(CONCORD, N.H.) — The FBI has joined the investigation into the fatal shootings of a retired couple whose bodies were found last week on a hiking trail near their New Hampshire home, leaving residents in their town fearful for their own safety, authorities said.
No suspects have yet been identified and police have released little information on the mysterious double homicide in Concord, New Hampshire, of retired international humanitarian worker Stephen Reid, 67, and Djeswende “Wendy” Reid, 66.
“We’ve been able to provide the information that we have, which is that we have no specific information that there’s any danger to the public in general at this point in time, but be vigilant, and those families are going to have to make those decisions for themselves as to what’s best for their family and what they’re most comfortable with,” Geoffrey Ward, a senior assistant state attorney general, said on Tuesday.
The attorney general’s office confirmed Tuesday that the FBI is assisting in the investigation.
Despite reassurances from the authorities that no imminent danger is lurking in Concord, the state’s capital, state Rep. Kris Schultz, D-Concord, said anxiety has permeated the city of nearly 44,000 people, where only seven murders have occurred in the past five years, according to the Concord Police Department’s annual crime statistics.
Schultz told ABC affiliate station WMUR in Manchester, New Hampshire, that the lack of answers has left many of her constituents on edge.
“Do we need to be worried on an everyday basis in our neighborhood? Are we safe?” Schultz said. “This has been a safe community, and I believe it will continue to be, but I’m eager to hear more.”
‘No. 1 priority’
Concord Police Chief Bradley Osgood said solving the slayings is his department’s “No. 1 priority.”
“We are dedicating resources to be more visible in the community to make people feel safer,” Osgood said.
The Reids were reported missing on April 20 when Stephen Reid failed to show up at a planned event, according to the state attorney general’s office. Their bodies were discovered a day later off a hiking trail in a wooded and marshy area within the city’s Broken Ground Trails system, officials said.
Autopsies determined they both died from multiple gunshot wounds.
The Reids were last seen alive on April 18, when they left their home in the Alton Woods apartment complex around 2:30 p.m. and went for a walk in the Broken Ground Trails area.
Homicide investigators and the couple’s children are asking the public to report any information that could possibly be helpful in cracking the case.
Couple shared ‘mutual love of adventure’
The couple’s family, including their children, Lindsay and Brian Reid, released a statement, describing Stephen and Wendy Reid as soulmates who traveled the world and shared a “mutual love of adventure and fitness.”
The Reids moved to Concord about three years ago when Stephen Reid, who grew up in Concord, retired from a more than a 30-year career as an international development specialist working on humanitarian projects around the world through USAID, their family said.
The couple met while Wendy Reid, who was from West Africa, was studying in Washington D.C. on an athletic scholarship, the family said.
After graduating from the University of Notre Dame, Stephen Reid served in the Peace Corps in West Africa for four years, according to relatives.
“Steve’s 30-plus year career as an international development specialist in service to the world’s most vulnerable through USAID humanitarian projects could not have been made possible without the love, care and support of Wendy, who also helped recently resettled refugees acclimate and thrive in the United States,” family members said in their statement.
(NEW YORK) — Federal prosecutors in New York on Wednesday announced criminal charges against the founder of a private investment firm and its chief financial officer for alleged “manipulative trading” and “deceptive conduct” that led to a multibillion-dollar fraud.
Bill Hwang, the founder of Archegos Capital Management, and Patrick Halligan, the CFO, were charged with racketeering conspiracy, securities fraud and wire fraud.
According to the indictment, Hwang and Halligan “corrupted the operations and activities of the family office known as Archegos” and used it “as an instrument of market manipulation and fraud.” Family offices serve high-net-worth individuals and families.
Lawrence Lustberg, an attorney who represents Hwang, said he was “extremely disappointed” with the charges.
“We are extremely disappointed that the U.S. Attorney’s Office has seen fit to indict a case that has absolutely no factual or legal basis; a prosecution of this type, for open-market transactions, is unprecedented and threatens all investors,” Lustberg said in a statement. “As you will see when the facts unfold, Bill Hwang is entirely innocent of any wrongdoing; there is no evidence whatsoever that he committed any kind of crime, let alone the overblown allegations that pervade this indictment.”
Mary Mulligan, a lawyer for Halligan, said in a statement that her client is “innocent and will be exonerated.”
The consequences were far-reaching, prosecutors said. The stock prices of a number of companies were manipulated, employees’ savings were gambled and different banks were left with billions of dollars in losses. UBS alone lost $861 million, according to the indictment.
The criminal charges followed the spectacular implosion, in March 2021, of Archegos, which lost billions in mere days. Prosecutors said Hwang traded in a way that hid the true size of his positions from the rest of the investing public.
The alleged criminal conduct pumped Archegos’ portfolio – Hwang’s personal fortune – from $1.5 billion to $35 billion in one year, according to prosecutors.
Mykhaylo Palinchak/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
(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 27, 12:34 pm
Biden to visit facility that manufactures Javelin anti-tank missiles
President Joe Biden will visit a Lockheed Martin facility in Alabama on Tuesday where Javelin anti-tank missiles are being manufactured for Ukrainian troops, the White House said.
The U.S. has committed over 5,500 Javelin anti-armor systems for Ukrainians, according to the Pentagon.
-ABC News’ Justin Gomez
Apr 26, 6:58 pm
War in Ukraine dealt a ‘major shock’ to commodities markets: World Bank
The World Bank issued a report on Tuesday that said the war in Ukraine dealt a major shock to commodity markets and altered global patterns of trade, production and consumption in ways that will keep prices at historically high levels through the end of 2024.
“Overall, this amounts to the largest commodity shock we’ve experienced since the 1970s,” Indermit Gill, the World Bank’s vice president for equitable growth, finance and institutions, said in a statement.
The report said energy prices are expected to rise more than 50% in 2022 before easing in 2023 and 2024.
Wheat prices are forecast to increase more than 40%, putting pressure on developing economies that rely on wheat imports, especially from Russia and Ukraine, according to the World Bank.
Metal prices are projected to increase by 16% in 2022 before easing in 2023, according to the report.
Crude oil prices are expected to average $100 a barrel in 2022, its highest level since 2013 and an increase of more than 40% compared to 2021, the report said. Oil prices are expected to moderate to $92 in 2023, which is above the five-year average of $60 a barrel, the World Bank said.
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Apr 26, 6:29 pm
Russia’s Gazprom suspends gas deliveries to Bulgaria, Poland
Polish natural gas company PGNiG announced Tuesday they received a notice from Gazprom that deliveries will be suspended starting Wednesday, April 27.
Poland has refused to pay for gas in rubles and PGNiG says they are prepared to procure gas supplies from alternate sources; storage is currently at 80%.
“Not a problem,” Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said.
Gazprom sent a similar notice to Bulgaria’s natural gas company Bulgargaz, according to a statement from the country’s energy minister Alexander Nikolov.
Morawiecki urged other EU countries, particularly Germany, to stop relying on Russian energy before Russia itself decides to cut them off, or sets economy-crippling prices.
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou, Conor Finnegan and Tomek Rolski
Apr 26, 6:00 pm
Sen. Rand Paul confronts Secretary Blinken over war in Ukraine
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., had a heated back and forth with Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Capitol Hill over the war in Ukraine.
Paul pushed Blinken on support for Ukraine’s possible membership in NATO and what he called “the reasons” for the Russian invasion.
“I’m saying that the countries that have been attacked, Georgia and Ukraine, were part of the Soviet Union since 1920s,” he said.
“That does not give Russia the right to attack them,” Blinken said, explaining that the Kremlin’s security concerns about Ukraine joining NATO were adequately weighed and attempts at diplomacy were made.
“It is abundantly clear, in President Putin’s own words, that this was never about Ukraine, being potentially part of NATO, and it was always about his belief that Ukraine does not deserve to be a sovereign independent country that it must be reassumed into Russia in one form or another,” Blinken said.
Paul interjected during Blinken’s answer, denying he was making the argument that Russia’s actions were justified. The senator then asked Blinken about talks between Russia and Ukraine and the potential outcomes.
“Would the U.S. would President Biden be open to accepting Ukraine as an unaligned neutral nation?” Paul asked.
“We’re not going to be more Ukrainian than the Ukrainians. These are decisions for them to make,” Blinken said.
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford and Connor Finnegan
Apr 26, 5:06 pm
US diplomats briefly return to Ukraine, but embassy remains closed
The United States returned diplomats to Ukraine for the first time since the beginning of the Russian invasion with a team making a day trip across the border from Poland to meet Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials, the State Department confirmed on Tuesday.
“The deputy chief of mission and members of the embassy team traveled to Lviv, Ukraine, today, where they were able to continue our close collaboration with key Ukrainian partners,” said State Department spokesperson Ned Price.
Price called the move a “first step” toward eventually reopening the U.S. Embassy in Kyiv.
“Today’s travel was a first step ahead of more regular travel in the immediate future. And as we’ve said, we’re accelerating preparations to resume Embassy Kyiv operations just as soon as possible,” Price said. “We are constantly assessing and evaluating and reassessing the security situation with a view toward resuming those embassy operations as soon as possible.”
-ABC News’ Conor Finnegan
Apr 26, 4:46 pm
Germany to send anti-aircraft tanks to Ukraine
Germany plans to supply Ukraine with “Gepard” anti-aircraft tanks, the German Minister of Defense announced Tuesday on Twitter.
“We made our decisions in coordination with our allies,” German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said earlier Tuesday during a news conference at a meeting of NATO countries hosted by the United States at Ramstein Air Base. “That is, once it was clear others will deliver certain systems, we support them in that. We deliver as well. That is our way — Germany is not doing it alone. And if Ukraine now urgently needs such air defense systems, then we are also prepared to support them.”
Lambrecht said Tuesday’s gathering of NATO countries to discuss strengthening Ukraine’s military both in the short and long terms was a “starting point.”
“The best security strategy for Ukraine is well-trained and equipped armed forces,” Lambrecht said, “Germany has been providing a very high level of support in a variety of ways since the war began.”
The move from Germany comes just days after Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk told ABC News that she was disappointed in Germany for seemingly dragging its feet on sending heavy artillery, including tanks, to Ukraine and said it appeared German leaders are attempting to placate Putin.
“They don’t understand. There is no way to pacify Putin,” Vereshchuk said. “It would be a huge problem for NATO if Russia has dominance over the Black Sea.”
Apr 26, 3:51 pm
Blinken says Ukrainians have won the battle for Kyiv
Speaking publicly about his visit to Ukraine for the first time since returning home, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken declared to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that “the Ukrainians have won the battle for Kyiv.”
Blinken, who visited Ukraine over the weekend with U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, emphasized the need for additional aid to help Ukrainians weather the ongoing war as it enters its next phase.
“As we took the train across the border and rode westward into Ukraine, we saw mile after mile of Ukrainian countryside, territory that just a couple of months ago, the Russian government thought that it could seize in a matter of weeks. Today — firmly Ukraine’s,” Blinken told the committee.
Blinken said that while in Kyiv, he saw the signs of “a vibrant city coming back to life” with people eating outside, sitting on benches and strolling the streets.
“For all the suffering that they’ve endured, for all the carnage that Russia’s brutal invasion continues to inflict, Ukraine was and will continue to be a free and independent country,” he said.
Blinken said the United States has played a vital part in helping Ukrainian forces mount an effective resistance against Russia.
“I have to tell you, I felt some pride in what the United States has done to support the Ukrainian government and its people and an even firmer conviction that we must not let up,” Blinken said. “Moscow’s war of aggression against Ukraine has underscored the power and purpose of American diplomacy.”
He added, “We have to continue to drive that diplomacy forward to seize what I believe are strategic opportunities, as well as address risks presented by Russia’s overreach as countries are reconsidering their policies, their priorities, their relationships.”
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford and Conor Finnegan
Apr 26, 2:28 pm
UN chief presses Putin on urgent need for humanitarian corridors in Ukraine
Prior to meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued a statement calling for humanitarian corridors in Ukraine that are “truly safe.”
Guterres later raised the issue with Putin during a face-to-face meeting, stressing the urgent need for the creation of safe and effective humanitarian corridors in the war-ravaged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol, where he said thousands of civilians remain trapped, according to the Russian state-run TASS news service. Guterres also proposed the creation of a humanitarian contact group.
“We urgently need humanitarian corridors that are truly safe and effective, and that are respected by all to evacuate civilians and deliver much needed assistance,” Guterres said prior to meeting with Putin. “To that end, I have proposed the establishment of a humanitarian contact group, bringing together the Russian Federation, Ukraine, and the U.N. to look for opportunities for the opening of safe corridors, with local cessation of hostilities and to guarantee they are actually effective.”
Guterres made his statement following a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
While meeting with Guterres, Putin said the U.N. chief has been misled and insisted that humanitarian corridors in Mariupol are functioning, according to TASS.
“You say that Russia’s humanitarian corridors are not operating. Mr. Secretary-General, you have been misled: these corridors are operating,” Putin said, according to TASS.
Putin told Guterres that up to 140,000 people had fled Mariupol with the assistance of Russia.
“And they can go anywhere. Some want to go to Russia; some want to go to Ukraine. Anywhere! We do not keep them, we provide all kinds of help and support,” Putin said, according to TASS.
However, Putin “agreed, in principle, to the involvement of the United Nations and the International Committee for the Red Cross in the evacuation of civilians from the Azovstal plant in Mariupol,” according to a readout of the meeting provided by the U.N.
Apr 26, 1:29 pm
UN General Assembly unanimously adopts new rule on veto powers
The U.N. General Assembly — where all 193 countries have a vote — has unanimously adopted a resolution that creates a new accountability mechanism.
Now, whenever a permanent member of the U.N. Security Council uses its veto power to block a resolution, it will automatically trigger a debate in the General Assembly within 10 days.
The move was made primarily in response to Russia’s veto power, which the country has used repeatedly to sink resolutions about its own aggression. It has paralyzed the ability of the Security Council, the United Nation’s most powerful body, to check Russia.
The United States, Russia, China, France and the United Kingdom are the five veto-wielding permanent members of the Security Council, while the ten other seats rotate and are won by election.
The United States and Liechtenstein co-sponsored the resolution, with the tiny European country tweeting, “Together we have made sure today that a veto is no longer the last word on issues of peace and security.”
-ABC News’ Conor Finnegan
Apr 26, 12:19 pm
US to meet with NATO allies monthly as Defense Secretary Austin conveys urgency in Ukraine
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said meetings like the one on Tuesday with more than 40 NATO allies and other partner nations will now occur monthly.
“To ensure that we continue to build on our progress, we’re going to extend this forum beyond today,” Austin said during a news conference at Ramstein Air Base in Germany.
“I’m proud to announce that today’s gathering will become a monthly contact group on Ukraine’s self-defense,” he said.
The meetings will focus on strengthening Ukraine’s military both in the short and long terms, Austin said.
“The contact group will be a vehicle for nations of good will to intensify our efforts and coordinate our assistance and focus on winning today’s fight and the struggles to come,” Austin said. “The monthly meetings may be in person, virtual, or mixed.”
Austin, who visited Ukraine on Sunday with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, praised Tuesday’s meeting with NATO allies, saying, “We’re all coming away with a transparent and shared understanding of a challenge that Ukrainians face.”
Austin conveyed a sense of urgency for the international community to help the Ukrainians.
“I applaud all of the countries that have risen, and are rising, to this moment,” he said. “But we don’t have any time to waste. The briefings today laid out clearly why the coming weeks will be so crucial for Ukraine. So, we’ve got to move at the speed of war.”
Austin thanked Germany for hosting Tuesday’s meeting and for offering to send Ukraine 50 Cheetah anti-aircraft systems. He also thanked the United Kingdom for its announcement Monday that it would provide Ukraine additional anti-aircraft capabilities.
“We held an important session today with long-term support for Ukraine’s defenses, including what that will take from our defense industrial bases,” Austin said. “That means dealing with the tremendous demand that we’re facing for munitions and weapons platforms, and giving our staunch support to Ukraine while also meeting our own requirements, and those of our allies and partners.”
-ABC News’ Matt Syler
Apr 26, 10:53 am
‘People’s Friendship’ statue taken down in Kyiv
A Soviet-era statue that has stood in the capital of Ukraine since 1982 and once symbolized the friendship between Russia and Ukraine was taken down on Tuesday in response to the war between the two countries.
An ABC News crew was on-hand in Kyiv as a large crane removed the bronze “People’s Friendship” statue from its pedestal.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said the statue, a gift from the former Soviet Union, is being dismantled because of the “brutal killing and a desire to destroy our state.”
The statue depicts two workers, a Russian and a Ukrainian, holding up a Soviet Order of Friendship of Peoples. The monument was dedicated in November 1982 to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the USSR and the 1,500th anniversary of Kyiv.
Klitschko said a 164-foot-tall titanium rainbow-shaped arch the statue rested under will remain and be illuminated with the colors of the Ukrainian flag.
-ABC News’ Marcus Moore
Apr 26, 7:07 am
US gathers NATO allies in Germany for Ukraine aid talks
The U.S. will “keep moving heaven and earth” to supply aid to Ukraine, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said on Tuesday at a meeting of the Ukraine Security Consultive Group, which includes military representatives from about 40 countries.
“Ukraine clearly believes it can win. And so does everyone here,” Austin said in his opening remarks at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. “I know that we’re all determined to do everything we can to support Ukraine’s needs as the fight evolves.”
Austin said the group would seek to leave with a common understanding of “Ukraine’s near term security requirements, because we’re going to keep moving heaven and earth so that we can meet them.”
He called Russia’s war with Ukraine “indefensible,” adding that Putin didn’t “imagine the world [would] rally behind Ukraine’s so swiftly and so surely.”
Apr 26, 6:08 am
Russia attempts to encircle Ukrainian positions in east, UK says
Russian forces appeared to be moving to encircle “heavily fortified” Ukrainian positions in the east, the U.K. Ministry of Defense said on Tuesday.
“The city of Kreminna has reportedly fallen and heavy fighting is reported south of Izium, as Russian forces attempt to advance towards the cities of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk from the north and east,” the ministry said in its latest intelligence update.
Ukrainian forces in Zaporizhzhia were preparing for an attack from the south, the ministry said.
(MINNEAPOLIS) — Following an almost two-year investigation, the Minnesota Department of Human Rights found that the city of Minneapolis and the Minneapolis Police Department engaged in a pattern or practice of race discrimination in violation of the Minnesota Human Rights Act.
The human rights agency said Wednesday it will work with the city to develop a consent decree — “a court-enforceable agreement that identifies specific changes to be made and timelines for those changes to occur.”
The investigation found racial disparities in how “MPD officers use force, stop, search, arrest, and cite people of color; in MPD officers’ use of covert social media to surveil Black individuals and Black organizations, unrelated to criminal activity; MPD officers’ consistent use of racist, misogynistic, and disrespectful language.”
These conclusions were made after investigators sat through hundreds of hours of camera footage, official interviews with officers, experts and witnesses, and read through thousands of pages in documents and materials.
The Department of Human Rights said it will meet with community members, MPD officers, city officials and others to get feedback in preparation for the consent decree to address racial discrimination in policing in the city.
The investigation is aimed at determining whether MPD engages in a pattern or practice of racial discrimination in violation of the Minnesota Human Rights Act, the state’s civil rights law.
The human rights department filing came shortly after the murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, by then-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Chauvin was convicted of the killing April 20, 2021.
“Community leaders have been asking for structural change for decades,” Commissioner Rebecca Lucero said in June 2020 during the department’s announcement. “They have fought for this and it is essential that we acknowledge the work and the commitment of those who have paved the path to make today’s announcement possible.”
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Justice Department also opened a pattern or practice investigation into the city of Minneapolis and the Minneapolis Police Department in 2021. That investigation is still ongoing.
Following the announcement, the Department of Human Rights obtained a temporary court order from Hennepin County District Court that forced the city of Minneapolis and the Minneapolis Police Department to implement immediate policy changes.
MPD was required to ban chokeholds, officers were required to report or intervene in unauthorized use of force by other officers, get police chief approval on crowd control weapon use and more.
Since the start of the human rights investigation, groups like the Minnesota Justice Center, the Policing Project at NYU Law and the Minneapolis Foundation have offered recommendations for MPD in independent reviews on the department.
(WASHINGTON) — Much of official Washington remembered former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, the first woman to ever serve in that role, at her funeral Wednesday at Washington National Cathedral.
Albright, who had cancer, died in March at the age of 84.
She served as secretary of state from 1997 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton after serving as the U.S. ambassador to the U.N. from 1993 to 1997.
President Joe Biden eulogized Albright, sharing a story of a speech he gave last month in Poland, where he said a crowd of hundreds cheered when Albright’s name was mentioned.
“Her name is still synonymous with America as a force for good in the world. Madeleine never minced words or wasted time when she saw something needed fixing, or someone who needed helping. She just got to work,” Biden said.
During her tenure as secretary of state, she focused on promoting the eastward expansion of NATO and pushed for NATO intervention in the 1999 war in Kosovo, according to the historical office of the Department of State.
Her approach to diplomacy and statecraft was colored by her own experiences as a refugee who fled what was then Czechoslovakia with her family in the aftermath of World War II.
She remained engaged with both American and international affairs until the end of her life, writing a book in 2018 warning about a resurgence of fascism and sounding an alarm about Russian President Vladimir Putin in a New York Times op-ed published just before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“In early 2000, I became the first senior U.S. official to meet with Vladimir Putin in his new capacity as acting president of Russia… Flying home, I recorded my impressions. ‘Putin is small and pale,’ I wrote, ‘so cold as to be almost reptilian,'” Albright wrote in the Times. She added that “should he invade [Ukraine], it will be a historic error.”
Both former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton were also slated to speak at the funeral, according to the Washington National Cathedral.
“Few leaders have been so perfectly suited for the times in which they served… Because she knew firsthand that America’s policy decisions had the power to make a difference in people’s lives around the world, she saw her jobs as both an obligation and an opportunity,” the former president wrote in a statement the day Albright died.
Her daughters, Anne, Alice and Katie, were also scheduled to speak.
ABC News’ Emily Shapiro contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas faced blunt questions from lawmakers on Wednesday about how the Biden administration is handling and preparing for the eventual end of pandemic-justified border restrictions that have reduced humanitarian relief options for asylum seekers at the border.
On Monday, a federal judge in Louisiana indicated he would pause the rollback of Title 42 — the Trump-era policy that allowed migrants seeking asylum along the southern border to be expelled under the public health emergency authority of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — in order to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.
The Democratic Chair of the House Appropriations Committee, Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard, asked Mayorkas directly if he believes it’s time to end Title 42 and, as he has done before, Mayorkas deferred to the CDC.
“Our responsibility in the Department of Homeland Security is to implement the Title 42 authority of the CDC at our border and to implement it effectively and judiciously according to the law. We are mindful that the that there can be an increase in migratory flows encountered at our southern border should Title 42 come to an end, as the CDC has determined it needs to do by May 23. Our responsibility therefore, is to prepare and plan for that eventuality.”
The CDC rescinded the policy earlier this month, and it was expected to be phased out by May 23 before the federal judge announced his intent to block the recision.
Judge Robert Summerhays said he intends to issue a temporary restraining order in the case if the Justice Department and Arizona, Missouri and Louisiana, the three states that sued to pause the rollback, can come to an agreement.
A senior administration official told reporters the administration intends to comply with the temporary restraining order the judge intends to issue, but the administration disagrees with the premise of the restraining order. For now, the administration continues to prepare for the eventual end of Title 42. Mayorkas issued a memo on Tuesday outlining the objectives DHS plans to carry out regardless of when Title 42 comes to an end.
The six-part plan explains a variety of steps the administration has already started taking to prepare for a potential surge in migration. It involves surging resources to the border including medical supplies and personnel, speeding up case processing at CBP holding centers, working with NGOs to transition migrants from government custody to local communities and stepping up efforts to crack down on human smuggling organizations.
“I’ve been to the border approximately eight times and in my last visit I heard loudly and clearly the concerns of our heroic, incredibly dedicated Border Patrol agents about their need for additional support so that they can get out into the field and interdict individuals seeking to evade law enforcement and cross our border illegally,” Mayorkas told lawmakers.
The secretary testified that about 300 case processors have been contracted to increase capacity and move those who enter without authorization through the system.
“When the Title 42 public health order is lifted, we anticipate migration levels will increase, as smugglers will seek to take advantage of and profit from vulnerable migrants,” Mayorkas wrote in a prior memo titled, “DHS Plan for Southwest Border Security and Preparedness.”
DHS officials told reporters in March they could expect to see as many as 18,000 migrants along the southern border per day, when Title 42 gets lifted.
Mayorkas has stressed Title 42 is not an immigration policy, but rather born out of the public health crisis.
“We inherited an immigration system from the prior administration that had been studiously dismantled and so was unprepared to meet the challenges posed by the high numbers of non citizens arriving at our borders today,” according to a senior Administration official who briefed reporters on Tuesday.
In addition to the two hearings on Wednesday, Mayorkas goes in front of the House Judiciary Committee on Thursday.
Last week, Rep. Jim Jordan, an Ohio Republican, wrote to Mayorkas in anticipation of his testimony.
“The Biden Administration’s radical immigration policies have caused a humanitarian and security crisis along our southwest border,” Jordan wrote. “The American people deserve answers and accountability for the Biden Administration’s lawlessness along the southwest border.”
(CHIPPEWA FALLS, Wis.) — Police said Tuesday they’ve arrested a suspect in connection with the death of a 10-year-old girl whose body was found on a Wisconsin walking trail.
Lily Peters, a fourth grader, was reported missing by her father on Sunday night, said police in Chippewa Falls, a city about 100 miles east of Minneapolis.
Lily had been at her aunt’s house on Sunday and never made it home that night, police said.
On Sunday night officers found Lily’s bike in the woods by a walking trail near her aunt’s house, police said.
Around 9:15 a.m. Monday, Lily’s body was found in a wooded area near the walking trail, Chippewa Falls Police Chief Matthew Kelm said at a news conference.
On Tuesday evening, Kelm said the police arrested an unidentified juvenile suspect who was not a stranger to the girl. Kelm said that the suspect was known to the family.
“While nothing will bring back Lily Peters, we are grateful to deliver the news of an arrest to the family,” he said at a news conference.
The chief said the police received over 200 tips, and some were critical to the arrest.
The investigation was ongoing. Kelm had earlier said police are considering this a homicide investigation.
ABC News’ Matt Foster and Darren Reynolds contributed to this report.
(MINNEAPOLIS) — The Minnesota Department of Human Rights will release findings Wednesday from its investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department two years after filing a charge of discrimination against the city.
The investigation is aimed at determining whether MPD engages in a pattern or practice of racial discrimination in violation of the Minnesota Human Rights Act, the state’s civil rights law.
The filing came shortly after the murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, by then-Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Chauvin was convicted of the killing April 20, 2021.
“Community leaders have been asking for structural change for decades,” Commissioner Rebecca Lucero said in June 2020 during the department’s announcement. “They have fought for this and it is essential that we acknowledge the work and the commitment of those who have paved the path to make today’s announcement possible.”
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Justice Department also opened a pattern or practice investigation into the city of Minneapolis and the Minneapolis Police Department in 2021. That investigation is still ongoing.
Following the announcement, the Department of Human Rights obtained a temporary court order from Hennepin County District Court that forced the city of Minneapolis and the Minneapolis Police Department to implement immediate policy changes.
MPD was required to ban chokeholds, officers were required to report or intervene in unauthorized use of force by other officers, get police chief approval on crowd control weapon use and more.
Since the start of the human rights investigation, groups like the Minnesota Justice Center, the Policing Project at NYU Law and the Minneapolis Foundation have offered recommendations for MPD in independent reviews on the department.
(WASHINGTON) — U.S. and Russian officials have been negotiating the prisoner swap for Trevor Reed for months, according to senior administration officials Wednesday, with talks intensifying in recent weeks amid concern about his health.
As the Marine veteran, held since August 2019, was released, he met with U.S. special presidential envoy for hostage affairs Roger Carstens — and was described by an administration official as being in “good spirits” — before traveling onward to the U.S., the officials said.
This diplomatic exchange continued even amid Russia’s war in Ukraine — but the senior administration officials made clear, the talks never touched on the war or U.S. sanctions.
There was not even senior-level U.S. official travel to Russia to negotiate the exchange, according to the officials.
“This is a discrete issue on which we were able to make an arrangement with the Russians. It represents no change — zero — to our approach to the appalling violence in Ukraine,” a senior administration official told reporters.
“Let me just emphasize this again because it’s so important — the discussion with the Russians that led to this exchange were strictly limited to these topics, not a broader diplomatic conversation or even the starting point,” they added.
Topics around the war “weren’t broached. They were never intended to be broached” during the high-stakes secrets talks, a second senior administration official said.
After months of talks, President Joe Biden made “a very hard decision” to commute the sentence of Konstantin Yaroshenko, a Russian drug smuggler convicted of conspiring to import cocaine into the U.S.
But the senior administration officials emphasized Yaroshenko was not pardoned, and argued he “has already paid a steep price in the U.S. justice system for his crime. In fact, he’s already served the majority of his sentence.”
Serving a nine-year sentence in a remote prison camp, Reed went on a second hunger strike in late March to protest his treatment, according to his family. After a reported exposure to tuberculosis in December, his family was increasingly concerned about reports he was coughing up blood or experiencing fevers, especially when he was transferred to a prison hospital on April 1.
Appearing publicly for the first time in months, Reed told a Russian court via video teleconference on April 12 that it had been two weeks since he’d coughed up blood or had a fever, but he said he wasn’t receiving medical care for a broken rib.
While American Paul Whelan, another Marine veteran, has been held longer than Reed, it was Reed’s failing health and his family and the U.S. government’s concern that led to his case being raised in the exchange.
The officials declined to say more about Reed’s condition now or when and where he is expected to arrive in the U.S., out of privacy concerns for him and his family.
Yaroshenko is in Russian custody now, they confirmed.
But they repeatedly emphasized the Biden administration’s commitment to securing the freedom of U.S. citizens unjustly detained around the world.
“We will continue to work on and attempt to find ways to address other cases as best we can,” the senior administration official said when asked about Whelan and American WNBA star Brittney Griner, detained in Russia since February.
Whelan was also a tourist in Russia when he was arrested on espionage charges that he, his family, and the U.S. government have said are spurious.
Whelan has been detained since December 2018 and was sentenced to 16 years in prison in June 2020 — transferred to a prison colony eight hours southeast of Moscow.
Olympic gold medalist Brittney Griner, has been held since being accused of having hashish oil in her suitcase while returning to Russia to play basketball.
She remains in pre-trial detention, with a court extending her detention until May 19.
(NEW YORK) — Parents eager to vaccinate their toddlers and preschoolers last fall were told a COVID shot for the youngest age group was on its way, with data expected by the end of the year. That deadline slipped. Then it slipped again.
Now, with summer travel just around the corner, parents of kids under 5 are fed up. They describe feeling stuck in a kind of cruel pandemic time warp, even as much of the country moves on and people have stopped wearing masks, including on airplanes.
Many parents are ready to assign blame.
“I want you, Joe Biden, to call the FDA (US Food and Drug Administration) and tell them that they need to act with all possible speed because every day they delay there are children being infected and some of those children could die,” said Sarah Liebman, a mom outside Portland, Oregon, whose 2-year-old remains too young for a shot.
Emmie Fital, a mom of two boys ages 4 and 1, living outside Philadelphia, has opted to keep her kids home from school because her oldest son’s asthma has resulted previously in a hospital stay after he contracted the common cold.
“We’ve been kind of living in Groundhog’s Day, every day for two years … It is ludicrous what we are having to deal with as parents right now,” Fital told ABC.
In coming weeks, the nation’s two big vaccine makers — Pfizer and Moderna — are poised to deliver key pieces of data that the FDA needs to authorize a vaccine.
Moderna was expected by week’s end to submits its official request for FDA authorization for its 2-shot version. Pfizer says it expects to have final data on its three-shot version by the end of June.
How soon though regulators will give either shot a green light remains unclear. Government and industry officials say the data sets for vaccine trials can be complex, and Moderna will likely submit additional information on a rolling basis even after its official request is made.
The FDA has declined to comment on pending vaccine applications — necessary to avoid legal hot water — but suggested its hands are tied until company officials submit their data. The agency also has promised to make public a new tentative timeline for advisory committee meetings, a final step before authorization of any vaccine.
“Just remember that we can’t actually finish our reviews until we actually have complete applications in the FDA,” said Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, told a Senate panel on Tuesday.
Parents though say they are frustrated by these kinds of cryptic comments and that they seem to be learning more about the vaccine’s progress from press leaks than regulators. Last week, a Politico report suggested the FDA might wait on Moderna’s authorization request until Pfizer could offer more data on its version.
In an interview with CNN+, Biden’s top medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci confirmed there were concerns within the FDA about authorizing the two different vaccines — with different amounts of dosing and shots — on separate timelines. Authorizing them together would give parents a side-by-side comparison before they made their choice, some officials thought.
“What the FDA wants to do is to get it so that we don’t confuse people,” Fauci said.
His comments sparked swift pushback from frustrated parents, including Liebman.
“We were told over and over that the best shot was the first one to get into your arm,” she said. “So I don’t understand why the FDA seems confused. I am not confused. I’m not at all confused.”
Fatima Khan, who helped to start up a grassroots advocacy group and Facebook page called “Protect Their Future,” which advocates for swift authorization of a pediatric vaccine, said she wishes the FDA was more transparent about what it needs from vaccine makers and what concerns it has.
“I feel like we’ve been getting yanked around a lot. You know, no one really gives anyone a clear answer, and it shouldn’t be that difficult,” said Khan.
Still plenty of questions remain, including whether at the FDA should send parents down the path of a two-dose vaccine if an alternative three-dose is found to be more effective just a couple of weeks later.
Moderna has said its two-dose vaccine produced the same level of immune response as seen in adults. But because none of the participants in the study became severely sick, Moderna couldn’t give an estimate of how effective the vaccine is at preventing severe illness.
Dr. Julie Morita, a pediatrician who has advised the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in the past, said premature or complex data can make speaking openly difficult for regulators.
“You want to be careful about what information you’re sharing because you don’t want to have misunderstandings. Because once you the information is out there it’s really hard to pull it back,” said Morita, executive vice president of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Overall, children are at significantly less risk of hospitalization and death of COVID-19 compared to adults.
Still, the number of children who became infected in recent weeks due to the omicron variant is staggering. The American Academy of Pediatrics estimates that nearly 124,000 kids were infected in the past month alone.
Since the pandemic began two years ago, 468 children have died as a result of complications from the virus.
Fital said she is irked hearing public health officials say repeatedly that the best way to protect yourself and others is to get vaccinated, when so many kids can’t.
“What do you say to the 20 million children that have no option?” she asked. “They have nothing.”
ABC News’ Sony Salzman contributed to this report.
