ABC World News Tonight with David Muir Full Broadcast -Feb. 26, 2025

tonight several breaking stories as we come on the air the well-known actress found dead in her New York City apartment by her mother what we've learned president Trump's first meeting with his cabinet calling on Elon Musk first the measles outbreak in the US turning deadly now the first child to die for measles in a decade so what's going on first tonight president Trump meeting with his cabinet for the first time Elon Musk standing over the room describing what his team is doing and tonight president Trump's new message for the million federal workers who have haven't

responded to that email asking for the five things you've done at work in the last week or risk getting fired also tonight the stunning death of a well-known actress found in her New York apartment Michelle tractenberg known for her roles in Gossip Girl at Buffy the Vampire Slayer it was her mother who discovered the body and what authorities believe happened tonight the dramatic turn California's governor at his bombshell move involving the Mendez Brothers tonight the meal outbreak in the US turning deadly a child becoming the first patient in a decade to die of measles in

the US the disease had been eradicated in the US in 2000 so what's driving this President Trump's blunt message to Ukraine tonight about joining NATO telling them quote forget about it it comes as president zinsky plans to visit the White House This Week Tonight the heists here in the US multiple freight trains targeting millions of dollars worth of Nike sneakers what makes them so valuable thieves striking at least 10 times the imagees coming in the small plane crashing into a mountain in the Northeast Rescuers braving difficult conditions tonight the airline facing questions after passengers say

they were forced to sit next to a dead body on the plane for hours in mid-flight and tonight our will reev on a journey that first began with his father actor Christopher reev retracing his father's steps where it led him and what will Discover right here tonight [Music] from ABC News world headquarters in New York this is World News Tonight with David mure good evening it's great to have you with us here in a very busy Wednesday night the sad discovery of a well-known actress in New York City in her apartment known from Gossip Girl

and Buffy the Vampire Slayer what we've learned here in just a moment but we do begin tonight with the scene playing out with President Trump in his cabinet and Elon Musk called on first it was the president's first cabinet meeting the president inviting cameras in for more than an hour his cabinet secretary is sitting around the table largely silent the president first turning the floor over to Elon Musk who defended his demand that some 2 million federal workers list what they've done at work in the last week or risk being fired and tonight president Trump's

new message to the million workers who haven't responded ABC's chief White House correspondent Barry Bruce was in the room she leads us off Elon Musk didn't have a seat at the table at president Trump's first cabinet meeting the world's richest man sitting off to the side still Trump making it clear musk is the MVP calling on him first so I'm going to ask if it's possible to have Elon get up first and talk about Doge as cabinet secretaries looked on musk standing to address the cameras um the the overall goal here with the Doge team

is to help address the enormous deficit we simply cannot sustain as a country $2 trillion deficits sources tell us musk has ruffled feathers within the cabinet today the president all but daring secretaries to speak up let the cabinet speak just for a second is anybody unhappy with him if you are well throw them out of herebody we have a lot of respect for Elon and that he's doing this and some disagree a little bit but I will tell you for the most part I think everyone's not only happy they're thrilled but several cabinet secretaries have

a objected to musk's order to the more than 2 million federal workers send an email listing five things you accomplished last week or lose your job several departments telling workers it's voluntary or instructing them not to respond at all I think that email perhaps was mis interpreted as a performance review but actually it was a pulse check review uh do you have a pulse the White House says more than 1 million employees have responded roughly half of all federal workers does that mean that the remaining 1 million or so federal employees now risk being terminated

I guess there was a like last week the president en encouraged me via true social uh and also via phone call to be more aggressive um and I was like okay you know yes sir Mr President we will indeed do that our our goal is not to be capricious or or unfair uh it's we want to give people uh every opportunity to send an email and the email could simply be uh what I'm working on is too sensitive or classified to to describe then the president jumping in I'd like to add that those million people

that haven't responded though El they are on the bubble you know I wouldn't say that we're thrilled about it they may be they're going to be gone it comes As Trump and musk lay the groundwork to dramatically downsize the federal Workforce the administration today directing all federal agencies to submit plans for large-scale layoffs and restructuring by March 13th the president saying the environment Al Protection Agency could cut a full 65% of its Workforce the president Fielding questions for over an hour but only calling on three other cabinet secretaries and briefly the vice president but Trump

did make one thing clear when he gives an order he expects his team to follow it oh yeah they'll follow the orders yes they will no exceptions no except well let's see let me think oh yeah yeah she'll have an exception of course no exception you know that and the president today signing more executive orders to expand Doge's cost cutting efforts David in that room today the power of Elon Musk in this Administration on full display David Mary Bruce who was in that meeting today Mary thank you we turn next tonight to the tragic Discovery

in New York City the death of actress Michelle tractenberg the young star of Gossip Girl and Buffy the Vampire Slayer she was found dead in her apartment by her mother she was just 39 here's Aaron kki tonight the sudden death of a young Hollywood star discovered in her New York City Apartment I hear you told our little secret that's the way you want to play it that's how we'll play it Michelle tractenberg best known for her iconic roles on Gossip Girl this is supposed to be her happiest day that I can't wait to rain all

over her parade and Buffy the Vampire Slayer Buffy you have to let me go rising to fame as a child in the adventures of Pete and Pete what happen happened police sources tell ABC News her mother found the 39-year-old unconscious and unresponsive just after 8 this morning and the actress's Midtown apartment steps from Central Park no foul play is suspected sources say the actress died of natural causes and may have suffered complications from a recent liver transplant her breakout role as Harriet the Spy a veggie Thief this must be investigated thoroughly Rosie O'Donnell who starred

alongside track andberg in that movie calling her death heart heartbreaking adding I loved her very much tonight fans are stunned I loved her in that movie she was a kid and I used to watch it as a kid Kim kral sharing this photo from the set of ice princess and this message rest in peace sweet Michelle even though her death is not considered suspicious David the medical examiner's office will investigate to determine how tractenberg died David a kki live here in New York Aaron thank you we turn now to the bombshell new move involving the

Menendez brothers and what it means for the their potential Freedom tonight California's governor Gavin Newsome ordering the state parole board to conduct a comprehensive risk assessment of whether the brothers would pose an unreasonable risk to the public if they were released is the governor preparing to set them free here's Matt Gman after 35 years behind bars for the shotgun murders of their parents tonight a giant first step toward possible clemency for the Menendez brothers in a surprise move Governor Gavin newsum fast-tracking a parole board assessment of the risks of their Rel from prison the question

for the board is a rather simple one uh do Eric and ly Mendez do they pose a current what we call unreasonable risk to Public Safety in a letter obtained by ABC News the governor says he'll weigh the impact on victims and survivors the brother's self-development in prison and their use of available rehabilitative programs and it comes just days after LA's new DA Nathan Hawkman announced his opposition to a new trial for the murder of their parents Kitty and Jose Menendez casting doubt on the brother's claim of sexual abuse by their father do you personally

now believe that they were not sexually abused by at least Jose Menendez they absolutely testified to it in great detail I also understand that when it came to any corroborating information about that sexual abuse uh it was extremely lacking sources close to the governor tell ABC News Newsome considers hawkman's skepticism of their sexual abuse a mistake last week the brothers talked to TMZ's podcast two angry men about their plans to help survivors of childhood abuse I am passionate about wanting to speak out and work with uh survivors of childhood trauma and find new ways for

us to heal speak out and prevent that type of Trauma from happening to other people the Menendez family who are also victims in this case pushing for their release for years spearheaded by Kitty mantis's own 93-year-old sister Joan ly and Eric have already paid a heavy price they have changed and they have become better men despite everything that they've been through David that newly elected DA has opposed a new trial for the brothers but tells me he hasn't yet made a decision on resentencing them but I'm told that sources close to Governor gavan say that

his move today was meant to pressure the da to recommend resentencing for the brothers but even if that does happen it could still be months before they are released David all right Matt Gutman in La Matt thank you tonight the measles outbreak in the US has now turned deadly a child in Texas has now died the first death from measles in the US in a decade ABC's Bera V Ral from Texas Tonight Tonight Texas Health officials on high alert some clinicians seen in hazmat suits the state reporting the first measles death in the country in

a decade the patient a school-aged child who was not vaccinated dying overnight in leic County this is a big deal we are now seeing very serious consequence of what happens when we have measles um in our community the Texas Department of Health now reporting 124 cases most of them in West Texas nearly all of those infected children under the age of 17 and most are unvaccinated or vaccination status unknown dayc carees watching close for symptoms like fevers rashes and white spots inside the mouth newborn babies they don't receive the vaccine until they're um one years

old children can't get the second measles dose to be fully vaccinated until they're four what concerns you most about what we are seeing right now I'm mostly concerned that the measles is it's probably the most contagious virus um disease and children that we can see today Health and Human Services secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr who has promoted antivaccine views saying he is closely following the cases but calling the outbreak Not Unusual even with the first death in a decade now reported we're going to continue to follow it it's incidentally there have been four measles outbreaks

this year in this country last year that were 16 so it's not unusual we have measles outbreaks every year David while Texas does require vaccinations it also allows for Parental and religious exemptions and we've also just confirmed with health officials an adult case that was in Rockwall County which is just about 30 minutes from where we're standing right now in Dallas David Maria V Ral monitoring this in Dallas for us Maria thank you tonight with Ukraine's president zinski set to visit the white house this Friday president Trump today delivering a blunt message about Ukraine joining

NATO before zalinsky even gets here saying quote forget about it here's Martha Ritz tonight president Trump announcing that he and Ukraine's president salinski will meet face to face on Friday to sign what he called a very big agreement the outline of the agreement establishing a reconstruction investment fund which would call for Ukraine to share its mineral wealth as a payback for past us aid but the president said today the US will make no security guarantees to Ukraine we're going to have Europe do that because it's in you know we're talking about Europe as their next

door neighbor president Trump who has refused to say that Russia was the aggressor in this war and has baselessly called zalinski a dictator today called Vladimir Putin very smart and very cunning although he did say Putin would have to make concessions in any peace deal what concessions would you like to see oh I don't want to tell right now but I can tell you that uh NATO you can forget about that would be a concession for Ukraine not Russia but Trump insisted the deal would be good for all sides president Trump also said for the

first time that it's possible that a peace agreement will not work out after previously saying he could end the war within 24 hours David all eyes on that meeting with zinsky later this week Martha Ritz tonight thank you Martha now to the dramatic heists here in the US thieves making off with millions of dollars worth of Nike sneakers targeting freight trains in multiple States here's mola langi tonight authorities sounding the alarm after multiple freight train robberies targeting shipments of Nike sneakers in remote areas of the desert Southwest the most recent Heist January 13th in parin

Arizona thieves allegedly using this box truck grabbing nearly 2,000 pairs of brand new unreleased Nike sneakers Nigel Sylvester X Air Jordan fors worth $400,000 thanks to tracking devices inside some of the cargo 11 people were arrested in November near Amboy California robbers boarding a train and grabbing $200,000 worth of Nikes found in the back of this U-Haul in Anaheim the next day seven people taken into custody according to police they get on it they cut a brake line stop that train and it's basically a Shopper's Delight it's stopping that train and then breaking into the

TR the container trailers on the on the train according to an LA Times investigation at least 10 high since last March all involving BNSF cargo trains netting more than $2 million in stolen Nikes authori say criminal gangs linked to the caloa cartel are behind the thefts well David some of these Nike sneakers are Collectibles and can fetch thousands of dollars on the resale Market making them an attractive Target for thieves David yeah quite something mola thank you when we come back the small plane crashing into a mountain in the Northeast Rescuers braving difficult conditions to

reach those on board there are surviv and tonight our Will Reeve on a journey that first began with his father actor Christopher reev retracing his father's steps and what will discovered you'll see it right here tonight tonight the small plane crashing into a mountain in Vermont the three people on board survived this Rescuers trudging through 4 feet of snow across rugged terrain the survivors with only minor injuries when we come back the airline facing questions tonight passengers say they were forced to sit next to a dead passenger for hours during the flight and later our

will reev retracing his father actor Christopher Reeves steps to the index in tonight cutter Airways is facing questions following the death of a passenger during a flight from Australia to Cutter passengers say the woman collapsed and died during the 14-hour flight a couple says flight attendants were unable to move her then placing her in an empty seat next to them covering her with a blanket for 4 hours until the plane landed the airline tonight says it has spoken with passengers affected when we come back here tonight our will wath on a journey that his father

actor Christopher reev began years ago and what will found in a moment finally tonight here our will ree the son of actor Christopher ree on a journey that his father began years ago and what will'll found in going back right here tonight my father was my hero to Millions he was Superman I idolized and miss a different Christopher reev dad when I was a toddler he filmed a documentary following the migration of the Pacific gry whale my dad always lived a life of Perpetual Motion epic adventure let's go over s see how he's been doing

but this was his last Great Expedition before he was paralyzed when I was just 2 years old he then died of complications from his injury when I was 12 for 30 years now I've dreamed of taking a journey to the last places he visited before his accident the destination Sonic nasio Lagoon in Baja Mexico you got it Dad had shared stories of a legendary fisherman here pachico mayal my dad's host in San ignasio pachico died over a decade ago his son Poncho now running the family Eco tourism business hi Poncho Will Reeve oh you look

like your father so do [Laughter] you do you remember my dad coming here oh absolutely what do you remember of it I got to say he was super cool hi little one hello oh there's the eye that's just gorgeous hello oh my god wow I touched her is so soft I'm amazed at how kind of soft this the skin is I was wondering if I were crazy and strange reaching out being like hey I want to come find my dad here in a way you didn't find that weird you found that to be actually your

experience a way to honor our fathers I feel the same way two sons honoring their dads a personal and Powerful Journey will ree finding my father premieres tonight 10 Eastern here on ABC and it dreams on Hulu I'll see you tomorrow good night thank you for making World News Tonight with David mure America's most watched newscast