Black smoke rises from the area of the Russian oil producer Gazprom Neft’s Moscow oil refinery on the south-eastern outskirts of Moscow on June 18, 2026. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)
(LONDON) — Ukraine launched hundreds of drones on Thursday targeting more than a dozen Russian regions, including Moscow, where they struck an oil refinery, sending plumes of black smoke into the air over the Russian capital.
Russia’s Ministry of Defense said the country’s defenses destroyed some 555 drones in the early morning hours. About 180 of those were shot down as they approached Moscow, the city’s mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, said in an update in Russian on the Telegram messaging app.
Ukraine laid claim to the aerial attack, with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying it marked the second time within a week that Kyiv had targeted the Moscow Oil Refinery, a sprawling facility in the city’s southeast that’s run by a subsidiary of state-owned Gazprom. Video verified by ABC News showed blasts at the Kapotnya district refinery.
“This is a fully justified response to Russian attacks on our cities and communities, and another important result of our warriors’ work against facilities that sustain Russia’s war machine,” Zelenskyy of Ukraine said on social media.
Russia on Thursday also continued its nightly long-range attacks on Ukraine, firing at least seven ballistic missiles and 239 drones at Ukraine overnight, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in an update posted on social media. Ukraine said its defenses shot down or otherwise destroyed at least 216 drones or missiles.
Thursday’s Ukrainian strike ranked among the largest single-night long-range attacks undertaken by Kyiv since the war began more than four years ago. The country’s military said it targeted the refinery because it is “involved in supporting the Russian military.”
Zelenskyy sought in his social post to position Ukraine’s long-range strikes, which have escalated in recent weeks, as a means to push Moscow toward diplomacy. He said Ukraine’s Western partners have “have noted the precision and effectiveness of our mid-range strikes and long-range sanctions.”
The attack came in the hours before defense ministers of NATO states were set to gather in Brussels, Belgium, for a summit, where Ukraine’s security was among the topics to be discussed.
The Moscow public prosecutor’s office said “several” districts in the city were attacked by drones on Thursday, claiming there had been damage to apartment buildings. The office said there were casualties reported, but did not detail them.
Russia’s Department of Defense said it had launched in response a drone-and-missile attack against “fuel and energy facilities used by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.”
ABC News’ Victoria Beaule, Helena Skinner, Anna Sergeeva, Oleksiy Pshemyskiy and Jamie Dorrington contributed to this report.
Sea ice concentration, June 14, 2026. (National Snow and Ice Data Center)
(ANTARCTICA) — A massive chunk of sea ice in West Antarctica has not refrozen following a winter heatwave in the region – a dramatic change that could further contribute to global sea level rise, experts told ABC News.
Graphics based on satellite imagery from the University of Colorado Boulder’s National Snow and Ice Data Center taken on Sunday show a large portion of sea ice measuring approximately 150,000 square miles – roughly the size of Montana – is not included in what is typically already frozen at this time of year, which is mid-winter in the Southern Hemisphere, experts told ABC News.
Every winter, Antarctic sea ice grows and decays, Peter Neff, a glaciologist at the University of Minnesota who specializes in ice core records, told ABC News. But since 2015, Antarctic sea ice has entered a “new, much reduced state,” in which less and less is re-freezing due to rising air and sea temperatures, Neff said.
This year, the level of sea ice in West Antarctica is about 50% lower than average, Neff estimated.
“This is a dramatic but not surprising observation in the context of the huge changes that have been occurring in Antarctica, particularly in this region of Antarctica, over the past decade,” Chuck Amsler, a professor of biology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, told ABC News.
If the West Antarctica Ice Sheet were to collapse in its entirety, it has the potential to contribute more than 10 feet in sea level rise, according to a 2025 study by the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration, a partnership between U.S. and U.K. agencies.
It is possible that this year’s June sea ice level in the area may surpass last year’s record low, Rose Malanga, a Ph.D. student at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign who conducted field research in Antarctica earlier this year, told ABC News. In June of both this year and 2025, the region had some of the lowest sea ice levels on record, Ellen Buckley, an assistant professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign’s Department of Earth Science and Environmental Change, told ABC News.
Data gathered by the Copernicus Earth observation program in June 2025 showed there was 12.6 million square kilometers of Antarctic sea ice, which is about 1.3 million square kilometers less than the 1991-2020 average.
Contributing factors likely include strengthening westerly winds, a phenomenon that’s connected to global warming due to climate change, as well as how the ocean is responding to those surface winds, Neff added.
A low-pressure anomaly north of the Bellingshausen Sea, which is adjacent to West Antarctica’s Antarctic Peninsula, is likely causing warm air from higher latitudes to warm the region and prevent sea ice formation, Buckley said.
“Winds drive how the ocean moves, but satellites can’t see into the ocean, so without being able to get down there, especially during the wintertime, we have very limited ability to do research,” he said.
The news of the lack of sea ice comes on the heels of above-average temperatures in the region, records show.
From January through April, the Bellingshausen Sea, where the ice would typically form, has seensea surface temperatures anywhere from 1.8 to 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit above average, according to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration data. Throughout May, the sea surface conditions cooled slightly but remained about 1.8 to 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit above average temperatures.
In June, the Bellingshausen Sea surface temperature varied by as much as 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit above normal. Air temperatures over the Bellingshausen Sea are forecast to be up to 18 degrees Fahrenheit above average from Tuesday through the weekend.
The area that has not yet refrozen is located upwind of the regions on the Antarctic Peninsula that just experienced this warming. The heat wave can contribute to the lack of sea ice extent because there is not reflective white ice surface to keep it cold, Neff said.
“With this kind of situation where there isn’t sea ice forming in the winter, that means in the spring there will be less sea ice to melt,” according to Buckley.
The question of why the Antarctic sea ice freeze and thaw cycle has been behaving differently in the last 10 years, compared to the previous 30 years, is a “huge area of research” right now, Neff said, especially in the western region of the continent, which is being monitored closely by scientists.
Glaciologists have taken a particular interest in Antarctica’s western shelf due to its potential to cause a severe rise in sea levels. Thwaites Glacier, also known as the “Doomsday Glacier,” already contributes to 4% of overall sea level rise, while Pine Island Glacier is one of Antarctica’s fastest-melting glaciers.
Deterioration of the remaining portion of the Thwaites Glacier’s floating ice shelf has been accelerating in recent months and is likely to break off in the coming weeks or months, Neff said, adding that while it won’t completely destabilize the glacier it will contribute significantly to global sea level rise.
The Antarctic Peninsula is warming about five times faster than the global average. The most severe heat event occurred in March 2022, when the continent recorded temperatures between 54 degrees and 72 degrees Fahrenheit above normal.
“The warm events are expected to be coming more frequently,” Neff said.
ABC News’ Kenton Gewecke and Sam Wnek contributed to this report.
A sign is displayed out the Ministry of Defence headquarters, May 7, 2024, in London. (Leon Neal/Getty Images)
(LONDON) — A Russian Navy vessel fired warning shots at a U.K.-registered yacht in the English Channel on Tuesday, the Russian military confirmed, saying the civilian boat was making a “dangerous approach” toward the warship.
The incident was reported midday Tuesday about 20 nautical miles south of the Isle of Wight, outside U.K. territorial waters.
The Russian frigate Admiral Grigorovich detected the U.K. yacht “proceeding under engine power on a dangerous course that would bring it into close proximity with the warship,” the Russian Ministry of Defense said in a statement.
The Russian defense ministry said the frigate’s crew attempted to make radio contact with the yacht, launched signal flares and emitted sound signals, but the boat “continued its dangerous approach.”
When the two vessels were about 150 meters apart, the frigate’s commander fired warning shots “from small arms across the yacht’s course,” at which point the yacht immediately changed course away from the warship, the Russian defense ministry said.
“The crew of the Admiral Grigorovich acted in strict accordance with international navigation rules and took all necessary measures to prevent an incident,” the Russian Ministry of Defense said.
The British military is investigating the incident after the yacht alleged that the Russian warship fired warning shots nearby at a distance of approximately 500 yards (about 457 meters).
The Royal Navy patrol ship HMS MERSEY was monitoring the Russian vessel at the time, ABC News understands.
A seaboat from HMS MERSEY visited the yacht to gather more information and confirm those on board are safe. No injuries or damage have been reported and the yacht is continuing on its journey.
A spokesperson for the U.K.’s Ministry of Defense told ABC News they are “investigating reports of an incident in the Channel.”
The incident comes a day after the U.K.’s Royal Navy led an interdiction of a tanker, the Smyrtos, sanctioned for being part of Russia’s shadow fleet, in the English Channel.
The U.K.’s defense ministry is viewing Tuesday’s reported incident as isolated and not linked to the interception, ABC News understands.
Close up of young college students hands holding mobile phones. (Daniel de la Hoz/Getty Images)
(LONDON) — U.K. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced he would be introducing a social media ban for children 16 and under in Britain on Monday.
The ban would prohibit kids age 16 and under from using “platforms like Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and X,” the U.K. government said in a statement, but it is not expected to impact messaging apps like Signal and WhatsApp.
“We’re going further than any country in the world by banning social media for under-16s and putting wider protections in place to give kids their childhood back,” Starmer said in a press conference Monday, saying the social media ban will “give [kids] more time, more security, more freedom to grow up, more opportunity.”
“This is a line in the sand. Tech giants had their chance and failed, but we’re stepping in to protect children, back parents and set a new normal for future generations,” he added.
Social media platforms generally require users to be at least 13 years old to use their platforms and services, but those requirements may vary according to local laws.
Starmer said he hopes the legislation for the social media ban would be discussed in the U.K. parliament before Christmas and would be implemented in early 2027.
Britain is following a similar strategy as Australia, whose social media ban for kids went into effect in December 2025, but is adding more security measures, according to the government.
“The government will also go further than a blanket ban on social media with world-leading blocks on harmful functions such as livestreaming and stranger communication with children for under-16s,” the government said in a statement.
Other countries have also proposed social media bans or announced similar age restrictions, including Canada, Brazil and Indonesia. Several additional countries, including France, Spain, Denmark, Thailand, and South Korea, are looking into or developing strategies to address kids’ social media use, according to The Associated Press.
Social media companies have pushed back against proposals to ban social media for kids under 16, an important user base for the companies and their bottom line.
“We’ve invested in expert-led, age-appropriate experiences and default protections for teens for over a decade and will continue to do so,” a YouTube spokesperson said in a statement, following the U.K. government’s announcement on Monday. “YouTube is a vital resource for young people, educators and parents. Blanket bans push kids out of such curated, supervised, beneficial experiences and towards anonymous, less safe services.”
Snapchat said it shared the British government’s “objective of protecting people from online harm” but noted that “because the majority of time spent on Snapchat is in private messaging between friends and family, an outright ban that disconnects teens from those relationships doesn’t make them safer — it may simply push them to less safe platforms.
“We have long supported thoughtful and proportionate regulation, including the UK’s groundbreaking Online Safety Act, and remain committed to working with [the U.K.’s Office of Communications] on implementation,” a Snap Company spokesperson in a statement. “It is vital that the Government now carefully considers the scope of a ban, and how it will define and apply its exclusions.”
Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and the messaging app Whatsapp, said the company also opposes a social media ban for children.
“We share the goal of keeping teens safe online, which is why we developed Teen Accounts to automatically limit who can contact them and the content they see,” a Meta spokesperson said. “Like others, we don’t think bans will achieve this goal.”
The Meta spokesperson added that such bans “risk isolating teens from online communities and information, and driving them to unregulated alternatives that lack built-in protections and parental controls.”
“To be both effective and easy for parents, any restrictions must be underpinned by an age verification system on devices so people aren’t asked to hand over ID to dozens of individual services to prove their age,” they said. “We will continue to engage with the government and Ofcom as they work to implement this policy.”
When reached by ABC News, TikTok said in a statement, “We share the government’s goal of safe online experiences for teens, which is why teen accounts on TikTok have more than 50 preset safety and privacy settings, such as private accounts, and we continue to invest in the latest technologies to advance platform safety. We will examine the details of the government’s measures, and we look forward to collaborating constructively with the government on this important issue.”
Sergey Sobyanin, Mayor of Moscow, August 29, 2017 in Moscow, Russia. (Photo by Sandra Montanez/Getty Images)
(LONDON) — Dozens of Ukrainian long-range drones attacked Moscow overnight into Tuesday morning, according to the city’s Mayor Sergey Sobyanin, with damage confirmed at a major oil refinery and flight restrictions disrupting flights at all four of the city’s international airports.
“Over the past 24 hours, an attack by enemy drones on Moscow has continued. One of the drones damaged a facility on the territory of the Moscow Refinery. There were no casualties. Emergency services are working at the scene of the incident,” Sobyanin wrote in a post to Telegram. At least 60 Ukrainian drones were shot down, the mayor said.
Purported videos of the Gazprom-owned refinery in Moscow showed fire and a large plume of black smoke rising over the facility, which is located in the Kapotnya District to the southeast of the city.
Regional Governor Andrei Vorobyov said in a post to Telegram that 86 Ukrainian drones were intercepted over the wider Moscow region, with six people injured.
Ukrainian forces have been expanding their drone attacks toward Moscow in recent months, as just one element of its growing long-range strike campaign into Russia — which officials in Kyiv refer to as “long-range sanctions.”
Tuesday marked the ninth consecutive day of Ukrainian drone attacks on Moscow, according to statements issued by Sobyanin on Telegram. The number of drones that Sobyanin reported shot down on Tuesday was also the largest of any day since May 17.
Already this year, Sobyanin has reported the downing of more Ukrainian drones — 1,134 craft — than in all of 2025, when the mayor said Russian forces intercepted 734 Ukrainian drones en route to the capital.
The latest Ukrainian strikes came a day after a major Russian attack on Kyiv, which killed at least five people, damaged a historic cathedral and prompted Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha to brand Russian President Vladimir Putin a “barbarian.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shared a purported video of the burning Moscow refinery on Telegram on Tuesday morning, attributing the damage to “Ukrainian long-range strikes.”
“Russia must be compelled to end the war against our people. And Ukrainian long-range weapons are one of the important components of such coercion,” Zelenskyy wrote.
“This is a just response to Russian attacks and a response to the prolongation of the war, which needs to be ended,” Zelenskyy added.
Andriy Kovalenko, the head of the Counter-Disinformation Center operating as part of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said that the Moscow refinery is one of the country’s largest, with a refining capacity of around 11 million tons of oil per year. The plant, he said, accounts for some 40% of Moscow’s gasoline needs.
“Even though Putin has deployed almost all of the key air defense and missile defense systems to Moscow, this doesn’t save the Russians. Putin is not a guarantee of safety for Muscovites,” Kovalenko wrote.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said the attack on Moscow was one element of a larger wave of overnight strikes. The ministry claimed that Russian forces downed at least 172 Ukrainian drones overnight into Tuesday morning.
Russia’s federal air transport agency, Rosaviatsiya, announced flight restrictions at more than a dozen airports across southern and western Russia, including at all four of Moscow’s international airports — Domodedovo, Vnukovo, Zhukovsky and Sheremetyevo.
Elsewhere, flight restrictions affected airports stretching from Sochi on the Black Sea coast to Nizhnekamsk in the Tatarstan Republic, some 750 miles from Ukraine.
Ukraine’s air force said Russia continued its own long-range attacks overnight. The air force said in a post to Telegram that Russia launched 132 drones and two missiles into the country in its latest barrage, of which 114 drones were intercepted or suppressed
Both missiles and 16 drones impacted across nine locations, the air force said.
The latest exchanges came as Zelenskyy sat down with Western leaders — among them President Donald Trump — at the G7 summit in Evian-les-Bains, France, on Tuesday.
On Monday, the Ukrainian leader said he would use his visit to the G7 gathering to again appeal for Kyiv’s Western partners to put more pressure on Putin to end the Russian invasion.
A policeman stands guard as smoke and flames rise from the building adjacent to the Assumption Cathedral of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra after a large scale attack overnight on June 15, 2026 in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Photo by Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)
(LONDON) — Russian drones and missiles targeted Kyiv in a major attack on Sunday night, Ukrainian officials said on Monday morning, killing several people in the capital and setting a fire at a historic cathedral and UNESCO world heritage site.
At least five people were killed and 28 people injured by the strikes on Kyiv, Mayor Vitali Klitschko and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in posts to social media.
Zelenskyy said that Russia launched more than 60 missiles at the capital.
The Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, an 11th-century cathedral located in the heart of the city, was among the sites damaged in the attack, Zelenskyy wrote.
The roof of the church was set on fire by strikes, he reported, though said that emergency responders extinguished the blaze. “This is one of the biggest Russian crimes against Christian culture to date,” the Ukrainian leader added.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha described the attack as “barbaric” in a post to X. He added that Russian President Vladimir Putin “has forever put his name on the list of history’s worst barbarians.”
In total, Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 70 missiles and 611 drones into Ukraine overnight, of which 50 missiles and 582 drones were shot down or otherwise suppressed. Twenty ballistic missiles and 27 drones impacted across 42 locations, the air force said in a post to Telegram.
Sunday night’s attack was the largest combined Russian strike recorded since the night of June 1, according to Ukrainian air force data analyzed by ABC News.
Zelenskyy said that at least five more people were killed and nine people injured by Russian strikes In the northeastern city of Kharkiv, while other attacks were also reported in the Kyiv, Dnipro, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy and Mykolaiv regions.
“Russia is showing the world its intentions to continue the war,” Zelenskyy wrote. “It is very important that there be a response from the G7 countries, which are currently gathering for a summit, and that it be decisive and meaningful: more pressure on the aggressor, more help for Ukraine with air defense, especially with anti-ballistic missiles.”
Russia’s Defense Ministry described the overnight attacks as “a massive strike with high-precision weapons” in a post to Telegram. The ministry claimed that its targets included “objects of the defense-industrial complex” and military facilities in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Dnipro.
The ministry denied responsibility for the strike on the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra, claiming — without providing evidence — that the cathedral was hit by an interceptor missile fired by a Ukrainian-operated U.S.-made Patriot surface-to-air missile system.
The latest Russian attack came as leaders of the G7 — a grouping made up of the U.S., France, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan and the U.K. — prepared to gather for the bloc’s annual summit, which this year is being held in France.
Zelenskyy is expected to attend the event as a guest and meet with President Donald Trump and European leaders. While touring the damaged cathedral on Monday afternoon, the Ukrainian president said he invited Putin for talks at the summit. Moscow has not yet commented on the invitation.
The Russian Defense Ministry also claimed the shooting down of at least 123 long-range Ukrainian drones overnight into Monday morning.
Russia’s federal air transport agency, Rosaviatsiya, said in posts to Telegram that temporary flight restrictions were introduced at airports in Sochi, Volgograd, Kaluga, Yaroslavl and Nizhny Novgorod overnight.
Flight restrictions were also introduced at three of Moscow’s four international airports — Domodedovo, Ivanovo and Zhukovsky — amid the latest attacks, Rosaviatsiya said.
Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said in a post to Telegram that four Ukrainian drones were shot down en route to the capital in the early hours of Monday, marking the eighth consecutive day of Ukrainian drone attacks targeting Moscow.
ABC News’ Victoria Beaule, Yulia Drozd and Anna Sergeeva contributed to this report.
In this Aug. 20, 2021, file photo provided by the U.S. Army, combat medic Sgt. Wyatt Ryser with the 811th Hospital Center gives a Covid-19 briefing to an Afghan family at Camp As Sayliyah in Doha, Qatar. The U.S. military is providing meals, water, and snacks to immigration applicants seeking relocation to the U.S. Jimmie Baker/U.S. Army via Getty Images, FILE
(QATAR) — Her room is made up of four towering gray walls. With a rug, a colorful comforter and a few pictures, 15-year-old Zahra Muheb has tried to make it feel like home. She’s spent her last two birthdays living at Camp As Sayliyah, a refugee camp on an unused American military base in Doha that’s a temporary home for more than 1,100 Afghan refugees.
Most of its residents are women and children who were placed there by the U.S. State Department during the U.S. refugee resettlement process.
Zahra told ABC News her dreams for the future have changed drastically since President Donald Trump signed an executive order halting refugee resettlement efforts during the first days of his second term. She said the ripple effects have been felt throughout every corner of the camp.
“I mean, when you go out of the camp and you’re sick, they take you to hospital and they put GPS trackers on you so that you cannot escape,” she said. “I feel like prison might be much better than here.”
Zahra also told ABC News that she was threatened by the camp duty director and other camp officials after speaking to news outlets.
She claimed that they said someone in Washington, D.C., asked them to talk to her, then turned to her parents and said, “What you allow your daughter [to do] has significantly increased the risk of going back to Afghanistan.”
In response to Zahra’s specific claims, a State Department spokesperson told ABC News, “We have no information regarding this alleged incident” and that “accusations are dealt with promptly to protect residents.”
The fear of being sent back to Afghanistan is intense for many refugees at the base, she noted.
Zahra told ABC News camp officials are using that fear and not knowing where they will be placed against residents at the base.
“They are lying to people about [being sent to a] third country,” she said. “They are encouraging people to go back to Afghanistan, paying them money.”
Zahra’s family was already vetted by the Biden administration, but they and many other camp residents remain in limbo, waiting to see where and when the U.S. State Department will relocate them.
“The State Department continues to work toward a positive resolution that provides safety for these remaining people to start a new life outside of Afghanistan while upholding the safety and security of the American people,” a department spokesperson told ABC News.
In response to the possibility of being sent to the DRC, Zahra said she wanted to address Trump directly, saying the idea was “not even acceptable.”
“Mr. Donald Trump and Mrs. Melania reconsider [to] at least take us to America because we deserve safety. We deserve a life with dignity,” she told ABC News.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration raised the refugee ceiling by 10,000 solely for white South African refugees despite the promises the U.S. previously made to those residing at Camp As Sayliyah.
On June 2, during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the State Department’s fiscal year 2027 budget, lawmakers pushed back against these new policies.
Democratic Sen. Van Hollen of Maryland told Republican Secretary of State Marco Rubio that “this administration has capped refugees at a record low” and that “White South Africans, Afrikaners, have comprised roughly 99% of those slots.” He called the administration’s process a “race-based refugee system.”
Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat, denounced the notion of sending Afghan allies living at Camp As Sayliyah back to Afghanistan, which is controlled by the Taliban, or the DRC, which has seen a surge of sexual violence towards women and children in recent years amid the conflict that has raged since 2022.
In response, Rubio noted that the U.S. “can’t admit any Afghans at this point into the country,” due to an executive order in the wake of last November’s deadly attack on two members of the National Guard last November.
“I don’t know of any single country that’s going to take a thousand people, but we’ve talked to multiple countries about taking several hundred of these people and allowing them to move to a safe location,” he said.
The residents we spoke to told ABC News they feel left behind, including a father who served as a member of the Afghan Command Forces for the U.S. and asked ABC News not to use his name for fear of retaliation.
“In reality, we were brought here legally and we completed all legal processes,” he said. “We stood side by side with the United States in Afghanistan for almost 20 years. Now the time has come for the U.S. government to fulfill their promises.”
Shawn VanDiver, the president of AfghanEvac, a non-profit organization that advocates for Afghan refugees, arranged a call with residents, congressional staffers and politicians in April.
“We’re gonna keep fighting for you, there’s a lot of people in Congress that are gonna keep fighting for you,” he told the residents.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut, joined the call to relay what his son, who served in Afghanistan as a Marine Corps infantry officer, told him about the Afghan allies “who put their lives on the line.”
“They love America. We will work for them and fight for them just as we would our own veterans,” he said.
In a previous statement, the U.S. State Department told ABC News in March that “Afghan Nationals at the Camp do not currently have a viable pathway to the United States” and that residents would be relocated by March 31. In June, ABC News spoke with several residents who still do not know where or when they will be relocated, if at all.
“There was a viable pathway, the administration has chosen to close it — it is a policy choice,” VanDiver told ABC News.
For now, residents at the camp hope the U.S. will keep its original promise to bring them to the country to start a new life.
Zahra asked ABC News to use her name, hoping it will help her resettlement efforts and others at the camp who are afraid of being sent to countries in conflict like DRC.
“I’m showing my face and I am raising my voice. To the camp officials from here … you cannot stop me,” she said. “Whatever you do, it won’t stop me. If you think that you can treat me [like this] and it will stop me, it cannot. I will fight. I will take those people to safety. I will try.”
On Thursday, 83 members of Congress signed a letter to Rubio, demanding a clear plan for residents at Camp As Sayliyah, shortly after Zahra’s story aired on ABC News on Tuesday. In the letter, congressional leaders gave the department until June 24 to respond with answers and a credible plan for refugees who have been living in limbo.
The skyline of the Central Business District is seen on May 13, 2026 in Beijing, China. (Kevin Frayer/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — A U.S. citizen was arrested in China on espionage charges, according to Chinese officials.
U Min Zin was “lawfully subjected to criminal compulsory measures by the relevant authorities on suspicion of engaging in espionage activities that endanger China’s national security Chinese foreign ministry,” spokesperson Lin Jian told reporters Friday during a news conference.
Lin did not provide any more details about the charges or the investigation into Min Zin, who has been a longtime scholar on the politics of Myanmar. The spokesperson said the Chinese government notified the U.S. consulate general in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou.
A State Department official told ABC News in a statement Friday that the department is aware of the reports of the arrest.
“The Department of State has no higher priority than the safety and security of Americans. Whenever a U.S. citizen is detained, we work to provide the appropriate consular assistance. However, under federal privacy law, we are unable to comment further at this time,” the official said.
Min Zin took part in the democracy movement in Burma, Myanmar’s former name, in the late 80s and fled the country in 1989 to avoid arrest, according to a bio on his blog.
He is the executive director of the think tank, The Institute for Strategy and Policy (Myanmar), and has written several publications about Myanmar’s politics.
Min Zin was scheduled to speak at an event in Nepal this month hosted by the Centre for Social Innovation and Foreign Policy, the think tank announced in May.
ABC News’ Shannon Kingston contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — A police officer was shot and killed while executing a search warrant Thursday as part of an investigation into a series of shootings in Toronto, including one at the United States consulate in March, authorities said.
The officer, 43-year-old Marc Pinizzotto with the department’s emergency task force, was “shot in the line of duty while conducting a search warrant early this morning,” Toronto Police Service Chief Myron Demkiw said during a press briefing on Thursday.
Pinizzotto was provided emergency care and transported to a local hospital, where he died, the chief said.
Police did not share additional details on the circumstances of the shooting. A suspect is in custody and receiving emergency medical treatment in the hospital, according to Demkiw, who did not share further details on the individual.
The investigation involving the search warrant and several others executed on Thursday “concerned a number of shootings,” including one at the U.S. consulate in Toronto on March 10, Demkiw said.
Witnesses observed two people emerge from a white Honda CR-V and discharge a handgun at the consulate before driving away, according to police. No one was injured during the incident. Officers got a call about the shooting around 5:29 a.m., and found shell casings and damage to the building when they arrived, police said.
A 19-year-old suspect wanted in connection with the investigation remains at large, Demkiw said Thursday.
The police chief identified the suspect as Zara Jabbi and warned that he should be considered armed and dangerous.
“I urge you to turn yourself in,” Demkiw said while addressing the suspect during the briefing.
A protestor throws a rock at Police vehicles on Sandy Row on June 9, 2026 in Belfast, Northern Ireland. (Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)
(BELFAST, Northern Ireland) — Extra officers from the U.K. are being deployed to Northern Ireland on Thursday following another night of violent unrest over an alleged knife attack by an immigrant suspect.
Scotland will send 90 officers to Northern Ireland to support an additional 200 officers from across the U.K. that were deployed to the region after protesters allegedly set fire to cars, properties and other outdoor objects, pelted cops with projectiles and harassed immigrant healthcare workers on Wednesday, according to investigators and local leaders.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said Thursday that 16 people have been arrested this week in connection with the back-to-back nightly protests in Belfast and other towns. They are looking for more suspects connected to the violent demonstrations.
Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson told reporters that 12 officers were injured during Wednesday night’s incidents, including some who were allegedly struck by Molotov cocktails and other projectiles.
Officers had to use a water cannon to disperse some of the crowds.
“Our communities in Northern Ireland deserve to get their lives back to normal. Yesterday, businesses shut their doors, trains were not running and we saw schools closing early due to fear. This is the impact these thugs are having,” he said.
As the destruction and chaos continued on the streets, the family of the victim of Monday’s stabbing attack at the center of the riots pleaded for calmness and tolerance.
The family of Stephen Ogilvie, who is in stable condition following the attack, released a statement Wednesday saying they were “feeling disgusted” by the images of the violent protests.
“We want to make it absolutely clear that to do this in response is not supported by our family, and peaceful protest is only ever the way forward,” the family said.
A Sudanese immigrant allegedly attacked Ogilvie with a knife around 10:30 p.m. Monday near Kinnaird Avenue before he was subdued by nearby pedestrians and arrested by the police.
The victim “suffered serious injuries to his eyes and slash-wound injuries to his back and face,” police said.
The 30-year-old suspect was charged with attempted murder, possession of an article with blade or point in a public place and threats to kill. The investigation is ongoing.
The protests that have broken out since the attack have been pushing anti-immigrant rhetoric and have caused disturbances across Northern Ireland, according to the police.
In one incident on Wednesday, 20 masked protesters allegedly blocked the road and threw projectiles at officers and in another incident in Portadown, demonstrators attacked a property for hours, according to PSNI.
During the demonstrations, some protesters allegedly harassed immigrant healthcare workers who were on their way to and from their work, according to police.
UNISON Northern Ireland, the union representing healthcare workers, said in a statement it had received reports this week of workers being followed, stopped by people to check their identities and intimidated in their homes.
“They are care workers, nurses, classroom assistants and a host of other occupations delivering key public services. They are here because our government and public services invited them to fill the critical shortages in these vital services. The hypocrisy of those behind the hate campaign is stunning,” UNISON said in a statement Wednesday.
Henderson said he was meeting with UNISON members on Thursday and also shared his support for the healthcare workers.
“They are the backbone of our public service. They are caring for our family, friends and loved ones in our communities. We are here to support them. In the same way they support us,” he said.
Ogilvie’s family also expressed support for Northern Ireland’s immigrants and healthcare workers.
“We have many migrants who make a deeply valuable contribution to our country, including from within our healthcare system and hospitality sector, and we depend on them to make our country work. We do not want this terrible tragedy to be used to divide people or fuel hostility — do not do this in the name of our loved one as we do not share the same values,” they said.
Outside of the unrest on the streets, police have also been working to combat a flood of misinformation about the knife attack and protests circulating on social media sites that are being promoted by anti-immigrant groups and figures.
Ogilvie’s family also condemned those who spread misinformation about the attack and protests.
“If you know anything at all about the attack, or saw anything strange near Kinnaird Avenue, please go to the police and stop sharing false information on social media, as it is deeply distressing,” they said.
Henderson urged the public to heed the family’s request.
“They could not be more clear that violence is not in Stephen’s name,” he said.
