World

(NEW YORK) — Researchers have discovered hundreds of new animal and plant species in remote parts of the world previously inaccessible to humans, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

Among the 380 newly found species include animal vertebrates such as a color-changing lizard, a thick-thumbed bat, a poisonous snake named after a Chinese mythological goddess, an orchid that looks like a muppet and a tree frog with skin that resembles thick moss. They were all found in the greater Mekong region in Asia, according to the WWF’s New Species Discoveries report published on Sunday.

Along the Mekong River, which separates Laos and Thailand, lies miles and miles of forests housed in mountainous regions. Without roads, people have no access to the undiscovered species, which causes them to remain a mystery but also allows them to thrive, K. Yoganand, conservation biologist and wildlife ecologist and WWF-Greater Mekong regional wildlife lead, told ABC News.

“These species have been there,” Yoganand said. “It’s just, they’ve escaped, so far, the human destruction.”

Hundreds of scientists from universities, conservation organizations and research institutes around the world discovered 290 plants, 19 fishes, 24 amphibians, 46 reptiles and one mammal in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, according to WWF.

The lush evergreen forests drenched regularly by rainfall and hidden in the mountains may contribute to the plethora of plant and animal species that live there, Yoganand said.

Nearly 4,000 vascular plants, fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals have been discovered in the Greater Mekong region since 1997, according to the report.

One of the species scientists learned of is the Khoi’s mossy frog, a large, mossy-green colored amphibian, which helps it blend into the lichen and moss-covered stony, leafy background. The discovery was described as a “spectacular find” by the WWF.

An extremely venomous snake called the Suzhen’s krait was also found. It was named after the Bai Su Zhen, a snake goddess from a Chinese myth called the Legend of the White Snake, according to the WWF.

Discovered in the Tenasserim Mountains bordering Myanmar, researchers found Thailand’s bent-toed gecko, named after the mythical tree nymph Rukha Deva, who is said to live in trees and protect the forests, according to the WWF. The gecko aggressively opens its mouth and waves its tail side-to-side when threatened, the scientists said.

A semi-aquatic snake now known as Hebius terrakarenorum was found in the Dawna-Tenasserim Landscape between Thailand and Myanmar, according to the report. It is about 2-feet long and was identified entirely from road-kill specimens collected over a decade, as well as a few photos, researchers said.

Human encroachment is already affecting some of the newly discovered species. In Vietnam, agricultural encroachment and logging, as well as collection by communities to use as a traditional cure for abdominal pain and parasitic infection, is threatening the Thai crocodile newt, researchers said.

In Vientiane, the capital of Laos, the habitat of a new species of gecko is also being fragmented by construction projects, according to the WWF.

While many of the discoveries were the result of people surveying a never-before-explored area, some of the discoveries were known species that, after further analysis, researchers determined have several different subspecies, Yoganand said.

In Cambodia, researchers discovered the blue-crested agama, an aggressive lizard that changes color as a defensive mechanism. It was identified by studying lizards found near an Angkor era archeological site, according to the WWF. While the species has been known since the first specimen was collected in Myanmar in the 19th century, genetic analysis conducted in 2021 determined that these actually constitute many different species, Yoganand said.

Hayes’ thick-thumbed myotis, a mouse-eared bat with unusual fleshy thumbs that was named a new species after a specimen sat in a Hungarian museum for 20 years.

“These remarkable species may be new to science but they have survived and evolved in the Greater Mekong region for millions of years, reminding us humans that they were there a very long time before our species moved into this region,” Yoganand said in a statement.

While the Mekong region is a global diversity hotspot it is also experiencing a “vast array of threats,” WWF-US Asian Species Manager Nilanga Jayasinghe said in a statement.

“We must continue to invest in the protection and conservation of nature, so these magnificent species don’t disappear before we know of their existence,” Jayasinghe said.

There are 25 known global diversity hotspots around the world, including the Amazon in Central America and the eastern Himalayas, Yoganand said, adding that he expects the scientific community to keep discovering more and more species.

Immediate action and increased use of new technologies, such as bio-acoustics and genetic sequencing, are needed to help scientists discover more species in the region, Truong Nguyen, a researcher with the Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources at the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology, said in a statement.

“To reverse the rapid biodiversity loss in the region, more concerted, science based, and urgent efforts need to be made and conservation measures need more attention from governments, NGOs and the public,” Nguyen said.

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(SLOVYANSK, Ukraine) — The frontlines in eastern Ukraine are shifting in significant ways, with Russia and Ukraine carrying out offensive operations in and around Bakhmut.

Russian forces inside the city have made further advances and claim to have full control of every district.

Ukraine claims its forces are still fighting in a small area in the western fringe of the city.

Meanwhile, the situation outside Bakhmut is dynamic, with Ukrainian forces reporting a counteroffensive to the north and south of the city.

ABC News was allowed inside a military command center this weekend at an undisclosed location in eastern Ukraine.

Our team watched multiple screens showing live drone feeds down onto the battlefield in eastern Ukraine as a Ukrainian counteroffensive played out in real time near Bakhmut.

Ukrainian soldiers could be seen clearing Russian positions. Dead Russian soldiers were also visible on one of several live video feeds, which are monitored by Ukrainian soldiers.

That operation, which took place on Saturday morning, was one of a series of assaults by Ukrainian forces near Bakhmut in recent days.

Crucially, Ukraine claims it has taken control of higher ground near the city, which could give an important advantage for further attacks.

A Ukrainian commander whose battalion spearheaded an operation south of Bakhmut last week promised there would be more offensive action soon in the area.

The officer, who goes by his callsign “Rolo,” commands as many as 700 men in the 1st Assault Battalion of Ukraine’s 3rd Assault Brigade, which has been operating in and around Bakhmut for several months.

He told ABC News his men stormed Russian positions early in the morning last Wednesday, claiming that, by Thursday, his men had taken half a square mile of land and killed around 50 Russian soldiers. ABC News cannot verify his claims.

“We outplayed them,” he said in an interview in a basement in eastern Ukraine.

The commander would not comment on whether the Ukrainian operation near Bakhmut was the precursor to a more significant counteroffensive by Ukrainian forces.

“Small steps lead to big results,” he said with a smile.

“If you ask me, should we expect more? Yes, we should. If you ask me where, that’s confidential. But you shall see it,” the commander said, adding that new Western weaponry was filtering through to the battlefield.

“We have the initiate now. We dictate the rules,” he boasted. “Now the enemy has to adjust to what we’re doing and act according to our actions.”

ABC News was also shown two US-supplied M113 armored personnel carriers which were badly damaged. According to Ukraine’s 1st Assault Brigade they were used in the operation on Wednesday and Thursday to the south of Bakhmut.

Back at the military command center hidden in a nondescript building in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas, the drone feed showed smoke rising over Bakhmut.

ABC News was unable to spot a building in the city on the live video feed which had not been badly damaged.

Most of the drones feeding the live frontline images back to the screens monitored by soldiers at the command center were commercial drones which can be purchased online, although many of the commercial drones are modified to carry and drop grenades.

The commander at the center, from Ukraine’s Adam Tactical Group, Yevhen Mezhevikin, said Ukrainian forces “in every direction” along the frontline were ready to go on a major counteroffensive “at any moment.”

Speculating that the directions of a future Ukrainian counteroffensive had “already been chosen” by top Ukrainian generals, but were still being kept top secret, he said he was confident about Ukraine’s chances.

He told ABC News that Ukrainian troops experienced successful counteroffensives earlier in the war, and argued that would give them an important edge.

“I’m sure we’ll be able to break through enemy defenses on the frontline and the enemy will have no success,” he said in an interview.

Medics prepare ahead of expected counteroffensive

Doctors and medics at a military field hospital in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas are also preparing for an inevitable spike in casualties when Ukraine launches a larger offensive.

“It is going to be difficult and we’re going to have [an increase in] casualties,” Dr. Oleh Tokarchuk, the lead doctor at the military medical facility, near to the frontlines, told ABC News.

“We’re going to be losing our loved ones and friends but I believe we will be able to make it,” he said.

Four wounded soldiers were brought back from frontline positions in military ambulances to receive treatment at the field hospital, in the roughly 90-minute period ABC News was there.

The soldiers were, according to medics, part of a tank crew which had been hit by Russian artillery.

One of the men had a serious shrapnel wound to his leg. Another, Vasily, who did not give his surname, had a minor injury to his arm.

“An artillery shell landed, some of us tried to take cover, some didn’t,” he said, looking visibly shaken but promising to return to the frontlines once he has recovered.

Tokarchuk said the number of casualties arriving at his facility had significantly reduced since the early months of this year when Russia captured the town of Soledar, near to Bakhmut.

However, he said, his team were ready and prepared for that to change once a major Ukrainian counteroffensive gets underway.

“This is not rocket science,” said Oleh Pankiv, a volunteer at the hospital who helps evacuate medical casualties away from the battle zone.

“When you have assault operations, you will always have many more injured people. But what can we do?” he asked.

“We need to stand our ground. We need to fight against the aggressor. And of course, we need to defend our country,” he added.

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(BAJA, Mexico) — At least 10 people were killed and nine were wounded when an apparent team of gunmen ambushed a car rally in Baja, Mexico, about 73 miles from the U.S. border, authorities said.

The horrific attack unfolded just after 2 p.m. on Saturday in San Vicente, near Ensenada, on the Pacific coast of the Baja Peninsula, the Reuters news agency reported.

The violence erupted during the last day of a two-day all-terrain car rally, local officials said. Video purportedly of the shooting was posted on social media, showing off-road vehicles lined up along a road and capturing the sounds of screams and numerous rounds of gunfire.

Several people who appeared to have been shot were seen in the online footage lying on the ground.

Multiple shooters wielding rifles emerged from at least two gray vans at a gas station and opened fire on participants of the car rally gathered there, according to Reuters, citing 911 calls.

Following the volley of gunshots, the perpetrators got back in the vans and fled the scene, which is about 86 miles from San Diego, California, according to Reuters.

There were no reports of any arrests being made.

Ensenada Mayor Armando Ayala Robles said state Attorney General Ricardo Ivan Carpio Sanchez commissioned a special group to investigate the massacre.

The car rally was organized by the group calling itself Cachanillazo, which posted a message to Instagram expressing sympathy to those affected by the tragedy, adding that “unfortunately, what happened during the tour was not in our hands.”

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(HIROSHIMA, Japan) — Nearly eight decades after surviving the atomic bombing of Hiroshima, Japan, 85-year-old Keiko Ogura had this message for Russian President Vladimir Putin: “You don’t know what is a nuclear weapon, the reality of a nuclear weapon. So come here and see.”

Ogura spoke to ABC News’ Britt Clennett ahead of the arrivals of President Joe Biden and other leaders in Hiroshima for the annual summit of G7 leaders, held this year in the Japanese city amid new nuclear threats from countries like Russia, North Korea and Iran.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy planned to join the world leaders this weekend for the summit. His presence in Hiroshima is particularly significant amid Putin’s recent decision to move tactical nuclear weapons to Belarus, which neighbors Ukraine.

Putin last year suggested he could use the weapons in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine but subsequently denied he would.

“Threats by Russia of nuclear weapon use, let alone any use of nuclear weapons by Russia, in the context of its aggression against Ukraine are inadmissible,” Biden and the other G7 leaders said Friday in a joint statement, calling for “a world without nuclear weapons.”

Ogura was 8 years old when the U.S. dropped an atomic bomb on the city on Aug. 6, 1945, but she says she can still vividly remember the events of that day.

“First there was a bright flash, and then soon after that, I couldn’t stand. Because soon after that, there was a strong blast — I mean wind, like a typhoon or tornado. And then I was beaten to the street and became unconscious, because of the blast,” Ogura said. When she opened her eyes, everything was dark; gradually she could see that her neighborhood was engulfed in flames, she said.

Ogura met with G7 leaders on Friday during their visit to the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum, according to Japan’s foreign ministry. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida gave the G7 leaders a private tour of the museum.

According to Japan’s Kyodo News, Kishida later told reporters: “We felt the reality of the atomic bombing and shared a sobering moment that will be etched in our hearts. It was historic from the viewpoint of showing our resolve for a world free of nuclear weapons.”

The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki prompted Japan’s surrender to the Allies, precipitating the end of World War II. In Japanese, survivors of the bombings are known as “hibakusha.”

During her interview with ABC News, Ogura said this would be her message to Biden: “I say, you have the power and we need a leader…Underneath this land you’re standing there were so many dead souls and so and so, please feel, and please imagine.”

The Hiroshima bombing killed an estimated 140,000 people.

“Black rain, rain contaminated with radiation, dark color, charcoal colored rain fell onto my blouse,” Ogura said.

“Their [the people coming towards her] skin was hanging down from the tip of their finger, and they’re coming like a ghost or a zombie or something…coming to my area, and they started to die,” Ogura said.

“When I recall those days, I can’t help but want to cry,” Ogura continued.

After the G7 leaders toured the museum, they walked to the continuously lit “flame of peace” at the surrounding memorial park, laid wreaths and participated in a tree-planting ceremony. In the background was the Genbaku Dome, the only structure that remained standing in the area where the bomb was dropped.

Biden was the second sitting American president to visit the memorial site. No U.S. president has apologized for the bombing. The White House said that Biden didn’t plan to do so, either. Biden didn’t make any public remarks during his visit to the memorial and museum.

Ogura added, “I know the fear, the reality when the nuclear weapon was used, and I can’t stand this evil existing, the nuclear weapon, even a single weapon existing in this world, on this planet…We need to think about the future generation.”

ABC News’ Karson Yiu, Anthony Trotter, Gamay Palacios and Ben Gittleson contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — Western officials said Russia’s forces in Ukraine are so badly depleted that Russia may lack the reserves to effectively respond to a major counteroffensive from Ukrainian troops in the coming weeks.

One official said Russia does not appear to have a dedicated reserve force to react to a major breakthrough from Ukraine.

The assessment, given by Western officials speaking on condition of anonymity to reporters, suggested they back Ukraine’s capacity to attempt an ambitious offensive soon and that the weakened state of Russian forces is increasingly favorable for it, although there was no certainty it would succeed.

While the officials could not say when the counteroffensive would begin, they said the forces Ukraine has gathered and equipped with Western help are now at an “increasingly high level of readiness.”

Russia’s own forces are now so diminished that they are “stretched” and strung out along a more than 1,000-kilometer-long front line, the officials said.

One official cautioned that Ukraine still faced a “monumental” challenge to break through Russia’s lines, saying it would be a “monumental achievement for any army” and warned it was entirely possible the counteroffensive would not achieve its goals.

But, if used effectively, the assault force built up by Ukraine has “the potential for some success” on a scale ambitious enough to alter the outcome of the war, the officials said.

More than trying to retake all of Ukraine’s territory, the key aim for the counteroffensive was to inflict serious enough battlefield defeats on Russian forces to alter President Vladimir Putin’s view of the war. The official said the Kremlin believes it can “win by default” by holding defensive lines and outlasting Western support for Ukraine. The counteroffensive was a chance for Ukraine to convince Putin that was no longer a tenable strategy, officials said.

“The cognitive effect from battlefield activity I think in this case is arguably more important than how many square meters of territory that they manage to achieve,” the official said.

Russia currently has over 200,000 men in Ukraine, according to the officials, and it has built formidable defenses in occupied areas, including extensive minefields that will pose significant obstacles for the counteroffensive.

But the officials said the quality of Russia’s troops manning those defenses was dubious, saying many were badly trained and had poor morale.

Moreover, officials said it appeared Russia had no dedicated reserve force to respond if Ukrainian was able to successfully pierce the line on a large scale.

The Western assessment was notable because it echoes similar warnings from Russian pro-war commentators recently, who have been sounding the alarm around Russia’s preparedness to defend against the counteroffensive.

Some Western countries have previously worried that major Ukrainian successes could trigger Russia to respond with nuclear weapons. But those fears have receded recently and an official said there has been a significant drop-off in Russian nuclear rhetoric.

Analysts are debating whether recent local counterattacks by Ukraine around the city of Bakhmut may be part of the counteroffensive.

Ukraine in the past several days has succeeded in forcing Russian units to retreat on the northern and southern flanks of the city, in the first advances Ukrainian forces have made in months defending the city.

The advances have triggered dire warnings from Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Russia’s Wagner mercenary group, whose forces have spearheaded Russian efforts to take Bakhmut. Prigozhin has warned that Ukraine is now attempting to encircle the city.

Wagner is still advancing slowly inside Bakhmut but the Ukrainian successes on the city’s flanks threatens to nullify any eventual capture of the city.

The Ukrainian territorial gains themselves are small — measured in hundreds of meters — but independent analysts as well as Russian pro-war commentators have said they believe Ukraine is counterattacking in Bakhmut to force Russia to pull forces from other areas on the front line, thinning them for a possible main blow.

“Ukrainian formations are fulfilling the main task: forcing Russia’s Armed Forces to stretch its forces and removing the most capable fighting units from other critically important directions,” a prominent Russian military blogger, who publishes on Telegram as “Rybar,” wrote this week.

Ukraine appeared to continue its momentum near Bakhmut on Thursday, advancing again toward the village Sakko i Vanzetti, according to Russian and Ukrainian public statements. The U.S.-based think tank Institute for the Study of War said Ukraine has now “seized the tactical initiative” around Bakhmut.

Gen. Oleskandr Syrskyi, Ukraine’s top ground forces commander, told troops this week that Wagner forces in Bakhmut now felt like “rats in a trap” and the Russian army was now “into a stupor.”

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(NEW YORK) — Rescue and relief efforts are underway in Somalia following historic flooding that has left at least 22 people dead and affected more than 460,000 people, according to the United Nations.

The flash and riverine flooding — said to be one of Somalia’s worst in decades — has been triggered by intense Gu seasonal rainfall which caused the Shabelle and Juba Rivers in central Somalia to overflow their banks.

“Floods have washed away livestock, inundated farmland and displaced an estimated 219,00 people,” Petroc Wilton, the head of communications at WFP Somalia, told ABC News. “We have been using chartered flights, boats and tractors to get into flood zones.”

She added, “Gu seasonal rains have caused these floods and increased humanitarian needs.”

At least 22 people have been killed, according to Somalia’s Disaster Management Agency (SoDMA). Somalia has also been experiencing its longest drought on record.

“It will take multiple rainy seasons to reverse the impacts of the drought,” said Wilton, noting that four million livestock have died.

“We are witnessing the Shabelle river’s worst flooding event in the last 30 years. The situation for many displaced families is very precarious right now,” said Ezana Kassa, the head of United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Somalia. “Livelihoods have been destroyed and the risk of water borne diseases are on the rise.”

Flooding is reported to be greatest in Somalia’s central state of Hirshabelle, where water levels have also forced the closure of government offices, schools and hospitals. Footage from the town of Belet Weyne shows residents wading through waist-deep waters.

“I am at a loss for words at the suffering of my people who have been going through so much without release,” Najima, whose family was forced to flee from Hirshabelle, told ABC News. “My aunt and my cousins have lost everything, their family photos, their valuables, their entire lives.”

She went on, “They are doing well in the circumstances but the devastation is too much to bear. There are no words.”

Scientists and climate activists warn that climate change is contributing to the extreme flooding and drought in Somalia.

“Somalia contributes 0.03% to greenhouse gas emissions. But as I just witnessed, Somalis are among the greatest victims of the chaos caused by the climate crisis,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said at a news conference during his recent trip to Somalia in April.

He urged increased humanitarian support to the Horn of Africa to avert a famine crisis.

The UN forecasts as much as 1.6 million people could be impacted by flooding and over 600,000 displaced if heavy rains in Somalia and the Ethiopian highlands continue.

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(LONDON) — The Islamic Republic of Iran said it executed three men Friday morning on charges of “waging war against God” and collaboration with terrorist groups.

The judiciary’s website Mizan claimed that Majid Kazemi, Saleh Mirhashemi and Saeed Yaghoubi’s charges were based on their confessions that they were involved in killing three members of the regime’s forces during protests in Isfahan last November.

Protests in Isfahan and other cities across the country erupted in September after 22-year old Mahsa Amini, who was arrested for not fully abiding with the mandatory hijab rule of the country, died in police custody.

At least 22,000 people had been arrested across the country in the ensuing protests, as the Islamic Republic News Agency confirmed. Iran Human Rights reported that at least 537 people were killed by the regime which never accepted the responsibility of what happened to Amini.

After Iran’s Supreme Court upheld the execution sentences of Kazemi, Mirhashemi and Yaghubi, families of the men executed Friday and members of the Iranian public pleaded with international bodies to take any action to stop the Islamic Republic from carrying out the sentences.

Amnesty International said the men’s fast-tracked trial was flawed and then pointed out there were significant procedural flaws, lack of evidence, and torture allegations that were never investigated.

In a last message that the three men reportedly signed and smuggled out of the prison, they asked the public to help them stop the regime from executing them.

“Hello, we ask you dear fellow citizens not to let them kill us. We need your help. We need your support,” the message signed on May 17 reads.

In December, Mohsen Shekari was the first person hanged for alleged crimes related to the protests after allegedly holding up traffic and assaulting a guard. Less than a week later, 22-year-old Majid Reza Rahnavard, who had been convicted on charges of “waging war against God” amid protests, was executed.

According to the Iran Human Rights group, 13 executions were recorded on May 18 and at least 90 people have been executed since the start of the month.

United Nations Human Rights Chief Volker Türk said on May 9 that Iran is executing a “frighteningly” high number of people, with over 209 executed so far since January.

“On average so far this year, over 10 people are put to death each week in Iran, making it one the world’s highest executors,” said Türk.

Protests against the regime erupted across the country Friday in response to the executions.

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(LONDON) — A year since Russia took control of the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, plans for reconstruction are under way but former residents aren’t convinced.

The siege of Mariupol started the day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and ended on May 20, 2022. The battle ended with the surrender of the last Ukrainian fighters at their final stronghold — the Azovstal steel plant.

Katya Plechystova got a call on that day from an unknown number. It was her husband Oleg. For three months he had been defending their hometown while fighting for the Ukrainian army. They hadn’t spoken — except for the very occasional text message — since before the invasion.

“He said that they are leaving the plant, that this is just an evacuation through Russia and that they have guarantees that everything would be fine,” Katya says. That was the last time Katya spoke to Oleg. “There has been no information about his whereabouts for this whole year”

Dmytro Kozatsky was at Azovstal with Oleg. He struggles to talk about his experience. “In general, these three months passed like a whole separate life,” he told ABC News.

He says the worst moments were after airstrikes and having to call out to make sure everyone was still alive.

“Any time someone died during these strikes, that was probably the toughest,” he said.

Dmytro surrendered with Oleg on May 20 and was held in prison barracks with other Azovstal fighters before being exchanged in a prisoner swap in September.

Neither Dmytro nor Katya can picture what the future looks like for Mariupol. Russia has used their efforts to rebuild the city for positive press, with President Vladimir Putin visiting a new apartment building as an example back in March.

But Dmytro is unimpressed.

“I would love for the city to be rebuilt and reformed, but it’s very difficult for me now to imagine how that could be done,” he said.

Russia put together plans for Mariupol’s future as a Russian city almost immediately after the siege ended. In July 2022, local Russian-backed authorities signed into law a sweeping new bill outlining the reconstruction of Mariupol up to the year 2035.

The plan — published in full by Russian media outlet The Village — breaks down reconstruction by neighborhood, and projects a return to the city’s pre-war population by 2030. The Russian construction ministry announced in January that there were no plans for Azovstal to be repaired as the steel plant it once was. Instead, it is being envisioned as a vast business park with sprawling green spaces.

Satellite imagery indicates that the neighborhood next to it, which was severely damaged in the fighting, has been almost completely demolished in preparation for development.

To Katya, even a Ukrainian-controlled Mariupol would not be enough for her to go back.

“I can’t imagine returning to the city because of all the pain and suffering I associate with it, because of all the pain my husband lived through in that city,” she says. “I have this feeling inside of me that Mariupol was wiped out. There is nothing they could do to bring it back to me.”

Maria Vdovichenko, however, is one former resident who does dream of returning.

Having just graduated from high school, she lived through the siege of Mariupol as a civilian and when her apartment block came under fire in early March, her family moved to the basement for two long weeks.

“The shelling continued every day, every night. And every night we thought maybe we would die, maybe we wouldn’t survive because we were also without food, and without water,” she says. On March 17, her father decided they couldn’t wait any longer and they started the dangerous drive out of the city.

They passed through a Russian “filtration camp” where soldiers checked their documents for any sign of support for Ukraine before violently assaulting both Maria and her father. After 27 checkpoints, they finally arrived in Ukrainian-controlled territory.

Since then, Maria has been in Kyiv but she dreams of returning to Mariupol.

“I want to see all the streets, my drama theatre, my home. My home is destroyed in Mariupol, but I want to see it because I miss my city so much,” she says.

Maria wants to go to university to study something that would help her give back to her country. She says her family used to have big dreams before the war, but things have changed now, “We want to just live, in our home, our country, our land.”

Buildings in Maria’s neighborhood have slowly been demolished over the last year, though no new apartment blocks have been built in their place. In March of this year, a sign was put up on Maria’s old apartment block in Mariupol telling residents to leave the building by March 17 — exactly one year since Maria’s family fled.

The building was demolished just three days later and the ground has now been prepared for a new building to take its place.

ABC News’ Yulia Drozd contributed to this report.

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(LONDON) — An Iranian judiciary banned grape juicing at Tehran’s central fruit and vegetable market on Wednesday. Grape juicing refers to the process of making grape juice in Tehran. Residents buy large amounts of grapes ranging from 120-150 kilograms, which translates to almost 350 pounds, from the local fruit market.

The move is the latest attempt to prevent people from making wine at home during the grape season. Tehran’s fruit and vegetable contractors’ union, however, says the judiciary’s decision was meant to redirect the business owners back to their “authorized licenses.”

Banning alcoholic beverages was one of the first decisions made by the religious officials of the Islamic Republic after the Islamic Revolution took over Iran in 1979. As a result, liquor stores, pubs and bars were closed throughout the country, bottles were removed from the shelves and alcohol was removed from menus. Since then, alcohol consumers have been pushed to secretly make their own beverages and rely on illegal smugglers while risking harsh punishments.

“It is such a ridiculous and desperate move to ban grape juicing,” said Ramin, a 42-year-old Tehran-based writer, who used a pseudonym so he could freely express his ideas. Ramin makes his own alcoholic drinks, such as red and white wine, Roku gin, spiced rum and vodka. “It will be more hassle. But those who have been making their own drinks can’t be stopped by this,” he added.

An Iranian lawyer told ABC News that based on the Islamic Republic judicial regulations, the punishment for consuming alcohol when arrested for the first, second, and third offenses is 80 lashes. “The sentence for the fourth arrest is execution,” the lawyer said, who did not want their name to be disclosed for security reasons.

“Banning the fruit and vegetable market from juicing the grapes is yet another form of punishment the regime is inflicting on us for our participation in the past few months of revolution,” Ramin said, referring to the Mahsa Amini movement in which hundreds were killed and thousands were arrested amid protests ignited by the death of Amini in police custody.

Amini had been arrested for allegedly not fully obliging to wearing the mandatory hijab. “Just like the hijab law, the ridiculous ban on grape juicing is set to remind us who the boss is in public places,” Ramin said.

Explaining the importance of the public space for the regime, Ramin said consuming alcohol in public, or “seeing signs that prove alcohol is made and used in the country” is something the regime tries to prevent to prove its power by simply banning it.

Lack of access to standard products has led to several alcohol consumption crises in Iran. The most severe cases happened in the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic. About 600 people died after consuming poisonous products instead of normal alcoholic beverages, the judiciary spokesman said. The surge happened as the misinformation spread false claims on how alcohol could create immunity against the COVID-19 virus.

In one of the rare comments made by the Islamic Republic officials, the deputy minister of the interior minister said in a conference in January 2022 that at least “nine to 10% of 15- to 64-year-old people” drink alcohol, as ISNA reported. It means that “more than five million people” out of the 80 million population of the country consumed alcohol every year,” according to the ISNA report.

Reacting to the deputy minister’s comment on alcohol consumption, Mohammad Reza Ghadirzadeh, social worker and addiction treatment specialist, told Roozeno the real statistics might be different, as consuming alcohol is considered a “taboo” in the country.

“Because earning any money by making, distributing or smuggling alcohol is considered as black money, there is no transparency or data on it or even on crimes related to it,” the Iranian lawyer told ABC News.

“What do we do now? We’ll bring those grapes home and juice it ourselves in big buckets with a group of friends over a weekend,” Ramin said. “It is more hassle, but it is more fun and gives us a better-quality wine,” he added.

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(WASHINGTON) — A group of North Koreans crossed the Northern Limit Line in a fishing boat and South Korea’s navy patrol boat located the group, South Korean authorities said Thursday.

The incident took place on May 6 and authorities from the Defense Ministry, National Intelligence, and the Unification Ministry said that the government is interrogating those North Koreans and cannot share any details at the moment.

The number of North Koreans fleeing to the South has dramatically decreased from over 1,000 every year for most of the 2000s to around 100 since the COVID-19 breakout in 2020, data from the Unification Ministry shows.

229 people defected from North Korea to South Korea in 2020, but less than 100 defected from North Korea in 2021 and 2022, according to South Korea’s Ministry of Unification. Provisionally, 34 people have defected in 2023, according to the Unification Ministry.

The drop in defectors seen during the COVID-19 pandemic and the following years has not been seen since the 1990s, the Center for Strategic and International Studies said in a report.

One of the main factors causing the drop in defectors was the closure of the North Korean border to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus, CSIS said in the report. Other efforts, like North Korea’s campaign to publicize how difficult life in South Korea is, also could have contributed to the decline, CSIS said.

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