(WASHINGTON) — Following months of hardships and devastating losses in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, Sandra Lindsay, an intensive care nurse in New York, became a symbol of hope for people across the globe when she became the first person in the United States to receive a COVID-19 vaccine following emergency authorization from federal officials.
Seemingly overnight, Lindsay, who got the shot in December of 2020, became a prominent vaccine advocate, urging others to get vaccinated against COVID-19 and help curb the virus’s spread.
In light of her advocacy, Lindsay will be one of seventeen recipients to be honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Joe Biden.
“I’m honored to hold this place in history,” Lindsay told ABC News prior to the ceremony.
In the hours following her vaccination, the image of Lindsay receiving her shot circulated rapidly across the country, as millions celebrated it as a symbolic light at the end of the tunnel after the pandemic had forced families apart.
The Americans honored with the medal “demonstrate the power of possibilities and embody the soul of the nation – hard work, perseverance, and faith,” according to a press release from the White House “[and] have overcome significant obstacles to achieve impressive accomplishments in the arts and sciences, dedicated their lives to advocating for the most vulnerable among us, and acted with bravery to drive change in their communities – and across the world – while blazing trails for generations to come.”
Lindsay will be honored alongside other Presidential Medal of Honor recipients, including former congresswoman Gabby Giffords, Khizr Khan, a Gold Star father and founder of the Constitution Literacy and National Unity Center, and actor Denzel Washington.
Last month, Lindsay initially missed the call from the White House informing her of the award, initially believing it was a prank call. When she learned that the honor was real, Lindsay said she was “overwhelmed” with emotions.
“I was just overwhelmed with pride, joy, gratitude and just immediately thought about what that meant for others, for people who look like me — for young ladies, for black women, for immigrants, for Jamaicans, for Americans, nurses, health care workers, minorities,” Lindsay said.
Lindsay, who works as the director of patient care services in critical care at Northwell Health, said was met with an incredibly positive public reaction following her vaccine, with some people telling her they were inspired to get the shot because of her.
For Lindsay, who was raised in Jamaica by her grandparents and moved to the United States in 1986, the honor is beyond anything she could have imagined.
“Never in my wildest dreams did I think that I would be in this position. But I said yes. I said yes not knowing what I was getting into, but knowing that it was the right thing to do, and here I am today, so anything is possible,” Lindsay said.
With 70 million eligible Americans still unvaccinated, Lindsay stressed that her advocacy work is not done.
“We have made significant strides, but [COVID-19] is still here, and it still poses a threat to you, if you are not protected. I encourage everyone to go get themselves vaccinated,” Lindsay said. “If you’re not vaccinated, you’re still not protected.”
(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 07, 9:26 am
Moscow views nuclear weapons only as a deterrent, Russian official says
Russia considers nuclear weapons only as a deterrent, according to Valentina Matviyenko, Chairman of the Russian Federation Council.
“Russia views nuclear weapons only as a deterrent,” Matviyenko said Thursday at a press conference.
The official noted that Russia has “clearly and strictly prescribed those exceptional cases when [nuclear weapons] can only be used in response to — God forbid that this never happens — a nuclear attack.”
“We behave like a civilized country, and we do it openly,” Matviyenko added.
-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Yulia Drozd, Max Uzol, and Fidel Pavlenko
Jul 07, 8:16 am
Russia claims no new ground for first time since invasion’s start
Russia claimed no territorial gains in Ukraine on Wednesday for the first time since the beginning of its invasion in late February, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said in its latest report.
The Russian Defense Ministry claimed territorial gains every day from the start of the war but has not done so since completing the encirclement of the eastern town Lysychansk on July 3, the ISW said.
The Washington-based think tank said the lull in Russian ground force movements supports its assessment that Russian forces “have largely initiated an operational pause.”
The break in operations is not equal to a complete ceasefire, however, as Russian troops still conducted a number of unsuccessful attacks on all frontlines, the experts added.
Russian troops are instead trying to set up conditions for a bigger offensive as they rebuild their combat power, the ISW report said.
Russia has already increased its fleet in the Black Sea on the shores of Ukraine, local media reported on Wednesday. The Russian naval presence grew by several missile carriers, as well as submarines and an amphibious assault ship.
Ukrainian officials refuted Russian claims on Wednesday according to which Russian troops destroyed two HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems supplied by the U.S.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy added that the Western supplied artillery “started working very powerfully” and at full capacity.
“Finally, it is felt that the Western artillery, the weapons we received from our partners, started working very powerfully,” Zelenskyy said in his Wednesday evening address. “Its accuracy is exactly as needed,” the president added.
Zelenskyy said the Western weapons have carried out strikes on depots and areas of logistical importance to Russian troops. “And this significantly reduces the offensive potential of the Russian army,” Zelenskyy noted, adding that Russian losses “will only increase every week, as will the difficulty of supplying [Russian troops].”
Ukrainian forces celebrated another symbolic victory on Thursday when they raised their national flag on Snake Island, a recaptured Black Sea isle located 90 miles south of the Ukrainian port of Odesa that became a symbol of defiance against Moscow, according to local reports.
Images released by Ukraine’s interior ministry on Thursday showed three Ukrainian soldiers raising the blue and yellow national flag on a patch of ground on Snake Island next to the remains of a flattened building.
But Russia responded to the flag-raising ceremony fast. It said one of its warplanes had struck Snake Island shortly afterwards and destroyed part of the Ukrainian detachment there.
Russia abandoned Snake Island at the end of June in what it said was a gesture of goodwill, raising Ukrainian hopes of unblocking local ports shut off by Russia.
-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Yulia Drozd, Max Uzol, and Fidel Pavlenko
Jul 06, 10:02 am
Blinken to urge G20 to press Russia on grain deliveries
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to appeal to G20 countries to put pressure on Russia to make it support the U.N. initiative on unblocking the sea lanes for Ukraine and allow grain exports, according to local media reports.
“G20 countries should hold Russia accountable and insist that it supports ongoing U.N. efforts to reopen the sea lanes for grain delivery,” said Ramin Toloui, assistant secretary of state for economic and business affairs.
Toloui referred to a U.N. campaign aiming to expedite Ukrainian and Russian exports of harvest and fertilizer to global markets.
Around 22 million tons of grain remain blocked in Ukrainian ports due to the threat of Russian attacks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday.
Ukraine is in active negotiations with Turkey and the U.N. to solve the grain export stalemate, Zelenskyy added.
Blinken is also expected to once again warn China against backing Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine.
“[The upcoming G20 summit] will be another opportunity … to convey our expectations about what we would expect China to do and not to do in the context of Ukraine,” the top U.S. diplomat for East Asia, Daniel Kritenbrink, said.
-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Yuriy Zaliznyak, Max Uzol and Nataliia Kushnir
Jul 06, 8:42 am
Russia aims to seize territory far beyond the Donbas, Putin’s ally suggests
Russia’s main objective in its invasion of Ukraine is still regime change in Kyiv and the dismantling of Ukrainian sovereignty, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev suggested in a speech on Tuesday.
Patrushev said the Russian “military operation” in Ukraine will continue until Russia achieves its goals of protecting civilians from “genocide,” “denazifying” and demilitarizing Ukraine, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
The Russian official added that Ukraine must remain permanently neutral between Russia and NATO. Petrushev’s remarks nearly mirrored the goals Russian President Vladimir Putin announced at the onset of the war to justify the military invasion.
Patrushev, a close Putin ally, repeated the Russian President’s stated ambitions despite Russia’s military setbacks in Ukraine and previous hints at a reduction in war aims following those defeats, the ISW pointed out.
Patrushev’s explicit restatement of Putin’s initial objectives “strongly indicates” that Russia does not consider its recent territorial gains in the Luhansk region to be sufficient, the ISW experts said.
Russia “has significant territorial aspirations beyond the Donbas” and “is preparing for a protracted war with the intention of taking much larger portions of Ukraine,” the observers added.
Patrushev’s comments dampened hopes for a “compromise ceasefire or even peace based on limited additional Russian territorial gains,” the experts concluded.
-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Yuriy Zaliznyak, Max Uzol and Nataliia Kushnir
(CHICAGO) — The father of the alleged Highland Park parade shooter, Bobby Crimo Jr., has told ABC News that he is not culpable in the Independence Day attack, in spite of having signed a consent form for his son to apply for gun ownership.
“I had no — not an inkling, warning — that this was going to happen,” Crimo told ABC News about the Fourth of July attack his son, Robert “Bobby” Crimo III, carried out in Highland Park, Ill. “I am just shocked.”
Crimo claims both he and his wife asked their son just days before if he had any plans for the holiday. “He said ‘no.’ That was it,” Crimo recalled.
Crimo says he spent nearly an hour with his son in his yard the night before the attack talking about the planet. “Great mood,” he remembered. “I’m just shocked.”
Crimo says he never saw his son as a danger to anyone, but authorities recently disclosed past instances of violence. In 2019, police in Highland Park confiscated 16 knives, a dagger and a sword from the suspect’s home after a family member called claiming he “was going to kill everyone.”
“Making threats to the family … I think [that was] taken out of context,” Crimo said about authorities’ description of the 2019 incident. “It’s like just a child’s outburst, whatever he was upset about, and I think his sister called the police — I wasn’t living there.” Crimo said police removed his son’s knife collection from the home, after he was asked if there were any weapons in the house.
Authorities did not open a criminal investigation.
Later that same year, Crimo signed an affidavit allowing Crimo III to apply to obtain a Firearm Owners Identification (FOID) Card — needed in the state of Illinois to purchase firearms or ammunition.
“I filled out the consent form to allow my son to go through the process that the Illinois State Police have in place for an individual to obtain a FOID card,” Crimo said. “They do background checks. Whatever that entails, I’m not exactly sure. And either you’re approved or denied, and he was approved.”
On Wednesday, Illinois State Police announced there will be a criminal investigation into Crimo’s culpability because he sponsored his son’s application for a firearm owner identification card in 2019.
“Do I regret that? No, not three years ago — signing a consent form to go through the process … that’s all it was,” said Crimo, adding that he is not worried about potential legal consequences. “Had I purchased guns throughout the years and given them to him in my name, that’s a different story. But he went through that whole process himself.” Crimo said his son purchased the weapons with his own money and registered them in his own name.
Crimo claims he had no involvement with him purchasing weapons and learned of his son’s firearm collection when he displayed a “Glock handgun” he purchased on his 21st birthday. “Oh, looks nice,” he says he told Crimo III.
Crimo III’s FOID card was renewed in 2021 without the involvement of his father, according to authorities.
Crimo says he does not know the motive behind his son’s actions. “That’s what I’d like to ask him when I see him,” said Crimo. “Whatever was going on in his head at the time … to go kill and hurt innocent people is just senseless.” Crimo says his “heart goes out to all of the families that were affected.”
Crimo III killed seven people and injured dozens of others in the attack.
“I think about them all the time,” his father told ABC News. “I even had some people that were injured that I personally know.”
Prior to the shooting, Crimo’s son left a trail of disturbing images online — including depictions of shootings. He was also an amateur rapper with a little over 16,000 monthly listeners on Spotify; his last music release featured an album cover of a cartoon character aiming a gun.
“The online content I’m not aware of till recently,” said Crimo, adding that he saw his son as an “artist,” but did not always understand his work. “Maybe I’ve seen a couple of them in the past, and I’d look at them and go ‘that’s not you,’ because I know it’s like an act.”
Crimo denied rumors of his son suffering abuse at home. “Never, never,” he said, and he added that he and his wife are “very much against it.”
“I kept hearing all this stuff about … horrible parenting,” Crimo said. “He wasn’t raised that way. He has good morals,” he added.
“This isn’t Bobby,” Crimo said of his son’s actions. “I guess that’s why it’s so hard to wrap yourself around it. It doesn’t add up.”
Crimo III is charged with seven counts of first-degree murder and more charges are expected, Lake County State’s Attorney Eric Rinehart said. Prosecutors said that Crimo III confessed to Monday morning’s parade massacre. He did not enter a plea during a bond hearing on Wednesday. He is being held without bond and is set to return to court for a preliminary hearing on July 28.
Crimo said the whole system needs to be overhauled, to prevent tragedies like this from happening again. “We need to come together as a community here in the country to come up with something, whether it’s new laws, guidelines … this country is our problem right here.”
(BALTIMORE) — As federal officials move to address growing concerns over an outbreak of monkeypox in the U.S., an increasing number of positive cases are emerging across the country.
Last week, Brian Thomas, 32, of Baltimore became the latest American to test positive for monkeypox — a diagnosis he has been sharing openly on social media, in the hope of curbing the spread by raising awareness about the disease.
“I probably first started hearing about monkeypox a month or two ago and I really kind of wrote it off,” Thomas told ABC News. “You’re always watching it happen to other people and you’re like, ‘oh, but probably not going to happen to me, probably not going to happen a lot in the States.'”
Thomas, who had just recently traveled to Florida on a trip, said he initially thought he had contracted COVID-19, after he began to experience similar respiratory symptoms, often associated with the virus, such as fatigue and body aches. However, both of the COVID-19 tests he took came back negative.
After two suspicious lesions emerged on Thomas’ body, he realized that his symptoms were potentially connected to monkeypox. He “immediately” contacted his health care provider, he said.
After getting tested for monkeypox, Thomas’ test came back positive. Although Thomas, a travel nurse, said he was expecting to have monkeypox, his diagnosis was still “shocking.”
“I know that I’m going to be fine. But what do I do now? And who have I put it at risk? I live with two other people. And that really was what was going through my mind,” Thomas said. “I felt like I’m a danger to the public and that’s never a great feeling to have.”
Now, more than a week since his diagnosis, Thomas said he is feeling better, though he is still waiting for his lesions to fully scab over and heal, which he describes as a bit itchy and painful. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that isolation precautions be continued until “all lesions have resolved, the scabs have fallen off, and a fresh layer of intact skin has formed.”
Thomas told ABC News that he feels it his duty to educate his followers on social media about monkeypox, particularly given the suggestion by some, that the virus only targets people of certain sexual orientations. Health experts stress that although a large proportion of those who are currently testing positive for monkeypox are gay and bisexual men, ultimately, anyone can contract the monkeypox, regardless of sexual orientation.
“There is a lot of stigma about monkey pox right now. The fact of the matter is, is that it is most prevalent in the gay community right now, and that has led people to believe and lead people to remark that this is a gay disease. And when something is marked as a gay disease that automatically puts stigma on it,” Thomas said. “Even though this community is the one that’s most effected now, it’s not going to stay like that forever, if the numbers increase.”
Prior to his monkeypox diagnosis, Thomas has used his social media platform to share his story as an openly HIV positive healthcare worker. Thus, Thomas said the transition to also discuss his monkeypox diagnosis online felt natural.
Although monkeypox vaccines were provided to both his roommates, Thomas stressed that he strongly believes that in order to control the outbreak, vaccines need to be made available to all high-risk people.
“If we could get the population that’s most affected right now vaccinated, we could really stop this in the track in its tracks,” Thomas said. ” I think that’s the only way that we’re going to get ahead of this before it becomes a real problem in the States.”
The federal government is currently working to ramp up its production of monkeypox vaccines, in order to make them available to different states and jurisdictions. The Department of Health and Human Services said last week that the agency will send out nearly 300,000 doses of the JYNNEOS vaccine for prevention of the disease for people who have been exposed.
As of July 1, HHS has shipped nearly 20,000 doses of JYNNEOS to 15 U.S. jurisdictions.
Since the start of the outbreak, there have been 559 confirmed monkeypox cases in the U.S. according to Global.health.
(NEW YORK) — Stock market woes will persist into the second half of the year but signs of hope will emerge for beleaguered investors, experts told ABC News of their predictions.
The stock market took a historic plunge over the first half of the year, and many of the same economic threats still loom as inflation remains sky-high and the Federal Reserve pursues aggressive moves to tame price hikes by raising borrowing costs. That means volatility will continue to hammer markets in the coming months, experts told ABC News.
But the major indexes will likely end 2022 higher than they stand now, as rock-bottom share prices begin to promise a buy-low opportunity that outweighs the risk of further decline, the experts said. As investors eventually jump off the sidelines, the market will stabilize and begin to recover, they predicted.
Over the first six months of the year, the S&P 500 — a popular index to which many 401(k) accounts are pegged — plummeted 20.6%, marking its worst first-half performance of any year since 1970. The tech-heavy Nasdaq fell even further, dropping more than 28% over the same period; the Dow Jones Industrial average dropped more than 14%.
Persistent threats to the market include inflation, ongoing interest rate hikes, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and a potential recession. In the short term, these looming dangers will put downward pressure on the stock market, since market performance depends on the financial outlook of companies across the economy, experts said.
Ultimately, investors are deciding whether to buy or sell based on the likelihood that a given business will succeed over the coming months and years, Howard Silverblatt, a senior index analyst at S&P Dow Jones Indices, told ABC News.
“It all comes down to earnings,” Silverblatt said. “We’re buying a stock based on how much we think the company is going to make.”
Economic headwinds will make it challenging for companies to show investors a path to success, experts told ABC News.
For instance, in order to tame an inflation rate last seen more than four decades ago, the Federal Reserve has undertaken an aggressive effort to raise borrowing costs, which in theory should slow the economy, slash demand, and reduce prices. But the approach will likely weigh on markets, as investors anticipate poor business performance amid the economic slowdown, Silverblatt said.
“In order to stop inflation, the Fed has got to create pain,” he said. “Nobody likes pain. If I’m taking a splinter out of my finger, I’m still yelling and screaming as I’m doing it.”
At its most recent meeting, last month, the Fed raised its benchmark interest rate 0.75%, its largest rate increase since 1994. The Federal Reserve has said it expects to continue raising interest rates in response to elevated inflation.
Experts also cited the threat posed by a potential recession, which many observers define through the shorthand metric of two consecutive quarters of decline in a nation’s inflation-adjusted gross domestic product, or GDP. A country’s GDP is the total value of goods and services that it produces.
If the U.S. were to enter a recession, it would likely further dampen the hopes of businesses and consumers alike, which could slow economic activity and batter markets, experts said.
“The market is suspect of the prospects for earnings and growth,” Harvey said.
But the market will reach a point at which it has dropped far enough that share prices present investors with a purchase that looks more like a buy-low opportunity than a risk of further losses, the experts said. At that point, the market will stabilize and begin to recover as traders jump back into stocks, they added.
Market analysts expect the stock market to reach this point of bottoming out sometime before 2023. Past recoveries suggest market performance can suddenly flip, said Sam Stovall, the chief market strategist at research firm CFRA.
“To know how frequently these declines occur — but then again, how quickly the market gets back to break even and beyond — it will remind investors they are better off preparing a shopping list,” Stovall said. “Think more about buying than bailing.”
But investors should take into account their level of financial cushion, and thus their ability to withstand losses in the short term, said Silverblatt, the analyst at S&P Dow Jones Indices.
“Even if you think your stock is the best stock in the world — the new Apple or Amazon — in two years,” he said. “If you can’t live through it because you can’t take the loss, you can’t play it.”
(MINNEAPOLIS) — Former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin will be sentenced Thursday on federal civil rights charges in the death of George Floyd.
He had previously pleaded not guilty to the charges but in December 2021 he pleaded guilty to violating Floyd’s civil rights and admitted that he kept his knee on Floyd’s neck even after he became unresponsive.
Chauvin’s plea agreement calls for a 20 to 25-year sentence.
In April 2021, Chauvin was found guilty on three counts in Floyd’s death — second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter — for pressing his knee against Floyd’s neck for more than 9 minutes.
He has already been sentenced to 270 months, minus time served, which equals about 22-and-a-half years in prison.
Former officers J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane and Tou Thao were also charged for their role in Floyd’s death.
The three of them had pleaded not guilty but were convicted by a jury.
The four former officers were attempting to place Floyd under arrest on suspicion of using a counterfeit $20 bill to buy cigarettes at a convenience store.
During the encounter, Chauvin held his knee on the back of Floyd’s neck for more than 9 minutes. Floyd, who was handcuffed and in a prone position on the pavement, repeatedly said he couldn’t breathe before falling unconscious and losing a pulse, according to evidence presented at Chauvin’s state trial. Floyd was later pronounced dead at a hospital.
Thao and Kueng now await a state trial for charges of aiding and abetting in murder and aiding and abetting in manslaughter in Floyd’s death. The two have pleaded not guilty.
The trial has been delayed until Jan. 5, 2023.
Thomas Lane pleaded guilty to aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter in exchange for the dismissal of the top charge against him of aiding and abetting second-degree unintentional murder.
Under the agreement, a sentence of 36 months, or three years in prison, will be recommended by both prosecutors and Lane’s legal team. If he went to trial and was convicted on both counts, he could have faced a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison, according to the plea agreement.
(LONDON) — U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced his resignation Thursday, after dozens of ministers quit his cabinet and urged him to go.
In a statement delivered outside his office at no. 10 Downing Street in London, Johnson said he has agreed to resign as leader of the ruling Conservative Party, which would result in his departure as prime minister once the party selects a successor through a leadership election, possibly in the fall. He said that process “should begin now” and the timetable will be announced next week. He also noted that he has appointed a new cabinet of ministers who, along with him, will serve “until a new leader is in place.”
“It is clearly now the will of the parliamentary Conservative Party that there should be a new leader of that party and therefore a new prime minister,” Johnson said.
“I want you to know how sad I am to be giving up the best job in the world,” he added. “But them’s the breaks.”
Keir Starmer, leader of the opposition Labour Party, released a statement earlier Thursday, saying: “It is good news for the country that Boris Johnson has resigned as Prime Minister. But it should have happened long ago.”
The embattled, 58-year-old British premier had initially vowed to cling on to power, quickly appointing two replacements for U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak and U.K. Health Secretary Sajid Javid after they announced their resignations on Tuesday. But dozens more departures — a growing mutiny among his cabinet — ultimately made Johnson’s position untenable, with some lawmakers in his own Conservative Party even suggesting that the rules would have to be changed in order to remove him from office.
It was unclear Thursday whether Johnson’s party would force him out before a successor is appointed, amid fears that he could remain in office until the fall. If they do not, the opposition has threatened to push for a parliamentary vote of no confidence to oust him.
Controversy has long followed Johnson since he became prime minister of the United Kingdom in 2019. In recent months, he faced immense criticism over the number of illegal gatherings held at government offices and residences while the country was under a strict pandemic-related lockdown in 2020 — a scandal the British media quickly dubbed “Partygate.”
Johnson himself was issued a fine by London’s Metropolitan Police Service for attending a birthday party held in his honor at no. 10 Downing Street, when indoor mixing was barred to stem the spread of COVID-19 — making him the first prime minister in U.K. history to have been found guilty of breaking the law while in office. He then survived a vote of confidence brought forward by disgruntled lawmakers in his party, which left him wounded politically but still in charge. Surviving the vote meant he was immune from facing a similar challenge for at least a year.
But it was a very different crisis which ultimately forced Johnson’s resignation on Thursday — one that concerned the personal conduct of a minister in his cabinet, one of his appointees, Conservative lawmaker Chris Pincher.
Last week, Pincher offered his resignation from the Conservative whips’ office, after he was accused of drunkenness and sexual misconduct while at a bar in the presence of colleagues. Then reports emerged in the British media that Pincher had previously faced complaints, which were upheld, about similar conduct; but Downing Street denied that Johnson was aware of such complaints.
This, however, turned out to be false, as further information later revealed that Johnson had been briefed about Pincher’s conduct prior to rehiring him in 2019.
In a raucous session of the U.K. House of Commons on Wednesday, Johnson defended his record in government as he faced mounting pressure to step down.
“He knew the accused minister had previously committed predatory behavior, but he promoted him to a position of power anyway,” Starmer, who has repeatedly called for Johnson’s resignation, told lawmakers Wednesday.
In response, Johnson defended his handling of Pincher’s conduct, which he said was now being investigated, and said he “abhorred” bullying and “abuses of power.”
“I greatly regret that [Pincher] continued in office and I have said that before,” Johnson told lawmakers.
Referring to the number of resignations from Johnson’s administration, Starmer said the U.K. government was facing a case of the “sinking ship leaving the rat.”
As Johnson pledged to stay on, a group of senior cabinet ministers told him this week that he should go. More resignations at all levels of government followed and Johnson ultimately caved to the pressure before he was to be forced out by his own party.
“The reason I have fought so hard in the last few days to continue to deliver that mandate in person was not just because I wanted to do so, but because I felt it was my job, my duty, my obligation to you to continue to do what we promised in 2019,” he said Thursday. “And of course, I’m immensely proud of the achievements of this government.”
As one of the chief proponents of Britain’s historic exit from the European Union, or “Brexit,” and then as prime minister at the helm of the country’s coronavirus crisis, Johnson will go down in history as one of the most divisive leaders the U.K. has ever had.
Johnson burst onto the political scene when he was elected to be the mayor of London in 2008, winning two elections and overseeing the response to the London riots of 2011, as well as hosting the 2012 Summer Olympics. He had previously served as a member of Parliament from 2001.
Johnson’s trademark tousled blond hair, sense of humor and carefully crafted bumbling persona made him an instantly recognizable public figure at home and abroad. Embarrassing situations that would have humiliated some politicians — such as being stuck on a zipline while waving a Union Jack flag near Olympic Park in east London — Johnson embraced.
But with that came caveats, particularly during the most crucial phase of his political career when he led the U.K. out of the European Union.
Under the prime ministership of Theresa May, it seemed as if the U.K. might not be leaving the trading bloc at all. But after Johnson replaced her in the summer of 2019 and a chaotic first few months in office, he won a resounding general election victory that ensured Brexit.
Using clear, simple messaging, Johnson spearheaded a number of successful election campaigns. As a member of Parliament at the time of the 2016 Brexit referendum vote, he deployed the phrase “Take Back Control” to decisive effect, garnering 52% of the vote. He went on to become foreign secretary later that year, a position he held until the summer of 2018. In his general election campaign of 2019, the slogan “Get Brexit Done” again saw him win a decisive vote, seemingly against the odds, as his campaigning style and character seemed to connect with ordinary people in a way that bamboozled rival politicians.
However, his time as prime minister proved tumultuous. Johnson was criticized for not taking the COVID-19 pandemic seriously enough in March 2020, and ultimately contracted the virus himself and was hospitalized in intensive care for several days. Observers have long seen Johnson as a “populist,” with comparisons repeatedly drawn between him and former U.S. President Donald Trump. Opposition lawmakers have regularly accused Johnson’s government of having “one rule for them, one rule for everyone else.”
Just weeks after taking office, Johnson asked Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II to suspend Parliament — a move that observers said was designed to thwart opposition lawmakers from blocking Brexit in the lead up to the Oct. 31 deadline, prompting protests across the U.K. The queen approved Johnson’s request for prorogation, but the U.K. Supreme Court unanimously ruled in a historic judgement a month later that Johnson’s advice was “unlawful.”
Then there was the controversy over government-paid refurbishments at Downing Street in 2021, which became known in the British media as “Wallpapergate.” U.K. prime ministers are given an annual allowance of up to £30,000 ($41,000) a year to renovate the official residence. But Johnson was accused of potentially using Conservative Party funds to top that up and pay for a more lavish redecoration of his apartment at no. 11 Downing Street, where he lived with his fiancée, Carrie Symonds, and their two young children.
Johnson’s colorful political life was matched by a controversial private one. Johnson regularly refused to answer questions about how many children he had when asked by journalists on a number of occasions. It was Johnson’s evasiveness on such topics and what many saw as his flexible relationship with the truth that made him such a controversial figure with the public — and ultimately lead to his downfall.
It was an ignominious end to a premiership plagued by controversy and scandal. Johnson will likely remain in office until a new leader from within the Conservative Party, which still holds a sizeable majority in U.K. Parliament, is elected. Whoever is chosen will become the fourth prime minister the country has had in six years, since the U.K. voted to leave the E.U. in 2016.
(WASHINGTON) — Speaking alongside his British counterpart in London on Wednesday, FBI Director Christopher Wray called China the “biggest long-term threat” to both the U.S. and the U.K.
“The Chinese government is set on stealing your technology — whatever it is that makes your industry tick — and using it to undercut your business and dominate your market,” Wray said while giving remarks to international business leaders. “And they’re set on using every tool at their disposal to do it.”
Wray also warned of potential tactics by Chinese officials, saying they steal technology by using intelligence officers to “target” valuable pieces of information and companies.
“We’ve even caught people affiliated with Chinese companies out in the U.S. heartland, sneaking into fields to dig up proprietary, genetically modified seeds, which would have cost them nearly a decade and billions in research to develop themselves,” Wray said. “And those efforts pale in comparison to their lavishly-resourced hacking program that’s bigger than that of every other major country combined.”
The Chinese, Wray said, use cyber to “steal” volumes of information. He said U.S. officials are working with MI5, the British intelligence service, to identify other investments that the Chinese government makes in proxy relationships — a kind of third-party venue through which China steals information.
Wray said that U.S. companies should be wary of working with or in China, something about which he has warned before, and he urged business leaders to contact the FBI for further information on ways to mitigate the Chinese cyber threat.
His warning was the latest episode of the U.S. pushing back on what they describe as Chinese hostility. Relations between the U.S. and China have evolved since President Joe Biden took office — his predecessor Donald Trump embarked on a trade war with the country — and the U.S. and China remain deeply intertwined, though they are often opposed on various issues.
After one call between Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping earlier this year, the Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry said, “The U.S.-China relationship has not yet emerged from the predicament created by the previous U.S. administration but has instead encountered more and more challenges. The U.S. side has made a misreading and misjudgment of China’s strategic intentions.”
On Wednesday, Wray warned that if China were to invade Taiwan, U.S. companies could see a repeat, on a much larger scale, of the economic disarray from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the resulting international condemnation.
“Just as in Russia, Western investments built over years could become hostage capital stranded, supply chains and relationships disrupted,” he said. “Companies are caught between sanctions and Chinese law forbidding compliance with them. That’s not just geopolitics. It’s business forecasting.”
Wray concluded by saying the U.S. and U.K. were working together to combat this threat.
His remarks come as American law enforcement agencies and the Treasury Department cautioned the public of another overseas adversary, this one targeting hospital systems.
North Korean-backed cyber actors are targeting the health care and public health sector, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), the FBI and Treasury Department said on Wednesday.
These actors use Maui ransomware, a specific technology that has a North Korean hallmark, to infiltrate health care sectors and hold their systems ransom in exchange for a payment, American officials said in an advisory.
The officials said that since May 2021, the agencies have observed and reacted to “multiple” Maui ransomware incidents indicating that they came from North Korea.
“North Korean state-sponsored cyber actors used Maui ransomware in these incidents to encrypt servers responsible for healthcare services—including electronic health records services, diagnostics services, imaging services, and intranet services,” the advisory states. “In some cases, these incidents disrupted the services provided by the targeted HPH Sector organizations for prolonged periods.”
The agencies believe that because health care organizations “provide services that are critical to human life and health,” they are likely to pay ransoms when attacked. Law enforcement advise not paying the ransom and to contact CISA or the FBI instead.
“Because of this assumption, the FBI, CISA, and Treasury assess North Korean state-sponsored actors are likely to continue targeting HPH Sector organizations,” the officials said.
(HIGHLAND PARK, Ill.) — Lorena Rebollar Sedano has attended the Highland Park, Illinois, Fourth of July parade for 28 years, but this year’s festivities turned to terror when Sedano and her family were caught in the crossfire after a gunman opened fire during Monday’s celebration.
Sedano told ABC News that she and her family immediately rushed to a nearby store for safety. When she got inside and collected herself, Sedano soon realized that she was hit.
“A lady told me ‘Are you OK?’ I told her, ‘Yes.’ She goes ‘But you’re hurt, you’re bleeding,'” Sedano told ABC News. “That’s when I looked at my foot and my shoe was full of blood.”
Sedano was at the parade with her nieces and their three children, ages 1, 3 and 9 years old. Sedano called her daughter, who was en route to the parade, and told her not to come once the shooting began.
“I kept saying, ‘I’m OK, I’m OK,'” she said.
Four other family members who were with Sedano were also hurt, she said. While she waited for first responders to arrive, Sedano said other people who were hiding out in the store helped her.
She was hospitalized, treated for her wounds and released. But Sedano’s recovery is only just beginning.
Sedano said doctors told her bullet fragments are still lodged on the side of her ankle and would go away eventually.
Sedano said it was a miracle that she and her family survived the shooting. She said her family was right next to Nicholas Toledo, one of the seven victims killed in the shooting, who they knew.
Sedano will not go back to the parade and likely won’t attend large events for a very long time.
“We were like the target for the gunshots,” she said.
(RALEIGH, N.C.) — North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper signed an executive order to strengthen access to reproductive health care in the state on Wednesday.
The order takes several steps to defend the existing services in North Carolina, including to state that patients who receive abortions or providers who perform abortions will not be penalized or criminalized for providing, receiving or inquiring about reproductive health care services.
The executive action comes almost two weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court voted to overturn Roe v. Wade, which had guaranteed the right to abortion for almost 50 years.
Cooper’s order establishes that all cabinet agencies, or those who are part of the governor’s office, “should coordinate with each other and pursue opportunities to protect people or entities who are providing, assisting, seeking or obtaining lawful reproductive health care services in North Carolina.”
It further states that cabinet agencies may not require any pregnant cabinet agency employee to travel to a state that has restrictions on access to reproductive health care that do not include exceptions favoring the health of the pregnant employee.
The order says it does not change North Carolina law, but rather ensures that North Carolina residents will continue to have a protected right to access and perform abortions, alongside other reproductive care.
As other states uphold bans on abortion, North Carolina increasingly becomes a “critical access point” for those seeking reproductive health services, according to the order.
“Research demonstrates that unnecessary restrictions and bans on reproductive health care rights have harmful consequences on people’s health, safety and economic stability…[and] disproportionately impact people of color, people with disabilities, people with low incomes and people who live in rural areas,” the order reads.
Cooper spoke at a press conference when he signed the order.
“The Supreme Court ripped away the constitutional right to reproductive freedom that women have relied on for five decades,” Cooper said Wednesday.
“For now, it’s up to the states to determine whether women get reproductive health care, and in North Carolina they still can, thanks to my veto and enough legislative votes to sustain it. I am determined to keep it that way and people need to know that their votes in state legislative races this November will determine the fate of women’s health and freedom in our state,” Cooper continued.
Alexis McGill Johnson, president of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, was alongside Cooper at the signing of the executive order.
“Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, North Carolina has become an increasingly critical access point for people traveling for abortion care, including from neighboring South Carolina and Tennessee, where lawmakers in both states have swiftly banned most abortions,” Johnson said at the signing.
“Now we must continue to do everything in our power to ensure abortion remains accessible in North Carolina, both for North Carolinians and those forced to flee their own state amid mounting restrictions and cruel bans,” she added.
In a statement on Wednesday, Cooper said that North Carolina has already seen an influx of patients coming from other states to seek abortion care.
Citing data from Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, Cooper said that one third of abortion patients scheduled in North Carolina this week are from different states.
“That means there are projected to be at least 10,000 people coming to North Carolina to access reproductive health care services, mostly from states with bans and tighter restrictions. These are just numbers from Planned Parenthood, and do not include estimates from the state’s other trusted providers,” Cooper said in his statement.
Dr. Katherine Farris, chief medical officer at Planned Parenthood South Atlantic, was quoted in the governor’s press release Wednesday.
Farris said that the highest priority of abortion providers in North Carolina is to get patients the care that they need.
“Abortion is a normal part of reproductive health care. Every person is the expert in their own life, and we must trust them to make their own decisions about their health, their family, and their future,” Farris said in the statement.
“Planned Parenthood South Atlantic health center doors remain open, and we aren’t going anywhere,” she added.
Jenny Black, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Votes! South Atlantic, said in the release that North Carolina voters need to continue to support candidates that will keep abortion legal in the state.
“For now, abortion is still legal in North Carolina. But our reproductive freedom is hanging by a thread. The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v. Wade has paved the way for state lawmakers to pass an all-out ban as soon as next year,” Black said.
“The future of abortion access not only for North Carolinians but potentially the entire Southeast region is on the line in 2022, and we thank Governor Cooper for his strong advocacy in support of reproductive freedom today,” Black added.
As states have continued to uphold abortion bans across the southeast, other eastern states have signed orders similar to Cooper’s in support of abortion access.
The Democratic governors of Maine and Rhode Island both signed executive orders on Tuesday in support of abortion rights, which ensure the protection of both patients and providers of abortion.
The Republican governor of Massachusetts signed an executive order last month to protect access to abortion in the state, ensuring its legality there.
In South Carolina, abortion has been banned past six weeks. In Tennessee, abortion has also become illegal after six weeks, with no exceptions for rape and incest.
Alabama has made abortion completely illegal, with no exceptions for rape and incest.
