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Former Wu-Tang Clan producer files wrongful imprisonment lawsuit against New York City

March 3, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Music producer Derrick Harris filed a lawsuit against the City of New York and the New York Police Department alleging he was wrongfully accused of sexual assault and imprisoned for four years on Rikers Island.

Harris was acquitted on some of the charges in 2015 and cleared of all charges in 2020, according to the lawsuit.

The city played a role in the arrest of Derrick Harris for “a bogus rape accusation, leading to his wrongful incarceration for four years,” civil rights attorney Ben Crump said at a press conference Thursday.

Harris was “wrongfully and falsely accused based on police lies,” he said.

Crump said evidence was fabricated against Harris to keep him imprisoned in Rikers Island for four years after his arrest and prior to trial. Harris was injured during his imprisonment, including suffering a skull fracture, he said.

The lawsuits also lists as defendants the police officers who arrested Harris, former New York District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. and Carolina Holderness, the former deputy chief for the special victims bureau at the District Attorney’s office.

The NYPD declined to comment because they said they had not been served with the lawsuit.

Representatives for the city of New York, Vance Jr. and Holderness did not immediately reply to ABC News’ requests for comment. Attorney information for the officers was not immediately available.

According to the lawsuit, Harris was beaten and arrested at his home by NYPD officers on Sept. 12, 2011, after an incident in which a female acquaintance screamed for help from the balcony of his apartment, alleging he had sexually assaulted her. The woman left, but hours later officers entered his home without a warrant, the lawsuit claims.

Harris was punched, pushed and slammed to the ground by the officers, the lawsuit says. He was handcuffed without explanation or attempts at de-escalation, he alleges in the lawsuit.

After his arrest, the lawsuit says officers falsified witness evidence and evidence at the scene to obtain a warrant to search his home. It also claims that the alleged victim’s rape kit and other physical evidence was improperly handled and that Harris had to have the evidence tested which showed his DNA was not present and proved his innocence.

“And then he found out how easy it was for the system to gobble up a black man and just tried him out,” Crump said.

Prior to the incident, Harris was a self-employed music producer with clients including Wu-Tang Clan, Alicia Keys and Busta Rhymes. He had no prior convictions or time in prison, according to the lawsuit.

“I feel like if I wasn’t a black man, then the fact that they had evidence to prove my innocence within a few months of me being arrested, I would have not had to stay on Rikers Island for over four years, just like they did to Kalief Browder,” Harris said at the press conference, referencing the teenager who was imprisoned on Rikers Island for three years without a trial.

“They hold you on Rikers Island, with no case at all, in an attempt to try to get you to take a guilty plea. And it’s wrong. It has to be stopped,” Harris said.

Justice Department ‘going after Putin’s cronies and Russian oligarchs’

March 3, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — A top Justice Department official has a stern warning for Russian oligarchs who attempt to evade U.S. sanctions: Nobody is out of the DOJ’s reach.

“The point of going after Putin’s cronies and Russian oligarchs who seek to violate our laws and shield their assets is to say that nobody is beyond the reach of our system of justice, beyond the reach of our work and cooperation with our allies, and that these cronies and oligarchs who seek to support and bolster the Russian regime shouldn’t be able to get away with that while people are dying,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco told ABC News’ Byron Pitts.

The Justice Department on Wednesday announced a task force to target the assets of Russian oligarchs after President Joe Biden previewed the move in his State of the Union address Tuesday night.

The U.S. says some of the oligarchs have ties to President Vladimir Putin and he uses them to launder or hide hundreds of millions of dollars obtained through corruption.

Dubbed Task Force KleptoCapture, the group will investigate and implement new sanctions, combat unlawful efforts to undermine restrictions taken against Russian financial institutions, go after oligarchs who use cryptocurrency to evade U.S. sanctions and seize the assets of Russian oligarchs.

The deputy attorney general urged U.S. businesses to shore up their compliance with sanctions and make sure they know who they’re doing business with.

“Because if they don’t and they run afoul of the sanctions, the consequences can be quite severe,” she said. “And our investigations are often aided by companies and financial institutions that say, ‘You know what, we’re seeing some unusual activity,’ and sharing that information with us, and that’s critically important.”

Monaco said the task force is a “commitment” from the DOJ to put the full weight of the agency behind combatting “efforts of oligarchs and Putin’s cronies to evade sanctions, to launder money, to violate the sanctions that we’re imposing in an unprecedented way with our international partners.”

The deputy attorney general juxtaposed the images playing out on TV of people suffering in Ukraine with some of Russia’s wealthiest citizens evading sanctions.

“We’ve got people dying, bombs falling on civilian populations. All the while you’ve got oligarchs, Putin’s cronies who have engaged in corruptly acquiring billions of dollars, shrouding it and hiding it in luxury items in the West,” she said.

“That cannot stand,” she added.

Environmental groups sue over rising manatee deaths in Florida

March 3, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Environmental groups filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, claiming the agency has failed to help preserve Florida manatee habitats as the species faces rising deaths.

Nearly 1,100 manatees died in 2021, which is roughly 20% of the east coast population of manatees, according to a lawsuit filed by Save the Manatee Club, the Center for Biological Diversity and Defenders of Wildlife.

“We’ve now had almost 300 [die] in 2022,” aquatic biologist Patrick Rose told ABC News. Rose is the executive director of Save the Manatee Club, the non-profit organization started by singer Jimmy Buffet in 1981 that is dedicated to protecting manatees and preserving their natural habitat.

The group tells ABC News that popular waterways for manatees, like the Indian River Lagoon on Florida’s east coast, have suffered years of pollution from sources like failed septic tanks, improperly treated sewage and fertilizer that deposits nutrients into the water.

“That excess nutrient causes algal blooms that were so severe that it shaded out the seagrass that manatees and other species depend on. The seagrass died,” Rose said.

Manatees typically eat 100 to 200 pounds of seagrass and other plants every day, or roughly 10-20% of their body weight. With so little seagrass available, the manatees have been starving, and in 2021 U.S Fish and Wildlife declared the high number of manatee deaths “an unusual mortality event”.

According to the lawsuit, the Florida manatee was first listed as an endangered species in 1967, but to help protect the animals even further, USFWS designated areas where manatees are found as a “critical habitat” in 1976. Critical habitats are specific areas that have biological and physical features that are important for the survival of a species.

When the critical habitat was first established, important components of the habitat, such as the seagrass, were not taken into consideration, Rose said.

But by 2008, updated Congressional and USFWS definitions of a critical habit and new scientific information required that the manatee’s critical habitat designation be adjusted, according to the lawsuit.

Environmental groups requested that USFWS update the term in 2008 and the agency agreed, but never followed through, according to the lawsuit.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service did not respond to an ABC News request for comment on the lawsuit.

Save the Manatee Club hopes the USFWS “will work with us now to ensure that seagrasses and warm water habitat are better protected to prevent a continuation of the devastating losses of so many manatees due the continuing loss of seagrasses, which are literally “critically important” to the future survival of manatees,” Rose said.

Save the Manatee is also appealing to the United States Environmental Protection Agency in hopes to upgrade water quality standards so that seagrass will not continue to die from pollution.

“Ultimately, we believe that we must use the provisions of both the Endangered Species Act and the Clean Water Act to ensure that manatees are protected today and for the foreseeable future,” Rose said.

If the court rules in favor of the environmental groups, it will result in higher standards and stiffer penalties for those who pollute waters which kill seagrass. According to Rose, until the standards are raised, the manatees and their ecosystems will continue to be under threat.

Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s daughter once asked Obama to put her mom on the high court

March 3, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Supreme Court nominee Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s daughter once penned a letter to then-President Barack Obama requesting he nominate her mom for a seat on the Supreme Court.

Leila, who was an 11-year-old middle schooler in 2016, wrote the missive touting the credentials of her mother following the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. Jackson was serving on the U.S. District Court of Washington, D.C. at the time.

“I would like to add my mother, Ketanji Brown Jackson of the District Court, to the list,” Leila wrote, referring to Obama’s shortlist of potential nominees.

“She is determined, honest, and never breaks a promise to anyone, even if there are other things she’d rather do,” the letter reads. “She can demonstrate commitment, and is loyal and never brags.”

Jackson read the entire letter aloud in a 2017 speech and tells the story around it and how she first explained to her daughter the process of becoming a justice.

Obama ended up selecting Merrick Garland to fill the opening, but Senate Republicans fused to hold hearings on the now-attorney general, leaving the seat to be filled by President Donald Trump, who nominated Justice Neil Gorsuch.

It took another six years for President Joe Biden, who served as Obama’s vice president when Leila sent her letter, to come to the same conclusion that Brown “would make a great Supreme Court Justice, even if the workload will be larger….”

In February, Biden tapped to Brown replace Justice Stephen Breyer, who announced his retirement earlier this year.

It is the first time a Black woman has been nominated to the Supreme Court.

ABC News’ Devin Dwyer contributed to this report.

Without COVID-19 vaccines for youngest children, families feel left behind by ‘next phase’

March 3, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — While much of the country is relieved to move into a new phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, millions of families with young, unvaccinated children have looked on with frustration, feeling forced to now raise their guard even higher.

“Just going to the grocery store is less safe now, because we can’t rely on other people protecting him by wearing a mask,” said Rebecca Sanghvi, the mother of a 2-year-old son.

Vaccines for children under 5 years old aren’t expected until sometime in the spring. During his State of the Union address, President Joe Biden said scientists were working hard to get them authorized and pledged to “be ready with plenty of vaccines if and when they do.”

Sanghvi, an instructional coach with the Washington, D.C., Public Schools, her husband and their 5-year-old have led a cautious life during the pandemic to protect their youngest family member.

She knows that there’s a very low chance of her son getting severely sick, but after two years of near-misses, her and her husband can barely afford taking time off work for another quarantine.

They do the necessities, like going to work and attending school, but they don’t dine indoors or go to crowded indoor places, like museums. They don’t see friends indoors. Playdates are at the park, outside.

She wishes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had waited for young kids to get access to vaccines before easing the national guidelines for masks, which put 70% of the country in areas where it was no longer required.

“I want to protect my kids. And [masks] seem like not an overwhelming price to pay with all of the unknowns that there are,” Sanghvi said.

Her son is one of about 20 million kids in the U.S. who still can’t get vaccinated — the last age group in the country.

Doctors urge parents to hang on for a few more months

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends all kids under 5 continue to wear masks — a recommendation that will likely stand until vaccines are available for that group sometime in late spring, said Moira Szilagyi, president of the organization.

The hope is that transmission continues to decrease until then, at least reducing some stress around the virus, and the vaccine could arrive before a potential increase in cases over the summer.

“I share their pain. We see families in our offices and practice settings every day whose children are stuck in this in-between world,” Szilagyi said.

But now is not the time to let your guard down, Szilagyi and other doctors emphasized.

“You should continue to do everything you can to prevent the infection, because we don’t have a great way of telling if your kid will do great or your kid will not,” said Dr. Diego Hijano, a pediatric infectious disease specialist at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Many parents also worry about their young children developing long COVID, even if the initial infection is mild. But the research is still limited.

Children can get long COVID, experts said, but it’s less common than in adults. When vaccines become available, that is expected to further reduce the risk, as it has for kids ages 5 to 11.

So what are the best ways to stay protected?

In the meantime, experts say that even if other people aren’t wearing masks around kids, they can still be relatively protected if they wear high-quality masks themselves, like surgical masks, N95-equivalent masks made for children, or even cloth masks with at least two layers.

“It will be at least some defense — and enough to make it worthwhile,” said Szilagyi.

Doctors also recommend “cocooning” children with vaccinated people — surrounding them with family and friends who are up to date on their vaccines and boosters.

“If you can get parents, siblings, grandparents on board — that’s the first step because that’s the best way to protect the kid in the house,” Hijano said.

And playing outside without masks is relatively safe, said Hijano, who has young kids.

Traveling has also been proven to be low risk, particularly road trips, and outings to the movie theater, where the seats are relatively spaced out, can be a good activity, he said.

And in the next few weeks, watch for continued improvements in the pandemic’s trajectory.

“Clearly, when masks come off, then that will increase the risk, particularly for unvaccinated children under 5,” said Dr. Dan Barouch, a virologist at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.

“But that is somewhat counterbalanced by the fact that the overall number of cases is much, much reduced compared with where we were a month or two ago and the severity of illness with omicron is lower than the severity of illness with delta or the prior variants,” he said.

Barouch, too, recommended continued mask-wearing and avoiding public indoor gatherings until things improve, as did Dr. Robert Frenck, a vaccine researcher at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.

“There’s no data to show that the masks are dangerous. There’s no data to show that kids can’t recognize emotion. In fact, there’s data to show kids can recognize emotion because they pick up most of the emotion out of the eyes,” Frenck said.

He urged people to respect one another’s decisions around masks.

“A parent should be allowed to make their decision about a mask,” he said. “And they should feel no recrimination by anyone because they made the decision for their child.”

Exclusive behind-the-scenes look at Hulu series, ‘The Dropout: The Rise and Con of Elizabeth Holmes’

March 3, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — It’s a dramatic tale of money, power, tragedy and deceit.

Elizabeth Holmes, once the world’s youngest female self-made billionaire and lauded by some as the next Steve Jobs for her supposedly “revolutionary” blood testing company, Theranos, fell from grace after being convicted of defrauding investors.

Holmes awaits sentencing this September, facing up to twenty years in prison for four counts of fraud for which she was found guilty in January. Her former boyfriend and ex-COO Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani claims he is innocent and is set to go on trial later this month.

The gripping story is recapped in a new 20/20 special, “The Dropout: The Rise and Con of Elizabeth Holmes,” airing March 4.

The television event features behind-the-scenes access to the new Hulu original limited series “The Dropout”, starring Oscar-nominee Amanda Seyfried. The limited series is based on the top ranked ABC News podcast hosted by ABC News Chief Business Correspondent Rebecca Jarvis. It premieres on Hulu on March 3.

The podcast, which first aired in 2019, chronicles the rise and fall of Holmes and Theranos through first-hand accounts and deposition tapes of Holmes, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, and other employees.

Listeners hear from the whistleblowers who say they tried to speak out about what was happening inside Theranos while being stalked and legally threatened. From broken machines to faulty test results, the company starts to go downhill as Holmes attempts to mitigate the damage to her reputation by traversing down a path of lies.

Season two of the podcast picks up in the middle of a worldwide pandemic three years after Holmes settled with the SEC with no admission of wrongdoing, at the beginning of her criminal trial. Holmes, now a mother, charged with 2 counts of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and 9 counts of wire fraud, faces the toughest and most important challenge of her life: convincing 12 jurors that she’s innocent of the charges at hand.

Each week, “The Dropout” team takes you behind the scenes and inside the courtroom to provide a detailed description of what is happening. In addition to courtroom coverage, the podcast also interviews legal experts, witnesses, and investors to help understand where Theranos went wrong.

Tune in to the limited series “The Dropout” exclusively on Hulu on Thursday, March 3, and “The Dropout: The Rise and Con of Elizabeth Holmes” on Friday, March 4. Hulu is a division of Disney, ABC’s parent company.

Ukraine children’s hospital continues to care for patients in basement amid Russia attacks

March 3, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(KYIV, Ukraine) — While more than 1 million people have fled Ukraine since the invasion of Russian forces, some of the country’s most vulnerable children have stayed behind.

At Ohmadyt Children’s Hospital in Kyiv, pediatric patients are being cared for in the basement of the hospital.

Among the patients is a young boy named Yarik, who is hospitalized due to fluid in his brain.

And still they smile …Meet Yarik. He has water on his brain and is now hiding in the basement of the children’s hospital. Coming up on @GMA pic.twitter.com/IPzD6rIXJI

— Ian Pannell (@IanPannell) March 3, 2022

Another patient, a young girl named Illiya, who is being treated for heart problems, is held by her father, who told ABC News he is caring for her while his wife and their six other children are hiding near the front lines.

The girl’s father, Valentine, told ABC News’ Ian Pannell the situation is hard, adding, “We do not give up. We fight. We stick to the last, because we cannot do otherwise.”

Illiya was born with heart problems. Now, she and her dad Valentin shelter in the basement of the Kyiv Children’s Hospital from Russian bombs. pic.twitter.com/Gq1nj195Pe

— Ian Pannell (@IanPannell) March 2, 2022

One 2-year-old boy, named David, remains in the hospital because he needs dialysis treatment, while another boy, Vova, 13, was brought to the hospital after being badly injured when his family’s car came under attack, the boys’ families told ABC News.

Vova’s father and cousin were killed in the attack, and now he is fighting for his life in intensive care, according to his mother.

Caring for the young patients are doctors and nurses who are risking their lives, too.

Dr. Oleg Gordyk told ABC News his family is staying with him in the underground clinic.

“This week was very, very terrible for me because my family is staying in our clinic,” he said. “My daughter, 17-years-old, now she works as [a] nurse.”

@IanPannell reports from Ukraine’s largest children’s hospital in Kyiv as staff risk their lives to care for sick children. pic.twitter.com/mjAkLvydC4

— World News Tonight (@ABCWorldNews) March 3, 2022

Ukraine has been under attack since Feb. 24, when Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a “special military operation.”

Russian forces don’t appear to have advanced closer to Kyiv since coming within about 20 miles, although smaller advanced groups have been fighting gun battles with Ukrainian forces inside the capital since at least Friday.

Gordyk told ABC News that even amid the horrors of war, he sees a sliver of hope.

“I believe in victory,” he said. “I believe in maybe, in the future — tomorrow, maybe next week or next month, I see sun in our clinic.”

Banana Republic adds new baby and athletic categories

March 3, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Banana Republic is known for its modern luxury-style adult clothing, but now, the brand is expanding to also include great picks for babies.

The Gap Inc.-owned company announced BR Baby as a new category available now and shared that an athletics collection will also be coming later this month.

Launching with 40 pieces, Banana Republic’s new baby line has a wide variety of matching sets, knit tops, bodysuits, accessories and more that take a nod from many of the brand’s iconic adult picks.

Additionally, the latest baby line includes a limited number of adorable “mini-me” pieces — matching looks for babies and adults. The featured apparel is currently available in sizes 0-24 and prices start at $20.

“BR Baby and BR Athletics mix the mainstream with the unexpected and deliver elevated, thoroughly modern, lifestyle collections,” said Sandra Stangl, president and CEO of Banana Republic, in a statement.

She continued, “We approached both by deconstructing what made Banana Republic successful in the first place — taking things that people already know, have nostalgia for, and framing them in new ways that feel fresh.”

Jury finds ex-officer Brett Hankison not guilty on all counts in shooting during Breonna Taylor raid

March 3, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(LOUISVILLE, Ky.) — A jury in Louisville, Kentucky, has found Brett Hankison, the former police officer charged with recklessly shooting into a neighboring apartment during the course of the raid that ended with the death of Breonna Taylor, not guilty on all three counts.

Hankison was charged with three counts of wanton endangerment for firing multiple shots into a neighboring apartment that endangered the lives of three people on March 13, 2020.

The jury deliberated for just three hours before returning its verdict.

Hankison fired 10 shots into Taylor’s apartment, several of which entered a neighboring apartment where a man, child and pregnant woman were living, according to prosecutors.

Bullets and casings from Hankison’s gun were found on the scene and retrieved from a common wall of Taylor and her neighbors.

In an interview with Louisville Metro Police Department’s Public Integrity Unit in the weeks following the shooting, Hankison alleged that he saw muzzle flashes and was “certain” at the time he heard an AR-15 rifle firing out of the apartment.

After he heard gunshots, Hankison said he thought Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly had been shot. He said he assumed other officers were hit as well.

“I thought they were just being executed,” he said.

No AR-15 rifle or corresponding bullets or casings were found on the scene.

The prosecution delivered its closing arguments Thursday.

“This is not a case to decide who is at fault for the tragic death of Breonna Taylor,” prosecutor Barbara Whaley told the court. “This is not a case about civil rights violations under federal law or the United States Constitution. And this is not a case about Kenneth Walker. Whether what he did that night was right or wrong, this is not your decision.”

Hankison, and fellow officers Myles Cosgrove and Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly, fired 32 shots into Taylor’s apartment while serving a “no-knock” warrant. Taylor, who was in her bedroom in the apartment, was killed.

The plainclothes officers were serving the warrant searching for Taylor’s ex-boyfriend, who they allege was dealing drugs. He was not at the residence, but her current boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, thought someone was breaking into the home and fired one shot from a 9mm pistol at the officers. Mattingly was struck in the leg and officers opened fire, killing the 26-year-old Taylor.

The death sparked outrage nationwide and protests calling for the officers to be held accountable for the killing. To this day, no one has been charged with Taylor’s death.

Hankison and Cosgrove were both fired from the police department.

“Today, the jury rendered its decision. We appreciate the hard work of our prosecutors and respect the decision of the jury,” Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron said in a statement after the verdict was read on Thursday.

This is a developing story. Check back for details.

Anna Netrebko is out at the Metropolitan Opera

March 3, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — After a chaotic week, Russian soprano Anna Netrebko has withdrawn from performances at New York City’s Metropolitan Opera House.

“It is a great artistic loss for the Met and for opera,” Met Opera general manager Peter Gelb said in a statement Thursday. “Anna is one of the greatest singers in Met history, but with Putin killing innocent victims in Ukraine, there was no way forward.”

On Sunday, in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Gelb posted a message to the Met’s social media saying, “We can no longer engage with artists or institutions that support Putin or are supported by him — not until the invasion and killing has been stopped, order has been restored and restitutions have been made.”

The statement was met with confusion from some specifically because Netrebko — who has previously voiced support for Putin and in 2014 supported the arts in the separatist region of Ukraine — has become a widely recognized face of the Met over the last two decades, including opening the season several years in a row. She was set to perform in the Met’s “Turandot” later in the spring and was scheduled to perform in the 2022-23 season, which the Met announced Feb. 23.

The Met’s message now that she has been withdrawn from performances after “not complying with the Met’s condition that she repudiate her public support for Vladimir Putin while he wages war on Ukraine,” is sending loud reverberations through the industry.

In a series of Instagram posts over the weekend, Netrebko called for peace and voiced her opposition to the war, but did not mention Putin.

“Forcing artists, or any public figure, to voice their political opinions in public and to denounce their homeland is not right. This should be a free choice. Like many of my colleagues, I am not a political person. I am not an expert in politics. I am an artist and my purpose is to unite people across political divides,” she wrote on an Instagram post Saturday.

She went on to say in an Instagram story, “It’s especially despicable from people from the West, seated comfortable in their home, not fearing for their lives, to pretend to be brave and pretending to ‘fight’ by putting in trouble artists who asked nothing.”

Netrebko’s Instagram, where she has over 750,000 followers, was later set to private.

Netrebko’s withdrawal from the Met, which includes the “Turandot” this spring as well as a “Don Carlo” in the next season, comes as Russian conductor Valery Gergiev faces similar career impacts from the invasion. He was replaced in a series of Vienna Philharmonic concerts at New York City’s Carnegie Hall last week and fired as chief conductor of the Munich Philharmonic after also refusing to denounce Putin.

The two — who are among the most globally famous classical artists currently performing — have faced, and stand to face, further repercussions as the opera and classical industry take stands against the Russian invasion.

Polish tenor Piotr Beczała, Latvian mezzo Elīna Garanča and Georgian mezzo Anita Rachvelishvili all announced they would not be performing in Russia, with Rachvelishvili calling Putin a “dictator” who “is killing our people.”

“I am not a politician and I have no influence on political decisions. But I am an artist and I can use my voice to express my opposition to the war that takes place just across the border of my beloved motherland,” Beczała wrote.

Russian American conductor Lidiya Yankovskaya, music director of the Chicago Opera Theater, wrote on Twitter that she was “terrified for all my family and friends in Ukraine, where I spent so many happy summers as a child.”

Finnish soprano Karita Mattila also took to Twitter with a memory: “I refused to perform with (Maestro) Gergiev in 2014 at Carnegie Hall concert because he publicly supported Russian invasion of Crimea. I wanted to show solidarity towards my Ukrainian colleagues. My action had long lasting consequences: I received threats.”

Netrebko has brushed controversy before, both with her 2014 actions and with her opinions on skin-darkening makeup. Gelb told The New York Times it’s “hard to imagine a scenario in which (Netrebko) will return to the Met,” a stunning remark given her staying power at the house that made her an international star.

The Met on Monday opened its first opera after a scheduled monthlong break with a performance of the Ukrainian national anthem.

For the springtime “Turandot,” Netrebko will be replaced by Liudmyla Monastyrska — a Ukrainian soprano.

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