A former Central California elementary school principal is facing charges of cruelty to a minor after video surfaced of him appearing to shove a student to the ground.
In the video, former Wolters Elementary School Principal Brian Vollhardt can be seen pushing a student in the chest, causing him to fall to the floor during breakfast time on June 7 in Fresno, California, KTVU-TV reported.
According to the Fresno Unified School District, Vollhardt and other staff members were interacting with an upset special needs student and the principal chose to “aggressively shove the student down” rather than “de-escalating the situation.”
The school district initiated the process to discipline Vollhardt at which point Vollhardt resigned and is no longer employed by the school.
School District Superintendent Bob Nelson called Vollhardt’s actions “repugnant” and “absolutely not tolerated at any level within Fresno Unified.”
The Fresno police chief was only made aware of the assault three months after it happened.Fresno Unified School District via Storyful
The district says the incident has been reported to both police and Child Protective Services.
Fresno Police Chief Paco Balderrama says the incident was reported to police on June 9 but he was made aware of the incident on September 6, nearly three months after it occurred.
It’s not known at this time if the student suffered any injuries.Fresno Unified School District via Storyful
“I can tell you as a police chief in this community, I have a real problem as to the way that this child was treated. As a parent of a 9-year-old kid, which is a very similar age to the victim in this case and who also suffers from anxiety and doesn’t always handle situations in the best way, it is troubling as to how somebody who is supposed to protect this child and provide support, treated them,” Balderrama said.
Vollhardt is scheduled to be arraigned on a misdemeanor charge of willful cruelty to a minor on September 26th.
Disturbing new video shows a woman slugging an elderly lady in the face in an unprovoked broad-daylight attack in Midtown this week.
The 74-year-old victim was walking on Madison Avenue near East 52nd Street around 11 a.m. Wednesday when the stranger punched her in the side of the face without saying a word, according to cops and the video.
The unprovoked attack happened at Madison Avenue near East 52nd Street on Wednesday.NYPDA bystander appeared to come to the senior’s aid after the attack.NYPD
The senior fell to the ground, landing near the curb. A bystander appeared to come to her aid before the clip cut out.
The victim was taken to NYU Langone Hospital-Manhattan in stable condition.
The suspect – who was still on the loose Friday – appeared to look back once as she stormed away from the victim.
The alleged attacker appeared to look back once as she walked away.NYPD
She is shown with her hair up and wearing a white hoodie, black shorts and carrying a black duffel bag.
A police officer was attacked Wednesday afternoon in Times Square when a man tried to gouge his eyes, police and law enforcement sources said.
The cop was stationed in front of a child COVID vaccine site at the Knickerbocker Hotel at Broadway and West 42nd Street when the attack occurred, sources said.
The man allegedly attacked when the officer told him to stop blocking the building’s door.
The assailant allegedly wrestled the officer to the ground and poked him in the eyes, police said.
The man was allegedly blocking the building’s door and was asked by the officer to move.Daniel William McKnight for NY Post
The suspect was arrested, police said.
A Hilton Garden Inn security guard told The Post she saw the officer and suspect “gripping” each other during the altercation. The guard, who did not want to give her name, said the accused perp’s forehead was bleeding.
“I saw him and the guy on the floor. I saw blood over here,” she said, pointing above her eye.
“They are gripping each other or something, that’s what I saw.”
The officer was taken to Bellevue Hospital, and is in stable condition, police said.
The suspect accused of nearly blinding volleyball star Kim Glass was caught on camera getting pinned down after the attack — just feet from the sobbing Olympian on a blood-splattered street.
Good Samaritan Benson Parks posted a clip to social media showing him holding down the suspect in Saturday’s brutal attack, whom the LAPD identified as 51-year-old Semeon Tesfamariam.
“What the f–k is wrong with you?” someone asked as the suspect was held down with a foot on his back in downtown Los Angeles.
Olympic silver-medal-winning athlete Glass, 37, could be seen nearby, clutching her damaged eye as blood splattered the sidewalk between her and the pinned suspect.
“Can you call my mom?” she asked, her voice fighting back tears as a woman tried to tend to her injuries as others called 911.
Kim Glass clutches her eye after the attack in Los Angeles Saturday.Instagram / @imceob
“He threw it so hard!” she said of the metal pipe allegedly used.
The suspect, identified by police as Semeon Tesfamariam, 51, was seen being pinned down in the video of the bloody aftermath.Instagram / @imceob
Glass had revealed that she feared she would be blinded after her fractured, blackened left eye was completely shuttered. “Yes I look like ET,” quipped Glass, who has previously appeared in Sports Illustrated’s swimsuit issue as well as ESPN’s The Body Issue.
Glass joked that she looks “like ET” with a swollen, blackened and stitched-up left eye that suffered “several fractures.”Instagram / @itskimglass
Parks, who calls himself a “serial entrepreneur” in his Instagram profile, described how he “jumped out” of his truck when he “heard a lady screaming.”
When someone pointed out the accused attacker, he “chased his b—h-ass down and dragged him back, and [stomped] his face 1 time” he said, adding he “held him down while other people was just looking scared.”
Good Samaritan Benson Parks details leaping into action after hearing Glass screaming.Instagram / @imceob
Parks shared a screenshot of a conversation with Glass, who saw his video and messaged the Good Samaritan to say she was “so incredibly thankful!!” for his help.
“My heart fills up knowing that so many good people won’t turn a blind,” wrote Glass, who helped Team USA win silver at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Parks explained that he had only filmed the encounter to warn his fiancée off going alone to downtown Los Angeles, where recall efforts blame woke LA County District Attorney George Gascon for surging crime.
“I hope this pushes LA county government to do something about the homeless crisis downtown and all over the city,” he wrote.
Good Samaritan Benson Parks said he hopes L.A. finally takes action to end the homeless crisis in L.A.Instagram / @imceob
He also said he hopes it “inspires any other man that sees a woman being attacked to go out your way to help her.”
He vowed to do the same thing if he saw another person getting attacked — saying he would “STOMP HIS F–ING FACE.”
Good Samaritan Benson Parks said he would do the same again: “STOMP HIS F–ING FACE.”Instagram / @imceob
Tesfamariam was held without bail after being charged with assault with a deadly weapon, said the LAPD, which did not confirm he was homeless.
The major city in western Ukraine is preparing defense strategies from a possible Belarus attack while Russia continues its blitz against Ukraine in the east. Lviv Mayor Andriy Sadovy called an operational meeting with military and civilian authorities to begin prepping for an attack from Belarus.
“We talked about the defense plan and the forces and means under the control of the city. The situation is changing, so our defense strategies also need changes and updates,” said Sadovy, according to Pravda. “A defense headquarters will be established in each district of the city, and additional training will be conducted for members of the volunteer formations of territorial defense. Until we transfer them to 24-hour duty. But this decision can change at any moment.”
And though it’s just reaching the height of summer, Sadovy is already telling his staff and residents to be prepared for a long, cold winter with no way of heating places with no gas.
“We continue to form a strategic reserve of products in case of blocking supply routes,” the mayor said.
Then there are other things to consider, like which residents will help fight any aggressions, whether it’s from Moscow or Minsk.
“We are also considering the option of forming reserve volunteer battalions from employees of the city council and communal enterprises,” Sadovy said.
Lviv is preparing for an attack from Belarus. Here, Ukrainian troops line up to pay their last respects in front of City Hall, during a funeral service as the Ukrainian Army buries with military honors three of its soldiers, each of whom died fighting invading Russian forces at frontlines across the country, in the Saints Peter and Paul Garrison Church in Lviv, Ukraine, on June 18, 2022. Photo by Scott Peterson/Getty Images
This comes during a week in which Russia has taken full occupation of Severodonetsk in the eastern Luhansk region and has now escalated fighting in nearby Lysychansk, which is a few miles away and south of the Siverskyi Donets River. Lysychansk is on higher ground than Severodonetsk, which gives some Ukrainians a little hope in these battles.
Severodonetsk had a population of 100,000 before the war began in February, but many have fled the city since Russia began attacks on the city. There were hundreds of residents who have sheltered at the Azot chemical plant. Stryuk said many have started to evacuate the plant, and that they’ll likely need medical attention and psychological support.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said last week Russia is trying to break his country’s spirit, as evidenced by shelling Ukraine with 48 rockets in one day.
Zelensky’s government has said Belarus has already begun attacks against his country, reportedly from only seven days ago.
“This is the first case of an air strike across Ukraine directly from the territory of Belarus,” Ukraine’s Minister of Defense stated on June 25. “Today’s shelling is directly related to the efforts of the Kremlin authorities to drag Belarus into the war in Ukraine as a direct participant.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has reportedly met with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko this year, mostly to bolster their relationship as war could possibly stretch beyond the Ukrainian border.
Lukashenko has warned any countries from the outside who want to escalate war “refrain from arms supplies, from information warfare and any provocations, from inflating hate speech in the media, from promoting racism and discrimination on the grounds of national, cultural, linguistic and religious affiliation, from legalizing and sending mercenaries.”
Allies must show they will back Ukraine for long haul -Johnson
Ukraine admits setback at village near Sievierodonetsk
‘All that is ours we will take back” -Zelenskiy
Two Azovstal defence commanders moved to Russia for probe -TASS
KYIV, June 19 (Reuters) – The war in Ukraine could last for years, the head of NATO said on Sunday, as Russia stepped up its assaults after the European Union recommended that Kyiv become a candidate to join the bloc.
Jens Stoltenberg said the supply of state-of-the-art weaponry to Ukrainian troops would boost the chance of freeing its eastern region of Donbas from Russian control, Germany’s Bild am Sonntag newspaper said. read more
“We must prepare for the fact that it could take years. We must not let up in supporting Ukraine,” Stoltenberg, the secretary-general of the military alliance, was quoted as saying.
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“Even if the costs are high, not only for military support, also because of rising energy and food prices.”
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who visited Kyiv on Friday, also spoke of a need to prepare for a long war.
This meant ensuring “Ukraine receives weapons, equipment, ammunition and training more rapidly than the invader”, Johnson wrote in an opinion piece in London’s Sunday Times.
“Time is the vital factor,” he wrote. “Everything will depend on whether Ukraine can strengthen its ability to defend its soil faster than Russia can renew its capacity to attack.”
Ukraine received a significant boost on Friday when the European Commission recommended it for candidate status, a decision EU nations are expected to endorse at a summit this week. read more
That would put Ukraine on course to realise an aspiration seen as out of reach before Russia’s Feb. 24 invasion, even if membership could take years.
INTENSIFIED ATTACKS
Russian attacks intensified on Ukraine’s battlefields.
The industrial city of Sievierodonetsk, a prime target in Moscow’s offensive to seize full control of Luhansk – one of the two provinces making up the Donbas – faced heavy artillery and rocket fire again, the Ukrainian military said.
“The situation in Sievierodonetsk is very difficult,” said Serhiy Gaidai, the Ukrainian-appointed governor of Luhansk, adding that Russian forces, using drones for air reconnaissance, were adjusting strikes quickly in response to defence changes.
“Areas near the bridges have been heavily shelled again,” Gaidai said in an online post on Sunday, adding that the Azot chemical plant, where hundreds of people had been sheltering, was hit twice.
“Fighting continues for full control of the city,” the general staff of the Ukrainian armed forces said in a daily update on Sunday.
Analysts at the Washington Institute for the Study of War think tank wrote that “Russian forces will likely be able to seize Sievierodonetsk in the coming weeks, but at the cost of concentrating most of their available forces in this small area”.
In Sievierodonetsk’s twin city Lysychansk across the river, the bodies of two civilians had been found, Gaidai said, adding, “The destruction of housing in the city is increasing like an avalanche.”
Ukraine’s military acknowledged that “the enemy has partial success in the village of Metolkine”, just southeast of Sievierodonetsk.
Russia’s state news agency TASS said many Ukrainian fighters had surrendered in Metolkine, citing a source working for Russian-backed separatists.
Russian missiles hit a gasworks in the district of Izyum to the northwest, and Russian rockets raining on a suburb of Kharkiv, the second-largest city, hit a municipal building, caused a fire, but no casualties, Ukrainian authorities said.
They reported shelling further west in Poltava and Dnipropetrovsk, saying on Saturday that three Russian missiles destroyed a fuel storage depot in the town of Novomoskovsk, wounding 11 people. read more
Pavlo Kyrylenko, governor of Donetsk, the other province in the Donbas, said a civilian was killed and 11 wounded in shelling on Saturday.
The Ukrainian armed forces general staff said Russian troops on a reconnaissance mission near the town of Krasnopillya had been beaten back with heavy casualties on Saturday.
Reuters could not independently confirm the battlefield accounts.
Two top commanders of fighters who defended the Azovstal steel plant in the southeastern port of Mariupol have been transferred to Russia for investigation, TASS said. read more
ZELENSKIY DEFIANCE
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, whose defiance has inspired his people and won global respect, said he had visited soldiers on the southern frontline in the Mykolaiv region, about 550 km (340 miles) south of Kyiv.
“I talked to our defenders – the military, the police, the National Guard,” he said in a video on the Telegram message app on Sunday that appeared to have been recorded on a moving train.
“Their mood is assured: they all do not doubt our victory,” Zelenskiy said. “We will not give the south to anyone, and all that is ours we will take back.”
Another video showed Zelenskiy in his trademark khaki T-shirt handing out medals and posing for selfies with servicemen. read more
Zelenskiy has stayed mostly in Kyiv since Russia invaded, although in recent weeks he has made unannounced visits to Kharkiv and two eastern cities near battles. read more
One of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s stated goals in ordering troops into Ukraine was to halt the eastward expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Alliance and keep Moscow’s southern neighbour outside the West’s sphere of influence.
But the war, which has killed thousands, reduced cities to rubble and sent millions fleeing, has had the opposite effect – convincing Finland and Sweden to seek to join NATO – and helping to pave the way for Ukraine’s EU membership bid.
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Reporting by Reuters bureaus; Writing by David Brunnstrom and Clarence Fernandez; Editing by Grant McCool and William Mallard
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
Russian forces advance slowly on Sievierodonetsk city centre
Thousands of civilians trapped in Sievierodonetsk
EU resolves impasse over Russian oil ban
KYIV, May 31 (Reuters) – Ukrainian forces were holding out in Sievierodonetsk on Tuesday, resisting Russia’s all-out assault to capture a bombed-out wasteland that Moscow has made the principal objective of its invasion in recent days.
Both sides said Russian forces now controlled between a third and half of the city. Russia’s separatist proxies acknowledged that capturing it was taking longer than hoped, despite one of the biggest ground assaults of the war.
Western military analysts say Moscow has drained manpower and firepower from across the rest of the front to concentrate on Sievierodonetsk, hoping a massive offensive on the small industrial city will achieve one of its stated aims, to secure surrounding Luhansk province for separatist proxies.
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“We can say already that a third of Sievierodonetsk is already under our control,” Russia’s TASS state news agency quoted Leonid Pasechnik, the leader of the pro-Moscow Luhansk People’s Republic, as saying.
Fighting was raging in the city, but Russian forces were not advancing as rapidly as might have been hoped, he said, claiming that pro-Moscow forces wanted to “maintain the city’s infrastructure” and moving slowly because of caution around chemical factories.
The Ukrainian head of the city administration, Oleksandr Stryuk, said the Russians now controlled half of the city.
“Unfortunately … the city has been split in half. But at the same time the city still defends itself. It is still Ukrainian,” he said, advising those still trapped inside to stay in cellars.
Ukraine says Russia has destroyed all of the city’s critical infrastructure with unrelenting bombardment, followed by wave after wave of mass ground assault involving huge numbers of casualties.
Thousands of residents remain trapped. Russian forces are advancing towards the city centre, but slowly, regional governor Serhiy Gaidai said.
Gaidai said there did not appear to be a risk of Ukrainian forces being encircled, though they could ultimately be forced to retreat across the Siverskiy Donets river to Lysychansk, the twin city on the opposite bank.
Stryuk, head of the city administration, said evacuating civilians was no longer possible. Authorities cancelled efforts to evacuate residents after shrapnel killed a French journalist on Monday.
Jan Egeland, secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council aid agency which had long operated out of Sievierodonetsk, said he was “horrified” by its destruction.
“We fear that up to 12,000 civilians remain caught in crossfire in the city, without sufficient access to water, food, medicine or electricity. The near-constant bombardment is forcing civilians to seek refuge in bomb shelters and basements, with only few precious opportunities for those trying to escape.”
Elsewhere on the battlefield, there were few reports of major shifts. In the east, Ukraine says Moscow is trying to assault other areas along the main front, regrouping to press towards the city of Solviansk. In the south, Ukraine claimed in recent days to have pushed back Russian forces on a bank of the Inhulets River, a border of Russian-held Kherson province.
A local resident walks next to a building destroyed by a Russian military strike, as Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues, in the town of Bakhmut, in Donetsk Region, Ukraine May 29, 2022. REUTERS/Serhii Nuzhnenko
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OIL BAN
After having failed to capture Kyiv, been driven out of northern Ukraine and made only limited progress elsewhere in the east, Moscow has concentrated its might on Sievierodonetsk, which had a pre-war population of around 110,000.
Victory there and across the river in Lysychansk would bring full control of Luhansk, one of two eastern province Moscow claims on behalf of separatist proxies.
But the huge battle has come at a massive cost, which some Western military experts say could hurt Russia’s ability to fend off counterattacks.
“Putin is now hurling men and munitions” at Sievierodonetsk, “as if taking it would win the war for the Kremlin. He is wrong,” the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War think tank wrote this week.
“When the Battle of Severodonetsk ends, regardless of which side holds the city, the Russian offensive at the operational and strategic levels will likely have culminated, giving Ukraine the chance to restart its operational-level counteroffensives to push Russian forces back.”
Overnight, the EU agreed its toughest sanctions against Russia since the war began, for the first time targeting Russian sales of energy, Moscow’s main source of income.
The EU will now ban import of Russian oil by sea. Officials said that would halt two-thirds of Russia’s oil exports to Europe at first, and 90% by the end of this year as Germany and Poland also phase out imports by pipeline. read more
But Hungary, which relies on Russian oil through a huge Soviet-era pipeline, secured an exemption. read more
Ukraine says the sanctions are taking too long and are still too full of holes to stop Russia: “If you ask me, I would say far too slow, far too late and definitely not enough,” said Ihor Zhovkva, deputy head of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office.
Nevertheless, the foreign ministry welcomed the new EU package and said the oil restrictions would cost Moscow of tens of billions of dollars.
Moscow, meanwhile, has switched off gas supplies to several EU countries in a dispute over how to receive payments, although the moves so far, during warm months when demand is lower, have yet to have the severest impact. On Tuesday, Russia switched off the main Dutch gas buyer, GasTerra, which said it would find supplies elsewhere. read more
Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine in February claiming Moscow aimed to disarm and “denazify” its neighbour. Ukraine and its Western allies call this a baseless pretext for a war to seize territory.
Ukraine accuses Moscow of war crimes on a huge scale, flattening cities with artillery, and killing and raping civilians in areas it occupied. Russia denies targeting civilians and says accusations have been faked.
In the second war crimes trial to be held in Ukraine, two Russian soldiers were sentenced on Tuesday to 11 1/2 years prison after pleading guilty to shelling civilian targets. Ukraine’s top prosecutor said Kyiv has identified more than 600 Russian war crime suspects and started prosecuting around 80.
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Reporting by Reuters bureaux; Writing by Simon Cameron-Moore and Peter Graff; Editing by Stephen Coates and Alison Williams
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
The United Airlines employee caught in shocking video slugging it out with a former NFL player at Newark Airport last week has been fired, The Post has learned.
“United Ground Express informed us that the employee has been terminated,” an airline rep said in an email, referring to the company’s connection subsidiary.
The viral footage captured the unidentified worker shoving ex-Denver Broncos cornerback Brendan Langley, 27, who then unleashes a flurry of blows that send the employee reeling about 11 a.m. Thursday.
The United worker who fought with Brendan Langley at Newark Airport has been fired.
The dazed, uniformed staffer then puts up his dukes and proceeds to slap the much-larger athlete across the face.
“You saw that s—?” Langley shouts at a bystander before delivering a punch that sends the worker to the floor and left him bleeding from the head.
The bloodied United worker stumbles back on his feet and confronts the football player again.
“You wants some more? He wants some more!” Langley yells at him.
In one video, the United worker appears to land the first blow against Langley.
Langley, who is now a receiver for the Calgary Stampeders in Canada, has been arrested on a charge of simple assault, the Port Authority told CNN.
It was unclear from the clip who exactly threw the first punch but the now-former airline worker has not been charged in the fracas, according to TMZ.
Another video shared online of the incident appeared to show Langley land the first blow.
The fight is believed to have begun when Langley used a wheelchair to transport his luggage — instead of a luggage cart that cost $5, the Daily Mail reported.
Brendan Langley played for the Denver Broncos before moving to the CFL this year.AP
Langley addressed the incident on Twitter, writing: “yall aint off the hook… worst customer experience in the entirety of my life on Heaven!!!!” He then claimed in a tweet that he was assaulted by the United worker and was defending himself.
A United rep told The Post in an email Monday the company “does not tolerate violence of any kind at our airports or on board our planes and we are working with local authorities to further investigate this matter.”
Meanwhile, the Canadian Football League’s Calgary Stampeders said they are investigating the incident involving their player.
Brendan Langley made 16 appearances as a Denver Bronco before moving to the Calgary Stampeders.Denver Post via Getty Images
“The Calgary Stampeders football club is aware of the reports concerning Brendan Langley,” the Stampeders told CNN in a statement.
“The team is currently looking into the matter in order to learn the full details and will have no further comment until the investigation is complete,” the team added.
The University of Georgia star was drafted in the third round of the 2017 draft and made 16 appearances in the NFL before moving to Canada this year.
Langley quickly knocked the United employee down when the fight started.
The Post has reached out to the CFL for comment.
The Port Authority police have not responded to an inquiry about possible charges against the fired worker.
SANTA MONICA, Calif. — When their mail stopped arriving about a week ago, residents on a neat block near the beach on the west side of Los Angeles County were perplexed.
At first, said Charlotte Jay, “I just thought I hadn’t got any.” A day or so passed. She was expecting a certified letter. Then a neighbor tipped her off: Their mail was suspended.
Ms. Jay added, “I was like: ‘What?’”
The disruption had been explained in a letter from the United States Postal Service, but some residents said they had not initially received or seen it.
According to the note, delivery service had been halted to “all addresses located on the 1300 block of 14th Street” following multiple “assaults and threats of assault” against postal workers by a person in the neighborhood.
“The safety of our employees and the mail they deliver to you is our highest concern,” the letter said, adding that until service was resumed, residents could collect their mail at a nearby post office.
“The entire block? It’s an extreme measure,” Ms. Jay, a stock trader, said Tuesday afternoon outside her apartment, where she had just returned from a walk with her brown terrier mix.
She added: “I was shocked, and I was angry.”
Service to the area resumed on Tuesday, but the episode has leftlingering questions of residents’ expectation of mail delivery, one of the few remaining constants in a world upended (and hastened to anger) by the coronavirus pandemic. It has also brought into focus the right to safety for postal workers who, like other essential workers, have battled through the past two years, hand delivering the nation’s letters, bills and paychecks, day in and out.
The police confirmed that on Jan. 19, a man assaulted a mail carrier in Santa Monica with a broomstick.
“The victim sustained a minor injury to his arm and did not require medical attention,” the Santa Monica Police Department said in a statement.
Though the Postal Service has cited episodes involving “three separate letter carriers” in Santa Monica, the police said that they had received information about only one attack.
A suspect was arrested and charged in the Jan. 19 assault, the police said, but those charges were later dropped after the victim decided not to proceed. That same suspect was arrested on April 6 on unrelated charges of “misdemeanor vandalism and possession of drug paraphernalia,”the police said.
The police said authorities were trying to locate other postal workers who may have been victims as part of their continuing investigation.
“It’s unfortunate that these three carriers experienced this,” Natashi Garvins, a spokeswoman for the Postal Service said by phone on Wednesday. The service, she added, can and does occasionally suspend mail delivery — though she said she could not provide numbers or say whether any had been made previously in response to attacks on mail carriers.
“It could occur for various reasons,” Ms. Garvins said, adding that the Postal Service would always attempt to provide alternative means for people to collect their mail.
In the case of Santa Monica, she added, the service had decided to cancel the mail to the entire block because the person responsible for the three episodes “could be anywhere”in the area.
Harassment of mail carriers, however, does not appear to be isolated.
In New York, the police began an investigation last June after a mail carrier was attacked by two people on his route in Brooklyn. In Providence, R.I., a federal grand jury indicted a man in January on charges that he had attacked and robbed a postal worker in September. In Arizona, a man assaulted a postal worker in May after she requested that he provide his identification.
Marjon Barrigan Husted, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Postal Inspector,said on Wednesday that she was unaware of any recent increases in such episodes in Los Angeles.
The American Postal Workers’ Union and the National Association of Letter Carriers did not immediately return requests for comment.
Some residents said they were familiar with the person they believe had attacked the postal workers. They described him as transient and erratic. One man, a valet worker who asked not to be named to protect his safety, said that he had seen the man wielding a golf club at a postal worker.Another said that after the Jan. 19 attack, his regular mail carrier had suddenly vanished.
Cori Newman, 49, a manager at a local restaurant, said that the person in questionhad approached her several times at work, as well as after hours in the neighboring car park.
“I lived in Santa Monica a long time ago as a child and never felt it was dangerous ever before,”Ms. Newman said. Now, she said, she keeps a baseball bat and pepper spray behind the bar. “If I have to use it,’’ she said, “I have to use it.”
Others, however, said that, aside from the recent episodes, the neighborhood was largely peaceful. “I just think it’s sad,” said Jim Price, 55.
“This is Santa Monica,” he added. “It’s safe; it’s a nice city seaside community.”
Austria’s Nehammer to meet Putin in Moscow on Monday
World Bank forecasts 45% drop in Ukraine GDP output
LVIV, Ukraine, April 11 (Reuters) – Ukrainian troops have repulsed several Russian assaults in the country’s east, the focus of a new offensive by the invading forces, British intelligence said on Monday, while President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said this week will be crucial to the course of the war.
Austrian leader Karl Nehammer planned to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Monday and will call for an end to the conflict. It would be Putin’s first face-to-face meeting with a European Union leader since Russia’s invasion started on Feb. 24. read more
Russian forces were also pushing their offensive to establish control over the southern port city of Mariupol, a key target whose capture would link up areas of Russian control to the west and east.
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The Russian invasion has left a trail of death of destruction that has drawn condemnation from Western countries and triggered concern about Putin’s broader ambitions.
About a quarter of Ukraine’s 44 million population have been forced from their homes, cities turned into rubble, and thousands of people have been killed or injured – many of them civilians.
Russian forces have abandoned their attempt to capture the capital Kyiv but are redoubling their efforts in Ukraine’s east. Britain’s defence ministry said Russian shelling continued in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.
Ukrainian forces had beaten back several assaults and destroyed Russian tanks, vehicles and artillery equipment, it said in its regular intelligence bulletin.
The report also said Russia’s continued reliance on unguided bombs greatly increased the risk of further civilian casualties.
Powerful explosions rocked cities in the south and east and air raid sirens blared out across Ukraine early on Monday.
“IT MUST STOP”
President Zelenskiy kept up his tireless campaign to generate international support and rally his countrymen, warning the coming week would be important and tense.
“Russian troops will move to even larger operations in the east of our state. They may use even more missiles against us, even more air bombs. But we are preparing for their actions. We will answer.” he said in a late night video address.
He was due to address South Korea’s parliament by videolink on Monday.
The general staff of Ukraine’s armed forces said it was likely the Russians would try to disrupt supply lines and strike at transport infrastructure.
Russia’s defence ministry said high-precision missiles had destroyed the headquarters of Ukraine’s Dnipro battalion in the town of Zvonetsky. read more
Reuters could not immediately confirm the reports.
Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said he would meet Putin on Monday in Moscow.
“We are militarily neutral, but (have) a clear position on the Russian war of aggression against #Ukraine,” Nehammer wrote on Twitter. “It must stop! It needs humanitarian corridors, ceasefire & full investigation of war crimes.”
Since Russia invaded, Zelenskiy has appealed to Western powers to provide more defence help, and to punish Moscow with tougher sanctions including embargoes on its energy exports.
Zelenskiy said he had confidence in his own armed forces but “unfortunately I don’t have the confidence that we will be receiving everything we need” from the United States.
CIVILIAN TOLL
Mounting civilian casualties have triggered widespread international condemnation and new sanctions.
Ludmila Zabaluk, head of the Dmytriv Village Department, north of Kyiv, said dozens of civilian bodies were found in the area.
“There were more than 50 dead people. They shot them from close distance. There’s a car where a 17-year-old child was burned, only bones left. A woman had half her head blown off. A bit farther, a man lying near his car was burned alive.”
Reuters could not immediately confirm the reports.
Moscow has rejected accusations of war crimes by Ukraine and Western countries. It has repeatedly denied targeting civilians in what it calls a “special operation” to demilitarise and “denazify” its southern neighbour. Ukraine and Western nations have dismissed this as a baseless pretext for war.
ECONOMIC COST
French bank Societe Generale (SOGN.PA) became the latest company to retreat from Russia, agreeing to sell its stake in Rosbank and the Russian lender’s insurance subsidiaries to Interros Capital, a firm linked to billionaire Vladimir Potanin.
The Russian invasion has triggered a barrage of financial sanctions from the United States, Europe and Britain, prompting Western companies to sell their Russian assets.
SocGen had faced mounting pressure to cut ties with Russia and end its more than 15-year investment in Rosbank.
The World Bank on Sunday forecast the war would cause Ukraine’s economic output to collapse by 45% this year, with half of its businesses shuttered, grain exports mostly cut off by Russia’s naval blockade and destruction rendering economic activity impossible in many areas. read more
The bank forecast Russia’s GDP would contract by 11.2% this year due to punishing Western sanctions.
(This story was refiled to correct dateline.)
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Reporting by Reuters bureaus and Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Writing by Lincoln Feast and Angus MacSwan, Editing by Stephen Coates and Nick Macfie
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
