Home Care In Rescue, CA

A rumor circulated online in January 2026 that the FBI and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration rescued 450 children in a raid of a Somali couple's "luxury island" in California.

For example, on Jan. 4, a user managing a YouTube channel (archived) with the misspelled display name MIilitary Insight (@Militaryinsight1-w2t) — featuring a profile image misspelling the channel's name as "Milliatry Insight" — posted a video (archived) with the title "FBI & DEA Raid Somali Elites Couple 'Luxury Island' in CA — 450 Children Rescued | FBI Files." The video received hundreds of thousands of views.

The video featured a narrator speaking over footage not closely matching the story, including clips showing President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. According to the video, agents with the FBI, DEA and Immigration and Customs Enforcement raided a privately owned island off the California coast named Serenity Cove. The agents allegedly captured purported a humanitarian couple, Amina Hassan Osman and Ibrahim Khaled Rasheed, leading to the rescue of 450 children and uncovering of the couple's plot, which the narrator said resulted in the disappearance of at least 3,412 children linked to their foundation, Hope Horizon International.

The thumbnail image displayed an alleged CNBC TV chyron proclaiming "breaking news" and "450 children rescued." The image above the chyron showed a handcuffed man and woman flanked by armed FBI agents, standing in front of a yacht, with a U.S. Navy-style boat visible in the distance.

(MIilitary Insight/YouTube)

In short, this story was false. One or more users prompted artificial-intelligence tools to generate the fake thumbnail image, narrator's voice and script, possibly as well as the video's editing.

We contacted the MIilitary Insight YouTube channel via an email address listed on the account. We also emailed the FBI and DEA in an attempt to receive official statements regarding the rumor's falsity, and will update this report if we receive further information.

Searches of Bing, DuckDuckGo, Google and Yahoo found no credible news media outlets or independent political blogs reporting news of federal officials rescuing 450 captive children. Similar searches also did not locate any island near California named Serenity Cove. Further, CNBC did not broadcast or publish any such content. The only Hope Horizon International organization located in search results identified itself as a health care startup and had no relation to the video's fictional story.

Users posted the same video on Facebook (archived), Reddit (archived), Threads (archived) and X (archived). Some users on Facebook and TikTok (archived) further reposted a video with the similar title "FBI & DHS Raid Humanitarian Couple's 'Mega Yacht' in CA — 450 Children Rescued | FBI Files." That clip likely originated from a since-deleted YouTube video.

Other variations of the same false rumor claimed federal raids found either 238 or 470 children at a "Somali Consulate" in Minneapolis, or 268 children at a "Minneapolis airport run by [a] Somali couple."

Video showed signs of AI and ties to Vietnam

The Mlilitary Insight YouTube channel (archived) featured a description promising videos with "verified case studies" and "storytelling grounded in facts," calling itself "your trusted source." The channel displayed a join date of Dec. 19, 2025, meaning a user created the account less than one month before publishing the video in question.

The video's thumbnail image of a couple in handcuffs standing next to armed FBI agents and in front of a yacht displayed the words "breaking news" with the CNBC logo. The letters in the words "breaking news" did not display completely legibly. The inclusion of illegible letters is one of many signs of AI-generated text.

We fed the image into the Google Gemini AI tool, which confirmed with its signature SynthID Detector that the thumbnail image originated, either in part or entirely, from Google AI tools.

As for the video's script, the narration began with overdramatic, word-packed sentences — one of many signs of AI-generated text. For example, the narrator voiced the first several sentences with the following dramatic phrasing:

At 4:32 a.m., along the fog-draped California coastline, the Pacific Ocean whispered against cliffs that few had ever seen up close. 17 nautical miles offshore, beyond the reach of casual vessels and hidden beneath layers of corporate secrecy, lay a place known only in whispered rumors among federal intelligence circles. Serenity Cove.

The video's description contained the words "HOA K?," which according to Google Translate is Vietnamese for "United States," suggesting users residing in Vietnam at least partially promoted the rumor. The specific inclusion of a Vietnamese term aligned with past reporting featuring the country and language as common finds when researching AI-generated content. For example, we previously reported about the role of Vietnam users in spreading fabricated stories about the July 2024 Texas flash floods.

A team of highly trained rescue dogs from California is stationed in Washington, ready to help search for survivors as flood threats continue across the state.

KENT, Wash. — As flood dangers continue across Washington, help has arrived from out of state — and on four legs.

A team of four highly trained rescue dogs and their handlers from California are stationed at Pacific Raceways in Kent, ready to deploy wherever they are needed. The group is part of FEMA Task Force 7, California’s elite urban search and rescue team, which partners with the Search Dog Foundation. Three other dogs from the non-profit are assisting another FEMA team helping in Washington.

“These dogs are constant, they’re relentless, they’re never going to give up,” said Paul Januario, Search Team Manager with FEMA Task Force 7. “Time and time again, they’re the greatest hide-and-seekers because they always find the victim.”

The dogs specialize in detecting live human scent, whether the emergency involves flooding, structural collapse, or another type of disaster. During training drills Tuesday, handlers worked through mock rescues, releasing their dogs to search buildings and rewarding them when they made a “find.”

“It doesn’t matter what the disaster is,” Januario said. “These dogs are trained in live human odor or live human detection. Whether it's from flooding, whether it is a structural response. They are prepared to find live human scent in any kind of format.”

While they haven’t been dispatched for any active flood rescues yet, the task force has already conducted reconnaissance missions in Snohomish, Skagit, and King counties. Januario said they can be mobilized in minutes if conditions worsen.

“We’ve been covering a lot of ground,” he added. “There have been flooding reports in multiple different areas throughout the state, so we’re going to continue to check out and be prepared.”

The team plans to remain in Washington as long as the state needs assistance.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. – A 79-year-old cruise ship passenger found unresponsive Dec. 16 is back on land following a high-risk overnight rescue by the California Air National Guard's 129th Rescue Wing.

The wing was contacted the night of Dec. 16 by the U.S. Coast Guard District 11 about a possible rescue mission aboard the Ruby Princess cruise ship, 130 nautical miles southwest of San Francisco.

An HC-130 Combat King II aircraft from the wing's 130th Rescue Squadron redirected from a training exercise around 8 p.m. to put eyes on the cruise ship and get real-time coordinates and weather information. Meanwhile, pararescuemen and helicopter crews were activated at Moffett Air National Guard Base for the mission by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center.

“We got retasked in the air and there was no flinching,” said U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Mike Baker, one of the HC-130 pilots. “We just turned left and executed because we’ve trained for this multiple times. That rehearsal and that practice makes it so you don’t struggle to do the mission when it comes up.”

Baker and his crew established communications with the cruise ship and circled overhead until a helicopter could arrive.

With offshore winds picking up and a waning crescent moon providing little to no illumination, an HH-60W Jolly Green II helicopter from the 129th Rescue Squadron flew to the ship in a layer of fog that lay between the ocean and the clouds.

Using night-vision goggles to navigate the darkened airspace, pilots reached the ship just after midnight, hovered over its Lido Deck and lowered three of the wing's pararescuemen to take over medical care from the ship's doctor. Less than an hour later, the woman was hoisted onto the helicopter and flown to the Regional Medical Center in San Jose for further treatment.

U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Ben Copley, an HH-60 helicopter pilot, credited the wing's thorough and persistent training as a key factor in the high-risk mission's success during limited visibility and degrading weather conditions over the ocean.

"There's a reason we fly 1,200 hours a year in this helicopter to train," Copley said, touting the variety of daytime and night training scenarios pilots, special missions aviators and pararescuemen complete. "It all prepares us. We couldn't do that unless we did all the little building blocks first."

"We trained to find the boat. We trained to shoot an approach, to hold a stable hover, to hoist the PJs [pararescuemen] off the boat. We trained to do it all on night vision goggles," Copley said. "We don't train to do it inside a fog bank."

He said the wing received sufficient medical certainty early on to make a judgment call about how quickly they needed to reach the woman, despite the weather being beyond what they could legally train in, but within approved operational parameters.

"The mission was approved as a high-risk mission going out the door, which is pretty rare for us," Copley said. "This person was probably going to die today if they didn't get picked up."

Located in the heart of Silicon Valley at the southern end of the San Francisco Bay, the 129th Rescue Wing is home to a triad of rescue capabilities, including rescue aircraft, helicopters and Guardian Angel pararescue Airmen trained for combat rescue in contested environments. At its home station, the unit is the military’s only West Coast rescue wing and conducts high-risk, long-range maritime rescue missions in coordination with the U.S. Coast Guard.

The mission marks the rescue wing's 1,170th life saved.

2nd Lt. Michael Goggins contributed to this story

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- I don't know about you, but when I was a kid, I spent most Saturday mornings in front of the TV watching cartoons.

Over the years, children's programming has changed, but on Saturday morning, we're getting a new show that's educational, informational and entertaining called "Donkey King."

The show takes place at Oscar's Place, a 75-acre donkey rescue, adoption center and sanctuary in Mendocino County, California. It's become the mission of former media executive Ron King.

"Nobody seemed to be helping the donkey, so it was them being kind of the underdog that drew me to them," he said.

That affection is making a difference.

"We have fallen in love with donkeys," said King. "They've stolen our heart, and we just want to introduce America to their next favorite animal."

King says donkeys are more like dogs than horses, calling them healthy, sturdy and emotional animals.

"They're easy keepers, they're great companions and donkeys need donkeys, so we always only adopt out donkeys as pairs," he said. "We never break up families and so we don't wean moms from their babies. We let families live together forever, and that's part of our adoption policy."

According to King, donkeys are sweet, emotional and smart animals. They can even be cuddly!

As for the series, each episode shares a story about a donkey going from rescue to rehabilitation to getting a new home.

"We just say, 'Give us your hearts for 30 minutes and we're going to make you feel good,'" said King. "I mean, I found my life's joy on this ranch with these animals and I just want to share that joy with people."

Season 1 of "Donkey King" consists of 17 episodes, and King says he's now is discussions for a possible second season.

"Donkey King" debuts on ABC's D-2 channel Localish at 9 a.m. on Saturday, January 3.

Rescue crews found two of the hikers by chance during a search for the third.

A 19-year-old who fell while hiking on Southern California's Mount Baldy and two others were found dead during the search and rescue effort for the teen, authorities said.

The recovery effort for the three deceased hikers is underway, the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department said on Tuesday.

Amid dangerous conditions, Mount Baldy is now closed until New Year's Day to "protect natural resources and provide for public safety," the sheriff's department said Tuesday afternoon.

"The tragic loss of life on Mt. Baldy and repeated rescue responses highlight how dangerous current conditions are, even for experienced hikers," San Bernardino County Sheriff Shannon Dicus said in a statement on the temporary closure of Mount Baldy. "Weather and terrain conditions remain extremely dangerous and unpredictable, posing a significant risk to both the public and Search and Rescue personnel."

The search for the teen began midday Monday, when a search and rescue team responded to a request to rescue the hiker after he reportedly fell approximately 500 feet near the Devil's Backbone trail, the sheriff's department said.

A friend who was hiking with the teen "hiked to an area with cellular service and provided GPS coordinates to assist rescuers," the sheriff's department said in a press release.

During an aerial search, deputies found the teen as well as two unidentified individuals nearby, though the helicopter was unable to complete the rescue due to severe winds, authorities said.

Later Monday evening, an air medic who was hoisted down confirmed all three hikers were dead, authorities said. The helicopter was still unable to safely recover them at that time due to severe winds.

The recovery effort is still underway, the sheriff's department said Tuesday.

The name of the teen has not been released. The two unidentified hikers found near him were in a separate group and were located by chance during the search for the teen, according to the sheriff's department.

Mount Baldy is located in the San Gabriel Mountains, outside Los Angeles.

It will remain closed through 11:59 p.m. local time Wednesday, according to the sheriff's department, which urged members of the public to comply with the order and avoid the area.

"The temporary closure of Mt. Baldy trails is necessary to prevent additional emergencies and protect lives," Dicus said.

Those who violate the closure order could be fined up to $5,000 and/or imprisoned for up to six months, the sheriff's department said.

ABC News' Jenna Harrison contributed to this report.

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