The Headlines - A Deadly Collision at LaGuardia Airport, and Trump’s Ultimatum to Iran

Episode Date: March 23, 2026

Plus, chasing meteorites for money. Here’s what we’re covering: 2 Dead After Jet Collides With Vehicle at LaGuardia Airport, by Dakota Santiago, Max Kim and Mike Ives Power Outages Are Reported in Tehran as Israel Launches Strikes, by Aaron Boxerman, Julian Barnes, Isabel Kershner and Yan Zhuang Israel’s Missile Defense Under Scrutiny After Iranian Attack, by Isabel Kershner Israel Orders Military to Intensify Demolitions in Southern Lebanon, by Aaron Boxerman ICE to Aid Airport Security Amid Partial Shutdown, Border Czar Says, by Erica L. Green, Hamed Aleaziz and Gabe Castro-Root Inside the Supply Line Delivering American Guns to Mexican Cartels, by Paulina Villegas A Meteor Exploded Over Ohio. Then the Chase Began., by Billy Witz Tune in every weekday morning, and tell us what you think at: [e-mail]. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

From the New York Times, it's the headlines. I'm Tracy Mumford. Today's Monday, March 23rd. Here's what we're covering. At approximately 1140 last night, Air Canada Flight 8646 collided with the Port Authority Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting vehicle on runway 4. Just before midnight at New York City's LaGuardia Airport, an Air Canada flight from Montreal collided with a fire truck.

Video from the scene shows the regional jet tipped onto its tail, its nose sheared off and mangled wreckage hanging down onto the ground. At times, journalists said that nearby a damaged truck was lying on its side as emergency workers responded to the scene. Sadly, the two pilots are confirmed deceased and notifications are being made by Air Canada's care team at this time. The crash happened as the plane was landing, and the fire truck was out responding to a separate issue, according to the head of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which oversees

the airport. She said dozens of passengers on the plane had been taken to the hospital, along with the two first responders who had been in the truck. She said many people had been released already, but that some were seriously injured. In response to the crash, officials said no flights would go in or out of LaGuardia until at least 2 p.m. Eastern, shuttering a critical regional hub that sees nearly 900 flights each day. You can find more live coverage on this incident and flight disruptions at NYTimes.com. As the war with Iran enters its fourth week, we're tracking the latest on a Trump ultimatum, a rare break in Israel's air defense systems, and how more than a million people have now been

uprooted in Lebanon. First, what is the president going to do in 48 hours, which would be Monday night, if they don't open up this straight? Well, Maria, as the president announced, he will start by attacking and destroying one of Iran's largest power plants. The Trump administration has vowed that if the Strait of Hormuz, a key shipping route for oil and gas, is not fully reopened by tonight. The U.S. will go after Iran's power grid. Large parts of Tehran have already lost power this morning due to Israeli strikes.

U.S. strikes could plunge even more of the country into darkness, and many Iranians are scrambling for the possibility of being cut off from refrigerators, ventilators, water pumps, and more. Some feel caught in the middle of the escalating war. with one artist in Tehran telling the times, we are being threatened every day from all sides, from Israel and America and from the regime. Iranian forces, meanwhile, have responded defiantly to Trump's threat, with a military spokesman vowing that Iran is prepared to strike more targets across the Middle East, like fuel infrastructure and desalination plants,

raising the question of how far the counterattacks could reach. Also, this weekend in Israel, Two Iranian ballistic missiles landed in residential neighborhoods, getting around Israel's vaunted air defense systems. At least 175 people were wounded, according to emergency and health services. The failure of the defenses has rattled people there and renewed concerns that the Israeli military might be holding back some of its resources after drawing down its stockpiles during the 12-day war with Iran last year. The Israeli military has denied reports that it's running low on missile interceptors and said it's investigating what went wrong with the strikes that got through this weekend.

And lastly, in southern Lebanon, the Israeli military is destroying more homes and bridges, saying it's necessary to thwart threats from Hezbollah, the Iran-backed armed group. Israel's defense minister said on Sunday that his troops would use similar methods to what they did in Gaza, where huge parts of the territory were raised to the ground in the fight against Hamas. Israel's been carrying out a major military campaign in Lebanon since Hezbo fired rockets and drones in solidarity with Iran. More than a million people have already fled their homes,

and more than a thousand have been killed, according to the Lebanese government. We're talking about security options, and these officers are well-trained in security, and they're well-trained in identification, And we're going to do what we can to help TSA move those people to the line. Starting this morning, federal officials say that ICE agents will be deployed at airports around the country to try and help wrangle the security lines that have been stretching for hours and hours due to the ongoing DHS shutdown. We're simply there to help TSA do their job in areas that don't need their specialized expertise. White House Bordersar Tom Homan said ICE agents would mostly be doing things like monitoring exits so that TSA agents can focus

on screening passengers. Many airports have had widespread staffing shortages, a consequence of Congress deadlocking over funding for the Department of Homeland Security, and that's left many agents going without pay. They've then been calling in sick or having to take other jobs. For many passengers, that's meant showing up to the airport

only to find security lines snaking through entire concourses, even out onto the curb or into parking garages. President Trump first raised the idea of sending ICE into airports on Saturday in a social media post, presenting it as a threat if Democrats didn't cooperate on funding DHS. Trump said the agents would do security like no one has ever seen before, and arrest, quote, all illegal immigrants. The last thing that the American people need are for untrained ICE agents to be deployed

at airports all across the country, potentially to brutalize or in some instances kill them. The plan has been blasted by some. Democrats, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. And one TSA officer, who's also a union official representing agents, said that the deployment of ICE officers at airports would be a, quote, distracting scenario to say the least. In Mexico, guns from the U.S. have been pouring into the country for years, a phenomenon that's earned the nickname the Iron River. By one estimate, 80% of weapons seized by Mexican authorities are from the U.S. Now, in the past year, that river has turned into a flood.

I've spent months speaking to armed smugglers based both in the U.S. and in Mexico, and that's how I discovered that an unprecedented number of weapons are actually coming into Mexico, and that these cartels, particularly the Sinaloa cartel, is arming themselves to the teeth. Paulina Villegas, a reporter for the Times based in Mexico City, says that over the past year or so, demand for high-powered arms like machine guns and assault rifles has exploded, in large part because of the Trump administration's increased pressure campaign against the cartels. The groups are buying up weapons to confront Mexican authorities, who are being encouraged by Trump to go after the drug smugglers more aggressively.

And the cartels are preparing for a potential U.S. military intervention, which Trump has threatened. Polina interviewed more than a half-dozen cartel operatives directly involved in buying and delivering some of the hundreds of thousands of weapons that are smuggled into Mexico every year. She says that as demand has skyrocketed, their tactics have evolved.

Historically, cartels have hired American citizens or residents and send them into a gun store or a gun show and buy as many weapons as they can, including high-caliber firearms, But more recently, we've also discovered that smugglers have relied on other methods. For instance, they are going directly to gun store employees or managers. They're bribing them to falsify records or use records of other prior purchasers to supply the weapons for them. Once the weapons are collected, they are often disassembled to make the concealment easier.

And the smugglers hide the gun parts in hidden... compartments inside of trucks and vehicles. They also put them in fast boats. And sometimes for smaller cargoes, they told me that they even strap some of the gun parts onto their own bodies and just walk across the border into Mexico. One of the most striking details of this reporting was how heavily the cartel members rely on what they say are bribes to not only. Mexican but U.S. officials. These are border officials that they say they offer large amounts

of money for them to guarantee the safe pass of the vehicles carrying the weapons to the final destination. Mexico's top anti-cartel official recently told the Times that he has pressed American authorities to crack down on the flow of military-grade arms into the country. In response to questions from the Times, U.S. Customs and Border Protection said in a statement that its officer, quote, enforce our nation's laws along what is now the most secure border in history. And finally, over the past week, meteors have arced across the sky in at least two parts of the U.S., causing rumbling sonic booms and fiery streaks of light. I came in here to look and I see the hole in the ceiling, a big dent in the floor.

North of Houston, Sherry James told KHU TV that a chunk of space rock came crows. crashing through the roof of her house on Saturday. And in Ohio, a seven-ton fireball exploded over the Cleveland area. That meteoros set off a race among a small but motivated group in the U.S., meteorite hunters. Some two dozen people booked one-way flights, poured over satellite maps, and packed their bags, in some cases with wads of cash. Space rocks can be a big business. A massive specimen found in Niger last year fetched over. $5 million at auction. No one is expecting to find anything that big scattered in Ohio, but even a chunk the size of a gumball might be worth hundreds or thousands of dollars.

The Times talked to one guy who quit his job a couple years ago after he made $40,000 in a weekend hunting meteorites. He made the trip to Ohio, where he managed to find a piece. It's not always about the cash, though, he said, holding up a piece that he said he wanted to keep. quote, three days ago, this thing was on the other side of the moon. Now it's in my hand. Those are the headlines. Today on the Daily. Inside the divide on the American right over Trump's war in Iran.

You can listen to that in the New York Times app or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Tracy Mumford. We'll be back tomorrow.