Federal officials investigate after Waymo self-driving vehicle strikes child near elementary school
Waymo vehicle near Union Square, San Francisco, California, January 22, 2026. (Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images)
(SANTA MONICA, Calif.) — Federal officials opened an investigation after a Waymo self-driving vehicle struck a child near an elementary school in California, resulting in minor injuries.
The incident occurred on Jan. 23 in Santa Monica, within two blocks of an elementary school during school drop-off hours, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The vehicle was being operated by its automated driving system and there was no safety operator in it at the time, according to the agency.
The child “ran across the street from behind a double parked SUV towards the school and was struck by the Waymo AV,” the NHTSA said in a statement.
Other children and a crossing guard were in the area at the time, as well as several double-parked vehicles, the agency said.
“Our technology immediately detected the individual as soon as they began to emerge from behind the stopped vehicle,” Waymo said in a statement, adding that the autonomous driver “braked hard, reducing speed from approximately 17 mph to under 6 mph before contact was made.”
After the vehicle made contact, the child stood up and walked to the sidewalk, according to Waymo. The company said it called 911 and the vehicle “remained stopped, moved to the side of the road, and stayed there until law enforcement cleared the vehicle to leave the scene.”
Waymo reported that the child, whose age was not released, sustained minor injuries, according to the NHTSA.
Waymo said it reported the incident to the NHTSA the day it occurred and will “cooperate fully with them throughout the process of its investigation.”
The investigation will look into whether the self-driving vehicle “exercised appropriate caution given, among other things, its proximity to the elementary school during drop off hours, and the presence of young pedestrians and other potential vulnerable road users,” the NHTSA said.
Waymo and the NHTSA did not release any details on where the vehicle was traveling and if it had any passengers at the time of the collision.
: Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell listens to a question during a Principles of Economics class at Harvard University on March 30, 2026 in Cambridge, Massachusetts. (Photo by Sophie Park/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The Department of Justice is dropping its criminal investigation into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, ending a standoff that threatened to delay the confirmation of Powell’s successor at the central bank, District of Columbia U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro said Friday.
Senior DOJ officials have contacted senators in recent days, including Republican Sen. Thom Tillis, who sits on the Senate Banking Committee, informing them of the plan to drop the probe and refer the matter regarding alleged cost overruns at the Fed’s Washington headquarters to the bank’s internal watchdog, sources told ABC News.
The Fed’s independent inspector general conducted an audit of the building renovation costs in 2021 and Powell had already asked the watchdog to take a fresh look at the $2.5 billion project last year.
“This morning the Inspector General for the Federal Reserve has been asked to scrutinize the building costs overruns — in the billions of dollars — that have been borne by taxpayers,” Pirro write on X Friday. “I expect a comprehensive report in short order and am confident the outcome will assist in resolving, once and for all, the questions that led this office to issue subpoenas.”
“Accordingly, I have directed my office to close our investigation as the IG undertakes this inquiry,” Pirro wrote. “Note well, however, that I will not hesitate to restart a criminal investigation should the facts warrant doing so.”
Powell’s term ends next month, but he said in March that he would stay in the position until President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Fed, Kevin Warsh, is confirmed.
White House spokesperson Kush Desai, in a statement to ABC News, said “American taxpayers deserve answers about the Federal Reserve’s fiscal mismanagement, and the Office of the Inspector General’s more powerful authorities best position it to get to the bottom of the matter.”
Desai added the administration remains certain that the Senate will “swiftly confirm” Warsh.
A spokesperson for the Federal Reserve declined to comment. Reached by ABC News, a spokesperson for Tillis also declined to comment.
Pirro had been insistent that her investigation of alleged cost overruns at the Fed would continue despite a ruling last month from D.C. District Judge James Boasberg that tossed out subpoenas she had sent to Powell.
“This investigation continues. I am in the legal lane. There are others who are in the political lane. I don’t intersect those two lanes,” Pirro said in a news conference on Wednesday.
“I am going forward,” Pirro said. “We are appealing the decision of Judge Boasberg — the idea that a judge can stand at the door of a grand jury and tell a prosecutor you’re not allowed to go in when the United States Supreme Court has said you can go into a grand jury based on rumors and suspicion, is an order that we think must be appealed, and we are continuing in this investigation.”
At the time of Boasberg’s ruling, Tillis urged Pirro not to continue with her investigation.
“We all know how this is going to end and the D.C. U.S. Attorney’s Office should save itself further embarrassment and move on,” Tillis said in a post on X moments after the decision was made public in March. “Appealing the ruling will only delay the confirmation of Kevin Warsh as the next Fed Chair.”
It is not immediately clear if prosecutors will seek to drop their appeal of Boasberg’s order as a result of the directive to close the probe into Powell.
In a video message in January, Powell revealed the investigation and called it an attempt by the Trump administration to put political pressure on the Fed to lower interest rates.
An end to the DOJ’s investigation is expected to pave the path for Kevin Warsh to get confirmed through the Senate. Tillis told ABC News on Tuesday he supports Warsh as the nominee but will not advance his nomination until the DOJ’s probe is dropped.
Tillis first announced in January that he would block nominees in opposition to the investigation, which he has branded as “bogus.”
“If there were any remaining doubt whether advisers within the Trump Administration are actively pushing to end the independence of the Federal Reserve, there should now be none. It is now the independence and credibility of the Department of Justice that are in question,” Tillis said in a January statement. “I will oppose the confirmation of any nominee for the Fed — including the upcoming Fed Chair vacancy — until this legal matter is fully resolved.”
Tillis’ blockade has proved difficult for Senate Republican leadership to work around because of his position on the narrowly divided Senate Banking Committee. His opposition, paired with that of all Democrats on the panel, has made it impossible for Warsh to advance out of the committee to a vote on the full Senate floor.
United States President Donald Trump, right, speaks to Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer at a North Atlantic Council plenary meeting during the the NATO summit on June 25, 2025 in The Hague, Netherlands. (Photo by Kin Cheung – Pool/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump will host King Charles III and Queen Camilla at the White House for a highly anticipated state visit this week as the “special relationship” between the United States and the United Kingdom is under a microscope amid the war with Iran.
“I look forward to the dinner. We’re having King Charles come; he’s a friend of mine. We’re really looking forward to it, we’ve spoken, and we’re going to have a great time,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office last week.
While Trump has repeatedly praised King Charles as a “friend” whom he’s known for years, his relationship with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has been another story as the president has repeatedly assailed the U.K. and other NATO allies over the U.S. and Israeli war with Iran.
“This is not Winston Churchill that we’re dealing with,” Trump said of Starmer in March as he criticized the U.K. for not doing more to support the war.
Starmer has waved off concerns about the relationship between the two countries.
“The special relationship is in operation right now,” Starmer said in the wake of Trump’s comments last month. “We are working together in the region, the U.S. and the British working together to protect both the U.S. and the British in joint bases, where we’re jointly located and we’re sharing intelligence on a 24/7 basis in the usual way.”
Trump says visit could help repair damage
Amid his criticism of the U.K.’s support of the war with Iran, Trump said the Charles’ visit — the U.K.’s constitutional and ceremonial head of state — may help restore any damaged ties between the two allies.
“Absolutely. He’s fantastic. He’s a fantastic man. Absolutely the answer is yes,” Trump told the BBC in a phone interview on Thursday when asked if the visit could help repair the relationship.
But whether pomp and circumstance with the king will translate into real geopolitical gains remains to be seen. Trump told Reuters in a phone interview on Friday that he was “going to talk about everything” with the king, including Iran, NATO and the U.K.’s digital services tax.
“I like Starmer, but…”
While Charles will officially represent the U.K. on the visit, Trump has repeatedly attacked Starmer, the U.K.’s top elected official, since the start of the war with Iran on issues both foreign and domestic.
Amid rising global oil prices, Trump has renewed his call for Starmer to begin drilling for oil in the North Sea and criticized the prime minister for his handling of immigration.
“I like Starmer, but I think he’s made a tragic mistake in closing the North Sea oil. You see, your energy prices are the highest in the world. And I think he’s made a tragic mistake on immigration,” Trump told the U.K.’s Sky News on April 14.
The president has even gone as far as to compare Starmer to Neville Chamberlain — the British prime minister infamous for his appeasement policy towards Nazi Germany before World War II — over Starmer’s purported refusal to send the U.K.’s navy to the Middle East at the start of the war.
“He made a public statement that we will send equipment after the war is over. It was a — well, you know, that’s a Neville — Neville Chamberlain-type statement, and Germany, the same thing. He said, ‘We didn’t start this war.’ Well, we helped them with Ukraine,” Trump told Fox News on April 12 about efforts to arm Ukraine in its war with Russia.
I response to Trump’s comments, Starmer said, “We do have mine-sweeping capability, I won’t go into operational matters, but we do have that capability — that’s all focused, from our point of view, on getting the strait fully open.”
But he reiterated his position that the U.K. would not join the conflict.
“My decision has been very clearly that whatever the pressure — and there’s been some considerable pressure — we’re not getting dragged into the war. The U.K. is not getting dragged in,” he said. “That’s not in our national interest, because I’m not going to act unless there’s a clear, lawful basis and a clear thought-through plan.”
Trump expressed surprise in a meeting with his Cabinet on March 26 that Starmer did not do more to send support to the U.S. amid the war.
“I think he’s [Starmer] a lovely man, I do. I think he’s a lovely man, but I think he did something that was shocking; he didn’t want to help us. And maybe in particular that country, you know, the longest bond, the longest ally, Australia, too. Australia was not great,” he said.
Moments later, Trump questioned whether the U.S. would be there for the U.K. and NATO in the future.
“I mean, we’re always going to be there — at least we were, I don’t know about it anymore, to be honest with you, I have to be honest. We were always there when they needed help, we always would have been there when they needed help,” Trump said.
But asked whether the political fallout from the war would impact his visit with Charles, Trump said no.
“No, he’s a friend of mine. He’s a great gentleman. As you know, he honored me and our country; he really honored our country. But we had an amazing time. I’ve known him as Prince Charles; I know him as King Charles,” Trump said.
“I’m proud of him. He’s fighting a tough battle. He’s tough,” Trump added. “He’s going to be here very soon, as you know, we’re going to have a state dinner, it’s going to be great.”
(SAN ANTONIO) — Six people, including a teenager, were found dead inside a shipping container at a Texas rail yard near the U.S.-Mexico border, officials said.
A seventh person who was found dead along train tracks in an area outside San Antonio is also believed to have been part of the same group in what is a suspected smuggling incident, authorities said.
The six bodies were discovered Sunday at the Union Pacific rail yard in Laredo, police said. An employee at the rail yard called police after discovering the bodies during a routine rail car inspection, police said.
The victims include a 14-year-old boy and a 24-year-old man from Honduras, as well as a 29-year-old woman and two men — aged 45 and 56 — from Mexico, according to the Webb County Medical Examiner’s Office.
So far, the woman has been confirmed to have died from hyperthermia, according to the Webb County Medical Examiner’s Office, which said it is “highly probable that hyperthermia was the cause of death for the entire group.”
The body of the seventh person was found Monday afternoon near tracks in Bexar County, some 150 miles north of Laredo, according to authorities. The man, whose identity has not yet been confirmed, was carrying a Mexican voter registration card, according to Bexar County Sheriff Javier Salazar.
“At this point, the prevailing theory is that he’s a resident of Mexico that was among that group that was being smuggled into the country in one of these shipping containers,” Salazar said during a press briefing on Monday.
It is unclear if the man had died while in the shipping container and his body was dumped, or if he died in a fall from the train, he said, noting that the medical examiner will be determining the cause and manner of death.
Salazar said the shipping containers can only be opened from the outside, and that sensors go off when they are opened.
He said the train is believed to have originated in Del Rio, Texas, where the sensor did go off, presumably to load people on. The sensor went off again near where the body of the seventh person was found in Bexar County, he said.
“The fact that a sensor hit from here indicates someone opened that from outside,” Salazar said. “Our belief at this point is that it was most likely smugglers, coyotes that opened it from the outside.”
It is unclear if there were more people on the train who were successfully let out at that point, he said.
Salazar said the train continued on and was split up at a station, with half of it going to Houston and the other half to Laredo, where the six other people were found dead.
One of the people found dead in Laredo is believed to have contacted a relative on Saturday from inside the shipping container, saying in a message that “it was getting very, very hot, and that they were having some physical trouble as a result of it,” Salazar said.
The relative, who lives in a different state, contacted police, and San Antonio officers were dispatched to a location several miles from where the body was found in Macdona and did not find anything, he said.
The Webb County Medical Examiner’s Office said in a statement Tuesday it is “working in close coordination with the Mexican Consulate to facilitate communication with the families of the deceased, ensure positive identification, and assist in the repatriation process as efficiently as possible.”
Homeland Security Investigations and Texas Rangers are also investigating the incident, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection.
Union Pacific said it is “saddened by this incident and is working closely with law enforcement to investigate.”
ABC News’ Laura Romero contributed to this report.
