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(NEW YORK) — Elizabeth Tsurkov, an Israeli Middle East expert and Princeton political science student, loved posting on X, formerly Twitter.

Her social media posts praised protesters in Syria for their “immense courage,” called out authoritarianism in Russia, and even lauded anti-corruption protesters in her native Israel.

And then, on March 21, 2023, the posts stopped.

Tsurkov, 37, who was doing field studies in the Karrada district of Baghdad for her doctoral dissertation, was kidnapped by what Israeli and U.S. government officials say was Kataib Hezbollah, one of many Iranian-backed militia groups that in recent months have conducted more than 170 attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria.

Tsurkov’s abduction, which happened while she was leaving a Baghdad café, reignited scrutiny over the deep ties between Kataib Hezbollah and the Iraqi government.

The Iraqi government repeatedly declined to speak to ABC News on the record about Elizabeth Tsurkov or Kataib Hezbollah.

Proof of life

For months after Tsurkov’s disappearance, there was no word. No progress. No ransom demands. Tsurkov’s family didn’t even have proof she was alive.

But then, seven months after she was taken, a video showing a woman who appeared to be Elizabeth Tsurkov was broadcast on the Iraqi TV station Al Rabiaa. The woman had black, unkempt hair. She had dark circles under her eyes. And she read, in Hebrew, what Tsurkov’s family says was a coerced statement and falsely claimed she was both an Israeli spy and a CIA agent.

Emma Tsurkov, Elizabeth’s sister, called that claim “absurd.”

“She has never seen a power structure she did not want to criticize. She would be the worst suited person to be a spy ever in existence,” Emma Tsurkov said.

Emma Tsurkov believes her sister was kidnapped by Kataib Hezbollah militants because she is an Israeli citizen. Israel and Iraq do not have formal diplomatic relations, so Elizabeth Tsurkov, who attends Princeton on a U.S. student visa, traveled into the country with a passport from Russia, a country where she also has citizenship.

Nearly a year since Elizabeth Tsurkov’s kidnapping, Emma Tsurkov has not given up hope her sister will be released.

“It’s like I’m missing a limb, but no one can see it,” she told ABC News. “We’re not twins, but I guess we’re as close to twins as people who aren’t twins can be, and I know in my gut that she’s alive. I trust her to keep herself alive. And I know that she is trusting me to get her out of there.”

Getting Elizabeth home

In her attempts to secure her sister’s release, Emma Tsarkov is pushing the United States to put pressure on the Iraqis because of what she says are significant, sometimes overlooked connections between the Iraqi government and the terrorist group holding Elizabeth, Kataib Hezbollah.

“The only thing standing between her and freedom is a stern phone call from Washington, D.C., to Baghdad, telling the Iraqi government ‘you need to get her out.’ This is not sustainable. She cannot stay there,” Emma Tsurkov told ABC News.

Kataib Hezbollah has an official role in the Iraqi government through its position in Iraq’s Popular Mobilization Forces, or PMF, a government-sponsored organization of militias often compared to a kind of Iraqi national guard.

The group is one of “at least four Iran-aligned militias that [have] attacked U.S. forces” while also being “part of the Popular Mobilization Forces, an umbrella group of militias that receives funding from the Iraqi government,” according to a 2023 report by inspectors general for the Departments of State, Defense, and USAID.

“You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to realize that you’ve got a dysfunctional formal Iraqi security establishment that has effectively been instrumentalized and co-opted by these militia groups,” Ranj Alaaldin, director of the Crisis Response Council and a fellow at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, told ABC News.

Founded in 2014, the PMF cobbled together numerous Iraqi militias and is most notable for its role in fighting ISIS. But several militias in the PMF, including Kataib Hezbollah, are supported by and have deep ties to Iran.

Alaaldin explains after the defeat of ISIS the influence of Kataib Hezbollah and similar militias only grew in Iraq with help from Iran, which experts say aims to use the groups to ultimately drive U.S. troops out of Iraq.

“As far as Iran and Kataib Hezbollah and the PMF are concerned, the U.S. presence in Iraq, U.S. forces, are the last remaining barrier to them imposing their influence and control on the country at large,” he said.

Despite ties to Iran and repeated attacks on American troops in Iraq, experts warn Kataib Hezbollah leaders continue to play a significant role in the PMF and thus the Iraqi government, including holding key official roles in the Iraqi military establishment.

“They are part and parcel of the Iraqi state and government. They are recognized forces within the Iraqi Constitution,” said Alaaldin, who added that relationship “presents a tricky conundrum for both the Iraqis but also the Americans, because it’s not a very black and white picture.”

It’s a complex, geopolitical struggle that Emma Tsurkov is now forced to navigate. She says she will never give up on securing her sister’s release.

“I am never going to stop until I have her back. The only question is how many obstacles will I have to overcome to get her back?” Emma Tsurkov said.

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(LONDON) — A second straight day of talks aimed at negotiating a cease-fire between Hamas and Israel concluded in Egypt on Tuesday with no breakthrough, a Hamas official told ABC News.

Israel did not send a delegation to Cairo for the latest round of negotiations and has declined to comment publicly on them. Representatives from Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist militant group and political organization that governs the neighboring Gaza Strip, attended the talks with mediators on Monday and Tuesday.

Egyptian state media, citing senior Egyptian officials, reported Tuesday that the negotiations are “facing hurdles” but will continue in Cairo for a third day. Another source confirmed that Hamas’ delegation remains in Cairo for further talks on Wednesday, according to Egyptian state media.

The United States, one of Israel’s closest allies, has been mediating the talks between the warring sides, along with Egypt and Qatar. In recent days, the U.S. government has been publicly pressuring Hamas to accept Israel’s proposed deal that would implement a temporary cease-fire and reunite Israeli hostages with their families.

But with just five days before the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, the war between Hamas and Israel is showing no signs of letting up soon. A brief truce in late November allowed for the release of more than 100 Israeli hostages from Gaza in exchange for Palestinians imprisoned in Israel. Last week, an Israeli political official with knowledge of the negotiations told ABC News that progress toward reaching another cease-fire and hostage deal is slow.

The ongoing conflict is the latest outbreak of war between the two sides and now the deadliest since Israel’s founding in 1948. The war began when Hamas, which the U.S. and other countries have designated a terrorist organization, carried out an unprecedented incursion from Gaza into southern Israel by air, land and sea on Oct. 7, 2023, killing more than 1,200 people and taking over 200 others hostage, according to Israeli authorities.

There are about 134 hostages still believed to be in captivity in Gaza, 130 of them related to the current war and four related to the 2014 conflict, according to the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office and Israel Defense Forces. Nineteen women and two children are believed to be among hostages, and of the 134, at least 32 are believed to be dead, the IDF and prime minister’s office say.

In response to the Oct. 7 attack, the Israeli military has carried out wide-scale airstrikes on Gaza and a subsequent ground invasion, killing more than 30,000 people and injuring over 72,000 others, including thousands of women, children and elderly people, according to Gaza’s Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health.

Gaza, a 140-square-mile territory, is home to more than 2 million Palestinians who have lived under an indefinite blockade imposed by Israel and supported by Egypt since Hamas won legislative elections in 2007. Human rights organizations have long described the densely populated strip as the world’s largest open-air prison, due to Israel’s generalized ban on travel for Gaza residents, as well as Egypt’s restrictive policies at its shared border. Restrictions on the movement of people and goods in and out of Gaza have tightened since the Oct. 7 terror attack, with Israel saying it must limit Hamas’ access to weapons.

Meanwhile, the United Nations and other organizations are warning that Gaza is on the brink of famine due to the limited amount of food and humanitarian aid entering the coastal enclave, particularly in the north, which has been isolated by the Israeli military and largely cut off from aid for weeks, according to the U.N. At least 10 children are known to have starved to death in Gaza since Oct. 7, according to the World Health Organization, which cited official hospital records and cautioned that the actual number is expected to be much higher.

The U.S. and Jordan carried out a second joint airdrop of food over northern Gaza on Tuesday, delivering more than 36,800 rations of ready-to-eat meals in “an area of great need, allowing for civilian access to the critical aid.” The first U.S.-Jordanian airdrop, conducted on Saturday, contained 38,000 meals, according to the U.S. Central Command.

ABC News’ Ayat Al-Tawy, Nasser Atta, Luis Martinez and Jordana Miller contributed to this report.

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(LONDON) — Cross-border humanitarian aid deliveries from Chad into Western Sudan have been halted, according to multiple aid organizations.

The halting of cross-border deliveries comes after Sudan’s ministry of foreign affairs raised concerns that arms transfers to the Rapid Support Forces Paramilitary Group — one of Sudan’s warring parties — were being carried out via the border.

“The security and stability of the country cannot be compromised,” Ali El Sadig, Sudan’s acting minister of foreign affairs, said from the Antalya Diplomatic Forum in Turkey.

Humanitarian organizations say there could be dire consequences if cross-border deliveries are no longer permitted.

“The World Food Program is extremely concerned about the humanitarian implications of halting cross-border aid deliveries from Chad into western Sudan,” the organization said in a statement. “Already more than 1.7 million people in the Darfur region are one step away from catastrophic hunger. Without assistance, families that are already teetering on the edge of survival will face deeper levels of hunger and higher rates of malnutrition as needs continue to skyrocket in the region.”

Aid groups say the humanitarian situation in Darfur is deteriorating and 37% of people displaced by the war in Sudan are seeking refuge in the region.

The conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces Paramilitary Group escalated in Sudan on April 15, 2023, following weeks of tensions linked to plans for a return to civilian rule.

At least 12,000 people have been killed in the conflict thus far, according to the United Nations. Local groups say the true toll is likely to be much higher.

In a statement, the European Union’s High Representative Joseph Borrell and Commissioner for Crisis Management Janez Lenarčič said the ban on cross-border deliveries into Western Sudan “directly contradicts commitments made by the parties to the conflict in Sudan in the Jeddah declaration to protect civilians and to facilitate increased humanitarian assistance.”

“These commitments are essential for mitigating the impact of the conflict on civilian populations and ensuring their basic needs are met,” they said in a statement.

Due to escalating attacks on commercial vessels in the Red Sed, shipping times and fees to Sudan’s primary aid hub, Port Sudan, have increased.

“Shipments that took one or two weeks, maximum, now take months to reach us,” said Eatizaz Yousif of the International Rescue Committee.

In a statement to ABC News, the U.S. State Department said it is “gravely concerned” about the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Sudan: “Five to six million people are at risk of acute starvation by May. We already have reports of people starving to death in Sudan and babies dying every day at IDP camps in Sudan.”

The statement continued, “While authorities understandably want to limit the shipment of arms across that border, it is unacceptable to deny the movement of humanitarian aid which is a death sentence to the many vulnerable civilians in Darfur. Armed actors have raided humanitarian facilities and looted supplies, resulting in the loss of millions of dollars’ worth of supplies intended for those in greatest need. Although the RSF and SAF made public commitments to stop hindering humanitarian access, there has been no follow-through or tangible improvements. The United States continues our efforts to seek a negotiated end to this conflict.”

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(NEW YORK) — Armed gangs attempted to seize control of Haiti’s main international airport on Monday as chaos and violence continues to grip the Caribbean nation.

A Haitian law enforcement source who was at the scene told ABC News that an estimated several dozen gunmen from gangs breached the perimeter wall of the Toussaint Louverture International Airport on the outskirts of the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince.

The assailants exchanged gunfire with Haitian police and soldiers as they tried to reach the airport’s main buildings to take over the facility, but were ultimately stopped before doing so, the source said.

At least one Haitian police officer was wounded and later died at a nearby hospital, according to a Haitian police source. An unknown number of attackers were also injured or killed.

The airport was closed at the time of the attack and no passengers were present nor were any planes in use, but staff members there were forced to hide. No planes will be permitted to land there for several more days, and all U.S. airline flights have been cancelled since Monday.

A Haitian police station near the airport was also destroyed on Monday, one of a couple dozen that have been seized or wrecked by gangs since Feb. 28.

Haiti has been under a 72-hour state of emergency and nighttime curfew since Sunday evening, a day after gangs attacked the country’s two largest prisons and freed thousands of inmates in the Port-au-Prince area, according to Haitian authorities.

A large number of Haitian police and soldiers have been stationed at the airport to keep it under government control.

The ongoing violence at the airport has prevented Acting Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry from returning to the country, which the Haitian law enforcement source believed was a key motive for Monday’s attack. Henry departed late last week for a trip to Kenya to sign an agreement authorizing the deployment of roughly 1,000 Kenyan police officers to Haiti in a mission backed by the United Nations.

It’s unclear when the prime minister will be able to return to Haiti, according to a source in his office.

The recent wave of violence exploded after Henry announced last week that the country’s general elections would be pushed back until August 2025 and he would stay in office to see them through. Gangs across Port-au-Prince have unified in an unprecedented way, with the openly stated goal of removing Henry from power.

Haiti has not held elections since President Jovenel Moïse was assassinated in July 2021.

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Editor’s note: This report contains graphic descriptions of sexual violence.

(NEW YORK) — There is “clear and convincing” evidence that Israeli hostages being held in Gaza have been subjected to sexual violence, including rape, since Hamas’ unprecedented surprise attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, a new United Nations report has found, adding that sexual violence against hostages may be ongoing.

The report’s findings followed a two-and-a-half-week visit to Israel and the West Bank by Pramila Patten, the U.N. special representative to the secretary-general on sexual violence in conflict, from Jan. 29 to Feb. 14. Patten was supported by a technical team of analysts and sexual violence response specialists.

“We found clear and convincing information that sexual violence — including rape, sexualized torture, cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment has been committed against captives,” Patten said Monday during a press conference about the report. “We also have reasonable grounds to believe such violence may still be ongoing against those still held in captivity.”

The U.N. report’s conclusions were made based on individual assessments, verifying sources, cross-referencing relevant information and the establishment of credible facts, Patten said.

Teams conducted confidential interviews with 34 people — including survivors, witnesses, hostages who have been released and family members of hostages held by the Hamas terrorist group. Analysts also reviewed more than 5,000 images and over 50 hours of footage, Patten said.

“I am of the strong opinion that this finding does not in any way legitimize further violence, but actually reinforces the need for an urgent cease-fire,” Patten said. “The end goal of this mandate is not a war without rape, but a world without war.”

Patten and specialists did not meet with any survivors of sexual violence of the Oct. 7 attacks, despite efforts. Calls were made for survivors to come forward, but Patten said she received information that a “handful” were receiving specialized trauma treatment and were not ready to come forward.

There are reasonable grounds to believe conflict-related sexual violence, including rape and gang rape, occurred across three locations during the Oct. 7 attacks, Patten said.

“We made a finding of clear and convincing information — which is higher than reasonable grounds to believe, but lower than standard of beyond the reasonable doubt — like for a criminal case,” Patten said. “In many instances, one has to rely on circumstantial evidence and witness testimony.”

The report includes a recommendation encouraging the Israeli government to sign a cooperation with her U.N. office, which would include support to survivors of sexual violence, Patten said.

“Victims take time,” Patten said. “They will come forward in their own time, on their own terms.”

Regarding a proper course of action from the secretary-general and U.N. Security Council, Patten said she hopes that her recommendation regarding a full-fledged investigation is reinforced with “competent” U.N. bodies, paired with an echo for calls for a humanitarian cease-fire.

“I think more than ever a cease-fire should be a priority,” Patten said. “That’s what can protect the hostages still in captivity. A cease-fire.”

More than 1,200 people have been killed in Israel since Oct. 7, according to the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office. Since Hamas’ attack, more than 30,500 people have been killed in Gaza and more than 71,900 others have been injured, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry. Israeli officials say 576 IDF soldiers have been killed, including 237 since the ground operations in Gaza began.

Reacting to the report, Israel’s Ambassador to the U.N. called for a condemnation of Hamas.

“It took the United Nations five months to finally recognize the sexual crimes committed on Oct. 7 during Hamas’ massacre,” Gilad Erdan, Israel’s Ambassador to the U.N., told ABC News in a statement. “I call on the Secretary-General and the Security Council to immediately condemn Hamas for their crimes, and apply unrelenting pressure on the terrorists to ensure that their sexual abuse ends and that the hostages are released.”

ABC News has reached out to the Israeli prime minister’s office and the IDF for comment.

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(NEW YORK) — The number of children in Gaza dying from dehydration and malnutrition “will skyrocket” if there is not a cease-fire, according to UNICEF spokesman James Elder.

Elder called the deaths of children from dehydration and malnutrition, which UNICEF said it is now witnessing inside Gaza, “entirely predictable,” “man-made” and “preventable.”

He described the levels of malnutrition among young children in the south of Gaza as “unacceptable and dangerous.”

However, he said the levels of malnutrition and dehydration among children in the north of Gaza are “roughly three times higher” than in the south, because of the lower levels of humanitarian assistance that are reaching the northern parts of the strip.

UNICEF said its fear is that we will now start to see “a spiraling amount of deaths” among children, linked to malnutrition.

“Normally malnutrition is an underlying cause of death. A child will be killed by a disease. When we talk of hearing of children dying of dehydration, this is a great fear because this can lead to huge numbers of children dying very quickly,” Elder told ABC News in an interview from Geneva.

Elder said children are now dying in Gaza because they are dehydrating because doctors are unable to get food into their bodies.

He described the level of suffering a child would go through in this scenario and called it “about as dark as it can get for a population.”

The situation is “deteriorating every hour” the UNICEF spokesman said.

The fact that “world-class medical care” is “literally around the corner” but is inaccessible for these sick children is “darkly unique,” he said.

Elder believes it is not too late to avert a humanitarian catastrophe but said “we are getting close to some kind of point of no return.”

“If there was a cease-fire today, we would have an absolute humanitarian crisis at the highest scale that the UN would determine,” Elder said.

He called the humanitarian picture “as bad as it’s ever been” in Gaza.

In the Gaza Strip, at least 30,534 people have been killed and more than 71,000 others have been wounded by Israeli forces since Oct. 7, according to Gaza’s Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health.

In Israel, at least 1,200 people have been killed and 6,900 others have been injured by Hamas and other Palestinian militants since Oct. 7, according to the Israeli officials.

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(BRUSSELS) — Apple was fined nearly $2 billion on Monday by the European Union for abusing its market dominance to harm music streaming apps and its customers.

The tech giant, which offers its own music streaming service, prevented rival companies from promoting alternative and cheaper products that could be found outside of Apple’s App Store, the top EU antitrust regulator said.

“For a decade, Apple abused its dominant position in the market for the distribution of music streaming apps through the App Store. They did so by restricting developers from informing consumers about alternative, cheaper music services available outside of the Apple ecosystem,” Margrethe Vestager, executive vice president in charge of competition policy at the European Commission, said in a statement on Monday.

The fine, which amounts to 1.8 billion euros or $1.95 billion, marks the end of a five-year investigation initiated by Spotify, a top music streaming firm based in Sweden, the EU said.

The European Commission, the executive branch of the EU, said Apple committed antitrust violations over 10 years in which it prevented music streaming companies using the App Store from informing customers about better-priced alternatives or linking to the products.

Instead, customers paid high prices on the App Store in part because Apple charges commission fees for companies that sell their products on the platform, the European Commission added.

In a statement on Monday, Apple disputed the ruling and vowed to appeal it.

“Apple has been a part of Europe for over 40 years, and today, we support more than 2.5 million jobs across the continent. We’ve helped markets thrive, promoting competition and innovation at every turn — and the App Store is an important part of that story,” the company said.

“So while we respect the European Commission, the facts simply don’t support this decision,” Apple added.

The Cupertino, California,-based firm has faced a series of legal fights over its App Store. The company charges a 30% fee for digital sales made by apps hosted in its App Store that reach $1 million in revenue.

In recent years, the company weathered a lawsuit from gaming company Epic over the 30% fee, alleging that the practice reflects an abuse of Apple’s monopoly power.

In September 2021, a federal judge said Apple was not acting as a monopolist, but ordered the company to allow in-app links that direct users to make purchases outside of the app that circumvent the 30% fee.

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(PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti) — Haiti is under a state of emergency and nighttime curfew amid a surge of violence, after armed gangs attacked the Caribbean country’s two largest prisons and freed scores of inmates.

The Haitian government declared the 72-hour state of emergency on Sunday evening and imposed a curfew from 6 p.m. to 5 a.m. in an effort “to restore the order and to take appropriate measures in order to regain control of the situation,” according to a press release.

The government cited “the deterioration in security, particularly in the metropolitan area of ​​Port-au-Prince, characterized by increasingly violent criminal acts perpetrated by armed gangs, causing massive population displacements and consisting in particular of kidnappings and assassinations of peaceful citizens, violence against women and children, ransacking and theft of public and private property.”

Hundreds — if not thousands — of inmates broke out of the National Penitentiary, Haiti’s biggest prison, in downtown Port-au-Prince on Saturday night following a massive, coordinated attack by gunmen from gangs, two senior Haitian government officials told ABC News. Of the nearly 4,000 inmates estimated to have been behind bars at the facility prior to Saturday’s assault, fewer than 100 were still inside as of Sunday according to the officials, who cautioned that the actual number of escapees remains unknown.

The Haitian government said in a statement on Sunday that those responsible for the attack were “heavily armed criminals wanting at all costs to free people in custody, particularly for kidnapping, murder and other serious offenses,” and that several inmates and prison staff were injured in the fighting.

Several bodies strewn on the ground in and around the National Penitentiary were openly visible on Sunday morning, according to multiple local journalists who spoke with ABC News, though it was unclear how they died.

A second prison containing an estimated 1,400 inmates was also overrun by armed gangs in nearby Croix des Bouquets that same night. As of Monday morning, that area was entirely under control of gangs, according to the Haitian National Police.

The mass prison break is just the latest in a horrifically violent few days in Haiti, even by the country’s own recent standards where kidnapping and murder rates have exploded.

An internal police summary shared with ABC News by a Haitian law enforcement source stated that gangs have launched a series of coordinated attacks since Feb. 29, with the objective “to immobilize the Haitian National Police and throw out the Prime Minister.” Haitian police see the coordinated effort as a way to “cause chaos, panic and spread thin [police] resources,” according to the summary.

Jimmy Chérizier, a former Haitian police officer who is now one of the most powerful gang leaders in the country, has claimed responsibility for the attacks alongside other gang leaders. Chérizier, known as Barbecue, vowed in a statement on Friday to continue fighting the state as long as necessary and urged families to keep their children at home to avoid “collateral damage.”

ABC News’ multiple requests for comment from the Haitian National Police and the Acting Haitian Prime Minister’s Office have not been answered.

Acting Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry is out of the country after going to Kenya late last week to try and secure the deployment of a Kenyan-led security force authorized by the United Nations last year.

Gunfire ripped through the Haitian capital’s downtown neighborhood housing the National Penitentiary starting late Saturday afternoon. A Haitian law enforcement source told ABC News that dozens of gang members were involved, battling in the streets and inside the prison itself with police assigned to guard the facility.

A union representing members of the Haitian National Police said officers were quickly overwhelmed, posting a plea on social media for any officer in the city with a vehicle, a weapon and ammunition to come support the fight.

The gun battle waged for hours but when it was over, it appeared there were hardly any prisoners left inside the sprawling National Penitentiary. Local journalists entered freely through the front door of the complex on Sunday to find a deserted interior littered with damage and no law enforcement presence. Three bodies were seen lying on the ground and multiple prisoners inside described scenes of intense gunfights the night before.

Among the limited number of remaining inmates are several Colombian nationals accused of participating in the July 2021 assassination of then-Haitian President Jovenel Moïse.

The National Penitentiary is Haiti’s largest and most notorious prison, once housing everyone from gang leaders to corrupt politicians.

Saturday’s violence unfolded in the wake of a series of gang-led attacks against Haitian government and police facilities, including a government building about 500 meters from the U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince. Gunfire erupting close to Haiti’s Toussaint Louverture International Airport on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince forced officials to suspend operations there multiple times in recent days and has prompted the cancellation of a number of U.S. airline flights.

At least four police officers have been killed in the fighting since Wednesday, according to Haitian authorities.

The U.S. Embassy in Port-au-Prince urged Americans on Monday to leave now.

Kareen Ulysse, director of CHF Foundation, a nonprofit that helps underfunded schools and hospitals in Haiti, told ABC News on Monday that their staff in Port-au-Prince are in “a constant state of stress” because they don’t know “if today is the day armed men from rival groups will take over the area.”

“Our staff is having a hard time making it to work despite their desire to serve their country,” Ulysse said. “We are looking to find a sponsor for bullet proof vehicles for our foundation so we can keep working as safely as possible.”

ABC News’ Will Gretsky and Helena Skinner contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — Government officials in Malaysia said on Sunday they’d be open to resuming the search for Malaysian Airlines MH370 after a private company approached them about potential new evidence pointing to the location of the Boeing 777.

“The Malaysian Government’s position is consistent,” officials said in a statement. “We will commission a further search operation when new information and credible evidence is ascertained.”

The flight disappeared after taking off from Kuala Lumpur on March 8, 2014. Twelve crew members and 227 passengers were on board when the plane went missing.

The Malaysian Transportation Ministry on Sunday said it had been approached by Ocean Infinity, a Texas-based company, about reopening the search. It was not immediately clear what new information Ocean Infinity may have about the missing plane.

Malaysia would reopen the search “when new information and credible evidence is ascertained,” the ministry said in a statement.

“[T]he Ministry of Transport are ready to invite Ocean Infinity to Malaysia to discuss the proposal of a no-fine, no-fee proposal,” the statement said. “We are waiting for Ocean Infinity to provide the suitable dates, and I will meet them any time that they are ready to come to Malaysia.”

ABC News has contacted Ocean Infinity for comment.

ABC News’ Joe Simonetti and Dragana Jovanovic contributed to this story.

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(NEW YORK) — Professor David Dowling of Pepperdine University traveled last fall from California to Ukraine to teach some students of Taras Shevchenko National University a course in conflict and dispute resolution.

In a bomb shelter under Kyiv, as the war continued above them, 18 undergraduates learned the art of peace.

“Five minutes into class, the air raid sirens started,” Dowling said. He added, “For the first time in my teaching career, and possibly not the last, I taught my class in a bomb shelter.”

Selected on the basis of interest and English proficiency, the class was a response to the lack of mediation and negotiation in the curriculum, according to Kateryna Manetska, the program coordinator and an alumna of Taras Shevchenko.

“But now that’s more important than ever, so we decided to do anything possible to make this happen,” Manetska told ABC News.

For the students, this class was their first time back in person since the COVID-19 pandemic and the war began. The excitement, said Dowling, was palpable before he even embarked on a long journey from Los Angeles to Poland and finally to Kyiv, via what he called “the longest train ride in my life.”

Dowling arrived on Nov. 4, after two weeks of teaching the first part of the curriculum remotely. His first class, scheduled for Nov. 6, was interrupted by the sirens going off as soon as they got started.

The students calmly led their American professor to the shelter, four floors below their designated class, through a maze of stairways and hallways.

“If they were anxious, they did not display it at all,” said Dowling. “The saddest thing is that it’s such a part of their life. They all kind of gathered their bags and they were like, ‘Okay professor, you’ve got to come with us.'”

Amjad Yamin, of Save The Children, an international charity, said that Ukrainian students, especially older ones, are getting too used to the reality of war.

“They start thinking this is what normal life looks like,” he said.

Yamin added that this is particularly true for the older ones, saying, “They understand very clearly. The younger ones, you can still shelter them from some things, you can tell them it’s a game.”

Dowling left Kyiv at 6:28 a.m. on Saturday, Nov. 11. At 8 a.m. that morning, explosions were heard in the city. Still, he hopes to return soon and continue where he left off.

Tears filled his eyes as he reunited with his students on Zoom for an interview with ABC News, months after he last saw them, as the war in Ukraine that claimed tens of thousands of lives entered its third year.

“Unfortunately in Ukraine, you have only two options: You can go abroad or you can stay and just admit the fact that you can die at any second,” said 21-year-old Aurika Solomakha. “I had experience working with professors from the USA before I met Mr. Dowling but really, no one dared to come to Kyiv during the war.”

Dowling’s trip to Kyiv meant a lot to the students, a few of them said.

“We were amazed and had an idea that there’s not so many professors who are willing to come to Ukraine and teach on-site courses for our students,” said Manetska.

For Mariia Nazarenko, 20, this course was more than that.

“People like him made us feel worth something,” Nazarenko said.

“He gave us something useful to support our education and I will never forget it for the rest of my life,” said Oleksandra Chornyi, 19. Following the class, she said scored an internship in mediation at a prestigious Ukrainian firm.

Dowling was also full of admiration and pride, saying, “These are women who are studying who are looking to make a difference in their world and in their family’s lives.”

The general mood in Ukraine, the students say, has become depressing or aggressive, as people wonder when will the war will end. Families have been shattered. Young people are alienated and lonely, they said.

But the class with Mr. Dowling gave them purpose and a practical skill that can create peace, they said. Or, at least, the hope it will.

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