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(WASHINGTON) — The Pentagon’s decision to send the 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit, a 2,200-troop force, to the Middle East is fueling new speculation about whether the conflict with Iran could involve U.S. ground troops, a step that would mark a dramatic escalation and potentially push the already unpopular war into a far more dangerous phase.

It could take up to two weeks, or the end of March, before the unit is in place and its presence unlikely to significantly shift the dynamics of the war on its own, experts say. A Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) can deliver an initial surge of troops quickly, but seizing and holding key terrain, or sustaining a prolonged fight, would almost certainly require a far larger ground force.

Experts say the MEU would likely be used to conduct raids across the Iranian shoreline to gain a foothold in areas across the crucial oil shipping waterway, the Strait of Hormuz, which has emerged as a contested point of the conflict.

A Quinnipiac University poll from earlier this month showed 74% of registered voters opposed sending U.S. ground troops into Iran while 20% supported it.

Asked Tuesday if he was afraid of the Iranian regime’s assertion that U.S. boots on the ground “will be another Vietnam,” President Donald Trump replied, “No, I’m not afraid. I’m really not afraid of anything.”

Sailing from the Pacific, it will likely take up to two weeks for Marines to be in place in the Middle East, and it is not yet clear what those troops would be used for. The unit operates as a self-contained, sea-based force — essentially a floating hub capable of launching troops, aircraft and equipment without relying on nearby bases or infrastructure. 

Reopening the Strait of Hormuz would unlock a waterway through which 20% of the globe’s oil supply transits each day. Its closure has seen gas prices soar and markets roiled. Trump has referenced shorelines from which the Iranians can attack vessels transiting the waterway.

“Now we are pounding that area, that coast, as you know, left side,” Trump said Monday. “We’re pounding it like really pounding it hard.”

According to Michael Eisenstadt, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute, the MEU could take part in land-based “raids” on targets along that coast.

“There’s a number of missions where you can conceivably see a MEU playing a role, either unilaterally or kind of in conjunction with maybe the deployment of larger Army units,” said Eisenstadt, who believes the deployment of the MEU was likely related to the strait.

Iranian fortifications along the coast that could “interfere with convoy operations,” Eisenstadt said, could be U.S. targets. Top military leaders have said they’ve explored the potential uses of convoys, or warship escorts, to facilitate the safe passage of commercial shipping through the strait.  

Raiding parties could target missile storage bunkers that are hardened and difficult for U.S. warplanes to destroy from the air.

The idea would be to “clear out the shore and then use air power to prevent them from returning once you’ve cleared out those areas,” Eisenstadt said.

Such an operation would not by itself create conditions for smooth sailing in the strait, experts told ABC News. 

“My concern is that it takes so little to disrupt the shipping industry, Eisenstadt said. “If there’s a small, you know, kind of a small residual [Iranian] capability, it could still potentially be very disruptive.”

The 2,200 Marines in the MEU would limit any operation longer than a raid, which have pre-planned withdrawals. To get on land, these types of Marine units primarily seize footholds by riding small watercraft onto beaches or by helicopter insertion.

“Normally in an amphibious assault, you have all sorts of Navy landing craft behind you to sustain the force ashore. There’s none of that. There’s none of that logistical tail that would allow them to remain ashore,” said retired Marine Col. Steve Ganyard, an ABC News contributor.

Leaving strategic waters in the Pacific

The 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit is primarily based in Japan, where it routinely trains with the Japanese Self-Defense Forces on skills in high demand across the Pacific, including rapidly seizing small islands. Earlier this month, it took part in a major annual exercise that featured amphibious assault drills, marksmanship training and operations focused on capturing hostile terrain, according to the Defense Department. 

Their removal from the region removes one of the primary ground combat elements in the Pacific, which could respond to a crisis with China or North Korea. Other significant combat elements in the region include the Army’s 2nd Infantry Division, stationed to bolster South Korea’s frontline against Pyongyang, as well as the Army’s 25th Infantry Division in Hawaii and the 11th Airborne Division in Alaska.

“That leaves a ground combat and amphibious capability gap in the region,” Carlton Haelig, an expert in military operations and fellow at the Center for New American Security, said. 

The 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, based out of Camp Pendleton, California, is preparing to deploy to the Pacific, according to Pentagon imagery.

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(CLEVELAND) — A “boom” heard in Ohio on Tuesday morning appears to have been from a meteor, the National Weather Service in Cleveland said.

The NWS said imagery “does suggest that the boom was a result of a meteor.”

The NWS in Pittsburgh said residents in western Pennsylvania also reported the loud “boom” and fireball in the sky.

The NWS said one of its employees filmed the apparent meteor shooting across the sky in the Pittsburgh area.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(NEW YORK) — Bank of America has reached a proposed, non-binding settlement in a lawsuit that alleged the bank helped facilitate Jeffrey Epstein’s trafficking operation, according to court records.

The proposed class-action complaint, filed in October 2025, alleged that Bank of America “knowingly provided the financial support and the veneer of institutional legitimacy” to Epstein and ignored suspicious transactions by the late disgraced financier.

A notice on the case’s docket said that lawyers for the bank and the victims “reached a settlement in principle.” The terms of the settlement were not immediately disclosed and would need to be approved by a federal judge. U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff had previously scheduled the case to go to trial on May 11. 

A court hearing to consider the settlement proposal is scheduled for April 2 in federal court in New York, according to the docket.

Bank of America declined to comment on the proposed settlement to ABC News. An attorney for the victims called the proposed settlement “one more step on the road to much-deserved justice.”

“The women entrapped and abused by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell started a monumental reckoning with their brave voices and fearlessness. The road to justice for these women has been long and trying,” attorney Sigrid McCawley said in a statement. 

Though the terms of the settlement are unknown, a proposed resolution of the case would likely scuttle an upcoming deposition of Apollo Global Management co-founder Leon Black, who was scheduled to sit for questioning on March 26.  Black resigned from his role at Apollo in 2021 after an inquiry into his relationship with Epstein, which found that Black paid Epstein $158 million for tax and estate planning advice.

In a statement from January, Black’s attorney said that his client “had no awareness of Epstein’s criminal activities” and that there is “absolutely no truth to any of the allegations against Mr. Black.”

The lawsuit against Bank of America alleged that those payments from Black and other transactions by Epstein should have raised concern by the bank, which “failed to alert law enforcement as to Epstein’s crimes before it was far too late.”

“Epstein committed these crimes by means of not only his own extraordinary wealth and power, but through access to funding and financial support from both individuals and institutions, including Bank of America. Egregiously, Bank of America had a plethora of information regarding Epstein’s sex trafficking operation but chose profit over protecting the victims,” the lawsuit alleged. 

Bank of America had unsuccessfully attempted to persuade the court to dismiss the case by arguing that the suit was “based on nothing more than allegations that it provided routine services to customers who at the time had no known connection to Epstein’s sex trafficking.”

“Bank of America opposes trafficking in all its forms. But this suit attempts to radically expand liability for banks, holding them liable for providing ordinary banking services to individuals one or more steps removed from a trafficker,” a November 2025 filing from the bank’s lawyers said.

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(NEW YORK) — Kouri Richins, a Utah woman accused of fatally poisoning her husband with fentanyl, who self-published a children’s book on grieving following his death, has been found guilty of murder following a weekslong trial.

The Summit County jury began deliberating late Monday afternoon before reaching a verdict after about three hours. She was found guilty on all five counts, including aggravated murder and attempted aggravated murder.

Kouri Richins looked down and remained still while the judge read out each guilty verdict. Her sentencing has been scheduled for May 13.

During closing arguments earlier Monday, prosecutors alleged that the mom of three was obsessed with appearing “privileged, affluent and successful” and killed her husband to help pay the debts of her floundering home flipping business and to get a “fresh start.”

The defense, meanwhile, said the case was “sloppy” and “driven by bias” and argued that the state failed to prove the allegations beyond a reasonable doubt.

Kouri Richins, 35, was charged with aggravated murder in connection with the 2022 death of her husband, Eric Richins, following a lengthy investigation. Prosecutors allege she spiked his drink with a lethal dose of fentanyl that she purchased illicitly after asking two people for the “Michael Jackson drug.”

“Kouri Richins was a suburban mother, real estate agent. She does not know a lot about the illicit street drug world, but she knows Michael Jackson died from taking drugs,” prosecutor Brad Bloodworth said during closing arguments on Monday. “She doesn’t know how to order a street drug, but she knows she wants the Michael Jackson stuff. She knows she wants it because it is lethal. It is fatal. It kills. And she wanted lethal, fatal death.”

Her charges also include attempted aggravated murder, with prosecutors alleging she gave her husband a sandwich laced with fentanyl on Valentine’s Day two weeks before his death in an initial, failed attempt to kill him.

Kouri Richins was also accused of committing insurance fraud by taking out a $100,000 insurance policy on his life with his forged signature and then submitting a claim following his alleged murder.

She pleaded not guilty and has maintained her innocence.

Her husband, 39-year-old Eric Richins, was found dead in bed on March 4, 2022. An autopsy determined that he died from fentanyl intoxication, and the level of fentanyl in his blood was approximately five times the lethal dosage, according to the charging document. The medical examiner determined the fentanyl was “illicit fentanyl,” not medical grade, according to the charging document.

Prosecutors allege that Kouri Richins purchased illicit fentanyl pills shortly before the Valentine’s Day incident and again before his death, at which point she allegedly asked for stronger drugs.

‘Downward financial death spiral’: Prosecutor
During his closing argument, Bloodworth said Kouri Richins was in “financial desperation” due to her realty company’s debts and needed a significant influx of cash immediately. He alleged she believed she would have financially benefited from her husband’s death — without realizing that his assets were in a trust for their children.

Bloodworth said October 2021 was the “beginning of the downward financial death spiral” of Kouri Richins’ realty business, and that she had a growing debt picture nearing $8 million.

He alleged Kouri Richins intended to cause her husband’s death as early as December 2021, when she was booked a vacation with her boyfriend for April 2022.

“Kouri Richins did not book that trip thinking Eric Richins would be alive in April, she booked it knowing he would not,” Bloodworth said.

Bloodworth referred to evidence that he alleged showed she intended to cause her husband’s death. A witness testified during the trial that in December 2021 Kouri Richins said to her that “in many ways it would be better” if Eric Richins “were dead.” In February 19, 2022, days after the alleged attempted murder attempt, prosecutors said Kouri Richins texted her boyfriend, “If he could just go away and you could just be here! Life would be so perfect!!”

Bloodworth said Kouri Richins tried to cover up her alleged role in her husband’s death, starting with the 911 call.

“Listen to how she tells the 911 dispatcher where she was when Eric died. She is distancing herself,” Bloodworth said before the call was played again for jurors. “Rather than, ‘He’s not breathing. He has no pulse. I have to figure out what to do. I need help,’ she’s saying, ‘Hey, look, I was not there. I was in my son’s room.’ That’s her alibi. She’s distancing herself from the time and the place that she murdered Eric.”

Bloodworth also said the call shows that the 911 operator asked Kouri Richins to perform CPR on her husband for 6 minutes before she purportedly did. “She is not immediately trying to revive him,” he said. 

Bloodworth said Kouri Richins deleted her texts and phone logs with multiple people, including her former housecleaner, Carmen Lauber, who testified about obtaining illicit drugs at Kouri Richins’ request in the weeks prior to Eric Richins’ death. He argued that Kouri Richins was worried about being investigated and her deleted messages in the wake of her husband’s death, as evidenced by searches on her phone such as, “can cops force you to do a lie detector test” and “can deleted text messages be retrieved from an iPhone.”

When the toxicology report showed that Eric Richins died from a fentanyl overdose, Bloodworth argued that Kouri Richins then needed to “explain” the presence of the drug — and that she allegedly planned to do so by claiming she got them for her husband at his request.

Bloodworth argued that Eric Richins did not die of an accidental overdose, citing testimony from his friends and family who said he did not use illicit drugs. He also argued that he did not die by suicide and had “every reason to live” — foremost being his three young sons.

“The evidence proves that Kouri Richins murdered, attempted to murder Eric Richins and that she committed two counts of insurance fraud and forgery,”  he said. “The evidence does not support any other explanation.”

Defense argues case had ‘confirmation bias’
Defense attorney Wendy Lewis argued during her closing that the case was impacted by confirmation bias from the start.

“Instead of looking at the evidence to determine what happened, the state has, they determined what happened, and then they found the evidence to support it,” Lewis said.

Lewis argued that there was “no evidence” that there was fentanyl in Eric Richins’ drink the night he died and that investigators failed to look into his recent trip to Mexico, which the defense had insinuated could have been the source of the fentanyl, or to test an old prescription bottle that was on his nightstand.

Lewis raised questions about the testimony of Lauber, who testified pursuant to several grants of immunity.

“Carmen Lauber was not able to tell you that she bought fentanyl. She agreed on the stand that it was the detectives that first put the word fentanyl in her mouth, in her head. She was told by detectives in this case that she bought fentanyl. ‘Eric died of fentanyl. You bought drugs. You bought fentanyl,'” Lewis said. “She took that story and she ran with it because she had everything to lose.”

On the affair, Lewis said Kouri Richins broke things off with her boyfriend and they never went on the trip. On the phone searches, Lewis argued that Kouri Richins was worried because she was innocent.

“Of course she’s worried. An innocent person would be worried. Anyone would be worried if they just found out that they are a suspect in a homicide investigation,” Lewis said. “She would have been scared to death.”

Lewis touched on Kouri Richin’s money troubles, acknowledging that the house flipping business was “struggling,” but argued that Eric Richins was “worth so much more to Kouri alive.”

She claimed that Kouri Richins was being judged for how she grieved.

“They want you to look at a woman in the worst moment of her life and to judge her grief,” Lewis said. “There is no wrong way to grieve.”

Lewis told the jury that if they believe Kouri Richins “accidentally obtained fentanyl,” and that Eric Richins then took those pills voluntarily and died, she argued that it is “not aggravated murder” and that they “must find Kouri Richins not guilty.”

On the alleged insurance scheme, Lewis argued that the state has not proven beyond a reasonable doubt that there was any fraud or forgery.

“The state has not proven their case,” Lewis said. “They don’t have the evidence that Kouri Richins killed her husband, so instead, they have tried to show you as much evidence as they possibly can to convince you she’s the sort of person who would.”

Prior to delivering its closing argument, the defense submitted a motion for mistrial, alleging that the state’s closing was full of “wild speculation,” dehumanized Kouri Richins and inappropriately commented on her demeanor. The motion was denied.

In his rebuttal, Bloodworth acknowledged that much of the evidence in the case is circumstantial.

“People do not video themselves poisoning their spouse,” he said. “But circumstantial evidence is just as good as direct evidence.”

Bloodworth argued that there was “plenty of proof to convict” Kouri Richins based on Lauber’s corroborated testimony. He also argued that much of the defense’s argument is based around trying to explain a letter found in Kouri Richins’ jail cell that prosecutors said appears to outline testimony for her brother instructing him to say that her husband got fentanyl from Mexico.

“All the evidence in this case proves that Kouri Richins murdered her husband, the father of her three children, Eric Richins,” he said. “There is no other rational explanation.”

“And despite all the evidence, Kouri Richins doubles down and blames Eric,” he continued.

Kouri Richins did not testify during the three-week trial and the defense called no witnesses.

During his testimony, the lead detective in the case said that Kouri Richins paid a ghostwriter for her children’s book.

A month prior to her arrest in May 2023, the mom of three young sons appeared on a “Good Things Utah” segment on Salt Lake City ABC affiliate KTVX to promote the book. In the segment, Kouri Richins said her husband of nine years died “unexpectedly” and that his death “completely took us all by shock.

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(ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.) — The search is intensifying for a missing retired Air Force general weeks after he mysteriously disappeared in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Retired Maj. Gen. William N. “Neil” McCasland, 68, was last seen at his Albuquerque home on Feb. 27, according to the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office.

At 10 a.m. that day, a repairman was at McCasland’s home and interacted with him, Bernalillo County Sheriff John Allen said at a news conference on Monday. At 11:10 a.m., McCasland’s wife left the house for a medical appointment, and when she returned home at 12:04 p.m., he wasn’t there, the sheriff said. She reported him missing at 3:07 p.m., the sheriff said.

McCasland “did state that he was experiencing a mental fog” and was looking into it, Allen said.

“That was his statement about what he was experiencing, that was cited as reasons for stepping down from some groups that he was working with,” Lt. Kyle Woods added.

“There’s no indication … that Mr. McCasland was disoriented, confused,” Woods continued. “Arguably, he would still be the most intelligent person in the room.”

There have been no confirmed videos or sightings showing McCasland’s direction of travel, Allen said.

His phone was left behind at the house, which is out of the norm, authorities said.

Everyone in the area has been interviewed, Woods said, adding, “we have absolutely nothing that would suggest anything nefarious has occurred.”

Hundreds of homes in the area were canvassed as authorities looked for surveillance footage, the sheriff said, and drones, helicopters and canines have been used in the search.

A gray U.S. Air Force sweatshirt was found about 1.25 miles east of McCasland’s house, but family and friends have not confirmed that the sweatshirt is associated with McCasland, Allen said. No blood was detected in the initial processing, the sheriff added.

McCasland held a number of “space research, acquisition and operations roles within the Air Force and the National Reconnaissance Office” while enlisted, according to the Air Force. The roles included director-level positions at the Pentagon, as well as commanding the Phillips Research Site of Air Force Research Laboratory at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico, and the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio, according to the Air Force.

Still unaccounted for is McCasland’s wallet, a .38 caliber revolver and leather holster, and a red backpack, the sheriff said.

The sheriff asked residents to check their surveillance videos, with the priority focused on Feb. 27 between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m.

Tips can be submitted at 505-468-7070, the sheriff said.

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(DALLAS) — An Afghan immigrant who died after being in immigration custody for one day worked alongside U.S. forces during the war in Afghanistan, according to an immigrant advocacy group.

Mohommad Nazeer Paktyawal, 41, died last week at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Dallas, Texas. He is the 43rd person to die in ICE custody during the second Trump administration, according to lawmakers.

According to ICE, 36 detainees have died in ICE custody since Jan. 23, 2025. By federal law, ICE makes public all reports regarding detainee deaths while in custody within 90 days, according to the agency.

“For many years, Nazeer worked alongside American forces during the war in Afghanistan,” the group AfghanEvac said in a statement on behalf of Paktyawal’s family. “It was dangerous work, but he believed in helping bring stability to his country and protecting the people around him. After Afghanistan fell, the United States helped evacuate our family in 2021, and we came here hoping for safety and a better life.”

An ICE statement Sunday said that Paktyawal died Saturday morning at Parkland Hospital in Dallas, Texas, following his arrest the day before. It described Paktyawal as “a criminal illegal alien from Afghanistan” who had “a known criminal history,” including an arrest for alleged SNAP fraud and another for alleged theft, both last year.

The ICE statement did not address whether Paktyawal had assisted U.S. troops in Afghanistan, as AfghanEvac claimed.

AghanEvac said in their statement that Paktayawal had an open asylum application and did not have any criminal convictions. ABC News has so far been unable to independently confirm claims about Paktayawal’s alleged criminal record.

The Department of Homeland Security on Monday confirmed that Paktayawal entered the U.S. in 2021 but said that his parole expired in August 2025. The agency did not address questions about an active asylum application.

“In the late evening of March 13, ICE contacted Emergency Medical Services when Paktiawal [sic] began complaining of shortness of breath and chest pains while in an ICE Dallas Field Office processing hold room,” the ICE statement said. “He was immediately transported to Parkland Hospital and received breathing treatment. The ER doctor recommended that he remain in the hospital for observation.”

“Early March 14, Paktiawal was eating breakfast when medical staff noted that his tongue had become swollen, prompting a medical response. After multiple lifesaving efforts were attempted, he was declared deceased at 9:10 a.m.,” according to the ICE statement.

Paktyawal “did not report any prior medical history” at the time of his arrest, the ICE statement said.

In a statement to ABC News on Monday, DHS Deputy Assistant Secretary Lauren Bis said Paktyawal’s tongue was swollen and said that he “received an epinephrine drip.”

“Later that day, medical staff began cardiopulmonary resuscitation,” Bis further said. “At approximately 9:10 a.m. CDT, a physician at Parkland Hospital pronounced Paktyawal deceased after multiple resuscitative efforts, including mechanical device and medical professional interventions.”

“No one in ICE custody is denied access to proper medical care,” Bis added. “It is a longstanding practice to provide comprehensive medical care from the moment an alien enters ICE custody.”

AfghanEvac stated that Paktyawal was preparing to drive his children to school when he was detained March 13.

“His children watched as he was surrounded and taken away,” the group said. “We still cannot understand how this happened. He was only 41 years old and was a strong and healthy man.”

Paktyawal served as an Afghan special forces soldier beginning in 2005 and worked alongside U.S. Army Special Forces for more than a decade, according to AfghanEvac, and was evacuated by the U.S. on Aug. 30, 2021, and resettled in Texas through Catholic Charities. Paktyawal had completed his asylum interview and held a work authorization and a valid Social Security number, AfghanEvac said.

The group said Paktyawal contacted his family members shortly after being detained on March 13 and said that he was not feeling well. He was admitted to a local hospital in Dallas that night and the family was informed on March 14 that Paktyawal had died.

“Mr. Paktyawal’s asylum case remained pending with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services at the time of his detention,” AghanEvac said in a statement.

“While ICE’s statement focuses on past allegations, the circumstances surrounding Mr. Paktyawal’s detention and death remain unclear,” the group added. “According to information currently available, those arrests did not result in criminal charges nor had Mr. Paktyawal been convicted of any crimes.”

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(NEW YORK) — A cross-country storm continued on Monday to produce heavy snow and strong winds in the upper Midwest and Great Lakes region, including an ice storm in northern Michigan, prompting thousands of flight cancellations and delays.

More than 3,400 flights within or out of the United States have already been canceled on Monday and more than 14,000 flights have been delayed, according to FlightAware.com, which tracks flights throughout the nation.

Between Saturday and Monday morning, more than 5,000 flights were canceled nationwide due to weather, with 3,000 flights scrapped on Sunday alone.

A major winter storm sweeping across the country has produced blizzards, ice storms and widespread destruction across parts of the Midwest and Great Lakes states.

Overnight, parts of Wisconsin recorded more than 2 feet of snow, including the city of Wausau, which received 23.4 inches of snow on Sunday and was adding to its snow totals on Monday morning.

Blizzard conditions are still occurring in parts of Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois and Minnesota, where the city of Minneapolis recorded 8.8 inches of snow overnight and into Monday.

Meanwhile, more than 391 reports of damaging winds have been recorded from Texas to Ohio. At least eight states — including Tennessee, Illinois, Kentucky, Indiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Mississippi and New York — have reported destructive wind gusts of 70 mph.

More than 500,000 utility customers from Texas to New York were without power on Monday morning, according to the website PowerOutage.com.

Most of the power outages are in northern Michigan, where an ongoing ice storms have toppled power lines.

Fire and ice

The March storm is also forecast to continue whipping up dry and windy conditions in the South, fueling a critical fire threat in areas of the central U.S. already dealing with wildfires.

In Nebraska, three wildfires, the largest being the Morrill Fire, have burned more than 700,000 acres of land across multiple counties in western Nebraska and killed at least one person in Arthur County, Gov. Jim Pillen said at a news conference on Saturday.

On Monday, red flag warnings for fire weather danger are in place from southern Texas through southern Louisiana, including the cities of Houston, Austin, San Antonio, and Corpus Christi.

Severe weather outlook for Monday

On Monday, a moderate risks of severe storms is forecast to spread into South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia and up to Maryland, including the cities of Washington, D.C., Richmond and Raleigh.

Severe storms are also expected to develop from Georgia to Pennsylvania, including the cities of Savannah, Charleston, Charlotte, Baltimore and Philadelphia. Destructive winds gusts greater than 70 mph could develop in these areas, especially from South Carolina to Maryland.

There’s also a risk of tornadoes popping up about midday from South Carolina to Maryland.

A line of severe thunderstorm could also spawn tornadoes from the Florida Panhandle to the West Virginia. A tornado watch was in place earlier for Florida, Alabama and Georgia.

A tornado watch is also in place for Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Philadelphia, and much of New Jersey until 7 pm ET on Monday.

More snow in store for the East Coast

By 6 p.m. ET, snow is expected to be falling from western Virginia, West Virginia, eastern Pennsylvania and western New York. Showers and thunderstorms are also forecast to move along the East Coast from North Carolina to Maine.

The weather system is expected to move out late Monday afternoon. But lake-effect snow is expected to continue through Tuesday on the eastern side of the Great Lakes.

Snow could also make a brief appearance from the Dakotas to Ohio on Tuesday and into Tuesday night.

Record heat wave in the West

Record heat is expected to continue as a summer-like heat dome settles over the West.

Many cities throughout the West — Sacramento, San Jose, Las Vegas, Phoenix and Denver — could reach all-time high temperatures for March.

Extreme heat alerts have been issued from southern Arizona up to the Bay Area of Northern California, where temperatures could reach the mid-90s.

Part of Southern California could see temperatures climb to 109 degrees.

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(NEW YORK) — It’s been 100 years since the 1st modern rocket launched. Humans are heading back to the moon

The experiment lasted only two and a half seconds, but it ignited a century of space exploration that sent humans to low Earth orbit and eventually to the moon.

On March 16, 1926, Robert H. Goddard launched the world’s first liquid-fueled rocket on a snowy farm in Massachusetts. Historians say that Goddard’s 10-foot rocket would pave the way for the modern machines that do everything from putting satellites in orbit to sending humans to the International Space Station and beyond.

“His unlocking of that ability to use liquid fuel really just sets the stage for any other country around the world that is launching rockets,” Ed Stewart, a curator at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, told ABC News. “It all comes back down to March 16 in 1926 because he was the one that proved that it could be done and then actually did it.”
The rocket was the first of its kind, powered by liquid propellant rather than gunpowder or other solid fuels used by most rockets at the time, according to NASA. The rocket flew for less than three seconds and reached an altitude of about 41 feet.

While scientists overseas had already been experimenting with rocketry in places like Russia and Germany, according to historical documents, it was Goddard’s 1919 paper, “A Method of Reaching Extreme Altitudes,” that made the physicist’s discovery famous worldwide, explained Stewart.

“It caught the attention of people all around the world, even people that were doing some experimentation with rockets and liquid fuels and things like that in other parts of the world,” Stewart said.

The paper suggested that rockets could one day travel to the moon and caught the attention of the Smithsonian Institution, which invested money in rocket research.

“I think the breakthrough was, first of all, that Goddard had this dream of getting a rocket ship off the surface of the Earth,” said Charles “Chuck” Agosta, a physics professor at Goddard’s alma mater, Clark University. “And then, of course, the dream was to go to Mars.”

Other scientists, like Hermann Oberth of Germany, later built on Goddard’s theory, and that progress eventually contributed to the development of the V-2 rocket, Stewart noted. And eventually, rockets based on Goddard’s pioneering work led to sending astronauts into space and to the moon.

Goddard earned his master’s and doctorate in physics at Clark University in Worcester, Massachusetts, before returning to teach at the school in 1914. He eventually served as director of the physics department for two decades.

Today, faculty at Clark say his legacy still looms large on campus.

Goddard once used a bicycle wheel to show funding agencies how gyroscopes could help steer rockets in space. Today, Agosta uses that same wheel to teach his students about angular momentum.

Despite his legacy, Goddard’s breakthrough didn’t immediately capture the public’s imagination. Stewart says that when the first liquid-fueled rocket launched, space travel was still widely viewed as science fiction by many.

“I do think that at the time it was still so far-fetched that even once he proved that the basic version of the technology would work, people still were thinking of it more as a novelty,” Stewart said.

Much of what we know about those early experiments comes from Goddard’s wife, Esther Christine Kisk Goddard, a photographer from Worcester, Mass. She documented many of the tests, leaving behind footage that offers a window into the creation of the world’s first modern rockets.

According to NASA, Goddard created and launched more than 35 rockets throughout his lifetime. It was because of his pioneering work in modern rocketry that, in May 1959, NASA renamed its first spaceflight complex to the “Goddard Space Flight Center.”

The center is home to missions such as the Hubble Space Telescope, the James Webb Space Telescope, and the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, scheduled to launch as early as fall 2026.

The global return to the moon and beyond

During his initial launch tests, Goddard fueled his rocket with gasoline and liquid oxygen, according to the Roswell Museum in New Mexico, where the physicist spent part of his career. Today’s modern rockets no longer use gasoline, opting for other fuels such as liquid hydrogen, liquid methane and refined kerosene along with liquid oxygen, which acts as an oxidizer.

On the 100th anniversary of Goddard’s discovery, the United States is on the cusp of sending the first astronauts to the moon since 1972 as part of the Artemis II mission. The 10-day trip will send four astronauts around the far side of the moon in NASA’s Orion spacecraft, launched into orbit by the most powerful rocket ever to send people into space. A rocket that may never have come to fruition had Goddard not experimented on that faithful day in 1926.

What could the next 100 years of rocket technology bring?

“I’m pretty confident that in a hundred years, we’re going to be all over space,” Agosta said.

Considering the thousands of airplanes in our own skies every day, he says it’s “inevitable” and that we’ll “at least be in the planets close to us” by the next century.

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(NEW YORK) — Several developments came out of Washington, D.C., regarding the war with Iran over the weekend as strikes continue across the Middle East and economic impacts are beginning to be felt domestically.  

President Donald Trump and administration officials continued to comment on the timeline of the war, the possibility of a deal with Iran, securing the Strait of Hormuz and the release of oil reserves.

The administration has maintained that the U.S. is decimating Iranian forces and degrading their capabilities, but Iran continues to strike.

On Saturday, Trump said on social media, “We have already destroyed 100% of Iran’s Military capability,” and said the U.S. “will soon get the Hormuz Strait OPEN, SAFE, and FREE.”

Still, the administration has yet to comment on the deployment of Marines to the region, which was announced on Friday, and what their mission could entail.

Trump also faced backlash over the weekend after an affiliated political action committee sent a fundraising email, featuring a photo from the dignified transfer of the first six U.S. service members killed in the Iran war, while offering contributors access to “private national security briefings.”

ABC News has compiled a list of some of the latest developments as the war stretches into its third week.

Timeline

Questions continue to swirl about how long Trump wants the United States to be engaged in this war.

He spent the bulk of last week assuring Americans it would be over soon, hoping to ease market concerns, saying Iran is beaten. But on his way out of Washington Friday night, he refused to comment on how long it would continue. “As long as necessary,” Trump said.

On Sunday, Energy Secretary Chris Wright told ABC News’ Martha Raddatz, “I think that this conflict will certainly come to an end in the next few weeks. Could be sooner than that, but the conflict will come to the end in the next few weeks.”

In an interview with NBC, Wright also acknowledged, “Americans are feeling it [economic pain] right now and will feel it for a few more weeks.” But, he said, in the end, we will have removed the greatest threat to global energy supplies.

Securing the Strait

Officials, including Wright, also struggled over the weekend to explain the plans they had executed in anticipation that Iran would shut down the vital oil shipping lane in the Strait of Hormuz.

On Saturday, Trump called on other countries that depend on that commerce to help secure the strait, naming “China, France, Japan, South Korea, the UK, and others.” He also suggested he’s received commitments from some of them, but from whom remains unknown. Democrats, critical of Trump, said last week that this is something that should have been coordinated at the outset.

Later Saturday, President Trump told NBC that he’d secured cooperation. “They’ve not only committed, but they think it’s a great idea,” but he didn’t say which country or countries he was referring to.

And, in that same interview, he said, “We believe we’ll be joined by other countries,” drawing into question whether he actually secured commitments.

ABC News has asked the White House to clarify, and they have not responded.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said of the strait on Friday, “We have been dealing with it, and don’t need to worry about it.”

But, so far, there have been no escorts, and requests from shipping companies have reportedly been denied.  

Pressed on whether Trump has actual commitments from others to help, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz said during an interview with CNN, “I’ll leave those conversations to him,” referring to the president.

Wright told ABC News that more work needs to be done before the strait can open and escorts can occur. “Right now, our focus is destroying their military capabilities, including those that are used specifically to threaten the straits. But we need to finish those tasks first, and you will see the straits open again in the not-too-distant future.”

He also did not specify which countries would help.

Trump spoke with the leaders of the U.K. and Canada on Sunday, but there was no mention of any commitment from the foreign leaders.

Trump, meanwhile, has been warning Iran that further disruptions in the strait could result in devastating strikes on the country’s oil infrastructure. He said he’s so far held back during those strikes on Kharg Island, but on Friday warned he would “reconsider” if Iran interfered with the Strait of Hormuz.

On Saturday, he told NBC, “We may hit it a few more times just for fun.”

A deal?

Many experts in Washington believe ultimately, there needs to be another nuclear deal in order for this war to end.

Trump said over the weekend he’s not ready “because the terms aren’t good enough yet.”

“Iran wants to make a deal, and I don’t want to make it because the terms aren’t good enough yet,” Trump reportedly told NBC.

And in a post to his social media platform, he said Iran “wants a deal,” but not one he would accept.

He also raised questions about whether the new supreme leader, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, is alive or not. On Friday, the State Department announced a $10 million reward for information on key Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps leaders, including Khamenei.

Meanwhile, Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi told CBS on Sunday, “We don’t see any reason why we should talk with Americans, because we were talking with them when they decided to attack us, and that was for the second time.”

But, in what some interpret as a more positive diplomatic development, Aragachi said Iran has not yet attempted to retrieve its 440 kilograms of highly enriched uranium from “underneath the rubble” of those nuclear sites bombed by the U.S. last June.

If, he said, that material is to be recovered, it would be done under the “supervision of the agency,” a reference to the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Earlier Saturday, Reuters reported that Trump had rejected efforts from Middle East allies to begin diplomatic ceasefire negotiations. The White House had not responded to ABC’s requests for comment about the report.

“Nothing is on the table right now. Everything depends on the future,” Araghchi said.

Marines deployed

On Friday, Trump ordered 2,200 Marines aboard three U.S. Navy amphibious ships to the Middle East, two officials confirmed to ABC News.

Trump has yet to comment on this decision, and why it’s necessary if the war, in his words, is “won.”

The Marines are part of a Marine Expeditionary Unit, which means that they are capable of conducting land, amphibious and aviation missions.

It also means there are more than just 2,220 Marines headed there. There are between 2,000 and 2,500 Sailors also on board those ships, providing support.

In all, approximately 5,000 Marines and Sailors are headed to the region.

The Pentagon has not acknowledged the deployment and has not offered any guidance on its mission.

Nevertheless, they are already underway and will take a minimum of 10 days to get there.

Backlash to campaign using photo of war dead

Trump drew backlash from his critics over the weekend after it was confirmed an affiliated political action committee sent a new fundraising email featuring an official White House photo from the dignified transfer of the first six U.S. service members killed in the Iran war, while also offering contributors access to “private national security briefings.”

In the photo, Trump can be seen saluting a flag-draped transfer case containing the remains of one of the six fallen soldiers.

Former Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said on CNN, “If the president is willing to raise campaign funds over the bodies of America’s war dead, he is unfit to be the commander in chief.”

The White House and Never Surrender Inc. have not responded to ABC News’ requests for comment.

Speaking to reporters on Air Force One on Sunday, Trump said he “didn’t see” the email. “I didn’t see it. I mean, somebody puts it up. We have a lot of people working for us, but there’s nobody that’s better to the military than me,” Trump said.

The Pentagon identified the six service members killed when a U.S. KC-135 refueling aircraft crashed in western Iraq on Thursday.

Three of the Air Force airmen were assigned to the 6th Air Refueling Wing, MacDill Air Force Base in Florida: Maj. John A. Klinner, 33, of Auburn, Alabama; Capt. Ariana G. Savino, 31, of Covington, Washington; and Tech. Sgt. Ashley B. Pruitt, 34, of Bardstown, Kentucky

The other three airmen were assigned to the 121st Air Refueling Wing at Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base in Columbus, Ohio: Capt. Seth R. Koval, 38, of Mooresville, Indiana; Capt. Curtis J. Angst, 30, of Wilmington, Ohio; and Tech. Sgt. Tyler H. Simmons, 28, of Columbus, Ohio

The crash, which involved another KC-135 tanker, is still under investigation.

Oil reserves

Oil reserves from emergency stockpiles will start flowing immediately to Asia but won’t be available to the U.S. and Europe until the end of March, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in a new press release Sunday.

Importantly, the IEA did not specify exactly how much oil would start flowing per day — a metric oil analysts are watching to understand what the immediate impact might be on prices. Oil prices have so far not been tamed by the announcement that countries, including the U.S., are tapping their strategic reserves.

The IEA announced the biggest-ever release of oil from reserves — 400 million barrels — from its 32 member countries last week. That includes 172 million barrels from the U.S.

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(NEW YORK) — The first of two storms has passed through the Great Lakes and is now moving through the northern tier of the Northeast, bringing widespread strong winds and snow from the eastern Great Lakes to northern New England.

On Friday, wind gusts greater than 70 mph were reported in Ohio, Minnesota, Michigan and Indiana. Wind alerts remain in place from northeast Ohio and central Pennsylvania up to Upstate New York and the higher elevations of Massachusetts through Saturday morning and afternoon for wind gusts between 45 and 60 mph.

Saturday morning, snow continues across Upstate New York and into northern New England. An additional widespread 1 to 3 inches of snow can be expected from northwest New York to Maine, with some localized areas possibly getting over 3 inches of snow.

Heavier snow and severe weather
The next storm will be a stronger, cross-country storm that has been impacting the Pacific Northwest and northern Rockies since Friday and will sweep into the northern Rockies and Plains Saturday and the Midwest later Saturday into Sunday.

Winter storm warnings stretch from the Idaho Panhandle to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, with some flight agencies cancelling flights ahead of this major winter storm.

Blizzard Warnings have also been issued for parts of South Dakota and southwest Minnesota for snowfall of more than a foot and strong winds up to 60 mph possible, with the National Weather Service warning that travel will likely become impossible late Saturday and Sunday.

By Sunday morning, snow stretches from South Dakota and Nebraska into the Great Lakes.

On the southern side of the powerful system, a line of severe storms will develop from Michigan down to Texas Sunday afternoon into the night.

An “Enhanced” risk (Level 3/5) has already been issued for parts of the Midwest on Sunday, from Indianapolis to just north of Memphis. Widespread damaging wind gusts will be the main threat although a few tornadoes will be possible along with large hail.

Chicago could go from thunderstorms on Sunday night to snow and whiteout conditions on Monday.

On Monday, the major storm will continue to move east. There will still be snow and wind across the Great Lakes and rounds of heavy rain and strong winds moving into the Northeast.

More severe weather will continue across the East Coast on Monday late afternoon into the evening from the Florida Panhandle up to Pennsylvania.

An “Enhanced” risk (level 3 of 5) has been issued for parts of the Carolinas, Virginia, Maryland and southern Pennsylvania. This includes Columbia, South Carolina; Raleigh, North Carolina; Richmond, Virginia; Washington, D.C; Baltimore, Maryland; and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

The main threat will be damaging winds, some large hail and a few tornadoes.

By the time this storm passes through, a widespread 3 to 6 inches of snow will be likely from Montana to the northern fringes of Upstate New York. The heaviest snow is expected from northeast South Dakota to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where 10 to 20 inches of snow will be possible, as well as gusty winds that could cause blowing snow and reduced visibility.

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