"The Talk of the Town"
(LONDON and ISTANBUL) — Turkey’s Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said Tuesday that the death toll from a pre-dawn fire at a hotel in the Kartalkaya ski resort has risen to 66 and the number of injured is now 51.
“We are in deep pain,” Yerlikaya told reporters during a press conference. “We have unfortunately lost 66 lives in the fire that broke out at this hotel.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
(NEW YORK) — Astronomers have confirmed the existence of four planets orbiting a star less than 6 light-years away with help from some of the world’s most powerful telescopes.
Research published in October 2024 revealed that one planet was rotating around Barnard’s Star, the second-closest single star system to Earth. But a combination of telescopes all over the world confirmed the presence of four small exoplanets, according to a study published last week in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
The Gemini Telescope in Hawaii and the Very Large Telescope in Chile were used to detect the additional rocky planets, the astronomers said.
“It’s signaling a breakthrough with the precision of these new instruments from previous generations,” said Ritvik Basant, Ph.D student at the University of Chicago and lead author of the paper, in a statement.
The first planet was detected using a 27-foot diameter telescope at the European Space Observatory’s Paranal Observatory in Chile and a spectrograph that could quickly detect changes in the star’s velocity, according to the 2024 paper, published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.
Barnard’s Star, a low-mass red dwarf, was discovered in 1916. Since then, astronomers have discovered that at least 70% of all stars in the Milky Way are this type of star, which is why researchers want to know about the types of planets that orbit them, according to the University of Chicago.
“It’s a really exciting find — Barnard’s Star is our cosmic neighbor, and yet we know so little about it,” Basant said.
The planets are 20% to 30% the mass of Earth and make a full orbit around the sun in days, according to the paper. They are likely rocky planets, rather than gas.
Since they are so close to Barnard’s Star, they are likely too hot to sustain life. The researchers ruled out the existence of other planets within the habitable zone of Barnard’s Star.
The planets are difficult to detect because their stars shine so brightly next to them, the researchers said.
Scientists from the Gemini Observatory, National Science Foundation NOIRLab, Heidelberg University and the University of Amsterdam calibrated and analyzed data taken during 112 different nights over three years, where they found “solid evidence” to the existence of the additional planets orbiting Barnard’s Star, according to the paper.
“We observed at different times of night on different days,” Basant said. “They’re in Chile; we’re in Hawaii. Our teams didn’t coordinate with each other at all.”
He added, “That gives us a lot of assurance that these aren’t phantoms in the data.”
Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
(TORONTO) –As investigators work to determine what caused Delta Flight 4819 to crash and overturn at Toronto Pearson International Airport on Monday, the Toronto Pearson president and CEO noted the “extreme conditions” at the airport in the days before the dramatic incident.
Toronto Pearson President and CEO Deborah Flint said that from Thursday to Sunday there were “extreme conditions” at the airport from two separate storms.
“On Thursday and Sunday, we got more than 20 inches, 50 centimeters of accumulated snow. That is actually not typical. In fact, it is more snow within that time window than we received in all of last winter,” Flint said at a news conference Tuesday. “There were many delays and cancelations across this part of Canada and the U.S. Northeast during this time, creating numerous flight delays and backlogs.”
The crash occurred during blowing snow and strong wind gusts in the region. Winds reached 40 mph on the ground and were even stronger several hundred feet in the air.
When asked if the weather could have contribute to the crash, Flint said, “This would not be a time for us to have theory or to speculate.”
Toronto Airport Fire Chief Todd Aitken said Monday that the runway was dry and there were no crosswind conditions at the time of the crash.
The Transportation Safety Board of Canada is leading the investigation and investigators from the Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board are assisting. Investigators are expected to review the aircraft at its current position on the runway for the next two days, officials said Tuesday.
The Delta regional jet — a CRJ 900 aircraft operated by Endeavor Air — touched down, set fire, flipped over and came to a stop upside-down on the snow covered Toronto runway. The 76 passengers and four crew evacuated.
Flint on Tuesday praised the flight crew, saying they “heroically led passengers to safety.”
She said she was grateful there was no loss of life or life-threatening injuries.
Twenty-one passengers were taken to hospitals, and as of Tuesday, 19 of them have been released, according to Delta.
Injuries range from minor to critical, but non are life threatening, Flint said.
Three people suffered critical injuries: one child, a man in his 60s and a woman in her 40s, according to medical transport organization Ornge.
The flight originated in Minneapolis. There were 22 Canadian citizens among the passengers, Flint said.
The Toronto Airport temporarily stopped flights in the wake of the crash, with departures and arrivals resuming at 5 p.m. ET Monday, the airport said. Two runways remained closed, which Flint said may impact operations.
“Our most pressing priority remains taking care of all customers and Endeavor crew members who were involved,” Delta CEO Ed Bastian said. “We’ll do everything we can to support them and their families in the days ahead, and I know the hearts, thoughts and prayers of the entire Delta community are with them. We are grateful for all the first responders and medical teams who have been caring for them.”
Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.
LONDON — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said there can be “no pause” in pressure on Russia after another night of missile and drone strikes across Ukraine, the latest barrage coming the day after the U.S. confirmed it had stopped sharing intelligence with Kyiv.
President Donald Trump’s decision to pause all U.S. military aid and intelligence sharing has raised concerns that Ukraine’s air defenses will become less effective in the days, weeks and months to come.
The pause followed last week’s explosive Oval Office meeting between Zelenskyy and Trump. White House officials have suggested the freeze may be lifted if Ukraine takes concrete steps towards a peace deal with Russia to end Moscow’s 3-year-old invasion.
Ukraine’s air force reported 112 drones and two missiles launched into the country overnight, with 68 drones shot down and 43 lost in flight.
The air force reported damage in the Kharkiv, Sumy, Odesa and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
In Dnipropetrovsk, a ballistic missile hit a hotel in the city of Kryvyi Rih — Zelenskyy’s hometown.
“A ballistic missile struck an ordinary hotel,” the president wrote on social media. Four people were killed with more than 30 others injured, he added. The attack came shortly after a group of foreign humanitarian volunteers checked into the hotel, Zelenskyy said. None were hurt.
Sources told ABC News that two U.S. citizens were among the volunteers who survived the strike, working for the Charity fund Freedom Trust and Ukraine Relief organization.
“There must be no pause in the pressure on Russia to stop this war and terror against life,” Zelenskyy wrote.
Russian missiles and drone attacks are a nightly occurrence in Ukraine. The country has become largely reliant on Western anti-air weapons to defeat incoming projectiles.
U.S. intelligence sharing with Ukraine had allowed Kyiv to give warnings to targeted areas ahead of Russian drone and missile strikes, tracking Russian aircraft taking off, drones being launched and missiles being fired.
A Ukrainian intelligence official told ABC News on Wednesday that the intelligence sharing pause included a halt in sharing U.S. satellite imagery through the Defense Intelligence Agency.
Zelenskyy is expected to travel to Brussels, Belgium, to meet with European leaders on Thursday, as he seeks further Western military and political support. The president has consistently requested more air defenses, an issue now more pressing amid the U.S. aid freeze.
CIA Director John Ratcliffe said Wednesday that Trump had asked for a “pause” and is committed to peace. The pause, Ratcliffe suggested, prompted Zelenskyy’s statement that he was ready to revive talks over a potential peace deal.
“And so I think on the military front and the intelligence front, the pause that allowed that to happen, I think will go away,” he added.
Trump has repeatedly — and falsely — blamed Ukraine for starting the war with Russia while seeking to undermine Zelenskyy’s legitimacy as president. The White House is pushing Kyiv to accept a deal to end the fighting and to sign an agreement giving the U.S. access to Ukrainian mineral resources.
In a Tuesday statement, Zelenskyy said the disastrous White House meeting was “regrettable.”
“Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer,” the president said. “Nobody wants peace more than the Ukrainians. My team and I stand ready to work under President Trump’s strong leadership to get a peace that lasts.”
ABC News’ Fidel Pavlenko, Nataliia Popova, Ellie Kaufman and Guy Davies contributed to this report.
Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.