(FRANKFORT, Ky.) — Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear vetoed a bill Wednesday that would ban transgender women and girls from playing on school sports teams that correspond with their gender identity from grades six and up into college.
Under the proposed bill, students would play on teams based on their sex assigned at birth.
Beshear, who is a Democrat, joins two Republican governors who vetoed similar bills in Utah and Indiana. In his veto letter, he said he shares their concerns that the bills could provoke lawsuits against the state and cause harm against transgender people.
“Transgender children deserve public officials’ efforts to demonstrate that they are valued members of our communities through compassion, kindness and empathy, even if not understanding,” the governor stated.
Beshear also pointed to the Kentucky High School Athletic Association’s transgender participation policy, which requires that trans student-athletes undergo hormone therapy after puberty to minimize potential gender-related advantages.
The KHSAA policy states that the organization “recognizes and promotes the ability of transgender student-athletes to participate in the privilege of interscholastic sports and sport-activities free from unlawful discrimination based on sexual orientation.”
However, Senate Bill 83 — the Fairness in Womens’ Sports Act — passed Kentucky’s legislature on March 24 with a GOP majority that could override Beshear’s decision.
Those in support of these policies, like bill sponsor Sen. Robby Mills, have said that they believe transgender women have a biological advantage against cisgender women.
“It would be crushing for a young lady to train her whole career to have it end up competing against a biological male in the state tournament or state finals,” Mills said during Senate debate on the bill.
There has been “no direct or consistent research” that shows that trans people have an advantage over cisgender peers in athletics, according to a Sports Medicine journal review of several research studies on potential advantages.
LGBTQ advocates applauded Beshear’s decision, saying that legislators behind the bill are bullying transgender youth.
“From the start, this bill has been more about fear than fairness,” said Chris Hartman, the executive director of Kentucky LGBTQ+ advocacy group the Fairness Campaign.
He continued: “In Kentucky’s entire school system, there is only one openly transgender girl we know playing on a school sports team. That student started her school’s field hockey team, recruited all of the other team members, and just wants the opportunity to play with her friends her eighth-grade year.”
(NEW YORK) — From sayings like “mommy juice” and “rosé all day” to happy hours, drinking is part of American culture, particularly for women.
One thing that is less discussed though is alcohol’s link to cancer, and how that impacts women.
“We’re finding that probably anywhere between 5% and 10% of all cancers worldwide are due to alcohol use,” Dr. Suneel Kamath, a gastrointestinal oncologist at the Cleveland Clinic Cancer Center in Ohio, told ABC News’ Good Morning America. “It’s something that we need to talk a lot more about.”
In addition to potentially facing depression, liver disease and obesity, women who consume about one alcoholic drink per day have a 5% to 9% higher chance of developing breast cancer than women who do not drink at all, and that risk increases for every additional drink a woman has per day, according to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
One study published in 2019 found that women who were not at high risk for breast cancer based on family history increased their risk of breast cancer from moderate drinking.
For women, a moderate alcohol intake per week is defined as seven servings of alcohol or less, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which advise women to have no more than one drink per day.
Heavy drinking is typically defined as consuming eight drinks or more per week, according to the CDC.
One serving of alcohol is just five ounces for wine and just one-and-a-half ounces for hard alcohol, far less than what is typically served in bars, restaurants and at home.
The data shows that even casual drinkers face a greater risk of cancer, most commonly liver and throat cancers but also colon and head and neck cancers, in addition to breast cancer.
“Over 100,000 cases of cancer a year were attributed to that type of drinking,” said Kamath. “I think that’s most surprising, that many of us really are comfortable with doing that and consider that to be very safe.”
Drinking alcohol is listed by the Department of Health and Human Services as a known human carcinogen.
Research shows that just as women metabolize alcohol differently than men, they also face more serious health consequences.
Women are more susceptible to alcohol-related heart disease than men; alcohol misuse produces brain damage more quickly in women than in men; women may be more susceptible than men to alcohol-related blackouts, or gaps in memory; and women who regularly misuse alcohol are more likely than men who drink the same amount to develop alcoholic hepatitis, a potentially deadly condition, according to the NIAAA.
“This is a perfect example of gender-specific medical differences,” said Dr. Jennifer Ashton, a board-certified OBGYN and ABC News chief medical correspondent, explaining the difference lies primarily in enzymes that women lack to metabolize alcohol. “This is significant and we can’t look at this, like so many other things in medicine, like it’s one size fits all.”
During the coronavirus pandemic, data showed that heavy drinking among women especially soared, while alcohol-related liver disease also rose among young women amid increased pandemic drinking.
Liz Piscatello, 37, describes herself as a moderate, social drinker and said she is willing to put the reward of alcohol over the risk.
“I’m a firm believer that everything causes something, and you cannot live your life being scared,” she said. “Live your life because you only live once. Tomorrow’s not promised, so have fun while you can.”
Kamath is among the medical experts warning though that the less alcohol intake the better for your health.
“What I recommend to people really is to limit alcohol intake as much as you can,” he said. “The less you can do, the better.”
According to Ashton, it is important that women be aware of the risks of alcohol and make a “deliberate choice” if they choose to consume.
“It’s not the only thing that we do that can have negative effects,” she said of alcohol. “It has to be a deliberate choice and we have to go into it with the awareness that we know, unfortunately, it’s just not good for us.”
(LONDON) — Russian forces have executed civilians in Ukraine in apparent war crimes, Amnesty International said Thursday.
The London-based international human rights group published new testimony after conducting on-the-ground research in areas around Ukraine’s capital amid Russia’s invasion. Its report adds to a growing body of evidence that Russian troops have committed war crimes amid Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine — a charge that U.S. and Ukrainian officials have repeatedly made, but that the Kremlin vehemently denies.
Amnesty International said its crisis response investigators interviewed more than 20 people from villages and towns near Kyiv, many of whom claimed to have witnessed or have had direct knowledge of Russian soldiers committing horrific acts of violence against unarmed civilians across the region.
“In recent weeks, we have gathered evidence that Russian forces have committed extrajudicial executions and other unlawful killings, which must be investigated as likely war crimes,” Amnesty International Secretary-General Agnes Callamard said in a statement Thursday. “Testimonies show that unarmed civilians in Ukraine are being killed in their homes and streets in acts of unspeakable cruelty and shocking brutality.”
The organization noted that deliberate killings of civilians, rape and torture, as well as inhumane treatment of prisoners of war, are human rights violations and war crimes, and that those who commit them should be held criminally responsible along with any superiors who knew or had reason to know about such atrocities but did not attempt to stop or punish the perpetrators.
The International Criminal Court, a United Nations Human Rights Council commission of inquiry and Ukraine’s prosecutor general have all opened investigations into possible war crimes by Russian forces. But the interviews conducted by Amnesty International and published Thursday provide a harrowing window into these kinds of attacks with grisly detail.
According to the report, one of the interviewees, 18-year-old Kateryna Tkachova, told Amnesty International that she was at home with her parents in the village of Vorzel, northwest of Kyiv, on March 3 when several tanks painted with the letter “Z,” which Russian forces have used to mark their vehicles during the invasion of Ukraine, rolled down their street. Tkachova said her mother and father, who were unarmed and dressed in civilian clothing, left the basement where they were hiding to go into the street, after telling her to stay put. Tkachova said she then heard gunshots.
“Once the tanks had passed by, I jumped over the fence to the neighbor’s house. I wanted to check if they’re alive,” Tkachova told Amnesty International. “I looked over the fence and saw my mother lying on her back on one side of the road, and my father was face down on the other side of the street. I saw large holes in his coat. The next day I went to them. My father had six large holes in his back, my mother had a smaller hole in her chest.”
Seven days later, an unnamed volunteer assisting with evacuations from the areas around Kyiv helped Tkachova leave Vorzel. The volunteer told Amnesty International that he had seen the bodies of Tkachova’s parents lying in the street near her house, according to the report. Amnesty International said it has also verified video showing the volunteer and Tkachova writing her parents’ names, dates of birth and dates of death on a piece of cardboard before placing it beside their bodies, which were covered with blankets.
An unnamed 46-year-old woman told Amnesty International that Russian troops entered her village of Bohdanivka, southeast of Kyiv, on March 7 or 8. On the night of March 9, the woman said she heard gunshots through the downstairs windows of her home, where she lived with her husband, 10-year-old daughter and 81-year-old mother-in-law. She told Amnesty International that she and her husband shouted that they were civilians and that they were unarmed. When they came downstairs, two Russian soldiers pushed them and their daughter into the boiler room.
“They forced us in and slammed the door,” she told Amnesty International. “After just a minute they opened the door, they asked my husband if he had cigarettes. He said no, he hadn’t smoked for a couple of weeks. They shot him in his right arm. The other said, ‘Finish him,’ and they shot him in the head.”
“He didn’t die right away. From 9.30 p.m. to 4 a.m. he was still breathing, though he wasn’t conscious,” she added, according to Amnesty International. “Blood was flowing out of him. When he took his last breath, I turned to my daughter and said, ‘It seems daddy has died.'”
A neighbor told Amnesty International that they witnessed Russian soldiers breaking into the woman’s house that night and also confirmed seeing her husband’s body slumped in the corner of the boiler room. The woman and her child escaped from Bohdanivka later that day. The woman’s mother-in-law, who has limited mobility, was left behind, according to Amnesty International.
Another woman, from an unidentified village east of Kyiv, told Amnesty International that two Russian soldiers entered her house on March 9, killed her husband and then repeatedly raped her at gunpoint while her young son hid nearby in the boiler room, according to the report. The unnamed woman managed to escape from the village with her son and they fled to Ukrainian-controlled territory.
“The intentional killing of civilians is a human rights violation and a war crime,” Callamard said. “These deaths must be thoroughly investigated, and those responsible must be prosecuted, including up the chain of command.”
Interviewees also told Amnesty International they had lost access to electricity, water and gas in the early days of the Russian invasion and that there was very limited access to food. There was poor cellphone service in the region, and some interviewees said Russian soldiers had confiscated or destroyed mobile phones whenever they saw residents carrying them, or threatened them with violence for having one.
Amnesty International found that threats of violence and intimidation were also widespread. One man in Hostomel, a town northwest of Kyiv, reported seeing an entire dormitory of people who were sheltering from shelling and were forced to go outside, where Russian military officers immediately fired gunshots over their heads, forcing them to drop to the ground. Two men from Bucha, another town northwest of Kyiv, also said snipers regularly shot at them when they went to salvage food from a destroyed grocery store near their home, according to Amnesty International.
Russian forces invaded neighboring Ukraine on Feb. 24, seizing territory and shelling cities seemingly indiscriminately. But they have faced strong resistance from Ukrainian troops, who have retaken some territory in recent days as Russian forces retreated.
According to Ukrainian Prosecutor General Iryna Venedyktova, at least 410 civilians have been found dead in recently recaptured towns near Kyiv, particularly in Bucha, which has galvanized global outrage. While graphic evidence of the atrocities has emerged, including eyewitness testimony along with videos and images, Russia has claimed the scenes were “staged.”
Amnesty International said it has obtained evidence that civilians were also killed in indiscriminate attacks in Kharkiv and Sumy Oblasts, documented an airstrike that killed civilians queueing for food in the northern city of Chernihiv, and gathered evidence from civilians living under siege in the battered cities of Kharkiv, Izium and Mariupol.
“As these horrendous accounts of life under Russian occupation continue to emerge,” Callamard said, “the victims in Ukraine must know that the international community is determined to secure accountability for their suffering.”
(NEW YORK) — Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” into Ukraine began on Feb. 24, with troops crossing the border from Belarus and Russia. Moscow’s forces have since been met with “stiff resistance” from Ukrainians, according to U.S. officials.
Russian forces retreated last week from the Kyiv suburbs, leaving behind a trail of destruction. After graphic images emerged of civilians lying dead in the streets of Bucha, U.S. and European officials accused Russian troops of committing war crimes.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Apr 07, 5:21 am
Ukraine’s NATO agenda: ‘Weapons, weapons and weapons’
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dymtro Kuleba said his country had a “simple” agenda for Thursday’s NATO meeting.
“It has only three items on it. It’s weapons, weapons and weapons,” Kuleba told reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Thursday.
NATO foreign ministers are meeting this week to discuss the situation in Ukraine, including whether to implement new sanctions and supply additional weapons, said NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, who spoke alongside Kuleba.
“So we are providing support, but, at the same time, working hard to prevent the escalation of the conflict,” Stoltenberg said.
Kuleba called on “all allies to put aside their hesitations” in aiding Ukraine.
“We are confident that the best way to help Ukraine now is to provide it with all necessary to contain [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, and to defeat Russian army in Ukraine, in the territory of Ukraine, so that the war does not spill over further,” Kuleba said.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is scheduled to meet with Kuleba on Thursday, according to his office.
“The G7 is committed to holding President Putin to account for his unprovoked war of choice and ensuring he endures a strategic defeat in Ukraine,” Blinken said on Twitter on Thursday.
(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. Senate is poised to vote to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court on Thursday, paving the way for Jackson to become the first Black woman in history to sit on the nation’s highest court.
“It will be a joyous day. Joyous for the Senate, joyous for the Supreme Court, joyous for America,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Wednesday evening. “America tomorrow will take a giant step to becoming a perfect nation.”
It’s still unclear whether President Joe Biden will make an appearance following the afternoon vote, which is expected to be called around 1:45 p.m., or whether Vice President Kamala Harris, as president of the Senate, will preside over the chamber for the historic occasion.
While Democrats have the votes to confirm Biden’s nominee on their own, three Republicans — Sens. Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Mitt Romney — will break ranks from the GOP to join them, marking a solid, bipartisan win for the Biden White House in a hyper-partisan Washington. Former President Donald Trump’s last nominee, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, received no votes from Democrats.
If confirmed, Jackson is not expected to be fully sworn in for duty until summer, once retiring Justice Stephen Breyer steps down.
In marathon hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee last month, Jackson was given the opportunity to tell the panel — and the American people — what it would mean to her to serve on the nation’s highest court.
“I stand on the shoulders of so many who have come before me, including Judge Constance Baker Motley, who was the first African American woman to be appointed to the federal bench and with whom I share a birthday,” Jackson said. “And, like Judge Motley, I have dedicated my career to ensuring that the words engraved on the front of the Supreme Court building — ‘Equal Justice Under Law’ — are a reality and not just an ideal.”
Jackson endured nearly 24 hours of questioning from senators in the, at times, contentious and emotional hearings.
“Not a single justice has been a Black woman. You, Judge Jackson, can be the first,” said chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill. “It’s not easy being the first. You have to be the best and in some ways the brightest. Your presence here today and your willingness to brave this process will give inspiration to millions of women who see themselves in you.”
Meanwhile, several Republicans assailed Jackson with accusations that she’s a liberal activist and “soft on crime”– taking issue with nine child pornography sentences she handed down, criticizing her legal work for Guantanamo Bay detainees, and questioning support she received from progressive groups.
“In your nomination, did you notice that people from the left were pretty much cheering you on?” asked Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.
“A lot of people were cheering me on, senator,” she replied.
Notably, Graham voted to confirm Jackson to a lifetime judicial appointment last year but said he’ll vote no this time — and warned that if Republicans had control of the Senate, Jackson wouldn’t have received hearings to begin with.
Others in the GOP pressed Jackson to explain critical race theory, say whether babies are racist, and to define “woman” — questions which Democrats repeatedly criticized as they took to defending her record and applauding her character.
“You did not get there because of some left wing agenda,” Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., told her in a dramatic soliloquy, moving Jackson to tears. “You didn’t get here because of some dark money groups. You got here how every Black woman in America who has gotten anywhere has done. You are worthy. You are a great American.”
While Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called Jackson’s performance, at times, “evasive and unclear,” scrutinizing her judicial philosophy, Jackson insisted “there is not a label” for her judiciary philosophy — because she says she doesn’t have one. She told the committee, “I am acutely aware that, as a judge in our system, I have limited power, and I am trying in every case to stay in my lane.”
At age 51, Jackson currently sits on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to which she was named by Biden and confirmed by the Senate last year in a bipartisan vote. She has also been Senate-confirmed on two other occasions.
She will replace Justice Breyer, whom she once clerked for, when he retires at the end of the term. Jackson said last month, “It is extremely humbling to be considered for Justice Breyer’s seat, and I know that I could never fill his shoes. But if confirmed, I would hope to carry on his spirit.”
When Biden formally announced Jackson’s nomination at the White House, he fulfilled a promise made on the 2020 presidential campaign ahead of the South Carolina primary when he relied heavily on support from the state’s Black voters.
“For too long our government, our courts haven’t looked like America,” he said on Feb. 25. “And I believe it is time that we have a court that reflects the full talents and greatness of our nation with a nominee of extraordinary qualifications.”
Jackson’s parents, Johnny and Ellery Brown, Miami natives who grew up under segregation in the South, were on hand at the historic hearings to support their daughter — who they say was once told by a school guidance counselor to lower her sights.
Jackson, instead, soared.
Growing up, her mother was a public high school principal in Miami-Dade County, where Jackson attended public schools and was a “star student,” while her father was a teacher and, later on, county school board attorney. Jackson has fondly recalled memories of drawing in her coloring books next to her father studying his law school textbooks. Her younger brother, her only sibling, served in the U.S. military and did tours in combat. Two of her uncles have been law enforcement officers.
After graduating from Miami Palmetto Senior High School, Jackson went on to attend Harvard College and Harvard Law School. There she met her husband, Patrick, a general surgeon, and the couple share two daughters, Talia, 21, and Leila, 17.
Asked about her message to young Americans, Jackson recalled to the Senate Judiciary Committee of feeling out of place at Harvard in her first semester — and provided a remarkable lesson in resilience.
“I was really questioning: Do I belong here? Can I, can I make it in this environment?” she said. “And I was walking through the yard in the evening and a black woman I did not know was passing me on the sidewalk, and she looked at me, and I guess she knew how I was feeling. And she leaned over as we crossed and said ‘persevere.'”
(BELLEVUE, Wash.) — Inside a nondescript commercial office complex east of Seattle, an acclaimed professional chef and an ex-Microsoft tech executive have been quietly perfecting the art of pizza making and redefining possibilities for the perfect pie.
Over the last three years, the chef, Francisco Migoya, and ex-exec, Nathan Myhrvold, have baked more than 12,000 pizzas and run 500 scientific experiments to produce what they call the definitive guide to one of the world’s most popular foods.
“We didn’t eat 12,000 pizzas, but believe me, there was a lot of pizza eaten during that time,” said Migoya in an interview. “There is no such thing as too much pizza.”
Their book, Modernist Pizza, is a 1,700-page tome whose three volumes weigh in at more than 35 pounds. The history and secrets of pizza perfection also carry a hefty price tag of nearly $300.
“The most important objective is for people who love pizza to have a deeper understanding of it, to learn ways of making it better, to — I guess you could say — perfecting it,” Migoya said.
Myhrvold, who founded the franchise Modernist Cuisine out of a passion for food, said the pizza project is also about culinary evolution.
“Continuous improvement is what brings you things that are just fantastically delicious,” he said.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, pizza sales have soared at popular U.S. delivery chains and many struggling non-pizza restaurants pivoted to get in on the take-out game. The crisis also fueled an interest in pizza making at home, data show.
“It’s a food that is very close to our heart and not just Americans but the world over,” Migoya said.
ABC News Live was given an inside look at the kitchen laboratory at Modernist Cuisine where a team of chefs and scientists were studying pizza techniques, from the making of dough to developing sauce and pioneering new methods.
A dehydrated whole Neapolitan pizza is pulverized into a spice powder to intensify the pizza flavor in dough. A gyrating distiller turns ordinary winter grocery store tomatoes into a flavor-packed fresh sauce. Industrial centrifuges churn out experimental pizza toppings, like pea butter extracted from frozen green peas.
“We are unapologetic about loving pizza, and part of that says, hey, you can make a very traditional one. But if you want to step out a little bit on the wild side and try some stuff that might seem crazy, you might find you like it,” Myhrvold said.
A 3D scanner analyzes freshly baked pies to measure volume accurately and discern how ingredients interact with each other on top of the sauce.
The data have been used to produce more than 1,000 pizza recipes as well as tips and tricks for home cooks and professional chefs.
The team examined whether the type of water you use matters (it doesn’t, they say); differences between sliced and shredded cheese; why pepperoni curls and how much topping you should put on; and strategies for enhancing leftover pizza at home.
The team also drew from pizza intelligence it gathered from trips to more than 250 pizzerias around the globe.
While the truly perfect pizza may be in the eye of the beholder, Portland, Oregon, has the best pizza scene in the country, Migoya said. The worst pizza he tried was from Argentina: “Bananas, pizza cheese and tomato sauce. It’s as bad as you think it is, maybe worse,” he said.
(NEW YORK) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of committing genocide after he said hundreds of civilians were found dead in the town of Bucha following the Russian military’s withdrawal.
Ukrainian officials have said more than 400 civilians were killed in Bucha, many with hands tied behind their backs, shot at close range.
Russia’s defense ministry said in a statement Sunday that all photographs and videos published by the Ukrainian authorities alleging “crimes” by Russian troops in Bucha were a “provocation” and claimed no resident of Bucha suffered violence at the hands of Russian troops.
Russia has claimed all its units withdrew completely from Bucha around March 30. An ABC News analysis of videos and satellite imagery confirms some of the bodies seen lying in the streets of Bucha were there as early as March 19, when the town was still occupied by Russian forces, contradicting Russia’s claims that the scene was “staged” after its troops left.
President Joe Biden called Russian President Vladimir Putin a war criminal and the alleged acts committed by Russian troops “war crimes,” but fell short of calling it genocide. Experts say this could, in part, be a political decision.
“To say that a genocide is occurring, is also to say, we can’t sit on our hands and do nothing here,” David Simon, a senior lecturer and the director of the Genocide Studies program at Yale University, told ABC News.
The U.S. government also has an internal process for designating whether genocide has occurred. It took the State Department five years to designate that a genocide had occurred in Myanmar, Simon said.
This story explains the legal term “genocide” in relation to the war in Ukraine.
What is genocide?
Genocide is defined as an act “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group,” according to the United Nations’ Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.
Acts of genocide against members of a group listed in the convention include killings; causing them serious bodily or mental harm; deliberately inflicting life conditions calculated to being about its physical destruction; imposing measures to prevent births; or forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
Genocide is not just any large scale violence, or violence that becomes particularly gruesome or grisly, Simon said. There has to be intent by the perpetrators to destroy the group, he said.
Killings are also not the only form of genocide that could have occurred in Ukraine, another expert said.
“Other attempts to diminish the group, by placing them in harsh conditions of life, like if you think about starving a group to death, and you actually think of some cities in Ukraine today, where through bombardment and cutting off the flow of humanitarian aid, people are potentially going to be starving,” Alex Hinton, the director of the Center for the Study of Genocide and Human Rights and UNESCO Chair on Genocide Prevention, told ABC News.
Whether or not these violent acts allegedly committed by Russian forces against civilians are found to be acts of genocide, they are illegal under international law and warrant a response from the international community, Simon said.
“What we’re seeing in Ukraine almost certainly involves crimes against humanity, war crimes, and then to less well defined terms, ethnic cleansing and mass atrocities,” Simon said.
Legal threshold for defining genocide
The legal definition of genocide does not define a threshold for an amount of violence that has to have happened in order for it to be considered genocide.
“The importance of intent within the definition of genocide means really, that there is no legal threshold. Particularly because the convention says the ‘intent destroy in whole or in part’,” Simon said.
In practice, though, Simon said the possibility of genocide has usually come up when the number of deaths are in the thousands.
As of Wednesday, at least 1,480 civilians have been killed and 2,195 others have been injured in Ukraine since Russian forces invaded on Feb. 24, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
Consequences for genocide
The U.N.’s convention on genocide tells countries to take claims to one of the organs of the United Nations for the further prevention and suppression of acts of genocide. However, with Russia’s veto power, it is unlikely the Security Council, the organ primarily responsible for ensuring international peace and security, would be able to take action, Simon said.
There are a number of things states or geopolitical actors can do, Hinton said.
Organizations, including Human Rights Watch, and government actors are currently on the ground gathering evidence for a possible trial of those who may have committed crimes. An inquiry could also be launched to investigate the alleged war crimes committed.
The International Criminal Court has begun active investigations into potential war crimes committed, but Simon said it could take years for this to be litigated.
“In most cases, the ICC is able to act only after a conflict is essentially over,” Simon said.
The ICC’s investigation into crimes committed in Myanmar is still primarily in the investigation phase, despite the most intense parts of the violence happening in 2017, Simon said.
Investigators will need to prove it was Russia’s intent to destroy Ukraine or Ukrainians as a group. This evidence would be any articulation of the idea on social media, public broadcasts, in writing or even private communications, Simon said.
But, “there can be no actual case until those individuals that are under warrant are arrested and brought to the Hague for trial,” Simon said.
Radovan Karadzic, who committed war crimes in the former Yugoslavia during 1992 and 1993, and was convicted in the ICC, was at large until 2008.
“His trial, which included genocide charges, took place something like a decade and a half after the acts he undertook,” Simon said.
Experts say leaders should act either way
This violence could push actors to take a stronger stance against Russia, which could have included military action if Russia wasn’t a nuclear power, Simon said.
Biden has repeatedly said American troops will not join the war in Ukraine, warning that going head-to-head would lead to “World War III.” Biden has also denied requests from Zelenskyy for a no-fly zone over Ukraine.
“But it may push Europeans to have more of a taste to expand sanctions to include Russian exports of gas and oil, which could be far more devastating to the Russian economy than the sanctions that are in place up to this point,” Simon said.
Hinton agreed that additional sanctions could be imposed, but said lines of diplomacy need to be kept open, Hinton said.
“There has to be a way to get out of the conflict, so diplomacy is absolutely critical,” Hinton said.
Russian and Ukrainian negotiators last held virtual talks on Friday where they discussed the proposed security guarantee treaty.
Ukraine proposed a new system of security guarantees similar to NATO’s collective defense clause which would legally require “guarantor countries” to provide arms and impose a “no-fly” zone over Ukraine, in the event of an attack.
Simon said the term “genocide” can often be used politically, to describe crimes that do not fit its legal definition.
“People tend to use genocide as a label for anything that upsets them. Indeed, the Russians have used Neo-Nazis and genocide against Russians as the pretext for invading in the first place, when there’s absolutely no evidence of anything, especially intent to destroy Russians within Ukraine,” Simon said.
Hinton agreed, saying, “genocide has always from the very beginning, been a sort of political football. It’s used and misused by states to serve their interest.”
A designation that the crimes committed against Ukrainian civilians amounts to genocide should not make a difference in the response, according to Simon.
“There are clearly violations of international law that are causing great harm to civilian populations. And that alone should should trigger a stronger response,” he said.
“We have enough evidence of crimes against humanity, that if we think that mass atrocities are a reason for ratcheting up pressure, militarily or otherwise, against the perpetrator force, we have that evidence with us now and we don’t need to have a determination of genocide to decide whether or not we find bodies in the street of Bucha repulsive or revolting,” Simon said.
(WASHINGTON) — On Jan. 6, 2021, two police officers who nicknamed each other “dad” and “son” loaded their car with meals and a wooden stick, met with a neighbor and drove from Rocky Mount, Virginia, to Washington, D.C. They allegedly stormed the Capitol with gas masks, took a picture next to a statue and drove home discussing the “next civil war.”
On Wednesday afternoon, they both showed up at D.C. Federal Court, yards away from the Capitol. One took the stand as a witness for the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The other was the defendant.
As part of Jacob Fracker’s plea deal for storming the Capitol, he testified on Wednesday against the U.S. Attorney’s Office in a case against his longtime friend and former colleague Thomas Robertson. He hopes to gain a more lenient sentence for cooperating with the trial, he confirmed during his testimony.
“Could you tell us how you’re feeling about being here today?” a U.S. attorney asked Fracker at the beginning of testimony.
“I absolutely hate this,” Fracker said in a shaky voice, adding he “never thought it would be like this.”
“Why did you never think this is what it would be like?” the attorney asked.
“I’ve always been on the other side of things,” Fracker responded. “The good guy side, so to speak.”
The testimony came on day two of the trial for Robertson, who faces five felonies and one misdemeanor after allegedly storming the Capitol on Jan. 6 and destroying his cellphone. Witnesses, including police officers and FBI agents, have pointed to footage from that day, at times identifying Robertson in brief skirmishes.
Robertson’s lawyer has said he was invited into the Capitol by an officer, stayed for only 10 minutes and didn’t assault anyone or cause any damage.
Fracker talked extensively about the buildup and aftermath of the trip with Robertson. Robertson, who is 17 years older, served as a mentor on the force for Fracker, both of whom had military ties.
“Is this relationship you have with him part of why you’re nervous today?” a U.S. attorney asked.
“Absolutely,” Fracker said.
The two stayed close after they were both fired from the Rocky Mount Police Department following their arrests a week after the riot.
Fracker said he gave his phone to Robertson in the days following the riot to “get rid of it.” He said Wednesday he does not know what happened to it.
Fracker identified Robertson as having a wooden stick, which has become a key component of the trial. The prosecution says that he used it as a weapon, while Robertson’s counsel has argued that he used it as a walking stick due to injuries sustained during his military duty. Video shows him using it in a “port arms” position, a military and police defensive tactic used to push past others, several witnesses said.
The two decided to go to the Capitol just a few days before after Robertson extended a “casual invite” to Fracker, he said. The two believed that the election was stolen from former President Donald Trump, and they wanted to mount pressure to overturn the results.
The two packed guns and their police badges in the car they drove through Virginia, but ultimately decided to leave them in the vehicle. They were wary about identifying themselves as police officers due to hostility toward those in the profession, Fracker said.
Recalling one brief interaction from Jan. 6, Fracker said he attempted to place himself in between officers that he believed were separated from their group and a crowd of rioters. One of them was missing head protection, he said, and the crowd was “wildly getting out of hand.” The attorney asked him if he tried to help police once he entered the Capitol, and he said he did not. He then walked through the Capitol, past broken glass, flipped furniture and alarms, and took pictures once he reunited with Robertson, he said during testimony.
The two both made social media posts that were used as exhibits in court.
“CNN and the Left are just mad because we attacked the government who is the problem and not some random small business,” Robertson wrote.
On Facebook, Fracker posted, “Lol to anyone who’s possibly concerned about the picture of me going around… Sorry I hate freedom? …Not like I did anything illegal…y’all do what you feel you need to…”
Referencing his social media posts, the U.S. attorney asked: Do you still feel that way today, and how do you feel sitting here?
“The person in those videos, the photos that day, at the time it was all fun and games,” Fracker said. “Here lately, I’ve had it presented to me or shown to me for what it is. That’s not the person I am. That’s not how I act.”
“I know for a fact my mom would slap me in the face if she saw what I was doing that day,” he added. “So I sit here today just ashamed of my actions. I didn’t have to do all that stuff. But I did.”
Fracker is set to be cross-examined by Robertson’s counsel on Thursday morning.
(NEW YORK) — Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” into Ukraine began on Feb. 24, with troops crossing the border from Belarus and Russia. Moscow’s forces have since been met with “stiff resistance” from Ukrainians, according to U.S. officials.
Russian forces retreated last week from the Kyiv suburbs, leaving behind a trail of destruction. After graphic images emerged of civilians lying dead in the streets of Bucha, U.S. and European officials accused Russian troops of committing war crimes.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern.
Apr 06, 8:05 pm
Obama calls war in Ukraine ‘tragedy of historic proportions’
Former President Barack Obama weighed in on the Ukraine-Russia conflict Wednesday during his appearance at the Disinformation and the Erosion of Democracy conference and called the war a “tragedy of historic proportions.”
“It is a bracing reminder for democracies that have gotten flabby, and confused and feckless around the stakes of things that we tended to take for granted: rule of law, freedom of press and conscience … that you have to fight for that information,” he said.
Obama said Russian President Vladimir Putin was “always ruthless.”
“For him to bet the farm in this way, I would have not necessarily predicted by him five years ago,” he said.
Obama added he sees some hope given the response of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the country’s residents.
“He has the potential of preventing a maximalist victory for Putin and over the long term may allow for an independent Ukraine,” Obama said.
-ABC News’ Brittany Shepherd
Apr 06, 7:36 pm
Zelenskyy vows that Russia won’t succeed in hiding evidence of atrocities
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said during his daily address Russia’s leadership is now afraid after photos and videos of their army’s atrocities in Bucha, and are trying to cover up their actions.
But the president vowed that the country won’t succeed in hiding their violence.
“If the world has started a debate about whether it is permissible to call what the Russian military did on the territory of Ukraine genocide, the search for truth can no longer be stopped. You can’t roll it back in any way,” he said.
Zelenskyy praised the new U.S. sanctions that suspend Russia’s ability to use U.S. bank accounts and related assets to pay its debt.
“This package has a spectacular look, but this is not enough,” he said.
Zelenskyy added, “we will continue to insist on a complete blockade of the Russian banking system from international finance.”
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Apr 06, 4:37 pm
White House will focus on mitigating cost on Americans: Psaki
White House press secretary Jen Psaki told ABC News Wednesday that the administration is focused on mitigating the war’s cost for the American people, including by releasing restricted petroleum reserves.
She said the administration will “take steps to reduce the impact on the American people over time.”
Psaki was also asked by ABC News if the rate of financial assistance the U.S. has provided to Ukraine is sustainable for a long-term war.
Psaki acknowledged that with Putin consolidating his troops, “We’re entering a new phase of the conflict that could last for some time.”
“It doesn’t mean it will look exactly the same or the needs or the resources will be exactly the same, and that is something we will continue to assess in our conversations with the Ukrainians, as well as with our allies and partners around the world,” she added.
Psaki noted that the administration’s current goal is to continue to amp up military and humanitarian aid.
“There will be different needs that will come about over the course of time,” she said. “And that’s something we are of course committed to continuing to support their recovery from this their continued fight from this, but I can’t make an assessment about sustaining because obviously this war, and the needs, will change over the course of time”
-ABC News’ Armando Tonatiuh Torres-García, Mary Bruce
Apr 06, 4:20 pm
UN special adviser on genocide warns war is worsening tensions elsewhere
Alice Wairimu Nderitu, the United Nations’ special adviser for the prevention of genocide, said the scenes of dead civilians in the Ukrainian city of Bucha indicate “hundreds of victims [were] deliberately targeted, which point to very serious signs of possible commission of war crimes.”
Wairimu Nderitu in a statement said Russia’s war is exacerbating existing tensions elsewhere, particularly in the western Balkans, where Bosnian Muslims were killed in the Srebrenica genocide less than 30 years ago.
“In the last six weeks, the conflict in Ukraine has deteriorated some of these dynamics,” she said. “Open vindication of violence against members of one national group, appeal to religion as a source of legitimacy for violence, or alignment of national pursuits to the cause of warrying parties in the Ukraine conflict do not only constitutes symptoms of insufficient healing in a region where conflict was present — they are also signs that the risk of recurrence is real and serious.”
Tensions in Bosnia were increasing long before the war, despite efforts from a U.S.-brokered peace deal to patch up the wounds of war and genocide. Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik has threatened to tear apart the country’s ethnically-divided federal institutions and the country itself, which has brought him under tighter U.S. sanctions.
Along with protests from Peru to Sri Lanka over fuel and food prices, and humanitarian crises in Yemen and Afghanistan with funding and food aid drying up, it’s another reminder of how Russia’s war is sending shockwaves around the world.
-ABC News’ Conor Finnegan
Apr 06, 2:15 pm
Biden addresses Bucha in-depth for 1st time, calling it ‘major war crimes’
President Joe Biden on Wednesday spoke in-depth for the first time about the horrific images of civilian deaths in the Ukrainian city of Bucha.
“I’m sure you’ve seen the pictures from Bucha and just outside of Kyiv, bodies left in streets as Russian troops withdrew. Some shot … with their hands tied behind their backs. Civilians executed in cold blood,” Biden said at the North America’s Building Trade Union legislative conference in Washington, D.C.
“Bodies dumped into mass graves… There is nothing less happening than major war crimes,” he said.
Biden called on responsible nations to “come together to hold these perpetrators accountable.”
“The steps we’re already taken are predicted to shrink Russia’s gross domestic product by double-digits this year alone. Just in one year, our sanctions are likely to wipe out the last 15 years of Russia’s economic gains and because we’ve cut Russia off from important technologies like semiconductors and encryption security and critical components of quantum technology that they need to compete in the 21st century. We’re going to stifle Russia’s ability in its economy to grow for years to come,” Biden said.
-ABC News’ Molly Nagle
Apr 06, 1:43 pm
All Russian troops have left Kyiv and Chernihiv: US official
All Russian troops have left the Ukrainian cities of Kyiv and Chernihiv, withdrawing north toward the borders of Belarus and Russia to consolidate before likely redeploying to the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine, a senior U.S. defense official told reporters Wednesday.
But even with the Russians gone, the territory remains treacherous.
“There are some indications that they left behind mines and things like that, so the Ukrainians are being somewhat careful in some areas north of Kyiv as they begin to clear the ground and clear the territory and re-occupy it,” the official said.
While the U.S. hasn’t yet seen these troops redeploy elsewhere in Ukraine, it’ll likely happen soon, according to the official. Ukrainian forces are preparing for a major fight in Donbas, the official said.
The official also said the Pentagon is “monitoring” an apparent nitric acid explosion in Ukraine’s Luhansk region, which Russia blamed on Ukraine.
“We’ve seen the Russians claim that this was a Ukrainian attack on this. We do not believe that is true,” the official said. “We do believe that the Russians are responsible, but exactly what they used when they did it, why they did it, what the damage is, we just don’t have that level of detail,” the official said.
The official also noted that a small number of Ukrainians currently in the U.S. for “professional military education” were pulled aside for a couple days of training on Switchblade drones, which the U.S. is sending overseas as part of its military aid, according to the official.
“Although it’s not a very difficult system to operate, we took advantage of having them in the country to give them some rudimentary training on that,” the official said.
-ABC News’ Matt Seyler
Apr 06, 1:03 pm
Yellen says goal of sanctions is to ‘impose maximum pain on Russia’ while shielding allies from economic harm
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen testified before the House Committee on Financial Services that the Treasury would continue to take steps to prevent Russia from participating in the international financial system.
“Russia’s actions, including the atrocities committed against innocent Ukrainians in Bucha, are reprehensible, represent an unacceptable affront the rules based global order and will have enormous economic repercussions in Ukraine and beyond,” she said.
Yellen said the International Monetary Fund and World Bank have assisted Ukraine, allowing the country “fiscal space to pay salaries for civilians, soldiers, doctors and nurses.”
Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., asked Yellen why the U.S. continues to provide licenses that permit certain bank transactions related to Russian energy despite a ban on Russian oil imports. Yellen said that although the sanctions aim to cripple Russia’s economy, some of the U.S.’s European allies are still dependent on Russian gas.
“Our goal from the outset has been to impose maximum pain on Russia while, to the best of our ability, shielding the United States and our partners of undue economic harm,” she said. “Unfortunately, many of our European partners remain heavily dependent on Russian natural gas as well as oil.”
-ABC News’ Armando Tonatiuh Torres-García
Apr 06, 12:05 pm
Human Rights Watch racing to document war crimes
Hugh Williamson, director of the Human Rights Watch’s Europe and Central Asia division, wrote in an OpEd in the Telegraph that the HRW is racing to document war crimes in Ukraine.
Williamson said one apparent war crime was when seven Ukrainian civilians were allegedly executed by Russian soldiers.
Regarding the images of civilian bodies in the Ukrainian town of Bucha, Williamson said they’re concerned many of the deaths may be the result of war crimes, but “it’s too early to say for certain now, and legal proceedings are still at a nascent stage.”
This comes as a spokesperson for Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs doubled down on Russian claims that civilian killings in Bucha were staged.
“On April 3, the world witnessed another crime by the Ukrainian authorities, this time in the town of Bucha, where a criminal false flag operation [showing] the alleged killing of civilians by Russian troops had been staged,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said at a briefing on Wednesday according to state-run TASS. Zakharova claimed that when Bucha was controlled by the Russian Armed Forces, not a single local resident was affected by acts of violence.
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Apr 06, 11:25 am
New US sanctions target Putin’s children, largest Russian bank
New U.S. sanctions are targeting “the key architects of the war” and their family members, including Russian President Vladimir Putin’s adult children, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s wife and daughter and members of Russia’s security council, a senior administration official told reporters.
“We believe that many of Putin’s assets are hidden with family members and that’s why we’re targeting them,” the official said.
The new sanctions are also the most severe sanctions yet on Russia’s largest private bank, Alfa Bank, and its largest financial institution, Sherbank, the official said.
This will “generate a financial shock” to Russia’s economy,” the official said. “[Sherbank] holds nearly one-third of Russia’s total banking sector assets. That’s over $500 billion. That’s roughly twice the size of the second largest Russian bank, which we previously fully blocked. And in total, we’ve now fully blocked more than two thirds of the Russian banking sector, which before the invasion held about $1.4 trillion in assets.”
The official warned that “Russia will very likely lose its status as a major economy.”
The official noted how these sanctions will hurt everyday Russians.
“It means their debit cards may not work. They may only have the option to buy knockoff phones and knockoff clothes. The shelves at stores may be empty. The reality is the country’s descending into economic and financial and technological isolation. And at this rate, it will go back to Soviet style living standards from the 1980s,” the official said.
Apr 06, 11:14 am
DOJ charges Russian oligarch with sanctions violations, announces disruption of global botnet
The U.S. Department of Justice announced Wednesday that it has charged Russian oligarch Konstantin Malofeyev with sanctions violations, alleging Malofeyev was one of the main sources of financing for Russians promoting separatism in Crimea and for providing material support for the so-called Donetsk People’s Republic.
These actions are part of the KleptoCapture Task force, which is a Justice Department task force established last month aimed at seizing Russian oligarch assets from around the country.
“After being sanctioned by the United States, Malofeyev attempted to evade the sanctions by using co-conspirators to surreptitiously acquire and run media outlets across Europe,” U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland told reporters. “We are also announcing the seizure of millions of dollars from an account at a U.S. financial institution, which the indictment alleges constitutes proceeds traceable to Malofeyev’s sanctions violations.”
One of Malofeyev’s co-conspirators, according to the DOJ, is former U.S. TV producer Jack Hanick, who was arrested last month in the United Kingdom, where he had been living for allegedly violating U.S. sanctions stemming from Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea.
The Justice Department also on Wednesday announced the disruption of a global botnet run by the GRU, Russia’s Chief Intelligence Office. FBI Director Christopher Wray told reporters the team behind the global botnet was responsible for some of the most infectious cyberattacks in recent memory, including the cyberattacks against the Winter Olympics in 2018, attacks on Ukrainian power grid in 2015 and the attack on the country of Georgia in 2019.
The Justice Department seized a yacht that belongs to Russian oligarch Viktor Vekselberg in Marina Real in the Spanish port of Palma de Mallorca, according to court documents unsealed Monday.
In addition to the seizure of Vekselberg’s yacht, U.S. authorities also obtained seizure warrants unsealed in Washington, D.C., Monday that target roughly $625,000 associated with sanctioned parties at nine U.S. financial institutions, the Justice Department said.
At the news conference, Garland also expressed outrage over the images of civilian bodies in Ukraine.
“We have seen the dead bodies of civilians, some with bound hands, scattered in the streets. We have seen the mass graves. We have seen the bombed hospital, theater, and residential apartment buildings. The world sees what is happening in Ukraine. The Justice Department sees what is happening in Ukraine,” Garland said.
Garland said the DOJ is in the “collection of evidence” stage of any war crime prosecution.
-ABC News’ Alex Mallin, Luke Barr
Apr 06, 11:12 am
School-turned-shelter attacked in Donetsk region, governor says
A school-turned-shelter in eastern Ukraine’s war-torn Donetsk region came under attack on Wednesday, according to Donetsk Oblast Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko.
Kyrylenko released images showing several wounded people lying on the ground among debris outside the school, which is currently being used as a humanitarian aid center. First responders were seen helping the victims. Another image showed the inside of a classroom that was damaged during the attack, with the windows shattered and some desks broken.
ABC News’ Visual Verification team confirmed that the photos were taken at a school in Vugledar, a small village about 40 miles from Donetsk city.
-ABC News’ Fergal Gallagher
Apr 06, 11:00 am
UN vote scheduled for Thursday to suspend Russia from UN Human Rights Council
The U.N. General Assembly has scheduled a Thursday vote on suspending Russia from the U.N. Human Rights Council.
A two-thirds majority is needed to suspend Russia, which would become only the second country to face this censure after Libya was suspended in 2011 for Muammar Gaddafi’s forces firing on protesters.
U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Tuesday that she “know[s] we’re going to get” the two-thirds majority, pointing to two previous U.N. General Assembly resolutions that passed with 141 and 140 votes each.
(WASHINGTON) — With North Korea set to celebrate its most important holiday next week, the U.S. is concerned that Pyongyang “may be tempted to take another provocative action,” including a possible nuclear test.
“We, in cooperation and coordination with our allies and partners, are prepared to deal with whatever they may undertake, and I want to emphasize that we obviously hope that they will refrain from further provocation,” U.S. Special Envoy for North Korea Sung Kim said.
North Korea will celebrate the birth of the country’s founder, Kim Il Sung, on April 15. Kim is the grandfather of current dictator Kim Jong Un.
The isolated country has not conducted a nuclear test since September 2017, its sixth on record.
As Russia’s war in Ukraine exacerbates tensions between the Kremlin and the West, Kim said Russian and Chinese diplomats at the United Nations have obstructed any U.S. effort to condemn North Korea’s recent spate of missile launches — including the kind of long-range one that Russia and China used to condemn back in 2017.
“Unfortunately, I cannot report that we have had productive discussions with” China or Russia about a new U.N. Security Council resolution, Kim told reporters during a briefing Wednesday.
The two countries have blocked even a public statement from the U.N. Security Council condemning the 13 recent launches, per Kim, even though they violate multiple U.N. resolutions.
Still, the U.S. and its allies are pursuing a new resolution to condemn North Korea’s launches because “the Security Council needs to respond to these blatant violations of multiple Security Council resolutions,” Kim said. “This is about the credibility of the United Nations.”
Kim, who also serves as the U.S. ambassador to Indonesia, traveled to Washington this week, including to meet his Chinese counterpart Tuesday for a “very long and detailed discussion.”
He said despite Chinese opposition, he remains “convinced that Beijing shares our goal of the complete denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula.”
Part of the U.S. outreach to China on this issue is because North Korea has rejected all U.S. entreaties under the Biden administration.
“We have sent several messages, both public and private, inviting them to a dialogue without any conditions,” Kim told reporters, but North Korea has yet to respond, which Kim called “very disappointing.”
He declined to speculate on why, but said the COVID-19 pandemic could be one reason. North Korea “finds itself isolated in unprecedented ways and has shut itself off during the COVID pandemic. Only the resumption of diplomacy can break this isolation,” he said.
Instead, the U.S. has heard more fiery rhetoric from Kim Jong Un’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, who this week warned of a nuclear response if South Korea prepared to strike. Kim said the U.S. was “concerned” by the “provocative” comments.
With Biden’s North Korea policy going nowhere fast, Kim argued it is still having an important effect. While Pyongyang remains committed to perfecting its nuclear weapons program, U.S. sanctions and pressure “are constraining their progress,” he said.
