(NEW YORK) — Two years after the COVID-19 pandemic began, mental health challenges still impact youth.
But in a new one-hour ABC News primetime special anchored by Good Morning America’s Robin Roberts, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy said children have struggled with mental health long before the pandemic.
“The pandemic’s been more challenging for some children,” Murthy told ABC News chief medical correspondent Dr. Jennifer Ashton. “If we wanna address this, we’ve got to listen to kids.”
In October 2021, the American Academy of Pediatrics found “soaring rates of mental health challenges among children, adolescents, and their families over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Two months later, Murthy issued an advisory on the youth mental health crisis, emphasizing that mental health challenges are present among children and young adults.
To help young people heal, Murthy has been doing listening tours with youth across the country.
In the ABC News primetime special “24 Months That Changed the World,” Ashton sits down with Murthy and kids at Ida B. Wells Middle School. in Washington, D.C.
“I felt like that little kid in me disappeared and I started worrying about stress,” said Daylan Joya, a student at Ida B. Wells Middle School.
Added student Machi Brooks: “Don’t just treat us like, ‘Oh, you’re a child.’ Treat us like what we’ve been through is as equal to what you’ve been through.”
At a high school in Mason, Ohio, the Hope Squad was created to help students with their mental health.
“Tons of people needed help during the pandemic,” Kaya Rossey, a member of William Mason High School’s Hope Squad, told ABC News.
In one exercise, students role-played how to handle self-harming behavior when they spot it.
Dr. Alok Patel, a physician at Stanford Children’s Health and ABC News contributor, said a “silver lining” of the pandemic is that it’s opened the conversation on mental health.
“One silver lining that has come is the amount of discussion and awareness that has happened to talk about their own mental health struggles,” said Patel.
“24 Months That Changed the World” airs on a special edition of 20/20 on Wednesday, March 30, on ABC. It will air the next day on Hulu.
(NEW YORK) — Joao “Julia” da Silva, a 23-year-old trans woman, was found in Texas on Tuesday after she was last seen by family members leaving her residence in North Bay Village, Florida, on March 24.
North Bay Village police are working with local authorities and family members to coordinate her return. The investigation into her disappearance remains ongoing.
Authorities said da Silva frequents the Miami, Miami Beach and Wilton Manors LGBTQ communities. She was seen in video surveillance at a gas station on Monday night in the South Miami area near Homestead.
“With this video footage, what concerns us is that she did appear disoriented,” said Paul Battaglia, the LGBT liaison officer at the North Bay Village Police Department. “She also did appear alone, which is unusual for her.”
Transgender people are four times more likely than cisgender people to be victims of violence, according to a study by the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law.
Battaglia said the department is taking the heightened risks against this population into account.
“We understand the statistics. They’re are at a higher probability for violence, self-harm,” he said. “So we did ask those pertinent questions at the initial intake. She does not suffer from any previous mental health history, no depression, no self-harm, because that’s very important to us.”
“That’s all we want, to make sure she is OK,” da Silva’s best friend, Tatiana, told ABC-affiliate WPLG-TV when da Silva was missing. Da Silva’s mother had reportedly flown in from Japan to help with the search.
If anyone has information on da Silva’s whereabouts, the North Bay Village Police Department urges them to reach out to the agency at (305)758-2626.
(NEW YORK) — As Americans continue to file their taxes ahead of Tax Day, the Federal Trade Commission has slapped a lawsuit against a company behind a popular tax filing software.
The FTC announced on Tuesday it is suing Intuit, the makers of TurboTax, over what it calls “bogus advertisements” that mislead taxpayers into believing they can file their taxes for free with the software.
The commission says that in reality, most customers can’t use TurboTax’s free products “because it is not available to millions of taxpayers, such as those who get a 1099 form for work in the gig economy, or those who earn farm income.”
The FTC points out that in 2020 alone, approximately two-thirds of tax filers weren’t eligible to use the company’s free products.
With the deadline for filing taxes just around the corner — Tax Day is April 18 — the FTC has also filed a complaint in federal district court asking that Intuit cease its “deceptive advertising” immediately.
(WASHINGTON) — Sen. Susan Collins of Maine has pledged to support Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court, giving President Joe Biden at least one Republican vote for his nominee.
While Democrats have the votes to confirm Biden’s high court nominee on their own, with Collin’s vote, the White House meets its goal of securing at least some Republican support and shoring up the court’s credibility.
The New York Times first reported the development.
(NEW YORK) — Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, disease surveillance efforts that rely on testing and variant sequencing have been critical tools in the global efforts to fight the virus.
Without these tools, experts said, the spread of COVID-19 could have been exponentially greater, potentially resulting in many more deaths.
“Testing and sequencing have been critical to understanding where the virus is and how it is evolving. This is critical information for response and mitigation efforts,” Dr. Rebecca Katz, professor and director of the Center for Global Health Science and Security at Georgetown University, told ABC News.
Surveillance tools have helped health officials make important recommendations throughout the pandemic — including the decision to green light booster doses for extra protection, and decision to pull back on some monoclonal antibody treatments authorized for COVID-19, following concerns that it was not effective against certain variants.
However, as the omicron surge has receded, usage of those key tools, namely testing, has also declined — a choice that has been a source of great concern for health experts as the more transmissible, omicron subvariant, BA.2, spreads across the U.S.
Although some Americans are still getting PCR tests, considered the gold standard of testing, reported testing levels are now at their lowest point in eight months, with numbers dropping by nearly 75% since the beginning of the year.
Lab testing is also key to detecting variants because genetic sequencing, the primary method of detecting new variants, cannot be conducted.
Even wastewater surveillance, which provides some measure of early warning, does not indicate variants present or give a clear indication of the number of cases.
“With reduced testing we have less visibility into disease transmission as well as virus evolution,” Katz said. “Certainly, the decline in testing we are seeing both in the U.S. and around the world is concerning. We are losing our situational awareness.”
Over the last month, the United Kingdom, which has been a global leader in COVID-19 sequencing, reported nearly 200,000 sequences, the highest of any country, to GISAID, the international database that tracks changes in the virus. Throughout the pandemic, the U.K. has been at the forefront of COVID-19 sequencing.
Comparatively, the U.S., which ranks third behind Denmark for sequencing, has reported about 35,000 sequences in the last 30 days.
Getting ahead of the curve
Last week, a new study found that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s program to detect COVID-19 variants in international air travelers, using genetic sequencing, revealed that the first BA.2 case in the U.S. had actually been weeks before it was first reported.
“Earlier detection of new SARS-CoV-2 variants of interest and concern allows researchers and public health officials the needed time to gather information about transmissibility, virulence, and vaccine effectiveness to enable adjustments to treatment and prevention strategies,” the researchers wrote, adding that the surveillance measure could be used as an early warning system for future outbreaks.
Across the globe, BA.2 now accounts for approximately 86% of sequences from the last four weeks, World Health Organization technical director Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove reported earlier this month. She stressed that declines in surveillance could ultimately put the world at risk as the virus continues to spread.
“It’s really critical that we have testing and it’s really critical that we have sequencing … that the systems that have been put in place for surveillance, for testing, for sequencing right now be reinforced, that they are not taken apart, because we need to move on to the next challenge,” Van Kerkhove said.
In order to track new variants, teams have been sequencing the virus’ genetic material to identify its strain, lineage and specific mutations.
“We’ve only just realized the value of these methods for our communities and our health. Instead of fully recognizing this, we’re considering stopping. This is short-sighted,” said Davida S. Smyth, Ph.D., a professor and microbiologist at Texas A&M University, who has been tracking COVID-19 in New York City’s wastewater since the summer of 2020.
Wastewater will continue to be an important tool as a preliminary indicator of COVID-19 trends in the U.S. However, adequate genetic sequencing is also needed in order to identify new variants in the water.
“The only way we can track the virus is through a combination of clinical sequencing and wastewater sequencing,” Smyth said. “Wastewater can in fact serve as an early warning system. Without sequencing, we cannot determine the identity of the virus variants that are circulating and without testing we cannot know how prevalent it is.”
Closing down testing sites
Of additional concern for some experts has been the decision to close down testing sites in favor of at-home testing. From coast to coast, dozens of states have moved to shutter public testing sites.
With at-home tests now widely available, most Americans are also not reporting their results to officials, and thus, experts say that infection totals are likely undercounted.
“The less data we have, the less insight — even predictive insight — we have to create evidence-based public health policy,” Jessica Malaty Rivera, an epidemiologist at the Pandemic Prevention Institute, told ABC News.
In addition, officials are unable to sequence at-home tests, which means potential mutations or new variants could go undetected, experts say.
“The fact is, we’ve never tested enough. And I worry we’ve fallen Into the fallacy of ‘testing less, means less COVID.’ That’s a dangerous approach to this next phase of the pandemic,” Malaty Rivera said.
Funding key
Health officials and experts agree that access to adequate funding will also be essential to the country’s ability to keep the virus under control.
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said in an interview earlier this month that government funding is essential to the agency’s ability to monitor variants, and study other key COVID-19 issues.
Recognizing that we still do not know everything about COVID-19 will be important, Smyth added, as the virus has frequently proven itself to be erratic and unpredictable.
“I am concerned given that we’ve likely not seen the last of emergent SARS-CoV-2 variants and we’ve likely not seen the last of what this virus can do in response to vaccines and our immune system,” Smyth said. “Without observation and surveillance, we could be blindsided. We’re not out of the woods yet.”
(NEW YORK) — Russian forces are continuing their attempted push through Ukraine from multiple directions, while Ukrainians, led by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, are putting up “stiff resistance,” according to U.S. officials.
The attack began Feb. 24, when Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a “special military operation.” Heavy shelling and missile attacks, many on civilian buildings, continue in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, as well as major cities like Kharkiv and Mariupol.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Mar 29, 7:26 pm
Zelenskyy says Russia still has ‘significant potential’ to continue attacks
In his latest national address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged Ukrainians to stay vigilant and warned that Russia still has “significant potential” to continue its attacks.
The comments come after Russia claimed it would move forces away from Kyiv and Chernihiv and the latest round of in-person peace negotiations kicked off in Turkey.
Zelenskyy said there were positive signals that came out of Tuesday’s talks in Istanbul and that Ukraine is willing to continue the negotiation process, but that his country’s sovereignty and territorial integrity must be guaranteed.
“There can be no compromise on sovereignty and our territorial integrity. And there will not be any,” he said.
The president called for sanctions targeting Russia to be intensified amid continued shelling.
“The question of [lifting Russian] sanctions cannot even be raised until the war is over, until we get back what’s ours and until we restore justice,” he said.
-ABC News’ Fidel Pavlenko
Mar 29, 7:01 pm
Ukraine outlines proposals for new system of security guarantees
Ukraine outlined proposals for a new system of security guarantees for their country during talks with Russia in Turkey on Tuesday, officials said.
Ukraine is seeking security guarantees comparable to NATO’s collective defense clause, Article 5, in that in the event of an attack on Ukraine, “guarantor countries” would be legally obligated to provide arms and impose a “no-fly” zone over Ukraine, according to David Arakhamia, the head of Ukraine’s negotiation team. The security guarantees would “not work temporarily” in the currently occupied territories of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions and Crimea, the government said.
The suggested list of guarantors includes permanent members of the UN Security Council — the U.S., Great Britain, France, China and Russia — as well as Turkey, Germany, Canada, Italy, Poland and Israel.
In exchange, Ukraine’s would “undertake not to deploy foreign military bases, foreign military contingents on its territory, not to join military-political alliances, and military exercises on the territory of Ukraine will be possible with the consent of the guarantor countries,” the government said.
It is “fundamentally important” that a potential treaty does not deny Ukraine’s right to join the European Union, Oleksandr Chalyi, a member of the Ukrainian delegation, said in a statement.
Negotiations with Russia will continue in the next two weeks, and Ukraine has already begun consultations with all countries they would like to see on the guarantor list, according to Chalyi.
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Mar 29, 2:30 pm
Biden says ‘we’ll see’ if Russians will follow through on moving forces away from Kyiv, Chernihiv
President Biden on Tuesday expressed skepticism regarding Russia’s claim that its forces will move away from Kyiv and Chernihiv.
“I don’t read anything into it until I see what their actions are. We’ll see if they follow through on what they’re suggesting,” Biden said during a joint press conference with Singapore’s prime minister.
Biden also commented on the ongoing negotiations in Turkey between Ukraine and Russia and said there is consensus among Western allies to “see what they have to offer.”
“But in the meantime, we’re going to continue to keep strong sanctions. We are going to continue to provide the Ukrainian military with their capacity to defend themselves and we are going to continue to keep a close eye on what’s going on,” Biden said.
-ABC News’ Justin Gomez
Mar 29, 2:16 pm
Rocket strike on Mykolaiv government building leaves 12 dead, 33 injured
A rocket strike on a regional administration building in the southern Ukrainian port city of Mykolaiv killed 12 and injured 33 people, according to Ukrainian State Emergency Services.
Emergency services said 18 people were rescued from the rubble.
According to state officials, the strike occurred Tuesday at 8:45 a.m. local time. Search and rescue operations are still underway.
-ABC News’ Natalya Kushnir
Mar 29, 2:14 pm
Top military commander says US will likely need more troops in Europe, may become permanent force
Gen. Tod Wolters, the top U.S. military commander in Europe, met with lawmakers on Capitol Hill Tuesday, telling them he expects he’ll need more U.S. troops and it’s possible they may become a permanent force in the country.
With U.S. troop levels in Europe now at 100,000 from 60,000 just a few months ago, Wolters said it’s very likely that the number of troops could continue to rise depending on the situation in Ukraine.
“My suspicion is we’re going to still need more,” Wolters said. “And obviously, there’s always a mix between the requirement of permanent versus rotational and there are pluses and minuses of each one. We’ll have to continue to examine the European contributions to make a smart decision about where to go in the future.”
Wolters praised Ukraine’s military and its ability to stall Russian military operations through the weapons systems provided by the U.S. military.
When asked if the U.S. had overestimated the Russians and underestimated Ukraine’s defensive capability, Wolters said in part, “When this crisis is over with we will accomplish a comprehensive after-action review in all domains and in all departments and find out where our weak areas. Where it makes sure that we can find ways to improve and this could be one of those areas.”
-ABC News’ Luis Martinez
Mar 29, 1:22 pm
Some troops moving away from Kyiv but US believes it’s ‘redeployment, not a withdrawal’
The U.S. is seeing some movement of Russian troops away from Kyiv, as Russia has suggested, but the White House does not view this as a withdrawal but rather a “redeployment,” a White House official told ABC News.
“We’re seeing some movement of troops away from Kyiv, which could be an indication of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin having to adjust his original plan,” a White House official said. “But no one should read too much into an adjustment — should momentum build, Russia could change its plans again at any moment, or this could just be a regroup.”
“No one should be fooled by Russia’s announcements. We believe any movement of forces from around Kyiv is a redeployment, not a withdrawal, and the world should be prepared for a major offensive against other areas of Ukraine,” the official added.
-ABC News’ Molly Nagle
Mar 29, 12:22 pm
1st superyacht owned by a Russian national seized in UK waters
The United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency said it’s seized a superyacht owned by a Russian national — worth around $49.92 million — in Canary Wharf in London.
The National Crime Agency’s statement doesn’t identify the Russian national but says the owner deliberately registered the ship to a company based in Saint Kitts and Nevis in the Caribbean. The agency also said the ship carried Maltese flags, allegedly to hide its origins.
British Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the seizure “turned an icon of Russia’s power and wealth into a clear and stark warning to Putin and his cronies.” Shapps said the seizure proves “we can and will take the strongest possible action against those seeking to benefit from Russian connections.”
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Mar 29, 11:33 am
4 European countries expel dozens of Russian officials
Belgium announced Tuesday its decision to expel 21 Russian intelligence officers.
The officers were working for the Russian embassy and consulate in Brussels and were allegedly involved “in espionage and influence operations threatening national security,” Belgian Foreign Minister Sophie Wilmes said in a statement on Twitter.
Meanwhile, the Netherlands said it has expelled 17 Russian intelligence officers. The officers were in The Netherlands under diplomatic cover, Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra said in a statement on Twitter.
Ireland confirmed it has asked four senior Russian officials to leave the country.
“This is because their activities have not been in accordance with international standards of diplomatic behaviour,” Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said in a statement posted to Twitter. “The Government continues to believe that diplomatic channels between Ireland and the Russian Federation should remain open.”
The Czech Republic also announced its decision to expel one Russian diplomat from the Russian embassy in Prague. The individual was requested to leave the country within 72 hours.
“Together with our Allies, we are reducing the Russian intelligence presence in the EU,” the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement on Twitter.
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Mar 29, 10:29 am
Russia says talks were ‘constructive,’ Ukraine says more countries will be involved
Tuesday’s talks in Istanbul between Ukraine and Russia have concluded.
Russian delegation head Vladimir Medinsky told reporters the talks were “constructive.”
Meanwhile, Alexander Chaly of the Ukrainian delegation told reporters that talks will continue, and in two weeks they plan to involve other countries in the negotiation process.
Ukrainian negotiator David Arakhamia said he believes enough has been covered to now involve the presidents of Ukraine and Russia in the talks.
Medinsky noted, “As a result of today’s substantive conversation, we have approved and offer a solution, according to which a meeting between the heads of state is possible simultaneously with the initialing of the agreement.”
“The proposed format is like this: first an agreement will be drafted, then the agreement will be approved by the negotiators and signed by the foreign ministers at a meeting, and then the possibility of a meeting between the heads of state will be discussed in order to sign this agreement,” Medinsky said.
Ukrainian officials said a military alliance of other countries — including the U.S. — needs to be created to provide security protections to Ukraine.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken expressed skepticism about the talks, saying he would leave it to the Ukrainians to characterize any progress.
Mar 29, 9:41 am
Russia says talks are constructive, Ukraine says more countries will be involved in negotiation process
Tuesday’s talks in Istanbul between Ukraine and Russia have concluded.
Russian delegation head Vladimir Medinsky told reporters the talks were constructive.
Alexander Chaly of the Ukrainian delegation told reporters that negotiations will continue, and in two weeks they plan to involve other countries in the negotiation process.
Ukrainian negotiator David Arakhamia said he believes enough has been covered to now involve the presidents of Ukraine and Russia in the talks.
Medinsky noted, “As a result of today’s substantive conversation, we have approved and offer a solution, according to which a meeting between the heads of state is possible simultaneously with the initialing of the agreement.”
“The proposed format is like this: first an agreement will be drafted, then the agreement will be approved by the negotiators and signed by the foreign ministers at a meeting, and then the possibility of a meeting between the heads of state will be discussed in order to sign this agreement,” Medinsky said.
Ukrainian officials said a military alliance of other countries — including the U.S. — needs to be created to provide security protections to Ukraine.
Mar 29, 9:07 am
Biden to speak with leaders of France, Germany, Italy, UK
President Joe Biden will hold a call at 9:15am ET Tuesday with French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi and United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson to discuss the latest with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, according to the White House.
Macron is also set to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday.
Mar 29, 9:01 am
Russia claims it’s ‘drastically’ decreasing military activity near Kyiv, Chernihiv
Russian forces are “drastically” decreasing military activity around Kyiv and Chernihiv to try to improve trust and aid further talks with Ukraine, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Col. Gen. Alexander Fomin told reporters.
“Due to the fact that the negotiations on elaborating a treaty on Ukraine’s neutrality and nuclear-free status, as well as on providing Ukraine with security guarantees are shifting to the practical field, and taking into account the principles discussed during today’s meeting, the Russian Defense Ministry has decided to decrease its military activity in the areas of Kyiv and Chernihiv drastically in order to increase mutual trust and create conditions required for further negotiations and for achieving the ultimate goal of reaching an agreement on and signing of the aforementioned treaty,” he said.
Mar 29, 8:54 am
Over 3.9 million refugees have fled Ukraine: UNHCR
More than 3.9 million people have been forced to flee Ukraine since Russian forces invaded on Feb. 24, according to the latest figures from the United Nations Refugee Agency.
The tally from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) amounts to just over 8.8% of Ukraine’s population — which the World Bank counted at 44 million at the end of 2020 — on the move across borders in 34 days.
More than half of the refugees crossed into neighboring Poland, UNHCR figures show.
Mar 29, 8:27 am
Russia says ‘special military operation’ to continue until ‘objectives are achieved’
Russia’s “special military operation” in Ukraine will continue “until the objectives are achieved,” Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Tuesday.
Shoigu claimed that Russian troops are “actively providing humanitarian assistance to the population of” the self-declared Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics as well as Ukraine.
“As many as 684 humanitarian operations have been completed and 6,079 tons of cargo have been supplied to 210 populated localities,” Shoigu said at a teleconference.
Mar 29, 8:24 am
Deadly missile strike leaves gaping hole in Mykolaiv government building
Russian forces struck Mykolaiv’s regional state administration building on Tuesday morning, Ukrainian authorities said.
A video posted on Telegram by Mykolaiv Oblast Gov. Vitaliy Kim and verified by ABC News shows the moment the building was hit. A live webcam over the southern city of Mykolaiv captured the missile crossing the camera. Moments later, smoke from an explosion fills the screen.
Another video posted on Facebook by the State Emergency Service of Ukraine and verified by ABC News shows a gaping hole in the building where the missile hit. At least seven people were killed and 22 others were injured. Search and rescue operations are ongoing, according to the State Emergency Service.
An image posted on Twitter by Ukraine’s Center for Strategic Communication and Information Security (Stratcom) also showed the destroyed building.
Mar 29, 7:44 am
Macron to speak with Putin on Tuesday
French President Emmanuel Macron will speak via telephone with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Tuesday, according to the Elysee Palace.
Their phone conversation is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. Paris time.
Mar 29, 7:02 am
Kremlin confirms Abramovich’s involvement in peace talks
Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich is taking part in Russian-Ukrainian negotiations at the approval of both parties, although he is not an official member of the Russian delegation, according to Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
“Abramovich has been engaged in ensuring certain contacts between the Russian and the Ukrainian side,” Peskov said during a daily call with reporters Tuesday. “He is not an official delegation member.”
“Nevertheless, he is also present on our side in Istanbul,” Peskov added, referring to the peace talks currently underway in Turkey’s capital.
Abramovich’s participation in the negotiations has been endorsed by both sides, according to Peskov.
Peskov said it will be clear “today or tomorrow whether [the talks] hold some promise or not.”
Mar 29, 6:59 am
Ukrainian soldiers patrol streets of Irpin after claims of liberation
Ukrainian soldiers were seen patrolling the streets of Irpin on Tuesday, following claims that the besieged Kyiv suburb has been “liberated” from Russian forces.
Video released by the Ukrainian military and verified by ABC News shows their troops driving through Irpin, a northwestern suburb of Kyiv where some of the heaviest fighting near the Ukrainian capital has taken place.
Irpin Mayor Oleksandr Markushyn announced in a video posted to Telegram on Monday that “Irpin has been liberated.”
Meanwhile, the Ukrainian government released video on Tuesday showing elderly people who had been evacuated from Irpin arriving in Kyiv, where they reunited with their families.
The footage purportedly shows 86-year-old Irpin resident Olga Molchanova being embraced by her daughter and son. Molchanova’s adult children had evacuated Irpin earlier via a humanitarian corridor, but their parents refused to leave at the time, according to Ukraine’s Center for Strategic Communication and Information Security (Stratcom).
“Recaptured by Ukrainian army, Irpin remains too dangerous for civilians to stay,” Stratcom said in a post on Twitter alongside the video.
Mar 29, 6:16 am
Abramovich attends peace talks after suspected poisoning
Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich is taking part in Tuesday’s in-person negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Turkey’s capital, a Turkish presidential source told ABC News.
Abramovich is the owner of the English professional football club Chelsea. The U.K. government has included him among the wealthy Russians targeted in recent sanctions.
The Wall Street Journal reported Monday, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter, that Abramovich and two Ukrainian negotiators suffered symptoms of suspected poisoning after peace talks in Kyiv in early March.
A Turkish presidential source told ABC News that Abramovich suspected he was poisoned after experiencing eye problems.
Turkish officials confirmed there is a discussion regarding the food protocols during Tuesday’s negotiations in Istanbul.
Mar 29, 6:12 am
Ukraine warns delegation not to eat or drink at talks
Ukraine is warning its delegation against eating or drinking while attending in-person peace talks with Russian negotiators, amid fears of potential poisoning.
“I advise to everyone who’s going to any negotiations with Russia, not to eat or drink anything, and also not to touch any surfaces,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said in a statement Tuesday.
The warning came a day after The Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed sources, that Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich and two Ukrainian negotiators had suffered symptoms of suspected poisoning following peace talks in Kyiv in early March.
Mar 29, 3:22 am
Talks between Russia, Ukraine begin in Turkey
The latest round of in-person peace negotiations between Russian and Ukrainian delegations kicked off in Istanbul on Tuesday morning, with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in attendance.
Erdogan addressed both sides with a brief speech before the talks began.
“Establishing a cease-fire and peace as soon as possible will be to everyone’s benefit. We think that we’ve entered a period where we need to achieve concrete results from negotiations,” Erdogan said. “As members of the delegations, you’ve taken on a historic responsibility. The whole world is awaiting the good news that will come from you.”
Footage showing the start of the meeting was broadcast by Russian state-backed television channel RT.
Tuesday’s negotiations are taking place in Dolmabahce Palace in the Besiktas district of Turkey’s capital, according to Turkish state-run news agency Anadolu Agency. It’s the first face-to-face talks to take place between Russia and Ukraine in more than two weeks.
(RABAT, Morocco) — The U.S. remains skeptical that Russia is engaging genuinely in negotiations with Ukraine to end its monthlong war against its neighbor.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the Kremlin’s negotiators had still not shown “signs of real seriousness,” even after the two sides discussed potential elements of a peace deal shortly after talks in Turkey on Tuesday.
Russia’s military said it would “fundamentally” scale back its military operations near Ukraine’s capital Kyiv and the northern city Chernihiv to give those talks a chance.
But Blinken declined to say whether the U.S. had confirmed a real shift in Russian strategy nearly five weeks after Russian leader Vladimir Putin launched his invasion and aimed for a swift takeover of the Ukrainian government.
“There is what Russia says and what Russia does, and we’re focused on the latter — and what Russia is doing is the continued brutalization of Ukraine and its people, and that continues as we speak,” he told reporters in Rabat, Morocco.
“I have not seen anything that suggests that this is moving forward in an effective way because Russia is not showing signs of real seriousness, but if Ukraine concludes that there is, that’s good, and we support that,” he added.
President Joe Biden also weighed in Tuesday on Russia’s claim that it will move forces, saying “we’ll see if they follow through on what they’re suggesting.”
“I don’t read anything into it until I see what their actions are,” he said during a joint press statement with Singapore’s prime minister at the White House.
Biden noted the ongoing negotiations in Turkey between Ukraine and Russia and said there is consensus among Western allies to “see what they have to offer.”
“We’ll find out what they do,” he added. “But in the meantime, we’re going to continue to keep strong sanctions. We are going to continue to provide the Ukrainian military with their capacity to defend themselves and we are going to continue to keep a close eye on what’s going on.”
Ukrainian negotiators have laid out a detailed framework for a peace deal, where Ukraine would remain neutral and not joined the Western military alliance NATO — but it would join the European Union and its security would be guaranteed by several regional and world powers, including the U.S.
Asked Tuesday whether the U.S. would join that pact, Blinken expressed support: “If there is some kind of outcome, and if our support for Ukraine can be part of that, can include our support in the future for its defense and security, of course that’s something we’ll want to pursue.”
Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said Tuesday’s talks made “meaningful” progress, with “a consensus and common understanding” on some issues, according to the Associated Press.
But Blinken was more skeptical, saying it could be Moscow “trying to deflect and deceive people into thinking that it’s not doing what it is doing, whether it’s simply trying to regroup given the heavy losses that it’s suffered – I don’t know.”
Russian forces had already been pushed back from east of Kyiv and moved into defensive positions north of the city, Pentagon officials said last week — a sign the Kremlin was suffering major losses in its efforts to seize the capital and decapitate the Ukrainian government.
Late last week, Russia said its “main goal” was now on the eastern provinces known as the Donbas, where Moscow has led separatist forces for over eight years against the Ukrainian government.
The top U.S. diplomat engaged with his Russian counterpart repeatedly before the war, saying the U.S. had to give diplomacy a chance. But after the Kremlin launched its brutal invasion, he’s been far more skeptical — accusing the Kremlin of not negotiating in good faith and, instead, using the cover of diplomacy to continue its attacks.
After Biden spoke to his British, French, German and Italian counterparts earlier on Tuesday, the British government echoed the same skepticism.
“The Prime Minister underscored that we must judge Putin’s regime by their actions not their words,” a spokesperson for Boris Johnson said.
ABC News’ Libby Cathey contributed to this report.
Delegations leave peace talks between representatives from Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul, Turkey. – Onur Coban/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — The first face-to-face peace talks in more than two weeks between Ukraine and Russia concluded after five hours on Tuesday in Turkey with both sides reporting progress in the negotiations.
In an unexpected move, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Col. Gen. Alexander Fomin told reporters following Tuesday’s talks that Russia’s military activity is being dramatically curtailed near the Ukraine capital Kyiv and in Chernihiv in an attempt to increase “mutual trust and create conditions required for further negotiations.”
Formin said the “ultimate goal” of the talks is reaching a peace treaty.
Russian negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said Tuesday’s talks were “constructive.”
“We have received proposals from Ukraine to consider their clearly formulated position on inclusion in the treaty,” Medinsky told reporters following the session.
Ukrainian negotiator Alexander Chaly said the next talks in about two weeks could involve other countries in the negotiation process.
David Arakhamia, another Ukrainian negotiator, added, “We believe that enough material has already been developed to involve the presidents of Ukraine and Russia in the talks.”
Medinsky noted that Tuesday’s “substantive conversation” could clear the way for a meeting between the heads of state.
“The proposed format is like this: first an agreement will be drafted, then the agreement will be approved by the negotiators and signed by the foreign ministers at a meeting, and then the possibility of a meeting between the heads of state will be discussed in order to sign this agreement,” Medinsky said.
The in-person talks were held in Istanbul and Turkish President Tayyip Recep Erdogan addressed the opposing parties before the negotiation session started.
“It is in the hands of the parties to stop this tragedy,” Erdogan said in his opening remarks, which were carried live on Russian TV.
Erdogan said Turkey sees both Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as “valuable friends.”
Also participating in the negotiations was Roman Abramovich, the billionaire Russian oligarch whose assets have been frozen by sanctions imposed by the West due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Previous in-person peace talks have been held in Belarus and representatives of both parties have also been communicating via video conferencing.
Russia initially only presented Ukraine with ultimatums but has changed its strategy as its troops have met tough resistance from Ukrainian forces, which have managed to re-take some towns and villages.
Prior to Fomin’s announcement that Russia was de-escalating its military activities in Kyiv and Chernihiv, a U.S. defense official said Monday that Russian troops around Kyiv have stopped making advances toward the city, though they continue using long-range fires. Russian troops remain 15-20 miles north/northwest of the city and about 35 miles east.
“Static situation on the ground there, except for the fact that we continue to see Ukrainians defend the city and try to push Russians back as well,” the U.S. official said on Monday.
Before Tuesday’s negotiations, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba warned the Ukrainian delegation to be on guard for sabotage, including poisoning.
“I advise to everyone who’s going to any negotiations with Russia, not to eat or drink anything, and also not to touch any surfaces,” Kuleba said.
(SEOUL, South Korea) — North Korea’s long-range missile launch last week may have been a modified version of a type they tested in 2017, not the newly developed type of intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) Pyongyang claims to have fired, according to South Korean lawmakers who were briefed by South Korea’s military in a closed meeting Tuesday.
“South Korea and the U.S. intelligence concluded that North Korea’s claim is false, that it was actually Hwasong-15 [not Hwasong-17]. That’s why we are saying that North Korea is deceiving,” Min Hong Chul, a South Korean lawmaker from the ruling Democratic Party and a former general in the army, told reporters.
Hwasong-15 refers to the type of ICBM North Koreans successfully tested in November 2017. It was tested again two weeks ago in a failed attempt. Hwasong-17 is the type that Pyongyang announced to have successfully launched last Thursday.
South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff had confirmed the latest launch saying the missile flew 671 miles at an altitude of 3,852.5 miles.
Regardless of whether that missile was the new or old type, South Korean and Japanese military analysis confirmed the trajectory shows a considerable improvement in technology, and the range and scale of the ICBM could potentially reach New York or Washington.
South Korea’s opposition lawmaker Ha Tae-keung also claimed that his North Korea sources witnessed “debris falling from the skies in Pyongyang area” on the day of the failed launch on March 16. So in order to make up for the failure and loss of credibility to the people, he told reporters, the country may have exaggerated the success of the latest launch, upgrading it to a new missile type.
However, Ha’s claims about debris were dismissed by other lawmakers and defense officials as it can not be verified at the moment.
North Korea’s state television on Friday had widely reported the launch through a 12-minute-long, theatrical video claiming this “new Hwasong-17” will “mark the end to a self-imposed moratorium on testing long-range missiles since 2017” and “make the whole world clearly aware of the power of our strategic armed forces once again.”
The meticulously produced Hollywood-style video showed leader Kim Jong-Un directing the launch wearing a black leather jacket and black sunglasses, including a slow-motion video of him strutting through the launch area in front of the missile. Many analysts believe from the video that the footage was shot on different dates.
ABC News’ Hakyung Kate Lee contributed to this report.
Marti Hines, far left, poses with Selma Blair, center, and a friend in this undated photo. (Courtesy Marti Hines)
(NEW YORK) — When Marti Hines woke up one morning four years ago while on vacation and was unable to move the left side of her body, she said it did not even cross her mind that she, at age 34, could have multiple sclerosis (MS).
Even after an MRI found over 20 lesions on her brain and spinal cord and she was formally diagnosed with MS, Hines said she spent close to six months in “anger and denial,” not willing to believe she had the disease, a chronic disorder of the central nervous system that can cause problems with vision, balance and muscle control.
“Being a Black woman at 34, it just added to me not being able to take in this information,” Hines, now 38, told ABC News’ Good Morning America. “Nothing seemed to make sense.”
When she looked online for information about MS, Hines said the results not only terrified her, but also did not seem to reflect her, a young, Black woman who was healthy and active and had a busy career as a filmmaker and event planner.
“It’s a pretty terrifying thing to try to deep dive and look into, so I was very scared,” said Hines. “And then as I was getting on that road of acceptance, and trying to find resources, I really noticed I wasn’t finding a lot of myself.”
In the same month that Hines was diagnosed, August 2018, actress Selma Blair was also diagnosed with the same disease, while in her 40s.
When Blair shared her diagnosis publicly, Hines said she was still in her own “denial” about having MS.
Over the years though, Blair speaking out about her battle with MS has helped Hines, and she believes countless other people with MS, women in particular.
“I appreciate the awareness that she brought to the disease,” said Hines, who says she has since met Blair at MS-related events. “I feel like this illness has a face now. You can say you have MS and people have some kind of touchpoint to it. I think it’s amazing that she has been so open and vulnerable.”
A changing face of a disease that strikes young women at higher rates
Blair and other actresses who have spoken publicly about battling MS in recent years, from Christina Applegate to Jamie Lynn Sigler, have begun to change the perception of MS, according to both patients and experts.
The three women, now in their 30s and 40s, represent the most common population of MS patients — young and female — who have not always been the public face of the disease, even though it has long affected them disproportionately.
The average age of the start of symptoms for people with MS is between the ages of 20 to 40, and the disease is three times more common in women than men, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Multiple Sclerosis Society (NMSS), a nonprofit organization focused on raising MS awareness and increasing research.
“The label of MS these days doesn’t necessarily conjure up the same image as it did maybe 20, 30 years ago,” said Dr. Suma Shah, a board-certified neurologist at Duke University who specializes in MS. “We used to hear MS and think this is someone who’s going to have disability, who’s going to have a really rough disease course. We’re in a place now where we can’t assume that about the diagnosis.”
While there is no known cause of MS, it is believed to be an autoimmune disease in which the body attacks myelin, the tissue that surrounds nerves, including those in the brain and spinal cord, according to the NIH.
It is an unpredictable disease, one that causes different symptoms with variable timing and frequency in different people, from fatigue, numbness or tingling, weakness, dizziness and vertigo to, in the most severe cases, rendering a person unable to write, speak or walk, the NIH says.
Even for each individual patient, the symptoms of MS can vary at times, ranging from mild to the extreme pain of a flare-up of the disease, as Hines knows well.
“If you have MS, you’re just highly sensitive, so anything that messes with the balance that I try to keep myself at will trigger these symptoms, and then they kind of roll into a domino effect of one another,” said Hines. “It’s only been about three-and-a-half years since I’ve had MS, but I’ve forgotten what it feels like to feel good.”
Why it is women like Hines who are young and otherwise healthy who are disproportionately stricken with MS remains a mystery that researchers are still trying to solve, according to Shah.
“What we’ve looked at specifically are whether there are something genetic, specifically on the X chromosome, which women have two of, whether there’s something hormonal and then environmental factors,” she said. “I think it really is that perfect storm for one individual person of how genetics, hormones, and environmental factors all play in together to allow MS to flourish.”
“And in that young, early 20s, 30s period, we don’t know why. It may just be that again, that perfect storm of having the right genetics and the right hormone levels to allow it to flourish,” Shah explained.
For some women, the disease can strike suddenly, as with the case of Hines, who said she woke up one morning unable to move and received a diagnosis just hours later.
The more common path though is that it can take months or years for a woman to get a diagnosis of MS. In the case of Blair, she has said it took several years to get a diagnosis, a time during which she said she self-medicated and felt like she was “not taken seriously by doctors.’
“I was ashamed and I was doing the best I could and I was a great mother, but it was killing me,” Blair, whose son was 7 years old at the time of her diagnosis, told ABC News’ Robin Roberts in 2019. “And so when I got the diagnosis I cried with some relief. Like, ‘Oh, good, I’ll be able to do something.'”
Adding to the difficulty of diagnosing MS is that symptoms may start and then fade away and later return, or in other cases they may develop gradually over many years. The four main types of MS are named according to the progression of symptoms, according to the NIH.
With relapsing-remitting MS, the most common type of the disease, symptoms occur in attacks, called a relapse or exacerbation, followed by a period of remission that may last for weeks, months or years, according to the NIH.
People with secondary-progressive MS have usually had a history of MS attacks and their symptoms and ability to function worsen over time. In the two more severe and rare forms of MS — primary-progressive MS and progressive-relapsing MS — people’s symptoms worsen from the beginning, with no remission, according to the NIH.
There are no specific tests that diagnose MS, which means doctors often rely on ruling out other conditions with similar symptoms. MRIs can also identify lesions on the brain and spinal cord to help diagnose MS.
“It’s really hard because I think for an individual, the sooner you pursue diagnosis, the longer you have to live with seeing your body in your life through this new lens,” said Shah. “But from a medical standpoint, that allows us to start high efficacy-medication early so that we can prevent downstream disability.”
There is no cure for MS, but there are medications now available to help delay the progression of the disease and to decrease the frequency and intensity of symptoms, according to Shah.
“I tell people when I diagnose them, the way that they look on the day they meet me, that’s the goal, no more disability,” she said. “And we have really good medications that get us pretty close to that these days.”
Breaking the stigma of an ‘invisible disease’
What Blair, Applegate and Sigler have done in speaking out about their battles with MS is to put names, faces and experiences to what advocates and patients describe as an “invisible disease.”
“Despite the fact that an estimated million people live in the U.S. with MS and that three-quarters of them are women, so we’re talking about 750,000 women, it is a very invisible disease in many ways,” said Julie Fiol, associate vice president of healthcare access for the NMSS. “It’s invisible in that people aren’t aware of it, don’t quite know what it is when they hear it, and because the symptoms can be invisible.”
When Moyna John, a 30-year-old mother, was diagnosed with MS over two years ago, she said even people close to her struggled to understand her illness at first because she wasn’t in a wheelchair, for instance.
“Some people close to me were like, ‘Well, you look fine,'” recalled John. “People within the chronic illness community in general hate hearing the, ‘but you don’t look sick’ phrase, because it’s not a compliment. We are sick.”
John, of Queens, New York, said that aside from the physical symptoms she deals with as part of her MS battle — from brain fog and fatigue to blurry vision and pain — there is a constant mental health struggle as well.
“This diagnosis came and completely derailed me. I was super depressed trying to figure out what life would be like now and how I would be an adequate mother and adequate wife and all these things,” said John, whose son is now 4. “I still deal with a lot of depression, a lot of anxiety, and that’s something that I have to navigate on a regular basis.”
John said that part of her acceptance of MS has been her work to make the disease less invisible for others, particularly for Black women.
“When I started to look into it, I thought this doesn’t seem to be something that affects women that look like me … I didn’t see young mothers. I didn’t see Black people at all,” she recalled. “I went to a support group and everyone was older, everyone was white, their symptoms were a lot more severe, and it kind of sent me spiraling.”
John began to share her journey on social media, where she said she found that, “Having some sort of community is beautiful.
“I feel like a lot of people don’t realize how much having someone who looks like you matters. It can be really isolating, feeling like you’re the only person dealing with this,” she said. “I think me sharing about me being a mom kind of helps people to think, wow, you can live a life that is busy and still exist.”
Likewise, Hines said she found so much support from the online community of people with MS that she started a YouTube channel, Marti’s MS Life, to document her own journey and create another space for women to talk openly.
“Most people can’t really understand what it means to be in pain every second of every day. Not being able to understand that makes the sick person feel even more isolated. You don’t want to be the person who has the cloud over them,” said Hines. “Everyone asks how you are and you just say, ‘I’m fine,’ because you probably wouldn’t talk to me anymore if I told you how I was.”
Sarah Walsh, a 37-year-old mom of two in Los Angeles, was diagnosed with MS three years ago, just after her oldest child’s first birthday.
She said that because people can’t physically see her MS symptoms, like pain and fatigue and vision loss, she makes sure to talk with friends, family, colleagues and strangers about the disease.
“It may be counterintuitive to people, but I kind of wear it as my badge of honor,” said Walsh. “I’m very transparent about it, like, ‘I’m Sarah and I have MS,’ and I don’t tell people to feel bad, it’s more that I just want people to know.”
Walsh said she also talks openly about her MS because “the burden is too great to do it on your own.”
“I feel like if I had stayed quiet about it, it would have done something to me in a negative capacity mentally,” said Walsh. “What’s helping me stay positive is to talk about it, to be supported.”
She continued, “I just never want the MS to beat me. That’s my goal. I’m very adamant about that. It won’t be the only thing that’s left at the end of day.”
