Police at the scene of a stabbing in New York City’s Times Square, Aug. 31, 2026. (WABC)
(NEW YORK) — New York City police fatally shot an apparently emotionally disturbed woman after she allegedly stabbed two people in Times Square in a “random and unprovoked” attack on Monday afternoon, authorities said.
One of the victims, 32-year-old Erin Piacenti of Chester, New Jersey, died at the hospital from her injuries, according to the New York Police Department.
The other victim, a 68-year-old manfrom Rhode Island, was taken to a hospital with life-threatening injuries and is in stable condition, officials said.
The victims were stabbed within 20 seconds of each near 41st Street and Seventh Avenue, according to NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch.
The 68-year-old had just exited the subway and was waiting to cross the street with his wife when the suspect pulled two knives from a bag, waved them and then allegedly stabbed him in the abdomen “in what appears to be a random and unprovoked attack,” Tisch said at a press briefing.
The suspect then went up Seventh Avenue toward 42nd Street, where she approached the second victim, who was similarly stabbed in the abdomen in an apparently random, unprovoked attack, Tisch said.
The suspect allegedly then fled north toward the NYPD substation, authorities said. Witnesses flagged down officers who confronted her for four minutes and “gave her numerous commands to drop the knife,” which she refused, Tisch said.
“During the encounter, she told the officers, ‘I’m not dropping anything. I would rather kill both of you.’ She repeated, ‘I will kill you,'” Tisch said.
Officers deployed Tasers before two officers discharged their service weapons, Tisch said.
The suspect, identified by police as 49-year-old Pamela Cisneros of Queens, was pronounced dead at a hospital. She had a “documented mental health history,” Tisch said.
Police officials stressed the woman appeared emotionally disturbed and the incident is not terror-related.
Two knives were recovered from the scene, Tisch. The NYPD also released a photo of the recovered weapons.
“I want to thank the NYPD officers who stepped in and prevented a horrific attack from becoming even worse,” NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani said during the press briefing. “This is what the men and women of this department do every single day to keep our city safe.”
The NYPD will conduct an internal investigation and body-worn camera footage will be released to the public, the mayor said.
Microscopic 3D render of Naegleria fowleri flagellate stage with twin flagella swimming in aquatic environment. (Stock photo koto_feja/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — A North Carolina teenager has died after contracting a rare brain-eating amoeba called Naegleria fowleri that’s found in warm freshwater, state health officials said.
The teenager, whose identity was not released, died on Monday, the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services said on Tuesday.
“We extend our condolences to the family, friends and community impacted by this loss,” the department said in a statement.
NCDHHS said last Thursday that the teenager was critically ill and that “once symptoms start, the disease progresses rapidly and usually causes death within about five days.”
Naegleria fowleri can be found in warm freshwater including ponds, lakes and rivers, and it grows best in hotter water, state health officials said. NCDHHS said Monday that it’s working with federal and local partners “to investigate all possible sources” of this case.
“The amoeba does not cause illness if swallowed but can be fatal if water with the amoeba in it is forced up the nose into the brain, which can occur by jumping into water, diving, water-skiing or other water activities,” NCDHHS said.
The U.S. usually sees fewer than 10 cases a year of Naegleria fowleri infection, also known as primary amebic meningoencephalitis or PAM, state health officials said.
The first symptoms can be severe headache, nausea, vomiting and fever, and later symptoms include stiff neck, seizures and coma, NCDHHS said.
Another girl, 8-year-old Lillian Smart in Louisiana, died in August from Naegleria fowleri, which she likely contracted while swimming in a lake, her family and state health officials said, according to The Associated Press.
Construction continues on a new helipad on the South Lawn of the White House and the East Wing ballroom on Aug. 24, 2026, in Washington, D.C. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court has formally granted the Trump administration’s request to move forward with construction of the White House East Wing ballroom project as litigation continues, all but guaranteeing the building will be substantially completed before any final judgments and appeals are resolved.
Notably, Chief Justice John Roberts joined the court’s three liberal justices in dissenting, writing the ruling is “no victory for the separation of powers” and allows the “likely” infringement on Congress’s power to continue.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation sued to block the construction of the ballroom project, arguing that only Congress has the authority to approve substantial changes to the White House, and that it never delegated that authority to President Donald Trump.
President Donald Trump unilaterally initiated demolition of the White House East Wing in late 2025 to make way for the ballroom.
The court’s majority wrote in an unsigned opinion Monday that the Trust likely lacked standing to bring the suit to begin with and that the government has established it would be irreparably harmed by being blocked from above-ground construction as the case played out.”Today, we do not pass upon the legality of the government’s East Wing project. We conclude only that, based on the submissions before us, the government is likely to prevail in showing that the Trust lacks Article III standing to challenge the project in federal court and that the remaining stay factors favor relief,” the court wrote.
The decision effectively preserves the status quo. The Trump administration had told the court that a crew of 250 workers has been working around the clock to finish the 90,000-square-foot structure and that it is 65% complete and work will continue.
Trump is taking a victory lap over the Supreme Court’s opinion, writing on his social media platform Monday, “I am pleased to report that the United States Supreme Court has just ruled in favor of the Ballroom/Military Complex being built without any further contingency, doubt, or threat. We are living in the Golden Age of America, and this Building will be one of the Greatest ever constructed in Washington, D.C.”
Trump once again slammed the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s lawsuit against the construction of the ballroom, calling it “baseless.”
“The Ballroom is totally funded by Great Patriots and Corporations and, therefore, is a Gift — At no cost to the American Taxpayer,” Trump claimed, though questions continue to swirl around where such funding is coming from.
Federal law gives Congress control over federal property, including the White House grounds, but has also long allowed presidents to undertake the “care, maintenance, repair, alteration, refurbishment, and improvement … of the Executive Residence.”
In the dissent, joined by Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson, Roberts wrote: “The White House is not just any building, and — when it comes to historic preservation — Hoagland [member of National Trust for Historic Preservation] is not just any person. In failing to appreciate as much, the Court misconceives the plaintiff’s injury, allowing the Executive’s likely infringement of the Legislature’s power of the purse and authority to regulate federal property in the District of Columbia to continue.”
Roberts argued it would have been better to “ensure that those responsible follow the rules in deciding what to tear down and what to build up at the People’s House.”
Earlier this month, Roberts had issued an administrative stay of a lower court order halting most above-ground construction on the White House ballroom project. The move allowed construction on the project to continue temporarily.
The lower court had ruled that Trump exceeded his authority in demolishing the East Wing and beginning to erect the structure without congressional approval. A divided appeals court earlier this month affirmed that finding.
Administration officials have estimated the entire project — which Trump has called a “military complex” essential for national security — could cost $400 million, while other independent analysts have put the true figure at much higher.
Construction continues on a new helipad on the South Lawn of the White House and the East Wing ballroom on Aug. 24, 2026, in Washington, D.C. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court, in an unsigned opinion out Monday, has formally granted the Trump administration’s request to move forward with construction of the White House East Wing ballroom project as litigation continues, all but guaranteeing the building will be substantially completed before any final judgments and appeals are resolved.
Gabriel Bergemann speaks about his horrific race to safety during a flash flood at the Grand Canyon in Arizona, Aug. 29, 2026. (ABC News)
(NEW YORK) — Survivors of a deadly flash flood that swept through the floor of the Grand Canyon over the weekend described a horrific escape as they ran through rising muddy water in a desperate effort to reach higher ground.
Gabriel Bergemann and David Gregory told ABC News that they were backpacking together at the bottom of the national park on Saturday afternoon when disaster struck, and park rangers told them to run across a footbridge over a raging creek to higher ground.
Bergemann said that 10 minutes after crossing the bridge, a wall of water came through and washed it away.
“If they hadn’t told us to evacuate when they did, I think a lot of people wouldn’t have made it,” he told ABC News.
Gregory added that the water level in the creek they crossed seemed to be “getting bigger and bigger as more water was coming into the creek.”
“I was just thinking that if someone fell into the creek, I don’t know how they would be able to get out,” he said.
Grand Canyon National Park Service officials said on Monday that a second body had been recovered from the flooded area. A search continued for 14 people who remain missing or unaccounted for.
One of the individuals missing on Monday was identified in a Facebook post by his wife as Dr. John Guisti, a New York chiropractor, who was with a hiking group when the flash flood swept through the area where they were camping.
Guisti is a partner at Whipple City Family Chiropractic in New York, which posted his wife’s message on Facebook, describing Guisti as a “deeply loved husband, father and pillar of our family.”
More than 60 people, most of them hikers and campers, were air evacuated from Grand Canyon’s Phantom Ranch and the lower North Kaibab Trail on Saturday, according to park officials.
The flood hit around 2:30 p.m. local time in the Bright Angel Canyon and Phantom Ranch areas of the Grand Canyon amid a monsoonal downpour that produced “a significant flash-flood event,” officials said.
Erica Viola and her husband, Scott Svedin, told ABC News they were camping at Bright Angel Campground when they were told to evacuate immediately.
“This was something out of a movie,” said Svedin, who described struggling through knee-high water and mud to reach safety.
Viola added, “We just heard people yell, ‘Run, Run, Run.’ And there’s 40 of us running through this deep muddy water trying to make it to the bridge.”
Viola said that once she and Svedin got across the footbridge, it was destroyed by the torrent of floodwater that turned the creek they had crossed into a raging river.
“Once we got to the bridge, that’s when this 15-foot wall of water came through the campground at Phantom Ranch and just wiped out all the bridges in the creek,” Viola said.
Viola said that she lost most of her belongings in the flooding.
The Grand Canyon National Park Service (NPS) said in a statement on Sunday that the flooding caused extensive damage to infrastructure in the inner canyon, including the Transcanyon Waterline, which supplies water from the canyon for use in the park.
“The flash flood resulted in significant impacts to infrastructure throughout Bright Angel Canyon. Nearly all footbridges spanning Bright Angel Creek were destroyed, eliminating hiker access across the creek,” the Grand Canyon NPS said.
The Grand Canyon NPS said the Transcanyon Waterline is currently not operational, leaving the entire park with limited water reserves. As a result, all overnight guest lodging and concessions inside the park have been halted.
Flash flood threat for Monday, Aug. 31, 2026. (ABC News)
(NEW YORK) — Rescuers are bracing for more treacherous weather at the Grand Canyon Monday as authorities confirmed another body had been recovered amid a search for 14 people who “may be missing or unaccounted” in a deadly flash flood that struck the national park over the weekend.
The National Park Service said the body was pulled from the flooded area, bringing the death toll to two.
On Sunday evening, officials said the body of a 46-year-old man was recovered near Crystal Rapids along the Colorado River.
The names of the deceased have not been released.
Flood survivors told ABC News that they ran for their lives when a flood swept through the floor of the Grand Canyon on Saturday afternoon, wiping out campgrounds, structures, hiking trails and vital infrastructure, according to officials.
The National Weather Service has issued a flood watch for the Grand Canyon through at least Monday evening, warning that “flash flooding caused by excessive rainfall continues to be possible” for all of northern and central Arizona.
Air evacuations continued on Sunday afternoon, a day after a “significant flash flood” swept through campgrounds and hiking trails at the bottom of the national park, authorities said.
The Grand Canyon National Park Service said in an update Sunday evening that one person was recovered from the Colorado River in the park. The identity of the deceased individual has not been released.
NPS said there are at least 14 other individuals “who may be missing or unaccounted” following the flash flood.
“The National Park Service is asking anyone who knows of hikers or backpackers who were in the inner canyon along the Bright Angel Creek corridor on August 29, as well as anyone who had a campground reservation in the affected corridor, to provide information to the National Park Service Investigative Services Branch (ISB),” the statement said.
Earlier Sunday, the National Park Service (NPS) officials said more than 20 were missing and 62 individuals were air evacuated from Grand Canyon’s Phantom Ranch and the lower North Kaibab Trail, “which was affected by a significant flash-flood event Saturday afternoon.”
Evacuees were being taken to the Maswik Lodge Cafeteria on the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, where the American Red Cross is coordinating assistance.
No injuries were immediately reported.
The latest National Park Service said the flash flooding knocked out the park’s water pipeline, prompting “significant water conservation measures” to be implemented. Those measures include: no overnight hotel stays allowed starting Monday, and only campground bathroom faucets will still run.
“Multiple campgrounds and trails are closed until further notice, and there is no estimated reopening date for the affected areas,” the Grand Canyon NPS said.
Grand Canyon National Park staff, in coordination with the Arizona Department of Public Safety, were continuing air evacuations on Sunday afternoon, officials said.
“Grand Canyon will possibly face additional thunderstorms and heavy rainfall today and Monday, which could result in flash flooding, debris flow, and rockfall,” the Grand Canyon NPS statement said.
Flash flooding unfolded about 2:30 p.m. local time on Saturday in the Bright Angel Canyon and Phantom Ranch area, both popular destinations for hikers.
“The flash flood resulted in significant impacts to infrastructure throughout Bright Angel Canyon. Nearly all footbridges spanning Bright Angel Creek were destroyed, eliminating hiker access across the creek,” the Grand Canyon NPS said.
Saturday’s flash-flood event occurred after four rounds of rain swept across parts of the Grand Canyon over a span of about six hours, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). The initial three rounds were not very heavy, but saturated the soil and left the area much more prone to dangerous flash flooding once the fourth round of torrential rain moved through.
The steepness of the canyon and the burn scar from last year’s Dragon Bravo Fire on the North Rim were likely major contributors, the NWS said.
Videos of the flooding obtained by ABC News show a roaring Colorado River as mudflows and debris from metal structures are seen floating down the river.
Erica Viola, who recorded the videos, told ABC News she was camping at Bright Angel Campground when she and her husband, Scott Svedin, had to evacuate. Viola said that she lost most of her belongings in the flooding.
Viola said that she and other campers were told by park rangers to run as fast as they could to the nearest bridge for evacuation.
Svedin said that as they were headed for the bridge, people were scrambling to beat the rising water.
“We just heard people yell, ‘Run, run, run!’ And there’s 40 of us running through this deep, muddy water, trying to make it to the bridge,” Viola said. “Once we got to the bridge, that’s when this 15-foot wall of water came through the campground in Phantom Ranch and just wiped out all the bridges in the creek.”
Viola and Svedin said they witnessed bunkhouses, barbecue grills, ice chests, and even an excavator floating down the Colorado River.
ABC News’ Jennifer Watts, Lissette Rodriguez and Dan Peck contributed to this report.
The United States Supreme Court in Washington, D.C. (STOCK PHOTO/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Calling it a matter of “exceptional importance,” the Trump administration has filed an urgent appeal with the Supreme Court seeking the immediate removal of 29 active-duty service members who are transgender even before their case challenging the Pentagon ban goes to trial in January.
Several courts have found that the ban was likely rooted in animus and violates servicemembers constitutional rights to due process and equal protection – a conclusion the government strongly disputes.
While the justices last year gave Trump the green light to move forward broadly with a ban on service members who have a history of gender dysphoria, federal judges in a separate case, U.S. v. Talbott, last June blocked the military from discharging more than two dozen individual plaintiffs who brought the lawsuit challenging the policy.
Solicitor General John Sauer called the ruling allowing those plaintiffs to remain in their positions “gravely erroneous.”
“The authority of the U.S. military to determine who may serve in the Nation’s armed forces is a matter of exceptional importance,” Sauer wrote in the government’s petition. “Whether the Constitution prohibits the military from exercising that authority by adopting a policy like the one here is a recurring issue, which has arisen before and will likely arise again absent this Court’s review. The Court should thus take this opportunity to address the constitutionality of the [Department of Defense Secretary] Hegseth policy and reverse the decision below, whose reasoning cannot be squared with this Court’s precedents or deference to the military.”
The justices will consider this fall whether to hear the case at this early stage, before any final ruling on the merits by a lower court.
In the meantime, the 29 plaintiffs – who are active-duty, reservists, National Guard members and a person seeking to enlist – will remain in the force.
“As the Trump administration’s own attorneys admitted, these are qualified individuals who are meeting all military standards,” said Jennifer Levi, an attorney representing the transgender service members with the LGBTQ legal advocacy group GLAD Law. “There is no reason to waste millions of taxpayer dollars to kick out thousands of highly trained, skilled and decorated troops based on nothing but hostility and this administration’s political whims.”
Ontario Premier Doug Ford gives remarks at a press conference on March 10, 2025, in Toronto, Canada. (Katherine KY Cheng/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Ontario Premier Doug Ford expressed firm opposition to President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Canada this weekend, saying that the result of a trade war could be harmful to both countries.
“Everyone’s feeling bullied by President Trump, and this is the worst thing you could do for the American economy,” Ford told ABC News’ “This Week” co-anchor Martha Raddatz. “I just don’t see the purpose. It’s absolutely backwards.”
The U.S. and Canada — two usually close allies — are once again locked in a trade war. Trump announced he would add 50% tariffs to many Canadian goods after trade talks between the two countries fell apart. Canada responded, adding retaliatory tariffs on many U.S. goods starting Sept. 8.
The U.S. and Canada have long had a strong trade relationship, as the U.S. is Canada’s largest trading partner. More than 70% of total exports in Canada go to the U.S., and nearly 60% of imports to Canada come from the U.S.
One big reason for the trade deficit is oil: of the crude oil the U.S. imports from other countries, 60% comes from Canada, Prime Minister Mark Carney said.
But over the weekend, the U.S. and Venezuela reached a deal for the U.S. to take a majority stake in more than 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan oil reserves.
Raddatz asked Ford about the deal and whether it gives the U.S. leverage.
“Canada makes up 60% of the United States’ crude oil imports. Does this give him a bigger bargaining chip?” Raddatz asked.
“Well, you know something? That’s going to be up to President Trump. Who do you want to deal with? An unstable government like Venezuela, or do you want to deal with your #1 trading partner, your #1 ally?” Ford said.
Last week, Trump also said he would double the auto tariffs on Canada starting Jan. 1, 2027, writing on social media that “Canada will be treated like a state no longer.”
Ford said that if the auto tariffs were doubled, the result would be “devastating” for both countries.
“It’d be devastating on both countries, but it’d be definitely devastating on the U.S. We’re the largest purchaser of vehicles in the entire world off the U.S. … and they’re already seeing the effect,” Ford said. “A tariff on Canada is nothing more than a tax on American people, and it’s probably the worst move he could ever do.”
Since the trade war began, the attacks and insults have extended beyond trade. After bashing Canadian leaders on social media, Trump signed an executive order last week renaming Lake Ontario — one of the five Great Lakes which is in both the U.S. and Canada — as “Lake America.” Ford called that move “disappointing.”
“It was like something out of ‘Saturday Night Live’ when he signed documents saying change to Lake America. No one’s going to call it Lake of America. It’s been Lake Ontario for hundreds of years. It’s going to continue being Lake Ontario, and it’s just so, so disappointing,” Ford said.
Despite the back-and-forth criticism, Ford made it clear that he loves the American people, just not their government.
“I love the American people. Canadians love the American people,” Ford said. “We differentiate between the great American people and the president.”
In an aerial view, the Stargate Oracle AI data center campus is seen on Aug. 26, 2026, in Abilene, Texas. The Stargate Oracle AI data center will span roughly 4 million square feet and will be operated by Oracle for OpenAI. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Monday stressed his strong support for controversial data centers, a key issue ahead of midterm elections, with the president urging communities to “let Data Reign.”
“The only reason that communities throughout the U.S.A. should not want Data Centers is if they want to end up being backwards and poor. If they want to be successful and rich, with far lower taxes and jobs all over the place, let Data Reign,” Trump wrote in a social media post on Monday morning.
The president has long emphasized the importance of artificial intelligence advancement, repeatedly expressing his desire for the U.S. to beat China in the global AI race.
“If we kill the Golden Goose, you will only have yourselves to blame. China could not be happier with this anti Data Center movement. Actually, they can’t believe it is happening!” Trump wrote.
Data centers provide the computing power necessary to process large amounts of data, such as the kind needed to run AI systems. They typically house thousands of computer servers and require tremendous amounts of land, water for cooling, and energy, potentially straining local power grids, while employing few workers long-term, relative to their size.
The issue of data centers has been a hot topic ahead of the midterm elections, with AI companies spending millions on congressional races and primaries for and against candidates on the issue of artificial intelligence regulation.
Asked on Monday about Trump’s post and how it might land ahead of the midterms, Vice President JD Vance said the president’s message was focused on the economics around data centers.
“What the president said about data centers is they’re an important part of the AI economy. But when people build them, they have to build the power plants along with the data centers,” Vance said.
Vance acknowledged the backlash surrounding data centers, expressing his belief that the concern stems from higher utility and electricity bills. But he argued that this wouldn’t be a problem if companies take advantage of deregulation efforts.
“I think probably 99% of the backlash to data centers has come in areas where building a data center means higher utility and higher electricity for the people on the ground,” Vance said. “So I think what these companies have to do is take advantage of some of the federal deregulatory efforts that we’ve undertaken. If you build a data center, you should be putting power back into the grid, not taking it out. And if that is happening, I don’t think the data centers are that controversial,” Vance said.
Earlier this month, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, the Senate GOP’s campaign committee, wrote a memo to AI companies operating in Ohio and warned that backlash to data centers could hurt incumbent Republican Sen. John Husted’s chances at reelection.
Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott also recently paused new data center projects to ensure compliance — something that Trump had criticized as a “mistake.”
“I saw Texas the other day sort of is against data centers. I think it’s a mistake. And I’m not taking positions, I just think it’s a mistake, because there are other communities that want it. When a community wants it, it means a lot of money is going to come into that community,” Trump had said during a Punchbowl interview earlier this month.
In the Punchbowl interview, the president expressed his belief that data centers are “tremendously important for the economics” and said they could be “bigger than oil.”
Former U.S. Rep. George Santos appears after a court hearing on Aug. 19, 2024, in West Islip, New York. (Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The prediction market Kalshi on Monday announced its first-ever lifetime ban against disgraced former Rep. George Santos, who previously settled a regulatory investigation into his trades with a hefty fine and a temporary ban from using prediction markets.
The platform also announced penalties against three political candidates who the site accused of wagering on their own races in violation of its insider trading rules.
Kalshi said Santos improperly manipulated the price of contracts on the platform by making public statements about his planned attendance at the State of the Union address earlier this year and then wagering on that contract.
Kalshi “found that Santos made these statements with the intent to manipulate the price of the Yes or No contracts that he intended to purchase. Ultimately, these statements did in fact manipulate the price of said contracts,” according to Kalshi’s regulatory filings.
Santos, on X, reacted to the ban by posting, “Hey @Kalshi thanks for the lifetime ban from your gambling platform. Let’s see how much longer you guys are around for.”
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission previously leveled its own penalties against Santos, including a disgorgement of his winnings and a $17,500 fine.
The other penalties announced Monday were levied against political candidates Ben Midgley, who ran as a Republican candidate for governor in Maine; Stephen Cloobeck, who briefly ran as a Republican for California governor; and Laurie Buckhout, who is running for Congress as a Republican in North Carolina against Democratic Rep. Don Davis.
Each purchased “event contracts” related to their own races, in violation of Kalshi’s rules, the platform said Monday.
As candidates, all three “qualified as a decision maker for the contract and had direct influence on the outcome of the Underlying event,” the platform wrote in regulatory filings. The exact nature of their wagers was not revealed in documents released Monday.
Kalshi said all three cooperated with its investigation.
Cloobeck, a billionaire real estate developer, “purchased approximately $10,000 worth of contracts related to his own candidacy,” Kalshi wrote. “Under the terms of the settlement, Kalshi suspended Cloobeck from direct or indirect access to Kalshi for a period of three years and imposed a financial penalty of $31,770.”
Midgley and Buckshot wagered less than $1,000 on the site and faced penalties of a few thousand dollars each, the platform said. Both were also suspended from the platform for three years.
Earlier this year, ABC News reported that Kalshi had penalized three other political candidates who had wagered on their own races.
