Major delays at Newark airport as FAA cites air traffic control staffing issues

One of US’s biggest airports, in New York area, experiences 210 delays and 88 cancellations amid aviation safety fears

Flight delays continued on Sunday as a major crisis gripped one of the US’s biggest airports amid aviation safety fears.

As of Sunday morning, there were 210 delays and 88 cancellations at Newark Liberty international airport (EWR) in New Jersey, according to FlightAware. The large airport is one of the major hubs for New York city and its surrounding area.

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Man charged with attempted rape of person who died on New York subway

Felix Rojas, 44, arraigned after video showed him performing sexual acts on unresponsive passenger

Authorities in New York have charged a man with attempted rape after surveillance video taken showed him performing sexual acts on an unresponsive passenger who was later determined to have died.

Police have been looking for suspects in the case for weeks, after footage captured two different people robbing the corpse of a man on a train traveling from Brooklyn to Manhattan, one of whom allegedly sexually violated him.

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‘Zohran Mamdani represents the future New York’: socialist riding high in bid to be mayor

The progressive Democrat from Queens is the son of a famous film-maker and poised to take on frontrunner Andrew Cuomo

Can a 33-year-old cricket-playing socialist, who wants to freeze rent, make city transport free and once aspired to be a rapper win an already turbulent election to become the next mayor of New York?

Zohran Mamdani, a democratic socialist and state assembly ­member in Queens, has been the surprise package in the Democratic primary and is now poised to take on the frontrunner in the race, ex-state governor Andrew Cuomo, who is mounting a political comeback after being forced from office in the face of a series of sexual harassment claims.

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Luigi Mangione indicted on federal murder charge over healthcare CEO killing

Suspect, charged with four federal counts, faces separate state charges over death of Brian Thompson in Manhattan

Luigi Mangione was indicted on Thursday on a federal murder charge in the killing of UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson outside a Manhattan hotel last year, a necessary step for prosecutors to seek the death penalty.

The indictment returned by a grand jury in Manhattan federal court also charges Mangione with two counts of stalking and a firearms count.

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Michelle Trachtenberg died of diabetes complications, says medical examiner

Known for roles on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Gossip Girl, the actor was found dead in February

Michelle Trachtenberg, a popular TV actor, died of complications from diabetes, according to the New York City medical examiner’s office.

Trachtenberg, 39, was found dead in February and had recently received a liver transplant, according to NBC News, but the cause of her death had been unclear at the time.

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New York helicopter tour operator behind fatal crash shuts down

FAA said New York Helicopter Tours will be shuttering ‘immediately’ after accident that killed all six on board

The company that operated the helicopter that crashed into New York City’s Hudson River on Thursday – killing all six people on board – has been shuttered with immediate effect, the US’s Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said late on Sunday.

New York Helicopter Tours is “shutting down their operations immediately”, the FAA said in a statement on X. The agency added that it would launch a review of the company’s license and safety records in the meantime.

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Police searching for man who allegedly sexually abused corpse on New York subway

Video captured one person robbing corpse on idling train before another person robbed and sexually assaulted it

A man sexually violated a corpse on a New York City subway train after stealing from the body, becoming the second of two people to rob that particular dead person, authorities said recently.

One of the more grotesque US crime stories of late unfolded on a southbound R train near the Whitehall Street station in Manhattan at about 12.20am on Wednesday, when “an unidentified individual had sexual contact with an unconscious and unresponsive adult male” in plain view of surveillance cameras, according to a police statement.

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Spanish PM offers condolences after family of five killed in New York helicopter crash

Spanish family including three children age 11, five and four killed in crash along with pilot, who has not yet been named

Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has offered his condolences to friends and relatives of a Spanish family who died in New York on Thursday after their sightseeing helicopter crashed in the Hudson River, killing all onboard including the pilot.

It emerged on Friday that the victims were Agustín Escobar, his wife, Mercè Camprubí, and their three children, who were 11, five and four. The identity of the pilot has not yet been made public.

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George Santos prosecutors seek seven-year prison term for campaign fraud

Disgraced Republican congressman ‘made a mockery’ of election system and merits long sentence, US officials say

Prosecutors are seeking more than seven years in prison for disgraced former congressman George Santos after he pleaded guilty to federal fraud and identity theft charges.

The US attorney for the eastern district of New York argued in a court filing on Friday that a significant sentence was warranted because the New York Republican’s “unparalleled crimes” had “made a mockery” of the country’s election system.

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NYU canceled talk on USAID cuts for being ‘anti-governmental’, doctor says

University called Dr Joanne Liu, ex-head of Doctors Without Borders, after planning to speak on Gaza and federal cuts

The former international head of Doctors Without Borders says she was left “stunned” after New York University canceled her presentation because some of her slides discussing cuts at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) could be viewed as “anti-governmental”.

Dr Joanne Liu, a pediatric emergency physician at Sainte-Justine hospital and a professor at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, who also served as the former international president of Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders), told CTV News last week that she was scheduled on 19 March to give a presentation at her alma mater on challenges in humanitarian crises.

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More US states report measles cases amid vaccine misinformation

Ohio, Maryland and Alabama among states to report new cases, with 378 confirmed in first few months of 2025

More US states are reporting measles cases as the Texas outbreak expands, surpassing last year’s total, amid vaccine misinformation and hesitancy.

The Texas outbreak could take a year to get under control, one health official said – during which time it may spread to more states. Yet the parents of the six-year-old girl who died of measles in Texas have spoken against measles vaccination as misinformation continues to proliferate, including from figures such as the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr.

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Columbia University caves to demands to restore $400m from Trump administration

Measures include empowering security officers to arrest people, and reassigning control of Middle East department

Columbia University has yielded to a series of changes demanded by the Trump administration as a pre-condition for restoring $400m in federal funding the government pulled this month amid allegations that the school tolerated antisemitism on campus.

The university released a memo outlining its agreement with Donald Trump’s administration hours before an extended deadline set by the government was to expire.

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Two men convicted of murder-for-hire plot against Iranian American journalist in New York

Masih Alinejad had incurred the wrath of Tehran by campaigning for Iranian women to reject strict dress codes

Two men have been found guilty of plotting to assassinate the Iranian American journalist Masih Alinejad at her home in New York City in a murder-for-hire scheme that prosecutors said was financed by the Iranian government.

The verdict was returned at a federal court in New York on Thursday, ending a two-week trial that featured dramatic testimony from a hired gunman and Alinejad, an author, activist and contributor to Voice of America.

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‘Cataclysmic’: environmentalists fear effects of Trump cuts on Great Lakes

Advocates warn firings and funding freezes already risk poisoning drinking water and decimating fish population

Donald Trump’s and Elon Musk’s attacks on federal agencies and funding freezes will be “cataclysmic” for the environment of the sensitive Great Lakes region if not reversed, industry and environmental advocates in the region warn.

Initial actions taken since Trump returned to the White House in January – and put Musk in charge of slashing the federal government – already risk poisoning drinking water, decimating fish populations, and risking the jobs and health of tens of millions of people who rely on the lake system, they add.

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French politician jokes US should return Statue of Liberty for siding with ‘tyrants’

Raphaël Glucksmann quips that US should give back 19th-century gift from France over Trump’s approach to Ukraine

A French European parliament member has quipped that the US should return the Statue of Liberty, which it received as a gift from France about 140 years ago, after Donald Trump’s decision “to side with the tyrants” against Ukraine.

Trump’s White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, then responded to Raphaël Glucksmann on Monday by calling him an “unnamed low-level French politician” and saying the US would keep the statue.

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Man set on fire in New York’s Times Square

Victim, 45, hospitalized and in stable condition as police unable to say if attack was random or targeted

A 45-year-old man was set on fire in the middle of Times Square overnight on Sunday, according to police, three months after a woman was killed on a subway train in an arson attack.

Footage from the scene captured the moments the man, shirtless and severely burned, was rushed by authorities into an ambulance after the flames were extinguished.

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Wendy Williams’s tragic tale shines a light on court-ordered conservatorship

Former talkshow host takes public her battle to remove her guardian, ordered by a court due to dementia and aphasia

The note dropped from the upper floor window of an assisted living facility in New York on the morning of 10 March contained a simple message: “Help! Wendy!!” it read.

For any patient inside, it would have been tragic. But, astonishingly, the writer of this note was Wendy Williams, a trailblazing television talkshow host and once one of the most recognisble daytime TV faces in America.

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Almost 100 arrested during protest occupying Trump Tower over Mahmoud Khalil

Demonstrators led by Jewish Voice for Peace demanding release of Palestinian activist stood in US president’s New York City building

Protesters organized by a progressive Jewish group occupied the lobby of Trump Tower in New York City on Thursday to demand the release of Mahmoud Khalil, the Palestinian Columbia University student held by US immigration authorities, and nearly 100 were arrested.

Chanted slogans included: “Free Mahmoud, free them all” and: “Fight Nazis, not students.”

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US judge blocks deportation of Palestinian activist detained by Ice

Critics condemn arrest of Mahmoud Khalil, Columbia University graduate student who led protests over Gaza war

A judge has blocked the deportation of the prominent Palestinian activist who helped lead Columbia University’s protests against Israel over the war in Gaza. Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate student at Columbia University until this past December who holds permanent US residency, is being detained by US immigration authorities at a facility in Louisiana after his arrest, according to information from officials.

A spokesperson for the US’s homeland security department – as well as the country’s top diplomat – confirmed the arrest. In a statement to the Associated Press, a homeland security department spokesperson, Tricia McLaughlin, said Khalil’s arrest was made to support Donald Trump’s presidential orders “prohibiting antisemitism”.

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Ontario sets 25% surcharge on energy exports to US to counter Trump tariffs

Premier Doug Ford says province ‘won’t back down’ until US president retracts duties on Canada

The Canadian province of Ontario is imposing a 25% surcharge on electricity exports to the states of New York, Michigan and Minnesota in protest against Donald Trump’s tariffs, the premier, Doug Ford, said on Monday.

“President Trump’s tariffs are a disaster for the US economy. They’re making life more expensive for American families and businesses,” Ford said in a statement.

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