5 Big News Stories Overnight - Tuesday, March 17, 2026

NYC: Rent Control Threatens Small Landlords

Wall Street Journal reports:

Natalia Bonanno’s family has owned rent-stabilized properties in New York City since the 1980s, when her Italian immigrant father purchased the first: a 40-unit Brooklyn building that was her childhood home.

Two buildings haven’t made money in years because of recent laws limiting rent increases paired with higher mortgage rates and other rising costs. But the family hung onto them, hoping the market would improve.

Now, after Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s housing proposals to freeze rents and increase property taxes by 9.5% for all of the city’s real estate, Bonanno decided she has to sell. Though these proposals haven’t been passed, for the Bonannos, just the threat is enough.

“Reviewing all the numbers from last year, it’s not really getting better,” Bonanno said. 

New York City’s mom-and-pop landlords, once a fixture of the city’s housing landscape, are staring at extinction.

Middle East: Kurds Want a Role

France 24 reports:

Speaking to FRANCE 24 from an undisclosed location, [Abdullah] Mohtadi described the Kurds as "the most organised section of Iranian society," citing their track record in organising mass protests, the Woman, Life, Freedom movement and general strikes.

With peshmerga forces ready, he said, if "protected (and) supported enough by the United States, we can do a lot of things", adding that such a move "can be the beginning of the liberation of Iran."

Mohtadi denied receiving any foreign backing despite widespread reports of CIA and Mossad plans to arm Kurdish Iranian fighters and move them across the Iraqi border. "We have not been aided or helped by any foreign power yet," he said. He nevertheless expressed hope that Washington would "take into consideration the positive and constructive role that Kurds can play".

PHOTO: Pixoos, Abdullah Mohtadi at the Alliance for Democracy and Freedom in Iran. CC: 4.0

U.S.: Federal Judge Blocks RFK Jr.'s Childhood Vaccine Schedule

NBC News reports:

A federal judge in Massachusetts on Monday blocked Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s recent overhaul of the nation’s childhood vaccine schedule — a major blow to his vaccine agenda.

The ruling stems from a lawsuit the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and other medical groups brought against the Department of Health and Human Services, arguing that Kennedy’s changes to vaccine recommendations and to an influential vaccine advisory committee violated federal law.

U.K.: Meningitis Outbreak

Telegraph reports:

The family of a grammar school pupil who died in a meningitis outbreak have said they are “beyond devastated.”

Juliette, a sixth form pupil, died on Saturday following an outbreak of the illness among young people in Kent which has also killed a university student and put another 13 in hospital.

Her father told the BBC the family are “beyond devastated and they have no words to express their loss” as the family released a picture of her.

The family has requested her surname not be used.

The headteacher of the school Juliette attended, Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar in Faversham, described her as “incredibly kind, thoughtful and intelligent”.

Cuba: Electric Grid Collapses

Al Jazeera reports:

Cuba’s national power grid has collapsed amid an ongoing United States-imposed oil blockade on the island nation.

The collapse on Monday left the entire country of about 10 million without power, according to the Union Nacional Electrica de Cuba (UNE). The state-owned company said it was working to restore electricity flows.

It added that it was investigating what caused the “complete shutdown of the national grid”.

No oil has been imported to Cuba since January 9 amid the US pressure campaign.