(WHITE CASTLE, La.) — A devastating fire destroyed the Louisiana’s historic Nottoway Resort, the largest antebellum mansion in the South, officials confirmed Friday.
“The fire has been contained now, but there’s no more Nottoway. The house is completely destroyed,” Iberville Sheriff’s Department Capt. Monty Migliacio told ABC News on Friday.
Emergency calls came in around 2:10 p.m. Thursday, reporting the fire, Migliacio told ABC News. The Iberville Sheriff’s Department arrived first, followed quickly by firefighters who fought the blaze at the White Castle mansion for hours.
“It was the biggest fire I’ve seen in my entire 20-year career,” Migliacio said.
Ten fire departments from surrounding areas worked together to contain the blaze and protect nearby buildings, according to officials.
Louisiana Fire Marshalls are investigating the cause of the blaze, authorities said.
Officials confirmed that no one was injured. It is unknown if anyone was touring the mansion at the time of the fire, they said.
Iberville Parish President Chris Daigle highlighted the mansion’s historical significance of the loss in a statement posted on Facebook.
“Nottoway was not only the largest remaining antebellum mansion in the South but also a symbol of both the grandeur and the deep complexities of our region’s past,” Daigle said.
He noted that it was built in 1859 and had been open to visitors since the ’80s.
“The loss of Nottoway is not just a loss for Iberville Parish but for the entire state of Louisiana,” he said.
(NEW ORLEANS) — Eleven adult men escaped from a New Orleans jail on Friday and should be considered armed and dangerous, officials with the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office warned.
One of the inmates, Kendall Myles, has been apprehended in the French Quarter, a tourist hot spot less than 3 miles from the Orleans Justice Center, the Louisiana State Police said.
Ten remain at large, including Gary Price, who was charged with attempted first-degree murder, officials said.
The men were unaccounted for during a routine headcount at the Orleans Justice Center at 8:30 a.m. Friday, Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson told reporters.
Hutson asked the public to remain alert, adding the sheriff’s department is working with local, state and federal law enforcement on a “full-scale search operation.”
New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said a “group of people” believed to be victims of the inmates were immediately removed from their homes and “taken to safety.” She appealed to witnesses of the inmates’ crimes to do the same.
Kirkpatrick said its “more than likely” the inmates had help and have changed out of their jail clothes.
“We don’t want panic, but we do want people to be mindful,” she told reporters.
The sheriff called the escape “very serious and unacceptable.”
“We are launching a full investigation to determine how this escape occurred, including reviewing facility protocols, staff performance and physical security measures,” the sheriff said.
Anyone who helped the inmates escape will be held accountable, the sheriff vowed.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — Destructive, long-track tornadoes are possible from Arkansas to Ohio on Friday as over 70 million Americans prepare for potential severe weather.
Strong tornadoes, destructive winds in excess of 75 mph and very large hail the size of baseballs are possible.
More than 300,000 customers are without power on Friday afternoon, including over 200,000 in Michigan, with severe weather moving through the Midwest overnight.
One or two tornadoes may become a high-end, long-track twister.
There is a moderate risk — level 4 of 5 — for significantly severe storms Friday, from southeast Missouri through southern Illinois, western and central Kentucky and southern Indiana. After storms move through in the morning, the majority of the afternoon will be dry and sunshine is expected. However, this will work to re-energize the atmosphere, especially considering the extremely warm air mass creating record high temperatures for surrounding areas.
Around 3 to 4 p.m. Central time, storms will begin popping up over eastern Missouri and central Illinois, which may turn severe quickly.
There will be storms over Paducah, Kentucky, and Little Rock, Arkansas, around 6 p.m. CT.
The storms will reach Indianapolis around 7 p.m.
The storms will then hit Cincinnati; Louisville, Kentucky; and Jonesboro, Arkansas, at 8 p.m. CT before hitting Memphis, Tennessee, at 9 p.m. They will reach Nashville, Tennessee, from 10 to 11 p.m.
Strong storms are possible in the Mid-Atlantic on Friday afternoon as the energy from the morning system reach the area. Strong winds and some hail are the main risks for the East Coast.
Saturday’s risk area is mainly centered over Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas, where damaging wind, large hail and a few tornadoes are possible. These storms are expected in the evening and overnight hours.
(WASHINGTON) — A vote on the mega-bill aimed at advancing President Donald Trump’s agenda failed in the House Budget Committee Friday afternoon amid objections from hard-liners, halting the bill’s progress at the committee.
Republican Reps. Andrew Clyde, Josh Brecheen, Lloyd Smucker, Ralph Norman and Chip Roy all voted against clearing the bill out of committee — defying Trump and Speaker Mike Johnson. The group complained, in part, that the bulk of savings in the legislation don’t take effect until after Trump leaves office.
The committee vote failed with just 16 lawmakers in favor, and 21 voting against.
The move is a setback for Johnson and Trump, who earlier called on the holdouts to fall in line and unite behind the bill — with Trump saying in a social media post that “we don’t need ‘GRANDSTANDERS’ in the Republican Party.”
Norman said he wants commitments from leadership on changes to Medicaid work requirements, which won’t take effect until 2029 and imposes more frequent eligibility checks for beneficiaries.
“I am tired of smoke and mirrors,” Norman said Friday. “This isn’t a grandstand. I don’t need to grandstand.”
The ordeal has been yet another test of Johnson’s speakership as he works to placate the hard-liners and unify the factions of his conference.
House Republican leaders will now continue to negotiate with holdouts behind closed doors, and the Budget Committee will reconvene on Monday. While the delay is not ideal, there is still a chance that the bill could clear the House before the Memorial Day recess.
The House Freedom Caucus said it is prepared to continue negotiations over the weekend after several of them blocked the more than 1,000-page mega-bill from advancing.
“We are not going anywhere and we will continue to work through the weekend,” the group posted on X.
Prior to the failed vote, Majority Leader Steve Scalise explained that the bill’s timeline enables the administration to “actually create a process to implement” some of the provisions in the bill.
“We’ve got a pretty clear idea of what the final pieces are, and we’re working through those right now,” Scalise said. “We’re all in agreement on the reforms we want to make. We want to have work requirements. We want to phase out a lot of these green subsidies. You know, how quickly can you get it done? And it’s not as quickly as saying you just turn it off tomorrow.”
Rep. Marlin Stutzman, another Republican on the Budget Committee, sympathized with Norman’s “fair” concerns about delays to implementing Medicaid reforms, but he called the consensus product of 11 markups “a good start” and stressed that the Senate will have an opportunity to improve the bill.
“There’s a lot of good pieces in this legislation. You know, there’s pieces that I feel like we left ourselves short. We could have made bigger reforms, cut more spending, but at the end of the day, this is going to get the economy growing for the American people,” he said. “I think we are going to get there.”
“I think this is an important piece to move forward as it is, because we need to get the economy back on track,” Stutzman added.
(WASHINGTON) — The number of measles cases in the U.S. has risen to 1,024, according to new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data published Friday.
Cases have been confirmed in 30 states: Alaska, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia and Washington.
The U.S. is nearing the total seen in 2019, of which there were 1,274 confirmed infections across the country over the course of a year, CDC data shows.
The CDC says 13% of measles patients in the U.S. this year have been hospitalized, the majority of whom are under age 19.
“The key thing about all of this is that the cases of measles that we’re seeing today and that typically see are nearly 100% in people who have not received the vaccine,” Dr. Roy Gulick, chief of infectious disease at NewYork-Presbyterian and Weill Cornell Medicine, told ABC News.
Among the nationally confirmed cases, CDC says about 96% are among people who are unvaccinated or whose vaccination status is unknown.
Meanwhile, 1% of cases are among those who have received just one dose of the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine and 2% of cases are among those who received the required two doses, according to the CDC.
“The thing to know about measles is that it is almost entirely 100% preventable and that’s by receiving [a] measles vaccination,” Gulick said.
The CDC currently recommends that people receive two doses of the MMR vaccine, the first at ages 12 to 15 months and the second between 4 and 6 years old. One dose is 93% effective, and two doses are 97% effective against measles, the CDC says.
Measles was declared eliminated from the U.S. in 2000 due to a highly effective vaccination program, according to the CDC. But vaccination rates have been lagging in recent years.
During the 2023 to 2024 school year, 92.7% of kindergartners received the MMR vaccine, according to data. This is lower than the 93.1% seen the previous school year and the 95.2% seen in the 2019 to 2020 school year, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
With vaccination rates declining, “that leaves more of the population susceptible to measles and means that it could be passed in the population more easily,” Gulick said. “Sustained transmission which if it occurs in enough people and for long enough then we will lose status of eradication.”
Dr. Karen Tachi Udoh is an internal medicine resident at Johns Hopkins Hospital and a member of the ABC News Medical Unit.
Handout photo by Arda Kucukkaya/Turkish Foreign Ministry via Getty Images
(LONDON) — Russia and Ukraine agreed to a prisoner exchange during peace talks in Turkey on Friday, which were led by a U.S. delegation headed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The two sides will conduct a 1,000 for 1,000 person prisoner exchange at a yet-to-be determined time, officials said.
Both sides also agreed to present their vision for a ceasefire, officials said.
Notably absent from Friday’s talks were Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is in Albania, and Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is in Moscow.
Ukrainian officials on Friday asked for a meeting between Zelenskyy and Putin; Russia officials said they would take the proposed meeting under advisement.
The Turkish foreign minister said Russia and Ukraine have agreed in principle to come together again after Friday’s talks in Istanbul, which lasted for 1 hour and 50 minutes.
President Donald Trump said Friday morning in Abu Dhabi that he wants to meet with Putin “as soon as we can set it up” to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine.
“We’re going to do it,” Trump said. “I actually think it’s time for us to do it.”
Trump suggested that “in two or three weeks” the world could be “a much, much safer place.”
“I will tell you that the world is a much safer place right now, and I think in two or three weeks we could have it be a much, much safer place,” Trump said. “We’re going to handle a couple of situations that you have here with some very serious situations. and we’re looking at Gaza, and we’ve got to get that taken care of. A lot of people are starving. A lot of people. There’s a lot of bad things going on.”
A Ukrainian diplomatic source in Istanbul has told ABC News that “we value President Trump’s genuine effort to end the war and stop the killing. Ukraine itself is the country that wants peace more than anyone else.”
“We’re going to get it done,” Trump said of Ukraine negotiations. “Five thousand young people are being killed every single week on average, and we’re going to get it done.”
ABC News’ Joe Simonetti contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump is weighing in on House Republicans’ mega-bill aimed at advancing his legislative agenda Friday morning — calling on his party to unite behind it despite objections from hard-liners.
As several hard-liners signaled that they would derail the tax and budget measure over concerns that it adds to a bloated national debt, Trump called on them to fall in line.
“We don’t need ‘GRANDSTANDERS’ in the Republican Party. STOP TALKING, AND GET IT DONE!” Trump posted on his social media channel Friday morning.
The president said that country will “suffer greatly” without the legislation and said Republicans “must unite.”
The president’s message comes as the House Republicans — particularly Speaker Mike Johnson — work to get the more than 1,000-page “Big Beautiful Bill Act” back on track as those holdouts complicate advancing the package out of the House Budget Committee as it convenes Friday morning.
Republican Rep. Josh Brecheen, who appeared skeptical on Thursday, said on social media that “we have a duty to know the true cost of this legislation before advancing it. If we are to operate in truth, we must have true numbers — even if that means taking some more time to obtain that truth.”
They are also working to strike a consensus on the SALT caps — the amount of state and local taxes that can be written off on federal tax returns — as moderates draw a red line opposing the proposed $30,000 cap on those deductions.
The vote is yet another test of Johnson’s speakership as he works to placate the hard-liners and unify the factions of his conference.
On Thursday, Johnson spoke with the holdouts and said budget negotiations are still ongoing.
“Keep this thing moving forward,” he said of the more than 1,000-page mega-bill.
Johnson said Friday that he is keeping President Donald Trump up to date with the latest developments with the massive package and that the president is excited about the House’s “forward progress.”
Salman Rushdie attends the 75th National Book Awards at Cipriani Wall Street on November 20, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — A New Jersey man convicted of attempted murder in the 2022 stabbing attack on author Salman Rushdie, while on stage at a speaking event, was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Friday, the maximum sentence he faced.
His sentencing hearing was held Friday morning in Chautauqua County Court. A defense motion to set aside the verdict was also heard prior to sentencing, the court said.
He rejected a plea deal ahead of the trial.
In February, a jury found Matar guilty of second-degree attempted murder in connection with the attack at the Chautauqua Institution in southwestern New York.
Rushdie was on stage speaking before an audience at the education center on Aug. 12, 2022, when he was stabbed multiple times in the face and neck in the attack, which blinded him in one eye.
Henry Reese, who was moderating the event, was also wounded in the attack. Matar was also found guilty of assault for injuring Reese.
Matar was tackled by bystanders and pinned to the stage following the attack.
The jury reached a verdict within two hours of deliberating.
During the trial, Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt played slow-motion video showing Matar emerging from the audience, sprinting toward Rushdie, and launching a violent attack. Schmidt described the stabbing as a deliberate, targeted act, arguing that striking someone 10 to 15 times in the face and neck made death a foreseeable outcome. A trauma surgeon testified that Rushdie would have died without immediate medical intervention.
“No question,” Rushdie told “Good Morning America” in April 2024 when asked if he thought he was going to die. “I mean, lying there in this lake of blood, which was mine and was expanding, I remember thinking in a completely calm way, Oh yeah, I think I’m dying. And then, fortunately, I was wrong.”
The defense countered that prosecutors failed to prove Matar intended to kill Rushdie and characterized the incident as a chaotic, noisy outburst rather than a calculated murder attempt. Public defender Nathaniel Barone argued Matar was overcharged due to Rushdie’s celebrity, noting he used knives rather than a gun or bomb and that Rushdie’s vital organs were not harmed.
Following the verdict, Schmidt described the prosecution’s case as “lock solid” and described the video evidence as “compelling.”
“I hope that two-and-a-half years later, Mr. Rushdie can get some satisfaction from this, poor Mr. Reese can get some satisfaction from this and everybody else that was there at the institution that risked their lives to jump on stage,” Schmidt told reporters.
Barone, meanwhile, told reporters they were “disappointed” by the verdict.
“What you hope for in any case, regardless, especially in a case like Mr. Matar’s, is that the system works for you,” Barone said.
Both Rushdie and Reese testified during the two-week trial. Matar did not testify and the defense called no witnesses.
The second-degree attempted murder charge carries a maximum sentence of 25 years in prison, while the assault charge is seven years. Schmidt said following the verdict that he believed the sentences for the two charges would run concurrently, not consecutively, as they were “entwined in a single occurrence.”
“My analysis tells me that — and I always want to be fair here — that really the facts speak to a concurrent disposition,” he said at the time. “I believe even though the cumulative total is 32 years plus five years parole supervision, I think we’re really looking at 25 plus five. That’s what I’ll advocate for. I think that’s appropriate here.”
Matar still faces federal terrorism charges in connection with the attack. He was indicted by a grand jury on three counts, including attempting to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization and providing material support to terrorists. The indictment alleges he “knowingly did attempt to provide material support and resources” to Hezbollah, a designated foreign terrorist organization, and “had engaged, and was engaging, in terrorism.”
Matar was also charged with an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries for the attack against Rushdie. The indictment alleges that he “did knowingly attempt to kill, and did knowingly maim, commit an assault resulting in serious bodily injury, and assault with a dangerous weapon.”
(NEW YORK) — Consumer attitudes soured in May for the fourth consecutive month, even as President Donald Trump dialed back some tariffs. The reading came in below the level economists expected.
Shopper sentiment now hovers near its lowest level since a severe bout of inflation three years ago, University of Michigan survey data on Friday showed. Before that, the measure of consumer attitudes hadn’t ever fallen this low.
The monthslong decline in consumer sentiment traces back to inflation fears and recession warnings set off by Trump’s initial rollout of levies.
A trade agreement between the U.S. and China this week slashed tit-for-tat tariffs between the world’s two largest economies and triggered a surge in the stock market. Within days, Wall Street firms softened their forecasts of a recession.
The U.S.-China accord marked the latest softening of Trump’s levies, coming weeks after the White House paused far-reaching “reciprocal tariffs” on dozens of countries. Trump also eased sector-specific tariffs targeting autos, and rolled back duties on some goods from Mexico and Canada.
The drawdown of tariffs coincided with data suggesting the economy remains in solid shape.
Inflation eased slightly last month, dropping to its lowest level since 2021, government data this week showed. Plus, the economy continues to add jobs at a solid pace.
Still, uncertainty looms over the economic outlook.
An array of tariffs remain in place, including an across-the-board 10% levy that applies to imports from nearly all countries. Additional tariffs have hit auto parts, as well as steel and aluminum.
Even after the pullback, a 30% tariff on China far exceeds the level before Trump took office, posing a risk of price increases for a large swathe of products that includes apparel, toys and some electronics.
Walmart executives on Thursday warned of tariff-driven price increases for perishable imports such as coffee, avocados, bananas and roses, as well as toys and electronics.
Consumers showed signs of weakness last month as retail sales slowed, indicating shoppers may be pulling back as they await possible fallout from tariffs. The trend poses a risk for the wider economy, since consumer spending accounts for roughly two-thirds of economic activity.
The U.S. economy shrank at the outset of this year, registering a sharp drop-off from robust growth over the final months of 2024.
But a surge of imports ahead of Trump’s tariffs likely clouded the figure, since the calculation subtracts imports in an effort to exclude foreign production from the calculation of gross domestic product. Analysts cautioned that a lowering of GDP on account of this trend would not reflect economic weakness.
(WASHINGTON) — House Republicans are working to get their mega-bill encompassing Trump’s legislative agenda back on track Friday morning — a day after hard-liners in the party signaled that they would derail it over concerns that it adds to a bloated national debt.
The GOP holdouts could complicate advancing the package out of the House Budget Committee as it convenes Friday morning.
Republican Rep. Josh Brecheen, who appeared skeptical on Thursday, said on social media that “we have a duty to know the true cost of this legislation before advancing it. If we are to operate in truth, we must have true numbers — even if that means taking some more time to obtain that truth.”
They are also working to strike a consensus on the SALT caps — the amount of state and local taxes that can be written off on federal tax returns — as moderates draw a red line opposing the proposed $30,000 cap on those deductions.
The vote is yet another test of Speaker Mike Johnson’s speakership as he works to placate the hard-liners and unify the factions of his conference.
On Thursday, Johnson spoke with the holdouts and said budget negotiations are still ongoing.
“Keep this thing moving forward,” he said of the more than 1,000-page mega-bill.
Johnson said Friday that he is keeping President Donald Trump up to date with the latest developments with the massive package and that the president is excited about the House’s “forward progress.” Johnson said he has not asked Trump for help whipping hard-liners in support of the bill.
