Debris is piled up at the entrance to Camp Mystic on July 07, 2025 in Hunt, Texas. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
(KERR COUNTY, Texas) — Camp Mystic announced that it will not be reopening for the summer amid ongoing investigations into deadly flooding that killed 25 girls and two teen counselors last year.
The camp said it informed the Texas Department of State Health Services on Thursday that it is withdrawing its application for a summer 2026 camp license.
“No administrative process or summer season should move forward while families continue to grieve, while investigations continue and while so many Texans still carry the pain of last July’s tragedy,” Camp Mystic said in a statement.
The Christian all-girls sleepaway camp said it is choosing to withdraw its application for its Cypress Lake location “rather than risk defending our rights under Texas law in a manner that may unintentionally effect further harm.”
Twenty-five campers and two teen counselors died during a devastating Fourth of July flash flood last summer, after rapidly rising waters inundated cabins at the camp’s location along the Guadalupe River. The director of the camp also died.
Camp Mystic said it had planned to welcome more than 800 girls to its Cypress Lake location, which did not experience any fatalities, this summer, before withdrawing its application.
“This decision is intended to remove any doubt that Camp Mystic has heard the concerns expressed by grieving families, members of the Texas House and Senate investigating committees and citizens across our state. Respect for those voices requires that we step back now,” the camp said.
The camp said it will “continue to fully cooperate with all ongoing investigations, comply with every lawful requirement and continue supporting recovery and healing efforts.”
Families of the flood victims and some officials, including Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, had called on the Texas Department of State Health Services to block Camp Mystic’s license for the summer. Patrick said the camp shouldn’t reopen until the flood was fully investigated and any necessary corrective actions were taken.
The license withdrawal comes after the Texas Department of State Health Services notified Camp Mystic last week of nearly two dozen deficiencies in the emergency plan in its license application.
The department said that all camps that had submitted an emergency plan had received a deficiency letter due to statutory changes and increased emergency plan requirements enacted in the wake of the deadly flooding at Camp Mystic.
The tragedy was the focus of an emotional two-day hearing before Texas lawmakers earlier this week. A Houston attorney hired by the state legislature to investigate the deadly flood presented a review based on interviews with approximately 150 people, including campers, counselors, the camp’s owners and the victims’ families.
The attorney, Casey Garrett, said there was inadequate training or drills for counselors and campers regarding a flood threat.
The Texas Rangers have also opened a criminal investigation of Camp Mystic, according to Patrick.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Steven Tyler of Aerosmith performs live on stage at the Wells Fargo Center on September 02, 2023 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Lisa Lake/Getty Images)
Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler just nabbed a win in the lawsuit brought by a woman who accused him of sexual assault.
Julia Holcomb aka Julia Misley filed the lawsuit against Tyler back in 2022. She and Tyler had a three-year relationship starting in 1973 when she was 16 and he was 20. In her suit, she accused him of sexual assault, assault and battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
While Holcomb filed the suit in California, the suit argued that the alleged sexual assault happened in several states across the country. On Tuesday, the judge in the case ruled that the accusations of sexual assault in other states cannot be tried in California and only the California allegations can move forward, which in this case refers to one incident in 1974.
“This is a massive win for Steven Tyler. Today, the Court has dismissed with prejudice 99.9% of the claims against Mr. Tyler in this case,” Tyler’s lawyer David Long-Daniels said in a statement provided to ABC Audio. “The court has decided that only one night, fifty-plus years ago, out of a three year relationship is allowed to remain. We look forward to trying this case on August 31.”
In her suit, Holcomb said she and Tyler were allowed to be together because the rocker got her mother to grant him guardianship over her, which allowed her to live and travel with him. She claimed she “was powerless to resist” the rock star’s “power, fame and substantial financial ability,” and that he “coerced and persuaded” her into believing their relationship was a “romantic love affair.”
Lawyers for Holcomb have not yet responded to ABC Audio’s request for comment.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth testifies during the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the Defense Department’s budget request on Thursday, April 30, 2026. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told a Senate committee on Thursday that dissent from the “cheap seats” in Congress sought to undermine the military’s efforts in its war in Iran only two months into the campaign.
“Defeatists from the cheap seats who, two months in, seek to undermine the incredible efforts that have been undertaken and the historic nature of taking on a 47-year threat,” Hegseth said in his opening statement.
The statement was nearly identical to what he told the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday in the first of two hearings on the Pentagon’s 2027 budget plan in which he faces questions on the war in his first appearances before Congress since the war started in February.
The hearings were scheduled to discuss the Pentagon’s request for a $1.5 trillion budget for 2027, the most the Pentagon has ever requested. In Wednesday’s hearing, Jules Hurst III, the Pentagon comptroller, testified the war has so far cost $25 billion. The Pentagon has said it will ask for $200 billion in supplemental funding for the campaign.
In both hearings, Hegseth asserted the the U.S.’s “biggest adversary” in the war is from within.
“Unfortunately, as I said yesterday, and I’ll say it again today, the biggest adversary we face at this point are the reckless naysayers and defeatist words of congressional Democrats and some Republicans,” he said.
Democratic Rep. Chrissy Houlahan pushed back against Hegseth’s assertion on Wednesday, telling him, “Mr. Secretary, you reserved more words and more time and more vitriol to condemn Democrats than you did for [Chinese President Xi Jinping] and for [Russian Federation President Vladimir] Putin combined. It’s pretty telling to me that you decided to use your words and your time for that.”
Leaving Thursday’s hearing, Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal said, “Secretary Hegseth seems to feel that by attacking the committee, he somehow is persuading the American people. “It’s exactly the opposite — his antagonism and seeming reluctance to tell the truth, I think, is doing this administration and the country a tremendous disfavor. And by refusing to come clean, give us precise numbers on costs, when we know that the true figures are higher than what has been told us, I think just undermines his credibility.”
Democrats and some Republicans in Congress have questioned the rationale behind launching the campaign against Iran, its endgame and the strains it has put on the economy and alliances with U.S. partners.
Hegseth was briefly interrupted by protesters during Thursday’s hearing.
Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, appeared to agree with Senate Armed Services Chairman Roger Wicker’s assertion that Russia has tried to to undermine the U.S. operation in Iran.
“General Caine, there’s no question that Vladimir Putin’s Russia is taking serious action to undermine our efforts for success in Iran. Is there any question about that?” Wicker asked.
“I think there’s actions and activities. [I’m] mindful of the hearing room we’re in, but there’s, there’s, there’s definitely some action there,” Caine said. Wicker described the war against Iran as a success.
“While we all mourn the tragic loss of the 14 service members who have lost their lives in this conflict, we do so knowing the world is safer without a nuclear Iran,” he said.
But he noted the threat that Iran still poses.
“Most of Iran’s leaders are now deceased, but they and those who survived them have consistently sought violence against America, Israel, our Gulf allies,” Wicker said.
Wicker said Iran was part of an axis of aggressors with China, Russia and North Korea.
“This growing alliance cannot be denied,” the chairman said, adding later that “ties have never been closer among these four … dictatorships.”
Ranking Democrat Jack Reed said that the war has put the U.S. “in a worse strategic position,” pointing out that the Strait of Hormuz had closed because of the war and Iran’s nuclear material remained unaddressed and telling Hegseth his declaration of victory on April 8 was premature.
“Mr. Secretary, I am concerned that you have been telling the president what he wants to hear, instead of what he needs to hear,” Reed said. “Bold assurances of success are a disservice to both the commander-in-chief and the troops who risk their lives based on them. Our military has performed heroically. But military force without a sound strategy is a path to long-term defeat.”
Reed also said cultural erosion has taken place in the military and would lead to “lasting harm.” He pointed to Kid Rock’s recent “joy ride” with Hegseth in Army attack helicopters, the firing of several senior officers, and “troubling” statements he said the secretary had made about the conduct of the war.
“You have made troubling statements about showing ‘no mercy’ and ‘no quarter’ to the Iranians: orders that would constitute war crimes,” Reed said.
Immigrant woman and children walk across a field as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Enforcement and Removal Operations hosts a media tour at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, TX. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
(DILLEY, Texas) — Olivia Mabiala Andre made her youngest brother, Manuel, a promise.
“We’re going to go to the United States and we’re going to get you a bike,” the 19-year-old said she told him.
The promise of the bike for her brother and stability for her entire family of five, Andre said, kept them focused on their plan to travel from their home country of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, through South America and toward the United States. But three days into their journey, Manuel drowned while crossing a river in Colombia.
“He was the happiness of my house. He was the cutest boy you can imagine, he was our sunshine,” Andre said, speaking to ABC News from detention at the South Texas Family Residential Center in Dilley, Texas.
Now more than three years after reaching the U.S., Andre and her family are facing deportation to their home country after the U.S. federal government denied their asylum request.
Andre, who was studying to be a nurse, has been detained since November 2025 and was only briefly reunited with her family. She says it is taking a toll.
According to a habeas petition, an independent expert confirmed Andrew “meets the diagnostic criteria for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder” and “has repeatedly expressed suicidal ideation.” Andre also displayed depression symptoms, the court filing claimed.
Their case is receiving national attention, with lawmakers and prominent figures like children’s educator and YouTube star Ms. Rachel calling for Andre’s release.
“It doesn’t make sense to hold this caring, wonderful person who wants to be a nurse who’s been through so much trauma. It’s just cruel to hold her there, especially while she’s having a mental health crisis, and she’s having suicidal thoughts,” said Ms. Rachel, whose real name is Rachel Anne Accurso, in an interview Thursday with ABC’s Diane Macedo.
Accurso says she has been keeping in touch with Andre while she remains detained.
“She’s overflowing compassion and faith and strength and it was a privilege to talk with her. I was so in awe of her,” Accurso said.
Attorneys representing the Andre family tell ABC News they fled their home country after Andre’s mother says she faced direct threats by high-level government officials.
“Her mother has suffered brutal abuse and torture, which led both her mother and her family to need to flee for their lives. They took a difficult journey to the United States, and along the way, Olivia witnessed her eight year old brother who she loved so much, drown on the journey, and it has caused devastating sadness for Olivia, her mother and her two siblings,” their attorney Elora Mukherjee said.
According to court documents, the Andre family entered the U.S. in December 2022 and applied for asylum, settling in Portland, Maine. An immigration judge denied their asylum petition, in part, because they believed they couldn’t provide enough corroborating evidence to support their claim and ordered them deported in February 2025.
The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) later affirmed the immigration judge’s decision, finding that her mother could not provide enough corroborating evidence to support her petition, the documents state.
Todd Pomerleau, who is now representing the family’s asylum case in immigration court, says a language barrier and interpretation issues contributed to the asylum claim being denied.
Days after the BIA denied the family’s appeal, Mukherjee said they attempted to cross into Canada to seek asylum there, but were prevented from doing so, because of a treaty between the two countries called the Canada-U.S. Safe Third Country Agreement. The treaty prevents some immigrants from seeking asylum in Canada if they’ve been denied a U.S. claim.
“Olivia and her family were desperate in their search for safety, because they know they cannot return to the Democratic Republic of Congo, they’re going to be killed there,” Mukherjee said.
Transfer to Dilley Detention Center
After being transferred to the custody of U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials on Nov. 12, 2025, Andre said she was detained apart from the rest of her family, the habeas petition says.
“They just took them away and put me on a different plane,” Andre said.
According to Andre, she was sent to four different facilities over the course of the following two weeks. She said she would ask personnel at the facility where her family was, but claims she never received an answer.
Andre was then sent to the immigration facility in Dilley, but said she did not know where the rest of her family was being held.
Two weeks later, Andre said she and a friend she made at the detention center were walking to the library when she heard her name being called. Her friend encouraged her to see a counselor at the facility who later determined that the rest of the family was also being held there. They were finally reunited, but held in different sections of the facility, according to her attorneys.
Andre’s mother and two siblings were held in areas reserved for family units, while Andre was held with other single adult women, the attorneys said.
Andre said she later found out that her sister would yell her name out into the yard of the facility every day since being detained in hopes that she would end up at the same facility and hear her.
Andre and her family are now challenging their asylum claim denial. In February, the 1st Circuit Court of Appeals barred the Trump administration from deporting the family until they rule on the case, which could take several months.
Mukherjee filed a request to temporarily release the family while the court case continues. In March, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement released Andre’s mother and siblings, but she remains in detention.
Spotlight on the family’s case
Andre’s supporters highlight her accomplishments in the more than three years since coming to the U.S.
According to court documents, Andre graduated from high school in one and a half years. She completed a rigorous training program to become a certified nursing assistant and was in college studying to become a nurse at the time she was detained. She knows multiple languages, which she says can help her treat people from all over the world.
The loss of her brother inspired her to get into the medical field, Andre said.
“When I lost my brother, I was, like, I have to work and do something to help people,” she said.
To date, her attorneys say they have not received a formal reason for why she remains detained despite the government being prohibited from deporting her while her case unfolds in court.
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told ABC News the Andre family has “received full due process” and the government will continue trying to deport the family.
“The facts are Olivia Mabiala Andre is an adult illegal alien with a final order of removal and no right to remain in the U.S. If we encounter illegal aliens who should have been detained but were instead released into the country by the Biden administration, we will detain them. The Trump administration is not going to ignore the rule of law,” the spokesperson said.
At times, Andre worries that she’ll be deported back to the Congo and what that would do to her mother.
“She already lost one child, she cannot lose another one,” she said.
Def Leppard is releasing a new Greatest Hits compilation on vinyl.
The album will feature newly remastered versions of the band’s biggest hits, including the iconic “Pour Some Sugar On Me” and the #1 hit “Love Bites,” along with “Hysteria,” “Animal” and “Rock of Ages.”
The album will be released June 12 on black vinyl. In celebration of their upcoming European/U.K. tour, there will also be a red marble vinyl tour edition, featuring alternative artwork. Both are currently available for preorder. Signed versions of both formats are currently sold out on Def Leppard’s website.
Def Leppard is set to launch their European/U.K. tour on June 13 in Rättvik, Sweden, with the U.K. portion beginning June 26 in Belfast, Ireland. A complete list of dates can be found at DefLeppard.com.
Here is the Greatest Hits track list: “Pour Some Sugar On Me” “Hysteria” “Photograph” “Love Bites” “Animal” “Rock Of Ages” “When Love And Hate Collide” “Bringin’ On The Heartbreak” “Foolin’” “Armageddon It”
The US Capitol is seen, April 20, 2026 in Washington. (Leigh Vogel/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — After months of resistance, the House on Thursday passed the Senate-backed Department of Homeland Security funding bill, which funds all agencies inside DHS except immigration enforcement operations.
There was no recorded vote requested.
The measure now heads to President Donald Trump’s desk now for signature — ending the record-long DHS shutdown after 76 days. Trump will sign the DHS funding bill later Thursday, according to a White House official.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Nicole Saphier attends the Patriot Awards, December 5, 2024 in Greenvale, New York. (Theo Wargo/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump said on Thursday that he is nominating Dr. Nicole Saphier to be the next surgeon general.
Trump made the announcement on social media, calling Saphier a “STAR physician who has spent her career guiding women facing breast cancer through their diagnosis and treatment while tirelessly advocating to increase early cancer detection and prevention.”
Saphier is the director of breast imaging at Memorial Sloan Kettering Monmouth in New Jersey and a regular medical contributor on Fox News.
According to her profile on the Memorial Sloan Kettering website, she has experience “performing minimally invasive, image-guided procedures of the breast, kidney, pancreas, liver, thyroid and lymph nodes.”
Her nomination comes just two months after Trump’s previous nominee, Dr. Casey Means, appeared before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) committee for her confirmation hearing.
During the hearing, Means indicated she supports vaccines but stopped short of recommending certain shots.
Means, who has a medical degree but does not hold an active medical license, appeared hesitant to say that some vaccines, such as the flu vaccine, prevent serious disease.
Sen. Bill Cassidy, who chairs the HELP committee and is a physician, noted that two children died last year from measles and pushed Means on whether she would encourage parents to vaccinate their children with the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine.
Means initially stressed personal autonomy and responded that she supported vaccination and that every patient should have a conversation with their doctor about getting vaccinated.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
1970 photo of David Allan Coe (Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images)
Country rebel David Allan Coe passed away Wednesday at the age of 86, his wife confirmed to Rolling Stone.
“One of the best singers, songwriters, and performers of our time [and] never to be forgotten,” Kimberly Hastings Coe wrote to the magazine. “My husband, my friend, my confidant and my life for many years. I’ll never forget him and I don’t want anyone else to ever forget him either.”
He’s perhaps best known for the perennial bar sing-along “You Never Even Called Me by My Name,” with its spoken word section that Ella Langley pointed to as one of the inspirations for her non-traditional smash “you look like you love me.”
Born in Akron, Ohio, in 1939, Coe did early stints in the penal system for a variety of charges, grand theft auto among them.
By 1967 he’d moved to Nashville, where he was discovered by producer Shelby Singleton. By 1973, he’d written Tanya Tucker’s #1 “Would You Lay With Me (in a Field of Stone).”
The top-10 success of his own “You Never Even Called Me by My Name” came in 1975, followed by another one of his major triumphs in 1977: Johnny Paycheck took Coe’s “Take This Job and Shove It” to #1, as well.
Though he continued making albums until 2006, collaborating with members of the rock band Pantera on the Rebel Meets Rebel project, his last major musical success was 1983’s top-five hit “The Ride,” an ode to Hank Williams.
Jennifer Lopez as Jackie Cruz and Brett Goldstein as Daniel Blanchflower in ‘Office Romance.’ (Ana Carballosa/Netflix)
See JLo and Brett Goldstein get steamy in the new trailer for Office Romance.
Netflix has released the first trailer for its upcoming rom-com starring Jennifer Lopez and Ted Lasso breakout Goldstein.
The film is “a raunchy romantic comedy about a secret office romance and the trouble two workaholics get in when they start thinking with their hearts,” according to an official description from Netflix.
Lopez stars as the perfectionist CEO of an airline Jackie Cruz in the film, while Goldstein plays her company’s ambitious new lawyer, Daniel Blanchflower.
As the trailer’s description reads, “This is a rom-com that’s not safe for work… but so worth the risk.”
The trailer begins with the pair’s meet-cute on Daniel’s first day of work.
“For most people, work is something that you have to endure. But for me, running this airline, this is the best part,” Lopez’s Jackie says in the trailer.
It’s only after the pair jet off on a destination work trip that things start to heat up between them.
“Do you believe in magic?” Jackie asks Daniel, who tells her, “Honestly, since I first walked into your office, I believe in everything.”
Betty Gilpin co-stars in the film that also features Edward James Olmos, who portrayed Lopez’s father in the 1997 film Selena. He plays the actress’s onscreen father again in this new movie.
Office Romance was written by Goldstein and Joe Kelly and helmed by Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again director Ol Parker. It arrives to Netflix on June 5.
Druski to host BET Awards 2026 (Credit: Erik Umphrey)
The BET Awards are back for another year, this time with Druski as host.
The comedian — who rose to fame through viral skits, comedy tours, and collaborations with Snoop Dogg andKevin Hart, among others — is making history as the youngest host of the show at 31, surpassing the record Kevin set in 2011.
“It’s an honor to be the youngest host EVER for the BET Awards,” Druski said in a statement. “I grew up watching the BET Awards and, to know the comedic legends that hosted before me set the bar so high, I’m just grateful to be a part of the history. BUT I’m still bringing my brand of comedy to the stage, so expect a little chaos, a lot of laughs, and some of your favorite Druski characters to pop out along the way.”
“I told BET if I’m hosting, we gon’ do this my way,” he said. “Rule #1: Jamie Foxx, take that big a** hat off. Rule #2: Sexyy Red, no leggings, rompers, body suits. We don’t need no wrestlers, no wrestlers on the red carpet. Black suit and tie. Rule #3: YNs, take the ski masks off, man. Stop. Stop it.”
“Rule #4, mega pastors, listen I know ya’ll on my back right now,” Druski said, referring to the backlash from his mega church skit. “I been getting the DMs and the threats. Just leave it up to God. Leave it up to God. We gon’ lock them doors, and can’t nobody get out.”
“Welcome to the 2026 BET Awards,” he continued. “They gon’ be like this n**** crazy.”
BET Awards 2026 aka Culture’s Biggest Night will air June 28 at 8 p.m. ET on BET.
