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(LONDON) — The Houthis’ retaliatory missile and drone attack on U.S. Navy ships in the Red Sea did not come close to hitting any American vessels, a U.S. official confirmed to ABC News, after President Donald Trump’s administration launched a new series of airstrikes targeting the Yemeni group.

The Houthis claimed on Sunday to have fired 18 ballistic missiles and a drone at the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier group in two separate attacks over the previous 24 hours. The strike, the group said, “succeeded in thwarting a hostile attack the enemy was preparing to launch against our country.”

A U.S. official told ABC News that the Houthis fired 11 drones and one ballistic missile, none of which came close to hitting any U.S. vessels.

All drones were downed by fighters — 10 shot down by Air Force planes and one by Navy planes — while the ballistic missile was not intercepted as it fell far short of the vessels, the official said.

The Houthi retaliation came after a wave of U.S. airstrikes in Yemen beginning on Saturday, which Trump described as “decisive and powerful military action” against the Iranian-backed group. The Houthis have been targeting Western-linked shipping and launching munitions into Israel since the fall of 2022, in protest of Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

“They have waged an unrelenting campaign of piracy, violence, and terrorism against American, and other, ships, aircraft and drones,” Trump posted on his social media platform, Truth Social, on March 15. “We will use overwhelming lethal force until we have achieved our objective.”

A U.S. official confirmed to ABC News on Sunday that U.S. air and naval assets hit dozens of Houthi targets in Yemen, including missiles, radars and drone and air defense systems. The official characterized the attacks as an opening salvo against the Houthis that sends a strong message to Iran.

The Yemeni Health Ministry said the strikes killed 53 people and injured 98 more.

Speaking with reporters on Air Force One on Sunday, Trump said he was not concerned about retaliatory strikes related to the latest American strikes.

National security adviser Mike Waltz told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday that the strikes represented “an overwhelming response that actually targeted multiple Houthi leaders and took them out. And the difference here is, one, going after the Houthi leadership, and two, holding Iran responsible.”

Detailing their latest attack on U.S. Navy vessels, the Houthis said in a Sunday statement that they will “continue to ban the passage of Israeli ships through the zone of ​​operations until the blockade on the Gaza Strip is lifted.”

ABC News’ Will Gretsky and Nicholas Kerr contributed to this report.

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(LONDON) — North Korea on Monday vowed to “steadily update and strengthen” its nuclear capabilities, a firm rejection of the G7’s call for Pyongyang to “abandon” its nuclear ambitions.

The country’s Foreign Ministry said that its “nuclear armed forces will exist forever as a powerful means of justice which defends the sovereignty of the state, territorial integrity and fundamental interests,” according to the Korean Central News Agency, a state-run media outlet.

North Korea’s nuclear development program “prevents a war in the Korean peninsula and Northeast Asia and guarantees a strategic stability of the world,” a ministry spokesperson said on Monday.

North Korea’s statement followed last week’s meeting of the G7 foreign ministers, including U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in Quebec, Canada.

Those ministers on Friday called on the secretive state to “abandon all its nuclear weapons and any other weapons of mass destruction as well as ballistic missile programs in accordance with all relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions.”

North Korean diplomats in their statement said the nuclear program was “fixed permanently” by the country’s laws, adding that those laws “will not change according to the recognition of anyone.”

North Korea is building a nuclear-power submarine, state media said earlier this month.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump said he plans to speak on Tuesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin amid the U.S. president’s efforts to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Trump added that “a lot of work” was done over the weekend and that “we’ll see if we have something to announce. Maybe by Tuesday.” He said that his administration wants “to see if we can bring that war to an end.”

“Maybe we can. Maybe we can’t, but I think we have a very good chance,” he said, speaking onboard Air Force One as he returned to Washington, D.C., on Sunday night.

The Trump administration has in recent weeks been pushing Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to engage on ending the 3-year-old war, high-stakes diplomatic maneuvering that included negotiating a potential 30-day ceasefire with Ukrainian officials in Saudi Arabia.

The Kremlin has yet to agree, with Putin saying he was “for it” but also that he sought further security guarantees. Zelenskyy over the weekend accused Putin of “prolonging” the war.

Zelenskyy on Sunday reiterated that sentiment, saying in his nightly address that “Russia stole almost another week — a week of war that only Russia wants.” He said Ukraine would do anything to further diplomacy that would end the war, but that “defense and resilience are paramount”

“We must remember — as long as the occupier is on our land, and as long as air raid sirens sound, we must defend Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said, according to a translated transcript provided by his office.

Zelenskyy has long held that a Ukrainian victory against the Russian invasion would include the country taking back the territory captured by Russia during the war. The Kremlin also annexed the Crimean Peninsula after Russia’s 2014 invasion.

Putin last week echoed Zelenskyy’s words, saying he would seek a total victory in Kursk, the Russian border region captured by Ukraine in a surprise incursion late last summer, by regaining every inch of it.

Asked what sort of concessions the U.S. would be seeking from Moscow and Kyiv to strike a ceasefire agreement, Trump indicated discussions around land and power plants were on the table, as well as “dividing up” assets between the two countries.

“Well, I think we’ll be talking about land. It’s a lot of land,” he said on Sunday. “It’s a lot different than it was before the wars, you know. And we’ll be talking about land, we’ll be talking about power plants. That’s a big question, but I think we have a lot of it already discussed, very much by both sides.”

ABC News’ Jessica Gorman contributed to this report.

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(BOSTON) — A doctor who was arriving in the United States to teach medicine was detained at Boston’s Logan International Airport on March 13, according to legal documents obtained by ABC News.

Dr. Rasha Alawieh had a valid H1B visa, or work visa, that had been issued on March 11. A Lebanese citizen, she was employed by Brown University as an assistant professor of medicine.

A kidney transplant specialist, Alawieh had also previously trained at both the University of Washington and Yale University.

The legal filing claimed that Brown’s Division of Nephrology was “extremely distressed.”

“She is an assistant professor and has serious responsibilities,” the document attested. “Her colleagues have been covering for her, but that is no solution. Dr. Alawieh is an outstanding academic in Transplant Nephrology, and she is needed at Brown Medicine.”

Also according to the legal documents, DHS officials gave no reason for her detention.

Customs and Border Protection did not respond to ABC News’ questions regarding her whereabouts and did not disclose why she was denied entry into the U.S.

However, Hilton Beckham, CBP’s Assistant Commissioner of Public Affairs, shared a statement saying, “Arriving aliens bear the burden of establishing admissibility to the United States. Our CBP Officers adhere to strict protocols to identify and stop threats, using rigorous screening, vetting, strong law enforcement partnerships, and keen inspectional skills to keep threats out of the country. CBP is committed to protecting the United States from national security threats.”

A U.S. district court judge in Massachusetts ordered that Alawieh should not be deported without 48 hours’ notice and a reason why from DHS.

Instead, according to a notice of apparent violation, DHS “willfully” disregarded the court order and deported Alawieh to France, with a scheduled flight to continue on to Lebanon. It is unconfirmed if that deportation took place as planned.

The next hearing is Monday morning.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump’s administration made a calculated decision to ignore a judge’s directive to turn around two flights containing hundreds of alleged Venezuelan gang members, sources familiar with the matter told ABC News.

The verbal order from the chief judge of the Washington, D.C., District Court, James Boasberg, explicitly told the government to turn around any aircraft that had already departed the country if it was still in the air.

“You shall inform your clients of this immediately any plane containing these folks that is going to take off or is in the air needs to be returned to the United States,” Boasberg said during a hearing on Saturday. “However that’s accomplished, turning around the plane, or not embarking anyone on the plane. … This is something that you need to make sure is complied with immediately.”

Finding the deportations would cause irreparable harm, Boasberg barred the Trump administration from deporting “all non-citizens who are subject to the AEA proclamation” for at least 14 days, imposing a temporary restraining order or TRO.

During that time, while the lawsuit makes its way through the courts, Immigration and Customs Enforcement is meant to keep the noncitizens in its custody.

However, top lawyers and officials in the administration made the determination that since the flights were over international waters, Boasberg’s order did not apply.

The administration said that the planes needed to land because of “operational” and “national security” reasons, sources told ABC News.

It was during the hearing that the two planes took off.

Sources said that the administration wanted to get these planes in the air and over international waters prior to any ruling from the judge.

However, Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed on Sunday evening that the administration “did not ‘refuse to comply’ with a court order.”

She said the order was issued after the alleged gang members “had already been removed from U.S. territory,” arguing that “the written order and the administration’s actions do not conflict.”

“Federal courts generally have no jurisdiction over the President’s conduct of foreign affairs, his authorities under the Alien Enemies Act, and his core Article II powers to remove foreign alien terrorists from U.S. soil and repel a declared invasion,” Leavitt said in a statement.

Also on Sunday, the Trump administration asked the D.C. Circuit Court for a stay of Boasberg’s ruling.

Administration officials contend that Boasberg lacked jurisdiction to enter the TRO, which the administration describes in a filing to the appellate court as “unprecedented.”

“This Court should halt this massive, unauthorized imposition on the Executive’s authority to remove people that Defendants had determined to be members of TdA, a group the President and the Secretary of State have found to be a threat to national security. This Court should halt this unprecedented intrusion upon the Executive’s authority to remove dangerous aliens who pose grave threats to the American people,” wrote a Justice Department attorney in an emergency motion for a stay, referring to the passengers aboard the flight, whom the administration alleges are members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.

Trump announced on Saturday that he had signed a proclamation declaring that the Tren de Aragua gang was “conducting irregular warfare” against the U.S. and therefore would deport its members under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.

The stay argued that Trump’s actions in invoking the AEA “are not subject to judicial review” and that there was “no lawful basis” for the court to enjoin the implementation of the president’s proclamation.

“If this TRO allowed to stand,” the DOJ wrote in the filing, “district courts would have license to enjoin virtually any urgent national-security action upon bare receipt of a complaint.”

The D.C. Circuit Court ordered a response to be filed by Tuesday at 5 p.m. by the attorneys representing the plaintiffs in the underlying case.

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