(DURBAN, South Africa) — Communities in Durban, South Africa, are still sifting through debris, trying to salvage the little they can save after devastating floods killed almost 450 people and destroyed millions of dollars in infrastructure.
The weekend weather forecast is predicting more rain in Durban, adding a sense of urgency to the cleanup operations.
ABC News visited several sites where landslides swept through homes, taking everything in its path.
Torrential rains last week — the worst in recorded history — triggered record floods and mudslides, killing 448 people and injuring hundreds more.
At least 40,00 people have been left homeless after the KwaZulu-Natal province received the equivalent of four months of rain in 24 hours, prompting the government to put the country back into a national state of disaster — only a few weeks after suspending a two year COVID-19 related state of national disaster.
“These are the worst floods we’ve ever seen. In over 24 hours, there was 300 to 400 mm of rain,” Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma said at a news conference on Tuesday, crediting climate change as a catalyst for the extreme weather. At the high end of the range, that would equal about 15 inches of rainfall.
While the government has pledged hundreds of millions of dollars in aid, South Africans have also opened their hearts, with donations and help streaming in from across the country.
(SAINT-DENIS, France) — French President Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen, his far-right rival in the presidential elections, faced off in a highly anticipated televised debate Wednesday, clashing on topics from the cost of living to Le Pen’s softer stance on Russia.
Macron and Le Pen took the top two spots in the preliminary round of voting earlier this month, just as they did in 2017. The debate of that year proved disastrous for Le Pen, who struggled under questioning. That year Macron ultimately won a sweeping victory in 2017, winning 66% of the vote.
During the two-and-a-half hour long debate on Wednesday, Le Pen’s performance under pressure was much improved. Even so, Le Pen faced a string of attacks from Macron regarding her stance on Russia. Macron criticized Le Pen’s stance on the Russian annexation of Crimea, which she previously spoke out in favor of and which led her to being banned from entering Ukraine in 2017.
“Why did you do it?” he said. “And I say this with great gravity tonight. Because for our country, this is bad news, because you depend on the Russian power and you depend on Mr. Putin.”
Macron described Russia as Le Pen’s “banker” because of a loan her party received in 2014 from a Czech-Russian bank. Le Pen said Macron’s allegations were false.
Le Pen has sought to soften her National Rally party’s image and ease voters’ concerns about a far-right president. Macron, meanwhile, has been a notably absent figure on the campaign trail.
Le Pen described herself as the “common sense” candidate during Wednesday night’s debate.
“I truly want to make purchasing power the priority of my next five-year term, if the French have confidence in me,” she said. Macron, known for his strong grasp of policy detail, but also a tendency to patronize, attempted to dismantle Le Pen’s claims that if elected she would immediately develop France’s nuclear power production and boost wages by 10%.
The pair also clashed on France’s relationship with the EU and Le Pen’s hard-line stance on immigration, with Macron saying she would ban the right of Muslim women to wear headscarfs in public.
Overall, however, there appeared to be no losers in Wednesday night’s debate, with neither side landing a knockout blow ahead of the final round of voting this weekend.
Polling in France has shown an upswing in Le Pen’s popularity and decline in Macron’s, though the French president — who has been accused of arrogance by pundits and voters in the past — retains a narrow lead in most reported opinion polls.
The war in Ukraine has dominated the headlines this campaign cycle, and Le Pen has faced criticism in France for a softer approach to Russia and past support for President Vladimir Putin. While she has said she is in favor of the broad package of sanctions announced by the French government, she has publicly opposed restrictions on oil and gas imports from Russia, citing concerns about the rising cost of living in France that has become a critical issue in the campaign.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in an interview with French television channel BFMTV ahead of the debate on Wednesday, went as far as to urge Le Pen to reconsider her position on Russia.
“If the candidate were to understand that she was wrong, our relationship could change,” Zelenskyy said. While ensuring not “to have the right to influence” the French electoral campaign, Zelenskyy recognized that “obviously, I have relations with Emmanuel Macron and I would not want to lose them.”
Ultimately the final outcome of the election may well be decided by matters closer to home, however, with Macron’s team touting his experience in power at a time of stability, while Le Pen’s campaign has targeted the incumbent for, they say, being out of touch with ordinary people.
The far-right candidate focused her campaign on purchasing power, a topic expected to be one of the main factors in deciding the outcome of the election. Le Pen’s project, however, still centers on the fight against immigration. The National Rally candidate has presented several flagship proposals, including a bill to drastically limit immigration, the abolition of the right of soil, and restricting the routes for people to claim asylum in France.
“Fear is the only argument that the current president has to try and stay in power at all cost,” Le Pen said in a clip posted by her campaign Tuesday.
Much will depend on which candidate the supporters of far-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon turn to in the final round. Mélenchon secured 22% of the first round of voting in third place, and while he publicly told his supporters not to vote for Le Pen, her populist vision may prove more enticing to a base dissatisfied with Macron, a centrist with a background in the financial sector.
The debate was the first and only time voters will have a chance to see the candidates face off ahead of the final round of voting on April 24.
ABC News’ Ibtissem Guenfoud contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Thursday announced an additional $800 million package in military assistance to Ukraine — as well as a ban on all Russian-affiliated ships from U.S. ports — as Russian forces launch a long-expected, large-scale campaign to seize the country’s east.
“We’re in a critical window now of time where — they’re going to set the stage for the next phase of this war,” Biden said from the White House Roosevelt Room, adding the U.S. and allies will continue to provide Ukraine with “equipment they need — their forces need — to defend their nation.”
Biden said the new aid package will include “heavy artillery weapons, dozens of howitzers, and 144,000 rounds of ammunition to go with those howitzers,” as well as tactical drones.
It follows another of similar size, which Biden announced last week, but focuses more on artillery and ammunition, U.S. officials told ABC News earlier this week.
Biden said the U.S. has sent “equipment that is responsive to Ukraine’s needs and tailored to support the intensified fighting in the Donbas region, which is a different war than in other places because both topographically, it’s different — it’s flat, it’s not in the mountains — and it requires different kinds of weapons to be more effective.”
“Every American taxpayer, every member of our armed forces can be proud of the fact that our country’s generosity — and the skill and service of our military — helped arm and repel Russia’s aggression in Ukraine to beat back Putin’s savagery that tried to seize Ukraine’s capital and wipe out Ukraine’s government,” Biden added.
With this latest package, the U.S. is on track to having announced about $3 billion in military aid since the start started in late February. In particular, this is the eighth tranche of U.S. assistance from the Pentagon’s existing stockpile, using what’s known as presidential drawdown authority to expedite delivery.
As more than 5 million have fled Ukraine since the war began, Biden also announced a new program dubbed “Unite for Ukraine” to fast-track Ukrainian refugees coming to the U.S.
“This new humanitarian parole program will complement the existing legal pathways available to Ukrainians, including immigrant visas and refugees processing” and “provide an expedient channel for secure legal migration from Europe to the United States for Ukrainians, who have a U.S. sponsor such as a family or an NGO,” Biden said.
Beginning April 25, the administration says U.S.-based individuals and entities can apply to the Department of Homeland Security to sponsor Ukrainian citizens. Those who apply to sponsor Ukrainians will be required to declare their financial support and pass a background check, according to administration officials, and there is no limit on how many Ukrainians a person or entity can sponsor.
“This program will be fast, it will be streamlined, and will ensure the United States honors its commitment to go to the people of Ukraine and need not go through our southern border,” Biden added.
“That means no ship, no ship that sails on the Russian flag or that is owned or operated by Russian interest would be allowed to dock on the united States port or access our shores. None,” he said.
After meeting with Ukraine’s Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal ahead of his remarks, Biden again called on Congress to provide more funding for weapons and ammunition because existing money is “almost exhausted,” he said, even with an additional $500 million in economic aid to Ukraine’s government the Treasury Department also announced Thursday, separate from the latest $800 million military package.
Russia offered another ultimatum Wednesday to allow Ukrainian fighters to leave a steel plant in Mariupol — but those fighters, for days, have refused to surrender. Finally seizing the strategic port city after weeks of besiegement and bombardment would help give Russian forces a land bridge between Crimea, which Russia has occupied since 2014, and the eastern provinces known as the Donbas, where Russian-led separatists have battled the Ukrainian government since 2014, too.
The Donbas is expected to be Russia’s focus now, but the U.S. remains concerned that Russian forces will target the paths in western Ukraine being used to ship Western military aid into the country, a defense official told ABC News.
While they have not done so yet, cutting off those supply routes will help the Kremlin isolate Ukrainian forces in the east, the official added.
The U.S. believes Russians will target the paths in western Ukraine being used to ship in Western military aid in order to isolate Ukrainian forces in the east, a defense official told ABC News.
“Right now, we know from our discussions with the Ukrainians that they are getting this material,” a defense official said Tuesday. “It’s getting into the hands of their fighters.”
The U.S. and other Western countries have now provided Ukraine with close to 70,000 anti-tank weapons, including several varieties of shoulder-fired missiles. The number of shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles that the U.S. and other countries have sent to Ukraine is nearing 30,000.
Those missiles have been used by Ukrainian forces to great effect, but as the battle shifts from Ukraine’s major cities and suburbs to the more flat eastern provinces, Kyiv’s troops will need more artillery and ammunition instead.
Four flights carrying military aid from the $800 million drawdown package Biden announced last week arrived in Ukraine over the last 24 hours, some of them carrying U.S. howitzers and 155mm ammunition for them, a senior defense official said Wednesday, adding more equipment will arrive over the next 24 hours.
ABC News asked the official why the U.S. decided to send U.S. artillery to the Ukrainians.
“We’re mindful of the importance of artillery in the fight that they’re in right now and in the fighting in the days to come because of the terrain, and because of what we think they’re going to be up against with Russian forces,” the official responded. Another reason was “the fact that it wouldn’t require an onerous amount of training for the Ukrainians to know how to use them” and the ability to ship them quickly, according to the official.
After Biden called Russia’s actions in Ukraine “genocide” for the first time last week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Wednesday that the same horrors witnessed in Bucha — “death, destruction, atrocities” — may take place in the eastern city of Mariupol “at some point,” even as Russian forces seem already poised to fully capture the strategic city.
“We can only anticipate that when this tide also at some point recedes from Mariupol, we’re going to see far worse — if that’s possible to imagine,” Blinken said. “So the conditions there, the situation there as a result of this Russian aggression are truly horrific.”
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Thursday was set to announce an additional $800 million package of military assistance to Ukraine as Russian forces launch a long-expected, large-scale campaign to seize the country’s east.
The aid package follows another of similar size, which Biden announced last week, but focuses more on artillery and ammunition, U.S. officials told ABC News.
With this latest package, the U.S. is on track to having announced about $3 billion in military aid since the start started in late February. In particular, this is the eighth tranche of U.S. assistance from the Pentagon’s existing stockpile, using what’s known as presidential drawdown authority to expedite delivery.
Russia offered another ultimatum Wednesday to allow Ukrainian fighters to leave a steel plant in Mariupol — but those fighters, for days, have refused to surrender. Finally seizing the strategic port city after weeks of besiegement and bombardment would help give Russian forces a land bridge between Crimea, which Russia has occupied since 2014, and the eastern provinces known as the Donbas, where Russian-led separatists have battled the Ukrainian government since 2014, too.
The Donbas is expected to be Russia’s focus now, but the U.S. remains concerned that Russian forces will target the paths in western Ukraine being used to ship Western military aid into the country, a defense official told ABC News.
While they have not done so yet, cutting off those supply routes will help the Kremlin isolate Ukrainian forces in the east, the official added.
The U.S. believes Russians will target the paths in western Ukraine being used to ship in Western military aid in order to isolate Ukrainian forces in the east, a defense official told ABC News.
“Right now, we know from our discussions with the Ukrainians that they are getting this material,” a defense official said Tuesday. “It’s getting into the hands of their fighters.”
The U.S. and other Western countries have now provided Ukraine with close to 70,000 anti-tank weapons, including several varieties of shoulder-fired missiles. The number of shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles that the U.S. and other countries have sent to Ukraine is nearing 30,000.
Those missiles have been used by Ukrainian forces to great effect, but as the battle shifts from Ukraine’s major cities and suburbs to the more flat eastern provinces, Kyiv’s troops will need more artillery and ammunition instead.
Four flights carrying military aid from the $800 million drawdown package Biden announced last week arrived in Ukraine over the last 24 hours, some of them carrying U.S. howitzers and 155mm ammunition for them, a senior defense official said Wednesday, adding more equipment will arrive over the next 24 hours.
ABC News asked the official why the U.S. decided to send U.S. artillery to the Ukrainians.
“We’re mindful of the importance of artillery in the fight that they’re in right now and in the fighting in the days to come because of the terrain, and because of what we think they’re going to be up against with Russian forces,” the official responded.
Another reason was “the fact that it wouldn’t require an onerous amount of training for the Ukrainians to know how to use them” and the ability to ship them quickly, according to the official.
More than five million people have fled Ukraine since the start of the war, according to the United Nations.
After Biden called Russia’s actions in Ukraine “genocide” for the first time last week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Wednesday that the same horrors witnessed in Bucha — “death, destruction, atrocities” — may take place in the eastern city of Mariupol “at some point,” even as Russian forces seem already poised to fully capture the strategic city.
“We can only anticipate that when this tide also at some point recedes from Mariupol, we’re going to see far worse — if that’s possible to imagine,” Blinken said. “So the conditions there, the situation there as a result of this Russian aggression are truly horrific.”
(WASHINGTON) — The Biden administration on Thursday announced it is moving to fast-track Ukrainian refugees coming to the United States.
Beginning April 25, the administration says U.S.-based individuals and entities can apply to the Department of Homeland Security to sponsor Ukrainian citizens — in an operation dubbed “Uniting for Ukraine.”
Any U.S. citizen or entity can apply sponsor Ukrainians and will be required to declare their financial support and pass a background check. Administration officials said there is no limit on how many Ukrainians a person or entity can sponsor.
“We are anticipating obviously a large majority of individuals who applied for this process go through this process role in my family units,” a senior administration official told reporters on a conference call Thursday.
Any Ukrainian who has been a resident of the country since Feb. 11 and has up to date vaccinations will be eligible for the program. They will be subject to a background check and biometric screening and other security checks.
Once in the U.S, Ukrainians will have up to two years to be considered for parole, but officials said they anticipate the length of time in the U.S. to be short term.
“What many of us have heard out in the region in Eastern Europe is a lot of Ukrainians don’t even want to go further east, from the border countries in Eastern Europe, because it’s a situation where women and children are separated from their husbands, fathers brothers, and so they’re quite keen staying near Ukraine to return as soon as possible,” one official said.
Administration officials told reporters on Thursday they hope it will be a “streamlined process” through an online portal where sponsors and Ukrainian nationals can both upload documents after being approved.
They said they anticipate the process to be “fairly quick,” but didn’t offer an exact timeframe.
Ukrainians who don’t have a visa to enter the U.S. will be encouraged to apply for this program as they say it’s the safest way to enter the U.S., officials said.
Administration officials said this was part of President Joe Biden’s promise to take in 100,000 Ukrainians into the United States.
“We are proud to deliver on President Biden’s commitment to welcome 100,000 Ukrainians and others fleeing Russian aggression to the United States. The Ukrainian people continue to suffer immense tragedy and loss as a result of Putin’s unprovoked and unjustified attack on their country,” said Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas. “DHS will continue to provide relief to the Ukrainian people, while supporting our European allies who have shouldered so much as the result of Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine.”
As of late, some Ukrainians seeking asylum in the U.S. have been going to the U.S.-Mexico border. The administration says after April 25, Ukrainians who present themselves at a border port of entry will be denied entry into the U.S. and referred to the “Uniting for Ukraine” program.
Ukrainians “may be refused entry under our existing laws as I think everybody knows, we are continuing to enforce the public health authority under Title 42 at the land border to the 23rd that will be the case for all nationalities,” one senior administration official said.
Title 42, the Trump-era policy which expelled migrants on the basis of the pandemic is set to be phased out by the administration on May 23.
That official added that applying for the program may be a little bit more difficult if the applicant isn’t up to date on vaccines because it could be a “little bit harder” to get vaccinated in Mexico.
For those who don’t have sponsors, friends or family in the United States, the administration is working with NGO’s and nonprofit organizations to help connect people to them.
“One of the reasons we are having sponsors that are entity based…is precisely to deal with those situations,” one administration official said.
In addition to this program, which they say is new, the State Department will expand resettlement operations in Europe for Ukrainian citizens.
Administration officials said the State Department is helping 18,000 Ukrainians in Eastern Europe resettle, including those considered especially vulnerable, citing LGBTQ refugees as an example.
(NEW YORK) — A person is in custody in connection with the death of Orsolya Gaal, the New York City mother found stabbed to death inside a duffel bag, police sources told ABC News.
Gaal was found in a duffel bag in Queens on Saturday morning. The 51-year-old was stabbed dozens of times, according to police sources.
(NEW YORK) — Over 20,000 car seats are being recalled due to loose pieces of foam that can present a choking hazard to kids.
The recall impacts certain CYBEX Sirona M Convertible Child Car Seats, which were manufactured between Nov. 3, 2017, and Aug. 31, 2018, and include model numbers 518000385, 518002153, 518000387, 518002145, 518002149, 518002151 and 519000211.
The recall, posted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), impacts about 20,526 car seats. The documents said children can pick pieces of foam from the child seat headrest pad, posing a choking hazard.
To fix the issue, Columbus Trading-Partners USA, Inc will mail a kit with instructions on how to seal the headrest foam, free of charge.
CYBEX did not immediately respond to request for comment.
(NEW YORK) — As summer approaches, travelers are preparing for trips in huge numbers after many people put off vacations for years during the COVID-19 pandemic — and that’s being reflected in the prices.
“This summer, Americans can expect to pay more for airfare than they have paid in the last 10 years,” Hayley Berg, an economist at Hopper, an online booking platform, told ABC News’ Good Morning America. “Right now, domestic round trip travel costs about $360, and that’s up 15% versus 2019, the last normal year of travel before the pandemic, and up significantly since the start of the year.”
But even though prices for travel are up amid the increased demand for travel, travelers can still get good deals, according to travel experts, who have a few key tips for locking in low airfare rates as summer travel heats up.
Berg recommends customers book summer flights by the first week of May. After that, “prices will just continue to rise,” Berg said.
“If you’re planning a trip right now, be aggressive, start planning early and take a look at your route that you’re flying and how busy it is,” added Willis Orlando, senior product operations specialist for Scott’s Cheap Flights.
Although you can wait for a sale or a day when fares have dropped on popular routes where there is a lot of competition, booking early is especially important if you are booking a trip in a region or route that does not have a lot of competition, Orlando told GMA.
“If your route is served by one or two airlines at most, you don’t have that competition, you can expect these high prices to persist,” Orlando said. “In that case, start monitoring it early, and as soon as you see a dip to a reasonable level, lock it in, because you’re not likely to see a drop much further than that.”
When shopping for airfare, flexibility in terms of dates and locations can mean better prices, whether that means leaving on a different day of the week or flying into a smaller, regional airport.
“Try booking your departing flight on a Tuesday or Wednesday, when prices are typically the lowest,” Berg said. “Or if you’re flexible on where you fly into or out of, check out more regional airports. Oftentimes, lower cost carriers will fly out of regional airports.”
Another good way to get a good deal is to track prices for preferred flights.
“Use a price monitoring tool, so you’re updated on where prices are and how they’re changing,” Berg said.
Another concern that experts point to are pilot shortages, which have led to some airlines trimming summer flight schedules as well as delays and cancellations across the industry.
To avoid that, experts say to book on off-peak days and to book flights for the morning. If you’re traveling for a wedding or other specific event, Berg recommends arriving a day or two early, in case there are delays or cancellations.
“The biggest thing you can do is be flexible and fly kind of off-peak, so if you’re flying out of try flying on a Tuesday or Wednesday or Saturday. It is a little less busy those days, which means that if there is a problem somewhere, it’s less likely to cascade into a kind of mass cancellation event,” Orlando said.
(NEW YORK) — Barbie is officially releasing a Queen Elizabeth II doll to celebrate both the queen’s 96th birthday and her Platinum Jubilee, which marks 70 years on the throne.
The Queen Elizabeth II Barbie doll, part of Barbie’s Tribute Collection series, will go on sale Thursday, which is April 21, the queen’s birthday.
It marks the first Barbie made in Queen Elizabeth’s likeness, according to Mattel.
The doll is dressed in an ivory gown inspired by the “style and color of a gown that she’s favored in royal portraits of herself,” Mattel said in a statement.
The Queen Elizabeth II doll also features regal details, such as Queen Mary’s fringe tiara, which Queen Elizabeth wore on her wedding day, and medallions of the orders of the royal family.
The doll’s packaging is inspired by Buckingham Palace, the queen’s residence in London, with red carpeting, a crest-shaped logo and a badge marking the queen’s Platinum Jubilee, according to Mattel.
“In 1952, when she came to the throne, women were not encouraged to work and politicians expressed doubts about a young female monarch — but she showed them wrong, proved herself an adept leader and diplomat,” Kate Williams, author of Our Queen Elizabeth, a picture book on the queen, said in a statement provided by Mattel. “As Her Majesty celebrates this milestone jubilee, it is wonderful to see an iconic brand like Barbie share important historical female figures impact as leaders, creators and pioneers to new generations.”
Queen Elizabeth ascended to the throne on Feb. 6, 1952, following the death of her father, King George VI.
Her 70-year reign makes her the longest-ruling monarch in Britain’s history.
The Queen Elizabeth II Barbie doll will retail for $75 and will be sold on Mattel’s website as well as retailers including Amazon, Target and Walmart.
(NEW YORK) — After decades of work fighting to save African animals, Jane Goodall is turning her attention to the environmental and political impact left on technology.
The anthropologist spoke with ABC News’ Linsey Davis Tuesday about her recent partnership with Apple to encourage customers to recycle their devices. Goodall said reusing the metals and chemicals inside a phone, tablet or computer goes a long way to reduce peoples’ carbon footprint and will cut down on unnecessary mineral mining around the world.
“So many businesses are just ramping forward and not caring about the long-term environmental protection as much as short-term profit. Yes, people need to make money, but it is possible to make money without destroying the planet,” Goodall told ABC News. “We’ve gone so far in destroying the planet that it’s shocking.”
Lisa Jackson, Apple’s vice president of environment, policy and social initiatives, told ABC News that an iPhone contains more than 100 chemicals.
Jackson, the former administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, said that the tech company has been pushing to reduce its environmental waste through its recycling program and has seen some success.
Last year, 20% of materials in Apple devices were recycled materials, she said.
“We want to see that number continue to grow and the only way that happens is if users and customers bring back their devices at the end of their life,” Jackson said.
Goodall noted that one of the materials used in modern devices is coltan, and mining for the material has not only harmed the environment but also leads to deadly and unethical working conditions in places like the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“It’s underground tunnels [where] it’s dug. They’re not properly shored up. Children, basically, slaves are sent down in the tunnels. So many get killed,” she said.
Jackson pointed out that Apple ensures that the company is not using conflict minerals and dangerous supply lines in its products.
Apple is working with Goodall’s Roots and Shoots program, which works with young people in different communities to combat the climate crisis.
“What I love so much about Jane, Dr. Goodall, is that she challenges us every day to think more about the future, and she never lets us give up hope. Those two things together are the most powerful device, the most powerful thing we can do for the planet,” Jackson said.
Goodall echoed this message and encouraged people to stay hopeful for the planet.
“If you give nature a chance, it’s amazingly resilient,” she said.
