(LONDON) — As wildfire flames crept toward Zena Katsaros’ home in Kiotari, a village in Rhodes, on Friday, she fled with her bathing suit and a few other items.
She slept on the beach that first night, surrounded by about 200 other people who had also left their houses, she said.
“It was all like a nightmare, like a war zone,” Katsaros told ABC News.
On Monday, as she stood looking at the rubble of what was once her beach house, she could no longer step inside. The roof was too hot to get close and all that was left standing was the bathroom.
“It’s all gone, totally gone,” she said.
Katsaros is one of thousands of people in Rhodes — and others throughout Greece — who’ve fled their homes as wildfires have spread around the country since early last week.
The most serious fires in the county on Tuesday were burning on Rhodes and Corfu, the Greek Fire Service said in a statement. The rest of the country remained on “high alert” for Wednesday, when high temperatures were again expected, the service said. Southern Europe has been in the grip of a searing heat wave.
“For tomorrow, Wednesday, an extreme risk of fire is predicted in many areas of mainland Greece and a very high risk in the rest of the country,” the service said in a Tuesday statement. “We are going through perhaps the toughest days of the summer with the temperatures showing a further increase.”
Greece officials last week requested the activation of the European Union Civil Protection Mechanism, a coordinated rescue and humanitarian assistance, to fight wildfires. Firefighters and equipment arrived last week from several European countries and Israel.
“In the battle to deal with the fires, firefighters and water vehicles from 10 countries are working alongside the Greek forces and late tonight we expect the arrival of 38 firefighters with 14 vehicles from Serbia,” fire officials said Tuesday.
Temperatures throughout Greece were expected to climb on Wednesday before cooling on Thursday, the Hellenic National Meteorological Center said in a warning.
Winds in the northwest, where at least one fire was burning, were expected to be “very strong” on Wednesday, the alert said, adding, “These intense phenomena will extend before the evening in central Macedonia and Thessaly and at night in the Sporades.”
Two pilots died in a crash of a Canadair CL-215 firefighting plane on Tuesday, the Air Force said in a statement. They had been dropping water on a blaze on the mountainous region near Platanistos, Evia.
As their plane made a turn, it disappeared behind the hills, according to a video of the plane taken moments before the crash. A moment later, a ball of smoke and fire rose from the area.
The pilots, aged 34 and 27, were later found dead, Minister of National Defence Nikos Dendias said in a statement. He declared a three-day mourning period for the Armed Forces “for the loss of life, in the line of duty.”
As Katsaros walked around Kiotari on Tuesday, she saw buildings that had been completely destroyed by the blazes. A friend’s restaurant was destroyed, she said. The town “is gone” and will have to be rebuilt, she said.
When asked if all of her friends and family were safe, Katsaros said, “I don’t know, many are volunteers and we can barely speak to them.”
(WASHINGTON) — Trevor Reed, the former U.S. Marine who was wrongfully detained in Russia before being released in a prisoner swap, has been injured while fighting in Ukraine, according to a Biden administration official.
Reed “was not engaged in any activities on behalf of the U.S. government,” State Department Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel said during a press briefing.
Patel declined to say when or where Reed was hurt in Ukraine.
The former Marine was injured in a landmine explosion, ABC News has learned.
State Department officials provided assistance to Reed directly after learning he was hurt, ABC News has learned.
With the help of a nongovernmental organization, Reed “has been transported to Germany and he is receiving medical care,” Patel said.
A source familiar with Reed’s condition said that he is “alert” and “recovering” from his injuries.
A spokesperson for Reed’s family declined to comment.
Reed was arrested in 2019 when he was visiting his Russian girlfriend, a recent law graduate, in Moscow. He was wrongfully detained for nearly three years.
In April 2022, he was freed as part of a prisoner swap between the Biden administration and the Kremlin.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters Tuesday that U.S. officials don’t believe Reed’s decision to fight in Ukraine should impact efforts to free Americans Paul Whelan and Evan Gershkovich from Russian detention.
Whelan, a businessman and former U.S. Marine, has been in custody in Russia since 2018. Gershkovich, a Wall Street Journal reporter, has been detained since March.
“This case is completely separate,” Jean-Pierre said. “They are not the same and they are treated entirely differently.”
ABC News’ Shannon Crawford contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — As Russia continues its nearly 16-month-long invasion of neighboring Ukraine, political turmoil has erupted in Moscow while Kyiv tries to take back territory.
A feud between Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Russian paramilitary organization Wagner Group, and Russia’s top military brass escalated as Prigozhin’s forces left the front line in Ukraine and marched across the border to seize a key Russian city. They then marched north toward Russia’s capital, seemingly unopposed, before turning around just hours later. The short-lived rebellion was described by international observers as the most significant challenge to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s authority in his more than 20 years of rule.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian troops are in the early stages of a counteroffensive to reclaim the almost one-fifth of Ukraine’s territory that is under Russian control.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Jul 25, 1:00 PM EDT
Pentagon announces new $400M aid to Ukraine
The U.S. Department of Defense announced an additional $400 million aid package to Ukrainian forces that includes more weapons and ammunition.
This marks the Biden administration’s 43rd military aid package to Ukraine since August 2021.
Some of the equipment and weapons in this package include, additional munitions for Patriot air defense systems and National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS); Stinger anti-aircraft systems and Javelin and other anti-armor systems and rockets.
-ABC News’ Matthew Seyler
Jul 20, 4:04 PM EDT
Ukraine begins using controversial cluster munitions provided by US
Ukraine has begun using the controversial cluster munitions that the U.S. recently began providing to Ukraine, a U.S. official confirmed to ABC News.
Ukraine, Russia and the U.S. are not signatories to the convention that bans the use of cluster munitions. Russia has used them in the war in Ukraine and so has Ukraine as they a supply of the weapons left over from the Soviet era.
“I believe they have started using them,” Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh said Thursday. “In terms of the effect on the battlefield, I’d really let Ukraine speak to how they intend to employ them. But you know, this is a powerful artillery that we have given them. They have … committed to use it responsibly, to keep track and record where they are using it, so when this war is over, they can begin those de-mining efforts.”
The weapons are considered dangerous to civilians because the small bomblets that are dispersed by the munitions can remain unexploded until someone accidentally stumbles upon them weeks, months or even years later.
-ABC News’ Luis Martinez
Jul 19, 9:47 PM EDT
Russian strikes hit Mykolaiv and Odesa, multiple people injured
Russian forces hit a three-story building and a garage in the city center of Mykolaiv Thursday morning, local time, injuring nine people, including five children, the Mykolaiv Regional State Administration said on Telegram.
There were fatalities stemming from the strikes, but it’s unclear how many at this time, the Mykolaiv Regional State Administration added.
In another incident, Russian strikes hit Odesa early Thursday morning, the Odesa District Administration said on Telegram.
Two people were injured and hospitalized from the attack, according to the Odesa District Administration.
There is destruction “in the center” of Odesa and a fire broke out stemming from the strikes, the administration said.
(NEW YORK) — In the week since U.S. Army Private 2nd Class Travis King crossed into North Korea, American officials have been unable to extract even the most basic information about his condition from tight-lipped officials in Pyongyang — a move experts say could be a play by the country’s authoritarian leader Kim Jong Un to maximize leverage.
“We have not even learned about [King’s] whereabouts, about his status, about his safety,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Monday.
While the deputy commander of the U.S.-led United Nation’s military force said that conversations about King with North Korea’s military had “commenced,” officials in Washington clarified that Pyongyang had merely confirmed it received an initial message from the U.N. Command about the soldier.
“It is my understanding that there have been no new communications since last week — communications that happened in the early days,” Miller said, adding that outreach from other channels run by the Biden administration had gone unacknowledged.
North Korean state media has said nothing about King — who U.S. officials say willingly crossed into North Korea “without authorization” last week and is in custody in the secretive country — and U.S. allies that retain diplomatic ties with the hermit kingdom have also not been able to gain any insight.
The prolonged silence could be part of a broader strategy, according to Bruce Bennett, a researcher at the RAND Corporation who has worked with the Department of Defense on containing threats posed by North Korea.
“I don’t think it’s particularly out of the ordinary. North Korea likes to force the U.S. into a position of begging because they’re expecting to get more out of the U.S.,” he said.
“If you’re in the position of North Korea — which doesn’t have many strengths — one of their strengths sometimes is simply waiting to create anxiety on the U.S. side and make the United States more prepared to give them more for what they eventually give us,” Bennett added.
That theory was echoed by House Foreign Affairs Chairman Mike McCaul, who expressed concern that North Korea could attempt to use King as a bargaining chip.
“We see this with Russia, China, Iran — when they take an American, particularly a soldier, captive, they exact a price for that,” McCaul, R-Texas, told ABC News’ This Week co-anchor Martha Raddatz. “And that’s what I worry about.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said “there are certainly concerns” that King could be tortured by Pyongyang, even though the soldier is not believed to have had access to classified intelligence.
“They’re trying to figure out a way to make him a public relations success for North Korea,” Bennett said. “They may be trying to force him into denunciation of the U.S. and claiming that he was abused in the military or some such thing.”
Anthony Ruggiero, senior director of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Nonproliferation and Biodefense Program and the former deputy assistant to the president for national security affairs, says Pyongyang could also simply be stalling.
“I think North Korea’s response indicates that they’re still trying to figure out what to do with a relatively low-level military personnel that crossed the border,” he said. “The hard part is deciding what to do.”
And for the U.S., that may also prove to be the most difficult question.
Whether the Biden administration is prepared to make any significant concession for King’s release remains to be seen. While U.S. officials have expressed concern about King’s welfare, they have also underscored that he crossed the demilitarized zone between North and South Korea on his own volition and that it’s unclear he wants to return to the U.S.
Still, Bennett says the pressure to act is building.
“You can already tell on the US side that there’s a great deal of anxiety about this soldier. That’s only natural–the US military is supposed to take care of its own,” he said.
“The U.S. is kind of at North Korea’s mercy here,” said Ruggiero. “It’s not clear that that we really have any leverage.”
Ruggiero noted that while administration officials are likely “game planning” on how to handle requests from North Korea, the U.S. is unlikely to offer up major concessions — such as relief from financial penalties imposed on Pyongyang over its ballistic missile program.
But Ruggiero said former officials such as retiring Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, or even former president and current candidate for the office Donald Trump may be able to move the needle with leader Kim Jong Un.
“I suspect that North Korea spends a lot of time watching what former President Trump says and does on the campaign trail, for no other reason than the relationship that he built with Kim in North Korea,” he said. “But also, at this moment, President Trump is a front runner.”
While Ruggiero said North Korea might ultimately seek engagement with someone closer to the Biden administration, Bennett argues that Kim has shown no appetite for communication with the current president.
“The relationship at this stage is pretty frosty because North Korea is not getting anything out of the U.S. that they would have liked to get,” Bennett said. “With Trump, they were getting recognition that they really wanted.”
For now, Bennett says, just the spotlight King’s case has cast on the hermit kingdom may be enough to satisfy its leader.
“One of the things that Kim Jong Un loves is to be in the Western news. And the longer they keep [King] and the longer they make this difficult for the U.S., the more that Kim Jong Un is likely going to be in the news,” Bennett said. “They don’t really have much in the way of incentives to be responsive.”
There hasn’t been a similar case of an American soldier crossing without authorization into North Korea in four decades. The details of that case remain sparse.
(NEW YORK) — A Russian fighter jet fired flares directly at an American MQ-9 Reaper drone over Syria on Sunday, damaging its propeller, according to U.S. Air Forces Central — the latest in a string of what military officials have denounced as risky and provocative behavior.
The drone was on a counter-terrorism mission against the Islamic State group, according to the Air Force.
“On 23 July, 2023 at 12:23 a.m. (EST) Russian fighter aircraft flew dangerously close to a U.S. MQ-9 drone on a defeat-ISIS mission, harassing the MQ-9 and deploying flares from a position directly overhead, with only a few meters of separation between aircraft,” Air Forces Central Commander Lt. Gen. Alex Grynkewich said.
One of the flares hit the drone, “severely damaging its propeller,” according to Grynkewich.
“The Russian fighter’s blatant disregard for flight safety detracts from our mission to ensure the enduring defeat of ISIS. We call upon the Russian forces in Syria to put an immediate end to this reckless, unprovoked, and unprofessional behavior,” he said.
The crew remotely operating the MQ-9 was able to maintain control of the aircraft and fly it back to its home base.
The U.S. military has recently observed what it has called increasingly “unsafe and unprofessional” incidents in the sky.
Last week, a Russian Su-35 fighter endangered the crew of a manned U.S. MC-12 by forcing it to fly through its wake turbulence, according to a release from Air Forces Central.
“This reduced the crew’s ability to safely operate the aircraft and put the four crewmembers’ lives at risk,” the release stated.
And for two days in a row early this month, officials have said, Russian pilots dropped parachute flares into the paths of U.S. MQ-9 Reaper drones, which took evasive maneuvers to avoid damage. Russia claimed the drones had entered airspace designated for a Russian-Syrian counter-drone exercise.
A senior U.S. defense official told reporters there was no such exercise, saying, “It’s just an excuse to go after our MQ-9’s and try to intercept.”
Similar incidents have occurred outside Syria. In March, a Russian fighter collided with a U.S. drone over the Black Sea, bending its propeller. The U.S. was forced to bring the craft down off the coast of Ukraine, according to defense officials.
The U.S. has around 900 troops in eastern Syria assisting in the fight against IS, while Russia has a military presence in northwestern Syria as part of its mission to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Russian and U.S. forces for years have made use of a “deconfliction hotline” to let each other know when they are carrying out missions so as to avoid any dangerous misunderstandings.
The hotline is still used, but “it sometimes gets very heated,” with a lot of back and forth during tense encounters, according to the senior U.S. defense official.
(NEW YORK) — At least 34 people have died and thousands more have been forced to evacuate as authorities battle raging wildfires in Northern Algeria, Algeria’s Interior Ministry announced.
At least 8,000 firefighters, 529 trucks and 10 mobile columns and aerial support teams are working to fight the wildfires — the largest and worst of which are in Algeria’s coastal provinces of Béjaïa, Bouïra and Jijel, east of Algiers.
Fanned by high temperatures and strong winds, the wildfires — which have been burning for several days — have spread across forests and agricultural areas in a total of 16 Provinces and Civil Protection services have recorded 97 blazes across the African nation.
Among those killed include 10 soldiers from the People’s National Army (ANP) who were fighting the flames, Algeria’s Defence Ministry announced.
At least 1,500 people have been evacuated thus far, Algeria’s Interior Ministry announced.
Algeria’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has urged vigilance, calling on citizens to avoid going to forest areas as firefighting and rescue operations continue.
“Given the record and significant rise in temperature and forest fires recorded in certain Wilayas [provinces] of the country, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development calls on all citizens, both those living near forests and city dwellers, to avoid going to forests, especially in these abnormal climatic conditions,” Algeria’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development said.
In neighboring Tunisia, authorities have also evacuated 2,500 people from the border town of Maloula as wildfires rapidly spread from Algeria across the border.
Algeria is in the midst of a scorching summer, recording temperatures as high as 48 degrees Celsius (118 Fahrenheit) in parts of the country on Monday. The region is also susceptible to summer wildfires. Last summer, the Algerian Red Crescent announced at least 43 people were killed and 200 injured in fires that occurred in forest and urban areas.
“Algeria is affected by forest fires that occur every summer, but the rate of being affected by fires increases from year to year due to climate change that causes drought and heat waves,” said the Algerian Red Crescent Society.
Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune offered condolences to families of the victims of the fires.
“In front of this great affliction, I express to the families of the victims my deepest condolences and sincere feelings of sympathy,” he said in a statement.
Algerian authorities have announced firefighting and rescue operations are continuing in affected areas despite “difficult weather conditions” and “record rise in temperature,” remaining mobilized until fires are completely extinguished.
(NEW YORK) — Weather conditions are keeping the Mexican Navy from approaching the capsized sailboat of a U.S. citizen who was reported missing on July 21, officials told ABC News Tuesday.
Donald Lawson, from Baltimore, Maryland, was piloting the sailboat, U.S. Coast Guard District 11 Petty Officer Hunter Schnabel told ABC News. He was headed from Acapulco, Mexico, to Panama on July 5.
Lawson called his spouse a few days into his journey and said he was having mechanical issues with the sailboat. He told his spouse he would head back to Acapulco, Schnabel said.
When his spouse did not hear from him for a few days, she contacted the Maryland Coast Guard on July 21, the official told ABC News.
Three vessels and a “persuader aircraft” were deployed, the Mexican Navy said, in the search and location operation. The boat was found capsized 275 miles from Acapulco. Weather conditions are impeding further search efforts.
Lawson had been on the journey hoping to set a speed record, sailing a trimaran around the world, Baltimore ABC affiliate WMAR-TV reported. The professional ship captain recently docked in Acapulco for repairs.
(KYIV, Ukraine) — EDITOR’S NOTE: Readers may find some images disturbing.
Andriy and Alina Smolensky were just 22 years old when they were introduced by a mutual friend at a party in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, five years ago.
“I think it was midnight,” Alina told ABC News. “We talked all night long. After that, he found me on Facebook and he wrote to me. After that, we started to chat with each other. Every day.”
The couple bonded over a shared love of music and the outdoors. Three months later, Andriy proposed, and Alina said yes without hesitation.
“I was really kind of at that point of my life [when] I understood who am I, what I want from this life,” Andriy told ABC news. “And I finally found the girl for me.”
When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Andriy, like so many other Ukrainians, signed up to fight, driven by the desire to protect his country and preserve the life they had built. Even if she wanted to, Alina knew she couldn’t convince Andriy to stay out of the war.
“If he was another person, if he had another mind, I don’t know if I’d love him,” she said. “I was scared, but in the same time, I was proud of him a lot.”
Andriy began in the infantry, but with his background in IT, he eventually found himself promoted and working as a sergeant in a drone reconnaissance unit on the frontline. While leading a mission in the spring, disaster struck in the trenches. Reaching out of the trench to pick up one of their drones, a mortar shell exploded in front of his face.
“Basically this is the last moment I remember,” Andriy said. His partner froze, but Andriy, still conscious, continued to shout orders to his men.
“He thought I was dead because it’s got blown right next to my head and my hands, as I get out from the trench,” Andriy said.
Rushed to the nearest field hospital, Andriy fell into a coma. Alina, back in Kyiv, heard the news the next day.
“It was a military psychologist,” she said. “He asked me to sit down and he said that there are two news for me. The good news is that Andriy is alive. The sad news is that he doesn’t have his arms and he didn’t know if he had his eyes.”
Within 15 minutes she had packed her bag and rushed to the east to see her husband. She was allowed just 20 minutes to see him and, despite the severity of Andriy’s life-changing injuries, she was by his side. A sense of relief was her overriding emotion.
“You know, I felt happy that I’m with him,” she said. “That he’s not alone. That I am not alone, too. That we are together. Because we are family.”
Andriy lost both his arms in the explosion. But it was the news that he had also lost his sight that proved most devastating.
“After that, I had a couple of hard days,” he said at an interview in the military hospital he is staying in. “When I realize that my whole life was disappearing now. My dreams disappearing now. My career disappearing now. And the next time I come to the Carpathian Mountains, hiking with my wife, I won’t have the possibility to take her hand and see her smiling.”
With Alina’s help, Andriy tries not to dwell on those thoughts. Instead, they focus on the positives. Though badly scarred, thanks to the quick work of the doctors, the shrapnel lodged in his face did not damage his brain, for which he is grateful.
“You know, a lot of veterans came back and they cannot remember their children,” Andriy said. “I am grateful to God that I can talk, that I can hear at least [with] one of my ears. And that I can remember who I am, why I did what I did. And to be proud for myself and my family.”
He added: “In my soul I’m the same, but my appearance is a little bit changed.”
Andriy’s injuries represent the kind of family tragedy unimaginable in peacetime. But Alina has not left his side, and is learning to adjust to the complex needs of Andriy’s recovery. That emotional support, as well as the medical, is crucial in helping the wounded to live functioning lives again.
It is special “to find such a level of support, such a friendship in a family, such love,” Dr. Bohdan Vashkevych, who is supervising Andriy’s care at a military hospital in Kyiv, told ABC News. Love and support, he said, “is one of the most important factors of a successful rehabilitation.”
The complexity of Andriy’s needs — lacking both the sensitivity of touch and his eyesight — cannot fully be served by Ukraine. The couple are hopeful that, as he continues his recovery, they may have access to prosthetics abroad and new technologies in the U.S. and Europe to help regain some of his sight. For now, they are taking their recovery one day at a time.
“You know, everyone told me that ‘Alina you are so strong,'” she said. “You are doing such a lot of things. But don’t think that I do something special. That’s my husband. I love him. What else should I do? That’s not something heroic for me.”
(NEW YORK) — Iran’s “morality police,” are again patrolling the streets to enforce the country’s compulsory hijab law, nearly a year after widespread protests erupted following the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in police custody.
The controversial measure was announced Sunday along with a series of other severe actions that are being taken against women, Iranian authorities said.
Amini was on a trip to Tehran last September when the morality police arrested her for not wearing “proper hijab.” She was taken into custody only to be announced dead at a hospital three days later, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency.
Her death sparked protests among women who risked their lives by ripping off their hijabs and cutting their hair in public. Iran Human Rights reported that at least 537 people were killed in the ensuing protests and at least 22,000 people were arrested, with IRNA confirming the number of arrests.
A 33-year-old singer from Tehran, who asked not to be identified by name because she fears retribution from local authorities, spoke to ABC News podcast START HERE about the morality police’s return and her hope that people will continue to keep up the pressure and protect one another.
BRAD MIELKE: So with that in mind, without your name, what can you tell me about who you are and where you are?
IRANIAN WOMAN: I’m 33 now. I’m from Tehran. I live in Tehran. I’m a singer. I cannot sing. I am not approved to have a concert. So this information can harm you. That’s why I cannot totally talk about myself easily, and I’m sorry about that.
MIELKE: That’s totally understandable. Can you explain the morality police to an American? We think of – there are police in uniforms and they enforce the law, but the morality police sound very different in certain ways. Can you just explain what they do, who they are and how they act?
WOMAN: Sure. They have the, you know, dress code – such as police. And may I ask you a question? Do you have a wife? A girlfriend?
MIELKE: Yes. Yeah. I’m married. A wife, yeah.
WOMAN: Oh, good, good. Bless you. Imagine that you’re walking with your wife in the street, going to shop some shoes for her. And in the entrance of a mall, there are two people standing with a very nasty style. They have, you know, crossed eyebrows. They are looking at you like they want to kill you and they ask your wife to come here. [They say,] ‘Why are you wearing that? Why are your hair out? Don’t do that. Don’t do this. OK, come with me. I will make sure that you are punished.’
MIELKE: I see, wow. And they have the impunity as they see fit, essentially?
WOMAN: Yeah. Believe me, they will attack you somehow. This is a horror movie. I cannot explain it to you.
MIELKE: In recent years, like after the death of Mahsa Amini, what was it like in Iran? How did life change?
WOMAN: It has changed everything. At the day when I saw the news and saw the girl falling down and that brutal – “Vozaro,” we call it “Vozaro” – morality police office, I hated them. I wanted to kill someone, because they have done something terrible to her – a very, very good girl who was so much better than me in their attitude.
MIELKE: You’re saying like, she was even more obedient than you. And they’re still doing terrible things.
WOMAN: Yes, sure, sure. She was an idol for them. Just look at the streets now. She was idol of hijab in comparison with the way we dress now, and that was their mistake. After that, everything changed. We are on the streets. We participated everywhere. People just called for help and I got beaten. My family got beaten. They’re fighting, because they know that always there is the threat of being arrested, being tortured, being raped in the prison. But they stood – we stood together. I walk close to a girl who is not wearing hijab, because I want her to feel safe. The other girl does it for me.
MIELKE: I see. So you had this collective unwillingness to wear the hijab. People have been openly defying these laws and, frankly, the authorities have seemed fearful of cracking down too hard. But then in the last week, they came out and they said in a statement they will be enforcing things more harshly. Have you seen that play out yourself?
WOMAN: On the subway, you cannot get on easily, because they have two policemen and they’re standing in the entrance of the subway. They shout. They try to scare you to obey the rule of hijab. But I myself didn’t pay attention to them. They followed me. I ran and blah, blah, blah, blah.
MIELKE: So you were not wearing a hijab on the subway and these men –
WOMAN: No, I’m not wearing hijab anywhere.
MIELKE: Right, and these men see you and then follow you and shout at you?
WOMAN: Yeah, yeah. If they get you, they make sure that you are beaten up and you are arrested. And I’m not going to mention the other stuff. They do this to make the fear in the society. But the thing is, beneath that skin is that we are too much. They are afraid. They know that they cannot attack me as one person, one individual. If they attack me, the society will, you know, interfere and maybe they will be beaten up.
MIELKE: Like you’re saying, when police now grab one woman at a time, other people might stand up for that woman?
WOMAN: Yes, yes. It is really possible. This is a big possibility.
MIELKE: And is that different from a year or two or five years ago?
WOMAN: Yes, sure. Believe me, this would never happen those days. People help each other. We didn’t believe that we can help each other, but nowadays we do. We do. And, you know, they fear. They have the fear. My husband has been bitten by the bullet, because of helping a woman.
MIELKE: Bitten by the bullet. He was shot for helping a woman?
WOMAN: Yes, yes, but he is OK.
MIELKE: OK.
WOMAN: Yeah, he is OK now, but that is true. He was talking and then he saw someone grabbing a little girl in that way of, you know, nasty touching and stuff to get her to somewhere that she might not get back safe. He didn’t think of anything. He just interfered. And we help each other these days.
MIELKE: So it seems like the Iranian authorities are trying to reassert the control they have, but it sounds like you’re saying, the people in Iran are forever changed. Like, you guys are not going back to that system the way it looked before.
WOMAN: Yes, sure, sure. You know, if an animal fears about something. For example, a cat fears of something, it tries to show teeth to the thing. They are doing that. They are fearful. They are shaking to the bones of us being together. So, what is the solution for them? Being more brutal. They try to put more pressure on us. Just today, a very big online shop like Amazon has been shut down because their staff, they’re not wearing hijab.
So look, nothing is going right for them. We are continuing, because this is the way that has no turning back. We have to stick to it. If we let the rope loose, they will kill us all.
MIELKE: Wow, if you loosen the rope, they will kill us all. If you release that pressure, then they’ll just make it even worse. Really powerful. Thank you so much for telling us your story, and thank you for being with us. And thank you for your bravery.
WOMAN: Thank you so much. Thank you so much. That is a great feeling, when you feel you are imprisoned in a country, but someone else, someone out there is thinking about you and concerned about you. Thank you so much. Thanks, America.
(LONDON) — Israeli lawmakers on Monday approved the key part of a divisive judicial overhaul plan pushed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Part of the plan — which was proposed as a sweeping reform by Netanyahu’s hardline nationalist government — removes the court system’s ability to strike down “unreasonable” decisions by the government. Critics said it would mark a move away from democratic ideals. Supporters said it would claw back some power from unelected judges.
Lawmakers who opposed the bill stormed out of the chamber before a vote, resulting in the bill passing with a 64-0 unanimous approval. As opposing lawmakers left the floor, they called out “shame” and “government of destruction,” officials said in a press release announcing the vote.
“This extreme government is hugging and posing to celebrate the moment they made it that we are no longer a brotherly people,” said Yair Lapid, former prime minister and opposition leader. “Celebrating the moment when they managed to throw into the ash heap of history everything that connects us.”
He continued, “Today, we saw an unprecedented show of weakness by Netanyahu. There is no prime minister in Israel. Netanyahu has become a puppet on a string of messianic extremists.”
A previously planned vote on the overhaul during parliament’s last legislative session had been delayed after the plan sparked nationwide protests.
Thousands of protesters on Monday again lined the streets around the Knesset, where Israel’s parliament meets in Jerusalem. They were met with a heavy police presence. Authorities fired water canons overnight and carried several protestors away on Monday morning.
The people out in mass in the streets wanted only to “overthrow the government that was democratically elected,” Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir, the leader of the Jewish Power party, said on Monday.
Protests have simmered in Israel for months, since the planned changes were rolled out in December. Under Netanyahu’s reforms, Knesset lawmakers would be able to override decisions made by the country’s supreme court, a change that’s seen by many as a move to consolidate power.
“Without the hundreds of thousands of people who took to the streets, the legislation would have continued unhindered,” Yair Lapid, an opposition leader, said on Sunday. “I will do as much as I can to bring a broad consensus for a democratic and strong Israel.”
Netanyahu was released from a hospital on Monday after spending two nights at the Sheba Medical Center, where he was fitted with a pacemaker.
President Joe Biden called on Sunday for Netanyahu not to “rush” his plan, adding that it’s “becoming more divisive, not less.”
“Given the range of threats and challenges confronting Israel right now, it doesn’t make sense for Israeli leaders to rush this — the focus should be on pulling people together and finding consensus,” Biden said, in a remark first reported by Axios and confirmed by ABC News.
The two leaders spoke about the bill in March, when it was delayed.
ABC News’ Joe Simonetti, Fritz Farrow and Alexandra Hutzler contributed to this story.
