ROME, May 6 (Reuters) – The Italian government ordered police on Friday to impound a luxury yacht worth some $700 million that has been linked in the media to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The sleek, six-deck Scheherazade had been undergoing repairs in the Italian port of Marina di Carrara since September, but recent activity at the dockside suggested that the crew might be preparing to put to sea.
A source with direct knowledge of a weeks-long investigation into the vessel said police believed the owner was Eduard Khudainatov, the former chief of Russian energy giant Rosneft (ROSN.MM) who is not currently a target of EU sanctions.
In a statement announcing the seizure order, the finance ministry did not name the owner, saying only that he had ties to “prominent elements of the Russian government”.
The ministry said the owner himself was not on any sanctions lists drawn up by Brussels following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. However, it said Rome had asked Brussels to rectify this and had ordered the boat to be seized pending a decision.
Police boarded the yacht late on Friday to execute the order, the Italian government said.
In an address to the Italian parliament in March, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had urged the government to impound the yacht as part of a Europe-wide effort to pressure Putin and his associates to halt the assault on Ukraine.
Italy sequestered villas and yachts worth over 900 million euros ($950 million) in March and April from wealthy Russians, who regularly came to the country on holiday and had bought property in many prestigious locations.
However, police told Reuters they had struggled to identify the real owner of the Scheherazade, which is registered in the Cayman Islands and was built by the German firm Luerssen.
Delivered to its mystery owner in 2020, the yacht has two helicopter landing pads and can host up 18 guests and 40 crew.
An organisation set up by the imprisoned Alexei Navalny, a fierce Putin critic, released a report in March saying it had evidence that the boat belonged to Putin.
It said many of its crew were drawn from Russia’s Federal Protective Service (FSO), which is tasked with protecting the Russian president.
The Kremlin did not respond at the time to a request for a comment on whether Putin was the owner or on whether members of the FSO were crew members.
The end of a federal right to abortion in the US would have profound and detrimental impacts on medical education, the freedom to practice medicine and patients’ ability to seek medical advice without fear of prosecution, doctors and legal experts said.
The warnings come as a leaked supreme court draft opinion and accompanying reporting from Politico show a majority of justices voted to overturn Roe v Wade, a landmark decision that has protected the federal right to an abortion for nearly 50 years.
If the court’s opinion does not change substantially from the leaked draft, at least 26 states would be certain or likely to ban abortion. Until the court issues a final decision, expected in June, Roe prevents states hostile to abortion from banning the procedure before a fetus can survive outside the womb.
“If this decision ends up being similar to what [was leaked], this is going to substantially affect abortion care, obstetrics care and healthcare more generally,” said Dr Nisha Verma, a Darney-Landy fellow with the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
Such a decision would represent a seismic shift in the American healthcare landscape, with devastating consequences for medical care, education and the doctor-patient relationship.
“It really starts with doctors, because overturning Roe will have a severe chilling effect,” said Lindsay Lewis, co-author of a report by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers that studied the potential criminal effects of ending Roe, and a board member of the same organization.
Abortion restrictions are now more likely to contain extremely narrow exemptions to save the lives of pregnant people, severe criminal penalties for providers and to lack exemptions for rape and incest.
That puts doctors in the position of trying to interpret legislation that is often extremely narrow. In one recent example, an Oklahoma abortion ban makes performing an abortion a felony punishable by up to 10 years in prison. In addition, medical exemptions for the procedure are exceedingly narrow.
An abortion can be legally performed only in the event the medical emergency “cannot be remedied by the delivery of the child”. “Medical emergency” is strictly defined as when a threat to a person’s life “by a physical disorder, physical illness or physical injury including a life-endangering physical condition caused by or arising from the pregnancy itself”.
Functionally, these restrictions on medical exemptions have made new abortion bans much stricter than even some that existed before Roe was decided, when some states allowed women to seek clearance for an abortion from hospitals boards on the basis of psychological crises.
“For basically the past decade, or a little over the past decade, these exceptions have simply become so narrow as to be functionally unusable,” said Elizabeth Nash, an expert on state abortion restrictions at the Guttmacher Institute, a reproductive rights research organization. “There are very few people who meet these definitions.”
In another example, should Roe fall, doctors who perform an abortion against state law in Alabama could be face up to 99 years in prison.
“This has the potential to turn the doctor-patient relationship on its head,” said Lewis. Doctors may not feel comfortable advising women they could go to another state to seek abortions, while women may be uncomfortable being open about speaking about her considerations.
What’s more, tough-on-crime laws passed in the nearly 50 years since Roe was decided mean some zealous prosecutors could charge doctors, and a host of other people, with aiding and abetting, conspiracy or accomplice crimes related to the end of a pregnancy.
Abortion bans would also have a dramatic impact on medical education, in particular on residents in obstetrics and gynecology who are required to learn routine abortion care as part of training.
“Largely because of the politicization of obstetric and abortion care, the public sees these as two very different and separate things,” when in fact, “pregnancy management and pregnancy termination are very interconnected,” said Dr Kavita Vinekar, assistant professor at the University of California Los Angeles school of medicine and a fellow with Physicians for Reproductive Health. “A lot of the skills we use in obstetrics are directly related to the training we receive in abortion care.”
A study co-authored by Vinekar found that nearly half (44%) of obstetrics and gynecology residents, or about 2,600 residents, will attend programs in states that could outlaw abortion training.
Already, some programs have pioneered efforts to help residents from Texas, which banned abortion at six weeks in 2021 September, to travel to states where it is legal. But it is not simple or easy.
“I’m trying to think of ways to help, so there are not huge training and education deficits in our workforce, but I am also very nervous about it,” said Dr Jody Steinauer, a co-author of the study and director of the Ryan residency and training program at the Bixby Center for Global Reproductive Health at the University of California, San Francisco.
Additionally, Steinauer said she worries that workforce shortages will threaten pregnant people in states where abortion is banned, because few doctors will want to practice under the threat of prosecution, unable to provide safe, evidence-based care.
“Just the emotional distress factor would be enough to make people not want to practice in these states,” Steinauer said.
Existing abortion restrictions, even as Roe stands, means pregnant people may seek abortion care far from where they live. Verma has seen patients come to Georgia from Alabama and Tennessee, which have more restrictions. However, the threat of prosecution may pose a threat.
“In too many of these cases,” a person who was prosecuted “has come to the attention of law enforcement by someone from whom they’ve sought medical care,” said Jill Adams, executive director of If/When/How, a reproductive rights legal group.
Although anti-abortion lawmakers often argue they exempt women from punitive statutes, laws that confer rights on fetuses have already resulted in prosecutions. Those criminal sanctions are likely to expand should Roe fall.
That was probably the case for Lizelle Herrera, a Texas woman who was charged with murder for a “self-induced abortion”. Charges were later dropped – abortion is legal because Roe remains the law of the land – but historians warn the case is a forewarning of things to come. There is no requirement for healthcare providers to report pregnant people to law enforcement for self-managed abortions, which are legal.
“In a time when we’re trying to end mass incarceration, we will see far more women, far more people of color, far more poor people – these are the people we see getting abortions – being charged with crimes and going to jail simply for exercising what once was their right to determine what to do with their own bodies when it comes to pregnancy,” said Lewis.
WASHINGTON, May 6 (Reuters) – Justice Samuel Alito’s draft U.S. Supreme Court ruling that would overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion nationwide hinges on a contested historical review of restrictions on the procedure enacted during the 19th century.
Lawyers and scholars backing abortion rights have criticized Alito’s reading of history as glossing over disputed facts and ignoring relevant details as the conservative justice sought to demonstrate that a woman’s constitutional right to terminate a pregnancy was wrongly recognized in the Roe ruling.
Conservatives who oppose abortion rights have praised Alito’s opinion and argued that the Roe decision itself was based on a faulty reading of history.
The unprecedented leak this week of the draft before the nine justices have finalized their decision – due by the end of June – has given critics a chance to scrutinize a work in progress, hoping other justices will have second thoughts about joining Alito, thus changing the outcome of the momentous case.
Alito’s draft would uphold a Republican-backed Mississippi law – struck down by lower courts as a violation of the Roe precedent – banning abortions at 15 weeks of pregnancy.
His reasoning was that a right to abortion was not “deeply rooted in this nation’s history.” Alito relied upon a reading of state laws on the books in 1868 when the U.S. Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which among other things protects due process rights, took effect in the immediate aftermath of the U.S. Civil War and the end of slavery.
The Roe ruling found that the right to abortion arises from the 14th Amendment’s protection of due process rights, which the Supreme Court has found safeguards a person’s right to privacy.
To Alito, the scope of 14th Amendment rights must be considered in the context of the times in which it was devised. Alito wrote in his draft that when the 14th Amendment was ratified to protect the rights of former slaves, 28 of the then-37 U.S. states “had enacted statutes making abortion a crime” even early in a pregnancy. This shows, Alito argued, that there was no understanding at the time of any right to abortion.
Some lawyers who support abortion rights said many states lacked criminal abortion restrictions until the mid-19th century and some banned it only when performed at a point later in a pregnancy – known as “quickening” – when the woman could feel the fetus move, usually at four to five months of gestation.
Tracy Thomas, a professor at the University of Akron School of Law in Ohio, said Alito selectively cited history as presented by anti-abortion activists.
“We do have to interpret history, but we also have to see the nuance, and he is missing the nuance,” said Thomas, who favors abortion rights.
A brief filed in the case by groups representing historians supportive of abortion rights said that in 1868 “nearly half of the states continued either not to prohibit abortion entirely or to impose lesser punishments for abortions prior to quickening.”
Even in places where all abortions were banned, “ordinary citizens continued to believe that not all abortions were criminal and that women held the power to determine whether to terminate a pregnancy,” the brief said.
University of California, Davis School of Law professor Aaron Tang has argued that state laws enacted in the 19th century were not understood to ban abortion before quickening.
“There are huge risks trying to answer this 2022 question based on what happened in 1868,” Tang said.
Conservative scholars reject the idea that there was ever an implicit right to abortion. In a brief filed in the case, Princeton University’s Robert George, who opposes abortion rights, called it a “preposterous claim” and criticized the Roe ruling for relying on the work of the late scholar Cyril Means, an abortion rights supporter whose work Alito specifically rejected.
Some experts who back abortion rights said it is irrelevant what state laws were on abortion more than 150 years ago.
The Supreme Court has faced accusations of a selective reading of history before, notably when it found in 2008 that the Constitution’s Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms included an individual’s right to own a weapon for self-defense in the home.
The late Justice John Paul Stevens, who dissented in that case, later wrote of his disappointment of how the court’s majority handled the historical record, calling the ruling “the worst self-inflicted wound in the court’s history.”
David Garrow, a legal historian, said lawyers on both sides of the abortion debate have disregarded the practical reality that the procedure was commonplace even in states where it was banned when the 14th Amendment was added and that criminal prosecutions were rare.
“If you wanted to argue that abortion is deeply rooted in American history you don’t argue about state statutes,” Garrow said. “You argue about the evidence of demographic reality.”
Washington-based reporter covering legal affairs with a focus on the U.S. Supreme Court, a Pulitzer Prize winner for team project on how the defense of qualified immunity protects police officers accused of excessive force.
Atlanta (CNN)Chief Justice John Roberts said Thursday that the leak of a draft opinion that would strike down Roe v. Wade is “absolutely appalling” and stressed that he hopes “one bad apple” would not change “people’s perception” of the nation’s highest court and workforce.
Today, President Biden announced Karine Jean-Pierre has been promoted to be Assistant to the President and White House Press Secretary. Karine will step into the Press Secretary role replacing Jen Psaki, who will depart from the White House on May 13.
Statement from President Biden: “I am proud to announce that Karine Jean-Pierre will serve as the next White House Press Secretary.
“Karine not only brings the experience, talent and integrity needed for this difficult job, but she will continue to lead the way in communicating about the work of the Biden-Harris Administration on behalf of the American people. Jill and I have known and respected Karine a long time and she will be a strong voice speaking for me and this Administration.
“Jen Psaki has set the standard for returning decency, respect and decorum to the White House Briefing Room. I want to say thank you to Jen for raising the bar, communicating directly and truthfully to the American people, and keeping her sense of humor while doing so. I thank Jen her service to the country, and wish her the very best as she moves forward.”
The White House also announced the return of Anita Dunn as a Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President. Dunn rejoins the White House staff from her communications and political consulting firm SKDK, and will assist in advancing the President’s policy and communications objectives.
Karine Jean-Pierre, Press Secretary and Assistant to the President
Karine Jean-Pierre is currently the Principal Deputy Press Secretary and Deputy Assistant to the President. Karine is a long-time advisor to President Biden, having served in senior communication and political roles in the Biden Administration, the Biden campaign, and to then-Vice President Biden in the Obama Administration.
Prior to her role on the campaign, she served as Chief Public Affairs Officer for MoveOn.org and an NBC and MSNBC Political Analyst. Jean-Pierre served as Regional Political Director for the White House Office of Political Affairs during the Obama-Biden administration and as Deputy Battleground States Director for President Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign. She served as Southeast Regional Political Director for President Obama’s 2008 campaign, Deputy Campaign Manager for Martin O’Malley for President, Campaign Manager for the ACLU’s Reproductive Freedom Initiative, and Deputy Chief of Staff and Director of Legislative and Budget Affairs for two members in the New York City Council.
Previously, she worked at the Center for Community and Corporate Ethics, pushing major companies to change their business practices, and is a published author. Born in Martinique and raised in New York, Jean-Pierre is a graduate of Columbia University.
Anita Dunn, Senior Advisor and Assistant to the President
Anita Dunn is one of the nation’s top communications and political strategists, and is a close advisor to President Biden. She recently served as a Senior Advisor to President Biden, and is currently a partner and founding member of SKDK. She brings decades of experience advising Presidents and senior Democrats. She served as a chief strategist to President Obama as a senior campaign advisor and as the White House Communications Director. She has also worked in leading roles for Tom Daschle, Bill Bradley, and Evan Bayh.
As Senior Advisor to President Biden, Anita advised on the administration’s overall strategy and messaging, helping the President take steps and win legislative victories that helped jumpstart the economy after the pandemic. Prior to that, she served as a senior advisor on the Biden-Harris campaign, advising on all aspects of the campaign. At SKDK, Anita has worked with progressive and issue advocacy campaigns, given strategic advice to elected officials, political candidates, CEOs, nonprofits and corporations.
This is CNBC’s live blog tracking developments on the war in Ukraine. See below for the latest updates.
Russia’s progress in eastern and southern Ukraine is being closely monitored as its forces appear to have escalated assaults on those regions.
Having re-focused its attacks away from northern Ukraine and the capital Kyiv, Russian forces are now looking to take full control of the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine in order to create a land bridge from Russia to Crimea, territory it annexed in 2014.
In the latest update from the Ukrainian military, its spokesman said Russian forces “are focusing their efforts on blocking and trying to destroy Ukrainians units in the Azovstal” steelworks where soldiers and civilians have been holed up for up to two months.
“With the support of aircraft, the enemy resumed the offensive in order to take control of the plant,” Ukraine said in its update Thursday morning.
Another 344 civilians were evacuated from the city and suburbs of the southern port city of Mariupol and are on the way to the Ukraine-controlled city of Zaporizhzhia, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the Russians have made uneven progress in the Donbas region, following weeks of resupply and repositioning efforts. Nonetheless, the U.S. and its allies are rushing to send additional security assistance amid an intensified Russian assault in eastern and southern Ukraine.
U.S. intel helped Ukraine sink Russian flagship Moskva, officials say
Intelligence shared by the U.S. helped Ukraine sink the Russian cruiser Moskva, U.S. officials told NBC News, confirming an American role in perhaps the most embarrassing blow to Vladimir Putin’s troubled invasion of Ukraine.
A guided-missile cruiser carrying a crew of 510, the Moskva was the flagship of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet. It sank on April 14 after being struck by two Ukrainian Neptune anti-ship missiles, U.S. officials said. Moscow said the vessel sank after a fire.
The attack happened after Ukrainian forces asked the Americans about a ship sailing in the Black Sea south of Odesa, U.S. officials told NBC News. The U.S. identified it as the Moskva, officials said, and helped confirm its location, after which the Ukrainians targeted the ship.
The U.S. did not know in advance that Ukraine was going to target the Moskva, officials said, and was not involved in the decision to strike. Maritime intelligence is shared with Ukraine to help it defend against attack from Russian ships, officials added.
— Ken Dilanian, Courtney Kube and Carol E. Lee, NBC News
Russia’s war ‘must end,’ UN chief says he told Putin and Zelenskyy
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he told both Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin that the Kremlin’s invasion must end for the sake of the entire world.
“Throughout my travels, I did not mince words,” Guterres told the United Nations Security Council, following separate trips to the capitals of Russia and Ukraine.
“I said the same thing in Moscow as I did in Kyiv which is exactly what I have repeatedly expressed in New York. Namely that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is a violation of its territorial integrity and of the charter of the United Nations. It must end for the sake of the people of Ukraine, Russia, and the entire world,” he said.
Guterres said that one goal of his trip was to broker the safe passageway of Ukrainians trapped in a steel plant in Mariupol. He said that so far, nearly 500 civilians have been evacuated after living under relentless shelling and scarce availability of food and water.
Guterres said that a third evacuation was underway but declined to elaborate in order to “avoid undermining possible success.”
— Amanda Macias
UN says more evacuations are underway from bombarded Mariupol
The United Nations says a new “safe passage operation” is underway in and around the bombarded Ukrainian city of Mariupol.
Humanitarian spokesman Saviano Abreu tells The Associated Press the U.N. is working in coordination with the parties to the conflict and the International Committee of the Red Cross.
He says they will “share more information when the situation allows.” It is not clear how many people are part of the evacuation and Abreu would not say whether people at the Azovstal steel plant are involved.
A similar joint evacuation effort brought 101 civilians out of the plant over the weekend. Another brought out people from Mariupol and other communities on Wednesday.
— Associated Press
Pentagon denies sharing intelligence on location of Russian military leaders
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby denied that the U.S. military is giving Ukraine information on the location of senior Russian military leaders.
“We do not provide intelligence on the location of senior military leaders on the battlefield,” Kirby said during a daily press briefing.
Kirby said that the U.S. shares intelligence with Kyiv, but does not participate in the targeting process on the battlefield, a decision that only Ukrainian troops on the ground are able to make. Kirby added that multiple allies share information with Ukraine and that Ukrainian forces have a capable intelligence network of their own.
The New York Times previously reported that the U.S. was giving Ukraine data that helped it strike key Russian officers. CNBC and NBC News have not verified that reporting.
Following the publication of the piece by The New York Times, National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said that while the U.S. provides “battlefield intelligence” to the Ukrainians, it does not do so with the “intent to kill Russian generals.”
— Amanda Macias
Demining continues at an airport in the town of Hostomel
Demining and cleaning works continue at Antonov Airport in Hostomel.
-Dogukan Keskinkilic | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
Germany’s Scholz and Biden speak on additional support to Ukraine
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and U.S. President Joe Biden spoke about the ongoing Russian war in Ukraine.
“They agreed that Ukraine must continue to receive substantial and ongoing support in exercising its legitimate right to self-defense,” according to a German government spokesman providing a readout of the call.
“They condemned in the strongest possible terms recent statements by the Russian leadership to discredit the democratically legitimized Ukrainian leadership.”
The White House said that Biden and Scholz spoke for 30 minutes Thursday morning.
— Amanda Macias
UN agency calls for Ukraine ports to reopen for food shipments
The United Nations’ food aid agency is appealing for Black Sea ports in Ukraine to be open again to permit shipping of wheat and corn exports, which many poor nations depend on.
The Rome-based World Food Program noted in its appeal that before the war launched by Russia, 98% of Ukraine’s grain exports had moved through those ports.
It said in a statement that a month after the war began on Feb. 24, export prices for wheat had risen by 22% and maize by 20% — that’s on top of already steep rises in 2021 and earlier this year.
The U.N. agency says the ports, in Ukraine’s south, which has suffered from heavy shelling, must resume operations “to protect Ukrainian agricultural production and enable exports that are critical to Ukraine’s economy and global food security.” It cited war-ravaged, impoverished Yemen, which imports more than half of its wheat from Ukraine or Russia, and which depends on shipping for its food imports.
— Associated Press
U.S. announces nearly $387 million in humanitarian aid to Ukraine
The U.S. Agency for International Development is providing nearly $387 million in additional humanitarian assistance to Ukraine.
The aid, which is part of the more than $1 billion President Joe Biden previously said the U.S. was prepared to commit, will go to providing food to people in hard-to-reach areas inside Ukraine. The money will also help to provide safe drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene, along with critical medical supplies and health care, USAID said.
“The United States is the largest single-country donor of humanitarian assistance in Ukraine. Since Russia’s further invasion began on February 24, the United States has provided more than $688 million in humanitarian assistance to respond to the needs of people in Ukraine and those who have fled to neighboring countries,” the USAID statement added.
— Amanda Macias
First lady Jill Biden to visit Slovakia-Ukraine border crossing on Mother’s Day
First lady Jill Biden will visit the border of Slovakia and Ukraine on Sunday, Mother’s Day, the White House said.
Biden will travel to the “Slovakia-Ukraine border crossing in Vysne Nemecke, Slovakia, where Ukrainian refugees can enter Slovakia and receive basic services before moving on to processing centers or transit hubs further inside the country,” according to the White House.
The visit is part of a bigger trip the first lady is making to Eastern Europe. She will depart Thursday. The purpose of the travel is to highlight the plight of refugees from Ukraine, thank American service members stationed in NATO-allied countries and express gratitude for the work of volunteers and aid agencies, the White House said.
— Christina Wilkie
Zelenskyy speaks to UK’s Johnson about longer-range weapons for fight against Russia
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the 70th day of Russia’s war.
“The leaders discussed developments on the battlefield and the Ukrainian armed forces’ requirements, including the provision of longer-range weaponry to prevent the bombardment of civilians,” according to a Downing Street readout of the call.
Johnson also reiterated the importance of a “robust and independent international judicial process to ensure those responsible for atrocities in Ukraine are held to account.” The British leader also told Zelenskyy that the U.K. will continue to support war crimes evidence-gathering in Ukraine.
— Amanda Macias
Ukrainians attend a lesson on recognizing munitions and explosives in Lviv
A group of people, many refugees, attend a lesson on recognizing munitions and explosives, organized by the Main Directorate of the State Emergency Service of Ukraine in Lviv, Ukraine.
Many of those in attendance intend to return to their homes in the east and south of Ukraine. They hoped to teach themselves and their children what to look out for in the areas Russia has assaulted during its invasion.
Lviv has served as a stopover and shelter for the millions of Ukrainians fleeing the Russian invasion, either to the safety of nearby countries or the relative security of western Ukraine.
— Leon Neal | Getty Images
Garland meets with counterparts from exclusive Five Eyes intel sharing group
U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland met virtually with his Five Eyes counterparts and Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Iryna Venediktova to coordinate efforts to hold to account Russia and those who enable war crimes in Ukraine.
Venediktova briefed Garland and other top prosecutors from the ‘Five Eyes’ intel alliance, which includes the U.S., U.K., Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Garland updated the group on the Justice Department’s task force KleptoCapture aimed at tracking, identifying and seizing Russian assets belonging to sanctioned individuals.
The nation’s chief law enforcement officer also discussed the $33 billion supplemental budget request to support Ukraine would enhance the Justice Department’s ability to hold the Kremlin and Russian oligarchs accountable for the ongoing war in Ukraine.
“There is no hiding place for war criminals,” Garland wrote in a statement. “We will be relentless in our efforts to bring to justice those who facilitate the death and destruction we are witnessing in Ukraine,” he added.
— Amanda Macias
UN says 3,280 killed in Ukraine since start of war, warns death toll is likely higher
The United Nations has confirmed 3,280 civilian deaths, including at least 231 children, and 3,451 injuries in Ukraine since Russia invaded its ex-Soviet neighbor on Feb. 24.
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said the death toll in Ukraine is likely higher, because the armed conflict can delay reports.
The international body said most of the civilian casualties recorded were caused by the use of explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multiple launch rocket systems, as well as missiles and airstrikes.
— Amanda Macias
Fiji seizes $300 million superyacht belonging to Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov
The Justice Department estimates that Kerimov’s yacht is worth $300 million or more. The Cayman-flagged motor yacht is reported to have an interior layout that sleeps up to 16 guests in 8 cabins and is equipped with a helipad.
The move to confiscate the nearly 350-foot motor yacht Amadea in Lautoka, Fiji comes as Western governments intensify efforts to track, identify and seize assets around the globe belonging to sanctioned Russians with ties to the Kremlin.
The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, sanctioned Kerimov in 2018.
— Amanda Macias
Mariupol in ruins as Russia continues its attack on the city
Russian attacks continue in Mariupol, leaving damaged buildings and destruction.
Residents of the besieged city are trying to survive on their own and in evacuation camps.
— Getty Images
Ukrainians fleeing war face onerous process to enter the U.S.
Svitlana Rogers had been trying for weeks to bring her sister’s family — who had escaped Ukraine and was now living in Warsaw — to live with her and her family in Princeton, New Jersey.
Her congressional representatives all told her their hands were tied. Then came news from the White House: President Joe Biden announced a new process for Ukrainians to enter the U.S. via sponsorship by Americans.
“I immediately texted my sister when I heard the news,” Rogers said. “She was very happy.”
But when the website launched on April 25, they both realized how much work lay ahead and worried they wouldn’t be able to provide all the documentation that the government required. Not only did Rogers have to prove her own income, she had to show her sister’s family was healthy and on a good financial footing as well.
Unlike the traditional route for bringing refugees to the United States, where taxpayer money partially offsets living costs for the first few months, the Biden administration chose a model for Ukrainians fleeing the country’s war with Russia that only allows those who can be supported financially to come to enter the country.
Kremlin denies Russian troops tried to storm the Azovstal steelworks
The Kremlin has denied that Russian troops tried to storm Mariupol’s Azovstal steel plant, seen as the last stronghold for Ukrainian fighters in the southern port city, insisting that humanitarian corridors were still in operation there for civilians.
Ukrainian media reported last night that Russian troops had attempted to storm the plant, citing comments from a Ukrainian lawmaker. Several hundred civilians are believed to still be trapped in the steelworks, as well as soldiers.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin had not issued any new orders regarding the plant and that a previous instruction to blockade the plant, rather than to attack it, still stands.
“You were witnesses: publicly the President and the Commander-in-Chief [Putin] issued an order to refrain from the assault. No other orders were given,” Peskov said in response to a question from a reporter on whether Putin’s previous decree had been canceled, state news agency Tass reported.
On Wednesday, Peskov insisted that Russian troops were not storming the plant’s territory, “but were suppressing attempts by militants blocked there to reach firing points,” Tass reported.
— Holly Ellyatt
President Zelenskyy appeals for ceasefire to rescue Mariupol’s trapped civilians
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has appealed for a ceasefire to rescue civilians who are still trapped beneath the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol, saying they need to be dug out by hand.
“We hope to continue rescuing people from Azovstal, Mariupol. There are still civilians. Women, children,” Zelenskyy said in his morning address to the nation.
To save them, he said, there needs to be a cease-fire, with Ukraine ready to agree to one.
“It takes time to just lift people out of those basements, out of those underground shelters. In the current conditions, we cannot use special equipment to clear blockages,” he said, adding: “Everything is done manually.”
Two Russian villages shelled by Ukraine, governor claims
Two villages in Russia’s Belgorod region bordering Ukraine have been shelled by Ukraine, the region’s Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov claimed on Thursday.
“There is shelling from the Ukrainian side on Zhuravlyovka and Nekhoteevka,” he said, Reuters reported. Gladkov said there were no civilian casualties.
Russia had previously accused Ukraine of shelling towns within Russian territory, specifically those near the border.
Ukraine has not publicly admitted to targeting positions within Russia, although one of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s top advisors described such attacks several weeks ago as “karma.”
— Holly Ellyatt
Russia says it has killed 600 ‘nationalists’ in Ukraine
Russia has claimed to have “destroyed” 600 Ukrainian fighters it described as “nationalists” in its latest military update on Thursday. The term “nationalists” is routinely used by Russia to refer to Ukrainian soldiers, and is seen as a way to denigrate the country’s armed forces.
Russia’s Defense Ministry posted on Telegram that it had also destroyed aircraft equipment at the Kanatovo military airfield in the Kirovograd region, a large ammunition depot in the city of Nikolaev and a fuel storage facility for Ukrainian military equipment in the Nikolaev region.
Two warehouses of military equipment at a military airfield near Kramatorsk were also hit, it claimed.
CNBC was unable to immediately verify the information.
— Holly Ellyatt
Russia could use Belarusian military drills to divert Ukrainian forces, UK says
Russia is likely to use snap military drills by its ally Belarus as a way to divert Ukrainian forces away from Donbas in eastern Ukraine, the focus of Russian assaults, as it seeks to seize the entire region, according to the British Ministry of Defence.
“Russia will likely seek to inflate the threat posed to Ukraine by these exercises in order to fix Ukrainian forces in the North, preventing them from being committed to the battle for the Donbas,” the ministry said in its latest intelligence update on Twitter this morning.
Belarus announced it was beginning combat-readiness drills yesterday, saying the purpose of the exercises was “to assess the readiness and ability of personnel to quickly respond to possible crises.” The move raised speculation that Belarus might join Russia’s war effort in a potential renewed assault on northern Ukraine. Belarus insisted there was no threat to its European neighbors.
The U.K.’s Defence Ministry said Thursday that Belarusian land forces “have been observed deploying from garrison to the field, for exercises” and that this is in line with seasonal norms as Belarus enters the culmination of its winter training cycle in the month of May.
“Deviation from normal exercise activity that could pose a threat to allies and partners is not currently anticipated,” the ministry added.
— Holly Ellyatt
Russian forces renew attacks to seize Ukraine’s last stronghold in Mariupol
Russian forces have reportedly renewed their assault on the Azovstal steelworks complex, a last stronghold for Ukrainian fighters in the southern port city of Mariupol, in what is widely seen as a bid to bring the standoff to an end.
In the latest update from the Ukrainian military, its spokesman said Russian forces “are focusing their efforts on blocking and trying to destroy Ukrainians units in the Azovstal” steelworks.
“With the support of aircraft, the enemy resumed the offensive in order to take control of the plant,” Ukraine said in its update Thursday morning.
CNBC was unable to immediately verify the information.
Hundreds of civilians, including the elderly and children, have been sheltering in the network of underground tunnels and bunkers underneath the steelworks. After a number of failed attempts to evacuate civilians, several hundred have been evacuated to the relative safety of the Ukrainian-controlled Zaporhizhia in recent days.
— Holly Ellyatt
Russia is striking civilian targets to ‘weaken Ukrainian resolve,’ British government says
Moscow is trying to “weaken Ukrainian resolve” by striking civilian targets in Ukraine, the British government said on Wednesday night.
“As Russian operations have faltered, non-military targets including schools, hospitals, residential properties and transport hubs have continued to be hit, indicating Russia’s willingness to target civilian infrastructure in an attempt to weaken Ukrainian resolve,” the U.K. Ministry of Defence said.
The U.K. ministry said in an intelligence update that Russian ground operations are focusing on the eastern part of Ukraine, but missile strikes continue across the country because Moscow wants to disrupt the Ukrainians’ ability to resupply their troops in the east.
The press office of the Russian Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Moscow has repeatedly denied that it strikes civilian targets, though such attacks have been widely documented. Russian instead accuses Ukraine of attacking civilian targets.
The British ministry said Russia is attacking cities including Odesa, Kherson and Mariupol in order to take over Ukraine’s Black Sea coastline and cut off its sea line of communication and maritime trade.
This is the second batch of people rescued from the besieged Ukrainian city following the evacuation of 156 women and children from the Azovstal steel plant who arrived in Zaporizhzhia on Wednesday.
“All of them will receive the most caring treatment from our state,” Zelenskyy said.
Russia’s attempt to take over Mariupol has led to grim conditions in the city where thousands are running out of food, water and medical aid, as civilians and soldiers are holed up in the Azovstal steel plant – the last stronghold for fighters in the heavily bombarded city.
— Chelsea Ong
Russian forces largely stalled in eastern and southern Ukraine, Pentagon says
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the Russians have made uneven progress in the Donbas region of Ukraine, following weeks of resupply and reposition efforts.
“Russians have not made the kind of progress in the Donbas and in the south that we believe they wanted to make,” Kirby said during a daily Pentagon press briefing. “We do believe they’re behind schedule. We do believe it has been slow at every turn and they have met a stiff Ukrainian resistance,” he added.
Kirby’s comments come as the U.S. and its allies rush to send additional security assistance ahead of what was believed to be an intensifed Russia surge in eastern and southern Ukraine. On Tuesday, President Joe Biden called on Congress to quickly pass $33 billion in additional U.S. security assistance to Ukraine.
Biden’s latest military aid package of $800 million announced on April 21, the eighth such installment of security assistance, brings U.S. commitment to $3.4 billion since Russia’s late February invasion.
Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the minority leader, and other top Republicans have mostly refrained from boasting about the impending demise of Roe since the draft opinion surfaced, focusing instead on the unprecedented Supreme Court leak. Their responses suggest that they, too, see the potential for a battle over abortion rights to hurt their party ahead of the midterm congressional elections, and are working to reframe the issue to their advantage by portraying Democrats as extreme on the subject.
Democrats on Thursday dismissed the leak as a minor infraction compared with the substance of the document that was revealed. More concerning to them than a breach at the court, they said, was the fact that Trump-appointed Supreme Court justices appeared to have misled them during their confirmation hearings when they stated that Roe v. Wade was an important precedent.
“If you want to talk about process, I would focus on that process,” said Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, Democrat of New York, referring to statements made by Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh and others on the issue of abortion rights as “fraudulent testimony.”
Democrats said their bill had gained urgency since the last time they tried to take it up in February. Back then, the threat to abortion rights was more theoretical. Now, they said, it has taken on new significance with the end to a constitutional right suddenly imminent.
They have also altered the measure in an effort to garner more support among Republicans who back abortion rights, removing a lengthy series of findings, including passages that referred to abortion restrictions as “a tool of gender oppression” and as being “rooted in misogyny.” Also scrapped was a section clarifying that while the bill refers to women, it is meant to protect the rights of “every person capable of becoming pregnant,” including transgender men and nonbinary individuals.
Understand the State of Roe v. Wade
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What was the case about? The ruling struck down laws in many states that had barred abortion, declaring that they could not ban the procedure before the point at which a fetus can survive outside the womb. That point, known as fetal viability, was around 28 weeks when Roe was decided. Today, most experts estimate it to be about 23 or 24 weeks.
What would happen if Roe were overturned? Individual states would be able to decide whether and when abortions would be legal. The practice would likely be banned or restricted heavily in about half of them, but many would continue to allow it. Thirteen states have so-called trigger laws, which would immediately make abortion illegal if Roe were overturned.
But the fundamentals of the bill remain the same. It states that health care providers have a legal right to perform abortions, and patients to receive them, and would expressly nullify a wide range of requirements, restrictions and bans.
Democrats had hoped that removing the nonbinding findings could win over Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, two Republicans who support abortion rights.
The future of abortion in the U.S. is moving to the mailbox.
Medication abortion, in which a woman takes two drugs to terminate an early pregnancy at home, became the most commonly used method in the U.S. during the pandemic, particularly after the FDA stopped requiring the prescription be dispensed at a healthcare facility rather than delivered directly to a user. International online pharmacies ship them without a prescription at all.
“We see medication abortion as being a potentially transformative and disruptive technology in the face of these unjust laws that are being passed,” said Elisa Wells, co-founder and co-director of Plan C, a website that provides information on finding and using the medication. “It is a bit of a safety net, potentially.”
The Future of Abortion
One in an occasional series of stories about the state of abortion as Roe vs. Wade faces its most serious challenge.
Medication can be shipped discreetly in some cases evading detection from those who hope to ban its use. It is so hard to track that statistics on the number of so-called self-managed medication abortions — those conducted without a prescription or a doctor’s guidance — are not well known.
“It will be very different from the pre-Roe era when abortion was illegal in that it’s harder to restrict pills,” said Dr. Daniel Grossman, an abortion provider and director of Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health at UC San Francisco. “It’s easier to potentially access them through various channels. And the pills are very safe and effective, unlike other methods of unsafe abortion or methods that people might have used on their own in the 1960s.”
In light of the possible end of Roe vs. Wade, Gov. Newsom calls California a ‘beacon of hope’ to residents of other states.
But just as abortion rights supporters look to shore up access to medication abortion, antiabortion groups are focusing on enacting additional state restrictions on pills, making medication the next battleground in the decades-long cultural standoff over abortion.
“It’s one of our biggest priorities and it’s certainly something that a lot of states are thinking about much more than they were three years ago,” said Katie Glenn, government affairs counsel at Americans United for Life, a law firm that opposes abortion and advises states on legislation. “We saw a huge uptick in the pill use during COVID.”
The process of a medication abortion consists of two drugs taken in succession. Mifepristone is taken first to block the effects of progesterone, a hormone needed to sustain a pregnancy. The second medication, misoprostol, is taken one to two days later to generate the cramping and bleeding that mimics an early miscarriage.
Here are the basics on the Supreme Court’s upcoming ruling on abortion.
A 2015 study showed that at nine weeks of pregnancy or less, medication abortion was successful 99.6% of the time.
Even so, medication abortion “is not a solution to the problem” of a Supreme Court ruling that undermines abortion rights, Grossman said.
Obstacles include the drug’s costs, shipping delays, potential legal risks and pregnancies that fall outside of the recommended 10-week window for using pills. A medication abortion also takes longer than an in-office procedure and sometimes patients worry they used them incorrectly.
But in states that plan to limit or ban abortion — more than two dozen in the South and portions of the Mountain West have already done so or plan to — medication abortion is likely to be one of the few remaining options.
PlanCPills.org runs through the practical options for residentsof every state, though in some cases, shipping drugs or taking them may violate local laws.
For instance, a patient in Texas — where abortion is banned after fetal cardiac activity is detected, or about 6 weeks of pregnancy — could drive across the border into New Mexico and conduct a telehealth appointment with a doctor there. The pills can be shipped to a friend in New Mexico or a temporary mailbox the patient has set up in the state and forwarded to Texas. Or a patient could stay in Texas and directly buy the drugs from an online pharmacy at a cost of $200 to $500.
Established as President Trump took office on a vow to only appoint antiabortion justices, Plan C was inspired by watching how accessible abortion pills were in other countries, such as Ethiopia, where pharmacies sold them for $7 without a prescription, Wells said.
Abortion rights are being undone bit by bit in many Southern and Midwest states through new restrictions in anticipation of Roe vs. Wade’s reversal.
In the U.S. at the time, the medication could cost several hundred dollars and required an in-person visit with a doctor and a prescription.
Once the FDA dropped the in-person requirement at the start of the COVID-19 crisis, medication abortions overtook in-clinic procedures as the most common method of abortion in the United States, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a research group that supports abortion rights.
The impending Supreme Court decision and move by states to curtail abortion access only fueled more interest in the medication. Before the enactment of the Texas 6-week abortion ban, Wells’ site got about 500 visitors per day. After enactment, that figure shot up to 25,000 and has since settled at about 2,000, she said.
The Republican Party, evangelical Christianity and the antiabortion movement have long been inextricably linked. Some Christians want to change that.
At Aid Access, perhaps the best-known medication abortion site, U.S. users are put in touch with a European healthcare provider and can get a prescription filled at a pharmacy in India. It costs $110 and delivery takes up to four weeks.
Conservative states are already moving to restrict the ease with which abortion pills can be dispensed.
South Dakota required four trips to a clinic to get a medication abortion, but the rule was blocked by the courts. A Texas law prohibits medication abortion after seven weeks of pregnancy, even though the FDA says 10.
Nineteen states prohibit pills from being prescribed via telehealth appointments or delivered in the mail, and 32 states restrict which healthcare professionals can prescribe abortion pills, according to Guttmacher.
Mailing abortion pills to a patient is banned in Arizona, Arkansas and Texas. Similar bans exist in Montana, Oklahoma and South Dakota, but were blocked by the courts.
Just this year, more than a dozen states introduced bans or restrictions on medication abortion, including complete bans on medication abortion, a prohibition on mailing pills or a ban on using telehealth to provide it.
Others are focusing on banning all self-managed abortions. The practice is illegal in Nevada, South Carolina and Oklahoma, but patients have been arrested in other states, too. Most recently, a Texas woman, Lizelle Herrera, was charged with murder because she self-managed an abortion. The charges were later dropped and a Texas district attorney made clear she didn’t violate any laws.
Abortion opponents are encouraging states to turn their focus to banning early abortions, when medication is most often used.
Defiant state leaders stood ready Tuesday to protect residents and nonresidents alike from any federal rollbacks of abortion rights.
“Some states will only go as far as banning second and third trimester abortions, making those unavailable in their state. But the majority — 90% plus — abortions are happening in the first trimester,” Kristan Hawkins, president of the activist group Students for Life. “We really have to be making our case to the American people why these abortions are just as equally as gruesome as a later term abortion.”
Enforcing state laws on medication abortions will likely be more difficult, particularly when the process occurs online rather than at a clinic or doctor’s office.
But abortion rights supporters nevertheless worry about the chilling effect the laws may have on women wishing to end a pregnancy, and on healthcare providers who may feel they have to report suspected abortion cases or face their own legal trouble.
The EMAA Project, a group that advocates for medication abortion care, is having preliminary conversations with the Biden administration on what can be done to bolster access, according to the group’s director, Kirsten Moore.
With the Supreme Court expected to rule on Roe vs. Wade in the coming months, a Colorado abortion provider has recommitted himself to what he says is his life’s work: helping women.
In addition to dropping the in-person dispensing requirement, the FDA has said it will certify pharmacies that want to dispense medication abortion, in line with the FDA’s strict rules that govern its use.
But states that oppose abortion have already indicated they plan to issue their own requirements associated with such certification.
Moore’s concern is that any steps that the Biden FDA takes to bolster access to medication abortion may be undone by a future Republican president. Still, she’s hoping there are small steps that can be taken, such as pressing insurers to cover the drugs, even as the rise of medication abortions takes the legal and political fight into a new terrain.
“There is no obvious, one, two, three things to solve the problem,” she said. “We’re going to have to be really creative. And it may only be helpful on the margins — which may be important margins.”
An imposing, “unscalable” eight-foot-high fence has been erected at the U.S. Supreme Court in the wake of protests over a bombshell draft opinion on abortion.
The leaked ruling, not yet final but confirmed to be authentic by the court, indicated its conservative majority is poised to overturn Roe v. Wade — the landmark decision that has guaranteed a woman’s right to abortion for almost the past 50 years.
Abortion rights activists — and some anti-abortion protesters — have rallied at the Supreme Court each day since Politico reported the draft document on Monday, including the preliminary votes of the majority.
Protesters on both sides of the issue gathered again in front of the building around noon on Thursday after the fence was put up overnight.
Neither the Supreme Court nor Capitol Police have said anything publicly about possible threats to the court or the justices.
The protests outside the court’s marble front steps have been largely peaceful, prompting some to question why the new security barrier — reminiscent of the unscalable fencing placed around the U.S. Capitol after the violence of Jan. 6, 2021 — is necessary.
John Becker, a spokesperson at Catholics For Choice, said the measures appear “ominous and disproportionate to what has actually been transpiring on that plaza.”
But the court has often been a magnet for threats and security concerns. Just two weeks ago, a man reportedly described as an environmental activist died after setting himself on fire on the court’s front plaza, possibly related to his views on climate change.
A Supreme Court spokeswoman declined to comment on the fencing, citing a longstanding policy of not discussing security operations.
The justices are scheduled to next meet in person for a private conference on May 12. A final decision in the abortion case, which centers on a Mississippi law banning the procedure after 15 weeks of pregnancy, is expected by the end of June or early July.
In the draft opinion, dated Feb. 10, Justice Samuel Alito wrote, “Roe was egregiously wrong from the start,” adding, “We hold that Roe and Casey must be overruled.”
If the draft document by Alito were to hold as written, access to abortion across the country could be upended. Thirteen states have so-called “trigger laws” in place to swiftly ban abortion if Roe v. Wade is repealed.
Democrats on Capitol Hill are working to bring forward legislation to codify abortion rights at the federal level. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he plans to hold a vote as soon as next week.
The House of Representatives passed the Women’s Health Protection Act to codify Roe last fall but the bill has stalled in the Senate. Any other legislation would likely meet a similar fate in the evenly divided chamber.
The Supreme Court’s leaked opinion draft’s language has sparked concern that other unenumerated rights may be at stake, including gay marriage and contraception.
“This is about a lot more than abortion,” President Joe Biden said while giving remarks at the White House on Wednesday.
“What are the next things that are going to be attacked?” Biden asked. “Because this MAGA crowd is really the most extreme political organization that’s existed in American history — in recent American history.”
The court confirmed the draft was authentic on Tuesday, and Roberts stated he’s directed the start of an investigation into the leak. Supreme Court Marshall Gail Curley, a career Army lawyer, will lead the probe.
“We at the Court are blessed to have a workforce — permanent employees and law clerks alike — intensely loyal to the institution and dedicated to the rule of law. Court employees have an exemplary and important tradition of respecting the confidentiality of the judicial process and upholding the trust of the Court,” Roberts said in a statement. “This was a singular and egregious breach of that trust that is an affront to the Court and the community of public servants who work here.”
ABC News’ Devin Dwyer and Luke Barr contributed to this report.
At least three people were killed and four injured in a suspected terror attack in the central Israeli city of Elad on Thursday, according to Israel’s emergency response services.
Police said the incident, which took place on Israeli Independence Day, involved two suspected attackers. One fired a rifle while the other attacked people with an axe or a knife, police said.
The suspects have still not been apprehended, according to Israeli police, who urged the public to stay away from the scene.
“At this point, security crossings have been deployed on various roads, together with a helicopter, searching for a vehicle that was seen fleeing the scene,” a police spokesperson said.
Pictures from the scene showed multiple emergency vehicles including ambulances and motorcycles.
Two of the wounded have arrived at Beilinson hospital, the hospital said. One is in critical condition and one in serious condition, it said.
“This is a very difficult event. When we arrived at the place we noticed that it was a complex scene,” Alon Rizkan, a paramedic from Israel’s emergency response service Magen David Adom (MDA), said in a statement.
All three of the dead were men in their 40s, Rizkan said.
Two men, aged 60 and 35, are seriously injured, Rizkan said. A 40-year-old man was moderately injured and a 23-year-old man was lightly injured fighting the attackers, he added.
The attack marks the latest in a series of violent incidents that have put Israel and the Palestinian territories on edge in recent weeks.
Dozens have died in attacks in Israel and the West Bank since March 22, according to a CNN count.
In one incident, two people were killed and more than a dozen others were wounded in a shooting at a bar in a busy area of Tel Aviv.
And over the course of just one week in March, 11 people were killed in three attacks in Israeli towns and cities.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas condemned Thursday’s violence, his office said in a statement.
“The killing of Palestinian and Israeli civilians only leads to a further deterioration of the situation at a time when we all strive to achieve stability and prevent escalation,” Abbas said in the statement.
Abbas warned against Jewish settlers using the incident as an excuse “to carry out attacks and reactions against our Palestinian people.”
He added that the “lasting, comprehensive and just peace is the shortest and best way to provide security and stability for the Palestinian and Israeli peoples and the peoples of the region.”
Late Thursday, Palestinian militant groups in Gaza, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, praised the suspected terror attack, without explicitly taking credit for it.
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum linked the attack to clashes at Jerusalem’s al Aqsa mosque compound.
“This is a brave and heroic act that comes as a natural response to the violations of the occupation against al Aqsa Mosque,” he told CNN, referring to the presence of Israeli security in the compound.
The attack “sends a message to the occupation that all its crimes and violations will only return to it,” he said, referring to Israel. “Our natural right is for our people to respond to the crimes of the occupation, to deter it, and to defend our rights. Today, the occupation is paying the bill for its violations.”
Islamic Jihad political bureau member Muhammad Hamid Abu Al-Hassan congratulated the attackers.
“The desecration of the occupation army and settler gangs of al Aqsa Mosque crossed all red lines, and our people will continue to respond to this aggression,” he said, a nod to clashes that occurred at the compound on Thursday.
Only Muslims are allowed to visit the holy site, called the Temple Mount by Jews and Haram al-Sharif or Noble Sanctuary by Muslims, during the last 10 days of Ramadan each year. Groups of Israeli Jews began visiting again on Thursday.
US State Department spokesperson Ned Price said that Thursday’s suspected terror attack appears to be “the latest in a what has been a string of despicable terrorist attacks that have rocked Israel in recent weeks.”
“We saw them in advance of this holy period – the confluence of Easter, of Passover, of Ramadan. We saw them in advance of the Negev Summit. And if this is what it appears to be, it is something that we would condemn in strongest terms,” Price said.
“Our commitment to our Israeli partners, to Israel’s security, that is ironclad, and we’ll provide any and all assistance that may be required in this case,” he added.
CNN’s Jennifer Hansler and Jorge Engels contributed reporting.
“We know that this is a long game,” Ms. Post said. “Our goal is to slowly chip away at Republican power in the states.”
The memo’s cautious tone reflects the defensive crouch Democrats find themselves in amid soaring inflation and doggedly low approval ratings for President Biden — two confounding factors strategists often refer to euphemistically as “the environment.” One of the party’s greatest fears is that many of the voters who turned out for Mr. Biden in 2020, frustrated by his performance in office, will stay home in 2022.
Justice Alito’s leaked draft “has the potential to be a watershed moment in a midterm cycle where Democrats face a historically difficult political environment and defeat looms large in tough races,” wrote Molly Murphy, a Democratic pollster, in a memo shared by a Democratic colleague.
The memo urges Democrats to tell voters that Republicans are pushing to take away an existing right, while cautioning against “overreach” by seeking to change the status quo on abortion law.
“The Supreme Court decision means that each state will now be allowed to criminalize abortion and ban it even in cases of rape, incest and life of the mother,” Ms. Murphy wrote.
Other indicators of abortion’s potential impact on state legislative races are more anecdotal in nature. Amanda Litman, a co-founder of Run for Something, which recruits young progressives to run for office, said her group had seen “a meaningful spike in candidate recruitment” since Justice Alito’s draft leaked.
“I expect this is only the beginning,” Ms. Litman added.
Gaby Goldstein, a co-founder of Sister District, a progressive group that backs Democrats in state legislative races, predicted that the “vitriol” and sweeping scope of the draft opinion could also enlist other communities, such as L.G.B.T.Q. voters, to embrace the cause of reproductive rights as their own.
A person holds a sign during a rally in front of the Supreme Court on Tuesday in response to its leaked draft decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
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A person holds a sign during a rally in front of the Supreme Court on Tuesday in response to its leaked draft decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
Alex Wong/Getty Images
The leaked draft opinion from the Supreme Court indicating it could overturn Roe v. Wade means that millions of women in more than half of U.S. states could either lose the ability to get an abortion or see their access drastically rolled back.
It would be a major shift in abortion law in the U.S., but human rights advocates say such a move could also weaken reproductive rights across the world.
The move would “damage the global perception of the United States,” Amnesty International’s secretary-general, Agnès Callamard, said in a statement. It would also “set a terrible example that other governments and anti-rights groups could seize upon around the world in a bid to deny the rights of women, girls and other people who can become pregnant,” she said.
Many countries, including some with large Catholic populations, have actually been making it easier to get an abortion in recent years.
Ireland legalized abortion in 2019, Argentina legalized it in 2020 and Mexico‘s Supreme Court voted to decriminalize abortion last year. In February, Colombia‘s highest court legalized abortion until 24 weeks of pregnancy.
But with the U.S. poised to upend the nearly half-century-long constitutional protection for abortions, advocates warn that repressive governments across the globe could use the move to justify future crackdowns on their citizens.
The Supreme Court’s draft opinion is a “step in a very dangerous direction for everyone in the United States and a frightening signal to authoritarians around the world that they can strip long-established rights from their countries’ people,” said Licha Nyiendo, chief legal officer of the group Human Rights First, in a statement.
It could lead some countries to adopt new restrictive laws, said Tarah Demant, Amnesty International’s interim national director for programs, advocacy and government affairs. Other countries could point to the U.S. to legitimize their own policies restricting reproductive rights, she told NPR.
For example, she said Poland, which has faced significant criticism from the European Union over its near-total ban on abortion, would be able to argue that the U.S., a close ally, has done much the same.
“You’re looking at an emboldened anti-rights movement,” Demant said.
She said striking down Roe v. Wade would also erode the steady progress made in the global push for greater abortion rights.
“Women and people who can get pregnant have been fighting for decades globally for the most basic right to health care, to be able to control their bodies,” Demant said.
“And here, the United States, where we have had this basic protection, though it’s never been enough, is rolling it back. What a slap in the face to the generations of people who fought for this right. To backslide at this level … it’s unimaginable,” she added.
This is CNBC’s live blog tracking developments on the war in Ukraine. See below for the latest updates.
Russia’s progress in eastern and southern Ukraine is being closely monitored as its forces appear to have escalated assaults on those regions.
Having re-focused its attacks away from northern Ukraine and the capital Kyiv, Russian forces are now looking to take full control of the Donbas region in eastern Ukraine in order to create a land bridge from Russia to Crimea, territory it annexed in 2014.
In the latest update from the Ukrainian military, its spokesman said Russian forces “are focusing their efforts on blocking and trying to destroy Ukrainians units in the Azovstal” steelworks where soldiers and civilians have been holed up for up to two months.
“With the support of aircraft, the enemy resumed the offensive in order to take control of the plant,” Ukraine said in its update Thursday morning.
Another 344 civilians were evacuated from the city and suburbs of the southern port city of Mariupol and are on the way to the Ukraine-controlled city of Zaporizhzhia, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address.
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the Russians have made uneven progress in the Donbas region, following weeks of resupply and repositioning efforts. Nonetheless, the U.S. and its allies are rushing to send additional security assistance amid an intensified Russian assault in eastern and southern Ukraine.
UN says 3,280 killed in Ukraine since start of war, warns death toll is likely higher
The United Nations has confirmed 3,280 civilian deaths, including at least 231 children, and 3,451 injuries in Ukraine since Russia invaded its ex-Soviet neighbor on Feb. 24.
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights said the death toll in Ukraine is likely higher, because the armed conflict can delay reports.
The international body said most of the civilian casualties recorded were caused by the use of explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multiple launch rocket systems, as well as missiles and airstrikes.
— Amanda Macias
Fiji seizes $300 million superyacht belonging to Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov
The Justice Department estimates that Kerimov’s yacht is worth $300 million or more. The Cayman-flagged motor yacht is reported to have an interior layout that sleeps up to 16 guests in 8 cabins and is equipped with a helipad.
The move to confiscate the nearly 350-foot motor yacht Amadea in Lautoka, Fiji comes as Western governments intensify efforts to track, identify and seize assets around the globe belonging to sanctioned Russians with ties to the Kremlin.
The Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC, sanctioned Kerimov in 2018.
— Amanda Macias
Mariupol in ruins as Russia continues its attack on the city
Russian attacks continue in Mariupol, leaving damaged buildings and destruction.
Residents of the besieged city are trying to survive on their own and in evacuation camps.
— Getty Images
Ukrainians fleeing war face onerous process to enter the U.S.
Svitlana Rogers had been trying for weeks to bring her sister’s family — who had escaped Ukraine and was now living in Warsaw — to live with her and her family in Princeton, New Jersey.
Her congressional representatives all told her their hands were tied. Then came news from the White House: President Joe Biden announced a new process for Ukrainians to enter the U.S. via sponsorship by Americans.
“I immediately texted my sister when I heard the news,” Rogers said. “She was very happy.”
But when the website launched on April 25, they both realized how much work lay ahead and worried they wouldn’t be able to provide all the documentation that the government required. Not only did Rogers have to prove her own income, she had to show her sister’s family was healthy and on a good financial footing as well.
Unlike the traditional route for bringing refugees to the United States, where taxpayer money partially offsets living costs for the first few months, the Biden administration chose a model for Ukrainians fleeing the country’s war with Russia that only allows those who can be supported financially to come to enter the country.
Kremlin denies Russian troops tried to storm the Azovstal steelworks
The Kremlin has denied that Russian troops tried to storm Mariupol’s Azovstal steel plant, seen as the last stronghold for Ukrainian fighters in the southern port city, insisting that humanitarian corridors were still in operation there for civilians.
Ukrainian media reported last night that Russian troops had attempted to storm the plant, citing comments from a Ukrainian lawmaker. Several hundred civilians are believed to still be trapped in the steelworks, as well as soldiers.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Thursday that Russian President Vladimir Putin had not issued any new orders regarding the plant and that a previous instruction to blockade the plant, rather than to attack it, still stands.
“You were witnesses: publicly the President and the Commander-in-Chief [Putin] issued an order to refrain from the assault. No other orders were given,” Peskov said in response to a question from a reporter on whether Putin’s previous decree had been canceled, state news agency Tass reported.
On Wednesday, Peskov insisted that Russian troops were not storming the plant’s territory, “but were suppressing attempts by militants blocked there to reach firing points,” Tass reported.
— Holly Ellyatt
President Zelenskyy appeals for ceasefire to rescue Mariupol’s trapped civilians
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has appealed for a ceasefire to rescue civilians who are still trapped beneath the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol, saying they need to be dug out by hand.
“We hope to continue rescuing people from Azovstal, Mariupol. There are still civilians. Women, children,” Zelenskyy said in his morning address to the nation.
To save them, he said, there needs to be a cease-fire, with Ukraine ready to agree to one.
“It takes time to just lift people out of those basements, out of those underground shelters. In the current conditions, we cannot use special equipment to clear blockages,” he said, adding: “Everything is done manually.”
Two Russian villages shelled by Ukraine, governor claims
Two villages in Russia’s Belgorod region bordering Ukraine have been shelled by Ukraine, the region’s Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov claimed on Thursday.
“There is shelling from the Ukrainian side on Zhuravlyovka and Nekhoteevka,” he said, Reuters reported. Gladkov said there were no civilian casualties.
Russia had previously accused Ukraine of shelling towns within Russian territory, specifically those near the border.
Ukraine has not publicly admitted to targeting positions within Russia, although one of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s top advisors described such attacks several weeks ago as “karma.”
— Holly Ellyatt
Russia says it has killed 600 ‘nationalists’ in Ukraine
Russia has claimed to have “destroyed” 600 Ukrainian fighters it described as “nationalists” in its latest military update on Thursday. The term “nationalists” is routinely used by Russia to refer to Ukrainian soldiers, and is seen as a way to denigrate the country’s armed forces.
Russia’s Defense Ministry posted on Telegram that it had also destroyed aircraft equipment at the Kanatovo military airfield in the Kirovograd region, a large ammunition depot in the city of Nikolaev and a fuel storage facility for Ukrainian military equipment in the Nikolaev region.
Two warehouses of military equipment at a military airfield near Kramatorsk were also hit, it claimed.
CNBC was unable to immediately verify the information.
— Holly Ellyatt
Russia could use Belarusian military drills to divert Ukrainian forces, UK says
Russia is likely to use snap military drills by its ally Belarus as a way to divert Ukrainian forces away from Donbas in eastern Ukraine, the focus of Russian assaults, as it seeks to seize the entire region, according to the British Ministry of Defence.
“Russia will likely seek to inflate the threat posed to Ukraine by these exercises in order to fix Ukrainian forces in the North, preventing them from being committed to the battle for the Donbas,” the ministry said in its latest intelligence update on Twitter this morning.
Belarus announced it was beginning combat-readiness drills yesterday, saying the purpose of the exercises was “to assess the readiness and ability of personnel to quickly respond to possible crises.” The move raised speculation that Belarus might join Russia’s war effort in a potential renewed assault on northern Ukraine. Belarus insisted there was no threat to its European neighbors.
The U.K.’s Defence Ministry said Thursday that Belarusian land forces “have been observed deploying from garrison to the field, for exercises” and that this is in line with seasonal norms as Belarus enters the culmination of its winter training cycle in the month of May.
“Deviation from normal exercise activity that could pose a threat to allies and partners is not currently anticipated,” the ministry added.
— Holly Ellyatt
Russian forces renew attacks to seize Ukraine’s last stronghold in Mariupol
Russian forces have reportedly renewed their assault on the Azovstal steelworks complex, a last stronghold for Ukrainian fighters in the southern port city of Mariupol, in what is widely seen as a bid to bring the standoff to an end.
In the latest update from the Ukrainian military, its spokesman said Russian forces “are focusing their efforts on blocking and trying to destroy Ukrainians units in the Azovstal” steelworks.
“With the support of aircraft, the enemy resumed the offensive in order to take control of the plant,” Ukraine said in its update Thursday morning.
CNBC was unable to immediately verify the information.
Hundreds of civilians, including the elderly and children, have been sheltering in the network of underground tunnels and bunkers underneath the steelworks. After a number of failed attempts to evacuate civilians, several hundred have been evacuated to the relative safety of the Ukrainian-controlled Zaporhizhia in recent days.
— Holly Ellyatt
Russia is striking civilian targets to ‘weaken Ukrainian resolve,’ British government says
Moscow is trying to “weaken Ukrainian resolve” by striking civilian targets in Ukraine, the British government said on Wednesday night.
“As Russian operations have faltered, non-military targets including schools, hospitals, residential properties and transport hubs have continued to be hit, indicating Russia’s willingness to target civilian infrastructure in an attempt to weaken Ukrainian resolve,” the U.K. Ministry of Defence said.
The U.K. ministry said in an intelligence update that Russian ground operations are focusing on the eastern part of Ukraine, but missile strikes continue across the country because Moscow wants to disrupt the Ukrainians’ ability to resupply their troops in the east.
The press office of the Russian Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Moscow has repeatedly denied that it strikes civilian targets, though such attacks have been widely documented. Russian instead accuses Ukraine of attacking civilian targets.
The British ministry said Russia is attacking cities including Odesa, Kherson and Mariupol in order to take over Ukraine’s Black Sea coastline and cut off its sea line of communication and maritime trade.
This is the second batch of people rescued from the besieged Ukrainian city following the evacuation of 156 women and children from the Azovstal steel plant who arrived in Zaporizhzhia on Wednesday.
“All of them will receive the most caring treatment from our state,” Zelenskyy said.
Russia’s attempt to take over Mariupol has led to grim conditions in the city where thousands are running out of food, water and medical aid, as civilians and soldiers are holed up in the Azovstal steel plant – the last stronghold for fighters in the heavily bombarded city.
— Chelsea Ong
Russian forces largely stalled in eastern and southern Ukraine, Pentagon says
Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said the Russians have made uneven progress in the Donbas region of Ukraine, following weeks of resupply and reposition efforts.
“Russians have not made the kind of progress in the Donbas and in the south that we believe they wanted to make,” Kirby said during a daily Pentagon press briefing. “We do believe they’re behind schedule. We do believe it has been slow at every turn and they have met a stiff Ukrainian resistance,” he added.
Kirby’s comments come as the U.S. and its allies rush to send additional security assistance ahead of what was believed to be an intensifed Russia surge in eastern and southern Ukraine. On Tuesday, President Joe Biden called on Congress to quickly pass $33 billion in additional U.S. security assistance to Ukraine.
Biden’s latest military aid package of $800 million announced on April 21, the eighth such installment of security assistance, brings U.S. commitment to $3.4 billion since Russia’s late February invasion.
Medication abortion is less expensive and less invasive than surgical abortions. In December, the Food and Drug Administration made access to it significantly easier by lifting the requirement that patients obtain the first of the two pills, mifepristone, by visiting an authorized clinic or doctor in person. Now, patients can have a consultation with a physician via video or phone or by filling out online forms, and then receive the pills by mail.
But many conservative states have already begun passing laws to restrict medication abortion, including banning it earlier than 10 weeks’ gestation and requiring patients to visit providers in person despite F.D.A. rules. Nineteen states ban the use of telemedicine for abortion. This year, Americans United for Life, an anti-abortion advocacy group, listed laws against medication abortion as first among the organization’s “pressing priorities” for 2022.
“In the last year, Arizona, Arkansas, Indiana, Montana, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Dakota and Texas have enacted state-level safeguards to stop mail-order abortion drugs, and the Tennessee Legislature recently sent such protections to Gov. Bill Lee,” Mallory Carroll, an official with Susan B. Anthony List, an anti-abortion group, said. “In addition to creating health and safety standards, states are also increasing requirements for reporting complications from abortion drugs. We will be working with allies in additional states to tackle this growing public health threat.”
Residents of states that would quickly ban all abortion methods if Roe were overturned — including Texas, Missouri, Utah and Tennessee — would be legally prohibited from having telemedicine abortion consultations from any location in their state, even if the doctor were located in a state with legal abortion. Such patients would have to travel to a state where an online, video or phone consultation is legal — the IP address of the computer or phone they were using would identify where they were located. Then, they would have to receive the pills by mail at an address in a state with legal abortion, even if it were a post office box or a hotel.
Some patients are already doing this because they live in one of the states that ban the use of telemedicine for abortion. Some aspects of those laws are unclear, including whether patients who take the pills after returning to their home state are violating their state’s law.
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