(NEW YORK) — Hawaii is on alert for Tropical Storm Hone while extreme heat is expected to expand from the South to the Midwest, leaving 25 million Americans under heat alerts this weekend.
A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for the Big Island of Hawaii as Tropical Storm Hone passes by to the south of the islands.
While it won’t be a direct hit, the storm is still close enough to deliver some potentially dangerous impacts.
The main threat is for heavy rain that could cause flash flooding and landslides, especially on the eastern side of the Big Island where rainfall totals of 5 to 10 inches are possible. For the smaller islands, scattered rainfall of 2 to 4 inches is possible this weekend from Hone’s outer bands.
In terms of wind, tropical storm force winds are forecast to begin this evening and throughout the overnight hours into Sunday morning. Gusts will generally be in the 25 to 40 mph range, but there could be some gusts of over 50 mph in some of the higher elevations on the Big Island.
Swells from Hone will also generate high surf and dangerous rip currents for all the islands beginning in the Big Island on Saturday and spreading west to the rest of the islands over the weekend.
Hone may reach hurricane status for a short period of time as it passes south of Hawaii, but it is forecast to stay over open water and eventually weaken back into a Tropical Storm.
Heat alerts for 25 million Americans
This weekend, sweltering heat continues for much of the southern plains, but it will ease up a bit in Texas as the weekend goes on.
The extreme heat drifts north over the next few days, heading through the central plains and into the upper Midwest.
An excessive heat watch is in effect for parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin, including Minneapolis on Sunday and Monday.
The heat index could be approaching 110 degrees for several cities in the plains and Midwest on Sunday and Monday.
Extreme heat slides eastward for the beginning to the middle of next week, moving into the Great Lakes and into the south by Tuesday and Wednesday.
Cities like Chicago, Louisville, and Atlanta could be approaching some record high temperatures up to 95 to 100 degrees for the middle of the upcoming week.
(SOLINGEN, Germany) — German police said they have detained a 15-year-old boy and are working to verify if the teen is connected to the stabbing of several people at a music festival in Solingen on Friday.
Three people were killed in the attack and eight others were injured — four of whom are considered “very seriously injured.” Police are continuing to search for the attacker.
The people killed in the attack include two men ages 67 and 57 and a woman aged 56, authorities said.
The 15-year-old arrested in the early hours is being accused of “failure to report planned crimes,” but he has not been charged, Markus Caspers, the Duesseldorf prosecutor general, said during a press conference Saturday.
Two female witnesses overheard a conversation between the 15-year-old and another person that could have indicated the attack, and they reported this information to the police after the incident, according to Caspers.
Police are continuing searches in “various locations” and are looking for potential perpetrators, police said in a press conference Saturday. Police currently believe the individual was acting alone.
Police said they found several knives at the scene and believe the attacker may have been targeting the necks of his victims.
Authorities are still investigating the motive behind the attack but said the victims had no apparent relationship to another and investigators suspect this may have been an act of terrorism, according to Caspers.
The “Festival of Diversity” was being held throughout the weekend to celebrate Solingen’s 650th anniversary, according to the festival’s organizers.
Prior to the festival, police said they had no information regarding a threat, so there were no surveillance zones or similar measures in place. They said they will be more thorough with security concepts in the future.
(NEW YORK) — Dr. Anthony Fauci, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was hospitalized with a case of West Nile virus and is now recovering at home, a spokesperson said.
Fauci is expected to make a full recovery, the spokesperson told ABC News in a statement.
West Nile virus is the leading cause of mosquito-borne disease in the continental United States, according to the CDC.
Mosquitoes typically become infected with the virus after feeding on infected birds and then spread it to humans and other animals, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Cases typically begin rising in July and are highest in August and September, CDC data shows.
Several health departments in the U.S. say they have detected West Nile virus in mosquito samples this year. At least 216 cases of West Nile virus have been detected in 33 states, the CDC reports in it’s latest figures.
The majority of people with the virus do not have symptoms, but about one in five will experience fever along with headaches, body aches, joint pain, diarrhea, vomiting or a rash. Most symptoms disappear but weakness and fatigue may last for weeks or months.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
(PALERMO, Sicily) — Authorities investigating the sinking of a superyacht off the Sicilian coast that claimed the lives of seven people said a manslaughter probe has been launched in the case.
“We have opened a file against unknown persons with the hypothesis of negligent shipwreck manslaughter,” Ambrogio Cartosio, the chief prosecutor of the Sicilian town Termini Imerese, said Saturday at a press conference.
Cartosio added, “We are taking care to keep the investigation secret as this is the law.”
The prosecutor said the ship’s captain, who survived the sinking, is not currently detained but asked that he remain available in Sicily so the prosecutors can speak to him again.
Investigators also revealed that it’s believed the ship was hit by a downburst – a powerful wind system originating from a thunderstorm that can reach 100 kilometers (62 miles) per hour — and not a waterspout, as authorities and some experts had previously thought.
The news conference came a day after the body of the last missing passenger — Hannah Lynch, the 18-year-old daughter of British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch — was recovered Friday from the hull of the ship. The body of Mike Lynch, who owned the yacht, was recovered Thursday.
The other victims, according to Italian news agency Adnkronos, are Jonathan Bloomer, the president of Morgan Stanley International; his wife Anne Elizabeth; American lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife Nada, all found within the sunken yacht. The body of the yacht’s cook, Recaldo Thomas, was found on Monday morning underwater near the hull but not in it, according to authorities. An official list of the survivors and victims of the tragedy has not been released.
Divers conducted a difficult and dangerous recovery operation for five days in the yacht to locate and retrieve the missing passengers.
Fifteen people who had been onboard the yacht when the downburst struck — believed to be all members of the crew and the captain of the yacht plus five passengers — were rescued alive in the immediate aftermath of the sinking early Monday which occurred around half a mile from the fishing village of Porticello, close to the city of Palermo.
(CHICAGO) — As the Democratic National Convention made history with Vice President Kamala Harris becoming the first Black and South Asian woman to accept the Democratic nomination for president, the most viral moments in a week of “firsts” were captured by social media content creators who received first-of-its-kind credentialed access to the convention.
The presidential race closes in with less than three months until the election, and the key to the Oval Office might just come down to winning over the youngest generation of voters, whose coming of age has changed the landscape of the election.
One-third of adults under the age of 30 regularly scroll social media apps, like TikTok, for news, up 255% since 2020, according to Pew Research.
The Center for Information and Research on Civic Engagement and Learning revealed that young voters are consuming and producing political news more than ever, with 70% of young people revealing they got information about the 2020 election on social media.
It’s part of why both the Republican and Democratic presidential campaigns are getting creative and investing in their social media strategy to influence Gen Z voters.
Both parties invited hundreds of creators to their prospective conventions to help draw eyeballs to their platforms and presidential candidates.
Roughly 70 content creators were invited to participate in the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, last month, according to the RNC officials.
The DNC said around 200 social media influencers were credentialed for the convention, giving them exclusive access to invite-only parties and events as well as opportunities to meet and interview delegates.
They were also given access to an exclusive “creator’s lounge” that was separate from traditional media spaces in the United Center arena. Influencers took turns recording content from a designated seating area on the arena floor close to the stage.
“There are influencers that are way more powerful than the TV networks, way more powerful than the New York Times or the Washington Post, and way more important if you’re trying to reach actual voters,” said ABC News Washington Bureau and Political Director Rick Klein in an interview with “Nightline.”
“If you can get the youth vote to engage just a little bit more, the thinking is, well, that can just change the election,” Klein said.
The battle for the youth vote
From former President Donald Trump’s return to X in an interview with Elon Musk to the vice president’s viral memes at the kickoff of her presidential campaign, the presidential hopefuls are battling to engage young voters.
So far, Harris seems to have the edge — the vice president leads Trump by 20 points among 18-39-year-olds, according to a recent ABC News/ Washington Post Ipsos poll.
In terms of followers, Trump beats Harris with his 10.5 million followers compared to her 4.6 million on TikTok.
“I constantly joke with President Trump when we’re backstage at events that he was the ultimate influencer. He was the original kind of the OG influencer,” Brilyn Hollyhand, an 18-year-old social media influencer, told “Nightline.”
Hollyhand was among the content creators credentialed for the Republican National Convention. The high school senior was the convention’s youth advisory chair, and he said it was his idea to give young social creators credentialed access to the RNC.
“My message to the RNC after the 2022 Midterms was that the Republican Party is an endangered species at risk of extinction. I went into this meeting thinking that it would be a really hard sell. And they immediately went for it,” Hollyhand said.
Hollyhand told ABC News that he believes anecdotally that it was a success.
“I came back to school the next week, half of my peers who didn’t even know a convention was going on, now, because their favorite fitness influencer posted a video or their favorite video game streamer posted a TikTok from the event … they found out a convention was going on and they enjoyed it,” Hollyhand added.
While young voters tend to sway more Democratic, Klein told “Nightline,” that the bigger variable is voter turn-out.
“The biggest question is not really how they vote, but how many of them vote. And that’s where the enthusiasm that can be engendered by authentic communication through influencers can make a difference,” Klein said.
In Chicago this week, Malynda Hale, an actress and social media influencer with more than 90,000 followers, was among the 200 influencers at the DNC.
“It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” Hale told ABC News’ multiplatform reporter Christiane Cordero on “GMA3.” “When I found out it was going to be Kamala Harris, I was like, this is going to be historical.”
Hale posted daily updates and interviews with delegates as she participated in DNC convention events.
“I gained a couple hundred, just like just yesterday just from doing this stuff. And since the hashtag #democraticconvention, I think everyone’s kind of watching it right now, ” Hale said.
Many credential influencers say they aren’t being paid by the Democratic National Convention or the campaign, but some of their trips are funded by agencies and nonprofits that align with their content.
Elizabeth Booker Houston, a social justice influencer with more than half a million followers, says being funded independently allows her to stay authentic on her platform.
“I participated in a protest for Palestine at Michigan Avenue on Sunday when I was here. I don’t at all feel like I’m silenced in speaking about those issues just because I’m here at the DNC,” Houston said.
Some influencers who attend the DNC are using their platforms to promote presidential candidates that align with their platform.
Deja Foxx, an abortion rights activist, was one of the first influencers to take the stage at the DNC convention.
“We need Kamala Harris. She’ll deliver a future where we can decide if and when to start a family,” Deja said on the convention stage on August 19.
The Arizona native went viral in 2017 for confronting Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., over his support of defunding reproductive health and family planning programs.
“Why is it your right to take away my right to choose Planned Parenthood?” Foxx asked Flake. The moment was shared on Facebook by Planned Parenthood Advocates of Arizona and millions of people liked shared the video in solidarity.
Foxx said she started creating reproductive rights content on her social media accounts. In 2019, while she was a student at Columbia University, she got a call from the Harris campaign during the now-vice president’s first presidential run.
“Within two weeks, I was packing up that dorm room and starting a job as an influencer and surrogate strategist out of headquarters, a job that, mind you, did not exist before I got there,” Foxx told ABC News.
Fast forward to this year, the Harris campaign invited Foxx to speak at the DNC as a credentialed creator. Foxx said she has not been affiliated with the campaign directly since her role in 2019. She notes she was not paid directly by a PAC or the Harris campaign for her attendance at the DNC; however, footage that was shot at the convention event will be used in paid partnership and will be labeled accordingly.
“To be here today, to be a small part of history, is a dream realized,” Foxx said, adding that she is mindful that her peers may be using her content to shape their political views.
“They are building a political identity in their teens and early 20s, that is going to follow them, follow our generation for a lifetime. I think it’s a really smart investment to think about how we are helping them build that perspective, that opinion early and meeting them on the platforms where they already are,” Foxx said.
ABC News’ Marjorie McAfee, Zoe Chevalier and Elizabeth Pekin contributed to this report.
(STATESBORO, Ga.) — Len Fatica is a member of a political species that’s practically extinct in deep red Statesboro, Georgia — a rural Democrat.
ABC News traveled to the biggest city in Georgia’s southeastern Bulloch County, with a population of around 34,000. It boasts four different Main Streets (one for each point of the compass) and a persistent gnat problem.
“People are, for the most part, very friendly,” Fatica, the Georgia Democratic Party’s rural council chair, told ABC News. “They will sit down and have a conversation with you even if they disagree with you.”
Plenty of people disagree with Fatica, who’s running for county commission and leading an initiative to attract rural voters to the state Democratic Party. They meet each week at a local coffee shop to talk strategy, and he acknowledged how difficult it is for Democrats to make inroads in rural areas.
“If you look at Bulloch County down here, we’re probably close to 70% that is Republican,” he said. “This is a deep Republican area.”
Fatica accepted the persistent criticism that Democrats left rural voters behind long ago in favor of urban populations, but he believes locals might be gradually drawn back — a possibility suggested when Joe Biden narrowly won the swing state in the 2020 presidential election.
“At one time, it was a Democratic county,” he said. “Talking to Republicans, they feel within 10 years, with the manufacturing jobs that are being moved in, this could become a Democratic county again.”
Fatica highlighted the importance of Democrats taking on Trump’s rhetoric, even when talking to deep red voters.
“We’ve got to punch back, and we’ve got to punch back on the falsehoods that are told,” he said.
Vice President Kamala Harris’ choice of running mate might also move the needle, according to Fatica. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who formally accepted the nomination at the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday, regularly highlights his rural roots in speeches and rallies.
“Growing up I spent the summers working on the family farm,” Walz said on Aug. 6. “My mom and dad taught us — show generosity toward your neighbors and work for the common good.”
Lifelong Democrats Robin Hutcheson and her daughter Aliya Johnson highlighted how unusual they are, living in Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s northwest Georgia congressional district.
“You see a lot of trucks with Trump flags and a lot of Trump flags in the yard, and we are like little blue dots in a big red sea,” Hutcheson said.
They agreed that Walz could appeal to rural Americans.
“I feel like Tim is genuinely a person who has high morals, who is a good, upstanding person,” Johnson said. “That kind of represents the older style of respectability that I think older voters got used to and that newer voters still want to lean on and believe is the right thing, and a good thing.”
The mother and daughter agreed that Democrats haven’t been this excited since Obama’s bids for the White House.
“This is the first time that we really feel like change is possible,” Johnson said.
Political strategist Fred Hicks noted his belief that Georgia has become competitive because many of the culture wars that defined America for generations have subsided — there are multiple issues rather than a single issue driving people to vote.
“The economic issue is really what’s, I think, pushing people because you have not had the economic growth outside of these urban nodes,” Hicks said of the rural areas.
Peter Fuller is the chair of the northeastern Jackson County’s Democratic Party and knows flipping any rural part of Georgia is a tall order. Trump won 78% of the Jackson County vote in 2020.
“These are counties that have been like this for a while. They are long-term projects,” he said. “Most of these communities are agriculture based. We have issues of either not having population growth, or loss in some cases. Health care is a big one.”
Fuller noted that translating some national policies into something relatable for Jackson County voters can be challenging.
“It’s a lot easier to do with somebody like Tim Walz,” he said.
What remains to be seen is whether the hope and excitement around the Harris-Walz ticket can translate into votes and victory for the Democratic Party in rural America.
(LEWISBURG, Pa.) — If elections are about “the economy, stupid,” Ben McDuffee has not had the kind of confidence-boosting year that would make him feel good about keeping Democrats at the top of the ticket for four more years. And he is a Democrat.
The Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, resident lost his job late last year. He worked in financing for the auto industry and was unemployed for three months. During that time, he applied to more than 200 jobs. In March, he accepted a position at a local credit union — and a $30,000 pay cut.
That income hit, combined with higher prices at the grocery store and a recent increase in their monthly rent, meant tightening the budget. He and his wife put plans on hold to buy a home for themselves and their 11-year-old son, as interest rates rose, too.
“You know, ultimately, the question that voters ask when they go to the polls every four years is, am I in a better spot than I was four years ago? And when we’re swiping our card for groceries every week, we are absolutely not in a better spot than we were four years ago,” McDuffee said in an interview with ABC News at his home.
“So, we have to balance that with — what do we think will happen with the country if we pick the other guy?”
From what he sees everyday in his rural Pennsylvania town — a sliver of one of the most critical swing states in the country — dislike of “the other guy,” former President Donald Trump, might not be enough for Vice President Kamala Harris to overcome what he sees as a major liability: the economy.
It’s the reality of this election, and it rings especially true in his battleground state: despite a strong recovery from the global pandemic — including record-low unemployment, increased wage growth and consistently sturdy consumer spending — the economy is still a top concern for voters.
According to an ABC News-Washington Post/Ipsos poll, more than 85% of adults rank the economy and inflation as highly important for their vote for president, by far the two highest-ranking issues. And voters trusted Trump over Harris on both issues by 9 points.
“There’s a disconnect between these macroeconomic numbers that are coming out and then what we’re hearing people are reporting about how they feel about the economy,” Heidi Shierholz, the president of the Economic Policy Institute and a former chief economist for the Department of Labor during the Obama administration.
A major reason it’s such a steep political challenge, she says, is that high prices are more obvious to people on a daily basis than national statistics or even their own pay raise.
“People’s living standards are actually growing despite the higher price level. So what’s going on now is actually what we want to see,” Shierholz said. “But it still is frustrating when you go to the grocery store or wherever and you see these high prices. You don’t always think in the back of your head, ‘Well, I also got that big wage increase, I can cover this and still be okay’.”
Since the peak of the pandemic recession, the U.S. has seen an increase in overall consumer prices by 20%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, while the inflation-adjusted wages have also risen, on average, by about 25%.
That leaves some people feeling worse off than they actually are — and for people like McDuffee, who have seen their income fall or stay flat, the squeeze of higher prices is particularly sharp.
“I don’t doubt the numbers. But it all comes down to what you can do with the money that you have for your family. And you don’t feel all of all these great numbers,” McDuffee said.
It’s a perception Harris knows she will need to reverse to win over voters in critical battleground states like Pennsylvania, which could be key to winning her the presidency.
“Today, by virtually every measure, our economy is the strongest in the world,” Harris said in a recent campaign rally focused on the economy in North Carolina. But she was also careful to try not to alienate voters who don’t feel those impacts.
“We know that many Americans don’t yet feel that progress in their daily lives. Costs are still too high. And on a deeper level, for too many people, no matter how much they work, it feels so hard to just be able to get ahead,” Harris added.
To address this concern, Harris and President Joe Biden have pushed a “lowering costs” campaign, a handful of policies aimed at bringing down daily prices for people.
Efforts like negotiating down the price of drugs covered by Medicare, so seniors pay less for their prescriptions, and passing regulations that require companies to disclose “junk fees” on products like hotel rooms or concert tickets. For nearly 4.8 million people, the administration has canceled student loans.
For McDuffee, these policies aren’t cutting through.
He will reluctantly vote for Harris, he says, but he knows that many voters will prioritize their bank accounts in November.
“The only thing that I think a lot of consumers feel is when they swipe their card at the gas pump, at the grocery store, you know, buying back-to-school clothes, all of those items are more expensive than they were four years ago,” McDuffee said. “And I think that’s what resonates.”
Three hours southeast, though, Philadelphia City Councilmember Katherine Gilmore Richardson says she’s an example of why the Biden administration’s piecemeal policies are working — and have exponentially changed her family’s economic trajectory.
“No hesitation at all. I’m better off than I was four years ago. My family is better off because of the work of the Biden-Harris administration. And my children will be better off because of the Biden-Harris administration, if nothing more,” she said in an interview at her home in West Philadelphia.
Richardson, who has worked for the city for over 20 years, had her student debt canceled as part of major reforms to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, or PSLF, which allows peoples’ remaining debts to be forgiven after they’ve worked in public service and made loan payments for 10 years.
She has since helped her husband and her sister, who both work in non-profits and social work, respectively, to have their debts canceled, as well.
Through her family’s savings on student debt payments, Richardson, a mother of three, enrolled her two youngest children in one-on-one reading camp this summer.
Yet Richardson knows that receiving debt relief is a unique reason to feel good about the economy. Of the 43 million Americans with student loan debt, roughly one in 10 have so far had loans canceled by the Biden-Harris administration.
“I do hear from my constituents who have a number of concerns regarding the economy and their ability to be able to afford good quality housing to, you know, for food costs and to be able to take care of their families,” Richardson acknowledged.
Still, a delegate to the Democratic National Convention and a big fan of both Biden and Harris, Richardson says she believes her story reflects ongoing efforts to reduce financial burdens and a reason to re-elect the Democrats.
“I think we have to do a better job of telling that story and talking about the work that they’re seeking to do,” she said.
(CHICAGO) — Several young Democrats said they are embracing the “vibe shift” in the party that they’ve experienced over the last few weeks, feeling newly enlivened at the Democratic National Convention with Vice President Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket.
“I’ve been around a lot of political things for the past few years, and it has never felt this exciting,” Jonah Simon, 20, told ABC News at the DNC.
Simon said he feels that unlike merely a month ago when President Joe Biden was the nominee, younger voters now have a candidate in Harris they are “proud to get behind, somebody who we can be really excited to rally around.”
For decades, younger voters were a reliable part of the Democratic coalition, including in the 2020 election. But polls leading up to Biden’s departure from the race showed his wide advantage with Americans between the ages of 18 and 29 had diminished.
Liz Benecchi, 22, echoed a refrain heard from Democrats young and old — that while the party respected Biden’s record and decades of service, there was a necessity to turn the page.
“I have so much admiration and so much deep respect for him. I’m going to be honest, I wasn’t as excited about going out on Election Day to vote for President Joe Biden. But it was time for something new and it was time for a change. And I think everyone here is really fired up,” said Benecchi.
Benecchi pointed to the Harris campaign’s fresh embrace of social media, especially TikTok, leaning into memes like “brat summer” and Harris’ viral “coconut tree” moment, as a more earnest way to communicate with the party’s youngest flank.
“I have so many friends that want to get engaged. They want to volunteer, they want to canvass, they want to be a part of it,” Benecchi said.
That kind of enthusiasm can’t exist in a vacuum — and Lorenzo Ruiz, 20, said he feels like the energy transfer to get-out-the-vote mobilization is kicking off in earnest now.
“We’re moving on the right path. The trajectory feels like it’s toward victory, and we’re really seeing people lock in and engage. And that’s what we need. We need people excited. We need them happy and joyful. And this is a joyous campaign. And, that’s the campaign that we’ve been building and that we as a group, people on the campaign, people working grassroots, will continue to build. And, I think we’re going to win this thing,” Ruiz said.
This sort of enthusiasm is reflected in the newest ABC News/Washington Post/Ipsos poll, with the data showing an 18-point swing from Biden (at +2) to Harris (at +20) with people under 40.
But her support from the younger generation is not guaranteed — especially as young progressives remain heavily critical of Biden’s (and Harris’) position on Israel.
Jasmine Wynn, 19, one of such progressives, still plans on voting for Harris regardless. And while she acknowledges that others on the left may not follow suit, Wynn supposes that there’s a practical argument to be made to persuade them.
“I think a lot of young left, especially my friends, initially they were reluctant to vote for Harris or any kind of like Democratic ticket because of kind of what they’ve done so far in Gaza. But I think there’s kind of a shift in terms of, I think, approaching electoral politics in a very pragmatic sense as opposed to an idealistic sense,” said Wynn.
(BUTLER, Penn.) — At least five U.S. Secret Service officials involved in the planning of Donald Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, where a gunman attempted to kill the former president, have been placed on administrative leave, according to two sources familiar with the situation.
The officials are still working but not allowed to be involved in anything operational including the security planning, the sources told ABC News.
The Secret Service’s Office of Professional Responsibility investigation has been intensifying, and while the investigation has focused on the failures, miscues and planning up to Butler, the probe is now focusing on a number of issues, including the number of classified threats against former President Trump by Iran and what the agency did in response security-wise regarding the new intelligence.
An official tells ABC News this means even more senior officials might be caught up in the review.
“The U.S. Secret Service is committed to investigating the decisions and actions of personnel related to the event in Butler, Pennsylvania and the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump,” the agency said. “The U.S. Secret Service’s mission assurance review is progressing, and we are examining the processes, procedures and factors that led to this operational failure.”
The agency said it holds its personnel to the “highest professional standards” and would not comment further.
Trump was struck in his ear by a bullet during the assassination attempt at his campaign rally on July 13, which also killed one spectator and injured two others, according to officials. The gunman, identified by the FBI as 20-year-old Thomas Matthew Crooks, was killed by Secret Service agents.
The U.S. Secret Service recently made arrangements for Trump to resume outdoor campaign rallies by surrounding his podium with bulletproof glass, multiple sources told ABC News.
(WASHINGTON) — Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Friday indicated that the central bank would soon begin cutting interest rates.
Speaking at an annual gathering in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Powell said the “time has come” for the Fed to adjust its interest rate policy. The announcement comes after a yearslong effort to fight inflation with highly elevated interest rates.
At previous meetings, Powell said the Fed needed to be confident that inflation had begun moving sustainably downward to its target rate of 2% before instituting rate cuts. On Friday, Powell appeared to indicate that the Fed had achieved that objective.
“My confidence has grown that inflation is on a sustainable path down to 2%,” Powell said.
Price increases have slowed significantly from a peak of more than 9%, but inflation remains nearly a percentage point higher than the Fed’s target rate of 2%.
In recent months, the labor market has slowed alongside cooling inflation. That trend was highlighted last month by a weaker-than-expected jobs report that raised concern among some economists that the U.S. may be headed toward a recession.
The Fed is guided by a dual mandate to keep inflation under control and maximize employment. In theory, low interest rates help stimulate economic activity and boost employment; high interest rates slow economic performance and ease inflation.
Recent economic developments have shifted the Fed’s focus away from controlling inflation and toward ensuring a healthy labor market, Powell said. The unemployment rate has ticked up this year from 3.7% to 4.3%.
“A cooldown in the labor market is unmistakable,” Powell said.
The chances of an interest rate cut at the Fed’s next meeting in September are all but certain, according to the CME FedWatch Tool, a measure of market sentiment.
Market observers are divided over whether the Fed will impose its typical cut of a quarter of a percentage point or opt for a larger half-point cut. The tool indicates a roughly 60% chance of a quarter-point cut and a 40% chance of a half-point cut.
“Powell has rung the bell for the start of the cutting cycle,” Seema Shah, chief global strategist at investment firm Principal Asset Management, told ABC News in a statement. “Make no mistake, if the labor market shows signs of further cooling, the Fed will cut with conviction.”
Wall Street rallied in early trading on Friday after the remarks from Powell. Each of the major stock indexes climbed more than half a percentage point on the news.
