Suspect in 2012 Benghazi attack arrested, DOJ says
U.S. Attorney General Pamela Bondi (C), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Kash Patel (L) and U.S. Attorney for Washington, DC Jeanine Pirro make a press announcement at the Department of Justice on February 6, 2026 in Washington, DC. Bondi announced the FBI has captured and extradited Zubayr al-Bakoush, a suspect in the 2012 attack on the US Embassy in Benghazi, Libya. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — A suspect in the 2012 terrorist attack on the U.S. embassy in Benghazi, Libya, has been arrested and brought back to the United States, Attorney General Pam Bondi said Friday.
Zubayr al-Bakoush was brought back to Andrews Air Force Base at 3 a.m., she said.
On Sept. 11, 2012, a group of men stormed into the diplomatic compound in Benghazi. Four Americans were killed in the attack.
The suspect is charged with the murder of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others, according to the U.S. attorney.
“Bakoush was first charged by complaint in 2015 which was sealed for 11 years, an indictment, an eight count indictment, has been unsealed, and it charges Bakoush with the murder of Ambassador Chris Stevens, the murder of State Department employee Sean Smith, the attempted murder of State Department Special Agent Scott Wicklund and conspiracy to provide materials for terrorists and support that resulted in the death of four Americans, as well as arson at the special mission,” U.S. Attorney Jeannine Pirro said alongside the Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
A burned and unusable car is seen as firefighters continue to extinguish the fire that broke out in a house following the Russian drone attacks on Dnipropetrovsk region of Ukraine on December 13, 2025. (State Emergency Service of Ukraine / Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — Russia targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure with missile and drone strikes in another “massive attack” Friday night into Saturday morning, Ukrainian authorities said.
“All necessary services are currently working to restore electricity and water supply in our communities affected by Russia’s overnight attack,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote in a post on X. “Once again, the main strike targeted our energy sector, the south of the country, and the Odesa region.”
Russia used almost 500 drones and missiles in a combined strike on Ukraine’s critical infrastructure facilities overnight, the Ukrainian Air Force said Saturday morning.
In total, Russia launched 465 drones as well as 30 air-, sea- and ground-based missiles. The main direction of the strike was the Odesa region, the Ukrainian Air Force confirmed.
The air force said it shot down or suppressed 417 drones and 13 missiles. However, 33 drones and eight missiles struck areas at 18 locations, while downed ones fell at three locations. An additional six missiles did not reach their targets and the places of their fall are under investigation, according to the air force.
Two people were injured in the Odesa region and thousands of families remain without electricity in the Kirovohrad, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Sumy, Kharkiv, Kherson, and Chernihiv regions, according to Zelenskyy.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Energy confirmed that the Russian drone and missile strikes targeted electricity generation, distribution and transmission facilities in the Dnipropetrovsk, Chernihiv, Odesa and Mykolaiv regions.
Customers in the Odesa, Chernihiv, Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk, Kirovohrad and Mykolaiv regions were without power as of Saturday morning, according to the ministry.
At least five people were injured in the Mykolaiv region, where all critical infrastructure facilities had to be switched to operating from generators as a result of the “massive attack,” according to Vitaliy Kim, head of the Mykolaiv Regional Military Administration.
The attack also left all traction substations without power supply in Odesa, forcing the city to temporarily suspend tram and trolleybus services, according to Serhiy Lysak, head of the Odesa City Military Administration.
(LONDON) — At least four people were killed and three others were injured as a major fire engulfed a residential apartment complex in Hong Kong’s Tai Po district on Wednesday, with photos and video from the scene appearing to show serious damage to several buildings.
“A fire broke out at Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po at 2.51 p.m. today … The fire was upgraded to No. 3 alarm at 3.02 p.m., and to No. 4 alarm at 3.34 p.m.,” according to a statement from the Hong Kong government.
By 6:22 p.m. local time the fire had been upgraded again to a No. 5 alarm, city officials said.
Officials said nine people had been transfered to two local hospitals, including four people who were pronounced dead.
Three people were in critical condition, one was in serious position and another was listed as stable, officials said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Tourist boats on the River Thames in London, UK, on Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025. UK businesses ended 2025 feeling more upbeat about the economy’s prospects after they were spared much of the tax pain at last month’s budget. (Carlos Jasso/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(LONDON) — The River Thames winds 215 miles through England, carving out the curves and bends that define much of the geography, including London’s. For centuries, the river has been called “monster soup” and the “dirty old river.”
For thirty years, Lubos Grajciarik, known online as Urban Angler Lou, has stood on its banks with a fishing rod in hand.
“Originally, I came from Slovakia… and I have fished most of my life,” he told ABC News.
He has witnessed firsthand the river’s slow transformation, from Canary Wharf’s rise to the quieter stretches upstream at Richmond and at the weir Teddington Lock.
“Yes, there is improvement,” he said. “Water is still polluted. But it is significantly lower than in previous years.”
Further improvement, and the hope for an even cleaner future, now rests on a monumental infrastructure project beneath London: the £4.5 billion, or about $6 billion, Tideway Tunnel, also known as the “super sewer.” The 25-km tunnel — the largest upgrade to London’s sewers in 150 years — is, according to its designers, intended to intercept overflows and capture waste before it reaches the river.
Four of the tunnel’s 21 gates, which are valves that are designed to stop the waste before it enters the Thames, are operational, with more to open in the coming months.
“The newly completed Tideway Tunnel will reduce the volume of discharges entering the tidal Thames in a typical year by 95%,” said a spokesperson for Thames Water, the company responsible for London’s wastewater.
Optimism from those along the riverbank appears to be supported by science. For more than half a century, the City of London Corporation has collaborated with anglers and ecologists in a citizen science project to track fish populations.
Scientists estimate that more than 100 species now inhabit the Thames, a river once declared biologically dead. In 2024, volunteers caught 122 fish across five species — bass, flounder, eel, pouting and dab.
Grajciarik said his catches reflect that resurgence. “There is a mixture of both species,” he said. “Freshwater pike and perch coexist with occasional mullets, sea bus, sea route.” The Thames, where saltwater meets fresh, has become a rare brackish habitat — alive again, yet still fragile.
But beneath the river’s revival, a darker current still runs.
“In many ways, the Thames is a much healthier ecosystem than it was. Though there are other pressures, like pharmaceuticals, chemicals, [micro]plastics, in the sewage now, against heavy metals several decades ago,” said Dr. Alexander Lipp, an Earth and environmental scientist who created Sewage Map, a platform that tracks sewage overflows in real time.
“Only 6% of the rivers and streams in the Thames basin are classed as in ‘good ecological health’ by the Environment Agency,” a spokesperson for Thames21, an environmental charity working to revive rivers in the Thames Basin, told ABC News. “The primary culprit is physical modifications (straightening, deepening or even paving over rivers), followed by sewage pollution.”
Thames Water saw serious pollution incidents more than double in 2024 — to 33 from 14 a year earlier — according to the Environment Agency’s latest report, which was released before the new “super sewer” began opening. Out of nine water companies assessed, Thames Water alone earned a one-star rating, the lowest possible.
Officials at the Environment Agency — a government agency responsible to protect and improve the environment in the U.K. — attributed the decline in the rating to a mix of factors: unusually wet and stormy weather, years of underinvestment, poor infrastructure maintenance and more rigorous monitoring.
Thames Water said that “all discharges of untreated sewage are unacceptable” in a 2023 statement.
Addressing the low ratings, a company spokesperson said in an emailed response to ABC News, that “in 2024-25, Thames Water also made a record capital investment of £2.225 billion. We know we need to further improve for our customers, community, and the environment, which is why we have embarked on the largest ever investment programme, delivering the biggest upgrade to our network in 150 years.”
Yet those promises are shadowed by debt — nearly £17 billion, or about $22.3 billion, as of March 2025 — amid the growing pressure of climate change. The company said this month that its debt had grown to nearly £20 billion and that it was negotiating with its creditors.
“Any sewage discharged into the Thames negatively affects the river, increasing nutrient loading, bacteria, and plastic pollution,” the Thames21 spokesperson said.
“Climate change is something that’s going to make this worse,” Lipp said. He explained that London’s combined sewage system, where stormwater and wastewater share the same pipes, is easily overwhelmed by heavy rain. With more intense downpours expected, spills will likely become even more frequent.
Still, Lipp noted, “I would say that Thames is better than other companies when it comes to data transparency.”
The company says long-term recovery will take patience. “Transforming Thames is a major programme of work that will take time; it will take at least a decade to achieve the scale of change required,” a spokesperson said.
“I can see the people taking more responsibility for our waters,” said Grajciarik, the fisherman. He often reports oil from nearby boats or sewage spills to the U.K.’s Environment Agency’s hotline number.
But whether the massive investments and new infrastructure will be enough remains uncertain.
