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(SEOUL) — The South Korean military began dismantling loudspeakers that had been placed along its border with North Korea, South Korea’s Defense Ministry said.
The speakers along the Demilitarized Zone were used by the prior administration to broadcast music and news across the border, where the government run by leader Kim Jong Un keeps a tight grip on the media.
The move amounted to a practical measure that was meant to ease tensions between Seoul and Pyongyang, efforts that have been led by the South’s President Lee Jae Myung, who took office in June.
The North Korean leadership had called for the speakers to be taken down, saying they were “psychologically detrimental” to people near the border, but also appeared ready to reject any overtures from Lee’s office.
“We reiterate our official position that we have no interest in any policies established or proposals made in Seoul, and that we have no intention of meeting with South Korea or discussing any issues with it,” Kim Yo Jong, the leader’s sister, said in late July, according to the Korean Central News Agency, a state media outlet.
She added, “The relationship between the two countries has already completely and irreversibly moved beyond the time frame of the concept of compatriotism.”
The South Korean military said the speakers being taken down wouldn’t affect it’s readiness.
(MIAMI) — ABC began broadcasting with a new local affiliate in Miami on Monday, just months after Disney Entertainment struck an agreement with Sunbeam Television Corporation.
Under the deal established in March, ABC Miami will broadcast ABC’s national sports, news and entertainment programming over-the-air on Channel 7.2 in the Miami-Fort Lauderdale television market, according to a statement. ABC can also be accessed on local Chanel 18.
“We are incredibly excited to join forces with Sunbeam Television in South Florida moving forward as they not only share Disney’s enduring commitment to serving local communities, but they also recognize the value of ABC’s esteemed brand and the significant investments we’re making to our world-class network content,” Susi D’Ambra Coplan, Disney Entertainment’s senior vice president of affiliate relations, said in a statement.
Paul Magnes, co-president of Sunbeam Television Corporation, echoed the sentiment.
“When the opportunity to affiliate with ABC became available, we knew that our combined resources would allow us to develop an extremely strong partnership,” Magnes said. “As a family-owned company, we have been embedded in this community for nearly 70 years, with a commitment to local news and supporting non-profit organizations across South Florida.”
The Walt Disney Company is the parent company of Disney Entertainment and ABC News.
(NEW YORK) — Derek Dooley, a former University of Tennessee football coach, is launching a bid Monday for the Senate in Georgia, entering a shifting political landscape as candidates vie for coveted endorsements and the chance to unseat Democratic Sen. Jon Ossoff.
Dooley is leaning on his football background in his campaign launch, highlighting the fact that he is a political outsider and likening his views on sports to the world of politics.
“The foundation of football is the American Spirit. You work hard, you play by the rules, you keep fighting when adversity hits — you have a fair shot at achieving your dreams,” Dooley’s campaign says in his release.
“As a coach, I wanted that for all my players. As your next U.S. Senator, I want that for all Georgians — and all Americans.”
His campaign is betting on his newcomer status to appeal to voters, launching a “Georgia First” campaign aiming to make the case to voters that politicians put themselves first rather than their constituents.
Dooley is the son of legendary University of Georgia football coach Vince Dooley and has close personal ties to Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp. Kemp spent time with Dooley’s family growing up and roomed with Derek Dooley’s brother in college.
Vince Dooley, who passed away in 2022, endorsed Trump for president in 2016, appearing with him on stage at a rally in Atlanta.
“You’re the one who’s going to make America great again,” Dooley said, according to the University of Georgia’s student newspaper, the Red & Black.
Republicans are trying to avoid the outcome of their 2022 cycle in the state, when Herschel Walker, another football legend, lost to Sen. Raphael Warnock in a bruising campaign plagued with abortion allegations and questions on his readiness to serve in the Senate.
It led to the Peach State splitting the ticket between the Senate and gubernatorial races, where key candidate disparities appeared between Kemp and Walker. Republicans are now hoping to take back one of the two Democratic-held seats.
However, rather than a clear nominee, the field in the Georgia Republican primary continues to grow after several Republicans launched or mulled bids following Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s announcement that he will not run for the seat.
Dooley will, thus far, face off against Republican Reps. Mike Collins and Buddy Carter. Both congressmen have used their strong support of President Donald Trump and his agenda to boost their campaigns, as looming large over the candidates are the sought-after endorsements from Trump and Kemp.
Unlike the other candidates’ launches, Dooley doesn’t center his messages around his support for Trump as heavily as the others did.
Carter proclaimed himself as a “MAGA warrior” and Collins touted his close work with the president on passing the Laken Riley Act. Dooley, on the other hand, offers more of a biographical summary in his announcement, briefly praising Trump for producing results and saying at the end of his video that he’ll work with the president.
The battle for the primary comes as Kemp, who was seen as one of the strongest Republican candidates for the midterm cycle, officially decided not to run for the Senate in May, saying it wasn’t the “right decision” for him.
Since then, he has sought to work with the Trump administration to coalesce the field around a candidate in hopes of avoiding yet another midterm loss.
Trump met with Kemp earlier this summer to discuss the state’s Senate primary. The White House and Kemp have aimed to avoid a messy primary and have engaged with each other on the best approaches.
(LONDON) — Hospitals in the Gaza Strip recorded five deaths over the past 24 hours due to malnutrition, the Gaza Ministry of Health in the Hamas-run territory said on Monday.
All of those who died from malnutrition in the past 24 hours were adults, the ministry said.
The deaths bring the total number of people who have died due to hunger since the conflict began nearly two years ago to 180 people, including 93 children, the ministry said.
(JERUSALEM) — Unable to find a diplomatic answer to the hostage crisis, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pushing for a “military solution” to free the remaining hostages being held by Hamas terrorists, an Israeli official told ABC News on Sunday.
Netanyahu has suggested expanding the Israeli military operation in Gaza and using military force to extract the final hostages who have been in captivity since being kidnapped in the Oct. 7, 2023, surprise attack on Israel by Hamas terrorists.
It is believed there are about 20 living hostages still being held by Hamas.
The Israeli official told ABC News that Israel and U.S. officials are in constant dialogue.
The official said there is a growing understanding on the Israeli side that Hamas is not interested in a deal on the hostages.
“Therefore, Prime Minister Netanyahu is pushing to expand military operations to release the hostages through a military solution,” the Israeli official said.
On Saturday, thousands of protesters filled the streets of Tel Aviv, demanding their government end the war and bring the last hostages home.
“They are on the absolute brink of death,” Ilay David, whose brother, Evyatar David, is believed to be among the remaining Israeli hostages being held by Hamas, told protesters gathered in Tel Aviv. “In the current unimaginable condition, they may have only days left to live.
Hamas released a video over the weekend showing Evyatar David looking painfully emaciated.
The protest erupted hours after Steve Witcoff, Donald Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, met in Israel with the families of hostages still in captivity.
As global concern over the hunger crisis in Gaza intensifies, Witkoff and U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee traveled to the Middle East on Friday to inspect the U.S. and Israel-backed aid distribution system there.
For months, humanitarian aid organizations and international bodies have warned that Gaza is facing “critical” levels of hunger and that famine is “imminent” in parts of the Gaza Strip.
An increasing number of deaths due to malnutrition have also been reported, according to the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health.
At least 175 people, including 93 children, have died from malnutrition in Gaza, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
Throughout the conflict, Israel has maintained that it is sending enough aid into Gaza, but international aid organizations have repeatedly said there is not enough aid, and the United Nations has reported conditions of malnutrition inside Gaza.
The Israeli source who spoke to ABC News said humanitarian aid will continue to enter Gaza in areas outside combat zones and areas no longer controlled by Hamas.
(AUSTIN, Texas) — Democratic statehouse legislators are planning to leave Texas on Sunday in order to break the quorum of a special legislative session in which Republican state legislators are aiming to pass a new congressional map that could create up to five new GOP seats.
The move comes after a marathon public hearing on the plan in the state Capitol on Friday and less than a week after state Republican legislators proposed the new maps. Republicans hold a majority in the Texas state legislature; Democrats had said they would consider all options to stop the maps from being passed, although their options for striking back have been limited.
“We’re not walking out on our responsibilities; we’re walking out on a rigged system that refuses to listen to the people we represent. As of today, this corrupt special session is over,” state Rep. Gene Wu, who chairs the House Democratic Caucus, said in a statement.
After news broke of Democratic legislators breaking quorum, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton wrote in a post on X that Democrats who left should be arrested and brought back to the state capitol.
“Democrats in the Texas House who try and run away like cowards should be found, arrested, and brought back to the Capitol immediately,” he wrote. “We should use every tool at our disposal to hunt down those who think they are above the law.”
The walkout itself cannot stop the passage of the bill, but Democrats aim to run out the clock on the 30-day special legislative session, which would mean Texas Gov. Greg Abbott would have to call another one. Texas House Democrats previously broke quorum in 2021 to try to stop an elections bill and in 2003 to try to stop a similar redistricting effort by Republicans. Republicans eventually managed to pass the bills both times.
President Donald Trump has previously said he wanted Texas legislators to draw five new Republican districts.
More than 51 legislators are leaving the state, denying the state House the two-thirds majority out of 150 legislators it needs to have a quorum. An exact number of how many of the 62 Democratic legislators from the state House were leaving was not immediately available.
Democrats who break quorum risk accruing a $500-a-day fine, according to the state House rules, and potential legal action.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, speaking with “War Room” host and former Trump adviser Steve Bannon said on Thursday, “The House rules and the Senate rules both allow for these people to be arrested if they leave … The challenge is, if they go out of state, we lose jurisdiction, and that — it’s been a challenge in the past, but in the end, as long as the governor is willing to keep calling sessions, ultimately they have to come home.”
Paxton also said he was not worried about defending the maps in court: “We’ve got, we’ve got good maps. And the legislature has the right to draw the maps they want. They’re politically based, not race based. And if they’re politically based, then they’re defensible.”
Some of the Democratic legislators fleeing the state will appear on Sunday evening with Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker at a press conference. Pritzker has been a staunch supporter of Texas Democrats and has floated the possibility of getting Illinois’ own congressional maps redrawn if Texas redraws its maps. Illinois’ maps have been criticized by outside observers as highly partisan in favor of Democrats.
In late June, the chair of the Texas Democrats, Kendall Scudder, flew from Dallas to Oklahoma to see Pritzker, who was giving remarks at the state Democratic Party’s dinner. The pair had a private meeting during that to talk about the possibility of lawmakers fleeing the state to Illinois — and if they were to flee the state, that they would have a place they would feel safe and supported.
Since then, Pritzker and Texas Democrats have been in touch, and a small group of them traveled to Chicago in July when members of the delegation left for Illinois and California for brief meetings.
Pritzker and his team have been helping behind the scenes to help find hotels in the area for the Democrats, help their operation, and grease the wheels so things go smoothly for them as they head to Illinois.
The bill containing the maps had been scheduled to be taken up on the state House floor on Monday.
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(LONDON) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s top adviser urged the U.S. to “strangle” Russia’s economy by imposing secondary sanctions on Moscow’s trading partners, as the White House push for a ceasefire appears to languish.
“Sanctions are working,” Andriy Yermak, the head of Zelenskyy’s office, wrote on Telegram on Sunday, citing data he said shows a collapse in Russian railway capacity over the past 12 months.
“The economy, geared for war, cannot withstand the pressure and is holding on only through the sale of energy resources,” Yermak wrote. “It is possible to strangle the economy with secondary tariffs proposed in the USA.”
Yermak appeared to be referring to proposals from President Donald Trump and a bipartisan group of senators to impose secondary sanctions on nations doing business with Russia, particularly those purchasing fossil fuels from the country. China and India are among the top importers of Russian energy products.
On July 14, Trump said he would give Russian President Vladimir Putin 50 days to agree a ceasefire with Ukraine, after which he would consider imposing secondary sanctions and other measures.
On July 29, Trump cut the window to 10 days, citing frustration with Russia’s continued drone and missile strikes on Ukrainian cities. The deadline will now expire on Aug. 8.
The threats raised hopes in Kyiv of a sustained White House pivot to back Ukraine’s efforts to repel Russia’s invasion, now in its fourth year with combat still raging all along the 600-mile front in the east and south of the country.
Official statements from Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov were relatively muted.
But Dmitry Medvedev — the former Russian president and prime minister now serving as the deputy chairman of the country’s Security Council — framed Trump’s ultimatum as “a threat and a step towards war. Not between Russia and Ukraine, but with his own country.”
Medvedev’s comments prompted Trump to then order two nuclear submarines to move to “appropriate regions,” citing “highly provocative statements” from Medvedev, who has become known as a particularly hawkish voice within Putin’s security establishment.
“A threat was made by a former president of Russia and we’re going to protect our people,” Trump said.
Meanwhile, Ukrainian officials continued their appeals to the U.S. to respond to perceived Russian provocations with concrete measures.
“Ceasefire proposals have been made long ago — Ukrainian proposals, U.S. proposals and many others around the world have communicated this to the Russians,” Zelenskyy said in a statement posted to Telegram on Friday.
“Each time, the only response from there has been attempts to gain more time for war, more time for terror,” he said. “Russia does not operate otherwise.”
“So it is very important that the prospect of new sanctions, strong sanctions, has now begun to put pressure on Russia — and not only against the aggressor state itself,” Zelenskyy added. “All Russian finances, every scheme that fills the Russian budget, must be targeted by the world.”
Both Russia and Ukraine have continued their long-range strike campaigns despite White House pressure to agree to a ceasefire.
In July, Russia set a new monthly record for strikes on Ukraine, launching 6,443 drones and missiles into the country, according to data published by the Ukrainian air force.
The attacks continued through into Sunday morning. Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 76 drones and seven missiles into the country, of which 60 drones and one missile were shot down or otherwise suppressed.
Six missiles and 16 drones impacted across eight locations, the air force said, with debris from falling targets reported in two locations.
In Mykolaiv, a missile strike injured at least seven people, according to the local military administration. Three houses were destroyed and at last 37 other buildings damaged, the administration said.
In Russia, the Defense Ministry said it shot down at least 96 Ukrainian drones overnight.
Artem Korenyako, a spokesperson for Russia’s federal aviation agency Rosaviatsiya, said in posts to Telegram that temporary restrictions were introduced at airports in St. Petersburg, Kaliningrad, Pskov and Sochi.
In Sochi, on the Black Sea coast, local officials said falling drone debris set fire to a major oil depot.
And in the Voronezh region, local Gov. Alexander Gusev said four people were injured by Ukrainian attacks, which also set fire to a residential building.
(NEW YORK) — A small earthquake rattled some parts of the New York City area Saturday night, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The epicenter of the 3.0 magnitude quake was northeast of Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey, in Bergen County, about 10 kilometers below the surface, USGS said.
Though the quake was relatively minor, there were reports of brief shaking in parts of the area.
In a statement posted on social media, New York City Emergency Management said tremors may have been felt in parts of New York City but that there were no reports of injuries or damage in the city.
Xan Davidson, a USGS analyst, told ABC News that while earthquakes are relatively rare on the East Coast, a magnitude 3.0 is not considered a significant quake.
“We would not expect there to be a lot of damage,” Davidson said. “It would just be shaking.”
In April 2024, New York City and New Jersey were rocked by a rare 4.8 magnitude earthquake, which officials said was one of the largest earthquakes on the East Coast in the last century.
That quake was centered near Whitehouse Station, New Jersey, and shook buildings from Philadelphia to New Jersey and New York City to Connecticut and Westchester, New York.
“Earthquakes do happen here, but it’s not something that happens frequently,” Davidson said, referencing the 2024 quake.
Davidson said the wide area of people who reported feeling Saturday’s quake — reaching as far as Connecticut — is not unexpected and that there was little cause for alarm.
(CHATTANOOGA, Tenn.) — Tennessee man was taken into custody Friday after authorities allege he threatened to kill public officials and law enforcement and was then discovered with 14 improvised explosive devices in his home when investigators arrived to arrest him.
Kevin Wade O’Neal, 54, was arrested at a residence in Old Fort, about 40 miles east of Chattanooga, near the Georgia border, according to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office. It was there that authorities allege they found the IEDs, including one that was “smoldering” in the bedroom, according to investigators.
The sheriff’s office said investigators believe O’Neal attempted to detonate the devices when officers arrived at the home.
In addition to the sheriff’s office, members of the Chattanooga Police Department bomb squad and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives responded to the scene.
O’Neal has been charged with several counts of attempted murder, as well as charges related to prohibited weapons and explosives.
Details of the targets of the alleged threats and an alleged motive were not immediately revealed by the police.
O’Neal is being held at the Polk County Jail and his bond has not yet been determined.
Attorney information for O’Neal wasn’t immediately available.
(WASHINGTON) — The deadly mid-air collision at Reagan Airport in January was years in the making, the operations manager of the DCA air traffic control tower on the night of the accident told the National Transportation Safety Board on Friday.
“I don’t think this accident occurred that night,” Clark Allen, the operations manager, said at the investigative hearing. “I think it happened years before we’ve talked about, you know, resources, whether they were available or unavailable at certain time frames, folks being listened to or not being listened to at certain times. This was not that evening. It was a combination over many years that I think that built up to that evening.”
The NTSB concluded three days of hearings late Friday, during which the agency’s investigators questioned officials from the Federal Aviation Administration, U.S. Army, American Airlines regional subsidiary PSA Airlines and other parties over January’s mid-air collision between an American Airlines regional jet and an Army Black Hawk helicopter over Washington, D.C., that killed 67 people.
It was the nation’s first major commercial airline crash since 2009.
During the hearings, the NTSB was told that the Army helicopter never heard the command from the air traffic controller to “pass behind the CRJ” as the transmission was stepped on. It was also revealed that the plane’s pilots were not warned by the controller that there was a helicopter nearby or cleared to fly near the helicopter.
NTSB Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy also called out the FAA for not sharing a full list of who was working in the control tower the night of the crash until July 6, months after the accident.
Pilots likely didn’t know how high they were flying The NTSB’s investigation found discrepancies in the altitude data shown on radio and barometric altimeters on Army helicopters after conducting test flights following January’s accident.
It is likely that the helicopter crew did not know their true altitude due to notoriously faulty altimeters inside this series of Black Hawks, according to the investigation. At their closest points, helicopters and planes flew within 75 feet of each other near DCA, an astonishingly close number. During the hearings, the NTSB was told Army Black Hawks can often have wrong readings and a margin of error of +-200 feet.
“I am concerned there is a possibility that what the crew saw was very different than what the true altitude was. We did testing in May that shows concerns with the altimeters, the barometric altimeters on the 60 Lima. So we are concerned, and it’s something we have to continue to investigate how significant is 100 feet in this circumstance,” Homendy told reporters on Wednesday.
Army officials told the NTSB investigators that they plan to inform other military aviation officials of the altitude discrepancy by September, but NTSB board member Todd Inman criticized this for a lack of urgency.
The Army officials said they are also addressing it by mentioning it in the public testimony.
“I hope every Army aviator is not having to watch the NTSB.gov livestream to figure out if there’s a discrepancy in their altitudes and planes that are flying around,” Inman said.
Disconnect between DCA controllers and FAA leadership NTSB investigators and board members noted that there seems to be a “disconnect” between the information they are getting from the FAA officials versus what the employees have shared with them during the interviews.
“What we’re trying to understand is where the disconnect is because what we have is for example, reports from controllers today that are saying there were 10-15 loss of separation events since the accident,” Homendy said.
Tension in the tower Chair Homendy noted air traffic controllers crying during interviews with investigators following the crash, adding the controller whose voice is heard talking to the doomed aircraft has not returned to work. Tensions have been so high in the tower following the crash, a shouting match turned into a fist fight this spring, ending with a controller being arrested.
Some employees say they feared getting transferred or fired if concerns were brought up to their superiors.
“I hundred percent agree with you. There definitely seems to be some barrier in communication where the people that impacts it the most are not hearing the things that the FAA is moving forward on and that needs to be addressed. I agree,” said Franklin McIntosh, acting chief operating officer of the Air Traffic Organization — the operation arm of the FAA.
“I wholeheartedly agree and I will commit to you and everyone on the board in the panel that I will start working this immediately to make sure whatever those barriers are occurring, that it stops,” McIntosh said. “Clearly someone in the facility doesn’t feel like they’re getting the help that they should be getting and quite honestly if that word’s not getting down, then we need to do a better job in breaking through whatever that barrier is.”
The FAA has pushed back on claims of employees being removed or transferred out of the tower as a result of the collision.
“So we didn’t remove anybody as a result of an accident,” said Nick Fuller, acting deputy chief operating officer with the Air Traffic Organization.
Homendy challenged that assertion saying, “I think many would disagree, since it was done pretty immediately. Also the NTSB had to weigh in several times to get people help in the tower.”
NTSB investigators also pressed FAA officials over controllers who manage DCA airspace feeling pressured to “make it work” due to the large volume of aircraft in the airspace near the airport.
“We have many non-standard tools that we use in order to be able to bring a significant amount of airplanes into DCA, ” said Bryan Lehman, air traffic manager at the Potomac Terminal Radar Approach Control, which manages air traffic control in the region, while also adding that they do take “pride in it,” but that it gets too much after a certain point.
Lehman also testified at the hearing that controllers sent a memo to their superiors in 2023 requesting a lower arrival rate for airplanes, but the concerns were dismissed and Congress approved more flights for DCA.
ADSB policy for Army Despite calls from lawmakers and the NTSB for mandated Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast (ADSB) — technology that makes the aircraft more visible to the tower, other aircraft and the public — on all aircraft, including military aircraft, it remains a point of hesitation for the Army.
All aircraft flying over 18,000 feet are required to have ADSB but certain aircraft, including military aircraft, are exempt from transmitting ADSB location when flying for security reasons.
“I’m pretty sure most people are aware of the fact that it’s inherently open source,” Army Lt. Col. Paul Flanigen told the hearing panel on Friday. “It has some spoofing vulnerabilities which make it non-conducive for those sensitive missions, which not just the army, but all of DOD has to operate on.”
As previously reported by ABC News, the helicopter involved in the accident was not transmitting ADSB out, meaning it wasn’t transmitting its location for other aircraft nearby to see where it was.
A Traffic Alert and Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) — which detects other aircraft in close proximity — was also not installed in the helicopter, according to the investigation.
The NTSB made a recommendation nearly two decades ago asking the FAA to require ADSB on all aircraft but it was not implemented. The point was brought up again during the hearings.
“Does the FAA right now support requiring any newly manufactured aircraft registered in the U.S. be equipped with ADSB in?” Homendy asked.
McIntosh said yes and showed support towards requiring aircraft to be equipped with ADSB out as well.
Experts have said it’s more effective when an aircraft is equipped with both ADSB in and out so they can transmit their location and also receive the location of other aircraft in its near proximity.
A bill in Congress titled the “Rotor Act” was introduced earlier this week by Sen. Ted Cruz, which would require all aircraft, including military aircraft, to transmit ADSB location when flying. Notably, the newly appointed FAA Administrator Bryan Bedford and Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy were present at the news conference and showed their support towards the legislation.
The NTSB’s investigation into the cause of the accident continues and a final report is expected by January 2026.
“We do this to improve safety certainly but we all do this with each of you in mind and your loved ones that were lost tragically with you in mind not just on the CRJ but also PAT 25 so we will continue on and hope to complete this investigation within a year,” Homendy said in her closing remarks on Friday.
