(NEW YORK) — A U.S.-flagged oil tanker has collided with a Portuguese container ship in the North Sea, north of England, with both ships catching on fire, according to officials.
“HM Coastguard is currently co-ordinating the emergency response to reports of a collision between a tanker and cargo vessel off the coast of East Yorkshire resulting in fires aboard both vessels,” the U.K. coast guard said in a statement.
The U.S. ship was identified as the Stena Immaculate, while the Portuguese-flagged container ship was identified as the Solong.
A coast guard helicopter has been sent, as well as a fixed-wing aircraft, several lifeboats and vessels with firefighting capabilities, the coast guard said.
“The incident remains ongoing and an assessment of the likely counter pollution response required is being enacted,” the coast guard said in a statement.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(ROME and LONDON) — Pope Francis on Sunday spent his 24th consecutive day in the hospital receiving therapy and getting an update on world and church affairs, the Vatican’s press office said in a brief statement.
“The night was quiet, the pope is resting,” the Holy See said Sunday morning.
The Vatican said Sunday night that the pope’s condition remains “stable.” But his “overall situation remains complex, prompting doctors to maintain a guarded prognosis.”
The pope took part in mass Sunday morning in the chapel in his 10th-floor apartment in Gemelli hospital, the Vatican said. On Sunday evening, the pope watched live coverage of the first day of Spiritual Exercises for Lent for the Roman curia held in the Paul VI Audience Hall in the Vatican.
The Vatican said Pope Francis also continued his treatment Sunday and underwent motor and respiratory physiotherapy.
“His ventilation continues to switch from the day use of high-flow to anti-invasive mechanical ventilation at night,” according to the Vatican statement.
The Vatican’s secretary of state, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, and the substitute for general affairs of the secretary of state, Archbishop Penna Parra, visited the Pope in the hospital to update him on church and world matters on Sunday, according to the Vatican.
Officials with the Catholic Church, which the pope has led since 2013, said on Saturday that the 88-year-old pontiff had demonstrated a good response to therapy.
“The doctors, hoping to record these initial improvements in the coming days, are prudently keeping the prognosis as still guarded,” the Vatican said.
Francis was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli Hospital on Feb. 14 and was diagnosed with bilateral pneumonia.
Earlier Sunday, the pope released the text of his Angelus address, or weekly address, thanking the doctors and nurses caring for him. He also prayed for the many people around the world who are enduring illness, according to the Vatican.
“During my prolonged hospitalization here,” the pope said, “I too experience the thoughtfulness of service and the tenderness of care, in particular from the doctors and healthcare workers, whom I thank from the bottom of my heart.”
(OTTAWA, CA) — Canada selected a new prime minister-elect on Sunday night, as Justin Trudeau’s reign nears a close amid a trade war with the United States.
Canada’s Liberal Party announced that Mark Carney was chosen to succeed Trudeau after party members voted in a nominating contest between four candidates.
In his acceptance speech, Carney addressed U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canada and the threat Trump has posed towards the country, calling the current events the “greatest crisis of our lifetimes.”
“We didn’t ask for this fight, but Canadians are always ready when someone else drops the gloves, so the Americans, they should make no mistake, in trade as in hockey, Canada will win,” Carney said.
Indirectly addressing Trump’s calls to make Canada the 51st state of the U.S., Carney added, “America is not Canada, and Canada never, ever will be part of America in any way, shape or form.”
Carney also criticized Trump’s tariffs on Canadian goods and said he supports the retaliatory tariffs Canada has imposed on the U.S.
“Donald Trump has put, as we know, unjustified tariffs on what we build, on what we sell, on how we make a living, he’s attacking Canadian workers, businesses and families… we cannot let him succeed and we won’t,” Carney said. “My government will keep our tariffs on until the Americans show us respect.”
Carney is expected to be sworn in sometime this week by the governor general of Canada, a representative in Canada of Britain’s King Charles III.
The newly elected Liberal Party leader is expected to immediately call for an election as early as late April.
Trudeau, who was first elected prime minister in November 2015, announced on Jan. 6 his intention to resign as Liberal Party leader and prime minister once a new party leader is determined through what he said would be “a robust, nationwide, competitive process.”
The candidates for prime minister included Chrystia Freedman, Canada’s longtime deputy prime minister who, until December, served as Trudeau’s finance minister; Frank Baylis, a businessman and former member of the House of Commons; Karina Gould, a member of Parliment, who served in Trudeau’s Cabinet as minister of International Development and minister of Democratic Institutions; and Mark Carney, an economist who served as governor of the Bank of Canada and the Bank of England.
Heading into the vote, Carney, who has never held an elected office, had emerged as a front-runner.
Carney, who as governor of the Bank of Canada, is credited with helping to guide the country through the worst of the 2008 financial crisis as governor of the Bank of Canada. Carney has compared the comments of President Donald Trump, who has also threatened to make Canada the 51st U.S. state, to a villain in the Harry Potter series.
“When you think about what’s at stake in these ridiculous, insulting comments of the president, of what we could be, I view this as the sort of Voldemort of comments,” the 59-year-old Carney told supporters at an event in Winnipeg last month.
Trudeau initially said he would serve as prime minister until March 24. He will then be replaced by the new Liberal Party leader.
The Canadian Parliament was supposed to begin its new session of 2025 on Jan. 27, but Trudeau had asked the governor general to extend and not start a new session of Parliament until March 24.
“I’m a fighter. Every bone in my body has always told me to fight because I care deeply about Canadians. I care deeply about this country, and I will always be motivated by what is in the best interest of Canadians,” Trudeau said when he announced his plans in early January to resign.
At the time, Trudeau said he believed his resignation would “bring the temperature down” and allow Parliament to reset and get back to work “for Canadians.”
“Parliament needs a reset, I think, needs to calm down a bit and needs to get to work for Canadians,” Trudeau said when answering reporters’ questions following his announcement. “Removing me as the leader who will fight the next election for the party should decrease the polarization that we have right now.”
Support for Trudeau’s party has declined steadily for months, with the Liberals falling in early January to their lowest level of support in years, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
In recent days, Trudeau has emerged as the face of Canada in a trade war that erupted with the United States over 25% tariffs that Trump imposed on products from Canada.
Canada countered by imposing a 25% tariff on goods from the United States, including American orange juice, peanut butter, coffee, appliances, footwear, cosmetics, motorcycles, and certain pulp and paper products.
Canadian Finance Minister Dominic LeBlanc said a second wave of retaliatory tariffs would be suspended after Trump announced on Thursday that he is pausing for a month tariffs on some products from Canada and Mexico.
(MANHEIM TOWNSHIP, PA) — A Beechcraft Bonanza crashed in Pennsylvania on Sunday afternoon with five people aboard, according to the Federal Aviation Authority.
The small aircraft went down near a retirement village south of Lancaster Airport, the Manheim Borough Police Department told ABC News.
The plane had just departed from the airport shortly before it crashed, authorities said during a briefing on Sunday evening, adding that the plane might have skidded about 100 feet after it first made contact with the ground.
No one was hurt on the ground, officials confirmed.
All five passengers were transported to Lancaster General Hospital, where trauma and emergency teams were at the ready to provide care, according to hospital spokesperson.
Two of the patients were later transported to Lehigh Valley Health Network’s burn center by PennSTAR flight crews, the spokesperson said, and one patient was transported there by ground ambulance. Two patients remain hospitalized at Lancaster General as of Sunday night, they added.
The plane crash occurred around 3 p.m., according to the FAA, which said it will investigate. The National Transportation Safety Board is also monitoring the situation
According to audio from Air Traffic Control, the pilot told the Lancaster Airport control tower that his plane “has an open door we need to return for landing.”
ATC then cleared the plane to return, but a few seconds later the controller told the plane to “pull up,” the audio revealed.
Images taken by witnesses and shared with ABC News showed flames and smoke billowing from the crash site in Lititz, Manheim Township.
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro posted a statement on X.com saying, “Our team at @PAStatePolice is on the ground assisting local first responders following the small private plane crash near Lancaster Airport in Manheim Township. All Commonwealth resources are available as the response continues, and more information will be provided as it becomes available.”
Information will be released as it becomes available, the NTSB said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent a survey on March 6 asking some federally funded researchers to assess how their work aligns with the priorities of President Donald Trump’s administration, according to documents obtained by ABC News.
CDC-funded researchers were asked whether their research would help combat “Christian persecution,” defend women and children against “gender ideology extremism” or help curb illegal immigration.
They were also surveyed about whether their research included any diversity or climate change initiatives — among other questions that roughly align with recent executive orders.
On Friday, the agency clarified that the survey was only applicable to CDC partners doing work outside the United States.
It’s not clear how many researchers received the email, which was sent by the CDC’s Global Health Center.
“Receiving this survey was deeply unsettling. It’s hard not to see it as an attempt to inject politics into scientific research, forcing us to align with ideological priorities rather than urgent public health needs,” said one researcher who received the survey.
Researchers who received the survey also told ABC News that they were concerned their answers would be used to jeopardize ongoing research or could be used to justify further cuts, especially to research conducted abroad.
“I worry about how these responses might be used to justify funding cuts, especially for critical public health initiatives,” one researcher said.
Earlier this week, a similar survey was sent to foreign aid programs supported by the United States Agency for International Development, according to reporting by The New York Times.
The survey comes amid federal firings, budget cuts and grant cuts to federally funded research, though some of those actions have been blocked in court.
Several hundred people gathered in the nation’s capital on March 7 for the Stand Up for Science rally, and there are similar rallies planned in more than 30 other cities.
In 2023, the federal government funded roughly $60 billion in scientific research, according to the Association of American Universities. Prior government-funded research has led to technologies such as MRIs and GPS.
(NEW YORK) — Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil — a leader in Columbia University’s encampment movement — on Saturday night, claiming that his student visa had been revoked, according to attorney Amy Greer in a statement to ABC News.
However, Khalil is in the United States on a green card and not on a student visa, Greer said Sunday.
Despite informing agents about his legal status, ICE detained him, she said.
At one point during a phone call with agents, they hung up on Greer, a representative of her law firm told ABC News.
Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin addressed Khalil’s arrest on Sunday night, saying, “On March 9, 2025, in support of President Trump’s executive orders prohibiting anti-Semitism, and in coordination with the Department of State, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University graduate student. Khalil led activities aligned to Hamas, a designated terrorist organization.”
“ICE and the Department of State are committed to enforcing President Trump’s executive orders and to protecting U.S. national security,” she added.
Secretary of State Marc Rubio also shared an article about Khalil on Sunday night and posted on X, “We will be revoking the visas and/or green cards of Hamas supporters in America so they can be deported.”
Greer is challenging Khalil’s arrest but has been unable to locate where he is being held, she said.
“Overnight we filed a habeas corpus petition on Mahmoud’s behalf challenging the validity of his arrest and detention,” she said. “Currently we do not know Mahmoud’s precise whereabouts.”
Khalil’s wife, who is eight months pregnant and a U.S. citizen, was unable to find him at an ICE facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey, where he was purportedly transferred, Greer said — adding that he might have been transferred to Louisiana.
“ICE’s arrest and detention of Mahmoud follows the U.S. government’s open repression of student activism and political speech, specifically targeting students at Columbia University for criticism of Israel’s assault on Gaza,” she said. “The U.S. government has made clear that they will use immigration enforcement as a tool to suppress that speech.”
The arrest occurred just days after President Donald Trump took to social media threatening to defund universities that allowed “illegal protests” and claiming “agitators” will be sent back to their home countries.
“All Federal Funding will STOP for any College, School, or University that allows illegal protests. Agitators will be imprisoned/or permanently sent back to the country from which they came. American students will be permanently expelled or, depending on on the crime, arrested. NO MASKS! Thank you for your attention to this matter,” Trump posted on Truth Social on March 4.
Columbia released the following statement on Sunday: “There have been reports of ICE around campus. Columbia has and will continue to follow the law. Consistent with our longstanding practice and the practice of cities and institutions throughout the country, law enforcement must have a judicial warrant to enter non-public University areas, including University buildings.”
“Columbia is committed to complying with all legal obligations and supporting our student body and campus community,” the statement continued.
(SANTO DOMINGO, DOMINCAN REPUBLIC) — A University of Pittsburgh student who was reported missing after traveling to the Dominican Republic last week is believed to have died by drowning, officials confirmed to ABC News on Sunday.
The student has been identified as Sudiksha Konanki, a legal permanent resident of the United States and an Indian citizen. She was one of six female students traveling in Punta Cana, according to the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office.
Konanki and one of the other students were Loudoun County, Virginia, residents, the sheriff’s office said.
Three Dominican officials involved in the investigation told ABC News that Konanki was walking on the beach with six people on March 5 before she is believed to have drowned in the ocean.
At some point, most of the group went back to the hotel during the night, but one person stayed with her on the beach, according to a Dominican Republic investigative police report.
She and this person went for a swim and were caught by a big wave, the police report said.
The last time Konanki was seen on the beach on security camera footage was around 4:15 a.m. on March 6, the Dominican Republic Public Ministry told ABC News.
The Public Ministry was first contacted by the U.S. embassy in the Dominican Republic the next day, on March 7, the Ministry said.
Officials said the missing student’s friends with her close to the time of her disappearance have been questioned by police and have not been charged with anything.
Kim Jae-Hwan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
(SEOUL and LONDON) — North Korea fired “multiple” ballistic missiles on Monday, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, as U.S.-South Korea war games began nearby.
The missiles, which were “unidentified,” were fired from the North’s Hwanghae Province at about 1:50 p.m. local time, the South Korean military said. They were aimed inland, toward the West Sea.
The South Korean military “has increased surveillance and maintaining readiness posture in close cooperation with the U.S.,” the Joint Chiefs said.
The annual U.S.-South Korea joint exercises, which are known as “Freedom Shield,” were scheduled to begin Monday and run through March 21, according to the U.S. Army.
The training alongside South Korean soldiers will include urban combat, field hospital operations, field artillery exercises, air assault training and air defenses, the Army said in a statement on Monday. The U.S. Marine Corps is also expected to take part in a joint assault exercise.
North Korea’s Foreign Ministry described the planned exercises as “aggressive,” with officials telling state media on Sunday that the “U.S. random exercise of strength will result in aggravated security crisis.”
“This is a dangerous provocative act of leading the acute situation on the Korean peninsula, which may spark off a physical conflict between the two sides by means of an accidental single shot, to the extreme point,” the ministry said in a statement to the Korean Central New Agency on Sunday.
ABC News’ Somayeh Malekian contributed to this report.
(LONDON) — The U.S. is “just about” ready to lift its freeze on intelligence sharing with Ukraine, President Donald Trump said Sunday, as American and Ukrainian negotiators prepare for bilateral talks in Saudi Arabia intended to move toward a peace deal to end Russia’s three-year-old invasion.
“Well, we just about have,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One when asked if he would consider resuming intelligence sharing. “We want to do anything we can to get Ukraine serious about getting something done,” he added.
Trump’s administration has embarked on a dramatic pivot away from the “ironclad” backing of Ukraine practiced by former President Joe Biden’s administration.
Trump has falsely blamed Ukraine for starting the war, tried to undermine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s legitimacy, sought to strong-arm Kyiv into a controversial minerals sharing deal and froze military aid and intelligence support in a bid to force Ukraine into making concessions to Russia.
Tuesday’s talks in Riyadh are intended to revitalize bilateral relations following weeks of tense exchanges between Washington, D.C., and Kyiv, which culminated in an explosive Oval Office confrontation between Trump, Zelenskyy and Vice President JD Vance.
The U.S. delegation in Saudi Arabia will include Secretary of State Marco Rubio and national security adviser Mike Waltz. The Ukrainian team will be led by Andriy Yermak, the head of Zelenskyy’s presidential office. The U.S. side is expecting Ukraine to show willingness to make peace, Trump suggested on Sunday.
“We’ll be looking at a lot of things,” he said. “We have big meetings coming up. As you know, it’s Saudi Arabia that’s going to include Russia. It’ll be Ukraine. We’ll see if we can get something done.”
“I think everybody wants to see it get done,” the president added. “We’re going to make a lot of progress.”
“I think they will sign the minerals deal,” Trump said when asked about progress on the controversial agreement. “I want them to want peace.” Trump claimed that Ukraine has not yet shown that willingness.
Trump avoided answering whether he would place sanctions or tariffs on Russia and pointed to White House officials’ upcoming meetings in Saudi Arabia. The president also avoided giving a definitive answer when asked if the U.S. would resume aid to Ukraine if the minerals deal is signed.
Zelenskyy will travel to Saudi Arabia on Monday to meet with the kingdom’s crown prince and de facto ruler, Mohammed bin Salman.
“Tomorrow, we will continue working to bring peace closer — there will be my visit to Saudi Arabia,” the Ukrainian president wrote on social media Sunday. “Also, today, the meeting of our teams — Ukraine and the United States — in Saudi Arabia has been further prepared. We hope for results — both in bringing peace closer and in continuing support.”
On Monday morning, Zelenskyy said in a post to Telegram, “Ukraine has been seeking peace since the very first second of the war and we have always said that the only reason the war continues is Russia.”
The public U.S.-Ukraine break has prompted concern among European leaders, with leaders both rallying around Zelenskyy and urging him to repair his fraying relations with Trump. Officials in Russia appeared jubilant, openly suggesting that the Trump administration had aligned its views with the Kremlin’s.
Trump and his top officials have said that both Ukraine and Russia will be expected to make concessions in pursuit of a peace deal to end Moscow’s invasion, which itself is only the latest chapter in more than a decade of cross-border aggression.
Trump last week suggested in a post to Truth Social that he was “strongly considering large-scale sanctions” and tariffs on Russia until a deal is reached, adding that Moscow “is absolutely ‘pounding’ Ukraine on the battlefield right now.” Trump also told a joint session of Congress he had received “strong signals” that Russia is ready to make peace.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said last week that the U.S.-Ukraine talks in Saudi Arabia are a “positive” development, though stressed there are unresolved “nuances.”
“The question is who to negotiate with?” Peskov told reporters. Russia has repeatedly framed Zelenskyy as an illegitimate president, citing the delay to planned 2024 presidential elections in Ukraine necessitated by the imposition of martial law.
The Kremlin has also cited a September 2022 Ukrainian decree in which Zelenskyy declared negotiations with Putin “impossible,” after Moscow claimed to have annexed four partially-occupied Ukrainian regions.
Meanwhile, both Russia and Ukraine are continuing their long-range missile and drone strike campaigns. Deadly weekend strikes by Russia prompted condemnation from several European nations.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, for example, wrote on X, “This is what happens when someone appeases barbarians. More bombs, more aggression, more victims.”
Sunday night saw Russia launch 176 attack drones into Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian air force, of which 130 were shot down and 42 lost in flight without causing damage. The air force reported impacts in Kharkiv, Poltava and Kyiv regions.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said it shot down nine Ukrainian drones overnight.
ABC News’ Kelsey Walsh contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Democrats want to force President Donald Trump’s administration to rehire veterans who were laid off as part of large-scale efforts by Trump and Elon Musk to reshape the federal government and its workforce, according to information exclusive to ABC News.
Sens. Tammy Duckworth of Illinois and Andy Kim of New Jersey plan to introduce the Protect Veteran Jobs Act in the Senate on Monday. The bill would compel the Trump administration to reinstate veterans impacted by recent mass layoffs, according to a copy of the proposal obtained by ABC News.
It would also require the Trump administration to provide a quarterly report to Congress on the number of veterans removed from the federal workforce — and the justification for their firing.
“Veterans who choose to continue their service to our country in the federal workforce deserve our utmost gratitude, but instead this Administration has kicked thousands of our heroes to the curb and left them without a paycheck,” Duckworth said in a statement. “The message of our bill is simple: Give our heroes their jobs back. If Republicans really care about our Veterans, they should stop enabling Trump and Musk’s chaos and support our legislation.”
In the coming weeks of floor activity and ahead of government funding votes, Democrats hope to get Republicans on the record over layoffs impacting a reliably Republican — and Trump-supporting — group of voters.
The party also attempted to draw attention to the firings by inviting veterans who lost their government jobs to Trump’s joint address to Congress on March 3.
Veterans make up roughly 30% of the federal workforce of more than 2 million civilian government employees, according to September data from the Office of Personnel Management.
Roughly 75,000 federal workers have accepted offers for deferred buyouts, and another roughly 20,000 government employees have been fired in the first months of Trump’s second term.
The Trump administration has not said how many veterans have been impacted by the cuts, though Democrats have estimated that several thousand veterans have been fired across the administration.
OPM has since directed some agencies, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, to rehire veteran workers and to exempt veterans and military spouses from other workforce policy changes.
But many veterans have still lost their jobs in recent weeks.
“You spend 10 years trying to defend your country in terms of honesty, integrity and justice, and then you come back and get copy-and-pasted the same email as 10,000 other people about your performance,” Andrew Lennox, a fired Department of Veterans Affairs worker who served as a Marine in Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria, told ABC News.
Lennox was one of the veterans who attended Trump’s joint address to Congress last week. He was a guest of Sen. Elissa Slotkin of Michigan, who delivered the Democratic rebuttal to the speech.
The Department of Veterans Affairs also plans to cut up to 80,000 workers from the agency, which has drawn some criticism from both Republicans and Democrats.
Democratic Rep. Derek Tran of California has introduced similar legislation in the House.
