(SAN ANTONIO) — The San Antonio Police Department fired a police officer after bodycam footage showed him shooting a teenager eating a hamburger in a McDonald’s parking lot in Texas.
The 17-year-old, identified by police as Erik Cantu, was shot multiple times and remains hospitalized.
The department terminated Officer James Brennand on Wednesday over the incident due to his actions, which violated department tactics, training and procedures, according to San Antonio Police Chief William McManus.
According to police, Officer Brennand was responding to a disturbance call on Oct. 2 when he noticed a vehicle he thought had fled from him the night before during an attempted stop.
The footage shows the officer approaching the car and opening the door, when he sees Cantu eating a hamburger alongside a female passenger and orders him out.
Police said the officer reported the car door hit him as the teen started to reverse the car.
Bodycam video shows the officer firing 10 times at the moving vehicle before chasing after it on foot.
Police said that the passenger in the vehicle was not injured during the incident.
In a statement to ABC News on Sunday, Cantu’s family, through his attorney, said the teenager is on life support and fighting to stay alive.
“We thank you for the heartfelt thoughts on the status of Erik’s recovery. We will inform you that he’s still in critical condition and literally fighting for his life every minute of the day as his body has endured a tremendous amount of trauma,” Cantu’s attorney, Brian Powers, said. “He is still on life support. We need all the blessing we can receive at this time. We kindly ask for privacy beyond this update as this is a delicate moment in our lives and we are focusing on one thing and that’s getting him home.”
The San Antonio Police Officer’s Association had no comment immediately following Brennand’s dismissal from the force, but in a new statement to ABC News, the president of the union, Danny Diaz, said that the organization will not represent Brennand because he had not completed his 1-year probationary period for new officers at the time of the shooting.
“New police recruits must complete a 1-year probationary period before becoming eligible for benefits provided by the union,” Diaz said. “We understand the San Antonio Police Department’s decision to terminate Officer James Brennand but will refrain from further comment until a full investigation is completed.”
ABC News’ Nick Kerr and Jennifer Watts contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — The Nobel Prize in economics was awarded to Ben Bernanke, Douglas Diamond and Philip Dybvig on Monday for their research on banks and financial crises.
Bernanke, of The Brookings Institute, served as chair of the Federal Reserve from 2006 to 2014, where he oversaw the central bank’s response to the Great Recession. Diamond is a professor at The University of Chicago. Dybvig is a professor at Washington University in St. Louis.
“The laureates’ insights have improved our ability to avoid both serious crises and expensive bailouts,” Tore Ellingsen, Chair of the Committee for the Prize in Economic Sciences, said in a statement.
Winners receive 10 million Swedish kronor, about $911,765, which is usually split between winners when the prize is shared. In addition to the prize money, each of the winners will receive an 18-karat gold medal.
The previous Nobel Prize in economics, for 2021, went to two sets of winners: David Card as well as Joseph Angrist and Guido Imbens.
Card, an economist at the University of California, Berkeley, received the honor for “his empirical contributions to labour economics,” including research showing that an increase in the minimum wage does not necessarily lead to fewer jobs, the Nobel Prize organization said.
Meanwhile, a pair of economists — Angrist, a professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; and Imbens, a professor of economics at Stanford University — won the prize for advances in the study of cause and effect, the Nobel Prize organization said.
The winners of this year’s prizes will be invited to receive them in Stockholm, Sweden on December 10, which marks the anniversary of Nobel’s death in 1896.
Nobel, a Swedish chemist best known for inventing dynamite, left some of his fortune to endow of annual prizes in a host of disciplines.
The first Nobel Prize was given out in 1901, nearly 70 years before the first Nobel Prize in economics.
Members of the Ukrainian forces work with a drone modified to help the country’s counteroffensive against invading Russian forces. – ABC News
(NEW YORK) — In a workshop in an undisclosed location in the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, a group of IT experts and engineers are assembling plastic components and soldering electrical wires.
Bartek Kowalski from Poland, the only overseas member of an otherwise all-Ukrainian team, modestly jokes that the intricate task he is performing can be learnt by “watching Youtube tutorials.”
But the work of these volunteers is no laughing matter.
They take drones which can be purchased on the internet and adapt them into fighting machines for the Ukrainian military.
A custom-made fitting, designed in their lab, which is fixed onto the underside of a drone can carry a grenade that can then be dropped onto Russian positions.
At the end of August, the Ukrainian military announced it was launching a counteroffensive in the south of the country. And, this week, Ukrainian forces appeared to be gaining significant amounts of ground in the Kharkiv region in the northeast.
Yevhen Tkach is a biologist by trade who now spends the bulk of his time managing volunteer efforts to procure, adapt and supply drones to Ukrainian military units.
He says he regularly receives information from military colleagues confirming the positive impact drones are making in the Ukrainians’ ongoing operations to recapture territory.
As well as their work to attach grenades to drones, Tkach and his colleagues are also taking other types of drones, and attaching explosives to them so they can be flown directly into a target in a kamikaze-style attack.
His team is also working to fit certain drones with thermal cameras because a lot of the work undertaken by reconnaissance and sabotage units along the frontlines in Ukraine is carried out at night.
As Yevhen Tkach points out, a drone is nowhere near as valuable as the life of a soldier, so the machines can access dangerous areas, acting as the military’s “eyes in the sky.”
And he acknowledges that the Russians are “really good at electronic warfare.”
With the war in Ukraine predominantly an artillery battle, drones gather vital intelligence, allowing a unit to pinpoint enemy positions and assets. The location of any target is then passed to artillery units.
However, soldiers who pilot drones are sometimes targets themselves.
Before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in late February, Oleksandr Trofymenko was an event manager in Denmark.
He quickly returned to his native Ukraine and now serves alongside a former farmer, DJ and security guard in a Ukrainian drone reconnaissance unit based in Zaphorizhia. Oleksandr and his colleagues are heavily armed and alive to the risks they face.
“As soon as we launch the drone the Russians are hunting for us,” he said with a wry smile.
Defending their own territory, he argues, gives units like his an obvious advantage.
“We know everything,” about the terrain, he said.
Trofymenko is grateful to the army of Ukrainian volunteers who support units like his with vital equipment and even weapons.
Yevhen Tkach and his small group of engineers in Zaphorizhia also hack the drones before they supply them to reconnaissance units for use on the battlefield.
By hacking a drone they rid it of any digital signature which could reveal a unit’s location to the Russians.
Holding his drone aloft, soldier Oleksandr Trofymenko confidently states that the Russians can’t see it.
“This is the work of Ukrainian engineers,” he said.
(CLEVELAND) — After weeks of back and forth negotiating on the time, the hosts and the venue, Ohio Senate nominees Rep. Tim Ryan and J.D. Vance will be facing off on Monday for their first debate. A second showdown is scheduled a week later.
Ryan and Vance, the Democratic and Republican candidates vying for retiring Republican Sen. Rob Portman’s seat, will be arguing their case on stage hosted by Fox 8 News in Cleveland.
Monday’s hour-long debate at the Fox 8 studios starts at 7 p.m. ET and will be moderated by two reporters, one from the Fox affiliate and the other from the local NBC affiliate.
The debate can be watched on all Nexstar Media Television stations and respective streaming channels in Ohio.
FiveThirtyEight’s polling average shows Ryan and Vance in a close race. The winner could determine the balance of power in the Senate, which is currently split 50-50.
Heading into Election Day, Vance has campaigned heavily on the issue of crime in Ohio. ABC News spoke with the “Hillbilly Elegy” author and former investor at a recent event in Perrysburg, Ohio, where he was joined by former President Donald Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr.
“Let’s declare war on the violent crime on our streets. Let’s let the police go and do their jobs and let’s support them as we do it,” Vance said to supporters at a banquet hall.
He told ABC News afterward, while speaking with reporters, that if elected he would prioritize increasing funding for police.
“We need to probably hire 100,000 additional cops in this country,” he said.
Referring to special legal protections for law enforcement that some Democrats argue are too broad, Vance disagreed and said: “We really have to protect local police officers with qualified immunity.”
ABC News also spoke with Rep. Ryan, most recently at a kick-off event for his statewide bus tour in Warren, Ohio. When asked how he’s prepping before Monday’s debate, Ryan said that he wished the face-off was held sooner.
“We want to get this thing kicked off. But, you know, we’re doing good work,” he said.
He also told ABC News that he can’t “overstate” how important the two debates between him and Vance are going to be because it will show voters what he said is a “contrast” between the two.
“JD has given up on Ohio and I’ve been here fighting like hell for this state, and we’re starting to see some real results. And so that contrast of his extremism versus my pragmatism is going to be very apparent in the next two debates,” Ryan said.
While the party in power often suffers setbacks in midterm races, swing-state Democrats like Ryan have campaigned by seeking to separate themselves from Washington.
He told ABC News that he’s an “independent-minded person,” while Vance has labeled him a “fake moderate.”
In an emailed statement to ABC News, Vance campaign spokesperson Luke Schroeder wrote that “JD is well prepared for the upcoming debates and has found time to prepare between rallies and events. He will have no problem wiping the floor with Tim Ryan.”
Paulina Tam is one of seven ABC News campaign reporters embedded in battleground states across the country. Watch all the twists and turns of covering the midterm elections every Sunday on Hulu’s “Power Trip” with ABC’s George Stephanopoulos.
(NEW YORK) — More than six months after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched an invasion into neighboring Ukraine, the two countries are engaged in a struggle for control of areas throughout eastern and southern Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose forces began an offensive in August, has vowed to take back all Russian-occupied territory. But Putin in September announced a mobilization of reservists, which is expected to call up as many as 300,000 additional troops.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Oct 10, 6:40 AM EDT
Missile strikes are response for bridge attack, Putin says
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday’s attacks on civilian areas across Ukraine were a response to Saturday’s attack on the bridge connecting Russia and Crimea.
“To leave without an answer a crime of such a type is already simply impossible. This morning, at the proposal of Russia’s ministry of defense and general staff, a massive strike of high precision, long-range weapons has been delivered from air, land and sea, on Ukraine’s energy facilities, military command and communication,” Putin said.
He added, “In the case of continuing terrorist attack on our territory, the answers from Russia will be severe and by their scale correspond to the level of threat created for the Russian Federation. No one should have any doubts about that.”
-ABC News’ Joe Simonetti and Tanya Stukalova
Oct 10, 4:57 AM EDT
US Embassy in Kyiv: ‘Shelter in place’
The U.S. Embassy in Kyiv emailed Americans in Ukraine, warning that they should shelter in place.
“The U.S. Embassy urges US citizens to shelter in place and depart Ukraine now using privately available ground transportation options when it is safe to do so,” the email said.
Oct 10, 4:50 AM EDT
Missiles strike civilian targets in cities across Ukraine
Air raid sirens sounded across Ukraine on Monday morning, as a series of Russian missiles struck civilian targets in Kyiv, Lviv, Kharkiv and other cities.
Russia launched 75 missiles toward Ukraine, Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces Valeriy Zaluzhnyi said. Forty-one of those missiles were struck down by air defenses, Zaluzhnyi said.
At least eight people died and 24 were injured in Kyiv, officials said. At least five missiles struck the capital at about 8 a.m. local time.
Missiles hit the capital’s central Shevchenkiv District, with explosions near Parliament and other government buildings. Samsung’s Ukraine headquarters, which is next to Kyiv’s main train station, was damaged. Photos showed smashed glass windows and what appeared to be significant damage.
Power was out in much of Lviv, in western Ukraine, where several explosions were also reported. The mayor said “critical infrastructure” was damaged.
At least six explosions were heard in Kharkiv, where the regional governor urged residents to shelter in place.
-ABC News’ Joe Simonetti, Britt Clennett and Ian Pannell
Oct 10, 3:08 AM EDT
Zelenskyy: ‘Hold on and be strong’
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday urged Ukrainians to “hold on and be strong” after explosions rocked Kyiv.
“The 229th day of full-scale war. On the 229th day, they are trying to destroy us and wipe us off the face of the earth,” Zelenskyy said. “In general. Destroy our people who are sleeping at home in Zaporizhzhia. Kill people who go to work in Dnipro and Kyiv. The air alarm does not subside throughout Ukraine. There are missiles hitting. Unfortunately, there are dead and wounded. Please do not leave shelters. Take care of yourself and your loved ones. Let’s hold on and be strong.”
-ABC News Joe Simonetti
Oct 08, 4:21 PM EDT
Putin orders investigation into attack on Crimean bridge
Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a commission to investigate an explosion that damaged a key bridge linking Crimea and Russia. Russia had been using the bridge as a key supply route for bringing in troops and ammunition into southern Ukraine.
The Ukrainian Security Service declined to comment on rumors of its involvement in the bridge’s explosion.
Putin also signed a decree instructing tighter security for the bridge and the infrastructure supplying electricity and natural gas to the peninsula.
The blast coincided with the naming of Air Force General Sergei Surovikin as the commander of all Russian troops in Ukraine.
Oct 08, 12:10 PM EDT
Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant loses remaining external power source due to shelling: IAEA
Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plane lost its last external power source due to renewed shelling, the International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi said in a statement Saturday.
The plant is now relying on emergency diesel generators for the electricity it needs for reactor cooling and other essential nuclear safety and security functions, according to Grossi.
The plant’s connection to the power line was cut at around 1 a.m. local time. Sixteen of the plant’s diesel generators started operating automatically, providing its six reactors with power. After the situation stabilized, 10 of the generators were switched off, according to Grossi.
“The resumption of shelling, hitting the plant’s sole source of external power, is tremendously irresponsible. The Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant must be protected,” Director General Grossi said. “I will soon travel to the Russian Federation, and then return to Ukraine, to agree on a nuclear safety and security protection zone around the plant. This is an absolute and urgent imperative.”
Oct 08, 7:28 AM EDT
Three killed in bridge blast, official says
Three people were killed on Saturday in the explosion that collapsed portions of the bridge linking Russia to Crimea, a Russian official said.
The Russian Investigative Committee also said it had identified the driver of the truck that was allegedly blown up on the bridge.
Russia’s response should be tough, said Leonid Slutsky, chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs.
“If the Ukrainian trace is confirmed in the state of emergency on the Crimean bridge, the consequences will be inevitable,” Slutsky wrote on his Telegram channel on Saturday.
He said he has no doubt that “Kyiv is behind the organization of this attack.” Ukrainian officials have not taken credit for the blast. Ukraine’s official government Twitter account tweeted the phrase “sick burn” after the explosion, but did not directly reference the blast.
“This is not just an emergency,” Slutsky wrote. “It could be an act of state terrorism.”
The railway infrastructure restoration has been started after the fire on the bridge was contained and extinguished, Crimean Railway said.
Oct 08, 6:38 AM EDT
Truck blast caused bridge damage, Russia says
Russian officials said the explosion that damaged the key bridge linking Crimea and Russia came from a truck.
“Today at 6:07 a truck was blown up on the automobile part of the Crimean Bridge from the side of the Taman Peninsula,” Russia’s National Anti-Terrorism Committee posted online. “It resulted in the ignition of seven fuel tanks of the train, along the direction of the Crimean Peninsula. There was a partial collapse of two automobile spans of the bridge. The arch over the navigable part of the bridge was not damaged.”
Russian investigators were at the scene, attempting to “establish the circumstances of the explosion,” the committee said.
Russian supply lines into Crimea were likely to be disrupted by the blast. Crimean authorities said they would instead get supplies from Russia’s newly annexed territories.
Oct 08, 4:45 AM EDT
Bridge ‘down’ between Russia and Crimea
The bridge between Russia and Crimea was partially destroyed on Saturday, Ukrainian officials said.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense said the Kerch Bridge had “gone down.”
“The guided missile cruiser Moskva and the Kerch Bridge — two notorious symbols of Russian power in Ukrainian Crimea — have gone now,” the ministry said on Twitter, referencing Russia’s Moskva vessel, which was destroyed in April. “What’s next in line, russkies?”
Videos and photos posted by official Ukrainian accounts on social media on Saturday appeared to show the aftermath of an explosion, with plumes of smoke rising above the water.
At least one section of the bridge appeared to have partially fallen into the Kerch Strait, the waterway between the Sea of Azov and the Black Sea.
A railway bridge running alongside the vehicle bridge also appeared to be damaged.
Oct 07, 4:07 PM EDT
Russian officials say its premature, there is no need to cancel New Year, Christmas festivities to put funds toward war
A source in the Kremlin said Saint Petersburg, Russia, authorities choosing to cancel Christmas and New Year citywide events to funnel the funds toward the war in Ukraine is premature, according to Russian News Agency Interfax.
“We consider it clearly premature and undeveloped,” the source said according to Interfax.
The Russian Defense Ministry also said its armed forces have all the necessary equipment for the war in Ukraine, saying there is no need to cancel events in Russian regions to save funds for military personnel, said Colonel-General Viktor Goremykin, Deputy Minister of Defense of the Russian Federation.
Earlier on Friday, St. Petersburg officials announced they had decided to cancel the planned festivities and the funds would be used to equip the mobilized. A similar decision was made by the authorities of the Leningrad region.
Oct 07, 2:16 PM EDT
Shelling outside Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant damaged power line to reactor, IAEA says
Shelling outside the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest, damaged the power line to one of the reactors, International Atomic Energy Agency Director General Rafael Grossi said Friday.
The damage was caused to reactor six on Thursday, forcing the unit to temporarily rely on emergency diesel generators, according to Grossi.
Two of the experts who had been at the plant for over five weeks, were replaced Friday. There are now four IAEA experts at the Zaporizhzhya plant.
“Again and again, the plant’s courageous, skilled and experienced operators find solutions to overcome the severe problems that keep occurring because of the conflict. However, this is not a sustainable way to run a nuclear power plant. There is an urgent need to create a more stable environment for the plant and its staff,” Grossi said in a statement.
Oct 07, 1:44 PM EDT
White House says no new intel sparked Biden comments on Putin’s nuclear threat
After President Joe Biden made comments suggesting Russia may use nuclear weapons, the White House says there is no new information to suggest an imminent threat.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden’s comments have been “very consistent” and he was reinforcing how seriously the U.S. takes Russia’s threats about using nuclear weapons.
“Russia’s nuclear rhetoric has been reckless and irresponsible. But if the Cuban missile crisis has taught us anything, it is the value of reducing nuclear risk and not brandishing that,” she said speaking to reporters Friday.
Jean-Pierre also called Putin’s comments irresponsible as a leader of a nuclear power.
“We won’t be intimidated by Putin’s rhetoric, we have not seen any reason to adjust our own nuclear posture, nor do we have indications they are prepared to use them but Putin can de-escalate this at any time, and there is no reason to escalate,” Jean-Pierre said.
Oct 07, 1:31 PM EDT
St. Petersburg cancels New Year, Christmas festivities to put funds toward war with Ukraine
Traditional Christmas and New Year celebrations in Saint Petersburg, Russia will be canceled and all previously allocated money for the festivities will be channeled to finance volunteers and mobilized troops involved in the war with Ukraine, according to TASS, a Russian news agency, which cited a statement from the municipal authorities.
All the available funds will be channeled into a special account to pay for gear for volunteers and mobilized citizens, according to TASS.
“During a session with Governor Alexander Beglov with members of the municipal administration it was decided to cancel previously scheduled events dedicated to New Year festivities,” the statement said, according to TASS.
Oct 07, 11:33 AM EDT
Top Ukrainian adviser criticizes Noble Peace Prize decision
A top adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has criticized the Nobel Peace Prize for its decision to award Russian and Belarusian human rights defenders alongside Ukraine’s, reflecting a widespread sentiment in Ukraine that it has been unwillingly lumped in with two countries engaged in attacking it.
“Nobel Committee has an interesting understanding of word ‘peace’ if representatives of two countries that attacked a third one receive @NobelPrize together. Neither Russian nor Belarusian organizations were able to organize resistance to the war. This year’s Nobel is ‘awesome’,”Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to Zelenskyy, wrote on Twitter.
Oct 07, 9:55 AM EDT
Biden says Putin ‘is not joking’ about potential use of tactical nuclear weapons
President Joe Biden made some of his most clear and striking assessments on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s threats of using a nuclear weapon.
For the “first time since the Cuban missile crisis, we have the direct threat of the use of a nuclear weapon if in fact things continue down the path that they are going. That’s a different deal,” he said at a fundraiser in New York City on Thursday.
“We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban missile crisis,” he said. “I don’t think there’s any such thing as the ability to easily [use] a tactical nuclear weapon and not end up with Armageddon.”
Biden said Putin’s military is “underperforming” in Ukraine and he may feel threatened.
Biden said he knows Putin “fairly well” and has spent “a fair amount of time with him” and warned that Putin is serious.
“He is not joking when he talks about potential use of tactical nuclear weapons, or biological, or chemical weapons because his military is, you might say, significantly underperforming,” Biden said.
“There’s a lot at stake,” Biden said. “We are trying to figure out what is Putin’s off ramp? Where does he get off? Where does he find a way out? Where does he find himself in a position that he does not – not only lose face but lose significant power within Russia?”
Oct 06, 2:27 PM EDT
Zaporizhzhia power plant perimeter has mines: IAEA
There are mines along the perimeter of Zaporizhzhia, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, said at a press conference in Kyiv Thursday after holding talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The facility is currently under the control of Russian forces.
“There have been indications that in the perimeter of the plant there are some mines, yes,” Grossi said, before denying that there are any mines inside the plant itself.
Grossi is headed to Russia next to push for a security zone to be set up around the Zaporizhzhia plant.
Grossi told reporters that the IAEA considers Zaporizhzhia a Ukrainian facility.
“I think the IAEA, as an international organization, has a mission, has a legal parameter to do it. And what I will be is very consistent as I have been from the very beginning. We are not changing our line. We are continuing saying what needs to be done, which is basically avoid a nuclear accident. At the plant, which is still a very, very clear possibility. Yes,” Grossi said.
Oct 06, 1:45 PM EDT
Ukrainian official confirms advance into Luhansk region
The village of Hrekivka in Ukraine’s Luhansk region has been liberated, its governor, Serhiy Haidai, said Friday, adding that fierce fighting continues for other settlements.
“I’ve seen some soldiers already posted a photo of them standing on the background of the sign ‘Hrekivka,’ so its not a secret anymore — it is already liberated. And we keep moving in that direction,” Haidai said.
“After liberating Lyman [in Donetsk at the end of last month], as expected, the main battles are on the direction of Kreminna. The occupiers are pulling their main forces there. This is where the beginning of de-occupation of Luhansk oblast lies,” Haidai said.
He added, “Luhansk region liberation will be tougher than Kharkiv region. All those Russian military who ran from Kharkiv region and Lyman ran to our direction, so the occupation forces increased in number.”
Oct 06, 4:38 AM EDT
Apartments in Zaporizhzhia struck in early morning
Russian forces struck a residential neighborhood in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia early on Thursday, officials said.
Oct 05, 2:20 PM EDT
Ukrainian officials say they found more evidence of tortures, killings in eastern Kharkiv
Ukrainian officials released images they claim show evidence of tortures and killings in eastern Kharkiv, in areas recently reclaimed from Russia.
Authorities are investigating an alleged Russian torture chamber in the village of Pisky-Radkivski, according to Serhiy Bolvinov, the head of the investigative department of the national police in the region.
Bolvinov posted an image of a box of what appeared to be precious metal teeth and dentures presumably extracted from those held at the site.
Two bodies were found in a factory in Kupiansk with their hands bound behind their backs, while two others were found in Novoplatonivka, their hands linked by handcuffs.
-ABC News’ Jason Volack
Oct 05, 6:47 AM EDT
Putin formally annexes 15% of Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed laws finalizing the illegal annexation of four regions of neighboring Ukraine — more than 15% of the country’s territory — even as his military struggles to maintain control over the newly absorbed areas.
The documents completing the annexation of Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions — in defiance of international laws — were published on a Russian government website on Wednesday morning.
Earlier this week, the Russian parliament ratified treaties making the occupied areas part of Russia. The move followed what the Kremlin called referendums in the four Ukrainian regions, which the West rejected as a sham.
The annexed areas are not all under control of Russian forces, which are battling a massive counteoffensive effort by Ukrainian troops.
Oct 04, 1:29 PM EDT
Biden, Harris speak to Zelenskyy, offer new $625 million security assistance package
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday, underscoring that the U.S. will never recognize areas annexed by President Vladimir Putin as Russian territory and offering additional security assistance.
Biden announced a $625 million security assistance package that includes additional weapons and equipment, according to a statement from the White House.
Biden also promised to impose “severe costs” on any individual, entity or country that “provides support to Russia’s purported annexation.”
-ABC News’ Justin Gomez
Oct 04, 11:58 AM EDT
More than 355,000 people have fled Russia amid mobilization
Since Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a national mobilization last month, more than 355,000 people have left the country, according to Russian independent media.
Roughly 200,000 people escaped to Kazakhstan, 80,000 left for Georgia and 65,000 departed for Finland. Some 6,000 people also fled to Mongolia and there are reports of people fleeing to Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tadjikistan.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday that more than 200,000 people have been mobilized since Sept. 21.
-ABC News’ Tanya Stukalova
Oct 04, 9:29 AM EDT
Ukraine makes major breakthrough in south, advancing well behind Russian lines
Ukraine has made a major breakthrough in the country’s south that now threatens to collapse part of the Russian front line there, similar to Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the northeast last month.
Ukrainian forces have advanced over 18 miles in two days, driving deep behind Russia’s front line in the Kherson region and advancing south along the Dnipro river.
Russian journalists reported that Russian forces on Monday were forced to pull back from the village of Dudchany. Multiple Russian military bloggers, who are often embedded with Russian troops, say that Ukrainian troops now heavily outnumber Russian troops there.
The advance, if it continues, has huge implications for the war. Russia’s position is increasingly in danger of collapsing, which would make it all but impossible to defend the city of Kherson, the capital of the region annexed by Russian President Vladimir Putin four days ago.
Oct 04, 5:55 AM EDT
Zelenskyy signs decree ruling out negotiations with Putin
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a presidential decree on Tuesday formally declaring the “impossibility” of holding negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The decree backs a decision put forward by Zelenskyy’s national security council and includes the point: “To declare the impossibility of conducting negotiations with the president of the Russian Federation, V. Putin.”
The decree echoed a statement made by Zelenskyy when Putin annexed Ukrainian territory last Friday, saying it showed it is impossible to negotiate with the current president.
Oct 03, 12:22 PM EDT
Ukraine advances in south, Russia says
Ukrainian forces on Sunday evening broke through part of Russia’s defense of the disputed Kherson region, advancing from the region’s northeast into a territory Russia had claimed to annex as its own on Friday.
Ukrainian troops succeeded in pushing south along the Dnipro river, according to Ukrainian and Russian officials.
Russia’s Defense Ministry on Monday partly confirmed the advance, saying Ukrainian forces “managed to drive a wedge deep into our defense.”
It said Russian troops had fallen back to “pre-prepared lines of defense” and were using heavy artillery to halt a further Ukrainian advance. It claimed, without evidence, that Ukraine had suffered heavy losses, but acknowledged that Ukraine had an advantage in tank numbers there.
Russian military bloggers said on Sunday that Ukrainian troops advanced southwards in the direction of the village of Dudchany, several miles behind the rest of Russia’s frontline in the region.
The advance raised questions about whether Russia would be able to hold the city of Kherson, the only regional capital it managed to seize in the invasion. For weeks, military experts have said Russia’s position in the Kherson region has been deteriorating because Ukraine has destroyed the only bridges allowing Russia to re-supply its troops.
Kirill Stremousov, a Russian-installed official in the region, on social media acknowledged Ukrainian troops had advanced along the Dnipro towards Dudchany but claimed they had been halted by Russian fire and that “everything is under control.”
A continued Ukrainian advance along the Dnipro would threaten to undermine the rest of the Russian front north of the river, raising the risk Russian forces there could be cut off.
The White House National Security Council’s spokesman John Kirby noted Ukraine was making gains in the south on Monday, but caveated that they were “incremental” for the time-being.
The battle for Kherson has major military and symbolic significance for both sides. A retreat from the city would seriously undermine Russia’s annexation of one of the four Ukrainian regions declared by Vladimir Putin just days ago — Kherson is supposed to be the capital of the newly annexed region of the same name.
Oct 03, 11:18 AM EDT
Kidnapped head of Zaporizhzhia plant has been released
The head of the Ukrainian nuclear power plant Zaporizhzhia has been released, after Ukrainian officials accused Russia of kidnapping him, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Ihor Murashov, the head of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, was released and returned safely to his family, Rafael Mariano Grossi, the Director General of the IAEA, tweeted.
Zaporizhzhia is a Ukrainian facility now occupied by Russian troops.
Oct 03, 7:26 AM EDT
Putin’s nuclear threats ‘irresponsible rhetoric,’ official says
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s threats that his country could strike Ukraine with nuclear weapons were “irresponsible rhetoric” from a nuclear power, a Pentagon official said.
“They are continuing to be irresponsible rhetoric coming from a nuclear power,” Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said on “Good Morning America” on Monday. “There’s no reason for him to use that kind of bluster, those kinds of threats.”
But the U.S. was still taking the threats seriously, he said. The U.S. was “ready and prepared” to defend every inch of NATO territory, he said.
“We have to take these threats seriously. We must. It’d be easier if we could just blow it off, but we can’t,” Kirby said. “These are serious threats made by a serious nuclear power.”
Oct 03, 5:55 AM EDT
Russia ‘likely struggling’ to train reservists, UK says
Russian officials are “likely struggling” to find officers and provide training for many of the reservists who’ve been called up as part of President Vladimir Putin’s mobilization, the U.K. Ministry of Defense said.
“Local officials are likely unclear on the exact scope and legal rationale of the campaign,” the ministry said in a Monday update. “They have almost certainly drafted some personnel who are outside the definitions claimed by Putin and the Ministry of Defence.”
Some of the reservists are assembling in tented transit camps, the ministry said.
Oct 02, 10:42 AM EDT
Former CIA chief Petraeus says Putin’s losses puts him in ‘irreversible’ situation
Former CIA chief David Petraeus said Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin has put himself in an “irreversible” situation amid the Kremlin’s annexation of Russian-controlled Ukrainian regions.
“President Volodymyr co-anchor Jonathan Karl.
Petraeus said Putin “is losing” the war, despite “significant but desperate” recent moves. On Friday, Putin said he was annexing four regions of Ukraine — a move denounced by Ukraine, the U.S. and other Western countries as a violation of international law — and, in late September, the Russian leader said he was calling up some 300,000 reservists, triggering protests and a mass exodus from Russia.
In a rare acknowledgment Thursday, Putin admitted “mistakes” in how the country carried out the mobilization.
Oct 01, 9:07 AM EDT
Russia shoots at civilian convoy, kills 22, Ukrainian official says
Russian forces are accused of shelling a convoy of seven civilian cars killing 22 people, including 10 children, according to preliminary data, Olexandr Filchakov, chief prosecutor of the Kharkiv region, told ABC News.
According to preliminary data, the cars were shot by the Russian military on Sept. 25, when civilians were trying to evacuate from Kupyansk, a settlement in the Kupyansk area, Filchakov said.
The column of shot cars was discovered on Friday. Two cars burned completely with children and parents inside, Filchakov said.
Filchakov said the bodies burned completely.
Russian forces fired at the column with a 12.5 mm caliber gun. Those who remained alive were then shot at with rifles, according to Filchakov.
(WASHINGTON) — The man who allegedly left two dead and six injured after he went on a stabbing spree in Las Vegas “had every intention” of killing the victims, one of the survivors told ABC News.
Yoni Barrios, 32, allegedly approached a group of performers outside the Wynn Casino on Thursday and asked to take a picture with them before removing a knife, according to an arrest report.
Barrios allegedly told police he removed a black carbon knife from a suitcase, telling the women he was a chef, and he became angry because he thought the women were laughing at him and making fun of his clothing, according to the report.
“Barrios started running and looking for groups of people so he could ‘let the anger out,'” the arrest report stated.
Surveillance video showed the suspect stab several victims, including street performer Maris Mareen DiGiovanni, before running south along the sidewalk, where he stabbed victim Brent Hallet in the back, according to the arrest report.
The suspect then continued running south and stabbed two victims before turning east along Sands Avenue and stabbing another two victims, the report stated.
Both DiGiovanni and Hallet died from their injuries.
Anna Westby, one of the street performers, told ABC News from her hospital bed that he “had every intention of killing her [DiGiovanni], killing us.”
Westby said the suspect approached them, asking for a photo with his logo. After DiGiovanni said yes, he pulled out a knife, she added.
“And we’re like, ‘That’s not a logo — the logo we were expecting,'” Westby said.
Barrios then allegedly grabbed the knife and stabbed DiGiovanni in the chest, Westby said.
Westby denied that the group of street performers was making fun of the suspect, saying, “There was not a single moment where he was provoked.”
Barrios allegedly chose his targets at random, a source told ABC News. The victims include both locals and tourists, Clark County Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said during a press briefing Thursday.
He allegedly confessed to police, apologizing and acknowledging that what he did was wrong, according to a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation. Barrios allegedly did not have a coherent explanation, making it seem that he had snapped, the official said.
Surviving street performers later told police the suspect made them feel uncomfortable, according to the arrest report. One of the victims told police that Barrios told him, “sorry man,” as he stabbed him, the report stated.
As of Thursday night, three victims were in critical condition and another three in stable condition, police said. It is unclear whether their conditions have changed.
Barrios has been charged with two counts of open murder with a deadly weapon and six counts of attempted murder with a deadly weapon, according to police.
He was denied bail during a court appearance Friday afternoon and is scheduled to appear again on Tuesday.
Information on a defense attorney for Barrios was not immediately available.
(WASHINGTON) — Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy on Sunday called for a change in Washington’s ties to Saudi Arabia after the country and other members of the OPEC+ alliance decided to significantly cut production later this year in a move that will likely drive up the slumping cost of crude oil.
Speaking on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Murphy added to the growing number of Democrats arguing that the U.S. should, as he put it, “rethink” the relationship with the Gulf kingdom in light of the announced 2-million-barrel-per-day cut in oil production as well as Riyadh’s human rights record.
The forthcoming restrictions by OPEC+, which will begin in November, come after President Joe Biden traveled to Saudi Arabia this summer seeking, in part, to lower domestic gas prices before the midterms.
But OPEC+ said the cuts announced last week were necessary to help support the international price for oil. The global market has been roiled by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and other forces.
“We are here to stay as a moderating force, to bring about stability,” a Saudi minister said Wednesday. The cuts, the minister insisted, were not about “belligerence.”
Biden told ABC News on Thursday he was unhappy with the move. And while he maintained that the trip was not essentially for oil. … It is a disappointment and it says that there are problems.”
On CNN on Sunday, Murphy said that “it’s clear that we didn’t get as much as we needed to.”
“We wanted to know that when the chips were down, when there was a global crisis, that the Saudis would choose us instead of Russia. Well — they didn’t. They chose Russia. They chose to back up the Russians, drive up oil prices, which could have the potential to fracture our Ukraine coalition. And there’s got to be consequences for that,” Murphy said.
“We sell massive amounts of arms to the Saudis. I think we need to rethink those sales,” he said. “I think we need to lift the exemption that we have given this OPEC+ cartel from U.S. price-fixing liability. I think we need to look at our troop presence in the middle East and Saudi Arabia,” he said. “For years we have looked the other way as Saudi Arabia has chopped up journalists, has engaged in massive political repression.”
Beyond rethinking the U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia, Murphy also focused on Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the country’s de facto ruler, whom Biden met with in July in negotiations that drew scrutiny given that U.S. intelligence has assessed bin Salman approved the killing of U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul.
The prince has continued to claim he was not involved, though Biden said he raised the issue at their meeting this summer.
Hatice Cengiz, Khashoggi’s fiancée, sharply criticized Biden’s “heartbreaking” decision to travel to Saudi Arabia. While running for president in 2019, Biden said he would make the country a “pariah.”
Murphy’s comments on Sunday follow similar calls from other Democrats last week for some kind of punishment after the oil production cut. A trio of House Democrats introduced a bill to remove the U.S. military presence from Saudi Arabia.
“Many argued that we had to ‘repair’ our relationship with our Gulf partners to win their cooperation in stabilizing global energy markets following Russia’s invasion, and President Biden made every effort to do so, going so far as to meet the Saudi Crown Prince personally in Riyadh, despite his role in the murder of Jamal Khashoggi,” Reps. Sean Casten of Illinois, Tom Malinowski of New Jersey and Pennsylvania’s Susan Wild said in a joint statement last week.
“It is time for the United States to resume acting like the superpower in our relationship with our client states in the Gulf. They have made a choice and should live with the consequences. Our troops and military equipment are needed elsewhere,” the trio said.
The White House, while disagreeing with the production cuts, is remaining tight-lipped about how it plans to respond to OPEC+, which is unofficially led by Riyadh.
“We will be assessing and consulting closely with Congress around a range of issues on the back end of this,” Brian Deese, a top economic adviser to Biden, told reporters on Thursday. “And beyond that, I don’t want to get ahead of potential announcements by the administration.”
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden’s warning last week that Vladimir Putin was “not joking” about possibly using nuclear weapons was “concerning” and counterproductive to bringing an end to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, retired Adm. Mike Mullen said Sunday.
Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, was asked in an interview on ABC’s “This Week” to assess the nuclear risk from Russia after Putin said he would use “all available means” to protect what he called his country’s territorial integrity.
“President Biden’s language — we’re about at the top of the language scale, if you will. And I think we need to back off that a little bit and do everything we possibly can to try to get to the table to resolve this thing,” Mullen told “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz.
Mullen was referring to what Biden said on Thursday when he warned that for the “first time since the Cuban missile crisis, we have the direct threat of the use of a nuclear weapon if in fact things continue down the path that they are going.”
“I don’t think there’s any such thing as the ability to easily [use] a tactical nuclear weapon and not end up with Armageddon,” Biden said then.
The White House has since clarified that the president was not acting on new intelligence of looming danger but was trying to underline the stakes given the current conflict in Ukraine, where Ukrainian forces have recaptured ground in the country’s contested eastern and southern regions and have pushed back Russian troops.
On “This Week,” Raddatz pressed Mullen on his proposed resolution: “How do you see him [Putin] saving face if he doesn’t come to the table? If Ukraine can’t figure anything out?”
Diplomacy and international pressure on both Ukraine and Russia would ultimately be key, Mullen argued.
“It’s got to end and usually there are negotiations associated with that,” he said. “The sooner the better, as far as I’m concerned.”
Putin is “pretty well cornered and boxed in,” Mullen said. And potential use of tactical nuclear weapons could cause problems for Russia’s president at home: “The winds all blow back onto Russia, so he would have to, in a way, contaminate his own country.”
Forecasting a possible strike, Mullen said Putin “could pick a symbolic target. He could pick [Ukraine President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy’s hometown, for instance.”
Raddatz opened Mullen’s interview Sunday by having him respond to John Kirby, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, who also went one-on-one with Raddatz on Sunday.
Kirby said that the Biden administration’s strategy against nuclear threats from North Korea was both to ensure the U.S. can “defend our national security interests” and to pursue direct talks with Kim Jong Un’s regime to denuclearize the region.
“Do you see any strategy differences? Do you see anything that’s going to work?” Raddatz asked Mullen in light of Kirby’s comments.
“I believe for some time that the path to any resolution of this has got to go through Beijing — pressure brought on by Xi Jinping, with respect to dealing with Kim Jong Un,” Mullen said, referring to China’s leader. “I’m fine with us negotiating directly, if that’s what Kim Jong Un wants to do.”
“Is denuclearization really realistic at this point?” Raddatz asked.
“I think sometimes we lose perspective on how devastating these weapons are. And I think we need to do everything we possibly can to the extreme to make sure that that still is a possibility,” Mullen said. “And I’m just not willing to admit that it isn’t yet. I know it’s difficult.”
Raddatz cited Mullen’s view in 2017 that North Korea had increased the possibility of nuclear war to a historic high. “How about now?” she asked.
“I think in the end it comes down to will he [Kim] ever use it? And I just don’t know the answer to that,” Mullen said. But he was concerned: “I think it’s more possible than it was five years ago.”
(WASHINGTON) — The White House believes “the stakes are very high right now” with Russia amid Vladimir Putin’s struggles in Ukraine and his references to his nuclear arsenal, but President Joe Biden’s warning of possible “Armageddon” wasn’t about an imminent threat, a top Biden spokesperson said Sunday.
“These comments were not based on new or fresh intelligence or new indications that Mr. Putin has made a decision to use nuclear weapons and, quite frankly, we don’t have any indication that he has made that kind of decision,” John Kirby, a spokesman for the White House National Security Council, told ABC “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz.
“Nor have we seen anything that would give us pause to reconsider our own strategic nuclear posture in our efforts to defend our own national security interests and those of our allies and partners,” Kirby said, citing the president’s promise that “neither we nor our allies are going to be intimidated by this.”
Kirby’s comments come after Biden’s unusually stark remarks at a fundraiser on Thursday.
Biden said then that Putin, the Russian president, was “not joking when he talks about the use of tactical nuclear weapons or biological or chemical weapons” and that “we have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban missile crisis” in the 1960s.
The White House was pressed repeatedly last week over whether Biden’s warning marked some shift in the administration’s assessment of Putin’s behavior, which Kirby denied on “This Week.”
“We are monitoring this as best we can, and we have been monitoring his nuclear capabilities, frankly, since he invaded Ukraine back in February,” Kirby said.
Raddatz asked what the U.S. saw as Putin’s “way out” of this war, where his forces have been losing ground in recent weeks in Ukraine’s eastern and southern regions. On Saturday, an explosion also partially collapsed a bridge serving as a crucial supply link from Russia to Crimea, the disputed peninsula Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
“Mr. Putin started this war and Mr. Putin could end it today, simply by moving his troops out of the country,” Kirby said, adding, “We all want to see this war end. … And what needs to happen is for the two sides to be able to sit down and negotiate and find a way out of this peacefully and diplomatically.”
But, so far, “Mr. Putin has shown no indications — zero, none — that he’s willing to do that,” Kirby said. And so, he said, the administration remained committed to indirect involvement in the war by supporting Ukraine via weapons and other military aid.
On the Ukrainian side, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has ruled out negotiating with Putin specifically — not Russia — and signed a decree formalizing that position on Tuesday.
Raddatz also pressed Kirby on the White House’s approach to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who launched a barrage of ballistic missiles in recent days, including over Japan, raising alarms there and in South Korea.
“I’ve seen this for decades and decades, the same thing happens through many presidents: You respond, you do drills, he keeps firing,” Raddatz said.
“What are you doing differently?” she pressed.
Kirby pointed to intelligence gathering and “military readiness” between the U.S., Japan and South Korea: “We’re going to make sure that we have the capabilities in place to defend our national security interests if it comes to that.”
But direct talks with Kim’s regime remained the goal, he said: “We want to see the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, verifiable and complete … We are willing to sit down with them without preconditions at the negotiating table to work toward that end.”
(FORT MYERS, Fla.) — Floridians whose homes and businesses were destroyed during Hurricane Ian are adamant about rebuilding the communities that were destroyed during Hurricane Ian.
Images out of some of the hardest hit regions like Sanibel Island and Fort Myers Beach show entire neighborhoods reduced to rubble after menacing storm surge and Category 4 hurricane force winds ripped through southwest Florida on Oct. 28.
Despite threats exacerbated by climate change, such as rising sea levels and the threat of more intense storm systems, and the challenges presented by the sheer level of devastation, residents are vowing to bring these coastal communities back to their former glory.
“There’s no doubt that the rebuilding efforts, the reconstruction efforts, after Hurricane Ian, are going to be very challenging, and they’re going to take longer than they ordinarily would,” Matthew Harrell, CEO of Franklin Street, a commercial real estate company that specializes in Southwest Florida, told ABC News.
As local and national news stations broadcast the effects of Hurricane Ian live, one of the most striking images were videos of storm surge rushing into The Salty Crab Bar & Grill, a community favorite situated right on the Gulf of Mexico in Fort Myers Beach.
The restaurant was completely destroyed by the storm, Jamie McElhone, marketing coordinator of The Salty Crab, told ABC News.
The damage to the restaurant has not been surveyed yet, as search and rescue teams remain focused on locating those who died in the storm and may still be among the rubble, McElhone said.
Civilians have not yet been allowed to enter the region, she added. Seventy-eight employees for the restaurant have been left scrambling to find work. Some have relocated about 200 miles north to Clearwater, where the Beachside Hospitality Group, which owns The Salty Crab, operates another restaurant.
The plan is to rebuild the restaurant, as long as the insurance and building codes allow them to, McElhone said.
The expense of rebuilding will certainly be an issue that city officials will be grappling with in the coming weeks and months, Harrell said. After a major catastrophe, there is often a “demand surge,” which involves a temporary increase in the cost of reconstruction due to high demand of materials and labor.
The rebuilding efforts are expected to take longer than usual because of breakdowns in the supply chain and labor shortages that existed prior to Ian, Harrell said.
Max Doyle and the pub he co-owns with his father, the Celtic Public House in Punta Gorda, is a prime example of successful efforts to rebuild following a hurricane.
The pub was destroyed by the winds of Hurricane Charley in in 2004.
“It looked like Mother Nature decided to redecorate our town,” Doyle said of the damage.
Even though the Doyles did not have the money or an insurance payout to fund the rebuilding, “it was just something that had to be done,” he said. They relied on community donations and eventually restored the pub, he said.
The risk of hurricanes is something “you sign up for” when you move to Florida, Doyle said. The pub has since withstood every storm, including Ian, he added.
“There’s not really anywhere in the country where you don’t have some sort of natural disaster,” he said.
It will likely take years to rebuild the regions to what they once were, President Joe Biden on Wednesday after visiting Fort Myers Beach.
“You got to start from scratch,” the president said from Fisherman’s Wharf. “You got to move again. And it’s going to take a lot — a lot of time — not weeks or months; it’s going to take years for everything to get squared away in the state of Florida to fully recover and rebuild.”
Harrell praised the resiliency of Floridians during a crisis and expects communities to build back “stronger than ever” — with an ability to withstand the next “big one” that heads their way, Harrell said.
Many of the structures that were destroyed were built decades ago, before the building codes in Florida began to take into account the threat of strong hurricanes, Harrell said. All of the newly constructed properties will be built to current codes — including impact-resistant windows and roof straps that enable roofs to withstand 155-mile winds.
The properties that remained unscathed are the ones that were built to code, Harrell said, adding that there are discussions to strengthen those codes even further in the wake of Ian. The landscape of these regions won’t look the same either, with homes being rebuilt on stilts or raising the elevation of structures with dirt to withstand the base flood elevation.
“So the likelihood of having a similar type of even like Hurricane Ian … is much less likely to happen in the future,” Harrell said.
In addition, even those insurance rates will rise, the rates for newly built properties that are up to code will be less expensive, Harrell said.
Despite the risk of hurricanes, the areas still present desirable attributes such as beautiful beaches, warm weather and economic opportunities that come with tourism, Harrell said.
“There are very few parts of the country that are safe from any sort of natural catastrophes,” he said. “We have a history of just coming out of these catastrophes stronger better than better than ever.”
