Category: Associated Press

NEW YORK — Thousands of nurses in three hospital systems in New York City went on strike Monday after negotiations through the weekend failed to yield breakthroughs in their contract disputes.

“Nurses on strike! … Fair contract now!” they shouted on a picket line outside NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital’s campus in Upper Manhattan. Others picketed at hospitals in the Mount Sinai and Montefiore systems, where a 2023 nursing strike fed off pandemic-era frustrations and led to a deal to boost staffing and pay.

“And now, it’s how they’re treating us: They don’t want to give us a fair contract, and they don’t want to give us safe staffing, and now they’re trying to roll back on our benefits,” emergency department nurse Tristan Castillo said as she picketed Monday outside Mount Sinai West.

About 15,000 nurses are involved in the strike, according to their union, the New York State Nurses Association. The hospitals remained open, hiring droves of temporary nurses to try to fill the labor gap.

The strike involves private, nonprofit hospitals, not city-run ones. But the strike, which the union casts as lifesaving essential workers fighting hospital executives who make millions of dollars a year, could be a significant early test of Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s new administration.

The democratic socialist campaigned on a pro-worker platform and struck a similar note while visiting nurses on the NewYork-Presbyterian picket line Monday.

“These executives are not having difficulty making ends meet,” said Mamdani, who extolled nurses’ work and said they were seeking “dignity, respect, and the fair pay and treatment that they deserve. They should settle for nothing less.”

Some other Democratic city and state politicians also visited striking nurses, while Gov. Kathy Hochul sent state health officials to the hospitals to keep watch over patient care. She called in a statement for the sides to negotiate a deal that “recognizes the essential work nurses do.”

The strike, which comes during a severe flu season, could potentially force the hospitals to transfer patients, cancel procedures, or divert ambulances. It could also put a strain on city hospitals not involved in the contract dispute, as patients avoid the medical centers hit by the strike.

The nurses’ demands vary by hospital, but the major issues include staffing levels and workplace safety. The union says hospitals have given nurses unmanageable workloads.

Nurses also want better security measures in the workplace, citing incidents such as an episode last week when a man with a sharp object barricaded himself in a Brooklyn hospital room and was then killed by police.

The union also wants limitations on hospitals’ use of artificial intelligence.

The hospitals say that they’ve been working to improve staffing levels but say that the union’s demands overall are too costly.

After the nurses gave notice Jan. 2 of the looming strike, the hospitals hired temporary nurses, vowed to “do whatever is necessary to minimize disruptions,” and said they were prepared to deliver care no matter how long the strike lasts. Mount Sinai said in a statement Monday it had lined up 1,400 temporary nurses.

Mount Sinai said the union was making “extreme economic demands.” Montefiore spokesperson Joe Solmonese said the union was pressing “$3.6 billion in reckless demands,” including exorbitant raises. The union hasn’t publicly disclosed its salary proposal.

NewYork-Presbyterian accused the union of staging a strike to “create disruption.”

“We’re ready to keep negotiating a fair and reasonable contract that reflects our respect for our nurses and the critical role they play, and also recognizes the challenging realities of today’s healthcare environment,” the hospital said.

Each medical center is negotiating with the union independently. Several other private hospitals in and near New York City reached deals in recent days to avert a possible strike.

The three-day strike in 2023 resulted in a deal raising pay 19% over three years at Mount Sinai and Montefiore. The pact also included staffing improvements, though the union and hospitals now disagree about how much progress has been made, or whether the hospitals are retreating from staffing guarantees.

The sides also dispute whether the hospitals are trying to reduce health benefits. Mount Sinai, for instance, says its proposals would cut costs without changing coverage.

The Trevor Project, known for its hotline for LGBTQ+ youth, received $45 million from billionaire and author MacKenzie Scott at the end of 2025, the organization said Monday.

The gift is the largest in the organization’s history but also a major boon following years of management turmoil, layoffs, and the loss of significant federal funding over the summer.

“I literally could not believe it and it took some time. I actually gasped,” said Jaymes Black, CEO of the Trevor Project, when they were notified of Scott’s gift.

Scott, whose fortune largely comes from her ex-husband, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, gave more than $7 billion to nonprofits in 2025, but this gift to the Trevor Project was not included among the donations she disclosed on her website in December. Scott previously gave the Trevor Project $6 million in 2020.

In July, the Trump administration stopped providing specific support for gay, trans, and gender nonconforming young people who called the 988 National Suicide & Crisis Lifeline. The Trevor Project was one of the organizations staffing that option and lost $25 million in funding, the nonprofit said.

The Trevor Project continues to run an independent hotline for LGBTQ+ young people that Black said reaches about 250,000 young people annually, but they served another 250,000 callers through the 988 Press 3 option, which was tailored for LGBTQ+ young people.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) reported more than 1.5 million contacts were routed through the service between September 2022 and July 2025.

The Trevor Project has gone through years of internal turmoil after exploding in size from an organization with an annual budget around $4 million in 2016 to over $83 million in 2023, according to its public tax returns. The nonprofit’s board removed its CEO in 2022 and has gone through a series of layoffs, including one in July. Black said the project’s 2026 budget was $47 million.

“We are a smaller organization than we were before,” Black said. “And we will continue to be really intentional and really mindful around growth and what growth really means for the organization.”

After it lost the 988 funding, the Trevor Project launched an emergency fundraiser that brought in $20 million to date, Black said, which they also hope Scott saw as proof that the organization was determined to stick around and make it through this period.

“MacKenzie Scott’s folks were clear, like this gift was made for long-term impact,” Black said, adding that they would take their time deciding how to use the funds.

Thad Calabrese, a professor at New York University who researches nonprofit financial management, said it’s not at all uncommon for nonprofits that grow very quickly to run into financial problems. But he also said the cuts and general instability in especially federal funding for nonprofits has upended many organizations’ business models.

“Academic research has often viewed public funding as very stable, as a signal to donors that you’ve arrived as an organization, but the reality is you are now also open to changing political fortunes,” he said.

He said research is also unclear about whether diversifying an organization’s revenue streams is always a better financial strategy.

“You’re less dependent upon a few funders, but on the other hand, if you have a lot of different revenue streams, do you have the management capacity for that?” Calabrese asked, speaking generally and not commenting specifically on the Trevor Project.

Scott has distinguished herself among the biggest individual donors by giving large, unrestricted gifts to nonprofits, often with a focus on equity or social justice. With the exception of an open call in 2023, she does not ask for project proposals nor accept applications.

Despite the size of her gifts, which now often exceed the recipient organization’s annual budget, research from the Center for Effective Philanthropy has found that concerns about nonprofits misusing Scott’s funds or growing unsustainably have largely not been born out. That may be because Scott’s team, the members of which are largely unknown, conducts extensive research on organizations before making grants.

In an essay announcing her 2025 gifts, Scott said, “The potential of peaceful, non-transactional contribution has long been underestimated, often on the basis that it is not financially self-sustaining, or that some of its benefits are hard to track. But what if these imagined liabilities are actually assets? … What if the fact that some of our organizations are vulnerable can itself be a powerful engine for our generosity?”

Black called Scott’s second gift “a powerful validation” of the Trevor Project’s mission and impact, saying, “We’re calling this our turnaround story.”

WASHINGTON — Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Sunday the Department of Justice has served the central bank with subpoenas and threatened it with a criminal indictment over his testimony this summer about the Fed’s building renovations.

The move represents an unprecedented escalation in President Donald Trump’s battle with the Fed, an independent agency he has repeatedly attacked for not cutting its key interest rate as sharply as he prefers. The renewed fight will likely rattle financial markets Monday and could over time escalate borrowing costs for mortgages and other loans.

The subpoenas relate to Powell’s testimony before the Senate Banking Committee in June, the Fed chair said, regarding the Fed’s $2.5 billion renovation of two office buildings, a project that Trump has criticized as excessive.

Powell on Sunday cast off what has up to this point been a restrained approach to Trump’s criticisms and personal insults, which he has mostly ignored. Instead, Powell issued a video statement in which he bluntly characterized the threat of criminal charges as simple “pretexts” to undermine the Fed’s independence when it comes to setting interest rates.

“The threat of criminal charges is a consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the President,” Powell said. “This is about whether the Fed will be able to continue to set interest rates based on evidence and economic conditions — or whether instead monetary policy will be directed by political pressure or intimidation.”

It’s a sharp departure from the Fed’s understated response to Trump this year. The central bank has attempted to placate the administration by dialing back some policies, such as efforts to consider the impact of climate change on the banking system, that the administration clearly opposed.

The renewed attacks on the Fed’s independence, and Powell’s full-throated defense, reignite what had appeared to be a dormant battle between Trump and the chair he appointed in 2017. The subpoenas will renew fears that the Fed’s independence from day-to-day politics will be compromised, which could undermine global investors’ confidence in U.S. Treasury securities.

“We expect the dollar, bonds and stocks to all fall in Monday trading in a sell-America trade similar to that in April last year at the peak of the tariff shock and earlier threat to Powell’s position as Fed chair,” Krishna Guha, an analyst at Evercore ISI, an investment bank, wrote in a note to clients.

“We are stunned by this deeply disturbing development which came out of the blue after a period in which tensions between Trump and the Fed seemed to be contained,” Guha added.

In a brief interview with NBC News Sunday, Trump insisted he didn’t know about the investigation into Powell. When asked if the investigation is intended to pressure Powell on rates, Trump said, “No. I wouldn’t even think of doing it that way.”

Powell’s term as chair ends in May, and Trump administration officials have signaled that he could name a potential replacement this month. Trump has also sought to fire Fed governor Lisa Cook, an unprecedented step, though she has sued to keep her job and courts have ruled she can remain in her seat while the case plays out. The Supreme Court will hear arguments in that case Jan. 21.

At the Senate Banking Committee hearing in June, Chairman Tim Scott, a Republican from South Carolina, said the Fed’s building renovation included “rooftop terraces, custom elevators that open into VIP dining rooms, white marble finishes, and even a private art collection.”

Powell disputed those details in his testimony, saying “there’s no new marble. … there are no special elevators” and added that some of the controversial items are “not in the current plan.” In July, Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, said in a letter to Powell that his testimony about changes to the building plans “raises serious questions about the project’s compliance” with previous plans approved by a planning commission.

Still, later that month, Trump visited the building site and, while standing next to Powell, overstated the cost of the renovation. Later that day, Trump, speaking to reporters, downplayed any concerns with the renovation. He said, “they have to get it done” and added, “Look, there’s always Monday morning quarterbacks. I don’t want to be that. I want to help them get it finished.”

When asked if it was a firing offense, Trump said, “I don’t want to put that in this category.”

The Justice Department in a statement Sunday said it can’t comment on any particular case, but added that Attorney General Pam Bondi “has instructed her US Attorneys to prioritize investigating any abuse of tax payer dollars.”

Timothy Lauer, a spokesperson for U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office, said they don’t comment on ongoing investigations.

With the subpoenas, Powell becomes the latest perceived adversary of the president to face a criminal investigation by the Trump administration’s Justice Department. Trump himself has urged prosecutions of his political opponents, obliterating institutional guardrails for a Justice Department that for generations has taken care to make investigative and prosecutorial decisions independent of the White House.

The potential indictment has already drawn concern from one Republican senator, who said he’ll oppose any future nominee to the central bank, including any replacement for Powell, until “this legal matter is fully resolved.”

“If there were any remaining doubt whether advisers within the Trump administration are actively pushing to end the independence of the Federal Reserve, there should now be none,” said North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis, who sits on the Banking Committee, which oversees Fed nominations. “It is now the independence and credibility of the Department of Justice that are in question.”

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — President Donald Trump said Sunday that Iran proposed negotiations after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic over its bloody crackdown targeting demonstrators there, a move coming as activists said the death toll in protests rose to at least 544.

Trump and his national security team have been weighing a range of potential responses against Iran including cyberattacks and direct strikes by the U.S. or Israel, according to two people familiar with internal White House discussions who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

“The military is looking at it, and we’re looking at some very strong options,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday night. Asked about Iran’s threats of retaliation, he said: “If they do that, we will hit them at levels that they’ve never been hit before.”

Trump said that his administration was in talks to set up a meeting with Tehran, but cautioned that he may have to act first as reports of the death toll in Iran mount and the government continues to arrest protesters.

“I think they’re tired of being beat up by the United States,” Trump said. “Iran wants to negotiate.”

He added: “The meeting is being set up, but we may have to act because of what’s happening before the meeting. But a meeting is being set up. Iran called, they want to negotiate.”

There was no immediate acknowledgment from Iran of the offering for a meeting. The massive ongoing U.S. military deployment to the Caribbean is a factor that the Pentagon and Trump’s national security planners must consider. Tehran also warned that the U.S. military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if America uses force to protect demonstrators. Trump meanwhile said the Islamic Republic reached out and proposed negotiations.

More than 10,600 people also have been detained over the two weeks of protests, said the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate in previous unrest in recent years and gave the death toll. It relies on supporters in Iran cross-checking information. It said 496 of the dead were protesters and 48 were with security forces.

With the internet down in Iran and phone lines cut off, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the toll. Iran’s government has not offered overall casualty figures.

Those abroad fear the information blackout is emboldening hard-liners within Iran’s security services to launch a bloody crackdown. Protesters flooded the streets in the country’s capital and its second-largest city on Saturday night into Sunday morning. Online videos purported to show more demonstrations Sunday night into Monday, with a Tehran official acknowledging them in state media.

Defiance in parliament

The threat to strike the U.S. military and Israel came during a parliamentary speech by Mohammad Baagher Qalibaf, the hard-liner speaker of the body who has run for the presidency in the past.

He directly threatened Israel, calling it “the occupied territory.”

“In the event of an attack on Iran, both the occupied territory and all American military centers, bases and ships in the region will be our legitimate targets,” Qalibaf said. “We do not consider ourselves limited to reacting after the action and will act based on any objective signs of a threat.”

Lawmakers rushed the dais in parliament, shouting: “Death to America!”

It remains unclear how serious Iran is about launching a strike, particularly after its air defenses were destroyed during the 12-day war in June with Israel. Any decision to go to war would rest with Iran’s 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

The U.S. military has said in the Mideast it is “postured with forces that span the full range of combat capability to defend our forces, our partners and allies and U.S. interests.” Iran targeted U.S. forces at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar in June, while the U.S. Navy’s Mideast-based 5th Fleet is stationed in the island kingdom of Bahrain.

Israel, meanwhile, is “watching closely” the situation between the U.S. and Iran, said an Israeli official, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to not being authorized to speak to journalists. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio overnight on topics including Iran, the official added.

“The people of Israel, the entire world, are in awe of the tremendous heroism of the citizens of Iran,” said Netanyahu, a longtime Iran hawk.

At the Vatican, Pope Leo XIV mentioned Iran as a place “where ongoing tensions continue to claim many lives,” adding that “I hope and pray that dialogue and peace may be patiently nurtured in pursuit of the common good of the whole of society.”

Demonstrations were held in some international capitals in support of the protesters. A spokesperson said United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres was “shocked” by reports of violence against protesters resulting in “scores of deaths” and called on Iranian authorities to use maximum restraint and restore communications.

Protests in Tehran and Mashhad

Online videos sent out of Iran, likely using Starlink satellite transmitters, purportedly showed demonstrators gathering in northern Tehran’s Punak neighborhood. There, it appeared authorities shut off streets, with protesters waving their lit mobile phones. Others banged metal while fireworks went off.

In Mashhad, Iran’s second-largest city some 450 miles northeast of Tehran, footage purported to show protesters confronting security forces. Protests also appeared to happen in Kerman, 500 miles southeast of Tehran.

Iranian state television on Sunday morning had correspondents appear on the streets in several cities to show calm areas, with a date stamp shown on screen. Tehran and Mashhad were not included.

The demonstrations began Dec. 28 over the collapse of the Iranian rial currency, which trades at over 1.4 million to $1, as the country’s economy is squeezed by international sanctions in part levied over its nuclear program. The protests intensified and grew into calls directly challenging Iran’s theocracy.