$1.6B Powerball jackpot hits world record amount

.6B Powerball jackpot hits world record amount
.6B Powerball jackpot hits world record amount
Jeff Gritchen/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images

(NEW YORK) — The Powerball jackpot reached an estimated $1.6 billion on Friday, making it the largest jackpot ever, lottery officials said.

The record-setting jackpot has ballooned after 39 consecutive drawings yielded no grand prize winner, lottery officials said.

The next drawing is Saturday night, marking the 40th Powerball drawing since the jackpot was last won in Pennsylvania on Aug. 3. The cash value of Saturday’s jackpot is $782.4 million, according to the latest figures.

If a player’s ticket matches all six numbers drawn on Saturday night, it will be the largest jackpot won in U.S. lottery history — surpassing the previous world-record-setting $1.586 billion Powerball jackpot in 2016.

If no one wins Saturday’s jackpot, it will tie the game record for the number of drawings in a row without a grand prize winner, Powerball said.

Although there was no jackpot winner in the last drawing on Wednesday night, more than 7.2 million tickets won cash prizes totaling $74.9 million. The overall odds of winning a prize are 1 in 24.9, according to Powerball.

The jackpot grows based on game sales and interest. But the odds of winning the big prize stays the same — 1 in 292.2 million, Powerball said.

Jackpot winners can either take the money as an immediate cash lump sum or in 30 annual payments over 29 years. Both advertised prize options do not include federal and jurisdictional taxes, Powerball said.

Tickets cost $2 and are sold in 45 U.S. states as well as Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. More than half of all proceeds remain in the jurisdiction where the ticket was purchased, according to Powerball.

Powerball drawings are broadcast live every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday at 10:59 p.m. ET from the Florida Lottery draw studio in Tallahassee. The drawings are also livestreamed online at Powerball.com.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Donald Trump could announce 2024 presidential run as soon as Nov. 14: Sources

Donald Trump could announce 2024 presidential run as soon as Nov. 14: Sources
Donald Trump could announce 2024 presidential run as soon as Nov. 14: Sources
Stephen Maturen/Getty Images

(WASHINGTON) — Former President Donald Trump is leaning toward announcing a third run for the White House, possibly as early as the week of Nov. 14, sources with direct knowledge of the matter told ABC News.

However, the sources said that the internal conversations about the timing, location and format of an announcement are extremely fluid.

Thursday night in Iowa, Trump, who has been teasing a 2024 run at rallies across the country for several months, got the closest he has come to confirming he will run.

Appearing at a campaign event for Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and Sen. Chuck Grassley, Trump told a crowd of supporters, “In order to make our country successful, and safe and glorious, I will very, very, very probably do it again.”

“OK?” he said. “Very, very, very, probably. Get ready, that’s all I’m telling you. Very soon. Get ready.”

Some aides have suggested the former president believes that declaring his candidacy would shield him from the numerous investigations that currently involve him and his allies. Trump is facing several federal probes, including the Jan. 6 investigation, the investigation into documents recovered at Mar-a-Lago, and an investigation into his social media company, Truth Social.

His namesake family real estate business, The Trump Organization, is currently on trial in New York for tax evasion and fraud — charges that would not be affected if he’s reelected president.

The company has denied wrongdoing.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

US hiring exceeds expectations, as economy adds 261,000 jobs

US hiring exceeds expectations, as economy adds 261,000 jobs
US hiring exceeds expectations, as economy adds 261,000 jobs
Douglas Sacha/Getty Images

(NEW YORK) — The U.S. added 261,000 jobs in October, exceeding economist expectations and sending a positive signal for the economy days before the midterm elections.

The unemployment rate increased to 3.7%. However, the unemployment has stood between a narrow range of 3.5% and 3.7% since March, the government data said.

The strongest job gains came in health care, manufacturing and professional and technical services.

The report arrives two days after Fed Chair Jerome Powell announced another jumbo-sized interest rate hike, intensifying the central bank’s fight against inflation and stoking fears of a downturn.

The aggressive move is the latest in a string of borrowing cost increases imposed by the Fed in recent months as it tries to slash price increases by cooling the economy and choking off demand. The approach, however, risks tipping the U.S. into a recession and putting millions out of work.

While hiring has slowed from a breakneck pace earlier in the year, the labor market continues to defy recession concerns.

The number of job openings increased in September, a sign that the need for workers remains robust, government data released Tuesday showed. However, hiring and people quitting fell slightly in September, suggesting that the demand for labor from employers has begun to ebb.

While strong, the hiring in October falls well below the typical jobs added over a given month in 2022. Monthly job growth has averaged 407,000 thus far in 2022 versus 562,000 per month in 2021, the jobs data on Friday showed.

While some data points to an economic slowdown, a government report released last month showed significant economic growth over three months ending in September.

U.S. gross domestic product grew 2.6% over that period; by contrast, economic activity shrank a combined 2.2% over the first six months of the year.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Husband of Minnesota candidate heard promoting formation of ‘SWAT team’ to police poll workers

Husband of Minnesota candidate heard promoting formation of ‘SWAT team’ to police poll workers
Husband of Minnesota candidate heard promoting formation of ‘SWAT team’ to police poll workers
adamkaz/Getty Images

(NEW YORK) — Minnesota elections officials are working to coordinate law enforcement responsibilities on Election Day after the husband of a GOP nominee for the state’s top election post was heard on a leaked recording calling for off-duty law enforcement officers to police poll workers at election sites — in apparent violation of state regulations.

In an audio recording of a Tea Party Patriots meeting in Champlin, Minnesota, last month, Marty Probst, the husband of Minnesota GOP Secretary of State candidate Kim Crockett, is heard urging conservative supporters to send sheriffs and deputies to form an Election Day “SWAT team.”

“If you got friends or family or whatever in sheriff deputies or sheriffs, we need them on Election Day,” Probst said. “That’s part of the SWAT team to get out when certain places don’t follow the rules that they are supposed to.”

The comments represent a growing trend across the country, in which some supporters of former President Donald Trump, driven by misinformation surrounding the results of the 2020 election, are recruiting off-duty law enforcement and ex-military personnel to serve as poll watchers.

“They won’t be able to steal this election the same way they stole 2020!” tweeted Joseph Flynn, president of The America Project, one of the organizations leading the effort to recruit first responders for that purpose.

The Minnesota meeting included several high-profile attendees from the Minnesota Republican Party and the Republican National Committee. Following Probst’s remarks, RNC Minnesota Election Integrity Director Lukas Severson said, “He brought up a great point there — we are still looking for folks who would like to join us in our War Room to answer calls from the hotline.”

Cassondra Knudson, the spokesperson for incumbent Secretary of State Steve Simon, told ABC News that Minnesota law does not allow law enforcement to be situated in a polling place for any purpose other than responding to a call for assistance.

“We’re working in coordination with the [Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension] to ensure law enforcement know their role on Election Day,” Knudson said. “Minnesota has guidelines for who can be in be in polling places and how they can behave. This would not allow for law enforcement to be situated in a polling place for any purpose other than responding to a call for assistance.”

“Recruiting people based on lies is problematic,” Sean Morales-Doyle, acting director of voting rights at the nonprofit, nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice, told ABC News last month. “Skepticism is one thing, but coming to that job believing that the election was stolen and on the lookout for nonexistent conspiracies and fraud is problematic.”

In addition, said Morales-Doyle, “There’s a history of problems with intimidation by poll watchers in this country — specifically a history of efforts to use off-duty law enforcement and poll watchers to accomplish racially discriminatory intimidation, so it gives me concern when you see that kind of recruitment.”

The recording of the Tea Party Patriots meeting was obtained and published by the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. Other high-profile attendees included Minnesota GOP Deputy Chair Donna Bergstrom and Minnesota RNC Committeewoman Barb Sutter.

Neither Probst nor representatives for Crockett’s campaign responded to ABC News’ requests for comment.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Convicted Fyre Festival founder Billy McFarland ‘apologizes’ after prison release

Convicted Fyre Festival founder Billy McFarland ‘apologizes’ after prison release
Convicted Fyre Festival founder Billy McFarland ‘apologizes’ after prison release
Patrick McMullan/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images

(NEW YORK) — Billy McFarland, the convicted founder behind 2017’s Fyre Festival, which rocked social media, is apologizing for his role in controversial music festival.

“I need to apologize. And that is the first and the last thing that needs to be done,” McFarland said. “I let people down. I let down employees. I let down their families. I let down investors. So I need to apologize. I’m wrong and it’s bad.”

McFarland pleaded guilty to two counts of wire fraud in federal court in 2018, and admitted to using fake documents to attract investors, who put more than $26 million into his company, Fyre Media, the host of the Fyre Festival.

He has since served almost four years of a six year sentence, including two stints in solitary confinement, but is now out of prison on supervised release. He recently told ABC News’ Good Morning America that he’s had time to reflect on his wrongdoings while in prison.

“I was wrong. I messed up. And I was so driven by this desperate desire to prove people right … I think I was just so insecure that I thought the only way to prove myself to them was to succeed,” he said. “That led me down just this terrible path of bad decisions.”

“I started lying to get the money and I would literally wake up every day to a document that we called, ‘Urgent Payment Sheet.’ And it had an amount of money that I had to acquire before the bank closed that day to stop the company from going underwater,” he continued. “So I was literally day-by-day doing whatever it took. And looking back, it was so incredibly stupid.”

In 2017, word spread of a music festival that promised “an immersive” experience on a small island in the Bahamas. The event was touted by top models and social media influencers and nearly 5,000 hopeful attendees bought in.

Tickets ranged from $500 to $12,000 and customers were led to expect extravagant accommodations and celebrity chef-cooked meals. Instead, the first guests to arrive to the scheduled two week experience received boxes with plain cheese sandwiches and lodging in the form of Federal Emergency Management Agency and U.N. disaster tents.

As chaos quickly ensued on the island and the event’s failure went viral on social media, Fyre Festival co-founders McFarland and rapper Ja Rule were forced to cancel the event.

Ja Rule later apologized in a note on Twitter, writing, “I’m heartbroken at this moment. My partners and I wanted this to be an amazing event. It was NOT A SCAM … I truly apologize as this is NOT MY FAULT… but I’m taking responsibility. I’m deeply sorry to everyone who was inconvenienced by this.”

Ja Rule has never been charged in connection with the festival and he was later dismissed as a defendant in a civil lawsuit filed by attendees.

“I think the hardest thing for me is the trust that I violated and whether it was friends, investors, or employees, people gave up a lot to try to make this happen,” McFarland told GMA. “How do I call them now and look them in the eye when I let them down?”

McFarland has roughly $26 million in restitution to pay investors, vendors and concert-goers. His earnings will be garnished until it’s all been paid back.

Moving forward, McFarland is trying something new, launching a venture called “PYRT.” He said he knows he’ll need time to “slowly” win back trust, but said he’s changed and plans to keep evolving.

“I went way too fast before. So I need to do everything now in a manageable way that I can actually make work,” he said, adding, “I hope I continue to change for the next 40 years. So I’m certainly not done changing yet.”

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Americans express broad concerns about the risk of political violence: POLL

Americans express broad concerns about the risk of political violence: POLL
Americans express broad concerns about the risk of political violence: POLL
mbbirdy/Getty Images

(NEW YORK) — Broad, bipartisan numbers of Americans are concerned that political divisions are increasing the risk of politically motivated violence in this country, with majorities across the board highly concerned about it in a new ABC News/Washington Post poll.

Who gets the blame, however, differs sharply among partisan and ideological groups.

A week after the attack on Paul Pelosi, husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a vast 88% of adults express concern that political divisions have gotten to the point that there’s an increased risk of politically motivated violence in this country. Sixty-three percent in this poll, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates, are “very” concerned.

By contrast, asking which political party is more to blame for this risk produces a closely divided, strongly partisan result: 31% blame the Republican Party, 25% blame the Democratic Party and 32% blame both parties equally. Just 11% don’t blame either or both.

See PDF for full results, charts and tables

Degrees of concern

Overall concern is striking for how it crosses political lines, with rare levels of partisan agreement. Ninety-five percent of Democrats, 87% of Republicans and 86% of independents are concerned about the risk of political violence. So are 95% of liberals, 89% of moderates and 84% of conservatives.

That said, there are gaps as to the degree. About three-quarters of Democrats and liberals are very concerned about the risk, dropping to 58% of conservatives and 56% of Republicans — albeit still majorities in all cases.

In another political measure, 93% of voters for President Joe Biden in the 2020 election and 83% of Donald Trump voters are concerned about the risk of violence. Although, again, there is a difference in intensity: 78% of Biden voters are very concerned, compared to 55% of Trump voters.

There are other differences among groups. Women are 10 percentage points more apt than men to be very concerned about the risk of politically motivated violence — 68% vs. 58%. Just among Democrats, this includes a 13-point gap in strong concern between women and men.

Additionally, older people are much more apt to be very concerned, declining linearly with age — from 75% of those ages 65 and up, down to 47% of 18- to 29-year-olds.

Placing blame

As noted, blame reverts to partisan predispositions. Sixty-six percent of Democrats blame the Republican Party for the risk of violence, and 56% of Republicans blame the Democratic Party. Political independents, for their part, are likeliest to blame both parties equally.

There’s also a sharp difference between men and women, reflecting political preferences between the sexes. Women broadly blame the Republican Party more than the Democratic Party (38% vs. 18%). Men blame the Democratic Party over the GOP, albeit more narrowly (32% vs. 24%).

Methodology

This ABC News/Washington Post poll was conducted by landline and cellular telephone from Oct. 30 to Nov. 2, 2022, in English and Spanish, among a random national sample of 1,005 adults. Results have a margin of sampling error of 4.0 percentage points, including the design effect. Partisan divisions in the full sample are 27%-27%-39%, Democrats-Republicans-independents.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Pfizer, BioNTech say bivalent COVID-19 booster shot performs better against BA.5 omicron subvariant

Pfizer, BioNTech say bivalent COVID-19 booster shot performs better against BA.5 omicron subvariant
Pfizer, BioNTech say bivalent COVID-19 booster shot performs better against BA.5 omicron subvariant
Morsa Images/Getty Images

(NEW YORK) — American pharmaceutical company Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech announced Friday that a booster dose of their bivalent COVID-19 vaccine performs better against two circulating versions of the omicron variant, compared with a booster shot of their original vaccine.

According to a joint press release, updated data from a Phase 2-3 clinical trial shows the Pfizer-BioNTech bivalent vaccine produced antibody responses against the BA.4 and BA.5 omicron subvariants that were three- to four-fold higher, compared with the original formula, when measured in adults approximately one month after receiving a booster dose. The safety and tolerability profile of the bivalent booster remains favorable and similar to the original vaccine, Pfizer and BioNTech said.

“As we head into the holiday season, we hope these updated data will encourage people to seek out a COVID-19 bivalent booster as soon as they are eligible in order to maintain high levels of protection against the widely circulating Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 sublineages,” Pfizer chairman and CEO Albert Bourla said in a statement Friday. “These updated data also provide confidence in the adaptability of our mRNA platform and our ability to rapidly update the vaccine to match the most prevalent strains each season.”

Other smaller studies by independent scientists have suggested there is very little difference between antibody responses produced by the original and updated shots, though both boosted antibody protection.

All of these studies are conducted by taking blood samples from recently vaccinated people and measuring antibodies in a lab. They give us a hint of how well the vaccines might work, but do not tell the full story of their effectiveness. Vaccines are still expected to offer a high level of protection against severe illness.

In late August, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized two updated booster vaccines — the one developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, and another by American biotechnology company Moderna — that were designed to be a better match against the BA.4 and BA.5 subvariants. Since then, just over 26 million eligible Americans have received the updated booster shots, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The BA.5 subvariant currently is estimated to account for half of all new COVID-19 cases in the United States, according to the CDC, but it’s unlikely to remain the dominant viral strain for much longer. Newer versions of the omicron variant, such as BQ.1 and BQ.1.1, are slowly overtaking as a proportion of estimated cases. These subvariants are descendants of BA.5, but it remains unclear how well the bivalent boosters will work against them.

As the world nears its third year of the COVID-19 pandemic and the virus continues to evolve, booster shots are expected to bolster protection against severe illness but not necessarily mild or asymptomatic breakthrough infections.

“These data demonstrate that our BA.4/BA.5-adapted bivalent vaccine works as conceptually planned in providing stronger protection against the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 sublineages,” BioNTech CEO and co-founder Ugur Sahin said in a statement Friday. “In the next step and as part of our science based approach we will continue to evaluate the cross-neutralization of the adapted vaccine against new variants and sublineages. Our aim is to provide broader immunity against COVID-19 caused by SARS-CoV-2, including Omicron and other circulating strains.”

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Tensions flare between North and South Korea as countries conduct military drills

Tensions flare between North and South Korea as countries conduct military drills
Tensions flare between North and South Korea as countries conduct military drills
omersukrugoksu/Getty Images

(SEOUL, South Korea) — Air Force military trainings took place in both North and South Korean airspaces as the two nations continue to ratchet up tensions on the Korean Peninsula as 180 North Korean warplanes flying over four hours just north of the military border were detected by South Korea’s military on Friday.

“North’s military planes were active in multiple areas such as the inland area in the North and above the East and West Sea,” South’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

In response, South Korea’s air force “urgently scrambled its predominant air force,” including 80 F-35As. The JCS added that 240 planes that were already participating in the ROK-US “Vigilant Storm” joint training “maintained a readiness posture” while conducting the planned exercises.

North Korea had test fired a mix of almost 30 long- and short-range ballistic missiles, including a failed intercontinental ballistic missile, this week.

These provocations prompted the U.S. and South Korea to extend air force drills which North Korea considers as joint training to invade and topple their regime.

This week’s provocations by the North is more or less Pyongyang responding to ROK-US drills, analysts say.

“Since denuclearization talks stalled, North Korea is in an unfavorable situation. Biden administration in and South Korean government now are both hardline, so North Korea is reacting even more strongly,” Wi Sung-Lak, Secretary general in the Seoul-based Korea Peace Foundation, told ABC News.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

New injection for newborns to protect against RSV approved in Europe

New injection for newborns to protect against RSV approved in Europe
New injection for newborns to protect against RSV approved in Europe
Isabel Pavia/Getty Images

(NEW YORK) — In what could signal the promise of progress to come for newborn infants at risk for RSV, a new monoclonal antibody is being granted approval in Europe as a preventative measure to protect against RSV infection in very young babies — those most at risk of contracting the virus — during their first RSV season.

Developed jointly by Sanofi and AstraZeneca, commercially called “Beyfortus®,” this monoclonal antibody is given via a single dose intramuscular injection to infants aged 0 to 12 months, to protect against RSV before they get infected, from birth up through their first RSV (respiratory syncytial virus) season. The European Commission announced Friday morning it had approved the drug.

This does not mean it is an option for American babies, at least not yet. Sanofi and AstraZeneca will still have to go through the U.S. regulatory process for that — Food and Drug Administration approval, and recommendation by advisory panels like the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

While the European approval does not impact the US regulatory process — FDA makes its own decisions — this new European approval shows it’s good enough to get the green light there, and could get the green light here as well.

If and when the FDA does approve this antibody, it won’t be in time for this season’s surge. But it could get approved in time for next year.

Sanofi tells ABC News they and AstraZeneca have already submitted their clinical trial data to the FDA. They expect to finalize their submission to the FDA by the end of this year, with the hopes of it being approved and available by the fall/winter of 2023/2024.

“It’s really exciting news. We’ve been looking for solutions to be able to prevent RSV for close to 50 years,” Dr. Michael Greenberg, a pediatrician and vice president, Sanofi’s Medical Head of Vaccines for North America, told ABC News in an interview.

He noted that once available, it could offer an important “first tool that we have to be able to protect all babies going into their first RSV season.”

This monoclonal antibody, called Beyfortus, is a lab-made, synthetic version of RSV immunity that newborn babies don’t have time to develop on their own, with their short time on earth.

That could change once a maternal RSV vaccine is approved and available — but for now — it could offer an important stopgap of protection for a vulnerable population, especially looking ahead from amid the current influx of pediatric RSV infections currently surging in the U.S.

A sampling of national CDC data shows RSV cases recorded for all ages are occurring more than twice as high at this point this year compared to last year, with more than twice as many cases per week, and likely leading towards more severe cases, especially in pediatric emergency departments and pediatric hospitalizations, which have limited resources to begin with, according to Chief Innovation Officer at Boston Children’s Hospital and ABC News Contributor, Dr. John Brownstein.

Newborn infants are at the highest risk of RSV infection, especially those who are born prematurely or immune compromised. Their heads are big, their airways small, and they have no built-up immunity. It is a leading cause of hospitalization in infants in the U.S.

This monoclonal could be a notable measure of protection for babies, wherever it’s approved, available and accessible to those who need it.

“Speaking as a pediatrician as someone who’s worked in public health, we always try to prevent, rather than having to treat — which is why we use vaccines for example — it’s better to prevent illnesses than to treat it,” Greenberg said.

“The idea is that a baby would get it for example, if they’re born during the time when RSV is circulating, like now, they would get it before they leave the hospital after being born, or if they’re born before the RSV season, they would get it in their pediatricians office during a normal well child visit,” Greenberg continued. “It’s designed to be able to protect from a very rapid standpoint, for that first RSV season.”

It is designed to keep RSV from being as serious as it can be in the population most vulnerable to severe infection — newborns.

So, while Beyfortus may not prevent all infections, like milder ones, it does buy important time for the most vulnerable tiny babies to grow larger and stronger and less likely to get hit as hard by RSV.

During the pandemic, many kids weren’t as exposed to many of the viruses they would have been otherwise, during the course of a normal childhood — because of masking, social distancing, remote learning, etc. during their very early years.

One theory to explain the unusually high number of RSV infections says that babies who would have been affected earlier on in life in a normal setting were instead born into the COVID bubble — which may have caused a delay in their built-up immunity, experts say.

Now, as the masks have come down, the infection rates are going up at even higher rates, and experts emphasize how COVID-19 has thrown the typical seasonality of our respiratory viral waves.

There is also no vaccine for RSV yet, while there is, of course, for COVID and the flu.

“The holy grail for durable RSV protection remains the illusive vaccine which now seems to be on the horizon,” Brownstein said. “Nonetheless the availability of these therapies will play an important role as a stop gap, likely an important tool to protect high risk babies from complications of RSV infection.”

There have been recent and promising developments with the data on Pfizer’s maternal RSV vaccine candidate — and while they can now move forward with the approval process, that vaccine won’t be immediately available to families worried about the current surge. FDA approval and CDC recommendation are possible next year.

And in the newborns most at risk for severe RSV, they have not lived long enough for a vaccine given directly to them to have enough time to build sufficient immunity.

Enter, alternatives like this monoclonal antibody: a synthetic version of that immunity which can help ward off infection.

In a randomized placebo-controlled phase 2/3 trial, Beyfortus showed an efficacy of more than 77% (77.3%) against infants’ RSV lower respiratory tract infection hospitalizations.

“I think we just have to be able to be prepared, and have tools like this to be able to respond,” Greenberg said. “So that whatever the epidemiology is, we’ve got the means to be able to protect all infants going into the RSV season, whenever the RSV season happens.”

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Rape of New York City jogger puts spotlight on women’s safety while running

Rape of New York City jogger puts spotlight on women’s safety while running
Rape of New York City jogger puts spotlight on women’s safety while running
WABC-TV

(NEW YORK) — The reported rape of a woman who was jogging along Manhattan’s West Side Highway has once again put the spotlight on the dangers women may face while running outdoors.

The woman told authorities she was jogging at about 5:30 a.m., Thursday, when a man grabbed her from behind, choked her and knocked her to the ground, the New York Police Department said. She said he raped her, stole her wallet and phone and then fled on foot, according to police.

The victim was taken to a hospital in stable condition, police said. Authorities have taken a 29-year-old man into custody for questioning in connection with the rape, law enforcement sources told ABC News.

The attack in New York City came less than two months after Eliza Fletcher, a 34-year-old teacher and mother of two, was abducted and killed while on an early morning run in her hometown of Memphis, Tennessee.

“WE ARE SICK & TIRED OF HAVING TO WATCH OUT FOR MEN JUST BECAUSE WE BREATHE. Carry keys to stab someone, carry tasers, stun guns, mace, bear spray, loud alarms. Knowing self-defense, becoming a gun owner, never going anywhere alone. HOW ABOUT MEN DO BETTER,” a Twitter user wrote at the time.

“Women runners worry most about 2 things before a run-whether they’ll be abducted/assaulted/murdered or if they’ll be subjected to cat calls and being sexualized. Men worry about whether they should poop before or after their run. We are not the same,” another wrote.

A self-defense expert’s advice for women

A 2017 survey by Runner’s World magazine found that more than half of women who run said they are concerned that they could be physically assaulted or receive unwanted physical contact during a run.

It is impossible to prevent every attack and women should not feel the pressure to do so, Jennifer Cassetta, a self-defense expert, public speaker and health coach, told ABC News in 2018, after the deaths that year of Wendy Martinez, in Washington, D.C., and Mollie Tibbetts, in Iowa.

What women can do is empower themselves so they feel stronger and more confident out in the world, according to Cassetta.

She shared these three tips for women:

1. Know the weapons you have on your body and how to use them

Run or walk powerfully with your shoulders back and head up, making eye contact with every person in your path, Cassetta recommended.

If you are attacked, dropping down to a squat or a lunge will drop your center of gravity and make you harder to throw to the ground, according to Cassetta.

She said if you’re able to fight back, aim for the attacker’s eyes, throat and groin, explaining, “Scratch or gouge the eyes, give a punch to the throat to disrupt breathing and give a punch or a knee or an elbow to the groin.”

2. Be aware of your surroundings

Women should be “alert but calm” when they’re out and about, scanning for red flags and not getting too deep into thought, Cassetta said.

“When we’re being alert, our intuition is our inner GPS, it gives us signals and sends us messages,” she said. “If we’re too caught up in our to-do list or what we’re stressed about, we can’t hear it.”

Cassetta also recommended designating a friend or family member as your “safety buddy,” the person you text to let know when and where you are running and when you will return.

3. Arm yourself

Cassetta recommended women arm themselves with self-defense tools such as pepper spray and a personal alarm.

“They make you that much more aware because you’re holding onto it and aware of it,” she said, adding, “If you have pepper spray, make sure you know how to use it and have it accessible.”

Fletcher’s death while out for a run quickly drew comparisons to the deaths of at least six women who in recent years were also each killed while running in their city or neighborhood streets: Sydney Sutherland, 25, whose body was discovered two days after she disappeared after going for a run in Jackson County, Arkansas; Tibbetts, who was found stabbed to death after going for a run near her Iowa home; Martinez, who was stabbed to death while jogging in a busy, well-lit area of Washington, D.C.; Karina Vetrano, who was found dead after going on an evening jog near her New York home; Vanessa Marcotte, who was killed as she was out jogging in broad daylight in Massachusetts; and Ally Brueger, who was shot in the back while running in Michigan.

In 2018, another athlete, a 22-year-old collegiate golf player, was killed while she was golfing alone on a course in Ames, Iowa.

Copyright © 2022, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.