(HONG KONG and NEW YORK) — As countries around the world slowly emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, China is battling its worst outbreak as the last holdout of a hardline “Zero-COVID” policy.
Residents are growing increasingly weary in Shanghai, where a lockdown of 25 million people is entering its fifth week. Cases in the economic powerhouse fell to their lowest levels in weeks on Thursday, raising hope that authorities might ease lockdown measures.
Kenie, a Shanghai resident whose last name ABC News is not including for privacy reasons, has been confined to her home with her two kids and elderly parents since March.
Like others in Shanghai, they are facing a shortage of food and finding it difficult to get deliveries. Kenie said in her neighborhood in the suburbs of Shanghai, the government rations are sparse, and she’s been forced to eat one meal a day so her kids and parents can eat more.
“I cannot cook because we have nothing to cook. I have only instant noodles left,” said Kenie. “Actually, I feel very disappointed and depressed.”
Kenie was finally able to source some insulin for her diabetic father through a friend, but she said authorities weren’t helping her find the medicine.
She was once supportive of the Chinese government’s policies, but her view has changed since she’s had to endure such tough conditions in lockdown.
“I’m angry, but I have no choice,” she told ABC News. “You feel helpless. I have no power to use. I’m angry, but I’m here. I don’t have any right to do something.”
Kenie said she’s more fearful of being sent to the city’s isolation facilities where everyone who tests positive must be sent than of the virus itself. The official death toll is comparatively low. In Shanghai, there have been nearly 300 deaths from more than half a million infections since the lockdown began.
Alessandro Pavanello, who moved to Shanghai several years ago to study and now lives there with his girlfriend, recorded his experience at one of the isolation facilities this month where he said he had no showering facilities or privacy.
While some expats have chosen to remain quiet out of concern for the consequences, Pavanello said he felt the need to share something he “was not OK with.”
“Sure, people have been quiet about this issue, presumably because they are maybe interested in staying in China after all this happens or they are afraid of repercussion,” he said.
Pavanello said that while in quarantine for six days, he lost weight and gained new grey hairs. He said that only sleeping for four hours each night and being constantly surrounded by loud sounds affected his mental well-being.
“A lot of other people that I have talked with that have been going to these places suffered in a variety of different ways, but mostly on their mental health, which I think is one of the aspects that was never taken into consideration when they decided here to start creating these isolation centers,” he said.
Other residents are also questioning a policy in which the social and economic costs are mounting.
Yet Chinese President Xi Jinping appears determined to stick with the country’s no-tolerance “Zero-COVID” policy, whatever it takes.
The toolkit of lockdowns, testing and surveillance helped China suppress infections to relatively low levels in the first two years of the pandemic, but with each new variant, maintaining the approach has become difficult.
China political expert and former State Department official Susan Shirk told ABC News’ “Nightline” last week that “Zero-COVID” required “a system of social control that was much more invasive, expansive, than anything that most other countries would be able to carry out.”
Shirk said the consequences of China locking down its economic powerhouse will be felt globally. Shanghai is home to one of the world’s major shipping ports, and cargo ships are currently backed up around the coast.
“We should care because it definitely is going to affect our ability of our economy to function smoothly,” Shirk said, “The disruption of the supply chains, aggravating inflation, is going to make our economic lives more difficult too.”
Two weeks ago, American writer Jamie Peñaloza, who lives in Shanghai, was remaining optimistic. The former chef made the most of the situation, getting creative with government food rations by making ricotta cheese out of milk supplies.
Now, Peñaloza’s tone has shifted after losing her main freelance job and seeing videos of harsh life in lockdown.
“It’s a bit like Groundhog Day in a bad way. It’s a bit surreal,” she told ABC News.
Peñaloza said she’s lucky compared with others who have experienced food shortages, but she feels a sense of helplessness.
Pavanello is now back at home in Shanghai, but he’s tested positive again and is worried he may be sent back to a facility.
The residents ABC News spoke with shared a common sense of helplessness, as if they were on a merry-go-round of restrictions and easing, with no end in sight.
Peñaloza said she is sticking it out in China for the near future, while Kenie and Pavanello both expressed plans to leave because of what they’d experienced under lockdown.
“I don’t know when this is going to end, and there’s nothing I can do about this,” said Pavanello.
As Peñaloza said, “One person can test positive and that just sets the score back to zero.”
(NEW YORK) — Broad Republican advantages in trust to tame inflation and handle crime are keeping the party in a strong position for the 2022 midterm elections in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll, albeit off the historic peak in vote preference the GOP attained last fall.
Americans trust the Republican Party over the Democrats to handle inflation, by 19% points; the economy more generally, by 14 points; and crime, by a dozen points. Trust in the Republicans to handle crime is its highest (by a single point) in ABC/Post results back 32 years; trust on the economy, just slightly off its high two months ago.
On the Democratic side, Joe Biden’s job approval as president remains underwater, but with a 5-point gain since February, aided by better ratings for handling the coronavirus pandemic (+7 points) and the war in Ukraine (+9). Still, 52% of Americans disapprove of Biden’s performance overall, versus 42% who approve. Those who “strongly” disapprove outnumber strong approvers by a 2-1 margin, potentially indicating motivation to vote in the fall.
Moreover, with inflation its highest in 40 years, Biden’s rating for handling inflation is dramatically bad in this poll, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates: 68% of Americans disapprove. Fewer but still 57% disapprove of his work on the economy more broadly.
Looking to November, registered voters divide essentially evenly between Democratic and Republican candidates for Congress, 46-45%. That’s a comedown for the GOP from its lead of 7 points in February and 10 points last November — the latter, the largest Republican midterm advantage in ABC/Post polls back 40 years. The change is led by a close contest among political independents, swing voters in most national elections, from a 50-32% Republican lead in November to an even 42-42% now.
That said, a close overall division in congressional vote preferences among registered voters in pre-election polls historically has been sufficient to signal strong Republican outcomes. That was the case in 2010, when the GOP gained 63 seats in the House; and 1994, when it gained 54 seats. (Less so in 2014, but still a 13-seat GOP win.)
Inflation
Inflation is a major irritant. Half of Americans are concerned about it; an additional 44%, not only concerned but upset about it. Just 6% are unconcerned.
Views on inflation are associated with partisanship and vote preferences. Among registered voters who are upset about inflation (disproportionately Republicans), GOP House candidates lead their Democratic opponents by 63-26%. Among those who are concerned but not upset (plus the few who are unconcerned), this reverses to 62-30% for the Democrats.
In another economic indicator, with unemployment nearly back to its pre-pandemic level, Americans by 50-43% think good-paying jobs are easy to find in their community. That doesn’t help the Democrats, though, because registered voters who say good jobs are available in their area favor Republican candidates by a 10-point margin. And comparatively few people are looking for jobs, while everyone’s paying higher prices.
Issues
While the GOP leads on the economy and crime, the parties are essentially tied on the issue of immigration and close in trust to handle education. The Democrats have a lead on abortion (+10 points), worth watching as the Supreme Court readies a ruling on a Mississippi law banning abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy.
The Democratic Party vaults to extensive leads on two other issues, both related to social equity: Equal treatment of racial and ethnic groups, on which it’s trusted over the Republican Party by 52-31%; and equal treatment of groups regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity, a 55-26% Democratic advantage.
Among groups, women generally are more apt than men to trust Democrats on the issues tested; in one example, the Republican Party has a 56-29% lead on the economy among men, compared with a split, 44-43%, among women. Similar to men, whites trust the GOP on the economy by 30 points; people in racial and ethnic minority groups favor the Democrats, but by a slimmer 11-point margin. Independents tilt Republican by 16 points; 15% of independents volunteer that they don’t trust either party on the economy.
Biden
Biden’s approval rating does not place him in enviable company. Only one previous president at about this point in office had higher disapproval — Donald Trump, at 56% — in polls dating to the Truman administration. (Four of his 13 predecessors have had about Biden’s level of approval).
Looking at it another way doesn’t offer Democrats any more encouragement. While Biden’s standing just ahead of the November election remains to be seen, it’s currently similar to Trump’s going into his first midterm (40%; his party lost 40 seats). It’s worse than Barack Obama’s approval in October 2010 (50%, loss of 63 seats); Bill Clinton’s in 1994 (48%, loss of 54 seats) and Ronald Reagan’s in 1982 (49%, loss of 26 seats). The exception is Jimmy Carter, who lost fewer seats, but still 15, in his first midterm, with 49% approval. There’s time, of course, for Biden’s approval rating to change.
Specifically on the economy, Biden’s poor rating is essentially unchanged from February; it includes a 25-point deficit among independents. In terms of his even worse rating on inflation, 38% within his own party disapprove, as do 42% of liberals, a stalwart Democratic group. Disapproval on inflation rises to 65% among moderates, 74% among independents and nine in 10 Republicans and conservatives alike.
Again, given low unemployment, Biden does less poorly — but not well — on creating jobs; 41% approve, 46% disapprove. His rating is similar on handling the war in Ukraine, 42-47%, approve-disapprove. In this case, while still underwater, approval is up 9 points since February, with a corresponding drop in those with no opinion. Disapproval is unchanged.
Biden peeks above 50% on handling one remaining issue tested in this survey, the pandemic: Here he has a 51-43% approval rating, a turnaround from 44-50% as the Omicron variant raged two months ago.
Overall, as mentioned, Biden’s general job approval rating is up 5 points, to 42%, from his low as president in February. That includes his best rating among Hispanic people (62% approve) since just after he took office and +9 points since February among urban residents.
Methodology
This ABC News/Washington Post poll was conducted by landline and cellular telephone April 24-28, 2022, in English and Spanish, among a random national sample of 1,004 adults, including 907 registered voters. Results have a margin of sampling error of 3.5 percentage points, including the design effect. Partisan divisions in the full sample are 29-25-40%, Democrats-Republicans-independents, and 30-26-38% among registered voters.
The survey was produced for ABC News by Langer Research Associates with sampling and data collection by Abt Associates. See details on the survey’s methodology here.
(SANTA FE, N.M.) — New mandatory evacuation orders have been issued in parts of New Mexico due to the rapid growth of a massive wildfire east of Santa Fe.
Since merging into one blaze a week ago, the Calf Canyon and Hermit’s Peak fires have burned 97,064 acres as of Saturday morning — a growth of over 30,000 acres in 24 hours, according to updates from state fire officials.
The blaze, which is primarily impacting San Miguel and Mora counties, is 32% contained with over 1,000 firefighters responding.
High wind speeds on Friday caused rapid fire spread east toward Las Vegas and south across Gallinas Canyon, fire officials said.
“It appears that part of the fire that had continued to grow through the night collapsed and sent a lot of embers out and caused some significant fire growth to the south,” Jason Coil, an operations section chief for a Southwest incident management team, said during a briefing Saturday.
Several areas in the south are now in mandatory evacuation status amid the rapid fire growth. Officials in San Miguel and Mora counties warned that the “emerging situation remains extremely serious, and that failure to evacuate could be fatal.”
Fire officials expect higher temperatures, lower relative humidity and wind conditions to make for a very active fire day Saturday.
“Today we’re supposed to get southwest winds… Tomorrow stronger, more southerly winds,” Coil said. “So there’s gonna be a big emphasis today to construct and hold this line and make sure that we do everything we can to protect structures within the perimeter.”
The fire danger continues throughout parts of the Southwest this weekend, with strong, gusty winds amid persistent dry conditions in the region. Red flag warnings are in effect from Nevada to New Mexico.
Several large wildfires continue to burn from the Texas Panhandle to Arizona, most of which are in New Mexico.
The widespread, relentless drought continues to provide ample dry fuels for fires to spread, with little relief in sight for the foreseeable future for a large swath of the drought zones. More than two-thirds of New Mexico is now facing extreme drought conditions, while the exceptional drought area has more than doubled in size over the past week, encompassing more than 15% of the state.
(NEW YORK) — As Russians seek to subtly protest the invasion of Ukraine amid a crackdown on anti-war sentiment, “Swan Lake” has been a go-to symbol.
The famous Russian ballet may seem like an unlikely choice to foreigners, but it is a powerful historical reference for Russians that is being used as one of several coded forms of protest during the war, according to Russian State University anthropologist Alexandra Arkhipova.
“It’s quite dangerous now to protest in Russia,” Arkhipova, who was abroad when the invasion started and has decided not to return to Moscow, told ABC News’ podcast “Start Here” from Berlin.
Anti-war demonstrations in Russia have been shut down by authorities and led to mass arrests. A law passed by the Russian parliament in early March criminalizes public opposition to the war — and makes it illegal to call the “military operation” a war.
“It’s almost impossible now in Russia to protest in direct forms, like to go in street and say, ‘Putin, go away,'” Arkhipova said. “But people are trying to invent as many other ways to protest as possible.”
One of those ways is through the image of ballerinas from “Swan Lake.” Graffiti depicting the line of four ballerinas in the “Dance of the Cygnets” has been popping up on walls in Russian cities. Earlier last month, when independent Russian news outlet TV Rain signed off indefinitely due to pressure over its coverage of the conflict, it did so with a clip from “Swan Lake.”
The moment was a nod to when Soviet state TV interrupted programming by airing the ballet on a loop after the death of Premier Leonid Brezhnev in 1982 while Soviet leaders selected a successor. The same thing happened again after the deaths of Yuri Andropov in 1984 and Konstantin Chernenko in 1985, as well as during a failed coup against Mikhail Gorbachev in 1991 — becoming a sign of political instability and upheaval.
“In the late Soviet times, this ballet was a symbol of all of the deaths of the Soviet leaders,” Arkhipova said. “And so that’s why it became a sign that we are waiting for Putin to die.”
“Swan Lake” graffiti has popped up before the war as well, including when Russian President Vladimir Putin was inaugurated to his fourth presidential term.
Another type of coded message that’s been popping up “everywhere,” including on the walls of buildings, is a slogan with eight asterisks that stands for “no war,” or “net voyny” in Russian, Arkhipova said.
“Very often, people are changing their avatars in social media to these eight asterisks,” she said. “It’s the way to say no war instead of saying no war.”
Despite the risk of fines or possibly jail, protesters persist in an attempt to cut through the misinformation and “informational blockades” about the circumstances of the war, Arkhipova said.
“Many Russian people, they even don’t know what is going on because the blockage is quite severe,” she said. “The more people can hear about massacre in Bucha, about violence, about soldiers killed from both sides, about bombing and so on, the harder for them to accept the fact that we are not saviors anymore, we are aggressors.”
(FLORENCE, Ala.) — An Alabama corrections deputy and suspect charged with capital murder have been missing since Friday morning after leaving the jail for a court appointment that did not exist, said authorities, who warned the suspect should be considered armed and “extremely dangerous.”
Lauderdale County Sheriff’s Office employee Vicky White was last seen escorting inmate Casey White to the local courthouse on Friday around 9:40 a.m. for an “alleged mental health evaluation,” Sheriff Rick Singleton told reporters.
“We have confirmed that there was no mental health evaluation scheduled,” Singleton said.
Vicky White was also alone with the inmate, which is a “strict violation of policy,” he said, noting that Casey White should have been escorted by two deputies given his charges. The two are not related, the sheriff said.
As the assistant director of corrections, Vicky White is in charge of coordinating transportation between the detention center and the court, and the breach of protocol wasn’t flagged by her employees, the sheriff said.
Vicky White told a booking officer that she was going to the doctor after dropping off the inmate, but she never made that appointment either, authorities said.
The sheriff’s office did not realize the two were missing until 3:30 p.m. Friday, when the booking officer reported he was unable to get ahold of Vicky White and her phone was going to voicemail. They then realized that the inmate was not back at the detention center, either, Singleton said.
The patrol vehicle the two took from the detention center was located in the parking lot of a nearby shopping center, authorities said. The car was spotted in the parking lot as early as 11 a.m. Friday, authorities said.
Investigators are searching for any footage that can shed light on what happened, going off the inmate’s phone logs to determine if his escape was premeditated and looking into the previous interactions between the deputy and inmate. Authorities are considering all angles, Singleton said.
“Did she assist him in escaping? That’s obviously a possibility,” Singleton said. “We’re assuming at this point that she was taken against her will unless we can absolutely prove otherwise.”
Vicky White has been an employee of the sheriff’s office for 25 years. The office is “shocked” that she is missing, Singleton said, describing her as an “exemplary employee.”
The deputy was armed with a 9 mm pistol, authorities said.
“Casey White should be considered armed and extremely dangerous,” Singleton said. “Right now we hope and pray we get him before somebody gets hurt.”
The FBI, U.S. Marshals Service and Alabama Law Enforcement Agency are assisting in the search, according to Huntsville ABC affiliate WAAY.
The state has issued a “blue alert,” which is activated when an Alabama officer has been killed or seriously injured and the perpetrator is at large.
Casey White, 38, is described by authorities as 6 feet, 6 inches tall and 252 pounds, with salt and pepper hair, hazel eyes and tattoos on both arms. Vicky White, 56, is described as 5 foot, 5 inches tall and 160 pounds, with blonde hair and brown eyes.
“Casey White is believed to be a serious threat to the corrections officer and the public,” the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency said in its alert.
The suspect was arrested in 2020 and charged with two counts of capital murder in a nearly 5-year-old cold case that authorities said was a murder for hire, AL.com reported at the time. He was in the Lauderdale County jail awaiting trial, set to begin on June 13, according to WAAY.
(GRAY, Ga.) — A husband has been charged with the murder of his wife in Georgia after it was initially claimed in a 911 call that she had died by suicide, according to the Jones County Sheriff’s Office.
Shyanne Schroeder was found dead of a gunshot wound to the head on March 27, when deputies responded to the call, the sheriff’s office said.
Her husband, Troy Newton Scarborough, of Gray, Georgia, was arrested following his wife’s death and charged with possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.
However, while he remained in custody, police reviewed the evidence in their investigation and now believe he was responsible for killing Schroeder.
“The responding deputies got the feeling that something wasn’t right about this case, and thankfully they trusted their instincts,” Sheriff Butch Reece said in a statement.
Scarborough was charged Friday with felony murder, multiple counts of aggravated assault and possession of firearm during the commission of a felony in connection with his wife’s death.
“I would like to thank our investigators and deputies for all their hard work, without which there may have been a huge miscarriage of justice,” Reece said in the statement. “I also want to thank the Federal Bureau of Investigations for their technical expertise and assistance in this case.”
Scarborough is being held without bond, according to the sheriff’s office.
(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 earlier this month launched a full-scale ground offensive in eastern Ukraine’s disputed Donbas region, as it attempts to capture the strategic port city of Mariupol and secure a coastal corridor to the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Apr 30, 3:02 pm
Angelina Jolie visits refugees in Ukraine
Actress Angelina Jolie visited Lviv, Ukraine, on Saturday, meeting with officials and posing for photos with children at a railway station.
Jolie is a special envoy for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. More than 12 million people have fled their homes in Ukraine and more than 5 million have fled to neighboring countries, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday.
The Lviv Regional State Administration shared photos of Jolie being informed about the situation in the area as did several residents of the city, including those at a bakery, Lviv Croissants, where the actress stopped.
Apr 30, 8:26 am
7,000 disappearances reported since the war began, Ukraine says
In just two months, Ukrainian law enforcement agencies have received over 7,000 reports of disappearances. About half of them were found, according to Mary Akopyan, Ukraine’s deputy minister of internal affairs.
The number of people in Ukraine who have disappeared due to the war is unprecedented in modern world history, Hakobyan claimed in a meeting with a delegation of the International Commission on Missing Persons, an intergovernmental organization that addresses the issue of missing persons as a result of armed conflict, human rights violations and natural disasters.
The government received 2,000 unrecognizable bodies, 1,282 of which were later identified, according to the ministry.
An ICMP group of specialists will be arriving in Kyiv in a few weeks to provide help in identifying victims, according to the ministry.
Apr 29, 4:03 pm
Russian troops behind schedule by ‘at least several days’: U.S.
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby said Friday that Russia’s military has weakened since invading Ukraine.
“They have suffered thousands of casualties. They have lost airplanes. They have lost tanks. They have certainly lost battles,” he said.
Russian forces are now trying to avoid mistakes they made around Kyiv earlier in the invasion, but stiff Ukrainian resistance and a more cautious approach seem to be slowing their advance, a senior U.S. defense official said.
The Russians, who were plagued by fuel and food shortages during earlier fighting in the north, are now wary of getting too far ahead of their supply lines, the official said.
Another factor slowing their progress is that their tactic of launching artillery and airstrikes to soften areas before moving ground troops forward is not working well.
“Their ground movements are fairly plodding because the artillery and airstrikes that they’re launching against Ukrainian positions are not having the effect that they want them to have,” the official said. “Ukrainians are still able to resist.”
The Pentagon believes Russian forces are behind schedule by “at least several days” on their various lines of approach, the official said.
“We believe they meant to be much further along in terms of the total encirclement of Ukrainian troops in the east, and they have not been able to link north with south. In fact, they’re nowhere close to linking north and south as the Ukrainians continue to fight back,” the official said.
But Russia retains certain advantages in the eastern Donbas region, where its forces have high numbers and benefit from shorter lines of communication because they’re fighting closer to their own border.
And while there is already fighting in Donbas, the Pentagon believes Russia is still setting conditions “for a sustained and larger and longer offensive” in the region, the defense official said.
“It could go on for some time. We’ve described it as a potential knife fight, and I think it’s beginning to shape up to be exactly that,” the official said.
Almost 20 shipment flights have arrived from seven different nations in the last 24 hours carrying mines, small arms ammunition, rockets and body armor, according to the official.
Over the next 24 hours, more than 12 flights carrying U.S. military aid for Ukraine are expected to arrive in the region, including howitzers, 155mm artillery rounds and the first shipment of Phoenix Ghost drones, the official said.
Apr 29, 3:39 pm
American killed while fighting in Ukraine
U.S. citizen Willy Joseph Cancel was killed in Ukraine while fighting alongside Ukrainian troops against invading Russian forces, his family confirmed to ABC News early Friday. The news was first reported by CNN.
Cancel, a 22-year-old former U.S. Marine, “was eager to volunteer” when he learned about the war in Ukraine, according to his wife, Brittany Cancel.
“He went there wanting to help people, he had always felt that that was his main mission in life,” Brittany Cancel told ABC News in a statement. “My husband was very brave and a hero.”
Before going to Ukraine, Cancel was working as a detention officer in Kentucky. He also had dreams of becoming a police officer or firefighter, according to his wife.
“I did not expect to be a widow at 23 years old or for our son to be without a father,” she said. “All I want is for him to come home, and to give him the proper burial he deserves.”
An official with the U.S. Department of State told ABC News on Friday morning that they “are aware of these reports and are closely monitoring the situation,” but declined to comment further “due to privacy considerations.”
State Department spokesperson Ned Price told MSNBC later on Friday that the department is “in the process of reaching out to the family … to learn more details, to ascertain how we might be in a position to best support the family.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki expressed her condolences to Cancel’s family at Friday’s briefing, saying he “certainly sounded like a very passionate young man.”
“A wife is mourning and our hearts are with them,” she said.
Psaki also urged Americans not to travel to Ukraine.
“We know people want to help, but we do encourage Americans to find other ways to do so rather than traveling” to Ukraine, she said.
Apr 29, 2:36 pm
Pentagon spokesman emotional while speaking about Putin’s ‘depravity’
When Pentagon press secretary John Kirby was asked at Friday’s briefing whether he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin is a rational actor, he first responded by saying he couldn’t speak to his psyche, adding, “It’s hard to look at what he’s doing in Ukraine, what his forces are doing in Ukraine, and think that any ethical, moral individual could justify that.”
Kirby then appeared to get choked up and paused for several seconds. He said, “Sorry, it’s difficult to look at some of the images and imagine that any well-thinking, serious, mature leader would do that. So I can’t talk to his psychology, but I think we can all speak to his depravity.”
Kirby later apologized, saying, “I didn’t mean to get emotional. I apologize for that. I don’t want to make this about me. But I’ve been around the military a long, long time and I’ve known friends who didn’t make it back. It’s just hard.”
He went on, “It’s difficult to look at that and it’s hard to square his — let’s just call it what it is, his BS: This is about Nazism in Ukraine, and it’s about protecting Russians in Ukraine, and it’s about defending Russian national interests when none of them, none of them were threatened by Ukraine. It’s hard to square that rhetoric by what he’s actually doing inside Ukraine to innocent people. Shot in the back of the head, hands tied behind their backs. Women, pregnant women being killed. Hospitals being bombed. I mean, it’s just unconscionable.”
Kirby announced at Friday’s briefing that the U.S. has started “training with Ukrainian armed forces on key systems at U.S. military installations in Germany.”
“These efforts build on the initial artillery training that Ukraine’s forces have already received elsewhere, and also includes training on radar systems and armored vehicles that have been recently announced as part of security assistance packages,” Kirby said.
Apr 29, 9:14 am
Pentagon spokesman: Putin ‘absolutely shouldn’t be’ welcome at G-20
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby told CNN Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin “absolutely shouldn’t be” at the G-20 summit, set for November in Bali.
“He has isolated Russia by his own actions and he should continue to be isolated by the international community,” Kirby said.
“I can’t speak for President Biden or what the schedule might offer for the president, for United States attendance. But it’s inappropriate, I think, for the entire international community to keep treating Russia as if things were normal, because it’s not,” Kirby said.
-ABC News’ Matt Seyler
Apr 29, 5:53 am
Journalist killed by Russian bombardment in Kyiv
At least one person — a journalist — was killed in a rocket attack on a residential building in Kyiv on Thursday evening, ABC News has learned.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Kilitschko said Friday that rescuers had found the body of a victim amid the rubble.
Radio Liberty, a service of the U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, reported that one of its employees, Vira Gyrych, was killed when a Russian missile hit her apartment in the Ukrainian capital on Thursday. Her body was found beneath the wreckage Friday morning, according to the report.
Gyrych had worked as a journalist and producer for Radio Liberty’s Kyiv bureau since 2018. Prior to that, she worked for leading Ukrainian television channels, according to Radio Liberty.
“The editorial staff of Radio Liberty expresses its condolences to the family of Vira Gyrych and will remember her as a bright and kind person, a true professional,” Radio Liberty said in its report.
Israeli Ambassador to Ukraine Michael Brodsky also confirmed Gyrych’s death in a Twitter post, saying she was a former employee of the Israeli embassy in Kyiv.
Thursday’s rocket attack came as United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visited Kyiv. Five Russian missiles flew into the city, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. At least 10 people were injured, including four who were hospitalized, according to the Kyiv City Council.
Apr 29, 5:02 am
UN chief pledges to ‘fight with the use of force’
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres admitted Thursday that “the U.N. Security Council has not been able to do everything in its power” to resolve the war in Ukraine, as he pledged to “fight with the use of force.”
“We will not give up,” Guterres said during a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv.
According to Guterres, U.N. staff are already providing on-site assistance in 30 locations across Ukraine. The U.N. chief called Russia’s invasion of Ukraine “a violation of the U.N. Charter.” One of the organization’s values, he said, “is the need that territorial integrity of the countries must be respected.”
“This is fundamental,” Guterres added.
Guterres visited Kyiv as the Ukrainian capital was hit by two missile strikes on Thursday evening. Five missiles flew into the city, according to Zelenskyy. At least 10 people were injured, including four who were hospitalized, according to the Kyiv City Council.
“This says a lot about Russia’s true attitude to global institutions. About the efforts of the Russian leadership to humiliate the U.N. and everything that the organization represents,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly broadcast.
Earlier on Thursday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova accused Western countries of openly calling on Ukraine to attack Russian territory with the weapons they supply to Kyiv.
“We have already commented the other day on statements by British Deputy Defense Minister [James] Heappey about okaying Ukraine’s strikes on Russian military targets,” Zakharova told reporters in Moscow, according to Russian state media. “In other words, the West is openly calling on Kiev to attack Russia, even with weapons received from NATO countries.”
According to Zakharova, Kyiv has taken this as a guide to action, evidenced by the Ukrainian military’s shelling of Russian border territories over the past few weeks that resulted in casualties and destruction. Zakharova said the Ukrainian strikes were “further evidence that Zelenskyy’s regime is not independent in its decisions and is completely dependent on external handlers.”
Zakharova also stressed that such “criminal activity” of the Ukrainian military against Russian territory cannot go unanswered.
“I would like Kyiv and Western capitals to take seriously the statements of our country’s defense ministry that further Ukrainian provocations to strike Russian targets will definitely lead to a harsh response from Russia,” she said.
At a press conference in Vienna on Thursday, International Atomic Energy Agency Director-General Rafael Grossi warned that Russian missiles over Ukrainian power plants could cause a nuclear accident. Grossi, who recently visited Ukraine and its Chernobyl nuclear power plant, said the Ukrainian government officially informed his agency, the nuclear watchdog of the U.N., of a video surveillance camera recording the flight of a missile directly over the South Ukraine nuclear power plant near the city of Yuzhnoukrainsk on April 16.
“The IAEA is studying the evidence and if it is confirmed, the incident will have extremely serious consequences,” Grossi said. “If such a missile changed its trajectory, it could seriously affect the physical integrity of the nuclear power plant, which could lead to a nuclear accident.”
-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Yuriy Zaliznyak, Uliana Lototska and Nataliia Kushnir
Apr 28, 6:41 pm
Russia could be ‘intensifying’ forced displacement of civilians: US official
The U.S. has “credible information” that Russia could be “intensifying” the forced displacement of civilians as it plans to overthrow local governments in southern and eastern Ukraine, a senior U.S. diplomat said Thursday.
Michael Carpenter, the U.S. Ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, told reporters there is “credible reporting” that after failing to topple the central government in Kyiv, Russian forces are forcibly removing Ukrainian civilians from areas in the south and east — and could be “intensifying” those efforts as they seek to set up proxy local governments.
Carpenter said he has also now deemed “credible” the reports that Russian forces are forcibly displacing Ukrainian civilians, often through “filtration camps” where many are “brutally” interrogated, to tamp down on Ukrainian support in these parts of the war-torn country.
Carpenter repeatedly declined to provide more details to back up these claims, saying only, “We have very credible information from a variety of different sources that point to Russia’s plans.”
Just after the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was offered the chance by the U.S. government to leave the city of Kyiv for his own safety. What he is said to have responded has come to embody the defiance of the former comedic actor turned wartime leader: “The fight is here,” he reportedly said, “I need ammunition, not a ride.”
Early U.S. intelligence assessments suggested that Russia would take Kyiv within days of attacking Ukraine, but a succession of setbacks for the Russian military, and fierce resistance on the Ukrainian side, means the war is now dragging into its third month. Throughout it all, President Zelenskyy has been the face of Ukrainian resistance – addressing his people on social media daily, as well as parliaments and leaders around the world.
The Ukrainian government’s communications strategy has proved important in both rallying morale and helping the country secure key military aid as the war has progressed, experts and analysts say.
‘A man on the street’
In the early phase of the war, the defiant message of Zelenskyy’s early addresses, often filmed by himself in front of his office in the heart of the capital and posted on his social media accounts, was “critical,” according to Orysia Lutsevych, a research fellow in the Russia and Eurasia Programme at the think tank Chatham House.
“The very first weeks of war were very dark times where there was a lot of anxiety and uncertainty about Kyiv, whether it will be able to stand Russian assault,” she said. “And that voice of Zelenskyy, almost like it was breaking that darkness, gave a communication channel to the world.”
Zelenskyy has appeared in a constant stream of addresses since the war started, often decked out in combat fatigues, directly addressing the Ukrainian people but also the international media, who relied on these broadcasts as a daily source of information that would be reached by millions in the west.
By remaining in Kyiv at the time, Zelenskyy also faced personal danger, broadcasting from the capital despite Russian missiles hitting targets in the city every night and Russian saboteur units allegedly sent to kill him.
“We are all here. Our military are here, as are our people and whole society,” Zelenskyy said in one of his characteristic selfie-style videos posted at the time. “We’re all here defending our independence and our country. And we’ll go on doing that. Glory to our defenders! Glory to Ukraine.”
It’s a style which now seems familiar, but at the time was a clear indication that the current Ukrainian government had appreciated the importance of wartime messaging, according to David Patrikarakos, a contributing editor at the online magazine UnHerd and author of the book “War in 140 Characters: How Social Media Is Reshaping Conflict in the Twenty-First Century.”
“You see in those videos that Zelenskyy is both the President of Ukraine and a literal man in the street,” Patrikarakos told ABC News. “And the Ukrainian messaging at the beginning of the war was really focused on one message, which is, we will fight, but we are civilians who do not want to fight. The war has imposed this upon us.”
While Zelenskyy has a background as a performer — famously playing a teacher who accidentally become president in the sitcom ‘Servant of the People’ — as a leader on the international stage he was perhaps best known as a figure in the impeachment of U.S. President Donald Trump, during which he was notably quiet. Now, he has drawn praise for rising to the challenges of a wartime communicator.
“I think what is interesting is that he is metamorphosing, right, how he changed and completely and blended with the new reality fast,” Lutsevych said. “That transformation happened quickly, partially because he is an actor, he understands the new setting, the new scene and he plays it.”
Channeling Churchill, Shakespeare and MLK
Yet for all his success as a communicator, at the core of Zelenskyy’s success as been the moral authority he carries in the face of the Russian invasion, according to John Herbst, the senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center and former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine.
“His prominence is a result of his what I would call his sound and statesmanlike response to, again, this absolutely dreadful circumstance in which he found himself,” Herbst told ABC News. “He’s demonstrated courage, boldness and, of course, the ability to frame his dilemma and his needs for all who want to listen, which includes the entire Western world.”
That framing, as seen during his addresses to parliaments and legislatures around the world, has made his calls for international aid particularly effective. For the American people Zelenskyy invoked Pearl Harbor and quoted Martin Luther King. For the British, he quoted Shakespeare and Winston Churchill.
Zelenskyy’s tour was met with widespread acclaim, with tearful legislators resonating with his country’s struggle as Zelenskyy appealed for more armaments and aid. He has not held back his criticism too, particularly for the U.N. Security Council, who he accused of failing to stand up to the Russian veto.
“What he’s done is humanize the conflict,” Patrikarakos. “He made people care about Ukraine. And that’s what affects policy.”
The U.N. General Assembly has since adopted a procedure requiring a meeting of the body within 10 days if a veto is used in the Security Council by one of the five permanent members, including Russia.
“In an ideal world, if you have extraordinary needs, which Zelenskyy most definitely has, and you have nations that are sympathetic to you, they will meet your extraordinary needs when their interests require it,” Herbst said. “And then you do everything behind closed doors. The problem is that with this administration in Washington and with other governments in the West, you had the sympathy, but you had a certain nearsightedness that prevented them from doing what Ukraine needed. So he appealed publicly others in the United States and elsewhere to find satisfaction of his needs.”
Zelenskyy, who is Jewish, found a more mixed reception in the Israeli Knesset, where his evocation of the actions of Nazi Germany drew criticism from some lawmakers and the media.
“The war is terrible but the comparison to the horrors of the Holocaust and the final solution is outrageous,” one Israeli minister tweeted.
And his performances when being questioned by journalists have not been as strong as his pre-written speeches, according to Lutsevych, but Zelenskyy and his small team of advisers essential to shaping the communications strategy have largely been successful.
The regular communications of the government via social media, as well as the provision of translation and logistical services to news outlets, has proved important in disseminating their messages wider, according to Diane Nemec Ignashev, professor of Russian and the liberal arts at Carleton College.
“In terms of outreach, my estimation would be that Ukrainian official sources, insofar as they feed the Ukrainian news agencies, which in turn feed social media and the foreign media, are doing an excellent job getting information out to diverse audiences,” Ignashev told ABC News.
The future
For the most part, Zelenskyy has found a receptive audience in the west. Ukraine has also found a friendly reception in other key areas of diplomacy, with Politico reporting last month on Ukraine’s network of lobbyists — some of whom are working pro bono — who have pushed for military aid and sanctions on Russia in Washington, D.C., and London.
Now, the war looks set to drag on much longer than anticipated, with some analysts now suggesting the fighting could continue through to the end of the year, and with that the focus of messaging has already changed. Early on, Ukraine’s messaging highlighted its defiance, hammering home that there was a war that they believed they can win. Now the focus is on evidence of war crimes to keep the international community focused on meeting their obligations to Ukraine, Lutsevych said.
Russia has defended itself vigorously against accusations of war crimes, even alleging that photographs and videos published by the Ukrainian authorities alleging “crimes” by Russian troops in cities like Bucha were a “provocation.”
“That is important because that could also lead to defections and splits within the elite inside Russia,” Lutsevych said on Ukrainian efforts to demonstrate evidence of war crimes. “So I think we’ll see more and more information on war crimes and also what is happening on the occupied territories, temporarily occupied territories Russia controls.”
And the problem the Ukrainian authorities face is how to keep the international community fixed on their interests, continuing to send the arms and financial aid the country needs to fight and stay afloat.
“The challenge for the Ukrainians is how do you keep all this fresh. News cycles are fickle things, especially in this day and age,” according to Patrikarakos.
“In the final analysis, the war on the ground is the most important thing, that’s how people are getting killed,” he said. “But let’s not forget this: communications, information warfare, whatever you want to call it, affects policy. Policy affects war. If policy brings you Stingers and Javelins and N-LAWs, all those things that have faced the Russian army for the last two months, that’s what they’ve done very well.”
(NEW YORK) — Anyone who has lived in New York or visited the city is likely familiar with the smells — and especially, the tastes — of its beloved halal carts.
And yet, for one entire month of the year, the workers running these carts can’t eat their own food during daylight.
During the holy month of Ramadan, Muslims around the world fast from dawn to dusk. The exact dates are determined by the lunar Islamic calendar, which is a few days shorter than the standard 365-day solar calendar, meaning Ramadan occurs 10 days earlier each year and cycles throughout all seasons. This year, it is being observed from April 2 to May 1.
Abstaining all day from food and drink, including water, is no easy feat for anyone, but those whose livelihoods involve serving food may face an added level of difficulty.
“It can be hard to have a job over a hot grill, especially when Ramadan is in the summer, in this small space and you’re fasting for 15, 16 or 17 hours,” said Ahmed Ahmed, who has worked at a halal cart off Everitt Street in DUMBO, Brooklyn, since immigrating to New York five years ago. “But that is just part of it.”
Originally from Egypt, Ahmed said he wouldn’t characterize the food he serves as similar to what he’d find on the street back home. Indeed, “halal” is not actually a certain genre of dishes. While the popularity of these carts have nearly caused “halal” to become synonymous with a type of cuisine, it’s just an Arabic word describing permissible foods and meats under Islamic law — much as “kosher” is in Judaism.
At these carts, the meat is halal, meaning it was butchered in line with Islamic protocol underscoring hygienic and ethical practices.
“It’s a blessing to be able to serve people food, especially to fellow Muslims looking for halal food in specific,” said Alam Hussain, who runs a cart in Long Island City in Queens and emigrated from Bangladesh 11 years ago.
Despite their strong presence and followings, halal carts are relatively new in New York. While food carts have a long history in the city, halal offerings were not part of the story until the late 1980s and early 1990s, when a growing influx of South Asian and Arab immigrants entered the street vendor space. As the ethnic composition of the city changed, so did its offerings on its streets.
For about a century and a half, street vending has been a common entry-point into the job market for New York’s immigrants. Since the mid 1800s, several immigrant populations — including Greeks, Italians and Jews — have reigned over the city’s street food scene at different points. Most recently, it’s been New York’s Muslim community.
Research from Queens College, comparing street vendor demographic data, tallied that 306 German and Italian immigrants ran street carts in New York in 1990, compared to none in 2005.
Meanwhile, immigrants from Egypt, Bangladesh and Afghanistan accounted for 69 vendors across New York in 1990, yet 563 in 2005.
Halal carts seem to be operated predominantly by those hailing from these three nations, but there are Muslim vendors from several other countries, too. This also means that each cart offers its own take on the popular dishes. The lamb or chicken served is spiced differently cart to cart. Some include grilled peppers and onions, and others top their plates off with french fries. (There are also many carts that serve other, distinct cuisines — like African or Asian food — that just happen to use halal meat.)
“Chicken over rice is the most popular dish at my cart,” Hussain said. “But I serve samosas, too.” As a South Asian immigrant, he also offers mint chutney, as well as other items and condiments that reflect the food of his personal background.
Across the board, however, one thing remains key: the legendary white sauce. “It’s yogurt, mayonnaise, tons of spices. There’s not really anything like it anywhere else. It’s halal cart sauce,” explained Hussain.
At first, however, these halal carts did not sell the chicken, rice and white sauce you’d expect to see today. Halal Guys — likely the most well-known cart that began as a small operation in midtown Manhattan and now operates almost 100 stores internationally — began as a hot dog stand.
Its founders, Mohamed Abouelenein, Ahmed Elsaka, and Abdelbaset Elsayed, all of whom were born in Egypt, opened their cart in 1990 outside the Hilton hotel on 53rd Street and Sixth Avenue. They sold typical fare found at other carts at the time: hot dogs. During this era, New York saw a rising wave of Muslim immigrants, many of whom began working as cab drivers who’d stop at the stand and suggest that the three friends sell hot, affordable, tasty, familiar halal meals on the go.
The history of halal carts, as well as their passionate fanbases, speaks both to Muslim immigration patterns and to the community’s relationship with the city. Still, Muslims lived in New York well before the 1980s, dating all the way back to the 17th century when Dutch merchants colonized Manhattan. Historians also estimate that about 10% to 15% of slaves brought to America from West Africa were Muslim, although many were coerced to convert to Christianity.
Today, about 9%, or 800,000, of New Yorkers are Muslim, according to researched published by Muslims for American Progress in 2018. It’s a striking number compared to the national figure: Muslims account for just 1% of Americans. This means over 20% of the U.S. Muslim population lives in New York City alone. While the community has long been a pillar of New York’s economy and culture, it is slowly becoming more represented in policies and leadership, too. Eid-ul-Fitr, a celebration all about feasting and family to commemorate the end of Ramadan, has been a New York City public school holiday since 2015. It will be observed this year on May 2.
Of course, the journey for visibility and equality has been one full of obstacles. The Sept. 11 attacks notably shed a light, one that was often misinformed and narrow, on Muslim Americans, especially in New York City.
Eraky Badawy, who emigrated from Egypt in 1999 and has worked at a halal cart in the Financial District close to Ground Zero for over 20 years, says he did face disparaging comments after 2001. “But I just have to be good, you know, that’s all I can do. I feed people, and I talk to people. It’s my job, and I care about giving people food and kindness.”
Badawy’s attitude is common across the Muslim-American community, and he attributes his values and sense of self to his faith. Even with fasting during Ramadan, he says he wouldn’t necessarily classify it as difficult. “Hard? Not hard. My eight year old daughter does it! It’s not about being easy or hard. It’s part of our religion and what it teaches us and how it brings people together.”
(HOMESTEAD, Fla.) — Four Florida correctional officers were arrested on murder charges for allegedly beating an inmate to death, authorities said.
Christopher Rolon, 29, Kirk Walton, 34, and Ronald Connor, 24, were arrested Thursday following a monthslong investigation of the fatal incident at the Dade Correctional Institution in Miami-Dade County, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said.
A fourth officer, 28-year-old Jeremy Godbolt, was arrested by the LAX Airport Police at the Los Angeles International Airport earlier Friday, the agency said.
They all face multiple charges, including second-degree murder, conspiracy to commit second-degree murder, aggravated battery on an elderly or disabled person and cruel treatment of a detainee, officials said.
“Today is a day of accountability,” Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle, whose office is prosecuting the case, told reporters during a briefing Friday.
Inmates “should not be subject to forms of ‘back alley’ justice, which are actions that violation Florida law,” she said.
The incident occurred on the morning of Feb. 14, before the inmate, Ronald Gene Ingram, was scheduled to be transferred to a correctional facility in Lake County, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, which led the investigation into the death along with the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office.
After Ingram reportedly threw urine on an officer, he was placed in handcuffs and removed from his cell in the mental health unit, at which point the officers “began to beat him,” the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said in a statement.
“The inmate was beaten so badly he had to be carried to the transport van,” the agency said.
Rundle said that a witness recalled hearing another officer say that Ingram, who was serving a life sentence for murder, “would never throw urine on another correctional officer again.”
Prosecutors displayed surveillance footage on Friday that they said reveals the moments before and after the beating. Cameras inside the Dade Correctional Facility captured officers escorting Ingram from his cell to the transport van, with Ingram appearing to walk under his own power, prosecutors said.
Footage from exterior cameras minutes later then reveal the officers escorting Ingram, whose legs are dragging and head is slumped, into the van that would transfer him to another facility, prosecutors said.
According to Rundle, the officers beat Ingram sometime in between the moments captured on camera.
“We believe that the [Florida Department of Law Enforcement] investigation has developed sufficient evidence to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Ingram was beaten out of the line of sight of the institution, where there were no surveillance cameras,” she said.
Ingram was placed in a compartment of the van alone. During a stop in Ocala, an over 300-mile drive from Dade Correctional Institution, he was found dead, authorities said.
The inmate’s death was caused by a punctured lung leading to internal bleeding, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. He also had injuries to his face and torso “consistent with a beating,” the agency said.
The incident initially led the Florida Department of Corrections to place 10 officers on administrative leave. One officer also resigned over it, the department said.
“What happened in this case is completely unacceptable and is not a representation of our system or of Dade Correctional Institution as a whole,” Florida Department of Corrections Secretary Ricky Dixon said in a statement Thursday. “The staff involved in this case failed, and as an agency we will not stand for this.”
During the first court appearance for Rolon, Walton and Connor on Friday, Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Mindy Glazer determined there was probable cause to hold them without bond.
Walton’s attorney, David Donet argued during the hearing that there wasn’t any proof that the officer caused serious bodily injury to Ingram.
Rolon’s attorney, Edward Martinez, told a local station following the hearing that “up until now he is innocent until the state can prove this beyond a reasonable doubt.”
ABC News has reached out to Connor’s attorney for comment.
It is unclear if the fourth officer arrested, Godbolt, has an attorney.
ABC News’ Will McDuffie contributed to this report.
