(COPENHAGEN, Denmark) — Denmark is the first country to announce it is temporarily stopping its COVID-19 vaccination program due to high rates of immunization and falling infection numbers.
In a statement, the country’s National Board of Health said it would not be issuing invitations to citizens to get vaccinated after May 15.
Health officials said the country, which was the first in the European Union to lift mitigation measures in February, “is in a good place” following the omicron wave.
The Danish Health Authority on Thursday announced additional measures easing COVID restrictions in the country, including the easing of mask rules in healthcare, elderly care or in parts of the social sector. Patients admitted to hospitals will only be tested if they are exhibiting symptoms of the virus.
Data from the Danish Health Authority shows that, as of April 20, 89% of those in Denmark aged 12 and older are fully vaccinated and 76% have received a booster. About 37% of those aged 5 to 11 are also fully vaccinated.
“Spring has come and we have good control of the epidemic, which seems to be subsiding,” Bolette Søborg, director of the department of preparedness and infectious diseases at the DHA, said in a statement. “Admission rates are stable, and we also expect them to fall soon. Therefore, we are rounding up the mass vaccination program against COVID-19.”
Danish health authorities said people can still get vaccinated over the spring and summer if they want to, with Søborg highlighting the increased risk for serious COVID complications in unvaccinated people over age 40 or who are pregnant.
Additionally, a second booster is being offered to those who are immunocompromised or at high risk of severe disease.
COVID-19 cases and deaths have been trending downward since the end of the omicron wave. Figures from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control show Denmark recorded 1,484 new infections Tuesday, a 65% decrease from the 4,322 recorded one month ago. New deaths also fell 73% over the same period from 41 to 11.
However, Danish health authorities said the vaccination program will resume in the fall, when COVID-19 cases are expected to increase.
“The Danish Health and Medicines Authority’s assessment is that there will probably be a need to vaccinate against COVID-19 again in the autumn,” the release read. “This is because the virus that causes COVID-19 is an unstable virus that can mutate, just as we saw with the omicron variant.”
Denmark’s decision to halt its vaccination campaign comes as countries around the world have had vastly different responses to the pandemic in recent weeks.
Most European countries and the United States have lifted COVID-19 restrictions while China has implemented lockdown measures in its two largest cities — Beijing and Shanghai — following outbreaks of the virus.
(CHARLESTON, S.C.) — The fight to pass the Clementa C. Pinckney Hate Crimes Act in South Carolina is now intensifying, as several Republican state senators hold out against it. The state is one of only two in the U.S. that does not have hate crime legislation signed into law.
Pinckney, a state senator and pastor, was one of nine Black parishioners murdered by Dylann Roof in a shooting at the Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina, on June 17, 2015. Roof was sentenced to death in 2017 after being convicted on federal hate crime charges.
The proposed bill aims to enhance the sentencing and penalties under state law against perpetrators convicted of crimes proven to be fueled by hatred. The only other state without such a law in the books is Wyoming.
The bill has stalled in the state senate for months following objections from eight Republicans, including state Sens. Brian Adams and Larry Grooms, who represents the district where the shooting occurred.
The South Carolina Republican Party and the offices of Adams and Grooms did not immediately respond to requests for comment from ABC News.
Black lawmakers gathered in front of Republican Gov. Henry McMaster’s office inside the South Carolina State House on Wednesday to urge Republicans to allow the bill to be taken up for a debate on the Senate floor.
McMaster’s office did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
They played a two-minute video statement from Polly Shepard, a survivor of the massacre, who called out the Republican lawmakers by name.
“Eight members of the South Carolina Senate are giving a safe haven to hate. Everytime you look at Sen. Pinckney’s photograph, you should be reminded that hate killed him,” Sheppard said.
She pleaded with lawmakers: “Why are you holding up this bill? What is wrong with protecting us from hate crimes?”
Democratic state Sen. Mia McLeod slammed Republicans, telling reporters that “there is no appetite on the Republican side for conversations or remarks.”
State Rep. JA Moore, whose sister was among the nine shooting victims, told ABC News that he spoke with Adams after the press conference over his lack of support.
“No piece of legislation, no speech, no demonstration, no removal of any flag or monument is going to remove the type of hate that was in Dylann Roof’s heart when he shot and killed my sister and eight other parishioners,” Moore told ABC News.
He continued, “I’m a different person because of the hate that Dylann had in his heart for Black folks. But what this legislation will do is hold people accountable when they commit hateful actions.”
(SPRINGFIELD, Ill.) — A Black woman was finally named valedictorian at her Illinois high school nearly four decades after her graduation.
Tracey Meares, a law professor at Yale University, was a star student at Springfield High School in Springfield, Illinois. But when she graduated in 1984, she was not awarded the title of valedictorian despite having the highest academic ranking in her class, she said. Her story is now the subject of a new documentary, “No Title for Tracey.”
Meares would have been the first Black female valedictorian in the school’s history, but she was not awarded the title. Instead, the school did away with the valedictorian and salutatorian titles that year and Meares was recognized with a group as “top students.” The school went back to official titles in 1992.
“As a 17-year-old, achieving something like being valedictorian is probably the biggest thing…It was incredibly disappointing,” Meares told “Good Morning America.”
Meares said the snub was “very confusing” at first but she later processed the great lengths the school went to to deny her the title.
“I didn’t talk about it ever…Many of my best friends that I have known since I was an adult have asked me why I never told and I didn’t want to talk about it. It was terrible. It was really hard,” she reflected.
Meares went on to study engineering at the University of Illinois and then attended the University of Chicago Law School.
This year, her sister, Dr. Nicole Florence, a first-time filmmaker, turned Meares’ story into a documentary to spotlight the impact of structural racism.
On April 16, after a screening of the documentary in her hometown, Springfield Public Schools District 186 Superintendent Jennifer Gill presented Meares with the valedictorian medal — a surprise to Meares.
“I felt some pride and happiness that my parents who are sitting in the front row could see this happening because they were denied that 30 years ago,” Meares said. “I felt sadness that my grandparents weren’t there.”
Gill said she was “happy” to meet Meares and right this wrong.
“When we know better, we do better. By meeting Tracey and hearing about her lived experience, we know that honoring her with this title means so much more,” Gill told “GMA.” “We want every student to have a feeling of belonging in all aspects of school and a sense of becoming as they leave our schools with a plan for college and career. It is our responsibility to ensure that our system supports students in reaching their full potential. We have seen that high school experiences can have a profound, lifelong impact.”
“It was an honor to have Tracey here and a privilege to learn from such an accomplished alumna,” she added.
The recognition 38 years later is a gesture that Meares says she appreciates.
“Institutionally, there are people who are making an effort to to acknowledge that people are thinking wrong. That was harmful. And it wasn’t harmful, just to me as an individual. It was harmful to the community,” she said. “The thing to take away is for people to understand the ways in which discrimination can operate at a disproportionate rate at a structural level and that its downstream effects are enduring.”
Dinendra Haria/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — The head of the Food and Drug Administration on Thursday said the agency would move along to review Moderna’s data for its kid vaccine regardless of when Pfizer submits its data on kids under five, a move that will be welcome news to some parents who were upset that waiting to authorize the vaccines together would delay the timeline.
The FDA was considering reviewing the Moderna data for kids under six, which was submitted for an emergency use authorization on Thursday, alongside Pfizer’s data, which is expected to be submitted in the next few weeks, so that the vaccines could be compared side-by-side.
But on Thursday, FDA Commissioner Robert Califf told reporters the FDA would not “hold up” the Moderna application to wait for Pfizer.
“Most of the experts that I’ve talked with would say it would be ideal if they could be considered together. But if they don’t come in at the same time, then there’s not going to be a hold up on the Moderna application, just to make it come in at the same time,” Califf told reporters Thursday after a hearing on Capitol Hill, in comments that were later confirmed by an FDA spokesperson to ABC News.
A senior administration official also confirmed to ABC News the FDA would act “as expeditiously as possible” to authorize the Moderna vaccine, so long as it meets its standards.
The official said there would be no delay and the application would be judged “on its merits.”
Moderna, which is a two-shot vaccine, is different from Pfizer’s vaccine, which is a three-shot vaccine. Pfizer hasn’t finished gathering its data yet, but some expect it to be more effective because booster shots, or third shots, have shown to boost immune response in adults.
In the meantime, Moderna’s vaccine data is ready for review, though the company will continue to submit more data for its applications over the week or so.
Moderna’s trial found that the shots generated a strong immune response with no significant risks. The vaccine generated an antibody response roughly equivalent to the antibody response seen in adults, the company said.
At the same time, experts have questioned the low efficacy numbers against infection. During the omicron surge, two doses of the vaccine were roughly 51% effective against COVID-19 infection, including asymptomatic and mild infections, for children 6 months to 2 years old, and 37% effective among kids 2 years to 6 years old.
But Moderna’s Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Paul Burton, defended the vaccine’s efficacy against infection, arguing that omicron led to more breakthrough infections, but that the shot produced an antibody response that was even stronger in the young kids than it was in the 18-24-year-olds.
“I think moms and dads and caregivers, doctors and nurses should be reassured by this result,” Burton told ABC News.
“The antibody levels that we saw here were high, and we can translate that to what we see in adults where we get really good protection against severe disease and hospitalization,” he said.
Moderna is also studying third shots across all age groups, including for a variant-specific vaccine that could more effectively target some of the newer strains of the virus.
It’s not clear if the FDA’s decision to move ahead separately on Moderna will significantly affect the timeline for kids under five getting vaccinated.
While Moderna hopes its vaccine will be authorized within a month, which is the usual timeline for vaccine authorization during the pandemic, the company still has to submit more data to the FDA in the coming weeks to complete its submission.
The FDA has signaled that the Moderna submission will take some time to sift through because it has to also review the company’s data on its vaccines for kids up to age 17, which haven’t been authorized yet.
Burton said that the FDA should have the bulk of what it needs to do the review, though.
The FDA is expected to put out more information tomorrow on the timing of its meeting of FDA independent advisors, who will publicly review and discuss the data to kick off the process.
Pfizer’s CEO Anthony Bourla has said that he expected the company to submit data to the FDA in the “coming weeks,” and that it could be authorized in June.
(OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla.) — The Oklahoma legislature gave final approval Thursday to a so-called “heartbeat bill” that seeks to ban most abortions in the state.
It is the latest bill in the U.S. modeled after the strict Texas law that prohibits abortions after six weeks, before most women know they’re pregnant.
Formally called S.B. 1503, but known as the “Oklahoma Heartbeat Act,” the bill bans abortions after cardiac activity can be detected in an embryo or fetus. There are exceptions for when the mother’s life is at risk, but not for rape or incest.
This is not the first abortion ban that Oklahoma has passed in 2022. Earlier this month, lawmakers passed a bill that would make performing an abortion a felony, punishable by up to several years in prison.
S.B. 1503 also allows any private citizen to sue someone who performs an abortion, intends to perform an abortion or helps a woman gets an abortion after a fetal heartbeat can be detected. These citizens could be awarded at least $10,000 for every abortion performed.
However, a civil lawsuit cannot be brought against a woman who receives an abortion. Additionally, someone who impregnated a woman through rape or incest would not be allowed to sue.
The bill is now heading to the desk of Gov. Kevin Stitt, who is expected to sign it. Because of the bill’s emergency clause, it will go into effect once signed by the governor.
“We want Oklahoma to be the most pro-life state in the country,” Stitt said when he signed the previous abortion bill. “We want to outlaw abortion in the state of Oklahoma.”
The governor’s office told ABC News in a statement it “does not comment on pending legislation.”
“The Texas law has already saved the lives of many unborn children,” Republican state. Sen. Julie Daniels, who sponsored S.B. 1503, said in a statement last month. “We can achieve the same result in Oklahoma with SB 1503.”
Planned Parenthood and the Center for Reproductive Rights said they plan to ask the Oklahoma State Court to block the bill before it goes into effect and ends most abortion care in the state.
“Unless these abortion bans are stopped, Oklahomans will be robbed of the freedom to control their own bodies and futures,” Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a statement. “Unless these bans are blocked, patients will be turned away, people seeking abortion will be unable to access essential care in their own communities, and their loved ones could be stopped from supporting them due to fear of being sued.”
Since the law in Texas went into effect in September 2021, thousands of women have flocked to Oklahoma to receive the procedure.
A recent study from the Texas Policy Evaluation Project at the University of Texas Austin found that of the 1,500 women that traveled out of state every month to receive abortion since September, 45% visited Oklahoma.
Emily Wales, interim president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Plains, said the organization has served hundreds of women who have traveled from Texas to Oklahoma to seek abortion care.
“Now, rather than serving as a haven for patients unable to get care at home, Oklahoma politicians have made outcasts of their own people,” Wales said in a statement. “With today’s filings, we lift up the patients who will otherwise be unable to get care and ask the court to do its most essential function: honor the constitution and the individuals who need its protections.”
Under the bill making performing abortion a felony, any medical provider who performs an abortion would face a fine of $100,000 and up to 10 years in prison. The only exceptions for performing an abortion would be if the mother’s life is in danger.
Several Republican-led states have been passing abortion legislation ahead of a Supreme Court decision in June that will decide the future of Roe v. Wade. The court will review a 15-week ban in Mississippi and decide whether or not it is constitutional. If the ban is declared constitutional, it could lead to Roe v. Wade being overturned or severely gutted.
(LUBLIN, Poland) — The Majdanek death camp located in Lublin, Poland was the site of one of the largest mass executions recorded during the Holocaust.
Over 18,000 Jews were killed on one day, Nov. 3, 1943.
Today, the State Museum at Majdanek is located at the site of the former concentration camp, and provides visitors with the raw remnants of the horrors of the Holocaust.
ABC News’ Phil Lipof took a tour of the museum with Łukasz Myszala, one of its archivists who highlighted some of the location’s disturbing artifacts.
“Most of the 78,000 people who perished here at Majdanek rest right here at your side,” Myszala told Lipof, referencing a mausoleum covering a mound of ashes recovered from bodies buried there.
The site remains surrounded by barbed wires and fences, which were electrified during the Holocaust. Myszala said that the Nazis took great lengths to conceal their genocide.
“Although the gas chambers were so close to the prisoners, it was a very well concealed crime,” he said. “They didn’t want anybody to see what was happening…that was meant to remain a secret.”
Myszala said that the barracks were designed to keep 250 prisoners, but there were likely much more held inside those rooms. Shoes that belonged to the concentration camp prisoners are on display at the museum.
“They’re crammed together in cages,” he said. “Just like the people who wore them were when they worked here, and died here.”
And the gruesome task of getting the bodies of those killed in the gas chambers into crematoria fell to other prisoners, according to Myszala. This group, known as the “Geheimnisträgern,” or the carriers of the secret, would eventually be shot by Nazi soldiers and be replaced with a new prisoners, Myszala said.
“Usually, the lifespan of those prisoners [in those camps] was between four to six weeks,” he said.
Myszala said the Nazis also went to even greater lengths to hide the mass executions that took place on Nov. 3, 1943.
Prisoners were brought out of their barracks in groups to ditches and systemically shot. Roughly 18,400 Jews were killed on that day, according to Myszala.
The Nazis dubbed the executions “Operation Erntefest,” or “harvest festival,” because of the way they masked the killings, Myszala said.
The archivist said prisoners who were inside the barracks during the executions recalled hearing music being played, including waltzes, foxtrots and marches.
“The Germans played loud music to conceal this crime, first of all, to cover up the noises, drown out the machine guns. But secondly, it was meant to provide an appropriate aura for the harvest festival,” Myszala said.
The archivist said it was important that the world never forget the violence that took place at the site and, more importantly, make sure that atrocities never happen again.
“May our fate be a warning to you,” Myszala said as he translated the inscription engraved at the front of the mausoleum where prisoners’ ashes are kept.
DEA / C.DANI / I.JESKE/De Agostini via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — More than a fifth of the world’s reptiles are at risk of extinction in the coming decades due to human activity, according to a new study.
Researchers applied criteria from the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species to more than 10,000 species around the world and found that over 21% are at risk — with nearly 58% of species of crocodiles and and 50% of species of turtles requiring urgent conservation efforts to prevent them from being wiped out from the planet, according to a study published Thursday in Nature.
Human activity, such as agriculture, logging, urban development and invasive species, are the main drivers of the threat to reptiles, according to the researchers. While climate change is assumed to be a factor, the exact risk it poses has not yet been determined due to the lack of long-term studies.
“Climate change is a looming threat to reptiles, for example, by reducing thermally viable windows for foraging, skewing offspring sex ratios in species that have temperature-dependent sex determination and contracting ranges,” the study states.
However, disease does not seem to be a prominent factor for loss of species, as only 11 species of reptiles were found to be at risk of widespread disease, the authors said.
Although previous findings have proposed reptiles to be most at risk in arid environments, such as deserts and scrubland, the researchers found that species inhabiting forests were more threatened, perhaps because of greater exposures to certain threats in forest environments. The study found that 30% of forest-dwelling reptiles are at risk of extinction, compared with 14% of reptiles in arid habitats.
Threatened reptiles were more concentrated in southeastern Asia, West Africa, northern Madagascar, the northern Andes and the Caribbean, according to the study.
Many of the risks that reptiles face are similar to those faced by other animal groups that have been assessed, such as birds, mammals and amphibians, and reptiles will also benefit from conservation efforts directed toward those other animals, according to the study. The paper, a joint venture by NatureServe, the IUCN and Conservation International, is the first risk-assessment study ever conducted for reptiles, the authors said.
“I was surprised by the degree to which mammals, birds and amphibians, collectively, can serve as surrogates to reptiles,” said Dr. Bruce Young, co-leader of the study and chief zoologist and senior conservation scientist at NatureServe. “This is good news because the extensive efforts to protect better-known animals have also likely contributed to protecting many reptiles. Habitat protection is essential to buffer reptiles, as well as other vertebrates, from threats such as agricultural activities and urban development.”
The study also highlighted the biodiversity that would be lost if such a large number of reptiles were to go extinct. If each of the 1,829 threatened reptiles were lost, the world would lose a combined 15.6 billion years of evolutionary history — including countless adaptations for living in diverse environments, the researchers said.
“Reptiles in the study include turtles, crocodiles, lizards, snakes, and tuatara, the only living member of a lineage that evolved in the Triassic period approximately 200-250 million years ago,” according to a press release by NatureServe, a wildlife conservation nonprofit.
Urgent and targeted conservation efforts, such as habitat restoration and controlling invasive species, are needed to restore the populations of many reptile species, the researchers said.
(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 28, 4:58 pm
House approves lend-lease measure to help expedite aid
The House voted 417-10 approving a measure that will make it easier for the U.S. to send military aid and equipment to Ukraine.
The Senate approved the measure by voice vote last month. It now heads to President Joe Biden’s desk for his signature.
The lend-lease program was created during WWII and was seen as a game-changer in the conflict, allowing the U.S. to quickly resupply Allies.
This enhanced lend-lease authority would be specific to helping remove obstacles to lending arms to Ukraine. It would not create a new program but would streamline the president’s current authority to lend the defense articles necessary to defend civilian populations.
The legislation would also require Biden to establish expedited delivery procedures for any military equipment loaned or leased to Ukraine to ensure timely delivery.
It would remain in effect for two years with the possibility of Congress extending the authority if needed.
-ABC News’ Mariam Khan
Apr 28, 4:02 pm
Kyiv targeted in shelling as UN chief visits
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said Ukraine’s capital was hit by two missile strikes in the Shevchenkivsky district on Thursday.
At least one Russian missile struck a residential building. Anton Gerashchenko, an adviser to the interior minister who was at the scene following the attack, told journalists at least six people were injured.
This came as United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visited the city.
Mykhailo Podolyak, adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, tweeted that the attack came right after Guterres visited Russia.
“The day before he was sitting at a long table in the Kremlin, and today explosions are above his head. Postcard from Moscow? Recall why [Russia] still takes a seat on the UN Security Council?” he tweeted.
This was the first strike on central Kyiv in over a week.
-ABC News’ Patrick Reevell
Apr 28, 2:35 pm
UN chief: Discussions ongoing on ways to evacuate civilians from Mariupol plant
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that “intensive discussions” are ongoing on proposals to evacuate Ukrainian civilians from the Azovstal steel plant in the besieged city of Mariupol.
“Mariupol is a crisis within a crisis,” Guterres said in a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv on Thursday. “Thousands of civilians need life-saving assistance. Many are elderly, in need of medical care or have limited mobility. They need an escape route out of the apocalypse.”
Guterres said that during his visit to Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed “in principle” to the involvement of the U.N. and the International Committee of the Red Cross in the evacuation of civilians from the plant.
Guterres said he and Zelenskyy had the opportunity to address the issue Thursday.
“As we speak, there are in intense discussions to move forward on this proposal to make it a reality,” he said.
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Apr 28, 1:25 pm
UN chief visits sites of suspected war crimes
United Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visited sites of suspected war crimes in the Kyiv suburbs of Bucha, Irpin and Borodianka.
In Irpin, Guterres visited the destroyed Irpinsky Lipki residential complex and said that the “horrific scenario demonstrates something that is unfortunately always true: Civilians always pay the highest price.”
Guterres urged Russia to cooperate with the investigation launched by the International Criminal Court.
Guterres, speaking from Bucha, said, “When we see this horrendous site, it makes me feel how important it is [to have] a thorough investigation and accountability.”
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Apr 28, 12:46 pm
Slow Russian progress in Donbas, more training for Ukrainians on US weapons
There are now 92 operational Russian battalion tactical groups — each made up of about 700 to 1,000 troops — inside Ukraine, a senior U.S. defense official said Thursday.
Russia continues to suffer logistical problems, as it has since early in the invasion. This, on top of the Ukrainian defense, is slowing their progress.
“They’re only able to sustain several kilometers or so progress on any given day just because they don’t want to run out too far ahead of their logistics and sustainment lines,” the official said.
The official added, “We would assess that Russian forces are making slow and uneven, and frankly, we would describe it as incremental progress, in the Donbas.”
More than 54 of the 90 howitzers the U.S. is sending Ukraine have arrived in the country, the official said.
The first batch of 50 Ukrainians taken out of the country for training on U.S. artillery systems is back in Ukraine, where they can teach others what they’ve learned, the official said. A second group of 50 Ukrainians has begun its six days of training, the official said.
-ABC News’ Matt Seyler
Apr 28, 11:20 am
Biden asking Congress for $33 billion in supplemental aid for Ukraine over the next 5 months
President Joe Biden is asking Congress for a total of $33 billion in supplemental aid for Ukraine over the next five months, administration officials previewed in a Thursday morning call ahead of the president’s remarks.
Over $20 billion of the $33 billion will be for military and other security systems.
“The cost of this fight is not cheap. But caving to aggression is going to be more costly,” Biden said in remarks later in the morning.
Biden stressed, “We’re not attacking Russia — we’re helping Ukraine defend itself against Russian aggression.”
The administration is also asking for an additional $8.5 billion in economic assistance to help provide basic services to the Ukrainian people.
Part of the package also includes targeted funding to address economic disruptions in the U.S. as a result of the war in Ukraine, like helping increase U.S. production of wheat and soybeans, “and funding to allow the use of the Defense Production Act to expand domestic production of critical reserves – of reserves of critical minerals and materials that have been disrupted by Putin’s war and are necessary to make everything from defense systems to cars,” a senior administration official said.
Biden insisted that, despite Russia’s claims, the U.S. is not fighting a proxy war.
“It shows the desperation that Russia is feeling about their abject failure in being able to do what they set out to do in the first instance,” Biden said.
-ABC News’ Justin Gomez and Armando Tonatiuh Torres-García
Apr 28, 8:00 am
Russia retains ability to strike Ukrainian coastal targets, UK says
The Russian Navy still has the ability to strike coastal targets in Ukraine, even after the “embarrassing losses” of two warships, according to the U.K. Ministry of Defense.
In an intelligence update posted Thursday, the ministry said approximately 20 Russian naval vessels, including submarines, are currently in the “Black Sea operational zone.” But the ministry said Russia isn’t able to replace the missile cruiser Moskva because the Bosphorus strait remains closed to all non-Turkish warships.
The Moskva, the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, sunk in the Black Sea earlier this month while being towed to port after a fire onboard, according to the Russian Ministry of Defense. Ukrainian officials, however, claimed that ship was struck by Ukrainian missiles, which the Russian defense ministry has denied.
Russia also lost the landing ship Saratov, which was destroyed by explosions and fire on March 24.
Apr 28, 6:48 am
Separatist forces arrest over 100 captured Ukrainian troops in Donetsk
Russia-backed separatist forces in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast claimed Thursday that they have arrested more than 100 captured Ukrainian troops suspected of being involved in crimes.
“Facts of involvement in crimes have been brought to light following investigators’ works. There are already more than 100 people who have been arrested by investigators,” Yury Sirovatko, justice minister of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic, told Russian state-owned television channel Rossiya 24 on Thursday.
Sirovatko on Wednesday told Channel One, a Russian state-controlled TV channel, that there are about 2,600 captured Ukrainian servicemen in the region.
Apr 28, 5:01 am
Russia accuses Ukraine of war crimes
Russia on Thursday accused Ukraine of committing war crimes by indiscriminately attacking civilian areas in Ukrainian cities.
The Russian Ministry of Defense claimed that the Ukrainian Armed Forces “launched a massive attack” using ballistic missiles and multiple rocket launchers on residential areas of Kherson in southern Ukraine late Wednesday.
“The indiscriminate missile attack launched by the nationalists targeted kindergartens, schools and various social facilities in residential areas near Ushakova avenue,” the ministry said in a statement Thursday. “Russian air defense units have repelled the attack of the Ukrainian troops launched at the residential districts of Kherson.”
The ministry also claimed that Ukrainian troops had launched indiscriminate attacks on residential areas of Izyum in eastern Ukraine.
“The Kyiv nationalist regime’s indiscriminate attacks on residential areas of Izyum and Kherson are a war crime and a gross violation of international humanitarian law,” the ministry added.
Ukraine did not immediately respond to the allegations.
Apr 28, 4:55 am
Putin ramps up nuclear threats, as US weapons head to Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin hinted at the possibility of nuclear warfare during his Wednesday address to the council of legislators.
“If someone from outside moves to interfere in the current developments, they should know that they will indeed create strategic threats to Russia, which are unacceptable to us, and they should know that our response to encounter assaults will be instant, it will be quick,” Putin said, according to Russian state media.
Putin claimed Russia’s response to strategic threats from outside Ukraine would be “immediate.”
“We have all the tools to do it, tools that others can’t boast of at the moment, but as for us, we won’t be boasting,” Putin said.
Putin said that Russia is prepared to use those “tools” if “the need arises,” adding that he “would like everyone to be aware of it.” A nuclear attack has been on the table since the onset of the “special military operation” in Ukraine, Putin said. He had ordered his nuclear forces to be put on high alert on Feb 27.
Putin’s remarks came as Pentagon press secretary John Kirby announced that “more than half” of the 90 howitzers the U.S. agreed to send to Ukraine were now in the country, adding that around 50 Ukrainian troops have already been trained to operate the weapons.
“We finished up earlier this week, the first tranche of more than 50 trainers that are going to go in and train their teammates,” Kirby said during a press briefing on Wednesday, a moment later adding, “But there was another tranche of more than 50 that we’re going to go through training in the same location outside Ukraine.”
The U.S. Department of Defense on Wednesday tweeted pictures of more howitzers “bound for Ukraine” that were being loaded onto US Air Force aircraft. Additional training opportunities on Howitzers and other weapons systems were also being explored, Kirby said.
As U.S. weapons head to Ukraine, Russia is increasing the pace of its offensive in almost all directions, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said on Thursday.
The U.S. is considering the legal aspects of officially listing Russia as a state-sponsor of terrorism, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken told lawmakers on Wednesday. Officials said they haven’t yet determined whether Russia’s actions meet the legal standard required for the designation, Blinken said.
The designation, called for by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, would further cripple Russia’s trade potential, including bans on defense exports and limits on foreign aid.
(NEW YORK) — Police arrived at a home in Selkirk, New York, just before 3:30 p.m. on Sept. 29, 2020 to find a husband and wife dead. Bhupinder Saran, 58, killed his wife, Sarbjit Saran, 58, and then took his own life, police said.
It was not the first time police had been to the home. A year earlier, officers were called to a domestic violence incident, and there had been an order of protection against the husband.
On Thursday, New York State Inspector General Lucy Lang revealed that Sarbjit Saran had informed her employer, the state’s information technology office, of the trouble at home, but she received no help — a violation of state domestic violence policies.
“When she reached out for help, it fell on deaf ears,” Lang said during a news conference in Albany.
“This investigation found that despite ITS’ awareness that its employee had reported that she was a victim of domestic violence, ITS did not follow its Domestic Violence and the Workplace Policy in a manner that was responsive to her needs as a victim or that promoted workplace safety,” the inspector general’s report said.
Incidents of violence, sexual violence and stalking increased in New York during the pandemic, when calls to the state’s domestic and sexual violence hotline increased 45%.
Lang called Sarbjit Saran’s death “an utter tragedy” and said she should have been able to count on her employer.
“She gave 30 years of her life to the state,” Lang said. “So much of what happened here is that warning signs were disregarded, and that is a failure of education, a failure of training and a reason why domestic violence has for years existed outside the public sphere.”
Lang announced her office would audit every state agency to make sure they understand their obligations when an employee mentions being the victim of violence by an intimate partner.
(NEW YORK) — Federal agents improperly questioned alleged New York City subway shooter Frank James this week, directed him to sign certain documents and took multiple swabs of his DNA, defense attorneys said in a court filing Thursday.
James, 62, allegedly set off a smoke grenade on a Manhattan-bound N train approaching 36th Street in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, before opening fire and shooting 10 people in what police called the worst disruption to the commute in New York since the Sept. 11 attacks.
On Tuesday, without alerting his lawyers, FBI agents entered his cell at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn “questioned him, took multiple buccal swabs of his DNA, and directed him to sign certain documents,” according to a letter to the court from Mia Eisner-Grynberg and Deirdre von Dornum of the Federal Defenders of New York.
“Contrary to standard practice, the government committed this intrusion absent advance notice to counsel, depriving us of an opportunity to be heard or to be present. Neither did the government provide subsequent notice to counsel. The agents did not provide Mr. James with a copy of the warrant or a receipt, in violation of Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure,” the letter said.
The attorneys said the government failed to explain why it deviated from standard procedure and only provided a copy of a search warrant when the attorneys asked after the fact. They accused the government of violating James’ constitutional rights.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York, which has charged James with one terror-related count, declined to comment.
Prosecutors were given until early next week to respond.
The defense attorneys said they would seek to suppress whatever statements James made to the agents this past Tuesday and asked the judge to order the government to turn over a copy of the affidavit that served as the basis for the search.
