(NEWPORT BEACH, Calif.) — One police officer was killed and another was injured after a police helicopter crashed on Saturday into the water near Newport Beach in California.
The helicopter crashed at about 6:30 p.m. local time, as two officers from the Huntington Beach Police Department were responding to nearby Newport Beach, the department said.
“The helicopter crashed for reasons that we’re not certain of,” Huntington Beach Police Chief Eric Parra told reporters late Saturday. “One of the officers, a 16-year veteran, was extricated and he went to a local hospital, or nearby hospital, where he is in critical condition, but he is doing okay. The other officer, a 14-year veteran, unfortunately and tragically passed away as a result of injuries sustained during the crash.”
Officials identified the officer killed as Nicholas Vella, 44. The second officer was not identified.
The National Transportation Safety Board and the Orange County Sheriff’s Department major accident reconstruction team are investigating the incident.
“I don’t have details on what potentially caused the aircraft to become disabled,” Parra said.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates. ABC News’ Izzy Alvarez contributed to this report.
(PORTLAND, Ore.) — A woman was killed and five others were injured on Saturday in a shooting at a park in Portland, Oregon, police said.
Officers responded to a report of a shooting near Normandale Park in northeast Portland at about 8 p.m. local time, the Portland Police Bureau said in a statement.
“When officers arrived they located a female victim who was deceased,” the department said. “Additional shooting victims, two men and three women, were transported to area hospitals and their status is unknown at this time.”
Police have not yet identified the victim.
Normandale Park sits near the intersection of Northeast 55th Avenue and Northeast Hassalo Street, in the city’s Rose City Park Neighborhood.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates. ABC News’ Keith Harden contributed to this report.
(LONDON) — Britain’s Queen Elizabeth has tested positive for COVID-19, Buckingham Palace announced on Sunday.
The Queen, 95, has been experiencing “mild cold-like symptoms,” the palace said. She’s expected to carry out “light duties” in the coming week.
“She will continue to receive medical attention and will follow all the appropriate guidelines,” the palace said.
“I’m sure I speak for everyone in wishing Her Majesty The Queen a swift recovery from Covid and a rapid return to vibrant good health,” Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Twitter.
News of the monarch’s diagnosis comes after it was confirmed that her son, Prince Charles, and his wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, tested positive for COVID-19. Clarence House announced Prince Charles’s diagnosis on Feb. 10, and Camilla’s on Feb. 14.
This is the second time Prince Charles, 73, has tested positive for COVID-19, with his first diagnosis coming in March 2020, before he was vaccinated.
Queen Elizabeth, Britain’s longest-reigning monarch, held several virtual and in-person events this month, including an event in Sandringham on Feb. 5 to mark her 70 years on the throne.
The queen, who returned to Windsor Castle shortly after the reception, met with representatives from local community groups in the ballroom at Sandringham House to celebrate the start of the Platinum Jubilee.
The Feb. 5 event was the queen’s first public, in-person event since October, when she was hospitalized for one night for what the palace described as “preliminary investigations.”
After being advised by her doctors to rest, Queen Elizabeth took on a more modified schedule. In November, she missed the annual Remembrance Sunday Service for the first time in her reign due to a sprained back.
The queen had already modified her schedule throughout the coronavirus pandemic, holding virtual audiences and participating in video calls instead of public events.
When her husband, Prince Philip, died at age 99 last April, the queen sat alone during the funeral service in St. George’s Chapel, following pandemic restrictions.
Both Queen Elizabeth and her late husband received their first COVID-19 vaccination shots in January 2021, Buckingham Palace confirmed at the time.
Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, confirmed in December that they had both received their booster shoots of the vaccine, according to the BBC.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — A dangerous winter blast is making its way across the east coast, bringing areas of heavy snow, strong winds and ushering in bitter cold temperatures for the rest of the weekend.
Snow squall warnings have been issued from Pennsylvania to Massachusetts Saturday, alerting of heavy snow and low visibility as the snow sweeps through the region.
The squalls are expected to wrap up later Saturday evening.
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Wind advisories are in effect for most of the Northeast with gusts as high as 40- to 50-miles-per-hour. The winds will subside after midnight giving way to a cold start to Sunday.
Wind chills Sunday morning will be in the single digits from New York to Boston.
Wind chills Sunday morning will be in the single digits from New York City to Boston and it will feel like the low 20s from Washington D.C. to Raleigh, North Carolina.
Temperatures are expected to rise for the beginning of the week.
(NEW YORK) — An abandoned cargo ship carrying more than 1,000 Porsches and other luxury vehicles is burning in the Atlantic Ocean.
The fire on the Felicity Ace broke out on Wednesday. The ship was sailing about 90 kilometers southwest of the island of Faial in Portugal when the flames erupted, according to the country’s military.
All 22 crew members on board were rescued by members of the Portuguese Air Force and are in “good health,” according to Snowcape Car Carriers, the ship’s owner.
The Felicity Ace is still adrift in the Atlantic Ocean but Snowcape Car Carriers said an initial salvage team is estimated to arrive Friday.
“Further salvage assets are being readied to attend the vessel,” the company said.
It’s unclear what caused the fire.
A ship tracking website shows that the Felicity Ace was en route to Rhode Island.
The fire comes as car manufacturers grapple with inventory issues brought on by the chip shortage.
“Our immediate thoughts are of relief that the 22 crew of the merchant ship ‘Felicity Ace’ are safe and well,” Porsche said in a statement. “We are in contact with the shipping company and the details of the cars on board are now known. While it remains too early to confirm what occurred and next steps, we are – along with our colleagues at Porsche AG – supporting our customers and our dealers as best we can to find solutions.”
Volkswagen confirmed to ABC News that it too had cars on the vessel.
“We are in contact with the shipping company to get more information about the incident,” the German automaker said.
(NEW YORK) — The United States continues to warn that Russia could invade Ukraine “any day” amid escalating tensions in the region, with President Joe Biden telling reporters Thursday that the threat is now “very high.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday, making urgent remarks to the U.N. Security Council, challenged Moscow to commit to no invasion.
More than 150,000 Russian troops are estimated to be massed near Ukraine’s borders, U.S. officials said. While Russian President Vladimir Putin and the Kremlin claim that some troops have begun to withdraw, Biden said more Russian forces have moved in, contrary to Moscow’s claims.
It remains unclear whether Putin has made a decision to attack his ex-Soviet neighbor.
Russia has denied it plans to invade and issued new demands Thursday that the U.S. and NATO bar Ukraine from joining the military alliance.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Feb 19, 9:51 am
Vice President meets with Ukrainian President in Munich
Vice President Kamala Harris and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met in Munich for the first time, just one day after President Joe Biden said it wouldn’t be wise for him to leave his country.
Harris told Zelenskyy this is a “decisive moment” in history, making this an “important meeting” for them to be having, among other reasons.
Harris reiterated the U.S. position on the sovereignty of Ukraine and warned, again, of sanctions if Russia invades.
“If Russia further invades your country, as I mentioned earlier today, we will impose swift and severe economic sanctions. We have been clear about that. We are also clear that we would prefer that this would be resolved in a diplomatic way, and we have remained open to a diplomatic path to resolution. However, if Russia takes aggressive action against Ukraine, we are prepared to implement and to do that work in a unified way with our allies around the world,” Harris said.
Speaking through a translator, Zelenskyy said that the only thing his country wants is to have “peace” and expressed his gratitude to the US for its support, including defense capabilities.
Feb 19, 9:17 am
Vice President Harris addresses Munich Security Conference
Vice President Kamala Harris addressed the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, just hours after President Joe Biden said he is convinced Russian President Vladimir Putin has decided to invade Ukraine.
“I am certain we all recognize this year’s gathering is unlike those of the recent past, not since the end of the Cold War as this forum convened under such dire circumstances today, as we are all aware, the foundation of European security is under direct threat in Ukraine,” Harris told the crowd.
Harris laid out how the United States believes an invasion would get under way.
“Russia will plead ignorance and innocence. It will create false pretext for invasion, and it will amass troops and firepower in plain sight we now receive reports of what appears to be provocations and we see Russia spreading disinformation, lies and propaganda. Nonetheless, in a deliberate and coordinated effort, we together are one, exposing the truth and two, speaking with a unifying voice,” Harris said.
Harris reiterated that the U.S. has worked to find a way to de-escalate and remains open to diplomacy, but Russia’s actions do not match their words and would pay a price if they attack, she said.
“And let me be clear: I can say with absolute certainty, if Russia further invades Ukraine, the United States together with our allies and partners will impose significant and unprecedented economic costs,” Harris said.
Harris was joined by a bipartisan group of Democrats and Republicans to show U.S. commitment to the NATO partnership.
Harris also noted U.S. efforts to bolster military posture, stressing, “our forces will not be deployed to fight inside Ukraine. But they will defend every inch of NATO territory since Russia launched its proxy war against Ukraine.”
Feb 19, 7:20 am
Putin oversees missile drill from Moscow
Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has overseen strategic missile drills, amid the ongoing tensions around Ukraine, watching a barrage of practice launches of several of Russia’s most advanced weapons, including hypersonic weapons and an intercontinental ballistic missile.
Russian state media showed Putin watching the volley of missile launches in a control center in Moscow, sitting alongside Belarus’ authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko, who is also hosting huge Russian military exercises in his country amid U.S. warnings the Kremlin may launch an attack on Kyiv.
The drills included launches of two hypersonic missiles, the Kinzhal from a fighter jet and a Zircon anti-ship missile from a warship.
A Yars ICBM was launched from Russia’s Kapustin Yar site and a Sineva ballistic missile fired from a submarine in the Barents Sea, Russia’s defense ministry said.
Russia’s military also released video showing the launches of a Kalibr cruise missile and an Islander ballistic missile.
Putin stages the demonstrative drills as tensions continued to escalate in eastern Ukraine, amid warnings from the US Russian preparing to invade the country within the coming days.
The Russian president has previously trumpeted the missiles as the most advanced in the world.
Feb 19, 6:12 am
Ukraine’s foreign minister to meet Blinken in Washington
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, is expected to meet with Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Washington on Tuesday, Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said.
Kuleba is scheduled to address the U.N. General Assembly in New York the following day.
Feb 19, 3:54 am
Russia-backed separatists declare ‘general mobilization’
A leader of the Russian-controlled separatists in eastern Ukraine declared a “general mobilization” on Saturday, according to Russian state news agencies.
The head of the separatists’ self-proclaimed People’s Republic of Donetsk, Denis Pushilin, made the announcement.
Pushilin’s comments come after the separatists yesterday announced mass evacuations and warned of an imminent Ukrainian “offensive” amid fears Russia is moving to stage a pretext to attack Ukraine, cloaking it as aid to the separatists.
Feb 18, 8:05 pm
40 to 50% of Russian troops in attack position: US official
About 40 to 50% of Russia’s troops are in “attack positions” near the border with Ukraine, a U.S. official told ABC News.
There are about 150,000 troops on the border area, including 125 battalion tactical groups, or BTGs, the official said.
These BTGs number between 750 and 1,000 personnel each and are specifically outfitted as combat forces. The forces include every capability needed to conduct a combat operation, according to the official.
Feb 18, 7:38 pm
‘I don’t believe it’s a bluff,’ Defense Secretary Austin says
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told ABC “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz that Russian President Vladimir Putin has a number of options available to him and could attack Ukraine in short order.
“This is not a bluff,” he said in the exclusive interview.
“I think he’s assembled the right kinds of things that you would need to conduct a successful invasion,” Austin added.
Raddatz’s full interview with Austin airs Sunday on a special edition of “This Week” from Lviv, Ukraine.
Feb 18, 6:28 pm
FBI warns US industry officials and governors about potential cyber attacks
Homeland security and FBI officials in the last few days have quietly been briefing private industry and government officials to shore up and focus on cybersecurity in anticipation of a possible Russian invasion, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
On Thursday, senior law enforcement and homeland officials briefed U.S. banking leaders and on Friday they briefed some of the nation’s governors to take action and get the word out, the source said.
DHS and FBI officials urged state officials to shore up their cyber infrastructure, according to the source.
Feb 18, 6:00 pm
Top Putin ally accuses Ukrainian president of provoking war
Vyacheslav Volodin, the speaker of Russia’s parliament and a key ally of Vladimir Putin, accused Ukrainian President president Volodymyr Zelenskyy of “provoking the start of a large war,”
in a social media post.
Volodin accused the Ukrainian president of “firing on peaceful citizens,” without any evidence.
“Russia doesn’t want war. It has said there many times before and our President Vladimir Putin is saying it today. But if a threat arises to the lives of Russian citizens and compatriots…our country will rise to their defense,” Volodin wrote on his personal Telegram channel.
Volodin also accused the U.S. of laying the groundwork for an attack on Russian-backed separatists by increasing its rhetoric against Russia.
Feb 18, 5:26 pm
Biden says Putin has made a decision to invade Ukraine
President Biden provided an update on the ongoing situation between Ukraine and Russia and reiterated that he believes that an invasion will happen in the coming days.
Biden cited intelligence reports but said that diplomacy is still on the table to prevent any armed conflict.
“We’re calling out Russia’s plans loudly and repeatedly, not because we want a conflict but we’re doing everything in our power to remove any reason that Russia may give to justify invading Ukraine,” he said.
Biden said that the U.S. will not send troops, but is committed to economic sanctions and providing Ukraine with weapons and support if there is an invasion.
“Russia has a choice between war and all of the suffering it will bring and diplomacy,” he said.
Feb 18, 4:10 pm
White House, UK claim Russia took part in cyber attacks on Ukraine banks
Anne Neuberger, deputy national security adviser, told reporters during a news conference Friday that U.S. intelligence has determined that Russian cyber actors have likely targeted the Ukrainian government.
Specifically, Neuberger alleged the actors used DDoS attacks on Ukrainian Ministry of Defense and state owned banks this week.
“We have technical information that the Russian Main Intelligence Directorate, or GRU, was seen transmitting high volumes of communication to Ukraine based IP addresses and domains. We’ve shared the underlying intelligence with Ukraine and with our European partners,” she said.
Neuberger said the attacks were of “limited impact” but she reiterated calls on the American private sector to be alert.
“If Russia attacks the United States or allies through asymmetric activities, like disruptive cyber attacks against our companies are critical infrastructure, we are prepared to respond,” she said.
Later in the afternoon, the British government also alleged that the GRU was behind the DDoS attacks in Ukraine.
Feb 18, 3:33 pm
UK temporarily suspends operations at its embassy in Kyiv
The United Kingdom is the latest Western nation to suspend operations at its embassy in Kyiv.
The British government said it is moving temporarily relocating its personnel to its embassy office in Lviv.
The U.S., Canada, and Australia have previously announced temporarily leaving their embassies in Kyiv and will operate out of Lviv.
Feb 18, 2:09 pm
US, Ukraine reject claims by Russia of attack in city
The U.S. and Ukrainian governments are rejecting what they say are false claims from Russia and Russian-controlled separatists in eastern Ukraine of an attack on territory they control.
A State Department spokesperson warned the Russian and separatists’ claims are the type of “false flag operation” that Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned Russia would use to attack Ukraine.
“Announcements like these are further attempts to obscure through lies and disinformation that Russia is the aggressor in this conflict,” the spokesperson said in a statement.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba also “categorically” denied claims that Kyiv is preparing an offensive in the provinces, known as Donbas — calling it “Russian disinformation.”
False Russian claims of a humanitarian crisis exploded Friday evening, starting with separatists announcing “mass evacuations” of civilians and flooding Russian state media with footage of children being lined up to depart.
The governor of Russia’s Rostov region, which borders Donbas, appealed to Vladimir Putin for help with a “refugee crisis,” with Putin dispatching his emergency management minister — the kind of staged high-level “emergency meeting” that Blinken warned about during remarks to the United Nations Thursday.
“It is also cynical and cruel to use human beings as pawns to distract the world from the fact that Russia is building up its forces in preparation for an attack. Russia is the sole instigator of these tensions and is threatening the people of Ukraine,” the State Department spokesperson said.
Feb 18, 11:24 am
Biden to speak to nation on Ukraine crisis at 4 p.m.
The White House has announced President Joe Biden will speak to the nation at 4 p.m. on the Ukraine crisis.
It says he will give an update on “continued efforts to pursue deterrence and diplomacy, and Russia’s buildup of military troops on the border of Ukraine.”
The remarks will follow a phone call Biden is holding with transatlantic leaders, scheduled for 2:30 p.m.
Earlier Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin dismissed U.S. claims Russia was preparing to invade Ukraine within days and reiterated his demand that the Ukrainian government engage in direct talks with Russia-backed separatists.
Feb 18, 10:52 am
Putin warns of ‘escalation’ in Donbas, urges Ukraine to negotiate with separatists
Russian President Vladimir Putin warned Friday that the situation in eastern Ukraine is escalating, amid fears Moscow is seeking a pretext to attack its ex-Soviet neighbor.
“Unfortunately, right now we are seeing, on the contrary, an escalation of the Donbas situation,” Putin said at a joint press conference in Moscow on Friday, following a meeting with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko.
Putin reiterated Russia’s demand that the Ukrainian government engage in direct talks with the Russia-backed separatists in Donbas, a breakaway region of southeastern Ukraine.
“All Kyiv has to do is sit down at the negotiating table with Donbas representatives and agree on the political, military, economic and humanitarian measures to end the conflict,” he said. “The sooner it happens the better.”
Russia has demanded for years that Kyiv negotiate with the separatists directly, but Ukraine has always refused because it views them as Kremlin puppets and it would legitimize Moscow’s false narrative that the ongoing conflict is exclusively a civil war and does not involve Russia.
Putin also stated that the United States and other members of NATO “are not disposed to properly accept” Russia’s key demands for security guarantees that Ukraine will never join NATO and that the military alliance pull its troops back from Eastern Europe. He said Moscow will not accept talking about the other proposals the U.S. has put forward without discussing these top requests.
“We are prepared to follow a negotiating track, on the condition that all aspects are considered in a package, not separately from Russia’s principal proposals, whose implementation is an unconditional priority for us,” he told reporters.
Putin also said he “paid no attention” to the reports in Western media of Feb. 16 being the alleged date of a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine that U.S. officials had given, calling it a “hoax.”
“I honestly just didn’t pay attention to it. There are plenty of hoaxes. Constantly reacting to them is more trouble than it’s worth,” he added. “We do whatever we see fit and will do so further down the road. Of course, we watch what is going on in the world and around us. But we have clear and comprehensible guidelines that correspond with the national interests of the people of Russia and the Russian state.”
Meanwhile, Lukashenko insisted that neither Belarus or Russia want a war and blamed the current tensions on the West. He said the massive joint military exercises currently being held in Belarus with Russia are directed at reinforcing their borders due to “growing military danger,” which he claimed was caused in part by Western countries “pumping Ukraine” with weapons.
“With the military danger growing on our borders and Ukraine being pumped with weapons, Belarus and Russia are forced to look for appropriate ways to repel potential attacks,” Lukashenko told reporters.
But the Belarusian leader also warned that, for the first time in decades, Europe is on the edge of a conflict that could “draw in almost the entire continent.”
“You see that it does not depend even on our neighbors, including Ukraine, anymore. It is also obvious to you who the exacerbation of tensions near our borders depends on,” Lukashenko said. “For the first time in decades, we have ended up on the verge of a conflict, which, unfortunately, is capable of drawing in almost the entire continent, like a vortex.”
“Today, we’re witnessing, in all its glory, irresponsibility and, forgive my frankness, the stupidity of a number of Western politicians,” he added, “and the behavior denying logic and reasonable explanations of the leaders of our neighboring states and their downright morbid desire to walk right on the edge.”
Feb 18, 9:55 am
Blinken: US ‘deeply concerned’ Russia ‘has embarked on’ wrong path
The United States is “deeply concerned” that Russia “has embarked on” the wrong path, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Friday.
Speaking to reporters at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, Blinken said Russia has deployed “additional forces” near neighboring Ukraine, “including leading edge forces that would be part of any aggression.” When asked about the reports of more shelling in eastern Ukraine, Blinken said it’s “part of a scenario that is already in play” for Moscow to claim a pretext for invasion.
“Even as we are doing everything we possibly can to make sure that this diplomatic path, that this has to resolved — differences have to be resolved through dialogue, through diplomacy,” Blinken told reporters, “we are deeply concerned that that is not the path that Russia has embarked on and that everything we’re seeing, including what you’ve described in the last 24 to 48 hours, is part of a scenario that is already in play of creating false provocations, of then having to respond to those provocations and then ultimately committing new aggression against Ukraine.”
Still, Blinken said he remains “hopeful” that the threat of sanctions and the supply of military aid to regional allies from the U.S. and others “will have an impact.”
Feb 18, 9:40 am
Russia-backed separatists announce mass evacuations
Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine have declared a mass evacuation of civilians, while accusing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of preparing to launch a full-scale invasion against the breakaway regions in the coming days.
Ukraine has immediately denied the claim, but the mass evacuation order is worrying as it raises the prospect the separatists may allege a Ukrainian offensive in the coming days that Russia would use as a pretext to attack its ex-Soviet neighbor.
Denis Pushilin, leader of the self-proclaimed People’s Republic of Donetsk in a breakaway region of southeastern Ukraine known as Donbas, delivered a public address to residents on Friday saying mass, centralized evacuations were now being organized, with women, children and the elderly going first.
Pushilin said the evacuation would be “temporary” and that Russia has agreed to provide evacuation centers in the neighboring Rostov region to house evacuees. The separatists’ leader also called on all able-bodied men to take up arms.
“I again appeal to all men able to hold a rifle in their hands, to come to the defense of their land,” Pushilin said in a televised address.
The announcement came amid a sharp escalation along the front line between Russia-backed separatist forces and Ukrainian government troops, with Ukraine accusing the separatists of unleashing a major bombardment in the past two days. Heavy firing has been reported since Thursday coming from the separatist areas, while the separatists have accused Ukrainian troops of firing on them.
-ABC News’ Patrick Reevell
Feb 18, 8:40 am
US envoy: Russia has up to 190,000 forces, including separatists, menacing Ukraine
The United States believes Russia now has “probably” as many as 190,000 troops, including Russian-backed separatists forces, according to a U.S. envoy, in and around Ukraine amid fears that Russian capabilities of a full-fledged invasion continue to grow.
“We assess that Russia probably has massed between 169,000 to 190,000 personnel in and near Ukraine as compared with about 100,000 on January 30,” Michael Carpenter, U.S. ambassador to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), said in a statement Friday. “This estimate includes military troops along the border, in Belarus, and in occupied Crimea; Russian National Guard and other internal security units deployed to these areas; and Russian-led forces in eastern Ukraine.”
Unlike this latest assessment, previous estimations by U.S. officials did not include separatist forces in eastern Ukraine.
“While Russia has sought to downplay or deceive the world about their ground and air preparations, the Russian military has publicized its large-scale naval exercises in the Black Sea, Baltic Sea and the Arctic,” Carpenter said. “Russia has publicly said the Black Sea exercise alone involves more than 30 ships, and we assess that amphibious landing ships from the Northern and Baltic Fleets were sent to the Black Sea to augment forces there.”
The OSCE is a Cold War-era European security forum that has deployed a war monitor in eastern Ukraine for years and hosted talks on the current crisis with Russia. Its foundational documents have been used selectively by Moscow to paint Ukraine and NATO as a threat to Russia’s security, even as its envoy in Vienna has largely dismissed dialogue there.
Earlier this week, Ukraine requested an emergency OSCE meeting to demand Russia explain its massive military buildup after Moscow ignored Kyiv’s inquiry. Russia skipped Wednesday’s session just as it did Friday’s, where Carpenter delivered these remarks.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov told his country’s parliament Friday that they assess Russia has about 149,000 troops near their borders.
-ABC News Conor Finnegan and Cindy Smith
Feb 18, 7:45 am
US to sell Poland $6 billion of tanks, more military aid
The United States announced Friday its plans to sell $6 billion of new military aid to Poland, amid the threat of war between neighboring Ukraine and Russia.
The proposed sale includes 250 Abrams main battle tanks, 250 short-range jamming systems that counter improvised explosive devices, 26 combat recovery vehicles, nearly 800 machines guns and much more, according to a press release from the U.S. Department of State.
The announcement came as U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin met with his Polish counterpart in Warsaw to discuss concerns regarding the massive buildup of Russian troops near Ukraine, which U.S. and NATO officials say position Moscow for an imminent invasion. Poland is a key eastern European ally to the U.S. and a fellow member of NATO.
“Some of those forces [are] within 200 miles of the Polish border,” Austin said during a joint press conference in the Polish capital on Friday. “If Russia further invades Ukraine, Poland could see tens of thousands of displaced Ukrainians and others flowing across its border, trying to save themselves and their families from the scourge of war.”
Austin said the U.S. now has an additional 4,700 troops in Poland “who are prepared to respond to a range of contingencies.”
“They will work closely with our State Department and with Polish authorities should there be any need to help American citizens leave Ukraine,” he added.
The planned sale of more military aid to Poland “will support the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping to improve the security of a NATO Ally that is a force for political stability and economic progress in Europe,” according to the State Department.
“The proposed sale will improve Poland’s capability to meet current and future threats by providing a credible force that is capable of deterring adversaries and participating in NATO operations,” the State Department said in a statement Friday. “Poland will have no difficulty absorbing this equipment into its armed forces.”
-ABC News’ Conor Finnegan
Feb 18, 6:21 am
Kremlin expresses concern about escalation in Donbas
Russia is concerned about the ongoing escalation of tensions in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine and believes the events unfolding there post a major potential threat, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Friday.
“What is happening in Donbas is very disquieting news, which provokes concern,” Peskov told reporters during a daily call. “It is potentially very dangerous.”
When asked how Putin has been sleeping amid the rising tensions, Peskov said: “Equally well.” He then added after a brief pause: “But with one eye open.”
-ABC News’ Anastasia Bagaeva
Feb 18, 5:56 am
Putin to oversee massive nuclear drills on Saturday
Russian President Vladimir Putin will personally oversee massive drills of his country’s strategic nuclear forces on Saturday, including test launches of ballistic and cruise missiles, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced Friday.
The defense ministry said in a statement that the drills were “planned” as part of large-scale military exercises currently taking place across Russia. Saturday’s drills are meant to check “the preparedness of military commands and crews of missile systems, warships and strategic bombers to accomplish their missions and at verifying the reliability of weapons of strategic nuclear and conventional forces,” according to the defense ministry.
“The exercise will involve forces and hardware belonging to the Aerospace Forces, the Southern Military District, the Strategic Missile Forces, the Northern Fleet, and the Black Sea Fleet,” the defense ministry said.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin will be at the defense ministry’s Situational Center during the drills Saturday and that Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko might join him.
“Even test launches of this type are impossible without the head of state,” Peskov told reporters during a daily call Friday. “You all know about his famed ‘black briefcase,’ ‘the red button’ and so on.”
Peskov said the drills shouldn’t cause concern among other countries because they were notified of the upcoming exercises in advance.
When asked whether such drills could exacerbate tensions, Peskov replied: “Exercises and training launches of ballistic missiles are quite a regular training process. It is preceded by a whole series of notifications forwarded to different countries via various channels. All this is precisely regulated and no one has any questions or concerns.”
The drills will also coincide with the finale of the major joint military exercises in neighboring Belarus.
U.S. military officials have previously warned that Russia could conduct these drills now, saying the timing might be in order to signal to the West not to interfere in the event of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.
It’s also another opportunity for posturing as Putin has done many times before, placing himself at the end of demonstrations of military might. In recent years he has repeatedly hailed a range of new Russian nuclear super weapons, including a nuclear-powered cruise missile and hypersonic weapons.
-ABC News’ Anastasia Bagaeva and Patrick Reevell
Feb 18, 4:25 am
Lukashenko to meet Putin in Moscow
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko will meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Friday, as their countries continue to hold massive joint military exercises that Western countries fear could be used to cover up preparations for a possible invasion of neighboring Ukraine.
While Russia and Belarus have said that Russian troops will leave after the drills conclude Sunday, the United States remains concerned they may stay.
Earlier this week, Lukashenko indicated that he and Putin would decide at their meeting Friday how long Russian troops would stay in Belarus. Video released by Belarusian state media showed the authoritarian leader arriving at Moscow’s airport Friday morning.
Russia has moved an unprecedented number of troops into Belarus as part of its wider military build-up near Ukraine. There is an estimated 30,000 Russian troops in Belarus, which is only a few hours drive north of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv.
Concerns have been heightened because Russia has moved most of the troops from its Eastern Military District in Russia’s Far East, some 6,000 miles away. Among them are many units required for an offensive, including long range artillery, fighter bombers, attack helicopters and airborne troops.
-ABC News’ Patrick Reevell
Feb 17, 9:28 pm
Biden to host meeting of allied leaders Friday: Canada PM’s office
President Joe Biden will host a closed-door meeting on Ukraine Friday with several U.S. allies, according to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s office.
The leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania, the UK, the EU and NATO will participate in the meeting, Trudeau’s office said while sharing the prime minister’s Friday iterinary.
A White House official confirmed to ABC News that Biden will have a phone call Friday afternoon with transatlantic leaders “about Russia’s buildup of military troops on the border of Ukraine and our continued efforts to pursue deterrence and diplomacy.”
Also on Friday, Vice President Kamala Harris is scheduled to meet with NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and hold a meeting with the leaders of the Baltic states of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, as she travels to Germany for the annual Munich Security Conference, the White House said.
(NEW YORK) — The bridge that connects Hidalgo, Texas, to Reynosa, Mexico, has become a path of uncertainty and fear for thousands of families in search of opportunity.
Amid ongoing ambiguity over the U.S.’s immigration policies, an encampment of migrants has swelled to about 2,200 over the past year, according to estimates from nonprofits working in the area. The sea of tents is about a block away from the international bridge in the northern Mexican city of Reynosa.
Jessica Leon, a mother from El Salvador who has been in Reynosa for seven months with her young children, told ABC News that life in the camp is “dangerous” and “difficult.”
“We’re exposed to a lot of danger here — like the cartels, for example. Here, anyone can come in at any time. We’re extremely vulnerable to many dangers,” she said.
“I’m waiting for asylum, and we have been waiting for a long time. And when you don’t see results, you feel desperation,” Leon added.
As the families cope with difficult living conditions, the fate of their journeys partly depends on how long the Biden administration continues using Title 42, a policy beefed up by the Trump Administration during the pandemic. It allows U.S. Customs and Border Protection to expel thousands of migrants amid the COVID-19 pandemic without giving them a chance to apply for asylum within the United States.
Title 42 refers to a clause of the 1944 Public Health Services Law that allows the government to prevent migrants from entering the U.S. during public health emergencies; however, advocates challenging the Administration’s use of the order in court have argued that U.S. law does not allow the government to expel individuals seeking asylum without due process.
Customs and Border Protection encountered 1.7 million people at the U.S.-Mexico border in 2021, according to data released by the agency last month — the highest ever over the span of a year. About 1.2 million of those encountered were expelled under Title 42, CBP said.
.@ABCMireya speaks exclusively to U.S. border patrol chief who is preparing his officers for a possible shift in policies, as migrant families continue to be in limbo in Mexico. “I don’t have enough agents, I know I don’t have enough equipment,” he says. https://t.co/x8J07soSZRpic.twitter.com/RHhwEhUfN1
U.S. Border Patrol Chief Raul Ortiz spoke exclusively with ABC News Correspondent Mireya Villarreal about the growing issues along the border. While he acknowledges Title 42 is a tool they’d like to keep using, his agency is preparing for it to eventually go away.
“We know it’s not going to last forever as the health pandemic starts to wane… that we may not have Title 42 forever,” Ortiz said. “So we have to make adjustments to be able to prepare for that. And so what I’m doing is making sure I have processing coordinators that can fulfill some of those duties and responsibilities and then making sure our agents are safe.”
“You know, one point I had two, three thousand agents in a quarantine status almost every day,” he added. “Right now, I may have two or three hundred in a quarantine status. So we’re doing better at protecting ourselves. And I think that’s some of those things that have to happen for us to be successful.”
Chief Ortiz said he recognizes morale is waning and regularly reminds agents not to get caught up in policy talks.
“I know I don’t have enough agents, I know I don’t have enough equipment, and then I know I need to close some gates and gaps. That would put us in a better position for success,” he added.
Title 42 was ramped up during the pandemic by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In a statement to ABC News, CDC representatives said every 60 days the agency reviews “the status of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated public health risks.”
The latest assessment completed at the end of January determined that the use of Title 42 remains “in effect,” the CDC said, citing the impact of the pandemic and a “surge in cases and hospitalizations since December due to the highly transmissible Omicron variant.”
Back across the border in Reynosa, Mexico, Felicia Rangel-Samponaro, director of The Sidewalk School, an American nonprofit organization that runs solely on donations, told ABC News that the school “had to grow at a very rapid pace” to accommodate a rise in children asylum seekers from various countries.
The organization provides clothing and food to families who lack resources and live in conditions that make it exceedingly difficult to cook.
Rangel-Samponaro said that she has watched the encampment grow each day as the numbers of migrants swelled and said that the problem “never stopped” under the Biden administration.
“There are no white asylum seekers in this camp, and that’s what people should be asking. Why is it different for white asylum seekers? Why is it only brown and black people you see living in dirt 24-7, now for almost a year?” she said.
A few miles away, pastor Hector Silva runs The Senda De Vida Shelter — a part of the Senda De Vida Ministry House, which has been providing support for migrant families for more than two decades.
Silva said that most of the families who cross the border return after they run out of money and the shelter provides them with food and clothing as they cope with a life in limbo.
Jessica Leon has a brother living in Houston, Texas, and hopes to give her children a “good future” in the U.S. because in El Salvador they struggled with poverty and a lack of employment opportunities.
Leon said that she and her children live in a tent with one mattress that her children share, while she sleeps on the floor.
“For love and to realize our dreams, we endure, but it’s very difficult,” she said.
Next week, the Biden administration plans to begin processing and admitting migrants forced to wait in Mexico under the Trump administration’s “Migrant Protection Protocols,” three administration officials told ABC News.
The Biden administration is currently locked in a legal battle with a coalition of civil rights groups, led by the American Civil Liberties Union, over its use of Title 42.
The White House defended its use of the public health order in federal court as recently as last month, arguing that lifting it would lead to overcrowding at DHS facilities, and that an influx of migrants poses a public health risk.
Rangel-Samponaro said that migrants caught in limbo hope that changes in U.S. immigration policies will give them a chance for a new beginning.
“What you’re seeing is hope that Biden takes away Title 42, which he can at any second if he chooses to,” Rangel-Sampanaro said. Eliminating the use of Title 42 would give the migrants a chance to make a claim of asylum, he said.
And for families living in the encampment in Reynosa, the hope of a better future for their children keeps them going.
“Trust me, it’s hard, please keep us in mind because there are a lot of families suffering. The kids are the most vulnerable,” Leon said.
ABC News’ William Gallego, Luke Barr and Quinn Owen contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is warning consumers about potentially contaminated food, lipstick and other products from Family Dollar stores in six southern states following a major rodent infestation at one of its distribution centers.
Live rodents, dead rodents in “various stages of decay,” rodent feces and urine, “evidence of gnawing, nesting and rodent odors,” dead birds and bird droppings were found inside a Family Dollar distribution center in Arkansas during an inspection January, according to the FDA.
More than 1,100 dead rodents were recovered from the Arkansas distribution center following a fumigation around that time, according to the agency. There is evidence this has been a persisting issue at the facility for far longer, the FDA said.
A review of the company’s internal records showed more than 2,300 rodents were collected between March 29 and Sept. 17, 2021, according to the FDA.
“No one should be subjected to products stored in the kind of unacceptable conditions that we found in this Family Dollar distribution facility. These conditions appear to be violations of federal law that could put families’ health at risk,” Associate Commissioner for Regulatory Affairs, Judith McMeekin, said in a statement.
Rodent contamination may cause salmonella and infectious diseases, which may pose the greatest risk to infants, children, pregnant women, the elderly and immunocompromised people, the FDA said.
The FDA said products that originated from the distribution center were sold in over 400 Family Dollar stores in six states: Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri and Tennessee.
The products include “human foods (including dietary supplements (vitamin, herbal and mineral supplements), cosmetics (skin care products, baby oils, lipsticks, shampoos, baby wipes), animal foods (kibble, pet treats, wild bird seed), medical devices (feminine hygiene products, surgical masks, contact lens cleaning solutions, bandages, nasal care products) and over-the-counter (OTC) medications (pain medications, eye drops, dental products, antacids, other medications for both adults and children).”
Consumers are urged to not use any of these products if they were purchased after Jan. 1, 2021, and to contact the company regarding impacted products.
The FDA said it is working with Family Dollar to create a recall list and a website for more information.
(PARIS) — ABC News has learned that disgraced modeling agent and Jeffrey Epstein associate Jean Luc Brunel died by suicide in his prison cell Saturday night in Paris.
The Paris prosecutor’s office confirmed to ABC News that Brunel was found dead in his prison cell around 1:00 a.m. local time at La Sante Prison.
Jean Luc Brunel’s lawyers tell ABC News Brunel hung himself.
The prosecutor’s office declined to confirm those details of Brunel’s death.
In December 2020, Brunel was charged with rape of minors over the age of 15 and sexual harassment — a crime in France.
In a statement on their client’s death which was in French and sent to and translated by ABC News, Brunel’s lawyers said: “[Brunel’s] distress (despair) was the one of a 75-year-old man who was destroyed by the judicial-media lynching and we should question it. Our client firmly asserted he never abused any women. He made multiple efforts to prove it.”
“His decision was not led by a feeling of guilt but by a deep feeling of injustice,” Brunel’s attorneys Mathias Chichportich, Marianne Abgrall and Christophe Ingrain added.
A delegate from the Force Ouvriere Union for France’s Penitentiaries, Erwan Saoudi, further confirmed Brunel’s death.
Saoudi said the prison’s procedure are that prison guard conduct five check on prisoners every night. Saoudi said while there was no closed-circuit TV inside Brunel’s cell — video in prison corridors proves that prison guards did not miss any of these checks.
Saoudi said Brunel died by suicide just after the guard round [of checks] “which shows the strong will of Jean-Luc Brunel to kill himself.” Saoudi added that Brunel was not on suicide watch.
Brunel was initially arrested in Charles De Gaulle Airport in December 2020. According to Paris prosecutors, Brunel was initially held in a probe into the rape of minors and trafficking of minors for sexual exploitation in association with their probe into possible crimes committed by Epstein. Days later, Brunel was charged with rape of minors over the age of 15 and sexual harassment. Brunel maintained he was innocent.
In January 2021, Virginia Giuffre flew to Paris to provide testimony at a closed-door hearing on Brunel’s detention.
Giuffre, in the same court filing in 2014 in which she first accused Prince Andrew of sexually assaulting her, claimed to have been trafficked by Epstein and his girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell to Brunel.
“The suicide of Jean Luc Brunel, who abused me and countless girls and young women, ends another chapter. I am disappointed that I was not able to face him in a final trial and hold him accountable for his actions, but gratified that I was able to face him in person last year in Paris, to keep him in prison,” Virginia Giuffre said in a statement issued though her lawyer, Sigrid McCawley.
Brunel had denied Giuffre’s allegations.
ABC News’ James Hill contributed to this report.
If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide or worried about a friend or loved one, help is available. Call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 [TALK] for free, confidential emotional support 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. You can also reach the Trevor Project at 1-866-488-7386 or the Crisis Text Line by texting “START” to 741741.
(NEW YORK) — It’s been two months since New York City opened the first-ever overdose prevention center (OPC) in the United States, and public health experts said the clinic is already saving lives.
OPCs are a form of harm reduction, which is a set of strategies to minimize the negative effects and consequences linked to drug use, and “keeping people who use drugs alive and as healthy as possible,” according to the U.S. government’s Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.
In this case, OPCs are place where people can use drugs in a setting with nurses or other clinical staff members present and who can help avert fatal overdoses.
As of Feb. 8, the center has served nearly 700 New Yorkers and intervened in 134 overdoses, according to OnPoint NYC, which staffs the site.
Critics said OPCs are places that allow people to use drugs without attempting to help them get clean and that state and local governments are forced to pay for materials including crack pipes and meth pipes to feed people’s addictions.
But anti-drug war advocates and other experts said these centers are vital in reducing opioid deaths, destigmatizing drug misuse and connecting people to resources for their substance abuse — all in a safe environment.
“We are now creating safe spaces for people to use that are not — they’re no longer feeling criminalized,” Emily Kaltenbach, the senior director of criminal legal & policing reform at the Drug Policy Alliance, a non-profit seeking to reduce the harms of drug use, told ABC News. “People can come and feel safe to use. They’re no longer using in alleys or by themselves.”
She said OPCs prevent drug users from other harmful behaviors that could increase their risk of death, such as taking contaminated drugs or injecting with dirty or shared syringes. Staff can also administer naloxone, a medication to reverse overdoses.
“In these centers, there’s immediate access to life-saving, overdose prevention interventions there,” Kaltenbach said. “People are not sharing syringes, for example. So, the prevention of the spread of diseases by reducing HIV and hepatitis C is huge.”
OPCs also traditionally have connections to services such as mental health therapy, drug treatment programs and housing.
“This is a step forward in making, in really treating drug use as a health issue and not as a criminal issue,” Kaltenbach added.
It comes as the nation hit its most sobering milestone in the ongoing opioid epidemic.
According to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than 100,000 Americans died of drug overdoses between May 2020 and April 2021.
This means roughly 1,923 people died of drug overdoses every week.
Of the total deaths, about 75,000 were due to opioids, including oxycodone and hydrocodone, and synthetic opioids such as fentanyl — most of which is trafficked into the U.S. through China — according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
The problem is widespread across the United States, including in New York City, according to Dr. Dave Chokshi, commissioner of the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene:
“In the year 2020, over 2,000 New Yorkers died of an overdose,” he told ABC News. “That means every four hours, a New Yorker died of an overdose and the total number is more than deaths due to homicides, suicides and motor vehicle crashes combined. So this is a five-alarm fire in public health.”
There are currently two sites in the city, one each in the Manhattan neighborhoods of East Harlem and Washington Heights, and are staffed by OnPoint NYC, which merged from non-profits New York Harm Reduction Educators and Washington Heights Corner Project.
“We are humanizing and giving hope to people that far too often society sees as disposable and defines them by their mistakes,” Sam Rivers, Executive Director of OnPoint NYC, told ABC News in a statement.
OPCs are not without their critics, which argue the centers enable drug users, who will just die of overdoses in other settings.
Dr. David Murray, co-director for the Center for Substance Abuse Policy Research at the Hudson Institute in Washington, D.C., said illicit drug users will take drugs “beyond the facility borders.”
“Not uncommonly, drug users inject multiple times a day, and … the consumption site simply becomes one more place in which to consume drugs, providing for only a fraction of an addict’s aggregate exposure,” he wrote in a column for the Hudson Institute in August 2020.
But Kaltenbach and others say OPCs reduce the amount and frequency that people use drugs and reduce public disorder and public injection while increasing public safety.
At Insite Supervised Injection Site, the first overdose prevention facility in North America, which began operating in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, in 2003, one study found that the fatal overdose rate in the area around the site fell by 35% after it opened.
Additionally, the programs help increase entry into substance use disorder treatment programs, according to Kallenach. Another study found that more than half of users at Insite entered addiction treatment within two years.
There are currently 120 OPCs operating in ten countries around the world, and the Drug Policy Alliance says there has not been a single overdose fatality at any OPC.
“No one is claiming that they are a silver bullet for all of what we’re seeing with respect to the overdose crisis or the broader set of issues surrounding drug use,” Chokshi said. “For that, it involves investments like the ones that we have made in New York City around lowering barriers to accessing treatment … investing in syringe service programs so that people have access, not just to safe and clean supplies, but also all of the wraparound services, whether it’s housing or job placement, or food and medical care, basic human needs, that are provided in those programs.”
