190 people rescued from Pakistani train after 450 passengers taken hostage
Mazhar Chandio/Anadolu via Getty Images
(LONDON) — At least 190 people have been rescued from a train in Pakistan as of Wednesday after it was attacked one day prior and hundreds were taken hostage by the militant Balochistan Liberation Army, according to a Pakistani military official.
At least 17 people have been injured and 30 terrorists, members of the BLA, have been killed as a military operation continues, according to the official.
On Tuesday, a U.S. official told ABC News at least 450 people were taken hostage on the train and said six Pakistani military personnel were killed.
The separatist militant group claimed it had taken 182 military and security personnel hostage on the train, according to a post on Telegram, but said they had released the majority of the civilians on board. The group claimed a higher number of casualties in the attack, saying they killed 20 Pakistani military personnel and shot down a drone.
The BLA had threatened to kill all the hostages if Pakistan’s military tries to rescue them, the official said.
The BLA blew up part of the track, forcing the train to stop, before they boarded and took control, according to the official.
The attack happened in mountainous area right before a tunnel, making a rescue very difficult, they said.
Pakistani Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi condemned the attack and said the government would not make any concessions to “beasts who fire on innocent passengers.”
The train was trapped in a tunnel after the tracks were blown up and militants opened fire on it, reportedly injuring the driver, local authorities and police have told media.
The BLA believes the Balochistan region of Pakistan, in the country’s far west bordering Iran and Afghanistan, should be allowed to break off from Pakistan. They are well-known for committing terror attacks in Pakistan. The BLA also attacked Jaffar Express trains in August 2013 and October 2016.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(NEW YORK) — The climate crisis is not a distant threat; it’s happening right now and affecting what matters most to us. Hurricanes intensified by a warming planet and drought-fueled wildfires are destroying our communities. Rising seas and flooding are swallowing our homes. And record-breaking heat waves are reshaping our way of life.
The good news is we know how to turn the tide and avoid the worst possible outcomes. However, understanding what needs to be done can be confusing due to a constant stream of climate updates, scientific findings, and critical decisions that are shaping our future.
That’s why the ABC News Climate and Weather Unit is cutting through the noise by curating what you need to know to keep the people and places you care about safe. We are dedicated to providing clarity amid the chaos, giving you the facts and insights necessary to navigate the climate realities of today — and tomorrow.
Millions of students are missing school because of extreme weather
A new analysis from UNICEF finds that nearly a quarter of a billion children worldwide had their education disrupted by extreme weather events in 2024 — exacerbating what the organization calls an “existing learning crisis.”
The report found that at least 242 million students across 85 countries experienced schooling disruptions last year because of extreme weather like heat waves, storms, floods, droughts and tropical cyclones.
“Children are more vulnerable to the impacts of weather-related crises, including stronger and more frequent heatwaves, storms, droughts and flooding,” UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell said. “Last year, severe weather kept one in seven students out of class, threatening their health and safety, and impacting their long-term education.”
Heat waves were the most common weather disruptor for education. UNICEF found that over 118 million students were impacted by extreme heat in April alone, with South Asia seeing some of the most widespread impacts.
The report also found that September had the most frequent weather-related disruptions, with at least 16 countries suspending classes for a time due to extreme weather events like Typhoon Yagi in East Asia.
While the analysis found that almost three-quarters of the students impacted were in low and lower-middle income countries, UNICEF says no region was free from these effects.
“Education is one of the services most frequently disrupted due to climate hazards. Yet it is often overlooked in policy discussions, despite its role in preparing children for climate adaptation,” Russell said. “Children’s futures must be at the forefront of all climate related plans and actions.”
-ABC News climate unit’s Kelly Livingston
Climate funders say they will cover US climate obligations after Paris Agreement withdrawal
On Monday, President Donald Trump announced his intention to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement, the U.N.-backed international climate treaty. Bloomberg Philanthropies announced Thursday that they, along with a coalition of climate charities, would step up and ensure that the U.S. meets its obligations under the Paris Agreement, including any financial and reporting requirements.
“While government funding remains essential to our mission, contributions like this are vital in enabling the UN Climate Change secretariat to support countries in fulfilling their commitments under the Paris Agreement and a low-emission, resilient, and safer future for everyone,” said Simon Stiell, United Nations climate change executive secretary, in a press statement.
This is the second time Trump has withdrawn the country from the Paris Agreement. During his first term, Trump justified backing out of the treaty by claiming that participating in the agreement would result in the loss of jobs and cost the U.S. trillions of dollars. In reality, in 2023, clean energy jobs grew at more than twice the rate of the overall U.S. labor market and accounted for more than 8.35 million positions, according to a Department of Energy report. In terms of spending, the U.S. has committed several billion dollars to the effort, not trillions.
Michael Bloomberg, a billionaire businessman, founder of Bloomberg Philanthropies and a U.N. Secretary-General’s Special Envoy on Climate Ambition and Solutions, said he also plans to continue supporting a coalition of states, cities and businesses that are working to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions by 61-66% below 2005 levels by 2035.
“More and more Americans have had their lives torn apart by climate-fueled disasters, like the destructive fires raging in California. At the same time, the United States is experiencing the economic benefits of clean energy, as costs have fallen and jobs have grown in both red and blue states. The American people remain determined to continue the fight against the devastating effects of climate change,” Bloomberg said.
Philipp von Ditfurth/picture alliance via Getty Images
(LONDON) — The European Union responded on Wednesday to the Trump administration’s metals tariffs, saying member states would place countermeasures on some 26 billion euros, or about $28 billion, worth of U.S. goods.
The U.S. at midnight began imposing 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminum imports from all trading partners, with no exceptions or exemptions, the White House said.
Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, said in a statement that the EU “must act to protect consumers and business.”
“Tariffs are taxes. They are bad for business, and even worse for consumers,” von der Leyen said. “These tariffs are disrupting supply chains. They bring uncertainty for the economy. Jobs are at stake. Prices will go up. In Europe and in the United States.”
The European measures were designed to match the scope of those U.S. tariffs, which the European Union said would be worth about $28 billion. The countermeasures were expected to begin on April 1 and be fully in place by April 13, the commission said.
“In the meantime, we will always remain open to negotiation,” von der Leyen said.
The countermeasures comprise two steps, the first of which is to restore on April 1 a set of previously suspended 2018 and 2020 countermeasures against the U.S. on a range of products.
For step two, member states will then put in place by mid-April new countermeasures targeting about 18 billion euros worth of U.S. goods entering the bloc.
Those new countermeasures will target both industrial and agricultural products, including steel and aluminum, home appliances, wood products, poultry, beef and other food imports, according to a fact sheet released on Wednesday.
Maros Sefcovic, the EU’s trade commissioner, said European officials would continue working with their U.S. counterparts toward a “win-win” outcome, but the “unjustified tariffs on our exports will not go unanswered.”
“We should be making this great relationship stronger, not weaker,” he said in a statement.
(LONDON) — President Donald Trump directed his administration to “pause” all military aid to Ukraine, two White House officials told ABC News on Monday, following last week’s combative Oval Office meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and with Trump pressuring Kyiv into accepting a peace deal to end Russia’s invasion of the country.
The freeze in American aid poses a severe strategic problem for Ukraine, which has become reliant on military and economic support from its Western partners as it tries to repel Russia’s three-year-old invasion and stave off President Vladimir Putin’s push for a peace deal beneficial to Moscow. Experts say that Ukraine and its European partners now produce most of the weaponry destined for the battlefield. But there are crucial American systems that Kyiv will struggle to replace.
“It’s shocking,” Oleksandr Merezhko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament and the chair of the body’s foreign affairs committee, told ABC News. “Until the last moment I hoped that Trump wouldn’t do it because he wants to be popular and such a move would definitely cause a backlash.”
“Trump is helping Putin to kill Ukrainians,” he added.
A White House official told ABC News that Trump has been clear that he is focused on peace. “We need our partners to be committed to that goal as well,” they said. “We are pausing and reviewing our aid to ensure that it is contributing to a solution.”
“It looks like Trump is trying to make a deal with Russia over the heads of Ukraine and Europe at the cost of Ukraine,” Merezhko said. “He doesn’t apply leverage over the aggressor but is trying to force the victim, the weaker party, to accept demands of the aggressor.”
“If Trump has a different plan in mind he should have at least talked to Zelenskyy about it behind closed doors, which never happened,” the lawmaker said.
Fellow member of parliament Oleksiy Goncharenko told Sky News that “thousands of people will die” due to the “catastrophic” decision.
Allied leaders and officials — already mobilizing to provide more aid and political backing for Ukraine in response to the Trump administration’s skepticism — also expressed concern over the White House decision.
“We need the Americans militarily,” Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen said during a Chatham House think tank event in London on Tuesday when asked about the aid pause. “On the battlefield, Russia has not really been advancing in recent months,” she added. “This definitely shouldn’t be a moment where we give in.”
Benjamin Haddad, The French minister delegate for Europe, said the pause to U.S. aid “means moving peace further away.” He added, “To end the war, pressure must be put on the aggressor, Russia,” suggesting European nations must now mobilize to fill the gap left by the U.S.
In Russia, meanwhile, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told journalists, “It is obvious that the U.S. has been the main supplier of this war so far,” as quoted by the state-run Tass news agency. “If the U.S. stops being one or suspends supplies, this will probably be the best contribution to the cause of peace,” Peskov said.
Two officials familiar with the matter told ABC News that around 90% of the military equipment committed to Ukraine by past Presidential Drawdown Authority packages have already been delivered to the country.
That includes the vast majority of critical munitions and anti-armor systems — such as Javelin anti-tank weapons — they said, adding that most of what is still in the pipeline are armored vehicles that take longer to refurbish. Those were expected to be ready for delivery in the coming months, with all PDA equipment previously on track for delivery by August 2025.
A steady flow of arms is still set to move from the U.S. to Ukraine for at least the next several years thanks to contracts Kyiv signed with private American companies for newly produced weapons.
Many — if not most — of those contracts have been paid. The Trump administration could still attempt to disrupt those shipments through the use of emergency authorities, but there is currently no indication it is trying to do so.
Exactly what equipment earmarked for Ukraine will now be frozen in place is not clear.
Among former President Joe Biden’s final four PDA packages announced in December and January — collectively worth some $3 billion — were missiles and support equipment for Ukraine’s U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets, rockets for use by American-made HIMARS systems, artillery munitions and surface-to-air missiles for Ukrainian air defense batteries.
Malcolm Chalmers, the deputy director-general of the Royal United Services Institute think tank in the U.K., told ABC News that recent estimates indicate the U.S. share of all military hardware sent to the front has fallen to around 20%, with 25% coming from Europe and 55% domestically produced in Ukraine.
But the 20% accounted for by the U.S. “is the most lethal and important,” Chalmers said. “Ukraine will not collapse — they already experienced an aid cutoff last year. But the effect will be cumulative.”
The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War suggested that the suspension of U.S. aid will encourage Putin “to continue to increase his demands and fuel his conviction that he can achieve total victory through war.”
Mykola Bieleskov, an analyst at Ukraine’s National Institute for Strategic Studies, told ABC News that Ukraine can keep fighting at the current tempo for six months to a year while Europe and Kyiv try to ramp up production to fill the gap.
A member of Ukraine’s parliamentary defense committee, Fedir Venislavskyi, told Ukrainian media that Kyiv has a resilience reserve of about six months — even without systematic support from the U.S.
Still, Venislavskyi said the situation will be complicated by any freeze in U.S. aid, adding that work is currently underway to find alternative sources of supply for critically important weaponry.
ABC News’ Rachel Scott, Michelle Stoddart, Shannon Kingston and Luis Martinez contributed to this report.
