(NEW YORK) — Consumer prices rose 5% last month compared to a year ago, extending a months-long slowdown of price increases as the Federal Reserve aims to bring inflation down to normal levels without pushing the U.S. into a recession, government data on Wednesday showed.
The fresh data showed the lowest year-over-year inflation rate since May 2021.
In February, year-over-year inflation was 6%. The data released on Wednesday marked the ninth consecutive month of smaller price hikes.
Prices showed a monthly gain of 0.1%, complicating a smooth downward path to normal price levels.
Despite an overall cooling of inflation, price hikes for some grocery store staples remain well above the average rate.
The price of flour jumped more than 17% over the past year, while the cost of eggs spiked 36% over that time, government data showed.
Since last year, the cost of margarine has leapt 33% and prices for cookies have surged more than 16%.
Some prices, however, have fallen over the past year, offering some relief for buyers.
Gas prices dropped 17% over the past year, government data showed, while television prices fell 14% over the period.
The data release arrives less than a month after the Federal Reserve imposed the latest in an aggressive string of borrowing cost increases, despite concern that previous rate increases helped trigger the nation’s banking crisis.
Inflation has fallen significantly from a summer peak, though it remains more than double the Fed’s target of 2%.
The rapid rise in interest rates, however, tanked the value of bonds held by Silicon Valley Bank, precipitating its failure and cascading damage for the financial sector.
With an aggressive string of rate hikes last seen in the 1980s, the Fed aims to slash price hikes by slowing the economy and choking off demand. The approach, however, risks tipping the U.S. economy into a recession.
Mounting evidence suggests rate hikes have slowed economic activity.
Nearly 190 banks are at risk of collapse amid high interest rates and declining asset values, according to a study released by a team of university researchers last month.
Meanwhile, the U.S. added 236,000 jobs in March, which marks robust job growth but a reduction from an average of 334,000 jobs added each month over the previous six months, according to government data released on Friday.
The International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday that it expects the U.S. economy to expand by 1.6% this year, which would prove a slowdown from 2.1% growth in gross domestic product last year.
Still, some key areas of the economy have proven resilient, despite the rate hikes.
Existing-home sales spiked 14.5% in February, ending a 12-month streak of declines and recording the largest monthly percentage increases in nearly two years, National Association of Realtors data showed.
Meanwhile, U.S. retail sales fell moderately in February but remained solid, suggesting that households still retain some pandemic-era savings.
(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump sought Wednesday to delay a writer’s defamation and battery case that is scheduled to go on trial this month, arguing the “deluge” of media coverage of his recent indictment on 34 criminal charges makes fairness impossible.
The writer, E. Jean Carroll, sued Trump in November alleging he defamed her by calling her a liar when he denied her claim that Trump raped her in a department store dressing room. She added a charge of battery under a recently adopted New York law that allows adult survivors of sexual abuse to sue their alleged attacker regardless of the statute of limitations.
Trump has repeatedly denied Carroll’s allegations.
The trial is scheduled to begin April 25 in Manhattan federal court but Trump’s attorney, Joe Tacopina, asked the judge for a “cooling off” period in an overnight filing.
“President Trump can only receive a fair trial in a calmer media environment than the one created by the New York County District Attorney,” Tacopina wrote in a letter to the judge asking for a four-week delay.
If the trial goes forward as scheduled, “prospective jurors will have the criminal allegations top of mind,” Tacopina said.
There has been no immediate response from Carroll’s side.
Trump is not required to attend the trial. The judge has given Trump’s attorneys until next week to inform the court whether he will attend.
(NEW YORK) — A number of medical experts and health care officials are concerned about a rise in medical misinformation following the announcement by Democrat Robert F. Kennedy Jr., an anti-vaccine activist, that he is running for president in 2024.
Kennedy, the son of former U.S. Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, has become one of the most prominent faces of the anti-vaccine movement, according to experts. He is the founder of Children’s Health Defense, a nonprofit organization known mainly for its anti-vaccine efforts. The group was kicked off Instagram and Facebook last year for spreading misleading claims about vaccines and other public health measures.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the organization’s revenues doubled to $6.8 million, according to filings made with charity regulators.
Kennedy’s bid for the presidency “puts science squarely on the ballot,” said Brian Castrucci, president of De Beaumont Foundation, a group dedicated to advancing public health policy. “His campaigns make the benefits of vaccines a question up for debate rather than settled science.”
“His campaign would platform a set of dangerous beliefs with the possibility of not only harming the health of the public but the health of our communities and economy as well,” Castrucci told ABC News. “We would have a candidate who each day would be spreading scientific misinformation and, in the process, legitimizing vaccine hesitancy and resistance.”
Kennedy, whose vaccine skepticism stretches back to around the early 2000s, has yet to hold any public presidential campaign events or mention his anti-vaccine stance as a presidential candidate. But some experts ABC News spoke with expressed concerns about his previous efforts to push conspiracy theories and misleading claims about COVID-19 and vaccines.
“His name carries a lot of weight,” Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease doctor at the University of California San Francisco, told ABC News. “Anybody who is a leader of our country needs to be a voice of reason and somebody who stands up for science and does not discredit science.”
Hong said that one of his concerns about Kennedy is his attitude toward public health infrastructure and the necessary funding health care institutions need for future public health emergencies.
“If you don’t believe in vaccines, you’re probably not going to be sympathetic to funding many arms of public health,” said Hong. “Money talks in a pandemic, and if you’re not going to put funding resources and money behind what should be done, the whole country is going to fall flat.”
Dr. Nick Sawyer, an emergency medicine physician in Sacramento who founded No License for Disinformation, a group of doctors who came together during the pandemic to call on state medical boards to take disciplinary measures against doctors spreading misinformation, said that Kennedy represents “a huge threat.”
“He’s lying to people about critical things that have to do with our nation’s children’s health,” Sawyer told ABC News. “The health effects are incredibly dangerous and have already shown to be incredibly damaging.”
Last year, Kennedy’s nonprofit organization criticized Sawyer’s group for pushing a California bill that would strip licenses from doctors who spread COVID-19 misinformation. In a blog post on the Children’s Health Defense website, the group said the bill would remove doctors’ medical licenses “if they express medical views that the state does not agree with.”
“On the national level, we must also stay vigilant against similar legislative proposals, and push back against phony front groups that promote this kind of medical tyranny,” the blog post said. “This includes the No License for Disinformation group.”
Dr. Elizabeth Glowacki, a health communication researcher at Northeastern University, told ABC News she is worried about Kennedy targeting marginalized communities, after he produced an anti-vaccine film about the dangers of vaccines aimed at Black and Hispanic people during the pandemic.
“There are some serious health consequences if people don’t have accurate information about vaccines, in particular communities that are underserved and that are marginalized — communities that already have a structure that prevents them from accessing vaccines and resources,” Glowacki said.
Last month, Castrucci’s group, De Beaumont, published a poll that found that nearly three in four physicians said medical misinformation has hindered their ability to treat COVID-19 patients.
According to the poll, 44% of physicians estimate that more than half the COVID-19 information they see, read and hear from patients is misinformation.
“We see [misinformation] continuing, if not gaining momentum,” Castrucci told ABC News.
Representatives for Kennedy’s presidential campaign did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
(NEW YORK) — Kimberly Dukes is up as early as 4 o’clock some mornings, driving around Atlanta in her Ford Expedition, knocking on families’ doors.
The executive director of the local group Atlanta Thrive, better known as “Momma Dukes,” said she takes as much time as she can searching for chronically absent students while working to make sure more kids get to school — and getting to know what keeps them away.
“I have a mom whose baby missed 80 days one year [amid the COVID-19 pandemic],” Dukes, a mother of 10 and local education activist, told ABC News. “What I learned from this mama is she had a chronic illness. There was a reason why she could not get him there. Some mornings she gets him there at 11 o’clock and he only goes twice a week.”
“Once I built that relationship, I understood it,” Dukes said.
From kindergarteners to high school seniors, chronic absenteeism persists around the country, fueled in part by disruptions from the spread of COVID-19 in the last three years, government data shows. In some places, repeated absences are getting much worse.
“There’s a lot of different factors that contribute to absenteeism in a normal year and they’re all put on steroids with the pandemic,” said one expert, FutureEd Associate Director Phyllis Jordan.
The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) found that chronic absenteeism — defined as missing at least 10% of the school year — has increased from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, including a nearly 40% spike between the 2021 and 2022 school years. (NCES did not specify its absences to include quarantining.)
Chronic absenteeism also was not tracked by NCES prior to the pandemic. But outside analysis also points to a notable increase from before COVID-19.
According to a report released this year by researchers from the Universities of Tennessee and California and Attendance Works, a nonprofit focused on addressing absenteeism, one in six students were chronically absent in the 2018-2019 school year.
Now, however, the report indicates chronic absenteeism has doubled to nearly one in three students.
“The pandemic really, really, broke down connections and relationships between kids and schools,” said Hedy Chang, the CEO of Attendance Works.
By the numbers
In 2021, the School Pulse Panel was initiated by the Biden administration: In order to determine who had been struggling with pandemic-era challenges since 2020 school closures, the Department of Education and Institute of Education Sciences (IES) collected information to better understand the impact of the virus on students and educators.
The survey collected information from a national sample of elementary, middle, high and combined-grade public schools, focused on region, locale, minority and poverty levels. It did not report out estimates by individual grades or race/ethnicity.
The School Pulse Panel asked how chronic absenteeism had changed at school, and the majority of schools with 75% or more minority enrollment indicated that chronic student absenteeism had increased “a lot” as compared to before the pandemic. (NCES did not provide boundaries for “a lot.” The schools’ responses were up to their interpretation, a spokesperson said.)
Roughly six in 10 city schools saw chronic absenteeism increase “a lot” compared to before the pandemic. More than half of West Coast schools also said chronic absenteeism increased “a lot” between pre-pandemic levels and 2022.
In California, the country’s largest state and home to its second-largest public school district, the number of students who were chronically absent more than doubled between 2018-2019 and 2022, according to Chang.
On the other side of the country, in Washington, D.C., chronic absenteeism saw a 17% increase between the 2021 and 2022 school years, according to data released by D.C.’s Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE).
But the district said that uptick was driven primarily by increases in excused absences, while unexcused absences increased only “modestly.” Still, nearly half of D.C.’s students were chronically absent in 2022.
How family struggles interfere with stable schooling
Experts suggested to ABC News that there are many factors fueling the increase in absences, from the broader chaos and confusion touched off by the pandemic to more specific concerns about fighting and bullying, among other challenges.
The 2022 Delaware teacher of the year, Jahsha Tabron, said she worries behavioral problems exacerbated by pandemic school closures — a policy trade-off to prevent infections and death — have since contributed to the rise in excessive truancy.
“We have students who are really struggling socially because they’ve only been around their family group for this time,” said Tabron, the dean of students at Brandywine High School and former special education teacher.
“Then you have students who are significantly struggling with social anxiety and other behavioral issues that are really sparked by the idea of being in this building with all of these personalities,” she said. “And we don’t really have supports in place for that, because ideally you should be able to come to school and not worry about that.”
Tabron said some students go months without coming to class because of their home atmosphere. When her school opened after the 2022 winter break, there were kids who came back for the first time since last November, she said.
“When a family is struggling and they are between homes, in between jobs, they’re living where they can live,” she said.
“A lot of times we don’t see students, and the next time that we do see them is when a parent has a stable situation where they can say, ‘OK, let me take my child to school,'” she said.
Los Angeles mom Graciela Gonzalez has seen another kind of bad habit form with her own son, Ronaldino, a sophomore at Los Angeles Unified School District’s (LAUSD) Manual Arts High School.
When her son kept skipping school earlier this year, Gonzalez said, she would drive him through the streets of L.A. to show him people without homes, suggesting he needed to change his behavior for the betterment of his future.
The teen wasn’t like this before the pandemic began, his mother said.
“He would look for a lot of excuses [after schools reopened],” Gonzalez said. “He would tell me ‘I don’t have clothes,’… [then] he would tell me, ‘No, I’m tired.”
Chang’s organization places absenteeism into four buckets: barriers, aversions, disengagement and misconceptions. Barriers, including lack of transportation or unstable housing, come from the students’ community. Aversions are barriers, like bullying, that push students out of school. Disengagement happens when school activities or personnel have difficulty reaching or “pulling” students in.
Misconceptions suggest some families believe excused absences “matter” less because unexcused absences come with consequences, Chang explained. But there are other kinds of misconceptions about schooling.
“When you think about our youngest learners, historically, you’ve had higher levels of kindergarten absenteeism — it’s not nearly at the levels that we’re seeing now — and some of that has to do with families not seeing that kindergarten, you know, it’s not necessarily that essential,” Chang said.
Efforts to improve attendance
The LAUSD superintendent, Alberto Carvalho, has set out to change his city’s chronic absenteeism rate by knocking on doors and strategizing with members of his team. At the end of the 2021-2022 school year, the rate of absenteeism in L.A. schools was at 45.2%, according to data found through a public records request.
Carvalho has spent the last year attempting to connect with the students, he told ABC News, but many in his district, like Graciela Gonzalez’ son, are simply staying at home.
“We were speaking to [Gonzalez] assuming that the child may be in school. The mom told me, ‘He’s upstairs sleeping,'” Carvalho said.
That was an easy enough fix, he said: “We had somebody who drove him to school that day.”
Thirty-six percent of Carvalho’s students are still chronically absent as of March, 2023. Despite the district’s near 10% increase in attendance, Carvalho is not satisfied.
“These were the kids who were in crisis prior to the pandemic to begin with and can ill afford to be absent from school,” he said.
Absenteeism can concern districts of all sizes. A portion of David Schilling’s northern Vermont high school students were chronically absent during the pandemic, too, he said.
“Kids would disappear, definitely, for days at a time,” Schilling told ABC News, adding, “So what it seemed to me was not only did we have to do something about getting kids back into the building, but we had to make the building a place where they wanted to be.”
The former principal stepped down as head of Danville School — a PK-12 institution with under 400 students — to implement an attendance improvement blueprint that matched the learning needs of his students called Danville Works, which includes experiential programs such as work-based internships, community-based classes and outdoor learning labs.
The programs, open to all students, include a few chronically absent kids who missed 12-30% of school last year. So far this year, according to Schilling, some of those kids have perfect attendance.
“Let’s try to actually listen to what they want school to be and see what happens,” Schilling said. “That’s the magic for me. It was just listening to them.”
In Jefferson County, Kentucky, Dr. Tish Brookins, a certified social worker, said the issue of absenteeism has only grown over the last year, where the latest data suggests nearly a third of the county’s students remain regularly out of class.
She said the reason why “runs the gamut.”
Most of her cases are in low-income families and those still learning English, she said. She has team meetings with relatives and also visits their homes to address lagging attendance.
“We’re all at the table, even a mental health practitioner, a nurse may be at that meeting and possibly an outside agency that provides mental health support,” Brookins said. “And we’re at that table saying, ‘Hey, what can we do to support you and your family?'”
This year, in D.C., OSSE says it is tackling its absenteeism problem differently. The district’s 60-40 rule considers a student present if they attend at least 60% of the school day. Superintendent Dr. Christina Grant hopes these adopted changes encourage kids to attend school even if they are late.
Community building
However, experts like Chang believe schools aren’t the only ones responsible for showing up for students. She stressed that community relationships can also improve attendance.
“The relationship building is the most essential component,” she said. “The question is, how do you organize schools so they ensure meaningful relationship-building between school staff or … community partners and other folks who can support that relationship building?”
Without solving other issues in the community first, Brookins, too, is skeptical of reducing the absenteeism levels. She said they go “hand in hand.”
“It’s going to take the whole community to solve poverty and food deserts and transportation issues,” she said.
Momma Dukes, in Atlanta, said empowering parents whose children attend struggling schools is a “lifestyle” for her.
She started knocking on doors with Atlanta Thrive to fill the gaps between schools and families, she said, but believes that if districts don’t start accepting help from community organizers then the problem won’t end.
The problem now is a mind-set that says otherwise: “We’re never going to get the kids into the building because it’s a culture issue,” she said. “We don’t want to do it together, so we’ll never know what’s going on. We’ll never understand why kids are not showing up.”
Right now, she said, “we’re not working in partnership.”
“If you allow us to be that bridge, the school system wins,” Dukes said, “and the kids win.”
(NEW YORK) — Investors and consumers on Wednesday will closely watch the release of fresh inflation data, which will show whether price increases continued a months-long slowdown in March.
The data release arrives less than a month after the Federal Reserve imposed the latest in a string of borrowing cost increases, despite concern that previous rate increases helped trigger the nation’s banking crisis.
Consumer prices rose 6% in February compared to a year ago, marking the eighth consecutive month of smaller price hikes, government data showed.
Economists surveyed by Bloomberg expect consumer prices to have risen 5.1% in March compared to a year ago, which would mark the lowest reading in almost two years.
However, the economists also forecast that consumer prices will show a monthly gain of 0.4%, complicating a smooth downward path to normal price levels.
Inflation has fallen significantly from a summer peak, though it remains triple the Fed’s target of 2%.
The rapid rise in interest rates, however, tanked the value of bonds held by Silicon Valley Bank, precipitating its failure and cascading damage for the financial sector.
With an aggressive string of rate hikes last seen in the 1980s, the Fed aims to slash price hikes by slowing the economy and choking off demand. The approach, however, risks tipping the U.S. economy into a recession.
Mounting evidence suggests rate hikes have slowed the economy.
Nearly 190 banks are at risk of collapse amid high interest rates and declining asset values, according to a study released by a team of university researchers last month.
Meanwhile, the U.S. added 236,000 jobs in March, which marks robust job growth but a reduction from an average of 334,000 jobs added each month over the previous six months, according to government data released on Friday.
The International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday that it expects the U.S. economy to expand by 1.6% this year, which would prove a slowdown from 2.1% growth in gross domestic product last year.
Still, some key areas of the economy have proven resilient, despite the rate hikes.
Existing-home sales spiked 14.5% in February, ending a 12-month streak of declines and recording the largest monthly percentage increases in nearly two years, National Association of Realtors data showed.
Meanwhile, U.S. retail sales fell moderately in February but remained solid, suggesting that households still retain some pandemic-era savings.
(NEW YORK) — A New Jersey mom is speaking out after she claims United Airlines staff refused to accommodate her son’s “life-threatening” peanut allergy during a recent flight.
Lianne Mandelbaum said she, her husband and their son Josh were traveling home on March 13 from Texas, where they had been visiting a college, when she said she approached a flight attendant to notify them of her son’s allergy.
“I went up to speak to the flight attendant and I said, ‘My son has a life-threatening peanut allergy. I would appreciate it if you could just tell the surrounding rows to be careful,'” the mom of three recalled to ABC News’ Good Morning America.
Mandelbaum, who also runs the food allergy advocacy nonprofit No Nut Traveler, said she’d made similar requests before. During their initial flight to Texas a couple of days earlier, she had a positive experience, which she shared on Twitter, with other United staffers who accommodated her request to alert neighboring passengers of Josh’s allergy.
“I wasn’t expecting any pushback on the flight on the way home. In fact, I was approaching it with a very optimistic view and the opposite happened,” Mandelbaum said.
Instead of addressing her concern and request, Mandelbaum claimed another United staffer, who she said stated they were a supervisor, allegedly summoned her before the flight takeoff and responded rudely.
“I went to go pull up [United’s] policy on my phone and she literally put her hand in my face like this and got close and she goes, ‘I don’t care what you’re going to say or what you’re going to show me. I’m telling you, this is not going to happen on this plane. So what are you going to do about it now?’ And at that point, I really did feel threatened that she was going to kick me off,” Mandelbaum claimed.
She said she and her son felt embarrassed and her son asked her to let the request go after she returned to her seat, but the alleged experience stayed with her and prompted her to pay for Wi-Fi on board and tweet about it after the flight took off.
When contacted by GMA, United said it is “looking into this incident” and shared its allergy policy, which is also posted on its website. The policy states that the airline “is committed to the safety of its customers, including customers with major food allergies” and does not serve peanuts on flights but may serve food that could include allergens.
United also says in its policy that it cannot guarantee an “allergen-free” environment or prohibit passengers from eating food brought onboard that can contain allergens like peanuts, but that customers can request “an allergy buffer zone” that includes notifying other passengers “seated nearby to refrain from eating any allergen-containing products they may have brought on board.”
Following her flight, Mandelbaum filed an official U.S. Department of Transportation complaint against United on March 20 with her attorney Mary C. Vargas. The complaint, a copy of which GMA was able to obtain, claims Mandelbaum “was subjected to denial of accommodation, humiliation, retaliation, and intimidation because she disclosed her son’s food allergies and requested accommodation” and alleges United violated the Air Carrier Access Act and Airline Passengers with Disabilities Bill of Rights.
Mandelbaum’s complaint also claims her alleged experience and others like it suggest “a pattern or practice of discriminatory treatment of passengers with food allergies and those who advocate on their behalf.” She is seeking a finding that United violated disability discrimination laws, a fine and mandatory training for employees.
GMA also obtained a copy of the response that United filed after Mandelbaum’s complaint, which acknowledged in part that Mandelbaum spoke with at least two United staffers and “requested that other passengers be informed that her son had a peanut allergy.” The airline, in its response, has disputed some of the alleged facts and “denies that the Mandelbaum family was subjected to ‘discriminatory treatment’ or that there is a ‘pattern or practice of discriminatory treatment of passengers with food allergies and those who advocate on their behalf.'”
Since opening up about her varying experiences while flying with her son on United, Mandelbaum said she has received some online threats and negative feedback, including one message that called her a “selfish person.” She said the dismissive responses haven’t deterred her from opening up, adding that experiences like this one have fueled her advocacy work for the last decade.
“I’m trying to model for [my son] so that when he is an adult flying without us and going back and forth to college, that he models my behavior and he asks for things that are going to keep him safe. There’s no reason why his food allergy should stand in the way of him achieving any of his goals,” Mandelbaum said.
“Despite what people say on social media, it’s not really suffering to go without your favorite snack for a couple hours or just be careful around someone who’s asked you politely. I mean, what kind of world are we living in where we can’t help someone that has a different health risk than we do? It’s just, it’s really upsetting,” she added.
(WASHINGTON) — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Tuesday that the U.S. will “turn over every rock” to find the source of the apparent leak of dozens of highly classified documents on the internet in his first public comments since the documents came to light.
More apparently leaked documents continued to emerge on Monday as The Washington Post reported on documents it says it obtained that appear to raise concerns that Ukraine’s upcoming spring offensive will only be moderately successful and that Egypt’s leader had secretly directed that his country provide Russia with thousands of rockets.
“We take this very seriously and we will continue to investigate and turn over every rock until we find the source of this and the extent of it,” Austin told reporters at a State Department press conference.
Austin told reporters that he was first informed of the apparent leak the morning on April 6 after some of the documents were posted on popular social media platforms. He said that since then he has been leading daily meetings with top officials to coordinate a response to the leak and directed “an urgent cross-department effort.”
Austin said he was limited in what he could say because of the ongoing Justice Department criminal investigation into the leak but he provided new details that investigators are focused on documents dated Feb. 28 and March 1.
“I don’t know if there are other documents that have been online before,” he said. “These are things that we will find out as we continue to investigate.”
“They were somewhere in the web and where exactly and who had access at that point, we don’t know, we simply don’t know at this point,” he acknowledged.
An ABC News review has found that the first of what appear to be highly classified U.S. military and U.S. intelligence documents were posted on the chat website Discord on March 2. But they did not reach a wider audience until last Wednesday when some of the documents related to the war in Ukraine were posted on social media platforms.
The documents seem to contain top-secret intelligence about the war in Ukraine and other parts of the world that is made available daily to hundreds of U.S. officials in the U.S. and overseas via classified computer servers that can only be accessed with a top-secret clearance.
The Washington Post reported that one of the leaked documents it says it obtained was a U.S. intelligence assessment that Ukraine would make only modest gains to retake occupied territory from Russia in its upcoming spring offensive as it challenges to raise troops, ammunition and equipment.
That apparent assessment is in line with a separate classified U.S. intelligence assessment by the National Intelligence Council (NIC) that was recently briefed to Congress, according to a U.S. official.
Austin downplayed the idea of a public disclosure of Ukraine’s challenges ahead of the offensive and said he had just spoken with Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov.
“He and the leadership remain focused on the task at hand, and I have every confidence that they will do what good leaders, great leaders do,” said Austin. “They will fight the enemy and not be driven by a specific plan. They have a great plan to start, but only President Zelenskyy and his leadership really know the full details of that plan.”
“They have much of the capability that they need to continue to be successful,” he added. “We trained an enormous number of troops, we provided a substantial number of platforms. And so, I think he feels that they’re in a pretty good position.”
The Washington Post also reported that it had obtained another document that indicated that Egypt’s President al Sisi had apparently directed officials to secretly provide thousands of rockets to Russia.
Egyptian state media dismissed the report as “rumors” and John Kirby, the National Security Council’s coordinator for strategic communications said “we’ve seen no indications that Egypt is providing lethal weaponry capabilities to Russia.” ABC News has not seen either of the documents cited by The Washington Post.
The flow of documents has led top American officials to reach out to counterparts as the leaked documents seem to show that U.S. intelligence was not only spying on Russia and other adversaries but on its allies and partners, including Ukraine.
“We have engaged with allies and partners at high levels over the past the past days, including to reassure them about our own commitment to safeguarding intelligence and, of course, our commitment to our security partnerships,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at the same news conference as Austin that followed their meeting with their counterparts from the Philippines.
“We are determined to assist Ukraine in the efforts that it’s making to regain the territory that’s been seized from it, and I reaffirmed that commitment today in speaking to Foreign Minister Kuleba,” Blinken said.
(NEW YORK) — President Joe Biden spoke to the family of Evan Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter who the United States says is being unjustly imprisoned by Russia, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters aboard Air Force One on Tuesday.
The president “felt it was really important to connect with Evan’s family,” Jean-Pierre said.
“We’re making it real clear that it’s totally illegal what’s happening,” Biden told reporters on the tarmac as he boarded the plane to depart for a state visit to Ireland.
The Gershkovich family said that it was encouraged by both the State Department’s announcement and the president’s call.
“We appreciate President Biden’s call to us today, assuring us that the U.S. government is doing everything in its power to bring him home as quickly as possible,” the statement said. “In addition to being a distinguished journalist, Evan is a beloved son and brother. There is a hole in our hearts and in our family that won’t be filled until we are reunited.”
The State Department announced on Monday that Gershkovich, who was arrested on espionage charges in late March that the U.S. adamantly denies, is now officially classified as a wrongfully detained American, a designation that grants additional powers and resources to U.S. officials as they work to secure his freedom.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed that as of Tuesday, Gershkovich has not been granted consular access.
“When I spoke to Foreign Minister Lavrov about a week ago now–just after Evan was detained–I of course pressed for his immediate release but I also pressed for immediate consular access to him,” he said. “The fact that Russia has not granted that access puts it once again in violation of international commitments it’s made–commitments that are at the heart of diplomatic relations between countries and the ability of our citizens as well to be able to safely be present in other countries.”
Blinken predicted Russia’s refusal to grant consular access would “do even more damage to Russia’s standing around the world– standing that has been in freefall particularly since its reinvasion of Ukraine last year.”
John Kirby, the White House’s National Security Council spokesperson, said this was just the beginning of what could be a lengthy battle to bring Gershkovich home.
“The determination of wrongful detention, it doesn’t start the clock necessarily on communicating with the Russians about getting him released. We’re very early in this process here,” he said.
American diplomats have still not been able to gain access to Gershkovich in detention — a violation of longstanding agreements between Russia and the U.S. and international law, according to the State Department.
Blinken and the U.S. ambassador to Russia have both spoken to their counterparts about Gershkovich’s case.
Kirby declined to disclose any details about conversations with the Russian government, but he said that officials within the administration were “certainly having discussions about what we can do to get him released.”
Russian officials have charged Gershkovich with espionage. Gershkovich denies the charges and his lawyers filed for an appeal, which is scheduled to be heard in Moscow later this month.
(NEW YORK) — The team of Russia’s top opposition leader, Alexey Navalny, is a sounding the alarm that his health is seriously deteriorating in prison and that an ambulance was called for him last Friday night because of “acute stomach pain.”
Kira Yarmysh, Navalny’s spokeswoman, tweeted that Navalny had lost 8 kilograms — about 18 pounds — in just 16 days while in solitary confinement. She said he is not receiving any treatment.
“When Alexey asks what he is ill with, the prison doctor mockingly answers that it is ‘just spring and everyone has exacerbations,'” Yarmysh wrote.
She wrote that they cannot rule out that he may have been poisoned again to make his health slowly deteriorate.
He has been repeatedly put in solitary confinement for two-week stints for months, she said. The most recent stint was the 13th time he was placed in solitary confinement, according to Yarmysh.
“On Friday he was released from the punishment cell, but on Monday he was sent back there for the 13th time,” she wrote. “One of the prison officers told Navalny that a provocation was being prepared against him.”
She also pleaded for international attention on the situation.
Navalny’s lawyers made similar claims in the spring of 2021, saying he was in grave condition.
Navalny, who barely survived a poisoning in August 2020, was sentenced to another nine years in prison in March 2022 on charges of embezzlement and contempt of court. He had been serving 2 1/2 years in prison.
The charges have been condemned as politically motivated by the United States and many other Western countries.
“We condemn Russian authorities’ politically-motivated conviction and sentencing of opposition leader Aleksey Navalny on additional spurious charges to nine more years in a high security prison,” Ned Price, spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, said in a statement in March 2022. “This outlandish prison term is a continuation of the Kremlin’s years-long assault on Navalny and on his movement for government transparency and accountability.
He continued, “Of course, Navalny’s true crime in the eyes of the Kremlin is his work as an anti-corruption activist and opposition politician, for which he and his associates have been branded ‘extremists’ by Russian authorities.”
Navalny, a documentary about the Vladimir Putin critic, won the Oscar for best documentary feature last month.
(LOUISVILLE, Ky.) — Five people were killed and eight others were injured in a mass shooting at a bank in Kentucky’s largest city on Monday morning, according to police.
The suspect was killed by officers responding to the scene at Old National Bank in Louisville, police said.
Here’s how the news developed. All times Eastern:
Apr 11, 10:06 PM EDT
Suspect’s family issues statement
The family of the suspected gunman, 25-year-old Connor Sturgeon, issued a statement Monday night expressing their sorrow, also saying “there were never any warning signs or indications he was capable of this shocking act.”
“No words can express our sorrow, anguish, and horror at the unthinkable harm our son Connor inflicted on innocent people, their families, and the entire Louisville community,” the Sturgeon family said. “We mourn their loss and that of our son, Connor. We pray for everyone traumatized by his senseless acts of violence and are deeply grateful for the bravery and heroism of the Louisville Metropolitan Police Department.”
“While Connor, like many of his contemporaries, had mental health challenges which we, as a family, were actively addressing, there were never any warning signs or indications he was capable of this shocking act,” the family said. “While we have many unanswered questions, we will continue to cooperate fully with law enforcement officials and do all we can to aid everyone in understanding why and how this happened.”
Apr 11, 5:52 PM EDT
Timeline of police response
Louisville Deputy Chief Paul Humphrey provided a timeline of the police response to Monday’s shooting while sharing body camera footage from the responding officers:
–8:38 a.m.: Officers dispatched.
–8:41 a.m.: Officers Nickolas Wilt and Cory Galloway pull up to an entrance to the bank. Gunshots are immediately fired in their direction, forcing them to back up the car.
–8:42 a.m.: They exit the vehicle.
–8:44 a.m.: Wilt is struck and officers return fire. When Wilt is struck, Galloway is heard yelling, “He’s down! Get the officer!”
–8:45 a.m.: After a short barrage of gunfire, officers make entry to the bank and confirm the suspect is down.
-ABC News’ Will McDuffie
Apr 11, 5:32 PM EDT
Body camera footage released
Louisville police have released body camera footage from Monday’s mass shooting.
The footage shows the interaction between the shooter and responding officers, including Nickolas Wilt, who was shot and remains in critical condition.
“You will see he never hesitates,” Deputy Chief Paul Humphrey said of Wilt during a press briefing on the footage. “This young man went back in to the line of fire.”
Humphrey said the suspect “lied in wait” for officers to respond to the bank shooting.
The officers could not see inside the building on their approach, and the footage conveys the “tension” of the scene, Humphrey said.
Officers and EMS treated victims at the scene of the shooting. The actions of first responders “absolutely saved lives,” Humphrey said.
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said authorities plan to release 911 audio of the incident within the next 24 hours.
“We know there are still a lot of unanswered questions,” Greenberg said at the briefing. “We will continue to provide information as soon as it is available.”
Of the eight people injured in Monday’s mass shooting, three remain at the University of Louisville Hospital.
One of those patients, 26-year-old police officer Nickolas Wilt, is still in critical condition, hospital officials said, and the other two patients are stable and in fair condition.
Wilt was shot in the head while running toward the gunfire, according to police. Wilt just graduated from the police academy on March 31.
Wilt was on his fourth shift ever when he rushed the shooter, with his field training officer beside him, said Jackie Gwinn-Villaorel, Louisville’s interim police chief.
The training officer, Cory Galloway, shot and killed the suspect, authorities said, while being grazed by a bullet.
The suspected shooter, 25-year-old Connor Sturgeon, bought the AR-15 legally on April 4 in Louisville, Jackie Gwinn-Villaroel, interim chief of the Louisville Metro Police Department, said at a news conference Tuesday.
Sturgeon was a current employee of the bank where the “targeted” shooting unfolded, she said.
Police said body camera footage from officers who responded to the shooting will be released Tuesday afternoon.
A vigil will be held Wednesday at 5 p.m. at the Muhammad Ali Center, Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said.
The mayor noted that, under Kentucky law, the gun used in Monday’s mass shooting will one day be auctioned off and back on the street.
He pleaded, “It’s time to change this law and let us destroy illegal guns and destroy the guns that have been used to kill our friends and kill our neighbors.”
“Five more families have lost a loved one,” the mayor said.
“This is happening in America everywhere and will keep happening until we say ‘enough’ and take meaningful action,” he said. “Doing nothing is not a strategy, is not a solution.”
The suspect left a note and “texted or called at least one person to let them know he was suicidal and contemplating harm,” Rep. Morgan McGarvey, D-Ky., said at Tuesday’s news conference.
“But we don’t have the tools on the books to deal with someone who is an imminent danger to themselves or to others,” he said.
“We can come together at the federal level, working with each other to solve this problem which is impacting all of us in a uniquely American way, and get universal background checks so people who shouldn’t have a gun can’t buy one,” McGarvey said.
“That is not a political issue, but it becomes one when Kentucky Republicans would rather ban books and pronouns, and then make Kentucky a sanctuary state for weapons,” he said.
Apr 11, 10:48 AM EDT
One victim remains in critical condition
Of the eight people injured in Monday’s mass shooting, four remain at the University of Louisville Hospital.
One of those patients, 26-year-old police officer Nickolas Wilt, is still in critical condition, hospital officials said, and the other three patients are stable and in fair condition.
Wilt was shot in the head while running toward the gunfire, according to police. Wilt just graduated from the police academy on March 31.
Apr 11, 8:08 AM EDT
Suspect was armed with AR-15, mayor says
The alleged gunman in Monday’s mass shooting at a Louisville bank was wielding an AR-15 when he was gunned down by police, according to Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg.
Craig revealed the detail during an interview with CBS News on Tuesday morning.
Apr 11, 7:54 AM EDT
What we know about Kentucky’s gun laws
Kentucky is one of 26 U.S. states that allow for permitless carry of firearms for eligible adults.
The Bluegrass State passed a law in 2019 removing the provisions that mandated state gun owners pass a background check if they were going to conceal carry their weapon. Under the law, most adults over the age of 21 can purchase and carry a firearm and take them to most places in Kentucky without any license.
Although gun owners can still apply for a gun license, which requires background checks, they are only meant for people who need such permits when traveling out of state.
Aside from federal laws that prohibit gun purchases by people with convicted felonies, there are no Kentucky laws that prohibit gun purchases to state residents who have mental health disorders, violent misdemeanor convictions, domestic abuse-related restraining orders or anyone with substance abuse disorders.
Firearms are still prohibited in several locations in Kentucky. Schools, government buildings, courthouses, police stations and any place that serves alcohol are gun-free locations, according to state law.
Kentucky law does not have any provisions preventing firearms in several locations such as hospitals, houses of worship, sports arenas, casinos, polling places and banks. However, local business owners and public and private colleges are also allowed to prohibit firearms on their properties, but they must have adequate signage on their premises, according to state law.
Apr 10, 10:59 PM EDT
Old National Bank releases new statement
“There are no words to adequately describe the sadness and devastation that our Old National family is experiencing as we grieve the tragic loss of our team members and pray for the recovery of all those who were injured,” Old National Bank CEO Jim Ryan said in a new statement Monday night.
Ryan and other members of the Old National leadership team have been in Louisville much of the day offering support to affected individuals and their families, and they will continue to be on hand to provide support in the days ahead.
“Obviously, this is an incredibly difficult situation, and our entire focus is on making sure that everyone affected has the support and assistance they need,” Ryan said. “On behalf of everyone at Old National, I also want to acknowledge and thank Louisville law enforcement, the medical community and state and local officials for their incredible response to this tragedy. And finally, we ask you to please continue to pray for all those affected.”
Apr 10, 11:01 PM EDT
Fifth person has died, police say
A fifth person has died following Monday’s mass shooting at a Louisville bank, police said.
Louisville police identified 57-year-old Deana Eckert as the latest victim.
Apr 10, 6:35 PM EDT
Louisville mayor vows to fight gun violence
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg spoke with ABC News’ Trevor Ault and pledged to make reducing gun violence his top priority in office, hours after four people, including his own friend, were gunned down inside a downtown bank.
“We have to take action. Today is a day for love and support to the victims… but this is life and death, so as mayor, this will continue to be our number one priority,” Greenberg – who was a victim of a workplace attack last year, said in the interview that took place a block away the bank.
Greenberg called his emotions “raw.”
“The second I got the alert that there was an active shooter going on, of course my mind immediately went back to the workplace shooting that I survived just over a year ago,” he said. “I know many people who work in that building, so I was thinking about them and everyone that was there.”
-ABC News’ Will McDuffie
Apr 10, 5:30 PM EDT
Shooting suspect was going to be fired from job: Sources
The suspected gunman who shot and killed four people at a downtown Louisville bank had recently been notified he was going to be fired from Old National Bank, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
Connor Sturgeon had interned at Old National Bank for three years before earning a full-time job in June 2021, sources said. He had been promoted in April 2022.
There was no immediate indication why he was notified he would be terminated, according to sources.
The suspect allegedly left a note to parents and friends indicating he was going to shoot up the bank, sources said.
-ABC News’ Aaron Katersky
Apr 10, 3:50 PM EDT
Suspect worked at the bank, was armed with rifle
The suspected shooter, 23-year-old Connor Sturgeon, was armed with a rifle when he allegedly carried out a mass shooting at the Old National Bank, where he worked, according to police.
The suspect was livestreaming, police said, though officials did not elaborate.
Authorities said the suspect was killed by police.
Nine people were hospitalized, including three currently in critical condition, said Dr. Jason Smith, chief medical officer at University of Louisville Health. Three victims are in the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries and the three others have been released, Smith said.
Among the nine injured is 26-year-old police officer Nickolas Wilt, who was shot in the head, according to police. He underwent brain surgery and is in critical but stable condition, police said.
Wilt just graduated from the police academy on March 31.
The four slain victims were identified by police as Joshua Barrick, 40; Thomas Elliott, 63; Juliana Farmer, 45; and James Tutt, 64.
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said Elliott was “a very good friend of mine” and of Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear.
“This was an evil act of targeted violence,” the mayor said.
“Today, I’m hurt and I’m hurting, and I know so many people out there are, as well,” Beshear said. “We lost four children of God today, one whom is one of my closest friends. Tommy Elliott helped me build my law career, helped me become governor, gave me advice on being a good dad. … He was an incredible friend.”
The governor said of all four victims, “These are irreplaceable, amazing individuals.”
Apr 10, 2:56 PM EDT
Biden: ‘When will Republicans in Congress act?’
President Joe Biden tweeted Monday, “Once again, our nation mourns after a senseless act of gun violence.”
“Jill and I pray for the lives lost and impacted by today’s shooting. Too many Americans are paying for the price of inaction with their lives,” he wrote. “When will Republicans in Congress act to protect our communities?”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at Monday’s briefing, “Once again, today the president has called on Republicans in Congress to work together with Democrats to take action to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, to require safe storage of firearms, to require background checks for all gun sales, to eliminate gun manufacturers’ immunity from liability.”
“These are common sense actions we can ask for and should be getting right now,” she said.
“We need to act and we need Republicans to show some courage,” she said.
Apr 10, 1:02 PM EDT
2 officers among the injured, 1 in critical condition
Two officers and seven civilians were injured in the Louisville shooting, according to the University of Louisville Hospital.
One of those officers is in critical condition, according to police.
At least three patients have already been discharged, according to the hospital.
Apr 10, 11:27 AM EDT
McConnell ‘devastated’ by news of Louisville shooting
Republican leader and Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, who lives in Louisville, tweeted that he’s “devastated” by the news of Monday morning’s mass shooting.
“We send our prayers to the victims, their families, and the city of Louisville as we await more information,” McConnell tweeted.
His fellow Kentucky senator, Rand Paul, tweeted, “Our hearts break for the families of those lost.”
Apr 10, 11:21 AM EDT
Officers exchanged gunfire with suspect who died at scene
Officers arrived within three minutes of being dispatched and found the suspect still firing, Louisville police said.
Officers exchanged gunfire with the suspect who died at the scene, police said. It’s not yet clear if the suspect’s wounds were self-inflicted, police said.
Four victims were killed and eight people are injured, police said.
At least two officers were shot during the exchange of gunfire, police said, including one who is undergoing surgery.
It appears the suspect was a previous or current employee, police said.
“This is awful. I have a very close friend that didn’t make it today. And I have another close friend who didn’t, either, and one who is at the hospital that I hope is gonna make it through,” Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said at a news conference.
Apr 10, 10:53 AM EDT
At least 15 mass shootings so far this month
There have been at least 15 mass shootings in the U.S. in the first 10 days of April, including Monday morning’s shooting in Louisville, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
So far this year, the nation has seen at least 146 mass shootings.
The Gun Violence Archive defines a mass shooting as at least four people shot, not including the suspect.
“It feels like every day in this country we are totally consumed by yet another mass shooting. Nowhere else in the developed world do people wake up to this preventable horror every single morning,” Kris Brown, president of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, said in a statement Monday. “Whether it’s a bank, a school, a supermarket, or a church, Americans no longer feel safe in their communities. And Americans are increasingly tired of living in fear of being a victim of a mass shooting.”
“It does not have to be this way,” Brown said. “But until the gun industry no longer has a vice grip on our elected officials, this will continue to be our daily reality.”
Apr 10, 10:32 AM EDT
Shooting unfolded in bank conference room
The gunman opened fire in the bank’s first-floor conference room at about 8:30 a.m. local time, according to officials.
Eyewitnesses said the shooter appeared to have been armed with a long gun.
“He just started shooting,” Troy Haste told ABC Louisville affiliate WHAS-TV. “Whoever was next to me got shot. Blood is on me from it.”
Police said the suspect is dead.
A responding police officer was shot in the head, sources told ABC News. The officer’s condition is unknown.
According to preliminary information, this shooting is not believed to have been terror-related, sources told ABC News.
Apr 10, 10:19 AM EDT
Suspected shooter neutralized
Louisville police tweeted that the “suspected shooter has been neutralized,” adding, “There is no longer an active aggressor threat.”
There is no longer an active aggressor threat. The suspected shooter has been neutralized.
Apr 10, 10:05 AM EDT
Residents urged to avoid area
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg tweeted that residents should avoid the area around Slugger Field until further notice.
There is an active police situation downtown. Please avoid the area around Slugger Field until further notice. We will provide information as soon as possible.
— Mayor Craig Greenberg (@LouisvilleMayor) April 10, 2023
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said he is heading to the scene.
“Please pray for all of the families impacted and for the city of Louisville,” he tweeted.
FBI and ATF agents are assisting with the incident.
