(LONDON) — A Wall Street Journal reporter detained in Russia on espionage charges had his appeal denied in court on Thursday.
Evan Gershkovich, a correspondent with the paper’s Moscow bureau, was arrested in March and stands accused of “acting on the instructions of the American side” and collecting state secrets about the military.
The reporter arrived in Moscow City court on Thursday wearing a black T-shirt and jeans. He was placed in a glass enclosure within the courtroom, which is common for defendants in Russia’s legal system.
The United States was “extremely disappointed” in the decision, Lynne Tracy, the U.S. ambassador to Russia, said at the court. She reiterated the U.S. position that charges against Gershkovich are “baseless” and called for his release.
“Nevertheless today in the court room Evan continued to show remarkable strength and resilience in the face of these very difficult circumstances,” she said.
A judge in April denied an appeal, extending Gershkovich’s detention. In a hearing in Moscow’s Lefortovo Court in May, a judge further extended his pre-trial detention until Aug. 30.
The case against Gershkovich amounts to a “sham,” Vedant Patel, a State Department spokesperson, said during a press briefing on Wednesday.
“We’ve been very clear that Evan is wrongfully detained — being wrongfully detained and targeted for simply doing his job as a journalist,” Patel said.
Tracy also attended the reporter’s appeal hearing in April. Speaking outside the court following the denial, Tracy said the charges were “baseless” and called again for Russian authorities to release Gershkovich.
Gershkovich’s parents, Mikhail Gershkovich and Ella Milman, traveled to Moscow for their son’s May hearing, the Journal reported.
“Any parent who loves their kid would travel to the end of the world to be with them for five minutes,” Milman told the Journal after the hearing.
President Joe Biden, who spoke with Gershkovich’s family in April, said the detention was “totally illegal.”
State department officials said the U.S. determined the journalist had been “wrongfully detained.” The House of Representatives earlier this month unanimously passed a resolution calling for the immediate release of Gershkovich and Paul Whelan, another American being held in Russia.
Emma Tucker, editor-in-chief of The Wall Street Journal, and Almar Latour, CEO of Dow Jones and publisher of The Wall Street Journal, issued a statement on June 13 applauding the support from lawmakers.
“His wrongful detention is a blow to press freedom, and it should matter to anyone who values free society,” their statement said. “We will not rest until he is free.”
(WASHINGTON) — Special counsel Jack Smith’s team has handed over to former President Donald Trump its first set of discovery materials supporting its case against him for allegedly mishandling classified documents and obstructing the government’s efforts to retrieve them.
The handover was detailed in a court filing on Wednesday.
The former president has pleaded not guilty to 37 criminal counts related to his handling of classified materials, after prosecutors said he repeatedly refused to return hundreds of documents containing classified information ranging from U.S. nuclear secrets to the nation’s defense capabilities.
According to the Wednesday’s filing, the materials handed over to Trump’s team consist of documents and evidence obtained through subpoena, search or grand jury testimony; a reproduction of “key” documents and photographs deemed to be pertinent to the case; and complete copies of closed-circuit television footage obtained by the government in its investigation.
Prosecutors also say in the filing that Trump’s team can arrange for inspection of any unclassified items seized during the FBI’s August 2022 search of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate that remain in the government’s possession.
Trump, who has denied all wrongdoing, has called the special counsel’s probe a political “witch hunt.”
U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon on Tuesday set a tentative date of Aug. 14 for the start of the trial.
(NEW YORK) — Washington state has overtaken California as the state with the highest gasoline prices.
The average price of regular gas in Washington is $4.93 a gallon, up 33 cents from the same time a month ago, according to AAA.
California’s average price for regular gas is $4.86 a gallon, 7 cents cheaper than Washington, AAA data shows. The price of gas in the state is up 6 cents from this time a month ago.
California has often been the state with the highest gas prices, with drivers paying an average of $6.40 a gallon in July 2022.
While the average price of gas in Washington is $4.93, some motorists are paying over $5 for gas in some counties, according to AAA data.
The average gas price in King County, Washington, which is the home of Seattle, sits at $5.09, according to AAA. Skamania County’s average price for gasoline is $5.32, the highest in the state.
The national average for gas is $3.58 as of Wednesday, according to AAA.
The countrywide average for gas has tallied between $3.50 and $3.60 daily since April 23, according to GasBuddy.
Following Washington and California is Hawaii, where the median gas price is $4.72, AAA data shows. Rounding out the top 5 are Oregon and Nevada, at $4.57 and $4.26, respectively.
By contrast, the average gas price is $3.09 in Mississippi, the lowest in the nation, AAA data shows.
“It has been a quiet week for the national average, with little overall movement in average gas prices nationally even as oil prices have been a bit unstable,” Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, said in a blog post Tuesday on the company’s website. “Some states have seen minor increases while others have seen decreases, and the mixed bag is likely to continue for the time being with oil prices a bit all over the place.”
Haan said economic uncertainty is the main reason why oil prices have decreased but it won’t be enough to prevent a continued downward trend because oil and gas inventories are tight.
“We’ll have to see which of those factors emerges as a winner to predict when the next large movement in prices could be,” Haan said. “We’re also seeing more tropical activity in the Atlantic that could pose challenges in the weeks ahead as hurricane season ramps up.”
Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — After years of research and rigorous testing, cell-cultivated chicken meat will officially be a part of the U.S. food system.
Emeryville, California-based manufacturer UPSIDE Foods, which gave ABC News a look inside its facilities earlier this year, is the world’s first U.S. Department of Agriculture-approved cell-cultivated chicken meat producer and has been fully approved by the U.S. government for commercial sales nationwide.
The food and agriculture manufacturing industry has hailed this as a “historic” moment — after years of investment in UPSIDE Foods from Bill Gates, Richard Branson and Whole Foods founder John Mackey — as scientists tout the lab-cultivated meat as a possible solution for global warming, inhumane treatment of animals and growing global hunger.
The company says it will begin cultivation and sales of real chicken meat grown from animal cells in bioreactors.
It will first reach consumers on the menu of a San Francisco restaurant, Bar Crenn, helmed by James Beard Award-winning chef, restaurateur and activist Dominique Crenn, who is hoping to help mainstream the innovative protein.
Crenn is also the first and only female chef in the U.S. ever to be awarded three Michelin Stars, and only one of five total to achieve the distinction in the world.
In a blog post Wednesday, UPSIDE Foods called the historic milestone “the culmination of years of dedication, ingenuity, and resilience from our team and supporters and marks the beginning of a whole new era in meat production.”
The company has not released a date of first availability, but indicated “that soon, Americans will be able to enjoy delicious meat that doesn’t involve the slaughter of billions of animals every year.”
The UPSIDE Foods team has achieved all three key regulatory milestones: A “No Questions” Letter from the Food and Drug Administration in November 2022, a USDA Label Approval in June 2023, and the USDA Grant of Inspection in June 2023.
(NEW YORK) — As the one-year anniversary of Roe v. Wade being overturned by the Supreme Court approaches this weekend, several states are taking efforts to further strengthen abortion rights and access.
Since the decision handed down last summer, at least 15 states have ceased nearly all abortion services, according to an ABC News tally.
In the face of such harsh restrictions, states where the procedure remains legal are making efforts to help those who may travel to seek abortions.
On Tuesday, the New York State Legislature passed a bill protecting doctors in the state from prescribing pills to patients living in states where the procedure is banned or strictly limited.
In nearby Massachusetts, a joint hearing in the state House and Senate is scheduled next week regarding a bill that would ban the selling, trading, renting or leasing of cellphone location data.
Supporters of the bill — including the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts — said it would help protect the location data of people who visit abortion clinics, especially those in hostile states.
Additionally, in Maine, the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives began voting on a series of abortion bills Tuesday, many of which received initial approval including forbidding towns and cities from enacting their own abortion laws and legal protection for doctors who treat patients from states that ban abortion.
But it’s not just states in regions with more access that have passes or are working to pass laws. States in regions with more restrictions are also working to process access.
In January, lawmakers in Illinois passed a measure — that went on to be signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker — to protect both patients and providers from legal action if they crossed state lines to obtain or provide an abortion, respectively.
In Colorado, Gov. Jared Polis codified legal abortion in state law in 2022. In April 2023, he signed three bills further protecting abortion rights.
One bill would bar courts or judicial officers from issuing subpoenas linked to another state’s investigation about a person who performs, receives or aids an abortion.
A similar bill was signed in March 2023 in neighboring New Mexico by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham that prohibits local or state governments from discriminating, interfering, denying or restricting a person’s access to reproductive health care.
The second Colorado bill requires large employer health care plans to provide coverage for the total cost of abortion care starting in January 2025.
The state’s third bill makes it a deceptive trade practice to advertise that an organization provides abortions, emergency contraceptives, or referrals for abortions or emergency contraceptives when it actually does not.
(NEW YORK) — First the Choco Taco, now the Good Humor Toasted Almond Ice Cream Bar?!
It’s officially peak ice cream season with summer in full swing, but there will be one less nostalgic treat at grocery stores after Good Humor confirmed this week that its iconic cake crumb-coated Toasted Almond Ice Cream Bars have been discontinued.
The ice cream brand, owned by Unilever, confirmed this week that its longtime offering, which debuted over 60 years ago, has officially been removed from production.
Fans of the nostalgic flavor have taken to Twitter and even Change.org to petition to keep the toasted almond flavor around.
“While we don’t have plans on bringing them back, we’ll let our team know you’d like to see them return,” a representative for the brand wrote on Twitter in response to a disappointed consumer.
The almond flavor was removed from the Good Humor lineup as of June 2022, around the same time Klondike announced it stopped making the Choco Taco, which took over headlines and social media feeds, even inspiring homemade copy cat recipes.
(EAST PALESTINE, Ohio) — The National Transportation Safety Board will start taking sworn testimony Thursday as part of its probe into the toxic train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.
The agency is holding an investigative hearing on Thursday and Friday in East Palestine, where a Norfolk Southern Railway train carrying toxic chemicals derailed on Feb. 3, resulting in the release of hazardous materials into the air, soil and creeks in the area.
A preliminary NTSB report released in the weeks following the incident found that a wheel bearing failed moments before 38 cars derailed in the incident — including 11 tank cars carrying hazardous materials that subsequently ignited.
Five of the tank cars contained 115,580 gallons of vinyl chloride, a highly volatile colorless gas produced for commercial uses. Responders subsequently conducted an hourslong controlled release and burn of the vinyl chloride, causing a large ball of fire and sending a plume of black smoke filled with contaminants into the air.
The two-day hearing, described as a “fact-finding step” in the NTSB’s safety investigation, is expected to focus on the communications and preparedness for the initial emergency response, what led to the decision to vent and burn the vinyl chloride tank cars, and the freight car bearing failure modes and wayside detection systems, among other topics.
Witnesses, who will testify under oath, will include representatives of Norfolk Southern, the Federal Railroad Administration, the Ohio National Guard and several local fire and police departments, the NTSB said. A detailed list of the witnesses will become available at the start of the hearing.
Those able to ask witnesses questions include NTSB’s board members and investigative staff and designated parties, including the Norfolk Southern Corporation, Federal Railroad Administration, Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration and Village of East Palestine.
The NTSB will use the information gathered during the hearing to “complete the investigation, determine probable cause, and make recommendations to improve transportation safety,” the agency said. Its full investigation could take up to 18 months from the date of the accident to complete, it said.
“The communities most affected by this tragedy deserve as much insight as possible into our investigation, which is why we’re holding an investigative hearing in East Palestine,” NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy said in a statement. “While we unfortunately cannot change what happened that day, our entire agency is committed to carrying out our mission, which doesn’t end when we get to the bottom of what happened and why it happened — we’ll also work vigorously to prevent it from ever happening again.”
The hearing is scheduled to occur Thursday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. ET and Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. ET. at East Palestine High School and will be streamed live on the NTSB’s YouTube channel.
Homendy had previously called the derailment “100% preventable.”
“We call things ‘accidents.’ There is no accident. Every single event that we investigate is preventable,” she said upon the release of the NTSB’s preliminary report in February.
There were no reported fatalities or injuries in the derailment.
First responders implemented a 1-mile evacuation zone surrounding the derailment site, impacting up to 2,000 residents. The mandatory evacuation order was lifted on Feb. 8 after air and water samples taken the day before were deemed safe, officials said.
Health and safety concerns have lingered in the aftermath of the incident, and several residents filed a class-action lawsuit against Norfolk Southern, seeking punitive damages as well as a fund for medical monitoring and testing, among other relief.
Ohio also filed a lawsuit against Norfolk Southern in March, alleging the railway operator violated various federal and state environmental laws and Ohio Common Law, “recklessly endangering” the health of residents and Ohio’s natural resources, the state district attorney’s office said.
After the lawsuit was announced, Norfolk Southern said that it is “listening closely to concerns from the community about whether there could be long-term impacts from the derailment.”
“We are making progress every day cleaning the site safely and thoroughly, providing financial assistance to residents and businesses that have been affected, and investing to help East Palestine and the communities around it thrive,” Norfolk Southern said in a statement.
Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw testified before the Senate in March, as Washington lawmakers held their first hearing on railroad safety about a month after the derailment. During his opening statement, Shaw said he was “determined to make this right,” and that Norfolk Southern will clean the site “safely, thoroughly and with urgency.”
On the eve of his Senate testimony, Shaw said his company was committed to improving rail safety in a Washington Post op-ed.
Contaminated soil and waste continue to be removed from the derailment site for off-site treatment and disposal. Air monitoring and soil and drinking water sampling are also ongoing, which have not detected concerning levels of any contaminants, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Norfolk Southern will be required to continue cleaning up the contaminated soil and water and transport it safely; reimburse the EPA for cleaning services; and attend public meetings at the EPA’s request and share information, U.S. EPA Administrator Michael Regan announced on Feb. 21. If Norfolk Southern does not comply, the company will be ordered to pay triple the cost.
As of March 16, Norfolk Southern said it had committed approximately $24 million to the community of East Palestine “with more to come.”
My Chemical Romance guitarist Frank Iero is the latest artist to launch their own shop with the online gear marketplace Reverb.
Among the items Iero is parting ways with include various used instruments, amps and personal memorabilia, such as an early 2000s Fender Telecaster 72 Deluxe Reissue guitar.
“I loved using this guitar on MCR’s The Black Parade touring cycle, but the time has come to pass it on to another deserving player,” Iero says. “It even appeared on our performance of ‘Famous Last Words’ when we played The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.”
Iero’s Reverb shop will open June 28. For more info, visit Reverb.com.
Other rockers who’ve opened their own Reverb shop include Green Day‘s Billie Joe Armstrong, Blink-182‘s Mark Hoppus and The Smashing Pumpkins‘ Billy Corgan.
Dead & Company is currently on what they’re calling The Final Tour, but drummer Mickey Hart doesn’t seem so sure how “final” it is.
“Who knows what the next page is, we’re just turning the page,” he tells ABC Audio. “It’s not final anything. We never said we’ll never play again, but we’ll never tour again.” Not that he sees the end of this iteration of the Grateful Dead ending as bad: “Some things, good things, they come to an end and it’s really good to put a period on it and then move on.”
After almost 60 years of touring, Mickey says one of his favorite things about being a member of the Dead has been “raising [the] consciousness of millions of people, and helping them enjoy life and themselves and their families.” When it comes to his job, he says he’s “the luckiest guy in the world.”
As for why Dead music has had such a lasting appeal over generations of music fans, Mickey says it’s because “it’s a kind music. It’s a happy music,” adding it has “deep meaning for many people but it’s packaged in a rock ‘n’ roll band.” But, he shares, “This thing transcends rock ‘n’ roll. It stands for something wholly other than a rock ‘n’ roll band.”
Dead & Company will play the second of two nights at New York’s Citi Field on June 22 before moving to Boston’s Fenway Park on June 24 and 25. The tour wraps with a two-night stand in San Francisco, July 15 and 16. A complete list of dates can be found at deadandcompany.com.
Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan has finally addressed Kevin Costner‘s sudden exit from the series and what it means for the future of the show.
“I’m disappointed,” Sheridan says in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter published on Wednesday. “It truncates the closure of his character. It doesn’t alter it, but it truncates it.”
Sheridan went on to assert that the 68-year-old actor’s departure was to focus on his own four-part film series, Horizon, and not creative differences, as has been rumored.
“I’ve never had an issue with Kevin that he and I couldn’t work out on the phone,” Sheridan insists. “But once lawyers get involved, then people don’t get to talk to each other and start saying things that aren’t true and attempt to shift blame based on how the press or public seem to be reacting. He took a lot of this on the chin and I don’t know that anyone deserves it. His movie seems to be a great priority to him and he wants to shift focus. I sure hope [the movie is] worth it — and that it’s a good one.”
As for Costner’s character, John Dutton, Sheridan suggested that was never going to be around for the very end of the show, and the actor’s exit hasn’t altered Yellowstone‘s conclusion.
“I don’t do f***-you car crashes,” says Sheridan, — referring to a phrase that arose after Grey’s Anatomy creator Shonda Rhimes killed off Patrick Dempsey’s character amid behind-the-scenes tension. “Whether [Dutton’s fate] inflates [Costner’s] ego or insults is collateral damage that I don’t factor in with regard to storytelling.”
