(WASHINGTON) — In a recent ABC News interview, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she felt clear-eyed about the contrast between her Democratic Party and the Republicans hoping to oust her from power in the midterm elections.
But Pelosi was also clear, she told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos on Hulu’s “Power Trip,” about what it would take to win in November — despite major political headwinds like high inflation and a sour mood on the economy.
Pelosi saw it another way, and as evidence she cited the Supreme Court’s divisive ruling striking down nationwide abortion access, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
“We know that the public is with us, it’s just a question of turning out the vote,” she argued. “Any doubt that anyone might have in their minds about the enthusiasm of the Democratic voter — should be dispelled by the Dobbs decision.”
The California lawmaker stressed how few Republicans in the House had supported a law ensuring access to contraception and how none had voted to codify abortion access into federal law.
“Our races are discreet,” she acknowledged of the midterms, in which a resurgent GOP hopes to flip at least the handful of seats needed to erase Pelosi’s majority.
“But,” she said, Democrats could press another advantage: “Going into each race with the contrast of what that member of Congress or that candidate said about Social Security, Medicare, a woman’s right to choose, a ban on abortion and undermining our democracy — and that is what they [Republicans] are trying to do.”
“You’ve got a lot of Republicans on the ballot who still don’t accept the last election,” Stephanopoulos told her of those who falsely deny the results of the 2020 presidential race.
“Well, that’s pathetic,” Pelosi told him, adding, in a nod to football coach Al Davis, “Just win, baby.”
ABC News polling shows there are major challenges to such a feat as voters say that the economy and inflation remain key issues — while giving low marks to President Joe Biden on each. Democrats also have to contend with a long history of midterm losses for the party in power.
“Our message is what this means to you in your home at your kitchen table,” Pelosi said.
“Is that what people are feeling right now?” Stephanopoulos asked. “Right now they’re feeling inflation, they’re looking at the border, seeing people cross the border all the time, they feel crime in the cities.”
When pressed further by Stephanopoulos about inflation, crime and the border — three areas Republicans are focusing on this election cycle — Pelosi said she didn’t believe recent migrant flights by GOP governors were working and contended inflation is a “global issue.”
“They can’t do any more about inflation than we are,” she said.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy had a reaction to some of Pelosi’s criticism, telling ABC News’ Brittany Shepherd in “Power Trip” — at an event previewing the House GOP’s campaign-season “Commitment to America” — that Democrats “can’t run on their record.”
“The ‘Commitment to America’ is a plan for a new direction, one that will make our economy strong, will make our nation safe. It’d be a future built on freedom and give us check and balance inside Washington,” McCarthy said.
As to Pelosi’s criticism of Republicans as a threat to democracy, given how many in the party embrace baseless claims about the 2020 race, McCarthy was not fazed. “It’s idiotic,” he said.
(WASHINGTON) — At the end of Donald Trump’s presidency, his team returned a large batch of classified FBI documents and other government records to the Justice Department in such disarray that a year later — in a letter to lawmakers — the department said it still couldn’t tell which of the documents were the classified ones.
The documents came from the FBI’s controversial probe in 2016 looking at alleged links between Russia and Trump’s presidential campaign. Trump tried to make the documents public the night before he left office, issuing a “declassification” memo and secretly meeting with conservative writer John Solomon, who was allowed to review the documents, Solomon told ABC News this past week.
But for reasons that are still not clear — and to the great frustration of Trump and his political allies — none of the documents were ever officially released, and the Justice Department said Thursday it’s still working to determine which documents can be disclosed.
“[T]he Justice Department has … failed to declassify a single page,” Sens. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., complained to the attorney general in February.
Much of what happened with the documents in those last days of the Trump administration — and ever since — remains shrouded in mystery because current and former government officials involved have refused to speak about it, especially now that the FBI is pursuing its investigation into Trump’s alleged mishandling of a separate cache of classified documents.
The story that still emerges, though, from pieces of public statements and Solomon’s own accounts is one that sheds further light on how Trump’s White House treated certain government secrets. And it helps explain how — in the midst of the FBI probe — Solomon became one of Trump’s official “representatives” to the National Archives.
‘Thank God’ for Solomon
By the middle of Trump’s presidency, Solomon had become one of Trump’s favorite voices in media.
“John Solomon should get the Pulitzer Prize,” Trump said to cheers at a rally in Louisiana in October 2019.
At the time, Solomon was promoting a series of since-discredited claims about supposed Obama-era corruption in Ukraine, claims which Trump then privately pushed the Ukrainian president to investigate, leading to Trump’s first impeachment.
Solomon’s own employer then, The Hill newspaper, eventually launched an internal review and concluded his Ukraine-related pieces “potentially blurred the distinction between news and opinion” and at times failed to include relevant “context and/or disclosure[s].” Solomon has stood by those pieces, insisting still that they were accurate.
His work at the time was also focused on the FBI’s Russia-related investigation and its offshoots, which he described as “a sin against Donald Trump,” an “offense against the entire American people,” and “arguably the most devious political dirty trick in American history.”
“Thank God we have [Solomon and several Fox News hosts] on our side,” Trump declared at the 2019 rally.
So when Trump and his team were determined to push out the so-called “full story” of “the Russia hoax” before Trump’s presidency ended, Solomon was well-positioned to help, with his online media platforms and regular TV appearances.
“We worked closely together in trying to get to the truth on that,” Solomon recounted to Trump’s former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, in an interview with him last year.
In its final report on the investigation, the Justice Department’s internal watchdog said that while it found “fundamental errors” and significant “failures” in the FBI probe, it found no evidence that “political bias or improper motivation influenced” the investigation, including the decision to eavesdrop on one of Trump’s former campaign advisers.
But Trump and many of his allies contended otherwise.
‘Continuing objection’
With just weeks left as president, Trump “demanded” that “key documents” — still classified by the FBI and Justice Department — “be brought to the White House” so they could be “entered into the public record once and for all,” Meadows wrote in a memoir published last year.
On Dec. 30, 2020, the Justice Department delivered a binder filled with internal notes, memos, emails and other records. The White House was unsure of what should be disclosed, so Trump’s team asked a group of Republican staffers on the House Intelligence Committee to make recommendations, a congressional source informed of the request told ABC News.
“[It’s] a foot-and-a-half of documents, almost everything that the FBI had left out of public sight,” Solomon said in an interview with a right-wing website on Jan. 14, 2021, predicting that the documents could be “made public as early as tomorrow.”
But the FBI objected to “any” release at all, Trump’s “declassification” memo said.
“The FBI has concerns about everything, from the protection of assets and codenames, and prior investigations that may be referenced in the Russia materials, to Privacy Act stuff,” Solomon said in an interview with another right-wing website on Jan. 18, 2021. “There’s been a lot of back and forth.”
The FBI even sent a letter to the White House identifying passages in documents that were particularly “crucial to keep from public disclosure,” the subsequent memo said.
Trump then agreed to some redactions, declaring that everything else in the binder was declassified, according to the memo.
“I personally went through every page, to make sure that the President’s declassification would not inadvertently disclose sources and methods,” Meadows wrote in his book.
It’s unclear if the FBI and Justice Department ever agreed with the review Meadows conducted.
Around that time, White House staffers produced multiple copies of documents from the binder, a former Trump administration official told ABC News.
‘All the documents’
Trump formally issued his “declassification” memo regarding those documents at around 7 p.m. ET on his last full day in office, Jan. 19, 2021, the same day Solomon allegedly met with him.
“I had a brief interview with President Trump in which he told me unequivocally he had signed the order completing the [declassification] and that I would be getting a set of the declassified documents to post online for the public,” Solomon told ABC News in a statement this past week. “Later that same day, I was allowed, on two occasions, to briefly review a stack of documents that I was told were the declassified documents. I wasn’t allowed to keep the documents either time, but was told I would get a full set later in the day.”
Shortly after 9 p.m. ET that day, Solomon appeared on Fox News and said he had “been through all the documents at least one time now.”
He told ABC News the documents he reviewed had redactions, cross-outs and other “markings on them indicating they had been declassified” — though at least some of them were not stamped “declassified,” as formally-declassified documents often are.
Nevertheless, on the same day Solomon met with Trump and reviewed the documents, the Justice Department and U.S. intelligence community “were trying to get the documents back” from the White House, Solomon said in a subsequent interview on Fox Business Network.
Several people at the White House “were fearful that something was going to happen to the larger batch,” so they took steps to get at least “some of the documents” to Solomon, he said in a separate interview on Newsmax TV last September.
That night, a “courier” or staffer he didn’t know delivered a package to his Washington, D.C., office with a “small batch” of the documents in it, he told ABC News.
The envelope carrying the documents had the Justice Department insignia on it, he said.
Meadows did not respond to questions from ABC News, and the Justice Department declined to comment for this article.
‘Bombshell revelations?’
Just before his Fox News appearance the night of Jan. 19, 2021, Solomon published a piece online revealing the “First Trump declassified Russia document,” which he told ABC News came in the package he received.
The document was an FBI report detailing two September 2017 interviews with Christopher Steele, the former British spy whose “dossier” — much of it since debunked — was used to separately convince four federal judges that the FBI should be allowed to eavesdrop on a former Trump campaign adviser.
“There are some bombshell revelations,” Solomon said of the FBI report on Fox News.
Despite such rhetoric, it’s unclear how much new information the documents could actually reveal about any FBI missteps or alleged bias in 2016.
Meadows claimed in his book that “several key papers” could “unravel the full story of how the United States intelligence community had targeted President Trump, spied on his campaign, and attempted to bring him down.”
And on Fox News that night, Solomon called the FBI report “the most important of all the documents.”
As Solomon touted it at the time, the FBI report supposedly revealed that Steele viewed Trump as his “main opponent,” that he was worried Trump would hurt the U.S.-U.K. relationship, and that he leaked information about Trump and the FBI to the media because of Hillary Clinton’s ongoing email scandal during the 2016 campaign.
But records with that same information had been released by Senate Republicans seven weeks earlier and mentioned in the Justice Department inspector general’s report two years earlier, which outlined Steele’s “bias against Trump” and questions about the credibility of Steele’s sources.
Next week, one of Steele’s primary sources, Igor Danchenko, is set to go on trial in Virginia for allegedly lying to the FBI about his own sources of information as the FBI was trying to vet Steele’s “dossier.” Danchenko has pleaded not guilty in the case.
‘Proven challenging’
On the morning of Jan. 20, 2021 — with just two hours left before Joe Biden would become president — Meadows found himself racing to the White House to retrieve at least some of the documents, he recalled in his book. And in a memo to then-acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen that morning, Meadows said he would be returning “the bulk of the binder” to the Justice Department.
According to the memo, which Solomon later obtained, and more recent statements from Meadows, the department raised last-minute concerns about “privacy” and “personal information.” So “out of an abundance of caution” the White House gave the documents back to the Justice Department “to do final redactions,” he said in an interview with Solomon last December.
The New York Times recently reported that the privacy concerns stemmed from years-old text messages between then-FBI agent Peter Strzok and his romantically-connected colleague Lisa Page, who in 2016 exchanged a series of anti-Trump sentiments as they worked on the Russia-related probe.
Meadows said he expected that when the “final redactions” were completed, the documents would be released.
But that never happened.
“[D]etermining precisely what was declassified by [Trump] has proven challenging given the manner in which the relevant records were returned to the Department on January 20, 2021,” the Justice Department wrote Grassley and Johnson earlier this year, after they repeatedly expressed concern that none of the documents had been released. “The Department has been taking steps to determine what material is appropriately and lawfully disclosable.”
The National Archives also received a batch of related documents, which were similarly delivered in a not “easily discernible manner,” Solomon quoted the National Archives as telling him.
Efforts by ABC News to understand why at least two separate tranches of documents were allegedly both in such disarray were not successful.
Meanwhile, Meadows allegedly kept copies of at least some of those documents himself after leaving government.
In a newly-released book, New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman said Trump told her in an interview last year, months after leaving the White House, that Meadows still had “in his possession” the internal FBI text messages between Strzok and Page that Trump planned to make public on his last night in office.
“[Trump] offered to connect me with him,” Haberman wrote.
As for Solomon, he told ABC News he never received the full set of documents Trump promised him.
The conservative group Judicial Watch recently filed a lawsuit asking a federal judge to force the Justice Department to release all of the document
In a court filing Thursday, the department said it is now “processing” 815 pages relevant to Judicial Watch’s request and expects to start releasing “non-exempt records” in late December.
It’s unclear if the Biden administration may have reclassified any of the documents that Trump previously declared as “declassified.”
‘A records dispute?’
In June, Trump announced he had designated Solomon and a former Trump administration official, Kash Patel, as his official representatives to the National Archives.
By then, a federal grand jury was already weeks into its investigation of Trump’s alleged refusal to return sensitive government documents to the National Archives and his alleged mishandling of national security documents at Mar-a-Lago.
When the FBI then sought approval from a judge to raid Mar-a-Lago, it noted — among many other things — that Patel publicly claimed Trump had already “declassified the materials at issue.” The next two-and-a-half pages of the FBI’s submission to the judge were completely redacted.
In a recent interview on Fox News, Trump made a series of widely-disputed claims about a president’s authority to declassify information.
“If you’re the president of the United States, you can declassify … [just] by thinking about it,” Trump said. “So when you send it, it’s declassified. I declassified everything.”
After the raid at Mar-a-Lago, Solomon issued a statement insisting his role as Trump’s representative to the National Archives “has nothing to do with the [FBI] investigation.”
He was acting “as a reporter in an effort to resolve the question of what happened to the Russia probe documents that former President Trump declassified but which were never released,” he said.
Solomon has denounced the FBI investigation as the “criminalization of a records dispute.”
According to the Justice Department, hundreds of documents marked classified, including many marked “top secret,” were kept in unsecure locations at Mar-a-Lago after Trump left office. And a federal appeals court recently noted that, with respect to documents found during the raid, Trump has offered “no evidence that any of these records were declassified.”
(WASHINGTON) — The nation’s democratic process has been dangerously tested after the 2020 presidential race and the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, polls show and experts warn, leaving many Americans with little faith in the election system.
Heading into the consequential midterm elections, when voters will decide which party will control Congress next year, more than two-thirds of Americans think our democracy is in danger of collapse, according to an August poll from Quinnipiac University.
An ABC News/Washington Post poll conducted in January — more than a year after the insurrection — found only 20% of those surveyed saying they’re very confident about the election system. Even fewer Republicans, just 13%, said they were very confident in the process.
“After every election, especially a presidential election, there is some sense among the people who voted for the losing candidate that the election was not quite fair,” Barry Burden, the director of the Elections Research Center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told ABC News.
“But 2020 is different,” Burden continued. “Republican voters have been stuck with very low levels of support.”
That’s in large part due to Donald Trump, Burden and other elections observers said, as well as his GOP allies who continue to emphatically spread falsehoods about the integrity of the 2020 election.
In fact, 60% of Americans will have an election denier on the ballot this November. Out of 541 total Republican nominees running for office, FiveThirtyEight found 199 who’ve fully denied the legitimacy of the 2020 election.
So, what can be done to restore trust in the system? The path forward is unclear, experts ABC News spoke with said.
“It’s a very hard problem,” Burden acknowledged.
The most effective solution?
What would be the most successful fix is also the thing least likely to happen: for Trump and his allies to change their message.
“Donald Trump, as somebody who knows how to bring a crowd, whenever he leans into some of this election conspiracy stuff, he is tapping into a very, very animated part of the Republican base,” explained Eli Yokley, a senior reporter at the data firm Morning Consult, which also tracks confidence in U.S. institutions.
Yokley said it will be “incumbent on policymakers not to lean into voters’ worst instincts” for trust to be restored.
Because Republicans are also generally more skeptical of mainstream media and traditional news sources, it’s going to be most impactful for those lacking faith in the system to hear it straight from the former president and his closest associates.
“Those kinds of authoritative voices for Trump’s followers have to be what’s going to deliver the message because other sources like the current president or the mainstream media or fact checkers just aren’t trusted in the same way,” Burden said.
But Trump, as recently as Oct. 1, at a rally in the battleground state of Michigan, continued to call the 2020 election “stolen” and said Democrats “cheat like dogs” to win.
“I don’t believe we’ll ever have a fair election again,” Trump said, prompting boos and shouts of agreement from his crowd.
“I don’t believe it,” he repeated.
Combatting disinformation
While Trump and his allies continue to spread lies about the 2020 election, state and local elections offices are picking up the slack to combat disinformation.
Arizona’s Maricopa County — the largest county in the battleground state and the site of intense scrutiny both during and after the 2020 election — launched a campaign in 2021 titled “Just the Facts” in response to the increase of misinformation spreading about elections administration.
The website and an accompanying newsletter answers questions about how elections are administered, how officials build the ballot, how they count the ballots and ensure accuracy of the equipment used. This cycle, the campaign will also provide information about the upcoming races and how to participate successfully, according to Maricopa County Elections Department spokesperson Megan Gilbertson.
“It’s imperative for election experts to provide a trusted source of information to voters about the you know, the facts about elections administration,” Gilbertson told ABC News. “And so I think that initiatives like this are attainable for elections offices.”
The city of Atlanta has launched the Atlanta Votes initiative, a similar online tool aimed at educating voters and increasing turnout. The Connecticut legislature has provided $2 million for internet, TV and mail education efforts on the election process, and to hire an election information security officer. Colorado has also hired a team called the “Rapid Response Election Security Cyber Unit” to monitor sites for misinformation.
The U.S. Elections Assistance Commission, a national clearinghouse for information regarding election administration, similarly revamped the information on its site to make it more digestible to everyday Americans, Chairman Thomas Hicks told ABC News.
“I always say that election officials are public servants,” Hicks said. “None of us are doing this to get rich, and so we’re doing this for the love of our country and for our democracy.”
Hicks said the commission has also worked with other organizations and has spoken to Twitter and Facebook about combating misinformation.
The tech platforms took some steps to tackle misinformation in 2020 but some experts said the actions weren’t enough. YouTube, Google and TikTok have announced election plans for 2022 that include bolstering trusted news sources and flagging or removing posts containing falsehoods about the process.
But it’s difficult to stop individuals who are spreading disinformation, Burden said.
“We have the First Amendment in the United States that protects people’s right to say things they believe, even if they’re factually incorrect,” Burden said. “If they think they don’t trust the system, they’re certainly allowed to say that. So it’s a difficult problem to solve.”
(WASHINGTON) — While attending the Georgia State Fair on Friday, Gov. Brian Kemp was asked if he would continue to support fellow Republican Herschel Walker’s Senate candidacy following the allegations that the businessman and college football legend paid for an ex-girlfriend to have an abortion — a claim that Walker has adamantly denied.
Kemp responded by telling ABC News that he would support the Republican candidates on the ballot.
“I’m going to vote like everyone else, but I’m supporting the ticket,” he said. “We’re working hard to help the whole ticket in this state. We’ve got a great team, especially the folks I’ve been serving with in the state.”
During a gaggle with the press, Kemp told reporters that he was looking toward the November elections and working toward getting voters’ support.
When pressed about Walker’s anti-abortion stance in light of the latest allegation, Kemp steered clear of answering the question directly and instead said that he’s focusing on running his reelection campaign against Democrat Stacey Abrams.
Walker, a local icon from his time playing for the University of Georgia, this week repeatedly denied a report in The Daily Beast in which an ex-girlfriend claimed he reimbursed her for an abortion in 2009.
Asked Friday about the woman’s accusations, Kemp said, “I’m not a police officer, I’m not an investigation reporter. I’m running to be governor of Georgia.”
Other GOP state leaders have publicly criticized Walker.
Georgia Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan said on CNN on Wednesday night that the latest reports about Walker were not easily dismissed: “Even the most staunch Republicans, I think, are rattled at the continued flow of information.”
“If we’re being intellectually honest, Herschel Walker won the primary because he scored a bunch of touchdowns back in the ’80s and he was Donald Trump’s friend. And now you move forward several months on the calendar and that’s no longer a recipe to win,” Duncan said.
The allegations against Walker come at a critical point in the campaign — just a few weeks from Election Day, where Walker will face Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock.
(NEW YORK) — About 2.55 million middle and high schoolers in the United States reported using e-cigarettes, an increase of 21.5% from those who reported using those products last year, a new federal study shows.
The study, published Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, asked adolescents if they had used e-cigarettes in the last 30 days.
In total, 9.4% of respondents said they were current users, including 14.1% of high school students and 3.3% of middle school students.
“Adolescent e-cigarette use in the United States remains at concerning levels and poses a serious public health risk to our nation’s youth,” said Dr. Brian King, director of the FDA’s Center for Tobacco Products, in a statement.
Researchers analyzed data from the National Youth Tobacco Survey, a school-based web survey, administered between Jan. 18, 2022 and May 31, 2022.
The results showed that among students who reported use, 42.3% were frequent users, including 46% of high school students and 20.8% of middle school students.
Additionally, more than one in four of those who reported use — or 27.6% — reported daily use.
When it came to types of devices used, 55.3% said they used disposables followed by 25.2% who used pre-filled or refillable pods or cartridges and 6.7% who used tanks or mod systems.
The overwhelming majority of youth e-cigarette users, 84.9%, used flavored products, meaning other than tobacco.
The most commonly used flavor was fruit followed by candy, desserts, or other sweets; mint; and menthol.
Puff Bar was the most reported brand used by students the past 30 days. Rounding out the top five were Vuse, Juul, SMOK and NJOY.
According to the CDC, e-cigarettes have been the most commonly used tobacco product among American middle and high schoolers since 2014.
Nicotine exposure from e-cigarettes can hinder brain development in adolescents and young adults, which can continue into the mid-20s, the CDC says, and can also increase risk of addition to other drugs.
The CDC also says e-cigarettes can contain heavy metals and cancer-causing chemicals that can damage the lungs.
Politicians and anti-tobacco advocates have accused e-cigarette companies of using flavors and sleek designs to market vaping to U.S. children and teenagers.
“This study shows that our nation’s youth continue to be enticed and hooked by an expanding variety of e-cigarette brands delivering flavored nicotine,” Dr. Deirdre Lawrence Kittner, director of the CDC’s Office on Smoking and Health, said in a statement. “Our work is far from over. It’s critical that we work together to prevent youth from starting to use any tobacco product — including e-cigarettes — and help all youth who do use them, to quit.”
(NEW YORK) — More than six months after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched an invasion into neighboring Ukraine, the two countries are engaged in a struggle for control of areas throughout eastern and southern Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose forces began an offensive in August, has vowed to take back all Russian-occupied territory. But Putin in September announced a mobilization of reservists, which is expected to call up as many as 300,000 additional troops.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Oct 07, 9:55 AM EDT
Biden says Putin ‘is not joking’ about potential use of tactical nuclear weapons
President Joe Biden made some of his most clear and striking assessments on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s threats of using a nuclear weapon.
For the “first time since the Cuban missile crisis, we have the direct threat of the use of a nuclear weapon if in fact things continue down the path that they are going. That’s a different deal,” he said at a fundraiser in New York City on Thursday.
“We have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban missile crisis,” he said. “I don’t think there’s any such thing as the ability to easily [use] a tactical nuclear weapon and not end up with Armageddon.”
Biden said Putin’s military is “underperforming” in Ukraine and he may feel threatened.
Biden said he knows Putin “fairly well” and has spent “a fair amount of time with him” and warned that Putin is serious.
“He is not joking when he talks about potential use of tactical nuclear weapons, or biological, or chemical weapons because his military is, you might say, significantly underperforming,” Biden said.
“There’s a lot at stake,” Biden said. “We are trying to figure out what is Putin’s off ramp? Where does he get off? Where does he find a way out? Where does he find himself in a position that he does not – not only lose face but lose significant power within Russia?”
Oct 06, 2:27 PM EDT
Zaporizhzhia power plant perimeter has mines: IAEA
There are mines along the perimeter of Zaporizhzhia, Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Rafael Grossi, said at a press conference in Kyiv Thursday after holding talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The facility is currently under the control of Russian forces.
“There have been indications that in the perimeter of the plant there are some mines, yes,” Grossi said, before denying that there are any mines inside the plant itself.
Grossi is headed to Russia next to push for a security zone to be set up around the Zaporizhzhia plant.
Grossi told reporters that the IAEA considers Zaporizhzhia a Ukrainian facility.
“I think the IAEA, as an international organization, has a mission, has a legal parameter to do it. And what I will be is very consistent as I have been from the very beginning. We are not changing our line. We are continuing saying what needs to be done, which is basically avoid a nuclear accident. At the plant, which is still a very, very clear possibility. Yes,” Grossi said.
Oct 06, 1:45 PM EDT
Ukrainian official confirms advance into Luhansk region
The village of Hrekivka in Ukraine’s Luhansk region has been liberated, its governor, Serhiy Haidai, said Friday, adding that fierce fighting continues for other settlements.
“I’ve seen some soldiers already posted a photo of them standing on the background of the sign ‘Hrekivka,’ so its not a secret anymore — it is already liberated. And we keep moving in that direction,” Haidai said.
“After liberating Lyman [in Donetsk at the end of last month], as expected, the main battles are on the direction of Kreminna. The occupiers are pulling their main forces there. This is where the beginning of de-occupation of Luhansk oblast lies,” Haidai said.
He added, “Luhansk region liberation will be tougher than Kharkiv region. All those Russian military who ran from Kharkiv region and Lyman ran to our direction, so the occupation forces increased in number.”
Oct 06, 4:38 AM EDT
Apartments in Zaporizhzhia struck in early morning
Russian forces struck a residential neighborhood in the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia early on Thursday, officials said.
Oct 05, 2:20 PM EDT
Ukrainian officials say they found more evidence of tortures, killings in eastern Kharkiv
Ukrainian officials released images they claim show evidence of tortures and killings in eastern Kharkiv, in areas recently reclaimed from Russia.
Authorities are investigating an alleged Russian torture chamber in the village of Pisky-Radkivski, according to Serhiy Bolvinov, the head of the investigative department of the national police in the region.
Bolvinov posted an image of a box of what appeared to be precious metal teeth and dentures presumably extracted from those held at the site.
Two bodies were found in a factory in Kupiansk with their hands bound behind their backs, while two others were found in Novoplatonivka, their hands linked by handcuffs.
-ABC News’ Jason Volack
Oct 05, 6:47 AM EDT
Putin formally annexes 15% of Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed laws finalizing the illegal annexation of four regions of neighboring Ukraine — more than 15% of the country’s territory — even as his military struggles to maintain control over the newly absorbed areas.
The documents completing the annexation of Ukraine’s Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions — in defiance of international laws — were published on a Russian government website on Wednesday morning.
Earlier this week, the Russian parliament ratified treaties making the occupied areas part of Russia. The move followed what the Kremlin called referendums in the four Ukrainian regions, which the West rejected as a sham.
The annexed areas are not all under control of Russian forces, which are battling a massive counteoffensive effort by Ukrainian troops.
Oct 04, 1:29 PM EDT
Biden, Harris speak to Zelenskyy, offer new $625 million security assistance package
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday, underscoring that the U.S. will never recognize areas annexed by President Vladimir Putin as Russian territory and offering additional security assistance.
Biden announced a $625 million security assistance package that includes additional weapons and equipment, according to a statement from the White House.
Biden also promised to impose “severe costs” on any individual, entity or country that “provides support to Russia’s purported annexation.”
-ABC News’ Justin Gomez
Oct 04, 11:58 AM EDT
More than 355,000 people have fled Russia amid mobilization
Since Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a national mobilization last month, more than 355,000 people have left the country, according to Russian independent media.
Roughly 200,000 people escaped to Kazakhstan, 80,000 left for Georgia and 65,000 departed for Finland. Some 6,000 people also fled to Mongolia and there are reports of people fleeing to Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tadjikistan.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday that more than 200,000 people have been mobilized since Sept. 21.
-ABC News’ Tanya Stukalova
Oct 04, 9:29 AM EDT
Ukraine makes major breakthrough in south, advancing well behind Russian lines
Ukraine has made a major breakthrough in the country’s south that now threatens to collapse part of the Russian front line there, similar to Ukraine’s counteroffensive in the northeast last month.
Ukrainian forces have advanced over 18 miles in two days, driving deep behind Russia’s front line in the Kherson region and advancing south along the Dnipro river.
Russian journalists reported that Russian forces on Monday were forced to pull back from the village of Dudchany. Multiple Russian military bloggers, who are often embedded with Russian troops, say that Ukrainian troops now heavily outnumber Russian troops there.
The advance, if it continues, has huge implications for the war. Russia’s position is increasingly in danger of collapsing, which would make it all but impossible to defend the city of Kherson, the capital of the region annexed by Russian President Vladimir Putin four days ago.
Oct 04, 5:55 AM EDT
Zelenskyy signs decree ruling out negotiations with Putin
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed a presidential decree on Tuesday formally declaring the “impossibility” of holding negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The decree backs a decision put forward by Zelenskyy’s national security council and includes the point: “To declare the impossibility of conducting negotiations with the president of the Russian Federation, V. Putin.”
The decree echoed a statement made by Zelenskyy when Putin annexed Ukrainian territory last Friday, saying it showed it is impossible to negotiate with the current president.
Oct 03, 12:22 PM EDT
Ukraine advances in south, Russia says
Ukrainian forces on Sunday evening broke through part of Russia’s defense of the disputed Kherson region, advancing from the region’s northeast into a territory Russia had claimed to annex as its own on Friday.
Ukrainian troops succeeded in pushing south along the Dnipro river, according to Ukrainian and Russian officials.
Russia’s Defense Ministry on Monday partly confirmed the advance, saying Ukrainian forces “managed to drive a wedge deep into our defense.”
It said Russian troops had fallen back to “pre-prepared lines of defense” and were using heavy artillery to halt a further Ukrainian advance. It claimed, without evidence, that Ukraine had suffered heavy losses, but acknowledged that Ukraine had an advantage in tank numbers there.
Russian military bloggers said on Sunday that Ukrainian troops advanced southwards in the direction of the village of Dudchany, several miles behind the rest of Russia’s frontline in the region.
The advance raised questions about whether Russia would be able to hold the city of Kherson, the only regional capital it managed to seize in the invasion. For weeks, military experts have said Russia’s position in the Kherson region has been deteriorating because Ukraine has destroyed the only bridges allowing Russia to re-supply its troops.
Kirill Stremousov, a Russian-installed official in the region, on social media acknowledged Ukrainian troops had advanced along the Dnipro towards Dudchany but claimed they had been halted by Russian fire and that “everything is under control.”
A continued Ukrainian advance along the Dnipro would threaten to undermine the rest of the Russian front north of the river, raising the risk Russian forces there could be cut off.
The White House National Security Council’s spokesman John Kirby noted Ukraine was making gains in the south on Monday, but caveated that they were “incremental” for the time-being.
The battle for Kherson has major military and symbolic significance for both sides. A retreat from the city would seriously undermine Russia’s annexation of one of the four Ukrainian regions declared by Vladimir Putin just days ago — Kherson is supposed to be the capital of the newly annexed region of the same name.
Oct 03, 11:18 AM EDT
Kidnapped head of Zaporizhzhia plant has been released
The head of the Ukrainian nuclear power plant Zaporizhzhia has been released, after Ukrainian officials accused Russia of kidnapping him, according to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Ihor Murashov, the head of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, was released and returned safely to his family, Rafael Mariano Grossi, the Director General of the IAEA, tweeted.
Zaporizhzhia is a Ukrainian facility now occupied by Russian troops.
Oct 03, 7:26 AM EDT
Putin’s nuclear threats ‘irresponsible rhetoric,’ official says
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s threats that his country could strike Ukraine with nuclear weapons were “irresponsible rhetoric” from a nuclear power, a Pentagon official said.
“They are continuing to be irresponsible rhetoric coming from a nuclear power,” Pentagon spokesperson John Kirby said on “Good Morning America” on Monday. “There’s no reason for him to use that kind of bluster, those kinds of threats.”
But the U.S. was still taking the threats seriously, he said. The U.S. was “ready and prepared” to defend every inch of NATO territory, he said.
“We have to take these threats seriously. We must. It’d be easier if we could just blow it off, but we can’t,” Kirby said. “These are serious threats made by a serious nuclear power.”
Oct 03, 5:55 AM EDT
Russia ‘likely struggling’ to train reservists, UK says
Russian officials are “likely struggling” to find officers and provide training for many of the reservists who’ve been called up as part of President Vladimir Putin’s mobilization, the U.K. Ministry of Defense said.
“Local officials are likely unclear on the exact scope and legal rationale of the campaign,” the ministry said in a Monday update. “They have almost certainly drafted some personnel who are outside the definitions claimed by Putin and the Ministry of Defence.”
Some of the reservists are assembling in tented transit camps, the ministry said.
Oct 02, 10:42 AM EDT
Former CIA chief Petraeus says Putin’s losses puts him in ‘irreversible’ situation
Former CIA chief David Petraeus said Sunday that Russian President Vladimir Putin has put himself in an “irreversible” situation amid the Kremlin’s annexation of Russian-controlled Ukrainian regions.
“President Volodymyr co-anchor Jonathan Karl.
Petraeus said Putin “is losing” the war, despite “significant but desperate” recent moves. On Friday, Putin said he was annexing four regions of Ukraine — a move denounced by Ukraine, the U.S. and other Western countries as a violation of international law — and, in late September, the Russian leader said he was calling up some 300,000 reservists, triggering protests and a mass exodus from Russia.
In a rare acknowledgment Thursday, Putin admitted “mistakes” in how the country carried out the mobilization.
Oct 01, 9:07 AM EDT
Russia shoots at civilian convoy, kills 22, Ukrainian official says
Russian forces are accused of shelling a convoy of seven civilian cars killing 22 people, including 10 children, according to preliminary data, Olexandr Filchakov, chief prosecutor of the Kharkiv region, told ABC News.
According to preliminary data, the cars were shot by the Russian military on Sept. 25, when civilians were trying to evacuate from Kupyansk, a settlement in the Kupyansk area, Filchakov said.
The column of shot cars was discovered on Friday. Two cars burned completely with children and parents inside, Filchakov said.
Filchakov said the bodies burned completely.
Russian forces fired at the column with a 12.5 mm caliber gun. Those who remained alive were then shot at with rifles, according to Filchakov.
-ABC News’ Somayeh Malekian
Sep 30, 11:29 AM EDT
Biden slams Russia for ‘fraudulent attempt’ to annex parts of Ukraine
President Joe Biden condemned Russia’s “fraudulent attempt today to annex sovereign Ukrainian territory” in a statement Friday.
“Make no mistake: these actions have no legitimacy. The United States will always honor Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders. We will continue to support Ukraine’s efforts to regain control of its territory by strengthening its hand militarily and diplomatically, including through the $1.1 billion in additional security assistance the United States announced this week,” Biden wrote.
Biden also said the U.S. and its partners would be imposing new sanctions on individuals and entities inside and out of Russia “that provide political or economic support to illegal attempts to change the status of Ukrainian territory.”
He added, “We will rally the international community to both denounce these moves and to hold Russia accountable. We will continue to provide Ukraine with the equipment it needs to defend itself, undeterred by Russia’s brazen effort to redraw the borders of its neighbor. And I look forward to signing legislation from Congress that will provide an additional $12 billion to support Ukraine.”
Sep 30, 10:37 AM EDT
Zelenskyy signs application for accelerated accession to NATO
In the wake of Russian President Vladimir Putin saying he has annexed occupied territories in Ukraine, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine is applying for “accelerated accession” to NATO, saying it is already de-facto allied with the alliance’s members.
“Today, here in Kyiv, in the heart of our country, we are taking a decisive step for the security of the entire community of free nations,” he said in a statement.
Sep 30, 9:28 AM EDT
Putin formally annexes occupied Ukrainian regions
Vladimir Putin has formally annexed four occupied territories in Ukraine, the biggest land grab in Europe since World War II and one of the most egregious violations of international law since then.
It is a key moment in the war with major implications for what happens next.
Russia has annexed 15% of Ukraine’s territory, including several major cities — but right now none of the areas Putin is seizing are under full Russian control and all are facing Ukrainian efforts to retake them.
The annexation will absorb the self-declared People’s Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in the Donbas region, as well as parts of the southern Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions that Russia occupies.
At a ceremony in the Kremlin today Putin signed “treaties of accession” with the Russian-installed leaders of the regions.
Meanwhile, on Red Square outside, preparations have been made for a large concert-rally to celebrate the annexation.
This is another no-going back moment for Putin. By making these territories part of Russia itself he has made negotiations even more difficult. He has locked himself into a long war and linked the survival of his regime to it.
He cannot give up the regions in negotiations — in 2020, when he changed the constitution to let him stay in power beyond his term limits he also introduced a new clause that forbids Russian president’s from giving up any Russian land.
But perhaps even more importantly, he is likely to lose parts of these regions — Ukraine is on the counteroffensive still in northeast Donbas and Kherson.
The Kremlin on Friday said it will treat attacks on the newly annexed regions as direct attacks on Russia itself. The implied threat is that Putin could use nuclear weapons in some form against Ukraine if it does not stop.
Most experts believe that for now Putin is very unlikely to use a nuclear weapon — they see his threats as bluffs. But, they say the risk he might is growing and is now the most serious it has been.
For now, many experts believe Putin would prefer to use mobilized troops to try to stabilize Russia’s front lines in Ukraine and then try to outlast the West through the energy crisis this winter. But should Ukraine continue to advance and Russia’s position in the newly annexed regions starts to collapse, the risk he will use a nuclear weapon could grow.
-ABC News’ Patrick Reevell
Sep 30, 4:20 AM EDT
Major attack on civilian convoy near Zaporizhzhia leaves many feared dead and injured
Ukrainian officials say a Russian strike on a humanitarian convoy has killed at least 23 people and wounded 28.
The convoy of about 40 vehicles was heading into Russian-occupied territory to pick up their relatives and then take them to safety when it was struck.
Videos that have emerged from the scene show destroyed vehicles along the road and what appears to me a number of casualties as well.
Sep 29, 6:31 PM EDT
Putin signs decrees for annexation of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia
Russian President Vladimir Putin took the intermediary step on Thursday of signing decrees paving the way for the occupied Ukrainian regions of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia to be formally annexed into Russia.
The Kremlin publicly released the decrees.
Putin is scheduled to hold a signing ceremony in the Kremlin on Friday to formally annex the two regions, along with the Russian-occupied Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
-ABC News’ Jason Volack
Sep 29, 7:05 AM EDT
Putin to formally annex occupied Ukraine territories on Friday
Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold a signing ceremony in the Kremlin on Friday to formally annex the areas of Ukraine that Russia has occupied, his spokesman has said.
The ceremony will be to sign “treaties of accession” with the four regions created by Russia’s occupation forces — the two self-declared Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics and the Zaporozhzhia and Kherson regions.
Putin will also deliver a major speech to lawmakers gathered there, his spokesman said.
It is a major moment in the war — another no-going-back moment for Putin. In reality, none of the areas being annexed are under full control of Russia right now as all are seeing fighting and facing Ukrainian efforts to re-take them.
If Putin attempts to annex the occupied regions, it will be one of the most egregious violations of international law in Europe since World War II.
Sep 28, 12:21 PM EDT
State department advises US citizens to leave Russia
American citizens are being advised by the U.S. State Department to get out of Russia immediately.
The U.S. Embassy in Moscow has issued an alert, saying “severe limitations” could prevent it from assisting U.S. citizens still in the country.
“If you wish to depart Russia, you should make independent arrangements as soon as possible,” the alert said.
Noting that Russia has begun a military mobilization against Ukraine, U.S. Embassy officials warned Americans with dual Russian citizenship that they could get drafted by Russia.
“Russia may refuse to acknowledge dual nationals U.S. citizenship, deny their access to U.S. consular assistance, prevent their departure from Russia, and conscript dual nationals for military service,” the alert said.
The alert also advised U.S. citizens to avoid political or social protests in Russia, saying Americans have been arrested in Russia for participating in demonstrations.
“We remind U.S. citizens that the right to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression are not guaranteed in Russia,” the alert said.
Sep 27, 3:56 PM EDT
66,000 Russians cross European borders since Putin announced draft
Roughly 66,000 Russian citizens have fled across borders into European countries amid Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement last week of a military mobilization against Ukraine, the European Border and Coast Guard said Tuesday.
The number of Russian citizens pouring into Europe was up 30% compared to last week, according to the agency which also goes by the name Frontex.
Most of the Russian citizens are entering the European Union through Finnish and Estonian border crossing points, Frontex said on Twitter.
Putin announced on Sept. 21 that he is ordering the mobilization of 300,000 recruits to fight in Ukraine, prompting widespread protests and clashes with police across Russia.
In recent days, photos have emerged of huge traffic jams at border crossings. On Monday, the wait at the border between Russia and Georgia was estimated to be 40 to 50 hours, according to the independent Russian news outlet The Insider.
Sep 27, 1:56 PM EDT
‘Sham referenda’ in Russia-occupied Ukraine going Kremlin’s way
Partial results from what Ukraine and its Western allies have called “sham” referendums in four Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine show that more than 96% of voters favor becoming part of Russia, according to the state-owned Russian news agency RIA.
Voting has taken place over five days in the four areas — Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.
The early results showed that 97.93% of voters in the Luhansk People’s Republic favored joining the Russian Federation, according to the data. In Donetsk People’s Republic, early results showed 98.69% favored joining the Russian Federation.
In Zaporizhzhia, 97.81% of voters cast ballots to join Russia and 96.75% of voters in Kherson also favored joining Russia, according to the data.
President Joe Biden and other Group of 7 leaders condemned Russia’s “sham referenda” in occupied Ukrainian territories, calling it a Russian attempt to “create a phony pretext for changing the status of Ukrainian sovereign territory.”
Sep 27, 12:42 PM EDT
Leaks in major gas pipeline between Russia and Europe investigated following blasts
Leaks in a major gas pipeline running from Russia to Europe under the Baltic Sea have been detected after the Swedish seismic network said it registered blasts near the pipeline.
The leaks in the Nord Stream pipeline were first reported on Monday by Denmark’s maritime authority and photos released by Denmark’s Defense Command showed what appeared to be gas bubbling up to the surface.
The operator of the pipeline said the leaks were detected southeast of the Danish island Bornholm.
The underwater pipeline runs about 764 miles from Russia to Germany.
While the cause of the leaks remains under investigation, unconfirmed report reports from Germany allege authorities suspect sabotage.
Ukrainian officials have accused Russia of causing leaks in a “terrorist attack,” according to the BBC.
Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhaylo Podolyak alleged the damage to the pipeline was an “an act of aggression” by Russia toward the European Union.
Sep 27, 12:18 PM EDT
Aid to Ukraine detailed in bill to keep US government running
A continuing resolution to keep the federal government running through Dec. 16 was released by Democratic lawmakers on Tuesday morning and breaks down how $12.3 billion in the package earmarked for Ukraine will be spent.
For the first time, Congressional lawmakers, at the insistence of GOP members, will require U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin to provide a report “on the execution of funds for defense articles and services provided Ukraine,” according to a summary of the resolution.
Both houses of Congress must vote on the resolution by Friday to avoid a government shutdown.
The resolution includes $3 billion for “security assistance” for Ukraine and authorizes an additional $3.7 billion in weapons for President Joe Biden to drawdown from U.S. stocks to support Ukraine’s military. It will also authorize $35 million to respond to potential nuclear and radiological incidents in Ukraine in an apparent reply to Russian President Valdimir Putin’s thinly-veiled nuclear threats in a televised speech last week.
In addition, the resolution calls for $2.4 billion to replenish U.S. stocks of weapons already sent to Ukraine and to provide Ukraine.
The new assistance for Ukraine would be on top of the $53 billion Congress has already approved through two previous bills.
-ABC News’ Lauren Minore and Trish Turner
Sep 26, 1:29 PM EDT
40- to 50-hour wait as people attempt to flee Russia into Georgia to avoid military draft: Report
A massive line of traffic continued to grow Monday at the border between Russia and Georgia as huge numbers of Russians seek to flee the country amid fears they will be drafted to fight in the war in Ukraine.
Drone video, posted on Twitter by the independent Russian news outlet The Insider, showed hundreds of cars and trucks backed up for miles at the Verkhny Lars border between the two countries.
The Insider reported that people are waiting 40-50 hours in the line to cross.
Tens of thousands of Russians are trying to flee the country following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement last week of a military mobilization of 300,000 more troops against Ukraine. Besides the Russia-Georgia border, large crowds of people attempting to leave the country have been packing border crossings into Finland, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and others.
Sep 26, 12:08 PM EDT
New clashes break out in Russia between police and protesters over Kremlin’s mobilization
More clashes broke out Monday in Russia’s Dagestan capital city, as police tried to disperse hundreds of protesters demonstrating against the Kremlin’s military mobilization of men to fight in Ukraine.
Videos circulating on social media showed scuffles between protesters and police in Makhachkala.
On Sunday, there were violent clashes in Dagestan, with police firing warning shots and people angrily shouting chants against the mobilization.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced last week that he is mobilizing 300,000 more troops against Ukraine.
The announcement sparked major protests in Moscow and at least 30 other cities across Russia over the weekend. At least 17 military recruitment offices have been targeted with arson attacks. A man was detained by authorities on Monday after he allegedly opened fire on a recruitment center in Siberia, severely injuring a recruitment officer.
Sep 26, 11:01 AM EDT
US sending Ukraine $457.5 million in civilian security assistance
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Monday that the U.S. will give Ukraine another $457.5 million in civilian security assistance to bolster the efforts of Ukrainian law enforcement and criminal justice agencies “to improve their operational capacity and save lives.”
Blinken said some of the funds will also go toward supporting efforts to “document, investigate, and prosecute atrocities perpetrated by Russia’s forces.” He said that since December, the United States has pledged more than $645 million toward supporting Ukrainian law enforcement.
Blinken’s announcement follows a U.N.-led investigation that found Russian troops had committed war crimes in occupied areas of Ukraine, including the rape, torture and imprisonment of children.
Sep 26, 10:14 AM EDT
Ukrainian first lady ‘worried’ about Russian mobilization
In a new interview, Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenka told ABC News that recent developments in the war are upsetting, saying this is not an “easy period” for the people of Ukraine.
“When the whole world wants this war to be over, they continue to recruit soldiers for their army,” said Zelenska, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement last week that he is mobilizing 300,000 more troops against Ukraine. “Of course, we are concerned about this. We are worried and this is a bad sign for the whole world.”
Zelenska, who spoke with ABC News’ Amy Robach through a translator, said Ukrainians will continue to persevere in the face of conflict.
“The main difference between our army and the Russian army is that we really know what we are fighting for,” she said.
Zelenska attended the United Nations General Assembly in-person in New York City, where she spoke to ABC News about the U.N.’s recent finding that war crimes have been committed in Ukraine by Russian troops. An appointed panel of independent legal experts reported that Russian soldiers have “raped, tortured, and unlawfully confined” children in Ukraine, among other crimes.
“On the one hand, it’s horrible news, but it’s the news that we knew about already,” she said. “On the other hand, it’s great news that the whole world can finally see that this is a heinous crime, that this war is against humanity and humankind.”
Sep 26, 5:40 AM EDT
Man opens fire at Russian military enlistment office
A man has opened fire at a military enlistment office in eastern Russia, severely injuring a recruitment officer there.
An apparent video of the shooting was circulating online, showing a man shooting the officer at a podium in the officer in the city of Irkutsk.
Irkutsk’s regional governor confirmed the shooting, naming the officer injured as Alexander V. Yeliseyev and saying he is in intensive care in a critical condition.
The alleged shooter has been detained, according to the governor.
The Russian Defense Ministry announced a high-level shake-up in its military leadership amid reports Russian forces are struggling in the war against Ukraine.
The defense ministry said Saturday that Col. Gen. Mikhail Y. Mizintsev has been promoted to deputy defense minister overseeing logistics, replacing four-star Gen. Dmitri V. Bulgakov, 67, who had held the post since 2008.
Bulgakov was relieved of his position and is expected to be transferred “to another job,” the Defense Ministry statement said.
The New York Times reported that Mizintsev — whom Western officials dubbed the “butcher of Mariupol” after alleged atrocities against civilians surfaced in the Ukrainian city in March, previously served as chief of Russia’s National Defense Management Center, which oversees military operations and planning.
In this previous role, Mizintsev became one of the public faces of the war in Ukraine, informing the public about what the Kremlin still calls a “special military operation.”
Mizintsev was put on international sanctions lists and accused of atrocities for his role in the brutal siege of the Mariupol.
Sep 25, 11:58 AM EDT
Russian recruits report for military mobilization
Newly recruited Russian soldiers are reporting for duty in response to the Kremlin’s emergency mobilization to bolster forces in Ukraine, according to photographs emerging from Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced last week a mobilization to draft more than 300,000 Russians with military expertise, sparking anti-war protests across the country and prompting many to try to flee Russia to avoid the draft.
Putin signed a law with amendments to the Russian Criminal Code upping the punishments for the crimes of desertion during periods of mobilization and martial law.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in an interview Sunday with ABC News This Week anchor George Stephanopoulos that Russia’s military draft is more evidence Russia is “struggling” in its invasion of Ukraine. He also said “sham referendums” going on in Russia-backed territories of eastern and southern Ukraine are also acts of desperation by the Kremlin.
“These are definitely not signs of strength or confidence. Quite the opposite: They’re signs that Russia and Putin are struggling badly,” Sullivan said while noting Putin’s autocratic hold on the country made it hard to make definitive assessments from the outside.
U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Natasha ChevalierLosada
(NEW YORK) — U.S. warships from the USS Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group teamed up with South Korean and Japanese destroyers to practice shooting down missiles in the Sea of Japan Thursday, a show of force following multiple launches by North Korea this week.
“The exercises also demonstrate the deep strength of our trilateral relationship with Japan and the Republic of Korea, which is resolute against those who challenge regional stability,” Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder said during a press briefing Thursday.
The guided-missile cruiser USS Chancellorsville and guided-missile destroyer USS Benfold joined one South Korean vessel and two Japanese destroyers in the Sea of Japan for the exercise, according to U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.
“Chancellorsville provided air defense to the units as they conducted the ballistic missile exercise, which includes, detecting, tracking, and intercepting simulated targets, as well as coordination, communication, and information-sharing between the three countries,” a statement from the command said.
The simulation did not involve firing live rounds, a U.S. official told ABC News.
The USS Reagan and the ships belonging to its strike group had recently departed the Sea of Japan after an earlier series of drills with South Korean and Japanese naval forces. It was was operating to the east in the Pacific Ocean on Tuesday when North Korea launched a ballistic missile over Japan. In response, the strike group turned around, arriving back in the Sea of Japan on Wednesday.
That same day, North Korea launched two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea. Ryder condemned the latest launches.
“As you’re aware, North Korea conducted another ballistic missile launch last night, launching two short range missiles,” he said. “The United States strongly condemns this irresponsible act.”
Before the anti-missile drills at sea, the U.S. responded to North Korea firing over Japan with shows of force in the air and on land alongside its allies. American fighters flew alongside Japanese and South Korean fighters, some striking ground targets on an uninhabited island west of the peninsula.
But a joint ground-to-ground missile exercise Wednesday sent mixed signals when one South Korean projectile failed soon after launch, hitting a building on its own airbase.
The South Korean joint chiefs of staff said one of its Hyunmoo missiles “fell after an abnormal flight” in Gangneung, which is along the northeast coast of the country, adding that there were no casualties reported, and the cause was being assessed.
Meanwhile, officials warn that North Korea could soon conduct its first nuclear test since 2017.
The U.S. still assesses North Korea is making preparations for such a test, but is not sure when, according to Ryder.
“If and when they do conduct a nuclear test, I’m not going to speculate,” Ryder said.
(NEW YORK) — Foreign actors are “likely” to use “information manipulation” to try to influence the 2022 election, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and FBI warn in a new bulletin.
“Foreign actors may intensify efforts to influence outcomes of the 2022 midterm elections by circulating or amplifying reports of real or alleged malicious cyber activity on election infrastructure,” the public service announcement dated Oct. 6 states. “Additionally, these foreign actors may create and knowingly disseminate false claims and narratives regarding voter suppression, voter or ballot fraud, and other false information intended to undermine confidence in the election processes and influence public opinion of the elections’ legitimacy.”
CISA is the cyber arm of the Department of Homeland Security.
The law enforcement agencies cite previous elections where foreign governments, without directly naming any, have attempted to influence the election and “incite violence” as a result of spreading misinformation.
In the 2016 and 2020 presidential elections, the U.S. government identified Russia, China and Iran as election disrupters.
“Foreign actors can use a number of methods to knowingly spread and amplify false claims and narratives about malicious cyber activity, voting processes, and results surrounding the midterm election cycle,” the alert says. “These actors use publicly available and dark web media channels, online journals, messaging applications, spoofed websites, emails, text messages, and fake online personas on U.S. and foreign social media platforms to spread and amplify these false claims.”
John Cohen, the former Acting Secretary of Intelligence and Analysis at the Department of Homeland Security said it is “critical” local, state and federal officials come together to “understand the risks posed by these foreign and domestic threat actors and take steps to protect elections officials, workers and infrastructure from physical and cyberattacks.”
“As we approach the midterm elections, state and local officials face a number of highly dangerous election-related threats ranging from cyberattacks and information operations by hostile foreign powers to threats of violence directed at election officials and infrastructure,” Cohen, an ABC News contributor said. “The security of the nation depends on it.”
In one example, federal officials say foreign actors might try and say hackers have compromised voter registration data — that voter registration data is publicly available from state and local governments.
“These efforts by foreign actors aim to undermine voter confidence and to entice unwitting consumers of information and third-party individuals to like, discuss, share, and amplify the spread of false or misleading narratives,” the alert says.
“The FBI and CISA urge the American public to critically evaluate the sources of the information they consume and to seek out reliable and verified information from trusted sources, such as state and local election officials and reputable news media. The FBI and CISA will continue to quickly respond to potential threats, by seeking to engage with state and local officials and the public when possible,” the alert adds.
Earlier this week, officials from the Department laid out what they see as the biggest threats to the 2022 midterm elections.
Among the “big four” areas of concern Jenn Easterly, the director of CISA, says, are insider threats, threats from state-sponsored actors, physical threats and disinformation.
“Cybersecurity threats from sophisticated state sponsored threat actors, but also from cyber criminals, we still worry about potential ransomware attacks, insider threats from people with institutional knowledge and current or prior Authorized Access to equipment or sensitive information,” she told reporters on Monday, adding they’ve seen examples of these activities but declined to provide any. “We’ve seen some of this increasing physical security concerns which very sadly include unprecedented levels of threats and harassment targeting election officials and, increasing myths and disinformation about elections that that undermine confidence in our democratic institutions.”
Easterly told ABC News that the challenges are “interconnected” and cannot be viewed individually, especially when it comes to foreign threat actors.
(NEW YORK) — Three men were stabbed, one fatally, in separate attacks in the New York City subway system within an eight-hour span Thursday.
A 38-year-old Bronx man was getting off a northbound 4 train as it arrived at the 176th Street station just before 9 p.m. Thursday when he was stabbed multiple times in the back and chest by a suspect who came up behind him in what police said they believe was an unprovoked attack.
The victim collapsed on the platform and was rushed to St. Barnabas Hospital, where he later died.
He was the seventh person to be killed in the NYC transit system this year, and the second fatal subway stabbing in less than a week.
The suspect fled westbound on East 176 Street and remains at large.
Earlier Thursday, at 5:15 p.m., a 45-year-old man was slashed in the face by a man who followed him into a Brooklyn subway station in East New York.
Just after 1 p.m., a 59-year-old man was stabbed in the back at a Harlem subway station. The victim was waiting for a train at the 125th Street station at St. Nicholas Avenue when he got into an argument with a man he didn’t know, possibly after a harmless bump on the platform, police said.
The other man pulled a knife and stabbed the victim in the upper back. He was taken to Mount Sinai Morningside hospital in stable condition.
The suspect, a Black man wearing blue jeans, a blue jacket and blue-tinted glasses, ran off. He also remains at large.
(WASHINGTON) — The House Jan. 6 committee on Thursday announced it will hold what might be its final hearing next Thursday, Oct. 13.
It will take place at 1 p.m.
The committee postponed its Sept. 29 session due to Hurricane Ian, a Category 4 storm that made landfall in Florida the day before the hearing was set to take place.
It’s been more than two months since the panel investigating the U.S. Capitol attack last held a public hearing after airing eight televised sessions from June to July to reveal the findings of their probe.
In those hearings, lawmakers described what they called a “sophisticated, seven-part plan” by former President Donald Trump and his supporters to try to overturn his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden, including his pressure on the Department of Justice and local election officials. The last session focused exclusively on Trump’s actions while violence unfolded on Jan. 6, 2021, with witnesses telling the panel Trump initially refused pleas from his staff to condemn the mob.
Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., previously said the committee would air “substantial footage” and “significant witness testimony” in this new hearing, but declined to give any more details on what the focus of the session will be.
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., previously teased the hearing will be “more sweeping than some of the other hearings” and will “tell the story about a key element of Donald Trump’s plot to overturn the election.”
A major development in recent weeks has been the committee’s interview on Sept. 29 with Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, about her efforts to push state officials to reject the 2020 results.
Thomas told the panel she still believes the 2020 election was stolen, Chairman Thompson said after the interview. Thompson also said Thomas answered “some” questions, but didn’t elaborate on what questions she responded to.
In her opening statement to the committee, which was obtained by ABC News, Thomas reiterated that she doesn’t believe her husband’s work is within the scope of the investigation.
“I can guarantee that my husband has never spoken with me about pending cases at the Court,” her opening statement read. “It’s an iron clad rule in our home.”
Next Thursday’s hearing could be the last before the committee releases a comprehensive report on their findings and recommendations, and will take place just 25 days before Election Day.
