Pro-Palestinian protesters arrested for interrupting Thanksgiving parade
ozgurdonmaz/Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Pro-Palestinian protesters were arrested for blocking the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City on Thursday.
For the second year in a row, the demonstrators jumped the barriers and ran into West 55th Street just before 9:30 a.m.
The exact charges the protesters will be facing are still pending.
The protesters sat on the ground, locking arms and chanting, “Free, free Palestine!”
Others held a banner behind them that said: “Don’t celebrate genocide! Arms embargo now.”
The brief interruption had spectators booing and then cheering as NYPD officers intervened.
The parade was delayed for about five minutes as the 21 protesters were removed from the road.
There have been international calls for a ceasefire in Gaza, but numerous efforts to reach an agreement to end fighting have not succeeded. More than 40,000 people have been killed in Gaza since the war started on Oct. 7, 2023.
The first Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade took place in 1927. It’s been a holiday tradition ever since.
(WASHINGTON) — Dozens of people are dead after a regional jet collided with an Army Black Hawk helicopter Wednesday night over Washington, D.C., officials said, the nation’s first major commercial airline crash since 2009.
The aircraft went down in the frigid Potomac River, breaking into multiple pieces. The flight — which had departed from Wichita, Kansas — was approaching Reagan National Airport at the time of the collision, officials said.
There were no survivors in the crash, officials said Thursday.
There were 64 passengers aboard the plane, and three Army soldiers in the helicopter, according to officials. The soldiers, none of whom were senior leaders, were conducting a training mission, a defense official said.
Among those lost in the crash were 14 people who were returning home from a national figure skating development camp in Wichita, according to Doug Zeghibe, the CEO and executive director for the Skating Club of Boston.
Six of the victims were affiliated with the Skating Club of Boston, Zeghibe said.
“Skating is a tight-knit community where parents and kids come together 6 or 7 days a week to train and work together. Everyone is like family,” Zeghibe said in a statement.
The U.S. Figure Skating organization confirmed that “several members” of the skating community had been on the flight.
“We are devastated by this unspeakable tragedy and hold the victims’ families closely in our hearts,” the organization said. “We will continue to monitor the situation and will release more information as it becomes available.”
Here’s what we know about the victims so far:
Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova
Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova, a married couple, were also killed in the crash, according to the Skating Club of Boston. Naumov and Shishkova, who were figure skating coaches, were world champions in pairs competition in 1994.
They joined the club in 2017, Zeghibe said.
Jinna Han and Jin Han
Jinna Han, a figure skater, and Jin Han, her mother, were killed in the crash, according to the Skating Club of Boston.
Spencer Lane and Molly Lane
Skater Spencer Lane and his mother, Molly Lane, were among the victims, the Skating Club of Boston said.
Alexandr Kirsanov
Alexandr Kirsanov was a coach of two of the youth ice skaters on board, his wife, Natalya Gudin, told ABC News.
“I lost everything,” Gudin said. “I lost my husband, I lost my students, I lost my friends.”
Gudin said Kirsanov traveled with two youth skaters to attend a development camp in Kansas this week. Gudin, who also coaches students with her husband in Delaware, said she stayed home to be with their other skaters.
She last spoke with her husband as he boarded the flight on Wednesday, she said.
“I need my husband back,” Gudin said. “I need his body back.”
The scene of a shooting in Midtown NYC on Dec. 4, 2024. WABC
(NEW YORK) — Brian Thompson, the CEO of UnitedHealthcare, was shot and killed by a masked man near a Midtown Manhattan hotel early Wednesday, according to police sources.
The shooting appears to be targeted but police do not know why, sources said.
Thompson was not staying at the Hilton outside of which he was shot, sources said.
Thompson was in New York City for an investors conference and his schedule was widely known, police sources said.
The gunman, who was wearing a ski mask, fled down an alleyway near West 55th Street and remains at large, police said.
The suspect is described as a skinny man wearing all black who stands at about 6-foot-1, police said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(HOUSTON) — A man aboard a Frontier Airlines flight en route to Houston had to be restrained by fellow passengers on Wednesday after he began kicking seats and hitting a window, eventually breaking the plexiglass, police said.
The flight, F9 4856, departed from Denver and was in the air for about 20 to 30 minutes, when a woman asked the man behind her to switch seats, according to passenger Victoria Clark. This man quickly became enraged, profusely kicking the woman’s seat and trying to break the window, Clark said.
“I started having a panic attack,” Clark told ABC News. “[I thought] it could be a terrorist attack.”
The man continued to hit the window and was eventually able to break the plexiglass, passengers said. Without an air marshal on board, flight attendants asked if there was any law enforcement to help, passengers recounted. That’s when Tanner Phillips, a former member of the military, said he stepped in.
“This guy was just going crazy,” Phillips told ABC News. “He was screaming in multiple languages, punching out the window and laying back and trying to kick it out. I wanted to help as much as I could.”
Phillips said he and several others grabbed hold of the man, using zip ties and boot laces to restrain him and put him back in his seat. Instead of making an emergency landing, the flight continued toward its destination of Houston — forcing the group of good Samaritans to ensure the man did not escape for about two hours.
The man’s blood was everywhere around the window and the ceiling of the aircraft, since the plexiglass cut up his hands, Phillips said.
“You never know what someone is capable of,” Phillips said. “I’m really grateful that we were able to handle the situation and no one got harmed.”
Once the plane landed safely in Houston at around 10:20 p.m. local time, Clark said everyone felt an immense sigh of relief.
“People were clapping,” Clark said. “Everyone was saying thank you to all the gentlemen that helped make sure that we got there safely.”
The Houston Police Department said they received a report that there had been a “combative passenger on board,” and were already on the scene by the time the plane had landed.
Frontier Airlines declined to press charges at the scene, and police are reaching out to airport officials to see what happened to the man. Since the man is not currently facing charges, his name was not released, according to police.
Several passengers, including Jessica Brown and her daughter Chloe Starks, hope this incident shows the need for increased security aboard aircrafts, so that something like this does not happen again.
“It’s just insanity. I don’t wish this on my worst enemy,” Brown told ABC News. “I wish in 2025 we would not have situations like this.”
-ABC News’ Lindsey Krill and Jennifer Watts contributed to this report.
