Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked classified documents around the Vietnam War known as the Pentagon Papers, has died at 92.
Mr Ellsberg, who had been diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic cancer in February, died at his home in California, his family said.
Long before WikiLeaks or Edward Snowden, the Pentagon Papers were one of the most famous leaks in history, a case fictionalised in the 2017 Steven Spielberg movie The Post.
The documents revealed long-time US government doubts and deceit about the Vietnam War and sparked a furious reaction by then US president Richard Nixon.
The military analyst became the target of a smear campaign by the White House, with the president’s national security adviser, Henry Kissinger, calling Mr Ellsberg “the most dangerous man in America who must be stopped at all costs”.
Image: Daniel Ellsberg in 1973. Pic: AP
Mr Ellsberg, a Harvard graduate, was a long well-placed member of the government-military elite. He had been an early supporter of the Vietnam War – but changed his mind, and went on to denounce it publicly.
Then, he secretly went to the media in 1971 in hopes of expediting the end of the yearslong conflict.
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The Pentagon Papers had been commissioned by then defense secretary Robert McNamara in 1967 – and Pentagon officials had secretly been putting together a 7,000-page report covering US involvement in Vietnam from 1945 through 1967.
They were leaked and first published in The New York Times in June 1971.
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The leaker’s identity became a national guessing game.
The Times never said who leaked the papers, but Mr Ellsberg was an obvious suspect because of his access to the papers and his public condemnation of the war over the previous two years.
With the FBI in pursuit, he turned himself in to authorities in Boston – becoming a hero to the anti-war movement and a traitor to the war’s supporters.
The Nixon administration quickly tried to block further publication on the grounds that the papers would compromise national security, but the US Supreme Court ruled in favour of the newspapers in a landmark case in 1971.
In his latter years, Mr Ellsberg became an advocate for government transparency.
Image: Edward Snowden speaks during a video link news conference in 2016
He said Mr Snowden, a contractor for the National Security Agency who gave journalists thousands of classified documents on government information-gathering, had done nothing wrong.
He also said he considered Army Private Chelsea Manning a hero for turning over a trove of government files to WikiLeaks.
At least 26 people are reported to have died in powerful storms across the United States.
The number of fatalities increased after eight people died in a highway pile-up caused by a dust storm in Sherman County, Kansas on Friday. At least 50 vehicles were involved.
Car crashes during a dust storm also killed three people in Amarillo, Texas.
Authorities in Missouri say 12 people died after tornadoes struck the state, with another three deaths reported in Arkansas.
Image: Destroyed houses in Florissant, Missouri. Pic: Reuters
Image: A store selling car parts is torn apart in Cave City, Arkansas. Pic: Arkansas Democrat-Gazette/AP
Image: The scene of one of the fatal crashes in Austin, Texas on Friday. Pic: AP
Around 108 million people remain under widespread wind, flash flooding and wildfire alerts in central and southern US states. Hundreds of thousands of households are also without power.
Tornado warnings are in place in parts of Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, Indiana, and Kentucky as a massive storm system moves across the country.
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Many areas across southern states are, or will soon be, dealing with widespread flash flooding, the National Weather Service warned. It added that the flooding could turn deadly.
In Butler County, Missouri, on the border with Arkansas, local coroner Jim Akers said the man and his wife were sleeping when the tornado struck.
Image: Tim Scott is hugged by a friend outside what is left of his home in Wayne County, Missouri. Pic: AP
Image: Another home destroyed – this one in Florissant, Missouri. Pic: Reuters
Rescuers were able to pull the woman from the debris – but could not save the man whose mobile home was ripped apart.
“It was unrecognisable as a home. Just a debris field,” he said, describing the scene. “The floor was upside down. We were walking on walls.”
Large vehicles were also pictured overturned across the state.
Image: A truck topples over after a severe storm near Ozark County, Missouri. Pic: Missouri State Highway Patrol/AP
Arkansas governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders warned the recovery could take months after surveying damage from an EF3 tornado in Cave City, in the north of the state.
A storm ranked as EF3, on a scale of one to five, requires wind speeds of between 136-165mph (218-265kph).
Hail the size of baseballs
“It’s hard to look at this level of devastation and not be heartbroken,” she said. “It’s a whole other world when you see it up close and personal.”
Winds gusting up to 80mph (130kph) were predicted from the Canadian border to Texas, threatening blizzard conditions in colder northern areas and wildfire risk in warmer, drier places to the south.
Hail was also a hazard, some the size of baseballs were reported in Christian County, the US weather service said.
Fatal pile-ups during dust storms
In the Texas city of Amarillo, three people were killed in car crashes caused by a dust storm on Friday, according to the state’s public safety department.
One of the deaths happened after three lorries collided with four other vehicles in Palmer County, Bovina’s fire chief Cesar Marquez said. Another occurred after a pile-up of an estimated 38 cars.
Image: The crash scene in Austin, Texas. Pic: AP
Image: Footage from police dashcam shows the intensity of the dust storm in Kansas. Pic: Kansas Highway Patrol (Hays)
Image: West of Amarillo in Texas, a driver captures footage of another dust storm
“It’s the worst I’ve ever seen,” public safety department sergeant Cindy Barkley said, calling the near-zero visibility a nightmare. “We couldn’t tell that they were all together until the dust kind of settled.”
Evacuations were ordered in some Oklahoma communities as more than 130 fires were reported across the state. Nearly 300 homes were damaged or destroyed, said governor Kevin Stitt.
Three deaths happened due to storm damage in Independence County, Arkansas on Friday night, with a further 29 people injured across eight different counties, authorities said.
More than 260,000 households are without power in midwestern and southern states, according to the monitoring website PowerOutage.us.
The Storm Prediction Center at the National Weather Service issued an update on Sunday, warning of a moderate risk of severe thunderstorms.
The warning covers an area from the extreme southeastern part of Mississippi, across much of Alabama, into western Georgia and the western Florida panhandle.
US President Donald Trump has launched strikes against the Houthis in Yemen.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, he also warned Iran the country’s support for the group must “end immediately”.
The Iran-backed Houthis reported a series of explosions in Yemen‘s capital Sanaa on Saturday evening.
The Houthi-run health ministry said in a post on X that at least nine civilians have been killed and nine others injured.
Images shared online show plumes of black smoke over the area of the city’s airport complex, which includes a sprawling military facility.
Image: Smoke rises from a location reportedly struck by US airstrikes. Pic: AP
Mr Trump said the strikes were over the group’s attacks against ships in the Red Sea.
“Your time is up, and your attacks must stop, starting today. If they don’t, hell will rain down upon you like nothing you have ever seen before,” he said.
The president said Iran would be held “fully accountable” for the actions of its proxy, adding: “And we won’t be nice about it!”
The strikes come days after the Houthis said they would resume attacks on Israeli vessels sailing in waters off Yemen in response to Israel’s blockade on Gaza, although there have been no Houthi attacks reported since then.
Earlier this month, Israel halted all aid coming into Gaza and warned of “additional consequences” for Hamas if their fragile ceasefire is not extended as negotiations continue over starting a second phase.
“The Houthi attack on American vessels will not be tolerated. We will use overwhelming lethal force until we have achieved our objective,” Mr Trump wrote.
“These relentless assaults have cost the US and World Economy many BILLIONS of Dollars while, at the same time, putting innocent lives at risk.”
The Houthis launched more than 100 attacks targeting shipping from November 2023, saying they were in solidarity with Palestinians over Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza.
The US, Israel and Britain have previously hit Houthi-held areas in Yemen.
According to a US official, the operation – the first strike on the Houthis under the second Trump administration – was conducted solely by the US.
The Houthi media office said the strikes hit “a residential neighbourhood” in Sanaa’s northern district of Shouab.
Sanaa residents said at least four airstrikes hit the Eastern Geraf neighbourhood in the district, terrifying women and children in the area.
“The explosions were very strong,” said Abdallah al Alffi. “It was like an earthquake.”
Similar missile strikes against the Houthis were done multiple times by Joe Biden’s administration in response to frequent attacks by the Houthis against commercial and military vessels in the region.
At least 17 people are reported to have died in powerful storms across the United States.
Authorities in Missouri say 11 people died there, with another three deaths reported in Arkansas, and three others in car crashes amid dust storms in Texas on Friday.
Around 138 million people are at risk of severe weather in central and southern US states.
Tornado warnings are in place in parts of Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, Indiana, and Kentucky.
In Missouri, where a state of emergency was declared on Friday, they are predicted to reach EF2 on the tornado strength scale, which requires wind speeds of between 113mph and 157mph.
Hail the size of baseballs were reported in Christian County, the US weather service said.
Snow of up to six inches is expected in western Minnesota and far eastern South Dakota, the National Weather Service said.
Image: The remnants of a destroyed house in Florissant, Missouri. Pic: Reuters
Writing on X, the Missouri State Highway Patrol said two people died in Bakersfield, Ozark County, and several others were injured.
A man died after his mobile home was hit by heavy storms in Butler County, on Missouri’s Arkansas border, authorities told Sky’s US partner network NBC News.
Butler County coroner Jim Akers said the man and his wife were sleeping when the tornado came. Rescuers were able to pull the woman from the debris – but could not save the man.
“It was unrecognizable to be a home. Just a debris field,” he said, describing the scene. “The floor was upside down. We were walking on walls.”
County authorities added that the number of dead there could rise, with rescue operations ongoing.
Large vehicles were also pictured overturned across the state.
Image: Debris covers the road amid storms in Webster County, Missouri. Pic: AP
Image: Debris flies in Webster County, Missouri. Pic: AP
Image: A tornado destroyed house in Florissant, Missouri. Pic: Reuters
Lorries fall over in dust storms
In the Texas city of Amarillo, three people were killed in car crashes caused by a dust storm on Friday, according to the state’s public safety department.
One of the deaths happened after three lorries collided with four other vehicles in Palmer County, Bovina’s fire chief Cesar Marquez said. Another occurred after a pile up of an estimated 38 cars.
“It’s the worst I’ve ever seen,” public safety department sergeant Cindy Barkley said, calling the near-zero visibility a nightmare. “We couldn’t tell that they were all together until the dust kind of settled.”
Image: The scene of one of the fatal crashes in Austin, Texas on Friday. Pic: AP
Image: The crash scene in Austin, Texas. Pic: AP
Wind speeds in northern Texas were as high as 62mph, according to the National Weather Service.
Dramatic videos from across the state – and Oklahoma – show huge trucks falling on their side with the strength of the dust storm.
Three of the deaths happened in Independence County, Arkansas overnight, with a further 29 people injured across eight different counties, authorities said.
The extreme weather has destroyed buildings, compromised power supplies, and caused at least 100 wildfires in multiple states.
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Fires across the Southern Plains are likely to spread rapidly amid warm weather and strong winds, with evacuations ordered for some communities in Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, and New Mexico on Friday.
More than 400,000 households are without power in midwestern and southern states, according to the monitoring website PowerOutage.us.
Appealing to residents after implementing emergency measures, Missouri governor Mike Kehoe said on Friday: “I urge all Missourians to stay alert, monitor weather forecasts, and follow official warnings.”