National

(NEW YORK) — At least three people are dead in Oklahoma after a string of tornadoes broke out Wednesday night, officials said.

There have been eight confirmed tornadoes in the state, according to the National Weather Service.

McClain County Emergency Management confirmed that a “large and extremely dangerous tornado” was over Cole, Oklahoma, Wednesday night. The McClain County Sheriff’s Office confirmed at least two deaths and said there were multiple injuries.

Overall, there were at least 15 reported tornadoes across three states: Oklahoma, Kansas and Iowa. In addition, huge hail — some the size of a softball — was reported from Illinois to Texas.

Cole was “hit significantly,” Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper Eric Foster said. There are “power lines down everywhere” and major damage to infrastructure, according to Foster, who said hundreds of first responders are on the scene.

On Wednesday night, the McClain County Sheriff’s Office posted on Facebook that it was responding to “reported injuries & persons entrapped within their shelters,” and that power lines were down and there were outages. McClain County is just south of Oklahoma City.

Due to storm damage, Oklahoma State Highway 74 to State Highway 76 was closed, according to the McClain County Sheriff’s Office.

Oklahoma Baptist University in Shawnee reported there was significant damage to its campus, but reported there were no injuries. Students living in three on-campus building were relocated on Wednesday night, according to a tweet.

The university also canceled classes on Thursday and Friday.

The cross country storm is moving east and is producing severe weather outbreak with tornadoes, huge hail and extreme straight line winds. On Thursday, severe weather will stretch east from Texas to Illinois, including major cities such as San Antonio, Dallas, Houston, St. Louis and Little Rock, Arkansas. The biggest threat will be damaging winds and huge hail.

Severe weather will move into the Southeast over the weekend and will stretch from the Carolinas down to Georgia. Cities in the bull’s-eye will be Savannah, Georgia; Charleston, South Carolina; Wilmington, North Carolina; and near Raleigh, North Carolina. Damaging winds will be the biggest threat Saturday.

The same storm will bring a threat of heavy rain and thunderstorms all the way to Washington D.C., Philadelphia and New York City Saturday evening.

Major flooding ongoing in the upper Mississippi river in Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin is expected to get worse this weekend. The river is expected to continue to rise though the end of the week and into the weekend, reaching levels not seen in decades.

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(BOWDOIN, Maine) — A 34-year-old man allegedly shot and killed his parents and their two friends at a home in Bowdoin, Maine, days after his release from prison, authorities said.

Around 9:21 a.m. Tuesday, four people were found shot dead at the home: 72-year-old Robert Eger, 62-year-old Patricia Eger and 62-year-old Cynthia Eaton were found inside, while 66-year-old David Eaton was found in the barn, Maine State Police said at a news conference Wednesday.

The Eatons’ son, Joseph Eaton, had been released from the Windham Correctional Facility in Maine on April 14 after serving a sentence for aggravated assault, according to police. His mother picked him up from prison and brought him to Bowdoin to stay with the Egers, who were family friends, police said.

Shortly after the four bodies were found, around 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Joseph Eaton allegedly shot three people as they drove south on Interstate 295 in Yarmouth, about 25 miles south of Bowdoin, police said.

One of the interstate shooting victims, a 25-year-old woman, is in critical condition, police said. The other two victims, a 51-year-old man and his 29-year-old son, suffered non-life-threatening injuries, police said.

Joseph Eaton was taken into custody and “confessed to killing his parents and their friends in Bowdoin,” state police said. Joseph Eaton allegedly “believed that the vehicles he had shot on the interstate were police vehicles that were following him.”

He has been charged with four counts of murder, police said.

Joseph Eaton made his first appearance in court on Thursday morning. He spoke briefly, only to say he understood the charges against him, and did not enter a plea.

ABC News’ Darren Reynolds and Ben Stein contributed to this report.

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(BOCA CHICA, Texas) — SpaceX will attempt a second launch of its Starship rocket after the first launch attempt was scrubbed due to a frozen valve in the pressurization system.

The launch will take place at the company’s Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas — about 20 miles east of Brownsville — with a 62-minute window opening at 9:28 a.m. ET. A live webcast will begin 45 minutes before liftoff.

Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:

Apr 20, 9:46 AM EDT
Starship boosters fail to separate from shuttle, rocket blown up

SpaceX was able to get its Starship rocket off the pad, but all didn’t go as planned.

About three minutes into flight, “Starship experienced a rapid unscheduled disassembly before stage separation,” SpaceX tweeted.

Therefore, SpaceX was forced to abort the mission and blow up the rocket, but the team says it’s more of a “success” than they hoped for.

Apr 20, 9:39 AM EDT
Starship launches into space

Starship launched at 9:33 a.m. ET, just five minutes after the launch window opened, on its inaugural flight.

The shuttle is currently the largest spacecraft in the world at about 393 feet and is expected to eventually carry passengers to the moon and Mars in a similar vein to NASA’s Artemis mission.

Starship is designed to carry up to 100 people on long-duration, interplanetary flights.

Apr 20, 9:23 AM EDT
What Starship’s journey will look like

For this first flight test, SpaceX said Starship will not attempt a vertical landing of Starship or a catch of the booster.

If successful, Starship and its rocket, which is called Super Heavy, will head up to the skies and 33 Raptor engines will ignite simultaneously. About eight minutes after liftoff, Super Heavy will splash down in the Gulf of Mexico.

Meanwhile, the spacecraft will travel about 150 miles — partially around the Earth — and then splash down in the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii about 90 minutes after liftoff.

There will be a 62-minute window opening at 9:28 a.m. ET. A live webcast began 45 minutes before liftoff.

Apr 20, 8:45 AM EDT
Starship rocket is being loaded

SpaceX is fueling its Starship rocket — the world’s larger spacecraft — as it attempts a second launch.

The first launch attempt was scrubbed Monday due to a frozen valve in the pressurization system.

“The Starship team is go for prop load; team is keeping an eye on the weather,” SpaceX said in a tweet.

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(NEW YORK) — A day after Fox News agreed to pay $787.5 million to settle a defamation suit brought by Dominion Voting Systems, a Fox spokesperson said Wednesday that the network will be “ready to defend” itself against a similar suit from a second voting machine company.

The statement came after the company, Smartmatic, issued a statement Tuesday reaffirming its commitment to its own lawsuit in the wake of the historic Dominion settlement, saying that “Dominion’s litigation exposed some of the misconduct and damage caused by Fox’s disinformation campaign. Smartmatic will expose the rest.”

“Smartmatic remains committed to clearing its name, recouping the significant damage done to the company in more than 50 countries, and holding Fox accountable for undermining democracy,” the statement from Smartmatic’s attorney, J. Erik Connolly, said.

Fox responded in a statement Wednesday, saying, “We will be ready to defend this case surrounding extremely newsworthy events when it goes to trial, likely in 2025. As a report prepared by our financial expert shows, Smartmatic’s damages claims are implausible, disconnected from reality, and on its face intended to chill First Amendment freedoms.”

Smartmatic, based in Florida, is suing Fox News, Fox hosts Maria Bartiromo and Jeanine Pirro, former Fox host Lou Dobbs, and former President Donald Trump’s attorney Rudy Giuliani for $2.7 billion. The suit was filed in February 2021.

At least seven defamation lawsuits involving Fox News or Dominion Voting Systems remain related to claims that were broadcast surrounding the 2020 election. Dominion is still pursuing six other defamation lawsuits against a host of other individuals it said also pushed false claims, including right-wing network Newsmax, and former Trump attorneys Giuliani and Sidney Powell, among others.

“We’ve got some other people who have some accountability coming towards them,” Stephen Shakelford, Dominion’s attorney, said following the Fox News settlement Tuesday. “We’re not done yet.”

Dominion had accused the conservative network of knowingly pushing false conspiracy theories that Dominion had rigged the 2020 presidential election in Joe Biden’s favor, in what Dominion claims was an effort to combat concerns over declining ratings and viewer retention.

In response to Dominion’s claims, Fox said it was simply reporting on newsworthy claims made by then-President Trump and his allies — a sentiment they repeated in their statement regarding the Smartmatic suit on Wednesday.

But Judge Eric Davis, who oversaw the Dominion case, essentially blocked that defense, writing in a pre-trial ruling that it “fails to shield” Fox from liability and that the court “will not apply the privilege here.”

“Just because something is newsworthy doesn’t mean you can defame somebody,” Davis said in court during a hearing in the Dominion case.

In a filing in the case earlier this week, Fox News wrote that it “denies the allegation of a disinformation campaign.”

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(BOCA CHICA, Texas) — SpaceX will attempt a second launch of its Starship rocket after the first launch attempt was scrubbed due to a frozen valve in the pressurization system.

The launch will take place at the company’s Starbase facility in Boca Chica, Texas — about 20 miles east of Brownsville — with a 62-minute window opening at 9:28 a.m. ET. A live webcast will begin 45 minutes before liftoff.

It comes after CEO Elon Musk warned subscribers during a Twitter “Spaces” event for Sunday evening, to set expectations “low” and that the launch might be postponed.

Starship is currently the largest spacecraft in the world at about 393 feet, which is expected to eventually carry passengers to the moon and Mars in a similar vein to NASA’s Artemis mission.

“Starhsip is a fully reusable transportation system designed to carry both crew and cargo to Earth orbit, help humanity return to the Moon, and travel to Mars and beyond,” SpaceX said in a press release. “With a test such as this, success is measured by how much we can learn, which will inform and improve the probability of success in the future as SpaceX rapidly advances development of Starship.”

For this first flight test, SpaceX said it will not attempt a vertical landing of Starship or a catch of the booster.

If successful, Starship and its rocket, which is called Super Heavy, will head up to the skies and 33 Raptor engines will ignite simultaneously. About eight minutes after liftoff, Super Heavy will splash down in the Gulf of Mexico.

Meanwhile, the spacecraft will travel about 150 miles — partially around the Earth — and then splash down in the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii about 90 minutes after liftoff.

After the valve issue was discovered Monday, SpaceX said the attempted launch would be turned into a wet dress rehearsal, meaning it simulates every stage of rocket launch, but without liftoff actually occurring.

Problems are not uncommon while preparing for a launch attempt. Last year, NASA had multiple failed attempts to get Artemis I off the ground before the successful launch on Nov. 16.

Faulty temperature sensors, liquid hydrogen leaks and the landfall of Hurricane Ian contributed to delays. However, the spacecraft finally managed to spend 25.5 days in space and journeyed on a 1.4-million-mile journey around the Moon before splashing down on Dec. 11.

Starship is eventually designed to carry up to 100 people on long-duration, interplanetary flights. Meanwhile, NASA recently announced the four astronauts who are planned to take their first steps on the moon by 2025.

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(NEW YORK) — If former President Donald Trump declines to attend his trial next week in which he stands accused of defaming and battering writer E. Jean Carroll, his attorney wants the jury to know it would be to spare New York City the burden of keeping him safe.

Trump “wishes to appear at trial,” defense attorney Joe Tacopina said in a pre-trial filing Wednesday, but asked the court to inform the jury about the “logistical burdens associated with his appearance in a courtroom.”

An attorney for Carroll chided the request, writing in a separate letter that “the notion that Mr. Trump would not appear as some sort of favor to the City of New York — and that the jury should be instructed as much — taxes the credulity of the credulous.”

Another Carroll attorney, Roberta Kaplan, pointed out that Trump has recently attended events around the country including an Ultimate Fighting Championship event, a meeting of the National Rifle Association, and a deposition as part of a different civil case.

“On Monday, he announced that he has scheduled a New Hampshire campaign event for next Thursday, April 27– in other words, in the middle of the trial in this case,” Kaplan said. “If Mr. Trump can find a way to attend wrestling championships, political conventions, civil depositions, and campaign functions, then surely he could surmount the logistics of attending his own federal trial.”

The former president has until this Thursday to let the court know for sure whether he’s coming.

In her suit, brought in November, Carroll alleges that Trump defamed her by calling her a liar when he denied her claim that he raped her in a department store dressing room in the 1990s. She added a charge of battery under a recently adopted New York law that allows adult survivors of sexual abuse to sue their alleged attacker regardless of the statute of limitations.

A judge last week denied Trump’s attempt to delay the start of the trial, which is scheduled to get underway in New York on Tuesday.

Trump has repeatedly denied Carroll’s allegations.

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(NEW YORK) — The search for three Americans missing off the coast of Mexico has been suspended, the U.S. Coast Guard said Wednesday.

“An exhaustive search was conducted by our international search and rescue partner, Mexico, with the U.S. Coast Guard and Canada providing additional search assets,” Coast Guard Cmdr. Gregory Higgins said in a statement. “SEMAR [The Mexican Navy] and U.S. Coast Guard assets worked hand-in-hand for all aspects of the case. Unfortunately, we found no evidence of the three Americans’ whereabouts or what might have happened. Our deepest sympathies go out to the families and friends of William Gross, Kerry O’Brien and Frank O’Brien.”

The Mexican Navy and Coast Guard spent “281 cumulative search hours covering approximately 200,057 square nautical miles, an area larger than the state of California, off Mexico’s northern Pacific coast with no sign of the missing sailing vessel nor its passengers,” the Coast Guard said.

Kerry O’Brien, Frank O’Brien and Gross had not contacted friends, family, or maritime authorities since April 4.

The trio likely encountered “significant” weather and waves as they attempted to sail their 41-foot sailboat from Mazatlán to San Diego.

“When it started to reach into five, six, seven days and we started to get a little more concerned,” Kerry’s brother Mark Argall told ABC News.

Higgins had expressed concern that the weather in that region worsened around April 6, with swells and wind creating waves potentially over 20 feet high. The three were sailing a capable 41-foot fiberglass boat, with similar sailboats successfully circumnavigating the planet. However, the lack of clear information about the sailors’ location, partially attributable to the lack of GPS tracking and poor cellular service near the Baja peninsula, has left the families of the missing Americans uncertain about their loved ones’ whereabouts.

“We have all been spinning our wheels about the different scenarios that could have happened,” Gross’ daughter Melissa Spicuzza said.

Kerry and Frank O’Brien, a married couple, initially decided to travel to Mexico to sail a 41-foot LaFitte sailboat named “Ocean Bound” to San Diego after the boat underwent repairs near Mazatlán, Mexico, according to Argall.

The couple decided to hire Gross, a mechanic by trade and sailor with more than 50 years of experience, to help navigate the boat from Mazatlán to San Diego. Spicuzza recounted that friends of Gross would compare him to the 1980s fictional television character and improvisational savant MacGyver based on his ability to repair boats.

“Whatever it takes, he’ll get it rigged up. He’ll get it working,” Spicuzza described.

The Coast Guard believes the sailors left their slip (the equivalent of a parking spot for boats) on April 2. They eventually departed Mazatlán on April 4, based on Facebook posts and cellphone usage.

The sailors expected the trip across the Gulf of California to Cabo San Lucas, where they planned to pick up provisions, would take two days. However, the Coast Guard does not believe the sailors ever stopped in Cabo San Lucas. Since April 4, marinas throughout the Baja Peninsula have not contacted the vessel, nor have any search and rescue crews spotted it.

According to Higgins, the weather worsened around April 6, with winds of 30 knots, strong swells, and waves making navigation more challenging. Spicuzza added that the sail from Mexico to California is inherently tricky since sailors need to navigate against the wind and current.

“From the tip of Baja all the way back up to Alaska, you’re going against wind and current, so it’s a more difficult, exhausting sail, but of course, doable with the experience that’s on board,” Spicuzza.

Spicuzza added that the group’s initially planned 10-day journey was likely unrealistic. Sailing against the wind and current would require the sailors to tack frequently, essentially zig-zag to make progress despite sailing into the wind, which could extend the journey to two and half weeks.

Moreover, according to the Coast Guard, the boat lacks trackable GPS navigation, such as a satellite phone or a tracking beacon. The limited cellular service in that region of Mexico also makes triangulating the cell position difficult.

Robert H. Perry, the designer of the 41-foot sailboat, noted that their boat was likely manufactured in Taiwan 35 years ago. Despite its age, the fiberglass sailboat itself was a time-tested, ocean-navigating boat.

The travel circumstances have left family members uncertain about the status of their loved ones. Based on the timing, it appears possible they are “just going to roll into San Diego like nothing happened in maybe about a week,” Spicuzza suggested, with the radio silence attributable to some electronic issue. Alternatively, the Coast Guard has worked on plotting where their life raft might have drifted under current weather conditions.

“It’s just been a roller coaster of emotions the last several days; I want my dad home, I want him safe, [and] I want the O’Brien’s home safe,” Spicuzza said. “I’m very much looking forward to sitting around a table with all of them and joking about the time they got lost at sea – that is the hope.”

ABC News’ Elisha Asif, Helena Skinner, Zohreen Shah, and Amantha.Chery contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — The Manhattan district attorney’s office will investigate the partial collapse of a parking garage that killed one and injured five others, a spokeswoman for the office confirmed Wednesday.

More than 50 cars were parked on the roof of the four-story Lower Manhattan building when it collapsed Tuesday afternoon, sending cars plummeting and killing one worker whose body remains trapped in the debris, officials said Wednesday.

The New York City Fire Department is slowly and methodically taking down the building. Gas tanks and electric vehicles in the debris are complicating the deconstruction process.

“This is an incredibly complex operation,” emergency management commissioner Zach Iscol said during a press briefing Wednesday. “The building is not structurally sound.”

The city is working to “safely demolish” the building while also removing the vehicles, he said.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams confirmed Wednesday that the deceased garage worker, who has not been publicly identified, also remains in the collapsed building. The man was a 59-year-old manager of the garage, sources said.

Four workers were treated at local hospitals following the collapse, while a fifth refused medical treatment, officials said. The New York Fire Department said it appears most if not all of the patients have since been released.

Department of Buildings acting Commissioner Kazimir Vilenchik said the building “pancaked,” and that the ceiling collapsed “all the way to the cellar floor.”

Firefighters went inside the building to search for victims but it was continuing to collapse so they evacuated. A robotic dog and a drone were brought in to continue to search the building. Officials believe that everyone is accounted for and there is no reason to believe this is anything but a structural collapse.

The exact cause of the collapse remains under investigation.

“There’s a thorough investigation that is going to happen with this building. And we’re going to learn from it,” Adams said.

A focus of the investigation is the weight of the vehicles parked on the roof and the age of the building, which was built in 1925.

The parking garage, which is owned by 57 Ann Street Realty Association, currently has four active violations, according to records from the New York City Department of Buildings.

The violations that remain open were recorded between 2003 and 2013.

One of the four violations still open is from Nov. 25, 2003, and has a severity status listed as “hazardous.” In the violation details, the department recorded the discovery of cracks in the concrete on the first floor, calling the concrete “defective.”

The company did not immediately respond to a voicemail seeking comment.

The parking garage tenant, Enterprise Ann Parking LLC, said in a statement Wednesday: “This is a tragic event. We are devastated at the loss of one of our long-time employees and our thoughts are with his family and those who were injured in the accident. We thank all of the first responders who quickly attended to those who were impacted and appreciate their courageous work.”

“We are fully cooperating with city agencies and other authorities as they investigate this incident,” it added.

ABC News’ Aaron Katersky, Mark Crudele and Victoria Arancio contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — A North Carolina man allegedly shot a 6-year-old girl, her parents and an additional neighbor after a basketball rolled into his yard.

Local and federal law are still searching for the suspect, who was also charged with assaulting his girlfriend with a sledgehammer in December.

The Gaston County Police Department received a 911 call at 7:44 p.m. on Tuesday about a local shooting. Investigators later determined that 24-year-old Robert Louis Singletary seriously injured one adult male and one juvenile female and that a separate female was grazed by a bullet while a second adult male was shot.

Neighbors told ABC News’ Charlotte affiliate WSOC-TV that the shooting began after a basketball rolled into Singletary’s yard from a group of local children playing basketball in the street. Singletary allegedly fired a gun at a neighbor before approaching a father and son — William and 6-year-old Kinsley White. Both were transported to a local area hospital for treatment.

“Why did you shoot my daddy and me? Why did you shoot a kid’s dad?” Kinsley asked in an emotional interview, stitches visible on her cheek from the bullet fragments that hit her.

Family members say William White tried to draw gunfire towards himself to protect his family as Singletary unloaded an entire magazine toward his neighbor. White was shot in the back in his own front yard, according to his partner Ashley Hilderbrand.

“He looked at my husband and my daughter and told them, ‘I’m going to kill you,’” Hilderbrand said.

Gaston County Police have multiple warrants for Singletary’s arrest. He is charged with four counts of attempted murder, two counts of assault with a deadly weapon and one count of possession of a firearm by a felon.

In December, Singletary was separately charged with assaulting his girlfriend with a mini sledgehammer, leading her to bleed profusely from the back of the head and forcing her inside an apartment for two hours.

“The victim further stated that Singletary told her that she could not leave until she had cleaned up all the evidence from the assault,” a press release from December read.

Singletary is still on the loose, with a statewide search now enlisting the U.S. Marshall’s Regional Fugitive Task Force.

“I want to say to the people of Gaston County — this sort of violence will not stand,” Gaston County Police Department’s Chief, Stephen M. Zill said.

The North Carolina shooting follows a string of similar incidents where seemingly ordinary mistakes have led to serious consequences involving firearms. Over the last week, two cheerleaders in Texas were shot after entering the wrong car in a parking lot, a woman in New York was killed after entering the wrong driveway and 16-year-old in Missouri was shot after ringing the doorbell to the wrong home.

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(ST. LOUIS) — Tornadoes are possible in parts of the Heartland Wednesday, as severe weather is expected to move through the region.

A tornado watch has been issued for portions of six states — Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas — through 11 p.m. CDT Wednesday, the National Weather Service said.

Isolated tornadoes could be possible, especially in an enhanced risk area from Oklahoma City to Wichita Falls.

Huge hail and damaging wind gusts up to 75 mph are also possible as the storm system moves out of the West and into the Plains Wednesday night. An enhanced risk has been issued for areas including Omaha and Lincoln, Nebraska, for very large hail and significant, damaging winds.

By Thursday, the severe weather threat stretches from Austin, Texas, to St. Louis, Missouri. A line of severe storms is forecast to stretch across the region, packing damaging winds and large hail, from mid-afternoon into the overnight hours.

The storms may weaken a bit overnight Thursday as they move toward the Mississippi River and Gulf Coast, but severe activity could extend into Friday morning.

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