(NEW YORK) — If there is any indication that temperatures around the world are rising, look to the last several years and the intense warmth experienced in almost every region, experts said.
Last year was the fifth-warmest year on record, according to a report released by the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service on Tuesday.
On July 19, in the midst of a deadly heat wave in Europe, the temperature in Coningsby, U.K., soared to 104.5 degrees Fahrenheit, marking the hottest temperature ever recorded in the country. It bested its previous record by 2.8 degrees Fahrenheit — a glaring indicator of climate change amid a summer that went down as Europe’s warmest ever recorded, the report said.
In the new report issued by Copernicus, the data from 2022 indicates that Earth’s warming continued at a similar rate to recent years. In addition to last year’s temperatures marking the fifth-warmest on record, the last eight years are now also the eighth-warmest on record, according to Copernicus.
The same day the Copernicus global report was released, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued its annual summary of 2022 climate statistics and natural disasters for the United States. The results tell a similar story: the warming and extreme consequences due to human-induced climate change are continuing at a concerning rate.
A year of global highs and lows
Vostok Station in Antarctica recorded a temperature of .14 degrees Fahrenheit in March 2022, marking the first time in 65 years of records that the thermometer did not have a negative reading. Antarctic sea ice reported six months of the year with a record or near-record low sea ice extent.
In addition to Europe’s record-setting summer scorcher, there were also major heat waves in Pakistan, India and China. While rain brought relief from the heat in Pakistan, extreme rainfall led to devastating flooding throughout the country that continues to be cleaned up months later.
“2022 was yet another year of climate extremes across Europe and globally,” Samantha Burgess, deputy director of the Copernicus Climate Change Service, said in a statement. “These events highlight that we are already experiencing the devastating consequences of our warming world. The latest 2022 Climate Highlights from C3S provides clear evidence that avoiding the worst consequences will require society to both urgently reduce carbon emissions and swiftly adapt to the changing climate.”
Last year was also a tough 12 months for glaciers. According to the World Meteorological Organization, 2022 “took an exceptionally heavy toll on glaciers in the European Alps, with initial indications of record-shattering melt.”
Greenland’s ice sheet also saw significant melting, with September setting records for high temperatures, melt extent and ice loss.
“The total amount of meltwater produced during the month was 57 billion tons, a record for September, compared to the 1981 to 2010 average September total of 9 billion tons,” according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center.
A weather station at Greenland’s summit — more than 10,000 feet in elevation — reported rain for the first time in its 72-year history. The temperature stayed above freezing for nine hours as observers noted heavy rain falling on the normally frozen landscape.
Greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise
Carbon dioxide levels continued their yearly rise by 2.1 parts per million in 2022, according to the Copernicus report. That brings the annual average CO2 level to 417ppm, the highest in over 2 million years.
Methane, another key gas that contributes to global warming, rose by 12 parts per billion to a total of 1,894 ppb.
Both carbon dioxide and methane levels in 2022 set new records for emissions, which makes it challenging for countries to meet goals established by the Paris Climate Agreement, which aims to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.
“Greenhouse gases, including carbon dioxide and methane, are the main drivers of climate change and we can see from our monitoring activities that atmospheric concentrations are continuing to rise with no signs of slowing,” Vincent-Henri Peuch, director of the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service, said in a statement.
Billion-dollar disasters
NOAA’s report highlights 18 disasters in 2022 that cost more than $1 billion, the third most since 1980. Only 2021 and 2020 had more billion-dollar disasters in a single year.
“I think it’s important for everybody to realize we’re already paying the price for climate change,” Dr. Rick Spinrad, NOAA administrator and under secretary of commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere, told ABC News. “It’s manifesting $165 billion worth of damage, which roughly translates to about a thousand dollars per American household.”
When adjusted for inflation, 2022 was also the third costliest year on record for natural disasters. The only other years that cost the country more were 2005, when Hurricane Katrina struck the New Orleans area, and 2017, which saw Hurricane Harvey devastated the Houston metro area.
Looking ahead to 2023, NOAA expects to see similar trends for natural disasters, especially when it comes to severity, magnitude and frequency of events, but people and communities can be better prepared to mitigate the threats.
“Know your risks,” Spinrad said, “Know what you might be facing…and know where to get information.” Having reliable forecasts, warnings, and safety information is key to preparing for an effective plan in the event of extreme weather.
Spinrad continued, “That plan may be under the seat. Or the plan could be to shelter in place, in which case you want to make sure you’ve got emergency supplies to take care of yourself.”
ABC News’ Julia Jacobo contributed to this report.
(MEXICO CITY) — The White House announced new agreements between the United States, Mexico and Canada on Tuesday, just hours before the countries’ leaders — the so-called “Three Amigos” — meet for trilateral talks in Mexico City.
But perhaps most notable was what’s missing so far — there was no fresh commitment on fentanyl, a powerful synthetic opioid that is smuggled across the border from Mexico, even after the White House said President Joe Biden would make specific asks of his Mexican counterpart, President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador.
Instead, the White House said the three countries have committed to “increased information sharing on chemicals used in the illicit manufacture of fentanyl and other synthetic drugs” — a far cry from any new law enforcement operations, sanctions or other activity to disrupt fentanyl production and trafficking by drug cartels.
The North American Leaders’ Summit brings together Biden, Lopez Obrador and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for two days of talks, with border security and migration — both legal and illegal — as key topics.
On migration, the White House said the three countries have agreed to take small steps to try to encourage migrants to apply for legal status, rather than put their lives in the hands of smugglers and make the journey north. But those steps — including a new joint platform online to give migrants “streamlined access to legal pathways,” a new legal center in southern Mexico backed by private sector funding and “sharing best practices” — are similarly meager given the scale of the issue.
More notable were the fresh commitments to increase economic cooperation — working together on key sectors, such as semiconductors and critical minerals, as well as on supply chains and advanced workforce training. While no financial commitments have been announced yet, those agreements include a cabinet-level summit on semiconductors, mapping mineral resources across the North American continent and promoting educational investment.
Both Biden and Lopez Obrador boasted that kind of cooperation during a one-on-one meeting on Monday, with the Mexican president describing his American counterpart as a “humanistic” and “visionary” leader and calling for new U.S. investment in the region.
“There would be no other leader that could implement this enterprise — beginning with you,” Lopez Obrador said to Biden in front of reporters. “You hold the key in your hand to open and to substantially improve the relationship among all the countries of the American continent.”
Biden, who has repeatedly talked about the importance of rebuilding U.S. manufacturing and moving supply chains closer to home, agreed up to a point — telling Lopez Obrador: “We’re at one of those inflection points where what we do in the next several years is going to determine what the world looks like in the next two, three, four decades.”
But Biden noted that the U.S. already provides more foreign aid than any other country and, “unfortunately, our responsibility just doesn’t end in the Western Hemisphere.”
There’s also a major, ongoing dispute over energy. Lopez Obrador has taken steps to box out foreign companies, especially in the renewable space, and instead prop up Mexico’s state-owned oil firm, Pemex. That triggered the U.S. and Canada to file a formal complaint in July under USMCA, a Trump-era free trade deal between the three countries that replaced the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement.
Not only did the White House make no mention of this dispute on Tuesday ahead of the trilateral talks, it said the three countries have recognized “the urgency for rapid, coordinated, and ambitious measures to build clean energy economies and respond to the climate crisis,” alongside another list of commitments, from reducing methane emissions and food waste to electrifying public buses and expanding conservation and electric vehicle chargers.
(LONDON) — Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has been admitted to a hospital in Orlando, Florida, for abdominal pain, according to the presidential office. News of Bolsonaro’s hospitalization comes hours after President Joe Biden condemned the “outrageous” storming of three major Brazilian government buildings by supporters of Bolsonaro on Sunday.
A heavy police presence remained in Brazil on Monday after chaotic scenes reminiscent of the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Bolsonaro has had strong episodes of abdominal pain, including occlusion, since he was stabbed during a campaign event in 2018. He is undergoing medical exams at AdventHealth Orlando and might be spending the night. Bolsonaro traveled to the U.S. days before the end of 2022 and missed his successor’s inauguration.
Brazil’s new president, the left-wing Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, known widely as “Lula,” confirmed that three buildings had been damaged in the attack. He was in Sao Paulo at the time, but traveled to Brazil on Sunday evening to survey the damage.
“The coup plotters who promoted the destruction of public property in Brasilia are being identified and will be punished,” he tweeted. “Tomorrow we resume work at the Planalto Palace. Democracy always. Goodnight.”
Lula previously served as president of Brazil from 2003 to 2011. He was jailed on corruption charges in 2019, but his convictions were later nullified and he successfully defeated Bolsonaro in elections in 2022. Lula is holding a virtual crisis meeting on Monday with all governors of the country to discuss the reinforcement of security nationwide, especially at official buildings.
Bolsonaro, a far-right politician, has often been compared to former President Donald Trump, and has falsely claimed Lula won in a “stolen election” — even going as far as to advocate for a military coup.
The chaos began when at least 100 buses full of supporters of Bolsonaro arrived for a planned protest in Brazil’s capital. An estimated 4,000 protesters gathered, before several hundred broke through police barriers to enter the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. Then, they were able to storm the Planalto Palace — one of the official palaces of the presidency. None of the buildings were in use at the time.
Brazilian security forces used tear gas in an attempt to disperse the crowd. Armed officers were also seen confronting supporters of the ex-president on the roof of the Senate building.
At least 400 were arrested for their involvement in the attack on Sunday, according to military police, and they will face charges of rebellion. A further 1,200 protesters, camped out in Brazil, were arrested near the army headquarters. It is not clear how many have been released so far.
The Ministry of Justice has set up an email address to receive information about the “terrorist” attack, in addition to the ongoing investigation.
Bolsonaro was in Orlando, Florida, at the time of the attack, and said that he condemned the violence but denied Lula’s accusation that he was responsible.
Biden condemned the attack on Sunday, describing it as “outrageous.”
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan tweeted his own condemnation: “The United States condemns any effort to undermine democracy in Brazil. President Biden is following the situation closely and our support for Brazil’s democratic institutions is unwavering. Brazil’s democracy will not be shaken by violence.”
(LONDON) — President Joe Biden condemned the “outrageous” storming of three major government buildings by supporters of the former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro on Sunday, as a heavy police presence remained in Brazil after chaotic scenes reminiscent of the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Brazil’s new president, the left-wing Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, known widely as “Lula,” confirmed that three buildings had been damaged in the attack. He was in Sao Paulo at the time, but traveled to Brazil on Sunday evening to survey the damage.
“The coup plotters who promoted the destruction of public property in Brasilia are being identified and will be punished,” he tweeted. “Tomorrow we resume work at the Planalto Palace. Democracy always. Goodnight.”
Lula previously served as president of Brazil from 2003 to 2011. He was jailed on corruption charges in 2019, but his convictions were later nullified and he successfully defeated Bolsonaro in elections in 2022. Lula is holding a virtual crisis meeting on Monday with all governors of the country to discuss the reinforcement of security nationwide, especially at official buildings.
Bolsonaro, a far-right politician, has often been compared to former President Donald Trump, and has falsely claimed Lula won in a “stolen election” — even going as far as to advocate for a military coup.
The chaos began when at least 100 buses full of supporters of Bolsonaro arrived for a planned protest in Brazil’s capital. An estimated 4,000 protesters gathered, before several hundred broke through police barriers to enter the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate. Then, they were able to storm the Planalto Palace — one of the official palaces of the presidency. None of the buildings were in use at the time.
Brazilian security forces used tear gas in an attempt to disperse the crowd. Armed officers were also seen confronting supporters of the ex-president on the roof of the Senate building.
At least 400 were arrested for their involvement in the attack on Sunday, according to military police, and they will face charges of rebellion. A further 1,200 protesters, camped out in Brazil, were arrested near the army headquarters. It is not clear how many have been released so far.
The Ministry of Justice has set up an email address to receive information about the “terrorist” attack, in addition to the ongoing investigation.
Bolsonaro was in Orlando, Florida, at the time of the attack, and said that he condemned the violence but denied Lula’s accusation that he was responsible.
Biden condemned the attack on Sunday, describing it as “outrageous.”
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan tweeted his own condemnation: “The United States condemns any effort to undermine democracy in Brazil. President Biden is following the situation closely and our support for Brazil’s democratic institutions is unwavering. Brazil’s democracy will not be shaken by violence.”
(LONDON) — Prince Harry is sharing new details about his fractured relationships with his father King Charles III and brother Prince William, and how his hope for a “reconciliation” has led him to speak out.
“If we can get to the point of reconciliation, that will have a ripple effect across the world,” Harry told ABC News’ Good Morning America co-anchor Michael Strahan in a new interview about his memoir Spare. “I genuinely believe that, and that’s kind of what is pushing me. And if that doesn’t happen, then that’s very sad.”
Spare — a nod to Harry’s birth order as the younger brother of William, heir to the throne — will be released on Jan. 10, nearly three years to the day that Harry and his wife Meghan, the duchess of Sussex, shocked the world announcing their plans to “step back” as senior members of Britain’s royal family.
Since then, the couple has moved to California, where they now live with their two children, and separated themselves almost completely from royal life, becoming financially independent and pursuing their own careers.
In the wake of their departure, Harry told Strahan he does not believe the details he shares in Spare can make things any worse with his family.
“I have thought about it long and hard,” Harry said. “And as far as I see it, the divide couldn’t be greater before this book.”
William, ‘beloved brother and arch nemesis’
To the outside world Harry, 38, and William, 40, always appeared close, seemingly bonded by the death of their mother Princess Diana when Harry was just 12 and William was 15.
Harry told Strahan that privately, there was more to the brothers’ story. In his memoir, Harry refers to William as his “beloved brother and arch nemesis” and recalls verbal and even physical disputes between them.
“There has always been this competition between us weirdly,” Harry said. “Again, I think it really plays into, or is played, by the heir/spare.”
When asked whether he thought William was jealous of his position as the spare, Harry said yes.
“But I have more freedom than he does, right?” Harry said. “So his life is planned out for him. I have more flexibility to be able to choose the life that I wanted.”
Harry said that while the typical path for the spare is to sit “in the monarch’s shadow,” he wanted to carve a different path.
As Harry moved further down that path and eventually married Meghan, he claims William broke a longstanding “pact” between the brothers to not let their offices fight or brief the press against each other.
In Spare, Harry claims members of the royal institution fed stories to the press and refused to set the record straight on false reports, especially about Meghan, thereby shifting the negative spotlight on her in order to protect other royals.
“The people that he employed broke that,” Harry said of his self-described pact with William. “But again, within the family, it’s hard because you are led to believe that if you don’t play the game, that you will be destroyed. And again, I’m the one who’s proving that that is true, right? Chose not to play the game, but they’re trying to destroy me.”
In one example, Harry claims palace officials failed to correct tabloid stories alleging Meghan made William’s wife Kate, the princess of Wales, cry in the run-up to the Sussexes’ 2018 wedding. Harry writes in Spare, and Meghan has said in a previous interview, that it was Kate who upset Meghan and later apologized.
“[The press] pitched the Waleses, which Kate and William are now, against the Sussexes, me and my wife. They always pitched us against each other,” Harry said. “They pitched Kate and Meghan against each other.”
When asked whether press reports of Kate and Meghan fighting disrupted the women’s relationship, Harry replied, “Without question.”
“If you read [the press coverage], it very much feeds into how you function, operate, and behave. Without question,” Harry said. “But the moment you don’t read it, you can live a truly authentic life.”
Harry said he believes the British press continues to try to “drive a wedge” between him and William, but hopes that he can reconcile with his brother.
“I hope that we will be joined at the hip again,” he said. “Because, you know, if there’s something that will terrify the British press more than anything, it’s William and I being aligned.”
Harry said he “without question” shoulders some of the responsibility for the breakdown of his relationship with William. But he added, “What people don’t know is the efforts that I’ve gone to [in order] to resolve this privately, both with my brother and with my father.”
Neither Kensington Palace — William and Kate’s office — nor Buckingham Palace, the office of Charles and Camilla, the queen consort, have commented on the claims Harry makes in Spare.
ABC News reached out to Kensington Palace and Buckingham palace for response to Harry’s remarks in our interview. Kensington Palace declined to comment.
ABC News received a response from the law firm representing Buckingham Palace Monday saying that the palace needed to “consider exactly what is said in the interview and the context in which it appears,” and asked that we supply them immediately with a copy of the entire interview. We do not do that as a news organization as a matter of policy.
Harry describes how his and Meghan’s hope for a different royal life collapsed
According to Harry, intense press coverage and security concerns played a large part in his and Meghan’s quest to carve out different royal roles for themselves that would allow them to split their time between Canada and the U.K. while still serving the monarchy.
When the proposal was brought to the royal family, Harry said there was “zero compromise.” He added that an agreed-upon 12-month transition period completely fell apart when his own family’s security was pulled.
“I was stunned that my family would allow security to be taken away, especially at the most vulnerable point for us,” said Harry, who was living with Meghan and their son Archie in Vancouver Island, Canada, at the time. “And maybe they didn’t understand the concerns that I had. I mean, I listed them. I laid them out.”
When asked whether he thought his family didn’t understand his security concerns, or didn’t care, Harry replied, “I think probably a little bit of both.”
Harry expressed that neither he nor Meghan wanted to leave their senior royal roles, saying, “We were based in Windsor. That was where we genuinely thought we were going to spend the rest of our lives.”
Describing his and Meghan’s ideal life, he said they wanted to continue to represent the monarchy but to do so mainly outside of the U.K. so that their work wouldn’t go through what he called “the filter of the tabloids.”
“We were trying to find a different way to work, but for one reason or another, despite the fact that it already exists within the family, we weren’t allowed to do things slightly differently,” Harry said. “To still perform and work and support and represent the monarchy, but to be financially independent, to remove the supposed public interest, which the tabloids had used repeatedly to invade every single element of our life.”
A return to the U.K. and a working royal role?
Though Harry’s memoir Spare rips open his view of the royal institution and his family, he said he thinks telling his story is what is needed to make peace.
“I don’t think that we can ever have peace with my family unless the truth is out there,” he told Strahan. “There’s a lot that I can forgive, but there needs to be conversations in order for reconciliation, and part of that has to be accountability.”
Harry said he also hopes to have a candid, private conversation with family members.
“I just hope that there’s a way that we can have a conversation that is trusted within that conversation that isn’t then spilled to the British press,” he said. “That’s where I am.”
When describing how he chose the personal, behind-the-scenes details he shares in Spare, Harry said he thought more about the family he has created with Meghan.
“As [with] everybody who has a large family, a family that you’ve been born into, there becomes a point when the family that you’ve created … becomes the priority over the family that you were born into,” said Harry, who wed Meghan in 2018. “So, not to say it wasn’t hard. It was very hard. But that was my thinking and the process in which I went through.”
Harry has only returned to the U.K. a handful of times since his exit in 2020, including for the funerals of his grandfather Prince Philip and, more recently, his grandmother Queen Elizabeth II.
According to Harry, the queen never told him she was angry with him for wanting to change his royal role, but he believes she was “sad” his situation had reached that point.
“I had many, many conversations with her both in the U.K. over the years and in the run-up to the point of this change, so it was never a surprise to anybody, least of all her,” Harry said. “She knew what was going on. She knew how hard it was. I don’t know whether she was in a position to be able to change it.”
When asked whether he saw himself, Meghan and their children ever returning to the U.K. and becoming working royals again, Harry said he doesn’t think so.
“Even if there was an agreement or an arrangement between me and my family, there is that third party that is going to do everything they can to make sure that that isn’t possible,” Harry said, referring to the British press. “Not stopping us from necessarily going back, but making it unsurvivable, and that’s really sad because that is essentially breaking the relationship between us.”
He added, “If there was something in the future where we can continue to support the Commonwealth, then that’s of course on the table, but there’s so much that needs to happen between now and then, and so much that can happen.”
Harry says he’s speaking out to help protect other generations of royals
The dduke of Sussex said he “genuinely” believes the British monarchy should continue, and that there is a place for it in the 21st century as long as it modernizes.
“I think the same process that I went through regarding my own unconscious bias would be hugely beneficial to them,” he said. “It’s not racism, but unconscious bias if not confronted, if not acknowledged, if not learned and grown from, that can then move into racism. And the way that I understand it is that we all want to be part of the solution rather than part of the problem.”
Harry said the royals missed a “huge missed opportunity” in modernizing the monarchy through what Meghan represented as a biracial woman.
“It’s what she said to me from right from the beginning, representation,” Harry said of his wife. “And I, as a privileged white man, didn’t really understand what she was talking about.”
With his memoir, Harry said a large part of his drive to speak out stems from a hope to “change the media landscape” in the U.K., giving less status to tabloid newspapers.
“In this instance, the most popular, most read and therefore most influential newspapers in our country are tabloids,” he said. “That affects the country. That affects the construct of the country.”
Harry described also wanting to more specifically change what he described as a “codependency” between U.K. tabloids and the royal family.
“There are some people, especially in the U.K., who have been led to believe that because you are a member of the royal family, somehow everyone owns you or has a stake in you,” he said. “And that’s a message that has been purely pushed out by the British tabloids, and it creates real problems within that family and that relationship.”
Harry added, “Of course, there has to be some sort of relationship, but where it’s got to now is incredibly unhealthy.”
Believing that the monarchy should continue, Harry said he hopes his efforts can help his own two children as well as current and future generations of royals.
“I also worry about other young kids within that family if this continues,” he said, referring to the royal family. “Because who’s to say that someone else doesn’t fill my shoes and that their partner, whether it’s a husband or a wife or boyfriend or a girlfriend, doesn’t get treated exactly the same as Meghan did?”
(NEW YORK) — Colorado will stop sending migrants to New York and Chicago, according to a press release from Colorado Gov. Jared Polis.
The decision followed days of public discussion between the leaders of the two cities — New York Mayor Eric Adams and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot — and Polis about which city should be responsible for supporting the influx of migrants.
“Also, the Governor had a very productive conversation with Mayor Adams and Mayor Lightfoot today where he shared that there are no more buses scheduled for migrants from Denver to Chicago at this time, and the final chartered transportation to New York City will be successfully completed tomorrow,” said the press release, which was dated Saturday.
Polis announced on Jan. 3 that Colorado would facilitate in transporting of migrants who arrived in Denver to their “final destinations,” noting that about 70% of the migrants did not consider Denver as their destination. The release added that weather and workforce shortages at the time attributed to travel cancellations for many migrants.
New York Mayor Eric Adams had responded before Polis issued that announcement. Joining 77WABC’s “Sid and Friends in the Morning,” Adams informed listeners that Polis notified him on Monday about busing migrants from Colorado.
“This is just unfair for local governments to have to take on this national obligation,” Adams said. “We’ve done our job. There’s no more room at the end, but we are compelled by local laws here that we must provide shelter.”
The City and County of Denver had received 21 migrants overnight on Jan. 4, brining its total to 3,673 migrants since Dec. 9. Over the next three nights, the city received 75, 48 and 78 migrants overnight.
In a joint letter to Polis on Saturday, Adams and Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot demanded that Colorado “cease and desist sending migrants to New York City and Chicago.” Lightfoot and Adams asked Polis to ensure “values are lived in good times and especially in challenging times,” saying Polis was sending migrants to cities where they lack family ties and community networks. They said New York and Chicago’s resources were at “maximum capacity.”
New York City received 36,400 asylum seekers in the nine months leading up to Jan. 4 and plans to spend $1 billion in 2023 to “address the asylum crisis,” according to the letter. Chicago has received 3,854 migrants since Aug. 31, the letter said.
With Polis promising to no longer send buses, the cities and Polis also appear to agree on another pressing topic: the necessity for action from the federal government.
“Instead, let us work together to advocate to the federal government for a national solution that responds to this need,” Adams and Lightfoot noted in their letter.
Colorado’s press release said, “Governor Polis has been clear that Congress and the Biden-Harris administration must assist states who are facing these challenges through no fault of their own and looks forward to partnering with the federal government to provide work permits for migrants who want to contribute to Colorado’s thriving economy, and enact better border security and finally pass real immigration reform.”
Denver Mayor Michael Hancock added to the calls for action on Jan. 5, commending President Joe Biden’s efforts to improve border enforcement but calling on more action from Congress.
“I also echo the President’s call for Congress to take meaningful action on comprehensive immigration reform,” he said. “That is the most long term solution to a pressing humanitarian crisis.”
ABC News’ Jeff Cook and Will McDuffie contributed to this report.
(BRASILIA, Brazil) — Hundreds of supporters of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro stormed three of the most emblematic official buildings in the country’s capital over refusal to accept the results of the election.
The demonstrators partook in violent protests on Sunday at the Supreme Court, Congress and the presidential office, called the Planalto Palace, in Brasilia.
Right-wing supporters of the former Brazilian president were asking the new president, leftist Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, to leave — falsely claiming that he won in a “stolen election.”
The unrest began when 100 buses full of Bolsonaro supporters arrived in the capital on Sunday for a planned protest.
Despite more than 4,000 protesters taking the streets of the capital, police presence was minimal.
Several hundred protestors broke police barriers and were able to enter the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate through the roof. Later, they were even able to break into the Planalto Palace.
All of these buildings were empty, as Lula was in Sao Paulo, and Congress and the Supreme Court are in recess until February.
Rioters were armed with sticks and committed vandalism, including destroying pieces of art such as Chinese porcelain vases in the president’s office.
By 4 p.m. local time, cavalry police were sent for intervention and threw tear gas at protesters. Rubber bullets were also fired at the crowd.
So far, 400 people have been arrested, according to Brazilian Federal District Gov. Ibaneis Rocha.
Control of the buildings has since been reestablished, according to The Associated Press.
Bolsonaro, 67, is currently in Florida, where he traveled to just before Lula was sworn in as the 39th president of Brazil. Lula also served as the country’s 35th president.
Lula, 77, said he will travel back to Brasilia Sunday and vowed to punish all invaders, including potential military police officers.
Lula also accused security forces of “incompetence, bad faith and malice, as they have been unable to stop rioters from accessing Congress.”
He said there is “no precedent in the history of our country” regarding Sunday’s events and described the violence as “acts of vandals and fascists.”
The national guard is now in charge of restoring order in Brasilia.
In a series of tweets, Bolsonaro condemned the “depredations and invasions of public buildings,” according to a translation of his tweet.
President Joe Biden condemned the violent assault on Sunday while traveling in El Paso, Texas, calling it “outrageous.”
National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan tweeted, “The United States condemns any effort to undermine democracy in Brazil. President Biden is following the situation closely and our support for Brazil’s democratic institutions is unwavering. Brazil’s democracy will not be shaken by violence.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the U.S. condemns the attacks, writing: “Using violence to attack democratic institutions is always unacceptable. We join @lulaoficial in urging an immediate end to these actions.”
ABC News’ Julia Jacobo and Conor Finnegan contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Prince Harry writes in his new memoir Spare that he killed 25 Taliban fighters during his second tour of Afghanistan, according to reporting from news outlets that obtained the book ahead of its official Jan. 10 release.
The reported revelation marks the first time that Harry, the duke of Sussex, has discussed the number of people he says he personally killed during his military service.
Harry, 38, served as a British Army officer for 10 years. Known as Capt. Harry Wales in the Army, he was deployed to Afghanistan twice, from 2007 to 2008 and then again from 2012 to 2013.
According to news reports, Harry writes in his memoir that it was during his second tour of Afghanistan that he flew on missions resulting in the loss of human lives.
He reportedly writes in Spare that he thought of the Taliban fighters as “chess pieces” being taken off the board at the time.
Harry’s reported comments have sparked outcries from senior Taliban officials.
Anas Haqqani, a senior aide and brother of interim Afghan Interior Minister Siraj Haqqani, tweeted that the people Harry claims he killed “were humans.”
“The ones you killed were not chess pieces, they were humans; they had families who were waiting for their return,” Anas Haqqani wrote. “Among the killers of Afghans, not many have your decency to reveal their conscience and confess to their war crimes. The truth is what you’ve said; Our innocent people were chess pieces to your soldiers, military and political leaders. Still, you were defeated in that ‘game’ of white & black ‘square.'”
Bilal Karimi, deputy spokesperson for the Taliban government, also issued a reply, noting the country of Afghanistan “will never forget such acts.”
“The recent confession by British prince Harry, who brutally killed 25 of our countrymen during his mission in Afghanistan, shows that such crimes are not limited to Harry but to all those occupying country forces who were in Afghanistan,” Karimi said in a tweet. “It is unfortunate that the Western countries consider themselves to be the defender & supporters of human rights, but in practical that’s their real manners. Afghanistan as Muslim nation will never forget such acts and will always defend its land.”
Some former members of the British military are also speaking out about Harry’s reported revelations in his book.
Former Royal Marine Ben McBean, who lost two limbs in Afghanistan and shared an RAF flight out of the war zone with Harry, tweeted that the prince needs to “shut up.”
“Love you #PrinceHarry but you need to shut up!,” McBean wrote on Twitter. “Makes you wonder the people he’s hanging around with. If it was good people somebody by now would have told him to stop.”
Col. Richard Kemp, a former Army commander in Afghanistan, told the BBC that Harry’s comments about his time in Afghanistan were “ill-judged.”
“I think he’s wrong when he says in his book that insurgents were seen just as being virtually unhuman — subhuman perhaps — just as chess pieces to be knocked over,” Kemp said. “That’s not the case at all. And it’s not the way the British Army trains people as he claims.”
Kemp continued, “I think that sort of comment that doesn’t reflect reality, is misleading and potentially valuable to those people who wish the British forces and British government harm, so I think it was an error of judgement.”
Harry joined the British Army in May 2005 and rose to the rank of Apache helicopter commander before leaving the army in 2015. The British Defense Ministry named Harry the best front-seat pilot, or co-pilot gunner, in February 2012 from his class of more than 20 fellow Apache helicopter pilots.
Harry spoke to ABC News’ Good Morning America co-anchor Robin Roberts in 2016 about his service, describing it as a chance to prove himself.
“Ten years in the Army was the best escape that I’ve ever had, an escape from all sorts of intrusion,” Harry told Roberts while promoting the Invictus Games, the Paralympic-style sporting event he founded for veterans. “But I also felt as though I was really achieving something. I felt as though I was part of a team.”
“All I wanted to do was to prove to other people that I had a certain set of skills,” he said. “All it’s done over those 10 years is given me this amazing amount of knowledge and experience where I am now perfectly positioned to be [service members’] voice and champion their cause.”
Both of Harry’s tours in Afghanistan were cut short when his presence there was leaked in the press.
Harry’s memoir, Spare, is said to cover his relationship and tension with the British press, as well as his experience growing up in the royal family, his time in the military, the death of his mother, his decision in 2020 to step down from his role as a senior working royal and his life now as a husband and father.
Harry said previously that the memoir would be a “firsthand account of my life that’s accurate and wholly truthful.”
(NEW YORK) — Ovidio Guzmán, a top leader of the Sinaloa Cartel and the son of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán, the notorious drug lord currently serving a life sentence in a U.S. prison, has been arrested by authorities in Mexico, the country’s secretary of defense, Luis Cresencio Sandoval, announced Thursday afternoon.
Guzmán was captured by Mexican armed forces in an overnight raid in a small town just outside the city of Culiacán, the capital of the Mexican state of Sinaloa.
He was transported by military aircraft from Culiacán back to Mexico City late morning on Thursday. Officials said the operation had been in the works for more than six months.
The arrest was also confirmed to ABC News by a U.S. law enforcement official.
Ovidio Guzman has been charged since 2018 in Washington, D.C., with manufacturing or distributing for illegal importation into the United States substantial amounts of cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana.
A provisional warrant was issued for his arrest in 2019, according to Mexico’s Foreign Affairs Secretary, Marcelo Ebrad.
“This is a request for provisional detention and then there is the extradition procedure,” Ebrad told reporters.
A U.S.-based attorney who has represented Guzman since 2019, Jeffrey Lichtman, declined to comment on the arrest.
Ebrad denied that U.S. agencies had participated or provided information that led to Guzmán’s arrest and also rumors that the arrest was a “gift” to President Joe Biden who is scheduled to visit Mexico next week.
“This operation was kept extremely confidential by the authorities in charge of doing so and there was no intermediation or political consultation. There is no link between the operation and the summit,” he told reporters.
Guzmán is allegedly a major trafficker of fentanyl and other drugs to the United States and has been helping to lead a now-fractured Sinaloa Cartel since his father’s extradition years ago.
Alleged cartel members have since besieged parts of the city, with burning vehicles set up as roadblocks in what appeared to be a failed attempt to impede authorities transporting Guzmán out of the city.
Mexico’s military reported numerous blockades across the city and said that armed men even attacked the city’s main airport.
An Aeromexico flight set to take off from Culiacán to Mexico City was struck by a stray bullet at the airport and did not take off as a result.
“This morning, a bullet impact was detected in the fuselage of an Embraer 190 plane that was ready to start flight AM165 on the Culiacan-Mexico City route, which was canceled for security reasons,” Aeromexico said in a statement. “The plane never started its takeoff run. After this accident, the company’s protocols were activated and the corresponding authorities were notified, with whom we will coordinate the investigations. Customers and collaborators are safe.”
Aeromexico later said it was temporarily suspending all operations at the airport.
This is not the first time the city has come under attack during a raid to capture Ovidio Guzmán.
In a now-infamous event in October 2019, nicknamed the Culiacanazo, authorities briefly detained Ovidio Guzmán at a home in Culiacán.
Word spread quickly, however, and heavily armed gunmen flooded the city, with massive shootouts taking place between cartel members and Mexican armed forces around the city.
Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador ordered Ovidio Guzmán released in order to avoid more bloodshed — a major embarrassment for the government and one that is routinely held up as a prime example of the power criminal organizations continue to wield in Mexico.
Ovidio Guzmán is wanted on federal charges in the United States and could face extradition to the U.S. pending legal proceedings.
His father, El Chapo, is serving a life sentence in the U.S. after being convicted in 2019 of conducting a continuing criminal enterprise, including large-scale narcotics violations and a murder conspiracy, drug trafficking conspiracies, unlawful use of a firearm and a money laundering conspiracy.
ABC News’ Ivan Pereira and Kirit Radia contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — The United States plans to send Bradley Fighting Vehicles to Ukraine in a new security aid package expected to come on Friday, U.S. officials told ABC News.
The White House confirmed the plan to send the vehicles later in the day in a readout of President Joe Biden’s call with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
During the call, Olaf made his own major pledge to Ukraine, saying his country will send Marder infantry fighting vehicles as well as a Patriot air defense system. This will be in addition to a Patriot battery the U.S. committed to Ukraine in late December to help the country thwart Russian airstrikes.
The announcements come a day after President Emmanuel Macron announced that his country would be sending armored combat vehicles to help Ukraine in its fight.
A U.S. official told ABC News on Wednesday that Bradleys were on the list of equipment being considered. Later that afternoon, President Joe Biden confirmed it when asked by a reporter.
Bloomberg first reported that Bradleys were under consideration last Thursday.
Over the weekend, Ukrainian chief of military intelligence Kyrylo Budanov told ABC News, “We are waiting for these vehicles, these vehicles will increase our abilities in combat actions.”
The U.S. first fielded the Bradley Fighting Vehicle in the early 1980s. They are armed with a 25mm automatic cannon, a 7.62mm machine gun, and a TOW missile system that can hit armored targets more than two miles away.
“The Bradley infantry fighting vehicle is the exact type of vehicle the Ukrainians need,” said Mick Mulroy, former deputy assistant secretary of defense and ABC News contributor. “There are many available, they are relatively easy to learn to operate effectively.”
While the Bradley does not offer the same protection as a tank, it can still be used to take out Russian tanks and armored personnel carriers, according to Mulroy.
“This system could play a significant part of the effort of the Ukrainians to continue their counter-offensive,” he said.
The decision comes after French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday announced that his country would be sending its own armored combat vehicles to help Ukraine in its fight.
The U.S. has committed more than $21 billion in security assistance to Ukraine Since the beginning of Russia’s invasion on February 24 of last year. The U.S. announced a major presidential drawdown package in late December that included a Patriot air-defense battery to help Ukraine thwart Russian airstrikes.
