Latest news with #migrantcrisis
Fox News
2 days ago
- Politics
- Fox News
NYPD chief reacts to Mamdani's stance on crime: 'We'll keep fighting to keep the city safe'
NYPD Chief John Chell joins 'Fox & Friends' to discuss the migrant crisis after his team responded to the attack on a CBP officer and NYC mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani's position on law enforcement.
Daily Mail
4 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
How New York's glitzy Roosevelt Hotel went from hosting A-listers to the face of the migrant crisis before shuttering after 100 years
Standing on the corner of Manhattan's 45th Street and Madison Avenue, The Roosevelt Hotel was once the pinnacle of New York City glitz and glamor. However, in recent years, the once–posh and presidential establishment has seen struggles like never before, leading to the announcement of its permanent closure by NYC Mayor Eric Adams in February, 2025. The iconic hotel's shutdown earlier this month came after it spent two years housing the hundreds of thousands of migrants flooding to the US during he peak of the country's immigration crisis. In 2022 Manhattan's historic Roosevelt Hotel was transformed into a shelter to house the asylum seekers in May 2023 and, over the course of the last two years, 155,000 people from 160 countries walked in and out of the hotel's doors. The situation was a far cry from the pomp and ceremony which marked the hotel's opening in 1924, in honor of President Theodore 'Teddy' Roosevelt. Set over 1025 rooms, the opulent hotel boasted a luxury fitness center and an indoor swimming pool, and even sat atop a secret tunnel system. Over the next 101 years, the establishment played host to Hollywood legends, towering literary figures such as F Scott Fitzgerald and Ernest Hemingway and influential lawmakers. In February of this year, in light of dwindling migrant numbers, Adams called time on the hotel–turned–shelter and it closed its doors for the last time in July. Now, as the Roosevelt Hotel stands empty, Daily Mail has taken a deep dive into its rich history. Grand opening and style The Roosevelt Hotel first opened its doors on September 22, 1924, after overcoming setbacks due to the 1916 Zoning Resolution – the city's first citywide zoning code, enacted to prevent massive buildings from blocking light and fresh air. The hotel cost $12 million to build, equivalent to around $226.4 million today. Named after US President Theodore 'Teddy' Roosevelt, the hotel was originally operated by New–York United Hotels Inc., but when the company went bankrupt in 1934, Roosevelt Hotels Inc. took over until 1943, when it was acquired by Hilton. In December 1925, several members of the Roosevelt family dedicated a plaque in the lobby to the late president. The memorial featured a Ding Darling cartoon that appeared in the New–York Tribune the day of the former president's death. The hotel's style and architecture was designed in honor of the 26th president. Architects George B. Post & Sons fashioned the hotel with an Italian Renaissance Revival–style façade. The group aimed to reflect the ideals of Roosevelt through its structure and building. In a nod to the president's dedication to public service, the architects envisioned the building to provide premium comfort and hospitality to visitors. Many of the architectural details were inspired by historic US buildings, according to Untapped New York. The stunning paneled walls and fluted pilasters of the hotel's primary dining hall are inspired by those in New York's City Hall. Elongated windows in the banquet hall are reminiscent of those in Annapolis's Chase House, a classic example of Georgian architecture. Other architectural features are nods to Kenmore, a colonial Virginia Mansion, and the Octagon House in Washington DC. The 19–story structure's ground floor largely contained shops, while the first floor featured the hotel lobby, dining rooms and other public areas. Hotel rooms, which there were 1,025 of, began on the third floor and spread up to the 18th floor. Several novel features made the hotel stand out from others of its kind – including a kennel for guests' pets, a child–care service and an in–house doctor. Early Years In the hotel's early years, it became known for hosting a multitude of events – from country musical recitals to car exhibits, athlete luncheons to coin displays, and even pet shows. The Roosevelt was also home to award shows of all varieties throughout the years, including the Peabody Awards and the Annual Writers Guild of America Awards - which was attended by the likes of Salma Hayek and Brad Pitt in 1998. Infamous band leader Guy Lombardo – who was responsible for making Auld Lang Syne the definitive song of New Years Eve – also began leading the house band of the Roosevelt Grill in 1929. He held an annual New Year's Eve radio broadcast at the hotel with his band, the Royal Canadians. Several Republican Party candidates and campaigns used the Roosevelt Hotel for offices and headquarters. The National Republican Congressional Committee opened an office at the hotel in 1930, and Fiorello La Guardia operated a campaign office there during the 1941 New York City mayoral election. The hotel's events ranged from country musical recitals to car exhibits, athlete luncheons to coin displays, and even pet shows. Pictured: Bill Cosby at the Roosevelt Hotel for a 'Raquet Club Dinkins Fundraiser' in 1993 Famous guests The Midtown hotel was not only popular with politicians, it had its fair share of celebrity guests. In fact, the latest star to stay the night at the historic hotel was Eva Mendes, who spent the night in the swanky Roosevelt Suite, according to the Gothamist. The Roosevelt Suite was home to American hotelier and businessman Conrad Hilton - of Hilton Hotels - while he lived in the building in the 1940s. Editor and magazine publisher Hugo Gernsback had his own room on the 18th floor where he created and recorded his very own radio station, WRNY. Not only did celebrities stay in the glamorous suites at the Roosevelt, many also filmed iconic movies within the hotel's walls. The hotel appeared in classics, such as 'The French Connection', 'Quiz Show' and 'Malcolm X'. In 'Wall Street', Michael Douglas's ruthless broker character Gordon Gekko delivered the infamous 'greed is good' speech from the Roosevelt's grand ballroom. The hotel was also used by Sacha Baron Cohen in his movie 'The Dictator' and by Martin Scorsese in his mob biopic 'The Irishman', which starred Robert De Niro and Al Pacino. Jennifer Lopez played the lead character Marisa Ventura in the 2002 RomCom 'Maid in Manhattan', which was filmed at the Roosevelt Hotel. Quirks and features The Roosevelt Hotel features all kinds of unusual qualities befitting its significance on the New York skyline. Among them is a secret passageway three levels beneath the hotel, that once connected the premises to Grand Central Terminal. The underground tunnel was created as part of Terminal City, a network of hotels and office buildings that linked to the city's train system that was designed in the early 20th century. American architectural firm Reed & Stem along with engineer William W. Wilgus envisioned Terminal City developing into a commercial center that stretched across the entire length of Park Avenue, but the plan was abandoned when World War II began in 1939. The tunnel is now closed off to the public, but Gothamist journalist Jen Carlson was shown to the secret passageway by a hotel guide in 2015. She reported being taken into a tunnel located behind closed doors – just off to the side of the hotel's lobby – that, according to hotel staff, lead all the way to Grand Central Terminal. Another quirk of the Roosevelt is its state–of–the–art kitchen – which, unlike most other hotel kitchens that are tucked away and hidden in the basement, is showcased proudly on street floor level. The kitchen is decked out with the most cutting–edge equipment for the time – including 26 gas ranges, 12 charcoal broilers, four sterilizing dishwashers, four brick ovens that each weigh 85 tons and an electric peeler. Eight different refrigerators in the kitchen separated meat, smoked meat, cheese, fish, fruit, produce, butter and milk. Closure and re–opening as shelter The Roosevelt Hotel closed on December 18, 2020, because of the coronavirus pandemic that saw occupancy rates drop significantly, causing the hotel to lose millions of dollars. Then, in May 2023, the city signed a $220 million, three–year deal with the hotel's owners – Pakistan International Airlines – to pay a nightly rate of $202 per room in order to house migrant families. A asylum–seekers from across the world poured into the US, NYC was affected profoundly with around 237,000 migrants seeking help and resources from the city. The hotel quickly became a hub of activity. The lobby became an 'arrival center', where city officials worked with migrants to connect them with legal services to apply for asylum and work permits. National Guard soldiers were scattered around the hotel, and health workers throughout the lobby screened families for diseases and offered them vaccines. The luggage room became overstuffed with migrants' belongings, and the Roosevelt's once–grand ballroom was filled with cots to accommodate overflow. The formerly–fancy hotel's transition to shelter became as divisive as the migrant crisis itself. The Roosevelt became known as 'Little Ellis Island' for its inclusivity and care of migrants from across the world. Meanwhile, Donald Trump slammed the use of the hotel as a waste of taxpayer money. In Adams's statements regarding the Roosevelt's closure in February, the mayor seemed to echo the president's sentiment, saying the city will now be able to, 'help even more asylum seekers take the next steps in their journey's while simultaneously saving taxpayers millions of dollars.' On the hotel's final day as a shelter, Adams showed up late to greet a gathering of the press and municipal employees, according to Slate. The mayor then took to the podium for a farewell speech. 'Present day may not be kind, but history will be kind,' he said. 'We have closed 62 other locations,' he informed, adding that arrivals had dropped to just 100 a week, conveniently ignoring Trump's tough–on–immigration policies. The closure of the Roosevelt Hotel – and others of its kind in Chicago and Denver – have coincided with Trump's crackdown on immigration and their messaging surrounding immigration. The administration previously characterized the Roosevelt Hotel as the headquarters of a Venezuelan gang, according to the New York Times. As the Roosevelt shut its doors to migrants for good, all that remained inside the bare hotel were deflated balloons tangled around a chandelier that once shimmered among its illustrious guests. Diapers remained stocked in the abandoned gift shop as a resource for new migrant mothers, and a map of the United States with arrows pointing to New York alongside a note handwritten in Spanish: 'You are here.'
The National
15-07-2025
- Politics
- The National
Europe's current policies won't 'stop the boats'
Greek officials this week are speaking once more of how Europe is the target of 'weaponised migration', but how far is this grave warning resonating? The contrast between what an individual migrant represents and the overarching challenge of migration flow is off the scale. Largely, these asylum seekers are desperate for a future that their homeland isn't able to provide. Many of them are indebted to their friends and family and exposed to extreme physical dangers. As a mass movement of people, the migrants are dividing Europe internally and exposing its governments to a generational challenge that they are failing to master. Instead, the continent's leaders are expected to become increasingly brutal in their literal pushback against the migrants. As Donald Trump is proving in America, the migrant crisis is a potently dominant factor in shaping politics. His methods may be met with disavowals in Europe, but the continent is starting to go down the same path as the US President. There was a stark illustration of how much hatred has leached into the debate on migration last week, when a loyalist community in Northern Ireland created a migrant boat for the top of a bonfire. These bonfires built in July celebrate the community's loyalty to the English Crown. They also give vent to whatever political hobby horse has exercised local political agitators most. The migrants arriving in the UK from across the English Channel continue to expose a loss of control that several European states are feeling over this crisis. A phenomenon of the past decade, the sight of a long boat crammed with people wearing yellow and orange life jackets – many of them fake life-savers – has become a symbol of the desperation in the hearts of everyone. Burning a migrant dingy on top of a 20-storey pile of wooden pallets becomes a talisman of extremism, bound to be repeated at scale on social media. Many of the migrants on those boats crossing the narrow and choppy English Channel will have already crossed the Mediterranean Sea. Hailing from Sudan or Eritrea, for example, they must cross the Sahara Desert and then clamour on the North African coast for the chance to get to Europe. Libya has become the pre-eminent gateway to Europe. Alongside its neighbours Tunisia and Egypt, it has seen the emergence of criminal gangs with deep networks capable of sustaining the movement of tens of thousands halfway across the Western Hemisphere. When then-US president Barack Obama decided to lead from behind in the Libyan war to overthrow the country's establishment in 2011, Britain and France stood up to spearhead the operations. Years later, the consequences of their military intervention are still unfolding as they become destinations for the fallout. Today, the North African country has an embedded divide that is not only intractable but nurtured by the links each side is making across the Mediterranean. '[Greece] is proceeding to suspend the processing of asylum applications, initially for three months, for those arriving in Greece from North Africa by sea,' said Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, just as those embers from the bonfire on the other side of the continent were dying out on Friday. No one thinks this is a line in the sand that ends the crisis. So far this year, 9,000 migrants have arrived on Crete from Libya, double last year's total. In the UK, the number of boat people so far this year has moved above 20,000 – or a 50 per cent increase in the rate of arrivals for 2024. The rate of arrivals far outpaces the ability of the authorities to respond. On the day that the UK and France last week agreed to a 'one-in, one-out' deal on migrant flows to return some of the influx, 10 boats arrived in England. A study by University of Birmingham researchers found that the sight of small boat arrivals has a direct, immediate impact on public opinion fuelling anti-migrant views. This applies not only to illegal seaborne arrivals but across the board to foreign students, EU-based migration and family reunions. The report suggests that 'highly visible irregular migration' fuels broader anxieties about even legal migration routes. Outrage directed at organised crime and talk of 'weaponised migration' are both key to understanding how popular backlash on the continent has been built up towards the migration crisis. Not only does the wealth or grotesque power of the warlord-like gang bosses register with the public, so too does the kind of warnings that Greek and Italian governments are making against authorities in Libya. In imposing ever tighter rules on migration and raising the costs of travel and settlement, European governments are following the shift in public opinion. Such is the antagonism in the relationship already that a delegation of European Commission officials was summarily thrown out of Benghazi last week, which was just the latest sign of the jockeying for alliances going on across the Mediterranean and beyond. Without a political solution in sight to the breakdown of the Libyan state, the crisis can only speed up. Burning cardboard boats as a stunt could yet be seen as a harbinger of worse to come.
Daily Mail
14-07-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
UK set to strike new deal with Iraq to return migrants faster
Yvette Cooper is set to strike a migrant returns deal with Iraq which would enable the UK to send more failed asylum seekers back. The Home Secretary is said to be in the 'final stages' of agreeing the pact to speed up cooperation between London and Baghdad. Ministers are under pressure to get a grip of the migrant crisis with 2025 on course to be a record year for small-boat crossings. More than 21,000 people have already made the perilous journey across the Channel, and Iraqi Kurds now dominate the people smuggling networks. Ms Cooper struck a deal with Iraq at the end of last year to tackle the gangs, including greater intelligence sharing and more law enforcement operations. Since then, the National Crime Agency has been working with the Kurdish authorities and says it has succeeded in targeting criminals operating in places where they thought they were 'untouchable'. But Ms Cooper hopes to strike an enhanced deal by the end of the summer to speed up cooperation between the UK and Iraq, enabling migrants to be detained and deported more quickly, The Sunday Times reported. Meanwhile, it emerged that the Government is looking at digital ID cards for migrants, so they can show if they have the right to live and work in the UK. Sir Keir Starmer will this week discuss border security with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Writing in the Sunday Express, Sir Keir said Mr Merz's visit to the UK will include talks on 'what more we can do together to prosecute criminal networks and prevent people smuggling to the UK'.
Telegraph
12-07-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
Starmer and Macron have picked an indomitable foe in Elon Musk
They didn't fix the migrant crisis, at least once you dig into the small print. They didn't end the war in Ukraine, and neither did they find a way to significantly increase trade or investment between the two countries. Still, France's President Emmanuel Macron and Britain's Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, did agree on one thing: they are going to outwit Elon Musk in one of the hottest new industries around, with a huge new investment in Eutelsat, the European challenger to Starlink. Seriously? Starmer and Macron versus Musk? There have been some unequal contests over the years, but this is off the scale. In reality, both men are simply chucking taxpayer's cash at a project that has little hope of success – and we will all be left to pick up the bill. With the arguments over asylum seekers taking up so much energy, and dominating the headlines, the one significant industrial agreement coming out of President Macron's state visit this week did not get so much attention. The Prime Minister signed up to take part in a fund raising by the French based satellite company Eutelsat. The UK will contribute £140m in fresh money, which will be enough to keep our stake of slightly over 10pc in a business that is now majority owned by the French government. The project already has a troubled history. The Johnson government invested in OneWeb, which was then taken over by Eutelsat after it ran into difficulties. But with the extra cash it will now be getting, the company and its backers are hopeful it will have a far better future. 'This investment reflects our commitment to support the development of these critical technologies and maintain an important stake in the global satellite communications sector,' said Peter Kyle, the Technology Secretary, as the deal was announced. In fairness, it is not a terrible idea. There is a big market for satellite communications, and plenty of customers might be interested in an alternative to an American owned system. With President Trump showing less and less interest in paying for European defence it looks as if the Continent will have to stump up for it itself, and it will be looking to buy domestic kit instead of always relying on the United States. Here's the problem, however: it will also have to compete with Musk's Starlink, a start-up that is already valued at more than $200bn (£148bn). In reality, competing with that emerging giant is going to prove very, very difficult. First, Starlink has a clear lead in the technology. True, satellite communications are not right at the cutting edge of science any more. Putting some kit into orbit has been fairly straightforward for many years. Even so, Starlink along with Musk's rocket company SpaceX has become a clear global leader in launching and running satellite systems reliably and at relatively low cost. Getting a system up and running and on budget, as well as offering competitive prices to customers, is a lot harder than it looks. The logistics, to put it mildly, are formidable. It is going to be very challenging for Eutelsat to keep up with that. Next, Eutelsat has a very difficult history. It was originally set up way back in 1977 as a partnership by 17 European countries to develop satellite broadcasting. It has been through number iterations since then without genuinely making a success of any of them. European cooperative ventures can be successful, as Airbus has shown, but more often than not they burn their way through a lot of government money without ever having anything very much to show for it. After all, if Eutelsat is not able to stand on its own two feet after half a century it is hard to believe that it ever will. Even worse, the business will be under the majority control of the French government, and the UK will merely be a minority shareholder. That doesn't sound like the kind of deal any self respecting investment bank would recommend accepting. In reality, Britain will be on the hook for the bills but will have little influence over how the operation is run Finally, it will be competing with Elon Musk. It would be hard enough to take the fight to Boeing or one of the traditional aerospace giants. But regardless of whether you love him or hate him – and there are plenty of people in both camps – Musk is clearly one of the smartest business tycoons in the world today. He can make quick decisions, and while a few of them go wrong, he is more often right than wrong. Musk will be able to shift with the market while the people at Eutelsat are still trying to arrange a meeting with the relevant ministers. It is hardly the best recipe for building a new business. Let's be honest about this. In one corner we have Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron, two massively unpopular politicians. In the other, we have Musk, perhaps the world's most successful serial entrepreneur in the world today. I know who I would put my money on in that contest. The Prime Minister clearly still thinks he can pick industrial winners, even though there is nothing in his past record to suggest he has the faintest clue what makes a successful business work. President Macron may have bamboozled him into getting out his chequebook. 'Thanks to our British friends as they continue to follow us on the Eutelsat adventure!' he chirped on social media, with the air of a man who has just pocketed a couple of hundred million of someone else's money. 'We're over the moon to keep going with you. Together we go further.' Maybe it will. But it is unlikely to end well – and worst of all, it is the long-suffering British taxpayer that will end up footing the bill.
