(WASHINGTON) — Ahead of what could be their final investigative hearing, scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, members of the House Jan. 6 committee on Sunday offered a small preview of what is to come as they rapidly approach the end of their timeline.
“We’re not disclosing yet what the focus will be. I can say that, as this may be the last hearing of this nature — that is, one that is focused on sort of the factual record — I think it’ll be potentially more sweeping than some of the other hearings,” Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said on CNN’s State of the Union.
“But it too will be in very thematic,” he said of the hearing. “It will tell the story about a key element of Donald Trump’s plot to overturn the election. And the public will certainly learn things it hasn’t seen before, but it will also understand information it already has in a different context by seeing how it relates to other elements of this plot.”
After the committee’s vice-chair, Rep. Liz Cheney, said Saturday that she believes the group will move forward unanimously, Schiff agreed and went a bit further when asked if there was going to be an unanimous criminal referral made about the former president’s conduct. (Former President Donald Trump has repeatedly said he did nothing wrong and cast the committee, which includes two Republicans, as partisan.)
“It will be … my recommendation, my feeling, that we should make referrals,” Schiff said. “But we will get to a decision as a committee, and we will all abide by that decision, and I will join our committee members if they feel differently.”
Cheney has also said the committee received around 800,000 pages of communications from the Secret Service in response to a subpoena. Members of the committee said Sunday they are still going through that information.
While the provided materials are not a substitute for the Jan. 6-related messages that were deleted, they offer some additional context, according to Schiff.
“We are still investigating how that came about [the deleted messages] and why that came about. And I hope and believe the Justice Department, on that issue, is also looking at whether laws were broken in the destruction of that evidence,” Schiff said on CNN. “But we do have a mountain of information that we need to go through. But I think it’s fair to say that it won’t be a complete substitute for some of the most important evidence, which would have been on those phones.”
Asked about former committee adviser Denver Riggleman’s recent suggestion that “the White House switchboard had connected to a rioter’s phone” during the attack on the Capitol last year — and if he viewed such a development as significant to the investigation — Schiff downplayed the comment.
“I can’t comment on the particulars. I can say that each of the issues that Mr. Riggleman raised during the period he was with the committee, which ended quite some time ago, we looked into. And one of the things that has given our committee credibility is we’ve been very careful about what we say, not to overstate matters,” Schiff said, adding, “Without the advantage of the additional information we’ve gathered since he left the committee, it poses real risks to be suggesting things. So, we have looked into all of these issues.”
Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press and was asked about the likelihood that the Jan. 6 committee will have testimony from Ginni Thomas and Newt Gingrich before Wednesday’s hearing.
“I doubt that. But I think that there is an agreement in place with Ginni Thomas to come and talk and I know the committee is very interested,” Raskin said, referring to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas’ wife, a noted conservative activist who was in touch with Trump’s team as he pushed to overturn the 2020 results.
Raskin said that those testimonies — once they are given — will be included in the committee’s final report if the hearings have already concluded.
He was also asked if that report will be finished by the midterm elections.
“I don’t know whether it will be done then, but our commitment is to get it done by the end of this Congress [by January],” Raskin said. “The House of Representatives, unlike the Senate, ends every two years. A completely new Congress comes in. So that’s the end of our lease on life and we have to get it out to the people.”
Pressed further on the amount of work still left for them to do, Raskin pledged that the committee will “make sure our materials are made public and available for the future, and we’re going to preserve them. We’re not going to allow them to be destroyed.”
The committee chair, Bennie Thompson, told reporters last week that the hearings were wrapping up.
“Unless something else develops, this hearing, at this point, is the final hearing. But it’s not in stone because things happen,” Thompson, D-Miss., said then.
He promised “substantial footage” of the riot and “significant witness testimony” that hadn’t previously been released.
(AUSTIN, Texas) — Outgoing Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., reiterated this weekend that she would campaign against election deniers, singling out Republican gubernatorial nominees in Arizona and Pennsylvania who’ve floated conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential race.
Cheney, who lost her primary last month to a challenger endorsed by former President Donald Trump, said at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin on Saturday that she would seek to prevent Arizona Republican Kari Lake and Pennsylvania Republican Doug Mastriano from being elected to their states’ governors’ mansions.
“I’m going to do everything I can to make sure Kari Lake is not elected,” Cheney said at the closing night of the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin.
“I think we have to do everything we can in ’22 to make sure those people don’t get elected,” she added.
Turning to the governor’s race in Pennsylvania, she said, “We have to make sure [Doug] Mastriano doesn’t win.”
She also criticized Republican leaders like Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin for, in her words, accommodating election deniers even as she praised Youngkin because he “hasn’t bought into the toxin of Donald Trump.”
When asked if her efforts to stop Lake, Mastriano and others could include campaigning for Democrats, Cheney simply replied, “Yes.”
“In this election, you have to vote for the person who actually believes in democracy,” she said. “And that is just crucial, because if we elect election deniers, if we elect people who said that they’re not going to certify results or who are going to try to steal elections, then we really are putting the republic at risk.”
Cheney’s latest comments offer more specificity on a vow she made earlier this year while being interviewed by ABC News: to make faith in the electoral process a litmus test in the midterms.
“I’m going to be very focused on working to ensure that we do everything we can not to elect election deniers. … We’ve got election deniers that have been nominated for really important positions all across the country. And I’m going to work against those people, I’m going to work to support their opponents; I think it matters that much,” she told ABC News’ Jonathan Karl in August.
In taking on Lake and Mastriano, Cheney is challenging two far-right Republicans who are popular with conservative voters and who could have outsized sway in two key presidential battlegrounds.
Lake has been adamant in making unfounded claims that election fraud threw the 2020 White House race and has said she wouldn’t have certified Arizona’s results from that year.
Mastriano, who has promoted similar groundless allegations, would have the power as governor to appoint Pennsylvania’s secretary of state, who oversees elections there.
After Cheney’s criticism Saturday, Lake shot back in an interview on Fox News, pointing to Cheney’s loss in Wyoming last month.
“That might be the biggest, best gift I’ve ever received. I mean, the people of Wyoming can’t stand her. I’m pretty much sure that the people of Arizona don’t like Liz Cheney,” Lake said Sunday. (Mastriano’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Cheney from ABC News.)
Beyond Lake and Mastriano, Cheney called out Youngkin, who has said President Joe Biden was legitimately elected but who will campaign soon with Lake.
“That’s the kind of thing we cannot see in our party. We cannot see an accommodation like that,” Cheney said on Saturday.
In response to Cheney’s criticism, Youngkin’s office referred ABC News to what he said when appeared at the Texas Tribune Festival.
There, when asked about campaigning for Lake given her attacks on elections, he cited Virginia’s issues grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic — relating in particular to school closures and “economic progress” — and said, “I was elected in 2021 and therefore was able to go to work in a state that had been blue and demonstrate what I believe are conservative commonsense solutions to problems and progress that we’ve made. I think I’m uniquely positioned to share this perspective.”
Cheney’s own electoral future is unclear. After her primary loss, she launched a political group that some saw as a potential vehicle for a 2024 presidential bid of her own — a prospect she has not ruled out.
However, one thing she has ruled out is supporting Trump if he runs in two years, even going so far as to say she could leave a party that was once nearly synonymous with her last name.
“I’m going to do everything I can to make sure he is not the nominee,” she said. “And if he is the nominee, I won’t be a Republican.”
(NEW YORK) — More than six months after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched an invasion into neighboring Ukraine, the two countries are engaged in a struggle for control of areas throughout eastern and southern Ukraine.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose forces began an offensive in August, has vowed to take back all Russian-occupied territory. But Putin in September announced a mobilization of reservists, which is expected to call up as many as 300,000 additional troops.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Sep 26, 10:14 AM EDT
Ukrainian first lady ‘worried’ about Russian mobilization
In a new interview, Ukrainian first lady Olena Zelenka told ABC News that recent developments in the war are upsetting, saying this is not an “easy period” for the people of Ukraine.
“When the whole world wants this war to be over, they continue to recruit soldiers for their army,” said Zelenska, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s announcement last week that he is mobilizing 300,000 more troops against Ukraine. “Of course, we are concerned about this. We are worried and this is a bad sign for the whole world.”
Zelenska, who spoke with ABC News’ Amy Robach through a translator, said Ukrainians will continue to persevere in the face of conflict.
“The main difference between our army and the Russian army is that we really know what we are fighting for,” she said.
Zelenska attended the United Nations General Assembly in-person in New York City, where she spoke to ABC News about the U.N.’s recent finding that war crimes have been committed in Ukraine by Russian troops. An appointed panel of independent legal experts reported that Russian soldiers have “raped, tortured, and unlawfully confined” children in Ukraine, among other crimes.
“On the one hand, it’s horrible news, but it’s the news that we knew about already,” she said. “On the other hand, it’s great news that the whole world can finally see that this is a heinous crime, that this war is against humanity and humankind.”
Sep 26, 5:40 AM EDT
Man opens fire at Russian military enlistment office
A man has opened fire at a military enlistment office in eastern Russia, severely injuring a recruitment officer there.
An apparent video of the shooting was circulating online, showing a man shooting the officer at a podium in the officer in the city of Irkutsk.
Irkutsk’s regional governor confirmed the shooting, naming the officer injured as Alexander V. Yeliseyev and saying he is in intensive care in a critical condition.
The alleged shooter has been detained, according to the governor.
The Russian Defense Ministry announced a high-level shake-up in its military leadership amid reports Russian forces are struggling in the war against Ukraine.
The defense ministry said Saturday that Col. Gen. Mikhail Y. Mizintsev has been promoted to deputy defense minister overseeing logistics, replacing four-star Gen. Dmitri V. Bulgakov, 67, who had held the post since 2008.
Bulgakov was relieved of his position and is expected to be transferred “to another job,” the Defense Ministry statement said.
The New York Times reported that Mizintsev — whom Western officials dubbed the “butcher of Mariupol” after alleged atrocities against civilians surfaced in the Ukrainian city in March, previously served as chief of Russia’s National Defense Management Center, which oversees military operations and planning.
In this previous role, Mizintsev became one of the public faces of the war in Ukraine, informing the public about what the Kremlin still calls a “special military operation.”
Mizintsev was put on international sanctions lists and accused of atrocities for his role in the brutal siege of the Mariupol.
Sep 25, 11:58 AM EDT
Russian recruits report for military mobilization
Newly recruited Russian soldiers are reporting for duty in response to the Kremlin’s emergency mobilization to bolster forces in Ukraine, according to photographs emerging from Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced last week a mobilization to draft more than 300,000 Russians with military expertise, sparking anti-war protests across the country and prompting many to try to flee Russia to avoid the draft.
Putin signed a law with amendments to the Russian Criminal Code upping the punishments for the crimes of desertion during periods of mobilization and martial law.
White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in an interview Sunday with ABC News This Week anchor George Stephanopoulos that Russia’s military draft is more evidence Russia is “struggling” in its invasion of Ukraine. He also said “sham referendums” going on in Russia-backed territories of eastern and southern Ukraine are also acts of desperation by the Kremlin.
“These are definitely not signs of strength or confidence. Quite the opposite: They’re signs that Russia and Putin are struggling badly,” Sullivan said while noting Putin’s autocratic hold on the country made it hard to make definitive assessments from the outside.
(NEW YORK) — On hot days, some over 100 degrees, workers spend hours harvesting fruits and vegetables for very little money — produce that ends up on kitchen tables of people across the country.
Tens of thousands of these workers have experienced heat-related injuries and hundreds more have died from heat, all while earning an average of $25,000 to $29,999 per year in one of the most hazardous jobs in the country, the Economic Policy Institute found.
The workers, a majority of whom are Latino and undocumented, are in a constant battle for fair and safe labor practices.
However, the labor rights movement transcends industries, though it may look quite different for others.
And in local and federal government agencies, interns have been at the center of a debate about unpaid labor.
It wasn’t until recently that some government offices have begun paying their interns, which has created a new pathway for people from lower-income households to support themselves while gaining entry-level experience in policy and politics.
Pay Our Interns, created and spearheaded by two Latinos, fueled this change through their advocacy on Capitol Hill.
Latinos have been a major force in the labor rights movement for decades, with icons such as Dolores Huerta, Cesar Chavez, and Emma Tenayuca as the leaders of the fight.
Farm workers harness collective organizing power
On Aug. 3, farm workers began a 24-day, 335-mile “March for the Governor’s Signature” to urge California Gov. Gavin Newsom to sign a farm a farm workers rights bill.
The bill would make it easier for workers to vote for a union,, without intimidation from supervisors, foreman and labor contractors. Farm workers say that voting, as it is now, discourages participation in union efforts.
“Currently, the only way that they do it is in person, at the premises of the employer, where the supervisors are looking over their shoulders, where they hire security, where, in many cases, immigration has been called and farm workers have been deported,” said Teresa Romero, the president of the labor union United Farm Workers.
However, Newsom has expressed concerns about the bill.
“We cannot support an untested mail-in election process that lacks critical provisions to protect the integrity of the election,” Newsom spokesperson Erin Mellon told CalMatters.
Farmworkers face challenging workplace conditions, including low pay, unsafe conditions, and very few if any protections against abuse or misconduct.
Romero, who leads the organization, says many undocumented workers pay taxes, but can’t collect social security and can’t retire. Some are left working long hours for years past the average retiring age.
“They work and feed us all,” Romero said.
She continued, “They move from crop to crop, moving their children from city to city to be able to support their family. And if we knew that, all of us would be willing to pay a little more for our food, just so these people have the respect, dignity, and the pay that they deserve.”
Without them, she says, we wouldn’t have food on our tables.
Romero urges people to be conscious of where they buy their food, how workers are represented and how they’re protected. She said the fight for fair working practices shouldn’t stop and end with farm workers themselves. She said their labor fight is a collective fight.
“This is not just manual labor,” she said. “These are professionals who know exactly what to do when to do with different crops.”
Fighting for fair labor conditions in the office
“Our society got too comfortable with unpaid labor,” says Carlos Mark Vera, a co-founder of Pay Our Interns.
He and Guillermo Creamer Jr. created the group to put an end to unpaid labor primarily in the public service space. Before 2017, Pay Our Interns found that only 10 percent of congressional interns were paid.
The organization has since worked with Congress to allocate $48 million for lawmakers to pay their interns.
“Since then that fund has actually been growing each year, which is unheard of, you know, usually programs don’t increase that quickly,” said Vera. “Now that we have Congress invested in this, and they’re very supportive of this, we’ve leveraged that for other ones. So this past year, we secured funding for White House interns, State Department interns for the first time in history.”
Unpaid internships push low-income or financially strained students out of the running to gain experience.
Unpaid internships often force students to choose between finding a job that pays their bills or paying for an internship out of their own funds – since Vera says that internship expenses like traveling or supplies often come from the intern’s wallet.
This primarily affects Black and brown students, and makes it harder for some students to enter certain fields if only unpaid internships are available.
“How do you grow wealth in this country? A lot of times, it’s just entering through professional pathways. But when there’s a price to participating in these opportunities … We know that many Black and brown families cannot afford to do that,” said Creamer.
They say they were raised in a culture where people had to “pay their dues” through unpaid labor. However, they say the culture is shifting and people are learning that their work should be valued at all levels.
Vera’s own sister, a sophomore in college, was interviewing for an internship when she asked if it was paid – and the employer said it wasn’t.
She explained that her brother had an organization dedicated to eradicating unpaid labor, and declined the opportunity.
“They call the next day, and they’re like, ‘Okay, how about $18 an hour?'” Vera said, applauding his sister for advocating for herself.
(IZHEVSK, Russia) — Local authorities said at least 21 more people were injured, some severely, in the attack in the school in the city of Izhevsk about 600 miles from Moscow, making it one of the deadliest school shootings Russia has suffered. Two teachers and two security guards were among the dead, according to the region’s governor.
Police said the alleged shooter had killed himself at the school following the attack. They identified him as a 34-year-old former student at the school. Russia’s Investigative Committee, which handles serious crimes, named him as Artyem Kazantsev, and posted a video it said showed his body lying in a pool of blood in a classroom.
The motive for the attack was still unclear but the Committee said it was investigating possible “neofascist views” held by the shooter, who in the video it released appeared to be wearing a T-shirt with a red swastika.
President Vladimir Putin’s spokesman called the shooting a “terrorist act.”
“President Putin grieves in connection with the deaths of people and children in the school, where the terrorist act occurred. It was carried out by an individual who, judging by everything, belongs to a neofascist organisation or group,” Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s press secretary told reporters.
The shooting began mid-morning, while children were in class. Video circulating in Russian media showed pupils cowering under desks and with blood stains visible on the floor. Police sealed off the school and emergency services could be seen carrying stretchers with the wounded from the building.
The shooter was armed with two pistols, according to Alexander Khinstein, the chairman of Russia’s parliamentary committee for information policy, technology and communications.
School shootings have been relatively rare in Russia, but in recent years they have become increasingly frequent.
In May 2021, a teenager killed seven children and two adults after attacking a school in Kazan, and in April this year a man shot dead two children and a teacher at a kindergarten in the Ulyanovsk region. An 18-year-old student killed 21 people and wounded dozens more after setting off a bomb in a polytechnic college in Kerch in occupied Crimea in 2018.
(NEW YORK) — Hurricane Ian, the fifth hurricane of the Atlantic season, is expected to rapidly intensify on Monday.
Ian is currently forecast to make landfall on the west coast of Florida or the Florida Panhandle by midday Thursday, though there is uncertainty about the hurricane’s track and intensity.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has declared a “state of emergency” for the entire state, with storm conditions “projected to constitute a major disaster.”
The National Hurricane Center has advised residents of Cuba, the Florida Keys and the Florida peninsula to have a hurricane plan in place and to closely follow forecast updates.
Sep 26, 8:23 AM EDT
Hurricane watch issued for Tampa, Fort Myers, Naples
Ian is expected to become major Category 3 hurricane Monday night with winds of 115 mph.
As Ian passes Cuba, it’s expected to rapidly intensify, becoming a Category 4 hurricane as it moves through the Gulf. Hurricane warnings are in effect for Cuba and the Cayman Islands.
Models are split when it comes to Ian’s landfall in Florida; impacts could be as far north as Panama City and as far south as Fort Myers.
Some models forecast landfall by Wednesday afternoon between Tampa and Fort Myers, while other models predict landfall at the end of the week near Panama City or Apalachicola.
Hurricane watches have been issued in Tampa, Fort Myers and Naples.
-ABC News’ Max Golembo
Sep 26, 5:20 AM EDT
Storm becomes Hurricane Ian
The National Hurricane Center declared Ian a hurricane on Monday, as the storm gained strength on its way toward Florida.
“A Hurricane Watch has been issued along the west coast of Florida from north of Englewood to the Anclote River, including Tampa Bay,” the center said on Monday.
– ABC News’ Max Golembo
Sep 25, 10:19 PM EDT
NASA to reconvene on whether to take Artemis rocket off launchpad
NASA hasn’t decided whether to leave its Artemis I rocket on the launchpad as it monitors Tropical Storm Ian’s path toward Florida, the agency said Sunday.
The federal space agency’s mission managers will continue discussions on Monday about the next steps as its rocket was delayed again.
On Saturday, NASA scrapped its third planned launch attempt of Artemis I because of weather concerns. Artemis I was scheduled to launch on Sept. 27.
Engineers will decide if the rocket needs to roll back off the launch pad. If they do not roll it back, the next possible launch date is Sunday, Oct. 2.
Tropical Storm Ian is forecast to strengthen into a major hurricane as it nears Florida.
NASA had to scrub the first launch attempt on Aug. 29 because of a faulty temperature sensor and the second attempt on Sept. 3 due to a liquid hydrogen leak.
If the Oct. 2 launch doesn’t happen, the rocket will be taken back to the Vehicle Assembly Building at the Kennedy Space Center until the team decides on the next date.
-ABC News’ Gina Sunseri, Mary Kekatos and Nadine El-Bawab
Sep 25, 10:27 PM EDT
Ian strengthens once again, forecast to become hurricane on Monday
Tropical Storm Ian has strengthened with maximum sustained winds at 60 mph and is expected to get stronger throughout the night as atmospheric conditions become more favorable for the storm.
Ian is forecast to become a hurricane on Monday, becoming even more intense likely into Tuesday.
Ian is moving to the northwest to the Northwest at 12 mph, with the center located 160 miles away from Grand Cayman.
Jamaica and the Cayman Islands are expected to experience heavy rain, a heavy surge and possible flash flooding over the next 24 hours.
-ABC News’ Dan Peck
Sep 25, 5:45 PM EDT
Ian weakens slightly but will regain strength overnight
Tropical Storm Ian has weakened slightly, but it is expected to not only strengthen but rapidly intensify overnight as it travels over warm waters in the Caribbean.
As of 5 p.m. ET, the storm system had maximum sustained winds of 45 mph and was moving west-northwest at 12 mph, with the center located about 220 miles away from Grand Cayman.
Dry air ahead of the storm has delayed the strengthening trend so far. But the rapid intensification is expected to occur Monday into Tuesday as the system continues across the northwestern Caribbean and closes in on western Cuba.
Over the next 24 hours, the outer bands will impact Jamaica and the Cayman Islands, bringing rounds of heavy rain, possible flash flooding and storm surge. Later Monday and into Monday night, Ian will be closing in on western Cuba and will likely bring significant wind and storm surge impacts to the region.
A hurricane warning is in effect for Grand Cayman and portions of western Cuba. A tropical storm watch has been issued for portions of western Cuba, as well as the lower Florida Keys, including Key West.
As of 5 p.m., the forecast track was nudged slightly eastward. Overall, the forecast guidance variability and uncertainty will remain high, and the track for where the storm will be from the middle to the end of the week will continue to shift over the next 24 to 48 hours.
(WASHINGTON) — The Federal Reserve escalated its fight against inflation this week, instituting a major rate increase and saying more will likely follow. The moves will cause a jump in the number of unemployed Americans by the end of next year, the central bank said.
The Fed has put forward a series of aggressive interest rate hikes in recent months as it tries to slash price increases by slowing the economy and choking off demand. But the approach risks tipping the United States into a recession and causing widespread joblessness.
Fed Chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday acknowledged that rate hikes would cause pain for the U.S. economy, as growth slows and unemployment rises. He added, however, that “a failure to restore price stability would mean far greater pain later on.”
The job losses forecasted by the Fed this week would by the end of 2023 raise the unemployment rate from its current level of 3.7% to 4.4%. That outcome would add an estimated 1.2 million unemployed people, according to Omair Sharif, the founder of research firm Inflation Insights.
Those job losses will disproportionately fall on some of the most vulnerable workers, including minorities and less-educated employees, according to economists and studies of past downturns.
Here are the groups of workers who would most likely lose their jobs if unemployment rises:
Black and Hispanic workers
Black workers would be among the first to lose their jobs if unemployment spikes, since they’re disproportionately concentrated in industries sensitive to economic downturns. Racial discrimination often influences choices made by companies about which workers to fire, economists said.
“The Fed’s actions really do mean some disparate impact for Black workers in the American economy,” Michelle Holder, a labor economist at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, told ABC News.
The vulnerability of Black workers in a downturn manifested during the most recent recession, in spring 2020, when the pandemic caused higher unemployment for Black workers at every education level when compared with their white counterparts, a RAND Corporation study found.
Overall, the unemployment rate for Black workers in the early period of the pandemic peaked at 16.8%, while the unemployment rate for white workers reached only 14.1%.
Between the late 1980s and mid-2000s, government employment data shows “considerable evidence” that Black workers are among the first ones fired as the economy weakens, according to an economic study published in 2010 in Demography, an academic journal.
“To be blunt, discrimination still occurs in the American labor market,” Holder said.
A similar dynamic of disproportionate job losses impacts Hispanic workers, the economists said.
William Spriggs, the chief economist at the AFL-CIO labor union and a professor of economics at Howard University, said Hispanic workers would suffer acutely in a downturn brought about by interest rate hikes, since they’re disproportionately represented in the construction industry.
When the Fed raises rates, it often leads to a spike in mortgage rates, causing prospective homebuyers to put off their purchases and builders to delay further construction. U.S. 30-year fixed-rate mortgages jumped to 6.29% on Thursday, the highest level in 14 years, according to Freddie Mac’s mortgage market survey.
As of last year, Hispanic workers made up nearly a third of all construction workers, according to a National Association of Home Builders analysis of government data published in June.
“We’ve already seen construction work is slowing,” Spriggs told ABC News. “Those construction workers get hit first.”
Less-educated workers
Another group that would stand among the first to end up jobless amid a downturn is less-educated workers.
Two years ago, during the pandemic-induced recession, less-educated workers suffered far more acute job losses than their better-educated peers, according to a study published in 2021 by the Institute for New Economic Thinking.
In general, when the economy weakens, poorly educated workers endure a more negative effect on employment than their better-educated counterparts, according to a study published by the Minneapolis Federal Reserve in 2010.
In the Great Recession, the employment rate for workers with just a high school diploma fell 5.6%, while the employment rate for workers with a college degree fell less than 1%, the study found.
“Workers who tend to fare better when the economy contracts are better-educated workers,” said Holder.
Young workers
Data from the two most recent recessions, in 2020 and 2007, indicates that young workers suffer disproportionately when the economy contracts.
During the pandemic-induced recession, young workers became jobless at a much higher rate than older workers, according to a study released by the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute in 2020.
From spring 2019 to spring 2020, the overall unemployment rate among workers ages 16 to 24 rose from 8.4% to 24.4%, while unemployment for workers ages 25 and older rose from 2.8% to 11.3%, the study found.
A similar outcome followed the Great Recession. Between 2007 and 2010, workers between the ages of 16 and 24 suffered a more dramatic drop in employment than any other age group, according to a Brookings Institution analysis of government data that focused on the ratio of employed workers in a given demographic compared to its representation in the population as a whole.
(NEW YORK) — In July, three months after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, first lady Olena Zelenska told ABC News that she hoped an end to the war was near.
Four months later, just last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that he is mobilizing 300,000 more troops against Ukraine.
In a new interview, Zelenska told ABC News’ Amy Robach that the developments are upsetting, saying this is not an “easy period” for the people of Ukraine.
“When the whole world wants this war to be over, they continue to recruit soldiers for their army,” said Zelenska, referring to Russia. “Of course, we are concerned about this. We are worried, and this is a bad sign for the whole world.”
Zelenska, who spoke with Robach through a translator, said she feels though that Ukrainians will continue to persevere in the face of conflict.
“The main difference between our army and the Russian army is that we really know what we are fighting for,” she said.
Zelenska’s husband, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, warned last week in a recorded address to the United Nations General Assembly that Moscow was trying to wait his fighters out.
Zelenska attended the United Nations General Assembly in-person in New York City, where she spoke to Robach about the U.N.’s recent finding that wars crimes have been committed in Ukraine by Russian troops.
A U.N.-appointed panel of independent legal experts reported that, among other crimes, Russian soldiers have “raped, tortured, and unlawfully confined” children in Ukraine.
The report followed an announcement by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in March that the State Department made a formal assessment that Russian forces have committed war crimes in the country.
Zelenska said she was not surprised by the U.N. report but is glad the crimes are internationally recognized now.
“On the one hand, it’s horrible news, but it’s the news that we knew about already,” she said. “On the other hand, it’s great news that the whole world can finally see that this is a heinous crime, that this war is against humanity and humankind.”
Zelenska continued, “Now Ukrainian efforts at the international level are focused on creating an international tribunal for all responsible for crimes that still unfortunately continue to occur in Ukraine during this war.”
Zelenska recently started a foundation to help Ukrainians recover from the devastating effects of the war with Russia.
She said the foundation is focused on three areas: Education, medicine and humanitarian aid.
“Our main goal is to help as many people as possible to return home,” said Zelenska. “For them to be able to return, we need to restore hospitals, schools … We need to rebuild their homes.”
In English, Zelenska directly addressed the American people, saying support from the United States is “crucial.”
“It’s not war between Ukraine and Russia. It’s war for values of all the world. A war for freedom, for human rights, for all that we love, all of the people of the world,” she said. “And that’s exactly what Ukrainians are fighting for now. So don’t stop your support. It’s very important for us.”
(NEW YORK) — Every day at the start of his classes, Nick Orr, a high school science teacher in Nevada, said he checks in with his students about their mental health.
It’s a practice Orr said he began doing after his own brother Anthony died by suicide shortly after graduating high school in 2020.
Orr said Anthony’s death came as a shock and made him realize his brother may have never felt there was a safe space to talk about his mental health.
“I didn’t think there was anything going on,” Orr told “Good Morning America.” “We had a wonderful relationship, but this is just something he never told anyone about, he never spoke about, he never asked for help and unfortunately, it was something that ultimately got the best of him.”
Anthony’s death came at the same time the school district where he attended high school experienced a wave of student deaths due to suicide, according to Orr.
He said the firsthand experience of seeing teenagers struggling with their mental health changed the way he approached it in his classroom.
“How much do we really want to put an emphasis on academic content standards and this rigor when these kids are so obviously hurting and struggling,” said Orr. “We can ask them to think about earth science for 80 minutes straight, but we know that that’s not going to happen.”
He continued, “There are going to be issues that promote emotional reactions for these kids and teaching them how to deal with their feelings as well as how to process their feelings. That’s how we set them up to be successful in their life.”
In Orr’s classroom, he began asking his students to confidentially give him a thumbs up or thumbs down sign at the start of class to let him know how they’re feeling.
He started holding what he calls “social-emotional conferences” with students as follow-ups. Orr also started helping students with their physical health as a way to improve their mental health, taking on classroom challenges to drink more water, get more sleep and eat breakfast daily, something he has his first period students do together as a class each morning.
Orr said he works hard to make sure each student knows that they matter and that help is available.
“My kids know that if they ever need me, I am a trusted adult that they can come to and that I’m here to help however I can,” said Orr. “I tell the kids that they all matter, that we don’t all have to dance to the same beat or do the same job or go down the same path, but we do all need to look out for each other and respect each other.”
Orr said that connecting with each student and looking out for their mental health is “no easy task” given all the other responsibilities he and other teachers have, but it is one he is committed to as a way to honor his brother.
He said both he and his parents talk openly about Anthony and mental health so that no other family has to suffer a similar loss.
“As suicide survivors, we don’t want anyone else to experience the pain that we’ve lived through and live through to this day,” said Orr. “It can be terrifying to ask for help, but so is what could happen if we don’t get help. Very few things are as permanent as suicide.”
Growing concerns over teens and suicide
Across the country, the suicide rate among young people has been on the rise, increasing nearly 60% between 2007 and 2018, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Data shows that in the U.S., suicide is the third leading cause of death for young people, and, more specifically, the second leading cause of death for youth ages 10 to 14.
In 2021, during the coronavirus pandemic, there was an almost 51% rise in emergency department visits related to suspected suicide attempts among girls ages 12 to 17, compared to the same time period in 2019, according to data released last year by the CDC.
Amid the pandemic, youth mental health was declared a “national emergency” by the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and the Children’s Hospital Association.
U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek H. Murthy issued a 53-page advisory warning of a growing mental health crisis among young people, writing, “The challenges today’s generation of young people face are unprecedented and uniquely hard to navigate.”
Dr. Jenna Glover, a licensed psychologist and director of psychology training at Children’s Hospital of Colorado, said she has seen firsthand the mental health struggles among teens.
“In large part that’s just due to having increased pressures in our society and more access to information and connections to other people, which isn’t always a helpful thing,” said Glover. “I think we also have seen a small amount of that increase come just because we are identifying the problems so more people are more aware, but certainly kids are dealing with more stress and pressure relative to previous generations.”
Glover said teens today are connected online which means they face more stressors like bullying and the pressure to succeed as well as full access to information on societal struggles like wars, the pandemic and climate change.
“They’re experiencing a lot more stress than many of us did growing up,” said Glover, who said in her home state, suicide is the leading cause of death for young people ages 10 to 24.
The high rate of mental health struggles among her peers in Colorado is what prompted Aimee Resnick, 17, of Centennial, Colorado, to advocate for a now-state law that requires student ID cards to feature the state’s free, 24/7 mental health hotline.
It was that hotline that Aimee said saved her life when she called it for help at age 13 while struggling with suicide idealization.
Aimee said like many teens, she felt the pressures of school, including bullying, and said she suffered from an eating disorder.
Through the hotline, Aimee said she was able to get immediate help and was able to continue on with mental health services that gave her tools to cope.
“We need this information out here so that young people know who to call,” she said of her motivation to increase access to the mental health hotline.
According to Glover, teens could be at a higher risk of death by suicide relative to adults because their brains are still developing.
“I have a colleague who says teenagers are like Ferraris, where the engine and the gas pedal are put in but not the brakes,” she said. “They are experiencing a full range of emotions that they’ve never experienced before but they don’t have the same cognitive abilities to control those emotions that adults do.”
Glover said the part of the brain that manages emotions and inhibits strong behaviors is not fully developed until around age 25.
“It’s easy as parents to think, ‘Why can’t you mange this? It’s not that big of a deal,’ but they literally can’t see the world the same way that we can because we have a different part of our brain developed,” she said. “They’re going to experience stronger emotions without that brake pedal built in and then, in addition, they’re experiencing a lot more stress than many of us did growing up.”
Gabriella Betance, now 22, of Lakewood, Colorado, said she had no idea how to handle the big emotions she felt as a teenager, a struggle that led to two hospitalizations after suicide attempts.
“When you start struggling with these big feelings, the first people you are going to talk to are going to be your peers and you’re all kids and don’t know how to handle it,” she said. “The two times that it was a serious, life-threatening moment, I was lucky enough to get the help that I needed.”
She continued, “But I feel like if we had the tools, if we had the conversations regularly about mental health, like check-ins and safe words, that I wouldn’t have felt the need to act in such a drastic way.”
How parents, teachers can help
One of the most important things that adults can do to support teens with their mental health is to have open and honest conversations, according to Glover.
She said parents in particular should not be afraid to talk directly about suicide with their child.
“It’s important for us to state it and say it because when we don’t, kids are worried that it’s not OK that they’re thinking that or feeling that, and it’s a fairly normal human reaction to have,” said Glover, adding that parents can open the conversation by asking their child if anything has been worrying or overwhelming them and then ask directly if the child has had any thoughts of killing or hurting themselves.
“Don’t worry that that is going to plant an idea,” she said of asking directly about suicidal thoughts. “If they’re not having those thoughts, they can just tell you no. But if they are, they will experience a huge amount of relief that you asked directly so they can get that outside of themselves and talk about their problems and usually when kids are able to talk about their problems, they are able to start seeing solutions.”
Glover said checking in and asking your teenager those questions every few months is important, even if a child is not showing symptoms of mental health struggles.
Just as Orr works with his students to make sure they are eating and sleeping well, Glover said access to good nutrition and getting consistent and good quality sleep can greatly improve mental health for teens in particular.
She said social connection is another important factor for preventing teen suicide and that includes both connections with their peers and with dependable adults.
“If a child can just develop one positive relationship with an adult outside of a parent in your life, that is a huge protective factor,” said Glover. “Getting kids involved in extracurriculars, having them have relationships in community, in church, with neighbors, all of those are going to serve as protective factors.”
For teens in need of help, pediatricians, school counselors and school psychologists are easily accessible resources for help, according to Glover.
She also recommends that parents program mental health help lines into their phones so they are easily accessible, saying, “When you are in a crisis, you don’t want to have to be Googling what to do. You want to have it immediately available.”
Glover also encourages parents of teens who struggle with mental health to practice calling a help line together, even if the child is not in crisis in the moment.
“You can absolutely do that and just say, ‘We’re just practicing calling in case we ever need to. We want to know what this is like,'” said Glover. “That practice might make it more likely that your child can use that in a moment when they are in crisis.”
If you are experiencing any thoughts about wanting to hurt yourself or anyone else, any thoughts of suicide, or any mental health crisis, please call or text 988. You will reach a trained crisis counselor for free, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You can also go to 988lifeline.org or dial the current toll free number 800-273-8255 [TALK].
(NEW YORK) — After Donald Trump suggested last week that as president “you can declassify just by saying it’s declassified, even by thinking about it,” Republican Wyoming Senator John Barrasso disagreed — but only after George Stephanopoulos pressed him on the issue twice on ABC’s “This Week.”
During an interview on Sunday, Barrasso was asked by Stephanopoulos about Trump’s handling of classified material, which is under federal investigation as Trump denies wrongdoing.
Trump claimed to Fox News’ Sean Hannity last week that while “different people see different things,” his view of this authority was absolute: “If you’re the president of the United States, you can declassify just by saying it’s declassified. Even by thinking about it.”
Stephanopoulos asked if Barrasso agreed. The senator said that he had not heard about such an assertion and pivoted to criticizing the Department of Justice’s court-authorized search of Mar-a-Lago.
Barrasso said that he had “never seen anything like that before,” referring to the FBI “raid” Trump’s home, and that it had “become political.”
Stephanopoulos pushed back: “You know that a president can’t declassify documents by thinking about it. Why can’t you say so?”
The senator, who also said that he isn’t versed in the rules of presidential declassification and wants to get a briefing from the DOJ on the investigation, then agreed with Stephanopoulos. He said, “I don’t think a president can declassify documents by saying so, by thinking about it.”
That view lines up with what outside experts have told ABC News: The president must document his declassification process somewhere, whatever his process was.
Barrasso spent much of his “This Week” appearance pushing back on President Joe Biden’s foreign policy, including addressing the potential revival of the 2015 nuclear deal between the U.S. and Iran.
Stephanopoulos opened up the interview by having Barrasso respond to Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser. Sullivan was also interviewed on “This Week” on Sunday and said nuclear negotiations — so Iran never has a weapon “they can threaten the world with” — could be effective at the same time the White House was putting public pressure on the country over its treatment of women and protesters.
“Did you find his argument convincing for staying in the Iran nuclear talks?” Stephanopoulos asked Barrasso.
“No deal with Iran, George, is a good deal … They continue to claim ‘death to America.’ We cannot allow them to have a nuclear weapon,” Barrasso said.
Stephanopoulos also sought clarity from Barrasso on the GOP and Ukraine.
Citing criticism of American’s continued aid to Ukraine by some Republicans, like Ohio Senate nominee J.D. Vance, Stephanopoulos asked Barrasso if Democrats were right to warn that the GOP may restrict future support if they retake Congress.
“No. There continues to be bipartisan support in the House and in the Senate for weapons to Ukraine,” Barrasso said.
He said he wanted the White House to be quicker in providing weapons to Ukraine and said “we ought to be producing more American energy to help our European allies” and American consumers who are dealing with the fallout of the conflict with Russia, a major energy provider.
Stephanopoulos asked Barrasso, just as he asked Sullivan: “Do you believe that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s hold on power is secure?”
“I’m not sure,” Barrasso, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said. “He is in a deep hole right now and he’s dug this hole. And I thought his statement to the country there really was desperate. It didn’t show really confidence or strength.”
“The Foreign Relations Committee is going to have a hearing this Wednesday on what additional things we can do in terms of sanctions [on Russia],” Barrasso said. “And also we have a secure briefing on Thursday in the Senate to take a look right at what’s happening on the ground in Ukraine.”
