(NEW YORK) — India’s military chief and his wife were among 13 killed in a helicopter crash around noon local time on Wednesday.
Gen. Bipin Rawat was traveling to Defence Services Staff College, Wellington in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu to address the faculty and student officers of the Staff Course. The helicopter crashed roughly 2 miles away from the college, in Coonoor.
The Indian Air Force confirmed the crash in a thread on Twitter, calling it a “tragic accident,” adding that the vehicle was an IAF Mi 17 V5, a Soviet-designed military helicopter.
One of the 14 people aboard the aircraft survived and was being treated at a hospital.
The cause of the crash wasn’t immediately known. Authorities are investigating.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi called Rawat “an outstanding soldier” and a “true patriot” who has greatly contributed to modernizing India’s armed forces and security apparatus.
“His insights and perspectives on strategic matters were exceptional,” Modi stated on his official Twitter account. “India will never forget his exceptional service.”
Other Indian officials express their condolences, some on social media.
“India stands united in this grief,” Rahul Gandhi, a member of the Indian National Congress, tweeted, calling the accident “an unprecedented tragedy.”
Born in 1958, Rawat became India’s first chief of defense staff, or CDS, in 2019. As the highest-ranking active duty military officer in the country, he also worked as an adviser to the minister of defense and led India’s Department of Military Affairs.
(LONDON, U.K.) — Prime Minister Boris Johnson is facing calls to resign over reports that members of his staff attended a Christmas party last year while the country was in lockdown.
The Daily Mirror newspaper reported that the party took place on Dec. 18, 2020, which would have been illegal under the coronavirus restrictions in place at the time. Johnson has denied the allegation.
In a video leaked to ITV News, the prime minister’s press secretary can be heard joking about a Christmas Party, four days after the party was alleged to have taken place.
In the video, the prime minister’s press secretary and other staff members can be seen holding a mock press conference, discussing how they would respond to allegations that Downing Street had held a Christmas party.
“It wasn’t a party, it was cheese and wine,” one person can be heard saying, prompting laughs across the room. The leaked video prompted fury from opposition lawmakers and residents alike.
Allegra Stratton, the staff member seen in the video, resigned from her post on Wednesday.
At a weekly scheduled parliamentary session on Wednesday, Johnson repeatedly denied that a party had taken place, but he did apologize for the leaked video, saying: “I was also furious to see that clip … I apologize unreservedly for the offense it has caused up and down the country.”
Johnson said he had ordered an internal investigation into the incident, but the leader of the opposition Labour Party, Sir Keir Starmer, has called for evidence to be handed over to the police, saying the prime minister had taken the British public for “fools.”
There will be many people asking the Prime Minister the same heartbreaking question as Trisha:
“Her Majesty the Queen sat alone when she marked the passing of the man she’d been married to for 73 years,” Starmer said. “Leadership, sacrifice – that’s what gives leaders the moral authority to lead. Does the prime minister think he has the moral authority to lead and to ask the British people to stick to the rules?”
Further fallout could be on the horizon, with one lawmaker asking the prime minister about another party that may have taken place on Nov. 13, which Johnson also denied. As of June 2021, a month before social distancing measures were fully relaxed in England, a total of 366 fines had been issued in England and Wales for large gatherings, according to the National Police Chiefs’ Council.
Critics of the prime minister say the video threatens to undermine public trust in the government, particularly at a time when new restrictions are set to be introduced to combat the spread of the omicron variant. One lawmaker, from Johnson’s own Conservative Party, went as far to suggest that the possible new restrictions, reported before the fiery exchange in Parliament, were a “diversionary tactic.”
(UKRAINE) — President Joe Biden gave his first comments Wednesday on his video call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying he was “very straightforward” with the Russian leader, that “there were no minced words,” and if Putin decides to invade Ukraine, he will face consequences “like nothing he’s ever seen.”
“I was very straightforward. There were no minced words. It was polite, but I made it very clear: if in fact, he invades Ukraine, there’ll be severe consequences. Severe consequences. Economic consequences, like nothing he’s ever seen, or ever have been seen, in terms of being imposed,” Biden told reporters, after first dodging the question.
The comments come one day after a two-hour video call on Tuesday in which Biden warned Putin that the U.S. “would respond with strong economic and other measures in the event of military escalation,” the White House said, as Russia builds up its forces on its border with Ukraine.
Asked about the possibility of U.S. troops on the ground in Ukraine, Biden it’s “not on the table,” but a few moments later he said it would also depend on “what the rest of the NATO countries were willing to do.”
“The idea of the United States is going to unilaterally use force to confront Russia invading Ukraine is not in the cards right now,” he said.
The president said he “made it clear” to Putin that the U.S. would “provide the defensive capability” to Ukraine and “reinforce our presence in NATO countries.”
Biden also said he expects that by Friday the U.S. and “at least four” NATO allies and Russia will be able to announce high-level meetings to discuss Russian concerns “relative to NATO writ large” and work out a deal “as it relates to bringing down the temperature along the Eastern Front.”
“The positive news is that thus far, our teams have been in constant contact,” he said. “We hope by Friday, we’re gonna be able to say., I’ll announce to you that we’re having meetings at a higher level, not just with us, but with at least four of our major NATO allies, and Russia to discuss the future of Russia’s concerns relative to NATO writ large, and whether or not we can work out any accommodations as it relates to bringing down the temperature along the Eastern Front.”
And before walking away, Biden said “I am absolutely confident he [Putin] got the message.”
(UNITED KINGDOM) — Members of Britain’s royal family got into the holiday spirit Wednesday, attending a Christmas carol service.
Prince William and Kate, the Duchess of Cambridge, were front and center at the service at Westminster Abbey, where the couple wed 10 years ago.
They were joined by William’s cousins Zara Tindall, who attended with her husband, Mike, and Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie.
William’s aunt, Sophie Wessex, also attended, as did members of Kate’s family, the Middletons.
The service, “Together At Christmas,” was hosted by Duchess Kate, who chose for the occasion a festive red outfit by Catherine Walker and earrings borrowed from Queen Elizabeth.
In addition to celebrating the Christmas spirit, the service also celebrated the work of “of individuals and organizations across the U.K. who have supported their communities through the COVID-19 pandemic,” according to Kensington Palace.
Last year, amid the coronavirus pandemic, instead of attending an indoor carol service, the queen and other members of the royal family stood socially distanced outside of Windsor Castle as they listened to a Christmas concert.
This Christmas will be the family’s first without Prince Philip, who died at age 99 in April.
In past years, he and Elizabeth, who were married for 73 years, oversaw the family’s multi-day Christmas celebration at Sandringham.
Buckingham Palace has not yet announced where the queen will spend this Christmas and whether she will be joined by any members of the royal family.
The family traditionally holds their gift exchange on Christmas Eve, following the German tradition, where they often swap funny or homemade gifts.
On Christmas Day, they walk to St. Mary Magdalene Church for the Christmas service.
After the service, the royals enjoy a Christmas lunch at Sandringham and then gather to watch Queen Elizabeth II deliver her annual Christmas message.
In the evening, the royal family will get together again for a Christmas buffet dinner with 15 to 20 different delicacies prepared by the queen’s chef.
On the day after Christmas, known as Boxing Day in the U.K., the royals traditionally partake in a pheasant shoot on the grounds of Sandringham.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden told Russian President Vladimir Putin during a video meeting on Tuesday that the United States “would respond with strong economic and other measures in the event of military escalation,” as Russia builds up its forces on its border with Ukraine.
“President Biden voiced the deep concerns of the United States and our European Allies about Russia’s escalation of forces surrounding Ukraine and made clear that the U.S. and our Allies would respond with strong economic and other measures in the event of military escalation,” the White House said in a statement following the call, which the White House said lasted two hours and one minute.
Biden, the White House said, “reiterated his support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and called for de-escalation and a return to diplomacy.”
The call started at 10:07 a.m., according to the White House, and Russian TV showed Putin sitting at a long, wooden table looking at Biden on a TV monitor and the two men waving at each other.
“Welcome, Mr. President,” Putin said.
“Hello. Good to see you again,” Biden replied. “Unfortunately, last time we did not get to see each other at the G-20. I hope next time we meet we do it in person.”
Putin spoke from his residence in the Russian resort city Sochi. Biden was in the White House Situation Room; the White House released a photograph showing him seated with Secretary of State Antony Blinken, U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan and other advisors.
During the meeting, the first conversation between the leaders since July, Biden planned to threaten “substantial economic countermeasures” if Russia prepared to proceed with a military invasion, a senior Biden administration official said Monday.
“What I am doing is putting together what I believe to be–will be the most comprehensive and meaningful set of initiatives to make it very, very difficult for Mr. Putin to go ahead and do what people are worried he may do,” Biden told ABC News White House correspondent MaryAlice Parks on Friday.
After his call with Putin, the White House said, Biden planned to speak with France’s President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi.
The leaders had spoken the day before, after which the White House said they “called on Russia to de-escalate tensions”; agreed that diplomacy” was “the only way forward”; and “underscored their support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
The senior administration official said the U.S. was watching a series of events unfold similar to the lead-up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2014, when it annexed the Crimean Peninsula. That included moving troops to its border with Ukraine coupled with a “significant spike” in anti-Ukrainian propaganda on social media, the official said.
But, according to the official, the U.S. had not determined whether Putin had decided yet if he would attack.
“We do not know or have a clear indication that President Putin has actually made an–given an affirmative order here,” the official said in a call with reporters. “It is more about planning intentions and then the kinds of movements that we have seen.”
Ahead of the call, both the White House and Kremlin sought to lower expectations.
“It is very important not to have some overexcited, emotional expectations here,” Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russia’s Channel One on Monday.
Asked by ABC News White House correspondent Karen Travers if the White House’s message was also to not have high expectations, White House press secretary Jen Psaki replied, “I think it is.”
“The president is not going to hold back in conveying his concern,” Psaki told another reporter.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Monday that Russia’s “escalation” was “an immediate threat.”
“The stakes for the president’s call couldn’t be clearer,” McConnell said during remarks on the Senate floor.
In addition to Ukraine, Biden also spoken about strategic stability, ransomware and “joint work on regional issues such as Iran,” the White House said.
The White House has made clear the U.S. is ready to support allies in the region if Russia decides to move forward with a military invasion in Ukraine.
“I think you could anticipate that in the event of an invasion, the need to reinforce the confidence and reassurance of our NATO allies and our eastern flank allies would be real, and the United States would be prepared to provide that kind of reassurance,” the senior official said Monday. “That’s just sort of applying the lessons of 2014 to 2021.”
Notably, the official wouldn’t specify whether that “reassurance” would come in the form of sanctions, U.S. forces, capabilities, or all of the above, nor what the hair trigger is for the support.
The official wouldn’t go so far as to say outright that Biden would warn Putin the U.S. military could be used if the Russian military moves into Ukraine.
After Russia invaded the Crimean Peninsula in 2014, the U.S. and the European Union leveled economic sanctions against Russia, and Russia was kicked out of the “Group of Eight” industrialized nations.
The United States also sent 600 troops to eastern Europe in a show of solidarity with Baltic nations on Russia’s border. That deployment has morphed into a rotating set of relatively small U.S. deployments to eastern European nations.
“I don’t want to use a public press call to talk about the particular sensitive challenges that President Biden will lay out for President Putin,” the official said of Tuesday’s call. “But I would say that the United States is not seeking to end up in a circumstance in which the focus of our countermeasures is the direct use of American military force, as opposed to a combination of support for the Ukrainian military, strong economic countermeasures, and substantial increase in support and capability to our NATO allies to ensure they remain safe.”
In short: Biden will “make clear that there will be very real cost should Russia choose to proceed, but he will also make clear that there is an effective way forward with respect to diplomacy,” the official said.
The administration’s preferred option for response to any Russian aggression would be a series of economic sanctions in concert with European partners, and the official warned those would be “severe.”
“We believe that we have a path forward that would involve substantial economic countermeasures by both the Europeans and the United States that would impose significant and severe economic harm on the Russian economy, should they choose to proceed. I’m not going to get into the specific details of that, but we believe that there is a way forward here that will allow us to send a clear message to Russia, that there will be genuine and meaningful and enduring costs to choosing to go forward should they choose to go forward with a military escalation in Ukraine,” the official warned.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday ahead of Biden’s call with Putin, and Zelensky tweeted that he had “agreed positions” with Blinken.
“Grateful to strategic partners & allies for the continued support of our sovereignty & territorial integrity,” Zelensky wrote.
Biden himself will call Zelenskyy to provide a readout of his conversation with Putin afterward, the official said.
ABC News’ Benjamin Siegel, Tanya Stukalova, Patrick Reevell and Trish Turner contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — The United States will not send an official delegation to the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, the White House announced Monday, citing China’s human rights record.
The diplomatic boycott means that U.S. athletes will still compete in the Games, which will start in February.
The Chinese government responded with swift condemnation of President Joe Biden’s decision — saying the Olympics shouldn’t be “a stage for political shows” and warning of “resolute countermeasures.”
But the Biden administration said it would not send senior U.S. government officials because of China’s mass detention camps and forced sterilization campaign against Uighurs and other Muslim ethnic minorities in the country’s western province — policies that the U.S. government has determined constitute genocide and crimes against humanity.
Biden has been under growing pressure domestically to take some kind of action against the Beijing Games because of China’s increasingly authoritarian policies at home and aggressive actions across the region. The decision to not send a delegation stops short of an outright boycott of the Games, as U.S. athletes will be participating.
“The athletes on Team USA have our full support. We will be behind them 100 percent, as we cheer them on from home,” said White House press secretary Jen Psaki, but the administration didn’t think “it was the right step to penalize athletes who have been training, preparing for this moment.”
“We will not be contributing to the fanfare of the Games,” Psaki added.
Sending prominent officials or public figures to the Olympics is a long tradition, with first lady Jill Biden leading a delegation to the Tokyo Games this past summer.
The Biden administration has said it is consulting U.S. allies on a path forward, but so far, no other country has announced a similar diplomatic boycott. Psaki said the U.S. informed allies of the decision before announcing it. Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and others are said to be weighing boycotts as well.
Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, D.C., took to Twitter to respond to the announcement, saying that “politicians calling for [a] boycott … are doing so for their own political interests and posturing.”
“In fact, no one would care about whether these people come or not, and it has no impact whatsoever on the #Beijing2022 to be successfully held,” Liu tweeted Monday.
Beijing has repeatedly blasted any talk of a boycott, denouncing it as an affront to the “Olympic spirit” while denying any wrongdoing in its human rights record.
“U.S. politicians continue to hype diplomatic boycotts of the Beijing Winter Olympics. They are completely wishful-thinking, grandstanding and politically manipulative,” Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Zhao Lijian said at a press conference Monday, ahead of the Biden administration’s announcement.
It’s also unclear if any U.S. officials were formally invited to the Games, where they usually attend the opening or closing ceremonies. Zhao said Monday that “American politicians” were not invited, without specifying who exactly or whether foreign delegations in general were.
Biden has tried to stabilize U.S.-Chinese relations, which have nosedived in recent years as Washington has grown increasingly concerned about Chinese aggression. He and Chinese leader Xi Jinping held a meeting last month via video teleconference, marking small progress on issues like China’s travel bans on dual citizens and journalists visas.
But tensions have remained high over China’s development of hypersonic and nuclear weapons, its menacing of Taiwan, and its human rights record, from the crackdown on democracy in Hong Kong, religious practice across the country, and especially the Uighurs in Xinjiang province. The detention of over one million Uighurs, the sterilization of Uighur women, and their forced labor in these camps has drawn U.S. sanctions and international condemnation.
(WASHINGTON) — Biden is expected to warn of consequences for invading, an official said.
President Joe Biden was expected to press Russian President Vladimir Putin during a video meeting Tuesday that there would be consequences for invading its neighbor Ukraine, as Russia amasses troops on the Ukrainian border.
During the meeting, the first conversation between the leaders since July, Biden planned to threaten “substantial economic countermeasures” if Russia prepared to proceed with a military invasion, a senior Biden administration official said Monday.
“What I am doing is putting together what I believe to be–will be the most comprehensive and meaningful set of initiatives to make it very, very difficult for Mr. Putin to go ahead and do what people are worried he may do,” Biden told ABC News White House correspondent MaryAlice Parks on Friday.
The senior administration official said the U.S. was watching a series of events unfold similar to the lead-up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2014, when it annexed the Crimean Peninsula. That included moving troops to its border with Ukraine coupled with a “significant spike” in anti-Ukrainian propaganda on social media, the official said.
But, according to the official, the U.S. had not determined whether Putin had decided yet if he would attack.
“We do not know or have a clear indication that President Putin has actually made an–given an affirmative order here,” the official said in a call with reporters. “It is more about planning intentions and then the kinds of movements that we have seen.”
Ahead of the call, both the White House and Kremlin sought to lower expectations.
“It is very important not to have some overexcited, emotional expectations here,” Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russia’s Channel One on Monday.
Asked by ABC News White House correspondent Karen Travers if the White House’s message was also to not have high expectations, White House press secretary Jen Psaki replied, “I think it is.”
“The president is not going to hold back in conveying his concern,” Psaki told another reporter.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said Monday that Russia’s “escalation” was “an immediate threat.”
“The stakes for the president’s call couldn’t be clearer,” McConnell said during remarks on the Senate floor.
In addition to Ukraine, Biden also planned to speak with Putin about cyber issues, “strategic stability” and other regional issues, according to the White House.
The White House has made clear the U.S. is ready to support allies in the region if Russia decides to move forward with a military invasion in Ukraine.
“I think you could anticipate that in the event of an invasion, the need to reinforce the confidence and reassurance of our NATO allies and our eastern flank allies would be real, and the United States would be prepared to provide that kind of reassurance,” the senior official said Monday. “That’s just sort of applying the lessons of 2014 to 2021.”
Notably, the official wouldn’t specify whether that “reassurance” would come in the form of sanctions, U.S. forces, capabilities, or all of the above, nor what the hair trigger is for the support.
The official wouldn’t go so far as to say outright that Biden would warn Putin the U.S. military could be used if the Russian military moves into Ukraine.
After Russia invaded the Crimean Peninsula in 2014, the U.S. and the European Union leveled economic sanctions against Russia, and Russia was kicked out of the “Group of Eight” industrialized nations.
The United States also sent 600 troops to eastern Europe in a show of solidarity with Baltic nations on Russia’s border. That deployment has morphed into a rotating set of relatively small U.S. deployments to eastern European nations.
“I don’t want to use a public press call to talk about the particular sensitive challenges that President Biden will lay out for President Putin,” the official said of Tuesday’s call. “But I would say that the United States is not seeking to end up in a circumstance in which the focus of our countermeasures is the direct use of American military force, as opposed to a combination of support for the Ukrainian military, strong economic countermeasures, and substantial increase in support and capability to our NATO allies to ensure they remain safe.”
In short: Biden will “make clear that there will be very real cost should Russia choose to proceed, but he will also make clear that there is an effective way forward with respect to diplomacy,” the official said.
The administration’s preferred option for response to any Russian aggression would be a series of economic sanctions in concert with European partners, and the official warned those would be “severe.”
“We believe that we have a path forward that would involve substantial economic countermeasures by both the Europeans and the United States that would impose significant and severe economic harm on the Russian economy, should they choose to proceed. I’m not going to get into the specific details of that, but we believe that there is a way forward here that will allow us to send a clear message to Russia, that there will be genuine and meaningful and enduring costs to choosing to go forward should they choose to go forward with a military escalation in Ukraine,” the official warned.
Ahead of his call with Putin, Biden spoke with several European leaders Monday, according to the White House: France’s President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi.
“The leaders discussed their shared concern about the Russian military build-up on Ukraine’s borders and Russia’s increasingly harsh rhetoric,” the White House said, adding that “they called on Russia to de-escalate tensions and agreed that diplomacy” was “the only way forward.”
“The leaders underscored their support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” the White House said.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Monday ahead of Biden’s call with Putin, and Zelensky tweeted that he had “agreed positions” with Blinken.
“Grateful to strategic partners & allies for the continued support of our sovereignty & territorial integrity,” Zelensky wrote.
Biden himself will call Zelenskyy to provide a readout of his conversation with Putin afterward, the official said.
ABC News’ Tanya Stukalova, Patrick Reevell and Trish Turner contributed reporting.
(NEW YORK) — Billionaire investor and philanthropist Michael Steinhardt was forced to surrender $70 million worth of stolen antiquities and comply with a lifetime ban on collecting antiquities on Monday, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office said.
Steinhardt had to give up 180 stolen antiquities, which court records said were looted and illegally smuggled out of 11 countries, trafficked by 12 criminal smuggling networks, and lacked verifiable provenance prior to appearing on the international art market.
The Larnax, a small coffin from the islands of Crete, Greece, dating back to 1400 BCE, was among the surrendered pieces.
The Larnax is valued at $1 million and was bought by Steinhardt for $575,000 in October 2016 from known antiquities trafficker Eugene Alexander, the DA said.
Payments for the piece were made using Seychelles-headquartered FAM Services and Satabank, a Malta-based financial institution that was suspended for money laundering, according to the DA’s office.
While complaining about a subpoena requesting provenance documentation for another stolen antiquity, Steinhardt pointed to the Larnax and said to an Antiquities Trafficking Unit investigator, “You see this piece? There’s no provenance for it. If I see a piece and I like it, then I buy it.”
The 180 pieces will now be returned expeditiously to their rightful owners in 11 countries: Bulgaria, Egypt, Greece, Iraq, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Syria and Turkey.
The Manhattan District Attorney’s office conducted a multi-year, multi-national investigation into Steinhardt’s criminal conduct beginning in February 2017.
“For decades, Michael Steinhardt displayed a rapacious appetite for plundered artifacts without concern for the legality of his actions, the legitimacy of the pieces he bought and sold, or the grievous cultural damage he wrought across the globe,” Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance said Monday.
“His pursuit of ‘new’ additions to showcase and sell knew no geographic or moral boundaries, as reflected in the sprawling underworld of antiquities traffickers, crime bosses, money launderers, and tomb raiders he relied upon to expand his collection,” Vance added.
Investigators from the DA’s Antiquities Trafficking Unit learned that Steinhardt possessed looted antiquities at his apartment and office.
They initiated a grand jury criminal investigation into his acquisition, possession and sale of more than 1,000 antiquities since at least 1987.
There were 17 judicially-ordered search warrants and they conducted joint investigations with law enforcement authorities in the 11 countries mentioned above.
Vance said the investigation developed compelling evidence that 180 were stolen from their country of origin and “exhibited numerous other evidentiary indicators of looting.”
“Mr. Steinhardt is pleased that the District Attorney’s years-long investigation has concluded without any charges, and that items wrongfully taken by others will be returned to their native countries,” Steinhardt’s lawyers said in a statement Monday. “Many of the dealers from whom Mr. Steinhardt bought these items made specific representations as to the dealers’ lawful title to the items, and to their alleged provenance. To the extent these representations were false, Mr. Steinhardt has reserved his rights to seek recompense from the dealers involved.”
Most of the 180 seized antiquities first surfaced in the possession of individuals who law-enforcement authorities later determined to be antiquities traffickers — some of whom have been convicted of antiquities trafficking, and many of the seized antiquities were trafficked following civil unrest or looting.
Other items that were surrendered included the Stag’s Head Rhyton, valued currently at $3.5 million and the Ercolano Fresco, valued at $1 million.
(BRUZGI, Belarus) — Parsa Akram now lives with her mother, father and brother under a warehouse shelf. The space is about 2 meters wide. The 18-year-old and her mother sleep in a tent, her brother and father on the ground.
They are among hundreds of people — mostly from Iraqi Kurdistan — now living in a warehouse about a mile from Belarus’ border with Poland, caught up in the migration crisis that, although eased, has not ended.
The warehouse in Bruzgi is not a refugee center; it is just a packing warehouse, the kind Amazon or FedEx would use to store goods. People are now living on the stacks of shelves that would normally hold packages. Whole families like the Akrams are packed into the spaces under the shelving; others have clambered up to make nest-like beds in the higher levels.
“It’s not a camp,” Parsa said. “[It’s] a chicken house!”
For months, thousands of migrants, mostly from the Middle East, have found themselves trapped between Belarus and Poland amid a crisis allegedly engineered by Belarus’ authoritarian leader, Alexander Lukashenko, who is accused of luring them to Europe’s border in an effort to retaliate against the European Union for its support for Belarus’ pro-democracy movement.
The migrants, mainly trying to reach western Europe, have been blocked by Poland and neighboring Lithuania, stranding them in forests along the border often for weeks, without food or shelter.
The crisis came to a head three weeks ago, when Belarus marched hundreds of migrants to a crossing point with Poland. Scenes of migrants sleeping in the open air in freezing temperatures and then violent clashes with Polish border guards, that Belarus was accused of inciting, attracted global attention.
Following the clashes, Belarus moved about 2,000 of the migrants to the warehouse, raising hopes the crisis might be easing.
Although better than the forest, the warehouse is not set up to house hundreds of people and after two weeks, conditions inside have rapidly deteriorated. When ABC News reporters visited this weekend, people were sleeping on the floor in sleeping bags and sometimes thin tents, huddled together in dirty clothes. There is almost no sanitation, just a few chemical toilets. People wash themselves from two portable water tanks set up in a yard slick with mud and slush.
There are dozens of children, including some a few months old, and pregnant women.
This week, Belarus’ military brought a mobile sauna in a tent to allow people to wash, for many, the first time in a month. Belarus is also feeding people, giving them portions of buckwheat porridge twice a day. Food trucks, selling bread and snacks, are also set up.
Many people in the camp said they were sick. Several told ABC News they were suffering from food poisoning that they blamed on expired tinned food they said Belarusian authorities had given them.
There are also fears COVID-19 is in the camp. Belarusian authorities — who have been accused of undercounting COVID cases more generally — claim only two cases have been recorded in the warehouse. But the sound of coughing there is constant and ABC News reporters met a man being hospitalized with pneumonia on Sunday.
“People cannot wait any longer because the weather is getting really really cold. And all the people in here, they’re all sick, they’re getting sick so bad,” said Zanyar Dishad, an 18-year-old from Kurdistan who was with his family.
Lukashenko visited the camp last Friday, accompanied by state television cameras. In a speech, he told the migrants he would not force them to go home and would do everything to help them reach Europe. He also demanded Poland and Germany take them in.
Belarusian authorities told the migrants European countries will soon take them, though there is no indication when or if this will happen. Several migrants said they believed Lukashenko was holding talks with the EU to get them across the border and many were unaware of the reasons behind his conflict with Europe.
“He’s a very good man,” said Karwan Jamal, 26, who is living now in a tent with his wife and 7-year-old son.
“He’s very kind,” his wife Narin added. “Because Belarus all the time helps all people in here.”
In reality, Belarusian authorities refused to allow migrants out of the forests for weeks. Migrants in recent weeks have told ABC News that Belarusian border guards beat and robbed them, forcing them to cross back into Poland after being pushed back.
But EU efforts to cut off the flow of migrants to Belarus seem to be having an effect. The number of new arrivals has sharply and visibly dropped off. Belarus also appears to now be allowing people to leave the border area.
Hundreds of Iraqi citizens have also returned home in the last week on voluntary repatriation flights organized by Iraq’s government, which said 1,800 people have returned already.
Among them was Balsam Khalaf, 51, who said he had given up after five months of being pushed back and forth across the border, saying he had been roughed up by Belarusian, Polish and Lithuanian guards.
“We turned to a bouncing ball between both sides,” he said in an interview in Baghdad this week.
It is unclear how many migrants are still in Belarus, but it estimated to be at least a few thousand, including in the forests. Polish authorities accuse Belarus’ security forces of continuing to try to push dozens of people across the border each night.
Iraq’s government said it would hold a final repatriation flight this week because it said no one else wished to return. It said 3,000 people in total had expressed a desire to return.
At the camp, most people said they would not go back, despite the wretched conditions.
“Never ever,” said Narin.
ABC News’ Bader Katy contributed to this report from Baghdad and Tanya Stukalova contributed from Bruzgi, Belarus.
(WASHINGTON) — Global health authorities are urging against the use of “blanket” travel bans in response to the threat of new coronavirus variants, as some nations have rushed to shutter incoming travel from southern African countries where the omicron variant has been detected.
The same health officials also warn that travel bans could have a negative effect on global efforts to respond to the pandemic, as nations may not wish to report new data and variants if they worry they could be seemingly punished for it by other countries barring their nationals from travel.
“Blanket travel bans will not prevent the international spread, and they place a heavy burden on lives and livelihoods,” the World Health Organization said in a statement Tuesday. “In addition, they can adversely impact global health efforts during a pandemic by disincentivizing countries to report and share epidemiological and sequencing data.”
Rather than blanket travel bans, the United Nations’ public health body urges countries to apply an “evidence-informed and risk-based approach” when implementing new travel restrictions.
The WHO’s advice comes after it said some 56 countries were reportedly implementing travel measures aimed at potentially delaying the importation of the omicron variant.
In the U.S., Dr. Anthony Fauci, the White House’s chief medical adviser, told ABC News’ “This Week” anchor George Stephanopoulos this past Sunday that travel bans could “slow things down,” but they won’t prevent a new variant from coming into the country.
“What you can do is you can delay it enough to get us better prepared,” Fauci said. “And that’s the thing that people need to understand. If you’re going to do the travel ban the way we’ve done now and that we’re implementing right now, utilize the time that you’re buying to fill in the gaps.”
Fauci’s remarks notably came before the U.S. confirmed the first case of the omicron variant in California on Wednesday.
“Travel bans are a very weak measure at best, but they’re most valuable very, very early on in the emergence of a new variant,” said Dr. John Brownstein, a professor at Harvard Medical School, chief innovation officer at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor.
Travel bans can “buy you a little time,” he said, but only if they are implemented quickly and uniformly.
“The problem that we have here is that detection doesn’t mean being the epicenter of where the outbreak is,” Brownstein said. “Just because South Africa had incredible capacity to detect sequence doesn’t mean that necessarily this is where the most amount of cases occur.”
Some South African officials and scientists are calling the travel bans aimed at their country discriminatory and punitive.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa echoed the WHO’s sentiments in remarks to reporters while traveling to Nigeria on Tuesday, saying South Africa should not be “punished” for travel bans after being transparent with its omicron detection and research.
“These bans must be removed, they must be lifted,” Ramaphosa said. “And in fact, we have advanced in the world to a point where we now know when people travel, they should be tested like I was tested last night, and I’m happy to be tested when I arrive again. We’ve got the tools we’ve got the means to be able to deal with this.”
Ramaphosa added that the open travel is critical for the tourism industry around the world, which he said has been “really devastated.”
“And for us, the tourism industry is one of the key industries for southern Africa as well,” he said. “So, this is unfair, this is discriminatory against us, and they are imposing a very unfair punishment.”
One of the South African scientists who helped identify the omicron variant similarly blasted the travel bans imposed on southern African countries as a result of their discovery.
Tulio de Oliveira, director of the Centre for Epidemic Response and Innovation in Stellenbosch, South Africa, tweeted Monday night that he had “spent a big part” of his day speaking with genomic and biotech companies because “soon” his team “will run out of reagents as airplanes are not flying to South Africa.”
In a series of tweets last week, de Oliveira urged the world to “provide support to South Africa and Africa and not discriminate or isolate it.”
“We have been very transparent with scientific information. We identified, made data public, and raised the alarm as the infections are just increasing. We did this to protect our country and the world in spite of potentially suffering massive discrimination,” he tweeted.
In an interview with the New Yorker, de Oliveira added that he was “very upset” with the events that took place after the discovery, specifically related to travel bans.
“The U.K., after praising us for discovering the variant, then put out this absolutely stupid travel ban, and it has hoarded vaccines for the last year,” he told the outlet. “It’s trying to put the blame on vaccine hesitancy. It’s looking for a reason to fault Africa.”
Brownstein, who also noted that countries would feel penalized, rather than incentivized, for reporting new variants, suggested that testing pre- and post-travel and “intense surveillance” would be “incredibly helpful and probably more valuable than the travel restrictions.” Travel bans, he said, are “not the best tool.”
“We have really robust testing, we have other tools at our disposal,” he said. “We should be in a position where we don’t need to implement these things.”
Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO director-general, said in remarks Tuesday that it was “deeply concerning” that countries “are now being penalized by others for doing the right thing.”
“I well understand the concern of all countries to protect their citizens against a variant that we don’t yet fully understand,” he said. “But I am equally concerned that several Member States are introducing blunt, blanket measures that are not evidence-based or effective on their own, and which will only worsen inequities.”
Ultimately, Ghebreyesus called on nations to take “rational, proportional risk-reduction measures, in keeping with the International Health Regulations.”
“The global response must be calm, coordinated and coherent,” he added.
