MIT professor shot, killed at his home in Boston suburbs: Officials
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Cassandra Klos/Bloomberg via Getty Images
(BOSTON) — A professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has been shot and killed at his home, authorities said.
Nuno F.G. Loureiro, 47, was found Monday night at his house in the upscale Boston suburb of Brookline. He was taken to the hospital with gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead on Tuesday, the Norfolk District Attorney’s office said.
The DA’s office said the homicide investigation is ongoing.
The university said Loureiro was a “faculty member in the departments of Nuclear Science & Engineering and Physics, as well as the Director of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center.”
“Our deepest sympathies are with his family, students, colleagues, and all those who are grieving,” MIT said in a statement. “Focused outreach and conversations are taking place within our community to offer care and support for those who knew Prof. Loureiro, and a message will be shared with our wider community.”
The Aurora Borealis lights up the night sky over Monroe, Wisconsin, on November 11, 2025. (Ross Harried/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Dazzling waves of color are lighting up the skies this week.
After green and pink displays of auroras lit up the sky Tuesday night, another Northern Light array is expected to bring a gleaming light show to the northern part of the U.S. Wednesday night.
The auroras are being caused by one of the strongest geomagnetic storms of the year, which occurs when electrons from the sun collide with Earth’s magnetic field to produce colored lights, according to NOAA.
“Aurora is the name given to the glow or light produced when electrons from space flow down Earth’s magnetic field and collide with atoms and molecules of the upper atmosphere in a ring or oval centered on the magnetic pole of Earth. The collisions produce light much like how electrons flowing through gas in a neon light collide with neon and other gasses to produce different colored light bulbs,” NOAA’s website reads.
Two dozen states could see the Northern Lights Wednesday night per NOAA’s aurora viewline map that includes Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.
Mike Bettwy, a meteorologist at the Space Weather Prediction Center, told ABC News that the auroras on Wednesday could be as clear as the ones on Tuesday.
“We had three coronal mass ejections leave the Sun since late last week. The third and final one is expected to impact our atmosphere later today and tonight. It is difficult to predict with a high degree of certainty or precision, but it is possible this will be as impactful as last night’s event. There were reports of aurora as far south as Tampa, Florida, overnight,” Bettwy said.
“While not unprecedented, it is quite unusual for the aurora to be visible at these low latitudes; probably only occurring once or twice per solar cycle,” he added.
The best time to see the aurora is between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m., according to NOAA.
NASA recommends going to the darkest area and using a long exposure to get the best photos of the light show, per their guidance.
NASA did not immediately reply to requests for comment from ABC News.
Ian Andre Roberts’ booking photo. Polk County Sheriff
(DES MOINES, Iowa) — The Des Moines Public Schools board announced Friday it intends to pursue legal action against a consulting firm it hired in 2023 to conduct a search for a new superintendent, claiming the firm failed to “properly vet candidates” after the district’s now-former superintendent was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents last week.
Federal authorities said the superintendent, Ian Roberts, is not in the U.S. legally and has not had any work authorization in the U.S. since 2020. He had served as the superintendent of the Des Moines district since July 2023 until his resignation this week following his detainment.
“Ian Roberts should have never been presented as a finalist, and if we knew what we know now, he would never have been hired,” Des Moines Public Schools board chair Jackie Norris said after the board emerged from a closed session Friday morning.
Norris claimed it has become clear that the consulting firm failed to turn up information “of a negative nature” about Roberts that it should have flagged to the school board.
“It’s clear that people are identifying and finding information in a matter of hours,” Norris said, in reference to public reporting on Roberts since his arrest by ICE last week. “And so it’s probably something that they should have caught, and that was our expectation.”
Norris said the search firm, in its contract with the school board, was responsible for advertising, recruitment, application and resume review, public domain search, complete reference checks and presentation of qualified candidates. It also said it would conduct comprehensive reference calls on each applicant to include the verification of all related employment experiences, and would sub-contract with another company for a comprehensive criminal, credit and background check, she said.
“We are pursuing legal action as allowed by law. This is about accountability, taxpayer dollars, and we are seeking accountability,” Norris said. “As the facts revealed themselves over the past several days, it was crystal clear that the search firm did not do its job,” Norris said.
ABC News has reached out to the consulting firm for comment.
Roberts, 54, entered the U.S. in 1999 on a student visa that has since expired, and a judge issued a final order of removal against him in May 2024, according to federal authorities.
He resigned as superintendent on Tuesday, a day after the Iowa Board of Educational Examiners said it revoked Roberts’ administrator license and the Des Moines School Board voted unanimously to put him on unpaid administrative leave and to provide proof he is authorized to work in the U.S. or face termination. He did not provide the board with that information, according to Norris.
Norris had previously said the Des Moines School Board was not aware of Roberts’ immigration issues at the time of his hiring and that the board is “also a victim of deception by Dr. Roberts, one on a growing list that includes our students and teachers, our parents and community, our elected officials, and Iowa’s Board of Educational Examiners, and others.”
Robert now also faces a federal firearms charge. After he was detained by ICE agents on Sept. 26, a loaded handgun was found in his vehicle, and three additional firearms were located in his residence, according to a federal criminal complaint charging him with being an “illegal alien in possession of firearms.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
The U.S. Embassy in Mexico released this photo of Ryan Wedding on Dec. 8, 2025. (U.S. Embassy in Mexico)
(NEW YORK) — Authorities have released new photos of Ryan Wedding, a former Canadian Olympian snowboarder turned alleged drug kingpin who is on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list.
Wedding, 44, is wanted for “allegedly running and participating in a transnational drug trafficking operation that routinely shipped hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia, through Mexico and Southern California, to Canada, and other locations in the United States,” the Los Angeles FBI office said Monday on X while releasing a newly obtained photo of the fugitive.
“Additionally, it is alleged that Wedding was involved in orchestrating multiple murders in furtherance of these drug crimes,” the statement continued.
The FBI said the photo is believed to have been taken in Mexico during the summer of 2025.
In it, he is seen lying in a bed shirtless, with a prominent tattoo of a lion on his chest.
The U.S. Embassy in Mexico also shared a photo on Monday of Wedding that hadn’t been previously released. In the photo, released on social media, he is wearing a green shirt and has a different haircut and facial hair. The post did not say when or where that photo was taken.
Wedding has been on the run for several years. He is believed to be in Mexico, being protected by the Sinaloa cartel, authorities said.
The Department of State is offering a reward of up to $15 million for information leading to the arrest and/or conviction of Wedding, whose aliases include James Conrad King, Jesse King, “Giant”, “Public Enemy,” “Boss,” “Buddy,” “Grande,” “El Jefe,” “El Guerro” and “El Toro,” according to the FBI.
FBI Director Kash Patel has called Wedding a “modern-day” Pablo Escobar.
The fugitive was previously indicted in Los Angeles federal court on multiple charges, including running a continuing criminal enterprise, committing murder in connection with a continuing criminal enterprise and assorted drug crimes.
He and his alleged second-in-command are accused of ordering the murders of multiple people in Canada to achieve the aims of the criminal organization, the FBI said.
New charges announced last month allege he ordered the killing of a witness in the federal case. The victim was shot in the head multiple times at a restaurant in Colombia in January, according to U.S. Attorney for the Central District of Los Angeles Bill Essayli.
Wedding and 18 others, including his lawyer, were charged in the new indictment with orchestrating the murder, according to the DOJ.
Wedding competed for Canada in the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, where he placed 24th in the parallel giant slalom, before allegedly running the billion-dollar cocaine operation from Mexico for more than a dozen years, officials said.
