New York City in brief

Work on the $16 billion Gateway tunnel linking New Jersey and Manhattan—a project meant to unclog America’s busiest rail corridor—will halt Friday, as a federal funding freeze instigated under Donald Trump persists. Local officials and the Gateway Development Commission have sued to unlock $205 million, while commuters and some 1,000 soon-to-be-idled workers gamely await either government largesse or divine intervention, whichever comes first.

A Manhattan federal judge ordered the Trump administration to thaw funds for the $16 billion Gateway project, reigniting work on Hudson River tunnels essential to Amtrak and NJ Transit. New York and New Jersey had sued, arguing Trump’s freeze—part of a row with Democrats—imperiled jobs and commuters. Meanwhile, the White House apparently dangled funding in exchange for renaming Penn Station, proving even infrastructure can pick up some baggage.

New York prepares to grit its teeth as an arctic blast barrels through all five boroughs this weekend, bringing the city's coldest temperatures in three years and wind gusts up to 50 mph, according to Spectrum News. Authorities warn of subzero wind chills, potential power outages, and travel snags through Monday—though we can at least console ourselves that a thaw, like a subway train, is scheduled to arrive eventually.

With real-feel temperatures set to hit minus 20 in New York City this weekend, Mayor Zohran Mamdani has ordered a flurry of cold-weather interventions: school nurses on outreach duty, 62 warming sites, and even violence interrupters pressed into meteorological service. Seventeen have already succumbed since January’s “code blue” began. We trust New Yorkers will judge the mayor’s “all hands on deck” approach slightly warmer than the forecast.

A New York City report found nearly 3,200 supportive apartments for the homeless—mostly state-run—sitting vacant, even as about 87,000 people crowded shelters and at least 17 died outdoors this winter. Officials and advocates urge streamlining red tape and fixing unused units, but bureaucratic inertia persists; apparently, even in America’s busiest city, paperwork still moves at glacial pace while people freeze.