Brandy joined Jack Harlow on stage at the BET Awards 2022.
Harlow took the stage as one of the first performers at the award ceremony, which was held live at Los Angeles’ Microsoft Theater on Sunday, and during his hit “First Class,” the rapper surprised the audience by bringing out Brandy, who performed her previously released freestyle over the beat.
The moment was an interesting one given that about a month ago the two artists appeared to be beefing after Harlow failed to realize that Brandy was Ray J‘s sister.
After watching the viral interview clip where Harlow asks, “Who’s Ray J’s sister?” Brandy tweeted, “I will murk this dude in rap at 43 [years old] on his own beats and then sing [h]is a** to sleep.”
While the iconic singer could very well give the “Nail Tech” rapper a run for his money, she posted a follow-up tweet saying, “See, I can have a little fun too hehe…all love.”
Responding to Brandy’s clapback, Harlow posted an image of Brandy and Ray J accompanied by Kanye West‘s 2005 track, “Bring Me Down,” on which Brandy sings the chorus.
Brandy then hit back by putting her spin on Harlow’s “First Class,” releasing a freestyle over the beat in which she introduced herself as “world-famous,” “one of the greatest” and a “living legend” before adding, “Did I mention my resume is amazing?”
Any beef these two artists may have had though seems to have officially been squashed when they united together on stage.
Harlow was also joined by Lil Wayne during the performance, where they rapped their song “Poison” from Harlow’s latest album, Come Home the Kids Miss You.
(EL ESPINAL, Colombia) — At least four people have died and dozens were injured after an accident occurred at the venue of a bullfight in Colombia.
The spectators were watching the bullfight in El Espinal, Colombia — about 100 miles southwest of Bogota — on Sunday when several stands collapsed, the Tolima Civil Defense told ABC News.
In addition to the four people who died, about 60 people were treated on-site for minor injuries, while another 10 were transferred to local hospitals.
It is unclear what caused the stands to collapse.
Additional information was not immediately available.
The ethics surrounding bullfighting, which involves killing the bull at the end of the contest, has come into question in recent years. While the practice is customary in many Spanish-speaking countries, a judge in Mexico City extended a ban on bullfighting indefinitely earlier this month over complaints that bullfights violated resident’s rights to a healthy environment free from violence, The Associated Press reported.
While four states in Mexico have already banned bullfighting, a ban in Mexico City could mark the end of nearly 500 years of bullfighting in Mexico and could threaten the practice internationally, The AP reported.
ABC New’s Christine Theodorou contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem said Sunday that women shouldn’t be prosecuted for seeking abortions following the Supreme Court’s ruling last week overturning Roe v. Wade, which allowed state-level abortion bans in South Dakota and elsewhere to take effect.
Noem, a Republican, celebrated the high court’s finding that there is no constitutional guarantee to abortion access, but she told “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz, “I don’t believe women should ever be prosecuted. I don’t believe that mothers in this situation [should] ever be prosecuted. Now doctors who knowingly violate the law, they should be prosecuted.”
South Dakota was one multiple states that had in place a so-called “trigger law,” which immediately banned abortions once the Supreme Court announced its ruling, according to the research and policy group Guttmacher Institute. Following the court’s decision, all abortions in the state became illegal “unless there is appropriate and reasonable medical judgment that performance of an abortion is necessary to preserve the life of the pregnant female.”
The law makes performing an abortion — either through a procedure or via medicine — a felony.
However, Noem said Sunday, “I don’t believe there should be any punishment for women, ever, that are in a crisis situation or have an unplanned pregnancy. And South Dakota has been strong on that argument.” She called the new court ruling “wonderful news in the defense of life. Every life is precious.”
“We want to help support these mothers,” she continued. “I think we can do better in this country making sure that we’re walking alongside them in these situations.”
Raddatz cited data from the nonpartisan social policy think tank Commonwealth Fund that “the 14 states that have the most restrictive abortion laws, including South Dakota, invest the least in policies and programs for women and children.”
“So what do you mean when you say these mothers will never be alone?” she asked, challenging Noem.
“I would say that the facts on the ground are that South Dakota’s doing a lot to coordinate with nonprofits, with churches, and then also the state in a new way by launching this website,” Noem answered, referring to a government portal with information about resources for pregnant women and new mothers.
The Supreme Court handed down its decision reversing Roe on Friday, ruling that there was not a constitutional guarantee to abortion access and that abortions could be regulated, or banned, by each state individually.
Raddatz noted in 2006 and in 2008 that South Dakota voters rejected initiatives for complete bans on abortion. She asked Noem if the governor would “be willing to let the voters of the state decide the issue again?”
Noem said voters decide the issue of abortion “every single year when we come to legislative sessions.”
“They vote for their representatives to come to sessions,” she said.
President Joe Biden, responding to the Roe reversal, said Friday that his administration would work to protect certain medications that are approved by the Food and Drug Administration, “like contraception, which is essential for preventative healthcare [and] mifepristone, which the FDA approved 20 years ago to safely end early pregnancies and is commonly used to treat miscarriages.”
When Raddatz pushed Noem on her stance on abortions via medication, using the “so-called abortion pill,” Noem said she didn’t believe telemedicine abortions were safe.
“I don’t believe that telemedicine abortions are safe for individuals, for women to conduct at home, many times they’re doing it unsupervised. It’s a medical procedure, and so I do believe that there should be a physician supervision in place when that is being conducted by individual,” Noem said.
Medication abortions are considered safe, according to the nonprofit organization Kaiser Family Foundation, “with a 0.4% risk of major complications, and an associated mortality rate of less than 0.001 percent (0.00064%).”
She also said she thinks there will be continued discussion among local lawmakers about the legality of constituents who travel across state borders to get an abortion elsewhere.
“That, certainly, isn’t addressed in our statute today and so I think that there’ll be a debate about [it], but also we’re having lots of debates in South Dakota,” she said.
(TACOMA, Wash.) — At least eight people were injured early Sunday when gunfire broke out at a dance party being held in an industrial area of Tacoma, Washington, police said.
The shooting occurred at 12:45 a.m. at a private venue in South Tacoma, where police said the rave attracted a large crowd.
A barrage of gunfire erupted during an argument that broke out in an alley behind the venue, located in an area filled with mostly car dealerships and auto repair shops, according to police.
Police immediately closed streets around the crime scene as officers and paramedics responded and began treating the wounded.
There were no immediate reports of fatalities and no arrests were immediately announced.
The victims appear to have all suffered non-life-threatening injuries and were hospitalized in stable condition, the Tacoma Police Department said in a statement.
Officers responded to the scene after multiple 911 callers reported shots being fired at the rave.
“Officers arrived to find a chaotic scene with a large crowd and multiple shooting victims,” according to the police statement.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(EAST LONDON, South Africa) — At least 22 people were found dead in a South African tavern early on Sunday morning, officials said.
The South African Police Service said they were found dead inside a local tavern in Scenery Park in the area of East London, according to Police Spokesperson Brigadier Tembinkosi Kinana said.
“We received this report in the early hours of this morning. The circumstances surrounding the incident are under investigation,” Kinana said. “We do not want to make any speculation at this stage as our investigations are continuing.”
Police responded to the Enyobeni Tavern at about 4 a.m. local time, Kinana said, and were combing the scene for evidence midday. Scenery Park is in East London, a city in South Africa’s Eastern Cape Province.
Kinana said the dead were between up to 20 years old.
The youngest victim was 13, South African Police Service Spokesperson Col. Athlenda Mathe told reporters.
ABC News’ Christine Theodorou contributed to this report.
(KRUN, Germany) — The Group of Seven nations on Sunday began rolling out a global infrastructure initiative in a bid, as they described it, to promote “stability” and improve conditions in developing and middle-income countries around the globe.
The Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment plans on disbursing $600 billion by 2027 in infrastructure investments, with President Joe Biden announcing the U.S. alone would aim to spend $200 billion in public and private partnerships.
Biden and other world leaders, speaking in Germany’s Bavarian Alps, cast the investments as “critical” amid crises on multiple fronts, including the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, an energy crunch fueled in part by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and more.
“These strategic investments are in areas critical to sustainable development and to our shared global stability: health and health security, digital connectivity, gender equality and equity, climate and energy security,” Biden said.
“We need a worldwide effort to invest in transformative clean energy projects to ensure that critical infrastructures resilient to changing climate. Critical materials that are necessary for clean energy transition, including production of batteries, need to be developed with high standards for labor and environment,” he added.
The G-7 announcement comes as the alliance looks to lay down markers of tangible investments and accomplishments at a time when China and Russia are looking to make inroads elsewhere.
China has become increasingly involved in Africa and Latin America, investing hefty sums in building roads, bridges and more in an aggressive diplomatic effort on both continents.
In his remarks on Sunday, Biden directly contrasted the new announcement with what China has done, emphasizing that the G-7’s investments will be based on “shared values,” a signal to nations that it’s in their benefit to align with the U.S. and others compared with China.
“What we’re doing is fundamentally different because it’s grounded on our shared values of all those representing the countries and organizations behind me. It’s built using the global best practices: transparency, partnership, protections for labor and the environment,” he said.
He said the infrastructure program was not “aid or charity,” but instead “an investment that will deliver returns for everyone, including the American people and people of all” nations.
“It’ll boost all of our economies, and it’s a chance for us to share our positive vision for the future …. Because when democracies demonstrate what we can do, all that we have to offer, I have no doubt that will win the competition, every time,” he said.
The investments in energy and climate infrastructure have taken on heightened on importance both as nations race to combat climate change’s effects and make themselves less reliant on countries like Russia for oil and natural gas — a dependency that has hindered the response to Moscow’s war in Ukraine.
There was no question-and-answer session at the end of the G-7 announcement, but when one reporter shouted a question, it was about whether the recent Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade had come up in meetings.
“What decision?” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen could be heard asking as she walked off stage.
ABC News’ Justin Gomez contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Jeffery Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell has been put on suicide watch days before her sentencing on five criminal counts, including sex trafficking, according to her lawyer.
She is awaiting sentencing, ahead of Tuesday morning’s hearing, at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn.
“Yesterday, without having conducted a psychological evaluation and without justification, the MDC placed Ms. Maxwell on suicide watch,” her lawyer, Bobbi Sternheim, wrote to a federal court in New York on Saturday. “She is not permitted to possess and review legal documents and is not permitted paper or pen. This has prevented her from preparing for sentencing.”
Nearly three years ago, her accomplice, Jeffery Epstein was found dead by suicide at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan. The federal government announced last year that MCC would close due to its poor conditions.
Maxwell’s lawyers told the court she is not suicidal and has been deemed so by outside psychologists.
“Ms. Maxwell was abruptly removed from general population and returned to solitary confinement, this time without any clothing, toothpaste, soap, legal papers, etc,” her lawyer’s letter said on Saturday. “She was provided a ‘suicide smock’ and is given a few sheets of toilet paper on request. This morning, a psychologist evaluated Ms. Maxwell and determined she is not suicidal.”
Her lawyers said she is unable to prepare for sentencing and “is prohibited from reviewing legal materials prior to sentencing, becomes sleep-deprived, and is denied sufficient time to meet with and confer with counsel.” They said if this doesn’t change by Monday, they will formally request to have sentencing date delayed.
“I met with Ms. Maxwell today (after a 97-minute delay following my arrival at the facility),” her lawyer said. “She is not suicidal.”
The Department of Justice responded to Maxwell’s legal team Sunday afternoon, saying she was put on suicide watch after she allegedly emailed the Bureau of Prisons Inspector General’s Office claiming she feared for her safety. However, it said Maxwell does have a hard copy of all her legal documents and “is able to confer with defense counsel.”
“Here, the Warden and Chief Psychologist assessed that the defendant is at heightened risk of self-harm, particularly given her upcoming sentencing and sex offender status. As a result, they are not comfortable placing the defendant in the SHU (Special Housing Unit), but they also need to remove the defendant from general population to investigate the threat she reported to the IG,” United States attorney Damian Williams wrote to the court Sunday.
Following Maxwell’s email, and her alleged refusal to answer questions from the prison’s psychology staff, she was removed from the general population and placed on a suicide watch, according to the US Attorneys Office.
“Although the defendant has claimed to psychology staff that she is not suicidal, she has refused to answer psychology staff’s questions regarding the threat she reported to the IG. While she claimed to the IG to be in fear for her safety, she refused to tell psychology staff what that fear is,” Williams wrote.
“Given the defendant’s inconsistent accounts to the IG and to psychology staff, the Chief Psychologist assesses the defendant to be at additional risk of self-harm, as it appears she may be attempting to be transferred to a single cell where she can engage in self-harm. The defendant will remain on suicide watch until the MDC assesses that she is no longer at heightened risk of self-harm,” Williams wrote.
Prosecutors said despite her legal team’s claim, there’s no reason to delay Maxwell’s sentencing on Tuesday.
The Bureau of Prisons said it doesn’t comment on individual inmates.
“The BOP is committed to ensuring the safety and security of all inmates in our population, our staff, and the public. Humane treatment of the men and women in our custody is a top priority,” a Bureau of Prisons spokesperson told ABC News.
ABC News has previously reported that while she was awaiting trial, Maxwell was given paper clothes as a precaution.
(WASHINGTON) — Rep. Jamie Raskin, a member of the House committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol, said Sunday that criminal charges against the people involved in trying to overturn the 2020 election — including former President Donald Trump — were not his “principal interest” compared to understanding how the violence unfolded to avoid it being repeated.
“Our democracy is on the line here. Our Constitution is at stake. Are we going to have violent assaults against our elections? Are we going to have politicians who, disappointed with the results, try to overthrow the election and just seize power? Is that what American democracy is going to look like in the 21st century?” the Maryland Democrat told “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz.
“So, for me, I’m principally interested in telling the American people the truth so we can fortify our institution against coups and insurrections going forward,” Raskin continued.
“But I know that there’s a great public hunger for individual criminal accountability, and I’ve got confidence in the Department of Justice, in Attorney General Merrick Garland, to do the right thing in terms of making all the difficult decisions about particular cases,” he said.
Raskin’s remarks come after the Jan. 6 committee held its latest public hearing, on Thursday, outlining evidence of then-President Trump’s pressure campaign on the Department of Justice to overturn his loss in the 2020 election.
The committee says its investigation showed the sprawling campaign involved, among other things, an attempt to replace the acting attorney general with a loyalist more willing to concede to Trump’s demands as well as suggestions of seizing voting machines and talks of pardons for conservative lawmakers who cooperated in the scheme.
On “This Week” on Sunday, Raskin expressed alarm at the effort but also praised local officials who ensured that the 2020 race was not overturned.
“We saw a series of successive shakedowns of the election officials of secretaries of state like Brad Raffensperger, of state legislative officials. And we saw a lot of heroes, people who hung tough, like Shaye Moss, and were not willing to be deterred from doing their public duties,” he told Raddatz, referencing officials in Georgia who faced pressure over the election. “We saw the same thing at the Department of Justice as Trump’s own appointees, who were telling him they could not do what he was asking them to do.”
Raddatz pressed Raskin on what he saw as the “real impact” of the hearings in the public consciousness, citing a recent ABC News/Ipsos poll that 34% of Americans had been following the hearing somewhat or very closely — “as much as some people are very riveted,” Raddatz said.
“People are busy and so we know a lot of people, especially younger people, will learn about the hearings through snippets that go out on TV or online and people now are able to process information in different ways,” Raskin said. “It’s not like the Watergate hearings where everybody had to be watching at the same moment because of the relatively primitive state of technology then. People are going to be able to absorb this over time.”
Raskin also discussed the testimony of Arizona state House Speaker Rusty Bowers, a Republican who was also pressed to overturn Trump’s loss in the state in 2020. Bowers told the committee it was contrary to his faith to do so but that he would still vote for Trump in 2024 if Trump were to be the GOP nominee against President Joe Biden.
“I was very moved by Rusty Bowers’s testimony and his constitutional faith and patriotism,” Raskin said. “When he said that, I thought to myself, well, if you want to get Donald Trump back in office, and that were actually to materialize, you got to be prepared to do the exact same thing next time because Trump has proven himself to be absolutely disrespectful of the rule of law and completely ungovernable by the Constitution.”
(WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court has “burned whatever legitimacy they may still have had” with their ruling last week overturning Roe v. Wade, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren said on Sunday.
“They just took the last of it and set a torch to it,” Warren, a Democrat, told ABC “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz in an exclusive interview. “I believe we need to get some confidence back in our court and that means we need more justices on the United States Supreme Court. We’ve done it before, we need to do it again.” (Warren has previously called for expanding the number of justices, including in an op-ed in The Boston Globe in December.)
In a Friday decision, the high court overturned the landmark holding in Roe, instead ruling that there was no constitutional guarantee to abortion access. Justices voted five to four to reject Roe and six to three in favor of Mississippi’s ban on abortions after 15 weeks of pregnancy, in the underlying case of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
The reversal was widely celebrated by anti-abortion lawmakers and advocates but sparked protests across the country and drew condemnation by Warren and other leading Democrats.
In the days since the decision, at least eight states have outlawed abortion and in the coming weeks a total of 26 states are expected to ban or severely restrict it, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group focusing on sexual and reproductive health.
Raddatz asked Warren on “This Week” why abortion should not just be decided by individual states and their elected officials, rather than ensured as a constitutional right.
“‘Go to the polls,’ you say. President [Joe] Biden says, ‘Go to the polls.’ But look at the states outlawing abortion,” Raddatz pressed. “Those are largely conservative states, Gov. [Kristi] Noem had a point there — people go to the polls. They went to the polls just like your constituents in Massachusetts where abortion is legal, so why not leave it to the states?”
“We have never left individual rights to the states. The whole idea is that women are not second-class citizens and the government is not the one that will decide about the continuation of a pregnancy,” Warren responded. “Access to abortion, like other medical procedures, should be available across the board to all people in this country.”
Warren also called for Biden to use his available tools to “make abortion as available as possible, including medication abortion and using federal lands as a place where abortion can occur.”
She urged people to vote “like a laser on the election in November” and elect lawmakers who will codify Roe, which is a priority among some Democrats but doesn’t have the 60 votes needed to avoid a Senate filibuster.
“We [need to] get two more senators on the Democratic side, two senators who are willing to protect access to abortion and get rid of the filibuster so that we can pass it,” Warren said. “John Fetterman, I’m looking at you in Pennsylvania. Mandela Barnes, I’m looking at you in Wisconsin. We bring them in, then we’ve got the votes, and we can protect every woman no matter where she lives.”
Warren said she was also “deeply concerned” about Justice Clarance Thomas’ opinion last week that agreed with overturning Roe but also called on the high court to go on to reject its past rulings on contraception and gay marriage.
“I understand that the rest of the court said, ‘No, no, we’re not going there,’ but remember how we got to where we are,” Warren said. “When Roe v. Wade first came down, there was a tiny minority that really put a lot of energy in effect for themselves and for Republicans, putting Roe on the ballot over and over.”
Raddatz asked Warren whether the Supreme Court Senate confirmation process should change, given that some justices who joined to overturn Roe had said at their hearings and elsewhere it was settled law or respected precedent.
“Sen. Susan Collins, who voted for Justice Kavanaugh, as well as Joe Manchin, have said they were misled. Do you think the process should change, now, of confirming justices?” Raddatz asked.
“I understand that Justice Kavanaugh — I don’t know what he said to Sen. Collins, I wasn’t in the room,” Warren said, referring to a private meeting between the two. “But I do know this: that the Republicans have been very overt about trying to get people through the court who didn’t have a published record on Roe but who they knew, wink, wink, nod, nod, were going to be extremist on the issue of Roe v. Wade and that is exactly what we have ended up with.”
(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:
A Russian controlled oil drilling platform in the Black Sea was targeted by Ukrainian shelling on Sunday, the second attack in a week, Russia’s state-run media outlet TASS reported.
A spokesperson for Crimea’s emergency services reported that no one was injured in the attack on the platform operated by the Chernomorneftegaz oil and gas company.
Russia-backed officials seized Chernomorneftegaz’s oil-drilling platforms from Ukraine’s national gas operator Naftogaz as part of Moscow’s annexation of the Crimea peninsula in 2014, according to Reuters.
This is the second attack in a week on the same Chernomorneftegaz oil-drilling platform.
On June 20, Ukrainian forces shelled the platform in the Black Sea, injuring three of the 109 people on the drilling rig at the time, according to Crimea officials. Seven people remain missing, the officials said.
More than 90 people were evacuated from the platform after the previous attack and 15 people had stayed behind to guard operations, Sergey Aksyonov, the governor of Russian-controlled Crimea.
Jun 26, 2:43 pm
250 civilians evacuated from Severodonetsk chemical plant
About 250 Ukrainian civilians have been evacuated from a chemical plant where they sought shelter in the besieged city of Severodonetsk in Eastern Ukraine, an official said.
Rodion Miroshnik, the Luhansk People’s Republic ambassador to Russia, said the civilians were evacuated safely from the Azot chemical plant in Severodonetsk.
“Servicemen of the LPR People’s Militia evacuated another about 250 people, including little children, from the premises of the Severodonetsk Azot plant,” Miroshnik said on social media Sunday.
He added that the evacuation came a day after about 200 civilians were evacuated from the chemical plant.
Following months of heavy fighting, Russian troops took complete control of the Severodonetski over the weekend, according to Oleksandr Striuk, chief of the city’s military administration.
Jun 26, 2:35 pm
1 killed, 6 injured in missile strike on Kyiv
One person was killed and six were injured, including a child, following a Russian missile strike Sunday in Ukraine’s capital city, officials said.
The Russian shelling of Kyiv struck a residential building in the city, according to Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko.
Klitschko said at least six people were injured in the attack, including a 7-year-old girl. He said the girl was undergoing surgery Sunday for non-life-threatening injuries.
Klitschko said the girl’s mother was also injured in the attack.
A missile strike occurred in the Shevchenkivskyi neighborhood, near central Kyiv, officials said.
Jun 26, 7:11 am
More of Russia’s ‘barbarism,’ Biden says of Kyiv strike
President Joe Biden on Sunday said Russia’s early morning missile strikes on Kyiv were an act of “barbarism.”
As Biden stood alongside German Chancellor Olaf Scholz at the official G7 welcome ceremony, ABC News’ Karen Travers asked if he had any reaction to the strikes on a residential neighborhood.
“Yes, it’s more of their barbarism,” Biden said.
A missile struck an apartment block in Shevchenkivskyi, near central Kyiv, on Sunday morning, killing at least one and trapping others in the rubble, local officials said.
-ABC News’ Sarah Kolinovsky
Jun 26, 5:03 am
US to ban Russian gold imports
The Biden administration and other G7 leaders will announce on Sunday an import ban on Russian gold.
“This is a key export, a key source of revenue alternative for Russia, in terms of their ability to transact in the global financial system,” a senior administration official told reporters on a briefing call about the G7 summit in Germany. “Taking this step cuts off that capacity and again, is an ongoing illustration of the types of steps that the G7 can take collectively to continue to isolate Russia and cut it off from the global economy.”
The Treasury Department is expected to issue an official notice on Tuesday.
Gold is Russia’s second largest export after oil and a source of significant revenue, but much of Russia’s gold exportation has already been cut off in practice by banks, refiners and shippers. The move on Sunday marks an official severance of Russia from the world’s gold market.
The U.S. and U.K. are participating in Sunday’s announcement, but it is unclear whether all G7 countries will participate in the initiative. A Biden administration official tried to downplay concerns about potential disunity among G7 member states, pivoting instead to a talking point about efforts to cut off all financial pathways for Russia.
Pressed on whether Russia could continue to export gold by going through a country that does not participate in the ban, officials insisted the ban will be effective.
“We will continue to identify places where evasion as a risk continue to take steps to block off those pads,” an official said. “And the measuring gold in some ways is in fact, another step forward to block off ways that that Russia might seek to engage with the financial system, by virtue of all the other ways that have now been cut off to them.”
-ABC News’ Sarah Kolinovsky
Jun 26, 3:30 am
Russian strike traps Kyiv woman in rubble
Emergency responders in Kyiv are working to free a woman from the top floor of a residential building that was hit by a Russian strike on Sunday morning.
An advisor to the minister of the interior told ABC News that the woman, who is in her 30s, is alive and trapped in the rubble.
At least one civilian was killed in Sunday’s strike, local officials said. At least one other, a young girl, was rescued from the building in Shevchenkivskyi, a central district a few moments from the historic center of the city.
-ABC News’ Tom Soufi Burridge
Jun 26, 2:55 am
Missiles strike central Kyiv residential neighborhood
A series of Russian missiles struck a residential area of Kyiv, Ukraine, on Sunday morning, local officials said.
“Friends! Search and rescue operations are underway in a residential building in the Shevchenkivskyi district where a missile hit,” Mayo Vitaliy Klychko said on Telegram. “There are people under the rubble. Some residents were evacuated, two victims were hospitalized. Rescuers continue to work, medics are on site.”
At least one residential building appeared to have had sections of its facade sheared off, photos from the scene showed. Emergency responders could be seen working on the upper floors of the building as smoke rose into the morning sky.
“Several explosions in the Shevchenkivskyi district,” Klychko said. “Ambulance crews and rescuers on the spot. Residents are being rescued and evacuated in two houses.”
At least one missile was shot down by Ukrainian air defenses, Oleksiy Kuleba, head of the Kyiv regional administration, said on Telegram.
“The remains of the missile fell on the outskirts of one of the villages in the area,” Kuleba said.
-ABC News’ Natalia Kushnir
Jun 24, 9:01 am
Ukrainian forces to retreat from Severodonetsk
Ukrainian forces plan to retreat from the city of Severodonetsk, following weeks of fighting.
The local governor said Friday morning “it doesn’t make sense” to hold onto the city and “the number of people killed will increase every day,” in a statement on Telegram.
The city has faced a heavy bombardment of rockets and street-to-street fighting between Ukrainian and Russia troops for weeks.
Ukrainian officials said nearly 90% of buildings in Severodonetsk have been destroyed.
It’s believed 8,000 civilians remain. At one point, hundreds of civilians sheltered in a chemical plant.
-ABC News’ Joe Simonetti
Jun 23, 2:58 pm
Ukraine granted candidate status for EU membership
The European Council has granted Ukraine and Moldova candidate status for EU membership, European Council President Charles Michel tweeted.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised the announcement on Twitter, calling it a “unique and historical moment,” adding, “Ukraine’s future is within the EU.”
It could take years for Ukraine to become an EU member. Five other countries that have been granted candidate status are currently negotiating their EU membership: Albania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey.
