London’s Heathrow Airport ‘fully operational’ after fire causes travel chaos
Leon Neal/Getty Images
(LONDON) — London’s Heathrow Airport announced Saturday morning that it is “open and fully operational” and flights have resumed after a fire at an electrical substation knocked out power to Europe’s busiest hub.
“Flights have resumed at Heathrow, and we are open and fully operational,” Heathrow Airport said on X. “Teams across the airport continue to do everything they can to support passengers impacted by yesterday’s outage at an off-airport power substation.”
The UK Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero Ed Miliband announced Saturday that he is ordering an investigation into the substation fire and how it could lead to the complete closure of Heathrow airport.
The investigation will be led by National Energy System Operator “to understand any wider lessons to be learned on energy resilience for critical national infrastructure,” the secretary said in a statement.
“The loss of power to the Heathrow area has caused major disruption to thousands of people and many businesses. We are determined to properly understand what happened and what lessons need to be learned,” the secretary said.
Heathrow CEO Thomas Woldbye said he welcomed the news of the investigation.
“We will support every effort to understand the causes and impacts of yesterday’s off-airport incident and we are committed to working closely with all stakeholders to ensure a thorough investigation to help strengthen the airport’s future resilience,” Woldbye said in a statement.
A Heathrow spokesperson said that hundreds of additional colleagues are on hand in their terminals on Saturday and that the airport has added flights to the schedule to facilitate an extra 10,000 passengers traveling through the airport.
“Power supplies have been restored to all customers connected to our North Hyde substation, including Heathrow, allowing operations to resume at the airport. We are now implementing measures to help further improve the resilience levels of our network,” read a statement from the U.K.’s National Grid.
“We are deeply sorry for the disruption caused and are continuing to work closely with the government, Heathrow and the police to understand the cause of the incident,” the statement continued.
An analysis said as many as 290,000 passengers were expected to be impacted by the closure Friday, according to Cirium, an aviation analytics company. There were 669 flights scheduled to depart to Heathrow on Friday, with 145,836 seats, according to Cirium. The fire could affect another 270,000 passengers on Saturday also, Cirium said.
The cause of the fire is still not known and currently under investigation but authorities have confirmed that they are not treating the blaze as suspicious.
“After initial assessment, we are not treating this incident as suspicious, although enquiries do remain ongoing,” a statement from London’s Metropolitan Police said. Because of the location of the substation “and the impact this incident has had on critical national infrastructure,” the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command was leading the investigation, authorities said.
ABC News’ Morgan Winsor and Mike Trew contributed to the report.
(NEW YORK) — SpaceX said that the hydraulic system issue that postponed the Starliner mission on Wednesday has now been fixed and that the crew is once again cleared for take-off on Friday.
The mission will bring the next crew up to work on the International Space Station (ISS) and begin the return of a pair of astronauts back to Earth.
The launch Wednesday was abruptly postponed less than 45 minutes before liftoff due to a problem with a ground support clamp arm on the Falcon 9 rocket.
The clamps hold the rocket on the pad and if they don’t open evenly, could cause the rocket to tip slightly.
NASA’s Ken Bowersox told ABC News that while in this instance, the teams thought there was a low probability of a serious failure, they ultimately decided to not take any chances at all.
As of Thursday evening, SpaceX said ground teams have resolved the issue and successfully flushed a suspected pocket of trapped air in the system.
SpaceX said it’s now targeting a launch on Friday at 7:03 p.m. ET. The company predicts a 95% chance of favorable weather conditions for the launch attempt.
Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Sunita “Suni” Williams have been in space since June 2024 after they performed the first crewed test flight of Boeing’s Starliner. When they launched, they were only supposed to be on the ISS for about a week.
However, NASA and Boeing officials decided to send the uncrewed Starliner back to Earth in September after several issues and keep Wilmore and Williams onboard until early 2025 when Crew-10 was ready to launch on the Dragon spacecraft. Wilmore and Williams are set to return in the Crew-9 capsule.
The pair integrated with the ongoing Crew-9 mission aboard the ISS and could not return to Earth until Crew-9 completed its six-month mission and were replaced by Crew-10.
Wilmore and Williams assisted the crew with research and other responsibilities. However, NASA officials said the pair were using up more supplies meant for the ISS crew.
Steve Stich, program manager for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, said that NASA teams spent all summer looking over the data on Starliner and felt there was too much risk with regard to the vehicle’s thrusters.
During a press conference in September, Wilmore said he and Williams did not feel let down by anything during the mission.
“Let down? Absolutely not,” Wilmore said. “It’s never entered my mind. It’s a fair question. I can tell you, I thought a lot about this press conference … and what I wanted to say and convey.”
“NASA does a great job of making a lot of things look easy,” he said, adding, “That’s just the way it goes. sometimes because we are pushing the edges of the envelope in everything that we do.”
If the mission is successful, it’s unclear when exactly Wilmore and Williams will return to Earth on Crew-9.
The crew consists of two NASA astronauts, an astronaut from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and an astronaut from Russia’s Roscosmos.
SpaceX will share a live webcast of the mission beginning one hour and 20 minutes prior to liftoff on its website and on its X account. NASA will also air coverage on its X account.
“During their time on the orbiting laboratory, the crew will conduct new research to prepare for human exploration beyond low-Earth orbit and to benefit humanity on Earth,” SpaceX said on its website.
SpaceX’s contracted missions are part of the larger Commercial Crew Program at NASA, which are certified to perform routine missions to and from the ISS.
Soldiers from 1st Battalion 4th Infantry Skynet team walking through the area of operations during Combined Resolve 25-1at Hohenfels Training Area on Feb. 5, 2025. (U.S. Army Reserve Photo by Spc. Airam B. I Amaro-Millan)
(WASHINGTON) — Nearly three years after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, U.S. troops in Eastern Europe are using the lessons learned on the battlefields in Ukraine to modernize the Army’s tactics and use of new technologies or what the U.S. Army calls Transformation in Contact.
Soon after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, thousands of U.S. military forces were sent to Eastern Europe to reassure NATO countries in the region and to deter Russia from expanding the conflict beyond Ukraine’s borders.
What started as a short-duration deployment has now grown to a current level of 23,000 U.S. Army troops maintained by a constant rotation of units on nine-month deployments.
“I have responsibility for (U.S. Army) forces from Estonia, U.S. forces that are stationed in Estonia all the way down to Bulgaria, 23 different foreign operating sites to assure our NATO partners and allies, but more importantly, to deter future Russian aggression.,” Lt. Gen. Charles Costanza, the commander of the U.S. Army’s Fifth Corps, told ABC News in an interview. “It’s just a critical time to be here right now.”
The deployment of those U.S. Army forces so close to Ukraine also means that they are able to apply what they are seeing on the country’s battlefields and how to apply it to their own operations.
“There’s not a better place to learn from the conflict in Ukraine than Eastern Europe,” said Costanza. “Our NATO partners are helping with training and equipping the Ukrainians. So we got a direct inject of all those lessons learned that are coming out of Ukraine.”
Those lessons learned include the revolutionary use of small commercially available drones to drop bombs on Russian targets, the development of long-range one-way attack drones, and techniques to evade electronic warfare detection that can be used to target forces on the frontlines by tracking radios and other communications gear.
“The speed of innovation on the SUAS and the counter-SUAS capability is incredible,” said Costanza, using the military acronym for Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems used to describe small drones.
“The Ukrainians will develop a new capability for those SUAS, the very next day, the Russians will figure out how to counter that which causes the Ukrainians to have to innovate and adapt very quickly and figure out something else,” he said.
In early February, U.S. Army forces trained for two weeks with other NATO countries in Germany in Combined Resolve, an exercise that is part of the Army’s Transformation in Combat, which uses some of the Army’s new gear and allows soldiers to innovate just like what is happening in Ukraine.
“When they’re in Combined Resolve fighting the opposing force, they’re going to figure out how to make stuff work and innovate while they’re in contact,” said Costanza. “I think the Transformation in Contact effort is just going to speed up how we equip our soldiers now quickly, and how we organize maybe a bit differently.”
For example, soldiers from the 2nd Cavalry Regiment, a unit permanently stationed in Germany, used 3-D printers to make sensors provided to soldiers that Costanza said could detect drones.
They also used a novel way of communicating by using commercially available technology provided to them to facilitate their radio communications with the Polish forces they were training with who did not speak English.
“To the point where you can pick up a radio and talk to somebody in a Polish unit, and it actually translates what you say into Polish so when it comes out on the Polish radio, the Polish soldier hears it, understands it, and to respond back, and you hear his response in English,” said Costanza.
He praised the ingenuity of young soldiers who “figure out how to make all this work, and bang, you have something that bridges a gap.”
Transformation in Contact is also changing how the Army arranges itself on the battlefield as the U.S. Army shifts away from the large field headquarters seen in Iraq and Afghanistan towards smaller dispersed units that can do the same thing.
The war in Ukraine has shown that large headquarters can be destroyed with missiles because the high levels of electronic signals they emit can be detected by electronic warfare tools.
“Now it’s individual vehicles that are spread out all over the battlefield, much from the electromagnetics spectrum standpoint, the signature is so much smaller, and it’s just harder to figure out what’s a command post and what might just be an individual vehicle,” said Costanza.
“They can actually work distributed like that to have that same common operational picture of what’s going on and to be able to synchronize everything they need to do to win the fight, but without physically being together,” he added.
Also used in the exercise was the Army’s new lightweight all-terrain vehicle, the Infantry Squad Vehicle which can transport as many as nine soldiers on the battlefield.
“You get nine guys on there and all their kit and you can quickly move now and reposition forces in a way that infantry brigades haven’t been able to do in the past. And so it just gives you a lot more capability,” said Costanza.
As the rotation of U.S. Army units in Eastern Europe continues, some of them will have already gone through previous versions of Transformation in Contact exercises carried out in the United States.
Costanza said those units will bring their lessons learned from those exercises and will also innovate with new concepts much as the units they are replacing have been doing during their deployment.
“So, we’re just going to keep learning as we keep fielding this stuff out, and just continuing to get better on how we organize ourselves and how we equip ourselves,” said Costanza.
(LONDON) — A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza went into effect on Sunday morning. Hostages held in the strip and Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails will be freed in the first phase of the deal.
Meanwhile, the November ceasefire in Lebanon is holding despite ongoing Israeli airstrikes on Hezbollah targets, which Israeli officials say are responses to ceasefire violations by the Iranian-backed militant group. Israeli forces also remain active inside the Syrian border region as victorious rebels there build a transitional government.
Tensions remain high between Israel and Iran after tit-for-tat long-range strikes in recent months and threats of further military action from both sides. The IDF and the Yemeni Houthis also continue to exchange attacks.
Israel to stay in southern Lebanon beyond ceasefire deadline
Israeli troops will remain in Lebanon beyond Sunday, when it was required to withdraw as per its November ceasefire agreement with Hezbollah.
“The outline for the ceasefire in Lebanon stipulates that the IDF’s phased withdrawal should be implemented within 60 days. The clause was worded this way with the understanding that the withdrawal process may continue beyond 60 days,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement Friday.
“The IDF’s withdrawal process is conditional on the Lebanese Army deploying in southern Lebanon and fully and effectively enforcing the agreement, while Hezbollah withdraws beyond the Litani. Since the ceasefire agreement has not yet been fully enforced by the State of Lebanon, the phased withdrawal process will continue, in full coordination with the United States. The State of Israel will not endanger its communities and citizens and will insist on the full implementation of the goal of the fighting in the north — the safe return of residents to their homes,” Netanyahu said.
On Thursday, the Lebanese army said it is ready to deploy to the country’s south after the Israeli army withdraws from the region.
Jenin will be a ‘different place’ after Israeli operation, IDF chief says
The Israel Defense Forces are not stopping their operation in Jenin, in the West Bank, with more raids reported overnight Thursday.
“We need to be prepared to continue in the Jenin camp that will bring it to a different place — we are denying the enemy opportunities to harm our forces,” LT. Gen. Herzi Halevi, chief of the general staff, said on Thursday.
Israel says there is ‘much more work to do’ in Lebanon
While the Israeli government said there have been “positive movements” where the Lebanese army and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon have taken control from Hezbollah forces, there is still work to be done, Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer told ABC News.
“There is much more work to do. Israel has made clear that they wish for this agreement to endure. Israel will certainly enforce this agreement as well as adhering to this agreement. But the movements have not been fast enough,” Mencer said.
Lebanese army says it’s ready to deploy to the south
The Lebanese army said it is ready to deploy to the country’s south after the Israeli army withdraws from the region, as stipulated in the ceasefire agreement signed last year.
Civilians should not yet return to areas that Israel is withdrawing from, and should continue to follow the instructions of the military units until deployment ends, the Lebanese army said. Specialized units will still need to clear areas of mines and suspicious objects left by Israeli forces, the Lebanese army said.
Lebanese military units completed their deployment at several points in the town of Kfar Shuba, Hasbaya, in the eastern sector after the withdrawal of the Israeli troops.
The United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon also said it is ready to support the Lebanese army after Israel withdraws.
Israel is required by the ceasefire to withdraw by Sunday.
At least 10 killed as Israel continues operation in Jenin
At least 10 Palestinians were killed and 40 injured as Israel continues a large operation in Jenin, turning its focus to the West Bank.
Israel launched a “significant” operation to “eradicate terrorism in Jenin,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a statement Wednesday.
“This is another step towards achieving the goal we set — strengthening security in Judea and Samaria. We are acting systematically and resolutely against the Iranian axis wherever it extends its arms — in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Judea and Samaria — and with our hands still outstretched,” Netanyahu said in a statement.
4 injured in Tel Aviv stabbing attack
At least four people were injured in a stabbing attack in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, Magen David Adom, Israel’s emergency services organization, said in a release.
Two men, ages 28 and 24, are being treated with upper-body stab wounds and are in moderate condition. Two other patients, ages 24 and 59, are in mild condition, the MDA said.
The injured are being taken to Ichilov Hospital.
The stabbing occurred on Nahalat Binyamin Street in Tel Aviv, the Israeli Police Spokesperson’s Unit said. The attacker has been killed by police, the spokesperson’s unit added.
-ABC News’ Jordana Miller and Nasser Atta
At least 21 Palestinians injured in West Bank settler violence
At least 21 Palestinians were injured, 11 severely, after dozens of Israeli civilians, some of whom were masked, arrived at the area of Al Funduq, in the West Bank, and “instigated riots, set property on fire and caused damage,” according to the Israel Defense Forces.
Three homes were burned down and five cars were torched as well, the IDF said.
The civilians hurled rocks and attacked the security forces dispatched to the scene, according to the IDF.
Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz, despite freeing settlers who committed the same types of crimes, said he condemns the violence.
Over 1,500 aid trucks entered Gaza on day 1 and 2 of ceasefire, UN says
More than 1,500 trucks with humanitarian aid have entered the Gaza Strip in the first two days of the Israel-Hamas ceasefire, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
That includes more than 630 trucks on Sunday and 915 trucks on Monday, according to OCHA. Of the ones that crossed into Gaza on Sunday, OCHA said at least 300 trucks went to the north, which the U.N. has warned is facing imminent famine.
OCHA cited “information received through engagement with Israeli authorities and the guarantors for the ceasefire agreement.”
“There is no time to lose,” the U.N.’s aid chief, Tom Fletcher, said in a statement Monday. “After 15 months of relentless war, the humanitarian needs are staggering.”
-ABC News’ Morgan Winsor
IDF says riots in the West Bank have dispersed
Israel Defense Forces and Israel Border Police Forces were dispatched to Al Funduq in the West Bank after reports of rioting in the area, the IDF said on Monday.
The alleged incident occurred shortly after Israel’s defense minister released all settlers being detained under administrative detention orders, though it cannot be certain that any of those settlers were involved in the reported riots. ABC News was able to confirm that fires had ignited in that location.
Shortly thereafter, the IDF confirmed that it had successfully dispersed rioters.
There have been no confirmed reports as to the extent of the damage or any injuries. Israeli officials are expected to conduct a formal inquiry in the area tonight.
-ABC News’ William Gretsky
Israeli forces recover body of fallen soldier in Gaza
Israeli forces recovered the body of Oron Shaul, an Israel Defense Forces soldier who was killed in 2014, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the IDF announced Monday.
Shaul was killed during a battle in Gaza on July 30, 2014, and his body had been held by Hamas for the past 10 years, the IDF said.
“The recovery of Staff Sergeant, Oron Shaul’s body, was made possible due to a decade-long ongoing intelligence effort, which intensified during the war,” the IDF wrote in a statement about the operation on Monday.
Netanyahu spoke with Oron Shaul’s mother, Zehava Shaul, after the operation was successfully completed, a statement from his office said.
-ABC News’ Ellie Kaufman and Jordan Miller
Next hostage exchange expected to take place Saturday
Both Israel and Hamas have confirmed the next hostage release will take place on Saturday.
A senior Israeli official confirmed the deal must take place on Jan. 25, as outlined in the ceasefire agreement. Hamas confirmed the date, saying “the second batch of prisoner exchange will take place on the scheduled date.”
Three hostages, all Israeli women, were released on Sunday, while 90 Palestinian prisoners were released from Israel in exchange.
Houthis say attacks on Israeli shipping will continue
Yemen’s Houthi rebels announced that they will limit their attacks in the Red Sea to only Israel-affiliated ships, signaling a temporary easing of their broader assault on commercial vessels.
The decision coincided with the ceasefire and hostage-release deal agreed between Israel and Hamas that went into effect on Sunday.
The announcement was made via an email sent to shipping companies by the Houthi Humanitarian Operations Coordination Center, the Associated Press reported.
Attacks on Israeli-linked vessels will end “upon the full implementation of all phases” of the ceasefire, the Houthis said, adding that attacks on U.S.- or U.K.-linked shipping may resume if the two nations continue airstrikes in Yemen.
The Houthis have targeted over 100 merchant vessels with missiles and drones since the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip started in October 2023, significantly affecting global shipping, particularly through Egypt’s Suez Canal.
The Houthis have also attacked American and allied military shipping in the region, plus launched drone and ballistic missile strikes into Israel.
-ABC News’ Somayeh Malekian
10,000 bodies may be under Gaza rubble, Civil Defense says
The Palestinian Civil Defense in Gaza said there could be as many as 10,000 bodies buried under rubble all across the strip, as many displaced Gazans try to return to their homes under a nascent ceasefire agreement.
The Civil Defense said in a post to Telegram that 10,000 missing people are believed to be “under the rubble of destroyed homes, buildings and facilities.” They are not counted in the 38,300 fatalities listed by the Civil Defense since Oct. 7, 2023.
The Gaza Ministry of Health — which has separately tracked deaths during the conflict — said on Sunday that 46,913 people had been killed in the Hamas-run territory during the war with Israel.
The Civil Defense said Israeli forces prevented its crews from accessing large areas of the strip during the fighting, “where there are hundreds of bodies” that have not yet been recovered.
The Civil Defense called for the entry of foreign rescue workers “to support us in carrying out our duty to deal with the catastrophic reality left behind by the war, which exceeds the capacity of the civil defense apparatus in the Gaza Strip.”
The organization called on Gazans to assist rescuers “with all necessary capabilities, including rescue, firefighting, and ambulance vehicles and equipment, as well as heavy machinery and equipment that will help us retrieve the bodies of martyrs from under the rubble of thousands of destroyed buildings and homes.”
Freed hostage is ‘happiest girl in the world,’ mother says Mandy Damari, the mother of Emily Damari — who was among the three Israeli captives freed from Gaza on Sunday — released a statement thanking all those involved in her daughter’s release “from the bottom of my heart.”
“Yesterday, I was finally able to give Emily the hug that I have been dreaming of,” Mandy said in a statement shared by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum Headquarters.
“I am relieved to report that after her release, Emily is doing much better than any of us could ever have anticipated,” she added.
“In Emily’s own words, she is the happiest girl in the world; she has her life back,” Mandy said.
“In this incredibly happy moment for our family, we must also remember that 94 other hostages still remain,” she added. “The ceasefire must continue and every last hostage must be returned to their families.”
-ABC News’ Anna Burd
Red Cross details ‘complex’ hostage release operation
The International Committee of the Red Cross said in a statement that Sunday’s operation to collect three freed Israeli hostages from Gaza “was complex, requiring rigorous security measures to minimize the risks to those involved.”
“Navigating large crowds and heightened emotions posed challenges during the transfers and in Gaza, ICRC teams had to manage the dangers posed by unexploded ordnances and destroyed infrastructure,” the ICRC said in a Monday statement.
“More families are waiting anxiously for their loved ones to come home,” ICRC President Mirjana Spoljaric said. “We call on all parties to continue to adhere to their commitments to ensure the next operations can take place safely.”
The ICRC also stressed that “urgently needed humanitarian assistance must enter Gaza, where civilians have struggled for months to access food, drinkable water and shelter.”
Released Palestinian prisoners arrive in the West Bank amid high tensions
Tensions were high as people waited in Beitunia, in the West Bank, for the arrival of the 90 Palestinian prisoners who were released from Israeli custody just after 1 a.m. local time.
Israeli forces used cars and tear gas to attempt to clear the roads, ABC News reporters on the scene said.
ABC News’ team saw flash bangs where people were gathered waiting for the prisoners’ release.
Israeli Police did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment on the matter.
The prisoners were released from Ofer Prison in Ramallah, West Bank, as a part of the hostage exchange and ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.
People were seen on top of the buses waving flags and chanting as the prisoners arrived in Beitunia at approximately 1:42 a.m.
-ABC News’ Ellie Kaufman, as well as Tom Soufi Burridge and Hugo Leenhardt in the West Bank
Photos show 3 Israeli former hostages reunited with their mothers
Photos were released by Israeli officials on Sunday showing the three released hostages hugging their mothers as they were reunited.
The images showed former hostages Romi Gonen, 24; Emily Damari, 28; and Doron Steinbrecher, 31, all sharing emotional embraces with their mothers.
