MINEOLA — Texas Republicans are making moves that they say will protect teachers. A bill filed by State Senator Bryan Hughes, of Mineola, would give protection to school workers who are facing complaints from transgender students, upset over being misidentified in the classroom. He says teachers should not be pressured to support something that conflicts with their deeply held religious beliefs.
The bill faces opposition from several civil rights groups, which testified at a hearing this week. They fear it will lead to bullying in the classroom.
TYLER — Our news partner, KETK, reports that staff were evacuated at People’s Petroleum in Tyler Monday afternoon after smoke was coming from the building.
According to Tyler Fire Department Assistant Chief Kelly Adkinson, when firefighters arrived they found no smoke but made the decision to evacuate people to investigate the situation. Adkinson said after Encore arrived they determined it was an electrical issue with an underground transformer located under College Street. Due to a strong smell of smoke, firefighters performed ventilation to help clear the smell out.
Officials said there were no injuries reported and staff and patrons were allowed to reenter the building after around 30 minutes.
(NEW YORK) -- Families are gearing up for spring break travel, with 173 million Americans expected to take to the skies in March and April.
Whether you're packing for a relaxing beach vacation or preparing to explore a new city, here's what you need to know before heading to the airport:
U.S. airlines expect to carry 173 million passengers from March 1 to April 30 -- up 4% from the same time last year, according to Airlines for America.
Airfare for March and April is up compared to last year. The average price per ticket is now $280, which is a 4% increase from the same time last year, according to Hopper.
The cheapest day of the week to fly for both domestic and international travel is Tuesday, according to Expedia. Passengers who fly on Tuesday instead of Saturday and Sunday can save about 15% on average.
The first two weekends of March are the cheapest travel weekends this spring, according to Hopper.
The busiest and most expensive time to fly in the U.S. will be the week of Wednesday, April 2, according to Expedia.
United Airlines said it expects its busiest spring break ever, with more than 24 million passengers expected to fly with the airline between March 10 and April 27 -- about a 5% jump from last year.
The week of March 10 will be United’s busiest, with more than half a million people expected to fly each day, the airline said.
Southwest Airlines said it's expecting to fly more than 8.2 million passengers between March 8 and March 23. Southwest predicts March 20 will be its busiest day in that time period.
The top destination in the U.S. is Orlando, Florida, followed by Las Vegas, Miami, Los Angeles and New York, according to Expedia.
Spring break may be travelers' last chance to fly before upgrading to a REAL ID, the Transportation Security Administration said.
"With REAL ID’s May 7 deadline looming, it’s important to prioritize REAL ID registration now," Adam Stahl, the senior official performing the duties of the TSA administrator, said in a statement. "By doing so, travelers can ensure a smooth and secure journey through the airport for both spring and summer travels."
HENDERSON COUNTY – Our news partner, KETK, reports that a 21-year-old from Kemp has been arrested for continuous sexual abuse of a child under 14 in Henderson County.
On Feb. 10, an investigator with the Henderson County Sheriff’s Office’s Crimes Against Children Task Force was shown a forensic interview of a child at the Maggie’s House children’s advocacy center in Athens.
According to arrest documents obtained by KETK, the child was interviewed after they made an outcry at school which was reported to Child Protective Services. The child said they had earned a dollar bill by “doing something nice” to a man named Ian. Continue reading Kemp man charged with sexual abuse
EAST TEXAS — As severe weather hits East Texas, several school districts have announced that they will be closing or delaying classes on Tuesday to ensure students and staff remain safe. Click here for the list.
(WASHINGTON) -- America's closest neighbors, Canada and Mexico, excoriated President Donald Trump for slapping historic tariffs on goods from their countries.
Trump's broad tariffs went into effect on Tuesday, along with increased duties on goods from China, a move that prompted a swift retaliation from Beijing.
"President Trump continues to demonstrate his commitment to ensuring U.S. trade policy serves the national interest," the White House said in a statement.
Goods entering the U.S. from Mexico and Canada will carry a 25% tariff, while those from China will be subject to a 10% increase on existing tariffs, according to the White House.
U.S. tariffs are at their highest level since 1943, Yale's Budget Lab said.
On Feb. 27, Trump alleged that illicit drugs such as fentanyl had continued to enter the U.S. through Mexico and Canada despite agreements reached last month to address the issue.
Since September, nearly all fentanyl seized by the U.S. came through the Southern border with Mexico, according to the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol, or CBP, a federal agency. Less than 1% of fentanyl was seized at the Northern border with Canada, CBP found.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sharply criticized the tariffs, calling them a "dumb" policy that does not "make sense."
The reason for the tariffs is based on a false allegation about Canada as a major source of drugs entering the U.S., Trudeau added.
"It’s an example of [Trump] not really being able to see what it is that he wants, because even the excuse that he’s giving for these tariffs today of fentanyl is completely bogus, completely unjustified [and] completely false," Trudeau said.
Trudeau also slammed Trump for warming relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin in discussions about the Russia-Ukraine war. "They've chosen to do this while appeasing Putin," Trudeau said.
In response, Canada slapped a 25% retaliatory tariff on $30 billion worth of goods. Tariffs on an additional $125 billion worth of products will take effect in 21 says, Trudeau said.
"We will not back down from a fight," Trudeau added, saying Canadians would punish the U.S. with their pocketbooks.
"We are going to stop consuming American products," Trudeau said, pointing to public anger spotlighted at recent sporting events during which Canadians booed the U.S. national anthem. "We are going to continue to boo the U.S. anthem. We aren't booing the America people -- just this unjust policy."
Ontario Premier Doug Ford, who leads the nation's most populous province, said his government could end a contract with Elon Musk-owned satellite internet service Starlink and shut off power to the U.S.
"We will retool for new markets and new customers," Ford said.
Hours after Trudeau's remarks, Trump vowed to impose additional tariffs in response to Canada's countermeasures.
"Please explain to Governor Trudeau, of Canada, that when he puts on a Retaliatory Tariff on the U.S., our Reciprocal Tariff will immediately increase by a like amount!" Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
Meanwhile, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum announced plans to impose retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods.
Sheinbaum rebuked remarks made by Trump on Monday alleging that "vast amounts of fentanyl" have entered the U.S. from Mexico. Sheinbaum cited CBP data showing that seizures of fentanyl from Mexico declined 50% between October 2024 and January 2025.
"There is no motive or reason, nor justification that supports this decision that will affect our people and our nations," Sheinbaum said. "We have said it in different ways: cooperation and coordination, yes; subordination and interventionism, no."
Sheinbaum said she will speak over the phone with Trump on Thursday, and if no deal can be reached, she’ll announce the tariff and non-tariff measures at a rally on Sunday.
China's response
Within minutes of the new U.S. tariffs taking effect, China unveiled on Tuesday its initial response by placing additional 10% to 15% tariffs on imported U.S. goods, like chicken, wheat, soybeans and beef.
Those duties will be on top of similar tariffs imposed back during the first Trump administration’s trade war in 2018. Some of those tariffs are already at 25%, though Beijing issued some waivers as a result of the 2020 "phase one" trade deal.
The new Chinese tariffs are set to come into effect for goods shipped out next Monday, March 10.
Stock prices tumble
A see-saw trading session on Tuesday ended with stocks having fallen markedly.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 670 points, or 1.5%; while the S&P 500 fell 1.2%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq ticked down 0.3%.
Shares of retail giant Target fell 3% on Tuesday, following an earnings release from the company that cited "tariff uncertainty" as a potential impediment for the business. Walmart's stock price dipped about 2.5% on Tuesday, while Amazon shares inched down 0.6%.
Shares of Best Buy plummeted more than 13%. The sharp drop came after Best Buy CEO told analysts that price increases are "highly likely" as a result of the tariffs.
Higher costs for car production could also pose a challenge for U.S. automakers, many of which depend on a supply chain closely intertwined with Mexico and Canada.
Shares of Ford tumbled nearly 3% on Tuesday, while General Motors dropped about 4.5%. Stellantis -- the parent company of Jeep and Chrysler -- saw shares decline more than 4%.
United Autoworkers, which represents workers at Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, applauded the tariffs as a means of preventing carmakers from replacing U.S. workers with low-paid employees abroad.
"Corporations have been driving a non-stop race to the bottom by killing good blue-collar jobs in America to go exploit some poor worker in another country by paying poverty wages," UAW said in a statement to ABC News.
"Tariffs are a powerful tool in the toolbox for undoing the injustice of anti-worker trade deals," UAW added. "We are glad to see an American president take aggressive action on ending the free trade disaster that has dropped like a bomb on the working class."
ABC News' Zunaira Zaki and Anne Laurent contributed to this report.
(LONDON) -- President Donald Trump directed his administration to "pause" all military aid to Ukraine, two White House officials told ABC News on Monday, following last week's combative Oval Office meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and with Trump pressuring Kyiv into accepting a peace deal to end Russia's invasion of the country.
The freeze in American aid poses a severe strategic problem for Ukraine, which has become reliant on military and economic support from its Western partners as it tries to repel Russia's three-year-old invasion and stave off President Vladimir Putin's push for a peace deal beneficial to Moscow. Experts say Ukraine and its European partners now produce most of the weaponry destined for the battlefield. But there are crucial American systems that Kyiv will struggle to replace.
In his first comments following Trump's announcement, Zelenskyy -- while not commenting directly on the aid pause -- said Ukraine is ready to come back to the table and sign the minerals deal "in any time and in any convenient format."
"None of us wants an endless war. Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer," Zelenskyy said in a statement. "Nobody wants peace more than Ukrainians. My team and I stand ready to work under President Trump's strong leadership to get a peace that lasts."
"We do really value how much America has done to help Ukraine maintain its sovereignty and independence. And we remember the moment when things changed when President Trump provided Ukraine with Javelins. We are grateful for this," Zelenskyy continued, in part.
Regarding the Oval Office meeting last week, the Ukrainian leader said it "did not go the way it was supposed to be. It is regrettable that it happened this way. It is time to make things right. We would like future cooperation and communication to be constructive."
Later Tuesday in his evening address, Zelenskyy again said he "regretted" what took place in the Oval Office last week, saying he instructed his deputies to reopen diplomatic channels with their U.S. counterparts to get clarification on the aid pause. "People should not be left to guess. Ukraine and America deserve a respectful dialogue, a clear position from each other. Especially when it comes to the protection of lives in a time of full-scale war," he said, in part.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov expressed optimism about the aid announcement in an interview with state-run Russian TV, saying: "If this is really so, and if these supplies are suspended or stopped, then the Kyiv regime will lose most of all the ammunition, all the equipment, all the intelligence data, and, perhaps, without indulging in excessive optimism, we can modestly hope that this may prompt the Kyiv regime to lean toward attempts to resolve the situation by peaceful means."
Oleksandr Merezhko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament and the chair of the body's foreign affairs committee, told ABC News that "it's shocking."
"Until the last moment I hoped that Trump wouldn't do it because he wants to be popular and such a move would definitely cause a backlash," he said. "Trump is helping Putin to kill Ukrainians."
A Ukrainian intelligence official told ABC News that the first real effects of the freeze of U.S. military aid will be felt in about two weeks. The most serious difficulties will come in June or July, when ammunition shortages will bite, they said.
The official called the freeze a "black day" for Ukraine and for Europe. European countries, they said, now need to fully open their stocks to Kyiv in order to fill the gap being left by the U.S.
A White House official told ABC News that Trump has been clear that he is focused on peace. "We need our partners to be committed to that goal as well," they said. "We are pausing and reviewing our aid to ensure that it is contributing to a solution."
"It looks like Trump is trying to make a deal with Russia over the heads of Ukraine and Europe at the cost of Ukraine," Merezhko said. "He doesn't apply leverage over the aggressor but is trying to force the victim, the weaker party, to accept demands of the aggressor."
"If Trump has a different plan in mind he should have at least talked to Zelenskyy about it behind closed doors, which never happened," the lawmaker added.
Fellow member of parliament Oleksiy Goncharenko told Sky News that "thousands of people will die" due to the "catastrophic" decision.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmyhal told a press conference that Kyiv is "working to ensure the support of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. We are grateful to the United States and the American people, who have supported and continue to support Ukraine for the past three years. Today, that support continues."
"We will calmly continue our work with the U.S. -- with Congress and the Trump administration -- to continue the fight for a stable, lasting peace," Shmyhal added. "Ukraine is firmly committed to continuing cooperation. I am confident that support from the U.S. will continue. We are looking for ways for pragmatic cooperation and are ready to sign, including an agreement on minerals."
Allied leaders and officials -- already mobilizing to provide more aid and political backing for Ukraine in response to the Trump administration's skepticism -- also expressed concern over the White House decision.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said Tuesday that "our responsibility as Europeans and our duty to the French is to do everything we can, as the prime minister said earlier, to allow the Ukrainian resistance to hold the front."
Benjamin Haddad, the French minister delegate for Europe, said the pause to U.S. aid "means moving peace further away." He added, "To end the war, pressure must be put on the aggressor, Russia," suggesting European nations must now mobilize to fill the gap left by the U.S.
"We need the Americans militarily," Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen said during a Chatham House think tank event in London on Tuesday when asked about the aid pause. "On the battlefield, Russia has not really been advancing in recent months," she added. "This definitely shouldn't be a moment where we give in."
In Russia, meanwhile, Peskov told journalists, "It is obvious that the U.S. has been the main supplier of this war so far," as quoted by the state-run TASS news agency. "If the U.S. stops being one or suspends supplies, this will probably be the best contribution to the cause of peace," Peskov said.
Two officials familiar with the matter told ABC News that around 90% of the military equipment committed to Ukraine by past Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA) packages have already been delivered to the country.
That includes the vast majority of critical munitions and anti-armor systems -- such as Javelin anti-tank weapons -- they said, adding that most of what is still in the pipeline are armored vehicles that take longer to refurbish. Those were expected to be ready for delivery in the coming months, with all PDA equipment previously on track for delivery by August 2025.
A steady flow of arms is still set to move from the U.S. to Ukraine for at least the next several years thanks to contracts Kyiv signed with private American companies for newly produced weapons.
Many -- if not most -- of those contracts have been paid. The Trump administration could still attempt to disrupt those shipments through the use of emergency authorities, but there is currently no indication it is trying to do so.
Exactly what equipment earmarked for Ukraine will now be frozen in place is not clear.
Among former President Joe Biden's final four PDA packages announced in December and January -- collectively worth some $3 billion -- were missiles and support equipment for Ukraine's U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets, rockets for use by American-made HIMARS systems, artillery munitions and surface-to-air missiles for Ukrainian air defense batteries.
The most immediate impacts of the U.S. freeze will on air defense, leaving Ukrainian forces and cities more exposed to Russian drones and missiles, the Ukrainian intelligence official said. There will also be a lack of HIMARS long-range rocket artillery, which Ukraine has no analogue for.
Ukraine will start to experience potentially serious artillery ammunition shortages by mid-summer, they said, which will weaken the defense line. The official said this could even increase the risk of a Russian breakthrough.
The official also warned that the freeze could trigger a political crisis in Ukraine by increasing tensions within the country.
Malcolm Chalmers, the deputy director-general of the Royal United Services Institute think tank in the U.K., told ABC News that recent estimates indicate the U.S. share of all military hardware sent to the front has fallen to around 20%, with 25% coming from Europe and 55% domestically produced in Ukraine.
But the 20% accounted for by the U.S. "is the most lethal and important," Chalmers said. "Ukraine will not collapse -- they already experienced an aid cutoff last year. But the effect will be cumulative."
The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War suggested that the suspension of U.S. aid will encourage Putin "to continue to increase his demands and fuel his conviction that he can achieve total victory through war."
Mykola Bieleskov, an analyst at Ukraine's National Institute for Strategic Studies, told ABC News that Ukraine can keep fighting at the current tempo for six months to a year while Europe and Kyiv try to ramp up production to fill the gap.
A member of Ukraine's parliamentary defense committee, Fedir Venislavskyi, told Ukrainian media that Kyiv has a resilience reserve of about six months -- even without systematic support from the U.S.
Still, Venislavskyi said the situation will be complicated by any freeze in U.S. aid, adding that work is currently underway to find alternative sources of supply for critically important weaponry.
ABC News' Rachel Scott, Michelle Stoddart, Shannon Kingston, Luis Martinez and Joe Simonetti contributed to this report.
(MEXICO CITY) --- There is only one gun store in the entire country of Mexico, yet America's southern neighbor is awash in violent crimes perpetrated with millions of firearms made in the United States.
In a historic case on Tuesday, the Supreme Court will consider whether American gun manufacturers, including Smith & Wesson, Glock, Beretta and Colt, can be held liable for allegedly "aiding and abetting" the illicit flow of weapons across the border.
The high court has never before taken up the issue of the sweeping gunmaker immunity found in a 2005 federal law aimed at protecting the industry. Its decision could have a significant impact on firearm companies and the victims of gun violence pursuing accountability.
The government of Mexico is seeking $10 billion in damages and court-mandated safety mechanisms and sales restrictions for U.S.-made guns. The justices will decide whether the case can move forward under an exception in the law.
"Between 70-90% of the crime guns in Mexico are illegally trafficked from the U.S.," said Jonathan Lowy, an attorney representing the Mexican government. "Essentially, Mexico's gun problem and the problem of armed cartel violence is almost entirely a result of this crime -- a gun pipeline from the U.S. gun manufacturers ultimately to the cartels."
The Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act of 2005 broadly bars lawsuits against any gun manufacturer over the illegal acts of a person using one of a manufacturer's guns. But it does create an exception for claims involving a gun company's alleged violation of rules governing the sale and marketing of firearms.
Mexico alleges the manufacturers have for years knowingly marketed and distributed their weapons to border community dealers who participate in illegal gun trafficking into Mexico.
"The law is clear that any person or company can be responsible for the foreseeable consequences of their actions and, in this case, of their deliberate actions," Lowy said.
The gun companies, which declined ABC News' request for an interview, said in court documents that the exception does not apply and the case should be dismissed, in part, because the alleged link to crimes in Mexico is too diffuse and far removed.
"Mexico's alleged injuries all stem from the unlawful acts of foreign criminals," the gun companies argued in their Supreme Court brief.
The court has "repeatedly held that it requires a direct connection between a defendant's conduct and the plaintiff's injury," the companies claimed. "Thus, the general rule is that a company that makes or sells a lawful product is not a proximate cause of harms resulting from the independent criminal misuse of that product."
More than 160,000 people in Mexico were killed by guns between 2015 and 2022, according to an analysis by Everytown for Gun Safety.
A large majority of guns involved in the shootings came from U.S. border states. More than 40% of illegal guns seized in Mexico over a five-year period came from Texas, according to a U.S. Government Accountability Office report.
In 2023 alone, more than 2,600 firearms were seized going south into Mexico, up 65% from the year before, according to the Department of Homeland Security, and 115,000 rounds of ammunition were captured headed the same direction, up 19% from 2022.
"In its zeal to attack the firearms industry, Mexico seeks to raze bedrock principles of American law that safeguard the whole economy," the companies wrote in their brief. "It is the criminal who is responsible for his actions, not the company that made or sold the product."
A federal district court dismissed Mexico's case in 2022 citing the PLCAA protections. The 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that decision in early 2024, saying Mexico had made a plausible case for liability under the law's exception.
The Supreme Court will decide whether to affirm that judgment and allow the case to continue toward what would be a first-of-its-kind trial.
Mexico, in the meantime, announced it will expand its lawsuit after the Trump administration designated six Mexican cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations.
"You will also see an expansion of this lawsuit for the complicity of those who sell weapons, which are [then] introduced into our country," Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum told reporters last month.
In essence, Mexico will argue that American gun manufacturers aren't just enabling ordinary gun crime but terrorism, by the U.S. government's own characterization.
The Supreme Court is expected to deliver an opinion in the case, Smith & Wesson Brands v. Estados Unidos Mexicanos, by the end of June.
ABC News' Matt Rivers and Patty See contributed to this report.
North Korean defector Ryu Seong-hyeon in Seoul, South Korea. (ABC News)
(SEOUL) -- A former sergeant in the North Korean military says that few of Pyongyang's soldiers have been captured fighting against Ukraine because they're told their families will be executed if they are caught alive.
"Most soldiers will kill themselves before they're killed by the enemy, it's the biggest shame to be captured," the former soldier, Ryu Seong-hyeon, told ABC News.
Ryu defected to South Korea in 2019, running across a minefield in the demilitarized zone that separates the two Koreas.
Pyongyang has deployed more than 12,000 soldiers to Russia to fight in the Ukraine war, according to US estimates, with experts claiming Russian forces have also used North Korean weapons.
An estimated 300 North Korean soldiers have died in the fighting, and over 2,700 have been wounded, Seoul's National Intelligence Service told lawmakers in a closed briefing last week.
Pyongyang has deployed more than 12,000 soldiers to Russia to fight in the Ukraine war, according to US estimates, with experts claiming Russian forces have also used North Korean weapons.
An estimated 300 North Korean soldiers have died in the fighting, and over 2,700 have been wounded, Seoul's National Intelligence Service told lawmakers in a closed briefing last week.
South Korea's spy agency told journalists Thursday that an unknown number of additional North Korean soldiers have been sent to the frontlines in Russia's western Kursk region since early February, after a near month-long lull in fighting against Ukrainian troops, who launched a surprise offensive across the border last August.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced in January that his forces had captured two North Korean soldiers, marking the first time that Ukraine had captured Pyongyang's troops alive.
In a nearly 3-minute video released by Ukraine following the capture of the two North Korean troops, one of the soldiers says he wants to remain in Ukraine when asked if he wishes to return home. The Korean translator asks, "Did you know you were fighting in a war against Ukraine?" The soldier shakes his head.
South Korean intelligence assessed that the two soldiers were with the Reconnaissance General Bureau, a key North Korean military intelligence agency.
"If the soldiers are captured and tell information to the enemy, their families will be punished, go to a political prison camp, or worse, they will be executed in front of the people," said another North Korean defector, Pak Yusung.
'They just die like a dog'
Pyongyang's soldiers have struggled to adapt to the modern battlefield, the North Korean defectors suggested, as videos released by the Ukrainian military appear to show North Korean soldiers being chased down by attack drones.
Ryu and Pak defected long before the fighting that's underway in Russia, but they said that, in their experience, most of the soldiers would not have seen a drone in their life.
"Before they go they don't have any practice in how to defend against a drone or how to fight Ukrainians, that's why they just die like a dog," Ryu said. "They don't have the skill, the language or the information."
Pak and Ryu's analysis lines up with information released by South Korean intelligence, which said North Korea has clearly instructed the soldiers to kill themselves to avoid being captured alive.
Seoul's spy agency also said it attributes the "massive casualties" of North Korean soldiers to their "lack of understanding of modern warfare," including their "useless" act of shooting at long-range drones, based on the agency's analysis of a recent combat video.
Ryu, who was about 110 lbs. at the time of his defection, said if he were still a North Korean soldier, he would also want to go: "If I went to Ukraine, I could eat food, and I could see another country." He said there are also big financial incentives, and the soldiers would have no idea that their chances of dying were so high.
Selling lies
Ryu and Pak said North Korean soldiers were being sold a lie. "From a young age they're told to hate the American 'wolves', and now they are told they are finally killing Americans," the defectors said.
Ryu said in his experience with the Korean air force, about 50% of the pilots were only trained in theory, and did not have experience flying a fighter jet.
Pak, who is a researcher at the North Korea Institute, said Kim would be receiving critical technology in exchange for the manpower, in what should be a deeply worrying sign for the world, Kim also gets more real combat experience in case of a war on the peninsula.
"If Russia wins the war, it will empower the dictator alliance," Pak said.
"This is just the start. If the Ukraine war keeps going, Kim will keep sending soldiers. Inside North Korea more people will start knowing and that could be a threat to Kim."
When asked what they could possibly do about it when living in a dictatorship controlled by fear, Pak said, "Think about it: your sons died on the battlefield and not for your own country."
Ryu added, "You cannot send so many people to the labor camps."
Pak and his team of four North Korean defectors, Voices of North Korean Youth, have been trying to push the international community to condemn Russia and North Korea with one voice, and also called for the International Criminal Court to hold Kim Jong Un accountable.
(ROME and LONDON) -- Pope Francis' condition remained stable on Tuesday, and his prognosis remains reserved, according to the Vatican.
The pope had needed medical intervention amid two episodes of "acute respiratory failure" on Monday, Vatican sources told ABC News.
The pope did not have any episodes of respiratory failure or bronchospasm on Tuesday, according to the Vatican.
Pope Francis has remained "alert, cooperating with therapy and oriented," the Vatican's press office, the Holy See, said. He underwent "high-flow oxygen therapy and respiratory physiotherapy" on Tuesday, the Vatican said.
He will resume noninvasive mechanical ventilation overnight and into Wednesday morning, "as planned," according to the Vatican.
The pope, 88, was taken off noninvasive mechanical ventilation and resumed receiving supplemental oxygen through a nasal tube, Vatican sources said Tuesday. He was no longer wearing a mechanical ventilation mask, a device that pumped oxygen into his lungs, the sources said.
The Holy See had earlier on Tuesday said the pontiff "slept all night" and that "now he continues his rest."
The episodes on Monday were caused by a "significant accumulation of endobronchial mucus and consequent bronchospasm," the Vatican said.
According to doctors, acute respiratory failure indicates the pope was not responding to oxygen therapy. Endobronchial mucus means there is mucus and fluid in the deep parts of the lung or lungs, causing a bronchospasm, also known as a coughing attack, doctors said.
The pope's prognosis "remains reserved," the Vatican said in its Monday evening update.
Francis, who has led the Catholic Church since 2013, was admitted to Rome's Gemelli Hospital on Feb. 14 and was diagnosed with bilateral pneumonia. The pontiff had a bronchospasm attack on Friday, church officials said.
ABC News' Youri Benadjaoud contributed to this report.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Chip giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. plans to invest $100 billion in the United States, President Donald Trump said Monday, on top of $65 billion in investments the company had previously announced.
TSMC, the world’s biggest semiconductor manufacturer, produces chips for companies including Apple, Intel and Nvidia. The company had already begun constructing three plants in Arizona after the Biden administration offered billions in subsidies. Its first factory in Arizona has started mass production of its 4-nanometer chips.
Trump, who appeared with TSMC’s chief executive officer C. C. Wei at the White House, called it a “tremendous move” and “a matter of economic security.”
“Semiconductors are the backbone of the 21st century economy. And really, without the semiconductors, there is no economy,” the president said. “Powering everything from AI to automobiles to advanced manufacturing, we must be able to build the chips and semiconductors that we need right here in American factories with Americans skill and American labor.”
Wei said the investment will be for three more chip manufacturing plants, along with two packaging facilities, in Arizona.
The $165 billion investment “is going to create thousands of high-paying jobs,” Wei said.
Former President Joe Biden in 2022 signed a sweeping $280 billion law, the CHIPS and Science Act, to try to reinvigorate chip manufacturing in the U.S., especially after the COVID-19 pandemic.
During the pandemic, chip factories, especially those overseas making the majority of processors, shut down. It had a ripple effect that led to wider problems, such as automobile factory assembly lines shutting down and fueled inflation.
Trump has criticized the law and taken a different approach, instead threatening to impose high tariffs on imported chips to bring chip manufacturing back to the U.S.
Trump also has said companies like TSMC do not need federal tax incentives.
At the Commerce Department, 40 people who worked on the implementation of the Chips Act were fired Monday as part of the Trump administration’s sweeping moves to cut the size of the federal workforce, according to a person familiar with the move who was not authorized to speak publicly.
When asked if the new investment could minimize impact on the U.S. should China either isolate or seize Taiwan, Trump said he couldn’t say “minimize” because “that would be a catastrophic event obviously.”
Taiwan is an island that broke away from mainland China in 1949 following a civil war. Beijing claims sovereignty over the island and has ratcheted up military and diplomatic pressure on its leaders.
“It will at least give us a position where we have, in this very, very important business, we would have a very big part of it in the United States,” Trump said of the chip manufacturing.
He did not say if the investment would provide security for the self-governed island that Beijing considers to be part of Chinese territory.
Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office, the island’s de-facto embassy in the United States, said investments by Taiwanese businesses in the U.S. have exceeded 40% of the island’s total foreign investments and that the Taiwanese government is “glad” to see Taiwanese businesses to expand investments in the U.S. and to deep cooperation on supply chain between the two sides.
“It also brings the economic and trade relations closer,” the office said.
Bonnie Glaser, managing director of the Indo-Pacific program at German Marshall Fund of the U.S., said Taipei is hoping the increased investment pledge will help keep the U.S.-Taiwan relationship strong. “Taiwan is evidently stepping up in a way that supports and advanced President Trump’s priorities,” she said. “The US will benefit greatly from TSMC’s investment.”
Trump has yet to indicate his stance on U.S. support for Taiwan’s security since he took office, and he has said Taiwan should pay the U.S. for its military defense.
Trump has hosted multiple business leaders at the White House since he took office in January to tout a series of investments that aim to demonstrate his leadership is a boon for the U.S. economy. He’s also pointed to the tariff threats as prodding the investments.
“It’s the incentive we’ve created. Or the negative incentive,” Trump said.
In January, he appeared with the heads of OpenAI, Oracle and SoftBank at the White House as they announced plans for a new partnership to invest up to $500 billion for infrastructure tied to artificial intelligence. He also announced in January a $20 billion investment by DAMAC Properties in the United Arab Emirates to build data centers tied to AI.
Last week, after Apple CEO Tim Cook met with Trump at the White House, the company announced plans to invest more than $500 billion in the U.S. over the next four years, including plans for a new server factory in Texas. Trump said after their meeting that Cook promised him Apple’s manufacturing would shift from Mexico to the U.S.
“I don’t have time to do all of these announcements,” Trump joked Monday as he listed some of the other investments.
The Wall Street Journal first reported the planned announcement Monday.
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Associated Press writers Josh Boak and Chris Megerian contributed to this report. Price reported from New York.
Last-minute problems forced a launch delay Monday for SpaceX’s mega rocket Starship, attempting a comeback following an explosion on the last test flight.
The countdown got down to the 40-second mark, but it was halted because of issues with the 403-foot (123-meter) rocket, the world’s largest and most powerful.
Starship was supposed to blast off from the southern tip of Texas with four mock satellites on board for a space-skimming test flight. If the problems can be fixed quickly, another launch attempt could come Tuesday, according to SpaceX.
The last Starship demo ended in an explosion over the Atlantic in January, with flaming debris streaming over the Turks and Caicos.
Starship has already been booked by NASA for astronaut moon landings later this decade. SpaceX’s Elon Musk intends to use the mammoth rockets to settle Mars.
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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Officials rushed to reschedule Mardi Gras celebrations and warned revelers against brining umbrellas and tents as powerful storms with a threat of tornadoes were expected to strike Louisiana and other parts of the South on Tuesday.
New Orleans moved up its two biggest Mardi Gras Day parades and cut down their routes to try to avoid the potentially destructive weather. Police were also expected to keep the hundreds of participants and dozens of floats moving quickly so they finished before winds were predicted to pick up, according to New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick.
The alarming forecast was one of the first big tests for the National Weather Service after hundreds of forecasters were fired last week as part of President Donald Trump’s moves to slash the size of the federal government. Former employees said the firing of meteorologists who make crucial local forecasts across the U.S. could put lives at risk.
Country faces a number of weather threats
The U.S. was facing multiple weather threats, including dust storms that brought near-zero visibility to parts of New Mexico and west Texas on Monday, prompting the National Weather Service to issue Dust Storm Warnings. “Widespread blowing dust” was expected Tuesday, said the weather service office covering Midland and Odessa, Texas.
The week’s strong weather system will bring “a threat of blizzard conditions, high winds, flash flooding, severe weather, dust storms, and critical to extreme fire weather conditions to the nation’s heartland,” according to a weather service update Monday.
On Tuesday, twisters, damaging winds and large hail were all possible as a strong storm system was set to move across the nation’s midsection into Arkansas, Louisiana and Mississippi, the federal Storm Prediction Center warned.
The bullseye for a heightened risk of severe weather was an area stretching from east Texas to Alabama that’s home to more than 7 million people. Cities under threat included Baton Rouge and Shreveport in Louisiana; Jackson, Mississippi; and Mobile, Alabama.
New Orleans braces for severe weather during Mardi Gras
The New Orleans area was also preparing for strong storms, though Fat Tuesday’s traditionally raucous annual rite of parades of floats and costumed merrymakers remained scheduled to hit the streets, with some changes still being worked out by authorities and leaders of “krewes” — social clubs that organize the parades.
Kirkpatrick ordered parade-goers to not bring umbrellas, tents or “anything that could fly in the wind and cause mayhem.” She warned that she may need to cancel the parades at the last minute if the weather gets worse.
“I hold that trump card in which I will not hesitate to cancel — I won’t do it lightly, but I will do it,” she said.
Two other parades that had been scheduled to roll through the city later on Tuesday with nearly 200 truck floats were postponed, Kirkpatrick said.
Just outside New Orleans in neighboring Jefferson Parish, officials canceled planned Mardi Gras Day parades due to anticipated high winds and thunderstorms.
“This is disappointing, but our top priority is ensuring the well-being of everyone in our community, and we must always prioritize safety above all else,” Jefferson Parish President Cynthia Lee Sheng said in a statement.
Mardi Gras floats “could become unstable” and heavy winds could “blow down trees and power lines,” the National Weather Service warned, adding gusts of up to 60 mph (97 kph) were expected Tuesday afternoon.
In Pointe Coupee Parish, near Louisiana’s capital city of Baton Rouge, the incoming weather forced drastic changes to one of the oldest Mardi Gras celebrations in the state. The parade there was scheduled to roll without any bands, marching teams or dance groups — a staple of Carnival Season parades.
Officials also moved the parade start time up and urged residents to immediately remove all tents and trash after the parade ends “due to the dangers they can present during weather.”
Other cities with Mardi Gras parades watching forecasts
Elsewhere, large crowds were expected Tuesday for Mardi Gras celebrations in Mobile, Alabama. Police there said they were continuing to monitor the forecast and would let the public know if plans for the celebration changed.
Other cities hosting large Mardi Gras events included Biloxi, Mississippi, where an annual Mardi Gras parade was scheduled to start at 1 p.m. Tuesday.
In downtown Pensacola in the Florida Panhandle, organizers were planning a Big Easy-style Mardi Gras festival that included food trucks, dancing, live entertainment and a low country seafood boil.
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Martin reported from Atlanta. Associated Press writers Sara Cline in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Freida Frisaro in Miami and Susan Montoya Bryan in Albuquerque, New Mexico, contributed.
Programming Note: President Trump Addresses Joint Session of Congress – KTBB 97.5 FM and FOX News Radio will provide full coverage of President Trump’s Address to a Joint Session of Congress tonight, March 4, 2025. Coverage will be anchored by FOX News Radio’s Jared Halpern and Jessica Rosenthal, joined by a host of reporters, commentators, and FOX News Radio Political Analyst Josh Kraushaar. Coverage begin at 7:05pm. Also available on our Listen Live page and mobile app.
HAWKINS – According to our news partner KETK, a special city council meeting to discuss the reinstatement of three Hawkins Police Department officers ended in disagreement on Monday and the vote to re-hire them was called off. In Monday’s meeting, there were multiple motions on the floor to vote to grant the appeal and immediately reinstate the terminated officers, but the mayor refused to call the motions to a vote. Mayor Debbie Rushing repeatedly said it was an “out of order motion.”
According to the city’s ordinance, the council is required to vote on new police officers, which did not happen in the case of these officers. The police officers who were terminated are David Morris, Dale Lundberg and Vernon Polk.
MINEOLA — Texas Republicans are making moves that they say will protect teachers. A bill filed by State Senator Bryan Hughes, of Mineola, would give protection to school workers who are facing complaints from transgender students, upset over being misidentified in the classroom. He says teachers should not be pressured to support something that conflicts with their deeply held religious beliefs.
