Police beefed up security at schools and religious buildings across Washington Friday as the US capital reeled from the fatal shooting of two Israeli embassy staffers outside a Jewish museum.The 31-year-old Chicago man accused of Wednesday’s attack shouted “Free Palestine” as he was taken away by police — exacerbating fears over rising anti-Semitism since Israel’s invasion of Gaza following the unprecedented October 2023 Hamas attack.”Around DC, you will see an increased presence of law enforcement officers around the community, you will find us around our faith-based organizations,” Metropolitan Police (MPD) Chief Pamela Smith told reporters.”You will see an increased presence around our schools and places like the DC Jewish Community Center. We stand shoulder to shoulder with our Jewish community.”Authorities in Washington said they were investigating the shooting “as an act of terrorism and as a hate crime” ahead of a preliminary court hearing set for alleged killer Elias Rodriguez on June 18.President Donald Trump — who spoke with Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — posted on social media that the attack was clearly anti-Semitic.The shooting, just a mile (1.6 kilometers) from the White House, triggered international outrage as Israel blamed European criticism of its Gaza offensive, which came in response to the Hamas attack.The victims of Wednesday’s attack, Israeli citizen Yaron Lischinsky and American Sarah Lynn Milgrim, had been planning to marry.- ‘Crazy’ -Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser gathered her interfaith council, local Jewish leaders, city councillors and law enforcement officials on Thursday to coordinate the community response.”We have a long history, and a lot of practice in our city, of working with Jewish organizations around safety and around protection,” she told a news conference.Aaron Hiller, head of the board of the Hill Havurah synagogue, who was organizing a vigil for the victims in Washington late Friday, said the attack was “unfortunately … not unexpected.””Both acts of anti-Semitism and acts of violence are all too common,” Hiller said, though insisting the community was “very safe.””I walk to work and from work very late at night (and) my kids roam the neighborhood freely,” he said.But “particularly since the events of October 7th, we are taking steps to enhance our security here and elsewhere.”Daniel Ben Chitrit, who was at the vigil, said he was deeply shaken by Wednesday’s killings, adding that he was supposed to have been at the Jewish Museum that evening.”I didn’t know the victims, but I’ve met the victims at previous events,” he said.He insisted there had been no way for the shooter to know the couple worked at the Israeli embassy.”All he knew is that they were coming from the Jewish event,” he said.

As the Memorial Day holiday weekend gets underway, US voyagers are girding for a bumpy ride as heavy summer travel volumes test the nation’s overworked air traffic system.Travelers at Newark Liberty International Airport said this week they were resigned to delays but not worried about safety.”It’s more of a concern coming back,” Benjamin Schmutzer, 32, said Wednesday night at Newark before his departure to Portugal. “Hopefully the government has sorted it out.”One of three major airports serving the busy New York City region, Newark has been under a cloud since an April 28 equipment outage resulted in air traffic controllers losing radar and communications with planes for 90 seconds.The incident, which spurred scrutiny in Congress and a comic skit on Saturday Night Live, was a factor in some Newark-assigned Air Traffic Control (ATC) staff taking leave “to recover from the stress of multiple recent outages,” according to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA).While the bulk of the recent incidents have been at Newark, part of Denver’s air traffic system also lost communications for 90 seconds on May 12. The US air safety regulator has also faced questions after a fatal January crash at Washington National Airport, the first major US commercial crash since 2009.”There will be delays this summer,” predicted aviation consultant Jeff Guzzetti, the FAA’s former director of accident investigations.Guzzetti praised Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy’s ATC modernization drive as long overdue. But he pointed to FAA “turmoil” from myriad departures of senior officials following the Trump administration’s push to downsize the government.Nick Daniels, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, said summer travel will go more smoothly than feared if there are no major outages.While the ATC system needs to be upgraded, Daniels does not believe the acute problems at Newark are pervasive throughout the system nationally. But the recent incidents are a “warning sign” about the need to invest in modernizing the system. He also backs Duffy’s commitment to hiring more air traffic controllers, saying inadequate staffing means six-day work weeks and long hours for ATC workers.”It is literally the burden of the system on the back of the American worker,” said Daniels.- Slowing down operations -Newark’s problems stem from the FAA’s decision in 2024 to move some Newark ATC staff to Philadelphia, relocating them from Long Island, New York, where the FAA currently manages some ATC operations for several sites, including both of the other two major New York airports.Newark operations have improved in recent weeks since the FAA replaced some telecommunications lines to the Philadelphia site, US transportation officials say. The agency this week also announced it was lowering the caps on total Newark flights.The New Jersey airport featured prominently at congressional hearings earlier this month, during which FAA officials pointed to airplane systems that help guarantee distance between planes and noted that pilots are trained in case air traffic systems fail.As a result of these redundancies, there was no “heightened significant danger to the flying public” at Newark, said Frank McIntosh, deputy chief operating officer of the Air Traffic Organization.McIntosh acknowledged that staffing in Philadelphia has had problems, with the number of working air traffic controllers dropping as low as three at a certain point, instead of the usual seven. But safety was not compromised because the FAA curtailed flight service, he said.”When we have a staffing shortage … we put in traffic management initiatives to slow the aircraft down,” McIntosh said.However, such moves wreak havoc on the schedules of travelers.On the worst travel days, there have been more than 230 flight cancellations and 470 flight delays at the New Jersey airport, Port Authority officials said.Still, officials from United Airlines, Newark’s biggest airline operator, said Friday they were optimistic of a smooth travel season this summer, citing the FAA flight limits as well as improved capacity once a runway construction project ends in mid-June.But Ramesh Jaganathan, 47, does not expect a speedy turnaround.”It’s a horrible experience,” Jaganathan said Wednesday night after his Orlando flight to Newark landed two hours late. “We would love to reach our homes as soon as possible. But we’ve got to get used to it for the summer.”

A judge suspended Friday the Trump administration’s move to block Harvard from enrolling and hosting foreign students after the prestigious university sued, calling the action unconstitutional.On Thursday, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem revoked Harvard University’s ability to enroll foreign nationals, throwing the future of thousands of students and the lucrative income stream they provide into doubt.But Harvard sued and US district judge Allison Burroughs ordered that “The Trump administration is hereby enjoined from implementing… the revocation of Plaintiff’s SEVP (Student and Exchange Visitor Program) certification.”There will be an injunction hearing on May 29, a court filing showed.President Donald Trump is furious at Harvard — which has produced 162 Nobel prize winners — for rejecting Washington’s oversight on admissions and hiring amid his claims the school is a hotbed of anti-Semitism and “woke” liberal ideology.His administration has threatened to put $9 billion of government funding to Harvard under review, then went on to freeze a first tranche of $2.2 billion of grants and $60 million of official contracts. It has also targeted a Harvard Medical School researcher for deportation.”It is the latest act by the government in clear retaliation for Harvard exercising its First Amendment rights to reject the government’s demands to control Harvard’s governance, curriculum, and the ‘ideology’ of its faculty and students,” said the lawsuit filed in Massachusetts federal court.The lawsuit called for a judge to “stop the government’s arbitrary, capricious, unlawful, and unconstitutional action.”The loss of foreign nationals — more than a quarter of its student body — could prove costly to Harvard, which charges tens of thousands of dollars a year in tuition.White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller claimed that, in granting a temporary pause, “a communist judge has created a constitutional right for foreign nationals… to be admitted to American universities funded by American tax dollars.”- ‘Unlawful and unwarranted’ -Harvard President Alan Garber said in a statement Friday ahead of Burroughs’s order that “we condemn this unlawful and unwarranted action.”It imperils the futures of thousands of students and scholars across Harvard and serves as a warning to countless others at colleges and universities throughout the country who have come to America to pursue their education and fulfill their dreams,” he said. Noem had said Thursday that “this administration is holding Harvard accountable for fostering violence, anti-Semitism, and coordinating with the Chinese Communist Party on its campus.”Chinese students make up more than a fifth of Harvard’s international enrollment, according to university figures, and Beijing said the decision will “only harm the image and international standing of the United States.” “The Chinese side has consistently opposed the politicization of educational cooperation,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said.Harvard has already sued the US government over a separate raft of punitive measures.Karl Molden, a student at Harvard from Austria, said he had applied to transfer to Oxford in Britain because he feared such measures.”It’s scary and it’s saddening,” the 21-year-old government and classics student told AFP Thursday, calling his admission to Harvard the “greatest privilege” of his life.Leaders of the Harvard chapter of the American Association of University Professors called Trump’s action “the latest in a string of nakedly authoritarian and retaliatory moves against America’s oldest institution of higher education.”

The Justice Department said Friday it reached a preliminary agreement with Boeing to settle a long-running criminal probe into deadly 737 MAX crashes, drawing condemnation from some crash victim families. Under an “agreement in principle,” Boeing will pay $1.1 billion and the Department of Justice (DOJ) would dismiss a criminal charge against Boeing over its conduct in the certification of the MAX, DOJ said in a federal filing.A judge must approve the accord, which would scuttle a criminal trial scheduled for June in Fort Worth, Texas.The agreement would resolve the case without requiring Boeing to plead guilty to fraud in the certification of the MAX, which was involved in two crashes in 2018 and 2019 that claimed 346 lives.Family members of some MAX victims slammed the proposed settlement as a giveaway to Boeing.”The message sent by this action to companies around the country is, don’t worry about making your products safe for your customers,” said Javier de Luis in a statement released by attorneys for plaintiffs suing Boeing.”This kind of non-prosecution deal is unprecedented and obviously wrong for the deadliest corporate crime in US history,” said Paul Cassell, an attorney representing relatives of victims. “My families will object and hope to convince the court to reject it.”But the DOJ, in its brief, cited other family members who expressed a desire for closure, quoting one who said “the grief resurfaces every time this case is discussed in court or other forums.” Family members of more than 110 crash victims told the government “they either support the Agreement specifically, support the Department’s efforts to resolve the case pre-trial more generally or do not oppose the agreement,” the filing said.The DOJ filing called the accord “a fair and just resolution that serves the public interest.” “The Agreement guarantees further accountability and substantial benefits from Boeing immediately, while avoiding the uncertainty and litigation risk presented by proceeding to trial,” it said.Boeing declined to comment when contacted by AFP.- ‘Slap on the wrist’ -Friday’s proposed agreement marks the latest development in a marathon case that came in the wake of the two crashes that tarnished Boeing’s reputation and contributed to leadership shakeups at the aviation giant.The case dates to a January 2021 DOJ agreement with Boeing that settled charges that the company knowingly defrauded the Federal Aviation Administration during the MAX certification.The 2021 accord included a three-year probation period. But in May 2024, the DOJ determined that Boeing had violated the 2021 accord following a number of subsequent safety lapses.Boeing agreed in July 2024 to plead guilty to “conspiracy to defraud the United States.” But in December, federal judge Reed O’Connor rejected a settlement codifying the guilty plea, setting the stage for the incoming Trump administration to decide the next steps.Under Friday’s proposed accord, Boeing “will admit to conspiracy to obstruct and impede the lawful operation of the Federal Aviation Administration Aircraft Evaluation Group.”But this acknowledgment “doesn’t carry any criminal penalties,” said Carl Tobias, a professor at the University of Richmond School of Law.”You don’t have that kind of stigma or retribution or whatever it is that we think of as deterring that behavior,” Tobias said. “It’s a slap on the wrist.”Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat who held hearings into Boeing’s problems in 2024, condemned the agreement as an “outrageous injustice” to victims and the public. “After repeatedly rebuffing responsibility and lying, Boeing will now permanently escape accountability,” Blumenthal said. “Victims, families, and the flying public deserve better. They deserve justice, not this sham.”