(WASHINGTON) — The nation and the world will be watching tonight when President Joe Biden delivers his first State of the Union address at 9 p.m. ET with a main focus expected to be on how he and the U.S. are responding to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
As he is set to speak, Russian strikes are killing civilians, forces are massing near Ukraine’s capital Kyiv and Russian President Vladimir Putin shows no sign of backing down.
Biden is expected to highlight his leadership in the allied response and call on Americans to deal with higher gasoline prices in order to help defend democracy.
On the domestic front, he will also address the inflation that is driving his job approval rating at just 37% and highlight progress in dealing with the pandemic that allows many mask mandates to be dropped, including, symbolically, in the House chamber as he makes his high-profile speech.
Latest headlines:
Biden to stress leadership on Ukraine
Here is how the news is developing today. All times Eastern. Check back for updates.
Mar 01, 3:14 pm
Biden to stress leadership on Ukraine
President Joe Biden’s 9 p.m. ET speech, to be carried live on national television and seen around the world, will be delivered just days after Russia invaded Ukraine — and days after he nominated the first Black woman to sit on the Supreme Court.
But he’ll also be speaking to Americans suffering from historic inflation as the nation continues to emerge from the coronavirus pandemic.
With his job approval at an all-time low of 37%, Biden faces the difficult task of balancing their pain with his desire to reap the political benefits of his legislative wins so far — a massive COVID relief package and a once-in-a-generation investment in the nation’s infrastructure — while also demonstrating his leadership on one of the greatest threats to European stability since World War II.
(NEW YORK) — LinkedIn, the career-focused social networking site, is giving job seekers a new way to describe gaps in their careers.
The site on Tuesday released a new feature, called “career breaks,” that gives users the ability to tell potential employers why they left the workforce and describe how that experience helped them grow and develop skills.
With the feature, users can choose from a drop-down menu that gives options ranging from parenting and caregiving to layoff, career transition, gap year, relocation or travel.
“The option of having listing career breaks allows you to openly embrace your time away from work on your profile, and show how the life experiences built during this time away can apply to prospective jobs,” LinkedIn said in a statement.
The new effort by LinkedIn comes as women continue to struggle to return to the workforce amid the coronavirus pandemic, during which women have disproportionately taken on more caregiving and household duties, data shows.
There are nearly 1.1 million fewer women in the labor force now compared to February 2020, according to the National Women’s Law Center, a policy-focused organization that fights for gender justice.
In January, over one million men joined the labor force, compared to 39,000 women, the NWLC reports, citing the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ latest jobs report.
During the pandemic, women ages 25 to 44 were almost three times as likely as men of the same age group to not be working due to child care demands, according to research from the U.S. Census Bureau and Federal Reserve.
Research from LinkedIn shows a nearly 40% spike in the length of career breaks women took in 2020 in the U.S. And the majority of women, around 61%, believe there is still a stigma attached to career breaks, according to LinkedIn.
Emma McCulloch, a mom of two, said she felt nervous about describing her career break on her resume when she decided to reenter the workforce recently after six years away caring for her sons, one of whom has cerebral palsy.
But McCulloch, of San Francisco, said she gained confidence as she saw how she was able to show potential employers that her time away made her a better employee.
“I certainly learned a lot of research skills to identify the therapies and the resources for my children,” said McCulloch, who now works as a manager for an education technology company. “And I think that personally, in my job right now, I’m much more empathetic to my employees and to the people that I work with, my colleagues, because of the experiences I had during my career break.”
Even as job seekers may believe there is still a stigma, 79% of hiring managers say they would hire a candidate with a career gap on their résumé, according to LinkedIn’s research.
Many companies are making a specific effort to bring women back to the workforce, including IBM, General Motors and JP Morgan, which are all now offering career re-entry and mentorship programs.
“We see a lot of companies raise their hands and say that attracting and retaining top women talent is a priority,” Jess Huang, a partner at McKinsey & Company, told Good Morning America. “And if you can find those companies that are really doubling down, they are likely a better fit, not just in the short-term as you’re looking to reenter and get rehired, but also in the long-term as you think about your career progression.”
(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 as Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a “special military operation.”
Russians moving from Belarus towards Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, don’t appear to have advanced closer towards 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 U.S., Canada and countries throughout Europe, targeting Russia’s economy and Putin himself.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Mar 01, 12:36 pm
Russians running out of food, gas: US official
The Russian forces charging toward Kyiv haven’t made progress in the last day as they face Ukrainian resistance and low food and gas supply, a senior U.S. defense official told reporters Tuesday.
However, it could be a deliberate pause, the official said. “Part of the stall could be … as a result of their own self-determined sort of pause in operations — that they are possibly regrouping, rethinking, reevaluating,” the official said.
The U.S. believes Russian forces “have committed now more than 80% of what was their pre-staged combat power,” the official added.
The official said some Russian soldiers weren’t told they were going into combat. The official said, “not all of them were apparently fully trained and prepared.”
The strong Ukrainian resistance has also hurt morale, according to the official.
Russia has now launched more than 400 missiles on Ukraine, the official said. The U.S. believes Russia has launchers that could be used for thermobaric weapons, but cannot confirm their use, the official said.
Russian forces are making the most progress in the south. Russians are attacking Kherson in south Ukraine, which “appears very much to be contested city at this point,” the official said.
Russians are also approaching Mariupol in southeastern Ukraine, and while they haven’t yet entered the city, “they are close enough now that they could attack Mariupol with long range fires,” the official said.
Two towns on the path to Mariupol are believed to be occupied by the Russians, according to the official.
The U.S. believes the Russians hope to move north out of Mariupol up to the heavily-contested city of Kharkiv. The official said they believe Russian forces are trying to encircle Kharkiv.
The U.S. official noted that they’ve seen “certain risk-averse behavior by the Russian military” over the last week.
“Take the amphibious assault, for instance. They put those troops ashore a good 70 kilometers away from Mariupol because they knew Mariupol was going to be defended and they could put them ashore in an uncontested environment. And they still haven’t reached Mariupol,” the official said.
“They are not necessarily willing to take high risks with their own aircraft and their own pilots,” the official said.
“And of course we’re seeing that on the ground — the fairly slow and steady progress that they have made, and you guys are seeing it for yourselves on the ground where … units are surrendering, sometimes without a fight.”
-ABC News’ Matt Seyler
Mar 01, 12:00 pm
Russian missile hits Kyiv TV tower killing at least 5
The tower that provides the main signal to TV and radio in Kyiv has been struck by a Russian missile, leaving at least five dead, Ukrainian officials said.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba tweeted that the tower “is situated on the territory of Babyn Yar. On September 29-30, 1941, Nazis killed over 33 thousand Jews here. 80 years later, Russian Nazis strike this same land to exterminate Ukrainians. Evil and barbaric.”
Ukraine’s President President Volodymr Zelenskyy tweeted, “What is the point of saying «never again» for 80 years, if the world stays silent when a bomb drops on the same site of Babyn Yar? At least 5 killed. History repeating.”
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Mar 01, 11:43 am
136 civilian deaths reported
A spokesperson for the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights said 136 civilians have been killed in Ukraine, including 13 children.
Mar 01, 11:14 am
US, allies agree to release of 60 million barrels of oil from emergency reserves
The 31 countries on the International Energy Agency’s Governing Board have agreed to release 60 million barrels of oil from their 1.5 billion barrels of emergency reserves “to send a unified and strong message to global oil markets that there will be no shortfall in supplies as a result of Russia’s invasion,” the IEA said in a statement.
Russia is the biggest oil exporter on the globe and the third-largest producer, the IEA said.
Mar 01, 10:57 am
677,000 people have fled Ukraine
Filippo Grandi, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, said the number of Ukrainians who’ve fled their country has climbed to 677,000.
Mar 01, 10:16 am
Western officials walk out during Lavrov remarks
Diplomats from Western countries were seen on video walking out in protest as Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov addressed the U.N. Human Rights Council and Conference on Disarmament.
The meeting was held Tuesday in Geneva and Lavrov gave his address via video.
The Human Rights Council has faced criticism for years for including human rights abusers, including Russia. In a prerecorded video to the council, Secretary of State Antony Blinken questioned whether Russia should be allowed to keep its seat.
“One can reasonably ask whether a U.N. member state that tries to take over another U.N. member state — while committing horrific human rights abuses and causing massive humanitarian suffering — should be allowed to remain on this council,” he said.
Blinken accused Russia of hitting civilian targets like schools, hospitals, residential buildings, critical infrastructure, and cars, buses, and ambulances — including the “monstrous rocket strikes” on an apartment complex in Kharkiv.
“Reports of Russia’s human rights abuses and violations of international humanitarian law mount by the hour,” he said.
“These are the human rights abuses this council was created to stop. If we cannot come together now, when will we come together?” he asked.
-ABC News’ Fergal Gallagher, Conor Finnegan
Mar 01, 9:43 am
‘Growing number’ of unaccompanied and separated refugee children
Filippo Grandi, U.N. high commissioner for refugees, told the Security Council Monday there’s “a growing number of unaccompanied and separated children” in the unending lines of refugees fleeing Ukraine.
UNICEF said there are “anecdotal reports of heartbreaking stories of fathers — or families — arriving at the border with their children and relinquishing them to the border guards, then remaining in Ukraine.”
UNICEF said it doesn’t have numbers yet on unaccompanied or separated children.
Mar 01, 9:23 am
Six killed in attack on Kharkiv civilian building
A rocket attack on an administrative building in Kharkiv in northeast Ukraine has killed at least six people and injured another seven, Ukrainian officials said.
An Indian student was among those killed, according to the Indian government.
A senior administration official told ABC News the U.S. has learned that Russia continues to plan for a “devastating” attack on Ukraine, warning that “the Russians … will crush Ukraine.”
Mar 01, 7:40 am
YouTube blocks RT, Sputnik in Europe
Google on Tuesday said it had blocked RT and Sputnik, Russian state-linked channels, from YouTube in Europe.
Due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, we’re blocking YouTube channels connected to RT and Sputnik across Europe, effective immediately. It’ll take time for our systems to fully ramp up. Our teams continue to monitor the situation around the clock to take swift action.
“Our teams continue to monitor the situation around the clock to take swift action,” the company said.
Mar 01, 6:39 am
Zelenskyy calls Russian attack ‘undisguised terror’
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday said the Russian attack on Kharkiv’s main square was an act of “undisguised terror.”
“After that, Russia is a terrorist state. No one will forgive. Nobody will forget,” he said on Facebook.
Mar 01, 6:22 am
About 660,000 refugees have fled Ukraine: UN
At least 660,000 people have fled Ukraine into neighboring countries in the six days since the Russian invasion began, the U.N. Refugees Agency said.
At the Polish border, UNHCR staff reported queues that were miles long.
“Those who crossed the border said that they had been waiting up to 60 hours,” the agency said on Tuesday. “Most arrivals are women and children from all parts of Ukraine. Temperatures are freezing and many have reported spending days on the road waiting to cross.”
Agency staff said people were waiting up to 20 hours to enter Romania. In Hungary, arrivals were “steady and waiting times vary.” The 37-mile trip between Odessa, Ukraine, and the border with Moldova was taking some refugees 24 hours, the agency said. And arrivals in Slovakia, where asylum laws were rapidly changed, were lower than elsewhere, agency staff said.
An unknown number of Ukrainian citizens have also been displaced within the country, Filippo Grandi, the agency’s commissioner, told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday.
“The situation is moving so quickly, and the levels of risk are so high by now, that it is impossible for humanitarians to distribute systematically the aid, the help that Ukrainians desperately need,” he said.
The International Organisation for Migration said more than 470,000 people of various nationalities, “including a large number of overseas students and labour migrants,” are still in Ukraine.
Mar 01, 4:11 am
Russian bombardment strikes central square in Kharkiv
Russia on Tuesday launched a major bombardment of Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, hitting a central square and its civilian administration building.
Video from the scene shows a large projective hitting next to the regional state administration building on Kharkiv’s Freedom Square, causing a huge blast. Aftermath shot on phones from the scene and inside the building, show it shattered with debris strewn around.
Ukraine’s emergency services ministry said at least six people, including one child were injured. It was unclear if anyone was killed.
Kharkiv Mayor Oleg Sinegubov confirmed the strike, calling it a “war crime.”
Monday’s shelling followed a sustained bombardment of civilian areas yesterday and overnight in Kharkiv by Russian heavy artillery, including multiple rocket launchers and an alleged use of cluster munitions.
“What is happening in Kharkiv is a war crime!” Sinegubov wrote on Facebook. “The Russian enemy is shelling whole residential neighborhoods of Kharkiv, where there is no critical infrastructure, no Ukrainian armed forces positions, which the Russians could be targeting.”
Sinegubov accused Russia of conducting the attacks during the day, when civilians were on the street. He said the city’s emergency services are unable to keep up with the number of attacks and injured.
So far at least 11 are dead, with dozens injured, he said.
Russian forces in Kharkiv appear to have shifted tactics to employing heavy artillery indiscriminately against the city, in an apparent effort to bombard and terrorize it into submission.
Sinegubov claimed the Russians were changing tactics because their offensive capabilities on the ground were running out and so they had nothing left but to launch aerial bombardments.
Mar 01, 3:28 am
‘Leave Kyiv urgently today,’ Indian Embassy tells citizens
The Indian Embassy in Kyiv on Tuesday urged Indians still in the capital to “leave Kyiv urgently today.”
“All Indian nationals including students are advised to leave Kyiv urgently today,” the embassy said on Twitter. “Preferably by available trains or through any other means available.”
Mar 01, 2:48 am
’We will fight until the end,’ says Ukrainian parliament member
Solomiia Bobrovska, a member of Ukraine’s parliament, on Monday said Ukrainians would “fight to the end” as they defend Kyiv from a Russian invasion.
“That’s the mood of Ukrainians. We are staying behind altogether, and we do understand that with the total second line staying behind their shoulders. And I think we will fight until the end,” Bobrovska told ABC News’ Linsey Davis.
Mar 01, 12:14 am
Russian troops ‘operational’ near Ukrainian nuclear power plant, agency says
Ukraine said its nuclear power plants are still being operated “safely and securely,” the International Atomic Energy Agency wrote in an update late Monday.
However, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said he “remained gravely concerned about maintaining their safety and security during the current conflict.”
Ukraine’s foreign ministry told the IAEA on Monday that Russian troops are “operational” near a functioning nuclear power plant at Zaporizhzhia, but the troops haven’t entered it so far. Any fighting near nuclear facilities causes alarm, and Ukraine has four sites in total with 15 reactors.
“It is extremely important that the nuclear power plants are not put at risk in any way,” Grossi said in a statement. “An accident involving the nuclear facilities in Ukraine could have severe consequences for public health and the environment.”
The IAEA Board of Governors will hold a meeting Wednesday to discuss the “safety, security and safeguards implications of the situation in Ukraine.”
(LOS ANGELES) — Jeopardy! contestant Christine Whelchel has been competing on the popular TV game show since last week but it wasn’t just her winning performances that have been capturing viewers’ attention.
The piano teacher and church organist from Spring Hill, Tennessee, appeared without a light brown wig during Monday’s episode and explained why she wanted to do so during a Q-and-A with host Ken Jennings.
“After the winnings, I decided that I didn’t need to hide behind a wig anymore and I wanted to normalize what cancer recovery looks like,” Whelchel said.
Whelchel is a four-day Jeopardy! champion, having already won $73,602.
The game show shared a video clip of Whelchel discussing her decision on Twitter and in a caption added, “A strong Jeopardy! player and an even stronger person. ❤️”
The tweet has already garnered over 90,000 views and more than 5,000 likes, with many commenting and sharing their own cancer recovery photos.
“Go go go, Christine! 🙌🏼 This was me with my husband, 3 months after my last chemo session,” wrote one commenter.
Another shared a smiling selfie and commented, “Go Christine! from a fellow warrior.”
Whelchel explained in an earlier Q-and-A last week that she had been diagnosed with breast cancer a year ago. Shortly after learning about her diagnosis, she said she decided to try her luck and take the Jeopardy! test, the first step in getting on to the game show. Whelchel also said she is currently cancer-free.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, hair loss or alopecia is a common side effect of some cancer treatments like chemotherapy. After Whelchel was featured as the Play of the Day on Good Morning America Tuesday, co-anchor Robin Roberts mentioned that cancer patients who wear wigs don’t always do so for themselves.
“Sometimes we wear the wig to put others at ease,” she pointed out.
“[Whelchel] showed a lot of strength, a lot of courage. And I’m telling you, people were watching. It makes such a big, big difference,” Roberts, a cancer survivor herself, added.
Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Attorneys for former President Donald Trump have appealed a ruling that he and his two eldest children must testify in the investigation by the New York state attorney general into the family’s business practices.
Trump’s attorneys filed the notice of appeal on Monday, nearly two weeks after a New York judge ruled on Feb 17 that the three Trumps must sit for depositions within 21 days.
The Trump family had unsuccessfully tried to quash the subpoena for testimony, arguing that it was improper for the attorney general’s office to issue subpoenas for its civil investigation while the Manhattan district attorney’s office is still conducting its separate criminal probe.
Judge Arthur Engoron of the New York State Supreme Court rejected that argument.
“This argument completely misses the mark,” Engoron wrote in his decision. “Neither OAG nor the Manhattan District Attorney’s office has subpoenaed the New Trump Respondents to appear before a grand jury, The New Trump Respondents’ argument overlooks the salient fact that they have an absolute right to refuse to answer questions that they claim may incriminate them.”
The judge noted that when Trump’s son Eric sat for a deposition two years ago as part of the same investigation, he invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination more than 500 times.
Trump also argued that the investigation into his business practices is overtly political, and cited statements New York Attorney General Letitia James made during and after her campaign for attorney general about her intentions to investigate the former president and his family’s real estate firm.
The judge found those statements had no bearing on the legitimacy of the subpoenas.
“Attorney General James, just like respondent Donald J. Trump, was not deprived of her First Amendment rights to free speech when she was a politician running for a public office with investigatory powers,” the judge’s decision said.
“The abhorrent statements made by Letitia leave no doubt that this is yet another politically motivated witch-hunt,” Trump attorney Alina Habba said in response to the ruling. “The court clearly had its mind made up and had no interest in engaging in impartial discourse on this critically important issue.”
Trump, in a statement following the ruling, blasted the investigation.
“She is doing everything within their corrupt discretion to interfere with my business relationships, and with the political process,” he said of James. “It is a continuation of the greatest Witch Hunt in history — and remember, I can’t get a fair hearing in New York because of the hatred of me by Judges and the judiciary. It is not possible!”
“Today, justice prevailed,” said James following the ruling. “Donald J. Trump, Donald Trump, Jr., and Ivanka Trump have been ordered by the court to comply with our lawful investigation into Mr. Trump and the Trump Organization’s financial dealings. No one will be permitted to stand in the way of the pursuit of justice, no matter how powerful they are. No one is above the law.”
(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 as Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a “special military operation.”
Russians moving from Belarus towards Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, don’t appear to have advanced closer towards 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 U.S., Canada and countries throughout Europe, targeting Russia’s economy and Putin himself.
Here’s how the news is developing Tuesday. All times Eastern:
Mar 01, 7:40 am
YouTube blocks RT, Sputnik in Europe
Google on Tuesday said it had blocked RT and Sputnik, Russian state-linked channels, from YouTube in Europe.
Due to the ongoing war in Ukraine, we’re blocking YouTube channels connected to RT and Sputnik across Europe, effective immediately. It’ll take time for our systems to fully ramp up. Our teams continue to monitor the situation around the clock to take swift action.
“Our teams continue to monitor the situation around the clock to take swift action,” the company said.
Mar 01, 6:39 am
Zelenskyy calls Russian attack ‘undisguised terror’
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday said the Russian attack on Kharkiv’s main square was an act of “undisguised terror.”
“After that, Russia is a terrorist state. No one will forgive. Nobody will forget,” he said on Facebook.
Mar 01, 6:22 am
About 660,000 refugees have fled Ukraine: UN
At least 660,000 people have fled Ukraine into neighboring countries in the six days since the Russian invasion began, the U.N. Refugees Agency said.
At the Polish border, UNHCR staff reported queues that were miles long.
“Those who crossed the border said that they had been waiting up to 60 hours,” the agency said on Tuesday. “Most arrivals are women and children from all parts of Ukraine. Temperatures are freezing and many have reported spending days on the road waiting to cross.”
Agency staff said people were waiting up to 20 hours to enter Romania. In Hungary, arrivals were “steady and waiting times vary.” The 37-mile trip between Odessa, Ukraine, and the border with Moldova was taking some refugees 24 hours, the agency said. And arrivals in Slovakia, where asylum laws were rapidly changed, were lower than elsewhere, agency staff said.
An unknown number of Ukrainian citizens have also been displaced within the country, Filippo Grandi, the agency’s commissioner, told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday.
“The situation is moving so quickly, and the levels of risk are so high by now, that it is impossible for humanitarians to distribute systematically the aid, the help that Ukrainians desperately need,” he said.
The International Organisation for Migration said more than 470,000 people of various nationalities, “including a large number of overseas students and labour migrants,” are still in Ukraine.
Mar 01, 4:11 am
Russian bombardment strikes central square in Kharkiv
Russia on Tuesday launched a major bombardment of Ukraine’s second-largest city, Kharkiv, hitting a central square and its civilian administration building.
Video from the scene shows a large projective hitting next to the regional state administration building on Kharkiv’s Freedom Square, causing a huge blast. Aftermath shot on phones from the scene and inside the building, show it shattered with debris strewn around.
Ukraine’s emergency services ministry said at least six people, including one child were injured. It was unclear if anyone was killed.
Kharkiv Mayor Oleg Sinegubov confirmed the strike, calling it a “war crime.”
Monday’s shelling followed a sustained bombardment of civilian areas yesterday and overnight in Kharkiv by Russian heavy artillery, including multiple rocket launchers and an alleged use of cluster munitions.
“What is happening in Kharkiv is a war crime!” Sinegubov wrote on Facebook. “The Russian enemy is shelling whole residential neighborhoods of Kharkiv, where there is no critical infrastructure, no Ukrainian armed forces positions, which the Russians could be targeting.”
Sinegubov accused Russia of conducting the attacks during the day, when civilians were on the street. He said the city’s emergency services are unable to keep up with the number of attacks and injured.
So far at least 11 are dead, with dozens injured, he said.
Russian forces in Kharkiv appear to have shifted tactics to employing heavy artillery indiscriminately against the city, in an apparent effort to bombard and terrorize it into submission.
Sinegubov claimed the Russians were changing tactics because their offensive capabilities on the ground were running out and so they had nothing left but to launch aerial bombardments.
Mar 01, 3:28 am
‘Leave Kyiv urgently today,’ Indian Embassy tells citizens
The Indian Embassy in Kyiv on Tuesday urged Indians still in the capital to “leave Kyiv urgently today.”
“All Indian nationals including students are advised to leave Kyiv urgently today,” the embassy said on Twitter. “Preferably by available trains or through any other means available.”
Mar 01, 2:48 am
’We will fight until the end,’ says Ukrainian parliament member
Solomiia Bobrovska, a member of Ukraine’s parliament, on Monday said Ukrainians would “fight to the end” as they defend Kyiv from a Russian invasion.
“That’s the mood of Ukrainians. We are staying behind altogether, and we do understand that with the total second line staying behind their shoulders. And I think we will fight until the end,” Bobrovska told ABC News’ Linsey Davis.
Mar 01, 12:14 am
Russian troops ‘operational’ near Ukrainian nuclear power plant, agency says
Ukraine said its nuclear power plants are still being operated “safely and securely,” the International Atomic Energy Agency wrote in an update late Monday.
However, IAEA Director General Rafael Mariano Grossi said he “remained gravely concerned about maintaining their safety and security during the current conflict.”
Ukraine’s foreign ministry told the IAEA on Monday that Russian troops are “operational” near a functioning nuclear power plant at Zaporizhzhia, but the troops haven’t entered it so far. Any fighting near nuclear facilities causes alarm, and Ukraine has four sites in total with 15 reactors.
“It is extremely important that the nuclear power plants are not put at risk in any way,” Grossi said in a statement. “An accident involving the nuclear facilities in Ukraine could have severe consequences for public health and the environment.”
The IAEA Board of Governors will hold a meeting Wednesday to discuss the “safety, security and safeguards implications of the situation in Ukraine.”
(NEW YORK) — Even as the pandemic situation sharply improves and protective mandates are lifted, just a third of Americans see the coronavirus as mainly controlled — and six in 10 say it’s more important to try to contain the virus than to lift restrictions on normal activities.
Fifty-eight percent in this ABC News/Washington Post poll continue to prioritize controlling the spread of the virus, 20 percentage points more than the share (38%) who say it’s more important to discontinue restrictions.
That’s informed by continued concern about an unpredictable virus that has taken nearly 950,000 American lives and continues to infect nearly 70,000 and kill 1,700 daily. Thirty-four percent see the outbreak as completely or mostly controlled, up from about two in 10 last month (in a Fox News poll of registered voters), but still far from a majority. Half instead say it’s “somewhat” under control.
That said, the most dire views have improved sharply. Just 15% now say the outbreak is “not at all” under control, down sharply from 41% last month, when the omicron surge was in full swing, with a seven-day average of as many as 800,000 daily cases.
The poll, produced for ABC News by Langer Research Associates, was completed a day before the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention dropped its recommendation of indoor masking for the roughly seven in 10 people who live in areas with low or medium transmission levels. Nearly all states with mask requirements had already discontinued them.
Normal life
Another result points to cautious re-emergence. While 56% say they’ve fully or mostly resumed their pre-coronavirus life, that’s 10 points below its level in July, before the delta and omicron variants spurred record levels of infections. About a quarter say they’ve partly returned to normal; and 16%, barely or not at all. The latter is up from 9% last July.
Returning to normality is associated strongly with views of the pandemic. Among people who see the outbreak as completely or mostly controlled, seven in 10 report having largely resumed their pre-coronavirus life. That falls to 29% who say it’s not at all controlled. Indeed, 48% in this group barely have returned to normal life, if at all.
(NEW YORK) — The number of births declined in the U.S. in 2021 and the COVID-19 pandemic played a role, according to a new report published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Tuesday.
Researchers from the National Center for Health Statistics — a branch of the CDC — compared provisional data from the first half of 2021 to final data from the first half of 2020.
They found there were 1.74 million births between January and June of last year, a 2% decline from the 1.78 million births that occurred over the same period in 2020.
The drop was largely driven by the decline in births for the month of January, with 304,000 babies born in January 2020 compared to nearly 277,000 in January 2021 — a 9% decrease.
“The last two or so years have kind of been unparalleled” when it comes to declines in births, Dr. Brady Hamilton, a statistician at the NCHS and co-author of the report, told ABC News. “Certainly the thing that caught our eye — and we already saw a hint when we looked at the data for 2020 compared to 2019 — there was an extremely sharp decline in the number of births in January of 2021 compared to January of 2020.”
However, after that sharp drop, the number of births increased in March and April of last year compared to 2020, before dropping again in May and then rising in June by 3%.
The authors noted this is an improvement from the first year of the pandemic, during which the number of births declined for each month of the first half of 2020 compared to 2019.
The report also found that the number of births declined for all races and ethnicities in the first half of 2021.
White women saw the smallest drop — of less than 1%, from about 916,000 births to 914,000 — and Asian women saw the biggest drop — of 8%, from approximately 110,000 births to 102,000.
Additionally, white, Black, Asian and Hispanic women had the largest declines in January, while American Indian/Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander women saw their biggest drops in May and February, respectively.
The report also looked at the number of births by state and found 19 states and Washington, D.C., reported fewer births during the first half of 2021 compared to the first half of 2020. Seventeen additional states reported declines, but they were not statistically significant.
The biggest drops were seen in New Mexico and Washington, D.C., with a 5% and 9% decrease, respectively.
Meanwhile, four states — Connecticut, Idaho, New Hampshire and Tennessee — saw a jump in the number of births.
Hamilton and his team said it’s clear the COVID-19 pandemic did play a role in the decline of births, but it’s unclear if it was the sole reason and what pandemic-specific factors led to the decline, such as economic uncertainty and lack of job security.
“While our data comes from the birth certificate and it’s an amazing data set … unfortunately it has limitations and one of those limitations is factors that people consider in terms of having a child, starting a family,” he said. “That’s important because when you look at the impact of the pandemic, what are the mechanisms and how exactly does it happen?”
He continued: “So we see these associations but in terms of teasing out particulars, we sort of have to wait to see until we get survey data which asks those particular questions about the decisions people were making.”
Hamilton did acknowledge that the large decline in January 2021 compared to January 2020 means that women were not getting pregnant around March and April 2020, when the first COVID-19 lockdowns and stay-at-home orders occurred.
“When it comes to looking at these numbers, there is a nine-month lag, so the number of births you see occurring a month reflects what people’s actions were nine months before,” he said. “So that [drop] is very interesting and something we will look at in more detail.”
(WASHINGTON) — It was one of the most consequential weeks of President Joe Biden’s presidency, and it came right before his first State of the Union address to Congress.
Biden’s 9 p.m. ET speech, to be carried live on national television and seen around the world, will be delivered just days after Russia invaded Ukraine — and days after he nominated the first Black woman to sit on the Supreme Court.
But he’ll also be speaking to Americans suffering from historic inflation as the nation continues to emerge from the coronavirus pandemic.
With his job approval at an all-time low of 37%, Biden faces the difficult task of balancing their pain with his desire to reap the political benefits of his legislative wins so far — a massive COVID relief package and a once-in-a-generation investment in the nation’s infrastructure — while also demonstrating his leadership on one of the greatest threats to European stability since World War II.
Defending democracy in Ukraine
While a president’s annual address to Congress typically ticks through a laundry list of domestic priorities and accomplishments, the war in Ukraine will likely compel Biden to make foreign policy a dominant theme.
“There’s no question that this speech is a little different than it would have been just a few months ago,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters Monday.
It’s a theme that Biden could use to his advantage, demonstrating his taking command as he keeps Western leaders united against a common foreign foe most Americans can recognize: Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In addition to making the crisis something of personal test of wills between himself and Putin, Biden has not shied from presenting the conflict in consequential, historical terms, equating Ukraine’s defense to the fight against autocracy; he often describes the world as facing an “inflection point” during which it’s the United States’ responsibility to show that democracy can still work.
The president has made reaffirming America’s traditional relationships and strengthening international institutions like NATO a hallmark of his first 13 months in office.
Russia’s invasion has strengthened the NATO alliance, as Western nations stand together against Russia.
Biden has made working in lockstep with Europe an overarching principle of his approach, and it’s delivered results: unprecedented, punitive sanctions against Russia; preemptive releases of intelligence information; and at home, some praise from Republicans usually critical of his policies.
After struggling with the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and bringing Iran back to the agreement over its nuclear program, Russia’s invasion presents Biden with the ability to fulfill a campaign promise of returning America to a position of leadership in the world.
And it could lead to a few bipartisan applause lines from Republicans who have supported his approach — rather than the regular, one-sided standing ovations from Democrats.
Economic woes plague Biden’s presidency
But potentially overshadowing Ukraine and Russia in Biden’s speech will be his attempt to show how he’s addressing inflation, which is at a 40-year high, and an economy still struggling to emerge from the pandemic.
Economic discontent is hurting Biden and his party’s midterm election prospects, with six in 10 Americans reporting inflation hardships, three-quarters saying the economy’s in bad shape and a nearly 20-point lead for the Republican Party in trust to handle it, according to an ABC News/Washington Post poll.
The president planned to focus on four economic themes, the White House said: increasing domestic manufacturing and strengthening supply chains; reducing costs for families while also reducing the deficit; promoting competition as another way to lower prices; and expanding access to well paying jobs.
Biden will talk about new steps to promote competition in the ocean freight industry and improve nursing home care, the White House said.
Much of what Biden will call for, though, according to the White House, will rely on a reluctant Congress to send him legislation.
Biden fulfilled a major promise last year when he pushed a $1.9 trillion COVID relief package, known as the “American Rescue Plan,” through Congress. And the president’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure law was a major accomplishment that will pump money into roads, bridges, airports, waterways, broadband internet, cleaning up lead pipes and more.
Members of Congress, governors and other politicians of both parties have touted the benefits of the infrastructure legislation, which garnered bipartisan support.
But it will take time for many of those projects to come to fruition across the country, and Biden has faced the difficult task of using it to boost his poll numbers in the short term.
But since then, prices for food, gas and other consumer goods have jumped. While the U.S. economy has rebounded to a large degree — with strong recent job growth — wages have not kept up with inflation for most workers.
Psaki said that Biden will “absolutely” talk about inflation, noting it’s “a huge issue on the mind of Americans.”
“He’s going to make clear that one of the best ways to lower costs over the long run is to is to increase the productive capacity of our economy, to make more things in America, with more American workers contributing and earning a good living,” she said.
Meanwhile, though, the war in Ukraine has already contributed to higher energy costs — including gas prices — a political threat for Biden.
Last week, two-thirds of Americans supported imposing economic sanctions on Russia, although only 51% backed them if it meant higher energy prices in the U.S., according to an ABC News/Washington Post poll.
Biden has sought to convince Americans the price is worth it and, together with European nations, has held back from sanctioning Russia’s oil and gas sector, fearing that prices could spike around the world.
“The American people understand,” Biden said earlier this month, “that defending democracy and liberty is never without cost.”
Bringing America out of the pandemic
Before Russia invaded Ukraine, a larger theme likely would have been his stressing a “return to normalcy” to try to keep Americans tired of the pandemic from making him and Democrats pay a big political cost in November’s midterm elections.
Ahead of Biden’s speech, the White House has begun a sweeping overhaul of its COVID-19 strategy that will signal the nation is moving past crisis mode and into a more manageable phase in the pandemic, ABC News has learned.
The new strategy was expected to acknowledge that the virus is less of an urgent threat to most Americans because of widespread access to vaccines, booster shots and testing, as well as increasing availability of therapeutics.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention eased masking recommendations for most of the country last week, a major shift in the nation’s return to normalcy.
Face coverings will not be required in the House chamber where Biden will speak, a symbolic switch after the president walked in with one on for his address last year.
But the federal guidance came after governors of several liberal-leaning states moved ahead on their own with lifting restrictions. Biden’s reluctance to get ahead of the CDC — and let science lead the way, as he had promised he would do — resulted in an ad hoc shift across the country.
While the delta and omicron variants were major speed bumps to Biden’s plan to bring the U.S. out of the pandemic — and actions his administration has taken on testing and masking have appeared reactive — the State of the Union address gives the president a chance to reframe his plan to curb COVID.
Unfulfilled promises hamper Biden
Heading into the midterm elections later this year — when Republicans could retake Congress — Biden has left many promises unfulfilled.
His “Build Back Better” social plan has fallen by the wayside, after passing the House and stalling out in the Senate. It would provide hundreds of billions of dollars for child care, paid family leave, education, health care and combating climate change; without its passage, a number of Biden’s campaign pledges remain unmet.
A pair of voting rights bills that passed the House have also languished in the Senate, and efforts to reform policing and guns have not been met with success.
Biden had promised to tackle climate change and racial equity as key priorities, but he has not been able to gain bipartisan support to do so, despite his pledge to soften political divisions.
(WASHINGTON) — The nation’s capital is ramping up security ahead of President Joe Biden’s first State of the Union address on Tuesday.
Up to 700 National Guard troops will “be available to help local law enforcement,” according to the National Guard, and an inner-perimeter fence once again surrounds the Capitol. The Guard announced that these enhanced security measures will be in place through March 7.
The security precautions were put in place to prepare for protests, including truckers against COVID mandates.
On Wednesday, a group of right-wing truckers called the “People’s Convoy,” began a cross-country haul from California to D.C. to protest COVID-19 mandates and restrictions.
It comes in the wake of Canada’s “Freedom Convoy” truckers who forcibly occupied the Ambassador Bridge, connecting Detroit, Michigan with Ontario, Canada, while protesting COVID-19 vaccination mandates in Canada.
Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger announced the fence surrounding the Capitol was erected “out of an abundance of caution in light of the upcoming State of the Union Address, and the possibility of demonstrations in the next couple of weeks,” according to a statement released on Sunday.
The United States Capitol Police have also been working in tandem with local, state and federal law enforcement agencies including D.C.’s Metropolitan Police Department, the United States Park Police, the United States Secret Service and the National Guard on a “security plan to prevent any disruption to the important work of Congress,” Manger said.
The fencing, which became politicized following the Jan. 6 riot, was not welcome news to some Republicans.
On Sunday, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said the use of resources for extra security should instead be sent to the border.
“Those National Guard and that fencing should be in America but they should be along our borders not around the people’s house,” McCarthy said on Fox. “The people’s house should be open to the people.”
On the other side of the aisle, Washington, D.C. Rep. Eleanor Holmes Norton — who last year introduced a bill to block permanent fencing at the Capitol complex — released a statement saying while she understands “security concerns related to the trucker convoy and the State of the Union address that led to the fencing being temporarily reinstalled” she will “ensure that the fencing comes down as soon as possible to restore freedom of movement for District of Columbia residents and the general public.”
The request for National Guard troops to D.C. was approved by many surrounding states including Vermont, New Jersey and West Virginia but was not approved by Florida, where Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis tweeted “there will be no @FLGuard sent to D.C. for Biden’s State of the Union.”
