United States | News & Politics

At about 1:30 in the afternoon on April 28, air-traffic controllers overseeing the busy airspace around Newark Liberty International Airport suddenly faced a frightening scenario.

The chatter from pilots they were communicating with went silent. Radar screens filled with dots showing aircraft positions went dark. Backup systems failed. Planes bound for the area went into holding patterns.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/29744861

Sam Levine and agencies
Wed 7 May 2025 12.35 EDT

"A federal appeals court on Wednesday granted a judge’s order to bring a Turkish Tufts University student from a Louisiana immigration detention center back to New England for hearings to determine whether her rights were violated.

A judicial panel of the New York-based US second circuit court of appeals ruled in the case of Rümeysa Öztürk after lawyers representing her and the US justice department presented arguments at a hearing on Tuesday."

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/29712883

Edward Helmore
Tue 6 May 2025 09.32 EDT

"More than two dozen pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested on Monday night at the University of Washington in Seattle after they occupied an engineering building and set dumpsters on fire.

The protest group, called Super UW, occupied the Interdisciplinary Engineering Building to demand that the university sever its ties with Boeing, as the aerospace company has military contracts which the students say “are used by Israel in their US-funded genocide of Palestinian people”."

Donations are pouring in to a fundraiser for Luigi Mangione, the man accused of gunning down a healthcare executive, ahead of his birthday.

Mangione, who pleaded not guilty last month to federal murder charges related to the December 2024 death of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson, turns 27 on May 6. In honor of his birthday, donors are contributing to the GiveSendGo fundraiser for his legal defense, which is now closing in on $1 million.

As of Sunday evening, the fundraiser had garnered more than $977,000. His legal team has said that he plans to use the cash toward his defense in all three cases he faces.

A string of supporters in the past few days have donated $27 to the fund for his 27th birthday. In their donation messages, many included green hearts, an ode to the green-clad Mario video game character Luigi.

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Roughly a week after Donald Trump started his second term as president, the US military issued an order to three freight airlines operating out of Dover air force base in Delaware and a US base in Qatar: stop 11 flights loaded with artillery shells and other weaponry that were bound for Ukraine.

In a matter of hours, frantic questions reached Washington from Ukrainians in Kyiv and from officials in Poland, where the shipments were coordinated. Who had ordered the US Transportation Command, known as TransCom, to halt the flights? Was it a permanent pause on all aid? Or just some?

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/29658260

Jessica Corbett May 05, 2025

Advocates for student protesters and other critics of the U.S.-backed Israeli assault on the Gaza Strip celebrated on Monday after Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel dropped all charges against seven people arrested last year at the University of Michigan amid allegations of bias that the Democrat rejected. "

The Trump administration has announced a new program offering a $1,000 payment to people in the US without immigration status as an incentive to return to their home country voluntarily.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) outlined the initiative on Monday, pledging “financial and travel assistance” to undocumented immigrants who agree to leave the country using an app called CBP Home.

The US approved the sale of weapons worth an estimated $3.5 billion to Saudi Arabia ahead of a planned visit by President Donald Trump to the Gulf kingdom this month, as Washington seeks to strengthen ties with a key partner and ratchet up pressure against Iran.

The State Department said it has notified Congress of the possible sale of 1,000 AIM-120C-8 advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles to Saudi Arabia and 50 guidance sections, as well as logistics and program support. Arizona-based RTX Corp. is the principal contractor.

The UK foreign office has warned senior British lawyers they are at risk of sanctions by the Trump administration because of advice they provided to the International Criminal Court on Israel’s conduct in Gaza.

Several senior lawyers involved in the ICC’s war crimes case against Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant have received the warnings from Britain’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, according to people familiar with the matter.