(WASHINGTON) — Senate Republicans approved early on Thursday a blueprint for their budget bill to fund Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection after an all-night voting marathon.
The budget resolution, which kicks off the drafting process of a bill that Republicans said would provide billions to ICE and CBP, was approved by a vote of 50-48. It needed a simple majority of votes to be approved.
Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski, of Alaska, and Rand Paul, of Kentucky, joined with the Democrats in voting against the resolution. All other Republicans voted in favor of it.
The Senate approved the resolution at about 3:36 a.m. after a vote-a-rama that lasted approximately 6 hours.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Protesters hold signs reading “justice for Casey Goodson Jr.” during the protest. Various Black Lives Matters groups collaborated with the family of Casey Goodson Jr. to put together a protest commemorating Casey Goodson Jr. on his 24th Birthday, January 30th. Casey Goodson Jr. was shot and killed by Columbus Deputy Jason Meade in early December 2020,. (Photo by Stephen Zenner/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
(COLUMBUS, Ohio) — Opening arguments in the re-trial of Jason Meade are set to begin in a Columbus, Ohio, courtroom on Thursday morning as the former Franklin County Sheriff’s deputy faces charges of murder and reckless homicide in the fatal 2020 shooting of 23-year-old Casey Goodson Jr.
A jury, made up of nine women and three men, was seated on Wednesday afternoon, according to ABC Columbus station WSYX.
Meade’s second trial comes more than two years after his first trial ended in a mistrial in February 2024, as jurors failed to reach an agreement on the verdict. He has pleaded not guilty.
Meade, who testified during his first trial, claimed that he shot Goodson on Dec. 4, 2020, because he said the man waved a gun at him. Goodson’s family said that he was shot while returning from a dentist appointment and was walking into his grandmother’s home with a Subway sandwich in his hand.
A gun was found in Goodson’s possession with the safety on, according to police. Goodson was a legal gun owner and had a concealed carry permit, which was found in his wallet, police said.
No body camera video of the incident exists because at the time Franklin County Sheriff’s deputies were not issued body-worn camera equipment.
Meade was working with the U.S. Marshals in search for a potential violent fugitive when he fatally shot Goodson.
Goodson was not the target of the search.
The Franklin County Coroner’s Office found that Goodson had been shot six times from behind, including five times in his back.
A judge ruled ahead of the trial that Meade will be allowed to argue self-defense during his second trial, according to WSYX.
Prosecutors had argued that Meade should not be able to claim self-defense because he caused the situation that led to Goodson’s death, WSYX reported, but the judge ruled that Meade does have the option to argue self-defense because no evidence has been presented yet in this new trial.
Seth Walton, an attorney representing Goodson’s family, told ABC News on Wednesday that the family has endured “years of coordinated lies and distortions” as they cope with Goodson’s death.
“The only evidence that Casey Goodson, Jr. did anything to contribute to his own death comes from Jason Meade, and Jason Meade alone,” Walton said. “No independent witness. No footage. Just the word of the man who shot him in the back. And yet, despite everything Meade has claimed, the facts and evidence were strong enough to indict him and nearly convict him at the end of the last trial.”
Brian Steel, president of the Fraternal Order of Police Lodge No. 9 — the union that represents Meade — has supported him and claimed that shooting was justified.
“We just want the facts of this case to get out there, and where the jury lands, the jury lands,” Steel told WSYX.
“The reality is, he was not just an innocent person with a subway sandwich; he was an individual with a gun, pointed a gun at a cop, and the cop reacted,” Steel added.
ABC News reached out to Meade’s attorneys for comment.
Meade was charged with two counts of murder and one court of reckless homicide in Dec. 2, 2021 and was indicted by a grand jury.
Franklin County Prosecuting Attorney Gary Tyack appointed two special prosecutors in June 2021 to investigate the case, citing a potential conflict of interest with his office, which has represented the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office in legal proceedings.
The charges against Meade were brought by special prosecutors Tim Merkle and Gary Shroyer following an investigation by the Columbus Division of Police and the local branch of the FBI.
Meade was placed on administrative leave amid the investigation before retiring on disability on July 2, 2021.
This case led to widespread outrage and fueled pressure for the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office to equip deputies with body-worn cameras — a new policy that was rolled out in 2022, WSYX reported.
U.S. President Donald Trump walks to Air Force One on April 11, 2026, at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. President Trump is traveling to Florida. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday claimed the Iranian regime was “seriously fractured” as part of his pretext for indefinitely extending the ceasefire with Iran a day before the previous one was set to expire.
“Based on the fact that the Government of Iran is seriously fractured, not unexpectedly so and, upon the request of Field Marshal Asim Munir, and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, of Pakistan, we have been asked to hold our Attack on the Country of Iran until such time as their leaders and representatives can come up with a unified proposal,” Trump wrote in a social media post Tuesday afternoon in which he announced he was prolonging the current ceasefire for an indeterminate period of time.
Before that, however, Trump repeatedly telegraphed as recently that the U.S. was negotiating with “rational” and “reasonable” individuals in Tehran’s government after U.S. and Israeli strikes killed several of Iran’s senior leaders.
In the preceding days and weeks, the president praised what he portrayed as a new Iranian regime as a better negotiating partner than that which existed prior to the war.
Even in the hours before his post on Tuesday, Trump said in an interview with CNBC that the leaders now in charge of Iran were “much more rational.”
“It is regime change, no matter what you want to call it, which is not something I said I was going to do, but I’ve done it,” Trump said.
It’s a sentiment that the president has repeatedly conveyed.
“Now it’s a new regime, OK, and we find them pretty reasonable, to be honest with you, by comparison pretty reasonable. It really is a new regime, and I think we’re doing very well,” Trump said in an interview on Fox News on April 15. “We have had regime change, because the people we dealt with yesterday were, frankly, very smart, very sharp, very good, very good.”
He followed up those remarks the next day, telling reporters as he departed the White House that Iran has “a new set of leaders, and we find them very reasonable.”
In a phone call on April 17 with ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl, Trump said he believed he could trust the Iranians and that this will all be resolved “very soon.”
On April 7 as Trump’s deadline for Iran to open up the Strait of Hormuz approached, he threatened “A whole civilization will die tonight,” but said “now that we have Complete and Total Regime Change, where different, smarter, and less radicalized minds prevail, maybe something revolutionarily wonderful can happen, WHO KNOWS.” Hours later, he extended the deadline for another two weeks.
But since then, tensions have continued in the Strait of Hormuz and an effort to restart peace talks in Islamabad this week fell apart.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said Wednesday that Tehran would return to the negotiating table when “necessary and logical grounds” are met, according to Iranian state television.
“Diplomacy is a tool for securing national interests and security, and whenever we reach the conclusion that the necessary and logical grounds for using this tool to realize national interests and consolidate the achievements of the Iranian nation in thwarting the enemies from achieving their sinister goals, we will take action,” Baghaei said.
Asked Wednesday by the New York Post in a text message if talks with Iran could resume by Friday as its sources were telling it, Trump replied, “It’s possible! President DJT.”
At the same time, Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, who Trump had said was “much more reasonable” than the previous regime, said a ceasefire is only “if it is not violated by the maritime blockade and the hostage-taking of the world’s economy, and if the Zionist warmongering across all fronts is halted.”
Ghalibaf said opening the Strait of Hormuz is “impossible with such a flagrant breach of the ceasefire.”
“They did not achieve their goals through military aggression, nor will they through bullying. The only way forward is to recognize the rights of the Iranian nation.”
ABC News’ Desiree Adib contributed to this report.
Justin Sun, founder of Tron, during the Token2049 conference in Singapore on Oct. 2, 2025. (Photo by Suhaimi Abdullah/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — A cryptocurrency mogul who has invested tens of millions of dollars in various enterprises tied to President Donald Trump and his family filed suit against the Trump family’s flagship crypto venture late Tuesday for, among other claims, alleged breach of contract and fraud — a major escalation of a feud that erupted on social media earlier this month.
Justin Sun, a Chinese-born billionaire who has cultivated deep ties to the Trumps, filed the lawsuit late Tuesday in a California federal court, accusing World Liberty Financial of freezing his investment in the firm’s digital tokens in a bid to “ratchet up pressure” on Sun to promote another one of the company’s offerings.
Sun “has long been (and remains) an ardent supporter of President Trump and the Trump family” and has invested roughly $45 million in World Liberty Financial at least in part “because of the Trump family’s association with the project,” Sun’s lawyers wrote.
But Sun’s lawsuit accused other World Liberty “operators” of “engaging in an illegal scheme to seize property … [causing] Mr. Sun and his companies to incur hundreds of millions of dollars in damages,” his lawyers wrote.
A World Liberty Financial spokesperson directed ABC News to posts on X from Eric Trump, who called the suit “ridiculous,” and World Liberty co-founder Zach Witkoff called the claims in the suit “entirely meritless.”
“World Liberty looks forward to getting the case thrown out promptly,” Zach Witkoff wrote.
Eric Trump, the son of President Trump, and Zach Witkoff, the son of the president’s special envoy Steve Witkoff, helped launch World Liberty Financial in 2024, shortly before Donald Trump’s election.
Sun gained notoriety in part for his purchase of a $6 million banana art piece — an actual piece of fruit duct-taped to a wall — and has since invested in both World Liberty Financial and the president’s meme coin, called $TRUMP. He attended a gala last year for the top investors in the meme coin and currently sits atop the leaderboard for a luncheon scheduled for this weekend at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate.
Earlier this year, Sun agreed to pay $10 million to resolve a civil fraud case brought by the Biden-era Securities and Exchange Commission.
In his lawsuit filed Tuesday, Sun accused executives at World Liberty Financial — excluding members of the Trump family — of using the firm “as a golden opportunity to leverage the Trump brand to profit through fraud.”
He accused the firm of seizing his coins as leverage to persuade Sun to promote World Liberty Financial’s stablecoin, called USD1, and “mint” it on his own platform, called TRON — a strategy he called “a pressure tactic that itself qualifies as criminal extortion.”
Sun first raised these concerns on social media earlier this month. World Liberty Financial at the time denied the allegations and added in a post on X, “See you in court pal.”
A 56-year-old man has been arrested and charged by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Louisiana with supplying the weapon allegedly used by the suspect to kill seven of his children and a nephew in Shreveport, Louisiana, April 19, 2026. (Photo courtesy of Louisiana U.S. Attorney’s Office)
(NEW YORK) — A 56-year-old Louisiana man is facing federal charges for allegedly supplying an assault-style pistol that Shamar Elkins is suspected of using to allegedly kill eight children, including seven of his own, in a shooting in Shreveport over the weekend, officials said.
Charles Ford, of Shreveport, was arrested and charged with being a felon in possession of a firearm and making false statements about the firearm to federal agents assisting in the investigation of Sunday’s massacre, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Louisiana. He faces a total of up to 20 years in prison if convicted of both charges, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
“Words fall short in the face of the acts Shamar Elkins perpetrated in Shreveport on April 19 – they are beyond comprehension or description,” U.S. Attorney Zachary A. Keller said in the statement announcing the charges.
Elkins, 31, died after leading police on a chase following the mass shooting in Shreveport that also left two women hospitalized with gunshot wounds.
Keller said investigators probing how Elkins obtained the weapon were led to Ford through information they obtained from the original purchaser of the weapon.
“Elkins’ death means that our community will never see him face justice,” Keller said. “Our hope, as we continue to investigate and prosecute this case alongside our law enforcement partners, is that holding the person whose gun Elkins used to perpetrate the crime accountable will give some small bit of solace to our Shreveport community.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Catalyst Refiners is shown in Nitro, West Virginia. (Google Maps Street View)
(NEW YORK) — Two people died and at least 19 others were injured following a chemical leak at a West Virginia refinery plant that was scheduled to be shut down Wednesday morning, officials said.
Kanawha County Commission President Ben Salango told reporters that workers were cleaning and decontaminating the Catalyst Refiners plant in Nitro, West Virginia, which is in the process of shutting down, when the incident took place around 9:30 a.m.
Kanawha County Emergency Manager CW Sigman said that as the workers were decommissioning a tank, nitric acid and M2000A were mixed, creating hydrogen sulfide.
“We could smell it downwind,” Sigman told reporters at a news conference.
A total of 21 people were taken to the hospital, two of whom died, according to Salango. Frank Barber, the president of Ames Goldsmith Corp, which owns the plant, said in a statement that the unidentified deceased victims were employees of the company.
One victim was listed in critical condition as of Wednesday afternoon, according to Salango. Barber said that the victim was also an employee of Ames Goldsmith.
Seven of the hospitalized victims were EMS crews who rushed to respond to the scene, Sigman said.
“They put themselves in harm’s way to try and save a life,” he said.
The plant was used to refine silver, according to Salango.
Sigman said that some of the employees immediately put on respirators and helped to get the people inside the plant out of harm’s way.
Sigman said the investigation is ongoing and will involve state and federal agencies as they try to get more answers as to how the incident took place.
He said that according to the plant manager, it was not uncommon for decontamination crews to mix the nitric acid and M2000A.
“But there was something going on that was different. That will [be] for the investigators to determine,” Sigman said of the decommission procedures.
A shelter-in-place was ordered for the surrounding area as investigators determine the extent of the leak.
Sigman said that fire officials have visited and toured the plant “in the last few months,” and met with plant managers about emergency response.
Barber said Ames Goldsmith is working with investigators in their probe.
“This is an unfathomably difficult time. Our thoughts and prayers are with our colleagues and their families,” he said.
West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey said he was monitoring the situation.
“We are working around the clock with local officials to ensure this incident is contained and that all necessary state resources are on the ground to protect the community,” he said in a statement.
d4vd looks on during his arraignment for the murder of Celeste Rivas Hernandez at Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center on April 20, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. (Ted Soqui – Pool/Getty Images)
(LOS ANGELES) — The 14-year-old girl whose dismembered remains authorities say were found decomposing in the singer D4vd’s towed Tesla last year died by “multiple penetrating injuries,” according to the newly unsealed medical examiner’s report.
D4vd — a 21-year-old Los Angeles resident whose legal name is David Burke — has been charged with first-degree murder in connection with the death of the teen, Celeste Rivas Hernandez, officials said. The “Romantic Homicide” singer was arrested last week following a monthslong investigation.
The Los Angeles County medical examiner found she had two penetrating wounds of her torso, including injury to her liver, and reported evidence of traumatic injury. There were presumptive positives for benzodiazepines and meth/MDMA in her system, the report stated.
There was severe postmortem change to her body based on how long she had been dead.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(BRANTLEY COUNTY, Ga.) — Dry conditions from a persistent drought and gusty winds were fueling wildfires on Wednesday in the Southeast, including a blaze in Southeast Georgia that has destroyed dozens of homes and prompted evacuations.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp declared a state of emergency for 91 counties in South Georgia.
The wildfire in Brantley County, Georgia, grew from about 700 acres at 10 a.m. local time on Tuesday to 5,000 acres at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, County Manager Joey Carson said at a news conference on Wednesday.
“Obviously, this fire became a lot larger than we thought it would be on Monday. We’ve got resources that have come in from all over South Georgia and now from the state,” said Carson, adding that he expects more resources from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to arrive later Wednesday.
The fire, burning northwest of Brunswick, Georgia, was 10% contained on Wednesday morning, Chuck White, director of Emergency Management in neighboring Camden County, said at the news conference.
At least 47 homes have been destroyed by the blaze, which started on Monday off of U.S. Highway 82 near the Brantley County-Glynn County line, authorities noted.
Schools in Brantley County canceled classes on Wednesday due to the fire threat and smoke, officials said.
“This decision has been made to ensure the safety of our students, families, and employees, and to allow our Brantley County families time and space to navigate the impacts of the fire,” the local school system said in a statement.
On Tuesday, students and staff at two schools in the Brantley County town of Waynesville were forced to evacuate during the school day, officials said.
The Georgia Forestry Commission also issued its first mandatory burn ban in state history on Wednesday. The ban on outdoor burning, which will remain in effect for at least 30 days, is for 91 counties in the lower half of the state due to worsening drought conditions and rising wildfire activity, the agency said.
Carson noted that firefighters nearly had the Brantley County fire under control on Tuesday until afternoon wind gusts escalated the fire danger.
“Within 30 minutes, the winds picked up pretty significantly, and it went from being almost in control to a major wildfire,” Cason said. “Yesterday morning, we had 700 acres burned. It burned over 4,000 acres in a matter of hours as soon as the wind picked up.”
Persistent dry conditions have led to one of the worst droughts on record for parts of Georgia, fueling wildfires in the state.
According to the U.S. Drought Monitor, more than 48% of Brantley County is under an “Exceptional Drought” — the highest level of drought it has experienced in more than 25 years.
Across Georgia, more than 69% of the state is under an “Extreme Drought.” At the start of the year, only 1% of the state was under an “Extreme Drought” or higher.
Georgia needs between 12 and 18 inches of rainfall to end its current drought, according to data from the National Centers for Environmental Information.
Another major wildfire, the Pinelands Road Fire in nearby Clinch County, Georgia, started on Monday on mostly private forest land, officials said. It grew to 9,000 acres by Wednesday and was spreading toward Echols County, they noted.
In Florida, near the Georgia-Florida line, the Railroad Fire was burning in Clay and Putnam Counties, which are also under drought conditions. As of Wednesday morning, the Railroad Fire had grown to more than 4,000 acres and was more than 50% contained on Wednesday morning, according to the Florida Forest Service.
Across the Southeast — including Florida, Alabama, Georgia, South and North Carolina and Virginia — more than 97% of the region is under a “moderate drought” or higher.
Florida is experiencing its worst drought in 25 years. At least 71% of the state is under an “extreme” or “exceptional drought,” the two highest levels.
Fire alerts issued from Texas to Montana and Minnesota
Meanwhile, pockets of fire weather continue to linger in parts of the Rockies and Great Plains on Wednesday.
More than a dozen states across the Rockies and Plains from Texas to Montana and Minnesota are under fire weather alerts on Wednesday due to hot, dry and windy conditions.
Relative humidity in parts of the Rockies and Plains on Wednesday is expected to fall to as low as 5%, and wind gusts up to 30 to 45 mph are also forecast, allowing any wildfires to rapidly start and spread.
The wildfire threat is expected to continue Thursday in the Rockies and Plains as wind gusts are forecast to reach 60 mph and relative humidity is expected to be down to the single digits.
Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein are seen in one of the images released by the US Department of State. (The US Justice Department / Handout /Anadolu via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted co-conspirator of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, is again asking a federal judge in New York to vacate her sex trafficking conviction and release her from prison.
Maxwell submitted her new request, which she wrote herself, to federal prosecutors in New York, who said they received “a FedEx envelope — marked with a ‘ship date’ of April 16, 2026 — that contained a USB drive with the defendant’s amended motion and exhibits,” according to a letter to the district court that was posted online early Monday morning.
Prosecutors did not disclose details of Maxwell’s argument, which has not yet been filed on the public docket, but said it “seems to have some overlap” with her original motion to dismiss that district and appellate courts rejected in 2024. The U.S. Supreme Court subsequently declined to hear her appeal.
Having exhausted all of her direct appeals, Maxwell filed a habeas petition this past December in which she contended that “substantial new evidence has emerged” regarding her case. Maxwell’s submission this week comes after the district court judge, in February, allowed Maxwell to submit an amendment to that petition following the Justice Department’s release of the Epstein files.
Maxwell previously argued, unsuccessfully, that her conviction and her 20-year sentence should be tossed because she did not receive a fair trial and was covered by the non-prosecution agreement that Epstein’s attorneys had negotiated for him as part of the wealthy financier’s 2028 plea deal.
She also argued her conviction was based on vague allegations of “grooming” victims that did not amount to a crime.
Maxwell is currently serving her sentence for aiding and participating in Epstein’s trafficking of underage girls, which involved a scheme to recruit young women and girls for massages of Epstein that turned sexual. Federal prosecutors in New York said Maxwell helped Epstein recruit, groom and ultimately abuse girls as young as 14.
In an interview with then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche last month, Ghislaine Maxwell said nothing during the interview that would be harmful to President Donald Trump, telling Blanche that Trump had never done anything in her presence that would have caused concern, according to sources familiar with what Maxwell said.
Epstein died by suicide in a New York jail in 2019.
The US Supreme Court in Washington, DC, US, on Monday, April 20, 2026. (Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled in favor of a U.S. Army veteran wounded in a 2016 suicide bombing in Afghanistan, allowing him to sue a military contractor for damages after it allegedly failed to supervise the attacker who was an employee.
The 6-3 decision reverses lower court rulings which had said the contractor, Fluor Corporation, was immune from lawsuits because it was operating on behalf of the U.S. government and opens the door to other damages suits against war-zone contractors for activities outside the bounds of their responsibility.
The attacker, Ahmad Nayeb, was employed by Fluor to work in a nontactical vehicle yard on Bagram Air Base under an Army contract that required the company to ensure all personnel complied with base security policies, which included their confinement to works sites and “constant view of them.”
In November 2016, Nayeb roamed the base freely for nearly an hour and used U.S. government tools to make his bomb inside the secure base, according to an Army investigation cited in court documents.
The explosion killed five and wounded 17, including then-Army Spc. Winston Hencely, who confronted the attacker just as he detonated his suicide vest. Nayeb was killed; the explosion fractured Hencely’s skull and resulted in permanent disability.
While damages claims against the U.S. government and its military contractors arising out of combatant activities are generally prohibited by federal law, Justice Clarence Thomas, writing for the court’s majority, concluded immunity does not apply to cases when “the contractor was not required or authorized to take the action at issue.”
“The government required Fluor to hire Afghan employees and to provide logistics for Bagram Airfield. But, it did not, Hencely contends, require Fluor to leave Nayeb unsupervised, allow him to walk alone for an hour after his shift, or permit him to obtain unauthorized tools with which he could build a bomb,” Thomas wrote.
The decision clears the way for Hencely to pursue a damages case against the company in federal court.
In dissent, Justices Samuel Alito and Brett Kavanaugh and Chief Justice John Roberts said while they believe Hencely deserves “a full measure of support from the American people,” a damages lawsuit is “not the way to give the petitioner what he is due.”
Alito wrote, “War is the exclusive domain of the Federal Government, but the Court [today] allows state (or foreign law) to encroach on that domain. The Constitution precludes that encroachment.”
Fluor Corp, which disputes liability for the bombing, did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment on the court’s decision.
