From ABC news. This is good morning America first look.
Good morning everyone I'm Andrew Dymburt and I'm Rhiannon ally. Good morning to all of you. Let's get right to breaking news. A major development in President Trump's push to downsize the federal government. He has long criticized the Department of Education, and now sources say he's preparing a new order targeting the agency. It comes as Elon Musk proposes changes for the Postal Service and Amtrak. ABC's Nicole D'Antonio has the latest details. Nicole. Good morning.
Well, good morning to both of you. It now appears President Trump will follow up on his promise to close the Department of Education, but it remains unclear exactly how. This morning, ABC news has learned the Trump administration is preparing to dissolve the Department of Education as soon as today. Sources say a draft executive order directs Education Secretary Linda McMahon to facilitate a department closure this week. The Department of Education employs more than 4000 people, spending $251 billion last year. Trump has said he wants to give education back to the States.
I'd like it to be closed immediately. Look, the Department of Education is a big con job.
It's unclear how Secretary McMahon will close the department. Congressional approval is required to abolish a federal agency. Elsewhere, the Department of Veterans Affairs now plans to lay off some 72,000 workers. That's 15% of its workforce.
Now, we regret anyone who loses their job. And it's extraordinarily difficult for me, especially as a VA leader and your secretary, to make these types of decisions. But the federal government does not exist to employ people. It exists to serve people.
Senator Jerry Moran, chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, slamming the move, writing, quote, the VA is in need of reform, but current efforts to downsize the department and increase efficiency must be done in a more responsible manner. Elon Musk on Capitol Hill last night updated Republicans on his efforts to cut spending.
You know, there's a lot of room, a lot of opportunity to improve expenditures in the government, and then we're making good progress.
At a Morgan Stanley conference, Musk argued the government should privatize anything that can be privatized, including the Postal Service and Amtrak.
Basically, somebody has got to have some chance of going bankrupt or there's not a good feedback loop for improvement.
The cuts in Washington come amid uncertainty over President Trump's tariffs on products from Mexico, Canada and China, and the impact on consumer prices here at home. More exemptions are reportedly on the way. Bloomberg reports Trump is now considering exempting some agricultural products. He's already granted a one month delay on tariffs affecting the Big Three U.S. automakers, including Ford, General Motors and Stellantis.
He always has open dialog, and he'll always do what's right, what he believes is right for the American people.
Now, the white House has suggested the automakers use the pause on tariffs to work toward the president's goal of bringing auto production back to the U.S.. Rhiannon.
All right. Thank you, Nicole, for that. Now there is more confusion over a potential sale of hundreds of federal buildings by the Trump administration. More than 400 buildings, including FBI headquarters, that were listed for potential sale, have now been delisted, but no explanation was given.
Now to the battle over so-called sanctuary cities, the immigration crisis and crime, the issues coming to a boiling point on Capitol Hill. Clashes on Capitol Hill as sanctuary cities face new scrutiny.
You all have blood on your hands.
Members of a House committee grilling for big city mayors about their immigrant safe haven policies.
This is why you have 6% approval rating because you suck at answering questions. Mayor Wu.
Republicans railing against the leaders of New York, Boston, Chicago and Denver, where local authorities do not routinely report undocumented people to the federal government.
We cannot let Pro-criminal alien policies and obstructionist sanctuary cities continue to endanger American communities.
The Democrats defending their policies, insisting they're following the law while protecting people's rights and neighborhoods.
The false narrative is that immigrants in general are criminals or immigrants in general, cause all sorts of danger and harm. That is, that is actually what is undermining safety in our communities.
Denver's mayor clashing with Congressman Jim Jordan over an incident where federal agents had to chase a man through a jail parking lot because sheriff's deputies released him after serving time for a local crime.
They have to arrest him in the parking lot. They bring six officers when they could have had 1 or 2. Just come in your facility in the jail and take the guy there.
Arguments between Congresswoman Nancy Mace and the mayor is reaching a boiling point, with mace saying she plans to ask the Justice Department to investigate the mayor's conduct.
Mayor Johnson, um, are you willing to go to jail for violating federal law?
The city of Chicago complies with all laws.
Oh, I highly doubt that, Mayor Wu.
We are not violating federal law.
The clash is not just along party lines.
You should step down and resign today.
Democrats questioned New York Mayor Eric Adams after he seemingly reversed his stance on allowing immigration agents to raid Rikers Island jail. Adams was facing federal corruption charges, but the Trump administration directed prosecutors to drop the case. Critics questioning the mayor's motives.
Are you selling out New Yorkers to save yourself from prosecution?
There's no deal. No quid pro quo. And I did nothing wrong.
The Trump administration has threatened to stop federal aid to sanctuary cities.
The Trump administration has paused intelligence sharing with Ukraine. It follows the diplomatic dispute over plans for potential peace talks with Russia. U.S. military aid also remains frozen. Ukrainian President Zelensky has signaled he is now ready to sign a minerals deal with the U.S., with details still being discussed.
Los Angeles County has joined two cities suing Southern California's largest utility for the deadly fire in January. 17 people were killed and thousands of homes were destroyed. The lawsuits seek damages from Southern California Edison, claiming its equipment caused the fire. The company says it's reviewing the lawsuits.
Now to the Midwest and the arrest of a teen days after his parents were found dead. The teen, known for perfect attendance at school, was found 800 miles from home. A teenager from Wisconsin is under arrest after being named a person of interest in connection with the deaths of his mother and stepfather. The bodies of 35 year old Tatiana Kassab and 51 year old Donald Maier were found during a welfare check last week.
I had been texting Donald many times and he wasn't answering and I didn't know why.
Court documents revealing Tatiana was shot and Donald had a large wound to his head. Their bodies covered by clothes and blankets. Police tracking down 17 year old Nikita Kassab, Up 800 miles away in Kansas after he allegedly ran a stop sign in his stepfather's car. The family dog with him.
He would never not go to school if things were normal.
The teen, previously known for his perfect attendance, had reportedly been absent for weeks inside the vehicle, police say, was a stepfather's gun. Both parents driver's license. Ammunition and shell casings. Prosecutors now charging the teen with operating a motor vehicle without the owner's consent, and theft of movable property. No charges have been filed yet in connection with the two deaths. The teen is being held in Kansas and is awaiting extradition to Wisconsin.
The popular gaming chat platform discord is reportedly talking to bankers about going public. Discord is used by more than 200 million people every month. Reports say the IPO talks are in the early stages and could value the company at around $16 billion.
It is time now for your Thursday weather. The cold side of a deadly cross country storm created whiteout conditions in the Plains and Midwest, with dozens of crashes in Iowa and winds even blowing over a semi-truck. Look at that in Kansas. The same system spawned a reported tornado in North Carolina, bringing down trees and power lines, and strong winds also brought down trees in new Jersey, and heavy rain flooded streets. The storms are now moving out to sea. Let's check today's high temperatures. 50s on the west coast. 60s in the southeast, 46 in Kansas City.
Coming up, the skiers buried under 40ft of snow in Alaska.
Also ahead. Trouble for target. Why? The retailer is facing a growing boycott.
And is this the Delta Airlines plane of the future?
Whenever, wherever news breaks, it's so important to always remember that lives are changed. You're in London, in Buffalo. Uvalde, Texas. Edinburgh, Scotland. From Poland once again tonight. Thank you so much for streaming with us. Ukrainian refugees here in Warsaw. Do you think you'll ever be able to go back home? We're heading to a small community outside of Mexico City. Splintered houses and splintered lives. The magnitude of the devastation. You're streaming ABC news Live reporting from Rolling Fork, Mississippi, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Raleigh, North Carolina, the U.S. capital. Mayfield, Kentucky. Minneapolis, Mexico. Tongass National Forest, in Alaska. Getting you behind the stories as they happen, giving you a front row seat to our world as it plays out in real time. Live. ABC News Live Prime. We'll take you there.
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Get this, people. Now we're streaming every weekend right to you with an all new show, an all new view special for the weekends. Now you can catch the view seven days a week.
I wonder if you can handle it.
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It was a kidnapping torture case, a crime.
Of greed and.
Cruelty.
The men tortured the victim by beating, tasing and burning him.
And this is where it gets really horrible. The guy was cutting off my roommate's. It was like a bad dream.
This crime was horrific.
He's a psychopath.
How could you possibly defend somebody like that?
This was a story about greed, sadism, evil.
Wicked game. Devil in the desert. Only on Hulu.
GMA Friday morning. Here we go. Ready for a little Gaga?
Abracadabra.
Abracadabra. From her new music to.
How's wedding planning going? Oh my gosh. Only on Good Morning America.
We are back now with heroic actions by a new Jersey police officer. Look at this. Pulling an unconscious driver from this burning car after a crash involving a tanker truck. Both vehicles burst into flames. Two people suffered minor injuries. And in California, officers pulled the driver from a pickup truck near Sacramento. He had spent the night trapped inside after crashing off a road. Nearly 24 hours earlier, he told police he crashed because he wasn't paying attention.
Three skiers are presumed dead buried by an avalanche in Alaska. Rescue crews hope to reach the area today. The victims were buried in up to 40ft of snow.
This morning. Trouble at target. The retailer is facing a boycott by shoppers, and it stems from a decision made by the company tied to a hot button political issue. Here's ABC's Andrea Fujii this morning.
As Christians mark the season of lent. Shoppers across the country are giving up target.
What you see. Believers globally doing is stepping away from something. Sacrificing something.
Staging a 40 day boycott.
Of the retailer. It stems from the company's decision to roll back its diversity, equity and inclusion policies, eliminating hiring goals for minority employees and altering its diversity initiatives.
We need to hold larger corporations accountable.
A church in Georgia launched the boycott, now gaining tens of thousands of followers. Target isn't the only store to scale back Dei initiatives. Walmart and John Deere are among the many others that have also backtracked amid public pressure and threats from the Trump administration to investigate what it calls illegal Dei.
We've ended the tyranny of so-called diversity, equity and inclusion policies all across the entire federal government and indeed the private sector.
Sales at target declined last month, and it's predicted growth this year is only about 1%. Now, with rising inflation and tariffs, experts say the timing of this boycott could mean trouble for target's bottom line.
It's really like, do you get enough people actively supporting a boycott such that, you know, it actually resonates into the boardroom?
Target has not commented specifically on the boycott, only saying the company is committed to inclusivity and offers a range of products from black and minority vendors. Andrew. Rhiannon.
Andrea. Thank you. Delta Airlines is backing a start up company with plans to design a more fuel efficient plane. Jet zero is developing a blended wing body, which it says could significantly reduce fuel consumption and noise. Delta says it's providing operational help with the development.
Coming up, homeowners on alert because thieves are targeting your gutters.
Also ahead stranded for days in the wilderness. The hikers rescued after falling 800ft down a cliff.
Hey, good morning America.
Everything I do, I bring joy.
Good morning.
Good morning America.
Good morning America.
Good morning America.
Money. Are you ready? They are ready. Covering the biggest events in the country right now.
It's a lot going on this morning. It's always a good time. That's what the show is about.
That's good. Really good. Very good. Coming in hot. Jimmy. Coming in hot. It's far from.
Elementary.
Good morning America.
I'm not going to try to strut like Michael or anything.
I have no choice. A long, long time. Have you ever gotten him to dance?
Look at that face.
Every day of your life.
You don't just see it. You feel it.
I'm in.
I'm in, I'm in. I'm in too. I'll be here. I am here and so happy. I'm in. I'm in too.
I'm in. That tells you something. When Snoop Dogg came. Michael. George. Where? Ginger.
That's right.
Kate started with a spark.
Getting that golden ticket today.
Good luck with the golden ticket.
They grew into a life.
Will change my life.
I know you're nervous.
Show me a place where dreams come true.
I've never seen anything like it.
You're going to Hollywood. My dream came true.
There are surprises in every person.
It's where dreams come true.
People do not know how to date. That's why they come to us.
As a matchmaker. We're here to help you get your wings on.
Let's get some people married. Why are you single? Maybe the kind of guys that I go for. You go for hot guys. Yeah, it's a pitfall.
What would you say are like the top things you're looking for?
You don't like hairy men, so all Muslims are out. What are you talking about?
This process doesn't have to suck. Ooh! He's cute.
Make it happen. Boo!
Friday night, David Muir reporting.
We take you inside. Two cases. A mother just 19 years old.
She was trying to protect her daughter. She fought like hell.
Another case, a beloved teacher. Her whole future ahead of her.
Mysterious cold cases.
It gives you chills even today.
Yes.
What links both of those cases is the cutting edge forensic technology inside this lab?
It sounded like science fiction at the time.
Can they be solved?
You'll see it unfold right here as they unmask the killer. In both cases.
Catching the killers 2020. Friday on ABC.
We're back with frightening video of a falling tree nearly crushing this family in Brooklyn. They were out for a walk when the massive tree came crashing down, just barely missing them.
And a new warning about gutter thefts. Security cameras captured thieves in Detroit, stripping a home of its gutters. Police linking the suspects to other possible cases. Selling those gutters for scrap metal. Similar thefts have been reported in Chicago. Police are urging homeowners to fasten their gutters to their homes.
We turn now to the inmate on death row, making headlines for choosing a different way to be executed. A method now being adopted by more states. This morning, the South Carolina Supreme Court has cleared the way for the first execution by firing squad in the U.S. in nearly 15 years.
So this is a huge development in the the world of execution methods.
Brad Sigman was sentenced to death for killing his ex-girlfriend's parents. His latest appeal denied setting the stage for tomorrow's execution, and he's chosen to die by firing squad instead of the electric chair or the more common practice, lethal injection.
In recent years, there has been a reevaluation of the firing squad is a possible method of execution, primarily because lethal injection has has only gotten worse over the decades.
Some states began allowing firing squads as an option because of a shortage of lethal injection drugs. But another major concern has been the dozens of lethal injections that have been botched, some blamed on execution teams lacking the medical expertise to administer them.
I think firing squad is the least inhumane method, so I can understand an inmate selecting it that that makes sense to me.
Since 1977, only three executions by firing squad have been carried out in the U.S.. A hood is placed over the prisoner's head and multiple corrections officers fire rifles from 15ft away. Only these five states currently allow the procedure, with Idaho just yesterday moving one step closer to making it the primary execution method. Idaho's governor still needs to sign off on the change.
We are getting our first look at a snowy rescue in Southern California. Body camera video shows crews locating two hikers more than 8000ft above sea level in the mountains of Riverside County. They had fallen 800ft down a snowy cliff Saturday. High winds made it difficult to lift them to safety until Tuesday, but both are now recovering.
Coming up, the jewelry thief who swallowed the evidence.
Also ahead, one very expensive Cheeto.
The news never stops from Tampa.
We are here tonight as Hurricane Milton has just made landfall.
The surge just keeps coming up right.
On the border.
Between Ukraine and Russia, where.
An.
Artillery position.
About two miles away from Gaza.
And ABC News Live is right there everywhere.
We're not far from where this rally took place, so just stick with us here.
Traveling with the president to the US-Mexico border.
Here in London today.
Off the coast of Gaza.
Downtown Tel Aviv. Rockets and missiles coming.
In from the most devastating disaster in Hawaii. Some areas are still smoldering.
Wherever the story.
From the front lines.
The ruins of Rafa from the FBI. Reporting from Capitol Hill in western Portugal.
Outside of Mexico City.
In Iceland.
Let's go.
Here in France.
The eclipse across America.
Just stunning.
Unbelievable.
Streaming live to you.
Wherever the story is.
Wherever the story is.
We're going to take you there. You're streaming ABC News live.
ABC News live.
You're streaming ABC News live.
ABC news live streaming. Free everywhere. Because the news never stops.
It started with a spark.
Getting that golden ticket today.
Good luck with the golden ticket.
They grew into a life.
Will.
Change my life.
I know you're nervous.
Show me a place where dreams come true.
I've never seen anything like it.
You're going to Hollywood. My dream came true.
There are surprises in every person.
It's Sweet dreams come true.
Do you know how difficult my dad is?
You know, I hear everything.
From in here.
I'm broke.
And I need a place to stay until I find a job.
She's coming.
Can we try to talk to each other like rational adults?
Do you watch the news lately? That's not a thing anymore. You could go back to law school. That's always been your dream.
Actually, that was your dream for me.
You like to argue?
You do love to argue.
You might as well get paid for it.
Reporting from New York. I'm Eva pilgrim. Wherever the story is, we'll take you there. You're streaming ABC news live.
Time to check the pulse. Beginning with a suspected jewel thief. Police say he swallowed the evidence.
Employees of an Orlando jewelry store say he took off with two pairs of expensive diamond earrings, so troopers chased him down when they got. Caught up to him. They say he gulped down several items these x rays revealed. What appeared to be the diamonds?
No word yet whether or how they've been recovered. Next, a would be purse snatcher who learned crime doesn't pay.
Well because it's martial arts experts nearby. Police say a Tennessee teen tried to rob an elderly woman, but he did it in front of a jujitsu studio. Some of the teachers saw the woman fighting back and ran to help.
We're going.
To struggle. You may get it, but we're going to struggle. You're not going to get it easy.
Think about what would I want somebody else to do if that was my daughter, if that was my mother, if that was my grandmother. And I think as a society, we owe it to ourselves to stand up for one another and, and help each other out where we can.
Those guys jumped the suspect who is now facing charges. Next, one of the most unique world records we've ever seen.
It was set by Vienna Vegetable Orchestra, which is exactly what it sounds like. The members play instruments carved from vegetables, giving new meaning to playing play with your food. They've now played 344 concerts, a world record for a vegetable orchestra. Next, Celine Dion's impromptu performance.
ESPN's Marty Smith was covering Tiger Woods indoor golf league. Celine was there, and when he asked her which one of her songs best represents her golf game?
I would say.
Near.
Far.
Where?
Come on, you genius.
Wherever you are. I believe that my ball will go on.
You're not bad.
Yes, that is a duet of my heart will go on. Changing the words to my ball will go on. Finally, a flaming hot Cheeto with a huge price tag.
It just sold at auction. Here it is. What's called the Cheetos art. Because it resembles a fire breathing Pokémon monster.
It's three inches long. And get this it sold for nearly $88,000.
More than the Pokemon card it resembles. Top headlines next.
Whenever news breaks.
We are here in Israel, a nation at war. After that brutal surprise attack by Hamas.
On.
The ground in Ukraine.
Reporting from Lewiston, Maine.
The scene of a horrific mass shooting.
ABC News Live is right there everywhere.
From the scene of that deadly missile strike in Dnipro, Ukraine.
Reporting from the earthquake in.
Turkey in Rolling Fork. This tornado tore through this little town from.
The most devastating disaster.
In.
Hawaii.
From Charleston, South Carolina, on the 2024 campaign trail in Iceland. Let's go.
Traveling with the president in Mexico City.
Wherever the story.
From the front lines from southern Israel.
Outside the Gaza Strip, in.
Beirut.
From the FBI.
Reporting from.
The nurses on the.
Picket.
Line here at ten Downing Street in London.
Streaming live to you.
Wherever the story is.
Wherever the story is.
Wherever the story is, we're going to take you there. You're streaming ABC News Live.
ABC News live.
You're streaming ABC News Live.
ABC news live streaming free everywhere. America's number one streaming news Friday night. David Muir reporting.
We take you inside. Two cases. A mother just 19 years old.
She was trying to protect her daughter. She fought like hell.
Another case, a beloved teacher. Her whole future ahead of her.
Mysterious cold cases.
It gives you chills even today.
Yes.
What links both of those cases is the cutting edge forensic technology inside this lab?
It sounded like science fiction.
At the time.
Can they be solved?
You'll see it unfold right here as they unmask the killer. In both cases.
Catching the killers 2020. Friday on ABC.
I'm 110% ready to fall in love.
Tall.
Handsome. Smart.
He's perfect.
Time just stood.
Still.
It's kind of already sinking in that these other girls are dating my boyfriend.
Everybody just really.
Want to rant and we're all fighting for his love. You act like you don't care.
He knows how I feel. I know I'm in trouble. Everyone's so mean. I did not know how hard this is going to be.
You're going to Hollywood? Don't talk to me.
This show is for people that have the talent, have the dream, and they just need a chance.
Checking more top stories. A judge is temporarily blocking President Trump's cut to medical research funding. The cuts would have stopped the National Institutes of Health from sending hundreds of millions of dollars to research groups. A lawsuit will now proceed.
President Trump has placed a one month pause on tariffs affecting U.S. automakers. That sent stocks on Wall Street rebounding. Trump is also reportedly considering a tariff exemption for some agriculture products.
The Justice Department is charging 12 Chinese nationals in a hacker for hire operation. Prosecutors say the suspects were paid by China to carry out cyber attacks against the U.S., including at the Treasury Department.
In.
New York. pro-Palestinian demonstrators had to be cleared from Barnard College after a bomb threat. Nine people were arrested.
Today's weather rain and mountain snow for Southern California. Snow returns to the plains and the east coast dries out.
Finally, a contest that will get you spinning.
Danny. New reports on the world sign spinning competition.
You're doing great with that twirling. Dad! I'm spinning.
Maybe you've seen a sign spinner in a progressive commercial. But at the world sign spinning Championships in Las Vegas, this craft looks way different. They're great dancers, entertainers, athletes. People are just going to be wowed on a lot of different levels. Max Djurovic here is the CEO of Arrow Sign Spinners, which has been hosting this annual competition for around two decades.
Every year.
People from all over the world who professionally spin those pointy advertisements, travel to Sin City and compete in a judged competition for $5,000 cash. And for that prize, they will twirl, jump and do whatever that is. But as you can see in this clip from ESPN's the O show a few years ago, former champions like Matthew Dolan here do not seem to be thinking too much about the money.
Oh yeah.
I won.
In 2019, but I need my second time under my belt.
To learn and grow.
Observe. Now, a few years ago, I learned from the sign spinning team who enters from Denver.
Where we're going.
Katie, look out and got it immediately! But I asked the head of the team, Simon Ingram, what he likes about this job. That seems like it might get a little tiring sometimes.
I've been doing this for eight years now. I recommend it for everyone. Like, even if even if it's a part time job just to get outside.
But as Simone said when we reconnected this past month, this Saturday will not be about enjoying sunshine, but instead a sin no Sin City showdown.
You guys better be prepared. That's all I can say.
So guys, that competition is free to attend in downtown Las Vegas on Saturday. But hey, here's a little sneak preview. What do you think? Spinning the rock, by the way. I don't know if that's clear, guys.
Pretty good.
Danny, we need some work. That's your good morning, America.
Have a.
Great.
Day.
Now you can listen to a podcast version of Good Morning America, available free wherever you listen.
Right.
Now on Good Morning America first look. Major cuts. Word overnight that President Trump is preparing an order to dismantle the Department of Education, while the VA bracing for more than 70,000 job cuts and stocks rebound after Trump delays tariffs on U.S. automakers. Word now of more possible exemptions.
The debate over illegal immigration and so-called sanctuary cities turning confrontational at the Capitol.
You suck at answering questions, mayor. Woo!
Big city mayors in the spotlight, grilled by members of Congress.
The mystery as a teenager from Wisconsin, known for perfect attendance at school, is arrested 800 miles from home days after his parents were found dead. What police say they found in his car.
Trouble for target. Why? The retailer is facing a boycott.
Caught on camera. The alert for homeowners. Brazen thieves targeting your gutters.
Stranded for days in the wilderness. The hikers rescued after falling 800ft off a cliff.
And later.
The orchestra earning a world record by playing with their food.
From ABC news. This is good morning America first look.
Good morning everyone I'm Andrew Dymburt.
And I'm Rhiannon ally. Good morning to all of you. Let's get right to breaking news. A major development in President Trump's push to downsize the federal government.
He has long criticized the Department of Education, and now sources say he's preparing a new order targeting the agency. It comes as Elon Musk proposes changes for the Postal Service and Amtrak.
ABC's Nicole D'Antonio has the latest details. Nicole. Good morning.
Well, good morning to both of you. It now appears President Trump will follow up on his promise to close the Department of Education, but it remains unclear exactly how. This morning, ABC news has learned the Trump administration is preparing to dissolve the Department of Education as soon as today. Sources say a draft executive order directs Education Secretary Linda McMahon to facilitate a department closure this week. The Department of Education employs more than 4000 people, spending $251 billion dollars last year. Trump has said he wants to give education back to the states.
I'd like it to be closed immediately. Look, the Department of Education is a big con job.
It's unclear how Secretary McMahon will close the department. Congressional approval is required to abolish a federal agency. Elsewhere, the Department of Veterans Affairs now plans to lay off some 72,000 workers. That's 15% of its workforce.
Now, we regret anyone who loses their job. And it's extraordinarily difficult for me, especially as a VA leader and your secretary, to make these types of decisions. But the federal government does not exist to employ people. It exists to serve people.
Senator Jerry Moran, chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, slamming the move, writing, quote, the VA is in need of reform, but current efforts to downsize the department and increase efficiency must be done in a more responsible manner. Elon Musk on Capitol Hill last night updated Republicans on his efforts to cut spending.
You know, there's a lot of room, a lot of opportunity to improve expenditures in the government, and then we're making good progress.
At a Morgan Stanley conference, Musk argued the government should privatize anything that can be privatized, including the Postal Service and Amtrak.
Basically, something's got to have some chance of going bankrupt or there's not a good feedback loop for improvement.
The cuts in Washington come amid uncertainty over President Trump's tariffs on products from Mexico, Canada and China, and the impact on consumer prices here at home. More exemptions are reportedly on the way. Bloomberg reports Trump is now considering exempting some agricultural products. He's already granted a one month delay on tariffs affecting the Big three U.S. automakers, including Ford, General Motors and Stellantis.
He always has open dialog, and he'll always do what's right, what he believes is right for the American people.
Now, the white House has suggested the automakers use the pause on tariffs to work toward the president's goal of bringing auto production back to the U.S.. Rhiannon.
All right. Thank you, Nicole, for that. Now there is more confusion over a potential sale of hundreds of federal buildings by the Trump administration. More than 400 buildings, including FBI headquarters, that were listed for potential sale, have now been delisted, but no explanation was given.
Now to the battle over so-called sanctuary cities, the immigration crisis and crime, the issues coming to a boiling point on Capitol Hill. Clashes on Capitol Hill as sanctuary cities face new scrutiny.
You all have blood on your hands.
Members of a House committee grilling for big city mayors about their immigrant safe haven policies.
This is why you have 6% approval rating because you suck at answering questions. Mayor Wu.
Republicans railing against the leaders of New York, Boston, Chicago and Denver, where local authorities do not routinely report undocumented people to the federal government.
We cannot let Pro-criminal alien policies and obstructionist sanctuary cities continue to endanger Major American communities.
The Democrats defending their policies, insisting they're following the law while protecting people's rights and neighborhoods.
The false narrative is that immigrants in general are criminals or immigrants in general, cause all sorts of danger and harm. That is, that is actually what is undermining safety in our communities.
Denver's mayor clashing with Congressman Jim Jordan over an incident where federal agents had to chase a man through a jail parking lot because sheriff's deputies released him after serving time for a local crime.
They have to arrest him in the parking lot. They bring six officers when they could have had 1 or 2. Just come in your facility in the jail and take the guy there.
Arguments between Congresswoman Nancy Mace and the mayor is reaching a boiling point, with mace saying she plans to ask the Justice Department to investigate the mayor's conduct.
Mayor Johnson, um, are you willing to go to jail for violating federal law?
The city of Chicago complies with all laws.
Oh, I highly doubt that, Mayor Wu.
We are not violating federal law.
The clash is not just along party lines.
You should step down and resign today.
Democrats questioned New York Mayor Eric Adams after he seemingly reversed his stance on allowing immigration agents to raid Rikers Island jail. Adams was facing federal corruption charges, but the Trump administration directed prosecutors to drop the case. Critics questioning the mayor's motives.
Are you selling out New Yorkers to save yourself from prosecution?
There's no deal. No quid pro quo. And I did nothing wrong.
The Trump administration has threatened to stop federal aid to sanctuary cities.
The Trump administration has paused intelligence sharing with Ukraine. It follows the diplomatic dispute over plans for potential peace talks with Russia. U.S. military aid also remains frozen. Ukrainian President Zelensky has signaled he is now ready to sign a minerals deal with the U.S., with details still being discussed.
Los Angeles County has joined two cities suing Southern California's largest utility for the deadly Eaton Fire in January. 17 people were killed and thousands of homes were destroyed. The lawsuits seek damages from Southern California Edison, claiming its equipment caused the fire. The company says it's reviewing the lawsuits.
Now to the Midwest and the arrest of a teen days after his parents were found dead. The teen, known for perfect attendance at school, was found 800 miles from home. A teenager from Wisconsin is under arrest after being named a person of interest in connection with the deaths of his mother and stepfather. The bodies of 35 year old Tatiana Kassab and 51 year old Donald Maier were found during a welfare check last week.
I had been texting Donald many times and he wasn't answering and I didn't know why.
Court documents revealing Tatiana was shot and Donald had a large wound to his head. Their bodies covered by clothes and blankets. Police tracking down 17 year old Nikita Kassap, 800 miles away in Kansas, after he allegedly ran a stop sign in his stepfather's car, the family dog with him.
He would never not go to school if things were normal.
The teen, previously known for his perfect attendance, had reportedly been absent for weeks inside the vehicle, police say was a stepfather's gun. Both parents driver's license. Ammunition and shell casings. Prosecutors now charging the teen with operating a motor vehicle without the owner's consent, and theft of movable property. No charges have been filed yet in connection with the two deaths. The teen is being held in Kansas and is awaiting extradition to Wisconsin.
The popular gaming chat platform discord is reportedly talking to bankers about going public. Discord is used by more than 200 million people every month. Reports say the IPO talks are in the early stages and could value the company at around $16 billion.
It is time now for your Thursday weather. The cold side of a deadly cross country storm created whiteout conditions in the Plains and Midwest, with dozens of crashes in Iowa and winds even blowing over a semi-truck. Look at that in Kansas. The same system spawned a reported tornado in North Carolina, bringing down trees and power lines, and strong winds also brought down trees in new Jersey, and heavy rain flooded streets. The storms are now moving out to sea. Let's check today's high temperatures. 50s on the west coast. 60s in the southeast, 46 in Kansas City.
Coming up, the skiers buried under 40ft of snow in Alaska.
Also ahead. Trouble for target. Why? The retailer is facing a growing boycott.
And is this the Delta Airlines plane of the future?
Whenever, wherever news breaks, it's so important to always remember that lives are changed. You're in London, in Buffalo. Uvalde, Texas. Edinburgh, Scotland. From Poland once again tonight. Thank you so much for streaming with us. Ukrainian refugees here in Warsaw. Do you think you'll ever be able to go back home? We're heading to a small community outside of Mexico City. Splintered houses and splintered lives. The magnitude of the devastation. You're streaming ABC News Live reporting from Rolling Fork, Mississippi. Santa Fe, New Mexico. Raleigh, North Carolina. The U.S. capital. Mayfield, Kentucky. Minneapolis. Mexico. Tongass National Forest, Alaska. Getting you behind the stories as they happen. Giving you a front row seat to our world as it plays out in real time. Live. ABC News live. Prime. We'll take you there.
Stream ABC news live weeknights. America's most honored streaming news program only on ABC news live streaming free right now, wherever you stream your news.
I told you to let me handle it.
Raj made me do it.
I did.
You man enough to take your father's place.
What would.
We have to.
Do?
Run the business?
Call the shots.
That's terrifying.
Oh, toxic frickin workplace.
When you hear the sirens.
You're like a serial.
Killer.
Now, man.
You think so?
Really proud of you boys.
I break the law. I will never change.
Why did you stop being a vigilante?
A line.
Was.
Crossed.
I liked how it felt. Didn't you? Dispensing justice.
If you say to me that you're a new man.
I say fine. But if you step out of line, I will be there.
Daredevil born again. Only on Disney+. Friday nights at nine on ABC. Mean true crime.
True murder mystery.
Shocking sex.
Betrayal lies.
A bombshell.
The greatest.
True crime story.
Of 2020. Friday nights at nine.
We are back now with heroic actions by a new Jersey police officer. Look at this. Pulling an unconscious driver from this burning car after a crash involving a tanker truck. Both vehicles burst into flames. Two people suffered minor injuries. And in California, officers pulled a driver from a pickup truck near Sacramento. He had spent the night trapped inside after crashing off a road. Nearly 24 hours earlier, he told police he crashed because he wasn't paying attention.
Three skiers are presumed dead buried by an avalanche in Alaska. Rescue crews hope to reach the area today. The victims were buried in up to 40ft of snow.
This morning. Trouble at target. The retailer is facing a boycott by shoppers, and it stems from a decision made by the company tied to a hot button political issue. Here's ABC's Andrea Fujii this morning.
As Christians mark the season of lent, shoppers across the country are giving up target.
What you see. Believers globally doing is stepping away from something. Sacrificing something.
Staging a 40 day boycott of the retailer. It stems from the company's decision to roll back its diversity, equity and inclusion policies, eliminating hiring goals for minority employees and altering its diversity initiatives.
We need to hold larger corporations accountable.
A church in Georgia launched the boycott, now gaining tens of thousands of followers. Target isn't the only store to scale back Dei initiatives. Walmart and John Deere are among the many others that have also backtracked amid public pressure and threats from the Trump administration to investigate what it calls illegal Dei.
We've ended the tyranny of so-called diversity, equity and inclusion policies all across the entire federal government and indeed the private sector.
Sales at target declined last month, and it's predicted growth this year is only about 1%. Now, with rising inflation and tariffs, experts say the timing of this boycott could mean trouble for target's bottom line.
It's really like, do you get.
Enough.
People actively supporting a boycott such that, you know, it actually resonates into the boardroom?
Target has not commented specifically on the boycott, only saying the company is committed to inclusivity and offers a range of products from black and minority vendors. Andrew. Rhiannon.
Andrea. Thank you. Delta Airlines is backing a start up company with plans to design a more fuel efficient plane. Jet zero is developing a blended wing body, which it says could significantly reduce fuel consumption and noise. Delta says it's providing operational help with the development.
Coming up, homeowners on alert because thieves are targeting your gutters.
Also ahead. Stranded for days in the wilderness. The hikers rescued after falling 800ft down a cliff.
Hey, good morning America.
Every day of your life.
Good morning guys.
Good morning America.
Good morning America.
Good morning America.
Money.
Are you ready? They are ready. Covering the biggest events in the country right now.
It's a lot going on here this morning. It's always a good time. That's what the show is about.
That's good. Really good. Very good. Coming in hot. Jimmy. Coming in hot. It's far.
From elementary.
Good morning America.
I'm not.
Going.
To try to strut like Michael or anything. I have no choice. A long, long time. Have you ever gotten him to dance? Sure.
Look at that face.
Every day of your life.
You don't just see it, you feel it.
I'm in.
I'm in, I'm in. I'm in too. I'll be here. I am here and so happy. I'm in. I'm in too. I'm in.
That tells you something. When Snoop Dogg can. Michael. George.
Ginger.
Why did you stop being a vigilante?
A line.
Was crossed.
I liked how it felt. Didn't you? Dispensing justice.
If you.
Say to me that you're a new man, I.
Say.
Fine. If you step out of line, I will be there.
Daredevil born again.
Only on Disney+.
I told you to let me handle it.
What made me do it?
Did.
You be man enough to take your father's place?
What would.
We have to.
Do?
Run the business. Call the shots.
That's terrifying.
Toxic freaking workplace.
When you hear the sirens.
You're like a.
Serial killer.
Now, man.
You think so?
Really proud of you boys.
I prayed that I would never change.
Friday night, David Muir reporting.
We take you inside two cases. A mother just 19 years old.
She was trying to protect her daughter. She fought like hell.
Another case, a beloved teacher. Her whole future ahead of her.
Mysterious cold cases.
It gives you chills even today.
Yes.
What links both of those cases is the cutting edge forensic technology inside this lab?
It sounded like science fiction.
At the time.
Can they be solved?
You'll see it unfold right here as they unmask the killer. In both cases.
Catching the killers 2020. Friday on ABC.
We're back with frightening video of a falling tree nearly crushing this family in Brooklyn. They were out for a walk when the massive tree came crashing down, just barely missing them.
And a new warning about gutter thefts. Security cameras captured thieves in Detroit, stripping a home of its gutters. Police linking the suspects to other possible cases. Selling those gutters for scrap metal. Similar thefts have been reported in Chicago. Police are urging homeowners to fasten their gutters to their homes.
We turn now to the inmate on death row, making headlines for choosing a different way to be executed. A method now being adopted by more states. This morning, the South Carolina Supreme Court has cleared the way for the first execution by firing squad in the U.S. in nearly 15 years.
So this is a huge development in the the world of execution methods.
Brad Sigman was sentenced to death for killing his ex-girlfriend's parents. His latest appeal denied setting the stage for tomorrow's execution, and he's chosen to die by firing squad instead of the electric chair or the more common practice, lethal injection.
In recent years, there has been a reevaluation of the firing squad is a possible method of execution, primarily because lethal injection has has only gotten worse over the decades.
Some states began allowing firing squads as an option because of a shortage of lethal injection drugs. But another major concern has been the dozens of lethal injections that have been botched, some blamed on execution teams lacking the medical expertise to administer them.
I think firing squad is the least inhumane method, so I can understand an inmate selecting it that that makes sense to me.
Since 1977, only three executions by firing squad have been carried out in the U.S.. A hood is placed over the prisoner's head and multiple corrections officers fire rifles from 15ft away. Only these five states currently allow the procedure, with Idaho just yesterday moving one step closer to making it the primary execution method. Idaho's governor still needs to sign off on the change.
We are getting our first look at a snowy rescue in Southern California. Body camera video shows crews locating two hikers more than 8000ft above sea level in the mountains of Riverside County. They had fallen 800ft down a snowy cliff Saturday. High winds made it difficult to lift them to safety until Tuesday, but both are now recovering.
Coming up, the jewelry thief who swallowed the evidence.
Also ahead, one very expensive Cheeto.
The news never stops from Tampa.
We are here tonight as Hurricane Milton has just made landfall.
The surge just.
Keeps coming.
Up.
Right on the border between Ukraine and Russia, where an artillery position about two miles away from Gaza.
And ABC News Live is right there everywhere.
We're not far from where this rally took place, so just stick with us here.
Traveling with the president to the US-Mexico border.
Here in London today.
Off the coast of Gaza.
Downtown Tel Aviv. Rockets and missiles coming in.
From the most devastating disaster in Hawaii. Some areas.
Are still.
Smoldering.
Wherever the story.
From the front lines.
The ruins of Rafa from the FBI. Reporting from Capitol Hill in western Portugal.
Outside of Mexico City, in Iceland.
Let's go.
Here.
In France.
The eclipse across America.
Just stunning.
Unbelievable.
Streaming live to you.
Wherever the story is.
Wherever the story is.
We're going to take you there. You're streaming ABC News live.
ABC News live.
You're streaming ABC news live.
ABC news live streaming. Free everywhere. Because the news never stops.
Do you know how difficult my dad is?
You know, I hear everything from in here.
I'm broke, and I need a place to stay until I find a job. Can we try to talk to each other like rational adults?
Do you watch the news lately? That's not a thing anymore. You could go back to law school. That's always been your dream.
Actually, that was your dream for me.
You like to argue?
You do love to argue.
You might as well get paid for it.
Why did you stop being a vigilante? A line was crossed. I liked how it felt. Didn't you? Dispensing justice. If you say to me that you're a new man, I say fine. But if you step out of line, I will be there. Daredevil born.
Again.
Only on Disney+.
Friday nights at nine on ABC. Mean true crime.
True murder mystery.
Shocking sex.
Betrayal lies.
A.
Bombshell.
The greatest true crime story of 2020.
Friday nights at nine.
Time to check the pulse. Beginning with a suspected jewel thief, police say he swallowed the evidence.
Employees of an Orlando jewelry store say he took off with two pairs of expensive diamond earrings. The troopers chased him down. When they got up, caught up to him. They say he gulped down several items. These x rays revealed what appeared to be the diamonds.
No word yet whether or how they've been recovered. Next, a would be purse snatcher who learned crime doesn't pay.
Well because of some martial arts experts nearby. Police say a Tennessee teen tried to rob an elderly woman, but he did it in front of a jujitsu studio. Some of the teachers saw the woman fighting back and ran to help.
We're going to struggle. You may get it, but we're going to struggle. You're not going to get it easy.
Think about what would I want somebody else to do if that was my daughter, if that was my mother, if that was my grandmother. And I think as a society, we owe it to ourselves to stand up for one another and, and help each other out where we can.
Those guys jumped the suspect who is now facing charges. Next, one of the most unique world records we've ever seen.
It was.
Set.
By Vienna Vegetable Orchestra, which is exactly what it sounds like. The members play instruments carved from vegetables, giving new meaning to playing with your food. They've now played 344 concerts, a world record for a vegetable orchestra. Next, Celine Dion's impromptu performance.
ESPN's Marty Smith is covering Tiger Woods indoor golf league. Celine was there, and when he asked her which one of her songs best represents her golf game?
I would say. Near. Far where? Come on.
Wherever you are.
I believe that my ball will go on. You're not bad.
Yes, that is a duet of my heart will go on. Changing the words to my ball will go on. Finally, a flaming hot Cheeto with a huge price tag.
It just sold at auction. Here it is. What's called the Cheeto Czar because it resembles a fire breathing Pokemon monster.
It's three inches long. And get this it sold for nearly $88,000.
More than the Pokemon card it resembles. Top headlines next.
Whenever news breaks.
We.
Are here in Israel, a nation at war. After that brutal surprise attack by Hamas.
On the ground in Ukraine.
Reporting from Lewiston, Maine.
The scene of a horrific mass shooting.
ABC News Live is right there everywhere.
From the scene of that deadly missile strike in Dnipro, Ukraine.
Reporting from the earthquake in.
Turkey in Rolling Fork. This tornado tore through this little town from.
The most devastating disaster.
In.
Hawaii.
From Charleston, South Carolina, on the 2024 campaign trail in Iceland. Let's go.
Traveling with the president in Mexico City.
Wherever the story.
From the front lines from southern Israel.
Outside the Gaza Strip, in.
Beirut.
From the.
FBI reporting.
From the nurses on the picket.
Line here at ten Downing Street in London.
Streaming live to you.
Wherever the story is.
Wherever the story.
Is.
Wherever the story is, we're going to take you there. You're streaming ABC News Live.
ABC News.
Live.
You're streaming ABC News Live.
ABC news live streaming. Free everywhere. America's number one streaming news.
I told you to let me handle it.
Raj made me do it. I did.
You man enough to take your father's place.
What would we have to do?
Run the business. Call the shots.
That's terrifying.
Toxic freaking workplace.
When you hear the sirens.
You're like a.
Serial killer.
Now, man.
You think so?
Really proud of you boys.
I would never change.
I'm 110% ready to fall in love.
Tall.
Handsome. Smart.
He's perfect.
Time just stood.
Still.
It's kind of already sinking in that these other girls are dating my boyfriend.
Everybody just really wants Grant. And we're all fighting for his love. You act like you don't care.
He knows how I feel. I know I'm in trouble. Everyone's so mean. I did not know how hard this was going to be.
With so much at stake in our world right now. More Americans turn here to David than anywhere else. And now, America's most trusted, most watched newscast. ABC's World News Tonight with David Muir is available to you on YouTube.
Checking more top stories. A judge is temporarily blocking President Trump's cut to medical research funding. The cuts would have stopped the National Institutes of Health from sending hundreds of millions of dollars to research groups. A lawsuit will now proceed.
President Trump has placed a one month pause on tariffs affecting U.S. automakers. That sent stocks on Wall Street rebounding. Trump is also reportedly considering a tariff exemption for some agriculture products.
The Justice Department is charging 12 Chinese nationals in a hacker for hire operation. Prosecutors say the suspects were paid by China to carry out cyber attacks against the U.S., including at the Treasury Department.
In.
New York. pro-Palestinian demonstrators had to be cleared from Barnard College after a bomb threat. Nine people were arrested.
Today's weather rain and mountain snow for Southern California. Snow returns to the plains and the east coast dries out.
Finally, a contest that will get you spinning.
Danny. New reports on the world sign spinning competition.
You're doing great with that twirling. Dad!
I'm spinning.
Maybe you've seen a sign spinner in a progressive commercial. But at the world sign spinning championships in Las Vegas, this crap looks way different. They're great dancers, entertainers, athletes. People are just going to be wowed.
On.
A lot of different levels. Here is the CEO of Arrow Sign Spinners, which has been hosting this annual competition for around two decades. Every year, people from all over the world who professionally spin those pointy advertisements, travel to Sin City and compete in a judged competition for $5,000 cash. And for that prize, they will twirl, jump and do whatever that is. But as you can see in this clip from ESPN's The Show a few years ago, former champions like Matthew Dolan here do not seem to be thinking too much about the money.
Oh yeah, I won in 2019, but I need my second time under my belt.
To learn and grow.
Observe. Now, a few years ago, I learned from the sign spinning team who enters from Denver.
Where we're going.
Katie, look out and got it immediately! But I asked the head of the team, Simon Ingram, what he likes about this job. That seems like it might get a little tiring sometimes.
I've been doing this for eight years now. I recommend it for everyone. Like, even if even if it's a part time job just to get outside.
But as Shimon said when we reconnected this past month, this Saturday will not be about enjoying sunshine, but instead a sin no Sin city showdown.
You guys better be prepared. That's all I can say.
So guys, that competition is free to attend in downtown Las Vegas on Saturday. But hey, here's a little sneak preview. What do you think? Spinning the rock, by the way. I don't know if that's clear, guys.
Pretty good.
Danny, I.
Think you need some.
Work.
That's your good morning, America first.
Have a great day.
Now you can listen to a podcast version of World News Tonight, available free wherever you listen.
Right.
Now on Good Morning America. First look, major cuts. Word overnight that President Trump is preparing an order to dismantle the Department of Education, while the VA bracing for more than 70,000 job cuts and stocks rebound after Trump delays tariffs on U.S. automakers. Word now of more possible exemptions.
The debate over illegal immigration and so-called sanctuary cities turning confrontational at the Capitol.
You suck at answering questions, mayor. Woo!
Big city mayors in the spotlight, grilled by members of Congress.
The mystery is a teenager from Wisconsin known for perfect attendance at school, is arrested 800 miles from home days after his parents were found dead. What police say they found in his car.
Trouble for target. Why? The retailer is facing a boycott.
Caught on camera. The alert for homeowners. Brazen thieves targeting your gutters.
Stranded for days in the wilderness. The hikers rescued after falling 800ft off a cliff.
And later.
The orchestra earning a world record by playing with their food.
From ABC news. This is good morning America first look.
Good morning everyone I'm Andrew Dymburt.
And I'm Rhiannon ally. Good morning to all of you. Let's get right to breaking news. A major development in President Trump's push to downsize the federal government.
He has long criticized the Department of Education, and now sources say he's preparing a new order targeting the agency. It comes as Elon Musk proposes changes for the Postal Service and Amtrak.
ABC's Nicole D'Antonio has the latest details. Nicole. Good morning.
Well, good morning to both of you. It now appears President Trump will follow up on his promise to close the Department of Education, but it remains unclear exactly how. This morning, ABC news has learned the Trump administration is preparing to dissolve the Department of Education as soon as today. Sources say a draft executive order directs Education Secretary Linda McMahon to facilitate a department closure this week. The Department of Education employs more than 4000 people, spending $251 $51 billion last year. Trump has said he wants to give education back to the States.
I'd like it to be closed immediately. Look, the Department of Education is a big con job.
It's unclear how Secretary McMahon will close the department. Congressional approval is required to abolish a federal agency. Elsewhere, the Department of Veterans Affairs now plans to lay off some 72,000 workers. That's 15% of its workforce.
Now, we regret anyone who loses their job. And it's extraordinarily difficult for me, especially as a VA leader and your secretary, to make these types of decisions. But the federal government does not exist to employ people. It exists to serve people.
Senator Jerry Moran, chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, slamming the move, writing, quote, the VA is in need of reform, but current efforts to downsize the department and increase efficiency must be done in a more responsible manner. Elon Musk on Capitol Hill last night updated Republicans on his efforts to cut spending.
You know, there's a lot of room, remember a lot of opportunity to improve expenditures in the government, and then we're making good progress.
At a Morgan Stanley conference, Musk argued the government should privatize anything that can be privatized, including the Postal Service and Amtrak.
Basically, somebody's got to have some chance of going bankrupt or there's not a good feedback loop for improvement.
The cuts in Washington come amid uncertainty over President Trump's tariffs on products from Mexico, Canada and China, and the impact on consumer prices here at home. More exemptions are reportedly on the way. Bloomberg reports Trump is now considering exempting some agricultural products. He's already granted a one month delay on tariffs affecting the Big three U.S. automakers, including Ford, General Motors and Stellantis.
He always has open dialog, and he'll always do what's right, what he believes is right for the American people.
Now, the white House has suggested the automakers use the pause on tariffs to work toward the president's goal of bringing auto production back to the U.S.. Rhiannon.
All right. Thank you, Nicole, for that. Now there is more confusion over a potential sale of hundreds of federal buildings by the Trump administration. More than 400 buildings, including FBI headquarters, that were listed for potential sale, have now been delisted, but no explanation was given.
Now to the battle over so-called sanctuary cities, the immigration crisis and crime, the issues coming to a boiling point on Capitol Hill. Clashes on Capitol Hill as sanctuary cities face new scrutiny.
You all have blood on your hands.
Members of a House committee grilling for big city mayors about their immigrant safe haven policies.
This is why you have 6% approval rating because you suck at answering questions. Mayor Wu.
Republicans railing against the leaders of New York, Boston, Chicago and Denver, where local authorities do not routinely report undocumented people to the federal government.
We cannot let Pro-criminal alien policies and obstructionist sanctuary cities continue to endanger American communities.
The Democrats defending their policies, insisting they're following the law while protecting people's rights and neighborhoods.
The false narrative is that immigrants in general are criminals or immigrants in general, cause all sorts of danger and harm. That is, that is actually what is undermining safety in our communities.
Denver's mayor clashing with Congressman Jim Jordan over an incident where federal agents had to chase a man through a jail parking lot because sheriff's deputies released him after serving time for a local crime.
They have to arrest him in the parking lot. They bring six officers when they could have had 1 or 2. Just come in your facility in the jail and take the guy there.
Arguments between Congresswoman Nancy Mace and the mayor is reaching a boiling point, with mace saying she plans to ask the Justice Department to investigate the mayor's conduct.
Mayor Johnson, um, are you willing to go to jail for violating federal law?
The city of Chicago complies with all laws.
Oh, I highly doubt that, Mayor Wu.
We are not violating federal law.
The clash is not just along party lines.
You should step down and resign today.
Democrats questioned New York Mayor Eric Adams after he seemingly reversed his stance on allowing immigration agents to raid Rikers Island jail. Adams was facing federal corruption charges, but the Trump administration directed prosecutors to drop the case. Critics questioning the mayor's motives.
Are you selling out New Yorkers to save yourself from prosecution?
There is no deal. No quid pro quo. And I did nothing wrong.
The Trump administration has threatened to stop federal aid to sanctuary cities.
The Trump administration has paused intelligence sharing with Ukraine. It follows the diplomatic dispute over plans for potential peace talks with Russia. U.S. military aid also remains frozen. Ukrainian President Zelensky has signaled he is now ready to sign a minerals deal with the U.S., with details still being discussed.
Los Angeles County has joined two cities suing Southern California's largest utility for the deadly Eaton Fire in January. 17 people were killed and thousands of homes were destroyed. The lawsuits seek damages from Southern California Edison, claiming its equipment caused the fire. The company says it's reviewing the lawsuits.
Now to the Midwest and the arrest of a teen days after his parents were found dead. The teen, known for perfect attendance at school, was found 800 miles from home. A teenager from Wisconsin is under arrest after being named a person of interest in connection with the deaths of his mother and stepfather. The bodies of 35 year old Tatiana Kassab and 51 year old Donald Maier were found during a welfare check last week.
I had been texting Donald many times and he wasn't answering and I didn't know why.
Court documents revealing Tatiana was shot and Donald had a large wound to his head. Their bodies covered by clothes and blankets. Police tracking down 17 year old Nikita Kassab. 800 miles away in Kansas, after he allegedly ran a stop sign in his stepfather's car. The family dog with him.
He would never not go to school if things were normal.
The teen, previously known for his perfect attendance, had reportedly been absent for weeks inside the vehicle, police say, was a stepfather's gun. Both parents driver's license. Ammunition and shell casings. Prosecutors now charging the teen with operating a motor vehicle without the owner's consent, and theft of movable property. No charges have been filed yet in connection with the two deaths. The teen is being held in Kansas and is awaiting extradition to Wisconsin.
The popular gaming chat platform discord is reportedly talking to bankers about going public. Discord is used by more than 200 million people every month. Reports say the IPO talks are in the early stages and could value the company at around $16 billion.
It is time now for your Thursday weather. The cold side of a deadly cross country storm created whiteout conditions in the Plains and Midwest, with dozens of crashes in Iowa and winds even blowing over a semi truck. Look at that in Kansas. The same system spawned a reported tornado in North Carolina, bringing down trees and power lines, and strong winds also brought down trees in new Jersey and heavy rain flooded streets. The storms are now moving out to sea. Let's check today's high temperatures. 50s on the west coast. 60s in the southeast, 46 in Kansas City.
Coming up, the skiers buried under 40ft of snow in Alaska.
Also ahead. Trouble for target. Why? The retailer is facing a growing boycott.
And is this the Delta Airlines plane of the future?
It started with a spark getting.
That golden ticket today.
Good luck with the golden ticket.
They grew into a life.
Will.
Change my life.
I know you're nervous.
Show me a place where dreams come true.
I've never seen anything like it.
You're going to Hollywood. My dream came true.
There are.
Surprises.
In every person.
Where dreams come true.
Attention, teachers. No child is to be sent to the principal's office today. Kid, if you want to do a crime, now's the time. Happy first day of school.
You better bring your best dress.
Wonder like four more of these.
Yeah. We were robbed. Hey! Buy three, get one free.
I'm gonna call your mother on you. Bring the rest back here, boy.
It was a kidnapping torture case, a crime.
Of greed and cruelty.
The men tortured the victim by beating, tasing and burning him.
And this is where it gets really horrible. The guy was cutting off my roommate's. It was like a bad dream.
This crime was horrific.
He's a psychopath.
How could you possibly defend somebody like that?
This was a story about greed, sadism, evil.
Wicked game. Devil in the desert. Only on Hulu.
I'm 110% ready to fall in love.
Tall.
Handsome. Smart.
He's perfect.
Time just stood.
Still.
It's kind of already sinking in that these other girls are dating my boyfriend.
Everybody just really wants rent. And we're all fighting for his love. You act like you don't care.
He knows how I feel. I know I'm in trouble. Everyone's so mean. I did not know how hard this would be.
Reporting from the Normandy coast for the 80th anniversary of D-Day. I'm David Muir. Wherever the story is, we'll take you there. You're streaming ABC News Live.
We are back now with heroic actions by a new Jersey police officer. Look at this. Pulling an unconscious driver from this burning car after a crash involving a tanker truck. Both vehicles burst into flames. Two people suffered minor injuries. And in California, officers pulled a driver from a pickup truck near Sacramento. He had spent the night trapped inside after crashing off a road. Nearly 24 hours earlier, he told police he crashed because he wasn't paying attention.
Three skiers are presumed dead buried by an avalanche in Alaska. Rescue crews hope to reach the area today. The victims were buried in up to 40ft of snow.
This morning. Trouble at target. The retailer is facing a boycott by shoppers, and it stems from a decision made by the company tied to a hot button political issue. Here's ABC's Andrea Fujii.
This morning as Christians mark the season of lent. Shoppers across the country are giving up target.
What you see. Believers globally doing is stepping away from something. Sacrificing something.
Staging a 40 day boycott of the retailer. It stems from the company's decision to roll back its diversity, equity and inclusion policies, eliminating hiring goals for minority employees and altering its diversity initiatives.
We need to hold larger corporations accountable.
A church in Georgia launched the boycott, now gaining tens of thousands of followers. Target isn't the only store to scale back Dei initiatives. Walmart and John Deere are among the many others that have also backtracked amid public pressure and threats from the Trump administration to investigate what it calls illegal Dei.
We've ended the tyranny of so-called diversity, equity and inclusion policies all across the entire federal government and indeed the private sector.
Sales at target declined last month, and its predicted growth this year is only about 1%. Now, with rising inflation and tariffs, experts say the timing of this boycott could mean trouble for target's bottom line.
It's really like, do you get enough people actively supporting a boycott such that, you know, it actually resonates into the boardroom?
Target has not commented specifically on the boycott, only saying the company is committed to inclusivity and offers a range of products from black and minority vendors. Andrew. Rhiannon.
Andrea. Thank you. Delta Airlines is backing a start up company with plans to design a more fuel efficient plane. Jet zero is developing a blended wing body, which it says could significantly reduce fuel consumption and noise. Delta says it's providing operational help with the development.
Coming up, homeowners on alert because thieves are targeting your gutters.
Also ahead stranded for days in the wilderness. The hikers rescued after falling 800ft down a cliff.
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We're back with frightening video of a falling tree nearly crushing this family in Brooklyn. They were out for a walk when the massive tree came crashing down, just barely missing them.
And a new warning about gutter thefts. Security cameras captured thieves in Detroit, stripping a home of its gutters. Police linking the suspects to other possible cases. Selling those gutters for scrap metal. Similar thefts have been reported in Chicago. Police are urging homeowners to fasten their gutters to their homes.
We turn now to the inmate on death row, making headlines for choosing a different way to be executed. A method now being adopted by more states. This morning, the South Carolina Supreme Court has cleared the way for the first execution by firing squad in the U.S. in nearly 15 years.
So this is a huge development in the the world of execution methods.
Brad Sigman was sentenced to death for killing his ex-girlfriend's parents. His latest appeal denied setting the stage for tomorrow's execution, and he's chosen to die by firing squad instead of the electric chair or the more common practice, lethal injection.
In recent years, there has been a reevaluation of the firing squad as a possible method of execution, primarily because lethal injection has has only gotten worse over the decades.
Some states began allowing firing squads as an option because of a shortage of lethal injection drugs. But another major concern has been the dozens of lethal injections that have been botched, some blamed on execution teams lacking the medical expertise to administer them.
I think firing squad is the least inhumane method, so I can understand an inmate selecting it that that makes sense to me.
Since 1977, only three executions by firing squad have been carried out in the U.S.. A hood is placed over the prisoner's head and multiple corrections officers fire rifles from 15ft away. Only these five states currently allow the procedure, with Idaho just yesterday moving one step closer to making it the primary execution method. Idaho's governor still needs to sign off on the change.
We are getting our first look at a snowy rescue in Southern California. Body camera video shows crews locating two hikers more than 8000ft above sea level in the mountains of Riverside County. They had fallen 800ft down a snowy cliff Saturday. High winds made it difficult to lift them to safety until Tuesday, but both are now recovering.
Coming up, the jewelry thief who swallowed the evidence.
Also ahead, one very expensive Cheeto.
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Let's get some people married. Why are you single? Maybe the kind of guys that I go for. You go for hot guys. Yeah, it's a pitfall.
What would you say are like the top things you're looking for?
You don't like hairy men, so all Muslims are out. What are you talking about?
This process doesn't have to suck. He's cute.
Make it happen. Boo!
Reporting from inside Buckingham Palace.
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Time to check the pulse. Beginning with a suspected jewel thief. Police say he swallowed the evidence.
Employees of an Orlando jewelry store say he took off with two pairs of expensive diamond earrings. The troopers chased him down when the cops caught up to him. They say he gulped down several items. These x rays revealed what appeared to be the diamonds.
No word yet whether or how they've been recovered. Next, a would be purse snatcher who learned crime doesn't pay.
Well because it's martial arts experts nearby. Police say a Tennessee teen tried to rob an elderly woman, but he did it in front of a jujitsu studio. Some of the teachers saw the woman fighting back and ran to help.
We're going to struggle. You may get it, but we're going to struggle. You're not going to get it easy.
Think about what would I want somebody else to do if that was my daughter, if that was my mother, if that was my grandmother. And I think as a society, we owe it to ourselves to stand up for one another and, and help each other out where we can.
Those guys jumped the suspect who is now facing charges. Next, one of the most unique world records we've ever seen.
It was set by Vienna Vegetable Orchestra, which is exactly what it sounds like. The members play instruments carved from vegetables, giving new meaning to playing with your food. They've now played 344 concerts, a world record for a vegetable orchestra. Next. Celine Dion's impromptu performance.
ESPN's Marty Smith is covering Tiger Woods indoor golf league. Celine was there, and when he asked her which one of her songs best represents her golf game?
I would say. Near. Far. Where? Come on.
Wherever you.
Are. I believe that my ball will go on. You're not bad.
Yes, that is a duet of my heart will go on. Changing the words to my ball will go on. Finally, a flaming hot Cheeto with a huge price tag.
It just sold at auction. Here it is. What's called the Cheetos art. Because it resembles a fire breathing Pokémon monster.
It's three inches long. And get this it sold for nearly $88,000.
More than the Pokemon card it resembles. Top headlines next.
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I told you to let me handle it.
What made me do it? Did.
You man enough to take your father's place.
What would we have to do?
Run the business? Call the shots.
That's terrifying.
Toxic freaking workplace.
When you hear the sirens.
You're like a.
Serial killer.
Now, man.
You think so?
Really proud of you boys.
I break the law. I will never change.
Do you know how difficult my dad is?
You know, I hear everything from in here.
I'm broke, and I need a place to stay until I find a job.
She's coming.
Can we try to talk to each other like rational adults?
Have you watched the news lately, that's not a thing anymore. You could go back to law school. That's always been your dream.
Actually, that was your dream for me.
You like to argue?
You do love to argue.
You might as well get paid for it.
With so much at stake in our world right now, more Americans turn here to David than anywhere else. And now, America's most trusted, most watched newscast. ABC's World News Tonight with David Muir is available to you on YouTube.
Checking more top stories. A judge is temporarily blocking President Trump's cut to medical research funding. The cuts would have stopped the National Institutes of Health from sending hundreds of millions of dollars to research groups. A lawsuit will now proceed.
President Trump has placed a one month pause on tariffs affecting U.S. automakers. That sent stocks on Wall Street rebounding. Trump is also reportedly considering a tariff exemption for some agriculture products.
The Justice Department is charging 12 Chinese nationals in a hacker for hire operation. Prosecutors say the suspects were paid by China to carry out cyber attacks against the U.S., including at the Treasury Department.
In.
New York. pro-Palestinian demonstrators had to be cleared from Barnard College after a bomb threat. Nine people were arrested.
Today's weather rain and mountain snow for Southern California. Snow returns to the plains and the east coast dries out.
Finally, a contest that will get you spinning.
Danny. New reports on the world sign spinning competition.
You're doing great with that twirling. Dad!
I'm spinning.
Maybe you've seen a sign spinner in a progressive commercial. But at the world sign spinning Championships in Las Vegas, this craft looks way different.
They're great.
Dancers.
Entertainers.
Athletes. People are just going to be wowed on a lot of different levels. Max Djurovic here is the CEO of Aero Science Partners, which has been hosting this annual competition for around two decades. Every year, people from all over the world who professionally spin those pointy advertisements, travel to Sin City and compete in a judged competition for $5,000 cash. And for that prize, they will twirl, jump and do whatever that is. But as you can see in this clip from ESPN's The Show a few years ago, former champions like Matthew Dolan here do not seem to be thinking too much about the money.
Oh yeah, I won in 2019, but I need my second time under my belt.
To learn and grow.
Observe. Now, a few years ago, I learned from the science winning team who enters from Denver.
Where we're going.
Katie, look out and got it immediately. But I asked the head of the team, Simon Ingram, what he likes about this job. That seems like it might get a little tiring sometimes.
I've been doing this for eight years now. I recommend it for everyone. Like. Even if even if it's a part time job just to get outside.
But as Sherman said when we reconnected this past month, this Saturday will not be about enjoying sunshine, but instead a sin no Sin City showdown.
You guys better be prepared. That's all I can say.
So guys, that competition is free to attend in downtown Las Vegas on Saturday. But hey, here's a little sneak preview. What do you think? Spinning the rock, by the way. I don't know if that's clear, guys.
Pretty good. Danny.
We need some work. That's your good morning, America.
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Getting that golden ticket today.
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It's Thursday, March 6th. Is it too late to shift gears? We start here. With price hikes already taking effect, President Trump puts a 30 day pause on car tariffs.
These car companies were making the case to the president that this would undermine their own competitiveness.
His others are still in effect though. So what does all this mean for your wallet? A day after Supreme Court justices watched the president's speech, they rule against him.
The federal government, whether.
They like it or not. And clearly.
They don't like it, has.
To pay those bills.
U.S. aid organizations will get their money, at least some of it. And four years after a devastating attack in Afghanistan, he arrives in a U.S. courtroom. We know he admitted to the FBI that he served essentially in a surveillance role as a spotter. Our team was there as a suspected terrorist faced a judge from ABC news. This is start here. I'm Brad Mielke. You could feel a sense of momentum on Tuesday night. The Trump administration is on a roll. At one point, the president was almost taunting Democrats because legislatively, there is very little they can do to stop him right now. Republicans in Congress certainly won't.
So Democrats sitting before me for just this one night, why not join us in celebrating so many incredible wins for America?
And yet, if there's one area where the political ice is particularly thin this winter, it's Americans finances.
You don't know what you're going to wake up to tomorrow.
Have you.
Noticed how.
Much a loaf of bread is?
I'm nervous.
For everybody. And what's going to happen to the heating oil this week?
As tariffs against Canada and Mexico took effect? Nearly every item we import from our neighbors had a 25% tax slapped on it.
This country does.
Not have the production.
Or the labor.
To make.
Up for what.
Canada is.
Producing and shipping.
In. That means American consumers, who have already been feeling the pinch for months, are now about to start paying even more for a lot of items. And it doesn't stop there, because in response, Canada started taxing American products our machines, our whiskey. Liquor stores in Canada have started clearing their shelves of American labels.
Somehow we've.
Become.
One of the the victims in this process.
Jeff Quint is a distiller in Iowa who relies on that income. His workers rely on him.
Our shipments are fairly small compared to some of the bigger players, but if everybody stops shipping bourbon out of the country and we can only make it here, it's going to put that downward pricing pressure on the whole industry.
But despite the obvious political risks here, President Trump told The Nation that he was barreling forward with this plan. He told producers like Jeff to trust him.
There'll be a little disturbance, but we're okay with that.
But yesterday, as if to highlight the nerves jangling around the American economy right now, the white House announced that some of these tariffs will not go into effect on schedule. Specifically tariffs on cars. Let's start the day with ABC's Elizabeth Schulze who covers economics for us. Elizabeth, is it fair to call this a backtrack from the president? What's going on with these tariffs right now?
Backtrack. Maybe reprieve temporarily is the best word, Brad, to use when we're talking about what this means. This is a one month exemption from those 25% tariffs for automakers.
Reciprocal tariffs will still go into effect on April 2nd, but at the request of the companies associated with Usmca, the president is giving them an exemption for one month, so they are not at an economic disadvantage.
What's the Usmca? Well, that is the free trade deal. That was really one of the crowning achievements of President Trump's first term. That essentially meant that there is free trade between the US, Mexico and Canada. And what the Trump administration came out and said yesterday was automakers that are complying with the rules of that agreement. They don't have to face these additional 25% tariffs, which are really steep for autos, and they're going to have a break for a month at least to not have to pay those higher import costs. The reason why that matters is because the auto sector really is an industry that was going to get hit especially hard by these tariffs. The supply chain when it comes to making a car is so closely linked between the US, Canada and Mexico. There are thousands, tens of thousands of different parts that basically cross over the border every day. I mean, it can be hard to even track how much of this is happening.
Like, you send us your body of the car, then we'll add the engine thing. But then you guys are going to do the painting or add this random part or this chip or something. It keeps going back and forth.
Exactly right. And part of the Usmca agreement had been to encourage those supply chains that free trade to happen, to incentivize automakers to actually move their production from farther away, places like countries in Asia, back closer to the United States. And that's what's happened in recent years. And that's why we have these really interconnected supply chains. So the automakers were really sounding the alarm about how intense of a price they'd have to pay with those 25% tariffs.
What prompted the change from the white House?
Well, we know that the big three automakers Ford, Stellantis and GM spoke with President Trump as these tariffs were taking effect, essentially making the case about how big of an impact this would have on the industry.
Spoke to the majors today. All three. The top people, and they're so excited.
Ford's CEO Jim Farley, has been really outspoken about this. At one point, he said the tariffs would blow a hole in the U.S. industry and give Asian and European manufacturers a very distinct competitive advantage.
Plants are opening up all over the place. Deals are being made, never seen. That's a combination of the election win and tariffs. It's a beautiful word isn't it?
Clearly these car companies were making the case to the president that this would undermine their own competitiveness when it comes to U.S. auto manufacturing. And we had seen warnings that car prices for consumers too would dramatically go up. I mean, the average car price for a new car could have gone up $3,000 even higher than that for an SUV.
I think cars like.
This and SUVs, you could be talking.
15%.
15% higher price that consumers buyers pay.
Yes.
Across the.
Board. I talked to one car dealer who told me that they would have almost immediate price hikes on the showroom of his dealership.
It's an immediate.
Impact because since.
Covid, we really don't have inventory. We only have a 30 day supply. So that gets, you know, evaporated very quickly as people come in and buy cars. So I think you're going to see it very quickly.
There had been a lot of concern. And there, frankly, is still concern about how those higher prices will affect not just the companies, but also consumers who are in the market for a new car, too.
What was the reaction in both the American economy and from foreign leaders? Because again, it's not even like cars are one thing. Yes. They're delayed. Nothing else as it sounds like.
Yeah. Not surprisingly, you saw those automakers stocks rally after this exemption was issued. They had been especially hard hit. And the broader stock market did rally yesterday in response to the idea that Okay, maybe President Trump is more open to some exemptions on these across the board tariffs.
The president is open to hearing about additional exemptions. He always has open dialog.
And at the same time you still have the reality that this is just a one month reprieve.
Does he expect them to be able to shift production within a month?
He told them that they should get on it, start investing, start moving shift production here to the United States of America where they will pay no tariff. That's the ultimate goal.
A month is nowhere near enough time for these automakers to make the kind of decisions that would change their production over the longer term.
Canadians are hurt. Canadians are angry.
Plus, you still have the top U.S. trading partners of the United States not exactly happy about these sweeping tariffs that are still in effect, broadly beyond autos.
What he wants.
Is to see a total collapse.
Of the Canadian economy.
Because that.
Will.
Make it.
Easier to annex us is.
The second.
Half of his thought. Now, first of all, that's.
Never going to.
Happen.
We will never.
Be the 51st state.
You heard Prime Minister Justin Trudeau essentially say, after he had this almost hour long conversation with President Trump yesterday. Well, we're talking still, President Trump said the conversation was somewhat friendly, not exactly encouraging when you're thinking about the relationship between the US and one of its biggest trading partners. You still have Mexico's president Claudia Sheinbaum, vowing to impose tariffs on Sunday. But there's still a lot of questions, Brad, about even if there are limited exemptions in place, this is a dramatic shift in trade policy, and there will still be impacts for households and for businesses as they're trying to figure out what this looks like. Plus, the threat of additional tariffs in just one month from the Trump administration that could be even more broad based.
Right. And you can hear like Trudeau's voice, they are still fired up, like there is real anger there about how they've been spoken about. And so, like one month of auto pauses doesn't quite undo all of that. All right. Elizabeth Schultz. Really interesting. Thank you.
Thanks as always, Brad.
We've talked a lot about the Trump administration eliminating positions from government bureaucracy. Several federal employees have brought lawsuits questioning whether you can enact mass layoffs in offices you didn't establish in the first place. Congress did. But there's another way to hamstring offices you don't like cut off their cash flow. That is exactly what happened in the case of USAID, America's foreign aid agency. One day, they were basically told, you're not going to be getting your money anymore. Well, yesterday, the Supreme Court ruled the Trump administration cannot just turn off the faucet. Not like this. This was one of the most direct challenges to Trump's power that the Supreme Court has had to consider so far. So let's bring in ABC's white House correspondent MaryAlice parks. MaryAlice. First off, can you just explain this ruling to us.
It was a close decision. A divided court, but basically they said that the decision from the lower court should stand and that the federal government would have to pay out about $2 billion in payments. Now, remember, these are payments for work that was already done. International aid organizations, nonprofits, NGOs get contracts to deliver foreign aid, to deliver medicine and food and water around the globe. And they had done this work under contract in December and January. And then Trump was inaugurated and those bills didn't get paid.
USAID, the horrible things that they're spending money on.
And so this suit was about just getting paid for that past work, let alone other work that has been stopped, frozen, canceled outright since then and going forward. But this was the Supreme Court agreeing with the lower court that, yes, the federal government, whether they like it or not, and clearly they don't like it has to pay those bills and pay these organizations back.
Well, and like you said, the court was divided. It was five four, right. So clearly there are sort of two conflicting viewpoints here. What's the other viewpoint of like, yeah, you got to pay these bills.
Yeah. Alito, Thomas Kavanaugh and Gorsuch dissented. So a split four five decision. Alito wrote the dissent and and wrote that one single district court judge, one he wasn't sure had the jurisdiction. And that shouldn't be able basically to compel the federal government to pay out billions of taxpayer dollars that they thought they should sort of hear a whole case. I think you could argue that it should have been litigated even more. But look, the reality is these were past payments and the impact has been widespread.
Yeah. What kind of work are we talking about, by the way? USAID, it sounds so broad. Foreign aid sounds so broad. Like what have they actually been doing with this money?
I mean, it is broad. Everything from groups that deliver life saving aid food, medicine, water to some of the poorest parts of the world.
I do.
Believe.
That we do have an obligation to to the rest of the world, and I certainly believe that we have an obligation, if that were to shift, to do it in a thoughtful and measured way.
I was talking to one organization and she said, since all the chaos, it's the lack of payments, the canceled contracts, they've had to close 16 clinics in Somalia alone, where they were used to seeing 700 severely malnourished kids a day. This CEO of this organization called A light, told me it was just going to be a matter of days until some of those babies died.
And we are unable to to provide any services to those severely malnourished children. And so it's really a matter of, of days or weeks before many of them will die.
Other organizations work on everything from fighting sex trafficking in Central America to democracy initiatives around the world. I mean, this is going to have an immediate impact not only on on severely malnourished kids, but on fighting terrorism in places where if USAID pulls out, does that leave a vacuum for terrorists to come in?
And that leaves not.
Only.
Health and well-being around the world, including in this country, at risk, but it actually really compromises diplomatic relationships with countries far and wide.
What happens to aid getting into Gaza? What happens to aid getting into Ukraine?
There are deaths.
In crisis zones.
That have already.
Been.
Documented and.
Attributed to the pullback.
Of services under this freeze already.
The nonprofit groups that were a part of this case, they argued that according to their count and their estimates, nearly 15,000 adults and over 1500 infants had died already due to this suspension of foreign aid.
And that's about to get much, much.
Worse if the court does not step in.
And ultimately.
Put a halt to.
This. Again, this court case was just about repaying bills from December and January. The vast majority of these nonprofits were also told, as a part of this ongoing litigation, that contracts they had signed for future work and work they're doing right now, work they're floating, sort of the money for to do right now is also being cut.
It's heartbreaking to see this whole sector, this whole field, kind of collapse.
What is being done is one of the biggest blunders in American foreign policy history.
About 10,000 contracts from the State Department, sort of foreign aid and refugee programs, and USAID terminated in the last few weeks as this litigation was ongoing. So this the Supreme Court saying that they have to pay back past bills. But these organizations are also looking at contracts that have been terminated.
I was going to say, because clearly, the goal of the Trump administration, along with Elon Musk, is that we're going to stop paying. Like, it might not be this month, but like in future months, like a lot of this money is going away at some point. Like Congress will stop allocating it. Do their ambitions even stop there? Like we keep sort of learning, I think just how sweeping some of these visions are. I mean, how far could this go? Are we getting new clues?
Yeah. I don't think that anyone thinks that. This is it. I mean, we have heard the president really zero in on foreign aid.
We identified and stopped $50 million being sent to Gaza to buy condoms for Hamas.
Often his stats are are wildly off, but he's continued to sort of rattle off ideas about what some of that aid is going, some of these claims that it was all sort of fraudulent. I talked to sources at USAID and some of these nonprofits that that have these contracts that feel like they were being made the example that then can sort of be used across the federal agency. You don't like what we're doing. Look what we did over here. You don't like the cuts to your agency? We could gut your agency entirely. And we have heard, you know, big conversations about future moves from Doge, from Elon Musk, from the white House. You know, just this week, we're learning about potential plans to lay off as many as 80,000 workers from the Department of Veteran Affairs. That's the second largest federal agency, of course, all around the country serving VA hospitals. And also, you know, comments. It's hard to know if they're offhanded comments or if they're real. But comments this week from Elon Musk about how it might be a good idea to privatize the post office, privatize Amtrak, we saw GSA, they took it down, but at one point list government buildings across the country that they just wanted to put up for sale.
And the agency is scrambling, trying to figure out if that's true, what it would mean, how to respond, would that mean they need to start planning and move their workforces? Now, of course, remember, these agencies were also told that everyone needed to come back and work in person and that all telework agreements should be canceled. But now threats of closing offices. So yeah, I think there is a sense definitely that this large scale attempt to reduce the size of the federal government, and the federal workforce is just getting started.
The buildings thing is like literally reducing the footprint in Washington and around the country. There are federal buildings around the country. All right. Mary Alice, thank you so much.
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Speaking to Congress on Tuesday, President Trump did make a few unexpected announcements. Perhaps one of the most significant was that we now had custody of one of the men suspected to be behind the attack at Abbey Gate in Afghanistan. If you don't remember what I'm talking about, this was part of America's chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, the first year of the Biden presidency. We had announced we were leaving. The Taliban quickly took over Kabul, and as panicked Afghans tried to crowd into American cargo ships, a bomb blast went off at a choke point near the airport.
We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay.
That attack killed almost 200 people, including 13 American service members and more than 150 Afghan civilians. And now, nearly four years after that attack, President Trump announced that we'd caught one of the alleged perpetrators. By yesterday, the suspect made his first appearance in a U.S. courtroom, and ABC's Alex Mallin was there. He covers the Justice Department. Alex, who is this guy? And I guess how are the FBI and DOJ describing his actions? Yeah.
So I mean, Brad, really what we know about him is remarkably little at this point. We know his name is Mohammad Sharif Ullah. He goes by Jafar, according to court documents that were released by the Justice Department. And we know that he was interviewed on Sunday by the FBI, and we believe that was in Pakistan. Trump administration officials have been going out saying that the CIA alerted Pakistan to Sharif Ali and his role in the bombing at Abbey gate. And what they found out after this interview is he admitted to actually having a role in several other major terror attacks. There was a 2016 bombing at the Canadian embassy in Kabul that was also related to ISIS K. He also participated in that in a surveillance role. He admitted to the FBI, and he also told the FBI that he aided the Isis-k terrorists who carried out that attack on the Moscow Concert Hall in March of last year. We know he admitted to the FBI that in that 2021 attack at Abbey gate, he served essentially in a surveillance role as a spotter so that the suicide bomber could position himself among the crowd to inflict maximum damage.
Okay, so we got him in custody. He gets extradited to the U.S. onto American soil. What happened in court yesterday?
Yes. So he appeared before a magistrate judge in Alexandria federal court in Virginia. He walked in. He was in a blue getup. He did not have his legs or hands shackled, which kind of surprised me. Typically, when you see terrorism suspects come into the U.S., US into a federal court. They are shackled. He was surrounded by three very large US marshals who stood at attention, watching him very intently the entire time he had an interpreter. The judge essentially just read him his constitutional rights. He is now a criminal defendant in the US justice system. He is afforded the same constitutional rights that any criminal defendant in the system is afforded. And he acknowledged through his interpreter to the charge that he now faces, aiding a terrorist group which could, if he is convicted, land him in federal prison for the rest of his life. Brad.
And then, at the end of the day, what does this tell us about, I guess, ISIS k where as it currently stands and America's presence in that region, because we've gotten so many people out of that region. And yet it does sound like we had enough assets to to locate him there.
Yeah. I think that what we've heard from officials since this arrest was announced by the president at that joint address on Tuesday, was that they see this as highlighting their relationship with the Pakistani government that proceeds. You know, obviously what we saw was a frayed relationship after the killing of Osama bin laden during the Obama administration. They see this as essentially showing the strength of the Trump administration and their ability to make deals that they believe previous administrations, like the Biden administration would never have been able to make. Obviously, we heard from President Trump during his address touting his support for the Gold Star families that were killed in the Abbey gate attack repeatedly across the time of the campaign trail, and using that essentially to attack President Biden over and over, over the administration's handling in that disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
The humiliation in Afghanistan set off the collapse of American credibility and respect all around the world. It was caused by bad planning, incredible weakness, and leaders who truly didn't understand what was happening.
And Brad, you can't escape the timing of this. Obviously, this arrest being unsealed in a federal court just hours after President Trump announced it during his joint address to Congress. Remember, in those court papers, they say that Sharifullah was interviewed on Monday. It's unclear. And we still have put these questions to the administration. Why was he not immediately put on a plane then? Then we saw overnight on Tuesday those released photos showing FBI Director Kash Patel, Attorney General Pam Bondi and other senior intelligence leaders on the plane to retrieve him. Again, you cannot escape the political messaging that really aligned with this very major terrorist arrest.
Right. And of course, this was treated very much like a political win for the white House, for the new FBI director, Kash Patel, for the new attorney general, Pam Bondi, who would prosecute all of this. And of course, as sort of alliances are re-evaluated here and we reevaluate how many people we have serving for us overseas, how all this kind of works together. All right. Alex Mallin, thank you so much.
Thanks, Brad.
And one last thing Humans never lived alongside dinosaurs. But there was a time when we. Walked the earth with another great beast as large as an elephant with. Even longer tusks and a regal coat of long fur to survive the Siberian winter. This was the wooly mammoth. We've never heard recordings of the mammoth roar. Of course, but this week, scientists revealed that they have genetically engineered a creature with some of the mammoth's most fearsome traits. It sounds like this. In Texas, a group called Colossal Biosciences say they've successfully switched on certain mammoth like genes in lab mice. In this case, they've identified the genes that give wooly mammoths their long hair and their ability to store fat, resulting in mice with long, bright orange hair. They look like tiny gerbils. Touched an electrical socket.
Produced what we.
Believe.
Is.
A cold.
Tolerant.
Wooly.
Phenotype driven.
Mice.
This is Ben Lamm. He's the CEO of colossal. And he says their goal is to bring back the mammoth. This is a breakthrough on that path.
You know, colossal is probably.
Most.
Notably.
Known for the mammoth.
It's one of our flagship projects.
But one of our other two flagship products are the Tasmanian Tiger, or also known as the thylacine, as well as the dodo bird.
Their next assignment, he says, is doing a similar experiment with a real elephant. But this whole venture has raised serious ethical questions, like, should humans be bringing back animals that went extinct in the first place? Jeff Goldblum's character in Jurassic Park had very clear thoughts on the matter.
This isn't this is some species that was obliterated by deforestation or the building of a dam. Dinosaurs had their shot and nature selected them for extinction.
Of course, mammoths weren't dinosaurs. They lived with us. In fact, humans hunted wooly mammoths. But scientists say it wasn't spears that made these animals go extinct. It was the climate in the wake of the Ice age that has since only grown warmer. So why, they ask, are we prioritizing this and not the conservation of species who are already here? Well, colossal says that's the whole point. Learning how to preserve precious life through genetics. The mammoth, they say, is head turning. It gets funding and eyeballs. The real test will be bringing back these lesser known species from the brink.
No modern conservation works. It just doesn't work at the speed at which we're changing the environment, eradicating species and, you know, destroying habitats.
All these mice are indisputably cute, almost frighteningly cute. It's still to be determined whether this series of experiments will yield mammoths or a kind of modern hybrid elephant, which hopefully will give its creators time to answer another Jurassic Park query.
Your scientists were so preoccupied.
With whether.
Or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they.
Should.
You know what they say. Mice finds a way. Hey, if you're enjoying the show, don't forget to leave us a five star rating and review wherever you listen. In fact, on Apple Podcasts this week, we had not one but two listeners list five things they've done in the last week. Luckily, one of those activities was listening. To start here. Just a reminder though, if it's your boss asking you to list five accomplishments from the last week, don't accidentally send them to me like I don't want that responsibility, but I definitely enjoyed hearing about them. I'm Brad Mielke. I'll see you tomorrow.
Friday night David Muir reporting.
We take.
You inside.
Two.
Cases. A mother just 19 years old.
She was trying to protect her daughter. She fought like hell.
Another case.
A.
Beloved teacher. Her whole future ahead of.
Her mysterious cold cases.
It gives you chills even today.
Yes.
What links both of those cases is the cutting edge forensic technology. Inside this lab. It sounded.
Like.
Science fiction.
At.
The time.
Can they be solved?
You'll see it unfold right here as they unmask the killer, in both cases.
Catching the killers 2020 Friday on ABC.
It started with a spark.
Getting that golden ticket today.
Good luck with the golden ticket.
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Will change my life.
I know you're nervous.
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Dreams come true.
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Attention, teachers. No child is to be sent to the principal's office today. Kids, if you want to do a crime, now's the time. Happy first day of school.
You better bring your big girl back.
Yes.
Wonder like four.
More of.
These. Yeah. We were robbed. Hey! Buy three, get one free.
I'm gonna call your mother on you.
Bring the rest.
Back here, boy.
Better this.
With so much at stake in our world right now. More Americans turn here to David than anywhere else. And now, America's most trusted, most watched newscast. ABC's World News Tonight with David Muir is available to you on YouTube.
It was a.
Kidnapping torture case.
A crime of greed and cruelty.
The men tortured the victim by beating, tasing and burning him.
And this is where it gets really horrible. The guy was cutting off my roommate's. It was like a bad dream.
This crime was horrific.
He's a psychopath.
How could you possibly defend somebody like that?
This was a story about greed, sadism, evil.
Wicked game. Devil in the desert. Only on Hulu.
Why is it I can't shake the feeling that you're gaming the system? Vigilantes are not heroes. They are a threat to society. If you step out of line, I will be there.
Daredevil born again.
Only on Disney+.
You're watching America's number one streaming news. Keep streaming with ABC News live.
Reporting from the aftermath of the Maui fires.
I'm Melissa Adan.
Wherever the story is, we'll take you there. You're streaming ABC News Live.
Right now on Good Morning America. First look, major cuts word overnight that President Trump is preparing an order to dismantle the Department of Education, while the VA bracing for more than 70,000 job cuts and stocks rebound after Trump delays tariffs on U.S. automakers. Word now of more possible exemptions.
The debate over illegal immigration and so-called sanctuary cities turning confrontational at the Capitol.
You suck at answering questions, mayor. Woo!
Big city mayors in the spotlight, grilled by members of Congress.
The mystery is a teenager from Wisconsin known for perfect attendance at school. Is arrested 800 miles from home days after his parents were found dead. What police say they found in his car.
Trouble for target. Why? The retailer is facing a boycott.
Caught on camera. The alert for homeowners. Brazen thieves targeting your gutters.
Stranded for days in the wilderness. The hikers rescued after falling 800ft off a cliff.
And later.
The orchestra earning a world record by playing with their food.
From ABC news. This is good morning America first look.
Good morning everyone I'm Andrew Dymburt.
And I'm Rhiannon ally. Good morning to all of you. Let's get right to breaking news. A major development in President Trump's push to downsize the federal government.
He has long criticized the Department of Education, and now sources say he's preparing a new order targeting the agency. It comes as Elon Musk proposes changes for the Postal Service and Amtrak.
ABC's Nicole D'Antonio has the latest details. Nicole. Good morning.
Well, good morning to both of you. It now appears that President Trump will follow up on his promise to close the Department of Education, but it remains unclear exactly how. This morning, ABC news has learned the Trump administration is preparing to dissolve the Department of Education as soon as today. Sources say a draft executive order directs Education Secretary Linda McMahon to facilitate a department closure this week. The Department of Education employs more than 4000 people, spending $251 billion last year. Trump has said he wants to give education back to the States.
I'd like it to be closed immediately. Look, the Department of Education is a big con job.
It's unclear how Secretary McMahon will close the department. Congressional approval is required to abolish a federal agency. Elsewhere, the Department of Veterans Affairs now plans to lay off some 72,000 workers. That's 15% of its workforce.
Now, we regret anyone who loses their job. And it's extraordinarily difficult for me, especially as a VA leader and your secretary, to make these types of decisions. But the federal government does not exist to employ people. It exists to serve people.
Senator Jerry Moran, chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, slamming the move, writing, quote, the VA is in need of reform, but current efforts to downsize the department and increase efficiency must be done in a more responsible manner. Elon Musk on Capitol Hill last night updated Republicans on his efforts to cut spending.
You know, there's a lot of room, a lot of opportunity to improve expenditures in the government. And then we're making good progress.
At a Morgan Stanley conference, Musk argued the government should privatize anything that can be privatized, including the Postal Service and Amtrak.
Basically, something's got to have some chance of going bankrupt or there's not a good feedback loop for improvement.
The cuts in Washington come amid uncertainty over President Trump's tariffs on products from Mexico, Canada and China, and the impact on consumer prices here at home. More exemptions are reportedly on the way. Bloomberg reports Trump is now considering exempting some agricultural products. He's already granted a one month delay on tariffs affecting the Big Three U.S. automakers, including Ford, General Motors and Stellantis.
He always has open dialog, and he'll always do what's right, what he believes is right for the American people.
Now, the white House has suggested the automakers use the pause on tariffs to work toward the president's goal of bringing auto production back to the U.S.. Rhiannon.
All right. Thank you, Nicole, for that. Now there is more confusion over a potential sale of hundreds of federal buildings by the Trump administration. More than 400 buildings, including FBI headquarters, that were listed for potential sale, have now been delisted, but no explanation was given.
Now to the battle over so-called sanctuary cities, the immigration crisis and crime, the issues coming to a boiling point on Capitol Hill. Clashes on Capitol Hill as sanctuary cities face new scrutiny.
You all have blood on your hands.
Members of a House committee grilling for big city mayors about their immigrant safe haven policies.
This is why you have 6% approval rating because you suck at answering questions. Mayor Wu.
Republicans railing against the leaders of New York, Boston, Chicago and Denver, where local authorities do not routinely report undocumented people to the federal government.
We cannot let pro-criminal alien policies and obstructionist sanctuary cities continue to endanger American communities.
The Democrats defending their policies, insisting they're following the law while protecting people's rights and neighborhoods.
The false narrative is that immigrants in general are criminals or immigrants in general, cause all sorts of danger and harm. That is, that is actually what is undermining safety in our communities.
Denver's mayor clashing with Congressman Jim Jordan over an incident where federal agents had to chase a man through a jail parking lot because sheriff's deputies released him after serving time for a local crime.
They have to arrest him in the parking lot. They bring six officers when they could have had 1 or 2. Just come in your facility in the jail and take the guy there.
Arguments between Congresswoman Nancy Mace and the mayor is reaching a boiling point, with mace saying she plans to ask the Justice Department to investigate the mayor's conduct.
Mayor Johnson, um, are you willing to go to jail for violating federal law?
The city of Chicago complies with all laws.
Oh, I highly doubt that, Mayor Wu.
We are not violating federal law.
The clash is not just along party lines.
You should step down and resign today.
Democrats questioned New York Mayor Eric Adams after he seemingly reversed his stance on allowing immigration agents to raid Rikers Island jail. Adams was facing federal corruption charges, but the Trump administration directed prosecutors to drop the case. Critics questioning the mayor's motives.
Are you selling out New Yorkers to save yourself from prosecution?
There is no deal. No quid pro quo. And I did nothing wrong.
The Trump administration has threatened to stop federal aid to sanctuary cities.
The Trump administration has paused intelligence sharing with Ukraine. It follows the diplomatic dispute over plans for potential peace talks with Russia. U.S. military aid also remains frozen. Ukrainian President Zelensky has signaled he is now ready to sign a minerals deal with the U.S., with details still being discussed.
Los Angeles County has joined two cities suing Southern California's largest utility for the deadly Eaton fire in January. 17 people were killed and thousands of homes were destroyed. The lawsuits seek damages from Southern California Edison, claiming its equipment caused the fire. The company says it's reviewing the lawsuits.
Now to the Midwest and the arrest of a teen days after his parents were found dead. The teen, known for perfect attendance at school, was found 800 miles from home. A teenager from Wisconsin is under arrest after being named a person of interest in connection with the deaths of his mother and stepfather. The bodies of 35 year old Tatiana Kassab and 51 year old Donald Maier were found during a welfare check last week.
I had been texting Donald many times and he wasn't answering and I didn't know why.
Court documents revealing Tatiana was shot and Donald had a large wound to his head. Their bodies covered by clothes and blankets. Police tracking down 17 year old Nikita Kassab, 800 miles away in Kansas, after he allegedly ran a stop sign in his stepfather's car. The family dog with him.
He would never not go to school if things were normal.
The teen, previously known for his perfect attendance, had reportedly been absent for weeks inside the vehicle, police say, was a stepfather's gun. Both parents driver's license, ammunition and shell casings. Prosecutors now charging the teen with operating a motor vehicle without the owner's consent and theft of movable property. No charges have been filed yet in connection with the two deaths. The teen is being held in Kansas and is awaiting extradition to Wisconsin.
The popular gaming chat platform discord is reportedly talking to bankers about going public. Discord is used by more than 200 million people every month. Reports say the IPO talks are in the early stages and could value the company at around $16 billion.
It is time now for your Thursday weather. The cold side of a deadly cross country storm created whiteout conditions in the Plains and Midwest, with dozens of crashes in Iowa and winds even blowing over a semi truck. Look at that in Kansas. The same system spawned a reported tornado in North Carolina, bringing down trees and power lines, and strong winds also brought down trees in new Jersey and heavy rain flooded streets. The storms are now moving out to sea. Let's check today's high temperatures. 50s on the west coast. 60s in the southeast, 46 in Kansas City.
Coming up, the skiers buried under 40ft of snow in Alaska.
Also ahead. Trouble for target. Why? The retailer is facing a growing boycott.
And is this the Delta Airlines plane of the future?
Whenever, Wherever news breaks. It's so important to always remember that lives are changed. You're in London, in Buffalo. Uvalde, Texas. Edinburgh, Scotland. From Poland once again tonight. Thank you so much for streaming with us. Ukrainian refugees here in Warsaw. Do you think you'll ever be able to go back home? We're heading to a small community outside of Mexico City. Splintered houses and splintered lives. The magnitude of the devastation. You're streaming ABC News Live. Reporting from Rolling Fork, Mississippi. Santa Fe, New Mexico. Raleigh, North Carolina. The U.S. capital. Mayfield, Kentucky. Minneapolis. Mexico. Tongass National Forest in Alaska. Getting you behind the stories as they happen. Giving you a front row seat to our world as it plays out in real time. Live. ABC News Live. Prime. We'll take you there.
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I'm 110% ready to fall in love. Tall. Handsome. Smart. He's perfect. Time just stood still.
It's kind of already sinking in that these other girls are dating my boyfriend.
Everybody just really wants Grant.
And we're all fighting for his love.
You act like you don't care.
He knows how I feel. I know I'm in trouble. Everyone's so mean. I did not know how hard this is going to be.
People do not know how to date. That's why they come to us.
As a matchmaker. We're here to help you get your wings on.
Let's get some people married.
Why are you single? Maybe the kind of.
Guys that I go.
For.
You go for hot guys. Yeah, it's a pitfall.
What would you say are like the top things you're looking for?
You don't.
Like hairy men, so.
All Muslims are out. What are you talking about?
This process doesn't have to suck. Ooh! He's cute.
Make it happen.
Boo!
Reporting from Tel.
Aviv.
I'm Martha Raddatz.
Wherever the story.
Is, we'll take you there. You're streaming ABC News Live.
We are back now with heroic actions by a new Jersey police officer. Look at this. Pulling an unconscious driver from this burning car after a crash involving a tanker truck. Both vehicles burst into flames. Two people suffered minor injuries. And in California, officers pulled the driver from a pickup truck near Sacramento. He had spent the night trapped inside after crashing off a road. Nearly 24 hours earlier, he told police he crashed because he wasn't paying attention.
Three skiers are presumed dead buried by an avalanche in Alaska. Rescue crews hope to reach the area today. The victims were buried in up to 40ft of snow.
This morning. Trouble at target. The retailer is facing a boycott by shoppers, and it stems from a decision made by the company tied to a hot button political issue. Here's ABC's Andrea Fujii.
This morning as Christians mark the season of lent, shoppers across the country are giving up target.
What you see? Believers globally doing is stepping away from something. Sacrificing something.
Staging a 40 day boycott of the retailer. It stems from the company's decision to roll back its diversity, equity and inclusion policies, eliminating hiring goals for minority employees and altering its diversity initiatives.
We need to hold larger corporations accountable.
A church in Georgia launched the boycott, now gaining tens of thousands of followers. Target isn't the only store to scale back Dei initiatives. Walmart and John Deere are among the many others that have also backtracked amid public pressure and threats from the Trump administration to investigate what it calls illegal Dei.
We've ended the tyranny of so-called diversity, equity and inclusion policies all across the entire federal government and indeed the private sector.
Sales at target declined last month, and its predicted growth this year is only about 1%. Now, with rising inflation and tariffs, experts say the timing of this boycott could mean trouble for target's bottom line.
It's really like, do you get enough people actively.
Supporting.
A boycott such that, you know, it actually resonates into the boardroom?
Target has not commented specifically on the boycott, only saying the company is committed to inclusivity and offers a range of products from black and minority vendors. Andrew. Rhiannon.
Andrea. Thank you. Delta Airlines is backing a start up company with plans to design a more fuel efficient plane. Jet zero is developing a blended wing body, which it says could significantly reduce fuel consumption and noise. Delta says it's providing operational help with the development.
Coming up. Homeowners on alert because thieves are targeting your gutters.
Also ahead, stranded for days in the wilderness. The hikers rescued after falling 800ft down a cliff.
Hey, good morning America.
Every day I do that job.
Good morning.
Good morning America.
Good morning America.
Good morning America.
Morning.
Are you ready? They are ready. Covering the biggest events in the country right now.
There's a lot going on here this morning. That's always a good time. That's what.
The show.
Is about.
That's good. Really good.
Very good.
Coming in hot. Jimmy. Coming in hot. It's far.
From elementary.
Good morning America. I'm not going to try to strut like Michael or anything. I have no George. A long, long time. Have you ever gotten him to dance? Sure.
Look at that face.
Every day of your life.
You don't just see it. You feel.
It. I'm in.
I'm in, I'm in. I'm in too. I'll be here. I am here and so happy. I'm in. I'm in too. I'm in.
That tells you something. When Snoop Dogg did Michael Jordan.
Where Ginger gets.
You up for this?
Let's get this.
Done.
Being a cop is stressful.
Every year on the job is different.
No guts, no glory.
Showtime! Get down!
Work smarter, not harder.
New The Rookie Tuesday on ABC and stream on Hulu.
Hey, good morning America.
Every day of your life.
Bring good morning America.
Good morning America.
Are you ready? They are ready. Covering the biggest events in the country right now.
There's a lot going on here this morning.
Every day of your life.
You don't just see it, you feel.
It. I'm in.
I'm in, I'm.
In, I'm in too. I'll be.
Here. I am here.
And.
So happy. I'm in. I'm in too.
Michael. George. Lara.
Ginger.
Why did you stop being a vigilante? A line was crossed. I liked how it felt. Didn't you? Dispensing justice. If you say to me that you're a new man, I say fine. If you step out of line, I will be there. Daredevil. Born again. Only on Disney+.
Sensation. It's comeback season.
We're back with frightening video of a falling tree nearly crushing this family in Brooklyn. They were out for a walk when the massive tree came crashing down, just barely missing them.
And a new warning about gutter thefts. Security cameras captured thieves in Detroit, stripping a home of its gutters. Police linking the suspects to other possible cases. Selling those gutters for scrap metal. Similar thefts have been reported in Chicago. Police are urging homeowners to fasten their gutters to their homes.
We turn now to the inmate on death row, making headlines for choosing a different way to be executed. A method now being adopted by more states. This morning, the South Carolina Supreme Court has cleared the way for the first execution by firing squad in the U.S. in nearly 15 years.
So this is a huge development in the the world of execution methods.
Brad Sigman was sentenced to death for killing his ex-girlfriend's parents. His latest appeal denied setting the stage for tomorrow's execution, and he's chosen to die by firing squad instead of the electric chair or the more common practice, lethal injection.
In recent years, there has been a reevaluation of the firing squad as a possible method of execution, primarily because lethal injection has has only gotten worse over the decades.
Some states began allowing firing squads as an option because of a shortage of lethal injection drugs. But another major concern has been the dozens of lethal injections that have been botched, some blamed on execution teams lacking the medical expertise to administer them.
I think firing squad is the least inhumane method, so I can understand an inmate selecting it that that makes sense to me.
Since 1977, only three executions by firing squad have been carried out in the U.S.. A hood is placed over the prisoner's head and multiple corrections officers fire rifles from 15ft away. Only these five states currently allow the procedure, with Idaho just yesterday moving one step closer to making it the primary execution method. Idaho's governor still needs to sign off on the change.
We are getting our first look at a snowy rescue in Southern California. Body camera video shows crews locating two hikers more than 8000ft above sea level in the mountains of Riverside County. They had fallen 800ft down a snowy cliff Saturday. High winds made it difficult to lift them to safety until Tuesday, but both are now recovering.
Coming up, the jewelry thief who swallowed the evidence.
Also ahead, one very expensive Cheeto.
The news never stops from Tampa.
We are here tonight as Hurricane Milton has just made landfall.
The surge just keeps coming.
Up.
Right on the border between Ukraine and Russia, where an artillery position about two miles away from Gaza.
And ABC News Live is right there everywhere.
We're not far from where this rally took place, so just stick with us here.
Traveling with the president to the US-Mexico border.
Here in London today.
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From.
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From the front lines.
The ruins of Rafa from the FBI. Reporting from Capitol Hill. In western Portugal.
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In Iceland. Let's go.
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The eclipse across America.
Just stunning.
Unbelievable.
Streaming live to you.
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Is.
We're going to take you there. You're streaming ABC News live.
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You're streaming ABC News live.
ABC news live streaming. Free everywhere. Because the news never stops.
I told you to let me handle it.
Raj made me do it. I did.
You man enough to take your father's place.
What would.
We.
Have.
To.
Do?
Run the business. Call the shots.
That's terrifying.
Toxic freaking workplace.
When you hear the sirens, go here.
You're like a.
Serial.
Killer now, man.
You think so?
Really proud of you boys.
I prayed that I would never change.
I'm 110% ready to fall in love with tall, handsome, smart. He's perfect.
Time just stood.
Still.
It's kind of already sinking in that these other girls are dating my boyfriend.
Everybody just really wants Grant.
And we're all fighting.
For his love. You act like.
You.
Don't care.
He knows how I feel.
I know I'm in trouble. Everyone's so mean. I did not know how hard this is going to be.
Reporting from Detroit, Michigan.
On election day. I'm Juju Chang.
Wherever the story is, we'll.
Take you there.
You're streaming.
ABC news live.
On GMA.
Time to check the pulse. Beginning with a suspected jewel thief. Police say he swallowed the evidence.
Of an Orlando jewelry store, say he took off with two pairs of expensive diamond earrings, so troopers chased him down. When they caught up, caught up to him. They say he gulped down several items. These X-rays revealed what appeared to be the diamonds.
No word yet whether or how they've been recovered. Next, a would be purse snatcher who learned crime doesn't pay.
Well because it's martial arts experts nearby. Police say a Tennessee teen tried to rob an elderly woman, but he did it in front of a jujitsu studio. Some of the teachers saw the woman fighting back and ran to help.
We're going to struggle. You may get it, but we're going to struggle. You're not going to get it easy.
Think about what would I want somebody else to do if that was my daughter, if that was my mother, if that was my grandmother. And I think as a society, we owe it to ourselves to stand up for one another and, and help each other out where we can.
Those guys jumped the suspect who is now facing charges. Next, one of the most unique world records we've ever seen.
It was set by Vienna Vegetable Orchestra, which is exactly what it sounds like. The members play instruments carved from vegetables, giving new meaning to playing with your food. They've now played 344 concerts, a world record for a vegetable orchestra. Next. Celine Dion's impromptu performance.
ESPN's Marty Smith is covering Tiger Woods indoor golf league. Celine was there, and when he asked her which one of her songs best represents her golf game?
I would say. Near. Far. Where? Come on. Wherever you are. I believe that my ball will go on. You're not bad.
Yes, that is a duet of my heart will go on. Changing the words to my ball will go on. Finally, a flaming hot Cheeto with a huge price tag.
It just sold at auction. Here it is. What's called the Cheeto Czar because it resembles a fire breathing Pokémon monster.
It's three inches long. And get this it sold for nearly $88,000.
More than the Pokémon card it resembles. Top headlines next.
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Checking more top stories. A judge is temporarily blocking President Trump's cut to medical research funding. The cuts would have stopped the National Institutes of Health from sending hundreds of millions of dollars to research groups. A lawsuit will now proceed.
President Trump has placed a one month pause on tariffs affecting U.S. automakers. That sent stocks on Wall Street rebounding. Trump is also reportedly considering a tariff exemption for some agricultural products.
The Justice Department is charging 12 Chinese nationals in a hacker for hire operation. Prosecutors say the suspects were paid by China to carry out cyber attacks against the U.S., including at the Treasury Department.
In New York. pro-Palestinian demonstrators had to be cleared from Barnard College after a bomb threat. Nine people were arrested.
Today's weather rain and mountain snow for Southern California. Snow returns to the plains and the East coast dries out.
Finally, a contest that will get you spinning.
Danny. New reports on the world sign spinning competition.
You're doing great with that twirling. Dad!
I'm spinning.
Maybe you've seen a sign spinner in a progressive commercial. But at the world sign spinning Championships in Las Vegas, this craft looks way different.
They're great.
Dancers.
Entertainers, Painters, athletes.
People are just going to be.
Wowed on a lot of different levels.
Max Djurovic here is the CEO of Arrow Sign Spinners, which has been hosting this annual competition for around two decades. Every year, people from all over the world who professionally spin those pointy advertisements, travel to Sin City and compete in a judged competition for $5,000 cash. And for that prize, they will twirl, jump and do whatever that is. But as you can see in this clip from ESPN's The Show a few years ago, former champions like Matthew Doolin here do not seem to be thinking too much about the money.
Oh yeah, I won in 2019, but I need my second time under my belt.
To learn and grow.
Observe. Now a few years ago, I learned from the sign spinning team who enters from Denver.
Where we're going.
Katie, look out and got it immediately! But I asked the head of the team, Simon Ingram, what he likes about this job. That seems like it might get a little tiring sometimes.
I've been doing this for eight years now. I recommend it for everyone. Like. Even if even if it's a part time job. Just to get outside.
But as Shimon said when we reconnected this past month, this Saturday will not be about enjoying sunshine, but instead a sin no Sin City showdown.
You guys better be prepared. That's all I can say.
So guys, that competition is free to attend in downtown Las Vegas on Saturday. But hey, here's a little sneak preview. What do you think? Spinning the rock, by the way. I don't know if that's clear, guys.
Pretty good. Danny.
I think you need some work. That's your good morning, America.
Have a great day.
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It's Thursday, March 6th. Is it too late to shift gears? We start here. With price hikes already taking effect, President Trump puts a 30 day pause on car tariffs.
These car companies were making the case to the president that this would undermine their own competitiveness.
His others are still in effect though. So what does all this mean for your wallet? A day after Supreme Court justices watched the president's speech, they rule against him.
The federal government, whether they like it or not, and clearly they don't like it, has to pay those bills.
U.S. aid organizations will get their money, at least some of it. And four years after a devastating attack in Afghanistan, he arrives in a U.S. courtroom.
We know he admitted to the FBI that he served essentially in a surveillance role as a spotter.
Our team was there as a suspected terrorist faced a judge from ABC news. This is start here, I'm Brad Mielke. You could feel a sense of momentum on Tuesday night. The Trump administration is on a roll. At one point, the president was almost taunting Democrats because legislatively, there is very little they can do to stop him right now. Republicans in Congress certainly won't.
So Democrats sitting before me for just this one night, why not join us in celebrating so many incredible wins for America.
And yet, if there's one area where the political ice is particularly thin this winter, it's Americans finances.
You don't know what you're going to wake up to tomorrow.
Have you noticed how much a loaf of bread is?
I'm nervous for everybody. And what's going to happen to the heating oil this week?
As tariffs against Canada and Mexico took effect? Nearly every item we import from our neighbors had a 25% tax slapped on it.
This country does not.
Have the production or the labor to.
Make.
Up for what Canada.
Is producing.
And shipping in.
That means American consumers, who have already been feeling the pinch for months, are now about to start paying even more for a lot of items. And it doesn't stop there, because in response, Canada started taxing American products our machines, our whiskey. Liquor stores in Canada have started clearing their shelves of American labels.
Somehow we've become one of the the victims in this process.
Jeff Quint is a distiller in Iowa who relies on that income, his workers rely on him.
Our shipments are fairly small compared to some of the bigger players, but if everybody stops shipping bourbon out of the country and we can only make it here, it's going to put that downward pricing pressure on the whole industry.
But despite the obvious political risks here, President Trump told The Nation that he was barreling forward with this plan. He told producers like Jeff to trust him.
It'll be a little disturbance, but we're okay with that.
But yesterday, as if to highlight the nerves jangling around the American economy right now, the white House announced that some of these tariffs will not go into effect on schedule. Specifically tariffs on cars. Let's start the day with ABC's Elizabeth Schulze who covers economics for us. Elizabeth, is it fair to call this a backtrack from the president? What's going on with these tariffs right now?
Backtrack. Maybe reprieve temporarily is the best word, Brad, to use when we're talking about what this means. This is a one month exemption from those 25% tariffs for automakers.
Reciprocal tariffs will still go into effect on April 2nd. But at the request of the companies associated with Usmca, the president is giving them an exemption for one month, so they are not at an economic disadvantage.
What's the Usmca? Well, that is the free trade deal. That was really one of the crowning achievements of President Trump's first term. That essentially meant that there is free trade between the U.S., Mexico and Canada. And what the Trump administration came out and said yesterday was automakers that are complying with the rules of that agreement. They don't have to face these additional 25% tariffs, which are really steep for autos, and they're going to have a break for a month at least to not have to pay those higher import costs. The reason why that matters is because the auto sector really is an industry that was going to get hit especially hard by these tariffs. The supply chain when it comes to making a car, is so closely linked between the U.S., Canada and Mexico. There are thousands, tens of thousands of different parts that basically cross over the border every day. I mean, it can be hard to even track how much of this is happening.
Like, you send us your body of the car, then we'll add the engine thing. But then you guys are going to do the painting or add this random part or this chip or something. It keeps going back and forth.
Exactly right. And part of the Usmca agreement had been to encourage those supply chains that free trade to happen, to incentivize automakers to actually move their production from farther away, places like countries in Asia, back closer to the United States. And that's what's happened in recent years. And that's why we have these really interconnected supply chains. So the automakers were really sounding the alarm about how intense of a price they'd have to pay with those 25% tariffs.
What prompted the change from the white House?
Well, we know that the big three automakers Ford, Stellantis and GM spoke with President Trump as these tariffs were taking effect, essentially making the case about how big of an impact this would have on the industry.
Spoke to the majors today. All three, the top people. And they're so excited.
Ford CEO Jim Farley has been really outspoken about this. At one point, he said the tariffs would blow a hole in the U.S. industry and give Asian and European manufacturers a very distinct competitive advantage.
Plants are opening up all over the place. Deals are being made, never seen. That's a combination of the election win and tariffs. It's a beautiful word isn't it?
Clearly these car companies were making the case to the president that this would undermine their own competitiveness when it comes to U.S. auto manufacturing. And we had seen warnings that car prices for consumers too would dramatically go up. I mean, the average car price for a new car could have gone up $3,000 even higher than that for an SUV.
I think cars like this and SUVs, you could be talking 15%.
15% higher price that consumers buyers pay.
Yes. Across the board.
I talked to one car dealer who told me that they would have almost immediate price hikes on the showroom of his dealership.
It's an immediate impact because since Covid, we really don't have inventory. We only have a 30 day supply. So that gets, you know, evaporated very quickly as people come in and buy cars. So I think you're going to see it very quickly.
There had been a lot of concern. And there, frankly, is still concern about how those higher prices will affect not just the companies, but also consumers who are in the market for a new car, too.
What was the reaction in both the American economy and from foreign leaders? Because, again, it's not even like cars are one thing. Yes, they're delayed. Nothing else as it sounds like.
Yeah. Not surprisingly, you saw those automakers stocks rally after this exemption was issued. They had been especially hard hit. And the broader stock market did rally yesterday in response to the idea that, okay, maybe President Trump is more open to some exemptions on these across the board tariffs.
The president is open to hearing about additional exemptions. He always has open dialog.
And at the same time, you still have the reality that this is just a one month reprieve.
Does he expect them to be able to shift production within a month?
He told them that they should get on it, start investing, start moving shift production here to the United States of America where they will pay no tariff. That's the ultimate goal.
A month is nowhere near enough time for these automakers to make the kind of decisions that would change their production over the longer term.
Canadians are hurt.
Canadians are angry.
Plus, you still have the top U.S. trading partners of the United States not exactly happy about these sweeping tariffs that are still in effect, broadly beyond autos.
What he wants.
Is to see a total collapse.
Of the Canadian economy.
Because that'll.
Make it easier to annex us is.
The second.
Half of his thought. Now, first of all, that's.
Never going to.
Happen. We will never be the 51st state.
You heard Prime Minister Justin Trudeau essentially say, after he had this almost hour long conversation with President Trump yesterday. Well, we're talking still, President Trump said the conversation was somewhat friendly, not exactly encouraging when you're thinking about the relationship between the US and one of its biggest trading partners. You still have Mexico's president Claudia Sheinbaum, vowing to impose tariffs on Sunday. But there's still a lot of questions, Brad, about even if there are limited exemptions in place. This is a dramatic shift in trade policy, and there will still be impacts for households and for businesses as they're trying to figure out what this looks like. Plus, the threat of additional tariffs in just one month from the Trump administration that could be even more broad based.
Right. And you can hear like Trudeau's voice. They are still fired up, like there is real anger there about how they've been spoken about. And so, like, one month of auto pauses doesn't quite undo all of that. All right. Elizabeth Scholz. Really interesting. Thank you.
Thanks as always, Brad.
We've talked a lot about the Trump administration eliminating positions from government bureaucracy. Several federal employees have brought lawsuits questioning whether you can enact mass layoffs in offices you didn't establish in the first place. Congress did. But there's another way to hamstring offices you don't like cut off their cash flow. That is exactly what happened in the case of USAID, America's foreign aid agency. One day they were basically told, you're not going to be getting your money anymore. Well, yesterday, the Supreme Court ruled the Trump administration cannot just turn off the faucet. Not like this. This was one of the most direct challenges to Trump's power that the Supreme Court has had to consider so far. So let's bring in ABC's white House correspondent MaryAlice parks. MaryAlice. First off, can you just explain this ruling to us.
It was a close decision. A divided court. But basically they said that the decision from the lower court should stand and that the federal government would have to pay out about $2 billion in payments. Now, remember, these are payments for work that was already done. International aid organizations, nonprofits, NGOs get contracts to deliver foreign aid, to deliver medicine and food and water around the globe. And they had done this work under contract in December and January. And then Trump was inaugurated and those bills didn't get paid.
USAID, the horrible things that they're spending money on.
And so this suit was about just getting paid for that past work, let alone other work that has been stopped, frozen, canceled outright since then and going forward. But this was the Supreme Court agreeing with the lower court that, yes, the federal government, whether they like it or not. And clearly they don't like it, has to pay those bills and pay these organizations back.
Well, and like you said, the court was divided. It was five four, right. So clearly, there are sort of two conflicting viewpoints here. What's the other viewpoint of like, yeah, you got to pay these bills.
Yeah. Alito, Thomas, Kavanaugh and Gorsuch dissented. So a split 4 or 5 decision. Alito wrote the dissent and and wrote that one single district court judge, one he wasn't sure had the jurisdiction. And that shouldn't be able basically to compel the federal government to pay out billions of taxpayer dollars that they thought they should sort of hear a whole case. I think you could argue that it should have been litigated even more. But look, the reality is these were past payments and the impact has been widespread.
Yeah. What kind of work are we talking about, by the way? USAID, it sounds so broad. Foreign aid sounds so broad. Like what have they actually been doing with this money?
I mean, it is broad. Everything from groups that deliver life saving aid, food, medicine, water to some of the poorest parts of the world.
I do believe that we do have an obligation to to the rest of the world, and I certainly believe that we have an obligation, if that were to shift, to do it in a thoughtful and measured way.
I was talking to one organization and she said, since all the chaos is the lack of payments, the canceled contracts, they've had to close 16 clinics in Somalia alone, where they were used to seeing 700 severely malnourished kids a day. This CEO of this organization, called A light, told me it was just going to be a matter of days until some of those babies died.
And we are unable to to provide any services to those severely malnourished children. And so it's really a matter of, of days or weeks before many of them will die.
Other organizations work on everything from fighting sex trafficking in Central America to democracy initiatives around the world. I mean, this is going to have an immediate impact, not only on on severely malnourished kids, but on fighting terrorism in places where if USAID pulls out, does that leave a vacuum for terrorists to come in?
And that leaves not only health and well-being around the world, including in this country, at risk, but it actually really compromises diplomatic relationships with countries far and wide.
What happens to aid getting into Gaza? What happens to aid getting into Ukraine?
There are deaths.
In crisis zones.
That have.
Already been documented and attributed to the pullback.
Of.
Services under this freeze already.
The nonprofit groups that were a part of this case, they argued that according to their count and their estimates, nearly 15,000 adults and over 1500 infants had died already due to the suspension of foreign aid.
And that's.
About to get much, much.
Worse if.
The court does not step in and ultimately put a halt.
To.
This again. This court case was just about repaying bills from December and January. The vast majority of these nonprofits were also told, as a part of this ongoing litigation, that contracts they had signed for future work and work they're doing right now, work they're floating, sort of the money for to do right now is also being cut.
It's heartbreaking to see this whole sector, this whole field, kind of collapse.
What is being done is one of the biggest blunders in American foreign policy history.
About 10,000 contracts from the State Department, sort of foreign aid and refugee programs, and USAID terminated in the last few weeks as this litigation was ongoing. So this the Supreme Court saying that they have to pay back past bills. But these organizations are also looking at contracts that have been terminated.
I was going to say, because clearly, the goal of the Trump administration, along with Elon Musk, is that we're going to stop paying. Like, it might not be this month, but like in future months, like a lot of this money is going away at some point, like Congress will stop allocating it. Um, do their ambitions even stop there? Like we keep sort of learning, I think just how sweeping some of these visions are. I mean, how far could this go? Are we getting new clues?
Yeah. I don't think that anyone thinks that. This is it. I mean, we have heard the president really zero in on foreign aid.
We identified and stopped $50 million being sent to Gaza to buy condoms for Hamas.
Often his stats are are wildly off. But he's continued to sort of rattle off ideas about what some of that aid is going, some of these claims that it was all sort of fraudulent. I talked to sources at USAID and some of these nonprofits that that have these contracts that feel like they were being made the example that then can sort of be used across the federal agency. You don't like what we're doing? Look what we did over here. You don't like the cuts to your agency. We could gut your agency entirely. And we have heard, you know, big conversations about future moves from Doge, from Elon Musk, from the white House. You know, just this week, we're learning about potential plans to lay off as many as 80,000 workers from the Department of Veteran Affairs. That's the second largest federal agency, of course, all around the country serving VA hospitals. And also, you know, comments. It's hard to know if they're offhanded comments or if they're real. But comments this week from Elon Musk about how it might be a good idea to privatize the post office, privatize Amtrak, we saw GSA, they took it down, but at one point list government buildings across the country that they just wanted to put up for sale.
And the agency is scrambling, trying to figure out if that's true, what it would mean, how to respond, would that mean they need to start planning and move their workforces? Now, of course, remember, these agencies were also told that everyone needed to come back and work in person and that all telework agreements should be canceled. But now threats of closing offices. So yeah, I think there is a sense definitely that this large scale attempt to reduce the size of the federal government and the federal workforce is just getting started.
The buildings thing is like literally reducing the footprint in Washington and around the country. There's federal buildings around the country. All right, Mary Alice, thank you so much.
Yeah, thanks for having me.
Speaking to Congress on Tuesday, President Trump did make a few unexpected announcements. Perhaps one of the most significant was that we now had custody of one of the men suspected to be behind the attack at Abbey Gate in Afghanistan. If you don't remember what I'm talking about, this was part of America's chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, the first year of the Biden presidency. We had announced we were leaving. The Taliban quickly took over Kabul, and as panicked Afghans tried to crowd into American cargo ships, a bomb blast went off at a choke point near the airport.
We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay.
That attack killed almost 200 people, including 13 American service members and more than 150 Afghan civilians. And now, nearly four years after that attack, President Trump announced that we'd caught one of the alleged perpetrators. By yesterday, the suspect made his first appearance in a U.S. courtroom, and ABC's Alex Mallin was there. He covers the Justice Department. Alex. Who is this guy? And I guess how are the FBI and DOJ describing his actions?
Yeah. So I mean, Brad, really what we know about him is remarkably little at this point. We know his name is Mohammed Sharif Allah. He goes by Jafar, according to court documents that were released by the Justice Department. And we know that he was interviewed on Sunday by the FBI, and we believe that was in Pakistan. Trump administration officials have been going out saying that the CIA alerted Pakistan to Sharif Allah and his role in the bombing at Abbey gate. And what they found out after this interview is he admitted to actually having a role in several other major terror attacks. There was a 2016 bombing at the Canadian embassy in Kabul that was also related to ISIS K. He also participated in that in a surveillance role. He admitted to the FBI, and he also told the FBI that he aided the ISIS K terrorist who carried out that attack on the Moscow Concert Hall in March of last year. We know he admitted to the FBI that in that 2021 attack at Abbey gate, he served essentially in a surveillance role as a spotter so that the suicide bomber could position himself among the crowd to inflict maximum damage.
Okay, so we got him in custody. He gets extradited to the U.S. onto American soil. What happened in court yesterday?
Yeah. So he appeared before a magistrate judge in Alexandria federal court in Virginia. He walked in. He was in a blue getup. He did not have his legs or hands shackled, which kind of surprised me. Typically, when you see terrorism suspects come into the U.S. into a federal court. They are shackled. He was surrounded by three very large U.S. marshals who stood at attention, watching him very intently the entire time he had an interpreter. The judge essentially just read him his constitutional rights. He is now a criminal defendant in the U.S. justice system. He is afforded the same constitutional rights that any criminal defendant in the system is afforded. And he acknowledged through his interpreter to the charge that he now faces, aiding a terrorist group which could, if he is convicted, land him in federal prison for the rest of his life.
And then, at the end of the day, what does this tell us about, I guess, ISIS k where as it currently stands and America's presence in that region, because we've gotten so many people out of that region. And yet it does sound like we had enough assets to to locate him there.
Yeah. I think that what we've heard from officials since this arrest was announced by the president at that joint address on Tuesday, was that they see this as highlighting their relationship with the Pakistani government that precedes. You know, obviously what we saw was a frayed relationship after the killing of Osama bin laden during the Obama administration. They see this as essentially showing the strength of the Trump administration and their ability to make deals that they believe previous administrations, like the Biden administration would never have been able to make. Obviously, we heard from President Trump during his address touting his support for the Gold Star families that were killed in the Abbey gate attack repeatedly across the time of the campaign trail, and using that essentially to attack President Biden over and over, over the administration's handling in that disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
The humiliation in Afghanistan set off the collapse of American credibility and respect all around the world. It was caused by bad planning, incredible weakness, and leaders who truly didn't understand what was happening.
And Brad, you can't escape the timing of this. Obviously, this arrest being unsealed in a federal court just hours after President Trump announced it during his joint address to Congress. Remember, in those court papers, they say that Sharifullah was interviewed on Monday. It's unclear. And we still have put these questions to the administration. Why was he not immediately put on a plane then? Then we saw overnight on Tuesday those released photos showing FBI Director Kash Patel, Attorney General Pam Bondi and other senior intelligence leaders on the plane to retrieve him. Again, you cannot escape the political messaging that really aligned with this very major terrorist arrest.
Right. And of course, this was treated very much like a political win for the white House, for the new FBI director, Kash Patel, for the new attorney general, Pam Bondi, who would prosecute all of this. And of course, as sort of alliances are re-evaluated here and we reevaluate how many people we have serving for us overseas, how all this kind of works together. All right. Alex Mallin, thank you so much.
Thanks, Brad.
And one last thing. Humans never lived alongside dinosaurs. But there was a time when we walked the earth with another great beast as large as an elephant, with even longer tusks and a regal coat of long fur to survive the Siberian winter. This was the wooly mammoth. We've never heard recordings of the mammoth roar, of course, but this week, scientists revealed that they have genetically engineered a creature with some of the mammoth's most fearsome traits. It sounds like this. In Texas, a group called Colossal Biosciences say they've successfully switched on certain mammoth like genes in lab mice. In this case, they've identified the genes that give wooly mammoths their long hair and their ability to store fat, resulting in mice with long, bright orange hair. They look like tiny gerbils. Touched an electrical socket.
Produced what we believe is a cold tolerant, wooly phenotype driven mice.
This is Ben Lamb. He's the CEO of colossal. And he says their goal is to bring back the mammoth. This is a breakthrough on that path.
You know, colossal is probably most notably known for the mammoth. It's one of our flagship projects. But one of our other two flagship products are the Tasmanian Tiger, or also known as the thylacine, as well as the dodo bird.
Their next assignment, he says, is doing a similar experiment with a real elephant. But this whole venture has raised serious ethical questions, like, should humans be bringing back animals that went extinct in the first place? Jeff Goldblum's character in Jurassic Park had very clear thoughts on the matter.
This isn't this isn't some species that was obliterated by deforestation or the building of a dam. Dinosaurs had their shot and nature selected them for extinction.
Of course, mammoths weren't dinosaurs. They lived with us. In fact, humans hunted wooly mammoths. But scientists say it wasn't spears that made these animals go extinct. It was the climate in the wake of the Ice age that has since only grown warmer. So why, they ask, are we prioritizing mice and not the conservation of species who are already here? Well, colossal says that's the whole point. Learning how to preserve precious life through genetics. The mammoth, they say, is head turning. It gets funding and eyeballs. The real test will be bringing back these lesser known species from the brink.
We know modern conservation works. It just doesn't work at the speed at which we're changing the environment. Eradicating species and destroying habitats.
All these mice are indisputably cute. Almost frighteningly cute. It's still to be determined whether this series of experiments will yield mammoths or a kind of modern hybrid elephant, which hopefully will give its creators time to answer another Jurassic Park query.
Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should.
You know what they say. Mice finds a way. Hey, if you're enjoying the show, don't forget to leave us a five star rating and review wherever you listen. In fact, on Apple Podcast this week, we had not one but two listeners list five things they've done in the last week. Luckily, one of those activities was listening. To start here. Just a reminder though, if it's your boss asking you to list five accomplishments from the last week, don't accidentally send them to me like I don't want that responsibility, but I definitely enjoyed hearing about them. I'm Brad Mielke. I'll see you tomorrow.
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Kate started with a spark getting.
That golden ticket.
Today.
Good luck.
With the.
Golden ticket.
They grew into a life.
Will change my life.
I know.
You're nervous.
Show me a place where dreams come true.
I've never seen anything like it.
You're going to Hollywood. My dream came true. There are surprises.
In every person.
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Hi, I'm Diane Macedo today on.
ABC News.
Live. First, the deadly winter storm causing widespread devastation. Heavy snow and high winds and torrential rain are slamming the Midwest and East Coast. The path of destruction left behind and the new storm taking aim at the West coast, hitting the brakes on terrorists. President Trump is granting a one month exception for U.S. automakers. How America's big three car manufacturers are responding amid a growing trade war with Mexico and Canada. Plus, President Trump's expected move to dismantle the Department of Education. And South Korean fighter jets mistakenly bomb a civilian village. Pilots accidentally dropped several bombs during a training mission with the U.S. military. See the video of the impact and the investigation into how it happened. But first, deadly storms are blowing through the Northeast and Midwest. Three people are dead in Mississippi as high wind alerts stretch from Georgia to Maine. In Kansas, the winds were so powerful, they toppled this truck, sending it sliding across the road. The storms also sent patio furniture flying in Raleigh, North Carolina. Meanwhile, cleanup is underway near Charlotte after a tornado tore apart several buildings and heavy rain in New York City brought down trees and scattered debris all over neighborhoods.
ABC's Stephanie Ramos is in hillside, new Jersey, where a tree crashed down on a home. Stephanie, what's the latest?
Hey there. Diane. Well, weather caused a lot of damage across the northeast. High winds knocking down several trees. Like the one you see behind me here in hillside, new Jersey. Lots of these trees causing damage to homes and buildings. A deadly storm wreaking havoc across the country from blizzards in the Midwest to torrential rains along the East Coast. And, of course, those high winds sweeping across half the country. Strong winds of up to 90mph toppling over this truck in Kansas. Those winds also pushing furniture across a patio and shaking traffic lights in the south. Severe thunderstorms moving out, leaving a trail of destruction in North Carolina. A tornado with 90 mile per hour winds ripped apart buildings.
We don't really know to what.
Extent it is as far as damage goes.
But.
We're thankful.
That nobody.
Was.
Hurt.
At least three people killed and six injured after strong storms swept through Mississippi. Meanwhile, in Iowa, whiteout conditions and zero visibility have stranded drivers, cars and trucks scattered across highways. Plows digging vehicles out of the snow as authorities urge people to stay home. As this massive storm heads out, we are still expecting some heavy winds in the northeast. Gusts expected to reach about 40 to 60mph in parts of the northeast.
Diane and Stephanie, how big of an impact are these storms having on travel?
Well, yesterday airlines canceled. We saw at least 700 cancelations from airlines across the country. The biggest airports impacted were DC, Newark, JFK and Charlotte's airport as well. As far as today, we shouldn't see that high number of cancelations, but it's always best to check with your airline.
All right Stephanie Ramos, thank you. And meteorologist Greg Dutra with our ABC station in Chicago is tracking the storm for us. We're going to check in with Greg throughout the morning to keep us updated on that forecast and track. Meanwhile, American automakers are breathing a sigh of relief after President Trump delayed tariffs on cars for a month. The administration says the pause is temporary as China, Mexico and Canada retaliate with tariffs of their own. Meanwhile, the Department of Veterans Affairs is laying off tens of thousands of workers as Elon Musk tries to ease concerns over the cuts. Chief white House correspondent Mary Bruce has the latest.
Reporter President Trump giving automakers a temporary escape from his sweeping 25% tariffs on all goods from Mexico and Canada, after the CEOs of Ford, Stellantis and General Motors called the president with a personal appeal. Trump agreeing to pause tariffs for one month on cars coming into the U.S.. The automakers applauding the move, saying Trump's delay helps enable the American automotive sector to thrive. Stocks rallying as investors welcomed the delay, but the administration making it clear this is only a short term fix, calling for the automakers to shift their production to the U.S..
And the way to avoid application of the tariffs is to have your factory and have your facility.
In the United States of.
America.
But it can take years to build new factories and relocate supply chains. Economists warn it's American businesses who will pay the price for these tariffs and then pass the costs along to consumers by raising prices. By one estimate, the price of a new car could shoot up by $3,000. Americans expected to pay more for everything from electronics to clothes to produce. Trump's trade war drawing swift retaliation Canada imposing its own 25% tariffs on American goods and Mexico vowing to reveal its plans for retaliation this weekend. China says it's ready to fight till the end.
What was your.
Message.
In there to House Republicans?
Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, Elon Musk meeting behind closed doors with House Republicans trying to quell concerns about his efforts to slash the federal government. Republicans seeking input on the process after many have been getting an earful from their constituents at town halls. Musk leaving that meeting upbeat.
You know, there's a lot of room, a lot of opportunity to improve expenditures in the government, and we're making good progress.
It comes as the Department of Veterans Affairs is now planning to cut over 70,000 employees, 15% of its workforce. The second largest federal agency, the VA, provides care for more than 9 million veterans. The cuts raising alarm with the Republican chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, Jerry Moran, saying the VA is in need of reform but current efforts to downsize the department and increase efficiency must be done in a more responsible manner. Democrats like Senator Richard Blumenthal going further, saying the administration's plan prioritizes private sector profits over veteran's care, balancing the budget on the backs of those who served. Now, for years, the VA has faced criticism that it is inefficient and understaffed, and about a quarter of its workers are veterans themselves, meaning many people who have served this country are about to be fired by its government. Diane.
Chief white House correspondent Mary Bruce, thank you. And sources tell ABC news President Trump is preparing an executive order directing his education secretary to dissolve the Department of Education. The president has been adamant about returning education to state control, but critics argue the department provides critical funding and enforces nondiscrimination laws. Senior political correspondent Rachel Scott has the details.
Well, Dianne, Secretary of Education Linda.
McMahon has only.
Been.
On.
The.
Job for three days, but already President Trump is preparing to sign this executive order directing her to dismantle the Department of Education entirely. Now, even McMahon acknowledges that this would require an act of Congress to completely get rid of it. The order does instruct her, though, to do as much as she can by law, stating the Department of Education's main functions can and should be returned to the states. Most funding for public schools already is at the state and local level, but the department does oversee billions of dollars in funding to help low income students and students with disabilities, and enforces civil rights laws to prevent discrimination in schools. Manages about $1.5 trillion in student loan debt. It also oversees the process of students applying for college financial aid through Pell Grants and Fafsa, which for many students is the only way they get help paying for college. About 17 million students apply for financial aid through Fafsa every single year. The question now, how much of these responsibilities can be moved under different agencies? And is there enough support in Congress to dismantle the Department of Education altogether?
Diane.
Senior political correspondent Rachel Scott. Thank you. And 15 people are injured after South Korean fighter jets accidentally dropped eight bombs over a residential area. South Korean officials say it happened during annual joint training with the U.S. military. Foreign correspondent Britt Clennett has the latest on that. Hi, Britt. So what do we know so far?
Hi, Diane. Yeah, so this.
Happened as South.
Korea and U.S. forces were holding these joint live fire exercises linked to annual drills that start next week. Dozens of people injured after a pair of fighter jets accidentally dropped eight bombs in a civilian district. Security footage aired on local TV shows the moment leading up to the incident, with a pickup truck driving along a street before the area is consumed by this large explosion. Local residents reported hearing a loud roar followed by a loud blast. Photographs from the scene also show a house destroyed by the impact, broken windows on a building covered with debris. And Diane, it certainly for a civilian area that has always complained about the danger and the potential danger and the disturbance of these drills, they're saying that it certainly shows that this, that these drills aren't necessarily safe.
But this was just a training. So why were they carrying actual bombs?
Yeah. So as I say, this is something that residents have previously raised the alarm about, you know, the potential danger from these nearby training areas. What we have heard is a sorry for the damage caused by what what authorities say is an abnormal drop accident. And the Air force in South Korea issuing a statement saying that they wish the injured a speedy recovery. But I think it's it's clear exactly why were real bombs used. The accident was due apparently to a pilot kind of entering an incorrect coordinate. That's according to a military official. The official said that the two jets then dropped four bombs each, with all of them detonating, but certainly serious questions over why real bombs were used. We heard from potions city mayor. He said the unthinkable had happened, and he's urging the government and the military to come up with measures to prevent this from happening ever again.
And this happened near the border with North Korea. Could that ignite tensions between the two countries?
Yeah, I think it's a good question. But, you know, we know, Dianne, that North Korea hates these drills. They've never made a secret of that. And when President Trump was during his first term and when he was in talks with Kim Jong un, remember they had that summit together in Hanoi. He had actually suspended these drills out of some kind of gesture, because he knows that it doesn't sit well with Kim Jong UN. Will this flare up tensions even more than they already are. It's not likely to, but certainly what we do know is that these drills aren't something that Kim Jong UN likes at all.
Could the U.S. military, given they were part of this training exercise, be held responsible in any way here?
Yeah. So we heard from armed forces in South Korea that say they will cooperate. But we know that even though U.S. forces were involved in these in this specific drill, there were no U.S. planes involved. Authorities, they say, will suspend live fire exercises until there's a clear understanding of what exactly happened here. But the incident, they say, will not affect major joint South Korean US military exercises that are due to begin on Monday. This is called Freedom Shield. They are expected to run from the 10th to the 20th of March, and they're aimed at strengthening the readiness of the alliance for threats such as North Korea and and importantly, North Korea.
Britt Clennett. Thank you. And Hamas is dismissing President Trump's ultimatum to release all remaining hostages. Hamas says it won't hand over anyone until the next phase of the ceasefire is fully implemented. This comes despite the president threatening on Truth Social that there will be hell to pay if Hamas doesn't comply. And it comes after President Trump met with eight released American hostages and after officials confirmed the administration has had direct talks with Hamas. Our chief international correspondent, James Longman has more on that. Hi, James. So what do we know so far about these direct talks between U.S. officials and Hamas? How unusual is that?
Incredibly unusual, Diane. I mean, I would go so far to.
Say as.
Unprecedented, the United States does not usually engage directly with terrorist organizations. And yet, on this occasion, it seems to have. We think these talks have been going on for some time in Doha. Um, the presidential envoy for hostage affairs. Adam Boehler, he's been taking the lead. Obviously, Qatar and Egypt have been instrumental in this kind of go between between the United States, Israel and Hamas. The focus has been on Israeli-American hostages. And the last of those who is alive is Edan Alexander, 21 years old. So the focus is on getting him back. And also the other four remaining American Israelis who are still in captivity, their bodies still in captivity, they sadly no longer alive. So the the, the kind of conversations have been around bringing both Edan and these four deceased Israeli Americans back, but also more broadly about trying to find a way to uninstall this, this cease fire and try to get the next phase going. But this is just part of Donald Trump's kind of unpredictable, I suppose you could call it unconventional diplomatic style.
And the statement he gave on Trump on Truth Social was pretty extraordinary, even for Donald Trump. He said, Shalom, Hamas, shalom means hello and goodbye. You can choose release all of the hostages now, not later, and immediately return all of the dead bodies of the people you murdered or it is over for you. And he went on to say that that he will give Israel everything it needs to, quote, finish the job. So look very hyperbolic from Donald Trump. Hamas not really raising to this in any way, saying that this just complicates the conversations further. And interestingly, Israel hasn't really wanted to comment at all. They issued a very terse statement just saying that the United States basically knows how we feel about directly talking to Hamas. And the subtext of that is not good. So we can read from that, that the Israelis are not happy about that. But of course, the Benjamin Netanyahu and his administration do not want to anger Donald Trump because they know that he is, broadly speaking, on their side and speaking their language.
So, look, we will see where these negotiations go. But Donald Trump likes to rip up the rule book and he's doing it again.
James, if the US and Hamas strike a deal, or the US otherwise is able to get Hamas to release these remaining hostages, what would that mean for the war in Gaza?
Well, that goes to the central contradiction of this entire conflict. You and I have been speaking for months, years about this war and this sort of dual objective from Israel of both to get the hostages back and to defeat Hamas has meant that it felt as though that doesn't seem to be any end in sight, because how can you end Hamas whilst at the same time trying to have conversations with them about bringing the hostages home and also thinking about a future without them? So, you know who is going to govern Gaza when this war is over? That is the central concern of this entire conflict. The Arab countries, led by Egypt, have come up with a plan in opposition to the the Trump Gaza plan, which came out with so much fanfare, fanfare a few weeks ago. That extraordinary video that was released showing an AI image of both him and Benjamin Netanyahu seeming to enjoy cocktails in Gaza, the Arab countries have come out with a plan which would see a two state solution, $53 billion plan.
They envisage for the next stage. The next phase of the negotiation is to talk about what happens the day after the war. There was a Reuters report out earlier today which suggested that those conversations had even begun, perhaps with the Americans involved in Doha. But we're a long way off from any kind of solution here, and I would I would urge a fair amount of caution when it comes to anyone saying that they're on the edge of a deal, because we've had this time and time again. The deal is around the corner and then it doesn't happen. So we're a long way from a solution to this war. Diane.
It sure seems that way. And James, while all this is happening, Israel has cut off supplies to Gaza, food, fuel, medicine, saying it's trying to pressure Hamas to accept its cease fire proposal. So what's the latest on those talks and how are aid groups responding?
Well, it's catastrophic for the people of Gaza. Quite simply, there was some restitution over the last five days. Over the last month, sorry that this peace, the ceasefire has been working, that more and more aid has gone in. Some 600 trucks have been able to go in. They've managed to ease the concerns around famine. There have been some studies to suggest that there was deep malnutrition among some 3000 children, a thousand pregnant or breastfeeding women. So they were trying to get on top of this by getting all that aid in. Now with that aid cut off, we're going to go back, possibly to that horrific situation where it's a massive humanitarian crisis. I mean, 100,000 tents did get in during the last month of this ceasefire, but you're talking about more than 2 million people who live in Gaza, the great majority of those people displaced. We've seen the images of their homes completely destroyed. So the idea that they've got what they need to sustain them is just not true. Aid agencies really need to get back in.
Diane.
All right, James Longman, thank you. Coming up, an ABC news exclusive. The man arrested for rapper Tupac Shakur's murder is speaking out from behind bars. Why? He claims authorities have the wrong guy.
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I'm 110% ready to fall in love. Tall. Handsome. Smart. He's perfect.
Time just stood.
Still.
It's kind of already sinking in that these other girls are dating my boyfriend.
Everybody just really wants Grant.
And we're all fighting.
For his love. You act like.
You don't.
Care.
He knows how I feel.
I know I'm in trouble. Everyone's so mean. I did not know how hard this is going to be.
Do you know how difficult my dad is?
You know, I hear everything from in here.
I'm broke and I need a place to stay until I find a job.
She's coming.
Can we try to talk to each other like rational adults?
Do you watch the news lately? That's not a thing anymore. You can go back to law school. That's always been your dream.
Actually, that was your dream for me.
You like to argue?
You do love to argue.
It means we get paid for it.
Welcome back to ABC News Live. First, the man charged in Tupac Shakur's murder is speaking out from behind bars for the first time. Dwayne Davis insists he was 300 miles away when the rapper was shot. Now he's pointing the finger at someone else. Chief investigative correspondent Aaron Katersky has this ABC news exclusive.
We ain't meant to survive cause it's a setup.
The death of.
Rap legend.
Tupac Shakur nearly 30 years ago.
Became one of the nation's.
Most.
Notorious.
Unsolved.
Murders.
Hey, Keith.
Metro police.
Come over.
Here.
Then in 2023.
A breakthrough when prosecutors charged this man with ordering the hit.
The only person arrested.
For Shakur's murder.
Who now.
Tells ABC news.
Authorities.
Have the wrong man.
I'm innocent. I ain't killed nobody. Never did ever kill nobody. They don't have no evidence against me. Can't even put me in Las Vegas.
61 year old Dwayne.
D Davis.
Says the night of the.
Murder, September.
7th.
1996, he was in Los Angeles, 300 miles.
From the Las.
Vegas intersection where Tupac Shakur was gunned down.
Prove that I orchestrated this. You're saying your key witness orchestrated this? They top witness is the lead suspect.
The defense pointing to someone else. Reggie Wright Jr, a former cop and security guard for record mogul Suge Knight who was driving the car Tupac was in the night he was shot. Wright has denied any involvement and has said, it bothers me because I was in charge of possibly protecting this young man, and prosecutors say Davis incriminated himself in his 2019 memoir, Compton Street Legend. And in this on camera interview.
You said.
The shots came from.
The back. Who shot Tupac?
I keep it for the cold of the streets. It just came from the back seat.
For Davis now says his previous admissions connected with the shooting were made under duress and for money, claiming he did not write his own memoir and was fed information by police.
I shouldn't have said nothing. I'm saying I shouldn't have said nothing, and I'm innocent, man.
Prosecutors declined to respond directly to Davis's new claims. They say their case is strong and they expect a conviction.
Out on bail, fresh out of jail California Dreamin.
Tupac Shakur is one of the best selling rap artists of all time. 75 million albums to date. Most of those sales posthumously, thanks in part to hits like California Love.
California, West Coast. Yes. That's right.
Davis's arrest followed years of fan driven theories that an intense rivalry between East Coast and West Coast rappers sparked the fatal attack on Shakur.
And I'm being held against my will. I'm supposed to be out there enjoying my twilight. God got my back and God will see me through this.
The judge has not yet weighed the defense's claim of a different suspect. And right now, Diane Davis is scheduled for trial in February. Diane.
Chief investigative correspondent Aaron Katersky. Thank you. And the defense is presenting a new twist in the University of Idaho murders case. Brian Kohberger's attorneys say one of the victims had the DNA of three unidentified people under her fingernails. This as they pushed to exclude other DNA evidence and argue the suspect's autism diagnosis should take the death penalty off the table. ABC News Live anchor Kayna Whitworth has the latest.
Yeah. Diane. So a new twist in this case here involving DNA evidence yet again in a redacted filing. Lawyers for Bryan Kohberger, the man accused of stabbing four college students to death, say DNA from three unidentified individuals was found under victim Madison Mogen Nails. The defense, claiming independent testing they did, eliminated Kohberger as one of those individuals. They say their client is innocent and argue the DNA test results were inconclusive and should be excluded at trial over concerns that it would mislead the jury. However, prosecutors have linked the former PhD student to the crime, saying his DNA was found on the knife sheath underneath Mogen. This information, of course, comes amid a flurry of filings as the defense tries to get the death penalty taken off the table. As part of their argument, they revealed the now 30 year old has autism spectrum disorder, which manifests in many of these highly prejudicial but completely involuntary mannerisms where sometimes he can be seen subtly rocking his upper torso and exhibiting atypical eye contact. Now, Diane, his lawyers say these mannerisms are almost certain to occur during his August trial, creating what they view as an unconscionable risk that he would be executed because of his disability rather than his culpability.
Diane.
Kayna Whitworth. Thank you. Coming up, a dramatic rescue caught on camera. A car crashes into a tanker truck, then bursts into flames. How? A police officer saved the unconscious driver.
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Do you know how difficult my dad is?
You know, I hear everything from in here.
I'm broke and I need a place to stay until I find a job.
These are coming.
Can we try to talk to each other like rational adults?
You watch the news lately? That's not a thing anymore. You could go back to law school. That's always been your dream.
Actually, that was your dream for me.
You like to argue?
You do love to argue.
You might as well get paid for it.
At the Lebanese border with Syria. I'm James Longman. Wherever the story is, we'll take you there. You're streaming ABC News Live.
A police officer in new Jersey is being called a hero after pulling an unconscious driver from a fiery collision. The diesel tanker and car burst into flames as soon as they hit. The officer wasn't wearing fire gear, but ran toward the flames as soon as he realized someone was inside. ABC's Eva Pilgrim has the details.
Reporter A new Jersey.
Police officer being hailed a hero.
After.
Pulling.
A man.
From a burning car, and the whole heart pounding.
Ordeal.
Was captured on body.
Cam.
Video.
In the.
Early hours of Wednesday morning, Bridgewater Police Officer Noah Allatt.
Arrived at.
The scene.
Are you the only one in the car?
Are you the only one?
Nice job.
Where is or where are they?
A car had.
Crashed.
Into the back of a.
Tanker truck.
Carrying diesel, both.
Bursting.
Into flames.
Yo! Come here. Come here.
Come here.
Officer Allatt checking.
One person who made it to safety before talking.
To.
Another.
Man at.
The scene.
I have entrapment working fire.
Can I go up to it?
You can go up to it. I just don't know if it's going to be without hesitation.
Allatt ran.
Towards.
Danger and.
The fire, finding the.
Driver.
Of the car unconscious behind.
The wheel.
As.
Flames neared.
His body.
Officer dragged.
The.
Man away from the blaze and is being credited with.
Saving his life.
The driver was taken to a nearby hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
An Eva.
Pilgrim. Thank you. Coming up, the boycott against target. The growing outrage from shoppers. And who's behind the push? Also ahead, Fyre Festival take two. Why the attempt to revive the failed music festival may already be in trouble. Plus, targeting Taylor Swift's Eras tour. How thieves were allegedly planning to score more than half $1 million worth of tickets.
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Look at that face.
Every day of your life.
You don't.
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See it. You feel.
It. I'm in.
I'm in, I'm in.
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That tells you something. When Snoop Dogg and Michael George.
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I'm 110% ready to fall in love. Tall. Handsome. Smart. He's perfect. Time just stood still.
It's kind of already sinking in that these other girls are dating my boyfriend.
Everybody just really wants Grant.
And we're all fighting.
For his love.
You act.
Like you don't.
Care.
He knows how I feel.
I know I'm in trouble. There's nothing so mean. I did not know how hard this is going to be.
Attention, teachers. No child is to be sent to the principal's office today. Kid, if you want.
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Welcome back to ABC News Live. First, you are looking live at the opening bell in New York City on this Thursday. Investors are watching very closely to see any developments in President Trump's trade war with China, Mexico and Canada. And right now we're seeing the Dow down about 400. Ukraine says at least four people are dead and more than 30 injured after a Russian strike on a hotel in central Ukraine. President Zelensky says two U.S. volunteers who were guests at that hotel survived the attack. Now Zelenskyy is urging no pause in pressure on Russia. It comes just a day after President Trump paused all U.S. military aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine. ABC news, National security and defense analyst Mick Mulroy is here for more on that. So, Mick, what's the latest on these most recent strikes?
And of course, this.
Comes.
At the same time.
When the.
US has paused intelligence.
Sharing with.
Ukrainians. It's unclear.
Just how.
Extensive that is. But one of the things that.
Intelligence does.
Is.
Detect.
When there's.
Incoming threats, like missiles coming from.
Russia.
For example.
Which have deliberately.
Targeted.
Civilian infrastructure. So that, of course, is also.
In the.
Category of duty to warn. So even if the United States isn't currently sharing intelligence with a country, if they have an idea, an intelligence, uh, piece of intelligence that said they're under threat, they have a duty to warn them. So I think that would still be the case. But this could have a significant effect on the overall ability of Ukraine to defend itself. And that might also, of course, have led to these strikes. It's unclear, but that certainly is something that the Ukrainians would like to see turn back on immediately.
Mick. Politico reports that senior members of Trump's team held private talks with political opposition figures in Ukraine. What do you make of that?
That indicates to me that this is, of course, not just about trying to push Ukraine Uh, to the negotiation table. I think they're ready to be there. It's it could also be specifically about President Zelensky and the desire to see him not be the president of Ukraine. Of course, Ukraine is a democratic country. And President Zelensky was democratically the elected leader. So not something that the US normally does at all, certainly not going straight to the opposition. But I think it's clear from everything coming out of Ukraine that the opposition right now is aligned behind President Zelensky because he is their wartime commander, even if they have political differences. So I don't know that that will make that big of a difference. But I think what the world hopes the US starts focusing on is getting Russia to the negotiation table, because it's unclear whether they're even willing to start the negotiations, especially after the US cut military support and intelligence support to the Ukrainians.
MC Zelensky is in Brussels right now for a European summit. What are you watching for there?
Well, it looks like the Europeans have really woken up, to be frank, both in their own defense and building up what they're going to call the European Defense Force, which is an integrated military across Europe, which will require a lot of, uh, increase in defense spending, but also their willingness to step up and increase their contributions to make up for the shortfalls from the United States in Ukraine and potentially use these frozen assets of Russia, which are throughout Europe, in total, over $300 billion, billion dollars, uh, to to unfreeze that so that Ukraine can use it, because there's going to have to be some effort, a big effort to make up for what could be a big gap caused by the United States. So Ukraine can keep fighting a country which is staggeringly larger than Ukraine, both in people, resources, ammunition production, for example. That's going to be difficult to make up for, but the Europeans are probably talking about that right now with President Zelensky and how they could potentially do that.
ABC news, national security and defense analyst Mick Mulroy, thank you. And Republican lawmakers are urging mayors and so-called sanctuary cities to do more to cooperate with President Trump's crackdown on immigration. Yesterday, Democratic mayors of Boston, Chicago, Denver and New York defended their policies to not routinely report undocumented people to federal authorities. Now, at least one lawmaker is pushing for a federal investigation into whether these mayors are breaking the law. ABC's Andrew Dymburt has the details.
Clashes on Capitol Hill as sanctuary cities face new scrutiny.
You all have blood on your hands.
Members of a House committee grilling for big city mayors about their immigrant safe haven policies.
This is why you have 6% approval rating because you suck at answering questions. Mayor Wu.
Republicans railing against the leaders of New York, Boston, Chicago and Denver, where local authorities do not routinely report undocumented people to the federal government.
We cannot let Pro-criminal alien policies and obstructionist sanctuary cities continue to endanger American communities.
The Democrats defending their policies, insisting they're following the law while protecting people's rights and neighborhoods.
The false narrative is that immigrants in general are criminals or immigrants in general, cause all sorts of danger and harm. That is, that is actually what is undermining safety in our communities.
Denver's mayor clashing with Congressman Jim Jordan over an incident where federal agents had to chase a man through a jail parking lot because sheriff's deputies released him after serving time for a local crime.
They have to arrest him in the parking lot. They bring six officers when they could have had 1 or 2. Just come in your facility in the jail and take the guy there.
Arguments between Congresswoman Nancy Mace and the mayor is reaching a boiling point, with mace saying she plans to ask the Justice Department to investigate the mayor's conduct.
Mayor Johnson, um, are you willing to go to jail for violating federal law?
The city of Chicago complies with all laws.
Oh, I highly doubt that, Mayor Wu.
We are not violating federal law.
The clash is not just along party lines.
You should step down and resign today.
Democrats questioned New York Mayor Eric Adams after he seemingly reversed his stance on allowing immigration agents to raid Rikers Island jail. Adams was facing federal corruption charges, but the Trump administration directed prosecutors to drop the case. Critics questioning the mayor's motives.
Are you selling out New Yorkers to save yourself from prosecution?
There's no deal. No quid pro quo. And I did nothing wrong.
ABC's Andrew Dymburt. Thank you. And shoppers across the country are launching a 40 day boycott, giving up target for lent. The movement started after the retailer rolled back its diversity, equity and inclusion policies. Now tens of thousands are joining in. ABC's Andrea Fujii has more.
As Christians mark the season of lent, shoppers across the country are giving up target.
What you see. Believers globally doing is stepping away from something. Sacrificing something.
Staging a 40 day boycott of the retailer. It stems from the company's decision to roll back its diversity, equity and inclusion policies, eliminating hiring goals for minority employees and altering its diversity initiatives.
We need to hold larger corporations accountable.
A church in Georgia launched the boycott, now gaining tens of thousands of followers. Target isn't the only store to scale back Dei initiatives. Walmart and John Deere are among the many others that have also backtracked amid public pressure and threats from the Trump administration to investigate what it calls illegal Dei.
We've ended the tyranny of so-called diversity, equity and inclusion policies all across the entire federal government and indeed the private sector.
Sales at target declined last month, and its predicted growth this year is only about 1%. Now, with rising inflation and tariffs, experts say the timing of this boycott could mean trouble for target's bottom line.
It's really like, do you get enough people actively supporting a boycott such that, you know, it actually resonates into the boardroom?
ABC's Andrea Fujii. Thank you. And the Mexican tourism board is casting doubt on a planned Fyre Festival two. The event is scheduled for May, but officials on the island where it's supposed to happen say no one has contacted them about it. ABC's Will Reeve has the latest.
It began.
As.
One of the most anticipated.
Music.
Festivals.
Of the 21st century.
With.
VIP packages going for $12,000 and promising an event.
For the ages.
But then.
Reality.
Hit.
We had no electricity.
There was no.
Showers.
There was no bathrooms.
There was no.
Running.
Water.
The promised.
Musical acts.
Like blink.
182.
Failed.
To materialize.
It was about $4,000 when we actually got was probably worth closer to, I'd say $0.
And instead of the deluxe.
Accommodations promised.
Concert goers found themselves housed in Red cross tents.
Surviving on.
Cheese sandwiches.
I am stranded in the Bahamas amidst hundreds of other extremely unlucky festival goers.
Billy McFarland.
The.
Host.
And organizer.
Of Fyre.
Festival, later sentenced.
To six.
Years.
In prison for.
Pocketing.
The proceeds, now.
Says he and his infamous festival.
Are.
Back.
I figured it would be best to hear directly.
From me.
What's actually happening. First, Fyre.
Two.
Is real. Second, we have incredible partners leading the festival. This includes an incredible production team in Mexico.
But that's news to the small.
Mexican.
Island.
Of.
Isla.
Mujeres off.
The coast of Cancun.
Where McFarland says the.
Festival.
Is.
Supposed to take place.
Edgar Gasca.
The tourism director of the.
Island.
Telling the Guardian.
This.
Is.
An event that does.
Not.
Exist, adding.
It's very strange.
Because.
Any manager.
Knows if you're going.
To hold an.
Event.
Let alone a.
Massive.
Event.
You need municipal.
Authorization.
Tickets for Fyre Fest two are.
Allegedly.
Selling from $1300 to $1 million. No talent has been announced yet, but according to.
McFarland.
He's booked a star studded lineup. He also.
Claims to have.
Pre-booked.
A number of accommodations.
Villas, yachts and hotels.
In.
2022.
Shortly after his release from prison, McFarland sat down with our Michael Strahan where he admitted to.
Lying.
To concert goers.
And stealing the money. But he says he just got caught up on a terrible path.
Of bad decisions.
So are you truly a changed man or is this just a spin?
I hope I continue to change for.
The next.
40 years, so I'm certainly not done changing yet.
The festival is supposed to.
Take place the last.
Week of May. A note of fair.
Warning McFarland announced Fyre.
Festival two.
Back in August.
Of.
2023.
Saying it would take place.
In December of 2024. That didn't happen.
But we will see if anything changes this time around.
We will see. Will Reeve. Thank you. And two people are facing criminal charges for allegedly stealing and reselling tickets to Taylor Swift's Eras Tour. Tickets for the tour sold out in seconds, frustrating many fans. Now, New York officials say the suspect stole 900 of them. ABC's Rebecca Jarvis has the latest. Two people are.
Accused of scheming.
To.
Steal over $600,000 worth of some of the hottest tickets in town.
They waited in line.
For.
Like.
Six.
Hours. You know what just happened?
Mostly from Taylor Swift's Eras tour.
Welcome to the eras tour.
According to the.
Queens.
District.
Attorney, Tyrone Rose.
And Shamara Simmons were arrested.
And charged with grand larceny, conspiracy.
And computer tampering. The pair allegedly.
Exploited.
A loophole.
Through an offshore vendor for the ticket resale website.
StubHub, where they intercepted already sold ticket URLs, then resold them between the summers of 2022 and 2023.
You can imagine how frustrating it would be to get there and realize that you don't have a ticket anymore.
The duo allegedly targeted NBA.
Games.
And high profile.
Artists, including Swift.
From the other side.
Adele.
Come on now, follow my lead.
An Ed Sheeran.
There's always.
Going to be.
People.
Attempting.
To.
Hack.
Into.
Systems.
And so companies need to.
Acquire the most professional, aggressive cybersecurity.
Companies.
They.
Can.
Find.
Rebecca Jarvis. Thank you. And the search is on for three skiers in what could be the deadliest U.S. avalanche in two years. The victims are believed dead after the avalanche buried them during a guided heli skiing trip. Now, state troopers have to dig through up to 40ft of snow to find them. But the weather is not cooperating. ABC's mola lenghi has the latest.
Tragedy in Alaska's remote backcountry.
Authorities say.
Three.
Skiers are.
Now presumed dead after a large avalanche buried them.
In snow up.
To 40ft deep.
The slide, occurring around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday near.
Girdwood.
Considered the skiing capital of Alaska.
About 40 miles south of Anchorage. Guides using emergency beacons to locate the skiers but unable to rescue them. If confirmed, the deaths would make it the deadliest avalanche in the U.S. in two years. John Cornely planned to make a similar trip back on Friday, but conditions were too bad.
But they kept delaying and kept delaying.
So our our day is there. We never were given the green light to fly.
State troopers are working to determine how to safely recover the skiers bodies. In a statement, the company Chugach Power Lines offering its sincere condolences to the families involved, adding it stands ready to assist them in any way possible.
Mola Lenghi thank you. And the National Avalanche Center says the number of people dying in U.S. avalanches is going up. The center says we're now losing 25 to 30 people each winter, compared to just eight when they started tracking data in 1990. Meteorologist Greg Dutra, with our ABC station in Chicago, is taking a closer look at why. Greg.
Well, Diane, the.
Frequency has gone.
Up.
Because.
They've seen more snow in.
This particular.
Accident. Two new feet.
Of snow fell.
On.
What.
They said was.
A weak layer.
Of.
Snowfall that was hard to assess. And those avalanches, they usually start down low in that weak layer. Sometimes it's a wet snow that gets frozen becomes brittle, and when all the weight of that new two feet happens, it snaps that and it slides a big slab avalanche. And those are usually happening in areas where the pitch is, say, 30 to 45 degrees, exactly where heli skiing outfits would bring skiers in. And of course, these are very remote areas that are hard to access and really analyze the snow. And that's why the heli skiing outfits will tell people you have to ski at your own risk. Back to you.
Meteorologist Greg Dutra. Thank you. Coming up, a historic restoration at a famous American landmark. Our Matt Rivers traveled to the Alamo to give us an inside look at the plans.
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Do you know how difficult my dad is?
You know, I hear everything from in here.
I'm broke, and I need a place to stay until I find a job.
She's coming.
Can we try to talk to each other like rational adults?
Do you watch the news lately? That's not a thing anymore. You could go back to law school. That's always been your dream.
Actually, that was your dream for me.
You like to argue?
You do love to argue.
You might as well get paid for it.
Welcome back to ABC News Live. First, a restoration at the Alamo is preserving history in an unexpected way. The $550 million redevelopment plan includes a new museum, visitor center and restoration of its 300 year old limestone walls. But where do you find centuries old limestone to match that? Well, it turns out the answer was hiding at a nearby zoo. ABC's Matt Rivers takes us inside the discovery, reshaping this historic landmark. Matt, this must have been fascinating to see.
It really was.
This is.
A mystery. Really?
For 300 years.
No one had any idea where the original quarry was.
That was mined.
To get.
The.
Limestone.
That helped build.
The Alamo.
There, right behind me.
And now we know where it was. And of all places, Diane. It was discovered in a gorilla enclosure in a zoo. An American icon that needs some work.
It's an exciting time here at the Alamo, because we're in the midst of a $550 million redevelopment plan.
A new museum.
Visitor center and a rework.
Of the entire.
Grounds is transforming this symbol of Texan pride and making.
Sure it sticks around for a while.
Everything that you.
See.
Here.
More.
Than likely.
Came from.
Here.
Head conservator Pamela Rosser bringing us inside, showing us how parts of the 300 year old walls are degrading. So this is old.
Very old. I mean, what what happens to you when you get old, right?
The stone needs replacing, but you can't just patch it up with new material. You need the same limestone that was used back in the 1700s. So where do you find that? Well, where else but the San Antonio Zoo, of course, which is in the middle of building a massive new gorilla exhibit. Historians always.
Guess.
That the original stone used to build the Alamo came from this area. They just weren't sure exactly where. Enter this construction site. One day, the Alamo's head conservator, driving down the road here sees this construction site and thinks, huh, we should probably test rock like this from this site and see if it matches the Alamo. And a few days ago the tests came back positive. This zoo filled with bears and leopards and now limestone. Now set aside to be used at the Alamo.
It shows that history.
Is not static. We're constantly making new discoveries about what happened in the past. And this discovery will help us to do a really authentic job of our preservation efforts here at the church.
Mission efforts. Replacing that stone, Diane set to begin very soon using that stone from the zoo.
Matt, what.
Surprised you most about seeing this all firsthand?
Yeah, you know, it's stunning and really interesting to see how you have to to to handle a building like this. You can't just patch it with anything. And really, historians want to use that original stone more than just any other stone, because it keeps the Alamo true to form. They look at this as a piece of living history. And by able, by being able to find that quarry, they're able to keep the Alamo true to form. That's very cool. Also, just the idea that they found this stone in a zoo of all places. The head conservator was quite literally just driving down the road, happened to see this construction site and was like, maybe we should talk to them and see if we can test that rock. They sent it to a firm in New York. Took months and months and months to figure it out. But literally just a few days ago, they got those results back. And and that conservator who is such a sweet woman, she she was so excited about this.
You could feel her passion for this project. And I think it's it's very cool and a real service to Texans and all Americans that this building will be sticking around for for several more generations.
She must be so happy right now that she pulled over and asked that question. Matt Rivers at the Alamo in San Antonio. Matt. Thank you. Coming up, the hills are.
Alive.
And fans of The Sound of Music are in for a treat. Will Ganss has the tea on some behind the scenes stories from the classic musical when we come back.
Whenever. Wherever news breaks, it's so important to always remember that lives are changed. You're in London, in Buffalo. Uvalde, Texas. Edinburgh, Scotland. From Poland once again tonight. Thank you so much for streaming with us. Ukrainian refugees here in Warsaw. Do you think you'll ever be able to go back home? We're heading to a small community outside of Mexico City. Splintered houses and splintered lives. The magnitude of the devastation. You're streaming ABC News Live reporting from Rolling Fork, Mississippi. Santa Fe, New Mexico. Raleigh, North Carolina. The U.S. capital. Mayfield, Kentucky. Minneapolis. Mexico. Tongass National Forest in Alaska. Getting you behind the stories as they happen. Giving you a front row seat to our world as it plays out in real time. Live. ABC News Live. Prime. We'll take you there.
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People do not know how to date. That's why they come to us.
As a matchmaker. We're here to help you get your wings on.
Let's get some people married. Why are you single? Maybe the kind of guys.
That I go.
For. You go for hot guys? Yeah, it's a pitfall.
What would you say are like the top things you're looking for?
You don't like hairy men, so all Muslims are out. What are you talking about?
This process doesn't have to suck. He's cute.
Make it happen. Boo! Amanda Riley was a mother. Wife.
She got diagnosed with cancer.
There's all these pictures of her in the hospital with IVs, tubing.
But she was a liar.
Why would somebody fake cancer?
Scamanda all episodes now streaming on Hulu.
Hey, good morning America, good morning America.
Good morning America. I'm Rachel Scott, reporting from Donald Trump's rally here in green Bay, Wisconsin. Wherever the story is, we'll take you there. You're streaming ABC News Live.
Welcome back to ABC News Live. First, it is time now for the T, where we break down some of the buzzy stories people are talking about. Our friend Will Ganz is here to help us out. We'll spill that tea.
Got some good tea for you, Diane. And to all of you.
We begin this morning the same way.
I like.
To begin most of my mornings with a little.
Bit of.
Mayhem.
But in this case.
We're talking about Lady Gaga's highly anticipated seventh studio album. Gaga has said this will be a return to her pop music roots after having dabbled in jazz and in country, and ESPN premiered a sneak peek of an unreleased song from mayhem called Garden of Eden because it's going to be the official anthem for the upcoming Formula One racing season. Take a listen.
It's lights out and away we go.
Take it to the top of the world.
Ooh, mayhem. I know, including that new song Garden of Eden. All of it drops tonight at midnight and Gaga, by the way, will serve as host and musical guest on SNL this weekend.
Very much looking forward to this album.
She's so multi-talented. I'm excited for this album to, uh, Abracadabra, by the way, a great SoulCycle song.
Also, Zumba.
Oh, okay. So it's a good cardio song. You heard it here first. All right. Next. Let's move on to the Jane Fonda songs. After being honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award at last weekend's SAG Awards, the Hollywood and social justice icon continues to reinvent herself, but this time as a wildlife wrangler. Question mark Jane, appearing on a podcast with her son who shared the story of her encounter with a bear.
And she.
Came back in. The screen door was dismantled and there was a bear in the bedroom sniffing over the crib.
What did you.
Do? Go ahead.
Roar!
Oh my God! Sorry.
Sorry. Sound man.
I had just.
Learned what.
To do.
If you're.
Close to.
A bear and.
That.
Was.
It.
And.
Get.
Very big.
That is a performer, by the way. They said, what did you do? And she was ready to go. Thankfully, the Bear and Jane lived to tell the tale, although in that matchup I think Jane had the upper hand.
The bear is terrified and has never returned.
Exactly. All right. Do you. Do you hear that, Diane? The hills. They're alive with the Sound of Music. In honor of the 60th anniversary of The Sound of Music this week, 60 rare behind the scenes photos have been released. And the tea that they're spilling is pitch perfect. The photos were captured during the filming of the movie back in 1964, both on location in Salzburg, Austria, and on set in Los Angeles. And apparently the Do-Re-Mi picnic scene was filmed about 45 minutes from Salzburg, where frequent rain interruptions stretched the shoot over three days, causing delays in the film's international production schedule. Another shot reveals that one of the von Trapp children couldn't swim and needed to be rescued by a crew member. You see her being carried out there? When Julie Andrews fell the wrong way out of the boat, and the Lonely Goatherd puppet scene took five whole days later, we're ready to go right here. It would just take one morning, apparently here in the studio. For anyone looking to celebrate more of The Sound of Music, it's being restored in 4K and will come back to theaters later this year.
I love that I can't wait to watch that one with my kids.
I'll go with you. I'll bring the popcorn. You bring the vocals for the goatherd scene.
I will not sing in the theater, I promise.
All right. Finally, it's time for another installment of our segment. Who is this diva? Take a listen to this 911 call placed to the Moore Police Department in Oklahoma recently, and see if you can figure out who is this diva.
Mm.
What? Hello? Yes. Do you.
Have an.
Emergency?
Yes. How do you do?
Okay, so the call goes on to say that the little boy. His name is Bennett. He calls to request emergency donuts. Emergency donuts. Emergency donuts. So he's celebrating his fourth birthday this weekend. And he used an old cell phone to dial 911, which apparently still works. But the story doesn't end there. The Moore Police Department did bring him his emergency donuts. Thank goodness.
I love that. All right, I'm requesting some emergency donuts.
I think it only works if you're four years old and adorable. Diane. Don't call 911.
I'm going to.
Call right now.
I'll be right back.
We're getting emergency donuts. See you in a bit.
Hello?
Hello? Yes. Boston cream, please.
Whenever. Wherever news breaks. It's so important to always remember that lives are changed. You're in London, in Buffalo. Uvalde, Texas. Edinburgh, Scotland. From Poland once again tonight. Thank you so much for streaming with us. Ukrainian refugees here in Warsaw. Do you think you'll ever be able to go back home? We're heading to a small community outside of Mexico City, splintered houses and splintered lives. The magnitude of the devastation. You're streaming ABC News Live reporting from Rolling Fork, Mississippi. Santa Fe, New Mexico. Raleigh, North Carolina, the U.S. capital. Mayfield, Kentucky. Minneapolis, Mexico. Tongass National Forest, Alaska. Getting you behind the stories as they happen. Giving you a front row seat to our world as it plays out in real time. Live. ABC News Live. Prime. We'll take you there.
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Getting that golden ticket today. Good luck.
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It's where dreams come true.
Amanda Riley was a mother. Wife.
She got diagnosed with cancer.
There's all these pictures of her in the hospital with IVs, tubing.
But she was a liar.
Why would somebody fake cancer?
Amanda. All episodes now streaming on Hulu. Now you can listen to a podcast version of World News Tonight, available free wherever you listen.
Reporting from the wildfires.
In Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
I'm Stephanie.
Ramos.
Wherever the story is, we'll take you there. You're streaming ABC News Live.
Hi, I'm Diane Macedo today on ABC News Live. First, the deadly winter storm causing widespread devastation. Heavy snow, high winds and torrential rain are slamming the Midwest and East Coast, the path of destruction left behind and the new storm taking aim at the West Coast, hitting the brakes on tariffs. President Trump is granting a one month exemption for U.S. automakers. How America's big three car manufacturers are responding amid a growing trade war with Mexico and Canada. Plus, President Trump's expected move to dismantle the Department of Education and South Korean fighter jets mistakenly bomb a civilian village. Pilots accidentally dropped several bombs during a training mission with the U.S. military. Video of the impact and the investigation into how it happened. But first, sources tell ABC news President Trump is preparing an executive order directing his education secretary to dissolve the Department of Education. The president has been adamant about returning education to state control, but critics argue the department provides critical funding and enforces nondiscrimination laws. ABC's Alex Presha is here with the latest on that.
Alex, how is this expected to work?
Well, Diane, that's a really good question. But looking at.
This order, it.
Instructs.
Linda McMahon.
Who's only.
Been on the job.
For about three days.
To do as much as she can by law stating, and I'm going to quote here, the Department of Education's main focus can and should be to return to the states most funding for public schools. It's already done at the state and local level, but there are a lot of federally dependent on funds for for things like helping lower income students with with in students with disabilities. So, you know, looking at how this this dissolve, this dissolving of the department would go, which also, I remind you, would require an act of Congress, 60 votes in favor, which is likely not to happen there. But looking at if that gets absorbed by some other agency or however, you know that that funding is disseminated elsewhere. It's really kind of unclear right now.
An education secretary, Linda McMahon, acknowledged it would take help from Congress to fully dissolve the agency. Democrats are unlikely to support that. So what's the strategy here?
Yeah, well, it looks like I mean, at least you know the way things are positioned right now. This executive order will be signed. Linda McMahon will try to do as much as she can by law. But to dissolve the Department of Education, as you mentioned, would take that 60 vote threshold. And frankly, Republicans would be dependent on Democrats to to get that over the bar. And Democrats don't have an appetite for that. But, you know, keep in mind that, you know, this this idea of dissolving the Department of Education is not just something that Trump has campaigned on. It's something that's been a tentpole in Republican politics, specifically on education for, for, for, for decades now. And so, you know, if this is an attempt to, to, to, to get at that or, you know, some Republicans might say this is the closest they've been able to come to, to to enacting change on that part. You know, maybe this is Trump's appeal to appease that, that itch, if you will.
But as you mentioned, it does take that 60 votes. And it doesn't appear that Republicans right now, even though they have a majority, it doesn't appear that they have the votes to make that happen.
ABC's Alex Presha. Thank you. And House republicans are expected to censure Democratic Congressman Al Green over his protest at President Trump's joint address to Congress. The vote comes as American automakers are breathing a sigh of relief after President Trump delayed tariffs on cars for a month. Meanwhile, the Department of Veterans Affairs is laying off tens of thousands of workers as Elon Musk tries to ease concerns over the cuts. Let's go to white House correspondent Karen Travers and Jay O'Brien on Capitol Hill for more. Jay, how much support do Republicans have for the censure vote and how are Democrats responding?
They definitely have the.
Votes.
In their own conference, Diane. The question is, will they get any Democratic votes? There's talk of potentially some Democrats crossing party lines and voting with Republicans to censure Greene. Although we don't have any real numbers on that, we really have to wait to see how the vote plays out. It's going to begin any.
Moment.
From now. We know.
That.
House Democratic.
Leadership is.
Not telling their members how to vote on this. Up here on Capitol Hill, that's called whipping votes. So we're not quite sure if there will be some Democrats who ultimately do vote with Republicans here. But Republicans have the votes to censure Greene on their own. Remember, this is because of Greene's outburst during President Trump's joint address earlier this week, Greene was removed from the chamber. I spoke with him. Remember moments after he was.
Removed.
From the chamber, he said that he was shouting about potential cuts to Medicaid, something Republicans have said are not a done deal yet. I asked Congressman Greene if he was willing to face potential punishment or consequences because of his outburst. He said. He said back then that he would, Diane. And today his office is leaning into this censure vote they posted on X the time of this vote. They posted that it was going to happen, essentially saying that they welcome this censure of Congressman Greene. There are no physical consequences that come with this, but a censure is a black mark on a representative's report card, if you will. Diane.
Karen, Ford, Stellantis and General Motors are applauding this tariff delay. But President Trump says it's just temporary. What's the white House saying these companies need to do? Karen, it looks like we're having some issues with your audio. We'll try to get that fixed. Jay. In the meantime, Elon Musk met with Republican lawmakers yesterday. They talked about both concerns and support for some of DOJ's cuts. What now?
Yeah. Exactly right. Diane. So he met with members of the House late last night and then senators early in that day. And I'm actually going to look behind me because I wanted to see if there were one of the members who was in that meeting. It doesn't look like there are. They were walking in, as you and I were talking just a second ago, because we were going to grab him and ask him about that meeting. But one of the things we heard from Republicans as they left that room last night that Elon Musk was addressing them in, is that it was certainly a a boost for hardliners. There were hardline Republicans who emerged from that meeting saying that they wanted Elon Musk to move faster with the Doge cuts, even if we even as we ask them if there were any Republicans in the room who expressed concern with how fast Doge was moving with various cuts and changes to federal agencies, we know that there were some Republicans who raised concern about cuts at the VA, some 70,000 that are expected, according to reports, as well as cuts to veterans who don't just work at the VA but work across the federal government.
Those issues were raised in the meeting, and Elon Musk, lawmakers in the room, say, was receptive to those conversations but didn't really give any indication one way or the other Where he stood on VA cuts or firing to veterans. ET cetera. ET cetera. Elon Musk leaving that meeting, telling our House reporter, Lauren Peller, that they were making good progress at Doge and seeming buoyed by that meeting. But again, hanging over all of this were the fact that Republicans are facing tough questions in their own districts about Doge from constituents. And as lawmakers head home after this vote today, you can expect that if they have in-person town halls again, which Republicans are advising their members against. But if they do, there will still be those pointed questions and still those fiery exchanges on Doge, even after this meeting with Elon Musk.
Karen, the Department of Veterans Affairs is now planning to cut over 70,000 employees. That's 15% of its workforce. What's the goal here and what impact could that have?
The goal.
Would.
Be to.
Increase.
Efficiency.
At the Veterans.
Affairs Department.
Which.
Has faced.
Criticism for how it gives care to veterans.
But there is criticism.
About how.
This is being done and.
Whether that would actually achieve the goal. A top Republican in the Senate has.
Said.
That.
This is not.
The way to do this. Democrats are, of course, pushing back on it as well.
And, Diane, it's important to note that.
Veterans.
Make.
Up.
About.
A quarter of the workforce at this.
Agency.
So they.
Would likely.
Be impacted.
By this.
This is.
The second biggest.
Department in the federal government after the Pentagon.
So this.
Would have a big.
Impact. When you look at how significant that.
Is.
15% of its workforce.
There were.
Big additions to staffing.
In.
The Biden administration at the.
VA because.
Of the Pact act. That was a bipartisan piece of.
Legislation that.
Increased the amount.
Of.
Care and.
The types of.
Care.
That were going.
To veterans. This was a very big.
Deal during the Biden.
Administration. It was something that was.
Personal.
To.
President Biden.
And that.
Was.
Something that increased.
The staffing. And now there are a lot of questions about how they would be able to.
Continue that.
Kind.
Of care with.
These types of steep cuts.
And, Karen, I want to go back to that question before because we couldn't hear your answer. But in terms of these tariff delays, President Trump says they're temporary. So what is the white House want these automakers to do?
They want them.
To bring their production to the United.
States.
That that's the way to avoid tariffs. Make your products here, make.
Your.
Parts here.
But that's very.
Difficult to do.
In.
A 30 day period. And I think there's no realistic way that these companies could do that. This gives them a temporary reprieve.
Another big.
Question now is by giving.
This to the big.
Three automakers, is the white.
House.
Opening up the potential for other carve outs? Is the door.
Open.
For other CEOs or sectors to call the white House and say, what about us? Let's give some relief right now. And the white House indicated that yesterday, our colleague Rachel Scott asked the white House about a carve out potentially for eggs that are coming in from Canada. Caroline Leavitt, the press secretary, said the president is open to consideration of that. We know he's having a conversation today with the president of Mexico, and how much produce comes in from Mexico is certainly something that is a big concern about how deep those price increases could be when those tariffs are now going into effect.
Karen Travers, Jay O'Brien. Thank you. And deadly storms are tearing through the Northeast and Midwest. Three people are dead in Mississippi as high wind alerts stretch from Georgia all the way to Maine in Kansas. Winds were so powerful, they toppled this semi truck. Look at it slide right across the road. The storms also sent patio furniture flying. In Raleigh, North Carolina, flooding in Philadelphia is slowing down the commute there, and heavy rain in New York City brought down trees and scattered debris all over the neighborhood. ABC's Stephanie Ramos is in hillside, new Jersey, where a tree crashed down on a home.
Whether it caused a lot of damage across the northeast. High winds knocking down several trees like the one behind me here in hillside, new Jersey. These downed trees damaging buildings and homes across the country. There's a bit of everything from blizzards in the Midwest to torrential rains along the East Coast, and of course, those high winds sweeping across half the country. Strong winds of up to 90mph hour toppling over this truck in Kansas. In the south, severe thunderstorms moving out, leaving a trail of destruction in North Carolina. A tornado with 90 mile per hour winds ripped apart these buildings. At least three people killed and six injured after strong storms swept through Mississippi. Meanwhile, in Iowa, whiteout conditions and zero visibility have stranded drivers, cars and trucks scattered across highways. Plows. You can see them digging vehicles out of the snow as authorities urge people to stay home. Now, as far as travel goes, airlines canceled nearly 700 flights Tuesday as severe weather moved across the East Coast, Charlotte and D.C. airports, seeing the most impacts JFK and Newark airports also seeing delays.
The best tip if you're traveling today, check with your airline to make sure your flight is on time and taking off. Diane.
Stephanie Ramos, thank you. And meteorologist Greg Dutra with our ABC station in Chicago is tracking this storm and another storm on the West Coast. Greg, what's the biggest threat right now?
The good news here is that next one doesn't have a lot of bite. But you're right. There are threats still from the departing storm. Those wind advisories gusts 40 50mph, even possibly up to 60mph on the leeward side of some rocky mountains or some mountain ranges, rather. So here's the departing storm. There's the new storm out in the west that we're going to have to track in a couple seconds. But first, yeah, let's talk about the one that still isn't quite gone despite the rain and the severe thunderstorms being out of here still at 4:00 this afternoon is when these go into effect. So it's the latter part of the day for the East Coast wind advisories, where gusts will be 40 to 50mph. Right now they're gusting up to 30 to 40 plus. And as I mentioned, some of the mountain ranges like the leeward side of the Appalachian Mountains down there through portions of North Carolina and then through Massachusetts. Yes, there are mountains in Massachusetts. You got the Berkshire Mountains. Then you've got, of course, the Worcester Hills.
And the leeward side of those may see some localized gusts that are 50 or even 60mph. Now, switching gears to the next storm system that moves on to the West coast. There's been a lot of rain through Southern California. Half inch of rain fell in L.A. yesterday. It was actually more than that. It was closer to 6/10 of an inch, and a quarter of an inch of rain fell in San Diego. They get more showers, maybe even a rumble of thunder out in San Diego, which is a little odd, and then snow through the mountains and possibly even into the Midwest. But that is a paltry, very scattered 1 to 3in in areas like Chicago. Diane, those are spots that are anywhere from a half a foot to a foot and a half behind on snowfall for the year. So this is not going to make it up. They're going to have to rely on some spring rains to knock out the fire danger.
All right. Fingers crossed for that, Greg. Thank you. And 15 people are injured after South Korean fighter jets accidentally dropped eight bombs over a residential area. South Korean officials say it happened during an annual joint training with the U.S. military. Foreign correspondent Britt Clennett has the latest. Britt, how did this happen?
Reporter good question. Diane. Well, South Korea and US forces, as you say, were holding these joint live fire exercises linked to annual drills that are meant to start next week. Dozens of people injured after a pair of fighter jets accidentally dropped eight bombs in a civilian district, according to local media reports. Two people suffered fractures to their necks and shoulders. Security footage aired on local TV. It shows the moment leading up to the incident, with a pickup truck driving along this tree lined street before the area is is totally consumed by a large blast. Now local residents, they reported hearing a loud roar followed by a loud explosion. Photographs from the scene. They show a house completely destroyed by the impact, shattered windows and a building covered with debris. Now a big question exactly how this happened. Certainly what the authorities are saying they're going to investigate, but local people in the area, they're asking why there was training happening so close to their community.
So, Brit, why are they using real bombs if this is just a training?
Well, exactly. And I think that is going to be one question that the authorities are going to be faced with, especially, as I say, from local residents who have previously raised the alarm about the potential danger from nearby training grounds. South Korea's air force, they've said they are looking into the incident and they've apologized for the damage, saying they will be providing compensation to those affected. So while we know that shells from from live firing exercises, they do sometimes land near civilian residences, they rarely cause injuries like this. The military said the pilot of one of the jets inputted the wrong coordinates by mistake, causing the bombs to drop in the civilian community. Investigators. However, they've yet to determine why the second jet dropped its its bombs, and the military says however it will be suspending all live fire exercise for the time being.
So what's the US military saying about this?
Well, we know, um, you know, that this was a joint exercise and that they're meant to start these annual joint exercises that are meant to start on Monday. However, we have heard from mostly South South Korean authorities up until now saying that the Americans were involved in this exact exercise, but that no US planes were involved. So it looks like the US officials are letting South Korea take take the lead on this for the time being. We know that authorities are, as I say, will be suspending live fire exercises until there's a clear understanding of what exactly went wrong. But the incident, they say, will not affect those South Korean and US military exercises, as I say, which will go ahead next week. We know that the Freedom Shield, that this is something that happens every year. It runs from March 10th to March 20th, and the real aim here is to strengthen the readiness of the Alliance for threats coming in from North Korea.
All right. Britt Clennett. Thank you. And Hamas is dismissing President Trump's ultimatum to release all remaining hostages. Hamas says it won't hand over anyone until the next phase of the ceasefire is fully implemented. This comes despite the president threatening on Truth Social that there will be hell to pay if Hamas doesn't comply. This all comes after the president met with eight released American hostages and after officials confirmed the administration has had direct talks with Hamas. Chief international correspondent James Longman has more. James, these kind of direct talks are extremely unusual. What more are you learning about how this went down?
Very, very unusual. Diane. The United States does not usually speak directly with terror organizations, but that seems to have been what's happened. These have been going on for some weeks, it's thought in Doha, of course, Qatar has been central, along with Egypt, in negotiating between the United States and Hamas. Adam Boehler, who is the special presidential envoy for hostage affairs, he's been leading these talks and they've been focused on American Israeli captives. And there is one, um, Elaine Alexander. Ehud Alexander. Pardon me. Still in captivity. He is the last remaining hostage who is alive. And there are four American Israeli hostages who sadly died. And their bodies have yet to be returned. And so I think the conversations have been focused on on them and the return of those of those hostages to their families. And then the broader peace deal. Right. The ceasefire, which has stalled. I think the conversations have been going on around that. But this is certainly unusual. Donald Trump, speaking on Truth Social, came out with a kind of a fairly usual diplomatic note or tone from him in some of the language he used, but it was pretty extraordinary.
He said, Shalom, Hamas means hello and goodbye. You can choose. Release all the hostages now, not later. And immediately return all of the dead bodies of the people you murdered or it is over for you. And Israel says, of course. There are 59 hostages remaining in Gaza. Up to 24 of those are believed to be alive. So, look, we'll wait and see if this actually bears any fruit. But this is part of Donald Trump's kind of modus operandi, right? He doesn't operate like other people.
James, president Trump is calling this his last warning to Hamas. So what happens if they don't release these hostages?
Well, that's the big question. And whether or not his threats are to be believed by the Palestinians and by Hamas, I mean, Hamas has shrugged this off. They said that these sorts of comments just distract and they complicate the process. He has made these threats before, but I think people have to. They ask themselves, not just around the Middle East, but Donald Trump's foreign policy writ large. Whether you talk about Greenland or or Canada or Panama, he has this maximalist tone which one imagines, if this is a man who likes to negotiate, he thinks, well, if we start off with the kind of absolute terms, we might come back to a position which everyone can agree on, we will see. I think at this point it's unclear if anyone is taking this particularly seriously. His, his his plan for Gaza certainly was not taken seriously by the Arab world. They came up with an alternative one. But our producer has been speaking to Palestinians in Gaza today. And the sense that she gets is, is that they are happy that at least the Americans are speaking directly to Hamas.
James Longman, thank you. Coming up, the Wisconsin teen arrested days after his parents were found dead, where police say they found him and what they say was in his car.
Attention, teachers.
No child is.
To.
Be sent.
To the principal's office.
Today. Kids, if.
You want.
To do a crime, now's the time. Happy first day of school.
You better bring your big bear. Yes.
Wonder like four more of these? Yeah. We were robbed. Hey! Buy three, get one free.
I'm gonna call your mother on you. Bring the rest back here, boy.
Hey, there. Best.
GMA Friday morning.
Here we go.
Ready for a little Gaga?
Abracadabra.
Abracadabra.
From her.
New.
Music.
Everyone's waiting.
For.
You.
Call it mayhem.
Yes.
What does this album tell us about the phase of life you're in right now?
To life with her fiancé.
How's the wedding planning going?
Oh, my gosh.
It's.
Gaga.
As you've never.
Seen before.
Provocative. Strong. Sensational.
Friday morning.
I.
Could die with a smile. Now because I'm hanging out with you. Me too.
Only on.
Good.
Morning America.
Welcome back to ABC News Live. First, we were following a new twist in the deaths of a Wisconsin mother and stepfather. Police arrested their teen son hundreds of miles from home after he reportedly missed school for weeks, but police say he hasn't been charged in the deaths. ABC's Rhiannon ally has the latest.
A teenager from Wisconsin is under arrest after being named a person of interest in connection with the deaths of his mother and stepfather. The bodies of 35 year old Tatiana Kassab and 51 year old Donald Maier were found during a welfare check last week.
I had been texting Donald many times and he wasn't answering and I didn't know why.
Court documents revealing Tatiana was shot and Donald had a large wound to his head. Their bodies covered by clothes and blankets. Police tracking down 17 year old Nikita Kassab, 800 miles away in Kansas, after he allegedly ran a stop sign in his stepfather's car, the family dog with him.
He would never not go to. School if things were normal.
The teen, previously known for his perfect attendance, had reportedly been absent for weeks inside the vehicle police say was a stepfather's gun. Both parents driver's license. Ammunition and shell casings. Prosecutors now charging the teen with operating a motor vehicle without the owner's consent, and theft of movable property. No charges have been filed yet in connection with the two deaths.
Rhiannon. Ally. Thank you. An Octo mom, Natalie Suleiman, is sharing her story. For the first time in years, the single mom of 14 kids pulled her family from the spotlight after she says she received public ridicule and hate. Now, after years of hiding behind a face covering in public, she says she's setting the record straight. Our juju Chang has her story.
Octomom.
Octomom.
Octomom. Nadya. Nadia Suleyman.
It's been.
16 years since.
Natalie Nadia Suleiman gave.
Birth.
To octuplets.
Conceived via.
IVF.
Earning the.
Moniker Octomom.
The baby's nightmare.
The single.
Mother from.
California, who already had.
Six other young.
Children at home, faced.
Withering criticism.
After it was revealed she received government assistance to support.
Them.
How are you?
I'm well. How are you? Good. Thank you so much. Nice to.
Meet you. Now, after nearly a decade avoiding the.
Spotlight.
She's.
Back with a new lifetime movie she co-executive produced.
And.
A six.
Part docu series.
Featuring all.
14 of her children.
I've been waiting.
A.
Very.
Very long.
Time to tell my true story.
And.
I believe the world is ready to hear.
It.
Why is now for you the right time.
To come back into the.
Spotlight and bring your.
Kids into.
The spotlight?
My whole family wants us to share our truth, to take our narrative back. My young ones are 16 and they've been urging me strongly, encouraging me, you know, for years to share my truth.
What are.
The things that you think.
The.
Public got wrong?
Oh, there's so many. But number one, I would say that I wanted fame. I am beyond introverted. I'm shy, painfully shy. My goal in life was to earn my PhD in psychology. Never be. Never be in the public.
Eye.
Let.
Alone famous.
Infamous.
Even worse.
And yet, I think the biggest question that loomed.
Large.
Then, and I think perhaps even now, is that when you.
Had.
Six kids.
Right.
As.
A single.
Mom, right.
And no job.
Right.
Why go and have more?
Right.
We go. I go into details, so many details as to the ulterior motive for wanting one more. But I never wanted eight.
Were you.
Addicted.
To having babies?
I believe it wasn't an addiction per se. So if I was hyper focused on children, I wanted a big family. Not this big, but I wanted a big family.
Over the years, she says she struggled to make ends meet, even making an.
Adult film.
To support her kids, and she says she wound up in rehab from the PTSD of all the public scrutiny. You received death threats, right?
Thousands of death.
Threats.
You received all sorts of hate, right? What explains that in your mind?
I've known from the beginning why I was the target of misplaced hate. You know, I was well aware. Not married, not enough money. Basically, those are the primary components as to why I was a target of global scorn, condemnation and all that misplaced hate.
Now, she.
Says she's focused on raising.
Her kids.
Your kids really do redeem you.
In a way.
My kids are amazing. They're teenagers now. Aside from all their fighting, they're arguing. They are some of the most grounded, humble, kind, just genuine human beings I've ever met.
Big thanks to Juju Chang for that interview. Coming up, fallout after devastating wildfires. The lawsuit now targeting Southern California's largest utility company.
Now you can listen to a podcast version of 2020, available free wherever you listen. Friday night David Muir reporting. Two cold cases.
She was trying to protect her daughter.
It gives you chills even today.
Yes.
What links both of those cases is cutting edge forensic technology inside this lab.
Catching the killers 2020. Friday on ABC.
You up for this?
Let's get this done.
Being a cop is stressful.
Every year on the job is different.
No guts, no glory.
Showtime. Get down!
Work smarter, not harder.
New The Rookie Tuesday on ABC and stream on Hulu.
Reporting from the red carpet at the Oscars. I'm Linsey Davis. Wherever the story is, we'll take you there. You're streaming ABC News Live.
Welcome back to ABC News Live. First, here are some of the top headlines we're following right now. Los Angeles County is joining a lawsuit against Southern California's largest utility company. The county joins two cities in seeking damages from SoCal Edison, claiming its equipment caused the destructive Eaton Fire. The fire killed 17 people and destroyed thousands of homes. The company says it's reviewing the lawsuits and will address them through the appropriate legal process. Popular gaming chat platform discord is reportedly talking to bankers about going public. The app is used by more than 200 million people every month. Reports say the IPO talks are in early stages and could value the company at $16 billion. And scientists at a biotech company are trying to bring back the wooly mammoth. The Dallas company colossal has genetically engineered what it's calling wooly mice with thick fur, like the long extinct prehistoric mammal. Scientists say it's the next best thing to restoring extinct animals, and that the same approach could one day help fight diseases in people. I'm Diane Macedo. The news never stops, and neither do we.
We have a lot more news right after the break.
Attention, teachers. No child is to.
Be sent to.
The principal's office.
Today.
Kids, if you want.
To do a.
Crime.
Now's the.
Time.
Happy first day of school.
Just kill her.
He's the dumber.
You've never heard of.
Let me ask you. Am I the evil culprit? The accomplice?
I'd like to know how the audience views me. The Fox Hollow.
Murders.
Playground of a serial killer.
Only on Hulu.
Welcome back to ABC News Live. First you were looking at Los Angeles on this Thursday, and we have a lot of news to get to. Ukraine says at least four people are dead and more than 30 injured after a Russian strike on a hotel in central Ukraine. President Zelensky says two U.S. volunteers who were guests at that hotel survived the attack. Now, Zelenskyy is urging no pause in pressure on Russia. It comes just a day after President Trump paused all U.S. military aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine. ABC news, National security and defense analyst Mick Mulroy is here for more on that. So, Mick, what's the latest on these most recent strikes?
And of course, this comes at the same time when the U.S. has paused intelligence sharing with Ukrainians. It's unclear just how extensive that is. But one of the things that intelligence does is detect when there's incoming threats, like missiles coming from Russia, for example, which have deliberately targeted civilian infrastructure. So that, of course, is also in the category of duty to warn. So even if the United States isn't currently sharing intelligence with a country, if they have an idea, an intelligence, uh, piece of intelligence that said they're under threat, they have a duty to warn them. So I think that would still be the case. But this could have a significant effect on the overall ability of Ukraine to defend itself. And that might also, of course, have led to these strikes. It's unclear, but that certainly is something that the Ukrainians would like to see turn back on immediately.
Mick. Politico reports that senior members of Trump's team held private talks with political opposition figures in Ukraine. What do you make of that?
That indicates to me that this is, of course, not just about trying to push Ukraine to the negotiation table. I think they're ready to be there. It's. It could also be specifically about President Zelensky and the desire to see him not be the president of Ukraine. Of course, Ukraine is a democratic country. And President Zelensky was democratically the elected leader. So not something that the US normally does at all, certainly not going straight to the opposition. But I think it's clear from everything coming out of Ukraine that the opposition right now is aligned behind President Zelensky because he is their wartime commander, even if they have political differences. So I don't know that that will make that big of a difference. But I think what the world hopes the US starts focusing on is getting Russia to the negotiation table, because it's unclear whether they're even willing to start the negotiations, especially after the US cut military support and intelligence support to the Ukrainians.
MC Zelensky is in Brussels right now for a European summit. What are you watching for there?
Well, it looks like the Europeans have really woken up, to be frank, both in their own defense and building up what they're going to call the European Defense Force, which is an integrated military across Europe, which will require a lot of, uh, increase in defense spending, but also their willingness to step up and increase their contributions to make up for the shortfalls from the United States in Ukraine and potentially use these frozen assets of Russia, which are throughout Europe, in total, over $300 billion, billion dollars, uh, to to unfreeze that so that Ukraine can use it, because there's going to have to be some effort, a big effort to make up for what could be a big gap caused by the United States. So Ukraine can keep fighting a country which is staggeringly larger than Ukraine, both in people, resources, ammunition production, for example. That's going to be difficult to make up for, but the Europeans are probably talking about that right now with President Zelensky and how they could potentially do that.
ABC news, national security and defense analyst Mick Mulroy, thank you. And Republican lawmakers are urging mayors and so-called sanctuary cities to do more to cooperate with President Trump's crackdown on immigration. Yesterday, Democratic mayors of Boston, Chicago, Denver and New York defended their policies to not routinely report undocumented people to federal authorities. Now, at least one lawmaker is pushing for a federal investigation into whether these mayors are breaking the law. ABC's Andrew Dymburt has the details.
Clashes on Capitol Hill as sanctuary cities face new scrutiny.
You all have blood on your hands.
Members of a House committee grilling for big city mayors about their immigrant safe haven policies.
This is why you have 6% approval rating because you suck at answering questions. Mayor Wu.
Republicans railing against the leaders of New York, Boston, Chicago and Denver, where local authorities do not routinely report undocumented people to the federal government.
We cannot let Pro-criminal alien policies and obstructionist sanctuary cities continue to endanger American communities.
The Democrats defending their policies, insisting they're following the law while protecting people's rights and neighborhoods.
The false narrative is that immigrants in general are criminals, or immigrants in general, cause all sorts of danger and harm. That is, that is actually what is undermining safety in our communities.
Denver's mayor clashing with Congressman Jim Jordan over an incident where federal agents had to chase a man through a jail parking lot because sheriff's deputies released him after serving time for a local crime.
They have to arrest him in the parking lot. They bring six officers when they could have had 1 or 2. Just come in your facility in the jail and take the guy there.
Arguments between Congresswoman Nancy Mace and the mayor is reaching a boiling point, with mace saying she plans to ask the Justice Department to investigate the mayor's conduct.
Mayor Johnson, um, are you willing to go to jail for violating federal law?
The city of Chicago complies with all laws.
Oh, I highly doubt that, Mayor Wu.
We are not violating federal law.
The clash is not just along party lines.
You should step down and resign today.
Democrats question New York Mayor Eric Adams after he seemingly reversed his stance on allowing immigration agents to raid Rikers Island jail. Adams was facing federal corruption charges, but the Trump administration directed prosecutors to drop the case. Critics questioning the mayor's motives.
Are you selling out New Yorkers to save yourself from prosecution?
There's no deal. No quid pro quo. And I did nothing wrong.
ABC's Andrew Dymburt. Thank you. And shoppers across the country are launching a 40 day boycott, giving up target for lent. The movement started after the retailer rolled back its diversity, equity and inclusion policies. Now tens of thousands are joining in. ABC's Andrea Fujii has more.
As Christians mark the season of lent, shoppers across the country are giving up target.
What you see. Believers globally doing is stepping away from something. Sacrificing something.
Staging a 40 day boycott of the retailer. It stems from the company's decision to roll back its diversity, equity and inclusion policies, eliminating hiring goals for minority employees and altering its diversity initiatives.
We need to.
Hold larger corporations.
Accountable.
A church in Georgia launched the boycott, now gaining tens of thousands of followers. Target isn't the only store to scale back Dei initiatives. Walmart and John Deere are among the many others that have also backtracked amid public pressure and threats from the Trump administration to investigate what it calls illegal Dei.
We've ended the tyranny of so-called diversity, equity and inclusion policies all across the entire federal government and indeed the private sector.
Sales at target declined last month, and its predicted growth this year is only about 1%. Now, with rising inflation and tariffs, experts say the timing of this boycott could mean trouble for target's bottom line.
It's really like.
Do.
You.
Get.
Enough.
People actively.
Supporting a.
Boycott such.
That.
You know, it actually.
Resonates into the.
Boardroom?
ABC's Andrea Fujii. Thank you. And the Mexican tourism board is casting doubt on a planned Fyre Festival two. The event is scheduled for May, but officials on the island where it's supposed to happen say no one has contacted them about it. ABC's Will Reeve has the latest.
It began as one of the most anticipated music festivals.
Of the 21st.
Century.
With VIP packages going for $12,000 and promising an.
Event.
For the ages.
But then.
Reality hit.
We had no electricity.
There was.
No showers.
There was no bathrooms.
There was no.
Running.
Water.
The promised.
Musical acts.
Like blink 182.
Failed to.
Materialize.
It was about $4,000 when we actually got was probably worth closer to, I'd say $0.
And instead of the deluxe accommodations promised.
Concert goers.
Found themselves housed in Red cross.
Tents, surviving.
On cheese sandwiches.
I am stranded.
In.
The stranded.
In the.
Bahamas amidst.
Hundreds.
Of other.
Extremely.
Unlucky festival goers.
Billy McFarland, the.
Host.
And organizer.
Of Fyre.
Festival.
Later sentenced to six years in prison for.
Pocketing.
The proceeds, now says he and his infamous festival are back.
I figured it would be best to.
Hear.
Directly from.
Me.
What's actually.
Happening.
First, Fyre.
Two is real.
Second, we have incredible partners leading the festival. This includes an incredible production.
Team in.
Mexico.
But that's news to the small Mexican island of.
Isla.
Mujeres.
Off the.
Coast of Cancun.
Where McFarland says the festival is supposed to take place.
Edgar Gasca, the tourism.
Director of the island, telling the Guardian This is an event that does not exist, adding it's very strange because any manager knows if you're going to hold an event, let alone a massive event, you need municipal authorization. Tickets for Fyre Fest two are allegedly selling from $1300 to $1 million. No talent has been announced yet, but according to McFarland, he's booked a star studded lineup. He also claims to have pre-booked a number of accommodations.
Villas, yachts and hotels.
In 2022. Shortly after his release from prison, McFarland sat down with our Michael Strahan where he admitted to lying to concertgoers and stealing the money. But he says he just got caught up on a terrible path of bad decisions.
So are you truly a changed man or is this just a spin?
I hope I.
Continue to change for the next 40 years, so.
I'm certainly.
Not done.
Changing yet.
The festival is supposed to take.
Place the last week of.
May. A note of Fair warning McFarland announced Fyre Festival two back in August of 2023.
Saying.
It would take place.
In.
December of 2024. That didn't happen, but we will see.
If.
Anything.
Changes.
This time around.
We will see. Will Reeve thank you. And two people are facing criminal charges for allegedly stealing and reselling tickets to Taylor Swift's Eras Tour. Tickets for the tour sold out in seconds, frustrating many fans. Now, New York officials say the suspect stole 900 of them. ABC's Rebecca Jarvis has the latest.
Two people are accused of.
Scheming to.
Steal over $600,000 worth of some of the hottest tickets in town.
They waited in line.
For.
Like.
Six.
Hours.
You know what just happened?
Mostly from Taylor Swift's Eras tour.
Welcome to the eras heiress tour.
According to the Queens District Attorney, Tyrone Rose and Shamara Simmons were arrested and charged with grand larceny, conspiracy and computer tampering. The pair allegedly exploited a loophole through an offshore vendor for the ticket resale website StubHub, where they intercepted already sold ticket URLs, then resold them between the summers of 2022 and 2023.
You can.
Imagine how.
Frustrating.
It would.
Be to.
Get there and.
Realize that you don't have a ticket.
Anymore.
The duo allegedly targeted NBA games and.
High profile.
Artists, including Swift.
From the other side.
Adele.
Come on now, follow my lead.
An Ed Sheeran.
There's always going to be.
People attempting to hack.
Into.
Systems.
And so.
Companies need to.
Acquire the most professional, aggressive cybersecurity.
Companies.
They can find.
Rebecca Jarvis thank you. And the search is on for three skiers in what could be the deadliest U.S. avalanche in two years. The victims are believed dead after the avalanche buried them during a guided heli skiing trip. Now, state troopers have to dig through up to 40ft of snow to find them. But the weather is not cooperating. ABC's mola lenghi has the latest.
Tragedy in Alaska's remote backcountry. Authorities say three skiers are now presumed dead after a large avalanche buried them in snow up to 40ft deep. The slide, occurring around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday near Girdwood, considered the skiing capital of Alaska, about 40 miles south of Anchorage. Guides using emergency beacons to locate the skiers but unable to rescue them. If confirmed, the deaths would make it the deadliest avalanche in the U.S. in two years. John Cornely planned to make a similar trip back on Friday, but conditions were too bad.
But.
They.
Kept delaying.
And kept delaying.
So our our days there, we never were given the green light to fly.
State troopers working to determine how to safely recover the skiers bodies. In a statement, the company Chugach Power Lines offering its sincere condolences to the families involved, adding it stands ready to assist them in any way possible.
Mola Lenghi thank you. And the National Avalanche Center says the number of people dying in U.S. avalanches is going up. The center says we're now losing 25 to 30 people each winter, compared to just eight when they started tracking data in 1990. Meteorologist Greg Dutra, with our ABC station in Chicago, is taking a closer look at why. Greg.
Well, Diane, the frequency has gone up because they've seen more snow in this particular accident. Two new feet of snow fell on what they said was a weak layer of snowfall that was hard to assess. And those avalanches, they usually start down low in that weak layer. Sometimes it's a wet snow that gets frozen, becomes brittle, and when all the weight of that new two feet happens, it snaps and it slides a big slab avalanche. And those are usually happening in areas where the pitches, say, 30 to 45 degrees, exactly where heli skiing outfits would bring skiers in. And of course, these are very remote areas that are hard to access and really analyze the snow. And that's why the heli skiing outfits will tell people you have to ski at your own risk. Back to you.
Meteorologist Greg Dutra, thank you. Coming up, a historic restoration at a famous American landmark. Our Matt Rivers traveled to the Alamo to give us an inside look at the plans.
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Why would somebody fake cancer?
Scamanda. All episodes now streaming on Hulu.
People do not know how to date. That's why they come to us.
As a matchmaker. We're here to help you get your wings on.
Let's get some people married. Why are you single? Maybe the kind.
Of guys that I go.
For. You go for hot guys.
Yeah, it's a pitfall. What would you say are like the top things you're looking for?
You don't like hairy men, so all Muslims are out. What are you talking about?
This process doesn't have to suck. Ooh! He's cute.
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Wherever news breaks. ABC news live. Prime. We'll take you there.
Welcome back to ABC News Live. First, a restoration at the Alamo is preserving history in an unexpected way. The $550 million redevelopment plan includes a new museum, visitor center and restoration of its 300 year old limestone walls. But where do you find centuries old limestone to match that? Well, it turns out the answer was hiding at a nearby zoo. ABC's Matt Rivers takes us inside the discovery, reshaping this historic landmark. Matt. This must have been fascinating to see.
It really was. This is a mystery. Really? For 300 years, no one had any idea where the original quarry was. That was mined to get the limestone that helped build the Alamo. There, right behind me. And now we know where it was. And of all places, Diane. It was discovered in a gorilla enclosure in a zoo. An American icon that needs some work.
It's an exciting time here at the Alamo, because we're in the midst of a $550 million redevelopment plan.
A new museum, visitor center and a rework of the entire grounds is transforming this symbol of Texan pride and making sure it sticks around for a while.
Everything that you see here more than likely came from here.
Head conservator Pamela Rosser bringing us inside, showing us how parts of the 300 year old walls are degrading.
So this.
Is old.
Very old. I mean, what happens to you when you get old, right?
The stone needs replacing, but you can't just patch it up with new material. You need the same limestone that was used back in the 1700s. So where do you find that? Well, where else but the San Antonio Zoo, of course, which is in the middle of building a massive new gorilla exhibit. Historians always guess that the original stone used to build the Alamo came from this area. They just weren't sure exactly where. Enter this construction site. One day, the Alamo's head conservator driving down the road here sees this construction site and thinks, huh? We should probably test rock like this from this site to see if it matches the Alamo. And a few days ago the tests came back positive. This zoo filled with bears and leopards and now limestone, now set aside to be used at the Alamo.
It shows that history is not static. We're constantly making new discoveries about what happened in the past, and this discovery will help us to do a really authentic job of our preservation efforts here at the church.
Mission efforts. Replacing that stone Diane set to begin very soon using that stone from the zoo.
Matt, what surprised you most about seeing this all firsthand?
Yeah, you know, it's stunning and really interesting to see how you have to to to handle a building like this. You can't just patch it with anything. And really, historians want to use that original stone more than just any other stone, because it keeps the Alamo true to form. They look at this as a piece of living history. And by able, by being able to find that quarry, they're able to keep the Alamo true to form. That's very cool. Also, just the idea that they found this stone in a zoo, of all places. The head conservator was quite literally just driving down the road, happened to see this construction site, and was like, maybe we should talk to them and see if we can test that rock. They sent it to a firm in New York. Took months and months and months to figure it out. But literally just a few days ago, they got those results back. And and that conservator who is such a sweet woman, she she was so excited about this.
You could feel her passion for this project. And I think it's it's very cool and a real service to Texans and all Americans that this building will be sticking around for for several more generations.
She must be so happy right now that she pulled over and asked that question. Matt Rivers at the Alamo in San Antonio. Matt. Thank you. Coming up, the hills are.
Alive.
And fans of The Sound of Music are in for a treat. Will Gans has the tea on some behind the scenes stories from the classic musical When We Come back.
Whenever. Wherever news breaks. It's so important to always remember that lives are changed. We're in London, in Buffalo. Uvalde, Texas. Edinburgh, Scotland. From Poland once again tonight. Thank you so much for streaming with us. Ukrainian refugees here in Warsaw. Do you think you'll ever be able to go back home? We're heading to a small community outside of Mexico City. Splintered houses and splintered lives. The magnitude of the devastation. You're streaming ABC News Live reporting from Rolling Fork, Mississippi. Santa Fe, New Mexico. Raleigh, North Carolina. The U.S. capital. Mayfield, Kentucky. Minneapolis. Mexico. Tongass National Forest, Alaska. Getting you behind the stories as they happen. Giving you a front row seat to our world as it plays out in real time. Live. ABC News Live. Prime. We'll take you there.
Stream ABC news live weeknights. America's most honored streaming news program only on ABC news live streaming free right now wherever you stream your news Friday night. David Muir reporting two cold cases.
She was trying to protect her daughter.
It gives you chills even today.
Yes.
What links both.
Of those cases.
Is cutting edge forensic technology inside this.
Lab.
Catching the killers 2020 Friday on ABC.
I told you to let me handle it.
Raj made me do it. I did.
You mad enough to take your father's place?
What would we have to do?
Run the business.
Call the shots.
That's terrifying.
Toxic freaking workplace.
When you hear the sirens.
You're like a serial.
Killer now, man.
You think so?
Really proud of you boys.
I would never change.
Now you can listen to a podcast version of 2020, available free wherever you listen.
Reporting on the frigid winter storm hitting Kansas City, Missouri. I'm Faith Abubey. Wherever the story is, we'll take you there. You're streaming ABC News Live. ABC News live.
Because the news never stops.
Welcome back to ABC News Live. First, it is time now for the tea, where we break down some of the buzzy stories people are talking about. Our friend Will Gans is here to help us out. We'll spill that tea.
Got some good tea for you, Diane. And to all of you. We begin this morning the same way I like to begin most of my mornings with a little bit of mayhem. But in this case, we're talking about Lady Gaga's highly anticipated seventh studio album. Gaga has said this will be a return to her pop music roots after having dabbled in jazz and in country, and ESPN premiered a sneak peek of an unreleased song from mayhem called Garden of Eden because it's going to be the official anthem for the upcoming Formula One racing season. Take a listen.
It's lights out and away we go.
Take it to the top and repeat.
Ooh, mayhem, I know, including that new song Garden of Eden. All of it drops tonight at midnight. And Gaga, by the way, will serve as host and musical guest on SNL this weekend.
Very much looking forward to this album.
She's so multi-talented. I'm excited for this album to, uh, Abracadabra, by the way, a great SoulCycle song.
Da da.
Da da.
Da.
Da da. Also, Zumba.
Ooh ooh. Okay, so it's a good cardio song. You heard it here first. All right. Next, let's move on to the Jane Fonda songs. After being honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award at last weekend's SAG Awards, the Hollywood and social justice icon continues to reinvent herself, but this time as a wildlife wrangler. Question mark Jane, appearing on a podcast with her son, who shared the story of her encounter with a bear.
When she.
Came back in, the screen door was dismantled and there was a bear in the bedroom sniffing over the crib.
What did you do? Go ahead.
Run!
Oh my God! Sorry.
Sorry.
Sound man.
I had just.
Learned what to.
Do if.
You're close to a.
Bear.
And that was it.
And get very big.
That is a performer, by the way. They said. What did you do? And she was ready to go. Thankfully, the Bear and Jane lived to tell the tale, although in that matchup I think Jane had the upper hand.
The bear is terrified and has never returned.
Exactly. All right. Do you. Do you hear that, Diane? The hills. They're alive with the Sound of Music. In honor of the 60th anniversary of The Sound of Music. This week, 60 rare behind the scenes photos have been released. And the tea that they're spilling is pitch perfect. The photos were captured during the filming of the movie back in 1964, both on location in Salzburg, Austria, and on set in Los Angeles. And apparently the Do-Re-Mi picnic scene was filmed about 45 minutes from Salzburg, where frequent rain interruptions stretched the shoot over three days, causing delays in the film's international production schedule. Another shot reveals that one of the von Trapp children couldn't swim and needed to be rescued by a crew member. You see her being carried out there. When Julie Andrews fell the wrong way out of the boat, and the Lonely Goatherd puppet scene took five whole days.
Little old lady Julie.
We're ready to go right here. It would just take one morning. Apparently here in the studio. For anyone looking to celebrate more of The Sound of Music, it's being restored in 4K and will come back to theaters later this year.
I love that I can't wait to watch that one with my kids.
I'll go with you. I'll bring the popcorn. You bring the vocals for the goatherd scene.
I will not sing in the theater.
All right. Finally, it's time for another installment of our segment. Who is this diva? Take a listen to this 911 call placed to the Moore Police Department in Oklahoma recently, and see if you can figure out who is this diva.
Mm.
What? Hello? Yes.
Do you have an emergency?
Yes. Do you? feel?
Okay, so the call goes on to say that the little boy, his name is Bennett. He calls to request emergency donuts. Emergency donuts. Emergency donuts. So he's celebrating his fourth birthday this weekend. And he used an old cell phone to dial 911, which apparently still works. But the story doesn't end there. The Moore Police Department did bring him his emergency donuts. Thank goodness.
I love that. All right, I'm requesting some emergency donuts.
I think it only works if you're four years old and adorable. Diane. Don't call 911.
I'm going to call right now. I'll be right back. We're getting.
Emergency donuts. See you in a bit.
Hello?
Hello? Yes. Boston cream, please.
Whenever. Wherever news breaks. It's so important to always remember that lives are changed. You're in London, in Buffalo. Uvalde, Texas. Edinburgh, Scotland. From Poland once again tonight. Thank you so much for streaming with us. Ukrainian refugees here in Warsaw. Do you think you'll ever be able to go back home? We're heading to a small community outside of Mexico City. Splintered houses and splintered lives. The magnitude of the devastation. You're streaming ABC News Live reporting from Rolling Fork, Mississippi. Santa Fe, New Mexico. Raleigh, North Carolina. The U.S. capital. Mayfield, Kentucky. Minneapolis. Mexico. Tongass National Forest, Alaska. Getting you behind the stories as they happen. Giving you a front row seat to our world as it plays out in real time. Live. ABC News Live. Prime. We'll take you there.
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That golden ticket today.
Good luck.
Coming out.
The golden.
Ticket.
They grew into a life.
Will change my life.
I know you're.
Nervous.
Show me a place where dreams come true.
I've never seen anything like it.
You're going to.
Hollywood.
My dream came true. There are surprises.
In every.
Person.
It's where dreams come true.
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We are.
Here in Israel.
A nation at war.
In Rolling Fork. This tornado tore through this town in Maine.
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Why did you stop being a vigilante? A line was crossed. I liked how it felt, didn't you? Dispensing justice. If you say to me that you're a new man, I say fine. But if you step out of line, I will be there. Daredevil born again. Only on Disney+.
Welcome back to ABC News Live. First we have breaking news. House Republicans have censured Democratic Congressman Al Green over his protest at President Trump's joint address to Congress.
By its adoption of House resolution 189. The House has.
Resolved.
That Representative Al Green be censured, that.
Representative Al Green.
Forthwith present himself in.
The well of the House.
Of.
Representatives for the pronouncement of censure.
And.
That Representative.
Al Green be censured with public reading of this resolution.
By.
The.
Speaker.
Let's go to Jay O'Brien on Capitol Hill for more. Jay, how are Democrats responding?
An older black man who saw so many images that I can only imagine what he needs to do in this time. One thing he didn't do is he actually wasn't disrespectful, as far as I'm concerned, because the president got up there and lied over and over and over. But he was at that moment saying he had a mandate, and al was making it clear you don't have a mandate to take health care from children. You don't have a mandate to take people's Social Security. You don't have a mandate to take health care from anybody, because that's not what you ran on. And I think that he was telling the truth. We know that. We've seen Marjorie yell at Joe Biden. There was no outrage. None. So there shouldn't be any outrage today.
So, Diane.
That was Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett. As you can see, David, right here on me. We're live on the air. So that was Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett. We're going to walk a little bit away because we're right in front of the back of her car. So, David, if you wouldn't come with me, you're standing right in the back of her car there. So, Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, talking about her reaction to this Al Green censure vote, there was this moment we're going to keep going all the way across the street. There was this moment on the House floor where Democrats, including Jasmine Crockett, went to the well of the House, stood there alongside Al Green and started singing We Shall Overcome, we're told. And it was in that moment that Speaker Johnson then gaveled out, put the House in recess, and didn't fully proceed with the procedure here, which was supposed to be reading the censure resolution to Al Green as he stood there in the well of the House. That's what happens when a member is censured.
That didn't happen because of that demonstration. Johnson instead gaveled out the business of the House, and lawmakers went home. It's unclear when they're going to return to finish this business of reading the censure resolution to Al Green, we assume it will be when they come back to work next week. I talked to Democrats who said that they were discouraged with what they saw. You heard Jasmine Crockett just elicit what we've heard Democrats say over the course of the last few moments here. I also asked Jasmine Crockett before you came to us live, was she disappointed in the ten Democrats who joined alongside all Republicans and also voted to censure green? Again, remember, for this outburst during the state of the Union? She said that you'd have to ask them why they voted, but she voted no for the reasons you just heard it expressed live on the air.
So, Jay, what happens to green now and what kind of message does this send?
A censure is a kind of of a permanent mark, if you will, on a member of Congress's record, but it doesn't come without any specific repercussions beyond that. It's used for conduct of lawmakers that the House disagrees with and wants to create a black mark to that effect. Remember, you know, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib was censured for her comments about the October 7th terror attack. Censure has been used about five times in the last four decades up here, but it's been used more frequently in recent years. Paul Gosar, Republican, remember, was censured for posting a violent video that depicted him engaging in an act of violence against another member of Congress, Marjorie Taylor Greene. Remember was not censured for her outburst during President Biden's State of the Union. Democrats have mentioned that repeatedly here. But again, it's just kind of a black mark on a member's permanent record. But it is notable here that a ten Democrats voted with Republicans to censure Greene, and also B. Democratic leadership did not advise members on how to vote here.
They didn't, as we call it up on the Hill, whip this vote. Typically, when a vote comes to pass, Democrats will tell its members vote yes on this or vote no on this. That guidance did not come down. It was a tacit admission to Democrats to just vote their conscience here. And remember, Dianne, I caught up with Congressman Greene after his outburst after the joint address, after he was removed from the chamber, he told me he would welcome any punishment.
All right, Jay O'Brien, thank you. And President Trump is delaying tariffs on cars for a month and could have more delays coming. The commerce secretary just announced more potential exemptions to the tariffs, as the Department of Veterans Affairs is laying off tens of thousands of workers. Let's go to white House correspondent Karen Travers for more on that. So, Karen, the Commerce secretary, is saying more of these products could be exempt. What more can you tell us about that?
Yeah, we.
Heard from Commerce Secretary Howard.
Lutnick just.
In the last hour who said that it is likely that it's not just the automakers who are getting some sort of reprieve. More details to come. But the president, he says, is going to decide on this.
Today.
And that there could be more sectors, more products that would be covered under this pause right now that the president had given to the automakers. The white House had indicated that yesterday that potentially they were open for business of other options that.
Could.
Be on the table for a reprieve from tariffs. Caroline Leavitt said this yesterday in response to a question from our colleague Rachel Scott, about whether there could be an exemption for eggs that are being imported from Canada right now, given the prices of eggs and the shortages that we're seeing around the country. So this is something the president is discussing today. He's also expected to have a phone call with the president of Mexico this morning. Potentially. This is part of it as his calculation about what could be exempted and how long that exemption could be before.
And Karen, as you mentioned, the president is scheduled to talk to Mexico's president today. So what are you watching for there?
She has not put.
In.
Place yet her retaliation to the president's announced tariffs 25%, of course, on Canada and Mexico. As you know, Canada had done that. Justin Trudeau, the prime Minister, announced very quickly earlier this week that Canada would put in place.
A similar.
25% tariff on.
Billions.
And billions of dollars of American goods. But Mexico was putting things on hold. Essentially, President Sheinbaum was saying, let's see if we can have a conversation with the United States that she had a plan A, a plan B, a plan C, and a.
Plan D.
About what they might do. That conversation is expected to take place this morning, and maybe there is a negotiation off ramp. But she indicated that if there wasn't, they would be announcing their retaliatory measures later this weekend.
And Karen, the Department of Veterans Affairs is now planning to cut over 70,000 employees, 15% of its workforce. What's the goal there and what impact could that have?
The goal.
Is to.
Make this very large department run more efficiently, because there has been criticism for years about how the VA operates and how it provides care to veterans. But cutting an agency like this with such sweeping cuts to the workforce could have very big impacts on the care it provides to veterans. And you just look at this. It's the second largest federal agency after the Pentagon. And veterans actually make up about a quarter of the workforce at the VA. So when you're looking at job cuts, it is service members who will likely see the impacts of this. The VA has grown significantly over the last handful of years because in part due to the Pact act. This was a bipartisan piece of legislation that offered greater care, more targeted care to veterans who were experiencing health issues due to being exposed to toxic burn pits from their service overseas, especially in Iraq. This was a big piece of legislation done during the Biden administration, and the VA expanded greatly in order to take care of those veterans under this legislation. Diane, a lot of questions about if you make these cuts like this, can you provide that same level of care?
All right. Karen Travers at the white House for us. Thank you. And sources tell ABC news President Trump is preparing an executive order directing his education secretary to dissolve the Department of Education. The president has been adamant about returning education to state control, but critics argue the department provides critical funding and enforces nondiscrimination laws. ABC's Alex Presha is here with the latest. Alex. Education Secretary Linda McMahon acknowledged it would take help from Congress to fully dissolve the agency. So how is this expected to work?
Well, Diane, that's a really good question because not just would it take help from Congress to dissolve this, she would need a 60 vote threshold. And frankly, Republicans don't have the Democratic support to do that right now. But Linda McMahon has only been on the job for three days now, and we're expecting her to move forward with this pledge. And. And it also was a campaign promise of President Trump to dismantle the Department of Education. Now, it's important to look at what that does at the state and local level. The department oversees billions of dollars in funding to help low income students. Also students with disabilities. It also enforces civil rights laws to prevent discrimination at school. But the other thing to keep in mind is that it manages $1.5 trillion in student loan debt, and it also oversees that process for for students applying for financial aid through either Pell Grants or Fafsa. Some 17 million students apply for Fafsa every single year, so what remains unseen is, even as they look to kind of dismantle even pieces of the Department of Education, how does that get divvied up into other agencies?
And and how does that that, that, that financing continue?
And President Trump claimed during his address to Congress that the U.S. spends more money on education than any 40 out of 40 in education outcomes. What does the data actually say?
Well, the data says that that's that's not true. I can tell you that the US is not ranked last in education, nor does it spend the most per pupil, which are things that we've heard from from the the president. Now, one organization that does track this data, they have something called a program for international student assessment. It's a test. And it shows that the U.S. is above average in reading and science, but average or below average whenever it comes to scores and math. In the most recent data we have here, you're looking at it from 2022, the U.S. ranked ninth in reading, 16th in science, and 34th in math. But one thing that we do know is when it comes to the nation's report card, which is the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the most recent version of that has shown that test scores for fourth and eighth graders have shown a slide in reading. This is something that a lot of Republicans have pointed to reading and and math scores as a reason for for for some of the president's claims here.
All right. ABC's Alex presha. Thank you. And let's bring in Jennifer Jenkins, the founder and chair of educated. We stand for more on this. Jennifer, thanks for coming on. As we just heard there from Alex, that assessment data shows the U.S. is ranked 16th in science, 34th in math. What does that tell you about how the Department of Education is doing? Are you satisfied with those numbers?
I think anyone who is a supporter of public.
Education.
Is comfortable to say that.
There.
Are changes.
That need to be.
Made.
But, you know, the public education is a is a public good. It's not a business. And so taking away resources and funding is not going to help the department improve or improve the academic outcomes of our students across America.
Sources tell ABC news president Trump's order is expected to argue that controlling American education through federal programs and dollars has failed our children, our teachers and our families, and the administration says the Doe's main functions can and should be returned to the states. What's your response to that?
Well.
I think.
Project.
2025 made it clear the goal is to dismantle the Department of Education, and it's all being done under this facade of local control. But in reality, this is a deliberate attack on federal oversight and civil rights protections, which is ensuring that every child has access to a fair education. We have relied on the Department of Education to enforce critical laws like title nine, protecting against Gender discrimination and Idea, which is guaranteeing educational access for students with disabilities. Without it, we're going to roll back decades of progress and leave our most vulnerable students unprotected. If this happens, the achievement gap that we were just talking about is going to grow wider, and it's going to hit students of color, low income students and students with disabilities the hardest. It's not about local control. It's about dismantling opportunities and we absolutely cannot let that happen.
What's your response to critics who say that it's local leaders who know these areas better, who know these students better, who are more equipped to decide what they need, including those with special needs?
I'm all for local school boards making decisions about their communities because they do know it best. However, Florida is a warning for the rest of the country. We lead in overcrowded classrooms and book bans, but we rank dead last in teacher pay, all while our public schools have been gutted financially, over $3 billion in our taxpayer money has been funneled to funneled to unregulated private schools, schools with fewer rules, less oversight, and the power to pick and choose their students all at the same time. While our students are now being taught that slavery had benefits and our S.A.T. scores are dropping year after year. So school choice, local control, parental rights, all of those things that the Republican agenda here in the state of Florida have pushed, which is now bled into the national level. This is just simply about taxpayer funded discrimination.
So what do you think are the most immediate consequences? We'll see if the Department of Education is dissolved.
I think the one thing that we really need to focus on here is that Republican officials in rural states are about to face a really tough choice. They're going to have to explain to their constituents why they're okay with gutting federal funding for struggling schools, why they are comfortable leaving behind low income families, students with disabilities, kids who are relying on school meals. Their communities are going to see the worst effects larger class sizes, fewer early education and after school programs, cuts to job training programs, and less opportunities for financial aid for them to have access to college. Most often, our rural and low income districts don't have a tax base to make up for that. That financial shortfall, they're going to see if federal funding goes away. So it's going to cause inequality gaps on steroids, all just to put money in the hands of Trump billionaire friends. And trust me, when you mess with people's kids, they're not going to wait for you to have the guts to host a town hall. They're going to show up at your office, and they're going to demand answers, and they're going to show up at the ballot box to hold them accountable.
All right, Jennifer Jenkins, thank you. And a new major storm is hitting the West as rain, snow and wind slam the northeast and the Midwest. Three people are dead and at least six are injured. In Mississippi, multiple buildings are torn apart. In Kansas, the winds were so powerful, they toppled a semi-truck, sending it sliding across the road. Flooding in Philadelphia, slowing down the commute there, and heavy rain in New York City brought down trees and debris all over the neighborhood. ABC's Stephanie Ramos is in hillside, new Jersey, where a tree crashed down on a home.
Whether it caused a lot of damage across.
The.
Northeast. High winds knocking down several trees like the one behind me here in hillside, new Jersey. These downed trees damaging buildings and homes across the country. There's a bit of everything from blizzards in the Midwest to torrential rains along the East Coast, and of course, those high winds sweeping across half the country. Strong winds of up to 90mph toppling over this truck in Kansas. In the south. Severe thunderstorms moving out, leaving a trail of destruction. In North Carolina, a tornado with 90 mile per hour winds ripped apart these buildings. At least three people killed and.
Six.
Injured after strong storms swept through Mississippi. Meanwhile, in Iowa, whiteout conditions and zero visibility have stranded drivers, cars and trucks scattered across highways. Plows. You can see them digging vehicles out of the snow as authorities urge people to stay home. Now, as far as travel goes, airlines canceled nearly 700 flights Tuesday as severe weather moved across the East Coast, Charlotte.
And.
DC's airports.
Seeing the most.
Impacts. JFK and Newark airports also seeing delays. The best tip if you're traveling today, check with your airline to make sure your flight is on time and taking off. Diane.
All right, Stephanie Ramos, thank you. And meteorologist Greg Dutra, with our ABC station in Chicago is tracking the impact of this storm. Greg, where are you seeing the biggest impact right now?
The biggest impacts on both coasts at this point. Here we've got one storm that's trying to depart. It's marked as departing, but it's like a thorn in our side. We still have high wind advisories out, and they go all the way through the afternoon and into the evening. Additionally, there is that new storm out on the West Coast that's bringing rainfall and going to hammer the mountains with snowfall, feet of snow in some cases. So let's start in the east, where unfortunately most of the storm is off the coast, but we are still dealing with some backlash from it as the winds come around the backside and wind gusts are anywhere from 40 to 50mph at this hour. Guess what? The wind advisory hasn't even kicked in yet. Doesn't kick in until 4:00 eastern time. And you see some spots here, the darker areas. Extreme wind warnings up for those areas. One just off on the leeward side of the Berkshires, one out in the Worcester Hills and then another farther off to the south on the leeward side of the Appalachian Mountains.
And once you get downwind from those mountains, winds pick up speed and we could see isolated gusts there that are 60 or even higher miles per hour. Then we have to shift our focus to the next storm. Good news about this doesn't quite have the bite as the one that's moving out right now, but still will bring feet of snow in the mountains. High fire danger to New Mexico, right up to about the caprock. And Texas just off to the west of that and into southern portions of Kansas and also southeastern Colorado, kind of near Springfield, Colorado. This will bring feet of snow in the mountains. It will increase avalanche danger, which we've seen a decent amount of this year. What it won't do is bring snow to an area that really needs it. And that's the Midwest, a paltry, very spotty 1 to 3in around Chicago. And that is just not going to cut it. When you look at the numbers for the season so far, anywhere from about a foot to a foot and a half to in Hartford, Connecticut, two feet below where they normally are this time of year.
That's going to have to be made up in the form of some sort of precipitation during springtime, or else we're dealing with high fire danger come spring and summer. Diane.
All right, meteorologist Greg Dutra, thank you.
No problem.
Hamas is dismissing President Trump's ultimatum to release all remaining hostages. Hamas says it won't hand over anyone until the next phase of the ceasefire is fully implemented. This comes despite the president threatening on Truth Social that there will be, quote, hell to pay if Hamas doesn't comply. It also comes after President Trump met with eight released American hostages and after U.S. officials confirmed the administration has had direct talks with Hamas. Chief international correspondent James Longman has more on that. Hi, James.
Hi, Diane. Unprecedented for the United States to be speaking directly with Hamas, with the terror organization. But this is the tactic that Donald Trump's administration is employing. We understand these talks have been going on for the last few weeks. The president's special envoy for hostage affairs, Adam Boehler, he's been taking the lead, and the focus has been on Israeli Americans still in captivity. Edan Alexander, 21 years old. He's the last Israeli American alive held by Hamas. There were four others who've sadly been killed. So their bodies have yet to be returned. And the conversations have been focused on the Israeli Americans still in captivity, but also a way to try to get the ceasefire back on track, because we know that that has stalled. Donald Trump's language has been fiery. As usual. We saw a statement on Truth Social where he essentially threatened Hamas over this issue about returning the hostages. He said, immediately return all of the dead bodies of the people you murdered, or it is over for you.
Question whether or not Hamas takes that threat seriously. Certainly, the Israelis are not happy that the Americans seem to be speaking directly to Hamas. They issued a statement saying very tersely, that they have made their position clear to the United States about directly speaking to Hamas. So we will wait and see if there is any result here, not just of the return of the hostages, but also of the resumption of the ceasefire, because the last few months meant that so much more aid was able to get in. During the pause in the fighting, 600 trucks a day, 100,000 tents were able to get into Gaza. But the need is enormous. And the last five days the Israelis have essentially laid siege to Gaza. And Benjamin Netanyahu is now saying that he's threatening to cut off electricity. Already food and fuel has been cut off. And so the race is on, really to try to get the ceasefire back up and running. Diane.
Chief international correspondent James Longman, Thank you. And ABC news, national security and defense analyst Mick Mulroy joins me now for more on that. Mick, what do we know so far about these direct talks between U.S. officials and Hamas?
So, Diane, it is important for the United States to take the lead when it comes to U.S. citizens. They are, after all, U.S. citizens. And the U.S. is not just a mediator in this conflict, neither on the hostage side or the ceasefire side, since it's intimately tied to the release of hostages. I think from the Israeli perspective, and as you referenced in the report, they are concerned that this could complicate their efforts to get their citizens back. So I do think it needs to be completely coordinated with the Israelis. But it is important for the United States to really focus, of course, on our citizens as well.
Now, if the U.S. strikes a deal with Hamas to release the remaining hostages, what would that mean for the war in Gaza? And how likely is it that Israel would be on board?
Well, of course, this is if they would release all the hostages. If that's the case, then I think Israel, of course, would be supportive. They're just releasing the US hostages, you know, from the US perspective. That is what our obligation is to get our citizens back. But it would, of course, complicate the Israeli negotiations to get theirs back. But it would likely also require from the Hamas side to get into the second phase of these negotiations. That's when all the hostages are supposed to be released. And that would require the Israeli Defense Forces to withdraw from Gaza, which is a big step for Israel and is something that would be very challenging to the prime Minister Netanyahu's coalition government.
And ABC news recently spoke to Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip, who said they feel hopeful after the Arab summit and now that the U.S. is talking directly with Hamas. So how do you see this playing out?
Well, referring to the Arab summit. So that was a counter to President Trump's proposal, which would require the relocation of almost 2 million people out of Gaza, with no indication that they would be allowed back in. So the Arab summit came up with a plan that would not require that. So it would be essentially having the Palestinians stay in place while the reconstruction is going on, with an extended amount of humanitarian aid going in. So I think that was positive in their respect, but that was not accepted by Israel after the conclusion of that plan was put together.
All right. ABC news, national security and defense analyst Mick Mulroy. Thank you. And 15 people are injured after South Korean fighter jets accidentally dropped eight bombs over a residential area. South Korean officials say it happened during annual joint training with the U.S. military. Foreign correspondent Britt Clennett has the latest.
Hi, Diane. Well, this happened as South Korea and US forces were holding joint live fire exercises linked to annual drills that start next week. Dozens of people injured after a pair of fighter jets accidentally dropped eight bombs in a civilian district. Now, according to local media reports, two people suffered fractures to their necks and shoulders. Security footage aired on local TV. It shows the moment leading up to the incident, with a pickup truck driving along the street before the area is consumed by a large blast. A local residents reporting hearing a loud roar followed by a loud explosion. Photographs from the scene showing a house destroyed by the impact, broken windows and and a building covered with debris. Residents in the area. They've previously raised the alarm about the potential danger from nearby training areas. Now South Korea's air force, it says it's investigating the incident and apologized for the damage, adding it would provide compensation to those who have been affected by it. Now, while shells from live firing exercises sometimes land near civilian residences, they rarely cause injuries like this?
The military said the pilot of one of the jets inputted the wrong coordinates by mistake, causing the bombs to drop in the civilian community. Investigators have yet to determine why the second jet dropped its bombs. That's according to the military. Adding that live fire exercises will be suspended. Now, we know that North Korea has always been irked by these drills. When President Trump was in his first term in talks with Kim Jong un, he had suspended these drills for a year and a half. And they don't sit well with him. But it's not likely to flare up tensions more than usual. It does, however, come at a time when both the US and South Korea are increasingly wary of the growing alliance between North Korea and Russia.
Diane Britt Clennett. Thank you. Coming up, a dramatic rescue caught on camera. A car crashes into a tanker truck, then bursts into flames. How? A police officer saved the unconscious driver.
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Welcome back to ABC News Live! First, a new Jersey police officer is being called a hero after pulling an unconscious driver from a burning car. The car collided with a diesel tanker, immediately bursting into flames. And while the officer wasn't wearing fire gear, he ran toward the flames as soon as he realized someone was inside. ABC's Eva Pilgrim has a look at what happened next.
Reporter A.
New Jersey.
Police officer being hailed a hero after pulling a man from a burning car. And the whole heart pounding.
Ordeal.
Was captured on body cam.
Video in.
The early.
Hours of Wednesday morning.
Bridgewater Police.
Officer Noah Allatt arrived at the.
Scene. Are you the only one in the car?
Are you the only guy?
Where is or where are they?
A car had.
Crashed into the back of a.
Tanker truck carrying.
Diesel, both.
Bursting into flames.
Yo! Come here, come here, come here.
Officer checking one person who made it to safety before talking to.
Another man at the.
Scene.
I have entrapment working fire. Can I go up to it?
You can go.
Up to it.
I just don't.
Know if it's going to.
Be.
Without hesitation.
A flat ran.
Towards.
Danger.
And the fire, finding the driver of the car unconscious behind.
The wheel.
As.
Flames.
Neared his body.
Officer Elliott dragged.
The.
Man away from the blaze and is being credited with.
Saving his.
Life. The driver was taken to a nearby hospital with non life threatening injuries. Diane.
All right, Eva Pilgrim, thank you and thank you for watching. I'm Diane Macedo. The news never stops and neither do we. We have a lot more news after the break. Stay with us.
GMA Friday morning.
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Welcome back to ABC News Live. First, you are looking at Los Angeles on this Thursday and we have a lot of news to get to. Ukraine says at least four people are dead and more than 30 injured after a Russian strike on a hotel in central Ukraine. President Zelensky says two U.S. volunteers who were guests at that hotel survived the attack. Now, Zelenskyy is urging no pause in pressure on Russia. It comes just a day after President Trump paused all U.S. military aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine. ABC news, National security and defense analyst Mick Mulroy is here for more on that. So, Mick, what's the latest on these most recent strikes?
And of course, this comes at the same time when the U.S. has paused intelligence sharing with Ukrainians. It's unclear just how extensive that is. But one of the things that intelligence does is detect when there's incoming threats, like missiles coming from Russia, for example, which have deliberately targeted civilian infrastructure. So that, of course, is also in the category of duty to warn. So even if the United States isn't currently sharing intelligence with a country, if they have an idea, an intelligence, uh, piece of intelligence that said they're under threat, they have a duty to warn them. So I think that would still be the case. But this could have a significant effect on the overall ability of Ukraine to defend itself. And that might also, of course, have led to these strikes. It's unclear, but that certainly is something that the Ukrainians would like to see turn back on immediately.
Mick. Politico reports that senior members of Trump's team held private talks with political opposition figures in Ukraine. What do you make of that?
That indicates to me that this is, of course, not just about trying to push Ukraine to the negotiation table. I think they're ready to be there. It's it could also be specifically about President Zelensky and the desire to see him not be the president of Ukraine. Of course, Ukraine is a democratic country. And President Zelensky was democratically the elected leader. So not something the US normally does at all, certainly not going straight to the opposition. But I think it's clear from everything coming out of Ukraine that the opposition right now is aligned behind President Zelensky because he is their wartime commander, even if they have political differences. So I don't know that that will make that big of a difference. But I think what the world hopes the US starts focusing on is getting Russia to the negotiation table, because it's unclear whether they're even willing to start the negotiations, especially after the US cut military support and intelligence support to the Ukrainians.
MC Zelensky is in Brussels right now for a European summit. What are you watching for there?
Well, it looks like the Europeans have really woken up, to be frank, both in their own defense and building up what they're going to call the European Defense Force, which is an integrated military across Europe, which will require a lot of, uh, increase in defense spending, but also their willingness to step up and increase their contributions to make up for the shortfalls from the United States in Ukraine and potentially use these frozen assets of Russia, which are throughout Europe, in total, over $300 billion, billion dollars, uh, to to unfreeze that so that Ukraine can use it, because there's going to have to be some effort, a big effort to make up for what could be a big gap caused by the United States. So Ukraine can keep fighting a country which is staggeringly larger than Ukraine, both in people, resources, ammunition production, for example. That's going to be difficult to make up for, but the Europeans are probably talking about that right now with President Zelensky and how they could potentially do that.
ABC news, national security and defense analyst Mick Mulroy, thank you. And Republican lawmakers are urging mayors and so-called sanctuary cities to do more to cooperate with President Trump's crackdown on immigration. Yesterday, Democratic mayors of Boston, Chicago, Denver and New York defended their policies to not routinely report undocumented people to federal authorities. Now, at least one lawmaker is pushing for a federal investigation into whether these mayors are breaking the law. ABC's Andrew Dymburt has the details.
Clashes on Capitol Hill as sanctuary cities face new scrutiny.
You all have blood on your hands.
Members of a House committee grilling for big city mayors about their immigrant safe haven policies.
This is why you have 6% approval rating because you suck at answering questions. Mayor Wu.
Republicans railing against the leaders of New York, Boston, Chicago and Denver, where local authorities do not routinely report undocumented people to the federal government.
We cannot let Pro-criminal alien policies and obstructionist sanctuary cities continue to endanger American communities.
The Democrats defending their policies, insisting they're following the law while protecting people's rights and neighborhoods.
The false narrative is that immigrants in general are criminals or immigrants in general, cause all sorts of danger and harm. That is, that is actually what is undermining safety in our communities.
Denver's mayor clashing with Congressman Jim Jordan over an incident where federal agents had to chase a man through a jail parking lot because sheriff's deputies released him after serving time for a local crime.
They have to arrest him in the parking lot. They bring six officers when they could have had 1 or 2. Just come in your facility in the jail and take the guy there.
Arguments between Congresswoman Nancy Mace and the mayor is reaching a boiling point, with mace saying she plans to ask the Justice Department to investigate the mayor's conduct.
Mayor Johnson, um, are you willing to go to jail for violating federal law?
The city of Chicago complies with all laws.
Oh, I highly doubt that, Mayor Wu.
We are not violating federal law.
The clash is not just along party lines.
You should step down and resign today.
Democrats questioned New York Mayor Eric Adams after he seemingly reversed his stance on allowing immigration agents to raid Rikers Island jail. Adams was facing federal corruption charges, but the Trump administration directed prosecutors to drop the case. Critics questioning the mayor's motives.
Are you selling out New Yorkers to save yourself from prosecution?
There's no deal. No quid pro quo. And I did nothing wrong.
ABC's Andrew Dymburt. Thank you. And shoppers across the country are launching a 40 day boycott, giving up target for lent. The movement started after the retailer rolled back its diversity, equity and inclusion policies. Now tens of thousands are joining in. ABC's Andrea Fujii has more.
As Christians mark the season of lent. Shoppers across the country are giving up target.
What you see. Believers globally doing is stepping away from something. Sacrificing something.
Staging a 40 day boycott of the retailer. It stems from the company's decision to roll back its diversity, equity and inclusion policies, eliminating hiring goals for minority employees and altering its diversity initiatives.
We need to hold larger corporations accountable.
A church in Georgia launched the boycott, now gaining tens of thousands of followers. Target isn't the only store to scale back Dei initiatives. Walmart and John Deere are among the many others that have also backtracked amid public pressure and threats from the Trump administration to investigate what it calls illegal Dei.
We've ended the tyranny of so-called diversity, equity and inclusion policies all across the entire federal government and indeed the private sector.
Sales at target declined last month, and its predicted growth this year is only about 1%. Now, with rising inflation and tariffs, experts say the timing of this boycott could mean trouble for target's bottom line.
It's really like, do you.
Get enough.
People.
Actively supporting a boycott such that, you know, it actually resonates into the boardroom?
ABC's Andrea Fujii. Thank you. And the Mexican tourism board is casting doubt on a planned Fyre Festival two. The event is scheduled for May, but officials on the island where it's supposed to happen say no one has contacted them about it. ABC's Will Reeve has the latest.
It began as one of the most anticipated music festivals of the 21st century.
With VIP.
Packages going for $12,000 and promising an event for the ages. But then reality hit.
We had no electricity, there was.
No showers.
There was no bathrooms.
There was no.
Running water.
The promised musical acts like blink 182 failed to materialize.
It was about $4,000 when we actually got was probably worth closer to, I'd say $0.
And instead of the deluxe accommodations promised, concert goers found themselves housed in Red cross tents, surviving on cheese sandwiches.
I am.
Stranded.
In the Bahamas.
Amidst.
Hundreds.
Of other.
Extremely.
Unlucky festival goers.
Billy McFarland, the host and organizer of Fyre Festival, later sentenced to six years in prison for pocketing the proceeds, now says he and his infamous festival are back.
I figured it would be best to hear directly from me what's actually happening. First, Fyre two is real. Second, we have incredible partners leading the festival. This includes an incredible production team in Mexico.
But that's news to the small Mexican island of Isla mujeres off the coast of Cancun, where McFarland says the festival is supposed to take place. Edgar Gasca, the tourism director of the island, telling the Guardian This is an event that does not exist, adding it's very strange because any manager knows if you're going to hold an event, let alone a massive event, you need municipal authorization. Tickets for Fyre Fest two are allegedly selling from $1400 to $1 million. No talent has been announced yet, but according to McFarland, he's booked a star studded lineup. He also claims to have pre-booked a number of accommodations.
Villas, yachts and hotels.
In 2022. Shortly after his release from prison, McFarland sat down with our Michael Strahan where he admitted to lying to concertgoers and stealing the money. But he says he just got caught up on a terrible path of bad decisions.
So are you truly a changed man or is this just a spin?
I hope I continue.
To.
Change for the next 40 years, so I'm certainly not done changing yet.
The festival is supposed to take place the last week of May. A note of Fair warning McFarland announced Fyre Festival two back in August of 2023, saying it would take place in December of 2024. That didn't happen, but we will see if anything changes this time around and.
We will see. Will Reeve, thank you. And two people are facing criminal charges for allegedly stealing and reselling tickets to Taylor Swift's Eras Tour. Tickets for the tour sold out in seconds, frustrating many fans. Now, New York officials say the suspect stole 900 of them. ABC's Rebecca Jarvis has the latest.
Two people are accused of.
Scheming.
To steal over $600,000 worth of some of the hottest tickets in town.
They waited in line.
For.
Like.
Six.
Hours. You know what just happened?
Mostly from Taylor Swift's Eras tour.
Welcome to the eras tour.
According to the Queens District Attorney, Tyrone Rose and Shamara Simmons were arrested and charged with grand larceny, conspiracy and computer tampering. The pair allegedly exploited a loophole through an offshore vendor for the ticket resale website StubHub, where they intercepted already sold ticket URLs, then resold them between the summers of 2022 and 2023.
You can.
Imagine how frustrating it would.
Be to.
Get there and realize.
That you don't have a ticket.
Anymore.
The duo allegedly targeted NBA games and high profile artists, including Swift.
From the other side.
Adele.
Come on now, follow my lead.
An Ed Sheeran.
There's always going to be.
People attempting.
To hack into.
Systems.
And so companies.
Need to.
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The most professional.
Aggressive.
Cybersecurity Security companies.
They can find.
Rebecca Jarvis. Thank you. And the search is on for three skiers in what could be the deadliest U.S. avalanche in two years. The victims are believed dead after the avalanche buried them during a guided heli skiing trip. Now, state troopers have to dig through up to 40ft of snow to find them. But the weather is not cooperating. ABC's mola lenghi has the latest.
Tragedy in Alaska's remote backcountry. Authorities say three skiers are now presumed dead after a large avalanche buried them in snow up to 40ft deep. The slide, occurring around 3:30 p.m. Tuesday near Girdwood, considered the skiing capital of Alaska, about 40 miles south of Anchorage. Guides using emergency beacons to locate the skiers but unable to rescue them. If confirmed, the deaths would make it the deadliest avalanche in the U.S. in two years. John Cornely planned to make a similar trip back on Friday, but conditions were too bad.
But they.
Kept.
Delaying.
And kept.
Delaying. So our our day is there. We never were given the green light to fly.
State troopers working to determine how to safely recover the skiers bodies. In a statement, the company Chugach Power Lines offering its sincere condolences to the families involved, adding it stands ready to assist them in any way possible.
Mola Lenghi thank you. And the National Avalanche Center says the number of people dying in U.S. avalanches is going up. The center says we're now losing 25 to 30 people each winter, compared to just eight when they started tracking data in 1990. Meteorologist Greg Dutra, with our ABC station in Chicago, is taking a closer look at why. Greg.
Well, Diane, the frequency has gone up because they've seen more snow in this particular accident. Two new feet of snow fell on what they said was a weak layer of snowfall that was hard to assess. And those avalanches, they usually start down low in that weak layer. Sometimes it's a wet snow that gets frozen becomes brittle, and when all the weight of that new two feet happens, it snaps that and it slides a big slab avalanche. And those are usually happening in areas where the pitch is, say, 30 to 45 degrees, exactly where heli skiing outfits would bring skiers in. And of course, these are very remote areas that are hard to access and really analyze the snow. And that's why the heli skiing outfits will tell people you have to ski at your own risk. Back to you.
Meteorologist Greg Dutra, thank you. Coming up, a historic restoration at a famous American landmark. Our Matt Rivers traveled to the Alamo to give us an inside look at the plans.
The news never stops from Tampa.
We are here tonight as.
Hurricane.
Milton has just made landfall.
The surge just keeps coming up.
Right on the border between Ukraine and Russia.
For an artillery position about two miles away from Gaza.
An ABC News Live is right there.
We're not far from where this rally took place, so.
Just stick with us.
Here.
Traveling with the president to the US-Mexico border.
Here in London today.
Off the.
Coast.
Of.
Gaza. Downtown Tel Aviv. Rockets and missiles coming in from.
The most devastating.
Disaster in Hawaii.
Some areas.
Are still smoldering.
Wherever the story.
From the front lines.
The ruins of Rafa from the FBI. Reporting from Capitol Hill. In western Portugal.
Outside of Mexico City.
In Iceland. Let's go.
Here in France, the.
Eclipse.
Across America.
Just stunning.
Unbelievable.
Streaming live to you.
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Story.
Is.
We're going to take you there. You're streaming ABC News live.
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ABC news live streaming. Free everywhere. Because the news never stops.
I told you to let me handle it.
Raj made me do it.
I did.
You mad enough to take your father's place?
What would we have to do?
Run the.
Business. Call the shots.
That's terrifying.
Toxic freaking workplace.
How When you hear the sirens.
You're like a.
Serial.
Killer now, man.
You think so?
Really proud of you boys.
I pray to God I will never change.
Do you know how difficult my dad is?
You know, I hear everything from in here.
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Welcome back to ABC News Live. First, a restoration at the Alamo is preserving history in an unexpected way. The $550 million redevelopment plan includes a new museum, visitor center and restoration of its 300 year old limestone walls. But where do you find centuries old limestone to match that? Well, it turns out the answer was hiding at a nearby zoo. ABC's Matt Rivers takes us inside the discovery, reshaping this historic landmark. Matt. This must have been fascinating to see.
It really was. This is a mystery. Really? For 300 years, no one had any idea where the original quarry was. That was mined to get the limestone that helped build the Alamo. There, right behind me. And now we know where it was. And of all places, Diane. It was discovered in a gorilla enclosure in a zoo. An American icon that needs some work.
It's an exciting time here at the Alamo, because we're in the midst of a $550 million redevelopment plan.
A new museum, visitor center and a rework of the entire grounds is transforming this symbol of Texan pride and making sure it sticks around for a while.
Everything that you see here more than likely came from here.
Head conservator Pamela Rosser bringing us inside, showing us how parts of the 300 year old walls are degrading.
So it's.
Very old.
Very old. I mean, what do you what happens to you when you get old? Right?
The stone needs replacing, but you can't just patch it up with new material. You need the same limestone that was used back in the 1700s. So where do you find that? Well, where else but the San Antonio Zoo, of course, which is in the middle of building a massive new gorilla exhibit. Historians always guess that the original stone used to build the Alamo came from this area. They just weren't sure exactly where. Enter this construction site. One day, the Alamo's head conservator, driving down the road here sees this construction site and thinks, huh, we should probably test rock like this from this site to see if it matches the Alamo. And a few days ago the tests came back positive. This zoo filled with bears and leopards and now limestone. Now set aside to be used at the Alamo.
It shows that history is not static. We're constantly making new discoveries about what happened in the past. And this discovery will help us to do a really authentic job of our preservation efforts here at the church.
Replacing that stone, Diane set to begin very soon using that stone from the zoo.
Matt, what surprised you most about seeing this all firsthand?
Yeah. You know, it's stunning and really interesting to see how you have to, to to handle a building like this. You can't just patch it with anything. And really, historians want to use that original stone more than just any other stone, because it keeps the Alamo true to form. They look at this as a piece of living history. And by able, by being able to find that quarry, they're able to keep the Alamo true to form. That's very cool. Also, just the idea that they found this stone in a zoo of all places. The head conservator was quite literally just driving down the road, happened to see this construction site and was like, maybe we should talk to them and see if we can test that rock. They sent it to a firm in New York. Took months and months and months to figure it out. But literally just a few days ago, they got those results back. And and that conservator who is such a sweet woman, she she was so excited about this.
You could feel her passion for this project. And I think it's it's very cool and a real service to Texans and all Americans that this building will be sticking around for, for several more generations.
She must be so happy right now that she pulled over and asked that question. Matt Rivers at the Alamo in San Antonio. Matt. Thank you. Coming up, the hills.
Are alive.
And fans of The Sound of Music are in for a treat. Will Ganss has the tea on some behind the scenes stories from the classic musical When We Come back.
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Welcome back to ABC News Live. First, it is time now for the tea, where we break down some of the buzzy stories people are talking about. Our friend Will Ganz is here to help us out. We'll spill that tea.
Got some good tea for you, Diane. And to all of you. We begin this morning the same way I like to begin most of my mornings with a little bit of mayhem. But in this case, we're talking about Lady Gaga's highly anticipated seventh studio album. Gaga has said this will be a return to her pop music roots after having dabbled in jazz and in country, and ESPN premiered a sneak peek of an unreleased song from mayhem called Garden of Eden because it's going to be the official anthem for the upcoming Formula One racing season. Take a listen.
It's lights.
Out and away.
We go. Take it to the governor.
Ooh, mayhem. I know, including that new song Garden of Eden. All of it drops tonight at midnight. And Gaga, by the way, will serve as host and musical guest on SNL this weekend.
Very much looking forward to this album.
She's so multi-talented. I'm excited for this album too. Uh, Abracadabra, by the way, a great SoulCycle song.
Doo doo doo doo doo. Also, Zumba.
Oh, great.
Okay, so it's a good cardio song. You heard it here first. All right. Next. Let's move on to the Jane Fonda songs. After being honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award at last weekend's SAG Awards, the Hollywood and social justice icon continues to reinvent herself, but this time as a wildlife wrangler. Question mark Jane, appearing on a podcast with her son, who shared the story of her encounter with a bear.
When she.
Came back in, the screen door was dismantled and there was a bear in the bedroom sniffing over the crib.
What did.
You do? Go ahead.
Run!
Oh my God! Sorry.
Sorry. Sound man.
I had just.
Learned.
What to do.
If you're close to a.
Bear.
And that was it. And get very.
Big.
That is a performer, by the way. They said. What did you do when she was ready to go? Thankfully, the Bear and Jane lived to tell the tale, although in that matchup I think Jane had the upper hand.
The bear is terrified and has never returned.
Exactly. All right. Do you. Do you hear that, Diane? The hills. They're alive with the Sound of Music. In honor of the 60th anniversary of The Sound of Music this week, 60 rare behind the scenes photos have been released. And the tea that they're spilling is pitch perfect. The photos were captured during the filming of the movie back in 1964, both on location in Salzburg, Austria, and on set in Los Angeles. And apparently the Do-Re-Mi picnic scene was filmed about 45 minutes from Salzburg, where frequent rain interruptions stretched the shoot over three days, causing delays in the film's international production schedule. Another shot reveals that one of the von Trapp children couldn't swim and needed to be rescued by a crew member. You see her being carried out there. When Julie Andrews fell the wrong way out of the boat, and the Lonely Goatherd puppet scene took five whole days.
Little old lady.
Only.
Oh, we're ready to go right here. It would just take one morning, apparently here in the studio. For anyone looking to celebrate more of The Sound of Music, it's being restored in 4K and will come back to theaters later this year.
I love that I can't wait to watch that one with my kids.
I'll go with you. I'll bring the popcorn. You bring the vocals for the goatherd scene.
I will not sing in the theater.
All right. Finally, it's time for another installment of our segment. Who is this diva? Take a listen to this 911 call placed to the Moore Police Department in Oklahoma recently, and see if you can figure out who is this diva.
Mm.
What? Hello? Yes.
Do you have an emergency?
Yes. Do you believe?
Okay, so the call goes on to say that the little boy, his name is Bennett. He calls to request emergency donuts. Emergency donuts. Emergency donuts. So he's celebrating his fourth birthday this weekend. And he used an old cell phone to dial 911, which apparently still works. But the story doesn't end there. The Moore Police Department did bring him his emergency donuts. Thank goodness.
I love that. All right, I'm requesting some emergency donuts.
I think it only works if you're four years old and adorable. Diane. Don't call 911.
I'm going to call right now. I'll be right back.
We're getting emergency donuts.
See you in a bit.
Hello?
Hello? Yes. Boston cream, please.
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Good game. You better find your good girl. Yes.
Wander like four more of these. Yeah. We were robbed. Hey!
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Hi, I'm Diane Macedo. Let's get right to breaking news. President Trump says he's delaying tariffs on cars from Mexico for a month after speaking with Mexico's president. Trump writes on Truth Social that he's making the accommodation out of respect for President Sheinbaum. It comes a day after he announced the same delay for cars coming from Canada. Meanwhile, the commerce secretary is announcing more potential tariff exemptions. Let's go to white House correspondent Karen Travers and business reporter Alexis Christoforous for more on that. So, Alexis, what do we know about this latest delay on tariffs? And could we see even more?
Yes we could. We are waiting for specifics for more clarity on this, Diane. But we know that it's not just the autos we saw yesterday. President Trump said that he was giving the U.S. automakers a 30 day reprieve from these tariffs. We saw the stock market rally briefly in response to that. And now it looks as though all goods and services coming from Mexico that are in compliance with the Us-mexico-canada trade agreement, which took place under Trump's first administration are now exempt from these tariffs again for just one month. So April 2nd is the day we're all going to be looking at to see whether or not he institutes these tariffs again. But the stock market has really been on this roller coaster ride as it tries to discern, you know, what, what tariff is in place, when might it be lifted. And so we're seeing stocks rally with a vengeance and sell off with a vengeance as a result.
Karen, in this post, President Trump is thanking Mexico's president for her, in his words, hard work and cooperation in stopping illegal immigration and fentanyl coming into the U.S. so what comes next?
What comes next is another month of waiting and potential negotiating to see if they can have another pause, another off ramp. The president has done this now for one month, and as Alexis said, April 2nd will now be the date that everybody has circled on their calendar. But he has said that that is when reciprocal tariffs will go into effect. And that is another line of terrorists from this administration, where they're trying to balance trade deficits with countries all around the world. And that would include Canada and Mexico. So it's not clear now what happens with you have this pause right now for Mexico for the next month, but they would likely be subject to tariffs again after this pause is lifted. But perhaps there is still that off ramp of negotiations. And you and I have talked about this so many times now over the past two months, of how it's still unclear what the metrics are that the administration is looking for from Mexico when it comes to stopping the flow of migrants and fentanyl across the border. What are the numbers they're looking for?
That is not clear, but the president said today that he is pleased with what they're seeing right now, and thanked the president of Mexico for hard work and cooperation. But the uncertainty still exists, and it's going to exist for another month. And, Diane, we are all going to be here again talking about this and having the same conversation at the beginning of April.
And, Alexis, this is also happening as we get ready for tomorrow's jobs report. It'll be the first full jobs report of the Trump administration. What are economists expecting there?
You know, unfortunately, this is not going to give us a great overall picture of the health of the job market because data involved in.
That jobs.
Report really does not include all of the federal job cuts we're now seeing. So in some ways, tomorrow's report is going to be a bit backward looking. We have fresher data actually out this week. That's not painting a great picture of the job market. ADP, which is a payroll company, came out this week and said that private employers added the fewest jobs since July. Another survey showing that layoff announcements jumped in February to levels we haven't seen since the recession of 2009. And we heard from Macy's today saying they expect another sales slowdown. Walmart last week during its earnings report, said they expect 2025 to be a pullback year for the consumer. They're expecting sales to slow down. So you know, as more and more companies come out and talk about what the future looks like for them, that starts to get companies uneasy about expanding their payrolls. Are they going to? Maybe they're not going to cut jobs, but are they willing to hire new, new workers? And I think we're going to learn more of that in the coming months with that report.
I don't think tomorrow's report is going to show the whole picture.
All right. Karen Travers, Alexis Christoforous, thank you both. Meanwhile, sources tell ABC news President Trump is not signing an executive order to dismantle the Department of Education. Today, white House Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt calls reports that Trump was expected to sign the order today, quote, fake news. ABC's Alex Presha joins me for more on that. Alex, what's the latest?
Hey, Diane. So we've seen what the white House press secretary has said, calling this fake news about the executive order being signed today. But behind the scenes, multiple sources are telling ABC that the white House decided to pull this signing specifically because there was concern amongst top administrative officials about the the blowback that the order would receive, especially with what's been deemed a lack of messaging in place ahead of ahead of its timing. And one of the things that was of specific concern is answering questions about how this executive order would impact the school lunch program. And when you think about the Department of Education, one of its chief functions, I mean, billions of dollars go towards, uh, servicing students that are that are low income and then also students with disabilities. And so, you know, there was a there was a pivotal question here about how that would either be absorbed by other agencies or how state and local school districts would be able to fill in the gaps there.
And Alex, regardless of whether he's planning to sign an order in the coming days, President Trump has repeatedly called for the Department of Education to be dissolved. So what's the strategy here?
Well, it's interesting, Diane, because so he has. But as we know, even if he signs his executive order, and even if Linda McMahon, the Department of Education secretary, wants to follow through in order to dissolve this agency, he needs an act of Congress. And they need 60 votes. They need Democrats to be on board with this. And frankly, there is no Democratic support that we're aware of right now to to dissolve the Department of Education. But what the EO, as we've been briefed on, advises Linda McMahon, to do, is to roll back as much as she can by law. And so whenever you whenever you look at that, maybe, you know, it becomes a piecemeal function of of dismantling parts of the agency. Keep in mind, it's not just those billions of dollars that go towards low income and also students with disabilities. The Department of Education also oversees a $1.5 trillion in student loan debt. It also oversees Fafsa.
All right. ABC's Alex Presha. Thank you. And House Republicans have censured Democratic Congressman Al Green over his protests as President Trump's joint address to Congress.
By its adoption of House resolution 189. The House has resolved that Representative Al Green be censured. That Representative Al Green forthwith present himself in the well of the House of Representatives for the pronouncement of censure, and that Representative Al Green be censured with public reading of this resolution by the speaker.
Let's go to Jay O'Brien on Capitol Hill for more. Jay, how are Democrats responding?
Well, just to put it in context very quickly, that moment that you just saw. So what happens when a member is censured is they're brought to the well of the House, just the front portion of the chamber there, and the censure resolution is read to them. And what we saw Democrats do, about a dozen or more of them is stand behind Al Green there in solidarity with him. At one point they started singing We Shall Overcome and it got disruptive to the point that Speaker Johnson just gaveled out the session. You see a little bit of it there. So he didn't read Al Green his censure resolution as is required. They just stopped and went into recess. You again you can see and hear a little bit of it there. I talked to some.
Members have come to order the house.
As they left. And again you're looking at what played out. I talked to some members as they left, and they said that in their view, this censure resolution was an overstep. You saw that animated exchange between me and Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett live on the air with you at 11:00. And Jasmine Crockett said Marjorie Taylor Greene wasn't censured for her outburst during President Biden's State of the Union and therefore, in her view, Al Greene should not be censured for his outburst during President Trump's joint address just days ago. Jamie Raskin, another prominent Democrat, telling me that in his view, Republicans have watered down the act of censure by censuring Greene. Also in recent years censuring Jamaal Bowman, remember, for pulling that fire alarm and Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib for her comments about October 7th. Point being, there are some Democrats who say they are against this censure. And a large part Democrats voted against this move. But notable here, Diane, that ten Democrats did join with all Republicans to punish Al Green for this outburst.
So what happens to Greene now, Jay? And what kind of message does this send?
Well, censuring a lawmaker is traditionally somewhat rare of a move. There have only been six members of the House censured since the 1980s, although it has picked up speed in recent years. You heard me mention those two Democrats who were censured. You'll remember probably during President Trump's first term, Paul Gosar was censured for posting a video of him committing an act of violence. It was a fake video against a member of the House of Representatives. But traditionally, censure is used as essentially a black mark on a member's permanent record. There are no other consequences that really come with it. But Al Green, remember, Diane caught up with me just after he was kicked out of the House chamber days ago. During that outburst, because of that outburst during the joint address, he told me he would welcome any consequences from his outburst and his office. Leaning into that today, they posted on X the time of the vote, that green was to be censured and saying that he was going to be censured for that outburst, essentially leaning in to this punishment.
All right. Jay O'Brien on Capitol Hill. Thank you. And a new major storm is hitting the West as rain, snow and wind slam the Northeast and Midwest. Three people are dead and at least six people are injured in Mississippi. In Kansas, the winds were so powerful, they toppled this truck, sending it sliding across the road. Meanwhile, flooding is slowing down traffic in Philadelphia and in New York City. Heavy rain brought down trees and scattered debris all over neighborhoods. ABC's Stephanie Ramos is in hillside, new Jersey, where a tree crashed down on a home. Stephanie.
Weather caused a lot of damage across the northeast. High winds knocking down several trees like the one behind me here in hillside, new Jersey. These downed trees damaging buildings and homes across the country. There's a bit of everything from blizzards in the Midwest to torrential rains along the East Coast, and of course, those high winds sweeping across half the country. Strong winds of up to 90mph toppling over this truck in Kansas. In the south. Severe thunderstorms moving out, leaving a trail of destruction. In North Carolina, a tornado with 90 mile per hour winds ripped apart these buildings. At least three people killed and.
Six.
Injured after strong storms swept through Mississippi. Meanwhile, in Iowa, whiteout conditions and zero visibility have stranded drivers, cars.
And trucks.
Scattered across highways. Plows. You can see them digging vehicles out of the snow as authorities urge people to stay home now as far as travel goes. Airlines canceled nearly 700 flights Tuesday as severe weather moved across the East Coast.
Charlotte and D.C..
Airports are.
Seeing the most.
Impacts. JFK and Newark airports also seeing delays. The best tip if you're traveling today, check with your airline to make sure your flight is on time and taking off. Diane.
Good advice, Stephanie Ramos. Thank you. And meteorologist Greg Dutra, with our ABC station in Chicago is tracking the impact of this storm. Greg, what are you watching now?
It just doesn't want to leave us alone, because I still have to watch.
It says departing, but it's not.
It is not. It is departing like your guests are departing after Thanksgiving. Like it's going to take its time. It's going to do the Midwest. Goodbye. Where it says bye a few times and then grabs leftovers. Seriously, we are dealing with winds on the backside of that and possible gusts up to 60mph on the leeward side of some mountain ranges. So the Appalachian Mountains, also the Berkshires out in Massachusetts and Worcester Hills too, a little bit closer to Boston, I mean, already gusting up to 46mph. These are officially. The alerts don't go into effect until 1:00 this afternoon, so winds will continue to ramp up where we could locally across Massachusetts see some gusts up to 60 plus miles per hour. Then we've got the next guest to arrive over on the West Coast. High wind alerts already up. High fire danger almost to the caprock of Texas. And then down in southern Colorado around the Springfield, Colorado area. Almost up to the foothills, but not quite there. And then winter weather advisories in the mountains where they could see 1 to 3ft of snow.
Unfortunately, though, as this makes its way into the Midwest and we track it through the next couple of days, it does not bring much snow. Areas that really need it. An example the Twin Cities saw almost ten inches of snow just yesterday from the storm. It was their biggest of the season. Pretty big storm. But also they still are about a foot to a foot and a half behind where they normally are this time of year. Diane. So they're going to have to make it up in the spring with rainfall, or we're going to be talking about higher fire danger, possibly all the way through the springtime and into the summertime months.
All right, Greg, thank you.
No problem.
Hamas is dismissing President Trump's ultimatum to release all remaining hostages and now threatening to kill more hostages if attacks from Israel resume. Hamas says it won't hand over anyone until the next phase of the ceasefire is fully implemented. This comes despite the president threatening on Truth Social that there will be, quote, hell to pay if Hamas doesn't comply. It also comes after President Trump met with eight released American hostages and after officials confirmed the administration has had direct talks with Hamas. ABC's Patrick Reevell is following that story for us. Patrick, what's the latest on this back and forth between President Trump and the administration and Hamas?
Hi, Dan. Yeah. I mean, pressure seems to be rising.
Between.
Israel and Hamas again with Hamas today.
In a.
Statement just a little while ago, threatening to kill hostages if Israel resumes military action. And this comes basically as Israel has been.
Trying.
To up the pressure on Hamas in Gaza. This is now the fifth day that there's been an aid blockade by Israel as it tries to pressure Hamas into accepting its demands for prolonging the ceasefire deal that began in January, but now has already supposed to have reached its second phase, but so far has not, as you say, President Trump yesterday again warning Hamas that they would face hell to pay and saying that they would be dead and that no Hamas operative would be safe if they do not release all hostages now. And that followed, as you say, also this revelation that Trump administration officials had been having these unprecedented meetings directly with Hamas, with them, Trump's nominee for special special envoy for hostages meeting with Hamas representatives. That's unprecedented, because the US has a long standing policy of generally not meeting with groups that designates as terrorists. But clearly we're seeing pressure grow on multiple fronts here, Diane.
And, Patrick, how are Palestinians reacting to this?
You know, I think there's a great deal of unease among Palestinians that Israel is, again, increasing, increasingly threatening, that it could go back to military action if hostages are not released. Basically, the two sides are deadlocked over this, over these negotiations to try to move to this second phase of this ceasefire deal that would have seen that, in theory, should see a comprehensive long term truce in return for the full release of all hostages, both living and dead. Right now, we understand that Hamas holds around 24 living hostages, including one Israeli American, as well as around 35 bodies of hostages who have died in Gaza. But there is grave concern about what the impact is going to be of this ongoing blockade on aid. We've already heard that it is impacting health facilities were hearing warnings from aid groups that there is no fuel getting in. There is no food getting in to Gaza, which obviously remains in ruins and where people are entirely dependent on aid. Diane.
All right. Patrick Reevell, thank you. And 15 people are injured after South Korean fighter jets accidentally dropped eight bombs over a residential area. South Korean officials say it happened during annual joint training with the U.S. military. Foreign correspondent Britt Clennett has the latest.
Hi, Diane. Well, this happened as South Korea and US forces were holding joint live fire exercises linked to annual drills that start next week. Dozens of people injured after a pair of fighter jets accidentally dropped eight bombs in a civilian district. Now, according to local media reports, two people suffered fractures to their necks and shoulders. Security footage aired on local TV. It shows the moment leading up to the incident, with a pickup truck driving along the street before the area is consumed by a large blast. A local residents reporting hearing a loud roar followed by a loud explosion. Photographs from the scene showing a house destroyed by the impact, broken windows and and a building covered with debris. Residents in the area. They've previously raised the alarm about the potential danger from nearby training areas. Now South Korea's air force, it says it's investigating the incident and apologized for the damage, adding it would provide compensation to those who have been affected by it. Now, while shells from live firing exercises sometimes land near civilian residences, they rarely cause injuries like this, the military said.
The pilot of one of the jets inputted the wrong coordinates by mistake, causing the bombs to drop in the civilian community. Investigators have yet to determine why the second jet dropped its bombs. That's according to the military. Adding that live fire exercises will be suspended. Now we know that North Korea has always been irked by these drills. When President Trump was in his first term in talks with Kim Jong un, he had suspended these drills for a year and a half. And they don't sit well with him. But it's not likely to flare up tensions more than usual. It does, however, come at a time when both the US and South Korea are increasingly wary of the growing alliance between North Korea and Russia. Diane Britt.
Clennett. Thank you. Coming up, the Wisconsin teen arrested days after his parents were found dead, where police say they found him and what they say they found in his car.
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Why did you stop being a vigilante? A line was crossed. I liked how it felt. Didn't you? Dispensing justice. If you say to me that you're a new man, I say fine. But if you step out of line, I will be there. Daredevil born again. Only on Disney+.
Welcome back to ABC News Live. First, we have breaking news. At least two students and a school bus driver are in the hospital after a crash near Pittsburgh. You can see where that bus slammed head on into a tree In Adams Township, first responders are treating students, though it's not clear how many are injured. Investigators are looking into what caused the crash, and we're also following a new twist in the deaths of a Wisconsin mother and stepfather. Police arrested their teen son hundreds of miles from home after he reportedly missed school for weeks. Investigators say inside the car, they found a gun, ammunition and both victims driver's license. But police say he hasn't been charged in their deaths. ABC's Rhiannon ally has the latest.
A teenager from Wisconsin is under arrest after being named a person of interest in connection with the deaths of his mother and stepfather. The bodies of 35 year old Tatiana Kassab and 51 year old Donald Maier were found during a welfare check last week.
I had been texting Donald many times and he wasn't answering and I didn't know why.
Court documents revealing Tatiana was shot and Donald had a large wound to his head. Their bodies covered by clothes and blankets. Police tracking down 17 year old Nikita Kassab, 800 miles away in Kansas, after he allegedly ran a stop sign in his stepfather's car. The family dog with him.
He would never not go to school if things were normal.
The teen, previously known for his perfect attendance, had reportedly been absent for weeks inside the vehicle, police say was a stepfather's gun. Both parents driver's license. Ammunition and shell casings. Prosecutors now charging the teen with operating a motor vehicle without the owner's consent, and theft of movable property. No charges have been filed yet in connection with the two deaths.
Rhiannon. Ally. Thank you. Coming up. We are moments away from a new moon landing. Would a private U.S. company is hoping to find.
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Welcome back to ABC News Live. First, we are moments away from a new moon landing. A robotic lander named Athena is on its final descent to the moon's surface. You're looking at a simulation right now provided by NASA. If successful, this would mark the second lunar touchdown in a week for a private U.S. company. Landing is expected shortly after 1230 eastern, and former NASA astronaut Charles Camarda is with me now to break this down for us. Charles, thanks for coming on. You know, the last time this company tried this, the lander tipped over and it stopped working after about a week. How optimistic are you about this time?
I'm very.
Optimistic.
Diane.
And thanks for having me.
You know, it.
Was a shame.
It seemed.
Like.
Their sensors.
Went out on the way there.
So they.
Used a backup sensor from.
Their.
Payload.
On that first.
Mission.
And.
They.
Almost pulled it off.
It was an Apollo 13 moment.
It was so close.
And so how significant is this? Because let's walk through it. The rover is going to jump into all goes well, a 65 foot deep pitch black crater. And the goal is to find ice. So how does that happen and why is that ice so important?
Well, it's great.
Because we're looking.
At the South.
Pole because in.
Order to.
Sustain life.
We.
Need water.
We could also.
Break down.
Water and make rocket.
Fuel.
In order to be able to colonize.
The moon.
So we have to go.
Where.
The water.
Is.
And so when.
The Nova-c.
Lander lands down.
It's.
Going.
To.
Deploy.
A couple of payloads.
One of them.
Is going.
To be the drill.
Where they're.
Going to be.
Drilling.
Into.
The.
Soil.
The regolith directly next to.
The.
Lander.
And they're going to be.
Inspecting.
That soil.
Using a.
Spectrometer.
To see.
How.
Much how.
Much water.
Is.
There.
And that's very.
Important.
And so.
How do we.
Get the water out of the soil.
Is.
Going to be instrumental in determining how.
We.
Develop.
The.
Processes to, to get the water and process the water.
You worked with the co-founder of this private company at Johnson Space Center. What's it like to see this come together now?
It's really.
Exciting. Steve was my deputy when I was director. He was my deputy director, and then he became director. He was he was a visionary. And he started testing some of his ideas with a small team of engineers while they were working at NASA. The project was called Morpheus. It was a vertical takeoff, vertical landing system, which eventually turned into what you see now with Intuitive Machines. And they developed a very innovative company right outside the gate at NASA Johnson Space Center.
Now, everything you describe about what this lander is expected to do sounds like it would be difficult if there were a pilot inside. How much harder is it to do this all by remote?
Well, actually, that's what we're going to have to learn how to do. Remember, we've had several rovers on the surface of Mars. So this isn't something we're not unfamiliar with, and it's something we need to understand how to do. We need to prepare the the the landing site and develop the resources before we send people to Mars. And so these robotic missions are very critical. How do we process the regolith? How do we build structures? Landing pads out of the regolith is something that we're going to learn by practicing on the moon.
So how do you think space exploration is changing now that we have all these private companies getting involved?
I think it's a good thing. I think it's the way it should be. I think NASA should be doing the short term research. We should be looking way out into the future. Advanced material systems, advanced structures, advanced propulsion systems and work in partnership with these really innovative companies like space X, Intuitive Machines, Astrobotic's, um, and so forth. I mean, that's the way it should be, the way we worked with our aircraft industry.
And, Charles, we're just about shy of two minutes now from this landing. Let's listen in to NASA's coverage.
On x aos Hrn.
Hga.
Hga.
Two Talos AOS.
60s left and braking. 60s left in braking. And approach.
Landing site.
Selected engine idle.
11m cross range divert loss.
Is that loss of signal. Over pitch. Over.
Standby.
See if we regain that signal. Remember, folks, the viz that you're watching at home is an estimation of data. It's doing its best. That's a lot of data coming from really far away. All commands and all conversations divert. Come from our mission director at the bottom right hand of your screen.
Charles, what do you make of what we're seeing and hearing here?
I heard loss of signal. That didn't sound. Uh, that sounded a little concerning. Hopefully it's not. Hopefully it was expected. Um, but you see, they're intense. They're looking at their. Everyone's processing the data at Mission Control. They're relaying that to the flight director at Mission Control like they should be. And they're waiting to get the the signal that they've touched down, I'm sure.
And what are these lines? How do you know if this is going well or not?
Well, we don't right now. Like he said, we're seeing a simulation. Right. And so this is based on where we are standing.
By monitoring.
The viz, just.
As you are.
At home.
Along with Nova Control.
We are approaching approximately the time that we estimated Athena would touch down on the surface. We did hear a call out for a sonic loss that is our radio system, something we expect to happen at pitchover. That's prior to a vertical descent and terminal descent. That latest data.
How are we doing on signal.
Is what you're seeing on the viz. Why don't we.
Go?
We currently are getting our uplink through Hemi two and we have a healthy AGC value. So our uplink is coming in strong for us. And then for our downlink, we have a strong NOAA 17 on Goonhilly. And we are currently not seeing our sonics. So we are in sonics loss.
All right. That's a.
Little.
Strong.
On the spectrum for us. I'm not seeing our sonics on our spectrum as of yet.
FM what mode.
Are we in? We approach 17 is the last we've seen.
All right. So that's up on one radio. And they do have a loss of signal. In the second.
Photo I'm looking at the.
Excel. Do you see the Excel reading.
Let me look.
That's a mission director. Detecting.
See seeing.
A.
Six Excel um.
One G. That was the mission director Tim Crane trying to figure out what is the vehicle sensing? It has two inertial measurement units on board. You can think of those as your inner ear. So when you're asking what is the sensed acceleration? That's what he's asking for is what is that inertial measurement unit. That inner ear detecting as far as acceleration.
Again, as we've mentioned. The viz here is.
Just.
An interpretation of landing.
Yeah. Let's go ahead and stay on Nova Control. Looks like the viz is hovering there.
Are you seeing on the engine.
The engine is still in idle at min thrust. We are still seeing chamber pressure.
So we're getting good data. We heard that we have one radio up, one radio loss of signal. We just heard that we have.
Seen guidance of solution for time.
To go.
As as.
Increasing.
Indicating.
To me.
That it is.
The.
Onboard.
Nav.
State is.
Not decreasing in.
Altitude.
The good.
News. Adrian Lazar is now ready to fire.
So we heard that we have one good radio sending down data, one that has loss of signal. We have problem.
Standing by with a manual command for landed ops. Yeah. No recommendation at this time.
Yeah. We have prop telling us that we have good data. That was someone just commanding. We heard exec mode to go into this firing mode, and someone standing by to get into our landed ops mode. I'll wait for Doctor Crane to confirm here, But if we're pulling down data, we'll see how this goes. Looks like Tim is about ready to jump on the loop and sort out what we saw on the viz, versus what the folks inside of Mission Control are seeing on their monitors. It's a good reminder to this public channel that we're listening to here in the studio, and what people are listening to at home, at the landing party at Lone Star Flight Museum.
All right, folks, I'm showing that we are sensing lunar acceleration. So we're on the surface. Let's evaluate.
All right. Let's continue to evaluate. I hear we we do have a picture from a portion of the descent. Is that right over there. All right. So that's a picture during braking about ten kilometers up. This is what we do have while we wait.
We can.
Confirm the engine is still running.
And.
Therefore.
Needs to be upright.
If we were in a different configuration, the engine would have snuffed.
Okay, so we have confirmation. I believe that was from Khan. That says the engine still running this picture you're looking at. The ten kilometers up during that braking burn, that powered descent initiation, that long burn that brought us 4000mph braking burn, incredible shock.
That's what I'm saying as well.
All right, there's another view there. Uh, looks like from this panel, we're looking at the garage. So that's lunar outpost map Rover inside of that square right there. Leah. And this looks like it's probably about the same altitude, maybe about ten, ten meters above the surface. And one more here for everyone. It's about the same altitude there, maybe a little bit more exposure, but these.
Cameras still running.
In air mode. These photos came down for us just a few moments ago. I wanted to share those before we jump back into mission control. As flight controllers are looking at this dynamic situation and learning.
Go ahead and put us in landed ops. It looks like we're down. We need to evaluate that situation and I'd like to get a picture.
As they say, picture didn't happen. Hello doctor. Cranes onto it right there. A couple.
Things here. 402 was acknowledged. AOS en tails.
What we're hearing in our ears and what folks at home are listening to, are not the only channels.
Check your systems.
That mission.
Engineers.
Are working on is the engine shutdown notice. We'll see what comes out of this. But they are all on different loops having separate conversations. So all the information that we have that folks have at home isn't necessarily the exact vibe inside the room. So we'll stand by and listen in to see what we have here. I did hear Doctor Crane call out that they are getting readings for acceleration to the Post-landing core procedure.
All right, spark, I want to start shooting some stuff off as soon as we can. Copy. Uh, can you meet me on my loop, please?
Feedlines are inerting.
All right, so if we have enough data to be inerting. Feedlines. That means the engines are no longer running, and it's a state to bleed off that extra pressure. This is part of that safing bit that we talked about earlier. Leah. Looks like our CEO, Steve Altemus, just stepped into the room that's in the bottom right hand of the box here, talking to the mission director, Doctor Tim Crane. He just called out, telling spark to turn some things off. That's because we need to remain in a power positive state. Getting that top deck solar array into a spot where we are able to charge. But sometimes you have to turn a few things off to make sure that you're charging and not just burning through that power.
Don't.
Worry. By my countdown clock. It's been about 22 minutes since we started that PDI. Leah.
And again, we were anticipating.
Landing at about.
11:31 a.m. central time. 12:31 p.m. Eastern Time. It can get tricky with communications on the lander when you're in a prop. Do we have InSight's tank pressure? If we turn off the Mogis and the Igis. We would. Yeah.
All right. That's code for.
The.
If you turn off Mogis, then we cannot insert or vent the tanks.
We can bring them back up, though, right? Yes. How are my pressures?
They are low at this time.
Okay, turn off the Mogis and the Aggies.
Could we turn everything off except the vent valves?
Yes.
That would be everything except MV 103 and.
303 all right. All this activity is regarding the lander's propulsion system they're going through, deciding on how to vent it. We heard two things there. We heard Mogis and Igis. That's our motor engine gimbal system. Right. And our IGI is our igniter. So they're working through the process of safing this engine at the top of the show. We talked about the priorities after touchdown and being safe was first, followed by pulling down some health status information and then images. And then just about three minutes ago we heard Doctor Crane go ahead.
3403 acknowledged.
We'll prioritize images. It's just about nine minutes after the expected landing. So let's hang tight and continue to watch this problem and challenges unfold inside of Mission Control. Each one going through finding this challenge, each one getting solved here. It sounds like they're still working through venting the engine system.
Let's power off the Sonics until we get a handle on what antenna we're going to pipe it through.
Copy. Sonics is currently in idle mode.
Good enough. Thank you.
Sonics. That's our radio. There's two radio systems on the lander. It sounds like when we talk about that vehicle health status, we heard some things for prop. Vehicle health status includes being in a power positive state park.
Six, three, six. Acknowledged.
So we are communicating, commanding the lander and getting acknowledgements back that the lander is behaving as expected. So putting those things together while we wait for confirmation from Doctor Crane, we have an engine that has shut down. We are venting the engine.
Park 637 acknowledged.
We are getting acknowledged commands from the lander standing by for confirmation from Doctor Crane.
And just a recap of some.
Of the timelines.
So far. Today we had.
Power descent.
Initiation start about.
2530 406. Acknowledged.
Powered descent initiation is the braking burn that really committed us to coming down to our landing site. Today we were targeting landing at about 11:30 a.m. central time, so about ten minutes ago now. Again, still just standing by for some confirmation from the teams in Nova Control. And hopefully a picture that shows the status of Athena on the lunar surface landing site. Today is Mons. Mouton. It is the farthest south target for any landing up to this point.
And pretty incredible images we just went through. You know, for those to come down during.
Six, three, eight acknowledged.
During that landing sequence showing during that deceleration burn, just about ten ten meters, I believe that was over the surface for those images. See who we have in there? Yep. Down towards the bottom right. 639 acknowledged of your screen. We keep hearing those acknowledgements of the vehicle, receiving our commands as we stand by for the real deciding factor here. Never a dull moment, Leah.
We did hear that they were going into 640.
Acknowledged.
Commanded. Landed. Ops. So can you walk us through some of what that means? I know that includes safing the engine as well.
Right. So there's different different modes that we need to command. Right? At the beginning of PDI we hear the command for exec mode. All right.
That's six for one. Acknowledged.
That's executed executing the burn maneuver. Right. When we switch over into landed ops, it's a different setting on the lander. In order for us to go through those steps safing the vehicle first and foremost, that liquid methane, liquid oxygen engine.
Bring it down. Also. FM I'd like a recommendation on whether or not we keep Talas one up or if we bring it down.
It's going to be a decision on up and down for radios based.
Bring it down. For now. We're taking the same pictures. So.
I would not.
Recommend powering.
Down dolls. He did say pictures.
He did say pictures. Yes. So hoping to see the status of Athena on the lunar surface soon. We were initially expecting pictures would take a couple of hours to come down as the flight teams prioritized downloading data and safing the vehicle, but this will help us better understand the configuration of the lander.
Spark six. 42 acknowledged.
Every time we hear Mikaela, come on.
Can you zoom in on this view? Actually, give me the spacecraft view.
Spark six. Four four. Acknowledged.
Getting all these acknowledgements coming through.
No. Take task down.
And we're going to see here. Looks like Tim's. Keep powering down. Things that we're not using anymore. Mission director. Looks like he's looking up at the screen. Maybe they're looking at it. A little bit of data that we do not have in front of us. Still standing by for confirmation. But we've heard a few steps go through the process, venting the lander's system, hopefully pulling down data inside of Mission control, confirming Athena's status on the surface. And then finally, it sounds like we've heard a couple mentions of pictures. We've shown a couple from that descent stage, and we're just going to keep standing by looking into Nova Control here in Houston, Texas, just down the street from Johnson Space Center to find out the situation inside of the Im two mission with Athena touched down again. That was about nominally the touchdown time is about 1436 45 acknowledged. Still in contact with the vehicle right now. We know the vehicle has shut down. Its engines are powered down. We are getting acknowledgement transmissions to the vehicle.
All right, team, keep working the problem. We're shedding power as fast as we can to keep the vehicle in good health. We are generating power. We are communicating through our telemetry radio. And we are working to evaluate exactly what our orientation is on the surface.
Spark. 646. Acknowledged. Spark. 648. Acknowledged.
So good confirmations there, right? We know we're getting acknowledgement. We're sending things to the vehicle. We're saving the vehicle. Now it's time to start working.
647.
Acknowledged the vehicle. Which way is it pointed? Earlier in the show, we talked about the different antennas on the vehicle and trying to work those. But we are charging, which is a very key element to this mission. It looks like the room is filling up with our subject matter experts just continue working on this challenge to see where we stand.
Spark nine acknowledged.
CBS.
Is back.
In livery.
You see folks walking on the bottom right hand of your screen underneath the camera. That's because the rooms situational awareness about a 65 inch TV sitting underneath there. So what they're pointing at could be data. It could be confirmation. A little hard to see from this view, but as you see people exiting the bottom of your screen on the bottom right, there's a television monitor there that's helping them make some decisions. And as we cross over, it's been about 30 minutes since time of ignition for PDI. And we just hit 16 minutes since our nominal landing. If you're just joining us, we know we are sending commands to the vehicle. We have shut off equipment that has not been necessary. We know that we have an engine that has been shut off. We've commanded the vehicle into surface operations. We just heard from Doctor Tim Crane that we are generating power. We're turning things off that are not no longer required. We heard one of them being the star tracker. It's one of the tools that we use to figure out the position in space during flight.
We're in landed ops now. We're just standing by to hear what the full situation is. About 16.5 minutes since nominal landing time, and a little over 31 minutes since Athena commanded her final engine burn.
Spark 651 acknowledged.
Like you said, Josh, we are going to go ahead and turn on the displays for all the antennas.
We're communicating to see everyone looking up at the screen here. So when they're calling back to order, that's actually.
Six, five, two in the back.
Left of the bottom right monitor. They're changing screens inside the room. Situational awareness television up front, right in front of the mission director. You just asked to pull up the antenna configurations Trying to figure out.
653. Acknowledged.
Which ones? Pointing back toward Earth. Which might be the best one to use towards the top of the show. And during PDI, when things got a little spicy, we talked about multipath, Leah. And that's something that we expect to happen on the South Pole. It's something we learned from during Im1, quite frankly, with Odie being on the surface and radio waves taking multiple paths to get to the same destination. Multipath exists down on the lunar surface just because there are so many different ways during time. One, we were sending out signals that were bouncing off the surface, bouncing off of craters, and making their way back to Earth. We took a I think it was a Saturday and a Sunday. To learn a little bit more about the multipath situation you mentioned Leah. Odysseus ended up breaking a leg and then laying down gently on the surface. But that communications does create a problem between multipath and learning about those things. Inside of Intuitive Machines is Lunar Data Network. It's comprised of ground stations all over the globe, the largest one of.
Them being so far. What else have we got?
The largest ones down in Australia, that is the Parkes Observatory. They call her Mary Yang down there. But that really is what helped us pick up those weak radio signals for Im one that's not the dish we're on right now, but it seems like we do have a great connection from the vehicle. I believe that dish we're using right now is Guy six in Goonhilly, but I don't have that confirmation right in front of me.
Maybe this is prop. Can you confirm what is getting powered down?
Everything we.
Can.
Right now.
Prop Copy.
They're powering down these systems aboard the lander because it does take quite a bit of energy to land. But we did hear good confirmation that we are also generating power.
Yeah. All these commands that are going to spark spark is code for avionics. Right. Those are where our power is being allocated on the lander. And we've heard a lot of confirmations of things being turned off. We heard Doctor Crane say we are generating solar power. At last check, we heard mission director call out to look at the antenna configuration on the room situational awareness model screen. And we're still standing by to see where this is going to go.
Yes, power down the Sonics until we're ready to use it.
It's about 20 minutes now since our intended landing time today again. We were expecting that around 11:30 a.m. central. Teams in the room in Novo Control that's here at Intuitive Machines in Houston, Texas, just down the street from Johnson Space Center, continuing to evaluate the status of the spacecraft. Continuing to communicate with the spacecraft itself and just waiting for potentially a photo that would help us confirm its orientation.
I'm just going to wait one and listen in for a couple cues coming into the studio here. Bear with us, folks. Thanks again, folks, for joining us for the IMM two mission's landing coverage. I want to go over a few things we do have coming into the studio, into our ear that we can confirm while the folks are working inside of Mission Control on their own challenges. But a couple of things that we do have that we can confirm. Athena is on the surface of the moon. The team is going through the process of powering down systems that are not required. We heard the mission director call out that we do have solar charging, so we continue to hear them in our ear that they're turning off different systems that are not required. We are working to figure out the orientation of the vehicle, which is important because those are our antenna systems that will determine how much signal we're going to have and when we can start bringing down things like vehicle health data and other images that can help us to confirm what we are communicating with the vehicle.
We've heard throughout our intended landing time through now different call outs making it to the vehicle. We have direct communications contact, and we intend to bring out some more information as we continue to assess this dynamic situation inside of Mission Control, we intend to have a press conference at 3:00 central time. That's 4:00 eastern. We'll do it right over at Johnson Space Center. Leah.
That's right. Thanks for joining us today.
And we'll have plenty of other information if anything else comes out.
We have been monitoring here the moon landing of the robotic lander named Athena. That was NASA's coverage. They're talking about the latest info. I want to bring back astronaut Charles Camarda for more on this. So, Charles, what do you make of what we just saw? Sounds like things went pretty smoothly.
It's not exactly. It's a little inconclusive right now, Diane. You know, we've definitely touched down on the surface of the moon. I'm not seeing the body language I would like to see in the control room right now. I think they're trying to figure out what the configuration is. Is it sitting straight up and down like it's supposed to be?
They talked at one point about the orientation and needing to figure out the orientation. I mean, does that just mean which way it's turned, which way it's facing, or does that mean is this thing upside down? Did it fall over? Did it land the way you need it to?
Yeah, exactly. They say they were receiving power, which means some of the solar arrays are able to catch the sun. And so that's a good thing. They didn't say how much power and whether or not they were in the optimum configuration, like it should be to, to, um, to to energize the batteries and so not really sure yet. Didn't see anything from the people at Mission Control and Intuitive Machines in Houston, indicating that it's 100% success.
Now, NASA just announced that they're going to be having a press conference later this afternoon with more information. What would it mean if this is a success? And they do say that the lander is on the moon. It's facing the way we need it to. It can go ahead and now start this search for ice in this crater.
I think that would be great. That's what we're praying for. That's what we're hoping for. I mean, they're going to they're going to be doing some experiments that are really going to give us an indication, hey, do we have enough water? Can we process it? Are our communications system working so that we can communicate with the different rovers and drones that we have operating on the surface of the moon? And so it's going to be very exciting. Hopefully it's 100% successful. We'll start seeing the Experiments being deployed and rolled out. The rover is getting into position. I'm really interested in looking at that hopper that takes several hops. Jump into the deep crater and hop back out and tell us they they found water ice. And my friend Kris Zacny and Honeybee Robotics tried and drill drilling into the surface and measuring the amount of water.
All right. Former NASA astronaut Charles Camarda, we appreciate your time today, sir. Thank you.
You're welcome. Thanks for having me, Diane.
It's our pleasure. And thanks to you for watching. I'm Diane Macedo. The news never stops, and neither do we. We have a lot more news right after the break. Stick around.
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Right now on ABC News Live.
Tariff turmoil.
President Trump's trade war shocks.
The stock market.
And that's not.
All.
We'll talk to.
A.
Distiller who warns Trump's.
Buzzkill could put bourbon on the rocks. Back to the drawing board, dismantling the Department.
Of Ed.
On hold for now.
After fears.
Of an.
Uproar over school lunches.
And.
An.
ABC News Live.
Exclusive.
The.
Man.
Charged.
With killing Tupac.
Breaks.
His.
Silence in.
A jailhouse.
Interview. Why he says he's innocent despite multiple confessions. ABC News Live.
Starts right.
Now.
The trade war.
Roller coaster.
Sending Wall.
Street.
For a.
Ride. Good afternoon everyone.
I'm Kyra Phillips. So what.
Went.
Down on that call with.
Mexico's president.
That caused President Trump.
To press.
Pause.
On.
Some of the tariffs on Mexican goods? Well, we are definitely.
Seeing the.
Impact because.
Stocks tumbled.
This.
Morning as.
Trump's tariffs continue.
To roil the markets. A bit of a comeback, though, from the lows of the day after Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick hinted that more temporary exemptions are likely after President Trump granted a one month reprieve on auto imports. Joining us now the best in the business, our Elizabeth Schultz and our other business correspondent, Alexis Christoforous, on what this all means for the economy and our money. Elizabeth, what more do we know about this pause on Mexican goods?
This is a big deal, Kyra, because what it essentially means, and I've been talking to trade economists, trade experts for the past basically hour and a half since President Trump put this post out. They said this means that most of those tariffs are going to be on hold now for another month. So we've been talking a lot about the household impact of these tariffs. You think about your fresh produce avocados tomatoes, strawberries those likely now will not face those 25% tariffs at least until April 2nd when President Trump is promising further tariffs to go into place. So we this news came from in a post from President Trump on Truth Social, saying that he spoke with Mexico's president, Claudia Sheinbaum, that they had this conversation. Mexico's president said that she pointed to a decrease in the fentanyl flow, which we know has been one of the sticking points here that the Trump administration wants to see less fentanyl crossing the border from Mexico into the U.S., and that there are apparently now is enough progress on that, that President Trump says they can put a pause on these tariffs.
So broadly, what this looks like is that those goods that are coming into the U.S. from Mexico will have a little bit of a reprieve for the next month. It does not, though. Kira, postpone all of the uncertainty and the whiplash that we've seen over these tariffs and the questions that businesses are facing about how are they going to ultimately absorb those costs if they go into effect in a month from now or later in the year? How are they going to deal with that and how much of that gets passed down to consumers?
So, Alexis.
We know that the the markets hate uncertainty. So where does stocks go from here with all these temporary exemptions?
It's been really.
A tough.
Start to the month of March, Kyra. Investors have just been whiplashed by these tariff policies that seem to be changing day by day, hour by hour in the Trump administration. So Wall Street yearns for some clarity on the tariff front, and they're just not getting it. You know, yesterday we saw stocks bounce back from those.
Lows after.
The president said that there would be an exemption and delay on these tariffs for U.S. automakers between the US, Canada and Mexico. But today, even though now we're hearing more news about exemptions, the market's saying, wait a minute. You know what? What's the long term going to look like here. What is this going to do to prices to inflation to the overall economy. We're also having a number of companies coming out and not exactly painting a rosy picture for the future. Macy's again coming out today saying that they expect a sales slowdown this year. Last week Walmart said the same thing, and already Target and Best Buy said they expect to have to raise prices on consumers because of these tariffs. So I think overall the market is jittery right now and again, just yearning for some certainty that it's just not getting.
All right. Elizabeth Schultz, Alexis Christoforous, thank you both. No bourbon, no scotch, no beer. Quite the buzzkill for bourbon crafters who are getting barreled over by President Trump's new tariffs. Just like Champagne and France, real bourbon can only come from the United States. In Kentucky alone, it's a $9 billion signature business. Now, retaliatory tariffs from Canada and Mexico could dramatically impact bourbon sales across the country. For generations, Jeff Quint's family has farmed and distilled spirits, and for over two decades, he's owned the Cedar Ridge Distillery in Iowa, known for its bourbon distribution, serving up people's love for their Manhattans and mint juleps. Now he's worried about what this trade war could mean for him and his company.
As these tariffs develop and there's retaliation. Somehow we've become.
One.
Of the the.
Victims in this.
Process.
So, um.
As a as an industry.
We make enough bourbon to supply the, the whole world. And if world demand for bourbon.
Goes down.
You know, that has.
A.
Very negative impact on our business and many others.
In our industry.
Jeff Quint, CEO and founder of Cedar Ridge Distillery in Swisher, Iowa, joins me now for more. So, Jeff, let's talk about these tariffs and how they're going to hurt your business.
Well thanks, Kyra.
I think.
The best way for your viewers to understand, um, the situation with companies.
Like ours and in the bourbon industry.
Um, is, you know, to first take a look at the macro environment and then swing down to.
The micro.
Environment.
But on.
A macro basis, you know, we.
Make.
We.
In.
The US.
Make.
The world's supply of.
Bourbon. Because bourbon is a distinctly distinctive.
Product.
Of the United States.
It can't be made.
Anywhere.
Else. So, um, so we have to satisfy it. A few.
Hundred.
Distillers here.
In the US when, um, these foreign countries slap tariffs on bourbon, you know.
It has a.
Direct negative impact on our industry. So we kind of become collateral damage in all this, uh, tariff discussion. And then if you swing down to the microenvironment, you know, we.
At.
Cedar Ridge have been, um, shipping into Canada and the EU and a few other foreign countries for a few years now. And, you know, you don't just, uh, turn on those sales and start making money right away. You you have to cultivate relationships. And it's probably a 3 to 5 year investment to, to before you can hope to generate profits from a new market like Canada. And we've been in there, um, for a few years now. And, um, suddenly it appears as though at least some of the provinces in Canada are actually pulling American whiskey, including our bourbon, off of their shelves. And so, you know, your sales in that country go to zero. Um, we're not expecting any further orders from Canada, certainly for the near term. And then, you know, the instability that's created from all of this really causes you as a, as a decision maker, you know, to to rethink your global strategy. Do do you even want to, to put Canada or the EU on the list anymore?
Uh, and certainly there'll be other countries that come along in this process where we have to have that same, um, analysis.
So do you think, do you think that these do you think these terrorists will be better for America. You know, in the long run. Uh, what do you say to that? Can you handle the disruption in the short and medium term?
Well, we can handle the disruption, I think, because, you know, we can quickly pivot to more of a domestic strategy. But some of the larger bourbon players in the industry, you know, they really count on those exports. And if exports are curtailed on bourbon, then we're going to have a supply glut in the US here. So, you know, that's where it we become collateral damage in this process. But short term there's going to be a lot of uncertainty. And that's what you're seeing in the market. And that's what your group there was just talking about. So we're definitely seeing that same instability in our business.
Jeff Quint, CEO and founder of Cedar Ridge Distillery there in Swisher, Iowa. Send us some samples. We'll keep you in business. I appreciate your time, Jeff.
Thank you.
You bet. While the tariff war changes by the day, Elon Musk and Doge's mission to slash the government may have also hit a bump in the road. The white House now reversing its order to dismantle the Department of Education. But it comes after the Department of Veteran Affairs laid off thousands of workers. Secretary Collins confirming the move on X, saying the agency planned a 15% workforce cut. That translates to more than 72,000 jobs. Joining me now, senior white House correspondent Selina Wang, and our Jay O'Brien, who's up on the Hill. So, Selina, before we get to the VA, the white House just pulled today's executive order to dismantle the Department of Education. What happened?
Yeah, some whiplash here.
We're told by.
Sources.
That the white House.
Has.
Pulled the planned signing that we were told before.
Was planned to be signed today. We're learning from sources.
That.
Top Trump administration officials were concerned about the.
Blowback.
That they would receive from this order, and concerns that they weren't ready to answer.
Tough questions.
About the programs that would be impacted by this.
Including.
School lunches.
But we.
Know.
That this order was.
Months in.
The making.
President Trump had, of course.
Campaigned.
On.
Dismantling the Department of.
Education.
So we knew that.
This was.
Something coming. But to.
Be clear, it requires an act of Congress to dismantle a federal.
Agency.
So that executive order was going to direct Linda McMahon, the secretary of the department, to do everything in her power within the law to bring the functions of the Department of Education back to the States. Now, much of funding for public schools already happens at the state and local level, but the department does handle a lot of very important tasks, including overseeing billions in funding to help low income students, students with disabilities. It also enforces civil rights laws to prevent discrimination in schools. It also manages about $1.5 trillion in student loan debt. So a lot of questions that they were going to face as a result of this order, and we were learning from sources that they just didn't feel comfortable moving ahead with it today.
So J. Elon Musk met with Republicans on Capitol Hill yesterday about these Doge cuts. What happened? What was the outcome of that?
Well, remember, Kyra, these Republican members had gone back to their various districts and they were pressed by constituents on Doge and specifically the pace at which Doge is moving. And some of those members, while they came back and accused constituents of staging, quote unquote, Democratic led demonstrations, there are some members who have said without evidence that these protesters are paid. There were other Republicans who came back and said they now have serious questions, and they want more answers out of Elon Musk. So that's what Elon Musk tried to give them last night in a meeting behind closed doors with House Republicans. And then earlier in the day, in a meeting with Senate Republicans, I talked to Republicans. As they left that meeting, they said they got a broader understanding of what Doge wants to do. They wouldn't go into detail as to what Elon Musk says is next for Doge. But there were hard line Republicans who said they were encouraged by what they heard by Elon Musk, that they want Elon Musk to move faster.
And their understanding of what Elon Musk said is that there's no federal agency or federal function that's off the table from some kind of a Doge review. I asked Republicans, were there any that came up in the meeting and said that they feel Doge is acting too quickly or acting too callously? I heard from Republicans who said no, they weren't aware of that, but there were some Republicans who stood up and said that they were concerned about veterans jobs that could be impacted. Elon Musk said that he was taking that under advisement. There were other Republicans who said they were concerned about the impact this could have on farmers. If you cut things like USDA funding and things of that nature. Musk just kind of took that in and said he was taking it all under advisement. I can tell you, Kyra, though he also gave out his cell phone number earlier in the day to some Republican senators and said, call me if you have any questions and if you have any concerns about mistakes we might have made. And that did seem to go a long way with some Senate Republicans.
Well, Selina, the impact of these VA cuts, a lot of people are talking about it. We've interviewed VA workers that have been laid off.
Yeah.
I mean, these cuts are sweeping. We're told that it's 15% of the workforce, so that would be more than 70,000 workers. The Department of Veterans Affairs is the second largest federal agency, and it provides critical benefits and care to 9 million veterans. And about a quarter of the workers at Veterans Affairs are actually veterans themselves. So we're talking about thousands of people getting laid off who sacrificed and served this country, getting fired by their own government. So this is raising some alarm from Republicans as well, who say that this needs to be done in a responsible way. And I've also spoken to laid off veterans from other agencies. And they call these firings a slap in the face.
Selina Wang, Jay O'Brien, Appreciate you guys. Thank you. Well, a deadly storm wreaking havoc for millions of people across the country. The death toll now up to three in Mississippi as tornadoes tear through the south. Torrential rain in New York City brought down trees and scattered debris all over neighborhoods. And then take a look at this 90 mile an hour winds toppling this truck in Kansas. Meteorologist Greg Dutra from our ABC station in Chicago is tracking it all for us. Hey, Greg.
We're getting rid of one storm, and we have to track another one. But we're not quite rid of that first storm yet. Yes, the storm is departing, but it is still creating quite a few advisories. Some of these don't even go effect until the afternoon. You'll notice on the downwind side of the Appalachian Mountains, out near Boone, and then further off to the north, the downwind side of not only the Berkshires, but also the Worcester Hills. There could be some locally 60 mile per hour plus gusts throughout the day today. Now off to the west coast where we have the next storm system moving in, Los Angeles saw about a half inch of rain. Actually more than that. San Diego saw a quarter inch. They could hear some rumbles of thunder and San Diego just in time for the evening commute tonight. This system does make its way across country, although sputtering as it does so the Midwest a paltry 1 to 3in of snowfall. That is not going to help as the snowfall deficit there is anywhere between about a foot and a foot and a half.
So yes, tracking another storm. But no, I don't think this one's going to have quite the bite that the last one did, producing blizzard conditions in the same area. Back to you.
All right, Greg, thanks. Straight ahead. An ABC news exclusive. He confessed to his role in killing Tupac. Now he's speaking out for behind bars. Why? He claims cops have the wrong guy.
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Why did you stop being a vigilante? A line was crossed. I liked how it felt. Didn't you? Dispensing justice. If you say to me that you're a new man, I say fine. But if you step out of line, I will be there. Daredevil. Born again. Only on Disney+.
I didn't.
Do it. The man charged in Tupac's murder, speaking out from behind bars for the very first time. Dwayne Davis insists he was hundreds of miles away when the rapper was shot. Now he's pointing the finger at someone else. Our chief investigative correspondent, Aaron Katersky, has this ABC news exclusive.
We ain't meant to survive cause it's a setup.
The death of rap legend.
Tupac Shakur.
Nearly.
30 years.
Ago became one of the.
Nation's most notorious.
Unsolved.
Murders.
Hey, Keith.
Metro police, come over here.
Then in 2023, a breakthrough when prosecutors charged this man with ordering the hit. The only.
Person.
Arrested for Shakur's murder, who now tells ABC news authorities have the wrong man.
I'm innocent. I ain't killed nobody. Never did ever kill nobody. They don't have no evidence against me. Can't even put me in Las Vegas.
61 year old Dwayne D Davis says the night of the murder, September 7th, 1996, he was in Los Angeles, 300 miles from the Las Vegas intersection where Tupac Shakur was gunned down.
Prove that I orchestrated this using your key witness. Orchestrated this? They top witness is the lead suspect.
The defense pointing to someone else. Reggie Wright Jr, a former cop and security guard for record mogul Suge Knight who was driving the car Tupac was in the night he was shot. Wright has denied any involvement and has said, it bothers me because I was in charge of possibly protecting this young man. And prosecutors say Davis incriminated himself in his 2019 memoir, Compton Street Legend. And in this on camera interview.
You.
Said the shots came from.
The back. Who shot Tupac?
I keep it for the cold of the streets. It just came from the back seat.
Boyd Davis now says his previous admissions connected with the shooting were made under duress and for money, claiming he did not write his own memoir and was fed information by police.
I shouldn't have said nothing. I'm saying L shouldn't have said nothing. And? And I'm innocent, man.
Prosecutors declined to respond directly to Davis's new claims. They say their case is strong and they expect a conviction.
Out on bail, fresh out of jail California Dreamin.
Tupac Shakur.
Is one of the best selling rap artists.
Of all time. 75 million albums to date. Most of those sales posthumously, thanks in part to hits like California Love West Coast.
Yes, that's right.
Davis's arrest followed years of fan driven theories that an intense rivalry between East Coast and West Coast rappers sparked the fatal attack on Shakur.
And I'm being held against my will. I'm supposed to be out there enjoying my twilight. God got my back and God will see me through this.
So far, the judge has not weighed the defense's claim of a different suspect.
And right now, Kyra.
Davis is scheduled for trial in February. Kyra.
All right, we'll follow it. Aaron. Katersky thank you. And coming up censured on Capitol Hill, the House taking action against a congressman who well raised a little cane. His show of defiance next.
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Well, praying for the Pope and praying for answers. The Vatican reporting the 88 year old pontiff rested peacefully overnight and continues to rest today. Pope Francis's health has remained stationary without showing any episodes of respiratory failure since yesterday, and he's now been in the hospital for 21 days. Senior national correspondent and my co-anchor, Terry Moran, joins me along with our medical correspondent, Doctor Darien Sutton. So, Terry, the Pope is still in the hospital. Do we know anything else this hour about his condition?
Carol, all we've been told today is that he had another restful.
Night without incident.
And at this point.
No news.
Qualifies.
As.
Good.
News. And it sounds.
At.
This.
Point as if.
Steady.
As.
He.
Goes.
That said.
We.
Are.
Expecting any minute to get another update.
From the Pope's doctors, and.
If we do, I'll.
Send that along.
Meanwhile, you know, the Lenten season has started and the long Easter holiday season.
In the in the.
Calendar of the Roman Catholic.
Church has.
Begun.
People miss.
Pope Francis, no.
Question.
About.
It. People are praying for him every night here in Saint Peter's Square. They pray a rosary for the.
Pope's.
Recovery. And yet, obviously, the church has been doing this for a long time, and people are happy to be here at the year of pilgrimage. There are a lot of people here in order to observe and celebrate this season, but they are remembering Pope Francis and hoping that this no news does qualify as good news.
Well, Doctor Sutton, over the past couple of days, we have heard from the Vatican that the Pope's condition has remained mostly the same without any episodes of respiratory failure. Is this a hopeful sign?
And certainly reasons to be hopeful. Kira, when you, as Terry was.
Saying, no news in the ICU or with critical patients.
Is.
Good news. And also, I just want to help everyone understand what the term guarded means it because it's used often and used a lot. Many people may not know. So guarded simply means that there's not enough information to make a judgment about the likely outcome. So what information would we be looking for in these updates? Number one, repeat testing to make sure and assure that what we're seeing in terms of his overall health and his mental status, and the fact that he's up and talking to his peers, is also replicated and visualized in his blood test, for example, his kidney function. We're wanting to make sure that that is stable. Also, his dependence on oxygen. We know that he often switches between non-invasive mechanical ventilation and a high flow oxygen therapy. These are different methods of oxygen supplementation. You always want to make sure that patients are decreasing their dependence on that oxygen supplementation, because that means that they're able to care for themselves without that additional assistance. So these are all prognostic factors that will help us to better understand.
And also his response to physical therapy and chest and lung physiotherapy to help clear that mucus. All of these factors help to identify those patients who can eventually leave the ICU and hopefully leave the hospital. But as you've learned so far, this is incredibly complex. And as we already have begun to understand, we don't yet, and we won't yet understand exactly what the outcome will be until we get these results.
And Terry, before we let you go, since you're there in Rome, this has got to be so hard, not only for the faithful, but the Pope. Ash Wednesday, just yesterday. We're approaching Easter. I mean, this is his time usually to come out and be with the people.
No question about it. And this is a pope who, you know, obviously loves to be active. His his staff believes he overworked himself that he was having some trouble, and they urged him to take a few days off. And that's just not his style. So it must be difficult for him in his hospital to see all of this going on and all the people coming here for the Jubilee. He of course he wants to be with them. That's that's his style. And yet he's got some important work to do on his own health. He has once again sent messages and homilies during some of these ceremonies. So he's here in spirit, if not in person.
Terry. Doctor Sutton, thank you both. One other story. We're following this hour. Censure on Capitol Hill.
The House has resolved that Representative Al Green be censured.
Oh, yeah. And folks weren't weren't too happy there. On the House floor this morning after that vote to censure Democratic Congressman Al Green happened, ten Democrats joined Republicans in censuring him over his outburst during President Trump's joint address to Congress. You see right there. A censure is a House resolution stating disapproval of a House member's behavior, but it is not as severe as expulsion. After that vote, Democrats did join Al Green there, as well as some of the other members to sing We Shall Overcome. The news never stops. Neither do we. You can find us anywhere you stream live news. And if you're on the go, we're on the ABC news app and abcnews.com too. I'm Kyra Phillips. Thanks for streaming with us. A lot more news up next.
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Right now on ABC News Live. Tariff turmoil. President Trump's trade war shocks the stock market. And that's not all. We'll talk to a distiller who warns Trump's buzzkill could put bourbon on the rocks. Back to the drawing board dismantling the Department of Ed on hold for now. After fears of an uproar over school lunches and an ABC News Live exclusive. The man charged with killing Tupac breaks his silence in a jailhouse interview. Why? He says he's innocent despite multiple confessions. ABC News Live starts right now. The trade war roller coaster sending Wall Street for a ride. Good afternoon everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips. So what went down on that call with Mexico's president that caused President Trump to press pause on some of the tariffs on Mexican goods? Well, we are definitely seeing the impact because stocks tumbled this morning as Trump's tariffs continue to roil the markets. A bit of a comeback, though, from the lows of the day after Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick hinted that more temporary exemptions are likely after President Trump granted a one month reprieve on auto imports.
Joining us now the best in the business, our Elizabeth Schultz and our other business correspondent, Alexis Christoforous, on what this all means for the economy and our money. Elizabeth, what more do we know about this pause on Mexican goods?
This is a big deal, Kyra, because what it essentially means, and I've been talking to trade economists, trade experts for the past basically hour and a half since President Trump put this post out. They said this means that most of those tariffs are going to be on hold now for another month. So we've been talking a lot about the household impact of these tariffs. You think about your fresh produce avocados tomatoes, strawberries those likely now will not face those 25% tariffs at least until April 2nd when President Trump is promising further tariffs to go into place. So we this news came from in a post from President Trump on Truth Social saying that he spoke with Mexico's president, Claudia Sheinbaum, that they had this conversation. Mexico's president said that she pointed to a decrease in the fentanyl flow, which we know has been one of the sticking points here that the Trump administration wants to see less fentanyl crossing the border from Mexico into the U.S., and that they are apparently now is enough progress on that that President Trump says they can put a pause on these tariffs.
So broadly, what this looks like is that those goods that are coming into the U.S. from Mexico will have a little bit of a reprieve for the next month. It does not, though. Kiara, postpone all of the uncertainty and the whiplash that we've seen over these tariffs and the questions that businesses are facing about how are they going to ultimately absorb those costs if they go into effect in a month from now or later in the year, how are they going to deal with that and how much of that gets passed down to consumers?
So, Alexis, we know that the the markets hate uncertainty. So where does stocks go from here with all these temporary exemptions?
It's been really a.
Tough.
Start to the month of March Kyra. Investors have just been whiplashed by these tariff policies that seem to be changing day by day, hour by hour in the Trump administration. So Wall Street yearns for some clarity on the tariff front, and they're just not getting it. You know, yesterday we saw stocks bounce back from those lows after the president said that there would be an exemption and delay on these tariffs for U.S. automakers between the US, Canada and Mexico. But today, even though now we're hearing more news about exemptions, the market's saying, wait a minute. You know what? What's the long term going to look like here. What is this going to do to prices to inflation to the overall economy. We're also having a number of companies coming out and not exactly painting a rosy picture for the future. Macy's again coming out today saying that they expect a sales slowdown this year. Last week, Walmart said the same thing, and already Target and Best Buy said they expect to have to raise prices on consumers because of these tariffs.
So I think overall the market is jittery right now and again, just yearning for some certainty that it's just not getting.
All right. Elizabeth Schultz, Alexis Christoforous, thank you both. No bourbon, no scotch, no beer. Quite the buzzkill for bourbon crafters who are getting barreled over by President Trump's new tariffs. Just like Champagne and France, real bourbon can only come from the United States. In Kentucky alone, it's a $9 billion signature business. Now, retaliatory tariffs from Canada and Mexico could dramatically impact bourbon sales across the country. For generations, Jeff Quint's family has farmed and distilled spirits, and for over two decades, he's owned the Cedar Ridge Distillery in Iowa, known for its bourbon distribution, serving up people's love for their Manhattans and mint juleps. Now he's worried about what this trade war could mean for him and his company.
As these tariffs develop and there's retaliation. Somehow we've become one of the the victims in this process. So, um, as a as an industry, we make enough bourbon to supply the, the whole world. And if world demand for bourbon goes down, you know, that has a very negative impact on our business and many others in our industry.
Jeff Quint, CEO and founder of Cedar Ridge Distillery in Swisher, Iowa, joins me now for more. So, Jeff, let's talk about these tariffs and how they're going to hurt your business.
Well thanks, Kyra. I think the best way for your viewers to understand, um, the situation with companies like ours and in the bourbon industry, um, is, you know, the first, take a look at the macro environment and then swing down to the macro environment. But on a macro basis, you know, we make we in the US make the world's supply of bourbon. Because bourbon is a distinctly distinctive product of the United States. It can't be made anywhere else. So um, so we have to satisfy it. A few hundred distillers here in the US, when, um, these foreign countries slap tariffs on bourbon, you know, it has a direct negative impact on our industry. So we kind of become collateral damage in all this, uh, tariff discussion. And then if you swing down to the microenvironment, you know, we at Cedar Ridge have been, um, shipping into Canada and the EU and a few other foreign countries for a few years now. And, you know, you don't just, uh, turn on those sales and start making money right away.
You you have to cultivate relationships. And it's probably a 3 to 5 year investment to to before you can hope to generate profits from a new market like Canada. And we've been in there, um, for a few years now. And, um, suddenly it appears as though at least some of the provinces in Canada are actually pulling American whiskey, including our bourbon, off of their shelves. And so, you know, your sales in that country go to zero. Um, we're not expecting any further orders from Canada, certainly for the near term. And then, you know, the instability that's created from all of this really causes you as a, as a decision maker, you know, to, to rethink your global strategy. Do do you even want to, to put Canada or the EU on the list anymore? Uh, and certainly there'll be other countries that come along in this process where we have to have that same, um, analysis. So.
Well, do you.
Think.
Do you think that these do you think these terrorists will be better for America? You know, in the long run, uh, what do you say to that? Can you handle the disruption in the short and medium term?
Well, we can handle the disruption, I think, because, you know, we can quickly pivot to more of a domestic strategy. But some of the larger bourbon players in the industry, you know, they really count on those exports. And if exports are curtailed on bourbon, then we're going to have a supply glut in the US here. So, you know, that's where it we become collateral damage in this process. But short term there's going to be a lot of uncertainty. And that's what you're seeing in the market. And that's what your group there was just talking about. So uh we're definitely seeing that same instability in our business.
Jeff Quint, CEO and founder of Cedar Ridge Distillery there in Swisher, Iowa. Send us some samples. We'll keep you in business. I appreciate your time, Jeff.
Thank you.
You bet. While the tariff war changes by the day, Elon Musk and Doge's mission to slash the government may have also hit a bump in the road. The white House now reversing its order to dismantle the Department of Education. But it comes after the Department of Veteran Affairs laid off thousands of workers. Secretary Collins confirming the move on X, saying the agency planned a 15% workforce cut. That translates to more to 72,000 jobs. Joining me now, senior white House correspondent Selina Wang, and our Jay O'Brien, who's up on the Hill. So, Selina, before we get to the VA, the white House just pulled today's executive order to dismantle the Department of Education. What happened?
Yeah, some whiplash here. We're told by sources that the white House has pulled the planned signing that we were told before was planned to be signed today. We're learning from sources that top Trump administration officials were concerned about the blowback that they would receive from this order and concerns that they weren't ready to answer tough questions about the programs that would be impacted by this, including school lunches. But we know that this order was months in the making. President Trump had, of course, campaigned on dismantling the Department of Education, so we knew that this was something coming. But to be clear, it requires an act of Congress to dismantle a federal agency so that executive order was going to direct Linda McMahon, the secretary of the department, to do everything in her power within the law to bring the functions of the Department of Education back to the States. Now, much of funding for public schools already happens at the state and local level, but the department does handle a lot of very important tasks, including overseeing billions in funding to help low income students, students with disabilities.
It also enforces civil rights laws to prevent discrimination in schools. It also manages about $1.5 trillion in student loan debt. So a lot of questions that they were going to face as a result of this order, and we were learning from sources that they just didn't feel comfortable moving ahead with it today.
So J. Elon Musk met with Republicans on Capitol Hill yesterday about these Doge cuts. What happened? What was the outcome of that?
Well, remember, Kyra, these Republican members had gone back to their various districts and they were pressed by constituents on Doge and specifically the pace at which Doge is moving. And some of those members, while they came back and accused constituents of staging, quote unquote, Democratic led demonstrations, there are some members who have said without evidence that these protesters are paid. There were other Republicans who came back and said they now have serious questions, and they want more answers out of Elon Musk. So that's what Elon Musk tried to give them last night in a meeting behind closed doors with House Republicans. And then earlier in the day, in a meeting with Senate Republicans, I talked to Republicans. As they left that meeting, they said they got a broader understanding of what Doge wants to do. They wouldn't go into detail as to what Elon Musk says is next for Doge. But there were hardline Republicans who said they were encouraged by what they heard by Elon Musk, that they want Elon Musk to move faster.
And their understanding of what Elon Musk said is that there's no federal agency or federal function that's off the table from some kind of a Doge review. I asked Republicans, were there any that came up in the meeting and said that they feel Doge is acting too quickly or acting too callously? I heard from Republicans who said no, they weren't aware of that, but there were some Republicans who stood up and said that they were concerned about veterans jobs that could be impacted. Elon Musk said that he was taking that under advisement. There were other Republicans who said they were concerned about the impact this could have on farmers. If you cut things like USDA funding and things of that nature. Musk just kind of took that in and said he was taking it all under advisement. I can tell you, Kyra, though he also gave out his cell phone number earlier in the day to some Republican senators and said, call me if you have any questions and if you have any concerns about mistakes we might have made. And that did seem to go a long way with some Senate Republicans.
Well, Selina, the impact of these VA cuts, a lot of people are talking about it. We've interviewed VA workers that have been laid off.
Yeah, I mean, these cuts are sweeping. We're told that it's 15% of the workforce, so that would be more than 70,000 workers. The Department of Veterans Affairs is the second largest federal agency, and it provides critical benefits and care to 9 million veterans. And about a quarter of the workers at Veterans Affairs are actually veterans themselves. So we're talking about thousands of people getting laid off who sacrificed and served this country, getting fired by their own government. So this is raising some alarm from Republicans as well, who say that this needs to be done in a responsible way. And I've also spoken to laid off veterans from other agencies. And they call these firings a slap in the face.
Selina Wang. Jay O'Brien. Appreciate you guys. Thank you. Well, a deadly storm wreaking havoc for millions of people across the country. The death toll now up to three in Mississippi as tornadoes tear through the South. Torrential rain in New York City brought down trees and scattered debris all over neighborhoods. And then take a look at this 90 mile an hour winds toppling this truck in Kansas. Meteorologist Greg Dutra from our ABC station in Chicago is tracking it all for us. Hey, Greg.
We're getting rid of one storm, and we have to track another one. But we're not quite rid of that first storm yet. Yes, the storm is departing, but it is still creating quite a few advisories. Some of these don't even go effect until the afternoon. You'll notice on the downwind side of the Appalachian Mountains, out near Boone, and then further off to the north, the downwind side of not only the Berkshires, but also the Worcester Hills. There could be some locally 60 mile per hour plus gusts throughout the day today. Now off to the west coast where we have the next storm system moving in, Los Angeles saw about a half inch of rain. Actually, more than that, San Diego saw quarter inch. They could hear some rumbles of thunder in San Diego just in time for the evening commute tonight. This system does make its way across country, although sputtering as it does so the Midwest a paltry 1 to 3in of snowfall. That is not going to help as the snowfall deficit there is anywhere between about a foot and a foot and a half.
So yes, tracking another storm. But no, I don't think this one's going to have quite the bite that the last one did, producing blizzard conditions in the same area. Back to you.
All right, Greg, thanks. Straight ahead. An ABC news exclusive. He confessed to his role in killing Tupac. Now he's speaking out for behind bars. Why? He claims cops have the wrong guy.
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I didn't do it. The man charged in Tupac's murder, speaking out from behind bars for the very first time. Dwayne Davis insists he was hundreds of miles away when the rapper was shot. Now he's pointing the finger at someone else. Our chief investigative correspondent, Aaron Katersky has this ABC news exclusive.
We ain't meant to survive cause it's a setup.
The death of rap.
Legend Tupac Shakur nearly 30 years ago became one of the nation's most notorious unsolved murders.
Hey, Keith.
Metro police, come over here.
Then in 2023, a breakthrough when prosecutors charged this man with ordering the hit. The only person arrested for Shakur's murder, who now tells ABC news authorities have the wrong man.
I'm innocent. I ain't killed nobody. Never did ever kill nobody. They don't have no evidence against me. Can't even put me in Las Vegas.
61 year old Dwayne D Davis says the night of the murder, September 7th, 1996, he was in Los Angeles, 300 miles from the Las Vegas intersection where Tupac Shakur was gunned down.
Prove that our orchestrated this using your key witness orchestrated this. They top witness is the lead suspect.
The defense pointing to someone else. Reggie Wright Jr, a former cop and security guard for record mogul Suge Knight who was driving the car Tupac was in the night he was shot. Wright has denied any involvement and has said, it bothers me because I was in charge of possibly protecting this young man. And prosecutors say Davis incriminated himself in his 2019 memoir, Compton Street Legend. And in this on camera interview.
He.
Said the shots came from.
The back. Who shot Tupac?
I keep it for the cold of the streets. It just came from the back seat, bro.
Davis now says his previous admissions connected with the shooting were made under duress and for money, claiming he did not write his own memoir and was fed information by police.
As soon as I said nothing, I'm saying Well, I shouldn't have said nothing. And? And I'm innocent, man.
Prosecutors declined to respond directly to Davis's new claims. They say their case is strong and they expect a conviction.
Out on bail, fresh out of jail. California dreamin.
Tupac Shakur is one of.
The.
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Rap artists of all time. 75 million albums to date most of those sales posthumously, thanks in part to hits like California Love.
California West Coast. Yes, that's right.
Davis arrest followed years of fan driven theories that an intense rivalry between East Coast and West Coast rappers sparked the fatal attack on Shakur.
And I'm being held against my will. I'm supposed to be out there enjoying my twilight. God got my back and God will see me through this.
So far, the judge has not weighed the defense's claim of a different suspect. And right now, Kyra Davis is scheduled for trial in February. Kyra.
All right, we'll follow it. Aaron. Katersky. Thank you. And coming up censured on Capitol Hill, the House taking action against a congressman who well raised a little cane his show of defiance next.
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Breaking news from the Vatican. We are told Pope Francis's condition has remained stable compared to previous days. He did not present episodes of respiratory insufficiency at all today. The Vatican reporting earlier that the 80 year old pontiff rested peacefully overnight. Today is actually the pope's 21st day in the hospital, the longest stay ever for him. Let's bring in our senior national correspondent and my co-anchor, Terry Moran. He's there in Rome also our medical correspondent, doctor Darien Sutton. So, Terry, tell us more about the latest update.
Well, the doctors certainly seem to indicate that the Pope is making progress. As you said, stable and no episodes of respiratory failure. He continued with his physiotherapy, both the breathing exercises and motor physiotherapy get his body going a little bit more. Blood pressure and blood tests remain stable and he's got no fever. And then to me, this is the most significant news that we got. The doctors say in view in view of the stability of the clinical picture, the next media bulletin will be on Saturday. So they don't feel the need to come out and tell us every jot and tittle of how he's doing, because he's steady as he goes.
It's good news, doctor Sutton, what do you make of the update?
You know, I think this is great news when you're talking about patients in critical condition. Hearing signs of stability is really what you want to aim for, I think I want to focus on some important notes from this, specifically in terms of his blood test. Now, previously, the blood test results that they have given us revolved around something like his white blood cell count, which is a sign of an infection as well as his kidney function. So the understanding that his repeat blood tests are stable helps me to assume that those tests are likely what they're indicating, which helps me to feel more comfortable in identifying his stability. Now, why is this key today? It's because recently he's had those acute respiratory episodes. We understand that there was some sign of aspiration or when fluid gets stuck in the lung and Kira between 48 and 72 hours. Is that that caution zone that you really want to focus in on patients? Because after episodes like acute respiratory failure and aspiration, the risk of a pneumonia as a complication of those events is very high within the first 48 to 72 hours.
So understanding that he is stable today helps to reassure me that he is not suffering from complications from those acute events, which overall are great prognostic indicators for someone who is hospitalized for a complex condition such as this.
Doctor Sutton. Terry moran. Thanks, guys. Good news. Well, the news never stops. You can find us anywhere. You stream live news. And if you're on the go, we are on the ABC news app and ABC news.com, too. I'm Kyra Phillips. Glad you're streaming with us. A lot more news up next. We'll be right back.
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The trade war roller coaster, sending Wall Street for a ride. Good afternoon everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips. That's our top story this hour. So what went down on that call with Mexico's president that caused President Trump to press pause on some of those tariffs on Mexican goods? We are definitely seeing the impact because stocks tumbled this morning as Trump's tariffs continue to roil markets. But Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick also hinted that more temporary exemptions are likely after President Trump granted a one month reprieve for auto imports. Let's bring in Elizabeth Schultz with the latest. So what more do we know about this pause on Mexican goods? Elizabeth.
So what we know here is that this could mean that those 25% tariffs on all imports from Mexico, a lot of those could now be temporarily delayed. So when you think about some of the goods we've been talking about where you'd see the biggest impact your fresh produce, your avocados, tomatoes, your electronics, those all could now not face higher tariffs for another month until April 2nd, when President Trump says these bigger reciprocal tariffs will take effect. So that is good news. When you're thinking about consumer prices, that would be a little bit of a delay for some of those price hikes. It of course, follows the president's announcement on a similar exemption yesterday for auto parts. But I think the context here is really important. What the president is saying is that goods that are traded under the Usmca, which is really the signature free trade agreement that Trump negotiated in his first term. Goods that fall under those categories, those are no longer. Those are basically not going to face tariffs. So the the context there is that under that free trade agreement that he negotiated in his first term, tariff rates went basically to zero for most products that were coming from Mexico and Canada.
For now, for the next month, from from Mexico, those tariff rates will stay at zero where they go in a month from now, we don't really know.
Any mention of Canadian tariffs Getting any sort of reprieve. And could more of these exemptions be coming you think.
Yeah. Not yet on Canadian tariffs. But certainly the white House has suggested there could be more exemptions on the way. And what the white House is really insisting is this is still about fentanyl. They've really kind of doubled down on this idea that reducing the flow of fentanyl in the U.S. has been a key reason for these Mexico, Canada tariffs. And then, of course, you have Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada, saying there is no fentanyl flow hardly coming into the US from Canada. So a little bit less of a a little more frosty relationship between Trudeau and Trump, it seems, than Trump and Mexico's president. But we'll have to see if some of these exemptions are delayed. You'd have to imagine part of what's going on here, Kyra, is just the reality of this setting in. Consumers will face higher prices, businesses are warning about higher prices, and that has had an effect on the stock market. You've seen these significant losses over the past couple of days. Mark it down again today.
How much is the how much is the Trump administration looking and saying Wall Street is really worried about some of these tariffs and the effect that they're going to have and the trickle down into economic growth in the next couple of weeks and months.
Yeah, we're all paying attention to the numbers, that's for sure. Elizabeth. Thank you. Thanks, Kiran. So the crypto bros are coming once the cryptocurrency skeptic Trump has actually completely changed his tune. And if he gets his way, the president says he'll make the U.S. the crypto capital of the Earth. He's kicking it off by promising a to hold this crypto summit tomorrow at the white House. And it's going to feature some of the industry's heaviest hitters, including his crypto czar David Sacks, and even the Winklevoss twins. They're still concerned, though, about crypto, and that it could be a little risky and lead to a lack of regulatory oversight, even weaken efforts to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorist operations. To help us parse all through this, Aaron Klein is here. He's not only a senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institute. He's also the former deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury and former chief economist of the Senate Banking Committee. And I've listened to the podcast. You are also very good at making this understandable for so many of us that don't even understand what crypto is, really, as much as we try.
Can you put it in layman's terms?
Yeah. So look, cryptocurrency is an asset. It's something like people use bitcoin in a way that they use gold. Once upon a time, gold had intrinsic value in coins. Now it's a commodity. It's also used in the financial markets as a method for volatility or hedge. If you're concerned about.
Inflation.
Then there is a series of other things that are called meme coins. They remind me a lot more of Beanie Babies or, when I was younger, baseball cards. Trump himself.
Has one.
Trump has one. Everyone seems to have one, right? Uh, there's one called fart coin that for a while had the same market capitalization as Papa John's. And this is where I get concerned because I know what Papa John's does. It brings pizza to my house. My kids love it. We can debate how good the pizza is. I'm a little bit of a pizza snob. Maybe, but Papa John's does something. What do these cryptos do?
What do they do? Tell us.
Some of them are used for things like capital control, ransomware, other points of view. Others are used for assets and speculation. Look, a lot of people have gotten rich trading in crypto, right? A lot of people saw this as a market in the future of a limited, scarce commodity. They're only going to be so many bitcoins and there's going to be a fundamental need for them, or people are going to think there's a need for them, like in gold or palladium or any of these other classic metals, and they've appreciated a lot in value. But there's an important one thing I really want folks to understand is that a lot of times people say crypto is a payment mechanism. We're going to be buying things. You ever bought anything in Bitcoin or Ethereum? No. Crypto has been here almost 20 years. I got my first email address in 1990. By 2010, I emailed everything. Not that many things went in the in the envelopes, right? Think about over 20 years how fast email was adopted.
Same with the internet. Crypto is not a payment mechanism. People are not buying and selling things in Bitcoin and Ethereum and Solana, and they're probably not going to be for for the foreseeable future.
So then what's the point? What's the advantage? Is there an advantage because you mentioned gold and I think, oh, I understand that a gold bar that's worth something. I could go to a pawnshop. If I get desperate, I can get money for that. What do I get for owning Bitcoin?
So for Bitcoin, you get what somebody else thinks a bitcoin is worth. And some people want to be able to use bitcoin. It's the number one thing that's used for ransomware right. Somebody takes a hold of your computer and you have to pay them off. I'm not saying that's a good thing. That's obviously a bad thing. Right? But it creates a demand for the asset class. There are other people that are using this as a hedge that think of it like, well, you know, why does gold have value, right?
Once upon a time.
There were gold coins. Gold jewelry. There's some, you know, uh, metallic things that need gold or platinum or whatever, but diamonds. Think about diamonds, right? Girl's best friend, on the other hand. Right. They're value. They're not.
Meant.
To, are they? The the bear story is interesting. They've tried to market it many times. And there's lab. There's laboratory uses for diamonds. They're commercial, but there's commercial uses. But it's also a fixed amount, a supply that's controlled by a cartel. Bitcoin is a fixed amount. And so if you think the world grows there's going to be more demand. It's a speculation.
See. And gosh I mean that makes when you say it's a speculation that makes me nervous. Why would we want to use or bet on or invest in speculation?
Well, I mean, people do that all the time in the stock market, right? And so I'm not here to say as a society, we're moving more toward speculation. Look at the growth in gambling.
Who makes money from the speculation? The government. Us. The people who started Bitcoin.
Well, I'm worried about the Trump doing a meme coin in this situation brings a host of ethical concerns. Right?
That's right. Making money for himself Donald Trump.
And like it's how you trade in how you trade out of this. There's some real concerns. But I do want to distinguish between the meme coin phenomenon and the actual underlying cryptos. There's the bullish use case for this is that we're going to create a digital form of money on the internet, and for different transactions that aren't going to want to be US dollars or euros or something else.
Okay, that makes sense. I can understand that.
Right?
Continue.
And that in these digital forms of money, they're going to be transacted and people are going to choose to use Bitcoin or Ethereum or one of the old standard cryptos. And some of the new ones are arguing, well, we have this new feature to it, right? Once upon a time we might have had a Yahoo email or a Hotmail. Now Gmail came up with an email server that a lot of people use, and so crypto is trying to innovate there.
What about oversight though? How do you.
Well, this is a real concern. The Securities and Exchange Commission basically just threw up its hands on meme coins and said, these aren't securities, right? These are like Beanie Babies or baseball cards that, you know, the SEC doesn't examine on this forgeries, oversight, hacks, shady business things a lot. There's there's good reason to be concerned. Now, crypto is currently under most anti-money laundering. Just because you're using Bitcoin doesn't escape you from this. Some companies in the crypto space have tried to embrace that and develop systems to be able to comply. Others have wanted to skirt around the edges. And you see this in a stablecoin called tether, which is the largest stablecoin in the world, still hasn't given a full audit. One of its big investors is now the Secretary of Commerce.
So now Trump is going to hold this summit, this crypto summit. He has a crypto czar. David Sax. What are you going to be paying attention to? Why have this summit?
Well, he's promoting it. I mean, there's a bit of a pump this thing up I think he's going to announce. And he's already talked about a strategic reserve like the US oil strategic reserve. At first, I think this will just be Bitcoin. The US government has taken. So the US government owns a lot of bitcoin because it's found a lot of criminals and a lot of criminals have used Bitcoin. And it sees this Bitcoin some of it it sold some of it. It kept that that it kept has gone up in value. So I suspect he repurposes this. Now what I'm concerned is he's going to try to use taxpayer money to go out and buy more. He's also said which is concerning it'll be more than Bitcoin. And then he'll be able to kind of control which currencies go in and out of the strategic return, which the market will see as a signal for who's going to be the winners and losers in this. And then you have a whole host of conflicts of interest. But I suspect that the second thing that I'm keeping an eye on is the taxation of this, because one of the reasons why crypto has not taken off as a payment mechanism is how it's taxed, in that if you're a business and you take crypto for for a good say, you know, I buy a.
What comes out of our.
Pocket, I buy a pizza, right? And then I go, and I, I use the crypto as a business to buy some pizza sauce. Right. So I sell a pizza for a bitcoin and then I buy a bitcoins worth of pizza sauce that Bitcoin has gone up or down in value right now. If I'm a business, I have to pay a capital gains tax on that change in value, which is very difficult from a compliance point of view. When you do things in US dollars, if the dollar goes up 2%, 5%, you don't pay capital gains. I'm keeping an eye. If Trump could well try to remove that as a way to promote more usage of crypto. And that would that would juice the crypto market.
A lot to follow. He has a crypto czar. We have crypto. Klein. We're going to be bringing you back, Aaron, as we continue to follow this, probably right after the summit. We'd love to have you back.
I'd love to be back.
Thanks. Thank you. All right. Well, while the tariff war continues to change, hour by hour, Elon Musk and Doge's mission to slash government funding may have to come to a halt, at least for one agency. Sources are telling us that the white House has now canceled its executive order signing to dismantle the Department of Education, but it comes after the Department of Veteran Affairs actually laid off thousands of workers. Secretary Collins confirming now that move, he actually put it out on X that the agency planned a 15% workforce cut. That basically translates into more than 72,000 jobs. Joining me now, senior white House correspondent Selina Wang, also our Alex Presha and Jay O'Brien is up on the hill. So, Selina, before we get just to the cuts at the VA, let's talk about what happened here with Trump's executive order on the Department of Education. Put on pause. What's going on?
Yeah. Kyra. So the white House is reversing course, at least for today. So we were told prior that the Trump administration was planning to have the president sign an executive order to dismantle the Department of Education today. That now is not happening. And we're told that top administration officials were concerned about the blowback that they would get from this move, and that they also didn't have a clear message in place ahead of trying to dismantle the department. Now, education experts we've been talking to have been warning that doing so would cause millions of students across America to suffer. Saying that disproportionately, students who are most vulnerable would be hit the hardest by this move. Now, most funding for public schools already happens at the state and local level, but the Department of Education does handle billions of dollars in funds for low income students, students with disabilities. It also enforces civil rights laws to prevent discrimination in schools. It also manages about $1.5 trillion in student loan debt. But it is no surprise that the Trump administration had been working on this.
President Trump had campaigned on dismantling the department. He argued that it was full of wasteful and bloated spending, saying that it doesn't correlate with better academic outcomes in this country. But to be clear, to actually dismantle a federal agency, it requires an act of Congress. That is something that is very unlikely to happen given it would need 60 votes in the Senate. Republicans, they've got a slim majority. Very unlikely they would get Democrats on board. But that previous executive order that the president was previously intended to sign today, it essentially directs the secretary of the department to do everything within the law to dismantle the department.
Well, Alex, you've been following the Department of Education. Secretary McMahon would need 60 votes in the Senate to actually dissolve the department. That seems unlikely. So what's the strategy?
Yeah, as Selena outlined, it's very unlikely right now. But what that directive has told Secretary McMahon is to try to do as much as she can using the law. Right. And so, you know, if that's a piecemeal disassembly of certain tentpoles of the Department of Education. But, look, I mean, this has been a Republican, um, point for not just during that Trump campaign, but but for decades now, the idea that the Department of Education, that many of its responsibilities and purviews should be returned to the states here. And so this also could be, you know, Trump trying to to appease that section of his supporters, saying that, look, I mean, here's an effort. Clearly we're trying. But understanding that maybe, you know, there aren't the votes in the Senate to to really kind of get this across the finish line there. But whenever you talk about the pushback that the white House got and what ultimately led them to cancel this executive order signing today. A lot of concern specifically over what was outlined earlier, but that that that bucket of financing, we're talking about billions of dollars that the Department of Education uses specifically for lower income students and also students with disabilities, a gap in messaging.
That was the concern there as to where would the the gaps be filled in there?
So, Jay, Democrats are now warning against efforts to dismantle the department as well. Let's take a listen here to Majority Leader Schumer.
This would.
Be, if.
It happens, one of the most.
Destructive and.
Devastating.
Steps.
That Donald Trump has ever.
Taken. The blast radius of this order will harm nearly every child, every teacher, every family.
And.
Every community.
What else are Dems saying on the Hill?
Well, what Democrats continue to point out here, Kyra, is say it one more time with me because we've all said it at this point, you need 60 votes to pass legislation to eliminate the Department of Education or any other agency or department in the federal government that's created by statute. Republicans have a 53 seat majority, so seven Democrats would have to break ranks and vote with them to block a filibuster and actually pass that legislation. And that doesn't look likely. So Democrats continue to point that out, and they're attempting to say that if President Trump goes beyond what he is allowed to do in executive order, then they would a take him to court and B fight that tooth and nail through the legislative process. But Democrats do have limited options here. They don't control the House. They don't control the Senate. So the strongest act they can take at this hour to try to block President Trump, many Democrats tell me, is make sure that they withhold those votes. And if any legislation actually did go forward that they never got the 60 votes, they would need the Trump administration to actually put into law this elimination of the Department of Education.
All right. Selina Wang, Alex Pritchett, Jay O'Brien. Thanks, guys. We'll be right back. More news next.
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Hamas now. Or Hamas rather now. Threatening to kill hostages if attacks from Israel resume. That statement coming after warnings from President Trump that there would be hell to pay if any remaining hostages held in Gaza are not released. The white House, however, now confirming it, held unprecedented direct talks with the militant group. And we just heard from President Trump's special envoy to the Middle East as well, Steve Witkoff, who demanded that Hamas release those hostages. Our Patrick Reevell is on that. So what do we know so far about these direct talks between the US and Hamas?
Hi, Karen.
Yeah, as you say.
Steve.
Witkoff, President Trump's special envoy to the Middle East, just spoke a little while ago to reporters outside the white House and basically reiterated President Trump's demand that Hamas release all hostages, saying that they believe Hamas has not been forthright with the white House in saying that it's time for Hamas to act. But in general, we're seeing the pressure rise and rise between Israel and Hamas over this attempt to get to a second phase of the ceasefire and that the ceasefire deal. We've heard from Hamas today, as you say, threatening to kill hostages if Israel returns to military action. We've seen from Israel in the past few days attempts to basically put intense pressure on Hamas. They've restored a full blockade on humanitarian aid going into Gaza, which means there's no fuel going in. There's no food going in to the population there who retired, who rely entirely on aid. We've also heard from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatening to potentially cut off electricity to Gaza and also threatening to return to military action. And as you say, we've now heard from Hamas threatening to kill hostages if Israel were to do that.
But I think in general, we're just seeing the temperature continue to rise and with little sign at the moment that any side is willing to budge. Cairo.
So Israel reimposed this blockade on aid going into Gaza, cutting off crucial supplies, saying it's trying to pressure Hamas to accept its ceasefire proposal. It's like things are going backwards.
Yeah, Kyra, I think it's it does feel indeed like things are sliding backwards at the moment. And it's very unclear how things can go forward. I mean, President Trump obviously yesterday demanded that Hamas release all hostages, promising that there would be hell to pay, basically saying that they would all that, all that Hamas would be killed if they did not release them. Steve Witkoff saying that basically the president has had enough. But I think Hamas does not necessarily believe that this will be backed up by action. We've already seen President Trump twice already threatened to threaten that Hamas would have would would have hell to pay. But as you say in Gaza, we're seeing already hearing aid agencies warning that they are there's dangers of food shortages, dangers of fuel shortages. And it should be said that the humanitarian situation there, of course, remains dire, as it has been now for many, many, many, many months. And we've we even have heard from the UN saying that 3000 women and children are suffering from acute malnutrition in Gaza right now, and that is when aid has been going in.
So I think clearly the situation there is very worrying, and there is a real fear that this could slide back towards conflict.
Colonel Patrick Reevell will track it. Thank you. Coming up, she gave birth to a beautiful baby that looked nothing like her. How? The fertility clinic is being held accountable. Juju Chang and her latest episode by Impact of Nightline. Next.
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The baby looked nothing like her. Now, a woman in Georgia is suing her fertility clinic. Christina Murray knew that something was wrong the minute her child was born. And while fertility clinic mistakes are rare, she and other families affected by the same mix ups are demanding change. Juju Chang now with a preview of her latest episode of Impact by Nightline.
Reporter.
When you had your future baby in your mind, what was that image in your mind?
Again, just.
Hopefully.
You know, as a single.
Woman.
Hoping that he or.
She.
Looked like me.
But in the delivery room.
That feeling of euphoria.
Shattered moments after.
The baby boy was born.
They actually held him up for me to see before they took him off to be.
Cleaned and.
Weighed and footprints and all of the things. My first thought was, he's absolutely beautiful. It was gorgeous. And my second thought was, what happened?
You knew?
I knew immediately he is African-American, though it was very evident from the.
Second.
They held him up that something didn't go to plan. So my first thought was, was it the embryo or was it the sperm? My next thought was, if he is not mine and he's someone else's embryo, can he be taken to Christina's clinic?
Did tell impacted deeply regrets the distress caused by an extremely rare human error, and said they have since implemented new safety protocols. You can watch the full episode. Switch Before birth on Impact by Nightline. It's now streaming on Hulu, and new episodes drop every Thursday. I'm Kyra Phillips. Lot more news up next. Stay with us.
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To The trade war roller coaster, sending Wall Street for a ride. Good afternoon everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips. That's our top story this hour. So what went down on that call with Mexico's president that caused President Trump to press pause on some of those tariffs on Mexican goods? We are definitely seeing the impact because stocks tumbled this morning as Trump's tariffs continue to roil markets. But Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick also hinted that more temporary exemptions are likely after President Trump granted a one month reprieve for auto imports. Let's bring in Elizabeth Schultz with the latest. So what more do we know about this pause on Mexican goods? Elizabeth.
So what we know, Kyra, is that this could mean that those 25% tariffs on all imports from Mexico, a lot of those could now be temporarily delayed. So when you think about some of the goods we've been talking about, where you'd see the biggest impact your fresh produce, your avocados, tomatoes, your electronics, those all could now not face higher tariffs for another month until April 2nd, when President Trump says these bigger reciprocal tariffs will take effect. So that is good news. When you're thinking about consumer prices, that would be a little bit of a delay for some of those price hikes. It of course, follows the president's announcement on a similar exemption yesterday for auto parts. But I think the context here is really important. What the president is saying is that goods that are traded under the Usmca, which is really the signature free trade agreement that Trump negotiated in his first term. Goods that fall under those categories, those are no longer those are basically not going to face tariffs. So the the context there is that under that free trade agreement that he negotiated in his first term, tariff rates went basically to zero for most products that were coming from Mexico and Canada.
For now, for the next month, from from Mexico, those tariff rates will stay at zero. Where they go in a month from now, we don't really know.
Any mention of Canadian tariffs getting any sort of reprieve. And could more of these exemptions be coming? You think?
Yeah. Not yet. On Canadian tariffs. But certainly the white House has suggested there could be more exemptions on the way. And what the white House is really insisting is this is still about fentanyl. They've really kind of doubled down on this idea that reducing the flow of fentanyl in the US has been a key reason for these Mexico Canada tariffs. And then of course, you have Justin Trudeau, the prime minister of Canada, saying there is no fentanyl flow hardly coming into the US from Canada. So a little bit less of a a little more frosty relationship between Trudeau and Trump, it seems, than Trump and Mexico's president. But we'll have to see if some of these exemptions are delayed. You'd have to imagine part of what's going on here, Kyra, is just the reality of this setting in. Consumers will face higher prices, businesses are warning about higher prices, and that has had an effect on the stock market. You've seen these significant losses over the past couple of days. Mark it down again today.
How much is the how much is the Trump administration looking and saying Wall Street is really worried about some of these tariffs and the effect that they're going to have and the trickle down into economic growth in the next couple of weeks and months.
Yeah, we're all paying attention to the numbers, that's for sure. Elizabeth. Thank you.
Thanks, Kyra.
So the crypto bros are coming once the cryptocurrency skeptic Trump has actually completely changed his tune. And if he gets his way, the president says he'll make the U.S. the crypto capital of the Earth. He's kicking it off by promising a to hold this crypto summit tomorrow at the white House. And it's going to feature some of the industry's heaviest hitters, including his crypto czar David Sax, and even the Winklevoss twins. They're still concerned, though, about crypto, and that it could be a little risky and lead to a lack of regulatory oversight, even weaken efforts to combat money laundering and the financing of terrorist operations. To help us parse all through this, Aaron Klein is here. He's not only a senior fellow in economic studies at the Brookings Institute, he's also the former Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury and former chief economist of the Senate Banking Committee. And I've listened to the podcast. You are also very good at making this understandable for so many of us that don't even understand what crypto is, really, as much as we try.
Can you put it in layman's terms?
Yeah. So look, cryptocurrency is an asset. It's something like people use bitcoin in a way that they used gold once upon a time. Gold had intrinsic value in coins. Now it's a commodity. It's also used in the financial markets as a method for volatility or hedge. If you're concerned about inflation, then there is a series of other things that are called meme coins. They remind me a lot more of Beanie Babies or, when I was younger, baseball cards. Trump himself.
Has one.
Trump has one. Everyone seems to have one, right? Uh, there's one called fart Coin that for a while had the same market capitalization as Papa John's. And this is where I get concerned, because I know what Papa John's does. It brings pizza to my house. My kids love it. We can debate how good the pizza is. I'm a little bit of a pizza snob. Maybe, but Papa John's does something. What do these cryptos do?
What do they do? Tell us.
Some of them are used for things like capital control, ransomware, other points of view. Others are used for assets and speculation. Look, a lot of people have gotten rich trading in crypto, right? A lot of people saw this as a market in the future of a limited, scarce commodity. They're only going to be so many bitcoins and there's going to be a fundamental need for them, or people are going to think there's a need for them, like in gold or palladium or any of these other classic metals, and they've appreciated a lot in value. But there's an important one thing I really want folks to understand is that a lot of times people say crypto is a payment mechanism. We're going to be buying things. You ever bought anything in Bitcoin or Ethereum? No. Crypto's been here almost 20 years. I got my first email address in 1990. By 2010, I emailed everything. Not that many things went in the in the envelopes, right? Think about over 20 years how fast email was adopted.
Same with the internet. Crypto is not a payment mechanism. People are not buying and selling things in Bitcoin and Ethereum and Solana, and they're probably not going to be for for the foreseeable future.
So then what's the point? What's the advantage? Is there an advantage because you mentioned gold and I think, oh, I understand that a gold bar that's worth something. I could go to a pawnshop. If I get desperate, I can get money for that. What do I get for owning bitcoin.
So for Bitcoin you get what somebody else thinks a bitcoin is worth. And some people want to be able to use bitcoin. It's the number one thing that's used for ransomware right. Somebody takes a hold of your computer and you have to pay them off. I'm not saying that's a good thing. That's obviously a bad thing. Right. But it creates a demand for the asset class. There are other people that are using this as a hedge that think of it like, well, you know, why does gold have value, right? Once upon a time, there were gold coins. Gold jewelry. There's some, you know, uh, metallic things that need gold or platinum or whatever, but diamonds. Think about diamonds, right? Girl's best friend, on the other hand. Right. They're value. They're not meant to, are they? The Dabbert story is interesting. They've tried to market it many times. And there's lab. There's laboratory uses for diamonds. They're commercial, but there's commercial uses.
But it's also a fixed amount, a supply that's controlled by a cartel. Bitcoin is a fixed amount. And so if you think the world grows there's going to be more demand. It's a speculation.
See. And gosh I mean that makes when you say it's a speculation that makes me nervous. Why would we want to use or bet on or invest in speculation?
Well, I mean, people do that all the time in the stock market. That's right. And so I'm not here to say as a society, we're moving more towards speculation. Look at the growth in gambling.
Who makes money from the speculation? The government? Us.
The people who started Bitcoin. Well, I'm worried about the Trump doing a meme coin in this situation brings a host of ethical concerns, right? Because that's.
Making money for himself.
Donald Trump. And like it's how you trade in how you trade out of this. There's some real concerns. But I do want to distinguish between the meme coin phenomenon and the actual underlying cryptos. There's the bullish use case for this is that we're going to create a digital form of money on the internet, and for different transactions that aren't going to want to be US dollars or euros or something else.
Okay, that makes sense. I can understand that.
Right?
Continue.
And that in these digital forms of money, they're going to be transacted and people are going to choose to use Bitcoin or Ethereum or one of the old standard cryptos. And some of the new ones are arguing, well, we have this new feature to it, right? Once upon a time we might have had a Yahoo email or a Hotmail. Now Gmail came up with an email server that a lot of people use, and so crypto is trying to innovate there.
What about oversight though? How do.
You. Well, this is a real concern. The Securities and Exchange Commission basically just threw up its hands on meme coins and said, these aren't securities, right? These are like Beanie Babies or baseball cards that, you know, the SEC doesn't examine on this forgeries, oversight, hacks, shady business things a lot. There's there's good reason to be concerned. Now, crypto is currently under most anti-money laundering. Just because you're using Bitcoin doesn't escape you from this. Some companies in the crypto space have tried to embrace that and develop systems to be able to comply. Others have wanted to skirt around the edges. And you see this in a stablecoin called tether, which is the largest stablecoin in the world, still hasn't given a full audit. One of its big investors is now the Secretary of Commerce.
So now Trump is going to hold this summit, this crypto summit. He has a crypto czar, David Sachs. What are you going to be paying attention to? Why have this summit?
Well, he's promoting it. I mean, there's a bit of a pump this thing up I think he's going to announce and he's already talked about a strategic reserve like the US oil strategic reserve. At first, I think this will just be Bitcoin. The US government has taken. So the US government owns a lot of bitcoin because it's found a lot of criminals and a lot of criminals have used Bitcoin. And it sees this Bitcoin some of it it sold some of it. It kept the fact that it kept has gone up in value. So I suspect he repurposes this. Now what I'm concerned is he's going to try to use taxpayer money to go out and buy more. He's also said which is concerning, it'll be more than Bitcoin. And then he'll be able to kind of control which currencies go in and out of the strategic return, which the market will see as a signal for who's going to be the winners and losers in this. And then you have a whole host of conflicts of interest.
But I suspect that the second thing that I'm keeping an eye on is the taxation of this. Because one of the reasons why crypto has not taken off as a payment mechanism is how it's taxed, in that if you're a business and you take crypto for for a good say, you know, I buy a.
What comes out of our.
I buy a pizza, right? And then I go and I, I use the crypto as a business to buy some pizza sauce. Right. So I sell a pizza for a bitcoin and then I buy a bitcoins worth of pizza sauce that Bitcoin has gone up or down in value right now. If I'm a business, I have to pay a capital gains tax on that change in value, which is very difficult from a compliance point of view. When you do things in US dollars, if the dollar goes up 2%, 5%, you don't pay capital gains. I'm keeping an eye. If Trump could well try to remove that as a way to promote more usage of crypto, and that would that would juice the crypto market.
A lot to follow. He has a crypto czar. We have crypto. Klein. We're going to be bringing you back, Aaron, as we continue to follow this, probably right after the summit. We'd love to have you back.
I'd love to be back here.
Thank you. All right. Well, while the tariff war continues to change, hour by hour, Elon Musk and Doge's mission to slash government funding may have to come to a halt, at least for one agency. Sources are telling us that the white House has now canceled its executive order signing to dismantle the Department of Education, but it comes after the Department of Veteran Affairs actually laid off thousands of workers. Secretary Collins confirming now that move he actually put out on ex that the agency planned to 15% workforce cut. That basically translates into more than 72,000 jobs. Joining me now senior white House correspondent Selina Wang, also our Alex Presha and Jay O'Brien is up on the hill. So, Selina, before we get just to the cuts at the VA, let's talk about what happened here with Trump's executive order on the Department of Education. Put on pause. What's going on?
Yeah. So the white House is reversing course, at least for today. So we were told prior that the Trump administration was planning to have the president sign an executive order to dismantle the Department of Education today. That now is not happening. And we're told that top administration officials were concerned about the blowback that they would get from this move, and that they also didn't have a clear message in place ahead of trying to dismantle the department. Now, education experts we've been talking to have been warning that doing so would cause millions of students across America to suffer. Saying that disproportionately, students who are most vulnerable would be hit the hardest by this move. Now, most funding for public schools already happens at the state and local level, but the Department of Education does handle billions of dollars in funds for low income students, students with disabilities. It also enforces civil rights laws to prevent discrimination in schools. It also manages about $1.5 trillion in student loan debt. But it is no surprise that the Trump administration had been working on this.
President Trump had campaigned on dismantling the department. He argued that it was full of wasteful and bloated spending, saying that it doesn't correlate with better academic outcomes in this country. But to be clear, to actually dismantle a federal agency, it requires an act of Congress. That is something that is very unlikely to happen given it would need 60 votes in the Senate. Republicans, they've got a slim majority. Very unlikely they would get Democrats on board. But that previous executive order that the president was previously intended to sign today, it essentially directs the secretary of the department to do everything within the law to dismantle the department.
Well, Alex, you've been following the Department of Education. Secretary McMahon would need 60 votes in the Senate to actually dissolve the department. That seems unlikely. So what's the strategy?
Yeah, As Selena outlined, it's very unlikely right now. But what that directive has told Secretary McMahon is to try to do as much as she can using the law. Right. And so, you know, if that's a piecemeal disassembly of certain tentpoles of the Department of Education. But, look, I mean, this has been a Republican, um, point for not just during that Trump campaign, but but but for decades now, the idea that the Department of Education, that many of its responsibilities and purviews should be returned to the states here. And so this also could be, you know, Trump trying to to appease that section of his supporters, saying that, look, I mean, here's an effort. Clearly we're trying. But understanding that maybe, you know, there aren't the votes in the Senate to to really kind of get this across the finish line there. But whenever you talk about the pushback that the white House got and what ultimately led them to cancel this executive order signing today.
A lot of concern specifically over what was outlined earlier, but that that that bucket of financing, we're talking about billions of dollars that the Department of Education uses specifically for lower income students and also students with disabilities, a gap in messaging. That was the concern there as to where would the the gaps be filled in there?
So, Jay, Democrats are now warning against efforts to dismantle the department as well. Let's take a listen here to Majority Leader Schumer.
This would.
Be.
If it happens.
One of the.
Most destructive and devastating steps that Donald Trump has ever taken. The blast radius of this order will harm nearly every child, every teacher, every family, and every community.
What else are Dems saying on the Hill?
Well, what Democrats continue to point out here, Kyra, is say it one more time with me because we've all said it at this point. You need 60 votes to pass legislation to eliminate the Department of Education or any other agency or department in the federal government that's created by statute. Republicans have a 53 seat majority, so seven Democrats would have to break ranks and vote with them to block a filibuster and actually pass that legislation. And that doesn't look likely. So Democrats continue to point that out, and they're attempting to say that if President Trump goes beyond what he is allowed to do in executive order, then they would a take him to court and B fight that tooth and nail through the legislative process. But Democrats do have limited options here. They don't control the House. They don't control the Senate. So the strongest act they can take at this hour to try to block President Trump, many Democrats tell me, is make sure that they withhold those votes. And if any legislation actually did go forward that they never got the 60 votes, they would need the Trump administration to actually put into law this elimination of the Department of Education.
All right, Selina Wang. Alex pritchett, Jay O'Brien. Thanks, guys. We'll be right back. More news next.
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Friday night, David Muir reporting.
We take you inside. Two cases. A mother just 19 years old.
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Hamas now or Hamas rather now. Threatening to kill hostages if attacks from Israel resume. That statement coming after warnings from President Trump that there would be hell to pay if any remaining hostages held in Gaza are not released. The white House, however, now confirming it, held unprecedented direct talks with the militant group. And we just heard from President Trump's special envoy to the Middle East as well, Steve Witkoff, who demanded that Hamas release those hostages. Our Patrick Reevell is on that. So what do we know so far about these direct talks between the U.S. and Hamas?
Hi, Karen. Yeah, as you say, Steve Witkoff, President Trump's special envoy to the Middle East, just spoke a little while ago to reporters outside the white House and basically reiterated President Trump's demand that Hamas release all hostages, saying that they believe Hamas has not been forthright with the white House and saying that it's time for Hamas to act. But in general, we're seeing the pressure rise and rise between Israel and Hamas over this attempt to get to a second phase of the cease fire, that the cease fire deal we've heard from Hamas today, as you say, threatening to kill hostages if Israel returns to military action. We've seen from Israel in the past few days attempts to basically put intense pressure on Hamas. They've restored a full blockade on humanitarian aid going into Gaza, which means there's no fuel going in. There's no food going in to the population there who retired, who rely entirely on aid. We've also heard from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu threatening to potentially cut off electricity to Gaza and also threatening to return to military action.
And as you say, we've now heard from Hamas threatening to kill hostages if Israel were to do that. But I think in general, we're just seeing the temperature continue to rise and with little sign at the moment that any side is willing to budge. Cairo.
So Israel reimposed this blockade on aid going into Gaza, cutting off crucial supplies, saying it's trying to pressure Hamas to accept its ceasefire proposal. It's like things are going backwards.
Yeah, Kyra, I think it's it does feel indeed like things are sliding backwards at the moment. And it's very unclear how things can go forward. I mean, President Trump obviously yesterday demanded that Hamas release all hostages, promising that there would be hell to pay, basically saying that they would all that, all that Hamas would be killed if they did not release them. Steve Witkoff saying that basically the president has had enough. But I think Hamas does not necessarily believe that this will be backed up by action. We've already seen President Trump twice already threatened to threaten that Hamas would have would would have hell to pay. But as you say in Gaza, we're seeing already hearing aid agencies warning that they are there's dangers of food shortages, dangers of fuel shortages. And it should be said that the humanitarian situation there, of course, remains dire, as it has been now for many, many, many, many months. And we've we even have heard from the UN saying that 3000 women and children are suffering from acute malnutrition in Gaza right now, and that is when aid has been going in.
So I think clearly the situation there is very worrying and there is a real fear that this could slide back towards conflict.
Kieran Patrick Reevell will track it. Thank you. Coming up, she gave birth to a beautiful baby that looked nothing like her. How the fertility clinic is being held accountable. Juju Chang and her latest episode by Impact of Nightline. Next.
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The baby looked nothing like her. Now, a woman in Georgia is suing her fertility clinic. Christina Murray knew that something was wrong the minute her child was born. And while fertility clinic mistakes are rare, she and other families affected by the same mix ups are demanding change. Juju Chang now with a preview of her latest episode of Impact by Nightline.
Reporter.
When you had your future baby in your mind, what was that image in your mind again?
Just hopefully, you know, as a single woman hoping that he or she looked like me.
But in the delivery room.
That feeling of euphoria.
Shattered.
Moments after the baby boy was born.
They actually held him up for me to see before they took him off to be cleaned and weighed and footprints and all of the things. My first thought was he's absolutely beautiful. It was gorgeous. And my second thought was, what happened?
You knew.
I knew immediately. He is African American. That was very evident from the second they held him up that something didn't go to plan. So my first thought was was it the embryo or was it the sperm? My next thought was if he is not mine and he's someone else's embryo, can he be taken.
To.
Christina's clinic? Did tell impacted deeply regrets the distress caused by an extremely rare human error, and said they have since implemented new safety protocols. You can watch the full episode switch before birth on Impact by Nightline. It's now streaming on Hulu, and new episodes drop every Thursday. I'm Kyra Phillips. Lot more news up next. Stay with.
Us. Whenever, wherever news breaks, it's so important to always remember that lives are changed here in London, in Buffalo. Uvalde, Texas. Edinburgh, Scotland. From Poland once again tonight. Thank you so much for streaming with us Ukrainian refugees here in Warsaw. Do you think you'll ever be able to go back home? We're heading to a small community outside of Mexico City. Splintered houses and splintered lives. The magnitude of the devastation. You're streaming ABC news Live reporting from Rolling Fork, Mississippi, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Raleigh, North Carolina, the U.S. capital. Mayfield, Kentucky. Minneapolis, Mexico. Tongass National Forest, Alaska. Getting you behind the stories as they happen. Giving you a front row seat to our world as it plays out in real time. Live. ABC News Live Prime. We'll take you there.
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Attention, teachers. No child is to be.
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Happy first day of school.
You better bring your big girl. Yes. Wonder like four more of these. Yeah. We were robbed. Hey! Buy three, get one free.
I'm gonna.
Call your.
Mother on you.
Bring the rest back here, boy. This.
Friday night. David Muir reporting. Two cold cases.
She was trying to protect her daughter.
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Yes.
What links both of those cases is cutting edge forensic technology inside this lab.
Catching the killers 2020. Friday on ABC. Now you can listen to a podcast version of World News Tonight, available free wherever you listen.
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Chang. Wherever the story is, we'll take you there. You're streaming ABC news live. The trade war roller coaster, sending Wall Street for a ride. Good afternoon everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips. So what went down on that call with Mexico's president that caused Trump to press pause on some of those tariffs on Mexican goods? We are definitely seeing the impact because stocks tumbled today. As those tariffs continue to roil the markets. You can see the numbers in the red right now. Our Elizabeth Schultz has the latest with something that actually just went down in the Oval. Elizabeth what do we know.
Hey Kyra. So President Trump has just signed executive order, an executive order amending some of these tariffs on products from Mexico and Canada. So what this is going to do, Kyra, is essentially mean now that half of products that are imported from Mexico that are in compliance with the Usmca, that existing free trade agreement that was negotiated in President Trump's first term, half of those products will now be subject to tariffs. Canada will also get a one month reprieve. We are trying to exactly determine this is really kind of technically broken down in the tariff code to determine which products are exempt and which aren't. Broadly speaking, when we're thinking about these products that fall under the Usmca, motor vehicle parts, car parts, they're not going to face tariffs for a month. Canadian oil is a lot of what is going to be exempt under Canada, but that's already subject to a lower rate under the tariffs that are in effect. So what this is, is a rollback of some of the policies that were in place.
The white House is really trying to emphasize that this is in response to progress that they have seen on the flow of fentanyl. And this is they say that the leaders of Canada and Mexico have given evidence that shows that they are making progress on reducing the flow of fentanyl. And that's why you're seeing this partial rollback. But at the same time, this is just one month. That's when those big 25% tariffs at this point would then take effect on all goods. And you still have a lot of products here that are still going to be facing those higher rates. So think of goods like electronics. Some of those probably are still going to be facing higher tariff rates. We will have to be watching now how quickly some of those costs are passed down to consumers. And frankly, Kyra, if for businesses, one month is enough for them to delay decisions on pricing or if they say, okay, well, if this is coming anyways, how do we approach that and what do we do? One just one note is that clearly there was a very intense lobbying effort on the part of the auto industry here to get this exemption in place, try to postpone some of those major price changes.
That is part of what we're seeing with this executive order now today.
Robert.
All right.
So the stock market not really liking the news. I don't know if we can bring up the big board right now. But you know what do you there we go. Still in the red. What do investors think of this uncertainty. I mean, clearly the numbers are telling us a lot right now.
Yeah. Notable that you still have about a, you know, one and a half, almost 1% drop in the Dow 500 points. It's not a huge, huge sell off, Kyra. But it does speak to the fact that we just have intense uncertainty in the markets and traders who I've been talking to do not like that. We are trying to hang on. Every single word here about is this happening, is this not happening? That makes it a lot harder for companies to decide if they have to make changes, if they're trying to figure out their planning for the next few months down the line, what are their costs going to be and even a month delay? That doesn't really give them the certainty to make those plans. The market right now is trying to understand what is exactly going to be the policy, and it looks like even some of this kind of this rollback, partially rollback of some of those tariffs might not be enough to give traders the reassurance that there isn't going to be some sort of hit to the business community.
But then also, of course, that that's passed down to consumers and that consumers would pull back their spending. That's really where a lot of the concerns are here. If consumers cannot weather those higher prices, what does that mean for the overall economy? And we have seen major retailers warning about the effect of higher prices on consumers. That is something you want to listen to when you think about the path for growth going forward, just because of how important our consumers are to the overall American economy.
All right, Elizabeth Schulze, that's a lot to take in. But news is happening right now in the Oval. And thank you so much for listening in and working it out with us. Appreciate it. Thanks. Okay, so while the trade war obviously is continuing to change hour by hour and now minute by minute, Elon Musk and Doge's mission to slash government funding may have come to a halt, at least for one agency. Sources telling ABC news that the white House has now canceled its executive order signing to dismantle the Department of Education. But it comes after the Department of Veteran Affairs laid off thousands of workers. Secretary Collins confirming the move on X, saying the agency planned a 15% workforce cut. That translates to more to 72,000 jobs. Joining me now our senior white House correspondent, Selina Wang, and also Jay O'Brien, who's up on the Hill. So Selina Trump just posted on Trump's social that Musk and Doge will take a scalpel approach. That's the quote to federal cuts rather than using a hatchet.
Can you explain exactly what that means?
Yeah, Kyra. I mean, that social media post is pretty significant if you break it down in addition to what you just mentioned. He also said that his cabinet and Elon Musk are going to be meeting every two weeks and that they need to work to be precise as they try to make the government more efficient to slash the size of the federal government. Also saying that it's important to keep the best and most productive people. Now, this could be the most significant message yet from the president that somewhat reins in the power of Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency. This comes in light of bipartisan criticism of the cuts that the Department of Government Efficiency has been making. We've seen Republican town halls take place across the country, where angry constituents are asking their Republican congresspeople, who's actually in charge here, arguing that these cuts to the federal workforce have been indiscriminate. We're talking about thousands of federal workers fired across more than a dozen agencies and many of those workers, probationary workers. Now, I've spoken to many of those federal workers who have been laid off, and they are many young people who were recently hired by the government, some of them who were actually hired to make the government more efficient.
So what I've been hearing over and over again from federal workers is that these cuts have been happening with the hatchet and not a scalpel. But in that social media post here, the president saying that they need to be precise. Now, this does also come as the Veterans Affairs Department is bracing for sweeping layoffs you just mentioned. This is a 15% cut in the workforce. You have Republican Congress, people who are saying that these cuts, especially to the Department of Veterans Affairs, needs to be done in a responsible way. We're talking about millions of veterans benefits that are on the line, even though the secretary of the department says that this is not going to impact the ability of veterans to get their critical care, to get their benefits. You have warnings from critics who say that the sweeping nature of these cuts means it's inevitable that veterans will be negatively impacted.
Jay Muska met with Republicans on Capitol Hill yesterday. We talked about this. Apparently they all got Elon Musk's cell phone number. Democrats did not. So what happens now? What was the point of the meeting? Did anything come out of the meeting?
We're also wait a minute, wait a minute. Scalpel. But not a hatchet is the exact opposite of what some congressional Republicans told Elon Musk they wanted last night. and by the by the message they feel they got back from him in that meeting last night. So it's a lot of mixed messaging. But to your point and to Selena's point, there were congressional Republicans who got pushback from their constituents and said they wanted to understand a what Doge was going to do next, and b how it was carrying out this overhaul of the federal government because they were concerned that it was happening too fast and at sometimes callous or severe. There were hardline Republicans who said they don't have those concerns. But all of that was aired out with Elon Musk, who lawmakers in the room tell me, heard those concerns didn't react too much, but gave assurances that if there are mistakes that lawmakers can talk to him directly or the white House and that those mistakes will be rectified. I pushed Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene on all of this after she emerged from that meeting with Elon Musk last night.
Here's what she said. What do you say to some of your colleagues who have said that Doge is moving too fast, that some of the firings are are callous and mishandled.
I think these those.
Are just.
Partisan attacks.
I've heard them from Republicans, too.
I think those are stupid attacks.
We're $36.
Trillion in debt, $36 trillion.
In debt.
Every single.
Day. In the private.
Sector, companies have to reduce.
Their size. They have to let go of employees. We're in a we're.
In a crisis.
And look. Marjorie Taylor Greene again, fully on board. Other hardline Republicans are too. We do know in the room with Elon Musk. Some Republicans did bring up that they are concerned about firings impacting veterans, not just at the VA but at other agencies. They're also concerned about the impact on U.S. industries, like agriculture, for example. And again, as you said, Kyra. Elon Musk gave Republican senators we know his cell phone number and said if they see any mistakes, to call him and to flag those mistakes and he'll try to change course. Kyra.
All right. Selina. Jay. Thanks, guys. And as we mentioned, things have been happening minute by minute in the Oval Office. We thought that the president of the United States was going to sign this executive order, where Secretary of Education Linda McMahon was going to dismantle the Department of Education. We've been talking about it for months now. He's said that he's wanted to do it, but then all of a sudden we found out it's been put on pause. The executive order is not going to be signed today. So what does that mean? I mean, education leaders, they see it as a as a win right now. They say it's a tremendous victory for all of them who have been standing up and holding the line and pushing back against the endless chaos they say that they've been seeing on a daily basis. One of those educators, educators, Becky Pringle, she's the president of the National Education Association. We've been talking a lot about this for months. So, Becky, let's just sort of start with the breaking news here.
The EO is not going to be signed today. But you know, look it's probably going to happen sometime soon. But does this pause in any way. Help your cause. Help our kids.
Here.
It's good to be with you.
Let's be.
Clear.
That.
The.
President and the newly.
Confirmed.
Secretary.
Of.
Education.
Have one focus.
And that is the implementation of project 2025. And as part of that, it.
Is.
A diminishing, demolishing, ending the Department of Education. But I want to.
Be clear, there.
Have.
Been.
Cuts that have.
Been.
Made already.
Donald Trump.
Is.
Letting.
Elon Musk and his billionaire buddies raid the Department of Education already, and our students are paying the price for them trying to find money for their billionaire.
Tax cuts.
We need to understand what's happening, and I will tell you, Kara, educators all over this country, you're seeing that they are lifting up their voices. They're to their members of Congress. And we are pushing back and we won't stop.
All right. And I know you're going to continue to continue to push back. So let me. All right. I have a number of questions for you as we wait to see when the inevitable does happen. And I've been interviewing a lot of educators, educators in the classroom right now and a lot of lawmakers. And yesterday, I had a pretty contentious interview with the Republican from Missouri, Eric Schmidt, who, by the way, has a child with special needs. And I asked him very bluntly, are you concerned as a parent of a child with special needs? Are you concerned about other students, about the Department of Education going away because special ed is going to get hit hard? He told me I was fake news that I was I was not getting it right, that I was, you know, giving the wrong information to to people on a national level. Am I wrong?
You are not wrong, Kara. You know, when people tell us who they are, when they show us, um, we need to to listen to them and believe them. We know that Donald Trump is focused on implementing project 2025. And what does that call for? The kind of cuts that we've already seen? And I want to be clear about this. Our students who are the most vulnerable, vulnerable, those who are living in poverty, those with disabilities, those who are living in rural areas that don't have the kind of access to resources that they need for that individualized attention. Those are the students who will suffer. That is not fake news. That is real. And it's happening right now. Kira, teachers all over this country are losing their jobs right now and ballooning class sizes right now. That's happening now. So it is not fake news.
So. Okay. Thank you. I feel much better, Becky. Not not that I wasn't okay. I'm used to having to push back. It's this. Look, this is a tense time, right? With all these cuts going down across the board and people losing their jobs, and, you know, we're all worried at whatever level it is. So. Okay, let me ask you about the other argument being made. Is that about not needing a Department of Education? Trump is saying let all the power go back to the states. It should be the states that are in charge of their schools and the needs of their schools. They're they're they see it on a daily basis. We don't need this big federal department to be a part of this at all. Um, I, you know, you you would think that the states should have it together and know their schools the best, but I think not a lot of people understand what does come from the federal government that helps the states help their their schools.
So your biggest concern about everything going into the hands of the states. State by state.
You know, Kira, one of the things we've learned under this president is that our Constitution was designed in a way that every level of government has a responsibility. So every level of government at the local level, at the state level, and at the federal level, have a role to play in ensuring that every student, everyone has what they need and what they deserve. The federal government has historically stood in those gaps for our most marginalized students. In fact, they are the ones who are responsible for the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, which was passed at the end of the of the decade of the civil rights legislation. That is the role that the federal government plays. And I want to be clear, 65%, 65% of our most vulnerable students get those services from the federal government. We have to make sure that instead of focusing on billionaires who already have more or get more, we have to focus on our students who need more, especially right now to close those gaps that, by the way, you know, I taught middle school for 31 years.
So I know our educators all over this country are trying to stand in the gaps for their students right now. That is not okay. The federal government has its role to play.
And I grew up in a family of teachers and a lot of special ed teachers as well. President of the National Education Association, Becky Pringle. Sure appreciate your time, Becky. Thank you.
Thanks, Sarah.
Coming up, prayers for the Pope. We do have an update on his fragile condition. We'll tell you next.
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Attention, teachers.
No child is to be sent to the principal's office today. Kids, if you want to do crime, now's the time. Happy first day of school. You better bring you good luck. Yes. Wonder like four more of these? Yeah. We were robbed. Hey! Buy three. Get one free.
I'm gonna call your mother on you. Bring the rest back here, boy.
Well, we do have some good news we're hearing from the Pope. Pope Francis, actually moments ago, delivered an audio message in Spanish. It was heard in Saint Peter's Square at the start of the rosary this evening in Rome. This is the first time we've actually heard from the pontiff since he was hospitalized and has been recovering from double pneumonia. Let's listen to a little bit of his message.
I beg.
You to look over.
It carefully for me.
Let's bring in our senior national correspondent, Terry Moran, who has been following the Pope's condition. It's good to hear his voice. I wish I could understand him, Terry.
Well, I had the message first. I don't think his audio people did him a great service. He's clearly just talking into a phone, and they could have brought in something and recorded it, but it's clearly may have been spontaneous. There was no sense that he was going to do this. I was up there a little bit closer when it was read, and you can hear the sound clearly of a man who's going through something very serious with his health, that kind of breathlessness. We were hearing a little bit of it before he went into the hospital three weeks ago. It's clearly worsened and is typical of someone with a respiratory condition. Here's what he said in Spanish. To the people gathered there, he said, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your prayers, for my health from the square. I accompany you from here. May God bless you and the Virgin protect you. Thank you. So that's what he had to say.
You know, you bring up a good point, Terry. Um. That he sounds. It sounds. He sounds fragile. And I'm curious, why do you think that the Holy Father decided to deliver this message? Now, I know you know. Yesterday was Ash Wednesday. We're approaching Easter. It's a very spiritual time for people of faith. But also, you know, he's not leaving the hospital. And a lot of people are very concerned about his condition.
And there's no question that one of the reasons he wanted to do it was just to send the message, I'm with you as he as he says. And this is also a man who sort of prided himself in his papacy on a pastoral role. He says mass or has said mass for most of his papacy every morning, you know, not in Saint Peter's, but in the basement chapel of the dorm where he lives, for the workers, for the people who cleaned Saint Peter's Square and are working the cash registers at the gift shops and all the rest of it, he's somebody who likes to have that contact, and clearly he missed it. And also perhaps sending the signal. You know that he feels he's on the mend. We have had a couple of days of good reports, and it may be that that he wanted to send that as well, but he does sound obviously like a man. He's 88 years old who's going through a struggle in his health. But as I say, that that kind of respiratory condition causes people their voice gets lighter and and harder to produce.
But he's certainly of sound mind, and that is what he was trying to show.
Well, it's good to hear his voice and it's good to see you. Terry Moran in Rome for us. Terry. Thank you. Coming up, one of the deadliest U.S. avalanches in years. What went wrong next?
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While the search is on for three skiers in Alaska, after what could be one of the deadliest U.S. avalanches in two years, the skiers buried alive and now presumed dead after a guided heli skiing trip, state troopers have to dig through up to 40ft of snow to try and find them. But the weather is not cooperating. Our Alex Stone is tracking the story for us. Alex, what do we know?
Well, Kara, I've been talking to.
Alaska.
State Troopers.
Today. They say they've got to get to those bodies.
And they.
Don't.
Know when it's going to be safe.
Enough to do.
That, that the avalanche danger is just too.
High.
In Girdwood, Alaska, known as the skiing capital.
Of.
Alaska.
A lot of people go there. They pay a.
Lot of money.
For these.
Adventure trips. These three men we now know, 39.
Years.
Old and 38 years.
Old.
They are from.
Florida, Montana.
And Minnesota.
They paid a lot to go on. One of these adventure trips into Alaska went out. The avalanche hit.
The avalanche.
100ft deep. They believe based on the beacons, that there are about 43ft down. But once it's safe enough, they need to go in there and dig them out.
So they they are able the beacons, they were all they know where the bodies are, I guess. Yeah. There were guides.
Who.
Were with.
Them.
And.
They immediately.
Went to.
The area.
The beacons will tell.
Those.
Guides how.
Deep they are.
And they just couldn't get to them. The guides weren't.
Able to do.
It in.
The.
Avalanche conditions there. So they know they're about 43ft down in the 100.
Foot.
Avalanche. It's going to take.
A lot of work to get to them.
They need the.
Alaska.
State Troopers. They need avalanche experts. They need guides to.
Go in.
There. It is a very.
Remote area.
You can see here, very popular.
But very.
Remote. And they tried.
To get an aerial survey up yesterday.
The Alaska.
State Troopers.
Saying they could not do it because of.
The weather.
This is video from yesterday. You can see.
That weather to get a helicopter or an airplane up above.
It. If it is clear.
Enough later on today.
They.
Plan to do.
That.
If.
They see it safe.
Enough avalanche.
Wise to go.
In. They will, but they're not there yet.
Well, it's heartbreaking all the way around. Alex stone. Thanks, Alex.
You got.
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The trade war roller coaster, sending Wall Street for a ride. Good afternoon everyone. I'm Kyra Phillips. So what went down on that call with Mexico's president that caused Trump to press pause on some of those tariffs on Mexican goods? We are definitely seeing the impact because stocks tumbled today. As those tariffs continue to roil the markets. You can see the numbers in the red right now. Our Elizabeth Schultz has the latest with something that actually just went down in the Oval. Elizabeth what do we know.
Hey Kyra. So President Trump has just signed executive order, an executive order amending some of these tariffs on products from Mexico and Canada. So what this is going to do, Kyra, is essentially mean now that half of products that are imported from Mexico that are in compliance with the Usmca, that existing free trade agreement that was negotiated in President Trump's first term, half of those products will now be subject to tariffs. Canada will also get a one month reprieve. We are trying to exactly determine this is really kind of technically broken down in the tariff code to determine which products are exempt and which aren't. Broadly speaking, when we're thinking about these products that fall under the Usmca, motor vehicle parts, car parts, they're not going to face tariffs for a month. Canadian oil is a lot of what is going to be exempt under Canada, but that's already subject to a lower rate under the tariffs that are in effect. So what this is, is a rollback of some of the policies that were in place.
The white House is really trying to emphasize that this is in response to progress that they have seen on the flow of fentanyl. And this is they say that the leaders of Canada and Mexico have given evidence that shows that they are making progress on reducing the flow of fentanyl, and that's why you're seeing this partial rollback. But at the same time, this is just one month. That's when those big 25% tariffs at this point would then take effect on all goods. And you still have a lot of products here that are still going to be facing those higher rates. So think of goods like electronics. Some of those probably still going to be facing higher tariff rates. We will have to be watching now how quickly some of those costs are passed down to consumers. And frankly Kyra, if for businesses, one month is enough for them to delay decisions on pricing or if they say, okay, well, if this is coming anyways, how do we approach that and what do we do? One just one note is that clearly there was a very intense lobbying effort on the part of the auto industry here to get this exemption in place, try to postpone some of those major price changes.
That is part of what we're seeing with this executive order now today.
Got it.
All right. So the stock market not really liking the news. I don't know if we can bring up the big board right now. But you know what do you there we go. Still in the red. What do investors think of this in certainty. I mean, clearly the numbers are telling us a lot right now.
Yeah. Notable that you still have about a, you know, one and a half, almost 1% drop in the Dow. 500 points. It's not a huge, huge sell off, Kyra, but it does speak to the fact that we just have intense uncertainty in the markets and traders who I've been talking to do not like that. We are trying to hang on. Every single word here about is this happening? Is this not happening? That makes it a lot harder for companies to decide if they have to make changes, if they're trying to figure out their planning for the next few months down the line, what are their costs going to be? And even a month delay? That doesn't really give them the certainty to make those plans. The market right now is trying to understand what is exactly going to be the policy, and it looks like even some of this kind of this rollback, partially rollback of some of those tariffs might not be enough to give traders the reassurance that there isn't going to be some sort of hit to the business community.
But then also, of course, that that's passed down to consumers and that consumers would pull back their spending. That's really where a lot of the concerns are. Kira, if consumers cannot weather those higher prices, what does that mean for the overall economy? And we have seen major retailers warning about the effect of higher prices on consumers. That is something you want to listen to when you think about the path for growth going forward, just because of how important our consumers are to the overall American economy.
All right. Liz Schulze, that's a lot to take in. But news is happening right now in the Oval. And thank you so much for listening in and working it out with us. Appreciate it. Thanks. Okay, so while the trade war obviously is continuing to change hour by hour and now minute by minute, Elon Musk and Doge's mission to slash government funding may have come to a halt, at least for one agency. Sources telling ABC news that the white House has now canceled its executive order signing to dismantle the Department of Education, but it comes after the Department of Veteran Affairs laid off thousands of workers. Straight to Donald Trump in the Oval there, as he's getting ready to sign an executive order taking questions from reporters. He did not sign the EO to dismantle the Department of Education. Also, most new tariffs on Mexico and Canada have been suspended. Let's listen in and see what else he has to say.
And drugs. And we've made tremendous progress on both.
President Trump, what's your thought about why the markets are so spooked. Do you think they don't like the tariffs or do they not like the uncertainty.
With some of the.
Changes.
That and the carve outs?
Well, a lot of them are globalist countries and companies that won't be doing as well because we're taking back things that have been taken from us many years ago. We've been treated very unfairly as a country. We protect everybody. We do everything for all these countries. And a lot of these are globalist in nature. You know, they have if you're outside of the United States, you know, it's going to be a little bit different. We just weren't treated right. We were ripped off as a country. I've been saying it for a long time, and I did it to a certain extent in the first administration. But with Covid coming in, we had to focus on that toward the end. But we had the greatest economy in history in the first administration, and I think we'll do even better now. But this is something that we have to do. There will always be a little short term interruption. I don't think it's going to be big, but, um, the countries and companies that have been ripping us aren't particularly happy with what I'm doing.
But the United States will be very happy. And, you know, our farmers are going to be very happy. And again, there'll be disruption. But in the end I said it before with China. We signed an unbelievable deal with China, $50 billion in purchases and we're doing great. Biden, however, when he came in, he never they never enforced that deal. So so that's the only thing that basically you have globalist companies that have been ripping us off that won't be able to rip us off any longer. I think that's what the big charge is.
Have you been.
Influenced by some of these exemptions.
That have.
Been announced in some.
Of.
These.
Temporary delays?
Have you been.
Influenced.
In those decisions because of the market reaction?
Well, there were no delays at all. No, nothing to do with the market. I'm not even looking at the market because long term, the United States will be very strong with what's happening here. Now, these are countries and companies, foreign companies that have been ripping us off. And no president did anything about it until I came along. And then I did a lot about it. You know, we took in in tariffs from China, $600 billion. Nobody else took in $0.10 from China. They never did. But when Covid came along, we had a focus on Covid. We did a great job. We got rid of that. We ended up handing over with a market that was higher than it was previous to Covid coming in. But this is very much about companies and countries that have ripped off this country, our country, our beloved USA. And they're not going to be ripping us off anymore. So, you know, I think that has an impact on the market.
Mr. president.
This is a this is a.
Slate.
Of nominees that's been prepared by the Presidential Personnel Office. It includes a number of subcabinet level appointments, a number of your ambassadors that have been previously announced. And also, crucially, given the administration's concerted effort to focus on violent crime, it includes a number of U.S. attorneys in major cities that have real crime problems.
Okay, some very good people, too.
Thank you.
Sir. And then we have a number of.
Ceremonial proclamations that Lindsey Halligan is going to.
Make.
So two.
Very special.
Proclamations.
The first.
Of which.
Is.
A proclamation.
That.
Proclaims March 2025 as Women's History Month.
In.
Honor of all the wonderful women in your administration, all the wonderful women in America, and in.
In.
Honor of.
Everything you've done for.
Women.
In.
This administration, has done for women and just what, a month and a half.
So, yeah, we've done a lot and women have done a lot for us. Right. This is an honor. We have a wonderful woman here, Maria Bartiromo.
Thank you so.
Much. Nice to have you, Maria.
Thank you very much, Mr. President.
And thanks.
For all that you're.
Doing.
For women.
Thank you. She's going to do an interview of me later. Maybe I shouldn't do this interview. I should be like Biden, not doing the interviews. That's great. Women. We love you.
We love you too, sir.
Thank you.
Okay.
Excellent.
So the second one is a proclamation proclaiming March 2025 as Irish American Heritage Month. In honor of or to commemorate our amazing friendship between America and Ireland and to, um, just honor all of the Irish Americans. And I'm a little bit biased because I'm American and Irish, but good.
Good. Well, a great people. Yeah. Great people.
Patrick's day is coming up as well.
And they voted for me in heavy numbers, so I like them even more. You have to like it. You know you're not supposed to, but you have to like that. All right. So for the Irish American people. Proclamation. Okay.
Thank you.
Thanks, Lindsay.
Mr. president, your.
Envoy.
Steve Witkoff, told us a little while ago.
That.
If.
Hamas.
Does not.
Release hostages.
That the.
US.
And Israel.
Could take.
Some action.
What does.
That mean in.
Your eyes?
Is that military action?
Would you join strikes with Israel?
Are you going to find out? I had the honor of spending a lot of time yesterday with quite a few of the people that we got out, and I can't believe how badly treated they were really badly treated. The stories that you wouldn't even believe, some of it was documented. Some of it was so bad you couldn't really I don't think you could put it on. And it's a shame. And and they said one thing. They have 59 hostages, of which many of them are killed. They want to know if we could just continue. They said without us. Look, Biden wasn't able to get anybody out. We came along and they started releasing, but we have 59 left, of which 24 are living. The rest are dead. And we put out a statement. It's sort of self-explanatory, I think, but somebody's going to have to get a lot rougher than they're getting. It's a shame. And those 24 that are living because they were with them just two weeks ago or three weeks ago, depending on when they got out, but they said they're in very bad shape.
You spoke.
Today with your cabinet.
Members and Elon Musk. I did. Um, what did you tell them.
In.
Regards to.
Elon.
Musk and.
His.
Authorities to carry out actions?
We had a great meeting. We had Elon and we had some of the representatives that for, you know, the business reps. We also had most of the cabinet members, not all of them. It doesn't really pertain to all of them, but many of them. And I thought it was a really good meeting. It was about cutting because we have everybody knows the country is way out of control in terms of the number of people we have many people that don't work. We have many people probably that aren't even living, that are getting checks. And we're finding all of that out and it's being reported. We're going to save hundreds of billions of dollars. We've already saved a lot. And parts of it are contracts that are expired, that we're paying on many crazy things that, you know, you can see it happening, it shouldn't happen, but you can see it happening. You see a lot of it being put out. But the other thing I think most important for today, I want the cabinet members to keep good people.
I don't want to see a big cut where a lot of good people are cut. I want the cabinet members to keep the good people, and the people that aren't doing a good job, that are unreliable, don't show up to work, etc. those people can be cut. So I had a meeting and I said, I want the cabinet members go first. Keep all the people you want. Everybody that you need. And it would be better if they were there for two years instead of two weeks. Because in two years they'll know the people better. But I want them to do the best job they can. When we have good people, those. That's precious. That's very important. And we want them to keep the good people. And so we're going to be watching them. And Ellen and the group are going to be watching them. And if they can cut it's better. And if they don't cut then Ellen will do the cutting.
So is that a reflection.
That.
You think Doge and.
Elon Musk have been moving too quickly?
No, no. I think they've done an amazing job. They've done an amazing job. And look at what they found. I read it the other night in the speech. I mean, they found these things where billions of dollars has been poured down the drain to things. That's not about people, that's about contracts where billions and billions of dollars was just thrown out the window. It probably got kickbacks. I'm sure there were tremendous kickbacks for the people that authorized those contracts. But know Elon has been really teaching everybody about the numbers that you can do. But what I want is I want the numbers, but I also want to keep the good people. We want to get rid of the people that aren't working, that aren't showing up and have a lot of problems. And so they're working together with Elon. And I think we're doing a really great job. We're cutting it down. We have to for the sake of our country, we have you can't have that kind of fat. It's bloat.
And like nobody's ever seen before where you need 20,000 and they have 120,000 people and you just don't need that many. And it happens with companies and it happens with governments. I guess you could go to a lot of governments. You'd see the same thing, but we're trying to get it down. We want to be able next year if we could balance the budget, I think there's a good chance we could balance the budget next year. We have a lot of good things happening, plus we have a lot of revenue, things happening like today with the shipbuilding. And this gentleman behind me is going to create a lot of jobs. And he's about the biggest there is in the world. We had the biggest chip maker in the world here a few days ago. He's going to be spending $200 billion on building plants. We're not giving them any money to build it either. You know, it's not that Chip act is ridiculous. Where the Biden thing, where they give billions of dollars to people that have nothing but money, they're not going to spend that money.
They're just taking that money. We're giving nothing. They're coming in because of the tariffs, because they don't want to pay the tariffs and they're opening up big. So but with respect to people, I said I want to cut the people, but I want to keep the good people.
Mr. president, can you.
Walk us through.
The next steps on.
This.
Steel and aluminum.
Tariffs.
Are due to kick.
In.
Next.
Week.
On Canada and Mexico and every other.
Country. Are those going to be.
Modified as well?
No those are modified. Those are happening next week. And the big one will be on April 2nd when reciprocal tariffs. So if India or China or any of the countries that really India is a very high tariff nation, I'll tell you what's a high tariff nation is Canada. Canada charges US 250% for our milk product and other product, and a tremendous tariff on lumber and things as such. And yet we don't need their lumber. We have more lumber than they do. We don't need Canada's lumber. So what I'm doing is I'll be signing an executive order, freeing up our forests so that we're allowed to take down trees and make a lot of money, and then re harvest trees. Also, we're cutting fire divides. A fire divide is a 50 yard to 70 yard swath where the trees can't, you know, it's long enough. So trees don't burn forever until you can get them out. And those trees can be sold and made a lot of money with so. But we'll be doing that.
We don't need trees from Canada. We don't need cars from Canada. We don't need energy from Canada. We don't need anything from Canada. So where we can be self-sustaining, which is in most things, look, we have more oil and gas than anybody. Our forests are massive, massive forests. We're just not allowed to use them because of the environmental lunatics that stopped us. So I'm going to be freeing that up very shortly, so that we don't have to go to other countries to buy lumber. You know, why should we be buying lumber from other countries, paying tariffs, paying big prices, extraordinary prices. And we have lumber. We have the best lumber. Go ahead.
And this.
Usmca exemption.
That you're.
Essentially announcing today for this one.
Month.
Just it's just a modification short term, because I didn't want to hurt the American. It would have hurt the American car companies. If I did that.
Would you consider the same sort of exemption or pause for the auto.
Tariffs you're.
Talking.
About next.
Month.
We're not looking at that.
No you're not.
No we're not looking at that. No.
No.
We're looking.
For the.
Ukrainians.
Who live here in the US.
What about it?
Are you considering revoking the TPS status.
For the more than 200,000 Ukrainians who live here in the US?
What? What are you saying to.
The Ukrainians.
That are.
Here?
Yes, they're under a TPS.
On gh.
TPS. Temporary. Temporary?
Oh, I thought you said GH. Yeah.
There were some news saying that they.
Were going to be.
Revoked and they were going to be.
Deported from the country. Are you.
Considering that?
Well, we're not looking to hurt anybody, and we're certainly not looking to hurt them. And I'm looking at that. And there were some people that think that's appropriate and some people don't. And I'll be making a decision pretty soon.
President Trump.
But we're not we're not looking to hurt them. President Trump, especially Ukrainians, they've gone through a lot. Yeah.
Peter, the clocks.
Are going to spring.
Forward.
On Sunday. When are you going to get rid of Daylight Savings Time?
Okay. Are you ready? So this should be the easiest one of all, but it's a 5050 issue. And if something's a 50 over 50 issue, it's hard to get excited about it. I assume people would like to have more light later, but some people want to have more light earlier because they don't want to take their kids to school in the dark. And it's very much it's a little bit one way, but it's very much a 50 over 50 issue and it's something I can do. But a lot of people like it one way. A lot of people like it the other way. It's very even. And usually I find when that's the case, what else do we have to do?
And I got to ask, because you were talking about this in your joint address. You were talking about Butler. It's been seven months. Why do you think we don't know more about the guy.
Who shot you in the ear?
Yeah, well. And the second one with all of his cell phones. So I want to find the answers I've told them. In fact, today I said, I want to fight. We can no longer blame Biden for that one. She should have released that a long time ago. So they are giving me a report next week sometime, and I do believe I'll be releasing. I want to release the report. A lot of people have asked that question. You had one who had three apps, two of which were foreign, supposedly, and who has the biggest white shoe law firm in Pennsylvania, even though they don't live in necessarily a white shoe area? What's that all about? Is, Laura, you know, the law firm. The other one had 7 or 6 cell phones and I don't have six cell phones. And why would somebody have six cell phones? So we're going to be releasing a report on that soon, Peter.
But based.
On what you're saying.
Right there.
The lack of information and the data points.
That you just.
Gave, does that make you think that there's some part of a there's some bigger.
It could be. Well, it makes other people think that. It makes me think it a little bit too. I say when you have three apps and two of them are foreign, and you had an FBI that wouldn't report on it, they didn't want to say why. I would say that could be suspicious. And then on the second assassin you had, you know, and by the way, I have to tell you, Secret Service did a great job on that by spotting him. But on the second one, he had six cell phones. That's a lot of cell phones. And a couple of them had some strange markings on them. So yeah, I want to find out and I would be willing to release it. I mean, maybe there's a reason that we shouldn't. So I don't want to get too far ahead of my skis. But yeah, I wouldn't be very willing to release that. I'd like to see it. I want to see it myself.
The president.
Not only you. I want to see that one myself.
Mr. president.
May I? Yes. President Macron yesterday said that France was ready to offer its nuclear protection to other European countries. What do you make of it? And in this case, would the US also maintain a nuclear umbrella for European countries?
Well, France is also willing to put soldiers into Ukraine for safety reasons. If we can get it. I will say that we've made a lot of progress with Ukraine and a lot of progress with Russia over the last couple of days, and it would be great to bring that to an end, so we don't have to talk that way about nuclear. It'd be great if everybody would get rid of their nuclear weapons. You know, we have Russia and us have by far the most. China will have an equal amount within 4 or 5 years. And it would be great if we could all denuclearize, because the power of nuclear weapons is crazy, is crazy. And, you know, I was very far along a process with Russia despite the Russia Russia, Russia hoax, which didn't make it easy. It was a total hoax. A total rigged hoax by some bad people. But despite that, I was very close to having a program with Russia denuclearization, and we were going to get China. I spoke to President XI about it, and he would have been very happy to have gone along with it.
But, uh, bad things happened, like an election that was rigged happened. And so we had to come back four years later. But I would very much like to start those talks. The opposite of what you say. The denuclearization would be incredible.
Mr. president.
On the.
Auto.
Tariffs that you were talking about, I know yesterday you spoke with the big three. Did you tell them that no more exemptions were on the way and what was their reaction?
I told them that's it. This was a short term deal. And they came back to me yesterday. They said, could we have some help on the tariffs because of the speed? And I said, look, I'm going to do it. But that's it. Don't come back to me after the second. April 2nd. I don't want to hear from you after April 2nd. We're not going to be doing it anymore. I want to help them.
What was their response?
They didn't complain, but I helped him short term during this short term transition. April 2nd is going to be a very big day for America.
Mr. President. Mr. president.
My understanding.
Is that the long standing U.S. policy is that we do not negotiate with terrorists. So how.
Did you come to the.
Decision to send somebody from your team to negotiate with Hamas?
We are having discussions with Hamas. We are helping Israel in those discussions because we're talking about, uh, Israeli hostages, and we're not doing anything in terms of Hamas. We're not giving cash. We're not giving 6 billion, like you hear other administrations give. And in fact, I got 59 hostages out. We gave nothing in 59. We gave nothing. Not including what's going on with Hamas. I mean, I consider that something where we're helping Israel for the most part. We had a couple of hostages, as you know. We got a couple of hostages out. American hostages.
Mr. president.
But certainly, Peter, you know I do. You have to negotiate. There's a difference between negotiating and and paying. Uh, we want to get these people out. If you would have seen the people yesterday, maybe you did. I don't know, but if you would have seen them the way they spoke about their captivity, it was unbelievable. It's terrible.
Are you.
Thinking about making any changes to NATO where a NATO country gets attacked, but they're not paying enough dues, so the United States doesn't defend.
Them?
Well, I've said that to them. I said, if you're not going to pay, we're not going to defend. I said that seven years ago. And because of that, they paid hundreds of billions of dollars. I said, if you're not going to pay your bills, we're not going to defend you. And it also went for the attack. But if they got attacked, they said, well, does that mean you won't defend us? I said, are you current or are you delinquent? They said if we were delinquent, would you? I said, nope, I would not. And because of that, as you know, hundreds of billions of dollars came into net. You wouldn't have NATO right now if I weren't there. And your previous secretary general has said that. He said he's never seen anything like it. When I came to NATO, when I first had my first meeting, I noticed that people weren't paying their bills at all, and I said I should wait till my second meeting.
And I did, and I brought that up and I said, if you don't pay your bills, we're not going to participate. We're not going to protect you. And when I said that, as soon as I said that, it was amazing how the money came in, the money came in and now they have money. But even now it's not enough. It's really not enough. They should be paying more.
Mr. president.
A question.
On.
The investment.
Sir.
You've overseen about $2 trillion worth of.
Domestic.
Private sector.
Investments come in.
In just about.
Two months.
This is the newest one. It comes after.
Your announcement of a new shipbuilding.
Office at the white House.
During your.
Joint session to Congress.
Can you talk about.
Why this is important, not only.
For national.
Security, but to continue.
The.
Renaissance.
Of domestic.
Manufacturing?
Well, we have to maintain a strong country. We have to maintain and we want to pay off debt. We have a lot of debt, but that will start coming off quickly when this all comes around. Look, we've been supporting the whole world. You mentioned NATO and you mentioned other things. We've been supporting the whole world. When I first came in, we were paying almost 100% of NATO. NATO was it was crazy. We were supporting NATO. We were paying the bills for other countries. And yet those same countries, mostly European, you know, the European countries were ripping us off in trade. They won't take our cars. They wouldn't take our agricultural products. They wouldn't take anything. We were taking their cars by the millions. Mercedes and BMW and, you know, Volkswagen, all of them. We were taking their cars. They weren't taking it. We were taking their farm products. They weren't taking ours. It was a total rip off. And yet we were protecting them by giving them the money.
And, you know, that adds up to a bad a bad number at the end of a lot of years. And that's what happened. And now it's time for this country to stop being ripped off. I had that done very much in the first administration, but then we had to focus on other things at the very end with Covid and, uh, but we had the greatest economy in history. We had the greatest economy in history. I think we're going to redo it here. But even better. And I wanted to do what we're doing now in the first term, but we had so many other things to do. We had to fix the border, which we did. We had to fix our military. We rebuilt our military. We completely rebuilt the military, only to watch Biden give so much of it away to Afghanistan. If you can believe it, it's not even believable. It's not even believable. What he did, the damage that that man did or that administration did to this country is, is frankly, not even believable.
President Trump and in particular, in, in particular, allowing millions and millions of people to come into our country, many of them were murderers and and drug dealers and gang members and people from prison for very heinous crimes. For him to allow those people into our country. And now we're spending tremendous amounts of time and effort. Nikki and Tom Homan, who's doing an unbelievable job. But we shouldn't we shouldn't have to be spending anything on that. We had the safest border ever. Now we have actually, as you saw, the numbers just came out where we have actually the lowest numbers in the history of our country, but we shouldn't have had to do that. What we what we're doing now is we're looking for murderers. Can you believe it? We're looking for murderers because thousands of murderers, some. Some about 50% killed. More than one person. One killed 5 or 7. And we're looking for those people. Right now, we shouldn't have to be looking for them.
On Peter's.
Question, are.
You.
Going.
To make that policy? US policy that.
The.
US.
Wouldn't.
Defend NATO countries that don't pay?
Well, I think it's common sense, right? If they don't pay, I'm not going to defend them. No, I'm not going to defend them. I got into a lot of heat when I said that. You said, oh, he's violating NATO. And you know, the biggest problem I have with NATO, I really you know, I mean, I know the guys very well. They're friends of mine. But if the United States was in trouble and we called them, we said, we got a problem. France, we got a problem. A couple of others I won't mention. Do you think they're going to come and protect us? They're supposed to. I'm not so sure. You know, with Japan, you know, with Japan, we have a deal, which is a very interesting one. And I love Japan. We have a great relationship with Japan, but we have an interesting deal with Japan that we have to protect them, but they don't have to protect us.
Do you know that? That's the way the deal reads. We have to protect Japan. And by the way, they make a fortune with us economically. There's another case, but we have to protect Japan. But under no circumstances do they have to protect us. I actually asked who makes these deals. Yeah. Peter.
Well, so why stay in NATO at all?
Um, I view NATO as potentially good, but you got to get got to get some good thinking in NATO. It's very unfair what's been happening. Until I came along, we were paying close to 100% of NATO. So think of it. We're paying 100% of their military and they're screwing us on trade.
And when Zelensky inevitably comes back to the white House, what do you expect from him? And do you think you'll.
See him in the next time?
Well, I think what's going to happen is Ukraine wants to make a deal because I don't think they have a choice. I also think that Russia wants to make a deal because in a certain different way, a different way that only I know. Only I know, they have no choice either.
Or. Are you still thinking of going to Saudi Arabia and meeting with Putin about this?
I don't know. I can't tell you. I'm going to Saudi Arabia, Mr. President. They've been very you know, I've, I've made a deal with Saudi Arabia where because normally you'd go to UK first. And last time I went to Saudi Arabia they put up $450 billion. You know that, right? You were there. We had a we had American companies that took in 450. I said, well, this time they've gotten richer. We've all gotten older. So I said, I'll go. If you pay $1 trillion, $1 trillion to American companies, meaning the purchase over a four year period of $1 trillion. And they've agreed to do that. So I'm going to be going there. And I have a great relationship with them, and they've been very nice, but they're going to be spending a lot of money to American companies for buying military equipment and a lot of other things.
Mr. president, regarding.
The.
Is that a trip in the near future.
Probably over the next month and a half?
Mr. president, you told us a couple.
Of weeks ago that you were looking.
To speak.
With President XI.
Of.
China.
That hasn't happened. How come? What are you waiting for?
I've spoken to him since.
Since that.
Last phone.
Call. I don't want to say that, but I haven't spoken to him. Yeah. please.
Yeah. Mr. president.
I have a great relationship with President XI.
But you've.
Spoken.
To him. It was hurt because of Covid. That's why I don't call it the China virus anymore. You said please don't call it the China virus.
But to.
Be.
Clear, you've.
Spoken to.
Him since January 17th.
I don't want to say that, but I have spoken to him, and I speak to him a lot.
Regarding.
This.
Executive order.
You signed revoking security.
Clearances at Perkins Coie. Um.
Do you think there should be more.
Steps.
Like.
This to be taken against.
Other people.
Involved.
In the.
Russia.
Collusion?
I do, but that's going to be up ultimately to the attorney general and various other people.
Absolutely. Just as a follow up, the other night.
You know, we saw Democrats.
Behavior during.
Your.
Joint.
Address to.
Congress.
Do you think it shows just.
How out of touch they are with the American.
People.
Especially given that 79%, according to a CBS poll approved.
Of your of your.
I love this guy. Who are you with?
My name.
Is Nick.
Gilbertson.
With.
Breitbart News.
See, I'd really like your questions.
Thank you very much, sir. Regarding the executive.
Order, the answer is just. Just to. And I know your name very well. Good job you do. Thank you. Yeah. The answer is. I thought it was very embarrassing for the Democrats. What happened the other night? And that's not said for any other reason other than it's obvious. It's fact. Even even CNN fake news said that they came out and they said it. And worse than CNN as miss DNC, which is the worst. And the good news is very few people watch them anymore. They have lost such credibility. And frankly, what Nicolle Wallace said, uh, I've never been a fan of hers, but. And she's not very talented. But I'll tell you what she said the other day about that young man is disgraceful. She should be forced to resign and Rachel Maddow should be forced to resign. Nobody watches her anyway. I don't know if it's not possible. They pay her as much money as I hear, but certainly she's lost all credibility. Both of them.
But what they what they said the other day, they should be forced to resign about that young person who.
Was.
Who was suffering greatly. Thank you.
Will you will you extend?
If a TikTok deal is not made on the timeline you gave, will you extend that? Will you? Probably you will.
I think, look, we have a lot of interest in TikTok and China is going to play a role. And so hopefully China will approve of the deal. But they're going to play a role. But we have a lot we have a lot of interest in TikTok.
How long.
Would.
You.
Extend it and.
How close are.
You to it? Well we'll see. But if I need I don't. Right now we have at least another month, so we don't need an extension. But if I needed an extension, I'd probably get it extended.
Yeah, for our country. Mr. president, regarding.
The executive.
Orders.
There was talk that you.
Might sign.
One winding down.
The education department.
Which. Which department?
The education department.
Are you.
Having second thoughts.
On that?
No no no no no, I want to bring the schools. I want to bring the schools back to the States. And, you know, I've said it a hundred times. We're ranked at the bottom of the list, and yet we spend more. We're ranked number one for for cost per student. We're ranked at the bottom of the list in education. And I know if I bring it back to Iowa, Indiana, Idaho, all these great states, I think I could say 40 states, I want to bring it back. Ten states won't be perfect. Five states will be probably not so good, but they will be every bit as good as Norway and Denmark and Sweden and all of the states that are rated at the top. If you tell me about Indiana and some of these great states that run really well, Iowa, you tell me about those states. And if they run their own education, they're going to do a lot better than somebody sitting in Washington, D.C., that couldn't care less about the pupils out in the Midwest.
Mr. president.
Then why would you sign that order?
Well, I want to just do it. I mean, we're starting the process. We're trying to get the schools back into the states, let the states run the schools. And I'll tell you, you see something, it's going to it's going to blow your mind. It'll be run so well. The school system and I also believe in school choice, but that will take care of itself.
A follow up to that, Mr. President, if the Education Department were eliminated, how.
Would.
You see sort of what department, what agency would handle student loans and the other types of federal.
Grants brought in? Yeah, that would be brought in to either Treasury or Small Business Administration or Commerce. And we've actually had that discussion today. I don't think the education should be handling the loans. That's not their business. I think it will be brought into small business. Maybe Kelly really liked it and really would like to do it. So the loans would be brought into a group where they really do that. And I think that is, by the way, the most complicated thing in moving. But it's very simple if you do that.
In.
France, rejected your plan to move out more than 2 million people.
Out of Gaza.
What's your reaction to that.
And to Egypt's plan and.
To this meeting that happened.
Out of Gaza?
Yeah.
I think that Gaza is a mess and I think that Gaza could be good. I think it's got to be run properly. But right now, Gaza is an absolute mess. And it has been for many, many years and decades. Yeah. Peter, did you have one more?
I did.
Yeah.
They had these two Starliner astronauts stuck in space for eight months.
Have you spoken.
To.
Them? They left them alone. Biden left him up there.
And what do.
You know about that?
I know everything about it, I said. We have two astronauts that are stuck in space. I have asked Elon. I said, do me a favor. Can you get them out? He said, yes. He is preparing to go up, I think in two weeks, two and a half about.
How this went down, because he's saying that the Biden White House was offered some kind of space rocket to go get these guys, and they said.
No.
That's what I heard. I can't tell you that, but that's what I heard. But Biden was embarrassed by what happened, and he said, leave him up there. I would have said, if you're embarrassed, you got to get him out. Elon is right now preparing a ship to go up and get him.
I'm sure that they will see this in space. What is your message to them?
We love you and we're coming up to get you. And you shouldn't have been up there so long. The most incompetent president in our history has allowed that to happen to you. But this president won't let it happen. We're going to get them out. We're coming up to get you. I've authorized Elon. I said, can you get them out? Because, you know, they've been left up there. I hope they like each other, but they've been. Maybe they'll love each other, I don't know, but they've been left up there. Think of it. And I see the woman with the wild hair. Good solid head of hair. she's got. It's. No kidding. There's no games with her hair, but, uh. And, you know, there's a danger up there, too. They can have some failures up there. That would be very bad. You got to get them out. So I've. I've authorized Elon a week ago. I said, you know, we have two people up there that Biden and Kamala left up there, and he knows it very well.
I said, are you equipped to get him? And he said, yeah, he's got a starship and they're preparing it right now. And so Elon is going to go up and get him. Should I go on that journey just to be on the ship when we stop? What do you.
That's an option.
Yes I should do it. That's terrible. I thought he liked me. I thought he liked me. I thought Maria. Should I do it?
Well, you should stay here.
Maria likes me better.
She should then come back from space.
Oh, when they come back, I'll greet him. How about that? No, no, we're going to get him out. I've authorized Elon Musk to go and get them, and he's prepared to do so.
Mr. president, what are you.
Making of the market.
To sell off.
This week?
I think it's just I think it's globalist that see how rich our country is going to be. And they don't like it. You know, it's a big market out there. But again, they've been ripping off this country for years. And now and they're going to do great. Everyone's going to do great. But we can't let this continue to happen to America. Otherwise we're not going to have a country any longer. Thank you very much everybody.
Thank you.
Thank you sir.
Thank you very much. Great. Thank you Nick. Great.
All right. So, of course, you were just watching President Donald Trump there taking questions in the Oval Office amid a range of topics here. He ended with what's going on in space, talking about how Elon Musk is allegedly getting ready to go up and get Butch Wilmore and Sunny Williams, the two astronauts that have been stranded in space now for about nine months. If you recall, they had only planned on going up there for about a week. They've been there for nine months. This has become a talking point and a flashpoint in politics, because Elon Musk has said that if he wanted to get them earlier and that the Biden administration did not okay, that. So the president was asked about that today. He said that's what he's heard, but he doesn't have any real information there. But again, it sounds like he will be going up to get them. And no longer do these two astronauts want to be stuck in this political game. They want to be home on Earth, and the president plans to greet them when that happens.
Among the other headlines, of course, here, though, is the tariffs. Here, the president announcing a rollback on tariffs that are part of the United States-mexico-canada agreement, any goods that is compliant with those agreements. So he's going to roll back some of these tariffs from both Canada and Mexico. This again will be temporary. And there was a lot of talk. Looking forward now to April 2nd. There's an April 2nd deadline in which some more reciprocal tariffs will come into place. That's also when you'll see the steel and aluminum tariffs come into place as well. And so certainly the world is watching and the market is reacting to this. Despite the president saying he's not really watching the market and that he's not dictating his decisions here. It certainly is a factor in all of this. So for more, I want to bring in our senior white House correspondent, Selina Wang, who is on the North Lawn, along with ABC's Elizabeth Schulze in our D.C. bureau. So, Elizabeth, really, every day now, I know you've been paying close attention to the stock market here.
It's been a bit volatile. There's been some tariff whiplash here today. And it seems as that closing bell rings that really all eyes are on the Nasdaq today.
Yeah. And it was another down day really. If you look at the Dow now, which is kind of the big benchmark index for stocks a lot of red there. And even despite this temporary reprieve on tariffs you can see they are down about 430 points 1% on the Dow. The Nasdaq you point out that was a much heavier loss. And part of that there is that these big tech names that have been fueling the rally in the stock market are also now pulling back. What is the underlying concern here is growth in the economy. How much is the uncertainty over these policies, especially this back and forth, the whiplash lately over tariffs. And are they on are they off. What does that mean for these big global corporations that are so reliant on trade and are trying to plan out their supply chains in the months and years to come? They're trying to make those investment decisions, and that's a lot harder to do when you're facing these headlines every couple of hours. That could dramatically shift the kinds of business decisions that they have to make.
So some of the traders who I talked to a lot say, look, we want to just know what is going on. What is the plan. This on again, off again strategy makes us uncertain about exactly what the outlook is for corporate profits. And then of course, what this also comes down to is the consumer, because we have know that consumers power the American economy if they are facing longer term higher prices, that could be a headwind for economic growth. It means that they won't be spending as much. That trickles into companies profit margins. So that's the uncertainty there. I do think it's notable that President Trump says he's not watching the stock market closely. He's looking at this longer term plan. And we know that his reason, at least one of the reasons he says, for these tariffs is to try to encourage more American manufacturing. But that is no doubt something that would play out over the longer term.
Right. The short term pain for the long term gain is something that we hear over and over again from the president. And as Elizabeth continuously points out here, how much will this hurt Americans in the short term? How long can they hold out? But also, Selena, it's been really interesting to see how the leaders of both Canada and Mexico have been responding to all of this, especially today, where you hear from the president of Mexico saying, look, I had a respectful conversation with President Trump, and it seems the Trump administration was certainly view this tariff threat as a bit of a win today in the way it's playing out.
Well, I mean, look, all of this has been utter chaos and uncertainty to Elizabeth's point. And you essentially have the president almost entirely rolling back the tariffs that he only put in place just a few days ago. This is about those executive orders he signed, exempting those goods that are Usmca compliant. And experts tell me that that means the vast majority of goods coming from Canada and Mexico will get relief from these tariffs for one month. But then after that, everything's up in the air. Trump says that on April 2nd, he's going to be imposing reciprocal tariffs, which would have a sweeping impact, since this means the U.S. would match the duties that any country imposes on American products. So it's still unclear just how long this reprieve is going to last. But you heard the president there in the Oval Office insisting that he's not making this change because of the stock market dips. He says that this is about other countries paying up their fair share, and administration officials are stressing that they are giving this temporary pause because they've seen progress in these countries to stem the flow of fentanyl through their borders into the United States.
We've seen many different reasons for why this administration believes that tariffs are necessary, including, to your point, this short term pain for long term gain, bringing manufacturing back to the United States to curb the flow of fentanyl and to balance the trade imbalance between the U.S. and these other countries. Now, one official today also saying that a reason for this pause is following President Trump's conversations with the Big Three automakers. The administration saying that these car companies are promising to move more of their supply chains and manufacturing back to the United States. But experts say this isn't a process that takes one month. This is a process that plays out over the span of years, and it involves really big investments. So if these tariffs do come back in a month, it's really not going to help those automakers all that much.
Selena, I want to stick on the fentanyl issue with you for just one second, if we can, because throughout this conversation that you witnessed there in the Oval Office, certainly Canada and Mexico, top of mind, but also China looming large here. Anytime you talk about tariffs and anytime that you talk about fentanyl, because the precursor chemicals come from China, they go to Mexico, they get turned into these pills and then come into the United States. And so the president of Mexico is saying fentanyl seizures have been reduced by 41.5%. And Selena, as they were having this conversation there in the Oval Office, it sounds like the Senate is taking steps now to make sure that fentanyl will remain a schedule one drug. It's temporary, classified that way, and that will expire at the end of the month here. So there are some serious steps being made here. How does that kind of reaction, what's the reaction there from China in terms of fentanyl. But also even TikTok came up in this conversation.
Selena yeah, we heard China mentioned several times there. The president was also asked about the last time that he spoke with Chinese leader XI Jinping. He wasn't really clear on that. But he said he speaks often to the Chinese leader and that they have a good relationship. Now, when it comes to the fentanyl issue, this is something that the Biden administration had been working on as well. Remember that landmark APEC summit where President Biden sat down with Chinese leader XI Jinping, and they came up with an agreement for China to crack down on the makers of those precursor chemicals within their country. And before President Biden left office, officials within the National Security Council had told me that there was real progress being made there. But clearly this is still a sticking point. Those 10% tariffs on China that President Trump recently slapped on the country, that comes on top of 10% tariffs he had put on earlier in his term. And of course, Trump also hitting China with further tariffs in his first administration.
Certainly. And Elizabeth I'm hoping you can bring us up to speed here as well, especially with some of these reciprocal tariffs. Because you heard the president talk about some some products in particular with Canada. He talked about milk and lumber, saying, you know what? We have enough lumber in the United States. He also talked about essentially cutting fire line, and he wants to free the forests here in the United States to harvest. So when he says things like that, how does that tip the scales here market wise? And do you think we'll see a response from Canada there?
And it's an argument that makes sense to a lot of Americans, right. If we can produce these things domestically, why should we be relying on foreign trading partners to bring them in? But part of the complication there, and I can speak to an issue like eggs. We've been doing so much reporting on record high egg prices. It turns out the US imports of all the eggs that it imports the most come from Canada. And you have to wonder, why would we be importing that many eggs from Canada? But think about the supply chains and think about the vastness of the United States and northern states. A lot easier for them to get eggs from Canada than if you're going to try to reinvent the supply chain across the United States. So some of this just comes down to the logistics and the reality that this is how the trades system is currently built. That does not mean it couldn't be rebuilt, but as we've been saying, that's going to take time.
All right, Elizabeth and Celina, our thanks to both of you. I also want to bring in Bankrate, Washington bureau chief and economic analyst Mark Hamrick. Mark, thank you so much for being here with us today and sort of makes sense of all of this. And as you come on here, we're learning that it sounds like Canada has decided that their initial retaliatory tariffs against the United States are going to remain in place, despite President Trump rolling back his again. The president postponing the 25% tariffs on several imports from Canada. What's your initial reaction to that?
A trade war is.
A trade war.
Canada.
And you.
Know.
We have this.
Combination of.
Certainty and.
Uncertainty.
And all of.
Those.
Undermine.
Confidence.
Of consumers.
And.
Businesses.
And by.
Extension, investors.
And I think.
Everybody.
Seems.
To.
Understand.
Although these.
Talking points.
Are a bit jumbled.
There's the.
Drug issue. There's the U.S. production capability issue.
We can't really.
Figure out which one.
Takes.
Priority and how we measure the Commerce.
Secretary.
Saying today they'll be looking.
At autopsy results in the United States for signs of progress. Good luck measuring that.
So I.
Think.
That it's.
The.
Delay.
If that's indeed what it is, which covers a.
Portion.
Not all of these imports is a little like being.
Told, you.
Know.
You.
Have a month to live instead of an immediate.
Demise. And the outcome may or may not be the same. Uncertainty is.
The problem, as well as the certainty of the prospect of higher price levels and the impacts on growth, which can.
Be negative.
So under the guise of uncertainty here, if the ultimate goal for the president is to encourage companies to come back to the United States to, you know, produce goods here in the United States, how does a one month extension add to that overall plan here, and what are the larger discussions?
I don't think it helps.
Much at all.
You know?
You just simply cannot prop up a steel mill. You cannot grow avocados 365 days of the year. You don't have the capacity to produce all the auto parts that you're currently sourcing in multiple locations. It's just not going to happen.
In a month's.
Time, if.
Ever.
Remember, this isn't the first.
Term this.
President.
Has had, and these.
Were largely some of his same objectives in the.
First term.
And we still very much live.
In the context.
Of a globalized.
Economy.
We've got a big reminder.
About that in.
The early.
Days of Covid because.
Of supply chains.
Consumers have essentially preferred to have the options for lower prices that globalization has allowed. But of course, there were extremely detrimental impacts on employment and communities all across the country as things like manufacturing, the production of apparel and other things were impacted negatively. And oh, by the way, in targeting Mexico and Canada, for example, on automobiles, whether it takes place.
Now or in the.
Future, simply prioritizes as well the automobiles that are made, for example, in Asia.
Interesting. All right. And while we know the president said he's not watching the markets, you have to imagine many Americans are, especially if they see their retirement accounts dwindling before their eyes. Mark, we appreciate your time. Thank you for being here with us. Coming up next here on ABC News Live. A new twist in the Idaho college murders case involving DNA yet again. We'll talk about that when we come back.
I told you.
To let me handle it.
Raj made.
Me.
Do.
It.
I did.
You man enough to take your father's place.
What would we have to do?
Run the business. Call the shots.
That's terrifying.
Toxic freaking.
Workplace.
When you hear the sirens, you're like a serial.
Killer.
Now, man.
You think so?
Really proud of you boys.
I would never.
Change.
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It was a kidnapping torture case.
A crime of greed and cruelty.
The men tortured the victim by beating.
Tasing and.
Burning.
Him.
And this is where it gets really horrible.
The guy was.
Cutting off my.
Roommate's.
It was like a bad dream.
This crime was horrific.
He's a psychopath. How could you.
Possibly defend somebody.
Like that?
This was.
A story about.
Greed.
Sadism.
Evil.
Wicked game. Devil in the desert. Only on Hulu.
And welcome back. There's a new twist in the University of Idaho murders case involving DNA evidence yet again. In a redacted filing, lawyers for Brian Kohberger, the man accused of stabbing four college students to death, say that DNA from three unidentified individuals was found under victim Madison Morgan's nails. The defense, who says Kohberger is innocent, claims independent testing. They did. Eliminated Kohberger as one of those individuals. They say their client is innocent and argue the DNA test results were inconclusive, and so they should be excluded at trial because there's concerns that it would mislead the jury. However, prosecutors have linked the former PhD student to the crime, saying his DNA was found on the knife sheath underneath Mogan. Now, this information came amid a flurry of filings as the defense tries yet again to get the death penalty taken off the table, this time citing. Autism spectrum disorder Kohberger's trial is set to start in August, and for more on this story, you can always listen to our ABC Audio true crime podcast about this case.
It's called The King Road Killings and you can download it wherever you get your podcasts. All right. As you know from watching us, the news never stops. You can find us anywhere. You stream live news. And if you're on the go, we are on the ABC news app and ABC news.com as well. I'm Kayna Whitworth. Thank you for streaming with us. There's more news straight ahead.
Friday night David Muir reporting.
We take you inside two cases a mother just 19 years old.
She was trying to protect her daughter. She fought like hell.
Another case, a beloved teacher. Her whole future ahead of her.
Mysterious cold cases.
It gives you chills even today.
Yes.
What links both of those cases is the cutting edge forensic technology inside this lab.
It sounded.
Like.
Science.
Fiction.
At the time.
Can they be solved?
You'll see it unfold.
Right.
Here as they unmask the killer. In both cases.
Catching the killers 2020. Friday on ABC.
Kate started with a spark.
Getting that golden.
Ticket.
Today.
Good luck.
With the golden.
Ticket.
They grew into.
A life will change my life.
I know you're.
Nervous.
Show me a place where dreams come true.
I've never.
Seen anything.
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Person.
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I'm 110% ready to fall in love. Tall. Handsome. Smart. He's perfect.
Time just stood.
Still.
It's kind of already sinking in that these other girls are dating my boyfriend.
Everybody just really wants Grant.
And we're all fighting for his love. You act like.
You.
Don't care.
He knows how I feel.
I know I'm in trouble. Everyone's so mean. I did not know how hard this was going to be.
In Vancouver, for the final.
Stop of the Taylor.
Swift Eras Tour. I'm Rebecca.
Jarvis, and.
Wherever the story is, we'll.
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You there. You're streaming ABC News Live.
I'd never.
Seen that many skeletal.
Remains in thousands. It's a serial killer case.
This killer, he's.
The Dahmer you've never.
Heard of.
More and more.
Men.
Are going.
Missing.
And then the lead broke the case open.
They discovered the.
Farm. The whole place was so bizarre.
There were.
Mannequins.
Almost like it was a club.
I felt the presence of evil.
The largest.
Number.
Of.
Unidentified human remains. Second only to the World Trade Center.
Not many.
People.
Live to tell about.
Their involvement.
With the.
Serial killer. Everything we know about this case comes from you.
Absolutely.
Let's not do that. Oh. I'm sorry. never before a face to face interview.
With a camera.
Why now?
Let me ask you. Am I the evil culprit? The accomplice? I'd like to know how the audience views me.
The Fox.
Hollow Murders playground.
Of a serial.
Killer.
Only on Hulu.
Our top headlines on ABC News Live. President Trump makes a deal with Mexico and Canada. The president pausing tariffs on some goods for one month as the countries try to hammer out a long term deal. How Wall Street is reacting to the news and what it means for the wider trade war. Also, members of Congress vote to censure Democrat Al Green. The ensuing screaming match between lawmakers and what it means for the Democratic Party. Plus, one giant leap for mankind. Private industry pushing the boundaries of space travel. Why a moon landing today could mean Mars is is within reach tomorrow. ABC News Live reports starts right now. All right. I'm Kayna Whitworth here in Los Angeles. And we begin with President Trump's trade war, putting Wall Street through the wringer. Stocks taking another hit today despite President Trump moving to delay some tariffs from both Mexico and Canada. Earlier, he said the move had nothing to do with the stock market.
But this is very much about companies and countries that have ripped off this country, our country, our beloved USA, and they're not going to be ripping us off anymore. So, you know, I think that has an impact on the market.
The president today signing an executive order, temporarily rolling back tariffs on goods that fall under the United States-mexico-canada trade agreement, which he signed with our North American neighbors in 2018 during his first term. So tracking the latest for us here is ABC News Elizabeth Schulze, along with ABC News senior White House correspondent Selina Wang there on the North Lawn. So, Elizabeth, in terms of the markets closing down again today, maybe not as dramatically as we saw earlier in the week, but certainly unpredictability, volatility, those words come to mind.
Yeah. If there are words that stock market investors don't like, it's unpredictability volatility, uncertainty all of that means they don't know investors in the stock market. But think about it. Big companies and small companies too. Do not know how to make their investment plans going forward when there are a lot of changes in the investment outlook. So that thing that comes down to hiring, that comes down to where they're investing in factories. You know, the question here for a lot of companies is, are these headlines over tariffs that are coming in fast and furious, going to ultimately stay in place if there are major changes in the global trade agenda? How does that trickle into the costs that companies are paying and potentially then passing down those costs to consumers? I do think when we're talking about the markets and you've pointed this out, the Nasdaq, which is the tech focused index, is now in correction territory, meaning it's down 10% from its recent high. And part of what has really brought that index down is chipmakers.
So Nvidia we've talked a lot about this incredibly powerful company that makes so many of the computer chips that really do power artificial intelligence, power, what is expected to be the technology of the future. Well, those Nvidia is an example of a company that is incredibly dependent on global supply chains. So you are seeing how just these questions about what the supply chain will look like mean that investors are getting nervous, even in some of those names that have been really leading the stock market higher in the months leading up till now.
And Selena, we know the president is signing that executive order today, delaying tariffs on Usmca compliant goods from both Canada and Mexico. What kind of items here are we talking about?
We don't know the exact description of the items, but what this means is that the vast majority of goods are going to be exempt from those tariffs because the vast majority of goods are Usmca compliant. So you essentially have the president almost completely reversing those 25% tariffs he put on Canada and Mexico just days ago. But again, this is just a one month reprieve. And the president has said that on April 2nd, more tariffs are coming. He's promising reciprocal tariffs which would have a sweeping effect if they actually go through. This means the U.S. would put tariffs on other countries at the same rate that they tariff American products. So the big question is why this sudden reversal? Well, the president insists that it's not because of the stock market volatility. He says this is about making sure other countries pay their fair share. And the administration is saying that it's because Canada and Mexico have made good progress on trying to curb the flow of fentanyl into the United States. So that is a key reason for why the president put those tariffs in place in the first place.
But again, still a lot of uncertainty here. And in terms of this one month reprieve, it's not extremely helpful to these big companies. Now Trump is saying that these big three automakers he spoke to are saying they're going to move their supply chains back to the United States. But that is a process that takes a lot more than one month. This is a process that takes years and a whole lot of investment.
Khanna yeah, certainly it is not something that happens quickly. Also notable here that Canada's initial retaliatory tariffs on the United States at this point will remain in place, despite the president rolling back those for the United States. And Elizabeth, also, I know that you're watching the jobs report that's expected tomorrow. Do we have any idea of the impact that we could see from all of these federal workers who are now out of a job?
This is a really important jobs report, Khanna, because it gives us a hard data point on where we are in the growth of the economy. When you think about hiring and we've seen the jobs market be pretty resilient over the past couple of years, frankly, despite headwinds, despite strong worse than expected inflation. This report will not yet likely show up the federal workforce reductions. And the reason for that is just the time frame that the data was collected. We hadn't seen a lot of the layoffs that we've seen in recent weeks at government agencies yet, but we are seeing caution among the private sector in some other major industries. So retailers, consumer companies, consumer goods companies have been more cautious. And they have said that they're they're not as optimistic about their sales outlook going forward. Does that mean that they're also going to pull back on hiring? That's something to look for really closely in the jobs report that's coming out tomorrow?
Absolutely. It is. Also Selena, you know, there's been a lot of talk here about almost this, this power struggle between the president's cabinet and Elon Musk. And it sounds like there was a pretty intense and important meeting. What do we know about that?
Yeah, there was a cabinet meeting today that was very significant. Sources are telling us that the president told his cabinet leaders that they're the ones in charge of their departments, not Elon Musk. We're told that Elon Musk was in the room during this conversation, and the president was stressing that Musk's role is to make recommendations, that he can't make unilateral decisions, whether this is about staffing or policy issues. I also spoke to a white House official who said the key purpose of this cabinet meeting is to ensure that everyone is on the same page and that all of this is streamlined. Now, the context here, of course, is that Elon Musk's directives to the federal workforce have spread chaos and confusion, and there's been bipartisan criticism that the firings have been indiscriminate. Today, President Trump also saying that he wants these firings to happen with a scalpel, not a hatchet, the exact opposite of what critics say this firing has looked like so far.
Khanna yeah, and, you know, we've heard that analogy here right at the beginning, that there wish there was a little bit more precision in these cuts. And it now it seems like the administration is hearing that. All right. Elizabeth and Selena, thanks to both of you. Also on Capitol Hill here, the Republican led House voting 224 to 198 to censure Texas Democrat Al Green just days after his disruption of President Trump's address to Congress.
The House has resolved that Representative Al Green be censured.
The Texas Democrat was immediately called to the well for a public reading of the resolution by speaker Mike Johnson, green and other Democrats surrounding him, and then they began singing the civil rights anthem We Shall Overcome, which prompted the Republican side to then yell order! ABC News Jay O'Brien is live for us in our D.C. bureau. And look, I mean, Jay, we know that green is what the sixth member of the House to be censured since 1980s. Rashida Tlaib, we know among the others who were.
That's right. And so there was this kind of spat on the House floor where Republicans tried to call for order. Mike Johnson eventually had to send the chamber into recess, and they never finished that procedurally required act of reading the censure to Al Greene, as Al Greene was to stand there in the well of the House. We know from our team that was inside the chamber that there were arguments happening between Democrats and Republicans to Khanna, but Democrats who stood by Al Greene, they're saying that in their view, this censure resolution was too much. They compared this to when Marjorie Taylor Greene interrupted President Biden's State of the Union. She was never censured by the House. Here's what one Congresswoman, Jasmine Crockett, who was there on the floor standing alongside Al Greene, who also stormed out midway through President Trump's joint address the other night, told me about all of this.
We know that we've seen Marjorie yell at Joe Biden. There was no outrage. None. So there shouldn't be any outrage today.
Other Democrats I talked to agreeing with Crockett, but it is worth noting here that ten Democrats did vote with all Republicans to censure Al Green for his outburst the other night. Remember, Al Green was shouting at President Trump about potential cuts to Medicaid. I caught up with green moments after he was kicked out of the chamber because he wouldn't stop shouting, and he said he would welcome any punishment. Khanna.
Right. Pushing back on the idea here that the president had some kind of mandate. Jay O'Brien, our thanks to you also. We turn now to the extreme weather on the East Coast. A storm that brought tornadoes and damaging winds is moving out. But there's a new cross country storm that is expected to impact states from the West Coast all the way to the Midwest. And ABC's Reena Roy has the latest for us.
Deadly storms causing chaos across the country.
From blizzards in the Midwest to torrential rains along the East Coast. Neighbors checking on this family in hillside, new Jersey, just moments after a tree came crashing into their home. You can see power lines on fire near the house.
I just grabbed my son and I hovered over him because I didn't know what it was at first. And then.
We.
Heard the loud boom that shook the entire house. So I just picked him up. No shoes or anything, and we just ran out the front door.
Part of busy route.
Three right outside of New York City, inundated with water, bringing traffic to a crawl. During Wednesday's evening commute in Newark. Crews draining another road in Philadelphia, a tree also slamming into this car. Cars bumper to bumper in widespread flooding. Severe storms also hitting people in the south. At least three people killed and six injured in Mississippi. In North Carolina, a tornado with 90 mile per hour winds ripped apart buildings.
This is.
Some of the worst.
Damage that we've seen here in Union County. We're in Indian Trail.
Just.
Across from my home.
The building.
In the backyard completely.
Collapsed because.
Of.
Those winds.
It's surprising.
It's kind of shocking. We don't really know to what extent it is as.
Far.
As damage goes, but, uh, we're thankful that nobody was hurt.
The storm has now moved out.
Here.
In the East, but.
There are still some rough.
Conditions out there with wind alerts from Georgia.
To Maine.
Where winds.
Could gust higher than 50mph. Kenna.
Wow. Reena. Roy. All right. Thank you very much. Coming up next here on ABC News Live. The man charged in the murder of Tupac Shakur is speaking out from behind bars. Why? He says authorities have the wrong guy.
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I told you.
To let me handle it.
Raj made me do it.
I did.
You mad enough to take your father's place?
What would we have to do?
Run the business. Call the shots.
That's terrifying.
Toxic freaking.
Workplace.
When you hear the sirens, you're like a serial.
Killer now, man.
You think so?
Really proud of you boys.
I prayed that I would never change.
Do you know how difficult my dad is?
You know, I hear everything from in here.
I'm broke, and I need a place to stay until I find a job.
She's coming.
Can we try to talk to each other like rational adults?
Have you watched the news lately? That's not a thing anymore. You can go back to law school. That's always been your dream.
Actually, that was your dream for me.
You like to argue?
You do love to argue.
You might as well get paid for it.
And welcome back to ABC News Live. It's a case that gripped headlines for years. And now the man charged in Tupac Shakur's murder is speaking out from behind bars for the first time. Dwayne D Davis insists that he was hundreds of miles away when the rapper was shot, and now he's pointing the finger at someone else. Chief investigative correspondent Aaron Katersky has this ABC news exclusive.
We ain't meant to.
Survive.
Cause it's a setup.
The death of rap.
Legend Tupac Shakur nearly 30 years ago became one of the nation's most notorious unsolved murders.
Hey, Keith. Metro police, come over here.
Then in 2023, a breakthrough when prosecutors charged this man with ordering the hit. The only person arrested for Shakur's murder, who now tells ABC news authorities have the wrong man.
I'm innocent. I ain't killed nobody. Never did ever kill nobody. They don't have no evidence against me. Can't even put me in Las Vegas.
61 year old Dwayne D Davis says the night of the murder, September 7th, 1996, he was in Los Angeles, 300 miles from the Las Vegas intersection where Tupac Shakur was gunned down.
Prove that I orchestrated this using your key witnesses orchestrated this? They top Witness is the lead suspect.
The defense pointing to someone else, Reggie Wright Jr. A former cop and security guard for record mogul Suge Knight who was driving the car. Tupac was in the night he was shot. Wright has denied any involvement and has said, it bothers me because I was in charge of possibly protecting this young man. And prosecutors say Davis incriminated himself in his 2019 memoir, Compton Street Legend. And in this on camera interview, you.
Said the shots came from.
The back. Who shot Tupac?
Let me keep it for the cold of the streets. It just came from the back seat.
For Davis now says his previous admissions connected with the shooting were made under duress and for money, claiming he did not write his own memoir and was fed information by police.
I shouldn't have said nothing. I'm saying I shouldn't have said nothing. And and I'm innocent, man.
Prosecutors declined to respond directly to Davis's new claims. They say their case is strong and they expect a conviction.
Out on bail, fresh out of jail California Dreamin.
Tupac Shakur is one of the best selling rap artists of all time. 75 million albums to date. Most of those sales posthumously, thanks in part to hits like California Love.
California West Coast. Yes, that's right.
Davis arrest followed years of fan driven theories that an intense rivalry between East Coast and West Coast rappers sparked the fatal attack on Shakur.
And I'm being held against my will. I'm supposed to be out there enjoying my twilight. God got my back. And God will see me through this.
And our thanks to Aaron Katersky for that reporting. And coming up next here on ABC News Live. The new moon landing attempt from a U.S. spacecraft, its critical mission that could help humans travel deeper into our solar system.
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Attention, teachers.
No child is to be sent to the.
Principal's.
Office today. Kids, if you want to do crime, now's the time. Happy first day of school. Gavin, you better bring your gun. Yes. What are, like, four more of these? Yeah. We were robbed. Hey! Buy three, get one free.
I'm gonna call your mother on you. Bring the rest back here, boy.
This.
ABC's David Muir, the most watched newscast in America. More Americans watch world news tonight with David Muir. Than any other newscast.
Hey, I'm Alex Presha, traveling with the president in Rio de Janeiro for the G20 summit. Wherever the story is, we'll take you there. You're streaming ABC news live.
And welcome back to ABC News Live reports. A new historic U.S. moon landing attempt today. A robotic lander named Athena from the Houston based Intuitive Machines descending toward the lunar surface on a search for frozen water. Mission controllers say it didn't crash, but they say they don't believe the lander is in the correct position on the surface of the moon. They're also saying they're working to determine a solution here. And if it's successful, this would mark the second lunar touchdown in a week for a private U.S. company and from a moon landing to the Red planet. President Trump says that he's taking on the unprecedented challenge of sending humans to Mars. If successful, it would mark the longest trip taken by astronauts in space ever. Our Gio Benitez has more on what it would actually take to plant an American flag on Mars.
It's been a lofty goal presidents have had their sights on for generations.
We will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars. Launching American astronauts to plant the stars and stripes on the planet Mars.
Can NASA pull it off?
I think.
NASA's track record.
Of.
Making.
The.
Seemingly.
Impossible happen.
Is proof.
Of that.
And with SpaceX's Elon Musk having the president's ear? The impossible.
May.
Finally be within reach.
Can you imagine how awesome.
It will.
Be to have American.
Astronauts.
Plant the flag on another planet?
NASA confirming for now at least, layoffs are not on the horizon, and it will take a Herculean effort to make a mission to Mars a reality.
To get.
Humans to Mars. A dream that's been out.
There.
For 50.
60 or more years. You've got to use all the tricks in the book to get safely to the surface.
That next window is just a year and a half away.
Even with the most powerful rockets we have, there is a.
Window.
Of 20 days every 26 months. And that's it.
Doctor Scott Hubbard is someone who knows what it takes to get to the Red planet. He used to run NASA's Mars program.
I invented something called program systems engineering, which is.
How do.
You couple.
Missions so each.
Builds.
On the other.
Now NASA is trying to build from the Artemis mission to the moon to humans setting foot on Mars. It will be an incredibly challenging mission filled with problems never encountered before, and a crew of astronauts daring enough to make the journey.
Ignition and liftoff of.
Starliner and.
Atlas.
Five.
Astronaut Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore thought they were signing up for an eight day trip to the ISS. Nine months later, they're still there.
We came up here fully trained, so not returning on our spacecraft, we transitioned into being a crew member on the international crew members on the International Space Station.
Do any of you want to go to Mars?
If we had all.
Those answers today, I would absolutely go to Mars. We could do.
It.
There would be a lot.
Of.
Extra risk.
That.
We haven't.
Had time to.
Reduce yet.
Doctor Rihanna Bakari is thinking about how to get humans to Mars.
You'd have to accept that.
Increased.
Potential risk of.
Cancer.
The bone and muscle risk. There's not really a current solution right now. The mental.
Health.
Risk, the potential for an emergency.
Will NASA solve all of these problems in just 18 months?
I seriously doubt that you can get humans to Mars and be ready when the.
Window.
Opens in a year and a half.
Not all.
Opportunities.
Are equal, and in 2033, you see an.
Opportunity.
That comes once every 15 years. You can get the most mass to Mars of any of these other 20 day windows. That is nine years from now, roughly what.
We.
Did. Apollo in. That's not out of the question from a technological point of view.
Ambition is the lifeblood of a great nation, and right now our nation is more ambitious than any other.
From Apollo to Artemis to the Red planet. Americans once again reaching for the stars and trying to redefine what's possible.
Americans are explorers, builders, innovators and pioneers. If we work together, there is nothing we cannot do and no dream we cannot achieve.
Wow. And our thanks to Gio Benitez for that. And as you know the news never stops here. You can find us anywhere. You stream live news. And if you're on the go we are on the ABC news app and abcnews.com as well I'm Kayna Whitworth. Thank you for streaming with us. There's more news straight ahead. Stay with us.
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All right, I'm Kayna Whitworth here in Los Angeles. And right now on ABC News Live, we have the latest for you on President Trump's trade war as he announces a pause on tariffs for some Canadian and Mexican goods, one day after issuing a similar delay for automakers. What the white House is saying about the move and talks with Mexico's president. Plus, ABC news learning that Ukrainian and U.S. officials are expected to meet next week for possible peace talks that would end the war with Russia. What this means as Moscow launches fresh strikes on Ukraine and restoring the Alamo, an exclusive look at the discovery that is now helping renovate this historic landmark in Texas. ABC News Live reports. Starts right now. All right, everybody, glad to have you here with us. As we begin with our top story this hour, President Trump's trade war, putting Wall Street through the wringer again. Stocks taking another hit today despite President Trump moving to delay some tariffs from Mexico and Canada. Now, earlier, he said the move has nothing to do with the stock market.
But this is very much about companies and countries that have ripped off this country, our country, our beloved USA, and they're not going to be ripping us off anymore. So, you know, I think that has an impact on the market.
Well, the president today signing an executive order temporarily rolling back tariffs on goods that fall under the United States-mexico-canada trade agreement, which he signed with our North American neighbors in 2018 during his first term. So tracking the latest for us is ABC News Elizabeth Schulze, along with ABC News senior White House correspondent Selina Wang there on the North Lawn. So, Elizabeth, first starting here with you, looking again at the markets, taking a bit of a dive again today despite the new tariffs. Tariff delays here. So what does this signal to you that investors are thinking.
Investors don't like all of this uncertainty. It's simply that simple is that they are looking at all these different headlines on tariffs and wondering, what does this mean for major corporations and for small businesses? And how does this all trickle into the cost to consumers who power the American economy will end up paying. And notable you see the Dow it had a pretty, you know, 1% drop this. The Dow has been down three days of the week so far because of these tariff headlines. And then also a really significant drop in the Nasdaq, which is where some of those tech heavy stocks are. Those are the stocks that have been fueling a lot of the market gains. So companies like Nvidia, which is a chip maker, very susceptible to problems in the global supply chain, which is exactly what tariffs present as a threat. I do want I was I was kind of looking through for any possible silver lining in the stock market here. And I do want to find one for you, which is that we are seeing more bond yields trade lower, which means mortgage rates have actually been lower.
We're now at the lowest rate for mortgage rates in since December. That's good news I guess for home buyers. But the reality of why that is, is because there is just more questions now about the outlook for the economy. Is there a gloomier path forward not just because of terrorists, but also just the resilience of the consumer, the resilience of spending, and so much of that, depending on how much these policies end up actually playing out versus how much this threat and rhetoric and back and forth.
Well, I appreciate you diving in there to find some good news in a silver lining. Elizabeth. Thank you. Selina I know that we don't have some of the specifics on these goods. Right. But the president did mention Canadian lumber, right, as an example of things that he feels like we can produce in the United States. And while it appears that the president is having respectful conversations with Mexico, Canada not backing down from their reciprocal tariffs.
Yeah, essentially, Justin Trudeau of Canada is saying that we're not going to back down with our reciprocal tariffs until we know that these tariffs are gone for good. Because right now President Trump is just giving them a one month reprieve. But there's still a lot of uncertainty about what comes after that, because President Trump said on an April 2nd, more tariffs are coming. And it's not just going to impact our biggest trading partners, but it would impact a whole lot of countries because that is about putting tariffs on other countries at the same rate that they tariff American products. So for Canada and Mexico, it is a welcome reprieve. But this isn't permanent right now. And now in terms of why the president is reversing course at this moment, he insists that it's not because of the stock market. He says this is about making sure that other countries pay their fair share. And the administration's officials are saying that this is because they've made good progress with Canada and Mexico to curb the flow of fentanyl into the United States.
And another reason for this pause is because Trump spoke to the Big Three automakers who made their case about why they don't want these tariffs, why it would hurt their bottom line, and why it would hurt consumers. President Trump saying that those big automakers have agreed to move more of their supply chains to the U.S., but that is something that takes a whole lot longer than one month. That's a process that takes years and costs a lot of investment.
And Elizabeth, I know you're also watching the jobs report expected to come out tomorrow. What do you think the impact of all these federal workforce firings will have on this jobs report, or is it too early?
A little bit too early still. We're looking so closely at the data that comes out every week from the Labor Department on how many people are filing for unemployment benefits. But then the big reports come out once a month talking about the state of the jobs market, and that shows you the unemployment rate because of when this data was collected. Now, we probably won't get the full impact of the layoffs at federal agencies. But what we might start to see is, is there this broader slowdown happening that's been gradually taking place in the labor market over the past couple of months? Companies are still hiring. Unemployment is at 4%. That is a very solid rate. Still, when you think about the overall state of the American economy, but we've seen companies get a little bit more cautious about their plans, this uncertainty in the economy that's injected by some of the policies of this administration has potentially made them pause. When I talk to businesses, they say maybe now is not the time to be adding workers, even if they're not laying them off as aggressively.
So we're going to be looking at closely is what is that rate of hiring look like in this report. And then you probably will start to see the impact on the federal workforce in next month's report after that. Khanna.
All right, Elizabeth. And also Selena, we know the president posting today and he's saying that he wants his cabinet secretaries to start taking the lead on the funding cuts, not Elon Musk. What more do we know about this? Of course this is happening after their meeting earlier.
Yeah, this is pretty significant. So we're told from sources that the president told his cabinet heads that they're the ones calling the shots, not Elon Musk, making it clear that Elon Musk can provide recommendations. But he can't unilaterally make decisions on issues, whether that be on staffing or policy issues. So the context here is this sort of power struggle that we've seen between Elon Musk and the cabinet heads. We're are hearing that privately, some of these agency heads have been expressing frustrations about Elon Musk and some of the mandates and directives that he's been giving. It's caused a whole lot of chaos and confusion among the federal workforce. When you have Elon Musk, the unelected billionaire who's not a full time government employee, posting various threats and directives on Twitter about the potential future job losses. The other significant piece today from the president about this is that he wants the firings to be done with a scalpel, not a hatchet, saying that he wants to ensure that the federal workforce retains the best and the brightest. Now, that is the exact opposite of what critics and some lawmakers from both sides of the aisle have been saying, that the effects of these cuts have been there's been a lot of criticism that they've been done in an indiscriminate and irresponsible way, as we've seen thousands of workers laid off across more than a dozen agencies.
Khanna yeah, certainly a turn towards a dignified approach there. Elizabeth and Selina, our thanks to both of you. Also, a federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from freezing payments for federal grants and other programs already approved by Congress. The judge saying that Trump's efforts to undermine the constitutional roles of each branch of our government. ABC News senior Washington reporter Devin Dwyer is joining me with more on this. So first of all, Devin, what more do we know about the judge's decision here in general?
Well, Keena.
This is.
A.
Case that goes back to one of the first actions President Trump took in his second term, and that was to issue a categorical freeze on all federal financial assistance across the board. And what this judge in Rhode Island said today is that sweeping freeze of all money allocated by Congress put the president put himself above Congress. Those were the judge's words, without any regard for the Congress's ability to control spending, as is the way our system is set up now. He did acknowledge that Trump has some discretion under the law in certain cases about what money should go out the door. But at the end of the day, when Congress vets a program, votes on a program, and sends the money to a program, the president of the United States has to spend that money and therefore this freeze. Categorical freeze is illegal. The judge said.
Well, what about the federal judge extending this nationwide block on President Trump's executive orders to just halt the federal funding of gender affirming health care for people under the age of under the age of 19? What's the latest there?
Yeah, that was a separate big case earlier this week. A different judge also said that the president likely violated federal law in issuing these orders, threatening to withhold federal money through HHS to hospitals, hospitals and medical centers that perform gender affirming care, things like hormone therapies, mental health care, even for transgender kids, um, anything like that, if they perform it. The president said that their funding could get cut in. This judge in this Baltimore court said on Tuesday that when he is issuing a preliminary national injunction blocking any threatening, conditioning, withholding or terminating money under the president's executive orders until this case is is fought out on the merits. And this is one of those cases that we expect to go all the way to the Supreme Court.
All right. Devin Dwyer, our thanks to you. Also, ABC news is now learning that top Ukrainian officials will travel to Saudi Arabia next week to meet with U.S. officials to discuss possible peace talks with Russia. Earlier today, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky meeting with European leaders in Brussels amid growing political pressure from the Trump administration to negotiate a peace deal that would end the war in Ukraine. In the meantime, just overnight, Kiev says that a Russian airstrike killed at least four people and injured 30 in central Ukraine. In the wake of the U.S. pausing military aid and intelligence support to the country. I want to bring in ABC news State Department reporter Shannon Kingston and ABC news national security and defense analyst Mick Mulroy. So, first of all, Shannon, what more can you tell us about this U.S. special envoy again expected to meet with Ukrainian officials in the Middle East.
Well, we're told that plans for this meeting came together only after Ukrainian officials launched a coordinated effort to smooth things over with the white House following that dustup in the Oval Office last week. So far, that campaign has pleased President Trump, but we're still very much watching the planning for this come together in real time. It's not exactly clear when this meeting will happen. We're tracking towards the beginning of next week. We know that the American delegation will be led by the same officials who met with Russia just a few weeks ago in the same country, Saudi Arabia. So that is the special envoy for the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and President Trump's national security advisor. But this really isn't on the same kind of friendly terms we normally see between the US and Ukraine. Of course, Ukrainian officials are often hosted here in Washington, D.C., but just the idea that they're having this meeting in a neutral country, Saudi Arabia, shows you how tense things really still are.
Certainly. And also, Mick, we know that this comes just a day after the president paused nearly all intelligence sharing with Ukraine. That word pause, Mick, is something that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth really honed in on today because he was asked about this. He again reiterated, as the president has pointed out, it's a pause. He said, pending a true commitment to a path to peace. What do you make of those words there from the defense secretary?
So that indicates to me that they think this is some kind of pressure point, and it is on Ukraine to essentially see these cease fire in the same vein that President Trump does in the United States does. I think President Zelensky has made it clear that he is ready for peace negotiations, certainly ones that are favorable to his country, as you would expect. And he obviously really needs both a US military security assistance to continue and US intelligence, which is very difficult to duplicate even by the countries in Europe. But I do think that this is clearly made, and I think, as you point out, Kenna, the the phrase pause, or at least the word pause indicates that it could be and hopefully will be turned back on soon.
And Shannon, what do we know about this minerals deal?
Much top of mind for the president and the white House. We saw really a stunning admission today from his special envoy for Ukraine and Russia when he said that decision to pause intelligence sharing was really directly because of what he said. Was President Zelenskyy's delay on signing this agreement? In the days since then, Zelenskyy, Ukraine, they've signaled they're willing to go ahead. They're ready to go ahead. But now we're getting signs that the president is not willing to go ahead. Now he wants to negotiate better terms. Likely to argue that this is a political win, that he was able to get more out of Ukraine, but that's added more uncertainty into this negotiation process.
Uncertainty seems to be the word of the day here. So what do we know about European leaders stepping up both in budget and really boots on the ground in general? Also noting here that the president was asked about the situation in the Oval Office today, and he said that both Ukraine and Russia want to make a deal, need to make a deal. And in terms of Russia, Mick, he said, only I know why.
I certainly don't know what he means there. But I think if you go back to the original plan that special envoy Kellogg put out, part of it did rely on the Europeans. It relied on them to be the peacekeeping force, if you will, that comes in on the ground. And it's been clear by both the U.K. and France and now other countries to include turkeys, turkey are willing to provide these peacekeeping forces. Russia has summarily rejected it and hasn't agreed to any of the terms that the Kellogg plan put out. But now it's really time to start focusing on whether they'll even come to the table, because with this security assistance paused and the intelligence pause, that makes it less likely that Russia will come to the table. So that needs to be turned back on. And potentially both the United States and Europe are looking at increasing the aid to Ukraine. And that is really something that will get the attention of Russia. Not not conciliatory statements or compliments. Really, strength is the only thing that they understand.
And that means an increase in support to Ukraine.
All right. Shannon and Nick, our thanks to both of you. All right. Coming up next here on ABC News Live, the new discovery turning to the restoration of a historic landmark, how it will help future generations remember the Alamo.
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And welcome back to ABC news live reports a new, fascinating discovery helping ensure future generations of Americans can remember the Alamo. The historic landmark in Texas undergoing a $550 million renovation. Today marks 189 years since the end of the battle there, where 189 Texan revolutionaries died fighting the Mexican army. ABC News Matt Rivers is live for us in San Antonio with this new discovery. So first of all, Matt, as you're there, tell me exactly how these crews found this. What did they find?
Yeah, it's a fascinating story, Ken. It's a 300 year old mystery. Where did the limestone come from that built the Alamo back there? What the Alamo is made out of. Where was that quarry? Nearby. Historians have long wondered about that. Well, they finally made that discovery, and in doing so, helped make sure that this landmark will be around for generations to come. An American icon that needs some work.
It's an.
Exciting time here at the Alamo, because we're in the midst of a $550 million.
Redevelopment plan.
A new museum, visitor center and.
A.
Rework of the entire grounds is transforming this symbol of.
Texan.
Pride and making sure it sticks around for a while.
Everything that you see here more than likely came from here.
Head conservator Pamela Rosser, bringing us inside, showing us how parts of the 300 year old walls are degrading.
So this is old.
Very old. I mean, what what happens to you when you get old, right?
The stone needs replacing, but you can't just patch it up with new material. You need the same limestone that was used back in the 1700s. So where do you find that? Well, where else but the San Antonio Zoo, of course, which is in the middle of building a massive new gorilla exhibit. Historians always guess that the original stone used to build the Alamo came from this area. They just weren't sure exactly where. Enter this construction site. One day, the Alamo's head conservator, driving down the road here sees this construction site and thinks, huh? We should probably test rock like this from this site to see if it matches the Alamo.
And a few.
Days ago the tests came back positive. This zoo filled with bears and leopards and now limestone. now set aside to be used at the Alamo.
It shows.
That.
History.
Is.
Not static.
We're constantly making.
New discoveries about what happened in.
The.
Past, and this discovery will help us to.
Do.
A really.
Authentic job of.
Our.
Preservation.
Efforts.
Here.
At the.
Church.
And.
Cana. The work to start replacing some of the stones from the Alamo Church there behind me will be started imminently. And the broader renovation here of the Alamo grounds, which was needed after after decades of a lack of investment that'll be finishing up within the next two years.
Well, Matt, I know the Alamo is such a special place. In fact, I took my son when he was just a few months old to see the Alamo. It holds a special place in my heart as well. I'm sure it does for you. What surprised you the most when you were seeing it firsthand?
Yeah.
You know, I think what really struck me is it's not just the esthetics that that you need that limestone for. I mean, obviously, you want to make sure that you're staying true to the history of this place. And so getting that original limestone means that this will stay true to form. And that's very important for conservationists. But at the same time, that kind of stone, because it matches the composition of other stone that's already in the Alamo, it will ensure that the walls remain stable for generations to come. That's very, very important. And the other thing is just it's so cool, right? The idea that it's so random that the conservator happens to live not far away from where that construction site is, and she just thinks one day maybe that's it. And then it turns out to be it. I mean, it just shows you, you know, you never know when you're going to make a discovery like that. And it's something that she was absolutely thrilled about, as is a lot of people here in San Antonio.
Oh, Matt Rivers, our thanks to you as always. And coming up next here on ABC News Live, you might want to think twice before tearing through your next bag of Cheetos, because an oddly shaped snack just sold for $87,000. We'll be right back.
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All right. Welcome back to ABC News Live. Reports a Charizard shaped Cheeto named Cheeto Zade has been sold at auction for more than $87,000. It went viral on social media last year. The auction house says the item was initially discovered and then preserved some time between 2018 and 2022. But by the way, it's not the first time a strangely shaped Cheeto has sold for big bucks. There's another Cheeto that was shaped like a gorilla that sold for more than $100,000 back in 2017. As my producer said, be more careful now before tearing through your bags of Cheetos. All right. There's a lot more news ahead here on ABC News Live. In today's big story, President Donald Trump delaying tariffs on some products from Mexico and Canada, temporarily backtracking major portions of his policy issued just two days ago. What the president is saying about the one month exemption, and what it means for the future of trade with key U.S. partners. Also in our spotlight, a shouting match erupts in the House after a vote to censure Congressman Al Green for interrupting President Trump's speech to a joint session of Congress.
How lawmakers on the Hill are reacting to the move.
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I'm Kayna Whitworth here in Los Angeles. And today's big story president Trump signing an executive order today temporarily pausing tariffs on some Canadian and Mexican goods. Why? The president says he's issuing the one month exemption just two days after imposing the historic duties on key American trade partners, and more on what we're learning about his conversation with the president of Mexico. Also in our spotlight, the House votes to censure Congressman Al Green for disrupting the president's speech to Congress Tuesday night. More on how the reaction that unfolded on the House floor and the ten Democrats who voted to censure their colleague. All right. We begin here with our big story, President Trump's trade war, putting Wall Street through the wringer. Stocks taking a hit today despite President Trump moving to delay some tariffs against Canada and Mexico. Now earlier he said that the move has nothing to do with the stock market.
But this is very much about companies and countries that have ripped off this country, our country, our beloved USA. And they're not going to be ripping us off anymore. So, you know, I think that has an impact on the market.
Well, the president today signing an executive order temporarily rolling back tariffs on goods that fall under the United States-mexico-canada trade agreement, which he signed with our North American neighbors in 2018 during his first term. ABC News Chief Washington correspondent Jonathan Karl is joining me now. So, I mean, Jonathan, everyone is trying to analyze this, right? And you have to imagine the Trump administration might think that the response from Mexico can be seen as a big win here. Yet at the meantime, he's taking calls from the big Three automakers trying to make them happy. And you have to imagine he is watching that market volatility.
Look, he's.
All over the place.
On.
This. You had the.
Tariffs were imposed.
And then he had the initial.
Carve.
Out.
Was after he spoke to the three big U.S. automakers.
And they asked for some extra time. So he said he'll give an extra month on car parts from Mexico and from Canada. And then, you know, now he's basically exempting a whole range of products that are compliant with the the US-Mexico free trade agreement. Um, but but again, this is just a pause until April 2nd. Look, there's no question Donald Trump looks at the market. The market has been in a tailspin almost entirely because of the concerns about the economic impact of these tariffs. That, said, Khanna, uh, Trump does not look like he wants to back down permanently. He has emphasized, and he did this directly to the automakers, that this is until April 2nd, when April 2nd comes. He says the tariffs are back in place.
Right. and this is not enough time for them to move their production lines to America. Even should they want to. Which we know, Stellantis and other big three are open to that. I also think it's interesting, though, because we we keep hearing about these tariffs being really broad, right? And not narrow enough. And it seemed like there was a disconnect between the white House and the vice president yesterday because we heard Caroline Leavitt say, you know what, he is listening. He would consider making some exemptions. And then the vice president said, no, no, no, he's not into that. And ultimately we just want American goods made in America.
Yeah. JD Vance made it sound like it would be very, very, very few carveouts, if any at all. And frankly, although we've seen a different message from the white House press secretary, sometimes from the Commerce secretary, uh, talking about this, I haven't really heard that from Trump himself. Trump sees tariffs as not simply a tool to try to force Mexico to do a better job of keeping fentanyl from coming into the country, or as a tool to protect American manufacturers. He sees tariffs as something that can kind of fix about everything. So it can help you with the drug war. It can help you with American jobs and manufacturing. Also, he clearly sees it as a way to bring a lot of revenue in to the U.S. Treasury. He often talks about president McKinley giving a little bit of a of a history lesson, lesson about, you know, president McKinley and how back when he was president at the turn of the of the 20th century, there was no income tax. America's revenue all came from tariffs, he mused during the campaign trail about replacing the income tax with tariffs.
So, you know, Donald Trump is somebody who sees tariffs. I mean, he once called it his favorite word in the English language as something that can fix all problems.
He certainly does look at it that way. Also, in terms of power struggle, if you will, we know that the president today has now made it very public that he wants his cabinet secretaries to take the lead on where to make these big cuts within the federal government, that Elon Musk should be really advising that he shouldn't be doing that. And this is, of course, after a big meeting today in which Elon Musk was present. What does that say to you that shift this?
First of all, it is a huge shift. And it did happen during the cabinet meeting at the white House today. A cabinet meeting where the cameras were not present. Trump made it very clear, and I'm told Elon Musk was not aware that this was going to happen. But he made it very clear in front of all of his cabinet secretaries that Elon Musk's job is to make recommendations about cuts, and that it is up to the cabinet and ultimately up to the president himself about what cuts to be implemented. And then, just as word got out about that and what was happening in that closed door cabinet meeting. The president posted a statement on Truth Social where he made it clear that cuts are important. We're going to be trimming the size of the federal government, but we're going to be using a scalpel, you know, not an ax. The suggestion is that certainly what Trump has heard from members of Congress is that Elon Musk has gone in there and he hasn't used a scalpel. He's just, you know, axing, uh, federal jobs and federal programs in a way that makes them very concerned.
I'm told, Khanna, that, you know, Elon Musk had meetings up on Capitol Hill yesterday, both on the one on the Senate side and one on the House side with Republicans. They did not go very well. And at least one prominent Republican senator spoke to Donald Trump last night and expressed deep concerns about what Elon Musk was doing. And then we have what happened today.
That is interesting. I mean, there certainly have been calls for more precision on both sides of the aisle. And you see that changing now. All right, Jonathan Karl, thank you, as always for being here with us today. All right. I want to bring my big story to our panel. Now. Joining us today is attorney and Republican strategist Mark cook, along with ABC news, political and former Democratic Senator for North Dakota Heidi Heitkamp, former senior adviser for Tim Scott for America Matt Gorman, and ABC news contributor and Democratic strategist Cristina Tzintzun Ramirez. Wonderful to see all of you. Cristina, let's start here with you. I'm curious as to your reaction now about everything that we're hearing out of Mexico from President Sheinbaum. And what do you think will change, if anything, between now and April 2nd when more tariffs are expected to come? Because it seems at this point there's good conversations happening and some movement on both sides. Well, I think it was proving to be a great negotiator.
Here is actually Claudia Sheinbaum, who is being one of the few people around the globe who's able to deal and maneuver with someone as chaotic and as Jonathan Karl said, all over the place as Donald Trump is. You're seeing huge switches within a 24 hour time period because Donald Trump does watch the stock market and his policies are not helping the economy. We're seeing inflation increase, stock market falling, the price of eggs is higher than it's ever been. And of course, tariffs were only going to increase the price and cost on ordinary Americans. It'll be interesting what happens over the next month. But I really give some kudos to Claudia Sheinbaum more than Donald Trump. Well, so Mehek, what's your response there? Because I know that there are some on the right that would definitely view the president's negotiating tactics, negotiating tactics as successful in this moment, especially in regards to Mexico. And the president of Mexico did say they had a really respectful conversation.
Well, and I think we have to step back here today because the country and.
Democrats.
In.
Particular, are so used to.
Inaction in this white House that we have to remind the American people part of diplomacy.
There's no handbook in this.
It's making sure.
That there's.
A push and.
There's a.
Pull.
And that's exactly what President Trump is doing. And it's for all Americans.
It's not.
Just.
Republicans, it's.
Democrats as.
Well.
We are picking and choosing our allies carefully. Canada and Mexico are allies until they brought death and destruction onto our border. The fentanyl crisis is the most important crisis that we are facing today. So yes, President Trump is going to use tariffs to ensure that we have an opportunity to end American death. This is what you get when you have incentives and deterrence and consequences.
You get results.
Today.
We know that there's also a lot of back and forth with Canada, but it's been a bit different. First of all, Canada saying these tariffs were aimed to hurt the Canadian economy. And also, Heidi, it sounds like at least at this point where we are right now, Canada is not going to let up on their reciprocal tariffs on the United States, despite the president rolling back his for a month.
Yeah, I mean.
The president's like the guy who cried wolf, the boy who cried.
Wolf. You know.
What?
We're going to do it in five minutes. We're going to do it in two hours. I mean.
Let's let's just cut.
Through all of.
The.
Nonsense. This is amateur hour at the white House in terms of running this economy. The president got spooked by what happened today on the stock market, even as he was announcing that he was going to delay these tariffs. And tomorrow there's.
Very.
Important job reports. And Powell is going to make a statement.
And so this.
Is amateur hour and running the economy. And the Canadians are fed up. They basically said either you cut the nonsense and tell us you're not going to do this. You get back to the negotiating table on a trade agreement, or we're just going to continue to believe and we're not going to be on the yo yo. And basically.
Well, so, Matt, what's your take there on what Heidi said, do you feel like it's the boy who cried wolf here, or do you feel like this is the negotiating tactics in the work here? And perhaps some of them are successful?
I mean, the.
Playbook we've.
Seen so.
Far is right. We want.
To use.
Tariffs as a.
Leverage point.
Get.
To.
The end of the deal.
And.
Try and find a way down. And then.
Trump. And you know.
Whether it's Trudeau or Sheinbaum.
Can sell it to to their.
Respective countries. I think we got to the point.
Where.
You know, coming.
In and saving the day, as we saw about a month ago, wasn't working this.
Time.
He needed them to take effect.
So, look, let's be clear.
Like, I think the white.
House is.
Trying to find a way down.
From.
This. I think you're.
Right.
They saw the stock market, they saw where things were going and they saw, I think more importantly also, members of Congress get a little shaky. They need to walk this back, I think where they go on April 2nd with Mexico and how they deal with Trudeau.
Who let's face.
It, he's not.
Going to most likely be.
There by the end of the weekend with elections coming up in Canada anyway. They'll probably take their chances next week with a new leader. I think they're going to kind of try and punt the next week.
All right. Mehek Heidi, Matt and Christina, our thanks to all of you. Coming up next here in our spotlight, members of Congress vote to censure Democrat Al Green. The ensuing screaming match between lawmakers and what it means for the Democratic Party. That's straight ahead.
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The House has resolved that Representative Al Green be censured.
All right. In today's spotlight, ten Democrats joining the Republican led House voting to censure Democrat Al Green just days after his disruption of President Trump's address to Congress. The Texas congressman was immediately called to the well for a public reading of the resolution by speaker Mike Johnson. Green and other Democrats began then singing the civil rights anthem We Shall Overcome, which prompted the Republican side to yell order! So I want to bring back my panel here. Mehek. Heidi, Matt and Christina. Christina, you're a fellow Texan there. When he essentially broke the rules of decorum here, do you feel like the punishment fits the crime, if you will? You know, for me, I know we want to go back to a time of decorum and rule abiding. I want to see that time. I think many people do. But we're also at a time when Donald Trump has said he's not going to abide by what the courts rule, if they rule against him, where he has pardoned 1600 insurrectionists who even some of who assaulted police officers, and he's been open to trading favors with and helping corrupt politicians like Eric Adams.
So I.
Applaud.
Al Green for.
Standing.
Up in.
This moment.
And saying, you.
Do not have a.
Mandate.
To.
Gut Medicaid, Medicare.
Social Security.
And standing up for.
America's poor.
Often.
Unheard.
And I hope.
We can.
Go back.
To a time.
Of decorum and rules in the House. But for now.
I.
Applaud.
Him for standing.
Up for.
Millions of Americans.
That wanted a.
Voice in.
That moment.
Well and mehek well, there certainly are some Democrats that do feel that way, as Kristina does, and do applaud him. A couple of notes here. We have heard the president say that in terms of what the courts are ruling right now, that he would abide by the court's rulings, but that he would plan to appeal. And he feels like that would delay some of the legislation that he wants to to get through. And also, you know, not all Democrats did stand with Al Green in the end.
Well, yes. And thank you for saying that. First of all, President Trump is going to abide by law and order.
He believes.
In the Supreme Court and the.
Power.
Vested in it. But let me go to something that's very important. When a politician acts like this, you have to ask yourself who's benefiting? And when I watched Al Green stand there, I felt bad for the American people. He was despicable. He was disgraceful, and he was on the world stage. So you're watching al Qaeda, Hamas, China, Russia, Ukraine, every person out there and every country out there looking at us and shaking their heads. This was a missed opportunity for Democrats to stand up and honor. Let's just say the 13 year old DJ with brain cancer, mother who Lost Lake and Riley and so many other remarkable moments. And my message to Democrats today is separate your dislike and start celebrating the success of America, because otherwise your party is dead. And this is just the prime example of it.
And you know, Heidi, we do keep hearing from Republicans about this overall mandate. That was something that he was pushing back there on, in specific, specifically Medicaid. Heidi, I'm curious as to your thoughts here and what you're hearing from some of your former colleagues about not only the government shutdown that is looming, but the potential cuts to Medicaid in which Republicans argue they're looking for waste and fraud in Medicaid. They're not looking to gut it. What are your thoughts there?
My thoughts are.
You.
Should.
Look at what the Medicaid program is. There's already a very robust enforcement and waste, fraud and abuse that's done by the state AGS, most of which right now are Republicans. And so to suggest that there's $1 trillion of savings there is absolutely ridiculous. But I do want to say that we've got to judge each one of these circumstances on their own. I don't believe in what aboutism as it relates to Al Green. He shouldn't have done what he did. He broke decorum. He suffered the consequences. He said he's okay suffering the consequences of that because he felt strongly it's his First Amendment right to do it. But you know what? I would like it if people would suggest that maybe the decorum in the Oval Office in berating a war hero might, might also be something that we should be calling out. Unfortunately, we the American people don't get to censure or sanction that behavior. So, you know, we're at a spot where we have to, you know, we have to lower the temperature and start governing this country appropriately.
And on that note, Matt, I really am curious generally about how the American people are taking all of this in and how they're watching this play out and what they really think of their leadership in Washington.
I mean, I think.
Democrats are lost right now. And you saw that they had no idea.
How to respond. I mean, and there was an opportunity for them.
To at least find some.
Footing. And you have old man shaking his cane and getting thrown out of.
The.
House. You have people holding signs. And candidly, as you're seeing Axios and Punchbowl reported today that Democrats are mad at each other, centrist and progressive, because they don't know the way forward. I think, you know, Trump has broken the party in a lot of respects, and they don't know how to oppose him. Do they? Let some pictures slide and go after certain things, or do they fight everything? And I think you saw that encapsulated in the House Chamber on Tuesday night. I don't understand if you're going to remake the party and do better with men and Hispanics and Latinos. An old man shaking a cane, getting thrown out does nothing for you. Nothing.
Well, Mehek, Heidi, Matt and Christina, our thanks to you as always. And coming up next, here in our last call, Elon Musk not only wants to downsize the government, but now it seems that he wants to hit the snooze button on daylight saving time. My panel weighs in next.
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And furthermore, the mish mash of Time Zones and time changes is just another example of the government overextending.
Its.
Reach.
I mean, I'm a huge Veep fan, and in our last call, of course, that was Veep character Jonah Ryan appealing to Congress in the show, calling for an end to daylight saving time. Let's fast forward to today because it might seem like deja vu. Elon Musk, the billionaire Trump advisor who oversees the Department of Government Efficiency, seems to be calling for the exact same thing on X Musk asking people on the platform in a poll if the time change were canceled, if they'd prefer an hour earlier or an hour later. This comes after the president proposed the same idea in December, writing in a Truth Social post, quoting here, the Republican Party will use its best effort to eliminate daylight saving time. So I want to bring back my panel here Mehek. Heidi, Matt and Christina. Okay, Matt, where is this on your priority list? Here. And do you feel like this conversation is warranted?
You know.
If.
It's.
If it's not broke, don't fix it.
We changed.
About 20. Moved up the time Trump weighed in today. It doesn't seem like he's going to weigh in either.
Interesting. Christina. It feels like Elon Musk is trying to lead the charge on so many things. Why choose this? All I can say is I want to demonstrate that I too can be nonpartisan. And I actually agree with Elon Musk and Donald Trump when they posted that.
Let's get rid of.
Daylight.
Savings.
Time.
It's about.
Time.
But it should really be low on the priority list. They should be trying to fix the economy that they're tanking.
Right.
Now. But that's just me. Okay. Okay. You're like nonpartisan there for a second. So, Heidi, what's your take?
Well, listen, we're in the we're the most north and the most west of any place in the in the central time zone. And so at 330 in the morning, it will be sunrise in Williston. And so we kind of like daylight savings time in our neck of the woods.
Oh that's interesting. You know, Mehek, I actually at one point lived in Arizona. Right. You don't change in Arizona. It was kind of interesting. But my first year there, I remember having to find a clock on the wall to actually figure out what time it was, because I was worried that my device wasn't changing. Very confusing.
And we have to remember, this was passed by President Nixon back in the day as an experiment. And I'm hoping at some point it just ends. So we have one time. never have to change it. And the more sunlight, the better here in Ohio.
Okay. And, Heidi, I just want to give you the quick last word here. How many times do you feel like you have seen one of your favorite TV shows? Or my favorite TV show, Veep, come to life in the last year in a little bit?
Yeah.
You know, the whole thing of art imitating real life, it just happens. And, you know, any time that you're imitating Veep, maybe take a step backwards and work on something else.
Oh. All right. Okay, that's it for our last call. Mehek. Heidi, Matt and Christina, our thanks to all of you. And thank you for streaming with us. I'm Kayna Whitworth. Follow ABC News Live wherever you stream live news and coming up here at 7 p.m. eastern. Be sure to catch ABC News Live Prime with Linsey Davis for the day's biggest stories and the impact they have on you. The news never stops. You can find us anywhere. You stream live news. And if you're on the go, we're on the ABC news app and ABC news.com as well. More news is straight ahead.
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