(WASHINGTON) — The USS Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group has arrived in the U.S. Southern Command area of operations north of the Caribbean Sea as part of the Trump administration’s campaign against drug cartels, the Navy’s Fourth Fleet announced Wednesday.
The carrier’s deployment to assist in operations against Latin American drug cartels was announced on Oct. 24 while it was on a port of call in Croatia. Since then it has made the lengthy transit through the Mediterranean Sea and across the Atlantic Ocean.
Typically the Pentagon’s announcements that a carrier group has entered a regional area of operations occur when they have crossed the furthest limits of that area, which for SOUTHCOM means somewhere in the Atlantic east of Florida and Cuba.
The strike group includes three destroyers that will augment the eight Navy surface ships already in the SOUTHCOM region. The sizable U.S. military presence in the region also includes a submarine, reconnaissance aircraft, 10 F-35 fighters and Reaper drones.
It was disclosed last week through imagery that an AC-130J gunship and two other reconnaissance aircraft have been operating from an El Salvador military base co-located at the country’s international airport, presumably as part of operations against the cartels.
The Ford carries more than 60 aircraft that could be used against the drug cartels.
“These forces will enhance and augment existing capabilities to disrupt narcotics trafficking and degrade and dismantle Transnational Criminal Organizations,” Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, said.
The Trump administration says it has killed 76 people in 19 strikes against alleged drug-running boats in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific Ocean since it began its campaign in September.
The 4,000 sailors and Marines aboard ships in the Ford strike group join the 10,000 troops already deployed to the Caribbean.
The Pentagon has said that the carrier’s deployment is tied to the operations targeting the drug cartels, but critics have asked if it is intended to be a show of force or potential operations targeting Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro regime.
Experts say that while Maduro is complicit in the drug trade, many of the drugs coming into the U.S. come via Mexico and sea routes in the Pacific, not the Caribbean, which is known more for shipping drugs to Europe.
The administration has flown B-52 bombers near the coast of Venezuela and B-1 bombers over the Caribbean in what appears to be a major show of force by President Donald Trump.
In addition, a special operations aviation unit conducted training exercises in international waters near Venezuela in October, a U.S. official said.
ABC News’ Anne Flaherty contributed to this report.
Allegheny Mountains (Jeff Greenberg/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Rescuers are racing to find a miner who’s been trapped in a flooded West Virginia coal mine for days.
Crews are pumping out thousands of gallons of water per minute at the Rolling Thunder Mine to help locate the miner after the site flooded Saturday, according to West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey.
“Rescue operations continue at the Rolling Thunder Mine in Nicholas County, where crews are now pumping water at a rate of approximately 6,000 gallons per minute – a significant increase from earlier efforts as additional pumps became available,” Gov. Morrisey posted Tuesday on X.
“This is another step forward in the ongoing effort to reach the missing miner. As water levels continue to drop, crews are also advancing on the drilling portion of the rescue as they prepare for additional heavy equipment to arrive,” he added.
The identity of the miner has not been publicly released.
At a press conference Monday, Morrisey said dive teams were working to find pockets of air where the miner may be located.
“This has been an around-the-clock response since Saturday, and we’re going to continue to do everything imaginable to help,” said Morrisey. “We’re going to continue to push because we want to make sure that we give the miner every opportunity to live.”
Nicholas County Commissioner Garrett Cole posted a statement on Facebook Sunday night, saying that the missing miner was helping his crew escape to safety.
“According to state wide reporting, the missing miner is said to be a foreman of a crew who worked to ensure that everyone on his crew was getting out of the mine but got trapped behind,” he said.
Rolling Thunder Mine is operated by Tennessee-based Alpha Metallurgical Resources, which operates 19 underground and surfaces mines across West Virginia and Virginia, according to its website.
A spokesperson for Alpha Metallurgical Resources did not immediately respond to ABC News’ requests for comment.
The weekend episode at Rolling Thunder Mine is the second mining incident in West Virginia this month, following the death of a miner at a different mine on Thursday, according to Morrisey.
“Our coal miners are among the hardest-working and most courageous people in our state. They represent the strength, humility, and resolve that define West Virginia. We owe these men and women an enduring debt of gratitude for the sacrifices they make every day to power our communities and our nation,” Morrisey posted on Facebook.
An undated photo of 30-year-old Zachary Jackson, who was found shot to death in his home in Hayward, California, on June 17, 1993. Alameda County Sheriff’s Office
(ALAMEDA COUNTY, Calif.) — Two people have been arrested in a man’s 1993 cold case murder, including the mother of his two children, Northern California authorities announced.
On June 17, 1993, Zachary Jackson, 30, was found shot to death in his home in Hayward, about 30 miles from San Francisco, Alameda County Sheriff’s Detective Pat Smyth said. Authorities believe Jackson was killed around June 14.
Now the mother of Jackson’s children, Veronica Fonseca, and her boyfriend from 1993, Anthony Fox, are in custody for his murder, Smyth said at a news conference on Monday.
“We believe they were both there and that Mr. Fox was the one who pulled the trigger,” he said.
In 1993, Jackson and Fonseca shared a 4-year-old daughter — who was in Jackson’s custody — and a 1-year-old son, who was in Fonseca’s custody, Smyth said.
Fonseca was interviewed several times during the initial investigation, but nothing at the time led investigators to believe she was involved, Smyth said. Fox wasn’t interviewed at the time, Smyth said, adding that investigators at first focused on a dispute between Jackson and his landlord.
“In 1993, they did not have a lot of the things that we have available to us today, investigatively, to find leads,” Smyth explained. “No electronic footprint like we have these days. They relied heavily on witnesses, fingerprint, that sort of thing. DNA was in its infancy.”
“Without any viable leads,” Smyth said, the case went cold.
In 2014, a tipster reported having information about who was responsible and identified Fonseca and Fox, Smyth said.
But over the next year or so, investigators “encountered a roadblock” that stalled the case, Smyth said.
Several more years passed, and in 2021, someone left an anonymous tip on the sheriff department’s website identifying Fonseca and Fox, he said.
Smyth interviewed the tipster, but he said there was still an “impediment in the case.” He did not elaborate on the impediment.
“The case really didn’t move forward until this year, when we developed an investigative plan to try to bring this case forward,” Smyth said.
Over the last few months, “there’s been a lot of investigative resources poured into this case,” Smyth said, and more witnesses cooperated and “told a similar story as to our previous tipsters.”
On Thursday, Fonseca was arrested in New York City and Fox was arrested in Iowa on charges of murder and first-degree residential burglary, according to Smyth and the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office. Fonseca and Fox have not yet been transferred to Alameda County, officials said.
Smyth declined to discuss the evidence against them but called the case a “good example of what happens when good people have the courage to come forward … coupled with law enforcement leveraging all investigative resources to bring a resolution.”
(WASHINGTON) — President Barack Obama gave a group of war heroes a surprise they will never forget.
The former president surprised a flight of Korean and Vietnam War veterans on an honor flight from Madison, Wisconsin, to Washington, D.C., ahead of Veterans Day, according to a video he posted on X.
“Ahead of Veterans Day, I was honored to welcome a flight of veterans and their families as they arrived in DC. To all those who bravely served our country, thank you to you and your family for your extraordinary service. The sacrifices that all of you have made to protect our country will be honored, today and every day,” Obama posted alongside the video on X.
Obama came aboard the flight and shared a special message on the intercom of the plane for the veterans.
“Hello, everybody. As we approach Veterans Day, I wanted to stop by and just say thank you for your extraordinary service. To you, your family, the sacrifices that all of you made to protect our country is something that will always be honored, and we are very grateful,” Obama can be seen telling the veterans upon touchdown in D.C. in the video.
The veterans were flying to D.C. on behalf of the Honor Flight Network, a nonprofit that provides flights to veterans and their families to visit monuments in the nation’s capital.
“Participation in an Honor Flight trip gives veterans the opportunity to share this momentous occasion with other comrades, remember the fallen, and share their stories and experiences with other veterans. Honored veterans always travel free of charge, thanks to generous donations to our organization,” their website reads.
The nonprofit has flown over 300,000 veterans to D.C. in the past 20 years, according to their website.
Obama also took to his Medium account to reflect on meeting the veterans and thank all who have served in the U.S. military for their service.
“To all those who bravely served our country, thank you to you and your family for your extraordinary service. The sacrifices that all of you have made to protect our country will be honored, today and every day,” Obama said.
The Honor Flight Network did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
U.S. Border Patrol Chief Greg Bovino leads his troop as they confront demonstrators outside of an immigrant processing center on September 27, 2025 in Broadview, Illinois. Scott Olson/Getty Images
(CHICAGO) — U.S. Customs and Border Protection commander-at-large Greg Bovino is expected to be leaving the city of Chicago in the coming days, multiple sources tell ABC News.
The Department of Homeland Security will continue to maintain a presence in the city, according to sources.
Bovino’s departure could mean he is set to go to another city, or return to the El Centro sector in Southern California, according to a source.
DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said the agency isn’t leaving Chicago.
“We aren’t leaving Chicago,” she posted citing statistics from “Operation Midway Blitz,” the surge of federal immigration enforcement in the city.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, US, on Thursday, Nov. 6, 2025. (Photographer: Aaron Schwartz/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump said the U.S. economy is strong and insisted polls showing Americans are feeling economic pain are “fake” during an interview on Fox News that aired on Monday night.
Trump said bad news about the economy amounted to a “con job by the Democrats,” adding Democrats “feed” major news network anchors with the message the economy is bad and then “every anchor” does “exactly what they say.”
“I’ll never forget, they used a word like ‘manufactured,'” Trump said in the interview. “You remember the word ‘manufacture’? It’s a ‘manufactured’ economy. Nobody uses that word. Every anchor broke in ‘manufactured.’ They do exactly what they say. It’s such a rigged system.”
The U.S. economy grew at an annualized rate of 3.8% in the second quarter in the government’s final estimate, besting a 3.3% rate issued in its second estimate and far exceeding a 3% initial estimate. But consumer prices rose 3% in September compared to a year ago, with inflation at its highest level since January, the most-recent government data showed. The inflation reading came in lower than economists’ expectations.
Trump defended his handling of the economy, saying that costs are “way down” across the board.
“So are you ready? Costs are way down,” Trump said. “Gasoline is going to be hitting $2 pretty soon, or around $2. Gasoline is at $2.70 now and it was at $4.50 under Biden, under sleepy Joe. When gasoline comes down, when energy comes down — and everybody agrees energy is down — we drill, you know, drill, baby drill. We’re going like wild.”
The average consumer price for a gallon of gas in the U.S. was $3.072 on Tuesday, according to AAA, which said the average price was $3.083 a gallon a year ago.
Trump was also pressed about a rollout by his administration for a 50-year mortgage option, something that faced criticism on social media as critics pointed out that the extended payoff timeline would mean Americans would pay more in interest than they would through the life of a shorter loan.
Laura Ingraham, the Fox News host, suggested to Trump that longer loans could be construed as a “giveaway to the banks” and would simply be “prolonging the time it would take for Americans to own a home outright.”
Trump pushed back on Ingraham, saying that “all it means is you pay less per month.”
“You pay it over a longer period of time. It’s not like a big factor. It might help a little bit,” Trump said. “But even with interest rates up, the economy is the strongest it’s ever been. You know, you asked me, just to go back to the beginning of your question, you talked about prices. We’re down on energy. We’re down on interest rates.”
“Well, first of all, the East Wing was a beautiful, little, tiny structure that was built many years ago, that was renovated and expanded and disbanded and columns ripped out, and it had nothing to do with the original building,” he said. “It was a poor, sad sight, and I could have built the ballroom around it, but it would not have been — we’re building one of the greatest ballrooms in the world, by the way.”
“But the East Wing, that building was renovated 20 times, including adding a floor to the top, which was terrible, Trump continued. “It was at a common brick little, tiny windows. It looked like hell. It had nothing to do with the original building, and I didn’t want to sacrifice a great ballroom for an okay ballroom by leaving it right smack in the middle.
(NEW YORK) — More than 200 million people are waking up to an early blast of winter with the first major snowfall of the season and the coldest temperatures, too.
Parts of Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan saw more than 1 foot of lake effect snow.
Flurries even fell in Nashville, Tennessee, and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
On Tuesday morning, the snow is still falling in Buffalo and Syracuse in upstate New York, as well parts of Pennsylvania.
That lake effect snow in upstate New York will continue Tuesday and into Wednesday morning off Lakes Erie and Ontario. Two to 4 inches of additional snowfall is possible before it turns to rain on Wednesday.
The cold blast is also expected to bring daily record low temperatures to dozens of cities in the Southeast, from Knoxville, Tennessee, to the Florida Keys.
Freeze warnings are in place Tuesday morning in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas.
The high temperature on Tuesday will only hit 48 degrees in Raleigh, North Carolina; 50 degrees in Atlanta; 53 degrees in Jacksonville, Florida; 57 in Orlando, Florida; and 68 in Miami.
And the Mid-Atlantic and southern New England are facing wind gusts of 35 to 50 mph on Tuesday, making the cold temperatures there feel even colder.
A person plays Mega millions lottery at a gas stations on July 11, 2023. (Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — The estimated $900 million Mega Millions jackpot is up for grabs in Tuesday night’s drawing after no winners were selected on Friday.
The numbers drawn Friday were: 16, 21, 23, 48 and 70, plus the gold Mega Ball 5.
The jackpot was last won on June 27.
The prize has a cash value of $415.3 million which can be offered as a one-time lump sum payment or an immediate payment followed by 29 annual payments.
The odds of winning the jackpot at 1 in 290,472,336, according to Mega Millions.
Mega Millions is played in 45 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Tickets are $5 for one play.
The largest Mega Millions jackpot prize ever won was $1.6 billion prize won on Aug. 8, 2023.
A display of military drone equipment during the Steadfast Dart 25 exercise, part of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s (NATO) Allied Reaction Force (ARF) training in Smardan, Romania, on Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2025. (Photographer: Andrei Pungovschi/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(LONDON) — A drone crashed on the territory of NATO member Romania during Russia’s overnight attack on Ukrainian targets along the Danube River, the country’s defense ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.
Radars “signaled the presence of groups of drones in the area neighboring the national airspace, which led to the preventive activation of air defense systems,” the ministry said in a statement posted to its website.
One “aerial vehicle” was reported impacting in the Grindu area, around 3 miles south of the shared border, the ministry said.
“Teams made up of military personnel went on-site and reported the presence of possible drone fragments,” it added. “The area was secured and investigations are to be conducted in the early hours.”
“Weather conditions in the southeast of the country prevented the aircraft conducting air policing missions from scrambling,” the ministry said of its air force assets.
Alert messages were sent to residents of Romania’s northern Tulcea County, along the Danube River which forms the border with Ukraine, the ministry said. On the other side of the river, “a large number of explosions were observed” around the port of Izmail, it added.
The drone incursion came as Ukraine defended another night of intense Russian attacks. Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 119 drones of various types into the country overnight, of which 53 were shot down or suppressed.
The air force said 59 drones impacted across 18 locations, with drone debris reported falling in one location.
The Odesa region — which borders Romania to the west and encompasses Ukraine’s Danube River ports — was among the main targets of Monday night’s barrage, the air force said.
Russian drone and missile incursions into Romanian airspace have become a relatively common occurrence as Moscow expands its long-range strikes into Ukraine.
Romania’s Defense Ministry told ABC News in September that it had recorded at least 11 violations of the country’s airspace by drones since the start of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
A ministry spokesperson said there had been approximately 50 attacks involving Russian drones on Ukrainian territory near Romania’s borders up until mid-September, of which 30 saw drone debris falling on Romanian territory.
Such incidents have become “almost routine” for Romanians, Constantin Spinu, a former spokesperson for Romania’s Defense Ministry, told ABC News.
“There is a war going on right across the border, so this situation is no longer a surprise for Romanian public opinion,” he added.
The Defense Ministry and wider government, though, “are taking this very seriously,” Spinu added.
Repeated incursions of Russian projectiles have prompted questions as to NATO’s readiness to defend its airspace. In September, Poland became the first NATO nation to shoot down Russian drones over its territory.
Romania is yet to down any intruding Russian munitions. “There is always a risk-benefit calculus — and that is to be sometimes in seconds,” Spinu said. “Whenever you shoot something in the air, you have to take into consideration that you might not hit the target and your projectile can be a danger.”
As NATO scrambles to revitalize its military-industrial base and refill its arsenals, there is also the question of resources.
“You don’t use an F-35 missile or an F-16 missile that costs millions” against a relatively cheap drone, Spinu said. “But should that €2,000 drone represent a real danger for the population, I think it is worth using a multi-million piece of equipment.”
Debris is piled up at the entrance to Camp Mystic on July 07, 2025 in Hunt, Texas. Heavy rainfall caused severe flash flooding along the Guadalupe River in central Texas, leaving more than 80 people reported dead, including children attending the camp. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) —The families of multiple campers and two counselors at Camp Mystic who died in the devastating flash flood in Texas in July are suing the camp, alleging gross negligence and reckless disregard for safety led to a “self-created disaster” that claimed the lives of 28 people total.
The Fourth of July flood wiped out the Christian all-girls sleepaway camp located along the Guadalupe River, which rapidly rose overnight while campers were sleeping. Twenty-five campers, two counselors and the camp’s director died after flood waters inundated the camp, trapping many in their cabins.
One of three lawsuits filed Monday includes the families of five campers — Anna Margaret Bellows, 8; Lila Bonner, 9; Molly DeWitt, 9; Lainey Landry, 9; and Blakely McCrory, 8 — and the two counselors who died — Chloe Childress, 18, and Katherine Ferruzzo, 19 — as plaintiffs.
“Today, campers Margaret, Lila, Molly, Lainey, and Blakely should be third graders, and counselors Chloe and Katherine should be freshmen at the University of Texas. They all are gone,” the petition stated. “And while their families struggle with their loss, the Camp’s actions since the tragedy have only deepened the pain.”
Among the actions, the lawsuit cites the recent announcement that Camp Mystic will partially reopen one of its sister sites next summer and continues to evaluate plans to rebuild the Guadalupe River location.
“And through it all, the Camp refuses to accept any responsibility for its actions and failures to act, defiantly blaming this tragedy on ‘an act of God’ that no responsible steps could have avoided,” the lawsuit alleged.
The lawsuit claims that the camp officials “focused on profits over safety,” made “catastrophic decisions concerning the cabin locations” and had unsafe policies regarding floods, including an alleged “never evacuate” order.
The families are seeking more than $1 million in damages, according to the petition.
“Our clients have filed this lawsuit to seek accountability and truth,” one of the families’ attorneys, Paul Yetter, said in a statement. “Camp Mystic failed at its primary job to keep its campers and counselors safe, and young girls died as a result. This action is about transparency, responsibility and ensuring no other family experiences what these parents will now suffer the rest of their lives.”
The second lawsuit against Camp Mystic was filed by the parents of 8-year-old camper Eloise “LuLu” Peck.
The lawsuit alleged that the campers and counselors were killed “after, predictably, the river rapidly rose, and floodwaters swept through what Camp Mystic knew was a vulnerable and low-lying area of the Camp.”
“Lulu Peck was among those horrifically swept away and killed,” it continued.
The lawsuit alleged that “these terrifying last moments and then deaths were proximately caused by the negligence and gross negligence” of the defendants, claiming they “knew that Camp facilities were located in a flood zone, knew of the history of flash flooding in Kerr County, knew of repeated prior flood events at the Camp, and received warnings from family members about flood risk.”
The third lawsuit was filed against Camp Mystic and related entities on Monday by the father of Ellen Getten, a 9-year-old camper who died on July 4.
The suit names two additional defendants that were not listed in the multifamily or Peck family suits: William Neely Bonner III and Seaborn Stacy Eastland.
All three lawsuits are seeking at least $1 million in damages.
In a statement to ABC News, Camp Mystic said, “We continue to pray for the grieving families and ask for God’s healing and comfort.”
Jeff Ray, legal counsel for Camp Mystic, said in a statement, “We intend to demonstrate and prove that this sudden surge of floodwaters far exceeded any previous flood in the area by several magnitudes, that it was unexpected and that no adequate warning systems existed in the area.”
“We disagree with several accusations and misinformation in the legal filings regarding the actions of Camp Mystic and Dick Eastland, who lost his life as well. We will thoroughly respond to these accusations in due course,” Ray added.
At least 138 people were killed in flash flooding across the Hill Country region, including 117 in Kerr County, officials said.
Officials in hard-hit Kerr County, where Camp Mystic is located, said that more than 12 inches of rain fell in under 6 hours, and that the Guadalupe River rose more than 20 feet per hour during the storm.
Regulations regarding the development of summer camps in an area known as “Flash Flood Alley” and flash-flood warning systems came under scrutiny following the disaster.
The catastrophe prompted the state to pass legislation aimed at enhancing safety measures at summer camps and create a grant program to support the installation of early-warning sirens in areas prone to flash flooding.
In September, Camp Mystic announced plans to reopen one site of its summer camp next year. The summer program officials said that Camp Mystic Cypress Lake, a sister site that opened in 2020, will be open in summer 2026, while Camp Mystic Guadalupe River will not be able to reopen by then due to the devastating damage sustained earlier this year.
“The heart of Camp Mystic has never stopped beating, because you are Mystic. We are not only rebuilding cabins and trails, but also a place where laughter, friendship and spiritual growth will continue to flourish,” camp officials said at the time. “As we work to finalize plans, we will do so in a way that is mindful of those we have lost. You are all part of the mission and the ministry of Camp Mystic. You mean the world to us, and we look forward to welcoming you back inside the green gates.”
