President Donald Trump announced on his social media platform Thursday that he will sign an executive order instructing newly sworn-in Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Markwayne Mullin to pay TSA workers immediately, calling the ongoing DHS shutdown an “Emergency Situation.”

In a Cabinet meeting at the White House earlier Thursday, Trump said that he might have to take “drastic measures” unless the shutdown ended soon.

It is unclear under what legal authority Trump is issuing the order. Congress has the “power of the purse,” meaning lawmakers generally direct how federal funding is to be used. 

According to a senior administration official, the Transportation Security Administration officers will be paid using money already approved by Congress through President Donald Trump’s sweeping domestic policy bill signed last summer. 

“Money provided by President Trump’s OBBB will be used to pay TSA,” the senior administration official said, referring to the legislation that has been called the “One Big Beautiful Bill.”  

During the last government shutdown in the fall, the Trump administration also shifted funds around to keep some payments going. 

For example, Trump ordered Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to use “all available funds” to pay some 2 million service members. The Pentagon later clarified that the money — about $8 billion — came out of the Department of Defense’s research, development and testing budget. A spokesperson said at the time that the funds were “unobligated” and from the previous fiscal year. 

In addition to active duty troops, members of the Coast Guard, which is under the umbrella of DHS, also received paychecks during the last shutdown. Then-DHS Secretary Kristi Noem claimed those funds came from the so-called One Big Beautiful Bill.

It is unclear if Trump’s order will result in a one-time payment or when the TSA officers can expect to receive the money. It’s also unclear what the funding was originally slotted for. 

Wrangling over DHS funding continue on Capitol Hill

The announcement came amid continued wrangling on Capitol Hill over DHS funding.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters Thursday afternoon that Democrats had Republicans’ “last and final” offer to reopen DHS as Congress prepared to leave for a two-week recess on Friday.

Details of the proposal weren’t made public.

A test vote on the Senate floor to gauge whether there was enough Democratic support for the Republican proposal to pass was held open for more than six hours before failing by a 53-47 vote, falling short of the 60 votes needed to pass.

Shortly before the vote was called Thursday evening, Senate Republican Whip John Barrasso told reporters, “We’ve given the Democrats the opportunity to come to the table. They have not. And now, time is up.”

Democrats insisted talks were still continuing.

“Our legislative director is literally meeting and passing paper back and forth as we speak,” Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz told reporters. “It’s just not true that we’re not in negotiation. It may be that that one person or the other has lost patience, and you know, that would be too bad, but we’re still talking.”

ABC News Lalee Ibssa contributed to this report.

A federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from designating AI company Anthropic a “supply-chain risk to national security.”

“The record supports an inference that Anthropic is being punished for criticizing the government’s contracting position in the press,” wrote U.S. District Judge Rita Lin. “Punishing Anthropic for bringing public scrutiny to the government’s contracting position is classic illegal First Amendment retaliation.”

The judge’s order, which follows court proceedings earlier this week, is set to take effect in seven days.

This is a developing story. Please check back later for updates.

President Donald Trump’s signature will be added to future U.S. paper currency, the Treasury Department announced Thursday.

Trump will become the first sitting president whose name will appear on currency.

It follows efforts to create two coins with his image on them, a $1 coin and a special 24-karat commemorative gold coin.

President Calvin Coolidge was the only sitting president to have a coin with his image on it.

Federal law says no living president can appear on U.S. currency, though the administration has argued the restriction does not apply to coins.

“Under President Trump’s leadership, we are on a path toward unprecedented economic growth, lasting dollar dominance, and fiscal strength and stability,” Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent said in a statement on Thursday.

“There is no more powerful way to recognize the historic achievements of our great country and President Donald J. Trump than U.S dollar bills bearing his name, and it is only appropriate that this historic currency be issued at the Semiquincentennial,” he added.

The Treasury said the decision was in honor of the 250th anniversary of the United States.

Last week, the federal Commission of Fine Arts officially voted to approve a new 24-karat commemorative gold coin featuring President Donald Trump, amid backlash from Democrats and other stakeholders.  

The image included in the proposal is based on a photo taken of Trump in the White House. 

A military helicopter crossed in front of a United Airlines flight as the plane was coming in to land at an airport in California on Tuesday, according to the Federal Aviation Administration. 

The airline said the United pilots had been advised by air traffic controllers of the nearby Sikorsky Black Hawk helicopter during final approach at John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana.

“They saw the helicopter, and also received a traffic alert, which they responded to by leveling the aircraft,” United said in a statement. “The United flight then landed safely.”

Preliminary radar data from Flightradar24 shows that the two aircraft were separated by 525 feet vertically and just 1,422.43 feet — or 0.27 miles — when the helicopter crossed in front of the United plane.  

The incident occurred around 8:40 p.m. local time Tuesday, according to the FAA. The Boeing 737 with 168 people on board was traveling from San Francisco to Santa Ana at the time. 

The FAA said it is investigating, “including whether a new measure to suspend the use of visual separation between airplanes and helicopters was applied.”

The National Transportation Safety Board said it is aware of the incident but did not have any additional details to share at this time.

The alert that the United pilots received is the most serious of the anti-collision alerts pilots can receive and requires immediate action. The alert tells the pilots exactly what to do to avoid the collision.

The close call occurred two days after a regional Air Canada jet collided into a Port Authority fire truck shortly upon landing at LaGuardia Airport in New York City, killing two pilots and injuring dozens of people.

Last year, an Army Black Hawk helicopter and an American Airlines jet collided midair near Washington, D.C., as the jet was landing at Ronald Reagan National Airport, killing 67 people. The NTSB determined the probable cause was a series of systemic failures within the FAA and was 100% preventable.

In the wake of the crash, the FAA implemented the new measure suspending the use of visual separation between airplanes and helicopters.

The measure — which went into effect last week in areas where helicopters often cross both arrival and departure paths near busy airports — requires air traffic controllers to use radar to actively manage aircraft to keep them separated at specific lateral or vertical distances.

The FBI has announced charges against a brother and sister in connection with an alleged improvised explosive device that was found near the visitors center at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida last week.

Alen Zheng was charged by indictment with one count of attempted damage of government property by fire or explosion, one count of unlawful making of a destructive device and possession of an unregistered destructive device.

Ann Mary Zheng was also indicted on charges alleging that she was an accessory after the fact and tampered with evidence by attempting to destroy, mutilate and conceal a 2010 black Mercedes GLK 350.

“A brother and sister have now been indicted,” FBI Director Kash Patel said in a post on X on Thursday. “One is in custody for accessory and evidence tampering and the primary suspect is charged with explosives offenses and is currently in China.”

A possible IED was discovered outside the visitor’s center at MacDill AFB on March 16, though it is unclear when the device was placed. Court records indicate that March 10 is a date associated with the siblings’ alleged conduct.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

LONDON — Two men who were arrested as part of an investigation into an arson attack on a Jewish charity’s ambulances in the north London neighborhood of Golders Green have been released on bail, British police said on Thursday.

The men, both British nationals, were taken into custody Wednesday morning at separate addresses in northwest and central London.

They were arrested on suspicion of arson with intent to endanger life and both were taken to a London police station before being released on bail, according to London’s Metropolitan Police Service.

Four ambulances used by Hatzola, a volunteer-led ambulance service in north London, were set on fire at about 1:30 a.m. on Monday morning, police said. Three masked or hooded individuals were seen setting the fires, police said. Investigators said that they were combing through hours of CCTV footage related to the case, in part to “trace the suspects’ movements.”

Police said on Thursday that the investigation was ongoing and searches were carried out at both the addresses in northwest and central London, as well as at two other addresses in northwest London on Wednesday.

Cmdr. Helen Flanagan, head of Counter Terrorism Policing London, which is leading the investigation, said they are continuing “to work to try and identify all of those involved in this appalling attack and the investigation team is working around the clock to do this.”

“Although the two men have been released from police custody, there are strict bail conditions in place while we continue to investigate their suspected involvement in this incident,” she added. “I can reassure the public that we will be closely monitoring these while we carry out further enquiries.”

Detective Chief Superintendent Luke Williams, who leads policing in northwest London, said “an enhanced, bespoke policing plan and activity, which is particularly focused around vulnerable areas right across London, will continue over coming days and weeks.”

“This includes specialist officers and capability being deployed alongside local officers to help protect certain locations and will also involve highly visible armed police patrols to serve as a deterrent to anyone seeking to cause our communities harm,” Williams noted. “I must stress that these are precautionary and not in response to any specific threat, and we continue to work alongside our colleagues in Counter Terrorism policing to support their investigation. We will also continue to work closely with local communities and our partners to listen to their concerns and respond to these.”

With just two days before Congress is set to leave town for a two-week recess, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding negotiations on Wednesday appeared to have stalled with no signs of progress and both Democrats and Republicans blaming each other.

Airport security lines continue to grow around the country as large numbers of Transportation Security Administration (TSA) officers, working without pay due to the partial shutdown, call out.

On Friday, tens of thousands of agency workers, including Transportation Security On Friday, tens of thousands of DHS workers, including TSA officers, will again not get paid.

Democrats are dug in, saying that any deal to fund all of DHS needs to include reforms to rein in ICE. Congressional Republicans have attempted to answer that by offering up a deal to fund all of DHS security except for ICE enforcement operations. But neither Democrats nor President Donald Trump has been willing to fully embrace that proposal. The president has been noncommittal about signing any deal that does not fund all of DHS.

A procedural vote on whether to move forward with a Republican DHS funding package failed to advance Wednesday afternoon by a vote of 54-46, falling short of the 60 votes it needed to advance.

The GOP proposal would have funded all of DHS except for immigration enforcement actions. But Democrats objected to the proposal because they want additional reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Sen. John Fetterman was the only Democrat to vote in favor of moving the proposal forward along with all Republicans. All other Democrats voted against it. 

Democrats have repeatedly attempted to provide standalone funding for TSA and other agencies while the debate over ICE reform continues. But Republicans have repeatedly blocked those efforts. Democrats say they intend to continue bringing forward efforts to fund TSA.

Senate Republican scrambled unsuccessfully on Tuesday to get President Donald Trump on board with their proposal and Democrats rejected it.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced on the Senate floor Wednesday that Democrats had put forward a counteroffer to the GOP proposal. He said the GOP bid was made in “bad faith” because it did not address reforms to ICE that Democrats have long been demanding.

Democrats are blocking DHS funding and demanding ICE reforms following the fatal shootings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti by federal law enforcement in Minneapolis.

“These are reforms the American people overwhelmingly support, and things that Republicans know perfectly well we have been seeking since these negotiations began, since these discussions began as well,” Schumer said on the Senate flor Wednesday morning. “So for Republicans to now act as though Democrats have changed our position, as though we’ve moved the goalposts, is poppycock, bad faith.”

Details of the Democratic counteroffer have not been made available, but a person familiar with the negotiations confirmed that Democrats sent legislative text to Republicans for review.

However, Senate Majority Leader John Thune quickly dismissed the Democrats’ offer.

“It’s not even close to being real. They know better. They’re asking for things that have already been turned down. So it just seems like they’re just going in circles, spinning and spinning,” Thune said. “This is another example of Democrats not being serious.”

On Tuesday, Democrats rejected the GOP offer to fund other aspects of DHS besides ICE — a move that angered Thune and frustrated Republicans who said that Democrats have attempted to advance similar piecemeal offers in recent days.

The offer Republicans put forward would strip ICE funding from the appropriations package, therefore rendering negotiations over ICE reform somewhat moot, Republicans have argued. Asked if he would support a deal that would fund everything in DHS except ICE operations, Trump said he’s “pretty much not happy” with any deal to reopen DHS.

ICE has money to continue its operations, following a $75 billion cash infusion over five years in the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” that Trump signed into law last summer. ICE agents continue to be paid, while their other DHS colleagues are not.

“Democrats have repeatedly said that they want to pay TSA, Coast Guard, FEMA and employees who defend America from cyber attacks. This bill would do it,” Thune said on the Senate floor Wednesday.

Thune sounded exasperated as he told journalists, “I don’t know what else you can do.”

Democrats are expected to again put forward an effort to unanimously fund TSA as the shutdown continues to sow chaos at the nation’s airports. That effort has been repeatedly rejected by Republicans who want to keep negotiations focused on funding all of DHS.

 Schumer pointed fingers at Republicans for lines at TSA, saying that Democrats “have told Republicans just support TSA while we settle these disputes with ICE, and they have refused nine times.”

“The way to pass TSA is to vote to send their paychecks now, while we settle this dispute regarding ICE,” Schumer said.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt continued to pin the blame for the partial shutdown on Democrats, saying they “want this chaos.”

“President Trump’s position is very clear. He wants the federal government opened. He wants the Department of Homeland Security funded, and he wants the Democrat shutdown to end immediately,” Leavitt said on Wednesday.

Lawmakers are set to begin their two-week recess on Friday after Trump encouraged Republicans to stay in town to hammer out a deal, saying earlier this week, “Don’t worry about Easter, going home.”

While it’s not yet clear if lawmakers will stick around to negotiate, Leavitt criticized Democrats who are set to being their recess.

“I hear that Democrats might be flying out of town tomorrow,” she said. “How convenient and lovely of them that they get to go to the airport, and that they’ll get to go home to their families when you have families, TSA workers, who are suffering, you have people across the country who are missing flights for funerals and for work commitments because of Democrat politicians on Capitol Hill.”

Chinese President Xi Jinping has been silent on the war between the U.S. and Israel against Iran, even after the White House postponed an anticipated trip by President Donald Trump to China.

Instead, Xi has been watching from the sidelines, and experts tell ABC News that’s exactly where Beijing wants to be ahead of his anticipated meeting with Trump in May.

The Iran war is giving Beijing some significant long-term benefits, Jon Czin, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, told ABC News.

U.S. military assets are being pulled away from the Indo-Pacific, Trump’s attention is consumed elsewhere, and China gets to walk into a high-stakes summit just weeks from now as a relative bright spot in an otherwise chaotic foreign policy landscape according to Czin.

“We’re moving a lot of assets away from the Indo-Pacific theater, and most importantly for Beijing, they are not in the ‘eye of Sauron’ right now,” Czin, former director for China at the National Security Council said, making a “Lord of the Rings” reference to the Dark Lord’s omniscient gaze.

“What Beijing really wants is time and space to focus on strengthening themselves — and the fact that the U.S. is preoccupied with the Middle East gives them that,” he added.

Despite Trump publicly calling on Beijing to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz, China has stayed on the sidelines.

The calculus is straightforward, according to experts, as some of Beijing’s ships have been able to transit the strait since Iran closed it. It has built up its own strategic oil reserves, and its massive investments in green energy give it a cushion. Thus there’s little upside for China to get involved.

Beijing is also filing away something potentially more consequential: a detailed look at how the U.S. military actually operates in a live war, Czin said. China is studying the conflict closely, drawing lessons directly applicable to Taiwan war-gaming, according to Czin.

“This just gives them more things to consider and more ways to expand their portfolio of options for thinking about Taiwan,” he said, adding that this is “the next part of the syllabus,” following four years of watching U.S. involvement in Ukraine.

But Beijing’s confidence didn’t start with Iran.

Even before the war, Chinese officials believed they were entering 2026 holding more leverage than Washington recognized, Czin said.

They were watching what the “frailties” in U.S. economic data — weakness in the labor market, affordability concerns — and concluded that would “diminish Trump’s appetite for another round of escalation,” he noted.

Then there’s the rare earth card, as Beijing announced further export controls on critical minerals shortly before Trump’s last meeting with Xi, and faced no retribution from Washington, according to experts such as Jude Blanchette, the distinguished Tang Chair in China Research and Director of China Research Center for the research group Rand.

“Beijing’s rare earth leverage has forced the Trump administration to recognize that this is just a different China from the first Trump administration,” he told ABC News. “Now they can really hit back in a way that they couldn’t, or didn’t, before.”

That calculation has only been reinforced by the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down Trump’s broad emergency tariffs, which curtailed one of his most powerful pressure tools heading into the summit.

The tariffs have soured relations between the U.S. and China since Trump took office.

The planned March 31 to April 2 summit between Trump and Xi, which would have marked the first in person meeting between the leaders since the Supreme Court decision, was pushed back by six weeks because of the Iran war, according to White House officials.

Experts said during the meeting Xi is likely looking for a prolongation of the trade truce, a rollback of export controls on advanced technology including AI semiconductors, and less scrutiny of Chinese investment in the U.S.

But Czin contended the most important thing Beijing wants is simpler than any specific deliverable — to get through the summit without conceding anything of substance, buy more time, and keep strengthening its position.

“If they’re able to get off the hook by just having a very high-profile ceremonial visit,” he said. “That’s a win for Beijing.”

In a landmark decision, a jury found Meta and YouTube negligent for designing apps that harmed kids and teens and failed to warn them about the dangers.

The jury awarded compensatory damages in the amount of $3 million. The jury also found punitive damages are warranted. The next phase is to assess punitive damages.

The lawsuit, brought by a 20-year-old woman identified as “Kaley,” alleges major social media companies intentionally designed their platforms to be addictive. The suit claims features like auto-scrolling got the plaintiff addicted to the platforms, ultimately leading to anxiety, depression and body image issues.

In a statement to ABC News, a Meta spokesperson said, “We respectfully disagree with the verdict and are evaluating our legal options.”

The plaintiff’s attorney called the verdict “bigger than one case,” in a statement to ABC News.

YouTube told ABC News it will appeal the verdict.

“We disagree with the verdict and plan to appeal. This case misunderstands YouTube, which is a responsibly built streaming platform, not a social media site,” said Google spokesperson José Castañeda.

“For years, social media companies have profited from targeting children while concealing their addictive and dangerous design features,” the plaintiff’s attorney continued. “Today’s verdict is a referendum — from a jury, to an entire industry — that accountability has arrived. We now move forward to the next phase of this trial focused on punitive damages.”

The damages were found to be 70 percent the responsibility of Meta and 30 percent the responsibility of YouTube, according to the verdict.

The jury returned an answer of “Yes” to every question posed relating to negligence and failure to warn of dangers. Ten jurors were in favor of the plaintiff for every question, with two in favor of the defense in every question.

The verdict is the second loss in as many days for Meta, who saw a $375 million penalty levied against them by a New Mexico jury in a trial alleging Meta, violated state protection laws, knowingly harmed children’s mental health and concealed information about child sexual exploitation on its social media platforms.

The Los Angeles verdict marks the end of a trial that saw testimony from social media leaders as well as the 20-year-old plaintiff at the heart of the case.

During her testimony in February, Kaley answered questions about her early life and social media use, saying she began using the video sharing platform YouTube — which is owned by Google — when she was 6 years old. The plaintiff testified during trial that she still uses social media to this day.

The landmark case was heard in the California Superior Court of Los Angeles County, with Meta — Facebook and Instagram’s parent company — and YouTube, which is owned by Google, moving forward as defendants.

Social platforms Snapchat and TikTok were previously named in the lawsuit but reached settlements with the plaintiffs last month without admitting wrongdoing.

Facebook founder and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified in the trial previously, answering questions related to age restrictions, app engagement and filters.

In his opening questions to Zuckerberg, Kaley’s attorney Mark Lanier asked if a company should “take advantage” of vulnerable people. “I think a reasonable company should try and help the people who try and use its services,” Zuckerberg said.

In tense exchanges in court, Zuckerberg admitted it is difficult for Meta to enforce age restrictions on Instagram. Instagram’s policy states that children under age 13 are unable to create accounts. The plaintiff’s lawyer says “Kaley” started using the app at age 10, before those new restrictions were put in place.

“I always wish we would have gotten there sooner, but I think we’re in a better place,” Zuckerberg said.

Instagram head Adam Mosseri gave testimony earlier in the trial and said he disagreed with the term “addiction” as used in the lawsuit. He said “clinical addiction” is different from “problematic use” of Instagram, which he said was “real” and described the latter as users spending “too much time” on the platform.

Mosseri said there is always a tradeoff between “safety and speech,” saying users don’t like it when they remove options from Instagram.

PORTLAND, Ore. — Jason Jenkins was driving to work before dawn when a bright green streak beamed across the sky.

The camera on his dashboard captured the moment at 6:06 a.m. Monday while he was in southwestern Washington state about 20 miles (32 km) north of Portland, Oregon. Initially he thought it might be a comet, but then figured it was too close to be one.

“It kind of reminded me of a lightning strike because it was so bright,” he said. “The video doesn’t do justice on how bright and close it seemed.”

What Jenkins saw was a fireball, a particularly bright meteor that can be seen up to 80 miles (129 kilometers) above the Earth, according to the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry in Portland.

Last week a 7-ton meteor sped across the Ohio sky in a fireball that could be seen from several states away. It broke apart in a thunderous boom that startled residents who feared an explosion.

On Saturday, a meteor traveling 35,000 miles (56,327 km) per hour broke apart north of Houston, according to NASA. The disintegration caused booms heard by some in the area, the agency said, and a resident told local TV news outlet ABC13 that a piece of the meteor crashed through her roof.

Green fireballs like the one Jenkins saw are often due to the presence of magnesium, which emits a bright blue-green light when heated and vaporized in the Earth’s atmosphere, the museum said. Nickel can also contribute to a green color.

Its altitude in the dark early morning sky made it widely visible, said Jim Todd, the museum’s director of space science education.

“It was bright, it was green, it was spectacular,” he said Monday. “One tiny little piece of rock put on such a show this morning.”

With the video and other people reporting sightings, it may be possible to determine the direction the fireball was traveling and whether it landed on the Earth’s surface. In most cases, it’s rare that a fireball makes contact with the Earth, and when it does, it can be hard to locate, Todd said.

“Even if it does survive, it looks like a common everyday rock, and nearly almost impossible to find, unless it hit a house or a street or leaves debris behind,” he said.

As the number of people with cameras on their dashboards and doorbells has grown, so have reports of such sightings, he added.

Jenkins said that while he got his dashcam in case of an accident, it was “cool to catch something like that.”

“I won’t go without a dashcam ever again,” he said. “I need to go buy a lottery ticket now.”