(NEW YORK) — Companies like British American Tobacco and Philip Morris International don’t typically come to mind as environmental stewards. But a new report from the World Health Organization and STOP, a global tobacco watchdog, outlines how the tobacco industry has been working to rehabilitate its image by showcasing sustainability efforts that critics claim is a form of “greenwashing.”
The term, which refers to a form of disinformation published by an organization to appear to be environmentally friendly, is a common practice in numerous industries.
“This kind of activity gives the impression that the tobacco industry is socially and environmentally responsible,” the report warns. “Yet this industry is causing an incalculable toll on health to smokers, non-smokers and farmers. And not only is tobacco harming humans, it is also damaging the environment.”
The report says its goal is to call on governments to ban tobacco industry greenwashing and to avoid partnerships with cigarette companies engaged in environmental activities that could promote the industry as an environmental partner.
The website of British American Tobacco (BAT), for example, promotes news releases with headlines such as, “BAT in Dow Jones Sustainability Indices for 20th Consecutive Year” and “BAT recognized as Climate Leader by the Financial Times.”
Philip Morris International (PMI) has a full sustainability landing page on its website that outlines everything from a low-carbon transition plan to “achieving a smoke-free future” that the company says can be done in a sustainable manner.
But critics have pointed out that many environmental, social and governance (ESG) rankings and accreditations, like the ones BAT and PMI promote on their websites, rarely consider a company’s end-product or service, in this case, ignoring the fact that tobacco products are harmful to human health, according to the report.
The report says there are more than 600 different ways to assess corporate ESG activity and there are no global, standardized disclosure requirements for companies to follow, which means businesses can edit sustainability data to promote a favorable outcome.
PMI declined to comment on the report because they said they had not reviewed it.
“Some well-funded anti-tobacco lobbying groups with strong links to WHO are committed to shutting down debate and closing doors to cooperative efforts that can drive better outcomes for the world. We take a different approach. Philip Morris International (PMI) is fully in favor of complete disclosure and encourages open and honest, fact-based dialogue with all stakeholders,” the company said in a statement to ABC News.
The statement added, “The company regularly shares updates on our sustainability objectives and achievements at PMI.com/sustainability. Our Integrated Report 2020 shows the progress we are making toward a world without cigarettes. (The company’s forthcoming Integrated Report 2021 will be published on May 17, 2022.)”
BAT did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
In addition to the greenwashing examples, the report highlights the ecological impact of the tobacco industry. Annually, 32 million tons of tobacco leaf is grown globally to produce 6 trillion cigarettes, the report notes.
It takes about 22-billion cubic meters of water to grow the global crop, or the equivalent of 15-million Olympic-sized swimming pools, often in places where water is limited, the report says. It is estimated that nearly 1.5 billion acres of global forest have been lost to tobacco farming since the 1970s, according to the report.
Electronic cigarettes are no less friendly to the earth, the report says.
The report notes that “e-cigarette waste is potentially a more serious environmental threat than cigarette butts since e-cigarettes introduce plastic, nicotine salts, heavy metals, lead, mercury, and flammable lithium-ion batteries into waterways, soils and to wildlife.”
Among its recommendations, the report says it is calling on all governments, especially those who are members of the WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control to ban greenwashing activities. It is also calling on environmental and sustainability accreditation organizations not to endorse industry greenwashing or provide awards to the tobacco industry.
(NEW YORK) — Following an internal investigation, Abbott Nutrition said it will resume production of Similac, Alimentum and EleCare baby formulas once the Food and Drug Administration gives the company the green light.
The latest update from Abbott comes amid a national baby formula shortage that has only grown worse in the last three months, with an estimated 40% of formula brands out of stock at stores nationwide as of April 24, according to tracking firm Datasembly. Stores like CVS and Walgreens also previously confirmed to Good Morning America that they were limiting formula purchases to three per customer due to short supplies.
Parents have also been speaking out about the crisis and the White House said the FDA is “working around the clock” to address the problem.
The outcry even spurred Utah Sen. Mitt Romney to urge the FDA and the Department of Agriculture “to initiate contingency plans to mitigate shortages that risk the lives of infants across the nation” in a letter released Tuesday. South Dakota House Rep. Dusty Johnson also released a letter Wednesday, questioning the FDA’s “lack of action” on the formula shortages.
Abbott halted production in February after Similac, Alimentum and EleCare products were recalled due to bacterial infections that led to two infant deaths. The FDA and Abbott launched investigations into the baby formula products and FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert M. Califf said Tuesday in a statement, “We are doing everything in our power to ensure there is adequate product available where and when they need it.”
Abbott released its own statement Wednesday and said a “thorough review” had been completed. “There is no evidence to link our formulas to these infant illnesses,” the company said in part.
Abbott also said it has been responding to feedback from an FDA inspection that included a list of suggested improvements for their manufacturing facility in Sturgis, Michigan.
“Subject to FDA approval, we could restart the site within two weeks,” the company said. “We would begin production of EleCare, Alimentum and metabolic formulas first and then begin production of Similac and other formulas.”
The formula maker estimated new products would be available on store shelves six to eight weeks after manufacturing.
“We deeply regret the situation and since the recall, we’ve been working to increase supply at our other FDA-registered facilities, including bringing in Similac from our site in Cootehill, Ireland, by air and producing more liquid Similac and Alimentum,” the company added. “We also began releasing metabolic formulas that were on hold earlier this month at FDA’s request to those who need these unique formulas.”
As families continue to navigate through formula shortages, experts warn that caregivers remember two key points: Do not dilute baby formula and do not make your own formula.
Diluting formula can lead to nutritional deficiencies and be life-threatening for babies. Making your own formula and feeding it to a baby can also lead to injury or even death, if the correct amount and type of nutrients are insufficient. The FDA provides additional formula guidelines on its website.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Thursday addressed the U.S. reaching the milestone of 1 million coronavirus deaths.
“One million empty chairs around the family dinner table,” Biden said in a pre-taped video message. “Each irreplaceable, irreplaceable losses. Each leaving behind a family or community forever changed because of this pandemic. Our heart goes out to all those who are struggling.”
Biden is ordering flags be flown at half-staff at the White House and all federal public buildings and grounds until sunset on May 16 in remembrance of those who lost their lives to the virus.
His remarks kicked off a second virtual summit focused on the global response to the ongoing health crisis and preventing future pandemics. The United States is co-hosting the event alongside Belize, Germany, Indonesia and Senegal.
Biden also noted the U.S. is not alone in its grief.
“Around the world many more millions have died,” he said in the video message. “Millions of children have been orphaned, with thousands still dying every day. Now is the time for us to act. All of us together. We all must do more, must honor those we have lost by doing everything we can to prevent as many deaths as possible.”
Biden on Thursday reiterated his call for Congress to pass more COVID-19 aid.
In March, Biden requested an additional $22.5 billion to combat the virus, warning that the country’s testing, vaccine and treatment supplies were running low.
Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are trying to forge ahead with a slimmed down $10 billion coronavirus assistance package. Senate Republicans previously blocked it over the administration’s plan to lift Title 42, a pandemic-era rule restricting migration at the U.S. border.
Democrats tried to link the COVID-19 package to supplemental aid for Ukraine to ensure its passage but the two measures were decoupled earlier this week.
Biden said Thursday that the emergency coronavirus funding is “vital to protect Americans.”
The pre-taped message marking 1 million deaths was more muted than Biden’s address on 500,000 virus deaths in February 2021, when he and Vice President Kamala Harris stood in front of the South Portico of the White House and held a moment of silence as well as a candle-lighting ceremony.
(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 last month launched a full-scale ground offensive in eastern Ukraine’s disputed Donbas region, attempting to capture the strategic port city of Mariupol and to secure a coastal corridor to the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
May 12, 11:45 am
Ukraine negotiating to evacuate wounded soldiers from Mariupol plant
“Difficult” negotiations are underway between Ukraine and Russia to coordinate the evacuation of seriously wounded fighters from the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol in exchange for an unspecified number of Russian prisoners of war, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said.
“We are currently negotiating only 38 severely wounded fighters that can’t walk,” she said.
-ABC News’ Irene Hnatiuk
May 12, 10:40 am
Russia threatens to take ‘retaliatory steps’ following Finland’s NATO announcement
Russia “will be forced to take retaliatory steps both of military-technical and of other nature in order to stop the threats to its national security” in response to Finland’s possible accession to NATO, according to state-run TASS citing a statement by the Russian Foreign Ministry.
The ministry added, “Finland joining NATO will seriously harm bilateral Russian-Finnish relations and the maintenance of stability and security in the North European region.”
May 12, 8:24 am
Finland joining NATO would pose threat to Russia, Kremlin says
Russia will conduct a “special analysis” and take necessary measures for national security if Finland joins NATO, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday.
“There is an order from the president, the supreme commander-in-chief, that a list of measures be composed to strengthen our western flanks in connection with the strengthening of the eastern flank of NATO,” Peskov told reporters during a daily briefing. “NATO has been enlarging towards us. So, clearly, all of that will be elements of a special analysis and the elaboration of measures necessary for maintaining a balance and providing our security.”
“Everything will depend on the manifestation of the further [NATO] enlargement process — how far the military infrastructure will grow towards our borders,” he added.
When asked whether Finland’s accession to NATO — the world’s biggest military alliance — would pose a threat to Russia, Peskov told reporters: “Of course it will.”
“Another enlargement of NATO does not make our continent more stable and secure,” he said.
Peskov’s comments followed a joint statement released by Finnish President Sauli Niinisto and Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin announcing their support for Finland applying to join NATO.
May 12, 4:09 am
Finland says it ‘must apply for NATO membership without delay’
Finland’s leaders announced Thursday their support for the country applying to join NATO, the world’s biggest military alliance.
“During this spring, an important discussion on Finland’s possible NATO membership has taken place. Time has been needed to let Parliament and the whole society establish their stands on the matter,” Finnish President Sauli Niinisto and Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin said in a joint statement. “Time has been needed for close international contacts with NATO and its member countries, as well as with Sweden. We have wanted to give the discussion the space it required.”
“Now that the moment of decision-making is near, we state our equal views, also for information to the parliamentary groups and parties. NATO membership would strengthen Finland’s security,” they added. “As a member of NATO, Finland would strengthen the entire defence alliance. Finland must apply for NATO membership without delay. We hope that the national steps still needed to make this decision will be taken rapidly within the next few days.”
The Finnish Parliament will now take up the issue, with a vote expected to be held early next week.
The announcement marks a major shift in Finland’s traditionally neutral policy, triggered by Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Finland shares an 830-mile border with Russia, and recent opinion polls show Finnish public support for joining NATO has surged to 76%.
Neighboring Sweden is also considering applying to join the alliance.
May 11, 4:40 pm
State Dept. maintains Putin still has ‘straightforward’ path to peace
Despite President Joe Biden saying Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin doesn’t have a “way out,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price insisted the U.S. is providing the Kremlin with a “very simple” and “straightforward” exit strategy through genuine diplomacy.
“The State Department, this administration, provided an off ramp well before President Putin decided to launch this war against Ukraine … it has not closed,” Price said.
The problem, Price said, was that Russia continues to show no interest in that route.
Price repeated that one area where the U.S. was not willing to give over any ground was the potential expansion of the NATO alliance.
“NATO’s open door means an open door. That is important to us and it is nonnegotiable,” he insisted.
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
May 11, 4:36 pm
Biden: ‘American agriculture imports will make up for the gap in Ukrainian supplies’
President Joe Biden said the war in Ukraine is an opportunity for American farmers to step in to address shortages caused by the invasion.
“We can make sure the American agriculture imports will make up for the gap in Ukrainian supplies,” Biden told a group at a farm in Illinois on Wednesday.
Biden said to the farmers, “With Putin’s war in Ukraine, you’re like the backbone of freedom.”
The president pointed the finger at Russia for preventing Ukraine from shipping wheat to the rest of the world.
Biden noted: “Ukraine was the world’s largest producer of wheat and corn and cooking oil — but wheat, the largest. … Ukraine says they have 20 million tons of grain in their silos right now … because of what the Russians are doing in the Black Sea, Putin has warships, battleships preventing access to the Ukrainian ports to get this grain out, to get this wheat out.”
“The brutal war launched on Ukrainian soil has prevented Ukrainian farmers from planting next year’s crop and next year’s harvest,” he added.
-ABC News’ Ben Gittleson
May 11, 4:08 pm
1 dead, 6 hurt in bombardments in Russia’s Belgorod region
One person has been killed and six others are injured from shelling in the Solokhi village in Belgorod, Russia, according to Belgorod Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov. A 14-year-old boy is among the injured, the governor said.
This area is less than 7 miles from the Russia-Ukraine border.
Gladkov said the shelling originated from Ukraine’s side of the border and that this was the most serious incident since Ukrainian forces began firing on the region. Ukrainian authorities have not confirmed that Ukrainian forces are firing on Russia’s side of the border.
May 11, 3:04 pm
UK signs new security pacts with Sweden, Finland
As Sweden and Finland consider NATO memberships, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson signed new security pacts with the leaders of both nations on Wednesday, ensuring the U.K. could give military support even if the countries are not NATO members.
Johnson said the invasion of Ukraine “sadly” opened a new chapter.
“Our armed forces will train, operate and exercise together — marrying our defense and security capabilities and formalizing a pledge that we will always come to one another’s aid,” he said at a news conference.
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
May 11, 12:50 pm
First Russian soldier indicted for allegedly shooting, killing Ukrainian civilian
The Ukrainian prosecutor’s office has brought its first indictment against a Russian soldier for allegedly shooting and killing a Ukrainian civilian.
Vadim Shishimarinov, a 21-year-old soldier in Russia’s 4th Armored Division, allegedly fired his AK-47 at a car driven by a 62-year-old Ukrainian man, killing him at the scene, Ukraine’s prosecutor general Iryna Venediktova said.
He could face a life sentence if convicted of the shooting, which unfolded on Feb. 28 in the village of Chupakhivka.
-ABC News’ Tomek Rolski
May 11, 7:52 am
Fighting continues between Ukrainian and Russian forces on Snake Island, UK says
Fighting has continued on Ukraine’s Zmiinyi Island, also known as Snake Island, “with Russia repeatedly trying to reinforce its exposed garrison located there,” the U.K. Ministry of Defense said Wednesday in an intelligence update.
“If Russia consolidates its position on Zmiinyi Island with strategic air defence and coastal defence cruise missiles, they could dominate the north-western Black Sea,” the ministry warned.
The island is strategically located, as it provides access to Ukraine’s major port cities, including Odesa, the country’s largest seaport and one of the largest in the Black Sea basin, serving as a major gateway for grain shipments and other key exports.
Ukraine, however, has managed to successfully strike Russian air defenses and resupply vessels with drones, according to the ministry.
“Russia’s resupply vessels have minimum protection in the western Black Sea, following the Russian Navy’s retreat to Crimea after the loss of the Moskva,” the ministry added.
May 11, 6:57 am
Zelenskyy thanks House for aid, as Russia denies responsibility for Ukrainian deaths
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday thanked the U.S. House of Representatives for its approval of a nearly $40 billion package of humanitarian and military aid to Ukraine in a bill passed on Tuesday.
“We are looking forward to the consideration of this important document for us by the Senate,” Zelenskyy wrote in a tweet expressing gratitude to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, President Joe Biden and “all friends of Ukraine” in the House.
Earlier on Tuesday, two senators unveiled a resolution calling on the Biden administration to designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D.-Conn., and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R.-S.C., said the designation, which could result in further sanctions for Russia, is warranted by Russia’s war on Ukraine and conduct elsewhere under President Vladimir Putin.
“Putin is a thug, and a bully, and he will continue being an increasing threat to Europe and the world unless he is stopped,” Blumenthal said at a press conference, adding, “If there’s anybody who embodies terrorism, totalitarianism and tyranny, it’s Putin.”
The resolution was originally requested by the Ukrainian parliament, but Secretary of State Antony Blinken has so far declined to add Russia to the list of countries — Cuba, Iran, North Korea and Syria — considered to be state sponsors.
Russia’s Ministry of Health sent the World Health Organization a letter in which it “strongly rejects” its responsibility for the rising death toll in Ukraine.
“The health emergency in Ukraine and neighboring countries is caused by the unconstitutional coup that took place in this country in 2014, and by the subsequent military aggression of the Kyiv regime against the population of Donbass in the period of 2014–2022,” Andrey Plutnitsky, Russia’s envoy to the WHO, wrote in the letter.
Plutnitsky called on WHO member states to pay “special attention” to “the military biological activities undertaken by a number of countries on the territory of Ukraine, which represent a significant danger to the region.”
Members of the Russian military are trying to hide their involvement in some hostilities in Ukraine, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s intelligence service said on Wednesday.
Russian troops, including some from the air and space forces, have demanded that the command keep their involvement in the invasion secret in order to avoid further possible responsibility for war crimes, the Ukrainian intelligence claimed.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Defense confirmed that 89 of the 90 M777 Howitzers promised to Ukraine have been handed over to the Ukrainian military.
Of the total count of 184,000 rounds of ammunition committed to Ukraine, “65 percent, so almost 120,000 rounds, are in [Ukraine],” a senior defense official said at a background briefing on Tuesday. The Russians added two battalion tactical groups to their force in Ukraine in the past 24 hours, the official added, bringing the new count of operational Russian BGTs up to 99.
May 10, 11:18 pm
House approves $40 billion in Ukraine aid, sending measure to Senate
The House on Tuesday approved a nearly $40 billion package of humanitarian and military aid to Ukraine, the latest tranche of relief to the country the U.S. is aggressively backing in its fight against Russia.
The bill, which was finalized earlier Tuesday and includes nearly $7 billion more funding than requested by the Biden administration, was approved in a 368-57 vote, with all Democrats backing the bill and all opposition coming from Republicans.
With the vote, Congress has now directed more than $50 billion to support Ukraine in the war with Russia. The House voted 36-169 on March 9 on a $13.6 billion package for Ukraine and other key European allies.
The Senate is expected to vote on the measure in the coming days.
The package includes $6 billion to help train, equip and support the Ukrainian armed forces, and more than $9 billion to replenish the U.S. stockpiles of military equipment and ammunition in the U.S. and abroad that have been tapped to re-arm Ukraine.
The measure would also help fund and support U.S. troops stationed in Europe and the operation of a Patriot air defense missile system in Europe, and it includes more than $900 million to support Ukranian refugees with housing, counseling and English language classes, as well as helping process and screen those traveling to the United States.
Additionally, the bill directs the inspector general of the Defense Department to provide a written report to the House and Senate defense committees reviewing the Ukraine program spending within 120 days of the law’s enactment.
May 10, 6:46 pm
State Department calls on Congress to pass additional aid
The State Department is urging Congress to quickly move on passing additional funding for Ukraine, calling the aid “vital” and warning the administration’s other means of financing military support were quickly running out.
“Our assistance to Ukraine has been just as we promised: massive,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said during his daily briefing Tuesday. “We have provided $4.5 billion worth of security assistance to Ukraine since the start of this administration, some $3.8 billion worth of security assistance since the invasion began. These are supplies — weapons — precisely what Ukraine needs to defend itself.”
But, he said, maintaining that support depends on lawmakers fulfilling the White House’s request for another $40 billion in funding.
“The fact, however, is that right now, our coffers in terms of drawdown funding — they’re dwindling,” he said. “We now have less than $100 million left and we will exhaust those funds within the next week.”
Price said the new tranche of funding would “help our Ukrainian partners and also our NATO allies do precisely what we feel it is imperative that they be positioned to do at this moment.”
Pressed on whether the administration had a limit in mind when it came to sending lethal aid to Ukraine, Price said the focus was on fulfilling its promises to “provide Ukraine with the security assistance it needs to defend itself” and ensuring “our allies — especially our allies on the eastern flank — had what they needed to deter and potentially even respond to Russian aggression.”
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
May 10, 5:32 pm
Nominee for US ambassador to Ukraine testifies in confirmation hearing
Amid a three-year vacancy and with Ukraine in the grips of a brutal war, the U.S. Senate took its first major step towards confirming an American ambassador to Ukraine on Tuesday with a hearing in its Foreign Relations Committee for President Joe Biden’s nominee, Bridget Brink.
Brink — a veteran diplomat with 25 years of experience and the current U.S. ambassador to Slovakia — acknowledged the great difficulties that would come with the post but said it would be the “honor of a lifetime.”
“We face the biggest threat to peace and security in Europe in decades,” she said during her opening statements. “If confirmed, I pledge to work with you to continue our commitment to a sovereign, democratic and independent Ukraine — free to choose its own future.”
Brink has bipartisan support and her path to confirmation appears to be a smooth one, though Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho), the ranking member of the committee, foretold “a lot scrutiny from Washington” when it comes to moving the U.S. embassy back to Kyiv and “helping to shepherd U.S. military, humanitarian and financial aid in the right places.”
“I think it’s really important for us to be there in person and present,” Brink responded when questioned on plans to reopen the embassy in Kyiv. “I don’t know exactly how fast we will be able to do this process, but I know we are trying to do it as fast as possible and it is certainly my hope and plan, if confirmed, to be able to start my mission in Kyiv.”
She later added: “It’s necessary for us to be there on the ground.”
The nominee was also asked about the need for the aid package currently working its way through Congress.
“It is incredibly important that the supplemental move fast,” Brink said. “The needs are large.”
Brink also promised to work to assist Ukraine in holding Russia accountable for alleged war crimes.
“We are going to use every tool at our disposal,” she said. “I can tell you it’s a personal priority of mine.”
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
May 10, 3:23 pm
House expected to vote on nearly $40 billion Ukraine aid package
The House will vote on a new roughly $40 billion Ukraine aid package Tuesday night, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced.
The request includes funding for “critically needed resources, including military aid, support for the Ukrainian economy, and humanitarian assistance for food security to address the worldwide hunger crisis.”
The White House had initially requested $33 billion in assistance for Ukraine, but congressional leaders decided to tack on an additional $7 billion for more military and humanitarian assistance.
“This package, which builds on the robust support already secured by Congress, will be pivotal in helping Ukraine defend not only its nation but democracy for the world. Time is of the essence – and we cannot afford to wait,” Pelosi said in a letter to colleagues. “With this aid package, America sends a resounding message to the world of our unwavering determination to stand with the courageous people of Ukraine until victory is won.”
The bill is expected to pass in the House, after which it would head to the Senate.
-ABC News’ Mariam Khan
May 10, 3:10 pm
Pelosi, lawmakers to brief Biden on trip to Ukraine
President Joe Biden will host House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other members of Congress in the Situation Room on Tuesday afternoon to discuss the lawmakers’ recent trip to Ukraine, according to White House press secretary Jen Psaki.
Biden previously spoke with Pelosi over the phone about her trip but wanted a more thorough discussion in person, Psaki said.
Expected to attend are: Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass.; Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-NY; Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.; Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif.; Rep. Bill Keating, D-Mass.; and Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo.
-ABC News’ Ben Gittleson and Mariam Khan
May 10, 2:59 pm
Putin has goals beyond Donbas, US says
Russian President Vladimir Putin “is preparing for prolonged conflict in Ukraine during which he still intends to achieve goals beyond the Donbas,” according to Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines.
“The next month or two of fighting will be significant as the Russians attempt to reinvigorate their efforts. But even if they are successful, we are not confident that the fight in the Donbas will effectively end the war,” Haines told senators at an Armed Services Committee hearing Tuesday.
For now, Putin’s goal is to take control of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts and encircle Ukrainian forces from the north and south of the Donbas “in order to crush the most capable and well-equipped Ukrainian forces who are fighting to hold the line in the East,” Haines said.
Putin also hopes to “consolidate control of the land bridge Russia has established from Crimea to the Donbas, occupy Kherson, and control the water source for Crimea,” Haines said. The U.S. sees indications his military wants to extend that land bridge to Transnistria in Moldova, she added.
Haines said Russia might be capable of achieving “most” of those goals in the coming months. However, “We believe that they will not be able to extend control over a land bridge that stretches to Transnistria and includes Odessa without launching some form of mobilization. And it is increasingly unlikely that they will be able to establish control over both oblasts and the buffer zone they desire in the coming weeks,” she said.
Sanctions from the West are having a “pretty significant” impact on Russia, according to Haines.
“Among the indicators that one might look at are, for example, the fact that we’re seeing close to about, we predict, approximately 20% inflation in Russia; that we expect that their GDP will fall about 10%, possibly even more over the course of the year,” she said.
The fighting itself has also worn on Russia’s capabilities.
“The ground combat forces have been degraded considerably. It’s going to take them years … to rebuild that,” she said.
But that could drive Putin to other means of exerting force. Haines said, “They may rely more on things like cyber, nuclear, precision, etc. … Putin would probably only authorize the use of nuclear weapons if he perceived an existential threat to the Russian state or regime.”
Haines warned, “The current trend increases the likelihood that President Putin will turn to more drastic means, including imposing martial law, reorienting industrial production, or potentially escalatory military actions to free up the resources needed to achieve his objectives as the conflict drags on, or if he perceives Russia is losing in Ukraine.”
“The most likely flashpoints for escalation in the coming weeks are around increasing Russian attempts to interdict Western security assistance, retaliation for Western economic sanctions or threats to the regime at home. We believe that Moscow continues to use nuclear rhetoric to deter the United States and the West from increasing lethal aid to Ukraine and to respond to public comments that the U.S. and NATO allies that suggest expanded Western goals in the conflict,” she said. “If Putin perceives that the United States is ignoring his threats, he may try to signal to Washington the heightened danger of its support to Ukraine by authorizing another large nuclear exercise involving a major dispersal of mobile intercontinental missiles, heavy bombers, strategic submarines.”
-ABC News’ Matt Seyler
May 10, 11:29 am
Russia has lost 8 to 10 generals so far, US believes
The U.S. believes eight to 10 Russian generals have been killed in Ukraine since the beginning of the invasion, Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier told senators on Tuesday at an Armed Services Committee hearing.
This is slightly below the estimate from the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, which said up to 12 Russian generals have been killed.
-ABC News’ Matt Seyler
May 10, 8:18 am
Ukrainian police probe over 10,000 cases of suspected war crimes
The national police chief of Ukraine, Gen. Igor Klimenko, told ABC News on Tuesday that his officers are currently investigating 10,800 cases of suspected war crimes across the country, in areas that were previously occupied by Russian forces.
In the Kyiv region alone, police said they have so far recovered 1,262 bodies of slain civilians. The head of Kyiv police, Andriy Nebytov, told ABC News on Tuesday that his officers are currently working to identify 258 of those bodies.
Local police said five bodies were recovered on Monday, including three men who were lying in a mass grave. Police said the men had been shot in the head.
Local officers in the Kyiv region said they have found so many dead bodies of people killed when Russian forces occupied the area that they do not have the capacity to store them all in morgues. Instead, DNA samples will be taken before the bodies are buried while the process of identifying the victims is carried out.
Once the DNA process is complete, the graves of the deceased can be properly marked, according to local police.
French police officers are also in Ukraine to help with the identity process. According to Ukrainian police, technology available to their French counterparts can finish the DNA identification process within 24 hours — something which would normally take Ukrainian police three to four days.
May 10, 6:47 am
Russia paying the price for underestimating Ukrainian resistance, UK says
Russia is paying the price for underestimating Ukrainian resistance, the U.K. Ministry of Defense said Tuesday in an intelligence update.
“Russia’s invasion plan is highly likely to have been based on the mistaken assumption that it would encounter limited resistance and would be able to encircle and bypass population centres rapidly,” the ministry said Tuesday in an intelligence update. “This assumption led Russian forces to attempt to carry out the opening phase of the operation with a light, precise approach intended to achieve a rapid victory with minimal cost.”
“This miscalculation led to unsustainable losses and a subsequent reduction in Russia’s operational focus,” the ministry added.
According to the ministry, these “demonstrable operational failings” prevented Russian President Vladimir Putin from announcing significant military success at Monday’s Victory Day parade in Moscow.
Although he showed no signs of backing down, Putin did not make any declarations of war or victory in his annual speech for Victory Day, a national holiday in Russia commemorating the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. Instead, he drew parallels between Soviet soldiers battling Nazi troops and the Russian forces fighting now in Ukraine, as he has vowed to “de-Nazify” the former Soviet republic.
“You are fighting for the motherland, for its future, so that no one forgets the lessons of the Second World War,” Putin said Monday during a military parade in Moscow’s Red Square.
May 10, 6:30 am
US suspends tariffs on Ukrainian steel
The U.S. will temporarily suspend 232 tariffs on Ukrainian steel for one year, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo announced Monday.
Ukraine’s steel industry is one of the foundations of the country’s economy, employing 1 in 13 Ukrainians, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. Some of Ukraine’s largest steel communities have been among those “hardest hit by Putin’s barbarism,” the U.S. Department of Commerce said in a press release, and the steel mill in Mariupol has become a “lasting symbol of Ukraine’s determination to resist Russia’s aggression.”
“Steelworkers are among the world’s most resilient — whether they live in Youngstown or Mariupol,” Raimondo said.
The pledge to slash tariffs “is a signal to the Ukrainian people that we are committed to helping them thrive in the face of Putin’s aggression,” she said, “and that their work will create a stronger Ukraine, both today and in the future.”
Ukraine is currently losing about $170 million every day due to blocked ports and the country’s export potential has fallen by more than half, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmysal said on Monday.
Ukraine also submitted a several-thousand-page questionnaire, the second part of the answers, that must be completed by countries aspiring to join the European Union, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday during his nightly address.
“It usually takes months. But we did everything in a few weeks,” Zelenskyy said.
The Ukrainian president held talks with EU leaders on Monday and claimed Ukraine could be granted EU candidate status as early as June.
Russia running out of missiles
Russia has used up about half of its existing missiles during its invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said Monday. But the Russians still maintain the capacity and a certain supply of components to replenish some of their depleted arsenal, Malyar added.
The U.K. Ministry of Defense also stated in its Monday intelligence update that Russia’s stockpile of precision-guided munitions “has likely been heavily depleted.” Instead, the Russian military is now using “readily available but ageing munitions that are less reliable, less accurate and more easily intercepted.”
Russia will likely struggle to replace the precision weaponry it has already expended, the ministry said.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted Monday that he has “never been more certain that Ukraine will win,” adding that Britain will stand “shoulder-to-shoulder with Ukraine for as long as it takes.”
Fighting continued on May 9 at the Azovstal steel plant while “some occupiers were walking along the streets” of the surrounding city of Mariupol parading with flags and Ribbons of Saint George, a traditional Russian military symbol, said Petro Andriushchenko, the Mariupol mayor’s advisor. Russian forces on Monday tried to blow up the bridge used to evacuate people from the steel plant, trying to “cut off our defenders from the possibility to exit,” Andriushchenko said.
There are still more than 100 civilians trapped in Azovstal, Pavlo Kyrylenko, who heads the Donetsk military administration, told local media.
(MIAMI) — A nearly $1 billion settlement in last year’s shocking collapse of a Miami Beach-area condo building was unexpectedly announced during a routine status conference in a Florida courtroom Wednesday afternoon.
Lawyers involved in the class-action lawsuit representing tenants from the oceanfront building in Surfside announced a $997 million settlement had been reached.
Upon the news, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Michael Hanzman said he was “speechless.”
“That’s incredible news,” the judge said.
“I’m shocked by this result — I think it’s fantastic,” the judge told the courtroom. “This is a recovery that is far in excess of what I had anticipated.”
Litigation stemming from the catastrophic collapse in June 2021, which killed 98 people, had been moving slowly as the first anniversary approached.
The 12-story residential building partially collapsed around 1:15 a.m. on June 24 at the Champlain Towers South condominium in the beachside town of Surfside, about 6 miles north of Miami Beach. Approximately 55 of the oceanfront complex’s 136 units were destroyed, authorities said.
The final victim’s remains were identified more than a month later, on July 26, following a massive search and rescue mission that become a recovery operation.
The victims killed ranged from young children to elderly couples, and included families, longtime Surfside residents and tourists staying in the building.
“Some of the victims can never recover from this loss and we know that,” Hanzman said in court.
The settlement will cover families of those who died as well as survivors, according to lawyers on the case.
The judge said he wants the whole settlement finalized by the one-year anniversary on June 24, with payouts made by the fall. Motions for preliminary approval will be due no longer than a week from Wednesday.
“My goal was to do everything humanly possible to conclude this case by the first anniversary of the collapse,” he said.
All funds for the victims will go through the receivership.
“Today is one of those days in a career that I think we’re going to look back on,” attorney Michael Goldberg, the court-appointed receiver who will oversee the payouts, said in court.
One of the lead attorneys in the case, Judd Rosen, told ABC News that the settlement “represents accountability from a lot of different players.”
“It’s the largest settlement from a single incident in U.S. history,” Rosen said. “The number itself implies significant accountability on what happened.”
Plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit argued that the poor construction and maintenance of Champlain Towers South turned catastrophic with the development of a new luxury tower next door.
“CTS [Champlain Towers South] was an older building in need of routine repairs and maintenance, but it was not until excavation and construction began on the luxury high-rise condominium project next door, known as ‘Eighty-Seven Park,’ that CTS became so badly damaged and destabilized as to be unsafe,” the lawsuit stated. “First, the developers of Eighty-Seven Park improperly obtained the right to build higher and larger than originally entitled, including by buying a public street just a few feet from CTS’s foundation. Then they undertook destructive excavation and site work dangerously close to CTS, sloped their project so that water poured into CTS and corroded its structural supports, and drove sheet piles 40 feet into the ground, causing tremors and vibrations at such high levels that they cracked tiles and walls at CTS and shook the structure.”
Owners and insurers of Eighty-Seven Park had consistently denied any responsibility for the collapse.
Defendants named in the lawsuit included the Champlain Towers South Condominium Association and developers involved in the Eighty-Seven Park project.
The Champlain Condominium Towers South was built in 1981. It was in the process of a county-mandated inspection for commercial and residential buildings 40 years after they’re constructed when the building came crashing down.
In the wake of the collapse, Miami-Dade County inspected more than 500 buildings that were approaching the 40-year recertification deadline to identify any obvious structural concerns.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(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 last month launched a full-scale ground offensive in eastern Ukraine’s disputed Donbas region, attempting to capture the strategic port city of Mariupol and to secure a coastal corridor to the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
May 12, 8:24 am
Finland joining NATO would pose threat to Russia, Kremlin says
Russia will conduct a “special analysis” and take necessary measures for national security if Finland joins NATO, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Thursday.
“There is an order from the president, the supreme commander-in-chief, that a list of measures be composed to strengthen our western flanks in connection with the strengthening of the eastern flank of NATO,” Peskov told reporters during a daily briefing. “NATO has been enlarging towards us. So, clearly, all of that will be elements of a special analysis and the elaboration of measures necessary for maintaining a balance and providing our security.”
“Everything will depend on the manifestation of the further [NATO] enlargement process — how far the military infrastructure will grow towards our borders,” he added.
When asked whether Finland’s accession to NATO — the world’s biggest military alliance — would pose a threat to Russia, Peskov told reporters: “Of course it will.”
“Another enlargement of NATO does not make our continent more stable and secure,” he said.
Peskov’s comments followed a joint statement released by Finnish President Sauli Niinisto and Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin announcing their support for Finland applying to join NATO.
May 12, 4:09 am
Finland says it ‘must apply for NATO membership without delay’
Finland’s leaders announced Thursday their support for the country applying to join NATO, the world’s biggest military alliance.
“During this spring, an important discussion on Finland’s possible NATO membership has taken place. Time has been needed to let Parliament and the whole society establish their stands on the matter,” Finnish President Sauli Niinisto and Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin said in a joint statement. “Time has been needed for close international contacts with NATO and its member countries, as well as with Sweden. We have wanted to give the discussion the space it required.”
“Now that the moment of decision-making is near, we state our equal views, also for information to the parliamentary groups and parties. NATO membership would strengthen Finland’s security,” they added. “As a member of NATO, Finland would strengthen the entire defence alliance. Finland must apply for NATO membership without delay. We hope that the national steps still needed to make this decision will be taken rapidly within the next few days.”
The Finnish Parliament will now take up the issue, with a vote expected to be held early next week.
The announcement marks a major shift in Finland’s traditionally neutral policy, triggered by Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Finland shares an 830-mile border with Russia, and recent opinion polls show Finnish public support for joining NATO has surged to 76%.
Neighboring Sweden is also considering applying to join the alliance.
May 11, 4:40 pm
State Dept. maintains Putin still has ‘straightforward’ path to peace
Despite President Joe Biden saying Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin doesn’t have a “way out,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price insisted the U.S. is providing the Kremlin with a “very simple” and “straightforward” exit strategy through genuine diplomacy.
“The State Department, this administration, provided an off ramp well before President Putin decided to launch this war against Ukraine … it has not closed,” Price said.
The problem, Price said, was that Russia continues to show no interest in that route.
Price repeated that one area where the U.S. was not willing to give over any ground was the potential expansion of the NATO alliance.
“NATO’s open door means an open door. That is important to us and it is nonnegotiable,” he insisted.
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
May 11, 4:36 pm
Biden: ‘American agriculture imports will make up for the gap in Ukrainian supplies’
President Joe Biden said the war in Ukraine is an opportunity for American farmers to step in to address shortages caused by the invasion.
“We can make sure the American agriculture imports will make up for the gap in Ukrainian supplies,” Biden told a group at a farm in Illinois on Wednesday.
Biden said to the farmers, “With Putin’s war in Ukraine, you’re like the backbone of freedom.”
The president pointed the finger at Russia for preventing Ukraine from shipping wheat to the rest of the world.
Biden noted: “Ukraine was the world’s largest producer of wheat and corn and cooking oil — but wheat, the largest. … Ukraine says they have 20 million tons of grain in their silos right now … because of what the Russians are doing in the Black Sea, Putin has warships, battleships preventing access to the Ukrainian ports to get this grain out, to get this wheat out.”
“The brutal war launched on Ukrainian soil has prevented Ukrainian farmers from planting next year’s crop and next year’s harvest,” he added.
-ABC News’ Ben Gittleson
May 11, 4:08 pm
1 dead, 6 hurt in bombardments in Russia’s Belgorod region
One person has been killed and six others are injured from shelling in the Solokhi village in Belgorod, Russia, according to Belgorod Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov. A 14-year-old boy is among the injured, the governor said.
This area is less than 7 miles from the Russia-Ukraine border.
Gladkov said the shelling originated from Ukraine’s side of the border and that this was the most serious incident since Ukrainian forces began firing on the region. Ukrainian authorities have not confirmed that Ukrainian forces are firing on Russia’s side of the border.
May 11, 3:04 pm
UK signs new security pacts with Sweden, Finland
As Sweden and Finland consider NATO memberships, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson signed new security pacts with the leaders of both nations on Wednesday, ensuring the U.K. could give military support even if the countries are not NATO members.
Johnson said the invasion of Ukraine “sadly” opened a new chapter.
“Our armed forces will train, operate and exercise together — marrying our defense and security capabilities and formalizing a pledge that we will always come to one another’s aid,” he said at a news conference.
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
May 11, 12:50 pm
First Russian soldier indicted for allegedly shooting, killing Ukrainian civilian
The Ukrainian prosecutor’s office has brought its first indictment against a Russian soldier for allegedly shooting and killing a Ukrainian civilian.
Vadim Shishimarinov, a 21-year-old soldier in Russia’s 4th Armored Division, allegedly fired his AK-47 at a car driven by a 62-year-old Ukrainian man, killing him at the scene, Ukraine’s prosecutor general Iryna Venediktova said.
He could face a life sentence if convicted of the shooting, which unfolded on Feb. 28 in the village of Chupakhivka.
-ABC News’ Tomek Rolski
May 11, 7:52 am
Fighting continues between Ukrainian and Russian forces on Snake Island, UK says
Fighting has continued on Ukraine’s Zmiinyi Island, also known as Snake Island, “with Russia repeatedly trying to reinforce its exposed garrison located there,” the U.K. Ministry of Defense said Wednesday in an intelligence update.
“If Russia consolidates its position on Zmiinyi Island with strategic air defence and coastal defence cruise missiles, they could dominate the north-western Black Sea,” the ministry warned.
The island is strategically located, as it provides access to Ukraine’s major port cities, including Odesa, the country’s largest seaport and one of the largest in the Black Sea basin, serving as a major gateway for grain shipments and other key exports.
Ukraine, however, has managed to successfully strike Russian air defenses and resupply vessels with drones, according to the ministry.
“Russia’s resupply vessels have minimum protection in the western Black Sea, following the Russian Navy’s retreat to Crimea after the loss of the Moskva,” the ministry added.
May 11, 6:57 am
Zelenskyy thanks House for aid, as Russia denies responsibility for Ukrainian deaths
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday thanked the U.S. House of Representatives for its approval of a nearly $40 billion package of humanitarian and military aid to Ukraine in a bill passed on Tuesday.
“We are looking forward to the consideration of this important document for us by the Senate,” Zelenskyy wrote in a tweet expressing gratitude to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, President Joe Biden and “all friends of Ukraine” in the House.
Earlier on Tuesday, two senators unveiled a resolution calling on the Biden administration to designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D.-Conn., and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R.-S.C., said the designation, which could result in further sanctions for Russia, is warranted by Russia’s war on Ukraine and conduct elsewhere under President Vladimir Putin.
“Putin is a thug, and a bully, and he will continue being an increasing threat to Europe and the world unless he is stopped,” Blumenthal said at a press conference, adding, “If there’s anybody who embodies terrorism, totalitarianism and tyranny, it’s Putin.”
The resolution was originally requested by the Ukrainian parliament, but Secretary of State Antony Blinken has so far declined to add Russia to the list of countries — Cuba, Iran, North Korea and Syria — considered to be state sponsors.
Russia’s Ministry of Health sent the World Health Organization a letter in which it “strongly rejects” its responsibility for the rising death toll in Ukraine.
“The health emergency in Ukraine and neighboring countries is caused by the unconstitutional coup that took place in this country in 2014, and by the subsequent military aggression of the Kyiv regime against the population of Donbass in the period of 2014–2022,” Andrey Plutnitsky, Russia’s envoy to the WHO, wrote in the letter.
Plutnitsky called on WHO member states to pay “special attention” to “the military biological activities undertaken by a number of countries on the territory of Ukraine, which represent a significant danger to the region.”
Members of the Russian military are trying to hide their involvement in some hostilities in Ukraine, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry’s intelligence service said on Wednesday.
Russian troops, including some from the air and space forces, have demanded that the command keep their involvement in the invasion secret in order to avoid further possible responsibility for war crimes, the Ukrainian intelligence claimed.
Meanwhile, the U.S. Department of Defense confirmed that 89 of the 90 M777 Howitzers promised to Ukraine have been handed over to the Ukrainian military.
Of the total count of 184,000 rounds of ammunition committed to Ukraine, “65 percent, so almost 120,000 rounds, are in [Ukraine],” a senior defense official said at a background briefing on Tuesday. The Russians added two battalion tactical groups to their force in Ukraine in the past 24 hours, the official added, bringing the new count of operational Russian BGTs up to 99.
May 10, 11:18 pm
House approves $40 billion in Ukraine aid, sending measure to Senate
The House on Tuesday approved a nearly $40 billion package of humanitarian and military aid to Ukraine, the latest tranche of relief to the country the U.S. is aggressively backing in its fight against Russia.
The bill, which was finalized earlier Tuesday and includes nearly $7 billion more funding than requested by the Biden administration, was approved in a 368-57 vote, with all Democrats backing the bill and all opposition coming from Republicans.
With the vote, Congress has now directed more than $50 billion to support Ukraine in the war with Russia. The House voted 36-169 on March 9 on a $13.6 billion package for Ukraine and other key European allies.
The Senate is expected to vote on the measure in the coming days.
The package includes $6 billion to help train, equip and support the Ukrainian armed forces, and more than $9 billion to replenish the U.S. stockpiles of military equipment and ammunition in the U.S. and abroad that have been tapped to re-arm Ukraine.
The measure would also help fund and support U.S. troops stationed in Europe and the operation of a Patriot air defense missile system in Europe, and it includes more than $900 million to support Ukranian refugees with housing, counseling and English language classes, as well as helping process and screen those traveling to the United States.
Additionally, the bill directs the inspector general of the Defense Department to provide a written report to the House and Senate defense committees reviewing the Ukraine program spending within 120 days of the law’s enactment.
May 10, 6:46 pm
State Department calls on Congress to pass additional aid
The State Department is urging Congress to quickly move on passing additional funding for Ukraine, calling the aid “vital” and warning the administration’s other means of financing military support were quickly running out.
“Our assistance to Ukraine has been just as we promised: massive,” State Department spokesperson Ned Price said during his daily briefing Tuesday. “We have provided $4.5 billion worth of security assistance to Ukraine since the start of this administration, some $3.8 billion worth of security assistance since the invasion began. These are supplies — weapons — precisely what Ukraine needs to defend itself.”
But, he said, maintaining that support depends on lawmakers fulfilling the White House’s request for another $40 billion in funding.
“The fact, however, is that right now, our coffers in terms of drawdown funding — they’re dwindling,” he said. “We now have less than $100 million left and we will exhaust those funds within the next week.”
Price said the new tranche of funding would “help our Ukrainian partners and also our NATO allies do precisely what we feel it is imperative that they be positioned to do at this moment.”
Pressed on whether the administration had a limit in mind when it came to sending lethal aid to Ukraine, Price said the focus was on fulfilling its promises to “provide Ukraine with the security assistance it needs to defend itself” and ensuring “our allies — especially our allies on the eastern flank — had what they needed to deter and potentially even respond to Russian aggression.”
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
May 10, 5:32 pm
Nominee for US ambassador to Ukraine testifies in confirmation hearing
Amid a three-year vacancy and with Ukraine in the grips of a brutal war, the U.S. Senate took its first major step towards confirming an American ambassador to Ukraine on Tuesday with a hearing in its Foreign Relations Committee for President Joe Biden’s nominee, Bridget Brink.
Brink — a veteran diplomat with 25 years of experience and the current U.S. ambassador to Slovakia — acknowledged the great difficulties that would come with the post but said it would be the “honor of a lifetime.”
“We face the biggest threat to peace and security in Europe in decades,” she said during her opening statements. “If confirmed, I pledge to work with you to continue our commitment to a sovereign, democratic and independent Ukraine — free to choose its own future.”
Brink has bipartisan support and her path to confirmation appears to be a smooth one, though Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho), the ranking member of the committee, foretold “a lot scrutiny from Washington” when it comes to moving the U.S. embassy back to Kyiv and “helping to shepherd U.S. military, humanitarian and financial aid in the right places.”
“I think it’s really important for us to be there in person and present,” Brink responded when questioned on plans to reopen the embassy in Kyiv. “I don’t know exactly how fast we will be able to do this process, but I know we are trying to do it as fast as possible and it is certainly my hope and plan, if confirmed, to be able to start my mission in Kyiv.”
She later added: “It’s necessary for us to be there on the ground.”
The nominee was also asked about the need for the aid package currently working its way through Congress.
“It is incredibly important that the supplemental move fast,” Brink said. “The needs are large.”
Brink also promised to work to assist Ukraine in holding Russia accountable for alleged war crimes.
“We are going to use every tool at our disposal,” she said. “I can tell you it’s a personal priority of mine.”
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
May 10, 3:23 pm
House expected to vote on nearly $40 billion Ukraine aid package
The House will vote on a new roughly $40 billion Ukraine aid package Tuesday night, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced.
The request includes funding for “critically needed resources, including military aid, support for the Ukrainian economy, and humanitarian assistance for food security to address the worldwide hunger crisis.”
The White House had initially requested $33 billion in assistance for Ukraine, but congressional leaders decided to tack on an additional $7 billion for more military and humanitarian assistance.
“This package, which builds on the robust support already secured by Congress, will be pivotal in helping Ukraine defend not only its nation but democracy for the world. Time is of the essence – and we cannot afford to wait,” Pelosi said in a letter to colleagues. “With this aid package, America sends a resounding message to the world of our unwavering determination to stand with the courageous people of Ukraine until victory is won.”
The bill is expected to pass in the House, after which it would head to the Senate.
-ABC News’ Mariam Khan
May 10, 3:10 pm
Pelosi, lawmakers to brief Biden on trip to Ukraine
President Joe Biden will host House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other members of Congress in the Situation Room on Tuesday afternoon to discuss the lawmakers’ recent trip to Ukraine, according to White House press secretary Jen Psaki.
Biden previously spoke with Pelosi over the phone about her trip but wanted a more thorough discussion in person, Psaki said.
Expected to attend are: Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass.; Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-NY; Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif.; Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif.; Rep. Bill Keating, D-Mass.; and Rep. Jason Crow, D-Colo.
-ABC News’ Ben Gittleson and Mariam Khan
May 10, 2:59 pm
Putin has goals beyond Donbas, US says
Russian President Vladimir Putin “is preparing for prolonged conflict in Ukraine during which he still intends to achieve goals beyond the Donbas,” according to Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines.
“The next month or two of fighting will be significant as the Russians attempt to reinvigorate their efforts. But even if they are successful, we are not confident that the fight in the Donbas will effectively end the war,” Haines told senators at an Armed Services Committee hearing Tuesday.
For now, Putin’s goal is to take control of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts and encircle Ukrainian forces from the north and south of the Donbas “in order to crush the most capable and well-equipped Ukrainian forces who are fighting to hold the line in the East,” Haines said.
Putin also hopes to “consolidate control of the land bridge Russia has established from Crimea to the Donbas, occupy Kherson, and control the water source for Crimea,” Haines said. The U.S. sees indications his military wants to extend that land bridge to Transnistria in Moldova, she added.
Haines said Russia might be capable of achieving “most” of those goals in the coming months. However, “We believe that they will not be able to extend control over a land bridge that stretches to Transnistria and includes Odessa without launching some form of mobilization. And it is increasingly unlikely that they will be able to establish control over both oblasts and the buffer zone they desire in the coming weeks,” she said.
Sanctions from the West are having a “pretty significant” impact on Russia, according to Haines.
“Among the indicators that one might look at are, for example, the fact that we’re seeing close to about, we predict, approximately 20% inflation in Russia; that we expect that their GDP will fall about 10%, possibly even more over the course of the year,” she said.
The fighting itself has also worn on Russia’s capabilities.
“The ground combat forces have been degraded considerably. It’s going to take them years … to rebuild that,” she said.
But that could drive Putin to other means of exerting force. Haines said, “They may rely more on things like cyber, nuclear, precision, etc. … Putin would probably only authorize the use of nuclear weapons if he perceived an existential threat to the Russian state or regime.”
Haines warned, “The current trend increases the likelihood that President Putin will turn to more drastic means, including imposing martial law, reorienting industrial production, or potentially escalatory military actions to free up the resources needed to achieve his objectives as the conflict drags on, or if he perceives Russia is losing in Ukraine.”
“The most likely flashpoints for escalation in the coming weeks are around increasing Russian attempts to interdict Western security assistance, retaliation for Western economic sanctions or threats to the regime at home. We believe that Moscow continues to use nuclear rhetoric to deter the United States and the West from increasing lethal aid to Ukraine and to respond to public comments that the U.S. and NATO allies that suggest expanded Western goals in the conflict,” she said. “If Putin perceives that the United States is ignoring his threats, he may try to signal to Washington the heightened danger of its support to Ukraine by authorizing another large nuclear exercise involving a major dispersal of mobile intercontinental missiles, heavy bombers, strategic submarines.”
-ABC News’ Matt Seyler
May 10, 11:29 am
Russia has lost 8 to 10 generals so far, US believes
The U.S. believes eight to 10 Russian generals have been killed in Ukraine since the beginning of the invasion, Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier told senators on Tuesday at an Armed Services Committee hearing.
This is slightly below the estimate from the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, which said up to 12 Russian generals have been killed.
-ABC News’ Matt Seyler
May 10, 8:18 am
Ukrainian police probe over 10,000 cases of suspected war crimes
The national police chief of Ukraine, Gen. Igor Klimenko, told ABC News on Tuesday that his officers are currently investigating 10,800 cases of suspected war crimes across the country, in areas that were previously occupied by Russian forces.
In the Kyiv region alone, police said they have so far recovered 1,262 bodies of slain civilians. The head of Kyiv police, Andriy Nebytov, told ABC News on Tuesday that his officers are currently working to identify 258 of those bodies.
Local police said five bodies were recovered on Monday, including three men who were lying in a mass grave. Police said the men had been shot in the head.
Local officers in the Kyiv region said they have found so many dead bodies of people killed when Russian forces occupied the area that they do not have the capacity to store them all in morgues. Instead, DNA samples will be taken before the bodies are buried while the process of identifying the victims is carried out.
Once the DNA process is complete, the graves of the deceased can be properly marked, according to local police.
French police officers are also in Ukraine to help with the identity process. According to Ukrainian police, technology available to their French counterparts can finish the DNA identification process within 24 hours — something which would normally take Ukrainian police three to four days.
May 10, 6:47 am
Russia paying the price for underestimating Ukrainian resistance, UK says
Russia is paying the price for underestimating Ukrainian resistance, the U.K. Ministry of Defense said Tuesday in an intelligence update.
“Russia’s invasion plan is highly likely to have been based on the mistaken assumption that it would encounter limited resistance and would be able to encircle and bypass population centres rapidly,” the ministry said Tuesday in an intelligence update. “This assumption led Russian forces to attempt to carry out the opening phase of the operation with a light, precise approach intended to achieve a rapid victory with minimal cost.”
“This miscalculation led to unsustainable losses and a subsequent reduction in Russia’s operational focus,” the ministry added.
According to the ministry, these “demonstrable operational failings” prevented Russian President Vladimir Putin from announcing significant military success at Monday’s Victory Day parade in Moscow.
Although he showed no signs of backing down, Putin did not make any declarations of war or victory in his annual speech for Victory Day, a national holiday in Russia commemorating the Soviet Union’s defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. Instead, he drew parallels between Soviet soldiers battling Nazi troops and the Russian forces fighting now in Ukraine, as he has vowed to “de-Nazify” the former Soviet republic.
“You are fighting for the motherland, for its future, so that no one forgets the lessons of the Second World War,” Putin said Monday during a military parade in Moscow’s Red Square.
May 10, 6:30 am
US suspends tariffs on Ukrainian steel
The U.S. will temporarily suspend 232 tariffs on Ukrainian steel for one year, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo announced Monday.
Ukraine’s steel industry is one of the foundations of the country’s economy, employing 1 in 13 Ukrainians, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce. Some of Ukraine’s largest steel communities have been among those “hardest hit by Putin’s barbarism,” the U.S. Department of Commerce said in a press release, and the steel mill in Mariupol has become a “lasting symbol of Ukraine’s determination to resist Russia’s aggression.”
“Steelworkers are among the world’s most resilient — whether they live in Youngstown or Mariupol,” Raimondo said.
The pledge to slash tariffs “is a signal to the Ukrainian people that we are committed to helping them thrive in the face of Putin’s aggression,” she said, “and that their work will create a stronger Ukraine, both today and in the future.”
Ukraine is currently losing about $170 million every day due to blocked ports and the country’s export potential has fallen by more than half, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmysal said on Monday.
Ukraine also submitted a several-thousand-page questionnaire, the second part of the answers, that must be completed by countries aspiring to join the European Union, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday during his nightly address.
“It usually takes months. But we did everything in a few weeks,” Zelenskyy said.
The Ukrainian president held talks with EU leaders on Monday and claimed Ukraine could be granted EU candidate status as early as June.
Russia running out of missiles
Russia has used up about half of its existing missiles during its invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said Monday. But the Russians still maintain the capacity and a certain supply of components to replenish some of their depleted arsenal, Malyar added.
The U.K. Ministry of Defense also stated in its Monday intelligence update that Russia’s stockpile of precision-guided munitions “has likely been heavily depleted.” Instead, the Russian military is now using “readily available but ageing munitions that are less reliable, less accurate and more easily intercepted.”
Russia will likely struggle to replace the precision weaponry it has already expended, the ministry said.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted Monday that he has “never been more certain that Ukraine will win,” adding that Britain will stand “shoulder-to-shoulder with Ukraine for as long as it takes.”
Fighting continued on May 9 at the Azovstal steel plant while “some occupiers were walking along the streets” of the surrounding city of Mariupol parading with flags and Ribbons of Saint George, a traditional Russian military symbol, said Petro Andriushchenko, the Mariupol mayor’s advisor. Russian forces on Monday tried to blow up the bridge used to evacuate people from the steel plant, trying to “cut off our defenders from the possibility to exit,” Andriushchenko said.
There are still more than 100 civilians trapped in Azovstal, Pavlo Kyrylenko, who heads the Donetsk military administration, told local media.
(NEW YORK) — Since Roe v. Wade legalized abortion nationwide, advocates and opponents of abortion rights have argued over how safe abortion is, how it’s performed and even where the public stands on whether it should be legal.
Now, the Supreme Court may be set to overturn the landmark 1973 decision, according to a leaked draft opinion initially reported by Politico last week.
Ahead of the final decision, which is expected in either June or July, ABC News spoke to public health experts about five common myths surrounding abortion and what the statistics actually show.
Myth: Most abortions happen in-office
Data from the Guttmacher Institute, a research group focusing on sexual and reproductive health, showed at-home medication abortions, not in-office procedures, make up most abortions in the U.S.
Drugs for medication abortions were first developed in the late 1970s as an alternative, non-surgical, form of abortion in which someone takes two pills to end a pregnancy.
The first pill is mifepristone, which was authorized by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2000. It works by blocking the hormone progesterone, which the body needs to continue a pregnancy.
This causes the uterine lining to stop thickening and to break down, detaching the embryo. The second drug, misoprostol, taken 24 to 48 hours later, causes the uterus to contract and dilates the cervix, which will expel the embryo.
In the U.S., the drugs are approved up to 10 weeks’ gestation, although the World Health Organization says they can be taken up until the 12-week mark.
As of 2020, medical abortions account for 54% of abortions performed in the U.S., up from 24% a decade ago, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
Otherwise, patients can get an in-office procedure, including, in earlier pregnancy, one in which suction is used to empty the uterus. Contrary to beliefs that abortion is a prolonged procedure, most take less than 10 minutes, according to Planned Parenthood.
Patients may choose to have an in-office procedure rather than a medication abortion for many reasons, including the availability of abortion appointments, Dr. Evelyn Nicole Mitchell, an obstetrician and gynecologist with Keck Medicine of the University of Southern California, told ABC News.
“By the time [some women] see a provider, it’s past the nine- or 10-week mark, and the only option at that point is surgical abortion,” she said.
Myth: Many abortions happen in the second and third trimester
According to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report published in November 2021, 629,898 abortions occurred in the U.S. in 2019, the latest year for which data is available.
Of those abortions, the overwhelming majority occurred before 13 weeks’ gestation, which is the beginning of the second trimester.
The CDC report found 79.3% of abortions in 2019 were performed at 9 weeks’ gestation or earlier. What’s more, nearly all abortions in 2019 occurred at or before 13 weeks’ gestation, at 92.7%.
The report also showed from 2010 to 2019, abortions performed later than 13 weeks’ gestation was either at 9% or lower. Just 1% of abortions were performed after 20 weeks.
Public health experts told ABC News the majority of women who have abortions in the second trimester largely fall into one of two groups.
One group is made up of pregnant people who come from backgrounds with traditionally less access to health care, such as living in rural areas or being of lower socioeconomic status, according to Mitchell.
The other group is made up of those who choose to have an abortion because of diagnoses the fetus will be born with severe disabilities, or because their own health is in jeopardy.
“By the 15th week or so, many women are fully committed often to having that pregnancy,” said Dr. Paula Tavrow, a professor of community health sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles Fielding School of Public Health. “And then they may get dire news such as there are fetal abnormalities, or it might impair their health or well-being in some way to continue with the pregnancy.”
Myth: Abortions are more dangerous than childbirth
Two women died following complications from legal-induced abortions in the U.S. in 2018, the latest year for which data is available, according to the CDC’s Pregnancy Mortality Surveillance System.
Between 2013 and 2018, the CDC reported the national case-fatality rate was 0.41 abortion-related deaths per 100,000 legal abortions.
This represents a nearly 8-fold decrease from the case-fatality rate of 3.2 deaths per 100,000 legally induced abortions in 1972, the year before abortion was legalized nationwide, according to a CDC report at the time.
“So long as abortions are performed in a clean environment with properly trained people, they’re extremely safe,” said Tavrow.
By comparison, an analysis showed pregnancy and childbirth are far more dangerous in the U.S.
Over the same period, the mortality rate was 17.35 pregnancy-related deaths among mothers per 100,000 live births. Causes of death included cardiovascular conditions, sepsis, hemorrhaging and embolism.
“By the nature of getting pregnant, someone automatically puts themselves into a higher risk category,” said Dr. Deborah Bartz, an obstetrician-gynecologist at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston. “It is absolutely false to claim it is equally safe or even more risky to have an abortion” than to continue with a pregnancy.
Experts said the risk with abortions occurs when they are performed unsafely, with the World Health Organization stating unsafe abortions are a “leading cause” of maternal deaths worldwide.
Myth: Abortions have only risen since Roe v. Wade was decided
Following the decision of Roe v. Wade, legal abortions in the U.S. did increase from a rate of 16.3 per 1,000 women, reaching its peak in the early 1980s before falling.
“Abortion temporality spiked because it was now safe, but the rate of abortion has really decreased,” said Tavrow.
As of 2017, the rate of legal abortions sits at 13.5 per 1,000 women, the lowest rate ever recorded, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
The experts said the rate has decreased due to several reasons, including greater access to contraceptives as well as more birth control methods with higher efficacy rates.
Additionally, the Guttmacher Institute noted, abortion rates have declined as births and pregnancies have fallen overall in the U.S.
Myth: Majority of Americans support the end of Roe v. Wade
Despite the Supreme Court being poised to overturn or severely gut Roe v. Wade, most Americans believe just the opposite should happen.
An ABC News/Washington Post poll conducted in advance of the leaked draft opinion found 58% of U.S. adults said abortion should be legal in either all or most cases.
By comparison, just 37% of adults said they believed abortion should be illegal in all or most cases.
What’s more, 70% of those polled said the decision on whether a woman can have an abortion should be left to the woman and her doctor while 24% said it should be regulated by law.
More than three-quarters of adults said abortion should be legal when the pregnancy is a result of rape or when a woman’s life is threatened by continuing the pregnancy.
(NEW YORK) — Since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic over two years ago, people have reported lingering effects of COVID-19, including hair loss.
Dr. Jennifer Ashton, a board-certified OBGYN and ABC News’ chief medical correspondent, is among them, experiencing lingering hair loss after testing positive for COVID-19 in January.
“Now that it’s just over three months, roughly, later is really when I started to notice a major change,” Ashton said. “The two things that I noticed were loss of volume, really really like almost nothing for me to hold onto when I put my hair up in a ponytail, and then breakage.”
Ashton, who was vaccinated and boosted when she tested positive for COVID-19, has shared her hair loss journey on Instagram, where commenters thanked her for bringing awareness to the issue.
According to Ashton, it’s estimated that over 20% of people who have COVID-19 experience some form of hair loss.
Here are some questions answered about COVID-related hair loss, from why it happens to how it can be treated:
Why does COVID-19 hair loss happen?
It is not uncommon for people to experience noticeable hair loss a few months after recovering from a high fever or an illness, according to the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD).
While researchers are still looking into exactly how having COVID-19 can impact a person’s hair, the early research shows that the virus somehow infects and affects hair follicles, according to Ashton.
Hair follicles anchor hair into the skin, and each one goes through three phases: The anagen phase, when the hair grows; the catagen phase, when hair growth slows and the follicle shrinks; and the telogen, or shedding, phase, when old hair falls out and new hair begins to grow.
While most hair loss, or hair shedding, occurs in the telogen phase, COVID-19-related hair loss appears in the anagen phase, when the hair is beginning to grow, according to Ashton.
“This is relevant because it affects what the timeline is by which someone could start to notice hair loss following COVID-19,” Ashton said. “Hair loss after COVID can begin as early as 18 to 47 days after infection.”
With the more common type of hair shedding, telogen effluvium, most people start to see shedding two to three months after an illness, according to the AAD.
Is anyone more susceptible to COVID-19 hair loss?
The risk factors for COVID-19 hair loss are still unknown, and there is also no known way to specifically prevent this type of hair loss, according to Ashton.
“We don’t know yet who is more at risk,” she said. “It does appear that if you experienced more severe COVID-19, you are more likely to experience this, but you can experience this with mild COVID-19 illness as well.”
Does COVID-19 cause permanent hair loss?
Ashton said it remains to be seen whether hair loss due to COVID-19 is permanent.
She added that it looks “promising and encouraging” that most people will see hair regrowth and correction.
“We still don’t know what percentage breakdown will regain, or regrow, their hair, but the bottom line is it takes time,” Ashton said, noting that people should expect a timeline for regrowth of anywhere from three months to one year.
What are treatment options for COVID-19 hair loss?
While there are no known ways to prevent hair loss with COVID-19, there are many ways to treat it, according to Ashton.
She recommends first “resting your hair,” which means taking a break from stressors like heavy-handed brushing and pulling and not using tools like hair dryers and curling and straightening irons.
Ashton said that, for her, resting her hair also means wearing more hats and headscarves.
“I just think it’s super easy,” she said. “No one cares how dirty your hair is. No one cares what your hair looks like.”
Ashton also recommends limiting the use of hair products that contain alcohol as an ingredient because alcohol will dry out hair further. Instead, she recommends using a hair mask product, or going more natural by using coconut oil or olive oil to moisturize the hair.
Ashton has also been wearing hair extensions occasionally but stresses those can damage hair further.
“They can pull on your hair and actually forcibly detach your hair, so dermatologists are very kind of cautionary before they recommend that any woman use hair extensions,” she said. “I am experimenting with them, but we’ll see. I don’t foresee them as too heavy in my rotation.”
After her consulting with her dermatologist, Ashton said she began supplementing her diet with a protein powder to increase her daily protein intake, which will help lessen hair breakage.
While there are many supplements on the market promoting hair regrowth, Ashton said that, from a scientific standpoint, it’s unclear if those supplements get results any different than simply adding a daily prenatal vitamin or multivitamin to your diet.
And finally, Ashton stressed the importance of checking with a medical provider to rule out other medical causes of hair loss, like thyroid function.
(HELSINKI) — Finland’s leaders on Thursday said the country would apply to join NATO “without delay.”
“Finland must apply for NATO membership without delay,” President Sauli Niinistö and Prime Minister Sanna Marin said in a joint statement. “We hope that the national steps still needed to make this decision will be taken rapidly within the next few days.”
Leaders in both Sweden and Finland had been expected to announce their positions on joining NATO this week, as the war in Ukraine continues to have unintended consequences for Russia by potentially pushing two more of its neighbors to the transatlantic alliance.
Finland’s decision to apply for NATO membership is a threat to the Kremlin, Dmitry Peskov, Russia’s presidential press secretary, said on Thursday.
“Another enlargement of NATO does not make our continent more stable and secure,” Peskov told reporters.
Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs Ann Linde said on Thursday that Finland’s leaders had delivered an “important message,” adding that her country “will decide after the report from the security policy consultations has been presented.”
Sweden’s ruling party is expected to announce its position on May 15. Finland’s parliament is expected to debate the issue and then vote a day later.
The Scandinavian countries have long held neutral status when it comes to European conflict. Finland became a neutral country after the Second World War, while Sweden has resisted military alliances long before that.
Yet fears that Russia could do to other non-NATO countries what it has done to Ukraine has sparked a rapid shift in public opinion in both countries, one of which, Finland, shares an 830-mile land border with Russia.
Both could be on the cusp of joining NATO. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has publicly said the Nordic countries would be welcomed into the alliance.
Ahead of any official announcement from both countries for NATO membership, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson signed mutual security assurances in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
NATO’s expansion would be yet another unintended consequence for Russia, as they continue to be met with fierce resistance in Ukraine and a more united West than their intelligence assessments anticipated. Part of Russia’s security demands ahead of the invasion in Ukraine included reverting NATO forces to 1997 positions.
Since NATO was founded in 1949, the alliance has expanded to include 30 member countries, including three former Soviet republics, and the inclusion of Sweden and Finland would further expand the alliance’s influence in the Arctic and in the areas around Russia.
Stoltenberg said just days ahead of the invasion “if Kremlin’s aim is to have less NATO on Russia’s borders, it will only get more NATO. And if it wants to divide NATO, it will only get an even more united Alliance.”
This prediction now appears to be coming true — although Peskov last month said that NATO is a “tool sharpened for confrontation” and it is “not an alliance that ensures peace and stability” when asked about Sweden and Finland. Experts say the expansion will be evidence of yet another strategic blunder on Russia’s part.
Even as public opinion has shifted, there are still those who oppose NATO membership for the Nordic countries, fearing it would lead to increased tensions with Russia.
“I’m afraid that NATO membership will increase actually the tensions in the Baltic Sea region and also will increase the tensions in Finland, especially regarding the eastern border,” Veronika Honkasalo, one of the few members of Finland’s parliament who doesn’t believe the country should join, told ABC News.
Furthermore, there are concerns that Sweden and Finland could be vulnerable to Russian attacks during the application process, though State Department spokesperson Ned Price moved to reassure both countries last week, saying: “I am certain that we will find ways to address concerns they may have regarding the period between the potential application and the final ratification.”
However, polling reported in both countries appears to show a significant majority are in favor of NATO membership.
“[Putin] has for years said Finland and Sweden joining is a red line,” Charly Salonius-Pasternak, lead researcher at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, told ABC News. “He’s managed to drive both Finland and Sweden towards NATO. So I think a massive miscalculation for him, but I think a positive thing for the rest of Europe.”
“It’s very clearly the population that changed its opinion in, say, six months, radically so,” he said, adding that the shift in public opinion had a snowball effect into Sweden, as fears grew about what could happen without the umbrella protection of NATO membership as the war in Ukraine continued.
“Now Russia has gone so far that joining NATO seems to be the only genuine solution here,” he said.
(NEW YORK) — What was once unthinkable — is now a reality.
One million Americans have now died from the coronavirus, according to an announcement made Thursday by President Joe Biden, marking a long-dreaded milestone for an incomprehensible tragedy.
“Today, we mark a tragic milestone: one million American lives lost to COVID-19. One million empty chairs around the dinner table. Each an irreplaceable loss. Each leaving behind a family, a community, and a nation forever changed because of this pandemic. Jill and I pray for each of them,” Biden said in a statement. “As a nation, we must not grow numb to such sorrow. To heal, we must remember.”
The president plans to order flags to half-staff in remembrance.
Over the last two years, the deadly virus has kept the nation tightly in its clutch, with wave after wave of the virus washing over with only relatively brief respites in between.
“This unthinkable tragedy will forever appear in the history books,” said John Brownstein, Ph.D. an epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor.
The loss of one million lives is a reality that is still difficult for many to comprehend, and to accept. In some respects, the death toll remains hidden from view.
Experts said the statistic, however massive, does not fully capture the magnitude of the human tragedy.
“It’s one thing to talk about numbers, but then to realize that each one of those numbers represents a grandparent or a spouse or someone with their own unique story that we’ve lost. Already over a million of those stories in you know, in this country alone — it really is a tragedy and a tragedy, in many ways, of unprecedented proportions,” Dr. David Dowdy, an infectious disease epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told ABC News.
But the impact of the deaths extends far beyond the total number of deaths. An analysis published by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences estimated that nine million family members — mothers, fathers, grandparents, siblings and children — may be grieving the loss of a loved one killed by the virus.
Making sense of the numbers
The staggering number of deaths due to COVID-19 is now equivalent to the population of San Jose, California — the 10th largest city in the U.S.
“If you were to tell people that an American city had been wiped off the face of the earth, people would be shocked and horrified. But since this has been a kind of a gradual burn over two years, we’ve gotten so used to hearing the headlines and so tired of having to deal with a pandemic. That sense of horror and devastation has been lost,” Dowdy said.
COVID-19 was the third leading cause of death in the U.S. in 2021, following heart disease and cancer, according to new data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The number of Americans lost to COVID-19 also continues to dwarf the number of deaths from influenza. Between Oct. 1, 2021, and Apr. 30, 2022, the CDC estimated that there have been around 3,600 – 10,000 flu deaths. In the same time frame, more than 280,000 Americans have reportedly died from COVID-19.
Racial and ethnic minorities in the country have also faced increased risk of testing positive, requiring hospitalization and dying from COVID-19. According to federal data, adjusted for age and population, the likelihood of death because of COVID-19 for Black, Asian, Latino and Native American people is one to two times higher than white people.
Many experts believe that the current COVID-19 death count could already be greatly undercounted, due to inconsistent reporting by states and localities, and the exclusion of excess deaths, a measure of how many lives have been lost beyond what would be expected if the pandemic had not occurred.
A recent report from the World Health Organization also found that globally, estimates show there were nearly 15 million excess deaths associated with the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021 — more than double the official global death toll count of 6.2 million confirmed virus-related deaths.
‘I really don’t think people understand’
It has been more than two years since Pamela Addison lost her husband, Martin, a healthcare worker, to COVID-19, in the very early days of the pandemic in April 2020, but the grief is still raw.
“The day he died, I was stunned and in shock, and I was thrown into this new life,” Addison said. “I know that [my two young kids] were going to miss a lifetime of moments with their dad.”
After the loss of her husband, the 38-year-old New Jersey teacher found herself a single mother to the couple’s two young children, Elsie, then 2, and Graeme, then 5 months old, overnight.
Martin, a speech pathologist at St. Joseph’s University Medical Center in Paterson, New Jersey, was just 44 when he became ill with the virus in late March of 2020. Within a matter of weeks, Martin was hospitalized and on a ventilator, and despite numerous interventions and efforts, Martin succumbed to the virus just over a month after he developed his first symptoms.
“Knowing that I wasn’t there when my husband died, I never saw him again after he left that door … that’s something that I will carry with me forever,” Addison said. “I said goodbye on FaceTime and I didn’t even know it was going to be the last time I loved him… I wasn’t able to have a funeral for my husband, and I really don’t feel like people understand just how difficult it is to grieve.”
The loss has deeply impacted the couple’s two young children, who still frequently talk about their father and their longing to hug them.
“I felt so unprepared to make [my daughter’s] pain go away,” Addison said.
A few months after the death of her husband, in an effort to find a community of others who could be experiencing the same grief as she had, Addison founded the Young Widows and Widowers of COVID-19 on Facebook, which now includes hundreds of members.
“When I lost Martin, it was this sense of loneliness,” Addison explained. “Knowing that other people experienced that same sort of inability to be there with their loved one … it gives me some comfort to know that I’m not alone… there are so many people grieving a loss to COVID-19.”
‘A myriad of outcomes that would not have resulted in a million deaths’
In the early days of the pandemic, former President Donald Trump predicted that the U.S. COVID-19 death toll would be “substantially” lower than the initial forecasts suggested.
“The minimum number was 100,000 lives, and I think we’ll be substantially under that number. … So we’ll see what it ends up being, but it looks like we’re headed to a number substantially below 100,000,” Trump said in April 2020.
Similarly, at the onset of the pandemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, in his most pessimistic scenario, did not envision the possibility that the number of Americans dead from the virus could ultimately be so staggeringly high, telling CNN in late March 2020 that preparing for one million to two million Americans to die from the coronavirus is “almost certainly off the chart.”
“Now, it’s not impossible, but very, very unlikely,” Fauci said.
The uncertainty of the federal response in the early days of the pandemic has come under repeated scrutiny from public health experts, who say more should have been done to keep the virus at bay.
“To imagine where we were just over two years ago, we lacked the clarity, the preparation and really the political will to properly respond to a viral threat that would bring the world to its knees,” said Brownstein.
On average, more than 300 Americans still dying of COVID-19 every day
Although COVID-19 death rates are significantly lower than they were in the winter of 2021, when more than an average of 3,400 Americans were dying from the virus every day, the death toll is still averaging more than 300 a day, according to federal data.
“We would not tolerate that sort of burden or mortality from a preventable disease in any other situation, and we shouldn’t be tolerating that for COVID-19 either — just because we’ve been dealing with this for a long time,” Dowdy said.
Since the onset of the pandemic, older Americans have largely borne the brunt of the COVID-19 deaths, despite having higher vaccination rates than the overall population. Overall, people over the age of 65 years old account for more than three-quarters of virus-related deaths in the U.S, according to federal data.
More than 90% of seniors have been fully vaccinated, and about two-thirds have received their first booster shot. However, despite high vaccination rates in older populations, in recent months, during the omicron surge, 73% of deaths have been among those 65 and older.
There has also been an increasing rate of breakthrough deaths among the vaccinated, an ABC News analysis of federal data shows.
In August of 2021, about 18.9% of COVID-19 deaths were occurring among the vaccinated. Six months later, in February 2022, that proportional percent of deaths had increased to more than 40%.
Comparatively, in September 2021, just 1.1% of COVID-19 deaths were occurring among Americans who had been fully vaccinated and boosted with their first dose. By February 2022, that percentage of deaths had increased to about 25%.
Health experts said that the risk to the elderly population and waning immunity re-emphasizes the urgency of boosting older Americans and high-risk Americans with additional doses. And it brings into focus once again the deeply political battle over vaccines.
“Even as we hit this unthinkable milestone, the country is still massively divided on the reality of this pandemic and the tools we have to combat it. Not only do these safe and effective vaccines remain hotly debated but so do masks, a non-invasive tool widely recognized as basic personal protection,” said Brownstein.
