(AUSTIN, Texas) — The measles outbreak in western Texas is continuing to grow with 18 cases confirmed over the last five days, bringing the total to 327 cases, according to new data published Tuesday.
Nearly all of the cases are in unvaccinated individuals or in individuals whose vaccination status is unknown, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS). At least 40 people have been hospitalized so far.
Just two cases have occurred in people fully vaccinated with the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine, according to the data.
In the Texas outbreak, children and teenagers between ages 5 and 17 make up the majority of cases at 140, followed by children ages 4 and under accounting for 105 cases, according to the data.
“Due to the highly contagious nature of this disease, additional cases are likely to occur in the outbreak area and the surrounding communities. DSHS is working with local health departments to investigate the outbreak,” the department said in a press release.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(POLK COUNTY, N.C.) — As firefighters continued to battle three stubborn North Carolina wildfires in the same county, a breezy and dry forecast for the danger zones is threatening to spread the flames, officials said.
The three fires, including two that have overlapped, are in steep, rugged terrain in Polk County that is covered with downed trees and dry vegetation left over from Hurricane Helene that swept through the area in September, authorities said.
As of Tuesday morning, the fires, now being referred to collectively as the Black Cove Complex, have burned more than 5,700 acres of forest land about 40 miles southeast of Asheville, officials said.
Two of the blazes, the Black Cove Fire and the Deep Woods Fires, both remain 0% contained, the Polk County Government said in a statement Monday evening.
The Black Cove Fire, which started on March 19 about 2 miles northeast of the community of Saluda, had grown by more than 2,000 acres by Monday. The Deep Woods Fire, which also began on March 19 about 5 miles northwest of Columbus, had burned more than 2,500 acres as of Monday evening, officials said. Mandatory evacuation orders issued for both fires remained in effect on Tuesday morning.
“The fire is burning in timber on steep terrain and is currently 0% contained,” fire officials said of the Deep Woods Fire.
Firefighters, who have been prioritizing protecting structures, reported Tuesday that no structures are under imminent threat. No injuries have been reported from any of the blazes.
The third fire in Polk County is the Fish Hook Fire, which started on March 20, near Lake Adger, about 5 miles northwest of Mill Springs, was 50% contained on Monday evening after burning about 200 acres, officials said.
A small amount of rain was recorded in Polk County on Monday, but it had little effect on the fires, officials said.
Meteorologist Ashley Rehnberg of the National Weather Service office in Greer, South Carolina, told ABC News that rainfall totals in Polk County from Monday’s cold front ranged from .03 inches to .08 inches.
North Carolina residents remain under a statewide ban on outdoor burning.
Fire danger for Polk County is expected to go up on Wednesday afternoon as wind gusts of 30 to 40 mph are forecast. Winds are expected to die down on Thursday.
Wildfires extended into neighboring South Carolina, where Gov. Henry McMaster declared a state of emergency on Saturday.
A wildfire in the Table Rock State Park on the South Carolina-North Carolina border started on Friday night and quickly spread to more than 1,000 acres by Monday, according to the Pickens County Sheriff’s Office.
“Evacuations remain in effect at this time. No further evacuations are expected. Residents are advised to remain aware of the situation by monitoring local news and social media and be prepared to evacuate if it should become necessary,” according to a statement from the sheriff’s office.
ABC News’ Kenton Gewecke contributed to this report.
(PIERCE COUNTY, Wash.) — A 28-year-old woman is missing after she and her dog fell into a Washington state river, the Pierce County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement Monday.
Zuleika Witron was hiking with her girlfriend and two dogs on Sunday when she and one of the dogs fell off the Fairfax Bridge and into the Carbon River in Washington, located in Mount Rainier National Park, police said.
The woman’s girlfriend “witnessed her being swept away in the heavy current and attempted to grab her before being swept away in the rapids,” police said.
Police said a water rescue team responded to the scene, accompanied by drones searching for Witron and her dog.
The area’s sharp rocks, steep inclines, thick brush and slippery conditions made it difficult for rescue teams to access, police said.
The dog was located about a quarter mile downstream and was returned to Witron’s girlfriend, police said.
Authorities continued to search 1.5 miles down the river for Witron, but she has not been found, police said.
A Coast Guard helicopter was requested and initially en route to the scene, but the “visibility became too limited to operate safely,” police said.
“For every minute that’s passing by, it’s not being helpful for us,” Pierce County Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer Carly Cappetto told Seattle ABC affiliate KOMO.
The initial search was suspended at approximately 6:13 p.m. on Sunday, police said.
On Monday, authorities said drones have continued to search for Witron and the “search and rescue mission has now been changed to a recovery mission.”
If the weather permits, officials will attempt to get “air assets to survey the canyon” for Witron, police said.
Witron’s sister said on Tuesday the family is now offering a $10,000 reward for anyone who is able to locate her.
Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Officials with the White House’s National Security Council say they “are reviewing” how a journalist could have been “inadvertently” added to an 18-member group chat that included several of the nation’s top military officials.
Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, wrote in a piece published Monday that he was added to a group chat in the commercially available Signal app in which officials, including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and national security adviser Mike Waltz, were discussing impeding strikes on Houthi militants in Yemen. Goldberg said he was apparently added to the chat by Waltz.
President Donald Trump on Tuesday appeared to remain confident in Waltz, saying “Michael Waltz has learned a lesson and is a good man,” according to NBC News.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed the review on Tuesday, but said that that “no ‘war plans’ were discussed.” She added that no classified material was sent to Signal group chat.
“The White House Counsel’s Office has provided guidance on a number of different platforms for President Trump’s top officials to communicate as safely and efficiently as possible,” she said.
“At this time, the message thread that was reported appears to be authentic, and we are reviewing how an inadvertent number was added to the chain,” NSC spokesperson Brian Hughes said in a statement, which was sent to ABC News after first being published by The Atlantic.
The scope of the review, including whether it would attempt to determine why high-level discussions about military planning were taking place outside of official channels, was not immediately clear from Hughes’ statement.
Democrats in Congress voiced their concern, with House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries calling for an investigation, saying in a statement that the use of a non-classified text app “is completely outrageous and shocks the conscience.”
“If House Republicans are truly serious about keeping America safe, and not simply being sycophants and enablers, they must join Democrats in a swift, serious and substantive investigation into this unacceptable and irresponsible national security breach,” Jeffries said.
Minority Leader Chuck Schumer echoed Jeffries’ statement in a floor statement in the Senate on Monday.
“Mr. President, this is one of the most stunning breaches of military intelligence I have read about in a very, very long time,” Schumer said.
The group chat included Vice President JD Vance, according to Goldberg’s reporting, and that it was spun up prior to a U.S. military operation that Trumpordered against the militant Houthis, whom the U.S. says are backed by Iran.
Goldberg told ABC News on Monday he initially thought it might have been a “spoof” or “hoax,” but that “it became sort of overwhelmingly clear to me that this was a real group” once the attack occurred.
Trump, when first asked about the report on Monday, said at the time he didn’t “know anything about it.”
When asked about the story on Monday, Hegseth told reporters that he had “heard how it was characterized.”
He added, “Nobody was texting war plans, and that’s all I have to say about that.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
ABC News’ Fritz Farrow, Luis Martinez, Lauren Peller, Lalee Ibssa, Isabella Murray and Meredith Deliso contributed to this report.
Valeria Zarudna/Suspilne Ukraine/JSC “UA:PBC”/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images
(LONDON) — Following separate talks with the United States in Saudi Arabia this week, Russia and Ukraine have agreed to “eliminate the use of force” in the Black Sea, according to readouts from the White House.
Russia and Ukraine “have agreed to ensure safe navigation, eliminate the use of force, and prevent the use of commercial vessels for military purposes in the Black Sea,” according to the readouts.
They both also agreed to “develop measures to implement the agreement to ban strikes against energy facilities in Russia and Ukraine,” according to the readouts.
All parties are working toward “achieving a durable and lasting peace,” they noted.
The White House made a specific agreement with Ukraine over the exchange of prisoners of war, according to a readout on the Ukrainian talks in Riyadh.
“The United States and Ukraine agreed that the United States remains committed to helping achieve the exchange of prisoners of war, the release of civilian detainees, and the return of forcibly transferred Ukrainian children,” the readout stated.
The White House also made a specific agreement with Russia, focused on agriculture and maritime costs, according to a readout on the Russian talks in Riyadh.
“The United States will help restore Russia’s access to the world market for agricultural and fertilizer exports, lower maritime insurance costs, and enhance access to ports and payment systems for such transaction,” the readout stated.
Monday’s closed-door talks with Russia in Riyadh lasted for 12 hours, a source told Russia’s state-run TASS news agency.
Grigory Karasin, the chairman of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs, who took part in the talks in Riyadh, told Tass that “the dialogue was detailed and complex but quite useful for us and for the Americans.” Karasin added, “We discussed numerous issues.”
A source told the RIA Novosti state media agency that a joint statement on the negotiations was to be issued on Tuesday. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov subsequently said the details of talks between would not be made public.
The talks were expected to include discussions on a potential ceasefire in the Black Sea, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday. That proposal, Peskov said, came from President Donald Trump and was agreed to by Russian President Vladimir Putin.
A proposed pause in long-range attacks on energy and other critical infrastructure targets was also expected to be part of the discussions. Though Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy both agreed to the proposal in principle last week, cross-border strikes had continued.
The U.S.-Russia meeting on Monday came on the heels of a meeting between the American and Ukrainian teams in Riyadh on Sunday. U.S. and Ukrainian representatives also held talks after the American meeting with the Russian team concluded, a source familiar with the discussions told ABC News.
On Monday, responding to another round of Russian missile and drone attacks on Ukrainian cities, Zelenskyy wrote on social media that “the war was brought from Russia and it is to Russia that the war must be pushed back. They must be the ones forced into peace. They are the ones who must be pressured to ensure security.”
On Monday night into Tuesday morning, Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched one missile and 139 drones into the country, of which 78 drones were shot down and 34 lost in flight without causing damage.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces shot down five Ukrainian drones over occupied Crimea.
ABC News’ Anna Sergeeva, Oleksiy Pshemyskiy, Will Gretsky, Ellie Kaufman and Guy Davies contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump said he is confident in his national security adviser, Mike Waltz — a day after a report detailed how he inadvertently added a journalist to a Signal group chat discussing Yemen war plans.
Trump told NBC News on Tuesday that Waltz “has learned a lesson and is a good man.”
The president brushed off concerns about the group chat on the messaging app, which reportedly included operational details about war plans in Yemen — and mistakenly included The Atlantic editor-in-chief Jeffrey Goldberg, according to a report from Goldberg published Monday.
Trump told NBC News that Goldberg’s presence in the chat had “no impact at all” and called the whole ordeal “the only glitch” his administration has faced since Inauguration Day.
Goldberg said he received a Signal invitation from Waltz, who was a member of the group chat. Goldberg said the group chat also appeared to include Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, among others.
White House National Security Council spokesman Brian Hughes told ABC News on Monday that the group chat “appears to be authentic.”
Trump tapped Waltz, a former Florida congressman, to be his national security adviser in November, calling him “a nationally recognized leader in national security” and an “expert on the threats posed by China, Russia, Iran, and global terrorism.”
Waltz is a China hawk and was the first Green Beret elected to Congress. During the presidential campaign, Waltz proved to be a key surrogate for Trump, criticizing the Biden-Harris foreign policy record.
Elected to the House in 2018, Waltz sat on the Intelligence, Armed Services and Foreign Affairs committees. He also serves on the House China Task Force with 13 other Republicans.
Before running for elected office, Waltz served in various national security policy roles in the George W. Bush administration in the Pentagon and White House. He retired as a colonel after serving 27 years in the Army and the National Guard.
ABC News’ Rachel Scott, Benjamin Siegel, Katherine Faulders and John Santucci contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — The Trump administration is refusing to provide a federal judge with any additional information about last week’s deportation flights under the Alien Enemies Act, arguing the disclosure of the information would “pose reasonable danger to national security and foreign affairs.”
In a court filing Monday evening and in a series of sworn affidavits by three top cabinet officials, the Trump administration invoked the “state secrets privilege” to attempt to stop U.S. District Judge James Boasberg from learning more information about the flights as the judge tries to determine if the government willfully violated a court order last week.
Boasberg last week issued a temporary restraining order and ordered that the government turn around two deportation flights on their way to El Salvador after the Trump administration invoked the Alien Enemies Act to deport more than 200 alleged Venezuelan gang members without due process.
The government failed to turn the flights around, and an official subsequently acknowledged that “many” of the detainees did not have criminal records in the United States.
“This is a case about the President’s plenary authority, derived from Article II and the mandate of the electorate, and reinforced by longstanding statute, to remove from the homeland designated terrorists participating in a state-sponsored invasion of, and predatory incursion into, the United States,” Deputy Assistant Attorney General Drew Ensign wrote in Monday’s filing. “The Court has all of the facts it needs to address the compliance issues before it.”
To determine if the Trump administration complied with his order last week, Judge Boasberg had requested information about the number of alleged gang members on each flight, when the flights took off and left U.S. airspace, where the flights landed, and when the men were transferred out of U.S. custody. The Trump administration so far has refused to provide any of the requested information.
In a sworn affidavit, Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem argued that disclosing the timing of the flights or the number of alleged gang members on board each flight would “cause significant harm to the national security of the United States” by exposing “critical means and methods of law enforcement operations” and potentially harming diplomatic relationships.
“Removal flight plans — including locations from which flights depart, the planes utilized, the paths they travel, where they land, and how long they take to accomplish any of those things — reflect critical means and methods of law enforcement operations,” said Noem.
“In addition to flight operations, the number of TdA members on a given removal flight is also information that, if disclosed, would expose ICE’s means and methods, thus threatening significant harm to the national security of the United States,” Noem said, referring to the Tren de Aragua gang.
While the flight information in question is available through public aircraft tracking programs, Noem argued that confirming the information would still be “damaging to national interests” by enabling the country’s “enemies.”
“If the Government were to confirm or deny the information sought by this Court’s Minute Order, there would arise a danger that enemies of our national security would be able to stitch together an understanding of the means and methods used to thwart their unlawful and sometimes violent conduct,” Noem wrote.
In addition to Noem, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Attorney General Pam Bondi also submitted sworn affidavits. In his declaration, Rubio said that disclosing the information would make it harder to negotiate removals going forward and harm the “high stakes negotiation” with the detainees’ home county.
“If foreign partners believed that any relevant details could be revealed to third parties, those foreign partners would be less likely to work with the United States in the future,” Rubio wrote. “That impairs the foreign relations and diplomatic capabilities of the United States and threatens significant harm to the national security of the United States.”
With the Trump administration invoking state secrets privilege, Judge Boasberg will have to determine whether the government has provided sufficient information to justify keeping the information under wraps. Justice Department lawyers also declined to provide any information to Judge Boasberg in camera — in a private setting without public disclosure of the materials — by arguing that he is not entitled to information about diplomatic secrets.
“Further intrusions on the Executive Branch would present dangerous and wholly unwarranted separation-of-powers harms with respect to diplomatic and national security concerns that the Court lacks competence to address,” Ensign wrote.
The Trump administration faces a separate deadline Tuesday to prove they did not violate Judge Boasberg’s order to return the two flights carrying alleged gang members. Ensign wrote that the government plans to comply with that request and prove that there is “no basis for the suggestion of noncompliance with any binding order.”
Monday’s court filing came on the same day a federal appeals court heard arguments from the Trump administration seeking to overturn Boasberg’s block on the use of the Alien Enemies Act for deportations. The appeals court did not issue an immediate ruling.
(NEW YORK) — A federal judge in New York will hear arguments Tuesday over whether to extend an order that prevents Columbia University from the sharing student disciplinary records of a number of pro-Palestinian activists with a House of Representatives committee.
The request for an injunction was filed by a group of Columbia students and graduates, including Mahmoud Khalil, the pro-Palestinian activist detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement who is separately fighting his detention by the Trump administration.
Khalil and the others said the Republican-controlled committee’s request for their records violates the First Amendment and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act and made Columbia “feel pressure to cooperate with the government in its efforts to chill and punish protected speech.”
Judge Aruba Subramanian has temporarily blocked Columbia from disclosing the student records and will hear arguments Tuesday afternoon over whether to permanently block sharing of the records or allow the school to cooperate with the committee.
The government arrested Khalil on March 8 after invoking a rarely used provision of immigration law that they said allows the secretary of state to revoke the legal status of people whose presence in the country could have “adverse foreign policy consequences.” He continues to be held in Louisiana awaiting further court proceedings.
Last week, Columbia University ceded to Trump administration demands after President Donald Trump threatened to withhold $400 million in federal funds. The school agreed to ban masks on campus, one of the Trump administration’s key demands, as well as stricter controls over its Middle East Studies department, which will now be overseen by a new senior vice provost who “will conduct a thorough review of the portfolio of programs in regional areas across the University, starting immediately with the Middle East.” The university also agreed to hire 36 new police officers empowered to make arrests of student protesters on campus.
The Trump administration canceled $400 million worth of grants and contracts to Columbia University, accusing the university of “continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.” The administration sent a letter to Columbia interim President Katrina Armstrong on March 13, listing nine demands the university needed to comply with by last Thursday “as a precondition for formal negotiations” regarding federal funding.
Columbia’s response was closely watched by other schools that became flashpoints for pro-Palestinian protests last year. The university has come under intense scrutiny for its handling of pro-Palestinian protests, which led to arrests, property damage and backlash.
Former Columbia President Minouche Shafik resigned last August, months after the protests. She was the third Ivy League president to step down within a few months.
Harvard President Claudine Gay and University of Pennsylvania President Liz Magill previously announced their resignations following congressional testimony on the handling of antisemitism on campus.
(NEW YORK) — Consumer attitudes worsened in March as President Donald Trump’s tariffs set off a market rout and warnings of a possible recession, Conference Board survey data on Tuesday showed. Sentiment worsened more than economists expected.
The fresh data on consumer sentiment arrives a week before the onset of additional U.S. tariffs, indicating potential fear of further escalation in an ongoing global trade war.
Trump has repeatedly referred to April 2 as “liberation day,” saying a wide-ranging slate of reciprocal tariffs would rebalance U.S. trade relationships.
Trump’s plan for reciprocal tariffs next week, however, is expected to be more targeted and narrower than he previously vowed, though the plan remains under discussion, sources told ABC News on Monday. The administration is focused on trading partners who have major trade imbalances with the U.S., the sources said.
The news of a potentially softer approach to forthcoming tariffs rallied U.S. stocks on Monday, recovering some of the losses suffered earlier this month.
Consumer sentiment appears to align with dampening expectations at the Federal Reserve. Last week, the Fed predicted weaker year-end economic growth and higher inflation than it had in a December forecast.
Speaking at a press conference in Washington, D.C., last Wednesday, Fed Chair Jerome Powell faulted tariffs for a “good part” of recent inflation.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(HOUSTON) — Three teenagers allegedly attacked their mom and tried to stab her with kitchen knives because she turned off the Wi-Fi, according to authorities in Texas.
The three siblings — ages 14, 15 and 16 — “allegedly coordinated a plan to try and kill” their mother, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez said.
Because the mom turned off the Wi-Fi, the teens allegedly grabbed kitchen knives Sunday night and chased their mother through their Houston home and into the street, according to the sheriff.
The mom was also hit with a brick, Gonzalez said, and their grandmother was knocked over while attempting to protect the mom.
The mother and grandmother were not seriously hurt, the sheriff’s office said.
The three siblings were arrested and charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and were booked in the Harris County Juvenile Detention Center, according to the sheriff’s office.
