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Former Olympian among those charged with vandalizing Reflecting Pool; Trump says basin must be drained: report
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Multiple people have been arrested this weekend after allegedly vandalizing the newly refurbished Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, prompting a strong response from President Donald Trump and an increase in security at the site.
In a statement on Truth Social Saturday night, Trump announced «many additional people» have been arrested after suspects «took some form of knife or blade, and put a 250-foot-long gash into the beautiful facade of what took so much work, competence, and money to build and complete.»
The president also alleged suspects «poured corrosive and destructive chemicals» into the basin.
«It hasn’t looked or worked like this since 1922, when it was originally built, but even then, it leaked badly, and didn’t work,» Trump wrote in the post. «Ours worked perfectly, including the mirror like finish, perfectly reflecting the two Great Monuments, which it never had before! What these terrible Vandals have done is a true affront to both Presidents George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, and should be dealt with accordingly.»
TRUMP SAYS VANDALS USED CHEMICALS TO DAMAGE NEWLY RENOVATED REFLECTING POOL NEAR LINCOLN MEMORIAL
National Park Service employees and contractors use vacuums to remove green algae from the bottom of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Thursday, in Washington, D.C. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Trump said administration officials met with contractors Saturday and will likely need to drain «much of the water» in order to do the necessary repairs.
It is unclear if the contractors mentioned are the same ones initially employed to carry out the renovations.
«[We] will have them done as quickly as possible,» the president wrote. «What they have damaged does not even include the earlier killing of a large amount of grass which was, by far, the least of it.
«… The Reflecting Pool was never so beautiful as it was just one week ago, even going back to 1922 when it opened. We are very proud of what we have done with this magnificent structure, and we will get it repaired, quickly, to an equal level of Beauty.»
The announcement came as the administration faces scrutiny over peeling paint and algae growth just weeks after a $14.8 million restoration project was completed.
While Trump did not specify who was responsible for the alleged gash in the lining and subsequent peeling, multiple arrests were documented over the weekend by local reporters.
Paint peels from the bottom of the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C. (Annabelle Gordon/Reuters)
TRUMP TAKES MOTORCADE INTO REFLECTING POOL, BLASTS PAST ‘$38M DISASTER’ FIX UNDER OBAMA
Journalist Emily Miller posted a two-minute video on X Friday showing a man in lime green racing gear questioning a National Guardsman before being handcuffed by U.S. Park Police.
The Washington Post later identified the man in Miller’s video as David Hearn, 67, a three-time Olympian who was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of destruction of government property.
Hearn told the outlet he had just finished a 52-mile bike ride when he noticed a «partially detached piece» of the new pool liner and «reached into the water to see what it felt like.»
The Bethesda, Maryland, native told The Associated Press he owned a company that made composite used to build watercraft.
Former U.S. Olympian David Hearn was arrested after allegedly vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in Washington, D.C. (David Madison/Getty Images, File)
While Miller claimed in her post that Hearn «grabbed» a hose that National Park Service workers were using to remediate algae growth, Hearn told The Washington Post the hose «may» only have been touched by his bike tire.
«I didn’t vandalize anything,» Hearn told the outlet.
Hearn, who was arrested in 1996 on charges of canoeing on the Potomac River but later had them dropped, said, «I didn’t destroy, break or peel anything. By the time I realized what was happening, I was already being handcuffed.»
National Guard members walk past a National Park Service employee using a vacuum to clean the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, Friday, in Washington. D.C. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
Miller reported that seven people were detained Friday and five people were detained Saturday in separate incidents, which has led to a major security surge.
In an earlier Truth Social post Saturday, Trump questioned, «Who would do such a thing?»
«These are very serious crimes having to do with the destruction of National Monuments,» the president wrote. «Years in jail! Work will begin immediately on its repair.»
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The White House, U.S. Park Police and Miller did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s requests for comment.
Fox News Digital’s Michael Sinkewicz contributed to this report.
vandalism, national guard, white house, parks, donald trump, police and law enforcement, washington dc
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Balotaje en Colombia: un país dividido elige presidente entre un libertario y un socialista
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African and Caribbean leaders call for payments, debt cancellation, formal apologies over slavery
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African and Caribbean leaders are demanding financial compensation, debt cancellation and formal apologies from countries that benefited from the transatlantic slave trade after adopting a sweeping reparations plan at a conference in Ghana.
The 19-point framework calls for financial compensation, debt relief, a Global Reparations Fund and the return of looted cultural artifacts and ancestral remains. It also seeks reforms to international financial institutions that supporters say disadvantage Third World countries.
The proposal is expected to be presented at the next UN General Assembly as African and Caribbean nations step up a coordinated push for slavery reparations.
The plan was adopted Friday by the African Union and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Commission on Reparatory Justice at the end of a three-day conference.
REPARATIONS ADVOCATES PUSH FOR PAYMENTS TO BLACK AMERICANS DESPITE BUDGET AND LEGAL CHALLENGES
John Dramani Mahama, president of Ghana, and other dignitaries attend a wreath-laying event at Christiansborg Castle in Accra, Ghana, Friday, during a high-level conference on the United Nations resolution addressing the trafficking of enslaved Africans. (Ernest Ankomah/Getty Images)
«None of us gathered in this hall today can be held personally responsible for the atrocities of the transatlantic slave trade,» Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama told delegates.
«History does not ask us to inherit guilt, but it asks us to inherit responsibility,» Mahama added.
The proposal does not identify specific countries that should provide compensation or issue formal apologies.
TULSA MAYOR PROPOSES $100M REPARATIONS PLAN FOR DESCENDANTS OF 1921 TULSA RACE MASSACRE
John Dramani Mahama, president of Ghana, lays a wreath at Christiansborg Castle in Accra during a high-level conference on the United Nations resolution addressing the trafficking of enslaved Africans on Friday. (Ernest Ankomah/Getty Images)
It does call for debt cancellation, climate justice financing, expanded citizenship pathways for Africans in the diaspora and what organizers describe as a «right of return» for descendants of enslaved Africans.
The plan also urges African countries to preserve former slave forts and castles as memorial sites.
According to advocates, at least 12.5 million Africans were kidnapped and transported aboard European ships between the 15th and 19th centuries. Supporters of reparations argue the effects of slavery continue to be felt across Africa and the Caribbean generations later.
UN COURT RULES WEALTHY NATIONS PAY UP FOR CLIMATE CHANGE DAMAGES IN CONTROVERSIAL GLOBAL RULING
President John Dramani Mahama and Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa host a high-level consultative conference on the next steps following the United Nations resolution on trafficking of enslaved Africans in Accra, Ghana, on Thursday. (Ernest Ankomah/Getty Images)
The conference follows a UN vote in March recognizing transatlantic slavery as the «gravest crime against humanity.»
The resolution passed with 123 votes in favor, but the U.S., Israel and 52 other countries either voted against it or abstained.
According to Reuters, the United States and European Union raised concerns that the resolution could be interpreted as creating a hierarchy among crimes against humanity by treating some atrocities as more serious than others.
MACRON TAKES THE STAGE UNINVITED AT AFRICA SUMMIT TO SCOLD CROWD FOR ‘TOTAL LACK OF RESPECT’
John Dramani Mahama, president of Ghana, Mia Amor Mottley, prime minister of Barbados, and Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, Ghana’s foreign affairs minister, attend a wreath-laying event at Christiansborg Castle in Accra, Ghana, Friday, during a high-level conference on the United Nations resolution addressing the trafficking of enslaved Africans. (Ernest Ankomah/Getty Images)
Heads of state from Namibia, Liberia, Senegal, Barbados and Sao Tome and Principe attended the conference, along with senior officials from several other countries.
French President Emmanuel Macron addressed the gathering virtually from the Élysée Palace, where he acknowledged the suffering caused by slavery.
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Enslaved people were «torn from their homelands, deported, dehumanised, and treated as goods,» Macron said.
Macron also said reparations should not be viewed «as an end point, or a cheque written to bring the story to a close.»
The conference in Ghana brought together separate reparations efforts previously pursued by African and Caribbean nations into a single document that organizers plan to take before the United Nations.
Reuters contributed to this report.
africa, united nations, caribbean, heritage, general assembly, world
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El Gobierno de Guatemala lanza un plan estatal para buscar a 45.000 desaparecidos de la guerra civil
Guatemala lanzó un plan estatal para buscar a 45,000 desaparecidos de la guerra civil, una deuda abierta desde el conflicto armado interno que dejó al menos 200,000 muertos y desaparecidos entre 1960 y 1996. El presidente Bernardo Arévalo presentó el mecanismo como una vía para localizar a las víctimas con participación de autoridades, familias y organizaciones humanitarias, en un proceso que, según remarcó, no reemplaza las causas judiciales.
El programa tendrá una vigencia de 10 años y funcionará entre 2026 y 2036. El diseño incluyó 67 encuentros nacionales con la participación de 775 familiares y organizaciones de derechos humanos, y prevé además la creación de un Archivo Nacional de Memoria a partir de bases de datos dispersas que serán digitalizadas por el Poder Judicial.
Arévalo hizo el anuncio el viernes al presentar oficialmente el Mecanismo de Búsqueda Humanitaria de Personas Desaparecidas durante el Conflicto Armado Interno 2026-2036. “Iniciamos un camino para encontrar a quienes nos faltan, para sanar una herida abierta por la historia”, dijo el mandatario.
El presidente guatemalteco sostuvo además que el nuevo instrumento apunta a establecer el paradero de las víctimas mediante un trabajo coordinado. En ese marco, precisó que “no sustituye la aplicación de la justicia”.
La presentación del mecanismo reunió la promesa oficial de búsqueda con el reclamo histórico de los familiares de las víctimas. Pablo Estrada, presidente de la Asociación de Familiares de Detenidos y Desaparecidos de Guatemala, definió el anuncio como una “pequeña luz” después de décadas de búsqueda de personas cuyo “único delito fue pensar distinto”.
Estrada habló en el mismo acto en el que se oficializó el plan. Allí recordó que su organización promovió en las últimas décadas procesos de exhumación de 1.800 osamentas de “víctimas del terrorismo de Estado”, de las cuales el 30% fue identificado y entregado a sus familias.
Arévalo anunció el mecanismo; Estrada expuso el límite de los esfuerzos previos. El Gobierno promete articular instituciones y tecnología para localizar a los desaparecidos, mientras las familias piden que esa estructura permita ingresar a lugares donde hasta ahora no hubo acceso y donde sospechan que puede haber restos de víctimas.
El activista advirtió que la búsqueda “conlleva riesgos” y colocó un punto de tensión sobre la eficacia real del plan. Expresó su expectativa de que el nuevo mecanismo abra las puertas de recintos militares a los que se les negó el acceso pese a “denuncias sustentadas” de que allí “existen cementerios clandestinos”.
Ese señalamiento vincula la dimensión humanitaria del programa con una demanda concreta de acceso a información y lugares sensibles. La promesa oficial de que el mecanismo no reemplazará a la justicia convive así con un reclamo de larga data: que la búsqueda avance también sobre espacios bajo control militar.
La estrategia presentada por el Gobierno incluye el uso de inteligencia artificial para identificar patrones, recopilar macroprocesos y procesar documentación masiva del régimen militar. También prevé que el Poder Judicial digitalice y organice bases de datos dispersas para construir un Archivo Nacional de Memoria unificado.
El anuncio se produjo en el marco del aniversario del acuerdo de paz firmado con la Unidad Revolucionaria Nacional Guatemalteca. Según la presentación oficial, el plan se inscribe en la conmemoración del pacto cuya efeméride se cumplirá el 29 de diciembre.
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