(NEW YORK) — Frank Robert James, 62, was arrested in Manhattan’s East Village on Wednesday afternoon, authorities said, more than 24 hours into an intense manhunt that began after 10 people were shot on a crowded subway car in Brooklyn, New York.
He was charged in a criminal complaint with committing a terrorist act on a mass transportation vehicle and was subsequently transferred to federal custody in Brooklyn. Breon Peace, United States attorney for the Eastern District of New York, whose office brought the charges, said James faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.
James, who was born in New York City but has lived in Philadelphia and Milwaukee in recent years, will appear before U.S. Magistrate Judge Roanne Mann in Brooklyn federal court on Thursday, according to Peace. The exact timing was unknown.
The shooting unfolded on a Manhattan-bound N subway car during the Tuesday morning commute, just before 8:30 a.m. ET, as the train approached the 36th Street subway station in Brooklyn’s Sunset Park neighborhood.
A man mumbling to himself on the subway car donned a gas mask and detonated a smoke canister before pulling out a handgun and firing a barrage of 33 bullets, a police official told ABC News. Ten people were shot, with the youngest being a 12-year-old, according to New York Gov. Kathy Hochul.
The gun jammed during the incident, which is believed to have saved lives, a law enforcement official told ABC News.
Smoke poured out of the subway car as the doors opened and screaming riders ran out onto the platform of the station. Bloodied people were seen lying on the floor of the train and the platform.
A total of 29 people were injured, according to hospital officials. As of Wednesday morning, four of the wounded remained hospitalized, New York City Mayor Eric Adams told ABC News.
Evidence recovered from the scene pointed investigators to James. According to the criminal complaint, police recovered two bags containing, among other items, a Glock 17 pistol, a key to a U-Haul rental vehicle and multiple bank cards. They also discovered a jacket with reflective tape near the two bags. Inside the jacket was a receipt for a storage unit in Philadelphia, which records provided by the facility showed was registered to James, the complaint said.
Records provided by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives revealed that the Gock handgun recovered from the scene of the attack was lawfully purchased by James in Ohio, according to the complaint. One of the bank cards was a debit card bearing the name “Frank James,” the complaint said. Records provided by U-Haul showed that James rented a white Chevrolet van from the company in Philadelphia on Monday, according to the complaint.
The U-Haul vehicle crossed states lines from Pennsylvania to New Jersey and then to New York, the complaint said. Surveillance cameras recorded the van driving over the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge before dawn on Tuesday and entering Brooklyn, according to the complaint.
At approximately 6:12 a.m. ET, another surveillance camera recorded an individual wearing a yellow hard hat, orange working jacket with reflective tape, carrying a backpack in his right hand and dragging a rolling bag in his left hand, leaving the U-Haul van on foot near West 7th Street and Kings Highway in Brooklyn’s Gravesend neighborhood.
Police later located the vehicle parked on Kings Highway, about two blocks from a subway stop for the N-train, where investigators believe James entered the mass transit system.
Senior law enforcement officials told ABC News they also uncovered a number of social media posts and videos tied to James. They’re determining if they’re relevant to the shooting, they said.
The investigation has been complicated by the fact that none of the surveillance cameras inside the 36th Street subway station were working at the time of the attack, a police official told ABC News. The cameras, which are aimed at the turnstiles, didn’t transmit in real-time due to a glitch computer malfunction, a source said. The same glitch impacted cameras at the stops before and after 36th Street. Investigators said they are looking into how this malfunction happened.
James managed to evade law enforcement for more than a day. The New York City Police Department initially deemed James a person of interest in the investigation on Tuesday night before naming him a suspect on Wednesday morning. Wanted for the attempted murder of 10 people, he became the subject of an expansive search by local and federal agencies, including the U.S. Marshals Service.
James was ultimately apprehended after police received a tip that he was in a McDonald’s near Sixth Street and First Avenue. When responding officers didn’t see James at the fast-food restaurant, they drove around the area and spotted him near St. Marks Place and First Avenue, where he was taken into custody without incident at around 1:45 p.m. ET on Wednesday, according to police.
Sources told ABC News that James may have called police on himself.
Peter Brackney / www.kaintuckeean.com/Getty Images
(FRANKFORT, Ky.) — The Kentucky state legislature has overridden Gov. Andy Beshear’s veto of a bill banning abortion after 15 weeks, along with several other abortion restrictions.
Under the bill, any physician that performs an abortion after 15 weeks would lose their license for at least six months.
The bill allows for exceptions if there is a medical emergency in which continuing the pregnancy would result in “serious risk of the substantial and irreversible impairment of a major bodily function” or “death of the pregnant woman.” There are no exceptions for rape or incest.
Last week, Beshear, a Democrat, vetoed the Republican-backed measure after he raised concerns about whether the bill is constitutional and criticized the lack of exceptions for rape or incest.
But on Wednesday, the state House received well over the 51 votes needed to override the veto, and the state Senate far surpassed the 20 votes needed as well. It went into law immediately due to its emergency clause.
Also in the bill, which is known as HB3, is a restriction that drugs used for a medication abortion — a nonsurgical procedure typically used up to 10 weeks in pregnancy — must be provided by a physician who is licensed to practice medicine and in good standing with Kentucky.
The physician must also have hospital admitting privileges in “geographical proximity” to where the abortions are being performed.
An in-person examination needs to be had at least 24 hours prior to the medication abortion, during which women are informed about any risks. The drugs cannot be sent through the mail.
Abortion advocates say this will prevent many women, particularly those who are low-income, from accessing abortion if they must go to a clinic to receive it.
Additionally, minors who seek abortions will need the consent of a judge if the parents are not available, and any fetal remains will need to be buried or cremated by a licensed funeral provider.
Opponents argue the bill has so many restrictions that it makes it virtually impossible for any abortion clinic to comply and say its passage will mean Kentuckians effectively lose access to abortion care.
The bill also requires that the names of physicians who provide medication abortions be published and a state-run “complaint portal” to be set up so people can anonymously report abortion providers who are allegedly violating the program.
In a previous interview with ABC News, Meg Stern, director of the abortion support fund for Kentucky Health Justice Network, an advocacy group, said this could lead to complaints filed by people who have personal vendettas against abortion providers.
The ban is modeled after Mississippi’s 15-week abortion ban, which is being reviewed by the Supreme Court, with a decision expected in June on whether or not it is constitutional.
If the court determines the Mississippi bill is constitutional, this could mean Roe v. Wade is either overturned or fundamentally weakened.
(NEW YORK) — When Wanda Irving looks into the eyes of her 5-year-old granddaughter, Soleil, she said she instantly sees her daughter, Shalon Irving, whose death shortly after giving birth to Soleil has since shaped the trajectory of their lives.
“She’s got her mom’s eyes and her mom’s smile and her mom’s fearlessness and her mom’s persistence,” Wanda Irving told Good Morning America of her granddaughter, whom the family calls Sunny, after her middle name, Sunshine. “She has her mom’s memory, because her mom wouldn’t forget anything.”
After Shalon’s death in January 2017, three weeks after giving birth, Irving uprooted her life to move to the Atlanta area, where Shalon worked as an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and as a lieutenant commander in the U.S. Public Health Service.
Irving has cared for Soleil full-time ever since, working to make sure her granddaughter knows all she can about her mom, whose ultimate dream was motherhood.
“[Shalon’s] pictures stay up. Everything is around that her mom would have liked,” said Irving, who said Soleil loves to cook because she knows her mom did, too. “I try to tell her every single day what a great mom she had, and she can tell you stories about her mom because of what she’s heard. She asks me repeatedly to tell her mommy’s story again.”
In addition to keeping her daughter’s memory alive, Irving has devoted her life to ending the maternal mortality crisis among Black women in the United States so that other families don’t face grief like hers.
“I have to face my granddaughter every single day, and she’s still asking where’s her mother and why isn’t her mother here,” said Irving, the co-founder of a maternal mortality-focused nonprofit organization called Dr. Shalon’s Maternal Action Project.
“That doesn’t make sense to me, why she has to go through that kind of pain,” said Irving. “So we can’t let this continue to happen.”
According to the CDC, around 700 women die each year due to complications within the first year after giving birth in the U.S., which continues to have the highest maternal mortality rate among developed nations.
As a Black woman, Shalon faced disproportionate odds when giving birth to her first child. Black women in the U.S. die of maternal causes at nearly three times the rate of white women, according to CDC data released in February.
A heartbreaking death and a newborn
As a doctor, Shalon was prepared for the birth of Soleil, according to her best friend, Bianca Pryor, who met Shalon in 2002 as a fellow graduate student at Purdue University and, by chance, became pregnant with her first child at the same time as Shalon.
“She knew her body in and out. She had a Ph.D., but one would have thought she had an M.D. She was brilliant,” Pryor said. “She had researched everything about pregnancy and delivery, and she was so prepared.”
Shalon gave birth successfully to Soleil via C-section on Jan. 3, 2017, with her mom by her side, and then was discharged from the hospital four days later after a routine stay, according to Irving.
After a few days at home, Irving said, Shalon began experiencing complications including a hematoma, blood that collects and pools under the skin, as well as rising blood pressure, swollen limbs and a C-section wound that was not healing well.
“I think she probably went to the doctor at least nine or 10 times in those two weeks,” Irving said. “I know that last week she went almost every single day, and every time she was sent back home.”
Pryor, who lives in New York and had just given birth to her own son in an emergency C-section at 23 weeks, said she remembers getting updates from Shalon about her complications.
“She pushed back on the medical care teams,” Pryor said. “She kept saying that something wasn’t right.”
And then on Jan. 24, Pryor said a missed phone call led to a text from Irving with the message, “B., Shalon stopped breathing.”
At home in Atlanta, Shalon, then 36, had suffered a cardiac arrest and collapsed. She was taken by ambulance to a local hospital, where she was put in the intensive care unit, according to Irving.
For several days, her family and friends stood vigil by her bedside, according to Pryor, who flew in from New York.
“We stood by her side. We prayed,” Pryor said. “The hardest was when we decided that we would bring Soleil in so that Shalon could hold her one last time. I’ll never get that image out of my head.”
“I remember when we put Soleil on top of her, one tear ran out of Shalon’s eye, and we just held space. We stayed in that moment,” she said.
On Jan. 28, two days after learning Shalon was brain dead, Irving said she had to make the decision to remove the respiratory machine that had been keeping her daughter alive.
“We took a look at her medical directive and one of the things that we saw was that in the directive, she had handwritten, ‘Mommy, I will try hard if anything happens, but if there’s no hope, let me go. Just let me go,'” Irving said. “I didn’t want to let go, but I wanted to honor her request.”
Picking up the pieces to create change
Immediately after Shalon’s death, Pryor said she spoke to Irving about the dreams she and her best friend had shared for their children, like how they wanted to raise their kids and the people they hoped they would become.
As the months and years went on, Pryor and Irving also spoke about the dreams Shalon had for her career and the legacy she would want to leave behind.
“We started dreaming together, Wanda and I, picking up where Shalon and I left off, and putting our pain into purpose,” Pryor said.
Together, in late 2019, Irving and Pryor founded Dr. Shalon’s Maternal Action Project to make giving birth in the U.S. an equitable right for all.
“Shalon was such a fierce equity warrior,” Irving said. “She had her motto, ‘I see an equity wherever it exists. I’m not afraid to call it by name, and I fight hard to eliminate it. I vow to create a better Earth,’ and that was Shalon in a nutshell.”
After Shalon’s death, Irving learned that her daughter’s cardiac arrest had been caused by complications from hypertension, or high blood pressure, a condition that, according to the CDC, contributes to a “significantly higher proportion of pregnancy-related deaths” among Black women than among white women.
Both Irving and Pryor said they felt that after Shalon gave birth, her health complications were not taken seriously enough by her medical team.
As a result, they created Believe Her, an app that provides maternal health resources for Black women and gives them a space to share their experiences.
“Our mission is to create that collective line of defense, so for all the Black mothers and birthing people out there to learn, what is the language, how do you push back when someone says, ‘Oh no, you’re fine,'” Pryor said. “We wanted to create this really uncut, raw conversation so birthing people can push back.”
Pryor continued, “That is our response back, believe her.”
Empowering Black women against institutional odds
Believe Her is one of several apps on the market now created by Black women for birthing Black women to help beat the odds that are stacked against them just because of their race.
Why exactly Black women die at a higher rate than any other race during childbirth is the result of a web of factors, experts say.
Pregnancy-related deaths are defined as the death of a woman during pregnancy or within a year of the end of pregnancy from pregnancy complications, a chain of events initiated by pregnancy or the aggravation of an unrelated condition by the physiological effects of pregnancy, according to the CDC.
One reason for the disparity is that more Black women of childbearing age have chronic diseases, such as high blood pressure and diabetes, which increases the risk of pregnancy-related complications like preeclampsia and possibly the need for emergency C-sections, according to the CDC.
But there are socioeconomic circumstances and structural inequities that put Black women at greater risk for those chronic conditions, data shows. And Black women often have inadequate access to care throughout pregnancy which can further complicate their conditions, according to a 2013 study published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
On Wednesday, during Black Maternal Health Week, the Biden administration announced an additional $16 million in funding for programs to strengthen programs that aim to address disparities in maternal and child health, including a state-level program to “deliver high-quality maternity care services, provide training for maternal care clinicians, and enhance the quality of state-level maternal health data.”
Anecdotal reports show that the concerns of Black women experiencing negative symptoms during pregnancy and postpartum are specifically ignored by some physicians until the woman’s conditions significantly worsen, at which point it may be too late to prevent a deadlier outcome.
Maya Hardigan, a mom of three in New York, said she created the Meet Mae app for Black women in part because of her own experience giving birth to her first child via C-section.
“I did everything I knew to plan,” Hardigan said of her first pregnancy. “I took a birth education class with my husband. I had a birth plan. I rotated through all the doctors in our OB practice to make sure I knew everyone and I talked to each of them about the birth experience I was seeking.”
Hardigan said she ended up giving birth in an emergency C-section that, though it ended successfully for both her and her daughter, was a scary experience.
“I felt that I just didn’t have a choice, number one,” Hardigan said. “And number two, I felt very confused, because it is such a vulnerable moment.”
The Meet Mae app connects Black women with local support networks and with doulas, who can be a birthing mother’s advocate in the delivery room and provide pre- and post-natal care. It also allows women to create their own birth plans and to track and monitor their conditions during and after pregnancy, according to Hardigan, who left a 20-year career in the health care industry to launch Meet Mae.
Another app on the market, IRTH, provides a platform for Black women to share reviews of care providers. The app’s founder, Kimberly Seals Allers, said she was inspired to create a tool for other Black women after feeling her “wishes were ignored” when she gave birth in a New York hospital.
According to Pryor, the different apps are all working toward the same goal of empowering Black women with the tools and support they need to successfully give birth.
“I really do believe we’re pioneering the way … to solve for this,” Pryor said of the Black birthing crisis.
For Irving, she said she dreams that when her granddaughter grows up, she will not only not see an end to the crisis, but know that her mom played a critical role.
“I hope that [Soleil] will understand and appreciate as she grows up that [her] mom was an important person in this fight, and because of her and her life and what she did, things have changed,” said Irving. “That’s what I want her to be able to say.”
(NEW YORK) — Amid the ongoing humanitarian crisis that has unfolded in the weeks since Russia invaded Ukraine, education advocates are working to ensure Ukraine’s displaced children are not forgotten.
More than 4.6 million people have fled Ukraine to neighboring countries since the invasion began, according to data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. They have primarily fled to Poland, as well as Romania, Hungary, Russia and Moldova, which, like Ukraine, declared its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
Though one of the poorest countries in Europe, Moldova has welcomed the equivalent of 15% of its population in a matter of weeks, with over 415,000 fleeing there from Ukraine, according to the U.N.
Many refugees have moved on to other European countries, though about 100,000 remain in the country currently, according to Education Cannot Wait, the United Nation’s global fund for education in emergencies. Of those, 50,000 are school-aged children. Only 1,800 of those children are currently enrolled in school in Moldova, the organization said.
As Moldova welcomes refugees, the educational needs are “enormous” and its educational capacity is “overstretched” and “strained,” Yasmine Sherif, director of Education Cannot Wait, told ABC News.
The needs, she said, include teachers who can not only meet the demand, but also address language barriers — the official language of Moldova is Romanian, while most people in Ukraine speak Ukrainian. Teachers who are trained to address the mental health needs of the refugees, who may be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, are another.
Sherif, who visited Moldova this week to visit schools and talk with local officials and refugees, recalled meeting a mother who fled from Odessa with her two daughters.
“The mother broke down crying, and her daughters seemed also very traumatized from the experience,” she said. “On top of her mind is not her own suffering but how she can ensure that her daughters feel safe and that they can continue their schooling.”
Ukraine’s Ministry of Education and Science has coordinated online lessons, though comprehensive remote learning for refugees is also challenging due to damaged infrastructure across Ukraine and impacts on teachers, Sherif said. More than 900 education facilities in Ukraine have been destroyed or damaged during the fighting, according to Education Cannot Wait.
The demands on Moldova may only continue to grow, with a second wave of refugees possible as the conflict continues, Sherif said.
Education Cannot Wait announced on Wednesday a $1.5 million grant to support the educational response to the refugee crisis in Moldova that will be delivered in partnership with the government of Moldova, which has developed a framework for the schooling of refugees, including those who have applied for asylum.
Sherif said the funding could go toward rehabilitating educational facilities and training teachers who speak Ukrainian, including refugees.
Amid the refugee crisis, Theirworld, a global children’s education charity, said it plans to announce additional funding to “support refugee education projects in the coming weeks, harnessing its experiences from other emergencies, and campaigning to ensure donors invest 10% of the humanitarian response funding into education,” the organization’s president, Justin van Fleet, said in a statement.
UNICEF is also working to help refugees “reclaim their learning experience, in a safe and supportive environment, nurturing their resilience against the traumas of war,” UNICEF Representative to Moldova Maha Damaj said in a statement. The organization has set up support centers for families along refugee transit routes that provide services, including psychological counseling and support and child-friendly spaces.
Disruption to education can have lasting impacts, with girls especially vulnerable to human trafficking, Sherif said.
“Education gives you a chance as a girl to be empowered, and for both girls and boys, it offers a very protective environment,” she said.
It also provides the mental health and social services crucial for children, especially those who are refugees.
“Without that, it’s very difficult to start anew,” Sherif said.
(LVIV, Ukraine) — In southern Ukraine, far from the frontlines of the war, the planting season is set to begin. There, farmers are preparing for a crucial upcoming season, which will prove pivotal for not just Ukraine, but the global food supply in the months and years ahead, in what one farmer described as the “second frontline.”
The war has already ushered in a “staggering” humanitarian and economic crisis, according to Anna Bjerde, World Bank vice president for the Europe and Central Asia region, with the Ukrainian economy expected to shrink by 45% this year. Yet the crisis could extend far beyond the country’s borders, with Ukraine’s claim to be one of the world’s “breadbaskets” now at risk.
The country is a top ten global exporter of a number of key agricultural products, including wheat, barley, corn, sunflower oil, soybeans and poultry, and officials and farmers warn the disruption caused by the invasion will have global consequences.
At a NATO summit last month, President Joe Biden said leaders discussed food shortages, saying “it’s going to be real.”
Facing the realities of a land war in the country, farmers have been forced to improvise, but time is running out, Alex Lissitsa, a leading businessman and president of the Ukrainian Agribusiness Club, told ABC News.
“Farmers are very, very flexible and especially the Ukrainians are also very, very flexible and adaptive,” he said. “But right now, even the Ukrainian farmers did not expect the brutality of the Russians. We did not expect actually the whole infrastructure bill will be broken here… the main question is actually about the future because I did talk to two farmers; I did talk to companies and everybody has money left for the next four or five months. But if we cannot sell our products, if we don’t have access to the export markets and the world market, it’s done.”
“The majority of Ukrainian farmers will become bankrupt somewhere [around] the summer,” he added.
Food prices globally are already rising at the fastest rate in history, with the U.S. Department of Agriculture now estimating that Americans are likely to pay between 4.5%-5.5% more for food this year.
An estimated 70% of Ukraine — an area larger than Italy — is used as farmland, according to USAID. Russia has been accused by Ukrainian officials of destroying grain silos and key infrastructure during their invasion, as well as laying mines on significant areas of arable land.
Around 70% of Ukraine’s exports are moved by Black Sea ports, in places like Odessa and Mariupol, which have now been blocked from carrying out this function due to incessant Russian shelling.
“It’s quite clear that their goal is to create harm in Ukraine,” Taras Vysotskyi, Ukraine’s first deputy minister of Agriculture, told ABC News. “The main directions of destroying actual machinery, silos, fuel storages, animal farms and blocking the possibilities to export, which means less of cash, less of money for the agricultural producers to keep working and keep planting for the next season.”
Products, from maize to cattle, can be held in storage for varying amounts of time, but the longer the war drags on the more likely it will be that these cannot be exported and are at risk of being wasted, he said.
“If the ports keep blocked, it’s really a disaster for Ukraine agriculture because it has been export oriented, usually in the last decade, like 70%, 75% of all agricultural commodities have been exported, so we can’t consume them inside,” Vysotskyi said.
Around 300 million people are fed on Ukrainian products around the world on a yearly basis, Vysotskyi said, but current capacity — the export infrastructure is only working at 10% of the usual amount of goods — are leaving the country through alternative means, he said.
Russia, too, is a major player on the global agricultural stage, and senior official Dmitry Medvedev has warned that Russia “will supply food and crops only to our friends” this month, and the country’s increasing isolation on the global stage could have similar consequences to the disaster in Ukrainian agriculture.
Countries in Africa and the Middle East are particularly vulnerable to the crisis. Somalia and Benin have a total dependence on imports of mostly Russian and Ukrainian wheat, and many other countries rely on them for more than half their wheat imports, according to a rapid assessment by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.
“The combination of very high prices of food and fuel and macroeconomic tightening will place severe pressure on households in developing countries: real incomes will be squeezed, and economic growth will be constrained,” the UNCTAD stated in its March assessment. “Even in the absence of disorderly moves in financial markets, developing economies will face severe constraints on growth and development.”
“Overall, the war is really going to damage international consumers and theirs, as well as countries where people are less rich,” Vysotskyi said. “Then of course, they will feel it more… So it wouldn’t be as a matter of price, it’s just that they can’t find it physically and what to eat.”
Both Lissitsa and Vysotskyi said a package of international financial support is vital to alleviate the crisis.
“Otherwise, we will have in one year even the war zone situation, because right now we’ll be discussing about global hunger,” Lissitsa said. “But if Ukrainian farmers will go bankrupt actually in that year, then next year will be even worse situation. I think the majority of the countries, especially when it comes to Africa but also in Asia, do not understand how serious is that problem.”
(NEW YORK) — A popular Easter candy was recalled weeks before the holiday.
Earlier this month, Ferrero announced through the Food Standards Agency it would take “the precautionary action of recalling selected batches of Kinder Surprise because it might be contaminated with Salmonella. Only Kinder Surprise products manufactured in Belgium are affected.”
Now, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration cited the international press release and warned Americans of the additional potentially at-risk products.
“Ferrero U.S.A., Inc. of Parsippany, New Jersey is voluntarily recalling its Kinder Happy Moments Chocolate Assortment and Kinder Mix Chocolate Treats basket, because the product may be contaminated with Salmonella Typhimurium,” the FDA wrote on Tuesday.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention alerted consumers of the Kinder Happy Moments Milk Chocolate and Crispy Wafers Assortment Kinder Mix Chocolate Treats Basket recall on Twitter.
KINDER CHOCOLATE RECALL: Do not eat or give away recalled Kinder chocolate. It may be contaminated with Salmonella.
•Kinder Happy Moments Chocolate Assortment
•Kinder Mix Chocolate Treats Basket
As of time of publication, according to Food Safety News, the Salmonella outbreak linked to the chocolate products has sickened nearly 100 people total across multiple countries throughout the U.K., Ireland, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands.
The affected product pack sizes listed by the FSA are 20g and 20g x 3 with best before dates between July 11, 2002 and Oct. 7, 2022.
Click here for more information on the recall, refunds and contact information for the Ferrero consumer care team.
(ALEXANDRIA, Va.) — A Virginia federal jury began deliberations on Wednesday in the case of a confessed ISIS fighter accused of being one of the infamous “Beatles,” the British terrorists who tortured and murdered more than six victims among a group of 26 westerners held hostage in Syria.
El Shafee Elsheikh doesn’t deny fighting for ISIS but rested his defense in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on his claim that this was a case of mistaken identity about holding the westerners captive. He faces a life sentence if convicted of holding hostages and causing the deaths of journalists and humanitarian aid workers, including four Americans and two Britons.
In closing arguments Wednesday, federal prosecutors said Elsheikh was one of the men who brutalized American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff, as well as aid workers Peter Kassig and Kayla Mueller. The men were shown in ISIS videos in 2014-15 being beheaded by a black-clad and masked ISIS executioner nicknamed “Jihadi John” because hostages had dubbed the men the “Beatles” to discuss them while in captivity.
The videos shocked the world as the executioner — later named as Mohammed Emwazi — demanded the U.S. cease military strikes against ISIS.
Mueller, 26, of Prescott, Arizona, was reportedly killed by an airstrike by ISIS in February 2015. It was later revealed that she had been taken by ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and repeatedly abused and raped.
“Elsheikh, without a shadow of a doubt, is an ISIS Beatle,” prosecutor Raj Parekh told the jury.
But defense lawyer Nina Ginsberg countered that the U.S. never presented any hard evidence that the defendant was anything other than a foot soldier in ISIS battling the Syrian Army.
Despite evidence from a parade of former hostages and FBI agents who testified during the trial about what she described as “loathsome, brutal acts,” Ginsberg said the government failed to prove Elsheikh was a captor, and that he was “never identified at this trial by any of the former hostages.”
The U.S. instead relied primarily on Elsheikh’s own statements after his 2018 capture by Syrian Democratic Forces with fellow admitted ISIS Beatle Alexanda Kotey, who has pleaded guilty. They told several journalists, primarily British filmmaker Sean Langan, on video that they held the westerners captive, got family members’ email addresses from hostages such as Mueller, and beat others such as Danish photojournalist Daniel Rye.
Rye testified on Tuesday, revealing agonizing details of how the British ISIS members had stuck him in the ribs 25 times on his 25th birthday, hanged him by his hands and jammed the barrel of an MP5 submachine gun in his mouth.
He described the loyalty of Foley, who once had an opportunity to escape captivity but refused to abandon his comrade, the British journalist John Cantlie, whose whereabouts and survival remain unknown. Notably, Cantlie’s photo was shown to jurors alongside six other hostages known to have been killed.
The captors forced them to sing a version of “Hotel California,” emphasizing the line, “You can never leave” — but that was hardly the worst of their suffering.
Sotloff tried to leave letters for Mueller in a communal toilet, but they were caught and he, Cantlie and Foley were punished severely, he recalled. When he learned after 13 months he had been ransomed and set for release, Rye said Cantlie came to him.
“He wanted me to bring out a message. ‘If you cannot get us released, drop a bomb on this place – kill us,’” Rye said, as family members of hostages in the courtroom held each other.
By the time he and another hostage were told they were being released as the last two Europeans, Rye said the Americans and British hostages knew they were going to be executed. The U.S. began bombing ISIS in August 2014.
The Americans retreated silently to one corner of the small room, the British men in another corner. As he left the room, “I took one last look at my friends, and thought it was the last time I would see them alive,” Rye told the jury.
Prosecutors said all of the hostages who were brutalized and those ultimately murdered showed superhuman courage. They described a year or more of broken ribs, severe blows to the thighs called “dead legs,” stress positions, water deprivation, mock executions — and finally beheadings which, at least, ended their suffering.
“All these people wanted was to do the right thing,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Dennis Fitzpatrick said.
Sotloff’s father, Art, told ABC News that justice has been served.
“I feel like all of them are looking down on us, pattin’ us on the back for doing the right thing,” he said.
(NEW YORK) — Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” into neighboring Ukraine began on Feb. 24, with Russian troops invading from Belarus, to the north, and Russia, to the east. Russian forces have since been met with “stiff resistance” from Ukrainians, according to U.S. officials.
In recent days, Russian forces have retreated from northern Ukraine, leaving behind a trail of death and destruction. After graphic images emerged of civilians lying dead in the streets of Bucha, a town northwest of Kyiv, the United States and European countries accused Russia of committing war crimes.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Apr 13, 8:11 pm
Blinken authorizes Pentagon to supply $800M of weapons to Ukraine
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has authorized the Pentagon to provide $800 million in new military aid to Ukraine that the White House announced earlier Wednesday.
Blinken said that though Ukrainian forces are “regaining ground,” the war is “far from over,” with Russia repositioning itself for renewed attacks in eastern and southern Ukraine.
“The United States, its Allies and partners must take action now to surge additional military assistance as Ukraine prepares for the next phase in the fight for its freedom and its very future,” Blinken said in a statement.
The new package includes increased capabilities, such as sea drones, armored vehicles and long-range artillery, he said.
-ABC News’ Conor Finnegan
Apr 13, 6:15 pm
US moving ‘as quickly as possible’ on latest Ukrainian military aid
The U.S. will be moving “as quickly as possible” to get the latest military aid announced Wednesday into Ukraine, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said.
“We will literally start right away,” Kirby told reporters during a briefing Wednesday.
“We’re aware of the clock. And we know time is not our friend,” he continued.
The weapons systems, which include 155 mm howitzer artillery, are intended to help Ukraine fight against Russia in the eastern Donbas region and met requests that came from the Ukrainians, Kirby said.
“We tailored this list specifically to meet the needs that they have asked for, with respect to what’s going on in eastern Ukraine,” said Kirby. “That’s what’s really driving this.”
-ABC News’ Luis Martinez
Apr 13, 5:46 pm
Biden updates Zelenskyy on US support
President Joe Biden on Wednesday updated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on ongoing efforts the United States is making to provide Ukraine with additional military support, according to the White House.
Biden and Zelenskyy spoke by phone for nearly an hour.
The call comes as the White House is expected to announce as early as Wednesday afternoon an additional military assistance package to Ukraine that could be as much as $750 million and include a range of new military hardware.
During his latest national address, Zelenskyy said they spoke about the package, as well as “the prosecution of all Russian servicemen and commanders who committed war crimes” and international cooperation for such prosecution.
-ABC News’ Molly Nagle
Apr 13, 5:01 pm
Russia threatens to strike ‘decision-making centers’ in Kyiv
The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation is threatening strikes against Ukrainian “decision-making centers,” including those in the capital of Kyiv, if alleged Ukrainian attacks and sabotage on Russian territory do not stop.
“We see attempts of sabotage and strikes by Ukrainian forces against facilities on Russian Federation territory,” the Russian military said in its daily update of its “special military operation” in Ukraine. “If such cases continue, the Russian Armed Forces will strike at decision-making centers, including in Kyiv, from which the Russian army has so far refrained.”
In its statement, the Russian Armed Forces claimed to have destroyed 36 enemy assets on Wednesday, including two repair bases, two missile-artillery weapon depots and the command post for the 15th Separate Regiment of the Ukrainian National Guard.
Apr 13, 4:08 pm
Treasury Secretary Yellen presses China to get Russia to end war
U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is pressuring China to convince Russia to end its war in Ukraine, citing the “special relationship” between the two countries.
“I fervently hope that China will make something positive of this relationship and help to end this war,” Yellen said Wednesday during remarks to the Atlantic Council.
Despite a virtual meeting between President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping back in March to discuss the crisis in Ukraine, China has remained neutral during the Russian invasion and has refused to openly condemn Russian President Vladimir Putin. U.S. officials have said that it does not appear China has assisted with Moscow’s requests for military and economic help.
“Going forward, it will be increasingly difficult to separate economic issues from broader considerations of national interest, including national security,” Yellen said. “The world’s attitude towards China and its willingness to embrace further economic integration may well be affected by China’s reaction to our call for resolute action on Russia.”
Yellen noted that Beijing claims to respect sovereignty and territorial integrity and said now is the time for China to put some weight behind their commitments.
“China cannot expect the global community to respect its appeals to the principles of sovereignty and territorial integrity in the future if does not respect these principles now when it counts,” Yellen said.
China and India have continued to do business with Russia despite the international condemnation of Putin’s invasion and severe sanctions by the United States and its Western allies.
Yellen warned that any assistance to help Russia undermine or evade sanctions will not be taken lightly.
“Let me now say a few words to those countries who are currently sitting on the fence, perhaps seeing an opportunity to gain by preserving their relationship with Russia and backfilling the void left by others: Such motivations are short-sighted,” Yellen said. “The future of our international order, both for peaceful security and economic prosperity, is at stake. This is an order that benefits us all. And let’s be clear, the unified coalition of sanctioning countries will not be indifferent to actions that undermine the sanctions we’ve put in place.”
-ABC News’ Justin Gomez
Apr 13, 2:36 pm
Biden announces new $800 million in military aid to Ukraine
President Joe Biden officially announced Wednesday that his administration is “authorizing an additional $800 million in weapons, ammunition, and other security assistance to Ukraine.”
Biden made the announcement in a statement released by the White House after he updated Ukrainian President Zelenskyy on the support during a phone call Wednesday morning.
Noting that Russia is preparing to focus its fight in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, Biden said the United States would continue to “provide Ukraine with the capabilities to defend itself.”
“This new package of assistance will contain many of the highly effective weapons systems we have already provided and new capabilities tailored to the wider assault we expect Russia to launch in eastern Ukraine. These new capabilities include artillery systems, artillery rounds, and armored personnel carriers,” Biden said.
He added, “I have also approved the transfer of additional helicopters. In addition, we continue to facilitate the transfer of significant capabilities from our Allies and partners around the world.”
-ABC News’ Molly Nagle
Apr 13, 2:28 pm
Russia shows more signs of gearing up for new offensive
Russia is staging helicopters, artillery systems and troops in preparation for what is expected to be a renewed offensive in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine, a senior U.S. defense official said Wednesday.
Russian forces have been using the cities of Belgorod and Valuyki in Russia near Ukraine’s northeast border as primary sites to stage equipment and resupply troops, the official said. The United States is now seeing a third Russian town, Rovenki, also near the Ukraine northeast border, being used for that purpose.
The official said there’s already signs that Russian forces are on the move south to the Donbas region.
“We continue to see units flowing into the northern Luhansk Oblast, that north part of the Donbas,” the official said. “They’re flowing in from Valuyki and from that town called Rovenki.”
The long Russian convoy is heading south and, at last check, was near the city of Izium in eastern Ukraine, according to the official.
Other Russian troops to the south of Izium appear to be working to improve their mobility and firepower in the region, the official said.
“We’ve seen them try to erect a temporary bridge over a local river,” the official said. “They’re increasing their artillery in the area.”
-ABC News’ Matt Seyler
Apr 13, 1:48 pm
Biden updates Zelenskyy on US support
President Joe Biden on Wednesday updated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on ongoing efforts the United States is making to provide Ukraine with additional military support, according to the White House.
Biden and Zelenskyy spoke by phone for nearly an hour, but details of the conversation were not immediately released.
The call comes as the White House is expected to announce as early as Wednesday afternoon an additional military assistance package to Ukraine that could be as much as $750 million and include a range of new military hardware.
-ABC News’ Molly Nagle
Apr 13, 12:29 pm
Bright moment in grim war as puppy pulled from rubble alive
In a brief moment of joy amidst the brutality of war, rescuers in eastern Ukraine on Wednesday pulled a puppy alive from the rubble of a bombed building, authorities said.
The rescue unfolded in Mykhailivka in the Donetsk region, according to the Donetsk Regional Police.
Police released a video showing rescuers digging through the rubble with bare hands to reach the trapped pooch. Rescuers said they heard the puppy whining as they were picking through the rubble.
“Thanks to the boys for doing everything quickly and promptly here,” said the dog’s owner while holding the trembling puppy in his arms
Apr 13, 11:36 am
Finland, Sweden discuss possibility of joining NATO
Finland and Sweden — both traditionally militarily neutral countries — are considering a dramatic pivot in their security policy following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Leaders of both countries publicly stated during a joint press conference Wednesday that they are considering taking steps to join the NATO alliance.
“The European security architecture has changed fundamentally after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” Finland’s Prime Minister Sanna Marin said. “The change in the security landscape makes it necessary to analyze how we best secure peace for Finland and in our region in the future.”
Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson added, “We have to really think through what is best for Sweden and our security and our peace in this new situation and, of course, what is happening and the discussion in Finland is important for us to follow. Therefore, we need to have a very close contact, but we have to have a process in Sweden to think this through.”
Last week, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said he’s had close contact with political leaders of both countries and has conveyed that it’s up to them whether to decide joining NATO.
“But if they apply, I expect that 30 allies will welcome them and that we will find ways to also address the concerns they may have about this interim period between (when) they have applied and until the last ratifications has taken place,” Stoltenberg said.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov warned that further expansion of NATO to include Finland and Sweden will not contribute to security in Europe.
“In itself, the alliance is rather a tool sharpened for confrontation, this is not an alliance that ensures peace and stability,” Peskov said, according to Russian state-run news agency TASS.
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Apr 13, 11:19 am
Water crisis worsens in eastern Ukraine as war devastates infrastructure: UNICEF
About 1.4 million people have been left without clean running water in war-torn eastern Ukraine and an estimated 4.6 million people across the country are at risk of losing their supply, the United Nations Children’s Fund reported Wednesday.
UNICEF officials said heavy fighting in eastern Ukraine, including the widespread use of explosive weapons in populated areas, has decimated a large part of the region’s water systems. The agency tallied 20 separate incidents in which water infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed and warned of a “risk of complete collapse.”
Damaged electrical grids have shut down water pumps and explosion-related damage to pipelines are disrupting the flow of water, according to UNICEF.
“Water is essential for life and a right for everyone,” Osnat Lubrani, the U.N. resident coordinator in Ukraine, said in a statement. “The health risks, particularly for children and the elderly, caused by water stoppages are severe, as people are forced to use dirty water sources, resulting in diarrhoea and other deadly infectious diseases.”
Murat Sahin, a UNICEF Ukraine representative, added that, “Young children who live in conflict zones are 20 times more likely to die from diarrheal diseases linked to unsafe water than from direct violence, as a result of war.”
In hard-hit Mariupol, which has been under siege since the start of the Russian invasion on Feb. 24, thousands of residents trapped in the city are seeking any water they can find and resorting to dirty water sources, according to UNICEF. Major cities across the Donetsk and Luhansk regions are also cut off from water supplies.
The water systems in Sumy, Chernihiv and Kharkiv have also been seriously damaged, UNICEF said. An additional 340,000 people are at risk of losing their water supply from a reservoir in Horlivka in the Donetsk region that is inching closer to running dry, according to UNICEF.
Agency officials said that prior to the invasion, much of the water systems in eastern Ukraine were already ailing after eight years of a low-grade conflict in the region.
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Apr 13, 6:17 am
Russia says 1,026 Ukrainians surrendered in Mariupol
Russia’s Defense Ministry claimed on Wednesday that more than a thousand Ukrainian soldiers had surrendered in besieged Mariupol, which is still held by Ukrainian forces.
“In Mariupol city, near the ‘Illich’ Steelworks, 1,026 Ukrainian servicemen of the 36th Marine Brigade have voluntarily laid down their arms and surrendered as a result of a successful offensive by the Russian Armed Forces and Donetsk People’s Republic militia units,” the ministry said in a statement.
Russia said the surrendering troops included 162 officers and 47 women.
“151 wounded Ukrainian servicemen of the 36th Marine Brigade received primary medical care immediately on the spot, after that they were all taken to the Mariupol city hospital for further treatment,” the ministry said.
(NEW YORK) — A college athlete who took time away from her sport to focus on her mental health is speaking out to urge coaches, schools, parents and fellow players to pay attention to the mental health of student-athletes.
“One of my favorite things to tell myself, if I’m not succeeding in the way I want to, I’ll put my hands on my heart now to say, ‘I love you and I’m listening,'” Cailin Bracken, a sophomore lacrosse player at Vanderbilt University, told ABC News’ Good Morning America. “And I want people to experience that from their coaches and administrators. I want there to be grace on all ends.”
Bracken said of the relationship between parents and kids, “I want for student-athletes and for parents to have an open communication.”
Bracken said that as a freshman at Vanderbilt, she struggled with depression after a mid-season concussion, which led her to stepping away from playing on the school’s lacrosse team.
“[If] I had a good day of practice, I was happy, and if I had a bad day of practice, I didn’t want to talk to anyone,” Bracken said. “I was investing so much of my worth in lacrosse.”
After taking time off from competing, Bracken reentered the sport and now is sharing her story to help others.
Earlier this month, Bracken opened up about her experience in an essay titled, “Dear College Sports,” for The Mental Matchup. In it, she describes how college sports can take a toll on student athletes, and how they are met with many expectations from coaches and administrators.
“Playing a sport in college, honestly, feels like playing fruit ninja with a butter knife,” Bracken wrote. “There are watermelons and cantaloupes being flung at you from all different directions, while you’re trying to defend yourself using one of those flimsy cafeteria knives that can’t even seem to spread room-temperature butter.”
“And beyond the chaos and overwhelm of it all, you’ve got coaches and parents and trainers and professors who expect you to come away from the experience unscathed, fruit salad in hand,” she added.
In her letter, Bracken mentions college athletes like Stanford University soccer star Katie Meyer and Duke University lacrosse player Morgan Rodgers, both of whom died by suicide at the age of 22.
Bracken wrote that when she hears stories like theirs, she feels fear, adding, “It scares me so much to wonder if it could’ve been my team; if it could’ve been me.”
On college campuses in the United States, around 30% of women and 25% of men who are student-athletes report having anxiety, according to data shared by the American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM).
Among athletes with known mental health conditions, only 10% seek care from a mental health professional, according to the ACSM.
The NCAA found that during the coronavirus pandemic, student-athletes’ mental health was even negatively affected, with students reporting stress due to academic concerns, lack of access to their sport, financial worries and COVID-19 health concerns.
Professional athletes like Michael Phelps, Simone Biles and Naomi Osaka have been public in recent years about the pressure, stress and burnout they’ve faced at the top of their sports, and those are struggles college athletes may feel too.
According to the ACSM, student-athletes face pressures from academics and competing, as well as other stressors like being away home home, traveling for games, feeling isolated from campus and other students due to their focus on sport and adapting to being in the public spotlight.
Bracken said that it is because of the support of her team and coaches that she was able to return to the field, writing, “I was able to navigate my way out of the darkness instead of letting it consume me.”
“I want other coaches to just say, ‘Hey, how can I be here for you?,’ because I never ever want a coach or a parent or teammate to see a situation like Katie Meyer [or] Morgan Rogers and say, ‘I wish I had done more,” she told GMA.
She added that she has been heartened by the response she’s received to opening up about her own mental health battle, saying, “I’m so grateful people are listening.”
“I had a father reach out to me and telling me that after reading the essay, he drove two-and-a-half hours to his daughter’s lacrosse practice and waited outside to give her a hug,” said Bracken. “And it was the most beautiful thing, because it’s exactly why I wrote it.”
If you or someone you know is in crisis, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-TALK (8255) or contact the Crisis Text Line by texting HOME to 741741. You can reach Trans Lifeline at 877-565-8860 (U.S.) or 877-330-6366 (Canada) and The Trevor Project at 866-488-7386.
Earlier this week, legendary mother-daughter duo The Judds gave one of the stand-out performances of the 2022 CMT Music Awards when they brought “Love Can Build a Bridge” to the stage.
Naomi and Wynonna Judd looked cool, calm and collected as they sang together from an outdoor stage in downtown Nashville, but of course there were some nerves in play: It was the first time they’d sang together on television in over two decades.
Before she took the stage, Wynonna said she “needed a little advice” from one of her own country music heroes, so she called up none other than “Queen” Loretta Lynn. She shared the moment on social media, posting video of herself getting her makeup done while talking to the living legend on speaker.
“Do you have any advice for me tonight on TV?” Wynonna asks.
“Yeah, keep your drawers on,” Loretta shoots back, before the two women break into a laugh.
Those words of wisdom will serve Wynonna well in the months ahead, when she’s got a whole lot of shows on the books. The Judds just announced a fall 2022 arena tour that’s being billed as “The Final Tour,” and features supporting act Martina McBride.
