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American Airlines suspends flights to Haiti indefinitely
MIAMI – American Airlines is no longer resuming its daily service out of Miami into Port-au-Prince’s Toussaint Louverture International Airport. American had initially suspended flights through February 12. The suspension is now indefinite.
A spokesperson for the U.S.-based carrier said that it will evaluate a possible resumption in late 2025 of the only daily service out of Miami International Airport into Haiti by a major U.S. airline.
This comes after The Federal Aviation Administration prohibited U.S. airlines from flying to Haiti for 30 days after gangs shot three planes. Further, the United Nations temporarily suspended flights to Port-au-Prince on Tuesday, limiting humanitarian aid coming into the country.
The American Airlines statement read in part: “American has made the difficult decision to suspend daily service between Miami (MIA) and Port-au-Prince, Haiti (PAP),” the spokesperson said. “We are proud of our more than 50-year-commitment to Haiti and we will continue to monitor the situation, assessing safety, security, and customer demand, in evaluating a return of service. We will proactively reach out to impacted customers to offer a full refund of their travel itinerary.”
Multiple airlines avoiding potential violence
Last month, several air carriers — including American Airlines, JetBlue Airways and Spirit Airlines — announced the suspension of daily flights into Haiti after confirmation their planes were hit by gunfire while in Haitian airspace in early November.
Neither Spirit nor JetBlue has said if and when they will resume Haiti flights.
JetBlue Airways operates flights both out of Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport and John F. Kennedy International Airport into Port-au-Prince.
Spirit Airlines, which was approaching Toussaint Louverture International Airport with passengers when the bullets struck, also suspended its service between Fort Lauderdale and Cap-Haïtien in the north of the country.
No passengers were injured.
What does this mean for Haitians in the U.S. and Haiti?
The ban on commercial and cargo flights has created severe problems for Haitians. The roads in and out of the capital are controlled by armed gangs, and mudslides last week buried two major roads connecting Cap-Haïtien and the capital.
Those making it out of the capital have either had to beg for a ride on a government-leased helicopter meant for the purpose of moving security forces to hot zones or pay $2,500 for a ride on a privately leased helicopter with a 20-pound weight limit.
The FAA initially placed all of Haiti under the flight ban. It later amended its decision to exclude airports outside of the capital.
The only other airport that can receive commercial international flights, Hugo Chavez International Airport, is in the northern city of Cap-Haïtien.
Today, the small airport serves as the only air bridge in and out of the country. The airspace between Haiti and the Dominican Republic is still closed. The Bahamas suspended flights into the country. The only direct service to the U.S. currently is via Haiti-owned Sunrise Airways.
Despite that, it has not stopped the United States from deporting Haitians back to the country. Last week, the Department of Homeland Security flew 70 deportees into Cap-Haïtien despite days of heavy rains that had left the city flooded and all access out of the city to other parts of Haiti blocked.
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Sean “Diddy” Combs will remain in New York City jail until 2025 trial after withdrawing bail appeal
NEW YORK — Sean “Diddy” Combs filed a motion Friday to dismiss his appeal for bail, meaning he will stay in jail until his trial on sex trafficking charges in May 2025.
Combs was ordered held without bail when he was first arrested back in September, but his legal team appealed the decision multiple times.
When the most recent appeal was denied in late November, the judge said, “The Court finds that the government has shown by clear and convincing evidence that no condition or combination of conditions will reasonably assure the safety of the community.”
Prosecutors previously alleged that since his arrest, Combs has tried to reach out to potential victims and witnesses. They also claim he encouraged strategies to sway public opinion, such as having his children post about his birthday on social media.
Combs held at federal jail in Brooklyn
Combs, 55, has pleaded not guilty to charges of sex trafficking, racketeering conspiracy and transportation to engage in prostitution. He is accused of abusing and blackmailing multiple women with the help of associates and employees for over 15 years.
He is being held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, the only federal jail in New York City. Over the years, the jail has held other high-profile inmates, such as singer R. Kelly, rapper Ja Rule and cryptocurrency mogul Sam Bankman-Fried.
Combs’ trial is scheduled to begin May 5, 2025. Prosecutors have until the end of this year to turn over discovery.
If convicted of the charges, Combs could face decades in prison, experts say.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell issued an apparent warning Friday to Robert F. Kennedy, President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Health and Human Services Department, after The New York Times reported that one of Kennedy’s top advisers had filed petitions to revoke the approval of a polio vaccine and several other shots.
“Anyone seeking the Senate’s consent to serve in the incoming Administration would do well to steer clear of even the appearance of association with such efforts,” McConnell said in a statement.
McConnell, a polio survivor, denounced efforts “to undermine public confidence in proven cures” like the polio vaccine.
“The polio vaccine has saved millions of lives and held out the promise of eradicating a terrible disease. Efforts to undermine public confidence in proven cures are not just uninformed — they’re dangerous,” McConnell said.
McConnell credited the “miraculous combination of modern medicine and a mother’s love” with saving him from paralysis when he contracted the disease at two years of age, and he praised the “miracle” of “the saving power of the polio vaccine” for the millions of children who came after him.
The Times article focused in large part on the work of attorney Aaron Siri for the nonprofit Informed Consent Action Network, or ICAN, which petitioned the Food and Drug Administration in 2022 “demanding that the FDA suspend or withdraw approval” of Sanofi Pasteur’s inactivated polio vaccine, called IPOL.
Siri has been acting as an adviser to the transition team for Kennedy, who, if confirmed by the Senate, would oversee the FDA and the nation’s other public health agencies.
Siri called the Times article a “hit piece” that did not engage with the substance of the “legitimate” concern at the center of the petition he filed for ICAN.
“ICAN’s petition, filed in 2022, makes the reasonable request that the FDA, as required by federal law, require a proper clinical trial for IPOL prior to licensure,” Siri posted on X.
The Times report on Siri’s work sparked a renewed round of backlash against Kennedy by Democrats, too, who have criticized Trump for months over his ties with Kennedy.
As HHS secretary, Kennedy would have significant direct authority as the nation’s health secretary over how vaccines are studied, approved and recommended in the U.S. He and his FDA commissioner would also oversee how government lawyers respond to many of the legal battles Siri has launched against the agency over vaccines.
Kennedy himself has said he would not ban vaccines and has tried to distance himself from the “anti-vaccine” label, instead calling for further study of the shots. He recently resigned as chair of Children’s Health Defense, a nonprofit that watchdog groups have found for years to be spreading misinformation over fears about vaccines.
President-elect Donald Trump has said he might be open to getting rid of some vaccines “if I think it’s dangerous,” pledging to listen to Kennedy.
“We’re going to have a big discussion. The autism rate is at a level that nobody ever believed possible. If you look at things that are happening, there’s something causing it,” Trump said in an interview with Time magazine published this week, when he was asked if he’d sign off on a move by Kennedy to end childhood vaccination programs.
Extensive medical research has conclusively shown that vaccines do not cause autism.
Siri’s petition for ICAN has not progressed much at the FDA since it was filed in 2022. It is one of several legal efforts Siri has filed for groups against several shots, including a petition in 2020 over hepatitis B vaccines.
In a 2023 letter responding to the polio petition, the agency’s top vaccine official, Dr. Peter Marks, wrote that the FDA “has been unable to reach a decision on your petition because it raises issues requiring further review and analysis by agency officials.”
Siri’s petition targets IPOL, which is the only “single-antigen” polio vaccine currently recommended for use in the U.S. The vaccine was approved in the 1990s.
Many children who receive immunizations for polio often do not receive IPOL, but rather, one of several combination vaccines that blend a harmless version of the poliovirus with other recommended antigens for various vaccine-preventable diseases.
The CDC says IPOL is “mainly used as a travel vaccine for adults.” The agency says that the “body of scientific evidence overwhelmingly supports” the safety of polio vaccines.
Siri has hinted at plans for more petitions to the FDA, after Kennedy is in charge at HHS.
“It will help if there are outsiders, from the outside attacking in. For example, the FDA acts on petitions. If you want to license a product, you have to petition them. If you want a product to be withdrawn or reevaluated, you typically often have to petition them,” Siri told Del Bigtree, ICAN’s founder and a former campaign spokesperson for Kennedy, on his podcast last month.
“Somebody on the outside needs to be petitioning them,” Siri added.
contributed to this report.