Today is
Wednesday June 03, 2026
(NEW YORK) -- A U.S. Coast Guard dive team is in the Bahamas on Wednesday searching for Lynette Hooker, an American woman who went overboard and vanished nearly two months ago.
The Coast Guard Investigative Service is leading the investigation and received permission from the Bahamas to send U.S divers to areas that were previously not searched, according to multiple U.S. officials.
The new search comes after forensic evidence found on electronic devices belonging to Lynette Hooker's husband, Brian Hooker, led investigators to new areas of interest, officials said.
A U.S. official told ABC News that what Brian Hooker told investigators does not match the GPS data recovered from his devices.
Lynette Hooker has been missing since the evening of April 4. Brian Hooker told authorities that after the couple departed Hope Town on their dinghy to head to their yacht, called the "Soulmate," bad weather caused her to go overboard.
Brian Hooker was arrested on April 8 and questioned by police. He was released on April 13 without charges.
On April 14, Brian Hooker told ABC News that he was staying in the Bahamas with a "sole focus" of finding his wife. But hours after that interview, Brian Hooker left the Bahamas, with his attorney saying he wanted to be with his terminally ill mother.
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(GERMANY) -- The American doctor who contracted Ebola and was transferred to Germany is starting to feel better and is able to eat, according to his colleague.
Dr. Peter Stafford is currently hospitalized in Berlin's Charite University Hospital after testing positive for the disease due to his work in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
His colleague, Matt Allison -- the executive director of Serge, the Christian missionary group Stafford works for -- told ABC News that the doctor has been receiving monoclonal antibodies during his hospitalization.
Allison said it appears Stafford's condition has improved since landing in Germany and that he has been able to text his colleagues.
"He needed assistance to walk. He was very weak. He was discouraged ... he was talking about just being almost unable to think," Allison said. "I mean [it] was the combination of the isolation, the uncertainty, feeling really sick. It was a lot to carry. And so I'm so glad that he's responding quickly to us."
Allison went on, "He feels good. He's eating. You know, one of the symptoms of Ebola is nausea and gastrointestinal issues, and so we're so grateful that he's able to eat now and we're really encouraged by where he's at right now."
Stafford, a 39-year-old board-certified general surgeon with a specialization in burn care, tested positive for Ebola after caring for patients in Bunia, in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, before an outbreak was identified.
His wife, Dr. Rebekah Stafford, 38, and Dr. Peter LaRochelle, 46, a fellow missionary doctor, were potentially exposed to Ebola through their work at hospitals in the DRC, Serge said.
Peter Stafford's family will join him in Germany while LaRochelle is on his way to Prague.
"The complex, coordinated efforts of many government agencies and international health authorities resulted in Peter Stafford's safe transport and the protection of those involved in his transfer," Dr. Scott Myhre, Serge area director for East and Central Africa, said in a press release on Wednesday. "Serge leadership extends their deepest gratitude to all involved in Peter's care and is praying for all involved in the fight to end this ebolavirus outbreak for the good of the people of the DRC."
The Ebola outbreak in the eastern DRC had caused 139 suspected deaths with nearly 600 suspected cases as of Wednesday, according to the latest update from World Health Organization Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.
"We expect those numbers to keep increasing, given the amount of time the virus was circulating before the outbreak was detected," Tedros said during a press briefing in Geneva.
Anais Legand, the WHO's technical officer for viral hemorrhagic fevers, said on Wednesday that the Ebola outbreak may have started a couple of months ago and that investigations are ongoing.
"Our priority is really to cut the transmission chain by implementing contact tracing, isolating and caring for all suspects and confirmed cases," she said
The WHO convened an emergency committee on Tuesday night, following Tedros' declaration of a public health emergency of international concern on Sunday -- one level below a pandemic in the United Nations agency's alert system.
It was the first time a WHO chief had declared such an emergency before convening the emergency committee. After the meeting, the committee agreed that the outbreak did not meet the criteria of a pandemic emergency, which was applied to the global COVID-19 outbreak.
The outbreak was first detected in the DRC's northeastern province of Ituri, with cases officially confirmed by the health ministry on May 15. It marked the 17th outbreak of Ebola virus disease in the DRC, which is Africa's second-largest country and its fourth-most populous nation.
The current outbreak is caused by the Bundibugyo virus, a rare variant of Ebola for which there are no approved vaccines or therapeutics and which requires different diagnostics than other variants. Case fatality rates for previous Bundibugyo outbreaks have ranged from 30% to 50%, according to the WHO.
Tedros said cases of Ebola have been reported in several urban areas of the eastern DRC amid the ongoing outbreak, including the major cities of Goma and Bunia, and that at least two cases and one death have been recorded in neighboring Uganda's capital, Kampala. Cases have also been reported among health workers, according to Tedros.
At least 51 cases have so far been confirmed in the ongoing outbreak.
The WHO chief warned that significant population movement in the region, which includes a high-traffic mining area, along with insecurity and intensified conflict in recent months increase the risk of further spread. The risks are high at the national and regional levels, but remain low globally, according to Tedros.
Dr. Satish K. Pillai, incident manager for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Ebola response, confirmed at a CDC press conference on Tuesday that genetic testing from this outbreak shows it is similar to the "genetic fingerprints" from outbreaks in 2007 and 2012, meaning there are diagnostic tools available that can detect this strain of Ebola.
Pillai said on Monday that the agency had activated its Emergency Operations Center through its country offices in the DRC and in Uganda, and is deploying technical experts that have been requested from Atlanta headquarters.
The CDC said Monday that it is preparing to restrict entry for travelers arriving from parts of central Africa where an Ebola outbreak has been declared, in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security.
The risk to the U.S. general public remains low, Pillai said.
ABC News' Eric M. Strauss contributed to this report.
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(MALDIVES) - -Two investigations, including a culpable homicide probe, have been launched into the deep-water expedition in the Maldives that claimed the lives of five Italian scuba divers, and authorities said they didn't know the group would be exploring a cave.
Both the Maldives government and prosecutors in Rome announced the investigations as the remains of two more divers were recovered from an underwater cave in the Indian Ocean.
In addition to the probe by the Maldives government, prosecutors in Rome have opened a culpable homicide investigation into the tragedy, sources told the Italian news agency ANSA.
It's not immediately clear if any specific person or persons are the target of that probe.
Mohamed Hussain Shareef, a spokesperson for the Maldives president's office, said the investigation by the Maldives government will focus on whether those in charge of the fatal expedition "took the correct precautions" and underwent the necessary planning.
"We believe that the retrieval of the bodies will itself reveal a lot, as far as that part of the investigation is concerned," said Shareef, according to The Associated Press. "But that doesn’t take from the fact that cave diving in itself is very, very dangerous.”
Shareef said the scuba-diving group -- which was led by Monica Montefalcone, a marine researcher and an associate professor of ecology at the University of Genoa -- had been issued a permit for the diving expedition.
"While they had a permit, there are certain gaps in the research proposal," Shareef said.
He said the Maldives government was not informed that the group would be exploring an underwater cave.
"We didn't know the exact location they were diving," Shareef said.
He said two of the divers who died were not on the list of researchers that organizers had submitted.
"So we didn't know they were part of the expedition as well. So, all these factors are being reviewed," Shareef said.
Shareef said the scuba diving group was on an excursion he described as "very, very challenging" due to the depth, terrain, powerful current and strong draft in the area of the dive.
"The visibility, for example, once you enter the cave, would be almost zero; that’s what we are being told," Shareef said.
The divers went missing on Thursday while exploring a cave in Vaavu Atoll, according to the Maldives National Defense Force.
A Maldives military diver died on Saturday while working to recover the bodies of victims, according to the Maldives National Defense Force.
Officials called the recovery effort a "very dangerous, high-risk operation." The search was suspended at one point on Friday due to bad weather, the AP reported.
The Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology and the University of Genoa identified the deceased divers as Montefalcone; her daughter, Giorgia Sommacal, a University of Genoa biomedical engineering student; Muriel Oddenino, a University of Genoa research fellow; and marine biologist Federico Gualtieri, a recent University of Genoa graduate in marine biology and ecology.
The institute also identified one of the victims as diving instructor Gianluca Benedetti.
The Maldives government said three of the bodies have been recovered. On Tuesday, a Finnish diving team retrieved two bodies from the third chamber of a deep-water cave, Shareef said.
Shareef said the identities of the two recovered divers are pending autopsies. But Antonello Riccio, an attorney for Gualtieri's family, confirmed that the remains of Montefalcone and Gualtieri were recovered on Tuesday.
Ahmed Shaam, another spokesperson for the Maldives government, said the bodies were found lying at a depth of around 200 feet. The legal depth for recreational diving in the Maldives is nearly 100 feet, officials said.
The Maldives government said on Monday that four bodies were spotted in the innermost part of the cave by the Finnish diving team. Divers are expected to return to the cave on Wednesday to recover the two remaining bodies.
"As was previously thought, the four bodies were found inside the cave, not only inside the cave, but well inside the cave into the third segment of the cave, which is the largest part," Shaam said.
He said that the four bodies were found "pretty much together."
Earlier in the recovery operation, the body of the diving instructor who was part of the lost group was recovered outside the cave, Maldives government officials said.
ABC News' Othon Leyva, Phoebe Natanson and Clark Bentson contributed to this report.
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(NEW YORK) -- Marine scientists have discovered a record number of new species living in the depths of the world's oceans over the past year.
A total of 1,121 new marine species were discovered in a single year, marking a "significant step" in the research needed to understand and protect the oceans, according to the scientists behind The Nippon Foundation-Nekton Ocean Census, the world’s largest mission to accelerate ocean species discovery.
The whopping number of discoveries marks a 54% jump in identifications in a single year, the researchers said.
Among the new species discovered include corals, crabs, shrimps, sea urchins and anemones -- some found living at depths of more than four miles beneath the ocean surface.
The "Ghost Shark" Chimaera, a distant relative of sharks and rays, was discovered in the Coral Sea Marine Park off the coast of Queensland, Australia. Chimaeras are among the most mysterious inhabitants of the deep ocean, the researchers said. They predate dinosaurs and diverged from rays and sharks into their own distinct evolutionary lineage nearly 400 million years ago.
Symbiotic bristle worms were found living within a "glass castle" on volcanic seamounts in Japan. The "castle" is actually intricate chambers of a glass sponge, whose skeleton is made of crystalline silica.
The ribbon worm, a predator marked by striking pigmentation, was discovered close to the surface, between depths of 3 and 16 feet.
A striking new species of shrimp -- the Mediterranean shrimp -- was also found in a sea cave off Marseille, France, the researchers said. It is marked by a vivid orange banding and intricate appendages.
The species were identified amid 13 expeditions across some of the world's most remote and least-explored ocean regions, as well as nine discovery workshops, the researchers said.
"This year, Ocean Census has shown what is possible when scientific ambition is matched by global collaboration at scale," Mitsuyuku Unno, executive director of the Nippon Foundation, said in a statement. "Through expeditions reaching polar depths to tropical seas, and the science to turn samples into discoveries, this team is revealing the extraordinary richness of ocean life.”
Up to 90% of ocean species remain undiscovered, previous research has suggested.
Documenting the breadth of species living in the oceans is necessary for policymakers and marine managers to properly protect the ocean, the researchers said.
The average time between a species' initial discovery and its formal "description" in scientific literature is historically about 13.5 years, which puts species at risk of extinction before they are even catalogued, the researchers said.
"With many species at risk of disappearing before they are even documented, we are in a race against time to understand and protect ocean life," Michelle Taylor, head of science at Ocean Census, said in a statement. "For too long, thousands of species have remained in a scientific "limbo" because the pace of discovery couldn't keep up."
To address this, marine scientists are now recognizing "discovered" as a formal scientific status that can immediately be recorded.
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(NEW YORK) -- The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed on Monday that at least one American working in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has tested positive for Ebola.
Dr. Satish K. Pillai, incident manager for the CDC's Ebola response, told reporters that the individual developed symptoms over the weekend and tested positive late Sunday.
Pillai added that the patient and six other high-risk contacts are being moved to Germany for care and stressed that the risk to the U.S. general public remains low.
"Given the previous experience for caring for Ebola patients, coupled with the flight times being significantly shorter, this allows us to get these persons to points of care quickly," Pillai said.
Pillai said the CDC has activated its Emergency Operations Center through its country offices in the DRC and in Uganda, and is deploying technical experts that have been requested from Atlanta headquarters.
The CDC said earlier Monday that it is preparing to restrict entry for travelers arriving from parts of central Africa where an Ebola outbreak has been declared, in coordination with the Department of Homeland Security.
Non-U.S. passport holders will face entry restrictions if they have been in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda or South Sudan in the previous 21 days.
The move is being carried out under Title 42 of the Public Health Services Act, which allows the CDC director to suspend entry of individuals into the U.S. to protect public health.
The order will be in effect for 30 days and does not apply to U.S. citizens or lawful permanent residents.
The CDC said it is also coordinating with airlines, international partners and port-of-entry officials to identify and manage travelers with possible Ebola exposure as well as enhancing measures like contact tracing, laboratory testing capacity and hospital readiness nationwide.
On Sunday, the CDC said in a statement that a "small number of Americans" are directly affected by an Ebola outbreak occurring in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
"The CDC is working with other U.S. agencies to coordinate the safe withdrawal of the Americans," the CDC said. The agency did not confirm the number of people affected, the type of exposure or whether any individuals had experienced symptoms.
"We don't discuss or comment on individual dispositions," Pillai said Sunday. "It is a highly dynamic situation, and at this point, what I would say is, we continue to assess, we will continue to keep you posted as we learn more."
On Saturday, the World Health Organization said in a statement that the Ebola outbreak in the DRC and Uganda constituted a "public health emergency of international concern."
As of Sunday, there were 10 confirmed Ebola cases and 336 suspected cases in the DRC. There had been 88 suspected deaths in the DRC, as well as two confirmed cases and one confirmed death in Uganda from people who had traveled to the DRC.
Ebola virus spreads through direct contact with the bodily fluids of an infected person and does not spread through casual contact or air.
"CDC has extensive experience and expertise in responding to Ebola outbreaks," CDC acting director Dr. Jay Bhattacharya said on a call with reporters on Friday. "It is a large outbreak, and we were just informed yesterday about it."
He added, "We're absolutely committed to making sure that they can get resources as they need. We have helped with other Ebola outbreaks in the past ... we have lots of hard-earned lessons. The key thing here is to know that we are absolutely involved."
This is the DRC's 17th outbreak of Ebola since the disease emerged in the 1970s, according to the WHO.
This strain of Ebola is caused by Bundibugyo virus, for which there are no therapeutics or vaccines, the WHO said.
The WHO has declared international public health emergencies over previous Ebola outbreaks as well as COVID-19 and mpox.
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(MALDIVES) Five Italian nationals, including a mother and her daughter, died while scuba diving in a deep underwater cave in the Maldives, according to Italian and Maldivian officials, as a risky search effort attempts to recover the remaining missing divers.
The divers went missing Thursday while exploring a cave in Vaavu Atoll, according to the Maldives National Defense Force.
The body of one of the divers has since been recovered in a cave about 200 feet deep, authorities said. The remaining four divers are believed to be inside the 200-foot-long cave, according to the Maldives National Defense Force.
Additional divers and special equipment were being sent to the area Friday for the "very dangerous, high-risk operation," it said. The search was suspended Friday due to bad weather and the recovery operation is expected to resume on Saturday, The Associated Press reported.
Maldivian presidential spokesperson Mohamed Hussain Shareef extended his "deepest condolences" to the people of Italy following the "tragic diving incident" in a statement on Friday. He said the search for the four remaining divers "remains our highest priority."
Italy's Foreign Ministry said the five Italian nationals died in a scuba diving accident. They were reported to have died "while attempting to explore caves at a depth of 50 meters," it said.
"The reconstruction of the incident is still underway by the Maldivian authorities," the ministry said.
The Italian National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology and the University of Genoa (UniGe) identified the deceased divers as Monica Montefalcone, a marine scientist and associate professor at UniGe; her daughter, Giorgia Sommacal, a UniGe biomedical engineering student; Muriel Oddenino, a UniGe research fellow; and marine biologist Federico Gualtieril, a recent UniGe graduate in marine biology and ecology.
The institute also identified one of the victims as diving instructor Gianluca Benedetti.
Montefalcone had won multiple awards for her work to study and protect the marine environment, the institute said.
The Italian ambassador from the embassy in Colombo arrived in the Maldives on Friday to meet with Maldives National Defence Force Coast Guard officials, the ministry said.
The Italian Embassy in Colombo is in contact with the victims' families and is providing assistance to 20 other Italian nationals aboard the Duke of Yoke who participated in the expedition, the ministry said.
"The vessel is awaiting an improvement in weather conditions in order to return to Malé," the ministry said Friday.
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(LONDON) -- More than 100 people have been sickened in a norovirus outbreak on board a Caribbean Princess cruise, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
According to the agency, 102 passengers and 13 crew members were reported sick so far, with symptoms including diarrhea and vomiting.
The outbreak was reported to the CDC on Thursday, during the cruise ship's April 28 to May 11 voyage.
The ship is currently in the northwest Atlantic Ocean, headed towards Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic, according to CruiseMapper. It is scheduled to arrive at Port Canaveral, Florida, on May 11.
There are 3,116 total passengers and 1,131 crew members on board the cruise ship, according to the CDC.
In response to the outbreak, the ship and crew increased cleaning and disinfection procedures, isolated people who had fallen ill and collected stool specimens for testing, the CDC said.
ABC News has reached out to Princess Cruises for comment.
Norovirus is quite common, especially on ships, and is not related in any way to the current hantavirus outbreak on board the MV Hondius cruise ship.
This is the fourth gastrointestinal illness outbreak reported on a cruise ship so far this year, according to the CDC.
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(NEW YORK) -- A man has been arrested for possession of an offensive weapon near the U.K. home of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, police said Thursday.
The suspect, who was not named, "was arrested on suspicion of a public order offence and possession of an offensive weapon," Norfolk Police said in a statement to ABC News.
He remains in custody, according to police.
Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly Prince Andrew, lives on his brother King Charles III's privately owned Sandringham Estate in Norfolk, England.
Buckingham Palace has not commented on the arrest.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
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(LONDON) -- Russia's Defense Ministry reported a major Ukrainian drone attack overnight into Thursday morning, with Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin reporting that dozens of Ukrainian craft were intercepted while flying toward the capital.
Russia's Defense Ministry said on Telegram that its forces intercepted at least 427 Ukrainian drones and through Thursday morning. Moscow only publishes the number of Ukrainian drones and other projectiles it claims to have intercepted.
Sobyanin said that as of Thursday afternoon, at least 48 drones were shot down while flying toward the capital. Emergency responders, he said in posts to Telegram, were responding to several sites where falling drone debris was reported.
Ukraine's air force said that Russia also continued its long-range attacks overnight. The air force said on Telegram that Moscow launched 102 drones into the country overnight, of which 92 were intercepted or suppressed. Eight drones impacted across six locations, the air force said.
Ukraine's State Emergency Services said that at least four people were injured by Russian strikes in the southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region, one other person was injured by a Russian attack in the northeastern Sumy region and seven people -- among them two children -- were injured in Kharkiv.
Cross-border attacks have continued despite both Kyiv and Moscow announcing their own rival temporary ceasefires.
Russian President Vladimir Putin this week announced a unilateral truce on May 8 and May 9 to coincide with annual "Victory Day" celebrations, which mark the anniversary of the end of the Second World War.
Zelenskyy then said Ukraine would observe its own 24-hour ceasefire beginning at midnight on May 5. Russia did not partake in the truce, continuing missile and drone strikes across Ukraine as well as frontline activities.
Zelenskyy said in a Wednesday statement, "We can confirm that the Russian side has derailed the ceasefire regime," adding that Kyiv would decide on possible subsequent actions.
"Ukraine clearly stated that it would act in kind, taking into account Russia's persistent appeals through the media and social networks asking for a ceasefire during the Moscow parade," Zelenskyy said, referring to the planned military event in Moscow's Red Square on May 9.
Russia's Defense Ministry warned that it would "launch a retaliatory, massive missile strike on the center of Kyiv" if Ukraine attacked the Victory Day celebrations.
On Thursday, Zelenskyy again criticized Moscow's continued attacks. "Russia continues killing people while being completely irrationally concerned only about a few hours of silence in one part of Moscow," he said in a statement, referring to the May 9 celebrations.
"Ukraine will act fairly -- day by day. We proposed silence beginning at midnight on May 6. Yesterday and today, this regime has been violated by Russia," Zelenskyy added.
"In a mirror response and in reply to Russian strikes, our long-range sanctions will follow; in response to Russia's readiness to move toward diplomacy, we will move along the path of diplomacy," he added.
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(LONDON) -- At least one person was killed and two people were injured by an overnight Russian drone strike on a kindergarten building in Ukraine's northeastern Sumy region, local officials there said on Wednesday, as Moscow's cross-border attacks continued despite Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's unilateral declaration of a temporary ceasefire beginning at midnight on Tuesday.
Ukraine's air force said in a post to Telegram that Russia launched 108 drones and three missiles into the country overnight, of which 89 drones were intercepted or suppressed. The missiles and nine drones impacted across eight locations, the air force said.
Russia's Defense Ministry, meanwhile, claimed to have downed at least 53 Ukrainian drones overnight. The ministry did not specify whether any Ukrainian drones were intercepted after the unilateral Ukrainian ceasefire came into effect at midnight on Tuesday.
Sumy was among several targets of Russia's overnight strikes. Ukraine's Interior Ministry said in posts to Telegram that at least four people were killed and 19 people injured by Russian strikes in the southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region, which damaged infrastructure plus administrative and residential buildings.
In the northeastern city of Kharkiv, the ministry said, two women were injured by a drone strike on a house in the southwest of the city which also sparked a fire.
Ukraine's State Emergency Service also reported a Russian drone attack on an apartment building in the southern city of Kherson.
Tuesday night's attacks followed a major Russian missile and drone attack on several Ukrainian cities earlier in the day, in which officials said at least 28 people were killed.
Zelenskyy issued a statement on Wednesday condemning what he described as Russia's "brutal attacks" and Moscow's refusal to partake in the Kyiv-proposed 24-hour ceasefire.
"On all key frontline areas, assault operations are ongoing, and just since the beginning of today, the Russian army has carried out nearly 30 assault operations. More than 20 airstrikes involving over 70 aerial bombs were recorded just last night and this morning," Zelenskyy wrote.
"During the night, the Russian army also launched attacks with various types of drones," the Ukrainian president added.
"Ukraine has clearly stated that it will respond in kind, given the persistent Russian appeals through the media and social networks to maintain silence during the Moscow parade," Zelenskyy wrote, referring to the planned "Victory Day" celebrations in the Russian capital planned for May 9.
Russian President Vladimir Putin this week announced a unilateral truce on May 8 and May 9. Zelenskyy then said Ukraine would mark its own 24-hour ceasefire beginning at midnight on May 5.
"Russia must end its current war. Even with the internet shut down and most Russians' communications blocked, it's absolutely clear that their leadership could emerge from the bunker and choose peace," Zelenskyy wrote. "Our diplomatic proposals are on the Russian side, and the only thing needed is Russia's willingness to move towards real peace."
"As of today, we note that the Russian side has disrupted the ceasefire. Based on the results of our military and intelligence evening reports, we will determine our further actions," he added.
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(WASHINGTON) -- Despite facing the 60-day deadline under the War Powers Act, the president is not asking Congress for authorization, rather providing an update to the posture of U.S. forces in the region.
Echoing Defense Secretary Peter Hegseth, the president noted that he ordered a two-week ceasefire on April 7 that has since been extended.
"On April 7, 2026, I ordered a 2-week ceasefire. The ceasefire has since been extended," Trump wrote. "There has been no exchange of fire between United States Forces and Iran since April 7, 2026. The hostilities that began on February 28, 2026, have terminated."
Trump also stressed that he ordered Operation Epic Fury "consistent with my responsibility to protect Americans and United States interests at home and abroad, and in furtherance of United States national security and foreign policy interests."
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(MEXICO CITY) -- More than 20 million people in Mexico City are living on ground that's sinking above an ancient reservoir.
The city has long been recognized as one of the fastest sinking sites in the world, but researchers didn't have the ability to continuously track the movement from space until now.
NASA shared a satellite image on Wednesday from the U.S.-India satellite NISAR that captures parts of Mexico's capital sinking by more than half an inch every single month. The space agency said the impact of those incremental changes have added up over time, leading to "fracturing roads, buildings, and water lines" across the city.
Dora Carreón-Freyre, a researcher who has studied Mexico City's sinking for more than 25 years, has seen that damage up close in the Iztapalapa region, which she says is one of the hardest hit.
"The houses that are founded in [volcanic] rock are stable, but the houses in the middle between the rock and the lacustrine plain are already broken, most of them," Carreón-Freyre told ABC News. "In 2017, a taxi fell inside a fracture."
Over the years, scientists studying the city’s land subsidence, a scientific term for sinking, primarily relied on ground and space satellites that could only collect annual data.
NASA says NISAR is the first satellite to carry two radar systems at different wavelengths, allowing it to record near real-time ground movement changes from space every 12 days. For David Bekaert, a scientist who works on the NISAR mission, that frequency is what makes the data so valuable.
"This all allows us to build time series or snapshots on how the ground is moving over time," Bekaert told ABC News.
For researchers who have spent decades studying the city on foot, the new satellite data offers something they never had before.
"To have these tools and to realize the distribution of these differential rates –it's amazing," Carreón-Freyre said. "Things that we only learned by walking everywhere when we were young, it's different now. Technology is here to help us."
The image is a compilation of data collected by NISAR between October 2025 and January 2026.
A century of sinking
Th fact that Mexico City is sinking is not new. NASA says it has been documented the changes for more than a century.
According to a 1995 report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, the city was already sinking roughly two inches per year by the late 1800s.
By the 1950s, that number jumped to 18 inches, the report found.
The first finding was reported by engineer Roberto Gayol in 1925, who pointed to a large canal and tunnel built to drain water out of the city's waterlogged ground as the potential cause.
Scientists now point to a more direct culprit — decades of draining the ancient lakebed aquifer that the city was built on.
As water is pumped out, the ground above it compacts and stays that way, according to a study published by the American Geophysical Union. Think of wet clay that gets squeezed flat and hardens in place.
Still, not every part of the city sinks at the same rate, Bekaert said.
"That compaction causes the ground surface to sink, and because it doesn't happen evenly, different parts of the city move at different rates," Bekaert explained.
Parts of the city have lost as much as 30 feet of elevation over the last century, according to researchers, and scientists say the worst-hit areas have sunk as much as 127 feet.
NASA and the Indian Space Research Organisation launched NISAR on July 30, 2025, from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre.
Mexico City is just the beginning when it comes to this technology, scientists say.
"More broadly, my interest lies in mapping ground motion across coastal zones, where a large proportion of the world's population lives and understanding surface change is particularly important," Bekaert said.
Scientists say NISAR can now continuously monitor sinking cities anywhere on Earth — a capability Carreón-Freyre says is urgently needed as that threat is already playing out elsewhere in the world.
"And what I saw in the Philippines is really terrible because they have two phenomena working together that is very bad for the population: subsidence and sea level rise," she said. "They are sinkings 30 centimeters per year."
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(LONDON) -- A stabbing attack in London that officials said injured two Jewish men has been declared a "terrorist incident," police said.
The suspect -- a 45-year-old man -- was arrested after trying to attack officers who responded to reports of people being stabbed in the Golders Green neighborhood in Northwest London, the Metropolitan Police said.
The incident took place at 11:16 a.m. local time in London on Wednesday.
"One male was seen running along Golders Green Road armed with a knife and attempting to stab Jewish members of the public," Shomrim NW London, a charity that operates an emergency response team in the area, said on social media.
Two men -- aged 76 and 34 -- were treated at the scene for stab wounds before being taken to a hospital, where they are both listed in stable condition, police said.
The suspect was Tasered and arrested after allegedly trying to stab officers, police said. No officers were injured.
The suspect was arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and remains in custody, the Metropolitan Police said. He has a history of serious violence and mental health issues, according to Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Mark Rowley.
Specialist officers from Counter Terrorism Policing are leading the investigation. inquiry
"One of the lines of inquiry is whether this attack was deliberately targeting the Jewish community in London," he added.
Mayor Sadiq Khan of London condemned the "appalling attack on two Jewish Londoners in Golders Green."
"London's Jewish community have been the target of a series of shocking antisemitic attacks," Khan said in a statement. "There must be absolutely no place for antisemitism in society. The Met have stepped up high visibility patrols in the area."
Sarah Sackman, a member of Parliament who represents the area, said she was aware of the "serious stabbing" in Golders Green.
"The attacks on British Jews are an attack on Britain itself," she said in a statement posted on social media. "It is unconscionable that Jews are being targeted in this way."
Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who was addressing questions in the House of Commons on Wednesday, said it was "deeply concerning to everyone in this House." He added that a police investigation was underway.
Wednesday's alleged stabbing was at least the third violent incident reported in the Golders Green area -- which is well-known for its sizable Jewish community -- in recent weeks.
In late March, four ambulances belonging to the Jewish community ambulance service, Hatzalah, were firebombed in a suspected antisemitic attack, according to the Met Police.
And on Tuesday, an arson attack was reported on a memorial wall in Golders Green, which is dedicated to thousands of protesters killed in an Iranian government crackdown on nationwide protests in January, police said.
The wall is located close to a local Jewish center, although police said the Tuesday alleged attack was "not being treated as a terrorist incident and officers are keeping an open mind about the motive behind the attack."
ABC News' Joe Simonetti and Zoe Magee contributed to this report.
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LONDON (AP) — Opponents of smoking got a breath of fresh air as Parliament passed a bill that will put cigarettes out of reach for future generations.
“The end of smoking, and the devastating harm it causes, is no longer uncertain — it’s inevitable,” Hazel Cheeseman, chief executive of Action on Smoking and Health, said after a decades-long campaign in favor of legislation approved Tuesday.
Children born after Dec. 31, 2008, will be banned from ever buying cigarettes under the Tobacco and Vapes Bill.
The legislation that needs approval by King Charles III — a formality — before taking effect will also allow the government to regulate tobacco, vaping and nicotine products, including flavors and packaging.
It is currently illegal to sell cigarettes, tobacco products or vapes to people younger than 18. But most youths today will continue to face a ban their entire life as the minimum age to buy cigarettes rises each year.
The passage gives the U.K. one of the toughest antismoking measures in the world. The law is similar to one New Zealand lawmakers passed in 2022, but that was repealed by a subsequent government.
The number of people who smoke in Britain has declined by two-thirds since the 1970s, but some 6.4 million people — or about 13% of the population — still smoke, according to official figures.
Authorities say smoking causes some 80,000 deaths a year in the U.K, and remains the number one preventable cause of death, disability and poor health.
“Children in the U.K. will be part of the first smoke-free generation, protected from a lifetime of addiction and harm,” Health Secretary Wes Streeting said.
(LONDON) -- Israeli and Lebanese ambassadors are expected to convene again at the State Department on Thursday for a second round of meetings amid the latest conflagration in the Middle East.
The first direct negotiations between the two states since 1993 are intended as preparatory meetings to shape future talks on a deal to normalize ties between the countries.
Thursday's meeting is expected to focus on extending a shaky ceasefire that has halted fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia, long considered by experts as a "state within a state" wielding enormous influence over Lebanon's political, economic and security spheres.
The technocratic government in Beirut, which came to power in 2025, is juggling dual pressure campaigns -- sustained Israeli attacks and seizure of Lebanese territory on one hand and the internal threat of Hezbollah and its Iranian backers on the other.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun said on Tuesday that the goal of the negotiations was to "stop hostilities, end the Israeli occupation of southern regions and deploy the [Lebanese] army all the way to the internationally recognized southern borders."
"We negotiate for ourselves," Aoun said. "We are no longer a pawn in anyone's game, nor an arena for anyone's wars. And we never will be again."
Paul Salem, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute think tank, told ABC News from Beirut that Thursday's talks are "historically significant in what they might eventually lead to," but framed the meetings as the first steps on a long and difficult road.
The government in Beirut is facing "a prolonged conundrum," Salem said. "Iran is insisting on maintaining its presence and backing Hezbollah in Lebanon. Hezbollah seems to be happy to continue to play their role with Iran."
And in southern Lebanon, Israel seems intent on a devastating campaign and seizure of land which its Defense Minister Israel Katz has repeatedly said will be modeled on the destruction of Gaza.
"The Lebanese state needs to be able to bolster its credibility by not allowing a long-term Israeli occupation," Salem said.
On Wednesday, a spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office told ABC News of the talks that there is "one obstacle: Hezbollah the Iranian proxy holding Lebanon hostage and threatening Israel. Peace through strength: remove Hezbollah and peace becomes possible."
President Donald Trump's administration pushed for a ceasefire in Lebanon earlier this month, as the White House sought a pause in the joint U.S.-Israeli campaign against Iran. Trump announced a 10-day ceasefire between Hezbollah and Israel following the first round of talks on April 14 -- a ceasefire Netanyahu seemingly had no choice but to support.
But Trump and his top officials have also made clear that Hezbollah cannot be allowed to retain its pre-war clout within the country, nor continue to pose a military threat to Israel.
"We will make Lebanon great again. It's about time we did so," Trump said over the weekend.
Ahead of Thursday's talks, a State Department official told ABC News, "The United States welcomes the productive engagement that began on April 14."
"We will continue to facilitate direct, good-faith discussions between the two governments," the spokesperson added.
A tentative ceasefire
Thursday's talks in Washington will resume amid a tentative U.S.-backed ceasefire, under which Israeli strikes against alleged Hezbollah targets continue in eastern and southern Lebanon.
Under the U.S.-backed deal, Israel retains the right to fire on what it deems an "imminent threat" to its troops. The IDF has fired several times on Hezbollah targets since the ceasefire began on April 17. On Tuesday, Hezbollah said it fired rockets and drones at Israeli forces for the first time since a 10-day truce took effect.
Israeli ground forces are still operating in southern Lebanon, with the goal, according to Israeli officials, of establishing a demilitarized "buffer zone" between the Israeli border and the Litani River, around 18 miles to the north.
The IDF says it is holding approximately 15 positions about six miles deep into southern Lebanon, which it says includes about 50 Lebanese villages. Israeli officials have blamed the Lebanese government for being unable or unwilling to keep Hezbollah away from Israel’s northern border -- a responsibility set out in the U.S.-brokered November ceasefire.
The campaign includes the razing of dozens of Lebanese towns and villages, plus the forced -- and, at least for some, permanent -- displacement of hundreds of thousands of people.
Human Rights Watch said this month that more than a million people across the country have been forced to flee their homes -- nearly one-fifth of the entire population of the country. The Israeli evacuation orders have included all of southern Beirut, the suburbs of which are traditionally considered a Hezbollah stronghold.
Israeli action has killed at least 2,294 people and wounded another 7,544 people since March 2, Lebanon's Health Ministry said last week. The strikes included a barrage of more than 100 strikes within 10 minutes on April 8, killing at least 357 people across the country, Lebanese authorities said.
Israeli health officials say Hezbollah gunfire, rockets and drones have killed 20 Israelis since March 2 and injured hundreds of others.
On March 2, Hezbollah joined Iran in its response to the U.S.-Israeli military campaign launched against Iran on Feb. 28. With those strikes, Hezbollah broke a U.S.-backed cross-border ceasefire that had been in place since November 2024. Hezbollah said the attacks were retaliation for alleged Israeli violations of the same ceasefire.
Hezbollah defied assessments it had been substantially weakened by its two-year involvement in the war in Gaza, firing more than 6,500 munitions toward Israel in the first five weeks of renewed fighting, according to the IDF.
Hezbollah fighters have also inflicted significant casualties on invading Israeli forces. Sixteen Israel Defense Forces troops had been killed in the current round of fighting in Lebanon as of Wednesday. The IDF says it has killed more than 1,800 Hezbollah operatives since March 2.
"Hezbollah is back in business," Salem said. Israel's operation "enables Hezbollah to resume its resistance narrative. And it certainly suits Iran to keep the Lebanon front open and active, to keep Israel distracted and to drain some of its resources and attention."
Dual threats
Within Lebanon, Aoun and Prime Minister Nawaf Salam have faced veiled threats from Hezbollah and Tehran.
After the first round of talks in Washington, Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem said Aoun's government was "subjecting Lebanon to these humiliations by negotiating directly with the Israeli enemy and listening to its dictates."
Hezbollah is not a party to the U.S.-brokered ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, which seeks to sideline the Iranian-backed militant group.
Hassan Fadlallah, a Hezbollah member of parliament, has called on Aoun to pull out of the talks. "We will reject and confront any attempt to impose political costs on Lebanon through concessions made to this Israeli enemy," Fadlallah told AFP this week, though said the group wants "the ceasefire to continue" along with an Israeli withdrawal.
A potential clash between Beirut and Hezbollah has been brewing since the Aoun-Salam government took power last year.
In an unprecedented step, The Lebanese cabinet has repeatedly asserted its ambition for Hezbollah to disarm and has declared all military activity by the group to be illegal. Earlier this month, the cabinet ordered security forces to restrict weapons in Beirut exclusively to state institutions
The state's all-volunteer Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) is widely considered to be outgunned by Hezbollah, though it has around 80,000 personnel. Polls suggest the LAF is broadly popular among Lebanese people, but its multi-sectarian character has raised questions as to whether it would prove dependable in the event of renewed communal fighting.
But despite Hezbollah's mauling in the last round of fighting with Israel and the loss of a key neighboring partner with the fall of Syrian President Bashar Assad in 2024, observers say the group -- which is part of the Lebanese government and holds more than a dozen seats in parliament -- retains extensive military and political power, particularly in parts of the capital Beirut and in its southern and eastern heartlands.
Before the outbreak of its latest war with Israel in 2023, estimates of Hezbollah's military strength ranged from 30,000 to more than 50,000 operatives.
Israeli leaders have committed to an open-ended seizure of parts of southern Lebanon and demanded Beirut's assistance in the total disarmament of Hezbollah, raising fears that Lebanon's confessional power-sharing system could fracture and the country slide back into the kind of civil war that killed more than 100,000 people between 1975 and 1990.
Israeli leaders have been clear that they will not tolerate Hezbollah’s presence in southern Lebanon, vowing to keep troops there until the militant group is disarmed.
Risking such a calamity on behalf of Israel -- a country which has invaded Lebanon six times since 1978, which is now again occupying parts of the south and which Lebanese authorities say has killed thousands of Lebanese civilians in three and a half years of war with Hezbollah -- may be deeply unpopular.
LAF chief Gen. Rodolphe Haykal said on Tuesday that Lebanon "will reclaim every inch of its land under Israeli occupation," according to a readout posted to the LAF's X page.
Meanwhile, Hezbollah's patrons in Iran -- specifically the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps -- appear unwilling to give up their Lebanese ally, which for decades has been perhaps the most potent proxy within of Tehran's "forward defense" strategy by which Iran has sought to deter and punish U.S.-Israeli action against it.
Prominent Iranian leaders who survived the initial U.S.-Israeli onslaught demanded that Lebanon be included in the two-week ceasefire announced on April 8. "For years, Hezbollah has been fighting with the Zionist regime, but in the recent war, Hezbollah fought for the Islamic Republic," parliament speaker and lead Iranian negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf said.
Others have hinted at costs for Beirut if the government tries to defang Hezbollah. Ali Akbar Velayati -- an adviser to Iran's new Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamanei -- for example, said in a post to X this month that Salam "should know that ignoring the unique role of the resistance and the heroic Hezbollah will expose Lebanon to irreparable security risks."
"Lebanon's stability rests exclusively on cohesion between the government and the resistance," Velayati said.
For many Lebanese -- Shiites among them -- the return to war between Israel, Hezbollah and Iran means more turmoil piled atop years of cascading economic and political crises.
Last month, Salam expressed his own frustration. "This war was imposed upon us," the Lebanese prime minister said, adding that Beirut "could have avoided it" if Hezbollah had not resumed attacks on Israel.
ABC News' Chris Boccia and Jordana Miller contributed to this report
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