(NEW YORK) — Before the cherry trees bloom this spring with their beautiful pink petals, one beloved sparkling beverage has a new product inspired by the blossoms.
LaCroix announced Monday its newest flavor Cherry Blossom will hit shelves at select retailers next month.
“LaCroix is all about unique flavor, good health and love! We can think of no better time to announce this innovative new flavor than on Valentine’s Day,” the company said in a press release. “Cherry Blossom is a botanical twist of sweet and just a ‘kiss’ of tart, the dazzling taste of blossoming Spring!”
The brand said the blossom represents “freshness, splendor and delicate beauty” and the new LaCroix flavor will evoke a similar fragrance and “calming essence of this brilliant flower” to convey the taste of spring.
(NEW YORK) — It was a wild weekend along the East Coast, which had record high temperatures on Saturday and then up to a half-foot of snow in some areas on Sunday.
Bitter cold followed the snow to the region Monday where wind chills reached the single digits and even below zero for parts of the Northeast.
The freezing temperatures will last into Tuesday and then things will begin to warm up.
By mid-week, the attention will turn to a new storm moving from the west, with severe weather possible in the South from Texas Louisiana.
Damaging winds, hail and a few tornadoes are possible on Wednesday into Thursday from Dallas to Birmingham, Alabama. To the north, an icy mix of sleet and freezing rain is expected from Oklahoma to Indiana as well.
Snow is expected from Colorado to Michigan, which had up to a foot of snow already this week.
(NEW YORK) — An unruly passenger attempted to enter the cockpit of an American Airlines plane on Sunday, forcing the scheduled flight from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., to divert to Kansas City, the airline said.
“He’s trying to get in the cockpit,” the pilot told air traffic controllers. “We’ve got four passengers now trying to contain this gentleman.”
According to accounts from those on board, passengers held the man and eventually a flight attendant used a coffee pot to subdue him as the plane descended.
“We have two armed people on board that are securing him right now,” the pilot explained.
American Airlines said in a statement that “the flight landed safely at MCI at 2:28 p.m. local time, and law enforcement was requested to meet the flight on arrival.”
“We’re grateful to our crew members, who are consistently dedicated to the safety and care of our customers and who handled the circumstances with the utmost skill and professionalism,” the airline added.
The FBI in Kansas City confirmed the man had been taken into custody, but was unable to comment further due to the “ongoing matter.”
Authorities have not released his identity.
Sunday’s incident is just the latest in a troubling spike of unruly passenger cases with airlines reporting a staggering 6,375 reports of misconduct to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) since January 2021.
The agency is still enforcing its zero-tolerance policy for in-flight disruptions which could lead to fines as high as $52,500 and up to 20 years in prison.
In November, the FAA revealed some unruly passengers could start to face criminal prosecution after establishing an information-sharing protocol with the Department of Justice.
(WASHINGTON) — The State Department has escalated its warning to U.S. citizens in Belarus, where thousands of Russian troops have massed for menacing military exercises — now urging them to leave the country “immediately.”
The stark new warning comes as U.S. officials fear a possible Russian attack on neighboring Ukraine could unfold in the coming days, prompting the State Department to shutter its embassy facility in the capital Kyiv and relocate them to the western city Lviv.
Belarus and Russia launched military exercises Thursday, bringing thousands of Russian troops and advanced weaponry and equipment to the landlocked country that borders both Russia and Ukraine. Its strongman leader, Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, has drawn increasingly closer to Russian President Vladimir Putin after cracking down on political opposition, fomenting a migrant crisis in Europe and facing tough Western sanctions.
The State Department had already urged American citizens “do not travel to Belarus” because of that domestic crackdown and the risk of “arbitrary enforcement of laws” and detention, as well as COVID-19.
But in a new advisory Monday evening, it added a warning about the “unusual and concerning Russian military buildup along Belarus’ border with Ukraine” and added, “U.S. citizens in Belarus should depart immediately via commercial or private means.”
The “situation is unpredictable, and there is heightened tension in the region,” the advisory states, mirroring the increasingly urgent tone from the U.S. embassy in Ukraine, which urged Americans on Saturday to “depart immediately” as well.
The warning also noted, “The U.S. government’s ability to provide routine or emergency services to U.S. citizens in Belarus is already severely limited due to Belarusian government limitations on U.S. Embassy staffing.”
The embassy in Minsk, the capital of Belarus, had previously ordered the departure of family members on Jan. 31, with a very small group of U.S. diplomats still in the country.
In addition, the State Department is urging Americans to “depart immediately” from Transnistria, which is part of Moldova — the landlocked country on Ukraine’s southwestern border.
The urgent warning doesn’t apply to the entire country, but just to Transnistria, an unrecognized breakaway region where Russia has stationed troops against the Moldovan government’s will as “peacekeepers,” similar to Russian troops in two disputed regions of Georgia, the small former Soviet republic.
Like Belarus, Moldova had been on the State Department’s Level 4: “Do Not Travel” list because of COVID-19, but now in its new advisory, it warns of the “unusual and concerning Russian military activity around Ukraine, and the unresolved conflict between the breakaway region of Transnistria and the central government; U.S. citizens in Transnistria should depart immediately.”
U.S. officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken, have repeatedly referenced Transnistria during the current crisis as another example of Russia’s aggression in the region in recent years, along with Georgia and Ukraine.
Ukrainian officials went even further last month. Its defense intelligence agency said it had evidence that Russia was planning a false flag provocation against its own soldiers in Transnistria to justify an invasion of Ukraine — an accusation the Russian government denied.
The Biden administration has said it will not use the U.S. military to help evacuate American citizens if war breaks out in the region — with the memory of Afghanistan hanging over them. That historic, chaotic operation ultimately evacuated some 124,000 people, but the State Department has made clear it was not a precedent.
Instead, the U.S. has used increasingly dire warnings to private Americans in Ukraine, and now Belarus and Transnistria, to leave now while commercial flight options or land border crossings are available.
(NEW YORK) — The United States is warning that Russia could invade Ukraine “any day” amid escalating tensions in the region.
As many as 150,000 Russian troops are estimated to be massed near Ukraine’s borders and U.S. officials have urged all Americans to leave the country.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced Monday that the country was shuttering its embassy in Kyiv and “temporarily” relocating the small group of diplomats left in Ukraine to the western city of Lviv, citing the “rapid acceleration in the buildup of Russian forces.”
But Ukrainian officials have said they do not see signs of a Russian attack as soon as Wednesday — the date reportedly given to NATO allies — and called for a day of unity instead.
Russia has demanded the U.S. and NATO bar Ukraine from joining the military alliance and pull back troops from Eastern European member states, while denying it has plans to invade Ukraine.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Feb 15, 5:41 am
Ukraine reacts to Russia announcing withdrawal: ‘We’ll believe it when we see it’
Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba reacted to Russia’s announcement Tuesday that it is withdrawing some troops from the border, saying his country will “believe it when we see it.”
“There are constantly various statements coming from the Russian Federation, so we have a rule: we’ll believe it when we see it,” Kuleba said during a televised briefing Tuesday. “When we see the withdrawal, we’ll believe in de-escalation.”
Feb 15, 5:25 am
Russia says some troops will return to base
Some Russian troops positioned near the border with Ukraine will begin returning to their bases Tuesday after completing “exercises,” according to the Russian Ministry of Defense.
The units set to return are from Russia’s Southern and Western Military Districts, the defense ministry said Tuesday. But there are troops from other military districts massed on the border. Still, if some troops do pull back, it would potentially be a key signal that the crisis with Ukraine will not escalate.
Russian state media then released video purportedly showing tank troops loading up in neighboring Belarus to return home as well as tanks in southwestern Russia moving back. A spokesperson for Russia’s Southern Military District told state media Tuesday that some personnel have begun leaving Crimea for their permanent bases following the completion of drills.
In 2014, Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and established two federal subjects there, the Republic of Crimea and the federal city of Sevastopol. But the international community still recognizes the territories as being part of Ukraine.
Russian Minister of Defense Sergey Shoygu told Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday that the military exercises would end “in the near future.” There are still drills being conducted in neighboring Belarus as well as the Black Sea that are due to end Feb. 20.
Maria Zakharova, spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said in a post on her official Facebook page on Tuesday that Feb. 15 “will go down in history as the day the Western propoganda war failed.”
“Disgraced and destroyed without a single shot fired,” Zakharova added.
Feb 15, 4:29 am
White House warns invasion could start ‘at any time’
While the United States believes a path of diplomacy remains “open” to Russia, a White House official warned that a Russian invasion of Ukraine “could begin at any time.”
Answering a question from ABC News’ Cecilia Vega during a press briefing Monday, White House Principal Deputy Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the U.S. government is so far seeing “more and more” Russian troops arrive on the border with Ukraine.
“In the past 10 days or so, when you look at what is happening at the border of Ukraine, there, we are seeing more than 100,000 troops there and it’s just been an every day more and more troops,” Jean-Pierre said.
“So we are certainly open to having conversations and seeing a de-escalation,” she added. “That door is open for diplomacy and this is up to President Putin. He has to make that decision. It is his decision to make on which direction he wants to take this.”
Jean-Pierre noted that “it remains unclear which path Russia will choose to take.”
When asked about the imminency of the situation, she said: “We are in the window when an invasion could begin at any time.”
“I’m not going to comment on the intelligence information,” she added, “except to say that it could begin this week.”
(NEW YORK) — A federal judge in New York said on Monday that he will dismiss former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin’s libel suit against the New York Times, but only after the jury now deliberating returns a verdict.
Deliberations in the case in U.S. District Court in Manhattan began late Friday and continued Monday.
Without the jury present in court, Judge Jed Rakoff told the attorneys in the trial that he has decided to dismiss the case because Palin had not met the high standard of showing that The Times had acted with actual malice when it published an erroneous editorial that erroneously linked Palin’s political action committee to a mass shooting.
In explaining his decision to dismiss the case, Rakoff said the inevitable appeal would benefit from knowing how the jury deliberations turned out.
Palin, 58, sued The Times in 2017, roughly nine years after she was tapped to be Sen. John McCain’s GOP vice presidential nominee, claiming the newspaper deliberately ruined her burgeoning career as a political commentator and consultant by publishing an erroneous editorial that defamed her.
The editorial that prompted the lawsuit was published just days after a gunman opened fire on GOP politicians practicing for a congressional charity baseball game in a Washington, D.C., suburb, injuring six, including Republican Rep. Steve Scalise.
The Times’ editorial board wrote on June 14, 2017, that prior to the 2011 Arizona mass shooting that killed six people and left then-Arizona Rep. Gabby Giffords with a traumatic brain injury, Palin’s political action committee had fueled a violent atmosphere by circulating a map that put the electoral districts of Giffords and 19 other Democrats under stylized crosshairs.
Two days later, The Times published a correction saying the editorial had “incorrectly described” the map and “incorrectly stated that a link existed between political rhetoric and the 2011 shooting.”
During the trial in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Palin portrayed herself as the biblical David going up against the Philistine giant Goliath with just a slingshot. Palin, in her testimony, accused The Times of deliberately fabricating lies to sully her reputation.
“It was devastating to read a false accusation that I had anything to do with murder,” Palin testified. “I felt powerless — that I was up against Goliath. The people were David. I was David.”
During the trial, which was delayed for several days due to Palin testing positive for COVID-19, The Times former editorial page editor, James Bennet, testified that while he was responsible for the erroneous information in the editorial, it was an honest mistake and that he meant no harm.
“I’ve regretted it pretty much every day since,” testified Bennet, who resigned from his job in June 2020 over publishing a highly criticized op-ed by U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, advocating a military response to civic unrest in American cities.
The jury in Palin’s case was instructed to decide whether Bennet acted with “actual malice” or with “reckless disregard for the truth” when he inserted the disputed information into the editorial.
In his closing argument, The Times lawyer David Axelrod told the jury the case was “incredibly important because it’s about freedom of the press.”
Axelrod said the First Amendment protects journalists “who make an honest mistake” when they write about a person like Sarah Palin.
“That’s all this was about — an honest mistake,” said Axelrod, adding that Palin’s lawsuit made no claims that she was deprived of income because of the editorial.
(BRUNSWICK, Ga.) — A jury was seated and opening statements got underway Monday in the federal hate crimes trial of three white Georgia men stemming from the murder of Ahmaud Arbery a 25-year-old Black man who was out for a jog in 2020 when he was chased and gunned down.
The 16 jurors, including four alternates, were empaneled on Monday morning following a lengthy selection process that started on Feb. 7. The jury is comprised of eight whites, three Blacks and one Hispanic. Alternates are three white members and one Pacific Islander.
Opening statements in the high profile case against 64-year-old retired police officer Gregory McMichael, his 36-year-old son Travis McMichael and their neighbor William “Roddie” Bryan, 52, commenced on Monday afternoon.
Prosecutor Bobbi Bernstein began her presentation by apologizing to the jury for having to read to them racial slurs and descriptions she said Travis McMichael used in text messages and on social media to describe Black people. Bernstein told the jury they will hear evidence that all three men used racially-charged language when discussing Black people in private.
Bernstein also said she will present evidence that Bryan told investigators that after Travis McMichael shot Arbery he allegedly heard him yell a racist epithet at the victim as he lay dying on the pavement, evidence that was excluded from the defendants’ state trial in which they were all convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison.
Bernstein told the panel that while it is not illegal to use racial slurs, “these slurs can provide you with evidence as to why a defendant did what he did.”
She told the jurors that if Arbery had been white, “he would have been home in time for Sunday dinner.” Instead, she said, Arbery spent his last moments of life “bleeding to death, alone and scared in the middle of the street.”
Defense attorney Amy Lee Copeland attempted to distance herself from her client, Travis McMichael, conceding in her opening statement that the younger McMichael left a digital footprint of using “words that I don’t use and has opinions I don’t share.”
“But these words are not a crime,” Copeland said.
Gregory McMichael’s attorney, A.J. Balbo, said his client was not “an angel,” but was also not a racist. Balbo said Arbery was not followed because he was a Black man, but because he was “the man” the McMichaels recognized in security videos trespassing at a neighbor’s home that was under construction.”
“The killing of Ahmaud Arbery was a tragic and horrible event that didn’t need to happen and could have been prevented in so many ways,” Balbo told the jury.
Bryan’s attorney, Pete Theodocion, painted his client as someone who doesn’t look at people through a racial prism, saying there is no excuse for racism. He asked the jury not to look at evidence against the other defendants and use it against Bryan.
The trial in U.S. District Court in Brunswick, Georgia, is expected to last seven to 10 days.
All three men are charged with one count of interference with Arbery’s civil rights and with one count of attempted kidnapping. The McMichaels were also charged with one count each of using, carrying, and brandishing a firearm, and Travis McMichael faces an additional count of discharging a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.
If convicted, the men face a maximum sentence of life in prison.
The McMichaels and Bryan were convicted last year on state murder charges in Arbery’s death. They were all sentenced to life in prison.
Arbery was fatally shot after the McMichaels saw him jogging in their Satilla Shores neighborhood near Brunswick, Georgia. They said they assumed Arbery was a burglar, armed themselves and chased him in their pickup truck. The McMichaels’ neighbor, Bryan, joined the pursuit, blocking the victim’s escape path with his truck and recorded video on a cellphone of Travis McMichael fatally shooting Arbery three times with a shotgun during a struggle.
If convicted in the federal case, the men must first serve their state sentences before being transferred to federal prison.
In the now-defunct plea deal filed with the court on Jan. 30, Gregory and Travis McMichael agreed to plead guilty to count one of an indictment alleging they interfered with Arbery’s right to enjoy the use of a public road he was jogging on “because of Arbery’s race and color.”
In exchange for the guilty pleas, prosecutors were to dismiss the other charges and allow the McMichaels to serve the first 30 years of confinement in federal prison before being transferred back to the Georgia Department of Corrections to serve out the remainder of their state sentences.
The same plea agreement was not given to Bryan.
Judge Lisa Wood rejected the McMichaels’ plea deal after Arbery’s parents, Wanda Cooper-Jones and Marcus Arbery, strongly objected and claimed it was forged without their consent. Assistant U.S. Attorney General Kristen Clarke said in a statement that prosecutors were in constant communication with the Arbery family’s attorneys and had been assured the family would not object to the agreement.
Wood claimed she turned down the deal because it would have locked her into the three-decade federal prison sentence, saying she didn’t know if that was “the precise, fair sentence in this case.”
Following Wood’s decision, Gregory and Travis McMichael, who are being represented by court-appointed public defenders due to financial hardship, withdrew their guilty pleas and opted to go to trial.
(NEW YORK) — New York City began distributing free, at-home COVID-19 test kits across the five boroughs Monday.
Tests, made by the company Flowflex, will be available at 27 public library branches and 14 cultural landmarks including the American Museum of Natural History, the Brooklyn Children’s Museum and the Staten Island Zoo.
Across the city, there are 13 sites where tests can be picked up in Queens, 10 in Brooklyn, seven in Manhattan, six in the Bronx and five in Staten Island. More sites are expected to be added over the next few weeks.
“Our mission remains to make testing resources accessible for all New Yorkers to safely and confidently manage the pandemic,” Dr. Ted Long, executive director of the NYC Test & Trace Corps, said in a statement. “Distributing at-home tests at cultural sites and libraries provides familiar, prominent locations for people to pick up the resources they need to know if they have COVID-19 and to return to the beloved destinations that make our city so special.”
He continued, “I am grateful for our cultural and library partnerships and excited to see them lead New York City safely forward.”
Test & Trace will be delivering kits to the libraries and cultural sites once a week, and supplies are available on a first-come, first-served basis.
“We will have sent out over 350,000 tests by end of week. [Distribution] to each site varies, but we are confident that we can meet demand,” a spokesperson for NYC Health + Hospitals, which oversees Test & Trace, told ABC News in a statement.
Test kits are limited to one per person and, although distribution will be up to the individual site, Test & Trace is recommending one per day, the spokesperson added.
Test & Trace said its website will be updated daily with the hours and locations of sites where the tests are available.
The new program comes just two weeks after Mayor Eric Adams said the city will be offering free at-home, same-day delivery of COVID antiviral pills for those with mild to moderate symptoms.
The city is also pushing for more residents to get vaccinated. Over the weekend, Adams announced the return of cash incentives including a $100 gift card for anyone who gets their first dose or is boosted at a city-run or SOMOS Community Care site through the end of February.
The gift cards will be eligible for use through March 31.
(WASHINGTON) — On Monday’s fourth anniversary of the Stoneman Douglas High School mass shooting, during which his son was killed, Manuel Oliver climbed atop a construction crane near the White House and unfurled a banner calling on President Joe Biden to do more to get gun control legislation passed, according to news reports.
Photos showed a large banner depicting an image of his son, Joaquin Oliver, who was one of 17 victims in the shooting at the high school in Parkland, Florida, and read “45K PEOPLE DIED FROM GUN VIOLENCE ON YOUR WATCH.”
Oliver climbed down the crane with another individual at approximately 10 a.m., and was met by officers who escorted him into an ambulance in handcuffs for a brief moment before he was led away, ABC News affiliate WJLA-TV reported.
In a statement to ABC News, the Metropolitan Police Department said officers located and apprehended one individual on the 700 block of 15th St., NW at approximately 5:40 a.m.
“Two other individuals were located on a crane near the location. At approximately 10:06 am, the two individuals located on the crane were taken into custody as well. Preliminarily, three individuals were arrested from the scene,” the Metropolitan Police Department confirmed.
The Metropolitan Police Department did not release the identities of the individuals arrested, but WJLA identified Oliver.
In a statement marking the shooting’s anniversary, Biden said his administration stands with the Parkland families, “Americans in every corner of our country who have lost loved ones to gun violence or had their lives forever altered by a shooting” and “those working to end this epidemic of gun violence.”
“I have put forward a comprehensive plan to reduce gun crime that includes curbing the proliferation of ‘ghost’ guns, cracking down on gun dealers who willfully violate the law, issuing model extreme risk protection order legislation for states, and promoting safe firearm storage, among other efforts,” Biden wrote.
(WASHINGTON) — First Lady Jill Biden is spreading love — and offering a teaching moment to elementary school students — at the White House on Monday to mark Valentine’s Day.
For the second year in a row, the first lady delivered a valentine to the nation with a colorful heart-filled display on the White House North Lawn.
The decor, this year, features hand-painted wooden artwork in the shapes of the family’s first pets — new cat, Willow, and German Shepherd puppy, Commander.
A massive, wooden heart between the two pets is inscribed with Corinthians 13:13: “Three things will last forever — faith, hope, and love — and the greatest of these is love.”
The heart-shaped decorations also extend inside the White House to the East Wing, where the first lady has featured the “heart-work” of second-grade students in Washington whose teacher, Alejandro Diasgranados, was awarded teacher of the year for 2021.
According to the first lady’s office, the students were asked to incorporate words reflecting her values including “family,” “kindness,” and “peace” to guide their Valentine’s Day heart designs. Diasgranados and some of the 21 students that created the 42 paper hearts on display in the East Landing are scheduled to visit the White House on Monday to see their work.
Three large, red hearts reading “hope,” “healing” and “love” were also on display in the East Wing.
After spending the weekend at Camp David, President Joe Biden and the first lady returned to the White House earlier Monday morning holding hands as they walked into the residence. Biden did not answer questions but lowered his mask to tell reporters, “Happy Valentine’s Day.”
For the Bidens’ first Valentine’s Day in the White House, the first lady decorated the North Lawn with three giant, hand-painted hearts that read “hope,” “unity” and “love.”
