Jeffrey Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images, FILE
(NEW YORK) — Sterling Jewelers, the multibillion-dollar parent company of shopping mall stalwarts Kay Jewelers, Jared and Zales, agreed to resolve a legal dispute involving, among other things, allegations of promotions traded for sexual favors.
Tens of thousands of current and former employees sued in a class arbitration that included sexual harassment accusations against senior executives and wage violations. The class grew to 68,000 plaintiffs who claimed women were discriminated both in compensation and in promotions.
The company was also accused of having a policy “prohibiting employees from discussing their pay with each other,” which “made it difficult for women to identify instances where they were paid less than male employees performing the same job.”
Sworn statements also described a corporate culture in which annual managers’ retreats allegedly became no-spouses allowed “booze fests” where male executives “prowled around the [resort] like dogs that were let out of their cage,” and that “there was no one to protect female managers from them,” arbitration documents show.
The alleged incidents took place between late 1990s to the 2000s, according to the sworn statements.
Ohio-based Sterling Jewelers and the law firm Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC announced the agreement, which calls on the company, a subsidiary of UK-based Signet Jewelers, to pay $175 million. Of that, $125 million would be split among the class members and the rest would go to the lawyers.
The agreement is subject to the arbitrator’s approval.
“For the past four years, we’ve been successfully transforming Signet’s business model and culture. I want to thank our dedicated team members for helping to create our welcoming and inclusive environment where everyone is invited to be their authentic self. We believe prioritizing diversity, equity and inclusion grows high-functioning teams and fosters a culture of appreciation and development,” Gina Drosos, CEO of Signet Jewelers, said in a statement. “This settlement is an important step in bringing closure to a nearly 15-year-old case.”
Signet has discontinued the pay and promotions practices at issue in the lawsuit and offered mentorship and leadership training for women.
“This settlement provides for significant monetary relief for our clients and ensures that the practices that gave rise to this case will not recur. And we applaud Sterling Jewelers for undertaking important and meaningful changes to its workplace policies, which have moved it forward as a leader in gender equality,” said Joseph Sellers, of Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC.
ABC News’ Kelly McCarthy contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — From legal action to name-calling, former President Donald Trump continues to try to discredit the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol as the panel prepares to go public with its findings in prime-time on Thursday.
Committee members say they will lay out to the American people how Trump encouraged a mob of his supporters to descend on lawmakers as part of a monthslong attempt to overturn the 2020 presidential election — as Trump, from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, coordinates counterattacks with GOP allies in the House, who have assumed the role of his public defenders against what he’s deemed is a “scam” investigation from the “unselect committee” of “political thugs.”
“January 6th was not simply a protest, it represented the greatest movement in the history of our Country to Make America Great Again,” Trump said in a string of posts Thursday on Truth Social, the social media platform his team launched after Twitter permanently suspended him in the wake of the Capitol siege “due to the risk of further incitement of violence.”
While Trump has labeled the rioters as “a loving crowd” who were “hugging and kissing” police officers and posed “zero threat” in an interview, the committee is expected to emphasize the threat to then-Vice President Mike Pence as it seeks to capture the severity of the attack and make its case — despite Trump’s narrative.
Members of the select committee now have the challenge of making their case to the American public amid Trump’s relentless commentary riddled with false claims about the 2020 election — commentary that previously encouraged “patriots” to “fight” in Washington on Jan. 6.
Trump has maintained he carries no responsibility for the attack while deploying an arsenal of rhetoric to recast what happened and to undermine the investigation.
Here are some examples:
Branding the ‘Unselect committee’
After Senate Republicans blocked efforts last year to form an independent commission to investigate the Capitol attack, the House established a select committee last summer by a vote of 222-190. From the start, Trump used familiar attack language to mock the effort he called a “political Witch Hunt by the Radical Left Democrats.”
When the committee sent its first subpoenas to four of his administration officials last September, the former president released a lengthy statement labeling it the “Unselect Committee” of “highly partisan politicians.” He called the action “Harassment Subpoenas,” while continuing to push baseless claims that the election was stolen.
“Hopefully the Unselect Committee will be calling witnesses on the Rigged Presidential Election of 2020, which is the primary reason that hundreds of thousands of people went to Washington, D.C. in the first place,” Trump said.
And when announcing he was canceling a press conference at Mar-a-Lago on the first anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack, amid concerns from congressional Republicans over what he might say, Trump added in his statement, “This is the Democrats’ Great Cover-Up Committee and the Media is complicit.”
Trump continues to call the 2020 election “the Crime of the Century,” despite his own officials, dozens of recounts, and more than 40 failed lawsuits affirming President Joe Biden’s win.
GOP coordination in counterprogramming
Taking cues from the former president as still appears to carry massive influence with his base, Republican leaders have also dismissed the work of their colleagues to match Trump’s rhetoric.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy — who first said that Trump carries responsibility for the attack before making a pilgrimage to Mar-a-Lago just weeks later — held a news conference with other House Republicans Thursday morning as a “prebuttal” to the Jan. 6 hearing. Though McCarthy was subpoenaed by the committee seeking information on his phone calls with Trump on the day of the attack, he did not comply.
Asked Thursday by ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl whether the election was stolen, McCarthy repeatedly dodged.
“Joe Biden is the president. There’s a lot of problems still with the election process,” he said.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who has slammed the committee as a “scam” for months, called the upcoming hearing “garbage” that “Americans are not going to watch” in an interview Wednesday on Fox News, which is notably not carrying the hearing in prime time.
Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., who was with Trump in Bedminster Wednesday, said in an interview with “Breitbart News Saturday” that it’s House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who should be investigated instead, alleging the speaker “refused” to turn over security documents.
“Why? Because she is covering up, because there were concerns about security that were raised with Speaker Pelosi’s office,” Stefanik claimed. “Where are the documents? Where are the communications, Nancy? Until she does that, we know that she bears responsibility.”
Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill told ABC News Wednesday, “We have no idea what Rep. Stefanik is talking about. We suspect neither does she.” He added: “Numerous independent fact-checkers have confirmed that Speaker Pelosi did not plan her own assassination.”
While House Republican leaders have loudly backed Trump, one notable Republican — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a frequent target of Trump’s attacks — signaled his personal interest in the House committee’s work. McConnell said in an interview with Spectrum News in December, “I think that what they’re seeking to find out is something the public needs to know.”
Trump taunts committee members
Trump has taken particular aim at the only two Republicans sitting on the committee, Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, whom he has taunted with his trademark nicknames, “polling warmonger Liz Cheney and Cryin’ Adam Kinzinger.”
The pair has faced relentless attacks from within their caucus for speaking out against Trump, with Cheney being removed from her No. 3 House GOP leadership post last year and both being formally censured by the Republican National Committee for choosing to investigate the attack.
“Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger crossed a line,” Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a statement on the censure. “They chose to join Nancy Pelosi in a Democrat-led persecution of ordinary citizens who engaged in legitimate political discourse that had nothing to do with violence at the Capitol.”
Beyond calling Cheney a “smug fool” and throwing the full weight of his endorsement behind her primary challenger, Trump has also shared doctored images on his website of the lawmaker with former President George Bush’s face, teasing the images as a “must-see.”
Cheney has continued to counter the attacks with warnings for American democracy.
“We are not in a situation where former President Trump has expressed any sense of remorse about what happened,” she told CBS News correspondent Robert Costa in a “Sunday Morning” interview. “We are, in fact, in a situation where he continues to use even more extreme language, frankly, than the language that caused the attack. And so, people must pay attention. People must watch, and they must understand how easily our democratic system can unravel if we don’t defend it.”
Attempts to block committee
As the select committee began to seek documents for its investigation last summer, Trump announced that he would assert “executive privilege” over what he called a “partisan exercise” in order to withhold documents the committee had requested.
Then, in October, Trump announced that he was suing the committee to block the disclosure of those documents, describing the panel’s demand in a lawsuit as a “vexatious, illegal fishing expedition.”
“We will fight the Subpoenas on Executive Privilege and other grounds, for the good of our Country, while we wait to find out whether or not Subpoenas will be sent out to Antifa and BLM for the death and destruction they have caused in tearing apart our Democrat-run cities throughout America,” he said in a statement.
A federal appeals court first rejected his effort before the Supreme Court also ruled in favor of the select committee in January, allowing the National Archives to turn over Trump White House records to the committee. Only Justice Clarence Thomas dissented that he would have granted Trump’s request.
The National Archives and Record Administration also confirmed earlier this year that Trump White House documents sought by the committee recovered from Mar-a-Lago were marked classified.
ABC News’ Benjamin Siegel and Will Steakin contributed to this report.
(CAIRO) — Egyptian officials said they plan to start legal proceedings to recover five Egyptian antiques seized from The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York as part of a wide-ranging investigation involving former Louvre museum President-Director Jean-Luc Martinez.
The five objects, which are said to be worth more than $3 million in total, were confiscated from the museum by the New York District Attorney’s Office under a May 19 court order from the Supreme Court of the State of New York, The Art Newspaper reported last week.
“Measures are being undertaken to recover those objects,” former Egyptian antiquities minister Zahi Hawass, a leading member of a committee the state had set up to repatriate stolen artifacts, told ABC News.
The Met bought the items between 2013 and 2015, the newspaper reported. They include a portrait of a woman painted during the reign of Roman Emperor Nero (54-69 AD) and linen fragments of the Book of Exodus that date back to “the fourth or fifth century.”
“Throughout this investigation, The Met has been fully cooperative, and will continue to be so,” a spokesperson for The Met told ABC News.
Martinez, who headed the Louvre from 2013 to 2021, was charged in May with complicity and fraud in concealing the origin of antiquities purchased by Met and Louvre Abu Dhabi, according to prosecutors in Paris.
The items in question also include a pink granite stele of 18th dynasty ruler and famous Boy King Tutankhamun, which Louvre Abu Dhabi had bought in 2016. It dates back to about 1327 B.C. according to the museum.
“Regarding the Louvre, we are awaiting the end of investigations to demand the artifacts’ return,” Hawass added, with other officials saying Egyptian authorities have been following up on the case with their French counterparts since 2020.
The prominent Egyptologist hit out at both museums for turning a blind eye towards the origin of the objects they bought. He said all such artifacts were “secretly excavated” and smuggled out of Egypt in 2011 when the country was gripped by the Arab Spring turmoil.
“The museums committed a mistake; they should have contacted Egypt’s antiquities ministry and inquired about the origins of those objects. They were fooled by the dealer,” Hawass said.
In 2019, U.S. authorities returned to Egypt the gilded sarcophagus of high-ranking priest Nedjemankh, after it was sold to The Met with fraudulent paperwork two years earlier.
Egypt said it had recovered 5,000 ancient pieces from the U.S. last year.
(GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.) — The prosecutor in Kent County, Michigan, has decided to charge Grand Rapids police officer Christopher Schurr with second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of Patrick Lyoya during a traffic stop in April.
Lyoya, an immigrant from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, was shot in the head on April 4 after Schurr pulled him over for an unregistered license plate. His death prompted protests throughout Grand Rapids.
Schurr turned himself in and is expected to be arraigned Friday, according to Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker, who made the charging decision.
Body camera video showed Schurr shouting at Lyoya to “get back in the car” at the beginning of the footage, which was released nine days after the shooting.
Schurr can be heard asking Lyoya if he spoke English and then demanding that Lyoya show his driver’s license. Lyoya turned to a passenger in the car and started to walk away from Schurr.
The officer grabbed Lyoya and struggled with him before Schurr eventually forced him to the ground and shouted, “Stop resisting,” “let go” and “drop the Taser.” Police said Lyoya had grabbed at the officer’s stun gun during the altercation.
The body camera was deactivated during the struggle, according to police.
Lyoya was then shot from behind, according to an independent autopsy report backed by Lyoya’s family.
“He’s on his hands and knees facing away from the officer. There are so many other things the officer could have done instead of pulling his gun out and shooting him in the back of the head,” Crump told ABC News in April.
ABC News’ Adisa Hargett-Robinson contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol has promised to reveal new information in prime time Thursday as it seeks to capture the public’s attention and lay out how it says American democracy came close to being subverted.
Summing up an 11-month-long investigation, Thursday’s hearing kicks off at 8 p.m. EDT and will be the first of six this month where the committee says it will explain a “multi-step, coordinated attempt” by former President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election and, for the time in U.S history, stop a peaceful transfer of power.
The nine-member panel has collected more than 140,000 documents and 1,000 witness interviews throughout the course of the investigation, and members have promised to introduce never-before-seen videos and exhibits that they say will shock the public.
ABC News Television Network will air special coverage of the hearing at 8 p.m. EDT, and ABC News Live will carry gavel-to-gavel coverage of each hearing in June.
“There’s a lot that’s unseen,” one committee aide said Wednesday in a briefing with reporters. “The select committee is also going to lay out a clear indication of ongoing threats to American democracy.”
What is the select committee and who sits on it?
A select committee is a congressional committee appointed to perform a special function beyond the capacity of an already standing committee. For example, Americans might remember a House select committee was previously formed to investigate the 2012 attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi.
After Senate Republicans killed a proposal for an independent, bipartisan commission that would have given Republicans equal representation to investigate the Capitol attack — similar to what Congress approved after the Sept. 11 attacks — the House voted to form a select committee last summer.
The panel was designed to consist of 13 members, with five appointed in consultation with the minority leader, but after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi rejected two of Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy’s committee nominees — Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan and Indiana Rep. Jim Banks — over concerns false statements they made around the 2020 election — McCarthy pulled all five of his nominees. Echoing language used by Trump, he deemed the investigation a “sham process” before it began.
Pelosi ultimately appointed the only two Republicans who voted in favor of the committee — Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois — and seven Democrats — Chairman Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, Zoe Lofgren of California, Adam Schiff of California, Pete Aguilar of California, Stephanie Murphy of Florida, Jamie Raskin of Maryland and Elaine Luria, of Virginia — to probe the insurrection.
“It’s bipartisan, and we have a quorum. Staff is being hired to do the job,” Pelosi said at the time. “We’re there to get the truth, not to get Trump.”
Nearly a year later, Americans can expect different lawmakers of the nine-member committee to take the lead on various hearing days to guide the presentations.
What can viewers expect to see Thursday?
Aides described the first major public hearing in prime time as a “preview” of what to expect in subsequent hearings.
Witnesses planned for Thursday include documentary filmmaker Nick Quested, who was embedded with the extremist far-right group the Proud Boys during the assault on the Capitol, and Capitol Police officer Caroline Edwards, who suffered a traumatic brain injury during the attack when rioters pushed her to the ground.
“We’re going to learn about where they were at that time when these rioters initially breached the Capitol,” a committee aide told reporters.
The panel will also feature new excerpts of videotaped interviews with Trump administration and White House officials, Trump campaign officials and Trump’s family members. ABC has reported previously that daughter Ivanka Trump, son-in-law Jared Kushner and son Donald Trump Jr. have all testified.
Unlike other congressional hearings, Thursday will be a mixture of live and taped testimony and blockbuster video production, designed to capture the public’s attention.
Former ABC News President James Goldston, a seasoned television executive, started working with the committee several weeks ago to help produce the hearing, a development first reported by Axios and confirmed to ABC News by congressional sources. The committee declined to comment on “personnel matters” when asked about the decision to enlist Goldston’s help.
While most major news networks are expected to carry Thursday’s hearing live in their prime-time slot, Fox News announced this week that their prime-time programs will only cover the hearings “as news warrants.” Instead, Fox Business will be covering the hearings live, stirring backlash. Fox News averaged 1.5 million viewers at any given time last month, while Fox Business averaged 136,000.
When are the next hearings?
The select committee’s next hearings are slated for Monday, June 13, and Wednesday, June 15. Both begin at 10 a.m.
The committee has not yet finalized witnesses for the next hearings, but they could include state election officials, ex-Trump Justice Department officials who pushed back on attempts to investigate voter fraud, and even White House lawyers familiar with Trump’s attempts to pressure former Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the election results.
With at least three other hearings planned for June, the committee has also not ruled out the possibility of adding more hearings in the future.
It also plans to release a full report on its findings, including legislative recommendations on reforms, at some point this fall — coinciding with the 2022 midterm elections.
Is this the first hearing?
Although Thursday marks the panel’s first hearing in prime time, it is not the first public hearing.
The select committee held its first hearing last July, when lawmakers heard dramatic, emotional accounts from law enforcement officers who defended the Capitol on Jan. 6 and said they feared for their lives.
“I sat down on the bench in the Rotunda with a friend of mine, who is also a Black Capitol Police officer and told him about the racial slurs I endured. I became very emotional and began yelling, ‘How the blank could something like this happen? Is this America?'” recounted Capitol Police Officer Harry Dunn. “I began sobbing.”
In her opening statement that day, Cheney made the committee’s intentions clear.
“We cannot leave the violence of January 6th and its causes uninvestigated,” she said. “If those responsible are not held accountable, and if Congress does not act responsibly, this will remain a cancer on our constitutional republic.”
(WASHINGTON) — The Department of Justice said Thursday it was opening an investigation into Louisiana State Police to determine whether its officers engaged in regular use of excessive force or racially discriminatory policing.
Accusations of excessive use of force by LSP officers, especially against Black people, go as far back as 2019. Ronald Greene died in May 2019 after failing to stop for an unspecified traffic violation and subsequently leading LSP on a chase in northern Louisiana, near Monroe.
The family has disputed the police report and released photos of Greene from after the incident showing what appear to be multiple bruises and lacerations around his face and head. In body camera audio obtained by ABC News in 2020, a trooper can be heard saying, “I beat the ever-living f— out of him,” and, “Choked him and everything else trying to get him under control.”
The DOJ’s civil investigation will review the LSP’s policies, training and supervision. The DOJ will also look into LSP’s systems of accountability, including misconduct complaint intake, investigation, review, disposition and discipline.
“Based on an extensive review of publicly available information and information provided to us, we find significant justification to investigate whether Louisiana State Police engages in excessive force and engages in racially discriminatory policing against Black residents and other people of color,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said in a statement.
Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards, LSP Col. Lamar Davis and Deputy General Counsel Gail Holland have all been informed of the investigation and pledged to cooperate, the Justice Department said.
“Protecting the civil rights of all Americans and building trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve are among the Justice Department’s most important responsibilities,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland.
The governor’s office and LSP did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
(WASHINGTON) — Cassidy Hutchinson, a member of Mark Meadows’ staff when Meadows was Donald Trump’s chief of staff, has hired Jody Hunt to represent her as the public Jan. 6 hearings begin, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to ABC News.
At the start of the Trump administration, Hunt served as chief of staff to then-Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Hunt later became the head of Department of Justice’s Civil Division.
Members of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol attack are actively negotiating with Hutchinson for her public testimony during the upcoming committee hearings, sources with knowledge of the matter told ABC News.
If Hutchinson agrees to appear publicly, she will put a voice to many of the interactions involving Jan. 6 that have been reported publicly, and offer significant insight into Meadows’ actions and interactions with the former president on Jan. 6 and in the days before and after, the sources said.
During earlier depositions with the committee, Hutchinson confirmed to committee investigators accounts that Meadows had burned documents in his office, according to sources.
It was not immediately clear the contents of what Meadows is alleged to have burned, or whether his actions as described by witnesses constitute anything illegal.
ABC News previously reported that the committee is negotiating with former White House counsel Pat Cipollone for his public testimony. Should either Hutchinson or Cipollone agree to testify, it would mark the first witness to publicly appear before the committee who was physically in the West Wing on Jan. 6.
(NEW YORK) — Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” into neighboring Ukraine began on Feb. 24, with Russian forces invading from Belarus, to the north, and Russia, to the east. Ukrainian troops have offered “stiff resistance,” according to U.S. officials.
The Russian military has since launched a full-scale ground offensive in eastern Ukraine’s disputed Donbas region, capturing the strategic port city of Mariupol and securing a coastal corridor to the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Jun 09, 1:59 pm
Ukraine’s defense chief pleads for more ‘heavy weapons’
Up to 100 Ukrainian soldiers are killed and another 500 are injured each day, according to Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov.
Reznikov said in a Facebook post Thursday that Russia has “many more means in store to devour human lives in a bid to satisfy its imperial ego.”
“That is why we emphasize: Ukraine desperately needs heavy weapons, and very fast,” Reznikov said.
Among the weapons he’s requesting are “fighter jets, anti-aircraft and missile defence systems to protect our skies.”
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
Jun 09, 8:55 am
Battle in key city to determine fate of eastern Ukraine, Zelenskyy says
The fight for the eastern Ukrainian city of Severodonetsk will determine the fate of the wider Donbas region, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“Severodonetsk remains the epicenter of the confrontation in Donbas. We defend our positions, inflict significant losses on the enemy,” Zelenskyy said late Wednesday in his nightly address. “This is a very fierce battle, very difficult. Probably one of the most difficult throughout this war. I am grateful to everyone who defends this direction. In many ways, the fate of our Donbas is being decided there.”
After launching an invasion of neighboring Ukraine on Feb. 24, Russian forces failed to take control of the capital, Kyiv, and other major government centers as they faced tough resistance from Ukrainian troops. Russian forces then switched attention to Donbas, which comprises the self-proclaimed republics controlled by Moscow-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine’s Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts.
Severodonetsk, an industrial hub, is the largest city still held by Ukrainian troops in contested Donbas. In recent days, Russian forces have encircled the city as they advanced in the region, creating a pocket that could trap Ukrainian defenders there and in the neighboring city of Lysychansk.
Severodonetsk and Lysychansk are the last major cities in the Luhansk area still controlled by Ukraine. Last week, the U.K. Ministry of Defense said in an intelligence update that Russian forces had seized most of Severodonetsk, but that the main road into the pocket likely remained under Ukrainian control.
Jun 09, 7:32 am
Mariupol residents face risk of cholera epidemic under Russian occupation
The port city of Mariupol in eastern Ukraine is facing the risk of a cholera epidemic amid the destruction of water supplies and sanitation during the Russian invasion, city officials and health agencies warn.
“The risk of cholera is very high, like red, red level,” Petro Andriushchenko, an advisor to Mariupol’s mayor, told ABC News, adding that the municipality could not provide an estimation of the number of infected cases due to lack of proper access to the occupants amid the occupation by Russian forces.
While the warnings have intensified in the past few days, Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko said on Telegram last month that due to problems with water supply, the Russian occupied city is threatened by an infectious catastrophe and more than 10,000 people may die by the end of the year.
The deteriorating water, sanitation and hygiene infrastructure has set an alarmingly high risk of an outbreak, according to a report in April from the World Health Organization’s Health Cluster Ukraine agency.
The warming spring and summer weather will likely increase transmission, the report said.
“The weather is hot. There are still dead bodies on the streets of the city — especially under the debris of residential buildings. In some blocks, it is impossible to walk by — due to the stench of rotten human flesh. There was no rain for a while, and it is getting hotter,” a resident of Mariupol, who did not want to be named for security concerns, told ABC News.
Jun 08, 12:53 pm
Russian-occupied Mariupol faces ‘catastrophic lack of medical staff’
The Russian-occupied city of Mariupol, Ukraine, is facing a “catastrophic lack of medical staff,” Petro Andryushchenko, an adviser to the mayor of Mariupol, said on the Telegram app.
He said Russians are trying to convince locals who are over 80 years old to go back to work at hospitals.
He warned, “In this state of medicine, any infectious disease turns into a deadly epidemic.”
Jun 08, 8:36 am
Putin-Zelenskyy meeting not possible, Kremlin says
A meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is not currently possible, the Kremlin said.
When asked about a recent comment from Zelenskyy that he’s willing to meet with Putin, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, “Our position is well-known here: good preparations need to be made for a top-level meeting. We know that the Ukrainian side has withdrawn from the negotiation track, and therefore it is currently not possible to prepare for this sort of top-level meeting.”
Jun 08, 5:06 am
Ukrainian defenses in key eastern city ‘holding,’ despite Russian attacks
Ukrainian troops defending the eastern city of Sieverodonetsk are “holding,” despite attacks in three directions from Russian forces, the U.K. Ministry of Defense said Wednesday in an intelligence update.
“Russia continues to attempt assaults against the Sieverodonetsk pocket from three directions although Ukrainian defences are holding,” the ministry said. “It is unlikely that either side has gained significant ground in the last 24 hours.”
Sieverodonetsk, an industrial hub, is the largest city still held by Ukrainian troops in the contested Donbas region of Ukraine’s east, which comprises the self-proclaimed republics in Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts. In recent days, Russian forces have encircled the city as they advanced in Donbas, creating a pocket that could trap Ukrainian defenders there and in the neighboring city of Lysychansk.
Sievierodonetsk and Lysychansk are the last major cities in the Luhansk area still controlled by Ukraine.
Last week, the U.K. Ministry of Defense said Russian forces had seized most of Sieverodonetsk, but that the main road into the pocket likely remained under Ukrainian control.
With the frontage of the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine stretching for over 300 miles, “both Russia and Ukraine face similar challenges in maintaining a defensive line while freeing up capable combat units for offensive operations,” according to the ministry.
“While Russia is concentrating its offensive on the central Donbas sector, it has remained on the defensive on its flanks,” the ministry said in its intelligence update Wednesday. “Ukrainian forces have recently achieved some success by counter-attacking in the south-western Kherson region, including regaining a foothold on the eastern bank of the Ingulets River.”
Jun 07, 3:12 pm
At least 3 dead in shelling in Kharkiv
At least three people were killed and six others were injured in the Kharkiv area from ongoing shelling by Russian forces, according to the Kharkiv regional governor, Oleg Synegubov.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
Jun 07, 11:48 am
Ukraine official: Hard to win ‘without speeding up the supply of modern weapons’
Oleksiy Danilov, Ukraine’s secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, told ABC News that “it will be difficult for Ukraine to win this war without speeding up the supply of modern weapons.”
He added, “The country is ready for long-term resistance, because we are fighting for our freedom.”
This comes as the Donetsk People’s Republic claims an advance in territory.
DPR Foreign Minister Natalia Nikonorova told reporters, “We can say that the allied forces — the DPR militia and units of the Russian Defense Ministry — are in control of over 70% of the territory.”
Jun 07, 11:02 am
Ukrainian grain may be leaving ports — but on Russian ships
There is evidence of Russian vessels departing “from near Ukraine with their cargo holds full of grain,” a U.S. Department of State spokesperson told ABC News on Monday night.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has reported that Russia seized at least 400,000 to 500,000 tons of grain worth over $100 million, according to the State Department spokesperson.
“Ukraine’s MFA also has numerous testimonies from Ukrainian farmers and documentary evidence showing Russia’s theft of Ukrainian grain,” the spokesperson said.
The news of Ukrainian grain aboard Russian ships partly confirms a recent report by The New York Times that Moscow is seeking to profit off of grain plundered from Ukraine by selling the product while subverting sanctions. Ukraine has already accused Russia of shipping the stolen grain to buyers in Syria and Turkey.
Russia and Ukraine — often referred to collectively as Europe’s breadbasket — produce a third of the global supply of wheat and barley, but Kyiv has been unable to ship exports due to Moscow’s offensive. A Russian blockade in the Black Sea, along with Ukrainian naval mines, have made exporting siloed grain virtually impossible and, as a result, millions of people around the world — particularly in Africa and the Middle East — are now on the brink of famine.
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Jun 06, 12:26 pm
Two planes owned by Russian oligarch grounded by US prosecutors
Two planes — a Gulfstream G650 and a Boeing 787 — have been grounded after federal prosecutors said their owner, Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich, violated U.S. sanctions by flying the aircraft to Moscow in March.
The sanctions require a license for any U.S.-made aircraft to fly to Russia. The sanctions also prohibit an aircraft that is owned, controlled or under charter or lease by a Russian national from being flown to Russia.
“No licenses were applied for or issued. Nor was any license exception available, including because the Boeing and the Gulfstream were each owned and/or controlled by a Russian national: Roman Abramovich,” said the affidavit supporting a seizure warrant.
The Boeing plane is believed to be among the most expensive private aircraft in the world, worth $350 million, the affidavit said.
Jun 06, 9:05 am
Russia beefs up air defense on Snake Island
Russia has likely moved multiple air defense assets, including SA-15 and SA-22 missile systems, to Snake Island in the western Black Sea, the U.K. Ministry of Defense said Monday in an intelligence update.
The move follows the loss of the Russian warship Moskva, the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.
“It is likely these weapons are intended to provide air defence for Russian naval vessels operating around Snake Island,” the ministry added. “Russia’s activity on Snake Island contributes to its blockade of the Ukrainian coast and hinders the resumption of maritime trade, including exports of Ukrainian grain.”
Russian forces captured Ukraine’s Snake Island in the early days of the invasion, memorably when Ukrainian soldiers defending the tiny islet told an attacking Russian warship to “go f— yourself.” Ukrainian troops have failed in their attempts to retake the previously inconsequential territory.
Meanwhile, in eastern Ukraine’s contested Donbas region, heavy fighting continues in the war-torn city of Sieverodonetsk, according to the ministry.
“Russian forces continue to push towards Sloviansk as part of their attempted encirclement of Ukrainian force,” the ministry said.
And in the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, Russian air-launched cruise missiles struck rail infrastructure Sunday in the early morning hours, “likely in an attempt [to] disrupt the supply of Western military equipment to frontline Ukrainian units,” according to the ministry.
Jun 05, 3:39 pm
Russian missiles target Kyiv
After five weeks of relative calm in Kyiv, Russian rockets hit Ukraine’s capital city on Sunday as Russian President Vladimir Putin warned of strikes on “new targets” if the United States goes through with plans to supply Ukraine with longer-range missiles.
Ukrainian Deputy Minister of Defense Hanna Maliar said the war is still in its “hot phase” and “capturing Kyiv is still Russia’s main goal.”
An ABC News crew visited Kyiv’s Darnytskyy district, where several Russian cruise missiles slammed into a railway repair plant. One building was still on fire when the ABC News crew arrived. Nearby, another missile strike left a creater on a cement path.
It took hours before Ukrainian authorities permitted media access to the site, saying the area needed to be cleared for safety first.
The Russians claimed the attack in Darnystskyy destroyed military vehicles and armaments. Ukrainian officials said the missiles hit a railway repair plant where no tanks were stored.
Speaking on Russian TV on Sunday, Putin issued a warning to the West on supplying the Ukrainians with high-powered rocket systems. He said if the West carried through with it, Russia would hit “new targets they had not attacked before.”
Jun 05, 7:05 am
Putin warns of strikes if West supplies longer-range missiles
President Vladimir Putin warned that Russian forces would strike new targets if the West began supplying Ukraine with longer-range missiles.
“But if they [missiles] are actually delivered, we will draw appropriate conclusions and apply our own weapons, which we have in sufficient quantities to carry out strikes on targets we aren’t striking yet,” Putin told Rossyia 1 TV Channel in an interview on Sunday.
(WASHINGTON) — Michigan Republican gubernatorial candidate Ryan Kelley has been arrested and charged for participating in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, according to U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia.
(AUSTIN, Texas) — Texas state lawmakers convened in Austin on Thursday for a special session to launch an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the Uvalde elementary school massacre.
“It is our goal to conduct a thorough, objective and nonpartisan examination … so that we, as a chamber, may move forward in determining the best possible solutions to prevent something like this from ever occurring again,” Texas state Rep. Dustin Burrows, chairman of the committee investigating the shooting, said in an opening statement.
Law enforcement officials are expected to testify in the coming weeks, Burrows said.
“The committee may produce a preliminary report in order to accommodate the need to have some information out to the public before a full and thorough investigation has taken place and we will do our best to keep everyone apprised of that timeline, as we know it,” he said. “I want to assure those watching that answers and solutions will come — and we will work as quickly as possible to get to that point.”
Texas state Rep. Joe Moody added, “We can’t let mass shootings, especially in our schools, be normalized. I was in high school when Columbine happened. And it was shocking because it was unheard of at the time.”
“Failing to tackle these issues because they’re difficult or politically uncomfortable is cowardly and morally wrong,” Moody said. “We have a duty to do what we can because our children’s lives are on the line. That’s why this committee is so important. When the issues are this complex and the stakes are this high, we need facts first. … We have to cut through the noise and the partisanship and deliver the truth. Only then can we make the informed policy decisions that are urgently needed.”
Nineteen students and two teachers were gunned down in the May 24 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. As gunshots rang out, parents gathered outside of the school, urging officers to enter the building.
After 77 minutes of gunfire, a tactical unit breached the classroom door and killed the gunman.
Law enforcement has come under immense scrutiny for failing to act faster.
Law enforcement and state officials have repeatedly corrected themselves and at times provided conflicting details about their response. At one point, a Texas Department of Public Safety official said the on-scene commanding officer, school district Police Chief Pete Arredondo, made the “wrong decision” to wait to breach the barricaded classrooms.
At a separate news conference Thursday, Hal Harrell, superintendent of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District, wouldn’t address any personnel questions and would not confirm if Arredondo, who has since been sworn in on the city council, is still employed by the district.
