Category: Headline

Two pilots killed after jet collides with fire truck at New York’s LaGuardia airport
NEW YORK — An Air Canada jet carrying more than 70 passengers collided with a fire truck while landing at New York’s LaGuardia Airport late Sunday, killing the pilot and copilot and injuring several others, officials said.
The impact severed the cockpit, and hurled a flight attendant — still secured to her seat — far from the crash site, her daughter told a Canadian TV station. The flight attendant survived.
The fire truck was crossing the tarmac just before midnight after being given permission to check on another plane that had aborted its takeoff. Before the collision, an air traffic controller can be heard on airport communications frantically telling the fire truck to stop.

Officials investigate the site, Monday, March 23, 2026, where an Air Canada jet came to rest after colliding with a Port Authority firetruck at LaGuardia Airport, shortly after landing Sunday night in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Roughly 20 minutes later, the controller appears to blame himself. “We were dealing with an emergency earlier,” the controller said. “I messed up.”
About 40 passengers and crew members on the regional jet from Montreal, and two people from the fire truck, were taken to hospitals, some with serious injuries. Most were released by Monday morning, authorities said.
A key for investigators will be examining coordination of the airport’s air traffic and ground traffic at the time of the crash, said Mary Schiavo, a former Department of Transportation Inspector General. “This has been happening for years and sadly some of the most horrific air crashes in history happen on the ground at the airport.”
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said LaGuardia is “well-staffed” but faces a shortage of controllers. He said there are 33 certified controllers but the goal is to have 37. More than one controller was on duty at the time of the accident, he said.

“I can’t give specifics on what went wrong,” Duffy said, deferring to the National Transportation Safety Board, which is leading the investigation. Canada also sent a team of investigators.
The runway where the crash happened is likely to be closed for “days” during the investigation, NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy said at a Monday evening news conference. She said there was a “tremendous amount of debris” that investigators have to sift through.
Homendy said authorities recovered the plane’s cockpit and flight data recorders and drove them to the agency’s lab in Washington for analysis. Officials had to cut a hole in the aircraft’s roof to get to the recorders, because its tail was on the ground, she said, adding that the cockpit voice recorder was not damaged.
Homendy said it was too early in the investigation to answer many questions about the accident, and more information was expected to be released Tuesday.
The crash shut down LaGuardia — the New York region’s third busiest hub — during what was already a messy time at U.S. airports because of a partial government shutdown.
Flights resumed Monday afternoon on one runway and with lengthy delays. The shutdown caused some disruptions at other airports, too, especially for Delta, which has a major presence at LaGuardia.

An Air Canada Jet sits on the runway at LaGuardia Airport, Monday, March 23, 2026, after colliding with a Port Authority aircraft rescue and firefighting vehicle in New York. (AP Photo/Ryan Murphy)
Passenger says they helped each other escape the plane
Airport security camera video shows a convoy of emergency vehicles traveling across the tarmac with their lights flashing in the moments before the plane lands, according to a recording of the video shared online.
While most of the vehicles appear to stop at the edge of the runway, the lead vehicle keeps going, directly into the path of the aircraft.
A person familiar with the investigation confirmed the authenticity of the video. The person requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss details of an ongoing investigation.
The collision left cables and debris dangling from the mangled cockpit. Images show the fire truck flipped onto its side, with most of the damage to its back half.
Flight attendant Solange Tremblay suffered multiple fractures to one leg and will need surgery after being thrown from the plane, daughter Sarah Lépine told Canadian news station TVA Nouvelles.
Her survival is “a total miracle,” Lépine said. “I’m still trying to understand how all this happened, but she definitely has a guardian angel watching over her.”
Passenger Rebecca Liquori said the plane hit turbulence while descending, and she then felt it brake hard and heard a loud boom.
“Everybody just jolted out of their seats. People hit their heads. People were bleeding,” Liquori told News12 Long Island, a station where she once worked.
Liquori said passengers helped each other slide down a wing.
“I’m just happy to be alive,” said Liquori, who had gone to Montreal for a cousin’s baby shower. “I would have never pictured a one-hour flight that I’ve done countless times … ending like this.”
Passenger Clément Lelièvre credited the pilots’ “incredible reflexes” with saving his life and others’. The pilots braked extremely hard just as the plane touched down, he said.

An Air Canada jet and Port Authority fire truck sit on the runway at LaGuardia Airport, Monday, March 23, 2026, after colliding with each other after the jet landed Sunday night in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
US and Canada sending investigators to New York
The pilot and copilot who died were both based out of Canada, said Kathryn Garcia, executive director of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates the airport.
Jeannette Gagnier, the great aunt of one of the pilots, identified him as Antoine Forest. Forest looked at her as a grandmother figure and always wanted to be a pilot, she said. His LinkedIn page showed he had worked for two airlines the past five years.
President Donald Trump called it a “terrible” situation. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a statement the accident was “deeply saddening.”
The Port Authority identified the two people in the fire truck as Sgt. Michael Orsillo and Officer Adrian Baez. They suffered injuries not believed to be life-threatening, Garcia said. One was expected to be released Monday while the other will stay in the hospital for observation, she said.
The fire truck was traveling across the runway to respond to a United Airlines flight, whose pilot had reported “an issue with odor,” said Garcia.
It was the first fatal crash at LaGuardia in 34 years, Garcia said.
There were 72 passengers and four crew members aboard the Jazz Aviation flight operating on behalf of Air Canada, according to the airline. The flight originated at Montreal-Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport.
Hours after the crash, the plane remained on the runway with its crumpled nose tilted upward.

An Air Canada jet and Port Authority fire truck sit on the runway at LaGuardia Airport, Monday, March 23, 2026, after colliding with each other after the jet landed Sunday night in New York. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
LaGuardia has a system to spot runway encounters
The air traffic controller tried to warn the fire truck.
“Stop, stop, stop, Truck 1. Stop, stop, stop,” the transmission says. “Stop, Truck 1.” The controller can then be heard frantically diverting an incoming aircraft from landing.
Air traffic controllers are not impacted by the partial government shutdown that has caused long delays at airport security checkpoints in recent days. They have been affected by past shutdowns.
The FAA has been chronically short on air traffic controllers for years. Former FAA air traffic control chief Mike McCormick said LaGuardia has not had perennial staffing problems, but the tower would have been lightly staffed during the overnight shift at the time of the crash.

Graphic: Will Jarrett
LaGuardia is one of 35 major U.S. airports with an advanced surface surveillance system designed to help keep track of planes and vehicles crossing the airport.
An alarm heard in the background of the air traffic control audio was likely from the system and would have alerted the tower to the potential collision, McCormick said.
“It’s an aid in a situation like this,” he said, but the system doesn’t know if someone has given clearance for a vehicle to cross a runway.
FAA statistics show there were 1,636 runway incursions last year.
March 23, 2026
Man Convicted in Assassination Plot Targeting President Trump
NEW YORK — The allegation sounded like the stuff of spy movies: A Pakistani businessman trying to hire hit men, even handing them $5,000 in cash, to kill a U.S. politician on behalf of Iran ‘s powerful paramilitary Revolutionary Guard.
It was true, and potential targets of the 2024 scheme included now-President Donald Trump, then-President Joe Biden and former presidential candidate and ex-U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, the man told jurors at his attempted terrorism trial in New York on Wednesday. But he insisted his actions were driven by fear for loved ones in Iran, and he figured he’d be apprehended before anything came of the scheme.
“My family was under threat, and I had to do this,” the defendant, Asif Merchant, testified through an Urdu interpreter. “I was not wanting to do this so willingly.”
Merchant said he had anticipated getting arrested before anyone was killed, intended to cooperate with the U.S. government and had hoped that would help him get a green card.

This image provided by the Justice Department, contained in the complaint supporting the arrest warrant, shows Asif Merchant. (Justice Department via AP, File)
U.S. authorities were, indeed, on to him – the supposed hit men he paid were actually undercover FBI agents – and he was arrested on July 12, 2024, a day before an unrelated attempt on Trump’s life in Butler, Pennsylvania. Merchant did sit for voluntary FBI interviews, but he ultimately ended up with a trial, not a cooperation deal.
“You traveled to the United States for the purpose of hiring Mafia members to kill a politician, correct?” Assistant U.S. Attorney Nina Gupta asked during her turn questioning Merchant Wednesday in a Brooklyn federal court.
“That’s right,” Merchant replied, his demeanor as matter-of-fact as his testimony was unusual.
The trial is unfolding amid the less than week-old Iran war, which killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in a strike that Trump summed up as “I got him before he got me.” Jurors are instructed to ignore news pertaining to the case.
The Iranian government has denied plotting to kill Trump or other U.S. officials.
Merchant, 47, had a roughly 20-year banking career in Pakistan before getting involved in an array of businesses: clothing, car sales, banana exports, insulation imports. He openly has two families, one in Pakistan and the other in Iran – where, he said, he was introduced around the end of 2022 to a Revolutionary Guard intelligence operative. They initially spoke about getting involved in a hawala, an informal money transfer system, Merchant said.

Merchant testified that his periodic visits to the U.S. for his garment business piqued the interest of his Revolutionary Guard contact, who trained him on countersurveillance techniques.
The U.S. deems the Revolutionary Guard a “foreign terrorist organization.” Formally called the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the force has been prominent in Iran under Khamenei.
Merchant said the handler told him to seek U.S. residents interested in working for Iran. Then came another assignment: Look for a criminal to arrange protests, steal things, do some money laundering, “and maybe have somebody murdered,” Merchant recalled.
“He did not tell me exactly who it is, but he told me – he named three people: Donald Trump, Joe Biden and Nikki Haley,” he added.
After U.S. immigration agents pulled Merchant aside at the Houston airport in April 2024, searched his possessions and asked about his travels to Iran, he concluded that he was under surveillance. But still he researched Trump rally locations, sketched out a plot for a shooting at a political rally, lined up the supposed hit men and scrambled together $5,000 from a cousin to pay them a “token of appreciation.”
He even reported back to his Revolutionary Guard contact, sending observations – fake, Merchant said – tucked into a book that he shipped to Iran through a series of intermediaries.
Merchant said he “had no other option” than to play along because the handler had indicated that he knew who Merchant’s Iranian relatives were and where they lived.
In a court filing this week, prosecutors noted that Merchant didn’t seek out law enforcement to help with his purported predicament before he was arrested. He testified that he couldn’t turn to authorities because his handler had people watching him.
Prosecutors also said that in his FBI interviews, Merchant “neglected to mention any facts that could have supported” an argument that he acted under duress.
Merchant told jurors Wednesday that he didn’t think agents would believe his story, because their questions suggested “they think that I’m some type of super-spy.”
“And are you a super-spy?” defense lawyer Avraham Moskowitz asked.
“No,” Merchant said. “Absolutely not.”
March 6, 2026
Japan Backs Tech Venture Led by Former Epstein Associate Joichi Ito
After a disgraced exit from the top ranks of U.S. tech and media circles, an entrepreneur who had deep ties to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein secured a second act in Japan with the help of powerful allies in the Japanese government.
Joichi Ito, the entrepreneur, resigned in 2019 from a prominent position at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology after revelations about his efforts to conceal millions of dollars he raised through connections to Epstein. He also quit a position at Harvard University and board seats at the MacArthur Foundation and The New York Times.
Six years later, in Japan, Ito is helping lead a government initiative championed by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and her inner circle. The project, a strategic priority for the government, has more than $400 million in public funding and seeks to team up with top U.S. and Japanese universities to create a startup hub in Tokyo.
Within the next few months, the Japanese government will decide whether to authorize the project, known as the Global Startup Campus Initiative, as a legal entity, the final step required for it to move ahead.
But Ito’s involvement caused universities including MIT, Harvard, Carnegie Mellon and Keio University in Japan to distance themselves from the initiative after being approached as potential partners, according to interviews with government and university officials, as well as internal documents and emails reviewed by the Times. The project has fallen behind its own timeline targets.

And that was before the latest tranche of Epstein files released by the Justice Department shed new light on the depth of Ito’s ties to Epstein. These latest revelations are likely to further deter some potential partner organizations, said six government and university officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss their groups’ internal views.
Ito was a prolific correspondent with Epstein. A Times analysis shows that Ito and Epstein exchanged more than 4,000 emails through the years. The emails show that Ito was a frequent visitor to Epstein’s private Caribbean island, and the two were so close that Ito even joked about naming his daughter “Jeffrina.”

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi and her inner circle are backing a tech initiative led by Joichi Ito. (Haiyun Jiang / The New York Times)
Ito did not respond to requests for comment. The university he heads in Japan declined to make him available for an interview. In previous statements made to local media, Ito has said he deeply regrets soliciting donations from Epstein. “I was never involved in, never heard him talk about, and never saw any evidence of the horrific acts that he was accused of,” Ito said in a statement in 2019.
A spokesperson for Japan’s Cabinet secretariat, which promotes the Global Startup Campus Initiative, said she recognized there were concerns about Ito. But the secretariat office decided to bring Ito on as an executive adviser, she said, “as we haven’t confirmed any wrongdoing by him and we believe he is highly knowledgeable.”
Ito, 59, was born in Kyoto and raised in suburban Detroit. After dropping out of Tufts University and the University of Chicago, he returned to Japan in the 1990s to start a string of early internet service providers.
A master networker, Ito maintained U.S. connections as a venture capitalist with early stakes in companies like Twitter. In 2011, he was tapped for a prestigious position leading MIT’s Media Lab, a sort of academic Skunk Works where designers and engineers build futuristic prototypes.
It was through these circles that Ito began associating with Epstein, who became a significant, concealed MIT donor. Starting in 2013 — roughly five years after Epstein was convicted in Florida of soliciting prostitution from a minor — Ito met frequently with Epstein, and the financier contributed funding on multiple occasions for Ito’s ventures.
After a 2019 article in The New Yorker described the measures that Ito took to conceal Epstein-directed donations made to his lab, Ito resigned from MIT. At the time, he said he had “screwed up” by accepting the money but that he had done so after a review by the university and consultation with his advisers.
Ito returned to Japan, taking a position at a little-known private university on the outskirts of Tokyo in 2021.

Fumio Kishida addresses the U.S. Congress in 2024, when he was prime minister. Kishida personally pitched the Global Startup Campus Initiative idea to then-U.S. President Joe Biden. (BLOOMBERG)
The next year, in 2022, Fumio Kishida, then the prime minister, introduced the Global Startup Campus Initiative. The plan was to build a research hub focused on technologies, including artificial intelligence and robotics. It was to be anchored by a partnership with MIT and sought to recruit researchers from U.S. universities to collaborate with Japanese entrepreneurs.
Kishida personally pitched the idea to then-President Joe Biden during a 2023 meeting in Hiroshima. A campus in central Tokyo was supposed to be completed by around 2028.
At its outset, Ito was not involved with the government group leading the project. But in early 2024, people involved in the initiative received a memo naming Ito as one of three leaders who would dictate the group’s strategies, along with two high-ranking Japanese government officials.
According to documents reviewed by the Times, the memo was sent by Akira Amari, a long-standing and influential figure within Japan’s Liberal Democratic Party, which has dominated Japanese politics for decades. At least four government and university officials said they were surprised at the time by the appointment of Ito, given his ties to Epstein.
Amari is close with the current prime minister, Takaichi, who has been known to call him “aniki,” or “big brother.” Takaichi has endorsed the initiative as one of her administration’s growth strategies. The prime minister and Amari’s offices did not respond to requests for comment.
In Japan, Ito’s role in the Global Startup Campus Initiative has gone mostly unnoticed. In 2025, a lawmaker, Satoshi Honjo, raised questions about the appointment during parliamentary sessions. He asked whether it was problematic for a person with ties to Epstein to, in effect, lead the initiative.
A high-ranking Takaichi administration official, Kiyoto Tsuji, then a Cabinet office vice minister, responded by saying Ito “has provided us with a variety of useful information and advice toward realizing the initiative.” And, he added, “he is merely acting as a part-time adviser.”
But documents suggest Ito plays a much bigger part. Government officials have told potential partner universities that he plays a “pivotal role” in the initiative, according to internal documents and correspondence. The documents show a framework for the project that is based solely on “ideas from Professor Joichi Ito.”
More than three years after the group’s launch, it publicly lists a few universities — the University of Tokyo, Imperial College London and the National University of Singapore — as “pilot activity” partner organizations. Others have expressed hesitation in associating with a group tied to Ito.
MIT, Harvard and Keio have each conveyed to Japanese officials that they would be reluctant to work with the initiative if Ito was involved, according to emails viewed by the Times and four individuals with direct knowledge of the interactions. At the start, MIT was supposed to be a cornerstone partner.
Last year, Martial Hebert, a dean at Carnegie Mellon’s School of Computer Science, wrote in an email to Japanese officials obtained by the Times, “We will not be part of any project that involves Joi.” A spokesperson for Carnegie Mellon confirmed that the school is not working with the Global Startup Campus Initiative but declined to comment on its reasoning.
In 2024, Richard K. Lester, then MIT’s vice provost for international activities, told Japan’s minister in charge of economic revitalization that many of the school’s faculty would “find it difficult to cooperate with the Global Startup Campus if Mr. Joichi Ito was to occupy a significant position,” according to internal minutes from the meeting.
Imperial College London, the University of Tokyo, MIT, Harvard, and Keio did not respond to requests for comment. The National University of Singapore said in a statement that it is working with the Global Startup Campus Initiative “under the purview of Japan’s Cabinet Office” and that it had no relationship with Ito.
Before Ito was appointed in early 2024, the Global Startup Campus Initiative was behind schedule.
Two people familiar with its operations said it further lost pace after Ito joined. The spokesperson for the Cabinet secretariat said Ito helped introduce new strategies for the project that have enabled the group to “progress rapidly.” The spokesperson said she could not comment on the progress of conversations with individual universities.

Although the Global Startup Campus Initiative has already been allocated a budget of more than $400 million, it will need to be approved by parliament as a so-called operating corporation. The group had originally aimed to receive this approval last year. The decision on whether the initiative will be approved is now expected by July.
Some notable names publicly listed as the project’s “pilot activity” partner organizations include the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the philanthropy run by Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, and his wife, Priscilla Chan; and Hakuhodo, a major Japanese advertising company.
In a statement, a spokesperson for the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative said it does not provide funding to the Global Startup Campus Initiative. Hakuhodo did not respond to a request for comment.
The latest Epstein files provide more detail about Ito’s money transfers with Epstein. In a May 2014 email exchange, Ito wrote to Epstein, “The slush fund, if it’s at MIT is easy. Should I send you the instructions?” Later that month, Ito confirmed receipt of the capital, writing, “I just got notice that $500K came into my slush fund account. Thanks!”
Honjo, the politician who questioned Ito’s appointment in parliament, said in an interview that it was “an established fact” that Ito had not properly disclosed Epstein-directed financial contributions to his MIT lab. “He can’t be called the right person for the job,” Honjo said.
The spokesperson for the Cabinet secretariat said the Global Startup Campus Initiative is moving into its next phase starting in the fiscal year that begins April 1. With regard to Ito, “we don’t believe there is a problem currently, but we will choose the appropriate people for the next fiscal year’s goals,” she said.
The recently released emails, as well as flight logs, detail at least five instances in 2013 and 2014 in which Ito planned to or did visit Epstein’s private island. In 2017, two years before he resigned from MIT, Ito wrote to Epstein saying he hoped his estate was OK after the devastation of Hurricane Irma. In a separate exchange, Epstein jokingly asked if “little Jeffrina,” Ito’s baby, had been born yet.
In Japan, the Epstein files have been treated mostly as a “domestic American issue,” said Chizuko Ueno, chief director of Women’s Action Network, a Japanese advocacy group. The Japanese establishment tends to ignore or bury contentious matters involving high-powered officials if there is no criminal conviction, she said.
Ueno is also a professor emeritus at the University of Tokyo, one of the institutions publicly associated with the initiative. Ueno said that Japan and the university had become less tolerant of individuals with histories of possible misconduct and that she believed the school and government officials would increasingly find they “can no longer ignore it; they have to do something.”
February 27, 2026
Mark Ruffalo wants New York Governor to ‘tax the rich’ — critics say he should donate first
Mark Ruffalo is facing backlash after endorsing the “Tax the Rich” campaign.
On Feb. 24, the 58-year-old actor shared a video on social media in which he called upon New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to impose higher taxes on billionaires and corporations with the aim of improving affordability across the state.
In the clip, Ruffalo also promoted the upcoming Tax the Rich & Demand an Affordable NY: Albany Takeover, a march and rally being held in the state capital on Feb. 25.
“In New York, rent is crushing people,” he said. “Childcare now costs over $20,000 a year on average. Trump’s policies keep making billionaires richer, while working families endure cuts to essential services.”
“So last year, over a million New Yorkers came together to vote for Mayor Mamdani’s affordability agenda,” he said, referring to democratic socialist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who was elected last November.
“So who’s getting in the way?” Ruffalo continued. “Gov. Kathy Hochul has a choice to make. You protect working families, and tax the rich, or make Trump’s cuts worse by forcing everyday people to pay more. Sixty percent of New Yorkers, like me, agree that we should tax billionaires and corporations to fund childcare, housing and transit. Working people shouldn’t be the ones always stuck with the bill.”
“This Wednesday, Feb. 25, thousands of folks are going to Albany to send Kathy Hochul one clear message: Tax the Rich for New York that we can all afford. They can handle it. Trust me,” he concluded.

An X user later shared Ruffalo’s video, writing, “Mark Ruffalo: ‘Tax the rich… They can handle it, trust me,’” in a post that received over 5 million views.
The post was quickly flooded with comments as some critics slammed Ruffalo for alleged “hypocrisy,” arguing that the Marvel star, who has an estimated net worth in the tens of millions, should be offering to pay more in taxes himself.
“Waiting for him to step up,” one X user wrote.
“So he can handle it right?” another added.
“There is nothing stopping Mark Ruffalo from checking that box on his tax returns, that he would like to pay more than the required amount,” another detractor commented. “He could easily give away every dime he owns except for a middle class income level.”
“Him first,” another agreed.
Some X users argued that while Ruffalo was pressing Hochul to pursue tax reforms targeting billionaires and large corporations, he was not advocating that those in the millionaire class should be made to pay more.
“I love how he says ‘we should tax billionaires’ This exposes the sickening hypocrisy of these leftie celebrities,” one critic wrote. “He’s a millionaire – so, don’t tax him more – he’s not ‘wealthy’. No, no… it’s those nasty billionaires – who already pay tax and create wealth in the economy.”
“If we just took every penny from all the millionaires – Childcare would be free! – And housing! And food! But you would be broke, Mark,” another chimed in. “Should we vote on it? It would pass. Why is it always other people’s stuff socialists want to take??”
“Notice how it’s always a wealthy person telling others to pay more taxes, but they never pay themselves,” one person commented.
Though replies on the X post featuring Ruffalo’s message were overwhelmingly negative, the actor was widely praised in the comments section of his original post on Instagram.

Ruffalo’s fans heaped praise on the actor.
“Thank you for your compassion and leadership, Mark,” one fan wrote.
“Mark Ruffalo I am so proud of you all the time thank you,” another agreed.
“Thank you Mark Ruffalo for using your voice and influence for the right things,” one Instagram user commented.
“Hulk will forever be the strongest avenger, onset and off,” a fan chimed in as another added, “Mark we love you.”
Some Instagram users took to the comments to explain why they agreed with Ruffalo’s stance.
“We started taxing the rich in MA and it’s been amazing,” one commenter wrote. “We have school meals for all kids, continuing education for those that want it, great healthcare, among other things. And instead of losing millionaires, we have more that moved here. It works!”
“The wealthy didn’t get rich in isolation,” another argued. “Infrastructure, labor, and public systems built that wealth. Fair taxation is not punishment. It’s accountability.”
Last month, Ruffalo joined nearly 400 millionaires and billionaires, including Disney heir Abigail Disney and British musician Brian Eno, in signing an open letter urging world leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos to raise taxes on the ultra-rich, arguing extreme wealth concentration harms democracy and deepens inequality.
February 26, 2026
ChatGPT Maker Considered Warning Police About Canada Mass Shooting Suspect
TORONTO—ChatGPT-maker OpenAI said Friday it considered last year alerting Canadian police about the activities of a person who months later committed one of the worst school shootings in the country’s history.

OpenAI said last June the company identified the account of Jesse Van Rootselaar via abuse detection efforts for “furtherance of violent activities.”

The San Francisco tech company said it considered whether to refer the account the Royal Canadian Mounted Police but determined at the time that the account activity did not meet a threshold for referral to law enforcement. OpenAI banned the account in June 2025 for violating its usage policy.

The 18-year-old killed eight people in a remote part of British Columbia last week and died from a self-inflicted gun shot wound.

OpenAI said the threshold for referring a user to law enforcement is whether the case involves an imminent and credible risk of serious physical harm to others. The company said it did not identify credible or imminent planning. The Wall Street Journal first reported OpenAI’s revelation.

OpenAI said that, after learning of the school shooting, employees reached out to the RCMP with information on the individual and their use of ChatGPT.
“Our thoughts are with everyone affected by the Tumbler Ridge tragedy. We proactively reached out to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police with information on the individual and their use of ChatGPT, and we’ll continue to support their investigation,” an OpenAI spokesperson said.

The RCMP said Van Rootselaar first killed her mother and stepbrother at the family home before attacking the nearby school. Van Rootselaar had a history of mental health contacts with police.

The motive for the shooting remains unclear.

The town of 2,700 people in the Canadian Rockies is more than 1,000 kilometers northeast of Vancouver, near the provincial border with Alberta. Police said the victims included a 39-year-old teaching assistant and five students, ages 12 to 13.

The attack was Canada’s deadliest rampage since 2020, when a gunman in Nova Scotia killed 13 people and set fires that left another nine dead.
February 21, 2026
Hyatt’s Thomas Pritzker Retires After Being Named in Newly Released Epstein Documents
Billionaire hotel magnate Thomas J. Pritzker announced his immediate retirement as executive chairman of Hyatt Hotels Corporation on Monday, citing his “terrible judgment” in maintaining ties with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell. The 75-year-old heir to the Pritzker family fortune, long a fixture in elite circles and Democratic fundraising, expressed “deep regret” over communications that persisted well after Epstein’s 2008 guilty plea for soliciting prostitution from a minor.
Pritzker’s exit, effective immediately, underscores the growing reckoning for powerful figures entangled in Epstein’s web of perversion, a network that preyed on vulnerable young women while shielding predators behind wealth and influence.
The revelations stem from millions of pages of U.S. Justice Department documents unsealed last month, exposing Epstein’s insidious reach into business, politics, and high society. Emails and records show Pritzker exchanging “friendly” messages with Epstein years after the financier’s Florida conviction, including attempts to broker investments in Dubai involving DP World chairman Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem.
Pritzker, who will not seek reelection to Hyatt’s board at the 2026 stockholder meeting, lamented in a statement: “I exercised terrible judgment in maintaining contact with them, and there is no excuse for failing to distance myself sooner. I condemn the actions and the harm caused by Epstein and Maxwell and feel deep sorrow for the pain they inflicted on their victims.”
This isn’t mere oversight; it’s a damning indictment of the elite’s complicity in enabling perverts like Epstein, whose operations often intersected with political lobbying and philanthropy—networks that Pritzker, even a prominent supporter of Jewish causes, navigated effortlessly.

Pritzker’s fall is part of a cascade of resignations rippling through Epstein’s tainted orbit. Goldman Sachs chief legal counsel Kathryn Ruemmler stepped down last week, citing distractions from her Epstein links. Norwegian police raided properties of former Prime Minister Thorbjørn Jagland amid a corruption probe tied to the sex offender. DP World’s bin Sulayem was ousted over his decade-long friendship with Epstein, including emails linking him to Jes Staley, then at JPMorgan Chase.
Economist Larry Summers resigned from OpenAI’s board in late 2025, while former UK ambassador to Washington Peter Mandelson faces a U.S. congressional grilling from Representatives Robert Garcia and Suhas Subramanyam over his “extensive social and business ties” to Epstein.
Mandelson’s scandal has ignited a firestorm in Britain, toppling UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s chief of staff and cabinet secretary, and prompting calls for Starmer’s own resignation. Appointed ambassador in February 2025 despite red flags, Mandelson was sacked in September after deeper Epstein connections surfaced. Opposition leaders decry Starmer’s “appalling judgment,” amplifying anti-establishment fury against elites who hobnobbed with perverts while preaching moral superiority.
Hyatt’s board swiftly named CEO Mark Hoplamazian as Pritzker’s successor, praising the outgoing chairman’s “instrumental” role in strategy. Yet, the market reacted coolly: Hyatt shares (H) dipped 1.8% to $142.50 in after-hours trading Monday, erasing $1.2 billion in market cap amid investor unease over reputational fallout.
Analysts at Barclays downgraded the stock to Neutral, citing “elevated risks from ongoing Epstein scrutiny,” while the broader hospitality sector—Marriott (MAR) and Hilton (HLT)—slid 0.9% in sympathy. Pritzker, pivoting to his science foundation, leaves a $50 billion family empire shadowed by questions of ethical blindness.
This wave of accountability exposes the rot at the heart of Epstein’s client list—predominantly wealthy, often Jewish elites. As more documents drop, the purge of these perverts and their enablers can’t come soon enough—justice demands no less for the exploited girls whose lives were shattered.
February 16, 2026
Three Dead, Including Suspect, in Shooting at Rhode Island Youth Hockey Game
PAWTUCKET, R.I. — Three people, including the suspect, were fatally shot during a Rhode Island youth hockey game Monday, authorities said.
Pawtucket Police Chief Tina Goncalves told reporters that three other victims were hospitalized in critical condition. The shooter died from an apparent self-inflicted gun wound, she said.
While police were not involved in the shooter’s death, authorities were still investigating, she said.
“It appears that this was a targeted event, that it may be a family dispute,” she said.
Goncalves did not provide details about the suspect or the ages of those who were killed, though she said it appeared that both victims were adults.
She said investigators were trying to piece together what happened and speak with witnesses of the shooting inside Dennis M. Lynch Arena in Pawtucket, a few miles outside Providence. They also were reviewing video taken from the hockey game. Unverified footage circulating on social media shows players diving for cover and fans fleeing their seats after popping sounds are heard.
Outside the arena, tearful families and high school hockey players still in uniform could be seen hugging before they boarded a bus to leave the area. Roads surrounding the arena were shut down as a heavy police presence remained and helicopters flew overhead.
Monday’s shooting comes nearly two months after Rhode Island was rocked by a separate gun violence tragedy at Brown University , where a gunman killed two students and wounded nine others. That shooter went on to also fatally shoot a Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor. Authorities later found Claudio Neves Valente, 48, dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at a New Hampshire storage facility.
“The fortunate thing is that the two incidents are not related, but it is very tragic,” said Pawtucket Mayor Don Grebien. “These are high school kids. They were doing an event, they were playing with their families watching, a fun time, and it turned into this.”
Pawtucket is nestled just north of Providence and right under the Massachusetts state border. A city of just under 80,000, Pawtucket had up until recently been known as the home to Hasbro’s headquarters.
February 16, 2026
Teen Suspect in Canada Mass Shooting Had Troubled, ‘Nomadic’ Upbringing

Jesse Van Rootselaar in a photo released by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. (RCMP)
Police in Canada are still investigating the motives behind the actions of 18-year-old Jesse Van Rootelaar, the suspect in a recent violent incident, and how she managed to carry it out.
In Tumbler Ridge, a mining community with about 2,700 residents, details from police reports, court documents, and family statements are revealing a troubled upbringing for the teenager.
Jesse Strang was the birth name given by her mother, Jennifer Strang. Her biological father was Van Rootelaar, a man she hardly knew following her parents’ difficult separation. Although her father resided in the same town, they had minimal interaction.
Van Rootelaar left school around four years ago, according to officials.
In her adolescence, she became familiar to local law enforcement. She frequently visited the mental-health unit at the home she shared with her mother and younger siblings for assessments under the province’s mental health laws. However, she consistently returned home. At times, firearms stored in the house were confiscated by police and later returned upon petition from a resident.
Van Rootelaar is accused of using four weapons in Tuesday’s fatal attack, which claimed eight lives before she succumbed to a self-inflicted gunshot, authorities reported. Two of the weapons, thought to be the primary ones used, had never been seized by police previously and were unregistered. Locating their source and how Van Rootelaar acquired them remains a key focus for investigators.
A dedicated team is sifting through her online presence and digital history for insights into the reasons and planning behind the mass shooting, as well as examining her previous engagements with police and mental health experts, stated Royal Canadian Mounted Police Deputy Commissioner Dwayne McDonald.
The teen had consulted a gender transition specialist and posted a mirror selfie of her initial makeup attempt, expressing worries about her 6-foot stature’s proportions.
“Why can’t I be petit an smol?” she posted on Reddit.
Later that year, she shared that she “went crazy and burnt my house down” after a second attempt with psychedelic mushrooms, noting the dosage led to “dangerous psychosis.”
She hoped to discover the proper amount for a “positive experience in my life,” mentioning that electroconvulsive therapy and prescribed drugs hadn’t alleviated her mental health issues.
Her biological father, Justin Van Rootelaar, suggested a turbulent early life for the teen in a statement affirming their distant relationship, which he attributed to her mother.
“While that distance is the reality of our relationship, it does not lessen the heartbreak I feel for the pain that has been caused to innocent people and to the town we call home,” he told Canadian media on Friday.
As a child, Van Rootelaar’s life involved multiple relocations, court records indicate, as her mother frequently moved across the country: from Newfoundland on Canada’s eastern Atlantic coast, to Grand Cache, a small mountain town in western Alberta, and Powell River, a coastal area in southwestern British Columbia.
Around age 7 or 8, a then-pregnant Strang transported her across the country from British Columbia to Chamberlain, Newfoundland, against the father’s wishes. A judge labeled this as “reprehensible conduct” in court documents.
At that time, Van Rootelaar and her father had no relationship for “many years,” but they were starting to communicate via phone, per court records.
Some of Van Rootelaar’s online activity has surfaced. She developed a videogame simulating a mass shooting in a shopping mall on Roblox, the company confirmed. The simulation let a Roblox avatar select weapons and shoot other characters in a mall. It was viewable only by seven users via a separate developer app called Roblox Studio and was never released to the public. The company didn’t specify the creation date.
“We have removed the user account connected to this horrifying incident as well as any content associated with the suspect,” a Roblox spokesperson stated. “We are committed to fully supporting law enforcement in their investigation.”
Archived social media shows Van Rootelaar posting images of herself at a gun range, claiming to have made a bullet cartridge with a 3-D printer, and participating in online talks about YouTube videos by gun enthusiasts.
The trans woman also voiced concerns about transitioning and her interests in anime cartoons and illicit drugs, using “jesseboy347” as a social-media handle, according to a post on her mother’s Facebook page.
In 2023 Reddit posts, at age 15, she wrote in the r/trans forum that transitioning felt “super intimidating,” but she posted there.
The father, who hadn’t initially exercised all his parental rights, sought joint guardianship and requested he be consulted on parental decisions. The sparse relationship between father and child resulted from the mother’s “nomadic lifestyle,” British Columbia Supreme Court Judge Anthony Saunders noted.
Before Strang departed with the child, she texted her ex-partner: “We are moving to Newfoundland,” and “We told your lawyer that last week.” But she hadn’t informed the father exactly where or when she planned to relocate with their child, court documents reveal.
It’s uncertain when the mother returned the children.
Over the next decade, Van Rootelaar began interacting with local police due to mental health issues, and those encounters are now under review in the probe into Tuesday’s events, when police say she fatally shot her 39-year-old mother and 11-year-old half-brother at the family home. She then proceeded to Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, fatally shooting six people there—a teacher and five students—and critically injuring two others, police said. She ended her life as officers arrived at the school. Asked if she had been bullied at school, police said they didn’t know but noted she wasn’t currently enrolled as a student.
Amid the complex forensic evidence at both sites, one evident detail has surfaced, said Deputy Commissioner McDonald. Van Rootelaar didn’t seem to have a particular target in mind at the school and shot randomly, he said.
“This suspect was, for lack of a better term, hunting. They were prepared and engaging anybody and everybody they could come in contact with,” McDonald said.
February 14, 2026
Ghislaine Maxwell Refuses to Answer Lawmakers’ Questions During Closed-Door Testimony
Ghislaine Maxwell, the convicted enabler in Jeffrey Epstein’s web of exploitation, stonewalled the House Oversight Committee on Monday, invoking her Fifth Amendment rights and refusing to utter a word beyond prepared deflections. Appearing via videoconference from her Texas prison camp in a khaki jumpsuit, Maxwell’s deposition lasted under an hour, leaving lawmakers fuming and the public no closer to unraveling the full scope of Epstein’s elite circle—a network heavy with rich-rooted influencers whose shadows still loom over American power structures.
Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) called it “very disappointing,” lamenting missed chances to probe Epstein’s crimes and “potential co-conspirators.” Democrats like Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) accused her of “protecting” unnamed figures, but their outrage rings hollow amid their party’s own ties to the scandal-plagued Clintons.

Maxwell’s attorney, David Oscar Markus, teased a bombshell: full testimony if President Donald Trump grants clemency. “Only she can provide the complete account,” Markus said, hinting it could clear Trump and Bill Clinton—both denying involvement—while noting “some may not like what they hear.”

Rep. Andy Biggs (R, Ariz.) and House Oversight Committee chair Rep. James Comer (R, Ky.) speak to members of the media after a closed-door virtual deposition with Ghislaine Maxwell on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 9, 2026. (Nathan Howard—Bloomberg/Getty Images)
This dangle feeds into the “nation under blackmail” theory: Epstein’s operation, with its high-society lures, may have ensnared leaders in compromising positions, holding America hostage to hidden leverage. Trump, who once wished Maxwell “well” and hasn’t ruled out a pardon, draws mixed views—pro for pushing file releases, anti for flirting with leniency that could whitewash the mess.
Republicans like Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) blasted the idea: “No clemency and no mercy for child predators.” Democrats, meanwhile, cry foul over Maxwell’s prison transfer after a DOJ interview clearing Trump, ignoring Clinton’s deeper Epstein links.
The session followed the Justice Department’s unredacted file release to lawmakers, mandated by the Epstein Files Transparency Act from Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.). Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) accused a “cover-up,” but heavy redactions persist, fueling suspicions of elite protection. Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019 amid sex trafficking charges, pleaded guilty in 2008 to soliciting a minor. Maxwell, convicted in 2021, appeals her 20-year sentence.
Upcoming Clintons’ testimonies on Feb. 26-27 could expose more, but expect partisan theater—Republicans dodging internal rifts, Democrats shielding their icons. In a nation possibly blackmailed by such scandals, Maxwell’s silence speaks volumes.
February 11, 2026
Prince William and Princess Catherine ‘Deeply Concerned’ as Epstein Files Shake U.K. Establishment
Thousands of miles from Washington, shock waves from the Justice Department’s release of the latest Jeffrey Epstein files continue to rock British society at its highest echelons, engulfing Prime Minister Keir Starmer in a fresh political crisis and casting a lengthening shadow over the royal family. In their first public remarks since the latest revelations, Prince William and Princess Catherine of Wales said they were “deeply concerned.”
The most recent releases appear to offer further evidence of long-running links between the convicted sex offender and two high-profile men in British public life: London’s former ambassador to Washington Peter Mandelson, who was dismissed in September over his links to Epstein, and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the younger brother of King Charles III who was stripped of his titles.
The swirl of repercussions faced by both men — who have largely been forced from public life as a result of the revelations — stands in sharp contrast to the relatively muted fallout so far faced by Epstein’s high-profile associates in the United States.

For Starmer, questions over his judgment in selecting Mandelson for that ambassadorship were threatening on Monday to boil over into a full-fledged political crisis. Over the weekend, Starmer’s top aide, Morgan McSweeney, announced his resignation from government, citing his role in advising Starmer to send Mandelson to Washington. By Monday morning, Tim Allan, the prime minister’s communications director was also gone, citing the need for a reset.
It was not immediately clear whether the resignations would be enough to stem the growing political blowback, with a high-profile figure from Starmer’s party — the leader of Scottish Labour, Anas Sarwar — on Monday afternoon calling on him to step aside.
Among other previously unseen documents, the latest tranche included an undated photograph of a man who appears to be Mandelson in a T-shirt and underwear alongside an unidentified woman. It also appeared to include correspondence between Epstein and Mandelson from when the latter was in public office.
Mandelson has been a controversial fixture of British political life since the 1980s, when he helped mastermind the Labour Party’s centrist reinvention and paved the way for its return from the political wilderness to power in 1997. He went on to serve in high-profile positions under two Labour prime ministers. He has not been accused of any sexual wrongdoing.
Last week, Mandelson resigned his Labour membership, after the Financial Times reported that the latest documents showed Epstein made payments totaling about $75,000 to accounts linked to Mandelson when he was a lawmaker in the early 2000s. In a public letter to Labour officials, Mandelson acknowledged the “furor” surrounding Epstein and said he needed to investigate the latest allegations for himself.
“I want to take this opportunity to repeat my apology to the women and girls whose voices should have been heard long before now,” Mandelson added.
The revelations have prompted police to open an investigation into potential misconduct in public office. Last week, Starmer apologized directly to Epstein’s victims and said Mandelson had repeatedly portrayed Epstein “as someone he barely knew.”

Then-British Ambassador to the United States Peter Mandelson is seen in London last year. (Jaimi Joy/Reuters)
The political fallout came as the British royal family also grappled with its links to Epstein.
A spokesperson for Kensington Palace told reporters Monday: “I can confirm the prince and princess have been deeply concerned by the continuing revelations. Their thoughts remain focused on the victims.”
Among the previously unseen documents, photographs and email messages to be released last month was an image of a man who appeared to be Mountbatten-Windsor kneeling on all fours and positioned over a female individual. The tranche also contained an email from an account labeled “The Duke” and signed “A” to Epstein, suggesting dinner “and lots of privacy” at Buckingham Palace in 2010, a month after Epstein’s house arrest ended.
Mountbatten-Windsor has long denied any wrongdoing, and the latest releases contain no allegations of criminal behavior by him.
In October, Buckingham Palace stripped Mountbatten-Windsor of his royal titles after excerpts were made public from a memoir by Virginia Giuffre, the American who said she was forced to have sexual encounters with him as a teenager.
Last week, a Buckingham Palace official confirmed that Mountbatten-Windsor had relocated out of Royal Lodge, his 30-room longtime residence in Windsor, about three months after the palace announced he would be leaving the property.
February 9, 2026