(WASHINGTON) — Top negotiators on a bipartisan gun safety framework huddled behind closed doors for several hours Wednesday evening to try to solve remaining differences on the package, but the group’s effort to expedite passage of an agreement is stalled, at least for the moment.
Since a group of 10 Democrats and 10 Republicans announced an agreement on a framework of proposals aimed at curbing gun violence in the wake of mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, New York, on Sunday, a bipartisan group of senators has been working to speedily turn the list of ideas into a bill ready for consideration on the Senate floor next week. But two provisions, one focused on incentivizing states to implement violence prevention programs, and another dealing with closing the so-called “boyfriend loophole,” are now plaguing negotiations, chief Republican negotiator John Cornyn, R-Texas, said Wednesday.
“If we can settle these two issues, I think we’re on our way, but I am concerned now given the time it takes and the need to complete our work really by tomorrow that we’ve got to settle these issues,” Cornyn told reporters Wednesday morning.
When negotiators emerged from their meeting Wednesday evening, they noted some progress, but said discussions on these two major issues will need to continue Thursday.
“We did make progress,” Cornyn said. “But we’re not there yet.”
“We are continuing to make progress,” Sen. Chris Murphy, the top Democratic negotiator, said after Cornyn’s departure. “This is a very tight timeline to land some very serious issues.”
Senators are feeling the time crunch as they try to meet an ambitious deadline to turn their announced framework into law. If senators wish to see a vote on their package before the Senate departs for a two-week recess on June 27, they need to turn their framework agreement into bill text that other Senators can review and vote on.
Challenges over how to create a program to support or incentivize state violence prevention programs — including red flag laws designed to temporarily seize weapons from those deemed by a court to be a danger to themselves or others — have been bubbling up in the Republican conference since the proposed framework was announced.
According to Cornyn, negotiators are struggling over whether funds made available to states to support red flag programs should also be available to states with other types of violence prevention programs, like veterans’ courts, mental health courts and assisted outpatient treatment programs.
Some Republicans have long struggled with red flag programs out of concern that these provisions violate the due process rights of those accused of being a threat. During a closed-door Republican conference meeting on Tuesday, several Republican lawmakers outside of the negotiating group told ABC News they had concerns about provisions supporting red flag laws.
Cornyn, according to numerous participants, repeatedly assured his colleagues that there would be no federal mandate to implement the laws. He also echoed an earlier speech in which he said their impending legislation would ensure that any state that does take federal funding would be required to ensure the due process rights of anyone potentially falling under a red flag order, also called an “extreme risk protection order.”
“Most of the discussion was around the red flag issue, and that is my greatest concern as well that we do it right,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-ND, on Tuesday. “I think we’re more interested in the red wave than we are in red flags, quite honestly, as Republicans and we have a pretty good opportunity to do that,” seemingly a reference to the possibility of Republicans taking control of Congress this fall.
Still, Democrats are optimistic there’s a solution on the red flag issue. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-CT., who has been leading the group’s efforts on red flag laws, said Wednesday that negotiators have already been in discussion on a “very doable” solution.
“We need to support every possible way to intervene in crisis before they produce violence. And red flag laws need investment of hundreds of millions of dollars for them as an incentive but also to implement them and at the same time we can have a variety of other crisis intervention mode that help save lives,” Blumenthal said.
There’s also been issues over efforts to modify law to close “boyfriend loophole.” Under current law, unmarried partners who commit domestic violence are not barred from purchasing a firearm, though spouses who perpetrate domestic violence are.
Negotiators are struggling with how to appropriately define a “boyfriend” or partner in this language to include those who are unmarried.
Democrats earlier Wednesday sought to downplay Cornyn’s concern about the two outstanding issues.
Democratic negotiator Sen. Chris Coons, D-DE, chalked both the boyfriend loophole issue and the red-flag law snag up to “modest negotiation challenges,” noting that issues always arise when frameworks are being turned to legislative bill text.
“All we have to do is write text that is true to the framework,” Murphy said. “You know, we all made a commitment to each other that we were supportive of the framework and then we’re going to write that into law. I have continued confidence that we can write that framework into text and we can have that for our colleagues next week.”
While negotiators continue to work on legislative text, there is a growing contingent of Republicans who have signaled willingness to supportive the framework.
Republican Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday said he is “comfortable” with the bipartisan gun safety reform framework and will be “supportive” of the bill “if the legislation ends up reflecting what the framework indicates.”
“My view of the framework if it leads to a piece of legislation I intend to support it I think it is progress for the country and I think the bipartisan group has done the best they can to get total support and the background check enhancement for that age group I think is a step in the right direction,” McConnell said.
And other members in his conference are also signaling willingness to support the proposal.
“I just need to see the text…want to see the details. The framework I think looks good, but it’s going to be what the details are,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-WV, on Tuesday.
Getting text to members before the weekend will be key, Cornyn said. And he’s still hopeful it can be done.
“We need to tie a nice thick ribbon around everything,” Cornyn told reporters. “Because we have to have an end to this to write the text in order to be able to share it with colleagues and provide it to the majority leader to put it on the floor.”
(NEW YORK) — Down a dirt road, inside a church in Dallas, Texas, the cellphone of Zuleka Edwards buzzes constantly.
“I was just trying to seek termination of a pregnancy,” one caller tells Edwards, abortion coordinator for The Afiya Center, the only Black-women-led abortion fund in North Texas. “I just need some assistance, OK, if that’s possible.”
Edwards gives the caller information about scheduling an appointment at an abortion clinic, explaining that even though she has already had an ultrasound, she’ll be required to get another under Texas law.
“If you have any questions, just reach out and I’ll be able to assist you,” Edwards ends the call.
It’s a conversation Edwards says she has multiple times a day with women throughout Texas who are trying to access abortion care in a state with one of the most extreme abortion laws in the country.
The phone calls, according to Edwards, have come with increasing frequency and urgency since September, when that law, Senate Bill 8, took effect in Texas, banning nearly all abortions after six weeks of pregnancy. Before the law, abortions up to 22 weeks of pregnancy were allowed in Texas, with restrictions.
“Sometimes there’s just not enough time in the day,” said Edwards, whom ABC News saw taking calls from women in need while doing laundry at home and caring for her three kids.
Edwards, 35, said she never turns down a woman’s request for help because she knows personally what they are going through. The Texas native got her first abortion at the age of 17, a decision she said she felt “forced” into by her mom and one she said for years filled her with shame.
After going on to give birth to three children and get married, Edwards had a second abortion in Dallas.
At the time, Edwards said she was suffering from postpartum depression after the birth of her third child and knew she and her husband did not have the financial resources to raise a fourth.
“I knew for sure that whatever I was going to do, it was going to be what I needed to do,” Edwards said. “It wasn’t going to be from shame.”
‘Texas is already a post-Roe world’
Texas is known for doing everything bigger, and that has included the fight over abortion.
“We do the bad, the wrong stuff better. We do the great stuff better,” said Marsha Jones, founder of The Afiya Center, which helps provide women with funding and logistics for abortion care. “So there’s nothing bigger than here.”
After years of chipping away at abortion rights, Texas in 2013 enacted strict requirements on abortion clinics, including that abortion providers have admitting privileges at a nearby hospital. By the time the measure was struck down by the Supreme Court in 2016, the number of abortion clinics in the state had shrunk from around 40 to 19.
Since last year, when SB8 went into effect, those remaining clinics have only been allowed to provide abortions before “cardiac activity or the steady and repetitive rhythmic contraction of the fetal heart” can be detected, which can be as early as six weeks into a pregnancy. The law includes an exception for medical emergencies but makes no exceptions for pregnancies due to rape or incest.
The result of SB8, according to abortion rights advocates on the ground, is that Texas for nearly the past year has been operating as a sort of test case for a post-Roe America, a version of the country if Roe v. Wade — the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision that declared abortion a protected right — is overturned, as is expected to happen based on a draft court opinion leaked in early May.
If the Supreme Court rules, as expected, in favor of a Mississippi law that bans abortions after 15 weeks, abortion will go from being a federally protected right to one decided by each state.
“For those of us here in Texas, that’s already been our reality,” said Paige Alexandria, an Austin-based hotline intake counselor for the National Abortion Federation. “We’re already living in a time where most people can’t access the care they need in their own city, where they have to travel out of state.”
Each month since SB8 went into effect, around 1,400 Texans have gone to another state for abortion care, according to Dr. Kari White, lead investigator of the Texas Policy Project at the University of Texas at Austin.
“Given what we’ve been seeing in Texas, I think it’s safe to say we’re already living in a post-Roe world,” said Sarah Lopez, client coordinator for Jane’s Due Process, an Austin-based abortion fund that helps kids under the age of 18 who need access to abortion care. “Not just with all the restrictions, but really the impact that those restrictions have on people, forcing them to flee their state to access abortion care.”
‘Feels like everything is on fire every single day’
With nearly all abortions banned after six weeks of pregnancy, the demand for abortions has not decreased in Texas, according to Alexandria, Lopez and nearly one dozen other abortion rights advocates ABC News spoke to in the state.
“Regardless of circumstance or zip code or income, people are always going to need abortions,” said Lopez, who herself had an abortion in her home state of Texas after graduating college. “Whichever ban is in place, I think it just makes the process more risky, more arduous, you know, it makes it far more confusing, far more stigmatizing.”
She said being an abortion rights advocate in Texas often feels “like everything is on fire every single day.” In Austin, Alexandria said her day is consumed by an endless stream of calls from women in Texas seeking financial or logistical help for an abortion.
“Most of the people that I’m speaking to on the hotline are already parents, just like most people who have abortions,” said Alexandria, who was a mom of two when she got an abortion. “They’re struggling to find child care and the time to take off of work without making it more difficult financially to afford the procedure that they need.”
In the U.S., nearly 60% of all women who obtain abortions are already mothers, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive rights research organization.
Qiana Lewis-Arnold, a birth justice associate with The Afiya Center, described the center’s workload as having “quadrupled” in the wake of SB8.
“The obstacles are just overwhelming, not just for the folks who are seeking abortions, but for the folks like us who are working with them,” she said. “This has created more obstacles, more stigma surrounding abortion and a lot of unnecessary fear.”
The anecdotal evidence of this is backed by data showing that with SB8 in place, the number of abortions has not dropped dramatically, according to White’s research. Instead, many women have resorted to traveling hundreds of miles out of state — as far as Maryland, Illinois and Washington state — or to ordering abortion pills online, if they are able to do so.
With increasingly limited access, a network of abortion funds — nonprofit organizations that provide funding and support to those seeking an abortion — has stepped in to fill the void.
The funds often cover a portion or all of the cost of the abortion itself — which can be hundreds of dollars in some cases — as well as practical care, including things like translation services, gas, hotel stays and child care.
“Texas is huge and there are abortion funds in basically every region of Texas,” said Lopez. “So there’s just been a lot of really cross-regional support that’s had to happen, and a lot of collaboration, a lot of creativity.”
Across the country, there are 92 abortion funds — as of October 2021 — that are members of the National Network of Abortion Funds, which helps connect organizations nationwide.
In the 72 hours after the Supreme Court draft opinion leaked in May, the network reported receiving more than $1.5 million in donations.
“The collaboration and the interconnectedness of abortion funds, I think that is a future of reproductive justice,” said Lopez. “It’s where we all work together and make sure that people have what they need.”
Who gets abortions with restricted access, and how
If Roe v. Wade is overturned by the Supreme Court, nearly half of the nation’s 50 states are prepared to ban all or nearly all abortions, according to the Guttmacher Institute.
Texas is one of 13 states that put a so-called trigger law in place to immediately ban abortion if the Supreme Court allows it. So if the court overturns Roe in its upcoming ruling, performing an abortion at any time after conception in Texas would be a felony.
With that ban in place, the distance women in Texas would have to travel to access abortion care would increase by 3,017%, according to the Guttmacher Institute. While New Mexico and Kansas would become the closest states that allow abortion, many Texans would likely have to travel even further because of the increased demand and wait times at abortion clinics in those states.
Already under SB8, abortion clinics in states surrounding Texas, including New Mexico, Kansas and Oklahoma — which has since enacted its own abortion ban — have reported being overwhelmed with patients.
In Kansas — where the state capital is nearly 700 miles away from Texas’ capital — residents will vote in August on an amendment to change Kansas’ constitution to remove abortion as a protected right.
Abortion restrictions’ impact on maternal mortality
With increasing restrictions in states and the prospect of Roe being overturned, abortion is likely to be accessible only in certain regions of the country, meaning people seeking abortions will have to travel further for care, at a greater cost and very possibly at a later stage in pregnancy due to both travel and wait times at a limited number of abortion clinics, according to White, of the University of Texas at Austin.
With abortion funds’ limited financial resources to help women as well as the inability of all women to travel, the impact, according to those on the ground in Texas who say they have already seen it happen, is that abortion becomes even more unequally accessible.
“The people who suffer the worst from abortion bans are the people who are always the most impacted,” said Alexandria. “Black and brown folks, indigenous folks, trans and queer communities, immigrants, children, parents, students, all of these people are the first to feel the impact of these restrictions.”
At The Afiya Center, which offers doula services in addition to abortion support, the residual impacts of abortion restrictions they see include high maternal mortality rates, high levels of childhood poverty and poor health rates, especially for Black women.
Texas has one of the worst maternal mortality rates in the country and Black women in the state are “disproportionately” affected, accounting for 11% of live births but 31% of maternal deaths, according to a 2020 report from the state’s Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Review Committee.
“It’s actually safer to have an abortion in Texas than to have a baby,” said D’andra Willis, doula services coordinator for The Afiya Center.
In the U.S., two women were reported to have died following complications from legal-induced abortions in 2018, the latest year for which data is available. That same year, 658 women were reported to have died due to complications from pregnancy or childbirth, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Willis said that for Black women like herself, the right to abortion means the right to make a life-saving decision for themselves.
“It’s just more than ‘my body, my choice,’ when it’s my life. My life is on the line,” said Willis, adding, “To be faced with Roe v. Wade being overturned, it’s just going to increase maternal mortality. It’s going to further perpetuate generational poverty. Access to health care is going to get even worse than it already is.”
‘Our work here becomes even more important’
Around 200 miles away from The Afiya Center, in Pflugerville, a city outside of Austin, Brittany Green, executive director of the Pflugerville Pregnancy Resource Center, stands in the center’s baby boutique, which provides clothes and baby supplies for moms who have decided to carry their pregnancies to term.
Across the country, pregnancy resource centers — nonprofit organizations that aim to support women on the path to parenthood — outnumber abortion clinics three to one, data shows.
In Texas, which has more pregnancy resource centers than any other state, the Pflugerville center is one of around 200 such centers.
“The vast majority of the activity in the pro-life movement is really these hundreds of pro-life pregnancy centers and maternity homes who are designed to help women, and help them long after the baby is born,” said Joe Pojman, executive director of Texas Alliance for Life, an Austin-based organization that opposes abortion, adding that he hopes Texas serves as an “example for the rest of the country.”
“For those women who seek abortion out of state in border states or beyond, it breaks my heart,” said Pojman. “It breaks all our hearts in the pro-life movement because Texas has such vast resources for women with unplanned pregnancies.”
Last year, the Texas Legislature directed $100 million in state funding over two years to Alternative to Abortions, a state-run program that was launched nearly 20 years ago with the purpose of “promoting childbirth” and providing support to pregnant women, according to the state’s health department.
The program, which provides funding to local pregnancy resource centers and subcontractors, served over 126,000 clients in 2021, according to Texas Health and Human Services.
Pflugerville’s pregnancy resource center, based in a small house down a side street, is privately funded, relying primarily on donations from individuals and local churches, according to Green.
The mostly volunteer-run center hums with a sense of urgency as they await the Supreme Court’s ruling.
“Power will come back to Texas and we’ll be able to eliminate abortion here,” Green said of what she believes will happen if Roe is overturned. “But women are still going to feel ashamed. They’re still going to need help and they’re still going to need resources, so our work here becomes even more important.”
Green said the center has experienced an increase of what she calls “abortion-minded” women since SB8 went into effect in Texas.
“The good thing with the bill is it actually slows down their decision-making time,” said Green. “So now that women are having to go outside of Texas to seek an abortion, it actually opens up the doors for us to talk about how desperate are you to terminate this pregnancy. And is it worth going the extra miles, is it worth paying additional money to have an abortion?”
According to Tere Grace, the center’s sonographer, women are coming in earlier and earlier in their pregnancies.
“Before SB8, we were seeing people that were coming in at 12 weeks, 14 weeks, 18 weeks, pretty much when women had the window for legal abortion and still hadn’t processed how they wanted to do it,” said Grace. “Now we’re seeing babies much much younger than that, sometimes 4 or 5, 6 weeks old because they want to beat that ‘deadline’ of the heartbeat.”
She continued, “Finding the heartbeat is really important to us because we want to speak truth, ‘There’s a heartbeat here.'”
Supporters of SB8, including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, call SB8 the “heartbeat bill.” Medical doctors say using the word heartbeat is “clinically inaccurate.”
According to the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG), there cannot be a heartbeat at an early stage of pregnancy because the chambers of the heart are not developed. Instead, the sound is what ACOG describes as the “ultrasound machine translating electronic impulses that signify fetal cardiac activity.”
Like most pregnancy resource centers across the country, Green says the one in Pflugerville does not “ever encourage a woman to seek abortion.”
“Our goal is to help them choose life,” she said of the center, which offers free sonogram services and pregnancy tests as well as education classes expectant women can take to earn points that they can then spend as money in the center’s baby boutique.
Tiffany Turner, a single mom of two from Round Rock, Texas, came to the Pflugerville Pregnancy Resource Center last year when she became pregnant while finishing graduate school to become a physician assistant.
“I didn’t have much support at all,” Turner said while holding her infant daughter, River, adding that she found the support she needed as soon as she walked into the center, which she said she found by searching for help online.
“They started giving me diapers from the week that I came,” said Turner. “And every week I would come and do Bible studies and classes, and they helped me through delivering her, and then three weeks postpartum, they started again.”
Turner said she continues to come to the resource center for clothes for River and supplies like diapers. According to Green, the center helps women through a child’s second birthday.
“We want our parents to leave feeling successful and that they can parent without support after us,” said Green. “If it is a situation where they still need continuing support, we’re actually going to refer them to another pregnancy center that can meet the need up until the child is 5.”
If Roe v. Wade is overturned and abortion becomes even harder to access across the country, abortion rights advocates say they fear there will not be enough support for women and children in the long-term.
Advocates like Edwards, of The Afiya Center, said they see their work post-Roe being even more focused on what they see as the root causes of the need for abortion, addressing issues like poverty, domestic violence and lack of access to health care and contraception.
“If you really want to help people, then find out what the underlying issues are,” said Edwards. “Help people get out of that predicament, and it’ll prevent people from being in this predicament.”
(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:
Jun 15, 6:22 pm
Alabama lawmakers say they’re helping locate 2 former US service members missing in Ukraine
Two U.S. lawmakers said Wednesday they have been asked by the families of two former U.S. service members who volunteered to assist the Ukrainian forces for their help in locating them.
Alabama Rep. Terri Sewell said in a statement her office is helping a family locate Alexander Drueke, of Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
“Earlier this week, the mother of Alexander Drueke, a Tuscaloosa Army Veteran who volunteered to assist the Ukrainian Army in combating Russia, reached out to my office after losing contact with her son. According to his family, they have not heard from Drueke in several days,” she said in a statement.
She said her office has been in contact with the State Department, the FBI and other members of the Alabama Congressional Delegation.
Alabama Rep. Robert Aderholt said his office is helping in the search for Andy Tai Ngoc Huynh, 27, of Trinity, Alabama, after his family reached out to the congressman’s office this week.
“According to Huynh’s family, they have not been in contact with him since June 8, 2022, when he was in the Kharkiv area of Ukraine,” he said in a statement.
Aderholt said his office has reached out to the State Department and FBI to “get any information possible.”
Huynh, a former Marine, spoke to Huntsville, Alabama, ABC affiliate WAAY in April about his decision to help defend Ukraine.
“I’ve made peace with the decision. I know there’s a potential of me dying. I’m willing to give my life for what I believe is right,” he told the station.
White House spokesman John Kirby told reporters Wednesday afternoon that he “can’t confirm the reports” of two Americans captured in Ukraine.
“We’ll do the best we can to monitor this and see what we can learn about it,” he said. “Obviously, if it’s true, we’ll do everything we can to get them safely back home.”
The State Department also is aware of the “unconfirmed” reports, a spokesperson said.
“We are closely monitoring the situation and are in contact with Ukrainian authorities,” the spokesperson said. “Due to privacy considerations, we have no further comment.”
The State Department has warned U.S. citizens against traveling to Ukraine during the war and that Russian security officials could be “singling out” U.S. citizens.
-ABC News’ Benjamin Stein, Ben Gittleson and Shannon Crawford
Jun 15, 4:20 pm
100 Ukrainian military deaths per day in line with US estimates: Milley
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, said Ukrainian officials’ estimate of 100 Ukrainian military deaths per day is “in the ballpark” with U.S. estimates.
Milley would not disclose exactly how many more artillery pieces the Russians have than the Ukrainians, saying that was classified, but he confirmed that they do outnumber the Ukrainians.
Milley noted that while the Russians are using large numbers of artillery to target civilian and urban areas, Ukrainians are using “much better artillery techniques” on the battlefield. Milley explained how the mortars, howitzers and HIMARS systems will give the Ukrainians a more effective combined layered system to strike at the Russians from short, medium and long distances.
-ABC News’ Luis Martinez
Jun 15, 4:07 pm
More Ukraine aid to come on ‘fairly routine basis’: Kirby
John Kirby, joining Wednesday’s White House press briefing in his new role as National Security Council coordinator, said the $1 billion in military aid announced Wednesday is the first to come from the $40 billion aid package that was passed by Congress in May.
Looking ahead, Kirby said, “you will see additional packages” coming on a “fairly routine basis.”
“We want to meter it out so that we’re in lockstep with the Ukrainians and where they are on the battlefield and what they need in real time,” he said.
-ABC News’ Justin Ryan Gomez
Jun 15, 1:08 pm
Biden announces additional $1B in military, $225M in humanitarian assistance
President Joe Biden has announced $1 billion more in U.S. military aid for Ukraine.
Biden said he spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy Wednesday morning and that the aid will include “additional artillery and coastal defense weapons, as well as ammunition for the artillery and advanced rocket systems.”
Biden also announced $225 million in humanitarian assistance “to help people inside Ukraine, including by supplying safe drinking water, critical medical supplies and health care, food, shelter, and cash for families to purchase essential items,” according to a statement.
-ABC News’ Justin Ryan Gomez
Jun 15, 6:49 am
Biden promises to free blocked Ukrainian grain
President Joe Biden said on Tuesday the United States is working with European allies to remove blocked Ukrainian grain by rail.
Speaking at the 29th AFL-CIO Quadrennial Constitutional Convention, Biden said 20 million tons of grain are stuck in Ukraine and need to be exported to reduce global food prices.
As the grain cannot be exported via the Black Sea due to the constant threat of Russian attacks and explosions, the U.S. and its partners are planning to build granaries on the Ukrainian border, Biden said.
The railways present an alternative to Ukrainian coastal waters of the Azov and Black seas that are in need of demining. The area of their contamination with explosives can be up to 19,000 square kilometers, Ministry of Internal Affairs spokesperson Alyona Matveeva said on Tuesday.
The full demining of Ukraine can take from five to 10 years with the help of international experts, Matveeva added. To date, about 80% of explosive devices have been removed and neutralized in the Kyiv region, she said.
Jun 15, 6:31 am
Russia turns to outdated missiles
As Russia’s stock of modern high-precision missiles depletes, its invading forces are turning to obsolete Soviet models to strike targets in Ukraine, Yuriy Ignat, spokesperson for the Ukrainian Air Force, said at a press briefing on Tuesday.
“Recently, there has been a tendency for Russia to save high-precision, expensive missiles. And now the enemy is increasingly using Soviet types of missiles,” Ignat said.
Some of these missiles are extremely powerful, the spokesman added, and their destructive parts can weigh up to 900 kilograms.
“Their main drawback is that they do not always fly at their intended target and very often destroy civilian objects with human casualties,” Ignat said.
According to Ignat, Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile forces have shot down more than 500 enemy air targets since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion. These include Russian cruise missiles, UAVs, planes and helicopters.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, the former governor of California, weighed in on the question of Russian missiles on Tuesday when he said that Europe is partly to blame for financing Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Addressing a climate conference in Vienna via a livestream, Schwarzenegger said the about 1,300 missiles Russia fired into Ukrainian cities during the first two months of the war cost 7.7 billion euros.
“Now that’s a lot. But during the same time, Europe sent to Russia 44 billion euros for fuel,” the former governor told attendees of the Austrian World Summit. “We have blood on our hands, because we are financing the war. We have to stop lying to ourselves.”
On the other end of the frontline, Ukraine is also grappling with a pressing lack of weapons. The Ukrainian forces received only 10% of the weapons “we said we needed,” Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar told local media on Tuesday.
“Now matter how much effort Ukraine makes, we will not be able to win the war without the help of the West,” Malyar added.
The deputy minister said Ukrainian fighters can afford to spend only about 6,000 shells a day, while the Russians use about 10 times more. The limited number of available weapons and ammunition is crippling Ukraine’s ability to launch a counteroffensive at the front, military expert Oleh Zhdanov said, according to local outlets.
Speaking at an online press conference for Danish media on Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy repeated his plea for Western weapons that he said are vital for the liberation of occupied territories.
The speed of de-occupation “depends on the supply of weapons to Ukraine, and any delays in this matter threaten stagnation on the front,” Zelenskyy said.
Jun 14, 1:20 pm
Russian, Belarusian tennis players can compete at US Open under neutral flag
Russian and Belarusian tennis players, who are banned from Wimbledon, will be allowed to compete in this year’s U.S. Open, but only under a neutral flag, the U.S. Tennis Association said.
The USTA said it “previously condemned, and continues to condemn, the unprovoked and unjust invasion of Ukraine by Russia.”
Russian player Daniil Medvedev, the current No. 1 player in the world, won last year’s U.S. Open.
Jun 14, 6:37 am
Ukraine pleads for heavy weapons ahead of NATO meeting
The only way to end the war in Ukraine, either on the battlefield or behind the negotiation table, is a parity of weapons, Mykhailo Podoliak, an adviser to the head of the Ukrainian Presidential Office, said on Monday.
“Being straightforward — to end the war we need heavy weapons parity,” Podoliak said on Twitter.
According to the presidential adviser, Ukraine’s military wish list includes 1,000 howitzers, 300 multiple launch rocket systems, 500 tanks, 2,000 armored vehicles and 1,000 drones.
“Negotiations are possible from a strong position, which requires parity of weapons,” Podoliak said. “There is simply no other way.”
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba echoed Podoliak’s plea for weapons on Monday in a tweet that recounted Ukraine’s recent military triumphs achieved with limited resources.
“Ukraine has proven it can punch well above its weight and win important battles against all odds,” Kuleba said, pointing at victories in the battles of Kyiv, Chernihiv, Sumy and Kharkiv. “Imagine what Ukraine can do with sufficient tools,” the Foreign Minister added. Kuleba urged Ukraine’s partners “to set a clear goal of Ukrainian victory and speed up deliveries of heavy weapons.”
Podoliak said a meeting of NATO defense ministers will be held in Brussels on June 15.
“We are waiting for a decision” on the weapons, Podoliak said.
The group, known as the Ukraine Defence Contact Group, will convene a meeting for the third time in a bid “to ensure that we’re providing Ukraine what Ukraine needs right now,” U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III said at a press briefing in Bangkok, Thailand, on Monday.
Austin, who will be in attendance in Brussels, said that Ukraine needs support “in order to defend against Russia’s unjustified and unprovoked assault.” The secretary of Defense noted that looking ahead, Ukraine will require help “to build and sustain robust defenses so that it will be able to defend itself in the coming months and years.”
In his Monday evening address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on Ukrainians to tell people in the occupied territories “that the Ukrainian army will definitely come.”
“Tell them about Ukraine. Tell them the truth. Say that there will be liberation,” the president said.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials played down threats of possible food shortages in the country due to the ongoing conflict. While Ukraine lost 25% of its sown area as a result of Russia’ full-scale invasion, the country’s food security was “in no way” threatened, Taras Vysotsky, the first deputy minister of Agrarian Policy, said at a press briefing for Ukrainian media on Monday.
“Despite the loss of 25% of sown areas, the structure of crops this year as a whole is more than sufficient to ensure consumption, which in turn also decreased due to mass displacement and external migration,” Vysotsky said.
The deputy minister added that Ukraine has “already imported about 70% of essential fertilizers, 60% of plant protection products and about a third of the required amount of fuel” before the war erupted in late February. According to Vysotsky, current sowing volumes are enough to ensure domestic consumption and even exports.
Jun 13, 9:26 am
Bodies of tortured men exhumed in Bucha
Another mass grave has been dug up in Bucha, uncovering the bodies of seven men who authorities believe were tortured and killed during the bloody occupation of the city in March.
Police told ABC News their hands were tied with ropes behind their backs and they were shot in the knees and head.
“They were killed in a cruel way,” police spokesperson Iryna Pryanyshnykova said. “These were civilian victims. The people here were killed by Russian soldiers and later they were just put into a grave to try to hide this war crime.”
It’s not clear why the men were killed, Pryanyshnykova said.
She said experts will analyze DNA to identify the victims.
-ABC News’ Britt Clennett
Jun 13, 6:24 am
Zelenskyy: Ukraine fighting for ‘every meter’ of Severodonetsk
Russian forces have pushed the Armed Forces of Ukraine out of the center of Severodonetsk, Ukrainian officials said.
“They are pressing in Severodonetsk, where very fierce fighting is going on — literally for every meter,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an address on Sunday evening.
Russian forces now control about 70% of the city, as intense shelling makes mass evacuation and the transportation of goods impossible, Sergiy Haidai, another Ukrainian official, said.
Around 500 people, including 40 children, are sheltering in the city’s Azot chemical plant, Haidai said.
While the Ukrainians try to organize their evacuation, authorities of the self-declared Donetsk People’s Republic have given an ultimatum to Ukrainian troops in the city.
“They have two options: either follow the example of their colleagues and give up, or die. They have no other option,” said Eduard Basurin, deputy head of the People’s Militia Department of the DPR.
-ABC News’ Yulia Drozd and Tanya Stukalova
Jun 12, 5:33 pm
Zelenskyy sends virtual message to Sean Penn’s CORE benefit
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the annual Hollywood fundraiser for actor Sean Penn’s nonprofit Community Organized Relief Effort (CORE) Saturday night with a powerful video message urging people to continue to support Ukraine in its war against Russia.
“All of you have heard about the horrors that Ukraine is going through. Tens of thousands of explosions and shots, hundreds of thousands wounded and killed, millions who have lost their homes,” Zelenskyy said in his virtual speech. “All of this is not a logline for a horror film. All of this is our reality.”
Zelenskyy’s video message included footage showing missiles striking homes and apartment complexes in Ukraine, civilians dead in the streets of Ukrainian cities and children playing in parks amid the backdrop of bombed buildings.
Among those attending the CORE fundraiser, held at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angles, were Penn and CORE co-founder Ann Lee, former President Bill Clinton, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, singer John Legend, and actors Patrick Stewart and Sharon Stone.
The group said the event raised more than $2.5 million for CORE’s disaster relief and preparedness work, including its urgent humanitarian response in Ukraine.
Zelenskyy noted that Penn traveled to Ukraine at the start of the Russian invasion and witnessed the atrocities firsthand. He thanked Penn and his group for the continued support for Ukraine.
“We have been resisting it for 107 days in a row,” Zelenskyy said of Russia’s aggression in Ukraine. “We can stop it together. Support Ukraine, because Ukraine is fighting for the whole world, for democracy, for freedom, for life.”
Jun 12, 4:17 pm
Russia’s firepower superiority 10 times that of Ukraine’s in Luhansk: Military chief
Ukraine’s Armed Forces Commander-in-Chief Valeriy Zaluzhny said Sunday that he told his American counterpart, Gen. Mark Milley, U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that Russian firepower superiority in the Luhansk region is far greater than that of Ukrainian forces.
Zaluzhny said that during a briefing he told Milley that Russian forces are concentrating their efforts in the north of the Luhansk region, where they are using artillery “en masse” and their firepower superiority is 10 times that of Ukraine’s.
“Despite everything, we keep holding our positions,” Zaluzhny said.
Zaluzhny also said Russia has deployed up to seven battalion tactical groups in Severdonetsk, a city in the Luhansk region. He said Russian shelling of residential areas in Kharkiv in northeast Ukraine has resumed.
Russian forces destroyed a second bridge leading into Severodonetsk and are now targeting a third bridge in an effort to completely cut off the city, Luhansk region Gov. Sergiy Haidai said Sunday. Ukraine’s army still controls around one third of the city, he said.
Haidai said that Ukrainian forces are still holding onto the Azot chemical plant in Severodonetsk, where around 500 civilians are taking shelter.
If Severodonetsk falls, Lysychansk will be the only city in the Luhansk region that remains under Ukraine’s control.
Zaluzhny said that as of Sunday, the front line of the war stretched 1,522 miles and that active combat was taking place on at least 686 miles of the front line.
Zaluzhny said that during his briefing with Milley, he reiterated Ukraine’s urgent request for more 155 mm caliber artillery systems.
Jun 12, 12:48 pm
Russian cruise missile attack confirmed in western Ukraine
Russia claims a cruise missile strike destroyed a large warehouse in western Ukraine storing weapons supplied to the Ukrainians by the United States and European allies.
While police in the Ternopil region of Ukraine, where at least one cruise missile hit, told ABC News that no weapons were destroyed, the region’s governor said part of a military facility was damaged.
Ternopil’s governor Volodymyr Trush posted a video showing widespread damage from what he said were four Russian missiles launched Saturday from the Black Sea. Trush said 22 people were wounded, including a 12-year-old child, in the missile strikes.
In addition to the military facility, Trush said four five-story residential apartment buildings were damaged. One of the missiles hit a gas pipeline, he said.
Russia’s defense ministry said Kalibr high presicion sea-based, long-range missiles struck near Chortkiv in the Ternopil province and destroyed a large warehouse full of anti-tank missile systems, portable anti-aircraft missile systems and artillery shells supplied by the United States and European countries.
(NEW YORK) — A search in the deep Brazilian Amazon for missing British journalist Dom Phillips and Indigenous rights expert Bruno Araujo Pereira has now turned into a homicide investigation, Brazilian federal police confirmed to ABC News on Wednesday.
In a press conference from Manaus, the capital of the Amazonas state, Federal Police Chief Alexandre Fontes confirmed that the main suspect — Amarildo da Costa Oliveira, known as “Pelado” — confessed to police that he killed Phillips, 57, and Pereira, 41, on Sunday, June 5.
According to the police, Oseney da Costa Oliveira, Pelado’s brother, did not admit any involvement in the crime. He was arrested for aggravated murder and will remain in custody, police said.
The latest development comes after human remains were found on Friday in the remote Javari Valley region of Brazil, near the border with Peru. Police told ABC News on Wednesday that forensic exams are still being conducted on the remains to positively determine if they are Phillips and Pereira.
Phillips’ wife, Alessandra Sampaio, told ABC News that police have informed her that the two bodies recovered from the Javari Valley are likely those of her husband and Pereira.
The men went missing on June 5 while on a boat trip on the Amazon as part of a reporting project Phillips is working on.
Federal police identified Oseney da Costa Pereira as the man detained for questioning in the missing persons case. He is the brother of Amarildo da Costa Pereira, who has been detained since last week after blood was found on his fishing boat. Police are testing the blood to see if it matches either of the missing men.
Witnesses told police the brothers’ boat was seen traveling behind one Phillips and Bruno Pereira were on around the time they disappeared, Brazilian authorities said.
Police said Amarildo da Costa Pereira has denied any involvement in the men’s disappearance, claiming he stayed home on June 5 and went out hunting the following day.
The da Costa Pereira brothers have not been charged in the case, police said.
At least five other people have been questioned since the investigation started but no arrests related to the disappearances have been made, a source with the Brazilian federal police told ABC News.
Phillips, 57, and Pereira, 41, were last heard from by colleagues while traveling by boat in the Javari Valley region of the Amazon, relatives said.
Phillips was doing research on patrol teams Bruno Pereira had helped create to crack down on illegal fishing and hunting, an initiative that prompted threats against Bruno Pereira, The New York Times reported on Tuesday.
Phillips was on one of his last reporting trips for an upcoming book he was writing as part of a 2021 fellowship awarded by the Alicia Patterson Foundation, according to Margaret Engel, the foundation’s executive director.
There was an international outcry after accusations surfaced that responding agencies were slow to act in investigating the disappearances.
At a vigil outside the Brazilian embassy in London last Thursday, Phillips’ family members urged Brazilian authorities to keep investigating.
“We want to find out what is happening to them and we want anyone responsible for any criminal acts to be brought to justice,” Phillips’ sister, Sian Phillips, said. “We want a persistent, deep and open investigation.”
The family’s calls were joined by environmentalist groups, activists, celebrities and news organizations.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro initially appeared to cast blame on Phillips and Bruno Pereira, saying they “were on an adventure that is not recommended.” He continued, “It could be an accident, it could be that they were executed, anything could have happened.”
Those comments were “obviously upsetting” to the family said Paul Sherwood, Sian Phillips’ partner.
People close to Phillips and Pereira refuted that they were on a reckless excursion. Engel, who was collaborating with Phillips on his upcoming book, said, “Nothing he did was off-the-cuff.”
“He was not naïve about the dangers that were there,” she said.
Soraya Zaiden, who worked closely with Pereira at the Union of Indigenous Peoples of the Javari Valley (Univaja), a local organization assisting in the search for the missing men, said Pereira was unlikely to put anyone in danger.
Violence has taken place in the past in the Javari Valley, where illegal mining activities, drug trafficking and deforestation is resisted by groups trying to preserve the rainforest and the culture of its Indigenous inhabitants. A member of the Brazilian government agency FUNAI, which is tasked with protecting Indigenous peoples’ interests, was shot and killed in the Javari Valley in 2019, advocates told ABC News.
(WASHINGTON) — The House Jan. 6 select committee on Wednesday released video footage of GOP Rep. Barry Loudermilk leading constituents on a tour around the Capitol complex on Jan. 5 — that included a nearby office building but not the Capitol itself — and it claimed that one of the participants marched to the Capitol the next day and made “detailed” threats against members of Congress.
The committee’s move comes after Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger said in a letter the tour was not suspicious, although the committee said the footage raises questions because it appears to show several participants taking photos of the stairways and tunnel systems connecting the Capitol to members’ office buildings.
“Based on our review of surveillance video, social media activity, and witness accounts, we understand you led a tour group through parts of the Capitol complex on January 5, 2021. That group stayed for several hours, despite the complex being closed to the public on that day,” Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., wrote.
“Surveillance footage shows a tour of approximately ten individuals led by you to areas in the Rayburn, Longworth, and Cannon House Office Buildings, as well as the entrances to tunnels leading to the U.S. Capitol,” he continued. “Individuals on the tour photographed and recorded areas of the complex not typically of interest to tourists, including hallways, staircases, and security checkpoints.”
At the same time, the letter from the committee does not suggest that anyone on the tour entered the Capitol that day or has been charged with wrongdoing.
Loudermilk heatedly denied any wrongdoing in a statement he tweeted soon after, accusing the committee of a “smear campaign” and claiming “no one” in his Jan. 5 tour group has been “criminally charged” in relation to Jan. 6.
[1/5] The Capitol Police already put this false accusation to bed, yet the Committee is undermining the Capitol Police and doubling down on their smear campaign, releasing so-called evidence of a tour of the House Office Buildings, which I have already publicly addressed. https://t.co/yqIpQ6jSG9
— Rep. Barry Loudermilk (@RepLoudermilk) June 15, 2022
In his letter made public Tuesday, Manger told the top Republican on the House Administration Committee that there was “no evidence” that Loudermilk gave “reconnaissance” tours before the Jan. 6 attack.
The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol had requested information from Loudermilk, a Georgia Republican, suggesting in a May letter that he may be linked to a tour through parts of the Capitol on the day before the attack.
Manger told Rep. Rodney Davis, an Illinois Republican, that no such tours were conducted and that Loudermilk was giving a tour to constituents.
“As I’ve said since the Jan. 6 Committee made their baseless accusation about me to the media, I never gave a tour of the Capitol on Jan 5, 2021 and a small group visiting their congressman is in no way a suspicious activity,” Loudermilk said in a tweet Tuesday. “Now the Capitol Police have confirmed this fact.”
Rep. Mickie Sherill, a New Jersey Democrat, alleged in a January 2021 letter that she witnessed tours being conducted the day before Jan. 6.
“The tours being conducted on Tuesday, January 5, were a noticeable and concerning departure from the procedures in place in March of 2020 that limited the number of visitors to the Capitol,” Sherill wrote. “These tours were so concerning they were reported to the Sargent (sic) at Arms on January 5.”
Manger’s letter says that the group of 15 people entered the Rayburn House Office building and was met by a Loudermilk staffer and then went to the congressman’s office and then to the Cannon House Office Building basement.
“At no time did the group appear in any tunnels that would have led them to the U.S. Capitol. In addition, the tunnels leading to the U.S. Capitol were posted with USCP officers and admittance to the U.S. Capitol without a Member of Congress was not permitted on January 5, 2021,” the letter said.
Manger says officers are trained to see anything suspicious and what individuals did on Loudermilk’s tour was not.
“There is no evidence that Representative Loudermilk entered the U.S. Capitol with this group on January 5, 2021,” he writes. “We train our officers on being alert for people conducting surveillance or reconnaissance, and we do not consider any of the activities we observed as suspicious.”
(NEW YORK) — A growing number of gay men are publicly pushing back against what they say is bullying within the gay community over how they look, and in many cases using social media to do so.
Sam Coffie, who calls himself full-figured and posts his body with pride on social media, said as a gay man he has seen his dating life impacted by his appearance.
“I’ve had someone actually say, ‘If you lost a little bit more weight, I think we could go on a date,'” Coffie told ABC News’ Good Morning America.
Coffie said he feels gay culture in the United States has an “unwritten” and “unspoken” Adonis complex. The term refers to the anxiety and insecurity boys and men experience about their appearance and body image, according to The Adonis Complex, a book published in 2000 that gave the condition its name.
“People internalize, ‘I have to create this body image. I have to live up to this. I have to fight for this. I have to strive for this. I have to starve for this. I have to almost die for this in order for me to have my moment of worth here,'” said Coffie.
Nicko Cassidy said he has also faced body shaming as a gay man, explaining that body expectations he faced in college led him to extreme dieting.
“I think it’s definitely deep rooted the shame from childhood and growing up just to be who we are,” said Cassidy, adding that he faced taunts of being “so gay” and “fat” while in college. “And I think that shame kind of comes out and portrays it as like a little bit more of a superficial.”
Data shows that gay men have higher rates of eating disorders and other body image issues.
According to the National Eating Disorder Association (NEDA), gay males are thought to only represent 5% of the total male population but among males who have eating disorders, 42% identify as gay.
In addition to facing eating disorders, gay men had lower self-esteem related to their bodies and greater concerns for physical attractiveness when compared to straight men, according to a study published in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.
As with all populations, body dysmorphia and eating disorders in the gay community can often be fueled by social media, experts say, including dating apps and posts that showcase a false notion of the perfect man.
Experts say the body shaming some gay men experience comes with medical risks.
“The pursuit of the ideal body or the pursuit of perfection can certainly be damaging,” said Jason Whitesel, an Illinois State University professor and the author of Fat Gay Men: Girth, Mirth, and the Politics of Stigma. “When you think about body dysmorphia, it may be associated with eating disturbances and that kind of pursuit can lead to depression, anxiety, self-esteem issues.”
Dr. Jennifer Ashton, ABC News chief medical correspondent and a board-certified OBGYN, described body shaming in the gay community as a “medical issue.”
“There are associated medical risks here. It’s not just a cosmetic issue,” said Ashton, noting that body dysmorphia is associated with an increased risk of depression, anxiety, substance abuse and a higher associated risk of death.
According to Ashton, a misconception when it comes to body image and eating disorder struggles is that friends and family can help by trying to reason with the person, when those struggles are in fact psychological conditions.
“The theory in psychology and psychiatry is that this is a detachment from reality,” said Ashton. “Oftentimes it’s the only way that person can exert any control over his or her life, by controlling what they look like and what they eat.”
She continued, “It’s not as simple as you’re just wanting to look like a magazine ad. It’s a true psychiatric and psychological condition.”
For people who are struggling, Ashton said her number one advice is to seek professional help.
“As intimidating and scary as that may seem, there is help available,” she said.
The National Eating Disorder Association has an eating disorder screening tool that is free and available online for people ages 13 and older.
The association also has a free helpline that is available by phone and text at 800-931-2237 and online chat HERE.
After a fan posted a hilarious video of Carrie Underwood’s two sons dancing in the background of her Grand Ole Opry show last week, the singer admits that she wasn’t too surprised at how comfortable they were in front of a crowd — they’re both natural performers.
“They’re not shy, that’s for sure,” Carrie tells ET Online, referring to seven-year-old Isaiah and three-year-old Jacob.
The singer adds that she attributes her sons’ zany Opry antics to late nights out. “That was called, ‘It’s way past my bedtime,’” she jokes.
“The little one, Jake, he was just trying to not stop moving, because if he did, he was going to fall asleep,” Carrie goes on to say. “…You also have this, like, false sense of security at the Opry…you’re kind of back there in the dark, and you feel like nobody can see you. I feel like nobody really thought twice about them being there and acting crazy.”
Måneskin will be premiering their contribution to the soundtrack for the Elvis Presley biopic Elvis this week.
The Italian rockers put their spin on the 1968 song “If I Can Dream,” which is set to drop this Friday, June 17.
“Feeling so grateful to have had the chance to cover the King for [director Baz Luhrmann‘s] movie and recorded it in Graceland,” Måneskin says. “We can’t wait to share all of these emotions with you.”
You can listen to a clip of the recording, which is accompanied by a video of Måneskin entering the famed Memphis mansion and visiting Elvis’ grave, now via the “Beggin'” band’s Twitter.
Elvis, which stars Austin Butler in the title role and Tom Hanks as his manager, Colonel Tom Parker, premieres in theaters June 24. Its soundtrack also includes contributions from Jack White, Tame Impala, Gary Clark Jr. and Stevie Nicks.
Def Leppard has certainly been waiting ages to rock on the Stadium Tour.
The much-anticipated run — which also features the reunited Mötley Crüe, Poison and Joan Jett & the Blackhearts on the bill — will finally kick off Thursday in Atlanta after a two-year pandemic delay. As Def Leppard bassist Rick Savage tells ABC Audio, he and his bandmates have been “dying” to return to the live stage.
“Back in 2020, it was going to be the biggest tour that Def Leppard have ever embarked upon, which after 40-odd years is some achievement,” Savage says. “It’s actually now … it’s gonna be even bigger.”
Def Leppard has released a whole lot of music in those 40-odd years — including a new album this year, Diamond Star Halos — which makes building a set list quite the challenge. While the band will be varying up the set throughout the tour, they’re always sure to include their “crown jewels,” which frontman Joe Elliott describes as “the songs you don’t get out the building alive if you don’t play.”
“Which is great, ’cause we wanna play them, anyway,” Elliott says. “You know, the Stones have got theirs, McCartney‘s got his, we’ve got ours.”
As for the new stuff, guitarist Phil Collen guesses two Diamond Star Halos tracks will be included in the set, and possibly another, depending on how fans are digging the record. After all, if a new tune were to unexpectedly pop, it wouldn’t be the first time for Def Leppard.
“‘Love Bites’ went to #1 on the Billboard charts and we’d never even played it as a band, it was studio thing,” Collen recalls. “We had to go and learn it in Vancouver and learn the vocals and guitar parts at the same time.”
The record was a loose concept album focusing Ziggy Stardust, a character Bowie created as an alter ego that was an androgynous bisexual alien rock star, and his mythical backing group, The Spiders from Mars.
The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars peaked at #5 on the U.K. albums chart in 1972, while in the U.S. it initially only reached #75 on the Billboard 200. After Bowie’s death in 2016, the album enjoyed its highest chart position in the U.S. — #21.
Only one single was released from the Ziggy Stardust album, “Starman,” which reached #10 on the U.K. singles chart, although it only peaked at #65 in the U.S. on the Billboard Hot 100. The album did feature several other classic Bowie songs, including such enduring tunes as “Moonage Daydream,” “Ziggy Stardust” and “Suffragette City.”
Bowie and his real band — guitarist Mick Ronson, bassist Trevor Bolder and drummer Mick “Woody” Woodmansey — took on the personas of Ziggy and The Spiders from Mars in concert, and toured together for about a year and a half. Then, at the end of a July 3, 1973, show at London’s Hammersmith Odeon, David dramatically declared onstage that the group had just played its last gig.
In honor of Ziggy Stardust‘s 50th anniversary, a new mix of Bowie’s historic 1972 performance of “Starman” on the U.K.’s Top of the Pops TV show was released as a special streaming single today.
Here’s the full Ziggy Stardust track list:
Side One
“Five Years”
“Soul Love”
“Moonage Daydream”
“Starman”
“It Ain’t Easy”
Side Two
“Lady Stardust”
“Star”
“Hang On to Yourself”
“Ziggy Stardust”
“Suffragette City”
“Rock ‘n’ Roll Suicide”
