South braces for severe weather including flash flooding
ABC News
(NEW YORK) — A storm is bearing down on the southern Plains and Texas, where residents are bracing for severe weather, including flash flooding.
On Wednesday evening, when the storm moves in, there’s a chance for damaging winds, hail and even an isolated tornado in Texas.
On Thursday, the storm will fully blossom in the South, bringing the threat of tornadoes and damaging winds from Houston to Jackson, Mississippi.
Flash flooding could be an issue from Dallas to Little Rock, Arkansas, to Memphis, Tennessee, to Paducah, Kentucky.
A flood watch has been issued for three states — Oklahoma, Arkansas and Missouri — where some areas could see up to 5 inches of rain from Wednesday night to Thursday night.
The same storm system will move into the Northeast on Friday, bringing rain to the Interstate 95 corridor and the potential for ice and snow to higher elevations in Pennsylvania, New York and New England.
(WASHINGTON) — More than 100 intelligence community employees will be terminated and have their security clearances revoked as the intelligence community investigates group chats that allegedly discussed explicit behavior, officials said.
The chats, which were hosted on a chat system for the intelligence community that was maintained by the National Security Agency, took place on a secure intranet called Intelink in two server channels titled “LBTQA” and “IC_Pride_TWG,” according to intelligence community officials.
“This behavior is unacceptable and those involved WILL be held accountable,” Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard posted on X.
She said the “disgusting chat groups” were immediately shut down when President Donald Trump issued his executive order ending diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in the federal government, which she called the “DEI insanity the Biden Admin was obsessed with.”
“Our IC must be focused on our core mission: ensuring the safety, security, and freedom of the American people,” Gabbard said.
Deputy Chief of Staff Alexa Henning said in a post on X Tuesday evening, “The DNI sent a memo directing all intelligence agencies to identify the employees who participated in the NSA’s ‘obscene, pornographic, and sexually explicit’ chatrooms and to terminate their employment and revoke their security clearances. Deadline: Friday.”
Gabbard, in an interview on Fox News, said on Tuesday: “There are over 100 people from across the intelligence community that contributed to and participated in this — what is really just an egregious violation of trust, what to speak of, like, basic rules and standards around professionalism. I put out a directive today that they all will be terminated and their security clearances will be revoked.”
Gabbard added: “Today’s action in holding these individuals accountable is just the beginning of what we’re seeing across the Trump administration, which is carrying out the mandate the American people gave him: Clean house, root out that rot and corruption and weaponization and politicization, so we can start to rebuild that trust in these institutions that are charged with an important mission of serving the American people, ensuring our safety, security and freedom.”
The chat conversations were first reported by the conservative magazine City Journal.
(TAMPA, Fla.) — One pedestrian was killed and several pedestrians and officers were hurt by a driver who allegedly drove into people in multiple intentional hit-and-runs in Tampa, Florida, Sunday night, police said.
“Tonight was a tragic night involving an extremely dangerous suspect” who was fatally shot by police, ending the “violent rampage,” Tampa Police Chief Lee Bercaw said at a news conference.
The incidents began just before 8:30 p.m. when officers responded to a report of a driver blocking someone’s car at a Dollar General, Bercaw said.
The two drivers argued and eventually the victim left, the chief said. Then, the victim noticed the suspect was following him to his house, and the two drivers threw items at each other, Bercaw said.
The suspect then “reversed out, hitting the victim with the car twice,” the chief said. “While this was happening, a friend of the victim was firing at the suspect in an attempt to stop this violent act.”
That first victim was listed in stable condition, the chief said.
At 8:33 p.m., the suspect drove his white Honda in circles and then struck and killed a man in an apparently intentional act, police said.
The suspect fled and then struck another pedestrian, who survived, police said.
At 8:39 p.m., the suspect was seen driving toward pedestrians on a sidewalk, police said. The driver struck another man who was hospitalized with serious head injuries but is expected to be OK, Bercaw said.
At 10:16 p.m., another call came in reporting that the driver intentionally veered into people, striking another person, Bercaw said.
Police chased the suspect and eventually stopped his car, Bercaw said.
“The suspect was getting out of the car, reaching for what [officers] believed was a weapon, and then shots were fired,” Bercaw said. “The suspect did not survive.”
Three officers were injured in that incident; none of their injuries are life-threatening, Bercaw said.
The 47-year-old suspect, whose name was not released, had an “extensive violent criminal history” and was released from prison about two years ago, the chief said.
“This was a violent night,” the chief said.
“Our thoughts are with the family of the man who was killed,” he added.
Kim Jae-Hwan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
(SEOUL and LONDON) — North Korea fired “multiple” ballistic missiles on Monday, according to South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, as U.S.-South Korea war games began nearby.
The missiles, which were “unidentified,” were fired from the North’s Hwanghae Province at about 1:50 p.m. local time, the South Korean military said. They were aimed inland, toward the West Sea.
The South Korean military “has increased surveillance and maintaining readiness posture in close cooperation with the U.S.,” the Joint Chiefs said.
The annual U.S.-South Korea joint exercises, which are known as “Freedom Shield,” were scheduled to begin Monday and run through March 21, according to the U.S. Army.
The training alongside South Korean soldiers will include urban combat, field hospital operations, field artillery exercises, air assault training and air defenses, the Army said in a statement on Monday. The U.S. Marine Corps is also expected to take part in a joint assault exercise.
North Korea’s Foreign Ministry described the planned exercises as “aggressive,” with officials telling state media on Sunday that the “U.S. random exercise of strength will result in aggravated security crisis.”
“This is a dangerous provocative act of leading the acute situation on the Korean peninsula, which may spark off a physical conflict between the two sides by means of an accidental single shot, to the extreme point,” the ministry said in a statement to the Korean Central New Agency on Sunday.
ABC News’ Somayeh Malekian contributed to this report.
