(JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia) — Continuing his first visit to the Middle East as president, Joe Biden shared a fist bump Friday with Saudi Arabia’s de-facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, ahead of their highly-anticipated meeting despite criticism around the Saudi Arabia stop.
Biden is meeting, separately, with the prince’s father, King Salman, the White House said.
The president stepped off Air Force One and onto a lavendar carpet in Jeddah shortly after 11 a.m. ET, descending the steps and greeted immediately by two individuals. He fist bumped the first greeter and shook hands with others. The president then walked towards the Beast, stopping to greet a few other officials lined up for his arrival, accompanied by national security adviser, Jake Sullivan.
Sullivan declined to say earlier this week if the public would see the president and the crown prince shake hands, and Biden has repeatedly declined to say whether he will bring up the 2018 murder of Saudi dissident and Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi with him — despite immense pressure to snub the leader over alleged human rights atrocities, particularly since a U.S. intelligence report found Mohammad bin Salman directly approved the murder operation at a Saudi embassy in Turkey in 2018.
As a presidential candidate, Biden vowed to make oil-rich Saudi Arabia a “pariah” state over Khashoggi’s murder, but the rapprochement to U.S. and Saudi Arabia relations comes at a time when gas prices have skyrocketed as the West has attempted to boycott Russian oil, ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, and as Biden faces calls to balance security interests with human rights concerns.
Biden has defended his trip to the oil-rich nation, writing in an op-ed for The Washington Post published ahead of his visit that “my aim was to reorient — but not rupture — relations with a country that’s been a strategic partner for 80 years.”
“As president, it is my job to keep our country strong and secure,” he wrote. “We have to counter Russia’s aggression, put ourselves in the best possible position to outcompete China, and work for greater stability in a consequential region of the world.”
But Sullivan on Friday ahead of the meeting downplayed any chance of an agreement from Saudi Arabia to increase oil production as a result of Biden’s meetings in the kingdom.
“I don’t think you should expect a particular announcement here bilaterally,” he told reporters on AF1. “We will discuss energy security at this meeting,” he said broadly, when asked if the public should expect an agreement.
Since taking office, Biden has spoken twice with King Salman, the crown prince’s father, who officially rules the country, but had dispatched Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to serve as his administration’s point of contact with the crown prince, in what was widely perceived as a snub to the powerful Saudi leader.
On Saturday, Biden plans to attend a summit of Arab leaders in Jeddah, a meeting that the crown prince will also attend, though it’s not yet clear how the two leaders will interact or engage there.
Biden noted in his op-ed he would be the first U.S. president to fly from Israel to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, describing it as a “small symbol” of the deepening ties between Israel and the Arab world.
(AKRON, Ohio) — Jayland Walker, the 25-year-old Black man who was fatally shot by police in Akron, Ohio, had 46 gunshot wounds on his body, according to an autopsy report conducted by the Summit Co. Medical Examiner’s Office.
“The autopsy determined that Jayland had 46 gunshot wound entrances or graze injuries,” chief medical examiner Lisa Kohler said at a Friday press conference. She later added, “The photographic record shows more than 46 labeled wounds because there are exit wounds, bullets beneath the skin and abrasions that were numbered for the purpose of identifying specific injuries.”
Walker also had injuries to his face, heart, both lungs, liver, spleen, left kidney, intestines, pelvis, iliac artery and several bones in his legs, according to Kohler
His manner of death has been ruled homicide and the toxicology report showed no use of drugs nor alcohol by Walker at the time of the incident.
“The family is devastated by the findings of the report and still await a public apology from the police department,” the Walker family’s legal team said in a statement to ABC News.
Walker was unarmed when he was fatally shot by police on June 27 after a traffic stop turned into a pursuit. He was running away when eight officers opened fire on him, body camera footage released by the city showed.
Officials said they attempted to pull Walker over for a traffic violation and an equipment violation with his car. He allegedly refused to stop, which set off a chase that ended in his death.
Officials said a flash of light seen in body camera footage appeared to be the muzzle flash of a gun coming from the driver’s side of Walker’s car.
In a second body camera video, officers are heard radioing that a shot was being fired from Walker’s car. The footage shows an officer following Walker’s Buick off Route 8 and continuing the pursuit on side streets.
At one point, Walker slowed down and jumped out of the passenger side door before it came to a full stop, according to the footage. As Walker ran away from police, several officers simultaneously fired several bullets, fatally shooting him.
A gun was later recovered inside the car, but Walker was unarmed when he was shot.
The officers involved in the shooting are on paid administrative leave and have not been named.
The incident is under investigation by the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation. The United Nations has joined, offering help via a task force designed to address racial injustice and inequity in law enforcement.
The national civil rights group NAACP has called upon the Department of Justice to investigate Walker’s death.
“We are urging you and your Department of Justice to conduct a thorough investigation into the murder of Jayland Walker, and – if what we all saw with our own eyes is true – federally charge the officers responsible for his gruesome assassination,” NAACP President Derrick Johnson said.
Walker’s funeral was held just days before the autopsy report, where he was described by family and friends as “kind” and “gentle.”
Salwan Georges/The Washington Post via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — The Secret Service deleted text messages from Jan. 5 and 6, 2021, after an internal watchdog requested them as part of a review of the department’s handling of last year’s Capitol riot, the watchdog said this week.
A letter sent Wednesday by the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General to the heads of the House and Senate Homeland Security Committees, which was obtained by ABC News, said the messages were deleted “as part of a device-replacement program” despite the inspector general requesting such communications.
“First, the Department notified us that many US Secret Service text messages from January 5 and 6, 2021, were erased as part of a device-replacement program. The USSS erased those text messages after OIG requested records of electronic communications from the USSS, as part of our evaluation of events at the Capitol on January 6,” Joseph Cuffari, the inspector general, wrote.
“Second, DHS personnel have repeatedly told OIG inspectors that they were not permitted to provide records directly to OIG and that such records had to first undergo review by DHS attorneys,” Cuffari wrote. “This review led to weeks-long delays in OIG obtaining records and created confusion over whether all records had been produced.”
The director of communications at the US Secret Service, Anthony Guglielmi, said any insinuation the service intentionally deleted texts is false in a statement Thursday evening.
“The insinuation that the Secret Service maliciously deleted text messages following a request is false. In fact, the Secret Service has been fully cooperating with the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General (DHS OIG) in every respect – whether it be interviews, documents, emails, or texts,” the statement said.
The statement continued that the Secret Service “began to reset its mobile phones to factory settings as part of a pre-planned, three-month system migration. In that process, data resident on some phones was lost,” and that DHS OIG requested electronic communications for the first time on Feb. 26, 2021, after the migration was underway. The agency added that OIG was notified of certain data missing.
The Secret Service also refuted the notion that they were not being cooperative with the DHS investigation.
“To the contrary, DHS OIG has previously alleged that its employees were not granted appropriate and timely access to materials due to attorney review. DHS has repeatedly and publicly debunked this allegation, including in response to OIG’s last two semi-annual reports to Congress. It is unclear why OIG is raising this issue again,” the statement said.
Ohio’s Rob Portman, the top Republican on the Senate Homeland Security Committee, said he was “deeply concerned” over the letter.
“I am deeply concerned by the letter I received from the DHS Inspector General documenting the Department’s delays in producing materials to the Inspector General and its deletion of records following requests by the Inspector General. It is essential that the Department be transparent with its inspector general, Congress, and the American public,” he said in a statement.
The DHS has not yet responded for comment.
Michigan Sen. Gary Peters, the chairman of the committee, echoed that.
“We need to get to the bottom of whether the Secret Service destroyed federal records or the Department of Homeland Security obstructed oversight,” Peters said in a statement. “The DHS Inspector General needs these records to do its independent oversight and the public deserves to have a full picture of what occurred on January 6th. I will be learning more from the DHS Inspector General about these concerning allegations.”
It is unclear whether the messages were deleted intentionally or by accident, though the inspector general’s letter comes as the Secret Service is once again under heightened scrutiny following hearings from the House committee investigating the insurrection.
Recent testimony suggested that former President Donald Trump tried to join his supporters in marching from the Ellipse to the Capitol last year but was stopped by the Secret Service. The agency has since said it will respond on the record to that testimony.
(NEW YORK) — Depositions of former President Donald Trump, Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr. in connection with the New York attorney general’s civil investigation have been delayed, the New York Attorney General’s Office said Friday.
The AG’s office said the postponement was due to the death of Ivana Trump, the former president’s ex-wife and the mother of Ivanka and Donald Jr., on Thursday.
“In light of the passing of Ivana Trump yesterday, we received a request from counsel for Donald Trump and his children to adjourn all three depositions, which we have agreed to,” the office said in a statement. “This is a temporary delay and the depositions will be rescheduled as soon as possible. There is no other information about dates or otherwise to provide at this time.”
“We offer our condolences to the Trump family,” the statement added.
This is a breaking news story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — Depositions of former President Donald Trump, Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr. in connection with the New York attorney general’s civil investigation into the family’s businesses practices have been delayed, the New York Attorney General’s Office said Friday.
The AG’s office said the postponement was due to the death of Ivana Trump, the former president’s ex-wife and the mother of Ivanka and Donald Jr., on Thursday.
“In light of the passing of Ivana Trump yesterday, we received a request from counsel for Donald Trump and his children to adjourn all three depositions, which we have agreed to,” the office said in a statement. “This is a temporary delay and the depositions will be rescheduled as soon as possible. There is no other information about dates or otherwise to provide at this time.”
“We offer our condolences to the Trump family,” the statement added.
The New York Attorney General’s Office has been investigating potential discrepancies in how the Trump Organization valued certain assets when seeking loans or when pursuing tax breaks.
Trump has long denied any wrongdoing in the yearslong investigation.
The Trumps had sought to squash the AG’s subpoenas to testify on the grounds that they were politically motivated, but last month New York’s highest court declined to take up an appeal by the family, thereby obligating the Trumps to sit for depositions in the probe.
Ivana Trump died Thursday at her home in New York City at the age of 73. She was found unconscious and unresponsive at the bottom of a set of stairs in her Upper East Side apartment, according to police sources. A medical examiner will determine the cause of death, police said.
She and Donald Trump were married in 1977 and divorced in 1992.
(WASHINGTON) — As a slew of historic challenges pile up on Joe Biden’s presidency, he faces increasing dissatisfaction from within his own party and questions about his electability just months before crucial midterm elections.
Historic, global inflation and high gas prices have driven his popularity to lows that could threaten Democrats’ chances of retaining control of Congress this fall.
Amid calls from activists for Biden to show more urgency on issues such as abortion and gun reform, the White House has fired back, calling those who want more action on abortion “out of step.”
But a wide majority of Democrats in a New York Times/Siena College poll published this week – 64% – said that they want someone other than Biden to represent them in the 2024 presidential election.
Among those Democrats, the top reason they wanted another standard-bearer was because of Biden’s age (33%), followed by his job performance (32%). Further down the list, 4% cited his ability to win, and 3% pointed to his mental acuity.
Questions of age
At 79, Biden is the oldest president in U.S. history, and his age has drawn concerns from not just within his own party but from across the aisle — with nonstop negative coverage in conservative media of his perceived gaffes and constant questions about his mental fitness.
Fox News hosts constantly portray the president as a feeble, elderly man as they play short video clips they say show him looking confused at events, mixing up words and relying on notecards with basic instructions, like, “You take your seat.” (Former President Donald Trump used similar notes.)
While those attacks are amplified through Fox News’ partisan lens, Biden clearly lacks the energy he had as a younger vice president and senator before that, often walking in a halting manner and frequently tripping over his words.
In 2018, before he launched his most recent campaign for president, Biden said it was “totally legitimate” for voters to consider a candidate’s age and “what kind of shape you’re in,” CNN reported at the time.
“I think it’s totally appropriate for people to look at me and say if I were to run for office again, ‘Well, God darn, you’re old,'” he said, according to CNN. “Well, chronologically I am old.”
A White House official said aides “far younger” than Biden “have to fight to keep up” with the president, who works late into the night and “never takes a day off, wherever he is.”
“We see him throw himself into the hardest parts of the job,” the official said, noting Biden recently spent “hours comforting families” of victims of mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas.
Fired-up Biden tells ABC: ‘They want me to run’
In an impassioned exchange with ABC News this week, Biden defended his popularity among Democrats, noting that the same New York Times/Siena College poll showed that if he ended up facing off against former President Donald Trump in 2024, 92% of Democrats said they’d vote for Biden.
And among all voters, the poll found, Biden would best Trump by 44% to 41%.
When asked by this reporter what his message was to Democrats who do not want him to run again, Biden replied, “They want me to run.”
“Read the polls,” he responded, fired up and changing direction. “Read the polls, Jack. You guys are all the same. That poll showed that 92% of Democrats, if I ran, would vote for me.”
This reporter pointed out that most Democrats surveyed did, in fact, say they wanted someone else to run.
“But 92% said if I did, they’d vote for me,” Biden shot back, before walking away.
The president told ABC News in December he plans to run for reelection. “If I’m in the health I’m in now — from a good health, and, in fact, I would run again,” he said then.
Vice President Kamala Harris, too, has made clear she would run with him.
Biden’s message: Vote
In the wake of Supreme Court setbacks for abortion rights, gun restrictions and climate change, progressive activists — and many of their allies in Congress — have vocally called on Biden to take more drastic measures to protects Americans’ rights.
His message? Vote for Democrats in the November midterms.
“This fall, Roe is on the ballot,” he said the day the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last month. “Personal freedoms are on the ballot. The right to privacy, liberty, equality, they’re all on the ballot.”
While Biden has used his bully pulpit to speak out forcefully on these topics, he and his advisers insist they are hamstrung by legal limitations on what they can do — especially when it comes to protecting access to abortion.
His outgoing communications director, Kate Bedingfield, blasted activists who have been critical of Biden’s response to the Supreme Court ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which found women do not have a constitutional right to an abortion.
“Joe Biden’s goal in responding to Dobbs is not to satisfy some activists who have been consistently out of step with the mainstream of the Democratic Party,” she said in a statement to The Washington Post earlier this week that ignited blowback from progressives. “It’s to deliver help to women who are in danger and assemble a broad-based coalition to defend a woman’s right to choose now, just as he assembled such a coalition to win during the 2020 campaign.”
At a news conference in Madrid last month, a reporter asked Biden if he was the best messenger to fight for abortion rights when his own views on abortion had evolved over the years. Many progressives want him to do more, the reporter noted.
“I’m the only president they got,” Biden replied, “and I feel extremely strongly that I’m going to do everything in my power which I legally can do in terms of executive orders, as well as push the Congress and the public.”
But he also said “the bottom line” is that people should “show up and vote.”
“Vote in the off-year and vote, vote, vote,” Biden said. “That’s how we’ll change it.”
Young Democratic candidates speak of disconnect with party
But the New York Times/Siena College poll showed younger Democrats, in particular, want a nominee other than Biden in 2024, with 94% of Democrats under 30 years old expressing that sentiment.
One millennial Democrat running to represent the Nashville, Tennessee, area in Congress, Odessa Kelly, told ABC News she traced those young Democrats’ apprehensiveness to a more deeply rooted disappointment that began before Biden assumed office.
As the founder of the nonprofit Stand Up Nashville, Kelly recounted distributing more than 300 food boxes per day to people “who still had their work uniforms on because they were coming in between work shifts to survive another day.” Among them, she said, were elementary school staff, including younger teachers who requested food supplies for their families and classrooms.
“The Democratic Party always talks about helping the next generation, but I noticed that the caretakers of children are all struggling paycheck to paycheck,” Kelly said.
She said economic pressures became especially acute in Nashville during the coronavirus pandemic.
“The people of Nashville are at their breaking points,” she said. “I understand when people say it feels like we haven’t elected people who come from these shared experiences we got.”
Another millennial Democrat running for Congress in Texas, Greg Casar, told ABC News he thought the disconnect younger voters are feeling stems from a generational difference on how to tackle salient political issues, such as climate change.
“So many Gen Z voters don’t want to just wait for things to somehow get better,” Casar, who is currently an Austin City Council member, said. “Younger voters want action. That is the kind of energy that is so often lacking in our politics.”
Both candidates back Biden – Kelly said she’d “vote for Biden any day over Trump” – with some reservations. Casar urged Biden to move faster to protect abortion access.
“Texans can’t just sit and wait for another election while their healthcare is being denied,” he said. “The president can speak urgently, but he needs to act more with that same urgency to help voters of color.”
Governors push for action — and spark 2024 speculation
Amid the Democratic discontent with Biden, other Democrats have stirred chatter of potential 2024 runs.
Biden says he’ll run again, but that hasn’t stopped speculation California Gov. Gavin Newsom may have ambitions for higher office, although on Wednesday he emphatically said would back a Biden bid in 2024.
Newsom, though, has criticized Democratic leaders for not confronting Republicans more aggressively. And this week, he visited Washington, where he delivered a speech where he spoke about national issues.
And Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker, who traveled to New Hampshire last month to campaign for Democrats and pitch Chicago as a 2024 presidential nominating convention site — and plans to fundraise for Florida Democrats this weekend — has fueled chatter he has higher aspirations. (He has insisted that he’s focused on his re-election as governor.)
After a shooting on the Fourth of July left seven dead in Highland Park, Illinois, Pritzker’s intense, confrontational response garnered widespread praise.
“If you’re angry today, I’m here to tell you be angry,” he said that day. “I’m furious. I’m furious that yet more innocent lives were taken by gun violence. I’m furious that their loved ones are forever broken by what took place today.”
Biden’s first public comments on the shooting were brief and did not mention Highland Park by name.
“You all heard what happened today,” he told an Independence Day gathering outside the White House. “But each day, we’re reminded there’s nothing guaranteed about our democracy, nothing guaranteed about our way of life. We have to fight for it, defend it, and earn it by voting to refine, evolve, and extend the calling of America to move forward boldly and unafraid.”
Two hours later, he decided to speak again, mentioning the city’s name, noting he had spoken with Pritzker and the mayor, and calling for a moment of silence. “We’ve got a lot more work to do,” he said. “We’ve got to get this under control.”
Pritzker met with Biden at the White House earlier this week when he was in town for an event marking the recent passage of gun safety legislation. He told reporters they did not discuss politics.
On Capitol Hill, a defense of Biden — while others block his agenda
Few Democrats on Capitol Hill are willing to publicly question whether Biden should run again in 2024, although progressives like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, of New York, often call on him to act with greater urgency.
Rep. Ro Khanna, a Democrat from California who has criticized Biden in the past, said recently that, as president and leader of the Democratic Party, Biden is “owed a degree of respect.”
“There’s a tone in which to challenge the administration and offer new ideas,” Khanna tweeted last week, “and that tone ought to be one of good faith to help the president, not throwing darts to weaken him when he’s the leader of our party.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, meanwhile, has forcefully defended the president throughout his time in office.
“I wouldn’t waste my time on figuring out how enthusiastic this White House is about a woman’s right to choose,” she said Thursday. “They’re there.”
In the fact of setbacks, the president has responded with a call not just to elect more Democrats — but for Congress to take action.
Even though his party controls both chambers of Congress, Democrats’ majority in the House is narrow, and their 50-50 split with Republicans in the Senate has meant Biden has failed to achieve the 60 votes necessary to further most of his legislative priorities.
Senate Democrats could change the rules to require just a simple majority to move legislation forward, but Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema have blocked that effort.
Manchin has also stood in the way of Biden’s attempts to force his major “Build Back Better” package – that would make massive investments in health care, education, fighting climate change and other Democratic domestic goals.
Biden has frequently lamented the tough spot he’s in.
“When you’re in the United States Senate, and you’re president of the United States, and you have 50 Democrats,” he joked during a CNN town hall last year, “every one is a president.”
ABC News’ Alina Kim and Mariam Khan contributed to this report.
(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 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
(INGLEWOOD, Calif.) — The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has seized approximately one million pills laced with fentanyl allegedly linked to the Sinaloa Cartel in what authorities say is the biggest bust for the drug in California history.
The seizure happened earlier this month in Inglewood, California, after the DEA’s Los Angeles Field Division High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) Group 48, along with the DEA New York Division Tactical Diversion Squad and Hawthorne Police Department, had been investigating a Los Angeles-area drug trafficking organization since May that authorities believed was linked to the Sinaloa Cartel.
“DEA agents identified Southern California narcotic couriers and stash house managers who were responsible for distributing narcotics to other drug distributors in the area,” the DEA said in a press release regarding the seizure.
Authorities subsequently obtained a federal search warrant and executed the drug bust on July 5 at a residence in Inglewood which resulted in the seizure of approximately one million fake pills laced with fentanyl that were intended for retail distribution with an estimated street value of between $15 to $20 million.
“This massive seizure disrupted the flow of dangerous amounts of fentanyl into our streets and probably saved many lives,” said DEA Special Agent in Charge Bill Bodner. “The deceptive marketing coupled with the ease of accessibility makes these small and seemingly innocuous pills a significant threat to the health and safety of all our communities. A staggering number of teens and young adults are unaware that they are ingesting fentanyl in these fake pills and are being poisoned.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, fentanyl is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine and is a synthetic opioid that is approved for treating severe pain but can often be diverted for abuse and misuse.
“Most recent cases of fentanyl-related harm, overdose, and death in the U.S. are linked to illegally made fentanyl,” the CDC warns on their website. “It is sold through illegal drug markets for its heroin-like effect. It is often mixed with heroin and/or cocaine as a combination product — with or without the user’s knowledge — to increase its euphoric effects.”
More than 107,000 Americans have died as a result of fentanyl overdose or poisoning, according to the CDC.
“Criminal drug networks in Mexico are mass-producing illicit fentanyl and fake pills pressed with fentanyl in filthy, clandestine, unregulated labs,” the DEA warned in their statement. “These fake pills are designed to look like real prescription pills right down to the size, shape, color and stamping. These fake pills typically replicate real prescription opioid medications such as oxycodone (Oxycontin, Percocet), hydrocodone (Vicodin), and alprazolam (Xanax); or stimulants like amphetamines (Adderall).”
According to the DEA, Los Angeles is a major transport and shipment hub for illegal drugs coming from the U.S.-Mexico border and are often stored in warehouses, storage units and residential properties in the region.
“The bulk shipments of drugs are usually broken down into smaller quantities and transported to other states or distributed to local dealers,” the DEA said. “The greater Los Angeles area has many international airports, freeways, and bus and train lines that make it easy for shipments to be smuggled to other destinations.
The DEA, however, has been getting more successful year on year at stopping and seizing drug shipments. The DEA offices in Los Angeles seized approximately three million fentanyl pills in 2021 — close to three times the amount seized in 2020. And, in the first four months alone of 2022, DEA Los Angeles have seized an estimated 1.5 million of the pills — a 64% increase over the same period in 2021.
This investigation into the drug trafficking organization is ongoing.
(KYIV, 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.”
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 Ukraine’s Ministry of Health.
A Director at the Ministry, Oleksandra Mashkevych, confirmed that Ukraine is no longer able “to cover all of the demand relating to artificial limbs.”
She 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.
Mashkevych explained that in cases where patients need prosthetic limbs, the total treatment can last up to six months and financial support from the European Union has been critical to ensure the needs of patients and their families who get transferred to countries such as Germany and Poland can be met.
One of Dr. Stetsenko’s patients, 19-year-old Daniil Melnyk, who is currently undergoing intensive rehabilitation with two new artificial legs at a hospital in Kyiv, epitomizes the impact of the war on individual Ukrainians as well as his country’s broader fighting spirit.
Daniil was still a cadet at Ukraine’s military academy when Russia launched its full-scale invasion in late February and, just days later, he joined the Ukrainian army’s 14th Brigade and was soon serving on the frontline defending the Ukrainian capital in the initial phase of the war.
But on March 7, his unit was traveling in a Ukrainian military convoy near Kyiv when they came under Russian fire and Melnyk sustained horrific shrapnel wounds to his hands and legs.
Despite being badly wounded he survived for two days before being captured by Russian troops. He was treated at a Russian field hospital and later transferred to military hospitals in Russia before returning to Ukraine after being exchanged in a prisoner swap.
Melnyk’s left hand was amputated when he was held and treated in Russia and both of his legs were later amputated when he returned to Ukraine.
Melnyk, however, with two prosthetic legs, is impressively mobile and upbeat about his future.
“Life is very precious” he told ABC News. “Being alive is enough for me. I can move. I feel great.”
The 19-year-old dreams about using his steely sprit to help others and wants to become a military psychologist.
To underline the importance of good quality prosthetics for patients such as Melnyk, Dr Oleksandr Stetsenko joked that it is like “the difference between a good car, and a bad car.”
“People with good prosthetics can have a family and they can do any job.”
(NEW YORK) — Early cases of COVID-19 are believed to be linked to a live-animal market in Wuhan, China.
Facing yet another COVID-19 variant, this one said to be faster and stealthier than those before it, health officials say the calculus has changed and are urging booster shots even more strongly to buck up the country’s armor.
There is a renewed push for everyone over 5 to go out and get a first booster shot if they haven’t yet. That’s the majority of Americans since despite evidence of significant improvements in protection against hospitalization and death from the third shot since only 48% of Americans have gotten a third shot, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Officials are also urging a second booster shot, about four months after the first booster shot, for people who have received their first boosters but are considered high-risk, including people 50 and older and the immunocompromised.
“For people who are 50 years of age or older, my message is simple. If you have not gotten a vaccine shot in the year 2022 — if you have not gotten one this year, please go get another vaccine shot,” White House COVID-19 Response Coordinator Dr. Ashish Jha said during a press briefing on Tuesday.
“If you’ve not gotten a vaccine shot this year, go get one now. It could save your life,” he said.
The Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control are also considering widening that eligibility to include all adults in the next few weeks, Jha said.
But the newfound urgency to offer second boosters to younger populations has been met with confusion, particularly after federal officials previously suggested that shots for people who weren’t high risk wouldn’t be necessary until the fall.
And even for those over the age of 50, prior guidance on the CDC’s website stated that if getting a shot now would make you hesitant to get one in the fall, you should wait until fall to get a second booster. The emergence of the omicron subvariant BA.5 appears to have changed that calculus, however.
Why does BA.5 change the urgency of booster shots?
BA.5, which is now estimated to account for 65% of new COVID-19 cases in the U.S. according to CDC data, became dominant earlier this month. It brought with it a surge of cases and hospitalizations, which will likely be followed by deaths.
It seems to be the most immune-evasive variant the world has seen so far, in terms of its ability to get around past protection from bouts with COVID and from the vaccines.
That means people who have already had COVID-19 are still at risk of becoming reinfected.
And that decline in protection, paired with a new variant that’s better at getting around the vaccine, poses a renewed threat.
“The frequency of BA.5 infections are rising across the US, for those that have not been vaccinated in several months, immunity has likely waned,” C. Buddy Creech, director of the Vanderbilt Vaccine Research Program and associate professor of pediatric infectious diseases, told ABC News.
So who should get one?
Even if you’ve already had COVID-19 and even if you plan to get a booster this fall, when variant-specific vaccines are expected to be available, experts who spoke with ABC News widely agreed that eligible people should still ensure they are up to date with their COVID-19 vaccinations and booster shots.
“If I had not gotten booster number two already, I would get it today,” Dr. Bob Wachter, chair of the department of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, told ABC News.
“You can get a painless, free, and essentially risk-free intervention that will lower the probability of mortality, hospitalization and, at least for a while, infection, at a time when the virus is absolutely rampant,” Wachter said. “That seems like a pretty easy call to me.”
Wachter said the risks of another booster shot is less than most of the procedures he does daily in his job at the hospital, and carries a big benefit.
“The booster is about as safe as anything we do. So my threshold to give it when I think there might be benefit is pretty low,” he said.
What if you’ve recently had COVID?
Though the CDC recommends waiting about three months after having COVID-19 to get vaccinated, experts watching BA.5 said they thought people should consider getting a shot one or two months after recovering.
“I have shortened up my timeline. If you got infected a month or more ago, and you’re eligible for a booster now, I would go ahead and get it,” Wachter said.
Because BA.5 may better can evade prior infection compared to previous variants, people who got COVID recently shouldn’t consider that to be as strong of protection as it once was.
“For anybody who was infected prior to a month ago, an educated guess would be that it wasn’t BA.5, and therefore, your immunity is not good for as long as it used to be,” Wachter said.
Dr. Anna Durbin, director of Center for Immunization Research at Johns Hopkins University, said she would also wait a month, or perhaps two months for people who are lower risk.
“You want your immune system to cool down a bit before you give another vaccine because once it’s cooled down, then you get the biggest effect from that vaccination,” she told ABC News.
“That recent infection is going to provide you with an immune response that will keep you out of the hospital. It is a better booster than the vaccine because it is more aligned with what’s currently circulating,” added Durbin.
Dr. David Dowdy, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, agreed that the need for a booster shortly after infection is not pressing, as the added value of a booster shot that soon is “relatively small.”
What about the boosters coming this fall?
Even though the U.S. is expecting a new booster campaign this fall with updated, variant-specific vaccines, several experts encouraged getting a booster now, in light of BA.5, and then again in a few months, when the new vaccines arrive.
“There’s this theoretical risk of over-boosting but we’ve been at this now for two years, we have people having gotten two, three, even four shots — and I think it remains a theoretical risk,” he told ABC News. “I don’t think there’s any strong evidence that is true.”
Durbin said she thinks people who get a booster now would also have enough of an interval between shots for another booster this fall or winter to still have a strong impact.
“Because it’s July now, there’s enough of a window between that booster and then the Omicron-specific booster that you should get a really good benefit from that in the fall,” she said.
If health agencies recommend a booster for younger people, should they get one?
For younger people, if the FDA and CDC decide to open up eligibility for second booster shots, experts agreed that it would be worth it to re-up protection in certain cases.
“I would say the benefit outweighs the risk, certainly,” Durbin said.
It won’t eliminate the chance of getting COVID, though, and people shouldn’t expect it to because of how fast the virus has evolved since the original vaccines were created.
“We have to really be careful in our messaging and manage people’s expectations, otherwise they’re not going to want to get boosters in the fall that are more specific for Omicron and may prevent infection far better than the current vaccine does,” Durbin said.
That said, other experts were more conservative in their recommendations for young people.
“While the benefits of vaccination certainly outweigh the risks, I’m not sure that it’s more urgent now than before to get younger people yet another booster,” said Dowdy.
“If anything, hospitalizations in the BA.5 era are increasingly among people 70 and older, so the focus on people under 50 isn’t really following what we see in the data.”
And particularly for young people who have recently had COVID, Wachter, too, said it would be reasonable to wait until the fall.
“I’d say for a truly low-risk person, a healthy young person with three shots and gets COVID now, then I’d be on the fence and I probably wait until the fall,” Wachter said.
Creech added that although some younger Americans may feel hesitant to get the booster now and in the fall, most people will understand the continued threat of COVID-19 and the need to maintain protection.
“I think people recognize that a new COVID variant seems to always be lurking around the corner and vaccines are the best prevention we have,” Creech said.
