I remember Christmas Eve 1968 like no other Christmas Eve in my life. I was a young boy at the time. Apollo 8, the first ever manned space mission to leave Earth orbit, was orbiting the moon.
The world was following the story, and more than a billion people worldwide were watching that Christmas Eve as the crew conducted a live telecast from the Apollo command module.
As the telecast was concluding, astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders stunned the world when they began reading from the first chapter of the Book of Genesis. Aside from Borman, Lovell and Anders themselves, no one knew it was coming. Not NASA management. Not the flight controllers in the Mission Operations Control Room. It was a complete surprise.
And it had seismic impact.
That telling of the creation story – by men who were experiencing a perspective on creation in a way like no human in all of history – was riveting. And in that moment – the end of the awful year 1968 in which the Vietnam War raged, riots plagued major American cities and Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy were both assassinated – was somehow yet redeemed.
As the story goes, when the crew returned home to Houston, mission commander Frank Borman received a telegram from an anonymous sender saying simply, “Thank you. You saved 1968.”
Fifty-eight years later, and for the first time since December 1972, a manned American mission is again on its way to the moon on a mission profile remarkably similar to that of Apollo 8. Apollo 8 flew 10 orbits around the moon to test the spacecraft in deep space and to validate navigation, crew systems and reentry and recovery procedures – all with an eye toward a future lunar landing mission.
Three American astronauts and one Canadian astronaut are aboard the Artemis II mission in a spacecraft that borrows heavily from the Apollo flight hardware and their mission objectives are nearly identical. The only real difference is that Artemis will slingshot around the moon and immediately head back home, rather than decelerating into lunar orbit.
Though a creation story moment is unlikely on this mission, I nevertheless hope that a successful mission might restore some pride in American accomplishment. Great nations dare to do great things purely for greatness’s sake.
In the 1960s, the world was watching the United States and the Soviet Union – two nations with diametrically opposed views regarding individual and economic freedom – to see which of the two could muster the political, scientific and engineering resources necessary to lead the way in space.
Six decades later, the contest is between the United States and China. And again, the world is watching to see which nation will emerge as the leader.
It mattered then. It matters now. A nation’s prestige has a great deal to do with its ability to shape world events.
Apollo 8 had its detractors, and this mission does, too.
But most of us “got it.” I pray that we “get it” again.
Iraqi Shiite militia groups organize a military parade as part of the 'World Quds Day' events in Baghdad, Iraq, March 28, 2025. (Anadolu via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) -- U.S. officials have issued a new warning to Americans still in Iraq, advising them to leave the country immediately as Iraqi terrorist militia groups aligned with Iran may "intend to conduct attacks" in central Baghdad.
"U.S. citizens should leave Iraq now," said the alert issued on Thursday by the United States Embassy and Consulate in Iraq, which has previously issued warnings for Americans to leave the country due to security risks.
The new alert comes as the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran has entered its second month.
The security alert also came just days after an American journalist, Shelly Kittleson, was kidnapped in broad daylight on a busy street in Baghdad, allegedly by an Iran-linked militia group.
"Iraqi terrorist militia groups aligned with Iran may intend to conduct attacks in central Baghdad in the next 24-48 hours," the U.S. Embassy's alert said.
The embassy's statement added that Iran and Iran-aligned terrorist militias have already conducted "widespread attacks against U.S. citizens and targets associated with the United States throughout Iraq, including the Iraqi Kurdistan Region."
The alert cautioned Americans to be aware that militia groups "may claim to be associated with the Iraqi government."
"Terrorists may carry identification denoting their status as Iraqi government employees," according to the alert.
In addition to U.S. citizens, terrorist militias might also target businesses, universities, diplomatic facilities, energy infrastructure, hotels, airports and "other locations perceived to be associated with the United States," according to the alert.
While telling U.S. citizens to leave the country immediately, U.S. officials also said the only escape routes out of Iraq are overland to Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Turkey because the airspace is closed, preventing commercial airlines from flying out of Iraq.
"Local ground transportation options are functioning. Americans should depart now via one of these overland routes," according to the alert.
For the time being, the U.S. Mission in Iraq remains open. But the alert advised Americans not to go there.
"Do not attempt to come to the Embassy in Baghdad or the Consulate General in Erbil in light of significant security risks," the alert said.
The search for Kittleson, 49, a freelance journalist originally from Wisconsin, continued on Thursday, according to the Iraqi Ministry of Interior.
"We have no answer or explanation," the interior ministry said in a statement on Thursday about Kittleson's abduction.
In a security camera recording verified by ABC News and confirmed by Iraq's interior ministry to show the moment Kittleson was kidnapped on Tuesday, the journalist is seen standing on a sidewalk as a silver car approaches before she is pushed towards the car, which then quickly speeds away.
One suspect alleged to be involved in the kidnapping was arrested when one of the cars fleeing the scene crashed and overturned, according to Iraq's interior ministry. Kittleson had been forced into another car that got away.
Dylan Johnson, assistant secretary of state for global public affairs for the State Department, said in a statement on Wednesday that the suspect has ties to the Iranian-aligned militia group Kataib Hezbollah.
LONGVIEW – After pleading guilty to possessing child pornography, a Longview eye doctor was sentenced to 40 years in the Texas Department of Corrections Institutional Division on Thursday. According to our news partner KETK, 51-year-old August Wallace, was arrested on Oct. 10, 2025, following an investigation that revealed he had sent multiple explicit images of himself to a 16-year-old girl living across the country.
According to John W. Moore, the criminal district attorney of Gregg County, Wallace requested that the girl send explicit pictures of herself, too, while threatening to kill himself if she didn’t. Law enforcement was contacted by the victim’s family after Wallace sent a screenshot of her home and delivered letters to her location.
After being arrested for online solicitation of a minor, a forensic examination found numerous files on his phone that contained explicit or pornographic images of children. Wallace was then additionally charged with possession of child pornography.
Wallace appeared in court on Thursday, receiving his concurrent sentences of 40 years for child pornography and 10 years in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice for online solicitation of a minor.
EL PASO (AP) – A recent inspection at the nation’s largest immigration detention facility found dozens of violations of national standards that potentially exposed detainees to excessive force, disease, and other unsafe conditions.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Office of Detention Oversight performed a congressionally mandated inspection over three days in February at Camp East Montana in El Paso, Texas, according to a report posted online by ICE this week.
The report documents 49 deficiencies, which it defines as violations of detention standards or policies, in areas including the use of force and restraints, security, medical care and more. It was the first inspection released by that office since Camp East Montana was hastily built and opened last summer.
Attorney calls inspection findings ‘scathing’
The number of deficiencies at the camp is highly unusual. The most found in any other inspection by the oversight office so far this year was 13.
“This report is scathing. Camp East Montana gets an F,” said attorney Randall Kallinen, who represents the family of a 36-year-old detainee who died there in January — one of at least three deaths since its opening. “It’s very dangerous. Not only are the detainees in danger of excessive force, they are also in danger of improper or negligent medical care and mental health care, as well as danger from other detainees.”
The report comes as ICE’s parent agency, the Department of Homeland Security, is pausing the purchase of warehouses intended to house up to 7,000 or more immigrants at a single location. ICE data through Feb. 5 shows that Camp East Montana has been the largest detention site, housing nearly 3,000 detainees per day, the majority of whom are men who have not been convicted of crimes.
The inspection was conducted before ICE moved last month to replace the prime contractor, Acquisition Logistics LLC, amid intense scrutiny over conditions at Camp East Montana. The company had been awarded a contract worth up to $1.3 billion to build and operate the camp, even though it had no experience in the field. The company and its president, Ken Wagner, didn’t respond to messages seeking comment.
Lawmaker calls ICE ‘uninterested’ in improving conditions
A more experienced contractor, Amentum Services, took over operations at Camp East Montana on March 12. A federal database says its nearly $453 million no-bid contract to provide detention, transportation and medical services runs through Sept. 30.
Detainees usually live at Camp East Montana for several days or weeks while they are awaiting deportation or before they are transferred elsewhere.
U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar, an El Paso Democrat who has toured and met with detainees at the facility several times, said the inspection findings were “a drop in the bucket of what is so profoundly wrong with that facility.” She said detainees have consistently complained of medical neglect and other problems.
She said conditions have not improved and wonders whether that is by design to pressure detainees to agree to self-deport.
“ICE is completely uninterested in really creating any change or holding the contractor accountable,” she said.
An ICE spokesperson said the new contract will result in improved medical care, more staff on site and stricter oversight by ICE.
Report documents safety issues
The inspection report documented a series of safety lapses found during Acquisition Logistics’ tenure. Camp staff didn’t document whether they were conducting required checks to prevent self-harm and suicide, which 911 calls show have been a major problem at the facility.
Acquisition Logistics refused to provide information about staffing levels to ICE, which made it impossible to determine whether they were sufficient to maintain security, according to the report. In one instance, a detainee escaped when there was no staff assigned to watch the perimeter fences.
Inspectors found that tools and equipment were “unsecured and unaccounted for throughout the facility” and that staff did not maintain an accurate inventory of its ammunition.
Security guards who used and witnessed the use of force and restraints such as handcuffs failed to file written reports as required in some instances, the report said.
Supervisors also didn’t document their observations, staff failed to record or preserve video recordings in some cases, and the facility did not review incidents afterward to examine whether chemical agents or other types of force were used appropriately.
Medical staff failed to isolate a detainee who had symptoms consistent with tuberculosis, which spreads through the air, and did not notify ICE of the case.
The camp also acted slowly in response to a dozen grievances filed by detainees about medical care, taking between six and 14 business days to respond, the report said.
Despite the problems, the report gave the camp an “acceptable/adequate” rating and recommended ICE work with the new contractor “to resolve the deficiencies that remain outstanding.”
It pushed back on one of the most common complaints from detainees: that the food portions were too meager. It said the food service program, run by subcontractor Disaster Management Group, provided certification from a dietitian that the “average daily caloric provision of the menu” met federal recommendations.
KILGORE – After 50 years, a long-standing mystery at the Kilgore Public Library has finally come to an end.
Since the mid-1970s, the identity of the owl bandit and the location of the wooden “Owl of Wisdom” have remained unknown. The entire city has been curious about who took the owl that once sat at the library’s east entrance.
“In the 1960s, we’d go to the library, study and have things going on, and I remember we all talked about the owl out there. It was just one of those things that was there. Then one day it disappeared,” T. Anderson, a former Kilgore Bulldog, said.
EAST TEXAS — The Gregg County Sheriff’s Office received approval on Tuesday to formally join an ICE task force model, marking a significant advancement one year after its initial partnership with federal immigration authorities. According to our news partner KETK, the sheriff’s office began collaborating with immigration authorities last year by adopting the jail enforcement model in March 2025.
This model trained local officers to identify, process, and initiate removal proceedings against undocumented immigrants who were already in the agency’s jail or detention facility with pending or active criminal charges. All enforcement activities occur within the jail setting.
The newly approved Task Force Model grants officers the authority to exercise limited immigration enforcement while carrying out their routine law enforcement duties. This includes identifying individuals’ immigration status during traffic stops or DUI checkpoints and sharing that information with ICE. Continue reading Another law enforcement agency joins ICE
EL PASO (AP) – The Afghan man had fled the Taliban for refuge in upstate New York when U.S. immigration authorities ordered him deported to Uganda. The Cuban woman was working at a Texas Chick-fil-A when she arrested after a minor traffic accident and told she was being sent to Ecuador.
There’s the Mauritanian man living in Michigan told he’d have to go to Uganda, the Venezuelan mother in Ohio told she’d be sent to Ecuador and the Bolivians, Ecuadorians and so many others across the country ordered sent to Honduras.
They are among more than 13,000 immigrants who were living legally in the U.S., waiting for rulings on asylum claims, when they suddenly faced so-called third-country deportation orders, destined for countries where most had no ties, according to the nonprofit group Mobile Pathways, which pushes for transparency in immigration proceedings.
Yet few have been deported, even as the White House pushes for ever more immigrant expulsions. Thanks to unexplained changes in U.S. policy, many are now mired in immigration limbo, unable to argue their asylum claims in court and unsure if they’ll be shackled and put on a deportation flight to a country they’ve never seen.
Some are in detention, though it’s unclear how many. All have lost permission to work legally, a right most had while pursuing their asylum claims, compounding the worry and dread that has rippled through immigrant communities.
And that may be the point.
“This administration’s goal is to instill fear into people. That’s the primary thing,” said Cassandra Charles, a senior staff attorney with the National Immigration Law Center, which has been fighting the Trump administration’s mass deportation agenda. The fear of being deported to an unknown country could, advocates believe, drive migrants to abandon their immigration cases and decide to return to their home countries.
Things may be changing.
In mid-March, top Immigration and Customs Enforcement legal officials told field attorneys with the Department of Homeland Security in an email to stop filing new motions for third-country deportations tied to asylum cases. The email, which has been seen by The Associated Press, did not give a reason. It has not been publicly released, and DHS did not respond to requests to explain if the halt was permanent.
But the earlier deportation cases? Those are continuing.
An asylum-seeker says she’s in panic over possibly being sent to a country she doesn’t know
In 2024, a Guatemalan woman who says she had been held captive and repeatedly sexually assaulted by members of powerful gang arrived with her 4-year-old daughter at the U.S.-Mexico border and asked for asylum. She later discovered she was pregnant with another child, conceived during a rape.
In December, she sat in a San Francisco immigration courtroom and listened as an ICE attorney sought to have her deported.
The ICE attorney didn’t ask the judge that she be sent back to Guatemala. Instead, the attorney said, the woman from the Indigenous Guatemalan highlands would go to one of three countries: Ecuador, Honduras or across the globe to Uganda.
Until that moment, she’d never heard of Ecuador or Uganda.
“When I arrived in this country, I was filled with hope again and I thanked God for being alive,” the woman said after the hearing, her eyes filling with tears. “When I think about having to go to those other countries, I panic because I hear they are violent and dangerous.” She spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing reprisal from U.S. immigration authorities or the Guatemalan gang network.
There have been more than 13,000 removal orders for asylum-seekers
ICE attorneys, the de facto prosecutors in immigration courts, were first instructed last summer to file motions known as “pretermissions” that end migrants’ asylum claims and allow them to be deported.
“They’re not saying the person doesn’t have a claim,” said Sarah Mehta, who tracks immigration issues at the American Civil Liberties Union. “They’re just saying, ‘We’re kicking this case completely out of court and we’re going to send that person to another country.’”
The pace of deportation orders picked up in October after a ruling from the Justice Department’s Board of Immigration Appeals, which sets legal precedent inside the byzantine immigration court system.
The ruling from the three judges -– two appointed by Attorney General Pam Bondi and the third a holdover from the first Trump administration — cleared the way for migrants seeking asylum to be removed to any third country where the U.S. State Department determines they won’t face persecution or torture.
After the ruling, the government aggressively expanded the practice of ending asylum claims.
More than 13,000 migrants have been ordered deported to so-called “safe third countries” after their asylum cases were canceled, according to data from San Francisco-based Mobile Pathways. More than half the orders were for Honduras, Ecuador or Uganda, with the rest scattered among nearly three dozen other countries.
Deported migrants are free, at least theoretically, to pursue asylum and stay in those third countries, even if some have barely functioning asylum systems.
Deportations have been far more complicated than the government expected
Immigration authorities have released little information about the third-country agreements, known as Asylum Cooperative Agreements, or the deportees, and it’s unclear exactly how many have been deported to third countries as part of asylum removals.
According to Third Country Deportation Watch, a tracker run by the rights groups Refugees International and Human Rights First, fewer than 100 of them are thought to have been deported.
In a statement, DHS called the agreements ”lawful bilateral arrangements that allow illegal aliens seeking asylum in the United States to pursue protection in a partner country that has agreed to fairly adjudicate their claims.”
“DHS is using every lawful tool available to address the backlog and abuse of the asylum system,” said the statement, which was attributed only to a spokesperson. There are roughly 2 million backlogged asylum cases in the immigration system.
But deportations clearly turned out to be far more complicated than the government expected, restricted by a variety of legal challenges, the scope of the international agreements and a limited number of airplanes.
Mobile Pathways data, for example, shows that thousands of people have been ordered deported to Honduras — despite a diplomatic agreement that allows the country to take a total of just 10 such deportees per month for 24 months. Dozens of people ordered to Honduras in recent months did not speak Spanish as their primary language, but were native speakers of English, Uzbek and French, among other languages.
And while hundreds of asylum-seeking migrants have been ordered sent to Uganda, a top Ugandan official said none have arrived. U.S. authorities may be “doing a cost analysis” and trying to avoid dispatching flights with only a few people on board, Okello Oryem, the Ugandan minister of state for foreign affairs, told The Associated Press.
“You can’t be doing one, two people” at a time,” Oryem said. “Planeloads -– that is the most effective way.”
Many immigration lawyers suspect that the March email ordering a halt in new asylum pretermissions could indicate a shift toward other forms of third-country deportations.
“Right now they haven’t been able to remove that many people,” said the ACLU’s Mehta. “I do think that will change.”
“They’re in a hiring spree right now. They will have more planes. If they get more agreements, they’ll be able to send more people to more countries.”
___
Associated Press reporters Garance Burke in San Francisco, Joshua Goodman in Miami, Rodney Muhumuza in Kampala, Uganda, Marlon González in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, and Molly A. Wallace in Chicago contributed to this report.
SMITH COUNTY – Tyler teenagers, Brandon Young, 18, and Andru Davis, 18, were identified by investigators to be directly involved in the fatal Club Exotic shooting in March, and were believed to be at a known address in Houston. Brandon Young, a suspect originally arrested for engaging in criminal activity and deadly conduct in the shooting, was additionally charged with capital murder on Tuesday. According to the Smith County Sheriff’s Office, Young’s bond has been set at $1,000,000 and he remain in the Smith County jail. The case continues to be under investigation.
Andru Davis, wanted for capital murder, was brought from Harris County to the Smith County Jail on Friday, March 27 and is being held on a $1.5 million bond.
Anyone with information is urged to submit a tip to the Tyler-Smith County Crime Stoppers by calling 903-597-2833 or through cuff903.org for a $1,000 cash reward.
TYLER (AP) – A federal judge dismissed a lawsuit on Tuesday that sought to allow churches to endorse political candidates without losing their tax-exempt status, dealing a blow to the Trump administration and other conservatives who have worked to eliminate the decades-old law barring nonprofits from supporting political office seekers.
Several Texas churches and national Christian groups brought the lawsuit challenging the Johnson Amendment, as it’s commonly known, arguing that their religious beliefs compelled them to speak to their congregations about all aspects of life, including electoral politics. Prohibiting electioneering from the pulpit in order to maintain their tax exemption was a violation of their First Amendment rights, the plaintiffs argued in their lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service.
TYLER – A documented gang member has been charged in the ongoing investigation which took place at Club Exotic on Highway 64 West in Smith County early Sunday morning, March 22nd. As previously reported, Andru Azo-Gene Davis of Tyler was arrested in Houston, Texas last week and charged with Capital Murder in which four individuals were shot, two fatally, at Club Exotic.
On March 31st, a second suspect was charged with Capital Murder in this investigation. The person charged is identified as 18 year old Brandon Joseph Young of Tyler. Young was originally arrested in Houston on March 24th. At that time, Young was charged with the criminal offenses of Engaging in Organized Criminal Activity with a bond of $750,000 and Deadly Conduct with a bond of $50,000. Young was charged yesterday with the additional charge of Capital Murder.
Bond was set by at $1,000,000. Young remains in the Smith County Jail at this time. This investigation is continuing.
TROUP – A Troup ISD student was arrested after a weapon was found inside their vehicle on Tuesday afternoon. According to our news partner KETK, the district said,while an officer was patrolling campus after school dismissal, they noticed suspicious activity, which led to a search of a student’s vehicle. During the search, a weapon was found inside a backpack in the vehicle.
The student who owned the weapon was taken into custody by the Troup Police Department.
“The safety and security of our students and staff remain our highest priority, and we will continue to take all necessary measures to maintain a safe learning environment,” the district said.
Troup police said they will continue to investigate the case.
A man sweeps up debris near a residential building that was hit in an airstrike in the early hours of March 27, 2026 in Tehran, Iran. (Majid Saeedi/Getty Images)
(LONDON) -- President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu kicked off their joint military campaign against Iran in late February, urging the fall of the Islamic Republic.
"When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations," Trump said, addressing Iranians in announcing the start of "major combat operations."
A month of unrelenting combined U.S.-Israeli strikes appears to have significantly eroded Iran's military capabilities and killed many of its most senior leaders, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who died alongside dozens of top Iranian officials in a series of airstrikes on his official residence in Tehran in the opening salvos of the war.
But despite Trump's assertion that the "war has been won," Iranian forces continue to launch attacks on Israel, regional U.S. bases and American partners across the Middle East, while commercial shipping through the strategic Strait of Hormuz remains constrained, with large numbers of cargo vessels in limbo on either side of the narrow waterway at the southern entrance to the Persian Gulf.
Trump has also asserted that there had been "complete regime change," with the leaders the U.S. is now dealing with in recently announced negotiations "more moderate" and "much more reasonable," the president told ABC News' Jonathan Karl.
Trump named Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the powerful speaker of the Iranian parliament, as the direct U.S. negotiating partner, though Ghalibaf has denied the assertion.
But in Tehran, the cadre of officials – Ghalibaf among them – emerging to take the reins of power appear as committed as the slain figures they are replacing, many of them veterans of the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), analysts have said.
The regime in Tehran, according to Danny Citrinowicz – the Israel Defense Forces' former top Iran researcher, now at the Institute for National Security Studies think tank in Israel – "is weaker than it was before the conflict, but it is also more radical. The IRGC has further consolidated its influence over decision-making, eroding what little internal balance once existed within the regime."
The war appears to have given Tehran long-term leverage over the Strait of Hormuz – a "weapon of mass disruption," as described by Ali Vaez of the International Crisis Group during an online briefing hosted by the think tank this week.
If the Islamic Republic survives the war, and its immediate aftermath by suppressing simmering anti-regime movements, its new leaders may be emboldened to retain perceived strategic advantages, chief among them control of the Strait of Hormuz, analysts who spoke to ABC News said.
That regime sentiment seems to be crystalizing. Ghalibaf, for example, told the IRNA state news agency that Iran's strategy now rests on its control of three pillars: "missiles, the streets, and the Strait."
Inside Iran, some sense that shift. Darius – who did not wish to use his real name for fear of reprisal – told ABC News from Tehran of a growing sentiment that "the source of legitimacy for the Islamic republic is shifting" from the clerical establishment to the IRGC.
"Now, the de facto leaders of the country are the generals in the IRGC. And they are actually running the show at the moment," Darius said.
IRGC ascendant
The IRGC was formed shortly after the Iranian Revolution by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini in 1979, ultimately emerging as the new Islamic Republic's primary tool for projecting its ideology and influence beyond its own borders.
The IRGC entrenched and expanded its power during the Iran-Iraq War from 1980 to 1988. With its battlefield exploits and ideological zeal, the IRGC came to embody the wartime concept of "sacred defense," Johns Hopkins University professor Vali Nasr wrote in his recent book, "Iran's Grand Strategy."
Observers have long considered the IRGC to be the most powerful military, political and economic institution in Iran.
Even before the most recent U.S.-Israeli campaign against Iran, many experts warned that decapitation strikes or a push for regime change risked empowering the IRGC to seize the state's other mechanisms of power – though others suggested the force had no need to openly seize control, given its de facto hold over the country.
The new supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, the son of Ali Khamenei, served in an elite IRGC unit during the Iran-Iraq War, and analysts have suggested his candidacy was strongly supported by the force.
Mojtaba Khamenei's newly appointed military adviser, Mohsen Rezaei, was drawn from the senior ranks of the IRGC, as was the new secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr, who was selected to replace Ali Larijani when the latter was killed by Israeli airstrikes in mid-March.
Meanwhile, IRGC veteran Ghalibaf – who has reportedly long been close to Mojtaba Khamenei – remains alive and appears to be in a position of influence, one of the few top prewar officials to have survived the U.S.-Israeli campaign.
Inside Iran, some sense that shift. Darius told ABC News from Tehran of a growing sentiment that "the source of legitimacy for the Islamic republic is shifting" from the clerical establishment to the IRGC.
"Now, the de facto leaders of the country are the generals in the IRGC. And they are actually running the show at the moment," Darius said.
Reading the 'mosaic'
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi credited a "mosaic defense" strategy with enabling the Iranian military to launch retaliatory strikes despite the killing of so many senior military officials in the opening hours of the U.S.-Israeli campaign.
That decentralized approach also appeared to cause some tactical confusion. Araghchi and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, for example, both denied Iranian responsibility for several reported Iranian drone and missile attacks in the region in the days after the war erupted.
A decapitated regime in Tehran may pose challenges to American negotiators seeking a peace deal, Citrinowicz said, telling ABC News that the killings have created a "worse" strategic situation by dispersing power.
The centralized decision-making power enjoyed by Ali Khamenei is no more, he said. "Now, how are you going to work with them? It's going to be very hard to reach an agreement with them," Citrinowicz said, referring to the newly emergent group of leaders.
Trump himself appeared to acknowledge a diffusion of power in Iran as a result of the American-Israeli assassination campaign. "We have nobody to talk to, and you know what, we like it that way," the president said earlier this month.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio told "Good Morning America" this week there are "fractures" within the Iranian leadership, though he would not say with whom the administration is in contact.
Yossi Kuperwasser – the former head of the IDF's military intelligence research division – told ABC News that the emergence of hardliners "was to be expected."
"Once you eliminate Khamenei, he's not going to be replaced by some wishy-washy character, but somebody who is committed to the cause and the IRGC is going to be in charge," Kuperwasser said.
But Kuperwasser also noted that figures currently touted as Iranian negotiators, such as Ghalibaf, might not live to see the end of the war. Indeed, Larijani was often noted as among the prime negotiating candidates before his killing. "I'd guess there are going to be more eliminations," Kuperwasser said.
As the war progressed, both U.S. and Israeli officials have distanced themselves from earlier suggestions of regime change. Instead, officials refocused the strategic narrative on their ambitions to degrade Iran's conventional military – especially ballistic missile – and nuclear programs.
These targets, according to Kuperwasser, were always the Israeli priority.
"Simultaneously, we are trying to weaken the regime so as to create the conditions that can be used by the people of Iran in order to promote something that can bring about the removal of the regime from power," Kuperwasser said. But that will not necessarily occur in the short term, he added.
'Missiles, the street, the strait'
Citrinowicz said that whatever structure emerges to negotiate with the Trump administration will likely be influenced toward more hardline demands by the killing of its predecessors.
On the nuclear file, too, "it goes without saying" that Tehran's outlook will have shifted, Citrinowicz said. Before the war, Iranian leaders had already publicly committed not to pursue nuclear weapons, though Tehran was refusing to accept Trump's demands of zero enrichment. Now, Citrinowicz said, the new Iranian leadership "might find themselves rushing toward a bomb."
Iran also has more leverage in the Strait of Hormuz than it did before the conflict, even with the significant military degradation that the U.S. and Israel appear to have inflicted. Officials in Tehran have suggested that Iranian control over the strait – and the requirement for those transiting it to coordinate with Tehran and pay tolls – is the new baseline.
Rubio hinted at long-term disruption in the Persian Gulf last week. "Immediately after this thing ends, and we're done with our objectives, the immediate challenge we're going to face is an Iran that may decide that they want to set up a tolling system in the Strait of Hormuz," Rubio said.
Hamidreza Azizi of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs think tank said during the Crisis Group briefing that Tehran will be set on a conclusive settlement, not merely a ceasefire that would allow the U.S. and Israel to rearm and resume the conflict at a later date, as was the case after the 12-day conflict in June.
"Deep inside Iran's strategic thinking, there is an understanding that ceasefires are only a means for the United States and Israel to buy time," Azizi said. While before the conflict, Tehran appeared willing to make concessions on the nuclear file and other issues, now Iranian leaders see an opportunity to achieve what they were unable to across years of negotiations.
The endgame, Azizi said, could be one in which Iran preserves "some sort of leverage" over the Strait of Hormuz or secures "substantial sanctions removal."
For its part, Citrinowicz said the U.S. appears to be scrambling. "There are so many people in the U.S. that understand this regime, but the administration is behaving like it's Venezuela. It's crazy," Citrinowicz said, referring to the American operation in January to seize Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and support his vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, as Maduro's successor.
Last week, the U.S. delivered 15-point plan to end the war, which was widely interpreted as a blueprint for Tehran's capitulation. Iranian demands are likewise maximalist, calling for reparations and for the U.S. to abandon its regional bases.
"Nobody's getting their wish list," Dalia Dassa Kaye of the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations said during this week's Crisis Group briefing.
In the meantime, the battlefield costs will rise and geopolitical implications deepen across the Middle East. "Even if this ends tomorrow," Kaye said, the costs have already been paid. "It's going to take years to recuperate the damage."
"This is not something you put back in a box," he added.
ABC News' Desiree Adib and Somayeh Malekian contributed to this report.
A view of gigantic poster as daily life continues despite the ongoing conflict in Tehran, Iran on April 1, 2026. (Fatemeh Bahrami/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(LONDON) -- President Donald Trump is set to address the nation on Wednesday evening with an "important update" on the ongoing U.S.-Israeli war against Iran, which was launched on Feb. 28.
ABC News has collated a timeline of the key events in the conflict to date.
Feb. 28: Combined U.S.-Israeli airstrikes began, with Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei killed alongside dozens of senior political and military leaders in strikes on his office in Tehran. Iran immediately began retaliatory attacks targeting Israel, U.S. facilities and allies across the Middle East.
The opening salvo of strikes targeted Iranian government and military sites across the country, but there were allegations of collateral damage. The most significant was an airstrike on a girls' elementary school in the southern city of Minab, which Iranian state media said killed 168 people.
March 1: Six American troops were killed in an Iranian drone strike on a U.S. base in Port Shuaiba, Kuwait -- the first U.S. personnel to be killed in the conflict. Three U.S. F-15 fighter jets are also shot down by friendly fire from Kuwaiti air defenses.
The first commercial tankers were struck by projectiles in the Strait of Hormuz, marking the beginning of Iran's efforts to choke the flow of shipping through the strategic chokepoint.
March 2: The Iran-aligned Hezbollah militant group in Lebanon launches attacks into northern Israel, framing them as retaliation for several months of Israeli airstrikes across Lebanon. Israel responded by intensifying its campaign -- including with fresh strikes in Beirut -- and launching new ground operations along the shared border.
March 4: The Iranian IRIS Dena frigate was sunk by a U.S. submarine off the coast of Sri Lanka, killing at least 104 crew members, according to the Iranian military.
The Israeli military issued an "urgent warning" to all residents of southern Lebanon located south of the Litani River ahead of intended strikes, ordering them to immediately evacuate and head north of the river — highlighting a vast area.
March 8: Mojtaba Khamenei was selected by Iran's Assembly of Experts as the country's next supreme leader, succeeding his father who was killed on Feb. 28. Mojtaba Khamenei's candidacy was reportedly backed by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, in which the new leader once served.
March 12: A U.S. KC-135 refueling aircraft went down over western Iraq, killing six airmen. Another aircraft involved in the incident was damaged but able to land safely.
March 17: Ali Larijani, the influential secretary of Iran's Supreme National Security Council, was killed in an Israeli strike in Tehran.
March 18: The Israeli military strikes the South Pars gas field in the Persian Gulf, which is shared by Iran and Qatar. The attack signaled a move toward the targeting of energy and critical infrastructure targets, prompting Tehran to warn it would target energy targets across the Gulf.
March 20: Iran is accused of launching a missile attack targeting Diego Garcia, a U.S.-U.K. military base in the Indian Ocean, around 2,500 miles from Iranian territory. The U.S. and Israel said the attacked showed that the range of Iranian missiles was longer than Tehran previously admitted.
March 22: Trump issued a 48-hour ultimatum for Iran to open the Strait of Hormuz or face punishing strikes on critical energy infrastructure. The president later extended his deadline.
March 24: Airstrikes targeted three major Iranian steelworks, reflecting an apparent shift in U.S.-Israeli strategy toward degrading Iran's economic base.
Iranian drones and missiles targeted the Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia, damaging several American aircraft -- among them an E-3 Sentry AWACS aircraft -- and wounding multiple service members.
Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said the Israeli military will destroy homes in southern Lebanon, just as it did in the war-torn Gaza Strip, in a continued effort to eliminate Hezbollah militants from the area. Israel will implement "the Rafah and Beit Hanoun models," Katz said, referring to two Gaza border towns that Israel destroyed in its offensive in the Palestinian enclave.
March 28: The Iran-aligned Houthis rebels in Yemen fired a ballistic missile toward Israel, marking their first involvement in the conflict.
March 28: U.S. Central Command announces the arrival of some 3,500 U.S. sailors and Marines in the Middle East aboard the USS Tripoli, amid reports of a possible American ground operation against Iran. Around 1,500 soldiers with the 82nd Airborne Division are also expected in the region.
March 30: Trump again demanded the end of Iranian harassment of shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, threatening to broaden U.S. strikes to target Iranian energy facilities and desalination plants.
March 31: Katz says Israeli forces will occupy Lebanese territory up to the Litani River -- around 18 miles north of the Israeli border -- and block the return of hundreds of thousands of displaced residents.
April 1: Trump prepares for an "important" address to the nation related to the war in Iran.
NACOGDOCHES, Texas (KETK) — A data security incident earlier this year at the Nacogdoches Memorial Hospital (NMH) may have disclosed patients’ personal information to an unauthorized party, the hospital reports.
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According to the hospital, a cyber-attack on Jan. 31 compromised its computer network and information systems. Law enforcement was immediately notified and an investigation began, determining that an unauthorized party may have had access to personal patient information.
The following patient information may have been accessed:
Name
Address
Phone number
Email address
Social security number
Date of Birth
Medical record number
Medical account number
Health beneficiary number
Possible photograph image, if taken
The hospital reports that it is not aware of the misuse of anyone’s information from the incident, as of Tuesday.
Following the re-securing of the computer network, the hospital reinforced and enhanced its security.
“NMH takes the security of all information in its systems very seriously and wants to assure its patients that it has taken steps to prevent a similar event from occurring in the future,” the hospital said. “This includes implementation of remediation measures to prevent recurrence, to strengthen NMH’s network security, enhancing NMH’s cyber preparedness through additional awareness training, and updating NMH’s procedures.”
The hospital notified its patients by mail, including information on steps to protect their information. Anyone looking for additional information or recommendations on protecting personal information should visit the NMH website at nacmem.org, the hospital advises.
“We sincerely regret any concern or inconvenience that this matter may cause its patients and remain dedicated to protecting patients’ personal information,” the hospital said.
