Federal authorities say this explosive device was found at a TSA checkpoint at the Sacramento International Airport on May 30, 2026. (TSA)
(SACRAMENTO, Calif.) — A man was arrested and faces a federal charge after an explosive device was allegedly found in his carry-on bag at a California airport, federal authorities said.
Kimani Osayande Jones, 49, was detained at the Sacramento International Airport on Saturday after attempting to go through a security checkpoint, according to the Transportation Security Administration.
Jones was “wearing a scarf covering his face and latex gloves on his hands” at the time, TSA said in a press release on Wednesday.
In his carry-on bag, he had an M-type explosive device — meaning an improvised explosive — and a “torch lighter capable of lighting the explosive,” TSA said.
His carry-on bag also contained a knife, scissors, scissor blades, an aerosol can and zip ties, according to an affidavit in support of the complaint.
He was traveling with five cellphones, one of which had a 15-minute timer ready to start and another with a message from an unidentified number on the screen stating, “we will be awaiting your call,” according to the affidavit.
Bomb technicians safely removed the device, and upon further examination, its powder and fuse were found to be “viable and energetic,” TSA said. If it had detonated mid-air near a window on a plane, the device had the “potential to damage the aircraft and cause a possible loss of cabin pressure,” the agency said.
Jones, of Sacramento, has been federally charged with unlawful possession of explosive material at an airport. If convicted, he faces five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
He is being held without bail at the Sacramento County Jail on a federal hold, online jail records show. Online court records do not list any future court dates or any attorney information for him.
Jones’ luggage was also screened at the airport prior to being loaded onto an American Airlines flight headed to Charlotte, North Carolina, and did not trigger anything suspicious, according to the affidavit. Upon arrival in Charlotte, a search of his bag and an inspection of all luggage from the plane using specialized canines found nothing concerning, it said.
According to the affidavit, local authorities had prior contact with Jones, who “had a history of being paranoid.” A man believed to be Jones had previously reached out to the FBI tip line 13 times this year, including the day of his arrest, to report that he was being threatened and intimidated, according to the filing.
US Coast Guard dive team is shown in Hope Town in the Bahamas as the investigation into the disappearance of Lynette Hooker continues. (ABC)
(NEW YORK) — A U.S. Coast Guard dive team is in the Bahamas on Wednesday searching for Lynette Hooker, an American woman who went overboard and vanished nearly two months ago.
The Coast Guard Investigative Service is leading the investigation and received permission from the Bahamas to send U.S divers to areas that were previously not searched, according to multiple U.S. officials.
The new search comes after forensic evidence found on electronic devices belonging to Lynette Hooker’s husband, Brian Hooker, led investigators to new areas of interest, officials said.
A U.S. official told ABC News that what Brian Hooker told investigators does not match the GPS data recovered from his devices.
Lynette Hooker has been missing since the evening of April 4. Brian Hooker told authorities that after the couple departed Hope Town on their dinghy to head to their yacht, called the “Soulmate,” bad weather caused her to go overboard.
Brian Hooker was arrested on April 8 and questioned by police. He was released on April 13 without charges.
On April 14, Brian Hooker told ABC News that he was staying in the Bahamas with a “sole focus” of finding his wife. But hours after that interview, Brian Hooker left the Bahamas, with his attorney saying he wanted to be with his terminally ill mother.
U.S. sailors carry a fuel hose on the flight deck of Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, May 24, 2026. (US Navy)
(WASHINGTON) — The Pentagon is increasingly strained by a growing list of unplanned and rising expenses over the last year, with fuel costs emerging as one of the most significant pressures.
Defense Department records show the average price the agency paid for fuel climbed from $154.14 per barrel in October to $195.72 in April – a nearly 27% increase in just six months, documents show. Those costs are averages across two dozen types of fuels the military uses, including gasoline and jet fuel.
Oil and fuel prices have surged during the Iran war. That surge could saddle the Pentagon with more than $1 billion in unplanned costs this year to power its jets, tanks and other military equipment, based on the department’s fuel consumption in recent years. The Defense Department purchases some 80 million barrels of fuel annually.
Commanders are also grappling with surging civilian fuel and commercial airfare costs, adding to the financial strain on a military that depends heavily on both. Troops typically use commercial flights and rental cars to travel to different training events, and are often compensated for miles driven in personal vehicles.
Because of that, travel is being heavily scrutinized, with some formations dramatically reducing travel for training and other events or outright canceling the bulk of it since at least April, multiple U.S. officials explained to ABC News and documents show.
“Current energy market dynamics are increasing fuel costs, which can affect the costs of transporting personnel, supplies and equipment,” Lt. Col. Orlando Howard, an Army spokesperson, said in a statement, adding that the service is prioritizing travel and equipment usage to preserve funding for critical operations and readiness requirements.
According to internal documents and multiple U.S. officials, the Army has been forced to make sweeping cuts to training as it grapples with a $4 billion-$6 billion shortfall through the remainder of the fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.
That shortfall is attributed to a confluence of factors, including the Iran war, expanding missions on the U.S. southern border, and the National Guard’s ongoing mission in Washington, D.C., which is aimed to double in size to some 5,000 troops for the summer.
Compounding those issues are rising fuel costs, all spurring intense financial scrutiny. The reductions have eliminated dozens of training courses, including programs for medical personnel, engineers and artillery troops. The service has also sharply curtailed helicopter flight hours, limiting many crews to minimum flying requirements, internal service plans show.
But it is not only the Army that is feeling the strain of financial belt-tightening – some of the other services also face unexpected expenses that could impact training cycles.
Adm. Daryl Caudle, the Navy’s Chief of Naval Operations, warned lawmakers in May that the sea service might start running out of money soon.
“You see a large Navy force in the Middle East. So we’re burning bright … but it does come at cost, and it comes at operational costs,” Caudle told the House Armed Services Committee, adding that the service will start running out of money in the summer.
“I will have to start making decisions to change training, operations, certification events, those type of things we do to generate our force, in the July timeframe and their current expenditure,” he said.
One internal Army assessment in April found that the financial pain could leave units slated to deploy to Europe next year with what the assessment framed as an insufficient amount of training. The review, which examined the Army’s III Armored Corps – a roughly 70,000-soldier formation headquartered at Fort Hood, Texas – concluded it could take more than a year to restore affected units to their pre-Iran war training levels.
The military’s complex web of fuel purchasing provides some protection against market volatility. In many cases, the Pentagon purchases fuel through contracts 18 months in advance.
But those agreements include provisions that allow prices to be adjusted if the market shifts, limiting the department’s ability to fully insulate itself from sustained increases.
Fuel prices surged in 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, destabilizing markets. The national average for a gallon of regular gasoline in the U.S. climbed past $5 for one week that summer, according to federal data. That year, Congress twice gave the Pentagon more money for fuel, totaling $5.2 billion.
Additionally, the Defense Department is using far more fuel this year than it projected when budgets were set more than a year ago, with the Air Force burning through 10% more than it projected it would, Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, the chief of staff of the Air Force, told lawmakers in May, amid the ongoing war with Iran.
That could mean the use of hundreds of thousands of gallons of extra fuel. The Defense Department is by far the federal government’s largest fuel consumer, burning roughly 227 million gallons of diesel and about 2.2 billion gallons of jet fuel annually since 2021, according to Pentagon data.
Meanwhile, the Marine Corps is not facing any notable funding shortfall, nor has it had to scale back any training, according to the service, though it is significantly smaller than the other branches of the military.
“Annually, we adjust our budgeted spend plans to address various contingencies as they arise, ensuring we prioritize our most critical mission requirements,” a Marine Corps spokesperson said in a statement.
ABC News’ Luis Martinez contributed to this report.
Justin Sholly seen in this undated police handout. (Montgomery County District Attorney)
(SOUDERTON, Pa.) — A volunteer firefighter has been arrested for allegedly setting fires and then responding to them with his fire department, according to officials in eastern Pennsylvania.
Justin Sholly, a 29-year-old member of the Perseverance Volunteer Fire Company in Souderton, was arrested on Sunday on charges including arson, according to court documents.
The first fire was Friday morning, when the Perseverance Volunteer Fire Company and other agencies responded to a fire at a detached garage/barn, according to the criminal complaint. The blaze was about 50 feet behind a home that had 10 people inside, the complaint said.
Hours later, the Perseverance Volunteer Fire Company responded to a trash fire, the complaint said.
Then early Saturday morning, crews responded to a property where there were multiple fires coming from a barn, a shed, an outhouse, three cars and a gazebo, according to the complaint. The fires were near a home with eight people inside, the document said.
Investigators used license plate reader databases to zero in on Sholly as a suspect, according to the criminal complaint.
Sholly admitted to setting all three fires, according to the court documents. After two of the blazes, Sholly went to his fire department and then responded back to the fire scenes with the other firefighters, documents said.
Sholly said one of the fires was near property he believed belonged to an employer who fired him in 2015, the complaint said.
The Perseverance Volunteer Fire Company said Sholly has been suspended from the department “with intent to remove upon future outcomes.”
“The actions described in the criminal charges stand in complete opposition to the core values, mission, and dedication of our company,” the fire department said in a statement on Tuesday.
Yellow police tape says “police line do not cross” is set against blurry background. (Sheila Paras/Getty Images)
(BAKERSFIELD, Calif) — All hostages have been released, and a suspect is confirmed dead on Wednesday after an hours-long standoff at a bank in California, sources told ABC News.
The standoff began after a reported bomb threat at a bank in California. Two hostages were first released after hours of ongoing negotiations with a suspect, according to authorities.
The bomb threat was reported at a Chase Bank building in downtown Bakersfield around 1 p.m. local time Tuesday, police said.
An unidentified man entered the bank and was “barricaded” with an unknown number of people inside, Bakersfield Police Department Sgt. Eric Celedon told reporters earlier.
“We remain on scene at the Chase Bank building and have negotiated the release of a second hostage,” Bakersfield police said in an update on social media, shortly after 9 p.m. local time. “There are currently no injuries reported.”
Crisis negotiators were in contact with the individual over the phone, according to police. Celedon said authorities have not confirmed if there is a bomb.
The FBI and Department of Homeland Security are assisting, and other resources are coming in from throughout the state, police said.
Several buildings in the surrounding area were evacuated, police said. The Chase Bank is located at Chester Avenue and 17th Street.
“This is a very active scene,” Celedon said Tuesday while urging people to avoid the area.
“Every single resource is at this site’s disposal — SWAT team, bomb squad, K9 team, gang unit, negotiators, drone team — every single asset we have to bring this to the safest conclusion is out here right now.”
Acting U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche testifies during a House Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies hearing in the Rayburn House Office Building on June 02, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department’s number three-ranked official suggested overnight in a since deleted post that the Trump administration would be moving forward with an alternative plan to compensate victims of claimed Biden-era “weaponization.”
The post came just hours after the acting attorney general committed to Congress that DOJ was scrapping plans for a so-called “Anti-Weaponization Fund.”
The fund was created in exchange for Trump agreeing to drop his $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS as well as two civil claims related to the Russia collusion investigation he faced during his first term in office and the 2022 search of his Mar-a-Lago estate.
Stanley Woodward, the associate attorney general who signed off on the president’s controversial settlement, responded approvingly to a suggestion pushed by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on X Tuesday that victims of so-called Biden-era “weaponization” could still be compensated through claims under the requests under the Federal Torts Claims Act.
“We’re on it.” Woodward posted at 10:45 p.m. Tuesday evening in response to Graham’s post. Woodward’s post was deleted Wednesday morning, and a DOJ spokesperson has not responded to ABC’s request for comment as to why it’s no longer on his X account.
The post comes just hours after acting AG Todd Blanche told House lawmakers that the administration was permanently scrapping plans for its “Anti-Weaponization Fund.”
Blanche, however, under pressure from Democrats did not commit to putting the department’s position into writing.
Democrats could seek to seize on Woodward’s post as evidence the administration is seeking an alternate way to pay Jan 6 rioters.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass looks on as she greets customers at Pann’s Restaurant on June 01, 2026 in Los Angeles, California. With one day to go before the California primary, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass continues to campaign across the city. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
(LOS ANGELES) — Votes are being counted in the closely watched primary election to determine Los Angeles’ next mayor.
Voters in the nation’s second-largest city had their choice of 14 candidates to choose from in a race that included incumbent Mayor Karen Bass, reality TV personality Spencer Pratt and city Councilwoman Nithya Raman.
ABC News projects that Bass will advance to a runoff, though it is currently unclear which candidate she will face in the runoff election.
During the campaign, candidates running for the top office in Los Angeles focused on a variety of issues afflicting the Southern California metropolis, including recovery from the devastating 2025 Los Angeles wildfires, homelessness, Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and more.
While the primary is nonpartisan, Bass has served Congress as a Democrat, Raman is a self-described Democrat, and Pratt is a registered Republican.
Here is a rundown of the candidates, the issues and how the election will function.
The candidates
While 14 candidates are running for office, three front-runners have emerged in polls: Bass, Pratt and Raman met in the only televised debate of the race on May 6.
Bass, a Los Angeles native, entered politics in 2004 after a career in medicine as a physician assistant. The mayor served in the California State Assembly, rising to the speaker of the assembly before running for Congress in 2010.
She served six terms in the House as a Democrat before becoming the first woman and second African American mayor of Los Angeles in 2022.
Raman, running as a progressive, launched her campaign earlier this year, just before the deadline, and has been a member of the city council since 2020.
Raman, who holds degrees from both Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, describes herself as an “urban planner” on her website.
Pratt, who has generated headlines since announcing his candidacy earlier this year, is running as an outsider in the field. Pratt rose to fame in his 20s serving as a villain archetype on the hit reality TV show “The Hills.”
The former reality star has said his political ambitions were fueled by his association with the Palisades wildfire, which claimed his home.
The issues
No topic has been more prominent in the mayoral campaign than the Los Angeles fire response and recovery. When fires ravaged the region in early 2025, more than 10,000 structures were destroyed as more than 30,000 acres of the city burned.
Pratt has been the most outspoken critic of the city’s response. Bass has defended her actions while also admitting the city must learn from the fire. Raman has also criticized the “dysfunctional” response to the fires.
Homelessness, another key issue candidates have focused on down the stretch, was hotly debated on the debate stage last month. Bass has cited what she says are inroads on the issue, saying L.A. had seen a decrease in homelessness under her administration.
Raman’s campaign has stressed the importance of bringing unhoused people indoors, while Pratt has focused on what he sees as the core cause of homelessness: drug addiction.
The candidates also have different stances on what the city’s approach to ICE should be. Last year, ICE raids became a flashpoint for widespread protests across the city.
As mayor, Bass has pushed back on ICE’s presence in Los Angeles, saying in a press release in March, “Los Angeles will not stand for ICE’s fear, intimidation and unlawful targeting.”
Raman’s plan to address ICE in Los Angeles includes appointing a police chief “committed to protecting immigrants” and ensuring the Los Angeles Police Department “does not coordinate with federal immigration enforcement,” according to her website.
Pratt recently told ABC News the future mayor would not be able to work with ICE because of California’s sanctuary law status, adding, “I’m going to make the streets so safe the federal government is not going to need to come to L.A., because they’re going to be like ‘Wow this mayor has these streets safe and clean.'”
Other hot topics at play in the primary is the revival of Hollywood, LAPD funding, affordable housing and more.
How the primary works
According to the city of Los Angeles election code, the Los Angeles mayoral primary can result in either an outright winner or a runoff, depending on final vote tallies.
A candidate will be determined the winner if they receive a majority of votes in the primary. In the case that does not happen, the top two vote-getters will advance to a runoff in the general election in November.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy April 23, 2026. (Photo by Byron Smith/Getty Images)
(LONDON) — Ukrainian drones hit one of Russia’s largest oil terminals in St. Petersburg overnight into Wednesday morning, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said, sending plumes of black smoke towering over the city as the landmark St. Petersburg International Economic Forum prepared to open.
Zelenskyy said Ukrainian long-range drones struck targets including the Petersburg Oil Terminal overnight — just under 700 miles from Ukrainian territory.
The latest round of “long-range sanctions,” as officials in Kyiv refer to Ukrainian drone strikes inside Russia, “yielded good results. Important facilities on Russian territory were hit last night,” Zelenskyy said in a post to Telegram.
St. Petersburg is known as Russia’s “second capital,” and is a regular target of Ukrainian drone attacks given its political and economic significance, plus its role as a key export hub for Russian oil.
Video from the city showed attendees of the International Economic Forum arriving at the venue with clouds of black smoke hanging over the city.
St. Petersburg Governor Alexander Beglov said in a post to Telegram that “infrastructure facilities in the Kronstadt, Kirovsky and Krasnoselsky districts were attacked” by Ukrainian drones.
“Several facilities were damaged. Currently, efforts are underway to mitigate the consequences. Several people were injured. There were no fatalities. An operational headquarters is in operation. Forces and resources have been put on high alert,” Beglov wrote.
Conceived of as Russia’s version of Davos, the annual International Economic Forum gathers Russia’s political and business elite in St. Petersburg. Prior to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the event also hosted many international leaders.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is due to deliver his keynote speech to the event on Friday.
Robert Mims Cook — the head of the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, who is overseeing President Donald Trump’s White House ballroom project and his planned triumphal arch in Washington — is set to attend the forum, which would make him the first American official to do so since 2022.
High profile radical conservative influencer Candace Owens has also been invited to speak at the forum, while the pro-Trump right-wing influencers Andrew Tate and his brother Tristan are also in Russia.
Russia’s federal air transport agency, Rosaviatsiya, said in a post to Telegram that temporary flight restrictions were introduced at St. Petersburg’s Pulkovo Airport during the overnight attacks.
Temporary restrictions were also imposed on airports in the Russian cities of Saratov, Yaroslavl, Nizhny Novgorod and Pskov, Rosaviatsiya said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said in a post to Telegram that its air defenses shot down at least 354 Ukrainian drones overnight into Wednesday morning.
Elsewhere, Moscow Mayor Sergey Sobyanin said the capital also came under Ukrainian attack. The mayor said in posts to Telegram that air defenses intercepted at least 22 Ukrainian drones heading toward the capital on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.
Steps to the United States Supreme Court, Washington DC, America. (joe daniel price/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court has cleared the way for Alabama Republicans to use a contested 2023 congressional map that a lower court last week called “intentional race-based discrimination” in violation of the Voting Rights Act and the Constitution.
The move is a significant win for the GOP, allowing the state to eliminate one of two majority-Black districts occupied by Democrats, even as election experts and state administrators have warned of major confusion for voters with the late change.
Civil rights groups lamented the decision as a stark example of the impact of the court’s historic April decision in Louisiana v. Callais which rolled back longstanding voting rights protections for minority voters.
In an unsigned opinion Tuesday, the court’s conservative majority said the unanimous three-judge panel — which included two Trump appointee — in the Alabama dispute failed to apply “updated” standards the justices issued in the Callais decision for proving a political process is not equally open for minority voters.
The court said the panel “did not heed the presumption of legislative good faith” by concluding state lawmakers had “discriminatory animus.”
The court’s decision concluded that the judges also erred in blocking the 2023 map even though the minority voters challenging it could not provide an alternative map that offered the same political advantages sought by Republicans.
Alabama Republican Gov. Kay Ivey praised the decision, and her office confirmed the state would hold a special primary using the new maps with redrawn districts on Aug. 11.
“The U.S. Supreme Court confirmed what I have said all along and that is that Alabama knows our state, our people and our districts best,” Ivey said in a statement. “Today’s decision is a win for the people of Alabama and our elections.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in a lengthy dissent joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, accused her colleagues of “unleashing chaos” and “confus[ing] voters.”
The map change will require state officials to change the voter registrations of hundreds of thousands of voters in a matter of days and educate them on where to cast new ballots.
“Just as Alabama doubled down on racial discrimination, the Court today doubles down on chaos,” Sotomayor wrote. “Because I choose to defend the rule of law and the right of all Alabamians to participate equally in democracy, I respectfully dissent.”
In 2024, Alabama had been required to use a map with two majority-Black districts, one of which was won by Democratic Rep. Shomari Figures.
The new map could allow Republicans to flip Figures’ seat.
The NAACP slammed the Supreme Court’s decision as discriminatory.
“The Supreme Court continues to unleash chaos in our democratic process, and with this latest action, gives Alabama approval to use a congressional map that had previously been found to be intentionally discriminatory,” NAACP General Counsel Kristen Clarke wrote in a statement. “This is a Court that is stripping Black voters of power and voice at a speed that would put Jim Crow jurists to shame. Our message to communities remains the same — the best way to express dissent is by showing up at the ballot box this election season.”
-ABC News’ Oren Oppenheim contributed to this report.
Signage for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) headquarters is seen, April 2, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
(VIRGINIA) — Two Honduran immigrant children have been unlawfully detained at a youth facility in Virginia for more than 300 days, the American Civil Liberties Union alleged in a lawsuit filed on Tuesday.
According to the complaint, the two siblings — a 16-year-old boy and a 15-year-old girl who lawyers say both fled gang violence in Honduras — have remained in the custody of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) despite “the existence of a fully vetted and approved sponsor.”
The lawsuit alleges that the government agency, which operates under the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has “repeatedly delayed reunification through shifting technical and immaterial objections to sponsorship paperwork.”
According to the complaint, a close family friend stepped forward to sponsor them upon their arrival in U.S. in July 2025. By October 2025, federal officials had allegedly completed a positive home study and background checks, and recorded that “no documents are pending” in the case.
But instead of releasing the children, government officials “repeatedly” reopened the sponsorship process over minor clerical details, the lawsuit alleges.
The minors are being detained at Youth For Tomorrow, a Christian-based organization that provided services to unaccompanied migrant children. The ACLU said in the complaint that the delays in processing sponsor paperwork “are part of an escalating pattern” by the Office of Refugee Resettlement “to prevent children from being released.”
The two siblings, according to the lawsuit, have “documented educational accommodation plans and require specialized educational and developmental services” that they are not receiving while in custody.
A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services told ABC News that the Office of Refugee Resettlement does not comment on active litigation. Youth For Tomorrow did not respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
The lawsuit comes as the average stay for unaccompanied minors in ORR custody has grown from 30 days in 2024 to 117 days in 2025 under the Trump administration’s ongoing immigration crackdown.
“ORR is choosing chaos and confusion for the children in its care over safety and stability,” Sophia Gregg, an attorney with the ACLU of Virginia, said in a statement. “ORR is tasked with facilitating the safe and speedy release of unaccompanied children in its care, but instead of following the law, it’s choosing to advance the Trump administration’s cruel, anti-immigrant agenda and causing irreparable harm to children in the process.”
