Teens charged in attempted bombing near Gracie Mansion
Federal prosecutors charged two teenagers who allegedly sought to kill up to 60 people outside Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s residence, deeming the incident a terrorism attempt in the name of the Islamic State group.
Ibrahim Kayumi and Emir Balat, both from Pennsylvania, were arrested near Gracie Mansion on March 7. According to an eight-count indictment released last week, the pair attempted to detonate two homemade bombs, which failed to explode. They both face multiple federal charges, including providing materials to a terrorist organization and conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction.
Investigators said they retrieved bomb-making materials and the teenagers’ notebook, as well as over three days of recorded footage. Officials also say that the notebook contained alternative attack methods, including using a vehicle to target crowded parades or protests.
“All I know is I want to start terror, bro,” one of the men said in the dashcam video. “I want to petrify these people.”
The two had planned to target a protest denouncing Mamdani, organized by far right influencer Jake Lang. Law enforcement intervened before anyone was injured and took Kayumi and Balat into custody at the scene.
City avoids ‘DEI’ language in racial equity plan
City officials released their long-awaited, 375-page Racial Equity Plan on Tuesday — but erased all uses of the phrase “diversity, equity and inclusion” before doing so.
The report, created under former mayor Eric Adams and completed by Mamdani, outlines how agencies will address systemic racial disparities using municipal powers. In an effort to minimize attention from the Trump administration, Mamdani focused on describing DEI without naming the terms specifically.
“We put forward a stronger report that actually reflects the realities New Yorkers are living through,” Mamdani said at a news conference.
The plan is broken down by goals pertaining to race, sex and gender — similar to the categories the Trump administration is requiring universities to report — created by 45 city agencies to address disparities. It also expands definitions of systemic racism and references major national events, including describing the death of George Floyd as a murder.
The plan’s release comes after the city’s independent Commission on Racial Equity argued that the Adams administration failed to meet required deadlines in a 2025 lawsuit. Mamdani had pledged to release the draft within his first 100 days in office — which he reached on Friday — and the city has since asked for the lawsuit to be dismissed, though the commission maintains it should remain active to ensure compliance.
Lawmakers propose bill to strengthen tourism safety standards
Federal lawmakers representing New York are proposing stricter aviation safety standards, one year after a fatal helicopter crash in the Hudson River.
At a press conference on Manhattan’s West Side waterfront, Representative Jerrold Nadler presented the Helicopter Safety Parity Act, a bipartisan bill aimed at increasing regulations on tourism helicopters. The legislation would require helicopters to meet the safety standards required for commercial airlines.
If passed, the bill would mandate enhanced maintenance routines and require helicopters carrying fare-paying passengers to install cockpit voice and flight data recorders to help reconstruct events leading up to an accident. Lawmakers recommended allocating $50 million annually to support the enhancement.
The push to reform New York City’s helicopter tourism industry comes after three fatal helicopter crashes in the last two decades. The aircraft that crashed completed 18 short tours a day with only a few minutes of buffer time in between.
“No other family should have to experience the loss that we as a family experienced — for us this is personal,” one of the family members of the victims said during the conference. “We want to keep their memories alive and the best way to do that is to strengthen the safety standards.”
The April 10, 2025, crash killed six people — a family of five visiting from Spain and the pilot, a Navy veteran — after the aircraft broke apart midair. A final federal investigation report has yet to be released.
Contact Natalie Deoragh at [email protected].