(WASHINGTON) — Congress is addressing campus security at historically Black colleges and universities in the wake of dozens of high-profile bomb threats.
The House Committee on Oversight and Reform and the Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties will hold a hearing Thursday featuring HBCU students alongside FBI and Department of Education officials.
The hearing aims to explore how the government can help to improve institution security and prevent domestic terrorism.
“In one threatening call targeting Spelman College, an HBCU for women in Atlanta, a caller claimed they had singled out that school for one reason: ‘there are too many Black students in it,'” said Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Sen. Carolyn B. Maloney in her opening statement.
The campuses of at least 36 HBCUs, as well as other universities, have been targeted and at least 18 of these colleges and universities were targeted on Feb. 1 — the first day of Black History Month.
More than one-third of the nation’s 101 historically Black academic institutions have been threatened.
The FBI announced that the threats were being investigated as “racially or ethnically motivated violent extremism and hate crimes” and stated that the investigation was of the “highest priority.”
No bombs have been found on any of the campuses. Several persons of interest have been identified, according to the FBI, but no one has been arrested.
“These reprehensible threats against Black institutions echo the tactics employed by the Ku Klux Klan and others decades ago as they tried to instill terror in the Black community and prevent Black Americans from gaining civil rights,” Maloney added.
These threats came as hate crimes against Black Americans are on the rise, increasing by nearly 50% between 2019 and 2020, according to the FBI.
“It is imperative that law enforcement agencies prioritize holding perpetrators accountable and working to keep campuses safe—while also pursuing a broader strategy to address the rising tide of violent white supremacy in this country,” Maloney said.
Vice President Kamala Harris announced Wednesday that targeted HBCUs will be eligible for new grant funding for additional campus security tools.
Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas have also met with HBCU leaders on tools they can use to strengthen campus safety.
“HBCUs matter, and every HBCU student matters,” Maloney said. “That is why we must do everything possible to support them, especially when they are threatened or attacked.”
(NEW YORK) — Oil prices are dropping and are now back to levels not seen since before Russia invaded Ukraine. So why aren’t gas prices going down, too?
The trend is called “rocketing and feathering,” according to oil industry analysts. Gas prices rocket up and then they come down slowly like a feather in the wind.
Tom Kloza, the global head of energy analysis at OPIS, says the speed of price drops often is determined by the frequency of deliveries.
“You have companies that sell gasoline that vary from somebody that gets one delivery every week to companies that get seven deliveries every day if they’re a big box,” Kloza tells ABC News Radio. “So there are some people that immediately get the price decreases, but there’s others that have to wait a week.”
He adds that markets are also still rattled by recent price swings caused by a Covid lockdown in China and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“People are afraid. They’re afraid to trade. And if you’re a retailer, you’re probably afraid to drop your price because you might have to raise it by 25 or 30 cents this weekend,” Kloza says.
(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 16, 8:51 pm
Zelenskyy discusses ongoing negotiations, proposal for new alliance of countries
In his latest national address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said negotiations with Russia are “ongoing.”
“My priorities in the negotiations are absolutely clear: the end of the war, security guarantees, sovereignty, restoration of territorial integrity, real guarantees for our country, real protection for our country,” he said in a speech that aired tonight.
Zelenskyy said he addressed both the U.S. and all the relevant states in regard to creating a new union he called U-24. He said that the new alliance will ensure that aggressors receive a coordinated response from the world.
“We can no longer trust the existing institutions. We cannot expect bureaucrats in international organizations to change so quickly,” he said. “Therefore, we must look for new guarantees. Create new tools. Take those who have courage and do what justice requires.”
Mar 16, 8:17 pm
UN Security Council to hold emergency meeting Thursday
The United Nations Security Council will hold an emergency meeting on Thursday to address the humanitarian situation in Ukraine.
The U.S., Albania, U.K., France, Ireland and Norway requested the meeting, according to the Norway U.N. The countries have asked for briefings by the U.N.’s Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, the U.N.’s refugee agency and the World Health Organization.
More thank 3 million refugees have alreay fled Ukraine since the invasion began on Feb. 24, according to the U.N.’s refugee agency.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
Mar 16, 6:37 pm
Theater sheltering civilians hit by Russian airstrikes, Ukrainian official says
A Ukrainian official claimed Wednesday that Russian airstrikes destroyed a theater in the besieged city of Mariupol where civilians were taking shelter.
The number of victims from the bombing of the Donetsk Regional Theatre of Drama “is impossible to count,” Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk Region administration, said in a Facebook post.
“Russia is killing civilians!” he said, adding that it is also “impossible to determine” the number of victims in Mariupol since the start of the invasion.
The city has been burying its dead in a mass grave on the outskirts of Mariupol as it endures heavy shelling.
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Mar 16, 5:26 pm
Ukraine says it’s trying to launch counter-attacks on edge of Kyiv
Ukraine’s military said it is trying to launch counter-attacks in northern areas on the edge of Kyiv, seeking to push Russian forces back from the towns at the gates of the capital where they’ve been bogged down for two weeks.
The sounds of intense shelling and fighting could be heard from the north of Kyiv the last three days. Battles have been raging in the towns of Irpin, Bucha and Hostomel, just a few miles from the city limits and from where thousands of civilians have been fleeing.
“The situation remains difficult, especially in the south and east [of Ukraine]. But more and more often our defenders are moving into counterattacks in various parts of the front: from Kyiv and Mykolaiv regions to the Luhansk region,” Ukrainian officials said in a statement Wednesday, referring to regions in southern and eastern Ukraine.
Authorities have imposed a full curfew from Tuesday evening to Thursday morning, locking down the capital and forbidding people from going outside. Plumes of smoke could be seen rising from the direction of the northern areas and the popping sound of small arms fire heard occasionally throughout the day Wednesday.
-ABC News’ Patrick Reevell
Mar 16, 3:17 pm
Biden calls Putin a ‘war criminal’ for 1st time
“I think he is a war criminal,” President Joe Biden said Wednesday of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The president initially told the reporter “no” when asked if he was ready to label Putin a war criminal, but moments later Biden circled back, asking her to repeat the question.
This marked the first time Biden has called Putin a war criminal since the invasion began. The White House had previously said there was an official review underway before the administration could formally accuse Putin of war crimes.
-ABC News’ Mary Bruce
Mar 16, 2:56 pm
Kidnapped Melitopol mayor freed from Russian captivity
Ivan Fedorov, the mayor of the occupied Ukrainian city of Melitopol, has been freed after being kidnapped by Russian troops, according to Ukrainian officials.
Fedorov was freed in a “special operation,” Kirill Timoshenko, the deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, said. He didn’t give additional information.
His kidnapping was reported on March 11.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy released a video of him talking to Fedorov on the phone. The president told the mayor he was very glad to speak with him and said, “We don’t leave ours behind.”
-ABC News’ Patrick Reevell
Mar 16, 2:26 pm
UNICEF highlights dangers Ukrainian children face as refugees
More than half of the 3 million people who have fled Ukraine are children, according to UNICEF.
“We realized that it’s about 75,000 a day… that’s about 55 Ukrainian children becoming refugees every minute. Essentially, one every second since this war started,” UNICEF spokesperson James Elder told ABC News Live.
Many children are suffering from a lack of food and freezing temperatures, he said.
“Many of them haven’t had clean water in two days,” he said.
Elder also highlighted the psychological trauma.
“They’ve been under bombardment. Many of them have seen family members or community members killed,” he said.
Elder added that UNICEF is “desperately concerned” about human trafficking, warning that any large number of children coming into a new country are at a higher risk of being abducted.
-ABC News’ Shannon Caturano
Mar 16, 1:17 pm
Biden announces additional military help for Ukraine
President Joe Biden announced more aid to Ukraine Wednesday, saying that the “American people are answering [Ukranian] President [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy’s call for more help, more weapons for Ukraine to defend itself, more tools to fight Russian aggression.”
Biden announced an additional $800 million in military assistance as part of the $13.6 billion aid package for Ukraine contained in the government spending bill Biden signed into law Tuesday, which includes weapons the Ukrainians have been requesting, such as anti-armor and anti-air systems.
“This could be a long and difficult battle,” Biden said. “But the American people will be steadfast in our support of the people of Ukraine in the face of [Russian President [Vladimir] Putin’s immoral, unethical attacks on civilian populations. We are united in our abhorrence of Putin’s depraved onslaught, and we are going to continue to have their backs as they fight for freedom, their democracy, their very survival.”
Biden did not directly address Zelenskyy’s emotional and direct appeal to lawmakers on Wednesday for the U.S. to back a no-fly zone the administration has repeatedly rejected.
-ABC News’ Libby Cathey
Mar 16, 12:38 pm
UN’s top court orders Russia to halt invasion
By a vote of 13-2, the United Nations’ highest court, the International Court of Justice, made a preliminary ruling that Russia “shall immediately suspend military operations.”
The two votes against were from Russia and China.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reacted on Twitter, writing that “Russia must comply immediately.” But the ruling is mostly symbolic as the ICJ has no direct means to enforce it.
-ABC News’ Cindy Smith
Mar 16, 11:09 am
House and Senate leadership to receive classified briefings
House and Senate leadership, along with ranking members of relevant committees, will receive a classified briefing on the war in Ukraine following Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s personal and emotional plea to Congress for more help.
The House briefing will be at 2 p.m. Wednesday and the Senate will follow at 3:30 p.m.
-ABC News’ Rachel Scott, Mariam Khan
Mar 16, 10:49 am
Jake Sullivan warns of consequences if Russia uses chemical or biological weapons
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan spoke with his Russian counterpart, Nikolay Patrushev, on Wednesday “to reiterate the United States’ firm and clear opposition to Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified invasion of Ukraine,” National Security Council spokesperson Emily Horne said in a statement.
She said Sullivan told Patrushev that Russia should stop attacking Ukraine if it’s serious about diplomacy and warned “about the consequences and implications of any possible Russian decision to use chemical or biological weapons in Ukraine.”
Horne said Sullivan “clearly laid out” that the U.S. will continue “imposing costs on Russia” as well as support Ukraine and defend NATO’s eastern flank.
This conversation marked the first high-level engagement between the U.S. and Russia since the Kremlin launched its war against Ukraine.
-ABC News’ Justin Ryan Gomez and Conor Finnegan
Mar 16, 10:43 am
Putin justifies invasion, says troops ‘doing everything possible’ to avoid harming civilians
In a speech Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin falsely claimed that Russia’s military tactics have been “completely justified” and that Russian troops are “doing everything possible” to avoid harming Ukrainian civilians.
Putin sought to justify Russia’s invasion, claiming that all “diplomatic possibilities were exhausted” and Russia had “no choice” but to launch its operation. He claimed that the “appearance of Russian troops near Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities” is not connected “with a goal of occupying that country” and that it is about defusing a supposed threat to Russia.
-ABC News’ Patrick Reevell
Mar 16, 9:38 am
Zelenskyy asks Congress to back no-fly zone over Ukraine
In a virtual address to members of Congress Wednesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy asked the U.S. to back a no-fly zone over the war-torn country.
If a no-fly zone is not possible, Zelenskyy asked for aircraft “to help Ukraine.”
“Russia has turned the Ukrainian sky into a source of death for thousands” — a “terror” Europe hasn’t seen in 80 years, Zelenskyy said.
In an emotional appeal, Zelenskyy asked members of Congress to put themselves in the shoes of Ukrainians by remembering Pearl Harbor and the Sept. 11 attacks.
Zelenskyy expressed his gratitude for U.S. involvement, but called on Congress to do more.
“New packages of sanctions are needed constantly … we propose that the United States sanction all politicians in the Russian Federation who remain in their offices and do not cut ties with those who are responsible for the aggression against Ukraine,” he said.
“Members of Congress, please take the lead. If you have companies in your districts who finance the Russian military machine… you should put pressure,” he said.
“The destiny of our country is being decided,” he said. “Russia has attacked not just us… it went on a brutal offensive against our values, basic human values.”
Zelenskyy received a standing ovation before and after his remarks.
But White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday that a no-fly zone “is escalatory and could prompt a war with Russia.”
“Providing the planes, our military did an assessment that’s based not just on the risk but whether it would have a huge benefit to them,” Psaki said. “They assessed it would not because they have their own squadron of planes and because the type of military assistance that is working to fight this war effectively is the type of assistance we’re already providing.”
Mar 16, 9:10 am
Fox News correspondent injured in Ukraine is safe, out of the country
Fox News correspondent Benjamin Hall, who was reporting in Ukraine when he was injured by incoming fire that killed two colleagues, is now safe and out of the country, according to the network.
Hall “is alert and said to be in good spirits,” Fox News anchor Bill Hemmer reported Wednesday.
Fox News cameraman Pierre Zakrzewski, 55, was newsgathering with Hall on Monday in Horenka, outside of Kyiv, when their vehicle was hit by incoming fire, the network said. Zakrzewski was killed while Hall was injured and hospitalized in unknown condition.
Ukrainian producer and fixer, 24-year-old Oleksandra Kuvshynova, who was working for Fox News during the war, was also killed in the shelling, according to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.
Mar 16, 6:44 am
Russia claims Ukraine willing to give up NATO hopes
Russia’s lead negotiator in peace talks with Ukraine said on Wednesday Ukraine had proposed adopting a “neutral status,” along the lines of Austria or Sweden, that is a country that is not part of NATO but has its own military and close ties to the West, including European Union membership.
There has been no official confirmation from Ukraine, though President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly said in recent days that Ukraine understands it will not be allowed to join NATO.
“The preservation and development of the neutral status of Ukraine, its demilitarization Ukraine — a whole complex of questions connected with the size of the Ukrainian army,” Russia’s negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky, was quoted as saying by Russian media. “Ukraine proposes the Austrian, Swedish option of a neutral demilitarised state, but within that a state possessing its own army and navy. All these questions are being discussed at the level of the leaderships of the ministry of defense of Russia and Ukraine.”
Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, claimed on Wednesday that the negotiators in the fourth round of talks were discussing “concrete formulations” that are “close to agreement.”
An agreement that Ukraine wouldn’t seek to join NATO raises questions. Ukraine’s constitution includes a pledge to join the alliance that would likely need to be changed, which would be highly controversial.
If the Sweden-style status is acceptable to Russia that would also mean the Kremlin has significantly lowered its war aims. Ukraine was not close to joining NATO before the conflict and a commitment not to would be little more than affirming the status quo before Russia’s invasion.
“The goal pursued by Russia at these negotiations is exactly the same as the goal set by Russia at the very beginning of the special military operation,” Medinsky said. “We need a peaceful, free and independent Ukraine, a neutral one, not a member of some military blocs or a member of NATO, but a country that would be our friend and neighbor, so that we could jointly develop relations and build our future and that would not serve as a bridgehead for a military and economic attack on our country. So, our goal is unchanged.”
This is why “practically every digit or letter in the agreements” is being thoroughly discussed with the Ukrainian side, Medinsky said.
“We want this agreement to last for generations, so that our children live in peace, the foundation of which is laid by this negotiating process,” he said.
Russia is also pursuing other demands in the talks, including the recognition of Crimea as part of Russia and the Russian-controlled separatist regions as independent. They also want changes in laws giving more guarantees for Russian-speakers in Ukraine.
Mar 16, 6:34 am
Russian forces ‘struggling’ with terrain: UK military
Russia’s military forces are “struggling to overcome” Ukraine’s terrain as they attempt to push further into the country, the U.K. Ministry of Defence said on Wednesday.
“Russian forces have remained largely tied to Ukraine’s road network and have demonstrated a reluctance to conduct off-road manoeuvre,” the Ministry said in an update. “The destruction of bridges by Ukrainian forces has also played a key role in stalling Russia’s advance.”
Ukraine’s military has “adeptly exploited” Russia’s difficulty moving through the country, “frustrating the Russian advance and inflicting heavy losses on the invading forces,” the update said.
(LONDON) — Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori, dual British-Iranian nationals detained in Iran for years, have been freed and are on a plane headed to the U.K., Prime Minister Boris Johnson said.
Tulip Siddiq, Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s lawmaker in the U.K., tweeted a photo of the freed woman from her flight.
“I am very pleased to confirm that the unfair detention of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori in Iran has ended today, and they will now return to the U.K.,” Johnson tweeted on Wednesday. “The U.K. has worked intensively to secure their release and I am delighted they will be reunited with their families and loved ones.”
Zaghari-Ratcliffe’s long spell in detention began when she was arrested on charges of espionage in April 2016 on a visit to see family in the country.
Her detention drew international condemnation, and her husband, Richard, led the calls back home for her release, going as far as a hunger strike outside the U.K. Parliament in October of last year to compel the government to do more.
Ashoori was arrested in August 2017 when he was visiting his mother in Tehran. He said he was arrested by plain clothes intelligence agents on a street near his mother’s home, according to Amnesty International. He was then forced into their car and was driven, blindfolded, to an unknown location, the group said.
For years, Islamic Republic officials denied they were keeping Zaghari and Ashoori as bargaining chips to compel the U.K. to unfreeze millions of dollars linked to a decades-long debt, saying the judicial power is independent and the two issues should not be connected.
Families of Zaghari and Ashoori, however, had urged British officials to pay Iran’s debt.
Fars News confirmed that $520 million of Iran’s blocked assets were transferred to Iran’s account before the pair was released, although U.K. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss said the debt had been settled in a way that complies with international sanctions, with the funds released restricted to humanitarian uses.
Another British national, Morad Tahbaz, has been released from prison on furlough, Truss said, and the U.K. government will continue to work to secure his departure from the country.
Zaghari and Ashoori will be reunited with their loved ones later this evening, she said.
(NEW YORK) — A strong earthquake struck off the coast of Japan late Wednesday, triggering a tsunami threat and leaving more than 2 million households without electricity, officials said.
Preliminary reports put it at a 7.3 magnitude. The earthquake occurred just off the coast from Fukushima.
At least 88 people were injured in multiple prefectures of Japan, and one death was reported by officials in Soma City in the Fukushima Prefecture, according to Japan’s NHK World news service.
A tsunami threat was issued for the east coast of Honshu, Japan, by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center based on preliminary earthquake parameters. The center warned of possible hazardous tsunami waves for coastal communities within 186 miles of the epicenter.
A tsunami is not expected in California, Oregon, Washington, British Columbia or Alaska, according to the U.S. National Tsunami Warning Center.
Japan’s NHK World news service initially reported that the Tokyo area was under large power outages with more than 2 million households currently without power. By 3 a.m. local time, power had been restored to “most” of the Tokyo area, NHK reported.
As a result of the earthquake, one of Japan’s Tohoku Shinkansen high-speed rail-line trains derailed with 100 passengers on board, according to the Kyodo News agency. No injuries were reported, the agency said.
The Japan Meteorological Agency said the quake struck around 11:36 p.m. local time and its epicenter was pinpointed about 20.5 miles below the sea.
In 2011, a strong earthquake struck in the same general area causing a tsunami and causing a nuclear disaster at Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant.
Japan’s nuclear regulator reported Wednesday that preliminary information indicates no abnormalities at the Fukushima nuclear plant.
(NEW YORK) — The mayor of an occupied Ukrainian city allegedly kidnapped by Russian forces last week has been freed, Ukrainian officials said Wednesday.
Melitopol Mayor Ivan Fedorov was freed from captivity in a “special operation,” according to Kirilo Timoshenko, an advisor to Ukraine’s presidential office. Timoshenko did not provide any further details.
Melitopol has been occupied since the first days of Russia’s invasion. Ukrainian officials said Fedorov, who had insisted that the southeastern Ukrainian city remain free and backed daily pro-Ukrainian protests, was kidnapped on March 11 after resisting takeover.
Fedorov disappeared after he was purportedly shown being led away with a bag over his head by a large group of heavily armed Russian soldiers in Melitopol’s Victory Square in a CCTV video shared by Timoshenko on Telegram. Russian-controlled separatists then announced they were bringing charges against Fedorov for “aiding terrorism.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy released a video of himself on Telegram Wednesday reportedly talking on the phone with Fedorov. The mayor thanked Zelenskyy and said he needed a couple of days to recover from his ordeal and then would be ready to fulfill any orders.
A smiling Zelenskyy said he was very glad to speak with Fedorov and that “we don’t leave ours behind.”
The president had demanded the release of Fedorov in several video messages, calling it a “crime against democracy.”
“The actions of the Russian invaders will be equated with the actions of ISIS terrorists,” he said last week.
Following the alleged kidnapping, a pro-Russian administration appeared to have been installed in Melitopol. A local lawmaker from a pro-Russian party made a television address Saturday, during which she said a “committee of the chosen” is now taking over the running of the city. The lawmaker, Galina Danilchenko, called protesters “extremists” and urged people not to allow activists to “destabilize” the situation.
Russian riot police were also deployed in Melitopol to block protests there.
Russian forces allegedly kidnapped another mayor in an occupied city in the region. Dniprorudne Mayor Yevgeny Matveyev was kidnapped on Sunday, according to Oleksandr Starukh, head of the regional military administration.
Russian invaders continue to abduct democratically elected local leaders in Ukraine. Mayor of Skadovsk Oleksandr Yakovlyev and his deputy Yurii Palyukh abducted today. States & international organizations must demand Russia to immediately release all abducted Ukrainian officials! pic.twitter.com/bmaAuurx9h
Earlier on Wednesday, Ukrainian officials claimed a third southern Ukrainian mayor — Oleksandr Yakovlyev of Skadovsk — and his deputy Yurii Palyukh were “abducted” by Russian forces.
“Russian invaders continue to abduct democratically elected local leaders in Ukraine,” Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s minister of foreign affairs, said on Twitter. “States & international organizations must demand Russia to immediately release all abducted Ukrainian officials!”
ABC News’ Patrick Reevell contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — The Biden administration will announce new building ventilation standards for schools and businesses on Thursday — a welcome step for experts who feel the U.S. has long been behind the curve on using air filtration as a valuable tool to fight COVID-19.
The new guidance, the latest addition to President Joe Biden’s recent COVID-19 plan, is the first time such a standard has been created at the national level, synthesizing expert guidance on how clean air can prevent the spread of illness.
The new recommendations, which will be rolled out by the Environmental Protection Agency, urge all building owners and operators to hit four main steps in the form of a detailed “checklist” to ultimately get more fresh air in.
“It’s a two-page document. It’s written in plain language, very straightforward,” Mary Wall, a senior policy adviser at the White House, told ABC News. “We think this is an action list that really all buildings can draw from.”
The checklist includes tasks that cost money, like hiring an expert in HVAC systems to assess the building or adding extra ventilation to “higher risk areas,” like a school nurses office, but also immediate, low-effort advice like opening windows and doors at opposite sides of a room to allow for “cross ventilation.”
In the next few weeks, the White House will also announce a recognition program, Wall said, which will award buildings for their ventilation systems, similar to LEED certification awards for sustainable buildings.
Experts like Dr. Joseph Allen, director of the Healthy Buildings Program at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, say the new guidance will be a necessary part of the country’s COVID-19 response.
“The thing I think that is most important about this is the White House is using its pulpit to drive home the message that clean air and buildings matter. That sounds simple, but it’s actually long overdue,” said Allen, who advised the White House on the policy and has publicly pushed for greater focus on ventilation since early in the pandemic.
While it could have been helpful over the last two years, this is a particularly good moment to turn attention toward ventilation, Allen said, because it can be “operating all the time, in the background,” even as masking has become a personal choice.
It also comes at a time when Americans are enjoying relaxed coronavirus measures, but cautiously eying a rise in cases in Europe and China from a more transmissible strain of omicron called the BA.2 variant that is expected to soon hit the U.S. to the same effect.
“We should take this reprieve. We’re certainly gonna get another curveball in the future. When, where or what that looks like is undetermined, but we should be ready,” Allen said. “These are improvements we could be making — getting our buildings ready.”
The Biden administration has no way to enforce the recommendations, though some experts sees it as a strong first step.
David Michaels, another adviser on the plan and a former head of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, acknowledged that the federal government has no authority over indoor air, but compared this step to how the ban on indoor smoking became widespread in the early 2000s, despite no national laws in place.
“This will push states and cities to issue indoor rules just as they did on tobacco smoke,” said Michaels, who is also a professor at George Washington University.
No new federal funding has been set aside to encourage buildings to upgrade their ventilation.
Wall pointed to existing funding streams, including the $122 billion allocated to schools through the American Rescue Plan for coronavirus relief and money in the infrastructure legislation Biden signed in November, as resources to help pay for improvements.
The White House intends the latest EPA standards to “re-raise this as an important priority,” Wall said, particularly for schools that haven’t yet been able to invest in better ventilation.
“I think that this is something that people haven’t been as focused on, but that it can be very effective in reducing COVID spread,” Wall said.
Proponents of improving the nation’s indoor air quality also point to “decades of benefits that go beyond COVID.”
In schools, better air quality has been shown to impact student test performance in math and reading. It’s also led to reduced asthma attacks and fewer absences, Allen said.
On the business front, studies have shown fewer workers call out sick, higher cognitive function and better productivity. Allen, in his research, estimated the benefit of good air quality to be about $7,000 per person, per year, before COVID.
“We should have been doing this all along. But in terms of why now with COVID, we should be prepared for whatever comes next,” Allen said.
(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 17, 6:59 am
Russia ‘stalled on all fronts,’ UK military says
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has “largely stalled on all fronts,” the UK Ministry of Defence said on Thursday.
“Russian forces have made minimal progress on land, sea or are in recent days and they continue to suffer heavy losses,” the Ministry said in an update posted to Twitter.
The Ukrainian resistance “remains staunch and well-coordinated,” the update said.
“The vast majority of Ukrainian territory, including all major cities, remain in Ukrainian hands,” the Ministry said.
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine – 17 March 2022
Mar 16, 9:00 pm
Theater sheltering civilians hit by Russian airstrikes, Ukrainian official says
A Ukrainian official claimed Wednesday that Russian airstrikes destroyed a theater in the besieged city of Mariupol where civilians were taking shelter.
The number of victims from the bombing of the Donetsk Regional Theatre of Drama “is impossible to count,” Pavlo Kyrylenko, head of the Donetsk Region administration, said in a Facebook post.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said during an address tonight that hundreds of people were hiding in the theater and that the death toll is still unknown.
“Russia is killing civilians!” Kyrylenko said, adding that it is also “impossible to determine” the number of victims in Mariupol since the start of the invasion.
The city has been burying its dead in a mass grave on the outskirts of Mariupol as it endures heavy shelling.
Stephen Lam/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Since November, at least four school shootings had an alarming connection to law enforcement and activists alike; the suspected shooters used a “ghost gun.”
A “ghost gun” is a firearm that comes packaged in parts, can be bought online and assembled without much of a trace, which experts warn are becoming increasingly dangerous.
“When we first heard about these weapons, we thought anyone can get them, even a kid. It’s not a hypothetical anymore,” Alex McCourt, an assistant professor with the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Violence Prevention and Policy, told ABC News.
McCourt, law enforcement offices and other experts who have been studying the proliferation of “ghost guns” told ABC News this trend is likely to continue beyond the school setting unless policymakers take action.
There are two types of weapons that fall under the ghost gun moniker, according to McCourt.
The first is a plastic gun that can be made with a 3D printer and usually fires one bullet.
The second version, which he said has been increasingly found at crime scenes, is do-it-yourself gun assembly kits that include all the parts of a gun, but without serial numbers or specific components. McCourt said these homemade guns bypass federal laws requiring registration and tracing.
Due to loopholes in federal gun laws, the kits are not considered firearms because they are missing specific completed components. In addition, under current laws, users aren’t allowed to register their constructed weapons with the federal government.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives told ABC News that the number of “privately made firearms” or PMF recovered from crime scenes by law enforcement has increased over the years. In 2016, law enforcement agencies across the country confiscated 1,750 PMFs from crime scenes, and the number jumped to 8,712 in 2020, according to the agency.
“From Jan. 1, 2016, through Dec. 31, 2020, there were approximately 23,906 suspected PMFs reported to ATF as having been recovered by law enforcement from potential crime scenes, including 325 homicides or attempted homicides,” ATF spokeswoman Carolyn Gwathmey said in a statement.
Gwathmey said the data might be undercounted as not all law enforcement agencies have submitted their PMF and “ghost gun” numbers to the federal government.
Legal loopholes allow the “ghost gun” kits to be sold online, and all it takes is common house tools to construct in under half an hour, McCourt said.
“It’s much less complicated than you might think,” he said. “If you can put together IKEA furniture, you can assemble these weapons.”
Rob Wilcox, the federal legal director at Everytown for Gun Safety, a non-profit gun safety organization, told ABC News there are several online sites that not only sell the “ghost gun” kits but also provide step-by-step instructions to customers of any age without any oversight or background check. Wilcox said even though the federal government has limited data on these online marketplaces, his group’s research has found that the number of Internet-based “ghost gun” retailers has been increasing over the years.
“You can ship it to a place where there is no watchful eye,” he said.
The weapons have recently made their way into school grounds.
On Nov. 29, a 15-year-old student allegedly shot and wounded a 16-year-old classmate with a “ghost gun” at Cesar Chavez High School in Phoenix, according to the Phoenix Police Department. The investigation is ongoing, a police spokeswoman told ABC News.
Steven Alston Jr., a 17-year-old student at Magruder High School in Rockville, Maryland, allegedly shot and critically wounded a 15-year-old classmate on Jan. 21, during a dispute, police said. Investigators said Alston, who is being tried as an adult with attempted second-degree murder, allegedly used a “ghost gun.”
“Three different parts were literally delivered to his home,” Montgomery County Police Chief Marcus Jones told reporters at a news conference days after the shooting.
Albuquerque, New Mexico, police said on Feb. 25, 14-year-old Marcos Trejo shot his classmate outside West Mesa High School during a fight over a ghost gun. Trejo has been charged with murder, police said.
The most recent incident took place on March 4, when an 18-year-old suspect used a “ghost gun” to wound two teachers and a student at Olathe East High School in Kansas, according to prosecutors. Jaylon Desean Elmore has been charged with attempted capital murder, according to Johnson County District Attorney Steve Howe.
In all of the investigations, police and prosecutors told ABC News they are still looking into how the guns got into the hands of the teen suspects and have been warning about their spread in their communities.
A spokeswoman for the Montgomery County State’s Attorney’s Office, which is investigating the Magruder High School shooting, told ABC News in a statement that “ghost guns have been recovered from five county schools since the start of the school year.”
Some states have taken legislative action against “ghost guns in light of these incidents.”
Nine states, including New York and California, have responded to the growth of “ghost guns” with laws that regulate the sales of them by requiring background checks and serial numbers for all of the components in the kits, according to Everytown for Gun Safety.
New York state’s “ghost gun” regulations went into effect this fall after legislators said it saw a 479% increase in “ghost gun” seizures across the state over the last three years.
“If you can’t pass a background check to get a gun, then you shouldn’t be able to get a gun–period,” State Sen. Anna Kaplan, who introduced one of the New York bills, said in a statement last year.
Cities like Denver, San Francisco and Philadelphia have also adopted similar laws.
Some states are also considering similar legislation. For example, Maryland state lawmakers are debating a bill, SB 387, which would prohibit “a person from purchasing, receiving, selling, offering to sell, or transferring an unfinished frame or receiver.”
During a hearing last month, law enforcement groups and district attorney offices, including Montgomery County State’s Attorney John McCarthy, pushed Maryland legislators to pass the bill.
“If you’re looking at an increase in violent crime across the country and in my county in particular, ghost guns are involved,” McCarthy told ABC News. “The real danger of ghost guns is really two-fold. Number one, prohibited persons, who we in Maryland have decided should not have guns, can get these guns- and number two, we’re finding increasingly they fall into the hands of children.”
Maryland Sen. Justin Ready told the Baltimore Sun before the Jan. 25 hearing that he didn’t think banning “ghost guns” would be effective because criminals would still find a way to obtain a weapon.
“I would have a lot more respect for these gun control groups if they came in strong supporting the bills cracking down on the people that commit violent acts,” Ready told the Baltimore Sun.
McCourt said lawmakers have constantly played catch up with evolving technology and these bills are a good first start, but because of the reach of online sales, the federal government needs to step in.
“Having a patchwork of state laws doesn’t do much,” he said.
Last year, the Biden administration and Justice Department proposed a new rule that would allow the ATF to redefine “firearm frame or receiver” and “frame or receiver” so the agency can regulate “ghost guns.”
The ATF is currently reviewing public comments for the proposal, according to the White House.
Wilcox said Biden’s proposal would effectively cripple the sale of “ghost guns” online and make it easier for law enforcement agencies to track the kits.
In the meantime, Wilcox said parents and caregivers need to be in frequent conversation with their children about the homemade gun kits.
“You have to know if your child is in crisis, you have to limit their access to guns,” he said. “That includes access to the sites that sell those ghost guns.”
Leonid Faerberg/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Russia and the United States have both used thermobaric weapons in previous conflicts and have been in a decades-long race to refine the artillery, but Russia’s alleged deployment of the so-called “vacuum bomb” on Ukrainian forces has prompted widespread backlash and fears that it will be used on civilians.
Oksana Markarova, Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States, was the first to publicly accuse Russia of launching a thermobaric weapon on Ukrainian forces, killing 70 soldiers.
A senior U.S. Department of Defense official said the United States has yet to corroborate Markarova’s accusations. Meanwhile, the United Kingdom Ministry of Defense claimed the Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed its forces’ use of the weapon in Ukraine but did not provide details on when and where that occurred, or say how it verified the information.
“The Russian MoD has confirmed the use of the TOS-1A weapon system in Ukraine. The TOS-1A uses thermobaric rockets, creating incendiary and blast effects,” the United Kingdom Ministry of Defense said in a tweet that was accompanied by a video explaining the weapon’s devastating capabilities.
“We have seen the reports. If that were true, it would potentially be a war crime,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said during a Feb. 28 press briefing.
While no evidence has publicly surfaced that Russia has used thermobaric weapons on civilians in Ukraine, Russia has been accused by Ukrainian officials of using other weapons to attack civilians, including at a maternity hospital in the city of Mariupol in southeast Ukraine. Russian forces were also accused by Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of bombing a dormitory building in the northern Ukraine city of Zhytomyr.
The Biden administration publicly warned Wednesday that as Russia continues to meet stiff resistance in Ukraine, the Kremlin might seek to up the ante and use chemical or biological weapons.
What is a thermobaric weapon?
Thermobaric weapons pack a devastating one-two punch, according to experts. First, a detonation unleashes a foreboding vaporized cloud of fuel that can penetrate small crevices and even underground bunkers before a second ignition charge creates a very hot mid-air blast that depletes the surrounding air of oxygen, thus the nickname “vacuum bomb.”
Russia deployed the weapon in Chechnya in the 1990s and over the past decade in Syria. The United States used the weapon in Vietnam in the 1960s and most recently in Afghanistan in 2017.
“It’s a particularly nasty weapon. It’s a terrible way to die. It has a really broad effect and is probably most useful against hardened facilities,” John Tierney, executive director at the Center for Arms Control & Non-Proliferation in Washington, D.C., told ABC News.
Tierney, a former Massachusetts congressman who served on the House Intelligence Committee, said that if Russia ever uses a thermobaric weapon in a Ukrainian city, “It’s going to be hard to miss civilians with it,” explaining the explosive vaporous fuel cloud settles on everything, including people.
Tierney said the purported use of the bomb by Russia could be a sign of how desperate Russian President Vladimir Putin is to break the will of the Ukrainian people.
“You can’t say what’s going on in his mind, but it would seem to indicate that he’s getting a little desperate, that things aren’t going the way he planned,” Tierney said.
The United States and Russia have reportedly been in a race to perfect the thermobaric weapon, billed as a substitute to nuclear weapons.
Tierney said Russia’s largest thermobaric weapon, tested in 2007, is believed to have packed the equivalent of 44 tons of TNT. By comparison, U.S. strategic nuclear weapons yield the equivalent of 50,000 tons to 1.2 megatons of TNT.
The destruction radius of a thermobaric explosion is estimated to be about 1,000-feet-wide but can have a blast area of up to 6,500 feet, according to a 2018 report from the U.S. Army War College.
In 2017, the Pentagon announced U.S. forces targeting an ISIS cave complex in eastern Afghanistan used a 22,000-pound thermobaric bomb nicknamed “the mother of all bombs.” Formally known as the GBU-43, or massive ordnance air blast (MOAB) bomb, it was developed in 2003.
“Accurate casualty totals were impossible to calculate because any living thing close to the blast area was vaporized,” a U.S. Army War College report said in describing the 2017 MOAB bomb drop in Afghanistan.
