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OceanGate whistleblower says he had ‘no confidence’ in development of Titan sub

Pelagic Research Services/U.S. Coast Guard

(NEW YORK) -- An OceanGate whistleblower testified during a United States Coast Guard hearing into the deadly 2023 implosion of the Titan that he had "no confidence" in the way the experimental submersible was being built.

David Lochridge, the former director of marine operations for OceanGate, said he was known as a "troublemaker" in the tourism and expeditions company because he was so outspoken about his safety concerns -- voiced years before five people were killed when the Titan catastrophically imploded during a deep-sea voyage to the Titanic wreckage in June 2023.

Lochridge said Tuesday during an ongoing Coast Guard hearing into the deadly implosion that he was hired in 2015 to in part work on the operations for the Titan but was ultimately not involved in its development. Lochridge said he was "phased out" after butting heads with OceanGate CEO Stockton Rush -- one of the five people who died in the implosion.

When asked by the Marine Board of Investigation for the U.S. Coast Guard if he had confidence in the way the Titan was being built in 2017, Lochridge said, "No confidence whatsoever, and I was very vocal about that, and still am."

Lochridge submitted a report in January 2018 outlining his concerns about the submersible's carbon-fiber hull, including imperfections, after he said Rush asked him to inspect it.

"At the end of the day, safety comes first," Lochridge said. "Yes, you're taking a risk going down in a submersible, but don't take risks that are unnecessary with faulty, and I mean faulty, deficient equipment."

Lochridge testified Rush "liked to do things on the cheap." Asked why the company resorted to cost-cutting measures, Lochridge said, "The desire to get to the Titanic as quickly as we could to start making profit."

He said he did not know about the financial side of the company, but that "there was a big push to get this done."

"A lot of steps along the way were missed," he said.

Lochridge testified that Rush wanted to do manned testing of the first Titan prototype, though Lochridge recommended doing unmanned testing due to his concerns.

"I knew that hull would fail," he said. "It's an absolute mess."

Lochridge was fired from OceanGate in 2018, days after submitting his report and attending an hourslong meeting with OceanGate executives, including Rush, ABC News previously reported. Documents reviewed by ABC News stated that it was clear Lochridge and Rush were "at an impasse" regarding the Titan hull, and "the only option was the termination of your employment."

Lochridge testified Tuesday he was terminated because he was "anti-project."

"I didn't want to lose my job," Lochridge said. "I wanted to go to Titanic. It was on my bucket list. I wanted to dive this, but dive it safely."

Following his termination, Lochridge said he reached out to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in February 2018 with his concerns about public safety and was placed under the agency's Whistleblower Protection Program.

"I wouldn't want to see anybody dying for the sake of going in a sub," Lochridge said Tuesday. "It's a magical place. I love it. I'm very passionate about what I do. If there's risk like that, don't do it."

A defect was discovered in the first prototype of the carbon-fiber hull in 2019, and it was not used on Titanic missions, the Coast Guard said.

A second carbon-fiber hull was subsequently made that was used on Titanic missions, including the doomed dive on June 18, 2023.

OceanGate suspended all exploration and commercial operations after the implosion.

The Coast Guard's hearing into the implosion is scheduled to last two weeks. Lochridge is the only witness scheduled to testify on Tuesday.

During his testimony, Lochridge said he started being phased out of his duties after he inadvertently "embarrassed" Rush during a 2016 dive to the Andrea Doria shipwreck on OceanGate's Cyclops 1 submersible.

Lochridge, a veteran submersible pilot, said he was meant to take several paying clients down to the wreck to take a 3-D model, but Rush wanted to pilot the dive instead. Lochridge said he objected, noting that the wreck is "dangerous" and that over a dozen people died during dives to the site at the time -- and eventually persuaded Rush to let him go along.

He said Rush ended up getting the vessel stuck in the wreck and refused to relinquish control of the submersible to Lochridge until one of the crew members yelled at Rush to give Lochridge the PlayStation controller that piloted the vessel.

Lochridge said Rush threw the controller at his head and one of the buttons came off, though he testified that he was able to repair it and get them back to the surface.

After that, Lochridge said Rush stopped talking to him.

Lochridge testified he raised objections after OceanGate phased out its relationship with the University of Washington's Applied Physics Laboratory in 2016. He said Rush decided to do all engineering for the Titan in-house.

Asked by the board why that was the case, Lochridge said, "Arrogance."

He also testified the company only cared about making money and it wasn't interested in scientific research.

"The whole idea behind the company was to make money, that's it," Lochridge said. "There was very little in the way of science."

OceanGate sued Lochridge following his termination, alleging, among other things, breach of contract, fraud and misappropriation of trade secrets. Lochridge alleged in a counterclaim lawsuit that he was fired for raising concerns about quality control.

During the hearing on Tuesday, Lochridge said he dropped his OSHA case and walked away from the lawsuits in late 2018 because he didn't want to "put my family through any more of this," financially and emotionally.

"It was going nowhere," he said. "It was too much for us as a family."

Lochridge and OceanGate settled the dispute out of court in November 2018. Lochridge said OSHA closed the case in December 2018 following the settlement agreement.

"I never paid a penny to OceanGate, I'm going to state that clearly," Lochridge said Tuesday. "I gave them nothing, they gave me nothing."

In his final remarks, Lochridge said he hopes the investigation will shed light on "why OSHA did not actively address my concerns."

"I believe that if OSHA had attempted to investigate the seriousness of the concerns I raised on multiple occasions, this tragedy may have been prevented," he said. "As a seafarer, I feel deeply let down and disappointed by the system that is meant to protect not only seafarers but the general public as well."

OSHA said in a statement to ABC News on Thursday that after Lochridge filed a whistleblower claim of retaliation under the Seaman's Protection Act in February 2018, "OSHA promptly referred his safety allegations regarding the Titan submersible to the Coast Guard, per policy."

"The Coast Guard, not OSHA, had jurisdiction to investigate Mr. Lochridge's allegations regarding the safe design and construction of marine vessels," OSHA said in the statement. "OSHA's jurisdiction under the [Seaman's Protection Act] is limited to investigating a whistleblower's claims of employment retaliation for making those complaints (or similar protected activity)."

OSHA said it opened an investigation into the retaliation allegations, including interviewing Lochridge, which "followed the normal process and timeline for a retaliation case." After Lochridge and OceanGate entered a settlement agreement, OSHA terminated its investigation in December 2019 "pursuant to the terms of the parties' agreement."

Homes near Houston still under evacuation orders as pipeline fire continues to burn

DEER PARK, Texas (AP) — A pipeline fire that erupted in a suburban Houston neighborhood burned throughout a second day and into the night Tuesday with still no definitive word on when the blaze would finally go out, when nearby residents may be able to return home or why a car drove through a fence and hit a valve before the destructive explosion.

Although the fire was getting smaller, the disruptions caused by the Monday morning explosion in a grassy corridor between a Walmart and a residential neighborhood left some locals increasingly weary. On Tuesday, people could be seen returning to their homes to get clothes and other items before quickly leaving again.

“We literally walked out with the clothes on our backs, the pets, and just left the neighborhood with no idea where we were going,” Kristina Reff said. “That was frustrating.”

Over 36 hours after the blast — which shot towering flames like a blowtorch above the suburbs of Deer Park and La Porte — authorities have provided few details about the circumstances leading up to the explosion.

Investigators said it happened after the driver of a sport utility vehicle went through a fence near the Walmart and struck an above-ground valve. As of Tuesday evening, authorities had not still not identified the driver or said what happened to them.

Deer Park officials have said police and FBI agents found no preliminary evidence to suggest the explosion of the pipeline, which carried natural gas liquids, was a coordinated or terrorist attack. In a statement Monday night, the city said it “appears to be an isolated incident” but officials have not provided details on how they came to that conclusion.

The car was incinerated by the explosion, which scorched the ground across a wide radius, severed power transmission lines, melted playground equipment and ignited some homes.

The valve, which appears to have been protected by a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire, is located within a long grassy field where high-voltage power lines run. Several pipelines run underground.

Authorities evacuated nearly 1,000 homes at one point and ordered people in nearby schools to shelter in place. By Tuesday afternoon that number was down to just over 400.

“The fire is still burning, but the good news is that the pressure within the pipeline is continuously dropping, which means we are getting closer to the fire going out,” Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said in a statement.

Operators shut off the flow after the explosion, but Hidalgo has said that 20 miles (32 kilometers) of pipeline stretched between the two closed valves and the chemicals inside had to burn off before the fire would stop.

Robert Hall, a senior advisor at the nonprofit Pipeline Safety Trust, said it’s not surprising that it’s taken more than a day for the material to stop burning.

“You’re talking about 20-inch pipelines and miles between valves, so it takes a long time to burn down,” Hall said.

On Tuesday, the Texas Railroad Commission that regulates the state’s oil and gas industry said its inspectors only will enter the site after it is deemed safe by emergency authorities.

Houston is the nation’s petrochemical heartland and is home to a cluster of refineries and plants and thousands of miles of pipelines. Explosions and fires are a familiar sight, and some have been deadly, raising recurring questions about industry efforts to protect the public and the environment.

Hall, who previously oversaw pipeline and hazardous materials investigations for the National Transportation Safety Board, said there are few regulations that govern the location of pipelines near homes and businesses.

“That becomes a very local issue, community by community,” Hall said, adding that some jurisdictions require bollards — sturdy pipes filled with concrete — to prevent vehicles from crashing into sensitive infrastructure.

Hidalgo said Tuesday that Energy Transfer, the Dallas-based owner of the pipeline, has said it was working to isolate parts of the pipeline closest to the fire by clamping it on each side.

Energy Transfer did not immediately respond to a question about what safety precautions were in place near the valve.

Hall said regulations from 2022 aimed at reducing deaths and environmental damage from ruptures were geared toward gas lines, not those carrying liquids, and would not have applied to this pipeline. He added that many new safety regulations that have been put in place do not apply retroactively to pre-existing pipelines.

Both Energy Transfer and Harris County Pollution Control were conducting air monitoring in the area and have found no health issues, according to Deer Park officials.

Since leaving home, Reff and her family have been staying in a hotel room paid for by Energy Transfer. But they were eager to return.

“It would be nice to be in our own beds,” she said.

___

Murphy reported from Oklahoma City. AP writers Christopher L. Keller in Albuquerque, New Mexico, Valerie Gonzalez in McAllen, Texas, Ken Miller in Oklahoma City and Jamie Stengle in Dallas contributed.

Trump praises Secret Service response to apparent assassination attempt

Former U.S. President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump attends a town hall meeting moderated by Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders at the Dort Financial Center in Flint, Michigan, on Sept. 17, 2024. (JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP via Getty Images)

(WASHINGTON) -- Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday praised the Secret Service for stopping an apparent assassination attempt Sunday, speaking in a phone interview with ABC News.

"I'm fine. The Secret Service did a good job, actually," he said.

A Secret Service agent fired several shots at Ryan Wesley Routh, who was allegedly concealed in a tree line armed with a rifle at the Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, about 300 to 500 yards from the Republican presidential nominee, authorities said.

The suspect was able to get into a car and drive off, but was stopped by law enforcement.

He appeared in court on Monday and currently faces two felony gun charges. The investigation is ongoing.

Trump spoke about the heightened threat environment, telling ABC News, "Probably always been dangerous, but it's more so now, I think."

He reiterated satisfaction with how the Secret Service handled Sunday's incident.

"On that on that event, I thought they were excellent," he said.

Trump also discussed his phone call with President Joe Biden following the incident, calling the conversation "very, very nice."

"He called me just to, you know, express his sort of horror that a thing like that could happen. But it was a very good conversation," Trump said.

Trump said Biden told him he wants to be sure the Secret Service has all the resources it needs to do its job, adding, "I hope that is the case."

Freed American Paul Whelan thanks lawmakers for bringing him home during Capitol Hill visit

US President Joe Biden, right, watches as Vice President Kamala Harris greets former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan upon his arrival at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, US, on Thursday, Aug. 1, 2024. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

(WASHINGTON) -- Against the backdrop of the U.S. Capitol at dusk, freed American Paul Whelan, who just completed a government resettlement program in Texas following his return from wrongful detainment in Russia, thanked the lawmakers who worked to help secure his release.

Whelan praised a "bipartisan effort that brought me home" after spending the day meeting with lawmakers who took up his case from his home state of Michigan and elsewhere.

"The Michigan delegation brought me home here," he said.

"You know, it was five years, seven months and five days," he added of his time in Russian custody. "I counted each one of them."

The former Marine revealed he spent the final five days in the Russian prison in solitary confinement.

"I couldn’t leave my cell," he said, "but I made it home."

Whelan wouldn't preview what's next for him -- offering only that he needs a new car and that suddenly he's in a place with electric and driverless vehicles -- but said he's involved in discussions over how to support other wrongfully detained Americans around the world.

"We're coming for you," Whelan said to those Americans. "The United States is not going to let people like me, Marc [Fogel], Trevor [Reed], Brittney [Griner, who was released in December 2022] languish in foreign prisons. It might take time, but we're coming for them and everybody else."

Whelan acknowledged the reporters he recognized by name or face, recalling the precise month he spoke with them via a smuggled phone from prison. He thanked them for reporting on his case.

He also thanked "all of the people that work for agencies that I will never meet, people that I will never know, their staff members, everyone that's been involved at every level."

Rep. Haley Stevens, who represents Whelan's district in Congress, told ABC News she expects to lean on him for the complex policymaking to mitigate foreign detentions like his.

"Well, he might not know it, but I plan to be in touch with him for a very long time to come, as long as he'll welcome it, because there's a lot to learn from his experience," she said.

She noted that Whelan's case was "the first one" of a series of high-profile detentions in Russia, including Griner and Evan Gershkovich, and it "certainly changed the relationship that the United States had with Russia, even before the war in Ukraine began."

"Our message to Russia is that when it comes to your shenanigans and your illegal and unjust and unlawful behavior, we, as the United States of America, are united. We will fight for our people," she said. "We will bring them home, and we will win."

Whelan returned to the United States on Aug. 2 after five-and-a-half years in a Russian penal colony.

Russian authorities released Whelan, as well as American journalists Gershkovic and Alsu Kurmasheva, in a multi-country deal that freed eight Russian prisoners abroad. The 26-person swap was the largest between the U.S. and Russia since the Cold War.

Whelan was arrested in Moscow in 2019 on charges of espionage and sentenced to 16 years in prison. Whelan, who frequently visited the city, was deemed as wrongfully detained by the U.S. Department of State.

The former Marine wasn’t the only former Russian captive on Capitol Hill Tuesday. Vladimir Kara-Murza, a dual Russian-British national whose release was secured by the U.S., met with lawmakers. Kara-Murza was imprisoned in Russia for two years for his opposition to Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine.

20 more dead, 450 injured as new round of explosions rocks Lebanon: Health officials

Ambulances rush wounded people to a hospital in the southern Lebanese city of Sidon on September 17, 2024. (MAHMOUD ZAYYAT/AFP via Getty Images)

(LONDON) -- At least 20 more people were killed and 450 injured in Lebanon on Wednesday after a series of new explosions of wireless devices rocked the South, the Bekaa and the southern suburbs of Beirut, according to the Ministry of Health and the Lebanese Red Cross.

More than 30 ambulances are providing treatment and evacuations to wounded people in Lebanon on Wednesday, the Lebanese Red Cross said.

The Lebanese Army command has asked citizens not to gather in places witnessing security incidents to allow medical teams to arrive.

Members of the Lebanese Civil Defense are working to extinguish fires that broke out inside homes, cars and shops in the Bekaa, the South, Mount Lebanon and the southern suburbs due to the explosions, officials said.

All walkie-talkie devices were taken from security services members at the Rafiq Harir International Airport in Beirut after news of the devices exploding.

Pagers explode across Lebanon on Tuesday

At least 12 civilians were killed and at least 2,800 people injured in the explosions that took place Tuesday, according to Lebanese authorities. Around 460 of the injuries were critical and required surgery, Lebanese Health Minister Firass Abiad said. Most victims are suffering from eye and facial injuries, while others suffered injuries to hands and fingers, he said.

Israel was behind the deadly explosion of pagers across Lebanon on Tuesday, sources told ABC News on Wednesday.

The Hezbollah militant group said it is conducting a "security and scientific investigation" into the explosion of pagers across Lebanon on Tuesday.

Hezbollah said 11 of its members were killed on Tuesday, though -- as is typical in its statements -- did not specify how they died.

"We hold the Israeli enemy fully responsible for this criminal aggression, which also targeted civilians and led to the deaths of a number of martyrs and the injury of a large number with various wounds," Hezbollah said of the pager explosions in a Tuesday statement.

In a Wednesday morning statement, Hezbollah said it would continue operations to "support Gaza," and vowed a "reckoning" for Israel for the "massacre on Tuesday."

The dead and injured included people who are not members of Hezbollah. Lebanese officials said that an 8-year-old girl and an 11-year-old boy are among the dead.

Israel has not commented on explosions

Israel has not commented on its alleged involvement in the apparent attack, which prompted chaos in the capital Beirut and elsewhere in Hezbollah's south Lebanon heartland.

Around 100 hospitals received wounded people, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said, with hospitals in Beirut and its southern suburb quickly filling to capacity. Patients were then directed to other hospitals outside the region.

The Iranian ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, was among those who had one of the pagers and was injured in an explosion Tuesday, according to Iranian state TV. The diplomat said in a phone call that he was "feeling well and fully conscious," according to Iranian state TV.

"I am proud and honored that my blood has become one with the blood of the honorable Lebanese people, as a result of the horrific terrorist crime that targeted our brotherly Lebanon yesterday. This noble country has stood with dignity and pride since the first day of al-Aqsa Storm," Amani said Wednesday.

At least 14 people were also injured in targeted attacks on Hezbollah members in Syria, according to the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Fears grow of Israel-Hezbollah escalation

The alleged Israeli operation has again piqued fears of escalation in the Israel-Hezbollah conflict ongoing since Oct. 8, when members of the Iranian-backed group began cross-border attacks in support of Hamas' war with Israel in the Gaza Strip.

Frontier skirmishes, Israeli strikes and Hezbollah rocket and artillery salvoes have been near-constant through 11 months of war in Gaza. Israeli officials have repeatedly threatened to launch a new military operation against Hezbollah along the Israel-Lebanon border. Tens of thousands of Israelis have left their homes in border regions due to the fighting.

The Israel Defense Forces said warplanes hit Hezbollah targets in six locations in southern Lebanon overnight into Wednesday. Artillery strikes were also conducted, it added.

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah is due to make a public address on Thursday afternoon to address the situation. In February, Nasrallah urged members to stop using their cellphones, describing the technology as "a deadly agent."

Schools across Lebanon will be closed on Wednesday, Lebanese state media reported, citing the country's Minister of Education. Schools and offices closed include public and private schools, high schools, technical institutes, the Lebanese University and private higher education institutions, Lebanese state media reported.

The Lebanese Council of Ministers collectively condemned "this criminal Israeli aggression, which constitutes a serious violation of Lebanese sovereignty and a crime by all standards."

It added that "the government immediately began making all necessary contacts with the countries concerned and the United Nations to place it before its responsibilities regarding this continuing crime."

World reacts to pager attacks

The United Nations special coordinator for Lebanon condemned the attack on Lebanon, calling it an "extremely concerning escalation in what is an already unacceptably volatile context," in a statement released by the U.N. Office of the Spokesperson for the Secretary General.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said during a press conference in Egypt on Wednesday that the U.S. "did not know about and was not involved" in Israel's pager attacks in Lebanon and Syria -- but said that officials were still gathering information and did not directly blame Israel.

"Broadly speaking, we've been very clear, and we remain very clear about the importance of all parties avoiding any steps that could further escalate the conflict that we're trying to resolve in Gaza," Blinken said. Its spread to other fronts, he added, is "clearly not in the interest of anyone involved."

A cease-fire deal in Gaza, Blinken added, would "materially improve the prospects of defusing the situation" on the Israeli-Lebanese border and allow thousands of people living near the area on both sides of the divide to return home.

The U.S. and the European Union have both designated the Hezbollah militant group a foreign terrorist organization.

ABC News' Luis Martinez, Shannon K. Kingston, Ghazi Balkiz, Morgan Winsor, Anne Flaherty, Nasser Atta, Joe Simonetti, Jordana Miller and Helena Skinner contributed to this report.

Fed cuts interest rates a half point in landmark policy shift

(NEW YORK) -- The Federal Reserve cut its benchmark interest rate a half of a percentage point on Wednesday in a landmark decision that dials back its years-long fight against inflation and could deliver relief for borrowers saddled with high costs.

The central bank’s first rate cut since 2020 came after a recent stretch of data had established the key conditions for a rate cut: falling inflation and slowing job gains.

In theory, lower interest rates help stimulate economic activity and boost employment. The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 200 points in the immediate aftermath of the announcement on Wednesday afternoon.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq also climbed following the news.

Speaking at a press conference in Washington D.C. on Wednesday, Fed Chair Jerome Powell described the rate decision as a shift in policy at the central bank.

"This recalibration of our policy stance will help maintain the strength of the economy and the labor market, and enable further progress on inflation," Powell said.

"The U.S. economy is in good shape," Powell added. "We want to keep it there."

The Federal Open Market Committee, a policymaking body at the Fed, on Wednesday forecast further interest rate cuts.

By the end of 2024, interest rates will fall nearly another half of a percentage point from their current level of between 4.75% and 5%, according to FOMC projections. Interest rates will drop another percentage point over the course of 2025, the projections indicated.

Over time, rate cuts ease the burden on borrowers for everything from home mortgages to credit cards to cars, making it cheaper to get a loan or refinance one. The cuts also boost company valuations, potentially helping fuel returns for stockholders.

Earlier this year, mortgage rates reached their highest level in more than two decades; while the average rate for credit card holders topped anything on record at the Fed. Interest rates for car loans have soared to levels last seen at the onset of the 2008 financial crisis, Edmunds found.

Interest rate cuts will bring many of those payments down, delivering gains for borrowers.

However, borrowers should not expect immediate relief from the Fed's initial rate cut, Elizabeth Renter, senior economist at NerdWallet, told ABC News in a statement prior to the decision.

"This initial rate cut will have little immediate impact," Renter said. "I anticipate many consumers and business owners will take the beginning of this change in monetary policy as a sign of hope."

Inflation has slowed dramatically from a peak of about 9% in 2022, though it remains slightly higher than the Fed's target of 2%.

Meanwhile, the job market has cooled. A weaker-than-expected jobs report in each of the last two months has stoked concern among some economists.

"We will do everything we can to support a strong labor market as we make further progress toward price stability," Powell said last month.

Prior to the decision, the chances of a rate cut were are all but certain, according to the CME FedWatch Tool, a measure of market sentiment.

Market observers, however, had been divided over whether the Fed will impose its typical cut of a quarter of a percentage point, or opt for a larger half-point cut. The tool estimated the probability of a half-point cut at 65% and the odds of a quarter-point cut at 35%.

A half-point cut risked overstimulating the economy and rekindling elevated inflation, while a quarter-point cut threatened to delay the type of economic jumpstart that may be required to avert a recession, Seema Shah, chief global strategist at Principal Asset Management, told ABC News in a statement.

"Rarely have market expectations been so torn" on the eve of a rate decision, Shah added.

The rate cut on Wednesday went into effect less than 50 days before the November election.

The decision deviated from the policy approach taken by the Fed prior to many recent presidential elections, a Reuters analysis found. Policy rates were left unchanged for six to 12 months before the 2020, 2016, 2012 and 2000 U.S. presidential elections, according to Reuters.

To be sure, the Fed says it bases its decisions on economic conditions and operates as an independent government body.

When asked about the 2024 election at a press conference in Washington, D.C., in December, Powell said, "We don't think about politics."

Trump’s new crypto venture is light on details, heavy on potential ethics landmines

(NEW YORK) -- After once deriding cryptocurrency as a "scam," former President Donald Trump on Monday formally threw his support behind World Liberty Financial, a crypto venture whose business model remains largely unclear but has already drawn scrutiny as a potential ethics headache for his administration if he returns to the White House in January.

Joined Monday by his two adult sons and others involved in the fledgling business, including billionaire donor Steve Witkoff, Trump declared in a livestream on X that "crypto is one of those things we have to do," and suggested that he would work to limit regulation of the industry if elected.

"Right now, you have a very hostile [Security and Exchange Commission] ... they've been very hostile toward crypto," Trump said. "My attitude is different."

Details about the venture, including Trump's role and potential compensation, remain unclear. The company's website, which bears an image of a backlit Trump speaking at a podium, suggests the platform will have its own crypto token, called $WL, and aspires to "empower our users to operate their finances ... with no direct oversight of any government agencies or officials."

Industry experts said the website provides few details about the company -- including what it will offer, who will have access to its profits, and how the Trump family stands to make money from it. James Butterfill, the head of research at CoinShares, a digital asset management firm, told ABC News that the website contains little more than "buzzwords."

Government ethics watchdogs consulted by ABC News were quick to point out potential conflicts of interest posed by a candidate for president launching or becoming otherwise involved with a new business within weeks of Election Day -- particularly in an industry as polarizing and unregulated as crypto, in which users directly exchange digital currencies without the oversight of banks or the government.

Jordan Libowitz, a spokesperson for Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, said a future Trump administration would have wide latitude to impact crypto policy -- and Trump's own personal stake in the industry could potentially rub up against the best interests of the country.

"We're still in the Wild West with crypto. It's clear there is going to be some kind of regulation, but to what extent and how friendly they are to the industry, we don't yet know," Libowitz said. "The president obviously appoints the people in charge of that."

Steven Cheung, a spokesperson for the Trump campaign, rejected any suggestion that Trump's role in World Liberty Financial could pose an ethical dilemma if he's reelected, calling Trump "the most ethical president in American history."

"When President Trump first ran for office, he stepped away from his very successful and lucrative businesses because the job of saving America was the most important job he'd ever have," Cheung said in a statement to ABC News. "Before he entered the White House, he ensured everything was done within the ethics guidelines set forth."

In addition to Trump's adult sons Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, who have for months been promoting World Liberty Financial on social media, a so-called "white paper" first reported by CoinBase indicated that Trump's youngest son, Barron, 18, would also play a role in the firm.

Witkoff, who appeared Monday on the X livestream, said he introduced the Trumps to two other partners in the venture, Zak Folkman and Chase Herro, both of whom have a colorful business history.

Herro, who previously called himself a "dirtbag of the internet" at a crypto conference in 2018, has said he has made millions from an ecommerce business after spending three years in jail for selling drugs when he was in high school. Folkman, who first joined forces with Herro in the ecommerce business more than a decade ago, has reportedly previously taught classes on "how to date hotter girls."

On ABC's Good Morning America on Tuesday, Witkoff -- a longtime friend to Trump and one of his campaign's biggest financial supporters -- downplayed any potential conflict posed by Trump's foray into crypto.

"If the president is elected, which I expect him to be, then everything that he -- all of his of his ownership, his businesses, will be put in some sort of a trust." Witkoff said. "His children, I would assume, will be involved in running it. And I doubt that, therefore, that there is any conflict."

But Danielle Brian, the executive director of the Project On Government Oversight, said that would be nothing more than "window dressing."

"A trust managed by family members will not eliminate the conflict of interest created by a sitting president owning any business," Brian said.

Trump's announcement on Monday marked his transition from a vocal skeptic of digital currencies to one of the industry's most enthusiastic proponents. As president, he complained on Twitter that crypto markets were "highly volatile and based on thin air." In 2021, shortly after leaving the White House, Trump called cryptocurrencies a "scam."

But during his 2024 bid for the White House, Trump has cozied up to crypto interests.

In May, his campaign said it would begin accepting contributions in cryptocurrency. Trump has regularly hosted industry enthusiasts at his properties and, in July, at the annual Bitcoin Conference, he pledged to make the U.S. the "crypto super-power" of the world.

Gas prices are plummeting. Experts explain why.

(NEW YORK) -- Drivers have enjoyed a sharp decline in gasoline prices over recent weeks -- and the good times are expected to continue.

Gas prices have plummeted about 13% from a 2024 peak in April, which amounts to a decline of nearly 50 cents per gallon, according to AAA data shared with ABC News.

The national average price of a gallon of gas stands at $3.20, AAA data shows. In 16 states, an average gallon of gas costs less than $3, including Texas Georgia, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Kansas and Iowa.

Speaking to ABC News, some experts forecasted that the national average price would likely follow suit, dropping below $3 per gallon for the first time since May 2021.

The drop in prices owes in part to sluggish demand for gas as the busy summer traveling season has given way to an autumn slowdown, experts said. Meanwhile, they added, a sharp decline in the price of crude oil has propelled an even larger drop-off in gas prices than typically seen at this time of year.

“Gas prices continue to crumble across the entire nation,” Patrick de Haan, the head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, told ABC News. “The outlook is bright.”

Relief for consumers stems to a large degree from seasonal fluctuations that take hold every fall, experts said.

A slowdown in travel has eased demand for gas as families have returned from summer vacation and resumed routine driving associated with work and school commutes.

Alongside that softening of demand, refineries have begun shifting toward a less-expensive blend of winter fuel. Refineries contend with fewer regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency in the cooler fall and winter months, allowing for a cheaper blend of fuel.

“This is something we see every year,” Andrew Gross, a spokesperson at AAA, told ABC News.

The decline in prices also owes to a steep drop in the cost of crude oil, the underlying commodity that refineries turn into gas. The price of Brent crude oil has fallen 21% over the past year, and more than 7% over the last month.

A surge in oil production has coincided with a global economic slowdown, which in turn has eased demand for crude as consumers soften spending and companies downshift production. The resulting imbalance between supply and demand has sent prices plummeting, experts said.

“There’s pretty good supply and not much demand,” Timothy Fitzgerald, a professor of business economics at Texas Tech University who studies the petroleum industry, told ABC News.

The decline of gas prices is expected to continue. Gas prices typically drop over the course of the fall as demand wanes and the cheaper blend of winter fuel takes hold.

“Nearly every state east of the Rockies now has some retail outlets selling gas below $3 a gallon and the national average may very well follow suit in October,” said Gross.

Still, the anticipated price relief could be undone by a host of possible disruptions, experts said. Hurricane season could send a storm hurtling toward major refineries in the Gulf of Mexico, taking production offline and pinching gas supply. While an economic surge, perhaps triggered by widely expected interest rate cuts, could prompt an uptick in demand for oil and gas, said de Haan.

“There are some wild cards that we’re watching,” he added. “Outside those factors, there’s not much that could cause a big jump in the price of gasoline.”

By the early part of next year, however, seasonal fluctuations will turn against consumers as demand for gasoline begins to swell, he added.

“Enjoy these seasonal lows,” de Haan said.

Taco Bell moves National Taco Day to Tuesday

(NEW YORK) -- For anyone who marks their calendars timed to food celebrations, Taco Bell has a new date for you to highlight in October that aligns perfectly with a delicious day of the week -- Taco Tuesday.

The California-based fast food chain announced Tuesday that this year, National Taco Day will fall on Oct. 1, three days earlier than in previous years, to ensure the food festivity aligns with the beloved weekly tradition of Taco Tuesday.

The permanent date change to the first Tuesday of October was set in motion by the fast food chain with the help of the National Day Calendar, the authoritative entity that curates national days, weeks, months and other tentpole events.

"For years, we've celebrated National Taco Day on October 4th, but it's always felt like there was a bigger opportunity to align it with something even more special -- Taco Tuesday," Marlo Anderson, founder of National Day Calendar, said in a press release. "Thanks to Taco Bell's efforts, we're excited to officially move National Taco Day to the first Tuesday in October, creating the Taco Tuesday of all Taco Tuesdays."

This marks the latest milestone in Taco Bell's ongoing Taco Tuesday journey, which included a petition that relinquished the trademark title in all 50 states last year.

Taco Bell's Chief Marketing Officer Taylor Montgomery said in a statement that after the brand "liberated Taco Tuesday last year ... we couldn't just stop there."

"With National Taco Day coming up, it felt unnatural for it to not fall on a Tuesday, and as some of the biggest advocates of Taco Tuesday out there, we knew we had to help shift the holiday permanently to give taco makers and lovers the opportunity to celebrate bigger and better every year," Montgomery said.

To celebrate the new date for National Taco Day, Taco Bell plans to host a "frenzy of Tuesday Drop celebrations" kicking off Oct. 1 that will roll out all month long.

Palestine man, facing death penalty, files for clemency

PALESTINE – According to our news partner KETK, a group of advocates for a Palestine man on death row filed a petition on Tuesday to stop his execution just 30 days before he is expected to be put to death. They argue the science used to sentence him is questionable. It’s been 21 years since Robert Roberson was convicted of murdering his two-year-old daughter Nikki. Experts who have studied or are involved with this case say she died of other causes. Nikki dealt with medical issues long before her death, including breathing apnea spells that started before the age of one.

“The death of Robert’s daughter Nikki was not a crime. It was a tragedy,” said one of Roberson’s attorneys, Gretchen Sween.

“My testimony helped convict him of murder and send him to death row, but for all the years since, I have believed that justice was not done,” one of the lead investigators on this case, Brian Wharton, said. Continue reading Palestine man, facing death penalty, files for clemency

Nine dead, thousands injured after pagers explode across Lebanon: Health officials

(LONDON) -- At least nine people are dead and over 2,750 people were injured after pager devices owned by a large number of workers in various Hezbollah units and institutions exploded on Tuesday, according to Lebanese officials and the group.

Hezbollah blamed Israel for the attack and vowed it would respond. The apparent attack comes amid rising tensions between Israel and Hezbollah.

The dead and injured included people who are not members of Hezbollah, such as a 10-year-old girl killed in the eastern village of Saraain, according to Hezbollah-owned Al-Ahed News. Two Hezbollah members were also dead, the outlet reported.

"These explosions, the causes of which are still unknown, led to the martyrdom of a girl and two brothers, and the injury of a large number of people with various injuries," Hezbollah said in a statement.

About 200 of the injuries are critical, meaning they needed surgery, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health. Most of the injuries were to the face, hand or abdomen, officials said.

The Iranian ambassador to Lebanon, Mojtaba Amani, was among those who had one of the pagers and was injured due to an explosion Tuesday, according to Iranian state TV.

Amani said in a phone call after the incident that he was "feeling well and fully conscious," according to Iranian state TV.

The Lebanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates said it condemned the alleged Israeli attack and have begun preparing a complaint to the Security Council.

The Lebanese Council of Ministers collectively condemned "this criminal Israeli aggression, which constitutes a serious violation of Lebanese sovereignty and a crime by all standards," adding that "the government immediately began making all necessary contacts with the countries concerned and the United Nations to place it before its responsibilities regarding this continuing crime."

Hezbollah said it is conducting a "security and scientific investigation to determine the causes that led to these simultaneous explosions."

There have also been high-level contacts between the U.S. and Israel prompted by Tuesday's incidents in Lebanon, according to a U.S. official.

The U.S. said it had no role in the apparent attack on Hezbollah and no warning that it would happen, according to State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller. He also declined to offer an assessment on who could be behind it, saying only that the administration was "gathering information" on the incident.

Miller wouldn't say whether the administration had any information to doubt Hezbollah's claim that Israel was behind the explosions and only said that he didn't want to offer an assessment "one way or the other." The Israeli government has declined to comment on the matter.

The White House also said it was not aware the attack was going to happen ahead of time and would not speculate on who was behind it, according to press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.

This attack comes as U.S. diplomats have been working intensely to avoid escalation at Israel's northern border and amid fears that a full-blown war between the country and Hezbollah, which sits on a vast trove of missiles, could engulf the entire region. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is, coincidentally, on his way to the region and scheduled to land in Egypt on Tuesday night.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant spoke again on Tuesday after speaking on Monday.

The latest conversation was intended "to touch base regarding ongoing tensions in the Middle East and the threats facing Israel, to include the Houthi missile attack over the weekend," according to Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder.

Ryder said America's focus was to ensure tensions in the region do not escalate.

"We strongly believe that the way to reduce tension along the Israel-Lebanon border is diplomacy," he said.

Iran and Hezbollah are likely to retaliate for the attack, but it could take them time to do so while they assess what happened, according to a U.S. official. The official also said 50 or more people were targeted in Syria in this attack.

The Lebanese Ministry of Public Health has issued a statement Tuesday instructing all hospitals in various regions of Lebanon to be on maximum alert and raise their level of readiness to meet the rapid need for emergency health services.

The ministry noted that preliminary information indicates "the injuries were related to the explosion of wireless devices that were in the possession of the injured."

The ministry also asked all citizens who own pagers to throw them away immediately.

The Lebanese Red Cross said it has deployed "more than 30 ambulances" to help treat and evacuate "the wounded as a result of multiple explosions in the South, the Bekaa and the southern suburbs of Beirut," according to a post on its official X account.

The group also added "50 more ambulances and 300 Emergency Medical Technicians [are] on standby to assist in the evacuation of victims."

About 100 hospitals took in the wounded, the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health said.

Back in February, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah had urged members to stop using mobile phones, saying, "I call for dispensing with cellphone devices at this stage, which are considered a deadly agent."

ABC News' Luis Martinez, Shannon K. Kingston and Anne Flaherty contributed to this report

Senate Republicans again block legislation to guarantee women’s rights to IVF

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans have blocked for a second time this year legislation to establish a nationwide right to in vitro fertilization, arguing that the vote is an election-year stunt after Democrats forced a vote on the issue.

The Senate vote was Democrats’ latest attempt to force Republicans into a defensive stance on women’s health issues and highlight policy differences between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump in the presidential race, especially as Trump has called himself a “ leader on IVF.”

The 51-44 vote was short of the 60 votes needed to move forward on the bill, with only two Republicans voting in favor. Democrats say Republicans who insist they support IVF are being hypocritical because they won’t support legislation guaranteeing a right to it.

“They say they support IVF — here you go, vote on this,” said Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth, the bill’s lead sponsor and a military veteran who has used the fertility treatment to have her two children.

The Democratic push started earlier this year after the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos can be considered children under state law. Several clinics in the state suspended IVF treatments until the GOP-led legislature rushed to enact a law to provide legal protections for the clinics.

Democrats quickly capitalized, holding a vote in June on Duckworth’s bill and warning that the U.S. Supreme Court could go after the procedure next after it overturned the right to an abortion in 2022.

The bill would establish a nationwide right for patients to access IVF and other assisted reproductive technologies and a right for doctors and insurance companies to provide it, an effort to pre-empt state efforts to limit the services. It would also require more health insurers to cover it and expand coverage for military service members and veterans.

Republicans argued that the federal government shouldn’t tell states what to do and that the bill was an unserious effort. Only Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska voted with Democrats to move forward on the bill both times.

Meanwhile, Republicans have scrambled to counter Democrats on the issue, with many making clear that they support IVF treatments. Trump last month announced plans, without additional details, to require health insurance companies or the federal government to pay for the fertility treatment.

In his debate with Harris earlier this month, Trump said he was a “leader” on the issue and talked about the “very negative” decision by the Alabama court that was later reversed by the legislature.

South Dakota Sen. John Thune, the No. 2 Senate Republican, said that Democrats are trying to create a political issue “where there isn’t one.”

“Let me remind everybody that Republicans support IVF, full stop,” Thune said just before the vote.

The issue has threatened to become a vulnerability for Republicans as some state laws passed by their party grant legal personhood not only to fetuses but to any embryos that are destroyed in the IVF process. Ahead of the its convention this summer, the Republican Party adopted a policy platform that supports states establishing fetal personhood through the Constitution’s 14th Amendment, which grants equal protection under the law to all American citizens. The platform also encourages supporting IVF but does not explain how the party plans to do so.

Republicans have tried to push alternatives on the issue, including legislation that would discourage states from enacting explicit bans on the treatment, but those bills have been blocked by Democrats who say they are not enough.

Sen. Rick Scott, a Florida Republican, said in a floor speech then that his daughter was currently receiving IVF treatment and proposed to expand the flexibility of health savings accounts. Republican Sens. Katie Britt of Alabama and Ted Cruz of Texas have tried to pass a bill that would threaten to withhold Medicaid funding for states where IVF is banned.

Cruz, who is running for reelection in Texas, said Democrats were holding the vote to “stoke baseless fears about IVF and push their broader political agenda.”

Longview man dies after being hit by SUV

LONGVIEW — A Longview man has died after a Monday night pedestrian car accident. According to our news partner KETK, 62-year-old Johnny Ray Johnston died about 7:50 Monday night. Police said that Johnston was walking on Alpine Road, about one block from Ed’s concrete construction, when he was hit by a Ford SUV going south. Reports said that Johnston failed to yield the right of way when he walked into the roadway where he was hit by the SUV. Johnston was taken to a hospital where died from his injuries.

Teen arrested at Carthage High School with gas mask, airsoft rifle

CARTHAGE – A 17-year-old was arrested after allegedly trespassing on a Carthage ISD campus with an airsoft rifle on Tuesday. According to our news partner KETK, the 17-year-old was arrested by Cathage Police and charged with making a terroristic threat, criminal trespass and public intoxication and was booked into the Panola County Jail.

Police said they got a call at before school opened Tuesday morning, that a suspicious man was seen at the Carthage High School campus. Officers responded and talked to Campbell, who is not a Carthage ISD student. Police described him as “agitated and seemed to be intoxicated.”

Campbell had a backpack containing a gas mask, a long gun and multiple magazines. Police said the rifle was determined to be a brightly colored airsoft rifle.

The case remains under investigation by city, state and federal law enforcement.

19-year-old arrested for threat to East Texas school

TITUS COUNTY — Our news partners at KETK report a 19-year-old woman is facing terroristic threat charges after allegedly making a threat against a school. The Titus County Sheriff’s Office said the FBI notified them of a potential threat made against an educational institution by a person believed to reside in the county. Investigators identified the suspect as Adriana Orona who was arrested on charges of terroristic threat, a third degree felony. Orona is being held at the Titus County Jail and is awaiting arraignment.