A woman who went missing while looking for her cat was likely swallowed by a sinkhole, authorities have said.
Elizabeth Pollard vanished after leaving with her granddaughter to search for her pet on Monday evening in Pennsylvania, but her family alerted authorities when she had not returned by the early hours of Tuesday.
The 64-year-old’s vehicle was found with her unharmed five-year-old granddaughter inside around two hours later near a freshly opened sinkhole above a long-closed, crumbling mine.
But police say the search operation has now turned into a recovery effort, after two treacherous days of digging through mud and rock produced no signs of life.
Image: Elizabeth Pollard. Pic: Pennsylvania State Police
Image: The top of the sinkhole that Ms Pollard is believed to have fallen into. Pic: AP
Pennsylvania State Police spokesperson Trooper Steve Limani said authorities no longer believed they would find Ms Pollard alive, but that work to find her remains continued.
“Unless it’s a miracle, most likely this is a recovery,” he said.
There has been no signs of any form of life or anything to make rescuers think they should continue the search effort, he said, noting that oxygen levels below ground were insufficient.
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“We feel like we failed. It’s tough.”
He praised the crews who went into the abandoned mine to help remove material during the search for Ms Pollard in the village of Marguerite, around 40 miles east of Pittsburgh.
Image: The search operation continued through the night. Pic: AP
Authorities had said earlier that the roof of the mine had collapsed in several places and was not stable.
“We did get, you know, where we wanted, where we thought that she was at. We’ve been to that spot,” Pleasant Unity Fire chief John Bacha, the incident’s operations officer, said.
“What happened at that point, I don’t know, maybe the slurry of mud pushed her in one direction. There were several different seams of that mine, shafts that all came together where this happened.”
Geological engineer Paul Santi, a professor at the Colorado School of Mines, said the chances of Ms Pollard surviving if she slipped into the sinkhole were “pretty small.”
“I would be surprised if she came through this OK,” he said.
“It would require that she wasn’t killed by the fall, she wasn’t killed by the rock, that there was an air pocket and she’s able to survive in it.”
Sinkholes occur regularly in the area because of subsidence from coal mining activity.
Mr Limani said the searchers met with Ms Pollard’s family before announcing the shift from rescue to recovery.
“I think they get it,” he said.
Ms Pollard’s son, Axel Hayes, described her as a happy woman who at one point owned 10 cats. She and her husband adopted Mr Hayes and his twin brother when they were infants.
He called her “a great person overall, a great mother” who “never really did anybody wrong.”
The severity cannot be overstated, if an additional 50% tariffs are levied on all Chinese goods it will decimate trade between the world’s two biggest economies.
Remember, 50% would sit on top of what is already on the table: 34% announced last week, 20% announced at the start of US President Donald Trump’s term, and some additional tariffs left over from his first term in office.
In total, it means all Chinese goods would face tariffs of over 100%, some as high as 120%.
It’s a price that makes any trade almost impossible.
China is really the only nation in the world at the moment that is choosing to take a stand.
While others are publicly making concessions and sending delegations to negotiate, China has clearly calculated that not being seen to be bullied is worth the cost that retaliation will bring.
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6:50
Tariffs: Xi hits back at Trump
The real question, though, is if the US does indeed impose this extra 50% tomorrow, what could or would China do next?
There are some obvious measures that China will almost certainly enact.
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Further export controls on rare earth minerals (crucial for the development of high-tech products) are one example. China controls a huge proportion of the world’s supply, but the US would likely find workarounds in time.
Hiking tariffs on high-impact US products such as agricultural goods is another option, but there is only so far this could go.
The potentially more impactful options have significant drawbacks for Beijing.
It could, for instance, target high-profile American companies such as Apple and Tesla, but this isn’t ideal at a time when China is trying to attract more foreign investment, and some devaluation of the currency is possible, but it would also come with adverse effects.
Other options are more political and come with the risk of escalation beyond the economic arena.
In an opinion piece this morning, the editor of Xinhua, China’s state news agency, speculated that China could cease all cooperation with the US on the war against fentanyl.
This has been a major political issue for Mr Trump, and it’s hard to see it would not constitute some sort of red line for him.
Other options touted include banning the import of American films, or perhaps calling for the Chinese public to boycott all American products.
Anything like this comes with a sense that the world’s two most powerful superpowers might be teetering on the edge of not just a total economic decoupling, but cultural separation too.
There is understandably serious nervousness about how that could spiral and the precedent it sets.
A rumour on social media fuelled a brief upturn for struggling US stock markets – but they swiftly swung back down again after the claim was debunked by the White House.
Markets around the world have struggled since some of Donald Trump’s new import tariffs came into effect over the weekend.
The US markets opened on Monday with a fall for the third day in a row but briefly rallied and showed growth of over 2% at 3.15pm UK time.
The upturn came after a social media rumour claimed a top Trump administration adviser had suggested the president could be considering a 90-day pause on tariffs.
The origin of the false report was unclear but it appeared to be a misinterpretation of a comment made by a White House employee during a Fox News interview.
Asked if the US president would consider a pause, Kevin Hassett, White House National Economic Council director, said: “I think the president is going to decide what the president is going to decide.
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“There are more than 50 countries in negotiation with the president.”
Nearly two hours later, multiple X accounts posted identical messages claiming Mr Hassett said a pause – for all countries except China – was being considered.
The identical posts were picked up by some news outlets and stock traders, sending the markets skyrocketing.
However, when the White House said any talk of a pause was “fake news”, they were sent back into the red.
This brief upturn was market volatility writ large
It was the stock market as a spectator sport.
The moment, mid-morning, when a Trump aide had given a TV interview and subsequent headlines screamed that Trump was considering a 90-day pause on tariffs.
Suddenly, the markets went from red to green.
Make that green to red, just minutes later, when the White House dismissed the story as fake news, insisting there would be no pause.
Investors duly reverted back to panic mode.
It was market volatility writ large.
The stance inside the White House can be best characterised as ‘panic, what panic?’.
Donald Trump on Monday joked his way through a photo call with the Los Angeles Dodgers, winners of baseball’s World Series, ahead of his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
For those two men, there is much on the agenda, of course – not least the collapse of the ceasefire in Gaza.
On that, this will be an important stage in a grinding diplomacy that has ground to a halt around a ceasefire.
On tariffs, with Netanyahu, there will be a first look at how negotiations work with the punitive president.
Israel faces a 17% tariff from its largest trade partner and ally.
How to strategise a route towards the sweet spot?
With Trump’s first visitor since the tariff announcement comes a first test of how negotiations work and what they produce.
The world will be watching agog – as all the world has a stake.
Mr Trump has remained defiant despite fears that his levies could be pushing the US towards a recession.
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1:22
What’s going on with the stock markets?
Mr Trump – who played golf in Florida over the weekend – has also threatened an extra tariff on China, after Beijing announced a retaliatory levy on the US.
He said if Beijing does not withdraw its retaliatory tax, the US will impose an additional 50% levy on China and “negotiations with other countries, which have also requested meetings, will begin taking place immediately”.
The Duchess of Sussex has spoken about medical complications she suffered after the birth of one of her children.
Meghan revealed she was diagnosed with postpartum pre-eclampsia, a condition similar to pre-eclampsia which affects women during pregnancy.
In the first episode of a new podcast, Meghan described the condition as “so rare” and “so scary”.
“You’re still trying to juggle all these things and the world doesn’t know what is happening, quietly and in the quiet you are still trying to show up for people,” she added.
“You’re still trying to show up, mostly for your children. But those things are huge medical scares.”
While Meghan spoke about suffering with postpartum pre-eclampsia, she did not reveal whether it happened after the birth of five-year-old son Archie or three-year-old daughter Lilibet.
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2:48
What we learnt from Meghan series
Postpartum pre-eclampsia is a serious condition linked to high blood pressure which occurs most commonly within the first seven days of a birth, but can be a risk up to six weeks after delivery, according to the charity the Preeclampsia Foundation.
The NHS says symptoms include severe headaches, vision problems, pain below the ribs, vomiting and sudden swelling of the feet, ankles, face and hands.
Without immediate treatment, it can lead to serious complications including, in rare cases, convulsions, liver and blood clotting disorders and strokes.
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Meghan’s podcast, Confessions Of A Female Founder, is the latest show she has produced since the release of her Netflix lifestyle series With Love, Meghan and her new brand As Ever.
She has promised the podcast will feature “girl talk” and advice on how to create “billion-dollar businesses”.