ABC World News Tonight with David Muir Full Broadcast - Sept. 2, 2025

Tonight, we have breaking news just as we come on. President Trump has just revealed a deadly U.S. military strike. The image is just in tonight, the U.S. targeting a boat in the Caribbean. What the president says the vessel was carrying, the military strike, the president says has been deadly. Pierre Thomas standing by with what we just learned.

Also breaking, President Trump late today saying of Chicago, we're going in. The governor there responding tonight after the armed National Guard in Washington, D.C. and after the National Guard in Southern California. The president says Chicago is next, even as a federal judge rules tonight that the Trump administration broke the law with what it did in California. The Labor Day storms and the fires, the evacuations tonight,

a couple swept away in flash floods. Also, with hurricane season here what ginger Z is watching tonight. The Labor Day shark attack an 8 year-old boy the heroin called a 911 bitten on the leg airlifted to a hospital what we've been told about the surgery so far the childhood prank turned deadly tonight a man is now charged

with murder allegedly shooting and killing an 11 year-old boy who rang the doorbell and ran away. Tonight, victims of Jeffrey Epstein in Washington, D.C., meeting with the speaker of the House. Their new push tonight to release the Jeffrey Epstein files. What the House speaker is now saying, and will there be a vote to release the files? Tonight, just weeks after President Trump rolled out the red carpet on US soil for Vladimir Putin, tonight, Putin is now in China,

joining China's President Xi and North Korea's Kim Jong-un now in China, too. The message they're sending to the US and the world. Back in the US tonight, the surveillance. Police searching for a wedding crasher who they say stole tens of thousands of dollars

from a bride and groom, and you'll see it. The alarming images the race to save a young boy spotted high up on the monorail track at Fershey Park. The suspect dressed as Chuck E. Cheese arrested tonight. You'll hear the audio, what they say to him, what they call him. Tonight our partners at NatGeo with actor Chris Hemsworth, his mission to help us all keep our brains sharp, how to fight off cognitive decline and what he's willing to do about it.

And we remember a well-known actor tonight from Dances with Wolves to Green Mile. And now the Powerball tonight, the eye-popping new jackpot.

♪♪

From ABC News World Headquarters in New York, this is World News Tonight with David Muir.

Good evening, and it's great to be back with all of you at home after the Labor Day holiday. We do begin tonight here with breaking news. Just a short time ago, President Trump revealing the U.S. launched a deadly military strike in the southern Caribbean. The image is just in here, the U.S. targeting a Venezuelan boat. The president says the vessel was carrying illegal drugs headed for the U.S. targeting a Venezuelan boat. The president says the vessel was carrying illegal drugs, headed for the U.S. The president said just a short time ago 11 gang members were killed in the strike.

The president authorizing military force against drug cartels in recent days. And our chief justice correspondent, Pierre Thomas, leading us off with the breaking news.

Tonight in a major escalation, the U.S. military launching a deadly attack on this suspected drug smuggling boat. President Trump releasing this dramatic video, allegedly of a drug speedboat being destroyed.

Over the last few minutes, literally shot out a boat, a drug carrying boat, a lot of

drugs in that boat. According to President Trump, 11 people on board were killed, all alleged members of Venezuela's Tre Aragua gang, which the president claims operates under the control and approval of Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro.

We have a lot of drugs pouring into our country, coming in for a long time. And we just these came out of Venezuela and coming out very heavily from Venezuela.

Trump says that Maduro is responsible for mass murder, drug trafficking, sex trafficking, and acts of violence and terror across the United States and the Western Hemisphere. It comes just days after the US announced plans to boost forces off Venezuela

to combat threats from drug cartels. A US official confirming to ABC News that eight Navy ships, including the amphibious assault ship US.S. Iwo Jima, were being assigned to the U.S. Southern Command. But Venezuela's president has warned that any U.S. military action would be met with an armed fight.

David, so far, no response from the Venezuelan government. President Trump saying bluntly tonight considered this a warning shot to the Venezuelan gang, which he has designated a terrorist organization.

David. Pierre Thomas with late reporting live in Washington. Pierre, thank you. The other breaking headline involves the city of Chicago. President Trump saying late today, we're going in. The governor of Illinois responding tonight.

It comes of course, after the armed national guard in Washington, DC, the federal takeover of police there, and after the national Guard in Southern California. And this news on Chicago tonight comes as a federal judge rules this evening the Trump administration broke the law with what it did in California.

Mary Bruce at the White House tonight.

Tonight a federal judge ruling the Trump administration acted illegally by sending the National Guard to Los Angeles to put down immigration protests. Judge Charles Breyer accusing the administration of trying to create a national police force with the president as its chief. But tonight, President Trump undeterred, saying he's expanding his crime crackdown and will soon send the National Guard into Chicago.

Well, we're going in. I didn't say when.

We're going in.

The president setting his sights on Chicago after sending 2,000 National Guard troops to patrol the streets of Washington, D.C.

If the governor of Illinois would call up, call me up, I would love to do it. Now, we're going to do it anyway. We have the right to do it because I have an obligation to protect this country.

But Illinois Governor J.D. Pritzker says no. I'm aware that the president of the United States likes to go on television and beg me to call and ask him for troops. I find this extraordinarily strange as Chicago does not want troops on our streets. It comes after a violent

Labor Day weekend in Chicago. At least 58 people shot, eight killed. Still, local officials say violent crime is down nearly 22% this year. Pritzker saying Trump just wants power.

He has surrounded himself with groveling yes-men who are too weak to restrain his most violent and unhinged impulses, or who share those impulses. As a governor who cares about the well-being of my people, I can't live in a fantasy land where I pretend Trump is not tearing this country apart for personal greed and power.

And David, it's unclear when Trump would send those troops to Chicago. But again, the judge in that court ruling making it clear the federal government is not supposed to use the military for law enforcement. And Governor Pritzker is promising he would fight this in court. David Mary Bruce

live at the White House. Mary, thank you. To the other news this Tuesday night, we're following a horrific shark attack. The Labor Day attack in Key Largo, Florida, an eight year old boy, the shark attacking his leg. Tonight here the heroin called the 911. The boy airlifted to a hospital and what we know about the surgery so far. Victor Akendo from

Florida tonight. Tonight an eight-year-old boy airlifted to the hospital in Miami after suffering severe bite wounds from a shark off the coast of Key Largo. The heroin 911 call coming in just after 3 p.m. Monday. The boy's leg bitten as he and his family snorkeled near Horseshoe Reef, about four miles from Key Largo.

How bad is the bite?

It's bad. I got a stuff of bleeding.

People on a diving boat nearby hearing the yells. A good Samaritan helping guide the family's boat 20 minutes to shore where first responders were waiting to board.

I've seen a significant amount of blood loss. The injury is significant.

Tonight the sheriff says the boy made it through surgery overnight, adding doctors were able to save his leg. David authorities say it was likely a reef shark. Tonight they are praising the quick actions of that Good Samaritan. David? No one were glad to hear his leg has been saved, Victor. Thank you. From that shark attack over the holiday to the Labor Day storms tonight, the fires and the evacuations underway, the

wildfires in the West, the fast moving to to fire burning across 1300 acres in Stanislaus County, California flash flooding, meanwhile, turning deadly in San Antonio, Texas. Authorities were covering the bodies of a man and woman swept away by the floodwaters. And with hurricane season, of course, still here, what Ginger Z is now tracking tonight.

So let's get right to Ginger on all of this. Ginger, good to see you.

Hey, good to see you as well, David. Let's start with the heat, And that shows you advisories all the way from Escondido in Los Angeles up through the northern panhandle of Idaho. So it's far reaching and it's intense. Extreme heat warnings both Yakima over to Spokane. But red flag warnings that high fire danger in the Klamath basin up through the southern Cascades of Oregon. Now it's not just daily records from Spokane to Yakima but all time September heat that could fall tomorrow and Thursday. That's why they're circled in red there. And then you see those Phoenix numbers from 104 tomorrow to 94. That's partly monsoon, so that's going to cool things off, but you could also see flash flooding with it. And that's why

we have flood watches in place for Death Valley National Park up through parts of Nevada. And a quick look at that area of thunderstorms we're watching, David David way out there in the Atlantic. It's got a 70% chance of becoming our next depression, and if it gets a name, it would be Gabrielle.

David? We'll track it right here with you, Ginger. Thank you. We turn now to the childhood prank that turned deadly. Tonight, a man now charged with murder, allegedly shooting and killing an 11-year-old boy who rang his doorbell and ran away. Here's our chief national correspondent,

Matt Gupman now. Tonight Houston man is now charged with murder accused of chasing after and killing an 11 year old boy during a door knocking prank. Cameras rolling as Houston's major assaults unit took the suspect in for initial questioning. Authorities say around 11 p.m. on Saturday night 11 year old Julian Guzman and a group of friends were playing ding-dong ditch in a Houston neighborhood ringing the doorbell of this house and running off. Police say 42-year-old Gonzalo Leon Jr. then ran out of the house with a handgun, firing

multiple times down the street, hitting Julian in the back.

Shooting just occurred. It was for a little boy that was shot.

The 11-year-old seen in this GoFundMe was taken to the hospital and pronounced dead the next day in my opinion that doesn't look

like any type of self-defense. It wasn't close to the House.

David police say they found a significant number of firearms inside that suspect's home. He's currently being held without bail and these departments across the country are warning against these kinds of pranks saying that the defensive responses of homeowners could lead to very

dangerous consequences.

All right, Matt Gubman, thank you. Tonight, several victims of Jeffrey Epstein are in Washington, D.C. They have met with the Speaker of the House. They're pushed to get the Jeffrey Epstein files released. What the House speaker is now saying tonight, and will there be a vote to release the files, here's Jay O'Brien. Tonight, as Congress returns to Washington their first order of business, the Jeffrey

Epstein investigation. For more than two hours, women who say they were victimized by Epstein meeting behind closed doors with lawmakers, including Speaker Mike Johnson.

There were tears in the room. There was outrage.

It was both, I would describe it as heartbreaking and infuriating that justice has been delayed so long.

But Johnson still refuses to let the House vote to compel the Justice Department to release the full Epstein files. His fellow Republican, Congressman Thomas Massey, tells me Johnson is under pressure from President Trump and that Trump just wants this to go away.

He thinks he can just make this go away by telling people there's nothing here. The problem is this is bigger than him and he can't make it go away by saying there's

nothing here. Late today, I pressed the speaker. There are some in your own party, Thomas Massey is one of them, who have said that by delaying a vote, resisting a floor vote on the Epstein documents, that you are protecting the president. What do you say to that?

Well, I think that's obvious nonsense.

Bottom line, David, Speaker Johnson tonight is still blocking a vote on any full release of the Epstein files, citing victim privacy. He's instead pointing to an ongoing House Oversight Committee investigation, which late tonight, David, released more than 30,000 pages of Epstein records that it had subpoenaed from the Department of Justice, but most, David, have already been publicly available.

David. All right, you and the team will continue to follow this. Jade, thanks. Tonight, just weeks after President Trump rolled out the red carpet on US soil for Vladimir Putin, tonight Putin is now in China,

joining China's President Xi and North Korea's Kim Jong-un, who is also now in China as well. The message they're sending to the U.S. and to the world, and here's our chief foreign correspondent Ian Pannel now.

Tonight, a massive show of force by China. America's top adversaries attending a military parade in Beijing, sending a strong message that there's an alternative world order now competing with US domination. Chinese President Xi Jinping hosting Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korea's Kim Jong-un together in public for the first time. The parade will commemorate the end of World War II.

China's growing military might on display with more than 25 world leaders attending. Satellite images showing military equipment already lining up are BritKlenet in Tiananmen Square.

The crowd is standing and clapping as Xi Jinping is flanked by Kim and Putin in an extraordinary show of unity.

It comes two and a half weeks after President Trump welcomed Putin to Alaska, rolling out the red carpet, shaking Putin's hand. A stark contrast, as Putin, Xi and India's Prime Minister Modi stand shoulder to shoulder. David, this is a remarkable change of imagery, from Putin and Trump meeting in Alaska to the scenes now playing out in Beijing, with so many of America's adversaries lining up together, united and strong. David.

All right, Ian Pannel, Amber Clennett in China for us. Ian, thank you. Overseas tonight, also search and rescue teams racing to find survivors after a deadly earthquake in eastern Afghanistan. More than 1,400 people confirmed dead, 3,000 hurt. The 6.0 magnitude quake leveling entire villages in a remote mountainous region. A powerful 5.2 aftershock rattling that same region today. More than 5000 homes have been destroyed. Back here at home tonight. Google avoiding a court ordered breakup in its antitrust trial. A federal judge allowing Google to keep its Chrome and Android divisions but ordering major changes in Google's search engine including

giving rivals access to some of its data stockpile. The government accusing Google of having an illegal monopoly. When we come back on this busy news night, we remember a well-known actor tonight from Dances with Wolves to Green Mile. Also this eye-popping new Powerball jackpot, the new number tonight. Look at this, the surveillance police are searching for a wedding crasher who they say

stole tens of thousands of dollars from the bride and groom right in the middle of the reception. You'll see it. And then the suspect dressed as Chuck E. Cheese arrested. Tonight here you'll hear the audio, what they say to him, what they call him in just a moment here. Tonight police in Glendale, California are searching for a wedding crasher who they say

stole tens of thousands of dollars from a bride and groom. The suspect seen on security cameras right at the reception, even ordering a drink at the bar, grabbing the box with the couple's money and gifts. That couple tonight offering a $5,000 reward for tips leading to an arrest. A dad is being hailed a hero, rescuing a small boy from the monorail tracks at Hershey Park. John Sampson, a veterinarian and father of three three spotting the boy. This kid is walking on the monorail and obviously panic kind of sits in a little bit. When you have that kind of dad instinct, it doesn't matter if it's your kid or not, it's a child, that you want to make sure they're safe as possible.

He said a father's instinct kicked in instead of his fear of heights. What a job. When we come back here tonight, that suspect dressed as Chuckie Cheese. Tonight, you'll hear the audio, what they say to him. And we remember a well known actor right here tonight. To the index of other news, police in Tallahassee releasing video now of that arrest of a suspect who worked as a Chuckie Cheese mascot. Stop resisting.

Stop resisting. You're being detained. Stop resisting. You'll remember police entering the restaurant, handcuffing the suspect. They say he'd been identified as a suspect in a credit card theft investigation. We do have a passing to note tonight. Oscar nominated actor Graham Green has died, a member of the Oneida First Nation. Green, best known for his humor and honesty, Graham Green was 73. The Powerball Jackpot soaring tonight now, 1.3 billion for tomorrow's drawing with a cash option of a mere 589 million.

Sounds nice. When we come back tonight, actor Chris Hemsworth and what he's willing to do to help us all keep our brains sharp. You have to see this. Finally tonight, our partners at Nat Geo with

actor Chris Hemsworth and his mission to help us all keep our brains sharp and to fight our fears. Tonight hear the extraordinary docuseries from our partners at National Geographic. Actor Chris Hemsworth and the team their incredible mission to keep our brains sharp. I'm diving headfirst into

cutting-edge science. Here we go. To uncover three powerful secrets to living better right now.

The series Limitless Live Better Now, exploring how to combat aging, chronic pain and declining memory. Six countries over two years in this challenge, Chris Hemsworth facing down pain, training with South Korean special forces.

Crawl, crawl.

Crawling under electrical wires.

It's like being stung by a wasp.

Yeah.

Every time.

The mission in freezing waters. Hit with high pressure hoses to mimic the effects of chronic pain. Another challenge, going backstage with singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran, learning how to play the drums, improving his memory, his cognitive function,

and facing down the fear of failure in front of tens of thousands.

We go really fun, and you try drums.

Fun for who exactly?

It won't be fun for your family when you're practicing at home. So you would just learn the two, three,

and then you hit on the one. Gives it a try.

One, two.

And then try and hit on the one and the three with the kick.

One, two, three, four.

No, yeah, so one and three, and then the two and the four.

Oh, God.

The challenge to perform live with Ed Sheeran.

Three.

Three days to the show with Ed Sheeran. Three.

Three days to the show. The pressure's on.

How's it going?

Are you ready?

How's it going? We need a singer. We need a singer.

He doesn't look that bad from here.

He does.

He does.

And there was this, training to climb a 600-foot dam in the Swiss Alps to fight fear. I know I can overcome my fear, my overthinking,

if I narrowed my focus.

Learning how what's called exposure therapy can actually enhance your mental and physical well-being.

What benefits are there when we face

the things that scare us most?

Tonight, his amazing effort to help us all embrace new science to live better. This guy's a beast. It's quite something. You can stream all available episodes of Nat Geo's Limitless Live Better Now on Disney Plus and Hulu with Chris Hemsworth. I'm David Muir. I'll see you right back here tomorrow night. I'm David Muir. I'll see you right back here tomorrow night.

Until then, good night.