The 2025 Doomsday Clock time is displayed after the time reveal held by The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists at the United States Institute of Peace on January 28, 2025 in Washington, DC. Kayla Bartkowski/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — The “Doomsday Clock” — a symbolic clock that represents how close humanity is to global catastrophe — has moved closer to midnight.
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists announced Tuesday that the clock is now 85 seconds to midnight, with midnight representing the apocalypse.
The organization cited nuclear weapons, climate change and biological threats as the three biggest concerns to humanity and the motivation to move the clock closer to midnight.
The new time is four seconds closer to midnight than the 2025 Doomsday Clock.
The clock, set by the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a nonprofit media organization comprised of world leaders and Nobel laureates.
It is “a design that warns the public about how close we are to destroying our world with dangerous technologies of our own making,” according to the group.
Intended to be a metaphor and graphic reminder of the perils humans must address, the Doomsday Clock was established in 1947 by Albert Einstein, Manhattan Project director J. Robert Oppenheimer and University of Chicago scientists who helped develop the first atomic weapons as part of the Manhattan Project.
When it was introduced — two years after the U.S. dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in Japan — it was set to seven minutes before midnight.
Since then, the clock has been adjusted both forward and backward multiple times.
The farthest the clock has been adjusted from midnight was at 17 minutes in 1991, after then-President George H.W. Bush and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev announced reductions in the nuclear arsenals of their respective countries and the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty was revived.
In 2025, the clock moved to 89 seconds before midnight. The 2024 and 2023 Doomsday Clock was set to 90 seconds before midnight.
ABC News’ Bill Hutchinson contributed to this report.
In this U.S. Coast Guard handout, the Coast Guard investigates aircraft wreckage on the Potomac River on January 30, 2025 in Washington, DC. (Petty Officer 1st Class Brandon Giles/ U.S. Coast Guard via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Ahead of Tuesday’s National Transportation Safety Board hearing into last year’s deadly mid-air collision at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Chair Jennifer Homendy said she fears some of the agency’s safety recommendations, which will be issued at the conclusion of the hearing, may once again go unimplemented.
“Of course I’m concerned. We have 300 aviation recommendations that still haven’t been implemented. Those recommendations were issued because somebody died or was injured, and they have not been implemented yet. So here we are again,” Homendy told ABC News.
“So yes, at the end of this, I am concerned that we’re going to issue recommendations and that they won’t be implemented,” Homendy said. “I can tell you, and anyone who knows me knows I vigorously advocate for the implementation of our recommendations. I don’t care when it is. Could be 50 years later, as I did with positive train control, and I will not hold back on these.”
At Tuesday’s hearing, NTSB investigators will present their investigative findings to board members and the public. NTSB board members, including Homendy, will then question investigators and the parties to the investigation.
At the end of the hearing, the board members will vote on the probable cause of the crash and the agency’s safety recommendations. The NTSB can only make recommendations and does not have the authority to enforce them, therefore they are not always adopted.
Though a formal final report will be released two weeks after the hearing, this hearing will mark the end of what Homendy described as “one of the most complex investigations” conducted by the agency, which they had aimed to conclude by the first anniversary of the mid-air collision.
Homendy told ABC News the investigation “was not easy and it was definitely not straightforward.”
“We will start in one direction and then take it in a different direction, depending on what we’re finding, and then we’ll exclude things that didn’t have anything to do with the investigation. But we have to do our due diligence to make sure that we’re tracking all of that down, all that evidence to support that it wasn’t a factor, while also looking at the issues that were,” Homendy said.
Homendy said the helicopter altimeter discrepancy is what surprised her the most in this investigation.
“The altimeters I did not see coming, that we would have some problems with how the altimeters were reading,” Homendy said.
During last year’s three-day investigative hearing, investigators said they found discrepancies in the altitude data shown on radio and barometric altimeters on Army helicopters after conducting test flights following January’s accident.
It is likely that the helicopter crew did not know their true altitude due to notoriously faulty altimeters inside this series of Black Hawks, according to the investigation. At their closest points, helicopters and planes flew within 75 feet of each other near DCA, an astonishingly close number. During the hearings, the NTSB was told Army Black Hawks can often have wrong readings and a margin of error of +-200 feet.
Another key focus of Tuesday’s hearing is the close proximity of the helicopter route to the runways at Reagan National Airport. According to the NTSB, which cited FAA surveillance data, there were over 15,000 close-proximity events between helicopters and commercial aircraft at DCA between October 2021 and December 2024.
Homendy said warnings about the close proximity were raised by people, but they were ignored.
“Years ago, that hot spot was identified and [people] repeatedly tried to say that the helicopter route needed to be moved, and nobody listened. It was like the ultimate in government bureaucracy,” Homendy said.
“They were completely ignored. Told it couldn’t be done, not responded to, said it would probably be too political. Those are quotes from our interviews, but they went nowhere.”
At last year’s hearing, FAA officials cited “bureaucratic process” as a deterrent to addressing these issues.
Other topics expected to be discussed include the approval of helicopter routes near DCA, the experience level of the air traffic controllers working in the tower at the time of the crash, the visibility study, and the testing of the barometric altimeters.
When asked what stays with her from this investigation, Homendy pointed to a personal item recovered with the wreckage.
“In the hangar, we had the Black Hawk laid out. We had the wreckage laid out for 5342 and on the side next to 5342 there were some personal effects, and a lot of people mentioned different things, but every time I passed, there was a brown teddy bear, just eight inches maybe, and it was muddy and dried mud, dried water, and I just kept looking at the teddy bear, and that’s the thing that sticks with me,” Homendy said.
(SAN FRANCISCO) — A young mountain lion has been spotted prowling the streets of downtown San Francisco as officials have warned people in the area to take caution.
The San Francisco Department of Emergency Management issued an alert late Monday evening saying that the mountain lion was spotted in the Pacific Heights neighborhood near the intersection of Octavia Street and Pacific Avenue, just north of Lafayette Park.
One man walking his dogs, who spoke to ABC News’ San Francisco station KGO, said says he’ll be avoiding Lafayette Park for now.
“We love to see things like this like so much wildlife in the city. But a little bit concerned because you know little puppies. So we are not coming in until we know everything is safe,” said Manuel Cases, San Francisco resident.
City officials said, “if you see the mountain lion, slowly back away, do not run” and urged people to contact San Francisco’s Animal Care & Control if they see or come into contact with the animal.
(BANGOR, Maine) — All six people on board a private jet are presumed to be dead after the plane crashed while taking off from Bangor International Airport in Maine during the winter storm, according to police.
No victims were taken to the hospital, Bangor police said on Monday. The victims’ identities have not been released.
The Bombardier Challenger 600 crashed around 7:45 p.m. Sunday as the deadly storm slammed the Northeast, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
At the time of the crash, the Bangor International Airport was open, with deicing operations underway and both commercial and private planes landing and departing, Bangor International Airport Director Jose Saavedra said on Monday.
First responders were at the scene of the crash within a minute, Saavedra said.
“The snowstorm started taking effect into the vicinity right around that time,” he said.
“This is normal for us to deal with weather events, and we had crews on site to address the weather event,” he said.
The airport will be closed for at least 24 hours as airport officials wait for National Transportation Safety Board investigators to arrive, Saavedra said.
Demonstrators against the ongoing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deployment march during a protest in Minneapolis, Minnesota, US, on Sunday, Jan. 25, 2026. (Jaida Grey Eagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(MINNEAPOLIS) — A federal judge heard arguments Monday on the state of Minnesota’s request for a temporary restraining order to halt the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement operation in the state.
The hearing came two days after the death of 37-year-old Alex Pretti in what was the second shooting of a U.S. citizen this month by federal immigration enforcement agents in Minneapolis.
An attorney representing the state said in Monday’s hearing that the enforcement action, dubbed “Operation Metro Surge,” is the nation’s single largest escalation of immigration enforcement, despite Minnesota not having the largest number of non-citizens with criminal convictions.
“Yet the federal government has sent an unprecedented force of thousands of masked agents armed with assault rifles to spread through our region in roving patrols that are racially profiling and inflicting violence on people,” argued state attorney Lindsey Middlecamp.
Brian Carter, another state attorney, argued that there’s a lack of precedent because “the conduct [from the federal government] is so outrageously unlawful we’ve never seen it before.”
“In the 250 years of this nation’s history, we have never seen a federal government attack states based on personal animosity,” Carter argued.
“Well, we’ve seen the federal government take very robust responses to states that aren’t yielding to federal authority,” U.S. District Judge Katherine Menendez interrupted.
“Absolutely, but that’s based on the rule of law,” Carter responded.
When Judge Menendez asked what exactly the state wants her to do, Carter said, “End Operation Metro Surge.”
“The whole Operation Metro Surge is an illegal means to an illegal end, so just ending the whole thing is the appropriate remedy there,” Carter said.
“You understand the federal government has a lot of power in this area, so I’m trying to figure out what principle you’re asking me to apply that will sort out legal federal law enforcement from this 10th Amendment argument,” Judge Menendez said.
An attorney representing the federal government called the state’s request to end Operation Metro Surge “staggering.”
“The effect of their requested relief would be essentially removing the officers whom the president has concluded should be there to enforce federal immigration law,” said attorney Brantley Mayers. “It’s pretty staggering.”
Mayers argued that the requested relief should be subject to “a heightened standard.”
“They’re challenging one law enforcement initiative,” replied Judge Menendez. “They’re not challenging the enforcement of immigration law writ large.”
Mayers said that if the judge issues an order to end Operation Metro Surge, it “would be very difficult to implement.”
“If it’s difficult to implement, does that mean I can do nothing?” Judge Menendez asked.
Mayers responded by saying such an order would create a “very difficult separation of powers problem.”
The judge also said she is “grappling” with the alleged illegalities identified by the state, pointing to other lawsuits filed in Minnesota.
“Isn’t the answer to the flood of illegality to fight each illegal act?” Judge Menendez asked, noting that the conduct of federal agents is already the subject of separate litigation.
Menendez also questioned how she should draw the line between legitimate federal pressure and illegal coercion.
“How do I decide when a law enforcement response crosses the line from a legitimate response to one that violates the 10th Amendment?” she asked.
Carter argued that there are “4,000 masked, armed federal agents engaged in systemic, pervasive, and illegal violent behavior” that is “so far out on the other side of the line.”
“We’ve got retaliation, we’ve got racial profiling, we’ve got warrantless entries into homes,” Carter said.
Middlecamp said that U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi’s letter to Gov. Tim Walz Saturday in which she sought information about the state’s voter rolls and records on Medicaid and Food and Nutrition Service programs as a condition for ICE agents pulling back on enforcement, “can only be described as a ransom note.”
“President Trump himself took to social media last night to reaffirm those very purposes. Their message is clear,” Middlecamp said. “Minnesota can either change its laws and policies or suffer an invasion of masked armed forces. This is precisely the type of coercion and commandeering that violates the 10th Amendment.”
Middlecamp argued there has been “excessive force and unsupported detentions and arrests of legal observers” and said that DHS agents have been collecting photos and license plates of observers so they can confront them.
“Even though they are not charged with a crime or reasonably suspected of a crime, there has been indiscriminate use of chemical irritants,” she said.
The attorney argued that Operation Metro Surge is having “clear impacts on the sovereign interest to create and protect public safety, public health, and public education.”
Sara Lathrop, an attorney for the city of Minneapolis, said the weekend’s shooting “demonstrated in a terrifying way that the current situation is absolutely untenable.”
“The relief we need needs to be ordered now to take down the temperature,” Lathrop said.
In response, Judge Menendez said that “not all crises have a fix from a district court injunction.”
Carter, the state attorney, wrapped up arguments by saying the state came to the court to “protect its sovereignty.”
“The state of Minnesota comes here today to protect its sovereignty, to stop the harm to its sovereign rights under the Constitution that sets states up as independent sovereigns,” Carter said. “If we can’t come to the court and vindicate those rights, where else does a state go?”
Judge Menendez did not issue an order immediately following the hearing.
“I do not intend in any way for the depth of my analysis or whatever time I take to write to be seen as a belief that this is unimportant,” she said. “It’s because it’s extremely important that I’m doing everything I can to get it right,” the judge said.
(BANGOR, Maine) — A private jet carrying eight people crashed while taking off from Bangor International Airport in Maine during the massive winter storm, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
Preliminary information from the FAA said there was one survivor. Authorities have not disclosed the conditions of others on board.
The FAA said the Bombardier Challenger 600 crashed around 7:45 p.m. Sunday as the deadly storm slammed the Northeast.
At the time of the crash, the Bangor International Airport was open, with deicing operations underway and both commercial and private planes landing and departing, Bangor International Airport Director Jose Saavedra said on Monday.
First responders were at the scene of the crash within a minute, Saavedra said.
“The snowstorm started taking effect into the vicinity right around that time,” he said.
“This is normal for us to deal with weather events, and we had crews on site to address the weather event,” he said.
The airport will be closed for at least 24 hours as airport officials wait for National Transportation Safety Board investigators to arrive, Saavedra said.
A portrait stands at a memorial for Alex Pretti on January 25, 2026 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Pretti, an ICU nurse at a VA medical center, died on January 24 after being shot multiple times during an altercation with U.S. Border Patrol agents in the Eat Street district of Minneapolis. (Photo by Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
(MINNEAPOLIS) — A doctor who mentored and worked with Alex Pretti described him as “a good citizen” whose “life was just starting.”
Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse for the Minneapolis VA Health Care System, was shot and killed by Border Patrol officers in Minneapolis on Saturday. Multiple videos of the confrontation showed federal agents spraying Pretti with a substance and pinning him to the ground before the shooting.
Dr. Aasma Shaukat, who first hired Pretti as a research assistant at the Minneapolis VA Health Care System over 10 years ago, called the loss “devastating.”
Shaukat told ABC News she hired Pretti, despite his lack of experience, because he was “eager to learn.”
“He didn’t have any experience, but he was very, very eager to get the position and learn on the job and then eventually launch a career in health care,” Shaukat said. “He worked hard, he was willing to learn on the job. Really had a good work ethic.”
While working as a research assistant, Pretti delivered pizza to make ends meet and often joked that his car was too old to qualify for Uber, Shaukat said.
Shaukat said she wrote Pretti’s recommendation for nursing school.
He later returned to the VA to work as a nurse in the ICU where he was “really good” at speaking with patients, Shaukat said.
“He was just somebody you could talk to because he would get it,” she said.
Tensions are continuing to escalate in Minneapolis in the wake of Pretti’s shooting.
The Department of Homeland Security alleged that Pretti approached Border Patrol agents with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun and “violently resisted” when agents tried to disarm him. However, a witness said in a federal court filing that after an agent shoved a woman to the ground, Pretti appeared to try to help the woman up, and then agents threw Pretti to the ground and shot him. Local officials are accusing federal officials of rushing to “spin” the story.
Shaukat called the shooting “senseless,” adding, “I do not see him as being a troublemaker, an instigator looking for trouble, or seeking to incite violence … I truly think he was doing it out of his duty of citizenship and his civic sense.”
Shaukat said she last spoke to Pretti during the summer.
“He said things were looking good,” she said. “He finally had enough money to do repairs on his house. And I feel like his life was just starting.”
President Donald Trump greets Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney during a world leaders’ summit on ending the Gaza war on October 13, 2025 in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt. (Evan Vucci – Pool / Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump threatened a 100% tariff on Canada if the country goes through and solidifies a trade deal with China.
“If Canada makes a deal with China, it will immediately be hit with a 100% Tariff against all Canadian goods and products coming into the U.S.A. Thank you for your attention to this matter!,” Trump wrote in a post on his social media platform.
Canadian officials did not immediately respond Saturday.
In his post, Trump does not make clear the deal he is referring to between China and Canada, but the two countries reached an agreement last Friday which would see Canada slash its 100% tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles in exchange for lower tariffs on Canadian agricultural products in China.
This is Trump’s latest attack against Canada and it comes after yesterday’s social media post where he claimed Canada was against his so-called “Golden Dome” missile defense project and blasted the country’s trade deal with China.
In remarks Thursday, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney pushed back on Trump’s criticism.
“Canada and the United States have built a remarkable partnership in the economy, in security, and in rich cultural exchange,” Carney said. “But Canada doesn’t live because of the United States. Canada thrives because we are Canadian.”
Last Friday, Trump was asked whether he was worried about the growing closeness between China and Canada as Carney was visiting the country. Trump indicated he had no problem with Carney signing a trade deal with China.
“That’s what he should be doing. It’s a good thing for him to sign a trade deal. If you can get a deal with China, you should do that,” Trump said at the time.
In his post Saturday, Trump referred to the Canadian leader as “governor” rather than prime minister, which he had taken to doing with former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in reference to Trump’s suggestion that Canada should become the 51st U.S. state.
The latest threat against Canada also comes after Trump walked back tariffs he threatened to impose on European allies who didn’t agree to his efforts to acquire Greenland. Trump said he and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte have “formed the framework of a future deal with respect to Greenland.”
In this booking photo released by the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office, Michael McKee is shown. (Franklin County Sheriff’s Office)
(COLUMBUS, Ohio) — The surgeon accused of gunning down his ex-wife and her husband entered a not guilty plea at his first appearance in an Ohio courtroom on Friday.
Michael McKee faces four counts of aggravated murder and one count of aggravated burglary for allegedly shooting and killing his ex-wife, Monique Tepe, and her husband, dentist Spencer Tepe, at their Columbus home on Dec. 30, according to police and prosecutors.
McKee, who was taken into custody in Illinois, was booked into the James A. Karnes Corrections Center in Franklin County, Ohio, on Tuesday.
McKee appeared via video at Friday’s brief hearing and did not speak.
His defense attorney, Diane Menashe, told the court, “We acknowledge receipt, waive reading, enter not guilty pleas to all counts.”
“We would also waive bond at this time,” she added.
McKee and Monique Tepe were married in 2015 and divorced in 2017, according to divorce records obtained by ABC Columbus affiliate WSYX. They did not have any children together, according to the records.
Spencer and Monique Tepe married in December 2020, according to their obituary. The Tepes are survived by their two young children, who were found safe inside their home after the Dec. 30 killings.
“We just want justice,” the Tepes’ brother-in-law, Rob Misleh, told ABC News.
“We want this person that took so much from, not just us as a family, but so many more people. And obviously the kids, especially. We want this person to pay for what they did,” he said.
ABC News’ Josh Margolin and Jason Volack contributed to this report.
Luigi Mangione appears for a suppression of evidence hearing in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan Criminal Court on December 9, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Curtis Means-Pool/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Jury selection for Luigi Mangione’s federal trial will begin on Sept. 8, Judge Margaret Garnett said on Friday.
If the judge excludes the death penalty as a possible sentence, the trial will begin on Oct. 13. If the judge allows the case to proceed as a capital case, the trial will begin on Jan. 11, 2027.
Garnett is considering a defense request to take the death penalty off the table.
Mangione is accused of shooting and killing UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan in December 2024. He was arrested days later at a McDonald’s in Altoona, Pennsylvania.
Mangione has pleaded not guilty to state and federal charges.
The scheduled jury selection date comes as Garnett weighs whether Mangione’s backpack was lawfully seized and searched after his arrest at the Altoona McDonald’s.
Federal prosecutors contend the Altoona Police Department’s search of Mangione’s backpack followed departmental procedures and evidence recovered from the bag should be admissible.
During a hearing Friday, Deputy Altoona Police Chief Nathan Snyder explained how officers are trained in search and seizure policies using “task sheets” that outline the process step by step.
“We’re not dealing with a 10-year veteran who may understand the lingo. This is a brand-new guy fresh out of the academy,” Snyder said.
Mangione’s lawyers have argued the backpack search was illegal. They contend that if the arresting officers had followed the procedures, they would not have had immediate access to the items in the bag, including the alleged murder weapon, a notebook and writings.
“There’d be no reason to read entries in a notebook or journal?” defense attorney Marc Agnifilo asked.
“Typically not something that would be done,” Snyder responded.
“There’d be no reason to read each page?” Agnifilo followed up.
“I’d say that’s correct,” Snyder answered.
Body camera footage showed that officers also pulled a firearm magazine from the backpack during a preliminary search at the McDonald’s.
“If you found something illegal,” Agnifilo asked, “would you do anything other than continue?”
Snyder responded that the search would likely stop and officers would “probably get a search warrant.”
When prosecutor Dominic Gentile asked specifically about something dangerous, like a firearm magazine, Snyder said the search would “surely” continue without a warrant so officers could make sure there was “nothing in here that can hurt us.”
