(WASHINGTON) — The Washington Monument has been temporarily closed after a man vandalized the national landmark with profanities and red paint.
The incident occurred on Tuesday evening when the unnamed male suspect splashed the base of the historical monument with red paint and wrote an obscene message across the side of the structure.
“The United States Park Police has an adult male in custody for vandalizing the base of the Washington Monument with paint,” the United States Park Police said in a statement obtained by ABC News. “The area at the base of the monument will be temporarily closed.”
It is currently unclear what the motivation behind the vandalism was or if the message scrawled on the base of the monument was targeting anybody specific.
“National Park Service conservators will work on the restoration process,” said the United States Park Police.
Authorities did not say how long the restoration process would take or how long the tourist attraction is expected to be closed to the public.
The investigation is currently ongoing and authorities will not be releasing any more information at this time.
The Washington Monument, completed in 1884, stands at 555 feet tall and was once the tallest structure in the world from 1884 to 1889 before it was overtaken in height by the Eiffel Tower in Paris. The historical obelisk is named after the first president of the United States and attracts over 600,000 visitors a year.
(NEW YORK) — Here are the scores from Tuesday’s sports events:
MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL
INTERLEAGUE
Boston 5, Cincinnati 3
Toronto 18, Philadelphia 11
NY Yankees 9, Pittsburgh 8
AMERICAN LEAGUE
Houston 5, Tampa Bay 0
Detroit 3, Baltimore 2
LA Angels 5, Texas 2
Kansas City 5, Minnesota 4
Oakland 4, Seattle 1
Cleveland 10, Chi White Sox 7
NATIONAL LEAGUE
LA Dodgers 6, Arizona 5
Arizona 5, LA Dodgers 2
Chi Cubs 2, Miami 1
Atlanta 3, Washington 2
NY Mets 7, Milwaukee 5
San Francisco 6, Colorado 3
San Diego 5, St. Louis 0
NICOLAS MAETERLINCK/BELGA MAG/AFP via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — As global leaders descend on New York City for the annual U.N. General Assembly, the body’s Secretary-General António Guterres issued a dire warning in an opening speech on Tuesday: “Our world is in big trouble.”
“Divides are growing deeper. Inequalities are growing wider,” he said. “And challenges are spreading farther.”
The annual gathering of high-level diplomats in the General Assembly is the first to happen in a fully in-person format since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and it’s the first to take place since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine — an international conflict that has drawn deep divides between the organization’s most powerful members, sparking calls for the U.N. to be reformed and prompting questions about whether it can still serve its stated purpose “to maintain international peace and security.”
Guterres alluded to these fractures in his address Tuesday, arguing they undercut the organization’s work.
“We are gridlocked in colossal global dysfunction,” he said. “The international community is not ready or willing to tackle the big dramatic challenges of our age. These crises threaten the very future of humanity and the fate of our planet. Our world is in peril — and paralyzed.”
Overcoming those major challenges, he said, depended on cooperation.
“Let’s work as one, as a coalition of the world, as united nations,” he urged.
Hunger on the horizon
While much of Guterres’ speech was devoted to outlining the problems facing the planet, he sought to remind the audience that the U.N. was still capable of finding solutions.
Large projectors in the room displayed a picture of a ship called Brave Commander that Guterres called “an image of promise and hope.” Laden with grain and flying the blue-and-white flag of the U.N., the vessel was the first to leave Ukrainian ports since the outbreak of Russia’s invasion, navigating Black Sea trade routes to bring its badly needed cargo to the Horn of Africa thanks to an agreement Guterres played a pivotal part in brokering.
“Some might call it a miracle at sea. In truth, it is multilateral diplomacy in action,” he said, calling the dozens of ships that have followed in Brave Commander’s path a testament to what can be accomplished through cooperation.
But while that safe passage deal is allowing grain exports to ameliorate the global food crisis, Guterres warned there was another on the horizon due to a shortage in fertilizer — saying that while the current problems can be chalked up to distribution issues, the world’s hunger may soon be the result of not having enough to go around at all.
“Without action now, the global fertilizer shortage will quickly morph into a global food shortage,” he said.
The secretary-general then alluded to the U.N.’s next major initiative: a proposal to export Russian fertilizer components through Ukraine.
“It is essential to continue removing all remaining obstacles to the export of Russian fertilizers and their ingredients, including ammonia. These products are not subject to sanctions, and we are making progress in eliminating indirect effects,” Guterres said.
The U.N. separately says it is “pursuing all efforts” to maximize fertilizer output, but the clock is ticking. The body’s trade negotiator advises that shortages need to be addressed in October and November before the window for the northern hemisphere’s planting season closes.
Dire problems, drastic plans
The secretary-general on Tuesday also spoke to the even broader-sweeping challenges of the day, and advocated for even more ambitious — or, to some, radical — plans to address them. “We need action across the board. Let’s have no illusions,” he said. “Our planet is burning,”
Guterres called not only for initiatives to address the root causes of damage to the environment but also to compensate developing countries that bear the brunt of those problems.
“Polluters must pay,” he said. “Today, I am calling on all developed economies to tax the ‘windfall’ profits of fossil fuel companies. Those funds should be re-directed in two ways: to countries suffering loss and damage caused by the climate crisis, and to people struggling with rising food and energy prices.”
Guterres argued that the climate crisis was fueling “a once-in-a-generation global cost-of-living crisis” that could only be remedied through radical change.
“Today’s global financial system was created by rich countries to serve their interests. It expands and entrenches inequalities. It requires deep structural reform,” he said. “The divergence between developed and developing countries — between North and South, between the privileged and the rest — is becoming more dangerous by the day. It is at the root of the geopolitical tensions.”
The U.S. agenda
While President Joe Biden isn’t scheduled to take part in the summit until Wednesday, Guterres’ speech mentioned a number of other items that coincide with the White House’s priority list.
On nonproliferation, the secretary-general noted that “a nuclear deal with Iran remains elusive.”
The Biden administration, with help from the European Union, has been embroiled in months of indirect negotiations with Tehran over returning to an Obama-era nuclear pact that then-President Donald Trump scrapped in 2018. But talks appear to have stalled again. Although a high-level delegation from Iran will participate in the General Assembly, there are no planned meetings with any U.S. officials.
While addressing women’s rights, Guterres also hit on a domestic matter: the overturning of Roe v. Wade.
The U.N. women’s rights committee has previously denounced the landmark ruling which reversed the national access to abortion in the U.S., calling “access to reproductive rights is at the core of women and girls’ autonomy and ability to make their own choices about their bodies and lives, free of discrimination, violence and coercion.”
More broadly, Guterres said that gender inequality is “going backwards” and “women’s lives are getting worse, from poverty, to choices around sexual and reproductive health, to their personal security.”
(JACKSON, Miss.) — As Jackson, Mississippi, continues efforts to recover from the city’s water crisis this summer, residents have filed a class action lawsuit against former and current city officials, as well as infrastructure engineering companies, for their alleged role in neglecting or worsening a “foreseeable” public health crisis, according to the filed complaint.
Raine Becker, one of four named plaintiffs in the lawsuit, told ABC News she was unaware of the ongoing water issues in Jackson when she moved there two years ago. Becker says her first experience with these problems came in 2021 when winter storms left her without water for two weeks.
After a failing water treatment plant led to low water pressure and the contamination of Jackson’s water supply last month, Becker says she was left wondering how she would pay her bills and care for her seven-year-old son Shylar, who is terminally ill.
“I pick up people’s laundry…bring it to my house, wash it, dry it, fold it, and bring it back. Two days without water meant two days without a paycheck,” she said. “So now I’m being hit professionally and personally.”
Becker told ABC News that Shylar, who she says was born with a heart defect and developed terminal liver disease, has a feeding tube that requires sanitary water to flush it. Using contaminated water could have fatal consequences, she says.
“If I had been flushing with the water we were given through the tap, we might be in a whole different predicament right now. Like that would hospitalize him, potentially kill him,” she said. “It’s important and imperative that we have clean, safe water. I mean for everybody, not just because I have a sick child. This is a human right.”
Becker said that while she does not want to minimize the impact of officials’ efforts to mitigate the crisis, including offering state-run water distribution sites, residents should not have to rely on them.
“I feel like they were reactive instead of proactive,” she said. “And the second they knew there was a problem–the second they knew there was an issue whether it was with the plant or the pipes, they should have looked into fixing it then and they didn’t and they failed to protect us.”
Mississippi ended its boil water notice for all of Jackson’s residents on Sept. 15, nearly two weeks after water pressure returned to the state capital’s residents after days of a water shortage crisis that impacted thousands of Jacksonians.
The complaint names the City of Jackson; Mayor Chokwe A. Lumumba; former mayor Tony Yarber; former public works directors Kishia Powell, Robert Miller and Jerriot Smash; Siemens Corporation, Siemens Industry and Trilogy Engineering Services as defendants.
Spokespersons for Lumumba, Powell, Miller, and Siemens declined to comment when reached by ABC News.
Yarber, Smash, and Trilogy Engineering did not immediately respond to ABC News’ requests for comment.
Lumumba spoke with “ABC News Prime” last month about the roots of this water crisis, which he said has been unfolding over several years.
“This is due to decades, decades and decades, of possibly 30 years or more of deferred maintenance, a lack of capital improvements made to the system, a lack of a human capital, a workforce plan that accounted for the challenges that our water treatment facility suffers from,” Lumumba said.
Mark Chalos, a partner at Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, LLP, is one of the attorneys representing the plaintiffs in the lawsuit. He told ABC News that the water system’s failure last month “is not a surprise and shouldn’t have been a surprise to anyone in connection with running the Jackson water system.”
Plaintiffs are seeking damages and relief including regular water testing, removal of contaminated pipes, cancellation of bills and debts for contaminated or undelivered water and community health centers for those affected by contaminated water, according to the complaint.
Chalos says he and his clients ultimately hope that the lawsuit pushes officials to resolve the water system’s issues entirely and immediately.
Becker says she hopes officials have a structured plan to prevent this from happening again.
“I have faith and I believe that hopefully they will actually fix this,” Becker said. “I hope nobody else ever has to go through this. This has been horrible. It’s been costly. It’s had a lot of bad effects. And so I hope that they can learn from this and grow from this.”
(WASHINGTON) — The number of suicides among military veterans dropped to its lowest rate in over a decade, according to a report released Monday by the Department of Veteran Affairs. The latest figures come days after a national suicide prevention nonprofit said the federal agency was underestimating the problem.
After instances of suicide rose among veterans from 2001 to 2018, the VA’s annual report documented a near 10% decline between 2018 to 2020.
The VA recognized 6,146 deaths from suicide among veterans in 2020, the most recent year with reportable data. This was 343 fewer instances than recorded in 2019, marking the sharpest decline since 2001. (By contrast with veterans, according to Pentagon data, there were 580 suicides among current service members in 2020.)
The drop in veteran suicides persisted during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. The VA cited strengthened mental health programming, clinical support, community collaboration and paid media campaigns as important intervention methods for veterans in crisis.
But Monday’s report also acknowledged that there was still work to be done to create more comprehensive resources.
“Unemployment, chronic pain, insomnia, relationship strain, homelessness and grief are examples of factors outside of mental health that may play a role in suicide,” the report states. “We must also move beyond the individual factors in suicide and look to address broader international, national, community and relational factors that play a role.”
The VA said it remains cautiously encouraged by the drop in the suicide rate. The 10% decline between 2018 and 2020 is close to double the 5.5% reduction among non-veteran adults over the same two-year period.
The issue is still disproportionately impacting former service members. The report determined that in 2020, the age- and sex-adjusted suicide rate for veterans was more than 57% higher than non-veteran adults.
The VA found that on average in 2020, 16 veterans took their lives each day.
That may be an undercount, outside advocates say: A report released Saturday says the number could be closer to 24. America’s Warrior Partnership, a national suicide prevention nonprofit, found that when factoring in unexplained or accidental deaths as well as county record-keeping mistakes, the suicide rate was 37% higher than the VA estimated between 2014 to 2018.
America’s Warrior Partnership said this discrepancy is “likely due to undercounting of [former service member deaths] and the greater specificity of the decedent’s demographics, military experience, and death details available” to the nonprofit.
While America’s Warrior Partnership was working alongside Duke University and the University of Alabama using death records from eight states corroborated with the Department of Defense, the VA was using data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Defense.
The independent investigation, labeled “Operation Deep Dive,” also found unique risk factors that influenced a former service member’s decision to kill themselves. The report found the longer someone served in the military, the less likely they were to commit suicide, by a declining rate of 2% per year served.
The report also assessed that a demotion during military service was associated with an increased suicide risk of 56%.
America’s Warrior Partnership has requested the VA share its current data to better collaborate and make recommendations that would support former service members considering suicide.
“We need everyone at the table, leveraging work within and outside of clinical health care delivery systems to decrease both individual and societal risk factors for suicide,” the VA stated at the conclusion of its report. “The public health approach reminds us that what we do can and does make a difference.”
(NEW YORK) — Banning someone from buying a gun while under felony indictment goes against their Second Amendment right to bear arms, a federal judge in Texas ruled Monday.
“There are no illusions about this case’s real-world consequences—certainly valid public policy and safety concerns exist,” U.S. District Judge David Counts, a Trump appointee, wrote in his decision.
Counts cited a June Supreme Court decision, New York State Rifle & Pistol Association vs. Bruen, in which the justices rolled back concealed-carry permit restrictions for gun owners in New York state.
Counts’ opinion relied heavily on the framework set out by the high court in Bruen, saying that it was unclear after that ruling “whether a statute preventing a person under indictment from receiving a firearm aligns with this Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.”
The Texas judge had been asked to weigh the case of Jose Gomez Quiroz, who was indicted for felony burglary on June 9, 2020, and then allegedly jumped bail, attempted to purchase an automatic weapon, lied on his ATF firearms transaction form and was able to purchase the gun.
Quiroz was convicted of making a false statement during the purchase of a firearm and illegal receipt of a firearm by a person under indictment. But he moved to dismiss the verdict “because of the United States Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Bruen.” (Quiroz’s burglary case is still pending.)
Counts agreed, finding that the Supreme Court had established a new “standard” with which to view Second Amendment rights.
“No longer can courts balance away a constitutional right. After Bruen, the Government must prove that laws regulating conduct covered by the Second Amendment’s plain text align with this Nation’s historical tradition. The Government does not meet that burden,” Counts found.
He also wrote that he was skeptical that a felony indictment should preclude anyone from owning a weapon.
“The nature of grand jury proceedings is one such area that casts a shadow of constitutional doubt on [making a false statement on a gun form],” he wrote. “Some feel that a grand jury could indict a burrito if asked to do so.”
The government has submitted notice of intention to appeal the decision.
ABC News’ Nicholas Kerr and Gina Sunseri contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on Capitol Hill will hold another hearing next week, the group’s chairman said Tuesday, suggesting that it could be the last time they convene publicly.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., told reporters at the Capitol on Tuesday that the committee will hold its final hearing on Sept. 28 at 1 p.m. ET.
“I can say that unless something else develops, this hearing at this point is the final hearing. But it’s not in stone because things happen,” Thompson said.
He added that the committee hearing will feature “substantial footage” of the riot and “significant witness testimony” that hasn’t previously been released, but he declined to divulge any details or the topic.
The hearing, should it be the last one, could mark a crescendo of the panel’s work before it releases a final investigative report, which is expected later this year.
The hearings so far have already featured multiple startling moments, including an array of former aides and associates of President Donald Trump recounting his state of mind after he lost the 2020 election and before and during the Jan. 6 riot by his supporters.
According to testimony at the hearing, Trump knew protesters in Washington were armed that day but still urged them to march to the Capitol and reacted angrily when he was barred from joining the group. (Trump has denied wrongdoing and said the committee is politically motivated.)
The panel is racing to finish its work before the next Congress starts up amid speculation that a House GOP majority would scrap the investigation entirely.
Outstanding questions remain over what witnesses may be called and whether committee investigators will press Trump or former Vice President Mike Pence to testify. The committee has also sent a letter to former House Speaker Newt Gingrich seeking information and records over communications with Trump’s team before and after the attack on the Capitol.
The committee has interviewed several people linked to Trump or who served in his administration, including several former Cabinet secretaries, whose testimonies have not yet been seen publicly.
Next week’s hearing will be the committee’s first since the FBI searched Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort over his possession of what the government says was highly classified documents.
(NEW YORK) — A Kentucky man currently serving a life sentence for a deadly 1997 school shooting said he feels responsible for school shootings that have happened in the U.S.
On Dec. 1, 1997, then-14-year-old Michael Carneal opened fire on a prayer group at Heath High School near Paducah, Kentucky, killing three of his fellow students and injuring another five. After pleading guilty, he was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years.
With 24 years and nine months of his sentence served, Carneal, now 39, is seeking parole in what’s one of the first known instances of a school shooter facing the possibility of leaving prison.
After hearing testimony from Carneal and several victims this week, the two members of the Kentucky parole board were unable to make a unanimous decision on his parole, sending the decision to the full board next week.
During his parole hearing on Tuesday, Carneal, who spoke via Zoom from Kentucky State Reformatory, apologized for his actions and said since his incarceration he has received multiple mental health diagnoses, for which he takes medication.
Carneal said some of the symptoms of his illness include hearing voices, which often encourage him to behave violently. He recounted that he was hearing such voices before the shooting. Asked during the hearing if he still hears those voices, he said “Yes.” He said they told him to throw himself down the stairs as recently as two days ago, though he said he believes he now has his actions under control.
The decades since the Paducah incident have seen the deadliest school shootings in U.S. history, including in Uvalde, Texas, earlier this year.
When asked about the school shootings that have followed, Carneal said, “I feel responsible for them on some level,” in particular the 1999 shooting at Columbine that killed 12 students and a teacher. He said he felt suicidal after learning about Columbine and had to be hospitalized.
At one point, the parole board members asked Carneal to name his eight victims. He said he considered one of them — 14-year-old Nicole Hadley, whom he killed — a “very good friend.”
“How does that make you feel, that you took the life or injured those eight?” Kentucky Parole Board chairperson Ladeidra Jones asked.
“It makes me feel terrible that I hurt anybody, my friends or not my friends,” he responded.
In testimony from Carneal’s victims and their families during a hearing on Monday, most encouraged the parole board to deny Carneal’s request for parole, saying his actions have caused permanent harm and he was still too much of a risk for the public.
Missy Jenkins Smith, who was paralyzed by one of the bullets Carneal fired, said keeping Carneal in prison for life “is the only way his victims can feel comfortable and safe.” She also spoke about the impact of the injuries she suffered in the shooting.
“I have been sentenced to life without the possibility of parole after living the consequence of Michael Carneal’s decision, to not be able to walk,” Smith said. “I’m forced to continue with every day getting harder and harder as the years pass during my life sentence. The future, and the fear of it, haunts me.”
But at least one victim, Hollan Holm, said Carneal was an adult being held responsible for the actions of a child, and that having spent two-thirds of his life in prison, deserves a chance to do some good in the community.
The parole board members noted Carneal’s attorney and family had submitted plans of action should his parole be granted, but Carneal did not submit one on his own behalf. Both parole board members appeared skeptical that he had fully thought about his plans to successfully reintegrate into society.
After hearing testimony from Carneal and several victims, the two members of the Kentucky parole board were unable to make a unanimous decision on whether to release him in November or defer his next opportunity for parole for up to five years.
The full board is scheduled to meet on Monday to decide whether Carneal should be released, serve out his full sentence or have another chance to seek parole at a later date for up to 10 years.
(NEW YORK) — Wall Street will watch closely on Wednesday as the Federal Reserve is expected to escalate its fight against inflation with a dramatic interest rate hike.
The move would come a little more than a week after a higher-than-expected inflation report revealed that prices rose slightly in August, worsening the cost woes for U.S. households and sending the S&P 500 tumbling for its worst day of 2022.
The Fed has instituted 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 U.S. into an economic downturn and putting millions out of work.
Speaking at a conference held by the conservative-leaning Cato Institute, Fed Chair Jerome Powell said earlier this month that the central bank must act “forthrightly, strongly” to dial back inflation.
The combination of those comments and the inflation data last week has led many economists to expect another 0.75% interest rate hike on Wednesday. Some economists have predicted that the Fed will raise rates by 1%, which it has not done in four decades.
At each of its last two meetings, the central bank has increased its benchmark interest rate by 0.75% — jumbo-sized hikes last matched in 1994.
The rate hikes have yielded mixed results, however. On an annual basis, consumer prices have moderated slightly but remain highly elevated.
The consumer price index rose 8.3% over the past year as of August, a slight slowdown from 8.5% in July, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Some prices have already fallen significantly, though. Gas prices dropped 10.6% in August, the bureau said.
Meanwhile, rate increases appear to have slowed key sectors of the economy, sending mortgage rates higher and slowing the construction of new homes, for instance.
Still, other indicators suggest the U.S. economy continues to hum.
U.S. hiring fell from its breakneck pace but remained robust in August, with the economy adding 315,000 jobs and the unemployment rate rising to 3.7% as more people sought work, according to data released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics in early September.
At closing Tuesday, each of the major stock indexes fell roughly 1% ahead of an anticipated rate hike. The Dow Jones Industrial Average tumbled nearly 300 points.
An acoustic guitar played by the late Chris Cornell is being auctioned off in support of Ukraine amid its ongoing fight against Russia’s invasion.
The guitar, made by the Washburn USA custom shop, belongs to musician Pete Thorn, who took the instrument on tour with him in 2009 when he played in Soundgarden frontman’s solo live band. According to Thorn, Cornell liked the guitar so much that he would borrow it to play a few songs each night on the tour.
Proceeds from the auction will be donated to the organization Save Our Allies, which is providing humanitarian aid to the people of Ukraine. A press release states that the guitar is being auctioned with the blessing of Cornell’s widow, Vicky.
Thorn also performed with Cornell’s daughter, Toni, during her rendition of the Prince-written, Sinéad O’Connor-sung song “Nothing Compares 2 U” on The Tonight Show last December.
