(UVALDE, Texas) — The Uvalde, Texas, school board will meet in a special session Saturday to consider the recommendation to fire Police Chief Pete Arredondo for cause following widespread criticism of how he handled the response to the May school shooting.
The Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District has recommended Arredondo be fired.
Arredondo is currently on leave while an investigation into the conduct of law enforcement at the shooting on May 24 takes place. Nineteen children and two teachers were killed in one of the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history.
The discussion will occur in a closed session, but, legally, a determination to fire him would have to be publicly announced.
Despite the Uvalde school district’s active shooter plan calling for its police chief to assume command in the event of a shooting, Arredondo allegedly failed to take on the role of incident commander or transfer the responsibility to another officer on scene during the May 24 attack, according to a report issued this week by a joint committee of the Texas Legislature.
“The Uvalde CISD’s written active shooter plan directed its police chief to assume command and control the response to an active shooter,” according to the report.
Last month, Arredondo told The Texas Tribune he did not consider himself the commanding officer on the scene.
He also said that no one told him about the 911 calls that came in from students who were still alive in the classrooms during the 77 minutes before law enforcement breached a classroom door and killed the 18-year-old gunman.
“We responded to the information that we had and had to adjust to whatever we faced,” Arredondo said. “Our objective was to save as many lives as we could, and the extraction of the students from the classrooms by all that were involved saved over 500 of our Uvalde students and teachers before we gained access to the shooter and eliminated the threat.”
At an open forum hosted by the Uvalde school board Monday, parents and community members called on officials to fire Arredondo immediately, with some also calling for the firing of other members of Uvalde’s school district police force who were present during the shooting.
(WASHINGTON) — Steve Bannon, who served as former President Donald Trump’s chief strategist before departing the White House in August 2017, is on trial for defying a subpoena from the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Bannon was subpoenaed by the Jan. 6 panel for records and testimony in September of last year, with the committee telling him it had “reason to believe that you have information relevant to understanding activities that led to and informed the events at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.”
After the House of Representatives voted to hold him in contempt for defying the subpoena, the Justice Department in November charged Bannon with two counts of criminal contempt of Congress, setting up this week’s trial.
Here is how the news is developing. All times are Eastern:
Jul 20, 11:17 AM EDT
Jan. 6 staffer says panel ‘rejected the basis’ for Bannon’s privilege claim
Kristin Amerling, a senior staffer on the House Jan. 6 committee, returned to the stand to continue her testimony from Tuesday. She testified that Bannon was clearly informed that any claims of privilege were rejected by the committee, and that his non-compliance “would force” the committee to refer the matter to the Justice Department for prosecution.
She said the subpoena issued to Bannon indicated he was “required to produce” records encompassing 17 specific categories, including records related to the Jan. 6 rally near the White House, his communications with Trump allies and several right-wing groups, his communications with Republican lawmakers, and information related to his “War Room” podcast.
The committee was seeking to understand “the relationships or potential relationships between different individuals and organizations that played a role in Jan. 6,” Amerling said. “We wanted to ask him what he knew.”
Asked by prosecutor Amanda Vaughn if Bannon provided any records to the committee by the deadline of 10 a.m. on Oct. 7, 2021, Amerling replied, “He did not.”
“Did the committee get anything more than radio silence by 10 a.m. on Oct. 7?” Vaughn asked.
“No,” said Amerling.
Amerling said that in a correspondence she received that day at about 5 p.m. — after the deadline had passed — Bannon’s attorney at the time, Robert Costello, claimed that Trump had “announced his intention to assert” executive privilege, which Costello said at the time rendered Bannon “unable to respond” to the subpoena “until these issues are resolved.”
But the next day, Amerling recalled on the stand, she sent Costello a letter from Jan. 6 committee chairman Bennie Thompson, “explaining that the committee rejected the basis that he had offered for refusing to comply.”
“Did the letter also tell the defendant he still had to comply?” Vaughn asked Amerling.
“Yes, it did.” Amerling said.
“Did the letter warn the defendant what might happen if he failed to comply with the subpoena?” Vaughn asked.
“Yes, it did,” said Amerling.
The letter was “establishing a clear record of the committee’s views, making sure the defendant was aware of that,” Amerling testified.
Jul 20, 10:06 AM EDT
Judge won’t let trial become ‘political circus,’ he says
Federal prosecutors in Steve Bannon’s contempt trial raised concerns with the judge that Bannon’s team has been suggesting to the jury that this is a “politically motivated prosecution” before the second day of testimony got underway Wednesday morning.
Before the jury was brought in, prosecutor Amanda Vaughn asked U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols to make sure the jury “doesn’t hear one more word about this case being” politically motivated, after she said the defense’s opening statement Tuesday had “clear implications” that the defense was making that claim.
Nichols had barred such arguments from the trial.
In response, defense attorney Evan Corcoran defended his opening statement, saying it “was clearly on the line.”
Nichols then made it clear that during trial, the defense team may ask witnesses questions about whether they themselves may be biased — “but may not ask questions about whether someone else was biased in an action they took outside this courtroom.”
“I do not intend for this to become a political case, a political circus,” Nichols said.
Speaking to reporters after the first full day in court, Bannon blasted members of the Jan. 6 committee and House Democrats for not showing up as witnesses in his trial.
“Where is Bennie Thompson?” asked Bannon regarding the Jan. 6 committee chairman. “He’s made it a crime, not a civil charge … have the guts and the courage to show up here and say exactly why it’s a crime.”
“I will promise you one thing when the Republicans that are sweeping to victory on Nov. 8 — starting in January, you’re going to get a real committee,” Bannon said. “We’re going to get a real committee with a ranking member who will be a Democrat … and this will be run
appropriately and the American people will get the full story.”
The first witness for the prosecution, Kristin Amerling of the Jan. 6 committee, testified that a subpoena is not voluntary.
Amerling, the Jan. 6 panel’s deputy staff director and chief counsel, read aloud the congressional resolution creating the committee and explained that the committee’s role is to recommend “corrective measures” to prevent future attacks like the one on Jan. 6.
“Is a subpoena voluntary in any way?” asked prosecutor Amanda Vaughn.
“No,” Amerling replied.
Amerling also discussed how important it is to get information in a timely manner because the committee’s authority runs out at the end of the year. “There is an urgency to the focus of the Select Committee’s work … we have a limited amount of time in which to gather information,” she said.
Amerling noted that Bannon was subpoenaed pretty early on in the committee’s investigation.
She said the committee subpoenaed Bannon in particular because public accounts indicated that Bannon tried to persuade the public that the 2020 election was “illegitimate”; that on his podcast the day before Jan. 6 he made statements “including that all hell was going to break loose, that suggested he might have some advance knowledge of the events of Jan. 6”; that he was involved in discussions with White House officials, including Trump himself, relating to “strategies surrounding the events of Jan. 6”; and that he had been involved in discussions in the days leading up to Jan. 6 with “private parties who had gathered in the Willard hotel in Washington, D.C., reportedly to discuss strategies around efforts to interfere with the peaceful transfer of power or overturning the election results.”
“Is that something that would have been relevant to the committee’s investigation?” Vaughn asked.
“Yes, because the Select Committee was tasked with trying to understand what happened on Jan. 6, and why,” Amerling replied.
Amerling will be back on the stand Wednesday morning when the trial resumes.
Jul 19, 3:55 PM EDT
Defense tells jury ‘there was no ignoring the subpoena’
Bannon’s defense attorney Matt “Evan” Corcoran said in his opening statement that “no one ignored the subpoena” issued to Bannon, and that “there was direct engagement by Bob Costello,” Bannon’s attorney, with the House committee, specifically committee staffer Kristin Amerling.
He said Costello “immediately” communicated to the committee that there was an objection to the subpoena, “and that Steve Bannon could not appear and that he could not provide documents.”
“So there was no ignoring the subpoena,” Corcoran said. What followed was “a considerable back and forth” between Amerling and Costello — “they did what two lawyers do, they negotiated.”
Corcoran said, “the government wants you to believe … that Mr. Bannon committed a crime by not showing up to a congressional hearing room … but the evidence is going to be crystal clear no one, no one believed Mr. Bannon was going to appear on Oct. 14, 2021,” and the reasons he couldn’t appear had been articulated to the committee.
Corcoran told the jury that the government has to prove beyond a reasonable that Steve Bannon willfully defaulted when he didn’t appear for the deposition on Oct. 14, 2021 — “but you’ll find from the evidence that that date on the subpoena was the subject of ongoing discussions” and it was not “fixed.”
In addition, Corcoran told jurors, you will hear that “almost every single one” of the witnesses subpoenaed led to negotiations between committee staff and lawyers, and often the appearance would be at a later date than what was on the subpoena.
Corcoran also argued that the prosecution may have been infected by politics, telling the jury that with each document or each statement provided at trial, they should ask themselves: “Is this piece of evidence affected by politics?”
Jul 19, 3:31 PM EDT
Prosecutors say Bannon’s failure to comply was deliberate
Continuing her opening statement, federal prosecutor Amanda Vaughn told the jury that the subpoena to Bannon directed him to provide documents by the morning of Oct. 7, 2021, and to appear for a deposition the morning of Oct. 14, 2021 — but instead he had an attorney, Robert Costello, send a letter to the committee informing the committee that he would not comply “in any way,” she said.
“The excuse the defendant gave for not complying” was the claim that “a privilege” meant he didn’t have to turn over certain information, Vaughn said. “[But] it’s not up to the defendant or anyone else to decide if he can ignore the [request] based on a privilege, it’s up to the committee.”
And, said Vaughn, the committee clearly told Bannon that “your privilege does not get you out of this one, you have to provide documents, and you have to come to your deposition.” And importantly, she said, the committee told Bannon that “a refusal to comply” could result in criminal prosecution.
“You will see, the defendant’s failure to comply was deliberate here,” Vaughn told the jury. “The only verdict that is supported by the evidence here: that the defendant showed his contempt for the U.S. Congress, and that he’s guilty.”
Federal prosecutor Amanda Vaughn began opening statements by saying, “In September of last year, Congress needed information from the defendant, Steve Bannon. … Congress needed to know what the defendant knew about the events of Jan. 6, 2021. … Congress had gotten information that the defendant might have some details about the events leading up to that day and what occurred that day.”
So, Vaughn told the jury, Congress gave Bannon a subpoena “that mandated” he provide any information he might have.
“Congress was entitled to the information it sought, it wasn’t optional,” Vaughn said. “But as you will learn in this trial, the defendant refused to hand over the information he might have.”
Vaughn said Bannon ignored “multiple warnings” that he could face criminal prosecution for refusing to comply with the subpoena and for preventing the government from getting “important information.”
“The defendant decided he was above the law and decided he didn’t need to follow the government’s orders,” she said.
Jul 19, 2:51 PM EDT
Judge instructs jury of the burden of proof
Prior to opening statements, the judge made clear to the jury that the Justice Department has the burden to prove four distinct elements “beyond a reasonable doubt”:
(1) that Bannon was in fact subpoenaed for testimony and/or documents;
(2) that the testimony and/or documents were “pertinent” to the Jan. 6 committee’s investigation;
(3) that Bannon “failed to comply or refused to comply” with the subpoena;
(4) that the “failure or refusal to comply was willful.”
Jul 19, 2:44 PM EDT
Jury sworn in after judge denies continuance
A 14-member jury has been sworn in for the contempt trial of ex-Trump strategist Steve Bannon.
Of the 14 jurors, nine are men and five are women.
The swearing-in of the jury comes after U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols denied the defense’s request for a one-month delay of the trial, which attorneys for Bannon argued was necessary due to a “seismic shift in the understanding of the parties” of what the government’s evidence will be.
“We have a jury that is just about picked,” Nichols said in denying the request for a one-month continuance.
One of the jurors, a man who works for an appliance company, said Monday during jury selection that he watched the first Jan. 6 committee hearing and believes the committee is “trying to find the truth about what happened” on Jan. 6.
Another juror, a man who works as a maintenance manager for the Washington, D.C., Parks and Recreation department, said he believes what happened on Jan. 6 “doesn’t make sense.”
Another juror, a woman who works as a photographer for NASA, said “a lot” of her “photographer friends were at the Capitol” on Jan. 6, and she has watched some of the Jan. 6 hearings on the news.
(WASHINGTON) — Ukraine’s first lady Olena Zelenska, highlighting the civilian victims of war in her country, implored Congress to provide additional weapons and air defense systems to Ukraine as Russia’s invasion heads into its sixth month.
“You help us and your help is very strong,” Zelenska said in a rare address by a first lady to U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday, via a translator. “While Russia kills, America saves, and you should know about it. But unfortunately, the war is not over.”
The Ukrainian first lady arrived at the Capitol Visitors Center Congressional Auditorium with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi shortly after 11 a.m. on Wednesday. Pelosi introduced Zelenska, stating the Congress is “honored” to welcome her from the war zone.
Zelenska’s remarks came as Vladimir Putin’s forces ramp up attacks and missile strikes on Ukraine’s eastern and southern regions.
“Usually the wives of the president are exclusively engaged in peaceful affairs — education, human rights, equality, accessibility — and maybe you expected from me to speak on those topics,” she said. “But how can I talk about them when an unprovoked, invasive terrorist war is being waged against my country?”
“Russia is destroying our people,” she said.
The first lady spoke about the conflict’s toll on women and children. She has been separated from her husband, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, for much of the time since the war broke out in February.
She told lawmakers she wanted to address them not just as politicians but as mothers, fathers, sons and daughters as she displayed images of some of the children killed in the conflict — including a 4-year-old named Liza who was killed in a Russian missile strike in the city of Vinnytsia last week.
While the slideshow of war casualties played behind her, Zelenska told lawmakers: “Those are Russia’s ‘hunger games’ — hunting for peaceful people in peaceful cities of Ukraine.”
A photograph of Liza’s stroller on the ground after the attack was shown to lawmakers on the screen behind Zelenska.
“I’m asking for air defense systems in order for rockets not to kill children in their strollers, in order for rockets not to destroy children’s rooms and kill entire families,” she said.
Lawmakers in May passed a $40 billion aid package to Ukraine for military and economic assistance.
Zelenska made many stops in Washington this week, holding meetings with high-profile officials including Secretary of State Antony Blinken and U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator Samantha Power.
On Tuesday, she met with U.S. first lady Jill Biden at the White House for a bilateral meeting.
President Zelesnkyy said on Tuesday he expects from his wife’s visit “significant results for Ukraine in cooperation with America. It is important right now.”
“I really believe that it will be heard by those on whom decision-making in the US depends,” Zelenskyy said of his wife’s address to Congress.
Zelenskyy addressed U.S. lawmakers himself virtually in March, receiving a standing ovation after invoking Pearl Harbor in his plea for additional military aid.
(NEW YORK) — More than half of the guns seized on the streets of a dozen American cities after being used in crimes were made by five manufacturers, according to data released Wednesday by the mayors of those cities.
The group is gathered in New York for a summit on preventing gun violence.
The top manufacturer of recovered guns is Glock in nine of the 12 cities. On average, more than one and a half times more Glocks were recovered than the second-leading manufacturer in each of those nine cities.
Five gun manufacturers accounted for over half of the guns recovered: Glock (16.6%), Taurus (12.4%), Smith & Wesson (11.8%), Ruger (6.5%) and Polymer80 (3.8%). These five manufacturers accounted for nearly 10,000 guns recovered in crimes in 2021.
“We’re dealing with the same problem: a $9 billion industry turning their profits into our pain,” New York Mayor Eric Adams told ABC News in an appearance on Good Morning America with the mayors of Buffalo, New York; Little Rock, Arkansas; and St. Louis.
“Over 110 people are killed by guns every day in our country,” Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown said. “Something has to be done.”
The mayors have convened to discuss strategies to combat gun violence and “to get that gun before it hits our streets,” Adams said.
Putting a focus on the manufacturers is deliberate, St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones said.
“If this were any other industry that was as deadly then the government would have already acted to make sure that we got rid of whatever was killing our citizens,” Jones said. “We haven’t seen that action from the federal government so we have to look at the root causes and try to cure gun violence in our cities.”
Absent additional federal action, Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott said it is left to local leaders to solve the problem.
“Any of us at any point in time will receive a phone call about a homicide and 99.9% of the time it relates to a gun,” Scott said. “We have to address the guns.”
(NEW YORK) — Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” into neighboring Ukraine began on Feb. 24, with Russian forces invading from Belarus, to the north, and Russia, to the east. Ukrainian troops have offered “stiff resistance,” according to U.S. officials.
The Russian military has since launched a full-scale ground offensive in eastern Ukraine’s disputed Donbas region, capturing the strategic port city of Mariupol and securing a coastal corridor to the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Jul 20, 11:42 AM EDT
Zelenska shares photos of killed civilians in her address to Congress
Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska spoke to members of Congress on Capitol Hill Wednesday, saying, “Usually the wives of president are exclusively engaged in peaceful affairs: education, human rights, equality, accessibility. And maybe you expected for me to speak on those topics. But how can I talk about them when an unprovoked invasive terrorist war is being waged against my country?”
Zelenska said this marks the first time the wife of a president of a foreign county addressed members of Congress on the Hill.
Zelenska showed members of Congress several images and stories of carnage impacting civilians, including a photo of 4-year-old Liza who was killed by a Russian missile attack last week.
Liza’s mother was seriously hurt, and “for several days, nobody dared to tell her that Liza has died,” Zelenska said.
She highlighted an Odesa family who lost three generations of women to one missile, and a 96-year-old who survived Nazi concentration camps only to be killed in Kharkiv.
The first lady asked Congress to supply more air defense systems.
“Will my son be able to return to school in the fall? I don’t know, like millions of mothers in Ukraine. Will my daughter will be able to go to university at the beginning of the academic year and experience normal student life? I cannot answer,” she said. “We will have answers if we had air defense systems.”
“America, unfortunately, knows from its own experience what terrorist attacks are and has always sought to defeat terrorists. Help us to stop this terror against Ukrainians,” she said.
Zelenska received a standing ovation after her remarks.
Jul 20, 9:05 AM EDT
US announces four new HIMARS and more ammo for Ukraine
The U.S. will send four more HIMARS advanced rocket systems to Ukraine as part of the new presidential drawdown package coming later this week, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced Wednesday.
Once these four long-range rocket artillery systems arrive, Ukraine will have a total of 16 HIMARS at its disposal.
Austin said these advanced rocket systems “have made such a difference on the battlefield.”
The new package will also include more ammunition for the HIMARS and for the 155 mm artillery weapons the U.S. and other countries have sent to Ukraine, Austin said at the fourth Ukraine defense contact group meeting, with leaders from roughly 50 nations in virtual attendance.
Austin praised the United Kingdom, Germany and Poland in particular for helping Ukraine boost its ability to hit faraway targets.
Jul 19, 2:28 PM EDT
Ukrainian first lady visits White House
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden greeted Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska at the White House Tuesday afternoon.
Zelenska was presented with a bouquet of flowers in Ukrainian colors: yellow sunflowers, blue hydrangeas and white orchids.
Oksana Markarova, the Ukrainian ambassador to the U.S., arrived with Zelenska.
Jill Biden and second gentleman Doug Emhoff then held a bilateral meeting with the Ukrainian delegation. Jill Biden said they’ll discuss mental health issues for mothers and children who have “suffered such tragedy and the atrocities” during the war.
Zelenska will address Congress on Wednesday.
-ABC News’ John Parkinson
Jul 19, 8:25 AM EDT
US weapons help stabilize frontline, Ukrainian official says
Ukrainian forces have “stabilized” the situation along the frontline in the eastern and south-eastern regions of the country, in large part thanks to U.S.-supplied HIMARS rocket launchers, the Ukrainian military said on Monday.
“We managed to stabilize the situation. It is complex, intense, but completely controlled,” Valery Zaluzhny, the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, said.
An important factor contributing to Ukraine’s retention of its defensive lines and positions is the timely arrival of U.S. supplied M142 HIMARS — High Mobility Artillery Rocket System — rocket launchers, Zaluzhny added. These highly precise and modern weapons have been delivering “targeted strikes” on Russian “control points, ammunition and fuel storage depots,” the top commander added.
Ukrainian troops struck a Russian military facility in the area of an asphalt plant in the eastern town of Nova Kakhovka on Monday, Ukrainian military officials said. Ukrainian forces also hit an administrative building and a hangar filled with Russian fuel tankers in the southern town of Beryslav, killing more than 100 Russian soldiers, the Ukrainian military said on Monday.
Russian forces shelled the town of Nikopol in the Dnipropetrovsk region about 40 times on Monday night, local authorities said. Explosions were also reported in the Odesa region, injuring several civilians. Russian troops also fired cluster shells at the city of Mykolaiv late on Monday.
Russia’s stated immediate objective is to seize all of the Donetsk region, the UK Ministry of Defence said on Tuesday. Even if Russian troops make further territorial gains, the tempo of their advance is likely to be very slow, the ministry added.
Russian units, severely under-manned, face a dilemma between deploying more forces to the Donbas or defending against Ukrainian counter-attacks in the Kherson area, the observers said.
Jul 18, 4:20 PM EDT
Ukraine’s first lady to meet with Jill Biden
Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska will meet with first lady Jill Biden in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, Biden’s office said, one day before Zelenska addresses Congress.
Jul 18, 1:45 PM EDT
Ukraine’s first lady to address Congress on Wednesday
Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenska will make remarks Wednesday before members of Congress on Capitol Hill, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced.
All members of the House and Senate are invited to the event, which is set for 11 a.m ET.
Jul 18, 8:56 AM EDT
Russia orders troops to eliminate Ukraine’s long-range missiles
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu has visited the East group of Russian forces involved in the fighting in Ukraine and ordered his troops to eliminate the Ukrainian army’s long-range missiles and artillery ammunition it uses to shell targets in the Donbas region, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Monday.
Shoigu instructed the group’s commander to give priority to the use of precision-guided weapons to destroy Ukraine’s long-range missile and artillery assets, the ministry added. Russia has accused Ukraine of using its long-range weapons to shell residential neighborhoods in Donbas communities and set fire to wheat fields and grain storage facilities.
Ukrainian officials said Russian missiles struck targets across much of eastern Ukraine on Sunday and early Monday.
Six people were killed in the town of Toretsk in the Donetsk region after Russian shelling, the state emergency service said. Missiles also struck civilian infrastructure, including a school in the Dnipropetrovsk and Odesa regions.
Russia also carried out 55 strikes on the Sumy region on Sunday. Around 60 projectiles landed in Nikopol, a dozen residential buildings were damaged and one elderly woman was wounded, local officials said.
The southern city of Mykolaiv was subjected to a massive missile strike in the early hours of Sunday as 10 missiles, presumably launched by an S-300 system, hit various parts of town.
Russian officials said on Monday that no clear timeframes have been set for the war in Ukraine, and priority should be given to its efficiency.
“We have no doubts that the special military operation will be completed after all of its objectives are attained. There are no clear timeframes, what counts most is this operation’s efficiency,” Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said as quoted by Russian media.
Officials from the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic claimed on Monday that DPR territory will be liberated from the Ukrainian military this year.
“The liberation of Donbas will be completed this year,” Eduard Basurin, deputy head of the police department of the DPR, said according to Russian media.
-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Yulia Drozd, and Max Uzol
Jul 17, 6:20 PM EDT
Number of Ukrainian public officials accused of treason, collaborating with Russia: Zelenskyy
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the former head of the Security Service of Ukraine, or SBU, in Crimea, who was dismissed in the beginning of the Russian invasion, has been notified he is being charged with treason.
“Everyone who together with him was part of a criminal group that worked in the interests of the Russian Federation will also be held accountable,” Zelenskyy said during his evening address Sunday. “It is about the transfer of secret information to the enemy and other facts of cooperation with the Russian special services.”
A number of Ukrainian public officials have been notified they will be charged for treason and for collaborating with Russia.
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Jul 17, 2:20 PM EDT
‘Evil cannot win’: Priest breaks down at funeral for 4-year-old Ukrainian girl
A funeral service was held Sunday for a 4-year-old girl with Down syndrome who was among two dozen Ukrainian civilian’s killed last week in a Russian missile attack in the west-central Ukrainian town of Vinnytsia.
During the open-casket funeral for Liza Dmytrieva, a Ukrainian Orthodox priest broke down in tears as he told the little girl’s father and other relatives, “evil cannot win,” according to The Associated Press.
Liza was pushing a stroller in a park as she and her mother were headed to a speech therapist appointment when the attack unfolded Thursday afternoon in Vinnytsia, a city close to the front lines in west-central Ukraine, officials said.
The girl and 23 others Ukrainian civilians were killed, including two boys ages 7 and 8. At least 200 other civilians, including Liza’s mother, were injured, officials said.
“Look, my flower! Look how many people came to you,” Liza’s grandmother, Larysa Dmytryshyna, said, as she caressed the child lying in an open casket filled with teddy bears and flowers.
Orthodox priest Vitalii Holoskevych gave the eulogy at Liza’s funeral struggling through tears.
“I didn’t know Liza, but no person can go through this with calm because every burial is grief for each of us,” Holoskevych said. “We are losing our brothers and sisters.”
Jul 15, 10:01 AM EDT
Grandma of 4-year-old girl killed in missile strike: ‘I hate them all’
The grandmother of a 4-year-old girl killed in Thursday’s Russian missile attack in Vinnytsia told ABC News, “They took the most precious [person] I had in my life.”
Four-year-old Liza was among 23 people, including three children, killed in the strike.
Liza’s grandmother, Larysa Dmytryshyna, called her a “wonderfully sunny child.”
“She was the most wonderful girl in the world and it is so painful that her mother cannot even bury her,” she said.
Asked how she feels about Russia, Dmytryshyna, replied, “I hate them all.”
“We did not ask them to come here. They have caused so much sorrow,” she said of the Russians. “I would give my own life to extinguish the entire country.”
-ABC News’ Tom Soufi Burridge, Ibtissem Guenfoud and Natalya Kushnir
Jul 15, 9:04 AM EDT
Demand for artificial limbs surges in Ukraine
One of Ukraine’s leading medical experts on developing prosthetic limbs for amputees says there has been a dramatic surge in demand for artificial arms and legs since Russia invaded Ukraine.
Dr. Oleksandr Stetsenko told ABC News that financial support or donations of prosthetic parts are needed from abroad to meet the increased demand.
External support, he said, is vital so that people have the chance to continue with their lives.
“With good prosthetics people can come back to life again,” Stetsenko told ABC News.
There is currently no official figure for how many people in Ukraine have undergone surgery to remove limbs because of injuries sustained from the war but Dr. Stetsenko estimates that around 500 people have had limbs amputated since the end of February with the majority of those cases being soldiers and around a fifth being civilians.
While the number of patients in Ukraine needing artificial limbs has increased, the domestic supply of components to make prosthetic arms and legs has reduced.
That is because a third of the companies which were previously producing components in Ukraine are now located in territory which has recently been occupied by Russian forces or in areas near to the frontline, according to the Ukrainian Ministry of Health.
A director at the health ministry, Oleksandra Mashkevych, confirmed that Ukraine is no longer able “to cover all of the demand relating to artificial limbs.”
Mashkevych told ABC News that children who need artificial limbs are sent abroad to Europe or to the United States and that around 20 children in Ukraine are thought to have had limbs amputated since the start of the war in February.
-ABC News’ Tom Soufi Burridge, Ibtissem Guenfoud, Natalya Kushnir and Kuba Kaminski
Jul 15, 6:49 AM EDT
Unprecedented rescue operation underway in Vinnytsia
At least 18 people are still missing after a deadly missile strike on downtown Vinnytsia in central Ukraine on Thursday, the Ukrainian National Police said.
Three Russian Kalibr missiles launched from a submarine struck an office building and damaged nearby residential buildings in Vinnytsia, located about 155 miles southwest of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, on Thursday morning.
At least 23 people — including 3 children — died in the attack, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said, and more than a 100 were wounded, some critically. The bodies of 2 children and 11 adults were yet to be identified on Friday morning, local authorities said.
The strike in the heart of Vinnytsia is “part of a systematic Russian campaign of attacks on residential areas of cities in Ukraine”, the Institute for the Study of War said.
The search continued on Friday morning for at least 18 people who were still missing after the attack. The ongoing rescue operation has been unprecedented in its scale, local officials said, with more than 1,000 rescuers and 200 pieces of equipment being involved in clearing the rubble and searching for those still missing.
Several dozen people were reportedly detained in Vinnytsia on Thursday for questioning under the suspicion of acting as local spotters or aimers on the ground for the Russian strikes.
The eastern city of Mykolaiv also reported 10 powerful explosions on Friday morning. The city’s two biggest universities were hit in the attack, wounding at least four people, local authorities said. Russia also struck a hotel and a shopping mall in Mykolaiv on Thursday.
Russian shelling also targeted Kharkiv, another eastern city, on Thursday night. Local officials claimed 2 schools were damaged in the attack.
The European Union and the United Nations strongly condemned Russia for what the EU called a “long series of brutal attacks against civilians.”
Russia’s missile strikes hit more than 17,000 facilities of civilian infrastructure as opposed to around 300 military facilities since the start of the war, Ukrainian officials said on Thursday.
-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Yulia Drozd, Fidel Pavlenko and Yuriy Zaliznyak
Jul 14, 4:02 PM EDT
Russian missile strike kills at least 23 in Vinnytsia
Russian missiles hit the heart of the central Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia on Thursday morning, killing at least 23 people and wounding dozens, according to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service.
Three children were among the dead, the agency said.
The missiles struck an office building and damaged nearby residential buildings in Vinnytsia, located about 155 miles southwest of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. The strike also ignited a massive fire that engulfed 50 cars in an adjacent parking lot, according to the National Police of Ukraine. Burned-out vehicles are peppered with holes from the missiles.
The State Emergency Service said about 115 victims in Vinnytsia needed medical attention, with 64 people hospitalized — including 34 in severe condition and five in critical.
Forty-two people are listed as missing, the agency said.
Many Ukrainians moved to Vinnytsia, a city southwest of Kyiv, to get away from the fighting in eastern Ukraine. Until now, Vinnytsia had been seen as a city of relative safety.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the attack “an open act of terrorism” on civilians.
“Every day Russia is destroying the civilian population, killing Ukrainian children, directing missiles at civilian objects. Where there is no military (targets). What is it if not an open act of terrorism?” Zelenskyy said in a statement via Telegram on Thursday.
War crimes investigators are at the scene studying missile fragments.
Russian missile strikes targeted several other Ukrainian cities on Wednesday and early Thursday, including Kharkiv, Zaporizhia and Mykolaiv.
At least 12 people died in the Zaporizhia strike, which hit two industrial workshops on Wednesday, according to local authorities.
At least five civilians were killed and 30 others injured in Mykolaiv on Wednesday after Russian missiles destroyed a hotel and a shopping mall, the local mayor said. The southern Ukrainian city was shelled again on Thursday morning, but no casualties were immediately reported.
-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Fidel Pavlenko, Max Uzol, and Yulia Drozd
Jul 14, 1:49 PM EDT
At least 18 Russian filtration camps along Russia-Ukraine border
Michael Carpenter, the U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, is calling the forcible relocation of Ukrainians to Russian filtration camps is “a war crime.”
In an interview with ABC News Live on Thursday, Carpenter said the Russians are “trying to take away Ukrainians who might have Ukrainian civic impulses, who are patriots, who want to defend their country.” Carpenter said the Russians want to “erase Ukrainian identity” and “the Ukrainian nation state, as the entity that governs people’s lives in these regions.”
Carpenter said there are at least 18 filtration camps along the Russia-Ukraine border, adding that it’s impossible to get an exact total because many are located in Russia’s far east.
-ABC News’ Malka Abramoff
Jul 14, 12:04 PM EDT
Russian missile strike kills at least 17 in Vinnytsia
Russian missiles hit the heart of the central Ukrainian city of Vinnytsia on Thursday morning, killing at least 17 people and wounding more than 30 others, according to the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine.
Two children were among the dead, the prosecutor’s office said.
The missiles struck an office building and damaged nearby residential buildings in Vinnytsia, located about 155 miles southwest of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. The strike also ignited a massive fire that engulfed 50 cars in an adjacent parking lot, according to the National Police of Ukraine. Burned-out vehicles are peppered with holes from the missiles.
The national police said about 90 victims in Vinnytsia sought medical attention, and 50 of them are in serious condition.
Many Ukrainians moved to Vinnytsia, a city southwest of Kyiv, to get away from the fighting in eastern Ukraine. Until now, Vinnytsia had been seen as a city of relative safety.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the attack “an open act of terrorism” on civilians.
“Every day Russia is destroying the civilian population, killing Ukrainian children, directing missiles at civilian objects. Where there is no military (targets). What is it if not an open act of terrorism?” Zelenskyy said in a statement via Telegram on Thursday.
War crimes investigators are at the scene studying missile fragments.
Russian missile strikes targeted several other Ukrainian cities on Wednesday and early Thursday, including Kharkiv, Zaporizhia and Mykolaiv.
At least 12 people died in the Zaporizhia strike, which hit two industrial workshops on Wednesday, according to local authorities.
At least five civilians were killed and 30 others injured in Mykolaiv on Wednesday after Russian missiles destroyed a hotel and a shopping mall, the local mayor said. The southern Ukrainian city was shelled again on Thursday morning, but no casualties were immediately reported.
-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Fidel Pavlenko, Max Uzol, and Yulia Drozd
Jul 13, 6:30 PM EDT
State Department aware of reports on another American detained by Russian proxies
The State Department said Wednesday it is aware of unconfirmed reports that another American has been detained by pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine.
The statement follows a [report from the Guardian] () on 35-year-old Suedi Murekezi, who is believed to have gone missing in Ukraine in early June.
According to the Guardian, Murekezi was able to make contact with a family member on July 7 and told them he was being held in the same prison as Alexander Drueke and Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh, two American veterans captured while volunteering for Ukrainian forces. Murekezi has lived in Ukraine since 2020 and was falsely accused of participating in pro-Ukraine protests, according to the report.
“We have been in contact with the Ukrainian and Russian authorities regarding U.S. citizens who may have been captured by Russia’s forces or proxies while fighting in Ukraine,” a State Department spokesperson said Wednesday. “We call on Russia to live up to its international obligations to treat all individuals captured fighting with Ukraine’s armed forces as prisoners of war.”
Another American — Grady Kurpasi — is also missing in Ukraine. A family spokesperson said the veteran was last seen fighting with Ukrainian forces in late April and is feared to have been either killed or captured.
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Jul 13, 8:27 AM EDT
Shelling continues throughout Donbas region
Shelling from both Russian and Ukrainian forces caused damage to the landscape and destroyed structures throughout the Donbas region on Tuesday and Wednesday, local officials said.
Russian strikes reportedly targeted the eastern town of Bakhmut, killing one person and wounding 5 others, the local governor said. Explosions were heard in several nearby towns too, with one missile falling near a kindergarten.
Shelling also continued in Izyum, Mykolayiv and Kharkiv on Tuesday. Russian troops reportedly conducted unsuccessful attacks north of Slovyansk and the town of Siversk on Tuesday, despite repeated rhetoric of an “operational pause” that Russia allegedly maintains, the Institute for the Study of War said in its latest report.
Russian forces continue to bomb critical areas in preparation for future ground offensive, with air and artillery strikes reported along the majority of the frontline, the experts added.
Ukrainian forces on Tuesday responded to the Russian attacks and claimed to have destroyed six Russian military facilities on occupied Ukrainian territories. Ukrainian officials claimed to have destroyed several ammunition depots, as well as a larger military unit.
Russian media reported on Tuesday that Ukrainian troops launched a “massive attack” on an air defense unit in the Luhansk region.
Ukrainian military officials also claimed to have killed at least 30 Russian troops on Tuesday, along with destroying a howitzer and a multiple rocket launcher, among other weaponry.
But the U.K. Defense Ministry in its latest intelligence update said it still expects Russian forces to “focus on taking several small towns during the coming weeks” in the Donbas region.
These towns are on the approaches to the larger cities of Slovyansk and Kramatorsk that likely remain the principal objectives for this phase of the Russian military operation, the ministry said.
-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Max Uzol, Yulia Drozd and Yuriy Zaliznyak
Jul 12, 10:27 PM EDT
US transfers $1.7 billion in economic assistance to Ukrainian government
The United States transferred $1.7 billion to Ukraine’s government Tuesday, the Treasury Department announced.
It’s the second tranche of money the Treasury transferred to Ukraine’s government as part of $7.5 billion approved for this purpose in the $40 billion Ukraine aid package Congress passed and President Joe Biden signed into law in May.
It’ll go, in part, to helping Ukraine’s government provide “essential health care services” and health care workers’ salaries, the Treasury Department said.
The U.S. transferred the first tranche, $1.3 billion, to Ukraine’s government two weeks ago.
-ABC News Benjamin Gittleson
Jul 12, 1:59 AM EDT
Ukraine destroys Russian ammo depot in occupied Kherson region
Ukrainian forces hit and likely destroyed a Russian ammunition depot in the Russian-occupied town of Nova Kakhovka in the Kherson region on Monday night, local officials said.
The strike resulted in a massive blast, videos of which soon circulated online. According to local reports, more than 40 trucks filled with gasoline were destroyed. Russian media didn’t verify the claims, saying instead that pro-Russian forces had destroyed a series of saltpeter warehouses.
“People’s windows are blown out, but they are still happy … because this means that the Ukrainian Armed Forces are close,” Sergey Khlan, from the Kherson Regional Military Administration, said in the aftermath of the attack.
Monday’s strike marked at least the fourth time Ukrainian forces destroyed ammunition depots in Nova Kakhovka, local media reported.
-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Tatiana Rymarenko, Max Uzol and Yulia Drozd
(NEW YORK) — A dangerous heat wave is stretching across much of the U.S. with temperatures in the triple digits from the West to the South to the East as sweltering, unrelenting heat continues to slam Europe.
Here’s what to expect Wednesday:
Excessive heat warnings stretch from San Antonio to Tulsa to Memphis, where it’ll feel like 105 to 115 degrees.
Heat advisories extend from Cincinnati, Ohio, to the Mexican border, with the heat feeling like over 100 degrees for this wide swath of the central U.S.
The heat index — what temperature it feels like with humidity — is forecast to skyrocket to a dangerous 108 degrees in Houston, 113 in Dallas and 112 in Little Rock and Memphis.
Houston, Dallas, Austin and San Antonio may reach record highs. The intense heat is also continuing to create a breeding ground for fires in Texas.
In the Northeast, heat advisories stretch from Maryland to northern Vermont.
The heat index is forecast to jump Wednesday to 101 degrees in Philadelphia and 98 degrees in New York City and Washington, D.C.
The heat wave in the Northeast is expected to last through the weekend and may linger into next week.
Meanwhile, in the West, temperatures are expected to climb to 112 in Palm Springs and 113 in Las Vegas.
And in Europe, the United Kingdom on Tuesday reached its highest temperature ever, breaking 40 degrees Celsius for the first time as U.K. officials declared a national emergency and issued unprecedented health warnings.
Tuesday was the busiest day for London’s fire department since World War II, Mayor Sadiq Khan said.
Spain and Portugal have reported more than 1,100 heat-related deaths amid Western Europe’s record-breaking heat wave.
People in Paris and London will feel some relief Wednesday with temperatures falling to 75 degrees Fahrenheit and 80 degrees Fahrenheit respectively.
But the heat Wednesday turns to Spain, Italy and Germany.
Madrid is forecast to reach 99 degrees Fahrenheit, Milan 98 degrees and Berlin a scorching 100 degrees.
(HIGHLAND PARK, Ill.) — A therapy resource for people affected by the mass shooting during a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Illinois, is going viral, highlighting the widespread mental health impact of mass shootings.
In the days after the shooting that killed seven people and injured dozens more, Alexandra Kaehler, an interior designer in nearby Winnetka, Illinois, took to Instagram to crowdsource a list of available mental health therapists to whom people could reach out.
Kaehler, a mom of three, also offered to pay for mental health services for people who needed help.
“I feel helpless right now,” Kaehler wrote. “But there are people who are traumatized by what they saw, and if there’s one thing I know it’s that therapy is so incredibly important. Hopefully this is one *tiny* thing I can do to help right now.”
Within hours, over 100 therapists reached out to asked to be added to her list, Kaehler told ABC News’ Good Morning America.
To date, there are over 200 therapists on the list, which Kaehler said she shared publicly so anyone could reach out.
“It just gave me so much hope in humanity in how ready and willing people were to help,” said Kaehler. “And I hope that it has an even wider reach than I know.”
Kaehler said she was attending a July Fourth parade with her family in her hometown of Winnetka when she heard about the shooting in Highland Park, which is just 15 minutes away. During the annual parade in a Chicago suburb, a gunman opened fire on parade-goers with a high-powered rifle.
Kaehler recalled receiving frantic calls from family and friends worried about her safety, but said she immediately thought of one of her best friends, whom she knew was at the parade.
Kaehler later learned that her friend, Natalie Lorentz, survived, but was sitting near people who were killed in the shooting.
“When I think about the experience that I’m having watching all of this unfold and thinking about what her experience was, it pales in comparison obviously, but I felt just really incapacitated,” said Kaehler. “It had never happened this close to home for me.”
Lorentz told GMA last week that the mental health recovery for her and her family has been “second by second.”
“I have moments where I feel panic and anxiety and like I’m back there, and then moments of just overwhelming sadness for what us and so many other people had to go through and then just numbness where I’m compartmentalizing and trying to put one foot in front of the other,” said Lorentz, who attended the parade with her husband, mother and three young sons. “It’s really just been a whirlwind of emotions.”
Lorentz added that she is worried about future mental health concerns for her sons, saying, “They’re young and not fully aware really of everything that took place that day. I’m more worried about a month from now, three months from now, what implications that holds for them.”
Jamie Kreiter, a Chicago-based licensed clinical social worker, said her concern about the long-term impact of a mass shooting like the one in Highland Park is the reason she responded when she saw Kaehler’s call for help on Instagram.
“People are forever changed by traumatic experiences,” Kreiter told GMA. “This community will be forever changed by this tragedy, so how do we heal? How do we move forward and mobilize?”
Kreiter, CEO and founder of Nurture Therapy, LLC, said she and her husband were both born and raised in Highland Park and had friends and family who attended this year’s parade.
Though Kreiter and her family and friends were safe, she said she, like so many other people, experienced secondary trauma, a type of trauma that comes from hearing about or seeing a traumatic event without physically being there or even having a direct connection to the event, according to Kreiter.
“What you experience is similar to symptoms of trauma — picturing yourself there, difficulty with concentration or focus, feeling overwhelmed and flooded by those images, difficulty sleeping, being hypervigilant and feeling that your safety has been disrupted,” said Kreiter.
Mass shootings that have made headlines recently in cities from Uvalde, Texas, to Buffalo, New York, each have the power to cause community trauma, especially when shootings happen in common places like schools, as with Uvalde, or grocery stores, as with Buffalo, according to Kreiter.
So far in 2022, more than 300 shootings that have resulted in four or more injuries or deaths have occurred in the U.S.
Factors including how much a person pays attention to the news, or how much time they talk about shootings with friends and family may affect the severity of trauma, according to research analyzed by FiveThirtyEight.
Dr. Sandro Galea, an epidemiologist at the Boston University School of Public Health who studies how mass shootings impact mental health, told FiveThirtyEight that research is still limited on how shootings may impact the mental health of people on a more widespread basis.
“The issue of mental health in community members who are not directly affected… most people in the mental health space think it’s a real issue but there actually has been very little research on it,” he said.
Kreiter said in Highland Park, thousands of people have sought therapy services at the town’s elementary school and high school, where therapists like herself have donated their services for free.
“We’re seeing people who are grieving not just loved ones who have been injured or lost but grieving the disrupted sense of safety,” said Kreiter. “Or they’re feeling overwhelmed with emotion or guilt, either that they were there or one small decision may have prevented them from being there.”
She continued, “I think I speak for many providers and community members that you just feel this loss of control. People no longer feel a sense of safety.”
Kreiter said she has been sharing information about trauma on social media so that people feel comfortable seeking mental health help even if they were not directly impacted by the parade attack.
“There are some people who weren’t there but were deeply impacted and perhaps have some hesitation to seek services,” she said. “Whether you were there or not there, this kind of trauma is very real.”
For people who have felt unsettled or unsafe amid the spate of recent mass shootings, Kreiter said she wants people to know that help is available.
In addition to seeking professional support, Kreiter said there are steps individuals can take as well to improve their mental health.
Her tips include limiting intake of the news and social media, especially before bed; leaning on your support system and community; resuming as much normalcy as possible and practicing grounding and coping skills in your toolbox.
If you are experiencing suicidal, substance use or other mental health crises please call or text the new three digit code at 988. You will reach a trained crisis counselor for free, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You can also go to 988lifeline.org or dial the current toll free number 800-273-8255 [TALK].
(NEW YORK) — Hundreds of millions of people around the world are currently experiencing sweltering, dangerous heat — a new reality as the effects of climate change continue to manifest in severe weather events of every kind.
A scorching airmass remains over the majority of the continental U.S. on Wednesday, with a heat dome sitting over the Southwest and Great Plains and triple-digit temperatures stretching throughout the Midwest and up and down the East Coast.
While Wednesday brought slight relief to Europe with its own block of boiling weather that helped to reach the hottest temperature ever recorded in London, there were wildfires across the continent and more than 1,500 heat-related deaths in Spain and Portugal alone.
The predictions climate scientists have been making for decades about what awaited the planet should the temperatures continue to rise are currently coming into fruition in the form of these heat waves that are occurring concurrently in lands thousands of miles apart, experts told ABC News.
The “most direct” connections between weather and climate change are the increase in intensity, frequency, duration and expanse of heat waves, said Jennifer Francis, senior scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center. And “even stronger extremes” are expected in the future, World Meteorological Organization Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said during a press conference Tuesday.
Extreme heat is a “basic consequence of climate change,” and the fact that it’s happening in several different locations at the same time is characteristic of the average global temperatures rising, Jason Smerdon, a climate scientist for the Columbia Climate School’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory in New York, told ABC News.
“While each heat wave itself is different, and has individual dynamics behind it, the probability of these events is a direct consequence of the warming planet,” Smerdon said, adding that a break in low airmass off the Atlantic Ocean moved east and blanketed Spain and Portugal, which is why those countries experienced the worst of the prolonged heat.
Historically, when records are broken, they are done so in very small increments, such as a fraction of a degree — another characteristic that makes the current heat waves much more severe than in years past, Smerdon said. The previous record in the U.K. occurred in London’s Cambridge Botanic Gardens at 101.6 degrees Fahrenheit. On Tuesday, that record was broken when the temperature measured at 104 F — a hallmark that the Earth’s climate is currently in “uncharted territory,” Francis said.
“These things are blowing the roof off of the previous record,” Smerdon said, adding that the same applies to the record-breaking heat waves that occurred in the Pacific Northwest last year. Those heat waves would have been “virtually impossible” without climate change, a study published in 2021 found.
If the Earth were in “normal times,” there would be an even distribution between low-temperature and high-temperature records being broken, Francis said.
The fact that Britain, which is essentially at the same latitude as Calgary in Canada, is experiencing triple-digit temperatures at such frequency poses a danger to human health because the majority of the infrastructure was built during a century that never saw such heat, Smerdon said. A large portion of the population is not equipped with air conditioning in their homes, and therefore are not able to cool off all the heat exhaustion that built up during the day, Rachel Licker, senior climate scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, told ABC News. The heat is also colliding with other climate hazards, such as the wildfires in Spain and the poor air quality that comes with it, she added.
Look to the poles for another explanation as to why extreme heat will occur more often, the experts said. Because the North Pole and South Pole are warming faster than the rest of the planet, therefore reducing the difference in temperature between the polar regions and the equatorial regions, it’s shifting the atmospheric patterns of the jet stream, the band of strong winds created by cold air meeting warmer air that moves west to east and helps to regulate weather around the globe, Smerdon said.
There is research to suggest that the pattern of the jet stream, also known as the polar vortex, is becoming more wavy due to the melting Arctic and Antarctic, which would increase the possibility of “pumping a tremendous amount of heat up into western and northern Europe,” Smerdon said.
The weakening jet stream can also be blamed for the extreme cold that reaches southern states that normally do not experience freezing temperatures, such as the freeze that struck Texas in February 2021, knocking out the power grid and leaving millions in the cold.
One of the reasons temperatures in western Europe heated up so quickly was the combination of the dry soil, changes in the jet stream and high-pressure airmass that stalls over one place over a long period of time, Sjoukje Philip, a researcher at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, said in a statement on Friday.
Temperatures reaching up to 50 degrees Celsius, or 122 degrees Fahrenheit, are not out of the realm of possibility in the coming decades if greenhouse gas emissions are not reduced to zero, Robert Vautard, director of the Dynamic Meteorology Laboratory at Sorbonne University in Paris, said in a statement last week.
“We know such a jump is possible,” Vautard said.
Despite decades of research that projected these heat events, scientists are not immune to worrying about the state of global warming as they watch these heat waves disrupt the daily lives of so many millions of people, Licker said.
“They’re all of these different segments of society that are particularly vulnerable to extreme heat,” such as the elderly and outdoor workers, she said.
The “silver lining” of these heat waves may be the wakeup call that the government and industries need to really focus on reducing carbon footprints in the next decade, Francis said, adding, “We don’t have much time left.”
Climate scientists will now be tasked with answering more prevailing questions, such as whether there are amplifying features they are missing in their predictions.
“Is there a potential that we’ve under-predicted the magnitude of these extreme events because of subtle features in the climate system that we haven’t characterized, adequately?” Smerdon said of the immediate future of climate research.
(WASHINGTON) — Senate Democrats’ campaign arm outraised its Republican counterpart in the second quarter of 2022 amid a fierce battle for control of the upper chamber, which is split 50-50.
In numbers shared first with ABC News, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) said Tuesday it drew $33.5 million in donations from April to June, of which $12.5 million was raised in June alone. The group finished June with more than $53.5 million in the bank and has no debt, it said.
Comparatively, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) previously announced that it raised $25.6 million in the second quarter of 2022 and finished June with $28.5 million cash on hand. It also had no debt, it said.
“The DSCC’s record breaking fundraising continues to be powered by strong, energized grassroots supporters who recognize the stakes of this election — and are committed to protecting and expanding our Democratic Senate Majority that is fighting to address working families’ most pressing priorities,” DSCC Executive Director Christie Roberts said in a statement.
An NRSC spokesperson said in their own statement that “the NRSC has broken fundraising records and are spending money early to define the Democrats. Meanwhile, Democrats are blowing money defending weak incumbents in states that Joe Biden won by double digits. No amount of money can save Democrats from themselves.”
The dueling hauls indicate both parties will be flush with cash heading into November. They are also both expressing optimism about their ability to control the Senate in the next Congress — when Democrats hope to preserve their bare majority while Republicans look to capitalize on President Joe Biden’s sagging approval and other political headwinds, like high inflation.
Democrats say they saw a surge in donations last month after the Supreme Court scrapped constitutional protections for abortion. The DSCC said the day of the decision overturning Roe v. Wade marked its strongest day of online fundraising so far this cycle, with the day after marking the second-best day of online fundraising.
Democrats are hoping that social issues like abortion and gun reform will energize a base that polls show has been depressed heading into the midterms, with Biden’s approval ratings stuck under 40%, according to the FiveThirtyEight average.
The core Senate battleground map has Democrats defending incumbents in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada and New Hampshire — and Republicans trying to hold onto open seats in North Carolina and Pennsylvania while electing Sen. Ron Johnson to a third term in Wisconsin.
(UVALDE, Texas) — The Texas House of Representatives committee report on the Robb Elementary School shooting revealed the accused school shooter exhibited many warning signs in the years, months and days leading up to the school shooting, but he was still able to legally purchase the assault rifle used in the shooting.
The report illustrated many failures by the school and by law enforcement officers leading up to and on the day of the shooting and caused outcry among families of the 21 people killed in May.
Private individuals were the only people who knew of the many warning signs he displayed, as he had no criminal history prior to the shooting. The alleged shooter’s apparent motive was a “desire for notoriety and fame,” according to the report.
Those interviewed by the committee, including family, friends and acquaintances, reported many warning signs that experts say should have raised red flags.
“He exhibited almost every warning sign,” John Cohen, an ABC News contributor and the former acting undersecretary for intelligence and counterterrorism coordinator at the Department of Homeland Security, said in an interview. “This guy should have been on everybody’s radar.”
School officials had identified the accused shooter as “at-risk” academically by the third grade due to consistently poor test results. However, he did not receive any education services, according to the report.
The shooting itself took place in the accused shooter’s former classroom. The suspect had discussed bad memories of fourth grade with an acquaintance just weeks before, according to the report.
The suspect’s fourth grade teacher told the committee she was aware he needed special help and that he claimed to be a victim of bullying. She met with his mother over these concerns and said she believed he ultimately had a good year and that the classroom was a safe space where he made friends, according to the report.
The suspect’s family, however, disputed this account saying that classmates bullied him over his stutter, clothing and short haircut. Some family members also said that some of the teachers picked on the suspect and his cousin, according to the report. Notes found on the alleged shooter’s phone indicated that he was bullied beginning in middle school.
Concerning patterns
Beginning in 2018, the alleged shooter had bad school attendance, with more than 100 absences annually. He also had failing grades and increasingly dismal performance on standardized and end-of-course exams, according to the report.
The committee found that the local court does not regularly enforce truancy rules and it is unclear if any school resource officers ever visited the alleged shooter’s home.
Aside from a single 3-day suspension due to a “mutual combat” with a student, the suspect had almost no disciplinary history at school.
By 2021, when he was 17 years old, the alleged shooter had only completed ninth grade. He was involuntarily withdrawn from Uvalde High School in October 2021, citing poor academic performance and lack of attendance, according to the report.
Last year, the suspect increasingly withdrew and isolated himself. At the beginning of the year, a group of the alleged shooter’s former friends “jumped him,” according to the report.
His former girlfriend described the alleged shooter as lonely and depressed and said he was constantly teased by friends who called him a “school shooter,” according to the report. He was also called a “school shooter” online due to his comments.
She said he told her repeatedly that he wouldn’t live past 18, either because he would commit suicide or simply because he “wouldn’t live long.” The alleged shooter also responded to their breakup last year by harassing the girl and her friends, according to the report.
The alleged shooter’s activity online was also concerning as he began to watch violent and gruesome videos and images of things like suicides, beheadings and accidents.
Those with whom he played video games reported that he became enraged when he lost. He allegedly made over-the-top threats, especially towards female players, whom he would terrorize with graphic descriptions of violence and rape.
Later internet usage suggests he may have wondered if he was a sociopath and sought out information on the condition. His internet research resulted in him receiving an email, which was not disclosed from where in the report, about obtaining psychological treatment for sociopathy.
One month into working at Whataburger in 2021, he was fired for threatening a female coworker. He reportedly had a similar experience at Wendy’s.
His family and friends were aware of his efforts to buy guns before he was old enough to do so legally. He asked at least two people to buy him guns when he was 17, but they both refused, according to the report.
None of the suspect’s online behavior was ever reported to law enforcement, and if it was reported by other users to any social media platform, it does not appear that actions were taken to restrict his access or to report him to authorities as a threat, according to the report.
Red Flag Laws
Red flag laws, or extreme protection orders, allow law enforcement or family members to ask a civil court to temporarily remove guns from a person who poses a risk to themselves or others. Recent federal legislation included funding for states to implement these laws.
While Texas is not one of the 19 states that have red flag laws in place, experts say these laws could have prevented the shooting if they had been used in this case.
“I think this is an illustration of why red flag laws might be needed. And that might be helpful, particularly if they were used extensively here,” Jeffrey Swanson, a professor of psychology and behavioral studies who is affiliated with the Center for Firearms Law at Duke University, told ABC News in an interview.
The alleged shooter in Uvalde showed sufficient indication of risks that his guns could have been removed under these laws, Swanson said.
Jarrod Burguan, the former San Bernardino police chief and ABC News contributor, said the mental health system being a revolving door has not made it effective in forcing treatment and potentially protecting society from these kinds of attacks.
While law enforcement can detain people they suspect pose a potential risk for up to 72 hours (this varies based on state), Burguan said millions of people slip through the cracks.
“We need something that puts more teeth in the ability of the mental health system to hold somebody and force them into treatment, and stop allowing people to walk away, and then affect everybody else in society,” Burguan said.
Cohen said he has heard this concern from law enforcement all over the country, but says the recent federal legislation can be helpful by increasing access to mental health care.
Cohen sees a need to also implement threat management strategies where community members, leaders and family could put in place a plan that would help people who may pose a risk.
Even if there is not enough evidence to arrest someone who may pose a risk, there is still middle ground for acting preventatively with “law enforcement working with mental health professionals to assess the risk based on an evaluation of the person’s behavior,” Cohen said.
