(NASHVILLE, Tenn.) — Hundreds of people gathered at a candlelight vigil in Nashville, Tennessee on Wednesday evening to mourn and honor the six victims of a mass shooting at an elementary school.
Local, state and federal officials along with dignitaries, religious leaders and community figureheads attended the somber ceremony at One Square Park in the downtown section of Tennessee’s capital city. First lady Jill Biden and singer-songwriter Sheryl Crow were among those in attendance, though Biden did not address the crowd.
Various speakers took turns reading aloud the names of the victims and expressing condolences to the grieving families.
“Just two days ago was our city’s worst day,” Nashville Mayor John Cooper told the crowd. “I so wish we weren’t here, but we need to be here.”
A shooter gunned down three children and three adults at the Covenant School in Nashville on Monday morning. Responding officers shot and killed the suspect about 14 minutes after the initial 911 call came in, according to the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department.
Police have identified the slain children as 9-year-old students Evelyn Dieckhaus, William Kinney and Hallie Scruggs. The adult victims were identified as 61-year-old custodian Mike Hill, 60-year-old head of school Katherine Koonce and 61-year-old substitute teacher Cynthia Peak.
During Wednesday’s vigil, local school administrator Tricia Drake said she couldn’t stop thinking about her last conversation with Koonce, who she said had advised her on how to best prepare for an active shooter scenario.
“My last conversation with her, in August, was about who she used for her active shooter training because I know that she would have researched somebody,” Drake tearfully told ABC News. “We ended up using the same active shooter training at the school where I was also a head. I can’t believe that was my last conversation with her.”
Drake said she knew Koonce had made her mark when she saw the footage that police released from two of the responding officers’ body-worn cameras. One of the videos shows a Covenant School staff member meeting Officer Rex Engelbert at the school’s main entrance, telling him: “The kids are all locked down, but we have two kids that we don’t know where they are.” She then is seen using a key to unlock the door so officers could go inside.
“Students were in their classrooms, locked up, the professional outdoors to lead the Metro policeman. She had a key, what her headcount was, she knew exactly where the students would be, she was prepared,” Drake told ABC News. “I’m sure they had run those drills, and it’s because of Katherine and the foresight she had to make sure her staffers were prepared.”
Drake, who declined to say the name of the school she works for, said she underwent the same active shooter training that Koonce used and that the key is to adopt a “warrior mentality,” accepting injury rather than death. Part of the training, she said, is to throw students out of windows and run away as far as possible. Drake said she believes Koonce’s preparation saved lives on Monday.
Drake recalled the moment she realized something might be seriously wrong when news about the shooting at the Covenant School began to spread.
“I texted my sister and friends of mine to say: That’s Katherine’s school. I know she’s going to come out. She’s going to come out anytime now and tell everybody that it’s under control, that everything’s ok,” Drake recounted. “And I waited like everyone else for Katherine to come out and I thought it was so strange that she was not visible. She was so professional, so prepared, so committed to her faculty and those sweet children of hers, and it’s just such a loss. It is unthinkable that this has happened in our little town.”
The suspect — identified as Audrey Hale, 28, of Nashville — was a former student of the Covenant School, according to police. Metropolitan Nashville Police Chief John Drake told reporters on Tuesday that it appears the school was likely targeted, but “students were randomly targeted.”
The police chief had told reporters on Monday that Hale was female and identified as transgender but didn’t immediately provide more details. A police spokesperson later told ABC News that the suspect was assigned female at birth but pointed to a social media account linked to Hale that included the use of the pronouns he/him.
The suspect was armed with two assault-style rifles, a handgun and “significant ammunition” at the time of the attack, according to police. Investigators have since searched Hale’s home in Nashville, where they seized “a sawed-off shotgun, a second shotgun and other evidence,” police said in a press release on Monday.
The police chief said the suspect had legally purchased seven guns from five different local stores and hid some of those weapons at home. Hale was under a “doctor’s care for an emotional disorder,” the police chief said, and Hale’s parents “were under the impression that was when she sold the one weapon” they believed Hale owned.
Hale also had a detailed map of the school as well as “writings and a book we consider to be like a manifesto,” the police chief told ABC News in an interview Tuesday on Good Morning America.
“We have not been able to determine a motive as of yet,” he added. “The investigation is very much still ongoing.”
Video from the school’s surveillance cameras shows the suspect arriving in a vehicle and parking in the parking lot at 9:54 a.m. ET. Minutes later, the suspect is seen shooting through a door on the side of the school and entering the building. Hale allegedly went from the first floor to the second floor, firing multiple shots, according to police.
Police received a 911 call about an active shooter at the school at 10:13 a.m. ET. As officers responded to the scene, the suspect fired on police cars from a second-floor window, police said.
Video from two of the responding officers’ body-worn cameras shows them entering the school, following the sound of gunfire to the second floor and finding the suspect in a lobby area near a window. After an officer shouts “reloading,” officers Rex Engelbert, a four-year veteran, and Michael Collazo, a nine-year veteran, both fire at the suspect.
The Covenant School, a private Christian school for children in preschool through sixth grade, has about 209 students and 40 to 50 staff members. It does not have a school resource officer, according to police.
In a statement released Monday night, the Covenant School said its community “is heartbroken.”
“We are grieving tremendous loss and are in shock coming out of the terror that shattered our church and school,” the school said. “We are focused on loving our students, our families, our faculty and staff and beginning the process of healing.”
(NEW YORK) — A train derailed near Raymond, Minnesota, on Thursday, prompting a local evacuation order, officials said.
Residents nearby were told to evacuate after a BNSF train derailed and caught fire, Kandiyohi County Sheriff’s Office said in a press release overnight.
(NEW YORK) — A fire broke out at a migrant detention center in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on Monday, killing 39 people, officials said.
The blaze began as the result of a protest by people being held in the facility, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico said in a morning press conference. Protestors lit a mattress on fire inside the building, after some at the facility were informed they’d be deported, Obrador said.
“We do not yet know the names and nationalities of those who lost their lives,” he said, adding that they were mainly from Central America.
The Mexican National Institute of Migration (INM) had said Tuesday night there were 38 people dead. The INM had previously said 40 people died in the fire.
In a tweet Tuesday night, Mexican Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said the people responsible for the fire have been brought before the Mexican attorney general.
Rosa Icela Rodríguez Velázquez, the Mexican secretary of security and citizen protection, identified eight people Wednesday who were likely responsible for the fire and crimes related to the fire.
In addition to the eight suspects, officials said they believe that federal and state agents, as well as security guards, are also responsible for the fire.
“At 8:30 p.m., migrants gathered mattresses and minutes later set them on fire. None of the civil servants, nor the security guards, took any action to open the door to the migrants who were inside with the fire,” Sara Irene Herrerías Guerra, head of the Specialized Prosecutor for Human Rights, said.
Mexican authorities said the fact that security guards did not open the cell doors when the fire started is “part of the investigation” and called this action a “serious crime.”
Additionally, Mexican authorities seek to charge the eight suspects with crimes including intentional homicide, directly called “homicidio doloso” in Spanish, injuries and damage to property, officials said.
Law enforcement officials are working to get four arrest warrants for the eight people believed to be responsible for the crimes, they said.
The eight individuals have given their statements to the attorney general’s office. At least one of the suspects is a migrant, the officials said.
The suspects have not been detained, because the Mexican authorities are currently waiting to obtain the arrest warrants.
The fire started at about 10 p.m. on Monday at the Instituto Nacional de Migración, Mexico’s Institute of Migration said early Tuesday. Sixty-eight men from Central and South America had been housed in the facility at the time of the fire, officials said.
The dead were all migrants, according to the statement. Another 27 people were injured, some seriously, and were transferred to four local hospitals, authorities said.
The center is in an area across the border from El Paso, Texas, and is close to the Puente Internacional Lerdo Stanton bridge.
(WASHINGTON) — A Democratic lawmaker who was screaming about Republicans’ approach to gun violence just off the House floor on Wednesday soon got into a tense altercation with one of his conservative colleagues.
An animated Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., a former principal, came off the floor and began telling reporters to continue to press GOP members on their views on the issue of guns and shootings.
“Please ask them. Don’t let them off the hook,” Bowman said.
“Ask them about gun violence. What are they doing about it? Nothing!” he continued to yell as colleagues exited the floor.
“They don’t have the courage,” he insisted. “They’re cowards.”
Republicans have avoided or dismissed questions about new restrictions on assault weapons like those used in the Nashville, Tennessee, school shooting this week.
They have instead advocated for ramping up school security and more and more have cited addressing “mental health” as the better solution, given longstanding reluctance to restrict gun ownership, saying it’s unconstitutional.
“The first thing in any kind of tragedy is I pray. I pray for the victims. I pray for the families. I get really angry when people try to politicize it for their own personal agenda, especially when we don’t even know the facts,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise said Tuesday.
Bowman, on Wednesday, forcefully rebuked that.
“They have control of the House! The American people need to know that they don’t have the courage to do anything to save the lives of children,” he said.
Though most members just walked past Bowman as he was screaming for about five minutes — aside from the occasional applause from Democratic members — Rep. Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky, decided to engage.
“What are you talking about?” he asked.
“I’m talking about gun violence,” Bowman responded.
“You know there’s never been a school shooting in a school that allows teachers to carry,” Massie tried to argue.
“Carry guns! You think– More guns lead to more death!” Bowman retorted.
Massie told Bowman multiple times to calm down, prompting Bowman to exclaim: “Calm down? Children are dying! Nine-year-old children!” and “I was screaming before you came and interrupted me.”
After Bowman left the Capitol, still yelling, Massie told reporters: “Next week, I’m reintroducing a repeal of the federal Gun-Free School Zones Act. It’s the deadliest bill that’s ever been passed.”
(WASHINGTON) — During a Wednesday hearing before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on aid to Ukraine, lawmakers spent hours questioning the top watchdogs overseeing the three government agencies most directly involved in distributing billions of dollars in American support to the war-torn country, repeatedly arriving at the same answer:
So far, there is no evidence that support has been misused.
Although conservatives have criticized the Biden administration for what they called a lack of oversight over the funds — with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy pledging before the midterms that there should no longer be a “blank check” — most Republicans on the panel sought to balance support for Ukraine with a commitment to surveillance.
“To be clear, I do not conduct this oversight to undermine or question the importance of support for Ukraine, but rather — to the contrary — oversight should incentivize the administration and Ukraine to use funds from Congress with the highest degree of efficiency and effectiveness,” said Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas.
But New York Rep. Gregory Meeks, the committee’s top Democrat, reminded the chamber of comments from lawmakers he called “MAGA Republicans” who assert that Kyiv has been given too much leeway, saying their comments play right into Russian President Vladimir Putin’s hands.
Others — like Rep. Ted Lieu, D-Calif. — went further, questioning if even holding the hearing would provide fodder for Russian disinformation campaigns.
“I think we should talk about more important issues, like how do we make sure other countries don’t give additional assistance to Russia? How do we make sure Ukraine has the long-range weapons they need to win this war?” Lieu said.
During their testimonies, the acting inspectors general covering the State Department and U.S. Agency for International Development as well as the inspector general overseeing the Department of Defense each explained how they sought to create a full account of how aid to Ukraine was used and install necessary controls against corruption.
But the witnesses also acknowledged the unique challenge posed by the conflict.
“We’re doing oversight at the speed of war,” said Robert Storch, who monitors the Department of Defense.
Some of the hearing’s most contentious moments were tied to issues that hit closer to home, with Republicans like Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania pushing the witnesses on why the Biden administration was indirectly footing the bill for some Ukrainians’ pensions rather than shoring up domestic entitlements or securing the U.S. border with Mexico.
“Can you give us assurance that none of that money that’s being sent to arguably one of the most, if not the most, corrupt country on the planet is being misused, misspent, lost?” Perry pressed. “What assurance can you give the American people?”
“What I’ve testified to, congressman, is that based on our completed work, we have not substantiated any instances of diversion of U.S. security,” Storch answered.
Still, the witnesses acknowledged that their work wasn’t finished and that those findings could change as time marches on.
Republicans made multiple references to Afghanistan, with at least one lawmaker in the party suggesting that an office be created specifically to monitor aid to Ukraine, just as Congress did for the reconstruction of Afghanistan in 2008.
While the witnesses didn’t weigh in on that prospect, they said their own oversight efforts could be boosted with additional financing from Congress.
“Our folks are, frankly, burning the candle at both ends to meet the extensive mandate that we have and it’s because they are deeply, personally committed to the mission that they do that,” said the deputy inspector general for the State Department, Diana Shaw, who also advocated for her office to have a larger footprint operating out of the American embassy in Ukraine.
(NEW YORK) — Two U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopters crashed during a training mission on Wednesday night in Trigg County, Kentucky, officials said in a statement.
The Black Hawk helicopters from the 101st Airborne Division were on a “routine training mission” when they crashed at about 10 p.m. local time, Army officials said.
The crash resulted “in several casualties,” officials from the division, which is also known as the “Screaming Eagles,” said on Twitter.
“The command is currently focused on caring for the servicemembers and their families,” Nondice Thurman, a spokesperson for the Fort Campbell Public Affairs Office, said in a statement.
Gov. Andy. Beshear of Kentucky said he received “early reports of a helicopter crash and fatalities are expected.” The Kentucky State Police and Division of Emergency Management were responding, he said in a statement.
“We will share more information as available,” Beshear said. “Please pray for all those affected.”
Trigg County, where the crash occurred, is about 25 miles northwest of Fort Campell, a military installation on the Kentucky-Tennessee border.
Kentucky State Police troopers found the wreckage in a location described as either a field or a semi-wooded area, said Sarah Burgess, a police spokesperson. There were no reports of damage to residential buildings, but residents within the debris field were asked to leave the area.
“I can’t speak on behalf of the residents other than we are doing everything we can to assess the situation and make sure that our community is as safe as it can be,” Burgess said.
(NEW YORK) — More than a year after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of neighboring Ukraine, the countries are fighting for control of areas in eastern and southern Ukraine.
Ukrainian troops have liberated nearly 30,000 square miles of their territory from Russian forces since the invasion began on Feb. 24, 2022, but Putin appeared to be preparing for a long and bloody war.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Mar 30, 4:24 AM EDT WSJ reporter detained in Russia on spying charge
Russia’s FSB intelligence agency said on Thursday it had detained a journalist working for The Wall Street Journal on spying charges.
Russian state media cited an FSB statement saying Evan Gershkovich was detained in Ekaterinburg, a city in central Russia, and accusing him of collecting “state secrets” on an enterprise belonging to Russia’s military industrial complex on behalf of the United States.
A criminal case has been opened against him, the officials said.
“It is established that Evan Gershkovich, acting on the instruction of the American side, was collecting information consisting of state secrets, about the activity of one of the enterprises of the Russian military industrial complex. He was arrested in Ekaterinburg during an attempt to receive secret information,” Russian media said, quoting FSB officials.
Earlier reports from local media said that Gershkovich had been in Ekaterinburg reporting on the Wagner private military company.
Gershkovich is a reporter for the WSJ covering Russia, Ukraine and the former Soviet Union. He previously reported for Agence France-Presse and The Moscow Times, according to his WSJ profile. He also served as a news assistant at The New York Times.
Mar 28, 4:45 PM EDT
US will support special tribunal to try ‘crime of aggression’ against Russia
The U.S. will support the creation of a special tribunal to prosecute top Kremlin officials for Russia’s aggression toward Ukraine, State Department officials said Tuesday, marking a significant shift for the Biden administration and a notable step toward outlining what accountability on the international stage might look like after the conflict.
A department spokesperson said the administration envisioned the tribunal would take the form of an international court that is “rooted in Ukraine’s judicial system” but ideally located in another European country.
The spokesperson added that such a mechanism would work to “facilitate broader international support and demonstrate Ukraine’s leadership in ensuring accountability for the crime of aggression” as well as “maximize the chances of achieving meaningful accountability for the crime of aggression.”
Ukraine and other Western countries have long called for a special tribunal, but until now, the U.S. has not publicly declared if it would support the creation of a new structure.
Mar 27, 12:21 PM EDT
Two dead, 29 hurt in Russian missile strike on Sloviansk
At least two people were killed and 29 were injured Monday morning when a pair of long-range Russian missiles slammed into buildings in a city in eastern Ukraine, Ukrainian officials said.
The two S-300 Russian missiles hit administrative and office buildings, and private homes in Sloviansk, according to Pavlo Kyrylenko, the regional governor.
Sloviansk is in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, where heavy fighting has been waged since the start of the war.
The missiles struck the city around 10:30 a.m. local time, Kyrylenko said.
He said the town of Druzhkivka in the Donetsk region was also targeted in Monday’s missile attacks. Kyrylenko said a Russian missile “almost completely destroyed” an orphanage in Druzhkivka, but there were no immediate reports of casualties.
“Another day that began with terrorism by the Russian Federation,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a statement.
Zelenskyy said Ukraine “will not forgive the torturing of our people.”
“All Russian terrorists will be defeated,” Zelenskyy said. “Everyone involved in this aggression will be held to account.”
Mar 26, 1:47 PM EDT
Ukrainian drone injures 3 inside Russia
Three people were injured in an explosion in the Kireevsky district of the Tula region on Sunday, Yekaterina Makarova, press secretary of the region’s Ministry of Health, told Interfax.
Russian authorities and law enforcement agencies said a Ukrainian drone with ammunition caused the explosion in the town far from the two countries’ border.
Kireevsk is about 180 miles from the border with Ukraine and 110 miles south of Moscow.
The Russian state-run news agency Tass reported authorities identified the drone as a Ukrainian Tu-141. The Latvia-based Russian news outlet Meduza reported that the blast left a crater about 50 feet in diameter and 16 feet deep.
-ABC News’ Anastasia Bagaeva
Mar 24, 2:03 PM EDT
Russia says Slovakia handing over fighter jets unfriendly step, violation of international obligations
Russia called Slovakia’s transfer of MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine an unfriendly step and a step aimed at destroying bilateral relations.
“We are talking about another gross violation by the Slovak side of its international obligations to re-export Russian-made weapons and military equipment,” Russia’s Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation said in a statement.
“We regard these actions of Slovakia as an unfriendly act against the Russian Federation, aimed at destroying bilateral relations,” the FSMTC said.
Ukrainian troops, on the defensive for four months, will launch a long-awaited counterassault “very soon” now that Russia’s huge winter offensive is losing steam without taking Bakhmut, Ukraine’s top ground forces commander Colonel-General Oleksandr Syrskyi said Thursday.
“The aggressor does not give up hope of taking Bakhmut at any cost, despite the losses in manpower and equipment,” Syrskyi said.
Adding, “Without sparing anything, they lose considerable strength and exhale. Very soon we will take advantage of this opportunity, as we once did near Kyiv, Kharkiv, Balaklia and Kupyansk.”
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
Mar 23, 11:51 AM EDT
Slovakia hands over 4 fighter jets to Ukraine
Slovakia has handed over four MiG-29 fighter jets to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, according to Slovakian Defense Minister Jaro Nad.
The remaining aircrafts promised to Ukraine will be handed over in the following weeks, Nad said.
In response to the news, Russia accused NATO and the EU of continuing to escalate the conflict in Ukraine and seeking to prolong it.
“The Russian Federation considers the transfer of four fighter jets by Slovakia to Ukraine a destructive step that runs counter to the EU’s rhetoric about seeking peaceful solutions,” Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said in a statement.
Adding, “The Russian Federation will measure its reaction with the specific military activities of NATO on the territory of Finland.”
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
Mar 22, 9:34 AM EDT
Zelenskyy visits troops after night of Russian strikes
Chinese President Xi Jinping hadn’t even left Moscow when the drones started exploding. It came a matter of hours after Xi and Russian President Vladimir Putin proclaimed they were the ones who wanted to make “peace” in Ukraine.
Ukrainian officials say 21 lethal attack drones were launched overnight and into this morning by Russia, with 16 shot down by the Ukrainians.
An apartment block was hit in a town southeast of Kyiv, killing at least four people and injuring others, officials said. Russian officials claim Ukrainian soldiers were based there. The Ukrainians are calling it a “civilian” building.
Russian missiles later hit an apartment block in the heart of the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia.
And in an apparent repost to the geopolitical theatrics in Moscow, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy visited his troops on Wednesday in the eastern Donbas, not far from the embattled city of Bakhmut, according to his officials.
Bakhmut has become a potent symbol of Ukrainian resistance and sacrifice and, despite being surrounded on three sides, Ukrainian forces inside the city are, after months of fighting there, still holding on.
Zelenskyy’s office released video of him addressing troops and also visiting injured soldiers in a military medical facility in the region. He told troops their “destiny was difficult but important” because they were fighting to save the motherland.
Mar 22, 8:32 AM EDT
Missile strikes residential building in Ukraine
A Russian missile struck an apartment building in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on Wednesday, injuring at least 18 people, officials said.
“This must not become ‘just another day’ in” Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Twitter.
“The world needs greater unity and determination to defeat Russian terror faster and protect lives,” he said.
The victims included two children, secretary of the City Council Anatoly Kurtev said. Eleven adults were hospitalized, with four in serious condition, he said.
Mar 21, 6:09 PM EDT
Explosions reported in several Ukrainian cities
Explosions were heard and felt in the cities of Odesa and Kherson and the regions of Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk on Tuesday evening, officials and people on the ground in Ukraine reported on social media channels.
During the attack on Odesa, Ukraine’s air defense shot down two X-59 guided missiles launched by Russian fighter jets, the Ukrainian Air Force said on its Telegram channel.
Russia fired four missiles at Odesa, Andriy Yermak, the head of the presidential office, said on his Telegram channel. Two rockets were shot down by Ukrainian air defense, and two rockets hit the city, he said.
Three people were wounded, and a three-story building on the complex of a monastery was damaged, Yermak said.
Three people were killed, and four were wounded as a result of Russian shelling in the Donetsk region, the Ukrainian Office of the Prosecutor General reported on Facebook.
-ABC News’ Ellie Kaufman
Mar 21, 4:29 PM EDT
Ukrainian Patriot missile training at Fort Sill nearly complete
The Patriot missile training for Ukrainian troops at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, is wrapping up soon, an Army spokesman said Tuesday.
Sixty-five Ukrainian soldiers have been training at Fort Sill since mid-January in an expedited training cycle on using the Patriots — training that typically can last up to a year.
The Ukrainians will depart the Army post in the coming days for Europe, where they will receive additional training, before heading back to Ukraine “in the coming weeks,” Col. Marty O’Donnell of U.S. Army Europe/Africa told ABC News.
“In Europe, the Ukrainians training here will meet up with Ukrainians training in Europe, and with U.S., German, and Dutch equipment donations to validate the systems and ensure interoperability,” O’Donnell said.
-ABC News’ Luis Martinez
Mar 21, 12:48 PM EDT
US to speed up delivery of Abrams tanks to Ukraine
The United States is going to speed up the manufacture and delivery of the 31 Abrams tanks President Joe Biden approved sending to Ukraine, a U.S. official confirmed Tuesday.
Instead of making new tanks from scratch, the Department of Defense will now refurbish the hulls of several older models that will be equipped with more modern equipment, according to the official.
The new delivery target date is fall 2023, the official said; previously the anticipated delivery time was believed to be mid-2024.
National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby hinted at the accelerated timeline on Tuesday.
“We’re working on that,” Kirby said on MSNBC. “There’s some changes that you can make to the process to sort of speed that up.”
-ABC News’ Luis Martinez and Teresa Mettela
Mar 21, 11:49 AM EDT
Japanese PM visits Ukraine for 1st time during war
Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida visited Ukraine on Tuesday for the first time since the start of Russia’s invasion.
In Kyiv, Kishida laid a wreath at the memorial for fallen Ukrainian soldiers. In Bucha, where Ukrainian officials said more than 400 civilians were killed last year by Russian forces, he laid a wreath outside a church before observing a moment of silence and bowing.
“The world was astonished to see innocent civilians in Bucha killed one year ago,” Kishida said. “I really feel great anger for all the atrocious acts.”
-ABC News’ Ellie Kaufman
Mar 20, 6:33 PM EDT
Ukraine claims it destroyed Russian cruise missiles in Crimea drone attack
Ukrainian forces destroyed Russian Kalibr-NK cruise missiles in a drone strike in Crimea as the weapons were being transported by rail, the Ukrainian Main Intelligence Directorate said on their official Telegram channel Monday.
Sergey Aksyonov, an adviser to the head of the Republic of Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, confirmed a drone attack on his official Telegram channel.
Debris from the aerial object damaged a household and a shop and one person was injured from the explosions, Aksyonov said.
-ABC News’ Ellie Kaufman
Mar 19, 6:44 PM EDT
Indications China could be supplying electrical components to Russia military use, senior Ukrainian official says
Ukraine has been monitoring multiple flights between Russian and Chinese cities during which the aircrafts’ transponders are temporarily switched off, according to a senior Ukrainian official, who called it a cause for concern.
The official said the belief is that China could be supplying Russia with electrical components that Moscow needs for military equipment, thus diminishing the impact of Western sanctions.
The senior official, who spoke exclusively to ABC News on the condition of anonymity, added that Ukraine currently has “no proof” that China is supplying weaponry or ammunition to Ukraine.
The official also dismissed the notion of a Chinese-brokered peace plan in the near future and said Ukraine is focused on retaking more land from Russia and is preparing for a fresh offensive “in the spring or early summer.”
-ABC News’ Tom Burridge
Mar 19, 1:13 AM EDT
Putin arrives in Mariupol, marking first visit to newly annexed territories
Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Mariupol to inspect a number of locations in the city and talk to local residents, the Kremlin press service said on Sunday.
Putin travelled by helicopter to the Ukrainian city, which has been occupied since last year by Russians. He drove a vehicle along the city’s streets, making stops at several locations.
The visit was Putin’s first to newly annexed territories.
Deputy Prime Minister Marat Khusnullin reported to Putin about construction and restoration work. In the Nevsky area, a newly built residential area, Putin talked with residents. He went inside a home at the invitation of one of the families.
Putin also inspected the coastline of the city in the area of a yacht club, a theater building that was heavily bombed with civilians sheltering inside and other memorable places of the city.
-ABC News’ Tanya Stukalova
Mar 18, 11:04 AM EDT
Putin visits Crimea on anniversary of annexation
Russian President Vladimir Putin traveled to Crimea to mark the ninth anniversary of the Black Sea peninsula’s annexation from Ukraine on Saturday, one day after the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for the Russian leader accusing him of war crimes.
Putin visited an art school and a children’s center.
Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, a move that most of the world denounced as illegal. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has demanded that Russia withdraw from the peninsula as well as the areas it has occupied since last year.
Putin has shown no intention of relinquishing the Kremlin’s gains. Instead, he stressed Friday the importance of holding Crimea. “Obviously, security issues take top priority for Crimea and Sevastopol now,” he said, referring to Crimea’s largest city. “We will do everything needed to fend off any threats.”
President Joe Biden called the arrest warrant issued for Russian President Vladimir Putin Friday by the International Criminal Court “justified,” though acknowledged it might not have strong teeth.
“Well, I think it’s justified,” Biden told reporters Friday evening. “But the question — it’s not recognized internationally, by us either. But I think it makes a very strong point.”
In a earlier statement on the warrant, the White House said it supports “accountability for perpetrators of war crimes.”
“There is no doubt that Russia is committing war crimes and atrocities in Ukraine, and we have been clear that those responsible must be held accountable,” National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson said in the statement.
-ABC News’ Cheyenne Haslett and Davone Morales
Mar 17, 2:35 PM EDT
Turkey agrees to start ratifying Finland’s NATO bid
Turkey is beginning the process of ratifying Finland’s application to join NATO, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Friday, 10 months after both Finland and Sweden applied to become NATO members in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“At a critical time for our security, this will make our alliance stronger and safer,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said in a statement.
The breakthrough came as Finnish President Sauli Niinisto was in Ankara, Turkey, to meet with Erdogan.
Erdogan said Finland fulfilled its part of the agreements and therefore he saw no reason to further delay the ratification process. Erdogan did not provide an update on Sweden’s bid.
National security adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement, “We encourage Türkiye to quickly ratify Sweden’s accession protocols as well. In addition, we urge Hungary to conclude its ratification process for both Finland and Sweden without delay. … The United States believes that both countries should become members of NATO as soon as possible.”
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
Mar 17, 11:54 AM EDT
ICC issues arrest warrant for Putin
The International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying in a statement Friday that Putin is “allegedly responsible for the war crime of” unlawfully deporting children from occupied areas of Ukraine and bringing them to Russia.
The ICC also issued an arrest warrant for Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s presidential commissioner for children’s rights, alleging she carried out the same war crime.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement that the arrest warrants “have no meaning for the Russian Federation” and “are legally null and void.”
Andriy Yermak, head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, tweeted that the arrest warrants are “just the beginning.”
Mar 16, 12:15 PM EDT
Russia has committed ‘wide range of war crimes’ in Ukraine: UN-backed report
Russia has committed a “wide range of war crimes” and possible crimes against humanity in Ukraine, according to a new United Nations-backed investigation.
“The body of evidence collected shows that Russian authorities have committed a wide range of violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law in many regions of Ukraine and in the Russian Federation,” the human rights report by the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine stated. “Many of these amount to war crimes and include willful killings, attacks on civilians, unlawful confinement, torture, rape, and forced transfers and deportations of children.”
Additionally, Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy-related infrastructure and use of torture “may amount to crimes against humanity,” the report concluded.
The commission said it conducted interviews with nearly 600 people, inspected graves, destruction and detention sites and consulted satellite imagery and photographs as part of its investigation.
Mar 16, 11:51 AM EDT
Poland to deliver MiG-29 jets to Ukraine ‘in the coming days’
Poland plans to deliver four MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine “in the coming days,” Polish President Andrzej Duda said at a press conference on Thursday.
The latest news shortens the timeline announced earlier this week by Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, who had said they might send the Soviet-designed fighter jets to Ukraine in the next four to six weeks.
Mar 16, 11:08 AM EDT
225 Russians killed in last 24 hours in Bakhmut
Ukrainian forces have killed 225 Russian fighters and injured another 306 in the past 24 hours in the Bakhmut area, according to Serhiy Cherevaty, the spokesman for the Eastern Group of Forces of the Ukraine army.
Russia and Ukraine have been locked in a brutal battle for the city in eastern Ukraine for months, with both sides seeing high rates of casualties.
Cherevaty said that in the last day, the occupiers in the area of Bakhmut and nearby villages — including Orikhovo-Vasylivka, Bohdanivka and Ivanivskoho — tried to attack Ukrainian positions 42 times. There were 24 combat clashes in the Bakhmut area alone.
In total, in the Bakhmut direction, the occupiers shelled Ukrainian positions 256 times with various types of artillery and multiple launch rocket systems, Cherevaty said. Of them, 53 shellings were in the area of Bakhmut itself.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
Mar 15, 12:08 PM EDT
Putin says effort underway to increase weapons production
Russia is working to increase its weapons production amid an “urgent” need, President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday.
“Prosecutors should supervise the modernization of defense industry enterprises, including building up capacities for the production of an additional volume of weapons. A lot of effort is underway here,” Putin said at a meeting of the Collegium of the Prosecutor General’s Office of the Russian Federation.
Putin added that the weapons, equipment and ammunition are “urgently” needed.
-ABC News’ Will Gretsky
Mar 13, 4:04 PM EDT
White House welcomes Xi Jinping speaking to President Zelenskyy
The White House is welcoming reports that Chinese President Xi Jinping plans to soon speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for the first time since Russia’s invasion began, while cautioning that after speaking with Ukrainian counterparts, “they have not yet actually gotten any confirmation that there will be a telephone call or a video conference.”
“We hope there will be,” national security adviser Jake Sullivan said during a briefing on Air Force One. “That would be a good thing because it would potentially bring more balance and perspective to the way that the new PRC is approaching this, and we hope it will continue to dissuade them from choosing to provide lethal assistance to Russia.”
“We have been encouraging President Xi to reach out to President Zelenskyy because we believe that PRC and President Xi himself should hear directly the Ukrainian perspective and not just the Russian perspective on this,” Sullivan continued. “So, we have in fact, advocated to Beijing that that connection take place. We’ve done so publicly and we’ve done so privately to the PRC.”
Sullivan said the U.S. has “not yet seen the transfer of lethal assistance of weapons from China to Russia,” after previously warning it was being considered.
“It’s something that we’re vigilant about and continuing to watch carefully,” he added.
-ABC News’ Justin Gomez
Mar 13, 12:27 PM EDT
Russia agrees to 60-day extension of Black Sea Grain Initiative
Russia said Monday it will extend the Black Sea Grain Initiative after it expires on March 18, but only for 60 days. The announcement came after consultations between U.N. representatives in Geneva and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin.
“The Russian side, noting the package nature of the Istanbul agreements proposed by UN Secretary General António Guterres, does not object to another extension of the Black Sea initiative after the expiration of the second term on March 18, but only for 60 days,” Vershinin said, according to Russian media reports.
Russia’s consultations in Geneva on the grain deal were not easy, Vershinin said. Russia will rely on the effectiveness of the implementation of the agreement on the export of its agricultural products when deciding on a new extension of the grain deal, according to reports.
Ukraine, which is a key world exporter of wheat, barley, sunflower oil and fertilizer, had its shipments blocked in the months following the invasion by Russia, causing a worldwide spike in food prices. The first deal was brokered last July.
Mar 12, 4:13 PM EDT
More than 1,100 Russians dead in less than a week, Zelenskyy says
Russian forces suffered more than 1,100 dead in less than a week during battles near the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, the focal point of fighting in eastern Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday.
During his nightly address, Zelenskyy described the battles as “Russia’s irreversible loss.”
Russian forces also sustained about 1,500 “sanitary losses,” meaning soldiers were wounded badly enough to keep them out of further action, Zelenskyy said.
Dozens of pieces of enemy equipment were destroyed, as were more than 10 Russian ammunition depots, Zelenskyy said.
-ABC News’ Edward Seekers
Mar 10, 3:17 PM EST
Russia says Nord Stream explosion investigation should be impartial
The investigation into who was behind the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline explosion should be “objective, impartial and transparent,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Russian news agency Interfax.
“I do not want to threaten anyone. I do not want to hint at anything either. I just know that this flagrant terror attack will not go uninvestigated,” Lavrov added.
Russia also said it will distribute its correspondence with Germany, Denmark and Sweden on the investigation of the Nord Stream explosion among the members of the United Nations Security Council soon.
Russia claimed the three countries are denying Russia access to information and participation in the investigation, first deputy permanent representative to the U.N. Dmitry Polyansky said in an interview, according to Russian news agency TASS.
-ABC News’ Anastasia Bagaeva and Tanya Stukalova
Mar 10, 3:03 PM EST
Russia says Nord Stream explosion investigation should be impartial
The investigation into who was behind the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline explosion should be “objective, impartial and transparent,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told Russian news agency Interfax.
“I do not want to threaten anyone. I do not want to hint at anything either. I just know that this flagrant terror attack will not go uninvestigated,” Lavrov added.
Russia also said it will distribute its correspondence with Germany, Denmark and Sweden on the investigation of Nord Stream explosion among the members of the United Nations Security Council soon.
Russia claimed the three countries are denying Russia access to information and participation in the investigation, first deputy permanent representative to the U.N. Dmitry Polyansky said in an interview, according to Russian news agency TASS.
Mar 10, 9:46 AM EST
Zelenskyy says Ukraine had nothing to do with Nord Stream explosions
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy denied that Ukraine had anything to do with the Nord Stream gas pipeline explosions last year.
“As for the Nord Stream, we have nothing to do with it,” Zelenskyy said Friday.
The New York Times published a report that U.S. intelligence suggests that a pro-Ukrainian group sabotaged the pipeline.
Zelenskyy also suggested that the information being spread about the involvement of pro-Ukrainian groups in the attack could be done to slow down aid to his country.
-ABC News’ Natalia Shumskaia
Mar 09, 2:45 PM EST
Power returns to Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant after attacks
Electricity supply has been fully restored in Kyiv after Russia’s overnight barrage of missile attacks on Ukraine, Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said in a Telegram post Thursday.
Also, the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant is now “receiving electricity for its own needs from the Ukrainian grid after power supply was cut,” Russian news agency Interfax reported.
-ABC News’ Tatiana Rymarenko and Natalia Shumskaia
Mar 09, 7:25 AM EST
Russia ‘brutalizing’ Ukrainian people, White House says
Russia’s overnight barrage of missiles aimed at civilian infrastructure may have knocked heat out to as much as 40% of Ukrainians, the White House said on Thursday.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is attempting to “brutalize” the people of Ukraine, John Kirby, spokesperson for the White House National Security Council, told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos on Good Morning America on Thursday.
“It also appears, George, that they were definitely targeting civilian infrastructure,” Kirby said. “I would agree with the Ukrainians. He’s just trying to brutalize the Ukrainian people”
Russian forces early on Thursday launched 81 missiles from land and sea, Ukrainian officials said. Eight uncrewed drones were also launched in what officials described as a “massive” attack.
Eleven regions and cities were targeted in an attack that lasted at least seven hours, officials said.
Kirby said on Thursday that the White House expects to see more fighting on the ground in Ukraine for at least the “next four to six months.”
“We know that the Russians are attempting to conduct more offensive operations here when the weather gets better,” he said.
Mar 09, 3:59 AM EST
Zelenskyy decries Russia’s ‘miserable tactics’
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday said Russian officials had returned “to their miserable tactics” as they launched at least 81 missiles at Ukrainian sites overnight.
“The occupiers can only terrorize civilians. That’s all they can do. But it won’t help them,” he said on Telegram. “They won’t avoid responsibility for everything they have done.”
He added, “We thank the guardians of our skies and everyone who helps to overcome the consequences of the occupiers’ sneaking attacks!”
Mar 09, 3:34 AM EST
81 missiles launched in ‘massive’ Russian attack, Ukraine says
Waves of missiles and a handful of drones were launched overnight by Russia, targeting energy infrastructure and cities across Ukraine, officials said.
The attack on “critical infrastructure” and civilian targets lasted throughout the night, Verkovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, said on Twitter. Energy was being gradually restored on Thursday morning, the body said.
Ukraine’s parliament and military said at least 81 missiles were fired from several bases. Eight Iranian-made drones were also launched, the military said.
Ukraine destroyed 34 cruise missiles and four drones, military officials said on Facebook.
“Russia’s threats only encourage partners to provide long-term assistance to Ukraine,” said Yehor Chernev, deputy chairman of the Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence.
Russia “will be sentenced as a terrorist state” for its attacks, Ruslan Stefanchuk, Rada’s chairperson, said on Twitter.
Mar 09, 12:35 AM EST
Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant now running on diesel generators, energy minister says
The last line that fed the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant has been damaged following missile strikes, and the plant is now working on diesel generators, according to the Ukrainian energy minister, Herman Galushchenko.
Mar 09, 12:16 AM EST
Emergency power outages nationwide due to missile attacks, provider says
DTEK, the largest private grid operator in Ukraine, said emergency power outages are in effect due to the missile attacks in the Kyiv, Odesa, Mykolaiv and Dnipro regions.
Mar 09, 12:27 AM EST
Multiple missile strikes reported across Ukraine
Multiple explosions have been reported in city centers all over the country, including Dnipro, Odesa, Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, Vinnytsia, Khmelnytskyi and Kharkiv.
Residents in multiple areas are being asked to shelter in place, and communication and electricity has been impacted.
Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said multiple explosions were reported in the Holosiiv district.
The governor of Kharkiv, Oleh Syniehubov, said Russia struck the city at least 15 times overnight.
The head of the Odesa Regional Military Administration said there had been no casualties and that the power supply is being restricted.
Mar 08, 2:05 PM EST
Ukraine says it was not involved in Nord Stream Pipeline bombings
Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov denied Ukraine was involved in the bombing of the Nord Stream pipeline, which carries natural gas from Russia to Germany. While the pipeline was not active at the time of the bombing last September, it was filled with fuel.
The denial comes after The New York Times reported that intelligence reviewed by U.S. officials suggests a pro-Ukrainian group carried out the Nord Stream bombings last year.
After the story broke, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius warned against “jumping to conclusions” about who carried out the explosion, suggesting it could have been a “false flag” operation to blame Ukraine.
German authorities were reportedly able to identify the boat used for the sabotage operation, saying a group of five men and one woman using forged passports rented a yacht from a Poland-based company owned by Ukrainian citizens. The nationalities of the perpetrators are unclear, according to a separate report by Germany’s ARD broadcaster and Zeit newspaper.
“We have to make a clear distinction whether it was a Ukrainian group, whether it may have happened at Ukrainian orders, or a pro-Ukrainian group [acting] without knowledge of the government. But I am warning against jumping to conclusions,” Pistorius said on the sidelines of a summit in Stockholm.
A Russian diplomat said Russia has no faith in the U.S.‘s “impartiality” in the conclusions made from intelligence.
(WASHINGTON) — Republican members of the House Oversight Committee on Wednesday pressed Washington, D.C., officials about public safety and the city’s management in the wake of Congress taking the unusual step of blocking controversial changes to the local criminal code.
For almost four hours, legislators debated D.C.’s laws at a hearing nominally focused on policing in the district. Having stopped the so-called crime bill last month, House Republicans are now seeking to repeal a law enforcement reform bill in D.C.
But most of the session focused on crime in D.C. — such as the recent attack on a staffer for Sen. Rand Paul — and on the crime bill, rather than on police reform.
Some lawmakers were blunt in their questioning.
“Why is D.C. allowing violent criminals to remain on the streets for so long?” asked Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C.
She cited the Saturday stabbing of Paul’s staffer “by a man who was released from prison just the previous day,” she said. (The victim is in stable condition and a suspect has been arrested, according to Paul’s office and police.)
“On average, any given homicide suspect in D.C. has already been arrested 11 times before he or she actually commits homicide,” Foxx said, echoing a pattern raised by Metropolitan Police Chief Robert Contee earlier this month. Others on the committee said their staffers had been “jumped” as well.
City councilmembers acknowledged the pervasive “concern” about safety but pointed to data that showed the reality was the most serious crimes have been dropping.
“While perception is important, the reality is less concerning. Let me be clear: People should feel safe, and it is a problem that many residents of the district don’t,” Council Chairman Phil Mendelson said.
“The number of violent crime incidents in 2022 was 45% lower than a decade earlier and total violent crime last year was 7% less than the year before,” he said. “I know this belies the common belief and, when it comes to crime, how people feel is important. But there is not a crime crisis in Washington, D.C.”
Still, Councilmember Charles Allen said there is still “a lot of work to do.”
“Many residents feel unsafe, and the district is experiencing persistent, troubling increases in two areas of violent crime in particular: homicides and carjackings. These trends are being seen nationwide, and the district is not immune,” Allen said.
The chairman of D.C. Police Union, Greggory Pemberton, pointed to several provisions passed by the city council that, he said, limit how severely criminals are punished.
“The criminal penalties that exist within our criminal justice system are incredibly weak,” he said, in part.
He also said that that councilmembers’ efforts to cut or redirect funding for D.C police have resulted in “a mass exodus” of officers available for duty. Mayor Muriel Bowser has said she is pushing for the city to have 4,000 sworn police.
The Oversight Committee also pointedly questioned councilmembers about the revised criminal code, which would have lowered some punishments and raised others, among other changes.
Bowser attempted to veto the changes to the code in January but was overridden by the council.
With support from the Democratic Senate and President Joe Biden’s sign-off, a Republican-led effort in the House successfully blocked the crime bill earlier this month. It was the first time in decades that Congress, which maintains ultimate authority over D.C., used its power to stop a district law.
D.C. leaders like Bowser said the episode showed the importance of the district gaining autonomy and statehood.
At Wednesday’s hearing, Oversight Chairman James Comer asked Mendelson about Mendelson attempting to withdraw the criminal code before Congress could vote on stopping it.
“I’m seriously concerned that your actions may have been an attempt to provide cover for congressional Democrats,” Comer said.
Mendelson denied pulling the bill for that reason: “It was not a change of heart, sir, but you know when you see yourself losing — because it was clear that the Senate, the votes weren’t there — then you pull it back, and you work on it some more.”
The lengthy hearing also included exchanges on guns and gun violence, including this week’s school shooting in Nashville, Tennessee; the ongoing prosecution of Jan. 6 suspects; and public urination.
Afterward, the committee voted 21-17 to support the repeal of the D.C. police reform bill, which was passed after the 2020 murder of George Floyd.
That legislation formalized several changes implemented after Floyd’s death, including classifying neck restraints as “lethal and excessive force,” limiting the use of chemical irritant to disperse crowds and requiring police to publicly release footage from use-of-force incidents.
The police repeal bill is expected to go for a full vote in the House.
(EAGLE PASS, Texas) — One man has been arrested in connection with the smuggling incident that led to 17 migrants becoming trapped on a train on Friday in Uvalde County, Texas.
Denniso Carranza Gonzales, a Honduran national, was allegedly a foot guide for a group of 12 Honduran migrants that day, according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas and obtained by ABC News.
According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), 15 men and two women were discovered on the Union Pacific train.
Gonzales stated that he had been guiding groups of undocumented immigrants from Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico into Eagle Pass, Texas, for three months “as a way to pay for his own smuggling costs,” according to the criminal complaint. He said the smugglers told him he would be “taken care of” for continuing to smuggle groups, the complaint says.
The groups would be guided onto train cars on the way to San Antonio, he said, according to the complaint.
The initial 911 call came in at 3:50 p.m. local time on Friday from an “unknown third-party caller” advising there were numerous immigrants “suffocating” inside of a Union Pacific train, Uvalde police said in a statement posted on Facebook.
U.S. Border Patrol was able to stop the train two to three miles outside of Knippa, Texas.
“We are heartbroken to learn of yet another tragic incident of migrants taking the dangerous journey,” Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement on Saturday.
Court records allege that Gonzales says he brought the group to a designated train where another man arrived and told him they would be placed in a Conex box on a rail car. The doors were closed once Gonzales and the group boarded the train.
According to the complaint, he told investigators that the group became worried once the train started moving.
He added he “told the people to remain calm and breathe deep” and that the doors would be opened once the train arrived in San Antonio, the complaint says.
Gonzales said he called the man who placed them in the Conex box when “the box became extremely hot and the air was getting harder to breathe,” the complaint alleges. When the man did not answer, Gonzales told the group to start calling 911, he told investigators.
He says he did not know a person had died in the incident, according to the complaint.
HSI is still investigating the second fatal train incident that happened over the weekend in Eagle Pass, Texas.
The Eagle Pass incident occurred about 4:30 p.m. on Saturday at a Union Pacific rail yard, when someone from inside a boxcar parked at the yard called 911, a Union Pacific spokesperson said.
Law enforcement found 12 migrants trapped inside a stifling boxcar, including one who was pronounced dead at the scene and three others in need of hospitalization, officials said.
Homeland Security has launched a human smuggling investigation into the incident. No arrests have been announced.
It’s unclear if the Uvalde County and the Eagle pass incidents are connected.
Sarah A. Miller/Idaho Statesman/Tribune News Service via Getty Images
(BOISE, Idaho) — A new Idaho bill would make it illegal to aid minors in traveling across state lines for abortion care while concealing it from their parents. The proposed bill is set to be voted on by the state Senate.
The proposed bill names a crime called “abortion trafficking,” which criminalizes any adult who aids or obtains abortion pills for a minor in another state while seeking to conceal it from their parents or legal guardians.
Nearly all abortions have been banned in Idaho, with exceptions for medical emergencies, rape and incest. However, women are required to file a police report and show it to the medical provider before they can get abortion care in cases of rape or incest. The state also requires parental consent or notification for minors seeking abortion care, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
The bill makes it a crime for any adult to procure or obtain abortion pills for a pregnant minor “by recruiting, harboring, or transporting the pregnant minor within this state” while intending to conceal the abortion from the pregnant minor’s parents or guardians, according to the bill.
Anyone found guilty of committing abortion trafficking could face from two to five years in state prison.
The proposed bill passed through the Idaho House of Representatives earlier this month with a 57 -12 vote. If approved by the state Senate, it heads to Gov. Brad Little’s desk for approval before it can become law. A representative for Little declined to comment on the bill or if Little would sign it into law.
The bill would also allow civil lawsuits to be brought by the family of the minor who sought the abortion care or the father of the fetus. Civil suits could also be brought against medical professionals who provide abortion care, asking for at least $20,000 in damages.
Last week, an Idaho hospital announced it will end labor and delivery services in part due to the “political climate.”
Last June, Little celebrated the U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, ending federal protections for abortion rights.
“I join many in Idaho and across the country today in welcoming the high court’s long-awaited decision upholding state sovereignty and protecting pre-born lives. The decision provides clarity around landmark cases at the center of passionate debate in our country for nearly five decades. This is now clear – the ‘right’ to an abortion was a judicial creation,” Little said at the time.
The high court’s decision paved the way for an anti-abortion trigger law approved by Little to go into effect last summer.
“Abortion is not a right expressed in the U.S. Constitution, and abortion will be entrusted to the states and their people to regulate,” he said.
Idaho’s six-week abortion ban is one of the strictest in the country. As part of a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Department of Justice, a judge blocked part of the ban in August that would have prohibited providers from providing abortions in medical emergencies.
Little criticized the lawsuit, which he claimed is “interference with Idaho’s pro-life law and another example of Biden overreaching yet again,” he said in a statement in August.
“Here in Idaho, we are proud that we have led the country in protecting pre-born lives. I will continue to work with Attorney General Lawrence Wasden to vigorously uphold state sovereignty and defend Idaho’s laws in the face of federal meddling,” Little said.
