(TALLAHASSEE, Fla.) — Demonstrators gathered in front of and inside the Florida State Capitol on Monday to stop the legislation that has been dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill.
“We say gay,” they chanted, the sound echoing throughout the halls as they anticipated a vote on the bill expected Monday.
Speeches and chants were held throughout the day as the Florida Senate debated the legislation. However, the crowd fell silent when a youth organizer read off a list of names of LGBTQ people who have died by suicide after experiencing anti-LGBTQ hate.
“When you come to our schools to instill hate, bigotry, and fear, we will stand up, speak up, and fight back,” Maxx Fenning, founder of the LGBTQ youth advocacy organization PRISM, said at the protest. “Our passion knows no distance and we will never be silenced!”
The bill would limit curricula on sexual orientation and gender identity in some classrooms and would allow parents to take legal action against school systems if they violate this policy.
In protest, walkouts statewide have taken students out of school and onto the street.
“We will get up, stand up, wake up every single day to fight for you because your lives matter,” Democratic Florida Rep. Carlos G Smith said at the protest on the steps of the Capitol.
Florida House Republicans have already advanced the bill and the governor has expressed his support.
Proponents of the bill, including the bill sponsor Republican Rep. Joe Harding, said he wants families to be able to play a role in how and when they introduce these topics to their children.
“Families are families. Let the families be families, and the school district doesn’t need to insert themselves at that point when children are still learning how to read and do basic math,” Harding told “Start Here,” an ABC News podcast.
While the bill would ban lessons concerning gender or sexual orientation in classrooms from kindergarten to third grade, it would also not allow them when it is age-inappropriate or not in line with state standards.
However, standards on gender and sexual identity have yet to be carved out, according to Harding.
ABC News’ Tony Morrison contributed to this report.
Aimee Dilger/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Red-hot prices at the pump are not only showing no signs of cooling down — but are instead set to soar even higher.
The national average price for a gallon of gas hit $4.06 on Monday, up a staggering 45 cents from a week ago, to reach its highest level since July 2008, according to AAA.
Analysts say consumers can expect new record high gas prices as soon as this week, as strong demand and supply disruptions, fueled by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, send crude oil prices soaring.
“A big price factor for the market is risk, and at the moment this entire escalation for the conflict appears very risky,” AAA spokesperson Devin Gladden told ABC News. “The market puts that risk premium back onto consumers.”
GasBuddy’s Patrick De Haan tweeted the national average for a gallon of gas has now increased at its fastest weekly pace since Hurricane Katrina, adding prices have already eclipsed their all-time highs, according to GasBuddy data.
Crude oil surging as geopolitical risk rises
Crude oil prices, which account for more than half of the cost of retail gasoline, have spiked roughly 30% in the nearly two weeks since the war began.
“The big question will be how high crude goes,” Gladden said.
Oil had already been edging higher at the start of the year, as consumer demand outpaced global supply. Major oil producers slashed supply during the pandemic – and it takes time to ramp up production again as more drivers hit the roads and travelers take flights, requiring more fuel.
“We were already in a relatively tight market,” John Kilduff, an energy expert and partner at Again Capital, told ABC News.
Traders fear the market will become even tighter if Russia’s oil supply to the rest of the world is cut off. Russia is the third-largest producer of crude oil in the world, accounting for about 12 percent of global crude exports, according to the Information Energy Agency.”The problem is it’s a global market,” Kilduff said.
Supply constraints
There are already signs of supply constraints from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Analysts at J.P. Morgan estimated last week about 66% of Russian oil is currently struggling to find buyers. A growing number of companies are pulling business from Russia, facing hurdles from new sanctions on the banking and payments system, and fearing global backlash from customers.
“The commercial entities involved in this market are shunning the supply,” Kilduff added. “We are already in the process of losing a chunk of Russian crude oil supplies.”
Import bans on Russian oil would further exacerbate supply shortages. While the U.S. only imports a fraction of its crude oil from Russia, analysts say a coordinated move between the U.S. and European allies would drastically alter supply to the critical European market.
The International Energy Agency reported European countries imported 34% of their oil from Russia in November 2021, the latest month official oil statistics are available.
Oil traders expect it will take time for other countries to ramp up production and fill the void if that supply is cut off. So as long as oil prices remain near multi-year highs in anticipation of further disruptions in the global market, consumers and businesses will feel the pinch.
“When the price of oil goes up, the cost of everything goes up because oil is used as a component in manufacturing and a range of products,” AAA’s Gladden said.
(WASHINGTON) — Calls mounted Monday for the U.S. to ban the import of Russian oil, but while President Joe Biden’s administration signaled a new openness to doing so, the president faced the tough decision of taking a step that would raise the price Americans pay at the gas pump.
Top Republicans and Democrats in Congress announced they had come to a deal on bipartisan legislation that would punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, by banning the import of Russian oil and other energy products — as well as suspending normal trade relations with Russia.
The White House said Biden had not yet decided whether to impose a ban. But an official with the White House’s National Security Council told ABC News that the Biden administration was considering doing so even if Europe did not also impose a ban — which would mark a departure from Biden’s strategy of imposing sanctions in lockstep with European nations.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday that he had spoken with Biden and other Cabinet members the day before about a potential U.S. ban.
“We are now talking to our European partners and allies to look in a coordinated way at the prospect of banning the import of Russian oil, while making sure that there is a still an appropriate supply of oil on world markets,” he said during an interview with CNN’s “State of the Union.”
“That’s a very active discussion as we speak,” Blinken added.
In Congress, Democrats and Republicans in both houses have in recent days increasingly called for a ban. A bipartisan group of senators last week proposed legislation that would impose a ban, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, too, said she supported the move.
As the pressure to act mounts from both sides of the aisle, Biden faces a political quandary.
After nearly two weeks of placing crushing sanctions on Russia in concert with Western allies, not moving to ban Russian oil imports, too, could appear as it he is not doing all he can to inflict pain on Russia’s economy and its president, Vladimir Putin.
But around 7% to 10% of U.S. oil imports come from Russia, and a ban would raise energy prices, including the cost of gas, analysts say.
The White House has cited that cost to Americans as a reason Biden has not taken that step. It has been looking for alternative
White House officials also say the impact on Russia, which sent just 1% of its oil exports to the U.S. in 2020, would not be great — especially when its oil and gas sector is already under “de facto sanctioned” because of harsh restrictions on Russian banks.
But in an NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll last week, 69% of Americans said they supported economic sanctions on Russia even if they resulted in higher energy prices in the U.S.
Biden has also said a priority of his is to keep the West united in imposing penalties on Russia for its invasion.
There is less appetite in Europe for a ban on Russian oil and gas imports, since European nations rely heavily on Russia for their energy needs — nearly half of Russian oil exports go to Europe, according to U.S. government figures – and a ban would raise Europe’s energy prices significantly, according to analysts.
The Democratic chairmen of the Senate and House tax-writing committees and the most senior Republicans on those committees said Tuesday that they had come to an agreement on legislation that would not just ban the import of Russian energy products but that would also suspend normal trade relations with Russia and Belarus, which has aided Russia in its invasion of Ukraine.
The legislation would also provide Biden with the authority to increase tariffs on products from Russia and Belarus and aim to suspend Russia’s participation with the World Trade Organization.
The House could vote on the legislation as soon as Tuesday or Wednesday.
Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
(TALLAHASSEE, Fla.) — Despite widespread support for pediatric COVID-19 vaccinations from the nation’s top health officials, Florida will become the first state in the country to advise against vaccinating healthy children for COVID-19, the state’s Surgeon General, Dr. Joseph A. Ladapo, announced on Monday.
“The Florida Department of Health is going to be the first state to officially recommend against the COVID-19 vaccines for healthy children,” Ladapo said at the end of a 90-minute roundtable discussion in West Palm Beach, Florida, hosted by Gov. Ron DeSantis, aimed to close the curtain on the “COVID theater once and for all.”
Just prior to the announcement, Ladapo, alongside a group of physicians, made the case that the COVID-19 vaccines may not be necessary in children.
Ladapo pointed to a study released last week out of New York, suggesting that new data showed that Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine protection waned relatively quickly in children between the ages of 5 and 11 years old, as compared to older children.
“Already the rates were low. So, we’re kind of scraping at the bottom of the barrel particularly with healthy kids, in terms of actually being able to quantify with any accuracy and any confidence, the infinite potential of benefit,” Ladapo said Monday.
Although the study, which has not been peer-reviewed, suggested immunity waned faster in young children relative to older children, researchers said the vaccine still dramatically reduced the risk of hospitalization.
Scientists also said it might be important to study “alternative” vaccine dosing for young children to bolster efficacy.
Following the announcement, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that Florida’s decision was “absolutely not” a good policy.
“Let me just note that we know the science. We know the data and what works and what is the most, what the most effective steps are protecting people of a range of ages from hospitalization and even death,” Psaki said during a press briefing on Monday.
“It’s deeply disturbing that there are politicians peddling conspiracy theories out there and casting doubt on vaccinations, when it is our best tool against the virus and the best tool to prevent even teenagers from being hospitalized,” she added.
Many health experts across the country have also vehemently pushed back on claims that vaccines may not be necessary for children, urging the importance of vaccines for all eligible children to protect against severe illness.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) have also been vocal in their support of pediatric COVID-19 vaccinations, stressing to parents that real-world data has demonstrated that vaccines are safe and effective at protecting children against severe disease, as well as against potential long-term consequences from the virus.
“Vaccines are safe and effective in protecting individuals and populations against infectious diseases,” physicians from the AAP wrote in a policy statement last month.
DeSantis also questioned whether children should be getting the shots, touting the state’s recent efforts to ban vaccine mandates in schools.
“We have this issue in terms of COVID-19 vaccinations with respect to children. And in Florida, we prohibited mandating COVID vaccines for children, so they can go to school and it’s a parent’s decision,” DeSantis said. “A lot of parents have come up to me, and they’re just like, ‘yeah, thanks for not mandating, we want to make the decision,’ but they have mixed feelings about whether they should do that even if it is their choice.”
Since the onset of the pandemic, more than 12.6 million American children have tested positive for COVID-19, according to data collected by the AAP and Children’s Hospital Association. In addition, federal data shows that nationwide, more than 115,000 COVID-19 positive children have been admitted hospitals, while more than 1,500 children have lost their lives to the virus.
Alongside the Governor, Ladapo has been vocal about his stance to end COVID-19 mitigation measures in an effort to promote personal freedom.
Last month, the duo announced that the state would advise against the use of face coverings to protect against COVID-19.
ABC News’ Sony Salzman, Armando Garcia, and Isabella Murray contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — At least 356 Haitian migrants traveled by boat on a dangerous trek to the coast of the Ocean Reef community in Key Largo, Florida, on March 6, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP).
CBP took custody of 158 people who swam to the shore from the vessel, according to Alan Regalado, the public affairs specialist for CBP in Florida. The 198 people who stayed on the boat were stopped and transferred to U.S. Coast Guard boats.
“It’s [a] really, really dangerous [trek], especially because of the conditions — I mean, over 300 people in one vessel? I mean, they’re just not equipped for that trip,” Regalado told ABC News.
He added, “Not only that, but the smuggling organizations and everything that migrants have to go through in the process — it’s just not a safe thing to do.”
CBP, the U.S. Coast Guard, and other local and state agencies responded to the incoming vessel.
“Multiple agencies responded quickly & worked closely to protect a lot of lives today,” said Lt. Cmdr. Jason Neiman, with Coast Guard District Seven, in a tweet.
According to CBP, the processing of such migrants who made it onto U.S. soil after their voyage depends on their claims and background.
However, those 158 migrants may be subject to Title 42, which is a clause of the 1944 Public Health Services law that allows the government to expel migrants without giving them a chance to apply for asylum during a public health emergency.
Many Haitian refugees have left their countries due to the devastating impacts of natural disasters and political instability that have also resulted in economic struggles for the country.
(NEW YORK) — Russian forces are continuing their attempted push through Ukraine from multiple directions, while Ukrainians, led by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, are putting up “stiff resistance,” according to U.S. officials.
The attack began Feb. 24, when Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a “special military operation.”
Russian forces moving from neighboring Belarus toward Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, 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 07, 12:18 pm
White House mulling Russian oil ban without European allies participating: Official
The White House indicated on Monday that it was considering a ban on Russian oil even without the support of its European allies, an official with the National Security Council told ABC News.
Europe relies much more on Russian oil and gas than the United States does and would likely see much higher prices if such a significant chunk of their energy imports were suddenly cut off.
If the United States banned Russian oil imports without Europe doing the same, the impact on Russia would be much smaller than if the U.S. and Europe worked in concert. Russia exported 1% of its oil exports to the United States in 2020.
Moving forward without Europe would also be a departure from Biden’s approach of working in lockstep with Europe on sanctions against Russia.
Bloomberg reported Sunday night that the Biden administration was weighing this move.
Mar 07, 12:13 pm
Zelenskyy tells David Muir path to peace ‘more difficult’ than acknowledging Putin’s ultimatums
In an exclusive interview Monday with ABC News anchor David Muir, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the path to peace is “more difficult than simply acknowledging” another ultimatum from Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Zelenskyy spoke with Muir from the Presidential Office in Kyiv and said he will stay in his country for the duration of the war.
“When the Kremlin says these three conditions to end the war … that you must give up on joining NATO, recognize Crimea as part of Russia and recognize the independence of those two separatist regions in the east … you say it’s a nonstarter, not willing to [accept] those three conditions right now?” Muir asked.
Zelenskyy responded, “It is more difficult than simply acknowledging them … this is another ultimatum and we are not prepared for ultimatums.”
He went on, “But we have the possible solution resolution for these three items, key items, what needs to be done is for President Putin to start talking. Start the dialogue instead of living in the information bubble without oxygen. I think that’s where he is. He is in this bubble. He’s getting this information and you don’t know how realistic that information is that he’s getting.”
Mar 07, 11:04 am
Biden to speak with UK, French and German counterparts about Ukraine
President Joe Biden is scheduled to hold a secure video teleconference Monday morning with leaders of France, Germany and the United Kingdom to discuss the latest developments regarding Russia and Ukraine, according to the White House.
Biden is expected to be in the White House Situation Room when he participates in a teleconference with French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, according to the White House.
The teleconference will be closed to the press and will occur after Biden received his daily intelligence briefing, the White House said.
Mar 07, 9:57 am
Putin falsely claims his forces are ‘taking measures to save lives’
Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke with European Council President Charles Michel on Monday and according to a Kremlin readout of the conversation, falsely claimed Russian forces are “taking all possible measures to save the lives of civilians” in Ukraine.
Putin also repeated the Russian military’s claim that Ukrainian “nationalists” are preventing humanitarian corridors from being opened to allow the evacuation of civilians. But Ukrainian authorities have claimed efforts to evacuate its citizens out of the country have been disrupted by Russian forces shelling the humanitarian corridors Moscow agreed to in a cease-fire.
“The main threat comes from nationalist formations, which essentially use the tactics of terrorists, hiding behind the civilian population,” Putin told Michel, according to the report.
The Russian president “called on the European Union to make a real contribution to saving people’s lives, to put pressure on the Kyiv authorities and force them to respect humanitarian law,” the Kremlin said in a statement.
-ABC News’ Patrick Reevell
Mar 07, 7:42 am
Ukrainian foreign minister again calls for NATO no-fly zone
Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba on Monday called for NATO to enforce a no-fly zone over Ukraine, saying Russian planes were targeting civilians.
“The Russian Air Force dominates in the skies and continues bombing our cities and killing many civilians,” Kuleba told George Stephanopoulos on Good Morning America.
U.S. and NATO officials have rejected calls from Ukrainian officials to impose a no-fly zone, saying doing so could provoke Russia, perhaps pulling other European countries and NATO members into the conflict. The U.S. and NATO have offered other military aid, including a possible deal to send aircraft to Ukraine.
“We believe that the rejection of the idea of the no-fly zone is based in the lack of confidence in the strength of NATO as an alliance,” Kuleba said. “Because the military might of NATO is incomparably bigger compared to Russia. So why would Russia dare to shoot down a NATO plane, knowing it is doomed, eventually doomed, if a war with NATO begins.”
Kuleba over the weekend had urged the international community to help in the struggle against “Russian barbarians.” He posted a photo on Twitter on Sunday of an unexploded bomb, which he said landed on a residential building in Chernihiv.
Mar 07, 5:50 am
Ukraine casts doubt on Russian pledge for civilian pathways
Ukrainian officials said Russia’s proposal on Monday to open “humanitarian corridors” for cities in Ukraine is not a genuine offer because it offers to evacuate civilians only to Belarus and Russia.
Iryna Vereshchuk, a Ukrainian vice prime minister, in a televised briefing called that “unacceptable” and said Ukraine had demanded instead that civilians be allowed to evacuate to other parts of Ukraine.
Russia’s Defense Ministry had said it would open a corridor from towns and villages north of Kyiv, where heavy fighting is taking place, but that would allow people to travel to the Belarusian city of Gomel and then be flown to Russia. Russia also offered corridors near the besieged northeastern and eastern cities of Kharkiv, Sumy and Mariupol, but that would also only allow people to leave over the border to Russia.
“This is an unacceptable option of humanitarian corridors. Our people from outskirts of Kyiv won’t go to Belarus and then to Russia,” Vereshchuk said.
She said that Ukraine wants civilians north of Kyiv to be permitted to leave to the capital and for those from Kharkiv to be allowed to western cities by train, and from Mariupol north to the central city of Zaporizhzhia.
“We delivered our proposal on how the corridors should be organized,” Vereshchuk said, later adding, “Humanitarian aid is prepared for a number of towns in the east and south. We ask Russia to confirm these corridors and provide ceasefire.”
Russia has repeatedly violated its own ceasefire since offering humanitarian corridors for Mariupol and another eastern town Volnovakha, including shelling evacuation points in Mariupol according to officials there. The Red Cross, which is trying to organize the evacuations, has said the agreements currently are too vague and without clear understandings for routes out.
Russia said Monday’s offer for the corridors was made following a lengthy phone conversation between French President Emmanuel Macron and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday.
Vereshchuk said Russia was trying to exploit Macron’s name for a disingenuous offer of corridors.
“I hope president Macron understands that his name and good intentions are manipulated by Russia,” she said.
-ABC News’ Patrick Reevell
Mar 07, 3:43 am
Refugee arrivals to Poland top 1 million, guard says
More than 1 million people fleeing Ukraine have arrived in Poland since the Russian invasion began on Feb. 24, the Polish Border Guard said on Monday.
A record 142,000 people arrived on Sunday, the guard said on Twitter. On Monday, about 42,000 people had crossed the border before 7 a.m. local time.
As of Sunday, more than 1.5 million people had fled the war in Ukraine, marking the “fastest growing refugee crises in Europe since World War II,” according to Filippo Grandi, the U.N. high commissioner for refugees.
Mar 07, 2:43 am
With attacks on TV towers, Russia seeks to isolate Ukrainians, UK says
Russian forces have attacked Ukrainian communications infrastructure to “reduce Ukrainian citizens’ access to reliable news and information,” the U.K. Ministry of Defence said on Monday.
“Russia reportedly struck a TV tower in Kharkiv yesterday, suspending broadcasting output,” the Ministry’s update said.
Russian forces on March 1 struck a TV tower in Kyiv, the capital.
Mar 07, 2:18 am
Russia says cease-fire will allow evacuations from 4 cities
Russia declared a cease-fire starting Monday morning, opening humanitarian corridors for the evacuation of civilians from Kyiv, Mariupol, Kharkiv and Sumy, the Russian interagency humanitarian response staff in Ukraine said.
“Taking into account the disastrous humanitarian situation and its severe deterioration in the cities of Kyiv, Kharkiv, Sumy, and Mariupol, and also at French President Emmanuel Macron’s personal request to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Russian Armed Forces are declaring a ceasefire and opening humanitarian corridors for reasons of humanity starting 10:00 a.m. on March 7, 2022,” the staff said.
Ukrainian officials in Mariupol said Russia broke planned cease-fires on Saturday and Sunday.
(NEW YORK) — New York City dropped several of its COVID-19 mandates on Monday, including mask and vaccine requirements.
Restaurants, bars and other indoor public areas — including gyms and entertainment venues — will no longer be required to ask people for proof of vaccination under the “Key to NYC” vaccine passport program.
Additionally, masks will be optional for public school students aged 5 and older.
When announcing the changes Friday, Mayor Eric Adams said it was time to drop restrictions because COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are declining and more than 75% of New York City residents are fully vaccinated.
“Two years ago, we were the epicenter of the COVID virus, and two months ago we became the epicenter again under omicron,” he said during a press conference in Times Square. “New Yorkers stepped up. They heard the call and they responded. We did the masking, we did the social distancing, we did the vaccinations and boosters shots.”
Although he acknowledged “COVID is still here,” he said “we are beating it back” and added that the next phase of the pandemic response will focus on reviving New York City’s economy.
“The overall restriction is being removed. This is about giving people the flexibility that is needed to continue to allow not only safety, but we have to get our economy back on track,” Adams said. “It’s time to open our city and get the economy back operating.”
However, other COVID restrictions will remain in place.
Any settings with children under age 5, including daycares, will still require masks, and K-12 schools will still have daily screenings to check for any students exhibiting symptoms.
In addition, anyone using public transit — including trains, buses, taxis and ride-share services — must wear masks.
Some indoor businesses have said they will keep their mask and vaccine requirements in place.
The Broadway League, which operates all Broadway theaters, said its guidance on masks and proof of vaccination for audience members will last until at least April 30, 2022.
Adams also said Friday the city will neither be lifting its municipal employee vaccine mandate nor reinstating any unvaccinated workers who were fired.
“The overwhelming number of New York City employees did the right thing, and it sends the wrong message,” he said. “We can’t send the wrong message that, when we say something, we’re going to change and vacillate.”
The city is currently recording a seven-day rolling average of 569 COVID cases, the lowest seen since October 2020, according to NYC Open Data.
Additionally, the test positivity rate has also dropped by nearly half from 2.65% to 1.41% over the last 28 days, data from the city’s Department of Health & Mental Hygiene shows.
(NEW YORK) — As inflation continues to send food prices soaring, more Americans are turning to dollar stores to save on groceries. But can you find healthier options while still cutting costs?
While dollar stores are usually known to carry highly processed, packaged foods, some are beginning to offer nuts, fruits, vegetables and dairy products.
ABC News’ Becky Worley appeared on Good Morning America Monday to discuss what healthy options you may be able to find at a dollar store near you:
(NEW YORK) — Americans like Chris and Amy Clary are booking Airbnb vacation rentals online in a bid to help Ukrainians directly amid Russian attacks of the Eastern European country.
The Clarys are in Texas but they’ve booked five Airbnbs in Kyiv and outside the capital.
“We wanted to get money into people that are living there. And they’re desperate for funds, obviously for food, maybe to get out of town,” Chris Clary told ABC News’ Good Morning America.
Airbnb said it is “humbled by the inspiring generosity” of people looking to help through the platform.
“Airbnb is temporarily waiving guest and Host fees on bookings in Ukraine at this time,” the San Francisco-based company told GMA in a statement.
The company said on March 2 and 3, it saw more than 61,000 bookings in Ukraine, including more than 34,000 by U.S. guests. It has also set up a website — Airbnb.org — dedicated to helping people in emergencies. There have been over 1.2 million visits to the site already.
“Airbnb allows them to get funds almost immediately and directly to the source,” said Chris Clary. “I believe it’s important because those people need as much assistance as possible and as quickly as possible.”
Added his wife Amy: “I get to chat with the host. You know, find out how they’re doing. Are they OK? And ask questions. And it really makes it like a personal connection to what’s going on in Ukraine and to the Ukrainian people.”
The Clarys said they try to look for Airbnb listings that feature family photos and reviews from past bookings. They also send messages to hosts first with questions before booking.
“When you get the messages back, they are incredibly grateful. It really brings you to tears whenever you read them,” Chris Clary said.
The Clarys say they’ve inspired friends to do the same and hope to keep the momentum going, looking next into booking short-term stays in Poland, which borders Ukraine to the northwest.
Celebrities are also joining the growing number of people looking to help people caught in the Russian and Ukrainian conflict that began on Feb. 24.
Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher launched an online fundraiser called “Stand With Ukraine” to help Ukrainians. In a video message introducing the campaign, Kunis said she was born in Ukraine and emigrated to the U.S. in 1991 with her family and has “never been more proud to be a Ukrainian.”
Blake Lively and Ryan Reynolds have also announced they would match donations up to $1 million for the nonprofit UNHCR, the U.N. refugee agency.
Bethenny Frankel, the former reality TV star, has also used her BStrong initiative to get aid to Ukraine and neighboring countries like Poland, Hungary and Romania.
Former Dancing With the Stars choreographer Maksim Chmerkovskiy, who recently escaped Ukraine amid the escalating conflict, said he’s also working to help people in the region with his wife, dancer Peta Murgatroyd. They said they’ve started an Amazon store where people can buy items for people in need.
