World

(SEOUL, South Korea) — Japan’s longest-serving Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was assassinated by a gunman during a campaign speech Friday in Nara, Japan.

Abe was in the middle of a speech on the street when he was shot. Witnesses heard two loud bangs accompanied by smoke, causing confusion at the scene, according to local reports.

Police arrested a 41-year old local man on charges of attempted murder and confiscated a homemade gun. The shooter, dressed in a gray shirt and khaki pants, has been identified as Tetsuya Yamagami, 41, and had worked for the Maritime Self Defense Force for three years until around 2005, according to Defense sources.

There is currently no known motive over the attack but the shooter allegedly had “no grudge against Abe’s political beliefs,” according to Japanese police.

Gun violence in Japan is very rare because the country has one of the strictest gun control laws in the world. No handguns are allowed but hunters are licensed to own shotguns and air rifles after training and background checks.

Abe was in the western city of Nara stumping for his party’s candidates in the upcoming upper house election when the shooting occurred. Despite no longer being Japan’s prime minister, Abe remained influential on national security and economic policies, and as a central figure within the ruling Liberal Democratic Party.

Known to be a hard-line conservative inside his party, Abe served as chief cabinet secretary from 2005 to 2006 under Junichiro Koizumi. He was then elected president of the Liberal Democratic Party and became Japan’s prime minister in 2006 at the age of 52 — the country’s youngest prime minister since World War II.

He served from 2006 to 2007 and then again from 2012 to 2020, before stepping down due to chronic health issues. He later revealed he was being treated for ulcerative colitis, a chronic intestinal disease.

His visit to the controversial Yasukuni Shrine to honor World War II criminals as well as laws passed during his time in office allowing Japan’s Self-Defense Forces to participate in wars alongside allies overseas had strained relationships with neighboring countries. Abe was also a strong vocal critic of Beijing as he sided with Taiwan’s desire to be recognized as a democratic independent state.

Abe was the first foreign leader to meet former President Donald Trump after Trump was elected in 2016. Trump called Abe “the greatest prime minister in Japan’s history” and the two leaders held a total of 14 official meetings. They were also known to have been “golf buddies” playing together five times during Abe’s second term as prime minister.

During his tenure, Abe pursued aggressive economic policies, dubbed “Abenomics” to bolster Japanese economic growth which had become stagnant after two decades of sustained success. His so-called three arrows strategy was characterized by monetary easing from the Bank of Japan, government spending and economic structural reforms. Abe’s policy reforms reduced real interest rates and generated inflationary expectations in the market but, overall, there are debates in Japan as to whether “Abenomics” was ultimately effective.

Abe was born to a politically powerful household. His maternal grandfather Nobusuke Kishi helped found the governing conservative Liberal Democratic Party in 1955 and led Japan from 1957 to 1960. His father, Shintaro Abe, was also a leading member of the LDP and was Japan’s foreign minister from 1982 to 1986.

Plans for Abe’s funeral have not yet been announced.

ABC News’ Hakyung Kate Lee, Eunseo Nam and Hyerim Lee contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(LONDON) — After more than 50 resignations from government ministers and aides, U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced his resignation Thursday.

For a moment on Tuesday evening, it seemed as though the prime minister, who had vowed to carry on despite the collapse of his authority and allies deserting him on all sides, would remain in office, sparking a potential constitutional crisis. But outside Downing Street on Thursday, Johnson caved into the pressure.

Soon enough, from within their ranks, the Conservative Party, who still hold a sizeable majority in the U.K. Parliament, will elect a replacement, and that person will become the fourth prime minister in the six years since the Brexit referendum of 2016.

What happens next?

While he did not specifically use the word “resign,” Johnson said, “The process of choosing that new leader should begin now and the timetable will be announced next week.”

In the election process, Conservative MPs nominate their preferred candidate. There is then a run-off with the two most popular candidates, and then Conservative Party members (of the card-carrying, fee-paying kind), vote on who they want to be the next leader.

As the Conservatives have a majority in Parliament (thanks to Johnson’s big election win in 2019) — the winner of their leadership will become the next prime minister.

Reported polls in the U.K. have suggested Ben Wallace, the U.K.’s current secretary of state for defense who has been widely praised for his handling of support for Ukraine, as an early favorite in the race.

But the process is by no means instant. To put the transition into perspective, when Theresa May announced her resignation on the steps of Downing Street on May 24, 2019, Johnson, her successor, did not take office until July 24 — a gap of two months.

Johnson as caretaker?

Boris Johnson has already appointed new ministers to fill some of the gaps left by the dozens of resignations from his government, in a sign that he will attempt to hold true on his promise to stay in charge until a new leader is elected.

However, his resignation speech has not gone down well with embittered members of his party. He has already been accused of arrogance and blaming others for his own faults, instead of facing up to any of the mistakes that led to his departure.

And such is the nature of Johnson’s acrimonious departure, and his defiance in the face of so many calls to resign, that some lawmakers — both Conservative and in the opposition Labour Party — want him gone now.

The Conservative Party may feel that they need a clean slate, and, even on his way out, Johnson may hurt their chances of re-establishing trust with the country. There are indications already that the prime minister sees himself staying in office until the fall. A former Conservative Prime Minister, John Major, has already expressed that Johnson should be removed as soon as possible.

The opposition Labour Party have said they will call for a vote in Parliament to eject him from if Johnson’s removal does not happen.

In that event, Dominic Raab, the deputy prime minister, would take over as prime minister interim until they appoint a new leader.

A divided legacy

Johnson will always be known at home and on the international stage as one of the main architects of Brexit. He was the face of the campaign to leave the EU in 2016, and as prime minister, secured Britain’s exit from the bloc by winning a huge majority in 2019.

His election victories and unconventional style resonated with the public on the campaign trail, exemplified by the two terms he served as Mayor of London before his time in parliament, surprising in a Labour city.

But controversy has always followed him. “Partygate” proved a further stain on his reputation, presiding, to many, over a culture of drinking and lawbreaking while the country was locked down and families were separated from their loved ones, even after he spent time in the ICU with COVID himself. When he was fined by the Metropolitan Police for attending one of those gatherings he became the only sitting British PM in history to have been censured for breaking the law while in office.

Johnson also denied that he had knowledge of a lawmaker’s alleged past misconduct, which he had been told about in 2019, and then promoted him anyway, only for that colleague to repeat his offence.

Johnson’s authority was wounded by “Partygate,” but the latest scandal proved to be the straw the broke the camel’s back.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(LONDON) — A new dinosaur species was discovered by paleontologists on Thursday, who have now named the giant carnivorous dinosaur species Meraxes gigas.

The new species is similar to the Tyrannosaurus rex, with a large head and tiny arms.

According to the researchers’ findings, published in Current Biology, the creatures’ small forelimbs were no evolutionary accident, but rather gave apex predators of the time certain survival advantages.

The findings were obtained over a four-year period, as researchers conducted field expeditions in the northern Patagonia region of Argentina, starting with unearthing the skull which was found in 2012.

The species name, Meraxes gigas, was named after a dragon in the “Song of Ice and Fire” book series that inspired the TV show, “Game of Thrones.”

The Meraxes remains indicated that the dinosaur died at about 45 years of age and about four metric tons of weight, researchers said in their findings. They believe the dinosaur lived 90 to 100 millions years ago in what is now Argentina.

According to the researchers’ findings, the new species is the most complete carcharodontosaurid yet from the Southern Hemisphere, and it documents peak diversity of carcharodontosauridae just before they went extinct.

Carcharodontosaurid refers to a group of carnivorous theropod dinosaur species.

The anatomy of this group, as well as the T. rex and abelisaurids — other giant carnivorous dinosaurs — is defined by large skulls and feet and tiny arms.

According to the researchers, this kind of anatomy is still weakly understood.

But M. gigas may be putting some of the more pieces of the puzzle together.

The skeletal findings in Argentina produced groundbreaking anatomical information, as they included an almost complete forelimb that allowed the researchers to understand a “remarkable degree of parallelism” between the latest-diverging tyrannosaurids and carcharodontosauridae.

Findings also increased the researchers’ understanding of the species’ skulls.

The findings add that the skeletal discovery of M. gigs shows “that carcharodontosauridae reached peak diversity shortly before their extinction with high rates of trait evolution in facial ornamentation possibly linked to a social signaling role.”

The researchers told Reuters that the short forearms have now become understood to indicate that such dinosaurs relied on their skulls to attack prey.

“Despite their powerful appearance, it’s hard to imagine they were used much as they barely extend beyond the body and could not have reached the huge mouth,” University of Minnesota paleontologist and study co-author Pete Makovicky told Reuters.

Instead, researchers believe that the forearms were used primarily for mating activities.

Whatever the tiny forearms may have done for these gigantic beasts, scientists now can understand how some of the planet’s perhaps most terrifying ancestors came to evolve.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” into neighboring Ukraine began on Feb. 24, with Russian forces invading from Belarus, to the north, and Russia, to the east. Ukrainian troops have offered “stiff resistance,” according to U.S. officials.

The Russian military has since launched a full-scale ground offensive in eastern Ukraine’s disputed Donbas region, capturing the strategic port city of Mariupol and securing a coastal corridor to the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula.

Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:

Jul 07, 9:26 am
Moscow views nuclear weapons only as a deterrent, Russian official says

Russia considers nuclear weapons only as a deterrent, according to Valentina Matviyenko, Chairman of the Russian Federation Council.

“Russia views nuclear weapons only as a deterrent,” Matviyenko said Thursday at a press conference.

The official noted that Russia has “clearly and strictly prescribed those exceptional cases when [nuclear weapons] can only be used in response to — God forbid that this never happens — a nuclear attack.”

“We behave like a civilized country, and we do it openly,” Matviyenko added.

-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Yulia Drozd, Max Uzol, and Fidel Pavlenko

Jul 07, 8:16 am
Russia claims no new ground for first time since invasion’s start

Russia claimed no territorial gains in Ukraine on Wednesday for the first time since the beginning of its invasion in late February, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said in its latest report.

The Russian Defense Ministry claimed territorial gains every day from the start of the war but has not done so since completing the encirclement of the eastern town Lysychansk on July 3, the ISW said.

The Washington-based think tank said the lull in Russian ground force movements supports its assessment that Russian forces “have largely initiated an operational pause.”

The break in operations is not equal to a complete ceasefire, however, as Russian troops still conducted a number of unsuccessful attacks on all frontlines, the experts added.

Russian troops are instead trying to set up conditions for a bigger offensive as they rebuild their combat power, the ISW report said.

Russia has already increased its fleet in the Black Sea on the shores of Ukraine, local media reported on Wednesday. The Russian naval presence grew by several missile carriers, as well as submarines and an amphibious assault ship.

Ukrainian officials refuted Russian claims on Wednesday according to which Russian troops destroyed two HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems supplied by the U.S.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy added that the Western supplied artillery “started working very powerfully” and at full capacity.

“Finally, it is felt that the Western artillery, the weapons we received from our partners, started working very powerfully,” Zelenskyy said in his Wednesday evening address. “Its accuracy is exactly as needed,” the president added.

Zelenskyy said the Western weapons have carried out strikes on depots and areas of logistical importance to Russian troops. “And this significantly reduces the offensive potential of the Russian army,” Zelenskyy noted, adding that Russian losses “will only increase every week, as will the difficulty of supplying [Russian troops].”

Ukrainian forces celebrated another symbolic victory on Thursday when they raised their national flag on Snake Island, a recaptured Black Sea isle located 90 miles south of the Ukrainian port of Odesa that became a symbol of defiance against Moscow, according to local reports.

Images released by Ukraine’s interior ministry on Thursday showed three Ukrainian soldiers raising the blue and yellow national flag on a patch of ground on Snake Island next to the remains of a flattened building.

But Russia responded to the flag-raising ceremony fast. It said one of its warplanes had struck Snake Island shortly afterwards and destroyed part of the Ukrainian detachment there.

Russia abandoned Snake Island at the end of June in what it said was a gesture of goodwill, raising Ukrainian hopes of unblocking local ports shut off by Russia.

-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Yulia Drozd, Max Uzol, and Fidel Pavlenko

Jul 06, 10:02 am
Blinken to urge G20 to press Russia on grain deliveries

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to appeal to G20 countries to put pressure on Russia to make it support the U.N. initiative on unblocking the sea lanes for Ukraine and allow grain exports, according to local media reports.

“G20 countries should hold Russia accountable and insist that it supports ongoing U.N. efforts to reopen the sea lanes for grain delivery,” said Ramin Toloui, assistant secretary of state for economic and business affairs.

Toloui referred to a U.N. campaign aiming to expedite Ukrainian and Russian exports of harvest and fertilizer to global markets.

Around 22 million tons of grain remain blocked in Ukrainian ports due to the threat of Russian attacks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday.

Ukraine is in active negotiations with Turkey and the U.N. to solve the grain export stalemate, Zelenskyy added.

Blinken is also expected to once again warn China against backing Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine.

“[The upcoming G20 summit] will be another opportunity … to convey our expectations about what we would expect China to do and not to do in the context of Ukraine,” the top U.S. diplomat for East Asia, Daniel Kritenbrink, said.

-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Yuriy Zaliznyak, Max Uzol and Nataliia Kushnir

Jul 06, 8:42 am
Russia aims to seize territory far beyond the Donbas, Putin’s ally suggests

Russia’s main objective in its invasion of Ukraine is still regime change in Kyiv and the dismantling of Ukrainian sovereignty, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev suggested in a speech on Tuesday.

Patrushev said the Russian “military operation” in Ukraine will continue until Russia achieves its goals of protecting civilians from “genocide,” “denazifying” and demilitarizing Ukraine, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

The Russian official added that Ukraine must remain permanently neutral between Russia and NATO. Petrushev’s remarks nearly mirrored the goals Russian President Vladimir Putin announced at the onset of the war to justify the military invasion.

Patrushev, a close Putin ally, repeated the Russian President’s stated ambitions despite Russia’s military setbacks in Ukraine and previous hints at a reduction in war aims following those defeats, the ISW pointed out.

Patrushev’s explicit restatement of Putin’s initial objectives “strongly indicates” that Russia does not consider its recent territorial gains in the Luhansk region to be sufficient, the ISW experts said.

Russia “has significant territorial aspirations beyond the Donbas” and “is preparing for a protracted war with the intention of taking much larger portions of Ukraine,” the observers added.

Patrushev’s comments dampened hopes for a “compromise ceasefire or even peace based on limited additional Russian territorial gains,” the experts concluded.

-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Yuriy Zaliznyak, Max Uzol and Nataliia Kushnir

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(LONDON) — U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced his resignation Thursday, after dozens of ministers quit his cabinet and urged him to go.

In a statement delivered outside his office at no. 10 Downing Street in London, Johnson said he has agreed to resign as leader of the ruling Conservative Party, which would result in his departure as prime minister once the party selects a successor through a leadership election, possibly in the fall. He said that process “should begin now” and the timetable will be announced next week. He also noted that he has appointed a new cabinet of ministers who, along with him, will serve “until a new leader is in place.”

“It is clearly now the will of the parliamentary Conservative Party that there should be a new leader of that party and therefore a new prime minister,” Johnson said.

“I want you to know how sad I am to be giving up the best job in the world,” he added. “But them’s the breaks.”

Keir Starmer, leader of the opposition Labour Party, released a statement earlier Thursday, saying: “It is good news for the country that Boris Johnson has resigned as Prime Minister. But it should have happened long ago.”

The embattled, 58-year-old British premier had initially vowed to cling on to power, quickly appointing two replacements for U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak and U.K. Health Secretary Sajid Javid after they announced their resignations on Tuesday. But dozens more departures — a growing mutiny among his cabinet — ultimately made Johnson’s position untenable, with some lawmakers in his own Conservative Party even suggesting that the rules would have to be changed in order to remove him from office.

It was unclear Thursday whether Johnson’s party would force him out before a successor is appointed, amid fears that he could remain in office until the fall. If they do not, the opposition has threatened to push for a parliamentary vote of no confidence to oust him.

Controversy has long followed Johnson since he became prime minister of the United Kingdom in 2019. In recent months, he faced immense criticism over the number of illegal gatherings held at government offices and residences while the country was under a strict pandemic-related lockdown in 2020 — a scandal the British media quickly dubbed “Partygate.”

Johnson himself was issued a fine by London’s Metropolitan Police Service for attending a birthday party held in his honor at no. 10 Downing Street, when indoor mixing was barred to stem the spread of COVID-19 — making him the first prime minister in U.K. history to have been found guilty of breaking the law while in office. He then survived a vote of confidence brought forward by disgruntled lawmakers in his party, which left him wounded politically but still in charge. Surviving the vote meant he was immune from facing a similar challenge for at least a year.

But it was a very different crisis which ultimately forced Johnson’s resignation on Thursday — one that concerned the personal conduct of a minister in his cabinet, one of his appointees, Conservative lawmaker Chris Pincher.

Last week, Pincher offered his resignation from the Conservative whips’ office, after he was accused of drunkenness and sexual misconduct while at a bar in the presence of colleagues. Then reports emerged in the British media that Pincher had previously faced complaints, which were upheld, about similar conduct; but Downing Street denied that Johnson was aware of such complaints.

This, however, turned out to be false, as further information later revealed that Johnson had been briefed about Pincher’s conduct prior to rehiring him in 2019.

In a raucous session of the U.K. House of Commons on Wednesday, Johnson defended his record in government as he faced mounting pressure to step down.

“He knew the accused minister had previously committed predatory behavior, but he promoted him to a position of power anyway,” Starmer, who has repeatedly called for Johnson’s resignation, told lawmakers Wednesday.

In response, Johnson defended his handling of Pincher’s conduct, which he said was now being investigated, and said he “abhorred” bullying and “abuses of power.”

“I greatly regret that [Pincher] continued in office and I have said that before,” Johnson told lawmakers.

Referring to the number of resignations from Johnson’s administration, Starmer said the U.K. government was facing a case of the “sinking ship leaving the rat.”

As Johnson pledged to stay on, a group of senior cabinet ministers told him this week that he should go. More resignations at all levels of government followed and Johnson ultimately caved to the pressure before he was to be forced out by his own party.

“The reason I have fought so hard in the last few days to continue to deliver that mandate in person was not just because I wanted to do so, but because I felt it was my job, my duty, my obligation to you to continue to do what we promised in 2019,” he said Thursday. “And of course, I’m immensely proud of the achievements of this government.”

As one of the chief proponents of Britain’s historic exit from the European Union, or “Brexit,” and then as prime minister at the helm of the country’s coronavirus crisis, Johnson will go down in history as one of the most divisive leaders the U.K. has ever had.

Johnson burst onto the political scene when he was elected to be the mayor of London in 2008, winning two elections and overseeing the response to the London riots of 2011, as well as hosting the 2012 Summer Olympics. He had previously served as a member of Parliament from 2001.

Johnson’s trademark tousled blond hair, sense of humor and carefully crafted bumbling persona made him an instantly recognizable public figure at home and abroad. Embarrassing situations that would have humiliated some politicians — such as being stuck on a zipline while waving a Union Jack flag near Olympic Park in east London — Johnson embraced.

But with that came caveats, particularly during the most crucial phase of his political career when he led the U.K. out of the European Union.

Under the prime ministership of Theresa May, it seemed as if the U.K. might not be leaving the trading bloc at all. But after Johnson replaced her in the summer of 2019 and a chaotic first few months in office, he won a resounding general election victory that ensured Brexit.

Using clear, simple messaging, Johnson spearheaded a number of successful election campaigns. As a member of Parliament at the time of the 2016 Brexit referendum vote, he deployed the phrase “Take Back Control” to decisive effect, garnering 52% of the vote. He went on to become foreign secretary later that year, a position he held until the summer of 2018. In his general election campaign of 2019, the slogan “Get Brexit Done” again saw him win a decisive vote, seemingly against the odds, as his campaigning style and character seemed to connect with ordinary people in a way that bamboozled rival politicians.

However, his time as prime minister proved tumultuous. Johnson was criticized for not taking the COVID-19 pandemic seriously enough in March 2020, and ultimately contracted the virus himself and was hospitalized in intensive care for several days. Observers have long seen Johnson as a “populist,” with comparisons repeatedly drawn between him and former U.S. President Donald Trump. Opposition lawmakers have regularly accused Johnson’s government of having “one rule for them, one rule for everyone else.”

Just weeks after taking office, Johnson asked Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II to suspend Parliament — a move that observers said was designed to thwart opposition lawmakers from blocking Brexit in the lead up to the Oct. 31 deadline, prompting protests across the U.K. The queen approved Johnson’s request for prorogation, but the U.K. Supreme Court unanimously ruled in a historic judgement a month later that Johnson’s advice was “unlawful.”

Then there was the controversy over government-paid refurbishments at Downing Street in 2021, which became known in the British media as “Wallpapergate.” U.K. prime ministers are given an annual allowance of up to £30,000 ($41,000) a year to renovate the official residence. But Johnson was accused of potentially using Conservative Party funds to top that up and pay for a more lavish redecoration of his apartment at no. 11 Downing Street, where he lived with his fiancée, Carrie Symonds, and their two young children.

Johnson’s colorful political life was matched by a controversial private one. Johnson regularly refused to answer questions about how many children he had when asked by journalists on a number of occasions. It was Johnson’s evasiveness on such topics and what many saw as his flexible relationship with the truth that made him such a controversial figure with the public — and ultimately lead to his downfall.

It was an ignominious end to a premiership plagued by controversy and scandal. Johnson will likely remain in office until a new leader from within the Conservative Party, which still holds a sizeable majority in U.K. Parliament, is elected. Whoever is chosen will become the fourth prime minister the country has had in six years, since the U.K. voted to leave the E.U. in 2016.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” into neighboring Ukraine began on Feb. 24, with Russian forces invading from Belarus, to the north, and Russia, to the east. Ukrainian troops have offered “stiff resistance,” according to U.S. officials.

The Russian military has since launched a full-scale ground offensive in eastern Ukraine’s disputed Donbas region, capturing the strategic port city of Mariupol and securing a coastal corridor to the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula.

Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:

Jul 06, 10:02 am
Blinken to urge G20 to press Russia on grain deliveries

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to appeal to G20 countries to put pressure on Russia to make it support the U.N. initiative on unblocking the sea lanes for Ukraine and allow grain exports, according to local media reports.

“G20 countries should hold Russia accountable and insist that it supports ongoing U.N. efforts to reopen the sea lanes for grain delivery,” said Ramin Toloui, assistant secretary of state for economic and business affairs.

Toloui referred to a U.N. campaign aiming to expedite Ukrainian and Russian exports of harvest and fertilizer to global markets.

Around 22 million tons of grain remain blocked in Ukrainian ports due to the threat of Russian attacks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday.

Ukraine is in active negotiations with Turkey and the U.N. to solve the grain export stalemate, Zelenskyy added.

Blinken is also expected to once again warn China against backing Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine.

“[The upcoming G20 summit] will be another opportunity … to convey our expectations about what we would expect China to do and not to do in the context of Ukraine,” the top U.S. diplomat for East Asia, Daniel Kritenbrink, said.

-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Yuriy Zaliznyak, Max Uzol and Nataliia Kushnir

Jul 06, 8:42 am
Russia aims to seize territory far beyond the Donbas, Putin’s ally suggests

Russia’s main objective in its invasion of Ukraine is still regime change in Kyiv and the dismantling of Ukrainian sovereignty, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev suggested in a speech on Tuesday.

Patrushev said the Russian “military operation” in Ukraine will continue until Russia achieves its goals of protecting civilians from “genocide,” “denazifying” and demilitarizing Ukraine, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

The Russian official added that Ukraine must remain permanently neutral between Russia and NATO. Petrushev’s remarks nearly mirrored the goals Russian President Vladimir Putin announced at the onset of the war to justify the military invasion.

Patrushev, a close Putin ally, repeated the Russian President’s stated ambitions despite Russia’s military setbacks in Ukraine and previous hints at a reduction in war aims following those defeats, the ISW pointed out.

Patrushev’s explicit restatement of Putin’s initial objectives “strongly indicates” that Russia does not consider its recent territorial gains in the Luhansk region to be sufficient, the ISW experts said.

Russia “has significant territorial aspirations beyond the Donbas” and “is preparing for a protracted war with the intention of taking much larger portions of Ukraine,” the observers added.

Patrushev’s comments dampened hopes for a “compromise ceasefire or even peace based on limited additional Russian territorial gains,” the experts concluded.

-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Yuriy Zaliznyak, Max Uzol and Nataliia Kushnir

Jul 06, 6:06 am
Eastern town in Donetsk could become next ‘key’ battleground

The town of Sloviansk in Donetsk Oblast will likely become the next “key” battleground in Russia’s push to seize the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, the U.K. Ministry of Defense said Wednesday in an intelligence update.

“Russian forces from the Eastern and Western Groups of Forces are likely now around 16 km north from the town of Sloviansk,” the ministry said. “With the town also under threat from the Central and Southern Groups of Forces, there is a realistic possibility that the battle for Sloviansk will be the next key contest in the struggle for the Donbas.”

In the meantime, Russian forces likely continue to consolidate control over the town of Lysychansk and the wider Luhansk Oblast, about 45 miles east of Sloviansk.

“To the north, it has committed most of the remaining available units from the Eastern and Western Groups of Forces to the Izium axis,” the ministry added. “Over the last week, Russian forces have likely advanced up to another 5 km down the E40 main road from Izium, in the face of extremely determined Ukrainian resistance.”

Jul 05, 8:43 am
NATO completes negotiations with Sweden and Finland

NATO announced on Monday it has concluded negotiations with Sweden and Finland on their accession to the organization.

“Finland and Sweden have completed accession negotiations at the NATO headquarters in Brussels, as agreed last week by the leaders of the countries at the summit in Madrid,” a NATO press release said.

“Both countries have officially confirmed their desire and ability to fulfill their political, legal and military obligations as NATO members,” the NATO press service added.

The countries will sign their accession protocols on Tuesday. All member countries will then have to ratify the documents according to their national laws.

Finland and Sweden jointly submitted applications to join NATO on May 18, ending decades of neutrality in the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Yuriy Zaliznyak, Max Uzol and Nataliia Kushnir

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(LONDON) — Preparations are underway in South Africa’s coastal town of East London for Wednesday’s mass funeral service of 21 teenagers who died under mysterious circumstances at a bar last week.

The results of the toxicology report are not yet available, but it is widely believed that they died after inhaling toxic gas or fumes while partying in the Enyobeni Tavern in Scenery Park in the early hours on June 26.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa will attend the service Wednesday.

The 12 girls and nine boys mysteriously died during and after a party organized at the Scenery Park venue. The mass service will take place on a sports field in Scenery Park, after which families will be able to bury their loved ones at separate cemeteries.

Ramaphosa wrote in his weekly letter to the public earlier this week that the country needs to have a “frank conversation” about alcohol consumption, saying increased social acceptability of young people drinking alcohol has become a serious problem in a country where the majority of the drinking population is already classified by the World Health Organization as binge drinkers.

The Eastern Cape Liquor Board has opened a criminal case against the tavern owner, Siyakhangela Ndevu, and wife, Vuyokazi, for allegedly selling alcohol to underage children.

Brig. Tembinkosi Kinana, a spokesperson for the South African Police Service, said the circumstances surrounding the incident are still under investigation.

“The investigation into the Scenery Park incident is still ongoing. There are no new developments at this stage. At an appropriate time and once the results are out, a formal statement will be issued. It has not yet been determined as to when the results will be out,” Kinana told ABC News.

No arrests have been made and no suspects have been named in connection with the investigation, according to police.

The Daily Dispatch, a South African newspaper published in East London, reported that the teens were attending a party at the Enyobeni Tavern to celebrate the end of June school exams. Their bodies were reportedly found strewn across tables, chairs and the dance floor with no visible signs of injuries.

A 22-year-old Scenery Park resident, Sibongile Mtsewu, told ABC News he was at the Enyobeni Tavern when the deadly incident unfolded. He said he was ordering drinks at the crowded club when suddenly the doors were closed and some type of chemical agent was released into the air.

“There was no way out,” Mtsewu previously told ABC News in an interview shortly after the incident. “There was no chance to breathe.”

ABC News’ Morgan Winsor contributed to this report.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(NEW YORK) — Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” into neighboring Ukraine began on Feb. 24, with Russian forces invading from Belarus, to the north, and Russia, to the east. Ukrainian troops have offered “stiff resistance,” according to U.S. officials.

The Russian military has since launched a full-scale ground offensive in eastern Ukraine’s disputed Donbas region, capturing the strategic port city of Mariupol and securing a coastal corridor to the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula.

Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:

Jul 05, 8:43 am
NATO completes negotiations with Sweden and Finland

NATO announced on Monday it has concluded negotiations with Sweden and Finland on their accession to the organization.

“Finland and Sweden have completed accession negotiations at the NATO headquarters in Brussels, as agreed last week by the leaders of the countries at the summit in Madrid,” a NATO press release said.

“Both countries have officially confirmed their desire and ability to fulfill their political, legal and military obligations as NATO members,” the NATO press service added.

The countries will sign their accession protocols on Tuesday. All member countries will then have to ratify the documents according to their national laws.

Finland and Sweden jointly submitted applications to join NATO on May 18, ending decades of neutrality in the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Yuriy Zaliznyak, Max Uzol and Nataliia Kushnir

Jul 05, 7:40 am
Putin announces operational pause after capturing towns in the east

Russian President Vladimir Putin celebrated the Russian seizure of Lysychansk and the majority of the Luhansk regional border in eastern Ukraine by appearing to direct his military to conduct an “operational pause”, the Institute for the Study of War reported on Monday.

Putin and Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu called the recent Russian gains in the Luhansk region as a major victory for Russian forces in Ukraine.

The Russian president also stated that the Russian units that participated in the battle for Lysychansk should rest to increase their combat capabilities, the ISW report claimed.

Putin‘s public comment was likely meant to signal his concern for the welfare of his troops in the face of periodic complaints in Russia about the treatment of Russian soldiers, the ISW experts said.

Russian troops that fought through the Luhansk region are very likely in need of a significant period in which to rest and refit before resuming large-scale offensive operations, observers noted.

It is not clear, however, that the Russian military will accept the risks associated with a long enough operational pause to allow these likely exhausted forces to regain their strength, the ISW report said.

Putin was quick to remark on Monday that “other military formations, including the East Group and the West Group, must carry out their tasks according to the previously approved plans.”

“I hope that everything will happen … in the same way as it has happened in Luhansk,” the Russian President added as quoted by local media.

Vyacheslav Volodin, who chairs the Russian Duma — the lower house of the Federal Assembly — said on Tuesday that Ukraine was “doing everything” to ensure that Moscow’s troops would not stop their “special military operation” at the borders of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic and Luhansk People’s Republic in eastern Ukraine, according to Russian state media.

Serhii Haidai, the head of the Luhansk Regional Military Administration, said on Tuesday that Russian attacks in the Luhansk region destroyed more than 90% of the infrastructure in the territories that were actively defended by the Ukrainian military.

An overwhelming majority of houses were under fire, Haidai said, and most of them “can’t be restored.”

-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Yuriy Zaliznyak, Max Uzol and Nataliia Kushnir

Jul 05, 6:12 am
Russia likely to switch focus to Donetsk after declaring victory in Luhansk

Russian forces will “now almost certainly” switch focus to capturing Donetsk Oblast after claiming control of neighboring Luhansk Oblast in eastern Ukraine’s disputed Donbas region, according to intelligence briefings from the U.K. Ministry of Defense.

Russian President Vladimir Putin declared victory in Luhansk on Monday, a day after Ukrainian troops withdrew from the city of Lysychansk — their last stronghold of resistance in the province. Ukrainian troops had spent weeks trying to defend Lysychansk and to keep it from falling to Russian forces, as the neighboring city of Sievierodonetsk did a week ago. A river separates the two cities.

“Russia’s focus will now almost certainly switch to capturing Donetsk Oblast, a large portion of which remain under the control of Ukrainian forces,” the U.K. Ministry of Defense said in Monday’s briefing. “The fight for the Donbas has been grinding and attritional and this is highly unlikely to change in the coming weeks.”

Putin has made capturing the entire Donbas — Ukraine’s mostly Russian-speaking industrial heartland in the east — a key goal in his war in neighboring Ukraine. Russia-backed separatists in Donbas have battled Ukrainian forces since 2014, when they declared independence from Kyiv after the Russian annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. Moscow formally recognized the self-proclaimed republics in Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts just days before launching its Feb. 24 invasion.

“Russia’s relatively rapid capture of Lysychansk extends its control across virtually all of the territory of Luhansk Oblast, allowing it to claim substantive progress against the policy objective it presented as the immediate purpose of the war, namely ‘liberating’ the Donbas,” the U.K. Ministry of Defense said in Tuesday’s briefing.

“Ukrainian forces have likely largely withdrawn in good order, in line with existing plans,” the ministry continued. “The Ukrainian held areas of Sieverodonetsk-Lyschansk consisted of a bulge or salient which Russian could attack from three sides. There is a realistic possibility that Ukrainian forces will now be able to fall back to a more readily defendable, straightened front line.”

“The battle for the Donbas has been characterised by slow rates of advance and Russia’s massed employment of artillery, levelling towns and cities in the process,” the ministry added. “The fighting in Donetsk Oblast will almost certainly continue in this manner.”

Jul 04, 6:54 am
Pope hints at possible trip to Ukraine

Speaking of the situation in Ukraine in an exclusive interview with Reuters over the weekend, Pope Francis said he might be heading to Ukraine after returning from his trip to Canada.

Francis, who has repeatedly condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, said he “would like to go [to Ukraine],” but wanted to “go to Moscow first.”

No pope has ever visited Moscow. Last Thursday, Francis implicitly accused Russia of waging a “cruel and senseless war of aggression.”

Francis noted over the weekend that there have been contacts between Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov about a possible trip to Moscow.

“After I come back from Canada, it is possible that I will manage to go to Ukraine,” Francis said. “The first thing is to go to Russia to try to help in some way, but I would like to go to both capitals.”

According to Francis, the Vatican first inquired about a trip to Russia several months ago, but Moscow said it was not the right time.

-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Yuriy Zaliznyak, Max Uzol and Fidel Pavlenko

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(PARIS, FRANCE) — As construction crews race to meet the 2024 deadline set by French President Emmanuel Macron for the reopening of Notre-Dame, a jury chaired by Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo has revealed the winning project for the redevelopment of the area surrounding the cathedral.

The project, estimated at 52 million euros ($54 million), is being led by Belgian landscape architect Bas Smets, with a team composed of urban planning agency GRAU and architecture agency Neufville-Gayet.

The plan, scheduled for completion in 2027, calls for a greener and more welcoming look for Notre-Dame.

“There were three essential points for us: it was to reveal the cathedral, second to improve the connection with the Seine, and thirdly, to multiply the uses through this climatic approach,” Smets told ABC News.

A 400-meter long park will emerge along the Seine, where “people will be able to come and picnic [and] play in this magnificent place, between the south facade of the cathedral and the Seine,” Smets said. “Behind the cathedral, we will make a very large lawn of 17,000 square meters (4,2 acres), as large as the large lawn behind the Luxembourg Gardens.”

The chestnut trees around the cathedral will be supplemented by 131 new trees, including hackberries, maples and hornbeams, as well as alders, and a few oaks — an homage to the cathedral’s oak-made frame that burned in the 2019 fire that damaged the historic structure.

The underground parking garage beneath the cathedral square will be made into a reception center, called “le passage,” which Smets said will be able to fit nearly 1,000 people and include luggage storage and meeting rooms to accommodate groups, as well as access to the cathedral’s archaeological crypt.

Along the Seine, Smets said that they are going to open the walls of the quays that line the river to provide direct access to the Seine from the passage, which will be “a critical place” in this undertaking.

Cousins Amélie Vieites, 20, from Tours, and Emma Quiquemelle, 19, from Le Mans, hailed the redevelopment while visiting the site on Saturday.

Vieites said that adding trees will be “really good” for reducing pollution, while Quiquemelle told ABC News that “there aren’t a lot of green spaces in Paris, so that could make young people want to come and sit down.”

Omar Miloudi, 36, on holiday from Algiers, agreed, noting that visiting tourist sites in the summer is “a little too hot” to be “facing this heat.”

“It’s a great idea!” 47-year-old Brian Astl said of plans for the new greenery. Astl, visiting from Toronto, Canada, with his family, said he was already excited to come back to grounds for a picnic.

Officials say they hope the new-and-improved Notre-Dame will attract 12 million visitors per year, and will appeal to both tourists and Parisians.

The work on the cathedral grounds is scheduled to begin in the second half of 2024.

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(CAIRO) — Two women were killed in shark attacks in Egypt’s Red Sea over the weekend, prompting officials to close off a stretch of the coastline.

The Egyptian Ministry of Environment said in a statement Sunday that the women were attacked by a shark while swimming in the Red Sea near the resort town of Hurghada. The governor of the wider Red Sea Governorate, Maj. Gen. Amr Hanafi, has issued an order to suspend all water activities in the vicinity of the deadly attacks, according to the ministry.

The ministry said a committee of specialists has been formed to investigate the circumstances of the incidents and any scientific reasons behind them. The group “is still completing its work to find out precisely the reasons for the behavior of the shark that attacked the two victims,” according to the ministry.

It was unclear whether the same shark was involved in both attacks.

“The Ministry of Environment regrets the accident and extends its deepest condolences to the families of the two victims and extends its sincere thanks and appreciation to all concerned parties for their support,” the ministry added.

The ministry did not release the identities of the two women.

A spokesperson for the Austrian Foreign Ministry confirmed to ABC News that an Austrian citizen from the western state of Tyrol had died in Egypt. The Austrian embassy in Cairo is in contact with the victim’s relatives as well as Egyptian authorities, according to the spokesperson, who would not provide further information due to “reasons of data protection and confidentiality.”

Shark attacks in Egypt’s Red Sea coastal region have been relatively rare in recent years. In 2020, a 12-year-old Ukrainian boy lost an arm and an Egyptian tour guide lost a leg in a shark attack while snorkelling off the coast of Sharm El-Sheikh, another Red Sea resort town.

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