Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, a Guatemalan migrant, allegedly ignited a sleeping woman on fire in an F train and watched as she burned. Surveillance footage captured the incident, and authorities later detained the suspect with a lighter in his possession. While Zapeta-Calil claims to have been intoxicated and has no memory, the victim’s identity remains under investigation.
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Hamas returned the bodies of Kfir Bibas (9 months), Ariel Bibas (4 years), their mother, and Oded Lifshitz (84), staging the handover with unsettling propaganda. Despite the International Committee of the Red Cross's call for respect, the ceremony included missile displays and derogatory imagery.
The White House accused Hamas on Friday of making "entirely impractical" demands and stalling on a deal to release a US-Israeli hostage in exchange for an extension of the Gaza ceasefire. Hamas said earlier on Friday it was ready to free an Israeli-American hostage and the remains of four others, after the Palestinian militants and Israel resumed indirect Gaza ceasefire negotiations.
Former US attorney Jessica D Aber, 43, was found dead at an Alexandria residence. Authorities believe her passing relates to a longstanding medical issue. Aber, who served the Eastern District of Virginia from 2021 to 2025, resigned upon President Trump's inauguration.
In her first press briefing, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended President Trump’s executive order ending birthright citizenship for children of illegal migrants, calling it "unconstitutional" and affirming plans to challenge legal opposition. She also emphasized aggressive immigration enforcement and confirmed the imposition of tariffs on Canada starting February 1, with potential duties on Mexico and China.
Local authorities in Lalmonirhat, Bangladesh, demolished a mural depicting significant events from the Liberation War on the country's Independence Day. The mural was covered following demands from the student group Students Against Discrimination. Transparency International Bangladesh announced plans to protest this action.
President-elect Donald Trump threatens to demand the Panama Canal's return to the US due to increased usage fees imposed by Panama. However, experts emphasize that reasserting control over the canal, ceded to Panama in 1999 under treaties, is legally and practically impossible without military action.
The US administration ousted the majority of the USIP board and appointed a new leader at the Washington headquarters. Representatives from the Department of Government Efficiency entered the premises amidst objections, enforcing a presidential executive order aimed at downsizing the organisation.
15-year-old Natalie Rupnow, suspected in the Wisconsin Abundant Life Christian School shooting, allegedly called her parents "scum" in a manifesto. Court documents reveal that Natalie was in therapy as her parents were embroiled in a decade-long custody battle which also included remarriage and a second divorce. They divorced in 2014, remarried in 2017 and then divorced in 2021.
If the first leak was a lapse, the second looks like a pattern. And patterns — especially those that risk lives — are rarely tolerated long in Washington, even in a Trump-led administration where loyalty often trumps protocol.
Miriam Yarimi, a Brooklyn wigmaker, has been charged with manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide after allegedly driving with a suspended license and causing a crash that killed a mother and her two daughters. The incident occurred in Gravesend as the victims left Shabbat services. Yarimi's troubling driving history includes over 93 traffic violations.