Category Archives: New York

Eric Adams under pressure to divulge details on ‘outside agitators’ at campus protests

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The New York City mayor has claimed police arrested protesters after non-student elements escalated the situation

The New York City mayor, Eric Adams, remains under pressure to divulge how many of the 282 people arrested at campus protests in Manhattan on Tuesday night were non-students after repeatedly claiming that “outside agitators” were responsible for escalations that prompted an overwhelming law enforcement crackdown.

Adams, a Democrat and former city police officer, was asked by local reporters on Thursday morning to give a breakdown of the arrest numbers. He repeatedly declined to provide details.

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More than 2,000 pro-Palestinian protesters arrested across US campuses

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Police arrest more than 200 students at UCLA as law enforcement clears camp at Dartmouth, arresting more than 90 students

More than 2,000 people have now been arrested during pro-Palestinian protests across dozens of US college campuses in recent weeks.

Police arrested more than 300 pro-Palestinian demonstrators on college campuses on Wednesday night into Thursday morning, pushing the total past 2,000, according to an Associated Press tally.

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Text shows Stormy Daniels lawyer’s shock at Trump win in 2016: ‘What have we done?’

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Keith Davidson gives colorful testimony at former president’s hush-money trial about how agreements came together in 2016

As Donald Trump’s presidential victory became clearer and clearer on election night in 2016, an attorney who brokered hush-money payments to bury the then candidate’s alleged sexual liaisons seemed shocked that his efforts had worked, texting his longtime confidant: “What have we done?”

So went the second day of testimony from Keith Davidson – who represented alleged Trump paramours Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal – in the ex-president’s criminal trial. The friend in question was Dylan Howard, then the editor of the National Enquirer. Prosecutors allege that the tabloid veteran kept Trump’s lawyer at the time, Michael Cohen, apprised of damaging information about his boss.

This article was amended on 2 May 2024 to correct the amount of money that Davidson said in testimony that Michael Cohen sent to Stormy Daniels.

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Peloton CEO steps down as beleaguered company cuts 15% of workforce

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Fitness company’s sales boomed during the Covid pandemic as gyms closed but sales collapsed as the world reopened

Barry McCarthy has stepped down as CEO of Peloton, the company said on Thursday, as it decided to cut 15% of its workforce to tackle a post-pandemic slump in demand for its connected fitness equipment.

In a note, McCarthy said: “Hard as the decision has been to make additional headcount cuts, Peloton simply had no other way to bring its spending in line with its revenue.”

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Campus protests: UCLA students in standoff with police as demonstrations spread across US

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More than a thousand supporters at a pro-Palestine encampment in California face arrest by police, a day after it was attacked by pro-Israel counter-protesters

Tensions are growing at the University of California where hundreds of police in riot gear have gathered after warning pro-Palestinian protesters to disperse or face arrest, a day after their encampment was violently attacked by masked counter-protesters.

Police began forming lines near the encampment at the Los Angeles campus and ordered the dispersal of more than a thousand people who had gathered in support of the protesters on Wednesday night, warning over loudspeakers that anyone who refused to leave could face arrest.

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UCLA chancellor condemns ‘instigators’ who attacked pro-Palestinian camp on campus

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Los Angeles mayor calls late-night attack by counter-demonstrators ‘abhorrent’ as footage shows people wielding sticks

The University of California in Los Angeles was reeling on Wednesday following a late-night violent attack by counter-demonstrators on a pro-Palestinian protest encampment, as the state’s governor condemned a slow response from law enforcement to some of the worst violence seen since students across the US intensified their protests in support of Gaza.

As the Los Angeles mayor called the violence “abhorrent” and California’s governor said he was monitoring the situation, UCLA announced it was cancelling all classes on Wednesday “due to the distress caused by the violence that took place on Royce Quad late last night”.

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Crackdowns intensify on pro-Palestine campus protests as hundreds arrested

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Tensions continue after night of unrest at UCLA and Columbia, as New York mayor blames ‘outside agitators’ for escalation

Crackdowns on pro-Palestinian protests at US colleges spread on Wednesday after protest hotspots intensified overnight, leading to some violence and hundreds more arrests amid widespread controversy over universities calling in police and claims about “outside agitators” driving escalation.

The number of arrests of student protesters had exceeded an estimated 1,300 by Wednesday afternoon since the start of the latest bout of protests two weeks ago, as more students were detained. This added to tallies by the Associated Press and Axios earlier on Wednesday, across more than 30 campuses, coast to coast and north to south.

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Police enter Columbia in apparent bid to break up student occupation

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Images on TV show police on campus in New York after students take over Hamilton Hall building amid continuing protests

New York City police entered Columbia University on Tuesday evening in a reported effort to disperse the students who took over an academic building – and are facing expulsion – earlier in the day and those who have been encamped on school property for two weeks as tensions surrounding the pro-Palestinian demonstration escalated.

TV images showed police entering the elite university in upper Manhattan, which has been the focal point of student protests that have spread to dozens of schools across the US.

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‘Do not bow’: ex-Black Panther praises pro-Palestinian student protesters from prison

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Mumia Abu-Jamal tells New York City students they’re on the right side of history by deciding ‘not to be silent and to speak out’

In a powerful and rousing live address to students at the City University of New York (CUNY) on Friday night, the incarcerated Black political activist Mumia Abu-Jamal praised the pro-Palestinian movement growing at US colleges as being on the right side of history.

“It is a wonderful thing that you have decided not to be silent and decided to speak out against the repression that you see with your own eyes,” Abu-Jamal, a former Black Panther, said while calling from Pennsylvania’s Mahanoy state prison. “You are part of something massive, and you are part of something that is on the right side of history.

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‘We are showing the world what people do’: grim relics of Hamas attack go on display in New York

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Tents, debris and personal items from the Nova festival, where 364 people died on 7 October, form shocking exhibit on Wall Street

While New York was preoccupied with student protests over the US’s ­support of Israel’s war in Gaza last week, another aspect of how the city with the largest Jewish population outside Israel is coming to terms with bloodshed in the Middle East was being prepared.

On Wall Street, a gruelling ­exhibition has opened detailing the horrific attack on the Nova music festival by Hamas terrorists on 7 October, in which 364 people were murdered, many wounded and 44 taken hostage.

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Columbia University calls for inquiry into leadership as student protests sweep 40 campuses

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Professors at Emory University arrested as campuses follow Columbia’s lead in demanding ceasefire and divestment

At least 40 pro-Palestine protest camps have arisen across US campuses following Columbia University’s example earlier this month, as the New York school’s senate called for an investigation into its leadership, the New York Times reported.

While many remain provocative though peaceful, demanding a ceasefire in Gaza and divestment by their institutions from companies with ties to Israel, hundreds of students and outside protesters have been arrested, and there have been some fierce clashes with police.

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Harvey Weinstein: what does ruling mean for California rape conviction?

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Mogul’s lawyers say decision in New York will strengthen appeal in Los Angeles but victims confident guilty verdict will be upheld

Harvey Weinstein was already expected to spend the remainder of his life in prison for crimes in New York when a Los Angeles jury found him of guilty of rape and sexual assault in 2022 and he was sentenced to an additional 16 years.

But on Thursday New York’s top court overturned Weinstein’s 2020 conviction for two sex crimes and found he should receive a new trial, and the California case has taken on even greater significance.

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David Pecker, Trump’s ‘eyes and ears’, to resume testimony in hush-money trial

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Former National Enquirer publisher says he helped Trump to suppress negative stories that threatened 2016 election campaign

The former tabloid publisher David Pecker will continue testimony at Donald Trump’s New York criminal trial on Thursday, following his testimony earlier in the week.

Pecker, the former chief executive of American Media, which publishes the National Enquirer, testified that he used his position to help Trump kill negative stories that threatened his campaign.

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Protesters arrested amid crackdown on pro-Palestine student rallies across US campuses

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At least 34 arrested at University of Texas in Austin and 50 more detained at University of Southern California while House speaker jeered at Columbia University

Dozens of protesters were arrested on Wednesday while participating in pro-Palestine demonstrations across US college campuses.

At least 34 protesters, including a member of the media from a local news station, were arrested during protests at University of Texas in Austin and at least 50 more were detained by police at University of Southern California (USC).

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Student Gaza protests: top Republicans call on Biden to send in federal officers

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Letter from 25 senators including Mitch McConnell says president ‘must act immediately to restore order’ on university campuses

Senior Republican US senators on Tuesday waded into growing tensions at leading universities over the Israel-Gaza war, demanding the Biden administration send in federal law enforcement officers to curb pro-Palestinian protests that have led to hundreds of arrests.

Mitch McConnell, the Senate minority leader, and John Thune, his deputy, wrote to Merrick Garland, the US attorney general, and Miguel Cardona, the education secretary, calling demonstrators “antisemitic, pro-terrorist mobs”.

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Columbia faculty members walk out after pro-Palestinian protesters arrested

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Hundreds of members of teaching staff demonstrate in solidarity with arrested students as protest tents put back up on campus

Hundreds of faculty members at Columbia University in New York held a mass walkout on Monday to protest against the president’s decision to have police arrest students at a pro-Palestinian encampment protest last week.

The solidarity protest came as students put protest tents back up on campus. They had been torn down last week when the New York police department arrested more than 100 students, who were also suspended by the university.

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US journalist Terry Anderson, held hostage in Lebanon in 1980s, dies

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Former chief Middle East correspondent was longest-held western hostage of Shia Muslim groups during crisis

Terry Anderson, a US journalist who was held captive by Islamist militants for almost seven years in Lebanon and came to symbolise the plight of western hostages during the country’s 1975-90 civil war, has died aged 76, his daughter said.

The former chief Middle East correspondent for the Associated Press, who was the longest-held hostage of the scores of westerners abducted in Lebanon, died on Sunday at his home in Greenwood Lake, New York, said Sulome Anderson, who was born three months after her father was seized. No cause of death was given.

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Residents push for renaming of Trump Plaza to disassociate from ex-president

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Tenants of the high-rise in New Rochelle, New York, want to abandon the name which has at times affected real estate value

While Donald Trump endures the ignominy of being the first former US president to face criminal trial, there is further humiliation brewing, with a movement to strip the Trump name from a building in his home state.

Residents at Trump Plaza, a 40-story high-rise in the suburban New York city of New Rochelle, are pushing for the building to be renamed and to escape a near-two decade association with the legally-troubled ex-president and real estate mogul.

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Police arrest Columbia University students protesting Israel’s war on Gaza

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Students set up encampments to demand Columbia divest from Israel while those at USC gathered in support of Asna Tabassum

Tensions on Columbia University’s campus continued to rise on Thursday as the New York police department began breaking up student protests over Israel’s war on Gaza, at the direction of the school’s president, and arrests were made.

Hundreds of students pitched tents and began camping out in the center of the famous central campus from early morning on Wednesday in protest, demanding a ceasefire and for the university to financially divest from Israel, prompting Columbia’s president, Minouche Shafik, to issue a stark warning.

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Trump rebuked as hush-money trial judge warns against juror intimidation

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Juan Merchan admonishes ex-president for ‘gesturing and speaking in the direction of the juror’ as jury selection continues

Donald Trump met a stern rebuke on Tuesday from the jurist presiding over his criminal hush-money trial, with the judge warning: “I won’t have any jurors intimidated in this courtroom.”

Trump’s apparent misbehavior did not derail the trial’s progress; seven jurors were picked by day’s end.

A guide to Trump’s hush-money trial – so far

The key arguments prosecutors will use against Trump

How will Trump’s trial work?

From Michael Cohen to Stormy Daniels: the key players

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