Missy Elliot is dropping gems for new music artists.
In a series of recent tweets, the 51-year-old rapper/producer shared advice for rising stars who are working on their “pivotal” second album.
“Sophomore Albums are a very PIVOTAL time for artist!” she wrote on Twitter. “Here is a gem from MISSY!Your sophomore album be stressful but it’s the BEST ALBUM to EXPERIMENT on!”
She offered some encouragement: “Don’t be AFRAID! Becuz If u play safe you will be BOXED in & its hard to get out because your fans get used to that 1 sound.”
In a follow-up tweet, Elliot urged artists to listen to their own instincts on music choices. “Secondly! Dear Artist Listen CLOSELY! Go with the songs you feel you should drop not what everyone else suggest!” she said.
“You the Artist must FEEL it YASELF because YOU are the one that have have to SELL it & CONVINCE ppl it’s HOT Go with your GUT! Fearless.”
The multihyphenate superstar didn’t stop there — “People normally charge for this kind of info but I’m giving this to the artist for FREE now let’s see who will be WISE enough to absorb this knowledge like a sponge and APPLY it to their work! pay ATTENTION I also learned from the GREATS.”
A great in her own right, Elliot responded to a fan who inquired about the importance of the debut album.
She said in part, “… the 2nd is crucial because if your 1st album do well sometimes you stress trying to make something bigger than the 1st album.
Considering Elliot’s success of her second album, Da Real World, which garnered hit singles “She’s a B***h,” “All n My Grill” and “Hot Boyz,” seems as if artists should take heed of Elliot’s advice.
Lizzo may be a superstar but she’s a fan, too — and she was thrilled when, over the weekend, she spotted a member of BTS vibing to her latest hit.
In a vlog uploaded this weekend, BTS member V is shown grooving in his car to various songs following a trip to the dentist. When Lizzo’s latest hit “About Damn Time” comes on, he says, “I love Lizzo’s songs” and starts dancing in his seat.
On Twitter, Lizzo wrote, “Wait… is this real? Is V really dancing to about damn time?!?” She then posted a video of herself and V side-by-side, mimicking all of his dance moves. She added the hashtag #VIZZO, causing fans to start calling for a collaboration.
Later, V reposted Lizzo’s side-by-side video on his Instagram Story, repeating the #VIZZO hashtag.
Lizzo is a big fan of BTS: Last September, she posted a video of herself freestyling about the friendship between V and Jimin. She also got to hang out with V, Jimin, J-Hope and Jungkook at a Harry Styles concert, and last November, BTS member RM told Access Hollywood that Lizzo actually has a crush on both V and Jimin.
Indie rock fans were eating well on July 10, 2007.
Sunday marked the 15th anniversary of both Interpol‘s Our Love to Admire and Spoon‘s Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, significant albums in both bands’ careers.
Coming off Interpol’s first two albums, which for readers of Spin magazine and Pitchfork might as well have been Beatles records for how revered they were, Our Love to Admire marked the “Evil” group’s first — and only — major label full-length, and is their first — and only — top-five Billboard 200 release.
“I think the record itself is a very natural step into where Interpol was going at that time,” guitarist Daniel Kessler tells ABC Audio, mentioning the inclusion of more keyboards and other new sonic elements. “I think we were pushing ourselves in more musical, musician kind of ways versus trying to do things that we hope will appeal to a mass audience.”
Fifteen years later, Kessler feels that Our Love to Admire, which includes the single “The Heinrich Maneuver,” has “held up well.”
“I feel like that record has matured well with our fans over time,” he says.
Like Interpol did on Our Love to Admire, Spoon introduced some new elements to their sounds with Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga, such as horns on the single “The Underdog.” The record gave Spoon their first top-10 on the Billboard 200, along with some other memorable “milestones” for the band.
“The major one being playing SNL,” says drummer Jim Eno. “That was probably the highlight of my Spoon career, I think. I mean, that was just amazing.”
The Interpol/Spoon connection continues 15 years later this summer when they launch their co-headlining Lights, Camera, Factions Tour, kicking off August 25 in Asbury Park, New Jersey.
David Lee Roth has premiered a new solo song titled “Pointing at the Moon,” which you can check out now at the longtime Van Halen singer’s official YouTube channel.
Accompanying the acoustic-based, Americana-flavored tune is a new abstract painting by Roth bearing the same name, which he also posted on his official website and socialmediapages. No information about the song has been revealed.
The track begins with a solo piano intro, followed by a strummed acoustic guitar as Roth sings the enigmatic first verse, “From the mildew to the barbecue, you came through from the classroom to the tomb/ Moment of truth now, your bags are packed/ With lies you can go forward, but you cannot go back.”
“Pointing at the Moon” doesn’t appear to be available yet via any major digital music providers. The song is the first solo tune Roth has debuted since December 2021, when he premiered a video on his YouTube channel along with an acoustic-based song called “One Piece Thermo-Molded Country Plastic Chair,” which he dedicated “to all who are affected by and recovering from the Kentucky tornadoes.”
Roth has been relatively quiet since canceling a series of Las Vegas residency shows in January because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Diamond Dave had announced in an October 2021 interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal that he was planning to retire after the residency.
A new father-son duo is heading toward your screens, with Rob Lowe and his son John Owen Lowe starring in a new Netflix comedy titled Unstable.
The series is set to hit the streamer next year, but while promoting his collaboration with Atkins — which includes yummy low carb treats like an Iced Chai Latte Protein Shake, Peanut Butter Cups and Peppermint Patties — he dished about the upcoming series and what it was like working with his youngest son.
“It’s super gratifying. I’m very proud of him,” Lowe expressed, before teasing that his “oldest son went into actual real business” as a lawyer working in finance. “My youngest son, [he] went into the family business and we co-created this show.”
Not only did the duo create the show, the longtime actor revealed that “it’s based on a father and son relationship very similar to ours.”
“Johnny likes to troll me on social media and people have really liked it, much to my chagrin,” Lowe admitted. “So we use that relationship as the basis for creating these two characters in the show, and it’s been a blast…to see it all come to fruition is really, really super incredible.”
As described by Netflix, Rob “plays the eccentric head of a cutting-edge biotech firm” while John, “his introverted and socially awkward son … comes to work for him and finds that he has to save his father from utter ruin in the process.”
Lowe also revealed that the show started filming this summer and with the season in full swing, the actor shared some tips on how he stays fit.
“It’s diet… but also like your mindset,” he said. “Between that and being active, I think makes one feel and seem younger and then it all goes springs from there.”
Following Carlos Santana‘s onstage collapse last Tuesday during a show in the Detroit suburb of Clarkston, Michigan, his band immediately postponed a concert the following night in Burgettstown, Pennsylvania, and now the group has postponed six additional performances.
The affected shows, which will be rescheduled, were to have taken place on June 8 in Noblesville, Indiana; June 9 in Cincinnati; July 10 in Milwaukee as part of the city’s Summerfest event; July 12 in Rogers, Arkansas; July 15 in Dallas, Texas; and July 16 in the Houston suburb of The Woodlands, Texas.
Carlos’ illness during the Clarkston show has been reported as “serious heat exhaustion and dehydration,” and the guitar legend’s manager, Michael Vrionis, explains in a statement that the concerts are being postponed “out of an abundance of caution for the artist’s health.”
He adds, “Doctor’s have recommended that Mr. Santana gets rest to recuperate fully.” Carlos will turn 75 on July 20
Santana is scheduled to resume touring on July 23 with a performance at the California Mid-State Fair in Paso Robles, California.
“Carlos is doing well and is anxious to be back on stage soon. He just needs rest,” Vrionis says. “Santana profoundly regrets…these postponements of his upcoming performances; but, his health is our number one concern. He is looking forward to seeing all of his fans very soon.”
Tickets purchased for the postponed concerts will be honored for the rescheduled dates. Visit Santana.com to check out all of the band’s confirmed shows.
(WASHINGTON) — “Keep making your point. It’s critically important,” President Joe Biden said as for his message to the thousands of abortion-rights activists who gathered outside the White House on Saturday.
President Joe Biden said Sunday he was looking into declaring a public health emergency in support of abortion access across the country after Roe v. Wade was overturned last month.
“That’s something I’m asking the medical people in the administration to look at, whether I have the authority to do that and what impact that would have,” Biden told reporters in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, while quickly taking questions during a bike ride near his home.
A public health emergency regarding abortion has been supported by members of Biden’s own party as well as abortion rights advocates.
The Women’s March, which helped organize a “Summer of Rage” in response to the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe — which was widely praised by conservatives — has argued such a move would allow the administration to “utilize additional flexibilities, deploy resources where necessary, and act with the urgency that this moment requires.”
Broadly speaking, a public health emergency is made in the cases of disease outbreak or other health crises and unlocks certain government powers and funding sources.
Biden told reporters on Sunday he recognized he had limited executive powers to go further in supporting abortion access, saying, “I don’t have the authority” to reinstate Roe. He reiterated that he wanted Congress to pass a federal law codifying Roe after the Supreme Court reversed the landmark 1973 ruling and said there was no constitutional guarantee to an abortion.
As for his message to the thousands of people who gathered outside the White House on Saturday, pressuring him to do more to protect abortion rights, he said, “Keep protesting. Keep making your point. It’s critically important.”
“We can do a lot of things to accommodate the rights of women. In the meantime, fundamentally, the only way to change this is to have a national law that reinstates Roe v Wade,” he said.
The prospects of that are dim in the narrowly divided Senate, where Democrats do not have enough votes to either overcome a Republican filibuster on the issue or approve an exception to the filibuster rule, which is opposed by moderates Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema.
Biden on Friday signed an executive order aimed at supporting access to abortion despite efforts in dozens of states to outlaw or severely restrict it.
Speaking from the White House alongside Vice President Kamala Harris and Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, Biden urged women, specifically, to practice their “political power” by voting in November, saying it was the “fastest way” to reverse the high court’s ruling by giving congressional Democrats the majorities they need to the codify Roe.
In the weeks since a five-justice majority on the court rejected Roe — which has long been a goal of Republicans and conservatives who oppose abortion — Biden has faced criticism from other Democrats and from progressives who say he should be acting more aggressively.
“I want President Biden to do absolutely everything in his power to protect access to abortion in America—let’s really push the envelope to protect women in this country, and let’s do it now,” Washington Sen. Patty Murray, who chairs the Senate Committee on Health Education and Labor, told ABC News in a written statement last month, adding that she understood that there were limits to his authority.
Biden’s executive order largely finalized what had already been announced by his administration, including instructions to the Justice Department to make sure women can travel out-of-state for abortion care.
The order addressed the elevated risks for patients, providers and clinics by focusing on protecting mobile clinics that have been deployed to state borders to offer care for out-of-state patients.
Biden’s action, the White House said, also directed Attorney General Merrick Garland and the White House counsel to convene volunteer lawyers and organizations to “encourage robust legal representation of patients, providers, and third parties lawfully seeking or offering reproductive health care services throughout the country.”
Biden has said he’ll provide leave for federal workers traveling for medical care, which could set an example for private companies to do the same.
ABC News’ Anne Flaherty contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — As gun violence in America continues to take lives, lawmakers are pushing states to implement “red flag” laws, which allow law enforcement or family members to ask a civil court to temporarily remove guns from a person who poses a risk to themselves or others.
Nineteen states currently have “red flag” laws, also known as extreme risk protection orders, on the books. Recent mass shootings in Buffalo, New York; Uvalde, Texas; and Highland Parks, Illinois have reignited calls for the government to enact these types of gun laws.
Last month, President Joe Biden signed into law a bipartisan gun bill which included $750 million in funding to help states implement “red flag” laws and other violence prevention programs.
The bill also enhanced background checks for people under the age of 21 and closed a so-called “boyfriend loophole,” by preventing individuals in serious dating relationships who have been convicted of domestic violence from being able to purchase a gun.
Experts told ABC News that when they are more frequently used, “red flag” laws could be effective.
“There’s many documented cases of use of red flag laws in circumstances and when people are threatening or saying they’re going to commit mass shootings. And they use the order, they remove firearms, and there’s no documented case [that] that person, for example, found another firearm or just went and did it anyway,” Daniel Webster, director for the Gun Policy and Research Center at Johns Hopkins University, told ABC News in an interview.
He added, “I wouldn’t call it necessarily ironclad, certain proof. But, it’s certainly compelling evidence that the laws are being used as intended to prevent these things.”
According to Webster, “red flag” laws are modeled after domestic violence restraining orders, which make them a quick response, allowing judges to immediately take action. The procedures allow due process for those whose guns are removed by giving them the opportunity to appear in court and present evidence as to why they should keep their guns.
Webster also said there is evidence these laws reduce suicide risk, which is the most common reason these orders are issued.
However, this tool is completely reliant on a good system response when there is evidence that someone might be a danger, Webster said.
Jeffrey Swanson, a professor of psychology and behavioral studies who is affiliated with the Center for Firearms Law at Duke University, told ABC News these laws are not being implemented on a large enough scale to determine whether they are effective.
“If nobody knows about it, it’s not used, it’s not scaled up, the police don’t have experience using it or aren’t accustomed to doing that, [or] you don’t have the infrastructure or the protocols in mind for it to become routine, you can’t expect it to do any good,” Swanson said.
Swanson said this was the case in Connecticut where a “red flag” law was passed in 1999, but wasn’t often put to use until around 2008. Researchers found that when used in the state, these laws were “modestly” effective in preventing suicides.
“For every 10 to 20 of these gun removal actions, one life was saved,” Swanson, a coauthor of the study, said.
After the July 4 shooting in Highland Park, Illinois, police revealed they had deemed the suspect, Robert Crimo III, a “clear and present danger” after a family member revealed he had threatened to “kill everyone,” according to police records.
Police had also gone to the suspect’s home a number of times before the shooting, including in September 2019, when Highland Park police removed a 24-inch Samurai blade, a box containing a 12-inch dagger and 16 hand knives from Crimo’s house that day, according to an incident report.
However, when he made the threats, the suspect did not own any firearms. So when state police did not find a gun license for Crimo in their system, no action was taken. Later that year, the suspect’s father signed an affidavit allowing him to obtain a gun license.
While Illinois has a “red flag” law in place, Webster said the state’s law does not apply a “prospective” approach that would have prevented Crimo from obtaining guns in the months after he made the threats. Webster said it is worth considering preventing people who pose a threat from being able to get guns for a certain span of time.
“To me, that sounds very reasonable, because you’re using the same logic to disarm someone once they already have a firearm,” he said. “But, you’re not using it to prevent the acquisition. So, that’s, that’s the missing piece here.”
According to Webster, things to be considered when determining whether an individual presents a “clear and present danger” to those around them include whether they have a history of violent behavior and what evidence there is that they could commit a shooting (such as their online search history or things they have obtained like body armor).
Whether the individual has displayed behavioral signals common among mass shooters should also be considered, he added.
(FRESNO, Calif.) — A wildfire near Yosemite National Park is creeping closer to a grove of iconic sequoia trees that have been in the region for thousands of years.
The Washburn Fire, which originated on Thursday near the Washburn Trail in Yosemite’s Mariposa Grove, has since grown to nearly 1,600 acres and could soon threaten the survival of the sequoias, fire officials said.
The fire is burning in “difficult terrain” due to heavy fuel lingering nearby after a significant tree mortality event from 2013 to 2015, according to Yosemite Fire and Aviation Management.
The fuel consists of both standing trees and fuel that has fallen to the ground and is presenting safety hazards to firefighters, according to Yosemite fire officials.
The Mariposa Grove, one of the most popular destinations in Yosemite National Park and home to more than 500 mature giant sequoia trees, was evacuated and remains closed. People in the community of Wawona, which is surrounded by national park land and campground, were also ordered to leave their homes and campsites on Friday.
No reports of damage to any of the named trees in the grove have been reported. Some of the tree trunks were wrapped in fire-resistant foil, a similar method used in September to protect trees in Sequoia National Park’s Giant Forest when the KNP Complex Fire threatened their existence.
The trees, native to the Sierra Nevada range in California, are adaptive to fire, but intense fire could kill them, according to experts. Wildfires sparked by lightning have killed about a fifth of the 75,000 large sequoias, The AP reported.
The Washburn Fire is not fast-moving and is not impacting human safety, fire sources told ABC News. It will take several weeks for the fire to be fully extinguished because firefighters are managing the fire by setting off backfires to clear the fuel, the experts said.
Firefighters are also battling the blaze using air drops of fire retardant and by using bulldozers to create fire lines, The Associated Press reported.
A warming trend is forecast in the region over the next several days, but high wind events are not expected to exacerbate the wildfire.
ABC News’ Jenna Harrison Lisette Rodriguez contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” into neighboring Ukraine began on Feb. 24, with Russian forces invading from Belarus, to the north, and Russia, to the east. Ukrainian troops have offered “stiff resistance,” according to U.S. officials.
The Russian military has since launched a full-scale ground offensive in eastern Ukraine’s disputed Donbas region, capturing the strategic port city of Mariupol and securing a coastal corridor to the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Jul 10, 11:41 am
15 killed in Russian missile strike on residential building in Donetsk region
At least 15 people were killed and two dozen more are feared trapped in rubble after Russian Uragan rockets slammed into a five-story apartment building in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk region, local officials said on Sunday.
Search-and-rescue workers were combing through the rubble for survivors on Sunday.
The missile strike came as Ukrainian officials reported clashes with Russian troops on the frontline in the eastern and southern Ukraine.
Donetsk Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko said the strike on the apartment building occurred Saturday evening in the town of Chasiv Yar. The regional emergency service said Sunday that the death toll had climbed to 15 and that 24 more people could still be buried under the rubble.
“We ran to the basement, there were three hits, the first somewhere in the kitchen,” a local resident, who gave her name as Ludmila, told rescuers as they removed a body wrapped in a white sheet and cleared rubble using a crane as well as their hands. “The second (strike), I do not even remember, there was lightning, we ran towards the second entrance and then straight into the basement. We sat there all night until this morning.”
Andriy Yermak, chief of staff to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said in a Telegram post that the strike was “another terrorist attack” and that Russia should be designated as a state sponsor of terrorism as a result.
Russian officials claimed its forces struck Ukrainian army hangars storing U.S.-produced M777 howitzers, a type of artillery, near Kostyantynivka in Donetsk region, but, so far, has not claimed responsibility for the missile strike on the residential building in Chasiv Yar.
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Jul 10, 11:21 am
Blinken claims world food insecurity ‘significantly exacerbated’ by Russian invasion
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday that the Russian invasion of Ukraine has “significantly exacerbated” a global food insecurity crisis and may have contributed to the economic collapse of Sri Lanka.
“What we are seeing around the world is growing food insecurity that has been significantly exacerbated by the Russian aggression against Ukraine and as we’ve had opportunity to discuss in recent days, there are more than 20 million tons of grain that are sitting in silos in Ukraine that can’t get out can’t get out to feed people around the world,” Blinken told reporters during his first official visit to Thailand.
He noted that he discussed the global food insecurity crisis during meetings with Thai Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai and said a memorandum of understanding the two leaders signed commemorating a new collaboration will “make it easier for Thailand and the United States to quickly share information and consult on possible supply chain disruptions so that we can actually take early action to mitigate problems.”
Blinken added that the impact of this Russian invasion of Ukraine is being felt around the world, particularly in Sri Lanka, where the prime minister said late last month that the island nation’s debt-laden economy had “collapsed” and run out of money to pay for food and fuel. The economic turmoil has prompted massive protests in Sri Lanka and over the weekend demonstrators stormed the president’s residence in the capital of Colombo.
“So we’re seeing the impact of this Russian aggression to play out everywhere,” Blinken said. “Again, it may have contributed to the situation in Sri Lanka. We’re concerned about the implications that it has around the world.”
-ABC News’ Lauren Minore
Jul 08, 3:27 pm
US announces new $400M aid package for Ukraine, including more HIMARS
The Biden administration announced a new $400 million military aid package for Ukraine on Friday that includes four more High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS.
Ukraine will now have a total of 12 of these precision rocket launcher systems, which have been “especially important and effective in assisting Ukraine in coping with the Russian artillery battle in the Donbas,” a senior defense official told reporters Friday.
The rockets have a range of 43 miles. The official said that Ukraine has been striking at Russian targets deep behind enemy lines but has not used them to strike inside Russia.
The new aid package also includes 1,000 new “greater precision” artillery. The name of the system was not shared for security purposes, the official said.
The new aid package is the 15th use of the presidential drawdown authority to give existing U.S. military stocks to Ukraine.
-ABC News’ Luis Martinez
Jul 07, 9:26 am
Moscow views nuclear weapons only as a deterrent, Russian official says
Russia considers nuclear weapons only as a deterrent, according to Valentina Matviyenko, Chairman of the Russian Federation Council.
“Russia views nuclear weapons only as a deterrent,” Matviyenko said Thursday at a press conference.
The official noted that Russia has “clearly and strictly prescribed those exceptional cases when [nuclear weapons] can only be used in response to — God forbid that this never happens — a nuclear attack.”
“We behave like a civilized country, and we do it openly,” Matviyenko added.
-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Yulia Drozd, Max Uzol, and Fidel Pavlenko
Jul 07, 8:16 am
Russia claims no new ground for first time since invasion’s start
Russia claimed no territorial gains in Ukraine on Wednesday for the first time since the beginning of its invasion in late February, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said in its latest report.
The Russian Defense Ministry claimed territorial gains every day from the start of the war but has not done so since completing the encirclement of the eastern town Lysychansk on July 3, the ISW said.
The Washington-based think tank said the lull in Russian ground force movements supports its assessment that Russian forces “have largely initiated an operational pause.”
The break in operations is not equal to a complete ceasefire, however, as Russian troops still conducted a number of unsuccessful attacks on all frontlines, the experts added.
Russian troops are instead trying to set up conditions for a bigger offensive as they rebuild their combat power, the ISW report said.
Russia has already increased its fleet in the Black Sea on the shores of Ukraine, local media reported on Wednesday. The Russian naval presence grew by several missile carriers, as well as submarines and an amphibious assault ship.
Ukrainian officials refuted Russian claims on Wednesday according to which Russian troops destroyed two HIMARS multiple launch rocket systems supplied by the U.S.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy added that the Western supplied artillery “started working very powerfully” and at full capacity.
“Finally, it is felt that the Western artillery, the weapons we received from our partners, started working very powerfully,” Zelenskyy said in his Wednesday evening address. “Its accuracy is exactly as needed,” the president added.
Zelenskyy said the Western weapons have carried out strikes on depots and areas of logistical importance to Russian troops. “And this significantly reduces the offensive potential of the Russian army,” Zelenskyy noted, adding that Russian losses “will only increase every week, as will the difficulty of supplying [Russian troops].”
Ukrainian forces celebrated another symbolic victory on Thursday when they raised their national flag on Snake Island, a recaptured Black Sea isle located 90 miles south of the Ukrainian port of Odesa that became a symbol of defiance against Moscow, according to local reports.
Images released by Ukraine’s interior ministry on Thursday showed three Ukrainian soldiers raising the blue and yellow national flag on a patch of ground on Snake Island next to the remains of a flattened building.
But Russia responded to the flag-raising ceremony fast. It said one of its warplanes had struck Snake Island shortly afterwards and destroyed part of the Ukrainian detachment there.
Russia abandoned Snake Island at the end of June in what it said was a gesture of goodwill, raising Ukrainian hopes of unblocking local ports shut off by Russia.
-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Yulia Drozd, Max Uzol, and Fidel Pavlenko
Jul 06, 10:02 am
Blinken to urge G20 to press Russia on grain deliveries
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is set to appeal to G20 countries to put pressure on Russia to make it support the U.N. initiative on unblocking the sea lanes for Ukraine and allow grain exports, according to local media reports.
“G20 countries should hold Russia accountable and insist that it supports ongoing U.N. efforts to reopen the sea lanes for grain delivery,” said Ramin Toloui, assistant secretary of state for economic and business affairs.
Toloui referred to a U.N. campaign aiming to expedite Ukrainian and Russian exports of harvest and fertilizer to global markets.
Around 22 million tons of grain remain blocked in Ukrainian ports due to the threat of Russian attacks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday.
Ukraine is in active negotiations with Turkey and the U.N. to solve the grain export stalemate, Zelenskyy added.
Blinken is also expected to once again warn China against backing Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine.
“[The upcoming G20 summit] will be another opportunity … to convey our expectations about what we would expect China to do and not to do in the context of Ukraine,” the top U.S. diplomat for East Asia, Daniel Kritenbrink, said.
-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Yuriy Zaliznyak, Max Uzol and Nataliia Kushnir
Jul 06, 8:42 am
Russia aims to seize territory far beyond the Donbas, Putin’s ally suggests
Russia’s main objective in its invasion of Ukraine is still regime change in Kyiv and the dismantling of Ukrainian sovereignty, Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev suggested in a speech on Tuesday.
Patrushev said the Russian “military operation” in Ukraine will continue until Russia achieves its goals of protecting civilians from “genocide,” “denazifying” and demilitarizing Ukraine, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
The Russian official added that Ukraine must remain permanently neutral between Russia and NATO. Petrushev’s remarks nearly mirrored the goals Russian President Vladimir Putin announced at the onset of the war to justify the military invasion.
Patrushev, a close Putin ally, repeated the Russian President’s stated ambitions despite Russia’s military setbacks in Ukraine and previous hints at a reduction in war aims following those defeats, the ISW pointed out.
Patrushev’s explicit restatement of Putin’s initial objectives “strongly indicates” that Russia does not consider its recent territorial gains in the Luhansk region to be sufficient, the ISW experts said.
Russia “has significant territorial aspirations beyond the Donbas” and “is preparing for a protracted war with the intention of taking much larger portions of Ukraine,” the observers added.
Patrushev’s comments dampened hopes for a “compromise ceasefire or even peace based on limited additional Russian territorial gains,” the experts concluded.
-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Yuriy Zaliznyak, Max Uzol and Nataliia Kushnir
