 Don highway near the Moscow Region and the Tula Region,” the federal road agency said, according to TASS.
The security checkpoints had been put in place Saturday as a column of Wagner Group forces traveled toward Moscow. Roadblocks in southern Russia, including in Rostov-on-Don and the Krasnodar Region, were reportedly lifted.
“All previously imposed restrictions on highways have been lifted,” TASS reported, citing a branch of the Russian Interior Ministry.
-ABC News’ KJ Edelman
Jun 24, 10:20 PM EDT
‘Gang of 8’ briefed about Wagner Group movements
Senior congressional leaders were briefed about the ongoing situation in Russia, according to a congressional aide.
U.S. intelligence officials told the so-called “Gang of Eight” — the top Republicans and Democrats currently in congressional leadership– in recent days about potentially concerning movements of Wagner Group forces and equipment build-ups near Russia. However, it was unclear to U.S. intelligence what was going to happen and when.
-ABC News’ Trish Turner
Jun 24, 5:18 PM EDT
Blinken holds call with Turkish counterpart for ‘ongoing situation in Russia’
Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke Saturday with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan to discuss the ongoing situation in Russia.
“Secretary Blinken reiterated that U.S. support for Ukraine will not change. The United States will stay in close coordination with Allies and partners as the situation develops,” spokesperson Matthew Miller said.
Blinken also spoke with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba on Saturday to discuss the situation in Russia, Miller said. Blinken reiterated that support by the U.S. for Ukraine will not change.
The U.S. will stay in close coordination with Ukraine as the situation develops.
-ABC News Shannon K. Crawford
Jun 24, 4:45 PM EDT
Wagner chief will not be prosecuted, Kremlin says
Yevgeny Prigozhin will go to Belarus to ease tensions and the fighters of PMC Wagner Group who took part in the so-called “campaign” against Moscow will not be prosecuted, the Kremlin said Saturday evening.
The rest will be able to sign a contract with the Ministry of Defense, the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
“In the end, we managed to resolve this situation without further losses, without raising the level of tension,” Peskov said.
“An agreement was reached that PMC Wagner would return to their camps,” he added.
Jun 24, 2:55 PM EDT
Wagner Group chief orders mercenaries to halt march on Moscow
The Wagner Group’s chief Yevgeny Prigozhin said he has ordered his mercenaries to halt their march on Moscow and return to their field camps, saying he wants to avoid shedding Russian blood.
Prigozhin made the announcement in an audio message posted on his Telegram channel.
Russian state media has shown Wagner fighters packing up and reportedly leaving Rostov.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has called Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko and thanked him for his efforts de-escalating the situation.
Jun 24, 1:12 PM EDT
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff cancels trip to Israel, Jordan due to situation in Russia
Gen. Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has canceled his planned trip to Israel and Jordan due to the situation in Russia. The trip was to have begun Saturday.
Milley also spoke with his Ukrainian counterpart, Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi.
“They discussed the unprovoked and ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine and exchanged perspectives and assessments. The Chairman reaffirmed unwavering support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” according to Joint Staff spokesperson Col. Dave Butler.
The Pentagon said Department of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin is monitoring the ongoing situation in Russia and will continue to be briefed on any significant developments.
Jun 24, 12:47 PM EDT
Moscow suspends schools, events until July 1
Andrey Vorobyov, the governor of the Moscow region, has suspended mass events outdoors and at educational institutions until July 1.
Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin urged residents to refrain from traveling around the city. Monday was also declared a non-working day for the city. Sobyanin said that a counter-terrorism regime was declared in Moscow and that the situation was difficult.
Jun 24, 12:34 PM EDT
Biden speaks with leaders of France, Germany, UK about ‘situation in Russia’
President Joe Biden spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak about the developments in Russia.
Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were also briefed by their national security team on the developments in Russia and will continue to receive updates throughout the day, the White House said Saturday.
Jun 24, 10:11 AM EDT
Wagner troop column 300 miles south of Moscow, Russian media says
The governor of the Lipetsk region, which is about 300 miles south of Moscow, said a column of Wagner troops has been spotted in the region, Russian state media reports.
Jun 24, 9:15 AM EDT
What is the Wagner Group?
The Wagner Group is a private military organization run by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a longtime ally of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, with tens of thousands of fighters, according to U.S. officials.
Earlier this year, the U.S. labeled the group a “significant transnational criminal organization” and levied new sanctions, while human rights observers this week said they suspected Wagner fighters were linked to the mass killing of people in Mali last year.
Government reports, statements from U.S. officials and insights from experts, as well as other sources, shed light on the Wagner group’s history and goals, its alleged wrongdoings and its importance to Russia — in Ukraine and elsewhere in the world.
Jun 24, 7:24 AM EDT
NATO monitoring Russian situation, official says
A NATO representative said the alliance was watching what was happening in Russia on Saturday.
“We are monitoring the situation,” spokesperson Oana Lungescu said.
Jun 24, 6:31 AM EDT
‘Operational combat’ underway north of Rostov, official says
A governor of the Voronezh region, about 300 miles south of Moscow, says Russia’s armed forces are conducting “operational combat operations” there as part of “counter terrorism operation.”
Earlier the region’s government reported a column of Wagner Group fighters was moving through the region, an area between Rostov-on-Don and Moscow.
“In the bounds of the counterterrorist operation on the territory of the Voronezh region, the armed forces of the Russian Federation are conducting necessary operational combat operations,” the official said. “We will inform further about the development of the situation.”
Jun 24, 6:03 AM EDT
Russia in ‘so much chaos that no lie can hide it,’ Zelenskyy says
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia appeared to be suffering “full-scale weakness” after the Wagner Group mercenaries said they’d taken hold of a key Russian city.
“Russia used propaganda to mask its weakness and the stupidity of its government. And now there is so much chaos that no lie can hide it,” he said on Twitter.
Jun 24, 5:47 AM EDT
Prigozhin responds to Putin, says Wagner not going to surrender
The Wagner Group’s Yevgeny Prigozhin responded to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s calling him a “traitor,” by saying he will not surrender or turn back.
“Putin was deeply mistaken about the betrayal. We are patriots of our homeland, we fought and are fighting,” Prighozin said in an audio message. “No one is going to turn around at the request of the president, the FSB or anyone else, because we do not want the country to live longer in corruption, deception and bureaucracy.”
Prigozhin accused Russia’s military of targeting a Wagner column with helicopters and jets.
Jun 24, 5:37 AM EDT
Chechen leader backs Putin, says forces moving into ‘zones of tension’
The powerful head of Chechnya, the semi-independent Russian region, Ramzan Kadyrov, said on Saturday he supported President Vladimir Putin.
Kadyrov saiud he fully backs Putin and called Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin’s actions “treacherous.”
Kadyrov has tens of thousands of heavily armed fighters. He said his forces are already moving to “zones of tension.”
It raises prospect of Chechen forces fighting with Wagner Group troops.
Kadyrov has previously been friendly with Prigozhin — his coming out in support of Putin is a boost for Putin, but also raises prospect of serious clashes in Russia.
Jun 24, 5:27 AM EDT
Next 48 hours ‘will define’ Russia, Zelenskyy advisor says
Russian leaders are “now choosing which side they are on,” an advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday.
“The next 48 hours will define the new status of Russia,” Mykhailo Podolyak said on Twitter. “Either a full-fledged Civil War, or a negotiated Transit of Power, or a temporary respite before the next phase of the downfall of the Putin regime.”
He added, “A deafening ‘elite’ silence is in Russia so far…”
Jun 24, 3:52 AM EDT
Uprising ‘significant challenge’ to Russian state, UK says
Members of the mercenary Wagner Group have begun moving north “almost certainly aiming to get to Moscow,” in what amounts to the “most significant challenge to the Russian state in recent times,” the U.K. Ministry of Defense said on Saturday.
“Over the coming hours, the loyalty of Russia’s security forces, and especially the Russian National Guard, will be key to how the crisis plays out,” the ministry said on Twitter.
Jun 24, 3:25 AM EDT
Putin: Wagner Group moves are ‘stab in the back’
Russian President Vladimir Putin said moves taken by Wagner Group leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, a longtime ally, to bring his troops into a key Russian city amounted to a “stab in the back.”
Putin didn’t mention Prigozhin by name, but said that “necessary orders have been given” to defend Russia in a recorded address aired on Russian television on Saturday.
“Actions that divide our unity are in essence defeatism before one’s own people,” he said. “This is a stab in the back of our country and our people.”
Jun 24, 3:12 AM EDT
Kremlin briefs Putin on ‘attempted armed rebellion’
Russian President Vladimir Putin has been briefed by the country’s security agencies about what was referred to as an “attempted armed rebellion,” according to Russia’s state-run media.
The late-night statement from Putin’s spokesman suggested that the Kremlin considered Wagner Group’s move into Rostov-on-Don, a key Russian city close to the border with Ukraine, to be a “rebellion.”
Wagner’s founder Yevgeny Prigozhin in an audio message on Friday claimed his forces would now punish Russia’s defense minister and chief of general staff, telling other units to stand down and not offer resistance.
“Special services, law enforcement agencies, namely the Ministry of Defense, the FSB, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Rosgvardiya, in round-the-clock mode, constantly report to the president on the measures taken in the context of the implementation of the instructions previously given to him,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Saturday.
Jun 24, 2:42 AM EDT
Wagner Group claims control over Rostov military facilities, airport
Yevgeny Prigozhin, leader of the Wagner Group, said on Saturday that the headquarters of the Southern Military District and all military facilities in Rostov-on-Don were under his control.
Prigozhin in a video demanded that Kremlin bring him Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov and Sergei Shoigu.
He also threatened in the video that he would go to Moscow.
“We will destroy anyone who stands in our way,” he said in one of a series of video and audio recordings posted on social media.
He added, “We are moving forward and will go until the end.”
(WASHINGTON) — Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is expected to sit for an interview on Wednesday with investigators in special counsel Jack Smith’s office, the secretary’s spokesperson confirmed to ABC News.
Raffensperger, the top election official in Georgia, was the recipient of former President Donald Trump’s infamous phone call in January 2021, during which the then-president asked Raffensperger to “find” the exact number of votes he needed to win the state. Trump has repeatedly defended the call, calling it “perfect.”
Smith, who is overseeing the Justice Department’s investigation into efforts to overturn the 2020 election, issued subpoenas to election officials in Georgia and states across the country in late 2022 for communications with or involving Trump, his 2020 campaign aides, and a list of Trump allies involved in his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, ABC News previously reported.
A steady drumbeat of witnesses involved in the Jan. 6. Insurrection and other efforts to stymy the peaceful transition of power in early 2021 have been spotted in recent weeks entering the federal courthouse in Washington, D.C., where a grand jury has been convened by Smith’s office.
Smith is also investigating Trump’s handling of classified documents after leaving the presidency. That investigation has resulted in a 37-count indictment against Trump for allegedly refusing to return hundreds of documents containing classified information ranging from U.S. nuclear secrets to the nation’s defense capabilities. The former president has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis has launched a separate investigation into efforts by Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
News of the interview was first reported by the Washington Post.
(CHICAGO) — Canadian wildfire smoke is infiltrating the Midwest on Tuesday and the air in Chicago has deteriorated to the Air Quality Index’s “very unhealthy” category.
The AQI in hazy Chicago reached 209 on Tuesday afternoon. Any number over 100 is considered unhealthy for sensitive groups.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson warned in a statement Tuesday, “We recommend children, teens, seniors, people with heart or lung disease, and individuals who are pregnant avoid strenuous activities and limit their time outdoors. For additional precautions, all Chicagoans may also consider wearing masks, limiting their outdoor exposure, moving activities indoors, running air purifiers, and closing windows.”
The worst air quality in the world Tuesday morning was in Wisconsin.
The state’s Department of Natural Resources issued a statewide air quality advisory in effect until Thursday.
On Tuesday afternoon the AQI in Milwaukee registered in the “very unhealthy” category.
“The most significant air quality and health impacts are anticipated between noon on Tuesday, 6/27 and noon on Wednesday, 6/28,” Wisconsin’s Department of Natural Resources said. “This is a dynamic situation, and conditions may change rapidly over the next few days. It is important to pay close attention to the air quality in your area and take action, especially if you don’t feel well.”
Earlier this month the Canadian wildfire smoke drifted toward the Northeast, blanketing New York City, Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., in a dangerous orange haze and prompting serious air quality alerts in over a dozen states. On June 7 New York City’s AQI hit 484, the highest level on record.
