ABC World News Tonight with David Muir Full Broadcast - April 20, 2025

Tonight, Breaking News, sources tell ABC News the Defense. Secretary Pete Hankseth shared sensitive military details. about the Yemen attacks in a second signal lap chat. Severe weather slams the nation's heartland. Millions are on alert for potential flash. flooding, and Pope Francis surprises the faithful. on this Easter Sunday. First two sources confirmed to ABC News that Hankseth created. a signal chat group in which She discussed the attacks. on Houthi Rebels in March. In that group, his wife, a former Fox News producer,

his brother, who works at the Defense Department, and his personal attorney. There were 12 people in all. The chat group occurred at about the same time. as the info in the first signal chat group. that included a reporter from the Atlantic. This comes just days after three top officials at DOD. were fired. The dangerous weather slamming several states. severe thunderstorms heavy rain multiple tornadoes reported. Over night at least three people were killed in Oklahoma as. much as six inches of rain in the forecast with flood. alerts from Texas to Illinois.

Our weather team is standing by. The legal fight over deportations. reaches a new level. Justice Samuel Alito calls the Supreme Court's rare late-night. ruling that put a halt to White House efforts to remove. Venezuelans, unprecedented and legally questionable. Alito and Thomas are the only two justices who dissented. The Trump administration's latest move in the case, as Senator Van Hollen speaks out after his visit. with the wrongly deported migrant Kilmarra. Braco Garcia. Why Van Hollen says the case is so important. Selena Wang reports from the White House.

Ukraine accuses Russia of trying to create. the impression of a ceasefire, but then failing. to honor the truth. And where things stand on US-led peace effort. Better investigators are on the scene. of a deadly small plane crash in Illinois, what. we're learning after a string of fatal incidents. One of the world's largest global shipping carriers, DHL, suspends some shipments from China to the. U.S., blaming new American customs rules. More states report their first. cases of measles this this year as infections.

nationwide continue to rise. Terrifying close call on a sidewalk just outside New York. city when a manhole cover explodes. And Pope Francis reads thousands of the faithful on this. Easter Sunday. A surprise for those lining the streets of. the Vatican. His message to the world. >> From ABC News World Headquarters in New York. This is World News Tonight. Good evening, everyone. Thanks so much for joining us on this Easter Sunday.

I'm Lindsay Davis. We begin tonight with breaking news just coming in. So, we're to say Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is said to. have shared sensitive details about the striking Yemen. targeting Houthis in a second signal group. chat on March 15th that included his wife and. brother among others. This comes just weeks after Hegseth and officials. mistakenly added an editor from the Atlantic. to a group chat. Let's bring it ABC's Alex, appreciate Alex. What's the latest that you're. learning tonight? Lindsey tonight two sources confirmed to ABC news that.

report by the New York Times that Defense Secretary. Pete Hickseth shared military operation. details to a group chat of family and friends. titled defense team Huddled in this private. signal chat that included his wife, brother. and personal lawyer, the Defense Secretary. shared specifics, including flight schedules. of a strike in Yemen targeting Houthis back in March. The Secretary's brother Phil and his lawyer, Tim Parlatore, both have jobs at the Pentagon. Hexath's wife is not a Defense Department employee,

and none of them have any apparent reason. to be briefed on military operations. This information, reportedly shared, is essentially the same attack plans. He posts he posted in a separate signal chat. that included the editor of the Atlantic. But unlike that chat, this one was created by Secretary. Hegg Seth, and he reportedly used his private phone. rather than his government one to access that chat. Now, Lindsey tonight, ABC News has reached out. to the National Security Council. Also, the White House, we have not heard back yet. for comments, but this is certainly.

to raise questions about security protocol. Lindsey, that is definitely the case. Alex, thank you. Now to tornadoes and severe storms slamming. the midwest, more than 12 million people on alert. as that storm system now moves east. Overnight, a woman and a 12-year-old boy died after flood. water swept their car away in Oklahoma. A devastating trail of destruction, reminders. of what once was across several states, reports. of more than a dozen tornadoes in northern Texas and southern. Oklahoma just in the past 24 hours.

sirens blared and lightning flashed as the dangerous. weather rips through southern Oklahoma. Here's ABC's Morgan, Norwood. Tonight the dangerous weather events slamming the heartland. during the busy holiday weekend. More than 12 million under the threat of severe. weather as that storm moves east. More than a dozen reported tornadoes in. northern Texas and southern In the past 24 hours, the area. also seemed deadly flooding. One killed and spalled Oklahoma after a tornado. touched down their last night, two others injured.

Flash flooding, killing two people after a car was. swept away in more Oklahoma. The system hitting the area with another round. of torrential rain. Both vehicles were submerged in water completely above. the tops of the vehicles. authorities say the bodies of a mother and son 44 year old. Erica lots and 12 year old rivers bond were recovered. three others rescued from the flooding. In Ada just south of Oklahoma. city a tornado hitting this shopping mall mangling. the inside of this woman's clothing store. Billboards destroyed and trees downed in the.

wake of those storms. Look at it coming down. in central Texas multiple suspected tornadoes touching. down this funnel cloud swirling over Barnhart. another over Mertzen resident west of Fort Worth and. wetted for Texas taking a chainsaw to the debris. to clear the roads those severe storms tearing. apart the roofs of these houses this piece of. navigation equipment blown away this man's. home destroyed and Lindsey the weather is not just.

storms anymore. Arkansas and Missouri now on alert for. dangerous flash flooding. Lindsay, not other woods just yet Morgan. Thank you. Let's bring in meteorologist Danny. Beckstrom with our New York station. W ABC Danny. Give us a sense of just how long this. dangerous weather will continue. The flood threat and tornado risk continue through sunset. tonight, Lindsay in the Central US, but this is the. final push in this unrelenting stretch of severe weather. Let's get right to the radar where we see that strong line. of storms, exit Oklahoma and Texas, producing flash flooding.

right now as it moves east. This line brings heavy rain from northern Louisiana to southern. Illinois tonight, with the greatest threat for flooding. downpours, damaging wind gusts, large hail and tornadoes, and. Missouri and Arkansas through 7 p.m. local time. Heavy rain then moves into the Great Lakes overnight, with. the line weakening as it tracks east tomorrow to just. scattered showers for the I-95 corridor Monday night. The weather story then shifts to widespread spring warmth. heading into the work week as above average temperature is. settling east to the Rockies and it looks like this warm weather. pattern holds through the end of April.

Lindsey. We will enjoy that for now. Danny, thank you. Now to the other major news this Easter Sunday. Justice Samuel Alito issued a blistering descent. to the Supreme Court's decision temporarily. blocking the Trump administration from deporting. a group of Venezuelan migrants. Lido is calling it quote, "unprecedented and legally. questionable relief.". Here's ABC's Senior White House correspondent, Selina Wang. Tonight, the battle between the White House and the courts, the Trump administration asking the Supreme Court to. roll back its decision to block the deportation.

of Venezuelan migrants they accuse of. being gang members. overnight, Justice's Samuel Alito and Clarence. Thomas releasing their descent, calling the. overnight order from their colleagues, unprecedented and. legally questionable relief. The migrants are being held in a detention center in Texas. under the Alien Enemies Act, a centuries-old wartime. law that provides little or no due process. that extraordinary order blocking their. deportation coming from the highest court shortly.

after midnight on Saturday morning, responding to an. emergency appeal from the ACLU. "You're unilaterally claiming that people are members of. a gang, but not giving them the opportunity to go into. court and show they're not.". When ABC News asked the Department of Homeland. Security for a response, a spokesperson said, "Why does ABC News continue to do the bidding of criminal gang. members over their American in victims. We have followed the Constitution. We have followed the law. I am confident that everything we've done is followed the.

law within the Constitutional Constructs. Absolutely. The administration. also invokes the Alien Enemies Act and march to. deport more than 200 Venezuelan migrants to the notorious. Secot Prison in El Salvador. Among them, Kilmarra-Bregal Garcia, As Salvadorian father living in Maryland, sent there because of what the government later admitted. was an administrative error. But the Trump administration now saying. they have no plans to return him home, despite the Supreme Court ordering them.

to facilitate his release. Even some Republicans are criticizing the move. - It was a screw up and I understand. why the administration has bowed up. and said we wanted to admit it to some state. because if they do, they'll have their fruits torn out. But it was a screw up. Maryland Senator Chris Van Holland traveled to a Salvador. to meet a Brigha Garcia. The White House attacking him for sympathizing with the man. they claim is part of the MS-13 gang, despite providing no evidence of an alleged association.

to the courts. He has no criminal convictions, and his family. did nice the allegations. Ben Holland sitting down with our own John Carl to explain. why this case is about more than just one man. "My mission and my purpose is to make sure that we uphold. the rule of law because if we take it away from him, we do jeopardize it for everybody else.". And Lindsay the White House says they're confident they'll. prevail against what they're calling "maritalist litigation.". And it's yet another busy week ahead for the.

Trump administration and the courts with. multiple hearing scheduled focus on the use of. the Alien Enemies Act. Lindsey Selina Wang from the White House, Forest Thank You. Overseas now to Easter celebrations at the Vatican. Pope Francis made a surprise appearance at St. Peter. Square greeting the faithful. The 88-year-old has reduced his workload after a. life-threatening battle with double pneumonia. He did not preside over Easter services. The Pope also briefly met with Vice President JD Vance. the city of New York. The city of New York is The city of New York is.

a part of the city of New York. The city of New York is a York. The city of New York is a part of the city of New York. The city of New York is a part of the city of New York. The city of New York is a part The city of New York is a part. of the city of New York. The city of New York is a part And you can hear. applause as he appeared. He spokes awfully and only introduced his message. before the Master of Ceremonies recited the text. In it, the Pope calling for peace around the world.

and acknowledging the violent conflicts. that have displaced millions from their homes. He asked for acceptance of migrants around the world. And after blessing the crowd, Pope Francis. boarded the Pope-mobile. - We're just outside the Vatican gates. and you can see the crowd rushing. as Pope Francis passes by on the Pope's mobile, the thousands of faithful who have gathered here. on the Vatican to mark Easter Holy Week. On Saturday, Pope Francis made an unannounced visit. to St. Peter's Basilica, where he prayed at St. Peter's tomb. He also greeted pilgrims who were there. The Pope's appearances during Holy Week.

come after he spent weeks battling pneumonia at Rome's. Jamelli Hospital. His health journey this year leading to questions. about whether he would be well enough for this week. In the end, he did participate and also met privately with. Vice President J. D. Vance, who was visiting Rome during. Holy Week with his family. The Vatican press office says the two met for several minutes. and exchanged Easter greetings. In a post on X, the Vice President writing in part quote, "It was an honor to be in Rome on this Holy Week.". Lindsey, the Pope's appearance comes despite his many health.

challenges, including a recovery from pneumonia. But it perhaps gives you some sense of how much he really. wanted to participate in Holy week and hopefully have. some impact on this Easter. Lindsey. Marcus Moore from Vatican City. Thank you. Now to the war in Ukraine, that so-called "truths" is now over. Both sides are accusing the other of breaking. what was supposed to be a 30-hour pause in. fighting. President Zelensky says Russia. violated its own ceasefire more than 2,000 times. Back here in the U.S., another deadly small plane crash.

a single engine sessna crash into a field in central. Illinois killing four people. Federal investigators are on the scene preliminary. reports indicate the plane struck power lines. Here's ABC's arena Roy. Tonight, an urgent investigation underway after a single engine. plane with four people on board came crashing down just. miles from the airport. the NTSB says the Cessna 180 struck multiple power lines. before plunging into this field in Colt County, Illinois.

"Battle, plucking crash. This is the source of the prolet, on the casualty.". Smoke billowing into the air, police rushing to the scene. Investigators sifting through what's left of the aircraft. You can see the mangled metal and char debris. officials say two men and two women from Wisconsin were. on board, all four pronounced dead at the scene. "There are zero survivors, four or five families.". The tragedy comes just one day after another. deadly crash in Fremont, Nebraska, also involving. a Cessna 180.

Authorities say the aircraft plunged into. a river Friday night, killing all three on board. So far this year there have been nearly 300 plane accidents. more than 50 of them fatal. Lindsay, NTSB data shows fatal crashes are actually down over. 20 percent compared to the same time last year. Investigators are now on scene at both crash. sites looking into what exactly happened with these accidents. Lindsay. Reena, thank you. Next tonight is the number of measles. cases in the U.

S. Climes to 800 and several states. are now reporting their first cases of the year. Many of those infected are unvaccinated or their. status is unknown. More now from ABC Zareen Shah. Tonight the number of measles cases. around the country growing to alarming rates. Three states reporting their first. cases this year over the weekend. Louisiana, Missouri and Virginia with. a total of 800 cases now reported. across 27 states. In Texas alone, nearly 600 reported.

cases nearly tripled the number of last year. Two children, both unvaccinated, have died. from the highly contagious measles virus in Texas. this year. A third death is under investigation. in New Mexico. Texas mom, Michelle Gordon, picking strides to protect her 10-month-old son, Walker. It's really important to me to protect him. So I tried to get in here as quick as I could. to give him some protection because it's scary. I mean, two children have died, you know?

So I don't want that to be mine. - 96% of the cases are with people who were unvaccinated. or haven't unknown vaccination status. Most of them children younger than 19. Some health officials are urging children. and harder hit parts of the country to get the vaccine. at six months old instead of one year old as the. outbreak spreads. The MMR vaccine is the best way to. stop measles and stop putting our. kids in the hospital. There are no specific treatments for measles. There are no antivirals.

If cases continue on this trend, the country is expected to see. the most number of measles cases since 1992. Lindsay. Wow. Alright, Zareen. Thank you. The International Shipping Company. DHL says it is suspending some shipments from China to. the U.S. starting tomorrow. The move affects business to consumer shipments. worth more than $800. The company blames new U.S. Customs Rules. DHL says business shipments are not being halted, but. they could face delays. Anything less than $800 is not being impacted.

There's still much more ahead on world news tonight this Sunday. Dozens of officers converge on a supermarket in eastern Texas, a man with a gun firing from inside. details just ahead. And the terrifying close. call on a sidewalk just outside New York City, what officials think happened? Next tonight, an hours-long standoff at a grocery store in. eastern Texas is reportedly over with a suspect in custody. Dozens of first responders converged on the store. in Jackson, Texas, after reports this.

morning of shots fired. Authorities say a man with a gun was intermittently. firing off rounds. It does not appear anyone was injured. A scary scene outside New York City. Several manhole covers suddenly exploded. without warning. One nearly missed someone pushing a. stroller. No one was hurt. Officials found high levels of carbon monoxide in. several buildings nearby. The area was evacuated until the gas levels could be mitigated. When we come back, a big happy birthday for an American. astronaut after months on the International.

Space Station. To the index now, NASA's oldest serving astronauts. celebrated his 70th birthday today with a return. to Earth. Don Pettit and two Russian cosmonauts. parachuting to a landing in Kazakhstan after seven. months aboard the International Space Station. This was Pettit's fourth mission. He spent 595 days in space. It became an astronaut in 1996. At a winning overtime for Team USA over Canada.

to win the Women's World Championship, Penn State Star forward, Tessah Jeneke. scored the game winning goal with just under three. minutes left in the period to take home the gold medal. Team USA outscoring its opponent 23 to three. in the tournament. And when we come back, the big reveal. from the dark side of the force. Finally tonight, the force was with them. As Star Wars fans convened in Japan, learning some big surprises.

You might call it revenge of the sick. There's not much that I can share, but Anakin will be back for season two. >> And it can sky walk for himself. Hayden Christiansen turning the crowds to the. dark side revealing he will return for the next season of. a soka starring Rosario Doss. >> When you went to pick up the lightsaber again, were. you immediately just like old friend you could do this again?

>> I kept a couple of the lightsabers from my prequel. days and every now and then I'd pick it up and give it a spin. for fans what you can feel be most surprised. about in this season. - Well, it's not a lot. I can share about season two. Yeah, I know we're very tight-lipped about this stuff. 'Cause we want it to be a surprise for the fans. when they watch it, but just the scope and scale. of season two I think is gonna be pretty epic. - Reading the scripts that you've got,

you can't give any secrets away. I also don't even have all the scripts, so I don't even know how it ends. Is there anything that surprised you so far? Zab's gonna be on our show, which I was so excited about. And you know, that Hayden's coming back. From the anticipation of new storylines. to the end of another journey, the cast of Andor emotional. as they debut their final season. - It's emotional because it's been a very intense journey. - If it goes up in the flames, it will burn.

We wanted to connect with this community that cares. about what we're doing because the story matters to us. What are they going to see from you this season? It'll be an opportunity to see how I was born, where. my character came from. And a little bit of who he was probably before. He was the K-2 that you know. And I'll just leave it there. building on the intrigue, our thanks to Eva Pilgrim. Do you have any in the morning, David, and. you're back here tomorrow? Good night.