SUV crash that killed 4, hurt 6 at after-school camp doesn’t appear to be targeted: Police
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(CHATHAM, Ill.) — An Illinois community is reeling after an SUV drove into an after-school camp, killing four, but police said the crash does not appear to be targeted.
The driver struck the YNOT After School Camp building in Chatham, just outside of Springfield, on Monday afternoon, killing two 7-year-olds, an 8-year-old and an 18-year-old, according to the Illinois State Police.
Six children were taken to hospitals, including one who remains in critical condition, police said Tuesday.
According to camp founder Jamie Loftus, the SUV drove through a farm field before hitting the east wall of the camp building. The SUV then exited the building on the west side, went across a gravel road and became lodged against a power pole and baseball field fence, Loftus said.
The driver, 44-year-old Marianne Akers of Chatham, is not in custody, police said. The cause of the crash remains under investigation, but police said it didn’t appear to be targeted. Akers — who was the only person in the vehicle — wasn’t hurt, police said.
“I cannot gather the words to express much of anything that will make sense in print,” Loftus said in a statement. “However, I do know that our families who suffered loss and injury today, are hurting very, very badly. They are friends and their kids are like our kids. The Village of Chatham and Ball Chatham Schools are going to need their populations and that of the outside world to love them, pray for them, think of them.”
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said, “Our community lost a group of bright and innocent young people with their whole lives ahead of them.”
“Parents said goodbye to their kids this morning not knowing it would be the last time,” he said in a statement. “My heart is heavy for these families and the unimaginable grief they’re experiencing — something that no parent should ever have to endure.”
(NEW YORK) — Consumer sentiment improved more than expected in June, indicating a swell of optimism as President Donald Trump rolled back some tariffs in recent weeks.
The resurgence of shopper attitudes ended six consecutive months of worsening sentiment, University of Michigan survey data on Friday showed. Before the uptick, consumer sentiment had fallen near its lowest level since a bout of inflation three years ago.
Year-ahead inflation expectations, meanwhile, dropped sharply from 6.6% last month to 5.1% in June, the data showed. The anticipated inflation level would still mark a major increase from the current year-over-year inflation of 2.4%.
The improvement of sentiment was reflected across all demographics, including age, income, wealth, political party and geographic region, Surveys of Consumers Director Joanne Hsu said in a statement.
In recent weeks, Trump has dialed back some of his steepest tariffs, easing the costs imposed upon importers. Such companies typically pass along a share of the higher tax burden in the form of price hikes.
A trade agreement between the U.S. and China slashed tit-for-tat tariffs between the world’s two largest economies and triggered a surge in the stock market. Within days, Wall Street firms softened their forecasts of a downturn.
The U.S.-China accord came weeks after the White House paused a large swath of Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariffs targeting dozens of countries. Trump also eased sector-specific tariffs targeting autos and rolled back duties on some goods from Mexico and Canada.
Still, an across-the-board 10% tariff applies to nearly all imports, except for semiconductors, pharmaceuticals and some other items. Those tariffs stand in legal limbo, however, after a pair of federal court rulings late last month.
Tariffs remain in place for steel, aluminum and autos, as well as some goods from Canada and Mexico.
Fresh inflation data this week showed a slight acceleration of price increases, but inflation remains near its lowest level since 2021. So far, the economy has defied fears of price hikes, instead giving way to a cooldown of inflation over the months since Trump took office.
Warning signs point to the possibility of elevated prices over the coming months, however.
Nationwide retailers like Walmart and Best Buy have voiced alarm about the possibility they may raise prices as a result of the levies.
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, or OECD, said this month it expects U.S. inflation to reach 4% by the end of 2025, which would mark a sharp increase from current levels.
Federal Chair Jerome Powell, in recent months, has warned about the possibility that tariffs may cause what economists call “stagflation,” which is when inflation rises and the economy slows.
Stagflation could put the central bank in a difficult position. If the Fed were to raise interest rates, it could help ease inflation, but it may risk an economic downturn. If the Fed were to cut rates in an effort to spur economic growth, the move could unleash faster price increases.
For now, the Fed appears willing to take a wait-and-see approach. At its last meeting, in May, the Fed opted to hold interest rates steady for the second consecutive time.
The Fed will announce its next rate decision on June 18. Investors peg the chances of a decision to leave rates unchanged at 99.9%, according to the CME FedWatch Tool, a measure of market sentiment.
(NEW YORK) — The alleged leader of a neo-Nazi cult based overseas has been extradited to the United States and accused of inspiring “multiple senseless killings” around the world, including the shooting at Antioch High School in Nashville, Tennessee, that four months ago left one student dead and another injured, according to the Justice Department.
In a letter to a federal judge filed Friday morning, the Justice Department said that Michail Chkhikvishvili, a Georgian national arrested in Moldova last year, is scheduled to be arraigned later in the day in U.S. federal court in Brooklyn.
Chkhikvishvili was indicted last year on several federal charges, including two counts of soliciting hate crimes and other violent attacks. According to the Justice Department, he was a leader of the “Manian Murder Cult,” a Russian and Ukrainian-based extremist group also known as “MKY” that promotes violence against racial minorities, the Jewish community, and others it deems “undesirables.”
In announcing his indictment last year, the Justice Department said Chkhikvishvili – who allegedly also goes by the moniker “Commander Butcher” – distributed a self-authored “Hater’s Handbook” encouraging readers to commit school shootings and other mass “terror attacks,” providing suggested methods and strategies.
The Justice Department also said he planned and solicited help for a mass casualty attack targeting Jews and other minorities in New York City on New Year’s Eve, but the person he solicited was actually an undercover FBI agent.
Since his arrest in July of last year, Chkhikvishvili had been held in Moldova. But he is now expected to appear is a U.S. federal court on Friday, and federal prosecutors hope a federal judge will agree to keep him detained pending trial, according to the Justice Department’s filing.
“The defendant’s repeated solicitations of violence have had the intended effect. They have directly resulted in real violence, including multiple senseless killings, in the United States and around the world,” the Justice Department said in its filing.
As an example, the Justice Department wrote: “In January 2025, a 17-year-old student killed one individual and injured another before committing suicide inside Antioch High School in Nashville, Tennessee. The attacker livestreamed part of the attack. Prior to the attack, in an audio recording posted online and attributed to him, the attacker claimed he was taking action on behalf of MKY and at least one other group. The attacker’s [writings] explicitly mentioned the defendant by name and included numerous references to MKY’s founder, Yegor Krasnov. The attacker stated that he would write Krasnov’s name on his gun.”
The Justice Department also said an August 2024 knife attack in Turkey and the April 2022 murder of an elderly woman in Romania were connected to Chkhikvishvili’s actions.
“The defendant has consistently demonstrated that he is capable of orchestrating deadly attacks from behind a computer screen at home,” the Justice Department added. “Moreover, the defendant has repeatedly stated that he has committed acts of violence and that he intends to commit more. The Court should take the defendant at his word and detain him in the interest of public safety.”
In a statement issued Friday, Attorney General Pam Bondi said the case against Chkhikvishvili “is a stark reminder of the kind of terrorism we face today: online networks plotting unspeakable acts of violence against children, families, and the Jewish community in pursuit of a depraved, extremist ideology.”
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
(LOS ANGELES) — Phoebe Beltran, 15, has always been a “water baby,” according to her mom, Bibi Beltran.
She has always had a love for swimming, she told ABC News, which was why she decided to participate in a junior lifeguard cadet program in Long Beach, California, on March 30.
In the middle of competing in the 1,000-yard swim test, she felt pain in her right arm.
“My initial reaction was, ‘I’m getting eaten in the middle of the water, it’s a shark, I’m going to die,'” Phoebe Beltran told ABC News.
Phoebe Beltran immediately screamed for help, which is when the animal — she later found out was a sea lion — let go of her arm.
She was assisted back to the shore and a lifeguard boat patrolling the water brought all the other swimmers to safety, according to the Long Beach Fire Department.
“As I was getting up onto shore, that’s when I stood up, the lifeguards saw that my arm was bleeding, they took me to the sand and started fixing me up before sending me to the ER,” Phoebe Beltran said.
Her mom heard the screams, but didn’t think it was her daughter until she saw her arm gushing with blood.
“I don’t have the words to explain the panic in a mom’s heart when they see their child like that,” Bibi Beltran said. “It was a rollercoaster of emotions.”
Phoebe Beltran had bites “localized to her arms and extremities” and was taken to the local hospital, but “did not require advanced treatment,” officials said.
She later found out the lifeguards determined the animal that attacked her was a sea lion.
Phoebe Beltran said she did not do “anything that provoked” the sea lion and she would not have swum next to it if she had seen the animal.
“It came out of nowhere, I was surprised by it and so were other people,” Phoebe Beltran said.
This incident comes after sea lions on the California coast have reportedly been displaying strange behavior, likely due to a harmful algae bloom impacting the region, according to marine researchers.
The sea lions are likely being poisoned by domoic acid, a neurotoxin within the algae blooms, which they ingest through the fish they eat, according to marine experts. Ingesting domoic acid can cause amnesic shellfish poisoning in humans and marine mammals, according to the Marine Mammal Care Center.
“Instances of bites are quite a rare occurrence, but it is important for the public to maintain a distance of 150 feet from sea lions and other marine life on local beaches, exit the water immediately if approached by a marine mammal (do not engage) and call trained wildlife first responders if there appears to be a marine mammal in distress,” the center said in a statement to ABC News.
Justin Viezbicke, the California Stranding Coordinator for National Marine Fisheries Service, told ABC News that sea lions are not typically aggressive creatures and would normally “just run away” at the sight of humans, not attack.
“With this domoic acid poisoning, for some reason, it’s changing something in them that does create a situation where the sea lions have reacted, and that reaction has been either to bite or to chase after people or to exhibit behaviors that we would consider not normal,” Viezbicke said.
Common symptoms for domoic acid poisoning include lethargy, seizures, a bobbing and weaving of their heads and in some cases, aggression, Viezbicke said.
“Normal behavior is that they’re alert and aware of you,” Viezbicke said. “Oftentimes, with domoic acid, that awareness is really not there until you may be getting too close.”
Officials said the sea lion that attacked Phoebe Beltran had “no evidence” of being sick, just appearing to be aggressive. After the attack, the animal “left immediately and swam back out in the ocean,” the fire department said.
However, Phoebe Beltran still thinks this animal was ill.
“Knowing it happened out of nowhere, I deeply feel like it had something with it being sick,” Phoebe Beltran said. “It’s sad they weren’t able to catch it to help it and bring it back to its health, but hopefully it’s doing better on its own.”
Phoebe Beltran said her pain is “manageable,” but the emotional trauma from the incident is something she still struggles with.
“The physical wounds don’t seem that bad, but what happened took a toll on me mentally, so it’s just something I am working on getting over,” Phoebe Beltran told ABC News.
Despite the attack, Phoebe Beltran said she still plans on getting back in the water once she is completely healed, competing again for the junior lifeguard program and pursuing a career focusing on marine life.
“I came out really lucky to have my arm, it’s still working, it’s just scratches. [I hope people can] be more aware of what’s going on in the water, not to blame it on the sea animals at all,” Phoebe Beltran said.
ABC News’ Julia Jacobo contributed to this report.
