UN Slams ‘Monstrous Indifference’ To Children’s Suffering In Syria

Flouting demands for Syria ceasefires shows a “monstrous indifference” to the suffering of millions of children needing a respite from violence, a top UN rights official said Tuesday.

A resolution adopted by the United Nations Security Council two weeks ago calling for a 30-day ceasefire across Syria has been broadly ignored, with attacks increasing on the rebel enclave of Eastern Ghouta.

Kate Gilmore, the UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights, called for immediate action to help children caught in the fighting.

In an address to the UN Human Rights Council, she voiced particular concern for the some 125,000 children trapped in Eastern Ghouta, “many acutely malnourished, most profoundly traumatised.”

“What is happening to those children is too graphic for our TV screens, but not graphic enough it seems to motivate those who can stop the senseless violence to do so,” she said.
“Is it not tantamount to a monstrous indifference to the suffering of children that Security Council resolutions for ceasefires are flouted?” she asked.

More than 350,000 people have been killed in Syria’s devastating seven-year conflict, according to fresh figures released from the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights Monday.

Panos Moumtzis, the UN’s top humanitarian official for Syria, said Tuesday that 2017 was “the deadliest year of the Syrian war for children.”

“Sadly, 2018 started really in a terrible way as well,” he told reporters, adding that in the first two months of the year, “more than 1,000 children were either reported killed or injured through the violence in multiple locations.”

A full two-thirds of Syria’s 8.4 million children need humanitarian assistance, while one million of them live in areas that are difficult to reach by aid convoys and 170,000 in besieged areas, according to UN figures.

“The scope, the scale, the gravity of the crimes against the children of Syria are just shocking,” Gilmore told reporters, lamenting that the international community had “failed by every known measure and that should shake us to the core of our humanity.”

Asked what hope there was the situation in Syria would improve, she answered with a shaking voice that “hope has long left.”

“This is a story no longer of hope. This is a story now of accountability and responsibility,” she said.

“Those responsible should know that we do not stand idly by, only wringing passive hands,” she said, stressing that “those responsible for these war crimes and crimes against humanity are being identified, the chain of evidence is being preserved, dossiers are being built up for their prosecution.”

US and China Could Be Closer to a Hot War Than You Think

US-China relations suffered a double blow over the past week in the shape ofPresident Trump’s steel tariffs and China’s lurch to one-man rule. The growing danger? A trade war could turn into a real one, Gideon Rachman argues in the Financial Times.

“As the two countries slide towards confrontation over trade, territory and ideology, so the sense of grievance on both sides is likely to increase. The Chinese and American presidents are both nationalists who frequently stoke feelings of wounded national pride. Mr Trump has claimed the world is laughing at America and that China has raped the US. [Xi Jinping] has promised to preside over a ‘great rejuvenation’ of the Chinese people — that will finally bury the ‘century of humiliation’ that began in 1839, when the country was invaded and partially colonized,” Rachman writes.

“In the pre-Xi era, Chinese leaders and academics liked to stress the mutual dependence between their country and the US. The conventional argument was that China’s rapid development was taking place in the context of a US-dominated world — and therefore there was little point in challenging America. But this Chinese version of liberal internationalism is no longer common in Beijing. More recently, Chinese intellectuals have begun to argue that ‘the US-led world order is a suit that no longer fits…’”

Team Trump Tried a New Diplomatic Trick. It Worked

The Trump administration did something unusual with its North Korea diplomacy, and isn’t getting the credit it deserves for doing so, argues Kori Schake in The Atlantic. It got out of the way.
 
“[F]or an administration that has not distinguished itself in supporting America’s allies, it has let South Korea take the lead and have the limelight. The administration allowed South Korea to determine whether scheduled US-South Korea military exercises would occur around the time of the Olympics. It was South Korea who brokered the deal with North Korea. It was South Korea standing in front of cameras at the White House announcing the president’s acceptance,” Schake writes.
 
“It would certainly have been a stronger message had the president or the national-security adviser been standing next to America’s South Korean allies when they made the announcement, but it still merits notice that an administration often tin-eared to allied concerns allowed itself to be guided by an ally’s initiative.”

• Iran’s leaders won’t be the only ones interested in whether President Trump tears up the nuclear deal. Kim Jong Un will be watching closely, too, writes Daniel Larison in The American Conservative.

“The post-deal treatment of Iran is hardly a ringing endorsement of the benefits of making an agreement with the US and its allies. Trump wants to renege on the deal anyway because it did not force Iran’s complete surrender. That bodes ill for what Trump thinks a ‘good deal’ with North Korea would look like. Once the US reneges on the JCPOA, North Korea will have another very big reason not to trust any US promises made during negotiations with them.”

May Needs to Take Away the Welcome Mat

British Prime Minister Theresa May told the country’s Parliament on Monday that Russia was “highly likely” behind the poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal. Oliver Bullough writes for The Guardian that it’s time for Britain to get Moscow’s attention. That means hitting wealthy Russians where it hurts.   “Poisoning one ex-spy in Britain might be a one-off, an exceptional act of retribution. But if the Kremlin has poisoned a second ex-spy in Britain, that looks like a policy,” Bullough writes.   “If US assistance is not forthcoming, the government needs to work with our European allies. It is a shame that so much of our diplomatic capital has been squandered on Brexit, instead of being held back for something important.   “But acting alone is still possible. South-east England is a favorite playground of rich Russians. They keep their houses here, their children here, they float their companies on our stock exchange and they don’t make a secret of it. You’re not rich in Russia without being friends with Putin – in fact, there is a remarkably close correlation between the two groups – so if May’s government wants to send a message to the Russian president, it could cancel the visas of the members of his inner circle and, perhaps, try out the potency of its new ‘unexplained wealth orders,’ by freezing their property. Then it should dismantle the mechanisms with which they launder their money.”

It’s Getting Hot Up There

The Arctic is one of the least regulated places on the planet – and one of the richest in untapped natural resources. As the climate heats up, so is the great power race to exploit those resources, notes Kristina Spohr in the New Statesman.   “There is an enormous amount at stake. In 2008, the US Geological Survey estimated that the Arctic holds 13 percent of the world’s undiscovered oil, and 30 per cent of its natural gas. That is worth about £12 trillion (about $17 trillion) in today’s prices, roughly equivalent to the entire US economy. In other words, the prospect of an unfrozen Arctic Ocean opens up the remarkable riches of the North Pole,” Spohr writes.   Leading the charge? China and Russia. “As the climate changes, its ice-scape will become a seascape. And a region that did not belong to anybody will be divvied up – through co-operation or conflict, or perhaps a mixture of both. What may prove to be the new world order – a new multipolar system of international politics – is taking shape there, as Russia and China seek to challenge an American hegemony that, in their view, has lasted for too long. “Both think big. But Xi’s China has far deeper pockets and operates with much greater diplomatic shrewdness than Putin’s Russia. This combination of vision, money and finesse is nowhere to be seen in the Western world – certainly not in Trump’s Washington.”

Sorry, That Username Is Taken. Please Try Again…

France’s far-right National Front is rebranding. The problem? Its new name,Rassemblement National (National Rally), “carries echoes of a dark past,” James McAuley reports for the Washington Post. A Nazi past, to be precise.   “Like other Nazi-allied parties during World War II, the ‘Rassemblement National Populaire’ saw the war — and the experience of occupation — as a chance to cleanse and purify France from within. It was no stranger to overt anti-Semitism and open admiration for Nazi Germany. “The party used a logo featuring elements of the Nazi swastika, displayed on a similar red backdrop. One of the earliest members of the ‘Populaire,’ Roland Gaucher, went on to co-found the National Front with Jean-Marie Le Pen.”

House Republicans break with intelligence community on Russia

Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee reached an opposite conclusion Monday from the intelligence community they oversee, announcing that Russian President Vladimir Putin was not trying to help Donald Trump win the 2016 election.

The Republicans also said they found no evidence that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia and that they are shutting down their yearlong investigation.

Their viewpoint -- which perfectly aligns with Trump's view on election meddling -- will be met with sharp disagreement by Democrats and is bound to inflame partisan tensions on a committee that's been beleaguered by partisanship throughout its Russia probe.

Trump seized on the news Monday evening, tweeting about it in all capital letters.

"THE HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE HAS, AFTER A 14 MONTH LONG IN-DEPTH INVESTIGATION, FOUND NO EVIDENCE OF COLLUSION OR COORDINATION BETWEEN THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN AND RUSSIA TO INFLUENCE THE 2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION," he said.

Donald J. Trump

✔@realDonaldTrump

THE HOUSE INTELLIGENCE COMMITTEE HAS, AFTER A 14 MONTH LONG IN-DEPTH INVESTIGATION, FOUND NO EVIDENCE OF COLLUSION OR COORDINATION BETWEEN THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN AND RUSSIA TO INFLUENCE THE 2016 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION.

1:49 AM - Mar 13, 2018

• 105K
• 84.9K people are talking about this

Twitter Ads info and privacy

The Republican decision to end the House Russia investigation comes as special counsel Robert Mueller's probe appears to be accelerating.

Rep. Mike Conaway, the Texas Republican leading the Russia investigation, said Monday that the committee had concluded its interviews for the Russia investigation, and the Republican staff had prepared a 150-page draft report that they would give to Democrats to review on Tuesday morning.

The committee Republicans said Russians did meddle in the elections to sow chaos, but they disagreed with the intelligence community's assessment that they sought to help Trump.

"We found no evidence of collusion, and so we found perhaps some bad judgment, inappropriate meetings," Conaway said. "We found no evidence of any collusion of anything people were actually doing other than taking a meeting they shouldn't have taken or just inadvertently being in the same building."

Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the committee, slammed the Republican decision to end the investigation.

"While the majority members of our committee have indicated for some time that they have been under great pressure to end the investigation, it is nonetheless another tragic milestone for this Congress, and represents yet another capitulation to the executive branch," Schiff said in a statement. "By ending its oversight role in the only authorized investigation in the House, the Majority has placed the interests of protecting the President over protecting the country, and history will judge its actions harshly."

The Senate Intelligence Committee is forging ahead with its investigation into Russian election meddling. But Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr told CNN on Monday that he had not yet seen any evidence of collusion or to substantiate the intelligence community's assessment that Putin was trying to help Trump win, though he said the committee was still investigating and had not reached conclusions on either matter.

"I've read a lot about it, but I haven't seen any" evidence of collusion, Burr said.

Asked about repeated efforts by Russians to coordinate with the Trump campaign, Burr said: "It's collusion on part of the Russians, I guess, but not the Trump campaign."

Burr would not say if he agreed with the Intelligence Community's assessment that Putin tried to help Trump, calling it simply "a 30-day snapshot."

"I don't think we've seen anything that would substantiate that to this point," Burr said.

In the House, Democrats say there are still scores of witnesses the committee should call, and argue that Republicans have failed to use subpoenas to obtain documents and require witnesses to answer questions that are central to the investigation.

Conaway told reporters that he feels the committee has investigated all avenues it needed to probe, and he argued that the panel would not have been able to obtain the information Democrats were seeking had they gone the route of subpoenaing witnesses or trying to hold them in contempt.

Conaway, for instance, said the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting between senior campaign officials and a Russian lawyer where dirt on Clinton was promised was "ill-advised." But he said that the committee did not turn up any evidence of collusion, arguing the promoter who organized the meeting had exaggerated what the Russians would provide.

The committee's report will conclude that they agree with 98% of the intelligence community's January 2017 assessment that Russia meddled in the 2016 election, according to a committee aide.

But the panel's Republicans take issue with the key finding that Putin was trying get Trump elected.

"Bottom line: Russians did commit active measures against our elections in '16, and we think they'll do that in the future," Conaway said. "It's clear they sowed discord in our elections. ... But we couldn't establish the same conclusions the CIA did that they specifically wanted to help Trump."

A summary of the committee's initial findings states that the committee found "concurrence with the Intelligence Community Assessment's judgments, except with respect to Putin's supposed preference for candidate Trump."

James Clapper, who was Director of National Intelligence in the Obama administration when the assessment was released, said he disagreed, noting that US intelligence found Putin had deep animus toward Clinton and saw Trump as more friendly toward Russia.

"I obviously disagree. The four intelligence chiefs all agreed with the assessment, which was based on highly classified intelligence," Clapper told CNN. "This is a case of people living in their own reality bubbles when we can't agree on basic facts."

The committee's Russia investigation included interviews with 73 witnesses and a review of roughly 300,000 pages of documents, Conaway said. They included key figures like Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and Steve Bannon, but Democrats have argued that those witnesses failed to fully provide documents or answer important questions.

But Conaway said that Republicans would not hold Bannon in contempt of Congress for failing to answer questions beyond what was authorized by the White House, despite threats to do so just several days ago. Conaway said such efforts -- and issuing subpoenas to other witnesses as Democrats demanded -- would be a fruitless endeavor.

"You use subpoenas when you think you can actually get something from them," Conaway said. "We're not too confident that the subpoena process would get us any more information than we have."

Conaway said he hopes that Democrats can work with Republicans on the draft report, and he wants to take their feedback as they shape the final report. He declined to put a timeline on when the report would be made public, as the committee intends to submit it to the intelligence community for declassification beforehand.

Conaway said Democrats will agree with some elements of the report, such as the social media interference, but he acknowledged they'd take issue with others.

It's widely expected Democrats will draft their own report that argues a case for collusion, as well as spells out all the avenues the committee did not investigate.

In addition to subpoenas and witnesses, Democrats have long raised issues about looking into Trump's finances, something the committee had not probed. Conaway said he saw no "link" between Trump's finances and the committee's investigation, and he did not want to go on a fishing expedition.

The Republican report will also say how "anti-Trump research" made its way from Russian sources to the Clinton campaign through the opposition research dossier on Trump and Russia. Conaway, however, stopped short of saying there was "collusion" between Clinton's campaign and the Russians, something the President has alleged.

The end of the Russia interviews is only the latest battleground on the House Intelligence Committee, which has been consumed by partisan fights for the better part of a year, from Chairman Devin Nunes' role in the investigation and more recently over competing memos about alleged surveillance abuses at the FBI during the Obama administration.

Several Republicans on the panel have been signaling for several weeks now that they're ready for the Russia investigation to wrap up, arguing that Democrats are trying to extend the probe into the campaign season.

"To me, I don't see anything else that's out there that hasn't been explored," Rep. Pete King, a New York Republican, told CNN last week.

But Democrats say the committee has raced through its final interviews, while allowing witnesses to pick and choose which questions they answer.

The committee issued a subpoena to former White House chief strategist Bannon in January, but in his return testimony he still did not answer questions about his time in the White House.

Democrats also sought subpoenas for the committee's last two witnesses, outgoing White House communications director Hope Hicks and former Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, but Republicans did not issue them.

"There are a number of steps that I think any credible investigator would say, 'These need to be done,' and we still hope that they will be," Schiff said following Lewandowski's interview last week.

Conaway downplayed the partisan tensions on the committee, saying he and Schiff have "powered through" the issues. He noted that since he took over the Russia probe for Nunes in April 2017, he has not visited the White House or spoken to the President.

In the Senate, the Judiciary and Intelligence Committees are still investigating Russia's alleged 2016 election meddling.

There are still two committees in the Senate that are investigating Russia's 2016 election meddling: the Senate Intelligence and Judiciary committees.

Still, only the Senate Intelligence Committee appears to be pushing forward at full speed on its probe, as Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley is preparing to release transcripts of the committee's interviews with participants of the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting -- a potential sign the committee is done investigating that matter.

The Senate Intelligence Committee is preparing to put out recommendations and hold a hearing on election security this month. Burr has said he's separating out the election security issues for the 2018 primary season while the committee continues to investigate questions about collusion and the 2016 election.

China clears way for Xi Jinping to rule for life

China's largely ceremonial parliament on Sunday overwhelmingly endorsed a controversial change to the country's constitution, paving the way for President Xi Jinping to stay in power indefinitely.

Inside Beijing's Great Hall of the People, nearly 3,000 delegates to the National People's Congress (NPC) cast their ballots on a series of proposed amendments -- including removing the restriction that had limited the presidency to two consecutive five-year terms.

Out of 2,964 ballots, just two delegates voted against the move and three abstained, suggesting minimal opposition to Xi's push to rule for life. The amendments' passage required two thirds of the vote, which was a largely symbolic exercise.

The ruling Communist Party announced the proposals on February 25 and, amid a backlash in some quarters, has justified the change as a necessity to align the presidency with Xi's two other, more powerful, posts -- heads of the party and the military -- that have no term limits.

The English-language China Daily newspaper lashed out at Western criticism of the term-limit move, calling detractors malicious "naysayers."

"They revel in their ignorance of China's reality and hold fast to their mean, even malicious predisposition toward China's political system out of their irrational, subjective and unprofessional ideological bias," the paper said in an editorial published late Sunday.

The 64-year-old Xi, already hailed as the most powerful Chinese leader since Mao Zedong, last week gave a ringing endorsement to the proposed constitutional changes, calling them a reflection of the "common will of the party and the people."

But some critics say the move is not only against the public interest but also makes Xi politically vulnerable in the long run.

"He just dug a huge hole for himself," said Li Datong, a former editor of the state-run China Youth Daily newspaper and one of the few voices of open opposition.

"The top leader's term limits are the biggest common denominator shared by all political forces in China," he said. "Its removal could trigger political infighting -- that's why this move is dangerous."

However, when asked about a potential power struggle, Shen Chunyao, a senior NPC official, dismissed such concerns.

"I don't think this issue exists," he said at a post-vote press conference.

Brazen step

Since the amendment to scrap presidential term limits also applies to the vice presidency, many analysts see growing signs of the hitherto ceremonial position going to one of Xi's most trusted lieutenants.

Wang Qishan, China's fearsome former anti-corruption czar, is likely to become the new vice president later this week and be given major responsibilities, allowing the two men to join hands again to rule China for years to come.

China watchers say the brazen step toward life-long tenure for Xi demonstrates his character.

"He's a bit of bulldozer -- and there's no other senior politician who could or want to stand up to him," said Duncan Innes-Ker, regional director for Asia at the Economist Intelligence Unit.

"The trouble with being the clear leader of everything is that everyone knows where the buck stops if something goes wrong."

Another major constitutional change approved Sunday was the creation of an all-powerful national anti-corruption agency, regarded by many as equally significant as the removal of term limits in its impact on Chinese politics.

White House proposes arming teachers, backpedals on raising age to buy guns

The Trump administration on Sunday night proposed providing some school personnel with "rigorous" firearms training and backed a bill to improve criminal background checks on gun buyers, but backpedaled on the idea of increasing the minimum age to buy certain firearms -- a policy President Donald Trump had said he would support.

The proposals, which come more than three weeks after the Parkland, Florida, school shooting, also include a plan to establish a commission chaired by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos that will recommend policy and funding proposals for school violence prevention, including possible age restrictions on some firearms purchases. The commission does not have a set timeline of when it will report its findings, although an official said it would be within one year.

"Today we are announcing meaningful actions, steps that can be taken right away to help protect students," DeVos said Sunday.

"Far too often the focus has been only on the most contentious fights -- the things that have divided people and sent them into their entrenched corners," she continued. "But the plan that we're going to advance and talk about is a pragmatic plan to dramatically increase school safety and to take steps to do so right away."

The announcement of the commission comes less than a day after Trump criticized blue-ribbon committees at a rally in Pennsylvania, saying, "We can't just keep setting up blue-ribbon committees," adding that they do nothing but "talk, talk, talk."

Administration officials stressed the necessity of the new commission when asked why Trump said such committees were ineffective, saying there is "very cogent argument for having a commission."

Hardening school security

Officials announced that the administration will work with states on what they called "rigorous" firearms training for "specially qualified" school personnel on a voluntary basis, including leveraging Department of Justice assistance to give school personnel firearm training from state and local law enforcement agencies, the administration announced.

Trump first floated the idea of arming teachers and school officials after the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School last month -- an idea that was met with immediate criticism.

The administration also plans to support the transition of military veterans and retired law enforcement into new careers in education and will encourage state attorneys general to audit school districts for compliance with state emergency preparedness activities.

Federal agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, also will partner with states and local governments to support a public awareness campaign modeled on the department's "see something, say something" anti-terrorism campaign to encourage the awareness and reporting of suspicious activity, the administration announced.

Background checks and prevention measures

The administration is backing the "Fix NICS" bill introduced by Sen. John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, and Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, which intends to improve the information going into the National Instant Criminal Background Check System by offering financial incentives to federal and state authorities to comply with existing law to report criminal history records.

The bill would hold federal agencies accountable if they fail to upload records to the background check system.

Further, the administration voiced support for legislation dubbed the "STOP School Violence Act," which would provide states with funding for training, technology and other assistance to help schools identify and prevent violent acts.

The Trump administration also called on states to adopt "extreme risk protection orders," with technical assistance from the Department of Justice. The orders would allow law enforcement officers, with approval from a court, to remove firearms from those who pose a threat to themselves or others and temporarily to prevent individuals from purchasing new firearms.

Trump will direct the Justice Department to provide assistance to states, only at their request, on establishing and implementing the orders, officials said.

Mental health measures

Trump is proposing an expansion and overhaul of mental health programs, including those that help identify and treat those who may be a threat to themselves or others, the administration announced.

The President is proposing increased integration of mental health, primary care, and family services, as well as support for programs that utilize court-ordered treatment.

Trump is also calling for a review of the statutory and regulatory privacy protections to determine if any changes or clarifications are needed to improve coordination between mental health and other health care professionals, school officials, and law enforcement personnel.

Commission on school violence

Trump's proposed Federal Commission on School Safety aims to develop a process to evaluate and make recommendations on school safety, the administration said.

The commission plans to focus on several areas, including age restrictions for certain firearm purchases; current entertainment rating systems; youth consumption of violent entertainment; best practices for school building and campus security and threat assessment and violence prevention; plans for integration and coordination of federal resources to help prevent and mitigate shootings at schools; and opportunities to improve access to mental health treatment, including through efforts to raise awareness of mental illness and the effectiveness of treatment.

The Wall Street Journal previously reported some of the details of the expected announcement, citing White House officials who had been briefed on the proposal.

The administration is already moving ahead with a proposal to ban bump fire stocks, devices that allow semiautomatic weapons to fire at a more rapid rate, as Attorney General Jeff Sessions has vowed to do. The Justice Department has submitted a proposed regulation to the Office of Management and Budget for review to prohibit their sale by classifying them as machine guns under federal law.

A Republican congressman with a high ranking from the National Rifle Association, who declined to be named to avoid alienating various constituencies, said the administration's proposals are "a missed opportunity and fails to honor the victims and survivors of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School."

The lawmaker, who strongly favors increasing the minimum age to buy assault-style weapons, said he thinks Trump "has abandoned his instincts on the issue of gun safety policies," adding that he thinks the proposal is "weak."

While the congressman says the recommendations for congressional actions would be "a small, positive first step," he said he believes they are "insufficient."

Five dead, pilot is sole survivor of helicopter crash in NYC's East River

The pilot of a helicopter that went down in New York's East River Sunday is the sole survivor of the crash, after all five passengers died, authorities say.

Three of the passengers had been taken to hospital with critical injuries after surviving the crash, but the New York City Fire Department confirmed their deaths early Monday.

The sixth person on the helicopter, the pilot, was able to free himself and was rescued, FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro said earlier. He was taken to the hospital for observation.

"One of the most difficult parts of the rescue were that five people were tightly harnessed," Nigro said. "People had to be cut out."

Nigro and NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill spoke to reporters Sunday evening.

In an audio recording of a mayday call to LaGuardia Airport, the pilot can be heard saying that the helicopter was experiencing engine failure.

The Liberty Helicopters chopper had been chartered for a private photo shoot, authorities said.

Liberty Helicopters

Liberty Helicopters describes itself on its website as "the largest and most experienced helicopter sightseeing and charter service in New York City."

The company has "a fleet of 10 state-of-the-art Airbus helicopters (formerly American Eurcopter)," according to the website. "We have been in business and flying safely for over 30 years," the website says.

This is the company's third crash in 11 years, according to CNN affiliate WABC-TV. In August 2009, nine people were killed after a helicopter and a small, private plane crashed into each other over the Hudson river. Investigators said the helicopter was flying too high.

Two years before that, in July 2007, a Liberty sightseeing chopper carrying eight people dropped into the Hudson river. An off-duty paramedic on board helped everyone escape, WABC reports.

The Federal Aviation Administration said earlier Sunday on Twitter that the helicopter went down in the river near Roosevelt Island at 7 p.m. ET. The FAA identified it as a Eurocopter AS350.

The helicopter was upside-down and submerged when emergency responders reached it, authorities said.

Police said the chopper was in the water around 23rd Street and called for a barge with a crane to pull it out.

Crash investigation

The National Transportation Safety Board will determine probable cause of the incident, the FAA said. The NTSB said on Twitter that an investigation team would be arriving in New York Monday morning.

When they begin their investigation, said Gary C. Robb, an aviation attorney based in Kansas City, Missouri, the NTSB will likely look at three things: the pilot's training, experience and immediate response during the crash; what, if anything, on the helicopter caused the crash; and what environmental factors may have contributed to the crash.

Robb says the NTSB would then release a preliminary report, and a probable cause accident report would follow later detailing what happened during the crash.

John J. Magers filmed the crash as it took place and posted the video on Twitter. He said he thought something was strange when he saw the helicopter flying low before it crashed into the East River, so he started shooting video.

"I saw it coming down toward the water. Thought it was unusual, but didn't expect it to crash," Magers told CNN over Instagram. "My thoughts are with those killed."