New York declares state of emergency amid heavy rainfall and flash flooding

About 8.5 million people under flash flood warnings with 1-2in of rain an hour expected in Brooklyn and Queens

Parts of New York City were swamped with dangerous flash flooding on Friday as intense rainfall continued after pouring all night, and a state of emergency was declared amid warnings from officials that the deluge could turn deadly.

About 8.5 million people were under flash flood warnings in the New York City area, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). The city’s concrete and pavement exacerbated flooding, as overwhelmed sewers failed to adequately drain rainwater during the heavy and sustained downpours.

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Trump will not try to move Georgia election fraud case to federal court

He may stand trial as soon as 23 October in case alleging he conspired to reverse 2020 presidential election loss in state

Donald Trump will not seek to move a criminal case alleging he conspired to reverse his 2020 presidential election loss in Georgia from state to federal court, his lawyers said on Thursday.

Trump, the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, and 18 others are charged with pressuring Georgia election officials to overturn his 2020 loss in the state to the current president, Joe Biden, a Democrat.

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Peruvian man arrested for making more than 150 bomb threats to US schools

Suspect, arrested in Peru, allegedly threatened schools after failing to ‘sextort’ nude photos from schoolchildren

A Peruvian man was arrested in Peru for sending more than 150 fake bomb threats to US schools, airports and a synagogue.

Eddie Manuel Núñez Santos, 33, was arrested by Peruvian officials on Tuesday in Lima, according to a press release from the justice department.

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Trump’s business empire could collapse ‘like falling dominoes’ after ruling

Trump is effectively ‘out of business’ in New York, Michael Cohen says, after judge rules business fortune built on rampant fraud

Donald Trump’s real estate empire could collapse “like falling dominoes”, experts believe, following a New York judge’s ruling that the former president’s business fortune was built on rampant fraud and blatant lies.

According to Michael Cohen, his former attorney and fixer, Trump is already effectively “out of business” in New York after Judge Arthur Engoron on Tuesday rescinded the licenses of the Trump Organization and other companies owned by Trump and his adult sons, Eric and Don Jr.

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Trump lawyers plan to appeal judge’s ruling that he committed fraud while building empire

On Tuesday judge Arthur Engoron refused to dismiss a lawsuit accusing former US president of illegally inflating assets and net worth

Donald Trump committed fraud for years while building the real estate empire that catapulted him to fame and the White House, a New York judge ruled on Tuesday in a strongly worded rejection of the former president’s bid to throw out a civil lawsuit against him.

Judge Arthur Engoron found that Trump and executives from his company, including his sons Eric and Donald Jr, routinely and repeatedly deceived banks, insurers and others by massively overvaluing assets and exaggerating his net worth on paperwork.

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Third person charged for infant’s death from fentanyl in New York City daycare

Prosecutors say Renny Antonio Parra Paredes, 38, played a key role in selling the drugs that were stored at the childcare facility

A third person has been charged in the death of a toddler apparently poisoned by fentanyl inside a New York City daycare center, authorities said on Monday, as the search continued for the alleged ringleader of the drug peddling operation.

Renny Antonio Parra Paredes, 38, was charged with narcotics distribution resulting in death, 10 days after authorities discovered four young children showing signs of opioid exposure at a Bronx daycare center. One of those children, one-year-old Nicholas Dominici, was pronounced dead last Friday.

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Keir Starmer to call for UK clean energy action in New York City address

Exclusive: Labour leader pledges party would stand ‘strong on the UK’s climate commitments’ in contrast to Sunak’s net zero reversal

The UK Labour party leader, Keir Starmer, is calling for action to transform the nation into a clean energy superpower after the British Conservative prime minister Rishi Sunak’s announcement earlier this week of new reversals and delays to net zero commitments.

In a video address that organisers of the Global Citizen Festival (GCF) plan to play on Saturday afternoon at an event in New York City, Starmer said: “The world is facing serious threats from extreme poverty to criminal gangs to climate change. Only progressive internationalist politics can rise to these challenges and deliver a secure future.

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New York school community mourns after two killed in school bus crash

Gina Pellettiere, a high school band director, and Beatrice Ferrari, a volunteer chaperone, died when bus fell down 50ft ravine

A high school community in Farmingdale, New York, is grieving after a school bus crash killed a band director as well as a volunteer chaperone.

Gina Pellettiere – the 43-year-old director of the Farmingdale high school marching band and wind ensemble – and Beatrice Ferrari, 77, a retired social studies teacher, were killed when the bus they were on overturned Thursday off an embankment into a 50ft ravine.

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US Jews and Israelis denounce judicial overhaul as Netanyahu addresses UN

Thousands demonstrate against what they see as attack on Israel’s institutions but New York protest lacks Palestinian presence

Thousands of Israelis and American Jews have protested outside the United Nations in New York, as the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, spoke before the UN general assembly in an address railing against Iran and making a case for Israeli-Saudi peace.

About 3,000 people attended the protest against the Netanyahu government’s efforts to overhaul Israel’s judiciary, a plan that critics say will decimate Israel’s democratic institutions. Organizers say it was the largest anti-government action held outside Israel since the start of the wave of protests that have rocked the country since Netanyahu’s government took office at the start of this year.

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More fentanyl found under trapdoor in New York daycare where infant died

Police make discovery in investigation after child dies and three others hospitalized after appearing to have been exposed to drug

Police investigating a New York City daycare where a one-year-old boy died of alleged fentanyl exposure have discovered additional fentanyl hidden in a space underneath the center’s floor.

Following a tip about a trapdoor in the floor, authorities on Wednesday night and Thursday searched the Divino Niño daycare center in the Bronx again after fentanyl residue was found underneath a mat earlier this month where children had napped, ABC reports.

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One person dead after bus carrying schoolchildren crashes in New York

Dozens hurt, at least five of them badly, after vehicle carrying students from Long Island to a band camp in Pennsylvania collided

A charter bus carrying schoolchildren to a band camp crashed on a New York highway on Thursday, killing one person and hurting dozens of others, police said.

The wreck happened on Interstate 84 in the town of Wawayanda, about 45 miles (72km) north-west of New York City, state police said.

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Brazilians applaud Lula’s return to diplomacy as he addresses UN general assembly

Relief in Brazil as Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva speaks at the UN after four chaotic years of rule by the far-right Jair Bolsonaro

“Our world is becoming unhinged,” the UN secretary general, António Guterres, warned as he kicked off the body’s assembly general on Tuesday.

But many Brazilians felt that in their country’s case at least, sanity had returned as its president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, took to the rostrum in New York to proclaim a new dawn after the chaotic term of his far-right predecessor Jair Bolsonaro.

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Climate activists block Federal Reserve bank, calling for end to fossil fuel funding

Action came as world leaders begin arriving in New York for the UN general assembly and after Sunday’s march to end fossil fuels

One day after the largest climate march since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, hundreds of climate activists blockaded the Federal Reserve Bank in New York to call for an end to funding for coal, oil and gas, with police making scores of arrests.

“Fossil fuel companies … wouldn’t be able to operate without money, and that money is coming primarily from Wall Street,” Alicé Nascimento, environmental campaigns director at New York Communities for Change, said hours before she was arrested.

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez tells climate marchers to be ‘too big and too radical to ignore’ – live

Demonstration falls days before the United Nations climate ambition summit, at which Joe Biden is expected to be a no-show

Actor and climate activist Susan Sarandon opened her speech by congratulating the students of New York University on the news of their university divesting from fossil fuels after years of pressure, as the Guardian first reported last week.

Addressing the crowd, she said, “You guys give me hope,” adding: “What we have to do is take responsibility and press those that are at the top to finally step up.”

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AOC to headline rally at New York climate march ahead of UN summit

March on Sunday will cap a week of more than 650 global actions and is expected to be the largest US climate march in five years

A climate protest and rally headlined by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Sunday are expected to bring thousands of activists to the streets of New York.

Under the banner March to End Fossil Fuels, protesters will push the Biden administration to take bold steps to phase out fossil fuels. The demonstration will fall days before the United Nations Climate Ambition Summit, which the UN secretary general, António Guterres, has described as a “no nonsense” conference meant to highlight new climate commitments.

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One-year-old dies at New York City daycare and three children hospitalized

Emergency workers responding to report of cardiac arrest find equipment used in production of illegal drugs

A one-year-old boy died and three other children were hospitalized after emergency workers responded to a report of cardiac arrest at a daycare center in New York City on Friday, authorities said.

Police said they found equipment often used in the production of illegal drugs in the home-based daycare in the Bronx. Police said they were investigating the possibility that both the dead child and the hospitalized children had been exposed to an opioid of some kind over an extended period of time, according to reports from WABC and the New York Times.

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New York mayor’s remarks on migrants ‘dangerous’, warns fellow Democrat

Progressive Tiffany Cabán says Eric Adams’ hostile comments on migrants have ‘real possibility’ of inciting violence

A prominent New York progressive is warning that mayor Eric Adams’s hostile comments about the rising number of migrants in the city are “dangerous” and risk inciting violence against the new arrivals and other immigrants.

Tiffany Cabán, aiming for re-election to the city council this November and long endorsed by leading leftwing figures, including US senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren and New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, attacked as “irresponsible” the mayor’s remarks last week that the sharp increase in migration to New York would “destroy” the city.

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New York City pension funds and state of Oregon sue Fox over 2020 election coverage

New York pension funds and Oregon are long-term shareholders of Fox and accuse network of inviting defamation claims

New York City pension funds and the state of Oregon sued Fox Corporation on Tuesday, alleging the company harmed investors by allowing Fox News to broadcast falsehoods about the 2020 election that exposed the network to defamation lawsuits.

The lawsuit, filed in Delaware, accuses Fox of inviting defamation claims by amplifying conspiracy theories about the election, including a suit Fox News agreed to settle for nearly $800m with Dominion Voting Systems, a maker of voting machines.

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New York City’s crackdown on Airbnb and short-term rentals goes into effect

New regulations expected to affect tens of thousands of illegal short-term listings

New rules in New York City on Airbnbs and short-term rentals go into effect on Tuesday, with regulations expected to affect tens of thousands of illegal short-term listings.

The latest legislation bulks up enforcement of existing rules on how short-term rentals are allowed to operate in New York City.

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New York attorney general asks judge to sanction Trump over ‘frivolous’ arguments

Letitia James says Trump family is rehashing failed legal arguments in $250m civil suit over company’s business affairs

The attorney general of New York state is seeking $20,000 in sanctions against Donald Trump, his adult sons, other defendants and their lawyers, for repeating “frivolous” arguments rejected in court in a $250m civil suit over family business practices.

In a filing on Tuesday, Andrew Amer, an assistant to Letitia James, the attorney general, noted repeated rejections of arguments deemed “borderline frivolous even the first time defendants made them”.

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