Imports contaminated with radioactive isotope likely to continue for foreseeable future: US bulletin
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(NEW YORK) — Commodities from Indonesia beyond shrimp will almost certainly test positive for a radioactive isotope in the coming weeks and months, according to a new intelligence bulletin that follows a recall last month of 84,000 bags of frozen raw shrimp imported from Indonesia.
Federal regulators announced the recall on Dec. 19, after finding the shrimp may have been prepared, packed or held under conditions that could have exposed them to cesium-137, a radioactive isotope.
The new Homeland Security bulletin, a copy of which was obtained by ABC News, said the contamination is “very likely” to continue for the foreseeable future and spread beyond Indonesian imports that have already been interdicted — including shrimp, as well as spices and sneakers.
“Due to the high number of factories and wide variety of goods produced at facilities in the area of the contamination, additional commodities from Indonesia will almost certainly test positive for Cs-137 in the coming weeks and months,” the bulletin said. “While improbable, we cannot rule out the potential that Cs-137 contaminated goods will arrive in the United States via tourism or passenger travel.”
The bulletin noted that the U.S. is “nearly certain” the contamination was not intentional and that Customs and Border Protection is “well postured to detect and interdict all impacted bulk cargo shipments, reducing the likelihood that the public will encounter contaminated commodities shipped in bulk from Indonesia.”
The December shrimp recall followed a recall of imported shrimp that began in August and was processed by the same Indonesian company, PT. Bahari Makmur Sejati, according to the FDA.
The FDA said it has also detected the presence of cesium-137 in one sample of cloves from the Indonesian-based company PT Natural Java Spice.
Contaminated sneakers originating from Indonesia were also interdicted at several U.S. ports last summer, according to the DHS bulletin.
At this time, no product that has tested positive or alerted for cesium-137 has entered the U.S. marketplace, the FDA said.
A general view of wind turbines at the Saint-Nazaire offshore wind farm, off the coast of the Guerande peninsula in western France, in Batz-sur-Mer, on December 3, 2025. (Photo by Jerome Gilles/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Wind power production will continue to advance, despite the Trump administration’s attempts to halt the growing momentum of renewable energy, experts told ABC News.
On Monday, the U.S. Department of the Interior reached a $928 million deal with French energy company TotalEnergies to end the company’s offshore wind development off the East Coast and redirect that investment into domestic fossil fuel initiatives, describing the “landmark agreement” as a way to lower energy costs and strengthen the nation’s energy security.
The move continues efforts by President Donald Trump and his administration to stall renewable energy, including the Department of Justice suing the state of California earlier this month over its electric vehicle mandate, signing an executive order last month directing the Department of Defense to purchase electricity from coal-fired power plants and the Environmental Protection Agency rescinding the landmark “endangerment finding” that has served as the scientific and legal foundation for federal regulations on carbon dioxide and five other heat-trapping greenhouse gases or more than 16 years.
Offshore wind is facing the most “headwinds” from the federal government, but is still persevering, Erin Baker, distinguished professor and faculty director at the Energy Transition Institute at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, told ABC News. The actions of the Trump administration have had “very little impact” on the global increase in production of renewable energy, Baker added.
What the nearly $1 billion deal with TotalEnergies entails As part of the deal, TotalEnergies will commit $928 million to fossil fuel development in the United States, matching the amount the company previously paid for offshore wind leases. Upon meeting those commitments, the federal government will reimburse the company up to the value of those lease payments, the Interior Department said.
Citing national security concerns, the Interior Department said TotalEnergies has pledged not to develop any new offshore wind projects in the United States.
“This agreement is yet another win for President Trump’s commitment to affordable and reliable energy for all Americans,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a statement. “Offshore wind is one of the most expensive, unreliable, environmentally disruptive, and subsidy-dependent schemes ever forced on American ratepayers and taxpayers.”
The agreement supports the administration’s push for affordable, reliable baseload energy, officials said, arguing that offshore wind projects are costly and less dependable. Ending the projects would reduce unnecessary federal spending while supporting domestic energy production, according to the Interior Department.
North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein described the move as “a terrible deal for the people of North Carolina and our country” in a post on X.
Because offshore wind is installed in federal waters, the power of the federal government over offshore wind projects is higher than in onshore wind projects, Michelle Solomon, senior policy analyst at Energy Innovation, a non-partisan research and analysis nonprofit that supports clean energy, told ABC News.
“I think the really unfortunate thing about this news is that offshore wind is a really, really reliable resource that can really help mitigate spiking fossil fuel prices in the winter,” she said.
The momentum for wind energy is too strong to stall, experts said Wind is the largest and most reliable source of renewable energy. It can also help energy bills stay affordable during extreme weather due to its capacity to produce fuel-free energy, Solomon said.
The power purchase agreements signed by offshore wind companies suppress electricity prices, Baker said. The companies agree to “always buy the wind when it blows,” which then brings down the entire cost to purchase electricity, she said, describing it as “good business.”
“They’re not doing it for environmental reasons,” Baker said of renewable energy companies. “They’re doing it just for business reasons.”
In 2025, wind and solar energy generated a record 17% of electricity in the U.S., up from less than 1% in 2005, according to data recently released by the Energy Information Administration (EIA).
The total net generation from wind and solar together reached 760,000 gigawatt-hours (GWh) last year, enough to power tens of millions of average American homes, according to the EIA. Wind power generated 464,000 GWh, a 3% increase over 2024.
The milestone comes amid federal energy policy changes, including the early phase-out of renewable tax incentives and other regulatory changes.
“The momentum is definitely still there,” Solomon said.
“Even though [the Trump administration] was actively trying to stop those industries, they still were growing,” Baker said.
Another benefit to wind is that it’s the type of energy that can “come online the most quickly” after it is built, Solomon said.
“In this moment, when we’re needing to build electricity generation resources really quickly to deal with low growth, data centers, [wind farms] are the ones that are going to be able to respond really quickly,” she said.
Wind and solar made up nearly 90% of new U.S. electricity capacity in 2025, according to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. That trend is expected to continue into 2026, Solomon said.
Global renewable energy capacity is expected to more than double by 2030, according to the EIA.
Trump has long criticized wind energy Trump’s criticism of wind turbines dates back to his first term.
In 2019, Trump claimed that noises from wind turbines “cause cancer” and negatively impact property values. In 2024, during his presidential campaign, Trump stated that wind turbines “kill whales” and vowed to write an executive order on “Day 1” to end offshore wind projects.
On Jan. 20, 2025, the first day of his second term, Trump signed an executive order to withdraw all areas of the outer continental shelf from offshore wind leasing. A federal judge in the U.S. District of Massachusetts ruled in December that the stop to permits on wind farms was illegal.
The deal with TotalEnergies is the latest move by the administration in an attempt to halt the increased production of wind power.
In December 2025, the Interior Department froze large offshore wind projects on the East Coast, citing national security concerns. Federal judges ruled that all five projects could resume construction, concluding that the government did not show that the risk was so imminent that it should stop.
The projects included Empire Wind, the wind farm being built 15 to 30 miles south of the coast of Long Island, and the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind, which started delivering to the state’s power grid on Monday, developer Dominion Energy announced.
Despite the victories for the offshore wind developers, the delays to the project have led to an uncertain investment environment and increased both the cost to build and the costs to consumers’ energy bills, Solomon said.
The impact of these actions will raise energy costs in the end, Solomon said.
Defendant Harrison Floyd attends a hearing in the case of the State of Georgia v. Donald John Trump, February 13, 2024 at the Fulton County Courthouse in Atlanta. (Alyssa Pointer-Pool/Getty Images)
(MARYLAND) — Federal prosecutors on Wednesday moved to dismiss a long-running assault case against Harrison Floyd, one of the 19 defendants charged with attempting to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia, after Floyd was accused of attacking two FBI agents in 2023 as they attempted to serve him with a subpoena in a related case.
The rare decision to drop the federal charge comes shortly after President Donald Trump in November issued a largely symbolic grant of clemency to individuals who worked on his behalf to challenge the results of the 2020 election.
In a court filing Wednesday, the Trump-appointed U.S. attorney in Maryland informed the federal judge overseeing Floyd’s case that her office “moves to dismiss without prejudice the criminal complaint in the above-captioned case.” The judge approved the request soon afterward.
Prosecutors did not provide an explanation for the dismissal.
The charge stemmed from an incident in February 2023 when Floyd allegedly assaulted two FBI agents sent on behalf of then-special counsel Jack Smith to serve him with a subpoena related to Smith’s federal election subversion probe, according to court records. Floyd, a former Marine and mixed martial arts fighter, allegedly rushed at the agents and spit in their faces, the records show.
During the encounter, Floyd shouted profanities at the agents, including “YOU F—— PIECE OF S—!” and “WHO THE F— DO YOU THINK YOU ARE,” according to an affidavit. One of the agents showed Floyd his firearm in an effort to de-escalate the confrontation, according to the affidavit.
Several months after the alleged assault, prosecutors in Fulton Country, Georgia, brought racketeering charges against Floyd and 18 others, including Trump, Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, Boris Epshteyn, John Eastman and former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, for their alleged efforts to keep Trump in power despite his 2020 election loss.
Floyd, Trump and 13 others pleaded not guilty to all charges, while Powell, Jenna Ellis, Kenneth Chesebro and Scott Hall took plea deals in exchange for agreeing to testify against other defendants. The case was ultimately dropped by prosecutor Pete Skandalakis, who took over after Fulton Country DA Fani Willis was disqualified from the case.
This past November, Trump issued all defendants a sweeping pardon, though the move was largely symbolic as the cases were brought at the state level and therefore fell outside the scope of presidential pardon power.
Floyd’s attorney, Carlos Salvado, told ABC News at the time that the language in Trump’s clemency order might also apply to Floyd’s otherwise unrelated federal assault charge.
Reached by ABC News on Wednesday, Salvado welcomed the dismissal. “I’m extremely happy for my client,” he said. “It’s a hell of a way to start 2026.”
A Justice Department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment from ABC News.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt displays steps for U.S. citizens in the Middle East to take following U.S. strikes on Iran as she speaks during a news briefing in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House on March 04, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — The State Department announced on Wednesday that a charter flight for American citizens stuck in the Middle East was en route to the United States — days after the war with Iran left thousands of American travelers stranded as combat operations led to the closure of airspace around the region.
The department said the flight is “part of our ongoing efforts to assist Americans return home” and said additional flights will be departing from the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Israel.
The move comes as hundreds of thousands of Americans stranded across the Middle East are trying to leave the region, faced with canceled flights and other travel disruptions.
Chris Elliott, a pastor from Lexington, North Carolina, told ABC News that he and his family were stranded while visiting sites in Jerusalem. He said they ended up in a bomb shelter as sirens sounded and incoming missiles were intercepted.
“We want Americans to be on American soil right now,” Elliott said.
Eliott’s daughter, Riley, said it’s been frustrating and frightening to be forced to shelter in place since the joint U.S.-Israel attacks on Iran began on Saturday.
“The scariest for me was trying to go to bed at night and then being woken up by the sounds of sirens,” Riley Elliott told ABC News.
The U.S. State Department issued an advisory on Monday, three days into the military operation, urging Americans to immediately leave 14 countries in the region via commercial flights, but stranded U.S. citizens have said that’s become extremely difficult, given the significant disruptions to air travel.
The Trump administration is facing some criticism for apparently not having a plan in place to get American citizens out of harm’s way ahead of the joint operation.
Responding to a question on Tuesday from ABC News about why so many Americans became stuck in the Middle East absent any advance warning of the attack on Iran, President Donald Trump said, “Well, because it happened all very quickly.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a Wednesday press briefing that the U.S. did communicate the danger of traveling to the region.
“There was many signs, put out by the State Department,” Leavitt said. “The secretary of state issued level four travel advisories dating back to January for many of these countries in the region,” adding that they were “advising extreme caution and do not travel alerts to Americans in the region.”
However, a review of travel advisories issued by the State Department indicates that prior to the start of the conflict, of the the 14 countries American travelers were later urged to depart, eight of them were only listed at a Level 1 or Level 2 — meaning to exercise normal precautions or increased caution.
Leavitt also claimed that since the start of the U.S.-Israeli attack on Iran, over 17,500 Americans “have safely returned home from the Middle East, with over 8,500 American citizens returning home to the United States just yesterday alone.”
Multiple U.S. embassies in the region, including some that have been attacked, have said they are unable to help citizens trying to leave.
“Our embassies and our diplomatic facilities are under direct attack from a terroristic regime,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Tuesday in Washington.
Asked if there were plans in place to evacuate Americans before the attack took place, Rubio said, “That’s the plan we’re trying to carry out.”
“The problem is, or the challenge we are facing, is airspace closures,” Rubio said, adding that some airports were closed after being hit in strikes. “So, that’s a challenge, but rest assured, we are confident that we are going to be able to assist every American.”
Odies Turner, a private chef from South Carolina, told ABC News that he’s been stuck in his hotel in Doha, Qatar, since the military operation began. He said the unexpected experience of being in a war has left him “frustrated, anxious” and feeling helpless.
“How do you expect us to leave a country where the airspace is closed? People are really stranded here,” Turner said in a self-video recorded on Tuesday. “I really don’t know what to do. I’ve reached out to the embassy, consulate and airlines. There’s no information on when I will get back home. It’s a mess.”
American Lisa Butler said the military conflict left her and her family, who were part of a large travel group, stranded in Abu Dhabi before they were evacuated to Dubai.
“We were standing … outside of this beautiful mosque, looking up in the sky and seeing these missiles that have been intercepted,” Butler told ABC News about how she and her family learned while in Abu Dhabi that they were vulnerable to a major military conflict breaking out in the region.
Oliver Sims, an American from Texas, told ABC News that he has been stuck in Qatar.
“I was just a few minutes ago, listening to some explosions that are going off above my head,” Sims said. “And, you know, I know that officials have said use commercial means, but there are really no commercial means here for us to use. So it’s really difficult to try and figure out a way out.”
Asked to describe conditions in Qatar, Sims said that he has been awakened at night by “extremely loud explosions” that shook the windows of his hotel room.
“I looked out my window and I saw a bunch of debris that was raining down outside of my hotel window,” Sims said. “And it’s very jarring, too, because it’s not just how loud it is, just how it actually physically shakes you. The rumbling is really, really just as violent.”
