ABC World News Tonight with David Muir Full Broadcast - March 4, 2026

David Muir, ABC's World News Tonight, America's most watched newscast. Now streaming same day with all the breaking news of the day on Disney plus. Most watched, most trusted now on Disney plus every night.

Tonight, the breaking news here, a U.S. submarine sinking an Iranian warship. The dramatic images tonight showing a U.S. fast attack submarine for the first time since World War II firing a torpedo to sink an Iranian warship, 180 on board, sinking in the Indian Ocean. Tonight, the Pentagon says it has struck or sunk more than 20 ships from Iran.

With the war widening, tonight thousands of Americans stranded trying to get out. Nearly a dozen nations pulled into this war. Retaliation from Iran. Tonight, a. fighter jet shooting down an Iranian drone over Jordan and the Pentagon now saying the Iranian mastermind behind a 2024 plot to assassinate Donald Trump has been killed. Ian panel standing by live from the region tonight, those trapped Americans trying to get out more than 20,000

flights in the region canceled. Authorities say some Americans now driving to other countries. A commercial flight seen taking off amid smoke coming from an Israeli airstrike. James Longman in Iraq. Tonight, the American service members lost. The Army reservists killed in Kuwait now identified.

The family of 20-year-old Sergeant Declan Cody learning he had died. Tonight, his sister here describing the moment she heard the doorbell ring. Martha Raddatz from the region as well. At the White House tonight, President Trump grading the U.S. military operation so far on a scale of 1 to 10. He says it's a 15. Tonight, Senate Democrats are trying to force a War powers vote to restrict further military action without congressional approval. The other news

tonight, the plane crashing into the backyard of a home just missing a baby's room. The pilot was trying to circle back moments after takeoff. We're also tracking severe storms across multiple states at this hour. Thunderstorms, possible tornadoes, heavy rain and ice in the northeast and right behind it. Record warmth tonight here, we remember a college football icon, Lou Holtz, the legendary leader of Notre Dame's fighting Irish and a major

recall expanding tonight. There is potential for glass found in rice and we'll have the recall right here from ABC News World headquarters in New York, this is World News Tonight with David Muir. Good evening. We begin tonight with the breaking news on the war in Iran, the war widening. Tonight, the Pentagon saying we're just getting started and striking deeper into Iran. And tonight, a U.S. submarine sinking an Iranian warship.

Tonight, the Pentagon releasing extraordinary images showing a U.S. submarine sinking an Iranian warship. Tonight the Pentagon releasing extraordinary images showing a U.S. fast-attack submarine for the first time since World War II firing a torpedo to sink an Iranian warship, 180 on board, sinking in the Indian Ocean. At least 32 Iranian sailors rescued. Tonight U.S. Central Command reporting more than 20 Iranian ships have been struck or sunk. Iran's retaliation across the region drawing more than a dozen nations into this conflict. A UK fighter jet shooting

down an Iranian drone over Jordan. NATO intercepting a missile over Syria headed for Turkey. An image showing a man standing near an unexploded missile near the airport in northeastern Syria. More explosions reported in Tehran, meanwhile. Secretary Pete Hegseth revealing the mastermind behind the 2024 plot to assassinate Donald Trump has been killed.

And tonight we're learning more about the Army Reservists killed during an Iranian attack in Kuwait. The Americans. Sergeant First Class Nicola Moore was just days away from returning home to her husband and two children. 20-year-old Sergeant Declan Cody described as the rock of his family.

Tonight, his sister right here describing the moment the doorbell rang. ABC's chief foreign correspondent Ian Pannel leading us off from the region again tonight.

Tonight, the war with Iran rapidly expanding. For the first time since World War II, the US Navy sinking an enemy ship with a torpedo fired from a fast attack submarine. Extraordinary video from the periscope of that American sub showing the massive explosion before the Iranian warship with 180 people on board sank to the bottom of the Indian Ocean.

America is winning decisively, devastatingly and without mercy.

The torpedo attack happened off the coast of Sri Lanka. Authorities that recovering dozens of bodies saying only 32 people were rescued that ship one of at least 20 Iranian Navy vessels, the U.S. says it's destroyed. Tonight, the Trump administration claiming us and Israeli forces control the sea and the skies over Iran president Trump saying the U.S. and Israeli forces control the sea and the skies over

Iran. President Trump saying the U.S. is in a very strong position.

We're in very good shape now. I want to let you know that and we will continue forward. But it's a great display of military strength.

The Pentagon saying there are now more than 50,000 troops in the Middle East with more on the way. The U.S. now set to strike deeper into Iranian territory.

More and larger waves are coming. We are just getting started. We are accelerating, not decelerating. Iran's capabilities are evaporating by the hour, while American strength grows fiercer, smarter, and utterly dominant.

With officials revealing the current operation has delivered twice the air power of the shock and awe campaign of Iraq in 2003. Tonight the Pentagon downplaying concerns

US missile stockpiles could run low if the war drags on. We have sufficient precision munitions for the task at hand both on the offense and defense. I appreciate the interest but just know that we consider

that an operational security matter. There are also questions tonight about the number of U.S. interceptors across the Middle East being used by multiple countries to try to block these Iranian missiles and drones. Will the interceptors last? Because military officials say it takes two or three of them to shoot down just one Iranian ballistic missile. And experts predict Iran had a stockpile of more than 2,000. Tonight, Iran launching a new wave of strikes across the Gulf. A UK fighter jet shooting down an Iranian drone over Jordan.

NATO saying it intercepted an Iranian ballistic missile over Syria that was heading for Turkey, as images emerge of an Iranian missile that slammed into a Syrian field. But US and Israeli officials say the Iranian attacks have slowed down. And from inside Iran, a harrowing account from a young anti-government activist in Tehran,

bravely speaking out, we're not naming her to protect her identity.

It is very, very dangerous outside. Everybody from the regime has the gun. Most of them are very ugly and furious and they have free will to shoot everybody. They don't think about anything.

She says people are happy the supreme leader's dead, but worried the war will stop before the regime is gone. The Red Crescent reporting over 1,000 deaths with Iranian officials expected to elect a new supreme leader. One potential candidate, Ayatollah Khamenei's own son, Mujtaba, a hardliner likely to stick

to his father's legacy, according to Iranian officials familiar with the deliberations. Israel's defense minister warning if Iran's new leader followed the same path as Khamenei, he would become an unequivocal target for elimination. Tonight, the US confirming the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Commander, identified as the mastermind behind the 2024 plot to assassinate President Trump, has also been killed.

The leader of the unit who attempted to assassinate President Trump has been hunted down and killed. Iran tried to kill President Trump,

and President Trump got the last laugh. And so let's bring in Ian Pannel with us live from Tel Aviv again tonight. And Ian, we've taken viewers here on these U.S. submarines before. We were on the USS Florida in the eastern Mediterranean as it prepared for a highly classified mission. At the time, we saw the extraordinary firepower these submarines have, those torpedoes on

board. We've not seen a deadly torpedo attack since 1945. The Pentagon tonight saying it was a Mark 48 torpedo they fired at that Iranian warship.

Yeah, that's right, David. The Pentagon saying it was the same type of torpedo that you saw and used with devastating firepower. So many Iranian sailors killed in that attack. And I think it shows the lens to which the U.S. is prepared to go to crush Iran's military

capabilities.

David. Ian Pannel leading us off here again tonight. Ian, thank you. Meantime, tonight, the thousands of trapped Americans trying to get out. More than 20,000 flights across the region cancelled since the military operation began. Tonight authorities now say some Americans are now trying to drive through all of this

to other countries to try to get out. Here's our chief international correspondent James longman from Iraq.

Tonight the U.S. is scrambling to mobilize military aircraft for Americans stranded in the Middle East as Iranian drones and missiles crisscross the region. Commercial airspace in one of the busiest corridors in the world has ground to a halt. More than 20,000 flights have been canceled since the conflict began. Thousands of citizens spread out across 14 countries pleading for help.

My fourth day of being stuck in the hotel.

I'm so like ready to go home, y'all.

I am mentally exhausted. So basically the way the days look is we are constantly running multitudes of scenarios.

Panicked passengers stuck on cruise ships, more sheltering in place in hotel rooms. Our Marcus Moore is in Doha and met Ryan Blackman from Texas, who's hoping to get home to his wife and three kids.

I have hopes that every day is gonna be the last day, you know, that I'll be here and ultimately get to go back home.

Some are making the dangerous drive to other countries just to get out. We are passing the border to get out of Kuwait finally. There's hundreds of thousands of US citizens living in the Middle East, and with weeks of military build-up, there are now questions about an apparent lack of planning. The State Department says they are actively securing planes and chartering flights,

urging citizens to call this hotline for immediate assistance, a recorded message saying...

The US has committed to helping US citizens who want to leave the region to do so.

And asking callers to stay on the line. Some flights are taking off with air strikes around them. This one leaving Beirut amid the smoke from an Israeli air strike. The race to get out comes as the war expands on multiple fronts. Israeli forces are already targeting Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed proxy, in Lebanon. And tonight, a whole new dimension is emerging, that the US may be arming Iranian Kurds to fight a ground war.

I met exclusively with one of their leaders. You will know that many Americans will be watching the developments here, very worried about getting involved in another forever war, another war that never seems to end. What would you say to Americans watching now, worried that their government is getting involved? I think the USA owes the Iranian people a country, he

says. And I got the sense from that Iranian opposition leader, David, that he is hoping for American help to launch a ground invasion. And if that happens, it totally changes the dynamic of this war. The State Department says 17,000

Americans have been rescued from the region. David watching this tonight on multiple fronts. James Longman in Iraq. Forest James, thank you. Tonight we are learning more about the American service members who have been killed in this war. The Army Reservists killed in an Iranian attack on Kuwait. Among them 20 year old Sergeant Declan Cody his sister right here tonight describing the moment she heard the doorbell ring. Martha Raddatz also in the region tonight.

Tonight we are learning more about the first American soldiers who were killed in that Iranian drone strike in Kuwait.

I still don't fully think it's real. I didn't think it was real when they told us.

Sergeant Declan Cody was from Des Moines and just 20 years old. His sister Kira recalling the moment the doorbell rang and she got the news.

I just really wish I got to tell my love him one more time because he was just so amazing.

He had just been recommended for a promotion from specialist to sergeant. He was promoted posthumously. 39-year-old Sergeant First Class Nicola Moore, a mother of two, was just days away from returning to her family in White Bear Lake, Minnesota. Husband Joey spoke to her just two hours before she was killed, telling the AP, you don't go to Kuwait thinking something's going to happen.

42-year-old Sergeant First Class Noah Tietjens, a father to a teenage son, had just three months left on his tour. His twin brother Nicholas telling the New York Times he just wanted to get there and get it over with and get back. John Coleman served alongside Tietjens.

You could call him day or night. He always took the time. You know, he made you feel important. And that's hard to find sometimes in the military.

Captain Cody Cork's family says the 35-year-old lived with purpose, loved deeply and served honorably. Childhood friend Chase Smith.

He's just all around good dude. You know, nobody would have thought in a

million years. Late tonight, the Pentagon identified two other soldiers killed in that Iranian drone attack in Kuwait. Major Jeffrey R. O'Brien, 45 of Indianola, Iowa and Chief Warrant Officer three Robert Marzan, 54 of Sacramento, California. And David, President Trump will be there for the dignified transfer of the soldiers' remains at Dover Air Force Base, but the president has said these may not be the last American

service members killed in this war.

David? Martha Raddatz from Tel Aviv tonight. Martha, thank you. Meantime, at the White House tonight, President Trump grading the U.S. military operation so far on a scale of one to 10. He says it's a 15.

Late today, Senate Democrats trying to force a War Powers vote to restrict further military action without congressional approval. Mary Bruce now at the White House.

Tonight, five days into the war with Iran, President Trump giving the American operation a glowing

grade.

We're doing very well on the war front, to put it mildly, I would say. Somebody said on a scale of 10, where would you rate it? I said about a 15.

But Democrats furious, Trump went to war without congressional approval as required by the Constitution.

The power to declare war is ours. If we give it up, then we are turning our back on the Constitution and our responsibility to the American people.

Today, Democrats trying to force a war powers vote to prevent further US military action

without congressional approval.

The motion to discharge is not approved.

But Republicans blocked it.

You don't have to authorize military operations. They can go on as long as the president wants them to go on until you cut off funding.

David, Republicans adamant that the president doesn't need congressional authorization. In fact,

the House speaker claiming this isn't a war at all, but the president calling it exactly that.

David. Mary Bruce live at the White House tonight. Mary, thank you. Now to the first major primary in this midterm election year, the Senate showdown in Texas. Democrats tonight hopeful they might have a chance in Texas, pointing to turnout last night. On the Republican side, quite a political battle ahead,

and here's Jonathan Karl.

Tonight, Democrats see an opening in deep red Texas. State lawmaker James Tallarico, Tonight, Democrats see an opening in deep red Texas.

State lawmaker James Tallarico, an aspiring Presbyterian minister, defeated Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett in the primary to become the Democratic candidate for Senate. Tallarico is running against what he calls the politics of division, emphasizing compassion. Now, I notice you don't talk about Trump very much, at least in your ads.

It's not like much of a factor. Why is that? Well, aren't we all tired of talking about Donald Trump?

It's been 10 years. I want to talk about something else

The president is front and center in the Republican Senate primary where incumbent John Cornyn is facing a bruising Run-off against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. I refuse to allow a flawed

self-centered and shameless candidate like Ken Paxton risk everything we've worked so hard to build over these many years.

Paxton accuses Cornyn of being disloyal to President Trump.

For too long, he stabbed our president in the back by trying to derail his presidential campaigns.

Now, Trump hasn't endorsed either of these candidates, but now that it's going to a runoff, He stabbed our president in the back by trying to derail his presidential campaigns.

Now Trump hasn't endorsed either of these candidates, but now that it's going to a run off, he says he will, posting on social media, quote, I will be making my endorsement soon and will be asking the candidate that I don't endorse to immediately drop out of the race.

David, we'll see if that happens.

A lot of fireworks still to come, John Karl, thank you. When we come back tonight, the plane crashing into the backyard of a home, that plane just missing a baby's room and what the pilot was doing just moments before. We also have a major recall now expanding tonight. There's potential for glass found in rice.

Tonight here, we remember a college football icon, Lou Holtz, the legendary leader of Notre Dame's fighting Irish and 43 days missing what it took to find this dog. This was quite something. Well, a much more in a moment here. Don't go away. Tonight, the plane crashing into a backyard in Phoenix, just missing a

baby's room, two people on board the plane and a person on the ground, all in stable condition. Tonight, the pilot had been trying to circle back just after takeoff tonight. Severe weather in the heartland, severe storms from northeastern Texas to southwestern Indiana tomorrow into Friday. Heavy rain and ice in the northeast. That severe weather, by the way, expanding from Oklahoma to Iowa in the east record warmth, though, by the end of the week, when we come back

tonight, that major recall expanding concerns over glass and we remember a college football icon To the index, a recall expanding to include more Trader Joe's frozen products,

now including more frozen meals with fried rice.

Amid concern, they may be contaminated with glass.

We have much more on our website tonight.

Legendary college football coach Lou Holtz has died.

He coached Notre Dame from 1986 to 1996, winning 100 games in the time,

a national championship in 88, inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame. Lou Holtz was 89 when we come back tonight, 43 days missing and what they put out to try to bring the dog home and you'll see it finally tonight here, the longest 43 days for one couple and then one very happy dog tonight in Summit County, Colorado near Breckenridge the incredible rescue of a beloved dog after 43 days, 11 year-old rocky a

boxer lab mix ran off into the Rocky Mountains during a pit stop amid a cross country move to California. Owner Stephen Ma devastated searching for hours and snowstorm with his partner Kate eventually reaching out to the nonprofit summit lost pet rescue. Founders Brandon Chulo and Melissa Davis jumping into action for more than a decade

now their nonprofit helping families find lost pets after 3 days of searching in subzero temperatures, the team got word of a sighting giving them hope but then nothing for 40 more days until a second sighting they set up a crate nearby with Stephen's clothes inside. And three hours later.

Rocky boy.

They had Rocky. And this is the moment dog and owner finally reunited. 43 days apart. And right here tonight.

Hi David.

Co-founders of that group, Brandon and Melissa, from Summit Lost Pet Rescue.

We're passionate about saving lost pets and keeping families together.

Bye, hockey boys!

This is a great reminder to never give up hope and always stay positive.

Incredible message. The vet says he lost half his weight, but otherwise is in good condition and wagging his tail. his tail.

Good night.