US elections 2024: 10 key House races to watch

Democrats only need to flip a handful of seats to get back control of the lower chamber – here’s what to keep an eye on

Much attention has been paid to the historic race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, but the results of down-ballot elections will determine whether the new president will actually be able to implement a legislative agenda next year.

With Republicans defending a narrow majority in the House of Representatives, Democrats only need to flip a handful of seats to wrest back control of the lower chamber, and both parties are going all out to win.

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Drugs and weapons seized in sweep of jail where Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs is held

Brooklyn detention center holding 1,200 has been under scrutiny since two fatal stabbings this summer

Federal authorities have confirmed that they seized drugs, homemade weapons and electronic devices during a sweep of the jail where Sean “Diddy” Combs is being held on sex trafficking conspiracy charges ahead of a trial next year.

The Bureau of Prisons, which headed up the interagency sweep of the Metropolitan detention center (MDC) in Brooklyn that began on Monday, said the action was not related to Combs’s detention but was “preplanned and coordinated to ensure the safety and security” of staff and inmates.

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Columbia pays $395,000 to student suspended over protest ‘fart spray’

Israeli student filed lawsuit after suspension for spraying pro-Palestinian protesters with foul-smelling substance

Columbia University has reached a $395,000 settlement with a student who was suspended in January after spraying student protesters with a foul-smelling substance at one of several campus demonstrations in support of Palestine.

The Israeli student who received the payout had been suspended until May.

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Peanut the Instagram-famous squirrel is seized by New York officials

Wild squirrel that was taken in by Mark Longo seven years ago was confiscated after conservation officials received reports of ‘potentially unsafe housing of wildlife’

A New York man who turned a rescued squirrel into a social media star called Peanut is pleading with state authorities to return his beloved pet after they seized it during a raid that also yielded a raccoon named Fred.

Multiple anonymous complaints about Peanut – also spelled P’Nut or PNUT – brought at least six officers from the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) to Mark Longo’s home on Wednesday, Longo said.

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Racist jokes about Puerto Rico at rally bring anger and disgust: ‘Truly how the Trump party sees us’

Tony Hinchcliffe’s series of racist jokes at Donald Trump’s rally on Sunday were widely condemned

Some Americans, particularly those of Puerto Rican descent, said that the racist remarks aired at Donald Trump’s Sunday night rally at Madison Square Garden in New York helped them decide who to vote for.

The speaker and comedian Tony Hinchcliffe took aim at Puerto Rico, in a series of racist jokes including one in which he called it “a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean”.

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Trump fills Madison Square Garden with anger, vitriol and racist threats

Marking final stretch of campaign in New York, Trump and cabal of surrogates attack Harris and mock Puerto Rico

Anger and vitriol took center stage at New York’s Madison Square Garden on Sunday night, as Donald Trump and a cabal of campaign surrogates held a rally marked by racist comments, coarse insults, and dangerous threats about immigrants.

Nine days out from the election, Trump used the rally in New York to repeat his claim that he is fighting “the enemy within” and again promised to launch “the largest deportation program in American history”, amid incoherent ramblings about ending a phone call with a “very, very important person” so he could watch one of Elon Musk’s rockets land.

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‘Working-class New Yorkers are being pushed out of the city they built’: why Zohran Mamdani is running for mayor

The socialist millennial, and first south Asian man in the state assembly, is entering an already crowded mayoral race

In a quiet and unassuming coffee shop in Astoria, a once affordable, diverse neighborhood in Queens where rent is skyrocketing to the heights of other parts of New York, a man in a black jacket sits against the window.

He doesn’t look the part of a large metropolitan city’s typical politician, but Zohran Mamdani represents this area in the state legislature as the assembly member for district 36 – the first south Asian man in the state assembly and only its third Muslim.

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Iranian general charged in plot to murder US-based dissident journalist

Justice department says eight were charged ‘for their efforts to silence and kill a US citizen because of her criticism of the Iranian regime’

A general in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards has been charged in New York in connection with an alleged plot to assassinate a dissident Iranian American journalist.

The target of the alleged assassination plot was not named in unsealed court documents, but she has been widely identified as Masih Alinejad, who lives in New York.

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Delta pauses flights between New York City and Tel Aviv due to regional conflict

Airline says postponement will last until at least 31 March and is providing travel waivers to some customers

Delta Airlines has postponed all flights between New York’s John F Kennedy airport and Tel Aviv until at least 31 March because of the conflict in the Middle East, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.

“Delta is continuously monitoring the evolving security environment and assessing our operations based on security guidance and intelligence reports and will communicate any updates as needed,” the airline said.

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Ka, Brooklyn rapper and New York firefighter, dies aged 52

Kaseem Ryan, a member of Natural Elements and an FDNY captain, died unexpectedly, according to Instagram post

Ka, a Brooklyn rapper, producer and firefighter, died unexpectedly on Saturday at age 52, according to a post on his Instagram account.

Kaseem Ryan was a member of the group Natural Elements and also served in the New York City fire department (FDNY). He collaborated with artists Roc Marciano and GZA and earned praise from artists such as Erykah Badu and Yasiin Bey, formerly known as Mos Def, BET reported.

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Police arrest pro-Palestinian protesters outside of New York Stock Exchange

Hundreds partake in demonstration, organized by Jewish Voice for Peace, against Israeli attacks on Gaza and Lebanon

New York City police arrested numerous pro-Gaza protesters outside the New York Stock Exchange on Monday after a demonstration highlighting Israel’s ongoing attacks on Gaza and Lebanon.

Demonstrators voiced chants such as “Let Gaza live!” and “Up up with liberation, down down with occupation!” and managed to get inside a security fence outside the exchange on Broad Street in downtown Manhattan.

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Former New York governor and stepson attacked and injured on city street

David Paterson, 70, and Anthony Sliwa, 20, were on Upper East Side when a verbal altercation with five people escalated

David Paterson, the former New York governor, and his stepson were attacked and injured on New York City’s Upper East Side on Friday night, the city police department said.

Paterson, 70, and his stepson, Anthony Sliwa, 20, had been walking in the upscale neighborhood at about 8.30pm when they were attacked after a verbal altercation with five people, according to the police.

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Walz-Vance debate: when is it and how can I watch?

The debate between the Ohio senator and Minnesota governor will be hosted by CBS News at 9pm ET on Tuesday

Tim Walz and JD Vance will face off Tuesday night in the first – and only – vice-presidential debate before the November election. With the campaigns currently neck-and-neck in the polls, and with voting under way in some states, it’s a chance for the would-be vice-presidents to introduce themselves to a wide US audience.

While VP debates don’t usually tip the scales much, they could matter in a close race – and they build profiles for lower-profile politicians who will probably stay on the national scene for years to come.

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New York mayor Eric Adams pleads not guilty to federal corruption charges

Beleaguered mayor in court as prosecutors allege Adams, 64, ‘sought and accepted improper valuable benefits’

Eric Adams, the embattled Democratic mayor of New York City, who was indicted on federal criminal charges in an unprecedented scene for a sitting mayor of the city, pleaded not guilty in court in Manhattan early on Friday afternoon.

The mayor arrived at court on Friday morning hours ahead of a scheduled arraignment, accused of accepting illegal campaign contributions and free overseas trips from foreign actors seeking influence.

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US Catholic diocese agrees to pay $323m to child sexual abuse survivors

Rockville Centre diocese in New York settles with more than 530 victims after proposed deal comes close to failure

A Roman Catholic diocese in Long Island, New York, announced a new bankruptcy settlement on Thursday that would pay more than $323m to about 530 sex abuse survivors who alleged they were abused by priests when they were children.

The diocese of Rockville Centre, which serves about 1.2 million Catholics in Nassau and Suffolk counties, said earlier this year that it did not think a bankruptcy settlement would be possible after abuse survivors rejected the diocese’s previous $200m settlement offer.

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Donald Trump says he will meet Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday – as it happened

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Here is more from the federal indictment against Eric Adams:

In 2014, Eric Adams, the defendant, became Brooklyn borough president. Thereafter, for nearly a decade, Adams sought and accepted improper valuable benefits, such as luxury international travel, including from wealthy foreign businesspeople and at least one Turkish govermnent official seeking to gain influence over him.

By 2018, Adams – who had by then made known his plans to run for mayor of New York City – not only accepted, but sought illegal campaign contributions to his 2021 mayoral campaign, as well as other things of value, from foreign nationals.

Eric Adams, the defendant, sought and accepted illegal campaign contributions in the form of ‘nominee’ or ‘straw’ contributions, meaning that the true contributors conveyed their money through nominal donors, who falsely certified they were contributing their own money.

By smuggling their contributions to Adams through US-based straw donors, Adams’ overseas contributors defeated federal laws that serve to prevent foreign influence on US elections.

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‘Stop killing children’: protests as Netanyahu arrives for UN address

Protesters gather outside UN headquarters in New York to oppose Israeli PM’s visit and to call for end to Gaza war

As the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, arrived in New York on Thursday ahead of his address to the United Nations general assembly, scheduled for Friday morning, protesters opposed to the war in Gaza gathered near UN headquarters.

One group of people who waved Israeli flags and campaign banners described themselves as an informal coalition of Jewish and Israeli-led organizations taking an anti-occupation and anti-war stance in relation to the Palestinian territories. They assembled close to the UN building in Manhattan to protest against Netanyahu’s arrival after he flew in from Israel overnight.

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Eric Adams, New York City mayor, reportedly indicted after corruption inquiry

Mayor says he will stay in his role after reports emerge that he may soon become the first sitting mayor of the city to be criminally charged

Eric Adams, the New York City mayor, has said he will stay in office despite reports emerging that he had been indicted following a federal corruption investigation.

It is still unclear what charges Adams, 64, will face but federal prosecutors are expected to layout the details of the charges Thursday, the New York Times reported.

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Caroline Ellison sentenced to two years after serving as star witness against FTX’s Sam Bankman-Fried

Ex-Alameda CEO and ex-girlfriend of fallen crypto mogul pleaded guilty, but prosecutors requested lenient sentence

Caroline Ellison, the former crypto executive and romantic partner of the disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried, was sentenced to 24 months in prison in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday. Ellison was a central figure in the FTX bankruptcy saga and key witness for the prosecution in the $8bn fraud trial that ended with Bankman-Fried’s conviction.

Ellison served as the chief executive of Alameda Research, which was the trading arm of the now defunct FTX crypto exchange. The collapse of FTX, once valued at $32bn, was directly linked to revelations that it was attempting to financially prop up Alameda with fraudulent accounting. Subsequent investigations and criminal charges found that FTX and the hedge fund had used billions in customer funds for risky trades and lavish personal spending.

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Kerry gives scathing rating on climate action: ‘Is there a letter underneath Z?’

Former secretary of state accuses oil and gas companies of ‘business as usual’ at major climate summit in New York

Countries are ignoring commitments they made less than a year ago to shift away from fossil fuels and to provide aid to those most vulnerable to the climate crisis, a host of leading figures have admitted during a gloomy start to a major climate summit in New York.

Al Gore, the former US vice-president, and John Kerry, the former US secretary of state and climate envoy, have led the condemnation of the largest greenhouse gas emitters, led by China and the US, for failing to follow a UN pact signed in Dubai by nearly 200 countries in December to “transition away” from oil, coal and gas.

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