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Last year was a tough year for United Airlines passengers flying in and out of Newark Liberty International Airport. And part of the blame for delays on the ground and in the skies is due to record numbers of people traveling.

The airline was ranked third worst in on-time performance in 2019 and held four records in December for the longest delays for domestic and international flights that sat on the tarmac at Newark for over three hours, according to U.S. Department of Transportation Statistics.

Travelers who fly Frontier and JetBlue experienced the lowest on-time performance in the nation. They were ranked first and second worst last year. Newark Airport is one of Uniteds hubs.

By comparison, Delta Airlines had the second best record with 83.5% of its flights arriving on-time last year. Delta flies from Newark and Philadelphia airports.

The top spot went to Hawaiian Airlines with an 87.6%. on-time record, according to the USDOT.

A flight is considered on time if it arrives or departs within 14 minutes, 59 seconds of its scheduled time, said a USDOT spokesman.

The record passenger traffic levels at the three metro area airports that Port Authority officials cited as a positive were cited by United officials for some of the delays. United also transported record numbers of passengers, said Charles Hobart, a United spokesman.

In 2019, we flew the most revenue passengers in our history more than 163 million customers, a 2.7% year-over-year increase, he said. We set a record for the most mainline departures more than 800,000 departures, an increase of 11,000 year-over-year.

Uniteds on-time performance also takes a hit from the weather.

United is disproportionately impacted by severe weather when compared to our competitors, based on the geographic location and size of our busiest hubs particularly Newark, Hobart said. We are seeing worsening weather...2019 was the worst year in our companys history in terms (of) weather/air traffic control delay rates.

The silver lining is that the airline was number one in on-time departures at four of our seven hubs, he said. The airline has launched new tools and initiatives to better assist and inform customers when disruptions occur, Hobart said.

In December, the USDOT found that United had some of the longest delays on the tarmac lasting more than three hours for one domestic flight and three international flights from Newark. A flight to San Diego was delayed four hours and 7 minutes on Dec. 18. A United flight to Milan topped that, waiting on the ground for five hours and 32 minutes on Dec. 18.

All of those flights were delayed due to air traffic control holds due to weather, Hobart said.

Larry Higgs may be reached at lhiggs@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @commutinglarry. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

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United airlines broke 4 records in Newark last year, and they werent good ones - NJ.com

Yemens Houthi rebels have blocked half of the United Nations aid delivery programs in the war-torn country a strong-arm tactic to force the agency to give them greater control over the massive humanitarian campaign, along with a cut of billions of dollars in foreign assistance, according to aid officials and internal documents obtained by The Associated Press.

The rebel group has made granting access to areas under their control contingent on a flurry of conditions that aid agencies reject, in part because it would give the Houthis greater sway over who receives aid, documents and interviews show.

The Houthis obstruction has hindered several programs that feed the near-starving population and help those displaced by the nearly six-year civil war, a senior U.N. official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the situation.

Over 2 million beneficiaries are directly affected, the official said.

The Houthis have been pushing back against U.N. efforts to tighten monitoring of some $370 million a year that its agencies already give to government institutions controlled mostly by the rebel group, documents show. That money is supposed to pay salaries and other administration costs, but more than a third of the money spent last year wasnt audited, according to an internal document leaked to the AP.

The U.N. has largely kept quiet in public about the pressure, but behind the scenes the agency and international donors are digging in against the Houthi demands. The AP spoke to seven workers and officials from U.N. and independent agencies about the situation. All spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals. The AP also saw dozens of documents, including emails of aid officials.

In October, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, Lise Grande, sent a letter to the Houthi-appointed prime minister complaining about a long list of demands.

The overwhelming majority of them impede or delay delivery of aid and many violate humanitarian principles, she said in the letter, a copy of which was obtained by the AP.

For months, the Houthis demanded a 2 percent cut from the entire aid budget be given to them, a condition the U.N. and donors rejected. In an email, a spokesperson for the U.S. Agency for International Development said Houthi attempts to implement a tax on humanitarian assistance are unacceptable and directly contradict international humanitarian principles. The United States donated $686 million to Yemen in 2019, according to USAID.

Last week, the Houthis appeared to back off the 2 percent demand, but continue to press for other concessions, according to aid officials.

During a meeting in Brussels last Thursday, aid agencies and international donors threatened to reduce aid if Houthis continue to impose restrictions on U.N. operations in Yemen.

The situation has reached a breaking point, they said in a statement.

At least one agency, the World Food Program, is currently considering cutting back the monthly food aid it delivers to 12 million Yemenis every other month, a U.N. official said. Its unfortunate that people will suffer but this is on the Houthis, the official said. They cant use people as hostages for too long.

The Houthis demands have stoked longtime concerns among aid agencies over the rebels diverting of humanitarian funds and supplies into their own or their supporters pockets or toward their war effort.

Delivering aid in a war zone has always posed a problem for U.N agencies. But officials said the situation in Yemen has been especially challenging.

The Houthi have withheld visas and permissions for equipment and supplies and refused to grant clearances for U.N. missions to move through rebel-controlled areas. Aid workers said agency leaders past willingness to concede to some of the rebels demands emboldened the Houthi leaders to push for more.

Nearly 300,000 pregnant and nursing mothers and children under age 5 havent received nutrition supplements for more than six months because the Houthis held beneficiaries hostage to the 2 percent demand, another U.N. official said.

In another example, Houthi authorities for months delayed permission to distribute 2,000 tons of food enough to feed 160,000 people in the district of Aslam, where the AP previously found starving villagers reduced to eating boiled leaves. When approval came in November, the food had spoiled beyond the point of salvage, another aid official said.

Houthi leaders have remained defiant in the face of U.N. pushback.

Yemen will survive if agencies suspend aid, Abdul-Mohsen Tawoos, secretary-general of the Houthi agency coordinating international aid, told European donors during a Jan 20 Skype call. Minutes of the call were obtained by the AP.

He said the Houthis wanted to reach an agreement with the U.N. and its donors, but wont be bullied.

Tawoos accused Grande, the top U.N. official in Yemen, of sending false reports about Houthis restricting the movement of U.N. humanitarian operations. Houthi leaders have threatened to expel her from the country.

The U.N.s massive aid program, totaling $8.35 billion dollars since 2015, is vital to keeping many Yemenis alive. The U.N. calls the situation in Yemen the worlds worst humanitarian crisis.

Ten million people in the country are on the brink of famine and 80 percent of the population of 29 million in need of aid, according to the U.N.

More than 3 million people have been displaced, cholera epidemics have killed hundreds and at least 2.2 million children under 5 suffer from severe malnutrition, the agency said.

The Iranian-backed Houthi rebels control the capital, Sanaa, and much of the countrys north, where most of the population lives and the need for aid is greatest. They are at war with a U.S.-backed, Saudi-led coalition fighting on behalf of the internationally recognized government.

With the economy in free fall, the U.N. aid effort is a major source of foreign currency into the country.

The U.N received around $3 billion in 2019 in international donations for its campaign, short of its $4.2 billion goal.

The Houthi demand for 2 percent of that budget would funnel $60-$80 million into the coffers of their aid-coordination agency, the Supreme Council for Management and Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and International Cooperation, known as SCMCHA.

Qassim Hussein al-Houthi, the head of the international agencies department in theHouthi presidency, said the money was necessary for SCMCHA s operating expenses.

It carries heavy financial burden. Its in charge of facilitating, distributing, security and organizing the work of the agencies, he said.

Al-Houthi argued that its the U.N. agencies who spend a much larger percentage of their budgets on administration without real oversight. He said the U.N. aid delivery programs blocked by the Houthis are not a priority for the Yemen people.

Harassment, intimidation and suspected embezzling of funds by Houthis have been going on for years, aid workers said, and have gotten worse since the rebels created their aid coordination agency in early 2018. Since then, Houthi-led security agencies have arrested local workers, blocked aid missions or held up supplies, according to internal emails and documents seen by the AP.

Not even a simple project can be carried out in northern Yemen without the consent and supervision of this body, said a Yemeni chief of a local aid organization.

The U.N. rarely pushed back, calculating that aid had to be delivered at any cost.

U.N. agencies continued to put hundreds of millions of dollars into Houthi accounts for capacity building, a common practice in humanitarian programs to ensure government bodies function.

Some of the money went to salaries for doctors, teachers and other vital employees who have otherwise gone without pay amid the war. Millions more went to the Houthi aid agency for administrative costs and salaries.

Aid workers privately expressed concerns about the funds from U.N. aid agencies being diverted into the coffers of Houthi leaders or their supporters.

UNICEF said in a statement that its funds were strictly monitored and no instances of diversions were found. The World Health Organization said all its spending was subject to internal and external audit, as well as frequent internal reviews on multiple levels. WHO also said it found no evidence that its funds have been diverted.

Still, last summer, the U.N. requested all agencies report how much they were giving in direct cash transfers. In 2019, the total reached $370 million, around 10 percent of the entire international aid budget for Yemen, according to a U.N. spreadsheet. Around $133 million was marked in the spreadsheet as not audited.

Some officials in the Houthi aid body, SCMCHA, appear to be receiving multiple salaries, the data shows. For a time, three U.N. agencies were each giving salaries to the bodys president, his deputy and general managers. Each of the officials received a total of $10,000 a month from the agencies, the spreadsheet shows.

The U.N. refugee agency also gave SCMCHA $1 million every three months for office rental and administrative costs, while the U.N. migration agency gave the office another $200,000 for furniture and fiber optics.

U.N. officials said Grande was genuinely shocked when she learned about the arrangements.

She had no idea about the scale of it, said one senior U.N. official. Her reaction after that was, we have to fix the situation.

Over the past year, U.N. agencies, lead by Grande, began pushing back against Houthi demands.

First, the World Food Program suspended aid for a couple of months in some areas around Sanaa and demanded biometric registering of beneficiaries to ensure deliveries go to those truly in need. The Houthis initially agreed but later refused to follow through with the biometric registering.

The U.N. then moved to prevent double-paying of salaries, and its agencies tightened auditing of the funds it provided.

UNICEF, for example, said it decided in November to re-assess all 243 partners it works with, including government ones, and cut down dramatically on funds put into Houthi coffers. The agency said it would start paying suppliers and contractors directly.

The moves by the U.N. have prompted the Houthis to launch a media campaign denouncing the humanitarian agency as corrupt and wasteful.

Further escalation came after the Houthi aid body in November was put under the leadership of the Houthi presidents chief of staff, making it more powerful, several aid officials said.

An already difficult environment to work in became extremely suffocating with threats (and) directives, one of the officials said.

SCMCHAs new leadership imposed more than 200 new directives on humanitarian agencies, six aid officials told the AP.

Some directives such as requiring agencies to disclose the identities of aid recipients and involving Houthi authorities in assessments of need would give the rebels even greater power to steer aid to their supporters, aid workers fear.

Other demands seemed aimed at monitoring and intimidating, such as ordering local Yemeni staffers to get Houthi permission to take U.N. training courses abroad and then to report back the content of those workshops. Houthis officials also require the segregation of women and men in U.N.-run programs in some areas.

The Houthis also demanded a new agreement giving them a hand in assigning U.N. contracts with suppliers and picking local partners to implement programs, according to a draft of their proposal seen by the AP. It also gives them the right to screen U.N. hires in Yemen and take over the budget of monitoring programs.

Aid agencies have refused to sign the agreement.

Several humanitarian workers said the Houthis are also trying to force the U.N. to work with NGOs they favor, particularly an organization known as Bonyan, which is filled with Houthi affiliates. The brother of Houthi leader Abdel Malek al Houthi, Ibrahim al-Houthi, was a board member until his death last summer. Houthi leaders stopped the U.N. agencies from delivering food in Yemens Hodeida province, unless they used Bonyan for the distribution.

Despite the disputes between the Houthis and the U.N, aid officials continue to appeal to international donors for money to address the crisis in Yemen.

Over the summer, Grande pleaded to donor countries for more funds to meet the $4.2 billion goal.

When money doesnt come, people die, she said.

But one international aid official said more money isnt the issue.

I dont want more funds. I want the space to spend what I have, he said.

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UN balks as Yemen rebels try to control flow of aid - The Japan Times

With the Governments announcement of a new points-based immigration system, James Melville considers how peoples fears of those entering the country have been fuelled by political decision-making.

The Government has announced its plans to introduce a post-Brexit points-based immigration system, under which overseas citizens would have to reach 70 points to be able to work in the UK.

Speaking English and having the offer of a skilled job with an approved sponsor would give them 50 points. More points would be awarded for qualifications, the salary on offer and working in a sector with shortages. The salary threshold for skilled workers has been put at 25,600.

In effect, the Government has announced a hostile environment for unskilled and non-English speaking migrant workers and are is aiming to create a discriminatory system that undervalues the often essential need of lower-paid migrant workers. It has said that it would not introduce a route for lower-skilled or lower-paid workers, urging businesses to adapt and adjust to the end of free movement between EU countries and the UK.

But bodies representing farming, catering and nursing are warning that it will be hard to recruit staff under the new system. The Royal College of Nursing said the proposals would not meet the health and care needs of the population. The Food and Drink Federation has raised concerns about bakers, meat processors, packagers and workers making food such as cheese and pasta not qualifying under the new system. The National Farmers Union stated that this raises serious concerns about the failure to recognise British food and farmings needs.

In effect, Home Secretary Priti Patel has announced a set of immigration rules that may have meant that her own immigrant parents would not have been admitted to the UK.

This tightening up of immigration rules can be traced back to 2016s EU Referendum. Immigration concerns were one of the main reasons given by voters who voted to leave the EU. According to a 2018 Kantar poll, the reason to leave the EU that scored the highest average rank (39% of Leave voters) was to regain control over EU immigration. But Leave voters arguably wrongly attributed their concerns about uncontrolled immigration by blaming the EU and freedom of movement. This was fuelled by the constant manipulative dog whistling of the right-wing media and the likes of Nigel Farage and his odious Breaking Point campaign poster.

Immigration is a force for the good that reflects liberal and internationalist values. A country that embraces immigration embraces an outward-looking confidence in itself.Those who have a problem with it should at least blame the correct sources of their perceived problem. Blame shouldnt be attached to the EU, but instead towards successive UK Governments which have failed to implement EU directives on immigration since the EU freedom of movement directives were instigated in 2004. The EU laws on immigration are the very essence of structured and controlled immigration.

The freedom of movement EU directive allows for older EU member states to restrict the rights of migrants from newer EU member states (those in eastern Europe) for up to seven years.The powers vary from stopping migration completely to allowing only for selected categories of work on a work permit basis. The UK was one of only three of the original EU members (along with Sweden and the Republic of Ireland) not to enforce transitional restrictions on EU migrants. By not implementing these restrictions, the UK invited a huge increase in migration from new eastern European EU member states, with a xenophobic tabloid backlash following.

UK Governments since 2004 also failed to adhere to the EUs freedom of movement directives on welfare and benefits for migrants. The directive enables EU member states to adopt the necessary measures to refuse, terminate or withdraw any right conferred in the event of abuse of rights or fraud, such as marriages of convenience.

Article 35 of the directive grants member states the power, in the event of abuse or fraud, to withdraw any right conferred by the directive as well as the power to remove migrants from member states and having the ability to prosecute for fraud. Once again, UK Governments have not used this power. The UK does not even fully track or know how many migrants are using the welfare system and therefore is unable to enforce the EU directive on this.

Other EU members insist on migrants proving that they can support themselves. For example, Belgium requires all migrants to prove that they have sufficient funds, health insurance and suitable housing.

Under EU law, after three months, EU migrants need to be working, have official registration or have funds to live. If not, they can be returned to their home country. The UK doesnt do this, nor does it register migrants as they arrive.

The EU has a set of rules that regulates controlled migration across member states, but the UK doesnt apply them. Other EU countries use the EU controlled immigration directives. The UK fails to do so.

It is entirely likely that millions of people voted for Brexit because successive UK Governments were unwilling to use these significant existing powers of controlled immigration that were created by the EU under freedom of movement. And, due to a lack of knowledge about who to blame, Leave voters blamed the EU despite the fact that the EU actually provided a set of solutions for this.

As Prime Minister and Home Secretary at the time of the EU Referendum, David Cameron and Theresa May should have been articulating all of this but failed to do so because if they had, they would have been opening up their own culpability for ignoring EU laws on immigration.

Confidence in welcoming immigrants is sign of a confident nation which recognises the need to fulfill employment gaps and opportunities with overseas workers. Controlled immigration rules are already in place via the EU. Britain chose to ignore them. Misplaced concerns about uncontrolled immigration? Dont blame the EU, blame the UK Government instead.

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The Great British Immigration Myth - Byline Times

New Orleans news outlets were set to argue Thursday for an open hearing on the confidentiality of emails between Catholic officials and the citys NFL franchise concerning clergy sex-abuse scandals.

As The Associated Press reported last month, victims lawyers allege that hundreds of Saints emails show team executives did behind-the-scenes public relations damage control amid the Archdiocese of New Orleanss clergy abuse crisis. The team has gone to court to keep the emails from being made public, saying court rules would ordinarily keep them under seal and that the plaintiffs lawyers want them released for publicity purposes.

A state court hearing is scheduled in New Orleans next week before a court-appointed special master to determine whether they may be released.

The AP has been allowed to intervene in the effort to get the emails released and lawyers for the news cooperative are being allowed to participate in arguments for release of the emails. However, the Feb. 20 hearing before the special master was to be closed to the public.

The owners of The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate, WVUE-TV, WWL-TV and WDSU-TV have filed a motion for access to the hearing.

Judge Ellen Hazeur was set to hear arguments at Civil District Court in New Orleans.

The Saints, whose devoutly Catholic owner Gayle Benson is close friends with the local archbishop, have disputed as outrageous any suggestion that the team helped cover up crimes. They have accused plaintiffs attorneys of mischaracterizing what is in the emails.

Benson said in a news release Monday that the NFL team played no role in determining which priests would be named in the list of credibly accused clergy published by the archdiocese.

Attorneys for about two dozen men suing the Church allege in court filings that the confidential emails show executives joined in the Churchs pattern and practice of concealing its crimes. The attorneys contend that included taking an active role in helping to shape the archdioceses list of 57 credibly accused clergy, a roster an AP analysis found was undercounted by at least 20 names.

Crux is dedicated to smart, wired and independent reporting on the Vatican and worldwide Catholic Church. That kind of reporting doesnt come cheap, and we need your support. You can help Crux by giving a small amount monthly, or with a onetime gift. Please remember, Crux is a for-profit organization, so contributions are not tax-deductible.

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Media seek open hearing on NFL teams emails with Church - Crux: Covering all things Catholic

The companys advisers said at the hearing that a rapid decline in cash made a fast sale process necessary, but some creditors expressed concern about the pace.

Had the court given the other buyer even a few more days to secure financing, there may have been a true auction that could have paid some post-petition claims, a group of vendors from Hong Kong, mainland China and Korea said in an objection filed Tuesday. Vendors have suffered literally hundreds of millions of dollars of unpaid claims they said as part of a request that approval of the sale agreement be denied.

Court papers show the buyers have the right to close stores, and it wasnt immediately clear how many would remain open. The beleaguered retailer once operated about 800 stores in more than 40 countries.

Ahead of the bankruptcy, the founders insistence onmaintaining controlhad spooked potential buyers and lenders, Bloomberg has previously reported. During the court supervised reorganization, several potential buyers looked into making bids to keep all or part of the retailer going. None except the landlord group ultimately showed up, leading to the suspension of an auction scheduled Monday.

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Judge to approve Forever 21 sale that ends founders' control - Crain's New York Business