(NEW YORK) — Republican candidates are shying away from the debate stage as the midterm elections approach.
Over a half dozen GOP candidates in crucial state and federal races have either skipped out on or not committed to primary debates.
Joe Lombardo, a gubernatorial candidate in Nevada, turned down a chance to debate in January. In Nebraska, Jim Pillen, another gubernatorial candidate, turned down offers to debate his opponents in March, telling ABC News debates amount to “political theater.”
In Pennsylvania, Senate candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz did not take part in the first GOP Senate primary debate in January, citing a “prior commitment.”
And the frontrunner in the GOP Senate primary debate in Georgia is Hershal Walker, who said he won’t debate his primary opponents and is instead focused on facing Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock on the debate stage in the general election.
“We have always strongly encouraged all candidates to participate in our debates,” said Lauri Strauss, executive director of the Atlanta Press Club, which is organizing 15 primary debates in Georgia.
When candidates choose not to participate, there are ripple effects.
In North Carolina, Republican representative and Senate candidate Ted Budd declined to take part in a primary debate in February and said he won’t attend one scheduled for April.
When word spread that Budd was not participating in the debate this month, GOP Senate candidate and former North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory pulled out too, saying he would only debate if Budd did. Once McCrory dropped out, that left only one candidate and The North Carolina Faith and Freedom Coalition, which was organizing the debate, decided to cancel it altogether.
In Ohio, Republican Gov. Mike DeWine also decided not to attend the state’s March GOP gubernatorial primary debate. Jill Zimon, executive director of the Ohio Debate Commission, said once DeWine made it public that he would not participate, former Rep. Jim Renacci’s campaign told the Ohio Debate Commission that Renacci would not attend unless DeWine changed his mind.
Asked why the governor declined the invitation, DeWine’s campaign told ABC News that he “is the most publicly accessible governor in Ohio history” and that Ohioans already know where he stands on the issues.
Richard Davis, the president of the State Debate Coalition and co-founder of the Utah Debate Commission, said Republican candidates are becoming more “empowered” to refuse traditional debates.
The Republican National Committee’s continuous threats to bar their party’s presidential nominees from participating in debates organized by the Presidential Debate Commission, he said, has encouraged other Republican candidates to set debate requirements in exchange for their participation.
“[Republicans believe they] can set the ground rules and say that organizations that run debates…are biased,” Davis said.
While Republicans have been declining debates in eyebrow raising numbers, Democrats are not immune.
In Pennsylvania, the frontrunner in the Democratic Senate race, Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, did not take part in the first primary debate Sunday and instead met with voters in rural Pennsylvania. Fetterman’s campaign, however, said he has committed to three other upcoming debates.
As more candidates skip out on debates or dictate the conditions under which they will appear, both Davis and Strauss believe candidates are shirking an important public service for voters.
“How can someone run for office and want to be elected if they’re not willing to debate their opponents and let the public know what they stand for?” Strauss said.
(BREMERTON, Wash.) — A coach’s personal act of prayer that grew into a public spectacle after Bremerton High School football games is now a major test of the First Amendment in a case this month before the U.S. Supreme Court.
The coach, Joe Kennedy, who was suspended by the school in 2015 over post-game prayers on the field, is asking the justices to affirm the right of public school employees to pray aloud while on the job, even when within view of students they coach or teach.
“This is a right for everybody. It doesn’t matter if you’re this religion or that religion or have no faith whatsoever,” Kennedy told ABC News . “Everybody has the same rights in America.”
The school district says Kennedy’s prayers, some of which were surrounded by players at the 50 yard-line, are hardly private acts of faith and run afoul of constitutional prohibitions against promotion of religion by government officials.
“It was my covenant between me and God that after every game, win or lose, I’m going to do it right there on the field of battle,” Kennedy said of his ritual, which he said typically lasted less than a minute.
Lower courts sided with the school district. A Supreme Court ruling for Kennedy has the potential to expand the ability of public school employees nationwide to practice their faiths more openly around students, legal experts say.
The case will be argued April 25 and decided by the end of June.
The First Amendment protects free speech and free exercise of religion, but it also prohibits the establishment of religion by the government. The Supreme Court has long said that public school-sponsored prayer violates the Establishment Clause, even if the prayer is voluntary.
It has struck down Bible readings and teacher-led prayer in classrooms, religious invocations at graduations and religious displays at other school sponsored activities. In a 2000 case, Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe, the court said that opening football games with student-led prayer is also unconstitutional.
At the same time, the court has ruled that free speech rights don’t end at the schoolhouse gate and that religion need not be entirely expunged from public schools.
While Kennedy routinely prayed on the field after games for more than seven years, attracting varying levels of participation from students, it wasn’t until 2015 that the school district informed him that separation of church and state meant he could no longer pray with players and keep his job.
“They just said if anybody could see you anywhere here, it was over,” Kennedy said.
The school district explained at the time that the prayers violated “constitutionally-required directives that he refrain from engaging in overt, public religious displays on the football field while on duty.”
Some Bremerton High School parents like Paul Peterson, whose son Aaron played for coach Kennedy in 2010, later complained the prayer sessions were applying inappropriate pressure.
“The coach is a leader. The coach is a mentor. If he goes to the 50-yard line, he has a message he wants to deliver, and so the players would follow,” said Peterson in an interview.
“The harm is to those who are the minority students, the minority faiths, the students who have no faith,” he said. “They are being pressured into doing something that they don’t fundamentally agree with.That’s what the First Amendment protects us from.”
Kennedy insists there was no coercion, though widely publicized scenes show his post-game prayers became much more than solitary acts of faith.
Attorney Jeremy Dys, representing Kennedy on behalf of the First Liberty Institute, said the coach should not be held accountable for the voluntary decisions of others to join him in an expression of faith.
“He’s not on the field coaching anybody, he’s not telling what play to run. No instruction taking place,” Dys said. “School districts don’t own every word out of your mouth or any religious expression that you choose to make in your private time, even on school grounds.”
A federal appeals court called Kennedy’s characterization of his prayers as brief, quiet and solitary as a “deceitful narrative,” noting that they were clearly audible prayers surrounded by groups of students, amounting to unlawful religious speech as “a school official.”
“If this were a case about a coach who in fact wanted to pray privately, in a solitary manner, we wouldn’t be here,” said Rachel Laser, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a nonprofit advocacy group backing the school district. “You don’t leave that behind when you go teach or coach at a public school, but what you do leave behind is your ability to engage students who are very impressionable, who are required to attend public school.”
Kennedy’s case has been cheered on by top Republicans, including former President Donald Trump, dozens of state and federal lawmakers, and star NFL quarterbacks, like Kirk Cousins and Nick Foles, who have told the justices in a friend-of-the-court filing that the power of prayer promotes good sportsmanship.
“These kids mean everything to me, because I was a troubled youth, and I wanted to reach out to help these kids in Bremerton, give back to my community which I terrorized as a kid,” said Kennedy, who is a Marine Corps veteran and former project manager at the Bremerton naval shipyard.
On the other side of the debate, leaders of minority faiths, atheists and parents like Peterson, say a coach’s good intentions shouldn’t be an excuse for flouting the Constitution.
“When the teacher or coach is standing up and leading the children, I think you cross the line into indoctrination,” Peterson said.
The case could have an impact on public school playing fields nationwide and determine whether Kennedy can coach again, and take a knee in prayer for his Bremerton Knights.
He currently lives in Florida but has told the Court he would move back to Bremerton if the justices rule in his favor.
“Nobody should have to be fired or worry about their job if they show any signs of faith,” Kennedy said. “At the end of the game, I’m hoping to have victory but we’ll see how the courts rule.”
(ALEXANDRIA, Va.) — A British man accused of being one of the infamous quartet of ISIS terrorists nicknamed the “Beatles” by prisoners who they beat and executed was faced down in federal court this week by two of their victims’ mothers, and one man who survived their brutality.
El Shafee Elsheikh is accused of a direct role in holding hostage four Americans, several Britons, and other captives between 2013 and 2014 at several makeshift prisons in Syria.
At his trial this week in U.S. federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, prosecutors called as witnesses the mothers of two Americans who did not survive as hostages of ISIS, journalist James Foley and humanitarian aid worker Kayla Mueller.
Foley, of Wolfeboro, New Hampshire, was kidnapped in Syria in 2012 along with British journalist John Cantlie, and was held for nearly two years before he was shown beheaded in a gruesome video by the ISIS Beatle dubbed “Jihadi John,” whose real name was Mohammed Emwazi.
“Incredible shock, I didn’t believe it — I didn’t want to believe it,” Foley’s mother Diane testified about learning that her son was killed.
Foley’s brother Michael testified about the horror of seeing the ISIS video that showed the remains of his brother, a 38-year old a freelance journalist for Global Post and Agence France-Presse, after the killing that stunned the world on Aug. 19, 2014.
Her head tilted up to look at the ceiling rather than at the defendant, Diane Foley spoke in a clear, strong voice about her son, who had previously survived previous captivity by other militants in Libya.
She said when President Barack Obama “announced Jim had been beheaded, it sunk in.”
The Foley family subsequently established the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation to assist hostages, their families and war journalists.
On Tuesday, it was Marsha Mueller’s turn.
She told of how her 27-year-old daughter Kayla, of Prescott, Arizona, had traveled to the Middle East and to Turkey and Syria, seeking ways to help refugees of the Syrian civil war.
Then on Aug. 4, 2013, after visiting a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Aleppo, Syria, to help her friend Omar Alkhani install satellite internet, Kayla and her colleagues were kidnapped by armed men.
Dressed in a black sweater, Marsha Mueller’s voice became stronger with each passing minute as she told of Kayla’s love for owls, music and books, and how Kayla had sought to provide aid to women and children refugees in need.
She described exchanging 27 emails with ISIS, in which they demanded the release of convicted terrorist Aafia Siddiqi or 5 million Euros in exchange for Kayla’s release. An ABC News investigation in 2015 found that the FBI and Obama White House had blocked the Foleys, Muellers and other families from paying ISIS’ ransom demands — though ransoms paid for European hostages had led to their release.
After U.S. special mission unit Delta Force raided a makeshift prison on Independence Day 2014, but missed rescuing the hostages by only two days because critics said the intelligence was not acted upon swiftly enough by the White House, ISIS sent an angry email about Kayla and threatened they would “put a bullet in her head.”
Her mother said they knew nothing about the U.S. raid, and reacted to the message with fear.
“They were going to kill her,” she recalled in court.
Marsha Mueller’s voice cracked when she read aloud one of three letters Kayla wrote from ISIS prisons, sending “hugs and kisses” to her niece, and signing it, “All my everything, Kayla.” The letters were addressed to her parents, her mentor the Rev. Kathleen Day, and her friends Halla and Orouba Barakat, mother-daughter journalists in Turkey who themselves were later murdered in Istanbul in 2017 and were the subject of an ABC News-Reveal investigation.
When Kayla was reported killed on Feb. 6, 2015, ISIS emailed Carl and Marsha Mueller three photos of their lifeless daughter.
“Her face looks like it is smeared with blood, her eyes are partly open, her mouth is slightly open,” Kayla’s mother told the jury.
The Muellers later learned that Kayla had stood up for and cared for other hostages, for which she had been repeatedly raped by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the ISIS top leader and self-proclaimed “caliph” of all Muslims. Al-Baghdadi was subsequently killed by Delta Force in 2019 in a raid named “Operation Kayla Mueller” in Mueller’s honor.
After providing testimony on Tuesday, Marsha Mueller and Diane Foley held each other in comfort, beyond the eyes and ears of the jurors.
Another witness who faced Elsheikh in court was Spanish journalist Marc Marginedas, who was kidnapped in Syria and held with Mueller, Foley, Cantlie and others including American journalist Steven Sotloff, with whom Marginedas became close during their captivity.
Marginedas recounted in horrifying detail how the four “Beatles” — so named by Cantlie to keep track of their British-accented captors because their real names were unknown — inflicted savagery upon them.
As Sotloff’s parents Arthur and Shirley looked on in the courtroom, Marginedas recalled how the terrorists appeared to take particular joy in beating Sotloff, who was Jewish. Sotloff told Marginedas he believed that the beatings, some of which occurred in front of his fellow captives, had left him with broken ribs.
But the Jewish journalist never revealed his faith to his captors, and simply wore extra clothing to soften the blows.
“He was a very courageous man who didn’t complain much,” said Marginedas, who testified in the Virginia courtroom only a week after reporting from the front lines in Ukraine.
A decade after he was kidnapped, Cantlie’s whereabouts remain unknown, as do the whereabouts of New Zealand nurse Louisa Akavi, who was kidnapped by ISIS in 2013.
Other victims’ relatives who appeared in the courtroom were Paula and Ed Kassig, the parents of former U.S. Army Ranger Peter Kassig, an American aid worker who was killed by ISIS in 2014.
Elsheikh, dressed in a collared shirt and khakis, with black-framed glasses and a beard, sat motionless as each family member took the stand, slouching on his left elbow even as prosecutors played video of interviews he had voluntarily given.
In one clip filmed in 2019 in a Syrian prison where Elsheikh and fellow ISIS Beatle Alexanda Kotey were held following their capture, former ABC News contributor Sean Langan asked if Jihadi John, who the CIA later killed in a drone strike, had asked Elsheikh to get the Muellers’ contact information from their daughter to negotiate ransom.
“That was the first time I saw Kayla, I took an email from her,” he replied.
Elsheikh, who has admitted in media interviews to being an accomplice of ISIS, faces a life sentence if convicted. Prosecutors took the death penalty off the table in a deal with the British government, which opposes capital punishment.
On Tuesday, after the jury was dismissed for lunch and U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III had left the courtroom, Kayla Mueller’s friend Omar Alkhani delivered an insult in Arabic to Elsheikh while Elsheikh was being led out by a U.S. Marshal.
One day Elsheikh would meet his former ISIS bosses “in hell,” Alkhani shouted.
(BOYNTON BEACH, Fla.) — Community members voiced their concerns during a city commission meeting in Boynton Beach, Florida, on Tuesday evening after an investigation into the death of a 13-year-old boy, who died after his dirt bike crashed during an attempted traffic stop, determined that the officer will not face any changes.
Stanley Davis III, known as “SJ” to his family and friends, died on Dec. 26, 2021, after he lost control of his dirt bike and crashed into a curb while being pursued by a Boynton Beach police officer.
“I think it was a slap in the face, a disservice and a dishonor for highway patrol to come to that conclusion,” a community member told incoming city officials who were sworn into office during the meeting.
“You all right now have the opportunity to do the right thing — to make that determination to terminate him … this SJ movement is still what it’s about and we’re asking that you all pay attention to it,” the community member added.
Davis’ grandmother, Tina Hunter, told ABC News that her grandson received the dirt bike as a Christmas gift and was trying it out the day after Christmas when an officer attempted to pull him over. His death has been the subject of heated discussions during the bi-monthly city commission meetings over the past three months.
Under Florida law, a dirt bike is considered an “off-highway vehicle” and the operator of such a vehicle must be at least 16 years old.
According to the investigation report released by Florida Highway Patrol on March 31, the “investigation is complete, and no charges shall be filed because the at-fault person expired as a result of the crash.”
The report found that the crash occurred while Davis was traveling at approximately 85 miles per hour while “unlawfully fleeing an attempted traffic stop,” the Boynton Beach Police Department said in a statement.
Davis’ parents, Stanley Davis, Jr. and Shannon Thompson, urged city officials to hold police accountable for their son’s death and called for the officer’s termination during a press conference last month.
“It’s unfortunate that he was chased to his death and taken away from not only myself but the family and the community,” Thomson said during the press conference on March 1.
Attorney Ben Crump, who is representing the Davis family, has not responded to ABC News’ request for comment following the release of the FHP report,
The report, which was obtained by ABC News, also determined that there was no contact between Davis’ dirt bike and the police officer’s vehicle, confirming the initial findings of a police investigation.
“Now that the FHP traffic homicide investigation is completed, the Boynton Beach Police Department will conduct an internal affairs investigation to determine if any police department policies were violated by any Boynton Beach law enforcement officer involved in the incident,” Boynton Beach Police said in a statement.
According to BBPD policy, “Vehicular pursuits will be initiated only if the officer reasonably believes that the person(s) fleeing has committed a forcible felony.” Asked if the officer violated this law, a BBPD spokesperson said, “The investigation into this crash is ongoing.”
“There never should have been a high-speed pursuit and it never should have resulted in the death of a child,” Crump previously told ABC News. “The Boynton Beach Police Department’s own policy is that pursuits should only be initiated if the officer reasonably believes the person fleeing has committed a felony. We’re talking about a child.”
Amid pressure from the public to release the officer’s name, BBPD said it cannot because the officer invoked his right to Marsy’s Law.
“The law gives every victim the right to prevent the disclosure of information or records that could be used to locate or harass the victim or the victim’s family, or which could disclose confidential or privileged information of the victim,” a BBPD spokesperson previously told ABC News.
Thompson said that the invocation of Marsy’s Law and refusing to release the officer’s name is a “betrayal to not only myself, but to the community.”
“I was very disgusted with that as my son was the victim. Our family is the victim,” Thompson said.
The community also expressed concerns and anger over Davis’ death during a police community meeting on March 31 — the first of a series of meetings that are expected to take place once every two months.
At the meeting, which was held the day the FHP report was released, several people repeatedly pressed BBPD Police Chief Michael Gregory for answers regarding the investigation and directed questions at him about the department’s vehicular pursuit policy.
“We’re not allowed to comment on the case,” Gregory said, indicating that the investigation is ongoing.
Asked what police are doing to address mistrust in the community, Gregory pointed to the neighborhood officer program where police participate in activities with youth and to the newly launched community policing meetings.
“Every two months we’re gonna be here, hoping that you’ll come back,” he said.
(WASHINGTON) — Six oil company executives are set to testify Wednesday on Capitol Hill about skyrocketing gas prices amid a political messaging battle over pain at the pump.
BP America, Chevron and ExxonMobil executives are among the “Big Oil” leaders who will face questions from lawmakers on the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations.
The hearing comes as costs for gas rose following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which prompted the U.S. to put a ban on imports of Russian oil and gas. Though the price of gas has dropped slightly in recent days, Americans were still paying an average $4.17 as of Tuesday, according to American Automobile Association data.
Politicians on both sides of the aisle continue to fight over who’s to blame.
Democrats have worked hard to pinpoint Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as the source of the rise in gas prices, with President Joe Biden coining it “Putin’s price hike.”
Republicans, on the other hand, are quick to argue that the higher costs kicked in long before the war began and that Biden’s energy policies are what’s hurting Americans’ pocketbooks. Others are accusing oil companies of taking advantage of consumers by not lowering gas prices even though the price of oil has dropped.
Patrick De Haan, head of Petroleum Analysis at GasBuddy, told ABC News the reasons behind the cost of gas are more complex than any one of those narratives suggests.
“There’s too many political games being played in too many political points trying to be won. Neither side is portraying it accurately,” he said. “There’s a lot of factors that go into this and the politicians on both sides of the aisle are, you know, just using buzzwords and phrases and they’re using regurgitated, establishment talking points by their own parties … “
De Haan also noted the “extremely volatile” situation gas companies are in with regard to fluctuating oil prices.
“Stations are not eager to lower prices right now. Not necessarily because of, you know, they’re greedy or something but because the market is extremely volatile,” De Haan said, adding that “if they were to pass along a decrease one day, they may have to raise prices another 25 to 50 cents the day after if the market goes back up.”
Instead, he said the “stations are essentially smoothing out the incredible volatility and they’re cautiously passing along decreases once they are kind of certain that they’re not going to have to raise prices again.”
PolitiFact also noted that “experts who study the price of oil and gas said it can take weeks for gasoline prices to respond to changes in crude oil costs” and that “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, increased labor costs, the pandemic and additional taxes and inflation have all contributed to rising gasoline prices.”
Richard Wiles, president of the Center for Climate Integrity, a nonprofit focused on climate policy and holding corporations accountable, says Democrats aren’t wrong to shift the blame onto Russian President Vladimir Putin.
“The Democrats aren’t making something up to point out how this is a really acute example of what dependency on oil and gas would get you. That’s exactly right. And the oil companies, they don’t care at all,” he said.
But Wiles noted the rising cost of gas started long before the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“Oil companies are bad in war and peace,” he said.
ABC News reached out to all six oil companies expected to testify Wednesday but none provided a comment.
As the oil company executives face members of the House, lawmakers are also scrambling to pass legislation to provide immediate relief as a consequential midterm season quickly approaches.
Most recently, Biden announced the release of one million barrels of oil per day from oil reserves to combat high gas prices; though, senior White House administration officials couldn’t say how quickly Americans will start to feel relief from it.
At her weekly press conference last week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Congress is looking to help as long as the benefit goes directly to consumers, likely in the form of a rebate card or a direct payment.
And some progressive Democrats are renewing their push toward more long-term investments in renewable energy to end oil dependency.
For their part, House Republicans on the Natural Resources Committee introduced a package of bills last week reversing the Biden administration’s moratorium on federal onshore and offshore lease sales.
(NEW YORK) — A mom of four from Indiana went from giving drawing prompts to her daughters to thousands of strangers online, inadvertently creating a community of what she describes as “amazing people” who have turned to art for a mental health break amid the pandemic.
In March 2020, Angie Carel’s job came to a standstill as the coronavirus pandemic upended her life.
“My business was shut down due to COVID and that’s when my daughter came home from college. My other daughters were doing remote learning, so everybody was in my house and that’s when we started drawing,” Carel, a marketing agency owner, told ABC News’ Good Morning America. “It started with just myself and my daughters doing the drawings. And then we were sharing our drawings on social media and then that built up into a following on social media.”
Two years later, Simple Daily Drawing now boasts more than 30,000 followers and Carel has posted over 625 daily drawing prompts since April 2020. About 8,000 members worldwide also post their creations in a separate, private group every day, sharing stories to go along with their illustrations.
“It organically grew into what it is,” Carel said. “I wasn’t going to continue drawing past the COVID shutdown. It was something that I was just doing while we were shut down to disconnect, get out of my own head, get my daughters out of their own heads.”
“But then, so many people started joining and posting why they were drawing and how it was helping them and so that’s why I continued to do it. And now, almost every single day, somebody posts how much the daily drawings are helping them,” Carel said.
In the beginning, Carel asked her children to draw amusing, lighthearted sketches — a smiling turtle, a sunbathing hippo, and a thirsty camel.
“We were just drawing to have fun,” the 43-year-old mom said, adding that her husband and 3-year-old son also joined in on the drawing sessions.
The daily drawing prompts have grown more diverse, with abstract suggestions and ideas open for interpretation. Recent prompts have ranged from “Perspective: From Above” to “Nostalgia,” and one of Carel’s latest favorites includes a close-up drawing of a green eye.
Carel said she’s heard from all sorts of members who find their way to the drawing group and commented on how it has made a difference in their lives.
However, she’s also encountered unexpected stories from members as well about how art has helped them work through trauma.
“I get emotional about it because it’s like, I’m just giving you something to draw, but these stories that come out of it with mental health, in particular, are shocking and amazing,” said Carel. “And people, they’re vulnerable in the group and they share the stories with others. “
Carel, who has a graphic design background, added that she feels motivated to keep the drawing group going.
“I started drawing because of the way it helped me cope with COVID, but that translates into so many people’s lives for so many other reasons. And they started posting these stories and then I was like, I can’t just shut this group down,” she said.
(NEW YORK) — It’s been three years since Joey and Paula Reed have seen their son Trevor, a former Marine currently held in a Russian prison, and now they’re afraid the ongoing conflict with Ukraine means their chances for his return are dwindling.
The couple spoke with ABC News’ “Start Here” Tuesday and discussed the latest developments in their fight to bring their son home.
Joey Reed said the situation is going “downhill” as communications with their son have diminished since the start of the Russian invasion and on Monday he was reportedly sent to a prison hospital. He said he fears that Russian officials may take more action against his son and other Americans currently held in their prisons and is urging President Joe Biden to act.
“Our biggest fear right now is him getting home at all. We’re concerned that they’re going to put additional charges, false charges on him, which that’s typical FSB and or he will die,” Joey Reed told ABC News.
Trevor Reed’s detention began in 2019 when his family says he was visiting a girlfriend in Moscow. The 30-year-old was arrested after Russian authorities said he allegedly assaulted a police officer while drunk.
When asked by Reed’s attorneys for video from inside the car, Russian authorities did not present any evidence that he grabbed the wheel or assaulted the officers. But a year later Reed was sentenced to nine years in a Russian penal colony.
Paula Reed said her family tried to raise awareness for their son’s imprisonment, but they struggled to get any headway due to other topics taking up the headlines, including the start of the pandemic.
“It just seemed like Trevor couldn’t get a break because every time we thought we were going to get some news out there, something bigger was happening in the world that got the attention. So it took us a long time to get our feet running on getting publicity,” she told ABC News.
The Reeds have also been calling for the release of Paul Whelan, another ex-Marine who has been imprisoned in Russia since 2020 following a conviction. The family has picked up their calls for help, and last week protested outside the White House and asked to meet with the president.
“We just thought that they would see us and it would remind someone that they need to be together for a meeting,” Joey Reed said.
Biden met with the family after their protest.
The Reeds said during their meeting, which lasted over half an hour, they reiterated their calls to Biden for a prisoner exchange.
“We think that that’s the only way Trevor is going to get back with us any time soon,” Paula Reed said.
She added that her son is losing hope of ever returning home and picking up up his life where it left off.
“The longer he’s in prison, the harder that’s going to be for him to do,” she said.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement that, “during their meeting, the president reiterated his commitment to continue to work to secure the release of Trevor, Paul Whelan, and other Americans wrongfully held in Russia and elsewhere, and to provide all possible assistance until they and others are free and returned home to their families who are advocating so passionately for their release.”
The White House declined to comment about specific details discussed between Biden and Reed’s parents.
The Reeds said they felt the president was mindful of their requests.
“He’s a good man. He had a son in the military. He’s lost children and he’s compassionate,” Joey Reed said. “We believe that after hearing us out that I can’t imagine that he’s not doing something to speed up the process for bringing our son home.”
In the meantime, the Reeds said that the government needs to do more to defend and bring back Americans wrongfully imprisoned abroad.
“We just want to get him out of there alive and the sooner, the better,” Joey Reed said.
(NEW YORK) — A popular Easter candy has been recalled weeks before the holiday.
On Monday, Ferrero announced through the Food Standards Agency it would take “the precautionary action of recalling selected batches of Kinder Surprise because it might be contaminated with Salmonella. Only Kinder Surprise products manufactured in Belgium are affected.”
Ferrero has recalled selected batches of Kinder Surprise eggs because of the possible presence of salmonella.
If you have bought the below product, do not eat it. Instead, please contact Ferrero to obtain a full refund.
As of time of publication, according to Food Safety News, the Salmonella outbreak linked to the chocolate products has sickened nearly 100 people total across multiple countries throughout the U.K., Ireland, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands.
The affected product pack sizes listed by the FSA are 20g and 20g x 3 with best before dates between July 11, 2002 and Oct. 7, 2022.
Click here for more information on the recall, refunds and contact information for the Ferrero consumer care team.
(NEW YORK) — Russian forces are continuing to have a tough time pushing through Ukraine due to Ukrainians, led by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and backed by weapons and military equipment from the United States and many European countries, putting up “stiff resistance,” according to U.S. officials.
The attack began Feb. 24, when Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a “special military operation.” Heavy shelling and missile attacks, many on civilian buildings, have continued throughout the country, including some in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv, as well as other major cities like Kharkiv and Mariupol.
In recent days, Russian forces appear to be pulling away from Kyiv after Russian officials said they were reducing military action near Kyiv and in Chernihiv in northern Ukraine in an attempt to increase “mutual trust and create conditions required” for further peace talks with Ukrainian negotiators.
Russia is now being accused of committing war crimes by the United States and countries throughout Europe after graphic images emerged of civilians lying dead in the streets of the Kyiv suburb of Bucha, some with their hands bound and shot at close range.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Apr 05, 7:19 pm
Zelenskyy questions UN Security Council’s effectiveness
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reflected on his meeting with the United Nations Security Council in his daily speech Tuesday.
Zelenskyy said the council is “currently unable to carry out the functions for which it was created.”
“The U.N. Security Council exists, and security in the world doesn’t, for anyone,” he said. “And only one state is to blame for this, Russia, which discredits the U.N. and all other international institutions where it still participates.”
Zelenskyy added that Russia “tries to block everything constructive and use global architecture in order to spread lies and justify the evil it does.”
“I’m sure the world sees it. I hope the world will draw conclusions,” he said.
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Apr 05, 5:06 pm
1,500 people evacuated from heavily bombed Mariupol
Nearly 1,500 people were evacuated from the heavily bombed southeastern Ukrainian city of Mariupol in private cars on Tuesday, Ukrainian officials said.
The evacuees left Mariupol in private vehicles because evacuation buses and humanitarian cargo could not make it into the city, officials said.
Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said that in addition to the evacuees in Mariupol, another 3,846 people evacuated from other towns across the country, including 1,080 from the Luhansk separatist area of eastern Ukraine.
The evacuation came as Igor Konashenkov, a spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of Defense, said on Tuesday that Mariupol would be “liberated from nationalists” by Russian forces, according to the Russian state-run TASS news service.
Konashenkov also said Moscow has repeatedly offered Ukrainian troops in Kyiv a chance to lay down their arms and that the offer was extended again on Tuesday morning.
“However, these proposals are constantly ignored by the Kyiv regime,” Konashenkov said, according to TASS.
Apr 05, 4:26 pm
France offers to send war crimes forensics team to Ukraine
France on Tuesday offered to send a forensics team to Ukraine to collect evidence for an investigation of alleged war crimes committed by Russian forces.
French President Emmanuel Macron made the offer during a phone conversation Tuesday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, according to a readout made public by the Elysee Palace, the French leader’s official residence. Macron also offered to contribute $534,000 to the International Criminal Court in The Hague to assist in its investigation into war crimes committed in Ukraine.
Macron also offered to dispatch French personnel, including two magistrates and 10 police officers, to help in the investigation.
During the call, Macron conveyed to Zelenskyy the “shock and emotion” caused in France by images of dead civilians in the streets of Bucha, near the capital of Kyiv.
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Apr 05, 3:22 pm
12 killed, including child, in Russian attack on Mykolaiv
At least 12 people were killed, including a child, in an attack on Monday by Russian troops on the southern Ukraine city of Mykolaiv, the governor of the Mykolaiv region confirmed.
The attack in Mykolaiv near the Black Sea included the shelling of an oncology hospital, said Vitaliy Kim, governor of the Mykolaiv region. The Ukrainian General Prosecutor’s office said 41 people were wounded in the attack, including four children.
Four members of Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres were at the hospital when it came under attack, said Michel-Oliver Lacharite, head of the group’s mission in Ukraine.
“Several explosions took place in close proximity to our staff over the course of about 10 minutes,” Lacharite said in a statement. “As they were leaving the area, the MSF team saw injured people and at least one dead body. However, we are not in a position to give exact numbers of dead and injured.”
-ABC News’ Christine Theodorou
Apr 05, 1:37 pm
US and its allies to impose new sanctions on Russia
The United States, in coordination with its G-7 and European Union allies, is expected to announce on Wednesday a “sweeping new package of sanctions” that will impose significant costs on Russia and send it further down the road of economic, financial, and technological isolation, sources familiar with the plan told ABC News.
The plan is expected to include a ban on all new investments in Russia, boost sanctions on financial institutions and state-owned enterprises in Russia and impose sanctions on Russian government officials and their family members, the sources said.
The measures are intended to degrade key instruments of Russian state power, impose acute and immediate economic harm on Russia and hold accountable the Russian kleptocracy that funds and supports Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war.
“These measures will be taken in lockstep with our allies and partners, demonstrating our resolve and unity in imposing unprecedented costs on Russia for its war against Ukraine,” one of the sources told ABC News.
-ABC News’ Molly Nagle
Apr 05, 1:11 pm
11 million people have been evacuated from Ukraine
An estimated 11 million people have been evacuated from Ukraine since Russia invaded the country on Feb. 24, the U.N. International Organization on Migration said Tuesday.
The organization also reported that more than 7.1 million people have been displaced within Ukraine as of April 1. That figure comes on top of the one from the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees showing more than 4 million people have fled abroad.
The International Organization on Migration said more than 2.9 million people still in Ukraine are actively considering “leaving their place of habitual residence due to war.”
Apr 05, 12:38 pm
Satellite images of bodies in Bucha contradict Russia’s claims
An ABC News analysis of videos and satellite imagery confirms that some of the bodies seen lying in the streets of Bucha were there as early as March 19, when the Ukrainian city was still occupied by Russian forces, contradicting Russia’s claims that the scene was “staged” after its troops left.
As Ukrainian authorities regained control over Bucha, northwest of Kyiv, gruesome images emerged earlier this week showing numerous bodies of dead civilians — some shot at close range and with their hands bound — strewn across streets and in mass graves. Russia has denied responsibility, calling the footage “fake” and saying that all of its units withdrew completely from Bucha around March 30.
However, satellite images provided by Maxar Technologies show that at least five of those bodies had been on the street in Bucha since March 19, when Russia said it still occupied the town. ABC News’ Visual Verification team compared the satellite imagery to videos of the same scene posted on Twitter by Ukrainian authorities on April 2, as well as footage taken by ABC News journalists in Bucha on April 4.
The satellite imagery of Bucha in March was first reported by The New York Times.
-ABC News’ Alice Chambers
Apr 05, 11:59 am
Zelenskyy details atrocities to UN Security Council
In an address to the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy laid out the atrocities he said were committed by Russian forces in Bucha, Ukraine, including women shot in front of their homes and raped in front of their children.
“There is not a single crime they would not commit,” Zelenskyy said via a live video feed.
Zelenskyy proposed a summit to reform the world’s global security apparatus, listing a number of major conflicts since World War II he said the U.N. Security Council had failed to prevent.
He said Russia’s actions in Bucha are no different from other acts of terrorism.
“Here it is done by a member of the United Nations Security Council destroying internal unity borders, countries,” Zelenskyy said.
He accused Russia of “pursuing a policy to kill ethnic and linguistic diversity.”
Zelenskyy went on to criticize the council for failing to provide security to Ukraine, saying, the U.N. “simply cannot work effectively.”
“If this continues, countries will have to rely on their selves, not (the) international community,” Zelenskyy said. “The U.N. will be ready to close. Do they think the time of the U.N. is gone? If no, then the U.N. must act immediately.”
Zelenskyy added, “accountability must be inevitable.”
Telling the council he was speaking on behalf of the deceased, Zelenskyy detailed in graphic detail the horrors found in Bucha, describing them as “the most terrible crimes we have seen since the end of World War II.“
“The Russian military searched for and purposefully killed anyone who served our country. They killed — shot and killed women outside their houses when they just tried to call someone who is alive. They killed entire families, adults and children, and they tried to burn the bodies,” Zelenskyy said. “I am addressing you on behalf of the people who honor the memory of the deceased, every single day in the memory of the civilians who died, who were shot and killed in the back of their head after being tortured, some of them were shot on the streets. Others were thrown into the wells, so they died. They are in suffering.”
Noting Russia’s veto power on the council, Zelensky proposed the council remove Russia’s power so it “cannot block decisions against its own aggression” or else “dissolve yourselves altogether.”
Zelenskyy’s address was met with applause by the members of the council.
Apr 05, 11:43 am
Video shows Russian shell hitting ambulance outside children’s hospital
Video has emerged purportedly showing a Russian shell striking an ambulance parked outside a children’s hospital in the Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv.
Security camera footage released by Mykolaiv Gov. Vitaly Kim shows the moment the empty ambulance is hit and explodes next to the hospital on Monday.
As of March 30, there had been 82 attacks on health care in Ukraine since Russian forces invaded, resulting in at least 72 deaths and 43 injuries, including patients and health workers, according to the World Health Organization.
-ABC News’ Fergal Gallagher
Apr 05, 11:02 am
European Commission proposes new sanctions on Russia
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen issued a proposal Tuesday for new sanctions targeting Russia’s economy.
The proposal will require the approval of the European Union’s member states.
In a statement, von der Leyen accused Moscow of “waging a cruel and ruthless war in Ukraine and said its alleged atrocities “cannot and will not be left unanswered.”
Among the new sanctions being proposed are banning imports of coal from Russia, banning Russian ships and Russian-operated ships from accessing European Union ports and banning imports of other Russian products including seafood, liquor, and wood. The proposal also calls for a full transaction ban on four key Russian banks – among them the country’s second-largest, VTB.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Tuesday that the death and destruction in Bucha, Ukraine, reportedly at the hands of Russian forces shows a “deliberate campaign to kill, to torture, to rape, to commit atrocities.”
Blinken spoke to reporters at Joint Base Andrews before boarding a plane to Brussels for the Western military alliance’s annual spring meeting of foreign ministers.
He said the reports of atrocities emerging in Bucha, a suburb of the capital of Kyiv were “more than credible” and added it “reinforces our determination and the determination of countries around the world to make sure that one way or another, one day or another, there is accountability for those who committed these acts, for those who ordered them.”
Ukrainian forces in recent days retook Bucha from the Russians and found the bodies of more than 400 civilians lying dead in the streets or in mass graves, some with their hands bound and shot at close range.
Blinken didn’t directly address a question of whether the United States has evidence linking the atrocities on the ground in Busha to Russian officials back in Moscow. Instead, he said the United States is working to support efforts to document evidence by Ukraine’s prosecutor-general, the U.N. Human Rights Council’s commission of inquiry, and others.
Blinken noted that before the war began, U.S. officials warned that atrocities “would be part of the Russian campaign.”
“Horrifically, tragically, what we’re seeing in Bucha and in other places supports that,” Blinken said.
He said the United States will work with its NATO and G-7 allies to support Ukraine and increase pressure on Russia, especially with meetings among both groups later this week in Brussels.
-ABC News’ Conor Finnegan
Apr 05, 9:04 am
Video shows Russian tank firing on cyclist in Bucha
Video has emerged purportedly showing a Russian tank firing on a cyclist in the besieged Ukrainian city of Bucha.
The footage, provided to Ukrainian public broadcasting company Suspilne Media by the Ukrainian military, was reportedly taken on March 3. The video captures the moment a tank fires at a person riding a bike in the streets of Bucha when the town, northwest of Kyiv, was occupied by Russian forces.
Apr 05, 7:54 am
ICRC team released after being detained near Mariupol
The International Committee of the Red Cross said Tuesday its team has been released from detention after failing to reach the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol.
An ICRC team tasked with escorting evacuation buses to and from Mariupol “was stopped” and “held by police” on Monday in the town of Manhush, about 12 miles west of Mariupol. The team was released Monday night, according to an ICRC spokesperson.
“This is of great relief to us and to their families,” the spokesperson told ABC News in a statement Tuesday. “The team is focused now on continuing the humanitarian evacuation operation. This incident yesterday shows how volatile and complex the operation to facilitate safe passage around Mariupol has been for our team, who have been trying to reach the city since Friday.”
The ICRC didn’t specify which police force had detained its team. However, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said in a statement via Telegram on Tuesday that the ICRC team was being held by “the occupation authorities” in Manhush.
Apr 05, 7:20 am
Ukraine says seven humanitarian corridors have opened to evacuate Mariupol residents
Seven humanitarian corridors from the besieged Ukrainian city of Mariupol were opened Tuesday to evacuate some of the 130,000 remaining residents, according to Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk.
Vereshchuk said in a statement via Telegram that the seven evacuation routes will allow Mariupol residents — many of whom have been living without electricity, food, water or shelter — to be transported to the city of Zaporizhzhia, about 140 miles northwest of Mariupol.
Mariupol Mayor Vadym Boychenko confirmed on Monday that a convoy of seven buses escorted by the International Committee of the Red Cross could not make it into his southeastern port city to evacuate trapped residents. However, more than 1,500 residents were still able to flee Mariupol using a single humanitarian corridor meant for private cars, according to the mayor.
Apr 05, 6:40 am
Russian brigade accused of Bucha atrocities will be sent back to war, Ukrainian intelligence says
A brigade of the Russian Ground Forces accused of committing war crimes in the Ukrainian city of Bucha will be sent back to war, according to the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense.
“The Russian command will not rotate the personnel in this unit and will throw it back to the front,” the directorate said in a statement Tuesday.
As of Monday, Russia’s 64th Motor Rifle Brigade was withdrawn from Ukraine to Belarus, according to Ukrainian intelligence. By Wednesday, the personnel will be transported to the western Russian city of Belgorod, just north of the border with Ukraine, with plans to return to the front line in the direction of the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, according to Ukrainian intelligence.
“Usually, Russian units leaving the combat zone receive much more time for recovery and rest,” the directorate said. “This indicates that ‘special tasks’ are expected for the 64th Brigade. The first of them: intimidation of inhabitants of settlements of Ukraine. Those who committed the crimes of genocide in Bucha may repeat this again in other cities.”
“Another goal of the rapid return of the 64th Brigade to the territory of Ukraine is the rapid ‘disposal’ of unnecessary witnesses. That is, relocation to a part of the front where they will not have a chance to stay alive to make it impossible to testify in future courts,” the directorate added. “The personnel of the unit, aware of the resonance of the events in Bucha and the responsibility for the crimes committed, massively opposes the return to Ukraine. However, the Russian command ignores these sentiments and threatens the tribunal if they refuse to continue fighting. The militaries do not accept reports of dismissal from Russian soldiers.”
On Monday, the directorate published online what it said was a list with the names of hundreds of personnel of Russia’s 64th Motor Rifle Brigade whom they believe were directly responsible for the atrocities in Bucha. Ukrainian officials have said there is evidence of other Russian units being involved. Russia has denied the claims.
Apr 05, 6:06 am
Ukraine has retaken ‘key terrain’ from Russia, UK says
Ukrainian troops have retaken “key terrain” in the north of the country, “after denying Russia the ability to secure its objectives and forcing Russian forces to retreat” from areas around Chernihiv and north of Kyiv, the U.K. Ministry of Defense said in an intelligence update Tuesday.
“Low-level fighting is likely to continue in some parts of the newly recaptured regions, but diminish significantly over this week as the remainder of Russian forces withdraw,” the ministry added. “Many Russian units withdrawing from northern Ukraine are likely to require significant re-equipping and refurbishment before being available to redeploy for operations in eastern Ukraine.”
Latest Defence Intelligence update on the situation in Ukraine – 5 April 2022
Apr 05, 5:24 am
Peace talks may now be off the table, Zelenskyy says
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy indicated Tuesday that peace talks with Russia may now be off the table, following the gruesome discovery of scores of dead civilians in Bucha and other towns outside Ukraine’s capital that were recently recaptured from Russian forces.
“The most difficult thing is to talk about what they did,” Zelenskyy told reporters in Kyiv. “We believe that this is genocide. We believe that they should be punished for it.”
“I believe that we need to set such a bar for these negotiations,” he added. “It may happen that there will be no meeting.”
Zelenskyy’s comments came a day after he traveled to Bucha, northwest of Kyiv, where bodies in civilian clothes were found strewn in the streets and in mass graves. Many of the victims appeared to have been shot at close range and some even showed signs of torture. ABC News journalists on the ground saw some of the dead, including a family that locals said were executed with their hands bound.
Apr 05, 5:07 am
Russia threatens to fine Wikipedia if it doesn’t remove info about Ukraine war
Russia’s communications and media regulator, Roskomnadzor, is demanding that Wikipedia remove content that contradicts the Kremlin’s narrative about the war in Ukraine.
“Based on a motion from the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office, Roskomnadzor demanded on April 4 that the Wikipedia management put an end to the dissemination of false socially significant information,” the agency said in a statement Tuesday. “Materials containing false information about the special military operation in Ukraine and operations of the Russian Armed Forces have been massively published on Wikipedia in the recent period. Wikipedia has become a new line for continuous information attacks on Russians.”
Roskomnadzor accused the free online encyclopedia of “deliberately” misinforming Russian users. The agency noted that it has previously asked Wikipedia “to remove false information about events in Ukraine” and threatened to fine the San Francisco-based company up to 4 million rubles (about $47,000) for failing to delete such content, which is illegal under Russian law.
Apr 04, 10:54 pm
US cuts Russia off from dollars it holds at American financial institutions
The U.S. Treasury said Monday night that it would no longer allow the Russian government to make payments on debt using dollars it holds at U.S. financial institutions, another step that puts pressure on the Russian government’s funds.
This step “was in the works before the weekend and isn’t a response” to the atrocities in Bucha, according to a Treasury spokesperson.
“One of the most potent actions of the 700-plus sanctions we’ve imposed have been our sanctions on Russia’s Central Bank, which were levied with unprecedented multilateral coordination, speed, and impact,” the spokesperson said. “Today is the deadline for Russia to make another debt payment. Beginning today, the U.S. Treasury will not permit any dollar debt payments to be made from Russian government accounts at U.S. financial institutions.”
“Russia must choose between draining remaining valuable dollar reserves or new revenue coming in, or default,” the spokesperson continued. “This will further deplete the resources Putin is using to continue his war against Ukraine and will cause more uncertainty and challenges for their financial system.”
(NEW YORK) — Severe weather continues to strike the South with damaging winds, tornadoes and huge hail. At least two people have been killed in the storms.
Chunks of hail the size of golf balls were reported Monday night in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.
On Tuesday, severe thunderstorms moved into Georgia, South Carolina and Florida. In Pembroke, Georgia, a woman was killed Tuesday evening when her mobile home was destroyed by a possible tornado.
Two confirmed tornadoes already touched down early Tuesday in Texas, including one in Johnson County, near the town of Joshua, where one person died.
There were 21 reported tornadoes from late Monday through Tuesday from Mississippi to South Carolina. One of the radar confirmed tornadoes caused some structure and tree damage near the town of Newton, Mississippi, and Highway I-2.
In addition, officials in Allendale, South Carolina, told Savannah, Georgia, ABC affiliate WJCL-TV that three people were left with non-life-threatening injuries after a possible tornado.
Thousands are without power in Washington state as a major storm moved through the area, producing wind gusts near 81 mph.
As this storm system moves east, wind and snow alerts are issued from the Rockies into the Plains with high fire danger from Texas to South Dakota. Red flag warnings have been issued for the Plains where winds could gust up to 70 mph.
California’s first major heat wave of the season is expected soon; a heat advisory was issued for Los Angeles and San Diego with high wind alerts posted for the mountain areas.
The heat wave will begin Wednesday with highs in the lower to middle 90s.
