Investigators probe the fatal collision between an Air Canada plane and a truck at LaGuardia Airport. The Senate confirms Markwayne Mullin is to lead the Department of Homeland Security. And a special report into how Trump’s policies are widening the economic divide.
Here’s what to know today.
Air Canada passenger recalls LaGuardia crash: ‘Like the loudest boom I’ve ever heard’
On a misty Sunday night at New York’s LaGuardia Airport, an Air Canada regional jet was flying in from Montreal while a United plane that hadn’t yet taken off needed help.
Flight attendants on the United flight were feeling ill from a strong odor in the cabin, audio transcripts with air traffic controllers show. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey dispatched a fire and rescue truck to help.
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Meanwhile, an Air Canada flight attendant prepared the passengers for a potential emergency landing. The descent was turbulent, passenger Rebecca Liquori told NBC News. The wheels touched down. And then Air Canada’s flight 8646 collided with the fire truck.
“It was like a grinding sound,” said Liquori, a registered nurse. “Then, a couple seconds after that, you just felt the collision. It was like the loudest boom I’ve ever heard.”
The plane’s two pilots were killed, and about 40 people on board the plane, as well as two people in the truck were injured.
Another passenger, Joseph, said the two pilots “deserve all the credit for being heroes that day” for saving lives.
Read more about two passengers’ experiences on the plane.
Investigators with the National Transportation Safety Board will look at air traffic controller staffing at LaGuardia as part of the agency’s probe as well as their communication training, Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy said yesterday. NTSB has also asked to see an FAA replay of the events to potentially determine whether controllers knew in real time where the aircraft and the vehicle were just before the collision.
More on the aftermath of the crash.
Senate confirms Markwayne Mullin to be DHS secretary
The Senate voted last night to confirm Markwayne Mullin to lead the Department of Homeland Security as the shutdown of the sprawling agency dragged into its sixth week. The vote was 54-45, with Democratic Sens. John Fetterman and Martin Heinrich supporting his confirmation, and GOP Sen. Rand Paul voting against.
Mullin will take the reins at DHS, replacing Secretary Kristi Noem, during a volatile time for the agency. The Senate is still deadlocked on DHS funding, and his confirmation is unlikely to assuage Democrats who have made clear that their opposition to funding the department is about policy, not personnel. More about Mullin’s confirmation.
A day after the callout rate for TSA workers reaching a record high, ICE and DHS officers and agents arrived at several major airports, including Atlanta’s Hartsfield-Jackson, Chicago’s O’Hare and New York’s JFK. The agents and officers aren’t trained in airport security, and critics say the armed officers are instilling fear in American travelers. More on why ICE agents were sent to airports.
More politics news:
- President Donald Trump cast a mail ballot in an upcoming Florida election as he publicly condemns the voting method as fraudulent.
- Conservative Supreme Court justices questioned whether states should be allowed to count ballots that are mailed on time but arrive after Election Day.
- Robert Frazer is set to become the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey after a year of upheaval triggered by Trump naming Alina Habba, one of his former personal attorneys, to the post last year.
Pakistan moves to mediate between the U.S. and Iran
Pakistan is joining a growing list of countries acting as go-betweens for the U.S. and Iran, four sources told NBC News, with two of those sources saying an in-person meeting could be held in the coming days in the capital, Islamabad.
For the first time since the conflict began on Feb. 28, Trump said the U.S. and Iran held “very good and productive conversations.” The announcement was a stark reversal from his threat over the weekend to strike Iranian power plants if Tehran didn’t open the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours. “We’re going to do a five-day period,” Trump said of his decision to postpone U.S. strikes. But if it doesn’t go well, “we’ll keep bombing our little hearts out,” he said.
But Iran’s Foreign Affairs Ministry appeared to counter Trump’s version of events, claiming there was “no dialogue between Tehran and Washington” and that Trump’s delay was “part of efforts to reduce energy prices and buy time to implement his military plans.”
In addition to Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt are acting as intermediaries between the U.S. and Iran, according to a source familiar with the diplomatic efforts.
What sources say leaders in these countries have talked about with U.S. and Iranian officials.
Follow the latest on our liveblog.
More Iran news:
- The family of a 30-year-old U.S. service member who died when a refueling plane crashed in the Middle East recalled their last conversation with him.
- Iranians who lost loved ones in the attack on an elementary school express rage at Trump.
Who can afford to get ahead in America?
The richest households have been rapidly multiplying their wealth over the past year by buying real estate and plowing money into the stock market. New tax benefits have helped protect their gains.
People with tighter budgets, on the other hand, have been struggling to get ahead. Prices for grocery store staples are going up, job opportunities are decreasing and once-stable careers are shrinking. The idea of doing better than your parents, for many, feels increasingly out of reach.
Trump’s policies — from legislation that cut food stamps and Medicaid benefits, to new restrictions on low-income housing assistance and student loans — have amplified these trends. Meanwhile, the administration has given billions of dollars in tax cuts to corporations and the wealthy and loosened regulations on banks while easing rules around cryptocurrency.
“Unaffordable America” is a new series examining the rising economic inequality in the U.S. and the policies that drive it. Here’s a picture of what’s going on.
NBC Select: Online Shopping, Simplified
2026 NBC Select Wellness Awards: All the winners available on Amazon: For NBC Select’s fourth annual NBC Select Wellness Awards, the team spent over three months testing hundreds of products to find the best of the best across categories like workout apparel, fitness trackers, sleep earbuds and more. After countless hours of hands-on testing, our editors narrowed it down to just over 40 standout winners, including the Oura Ring 4, Hatch Restore 3, and more.
Sign up to The Selection newsletter for hands-on product reviews, expert shopping tips and a look at the best deals and sales each week.
Read All About It
- A jury awarded $19.2 million to a woman who accused Bill Cosby of sexually abusing her more than five decades ago.
- Residents of Oahu’s North Shore returned to mud-caked houses — and some that had swept away — as storms continue to batter Hawaii.
- A quadruple amputee and pro cornhole player is accused of shooting and killing a front seat passenger while driving.
- The man arrested and accused of gunning down an 18-year-old Loyola University Chicago student was in the country illegally, officials said.
Staff Pick: Russia is throttling its most popular messaging app
Over the four years of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, I have watched Russians lose more and more of their digital freedoms. From the crackdown on the right to protest the war in person or online in the early days of the invasion, to the ban on foreign social media networks like Instagram and Facebook, to mobile Internet outages that have disgruntled users across the country, I have covered those freedoms slowly but surely slipping away — all in the name of safeguarding the nation’s security.
Now, it appears the Kremlin is on its way to take away Russia’s most popular messenger, Telegram — not just an app, but an ecosystem in which millions of Russians get their news and commentary daily. Nearly every business, celebrity and government official is on it. From Kremlin hawks to those who oppose the regime, NBC News heard how the throttling of Telegram could misfire in an already charged atmosphere of repression. — Yuliya Talmazan, London-based reporter
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