(NEW YORK) — The ‘Harriet Tubman: Her Life in Freedom Mural’ was unveiled in a ribbon cutting ceremony Saturday in downtown Auburn, New York, the city where the abolitionist, activist, and freedom pioneer spent over 50 years of her life.
Measuring an impressive 26 by 61 feet, the mural, commissioned by a group called the Harriet Tubman Boosters, showcases Tubman’s life as a self-emancipated woman.
Debra Rose Brillati, a member of the organization first formed in 1953 to keep Tubman’s legacy alive, told ABC News that the piece has been an ongoing project since 2019. After years of fundraising efforts, the Harriet Tubman Boosters reached their $40,000 fundraising goal on August 19.
While the mural was an idea that had been discussed by the group previously, it was Michael Rosato’s ‘Harriet Tubman Mural’ in Cambridge, Maryland, near Tubman’s enslaved birthplace of Dorchester County that prompted the group to move forward.
“When we saw that we said, ‘You know what, we need a mural in Auburn’,” Brillati said. After a meeting with Rosato, the Harriet Tubman Boosters mural committee ultimately decided to find a local artist to take on the project.
“And so when we saw Arthur Hutchinson’s work, we were like, boy, this, this fits the bill,” Brillati added.
Arthur “The Artist” Hutchinson, the creative behind the mural, told ABC News that he wanted the piece to be a vibrant tapestry that makes an impact on all who see it.
“The tricky thing about this mural is it’s not just a picture of her, it’s really there to tell her story,” Hutchinson, who grew up in Auburn, said. “I hope they react at first and just see this bright, beautiful picture and are attracted to it. And then once they start to actually look at it, I hope they’re able to learn that Harriet Tubman did more than the Underground Railroad.”
The design features scenes of Tubman at various stages of her life including her as a leader of the 1863 Combahee River Raid, a nurse during the Civil War, an active participant in the women’s suffrage movement, and an older woman in the apple orchard she cultivated at her home.
Not far from the Harriet Tubman National Historical Park, the mural is the Harriet Tubman Boosters’ latest and largest project in furthering their mission of honoring Tubman’s life, Brillati said.
“She worked her whole life. You know, she never gave up on her quest for freedom and justice and rights for people,” she said. “And that’s…a story that we have to tell here that I think is important for people to hear.”
(NEW YORK) — A storm that has the potential to make landfall in Florida next week as a Category 3 hurricane strengthened overnight into a tropical storm.
Tropical Storm Ian formed over the central Caribbean Sea late Friday, becoming the ninth tropical storm of the season.
The storm is expected to continue to strengthen over the weekend into a hurricane by Sunday night as it approaches the Cayman Islands. A tropical storm watch currently is in effect for Jamaica, and a hurricane watch is in effect for the Cayman Islands.
Ian is forecast to strengthen into a Category 2 hurricane as it closely passes the Cayman Islands, then become a major Category 3 hurricane by Tuesday morning as it moves past Cuba. Very warm ocean waters and low wind shear are providing favorable conditions for rapid intensification of the storm.
The current forecast track shows landfall on the west coast of Florida by early Thursday, though the track and intensity of the storm can still change over the coming days.
“With majority of west coast in the cone, uncertainty of landfall remains high,” the National Weather Service said.
The National Hurricane Center has advised residents of Cuba, the Florida Keys and the Florida peninsula to have a hurricane plan in place and closely follow forecast updates.
In preparation for the storm, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an executive order Friday declaring a “state of emergency” for 24 Florida counties in the system’s potential path. He expanded the order on Saturday to include the entire state of Florida, with conditions “projected to constitute a major disaster.”
“This storm has the potential to strengthen into a major hurricane and we encourage all Floridians to make their preparations,” DeSantis said in a statement. “We are coordinating with all state and local government partners to track potential impacts of this storm.”
The emergency order means members of the Florida National Guard will be activated and on standby.
White House officials confirmed late Friday that FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell had spoken to DeSantis about the pending storm.
ABC News’ Riley Winch, Melissa Griffin and Dan Amarante contributed to this report.
(PHOENIX) — Arizona Democrats gathered outside the Republican attorney general’s office on Saturday to hit their Republican opponents on abortion and warn that women and girls will die in the state after a judge upheld a 121-year-old law on reinstating a near-total ban on the procedure.
“This law is about controlling women by attempting to control our bodies and our lives,” said Democratic candidate for attorney general Kris Mayes. “Women and girls will die because of it…and it’s a glaring black eye for the state of Arizona nationally.”
Mayes said the law violates privacy rights of women in the state and that she would not enforce any abortion bans if elected attorney general.
“Under this ban, it’s Arizona women and families who will suffer the most,” said Secretary of State Katie Hobbs and Democratic nominee for governor. “And as a mother, I’m furious that my 20-year-old daughter will have fewer rights than I did 50 years ago. The overwhelming majority of Arizonans support access to safe and legal abortion. This decision is a direct affront to what we the people, the voters, Arizonans, want.”
Pima County Superior Court Judge Kellie Johnson on Friday handed down a highly-anticipated decision in favor of a 1901 law prohibiting all abortions other than those necessary to save the life of the mother. The statute, which has language dating back to 1864, also mandates two to five years in prison for anyone who provides an abortion.
Hobbs’ and Mayes’ Republican opponents — Kari Lake and Abe Hamadeh, as well as Senate candidate Blake Masters — have all said they support the territorial-era abortion ban, but “are currently hiding under a rock somewhere,” said Mayes, noting they haven’t publicly weighed in since the ruling.
“Their silence speaks volumes,” Mayes said. “That’s for a reason. They know how absolutely unpopular this 1901 law is. They know how indefensible is it, and they know that when Nov. 8 comes, the people of Arizona are going to resoundingly reject this extreme abortion ban, this attack on the people of Arizona, by voting them down.”
ABC News has reached out to the Republican campaigns on the decision. No candidate has offered a public comment.
Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey, a Republican, said through his spokesperson late Friday that the 15-week ban passed by the GOP-controlled legislature earlier this year would go into effect Saturday and would be the law of the land.
But the new law doesn’t repeal the 1901 law, its Republican supporters say, which was in place until a court injunction in 1973 shortly after the Supreme Court’s decision in Roe v. Wade established a constitutional right to abortion.
Hobbs said Saturday Ducey was deliberately being unclear about what exactly the rules are governing abortion access in the state to protect Republican candidates.
“It’s clear that he’s trying to create confusion about what is in effect,” Hobbs said, “and hide from this deeply unpopular position that this 1901 ban is and provide some cover for Republicans. They know this is gonna hurt them at the ballot box.”
Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, a Republican, has argued that the older law should take precedence and filed the motion in July to have the Pima County court lift the injunction after the Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe.
Barrett Marson, a longtime Republican strategist in the state, told ABC News the decision coming down just weeks before early ballots go out in Arizona “has the potential to impact a wide range of races.”
“This has gone from theoretical to real life, and this is not an issue Republicans want to talk about. They want to talk about the border, inflation, economy and crime,” Marson said. “This is not the issue that Republicans want to run on, and they are going to be forced to answer to it.”
But he also noted, that with a Republican majority in the state legislature, “This is now the law of the land, if you will, and there’s nothing Katie Hobbs or Kris Mayes can do about it necessarily.”
The White House ripped the decision as “dangerous” and potentially “catastrophic” as President Joe Biden leans into criticizing GOP attempts to restrict abortion access ahead of the midterms.
“Make no mistake: this backwards decision exemplifies the disturbing trend across the country of Republican officials at the local and national level dead-set on stripping women of their rights, including through Senator Graham’s proposed national abortion ban,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement on Saturday.
Dr. Baharak Tabarsi, a family medicine doctor who joined the Democratic candidates but identified herself as an Independent voter, said she and her fellow health care providers are devastated by the decision.
“There’s confusion, there’s chaos and I will use the word moral injury towards clinicians having our hands tied behind our backs.”
Abortion rights supporters are expected to gather Saturday outside the Arizona State Capitol at 5 p.m. MT / 8 p.m. ET.
(NEW YORK) — Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” into neighboring Ukraine began on Feb. 24, with Russian forces invading from Belarus, to the north, and Russia, to the east. Ukrainian troops have offered “stiff resistance,” according to U.S. officials.
The Russian military has since launched a full-scale ground offensive in eastern Ukraine’s disputed Donbas region, capturing the strategic port city of Mariupol and securing a coastal corridor to the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Sep 23, 9:39 AM EDT
Russia begins ‘sham’ referendums on whether to join Russia in occupied Ukrainian territories
Russia began holding its “sham” referendums in four Ukrainian regions it occupies on Friday, asking people to vote on whether they want to join Russia in an effort to legitimize its annexation of the regions.
The referendums are being held in Donetsk and Lugansk in the Donbas region and occupied territory in the southern Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.
The referendums, announced three days ago, will be held for five days, with in person voting taking place on Tuesday. The majority of voting will be done at peoples’ homes or remotely.
Russia had previously done this in Crimea in 2014, but this vote is expected to have even less legitimacy.
Western countries have already rejected the referendums as illegal shams and only a tiny handful of authoritarian countries are likely to recognize them.
Sep 23, 8:47 AM EDT
US has been warning Russia privately about consequences of using nuclear weapons
The United States has been sending private warnings to Moscow about the consequences of using nuclear weapons, a U.S. official told ABC News.
President Joe Biden has also made the warnings publicly, most recently in his address to the U.N. General Assembly on Thursday.
The warnings have been vague, a deliberate strategy designed to keep Kremlin officials guessing on what the U.S. response would actually be in the event of a nuclear strike, according to The Washington Post, which was the first to report on the private warnings.
It is not clear who has been delivering the messages to Moscow, or whether a message was sent after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s most recent nuclear threat.
-ABC News’ Sarah Kolinovsky
Sep 22, 6:25 PM EDT
Zelenskyy: Russian citizens being ‘thrown to [their] death’ with mobilization
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy spoke directly to Russian citizens in his latest nightly address in response to President Vladimir Putin’s partial mobilization of troops to fight in Ukraine.
Switching from Ukrainian to speak in Russian, he remarked that people are protesting the war across Russia because they “understand that they were simply thrown — thrown to [their] death.”
To those who are silent, “You are accomplices in all these crimes, murders and torture of Ukrainians,” he said, wearing a black T-shirt that said in English: “We Stand with Ukraine.”
Russians options to survive, he said, are to “protest, fight, run away or surrender to Ukrainian captivity.”
Sep 22, 2:04 PM EDT
Russian foreign minister accuses Ukraine, West of falsely changing the ‘narrative’ of the war
In an address to the United Nations Security Council on Thursday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov fought back against what he described as a “propaganda operation” by Ukraine and its Western allies to change the “narrative” in the war.
“There’s an attempt today to impose on us a completely different narrative about a Russian aggression as the origin of all the tragedy,” Lavrov said.
He alleged that such a move comes after eight years of Ukrainian forces killing the inhabitants of the Russian-backed Dunbas region of eastern Ukraine “with impunity.”
Lavrov’s address to the Security Council came shortly after U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken called planned referendums to allow residents of the Dunbas and other areas under Russian control to vote on joining the Russian Federation a “sham.” Blinken said it is part of a “diabolical” Kremlin plan to annex more Ukrainian territory.
Lavrov also accused Ukraine of treading on the “rights and freedoms” of residents in the Dunbas, including the right to speak Russian.
“They declared all those who don’t agree there as terrorists and for eight years the Kiev regime has been conducting a military operation against the peaceful civilians,” Lavrov said.
He then accused Ukraine’s Western allies, including the United States, of being a “party to the conflict” by supplying Ukraine with weapons.
“Their goal is obvious. They are clearly stating (it is) to drag out the fighting as long as possible in spite of the victims and destruction, in order to wear down and weaken Russia,” Lavrov said.
“The intentional fomenting of this conflict by the collective West remains unpunished,” Lavrov said. “Of course, you won’t punish yourselves.”
Sep 22, 11:42 AM EDT
Blinken calls referendums in Russia-backed regions of Ukraine ‘diabolical’
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday told the United Nations Security Council that referendums in Russia-backed regions of Ukraine are part of the Kremlin’s “diabolical” plan.
Blinken alleged that Russia plans to bus in Russians to replace Ukrainians in the eastern and southern regions still under its control and call for a vote. He warned that Russia will “manipulate the result to show near unanimous support for joining the Russian Federation.”
“This is right out of the Crimea playbook,” Blinken said of Ukrainian territory Russia annexed in 2014. “As with Crimea, it’s imperative that every member of this council, and for that matter every member of the United Nations, reject the sham referenda and unequivocally declare that all Ukrainian territory is and will remain part of Ukraine.”
He said no Russian claim to annexed territory “can take away Ukraine’s right to defend its own land.”
Sep 22, 10:52 AM EDT
Images emerge of POWs released in Russia-Ukraine swap
Images are emerging showing Wednesday’s prisoner exchange between Ukraine and Russia.
According to Ukrainian officials, the photos and videos surfacing Thursday show the prisoners of war exchange that occurred in Chernihiv, in northern Ukraine.
The prisoner exchange included two Americans who were being held captive by Russian-backed forces after volunteering to fight with Ukrainian forces, their families said.
Alexander Drueke and Andy Huynh, both military veterans from Alabama, were reported missing by their families following a fight in the Kharkiv area of Ukraine in June.
Drueke and Huynh were among 10 foreign prisoners of war released following a mediation by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the Saudi foreign ministry said.
“We are thrilled to announce that Alex and Andy are free. They are safely in the custody of the US embassy in Saudi Arabia and after medical checks and debriefing they will return to the States,” the families of Drueke and Huynh said in their joint statement.
Other images released by State Security Service of Ukraine showed Ukrainian soldiers smiling after they were released in the Chernihiv region.
Meanwhile, the Russian defense ministry press service released an image from a video of Russian war prisoners walking off a plane in an unspecified location in Russia. Russia said 55 of its troops were released in a prisoner exchange.
Ukrainian officials said 215 of its soldiers and foreign citizens were freed from captivity in Russia.
Sep 22, 8:00 AM EDT
What Blinken plans to say at Friday’s UN Security Council meeting
During Friday’s United Nations Security Council meeting in New York City, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to urge all members to send a clear message of opposition to Moscow over Russian President Vladimir Putin’s recent threats of nuclear warfare, according to a senior official with the U.S. Department of State.
The State Department official previewed what Blinken will say at the upcoming session, which his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov is expected to attend. While Blinken plans to tell the council that the United States takes Putin’s nuclear threats seriously, he is not expected to urge any specific action, given the obstacles that the council’s makeup presents. Rather, the official said Blinken sees Friday’s meeting as an opportunity to further shine a spotlight on the impacts of Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine.
Furthermore, Blinken is expected to hit on the latest developments out of Russia, including the partial military mobilization and referenda. He also plans to reference evidence of atrocities uncovered in recent days, specifically in the eastern Ukrainian city of Izyum, stressing that these are not the actions of rogue units but a clear pattern emerging across Russian-occupied territory and must be met with accountability.
While Lavrov is expected to attend Friday’s meeting, there is of course no guarantee he will be in the room when Blinken speaks. Blinken, however, is expected to remain through the entirety of the session, where both Russia and China will also have an opportunity to address the room.
Sep 21, 6:27 PM EDT
Zelenskyy demands punishment for Russia in UN remarks
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy demanded punishment for Russia in his remarks to the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday.
“A crime has been committed against Ukraine, and we demand just punishment,” he said in video remarks, the only state leader allowed to appear virtually this year.
Zelenskyy spelled out the alleged atrocities discovered in Izyum after Russian forces retreated. “The bodies of women and men, children and adults, civilians and soldiers were found there — 445 graves,” he said.
Zelenskyy vowed to other world leaders that Ukraine’s forces would ultimately emerge successful — and claimed any rhetoric from Russia about negotiating peace was a façade.
“We can return the Ukrainian flag to our entire territory. We can do it with the force of arms, but we need time,” he said. “Russia wants to spend the winter on the occupied territory of Ukraine and prepare forces to attempt a new offensive — new Buchas, new Izyums.”
He warned that Russia’s warfare near nuclear plants meant no one was safe and again made an appeal for Russia to be branded as a state sponsor of terrorism by all nations — something the Biden administration has so far said it is against.
“We must finally recognize Russia as a state sponsor of terrorists, at all levels, in all countries,” Zelenskyy urged. “This is the foundation for restoring global security.”
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Sep 21, 6:15 PM EDT
More than 1,400 people detained at antiwar protests in Russia
More than 1,400 people were detained at antiwar protests that have erupted across Russia after President Vladimir Putin ordered a partial mobilization of reservists to fight in Ukraine, according to the independent Russian human rights monitoring group OVD-Info.
At least 1,408 people have been detained at mobilization protests in nearly 40 cities on Wednesday, OVD-Info said in its latest update. Most were reported at protests in St. Petersburg and Moscow.
The protests followed a televised address Wednesday morning during which Putin announced the start of the first mobilization in Russia since World War II. The measure is expected to draft more than 300,000 Russian citizens with military experience, according to Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu.
Protesters could be seen holding “stop war” signs. One man shown being taken into custody in Novosibirsk had shouted, “I don’t want to die for Putin or for you,” according to Russian independent media outlet Mediazona.
Russia has criminalized protests against the war, and demonstrations held following its invasion have been met with a heavy police response.
Sep 21, 9:32 AM EDT
White House reacts to Putin’s partial military mobilization
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s partial military mobilization for his ongoing war in neighboring Ukraine is “definitely a sign that he’s struggling,” according to the White House’s National Security Council spokesman John Kirby.
“And we know that,” Kirby told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos during an interview Wednesday on Good Morning America.
“[Putin] has suffered tens of thousands of casualties. He has terrible morale, unit cohesion on the battlefield, command and control has still not been solved. He’s got desertion problems and he’s forcing the wounded back into the fight,” Kirby added. “So clearly manpower’s a problem for him, he feels like he’s on his back foot, particularly in that northeast area of the Donbas.”
Some 300,000 Russian reservists are expected to be conscripted, which Kirby noted is “a lot.”
“That’s almost twice as much as [Putin] committed to the war back in February,” he said.
Kirby said Putin’s latest nuclear threats are “typical” but something the United States and its allies still take “seriously.”
“We always have to take this kind of rhetoric seriously,” he added. “It’s irresponsible rhetoric for a nuclear power to talk that way, but it’s not atypical for how he’s been talking the last seven months and we take it seriously. We are monitoring as best we can their strategic posture so that if we have to, we can alter ours. We’ve seen no indication that that’s required right now.”
And if Russia does use nuclear weapons, “there will be severe consequences,” according to Kirby.
While Moscow appears poised to annex Russian-held regions in Ukraine and attempt to politically legitimize it with sham referendums in the coming days and weeks, Kirby said the United States will still consider those areas Ukrainian territory.
“We’re going to continue to support Ukraine with security systems and other financial aid, as the president said, for as long as it takes,” he added. “That is Ukrainian territory. It doesn’t matter what sham referendum they put in place or what vote they hold, it is still Ukrainian territory.”
Sep 21, 7:47 AM EDT
Putin orders partial mobilization, says he won’t ‘bluff’ on nukes
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered a partial mobilization of reservists in Russia, in an apparent admission that his war in neighboring Ukraine isn’t going according to plan.
In a seven-minute televised address to the nation that aired on Wednesday morning, Putin announced the start of the mobilization — the first in Russia since World War II. The measure is expected to draft more than 300,000 Russian citizens with military experience, according to Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu.
The move comes as Moscow is poised to annex all the regions it occupies in Ukraine in the coming weeks, with plans to hold sham referendums this weekend to legitimize its actions. By declaring those areas officially Russian territory, Putin is also threatening that any continued efforts by Ukraine to retake them will be seen as a direct attack on Russia. In his speech Wednesday, the Russian leader raised the specter of using nuclear weapons if Ukraine continues to try to liberate the occupied regions.
“In the event of a threat to the territorial integrity to our country, for the protection of Russia and our people, we of course will use all means in our possession,” Putin said. “This is not a bluff.”
“Those who are trying to blackmail us with nuclear weapons should know that the wind can turn in their direction,” he added.
It’s an attempt to regain the initiative after disastrous setbacks in Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Russia has been suffering severe manpower shortages in Ukraine after months of heavy losses, mainly because the Kremlin has pretended it is fighting not a war but a “special military operation.” That, in part, allowed Ukraine’s spectacular counteroffensive in the country’s northeast two weeks ago, which led to the collapse of Russia’s frontline there.
Military experts and Russian commentators themselves had acknowledged that without a mobilization, Moscow is not capable of anymore offensive operations in Ukraine and in the longterm might well be unable to even hold the territory it has already taken.
Putin has balked at ordering a mobilization, until now, because of the huge political risks it carries for him at home. Russians have proved relatively supportive of the war while they have not been ordered to fight it, but this carries much bigger risks now of domestic unrest. It will bring up dangerous memories of the Soviet disaster in Afghanistan and Chechnya.
Yet Putin has clearly decided he must take the risk, with losing the war in Ukraine seen as an existential danger to his regime.
The mobilization order has profound implications for not just Russia and Ukraine, but also for Europe and the United States. It means Putin is expanding the war in Ukraine even further, ready to throw hundreds of thousands more people into it — making the fight harder again for Ukraine, while also raising the threat of nuclear strikes on it. And at home, Putin is going to enter uncharted waters.
Sep 20, 3:50 PM EDT
US and Ukraine bolster efforts to prosecute Russia for war crimes
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland met Tuesday with Ukrainian Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin and signed a memorandum of understanding to strengthen their investigative partnership in pursuing prosecutions against Russians accused of committing war crimes in Ukraine.
“America and the world have seen the horrific images and the heart-wrenching reports of the brutality and death caused by the unjust Russian invasion of Ukraine,” Garland said following the meeting at the Department of Justice in Washington.
Garland said the DOJ’s War Crimes Accountability Team has provided Ukraine with a “wide variety” of technical assistance on criminal cases, including collecting evidence and forensic analysis.
The memorandum of understanding, Garland said, will allow the two countries to “work more expeditiously and efficiently” in their investigations of Russian war crimes.
Kostin also delivered somber remarks on war crimes uncovered by Ukrainian investigators since the start of the Russia’s invasion. He said that two hours before his meeting with Garland, a prosecutor in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine informed him of a village “where about 100 graves” were just discovered.
“This place is not safe at the moment since it needs de-mining,” Kostin said. “But this is a new example of mass atrocities by the aggressor. This is a sign that Russia uses not only prohibited means and methods of warfare, but this is a clear and intentional policy of Russia.”
-ABC News’ Alexander Mallin
Sep 20, 2:49 PM EDT
Ukraine conflict could increase food prices, food insecurity: Study
The impact on crop production due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine will likely continue to increase global food prices and food insecurity, though not as much as initially feared, according to a new study.
The price of corn and wheat are expected to increase by 4.6% and 7.2%, respectively, and crops such as barley, rice, soybeans and sunflower are also anticipated to rise, according to a study from Indiana University published this week in Nature Food.
Nations with current existing food insecurity will be most impacted by the conflict, according to the study.
Other countries, including Brazil, have stepped up their production to fill the gap left by the lack of exports coming out of the region, offsetting some of the impacts on world food prices and food insecurity, the study found. Clearing more land and vegetation to grow crops could increase deforestation and carbon emissions, the study said.
-ABC News’ Tracy Wholf
Sep 20, 2:35 PM EDT
White House slams referendums in Russia-backed regions of Ukraine
U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan said referendums planned for this week in Russia-backed areas of eastern and southern Ukraine are a “sham.”
“Russia is throwing together sham referendums on three days notice as they continue to lose ground on the battlefield and as more world leaders have distanced themselves from Russia on the public stage,” Sullivan said in a briefing Tuesday at the White House.
He also slammed legislation being pushed through the Russian parliament to lay the ground for a general mobilization of men aged 17-27 as “scraping for personnel to throw into the fight.”
“These are not the actions of a confident country. These are not acts of strength, quite the opposite,” Sullivan said. “We reject Russia’s actions unequivocally.”
-ABC News’ Ben Gittleson
Sep 20, 12:24 PM EDT
Kremlin says referendums to be held in separatist regions of Ukraine
The Kremlin made a series of dramatic announcements Tuesday, signaling its response to its failing military campaign in Ukraine.
The Kremlin said referendums will be held later this week in Russian-backed regions of eastern and southern Ukraine for people to vote on whether to join Russia.
Dmytro Kuleba, the Ukrainian minister of foreign affairs, called the proposed vote “sham referendums” in a post on Twitter.
“Russia has been and remains an aggressor illegally occupying parts of Ukrainian land,” Kuleba said. “Ukraine has every right to liberate its territories and will keep liberating them whatever Russia has to say.”
Depending on the results of the referendums, which critics say is a foregone conclusion, Russia will suddenly consider territory it has occupied in Ukraine as its own.
Meanwhile, legislation is being rushed through the Russian parliament, laying the ground for a general mobilization of men aged 17-27, an age range that could be expanded.
Russian state media reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin and his minister of defense will address the nation Tuesday night.
According to a Moscow-based military analyst, even parts of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas, which are not currently controlled by Russian forces, will be considered Russian territory.
After its apparently successful offensive in northeastern Ukraine, the Ukranian military now appears to be pushing further east and is contesting areas of the eastern Donbas region.
In a highly symbolic moment, Ukrainian forces claim they have retaken a village in Luhansk, in the northern part of the Donbas, an area the Kremlin took control of in July.
Sep 18, 4:01 PM EDT
Zelenskyy says preparation underway to liberate all of Ukraine
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address Sunday that he interpreted a lull in fighting after a series of victories by his country’s military forces as preparation for the liberation of all of Ukraine.
“Maybe now it seems to some of you that after a series of victories, we have a certain lull,” Zelenskyy said.
He went on to say, “this is not a lull. This is preparation for the next series. To the next series of words that are very important to us and must sound. Because Ukraine must be free … all of it.”
Ukrainian troops made good on Zelenskyy’s call to take back lands claimed by Russian forces with an aggressive counteroffensive over the past week in the country’s northeast region.
Ukrainian officials said their forces drove out the Russian in two key areas in the Kharkiv region and are not going to let up.
Sep 18, 1:59 PM EDT
Biden says China not supplying Russia weapons to use in Ukraine
President Joe Biden said in an interview with CBS’ 60 Minutes that it does not appear China is sending weapons to Russia to use in Ukraine.
“Thus far there’s no indication that they’ve put forward weapons or other things that Russia has wanted,” Biden said in the clip from the interview released Sunday.
That’s consistent with the message his administration has repeatedly shared for months. But it doesn’t mean China has stopped helping Russia in other ways, including purchasing Russian oil.
Biden recounted how he had previously told China’s President Xi Jinping that if he thought “Americans and others are gonna continue to invest in China based on your violating the sanctions that have been imposed on Russia, I think you’re making a gigantic mistake. But that’s your decision to make.”
Biden also said he does not think there’s currently a “new, more complicated cold war” with China, as the interviewer, Scott Pelley, put it.
-ABC News’ Ben Gittleson
Sep 18, 12:06 PM EDT
‘True face of aggression’: Ukrainian ambassador condemns Russia over mass grave
Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.S., Oksana Markarova, accused Russia on Sunday of committing “war crimes of massive proportions” after a mass grave was discovered in Ukraine.
“It’s tortures, rapes, killings. War crimes of a massive proportions,” Markarova claimed in an interview with ABC “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl. “That’s why we need to liberate the whole territory of Ukraine as soon as possible because clearly Russians are targeting all Ukrainians. Whole families. Children. So, there is no war logic in all of this. It’s simply terrorizing and committing genocide against Ukrainians.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an address on Thursday that a mass grave was found in the recently recaptured territory of Izyum. Over 400 bodies could be buried in the site, according to Ukrainian officials.
Markarova said the majority of the bodies recovered from the site are Ukrainian, including entire families. She also said most of the remains showed “clear signs of torture.”
She said an investigation of the mass grave is underway and that with the assistance of the United States her country is continuing to prepare national and international criminal cases against Russia.
Russia has repeatedly denied targeting civilians, despite evidence otherwise.
“It’s so important for everyone to see the true face of this aggression and terrorist attack Russia is waging,” Markarova said.
(NEW YORK) — Nearly 80% of Nova Scotia and the entirety of Prince Edward Island are currently without power as Fiona, now a post-tropical cyclone, continues to lash the east coast of Canada with strong, gusty winds. It is the most intense landfalling system Canada has ever seen.
While it has lost its tropical characteristics, Fiona is still producing hurricane-force winds over a large area. Wind gusts over 85 mph have been recorded in Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada.
While winds are sustained at 80 mph, the wide range of Fiona’s wind field is resulting in a long duration of strong winds across a vast geographical area.
Hurricane warnings are in effect for all of Prince Edward Island and parts of Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. High wind alerts have been issued for much of Maine, showing the far-reaching impacts of this storm.
Fiona made landfall in Nova Scotia early Saturday morning. While the storm is no longer a Category 3 hurricane, it still brought powerful winds gusting at over 100 mph.
The storm will now continue to weaken as it heads further north toward Canada. After dropping below hurricane strength Saturday it is expected to continue north toward Greenland.
Rare hurricane warnings and tropical storm warnings are in effect. Fiona was forecast to become the strongest storm, in terms of pressure, to hit Canada.
Fiona is expected to bring high winds, dangerous storm surge, up to 10 inches of rain, flooding and large, destructive waves.
Power outages and widespread damage are possible.
The biggest impact in the United States will be high winds gusting up to 55 mph in Maine expected on Saturday and an increased threat of rip currents, with 10-feet waves, along the East Coast.
This comes after Fiona barreled through Bermuda Friday morning.
About 70% of Bermuda woke up without power, according to the local power company.
Conditions on the island improved by the afternoon.
ABC News’ Melissa Griffin, Chris Donato, Riley Winch and Max Golembo contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — NASA said Friday it is planning its third launch attempt of Artemis I on Sept. 27 after scrubbing the initial endeavor earlier this month.
During a press conference, officials said the launch window will open at 11:37 a.m. ET, but Tropical Depression Nine could delay plans.
Currently, there is only a 20% chance of favorable weather on Tuesday as Tropical Depression Nine heads towards Florida and may make landfall as a major hurricane next week.
However, Tom Whitmeyer, NASA’s deputy associate administrator for exploration systems development, said the team is not assuming the launch will be canceled just yet.
“It’s still a tropical depression number nine, it’s not a named storm,” Whitmeyer told reporters. “We really want to continue to try to get as much information as we can so we can make the best possible decision for the hardware.”
The team said it will continue to monitor the weather and will decide on Saturday whether to continue with the Tuesday launch.
NASA had to scrub the first launch attempt on Aug. 29 because of a faulty temperature sensor and the second attempt on Sept. 3 due to a liquid hydrogen leak.
Since then, engineers and mission managers have been running tests to make sure the rocket is ready during its next attempt.
In a press release, NASA said the Artemis team encountered a hydrogen leak during a test run on Wednesday, but the issue was addressed and resolved.
The process of tanking, which includes filling the rocket’s core stage with liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen, was also successful.
“We had a very successful tanking test all of the tanks,” John Blevins, NASA’s Space Launch System chief engineer, said during the press conference. “We were able to do some things that we won’t have to do again, some things that we intended to do even on launch day that were left over from previous dress rehearsals. So, it was a very successful.”
If the launch is scrubbed on Sept. 27, the next launch attempt will occur on Sunday, Oct. 2.
If that Oct. 2 is also a no-go, the rocket will be taken back to the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center until the team decides on the next date.
Over the course of the Artemis missions, NASA plans to eventually send the first female astronaut and the first astronaut of color to the moon.
The federal space agency also plans to establish a moon base as a steppingstone to send astronauts to Mars by 2024 or 2025.
(NEW YORK) — At least 4.4 million Americans have received an updated bivalent COVID-19 booster since the shots were rolled out at the beginning of September, newly released data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows.
Nationally, a total of 109 million Americans have received their first booster dose — representing less than 50% of those who have been fully vaccinated. Just over a third — 35% — of the total U.S. population over the age of 5 has received their first booster.
In recent months, vaccination and booster uptake have slowed significantly, with fewer Americans willing to get their shots as pandemic and vaccination fatigue set in.
Following the federal green light of the new COVID-19 booster shots, data shows there was a significant uptick in the number of Americans getting vaccinated.
On average, approximately 390,000 shots are going into arms each day across the country.
On Thursday, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky became the latest American to get the new bivalent COVID-19 booster shot.
Walensky urged others to join her in getting the vaccine, stressing that it is important to get vaccinated now, ahead of the fall and winter, in order to prevent severe disease.
“I’m here getting my updated fall vaccine because I think it’s critically important to do,” Walensky told ABC News. “We are really encouraging everybody to roll up their sleeves and get this updated bivalent vaccine.”
On Thursday, Moderna also announced that it has submitted an emergency use authorization request to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for the use of the company’s omicron-targeting bivalent COVID-19 vaccine in children and adolescents.
The company has completed submission of its EUA requests in adolescents ages 12 to 17 years old as well as in children ages 6 to 11 years old.
The application for the youngest Americans, ages 6 months to under 6, is expected to be completed later this year, according to the company.
At this time, children over the age of 12 are eligible to receive Pfizer’s bivalent booster and adult Americans can receive an updated booster at least two months after their last shot.
Pfizer is expected to submit a request to add authorization for children ages 5 to 11 to its offerings of bivalent boosters by the end of month.
The FDA could authorize the updated booster shots for people as young as 5 in the coming weeks and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention may recommend them for the younger age groups shortly after.
(CAPE CANAVERAL, FL) — NASA said Friday it is planning its third launch attempt of Artemis I on Sept. 27 after scrubbing the initial endeavor earlier this month.
During a press conference, officials said the launch window will open at 11:37 a.m. ET, but Tropical Depression Nine could delay plans.
Currently, there is only a 20% chance of favorable weather on Tuesday as Tropical Depression Nine heads towards Florida and may make landfall as a major hurricane next week.
However, Tom Whitmeyer, NASA’s deputy associate administrator for exploration systems development, said the team is not assuming the launch will be canceled just yet.
“It’s still a tropical depression number nine, it’s not a named storm,” Whitmeyer told reporters. “We really want to continue to try to get as much information as we can so we can make the best possible decision for the hardware.”
The team said it will continue to monitor the weather and will decide on Saturday whether to continue with the Tuesday launch.
NASA had to scrub the first launch attempt on Aug. 29 because of a faulty temperature sensor and the second attempt on Sept. 3 due to a liquid hydrogen leak.
Since then, engineers and mission managers have been running tests to make sure the rocket is ready during its next attempt.
In a press release, NASA said the Artemis team encountered a hydrogen leak during a test run on Wednesday, but the issue was addressed and resolved.
The process of tanking, which includes filling the rocket’s core stage with liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen, was also successful.
“We had a very successful tanking test all of the tanks,” John Blevins, NASA’s Space Launch System chief engineer, said during the press conference. “We were able to do some things that we won’t have to do again, some things that we intended to do even on launch day that were left over from previous dress rehearsals. So, it was a very successful.”
If the launch is scrubbed on Sept. 27, the next launch attempt will occur on Sunday, Oct. 2.
If that Oct. 2 is also a no-go, the rocket will be taken back to the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center until the team decides on the next date.
Over the course of the Artemis missions, NASA plans to eventually send the first female astronaut and the first astronaut of color to the moon.
The federal space agency also plans to establish a moon base as a steppingstone to send astronauts to Mars by 2024 or 2025.
(WASHINGTON) – Republicans are going on the attack in Wisconsin — drawing a “fact check” in rebuttal from the state’s Democratic governor — as they press what they see as an advantage on the issue of crime and law enforcement support in the final weeks before crucial midterm races there.
A recent spate of ads released by GOP groups attacking the Democratic nominees running for office have pushed them to go on the defense, with incumbent Gov. Tony Evers on Tuesday working to debunk, he said, a TV spot from the Republican Governors Association that claimed his policies played a role in the release of hundreds of violent criminals by the state’s parole commission.
Democratic operatives say conservatives’ focus on crime is a distraction from other key issues on which voters view them less favorably, like abortion access post Roe. Evers’ Republican challenger, Tim Michels, opposes abortion in almost all cases.
“I’m principled; my wife and I, we know we have to answer to somebody higher than anybody on the face of this earth. We’re pro-life because of our faith,” he has said.
But a Marquette University Law School Poll released earlier this month analyzing Wisconsin’s Senate and governor race showed that 61% of registered voters were concerned about crime. The issue ranked among the top-five issues for voters in the state.
In response to the RGA ad, which sought to link Evers to the release of “over 800 convicted criminals,” “270 murderers and attempted murderers” and “44 child rapists,” the Evers campaign said “of the 884 convicted criminals released under Gov. Evers’ administration, nearly half were released because their release was required by law.”
His campaign stressed that, in Wisconsin, “only the parole chair can decide who gets let out of prison on parole. The governor has no role in these decisions,” adding that the parole chair, John Tate, “never received a full confirmation hearing” and that he was unanimously recommended for confirmation by a Republican-controlled Committee on the Judiciary and Public Safety.
And as to the RGA ad’s claims that the governor’s “liberal policies” have made local communities less safe, Evers’ campaign pointed out that the governor signed a bill in April preventing violent criminals and sex offenders from being released early from prison in the future. Evers contrasted that with Michels, who opposes gun law changes including so-called “red flag” legislation, which would allow law enforcement to remove firearms from people they believe may present a danger to themselves or others.
Michels said in June: “It’s not the guns. It’s a cultural problem today. And a lot of it is a byproduct of the whole ‘defund the police’ movement, where cops became bad guys.”
The Republican Party and their Wisconsin nominees have also spotlighted two members of the law enforcement community who have publicly announced that they never actually endorsed Democratic Senate nominee Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes, despite their names being initially filed under a list by the campaign detailing officers who support him.
Both La Crosse County Sheriff’s Captain John Siegel — who is running for county sheriff — and Racine County Deputy Malik Frazier’s names were listed but have since been removed by the Barnes campaign. The coalition of law enforcement that supports Barnes now includes 15 members, two of whom are active-duty sheriffs from Rock County and Green County.
Wisconsin Right Now first reported on Siegel’s removal from the list. Siegel told the outlet that he never endorsed the lieutenant governor and that he did not plan to endorse anyone in the state’s Senate race.
When reached by ABC News, Lt. Michael Luell, a spokesman with the Racine County Sheriff’s Office, said that Deputy Malik Frazier “expressed some level of surprise” when he saw his name on the list of law enforcement who supported Barnes.
“[Frazier] stated that he may be personally supporting Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes, but he did not intend to professionally endorse him, and that professional endorsement was a mistake made by the Barnes’ campaign,” Luell said. (La Crosse County Sheriff’s Captain John Siegel did not respond to a request from ABC News for comment.)
The Senate Leadership Fund, a Republican-aligned super PAC, has recently published multiple ads targeting Barnes’ support to eliminate cash bail, an issue that its supporter say would remove an excessive financial burden on people accused of even minor infractions — but which the GOP ad contends would set “accused criminals free into the community before trial.”
In a statement to ABC News in response to the negative ads, Maddy McDaniel, a Barnes campaign spokeswoman, said: “Ron Johnson defended the criminals whose insurrection injured 140 police officers. He loves to point fingers about crime, but then voted against police funding while Lt. Governor Barnes and Governor Evers actually invested in public safety and law enforcement.”
Some outside Democratic strategists cast the Republican ads focusing on crime as “fear mongering” and a distraction from their other weaknesses on the trail.
“There’s no question that [Republicans] want people to be scared,” said Democratic strategist Joe Zepecki, adding, “They’re trying to create an alternative environment that they think is better for them politically. But we know that the biggest story in American politics this year is the attack on women’s reproductive freedom.”
A new Spectrum News/Siena College poll released this week showed Evers with a 5-point lead over Michels in a race that FiveThirtyEight says favors Evers. The Spectrum/Siena poll also asked voters about their take on the U.S. Supreme Court decision in June that overturned Roe v. Wade, with 72% of Wisconsinites polled saying they want a new abortion law in the state versus relying on the state’s “1849 law” that broadly bans the procedure.
In a Marquette Law School poll released last week, 51% of Wisconsin voters surveyed said Republican incumbent Sen. Ron Johnson “doesn’t share their values” versus 41% for Lt. Gov. Barnes.
Zepecki, the strategist, said that he believes “nobody buys” that Evers is “just flinging open the jail cell or ushering people out into the streets. That’s insane.”
As for the two members of law enforcement who were removed from the list of endorsements for Barnes, Zepecki said he does not foresee that negatively influencing the relatively small share of undecided voters in Wisconsin.
“I think this is much ado about nothing,” he argued. “This is the stuff that happens when you got campaigns that are trying to do 7,000 things with not enough staff and not enough time before Election Day, so I have a hard time believing that this has got to change anybody’s mind in this election, particularly talking about the truly undecided voters.”
Alec Zimmerman, a spokesperson for Johnson’s campaign, had another view: “Mandela Barnes can’t even tell the truth about who is endorsing his campaign — voters shouldn’t believe a word that comes out of his mouth.”
On Wednesday, Johnson’s campaign announced a bipartisan coalition of 51 sheriffs who had endorsed him.
(NEW YORK) — The Adams County Coroner’s Office in Colorado is set to release Elijah McClain’s amended autopsy report after several news organizations sued for its release on Friday.
The report was amended based on confidential grand jury information, according to the chief coroner for Adams County.
The release comes before the arraignment of five former Aurora police officers and paramedics in McClain’s 2019 death.
McClain, a Black 23-year-old massage therapist, died following an encounter with police in August 2019 while he was walking home from a convenience store.
A passerby had called 911 to report McClain was acting “sketchy” since he was wearing a ski mask on a warm night. The lawyer for the McClain family attributed this to the fact that McClain was anemic, which made him feel cold more easily.
Aurora police officers responded to the scene and confronted McClain. An officer can be heard saying in body camera footage that they put him into a carotid chokehold, which restricts the carotid artery and cuts off blood to the brain, according to the Department of Justice. McClain can be heard saying, “I can’t breathe,” in police body camera footage.
Paramedics arrived, giving McClain an “excessive” dose of ketamine, according to McCain’s lawyer, and McClain suffered from cardiac arrest shortly after in an ambulance, according to officials. McClain was pronounced dead three days later.
Former Aurora Police Officers Jason Rosenblatt, Nathan Woodyard and Randy Roedema as well as paramedics Peter Cichuniec and Jeremy Cooper were charged with 32 criminal counts, including manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and assault charges.
Their arraignment is set for November.
CPR News filed a lawsuit against the Adams County Coroner’s Office on Sept. 1, arguing for the autopsy report to be released. Several other local news organizations joined the effort after open records requests to obtain the report were denied.
