Five arrested after alleged ‘assassination attempt’ on Ecuador President Noboa.

Noboa’s car was surrounded by a group of around 500 people throwing rocks as he traveled in a convoy to Cañar province, where he was scheduled to announce a set of infrastructure projects, the minister said Tuesday.

Signs of bullet damage were later found on the car, according to the minister, but Noboa was not hurt in the attack.

CNN could not independently confirm whether shots were fired.

A video released by the Ecuadorian presidency shows hundreds of people on both sides of the road, many waving arms and shouting, surging forward as the motorcade approaches. Members of the crowd throw rocks toward the vehicles, hitting and cracking some of the windows. In the background, a panicked voice can be heard warning passengers to duck.

Authorities said those detained will face terrorism and attempted murder charges.

“Shooting at the president’s car, throwing stones, damaging state property – that’s just criminal,” Manzano said Tuesday after formally filing a report of an assassination attempt against Noboa, according to Reuters. “We will not allow this.”

This is not the first time a convoy carrying Noboa has been attacked. In September, roughly 350 people attacked a motorcade carrying the president and diplomats during a protest in Imbabura province, according to officials.

Authorities said the attackers ambushed the convoy with fireworks, molotov cocktails and rocks.

The attacks come amid unrest in Ecuador sparked by the government saying it would end a subsidy on diesel to reduce public spending, curb fuel smuggling and free up funds for social programs.

In recent weeks, demonstrators led mostly by Ecuador’s Indigenous community have blocked roads and clashed with security forces, with one incident a week ago leaving one civilian dead and several injured.

The presidency claims “terrorist groups” have infiltrated the demonstrations, but protesters argue the government is violently repressing dissent over the new fuel policy.

Indigenous leaders have also accused the government of allowing unchecked mining and oil drilling on ancestral lands.

Following Tuesday’s incident, national Indigenous confederation CONAIE again accused the government of violence toward demonstrators, saying in a post on X that the five detained people were protesters who – alongside elderly women – had been attacked in a “brutal police and military action.”

At the weekend, the government declared a state of emergency in 10 provinces where there have been protests, citing “serious internal unrest,” but it has not prohibited peaceful demonstrations. The provinces affected have large Indigenous communities.

Noboa has insisted the fuel subsidy cut is here to stay. “Those who choose violence will face the law. Those who act like criminals will be treated as criminals,” the president said Sunday on X.

With additional reporting from Michael Rios and Ana María Cañizares.

#BREAKING: #Israeli government approve ‘outline’ of deal to release hostages held by Hamas.

A brief statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the Cabinet approved the “outline” of a deal to release the hostages, without mentioning other aspects of the plan that are more controversial.

An Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations, said that, according to the agreement, the ceasefire should begin immediately after government approval. The Israeli military now has 24 hours to pull back its forces to an agreed-upon line.

The broader ceasefire plan includes many unanswered questions, such as whether and how Hamas will disarm and who will govern Gaza. But the sides appeared closer than they have been in months to ending a war that has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, reduced much of Gaza to rubble, brought famine to parts of the territory and left dozens of hostages, living and dead, in Gaza.

The war, which began with Hamas’ deadly attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, has also triggered other conflicts in the region, sparked worldwide protests and led to allegations of genocide that Israel denies.

Some 1,200 people were killed in the Hamas-led assault, and 251 were taken hostage. In Israel’s ensuing offensive, more than 67,000 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza and nearly 170,000 wounded, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which doesn’t differentiate between civilians and combatants but says around half of the deaths were women and children.

In the hours leading up to the Israeli Cabinet’s vote, Israeli strikes continued. Explosions were seen Thursday in northern Gaza, and a strike on a building in Gaza City killed at least two people and left more than 40 trapped under rubble, according to the Palestinian Civil Defense.

A senior Hamas official and lead negotiator made a speech Thursday laying out what he says are the core elements of the ceasefire deal: Israel releasing around 2,000 Palestinian prisoners, opening the border crossing with Egypt, allowing aid to flow and withdrawing from Gaza.

Khalil al-Hayya said all women and children held in Israeli jails will also be freed. He did not offer details on the extent of the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

Al-Hayya said the Trump administration and mediators had given assurances that the war is over, and that Hamas and other Palestinian factions will now focus on achieving self-determination and establishing a Palestinian state.

“We declare today that we have reached an agreement to end the war and the aggression against our people,” Al-Hayya said in a televised speech Thursday evening.

To help support and monitor the ceasefire deal, U.S. officials said that they would send about 200 troops to Israel as part of a broader, international team. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details not authorized for release.
Cautious celebrations

In the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, reactions to the announcement of a ceasefire were relatively muted and often colored by grief.

“I am happy and unhappy. We have lost a lot of people and lost loved ones, friends and family. We lost our homes,” said Mohammad Al-Farra. “Despite our happiness, we cannot help but think of what is to come. ... The areas we are going back to, or intending to return to, are uninhabitable.”

In Tel Aviv, families of the remaining hostages popped champagne and cried tears of joy after Trump announced the deal.

In Jerusalem on Thursday, Sharon Canot celebrated with some others.

“We are so excited this morning. We cried all morning,” she said. “It’s been two years that we are in horror.”

Under the terms, Hamas intends to release all living hostages in a matter of days, while the Israeli military will begin a withdrawal from the majority of Gaza, people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press. They spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details of an agreement that has not fully been made public. Some 20 of the 48 hostages still in captivity are believed to be alive.

In a short video posted by U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, Trump was seen speaking by phone to a group of elated hostage families.

“They are all coming back on Monday,” said Trump, who is expected to visit the region in the coming days.
How the deal will unfold

The deal, which was expected to be signed in Egypt, will include a list of prisoners to be released and maps for the first phase of an Israeli withdrawal to new positions in Gaza, according to two Egyptian officials briefed on the talks, a Hamas official and another official.

Israel will publish the list of the prisoners, and victims of their attacks will have 24 hours to lodge objections.

The withdrawal could start as soon as Thursday evening, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to be publicly named speaking about the negotiations. The hostage and prisoner releases are expected to begin Monday, the officials from Egypt and Hamas said, though the other official said they could occur as early as Sunday night.

Five border crossings would reopen, including the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, the Egyptian and Hamas officials said.

Tom Fletcher, the UN humanitarian chief, told reporters Thursday that officials have 170,000 metric tons of medicine, aid and other supplies at ready for transport into Gaza when they are given a green light.

The Trump plan calls for Israel to maintain an open-ended military presence inside Gaza, along its border with Israel. An international force, comprised largely of troops from Arab and Muslim countries, would be responsible for security inside Gaza. The U.S. would lead a massive internationally funded reconstruction effort.

The plan also envisions an eventual role for the Palestinian Authority - something Netanyahu has long opposed. But it requires the authority, which administers parts of the West Bank, to undergo a sweeping reform program that could take years.

The Trump plan is even more vague about a future Palestinian state, which Netanyahu firmly rejects.

By Samy Magdy, Melanie Lidman And Wafaa Shurafa.

#Trump’s Tylenol misinformation revives history of ‘mom blaming’ in autism, docs say.

“It seemed like every couple months there was some new headline. And there was still a lot of like, ‘Oh, did mom do this? Did mom do that?’ A lot of things were tied to pregnancy. And every now and then you’d brace yourself and you’d think, ‘Oh, what did I do?’” said Green, who learned her son had autism when he was three.

“You question absolutely everything,” she said from her home in Kingston, Ont.

“It sounds like a very ludicrous example, but I had real meat cravings when I was pregnant. So I ate a lot of McDonald’s and it’s like, ‘uh-oh, therefore did eating a lot of Big Macs cause autism?”

Experts say there is no single identifiable cause for autism spectrum disorder, but genetics play a large role. Long after her son, now almost 17, was diagnosed, Green learned at age 44 that she herself had ASD. Now she is a volunteer speaker for Autism Ontario.

Researchers are investigating other possible factors to see if they might interact with genetics to increase risk, but large well-designed studies have shown Tylenol is not one of them, said Dr. Evdokia Anagnostou, a pediatric neurologist and co-lead of the Autism Research Centre at Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital in Toronto.

Anagnostou and other autism experts say the warning from Trump and U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in September is a harmful throwback to a time when moms were wrongly blamed for their children’s autism.

For decades, starting in the 1940s, psychiatrists subscribed to the “refrigerator mother” theory that children developed autism because their mothers were emotionally cold and didn’t give them enough affection.

The understanding of autism was “plagued” by that theory until it was debunked decades ago, said Anagnostou, who said present-day claims about Tylenol is fostering fresh guilt among mothers and moms-to-be.

In the wake of Trump’s comments, she said the centre received calls from anxious parents asking “are you sure I didn’t harm my child in pregnancy, because I remember I had a cold? I remember I had an infection. I know I took Tylenol.”


“We cannot be irresponsible and talk about exposures during pregnancy and blame moms for the generation of neurodevelopmental conditions when we know them to be highly genetic,” Anagnostou said.

Dr. Karen Wou, a maternal fetal medicine specialist at McGill University Health Centre in Montreal, said women are “already avoiding everything possible while they’re pregnant” and Tylenol is one of the few safe medications they can take.

“The science is very clear about this topic,” said Wou. “It is safe when it is used for the indication that it’s used for in the lowest dose in the lowest time possible.”

In fact, not taking it when needed has potential consequences — including a heightened risk of autism.

“If you don’t treat your fever, if you don’t treat your pain, then you can have complications,” Wou said.

“We’re not talking about benign things. We’re talking about preterm delivery and baby with anomalies and mom being anxious and depressed, which could obviously affect the pregnancy in the long run.”

Wou said the misinformation about Tylenol is also “definitely not going to help” the mom guilt that happens before babies are even born.

“Moms are worried about everything,” she said. “When they have a miscarriage, when there’s a complication in the pregnancy, (when) there’s an anomaly in the baby, the first thing they do is wonder if they did anything wrong.”

Voula Athanasopoulos, whose autistic son is 28 and mostly non-verbal, said her mom guilt started with questioning whether she had done something wrong during pregnancy and morphed into questioning whether she’s doing enough as a parent.

“You compare how your pregnancy was and did you sleep enough? Were you under a lot of stress? Did you take medication?” she said.

“I don’t think I’ll ever be able to get rid of that feeling,” said Athanasopoulos, whose son lives with her in Mississauga, Ont.

“I’m always trying to see, is there something else that I can do where I can give him a better quality of life? And then I keep thinking I’ve tried everything and what else am I missing out on?” she said.

At the same time, both Athanasopoulos and Green said they don’t want mom guilt to interfere with appreciating their children for who they are.

“The what-ifs and the self-blame and everything like that, it’s got to stop because you need to move on and you need to live day by day,” said Athanasopoulos.

“My son has made me a better person, a better mom, a better human being. I see the world differently. And I thank God for him every day.”

Instead of trying to find a cause, time and money would be better spent ensuring autistic people and their families get the evidence-based supports they need, said Green, who described her son as smart, creative and funny.

“I would tell mothers: trust science and step away from blame and analyzing. You’ll just get locked in these spirals of shame and it really just takes you away from accepting and loving the child you have.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 9, 2025.

Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.

#Ukraine’s new missiles and drones cause gas shortages in Russia, Zelenskyy says.

Ukraine’s new Palianytsia missile has hit dozens of Russian military depots, Zelenskyy said. The Ruta missile drone, meanwhile, recently struck a Russian offshore oil platform more than 250 kilometres (150 miles) away in what Zelenskyy called “a major success” for the new weapon.

Also, swarms of Liutyi and Fire Point long-range drones — up to 300 units in one operation — have hit Russian energy facilities, and Ukrainian forces recently fired Neptune and Flamingo missile systems at Russia, the Ukrainian leader said.

Russian fuel shortages and higher imports indicate that Ukraine’s attacks are working, Zelenskyy said at a news briefing Wednesday. His remarks were embargoed until Thursday.

“The main thing is that (Russia is) now importing gasoline — that’s a signal,” he said. Ukrainian intelligence reports show Russia has boosted imports from Belarus sixfold and removed import duties, while also bringing in fuel from China.

“According to our data, they’ve lost up to 20% of their gasoline supply — precisely after our strikes,” Zelenskyy said.

Russian officials have made no public comment about possible gas shortages.

The successes with weapons designed and manufactured by Ukraine are a welcome development for Kyiv after more than three years of fighting Russia’s invasion, as Moscow deploys its bigger army and economic resources in an attempt to crush its neighbor.

Ukraine has received Western military aid but has been frustrated by restrictions imposed by the United States and European allies on deep strikes into Russia, out of fear of escalating the war.

Ukraine has poured huge efforts into weapons development and has fast become a global center for defense innovation.

Zelenskyy said he wants the United States to provide Ukraine with additional long-range weapons, specifically naming American-made Tomahawk missiles that can carry large warheads but which Washington has previously refused to provide.

U.S. President Donald Trump, who has been frustrated in his efforts to end the war by Russian objections, said earlier this week that he has “sort of made a decision” on whether to send Tomahawks to Ukraine. He did not elaborate.

“At the last meeting I did not hear ‘no,’” Zelenskyy said of his request for Tomahawks, adding that U.S. officials had agreed to work on the question at a technical level.

A delegation led by Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko is due to travel to the U.S. early next week for talks about air defense, energy cooperation, sanctions and the use of frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine’s war effort.

On the battlefield, Zelenskyy said the most intense fighting remains around Pokrovsk and Dobropillia in the eastern Donetsk region, where Ukrainian troops have launched a counter-offensive operation he described as “very difficult but very timely — and successful.”

“This operation derailed Russia’s summer offensive campaign,” he said, adding that what he said was Moscow’s plan to occupy much of the Donetsk region by November had failed.

Russian commanders have been ordered “to take Pokrovsk at any cost,” he said, citing intercepted Russian military communications.

Zelenskyy also said Ukraine has contingency plans to protect its natural gas infrastructure, which has been the target of heavy Russian attacks in recent weeks as winter approaches.

“We have Plan A and Plan B,” he said. “Plan A is to rely more on our own extraction. Plan B … is to switch to imports. We understand the volumes, the cost of those imports, and where to get the necessary funds.”

#BREAKING Israel, Hamas reach agreement on ‘first phase’ of peace plan, Trump says

#MOSCOW, October 9. The fate of the world depends on how effectively Russia and the US can listen to, understand, and work with each other to address global challenges, said Kirill Dmitriev, the Russian President’s special representative for economic cooperation with foreign countries and CEO of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), commenting on Congresswoman Anna Paulina Luna’s confirmation of their upcoming meeting at the end of October.

"Dear Congresswoman Luna, thank you for your courageous stance in favor of peace and dialogue. The world depends on how well the US and Russia can listen, understand each other, and work together to solve global problems. I look forward to our meeting and constructive discussion," Dmitriev said.

A day earlier, Anna Paulina Luna, a Republican member of the US House of Representatives from Florida, officially confirmed that she would meet with the Russian president’s special envoy. She emphasized that the two countries have no reason to be adversaries and that cooperation in trade would be mutually beneficial. According to her, maintaining an open dialogue is crucial not only for Americans, but for the entire world.

Earlier, the congresswoman expressed her intention to meet with Dmitriev, underscoring the importance of strengthening trade and economic ties between Russia and the US.

Indiana set to execute man convicted of 2001 rape and murder of small-town teenage girl.

The execution of Roy Lee Ward is scheduled before sunrise Friday at the state prison in Michigan City, Ind. The 53-year-old has exhausted his legal options to challenge the sentence.

Ward’s execution by lethal injection comes amid questions about Indiana’s handling of pentobarbital, the drug it has used in recent executions.

Here’s a closer look at the case:
A brutal death shocks an Indiana town

Authorities say Ward entered the home of 15-year-old Stacy Payne on July 11, 2001, raped her and struck and stabbed the girl repeatedly with a dumbbell and a knife. She was airlifted from her town of Dale to a hospital and died hours later.

Matt Keller, former town marshal, discovered Stacy and arrested Ward who was still at the home.

“I cannot imagine the immense pain, suffering, and sheer terror that Stacy experienced during the last moments of her young life,” Keller said at Ward’s clemency hearing in Indianapolis last month.

Payne’s death rocked the southern Indiana community, which is home to about 1,500 people. Her father still lives at the house, her Raggedy Ann doll collection untouched.

A nearby church has planned a prayer vigil to honour the girl hours before the execution “with the sharing of cherished memories.”
A long court battle

Ward’s case has wound through the courts for decades. He was found guilty of murder and rape in 2002 and sentenced to death. But the Indiana Supreme Court overturned the conviction and ordered a new trial.

Ward then pleaded guilty in 2007. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case in 2017.

Two years later, he sued Indiana seeking to halt all executions. He argued that Indiana’s manner of carrying out “capital punishment is arbitrary” and “offensive to evolving standards of decency.”

The Indiana Supreme Court declined to stay the execution last month. That’s also when Gov. Mike Braun rejected Ward’s clemency after board members noted the killing’s “brutal nature.”

Arguing against clemency, the state’s attorneys mentioned Ward’s criminal history, including indecent exposure charges and a robbery conviction.

“He is a murderer and a rapist,” Deputy Attorney General Tyler Banks told the parole board. “He’s also predatory and manipulative.”

Ward has exhausted his legal avenues, attorneys said.

“He is pretty resigned to the fact that it’s happening and has been for awhile,” said Joanna Green, one of Ward’s attorneys. “He said, `If I could take every bit of the pain I caused with me, I would.”'
Questions about execution drugs

Indiana resumed executions in 2024 after a 15-year hiatus. State officials said they’d been able to obtain drugs used in lethal injections that had been unavailable for years.

But those drugs came at a high cost, more than US$1 million for four doses. In June, Braun said the state wouldn’t immediately buy more, raising questions about if Indiana would consider a new execution method. The first-term Republican cited the high cost and short shelf life.

Ward’s attorneys challenged the use of the drug in court, saying it can cause flash pulmonary edema, in which fluid rushes through quickly disintegrating membranes into lungs and airways, causing pain similar to being suffocated. They noted that witnesses to the May execution of Ben Ritchie said the man lurched forward before he died.

“There are still a lot of unanswered questions about what happened during Ben’s execution,” Green said.

Among 27 states with death penalty laws, Indiana is one of two that bar media witnesses.

Indiana Department of Correction officials confirmed Wednesday that the agency “has enough pentobarbital to follow the required protocol” for the execution but didn’t comment further.

Green said they discovered through their lawsuit that the pentobarbital to be used in Ward’s execution is manufactured and not compounded. Ward’s attorneys said that means fewer concerns about the drug deteriorating quickly and they received assurances about proper handling of the drug, including temperature control. The lawsuit was dropped, as was another legal challenge over execution chamber conditions.
Remembered for a love of life

Relatives said Payne, who loved the song “You Are My Sunshine,” was full of life.

An honour student and cheerleader, she was saving money from her pizzeria job, her mother Julie Wininger told the parole board.

“Stacy’s life was so short but was filled with so much meaning,” she said.

Wininger tallies each of the 8,000 plus days since Payne’s passing. She asked the parole board for justice to be carried out.

“We will never see Stacy smile again,” Wininger said, crying. “We will never hear her voice, never have the joy of watching her grow into the incredible woman she was meant to be.”
His final days

Ward, who declined interview requests through his attorneys, has said little publicly.

He didn’t comment when sentenced in 2007. He also declined a parole board interview, saying he didn’t want to force the victim’s family travel to Michigan City. Attorneys also said he’s remorseful but has a hard time expressing it.

Ward was recently diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, an issue attorneys had raised in challenges.

In a Sept. 17 affidavit, Ward said he declined a parole board appearance because “due to my learning disability and language impairments the messages I mean to convey are sometimes difficult for me to accurately express.”

While behind bars, he lost relatives, including his mother who moved to Michigan City to be closer to him. Through a prison program, he took care of a cat named Sadie, who was rehomed ahead of his execution.

He’s renewed his faith and was baptized in prison. He keeps close contact with spiritual advisers who say he’s expressed regret.

“He’s not hiding the fact that it happened,” said Deacon Brian Nosbusch. “He’s definitely a changed person.”

Sophia Tareen, The Associated Press

Russian strike seriously damages Ukrainian power plant as winter approaches, officials say.


Two workers were injured in the attack, according to DTEK, Ukraine’s biggest electricity operator. It provided no further information, including the plant’s location.

Ukrainian authorities release few details about the routine Russian attacks on its power grid so as not to give away intelligence to the enemy. Repair crews, meanwhile, work round the clock to undo the damage.

The energy sector has been a key battleground since Russia launched its all-out invasion of its neighbor more than three years ago.

Each year, Russia has tried to cripple the Ukrainian power grid ahead of the bitter winter, hoping to erode public morale and disrupt military manufacturing. Ukraine has accused Moscow of weaponizing winter.

Ukraine’s winter runs from late October through March, with January and February the coldest months.

Ukraine, meanwhile, has been hitting back with long-range strikes on the Russian energy supply, recently causing outages in some Russian regions along the border.

The Russian Defense Ministry said Wednesday that its air defenses overnight intercepted 53 Ukrainian drones over nine Russian regions.

The Ukrainian town of Shostka, in the northeastern Sumy region, has been hard hit by the Russian onslaught against the power supply, officials say.

Authorities there have put up tents where locals can warm up, drink hot tea, charge their phones and receive psychological support, according to regional head Oleh Hryhorov.

He posted photos on Telegram of people cooking in outdoor kitchens in the street over open fires on Tuesday.

Shostka Mayor Mykola Noha posted the locations of 11 places in the town where locals can get food and tea. “Please bring your own dishes,” he wrote on Facebook Wednesday morning.

Russia also struck energy infrastructure in Ukraine’s northern Chernihiv, southern Kherson and southeastern Dnipropetrovsk regions, authorities said.

Ukraine’s air force said it intercepted or jammed 154 out of 183 Russian strike and decoy drones fired at the country overnight.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian rockets killed three people and wounded one more in Russia’s Belgorod border region, where previous attacks have brought power outages, Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said Wednesday.

#Putin says Russia has captured nearly 5,000 square kilometres in Ukraine this year.

Putin, addressing a meeting with Russian top military commanders, said Ukrainian forces were retreating in all sectors of the front. He said Kyiv was trying to strike deep into Russian territory, but it would not help it to change the situation in the more than 3 1/2-year-old war.

“At this time, the Russian armed forces fully hold the strategic initiative,” Putin told the meeting in northwestern Russia, according to a Kremlin transcript.

“This year, we have liberated nearly 5,000 square kilometres of territory - 4,900 - and 212 localities.”

Ukrainian forces, he said, “are retreating throughout the line of combat contact, despite attempts at fierce resistance.”

Russia’s Defence Ministry on Tuesday reported the capture of two more villages along the front, which Ukraine’s top commander says now extends over 1,250 km (775 miles).

Ukrainian accounts of the situation on the front line say Kyiv’s forces have made gains in the Donetsk region, particularly near the town of Dobropillia. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has also said Ukrainian forces have regained ground in the border Sumy region, where Russia has established a foothold.

Russian Army General Valery Gerasimov, chief of the General Staff of Russia’s armed forces, told the meeting of top commanders that Russian forces were “advancing in practically all directions.” Ukrainian forces, he said, were focused on slowing the Russian advance.

Gerasimov, overall commander of Russia’s war effort, said Moscow’s troops were moving on the key cities of Siversk and Kostyantynivka in the main theater of the Donetsk region.

He said they were clearing Ukrainian forces from the city of Kupiansk, under Russian attack for months in Ukraine’s northeast, and were moving forward in Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions further south. They were also progressing in setting up buffer zones in Sumy and Kharkiv regions in the north.

In his remarks to the meeting, Putin said Russia’s objectives remained the same as when he launched its “special military operation” in February 2022, saying it was aimed at “demilitarizing and denazifying” its smaller neighbor.

(Reporting by Reuters; Editing by Chris Reese and Rod Nickel)

#FBI employees ordered to immediately search for records related to Amelia Earhart, source says.

Employees at the FBI’s Washington Field Office received a highly unusual message from their leadership flagged with high importance late Tuesday telling them: “Per a priority request from the Executive Office of the President of the United States, please search any areas where papers or physical media records may be stored, to include both opening or closed cases, for records responsive to Amelia Earhart.”

FBI employees were given a priority deadline of Wednesday to respond to the request, which comes on the seventh day of an ongoing federal government shutdown.

Earhart was attempting to become the first woman to fly around the world when her plane went missing over the Pacific Ocean in 1937. She was declared lost at sea following a 16-day search.

President Donald Trump last month said he was directing his administration to “declassify and release all government records” related to Earhart.

“Her disappearance, almost 90 years ago, has captivated millions. I am ordering my Administration to declassify and release all Government Records related to Amelia Earhart, her final trip, and everything else about her,” Trump posted on Truth Social.

Earhart, the first female pilot to fly solo over the Atlantic Ocean, broke a number of aviation records, and she has been a source of public fascination during her life and after.

Conspiracy theories have developed since the aviator’s disappearance, but as CNN noted in 2024, the US government suspected that Earhart and her navigator crashed into the Pacific when the plane ran out of fuel.

Trump has previously ordered the release of documents related to other high-profile deaths that have sparked conspiracy theories, including records related to the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy, Sen. Robert F. Kennedy and the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.

By Josh Campbell. CNN’s Veronica Stracqualursi contributed to this report.