(MEMPHIS, Tenn.) — A man accused of trespassing at the home of the Memphis, Tennessee, mayor has been charged with attempted kidnapping and stalking, according to police, who said the suspect had a Taser, gloves, rope and duct tape in his vehicle at the time of his arrest.
The suspect was apprehended and charged after police investigated “suspicious activity” in Mayor Paul Young’s neighborhood, the Memphis Police Department said Wednesday.
“On Sunday night, around 9:30 pm, a man jumped a wall leading into our subdivision,” Young said in a statement. “We now know that he walked straight to our home, knocking on the door with gloves on, a full pocket, and a nervous demeanor.”
Surveillance footage showed that the individual went directly to the mayor’s residence upon scaling the wall and did not approach any other home in the neighborhood, according to the Memphis Police Department.
The suspect — 25-year-old Trenton Abston — has been charged with attempted kidnapping, stalking and aggravated criminal trespass, police said. He is detained at the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office jail and is scheduled to appear in court on Friday, online jail records show. It is unclear if he has an attorney at this time.
The Memphis Police Department credited the “rapid response” of its officers and the surveillance footage throughout the neighborhood with quickly identifying, locating and arresting the suspect.
“We understand the concerns raised by this incident and want to reassure the public that the Memphis Police Department remains fully committed to the safety of all residents, including our city’s elected officials,” the department said in a press release. “We take any potential threat seriously and will continue to act swiftly and thoroughly.”
The incident comes amid heightened concerns over violence against elected officials, after two Minnesota lawmakers and their spouses were shot on Saturday in what prosecutors called “political assassinations.” Democratic Minnesota state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, were killed, and Democratic state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, were wounded in the attacks.
Young, who has served as Memphis’ mayor since January 2024, cited the Minnesota shootings while making a plea that political violence “cannot become our norm.”
“In today’s climate, especially after the tragic events in Minnesota and the threats my wife and I often receive online, none of us can be too careful,” Young said in a statement on Instagram while sharing a photo of him and his family. “The link between angry online rhetoric and real-life violence is becoming undeniable.”
“Let’s do better,” he added. “Let’s raise our discourse, reduce the hate, and protect one another — no matter our beliefs. Let’s reclaim our strength as one community. Let’s choose love.”
(WASHINGTON) — The world is waiting for President Donald Trump’s decision on whether the U.S. will join Israel in military action to wipe out Tehran’s nuclear facilities.
As he weighs his options, Trump is being squeezed by different pressures from forces at home and abroad.
The president huddled with advisers in the Situation Room twice already this week, and was set to do so again on Thursday. He approved attack plans presented to him but was waiting to see if Iran would be willing to negotiate and hasn’t made a final decision, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
Moving ahead with military action would be a departure from Trump’s “America First” campaign pledge to keep the U.S. out of foreign entanglements. The possibility he may do so has prompted a sharp rift in his Republican base of supporters.
Hawkish members of the GOP are pushing for Trump to take aggressive action rather than pursue diplomacy. Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, during an interview on Fox News earlier this week, said the U.S. needs to “finish the job” with Iran.
Meanwhile, hugely popular MAGA media figures like Tucker Carlson and Steve Bannon who helped propel Trump’s movement in 2016 and in 2024 are calling for restraint.
A poll out on Wednesday from Fox News found voters split on the issues Trump is facing. A majority of registered voters surveyed believe Israel’s strikes on Iran’s nuclear program would result in more danger. But a majority also believes Iran poses a national security threat to the U.S.
Trump, in response to the disagreement among his base, says his supporters are “more in love” with him than ever.
Democrats in Congress are raising their own concerns over Trump’s war power authority. Sen Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat, moved to limit Trump’s powers by introducing a floor resolution that would require approval from Congress before the U.S. could get involved in a military conflict with Iran.
On the world stage, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is trying to press Trump to join the fray, arguing it’s in America’s interest.
“Today, it’s Tel Aviv. Tomorrow, it’s New York. Look, I understand ‘America First’. I don’t understand ‘America Dead.’ That’s what these people want,” Netanyahu told ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl last week.
Netanyahu pointedly added, “We’re not just fighting our enemy. We’re fighting your enemy. For God’s sake, they chant, “death to Israel, death to America.” We’re simply on their way. And this could reach America soon.”
Iran, however, and its allies (Russia and China) are pushing against U.S. involvement. Tehran has warned any action would be met with retaliation.
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday: “The Americans should know, the Iranian nation will not surrender, and any intervention by the U.S. will be met with a forceful response and irreparable damage.”
“War will be met with war, bombing with bombing, and strike with strike. Iran will not submit to any demands or dictates,” Khamenei said.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, testifying before a Senate subcommittee on Wednesday, said the U.S. military was “ready and prepared” to carry out any decision Trump will make.
Hegseth told lawmakers that Trump “has options and is informed of what those options might be, and what the ramifications of those options might be.” He also said that “maximum force protection at all times is being maintained” for American troops in the region.
Trump offered a clue into his decision-making process as he took reporter questions in the Oval Office on Wednesday afternoon.
“I like to make the final decision one second before it’s due, because things change, especially with war,” the president said.
Leah Lendel was snorkeling near Boca Grande on June 11 when “something hard bit me and then tried to tug me away,” she said at a news conference Thursday alongside her parents and the doctors who treated her.
“Then I pick up my hand and it’s all in blood,” Leah said. “Then I started screaming with my mom.”
“There was so much blood in the water right next to me,” Leah’s mom, Nadia Lendel, said at the news conference. “In an instant, I knew it’s a shark attack.”
“I just started to scream to my husband,” Nadia Lendel recalled. Meanwhile, Leah’s “instincts kicked in” and she ran out of the water, her mom said.
“Then my dad was with me,” Leah said. “He picked me up and we ran to the road.”
Leah’s parents expressed their gratitude for the construction workers who were eating lunch on the beach and immediately ran to help them call 911 and put Leah’s arm in a tourniquet. Leah’s dad said EMS then responded within minutes.
Tampa General Hospital doctors praised the first responders for choosing to fly the two hours in the helicopter to their hospital where they said they had the expertise to help Leah within the six-hour window to save the tendons, tissue and muscle.
Doctors said they operated on Leah’s hand less than an hour after she came through the hospital doors.
At the hospital, “I was trying to hold myself together,” said Leah’s dad, Jay Lendel. “I think I was crying more than she was.”
Tampa General Hospital Dr. Alfred Hess said luckily a shark bite is not jagged, but leaves a clean cut on the wrist that doesn’t ruin all the tissue.
First Leah’s bone was stabilized and then doctors said they worked on blood flow. Some blood vessels were taken from Leah’s leg to help get blood flow back to her hand, the doctors said.
Leah will next undergo physical therapy, her doctors said, and eventually the pins in her hand will be removed.
“I’m just thankful for everybody,” Jay Lendel said. “I’m just very thankful she’s alive.”
Meanwhile, another shark bite was reported on Tuesday on Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.
The victim suffered a non-life-threatening injury to the leg and was airlifted to a hospital in Savannah, Georgia, according to the Hilton Head Island Fire Rescue.
There were 28 unprovoked shark bites in the U.S. last year, according to the Florida Museum of Natural History’s International Shark Attack File. Florida recorded the most with 14; South Carolina had two.
Just one shark attack in the U.S. last year — which occurred in Hawaii — was fatal, ISAF said.
Antoinette Reeder (left), Shae Anderson (center) and Audrey Kray have documented what they say are unhealthy living conditions in privatized military housing. ABC News
(WASHINGTON) — Moving cross-country from the Carolinas to California, the Reeder family looked forward to its next assignment in San Diego in the summer of 2022. The couple had originally met in California.
But in the first week, after the Marine Corps Gunnery Sergeant and his family had settled into their new home, they had to move out and into a hotel temporarily.
“The first thing you know, military families want to see is, where can my furniture fit?” Antoinette Reeder, whose husband has served for nearly 19 years, told ABC News. Before they unloaded any furniture, Reeder said she started to notice an ant infestation and a strong musty smell coming from the bathroom. She said that was her first hint that mold could be in the home.
Reeder said she knew the smell because she faced similar issues in their former military housing on the East Coast.
“I already knew the protocol,” Reeder said. “[…] When we moved in here, though, we were given a card that said that our home was inspected by a military housing inspector. And it was passed off. It was checked with the box that it passed. And it was just astonishing to me.”
“If it’s happening in all of these different places, this has gotta be a really big issue,” Reeder said.
Issues, such as water intrusion and mold, within their privatized military-provided housing has caused eight home remediations for the family in nearly three years, Reeder said. The repairs are often disruptive. The family says their children have suffered from rashes and respiratory issues.
Reeder said she feels healthier and breathes easier when she leaves her home. She has had her home tested independently for mold and used moisture meters to monitor conditions firsthand.
“My husband’s command has been very helpful, but they’re not involved,” said Reeder, outlining the rigorous process to file disputes involving a series of offices with both the military advocates and private companies that extends beyond servicemembers’ direct leadership.
Some families dealing with similar issues say they often have to pay out of their pockets for expenses that result from displacements. This is a problem currently for Shae Anderson, another military spouse of a Navy chief petty officer, also located in San Diego.
Anderson said her family is in its third housing remediation in a home they moved into in October 2024. They have lived through the disruptions of other home repairs while stationed at military installations. She said her youngest child struggles with rashes and conjunctivitis, which she believes may be caused by exposure to mold in their military homes. Other members of her family have struggled with respiratory symptoms, Anderson added.
“Our experiences have been traumatizing, and we have had so many disruptions to our quality of life,” Anderson told ABC News. “Our children have had to move schools, my husband’s career has been impacted and our family has suffered so much financial loss due to it all.”
While living in San Diego, Anderson and Reeder met and bonded over a common problem, mold in their homes. Along with the two women, Audrey Kray, the wife of a Marine Corps Staff Sergeant, has also been involved in bringing awareness through the nonprofit, “Safe Military Housing Initiative.” The military wives have binders documenting deteriorating conditions and what they describe as substandard housing.
Anderson’s son drew a heart on her notebook binder, which she says, “it’s just a little reminder, every time I go to my notebook and I’m going through and reliving the horror experience we’ve been through, the reason that I’m fighting. And that’s for my kids. I also want every service member and their family to have a safe home.”
These families have lived in homes managed by Liberty Military Housing, the largest employee-owned and Navy and Marine Corps housing provider.
“In my instance, it shouldn’t have taken four homes, three moves, two displacements over 15 months. That should have been day one for us,” said Kray.
“It’s very challenging when husbands are deployed or off on training and you’re going through these housing experiences,” Kray said.
All three women have worked with military advocates who lean on the private housing companies that own these homes to come and fix the problems.
Liberty, their landlord, have offered each family new housing while remediating their properties, but they keep facing similar housing issues, the families said.
The military spouses also told ABC News that the disruption of having to pack again and change homes alone is a challenge after moving bases and assignments. In one instance, Reeder said she noticed mold behind vanities that were being replaced by contractors, alarming her and prompting assistance from the district office and an environmental team to conduct tests.
The issues date back nearly three decades, to the Military Housing Privatization Initiative of 1996. When the Department of Defense got out of the housing business with the MHPI, it was trying to solve a major problem. Government reports from the time showed that a majority of military homes already needed significant repairs. The agreements with the private industry were made because those housing companies offered better expertise than the U.S. military to renovate or replace inadequate housing. And according to congressional research, the government gave the companies contracts that are sometimes 50 years long, to incentivize the massive undertaking. In creating the agreements, the privatized contracts affect how far the government can push these companies to take certain actions today.
In 2023, the U.S. Government Accountability Office identified several unresolved concerns with the Military Housing Privatization Initiative. One of them was the need for a more formal dispute resolution process. GAO also raised that some of the private housing companies may be lacking compliance with elements of the Tenant Bill of Rights established in 2020, among other recommendations.
“I know firsthand that our warfighters cannot deliver if they are sidelined by problems at home, especially those that can negatively affect health and quality of life,” Assistant Secretary of Defense Dale Marks said in a statement to ABC News. “Secretary Hegseth and I are committed to rebuilding military readiness and appreciate the support from Congressional committees to make much-needed housing reforms.”
Today, there are about 14 private companies with MHPI contracts that provide about 200,000 homes for service members and their families.
Through what’s called the Basic Allowance for Housing (BAH), the majority of servicemembers receive a tax-free housing allowance, which helps them cover the cost of rent. BAH rates vary due to rank, whether the servicemember has dependents, and the geographical location of the current duty assignment.
Current BAH policies are intended to cover 95% of estimated home costs in the civilian market, but in most cases, the money stretches the farthest in military housing, compared to housing for rent in the civilian world. Some DOD officials and military families have questioned whether the BAH rates for some locations are enough, according to congressional research conducted in 2023.
For many of these families dealing with mold and other issues, they feel they can’t afford to leave military housing.
“We would have to move very far away from where my husband works in order to afford anything,” said Reeder, who raised concerns with the rising costs of the housing market in Southern California.
These military wives said factors like commute time, distance from medical providers and school districts influence families’ decisions to stay in the surrounding base area, in addition to the benefit of community living near other servicemembers and their families.
In response to the experiences of these families in San Diego, the chief executive officer Philip Rizzo of Liberty Military Housing told ABC News in an interview, “We’re not profiting off military families by cutting corners.”
Rizzo stressed that these complaints are not the “norm” with properties under Liberty’s management.
“I think the challenge with 36,000 homes nationwide is if we’re 99% right, that means there is 360 families that aren’t having a good experience. That’s a large number, right?” Rizzo said. “And I would expect if we’re 1/10 of 1% that’s a large number, and our goal is to be zero. We want everybody to be satisfied. We want everybody to be happy in their home.”
As an Army veteran and son of a career U.S. Air Force officer, who grew up in military housing, Rizzo emphasized he didn’t want anyone living in an environment where they are becoming sick. He emphasized that since the 2019 congressional hearings about these concerns, the government has added more oversight over companies like Liberty, focusing on identifying gaps in the repair processes.
He says Liberty Military Housing has since implemented new training for its workers and contractors, and says the company has an average maintenance response time that beats anything in the civilian world. He also points out that his tenants have a formal dispute process internally and can also be navigated with a military resident advocate.
“We’re going to do what we can, following industry guidance and guidelines to eliminate any hazards or risk in the home,” Rizzo said.
Rizzo told ABC News that he knows there will be challenges with both new builds and older houses. He said Liberty Military Housing is committed to responding quickly and effectively to minimize disruption for families.
Reeder hopes for change. “This isn’t just us complaining about ‘we have mold’ and ‘our house is dirty,'” she said. “We have scientific results showing this is a problem and it’s affecting our health.”
(OAXACA, Mexico) — Hurricane Erick, which rapidly intensified overnight, made landfall Thursday morning on Mexico’s Pacific Coast as a powerful Category 3 storm, the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) said.
Erick came ashore in Mexico’s western state of Oaxaca packing sustained winds of 125 mph and heavy rain, accordin to the NHC.
The hurricane was located on Thursday morning about 20 miles east of Punta Maldonado and was moving northwest at about 9 mph, according to the NHC.
Before making landfall, the Erick had spooled up to an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 storm on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, but was downgraded to a Cat 3 before making landfall, the NHC center reported.
Erick is the first Pacific Category 3 hurricane on record to make landfall over Mexico in June.
A hurricane warning remained in effect Thursday from Acapulco to Puerto Angel.
It remained unclear if villages along Mexico’s populated Pacific Coast had sustained damaged. There have been no immediate reports of deaths or injuries.
The major hurricane appeared to hit he coastline between the resort towns of Acapulco and Puerto Escondido in an area near the border of Oaxaca and Guerrero states, according to the NHC.
As it sweeps across the state of Oaxaca, Erick is expected to slam parts of the region with strong winds and heavy rain for most of Thursday before weakening over land by Friday.
Erick will produce heavy rainfall up to 6 to 8 inches across southeastern Guerrero and west-coastal Oaxaca through Friday and likely trigger life-threatening flash flooding and mudslides — especially in areas of steep terrain.
Erick formed as a tropical storm early Tuesday in the Pacific Ocean near southern Mexico and rapidly intensified, reaching hurricane strength by Wednesday, according to the NHC.
Glen Stubbe/The Minnesota Star Tribune via Getty Images
(MINNEAPOLIS) — Minnesota state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife are crediting their daughter Hope for “saving countless other lives” on the night the couple was shot and wounded at their home in what prosecutors called an assassination attempt.
“Without Hope, we wouldn’t be here right now,” the Democratic state senator and his wife said in a statement on Wednesday, according to Minneapolis ABC affiliate KSTP. “Our daughter’s quick instincts and wherewithal to state that her dad is Senator John Hoffman when she called 911 led the police getting to the Hortman’s so quickly and saving countless other lives.”
Vance Boelter is accused of shooting and wounding John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, at their house in Champlin, Minnesota, as well as shooting and killing state Rep. Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, at their home in nearby Brooklyn Park early Saturday morning, authorities said. Boelter allegedly showed up to their doors impersonating a police officer, officials said.
But two other lawmakers were spared the night of the shootings, according to acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota Joseph Thompson.
After Boelter allegedly shot the Hoffmans, prosecutors said he drove to a state representative’s house in Maple Grove. That lawmaker was not home as she and her family were on vacation, Thompson said, and Boelter left the scene.
Boelter then allegedly drove to a state senator’s home in New Hope and parked on the street, Thompson said.
After learning of the shooting at Hoffman’s home, New Hope police dispatched an officer to the New Hope lawmaker’s house, Thompson said. When the officer arrived, she saw Boelter’s car parked down the block and she believed Boelter was an officer dispatched to the scene, Thompson said.
The officer pulled up next to Boelter, rolled down her window and tried to speak with him, but he did not respond and stared straight ahead, Thompson said. So the New Hope officer drove to the state senator’s home and waited for other law enforcement, and by that time, Boelter had left the scene, Thompson said.
When two Brooklyn Park officers arrived at the Hortmans’, they saw Boelter’s SUV in the driveway with emergency lights flashing and Boelter standing in front of the house, Thompson said.
Boelter saw the officers and allegedly started shooting and running into the house, killing Melissa Hortman and her husband, Thompson said.
The officers fired at Boelter as he allegedly rushed into the home, Thompson said, but the suspect escaped into the house and out the back.
Boelter, who was arrested Sunday night, allegedly had a list of 45 elected officials in notebooks in his car, Thompson said.
He faces federal charges including stalking and firearms charges and state charges including first-degree murder, officials said.
The Hoffmans are recovering from their injuries. John Hoffman was shot nine times and Yvette was shot eight times, Yvette said, according to a message released by Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar.
(LONDON) — The repercussions of Israel’s surprise campaign against Iran’s nuclear program and military leadership launched last Friday were evident within hours.
“We are racking up achievements,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said after the opening salvo, which appeared to have devastated Iran’s anti-aircraft defense network and decapitated its military, killing many among the top brass, according to Israeli officials.
Netanyahu, his top officials and the Israel Defense Forces have made clear some of their war goals — the destruction of Iran’s nuclear program plus the erasure of the country’s ballistic missile arsenal.
But, as in Israel’s operations in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, there are already signs of “rapid mission creep” in Iran, Julie Norman, a senior associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute think tank in the U.K., told ABC News.
Iran’s weakened defense has prompted fresh questions about “regime change” — long a priority for Iran hawks in Israel and the U.S. seeking to topple Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the theocratic system he heads. Critics of such a policy, though, warn that government collapse in Iran could unleash regional chaos.
“The record of regime change is not great, to say the least,” Yossi Mekelberg of the Chatham House think tank in the U.K. told ABC News, warning that the regime’s collapse would more likely produce a dangerous power vacuum in Iran than a coherent and pliant successor.
“You want to experiment with chaos? Well, good luck,” Mekelberg said.
The nuclear front
Netanyahu faces significant challenges to achieve his two expressed goals — an end to Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile threats.
On the nuclear front, Israel has inflicted damage at several of Iran’s key sites. The International Atomic Energy Agency has reported damage to surface facilities at the Natanz and Isfahan enrichment sites. On Tuesday, IAEA chief Rafael Grossi said the body “identified additional elements that indicate direct impacts on the underground enrichment halls at Natanz.”
But Israel does not have the capabilities needed to destroy the Fordow enrichment plant — where the IAEA says no damage has been reported — which is built deep inside a mountain outside the city of Qom. Only American strategic bombers could deliver a payload capable of punching through up to 300 feet of mountain to reach the underground facility.
Netanyahu is trying to press the White House into intervention.
“Today, it’s Tel Aviv, tomorrow, it’s New York,” the prime minister told ABC News Chief Washington Correspondent Jonathan Karl on Monday.
Trump responded to Israel’s opening attacks by calling for Iran to return to negotiations over its nuclear program. He has since dismissed talk of a ceasefire, said he wants a “real end” to the Iran nuclear issue and warned residents of Tehran — of whom there are around 17 million in the wider metropolitan area — to evacuate.
On Tuesday, Trump raised the prospect of killing Khamenei and wrote on his social media platform that “we now have complete and total control of the skies over Iran,” while lauding the impact of U.S. weaponry. The president has also demanded “unconditional surrender,” a concept Iran’s supreme leader rejected.
Despite Trump’s rhetoric, the U.S. has not joined Israel in attacking Iran offensively. Last year the U.S. twice assisted Israel in helping to shoot down Iranian drones and ballistic missiles Iran had launched in retaliation for Israeli attacks in Syria and Tehran. This marked the first time the U.S. actively participated in Israel’s defense, which has historically taken the form of weapons sales, transfers and intelligence sharing support.
As the conflict escalated this week, the U.S. deployed additional fighter jets and refueling tankers to the Middle East. The USS Nimitz aircraft carrier has also been diverted to the region, to join the USS Carl Vinson carrier which was already deployed there. The deployments, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said, are “intended to enhance our defensive posture in the region.”
President Trump told top advisers Tuesday that he approved attack plans for Iran that were presented to him, but said he was waiting to see if Iran would be willing to discuss ending their nuclear program and has not made a final decision on US involvement in the conflict, sources familiar with the matter said. The news of the attack plan approval was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.
“As President Trump said himself today, all options remain on the table,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Tuesday.
Without destroying Fordow, Mekelberg said, the job of neutralizing Tehran’s nuclear program will be incomplete. “If you want to set it three years back, that is not a good enough reason to go for a war of such scale,” he said.
“If the idea was to push Iran to the negotiation table and to scare them — the Iranians are not easily scared. They fought eight years with Iraq in a much inferior situation, and they prevailed. This is not Hezbollah, this is not Hamas, this is not Islamic Jihad.”
Sina Toossi, a senior non-resident fellow at the Center for International Policy think tank, told ABC News that Israel and the U.S. — if Trump opts to engage militarily against Iran — could face a “quagmire.”
“To verifiably destroy what they’ve said they want to destroy, they need boots on the ground eventually,” Toossi said, referring to Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Ballistic missiles
Erasing Iran’s ballistic missile threat is another key goal, Netanyahu has said. The IDF claims to have destroyed at least one-third of Iran’s launch vehicles, along with an unknown number of stockpiled missiles.
The IDF estimated that Tehran started the conflict with 2,000 missiles and as of Tuesday had fired around 400 toward Israel. The number will have been further eroded by ongoing IDF strikes across the country.
“That capacity is going to be weakened,” Norman said, though added that Iran has “a pretty deep arsenal, and I think those will keep coming for some time.”
Toossi noted that American involvement would raise the stakes for Tehran, which still has the capacity to hit American and allied targets in Iraq, across the Persian Gulf and elsewhere. If faced with an existential conflict, “they can inflict a lot of damage in their periphery,” Toossi said.
As time wears on, the burden on Israeli and U.S. anti-missile systems will grow, Toossi said. Interceptor missiles are finite and expensive, plus their production takes time. “There’s an economics to this warfare right now that’s not necessarily in the favor of Israel and the U.S..” Toossi said.
“I think there’s sometimes an overestimation as to how quickly other groups will surrender, or in this case other states will surrender,” Norman said of Netanyahu and his government. While Israel sees its conflicts as existential, so do its enemies, Norman added.
Regime change
Pushing for regime change — a goal the IDF has explicitly denied and Netanyahu has dodged questions on — might prove the biggest gamble of Israel’s attack, experts told ABC News.
Such a policy makes two assumptions, Mekelberg said. “First, that you can bring down the regime, and second, that you’ll get the people that you want.”
Indeed, the 1979 revolution that birthed the Islamic Republic “started with the liberals, not with the religious,” Mekelberg said. “Look how it ended.”
“In any such episode, there is the best case scenario — which usually doesn’t happen — and there is the worst-case scenario,” he said. “And in between, there is the war with its own dynamics and momentum.”
Even if the regime is at risk of collapse, it would be hard to say when. Israel, Mekelberg said, will need to be prepared for an open-ended war of attrition with levels of destruction inside the country that “people are not used to seeing.”
Netanyahu has repeatedly appealed to the people of Iran to act against the government in Tehran. “This is your opportunity to stand up,” he said over the weekend.
But a population under fire may have different priorities. “People are going to be focusing on surviving and getting out, not on starting a revolution,” Norman said.
Continued attacks may also produce a rallying effect. “Many people do not like the Islamic Republic, the theocracy. But Iranians, despite their disgruntlement with the government, when it comes to Iran, its sovereignty, its stability, its territorial integrity, there’s a strong sense of nationalism across the board from secular to religious, to young to old,” Toossi said. “And that is really being stirred right now.”
Skylar Thomson of the Human Rights Activists in Iran NGO — which is based in the U.S. — told ABC News there is a “real atmosphere of fear” among Iranians she is in contact with.
“In the initial days, people were seeing the assassinations of these Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commanders that were notoriously cruel” and considered “the leading oppressors in their world,” Thomson said. But fear and uncertainty have spread as hospitals, residential areas, infrastructure and other non-military targets have been attacked, she added.
“You’re talking about a population of people that are already struggling because of external matters,” Thomson said. “And this is just another layer of that.”
ABC News’ Katherine Faulders and Luis Martinez contributed to this report.
(SEATTLE) — A fugitive who has been on the run for more than six weeks after escaping authorities at an airport while being transported across state lines has been captured, authorities said.
The incident began almost seven weeks ago on May 4 when 29-year-old Sedric Stevenson was in the custody of contracted agents at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport and was being transported to Kentucky so he could face outstanding warrants that had been issued to him there when he vanished, according to a statement from the U.S. Marshals Office of Public Affairs in the Western District of Washington.
Stevenson, who was wanted in the State of Kentucky on multiple charges — including convicted felon in possession of a firearm, assault in the third degree and enhanced possession of a controlled substance in the first degree (methamphetamine) — subsequently managed to avoid law enforcement for 45 days before he was caught on Wednesday in Seattle by U.S. Marshals while they were serving an arrest warrant in the 1400 block of Madison Street, police said.
“This arrest sends a clear message: no matter how long it takes or how far someone runs, justice will catch up with them. Our deputies and taskforce officers worked tirelessly and with unwavering dedication to bring Stevenson back into custody. The community can rest easier, knowing a dangerous fugitive is no longer on the streets” said U.S. Marshal Donrien Stephens.
Stevenson’s arrest was a collaborative effort between state and local partners along with the U.S. Marshals Service Western Kentucky Fugitive Task Force, officials said.
(MOSCOW, Idaho) — Newly surfaced bodycam footage from last year shows an interview with a woman claiming to be a DoorDash driver, who says she saw murder suspect Bryan Kohberger while she was dropping off food just moments before police say four University of Idaho college students were slain in 2022.
In the video, the woman, who is wrapped in a gray blanket, is being questioned in a holding facility in Pullman, Washington, in connection with an unrelated incident.
The woman in the video claims she dropped off food at the King Road home in Moscow, Idaho, shortly before Ethan Chapin, Kaylee Goncalves, Madison Mogen and Xana Kernodle were stabbed to death.
In the video, the woman is heard saying, “Now I have to testify in that big murder case here, ’cause I’m the DoorDash driver.”
When asked to clarify which case, she says, the “murder case with the college girls … I’m the DoorDash driver. I saw Bryan there. I parked next to him.”
Idaho authorities have said it was Kernodle who placed the order and received her delivery around 4 a.m. on Nov. 13, 2022. Police believe the murders took place shortly after — between 4:07 a.m. and 4:20 a.m.
Cmdr. Ruben Harris, with the Pullman Police Department, confirmed to ABC News that the bodycam video is authentic and that it was taken in September 2024. The woman’s charge was amended to first-degree negligent driving, and she pleaded guilty, according to authorities.
Pullman is located about 10 miles west of Moscow.
Kohberger, a criminology Ph.D. student at nearby Washington State University at the time of the murders, was arrested in December 2022. He’s charged with four counts of first-degree murder and one count of burglary, and a not guilty plea has been entered on his behalf.
(SEOUL and LONDON) — North Korea launched “more than a dozen” rockets on Thursday morning, the South Korean Ministry of Defense said.
The rockets were launched at about 10 a.m. local time from the Sun’an area of North Korea’s capital, Pyongyang, the ministry said, adding that “the details are being analyzed by the Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities.”
“Our military maintains the ability and posture to respond overwhelmingly to any provocation while paying attention to various trends in North Korea under a strong joint defense posture between Korea and the United States so that North Korea does not misjudge in the current security situation,” the ministry said in a statement.
South Korean news agency Yonhap reported that the rockets were fired into the Yellow Sea, which is known in the south as the West Sea.
