MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Christian Walker and Jeremy Peña homered and Brendan Rodgers had three hits and three RBIs to lead the Houston Astros to a 5-2 win over the Minnesota Twins on Thursday.
Hunter Brown (2-0) gave up two runs in the first and shut down the Twins the rest of the way, allowing five hits and no walks with eight strikeouts in six innings. The 26-year-old righty retired 15 of the last 16 batters he faced.
Bryan King, Bryan Abreu and Josh Hader pitched scoreless innings in relief. Hader earned his third save.
Twins starter Joe Ryan (0-2) allowed five runs on five hits and struck out six over five innings.
Minnesota took a 2-0 lead in the first inning of its home opener. Matt Wallner led off with drive to the warning track that got stuck under the padding on the wall in right-center. He reached third base on the play, then scored on Carlos Correa’s groundout. Byron Buxton followed with an infield single. He stole second and scored on Trevor Larnach’s line-drive single to left-center.
The Astros got those runs back when Walker and Peña started the second with back-to-back homers.
Rodgers put the Astros on top for good with a two-run single in the fourth and drove in Victor Caratini with a double in the sixth to make it 5-2.
Key moment
With runners on first and second and one out in the fourth, a Ryan balk moved both runners into scoring position. The Twins brought their infield in, and Rodgers chopped a single just past a diving Correa at shortstop, scoring both on a ball that could have been an inning-ending double play.
Key stat
Jose Altuve struck out five times, the first five-strikeout game in his 15-year MLB career.
Up next
RHP Bailey Ober (0-1, 27.00) of the Twins will face Houston RHP Spencer Arrighetti (1-0, 1.50) on Saturday.
(NEW YORK) -- ????A four-day, once-in-a-generation weather event is pounding the middle of the U.S. with destructive tornadoes and life-threatening flooding.
Friday marks day three of the devastating storm. Here's what you need to know:
8 deaths reported in 4 states
At least eight people have died across four states.
In Franklin County, Kentucky, a boy died after he got caught in floodwaters on Friday while walking to the school bus stop, officials said.
A second death -- a local fire chief -- was confirmed in Missouri. Garry Moore, 68, who was the chief of the Whitewater Fire Protection District, died in the line of duty on Wednesday, while helping a stranded motorist, according to the Missouri Highway Patrol.
Another death was confirmed in Hendricks County, Indiana, just outside of Indianapolis. A 27-year-old man was driving on Wednesday when he hit downed power lines in the road, and then he got out of his car "and came into contact with the live power lines," the Hendricks County Sheriff’s Office said.
Another five weather-related fatalities were confirmed in Tennessee, according to state officials.
Gov. Bill Lee announced the fifth death in the state during a news conference Thursday evening, where he spoke of the "immense devastation" wrought by a powerful tornado that tore through the small city of Selmer, in the southwestern part of the state, between Memphis and Nashville.
Lee had declared a state of emergency in Tennessee, as did Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear.
"We are facing one of the most serious weather events we've had forecast," Beshear warned on social media. "Please stay alert, take all precautions, and be prepared."
Tornado threat
Since the outbreak began Wednesday, there have been at least 42 reported tornadoes from Arkansas to Ohio. This includes an EF-3 tornado in Selmer, Tennessee, with winds of 160 mph, and an EF-3 tornado in Lake City, Arkansas, with winds of 150 mph.
Matt Ziegler documented the moment the tornado hit Lake City.
"I've always heard that they sound like a train on a track, but to be honest with you, it was eerily quiet," he told ABC News. "If you weren't looking, you wouldn't know that there was a major tornado just a field over from us."
On Friday, there's another moderate risk for severe weather -- including damaging tornadoes -- from northeast Texas to Little Rock, Arkansas, to southern Missouri.
On Saturday, the severe threat is labeled "enhanced," with the potential for strong tornadoes from Louisiana to Tennessee.
"We are facing one of the most serious weather events we've had forecast," Beshear warned on social media. "Please stay alert, take all precautions, and be prepared."
Flash flooding threat
Since Wednesday, over 6 inches of rain has inundated Tennessee and over 4 inches of rain has fallen in Arkansas and Kentucky -- and the threat isn't over.
A massive flood watch on Friday stretches from Texarkana, Texas, to Little Rock to Memphis to Nashville to Louisville, Kentucky, to Indianapolis to Columbus, Ohio, to Fort Wayne, Indiana.
Arkansas is in the bull’s-eye on Friday, with much of the state bracing for up to 10 inches of rain.
Another high risk for flash flooding is in effect Saturday from Arkansas to Kentucky.
By the time the storm ends, rain totals could be well over 15 inches. Some cities may see record-high four-day rain totals.
Rivers, creeks and other waterways could also advance into major flood stage from Arkansas to Kentucky.
The system will finally move east Sunday afternoon, bringing rain to the Southeast on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.
DALLAS (AP) — Conference commissioners who manage the College Football Playoff had more discussions Thursday about potential changes to how the 12-team field will be set next season, again without taking a vote on the issue.
Among the changes being considered is straight seeding based on the final rankings of the CFP selection committee. Under the 12-team playoff format that began last season, the four highest-ranked conference champions were guaranteed the top four seeds that come with first-round byes. That meant the seeding would not always be the same as those final rankings, which was probably the most controversial and confusing aspect of the expanded playoff — and happened in the first year.
A unanimous vote by the 11-member CFP Management Committee, made up of all 10 FBS commissioners and Notre Dame athletic director Pete Bevacqua, would be necessary for any changes to the playoff system for the upcoming 2025 season that is the final year of the current CFP contract.
“There’s a lot of factors in this decision, so that’s why it’s taken a little bit longer to do this,” said Rich Clark, executive director of the CFP. “But it doesn’t come down to one single factor. They’re really trying to look at it wholistically and make a good decision on this because it’s going to set the tone for what happens down the road too.”
While any changes made for 2025 are not necessarily tied to what happens next, that could be part of the discussions. The Southeastern Conference and Big Ten will have more control of what happens in the next contract that runs from 2026-31.
Clark, without giving specifics, said the management committee asked for some additional information from the CFP staff. The committee had previously met Feb. 25, and is next scheduled to meet as part of an annual CFP meeting in three weeks.
“There’s not a hard deadline on that, but we want to get to that obviously so we can start setting expectations and thinking about the next season,” Clark said about the format. “But we also don’t want to rush to a decision because it’s an important one.”
Big Ten champion Oregon and SEC winner Georgia had the top two seeds last season, coinciding with them being 1-2 in the CFP’s final rankings. But ninth-ranked Mountain West champion Boise State got the No. 3 seed, and 12th-ranked Big 12 champion Arizona State got the fourth seed.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Tulane transfer quarterback TJ Finley has been suspended from the team indefinitely following his arrest for alleged possession of a stolen pickup truck.
Finley’s attorneys say the quarterback was defrauded by those who sold him the vehicle and is cooperating with authorities.
The 23-year-old Finley was released without having to post bond after being booked Wednesday with possession of stolen goods valued at $25,000 or more.
Tulane issued a statement saying Finley has been suspended pending the outcome of his case. A preliminary hearing is scheduled for June 1.
The university declined to comment further, citing federal student privacy laws.
Finley’s attorneys, in a statement Thursday, said the player was a “victim of a Facebook Marketplace scam.”
Attorneys David I. Courcelle and Scott C. Stansbury said Finley purchased a used pickup truck from a person representing himself as being from Mountain Adventures LLC and was provided a bill of sale and registration.
Finley had “every reason to believe the purchase was legitimate,” his lawyers said.
Within three days, however, police informed Finley that the truck had been reported stolen, they said.
The attorneys said that Finley continues to cooperate with authorities and wants to recover his lost funds and clear his name.
The Green Wave conducted spring practice without Finley on Thursday, when all QB duties were handled by two other transfers, Kadin Semonza from Ball State and Donovan Leary from Illinois.
After practice, coach Jon Sumrall briefly addressed Finley’s suspension with reporters, largely deferring to the university’s official statement but adding, “When guys make mistakes, then they have to have accountability.”
Finley is now with his fifth college football program. He transferred to Tulane after spending last season with Western Kentucky, where he played in just three games before an ankle injury sidelined him for the rest of the season.
That allowed him to take a redshirt and preserve his final season of eligibility.
The Ponchatoula, Louisiana, native began his college career at LSU in 2020. He transferred to Auburn in 2021 and spent two seasons there before moving in 2023 to Texas State, where he passed for a career-best 3,439 yards and 24 touchdowns.
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — JuJu Watkins, the sensational sophomore who led Southern California to its best season in nearly 40 years, was honored Thursday as The Associated Press women’s basketball Player of the Year.
Watkins, whose Trojans won the Big Ten regular-season title for their first conference crown in 31 years, received 29 votes from the 31-member national media panel that votes on the AP Top 25 each week. Notre Dame’s Hannah Hidalgo got the other two. Both were first-team AP All-Americans.
“I think what’s so significant about this award is that this was a year that didn’t have an absence of talent and stars, and JuJu found a way to elevate herself and her team,” USC coach Lindsay Gottlieb said.
Watkins became just the fourth player to win the award in her sophomore year, joining Oklahoma’s Courtney Paris (2007) and UConn stars Maya Moore (2009) and Breanna Stewart (2014). The AP started giving out the award in 1995 and Watkins is the first Trojans player to win it.
“She makes a lot of things that aren’t easy look easy,” Gottlieb said. “It’s one thing to say she’s a generational talent, but another to actually do it and put yourself up with names like Stewie, Maya and Courtney Paris.”
Watkins is already in the top 10 on USC’s career scoring list, ranking ninth. She was averaging 23.9 points, 6.8 rebounds and 3.4 assists before her season was cut short in the NCAA Tournament with an ACL injury suffered in the second round against Mississippi State.
Watkins accepted the award via Zoom from Los Angeles.
“I’m just so honored to be recognized in this fashion,” she said. “I want to thank my teammates, my amazing coaches, my family and friends. They made all this possible. I feel so blessed to be able to do what I love.”
AP Coach of the Year Cori Close praised Watkins for what she’s done on and off the court.
“I’ve been able to see what she does for underserved communities and her commitment to really stay true to serve where she came from,” Close said. “I know that everybody knows what an amazing basketball player JuJu Watkins is, but I think this is an incredible award because I know her heart of service and I want to congratulate her for what she’s done.”
Watkins raised her game against the best opponents. In the six games against teams in AP top 10, she averaged 26.2 points, 7.3 rebounds and 2.4 blocks while shooting 35.4% from behind the 3-point line.
“She performed her best at the biggest moments,” Gottlieb said. “I thought she really throughout the course of the year learned how to dominate and empower the others.”
Watkins, with her signature “JuJu bun” hairstyle, is already one of the top draws in the sport with endorsement deals to match, and seeing her in person has become a hotter ticket.
The Trojans’ average home attendance rose to 5,932 this season from last year’s 4,421. Celebrities like Snoop Dogg, Kevin Hart, Jason Sudeikis, Michael B. Jordan and Sanaa Lathan, who starred in “Love & Basketball,” one of Watkins’ favorite movies, have shown up. The year before she arrived, attendance averaged 1,037.
“It’s hard to miss Snoop Dogg in his custom JuJu jacket,” Gottlieb said. “This happened organically and authentically. She decided to stay home and cares about her city and has the magnetism to attract people. It’s the way she carries herself. She’s confident, but very humble and true to her community. It’s amazing to see her impact.”
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Three of four teams in the women’s Final Four are No. 1 seeds. None of the four have lost more than three games this season. All but one have been the top-ranked team in the country at some point.
That’s how strong the national semifinals are this year, with powerhouses UCLA, Texas, South Carolina and UConn competing in Tampa, Florida, for a national championship.
“Whoever gets through this semifinal and final will have done it against the best of the best,” said Texas coach Vic Schaefer, who has led his second school to the Final Four after getting Mississippi State there in 2017 and 2018. “So I think for all of us, we all understand it. It’s hard to do.”
UCLA, South Carolina and Texas are No. 1 seeds. UConn is a No. 2 seed but has certainly looked the part of a top-seeded team behind Paige Bueckers — perhaps the biggest star in the tournament who’s the primary reason the Huskies are the betting favorite to win it all.
Texas (35-3) and South Carolina (34-3) are scheduled to face each other for the fourth time this season in the first of two semifinals on Friday. UConn (35-3) will play UCLA (34-2) in the other.
The championship game is on Sunday.
Here are a few things to know as the Final Four begins.
Bueckers’ last shot at a national championship
Bueckers is widely expected to be the No. 1 overall pick in next month’s WNBA draft. First, she gets one more shot at the national championship that has eluded her during her career.
Bueckers earned AP All-America honors this season and was the Big East player of the year for the third time. She has UConn back in the Final Four for the second straight year after the Huskies were beaten by Caitlin Clark and Iowa in the semis last year.
She has averaged 35 points in her last three March Madness games, including career highs of 40 points and six 3-pointers in the Huskies’ 82-59 rout of Oklahoma in the Sweet 16.
“I think last year I got so caught up in the pressures and the stakes of it all,” Bueckers said, “and trying to be perfect and worrying about the wrong things … It’s the last year regardless of what happens. So I’m just enjoying this last weekend.”
Gamecocks trying to be first repeat champs since UConn
Dawn Staley has her team in its fifth straight Final Four, and defending champion South Carolina is trying to become the first repeat national champion since the Huskies won four straight from 2013 to 2016. That Huskies four-peat was coach Geno Auriemma’s last title, though he has the Huskies in the Final Four for a record 24th time.
The Gamecocks, who went undefeated last season en route to the program’s third title, beat Texas twice this season but have been on the ropes a bit during the tournament.
The Gamecocks went back and forth with Maryland in the Sweet 16 before finally doing enough in the final few minutes to put it away. They beat Duke by four points in the Elite Eight despite their offense being mostly stymied.
“I think we experienced a lot of things we didn’t experience last year,” said senior guard Te-Hina Paopao. “Every time we lost or did something, we learned from that opportunity and have grown from that opportunity.”
Star center Lauren Betts has UCLA in its first Final Four
UCLA won a national title in 1978 in the pre-NCAA era of women’s basketball but made its first Final Four in three tries.
Lauren Betts has been one of the most impactful players of the tournament, leading the Bruins to the semis with 21.2 points and 8.7 rebounds per game while shooting 75% from the field.
The 6-foot- 7 center had 17 points, seven rebounds and six blocks against LSU in the Elite Eight despite sitting the entire second quarter in foul trouble.
The junior’s teammates have praised her growth this season.
“I think it’s just me finally realizing the player I am,” Betts said. “I think a lot of it has to do with not just the basketball side but the mental work that I’ve done this past season. … Also I have to give a lot of credit to this program and the amount of confidence that they’ve given me.”
SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Auburn’s season began with some real turbulence on its first trip.
While it is unclear exactly what happened in the air on Nov. 8, other than there was some kind of in-flight disturbance between players, the plane carrying the Tigers returned home and left two players there. The rest of the team then went on to win at Houston the next day in their first road game.
“I do believe that that plane ride, figuratively and literally, turned our season around,” starting center Dylan Cardwell said.
“That actually made us closer,” guard Denver Jones said.
Nearly five months later, the team’s final flight this season landed in San Antonio this week with Auburn as the No. 1 overall seed in a NCAA Final Four filled with top seeds.
The Tigers (32-5) play in the first national semifinal game on Saturday against Southeastern Conference foe Florida (34-4), which beat them 90-81 on Feb. 8.
Houston (34-4) is in the other semi against Duke (35-3), which won at home against Auburn in early December.
So what happened in the air?
About 40 minutes after taking off for that trip to Houston, the plane turned around and landed back at home.
“We had two players that got into a physical altercation, clothes were ripped,” the pilot was heard saying to air traffic controllers in audio obtained by WBRC-TV.
When asked Thursday what happened on that plane, Cardwell responded with a chuckle, “Next question, next question.”
Freshman guard Jahki Howard and senior forward Ja’Heim Hudson, a transfer from SMU, weren’t with the Tigers when they took off again. That was only two days after both played at least 15 minutes in the season opener. Howard missed four more games after the win in Houston before playing again, and Hudson was out two more.
Coach Bruce Pearl talked about how proud he was of how his team came together after 11th-ranked Auburn beat No. 4 Houston 74-69. He has never specifically addressed publicly what happened on the flight.
The response
That win over the Cougars in the home of the NBA’s Houston Rockets was an early statement for an Auburn team that had matched its best AP preseason ranking in 25 years.
Freshman guard Tahaad Pettiford scored 21 points with five 3-pointers while Johni Broome had 20 points and nine rebounds in a win that had even more significance for the Tigers.
“We knew if we lost that game it was going to be something that followed us the rest of the season,” Cardwell said.
Instead, it was part of a 7-0 start before the loss at Duke. They then won 14 more games before their home loss to Florida.
“I think the plane ride really helped us out. I’m so serious. We had a heart-to-heart that night,” Cardwell said. “And I think after beating Houston, that gave us confidence. That’s when we knew we were a really good team.”
The Tigers spent eight consecutive weeks as the nation’s No. 1 team, even maintaining the top spot in the AP poll that came after losing to the Gators.
Auburn’s other three losses came in the four games before the NCAA Tournament, against Texas A&M and Alabama to finish the regular season before falling to Tennessee in their second game at the SEC tournament.
“It just shows how special this team is,” Pettiford said. “Obviously going through a lot of obstacles this year, going through some ups and downs, but just being able to stay together and fight through everything and be able to make it where we wanted to make it is amazing.”
A learning point for a freshman
A highly touted recruit, Howard scored seven points while playing 20 minutes in a lopsided season-opening win over Vermont. He is now averaging 4.2 points and 1.1 rebound in his 21 games, and hasn’t gotten into a game since they got to the Sweet 16 after playing two minutes in each of the first two rounds of this NCAA Tournament.
Howard, without getting into details, said the incident did have an impact on his first college season.
“Of course it did. Obviously overall, like me not playing as much, you know, that kind of played a role,” Howard said after Auburn’s first practice in San Antonio. “It’s just another learning point. Everybody has mistakes and everybody’s not perfect.”
With Auburn’s starting lineup filled with four seniors and a graduate transfer, Howard said he has matured and gained experience by being around those older players.
“Talking to them and just listening and hearing the things that they went through in the past, especially like throughout the tournament,” he said. “How to be a winner, I feel like that’s the biggest thing being at Auburn … learning how to be a winner.”
Nathan Fielder is back in the season 2 trailer for The Rehearsal. In the trailer for the new season, which premieres April 20 on HBO, Fielder once again helps ordinary people rehearse for some of their biggest life moments. Season 2 will consist of six episodes, all of which star and were written, directed and executive produced by Fielder ...
Alec Baldwin has found his next project. The actor will star in the upcoming psychological drama The Cutting Room Floor, which is the debut feature film from Victoria DeMartin. He will act alongside Karen Allen and Michael Boatman in the film, which follows an aspiring film editor whose world is turned upside down when the film she is working on begins to mirror her real life. The movie is set to begin filming this summer ...
The GOAT is in talks to be the lion. Meryl Streep is in talks to play Aslan the Great Lion in Greta Gerwig's upcoming Narnia adaptation for Netflix. Deadline reports the talks are not yet at the offer stage. In C.S. Lewis' books, Aslan is a talking lion who serves as Narnia's guardian. The character was created as an allegory for Jesus and is generally portrayed as male ...
On Thursday, a new nearly five-minute clip was released by DC on YouTube and features David Corenswet as Superman/Clark Kent and Superman's dog, Krypto.
The clip shows Superman waking up in a remote, snowy landscape, bloody and beaten.
Krypto then appears out of nowhere and after a few tries at asking his dog to take him home and a few sweet kisses, Krypto takes Superman to the Fortress of Solitude, where a robotic crew comes to his aid.
Superman thanks the robots and they reply, "No need to thank us, sir, as we will not appreciate it. We have no consciousness whatsoever. Merely automatons here to serve."
The sneak peek also featured a look at Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor and Rachel Brosnahan a Lois Lane.
The clip was unveiled at CinemaCon earlier this week.
During the film's presentation at the convention, director James Gunn said, "I cannot wait to share the film with all you guys and the rest of the world," according toThe Hollywood Reporter.
In the highly anticipated upcoming film, Gunn "takes on the original superhero in the newly imagined DC universe with a singular blend of epic action, humor and heart, delivering a Superman who's driven by compassion and an inherent belief in the goodness of humankind," according to a description.
Superman: Legacy is set to premiere on July 11, 2025.
(WASHINGTON) -- Researchers who had millions of dollars' worth of grants terminated by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) are suing the federal government in the hopes of stopping any further research cancellations.
The lawsuit was filed on Wednesday evening against the NIH and its director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, as well as the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
Among the plaintiffs are Dr. Brittany Charlton, an associate professor in the department of epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, who said all of her grants were terminated because they allegedly "no longer [effectuate] agency priorities," according to termination letters.
"Why am I standing up? I am a scientist, and therefore not a lawyer, but I appreciate that contract law is complex, and yet NIH's contract cancellations set off my alarm bell," she told ABC News in a statement.
Co-plaintiffs include the American Public Health Association; Ibis Reproductive Health; and United Auto Workers as well as three other researchers.
Both the NIH and the HHS told ABC News that they don't comment on ongoing litigation.
Over the past several weeks, active research grants related to studies involving LGBTQ+ issues, gender identity and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) have been canceled at the NIH because they allegedly do not serve the "priorities" of President Donald Trump's administration.
As of late March, more than 900 grants have been terminated, an NIH official with knowledge of the matter, who asked not to be named, told ABC News.
The terminations come after Trump passed a flurry of executive orders including vowing to "defend women from gender ideology extremism," which has led to new guidance, like that from HHS, which now only recognizes two sexes.
The administration has also issued several executive orders aiming to dismantle DEI initiatives.
In previous termination letters, viewed by ABC News, they state that, "Research programs based on gender identity are often unscientific, have little identifiable return on investment, and do nothing to enhance the health of many Americans. Many such studies ignore, rather than seriously examine, biological realities. It is the policy of NIH not to prioritize these research programs."
The lawsuit alleges that the grant terminations are a "reckless and illegal purge to stamp out NIH-funded research that addresses topics and populations that they disfavor."
Charlton said she was alarmed by Project 2025 -- a nearly 1,000-page document of policy proposals unveiled by the Heritage Foundation during the 2024 campaign intended to guide the next conservative administration -- which allegedly attacked fields like hers, centering on LGBTQ+ health research, as "junk gender science," she said.
On the campaign trail, Trump tried to distance himself from Project 2025, saying he didn't know anything about the proposals.
Five of Charlton's grants were terminated, including a five-year grant, of which Charlton said she and her colleagues were in their fourth year, focused on documenting obstetrical outcomes for lesbian, gay and bisexual women, she said.
Another grant was focused on how to improve the experience of lesbian, gay and bisexual individuals who are trying to form their families, she said.
A third was research looking to understand how laws identified by the team as discriminatory affect mental health among LGBTQ+ teens and potentially lead to depression and suicide, according to Charlton.
Charlton said the cancellations are not only affecting her ability to conduct research but the ability to keep open the LGBTQ Health Center of Excellence -- based at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health -- of which she is the founding director.
"My current NIH research contracts are worth $15.9 million, of which $5.9 million still needs to be spent to finish our research," Charlton said. "I have essentially no salary now, and I may need to shutter our newly launched LGBTQ Health Center of Excellence, which was a career goal of mine that I finally met when we launched less than a year ago."
She went on, "These grant terminations may end my academic career, and I've already been forced to make really tough decisions like terminating staff, including our newly appointed center's executive director."
According to the lawsuit, Dr. Katie Edwards, a professor at the University of Michigan School of Social Work, has had at least six grants terminated worth about $11.9 million, including one studying sexual violence among men who fall under sexual minorities. She can no longer pay several of the roughly 50 staff members who are funded through the research grants, the lawsuit states.
Dr. Peter Lurie, president and CEO of the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest, was a paid consultant and adviser on a grant evaluating the impacts of over-the-counter access to pre-exposure prophylaxis to reduce HIV transmission, according to the lawsuit. The grantee institution, Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare, received a termination letter from the NIH in late March, the lawsuit states.
Meanwhile Dr. Nicole Maphis -- a postdoctoral fellow at the University of New Mexico's School of Medicine -- who was studying the link between alcohol use disorder and Alzheimer's disease, applied for a MOSAIC grant, "intended to help diversify the profession," according to the lawsuit. Her proposal was pulled and her current funding ends September 2025.
"Without additional funding, which the MOSAIC award would have provided, she will lose her job," the lawsuit states.
Charlton said she is hopeful the lawsuit results in a preliminary injunction and therefore halts further NIH terminations.
"I believe these contracts are binding agreements and are constitutionally grounded," she said. "It's been less than 100 days since inauguration, and I'm concerned. Concerned about signs of growing authoritarianism, and yet there is absolutely hope executive orders can't rewrite laws, and I pray courts ensure justice, pursuing truth, including via science, unites us, and it's the only way to ensure a healthier future for all."
(NEW YORK) -- U.S. hiring surged in March, blowing past economists' expectations and defying concern on Wall Street about a possible economic recession, government data on Friday showed.
The fresh data offered news of an upsurge in employer activity as stocks suffered a second day of selloffs over sweeping new tariffs announced by President Donald Trump earlier this week.
The U.S. added 228,000 jobs in March, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That figure amounted to robust hiring and marked a major increase from 151,000 jobs added in the previous month.
The unemployment rate ticked up slightly to 4.2%, but it remains historically low.
The uptick in hiring last month came despite staff cuts imposed by the federal government amid cost-cutting efforts undertaken by the Department of Government Efficiency.
Federal government employment declined by 4,000 jobs in March, following a dropoff of 11,000 jobs the previous month.
The job gains came primarily in health care, transportation and warehousing.
Average hourly wages climbed 3.8% over the year ending in March, indicating that pay increases outpaced the inflation rate over that period.
Despite escalating trade tensions and market turbulence since Trump took office in January, the economy remains in solid shape by several key measures.
The unemployment rate stands at a historically low level. Meanwhile, inflation sits well below a peak attained in 2022, though price increases register nearly a percentage point higher than the Fed's goal of 2%.
"The economy is strong," Fed Chair Jerome Powell said at a press conference in Washington, D.C., last month.
Tariffs announced earlier this week, however, threaten to derail hiring and worsen inflation, multiple analysts previously told ABC News.
The far-reaching levies increase the likelihood of a recession by driving up prices, sapping consumer spending, slowing business activity and risking layoffs, they said.
The White House plans to slap a 10% tax on all imported products and place additional duties on items from some of the largest U.S. trading partners, including China and the European Union.
"??These policies, if sustained, would likely push the U.S. and global economy into recession this year," J.P. Morgan said in a note to clients after the tariff announcement.
"Recession risks will likely rise," Deutsche Bank added.
U.S. stocks plunged on Thursday in the first trading session after Trump unveiled the new tariffs.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 1,679 points, or nearly 4%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq declined almost 6%.
The S&P 500 tumbled 4.8%, marking its worst trading day since 2020.
(SEOUL) -- South Korea's Constitutional Court upheld the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol, whose short-lived declaration of martial law late last year plunged the country into political chaos, in a decision that removes the suspended leader from office.
The verdict was read in court shortly after 11 a.m. Friday local time (10 p.m. Thursday ET). Police across the country had been placed on the highest security alert level ahead of the verdict, with a security perimeter established around the court in Seoul, according to the Yonhap news agency.
With the court's decision, Yoon is formally removed from office and South Korea will hold a snap presidential election within 60 days, according to the news agency.
Yoon was removed from office by the opposition-controlled National Assembly after declaring martial law in a televised speech on Dec. 3, claiming the opposition party sympathized with North Korea and was paralyzing the government.
The move sparked fierce protests, and several hours after the declaration, the National Assembly voted to demand that the president lift the martial law order.
Separate from his removal from office, Yoon was indicted by South Korean prosecutors on insurrection charges over the brief imposition of martial law.
An arrest warrant against him led to a standoff between his security team and police earlier this year.
In a dramatic scene, thousands of police descended on his home and were met with crowds of the impeached president's backers, including some who lay down in front of police vehicles in an attempt to block authorities from reaching the residence.
Yoon was eventually arrested several days later and held in custody until March 8.
Alfredo Pacheco, a Venezuelan migrant who earlier this year was diagnosed with end-stage kidney failure, displays a photo of himself and his brother Jose Gregorio Gonzalez, March 26, 2025, in Cicero, Illinois. Gonzalez, also a migrant from Venezuela, was set to donate a kidney for his brother but was arrested and now detained by ICE. (Antonio Perez/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
(BROADVIEW, Ill.) -- A man who was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) earlier this month is expected to be released on Friday from a facility in Broadview, Illinois, after community advocates and officials appealed for his release so he can resume the kidney donation process in hopes of saving his brother's life.
ICE records show that Jose Gregorio Gonzalez, a native of Venezuela who was detained on March 3 in Illinois, is being held in the Clay County Jail in Brazil, Indiana. But Peter Meinecke, an attorney representing Gonzalez, told ABC News on Wednesday that his client is expected to be released from ICE detention by Friday.
"I was in communication with the officer assigned to his case today. It sounds like they are going to release him under humanitarian parole, so that is still being coordinated," Meinecke said. "The logistics of his release are not yet confirmed with ICE, but potentially as early as Friday, he could be released, and at which point he would be able to pursue the kidney donation. I don't have any specifics regarding the duration of release."
The duration and the conditions of Gonzalez's expected release are unclear. ABC News reached out to ICE, but requests for comment were not returned.
Meinecke, an attorney with The Resurrection Project -- a group advocating for Gonzalez's release -- told ABC News that Gonzalez's brother, Jose Alfredo Pacheco, who suffers from kidney failure, reached out to the group earlier this month seeking support after Gonzalez was detained.
Speaking in Spanish, Pacheco addressed a crowd of supporters during a press conference on Monday and called for his brother's release.
"My health is at serious risk—I have 100% kidney failure and depend on dialysis three times a week," he said, according to a translation provided by The Resurrection Project.
"It's extremely difficult—sometimes, I can barely get out of bed. I have three children, nine-year-old twins and a 17-year-old back home, and I want to live to see them grow up. My brother used to take me to my appointments, but now I'm alone. My brother is a good man, not a criminal in Venezuela or here—he came only with the hope of donating his kidney to me. I thought I was alone, but seeing the support of this community has moved me deeply."
Meinecke said that he had been in touch with Gonzalez's ICE officer over the past few weeks and submitted a request for release on temporary humanitarian parole on March 25.
"He needs to show that his release is either in the public interest or is necessary for like, urgent humanitarian factors. And in his case, we argue both," Meinecke said. "You know, obviously, the medical conditions kind of speak to both. They're both urgent humanitarian factors by now, but organ donation is in the public interest as well."
Meinecke explained that Pacheco was admitted into the U.S. from Venezuela in 2023 and was permitted to apply for asylum, so he has a work permit while his asylum application is pending. His wife and three children remain in Venezuela. But soon after he arrived in the U.S., he suffered from stomach pain and was diagnosed with "end-stage kidney failure," Meinecke said.
"He went to the hospital with severe abdominal pain, which is when he was diagnosed with end-stage kidney failure," Tovia Siegel, director of organizing and leadership at the Resurrection Project, told ABC News on Wednesday. "At the time, he was told he had 2 percent functioning of his kidneys and would need dialysis consistently, multiple times a week to survive, and really, his best chance to live a full, healthy life would be a kidney transplant."
Since his diagnosis in 2023, Pacheco's condition has deteriorated, Siegel said.
"[Alfredo] currently receives [dialysis] three times a week, from 4 am to 8 am, and his brother Jose came here to help care for him, and with the intention of being able to donate his kidney and save Alfredo's life," Siegel said. "And so for the last year, Jose has essentially been a full-time caretaker for Alfredo, helping with cooking, cleaning, etc, and with the intent to donate his kidney."
But unlike Pacheco, when Gonzalez arrived to the U.S. from Venezuela "primarily to assist" his brother, he failed to pass the credible fear screening, which did not allow him to apply for asylum like Pacheco had done, according to Meinecke, so he was detained by ICE for several months and then he was granted temporary supervised release but still faced a pending removal order. During his time on supervised release, Gonzalez routinely checked in with his ICE officer, provided his address and wore an ankle monitor, Meinecke said.
Siegel said that Gonzalez was detained while the brothers were leaving their home to go to Pacheco's kidney dialysis appointment.
"It was shocking and devastating," she said. "They had been living life together, and an incredibly difficult life where one of the brothers was undergoing incredible medical distress and suffering."
"They were taking care of one another and surviving for a year together," she added. "And during that time, clearly, you know, caring deeply for one another, loving each other as family members do. Jose [Gregorio] had no contact with police, the criminal legal system, and then one morning, with, you know, completely unexpected, ICE came to their home."
Gonzalez's expected release comes after ICE denied on Monday a stay of removal request submitted by his attorneys and then the case was elevated to an ICE Chicago Field Supervisor, according to The Resurrection Project.
"This is literally a matter of life and death," said Erendira Rendón, vice president of Immigrant Justice at The Resurrection Project. "ICE has the discretionary authority to release Mr. Gonzalez on humanitarian grounds. Every day he remains detained is another day his brother's life hangs in the balance."
(WASHINGTON) -- President Donald Trump reacted for the first time on Thursday to the fallout from his tariff announcement, which included markets nosediving and foreign leaders threatening retaliation.
Trump had no public events on his schedule a day after his dramatic unveiling of severe tariffs against virtually all U.S. trading partners, but he did take a single question as he left the White House Thursday afternoon for a trip to a golf event in Miami.
"Markets today are way down ... How's it going?" a reporter asked the president.
"I think it's going very well," Trump responded. "It was an operation. I like when a patient gets operated on and it's a big thing. I said this would exactly be the way it is."
Trump continued to project confidence and said nations to be affected are now trying to see if they can "make a deal."
"The markets are going to boom, the stock is going to boom, the country is going to boom, and the rest of the world wants to see is there any way they can make a deal." Trump said. "They've taken advantage of us for many, many years. For many years we've been at the wrong side of the ball. And I'll tell you what, I think it's going to be unbelievable."
Later, speaking to reporters on Air Force One, Trump again said he's willing to make a deal despite White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and others earlier in the day appearing to say the tariffs would not be changed
“The tariffs give us great power to negotiate,” Trump said. “Always have, I've used them very well in the first administration, as you saw, but now we're taking it to a whole new level, because it's a worldwide situation, and it's very exciting to see."
Asked if he were open to deal with these countries calling him, he answered, "Well, it depends. If somebody said that we're going to give you something that's so phenomenal, as long as they're giving us something, that's good."
Earlier Thursday, Trump administration officials were deployed to deal with the fallout on the morning news shows.
"The president made it clear yesterday, this is not a negotiation. This is a national emergency," Leavitt said on CNN.
He's always willing to pick up the phone to answer calls, but he laid out the case yesterday for why we are doing it this and these countries around the world have had 70 years to do the right thing by the American people, and they have chosen not to," Leavitt added.
"I don't think there's any chance that President Trump is gonna back off his tariffs," Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on the network.
World leaders are weighing their response to Trump's historic levies, some of which go into effect on April 5 and others on April 9.
China, which is going to be hit with a whopping 54% tariff rate, urged the U.S. to "immediately cancel its unilateral tariff measures and properly resolve differences with its trading partners through equal dialogue."
Domestically, stocks plunged in early trading on Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 3.75%, the tech-heavy Nasdaq declined 5.75% and the S&P 500 tumbled 4.4%.
Vice President JD Vance, before the market selloff, acknowledged that Trump's massive new tariffs will mean a "big change" for Americans. Trump, ahead of Wednesday's announcement, had admitted there could be some short-term pain.
"President Trump is taking this economy in a different direction. He ran on that. He promised it. And now he's delivering. And yes, this is a big change. I'm not going to shy away from it, but we needed a big change," Vance told "Fox & Friends."
Leavitt, too, defended the policy as Trump "delivering on his promise to implement reciprocal tariffs" during an appearance on CNN.
"To anyone on Wall Street this morning, I would say trust in President Trump. This is a president who is doubling down on his proven economic formula from his first term," she said.
Neither Vance nor Leavitt directly addressed the increased costs economists say U.S. consumers are all but certain to face or how they would help Americans.
"What I'd ask folks to appreciate here is that we're not going to fix things overnight," Vance said. "We're fighting as quickly as we can to fix what was left to us, but it's not going to happen immediately."
Asked about negative business reaction, Lutnick told CNN, "they're not counting the factories" that he claimed would be built in the U.S. as a result.
"Let Donald Trump run the global economy. He knows what he's doing," Lutnick said.
Trump on Wednesday said jobs will come "roaring back."
But asked on Air Force One on Thursday how long it would take to get American manufacturing to where he'd like to see it, Trump said, "Well, let's say it's a two-year process. You know, they start a plant, and they're big plants."
He continued. "We're giving them approval to also, in many cases, to build the electric facility with it. So, you have electric generation and the plant, and they're big plants. Now, the good news is a lot of money for them, and they can build them fast, but they're still very big plants. I'd always say it would take a year-and-a-half to two years.
(NEW YORK) -- U.S. stocks closed down significantly on Friday after a continued selloff amid fallout from President Donald Trump's "Liberation Day" tariffs.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 2,230 points, or 5.5%, while the S&P 500 plunged 6%.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq declined 5.8%. The decline put the Nasdaq into bear market territory, meaning the index has fallen more than 20% from its recent peak.
The trading session on Friday marked the worst day for U.S. stocks since 2020. The second-worst day for U.S. stocks since that year happened on Thursday, a day earlier. Over the past two days, the S&P 500 dropped more than 10%.
Corporate giants that rely on supply chains abroad were among the firms that continued to see shares fall. Apple fell 7% and e-commerce firm Amazon slid 4%.
Shares fell for each of the so-called "Magnificent Seven," a group of large tech firms that helped drive stock market gains in recent years.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, dropped 5%. Chipmaker Nvidia slid 7%.
Tesla, the electric carmaker led by Trump-advisor Elon Musk, declined more than 10%.
On Friday, China said it will impose 34% tariffs on U.S. goods in response to the levies issued by Trump earlier this week.
In a social media post hours later, Trump signaled a commitment to the tariff policy.
"TO THE MANY INVESTORS COMING INTO THE UNITED STATES AND INVESTING MASSIVE AMOUNTS OF MONEY, MY POLICIES WILL NEVER CHANGE," Trump said on Truth Social.
Trump later criticized China in a different social media post, saying, "CHINA PLAYED IT WRONG, THEY PANICKED - THE ONE THING THEY CANNOT AFFORD TO DO!"
All three major American stock markets closed down on Thursday, marking their worst day since June 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The NASDAQ fell 6%, the S&P 500 4.8% and the Dow Jones nearly 4%
Global markets gave early signals of the difficulty to come on Friday. Japan's Nikkei index lost 3.5% on Friday, while the broader Japanese Topix index fell 4.45%.
In South Korea, the KOSPI index was down 1.7%, with the country grappling with both Trump's tariffs and the news that South Korea's Constitutional Court upheld the impeachment of President Yoon Suk Yeol.
Indian investors joined the sell-off on Friday, with the Nifty 50 and BSE Sensex indexes both falling more than 1%. India's stock markets had previously performed better than others thanks to lower tariffs than competitors like China, Indonesia and Vietnam.
Australia's S&P/ASX, meanwhile, continued its slide into Friday with another 2% drop taking the index to an 8-month low.
In Europe, too, stock markets fell upon opening. Britain's FTSE 100 index dropped more than 1%, Germany's DAX fell 0.75%, France's CAC lost 0.9% and Spain's IBEX slipped 1.4%.
ABC News' Leah Sarnoff, Max Zahn, Victor Ordoñez and Zunaira Zaki contributed to this report.
