ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Boston Red Sox designated hitter Rafael Devers has become the first major league player to strike out 10 times in the first three games of a season.
Devers went 0 for 4 with three more strikeouts Saturday night in Boston’s 4-3 loss to the Texas Rangers, including his last at-bat in the ninth inning when he swung and missed a 92.3 mph cutter from former teammate Chris Martin. Devers is 0 for 12 this season, though did draw a bases-loaded walk in the second.
The 10 strikeouts broke the previous record of nine in the first three games, which had been done five times previously since 1901, according to SportRadar.
Brent Rooker of the Athletics struck out nine time to open last season, after Cincinnati’s Will Benson did that in 2023. The others were Colorado’s Jack Cust in 2002, Philadelphia’s Greg Luzinski in 1974 and Wally Post for Cincinnati in 1956.
Devers is now solely the Red Sox DH after their offseason acquisition of third baseman Alex Bregman.
(LONDON) -- Tehran has rejected direct negotiations with the United States in regarding its nuclear program, responding to a letter from President Donald Trump, Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said Sunday, according to the Islamic Republic News Agency.
However, he added, the path for indirect negotiations remains open, the state news agency reported.
"In this response, although direct negotiations between the two parties are rejected, it has been stated that the path for indirect negotiations is open," Pezeshkian said.
Speaking at a cabinet meeting, Pezeshkian stated that Iran’s response to the U.S. president's letter was sent via Oman.
He emphasized that Iran has never avoided negotiations and blamed the United States for not fulfilling its former commitments, including terminating the former nuclear deal in Trump's first term in 2018.
It was the breach of commitments that caused problems on this path, which must be addressed to restore trust, the letter underscored, according to Pezeshkian.
"It will be the actions of the Americans that determine whether negotiations continue," he added.
(LONDON) -- Ukraine has accused Russia of committing a war crime after a Russian drone struck a military hospital in Kharkiv overnight.
Ukraine's General Staff said the strikes were a "deliberate, targeted striking" of the hospital and that it appeared soldiers being treated there were injured. It said the medical center and nearby residential buildings were damaged as a result of a "defeat of" a Russian Shahed drone.
Photos from the scene appear to show damage to the hospital, with an entrance way demolished.
Russian drones also hit apartment blocks and a shopping mall in the center of Ukraine's second largest city, killing at least two people and wounding 25, according to Kharkiv's governor.
"War crimes have no statute of limitations. The relevant evidence will be transferred to the bodies of international criminal justice," the General Staff wrote in a statement on the hospital attack.
Ukrainian cites are bombed by dozens of Russian drones every night, and this weekend has seen a particularly intense wave of attacks in civilian areas of major cities. Dnipro in southeast Ukraine suffered on Friday night heavy strikes that started major fires.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday said over the past week Russia had launched over 1,000 drones, nine missiles and over 1,300 guided aerial bombs, with most of Ukraine's regions coming under attack. He said Ukraine had shot down a "significant number" of the drones and missiles.
"Russia is dragging out the war," Zelenskyy wrote in a statement on X, saying Ukraine had shared information on Russia's strikes with its allies and that it expects a "response from the United States, Europe and all our allies to this terror against our people."
Russia has also intensified its ground offensive operations in recent days amid, according to Ukraine's military, amid the ongoing efforts by the Trump administration to end the war.
Ukraine's General Staff as well as Ukrainian military analysts report in the past few days Russia has launched some of the largest number of ground assaults since the start of the year.
"The number of enemy assaults has exceeded 200 times per day for the last three days," Deep State, a blog account that tracks the war and is close to Ukraine's military, wrote Friday. This is the highest three-day intensity of the year."
It follows warnings this week by Zelenskyy that Russia is preparing to launch a major spring offensive, even as it tries to drag out negotiations with the Trump administration.
The Russian attacks are focused most of all in eastern Ukraine, in the direction of Pokrovsk, an important defensive hub that Russia has been trying to seize for more than 6 months.
Russian forces had scaled back their attacks in recent weeks in part due to poor ground conditions and apparently also worn down by extremely heavy losses. But it appears they are now renewing their offensive operations.
Ukrainian and western officials warned that President Vladimir Putin of Russia will try to use protracted negotiations as an opportunity to also advance on the battlefield, hoping to crack Ukraine's defenses as the Trump administration weakens western support for Kyiv.
TYLER, Texas (KETK) — TJC and TVCC have been two of the most dominant softball teams in Region 14 this year.
The Apaches and Cardinals split a doubleheader in Athens earlier in March, and Saturday, both squads battled each other in another doubleheader in Tyler.
The Apaches came away with a 3-2 walk-off win in the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader before the Cardinals earned a hard-fought 7-6 victory over TJC in the second game.
TJC returns to action when the Apaches host Navarro Wednesday, April 2 in a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m.
TVCC returns to the field Monday, March 31 when the Cardinals host Kilgore College in a doubleheader starting at 1 p.m.
TYLER — Grandy’s at 1226 S Beckham Ave in Tyler has permanently closed down, according to a sign posted on their door and drive-thru window obtained by our news partner KETK. The sign states that the store was closed permanently on March 23. The Tyler Grandy’s was one of more than 45 Grandy’s locations across the country. The Grandy’s chain started in 1972 and currently has it’s headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee.
TYLER — One person is dead following a car crash on Friday afternoon on Highway 31 west, near Bellwood Lake Road. According to Tyler Police Department Public Information Officer Andy Erbaugh and our news partner KETK, the crash happened around 3:00. Erbaugh said both drivers were taken to a hospital, where one of them died. Additional details were not available.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The top vaccine official with the Food and Drug Administration has resigned and criticized the nation’s top health official for allowing “misinformation and lies” to guide his thinking behind the safety of vaccinations.
Dr. Peter Marks sent a letter to Acting FDA Commissioner Sara Brenner on Friday saying that he would resign and retire by April 5 as director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research.
In his letter, which was obtained by The Associated Press, Marks said he was “willing to work” to address the concerns expressed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about the safety of vaccinations. But he concluded that wasn’t possible.
“It has become clear that truth and transparency are not desired by the Secretary, but rather he wishes subservient confirmation of his misinformation and lies,” he wrote.
Marks was offered the choice of resigning or being fired by Kennedy, according to a former FDA official familiar with the discussions, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he didn’t have permission to discuss the matter publicly.
Kennedy has a long history of spreading anti-vaccine misinformation, although during his Senate confirmation hearings he seemed to say he would not undermine vaccines. He promised the chair of the Senate health committee that he would not change existing vaccine recommendations.
Since becoming secretary, Kennedy has vowed to scrutinize the safety of childhood vaccinations, despite decades of evidence they are safe and have saved millions of lives.
Marks oversaw the agency’s rapid review and approval of COVID-19 vaccines and treatments during the pandemic.
Marks is credited with coining the name and concept for “Operation Warp Speed,” the effort under President Donald Trump to rapidly manufacture vaccines while they were still being tested for safety and efficacy. The initiative cut years off the normal development process.
Despite the project’s success, Trump repeatedly lashed out at the FDA for not approving the first COVID shots even sooner. Trump told confidants after his 2020 loss that he would have been reelected if the vaccine had been available before Election Day.
Dr. Paul Offit, a vaccine expert at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, criticized what he called the “firing” of Marks.
“RFK Jr.’s firing of Peter Marks because he wouldn’t bend a knee to his misinformation campaign now allows the fox to guard the hen house,” Offit said. “It’s a sad day for America’s children.”
Former FDA Commissioner Dr. Robert Califf said the issues raised in Marks’ resignation letter “should be frightening to anyone committed to the importance of evidence to guide policies and patient decisions.”
“I hope this will intensify the communication across academia, industry and government to bolster the importance of science and evidence,” he wrote.
The resignation follows news Friday that HHS plans to lay off 10,000 workers and shut down entire agencies, including ones that oversee billions of dollars in funds for addiction services and community health centers across the country.
In a post on social media Thursday, Kennedy criticized the department he oversees as an inefficient “sprawling bureaucracy.” He also faulted the department’s 82,000 workers for a decline in Americans’ health.
The resignation is the latest blow to the beleaguered health agency, which has been rocked for weeks by layoffs, retirements and a chaotic return-to-office process that left many staffers without permanent offices, desks or other supplies. Last month, Jim Jones, the FDA’s deputy commissioner for foods, resigned, citing “the indiscriminate firing” of nearly 90 staffers in his division, according to a copy of his resignation letter obtained by the AP.
Marks, who could not be reached for comment, also raised concerns in his letter about “efforts currently being advanced by some on the adverse health effects of vaccination are concerning” as well as the “unprecedented assault on scientific truth that has adversely impacted public health in our nation.”
He went on to detail the historic benefits of vaccinations dating back to George Washington and pointed to the ongoing measles outbreak as proof of what can happen when doubts about science take hold.
“The ongoing multistate measles outbreak that is particularly severe in Texas reminds us of what happens when confidence in well-established science underlying public health and well-being is undermined,” he wrote.
The measles outbreak, which could go on for months, has now spread to Kansas and Ohio after sickening more than 370 in Texas and New Mexico.
If it hits other unvaccinated communities across the U.S., as may now be the case in Kansas, the outbreak could endure for a year and threaten the nation’s status as having eliminated the local spread of the vaccine-preventable disease, public health experts said.
A red giant star and white dwarf orbit each other in this animation of a nova similar to T Coronae Borealis. Image via NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center.
(NEW YORK) -- The once-in-a-lifetime explosion of T Coronae Borealis, also known as the "Blaze Star," is still pending -- but the event will be occurring soon, according to astronomers.
Stargazers watched the skies with bated breath on Thursday night in hopes that T Coronae Borealis, a system consisting of a hot, red giant star and a cool, white dwarf star about 3,000 light-years away, would be visible with the naked eye once the explosion occurred.
In June, NASA predicted that the Blaze Star could explode before September. Another prediction came in October, when astronomers at the Paris Observatory predicted that the explosion would happen on March 27, 2025.
Now that those dates have come and gone, viewers have zeroed in on later predictions, including Nov. 10, June 25, 2026, and Feb. 8, 2027.
It is difficult to predict the exact date of explosion, Louisiana State University physics and astronomy professor Bradley Schaefer, told ABC News last year.
The explosion of T Coronae Borealis, a recurring NOVA, only happens once every 79 to 80 years, according to NASA. It is one of 10 known recurring novas in the Milky Way that erupt on timescales of less than a century.
The last recorded outburst was in 1946. When it explodes, it will be in the top 50 brightest stars in the night sky, astronomers say.
"It's going to be one of the brightest stars in the sky," Schaefer said.
Since March 2023, the Blaze Star has displayed a pre-eruption dip in brightness, typically a sign that an outburst is imminent, according to the American Association of Variable Star Observers.
It is typically far too dim to see with the unaided eye at a magnitude +10, according to NASA, but it will jump to a magnitude +2 during the explosion.
The Blaze Star is located in the Northern Crown, a horseshoe-shaped curve of stars west of the Hercules constellation, according to NASA. Once the explosion occurs, viewers can look for it between the bright stars of Vega and Arcturus.
ABC News' Leah Sarnoff contributed to this report.
(LONDON) -- The American embassy in Syria has warned all U.S. citizens to leave the country due to "the increased possibility of attacks" during the Eid al-Fitr holiday at the end of March, which marks the end of Ramadan in the Muslim world.
The embassy posted a notice to its website late on Friday cautioning citizens of potential attacks targeting "embassies, international organizations and Syrian public institutions" in the Syrian capital Damascus.
"Methods of attack could include, but are not limited to, individual attackers, armed gunmen, or the use of explosive devices," the embassy notice said. "Leave Syria now," it added.
The State Department's current travel advisory for Syria is at level 4 -- its highest alert meaning Americans are advised not to travel to the country for any reason.
"This advisory remains in effect due to the significant risks of terrorism, civil unrest, kidnapping, hostage-taking, armed conflict and unjust detention," the embassy said in its latest notice.
The U.S. embassy in Damascus suspended operations in 2012 shortly after civil war erupted between former President Bashar Assad's regime and a patchwork of rebel groups. Assad was deposed late last year by a collection of opposition forces led by the Islamist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group. HTS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa is now Syria's interim president.
"The U.S. government is unable to provide any routine or emergency consular services to U.S. citizens in Syria," the embassy wrote. "The Czech Republic serves as the protecting power for U.S. interests in Syria."
"U.S. citizens in Syria who are in need of emergency assistance should contact the U.S. Interests Section of the Embassy of the Czech Republic," it added.
A photo released by the Department of Homeland Security of the first flight of migrants who were part of Tren de Aragua, preparing to takeoff for Guantanamo Bay, Feb. 4, 2025. Via DHS.
(WASHINGTON) -- The southwestern border mission and the detention operations at Guantanamo Bay have cost close to $330 million through mid-March, according to a U.S. official familiar with information briefed to Congress, as President Donald Trump attempts to fulfill his campaign promise to crack down on illegal immigration in the United States.
The deportation flights and detention operations at Guantanamo Bay, which only held a few hundred detainees at its peak, have cost nearly $40 million of that total.
There are only a few dozen deported migrants currently being held at Guantanamo Bay.
The estimated costs of the operations at the border and at Guantanamo Bay have not been previously reported.
The costs of the southwestern border operation are expected to continue to rise now that additional active-duty forces have continued to move to the border, where there are now more than 10,000 active duty troops as part of the mission on the border with Mexico.
Additional costs will likely include those associated with the new deployments of two U.S. Navy destroyers to that mission.
As of March 12, 2025, the military services had provided a total of $328.5 million in support for the border mission, including deportation flights and deployments to the border, according to a U.S. official familiar with the information briefed to Congress. Of that total, $289.2 million was for border security operations and $39.3 million was for the operations at Guantanamo Bay.
The cost at Guantanamo Bay is extremely high given the only several hundred detainees have been sent there -- even though Trump had said tent cities there could hold as many as 30,000 deported migrants.
"There's a lot of space to accommodate a lot of people," Trump said of using Guantanamo Bay to house migrants on Feb. 4 after he signed an executive order to send migrants there on Jan. 29. "So we're going to use it. ... I'd like to get them out. It would be all subject to the laws of our land, and we're looking at that to see if we can."
Detainees with criminal records were housed at the detention facility that had been used to house enemy combatants from the War on Terror, and others were placed at the Migrant Operations Center that could only house 50 migrants.
Plans called for a tent city adjoining that migrant facility to be built that could house the numbers mentioned by Trump and other senior administration officials.
However, operations have come nowhere close to that as the phased construction initially envisioned building tent facilities for 2,500 people -- but only 195 tents capable of housing 500 people have been built. And they have not been used at all because they did not meet U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention standards, such as including air conditioning.
On Friday, a delegation of Senate Democrats visited the migrant detention operations at Guantanamo Bay and later criticized what they called the "scale and wastefulness of the Trump Administration's misuse of our military."
"The staggering financial cost to fly these immigrants out of the United States and detain them at Guantanamo Bay -- a mission worth tens of millions of dollars a month -- is an insult to American taxpayers," Democrats on the Senate Armed Services Committee, who sponsored the visit, said in a statement.
"President Trump could implement his immigration policies for a fraction of the cost by using existing ICE facilities in the U.S., but he is obsessed with the image of using Guantanamo, no matter the cost," it added.
ICE has its own fleet of chartered aircraft that are used for deportation flights that cost about $8,577 an hour, according to its website. In contrast, the flights to Guantanamo Bay were conducted on C-130Js and C-17s.
The U.S. Transportation Command said it costs $20,000 per flight hour for C-130Js and $28,500 per flight hour for C-17s -- and a one-way flight Guantanamo from El Paso, Texas is about 4 1/2 hours on a C-17 and six hours on a C-130J, allowing costs to add up quickly.
U.S. Transportation Command has also carried out deportation flights to Honduras, Guatemala, Ecuador, Peru, India and Panama. The most recent military flight occurred on Friday, when a military deportation flight landed in Guatemala.
ABC News reported last week that 21 deported migrants had been sent to Guantanamo Bay aboard a civilian flight coordinated by ICE, the first detainees to arrive there since the earlier removal of all 41 detainees at Guantanamo Bay to a detention center in Louisiana.
In late February, the 178 detainees at Guantanamo Bay at that time were flown out, with 176 returning to their home country of Venezuela and two others returned to the United States.
Former Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona joins supporters of the Department of Education workers during a clap-out event in front of the Department of Education building in Washington D..C., March 28, 2025. Via Arthur Jones II/ABC News.
(WASHINGTON) -- Dozens of emotional Department of Education employees took part in a final "clap-out" in Washington, D.C., after losing jobs amid the Trump administration's agency restructuring.
The administration slashed about 50% of the department's workforce as part of President Donald Trump and Education Secretary Linda McMahon's strategy to abolish the department and send education decisions to the states.
The departing civil servants, who have either been terminated, retired or voluntarily bought out, have each been given about 30 minutes to retrieve their belongings this week -- before exiting the building to clapping colleagues who were screaming "thank you!" outside the offices in Washington, D.C.
The last education chief, former Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, visited his old office to celebrate employees affected by the workforce shakeup.
Clapping, shaking hands and cheering them along, Cardona told the civil servants, "Thank you for your service."
"These public servants that are walking out right now deserve a thank you. They deserve respect. They've worked hard -- not just during the time that I served as secretary but before that," Cardona, wearing plain clothes, told reporters in a brief statement outside agency headquarters.
"I'm here, for the staff here, to say thank you," he added.
DeNeen Ripley shook Cardona's hand and told him her entire transportation division was eliminated. Ripley has worked at the department over 30 years and said she is taking an early retirement now.
"It feels like a death," Ripley told ABC News. "It feels like a bad divorce of sorts, it just feels heartbreaking."
Despite the massive overhaul and almost 2,000 employees lost, McMahon has stressed the Department of Education will continue to administer its statutory functions that students from disadvantaged backgrounds rely on, including grants, formula funding and loans.
"The president made clear today that none of the funding will stop for these [programs]," McMahon told ABC News Senior Political Correspondent Rachel Scott after Trump's executive order signing last week, which directed McMahon to use all necessary steps permitted under the law to abolish the agency she's been tapped to lead.
"I think it is his hope that even more funding could go to the states. There will be more opportunity for it. And, you know, he means what he says. And so there's not going to be any defunding or reduction in funding," she added.
A dream job "snatched"
Washington, D.C., native Leondra Richardson and a crowd of emotional colleagues across the department left the near-defunct agency's headquarters for the final time Friday.
"It was a dream job," Richardson told ABC News. "And that dream was snatched from me by the new administration."
Richardson said her entire office, the Office of the Chief Data Officer, was folded earlier this month by the "reduction in force" implemented on March 11.
Sydney Leiher, a midlevel career public servant, said she felt forced out and doesn't know what's next for her. After leaving with her belongings, including a beach volleyball and Trader Joe's sack, Leiher stressed the reforms are not only unjustified but also unpopular.
"It's definitely emotional," Leiher said, holding back tears. "I feel bad for all of the people in the Chief Information Office who have to, like, gather all of our laptops and equipment -- like, they don't want to be doing this either.
"It's just a really sad day. But seeing the support out here from all of other Department of ED staff and then also, like, other federal agencies and then the public just makes it shows to me that, like, people do not want this, and like, this is not popular, and this shouldn't be happening," Leiher added.
Richardson and Leiher both worked in the same division, the OCDO, that was shuttered. Without the office, Richardson said there will hardly be anyone left at the federal level to collect data to show student improvements or delays.
The Trump administration has claimed it is making cuts to rid the government of bureaucratic bloat, but Richardson told ABC News her IT job was not policy based or bureaucratic. Leiher, an analyst who worked on artificial intelligence machine learning, told ABC News that she took this job after returning from the Peace Corps. She added that civil service work shouldn't be about politics.
"I believe in public service," Leiher said. "I believe in a nonpartisan civil service. We're important, we matter."
Meanwhile, departing civil servants such as Dr. Jason Cottrell, a data coordinator in the Office of Postsecondary Education, the largest grant-making division in the department, said he believes students are being put in jeopardy as the Department of Education is diminished.
"Our nation's students are going to suffer," Cottrell said. "I think of the doctoral students that are, you know, trying to do research on cancer or, you know, learning or whatever it may be, and without the funds to support them, they are going to -- it's going to be hard for them to succeed without those funds, and we're not going to gain that knowledge that we need."
The farewell ceremony at the department comes as "clap-outs" are set to continue across the country next week at regional offices in places such as Cleveland, Dallas and San Francisco. But these moments hit especially close to home for Richardson, who detailed how she overcame a teenage pregnancy while growing up east of the river in the Southeast quadrant of the city.
She said it's so close yet so "far away" from the federal government.
"I hate that I can't be a voice or inspiration to the young girls growing up in Southeast D.C. that I wanted to inspire," Richardson said, adding that she "wanted to give a chance to, you know, show that there's another way and you can make it forward."
"You can make a big impact and a big difference in the country coming from where we from," she said.
(NEW YORK) -- A spring storm system will move east over the next three days, bringing a variety of dangerous and life-threatening weather, including tornados and large hail, from the Heartland to the East Coast.
From late Saturday evening into Saturday night, severe storms will take shape from Oklahoma City to Kansas City, according to the forecast. The biggest threat with these storms will be damaging winds and large hail, but a tornado cannot be ruled out.
On Sunday, the storm will move into the Midwest and the South with severe weather expected from near Dallas all the way to Erie, Pennsylvania. The highest threat for strong tornadoes will be from east of Little Rock, Arkansas, to Tupelo, Mississippi; Memphis, Tennessee; Nashville, Tennessee; and Evansville, Indiana.
Damaging winds and hail are also possible in Chicago, Detroit, Indianapolis, Cincinnati and Cleveland.
On Monday, the severe weather moves to the East Coast and I-95 corridor from Upstate New York all the way south to Tallahassee, and New Orleans. Damaging winds will be the biggest threat for northern cities but a few tornadoes cannot be ruled out across the southern areas.
On the north side of this storm, snow and ice is forecast from Dakotas all the way to New England Saturday into Sunday.
Ice storm warnings have been issued for Wisconsin and Michigan, where up to a half an inch of icy glaze will cover streets, roads, trees and sidewalks.
Additionally, periods of rain and thunderstorms will move into the Carolinas and Asheville Saturday night into Sunday morning. The area has experienced wildfires over the last week due to the dry conditions.
On Saturday, seven states from New York to North Carolina are under Elevated Fire Danger.
The thunderstorms with heavy rain will be on and off into Monday.
Rumeysa Ozturk is shown in this undated photo. Obtained by ABC News
(WASHINGTON) -- A federal judge in Boston ruled that Tufts doctoral student Rumeysa Ozturk cannot be deported until she decides whether she has jurisdiction to rule if Ozturk was lawfully taken into custody.
Judge Denise Casper said Friday that Ozturk "shall not be removed from the United States until further Order of this Court."
The government revoked Ozturk's visa due to her pro-Palestinian activism, according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who added the State Department may have revoked more than 300 student visas since the beginning of the second Trump administration.
"It might be more than 300 at this point. We do it every day. Every time I find one of these lunatics, I take away their visa," Rubio said during a press conference in Guyana on Thursday.
Ozturk, a Turkish national, was arrested by immigration authorities as she was headed to meet her friends and break her fast during Ramadan on Tuesday.
She is listed in the ICE database as "in custody" and appears to be held at an ICE processing center in Louisiana.
Rubio plainly said Ozturk's visa was revoked by the government.
"If you apply for a visa to enter the United States and be a student, and you tell us the reason you are coming to the United States is not just because you want to write op-eds, but because you want to participate in movements that are involved in doing things like vandalizing universities, harassing students, taking over buildings, creating a ruckus -- we're not going to give you a visa," he said.
"If you lie to us and get a visa and then enter the United States, and with that visa, participate in that sort of activity, we're going to take away your visa. And once you've lost your visa, you're no longer legally in the United States. And we have a right, like every country in the world has a right, to remove you from our country. So it's just that simple," Rubio said.
Last year, Ozturk was the co-author of an opinion piece in the Tufts Daily newspaper, demanding the university administration "acknowledge the Palestinian genocide" and disclose and divest from companies with direct or indirect ties to Israel.
She made no mention of Hamas in the op-ed, though a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said she "engaged in activities in support of Hamas, a foreign terrorist organization that relishes the killing of Americans."
"She's softspoken, she doesn't want to hurt you when she's talking," her friend, Reyyan Bilge, an assistant teaching professor in Northeastern University's psychology department, told ABC News. "She makes sure that she doesn't offend anyone, let alone possibly incite violence. I've never heard her swearing, believe me, this is the kind of person we're talking about."
The secretary said it was "crazy" and "stupid" for any country to issue visas to any individual who intends to be disruptive on college campuses.
"If you invite me into your home because you say, I want to come to your house for dinner and I go to your house and I start putting mud on your couch and spray painting your kitchen, I bet you you're going to kick me out," he said. "Well, we're going to do the same thing if you come into the United States as a visitor and create a ruckus for us."
"We don't want it. We don't want it in our country. Go back and do it in your country, but you're not going to do it in our country," he said.
The mayor of Somerville, Massachusetts, where Ozturk was approached and detained, said it appears the Tufts doctoral student was detained over the exercise of free speech.
"I am deeply concerned to see a student with legal status detained for what appears to be the exercise of free speech. Rumeysa Ozturk has a First Amendment right to free speech and a right to due process and that must be upheld, just as all immigration detainees have rights that must be respected without exception," Mayor Katjana Ballantyne said in a statement.
"Our rights are being threatened in a variety of ways right now and Somerville will make use of the law and our voices to defend them. My administration recently filed a joint lawsuit with Chelsea against federal officials to do just that. We cannot sit by idly," the mayor said.
(LONDON) -- Denmark is open to discussions with the U.S. on how to "fix" the status quo in Greenland, the country's foreign minister said, after Vice President JD Vance accused Copenhagen of failing to adequately protect the Arctic island during a controversial visit on Friday.
In a post to X addressed to Denmark's "dear American friends" late Friday, Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said his nation agrees that the "status quo" in the Arctic "is not an option."
"So let's talk about how we can fix it -- together," Rasmussen wrote.
In a video statement, Rasmussen acknowledged the "many accusations and many allegations" about Greenland. "Of course, we are open to criticism, but let me be completely honest -- we do not appreciate the tone in which it's being delivered."
"This is not how you speak to your close allies," Rasmussen continued, "and I still consider Denmark and the United States to be close allies."
Danish and Greenlandic leaders have pushed back on Trump's desire to gain control of Greenland. They have simultaneously criticized his perceived overreach while seeking to ease tensions by proposing deeper military and economic cooperation on the Arctic landmass.
"We respect that the United States needs a greater military presence in Greenland, as Vice President Vance mentioned this evening. We -- Denmark and Greenland -- are very much open to discussing this with you," Rasmussen said in his statement.
The existing bilateral defense agreement -- signed in 1951 -- "offers ample opportunity for the United States to have a much stronger military presence in Greenland," Rasmussen said. "If that is what you wish, then let us discuss it."
President Donald Trump has repeatedly -- both in his first term and since returning to office for his second -- expressed his ambition to take control of the island. Rasmussen's appeal for dialogue came shortly after Vance completed his visit to Greenland, which is an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark.
Speaking to American service members at the U.S. Pituffik Space Base on the northwestern coast of Greenland, Vance said, "Well, the president said we have to have Greenland. And I think that we do have to be more serious about the security of Greenland."
"We can't just ignore this place," he continued. "We can't just ignore the president's desires."
Vance said Trump's administration "respects the self-determination of the people of Greenland," but suggested the island would be safer under the U.S. security umbrella.
Greenland is already covered by the Article 5 collective defense clause that underpins NATO, of which both Denmark and the U.S. are members.
"Yes, the people of Greenland are going to have self-determination," Vance said. "We hope that they choose to partner with the United States because we're the only nation on Earth that will respect their sovereignty and respect their security -- because their security is very much our security."
Vance accused Denmark of failing to provide adequate security against "very aggressive incursions from Russia, from China and from other nations."
"Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland. You have underinvested in the people of Greenland, and you have underinvested in the security architecture of this incredible, beautiful landmass filled with incredible people. That has to change," he said.
Rasmussen said that both Denmark and the U.S. had done too little in the Arctic since the end of the Cold War. "We all acted on the assumption that the Arctic was and should be a low tension area, but that time is over," he said. "Status quo is not am option."
Trump has repeatedly expressed his ambition to acquire Greenland, despite fierce criticism from leaders in Greenland, Denmark and Europe. There appears little support among Greenlanders for his proposal. A January poll by Verian, commissioned by the Danish paper Berlingske, showed that only 6% of Greenlanders are in favor of becoming part of the U.S., with 9% undecided.
The island sits in a strategic position facing the northern coast of Russia across the Arctic Ocean and close to two shipping routes -- the Northeast and Northwest passages. Greenland is also thought to be home to a large amount of valuable mineral deposits. Both the shipping routes and minerals are expected to become more accessible as the warming climate causes sea ice to recede further.
"We have to have Greenland. It's not a question of: Do you think we can do without it? We can't," Trump said in the Oval Office on Friday. "If you look at Greenland right now, if you look at the waterways, you have Chinese and Russian ships all over the place, and we're not going to be able to do that."
"We're not relying on Denmark or anybody else to take care of that situation," he added. "And we're not talking about peace for the United States."
"Greenland's very important for the peace of the world -- not us, the peace of the entire world," the president said. "And I think Denmark understands it. I think the European Union understands it. And if they don't, we're going to have to explain it to them."
ABC News' Hannah Demissie, Molly Nagle and Michelle Stoddart contributed to this report.
ATLANTA (AP) — With Auburn’s season on the brink, Tahaad Pettiford and Denver Jones suddenly became unstoppable.
On to the Elite Eight for the top overall seed in the NCAA Tournament.
Pettitford and Jones scored 20 points apiece to lead a second-half barrage that rallied the Tigers to a 78-65 victory over Michigan in the Sweet 16 on Friday night.
The Tigers (31-5) wiped out a nine-point deficit, outscoring No. 5 seed Michigan 39-17 over the final 12 1/2 minutes to advance to the Elite Eight for only the third time in school history. They also became the fourth Southeastern Conference team to reach a regional final, with the SEC joining the Atlantic Coast Conference (2016) and Big East (2009) as the only leagues to do that.
“Just the kids’ will to win,” Auburn coach Bruce Pearl said. “Denver got heated up. Tahaad got heated up. We went to them, and they delivered.”
Auburn will face Michigan State in the South Region final on Sunday, with a trip to the Final Four on the line. The Spartans held off Mississippi 73-70 in the first game of the night in Atlanta.
Johni Broome scored 22 points to go along with 16 rebounds, but it was Pettiford, a freshman, and Jones, a senior, who took control when Auburn needed them most.
The Wolverines (27-10) built their biggest lead, 49-38, and seemed headed for their most improbable performance yet in a remarkable comeback season under first-year coach Dusty May.
But Pettiford sparked the comeback with a step-back jumper from beyond the 3-point stripe, Jones knocked down two straight from long range before scoring on a drive to the hoop, and Pettiford finished off Michigan with two stunning shots: a trey after briefly losing the ball but getting it back, followed by a three-point play when he knocked one down before landing flat on his back after being fouled.
“I saw one go in, and I just saw the basket get bigger and bigger,” Jones said. “So I just kept shooting.”
Danny Wolf led No. Michigan with 20 points, but no one else on the Wolverines managed more than 10.
Still, the Wolverines had plenty of reasons to be proud after bouncing back from an 8-24 debacle a year ago that set a school record for losses in a season and led to the firing of former Fab Five star Juwan Howard.
“They left a legacy,” May said. ”They established an identity. They should be very, very proud of their body of work.”
The first half was played at a frantic but sloppy pace, with both teams plagued by turnovers and struggling to hit shots.
One sequence epitomized the opening 20 minutes. Tre Donaldson threw the ball away with a lazy pass, but Auburn gave it right back when Chad Baker-Mazara’s unnecessary behind-the-back effort was picked off by Roddy Gayle Jr. The Wolverines took off the other way, only to have Donaldson turn it over again with an errant lob that sailed way out of bounds. In just nine seconds, the teams combined for three turnovers.
Auburn led 30-29 at halftime despite hitting just 12 of 37 shots (32.4%) from the field, including a 3-of-16 showing from beyond the 3-point arc, to go along with 10 turnovers. The Tigers gave themselves plenty of second and third chances, and even a fourth on one possession. They finished with 48-33 edge on the boards, including 19 rebounds at the offensive end.
Broome and the rest of Auburn’s frontcourt held up just fine against Michigan’s two 7-footers, Wolf and Vladislav Goldin.
“We took the game personal,” Broome said. “That’s a great front line, but we wanted to challenge ourselves to make it tough on them.”
Home, sweet home
It felt a bit like an Auburn home game with the Tigers playing only 110 miles from their campus just across the state line in eastern Alabama.
The crowd, largely clad in orange and blue, broke into a “Let’s go Auburn!” chant shortly after the tipoff at State Farm Arena. They really erupted when the Tigers rallied in the second half.
“It obviously helped to elevate their play,” Pearl said. “If you’re the overall No. 1 seed, you should be able to play close enough to home so the fans can see it.”
It definitely felt like a road game to the Wolverines, who were cheered on by a much smaller contingent.
“Obviously in the second half, they hit a few shots and the crowd erupted,” Wolf said. “That was a huge momentum swing.”
Takeaways
Auburn: The Tigers lost in their first trip to the Elite Eight in 1986. They reached their lone Final Four in 2019, when a setback to eventual champion Virginia ended their season. … Pearl did not like one line in particular on the stat sheet — 15 turnovers. “If Michigan can turn us over 15 times, Michigan State could turn us over 25 times,” the coach said. “That’s a concern.”
Michigan: Goldin was held to 10 points on 2-of-9 shooting. He also led the Wolverines with nine rebounds. … Nimari Burnett scored 10 points as well. … Michigan shot just 35.6% from the field (21 of 59), including 5 of 17 from outside the stripe. … The Wolverines had only six assists, compared to 15 for Auburn.
