The News

The woman who was fatally set on fire in a New York City subway earlier this month has been identified as 57-year-old Debrina Kawam from Toms River, New Jersey, police said Tuesday.

Kawam was asleep on an idle F train at the Stillwell Avenue station on Dec. 22 in Brooklyn just before 7:30 a.m. when a man set her on fire and fled, according to the New York Police Department.

Police did not share any additional information about the victim. The initial release from the NYPD said she was 61, but the age was corrected in a later release.

A vigil was held for her on Thursday.

Sebastian Zapeta-Calil, 33, a Guatemalan citizen, was arrested in connection with Kawam's murder the same day of the incident after he was caught on police body camera footage. Subway riders called 911 when they spotted him hours later and officers took him into custody.

He was indicted on four counts of murder and one count of arson on Friday, per prosecutors. A grand jury indictment was announced in court on one count of first-degree murder, three counts of second-degree murder and one count of first-degree arson, according to the Brooklyn District Attorney's office.

The first-degree murder charge carries the possibility of life without parole. Zapeta-Calil appeared in Brooklyn court Tuesday and was remanded back into custody.

 Trinidad and Tobago has declared a state of emergency as gang violence in the Caribbean nation continues to escalate.

Jimmy Carter, who served a single full presidential term without the chance to appoint a Supreme Court justice, nonetheless left behind an incomparable judicial legacy.

He was the first president to significantly diversify the lower federal courts by appointing female and minority judges — a point that the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg often touted.

Carter named Ginsburg to an important Washington-based US Court of Appeals in 1980, which positioned her for eventual elevation to the Supreme Court.

His presidency was the first during which women made up a significant number of confirmed circuit and district court nominees, according to a Congressional Research Service compilation of judicial appointments. During his one-term presidency, 41 of his appointees were women.

Women made up 12 of his 59 circuit court appointees and 29 of his total 203 district court appointees. Until Carter’s tenure, only two women had ever been named as circuit court judges and six as district court judges.

“Once Carter appointed women to the bench in numbers, there was no turning back,” Ginsburg, who died in 2020, declared in one speech.

Recounting the earlier resistance to women on the bench, Ginsburg added that when former President Harry Truman, who served from 1945 to 1953, broached the possibility of a woman on the court, justices reportedly said a woman justice “would make it difficult for (the other justices) to meet informally with robes, and perhaps shoes, off, shirt collars unbuttoned and discuss their problems and come to decisions.”

In addition to the 41 women judges Carter named to the federal judiciary, he appointed a record 57 people of color to the bench, including those who would become prominent federal appellate judges such as Leon Higginbotham, on the Philadelphia-based 3rd Circuit; Amalya Kearse, on the New York-based 2nd Circuit; and Damon Keith on the Cincinnati-based 6th Circuit.

This 1995 photo shows Leon Higginbotham, who President Jimmy Carter appointed to the Philadelphia-based 3rd Circuit in 1977. 

Civil rights advocates praised Carter’s work for bringing diversity to the bench. But it was also in the words of Sherrilyn Ifill, Howard University law professor and former NAACP Legal Defense Fund director, “important for improving the legitimacy and quality of judging.”

Carter downplayed his role in the barrier-breaking pattern, saying, “The nation was ready for it.”

Yet, Carter never garnered the opportunity to fill a Supreme Court vacancy. He is the only one-term president who finished a full term without an appointment. His emphasis on appointing female and minority judges, however, may have added to the pressure on Ronald Reagan when he was running against Carter in 1980 to vow to appoint the first woman to the Supreme Court.

Reagan made the vow in October 1980, telling an audience in Los Angeles, “One of the first Supreme Court vacancies in my administration will be filled by the most qualified woman I can find.”

At the time, Carter dismissed the promise as a cynical ploy for votes, saying, “Equal rights for women involves more than just one job for one woman.”

A few months after Reagan claimed the White House in 1981, he made good on his promise and nominated Sandra Day O’Connor.

The second woman, named by President Bill Clinton in 1993, was Ginsburg, Carter’s earlier appellate court choice.

 The Miami Dolphins downgraded quarterback Tua Tagovailoa to doubtful for Sunday's game against the Cleveland Browns with a hip injury.

Tagovailoa initially suffered the injury during the Dolphins' loss to the Houston Texans in Week 15, but he was able to finish the game and play in the team's win over the San Francisco 49ers in Week 16.

He downplayed the injury earlier this week, describing it as typical wear and tear at this point of the season.

"I mean, it's good. It's just like anyone else on the team and anyone else around the league," Tagovailoa said Thursday when asked how his hip felt. "You get banged up little bit towards the ending of the year, so just got to take care of that."

Tagovailoa was limited in every Dolphins practice this week and was initially listed as questionable to play Sunday.

Tagovailoa suffered a compound hip fracture during his final season at Alabama in 2019 that put his playing career in jeopardy.

He was cleared in time to play his rookie season; this would be the first instance of him missing an NFL game with a hip injury.

The next two weeks are critical for the Dolphins, who can secure a third consecutive playoff berth if they win both games, they finish with a better record than the Indianapolis Colts, and the Denver Broncos lose both of their remaining games.

If Tagovailoa cannot play Sunday, Tyler Huntley would start at quarterback for the Dolphins, with Skylar Thompson serving as the primary backup. Huntley started three games for Miami this season, resulting in a win and two losses.

In those three starts, he completed 59% of his passes for 377 yards, 1 touchdown and 1 interception.

This would be a return of sorts to Cleveland for Huntley, who signed with the Browns as a free agent in March but was released in August. Miami signed Huntley off Baltimore's practice squad in September after Tagovailoa suffered the third documented concussion of his NFL career.

 The Jeju Air plane that crashed in southwestern South Korea was a Boeing 737-800, a model that is used widely around the world.

There are about 28,000 passenger planes in service globally, according to Cirium, an aviation data provider. About 15 percent, or 4,400, are Boeing 737-800s. The plane belongs to the company’s Next-Generation 737 family of jets, the precursor to the more modern 737 Max, which was involved in two fatal accidents more than five years ago that led to a global grounding of the Max fleet.

Nearly 200 airlines use the 737-800, according to Cirium, including five in South Korea: Jeju Air, T’way Air, Jin air, Eastar Jet and Korean Air. The plane is popular in Asia, Europe and North America, and Boeing has delivered about 5,000 to customers since 1998.

“The plane in question is very safe and has a good safety record,” said Najmedin Meshkati, a professor of engineering at the University of Southern California who has studied the safety history of the Boeing 737 line.

The age of the global fleet of 737-800 planes ranges from about 5 years old to more than 27 years old. A well-maintained passenger jet can fly 20 to 30 years or even longer. According to the flight tracking website Flightradar24, the plane that crashed was 15 years old. Ryanair in Europe was the first airline to operate the aircraft, which was leased to Jeju Air in 2017 by SMBC Aviation Capital, according to Cirium.

Officials said they were investigating the cause of the crash, including the possibility that a bird strike led to a landing gear malfunction.

Boeing said in a statement on Sunday that it was in contact with Jeju Air and was ready to help the airline.

Bird strikes are not uncommon in aviation. In some cases, they have resulted in cracked windshields. Some airports deploy falcons and take other measures to keep their skies clear of birds. Muan International Airport, where the crash occurred, uses measures such as playing audio of distress calls to disperse birds as well as shooting them, according to the Korean Office of Civil Aviation.

Mr. Meshkati said that the landing gear of the 737-800 line is well designed and has a history of reliability, though poor upkeep could result in it not deploying correctly. “Maintenance is really one of the most important causes of aviation accidents,” he said.

But Mr. Meshkati and other aviation experts cautioned against rushing to judgment about such incidents. Crashes are often caused by multiple factors, which can take years to uncover through in-depth investigations.

 The office of New York’s attorney general released body camera footage Friday showing the fatal beating of a state prisoner this month by correctional officers who punched and kicked him repeatedly while he was handcuffed on an infirmary bed.

The incident, which has drawn outrage from political leaders and was condemned by the officers’ union as “incomprehensible,” is being investigated by state Attorney General Letitia James. The inmate, Robert Brooks, 43, died in the hospital a day after the Dec. 9 attack.

“I do not take lightly the release of this video, especially in the middle of the holiday season,” James said at a virtual news conference.

“These videos are shocking and disturbing,” she added.

Brooks can be seen in the videos with his hands cuffed behind his back. In one video, he is sitting up as an officer presses his foot down on him. He is then punched by two officers.

At another point, he is forcefully yanked from the bed by his shirt collar and held up above the ground, his face visibly bloodied.

Last week, Gov. Kathy Hochul ordered the state Department of Corrections and Community Supervision to begin the process of firing 14 workers at the Marcy Correctional Facility in Oneida County, where the incident occurred. They include correctional officers, sergeants and a prison nurse. In the interim, all have been suspended without pay, except for one officer, who already resigned.

In a statement following the release of the videos, Daniel Martuscello, the commissioner of the state corrections department, said his office has launched its own investigation in an effort to bring “institutional change.”

Watching the video evidence of Robert Brooks’ life being taken left me feeling deeply repulsed and nauseated,” Martuscello said. “There is no excuse and no rationalization for a vulgar, inhumane act that senselessly took a life. This type of behavior cannot be normalized, and I will not allow it to be within DOCCS.”

James said the officers had not activated their body cameras, but they were still on and recorded in standby mode. As a result, she added, they did not capture audio and only recorded for 30 minutes.

Her office released the entirety of the four officers’ videos, which included some blurring.

On Dec. 9, James said, Brooks was being transferred from the Mohawk Correctional Facility, also in Oneida County, to Marcy Correctional Facility. The events unfolded in a medical exam room before 9:30 p.m. Brooks was carried into the room hanging upside down with his hands handcuffed behind his back, one video shows.

Without audio, it’s unclear what words were exchanged between Brooks and the officers. While he does not appear to physically retaliate in the footage, the videos present different angles, and at times it’s unclear what is happening to Brooks as officers move and stand around the room.

After the officers yank Brooks from the bed, he is brought to a corner. Later, he is seen on the bed wearing only his underwear and being tended to by the nurse.

Brooks was taken to the hospital and died the following day. An autopsy was conducted, and “preliminary findings show concern for asphyxia due to compression of the neck as the cause of death, as well as the death being due to actions of another,” according to a state corrections office investigative report obtained by NBC affiliate WKTV in Utica.

In the wake of the initial media reports, James said her Office of Special Investigation would conduct a review and make the video public after Brooks’ family viewed it first.

“I have a responsibility and duty to provide the Brooks family, their loved ones and all New Yorkers with transparency and accountability,” she said Friday.

Brooks had been imprisoned since 2017 on a 12-year sentence for first-degree assault involving a longtime girlfriend. State corrections officials declined to detail what led Brooks to be transferred to the Marcy Correctional Facility, a medium-security prison, that night.

The New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday, but the union has previously said it viewed parts of the videos.

“What we witnessed is incomprehensible to say the least and is certainly not reflective of the great work that the vast majority of our membership conducts every day,” the union said in a statement this week, adding what transpired is the “opposite of everything NYSCOPBA and its membership stand for.”

Hochul said in a statement that the “vast majority” of correctional officers “do extraordinary work under difficult circumstances,” but “we have no tolerance for individuals who cross the line, break the law and engage in unnecessary violence or targeted abuse.”

Martuscello said the agency has expanded its body camera policy effective immediately, requiring all corrections officers to have their cameras activated any time they are engaging directly with inmates.

The Correctional Association of New York, an independent prison oversight group, released a report last year after monitoring the Marcy Correctional Facility in October 2022. The report noted complaints of “rampant” physical abuse by staff members, with 80% of incarcerated people reporting having witnessed or experienced abuse and nearly 70% reporting racial discrimination or bias.

Brooks’ family thanked Hochul in a statement this week for taking action “to hold officers accountable.”

The Mega Millions' estimated $1.22 billion jackpot was won in Friday night's drawing, with the winning ticket purchased in California.

The winning numbers drawn on Tuesday were 3, 7, 37, 49, 55 with a gold Mega Ball of 6. The Megaplier was 3X.

The grand prize in Friday's drawing was the fifth-largest prize in the game's history.

In addition to the jackpot, four players — two in California and one each in Arizona, Missouri and Texas — matched all five white balls to win $1 million.

The estimated $1.22 billion grand prize carries a one-time cash payout option of $549.7 million.

Winners typically select the cash prize rather than the annuity paid out as one immediate payment followed by 29 annual payments.

The odds of winning the grand prize are 1 in 302,575,350.

The odds of winning the grand prize are 1 in 302,575,350. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images / Getty Images)

Before Friday's drawing, the Mega Millions jackpot was last won on September 10, when a player in Texas matched all six numbers to take home the $810 million prize, which is the eighth-largest jackpot in the game's history.

The record Mega Millions jackpot of $1.602 billion was won in Florida on Aug. 8, 2023. That prize is the world’s third-largest lottery ever won on a single ticket, just behind two Powerball winning tickets of $2.04 billion and $1.765 billion, both of which were won in California in 2022 and 2023, respectively.

The grand prize in Friday's drawing was the fifth-largest prize in the game's history. ((Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images) / Getty Images)

The next drawing will be held on Tuesday, when players will attempt to win the estimated $20 million grand prize, which carries a cash option of $9 million.

Mega Millions is played in 45 states as well as Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The deadline for purchasing a ticket is 9:45 p.m. on the night of the Tuesday and Friday draws.