(WASHINGTON) — On the heels of terminating 10,000 jobs from the Department of Health and Human Services this week, Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told ABC News some programs would soon be reinstated because they were mistakenly cut.
Kennedy’s comments were in response to a question about a branch at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that monitors lead levels among children and manages prevention across the country. The program was gutted on Tuesday.
“There were some programs that were cuts that are being reinstated, and I believe that that’s one,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy said other programs across HHS would be reinstated as well.
Of the cuts that were made, he said some would be brought back because they were not the administrative roles that the Department of Government Efficiency, run by billionaire Elon Musk, was aiming to eliminate, such as communications or human resources jobs, and that research or “studies” were also wrongly swept up in the mass layoffs.
“We’re streamlining the agencies. We’re going to make it work for public health, make it work for the American people,” Kennedy said. “In the course of that, there were a number of instances where studies that should have not have been cut were cut, and we’ve reinstated them. Personnel that should not have been cut were cut — we’re reinstating them, and that was always the plan.”
That was news to Erik Svendsen, the director of the division that oversaw the CDC’s Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention branch, who told ABC News in an interview that the work was completely stopped. Svendsen had not received any indication it would be reinstated or continued through another part of the CDC.
Kennedy did not respond to a question about when jobs would be reinstated. ABC News has reached out to HHS for more details on which roles, if any, have been asked to return.
It would not be the first time that jobs were reinstated after DOGE cuts. In the first round of firings, targeted at probationary workers, hundreds of CDC and Food and Drug Administration employees were later brought back.
“And one of the things that President Trump has said is that if we make mistakes, we’re going to admit it and we’re going to remedy it, and that’s one of the mistakes,” Kennedy said.
But even as he acknowledged that his department cut people mistakenly, Kennedy has maintained, including in comments earlier Thursday, that no front-line work or essential services were affected by the massive restructuring he’s overseeing.
“The cuts in all of our agency are not affecting science,” he said. “Front-line enforcement jobs and health delivery jobs are preserved.”
(HUNGARY) — Hungary announced it will withdraw from the International Criminal Court, the world’s first and only permanent tribunal for war crimes and genocide, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrived in Budapest for a four-day visit.
The ICC issued an arrest warrant last November for Netanyahu and former Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes in Gaza.
At the time, the ICC said there were “reasonable grounds” to believe that Netanyahu and Gallant committed war crimes in Gaza, and added that Israel’s acceptance of the court’s jurisdiction is not required. Israel is not a member of the ICC.
As a member of the ICC, Hungary would be obligated to arrest Netanyahu when he visited.
Netanyahu was accused of being responsible for the war crimes of starvation as a method of warfare, of intentionally directing an attack against the civilian population and the crimes against humanity of murder, persecution and other inhumane acts from at least Oct. 8, 2023, until at least May 20, 2024, according to the ICC.
Netanyahu has rejected the ICC’s arrest warrant and said the actions and charges are “absurd and false.” Gallant also rejected the warrant and said it was an “attempt to deny the State of Israel the right to defend herself.”
Hungary will initiate its withdrawal from the ICC on Thursday, Gergely Gulyás, the Hungarian prime minister’s chief of staff, said in a post on Facebook.
“I am convinced that this otherwise important international judicial forum has been degraded into a political tool, with which we cannot and do not want to engage,” Orbán said Thursday at a press conference after welcoming Netanyahu, according to The Associated Press.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban first extended an invitation to Netanyahu in November after the ICC issued its arrest warrant, according to The Associated Press. The divisive Orban has been the leader of Hungary since 2010, and previously served in the same role from 1998 to 2002. The conservative nationalist leader has close ties to Russia and has been celebrated by Donald Trump.
Hungary joined the ICC in November 2001 during Orban’s first term as prime minister.
The 125 states that recognize the ICC — including France, Germany and the United Kingdom — are obliged to arrest anyone with an outstanding arrest warrant who enters their territory.
The Presidency of the of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute, which leads the ICC and is currently composed of the president, Finland’s Päivi Kaukoranta, and vice presidents, Poland’s Margareta Kassangana and Sierra Leon’s Michael Kanu, said it “expresses concern” at Hungary’s decision to remove itself from the Rome Statute, the founding treaty of the ICC.
“When a State Party withdraws from the Rome Statute, it clouds our shared quest for justice and weakens our resolve to fight impunity,” the presidency said in a statement. “The ICC is at the centre of the global commitment to accountability, and in order to maintain its strength, it is imperative that the international community support it without reservation. Justice requires our unity.”
The White House also rejected the court’s decision to issue warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant. Since taking office, Trump has issued sanctions against the ICC claiming the court has “engaged in illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel.”
The ICC granted membership to the state of Palestine in 2015, giving the court territorial jurisdiction over crimes committed in Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. A pretrial chamber affirmed the ratification in 2021.
The ratification laid the groundwork for the arrest warrant issued by the court against Netanyahu and Gallant in November 2024.
At the same time, the ICC issued an arrest warrant for Hamas military commander Mohammed Deif, though the mastermind of Hamas’ Oct. 7 surprise attack on Israel was believed to have been killed in an Israeli airstrike several months before the warrant was issued. Hamas confirmed in January that Deif had been killed last August.
(NEW YORK) — U.S. stocks suffered major losses on Thursday at close of the first trading session after President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs announcement.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 1,679 points, or nearly 4%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq declined almost 6%.
The S&P 500 tumbled 4.8%, marking its worst trading day since 2020.
The selloff hammered shares of some major multinational corporations with supply chains abroad.
Nike plummeted 14%, while Apple fell 9%. E-commerce giant Amazon slid nearly 9%.
Shares fell for each of the other so-called “Magnificent Seven,” a group of large tech firms that helped drive stock market gains in recent years.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, dropped nearly 9%. Chipmaker Nvidia slid 7%.
Tesla, the electric carmaker led by Trump-advisor Elon Musk, declined 5%.
Shares of U.S. retailers that depend largely on imported products also tumbled, with Dollar Tree down 13% and Five Below seeing 27% losses.
While Trump said the tariffs would free the U.S. from dependence on foreign goods, fears of a deepened international trade war appeared to influence the stock market reaction.
During the event at the White House on Wednesday, Trump unveiled a sweeping set of baseline tariffs on all trading partners and what he described as “kind reciprocal” tariffs on nations he claimed were the worst offenders in trade relations with the U.S.
“My fellow Americans, this is Liberation Day,” Trump said from the Rose Garden. “April 2, 2025, will forever be remembered as the day American industry was reborn, the day America’s destiny was reclaimed and the day that we began to make America wealthy again,” he said.
The president announced the measures would include a minimum baseline tariff of 10% on all trading partners and, further, more targeted punitive levies on certain countries, including China, the European Union and Taiwan.
Trump held up a chart with a list of nations and what the new U.S. tariffs against them will be.
At the top was China, which Trump said was set to be hit with a 34% tariff rate as he claimed it charged the United States 67%.
The 34% reciprocal rate for China is in addition to a previous 20% tariff Trump slapped on the nation — bringing the effective tariff rate on one of the U.S.’s biggest trading partners to 54% total.
While the longstanding effects of Trump’s newly minted tariffs stand to be seen, some experts told ABC News ahead of Wednesday that the measures could threaten economic growth and employment since duties slapped on imports risk increasing costs for businesses that rely on raw materials from abroad.
“If both businesses and consumers start to worry and pull back their spending, that is what can tip the U.S. over into a recession,” Kara Reynolds, an economist at American University, previously told ABC News.
Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics, described the tariffs as “the fodder for an economic downturn.”
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump reacted for the first time on Thursday to the fallout from his tariff announcement, which included markets nosediving and foreign leaders threatening retaliation.
Trump had no public events on his schedule a day after his dramatic unveiling of severe tariffs against virtually all U.S. trading partners, but he did take a single question as he left the White House Thursday afternoon for a trip to a golf event in Miami.
“Markets today are way down … How’s it going?” a reporter asked the president.
“I think it’s going very well,” Trump responded. “It was an operation. I like when a patient gets operated on and it’s a big thing. I said this would exactly be the way it is.”
Trump continued to project confidence and said nations to be affected are now trying to see if they can “make a deal.”
“The markets are going to boom, the stock is going to boom, the country is going to boom, and the rest of the world wants to see is there any way they can make a deal.” Trump said. “They’ve taken advantage of us for many, many years. For many years we’ve been at the wrong side of the ball. And I’ll tell you what, I think it’s going to be unbelievable.”
Earlier Thursday, other Trump administration officials were deployed to deal with the fallout on the morning news shows.
Many of them, though, had insisted the tariffs weren’t up for bargaining.
“The president made it clear yesterday, this is not a negotiation. This is a national emergency,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on CNN.
He’s always willing to pick up the phone to answer calls, but he laid out the case yesterday for why we are doing it this and these countries around the world have had 70 years to do the right thing by the American people, and they have chosen not to,” Leavitt added.
“I don’t think there’s any chance that President Trump is gonna back off his tariffs,” Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on the network.
World leaders are weighing their response to Trump’s historic levies, some of which go into effect on April 5 and others on April 9.
China, which is going to be hit with a whopping 54% tariff rate, urged the U.S. to “immediately cancel its unilateral tariff measures and properly resolve differences with its trading partners through equal dialogue.”
Domestically, stocks plunged in early trading on Thursday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plummeted 3.75%, the tech-heavy Nasdaq declined 5.75% and the S&P 500 tumbled 4.4%.
Vice President JD Vance, before the market selloff, acknowledged that Trump’s massive new tariffs will mean a “big change” for Americans. Trump, ahead of Wednesday’s announcement, had admitted there could be some short-term pain.
“President Trump is taking this economy in a different direction. He ran on that. He promised it. And now he’s delivering. And yes, this is a big change. I’m not going to shy away from it, but we needed a big change,” Vance told “Fox & Friends.”
Leavitt, too, defended the policy as Trump “delivering on his promise to implement reciprocal tariffs” during an appearance on CNN.
“To anyone on Wall Street this morning, I would say trust in President Trump. This is a president who is doubling down on his proven economic formula from his first term,” she said.
Neither Vance nor Leavitt directly addressed the increased costs economists say U.S. consumers are all but certain to face or how they would help Americans.
“What I’d ask folks to appreciate here is that we’re not going to fix things overnight,” Vance said. “We’re fighting as quickly as we can to fix what was left to us, but it’s not going to happen immediately.”
Asked about negative business reaction, Lutnick told CNN, “they’re not counting the factories” that he claimed would be built in the U.S. as a result.
“Let Donald Trump run the global economy. He knows what he’s doing,” Lutnick said.
Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Nearly three weeks after President Donald Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act to remove more than 200 alleged migrant gang members to El Salvador with little-to-no due process, a federal judge will consider whether the Trump administration defied his court order by deporting the men.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg said at a hearing Thursday that he is contemplating initiating “contempt proceedings” against the government in the event he finds probable cause they deliberately defied his March 15 order that barred removals under the Alien Enemies Act and directed two flights carrying alleged Venezuelan gang members be returned to the United States.
Boasberg questioned DOJ attorney Drew Ensign over the best way to proceed in the case in the event he determines the government violated his verbal order that the flights be returned to the U.S.
“If I don’t agree, I don’t find your legal arguments convincing, and I believe there is probable cause to find contempt, what I’m asking is how — how should I determine who [is at fault]?” Boasberg asked.
Boasberg repeatedly pressed Ensign for more information on which parties might have been involved in potentially defying his order. Ensign cited various privileges that might apply to the specific information, but when pressed by Boasberg he said he was not prepared to give specific answers.
Judge Boasberg said he would look to issue a ruling sometime next week.
The judge began the hearing by dressing down Ensign after the DOJ lawyer insisted that the Trump administration complied with Boasberg’s court order.
“It seems to me, there is a fair likelihood that that is not correct,” Judge Boasberg said in response to the argument that the Trump administration complied with the order. “In fact, the government acted in bad faith throughout that day. You really believed everything you did that day was legal and could survive a court challenge. I can’t believe you ever would have operated in the way you did.”
When the judge pressed the government about whether his oral directive to turn around the planes was communicated to the officials managing the deportation flights, DOJ attorney Drew Ensign declined to answer, citing attorney-client privilege. Regardless, Judge Boasberg suggested the Trump administration acted irresponsibly and rushed the deportation flights while the lawsuit played out.
“Why wouldn’t the prudent thing be to say, ‘Let’s slow down here. Let’s see what the judge says. He’s already enjoined the removal of five people, certainly in the realm of possibility that he would enjoin further removal. Let’s see what he says, and if he doesn’t enjoy it, we can go ahead. But surely better to be safe and risk violating the order,'” Judge Boasberg said.
Boasberg used his opening line of questioning to ensure Ensign corrected the record amid public attacks by President Trump and other senior members of the administration who have accused him of supporting terrorist gang members or singlehandedly obstructing the administration’s immigration agenda.
Ensign said it was correct to say that Boasberg’s initial temporary restraining order on March 15 never barred the administration from conducting deportations in the normal course of legal proceedings, and also said it would be incorrect to say that Boasberg ever ordered any TdA members in the administration’s custody to be released.
Thursday’s hearing could present the most consequential face-off yet between the executive and judicial branches of government since Trump took office in January, as Trump attempts to unilaterally implement parts of his agenda amid a flood of litigation.
“I’m just doing what the VOTERS wanted me to do,” Trump said in a social media post last month after Judge Boasberg issued his order blocking the deportations.
Trump last month invoked the Alien Enemies Act — a wartime authority used to deport noncitizens with little-to-no due process — by arguing that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is a “hybrid criminal state” that is invading the United States.
An official with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has acknowledged that “many” of the men lack criminal records in the United States — but said that “the lack of specific information about each individual actually highlights the risk they pose” and “demonstrates that they are terrorists with regard to whom we lack a complete profile.”
Lawyers representing the class of migrants covered by the president’s Alien Enemies Act proclamation have argued that the Trump administration violated the court’s “unequivocal oral order” to return to the U.S. two flights carrying alleged Tren de Aragua gang members to El Salvador.
According to flight data reviewed by ABC News, both flights carrying the migrants had not yet landed when Judge Boasberg directed the flights be turned around, and Justice Department lawyers, when questioned by Judge Boasberg, confirmed that the directive was promptly communicated to federal officials overseeing the flights.
“Defendants admit they never attempted to return the individuals on the planes to the United States, despite having both notice and the ability to do so,” the attorneys argued.
Lawyers with the Department of Justice have insisted that the Trump administration “complied with the law” while questioning the legitimacy of Judge Boasberg’s order. According to the DOJ, Judge Boasberg’s oral instructions directing the flight to be returned were defective, and his subsequent written order lacked the necessary explanation to be enforced.
Lawyers with the ACLU and Democracy Forward Foundation responded that “The government’s arguments are also unsupportable on their own terms — as a matter of basic textual analysis, of common sense, and in view of foundational separation-of-powers principles.”
The Justice Department has also argued that the president acted within his authority when he removed the noncitizens — which the Trump administration has alleged are dangerous gang members — and that the government should not have to explain itself to the court because the matter concerns national security.
“Even without the challenged Proclamation, the President doubtlessly acts within his constitutional prerogative by declining to transport foreign terrorists into the country,” the Justice Department argued.
The Justice Department recently invoked the rarely-used state secrets privilege to avoid disclosing further details about the flights on the grounds that it could harm national security, so it’s unclear how DOJ attorneys will respond to Boasberg’s lines of inquiry.
(WASHINGTON) — The Pentagon’s independent watchdog has announced it has agreed to a request from top senators and is launching a probe into the use of the commercial messaging app Signal by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and other senior Trump administration officials to discuss a future U.S. military strike against Houthi militants in Yemen.
Last week, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., and ranking member Jack Reed, D-R.I., sent a letter to DOD acting Inspector General Steven Stebbins requesting an expedited inquiry into that Signal discussion.
“The purpose of this memorandum is to notify you that we are initiating the subject evaluation,” Stebbins wrote in a memo to the offices of the secretary of defense and the deputy secretary of defense. “We are conducting this evaluation in response to a March 26, 2025 letter I received from the Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, requesting that I conduct an inquiry into recent public reporting on the Secretary of Defense’s use of an unclassified commercially available messaging application to discuss information pertaining to military actions in Yemen in March 2025.”
“The objective of this evaluation is to determine the extent to which the Secretary of Defense and other DoD personnel complied with DoD policies and procedures for the use of a commercial messaging application for official business. Additionally, we will review compliance with classification and records retention requirements,” Stebbins added in the memo.
“We may revise the objective as the evaluation proceeds. We plan to perform this evaluation in accordance with the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency ‘Quality Standards for Inspection and Evaluation,'” he said.
Last week, Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic, revealed he had been added to a Signal text group that appeared to include senior Trump administration national security officials, including Vice President J.D. Vance, discussing plans to strike against Houthi targets in Yemen in mid-March.
Senior Trump administration officials including Hegseth pushed back on The Atlantic’s description of the conversation and argued no classified war plans had been discussed.
(NEW YORK) — Three adults were charged on Wednesday after a brawl broke out during a youth hockey tournament in New Jersey, according to the Egg Harbor Township Police Department.
The incident, which was captured on video, occurred on March 29, when the Philadelphia Frenzy Cadet A team competed against the Maple Shade Cadet A team in the Veterans Memorial Invitational Tournament, officials said.
Several youth hockey players started to get in an altercation, which escalated when parents and coaches ran onto the court, leading to “complete chaos,” according to Egg Harbor Township Police Sgt. Ben Kollman.
The video shows one adult falling to the ground, with a woman jumping on top of that individual and repeatedly punching him.
“The three people that are being charged were involved in most of the fighting,” Kollman told ABC News. “Others that were on the court, some people did go out there and assist to break up the fight, as well as assist to remove some kids and get them to a safer place.”
Philadelphia residents Colleen Biddle, 41, and Justin Pacheco, 38, along with Robert Schafer, 38, of Maple Shade, New Jersey, have been charged with “simple assault at a youth sporting event and disorderly conduct,” police said.
Kollman said it was “sad to watch some of the video and see some of the kids trying to pull their parents off of other people” and hopes that parents and coaches learn to “control themselves.”
Both the Philadelphia Frenzy Hockey Board and the Maple Shade Hockey Board released statements saying they will be accepting any disciplinary action by the American Ball Hockey Alliance Board.
The ABHA said in a statement that violence is “NEVER condoned in our sport” and that both teams are now suspended from the Veterans Memorial Invitational Tournament. The board also said a Maple Shade Cadet A assistant coach has been suspended from the ABHA.
“The incident was instigated by out-of-town teams and, as such, does not reflect the values or behavior of the host facility, Egg Harbor Township Street Hockey, their teams, or their families,” the board said.
A 2023 NASO National Officiating Survey found that parents are blamed for nearly 40% cases involving bad sportsmanship, with players causing less than 10% of those incidents.
(WASHINGTON) — For decades, Donald Trump has used a signature phrase to show his contempt for countries he says cheat and take advantage of the U.S.: “They’re ripping us off.”
He used those very words again Wednesday as he capped off his long-standing personal grievance by announcing sweeping tariffs in the Rose Garden.
From trade deals to NATO security procedures, Trump has claimed that the U.S. has been given less return value, resources and, ultimately, respect for the amount of money, political will power and other resources that America has given the world.
While Trump’s rhetoric has gone well beyond the norms of traditional international diplomacy, his views have been shared by other U.S. leaders for a long time, according to Paul Poast, an associate professor in the department of political science at the University of Chicago.
“He’s saying the quiet part out loud,” Poast told ABC News. “You can go all the way back to [President Harry] Truman, where U.S. leaders have made that comment, that the U.S. has been doing more than its fair share. He’s just using an extreme version of a complaint made.”
While Trump’s unprecedented approach has made headlines and seen pushback from world leaders from allies, including Canada and Mexico, the two nations he’s previously targeted with tariffs, Poast said it was too early to tell if the continued tough talk will affect international relations but he noted the rest of the world is taking notice.
US being ‘laughed at’ Trump has long blasted other countries for what he claimed are unfair practices toward the U.S. and its businesses. In 1987, he took out full-page ads in the New York Times, Washington Post and other major newspapers arguing that the U.S. needed to scale back its support of Japan at a time when that country’s economy was dominating Americas.
“Let’s not let our great country be laughed at anymore,” he wrote.
Two years later, Trump continued his criticism of Japan along with Saudi Arabia and West Germany in an interview with ABC News’ Diane Sawyer where he argued for taxes and tariffs.
“America is being ripped off. And I’ll tell you what. We’re not going to have an America in 10 years if it keeps going like this. We’re a debtor nation, and we have to tax, we have to tariff, we have to protect this country. And nobody’s doing it,” he said.
The phrase would be repeated for years and amplified on the 2016 campaign trail, during his first term, his first and second reelection campaigns and now in his current term.
[“With] great consistency, actually, because I’ve been talking about it for 40 years, but because I saw what was happening 40 years ago,” the president said Wednesday during his tariff announcement.
Poast said that Trump’s grievance is derived from the perceived value of their exports versus imports, which he said can be oversimplified.
To the average American, seeing more foreign-based products versus U.S. made goods gives an appearance that there is an imbalance, but when it comes to foreign relations and the economy — the impact is more nuanced, he said.
“The U.S. trade policies always included limited import, and we are getting a lot from other countries economically,” Poast said.
Regarding the intangible benefits to support such as the economic aid, the military, assistance and political backing, the arguments about being “ripped off” get more obtuse, according to Poast.
“I think during the Cold War it was easier to convince people to spend it. You had a key figure you’re trying to stop Russia from winning and spreading communism,” Poast said. “Now it’s much harder to have that argument because of how divided we are.”
In many cases, trade deals and agreements also have come with benefits to the U.S. such as military bases, reduced rents for U.S.-based offices and other reimbursements, he added.
Nonetheless, Poast said that U.S. presidents of all political backgrounds have pushed allies to do more when it comes to trade and support, and many times come up short of their negotiations.
“The big difference is that Trump gets angry and starts name calling, whereas someone like [President Barack] Obama would be like ‘I’m not mad, I’m disappointed,'” Poast said.
Trump’s rhetoric during his first term did appear to make strides with one nation: Japan.
Then-Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who was well-versed with Trump’s war of words toward his country, curried favor with the president shortly after he won the 2016 election.
“He was like, ‘I need to show Trump the value of cooperating with Japan and I need to convince him that we are important,'” Poast said of Abe. “And it worked to the point where Trump came around and invited him to the White House, and Trump visited him in Japan and they had a strong partnership.”
Trump mentioned his dealings with Abe in his Rose Garden unveiling.
“They all understand they’re ripping us off,” he said.
“Shinzo Abe, he was a fantastic man … I went to him and I said, ‘Shinzo, we have to do something’ — trade is not fair.’ He said, ‘I know that. I know that,'” Trump said Abe responded.
Countries such as France, Germany and China have not been as flattering to Trump compared to Japan during his administrations in the public eye, but they have continued to negotiate trade and foreign policy plans, but rarely gave Trump everything he wanted.
“When it comes to his demands, this is the question always ask for Trump. What extent is he making demands and trying to be a deal maker?” Poast said. “It’s the idea that you come out with the outrageous idea and then negotiate down.”
Trump’s second term, however, has seen the president push through with his proposals, including the worldwide tariffs and increased calls for the takeover of Greenland, Canada and Panama.
The talk has resulted in more verbal pushback from world leaders calling out Trump for his rhetoric.
“We have to accept that the U.S. is not the single global power anymore, and other countries are now adjusting,” Poast said.
Poast said it doesn’t know if Trump’s tactics will set a new norm for international relations but did note that the political polarization of the international community and the magnified scope of the world stage has shifted the conversations and visible tensions.
“I think any adjustment that does happen will be less with Trump and his rhetoric but the changing power structure in the world system. We are living a world that is more multi-polar and we will see more shifts. Trump did not create that he may be more of a product of that and make light of that,” he said.
(NEW YORK) — Astronomers have gotten a glimpse of the “city-killer” asteroid before it disappears until 2028, according to NASA.
The space rock, called 2024 YR4, was previously given up to a 3.1% chance of striking Earth in December 2032, but astronomers have since eliminated the possibility of a strike at that time based on further observations.
Astronomers are watching 2024 YR4 closely, trying to learn everything they can before it disappears from view by mid-April, Kelly Fast, a planetary defense officer at NASA, told ABC News earlier this year. Its unique elongated orbit takes the asteroid around the sun and into Earth’s vicinity before it ventures far out between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter and out of sight, Fast said.
NASA’s Center for Near Earth Object Studies used the James Webb Space Telescope — the largest, most powerful telescope ever launched into space — to capture photos of the asteroid, the space agency announced on Wednesday.
New infrared observations indicate that the asteroid measures between 174 feet and 220 feet in diameter — about the size of the 10-story building, according to NASA. While it is not forecast to strike Earth in 2032, the asteroid now has a 1.7% probability of hitting the moon at that time, the space agency said.
The space rock was first discovered on Dec. 27 by astronomers monitoring the ATLAS telescope at the University of Hawaii, Fast said.
In the past, even when the asteroid passed through the inner solar system, it didn’t always come close to where Earth was at the time, which is why it was only recently discovered, Fast said.
The asteroid has been dubbed a “city-killer” due to its size and potential to cause major destruction. It is large enough to cause localized damage were it to strike a populated city, Fast said.
In 1908, the similarly sized Tunguska asteroid flattened trees over an area of about 1,250 miles after it exploded in the skies over Siberia.
NASA has been tasked by Congress with locating asteroids larger than 450 feet in length, which are large enough to do “regional” damage in the event of a strike, Fast said.
The asteroid currently has a 1.1% chance of striking Earth on Dec. 22, 2047, according to NASA.
More than a 2% chance of an asteroid strike is “uncommon,” Davide Farnocchia, a navigation engineer with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, told ABC News in February.
But astronomers will continue to monitor the asteroid closely.
“We don’t want to take any chances,” Farnocchia said.
Far-right activist Laura Loomer; Photo credit: Jacob M. Langston for The Washington Post via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — The White House has fired a handful of National Security Council staffers following a Wednesday meeting with far-right political activist Laura Loomer, who made recommendations to President Donald Trump about who he should fire, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.
Loomer met with Trump Wednesday, shortly before his tariff announcement in the Rose Garden, the sources said. Trump’s chief of staff Susie Wiles, Vice President JD Vance and the head of personnel Sergio Gor were involved in the meeting. Rep. Scott Perry was also present, but he was scheduled to meet with Trump about a variety of different topics, the sources added.
“NSC doesn’t comment on personnel matters,” NSC spokesman Brian Hughes said in a statement.
The New York Times was first to report on Trump’s meeting with Loomer.
“Out of respect for President Trump and the privacy of the Oval Office, I’m going to decline on divulging any details about my Oval Office meeting with President Trump. It was an honor to meet with President Trump and present him with my research findings, I will continue working hard to support his agenda, and I will continue reiterating the importance of strong vetting, for the sake of protecting the President and our national security,” Loomer told ABC News in a statement.
Loomer has frequently spread misinformation. In July, she falsely claimed in a social media post that President Joe Biden had a medical emergency after landing at Joint Base Andrews — a claim for which there was no evidence.
She had also started unsubstantiated claims about family members of Judge Juan Merchan in Trump’s New York hush money case, including that his daughter posted a fake photo of Trump in jail on social media, which the court has denied. It prompted Trump to share Loomer’s posts and spread the rumors.
Loomer accompanied Trump to several campaign events last fall — a move that prompted criticism from some Republicans at the time.
While it’s not clear whether any of the recent firings are directly related to national security adviser Mike Waltz and his staff’s use of the messaging app, Signal to communicate about sensitive topics, it comes as Waltz has had to privately defend himself and his staff to the president and other senior White House staffers.
The day after the inauguration, the Trump administration purged more than 150 NSC staffers because the new administration wanted to make sure the the goals of the NSC aligned with Trump’s agenda. Firing the nonpolitical staffers, who typically serve two-year stints on the council, has left the NSC severely understaffed and lacking subject matter experts from across government.
