Zelenskyy says Ukraine needs more air defense missiles as Russia keeps up attacks

Russian nexus revealed during 60 Minutes Havana Syndrome investigation into potential attacks on U.S. officials

This report is the result of a joint investigation by 60 Minutes, The Insider, and Der Spiegel

A lead U.S. military investigator examining reports of what has become known as Havana Syndrome told 60 Minutes he believes U.S. officials are being attacked by Russia and that the official threshold to prove it was set impossibly high.

Greg Edgreen, a now-retired Army lieutenant colonel who ran the Pentagon investigation into what officials refer to as “anomalous health incidents,” said the bar for proof was set so high because the country doesn’t want to face some very hard truths, like the existence of possible failures to protect Americans.

“Unfortunately I can’t get into specifics, based on the classification,” Edgreen said. “But I can tell you at a very early stage, I started to focus on Moscow.”

A 2023 government report deemed it “very unlikely” that a foreign adversary was behind the mysterious brain injuries suffered by U.S. national security officials, yet more than 100 Americans have symptoms scientists say could be caused by a beam of microwaves or acoustic ultrasound. Victims are frustrated that the government publicly doubts an adversary is targeting Americans. The ongoing, five-year 60 Minutes investigation has now uncovered new evidence pointing toward Russia.

Are we being attacked?

White House staff, CIA officers, FBI agents, and military officers and their families are among those who believe they were wounded by a secret weapon firing a high-energy beam of microwaves or ultrasound.

Edgreen said the officers targeted were top performers.

“And consistently there was a Russia nexus,” he said. “There was some angle where they had worked against Russia, focused on Russia, and done extremely well.”

Greg Edgreen and Scott Pelley

60 Minutes

Last year, President Biden attended the NATO summit in Lithuania after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Multiple sources told 60 Minutes that a high-level Department of Defense official was struck during the summit. Edgreen shared what the reported incident meant to him.

“It tells me that there are no barriers on what Moscow will do, on who they will attack, and that if we don’t face this head on, the problem is going to get worse,” Edgreen said.

60 Minutes has agreed to withhold the last name of “Carrie,” a Havana Syndrome victim who is still an FBI agent working in counterintelligence. Her case also points to Russia.

She said she was home in Florida in 2021 when she was hit by a crippling force.

“And bam, inside my right ear, it was like a dentist drilling on steroids. That feeling when it gets too close to your eardrum? It’s like that, times 10,” she said.

At the same time, she said, the battery in her phone began to swell until it broke the case. Finally, she passed out on a couch. Because of chest pain, she was checked by a cardiologist, and then returned to duty. For months, she complained to her colleagues of memory issues and problems multitasking.

“My baseline changed,” she said. “I was not the same person.”

60 Minutes has agreed to withhold the last name of “Carrie,” a Havana Syndrome victim who is still an FBI agent working in counterintelligence.

60 Minutes

She spoke with the FBI’s permission but wasn’t allowed to talk about the investigations she was working on when she was hit. 60 Minutes learned from other sources, one of them involved Russian Vitalii Kovalev, who was caught speeding in a Ford Mustang near Key West, Florida in 2020. After a high-speed car chase, a search of the car found notes related to bank accounts along with a device capable of erasing the car’s computerized data, including its GPS records. There was also a Russian passport found.

The investigation into Kovalev

What 60 Minutes has learned along with investigative partner Christo Grozev, a journalist for The Insider, an investigative magazine by Russian exiles, suggests that Kovalev was a Russian spy.

Kovalev studied in a military institute, learning about radio electronics, said Grozev, who’s renowned for his experience unmasking Russian plots. After two years working in a military institute, Kovalev suddenly became a chef in New York and Washington.

“It is not an easy job to just leave that behind. Once you’re in the military, and you’ve been trained, and the Ministry of Defense has invested in you, you remain at their beck and call for the rest of your life,” Grozev said.

It’s not clear what Kovalev might have been up to, but sources told 60 Minutes that, over months, he spent 80 hours being interviewed by “Carrie,” who sources said had investigated several Russian spies for the FBI.

Kovalev received 30 months in jail and, after serving his time, went back to Russia in 2022, ignoring American warnings he was in danger because he’d spent so much time with the FBI. Grozev uncovered a death certificate from last year, which says Kovalev was killed at the front in Ukraine.

“One theory is that he was sent there in order for him to be disposed of,” Grozev said.

Christo Grozev is a journalist for The Insider, an investigative magazine by Russian exiles.

60 Minutes

Mark Zaid, “Carrie’s” attorney who holds a security clearance, has more than two dozen clients suffering symptoms of Havana Syndrome. He said victims include members of the CIA, State Department and FBI.

“The one thread that I know of with the FBI personnel that is common among most, if not all, of my clients other than the family members connected to the employee, was they were all doing something relating to Russia,” Zaid said.

Russian intelligence unit 29155

If it is Russia, Grozev believes Russian intelligence unit 29155 is involved. Grozev has a long track record of uncovering Russian documents and reveals he found one that may link the 29155 unit to a directed energy weapon.

It’s a piece of accounting. A 29155 officer received a bonus for work on “potential capabilities of non-lethal acoustic weapons…”

“It’s the closest to a receipt you can have for this,” Grozev said.

There’s also evidence 29155 may have been present in Tbilisi, Georgia when Americans reported incidents there. Grozev believes members of 29155 were there to facilitate, supervise, or possibly personally implement attacks on American officials using an acoustic weapon.

Sources have told 60 Minutes that an investigation centered on Russian Albert Averyanov, whose name appears on travel manifests and phone records alongside known members of 29155. He’s also the son of the unit’s commander.

Incidents began in Tbilisi the day after a phone call, which was intercepted. Sources said a man on the call asked in Russian: “Is it supposed to have blinking green lights?” and “should I leave it on all night?”

The next day, a U.S. official, their spouse, and their child were hit. That same week, the wife of a Justice Department official, who asked “60 Minutes” to withhold her name over safety concerns, was blindsided by a sound in her laundry room in Tbilisi on Oct. 7, 2021.

“And it just pierced my ears, came in my left side, felt like it came through the window, into my left ear,” she said.

She had a piercing headache and projectile vomited.

Afterward, she looked at the security camera and spotted a vehicle outside she didn’t recognize. There was also a man nearby. 60 Minutes sent a photo of Averyanov to the woman, who said it “absolutely” looks like the man she spotted outside.

“And when I received this photo, I had a visceral reaction,” she said. “It made me feel sick. I cannot absolutely say for certainty that it is this man, but I can tell you that even to this day, looking at him makes me feel that same visceral reaction. And I can absolutely say that this looks like the man that I saw in the street.”

Grozev found Averyanov’s phone was turned off during the Tbilisi incidents, and sources say there’s evidence someone in Tbilisi logged into Averyanov’s personal email during this time. Grozev believes this was most likely Averyanov himself—placing him in the city.

Has there been a cover-up?

Despite incidents like the ones in Tbilisi, the official U.S. intelligence assessment released last year found that it was “very unlikely” a foreign adversary is responsible. The report did acknowledge that some intelligence agencies have only “low” or “moderate” confidence in that conclusion.

This month, the National Institutes of Health reported results of brain scans on patients with symptoms. NIH said there’s no evidence of physical damage. The medical science of so-called anomalous health incidents remains vigorously debated. For its part, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence says the injuries suffered by victims are probably the result of “preexisting conditions, conventional illnesses and environmental factors.”

But Zaid, who’s representing more than two dozen anomalous health incident clients, said he doesn’t believe the entire story is in the U.S. intelligence assessment. Zaid said he knows of classified information that undermines or contradicts what’s been said publicly.

“There is, in my view, without a doubt, evidence of a cover up. Now, some of that cover up is not necessarily that, ‘oh, we found a weapon,'” Zaid said. “What I’ve seen more so is, ‘we see lines of inquiry that would take us potentially to answers we don’t want to have to deal with, so we’re not going to explore any of those avenues.'”

As with all spy stories, much is classified and what remains is circumstantial. None of the witnesses 60 Minutes spoke with wanted to come forward, but they all felt compelled to shine a light on what they see as a war of shadows — a war America may not be winning.

“If this is what we’ve seen with the hundreds of cases of anomalous health incidents, I can assure that this has become probably Putin’s biggest victory,” Grozev said. “In his own mind this has been Russia’s biggest victory against the West.”

Statements from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the White House, and the FBI

In response to inquiries from 60 Minutes, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence referred to the Intelligence Community’s Annual Threat Assessment commentary on anomalous health incidents. The assessment was released earlier this month and states:

“We continue to closely examine anomalous health incidents (AHIs), particularly in areas we have identified as requiring additional research and analysis. Most IC agencies have concluded that it is very unlikely a foreign adversary is responsible for the reported AHIs. IC agencies have varying confidence levels because we still have gaps given the challenges collecting on foreign adversaries—as we do on many issues involving them. As part of its review, the IC identified critical assumptions surrounding the initial AHIs reported in Cuba from 2016 to 2018, which framed the IC’s understanding of this phenomenon, but were not borne out by subsequent medical and technical analysis. In light of this and the evidence that points away from a foreign adversary, causal mechanism, or unique syndromes linked to AHIs, IC agencies assess those symptoms reported by U.S. personnel probably were the result of factors that did not involve a foreign adversary. These findings do not call into question the very real experiences and symptoms that our colleagues and their family members have reported. We continue to prioritize our work on such incidents, allocating resources and expertise across the government, pursuing multiple lines of inquiry and seeking information to fill the gaps we have identified.”

In response to questions from 60 Minutes, a White House spokesperson responded:

“At the start of the Biden-Harris Administration and again following the 2023 Intelligence Community assessment, the White House has directed departments and agencies across the federal government to prioritize investigations into the cause of AHIs and to examine reports thoroughly; to ensure that U.S. Government personnel and their families who report AHIs receive the support and timely access to medical care that they need; and to take reports of AHIs seriously and treat personnel with respect and compassion. The Biden-Harris administration continues to emphasize the importance of prioritizing efforts to comprehensively examine the effects and potential causes of AHIs.”

In response to questions from 60 Minutes, an FBI spokesperson responded:

“The issue of Anomalous Health Incidents is a top priority for the FBI, as the protection, health and well-being of our employees and colleagues across the federal government is paramount. We will continue to work alongside our partners in the intelligence community as part of the interagency effort to determine how we can best protect our personnel. The FBI takes all U.S. government personnel who report symptoms seriously. In keeping with this practice, the FBI has messaged its workforce on how to respond if they experience an AHI, how to report an incident, and where they can receive medical evaluations for symptoms or persistent effects.”

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Barrage of Russian attacks aims to cut Ukraine’s lights

In central Kharkiv you hear the rattle of generators on every street.

Ten days ago, Ukraine’s second city was plunged into darkness by a massive, targeted Russian missile attack on the energy system – it was the biggest since the start of the full-scale war.

As Kharkiv works to restore power, there has been a wave of additional strikes across the country targeting the energy supply.

Volodymyr Zelensky has condemned what he calls Russia’s “missile terror”.

The Ukrainian president has also renewed his calls to his country’s allies for more air defence systems as protection.

The authorities in Odesa on the Black Sea in the south of the country say the energy system there was the latest to be hit overnight, with missiles and drones, causing partial blackouts.

In Kharkiv to the north, the damage is more serious.

Kharkiv’s mayor, Igor Terekhov, has said it will take weeks to restore full supply and that is if Russia’s armed forces don’t strike the same targets again.

The initial attack on the city’s energy supply even knocked out the air raid siren. There is now a screeching noise that comes straight to people’s mobile phones instead.

There can be hours of those missile warnings in the city each day – during one on Saturday night, the blast wave from a strike blew out dozens of windows in a block of flats.

But the Russians have increasingly been aiming at the power grid.

“The damage is very serious,” Mr Terekhov told the BBC.

“We need time to repair it,” he added, suggesting that meant a couple more months at least.

Russia’s defence ministry confirms that its latest strikes have been focused on Ukraine’s power supply. It says the aim is to disrupt the work of the country’s defence industry and claims that “all aims of the strike were achieved”.

The ministry has a long history of disinformation.

But the Kharkiv mayor did tell the BBC that the city’s manufacturing sector, which requires significant power, has been affected by the blackouts. There are no further details.

Blackout periods

The impact on civilian life is more obvious.

Blackout periods have been introduced in order to conserve energy, and there is a schedule for the city. On Saturday those power cuts lasted six hours, but by Sunday they had been reduced to four hours.

The timings can slip.

“They were supposed to cut the power to my area at 09:00, so I got up especially early to charge everything,'” a friend messaged. “Then I got in the lift and got stuck. They’d cut the power early!”

A hair salon in a Kharkiv back street is one of many small businesses with a generator whirring noisily outside the door. On Saturday it was on for seven hours, allowing the salon to keep operating.

The same goes for cafés and companies throughout the city centre, although many have sheets of wood over their windows to cover a gap where the glass has already been shattered or to protect it from future blasts.

Some of the boards are painted with birds and flowers.

“We’ve been working on generator power since Monday,” salon owner Natalia told the BBC. “Of course it’s really hard, especially because we’re all women and when we finish work late at night it’s so dark!”

Russia has attacked Ukraine’s power grid before, in the first winter of the full-scale war.

As engineers scrambled to perform emergency repairs then, residents shivered in the dark in their homes or headed for central “invincibility points” for warmth and power.

Hope for a ‘quiet night’

It is much warmer now but the impact is still significant; when night falls, whole areas of Kharkiv remain pitch dark.

That affects people’s mood as much as it makes life awkward.

“The Russians have got new weapons,” a student called Liza worries, in one of Kharkiv’s central squares.

There’s a lot of chatter here about whether new, gliding bombs used by Moscow might bring even more devastation to Ukraine.

“People are depressed and thinking about leaving Kharkiv for a while. We notice that our army is struggling.”

The city authorities are determined to keep spirits up, as much as possible.

Within hours of the latest missile strike this weekend, dozens of workmen were clearing up the mess around the apartment block and sawing wood to seal windows.

The city metro is already running and electric trolleybuses and trams have been replaced by regular buses.

In Odesa, two districts were in partial blackout on Sunday morning. By early afternoon, power had been restored.

“A few days ago we had a total blackout, that was major,” Odesa resident Masha told the BBC. “Yesterday there were no traffic lights in the city centre and limited streetlights, to save power.”

On Sunday, she said, there were people out and about in town as usual. Officials say consumption restrictions have now been lifted all over the country.

When I asked Kharkiv salon owner Natalia whether she was worried by the latest attacks, she quoted her city’s reputation.

“We are invincible,” she joked.

She then wished us a “quiet night,” meaning one with without explosions.

In Kharkiv, nowadays, that is increasingly rare.

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1 dead as Russia launches attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Russian cruise missile strike on infrastructure in Ukraine’s western Lviv region killed one man, officials said Sunday.

The attack destroyed a building and sparked a fire, Gov. Maksym Kozytskyi wrote on social media app Telegram. He said that rescue operations were ongoing.

Meanwhile, thousands in Ukraine’s Odesa region were temporarily left without power Sunday after debris from a downed Russian drone caused a blaze at an energy facility, Gov. Oleh Kiper said. Some 170,000 homes were left with temporary power outages as a result of the attack, said Ukraine’s largest private electricity operator, DTEK.

The Ukrainian air force said that it shot down nine of the 11 Shahed-type drones launched by Russia overnight, as well as nine out of 14 cruise missiles.

Russia has escalated its attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure in recent days, causing significant damage in several regions.

Ukrainian energy company Centrenergo announced Saturday that the Zmiiv Thermal Power Plant, one of the largest thermal power plants in the eastern Kharkiv region, was completely destroyed following Russian shelling last week. Power outage schedules were still in place for around 120,000 people in the region, where 700,000 had lost electricity after the plant was hit on March 22.

Ten Czech-made Vampire rockets also landed in the Russian border region of Belgorod on Sunday, Russia’s Ministry of Defense said. One woman was injured when a fire broke out following the attack, said regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signed orders heralding the start of the country’s annual spring recruitment season, officially drafting 150,000 conscripts.

Russia’s parliament raised the upper age limit for conscripts from 27 to 30 in July 2023, in a move that appeared to be part of efforts to expand the country’s military during the fighting in Ukraine. All Russian men are obliged to complete the yearlong national service, although many avoid the draft by using deferments granted to students, people with chronic illnesses and others.

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Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

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Zelenskyy says Ukraine needs more air defense missiles as Russia keeps up attacks

Zelenskyy says Ukraine needs more air defense missiles as Russia keeps up attacks – CBS News

Watch CBS News

In an exclusive interview, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told CBS News’ Charlie D’Agata that Ukraine needs more air defense missiles and artillery shells to combat Russia’s continued invasion.

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Drake Bell accusers face online attacks

Supporters of former Nickelodeon star Drake Bell have rallied behind him after he came forward with his child sexual abuse story in an explosive docuseries. But some people have gone to extremes, harassing women who previously shared their own abuse allegations against Bell, who pleaded guilty to attempted child endangerment in 2021.

In the wake of “Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV,” dozens of TikTok videos have been published discussing the child endangerment case, casting doubt on his alleged victims’ claims of abuse against Bell. Some have received millions of views. Some commenters under these videos called the victim in the case a liar, comparing her to the actor Amber Heard (who was similarly attacked online for her claims of abuse) and speculating that she was hired by Bell’s convicted abuser Brian Peck to destroy him. Peck didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Melissa Lingafelt, Bell’s ex-partner who separately accused the actor in 2020 of physical and emotional abuse, which he denied, shared on her Instagram Stories last week that she had received harassment from his fans after the docuseries debuted. A representative for Bell declined to comment.

The attacks on Bell’s accusers fit into a larger pattern of social media being used to harass, demean and discredit female victims of sexual violence and abuse. In Bell’s case, experts who study gender and psychology said that onlookers often struggle to recognize that a perpetrator can also have been a victim, even though perpetrators have often been victimized in the past.

“In our culture, we just want people to be good or evil,” said Carine Mardorossian, a University at Buffalo professor who authored “Framing the Rape Victim: Gender and Agency Reconsidered.” She said that in the search for the “good” or “bad” person in a nuanced scenario, oftentimes, “more harm than good” is done.

“Quiet on Set” has ushered in a tsunami of online reactions over the treatment of child stars, writers and crew on Nickelodeon sets. The docuseries focused on the toxic environment that producer Dan Schneider allegedly fostered on his hit Nick shows.

“Facing my past behaviors — some of which are embarrassing and that I regret — and I definitely owe some people a pretty strong apology,” Schneider recently said in a YouTube video responding to the docuseries.

Dan Schneider on Sept. 10, 2015 in New York. — Dan Schneider on Sept. 10, 2015, in New York.Eric Vitale / Getty Images file

In a statement previously shared with NBC News, a Nickelodeon spokesperson said “Though we cannot corroborate or negate allegations of behaviors from productions decades ago, Nickelodeon as a matter of policy investigates all formal complaints as part of our commitment to fostering a safe and professional workplace environment free of harassment or other kinds of inappropriate conduct. Our highest priorities are the well-being and best interests not just of our employees, casts and crew, but of all children, and we have adopted numerous safeguards over the years to help ensure we are living up to our own high standards and the expectations of our audience.”

The internet particularly seized on the allegations of child sexual abuse that Bell made against Nickelodeon dialogue coach Peck. Peck pleaded no contest to lewd and lascivious acts with a 14- or 15-year-old child and oral copulation with a minor under 16 in 2004. He was sentenced to 16 months in prison. The minor in the case, who was previously identified as John Doe, is revealed to be Bell in the docuseries. Peck has not responded to multiple requests for comment from NBC News.

Following the docuseries’ release, some people have responded to Bell’s experience by defending him against women who have accused him of sexual misconduct in the past.

TikToks with as many as 8.4 million views claim that Bell was falsely accused during his 2021 court case. The viral videos show court footage of the anonymous female victim and some even include her name. TikTok recommends suggested search terms at the bottom of many videos, and at least one of the recommended search terms about Bell’s 2021 sentencing included the victim’s real first name. Most of the court documents were sealed to protect her privacy. After NBC News reached out, TikTok said it removed the search suggestion with the woman’s real first name for violating its community guidelines.

“As a society we want to hold people accountable for the abuse of children as we should,” Elizabeth L. Jeglic, professor of psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said in an email. “It is hard sometimes to see the duality that hurt people can hurt people. However both can be true — someone can have experienced childhood sexual abuse and they can also engage in abusive behaviors themselves.”

Bell pleaded guilty to felony attempted child endangerment and a misdemeanor charge of disseminating harmful material to a juvenile in 2021. He was sentenced to two years of probation. The victim, then a 15-year-old girl from Canada, shared an impact statement during Bell’s sentencing hearing that year alleging that Bell had groomed, sexually assaulted and sent sexually explicit messages to her when she was a minor. Bell has denied these claims.

The victim filed a report at her home police department describing an incident between her and Bell in Cleveland in December 2017, according to the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office.

After investigating, Cleveland police determined that the teen had “established a relationship with Bell several years prior [and] attended his concert in December 2017.”

“While there, Bell violated his duty of care and, in doing so, created a risk of harm to the victim,” the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor’s Office said. Investigators also said that Bell sent the teen “inappropriate social media messages.”

Bell’s defense attorney said during the sentencing hearing that the messages had included “discussion because they had known each other for years and there were claims that became sexual in nature.”

When Bell and the victim discussed her age, his defense attorney said, “At that point, he said ‘Can you hurry up?’ which shows a complete intent not to engage with a minor.”

“He pled to attempt to endangering children and disseminating matter harmful to juveniles,” Judge Timothy McCormick said during the hearing. “These are serious allegations but they do not involve sexual relations. However, a grown man does not engage in inappropriate text messages to a teenager. There’s a reason a 14 or 15-year old does not have the right to drive, does not have the right to vote, does not have the right to serve in the armed forces. They don’t have the emotional or mental maturity to properly gauge their conduct, so you did take advantage in that regard [of] somebody who could not appreciate the consequences of the relationship.”

In a TikTok with more than 600,000 views, a creator said Bell didn’t sexually assault any minors and claimed that it was “proven in court” that the anonymous woman in the 2021 case “lied about her age” and stalked Bell. These allegations didn’t come up during Bell’s sentencing hearing, which was recorded and made public. Bell’s defense attorney said that Bell “may not have known” the victim’s real age at the start of their relationship but “he did learn of the age at a later time.” The TikTok echoed some of the talking points from Bell’s statement on the case on Instagram in 2021. Bell said in the statement that he was unaware of the victim’s age when he was in contact with her.

Commenters under the video began bringing up Bell’s ex-partner Lingafelt’s accusations of abuse against him, seemingly to indicate a pattern of behavior. Bell responded to one person discussing allegations from his own TikTok account, saying, “Never went to court for this. This was a complete lie. This never went anywhere.”

In August 2020, Lingafelt came forward with emotional and physical abuse allegations against Bell that she shared in a TikTok, which has since been deleted. Lingafelt, a music artist who goes by the stage name Jimi Ono, and Bell dated from 2006 to 2009 beginning when she was 16 and he was 20. She told the Daily Beast that Bell physically assaulted her on multiple occasions, including dragging her down stairs and hitting her face on the steps and attempting to restrain her in a bathtub to burn her with scalding hot water.

Bell previously denied Lingafelt’s allegations. She didn’t respond to a request for comment sent from NBC News.

In late March, Lingafelt shared a screenshot of a direct message she received on Instagram from someone who watched “Quiet on Set.” The sender, who appeared to be a woman, called Lingafelt sexist names and suggested she perform a sexual act on Nickelodeon producer Schneider. (Although internet users condemned Schneider, Bell acknowledged him in the series as the “only person” at Nickelodeon who supported him through his experience with Peck.)

Brian Peck on March 29, 2014, in Los Angeles.Albert L. Ortega / Getty Images file

“I know you’re still active. I remember your post from 2020 about Drake. You should be absolutely, utterly, and disgracefully disgusted with yourself,” the message to Lingafelt said. “You’re disgusting, and I hope you know people will rally on his side. You can’t use him for your 7 seconds anymore.”

Lingafelt shared a statement on Instagram in response: “Sharing one’s personal experiences of abuse can be a complex and challenging process, and it can potentially help raise awareness about the prevalence of abuse and the need for support and healing. However, it’s crucial to remember that speaking out about one’s own experiences does not automatically absolve someone of the responsibility for their harmful behavior towards others.”

Jeglic said that people often have strong negative reactions to stories of child sexual abuse stemming from “tremendous empathy and sympathy for survivors.” As a result, people struggle to accept “an abused person, especially someone who was abused as a child, as also being capable of perpetrating abuse.”

Jeglic noted that most survivors of child sexual abuse do not go on to abuse others.

“However, when we look at those who perpetrate sexual violence they disproportionately have histories of sexual abuse,” she said. “While we do not know exactly what causes someone to sexually abuse others, it is generally believed that there is not a single cause — but rather multiple causes.”

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, call the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 1-800-656-4673. The hotline, run by the Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network (RAINN), can put you in contact with your local rape crisis center. You can also access RAINN’s online chat service at https://www.rainn.org/get-help.

If you or someone you know is facing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence hotline for help at (800) 799-SAFE (7233), or go to www.thehotline.org for more. States often have domestic violence hotlines as well.

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Trump ramps up attacks on judge in hush money case following gag order

Less than 24 hours after getting hit with a partial gag order in the New York criminal case involving his alleged falsification of business records, former President Donald Trump repeatedly lashed out at one person who’s not covered by the ruling — the judge.

In a series of posts on his social media platform, Trump called Judge Juan Merchan “biased and conflicted” while also taking aim at the judge’s daughter for a second day in a row.

In a ruling Tuesday, Merchan noted the impending April 15 trial date and said Trump must “refrain” from “making or directing others to make public statements about known or reasonably foreseeable witnesses concerning their potential participation” in the case, as well as about individual prosecutors and court staff and their family members.

The order did not mention the judge and his family members — a loophole Trump exploited Wednesday.

“This Judge, by issuing a vicious ‘Gag Order,’ is wrongfully attempting to deprive me of my First Amendment Right to speak out against the Weaponization of Law Enforcement,” Trump wrote, saying the judge “is suffering from an acute case of Trump Derangement Syndrome” and should recuse himself from the case.

The attacks continue a pattern of Trump lashing out at judges and the judicial system on social media after getting an adverse ruling in court.

As he’d done previously, Trump also went after Merchan’s daughter, who’s worked at a progressive digital marketing agency that has worked for many Democratic candidates.

“Maybe the Judge is such a hater because his daughter makes money by working to ‘Get Trump,'” one of his posts said. He also accused her of having posted a picture of him behind bars on social media —an allegation that appears to have originated from a Trump ally, far right activist and conspiracy theorist Laura Loomer.

Loomer made a similar allegation last year involving the wife of the judge who presided over Trump’s civil fraud trial, accusing her of having shared anti-Trump memes on social media.

Trump then attacked the judge’s wife, who was not protected by the partial gag order Engoron had put in place in that case.

A spokesman for the state court system said then that the posts Loomer promoted were not from the judge’s wife.

“Justice Engoron’s wife has sent no social media posts regarding the former president. They are not hers,” said the spokesman, Al Baker.

Trump never acknowledged or apologized for the apparent false accusation.

NBC News has reached out to the court system for comment on the new Loomer/Trump accusation.

The handle used in the X profile highlighted by Loomer had been previously associated with Merchan’s daughter in 2022, but the profile Loomer shared said the person joined X in April of 2023, the same month far right news outlets wrote critical stories about the daughter.

An NBC News analysis earlier this year of Trump’s posts on his social media platform Truth Social found his unprecedented attacks on the judicial system were frequently tied to developments in his court cases, and at times outnumbered his posts about his re-election bid.

Trump’s criticism often comes at a cost for his targets. Merchan, Engoron and the judge presiding over his federal election interference case in Washington, D.C., Tanya Chutkan, have all been recipients of threats following Trump’s complaints.

Merchan cited his experience when he handed down his ruling Tuesday blocking Trump from making comments about individual prosecutors (with the exception of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg), court staff, their family members, and jurors and potential jurors.

“Although this Court did not issue an order restricting Defendant’s speech at the inception of this case, choosing instead to issue an admonition, given the nature and impact of the statements made against this Court and a family member thereof, the District Attorney and an Assistant District Attorney, the witnesses in this case, as well as the nature and impact of the extrajudicial statements made by Defendant in the D.C. Circuit case (which resulted in the D.C. Circuit issuing an order restricting his speech), and given that the eve of trial is upon us, it is without question that the imminency of the risk of harm is now paramount,” Merchan wrote.

Trump’s attorneys had argued in court filings that because their client is the presumptive Republican nominee for president he “must have unfettered access to the voting public to respond to attacks from political opponents.”

Merchan said in his ruling that Trump’s public commentary in this case and others has gone “far beyond defending himself against attacks.”

“Indeed, his statements were threatening, inflammatory” and “denigrating,” and the “consequences of those statements included not only fear on the part of the individual targeted, but also the assignment of increased security resources to investigate threats and protect the individuals and family members thereof,” the judge wrote.

He said he was acting now “given that the eve of trial is upon us” and “it is without question that the imminency of the risk of harm is now paramount.”

The DA’s case alleges Trump falsified business records to cover up payments he was making to his then-lawyer Michael Cohen as repayment for a $130,000 hush money payment Cohen had doled out to adult film star Stormy Daniels in the closing days of the 2016 campaign. Daniels claimed she had a sexual encounter with Trump in 2006, which Trump denies.

Trump has pleaded not guilty in the case and maintains the charges are part of a politically orchestrated witch hunt against him.

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Utah coach says her team had to switch hotels after racist attacks during NCAA Tournament

University of Utah’s women’s basketball coach said her team was the target of a series of “racial hate crimes” after arriving in Idaho for the NCAA Tournament last week. The incidents prompted the team to change hotels for the sake of their safety, she said.

Utah coach Lynne Roberts told reporters that the team of Black, white and Latina athletes experienced several incidents Thursday night after arriving in the Spokane area for the tournament where they faced Gonzaga University. Roberts didn’t go into detail about the incidents, but said they were concerning enough to request that they be moved from their hotel in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, to a location closer to Spokane.

“Racism is real and it happens and it’s awful,” Roberts told reporters on Monday. “For our players, whether they are white, Black, green, whatever — no one knew how to handle it. And it was really upsetting. And for our players and staff to not feel safe in an NCAA tournament environment, it’s messed up.”

Roberts added that the NCAA and Gonzaga, the host school, worked to move the team to a different hotel. Neither Roberts nor the women’s athletics department immediately responded to a request for comment.

The Utah Utes celebrate after a basket against South Dakota State in the first round of the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament on March 23, 2024. — The Utah Utes celebrate after a basket against South Dakota State on Saturday.Steph Chambers / Getty Images

Utah’s deputy athletics director, Charmelle Green, who is Black, told KSL News of Salt Lake City that the team, along with band members and cheerleaders, were walking to a local restaurant for dinner when someone in a white truck drove up to the group, revved its engine, and yelled the N-word before speeding away.

“We all just were in shock, and we looked at each other like, did we just hear that?” Green said. “We kept walking, just shaking our heads, like, ‘I can’t believe that.’”

The team continued with the evening. Then, as they were leaving the restaurant, two trucks came near them, the drivers revved their engines and yelled the N-word.

“I got emotional and started to cry,” Green told KSL. “I was just numb the entire night.”

The team was staying in Idaho, about 35 minutes from Spokane, Washington, where it was scheduled to play during the opening weekend of the tournament. Utah was one of three teams staying in Idaho instead of Washington because of a lack of hotel space in the Spokane area, where Gonzaga is located. Utah’s athletic director Mark Harlan lamented the arrangement, telling KSL, “We should not have been there.”

Image: Lynne Roberts — Utah head coach Lynne Roberts speaks Monday in Spokane.Young Kwak / AP

Gonzaga University officials acknowledged the situation in a statement shared on social media.

“Gonzaga University has been made aware of the racially disparaging comments made to visiting student-athletes and travel party members in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, in advance of the NCAA Women’s First and Second Round Basketball Tournament games these past several days,” the statement began.

“Hate speech in any form is repugnant, shameful and must never be tolerated. We worked hard to secure the opportunity to serve as the host institution, and our first priority is and must be the safety and welfare of all student-athletes, coaches, families and supporting staff. To this end, we have worked closely with the NCAA and program participants to support the security and safety of everyone involved. We are frustrated and deeply saddened to know that what should always be an amazing visitor and championship experience was in any way compromised by this situation, for it in no way reflects the values, standards, and beliefs to which we at Gonzaga University hold ourselves accountable.”

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Ukraine says it repelled Russian drone attacks

Ukraine repelled a dozen Russian combat drones overnight, officials reported on Tuesday morning.

All 12 drones were shot down, Air Force Commander Mykola Oleshchuk wrote on Telegram.

Eight of the missiles were fired at the eastern Kharkiv region, said the mayor of the city of Kharkiv, Ihor Terekhov.

There were also reports of night-time rocket attacks. However, nothing was initially known about possible casualties or damage.

Meanwhile, the Russian border region of Belgorod also reported shelling. According to Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov, three people were injured.

Attacks on Belgorod have become more frequent in recent weeks. Despite this, the number of casualties and damage on Russian territory are still on a much smaller scale compared to the consequences of the war on the Ukrainian side.

Rescuers search a destroyed building following a missile attack by the Russian army on Kiev. -/Ukrinform/dpa

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Over 70 Gazans killed in 24 hours as Israeli attacks continue

Israel says its army is continuing attacks on Hamas targets in Gaza and more than 70 Palestinians were killed in the embattled coastal area in the past 24 hours.

The Israeli air force on Friday struck some 35 targets on Friday, including operational command centres, military posts and “the infrastructure of terrorist organizations,” the military said on Saturday, claiming that dozens of enemy fighters had been killed in ground battle and airstrikes in the Gaza Strip over the past day.

The information could not initially be independently verified.

Amid the ongoing fighting, 72 Palestinians were killed in the past 24 hours, and 144 more injured, according to the health authority in Gaza.

This brings the total number of Palestinian fatalities in the latest Gaza war to 32,142, plus 74,412 injured, according to the Hamas-controlled agency.

The numbers are currently impossible to verify though many more people are believed to be buried under the rubble, with rescue services unable to access them due to the ongoing fighting.

Israeli forces are also continuing their operation in Gaza City’s a-Shifa hospital, according to the army, where they have so far killed more than 170 fighters, questioned 800 suspects and found numerous weapons as well as terrorism infrastructure.

It also wasn’t possible to verify this claim. The Israeli army entered Gaza’s largest hospital, now largely non-operational, on Monday for a second time since the beginning of the war to target suspected Hamas fighters.

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Ukraine attacks with sea drones to take the war to Russia

Ukraine’s counteroffensive may be struggling on the ground, but it is increasingly taking the fight to Russia by air — and by sea.

In recent weeks, a spate of attacks on high-profile targets have either been acknowledged by or linked to Kyiv. All have also involved the use of either aerial or sea drones, signaling an apparent shift in Ukraine’s effort to wear its invader down.

Unable to overcome Russia’s battlefield defenses so far, Ukraine appears to be turning to its own campaign of attrition that includes deploying new weapons in its vow to see the war “returning” to Russia.

Doubling down on drones

On Friday morning, images of a damaged Russian naval ship limping back to port spread across social media. Russia acknowledged the attack, but not the damage.

A day later, a Russian oil tanker was targeted near a strategic bridge in the Kerch Strait that links Russia to the annexed Crimean Peninsula. This time, Russian officials called it a “terrorist attack” on a civilian vessel, acknowledging the damage.

On both occasions Ukraine’s security service let it be known that it was behind the attack, even sharing video from onboard naval drones packed with pounds of explosives as they approached and hit the ships.

The Russian-built bridge spanning the Kerch Strait, a pet project of President Vladimir Putin that is considered illegal by Ukraine, was also targeted by sea drones last month.

And the attacks at sea came as the Russian capital has been targeted by waves of aerial drones. While authorities said all attacks were repelled — including a new assault early Wednesday — several office towers have been damaged, while the frequency and relative ease with which the drones continue to penetrate Moscow’s air space have left many residents with a sense of unease.

These setbacks for the Kremlin contrast with action on the ground, where Ukraine’s counteroffensive, launched in June, has been slower than expected after Russian forces dug into heavily mined defense lines.

With its conventional forces fixed and without aerial or naval supremacy, the drones are “really the only way that Ukraine can strike back,” Mark Cancian, a retired Marine colonel and senior adviser at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a national security think tank, told NBC News.

Why sea drones?

While Russia has long assaulted Ukrainian cities with Iranian-supplied drones and Ukraine has fought back with its own aerial drone attacks, sea drones are emerging as a new and strong capability for Kyiv to challenge Moscow’s maritime dominance, analysts said.

There is little publicly available information about them, Cancian said, but they are probably “an indigenous system that was helped by the U.S. and the West.”

The naval drones appear to be fairly small and ride low to the surface, making them hard to detect, he said. Like aerial drones, they are also unmanned, meaning there is no risk of personnel loss — but unlike the unmanned aerial vehicles, they can carry a much heavier load of explosives, he added, making them a more potent weapon.

The drones also appear to be composed of components that are readily commercially available and not hard to procure, involving a propulsion system derived from a civilian jet ski and guidance that seems to rely on satellite communications, said Sidharth Kaushal, a research fellow in sea power at the London-based Royal United Services Institute.

Like aerial drones, they can also be quite cost-effective, he said. “So even if you lose a few, but you destroy an expensive warship or damage it, the model pays for itself.”

While Russia has taken countermeasures against such drones, including physical barriers and nets at the entrances to key ports, the longer range Ukraine is now displaying with naval attacks stretches defenses across a much wider area, which includes not just Crimean, but also domestic ports, Kaushal said.

A ‘psychological effect?’

The recent sea drone attacks are in many ways a continuation of the efforts Ukraine appears to have first started late last year, with Cancian describing them as “an expansion of that capability.”

Should Ukraine start to mass produce and launch its sea drones at Russian ships and ports in incessant waves, Moscow could be left scrambling, said Ben Caves, a defense and security expert at Rand Europe, a not-for-profit research institute. The sheer number could overwhelm Russian defenses and force Moscow to use much more expensive ammunition and other valuable resources to take out volleys of drones coming at its naval assets, he said.

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