(WASHINGTON) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is mandating that personnel can no longer engage lawmakers or their staff about most major issues confronting the U.S. military without prior approval — a list that includes recent military strikes in the Caribbean, how the Pentagon buys weapons, and the construction of a U.S. missile shield.
It’s a major shift on how the military interacts with Congress. Congressional staff say they are concerned that Hegseth’s clampdown will hamstring lawmakers’ ability to get even routine information as it oversees the Pentagon’s $1 trillion budget and cobbles together an annual defense policy bill .
Under Hegseth’s new mandate, staff from the various military services and agencies were told they must coordinate first with Hegseth’s central legislative office. Staffers say they worry the result will be that information needed by Congress will wind up bottlenecked, waiting for aides to Hegseth to approve.
The list of restricted topics, reviewed by ABC News, includes acquisition reform, spectrum, critical munitions, budget and reconciliation spending plans, critical minerals, foreign military sales, attempted lethal force on military installations and the national defense strategy. CNN first reported the list on Sunday.
In a post on X, Nebraska Republican Rep. Don Bacon called it an “amateur move.”
“I was a five-time commander & our leadership WANTED us to engage members of Congress,” he said. “We wanted to share what our great airmen were doing. We were proud of our service. The new rules have put a large barrier between the military & Congress. Pentagon says the change is very small. But I already see the impact with military members being afraid to communicate. This is another amateur move.”
The Pentagon did not immediately respond to an ABC News request for comment.
Chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell told CNN, “the Department intends to improve accuracy and responsiveness in communicating with the Congress to facilitate increased transparency. This review is for processes internal to the Department and does not change how or from whom Congress receives information.”
(LOS ANGELES) — Jake Haro, the father of missing 7-month-old Emmanuel Haro, was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison after he pleaded guilty to the baby’s murder.
He was also sentenced to over six years in prison for other offenses, to run consecutively.
He is ineligible for probation because he was already on probation for severely abusing another child, the judge said while handing down the sentence on Monday.
His sentence also included more than $20,000 in fines and court fees.
Prior to the sentencing, the defense objected to imposing any court fees or fines, saying Jake Haro is indigent and a public defender client.
In response, the prosecutor said the defendant “deserves no leniency.”
Last month, the 32-year-old father pleaded guilty to all charges, including second-degree murder, assault causing bodily harm to a child resulting in the death of said child and filing a false police report, according to court records.
The father, who previously pleaded not guilty with his wife Rebecca Haro in September, cried in court when he was giving his plea on Oct. 16.
Emmanuel’s mother, 41-year-old Rebecca Haro, pleaded not guilty to an amended complaint in October, with a preliminary hearing scheduled for Monday. It remains unclear what is in the complaint, according to Los Angeles ABC station KABC.
The baby’s maternal grandmother, Mary Beushausen, addressed the court during Jake Haro’s sentencing on Monday.
“He destroyed my family,” she told the court. “Everybody in my family, all my children are destroyed by this.”
“He changed my daughter. We don’t know who she is,” she continued. “He kept my daughter away. I don’t know what he did or how he changed my daughter’s life, but she was never that same person after she went to live with him.”
She asked for a lengthy sentence, saying, “I don’t want to give him another chance.”
Officials have not announced whether they have located the baby’s remains.
The 7-month-old was reported missing on Aug. 14 at approximately 7:47 p.m. local time after his mother “reported being attacked outside a retail store on Yucaipa Boulevard,” the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Office said in a statement on Aug. 15.
When he was reported missing, Emmanuel’s mother told officials that “while she stood outside her vehicle, changing the child’s diaper, she was physically assaulted by an unknown male and rendered unconscious,” authorities said.
Authorities later said the mother was “confronted with inconsistencies in her initial statement,” leading officials to say they were “unable to rule out foul play in the disappearance of Emmanuel.”
Jake and Rebecca Haro were arrested and charged for the child’s murder on Aug. 22, officials said.
In August, officials announced they had a “pretty strong indication” on the location of the child’s remains and said they believed Emmanuel was “severely abused over a period of time.”
Jake Haro was even seen searching a field near the 60 freeway in Moreno Valley in late August with law enforcement, but no remains were apparently found.
“The filing in this case reflects our belief that baby Emmanuel was abused over time and that eventually because of that abuse, he succumbed to those injuries,” Riverside County District Attorney Michael Hestrin said during a press conference in August.
Hestrin said Jake Haro, who he described as an “experienced child abuser,” “should have gone to prison” due to previously abusing another child he had with his ex-wife in 2018, but a judge at the time granted him probation — a ruling Hestrin called an “outrageous error in judgment.” Authorities said the child in that case has been left bedridden.
“If that judge had done his job as he should have done, Emmanuel would be alive today,” Hestrin said in August.
(WASHINGTON) — Back in April, President Donald Trump made his decadeslong view on tariffs the official policy of the United States by imposing sweeping levies on virtually all global trade partners.
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court will consider whether those tariffs are lawful and allowed to stand.
Trump is calling it the “most important” case before the court in its history.
As Supreme Court returns, major tests ahead for Trump’s presidential power In a sign of his personal stake in the issue, Trump had talked about going to watch the arguments himself, which would have likely made him the first sitting U.S. president to do so. But he reversed course on Sunday, saying he didn’t want to cause a distraction by attending.
“No, I don’t think so, because I don’t want to call a lot of attention to me. It’s not about me, it’s about our country,” he said.
“I wanted to go so badly, I just don’t want to do anything to deflect the importance of that decision,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One as he returned to Washington from a weekend in Florida.
The president has painted the outcome as existential to the country’s future.
“Everybody uses tariffs on us. If I wasn’t allowed to use tariffs on them, we would be a third rate — we would be a third world nation,” Trump said in an interview with CBS’s “60 Minutes” that aired Sunday.
Trump’s yearslong push for tariffs turned reality
When Trump unveiled his tariffs on April 2, a date he dubbed “Liberation Day” for the U.S., he described them as retribution for a grievance he’s held since the 1980s when he was a Manhattan real estate developer.
“I’ve been talking about it for 40 years because I saw what was happening 40 years ago,” Trump said.
“I’d be on a television show, I’d be talking about how we were being ripped off by these countries. I mean, nothing changes very much. The only thing that changed were the countries, but nothing really changes. It’s why it’s such an honor to be finally able to do this,” Trump added.
Trump that day declared trade deficits a national emergency as he hit nearly every country with a baseline 10% tariff rate and tougher, so-called “reciprocal” rates on countries he deemed as the worst trade offenders.
Since then, the administration says it has raked in billions of dollars in revenue and Trump has touted various deals with the United Kingdom, European Union, Japan, South Korea and most recently China.
But the tariff rollout led to economic uncertainty and concerns of price increases for American businesses and consumers. One recent estimate from the Yale Budget Lab said tariffs will cost U.S. households $1,700 per year.
A new poll from ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos found more than 6 in 10 American disapprove of how Trump is handling tariffs and the economy overall.
Tariffs central to economic agenda, but Trump uses them for more
Trump said on “60 Minutes” that he believed the U.S. economy would “go to hell” if the Supreme Court struck down his tariffs, now the cornerstone of his entire economic agenda.
But he has used tariffs for leverage not just in trade negotiations but in a number of foreign policy matters.
Trump said the threat of tariffs helped him bring an end to international conflicts between Cambodia and Thailand, India and Pakistan and more. He’s used them to pressure Mexico and China into pledging more action to curb the flow of fentanyl and other illicit drugs. Trump imposed a 50% tariff on Brazil over the country’s prosecution of former president Jair Bolsonaro, a hard-line conservative who was convicted of trying to overthrow democracy.
Most Americans say country is on the wrong track, blame Trump for inflation: Poll Trump relied on the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose his tariffs, sidestepping Congress in the process. Trump on Sunday, during his “60 Minutes” interview, bemoaned it would take Congress too long to act if he didn’t have the power to impose tariffs himself.
“You want that power. You want that executive power,” CBS’s Norah O’Donnell asked Trump.
“You need it to ru– to protect our country. This is a national secure — tariffs are national security,” Trump said.
It’s the biggest– I think it’s one of the biggest decisions in the history of the Supreme Court,” he said.
(RICHMOND, Va.) — The Republican candidate has a familiar closing message in the Virginia gubernatorial race.
Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears’ campaign spent millions of dollars on ads attacking Democratic nominee and former Rep. Abigail Spanberger for her stance on transgender rights in Virginia schools.
One ad claims Spanberger supports “men in girls’ locker rooms,” and closes with the notion that “Abigail Spanberger is for they/them, not us” — a direct echo of an ad the Trump campaign used against Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election.
The 2025 Virginia gubernatorial election will be held on Tuesday, Nov. 4. The incumbent Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin, assumed office in 2022 and is ineligible to run for re-election.
The debate over trans rights also played a role in Youngkin’s 2021 campaign. Youngkin has rolled back accommodations for trans students and increased parental notification requirements during his time in office.
Nicole Neily, president and founder of the nonprofit Defending Education, said that the focus on this issue in Virginia began with Youngkin’s race, which he won by championing parental rights in Virginia schools.
Virginia GOP governor candidate called Trump a ‘liability’ ahead of 2024 “This is an issue that has been on the radar of parents across Virginia,” Neily told ABC News. However, she added that in this particular race, she “can’t see this flipping the election by any stretch.”
Throughout the race, Earle-Sears has continued the Youngkin administration’s focus on the issue, she told ABC News in a statement.
“We see it’s about $30 million worth of attack ads against me related to trans youth,” the Democrat told Katie Couric in an interview last week. “There’s a real effort to engage in some level of fearmongering.”
Spanberger’s campaign did not respond to ABC News’ requests for comment.
“I do find it really objectionable that there would be kids who turn on the television and as in an effort to attack me, see images of themselves sort of reflected as a villain,” Spanberger added. “I really do believe that a lot of these choices, whether it’s sports participation or bathroom usage, needs to be made at the very local level with parents and teachers and administrators and not necessarily dictated — certainly not by the federal government — or the state government.”
In a recent ad her campaign released that appeared to be in response to the Earle-Sears team’s ones, Spanberger spoke to this directly.
“I believe we need to get politics out of our schools and trust parents and local communities,” she said.
Spanberger has maintained her lead against Earle-Sears, as Virginians cite issues like inflation and threats to democracy as some of their biggest concerns in the election, according to a recent poll from Christopher Newport University.
Furthermore, Virginia is home to over 300,000 federal workers, who have likely been affected by the actions taken by Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency and the current government shutdown.
Virginia-based Republican strategist Tucker Martin believes that beyond Earle-Sears’ closing strategy, the current political environment in Virginia meant that her campaign for governor was “uphill from the start.”
“Any Republican who is going to be the Republican nominee for governor in this cycle — with Trump back in the White House in a state that he’s lost three straight times by significant margins — was going to be in big trouble,” Martin told ABC News.
Could the federal layoffs impact the Virginia governor race? Martin doesn’t think Earle-Sears’ focus on trans rights has resonated “at all” among voters.
“Transgender issues just aren’t top of mind for Virginians right now,” he said.
“What works well in Florida or Wisconsin may not work well in Virginia or New Jersey,” Martin added, invoking another hotly contested gubernatorial race this year. However, Martin said that it could prove to be a “powerful issue” in “competitive congressional races.”
With the 2026 midterms fast-approaching, and Republicans seeking to maintain their control of both chambers of Congress and Democrats hoping to flip some seats, the political salience of culture war debates like this one is something that both parties will be paying attention to.
“Republicans have given in to the most extreme fringes of their party by abandoning pocketbook issues in favor of an anti-freedom agenda that is obsessed with letting politicians make decisions that should be left to parents and doctors,” DCCC spokesperson Viet Shelton told ABC News in a statement.
“Rather than getting involved in personal matters, House Republicans should perhaps spend their time expanding the middle class, lowering costs, and protecting freedoms,” Shelton’s statement continued. “That’s certainly what House Democrats are focused on — and it’s why we’ll win in 2026.”
Spanberger has been able to avoid addressing the debate head-on in this race, often pointing to her experience investigating child predators as a federal law enforcement officer and her belief that such decisions should be left up to local communities.
According to Martin, this question is something that Democrats like Spanberger will need to shore up their stances on in upcoming elections in other states or districts.
“I wouldn’t say the Spanberger campaign has handled it well, but what they have going for them is it’s just not an issue in Virginia that voters are particularly concerned about,” Martin said.
(WASHINGTON) — The Trump administration has committed to partially funding the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program with a $4.65 billion payment — but using emergency funds to pay for reduced SNAP benefits could take “a few weeks to up to several months,” a top USDA official told a federal judge in a sworn court filing Monday.
The disclosure comes after a federal judge in Rhode Island ordered the Trump administration to use emergency funds to pay for SNAP amid an ongoing government shutdown by Wednesday. Following the court order on Friday, Trump said it would be his “honor” to fund the food assistance program.
In addition to the delay, the Trump administration also said it was $4 billion short of the expected $8 billion cost to fund SNAP for the month of November, in part because they are declining to tap an additional bucket of emergency funds held by the USDA.
Trump says he has asked court to ‘clarify’ SNAP ruling with funding set to lapse “Defendants have worked diligently to comply with the Court’s order on the short timeline provided by the Court and during a government shutdown,” DOJ lawyers wrote in a filing on Monday.
“I have instructed our lawyers to ask the Court to clarify how we can legally fund SNAP as soon as possible,” Trump posted on social media late Friday. “If we are given the appropriate legal direction by the Court, it will BE MY HONOR to provide the funding.”
The $4.65 billion in funding will cover half of the households relying on the food assistance program, according to a declaration from Patrick Penn, Deputy Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition, and Consumer Services.
That payment will completely expend SNAP’s contingency funding, according to Penn.
“This means that no funds will remain for new SNAP applicants certified in November, disaster assistance, or as a cushion against the potential catastrophic consequences of shutting down SNAP entirely,” he said.
While the Trump administration could use additional funds from tariff revenue, known as Section 32, Penn said the government declined to do so to save the money for child nutrition programs.
“Amid this no-win quandary and upon further consideration following the Courts’ orders, USDA has determined that creating a shortfall in Child Nutrition Program funds to fund one month of SNAP benefits is an unacceptable risk, even considering the procedural difficulties with delivering a partial November SNAP payment, because shifting $4 billion dollars to America’s SNAP population merely shifts the problem to millions of America’s low income children that receive their meals at school,” Penn said.
Beyond the budget shortfall, Penn warned that distributing the reduced benefits could take weeks or months because of “procedural difficulties.”
“There are procedural difficulties that States will likely experience which would affect November SNAP benefits reaching households in a timely manner and in the correctly reduced amounts,” he wrote. “There are procedural difficulties that States will likely experience which would affect November SNAP benefits reaching households in a timely manner and in the correctly reduced amounts.”
U.S. National Guard in Washington D.C. (Kay Nietfeld/picture alliance via Getty Images)
(PORTLAND, Ore.) — A federal judge on Sunday extended her order blocking President Donald Trump from sending National Guard troops into Portland, continuing the legal battle over the president’s power to use the military on American cities.
Following a three-day trial last week, U.S. District Judge Karin Immergut issued a preliminary injunction prohibiting the deployment of troops from any state’s National Guard into Portland through at least Friday.
Judge Immergut concluded that the attempt to send troops into Portland stemmed from exaggerated claims of violence in the city, where isolated protests were already contained by federal and local law enforcement.
“Based on the trial testimony, this Court finds no credible evidence that during the approximately two months before the President’s federalization order, protests grew out of control or involved more than isolated and sporadic instances of violent conduct that resulted in no serious injuries to federal personnel,” she wrote.
Judge Immergut also concluded that the Trump administration likely violated a federal law that allows the takeover of the National Guard in the case of rebellion or invasion, as well as infringed on the state sovereignty of Oregon. The protests in Oregon, Immergut wrote, at most resulted in “sporadic isolated instances of violent behavior toward federal officers and property damage to a single building” and fell short of the standard definition of a “rebellion.”
“Defendants have not, however, proffered any evidence demonstrating that those episodes of violence were perpetrated by an organized group engaged in armed hostilities for the purpose of overtaking an instrumentality of government by unlawful or antidemocratic means,” she wrote.
The trial and decision follow a prolonged legal battle over the use of the National Guard in Portland. After Judge Immergut last month blocked the use of the Oregon National Guard, the Trump administration moved to send in troops from Texas and California.
She similarly blocked those troops from being sent into the city, and the Trump administration then appealed her order.
The Ninth Circuit briefly lifted her decision but agreed to rehear the case en banc, — when the entire court hears the case, rather than just a panel — thereby restoring the block on the deployment.
With both Immergut’s previously issued orders set to expire on Sunday, she issued a preliminary injunction tonight that will expire on Friday, at which time she plans to issue a complete ruling based on the testimony and evidence presented at trial.
(WASHINGTON) — From New York and New Jersey to California, millions of Americans are voting this fall in multiple states, in several notable local and statewide elections for the first time since last November’s presidential race.
The results from Tuesday’s off-year elections in New Jersey and Virginia — and the New York City mayor’s race — will give voters an opportunity to weigh in on the state of the country and their communities.
ABC News has launched a series of stories and reports across multiple platforms to comprehensively cover the issues at the center of this year’s elections and look ahead at the 2026 midterms.
Tuesday’s elections could hold clues to how Americans view this pivotal moment in the country, and reveal the strengths and weaknesses of each party’s position one year away from the consequential 2026 midterm elections.
And in California, where Democrats have asked voters to approve redrawing the state’s congressional map as part of a national redistricting battle, the results will help shape next year’s fight for the balance of power in Washington and control of the U.S. House of Representatives.
The stakes are high for both parties: A new ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll, conducted using Ipsos’ KnowledgePanel, found that two-thirds of Americans say that the country is “pretty seriously off on the wrong track,” compared to one-third who say it is moving in the right direction.
That figure, while lower than the 75% of Americans who said the same at the same time last year, comes as 6-in-10 Americans blame President Donald Trump for the current rate of inflation.
More than 6 in 10 Americans disapprove of Trump’s handling of the economy, management of the federal government and tariffs — and 64% said he is going “too far” in trying to expand presidential power.
At the same time, 68% of Americans say the Democratic Party is “out of touch with the concerns of most people in the United States today,” compared to 63% who feel the same way about Trump, and 61% who say the Republican Party is out of touch.
Voters will weigh in on the state of the country this fall as the federal government remains shut down, with Democrats locked in a battle with Republicans and the Trump administration over federal spending and health care.
Americans blame both parties for the logjam that is jeopardizing some federal programs and frozen pay for hundreds of thousands of government workers. The message some voters send this week could potentially break the impasse, and jump start talks to reopen the government.
(WASHINGTON) — As the negative impacts of the 33-day government shutdown compound, Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine said Sunday he doesn’t see the present funding impasse in terms of politics, insisting what Democrats are “focused on is the American people.”
Asked by ABC’s “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz what Democrats have gained since the shutdown began, Kaine said, “Well, I don’t look at this as politics.”
“I mean, the president told the House, do a budget and, in his words, don’t deal with Democrats. So, Senate Democrats put an alternative on the table 12 days before Sept. 30 that fixed the health care wreckage that the Republicans caused and that ensured that a deal would be honored, both by Congress and the White House. The president refused to meet until the day before the deadline,” Kaine continued. “The guy’s unserious.”
Raddatz followed up to press Kaine: “Not talking about politics. What have Democrats gained during this period? And how long can this last?”
“I’m a United States senator,” Kaine said. “And I — yes, I run as a Democrat, and I’m a Democrat, but I just don’t approach my work that way. So, when you ask what Democrats have gained, what we’re — what we’re focused on is the American people. We want President Trump to stop firing people, canceling economic development projects. We want them to stop raising everybody’s costs.”
Kaine said Democrats want Trump to “simply sit down” and negotiate a “budget deal that puts us on a path to a health care fix.”
As the shutdown drags on, neither side has moved much from their initial stances. The Democrats continue to insist on health care priorities, including an extension of expiring tax credits for millions of Americans who get health insurance via the Affordable Care Act. The Republicans and White House continue to insist the only viable option is to pass the short-term funding bill that would fund the government through Nov. 21 and has failed to pass 13 times in the Senate.
‘We will delay, we will cancel’ flights to make sure people are safe: Duffy on ATC issues Americans are now learning just how much their health care premiums would increase next year if these tax credits aren’t extended. But the consequences of the shutdown are also becoming more apparent: air traffic controllers are increasingly calling out sick leading to delays and ground stops, and the critical SNAP food assistance program is now in limbo after a judge ruled the administration must continue to fund the program, despite the administration claiming it legally cannot.
Here are more highlights from Kaine’s interview:
Kaine refutes GOP claims that Democrats are trying to give health care to “illegal immigrants” Raddatz: I know you heard Secretary [Sean] Duffy [who appeared earlier on the show] talking about the onus is on the Democrats and that you are fighting to get illegal health care for immigrants.
Kaine: That’s a lie. The health care battle is not about health care for illegal immigrants and Sean Duffy knows it. It’s about millions of Americans who, in the last few weeks, have gotten premium increase notices that tell them that Donald Trump’s big, beautiful bill is delivering them big, ugly health insurance bills within the next few weeks unless we can find a fix.
On reports bipartisan rank and file senators are meeting to try to end shutdown
Raddatz: There are reportedly conversations among rank and file senators to try to reach — to negotiate the reopening of the government for a few weeks. Is that going on right now? Are you part of those discussions?
Kaine: I would say, Martha, I’m sort of at the edge of them. There is a group of people talking about these two issues, a path to fix the health care debacle and a guarantee that if we reopen government, I’m calling it a moratorium on mischief. If we agree to reopen, President Trump’s got to stop the firings.
The FAA, we’re talking air traffic control, they’ve forced 2,400 people out of the FAA during Trump’s first year when they were already short 3,000 air traffic controllers. Stop the firings, stop the game-playing, stop going after blue cities and helping red cities. Let’s have a moratorium on mischief during whatever this period is. Get on a path to fix people’s health care. If the president engages, we will be — we will find a deal I think within hours.
On Virginia Democrats’ chances in Tuesday’s governor election
Kaine: I feel really good about it, Martha. And here’s why. In Virginia, we are the best red to blue turnaround in the country in the last 25 years. And the way we’ve done it is by focusing on the economy. Abigail Spanberger, our candidate, three pillars to her campaign: affordability, jobs, and education, which is about kids, but also about our workforce. Her opponent is running ads on offbeat cultural issues that don’t really matter to most people. In Virginia, Democrats focus on the economy, winning the economic arguments, delivering economic results. And that’s why the state has moved from red to blue so dramatically since 2000.
(LONDON) — A 32-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder for allegedly attacking multiple people with a knife aboard a train headed to London on Saturday evening, according to police, a crime the prime minister called an “appalling incident.”
In a statement shortly after the attack, British Transport Police (BTP) said two people had been arrested. On Sunday afternoon, however, police said a 35-year-old London man initially taken into custody had been released after investigators determined he was not involved.
The victim who was most seriously injured in the attack is a member of the London North Eastern Railway (LNER) staff, who was stabbed when he intervened in an attempt to stop the attack.
Deputy Chief Constable Stuart Cundy of the BTP praised the railway staff member on Sunday afternoon for protecting other passengers, saying security video aboard the train captured the employee’s courageous actions.
“Having viewed the CCTV from the train, the actions of the member of rail staff were nothing short of heroic and undoubtedly saved people’s lives,” Cundy said.
The LNER staffer remained hospitalized on Sunday evening in “life-threatening condition,” according to the BTP. Five other people who were hospitalized with stabbing injuries have been treated and released, according to police.
BTP Superintendent John Loveless said a total of 10 people were taken to hospitals by ambulance, and that an eleventh alleged victim went to a hospital on their own later Sunday night. Initially, Loveless said nine people appeared to have life-threatening injuries when they were taken from the scene.
The BTP said in a statement that it began receiving reports at 7:42 p.m. on Sunday about the stabbings aboard the LNER train that was headed from the city of Doncaster to London’s King’s Cross station.
“Our investigation is moving at pace and we are confident we are not looking for anyone else in connection to the incident,” Deputy Chief Constable Stuart Cundy of the BTP said on Sunday afternoon.
Armed officers boarded the train when it made an unscheduled stop at Huntingdon, roughly 70 miles north of London, and arrested the suspect, whose name was not immediately released, according to Cundy.
“A knife was recovered by officers at the scene,” the BTP statement said Sunday afternoon.
The suspect is from Peterborough in the county of Cambridgeshire, about 74 miles from London, according to Cundy, who also said investigators believe the suspect boarded the train at the Peterborough station.
“As would be expected, specialist detectives are looking into the background of the suspect we have in custody and the events that led up to the attack,” Cundy said.
“This was a horrific attack that has had a wide impact,” Cundy added. “My thoughts and those of everyone in the British Transport Police are with those injured and their families — especially the brave member of the rail staff whose family are being supported by specialist officers.”
The UK’s Counter Terrorism Policing is supporting the investigation to establish “the full circumstances and motivation for this incident,” the BTP said in a statement.
“At this stage, there is nothing to suggest this is a terrorist incident,” Loveless said. “At this early stage, it would not be appropriate to speculate on the causes of the incident.”
Speaking at the scene of the attack on Sunday morning, Loveless said the suspect was arrested within eight minutes of the first emergency call being received.
“The appalling incident on a train near Huntingdon is deeply concerning,” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a statement on social media. “My thoughts are with all those affected, and my thanks go to the emergency services for their response.”
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said in a post on X that she was receiving “regular updates” on the investigation.
“Two suspects have been immediately arrested and taken into custody,” she wrote, adding, “I urge people to avoid comment and speculation at this early stage.”
King Charles III, meanwhile, said in a statement posted to the Royal Family’s official X account, “My wife and I were truly appalled and shocked to hear of the dreadful knife attack that took place on board a train in Cambridgeshire last night.”
“Our deepest sympathy and thoughts are with all those affected, and their loved ones,” the king said. “We are particularly grateful to the emergency services for their response to this awful incident.”
ABC News’ Rashid Haddou and Somayeh Malekian contributed to this report.
(BATH TOWNSHIP, Ohio) — “We are heartbroken by this senseless act of gun violence, and our thoughts are with the injured victims and all those affected by it,” Airbnb said in a statement to ABC News on Sunday afternoon. “Unauthorized and disruptive gatherings are strictly prohibited on Airbnb and our Safety team acted immediately to remove the account of the individual who deliberately broke those rules by booking this stay.”
“Our law enforcement response team is in contact with the chief of Bath Township Police Department to assist their ongoing investigation to ensure those responsible for this terrible incident are brought to justice,” the statement concluded.
Sinopoli said that Sunday’s incident marked the second time since July 2017 that a shooting had occurred at an Airbnb rental property in Bath Township. He said that in the previous incident, a man was shot in the leg. That incident involved an apparent drive-by shooting at a party, according to the Akron Beacon Journal.
The Sunday shooting came just days after Airbnb announced that it was deploying what it called AI “anti-party” technology across the United States and Canada to help mitigate Halloween-night gatherings.
The company said it is using machine learning to block bookings that show a potential of party risks, “such as the length of the reservation, the distance of the listing from the guest’s location, property type, and timing of the booking, including last-minute requests.”
This is the fifth year that Airbnb has instituted anti-Halloween party protections, which prohibited 38,000 people from booking houses in the U.S. and 6,300 in Canada last year, according to the company.
Airbnb issued a permanent global party ban in 2022 following multiple shooting incidents.
“Strong policies must be complemented by strong enforcement,” the company said at the time. “We’ve introduced a number of anti-party measures in recent years to enforce our policy and try, to the best of our ability, to stop both unauthorized parties and chronic party houses.”
