(NEW YORK) — A major winter storm is moving across the Heartland Wednesday, bringing snow from Denver to Chicago and ice as far south as Texas.
More than 1 foot of snow is expected from northern Missouri into Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan.
A winter storm warning has been issued in Chicago where 5 to 10 inches of snow is expected.
A winter storm warning was also issued in Denver where up to 6 inches of additional snow is forecast.
Denver schools are closed Wednesday due to the storm.
As of Tuesday night, 1,212 flights were already canceled for Wednesday due to the storm, with St. Louis, Chicago, Denver, Detroit and Kansas City seeing the biggest impacts.
In Missouri, Gov. Mike Parson has issued a state of emergency.
Further south, an ice storm warning has been issued from Memphis to Louisville, where the ice could be as thick as half an inch, sending trees toppling onto power lines.
A winter storm warning was also issued for Dallas where ice could make roads very dangerous.
The storm will then move into the Northeast Thursday night into Friday morning, bringing snow, sleet and freezing rain.
Over 1 foot of snow is possible in western Pennsylvania, upstate New York and parts of New England.
A winter storm watch has been issued for Boston, where residents are still digging out from last weekend’s massive snowstorm.
Dangerous ice accumulation is possible from Washington, D.C., to Philadelphia to New York City to Boston.
New York City will see rain on Thursday which will then change to freezing rain and some sleet on Friday morning. The National Weather Service warns that New York City Tristate region should be prepared for dangerous travel conditions on Friday.
Israel’s President Isaac Herzog speaks at al-Wasl Dome at Expo 2020 Dubai during Israel’s expo National Day in the gulf emirate on January 31, 2022. – KARIM SAHIB/AFP via Getty Images
(JERUSALEM)– While Israeli’s president Isaac Herzog was in Abu Dhabi on a historic visit on Monday, United Arab Emirates officials announced that a ballistic missile fired by Yemen’s Houthi rebels had been intercepted, the third such attack in three weeks.
Tensions between the two countries have escalated as the Iran-backed Houthis claimed responsibility for a Jan. 15 drone-and-missile attack on the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. fuel depot, killing three people and wounding six. It was the first deadly attack since 2018, when the UAE-backed forces were fighting the Houthis for control of the Red Sea port city of Hodeidah.
“The operation led to a large number of death and wounded, including Emiratis,” Yahya Sare’e, spokesman of the Houthis, tweeted on Tuesday.
A Saudi-led coalition retaliated the day after with an airstrike on Yemen, killing about 80 people.
In 2020, the UAE and Bahrain signed U.S.-brokered normalization agreements with Israel, known as the “Abraham Accords.” Iran and its regional allies, including the Houthis, were among their shared security concerns. Iran, meanwhile, denounced any normalization of relations with Israel.
“The Islamic republic of Iran not only condemns what some countries are doing aiming at normalization, but also believes that those countries should listen to awakening calls by their own people and stop sowing discord in the Muslim and Arab world. This will be much better for the region’s future,” spokesman of Iran’s foreign ministry Saeed Khatibzadeh said on Monday, according to the Tasnim News Agency.
Yemeni minister of information Dhaif Allah Al-Shami, also made clear his country’s similar stance.
“Every country has its own way of welcoming the leaders of the Zionist entity [Israel], and we in Yemen have only done our duty,” he said on Twitter.
Zakaria Al-Qaq, an expert in national security and war studies, told ABC News the Houthi attack on the UAE coinciding with the Israeli president’s visit had a clear message: “To stop the UAE intervention in Yemen.”
“Second, it’s not only a rejection to the Israel Emirates relation but also a threat to Yemeni National Security, because [of] the security coordination between the two countries,” he added.
Houthis have declared they would continue to fire rockets into the UAE.
“The armed forces affirm that the state of the Emirati enemy will be an unsafe as long as the tools of the Israeli enemy in Abu Dhabi and Dubai continue to launch aggression against our people and our country,” Sare’e wrote in another tweet.
The Houthi spokesman has also repeated threats, telling citizens, residents and companies in the UAE “to stay away from vital headquarters and facilities, as they are vulnerable to targeting during the coming period.”
People in the already war-worn Yemen have been going through a difficult humanitarian situation over the past years. The World Food Programme has warned that more than five million people are on the verge of famine, with 50,000 others now living in famine-like conditions.
The spate of recent attacks have helped raise crude oil prices above $90 per barrel, another worry for a global economy already struggling through the pandemic.
(ARLINGTON COUNTY, Va.) — Former Senate Republican Leader Bob Dole — a decorated World War II veteran and presidential candidate who served in Congress for 36 years — will be laid to rest with military honors on Wednesday at historic Arlington National Cemetery.
Dole died on Dec. 5, 2021, after announcing last February that he’d been diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer and was starting treatment.
Dole’s wife of 46 years, former Cabinet secretary and North Carolina Sen. Elizabeth Dole, and daughter, Robin, are expected to attend the invitation-only, graveside funeral with family members, close friends and former colleagues. Dole was given the rare honor to lie in state in the U.S. Capitol Rotunda late last year before his body was taken to his home state of Kansas for memorials and then back to Washington, where he’ll be laid to rest Wednesday afternoon alongside American war heroes.
Dole, a native of Russell, Kansas, served as an army officer in World War II and was severely wounded in action at age 21, left with permanent limited mobility in his right arm. Overcoming adversity, Dole went on to graduate law school, serve in the Kansas legislature, and represent his home state for four terms in the House of Representatives and five terms in the Senate, where he led the Republican Conference for more than a decade.
In Congress, he was an advocate for the rights of veterans and Americans with disabilities, spearheading the inclusion of protections against discrimination in employment, education and public services in the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990. Dole also served as national chairman of the World War II Memorial Campaign which raised funds for the World War II Memorial to be built on the National Mall.
He ran three times for president, ultimately winning the Republican party nomination in 1996 but losing the general election to Bill Clinton, who was seeking a second term. Months later, Clinton presented Dole with the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House.
In a USA Today op-ed he finished on pen and paper less than two weeks before his death, Dole wrote Congress needs teamwork now more than ever, writing, “Those who suggest that compromise is a sign of weakness misunderstand the fundamental strength of our democracy.”
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Wednesday will relaunch the federal government’s cancer “moonshot” initiative, with the goal of cutting the death rate from cancer in half over the next quarter-century, according to the White House.
The initiative is personal for Biden, who lost his son Beau to brain cancer in 2015 and who first launched the initiative as vice president.
After the Obama presidency, Biden and wife — and now first lady — Jill Biden founded a nonprofit foundation dedicated to finding a cure for cancer.
In 2016, Congress authorized $1.8 billion in funding for the initiative over seven years. There’s $410 million left for the next two fiscal years.
In addition to cutting today’s age-adjusted death rate from cancer by at least 50% over the next 25 years — after it has fallen by about 25% over the past 20 years — the initiative will aim to “improve the experience of people and their families living with and surviving cancer,” the White House said.
“Taken together, these actions will drive us toward ending cancer as we know it today,” the White House said.
On Wednesday, Biden and the first lady will also announce “a call to action on cancer screening to jumpstart progress on screenings that were missed as a result of the pandemic, and help ensure that everyone in the United States equitably benefits from the tools we have to prevent, detect and diagnose cancer,” according to the White House.
More than 9.5 million cancer screenings were missed in the U.S. because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the White House said.
But the pandemic has also led Biden to set “very ambitious goals,” a senior White House official told reporters Tuesday.
“The scientific advances that we saw from the COVID-19 pandemic, from the response to it, also points to things that are possible today,” the official said.
One example, according to the White House, is that the re-launched initiative will aim to “study and evaluate multi-cancer detection tests, like we did for COVID-19.”
The cancer “moonshot” initiative will have a coordinator in the White House, and the White House will form a “cancer cabinet” of officials from across the federal government. The initiative will involve the private sector, foundations, academic institutions and others, too.
Other goals, according to the White House, include increasing equitable access to screening and prevention — with at-home screening, mobile screening, and community health networks, as well as “accelerating efforts to nearly eliminate cervical cancer through screening and HPV vaccination, with a particular focus on reaching people who are most at risk.”
There will be a White House cancer “moonshot” summit, as well as a White House roundtable conversation series, they said.
On Wednesday, Biden will speak at an event in the White House’s East Room, joined by about 100 members of the cancer community — patients, survivors, researchers, advocates, caregivers, members of Congress and others — according to a senior administration official. The first lady and Vice President Kamala Harris (whose mother was a breast cancer researcher) will also make remarks, the official said.
(BRIDGEWATER, Va.) — A campus police officer and a campus safety officer were killed during a shooting at a Virginia college Tuesday afternoon after responding to reports of a “suspicious” person on campus, officials said.
Multiple agencies responded to Bridgewater College in Bridgewater following a report of an active shooter around 1:20 p.m. local time, school officials said.
The two officers were responding to a call of a “suspicious male individual” on the grounds of the college’s Memorial Hall, according to Virginia State Police spokesperson Corinne Geller. After a brief interaction, the suspect opened fire, striking both officers, she said.
The suspect fled on foot and was apprehended about a half-hour later off-campus, officials said. Officers followed the suspect after he waded into the North Rive, onto an island in the river, and he was taken into custody without incident, Geller said.
The two officers died from their injuries, Bridgewater spokesperson Logan Boger confirmed to ABC News. They were identified by the college’s president as Campus Police Officer John Painter and Campus Safety Officer J.J. Jefferson.
“Today our campus community experienced unspeakable tragedy. Two members of the Bridgewater College family were senselessly and violently taken from us,” Bridgewater College President David Bushman said in a statement.
“This is a sad and dark day for Bridgewater College. I know we all have so many questions and not many answers,” he said.
The officers were known as the “dynamic duo” and were close friends, Bushman said. Painter was Jefferson’s best man in his wedding this year, he said.
The suspect was identified by authorities as 27-year-old Alexander Wyatt Campbell, of Ashland, Virginia. He has been charged with felonies: 2 counts of capital murder, 1 count of first-degree murder and 1 count of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, according to Geller, and is being held without bond at the Rockingham County Jail.
Campbell was treated for a non-life-threatening gunshot wound, according to Geller. It is unclear if he was shot by Painter, who was the only one of the two officers armed, or if it was self-inflicted, she said.
Multiple firearms “associated with Campbell” were recovered on and off-campus and seized as evidence, Geller said.
Virginia State Police did not comment on Campbell’s relationship to the college, but Geller said several college employees called 911 after seeing the suspect in and around Memorial Hall. “He was not supposed to be in this particular location,” she said.
A motive is still under investigation, and Campbell is the lone suspect, police said. It is unclear if he has an attorney.
Bridgewater Mayor Ted Flory said the community is “shocked by today’s senseless violence.”
“We are heartbroken by the needless injuries and loss of life. And we are rightly angered at the evil which alighted upon us,” he said in a statement. “But even in our grief, we turn our heads and we see the goodness of humanity: police officers running toward the danger, rescue personnel rushing in, and neighbors keeping each other safe.”
Agencies including the Virginia State Police, the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office and the Harrisonburg Police Department responded to the college following reports of an active shooter. The FBI was also sending agents to the scene, according to a spokesperson.
By 4:33 p.m., the university gave an “all clear” message on its website.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin said in a statement on social media that he had been briefed on the situation and “will continue to monitor the situation in conjunction with law enforcement.”
Bridgewater, a small private liberal arts college, enrolled around 1,500 full-time students as of fall 2021.
Classes were canceled for Wednesday. School officials said they will provide information soon on grief counseling and other support.
The is a developing story. Check back for updates.
(LONDON) — Duchess Kateis taking over two patronages her brother-in-law Prince Harry relinquished when he and his wife, Duchess Meghan, stepped down from their senior royal roles.
Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, will become the patron of the Rugby Football League and the Rugby Football Union, Kensington Palace announced Wednesday.
“These new patronages, which have been given to The Duchess by Her Majesty The Queen, closely align with Her Royal Highness’ longstanding passion for sport and the lifelong benefits it can provide,” the palace said in a statement.
Rugby apparently played a large role in Kate’s upbringing in Berkshire, England, with her parents and two siblings. Kate, 40, is the wife of Prince William.
Kate’s sister, Pippa Middleton, told Vanity Fair in 2014, “Rugby was a big thing in our family. We’d plan our weekends around the matches.”
Kate’s new role as patron of the two rugby organizations comes two years after Harry and Meghan stepped down from their senior royal roles in 2020.
The couple, who now live in California with their two young children, agreed at the time to give up all their royal patronages.
The rugby patronages are the first of Harry’s to be redistributed to another member of the royal family. None of Meghan’s patronages have yet to be redistributed.
“Harry is a big rugby fan and the patronage was a natural fit for him,” said ABC News royal contributor Victoria Murphy. “I think it was pretty clear that he had wanted to retain those links when he stepped back.”
She added, “We’re now seeing the reality of Harry and Meghan having handed back their patronages is that things are moving on and the working royals are stepping into those roles and continuing the work.”
Both the Rugby Football League and the Rugby Football Union said they are honored to have Duchess Kate as their new patron.
“We look forward to working with The Duchess in the years to come, and I know all levels of our sport will welcome her to the Rugby League family,” Ralph Rimmer, chief executive of the Rugby Football League, the national governing body for Rugby League in the United Kingdom, said in a statement.
“The Duchess will be greatly valued from our grassroots clubs and fast-growing women and girls’ game, right up to our elite Men’s and Women’s England teams,” added Bill Sweeney, chief executive of the Rugby Football Union, the national governing body for grassroots and elite rugby union in England.
Kate, who played tennis, hockey and sailing as a kid, is also the royal patron of the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, the home of Wimbledon, a role she took over from Queen Elizabeth in 2016.
Her other sports-related patronages include SportsAid, a charity that helps young athletes, The Lawn Tennis Association and The 1851 Trust, an education charity that teaches kids about STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) through sailing.
(NEW YORK) — As the COVID-19 pandemic has swept the globe, more than 5.6 million people have died from the disease worldwide, including over 890,000 Americans, according to real-time data compiled by Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Systems Science and Engineering.
About 63.8% of the population in the United States is fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Feb 02, 5:44 am
COVID-19 vaccine mandate for schoolchildren takes effect in New Orleans
New Orleans has become one of the first major U.S. cities to mandate COVID-19 vaccination for eligible children ages 5 and up in order to attend school.
The requirement went into effect Tuesday, though families may claim an exemption for philosophical, religious or medical needs, according to New Orleans public school districts.
“We all know that vaccines are the best tool that we have at our disposal at this time to keep our children in the classroom so that they can learn so that they can grow with their teachers as well as their friends,” NOLA Public Schools Superintendent Henderson Lewis Jr. said during a press conference last December, when the mandate was announced.
A representative for NOLA Public Schools told ABC News that school officials will work to help students either complete their vaccination regimens or notify their schools that they are claiming an exemption. Students will not be removed or kicked out of class if they do not get vaccinated.
“The goal is not to deny educational opportunities to any child,” the representative said in a statement Tuesday evening. “But we need parents and families to let us know where they stand — either fully vaccinated, partly vaccinated, or exempt — so that our schools can better plan around potential quarantines and limit future disruptions to students’ schooling as this pandemic continues. The deadline is about encouraging our families to take a personal stake in helping to keep safe our entire school community.”
About 56% of 5 to 17 year olds in New Orleans have received their first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, while approximately 40% are fully vaccinated, according to the public school district. Beginning Tuesday, the Louisiana city will also require children ages 5 and up to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test to enter certain establishments.
-ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos
Feb 01, 5:02 pm
Pfizer asks for FDA authorization for vaccine for kids under 5
The FDA’s advisory committee will meet on Feb. 15 to review the Pfizer vaccine for use in children under the age of 5. The advisory committee is an independent group whose vote is nonbinding, but the FDA takes it into consideration when making a final decision.
The vaccine would still need to go through several other approvals before it can be used on children under the age of 5. It would need to be authorized by the FDA, then the CDC advisory committee would need to meet for recommendations and it would need to be approved by the CDC.
Pfizer and BioNTech said Tuesday they have initiated rolling submission for emergency use authorization for kids 6 months through 4 years old — at the request of the FDA. Pfizer and BioNTech said they’re submitted data for two doses but expect the vaccine to be a three-dose series, and that the data for the third dose will be provided in the coming months.
Feb 01, 3:57 pm
White House: Government has shipped 100 million free N95 masks
The federal government has shipped 100 million free N95 masks so far, according to the White House, after the Biden administration announced on Jan. 19 that it would provide 400 million free N95 masks to Americans.
-ABC News’ Ben Gittleson
Feb 01, 3:24 pm
Unvaccinated 23 times more likely to be hospitalized with omicron than those vaccinated, boosted
A new study from Los Angeles County’s health department estimates that during the city’s omicron surge, people who were unvaccinated were 3.6 times more likely to get COVID-19 and 23 times more likely to be hospitalized compared to people who were vaccinated and boosted.
The unvaccinated were 2 times more likely to get COVID-19 and 5.3 times more likely to be hospitalized compared to people who were vaccinated but not yet boosted, according to the study, which was published in the CDC’s weekly journal, MMWR.
(BRIDGEWATER, Va.) — A campus police officer and a campus safety officer were killed during a shooting at a Virginia college Tuesday afternoon after responding to reports of a “suspicious” person on campus, officials said.
Multiple agencies responded to Bridgewater College in Bridgewater following a report of an active shooter around 1:20 p.m. local time, school officials said.
The two officers were responding to a call of a “suspicious male individual” on the grounds of the college’s Memorial Hall, according to Virginia State Police spokesperson Corinne Geller. After a brief interaction, the suspect opened fire, striking both officers, she said.
The suspect fled on foot and was apprehended about a half-hour later off-campus, officials said. Officers followed the suspect after he waded into the North Rive, onto an island in the river, and he was taken into custody without incident, Geller said.
The two officers died from their injuries, Bridgewater spokesperson Logan Boger confirmed to ABC News. They were identified by the college’s president as Campus Police Officer John Painter and Campus Safety Officer J.J. Jefferson.
“Today our campus community experienced unspeakable tragedy. Two members of the Bridgewater College family were senselessly and violently taken from us,” Bridgewater College President David Bushman said in a statement.
“This is a sad and dark day for Bridgewater College. I know we all have so many questions and not many answers,” he said.
The officers were known as the “dynamic duo” and were close friends, Bushman said. Painter was Jefferson’s best man in his wedding this year, he said.
The suspect was identified by authorities as 27-year-old Alexander Wyatt Campbell, of Ashland, Virginia. He has been charged with felonies: 2 counts of capital murder, 1 count of first-degree murder and 1 count of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, according to Geller, and is being held without bond at the Rockingham County Jail.
Campbell was treated for a non-life-threatening gunshot wound, according to Geller. It is unclear if he was shot by Painter, who was the only one of the two officers armed, or if it was self-inflicted, she said.
Multiple firearms “associated with Campbell” were recovered on and off-campus and seized as evidence, Geller said.
Virginia State Police did not comment on Campbell’s relationship to the college, but Geller said several college employees called 911 after seeing the suspect in and around Memorial Hall. “He was not supposed to be in this particular location,” she said.
A motive is still under investigation, and Campbell is the lone suspect, police said. It is unclear if he has an attorney.
Bridgewater Mayor Ted Flory said the community is “shocked by today’s senseless violence.”
“We are heartbroken by the needless injuries and loss of life. And we are rightly angered at the evil which alighted upon us,” he said in a statement. “But even in our grief, we turn our heads and we see the goodness of humanity: police officers running toward the danger, rescue personnel rushing in, and neighbors keeping each other safe.”
Agencies including the Virginia State Police, the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office and the Harrisonburg Police Department responded to the college following reports of an active shooter. The FBI was also sending agents to the scene, according to a spokesperson.
By 4:33 p.m., the university gave an “all clear” message on its website.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin said in a statement on social media that he had been briefed on the situation and “will continue to monitor the situation in conjunction with law enforcement.”
Bridgewater, a small private liberal arts college, enrolled around 1,500 full-time students as of fall 2021.
Classes were canceled for Wednesday. School officials said they will provide information soon on grief counseling and other support.
The is a developing story. Check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — While President Joe Biden works to address the crisis over Russia menacing Ukraine, there is another critical one looming, with a senior State Department official telling reporters the “end game” is just weeks away.
Iran nuclear talks are scheduled to resume this week for their ninth round — with the U.S. and Iran still negotiating indirectly about both countries returning to the Obama-era nuclear deal that is in tatters.
This could be the final round before a deal is reached or the U.S. and its European allies call it quits — because after 10 months of negotiating with two different Iranian governments, the country’s nuclear program is advancing to the point of no return, the U.S. says.
“This can’t go on forever because of Iran’s nuclear advances. This is not a prediction. It’s not a threat. It’s not an artificial deadline. It’s just a requirement… Given the pace of Iran’s advances, its nuclear advances, we only have a handful of weeks left to get a deal — after which point it will unfortunately be no longer possible to return to the JCPOA and to recapture the nonproliferation benefits that the deal provided for us,” said the senior State Department official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity to discuss the talks using an acronym for the deal’s formal name, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
Some critics have said the U.S. should have called it quits long ago, with Iran enriching uranium up to 60% and enriching uranium metal, spinning more advanced centrifuges and more of them, and obstructing access for the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency. Nuclear weapons-grade uranium is enriched at 90%, while the nuclear deal capped Iran’s enrichment at 3.67% for 15 years.
With those steps, Iran is now a matter of weeks away from having enough fissile material to build a nuclear bomb, the official said. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and others have warned for a couple of weeks now that Iran is just a “few weeks” away from that critical threshold — although the senior State Department official said it would take some additional time to actually build a nuclear bomb, declining to provide a timeline for that.
“Do the math. There are many fewer weeks left now than there were when we first said it,” they added.
That puts the pressure on this new round of talks to reach a conclusion before time runs out. The Iranian delegation returned to Tehran after the eighth round broke up last Friday, just as chief U.S. negotiator Rob Malley returned to Washington.
Ahead of talks resuming, the senior State Department official said Biden remains ready to make that decision and return to compliance by lifting sanctions on Iran.
“Now is a time for political decisions. Now is the time to decide whether — for Iran to decide whether it’s prepared to make those decisions necessary for a mutual return to compliance,” they said.
But notably, they repeatedly took the occasion to bash the “prior administration’s catastrophic error” and “terrible mistake” of withdrawing from the deal — seeming to lay the groundwork for a blame game if talks blow up and Iran’s enrichment only grows.
Former President Donald Trump exited the deal in May 2019 and reimposed strong U.S. sanctions on Iran, driving down its oil exports and sparking tit-for-tat attacks across the Middle East region. His administration repeatedly said its campaign of “maximum pressure” would drive Iran to negotiate a new deal, but Iran refused to meet U.S. officials, even after Biden took office.
With talks expected to resume this week, according to Enrique Mora, the senior EU diplomat who coordinates the talks, one key sign to watch will be whether the U.S. and Iran finally engage directly. Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian expressed an openness to it last week if Iran sees a “good deal” in sight, but the senior State Department official said there’s no indication so far the Iranians will sit down. The U.S. has consistently said it’s prepared to meet directly, calling the indirect talks an impediment to reaching a deal so far.
If a deal isn’t reached soon, the U.S. is “ready” to “fortify our response, and that means more pressure — economic, diplomatic, and otherwise,” the senior official said, adding, “We will use the tools that we have to ensure that our interests are preserved and that Iran cannot acquire a nuclear weapon.”
Notably, the Biden administration has refused to say out loud whether that includes supporting the use of force, including by Israel — just that no option is off the table.
The one thing the U.S., European allies in the talks, France, the U.K., Germany, and even China and Russia seem to agree on is that time is running out. But while the senior State Department official called a deal a “big if,” Russia’s envoy was been more buoyant about a resolution.
“My instinct tells me that agreement will be reached soon after mid February,” Ambassador Mikhail Ulyanov tweeted Friday as the talks ended.
That’s in stark contrast to the heavy pessimism in early December after talks finally resumed under Iran’s new government, with its much more hard-line approach.
But the Iranians now are “back in a serious, businesslike negotiation in which there are still significant gaps — so I don’t want to in any way understates those — but we are in a position where… we can see a path to a deal if those decisions are made and if it’s done quickly,” the senior State Department official said.
In the meantime, the U.S. continues to press for the release of four U.S. citizens detained by Iran on specious charges, including father and son Baquer and Siamak Namazi. At 84-years old, Baquer is in particularly vulnerable health and had emergency heart surgery in Tehran in October to clear a “life-threatening” blockage in his carotid artery, according to his lawyer Jared Genser. This month marks his sixth year in Iranian custody, while his son Siamak has been held since October 2015.
“We are negotiating on the release of the detainees separately from the JCPOA, but as we’ve said, it is very hard for us to imagine a return to the JCPOA while four innocent Americans are behind bars or are detained in Iran,” the senior State Department official said.
In addition to the Namazi’s, Iran has detained conservationist Morad Tahbaz and businessman Emad Shargi. All four men are dual U.S.-Iranian citizens whose detentions have been called “hostage diplomacy” by Tehran.
(WASHINGTON) — Chinese artisans have crafted 100 paper lanterns lit by 10,000 LED lights to celebrate the Lunar New Year, according to The REACH at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., where the free outdoor exhibition is being displayed nightly through Sunday.
The lanterns, some of which stand parallel to the Potomac River, include “playful pandas, butterflies and flowers, frogs and flamingos, sea creatures, and more,” according to REACH.
Tuesday is Lunar New Year, a traditional holiday observed in many Asian cultures. Each year is represented by an animal from the Chinese Zodiac. This is the year of the Tiger.
Over 4,500 people visited the lanterns last weekend alone, according to Kennedy Center President Deborah Rutter.
“Whether you’re driving by over the Teddy Roosevelt bridge, or you come as a destination to walk through the center, it’s just really, really beautiful,” Rutter said.
Next to the lanterns shaped like squirrels in the mushroom forest, Ming Gault, who recently moved to the area, reflected on her Chinese American heritage.
“Every year I learn something new about what it means to be like Asian and Chinese American,” said Gault, who was adopted. “This year, it really just means friends. A lot of times New Year’s is for time with my family, but for me, my family is like a found family and my friends.”
Visiting the lanterns — which have been displayed annually since 2016 — has become a tradition for many Asian Americans like Grace Jeong and her boyfriend, Gary Winthorg, both from Virginia. Jeong said this year has been challenging with attacks on Asian Americans and the pandemic but she hopes the new year will bring brighter times.
“I feel like, during the two years that we’ve been cooped up, a lot of people have gotten really used to being inside and being alone as well,” said Jeong. “Hopefully, as things get better people do get together and enjoy events like this where it helps people come outside and enjoy different things.”
For the next week, the REACH will host various Chinese and Korean artists, musicians and performances.
