(WASHINGTON) — Following a call with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, President Joe Biden announced Wednesday his administration is authorizing an additional $800 million for weapons and ammunition for Ukraine, including artillery and armored personnel carriers, as it braces to defend itself from an expected new Russian offensive.
Pentagon press secretary John Kirby walked reporters through the aid package in an afternoon press briefing, saying it includes “new capabilities that we have not provided to Ukraine.”
“We committed from the very beginning even before the invasion, to helping Ukraine be able to defend itself. This is a piece of that. And this is representative of the kinds of capabilities that the Ukrainians themselves have asked for and said they need as this fighting now gets focused on the eastern part of the country,” he said.
“How that gets interpreted by the Russians. you can ask Mr. Putin and the Kremlin,” Kirby added.
Biden announced the $800 million package in an earlier written statement. He also noted that Russia is preparing to focus its invasion in the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine but affirmed the U.S. 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.
“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,” Biden added.
According to the Pentagon, the list of new military hardware includes 155mm howitzer artillery — a specific request from Ukraine — 200 M-113 armored personnel carriers, 100 armored humvees, 300 Switchblade drones, and 11 MI-17 helicopters. The U.S. had given Ukraine five helicopters as part of an earlier shipment.
“And again, the Ukrainians have made it clear that in this fight that’s coming, artillery is a critical need — not just the artillery piece itself, but the rounds that go with it,” Kirby said following Biden’s announcement. “You can see, there’s 40,000 rounds that are going on with this — and we will be in an iterative conversation with them going forward and if they need additional artillery rounds, clearly the United States will do what we can to fill those needs.”
Reiterating the U.S. position not to send U.S. forces to fight in Ukraine, Kirby told reporters, “There will be no U.S. pilots flying the helicopters into Ukraine.”
“Unmanned coastal defense vessels” were also included on the lengthy list of equipment, some of which will require specific training.
The additional aid comes after Biden called Russia’s action’s in Ukraine “genocide” for the first time and as Zelenskyy warns Putin could use chemical weapons in Ukraine.
The U.S. has now given Ukraine more than $3 billion in security assistance.
Amy Schumer made a remote appearance onSirius/XM’s The Howard Stern Show Wednesday, and she held little back about her recent stint as Oscars co-host.
“I don’t think it was traumatizing for me, I think it was traumatizing for all of us,” she said of Will Smith‘s slapping and then cursing out Chris Rock, after he made a joke about Smith’s wife, Jada Pinkett Smith, during the broadcast.
“It was upsetting as a person,” Billboard quoted the comedian aS saying. “I was in an abusive relationship years ago. …I thought right away, ‘Oh my God, Will Smith must be in so much pain.’ I felt bad for him, too. That’s probably not the right instinct,” she admitted.
Amy added, “To see your friend get hit and, also Will Smith, who we’ve all loved forever…it was upsetting for so many reasons.
Calling it “shocking,” she added that as a stand-up, having the video endure forever would be a “nightmare.”
As for how Rock has dealt with the situation, Schumer said, “[H]e knows what he’s doing. I have a bad poker face, and I need to share what’s on my mind in a compulsive way. But I think he’s really smart…He hasn’t spoken publicly about it, so I shouldn’t speak for him. He’s a pro, he’s a sweetheart.”
The incident had another “trigger” for Schumer, as she suffers from trichotillomania, a condition that makes her compulsively pull out her hair.
Seeing as Jada’s baldness, which Rock made fun of, was caused in part by her alopecia, Schumer told Stern, “Growing up, if somebody talked about my hair, it was like the biggest fear of my life, and I’m sure that’s a big deal for their family.”
Schumer also revealed her Hulu show, Life & Beth, was renewed for a second season.
(NEW YORK) — Frank James, the man wanted for allegedly opening fire on a rush-hour subway train in Brooklyn, shooting 10 people, was taken into custody in Manhattan on Wednesday afternoon, officials said, ending an over 24-hour-long search.
“We got him,” New York City Mayor Eric Adams announced at a Wednesday news conference.
The NYPD received a tip saying the suspect was in the East Village, in a McDonald’s at 6th Street and 1st Avenue, police said. Responding officers didn’t see him in the McDonald’s, but they drove around the area and spotted James near St. Marks Place and 1st Avenue, where he was taken into custody without incident around 1:45 p.m. ET, police said.
James, 62, may have called police on himself, according to sources. Among the calls to Crime Stoppers was reportedly someone who said: “I think you’re looking for me. I’m seeing my picture all over the news, and I’ll be around this McDonalds.”
An NYPD official said police are reviewing the 911 call.
Once taken into custody, James asked for a lawyer and didn’t speak to officers, according to law enforcement sources.
James has been charged by federal prosecutors in Brooklyn with terror-related offenses, officials said, and has been transferred to federal custody.
James, wanted for the attempted murder of 10 people, was the subject of an intense search by the U.S. Marshals Service and other federal and local agencies.
In the chaos after the Tuesday morning shooting at the 36th Street subway station, James eluded law enforcement by boarding an R train that pulled into the station and traveling one stop before exiting at the 25th Street station, according to NYPD Chief of Detectives James Essig. After that, James was seen again at a Park Slope subway stop at 9:15 a.m. before fading from view, Essig said.
The “active shooter” incident unfolded on a Manhattan-bound N subway just before 8:30 a.m. as the train approached the 36th Street station.
A man mumbling to himself on the train donned a gas mask and detonated a smoke canister before pulling out a handgun and firing 33 bullets, a police official told ABC News. Three teenagers were among the 10 people shot.
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.
Twenty-nine people suffered various injuries, hospital officials said. As of Wednesday morning, just four of the wounded remained hospitalized, according to Adams.
“Based on the preliminary investigation, we believe he was alone,” Adams told ABC News in an interview Wednesday on “Good Morning America.”
“We still do not know the suspect’s motivation,” New York City Police Commissioner Keechant Sewell said at a press conference Tuesday evening. “Clearly this individual boarded the train and was intent on violence.”
The Glock 9 mm semi-automatic handgun James allegedly used was purchased legally in 2011 in Ohio, law enforcement sources told ABC News. The gun, and the purchase of a gas mask on eBay, are among the pieces of evidence that elevated James from person of interest to suspect, the sources said.
Senior law enforcement officials told ABC News that they also uncovered a number of social media posts and videos tied to James and are studying them closely to see if they are relevant to the subway attack.
Sewell said she increased security for the mayor after investigators found what she called “concerning posts,” though she declined to call them “threats.”
“There are some postings possibly connected to our person of interest where he mentions homelessness, he mentions New York and he does mention Mayor Adams,” Sewell told reporters Tuesday. “And as a result of that, in an abundance of caution, we’re going to tighten the mayor’s security detail.”
Authorities are also tracking James’ whereabouts leading up to the shooting.
On Monday night, according to federal prosecutors, James accessed a storage unit with gun parts and ammunition in Philadelphia, near where he was living. According to prosecutors, police found “an empty magazine for a Glock handgun, a taser, a high-capacity rifle magazine and a blue smoke canister” in the apartment.
Prosecutors allege James rented a U-Haul van in Philadelphia on Monday. On Tuesday morning, James drove from Pennsylvania to New Jersey and then entered New York, reaching Brooklyn at about 4:11 a.m., prosecutors said.
Security cameras showed James at 6:12 a.m. Tuesday, wearing a hard hat and orange vest, two blocks away from the 36th Street station, prosecutors said. Police showed witnesses that surveillance video to identify him, according to prosecutors.
Police said the U-Haul was found Tuesday afternoon, parked near a subway station on Kings Highway in Brooklyn’s Gravesend neighborhood, about 5 miles from the 36th Street station.
The key to the van and a credit card, which law enforcement sources told ABC News was used to rent a U-Haul, were among the gunman’s possessions recovered from the shooting scene. Other items discovered at the scene of the shooting include the gun used in the attack, three extended magazines, a hatchet, gasoline, four smoke grenades and a bag of consumer-grade fireworks.
Phantom Fireworks, a company in Wisconsin, confirmed that James bought fireworks products there last year that were believed to have been left behind in the subway station.
None of the surveillance cameras inside the 36th Street subway station were working at the time of Tuesday’s shooting, 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.
However, the cameras at the Kings Highway subway station in Gravesend were transmitting live feeds in real-time. That’s where investigators believe James entered the subway Tuesday morning, just blocks from where the U-Haul van was parked and eight subway stops away from the 36th Street station.
Police were able to get an image of the suspect from a bystander’s cellphone video, a law enforcement official told ABC News.
“The fact that these cameras are not working is a large concern,” Brooklyn borough president Antonio Reynoso told ABC News Live on Wednesday. “There’s a lot of work to do in the city now to check every camera, make sure they’re all working, and also a deeper dive into what happened and what we can do in the future to ensure this doesn’t happen.”
Subway service at the 36th Street station resumed Wednesday morning.
The bloodshed came amid a surge in crime within New York City’s transit system. The mayor said he has already doubled the number of police officers patrolling the city’s subway stations and is also considering installing special metal detectors in the wake of Tuesday’s shooting.
But Reynoso said, “More cops is not necessarily going to solve for this problem.”
“I think there are root causes to this violence that exists, mostly mental health at this point, is what we’re seeing in New York City. And that’s where we should be spending resources and energy,” Reynoso said. “More cops to respond to a crime won’t necessarily stop the crime. In this case, this individual was inside a train car — unless you believe that you can put a police officer in every single train car in New York City, which is physically impossible … that’s not the way we’re going to solve that issue.”
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said in a statement Wednesday, “The epidemic of gun violence that continues to terrorize communities across this country must end. My pledge to New Yorkers is this: I will fight every day to restore public safety, get guns off our streets, and prevent these horrific acts of violence.”
Anyone with information, videos or photos related to the shooting is urged to call NYPD Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS.
ABC News’ Luke Barr, Mark Crudele, Alex Hosenball, Joshua Hoyos, Soo Rin Kim and Christopher Looft contributed to this report.
Is Garth Brooks going to soon reveal the name of his new Nashville bar?
During Monday night’s episode of Inside Studio G, the superstar hinted that he may be unveiling the name of his entertainment complex, which is currently under construction in downtown Nashville, during his two-night stay at Nissan Stadium this week.
“[Today] or Wednesday they’ll start to see the lower windows going in, but then the upper windows are the ones that have the name of the bar on it,” Garth shared. “So this should be fun!”
It was confirmed last week that Garth is the latest country star to open a bar on Broadway that he describes as a “classic honky-tonk that welcomes all and encourages love and kindness while playing the greatest music in the world in the home of Country Music!”
Garth will headline Nissan Stadium on April 15 and 16.
If you have a minute to spare, perhaps you’d be interested in learning the history of metal, as told by Tom Morello.
In an Instagram post, the Rage Against the Machine guitarist tries to retell the annals of heavy music in just 60 seconds, starting with Black Sabbath guitarist Tony Iommi injuring his fingers in a 1965 factory accident — leading him to create his signature playing style — up to last week’s release of the new film Metal Lords, which features Morello as the executive music producer.
Along the way, Morello mentions landmark albums from metal icons including AC/DC, Metallica, Ozzy Osbourne, Judas Priest and Guns N’ Roses, as well as when Twisted Sister‘s Dee Snider said “the word ‘motherf***er’ in Congress” and when Rob Halford came out as gay.
Metal Lords, which was written by Game of Thrones co-creator D.B. Weiss, is streaming now on Netflix.
Tonight on CBS is another installment of the 42nd (!) season of Survivor.
Way back in 2001, the winner of the third season, Survivor: Africa, was Ethan Zohn, and he’s still watching the show, so ABC Audio wanted to get his perspective on the current iteration of the Emmy-winning series.
“I’m torn because I’m an…old-school Survivor player. I played back in the day,” he says. “I just feel the way the game’s organized now, it’s not better or worse. It’s just different.”
He explains that, as opposed to his season’s 39-day adventure, “today’s game is 26 days,” adding with a laugh, “Like, seriously, anyone can last 26 six days, you know?”
Zohn admits that the current game seems confusing to him,” noting with a laugh, “I get through an episode like, ‘What just happened?!’ Like…there’s two idols, there is a clue, there is an advantage, there’s a disadvantage — all in one episode. I’m like, ‘Ahh! What’s going on?!'”
That said, Ethan’s still a fan. “I still think it’s so exciting, I think [host and producer Jeff Probst has] done a great job. I mean, the cast this year is pretty diverse and unique and [there are] a lot of backstories that you’re seeing that makes them interesting.”
Zohn, who not only is a Survivor winner, but a two-time cancer survivor, is running the Boston Marathon on Monday — marking his return to the race for the first time since 2014, when the deadly Boston bombings cut the event short.
He’s celebrating 10 years of being in remission, and he’s running to raise funds for the foundation AKTIV Against Cancer and its mission to make physical activity part of cancer treatment.
Selena Gomez‘s Hulu series Only Murders in the Building previously was nominated for Golden Globe, Screen Actors’ Guild and Critics’ Choice Awards, but now it’s up for an even more prestigious honor: a Peabody Award.
The Peabody Awards recognize the most “compelling and empowering stories” of 2021 in broadcasting and streaming media, including TV, podcasts, radio and online. Only Murders, which Selena executive-produces as well as stars in, is nominated in the Entertainment category, and its competition includes Hacks, Dopesick, Pen15, Station Eleven, Reservation Dogs, Bo Burnham: Inside, The Wonder Years, Yellowjackets and We Are Lady Parts.
The winners will be named during a “virtual celebration” running from June 6 through June 9 via the Peabody Awards’ social channels.
Only Murders in the Building, whose second season premieres June 28, stars Selena, Martin Short and Steve Martin as three residents of the same upscale New York City apartment building. All three are true-crime fans, and when a murder takes place in their building, they team up to create their own podcast…and solve the crime.
As Walker Hayes soaked up the bright lights, fun and great music of the CMT Music Awards earlier this week, he admitted that there was something more somber in the back of his mind.
While he gave his debut performance on this year’s show, he was actually originally scheduled to play at the CMTs for the first time back in 2018. However, due to a devastating family tragedy, he never made it to the stage. The same day as the show — June 6 — he lost his newborn daughter, Oakleigh, who died in childbirth.
“Yeah, being here has that twinge of a little PTSD,” he told People on the carpet of this year’s CMTs, four years later. However, he added, “So much redemption has happened since then.”
The difficult birth that claimed Oakleigh’s life also nearly killed Walker’s wife, Laney, who suffered a ruptured uterus.
Fortunately, Laney has made a complete recovery, and she walked the CMTs carpet at her country superstar husband’s side in 2022. After the show, Walker tweeted out a snapshot of them together, writing, “Did you guys see Laney at the [CMT AWards] Monday night,” along with a “heart eyes” emoji.
“We lost a child, but Laney and I gained so much since then,” Walker told People, reflecting back on the years since Oakleigh’s death.
These days, Walker and his family — including Laney, their six children and their dogs — are out on the road together for the singer’s Fancy Like Tour.
Cindy Ord/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions; Michael Loccisano/Getty Images
Oscar-winning screenwriter Diablo Cody says she “still can’t believe” she worked with Madonna, telling ABC Audio it was “a dream come true” to co-write her idol’s biopic.
The Queen of Pop announced in September 2020 that she would be directing her own biopic, and tapped Cody to co-write the script with her. According to Madge, the movie is a “happy, sad, mad, crazy, good, bad and ugly” story of her rise to stardom.
“I still can’t believe that’s how I was able to spend my summer,” Cody said of the experience. “She’s incredible! I don’t think I’ve ever met anybody with a work ethic like that before.”
“Madonna is just on another level,” the Juno writer continued. “I can’t really say that much about [the movie] but I can say that I’m profoundly grateful for the experience.”
Cody also said the collaboration was a bucket-list experience, explaining, “If you had told me when I was in the fifth grade that some day I would get to hang out with Madonna and breathe the same air as Madonna and sit at her knee as she shared the stories of her life? I would never have believed you.”
Madonna isn’t the only pop star the screenwriter’s worked with recently. Cody teamed with Alanis Morissette to transform her breakthrough Jagged Little Pill album into a two-time Tony Award-winning musical, which has been adapted into a young adult novel.
As for which star Cody hopes to work with next, she tells ABC Audio that Beach Boys legend Brian Wilson is her “favorite,” adding, “Brian Wilson is my hero…To collaborate creatively with him would be the dream.”
And while she admits she doesn’t “know if I’ll ever get the chance” to work with Wilson, Cody says there’s no harm in putting that energy “out there.”
If the new Red Hot Chili Peppers album has you itching to shred yourself, Fender is here to help.
The famed guitar company has announced the addition of Chili Peppers songs to its Fender Play guitar instruction app, which allows users of all levels to play along to hits from some of the biggest names in rock.
Among the RHCP tunes now available in Fender Play include “Suck My Kiss,” “Under the Bridge,” “Californication,” “Scar Tissue” and “Can’t Stop,” as well as “Black Summer,” the lead single off the aforementioned new album, Unlimited Love.
Judging by its first week of sales, a whole lot of people have been jamming along to Unlimited Love. The record debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 with the best sales week for any rock album since Paul McCartney‘s 2020 solo effort, McCartneyIII.
“Black Summer,” meanwhile, is the number-one song on Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart, and number two on Mainstream Rock Airplay.
