(NASSAU, Bahamas) — Five people were rescued after a private plane crashed into waters near the Bahamas on Thursday, the Bahamas’ Aircraft Accident Investigation Authority told ABC News.
The plane was en route to Florida when it crashed into the water about 10 nautical miles north of Andros, an island in the Bahamas, the Royal Bahamas Police Force said during a press conference Thursday.
The passengers were rescued and transported back to Andros Island, authorities said. They are being transported to receive medical care for non-life-threatening injuries, authorities said.
The plane — a single-engine Piper PA-32 aircraft with United States registration — crashed around 3:10 p.m., the Aircraft Accident Investigation Authority said.
The aircraft had departed the San Andros Airport in Andros and was en route to Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach when “the pilot encountered issues and attempted to return to Andros Island,” the agency said.
The crash was caused by “mechanical issues,” the Royal Bahamas Police Force said in a statement
“The pilot was able to land the aircraft safely into shallow waters, without any casualties,” police said.
The U.S. Coast Guard, Royal Bahamas Defence Force and Royal Bahamas Police Force responded to the scene.
The crash remains under investigation.
ABC News’ Jared Higgs and Rachel DeLima contributed to this report.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Serhii Mykhalchuk/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Paramilitary organizations making the largest cross-border attack inside Russia since the war began have maintained they’re fighting for Ukraine and reportedly claimed to have conducted another operation Thursday.
But more than a week after verified images appeared to show that the fighters were equipped with U.S.-supplied military vehicles in their initial incursion, the Biden administration has yet to say whether the groups are formally fighting in coordination with Kyiv.
The incidents raise questions about whether they put at risk the main U.S. strategic goal of avoiding escalation with Moscow — “World War III” as the White House has warned — and they come just when the conflict appears poised to intensity with Ukraine’s long-awaited spring offensive.
And, they raise practical concerns about whether that goal could be undermined given questions about how well the U.S. keeps track of the billions in arms and equipment it has sent to Ukraine.
Any assessment from Washington on whether the groups are operating within the Ukrainian government’s chain of command could have significant impact in determining whether any end-use violation or breach of agreement occurred if the fighters were given access to the equipment or pave the way for Kyiv to openly outfit the fighters with donated weaponry, while the persisting lack of clarity raises questions about how effectively these arms are monitored.
Gaps in monitoring, potential for escalation
When pictures surfaced appearing to show U.S.-manufactured Humvees and MRAP armored vehicles used in the Belgorod incursion, the administration initially showed strong skepticism. But after the photographic evidence was vetted by various major media organizations, officials promised to investigate.
“We’re looking into those reports that the U.S. equipment and vehicles could have been involved,” White House spokesperson John Kirby told reporters.
Asked on Thursday about the status of that investigation, a State Department spokesperson said there were no updates to share.
The Ukrainian government has denied playing any part in the first wave of raids on Belgorod, which were carried out by groups made up of anti-Kremlin Russian nationals known as the Free Russia Legion and the Russian Volunteer Corps, the latter of which has been linked to neo-Nazi sentiments.
On Thursday, the pro-Ukrainian militants appeared to shell towns in Belgorod, prompting a partial evacuation of civilians from the area. While the groups seemed to be heavily armed with sophisticated weaponry, there were no immediate signs that American arms were used in the attacks.
Although U.S. officials have not publicly characterized Ukraine’s role in the incursions, they have repeatedly said that the U.S. does not support attacks on Russian territory.
“We have been very clear with the Ukrainians privately, we certainly have been clear publicly, that we do not support attacks inside Russia,” Kirby said on Wednesday, after announcing the latest drawdown of equipment for Ukraine in the White House briefing room. “We certainly don’t want to see attacks inside Russia that are, that are being propagated, that are being conducted, using US-supplied equipment.”
Kirby said that stance was rooted in the president’s goal to “avoid World War III.”
“I think we can all agree that a war that escalates beyond that — that actually does suck in the West and NATO and the United States is not only not good for our national security interest, it is not good for the Ukrainian people,” he said.
Beyond close coordination with the Ukrainian government, U.S. officials have touted close monitoring of military aid shipped to Ukraine. But their flip-flopping on the possibility that some of the armored fighting vehicles used in Belgorod could have been supplied to Ukraine by Washington and their inability to provide any conclusions after a week has opened the Biden administration up to criticism.
Republicans have zeroed in on accountability but have largely centered their focus on avoiding waste rather than preventing escalation.
“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,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, said at a hearing in late March.
While the Department of Defense’s top watchdog testified during that hearing that he had not seen any illicit diversion of the over $20 billion worth of American weapons and other military equipment provided to Ukraine, previous reports have indicated that only around 10% of high-risk munitions have been inspected by U.S. monitors and only a handful of the weapons are legally subject to enhanced end-use tracking.
Defense officials have also noted that carrying out oversight in an active war zone with a very limited American footprint comes with challenges and potential blind spots. Ukraine’s history of past corruption has also stoked some unease across Washington.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller was asked last Thursday whether the time that had elapsed in the investigation into the incident raised red flags for the administration regarding the effectiveness of its tracking measures.
“No, I think it raises the fact that we are looking into it and haven’t yet reached a conclusion,” he responded.
One way that the U.S. tracks sensitive items to Ukraine is by the placement of barcodes on each item that contain unique identifying information, such as serial numbers, and by providing Ukraine with ways to track the equipment it has been given by the U.S.
Ukraine keeps stock of its Humvees and MRAP armored vehicles, and regularly reports battlefield losses to American officials.
ABC News reached out to Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and a member of Ukraine’s parliament seated on a committee charged with monitoring weapons supplied by foreign governments but did not receive a response.
A shortfall in tracking weapons
Despite the administration’s apparent hesitancy to draw firm conclusions, experts closely studying the conflict say some key answers are obvious.
“It is a shortfall in tracking of weapons and munitions,” Mark Cancian, a senior adviser for the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ International Security Program, said. “War is complicated — there is no guarantee that weapons will not be used in ways that we don’t approve, and this is clearly one of them.”
“It would strain credulity to me to think there is not command control here from Kyiv—or at least from Ukrainian military intelligence,” said John Hardie, the director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Russia program.
Cancian echoed that conclusion, adding that any disconnects within Ukraine’s military could present serious problems.
“It’s not impossible that there are fractures within the Ukrainian government. If that’s the case, it is quite disturbing — because that means that the Ukrainians are not in full control of military forces on their territory,” he said. “It opens the possibility of what we’re seeing in Russia, where you have militias that are acting independently and confronting even in some ways undermining the central government.”
Cancian says that repeated incidents of American military gear surfacing in the hands of paramilitary groups would be telling.
“If this happens again, then it’s not just happenstance — it’s a pattern. And that would indicate that they have not been able to get control,” he said.
Or, Hardie posited, the Biden administration could seek to allow Ukraine to leverage ambiguous attacks on Russia while publicly standing by its policy against such actions.
“Perhaps U.S. officials look the other way,” Hardie said.
Beyond Belgorod, apartment buildings in the heart of Russia’s capital were the target of a drone strike on Tuesday. Though Ukrainian authorities did not take responsibility, the country’s officials have not masked their pleasure.
“If the Russians can make Kyiv a nightmare, why do the people of Moscow rest?” Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of Kyiv, said in a televised address following the strike.
While the spike in attacks waged by Ukraine on Russia drastically pales in comparison to those waged on Ukraine by Russia through the course its 15-monthlong invasion, Kyiv has much more to lose in terms of public opinion since its war efforts depend on support from dozens of allies who largely see the country as a besieged victim rather than a tit-for-tat combatant.
Conversely, by bringing the war full circle, strikes into Russia might erode its population’s support for the Kremlin — something some indicators show has already been happening in recent weeks.
So far, the Biden administration appears to be sticking to an increasingly familiar strategy.
“We’re still trying to get information here and develop some sort of sense of what happened,” Kirby said when asked about the Moscow drone strikes on Wednesday.
ABC’s Matthew Seyler and Molly Nagle contributed to this report.
Telmo Pinto/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
(PARIS) — France is now the first country in Europe to regulate influencer marketing on social media, cracking down on what people can monetize and promote online with a new law passed on Thursday.
“The law was passed in record time and unanimously, which shows how much support it had in both government and parliament,” Stéphane Vojetta, one of the French legislators who championed this new bill, told ABC News. “There was a clear understanding of the need to urgently respond to the challenge at hand.”
Influencer marketing is a form of social media marketing that involves people leveraging their reputation to endorse products or services in exchange for money.
There are an estimated 150,000 influencers creating content on social media aimed at a French audience, according to France’s Ministry of Economics, Finance and Industrial and Digital Sovereignty.
This new law makes it unlawful for influencers to create paid content promoting cosmetic surgeries, online sports betting sites or financial products like cryptocurrencies.
Influencers and companies caught violating the law could face up to two years in prison and 300,000 euros ($330,000) in fines, and see their ability to post on platforms potentially be revoked, according to the text of the bill.
Until Thursday, no law in France directly regulated commercial activity on social media leaving consumers vulnerable to scams and frauds.
Influencers will now be required to label all paid content, adding extra disclaimers if the content has been filtered or edited.
The law also closes an existing loophole when it comes to online advertisement, Vojetta tells ABC News. Now, content creators will have to abide by existing French advertising laws when it comes to the promotion of products and services.
For example, posts promoting sodas or processed food will have to include a message reminding consumers to undertake physical activity, similar to how it would be done on television.
The Senate unanimously adopted the law and will go into effect within the next two weeks. The Ministry of Economics and Finance has already released guidance for paid influencers on how to operate lawfully moving forward.
“It is a sector in which we believe in because it creates jobs and because it values French culture and creativity,” said Bruno Le Maire, the French economic minister, describing the influencer economy at a press conference in March.
“The best way to protect it is to define a framework and rules so that in this dynamic sector, there are no profiteers, stowaways, or people who can take advantage of the weakness of certain consumers,” Bruno Le Maire said.
Over 42 million consumers in France purchase goods or services online, according to a report by the government’s Directorate General for Enterprise.
(NEW YORK) — William and Kate traveled from their home in Windsor, England, to Jordan to attend the wedding of Crown Prince Al Hussein bin Abdullah II, 28, and Rajwa Alseif, 29, on Thursday.
The Waleses are reportedly among 1,700 guests at the high-profile wedding.
Kate was seen arriving in a pale pink dress, while William chose a dark suit and blue tie for the occasion.
U.S. first lady Dr. Jill Biden was also in attendance at the royal wedding, held at Zahran Palace.
The bride and groom were both educated in the United States.
(LONDON and BERLIN) — German authorities said Thursday that “a number of items were seized” in Portugal during a renewed search for missing British child Madeleine McCann.
“These will be evaluated in the coming days and weeks,” the Braunschweig District Attorney’s Office in Germany said in a statement. “It is not yet possible to say whether any of the items are actually related to the Madeleine McCann case.”
German, Portuguese and British police took part in the three-day operation in the Algarve region of southern Portugal last week, during which officers were seen scouring the banks of the Arade reservoir for possible evidence. The area is about 30 miles from the Praia da Luz resort, where McCann was last seen in 2007. The 3-year-old was on vacation with her family at the time.
A number of searches have been conducted over the years, but the latest was done at the request of German authorities. Portuguese police said last week that all material collected during the operation would be handed over to German authorities for examination.
“Sincere thanks go out to all police officers involved in the search,” the Braunschweig District Attorney’s Office said. “The cooperation between the Portuguese police, the police officers from Great Britain and the and the Federal Criminal Police Office was excellent and very constructive.”
In 2020, German police identified 45-year-old German citizen Christian Brueckner as a suspect in McCann’s disappearance. Brueckner, who was in Portugal’s Algarve region in 2007, is currently in jail in the northern German city of Braunschweig for a different case.
“The investigations conducted here in Braunschweig against the 46-year-old suspect are are expected to continue for some time,” the district attorney’s office added.
(NEW YORK) — Canada has announced that it will begin putting individual warning labels on cigarettes and other tobacco products in an effort to further reduce their appeal, becoming the world’s first country to use such a measure.
Beginning on Aug. 1, Canada will implement a phased approach that will force cigarette companies to put individual health warnings on their products starting with king size cigarettes by the end of July 2024 and all other products — including regular size cigarettes and little cigars — by the end of April 2025.
“The new Tobacco Products Appearance, Packaging and Labelling Regulations will be part of the Government of Canada’s continued efforts to help adults who smoke to quit, to protect youth and non-tobacco users from nicotine addiction, and to further reduce the appeal of tobacco,” Health Canada said in a statement announcing the new tobacco labelling policy. “Labelling the tipping paper of individual cigarettes, little cigars, tubes, and other tobacco products will make it virtually impossible to avoid health warnings altogether. In addition, the regulations will support Canada’s Tobacco Strategy and its target of reaching less than 5% tobacco use by 2035.”
Canada announced other measures they plan on implementing as well such as strengthening and updating health-related messages on tobacco product packaging, extending the requirement for these messages to all tobacco product packaging and making sure there is a periodic rotation of the message.
“Tobacco use continues to kill 48,000 Canadians each year. We are taking action by being the first country in the world to label individual cigarettes with health warning messages. This bold step will make health warning messages virtually unavoidable, and together with updated graphic images displayed on the package, will provide a real and startling reminder of the health consequences of smoking,” Carolyn Bennett, minister of Mental Health and Addictions and associate minister of Health, said in the government’s statement announcing the new measures. “We will continue to do whatever it takes to help more people in Canada stop smoking and help young people to live healthy tobacco-free lives.”
While copies of the full regulations are currently available upon request, the new policy will be published for the general public on June 7 in an edition of the Canada Gazette, Health Canada said.
“The requirement for a health warning directly on every cigarette is a world precedent setting measure that will reach every person who smokes with every puff,” said Rob Cunningham, Senior Policy Analyst at the Canadian Cancer Society. “The new regulations deserve strong support.”
Canada first adopted imaged warning requirements on tobacco product packages in 2000 but the current health-related messages and images for cigarettes and little cigars have been in place since 2011. These new regulations also bring Canada into full compliance with the tobacco labelling obligations under Article 11 of the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control by extending health warning and toxicity information requirements to all tobacco product packages.
“Tobacco use continues to be one of Canada’s most significant public health problems, and is the country’s leading preventable cause of disease and premature death in Canada,” said Jean-Yves Duclos, Canada’s minister of Health, in the announcement. “Our government is using every evidence-based tool at our disposal to help protect the health of Canadians, especially young people. Beginning next year, these new measures will help make sure that everyone across the country can receive credible information on the risks of tobacco use so they can make healthier choices for their wellbeing.”
(LONDON) — Negotiations between Sudan’s warring parties fell apart Wednesday as both sides accused each other of cease-fire violations.
ABC News has reached out to the Sudanese Armed Forces for comment.
There was no immediate comment Saudi Arabia or the United States, which have been mediating the talks.
In response to the military’s move, the Rapid Support Forces said in a statement that it “unconditionally backs the Saudi-U.S. inititive” and the “recent SAF violations have not deterred us from honoring our commitments.”
(SEOUL, South Korea) — North Korea acknowledged on Wednesday its failure to launch a military spy satellite, an attempt that U.S. officials called a “brazen violation” of U.N. resolutions.
After admitting the failure in an unusually short time, North Korea’s state news agency reported that a second launch attempt will be made as soon as possible.
The satellite crashed into the West Sea as it lost its thrust due to an abnormality in the start of the two-stage mover after the first stage was separated during a normal flight, according to state media.
The satellite essentially blew up in the air, an embarrassment for Kim Jong Un’s government, a senior U.S. official told ABC News. North Korea said in 2018 that it put a satellite into space, but international analysts later said that wasn’t true.
Citizens in Seoul, South Korea received a “presidential alert” phone message early on Wednesday morning, shortly after the satellite launch, from the Seoul Metropolitan Government which noted that “all citizens should be ready to evacuate.”
Twenty-two minutes later, the Ministry of Interior and Safety in charge of sending disaster alerts across the country sent another alert noting that the initial message to Seoul was “an erroneous alert.”
Another 22 minutes later, Seoul Metropolitan Government clarified that their earlier message was due to a “North Korean missile launch” and “the alert has been lifted.”
Some citizens whose phones’ operating systems were set up in English received messages titled “wartime alert,” which sent jitters across the foreign community.
The confusing alert messages from the city and the government raised criticisms over whether the authorities were overreacting or actively administering.
“Unlike North Korea’s usual launch into the East Sea, the Seoul Metropolitan Government, which is responsible for the safety of 10 million citizens in the situation of launching south this time, decided that immediate action is necessary and issued an alert,” Oh Se-hoon, the mayor of Seoul, said.
“South Korean people are not trained nor have they been carrying out drills to prepare for such attacks. The problem is, cases like this will most likely happen again more frequently,” Park Jae Wan, professor of Security Strategy at Seoul-based Kookmin University in Seoul, told ABC News.
President Joe Biden and his national security team are assessing the launch in close coordination with allies and partners, according to National Security Council spokesperson Adam Hodge.
The launch used ballistic missile technology, “which is a brazen violation of multiple UN Security Council resolutions, raises tensions, and risks destabilizing the security situation in the region and beyond,” Hodge said in a statement.
“We urge all countries to condemn this launch and call on the DPRK to come to the table for serious negotiations,” Hodge said. “The door has not closed on diplomacy but Pyongyang must immediately cease its provocative actions and instead choose engagement.”
South Korea’s military retrieved parts of North Korea’s satellite wreckage from the sea and plans to analyze the technology used in the projectile which North Korea claims to be a “satellite.”
North Korea’s National Space Development Administration is analyzing the cause of the accident.
Wednesday’s launch also prompted brief evacuation alerts in Japan.
(NEW YORK) — A young couple who were living together have been shot dead by their landlord following a dispute with the man who was 30 years their elder, police say.
Police in Hamilton, Canada, initially received a call at approximately 5:40 p.m. on Saturday evening and responded to a residence on Jones Road in Stoney Creek, Ontario — located 45 miles south of Toronto.
But when officers from the Hamilton Police Service arrived on site, they found two deceased victims — a 27-year-old female and a 28-year-old male who would later be identified by the Hamilton Police Service as Carissa MacDonald of Stoney Creek, but formerly of Huntsville, and Aaron Stone from Hamilton.
The suspect involved in the double homicide was the 57-year-old landlord who had allegedly committed the crime before police arrived, according to the Hamilton Police Service.
“The 57-year-old landlord barricaded himself in the residence with firearms that were registered to him. Hamilton Police Emergency Response Unit contained the area, while negotiators engaged in contact with the male in an attempt to peacefully resolve the incident,” police said. “At one point during the negotiations, the suspect fired at the Hamilton Police [armored] vehicle. The suspect later fired additional rounds, which resulted in an interaction with police.”
The threat was neutralized by the police and authorities say Special Investigations Unit was subsequently contacted and invoked their mandate over the investigation. It was unclear whether the suspect had been taken into custody alive.
Families of both victims have been notified, police said, and several witnesses have already been interviewed by the Homicide Unit and have been cooperative with the ongoing investigation as police continue to appeal for more witnesses.
Anybody with information is asked to contact Detective Robert DiIanni of the Hamilton Police Service at 905-546-3836.
(NEW YORK) — A passenger sitting next to the man on the Asiana Airlines flight who opened an emergency exit door in mid-air has spoken out about those terrifying moments on the plane.
Lee Yoon-Joon told the Yonhap News Agency that he initially didn’t have a good impression of his seatmate, claiming the man gave off a “bad vibe.”
After the man opened the door, Lee said he jumped into action, pulling the man back with the help of the flight attendants. Initially, they said they thought a mechanical malfunction had caused the door to open.
“Frankly speaking, I thought, ‘Am I going to die?'” Lee recalled. “A million things were on my mind at that moment.”
Lee said it became hard to breathe with the door open and the wind was like a “disaster movie.” Other passengers on the plane were crying, he said.
“I am an ordinary citizen and did what the flight attendant told me,” he added.
Dramatic video shows Lee, wearing red shorts, and his fellow passengers getting blasted by the high-speed wind through the open door in the final minutes of the flight.
“Air would be rushing by the airplane just outside,” Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, who was not on the flight, told ABC News, speaking to what the passengers would have experienced once the door was opened. “At that speed, about 160 miles an hour, from all indications, that would be the equivalent of a Category 5 hurricane-scale speed.”
Experts say the door was only able to open because of the plane’s altitude.
The plane, an Airbus A321-200, was about 700 feet above the ground as it prepared to land at Daegu International Airport in South Korea, Transport Ministry officials said. At cruising altitude, experts say, the pressure in the plane would have made it impossible to open the exit door.
Asiana Airlines said in a statement that it has since stopped selling emergency exit seats on certain planes as a safety precaution.
Twelve passengers on board were taken to the hospital for respiratory issues and other minor symptoms after the flight landed following the May 26 incident. They’ve since all been released.
Police said the suspect, who was arrested Sunday and faces up to 10 years in prison for violating aviation security laws, is “mentally struggling.” During preliminary questioning, the 33-year-old told police he felt like was suffocating and wanted to get off the plane quickly. The suspect had recently lost a job and was under stress when the incident occurred, according to police.
There were 194 people on board the aircraft, including a group of teenage athletes on their way to a track and field competition, according to Asiana Airlines.
Ahead of his court appearance, the suspect told reporters, “I’m really sorry to the kids.”
