(DALLAS) — “Multiple” people were shot and one was killed Saturday night in Dallas, officials said.
“At this time, I can confirm one individual was shot and transported to a local hospital where they died from their injuries,” the Dallas Police Department told ABC News. “Multiple individuals were also shot and injured during this incident. This is an active investigation and information is limited.”
Police said they responded at about midnight to the 5200 block of Botham Jean Boulevard.
(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.”
Russian forces moving from neighboring Belarus toward Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, have advanced closer to the city center in recent days despite the resistance. Heavy shelling and missile attacks, many on civilian buildings, continue in Kyiv, as well as major cities like Kharkiv and Mariupol. Russia also bombed western cities for the first time this week, targeting Lviv and a military base near the Poland border.
Russia has been met by sanctions from the United States, Canada and countries throughout Europe, targeting the Russian economy as well as Putin himself.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Mar 20, 2:34 pm
Ukraine accuses Russia of forcibly deporting some civilians to Russia
Local authorities in the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol have accused Russian forces of forcibly deporting residents to Russia.
Mariupol’s city council said in a statement it received information Sunday morning that Russian troops were forcing residents of Azovstalkaya Street and from part of the Levoberezhny area to go to Russia. The statement said Russian forces were confiscating the Ukrainian passports of those being deported and issuing them a piece of paper.
ABC News has not independently confirmed the reports of people being forced to leave by Russian troops.
The Russian state news agency TASS reported on Saturday that 13 buses carrying 350 people were moving to Russia. About 50 of those people were to be sent by railway to the Yaroslavl region and the rest to temporary processing centers in Taganrog, a city in Russia’s southeastern Rostov region near Ukraine.
Ukraine has been trying to evacuate thousands of residents from Mariupol, with tens of thousands managing to escape in the past few days — mostly in private cars heading towards the Ukrainian-held city of Zaporizhzhia. Around 300,000 people are trapped in Mariupol, according to Ukrainian officials.
In some parts of Ukraine, Russia has opened “humanitarian corridors” to Russia. Some people in some cities have chosen to go to Russia to escape the fighting, though the vast majority are seeking to move to safety in other parts of Ukraine.
Mar 20, 12:50 pm
At least 900 killed, nearly 1,500 injured in Ukraine: UN
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights in Ukraine has recorded 2,361 civilian casualties in the country, including 902 dead and 1,459 injured.
In Ukraine’s Zhytomyr region, more than 100 Ukrainian troops and foreign mercenaries were killed by a missile strike, the Russian Ministry of Defense claimed on Sunday.
“A strike using high-precision air-to-surface missiles has been carried out on a special operations forces training center of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, where foreign mercenaries in Ukraine were based near the populated locality of Ovruch in the Zhytomyr region,” Russian Defense Ministry spokesperson Igor Konashenkov said in a press conference.
Mar 20, 12:35 pm
Russian journalist who protested on live television: ‘It’s Putin’s war’
Marina Ovsyannikova, the Russian state TV editor who protested the invasion of Ukraine on live television, continued her campaign against the war in an interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos on Sunday.
“The Russian people are really against the war,” Ovsyannikova said. “It’s Putin’s war and not the Russian people’s war.”
Ovsyannikova ran onto the set of the main Russian state news live broadcast earlier this month with an anti-war sign to protest Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, standing behind a Channel One anchor as they were speaking.
The sign read, “NO WAR” and “Don’t believe the propaganda. They’re lying to you here,” in English and Russian, respectively.
Ovsyannikova said it was a “spontaneous decision” for her to go onto the set, but “the dissatisfaction with the current situation has been accumulating for years, because the propaganda on our state channels has become more and more distorted.”
“What we showed on our programs was very different than the reality,” she said.
Ovsyannikova hoped her demonstration would attract attention to the propaganda and “inspire more people to speak up.”
Ovsyannikova was fined 30,000 rubles (about $280) after being charged with an “administrative offense” stemming from an earlier video she recorded calling on Russians to take part in demonstrations against the war.
-ABC News’ Monica and Dunn Quinn Scanlan
Mar 20, 5:15 am
Zelenskyy accuses Russia of ‘war crimes,’ blocking aid to besieged Mariupol
Russia’s attacks on Mariupol will “go down in history” as a series of “war crimes,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a video address early on Sunday.
“The terror the occupiers did to the peaceful city will be remembered for centuries to come,” Zelenskyy said, according to an official translation.
More than 9,000 people were evacuated from the besieged city on Friday, followed by an additional 4,000 people on Saturday, according to Ukrainian officials.
But Russian forces blocked aid to those still trapped in the city, Zelenksyy said.
“This is a totally deliberate tactic,” Zelenskyy said in an earlier video address, posted just after midnight on Saturday morning. “They have a clear order to do absolutely everything to make the humanitarian catastrophe in Ukrainian cities an ‘argument’ for Ukrainians to cooperate with the occupiers.”
Blocking aid amounts to a “war crime,” Zelenskyy said, adding that every Russian soldier should be held “100%” accountable with a “compulsory one-way ticket to The Hague,” where the International Criminal Court is located.
Mar 20, 3:33 am
Russia increases ‘indiscriminate shelling’ on eastern cities, UK military says
Russian forces attempted to push into cities in eastern Ukraine have made “limited progress” in the last week, so they’ve turned instead to “indiscriminate shelling,” the UK Ministry of Defense said on Sunday.
The shelling of urban areas has caused “widespread destruction and large numbers of civilian casualties,” the Ministry said in an update.
“It is likely Russia will continue to use its heavy firepower to support assaults on urban areas as it looks to limit its own already considerable losses, at the cost of further civilian casualties,” the update said.
Mar 19, 5:44 pm
847 civilians killed since start of invasion: UN
At least 847 civilians, including 64 children, have been killed in Ukraine since Russia invaded on Feb. 24, according to the United Nations.
Another 1,399 have been injured, it said.
The casualties, recorded by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, are believed to be “considerably higher” since officials have not been able to verify information in areas where there is intense fighting, the office said.
“Most of the civilian casualties recorded were caused by the use of explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multiple-launch rocket systems, and missile and air strikes,” it said.
-ABC News’ Jason Volack
Mar 19, 2:32 pm
Kremlin confirms it used hypersonic missiles in Ukraine
The Kremlin confirmed Saturday that it used hypersonic missiles for the first time since invading Ukraine.
Russia used the Kinzhal aviation missile system, with hypersonic aeroballistic missiles, on the village of Delyatyn in Ukraine on Friday, according to Igor Konashenkov, a spokesman for the Russian Defense Ministry.
“On March 18, the Kinzhal aerial missile system equipped with hypersonic aero-ballistic missiles destroyed a large underground missile and air ammunition depot of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the settlement of Deliatyn in the Ivano-Frankivsk region,” Konashenkov said at a briefing on Saturday.
The Russian military claims it is capable of hitting targets at a range of more than 2,000 kilometers.
Mar 19, 2:23 pm
Ukraine says it has detained at least 562 Russian prisoners of war
At least 562 prisoners of war are being held in Ukraine, Irina Vereshchuk, the head of the country’s Ministry of Reintegration, a ministry established in 2016 to manage occupied Ukrainian territories, said in an interview with Ukrainian news service TSN on Saturday.
Vereshchuk said they are being treated according to international humanitarian law.
Ukrainian forces in Kyiv have detained 127 saboteurs, including 14 infiltration groups, since the Russian invasion began, Mykola Zhyrnov, the capital’s military administration head, (told BBC)[].
Mar 19, 1:12 pm
At least 30 killed in strike on Ukrainian military base: witness
At least 30 people were killed in a strike on a Ukrainian military barrack south of Mykolaiv on Friday, according to a witness.
A civilian working with the Ukrainian military told ABC News that more than 30 people were killed in the attack– believed to be in retaliation to damage done to the Russian controlled facility in Kherson.
On Friday, Mykolaiv’s mayor said that “dozens” of troops were killed in the strike.
Mykolaiv’s governor said the rescue operation is ongoing and no official figures on casualties will be released until it’s over.
-ABC News’ Dada Jovanovic
Mar 19, 11:25 am
UNICEF calls for strengthened measures to protect children fleeing Ukraine from human trafficking, exploitation
The United Nations Children’s fund warned Saturday that children fleeing the war in Ukraine are at an increased risk of human trafficking and exploitation.
“Traffickers often seek to exploit the chaos of large scale population movements, and with more than 1.5 million children having fled Ukraine as refugees since [Feb.24], and countless others displaced by violence inside the country, the threat facing children is real and growing,” UNICEF said.
According to an analysis conducted by UNICEF and the Inter-Agency Coordination Group against Trafficking, 28% of identified victims of trafficking globally are children.
“In the context of Ukraine, UNICEF child protection experts believe that children would likely account for an even higher proportion of potential trafficking victims given that children and women represent nearly all of the refugees who have fled the country so far,” UNICEF said.
According to UNICEF, more than 500 unaccompanied children were identified crossing the Ukrainian border into Romania between Feb. 24 and March 17. It also estimates that the true number of separated children who have fled Ukraine is likely much higher.
“Displaced children are extremely vulnerable to being separated from their families, exploited, and trafficked. They need governments in the region to step up and put measures in place to keep them safe,” said Afshan Khan, UNICEF’s regional director for Europe and Central Asia.
Khan said children need to be screened for their vulnerability as they cross the border into another country.
“UNICEF is calling on governments to improve cross-border collaboration and knowledge exchange between and among border control, law enforcement and child protection authorities and to quickly identify separated children, implement family tracing and reunification procedures for children deprived of parental care,” UNICEF said.
UNICEF also said additional screening for protection risks should be implemented in shelters, large urban train stations and other locations where refugees gather or pass through.
Mar 19, 11:01 am
Lavrov calls West ‘unreliable’ as an economic partner
The West has proven to be unreliable as an economic partner and a place for keeping foreign exchange reserves, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Saturday.
“Even disregarding the situation with Ukraine and the sanctions, conduct of the West proves that it is unreliable both as a part of the world where major reserve currencies are generated, as an economic partner, and as a country where forex reserves could be kept. They might easily be stolen,” Lavrov told finalists of the international stage of the Leaders of Russia competition.
This is why Russia is strengthening cooperation with other countries, including China, he said.
Lavrov also commented on the reinstatement of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which would allow Iranian oil supply on the global market.
“We never betray our friends in politics. Venezuela is our friend, and Iran is a state that is very close to us. Secondly, we do not pursue selfish interests, unlike the Americans,” Lavrov said in response to a question whether the JCPOA reinstatement was advantageous to Russia.
“You can see what they [the Americans] are actually doing, trying to spite Russia and teach it a lesson,” he said.
“So, the Americans have been contacting Saudi Arabia, the Emirates and Qatar regarding oil and gas. All of those countries, just like Venezuela and Iran, clearly said: when we discuss issues pertaining to the appearance of new actors in the oil market, all of us are committed to the OPEC+ format, where quotas for every actor are discussed and agreed upon by consensus,” he said.
“For now, I see no reason to believe that this mechanism may somehow be dismantled. No one is interested in that,” Lavrov said.
Mar 19, 7:06 am
112 children killed in Ukraine conflict, officials say
At least 112 children have been killed since the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, the local Juvenile Prosecutor’s Office said.
More than 140 children have been wounded during the first 24 days of the war, officials said.
Fifty-seven children have been killed in Kyiv, officials said. Another 36 were killed in Kharkiv and 28 were killed in the Donetsk Oblast, they said.
Mar 19, 5:38 am
Russia pursuing ‘strategy of attrition,’ UK military says
As Russia’s attempts to capture Ukrainian territory have been slowed by Ukrainian resistance, the invading forces have switched to a “strategy of attrition,” the UK Ministry of Defence said on Saturday.
“This is likely to involve the indiscriminate use of firepower resulting in increase civilian casualties, destruction of Ukrainian infrastructure, and intensify the humanitarian crisis,” the Ministry said on Twitter.
Mar 18, 8:31 pm
Zelenskyy responds to massive Moscow rally
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reacted to the massive concert that occurred Friday in Moscow in support of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and on the eight-year anniversary of Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.
“A big rally took place. And I want to pay attention to one detail. It is reported that a total of about 200,000 people were involved in the rally in the Russian capital — 100,000 on the streets, about 95,000 at the stadium. Approximately the same number of Russian troops were involved in the invasion of Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said in his latest national address Friday night.
“Just imagine 14,000 corpses and tens of thousands of wounded and maimed people at that stadium in Moscow,” he continued. “There are already so many Russian losses as a result of this invasion. This is the price of war. In a little more than three weeks. The war must end.”
Zelenskyy noted progress in evacuating more than 180,000 Ukrainians through humanitarian corridors, though charged that Russian invaders are blocking the supply of humanitarian aid to some besieged cities.
“This is a totally deliberate tactic. They have a clear order to do absolutely everything to make the humanitarian catastrophe in Ukrainian cities an ‘argument’ for Ukrainians to cooperate with the occupiers,” he said. “This is a war crime. They will be held accountable for this. 100%.”
Mar 18, 3:36 pm
Biden, Xi hold 1st call in months
President Joe Biden held a video call with Chinese President Xi Jinping for one hour and 50 minutes on Friday, marking the first time the two leaders spoke since November.
The White House readout of the call doesn’t say whether the conversation was constructive or not, but the White House said Biden made clear the “implications and consequences” if China aligns with Russia and provides them “material support.”
China’s readout of the call said China supports negotiations but passes the buck to the U.S. and NATO to “conduct dialogue with Russia to solve the crux of the Ukraine crisis and resolve the security concerns of both Russia and Ukraine.”
The call was “direct,” “substantive” and “detailed,” according to a senior administration official.
The official said Biden “really wasn’t making specific requests of China” on the call and instead was “laying out his assessment of the situation, what he thinks makes sense, and the implications of certain actions.”
The official said that the call was “less about coming away with a particular view out of conversation today and more about making sure, again, that they were able to really have that direct candidate and detailed and very substantive conversation at the leader level.”
Mar 18, 2:53 pm
Macron speaks to Putin about Mariupol
French President Emmanuel Macron spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin on the phone Friday, sharing “his extreme concern” about Russian attacks on the besieged city of Mariupol, the Élysée said.
Macron “asked him for concrete and verifiable measures to lift the siege of Mariupol, humanitarian access and an immediate ceasefire,” the Élysée said.
Russian attacks have prevented many civilians from escaping Mariupol and is keeping humanitarian supplies from being brought in. The Mariupol City Council reported Sunday that 2,187 residents had been killed since the start of the invasion. Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereschuk said last week that the city was “beyond a humanitarian disaster,” with most roads destroyed, little communication with the outside and no power, gas or heat.
Mar 18, 1:38 pm
Russians have launched 1,080 missiles at Ukrainian targets: US
The Russians remain largely stalled on day 23 of the invasion of Ukraine and haven’t moved further toward Kyiv, according to a senior U.S. defense official.
Reports of missile strikes near Lviv’s airport seem accurate, the official said, adding that there was no additional information at this time.
Russians stalled on the battlefield by Ukrainian resistance are resorting to artillery and long-range missiles to strike at Ukraine’s cities. Russians have now launched 1,080 missiles at Ukrainian targets — an increase of 80 missiles in one day, the official said.
Mar 18, 1:08 pm
US ambassador calls Russia’s biolab allegations ‘potential false flag effort in action’
During the meeting Russia convened to air its allegations of dangerous biolabs in Ukraine, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield told her fellow Security Council members that they may be witnessing one of Moscow’s battle tactics unfolding before their eyes.
“I will reiterate the United States’ deep and serious concern that Russia’s calling for this meeting is — is –a potential false flag effort in action. Russia has repeatedly — repeatedly–accused other countries of the very violations it plans to perpetrate,” she stated. “We continue to believe it is possible that Russia may be planning to use chemical or biological agents against the Ukrainian people.”
“Last week we heard from the Russian representative a tirade of bizarre conspiracy theories. This week, we’re hearing a whole lot more where that came from — things that sound like they were forwarded to him on a chain email from some dark corner of the internet,” she said.
“President Joe Biden has a word for this kind of talk: malarkey,” Thomas-Greenfield continued, again flatly denying claims that Ukraine has a biological weapons program.
Thomas-Greenfield reminded the room that it is Russia that maintains such a program in violation of international law and has a documented history of using nerve agents against enemies of the Kremlin as well as supporting the use of chemical warfare in Syria.
“We aren’t going to dignify Russia’s disinformation or conspiracy theories. But we will continue to sound the alarm and tell the world where we think Russia is heading,” she added. “And we will remind the world that Russia has repeatedly — repeatedly — lied to this council over recent weeks.”
Mar 18, 12:32 pm
Russian negotiator says Russia, Ukraine have made progress on issue of neutral status, sticking point is ‘security guarantees’
Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, Russia’s lead negotiator in talks with Ukraine, said the two sides have made the most progress on the question of Ukraine’s “neutral status” during the negotiations, but that “nuances” remain around issues of security guarantees for Ukraine if it gives up joining NATO.
The “nuances are connected with what kind of security guarantees Ukraine gets in addition to ones it already has, in the case of renouncing joining the NATO bloc,” Medinsky told Russian media.
Medinsky said the two sides were “somewhere halfway” to meeting each other over the issue of Ukraine’s “demilitarization.”
“As for demilitarisation, I would say it’s 50-50. The issues is I am now authorised to divulge any details of the negotiations and I will not do that, nor concrete figures, nor arguments of the sides, but in this part we are somewhere halfway,” he said.
Mar 18, 10:28 am
Putin speaks at massive concert in Moscow
At a massive concert in Moscow on Friday in support of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin called the main goal of the military special operation to stop the genocide of the population of Donbass — a false claim Putin has been spreading.
“It is precisely to save people from this suffering, from this genocide that is the main, main reason, motive and goal of the military operation that we launched in the Donbass and Ukraine,” Putin told the packed crowd in the city’s main stadium.
The concert was timed to mark the eight-year anniversary of Russia’s annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.
Mar 18, 6:48 am
Russian foreign minister threatens countries arming Ukraine
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Friday that any foreign supplies to Ukraine containing military equipment will be considered “legitimate targets” for Russian strikes.
“We clearly said that any cargo moving into the Ukrainian territory which we would believe is carrying weapons would be fair game. This is clear because we are implementing the operation the goal of which is to remove any threat to the Russian Federation coming from the Ukrainian soil,” Lavrov said in an English-language interview with the RT television channel.
Mar 18, 6:29 am
Putin says Ukraine ‘seeking to drag out’ negotiations
The Kremlin says Russian President Vladimir Putin in a phone call with Germany’s leader Olaf Scholz accused Ukraine of “seeking to drag out” negotiations with Russia to end the war by putting forward “new unrealistic proposals.”
Putin told Scholz Russia was “nonetheless ready to continue the search for a solution within the bounds of its well-known principled approaches,” the Kremlin said in a readout of the call.
It’s a negative sign for the ongoing talks with Ukraine that both sides have suggested have made some progress this week.
-ABC News’ Patrick Reevell
Mar 18, 4:41 am
Lviv struck by missiles for the first time
Russian missiles have hit the western Ukrainian city of Lviv for the first time Friday, a key location that had been spared from the assault until now.
The missiles struck the area around the city’s airport, according to the mayor, Andriy Sadovyi, around 6:30 a.m. local time, hitting an aircraft repair facility and destroying the building.
There were no immediate reports of casualties in the attack, according to the mayor.
Preliminary data indicated that six cruise missiles were fired from the Black Sea, according to the country’s western military command. Two were destroyed by anti-aircraft missile systems.
-ABC News’ Martha Raddatz
Mar 17, 8:34 pm
White House ‘focused’ on ways to help growing Ukrainian refugee crisis
The Biden administration is “focused” on ways to help Ukrainian refugees, as the number of people displaced by the war continues to grow, according to U.S. officials.
More than 3 million people have fled Ukraine since Russia’s invasion began, according to the United Nations’ refugee agency, in Europe’s largest refugee crisis since World War II.
“As the numbers increase, as the burden increases for European partners, we will certainly do everything we can to help,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters Thursday, adding it was “something we’re very focused on right now.”
Without offering specifics, Blinken confirmed the administration is “looking at things that we can do ourselves and do directly — for example, looking at steps we may be able to take on family reunification and other things.”
One limited option is fast-tracking the process to admit refugees to the U.S. itself, which is defined by law and requires a referral from the U.N.’s refugee agency and thorough vetting. A senior administration official told ABC News that the refugee program “is not an emergency response program, so our goal would be to provide humanitarian assistance to keep people safe where they are for now.”
As Blinken told reporters, the referral process to be granted refugee status “takes time.” Refugee resettlement is a yearslong process, and there are already 7,000 Ukrainian refugees in the pipeline, according to resettlement agency Church World Service.
The senior administration official also said U.S. embassies and consulates in the region are processing emergency visa applications, but that they are overwhelmed. “We are not able to process the volume of the people who are thinking about that as an option,” the official said.
Refugee resettlement agencies say the administration is considering using the Lautenberg program, which allows religious minorities — including Ukrainian Greek Catholics and Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Christians — to bring family members to the U.S. with a potentially expedited refugee status. One agency told ABC News there are thousands of Ukrainian applicants who the U.S. could swiftly admit.
The administration has already approved temporary protected status for any Ukrainians in the U.S. before March 1 — allowing them to stay and work in the U.S. for at least the next 18 months.
-ABC News’ Ben Gittleson, Sarah Kolinovsky and Conor Finnegan
(NEW YORK) — At least 24 people were shot, including children, at a car show in rural Arkansas on Saturday night. At least one person has died, according to police.
The shooting took place in Dumas, about 90 miles southeast of Little Rock, at about 7:30 p.m. local time, according to Arkansas State Police.
Keith Finch, Dumas’ chief of police, told ABC News that children were among those injured in the shooting, but did not have a specific number. Organizers for the event told ABC News that six children were injured but are “doing OK.”
Preliminary information suggests the shooting was the result of a gang-related fight that spilled into a public area and not a random act. Detectives are continuing their investigation, a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation told ABC News.
Finch said police have a person of interest in custody but continue to investigate whether more people may have been involved.
It’s unclear what caused the shooting or the conditions of many of those injured.
(NEW YORK) — Sen. Dick Durbin on Sunday defended the Biden administration’s decision to not facilitate the delivery of MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine from Poland.
“There are other ways for us to provide surface to air missiles and air defenses that will keep the Russians at bay in terms of their aerial attack,” Durbin, D-Ill., told ABC “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos. “There are other ways to do that that are consistent with the NATO alliance and would not jeopardize expanding this into World War III or even worse.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gave a virtual address to Congress on Wednesday, pleading with the U.S. for additional military aid, further sanctions and a no-fly zone over Ukraine to stop the Russian invasion. Zelenskyy also asked the U.S. to assist with the delivery of MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine from Poland, but the Biden administration has held firm against the request, insisting that is an offensive move that could lead to World War III.
There is bipartisan support for sending planes, with Democratic members of Congress in favor, including Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
“We’re asking for one-third of the Polish Air Force to be sent into Ukraine,” Durbin, the Senate majority whip, added.
While President Vladimir Putin has shown no signs of backing down, Durbin said Ukraine has shown no signs of backing down either and the U.S. firmly stands with the Ukrainian effort to stop the Russian invasion.
“The desperate things that he’s doing now killing innocent civilians and children, for goodness sakes, he will have a stained name in history forever for this,” Durbin said of Putin.
President Joe Biden and China’s President Xi Jinping spoke Friday morning and Biden made clear the “implications and consequences” if China aligns with Russia, according to the White House readout.
“How about tougher economic sanctions right now, not only on Russia, but also potentially for China?” Stephanopoulos pressed. “We know that President Biden spoke with President Xi on Friday. It doesn’t appear that China, at least not yet, is ready to back off their support for Putin.”
Durbin told Stephanopoulos that Xi must “decide his place in history and China’s place in the world” and he thinks Biden made that clear in the call, but did not answer whether he thinks the U.S. should implement sanctions on China.
“If (China) is going to be part of Putin and his barbaric conduct in Ukraine, he’s going to run the risk of discrediting his own nation,” Durbin said.
Stephanopoulos pressed Durbin on GOP criticism that Biden is turning to dictators for oil while blaming high gas prices on the Russian invasion when he could ramp up American oil production.
“One of the things we’ve seen at home recently is, of course, inflation, higher gas prices across the board,” Stephanopoulos pressed. “President Biden has said that the sanctions on Putin are at least part of the issue there for causing the rise in the prices. But our next guest, Senator Barrasso, has taken that on.”
Sen. John Barrasso said Tuesday that “Biden would rather turn to dictators like those in Iran and those in Venezuela rather than turn against the climate elitists who dictate the energy policy of that Democratic Party and of his presidency. So now he’s trying to pass the buck to Vladimir Putin.”
Asked to respond, Durbin said the Biden administration is working to reduce the impact of cutting off Russian oil and that it is “completely wrong” to blame Biden’s efforts to stop Putin for inflation, saying “other countries are going through the same inflation.”
Confirmation hearings for Biden’s historic Supreme Court nominee, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, will begin Monday. Durbin, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, will preside over the hearings.
Stephanopoulos asked Durbin about recent GOP attacks on Jackson, including a series of tweets from Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., that incorrectly suggest Jackson is soft on child pornography. Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler gave Hawley’s assertion “Three Pinocchios.”
Durbin slammed Hawley’s attacks, calling them inaccurate and unfair, and said Jackson has been scrutinized more than any person he could think of.
“There’s no truth to what he says and he’s part of the fringe within the Republican Party,” Durbin said. “This was a man who was fist-bumping the murderous mob that descended on the Capitol on Jan. 6 of the last year. He doesn’t have the credibility he thinks he does.”
(NEW YORK) — Russian people do not support Russia’s actions in Ukraine, Marina Ovsyannikova, the Russian journalist who made headlines after staging an anti-war protest on live TV, said Sunday, branding the unprovoked invasion “Putin’s war.”
“It’s Putin’s war, not [the] Russian people’s war,” Ovsyannikova told ABC “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos in her first interview with an American broadcast network.
Ovsyannikova ran onto the set of the main Russian state news live broadcast last Monday with an anti-war sign to protest Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, standing behind a Channel One anchor as they were speaking.
The sign read, “NO WAR,” and “Don’t believe the propaganda. They’re lying to you here,” in English and Russian, respectively.
The program cut away within seconds, and officials took Ovsyannikova into custody, where she stayed overnight. The court fined Ovsyannikova 30,000 rubles (about $280) after being charged with an “administrative offense” stemming from an earlier video she recorded calling on Russians to take part in demonstrations against the war.
Under a newly enacted censorship law, any person speaking out against the Russian government’s narrative about the war, including by calling it a “war” or “invasion,” faces up to 15 years in prison. Ovsyannikova could still be charged under this law.
Stephanopoulos asked Ovsyannikova why she took the risk of speaking out.
“As soon as the war began, I could not eat. I could not sleep,” Ovsyannikova said.”What we showed on our programs was very different from what was going on in reality.”
Ovsyannikova told Stephanopoulos she wanted to do something that would attract more attention than protesting in the square, as well as to show the rest of the world that Russians do not support the war.
“I could show to the Russian people that this is just propaganda, expose this propaganda for what it is and maybe stimulate some people to speak up against the war,” Ovsyannikova said.
Ovsyannikova encouraged people to analyze information from multiple sources to understand what is really happening.
An independent protest monitoring group reports that as of Sunday, more than 15,000 people have been detained in Russia for protesting against the country’s war against Ukraine.
Stephanopoulos asked Ovsyannikova if she is worried for her safety, despite rejecting France’s offer of asylum.
“I am very worried for the safety of my children,” Ovsyannikova replied. “I have publicly refused to take political asylum in France because I am a patriot; I want to live in Russia.”
She acknowledged Russia is in a “very dark and difficult” period, but she encouraged people to speak up.
Stephanopoulos followed up, asking Ovsyannikova what her message is for President Vladimir Putin and the West.
Ovsyannikova said she wanted to show the world that not all Russians believe the same thing. She said that the sanctions against Russia are not just impacting Putin and his oligarchs.
“Ordinary people, ordinary Russian citizens who are against the war are also being affected,” Ovsyannikova said.
Ovsyannikova then gave her final message to her fellow citizens: “to think critically and analyze the information that is being presented to them critically.”
(STREPY-BRACQUEGNIES, Belgium) — A car slammed into about 100 people, killing six, on Sunday morning during a carnival in Strépy-Bracquegnies, Belgium, officials said.
At least 37 people were wounded, including 10 with life-threatening injuries, according to Belgium’s Interior Ministry.
A car driving at a high speed hit a crowd at about 5 a.m. local time, an official said. Two people were found inside the vehicle and arrested for murder; both are from La Louvière, deputy prosecutor Damien Verheyen said at a news conference. No charges have been filed yet.
Between 150 and 200 people were gathered for the annual folklore parade when the vehicle appeared, Jacques Gobert, mayor of the nearby town of La Louviere, told Reuters.
One member of the carnival troupe described the scene as “horrible,” telling Reuters that they “saw bodies flying everywhere.”
“It was supposed to be a celebration day, but it turned out to be a tragedy,” he said.
One woman who heard the crash from her apartment said her house shook as the car passed by. “A couple of seconds after” the driver struck the troupe, she added.
“Frankly, he wasn’t driving slowly,” she said, adding that her daughter was at the scene.
A preliminary investigation indicates the attack was not terror related, Verheyen said, adding that the two people are not known to the police for similar facts.”
The village of Strépy-Bracquegnies is in the municipality of La Louvière and about an hour south of Brussels.
Sunday’s event was planned as a launch for a post-COVID carnival, scheduled to run through Tuesday.
(WASHINGTON) — As President Joe Biden heads to Brussels this week for an extraordinary NATO summit, Sen. John Barrasso, the third-ranking Senate Republican, said he wants the president to “lead from the front” and laid out certain objectives for him to do so.
“Number one is, he needs to tell NATO that we collectively are going to supply the people of Ukraine things that they know how to use, whether it’s drones, planes, missile systems,” Barrasso, R-Wyo., told ABC “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos in an exclusive interview Sunday.
“Number two, he has to say that he is going to go to Brussels to the eastern front of NATO to show the resolve of NATO, and the United States’ commitment as well,” he added. “And third, he needs to say to the people of Europe who are really in a tough situation with regard to energy and the dependence that they have on Russian energy, that we are going to increase the exporting of liquified natural gas from America to them.”
As the ranking Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Barrasso has been a strong critic of Biden’s renewable energy agenda.
Republicans, like Barrasso, are pushing the administration to increase domestic oil production while reducing foreign energy dependency. Biden already banned all Russian oil imports, and Americans are coping with inflation and steep prices at the gas pump.
Earlier on “This Week,” Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., dismissed claims that Biden is to blame for rising gas prices at home. But Barrasso said no matter who they blame “Democrats have a very big problem.”
“Well, Joe Biden can’t hide from the fact that he is the president of high gas prices,” Barrasso said. “And they’re looking for anyone to blame, whether it’s Putin, whether it’s Republicans, whether it’s energy companies, whether it’s COVID. The Democrats have a very big problem with 40-year high inflation, highest gas prices ever.”
Sen. John Barrasso: “Joe Biden can’t hide from the fact that he is the president of high gas prices. And they’re looking for anyone to blame, whether it’s Putin, whether it’s Republicans, whether it’s the energy companies, whether it’s COVID.” https://t.co/lqnKvv6LuXpic.twitter.com/WerKVlhdzu
Democrats, however, have blamed energy companies for price gouging and have pointed out that a barrel of oil now costs what it did before the war — yet prices remain high.
When asked by Stephanopoulos what more the U.S. should be doing to aid Ukraine, Barrasso accused Biden of being too slow to respond to the crisis so far.
“The president has had to be pushed and pulled to where he is today. It was Congress that brought about sanctions, that brought about the ban on Russian oil, that brought about weapons and all of this big aid package that I voted for a week or two ago, $13 billion,” he said.
Meanwhile, a historic Supreme Court hearing is set to start Monday on the first Black woman nominee to the high court.
Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri suggested on Twitter last week that Jackson has a “long record” of letting child porn offenders “off the hook,” an assertion Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler gave “Three Pinocchios.”
“You met with Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson earlier this week. And you said — you didn’t say — suggest how you were going to vote, but you said this should not be a process of character assassination. Is that what Senator Hawley was doing?” Stephanopoulos asked.
“I did meet with her. Clearly, very intelligent. We talked about judicial philosophy. I talked about Justice [Antonin] Scalia, that the — it’s the Constitution, a legal document, not a living document. We had a very good meeting,” answered Barrasso, who voted against Jackson’s confirmation to become a federal judge on the D.C. Court of Appeals last June. “I’m less concerned about her statements than I am about Chuck Schumer’s statements. He said she’s going to rule with empathy. A judge ought to be making decisions based on the law as written, not the way they feel about it.”
Republican colleagues have flagged concerns about Jackson’s record as a public defender, and Barrasso said, “that’s all going to come out with the hearings” while pledging the process will remain fair, thorough and respectful.
Stephanopoulos pressed Barrasso once more, asking: “But do you think Senator Hawley’s attacks were fair?”
“Well, he’s going to have his opportunity to question the judge as will all the members of the committee,” Barrasso responded. “The last time we had a hearing with [Brett] Kavanaugh, he was accused of being a serial rapist with no evidence whatsoever. So, I think we’re going to have a fair process and a respectful process, unlike what the Democrats did to Justice Kavanaugh.”
(WASHINGTON) — The Senate Judiciary Committee on Monday opens a week of high-profile confirmation hearings for Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court in its 233-year history.
While Democrats have the votes to confirm President Joe Biden’s high court nominee on their own, the hearings could prove critical to the White House goal of securing at least some Republican support and shoring up the court’s credibility.
The spotlight on a historic nominee — and the court itself during such a consequential term of cases — is also an opportunity for both political parties to appeal to key voting constituencies ahead of the midterm campaign season.
Jackson, 51, who currently sits on the nation’s second most powerful court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, will face questions from the committee’s 11 Republicans and 11 Democrats over two days, starting Tuesday.
Republicans have signaled a desire to scrutinize the substance of Jackson’s record while avoiding the types of personal inquires they opposed in other recent confirmations.
Several GOP senators have telegraphed plans to question Jackson’s defense of detainees at Guantanamo Bay as a private defense attorney; her support of reduced sentences for convicted drug offenders; and the backing of her nomination by outside progressive advocacy groups.
In a sign the hearings could get contentious, Republican Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri — a former Supreme Court clerk for Chief Justice John Roberts, a potential presidential hopeful and a member of the Judiciary Committee — suggested in a barrage of tweets Thursday that Jackson has a “long record” of letting child porn offenders “off the hook.”
He pointed to aspects of her record from law school, the U.S. Sentencing Commission and decisions from the bench to suggest she is “soft on crime.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, speaking on the Senate floor, said he was concerned that Democrats and what he called Jackson’s “far-left activist” supporters are touting her as someone with “special empathy” after having served as a public defender. “If any judicial nominee does have special empathy for some parties over others, that’s not an asset, it’s a problem.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki push back hard on Friday.
“After weeks of trying hard to find some way to attack Judge Jackson, first saying that she was an affirmative action pick, then saying she was the product of dark money, then saying she should be — she should be suspect because she was a public defender, a group of far-right Republican senators … have launched a last-ditched eve of hearing desperation attack on her record on sentencing in sexual offense cases,” she said.
“The facts are that, in the vast majority of cases involving child sex crimes, broadly, the sentences Judge Jackson imposed were consistent with or above what the government or U.S. probation [authorities] recommended. And so, this attack that we’ve seen over the last couple of days relies on factual inaccuracies and taking Judge Jackson’s record wildly out of context,” Psaki said.
Both sides are also expected to zero in on Jackson’s nearly 600 written opinions as a federal judge and the 14 times her rulings were reversed or vacated by higher courts, according to a tabulation by the Alliance for Justice, a left-leaning legal advocacy group.
“We know that she is a liberal jurist, but that’s a large spectrum,” said Sarah Isgur, a former Trump administration attorney and ABC legal analyst. “When she was ruling on something related to the Trump administration, she tended to rule against them. And those were the cases that she would sometimes get reversed on.”
Jackson has been vetted twice previously by the Judiciary Committee and twice confirmed by the full Senate as a judge — most recently last year, with Republican votes. She was also confirmed in 2010 as vice chair of the U.S. Sentencing Commission.
“She is not a blank slate. She is someone who has received Republican votes before,” said Rachel Barkow, vice dean of NYU Law School and former Jackson classmate at Harvard Law School. “You can see in her opinions a very principled kind of decision making that the Republicans have said they are looking for.”
GOP Sens. Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski and Lindsey Graham voted in favor of Judge Jackson’s confirmation to the D.C. Circuit in June 2021. After private meetings with Jackson this month, all three were noncommittal about supporting her again.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chair Dick Durbin has said he is hopeful more than three Republicans will support the nomination this time around. But GOP Whip Sen. John Thune said Tuesday he would be surprised it that was the case.
“I think it’s important to recognize that she has been confirmed three times now, so this is not a candidate who is a blank slate to us,” Collins said after spending more than 90 minutes one-on-one with Jackson. “I will, of course, await the hearings before the Judiciary Committee before making a decision.”
No Republican senator has publicly disputed Jackson’s qualification to be a justice, though several have raised concerns about her rulings and presumed judicial philosophy, which she has insisted she does not have.
“She obviously is someone with a high degree — a very high degree of legal acumen and, I think, grasp of the precedents in court, and so I think her hearings will be very very substantive,” said Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley after meeting the judge this month.
McConnell, who has said there’s “no question” Jackson is qualified for the position, plans to press the judge about proposals to overhaul the high court and expand its membership.
“I didn’t get an answer to that but I’m sure she’ll be asked that again in her hearings before the Judiciary Committee,” McConnell said after meeting with Jackson.
As a double graduate of Harvard and a member of the university’s Board of Overseers, Jackson is also expected to face questions about whether she would recuse herself from a major case this fall involving the school’s use of race as a factor in admissions.
Several Republicans have signaled willingness to ask Jackson about whether she considers herself an “affirmative action” pick for the high court given Biden’s 2020 campaign promise to nominate a Black woman at his first opportunity.
“That could hurt Republicans if they try to spend too much time on this,” Isgur said, “but I expect one of the first questions at this hearing to be: You are highly qualified, but a lot of other highly qualified people weren’t considered for this job because of their race. Would you think that was lawful if it happened at a private employer?”
The White House has said it views courting Republican support for Jackson as important to dialing down partisanship around high court confirmations. The 2020 vote installing Amy Coney Barrett as the newest Supreme Court justice marked the first time no senator in the minority party supported a nominee in at least 150 years of recorded votes, according to the Senate Historical Office.
Jackson has more experience fielding questions during high-intensity Senate hearings than any nominee since Clarence Thomas in 1991. She has described it as an “extremely nerve-wracking” process, telling audiences that she took up knitting as a way to channel nervous energy.
“The lights are as bright as they are in here, in terms of cameras and attention, and you do your best not to make a fool of yourself in front of the senators,” Jackson said in a conversation for the D.C. Circuit Historical Society in 2019.
For each half hour of the proceeding, up to 60 members of the public invited by senators will also be allowed to attend.
The confirmation process has been moving at near-record pace with just 24 days elapsing between the president’s announcement of his pick to replace retiring Justice Stephen Breyer and the scheduled hearings.
The median interlude is 49 days, according to the Congressional Research Service. Republicans’ blitz to confirm Amy Coney Barrett in late 2020 — holding hearings just 13 days after Trump named her — is the quickest confirmation push since 1975.
“She is so thoughtful and even handed and tries to look at both sides, and another amazing thing about her – she’s had such a breadth of experience,” said Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer following his meeting with Jackson.
Democrats hope to confirm Jackson before the middle of April. She is not expected to be fully sworn in for duty on the high court until July, once Justice Breyer steps down.
(NEW YORK) — Twenty million people are on alert along the East Coast for a sweeping storm system that is expected to bring the threat of severe thunderstorms and possible tornadoes to parts of the region Saturday.
Strong, scattered thunderstorms are forecast to develop in the coming afternoon and evening hours across parts of the Northeast and along portions of the Southeast coast.
Any severe thunderstorms that develop could bring damaging wind gusts, large hail and potentially tornadoes.
The severe weather threat is expected to end later Saturday evening, with the system forecast to exit the East Coast overnight and into early Sunday.
Another major storm system is currently moving into the West, bringing heavy rain and mountain snow. Winter weather advisories are in effect from the Cascades in western Washington and Oregon into the northern Sierra Nevada in Northern California. Travel through some mountain passes could be impacted this weekend.
Strong, gusty winds potentially reaching over 60 mph in some spots are another concern this weekend. Wind alerts have been issued for Sunday stretching from Los Angeles and Ventura counties in Southern California over to Las Vegas and up into Idaho.
That storm system is expected to bring a significant, severe weather threat to parts of the South early next week.
The widespread storm is forecast to unfold early next week in parts of the South, primarily in parts of Texas and Louisiana on Monday and then shifting east into Mississippi and Alabama on Tuesday.
Tornadoes, large hail and damaging gusts could all occur. Numerous severe thunderstorms also could bring significant impacts to parts of the region.
Elsewhere, widespread fire weather alerts have been issued for Sunday stretching from Texas up to South Dakota. Strong, gusty winds and persistent dry conditions make it favorable for new fires to spark and difficult to battle existing ones.
Among several active wildfires in Texas is the massive Eastland Complex, consisting of four separate fires in central Texas. The deadly, destructive complex has burned 45,383 acres and was 15% contained as of Saturday morning.
Firefighters had been impeded by windy conditions. They will see improved weather conditions on Saturday, before another round of strong winds and critical fire weather conditions return Sunday.
![‘It’s Putin’s war, not [the] Russian people’s war’: Russian anti-war journalist](https://s3.amazonaws.com/syndication.abcaudio.com/files/2022-03-20/032022_ABCNews_RussianJournalist.jpg "‘It’s Putin’s war, not [the] Russian people’s war’: Russian anti-war journalist")
