National News

(NEW YORK) -- A rare asteroid will soon be visible to the naked eye in a rare celestial event, according to astronomers.Asteroid 99942 Apophis – named after the Egyptian deity of chaos, darkness and fire – is expected to safely pass close to Earth on April 13, 2029, according to NASA.The asteroid will pass within roughly 20,000 miles of Earth – nearly 12 times closer than the moon's average distance […]

(WASHINGTON) -- A federal appeals court on Tuesday halted a criminal contempt inquiry into former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and other officials for last year's deportation of more than 200 Venezuelans to El Salvador's CECOT mega-prison, marking the second time in less than a year that the probe has been frozen. A divided panel of judges on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered an end to the inquiry, concluding that the […]

(NEW YORK) -- More than 50 million people across the Midwest are bracing for severe weather on Tuesday, a day after baseball-sized hail and multiple tornadoes were reported in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Kansas.The threat of damaging storms has shifted slightly south from where strong winds blew the roofs off several buildings on Monday, including the collapse of a nursing home roof in Lodi, Wisconsin.A level 3 out of 5 "enhanced risk" for severe storms […]

(NEW YORK) -- Brian Hooker, whose wife was reported missing in the Bahamas after going overboard on a dinghy, told ABC News he is staying on the island with his "sole focus" on finding her.Lynette Hooker, 55, of Michigan, has been missing for over a week. She and Brian Hooker, 58, had departed Hope Town on the Abaco Islands for their yacht, Soulmate, in Elbow Cay around 7:30 p.m. on […]

(WASHINGTON) -- The Trump administration on Monday agreed to fly the rainbow pride flag on federal grounds at the Stonewall National Monument in New York City after the National Park Service's removal of the flag was challenged in a federal lawsuit filed by a coalition of LGBTQ+ advocacy groups.The Department of the Interior, which oversees NPS, agreed to fly the flag at the site as part of a resolution to the lawsuit […]

(SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.) -- A Texas man has been charged with traveling to California to allegedly throw a Molotov cocktail at OpenAI CEO Sam Altman's house, according to court records unsealed on Monday.The suspect, Daniel Moreno-Gama, was allegedly caught on video surveillance outside the CEO's home in San Francisco, according to court records. Around 4 a.m. Friday, the suspect allegedly "threw an incendiary destructive device" at Altman's house, which sparked a fire […]

(WASHINGTON) -- The Trump administration has fired two immigration judges who earlier this year dismissed the deportation cases of students advocating for Palestinian rights, the union representing immigration judges confirmed Monday.Roopal Patel, who was appointed as an immigration judge in 2024, ruled in February that there were no grounds to deport Rumeysa Ozturk, a graduate student at Tufts University. Ozturk was held in detention in Louisiana for 45 days.Nina Froes, […]

(WINN PARISH, La.) -- A Mexican migrant died last week in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, according to an agency notification sent to lawmakers, becoming the 47th person to die in ICE detention during the second Trump administration.Alejandro Cabrera Clemente, 49, died on April 11 at the Winn Correctional Center in Louisiana.In the notification, ICE said that Cabrera was found unresponsive and was transported to a local medical center."Despite life-saving […]

(WASHINGTON) -- A 16-year-old boy has been charged with murder and aggravated sexual abuse in the death of his stepsister during a family cruise vacation, the Department of Justice announced Monday.Anna Kepner, 18, died on the Carnival Cruise ship Horizon in November while the ship was in international waters and heading to Miami, prosecutors said.The DOJ alleged the stepbrother "sexually assaulted and intentionally killed" Kepner. The Florida high school senior died from […]