SAN FRANCISCO — Authorities urged motorists to avoid California’s Highway 1 along the central coast after a section of the scenic route collapsed during an Easter weekend storm, forcing closures and stranding motorists near Big Sur, authorities said.
The collapse occurred amid heavy rain Saturday afternoon near Rocky Creek Bridge about 17 miles south of Monterey, sending chunks of asphalt tumbling into the ocean from the southbound side of the two-lane road.
The highway was closed in both directions in the mountainous area of California’s central coast as engineers assessed the damage, said the state Department of Transportation, or Caltrans.
“We are working on a plan to get motorists evacuated from the area,” the California Highway Patrol said Saturday.
The Rocky Creek closure on California Highway 1 on Sunday in Monterey County following heavy rain in the area. Caltrans District 5 via AP
Around noon on Sunday, crews had determined that travel in the northbound lane was safe, and authorities began periodically escorting motorists around the damaged section. About 300 cars were waiting to travel northbound when officials led the first convoy through the area, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Some stranded motorists had slept in their cars overnight while others were sheltered at the nearby Big Sur Lodge, the newspaper said.
Caltrans spokesperson Kevin Drabinski said periodic convoys would continue over the coming days as crews shore up the highway, which had other closures because of rocks and debris in lanes. He urged people to avoid the area.
The famous route has seen frequent closures because of collapses, mud flows and rockslides during severe weather.
The slow-moving storm dumped heavy rain at lower elevations and more than a foot of snow at Sierra Nevada ski resorts around Lake Tahoe.
Ryan Kittell, a National Weather Service meteorologist, said the system is typical for March but was not an atmospheric river like many of the other storms that have pounded the state in recent winters.
The storm exited the San Francisco Bay Area on Friday and “just marched right down the California coast,” bringing most of the rainfall to the Los Angeles area, Kittell said.
The storm then parked itself over Southern California, where it was expected to stay until Sunday night or into Monday. Showers and possible thunderstorms, with the potential for lightning and damaging winds, were still possible for parts of Santa Barbara, Ventura and L.A. counties.
QUESADA, Spain (AP) — Some much need rain was not going to ruin Holy Week for Alfonso del Río Martínez and his fellow Christians in the southern Spanish village of Quesada.
So when there was a break in the wet weather, they completed their annual act of spiritual devotion by parading a float bearing Christ and the Virgen through the streets of their town of some 5,000 people.
The rains during Holy Week were a blessing for large swaths of Spain suffering from chronic drought, even if they put a serious damper on the country’s intensely celebrated Easter. Many cities, towns and villages had to cancel Holy Week processions due to the persistent storms that pelted the Iberian Peninsula.
When the drops did start to fall near the end of Saturday’s procession in Quesada, a plastic tarp was quickly produced and draped over the crucifix that was being borne on the shoulders of local men and women.
Del Río called the shower that fell over the procession a “miracle” for the area, where olive orchards essential to the local economy have been hit hard by the lack of water.
“We have been through two years of drought that have left the two reservoirs that we have here completely dry, and we were asking for water desperately,” said Del Río, president of the association for Quesada’s parishes participating in the processions.
“At the same time, we had been waiting for it to rain all year and it just had to rain over these seven days. (But) we have all accepted it without any complaint since the rain is more than welcome.”
The scene of dozens of people bearing large wooden floats on their backs to parade elaborately decorated statues of Christ and/or the Virgen has been reproduced each Holy Week since Medieval times across Spain. The festivities attract the faithful but also many people who just want to experience the occasion.
While the processions take place over just a handful of days, preparations are a year-round affair. So missing out completely on the event can be a real disappointment for those involved.
Seville, which draws in thousands of spectators each Holy Week for the spectacle, had to cancel processions this past week due to the persistent rain for the first time in over a decade.
In Logroño, in northern Spain, porters were left distraught and some in tears when told that their procession had been called off.
While a letdown for many, the rain was undoubtedly a huge relief for many more — and farmers especially, who have seen serious restrictions placed on irrigation.
The faithful have tried to combat the drought by appealing to divine intervention, even in a deeply traditional Roman Catholic country that is quickly growing more secular. In Catalonia, the northeastern region around Barcelona, some village parishes have revived the faded practice of holding a special Mass and procession in hopes for rain.
Spain’s total water reserves were at 57% capacity before the Holy Week rains, but with drastic differences between the wet northern Atlantic coast and the parched northeast Mediterranean and south. While reservoirs of Spain’s northern Atlantic area were at or near 90% capacity, Catalonia was down to just 15% and parts of the south were just above 20%.
The storm front that unleashed downpours over Spain during Holy Week was behind the winds and big waves that lashed the coastline Friday, when four people died after falling into the sea.
___
Associated Press writer Joseph Wilson in Barcelona contributed to this report.
The 3-point line for the NCAA women’s basketball tournament at Moda Center had a discrepancy in distance at each end of the court that went unnoticed through four games over two days before Texas and North Carolina State were informed of the problem ahead of their Elite Eight matchup on Sunday.
The teams’ coaches agreed to play Sunday’s game as scheduled with the mismatched 3-point lines rather than delay it, the NCAA said in a statement. N.C. State beat Texas 76-66 to advance to the Final Four.
“The NCAA was notified (Sunday) that the 3-point lines on the court at Moda Center in Portland are not the same distance. The NCAA staff and women’s basketball committee members on site consulted with the two head coaches who were made aware of the discrepancy. All parties elected to play a complete game on the court as is, rather than correcting the court and delaying the game,” Lynn Holzman, the NCAA’s vice president of women’s basketball, said in a statement.
Holzman said all lines would be measured after practices concluded on Sunday evening and the correct markings would be on the floor ahead of Monday’s game between Southern California and UConn.
“While the NCAA’s vendor has apologized for the error, we will investigate how this happened in the first place. The NCAA is working now to ensure the accuracy of all court markings for future games,” Holzman said. “We are not aware of any other issues at any of the prior sites for men’s or women’s tournament games.”
Connor Sports makes the March Madness floors for both men and women.
Workers measure one of the two three-point lines and their different measurements after the Elite 8 round of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament between NC State Wolfpack and Texas Longhorns at Moda Center on March 31, 2024 in Portland, Oregon.
Steph Chambers/Getty Images
“We apologize for the error that was found and have technicians on site at the Moda Center in Portland who were instructed to make the necessary corrections immediately following (Sunday’s) game,” the company said in a statement.
The court issue was another distraction for the NCAA during a women’s tournament in which the play has been exceptional but other issues have taken the spotlight.
There was a referee pulled out of a game at halftime in the first round. Utah faced racist harassment before its first-round game. Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo was forced to remove a nose ring and missed time in a Sweet 16 loss to Oregon State. LSU coach Kim Mulkey threatened to sue The Washington Post over a then-unpublished profile of her and later called out a Los Angeles Times columnist for what she said was sexist criticism of her team. The Times edited the column in response.
And now, the court issue in Portland.
“I hate to say this, but I have a lot of colleagues that would say, ‘Only in women’s basketball,'” Texas coach Vic Schaefer said. “I mean, it’s a shame, really, that it even happened. But it is what it is.”
Four Sweet 16 games on Friday and Saturday were played without any of the participating teams saying anything publicly about a problem with the court.
During pregame warmups, Schaefer and N.C. State coach Wes Moore were informed that the 3-point line distance at the top of the key was different on both ends of the floor. The distance between the top of the key and the 3-point line was too short at the end in front of the N.C. State bench, while the line at the Texas end was correct, Moore said.
NCAA officials were asked to measure the distance and brought out a tape measure about 15 minutes before tip-off. After discussions between NCAA representatives, the coaches and officials, the game went on as scheduled.
A delay would have taken at least an hour, both coaches said, because someone from the outside would have to be brought in to remark the floor and could have forced the game to be bumped from being broadcast on ABC.
“That’s a big deal to be on ABC,” Moore said. “We’ve been fortunate to be on it a couple of times the last couple of years. But it’s a big deal.”
Mallory Collier and Zoe Brooks of the NC State Wolfpack celebrate after defeating the Texas Longhorns 76-66 in the Elite 8 round of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament at Moda Center on March 31, 2024 in Portland, Oregon.
Steph Chambers/Getty Images
Both coaches said their players were not aware of the discrepancy, and N.C. State’s Aziaha James in particular had no trouble, making a career-high seven 3s on nine attempts. The NCAA said the court would be corrected before Monday’s Elite Eight matchup between Southern California and UConn.
“At the end of the day we had already played a game on it and we both won, so we just decided to play,” Schaefer said.
While the NCAA did not provide details, one 3-point line near the top of the key appeared to be about 6 inches closer to the basket than at the opposite end of the floor. The NCAA 3-point line is at 22 feet, 1 3/4 inches for both women and men.
The numbers showed that players struggled with the line that was too close to the basket.
Through five games, teams shooting on the end with the closer 3-point arc were 25.8% (23 of 89) on 3s. At the end of the floor that was correct, teams shot 33.3% (29 of 87).
“These kids, they shoot so far behind it sometimes nowadays, who knows where the line is?” Moore said. “It is an unusual situation. But, like I said, I don’t know that it was an advantage or disadvantage, either way.”
Baylor coach Nicki Collen, whose team lost to USC in the Sweet 16, posted on social media that with eight teams at one site, the focus was on game plan, not what the court looked like.
Baylor was 6 of 14 on 3-pointers in the second half while shooting at the end of the floor with the correct arc.
“Guess that’s why we shot it better in the second half,” Collen posted.
Video of a police officer in London having a heated discussion with a woman about the offensiveness of swastikas has circulated across social media.
The video was taken on Saturday during a massive pro-Palestinian rally that the Metropolitan Police were monitoring. In the video, a visibly upset woman confronted the officer about an anti-Israeli participant who allegedly showed off a swastika.
The officer did not seem to agree that swastikas are offensive symbols that threaten public order. He cited the Public Order Act 2023, which he said outlines and limits what police handle at protests.
“Under what context is a swastika not disrupting public order?” the woman argued. She repeated her question multiple times.
WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION SILENT OVER HAMAS’ USE OF GAZA HOSPITAL AS TERROR HQ
Lines of police keep the Ceasefire Now protest and the pro-Israel counter demonstration apart on March 30, 2024, in London, England.
“I haven’t said anything about it, that it is or it isn’t,” he replied. “Everything needs to be taken into context, doesn’t it?”
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“Yeah, but it’s a context of a hateful march,” another woman chimed in, while the first woman shot back, “Why does a swastika need context?”
“Why is a swastika not immediately antisemitism?” the woman added. “Why does it need context? This is what I’m confused about. This isn’t even about Israel. In what context is a swastika not antisemitic and disruptive to public order?”
“I don’t have an in-depth knowledge of signs and symbols,” the officer said. “I know the swastika was used by the Nazi Party during their inception and their period of being in power in Germany.”
PRO-PALESTINIAN PROTESTERS DISRUPT BERKELEY CITY COUNCIL MEETING, HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE VOTE: ‘END ISRAEL’
Pro-Palestinian activists and supporters wave flags as they gather for a protest in Trafalgar Square in central London on March 30, 2024, calling for a ceasefire in the Israel/Hamas conflict.
The two continued arguing before the officer acknowledged that some symbols produce “mass alarm.”
“Now, if you came up to me and you felt mass alarm and distressed about a symbol that someone was…,” he said before being interrupted.
“I’m extremely distressed. I’m very alarmed,” the woman responded.
On X, the Metropolitan Police posted a statement about the incident that implied the video had been taken out of context.
“The video is a short excerpt of what was a 10-minute conversation with an officer,” the response read. “During the full conversation, the officer establishes that the person the woman was concerned about had already been arrested for a public order offence in relation to a placard.”
Protestors on the Ceasefire now protest react to a pro-Israel counter demonstration on March 30, 2024 in London, England.
“The officer then offered to arrange for other officers to attend and accompany the woman to identify any other persons she was concerned about amongst the protestors, but after turning to speak to his supervisor, she then unfortunately left.”
After the video was posted, social media users criticized the police officer’s responses to the woman’s arguments.
“That officer is qualified to be an Ivy League university president,” one X user joked.
“Our police force have reached a new low,” a British commentator wrote.
“And his grandfather probably risked his life fighting the Nazis in World War II. What a shame,” another speculated.
Fox News Digital reached out to the Metropolitan Police for additional comment.
Original article source: London police officer sparks outrage after suggesting swastikas should be ‘taken into context’ to Jewish woman
Havana Syndrome evidence suggests who may be responsible for mysterious brain injuries – CBS News
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Efforts continue to investigate brain injuries suffered by U.S. officials. This is the fourth 60 Minutes Havana Syndrome report and, for the first time, there’s evidence of who might be responsible.
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Ten years after Boko Haram gunmen abducted his daughter from her school in the Nigerian town of Chibok, Yama Bullum feels as if he has lost her once again.
His daughter, Jinkai Yama, was one of 276 girls kidnapped from the secondary school in the early hours of 14 April 2014 by the Islamist fighters.
Fifty-seven of them escaped shortly afterwards. Then between 2016 and 2018 an additional 108 were either rescued by the military or released through negotiations.
Ninety-one others remain missing, but Ms Yama is one of 20 “Chibok girls” rescued over the last two years from Boko Haram hideouts in Sambisa Forest in north-eastern Borno state, the epicentre of the 15-year insurgency.
But her father has been outraged to discover that like some of other recently freed women, she has decided to remain married to one of the fighters who once held her captive.
These couples now reside in the city of Maiduguri – Borno’s capital, 125km (78 miles) north of the remote town of Chibok – in housing organised by the state’s governor Babagana Umaru Zulum.
“I am not happy with what the governor did. The girls managed to come out of the forest and the governor married them off again. Her mother is very angry,” Mr Bullum said.
L: Jinkai Yama pictured after her release R: When a teenager she was part of the cadettes brigade and in the church brass band [PRNigeria.com/BBC]
He found out when his daughter called him up to tell him last August – and handed over the phone asking him to talk to her husband, the former insurgent.
Until then, Mr Bullum had assumed she was with other freed Chibok captives and her three children in a special welfare programme.
Like a number of other Chibok parents, Mr Bullum is disturbed by what seems to be the Nigerian government’s approval of marriages between their rescued daughters and the men who abducted them.
Allowing the freed women to live with their former captors as wives, while their accommodation is provided by the government, is perceived by the parents as Governor Zulum sacrificing their daughters in the quest for stability in the region.
They see these marriages as a way to appease the former militants.
Most of the girls taken from the Chibok school were Christian.
“”Some people in Chibok are saying: ‘How is it possible after the rescue of the girls they are still remaining in the Muslim faith?'”, Source: Yakubu Nkeki, Source description: Chairman of the Association of Parents of the Missing Girls from Chibok, Image: Yakubu Nkeki
The recent news of the continued “marriages” has further upset parents whose children were forced to convert to Islam during captivity.
“Some people in Chibok are saying: ‘How is it possible after the rescue of the girls they are still remaining in the Muslim faith?'” said Yakubu Nkeki, chairman of the Chibok parents’ association.
The state appears to be grappling with the dilemma of respecting the girls’ wishes while fulfilling the desires of their parents.
“My only interest is that we don’t want these girls to go back to the bush again,” Borno Governor Zulum told me.
“Even before they came out [of the Sambisa Forest], some of them gave us conditions – that they will not come without their husbands.”
Mary Dauda, pictured here just after she was found by the army, said she planned her escape with her militant husband [AFP]
One of these women, Aisha Graema, told me that she would not have left the forest if she could not be with the militant she married two years after being abducted from the Chibok school.
“We have been married for eight years,” said the mother of three.
“I first came out of the forest and then he followed me. There in the bush, we had no relative, no brother, no sister, that is why we decided to come out.
“He finished deradicalisation before we were allowed to stay together. The government welcomed us well, gave us food, shelter, everything.”
Another Chibok girl, Mary Dauda, explained to me that she would not have been able to escape from Sambisa without her husband, who helped her sneak away from the militants’ hideout.
“We had agreed that he would join me afterwards and present himself to the governor for rehabilitation,” said the 27-year-old.
Hajj Camp in Bulumkutu is the main rehabilitation camp for former Boko Haram fighters and their long-term captives, where they are taken directly after their rescue.
After going through weeks of rehabilitation there, the men are reintegrated into society under the government’s ongoing amnesty programme for repentant Boko Haram members. This has so far processed about 160,000 people, according to Mr Zulum.
“They are the ones that insisted that without their husbands, they will not stay in Maiduguri””, Source: Zuwaira Gambo, Source description: Borno state commissioner for women affairs and social development, Image: Zuwaira Gambo
The welfare of the 20 most recently freed Chibok girls falls under the remit of Zuwaira Gambo, the Borno state commissioner for women affairs and social development, who insists the women were in no way coerced into staying with their spouses.
“They are the ones that insisted that without their husbands, they will not stay in Maiduguri,” Ms Gambo said.
“I asked them: ‘How can you want to stay with this man who destroyed your life?’ and they told me: ‘You will not understand.'”
Rather than have the couples return to the forest, she said the authorities sought a different path.
The 20 women – along with 31 children – were moved to a secure facility in an affluent area of Maiduguri. Seven are with their Boko Haram husbands; some of the others are engaged to former fighters they met while in Bulumkutu.
Training is offered to the women in skills like tailoring and computer literacy.
They share a large mansion, surrounded by expansive grounds where they gather on mats beneath trees to chat while their children play in the sand.
The recently freed women share a large house in Maiduguri and often gather outside to socialise, along with their children [Yakubu Nkeki]
Each couple is provided with their own room.
The freed Chibok girls are not alone in wanting to stay with their Boko Haram husbands.
One 16-year-old told me back in 2016 that if she had had a gun, she would have shot the soldiers who came to rescue her from captivity.
Experts attribute this to several factors, including the sense of belonging fostered by being part of the insurgent group, indoctrination into its extremist beliefs, the development of romantic attachments over time and the formation of family bonds, particularly when they have children together.
Additionally, acts of kindness and care, such as showering them with gifts, by their captors may contribute to these feelings.
“These people took the time to convince them that what they had known before was the wrong way,” said Fatima Akilu, a psychologist who has worked with many freed captives taken in their formative years.
The secondary school in Chibok was destroyed by the militants on the infamous night of 14 April 2014 [AFP]
But the situation of the Chibok girls stands out because of the government’s active support for them and their husbands staying together.
Governor Zulum believes this will encourage those still in Sambisa to come out of hiding.
The chair of the Association of Parents of the Missing Girls from Chibok says he finds himself torn between the grievances of the parents and the rights of the young women.
“The girls told me that they can’t do without their husbands,” Mr Nkeki told me.
“Me, myself, I am a freedom fighter and I want them to be free from the Sambisa Forest regardless of the situation they find themselves when they come out, whether Muslim or married or not.”
He recounted being urgently summoned to the childhood home of Saratu Dauda, one of the recently rescued Chibok girls, last year during a heated argument between her and her parents regarding her decision to remain married to her former captor.
“They said: ‘Come and hear what this girl is saying. You were calling for them to be released, yet look at how they are behaving’. I told them it was not her fault, that they have to be patient.”
Aisha Muhammed-Oyebode from the Bring Back Our Girls activist group and head of the Murtala Muhammed Foundation, which supports both the parents and the freed girls, believes that issues like this might have been avoided if the government had been better prepared with comprehensive plans for the girls upon their release.
The Bring Back Our Girls campaign garnered global attention [Reuters]
“Not having a structure around these kinds of situations is what is causing this kind of chaos,” she said.
After the explosive family argument, Ms Dauda cut short her visit to Chibok and returned to Maiduguri. Her father is so upset that he has chosen to no longer participate in the parents’ association or any events commemorating the anniversary of the abductions this year.
This includes the yearly gathering of parents of all the kidnapped schoolgirls, both free and missing, held at the school premises.
Ms Yama is also estranged from her family. Whenever they try to contact her, her husband answers her phone instead.
The 29-year-old has declined to respond to my questions about the situation, telling me that her relationship with her parents is no-one else’s business and how happy she is that her kidnapping led to her finding the “true religion”.
Her clearly distressed father said: “She doesn’t want to have anything to do with us at all.”
Map
Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani is a freelance Nigerian journalist and novelist based in Abuja and London.
Indian Relay horse race dubbed “America’s original extreme sport” | 60 Minutes – CBS News
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Indian Relay, dubbed “America’s original extreme sport,” has roots dating back centuries to horse stealing raids. Native Americans are keeping the dangerous and compelling racing tradition alive.
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This report is the result of a joint investigation by 60 Minutes, The Insider, and Der Spiegel
Tonight we have important developments in our five-year investigation of mysterious brain injuries reported by U.S. national security officials. The injured include White House staff, CIA officers, FBI agents, military officers and their families. Many believe that they were wounded by a secret weapon that fires a high-energy beam of microwaves or ultrasound. This is our fourth story and for the first time, we have evidence of who might be responsible. Most of the injured have fought for America, often in secret. And they’re frustrated that the U.S. government publicly doubts that an adversary is targeting Americans.
One of them is Carrie. We’re disguising her and not using her last name because she’s still an FBI agent working in counterintelligence. She says, in 2021, she was home in Florida when she was hit by a crippling force.
Carrie: 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, you know, times ten. It was like a high pitched, metallic drilling noise, and it knocked me forward at, like, a 45 degree angle this way.
She says she was by a window in her laundry room.
Carrie: My right ear was line-of-sight to that window while this thing was happening in my ear. And when I leaned forward it kind a—it didn’t knock me over, but it knocked me forward. I immediately felt pressure, and pressure and pain started coursing from inside my right ear, down my jaw, down my neck and into my chest.
At the same time, FBI agent Carrie told us, 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.
Carrie: And I remember complaining to my colleagues for months after that I felt like I had early Alzheimer’s. Short term memory, long term memory, confusing memories, uh, multitasking. My baseline changed. 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
Carrie’s story matches those we’ve uncovered over the years.
Olivia Troye: It was like this piercing feeling on the side of my head. It was like, I remember it was on the right side of my head and I, I got like vertigo.
Olivia Troye was Homeland Security adviser to Vice President Mike Pence. In our 2022 report, she told us she was hit outside the White House.
Anonymous: And then severe ear pain started. So I liken it to if you put a Q-tip too far and you bounce it off your eardrum. Well, imagine takin’ a sharp pencil and just kinda pokin’ that.
And this man told us he was among the first publicly known cases in 2016 from our embassy in Cuba. That’s how the incidents became known as “Havana Syndrome.” He’s medically retired from an agency we can’t name– blind in one eye and struggling for balance.
A major medical study for the government was led by Dr. David Relman of Stanford University. In our 2022 report he told us…
Dr. David Relman: What we found was we thought clear evidence of an injury to the auditory and vestibular system of the brain. Everything starting with the inner ear where humans perceive sound and sense balance, and then translate those perceptions into brain electrical signals.
His study found, “directed pulsed (radio frequency) energy…appears to be the most plausible mechanism…” For example, a focused beam of microwaves or acoustic ultrasound. More than 100 officials or family members have unexplained, persistent, symptoms.
Carrie: If I turn too fast, my gyroscope is off, essentially. It’s like a step behind where I’m supposed to be. So I’ll turn too fast, and I will literally walk right into the wall or the door frame.
Now, for the first time, the case of FBI agent Carrie suggests which adversary might be responsible. She spoke with the FBI’s permission but wasn’t allowed to discuss the cases she was on when she was hit. We have learned from other sources one of those cases involve this Mustang going 110 miles an hour.
Deputy (on bodycam video from 2020): Pull over, Pull over!
In 2020, near Key West, Florida, deputies tried to stop the Mustang for speeding. It ran 15 miles until it hit spike strips laid in its path.
Deputy (on bodycam video from 2020): Get out! Put it down! Get on the ground now.
A search of the car found notes of bank accounts.
Deputy (on bodycam video from 2020): Citibank…Discover Savings $75,000…
And this device, that looks like a walkie-talkie, can erase the car’s computer data including its GPS record. There was also a Russian passport.
Deputy (on bodycam video from 2020): What’s your first name?
Vitalii Kovalev (on bodycam video from 2020): Vitalii. V-I-T-A-L-I-I.
Vitalii Kovalev was the driver, from St. Petersburg—Russia not Florida.
Deputy (on bodycam video from 2020): Why did you run? Be honest with me.
Vitalii Kovalev (on bodycam video from 2020): I don’t know.
Deputy (on bodycam video from 2020): You know why you ran.
Vitalii Kovalev (on bodycam video from 2020): I don’t know.
And we don’t know why he ran. But what we learned suggests he was a Russian spy.
Christo Grozev: What we see here is Vitalii Kovalev fitting exactly this formula.
Christo Grozev is a journalist, legendary for unmasking Russian plots. In 2020, he uncovered the names of the Russian secret agents who poisoned Vladimir Putin’s rival Alexey Navalny. Grozev is lead investigator for our collaborator on this story, The Insider, a magazine by Russian exiles. We asked him to trace Vitalii Kovalev.
Christo Grozev is a journalist for The Insider, an investigative magazine by Russian exiles.
60 Minutes
Christo Grozev: He studied in a military institute. He studied radio electronics with a particular focus on use within the military of micro-electronics. He had all the technology know-how that would be required for somebody to be assisting an operation that requires high technology. But then all of a sudden, after working for two years in a military institute he up and decides to become a chef.
Kovalev immigrated to the U.S. and worked as a chef in New York and Washington D.C., even appearing at far left, in a TV cooking segment.
But Kovalev was actually a Russian military electrical engineer with a top secret security clearance.
Scott Pelley: Can someone like Kovalev simply decide to drop all of that and become a chef?
Christo Grozev: 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.
We don’t know what Kovalev was up to but our sources say, over months, he spent 80 hours being interviewed by FBI agent Carrie, who had investigated multiple Russian spies. Kovalev pled guilty to evading police and reckless driving. He was sentenced to 30 months. While he was in jail, Carrie says she was hit in Florida and, a year later, when she awoke to the same symptoms in the middle of the night in California.
Carrie: It felt like I was stuck in this state of, like, disorientation, not able to function. Like, what is happening? And my whole body was pulsing,
Mark Zaid is Carrie’s attorney. He has a security clearance and for decades, has represented Americans working in national security. Zaid has more than two dozen clients suffering symptoms of Havana Syndrome, which the government now calls “anomalous health incidents.”
Mark Zaid: I have CIA and State Department clients as well, who believe they’ve been impacted domestically. There are dozens of CIA cases that have happened domestically that is at least believed. And, and we’re not even just talking about physical manifestation. We’re talking about evidence of computer issues in the midst of the incident where computer screens just literally stop working or go flicker on and off.
Scott Pelley: Do you know whether there are other FBI agents who have also suffered from these anomalous health incidents?
Mark Zaid: There are other FBI agents and personnel, not just agents, analysts. I represent one other FBI person who was impacted in Miami. And I also know of FBI personnel who believe they were hit overseas in the last decade.
Scott Pelley: Were any of these members of the FBI counterintelligence people in addition to Carrie?
Mark Zaid: 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.
Attorney Mark Zaid
60 Minutes
Vitalii Kovalev served his time and in 2022, went back to Russia—ignoring American warnings that he was in danger because he’d spent so much time with the FBI. Christo Grozev found this death certificate from last year, which says Kovalev was killed at the front in Ukraine.
Scott Pelley: Do you think Kovalev was sent to Ukraine as a punishment?
Christo Grozev: One theory is that he was sent there in order for him to be disposed of.
Scott Pelley: Is Kovalev really dead, or is this another cover story?
Christo Grozev: That is a very good question. And we actually worked on both hypotheses for a while. I do believe at this point that he was dead.
Carrie: We’re dealing with energy weapons. It’s not going anywhere. Look how effective it’s been. It’s next generation weaponry. And, unfortunately, it’s been refined on some of us, and we’re the test subjects.
U.S. intelligence says, publicly, there is no credible evidence that an adversary is inflicting brain injuries on national security officials. And yet, more than 100 Americans have symptoms that scientists say could be caused by a beam of microwaves or, acoustic ultrasound. The Pentagon launched an investigation run by a recently retired Army lieutenant colonel. Greg Edgreen has never spoken publicly until now.
Scott Pelley: Are we being attacked?
Greg Edgreen: My personal opinion, yes.
Scott Pelley: By whom?
Greg Edgreen: Russia.
Greg Edgreen ran the investigation for the Defense Intelligence Agency. He would not discuss classified information but he described his team’s work from 2021 to 2023.
Greg Edgreen: We were collecting a large body of data, ranging from signals intelligence, human intelligence, open-source reporting. Anything regarding the internet, travel records, financial records, you name it. Unfortunately I can’t get into specifics, based on the classification. But I can tell you at a very early stage, I started to focus on Moscow.
Scott Pelley: Can you tell me about the patterns you began to see?
Greg Edgreen: One of the things I started to notice was the caliber of our officer that was being impacted. This wasn’t happening to our worst or our middle-range officers. This was happening to our top 5%, 10% performing officers across the Defense Intelligence Agency. And consistently there was a Russia nexus. There was some angle where they had worked against Russia, focused on Russia, and done extremely well.
Scott Pelley: What has been the impact on American national security?
Greg Edgreen: The impact has been that the intelligence officers and our diplomats working abroad are being removed from their posts with traumatic brain injuries. They’re being neutralized.
Greg Edgreen and Scott Pelley
60 Minutes
Tonight, we’re reporting for the first time, an incident at last year’s NATO summit in Lithuania—a meeting that focused largely on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and was attended by President Biden. Multiple sources tell us that a senior official of the Department of Defense was struck by the symptoms and sought medical treatment. We told Greg Edgreen what we’d learned.
Greg Edgreen: 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.
The problem first appeared in public in 2016. U.S. officials reported being hurt in Cuba and the incidents became known as Havana Syndrome. But we have learned it started two years earlier when at least four Americans reported symptoms in Frankfurt, Germany. There is also evidence of what could be revenge attacks. For example, in 2014, three CIA officers were stationed in Ukraine, Vladimir Putin’s obsession. 2014 was the year that a popular revolt overthrew Putin’s preferred leader. Later, those CIA officers went on to other assignments and reported being hit, one in Uzbekistan, one in Vietnam, and the third officer’s family was hit in London.
If it is Russia, investigative reporter Christo Grozev believes he knows who’s involved. In 2018, Grozev was the first to discover the existence of a top secret Russian intelligence unit which goes by a number, 29155.
Christo Grozev: These are people who are trained to be versatile assassins and sabotage operators. They are trained in countersurveillance, they are trained in explosives, they’re trained to be using poison, and technology equipment to actually inflict pain or damage to the targets.
Grozev works with our collaborators on this report, a magazine called The Insider and Germany’s Der Spiegel. he has a long track record uncovering Russian documents. And Grozev says he found one that may link 29155 to a directed energy weapon.
Christo Grozev: And when I saw it, I literally had tears in my eyes, because it was spelling out what they had been doing.
It’s a piece of accounting. An officer of 29155 received a bonus for work on quote, “potential capabilities of non-lethal acoustic weapons…”
Christo Grozev: Which told us that this particular unit had been engaged with somewhere, somehow, empirical tests of a directed energy unit.
Scott Pelley: There it is, written down in black and white.
Christo Grozev: It’s the closest to a receipt you can have for this.
Christo Grozev
60 Minutes
We’ve also found that Russia’s 29155 may have been present in Tbilisi, Georgia when Americans reported incidents there.
Scott Pelley: Do you believe that you were attacked?
Anonymous: Absolutely.
She asked us to withhold her name for her safety. She’s the wife of a Justice Department official who was with the embassy in Tbilisi. She’s a nurse with a Ph.D. in anesthesiology. On Oct. 7, 2021, she says that she was in her laundry room when she was blindsided by a sound.
Anonymous: As I’m reaching into the dryer– I am completely consumed by a piercing sound that I can only describe as when you listen to a movie and the main character is also consumed by the sound after a bomb goes off. That is similar to the sound that I heard. And it just pierced my ears, came in my left side, felt like it came through the window, into my left ear. I immediately felt fullness in my head, and just a piercing headache. And when I realized that I needed to get out of the laundry room, I left the room, and went into our bedroom next door, and projectile vomited in our bathroom
We have learned that hers was the second incident that week. Sources tell us, earlier, in the neighborhood, a U.S. official, their spouse and child were hit. We have also learned of a phone call that was intercepted nearby. A man says in Russian, “Is it supposed to have blinking green lights?” and “Should I leave it on all night.” We have no idea what he was talking about but, the next day, the incidents began.
Sources tell us that an investigation centered on this Russian, Albert Averyanov. His name, on travel manifests and phone records, appears alongside known members of Unit 29155. He is also the son of the commander.
Christo Grozev: He was groomed to become a member of the unit since he was 16. His number is in the phone books of all members of the unit. Clearly, he’s more than just the son of the boss. He’s a colleague of these people.
Grozev found Albert Averyanov’s phone was turned off during the Tbilisi incidents but our sources say there’s evidence someone in Tbilisi logged into Averyanov’s personal email during this time. Most likely, Grozev believes, Averyanov himself—placing him in the city.
Christo Grozev: We believe members of Unit 29155 were there in order to facilitate, supervise, or maybe even personally implement attacks on American diplomats, on American government officials, using an acoustic weapon.
Scott Pelley: After you were able to get out of the laundry room, call your husband, what did you do then?
Anonymous: I went downstairs. I first looked on our security camera, which is right beside our front door, to see if anyone was outside. There was a vehicle right outside of our gate. I took a photo of that vehicle and noticed that it was not a vehicle that I recognized. And I went outside.
Scott Pelley: Did you see anyone around the vehicle?
Anonymous: I did.
Scott Pelley: We sent you a photograph of Albert Averyanov. And this is the picture that we sent you.
Anonymous: You did.
Scott Pelley: And I wonder if that looks anything like the man you saw outside your home.
Anonymous: It absolutely does. And when I received this photo, I had a visceral reaction. 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.
This 40-year-old wife and mother is among the most severely injured people we have met.
Anonymous: My headaches and brain fog continued. Later on into that weekend, I started having trouble walking down the stairs, specifically at night. I had trouble finding the steps to get down the stairs. So my coordination and vestibular system started just really falling apart.
She was medically evacuated. And now doctors say she has holes in her inner ear canals—the vestibular system that creates the sense of balance. Two surgeries put metal plates in her skull. Another surgery is likely.
Despite experiences like hers, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said last year it’s “very unlikely a foreign adversary is responsible.” But the DNI also acknowledged that some intelligence agencies had only “low” or “moderate” confidence in that assessment. This month, the National Institutes of Health reported results of brain scans. NIH said there’s no evidence of physical damage. but the medical science of so-called anomalous health incidents remains vigorously debated. For its part, the Director of National Intelligence says the symptoms probably result from “… preexisting conditions, conventional illnesses, and environmental factors.” Attorney Mark Zaid represents more than two dozen ahi clients.
Scott Pelley: What do you make of the intelligence community assessment?
Mark Zaid: So I’ve had access to classified information relating to AHI. I can’t reveal it. I wouldn’t reveal it. I will tell you that I don’t believe it to be the entire story, and I know of information that undermines or contradicts what they are saying publicly.
Scott Pelley: Are you saying that the government wants to cover this up?
Mark Zaid: 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 and we don’t want anybody to know about it. 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.
Greg Edgreen
60 Minutes
Greg Edgreen: “You know, if my mother had seen what I saw, she would say, ‘It’s the Russians, stupid.'”
Greg Edgreen who ran the military investigation told us he had the Pentagon’s support but, in the Trump, and Biden administrations, he says, the bar for proof was set impossibly high.
Greg Edgreen: I think it was set so high because we did not, as a country, and a government, want to face some very hard truths.
Scott Pelley: And what are those?
Greg Edgreen: Can we secure America? Are these massive counterintelligence failures? Can we protect American soil and our people on American soil? Are we being attacked? And if we’re being attacked, is that an act of war?
After what he learned in his classified investigation, Greg Edgreen retired from the Army to start a company to help the victims. He hopes to channel government contracts into treatment programs.
As with all spy stories, much is classified and what remains is circumstantial. None of the witnesses tonight wanted to speak. Some fear for their families. But all felt compelled to shine a light on what they see as a war of shadows –a war America may not be winning.
Christo Grozev: 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. In his own mind this has been Russia’s biggest victory against the West.
Scott Pelley: In terms of the long-term, would you consider this to be life-altering?
Anonymous: Absolutely life-altering. For our whole family.
“Targeting Americans” statements
Prior to 60 Minutes’ March 31, 2024, broadcast which featured correspondent Scott Pelley’s report on Havana Syndrome, we reached out to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the White House, and the FBI for comments on our story, “Targeting Americans.”
They responded to 60 Minutes with the following statements:
Office of the Director of National Intelligence:
“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.”
White House:
“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.”
FBI:
“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.
Produced by Oriana Zill de Granados and Michael Rey. Associate producers: Emily Gordon, Kit Ramgopal and Jamie Woods. Broadcast Associate: Michelle Karim. Edited by Michael Mongulla and Joe Schanzer.
Scott Pelley
Scott Pelley, one of the most experienced and awarded journalists today, has been reporting stories for “60 Minutes” since 2004. The 2023-24 season is his 20th on the broadcast. Scott has won half of all major awards earned by “60 Minutes” during his tenure at the venerable CBS newsmagazine.
