Search underway after 4 climbers fall on tallest mountain in North America
A view of the highest mountain peak in North America. (Lance King/Getty Images)
(DENALI NATIONAL PARK AND PRESERVE, Ala.) — A search and rescue mission is underway after four people fell while climbing Mount McKinley at 18,200 feet, according to the National Park Service.
Mount McKinley — located in Alaska’s Denali National Park and Preserve — is the tallest peak in North America, according to the NPS.
The climbers, part of a seven-member climbing team, fell in the vicinity of Denali Pass, according to the NPS.
The NPS received a report of the incident at around midnight Thursday after two other climbers were evacuated by helicopter from the mountain at around 11 p.m. Wednesday, as part of a separate incident, the NPS said.
Three members of the climbing team returned to High Camp at 17,000 feet after attending to their fallen partners, the NPS said.
The NPS said it is actively responding to the incident. Weather conditions on the mountain are improving and will soon enable helicopter operations, the NPS said.
The extent of the climbers’ injuries and their condition remains unknown, the NPS said.
The entrance to Grand Canyon National Park on Feb. 23, 2025, in Grand Canyon, Arizona. (Brandon Bell/Getty Images)
(LOS ANGELES) — Two people are dead and at least one person remains missing following a major flash-flooding event at the Grand Canyon over the weekend, as cadaver dogs are expected to be used in the ongoing search of the devastated areas, authorities said.
The current missing-person count is based on overnight camping permits issued by the park, officials said, while acknowledging that additional day hikers who did not have permits could also be missing.
“There are day hikers that come in the canyon that we don’t know about,” Dave Black, the Grand Canyon National Park Service’s incident commander, said at a news conference Monday evening.
Black said that the weather is expected to be clear Tuesday for the first time since Saturday afternoon’s flash flood, allowing ground crews to be sent to the hard-hit areas. Four teams with cadaver dogs are planning to search the Bright Angel Creek and Phantom Ranch areas Tuesday, he added.
Authorities said hundreds of tips have been received but so far, there is no reason to believe anyone else is missing other than the one person already being sought.
A Border Patrol technical search team will search for the remaining confirmed missing person, Black said. Authorities said they will also use Bluetooth technology and a drone to search the area.
“We are absolutely holding out hope that that person is still alive,” Black said.
The National Park Service confirmed that two people have been killed in the deadly flash flooding.
On Sunday evening, officials said the body of a 46-year-old man, whose name has not been released, was recovered near Crystal Rapids along the Colorado River. The family of the other recovered victim identified him as Dr. John Giusti, a Texas chiropractor and married father of three daughters.
Flash flooding unfolded about 2:30 p.m. local time Saturday in the Bright Angel Canyon and Phantom Ranch area, both popular destinations for hikers. Authorities said 82 people were rescued from the canyon, most by helicopter. A couple of people were able to hike out, they said.
Meanwhile, new details have emerged about the response to the flash flood emergency.
Deputy Superintendent Brian Drapeaux of the Grand Canyon National Park Service said at Monday’s news conference that water-level gauges installed in Bright Angel Creek following last year’s Dragon Bravo Fire on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon stopped working during the flood.
“That system started to alert us of rising waters, and then shortly after, that system went offline as water progressed down the creek and picked up speed and destructive force,” Drapeaux said.
It’s unclear why the water-level gauge system stopped working, Drapeaux said, adding that debris that filled the creek could have knocked it offline.
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 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 National Park Service said in a statement.
On Sunday, NPS officials said more than 20 people had initially been reported missing and that 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.”
“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. 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.
Boston police said they are looking for suspects in an armed robbery at a kids’ lemonade stand in South Boston, June 10, 2026. (Boston Police)
(BOSTON) — Boston police are searching for two suspects wanted for committing an armed robbery at a lemonade stand.
Two kids were running a lemonade stand in South Boston when, at about 4:45 p.m. Wednesday, the “unknown suspects made several passes by the stand,” Boston police said.
The suspects — described as boys about 14 and 11 years old — then went up to the kids and asked if Apple Pay was accepted, police said.
Before the children could answer, the suspects grabbed a box of cash, and the older suspect showed a gun in his waistband, police said.
The suspects fled the scene, police said.
The cash box had about $50 inside, police said.
Police ask anyone with information to call the detectives 617-343-4742 or submit a tip anonymously at 1-800-494-TIPS.
Kathryn Ruemmler (C), former general counsel of Goldman Sachs and former White House Counsel to U.S. President Barack Obama, arrives to a closed-door hearing with the House Oversight Committee on Capitol Hill on July 15, 2026, in Washington, D.C. The committee is continuing to hold closed-door interviews as part of their investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. (Photo by Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Kathy Ruemmler, who once served as White House counsel for President Barack Obama and later worked as the top lawyer for investment bank Goldman Sachs, on Wednesday told House investigators that convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was a “masterful liar,” according to a copy of her prepared remarks reviewed by ABC News.
Ruemmler is appearing Wednesday in a closed-door session with the House Oversight Committee in its ongoing probe of the government’s handling of the investigations into Epstein.
Ruemmler never represented Epstein as an attorney, though documents in the Epstein files suggested she frequently provided legal and public relations advice to him. When Epstein was arrested on July 6, 2019, one of the first phone calls he made was to Ruemmler.
“If I knew then what I know now about who Epstein really was, I never would have accepted an initial meeting with him. It was a mistake to deal with him, and I regret it,” Ruemmler told the committee, according to her prepared remarks.
Ruemmler said she never saw any “evidence of ongoing criminal conduct or misconduct of any kind by Epstein” and would have reported him had she seen evidence of abuse. When he was indicted in 2019, Ruemmler said she was “shocked” by the allegations and cut ties with Epstein.
“I was shocked by the indictment, which alleged that Epstein had intentionally enticed and recruited minor girls to engage in sex acts with him in exchange for cash. Those horrific allegations — which covered conduct that had occurred almost 10 years before I met Epstein — contradicted what I had understood about the nature and scope of that prior conduct,” she said.
While she said she was aware of Epstein’s 2008 guilty plea to prostitution-related charges, Ruemmler said she trusted the plea deal was “a proportionate and final resolution of his criminal conduct. She added that the high-profile individuals who she thought were associated with Epstein suggested he was no longer engaging in criminal conduct, adding that he appeared to have “remorse, embarrassment, and regret for his conduct.”
“Epstein was a masterful liar, and he clearly lied to me. I can see now that he used me and other respectable people to legitimize his standing, and I know now that he often exaggerated his relationship with me to others,” she said, according to her prepared remarks. “I understand how frustrating and hurtful it must have been for anyone victimized by Epstein to see him going about his life without facing the type of accountability and consequences that he deserved. I am angry that he hurt so many people, and I regret ever having anything to do with him.”
Ruemmler faced renewed scrutiny over the relationship after the Department of Justice’s release of Epstein files earlier this year showed a trove of emails from 2014 to 2019 between her and Epstein.
In the emails to Epstein — who she occasionally referred to as “Uncle Jeffrey” and compared to an “older brother” — Ruemmler thanked him for lavish gifts, got advice about her career, and lambasted lawyers representing Epstein’s victims.
“Victim’s rights, my ass,” Ruemmler wrote in a February 2015 emailabout a case related to the Crime Victims’ Rights Act.
Amid the renewed scrutiny, Ruemmler announced plans earlier this year to step down as Goldman Sachs’ chief legal officer and general counsel, and a spokesperson for the bank at the time said she “regrets ever knowing” Epstein.
In March, the House Oversight Committee sent letters to a group of individuals associated with Epstein — including Ruemmler, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, billionaire Leon Black, and others — to request they participate in transcribed interviews as part of their Epstein probe.
“Ms. Ruemmler welcomes the opportunity to appear before the Committee,” Jennifer Connelly, a spokeswoman for Ruemmler, said in a statement following the request. “At the time she interacted with Jeffrey Epstein, she was a practicing criminal defense attorney and shared a client with him. She has done nothing wrong and had no knowledge of any ongoing criminal activity on his part.”
Despite her initial plan to depart from Goldman Sachs by June, Ruemmler continues to advise the bank on its search for a new general counsel. During an interview Monday on CNBC, Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon said he is “really pleased” and “very grateful that she continues to help the firm.”
“Kathy stepped away because of the noise,” he said. “Kathy has agreed to act as an adviser and help us navigate through until a new general counsel is seated. We’re running a search. We’re deep into that search. We will seat a chief legal officer at some point, you know, in the near term. And once that person is seated, Kathy will move on and do other things.”
