Universal may have found its replacement for director Justin Lin, who made the surprising announcement last week that he was exiting Fast X. Deadline reports Louis Leterrier is in the running to take Lin’s place; the French director is known for the Transporter movies and the 2013 surprise hit Now You See Me. The 10th Fast and Furious adventure is set to open May 23, 2023…
Fox’s hit The Masked Singer is taking a page from the Eurovision Song Contest and going global, according to Variety. The trade says the planned program, tentatively titled One World, One Masked Singer, will see competitors from various overseas version of The Masked Singer competing against each other on a global stage…
Jeff Daniels is set to star in Netflix’s Man in Full, a limited series based on a Tom Wolfe novel. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the series is being adapted by David E. Kelley, who will produce the project along with Regina King. Daniels will play Charlie Croker, an egotistical real estate mogul facing bankruptcy…
On Monday, Paramount+ announced the revival of Yo! MTV Raps will premiere on May 24. According to the streamer, the series, which originally ran from 1988 until 1995, “will be a comprehensive deep dive into the current state of hip hop, with hosted segments from renowned battle rapper Conceited and celebrated deejay DJ Diamond Kuts, live performances, cyphers and lifestyle content.” Paramount+ also revealed the star-studded guest list, which features rappers Latto, Trina, Tee Grizzley and more…
It was a blast from the past on Monday night’s American Idol.
In celebration of its milestone 20th season, some of the show’s alumni gathered for a night of appearances and performances in The Great Idol Reunion. The one-hour special featured a walk down memory lane in the form of six duets from 12 former contestants to showcase American Idol through the years.
Season two’s RubenStuddard teamed up with 2007 Idol winner Jordin Sparks and sang “Knew You Were Waiting (For Me)” by George Michael and Aretha Franklin.
Laine Hardy and Laci Kaye Booth, the 2019 winner and Top 5 finalist, respectively, put a country spin on the classic “Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around” by Stevie Nicks and Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers.
2018’s winner, Maddie Poppe, and runner-up Caleb Lee Hutchinson, who also happen to be a couple, took the stage with Dolly Parton and Kenny Rodgers‘ hit duet “Islands in the Stream.”
David Cook and Kris Allen, the 2008 and 2009 winners, respectively, teamed up for a collaboration of The Cranberries‘ “Dreams.”
From last year’s pool of talent, Willie Spence and GraceKinstler kept the celebration going with “Rather Be” by Clean Bandit, featuring Jess Glynne.
Closing out the night with “When You Say Nothing at All” by Alison Kraus was 2011’s winner, Scotty McCreery, and runner-up Lauren Alaina.
Former American Idol judges Randy Jackson and Paula Abdul, who sat at the table when the show debuted in 2002, also made a surprise appearance. Also popping in was Justin Guarini from the inaugural season, who was the runner-up to the first ever American Idol winner, Kelly Clarkson.
Monday’s show was a break for the Top 7, but the competition continues when American Idol returns Sunday, May 8.
(TEMPE, Ariz.) — Arizona Cardinals wide receiver DeAndre Hopkins will be absent from the first six games of the 2022 season for violating the NFL’s performance-enhancing drug policy, the league announced on Monday.
Hopkins, 29, was suspended by the league after testing positive for a banned substance late last year.
“DeAndre Hopkins of the Arizona Cardinals has been suspended without pay for the first six games of the 2022 regular season for violating the NFL policy on performance-enhancing substances,” an NFL spokesperson said in an official statement. “Hopkins is eligible to participate in all preseason practices and games. He will be allowed to return to the Cardinals’ active roster following the team’s sixth regular-season game.”
Doug Sanders, Hopkins’ brand manager, told ESPN in a text message that “trace elements of a banned substance” appeared in a test Hopkins took last November. However, tests taken in October and December were negative.
On Twitter, Hopkins posted a statement saying that he was “confused and shocked.”
“In my 10-year NFL career, I have never tested positive for using performance enhancing drugs,” Hopkins tweeted Monday night. “To learn that my November test came back with trace elements of a banned substance, I was confused and shocked.”
“I am very mindful of what I put it in my body and have always taken a holistic approach, so I am working with my team to investigate how this could’ve happened. But even as careful as I have been, clearly I wasn’t careful enough,” he wrote. “For that, I apologize to Cardinals fans, my teammates, and the entire Cardinals organization. I never want to let my team down.”
“I fully intend to get to the bottom of this. As soon as I have more information I will share it,” Hopkins concluded.
(NEW YORK) — In the sun-baked 66 miles between Tucson and Nogales at the Arizona-Mexico border, there’s only one place that’s able to provide the intensive, hands-on care so many patients need after they leave the hospital: Santa Rita Nursing and Rehabilitation Center.
But since the COVID-19 pandemic hit, providing that kind of care has been an uphill battle, Amy Malkin, the facility’s operations chief, told ABC News. Since March 2020, Santa Rita has faced a staffing exodus as scores of employees have gotten sick, burned out, or left to care for their kids or other family members.
Now, as inflation has put the squeeze on staffers’ commuting costs, that exodus has only intensified, Malkin told ABC News.
To fill the vacancies, the facility has had to rely on staffing agencies that charge several times more per worker than what they’d been previously paying — all while insurers’ reimbursement rates have remained all but fixed.
Accordingly, Santa Rita is “losing money every month,” Malkin told ABC News — forcing the facility into a vicious cycle of cost-cutting that prevents it from hiring the staff it sorely needs.
“We don’t make profits anymore,” Malkin told ABC News. “It’s just not sustainable.”
The result: For months, Santa Rita has been forced to turn patients away — leaving them to travel miles away to find the care they need.
Santa Rita is among hundreds of long-term care facilities nationwide — from large chains to mom-and-pop operations — that are fighting for their survival. Many are being forced to close their doors, while others are having to turn patients away in order to survive.
According to the American Health Care Association and National Center for Assisted Living (AHCA/NCAL), which represents more than 14,000 long-term care facilities, more than 75% of operators had to limit admissions in 2021. And more than 300 nursing homes have closed since the pandemic began.
Officials say hundreds more facilities are expected to close this year — and if the federal government’s COVID-19 emergency funding expires in July, advocates say, the situation will only get worse.
AHCA/NCAL calls the current staffing shortages “historic.” The long-term care industry overall was already expected to face shortages of millions of workers before the pandemic, according to PHI National, a nonprofit research organization. And according to the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), over 400,000 workers — nearly 10% of the workforce — left the long-term care industry between March 2020 and January 2022.
“It won’t be long until the system is overrun,” April Verrett, president of SEIU 2015, which represents over 400,000 workers in California, told ABC News. “We’re running out of time.”
The human face of shortages
For Fernanda Carley, the staffing shortages aren’t just an abstract number.
Carley, who is Nogales-born and raised, is a certified nursing assistant at Arroyo Gardens, the sister facility to Santa Rita. She long aspired to be a caregiver; at 16, Carley was already taking classes on medical terminology.
But the pandemic tested that calling — and recent months have only pushed Carley further toward the brink. As spring turns to summer, her electricity bill is way up, and gas is costing her upwards of $150 per week. To pay her bills, she’s had to pick up side hustles washing cars.
All the while, she has watched countless colleagues leave for less strenuous, safer and higher-paying jobs at retailers like Amazon, Walmart and Target.
“I’ve been doing a lot of life contemplating,” she told ABC News.
In the coming months, she plans to leave her job and return to nursing school.
If and when that happens, “my hope is other great caregivers get hired,” Carley said.
But, she said, “at this point, I don’t see the end of the pandemic or the inflation — and I don’t think either helps the situation. I don’t know when people would be willing to work in this industry anymore.”
The high cost of shortages
Like Santa Rita, many long-term care providers are combatting the workforce shortage by relying on staffing agencies to fill their vacancies.
“Provider organizations are left with few options to ensure they have the staff needed,” said Colleen Knudsen, a spokesperson for LeadingAge, an association of nonprofit aging services providers.
But that approach comes with its own consequences. Labor is the main line-item for long-term facilities, accounting for about 70% of expenses, Christina Crawford, spokesperson for AHCA/NCAL, said in a statement. And agencies are charging two to three times more than pre-pandemic staff rates, according to AHCA/NCAL.
For many facilities, those costs are wholly unaffordable.
Aria Healthcare, which operates three facilities in Wisconsin, simply will not hire agency providers. According to their calculations, in order to fully staff a unit with agency providers, they’d need to keep more beds completely full with patients all day, every day, than is possible based on the number of admissions they get.
“The math just doesn’t work out,” Aneillo Lindsay, Aria’s chief innovation officer, told ABC News.
Similar patterns are playing out across the country.
In Florida, long-term care facilities’ use of employment agencies is up by nearly 300%, according to the Florida Health Care Association. Facilities have seen an increase of $275 million annually in staffing costs resulting from paying overtime, contract labor, and other costs associated with hiring additional in-house staff, Kristen Knapp, spokesperson for FHCA, told ABC News.
And yet, the median pay for certified nursing assistants in 2020 was $14.82 an hour, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Robert Oronia, a certified nursing assistant in Los Angeles, says that’s not enough. And while Oronia says some of his colleagues have seen raises after shifting to agency work, those raises often come at the cost of benefits.
Marginally higher wages, in the absence of benefits, are still “un-liveable,” Oronia told ABC News.
“It’s just one vicious, vicious cycle that’s going on now,” he said. “People are just getting tired of it — they don’t want to do this work.”
Forced closures
All this financial strain has taken a toll on facilities across the country. Some, like Aria in Wisconsin, have stayed open at a reduced capacity. During the pandemic, Aria was forced to leave over 100 beds across its facilities empty, Lindsay told ABC News.
Others have been forced to close entirely.
According to a recent AHA/NCAL report, the more than 300 nursing homes that have closed during the pandemic have displaced nearly 13,000 patients.
An additional 400 facilities are projected to close in 2022.
“Ultimately, these staffing and economic challenges are resulting in limited access to care for our nation’s seniors,” Crawford, with AHCA/NCAL, told ABC News.
The situation will likely get worse when Medicare reimbursement rates drop upon expiration of the public health emergency declaration by the Department of Health and Human Services. The emergency declaration is scheduled for expiration on July 15.
The resulting 5% funding loss would put another one-third of long-term care facilities at risk of closing, according to a recent audit by CliftonLarsonAllen, a financial advisory firm. That could leave up to 417,000 patients and families scrambling to find the care they need.
“The financial pressures are just too much,” Malkin, in Arizona, said. “Places are going to close … places are definitely going to close.”
But so far, Santa Rita and Arroyo Gardens are braving the storm, Malkin told ABC News.
(NEW YORK) — Six in 10 Republicans back former President Donald Trump as their party’s leader, slightly more than the share of Democrats who line up behind President Joe Biden’s leadership of their party — a sign of Trump’s lasting strength in his party as the midterm primary season revs up.
Nearly a year and a half after he left the presidency, Trump’s influence is extensive, albeit not monolithic: 60% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents say the GOP should follow his leadership, while 34% prefer a new direction.
Notably, that slightly exceeds backing for Biden’s leadership within his party, 53-38% in this ABC News/Washington Post poll.
Support for Trump within the GOP, moreover, has held up since he left office: The 60% who favor his leadership now is essentially the same as it was in an ABC/Post poll in mid-January 2021, 57%, shortly after Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. That said, it’s down from 76% in a similar question in February 2018.
Indiana and Ohio go to the polls Tuesday and the spring/summer midterm primary season accelerates from here, with a dozen primaries and a runoff this month. Tuesday’s most-watched race pits Trump-endorsed candidate J.D. Vance in the Ohio Republican primary for U.S. Senate against several other front-runners who likewise have sought to embrace Trumpism.
Jan. 6
Trump holds intra-party support even as a slim majority overall continues to favor charging him with a crime related to the Capitol riot. At the same time, the public divides evenly on the work of the House committee investigating the incident.
Americans split 40-40% on whether the committee is or is not conducting a fair and impartial investigation of the riot; a substantial 20% have no opinion in this poll, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates. Partisan divisions on the question are sharp.
More overall, 52%, say Trump should be charged with a crime for his role in the riot. That’s similar to results just a week after the attack, when 54% said he should be charged specifically with inciting a riot. Notably, nearly a quarter of those who think Trump should be charged with a crime don’t see the House committee’s investigation as fair and impartial.
Partisans
Evaluations of the House committee’s investigation of the riot divide along party lines. Sixty-eight percent of Democrats think the committee is conducting a fair and impartial investigation; a similar seven in 10 Republicans say it’s not doing so. Independents are split, 39-38%.
Trump-aligned Republicans and Republican leaners — those who say the party should follow his leadership — are among the least apt to see the committee as fair and impartial, with just 10% saying so. That rises to 27% of those who’d prefer GOP leaders go another way.
On the Democrats’ side, those less wed to Biden’s leadership are far less apt to see a fair and impartial investigation, 48% vs. 78% among those backing his direction.
Trump Republicans and Biden Democrats
Beyond the riot, opinions on the standard-bearers split each party along demographic and attitudinal lines.
Trump-aligned Republicans and Republican leaners tend to be older and more conservative than those who’d like the GOP to take a different direction. Six in 10 Trump Republicans are 50 and older, compared with 39% of their counterparts. Sixty-nine percent of Trump Republicans identify as conservatives, including 39% as strong conservatives. That falls to 46% conservatives, and 15% strong conservatives, among those who’d have party leaders follow a different path.
Most in both groups disapprove of Biden’s performance in office, but strong disapproval is significantly more intense among Trump Republicans, 93%, vs. 63% among other Republicans and GOP leaners, one in five of whom in fact approves of Biden’s work.
Age gaps on the Democratic side are more dramatic: Just 20% of Biden-aligned Democrats are younger than 35, compared with 52% of those who’d like to see the party move away from the president. In addition to being older, Biden Democrats are more likely to be moderates, have higher incomes and be more educated than other Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents.
Those demographic differences align with a major rift on economic issues between the two. Just 46% of those who want to see the party move in a different direction approve of Biden’s handling of the economy, compared with 81% of Biden Democrats. Biden Democrats also are more apt to say good jobs are available in their community, and are far less apt to express upset about inflation.
Ultimately, Trump Republicans and Biden Democrats share a characteristic that suggests they’ll continue to hold sway: They’re both more likely than others to be registered to vote and to say they’re certain to vote in November.
Methodology
This ABC News/Washington Post poll was conducted by landline and cellular telephone April 24-28, 2022, in English and Spanish, among a random national sample of 1,004 adults. Results have a margin of sampling error of 3.5 percentage points, including the design effect. Partisan divisions are 29-25-40%, Democrats-Republicans-independents.
The survey was produced for ABC News by Langer Research Associates with sampling and data collection by Abt Associates. See details on the survey’s methodology here.
(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 last month launched a full-scale ground offensive in eastern Ukraine’s disputed Donbas region, attempting to capture the strategic port city of Mariupol and to secure a coastal corridor to the Moscow-annexed Crimean Peninsula.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
May 02, 3:22 pm
Biden to deliver remarks on security assistance while at Javelin missile facility
President Joe Biden will head to Troy, Alabama, on Tuesday to visit a Lockheed Martin facility that manufactures weapons systems such as Javelin anti-tank missiles, which have been key in Ukraine’s defense against Russia.
Javelin missiles “are lightweight, portable, shoulder fired, anti-tank weapons system that can hit targets up to 2.5 miles away,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday. “They’re highly lethal, and we’ve sent over 5,500 Javelin anti-armor systems to Ukraine to support the Ukrainian people’s fight for freedom.”
This facility can manufacture up to 2,100 Javelins per year, Psaki said.
She said Biden will also “deliver remarks about the security assistance we are providing, highlighting the urgency of the request to Congress to pass funding quickly to help Ukraine continue to succeed against Russian aggression and to make sure that the United States and our allies can replenish our own stocks of weapons to replace what we have sent to Ukraine.”
Asked if there is any concern about depleting stockpiles if the U.S. keeps up this pace of giving Javelin missiles to Ukraine, Psaki said the Department of Defense ensures that the U.S. maintains enough to defend itself.
-ABC News’ Justin Ryan Gomez
May 02, 2:14 pm
Russians leaving Mariupol, progress in Donbas ‘minimal at best’: US
Russia’s progress in Ukraine’s Donbas region remains “minimal at best,” with troops slowed by morale problems, supply issues and risk aversion in combat, a senior U.S. defense official said Monday.
“They are not making the progress that they had scheduled to make, that progress is uneven and incremental,” the official said.
The official added, “That’s not just because of Russian planning or lack of logistics — a lot of it is because the Ukrainians have really been resisting quite well.”
And Russia’s gains, particularly east of Izium and in the city of Popasna in eastern Ukraine, have been fleeting, the official said.
“What we saw there in Popasna is not unlike what we’ve seen in other hamlets in the Donbas — they’ll move in and then declare victory, and then withdraw their troops only to let the Ukrainians take it back. So there was a lot of back and forth over the last couple of days,” the official said.
Russian troops have also been leaving the Mariupol area to push north and northwest in recent days, according to the official.
“Largely the efforts around Mariupol for the Russians are now in the realm of airstrikes,” the official said.
Russia is likely pushing these troops north as part of its plan to encircle and trap Ukrainian forces in the Donbas region, according to the official.
More Ukrainian troops are completing training on the U.S.-made M777 howitzer system at multiple sites outside of Ukraine, according to the official. Ukrainians have also completed training on the Phoenix Ghost drone system.
-ABC News’ Matt Seyler
May 02, 12:37 pm
Top Russian general visited Donbas last week: US
Russia’s top general, Valery Gerasimov, spent several days in Ukraine’s Donbas region last week, a senior U.S. defense official told reporters Monday.
The U.S. believes Gerasimov is now back in Russia, the official said.
The official couldn’t confirm whether the general was targeted by Ukrainian forces during his visit and said the purpose of his trip is not clear to U.S. officials.
“It’s certainly possible that his trip was a manner of oversight and trying to gauge for himself what was going on in the Donbas. But what he came away with, what he learned, what he transmitted to his commanders, if anything, we just don’t know,” the official said.
May 02, 12:29 pm
Ukraine claims it targeted two Russian naval vessels
Valeriy Zaluzhniy, the commander in chief of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, said Ukrainian troops targeted two Russian naval vessels in the Black Sea on Monday.
He shared video on his Facebook page that he says shows drones striking the boats.
Russian officials have not confirmed the strikes.
May 02, 11:29 am
School in Luhansk region destroyed in shelling
The Lysychansk Gymnasium, an acclaimed secondary school in Ukraine’s Luhansk region, burned to the ground after coming under fire in targeted shelling, said Serhiy Haidai, the head of Luhansk’s Regional Military Administration. The school was more than a century old.
May 02, 11:23 am
Ukraine regains control over several areas near Kharkiv
Ukrainian forces have carried out an offensive in the country’s Kharkiv region, taking back control of several settlements, Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense said Monday. This includes the settlements of Verkhnya Rohanka, Ruska Lozova, Slobidske and Prilesne.
May 02, 10:31 am
US Embassy staff back in Ukraine for first time in months
U.S. Embassy staff returned to Ukraine for the day on Monday, marking the first trip back in the country since February.
“We expect to continue to do day trips for the next week or two and we very much hope that the conditions will permit us to go back to Kyiv by the end of the month,” Kristina Kvien, the U.S. chargé d’affaires to Ukraine, said in a statement.
Kvien said, “The message to Russia is: you failed — Ukraine is still standing, the government is still functioning and we are going back to Lviv first and then Kyiv to help the government.”
Kvien continued, “We are listening to the security professionals and when they tell us we can go back we go back. And while we are eager to do so we also want to make sure we are listening to the experts. So, the fact that we are here in Ukraine means that the security officials just said that it is ok and safe to meet here in Lviv and hopefully we will get the clearance to go back to Kyiv.”
May 02, 10:10 am
First group of civilians leave Mariupol steel plant
Dozens of civilians trapped for weeks inside a steel plant in the devastated Ukrainian city of Mariupol were expected to reach Zaporizhzhia on Monday, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
In a statement posted to Twitter on Sunday, Zelenskyy said a first group of about 100 people were already en route to the Ukrainian government-controlled city, about 140 miles northwest of Mariupol.
“Tomorrow we’ll meet them in Zaporizhzhia,” Zelenskyy tweeted. “Grateful to our team!”
Many more civilians remain trapped at the sprawling Azovstal Iron and Steel Works plant in Mariupol — the last holdout of Ukrainian resistance to Russia’s bombardment of the strategic southeastern port city — which Russian forces resumed shelling overnight.
“Today, for the first time in all the days of the war, this vitally needed green corridor has started working,” Zelenskyy said Sunday in his nightly address.
May 02, 10:02 am
Two explosions heard in Russian city of Belgorod
A pair of “powerful explosions” were heard early Monday in the western Russian city of Belgorod, about 15 miles from the border with Ukraine, according to the regional governor.
“I woke up to the sound of two powerful explosions half an hour ago. According to the anti-crisis center, there were no reports of casualties or damage. Footage showing flashes in the sky has emerged on social media,” Belgorod Oblast Gob. Vyacheslav Gladkov said in a statement posted on Telegram.
The blasts followed a series of other explosions and fires at industrial and military facilities across Russia in recent weeks. On Sunday, the governor of Russia’s western Kursk Oblast, which also shares a border with Ukraine, said a railway bridge used to transfer Russian troops to Ukraine had partially collapsed. In a video posted on Telegram, Kurk Oblast Gov. Roman Starovoit blamed the incident on sabotage.
-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Max Uzol, Irene Hnatiuk and Fidel Pavlenko
May 02, 9:55 am
Quarter of Russian units in Ukraine now ‘combat ineffective,’ UK says
Over a quarter of Russian military units committed to fight in Ukraine have been likely rendered “combat ineffective,” the U.K. Ministry of Defense said Monday in an intelligence update.
“At the start of the conflict, Russia committed over 120 battalion tactical groups, approximately 65% of its entire ground combat strength,” the ministry said. “It is likely that more than a quarter of these units have now been rendered combat ineffective.”
Meanwhile, some of Russia’s most elite units, including the Russian Airborne Forces or VDV, “have suffered the highest levels of attrition,” according to the ministry.
“It will probably take years for Russia to reconstitute these forces,” the ministry added.
On Sunday, Ukrainian presidential adviser Oleksiy Arestovych said at least 30 senior Russian military officers have been eliminated in the previous five days.
-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Max Uzol, Irene Hnatiuk and Fidel Pavlenko
May 02, 9:30 am
Israel lashes out at Russia over Lavrov comparing Zelenskyy to Hitler
Israel on Monday lashed out at Russia over “unforgivable and scandalous” remarks made by its top diplomat about Nazism and antisemitism, including claims that Adolf Hitler was Jewish.
During an interview Sunday with an Italian television channel, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was asked about Moscow’s assertion that it invaded neighboring Ukraine to “denazify” the country. Lavrov said the fact that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is Jewish does not negate the Nazi elements in his country, drawing a parallel with Hitler, the chancellor of Nazi Germany.
“So when they say: ‘How can Nazification exist if we’re Jewish?’ In my opinion, Hitler also had Jewish origins, so it doesn’t mean absolutely anything. For some time we have heard from the Jewish people that the biggest antisemites were Jewish,” Lavrov said, speaking to the station in Russian, dubbed over by an Italian translation.
Russia does not insist on Zelenskyy’s surrender, Lavrov said, but wants the Ukrainian president to order “neo-Nazi battalions to halt resistance, lay down their arms and let civilian hostages go.” Lavrov alleged that Moscow only seeks to guarantee the security of pro-Russia Ukrainians in the eastern regions.
Lavrov’s comments came at a time when Israel, which was created as a refuge for Jews in the wake of the Holocaust, has sought to remain neutral amid Russia’s war in Ukraine. However, Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid condemned the statement made by his Russian counterpart as “unforgivable and scandalous and a horrible historical error.”
“The Jews did not murder themselves in the Holocaust,” Lapid, the son of a Holocaust survivor, said Monday. “The lowest level of racism against Jews is to blame Jews themselves for antisemitism.”
Ukraine also denounced Lavrov’s statement, with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba saying it exposes “the deeply-rooted antisemitism of the Russian elites.”
-ABC News’ Edward Szekeres, Max Uzol, Irene Hnatiuk and Fidel Pavlenko
May 02, 7:18 am
Jill Biden to meet with Ukrainian refugees in Romania, Slovakia
U.S. first lady Jill Biden will travel to Romania and Slovakia this week to meet with American soldiers, U.S. embassy staff as well as displaced Ukrainian families, the White House announced Monday.
Romania and Slovakia are hosting hundreds of thousands of refugees from Ukraine who were forced to flee their homes due to Russia’s invasion.
According to a press release from the White House, Biden will depart the United States for Romania on Thursday evening. On Friday, she will visit Mihail Kogalniceau Airbase in southeastern Romania, where she will meet with U.S. military service members.
On Saturday, Biden will travel to Romania’s capital, Bucharest, to meet with Romanian government officials, U.S. embassy personnel, humanitarian aid workers as well as educators who are helping teach displaced Ukrainian children. She will then travel to Slovakia’s capital, Bratislava, to meet with U.S. embassy staff there, according to the White House.
On Sunday, which is celebrated as Mother’s Day in the U.S., Biden will travel to the eastern Slovak city of Kosice and the small village of Vysne Nemecke, the largest of three border crossings between Slovakia and Ukraine, to meet with Ukrainian refugees, humanitarian aid workers as well as local Slovakians who are supporting the displaced families, according to the White House.
“On Mother’s Day, she will meet with Ukrainian mothers and children who have been forced to flee their home country because of Putin’s war,” the White House said in a statement.
On Monday, Biden will meet with Slovakian government officials before heading back to the U.S.
-ABC News’ Armando Garcia
May 02, 5:48 am
Pelosi leads delegation to Poland after visiting Ukraine
A high-level U.S. congressional delegation led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi met with Polish President Andrzej Duda in Warsaw on Monday, a day after meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv.
“Our distinguished Congressional delegation came to Poland to send an unmistakable message to the world: that America stands firmly with our NATO allies in our support for Ukraine,” Pelosi said in a statement.
Pelosi said their talks with Duda and other Polish officials in the Polish capital “will be focused on further strengthening our partnership, offering our gratitude for Poland’s humanitarian leadership, and discussing how we can further work together to support Ukraine.”
Earlier, Pelosi and the half dozen U.S. lawmakers with her traveled to the southeastern Polish city of Rzeszow, where they met with U.S. Army soldiers assigned to the 82nd Airborne Division stationed in Poland to reassure NATO allies and deter Russian aggression.
“These engagements are even more meaningful following our meeting in Kyiv with President Volodymr Zelenskyy and other top Ukrainian leaders,” Pelosi said. “In that profound and solemn visit, our delegation conveyed our respect and gratitude to President Zelenskyy for his leadership and our admiration of the Ukrainian people for their courage in the fight against Russia’s diabolical invasion. Our Members were proud to deliver the message that additional American support is on the way, as we work to transform President Biden’s strong funding request into a legislative package.”
Pelosi, second in line to the U.S. presidency after the vice president, was the most senior American lawmaker to visit Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion on Feb. 24. The delegation’s trip to the Ukrainian capital was not disclosed until they were safely out of the country.
-ABC News’ Chad Murray
May 01, 4:57 pm
Russian shelling of Mariupol steel plant resumes: Ukrainian officials
Russian forces resumed shelling the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol on Sunday after some civilians inside the facility and in nearby homes were evacuated during a brief cease fire, according Ukrainian officials.
“They are shelling the plant with all kinds of weapons,” said Denis Schlega, commander of the 12th Brigade of Operational Assignment in Mariupol.
Earlier Sunday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the United Nations and Russian Ministry of Defense all confirmed that some civilians were evacuated from the steel plant, where a Ukrainian military unit is making a last stand in the port city that is almost entirely under Russian control.
Zelenskyy said about 100 civilians were evacuated from the steel plant on Sunday and were being taken to Zaporizhia, a city under Ukrainian control.
The Mariupol City Council said in a statement that evacuations from Mariupol had stopped Sunday afternoon due to “security reasons.” The city council said the evacuations would resume on Monday.
May 01, 4:13 pm
Civilians killed, injured in shelling of Kharkiv region: Ukrainian official
At least three civilians were killed and eight others injured on Sunday as a result of heavy shelling from Russian forces in the Kharkiv region in northeast Ukraine, according to a Ukrainian official.
The casualties were reported in the residential areas of Saltivka, Bohodukhiv and Zolochif, according to Oleg Sinegubov, head of the Kharkiv Regional Military Administration.
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
May 01, 12:24 pm
Pope Francis condemns ‘macabre regression of humanity’ in Ukraine
Pope Francis on Sunday described the war in Ukraine as a “macabre regression of humanity” that makes him “suffer and cry.”
Speaking to thousands of people crowded into St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican, the pope called for humanitarian corridors to be opened to evacuate civilians trapped inside or near a steel plant in the Ukrainian port city of Mariupol.
Evacuation of civilians at the Azovstal steel plant, where Ukrainian forces have been staging a last stand against Russian troops, have started, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Red Cross and the Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed on Sunday.
During Sunday’s Vatican service, Francis repeated his criticism of Russia for invading Ukraine.
“My thoughts go immediately to the Ukrainian city of Mariupol, the city of Mary, barbarously bombarded and destroyed,” the pontiff said of the Russian-controlled southeastern port city, which is named after Mary. “I suffer and cry thinking of the suffering of the Ukrainian population, in particular the weakest, the elderly, the children.”
In Catholicism, the month of May is dedicated to Mary, the mother of Jesus. Francis asked for monthlong prayers for peace in Ukraine.
“While we are witnessing a macabre regression of humanity, I ask you, together with so many anguished people, if we are really seeking peace, if there is the will to avoid a continuous military and verbal escalation, if we are doing everything possible to make the weapons stop? Please, let us not give in to the logic of violence, to the perverse spiral of arms. Let us take the path of dialogue and peace. Let us pray.”
(WASHINGTON) — Ohioans head to the polls Tuesday to vote in Democratic and Republican primaries, featuring multiple hotly contested races, including battles for governor, secretary of state and U.S. Senate.
The race to replace Sen. Rob Portman, who is retiring, features a crowded Republican primary in which former President Donald Trump’s endorsement powers will be tested.
In the GOP Senate primary, almost all the candidates have centered their campaigns around being a Trump conservative. But it was a “never-Trumper” turned Trump ally, J.D. Vance, who scored Trump’s coveted endorsement, upending the race.
In the days leading up to the Ohio primary, Club for Growth, a conservative anti-tax group backing Republican candidate and former Ohio treasurer Josh Mandel, released an ad attacking Vance and questioning Trump’s endorsement of him.
The ad features previous comments from Vance criticizing Trump supporters by saying they voted for the former president for racist reasons.
Other notable Republicans vying for the nomination include Mike Gibbons, a wealthy businessman, Jane Timken, former chairwoman of the Ohio GOP, and Ohio state Sen. Matt Dolan.
Unlike his opponents, Dolan has distanced himself from Trump, saying his campaign is focused on Ohioans and that Republicans focusing on the results of the 2020 election are taking the wrong approach.
On the other side of the aisle, three candidates are running in the House Democratic primary. Rep. Tim Ryan, who briefly ran for president in 2020 and has long represented the working class Youngstown area, is the clear frontrunner. The other candidates in the race are Traci Johnson and Morgan Harper.
In the GOP gubernatorial primary, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, who is seeking a second term, is favored to win. He faces a spirited faceoff with members of his own party who were disappointed with his relatively strict response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Republicans looking to replace DeWine include former U.S. Rep. Jim Renacci, former state Rep. Ron Hood and Joe Blystone, a farmer who jumped into the race. Trump has not endorsed in the contest, but Renacci has campaigned on Trumpism and has cited Trump’s support of him in 2018 during his failed campaign for Senate.
Ohio’s secretary of state race has received more attention than in previous election cycles. A greater focus has been placed on the top election position of overseeing and validating election results following the 2020 election. Ohio GOP Secretary of State Frank LaRose faces a primary challenger in John Adams. Adams has expressed unfounded doubts about the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election results, whereas LaRose has danced around the issue.
LaRose acknowledged President Joe Biden as the legitimate president, but his campaign borrows Trump’s rhetoric of “protecting elections,” and LaRose has campaigned on fighting voter fraud despite no evidence it is a widespread problem. Trump endorsed LaRose and is considered likely to win and continue on to the general election.
Multiple House races will play out throughout the state Tuesday but the rematch between Rep. Shontel Brown and Nina Turner for Ohio’s 11th Congressional District will be one of the most closely watched of the night. Brown was first elected in a special election following Marcia Fudge’s appointment to serve as secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Brown and Turner’s rematch is viewed as a reflection of the divisions between the Democratic Party’s progressive and establishment wings. Progressives like Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont have endorsed Turner. Biden, however, endorsed Brown on Friday, calling her “an ardent advocate for the people of Ohio and a true partner in Congress.”
Turner and Brown approached the campaign trail from different ends of the Democratic political spectrum. Turner, a former co-chairwoman of Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign, has heavily criticized the Democratic Party and Biden in the past and her previous loss to Brown was seen as a win for the Democratic establishment. On Monday night, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a leading left-wing voice, threw her support behind Turner.
Over 100,000 votes have already been cast statewide, and 182,000 absentee ballots had been requested as of the end of early voting on April 22, according to LaRose.
“As I’ve visited county boards of elections this month during early voting and spoken with voters, what I’ve seen firsthand are the high standards of accessibility and security which make our state a national model,” the secretary of state said in a statement reporting early voting numbers.
Due to an ongoing redistricting litigation battle still playing out in the state, Tuesday’s primary in Ohio will not feature legislative races for the state House or Senate. Voters will cast ballots for governor, attorney general, secretary of state, auditor, U.S. House and U.S. Senate. A second primary will be held for legislative races, though no date has been set, according to LaRose’s office.
Carrie Underwood‘s work out playlist proves she’s a loyal fan of hard rock and heavy metal music.
Despite being a country queen, Carrie was introduced to rock music through her older sisters, Shanna and Stephanie, when they’d listen to it on the radio growing up in Oklahoma. They passed their love on to Carrie, who’s since shared stages with Axl Rose, Steven Tyler and Joan Jett.
When she’s not singing with rock n’ roll royalty, Carrie’s listening to it during her daily workouts. “Working out, I honestly listen to metal or super hard rock music,” Carrie previously shared with CBS, citing I Prevail as one of her favorite rock bands to work out to, particularly their Grammy nominated 2019 album, Trauma.
Scrolling through her workout playlist, fans will also see Mötley Crüe‘s “Kickstart My Heart,” “State of My Head” by Shinedown, Beastie Boys‘ “Sabotage,” “Na Na Na” by My Chemical Romance, and more.
But Carrie isn’t above including her own music too, with her fierce duet with Ludacris, “The Champion,” also making the list, along with her uplifting single, “Love Wins.”
Scroll through to see all of Carrie’s favorite workout tunes on her YouTube channel.
Graham Nash‘s long-awaited live album showcasing a series of special concerts he played in September 2019 during which he performed his first two solo album — 1971’s Songs for Beginners and 1974’s Wild Tales — in their entirety, finally will be released this Friday, May 6.
Graham Nash: Live — Songs for Beginners/Wild Tales features renditions of every tune from Nash’s two studio efforts, including the 1971 hit “Chicago/We Can Change the World,” and gems like “Military Madness,” “Simple Man,” “Prison Song” and “Oh! Camil.”
The full-albums concerts, which took place at four venues in the northeastern U.S., featured Nash performing with his two regular backing musicians — guitarist Shane Fontayne and keyboardist Todd Caldwell — plus a drummer, a bassist, a pedal-steel guitarist and two female backup singers.
Reflecting on why the Songs for Beginners and Wild Tales albums were so popular with fans, Nash says, “I think it’s that intimacy and that immediacy of my emotions.”
He also laments that some of the topical songs he wrote during the ’70s remain relevant today.
“We’re supposed to learn from history and it doesn’t appear as if we’re learning much,” he maintains. “Songs like ‘Military Madness’…is that not relevant today? The hope that we can change the world, isn’t that still relevant today? I’m very flattered that my music seems to have lasted this long, but I’m also a little upset that we have to keep singing a song like ‘Military Madness’ right up to the present. Enough already!”
Graham Nash: Live, which can be pre-ordered now, is available on CD, as a two-LP set and via digital formats.
Here’s the live album’s full track list:
“Military Madness”
“Better Days”
“Wounded Bird”
“I Used to Be a King”
“Be Yourself”
“Simple Man”
“Man in the Mirror”
“There’s Only One”
“Sleep Song”
“Chicago”/”We Can Change the World”
“Wild Tales”
“Hey You (Looking at the Moon)”
“Prison Song”
“You’ll Never Be the Same”
“And So It Goes”
“Grave Concern”
“Oh! Camil”
“I Miss You”
“On the Line”
“Another Sleep Song”
