Zelenskyy: US moved ‘20,000 missiles’ to fight drones from Ukraine to the Middle East
ABC News
(WASHINGTON) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told ABC News’ Martha Raddatz that his defense minister told him Friday the U.S. had transferred anti-drone weapons which defended against Russian attacks.
Zelenskyy said the U.S. would divert “20,000 missiles” from Ukraine’s arsenal to the Middle East, where it appears the U.S. would use them for its own force protection.
“Without the help of the United States, we will have more losses,” Zelenskyy told Raddatz in Kyiv last week.
The move comes as Russia ramps up its drone attacks and after Ukraine struck deep inside Russia with its own drones last week, shocking Russia in a clandestine operation.
Overnight Sunday, Russia launched 479 drones and 20 missiles into Ukraine in an attack the Ukrainian Air Force called an “absolute record” for a Russian aerial offensive.
The Pentagon declined to confirm the assets were being relocated.
The Ukrainian president said the assets were “not expensive, but [a] special technology” which specifically defended against Shahed drones.
The Shaheds are an inexpensive drone originally made by Iran and imported by Moscow. Russia now mass produces them.
The Wall Street Journal reported last week that the Pentagon authorized a transfer of an anti-drone technology utilized by Ukraine to take down Russian drones.
“We counted on these 20,000 missiles,” Zelesnkyy told Raddatz in their exclusive Friday sit-down. He said that earlier in the day, “my Minister of Defense told me that United States moved it to the Middle East.”
(ANNAPOLIS, Md.) — The Navy said it canceled a speaking engagement at its academy in Annapolis, Maryland, with popular podcaster and author Ryan Holiday because it wanted to steer clear of what it saw as political content aimed at young naval officers.
Holiday, who speaks frequently about the value of stoicism and has written several books, including “The Obstacle is the Way,” said he had planned to speak to the midshipmen about the “pursuit of wisdom.”
Holiday said he shared his briefing slides in advance with the Navy, which included a reference to the New York Times’ story about the U.S. Naval Academy’s recent decision to pull some 381 books from its library. The Navy asked him to omit the reference, and Holiday said he refused.
“The idea that there are topics that are off limits or that they can’t handle is absurd on its face,” Holiday told ABC News.
When asked why Holiday’s speech was canceled, the Navy said it opted to make a “schedule change that aligns with its mission of preparing midshipmen for careers of service to our country.”
“The Naval Academy is an apolitical institution,” it added. “It is focused on developing midshipmen morally, mentally and physically in order to cultivate honorable leaders, create a culture of excellence and prepare future officers for military service.”
Holiday said the Navy hadn’t given him guidance in advance of the speech and that he didn’t see his presentation as overtly political because he wasn’t telling the midshipmen how to vote. He said it shouldn’t have been a surprise to the Navy that he’d want to discuss current events.
“I assumed we had the basic … standards of academic independence,” Holiday said.
The Navy pulled the books after President Donald Trump ordered the military to stop “promoting, advancing, or otherwise inculcating the following un-American, divisive, discriminatory, radical, extremist, and irrational theories.”
Included in the list of books removed from the academy library is “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou and “How to be an Antiracist” by Ibram X. Kendi.
A separate visit to the academy by filmmaker Ken Burns also was canceled recently, although the cancelation does not appear to be tied to a dispute over content. A spokesperson for Burns said the award-winning documentarian had planned to meet privately with faculty and staff later this month and now hopes to visit the school in October instead.
(WASHINGTON) — The Department of Justice and the U.S. Coast Guard busted 45,000 pounds of cocaine with a value of over $500 million, according to top DOJ officials on Wednesday.
Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel were at Port Everglades in Florida on Wednesday and said the seizures of the drugs saved lives and protected the public.
“We have saved thousands and thousands of lives as a result of this incredible cooperation,” Bondi said. “We believe two cartels, CJNG and Sinaloa, were heavily tied to these shipments.”
She added that the Coast Guard used “drones, aircraft and ships to interdict the traffickers.”
Patel had a message for the cartels: There is new leadership throughout the DOJ.
“We are going to dismantle the ‘next-man-up’ theory that has been breeding in these Mexican cartels for generations,” Patel said of the Mexican drug cartels. “No more.”
The Coast Guard said the operation took 11 days for the crew of the Cutter James and that finding drug traffickers in their patrol area is like “finding a needle in a haystack.”
Bondi noted that 11 people were arrested in connection with the operation.
Patel said it was an interagency effort with Coast Guard, Department of Defense and DOJ assets at play.
U.S. Coast Guard Vice Adm. Nathan Moore told reporters that since February, the Coast Guard has seized over 59 metric tons of narcotics.
(WASHINGTON) — In his interview with ABC News on his 100th day in office, President Donald Trump was asked about one of his biggest supporters sounding the alarm about his aggressive migrant deportation plan.
Joe Rogan told his audience of millions on his April 17 episode that “rounding up gang members and shipping them to El Salvador with no due process” was “dangerous.”
“We gotta be careful that we don’t become monsters while we’re fighting monsters,” Rogan said.
Responding to that quote in an interview with ABC News anchor and Senior National Correspondent Terry Moran on Tuesday — who asked whether Rogan was right — Trump said he was.
“Oh, I agree with that a hundred percent, yeah,” the president said. “We want to be careful. We are careful.”
When asked about the various court challenges to the deportations and court orders admonishing his administration for not following the law, Trump pushed back, calling those being deported “criminals.” He claimed Venezuelan “criminals are now living happily in the United States of America, and we’re getting ’em out.”
“And I was elected to get ’em out, and we’re getting them out, getting them out fast, and we’re getting them out legally,” he said.
Moran stressed that “in our country even bad guys get due process,” but Trump contended the situation is different for migrants in the country illegally.
“If people come into our country illegally there’s a different standard. These are illegal. They came in illegally,” the president said.
“But they get due process,” Moran said.
“Well, they get a process where we have to get ’em out, yeah,” Trump said.
The president was asked about the unanimous U.S. Supreme Court ruling that ordered the administration to “facilitate” the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a migrant from El Salvador who was deported from Maryland to a notorious prison there because of an “administrative error,” according to the Justice Department.
Trump alleged that Abrego Garcia was a violent gang member, even though judges have said such claims have not been proven in court by prosecutors in the weeks since he was arrested.
“You could get him back. There’s a phone on this desk,” Moran said.
“I could,” Trump said.
“You could pick it up, and with all … ” Moran continued.
“I could,” Trump said again, interrupting Moran.
“… the power of the presidency, you could call up the president of El Salvador and say, ‘Send him back,’ right now,” Moran said.
“And if he were the gentleman that you say he is, I would do that,” Trump said. “But he’s not.”
When Moran said “the buck stops in this office,” Trump responded, “I follow the law. You want me to follow the law. If I were the president that just wanted to do anything, I’d probably keep him right where he is.”
When questioned again about the Supreme Court ruling, Moran saying, “the Supreme Court says what the law is,” Trump said he was elected in November to crack down on illegal immigration.
“Listen. I was elected to take care of a problem that was — it was — a, a unforced error that was made by a very incompetent man,” Trump said, referring to former President Joe Biden.
