Jimmie Allen is reminding his followers that you can’t always gauge someone’s mental health by what they post online.
On Twitter, the singer posted a PSA explaining the importance of reaching out to the people they love. “Check in on your friends,” he wrote. “Social media is not a way to find out how people are doing. People are really struggling, it has just gotten easier to hide it.”
Jimmie has long been open about his own mental health challenges, sharing that he was diagnosed with bipolar disorder at age 13 and that he also struggles with anxiety. His latest album, Tulip Drive, contains a song called “Settle On Back” that describes his experience with bipolar disorder and also shares memories of his dad.
“When my dad was alive, he was the person that could always pull me back,” Jimmie shared when his album came out. “A lot of people with mental issues has one person in their life that they have the strong connection with.”
Jimmie also recently participated in ACM Lifting Lives’ mental health series, The Check-In.
(LONDON) — When Roe v. Wade was overturned in June, Dr. Rebecca Gomperts, a Dutch physician who has made a reputation for providing abortion services overseas in countries that restrict reproductive rights, saw a huge increase in emails from the U.S.
“When the draft of the decision leaked, we already saw a huge increase in the amount of requests for the service indicating that people were really scared and panicking,” she told ABC News. “But I think what is more important is what I feel is that the enormous fear that we hear in the voices of the women or the parents.”
Though she is licensed in Austria, in 2018 Gomperts founded Aid Access, a team of doctors and advocates that work with counterparts in the U.S. to provide abortion medication and information, and has continued to work despite a Food and Drug Administration request to cease their activity. Medication abortions done at home involve patients taking a regimen of two drugs — mifepristone and misoprostol — which are approved by the FDA to end pregnancy up to 10 weeks.
Before Roe v. Wade was overturned, Aid Access would receive around 400 emails per day from the U.S. On June 24 — the day the landmark ruling was struck down in the Supreme Court — they received 4,000 emails, a record for the organization, and now comfortably see 1,000 emails per day, two-and-a-half times more interest than before the draft leak, Gomperts said.
“I’ve been working in this field like creating different possibilities with different laws for more than 20 years,” Gomperts told ABC News. “But this service specifically, it’s under my Austrian doctors license and in Austria it’s allowed to provide abortion services or to write prescriptions for medication abortion up till 14 weeks of pregnancy. The conditions under which I do it are also allowed. Which is telemedicine.”
The legal position of such services in states that have banned abortion is unclear. In December of last year, the FDA permanently lifted restrictions allowing mifepristone to be delivered by mail.
According to the Center for Reproductive Rights, part of the confusion lies in states passing multiple laws that have overlapped, but states could go further in criminalizing people who obtain abortion pills in online pharmacies. The confusion, Gomperts said, has already led to cases where the authorities have misapplied the law.
Already providing for women in states with restrictive laws, Aid Access has also been used by those who cannot afford in-clinic care. One study from the University of Texas found that requests increased ten-fold after the legislature banned abortion after six weeks. But while data is still being collected on telemedical services post-Roe, all the indications are that requests for the service will be significantly higher.
Telehealth services such as Aid Access, operating in part outside of the jurisdiction of states where abortion is banned, could now be one of the few ways to end pregnancies in post-Roe America.
One trend that Gomperts has noticed is the uncertainty surrounding the laws themselves, with women fearful that they, rather than providers and those who aid them, could be liable for prosecution.
Aid Access has explored a way to potentially circumvent the strict laws in parts of the U.S. by administering abortion medication for future use — essentially as a preventative measure for women who can access the pills when they need it from their own medicine cabinets.
“Time and time again, medication abortion has been scientifically proven to be a safe and effective method to terminate a pregnancy,” Nimra Chowdhry, senior state legislative counsel at the Center for Reproductive Rights Abortion, told ABC News. “Abortion restrictions flagrantly disregard people’s health and put people and providers at risk of punishment just for accessing and providing essential health care. We have started to see more and more states target the use of medication abortion because they recognize that medication abortion is safe, effective, and in-demand. People should not have to live in a state of fear when obtaining or providing abortion care including medication abortion.”
One U.S. study into the safety and effectiveness of self-managed medication abortions provided by Aid Access found that 96% of people self-reported they were able to end their pregnancies using the pills alone after consulting with online telemedicine. These are numbers, according to one of the study’s authors, Abigail Aiken, that are on par with what can be expected in a clinical setting.
In her work, Gomperts has found that obstacles to abortion services, and not abortions themselves, have proved most traumatic. One of the fundamental misconceptions about abortion, she said, is that it is treated as an “exception,” rather than one “part of our reproductive lives.”
“The discourse around trauma is something that is created by society,” she said. “It’s not based on our experience of the stories of women. They experience the trauma because their access to the abortion has been taken away and restricted.”
(WASHINGTON) — Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito for the first time publicly addressed critics of his landmark opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, using a speech in Italy to make light of Britain’s Prince Harry and other foreign figures who have lamented the rollback of U.S. protections for abortion.
“What really wounded me, what really wounded me, was when the Duke of Sussex addressed the United Nations and seemed to compare the decision — whose name may not be spoken — with the Russian attack on Ukraine,” Alito said in a sarcastic tone. The decision, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health, was released last month.
Prince Harry had referenced “the rolling back of constitutional rights here in the U.S.” as well as war in Ukraine as examples of why 2022 is “a painful year in a painful decade,” during a speech July 18 in New York.
Alito also made light of commentary from outgoing British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, French President Emmanuel Macron and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
“I had the honor this term of writing I think the only Supreme Court decision in the history of that institution that has been lambasted by a whole string of foreign leaders who felt perfectly fine commenting on American law,” he said. “One of these was former Prime Minister Boris Johnson, but he paid the price.”
Alito appeared to reference Johnson’s recent resignation after a series of scandals in office.
The justice’s comments came during a speech July 21 in Rome at a conference on religious liberty hosted by the University of Notre Dame Law School. The appearance was not previously announced by the Court; video of the speech was posted online Thursday.
“It is hard to convince people that religious liberty is worth defending if they don’t think that religion is a good thing that deserves protection,” Alito told the audience. “The challenge for those who want to protect religious liberty in the United States, Europe, and other similar places is to convince people who are not religious that religious liberty is worth special protection. That will not be easy to do.”
The Court’s conservative majority delivered significant victories for religious liberty in the most recent term, affirming the right of a public school football coach to pray among students at the 50-yard line; allow a civic group to raise a Christian flag on Boston City Hall flag pole; and permit Maine families to utilize taxpayer-funded tuition credits for religious schools.
Those decisions, along with major rulings on gun rights, climate policy and immigration, thrust the justices to the center of a divisive and highly-partisan public debate.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the most senior liberal and third woman justice, and Justice Amy Coney Barrett, the most junior conservative and 5th woman justice, held a rare public conversation Thursday night in what appeared to be at least partly a bid toward lowering the temperature of debate.
“We like each other. We really do,” Barrett said of her relationship with Sotomayor and her other colleagues. “As is often joked, this is like a marriage. We have life tenure and we get along.”
“Fundamentally, they are good people,” Sotomayor said of her colleagues.
The pair, appearing together for the first time, spoke as part of the Reagan Institute’s Summit on Education in a session moderated by Yale Law professor Akhil Reed Amar. The theme of the event was “An Educated Citizenry.”
“To the extent we can maintain a tone,” Barrett said, “I think that in itself has an educative function on civics.”
Neither addressed any of the decisions of the past term, even obliquely; but they did lament public misunderstanding of the court and demonization of its members.
“For me, democracy means an informed group of people,” Sotomayor said, “because without being informed, you really can’t know how to shape, how to live with others.”
Organizers of the event said the conversation was pre-taped several weeks ago but aired Thursday for the first time.
A woman who accused Bob Dylan of sexually abusing her when she was a minor dropped her lawsuit on Thursday, following accusations that she destroyed key evidence.
The lawsuit alleged that Dylan — born Robert Allen Zimmerman — abused the woman over a six-week period in 1965 when she was 12 years old, saying the legendary singer-songwriter left her “emotionally scarred and psychologically damaged.” Dylan’s lawyers dismissed the accusations as “false, malicious, reckless and defamatory” and a “brazen shakedown masquerading as a lawsuit,” according to Billboard.
At a hearing on Thursday, however, the plaintiff — identified only as J.C. — suddenly asked the federal judge overseeing the case to dismiss it “with prejudice,” meaning the suit cannot cannot be refiled, Billboard reports. The move came after the plaintiff was accused of deleting text messages and emails and was threatened with monetary sanctions.
“This case is over. It is outrageous that it was ever brought in the first place,” Dylan’s lead attorney, Orin Snyder, said in a statement obtained by Billboard. “We are pleased that the plaintiff has dropped this lawyer-driven sham and that the case has been dismissed with prejudice.”
(NEW YORK) — At least 15 people have been killed amid devastating flooding in Kentucky, Gov. Andy Beshear said Friday, and he said he expects the death toll to “more than double.”
The fatalities will likely include children, the governor said on CNN.
Among those killed was an 81-year-old woman, according to the governor.
On Thursday, Beshear called it “one of the worst, most devastating” floods in the state’s history, and said he anticipates this will be one of the deadliest floods in Kentucky in “a very long time.”
A flash flood emergency was issued in Kentucky late Wednesday as 2 to 5 inches of rain pounded the Bluegrass State.
As of Friday morning, central and eastern Kentucky remain under a flood watch, according to Beshear. An additional 2 to 4 inches of rain is expected in eastern Kentucky through Monday.
For some areas, the water will not crest until Saturday, the governor said.
“While rain totals are not expected to be as high, flooding still remains a concern due to saturated grounds,” the governor tweeted.
The state is combating washed out roads, destroyed homes and flooded schools, according to Beshear.
“Hundreds” have been rescued by boat and many people remain stranded, Beshear said Friday.
Hundreds of residents are expected to lose their homes and it’ll likely take families years to recover and rebuild, he said.
Three of Kentucky’s state parks are being opened to people who have lost their homes, according to the governor.
President Joe Biden on Friday approved a disaster declaration for Kentucky.
ABC News’ Alexandra Faul, Kenton Gewecke and Morgan Winsor contributed to this report.
Selena Gomez is feeling super thankful in the wake of her 30th birthday.
The Only Murders in the Building star, who hit the milestone birthday on July 22, shared a video on TikTok on Thursday to say “thank you to every person that wished me a happy birthday.”
“I got to see some of your messages,” she continued. “I don’t read a lot of comments, but the few that I read were really, really sweet and I just want you to know that I don’t take that for granted.”
The pop star also showed gratitude for those who donated to the Rare Impact Fund, a charitable organization that aims to “to increase access to mental health services in educational settings,” according to its site.
Selena closed out the minute-long clip with continued thanks as tears welled in her eyes, telling fans, “And I just wanted to thank you all from the bottom of my heart for being in my life, for growing up with me — for putting up with me.”
Actress Mary Alice, best known for portraying Leticia “Lettie” Bostic on NBC’s A Different World and Effie Williams in the 1976 original version of Sparkle, died Wednesday at her home in Manhattan, a spokesperson for the NYPD confirms to People. She was 85. A cause of death was not given. Alice also played The Oracle in The Matrix Revolutions, and won an Outstanding Supporting Actress Emmy in 1987 for her role as Marguerite Peck in I’ll Fly Away. Her other film credits include Spike Lee‘s Malcolm X, Awakenings, opposite Robin Williams and Robert De Niro, and Clint Eastwood‘s A Perfect World. On TV she appeared in shows such as Oz and Law & Order…
The release date for third Creed movie — and ninth installment in the Rocky film franchise — has been pushed back from Nov. 23, 2022 to March 3, 2023, according to Variety. The film will again have Michael B. Jordan starring Apollo Creed’s son Adonis, who “makes peace with his late father’s burdensome legacy,” while Rocky travels to Vancouver “to bury the hatchet with his estranged son and meet his grandson.” Creed III will also bring back co-star Tessa Thompson as his love interest, Bianca, and Phylicia Rashad as Adonis’ mother, Mary Ann. Sylvester Stallone, however, will not appear in the film…
Mindhunter‘s Holt McCallany has been tapped for a role in Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part Two, according to Deadline. Returning for the film, along with with Tom Cruise, are Simon Pegg, Ving Rhames, Vanessa Kirby and Frederick Schmidt. Henry Czerny, who appeared in the first Mission: Impossible movie back in 1996 as IMF Director Eugene Kittridge, also returns, along with newcomers Hayley Atwell, Pom Klementieff, Rob Delaney, Charles Parnell, Indira Varma, Mark Gatiss, Cary Elwes and Shea Whigham. Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part Two, the eighth film in the series, is set for a theatrical release on June 28, 2024…
CODA Oscar winner Troy Kotsur is attached to star in a Disney+ series based on the football team from the California School for the Deaf Riverside as the team’s coach, according to Variety. The show will tell the true story of the CSDR Cubs’ 2021 football season, when the team went undefeated and got all the way to the California State Championship. The writing and production team, both in front of and behind the cameras, will include artists from the Deaf community, according to the outlet…
Former The View panelist Elisabeth Hasselbeck will be returning to the ABC daytime panel show — at least temporarily — as a guest host, according to People. “It will be an honor to co-host The View, share our bestselling children’s book, ‘Flashlight Night’, and as always tackle hot topics!” Pray for me y’all!” the conservative TV host and author tells the outlet. Hasselbeck originally appeared on The View from 2003-2013 as the conservative seat on the show, which has also been filled by Candace Cameron Bure and Meghan McCain, among others…
Despite the fact that Robert Pattinson is currently playing the cinematic Batman, Ben Affleck might not be retiring his Batsuit just yet. Jason Momoa teased Affleck’s return as Batman for Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom, the sequel to 2018’s Aquaman.
“REUNITED bruce and arthur,” Momoa shared Thursday on Instagram, along with a photo of him and Affleck. “love u and miss u Ben WB studio tours just explored the backlot alright. busted on set all great things coming AQUAMAN 2 all my aloha j”
Affleck most recently played Bruce Wayne/Batman in 2017’s Justice League — as well as last year’s Zack Snyder director’scut of the film — and in Suicide Squad and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, both in 2016. He’s also set to reprise the role for The Flash, due out in 2023.
The Batman, starring Pattinson, Zoë Kravitz, Jeffrey Wright, Colin Farrell and Paul Dano, has earned over $770 million since its release in March. A sequel is in the planning stages.
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is slated to hit theaters March 17, 2023.
(NEW YORK) — A Minnesota woman is sharing her health battle on TikTok, she says, in order to raise awareness and encourage women to advocate for themselves and their health.
Raquel Rodriguez, 25, said doctors first found a cyst on her ovary in 2016 while doing testing to determine why she was experiencing kidney infections so severe she had to be hospitalized.
“They just kind of said, ‘Oh, you have a cyst. We’re not worried about it,'” Rodriguez told Good Morning America, referring to her doctors at the time. “They didn’t tell me the size and they didn’t really tell me much about it at all, so I just kind of moved on and was like, OK, they’re not worried about it.”
Ovarian cysts, fluid-filled sacs that forms on or in the ovaries, can happen monthly in the ovulation process. Most of the cysts are what gynecologists call “functional cysts” that resolve on their own and are typically benign, according to the U.S. Office on Women’s Health.
Rodriguez said over the course of the next several years, she continued to experience intermittent kidney and bladder issues, as well as pain during intercourse.
Though the pain during intercourse was often severe, Rodriguez said she struggled to seek help.
“Me being a teen, I was kind of embarrassed, like, I don’t know if this is normal,” Rodriguez said, adding that after a negative experience with a male emergency room doctor, whom she said she felt undermined her pain, she never sought help for the pain again.
Even though Rodriguez said she continued to experience symptoms such as continued pain and frequent urination, it was only this past year that she said she began to notice more physical changes, including extreme bloating.
“I kind of took it into my own hands to do as much research as possible,” she said. “I really started to dig and look at Reddit threads and talk to other women that had the same thing, and then I really started to advocate for myself.”
Rodriguez said she wanted to be “as educated as possible” about what was going on with her body because the previous times she sought medical care for her symptoms, she “wasn’t taken seriously.”
Through her research, Rodriguez said she assumed it was her cyst that was growing and went to a midwife, noting, “I thought they would listen to me better than anyone else had.”
The midwife she saw ordered an emergency ultrasound with a doctor that same day, according to Rodriguez. On the ultrasound, a cyst was found that extended from Rodriguez’s pubic bone to her sternum.
“She said, ‘I’ve never, ever in my life seen something this big before,'” Rodriguez said of the reaction of the doctor who performed the ultrasound. “I remember after walking out of the appointment, I called my mom immediately and told her, and I called my sister and told her, and everyone was really excited because we’d dealt with this for so long. I was really, really relieved.”
In June, on her 25th birthday, Rodriguez underwent a two-hour surgery to remove the cyst, which weighed 10 pounds and carried more than four liters of fluid.
“The first thing I noticed after surgery was not having to pee right away. I could drink a glass of water and not have to go pee immediately,” she said. “That night after the surgery, I looked down at my stomach and it looked like it was sunken in, which was super weird.”
Rodriguez’s surgeon, Dr. Adrienne Mallen, a gynecologic oncology specialist, said the cyst was large enough that it looked like Rodriguez was carrying a full-term pregnancy.
“The abdominal cavity, I tell people it’s like thinking of the inside of a beach ball. It’s easy to hide growths,” Mallen said. “The body is pretty adaptive, so it can be very easy to not notice something in that area, and sometimes it’s not noticed until it comes out of what we refer to as the pelvis, especially in women’s bodies.”
Mallen said that because there is no common way to check women’s ovaries, ovarian cysts can often go undetected.
“The best test we have to determine if there’s growth is a pelvic examination with your doctor,” Mallen said, adding that ultrasounds are then used to help determine if a cyst is benign. “We don’t have a standard test that you can get to check your ovaries, it’s only if you’re having a problem.”
Though ovarian cysts affect millions of women each year, only around 5% to 10% of women, like Rodriguez, have cases severe enough to require surgery to remove an ovarian cyst, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
“I tell people to just focus on body awareness so they can feel empowered because they know their body well,” Mallen said, adding of her own patient, “Raquel was a great advocate for herself and made sure she found a team that was listening to her.”
Ovarian cysts — which can be caused by hormonal changes, endometriosis, pregnancy and severe pelvic infections — often cause no symptoms at all.
If an ovarian cyst does cause symptoms, they may include bloating, pressure or pain near where the cyst is located. Symptoms of a ruptured ovarian cyst may include dizziness, nausea, vomiting, bleeding and intense pelvic or abdominal pain on the side of the body where the cyst is located, according to the Office on Women’s Health.
Over the past year, as Rodriguez got answers herself, she began to share her health journey on TikTok to help raise awareness about ovarian cysts and women’s health.
“I wished I had been a bigger advocate for myself because I felt had I been a bigger advocate, I would have gotten the help I needed back when this first started,” she said. “And I really wanted people to understand that women do go through a lot, and there are a lot of things that people go through that we don’t talk about.”
Rodriguez said that as she has shared her journey, she has been surprised both by the number of people who do not know about ovarian cysts, and the number of people who have messaged her thanking her for speaking out.
She said that as she continues to recover and improve, she has also been surprised to find herself with a platform to help empower women when it comes to their health.
“Women are dismissed so often and it is not really talked about,” Rodriguez said. “I realized just how strong I was getting through this surgery, advocating for myself, and then being able to share my journey with other people. It has really made me feel empowered.
(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 29, 8:28 AM EDT
US ambassador to Ukraine speaks to ABC News as grain ships prepare to leave
U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink told ABC News on Friday morning that she is “optimistic” ships carrying grain will begin leaving Ukraine this weekend, but that it’s up to Russia to keep its side of the deal.
During an interview in the Ukrainian port city of Odesa, Brink declined to say whether the United States would impose consequences on Russia if it disrupted the United Nations-brokered deal or attacked the ships. But she underlined her country’s support for Ukraine and the deal, saying it was important that Ukrainian grain starts reaching countries that need it.
When asked if there was a “Plan B” if the deal failed, Brink said the focus was on doing everything to ensure “Plan A” works.
Earlier Friday, Brink and ambassadors of other G-7 countries held a press conference in Odesa while overseeing the preparations. She told reporters that she hopes an agreement confirming the safe corridors of the grain ships to sail through this weekend would be reached. Under the deal, Ukraine and Russia have been negotiating the precise routes the vessels will take through the Black Sea.
Since Russian forces invaded neighboring Ukraine on Feb. 24, the cost of grain has skyrocketed worldwide. Russia and Ukraine — often referred to collectively as Europe’s breadbasket — produce a third of the global supply of wheat and barley, but Kyiv has been unable to ship exports due to Moscow’s offensive. Last month, the Ukrainian Grain Association warned that Ukraine’s wheat harvest is expected to plummet by 40%.
In recent weeks, there has been an all-out push from the U.S. and the U.N. to facilitate exports from war-torn Ukraine, desperate to offset what they foretell is a looming global food crisis with the potential to devastate the developing world. A Russian blockade in the Black Sea, along with Ukrainian naval mines, have made exporting siloed grain and other foodstuffs virtually impossible and, as a result, millions of people around the world — particularly in Africa and the Middle East — are now on the brink of famine.
-ABC News’ Patrick Reevell
Jul 29, 7:11 AM EDT
Ukraine says 1st grain ships should leave this weekend
Ukraine announced Friday that it hopes the first ships carrying grain will finally be leaving two ports this weekend under a United Nations-brokered deal to end Russia’s blockade.
The departure of the first ships will be a major test of whether the deal with Moscow will hold and Ukrainian food can begin to ease the global hunger crisis worsened by the blockade amid Russia’s war.
Ukrainian Minister of Infrastructure Oleksander Kubrakov, who is overseeing the operation, told reporters in Odesa on Friday morning that the port as well as the nearby Chernomorsk port are prepared to begin, with 17 ships already loaded with grain.
A final agreement mediated by the U.N. and Turkey needs to be signed off on the routes the vessels will take out of the heavily mined ports. Kubrakov said Ukraine had provided a number of options and that, from its side, the country is ready. Ukraine is waiting for the U.N. to confirm the routes are accepted by both sides.
Kubrakov said the first ships should leave by the end of the weekend.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was also in Odesa on Friday morning to see the preparations and meet with Kubrakov as well as other officials, including U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink.
-ABC News’ Patrick Reevell
Jul 27, 2:51 PM EDT
Blinken and Lavrov to discuss US proposal to free Griner and Whelan
Secretary of State Antony Blinken said he plans to speak with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in the coming days, marking the first time the two leaders will speak since the war began.
Blinken said a critical topic of discussion would be securing the freedom of detained Americans Paul Whelan and Brittney Griner, revealing that the U.S. has already put forward a plan to accomplish that.
“We put a substantial proposal on the table weeks ago to facilitate their release. Our governments have communicated repeatedly and directly on that proposal, and I’ll use the conversation to follow up personally and I hope move us toward a resolution,” Blinken said.
“I can’t and won’t get into any of the details of what we’ve proposed to the Russians over the course of some many weeks now,” Blinken said.
Blinken said President Joe Biden played an active role in crafting the proposal for Griner and Whelan.
Blinken also stressed, “My call with Foreign Minister Lavrov will not be a negotiation about Ukraine,” adding, “Any negotiation regarding Ukraine is for its government and people to determine.”
-ABC News’ Shannon Crawford
Jul 27, 9:32 AM EDT
Ukraine uses US rocket system to strike key bridge in Russia-held Kherson
Ukrainian forces struck a strategic bridge in the Russian-occupied city of Kherson early Wednesday, according to local officials.
High-precision missile strikes by the Ukrainian military damaged the Antonivskiy bridge, forcing the occupied authorities to close the structure to civilian traffic. The mile-long bridge across the Dnieper River is an essential artery used by Moscow to supply its troops occupying southern Ukraine.
“Strikes were delivered on the bridge, on its road. The bridge is currently closed to the civilian population,” Kirill Stremousov, the deputy head of the Moscow-appointed administration for the Kherson region, told local media on Wednesday.
The bridge’s pillars and spans were still intact as of Wednesday morning, according to Stremousov.
“It is simply that the number of holes on the road has increased. The strike on the bridge has affected only the civilian population,” he added.
According to Stremousov, Ukrainian forces hit the bridge with High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) supplied by the United States. He said ferry crossings across the Dnieper River will be organized during the bridge’s restoration, and that traffic will resume in the near future.
“We have prepared a pontoon bridge. We have a ferry link,” he told local media.
Earlier on Wednesday, Ukrainian military officials said the number of Russian soldiers killed in the war has surpassed 40,000, just more than five months after Russia launched its invasion of neighboring Ukraine in late February.
-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Yulia Drozd, Max Uzol and Yuriy Zaliznyak
