(NEW YORK) — Black New Yorkers were hit disproportionately hard during the omicron wave compared to white New Yorkers, according to a new analysis from the city’s Department of Health & Mental Hygiene published Wednesday.
Black New York City residents were hospitalized for COVID-19 at a rate more than two times greater than white residents.
For example, during the week ending Jan. 1, 2022, Black people were being hospitalized at a rate of 120.45 per 100,000 while white people were hospitalized at a rate of 47.14 per 100,000 that week, according to city data.
This is a much larger gap than seen during previous waves such as the delta wave in fall 2021 or the winter wave of 2020-21.
“This finding represents the impact of multiple points of failure in our system to adequately safeguard the health of Black New Yorkers,” the authors wrote. “It mirrors extensive national evidence documenting racial inequities in COVID-19 outcomes affecting Black persons across the United States.”
The report also found COVID-19 hospitalizations were much higher in New York City neighborhoods with a high percentage of Black residents.
For example, in the Bronx ZIP code 10469, which is about 53% Black, the hospitalization rate during January 2022 was about 274 per 100,000.
By comparison, the Manhattan ZIP code 10075, which is 87% white, had a hospitalization rate of 112 per 100,000 for the same period.
To address why there are such disparities, and how to narrow the gap, the NYC DOHMH also detailed structural racism that has played a role in why Black New Yorkers experienced worse outcomes.
One of these factors is that Black New Yorkers were at greater risk for COVID-19 exposure because they were less likely to be able to work from home since the start of the pandemic.
Additionally, the report also noted that Black residents are more likely to live in “multi-generational homes without adequate space for quarantine and isolation” which increases the risk of being exposed to the virus.
There have also been inequities in making such Black New Yorkers get vaccinated or boosted.
At the start of the omicron wave — Dec. 11, 2021 — only about 50% of Black residents were fully boosted compared to about 60% of white residents and a citywide rate of about 70%.
What’s more, by that same date, about 10% of Black New Yorkers had received a booster shot compared to about 25% of white New Yorkers “in part because fewer had completed their primary vaccination to be eligible for an additional dose,” the report states.
There were also delays in diagnosing Black residents with COVID-19.
The report found about 1 in 4 Black New Yorkers were not diagnosed until five days or longer after symptoms appeared compared to about 1 out of 4 other New Yorkers who took four or more days to get diagnosed.
“These extended times from COVID-19 symptom onset to diagnosis are driven in part by structural barriers such as decreased access to COVID-19 testing or time off work to seek testing,” the authors wrote.
However, there were some bright spots in the report. To close racial gaps, the city’s Taskforce for Racial Inclusion and Equity initiative identified 74 ZIP codes where vaccination rates needed to be boosted.
By February 2022, 73 of those ZIP codes had at least 70% of residents fully vaccinated compared to 14 ZIP codes as of July 2021.
“While the drivers of health inequities are complex and rooted in centuries of structural racism and disinvestment, the Health Department is committed to identifying solutions to protect and promote health today while also building long-term strategies to address structural factors,” the authors wrote.
(WASHINGTON) — Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham was swiftly rebuked by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle for remarks he made suggesting that Russians ought to assassinate Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“Is there a Brutus in Russia? Is there a more successful Colonel Stauffenberg in the Russian military? The only way this ends is for somebody in Russia to take this guy out. You would be doing your country – and the world – a great service,” Graham tweeted Thursday evening. “Unless you want to live in darkness for the rest of your life, be isolated from the rest of the world in abject poverty, and live in darkness you need to step up to the plate.
Is there a Brutus in Russia? Is there a more successful Colonel Stauffenberg in the Russian military?
The only way this ends is for somebody in Russia to take this guy out.
You would be doing your country – and the world – a great service.
Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., tweeted, “I really wish our members of Congress would cool it and regulate their remarks as the administration works to avoid WWIII. As the world pays attention to how the US and its leaders are responding, Lindsey’s remarks and remarks made by some House members aren’t helpful.”
But some of Graham’s fellow Republicans were equally miffed by his comments. Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz called Graham’s suggestion an “exceptionally bad idea”.
“Use massive economic sanctions; BOYCOTT Russian oil & gas; and provide military aid so the Ukrainians can defend themselves,” Cruz tweeted. “But we should not be calling for the assassination of heads of state.”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., known for her frequently controversial positions on Twitter, also rebuked Graham, calling his position “irresponsible, dangerous & unhinged.”
“We need leaders with calm minds & steady wisdom. Not blood thirsty warmongering politicians trying to tweet tough by demanding assassinations,” Greene tweeted. “Americans don’t want war.”
The administration has imposed a series of sanctions on Russia aimed at chocking their economy. Some lawmakers have called for the Biden White House to go even further, urging additional sanctions and a ban on Russian oil imports to the United States.
But Graham’s call, which he repeated on Fox News Thursday night, is far beyond what other lawmakers have sought.
The White House has stopped short of even calling for Putin’s ouster.
During an interview on ABC News’ Good Morning America on Thursday, co-anchor George Stephanopoulos pressed Vice President Kamala Harris on what the United States hopes is the end game for Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
“What is the best possible outcome here? Does the United States want the Russian people and Putin’s fellow oligarchs to rise up and depose him?” Stephanopoulos asked.
“Well, what we want is that he will leave Ukraine. What we want is that the Ukrainian people will be free and that they will be safe,” Harris said, stopping short of calling for Putin to be removed from power.
Graham has been a vocal critic of Putin for years, and has in recent weeks called on the administration to impose harsher sanctions of the Russian leader, his oligarchs and his exports.
On Thursday, Graham led a bipartisan group of senators in introducing a resolution encouraging the investigation of Russia for war crimes abuses in Ukraine.
(NEW YORK) — The Donbas region of eastern Ukraine was once known for its coal and steel manufacturing, but thanks to a long-running conflict there fanned by Russia, it has played an important role in the Kremlin’s ongoing invasion.
The Donbas contains two provinces, Donetsk and Luhansk, that touch the Russian border and since 2014 have been controlled by two puppet separatist governments that Moscow armed and helped establish.
Russian President Vladimir Putin last week recognized the independence of the self-proclaimed People’s Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, saying he sent Russian troops into Ukraine to keep the peace at the request of rebels in the region.
But experts on the long-running conflict said Moscow largely created the separatist movement and is now using that as grounds for the invasion.
“Those two regions have a lot of people who are not just Russian citizens, but also sympathetic to Russia still, unlike most of the country,” said ABC News contributor Steve Ganyard, a retired U.S. Marine colonel and former deputy assistant secretary of state. “So the reason that the Russians were able to sort of maintain puppet governments there is that they had people who are sympathetic to Russia and to their cause.”
During the 2014 Ukrainian revolution, which toppled the Russian-friendly regime of former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, Russia responded by annexing Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula and throwing its support behind an insurgency in Donbas.
Russia-backed fighters, led by former Russian intelligence officer Igor Girkin and supported by Russian special forces, seized several administrative buildings in Donbas, setting off the conflict.
‘People’s republics’
In April 2014, the Russian-backed rebels in Donetsk and Luhansk proclaimed the creation of “people’s republics” and months later held a popular and unrecognized referendum to declare independence from Ukraine in an effort to become part of Russia, experts said.
“Russia sent operatives in, both military and political, to create the appearance of separatist movements, and then they sort of brought them to life. These movements would take over city halls in the region, and we’d see pictures of Russian special forces with them,” Matthew Schmidt, a national security and political science professor at the University of New Haven, told ABC News.
Ukraine used its military to try to regain control of the region, and as the Russian-backed insurgency faltered, Moscow sent its regular forces in to prop them up, covertly sending tank regiments and other units into battle.
About 14,000 people have been killed in the eight years of fighting in Donbas, and more than a million residents of the area have been displaced since the fighting broke, according to the Ukrainian government.
Amid the fighting, Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 was shot down over eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014, killing 298 people aboard, most of them from the Netherlands. An international investigation determined the jet was hit by a Russia-supplied missile fired from the rebel-controlled territory in Ukraine. Russia denied any involvement in the incident.
In early 2015, with Russian troops inflicting heavy damage on Ukraine, Kyiv agreed to a peace deal known as the “Minsk agreements.” Although the deal ended large-scale fighting, the conflict continued to smolder with both sides dug in along trenches.
“It turned into sort of like a World War I-kind of Western Front stalemate, and it’s been that way since 2015,” Ganyard said, adding that prior to the invasion, indiscriminate shelling occurred on both sides of the conflict.
Schmidt added, “The most important thing about that area is that it has caused this war, or it is the justification for this war.”
‘Minsk agreements’
The 2015 Minsk agreements called for Ukraine to reintegrate the separatist regions by giving them broad autonomy enshrined in its constitution. The Kremlin hoped that by doing so it would create a permanent pro-Russian lever of influence within Ukraine’s government that would act as a veto on the country joining the European Union or NATO.
Ukraine refused to fulfill that part of the Minsk deal while Russian troops remained on the separatists’ territory, seeing the separatist governments as puppets of the Kremlin. Any possibility of solving the conflict was made far more difficult because the Kremlin refused to even acknowledge its troops were in the separatist areas, falsely claiming the conflict was entirely an internal civil war in Ukraine, the experts said.
Meanwhile, Russia continued to falsely accuse Ukraine of waging a “genocide” against Russian speakers in the separatist areas.
The Kremlin and the separatist proxies have drawn on a conception of the region dating from the 19th century when it was part of an area known as “New Russia.”
“So, that’s where Putin is starting, and he’s saying essentially these people are majority Russian speakers and if you go back to the 19th century they are really part of Russia or should be. And he’s used that term New Russia before,” Schmidt said.
But the Ukrainian government counters that Donetsk and Luhansk have been legally recognized as part of Ukraine dating back to 1917. During a referendum in 1991, a majority of people in the regions voted in favor of Ukrainian independence.
A barrage of fake reports
In the run-up to the current invasion, Russia manufactured a pretext for it by claiming Ukraine was preparing to attack the separatist regions, backing it with a barrage of fake reports and staged videos showing supposed Ukrainian outrages that were quickly debunked by independent researchers.
The separatist authorities also ordered mass evacuations of civilians to create the illusion of a large-scale humanitarian crisis.
After Russia recognized the “republics,” the puppet governments appealed for help from Russia, creating a false pretext for the Kremlin to invade. Putin accused Ukraine of failing to implement the Minsk agreements to justify Russia recognizing the separatist “republics” as independent.
By recognizing Donetsk and Luhansk as independent republics, Putin is saying that “Ukraine is illegitimate in claiming them,” Schmidt said.
“And when he claims them as independent republics, then they are — in his mind and in Russian legal theory at that point — capable of asking a neighboring country to assist,” Schmidt said.
When the fighting stopped in 2015, the separatist “republics” only held around a third of the territory of Donbas that they claim should belong to them. As part of Russia’s invasion, it has launched a full-scale offensive from the separatist areas that it claims is to retake that territory.
Many experts say Russia is using the separatist conflict as a pretext for forcing Ukraine to concede to Russian demands that it never join NATO and remain part of Moscow’s orbit.
The two separatist regions — likely enlarged — could be important in any eventual peace agreement to end the fighting.
Ganyard said that while Donetsk and Luhansk have been key to the start of the Russian invasion, they are also a vital “piece of the puzzle” to ending it.
“It’s one thing to invade a country; it’s another thing to hold it — and it’s particularly difficult if you don’t have the support of the indigenous people,” Ganyard said. “If Ukraine has to give up the Donbas, it’s probably not a deal killer. I think that might be part of the deal just to give Putin something to allow him to save face.”
(NEW YORK) — Typically used for fun on social media, memes out of Ukraine are serious business amid Russia’s attack.
In fact, history and media experts who spoke with ABC News said the social media posts about Ukraine’s resistance against Russian forces are war tools.
Jennifer Grygiel, an associate professor of communications at Syracuse University who specializes in social media and memes, told ABC News that social media campaigns, undertaken by big governments or grassroots groups, are critical in gaining worldwide support.
“That’s how warfare is conducted in the information space. It’s about narratives and public belief,” Grygiel said.
As social media warfare heats up, Grygiel and other experts say the world needs to be on high alert and prevent spreading false information.
U.S. and European officials also say the Russian government began using social media videos in the last couple of months to plant false flag stories that bolster Putin’s claims that his invasion is legitimate.
In one video posted in February, Russian-backed separatists claimed they were ordering an “immediate evacuation” to Russia because of unrest in Ukraine. But metadata embedded in the video files showed they had been created two days earlier, according to Western intelligence officials.
V.S. Subrahmanian, a faculty fellow at Northwestern University’s Buffett Institute for Global Affairs and cybersecurity expert, told ABC News that these tactics aren’t new.
He said during World War II, Western and Nazi forces would airdrop leaflets onto the battlefield and in towns to promote their respective country and to intimidate the enemy.
“What’s happening today is these leaflets are now tweets, or Facebook posts or posts on TikTok and they are sowing the disinformation campaign long before any invasion tactics, ” Subrahmanian said.
The biggest difference in this tactic, according to Subrahmanian, is that years of Russian government disinformation campaigns have added up and the world is not taking the bait.
And it may have spurred Ukrainians to take back that online narrative.
Since the invasion began, there have been viral posts from social media users in the country that have highlighted the Ukrainians’ resolve. In addition to publishing photos and videos of resistance forces taking down Russian troops and tanks, social media users are also promoting the acts of civilians.
“The most important mission of any warfare is success on the ground,” Daniel Johnson, a Roy H. Park Fellow at UNC Hussman’s School of Journalism and former U.S. Army journalist told ABC News. “Russia is running into the issue where they are fighting battles that they thought it would be winning. So when they put out messages saying they’re winning, people around the world know it’s false.”
Johnson said the U.S. Army and other military units are tasked with putting out the social media from the front lines, but what makes the situation interesting in Ukraine is that the posts are coming from civilians voluntarily. This is their form of nationalistic pride and duty, he said.
“In previous wars, we’d have people help with giving supplies or letters. Now you have a video post,” he said.
Johnson said that the Ukrainian social media posts are keeping the Russian disinformation campaign at bay as Ukrainian victories posted online have been livestreamed and captured by multiple users from different angles.
“It’s hard to lie when I have 150 videos showing that you’re not in Kyiv and you’re not winning,” he said.
Some of the posts are getting more attention.
In one video, a group of Ukrainian soldiers on Snake Island in the Black Sea were seen responding to a Russian warship’s threats of a bombing by telling the ship’s crew to “go (expletive) yourself.” In another post, a Ukrainian woman is seen scolding a Russian soldier, telling him to “put sunflower seeds in your pocket so they grow when you die.”
The ongoing stories of the Ukrainian fighter pilot nicknamed “the Ghost of Kyiv,” have also been trending, for their reported successful airstrikes against Russian forces. Military experts haven’t been able to confirm if the “Ghost of Kyiv” is a real person.
Johnson said these figures, real or not, play an important role in boosting the resistance’s spirits and have done so in the past with examples like “Rosie the Riveter.”
“Legends have a morale power,” he said. “It’s what they represent more than anything.”
Grygiel said one of the most important effects of Ukrainian social media and memes is showing the world how devastating Russian attacks are on the populace and cities. For many people around the world, this is their first taste of the atrocities of war in real time, Grygiel said.
“There is something human about seeing who you’re about to harm,” they said.
Grygiel and the other experts said there will be a greater emphasis on media and Internet messaging campaigns during the current conflict and future international wars. Meta, Facebook’s parent company, announced this week that it had shut down accounts that spread misinformation about Ukraine.
Governments and social media companies need to go further and keep an eye on the content that they’re promoting Grygiel said.
“When it comes to propaganda and disinformation there is no limit,” Grygiel said.
(NEW YORK) — Russian forces are continuing their attempted push through Ukraine from multiple directions, while Ukrainians, led by President Volodymr 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, don’t appear to have advanced closer to the city since coming within about 20 miles, although smaller advanced groups have been fighting gun battles with Ukrainian forces inside the capital since at least Friday.
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 04, 10:22 am
Putin says Russia will ‘cope’ with sanctions
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday addressed the sanctions imposed by the West, saying his country will “benefit” in the end.
“Of course it will cause damage to us as well,” Putin said during an appearance on a Russian news channel. “We will simply have to postpone some projects a little, acquire additional expertise, just as we did it in a whole range of other projects, including in aviation.”
“But in any case we will cope with these tasks before us and will even benefit from this situation in the end, because we will acquire additional expertise,” Putin said.
Putin also spoke about Ukraine: “We have absolutely no ill intentions with regard to our neighbors.”
He added, “I would advise them against escalating tensions and imposing any restrictions. We are honoring all our obligations, and we will continue to do so.”
Mar 04, 9:08 am
Over 1.2 million refugees have fled Ukraine: UNHCR
More than 1.2 million people have been forced to flee Ukraine since Russian forces invaded on Feb. 24, according to the latest figures from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Over 50% of the refugees from Ukraine are in neighboring Poland, UNHCR figures show.
UNHCR spokesperson Chris Melzer said the refugee flow from Ukraine into Poland appears to be slowing down, for now.
“The flow of people is lessening,” Melzer told ABC News on Friday. “The lines are much shorter.”
Melzer, who is currently at Budomierz on the Polish border, has been hearing reports of similar scenes at other crossings. But he cautioned that this doesn’t mean the situation is over.
“The process has been streamlined and less people seem to be coming,” he said. “Here, there are about two-hour waits for cars and pedestrians are passing through freely.”
-ABC News’ Zoe Magee
Mar 04, 8:33 am
Zelenskyy alleges Russia is planning to stage ‘fake rally’ in Kherson
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused Russian forces of planning to stage “a fake rally in support of Russia” in the strategic port city of Kherson.
In a televised address Friday morning, Zelenskyy claimed that Russian troops were busing in “outsiders” from Moscow-annexed Crimea and “trying to recruit traitors from among the locals” to demand that Kherson be a Russian city.
“I appeal to the residents of Kherson: You can stop that, show them that Kherson is your city,” Zelenskyy said. “We will not let go of what is ours.”
“Show them our flags, sing our anthem, show your spirit, let them know that they can only stay in Kherson temporarily and would never be able to claim ownership of Kherson or any other city of our country,” he added.
Russian forces took control of Kherson in southern Ukraine on Wednesday night. The Ukrainian government said earlier Friday that Russian troops have taken over Kherson’s television tower and are broadcasting Russian channels, suggesting that Moscow may be planning to permanently occupy the city.
-ABC News’ Patrick Reevell
Mar 04, 8:17 am
Over 1.2 million refugees have fled Ukraine: UNHCR
More than 1.2 million people have been forced to flee Ukraine since Russian forces invaded on Feb. 24, according to the latest figures from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Over 50% of the refugees from Ukraine are in neighboring Poland, UNHCR figures show.
-ABC News’ Zoe Magee
Mar 04, 7:46 am
Russia has prepared puppet government for Kyiv: US official
Russia has selected and prepared a puppet government to install in Kyiv once its forces seize the Ukrainian capital, a senior U.S. administration official told ABC News.
U.S. intelligence believes Russian troops will ultimately crush Kyiv and decapitate its government, amid mounting evidence of indiscriminate shelling and a barrage against civilian targets across Ukraine, according to the official.
The official expressed concern that Ukraine lacks air power and what air force they had has been attacked, allowing Russia to mass its forces en route to Kyiv.
-ABC News’ Martha Raddatz
Mar 04, 7:32 am
Russian forces advancing on major Ukrainian city, local official warns
Russian forces are advancing on Mykolaiv, another key city in southern Ukraine, the regional governor warned Friday.
In a video message posted on social media, Mykolaiv Oblast Gov. Vitaliy Kim said Russian troops are moving on Mykolaiv city from two directions and that some have already entered the city limits but are not yet inside in significant numbers.
The city is preparing to defend itself, according to Kim.
“Don’t panic,” Kim said. “At the moment, the enemy is approaching from two directions but they’re not on our streets yet. We’re preparing the defenses, so women and children should get home now and the men join the defense lines.”
Kim said the Ukrainian military has a large amount of armour in Mykolaiv and urged residents “not to shoot at every vehicle,” since some could be Ukrainian.
“No need to shoot at everything that’s moving in the city. There’s a lot of our armor in the city,” he said. “{lease do not shoot inside the city, there’s no enemy here yet, but they are approaching.”
-ABC News’ Patrick Reevell
Mar 04, 6:45 am
US embassy calls nuclear power plant shelling ‘a war crime’
The U.S. Embassy in Kyiv took to Twitter on Friday to condemn Russia’s shelling of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe.
“It is a war crime to attack a nuclear power plant,” the embassy tweeted. “Putin’s shelling of Europe’s largest nuclear plant takes his reign of terror one step further.”
Mar 04, 6:25 am
Blinken: ‘If conflict comes to us, we’re ready for it’
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg met with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other NATO foreign ministers in Brussels on Friday morning to discuss the response to the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.
During a press conference prior to the meeting at NATO headquarters, Blinken and Stoltenberg condemned Russia’s attacks on civilians in Ukraine and expressed concern over the reports of Russian shelling at Ukraine’s largest nuclear power plant.
“This just demonstrates the recklessness of this war and the importance of ending it, and the importance of Russia withdrawing all its troops and engage in good faith in diplomatic efforts,” Stoltenberg told reporters. “We provide support to Ukraine. At the same time, NATO is not part of the conflict. NATO is a defensive alliance, we don’t seek war conflict with Russia.”
Blinken emphasized that NATO and the United States “seek no conflict.”
“But if conflict comes to us, we’re ready for it,” he added. “And we will defend every inch of NATO territory.”
Mar 04, 5:41 am
No radioactive material released at Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant: IAEA
The head of the United Nations nuclear watchdog said Friday that no radioactive material was released at Ukraine’s largest nuclear power plant amid shelling from Russian forces overnight.
The shelling sparked a fire in a training building at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe, in the eastern Ukrainian city of Enerhodar. The blaze has since been extinguished, according to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service.
Two security employees at the plant were injured during the incident, according to International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi.
“The safety systems at the six reactors were not effected,” Grossi said at a press conference in Vienna on Friday morning. “No radioactive material was released.”
“We are following the situation very, very closely,” he added.
-ABC News’ Joe Simonetti
Mar 04, 2:57 am
Fire at Ukraine’s largest nuclear facility extinguished as Russian forces take control
A fire at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant in the eastern Ukrainian city of Enerhodar was extinguished Friday, according to Ukraine’s State Emergency Service.
The fire occurred in a training building at the site after shelling from Russian forces. There were no victims, the emergency service said.
The Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is the largest in Europe.
Meanwhile, Energodar Mayor Dmytro Orlov told reporters Friday morning that the city is now under the control of Russian forces and fighting near the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant has stopped.
Ukraine’s national nuclear regulator has said that the plant’s employees are being permitted to work as normal, safety systems are currently functioning and there was no reported change in radiation levels at the site.
-ABC News’ Brian Hartman and Patrick Reevell
Mar 04, 2:12 am
UN nuclear watchdog warns of ‘severe danger if any reactors were hit’ at plant
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has appealed for a halt of the use of force at Ukraine’s largest nuclear power plant and warned of “severe danger if any reactors were hit.”
The United Nations nuclear watchdog said in a statement early Friday that it was informed by Ukraine that the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe, had been shelled overnight in the eastern city of Enerhodar. IAEA Director-General Rafael Mariano Grossi “immediately” spoke with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal as well as the country’s national nuclear regulator and operator about the “serious situation.” Grossi is expected to hold a press conference later Friday.
According to IAEA, the Ukrainian regulatory authority said a fire at the site had not affected “essential” equipment and plant personnel were taking mitigatory actions, and that there was no reported change in radiation levels at the plant.
Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said the blaze, which occurred in a training building after shelling from Russian forces, was extinguished Friday morning.
The IAEA said it is putting its Incident and Emergency Center (IEC) in “full response mode” due to the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. The agency continues to closely monitor developments at the facility and remains in constant contact with Ukraine.
(WASHINGTON) — U.S. employers added 678,000 jobs to their payrolls last month, the latest figures released Friday by the Labor Department show, exceeding economists’ expectations.
Economists had expected to see employment grow by around 440,000 new positions.
The biggest increases in employment in February occurred in leisure and hospitality (179,000) followed by professional and business services (95,000) and health care (64,000), according to the Labor Department.
Meanwhile, the unemployment rate dropped slightly from 4.0% in January to 3.8% in February.
(WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court reinstated the death sentence for Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who attacked the Boston Marathon in 2013, in a decision announced Friday.
It was a 6-3 decision, with the opinion written by Justice Clarence Thomas. Justices Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor dissented.
“Dzhokhar Tsarnaev committed heinous crimes. The Sixth Amendment nonetheless guaranteed him a fair trial before an impartial jury. He received one. The judgment of the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit is reversed,” Thomas wrote in the decision.
Breyer in the dissent said Tsarnaev should have been allowed to present evidence that his older brother Tamerlan had previously committed three brutal murders to bolster his case that he “radicalized him.”
(WASHINGTON) — Bipartisan calls are growing on Capitol Hill for the United States to ban imports of oil from Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, but the White House stopped short of an outright ban — and experts said the impact would be limited.
The United States and other Western nations have imposed an unprecedented raft of sanctions on Russia, but they have created exceptions for the oil and gas sector — from which the Russian government derives much of its income — because of fears cutting off the supply would drive up energy prices around the world.
But Republican members of Congress have for weeks been calling for a ban on imports of Russian crude oil and petroleum products, saying it would kneecap Russian President Vladimir Putin more than the Biden administration’s sanctions have so far.
“Putin’s major source of revenue is selling oil and gas and Biden’s given an exception,” Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said Wednesday. “You can continue getting billions of dollars to fund the invasion of Ukraine.”
Experts predict muted impact on Russia
Just 1% of Russia’s total crude oil exports in 2020 went to the United States, according to U.S. government figures.
So while cutting off that trade would force Russia to find other buyers for that relatively small amount of oil, it would not have as significant of an impact as if Europe — where Russia sends nearly half its oil — stopped them, experts told ABC News.
And the crippling financial sanctions on Russia’s banks and other parts of its economy have already turned off potential buyers of Russian oil who are wary of doing business in a country quickly becoming a financial pariah, the experts said.
“Russian oil has already been de facto sanctioned” by the United States and its partners, Patrick De Haan, the head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, told ABC News.
The global market has already started to react, according to Ben Cahill, an expert on energy security at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
“For Russia, this is part of a bigger set of challenges — which is a lot of people don’t want to buy their oil,” Cahill said. “There’s a lot of self-sanctioning happening in the marketplace.”
The U.S. relies on Russian oil more than Russia depends on sending its oil to the U.S., with about 7 to 10% of the United States’ imports of crude oil and petroleum products coming from Russia in recent years.
De Haan said cutting off the supply would likely raise gas prices in the U.S. in the short term.
But Cahill said the switch would be “manageable,” with the U.S. potentially turning to countries like Mexico, Ecuador, Colombia and Canada to replace the Russian oil.
Growing bipartisan support runs up against White House reluctance
Still, a slew of Democratic senators, as well as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, on Thursday threw their support behind cutting off Russian oil imports.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers, led by moderate Democrat Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., and Republican Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, introduced legislation Thursday that would declare a national emergency and direct President Joe Biden to impose a ban.
But Biden already has such authority.
And while the White House has not completely ruled out the possibility, it has expressed concern it could lead to higher energy prices for Americans who are already being hit at the gas pump by record-high inflation rates.
“The president’s objective has been to maximize impact on President Putin and Russia, while minimizing impact to us and our allies and partners,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Thursday.
The group backing Manchin’s proposal is bipartisan. Nine Republicans have signed on as co-sponsors. And Democratic supporters span the caucus from traditionally moderate members like Sen. Jon Tester, of Montana, to more progressive members like Hawaii Sens. Mazie Hirono and Brian Schatz, and Connecticut’s Sen. Richard Blumenthal.
“Putin has weaponized energy,” Tester said. “I don’t believe this country should be importing anything from Russia, but the fact of the matter is energy is something Putin depends upon for his finances, and he is depending on it to fight this war in Ukraine.”
Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., has offered a separate bill that would also ban Russian oil imports. In addition, his legislation would require a report identifying entities involved in the import of Russian crude oil and petroleum products into the U.S. — and impose sanctions on those entities based on the report’s findings.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi gave the effort her stamp of approval Thursday.
“I’m all for that,” Pelosi told reporters. “Ban it. Ban the oil coming from Russia.”
Manchin said Americans should be willing to make a sacrifice.
“You talk about an inconvenience, can you imagine if you lived in Ukraine right now?” Manchin said. “If there was a poll being taken and they said, ‘Joe, would you pay 10 cents more a gallon to support the people of Ukraine and stop, basically, the support of Russia?’ I would gladly pay 10 cents more a gallon.”
Republicans call for new drilling on US public lands
Pelosi was clear that she did not back an increase on oil and gas drilling on federal land, which the Biden administration has restricted — and which Republicans want.
While the bipartisan bill makes no mention of domestic production, many Republican lawmakers — and some Democrats, including Manchin — see the two policies going hand in hand.
An increase in U.S. production would blunt rising oil prices and provide a global alternative to Russian oil, they argue.
“We must dramatically increase domestic production of energy to support the energy needs of American consumers without causing increased financial burden,” Manchin said in a statement Tuesday.
Increasing U.S. oil production is a controversial move. Many Democrats applauded steps taken by the administration for sidelining the Keystone XL pipeline project last year and taking steps to pare back production in favor of greener energy sources earlier this year.
But the White House says oil companies have access to plenty of places to drill, and the Biden administration supports investing in clean energy in the long term to prevent a reliance on foreign oil.
Cahill said there are signs U.S. producers are already reacting to demand that increased even before the war in Ukraine — and that most of the new drilling would take place on private land.
“This industry mostly takes its signals from Wall Street, and the market is going to take care of some of this on its own,” Cahill said. The White House lending its rhetorical support could help, though, he said.
Murkowski echoed that sentiment.
“If the president were to come before the American people and give a speech and say we in this country need to embrace the role that we can take on as a full energy producer,” she said, “I think that that would do as much to send a signal to help calm the markets to help address what we are seeing with the daily prices of fuel at the pump.”
ABC News’ Zunaira Zaki contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — In the midst of an ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, public health experts are now warning that the COVID-19 pandemic could soon accelerate in the region.
While medical care for casualties of war is now the first priority, experts say the crisis could accelerate the spread of infectious disease, including COVID-19 — especially as a growing number of Ukrainians are displaced and forced in cramped, fraught situations.
Ukraine was already struggling with the pandemic before the war started, with the highly transmissible omicron variant causing a surge in cases. In the past four weeks alone, Ukraine reported more than 900,000 COVID-19 cases, more than one-fifth of total cases from the entire pandemic. Only 35% of Ukrainians are fully vaccinated.
“Migration and congregation of populations is likely to significantly contribute to disease spread, especially given the current surge of the highly transmissible omicron variant,” said John Brownstein, PhD, epidemiologist, chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital and ABC News contributor.
WHO Director General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned Wednesday there’s likely to be significant undetected transmissions.
Tarik Jasarevic, WHO spokesperson, told ABC News Live, “We will probably see less of testing, less of sequencing, less of a heavily epidemiological picture of COVID-19.”
Should the COVID-19 crisis escalate, experts also worry about the capacity to plan ahead and treat sick patients.
“Our ability to respond will be hampered by the lack of testing and surveillance, which means that we are likely to be flying blind as to the impact of the virus for weeks to come,” Brownstein said.
The WHO has warned of a critical oxygen shortage, with three major oxygen plants in the country now closed.
“We have to really understand this population is already vulnerable,” Jasarevic said, noting the health system has been overstretched through the pandemic.
The WHO has sent its first shipment of supplies to neighboring Poland, including 40 tons of supplies for trauma care and emergency surgery.
“It’s really important that we do our best to support those heroic health workers who are risking their lives just by going to work and they are under immense personal pressure as well because they are also affected their families in conflict zones,” Jasarevic said.
ABC News’ Arielle Mitropoulos and Christine Theodorou contributed to this report.
(TALLAHASSEE, Fla.) — Florida’s state Senate on Thursday passed a bill that bans abortions after 15 weeks, the same gestational limit currently being reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The bill, HB 5, which passed the state House in February, is expected to move quickly to the desk of Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has previously said he is supportive of a ban after 15 weeks.
If signed by DeSantis, the bill will go into effect July 1.
The bill does not make exceptions for rape or incest, but does allow for exceptions if the fetus has a fatal abnormality or in cases when the mother is at risk of death or “substantial or irreversible physical impairment.”
Those exceptions would require written certification from two physicians.
Currently, abortions are allowed in Florida up to 24 weeks of pregnancy.
Abortion rights advocates argue that banning abortion after 15 weeks will further harm patients who need care the most, including people of color, people of limited economic means and people who lack health insurance.
Dr. Sujatha Prabhakaran, chief medical officer at Planned Parenthood of Southwest and Central Florida, told ABC News that doctors like herself are “scared and sad” about the bill’s potential impact.
“The biggest impact of the bill is going to be hurting our patients’ access to the care that they need,” said Prabhakaran, also a practicing OB-GYN in Sarasota, Florida. “We know that when there are these restrictions, it doesn’t mean that the need for the care goes away, it just means that it makes it even harder for patients to access the care.”
HB 5’s passage in the Senate comes as the Supreme Court is reviewing a similar Mississippi law that bars abortion after 15 weeks.
In the case, Mississippi, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, the state of Mississippi is arguing to uphold a law that would ban most abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, while Jackson Women’s Health, Mississippi’s lone abortion clinic, argues the Supreme Court’s protection of a woman’s right to choose the procedure is clear, well-established and should be respected.
Since the Roe v. Wade ruling and the 1992 Planned Parenthood v. Casey ruling that affirmed the decision, the court has never allowed states to prohibit the termination of pregnancies prior to fetal viability outside the womb, roughly 24 weeks, according to medical experts.
If the Supreme Court rules in Mississippi’s favor and upholds the law — as is expected because of the court’s current conservative makeup — the focus will turn to states, more than half of which are prepared to ban abortion if Roe is overturned, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive rights organization.
Because the states that plan to ban abortion are focused in specific geographic regions, including the South, the expected effect is that women will have to travel much longer distances, at a greater cost and inconvenience, to seek abortion care, according to Elizabeth Nash, interim associate director of state issues at the Guttmacher Institute,
“If you’re thinking about the average abortion costing $550, and then somebody trying to navigate a trip of several hundred miles, you’re adding hundreds of dollars to the cost and you’re asking that person to pull that money together very quickly,” she told ABC News in January. “That is an insurmountable burden for so many.”
Prabhakaran said she and other doctors in Florida are already seeing patients from states as far away as Texas, which last year enacted a law that bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy.
As of 2017, abortions in Florida represent just over 8% of all abortions in the U.S., according to the Guttmacher Institute.
According to Prabhakaran, a 15-week ban in Florida has the potential to force pregnant people to travel as far as North Carolina and Washington, D.C., for care.
“While abortion is very safe, the the higher the gestational age, the more risk there is potentially to patients who have a complication,” she said, adding that the lack of access also means some patients will continue with high-risk pregnancies while others will seek other care. “What I worry is going to start to happen again is that patients will be taking care from unqualified providers, and that that will put them at risk.”
