Part of our “News That Matters“ Series, “Weekend Update” is a weekly feature that offers brief overviews of important news that might have been overlooked in the course of a busy weekend. Here’s what you may have missed in the period February 14 through February 17, 2025.
@DEADLINE
Terror Attack in Austria Leaves One Dead, At Least Five Injured
A 23-year-old Syrian national stabbed five people in the city of Villach in the province of Kärnten, in Austria, on Saturday, in what the Bundespolizei said was a random attack that left a 14-year-old dead and four others injured, two critically.
Police said that the attacker, who was originally from Syria, was a legal resident of Austria.
The attack took place at approximately 4 p.m. Central European Time, Polizeisprecher Rainer Dionisio said in an ORD-Kärnten interview.
A 42-year-old food delivery driver saw the attack taking place from his auto and drove towards the suspect in his car, an act that Dionisio said prevented anything worse from happening. The driver was unharmed.
The ubiquitous London taxi and double-decker bus
@PASSINGS
Swiss Soprano Edith Mathis, best known for her interpretations of Bach, Mozart, and Weber, as well as for her clear, bright voice and her perfect intonation even on the highest notes, dies at 86.
Eleanor Maguire, the memory expert who studied London cabbies, is dead at 54. By watching the brain process information, she discovered that a specific region plays a key role in spatial navigation, and that this region could be strengthened like a muscle.
C. Richard Kramlich, an early backer of Apple Computer and 3Com and an investor in Silicon Valley, dies at 89. Friends and colleagues said that it was his humaneness that distinguished him from other VCs.
@WEATHER
Severe Winter Weather Snarls Air and Road Travel Over Bank Holiday Weekend
The United States will observe the birthday of George Washington on Monday but those traveling to or from home for the bank holiday weekend didn’t have much to celebrate.
Severe weather in much of the United States resulted in an exceptionally high number flight delays and cancellations and those figures went into overdrive on Sunday.
Snow, ice, rain, and high winds resulted in flight delays running an average of 2.5 hours behind at airports in the New York City area and the longest delays hit the four-hour mark Sunday morning at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Delays at nearby LaGuardia Airport were averaging over one hour, while flights across the Hudson River at Newark Liberty International Airport were average a 2-hour, 20-minute delay.
Much of New York State experienced dense fog and extremely poor visibility on Sunday.
On Sunday, there were 9,844 flight delays within, into, or out of the United States plus an additional 1,841 cancellations according to FlightAware, a service that tracks such information. The figures for Monday at 3 a.m. EST were already at 559 for delays and 330 cancellations.
The airports in North America feeling the greatest impact from the weather were Toronto-Pearson International, which saw 31% of its flights cancelled, translating to 173 flights, and an additional 47% – or 261 operations – delayed. Toronto-Pearson was followed closely by Boston Logan International, which posted 26% of its flights – or 149 – as cancelled and an additional 46%.- or 260 flights – as delayed, and Ronald Reagan Washington National, with 30% of flights – or 133 operations – cancelled and 36% – or 163 operations – delayed. LaGuardia Airport also had over 100 outbound and 100 inbound flight cancellations, reporting 28% of operations or 129 flights as cancelled and 42% of operations or 193 flights as delayed.
The number of delays and cancellations on Sunday far exceeded the figures on the preceding days of the bank holiday weekend.
@TRAVEL
Long Island Airport to Get Major Upgrade
New York State will contribute $150 million to a major rehabilitation project of Long Island MacArthur Airport.
Previously known as Islip Airport, Long Island MacArthur Airport is an aerodrome in Ronkonkoma, New York with three runways and two helipads over 1,311 acres (531 hectares).. It was established in 1942 and activated in 1943. It began to serve as a commercial airport in 1960.
Heavy rain in New York City Sunday night
The project includes the purchase of 48-acre (19.5 hectares), a pedestrian pathway to the Ronkonkoma Long Island Rail Road station, and other infrastructure necessary to bring the project to the finish line.
“It would be building a terminal on the north part of the airport adjacent to the train station,” Islip Town Supervisor Angie Carpenter told a reporter. “If they can get out of the train and walk to the terminal, that’s huge.”
The new funding is in addition to $40 million the governor pledged in 2022 for the North Terminal.
Air Passenger Attacks Two Impatient ‘Garbage People’ on No-Frills Airline Flight
Travelers disemabarking from a Hong Kong Airlines flight from Bali to Hong Kong got an earful and then some when a young couple with two children began complaining at the slow pace passengers in the rows ahead of them were exiting the aircraft, calling them “garbage people.” The incident escalated once the unhappy family made it to the jet bridge and began deliberately bumping into other passengers and fussing about. Another passenger had just about enough and turned around to punch the husband and father in the unpleasant group but the father managed to duck. The family then pushed a flight attendant out of the way and made haste to the terminal.
@TECH
Apple Releases iOS 18.3.1 With Important Security Fix
Apple released iOS 18.3.1 and iPadOS 18.3.1, saying the update contained important security updates.
The iOS 18.3.1 update remedies addresses an accessibility vulnerability that could disable USB Restricted Mode on a locked device. Exploiting this vulnerability requires physical access to an iPhone or iPad, and Apple says that it this exploit has already been used against specific individuals.
“Impact: A physical attack may disable USB Restricted Mode on a locked device,” Apple said. “Apple is aware of a report that this issue may have been exploited in an extremely sophisticated attack against specific targeted individuals.”
The Cupertino, California-based company said in a statement that the vulnerability had been addressed with improved state management,
An artist’s rendering of a Long Covid patient protest at the NIH
@LONG COVID RESEARCH
Two New Studies Shed More Light on Symptoms and Prevalence of Long Covid
A new study, this from researchers at Tel Aviv Medical Center and entitled “Personality and Neuropsychiatric Symptoms in Individuals Diagnosed with Long Covid,” found found high rates of depressive disorders (46%), generalized anxiety disorders (21%), sleep disturbances (76%), and reported cognitive changes (95%) among those diagnosed with the condition. The study was published in BMC Diseases.
Another study, this publisheed in Clinical Infecious Diseases and entitled “Post-Covid Condition Risk Factors and Symptom Clusters and Associations with Return to Pre-Covid Health—Results from a 2021 Multi-State Survey,” found that the prevalence of Long Covid in the U.S. population in 2021 was 29.9%, and 77.2% of those with Long Covid had not returned to pre-COVID health within 8 to 60 weeks after infection
Both add considerably to the growing body of literature on the lasting effets of Long Covid.
Searching for a Cure: Frau Prof.. Dr. med. Carmen Scheibenbogen
At the Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Europe’s largest university hospital, Frau Prof. Dr. med. Carmen Scheibenbogen is the researcher who is searching for a drug to fight against Long Covid. An estimated half a million people in Germany suffer from the condition Scheibenbogen is researching, and the World Health Organization has estimated that 1 in 30 Europeans suffers from the condition, which causes a wide range of symptoms that includes severe chronic fatigue, brain fog (loss of executive function), organ damage, lightheadedness when standing, difficulty concentrating, difficulty breathing, shortness of breath, pins and needles pain, muscle pain, sleep issues, depression, and anxiety.
As Scheibenbogen stated in a guest article in BMG Initiative Long Covid, “Due to the occurrence of Long Covid in the pandemic, there is cause for hope that the mechanisms of post-infectious diseases can be rapidly elucidated with the aid of international research, and that effective therapies can thus be developed.”
@POLITICS THIS WEEK
A hardcover copy of the constitution is available from Amazon for $20. The so-called “border czar,” Tom Homan, appears to be taking the “czar” title a bit too seriously and is suggesting repeatedly that Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez could have broken the law by holding a webinar informing immigrants of their rights during encounters with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. “I’m asking the Department of Justice, who are the prosecutors and decide who they prosecute and what the standards of that prosecution is,” Tom Homan said on Fox News after appearing to relish the thought that “AOC’s gonna be in trouble now.”
Quid pro no. Meanwhile, Honan denied allegations there had been any sort of a quid pro quo between the Trump administration and beleaguered New York Mayor Eric Adams. He called the notion that criminal charges against Adams were in exchange for the mayor’s cooperation on immigration “ridiculous.”
Egg scramble. State and local public health officials have gone multiple weeks without regular updates from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concerning the extent of any increases in H1N2, or avian flu, cases in the country. The radio silence is due to a Trump-imposed freeze on external communications from the agency. Meanwhile, Meanwhile, the spread of H1N2 continues to cause the price of eggs to hit to record highs.
Here chickie, chickie, chickie, chickie…. The U.S. Department of Agriculture issued a conditional license for an avian flu vaccine for use in chickens, as the avian flu continues to ravage poultry flocks, contributing to the astronomical price of eggs and egg-based products at the grocer’s. Zoetis, which makes the vaccine, announced the conditional approval Friday and said that its scientists had begun to update the existing avian influenza vaccine in 2022.
Return to sender. No forwarding address. Beware of Radioactive Contamination. The Trump Administration wants to un-fire some nuclear safety workers at the National Nuclear Security Administration who were terminated as part of job cuts but they are struggling to find some of the workers as the agency lacks current contact information. In an email sent to employees at NNSA and viewed by The Travelist and Frequent Business Travel, officials wrote that “[T]he termination letters for some NNSA probationary employees are being rescinded, but we do not have a good way to get in touch with those personnel.”
@BRIEFLY NOTED
A Republican Goes Into a Bar and…
Matt Schlapp, a lobbyist and Fox News commentator who is also the chairman of the American Conservative Union, which hosts the annual CPAC convention, was reportedly engaged in lewd conduct and was said to have sexually assaulted a man at a restaurant and bar in Virginia on Saturday night, according to six witnesses and the man who alleges he was assaulted told veteran reporter Yashar Ali. Ali also reviewed footage from the bar that corroboraterd the story, he said.
(Photos: Accura Media Group)
