Category Archives: New York

New York attorney general seeks special monitor to oversee Trump firm

Posted on by

Tish James asks court to bar Trump Organization from offloading assets while civil fraud case against ex-president plays out

The New York state attorney general, Letitia James, on Thursday urged a court to appoint an independent monitor to oversee Donald Trump’s family company before a civil fraud case – against the former president, three of his adult children and the family’s real estate firm – goes to trial.

James’s injunction also sought to bar Trump’s company from conducting “significant fraudulent and illegal business” of precisely the kind described in the lawsuit filed by her office against him in September.

Continue reading...

Proposed New York law aims to protect fashion models from exploitation

Posted on by

The Fashion Workers Act would curb abuses ranging from enforced financial dependency to sex trafficking

Kaja Sokola was a shy teen from Wroclaw, Poland, when she received news that changed her life: modeling agents saw her photo during an open casting call, and they wanted her to walk at a show in Warsaw.

Sokola had done one or two walks in a dress or skirt, but the show was mostly underwear. She was 14.

Continue reading...

Two New York hospitals agree to pay more than $165m to 147 abuse victims

Posted on by

Robert Hadden, a former gynecologist, was accused in 2016 of sexually abusing female patients for over two decades

Two New York hospitals have agreed to pay more than $165m to 147 former patients who have accused a former gynecologist of sexual abuse and misconduct.

Columbia University Irving Medical Center and NewYork-Presbyterian announced the agreement Friday. Last year, the two hospitals reached a settlement to establish a $71m compensation fund with 79 former patients.

Continue reading...

Trouser snakes: US man accused of smuggling three reptiles in his pants

Posted on by

New Yorker accused of hiding large Burmese pythons in trousers while crossing from Canada in July could face 20-year sentence

A New York City man faces up to 20 years in prison for allegedly attempting to smuggle three large snakes across the US-Canada border – in his pants.

Queens resident Calvin Bautista, 36, is accused of hiding three Burmese pythons while on a bus crossing into the US at the Champlain port of entry in New York state on 15 July 2018, the Associated Press reported.

Continue reading...

Family of Black man who died after police held him down wins $12m payout

Posted on by

Daniel Prude died from ‘complications of asphyxia in the setting of physical restraint’ in Rochester, New York, in March 2020

City officials agreed to pay $12m to the children of Daniel Prude, a Black man who died when police who encountered him running naked through the snowy streets of Rochester, New York, put him in a hood and held him down until he stopped breathing.

A federal judge approved the settlement in a court document filed on Thursday. The Rochester mayor, Malik D Evans, said in a statement the agreement was “the best decision” for the city.

Continue reading...

Kevin Spacey trial begins in New York, five years after sexual abuse accusations

Posted on by

Anthony Rapp alleges Spacey acted to gratify sexual desire during an encounter in 1986, when he was 14 and the Oscar winner was 26 or 27

Actor Kevin Spacey faces the first of a series of sexual abuse claims dating back decades on Thursday in New York in a trial that may come to overshadow a glittering career on stage and screen that included two Oscars and numerous other top awards.

The case against the 63-year-old American focuses on accusations by Anthony Rapp, a star of the Broadway musical Rent, who five years ago publicly accused Spacey of sexual assault when he was a teenager.

Continue reading...

Russia’s consulate in New York vandalized in apparent protest

Posted on by

Building defaced hours before Putin announced annexation of Ukrainian territories and Russian forces killed 30 civilians

The Russian consulate in New York has been vandalized with red spray paint, in an apparent protest against Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Officers said they responded to an emergency call just after 1.30am on Friday reporting that paint had been sprayed across the facade of the consulate on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

Continue reading...

New York City mayor plans giant tents to house migrants sent by Republicans

Posted on by

City is also considering cruise ships and summer camps as it struggles to house an estimated 13,000 asylum seekers

New York’s mayor says he plans to erect hangar-sized tents as temporary shelter for thousands of international migrants who have been bussed into the city as part of a campaign by Republican governors to disrupt federal border policies.

The tents are among an array of options – from using cruise ships to summer camps – the city is considering as it struggles to find housing for an estimated 13,000 asylum seekers who have wound up in New York after being bussed north from border towns in Texas and Arizona.

Continue reading...

New York attorney general lawsuit accuses Trump of ‘staggering’ fraud

Posted on by

Letitia James’s civil suit accuses ex-president of inflating his net worth by billions in order to ‘enrich himself and cheat the system’

The attorney general of New York state has filed a civil fraud lawsuit against Donald Trump and three of his children involved in the family real-estate business, for falsely inflating his net worth by billions in order to enrich himself and secure favorable loans.

Announcing the suit in New York on Wednesday, Letitia James also said referrals had been made to federal prosecutors and the Internal Revenue Service – a move sure to anger the former US president and increase consternation among his inner circle about the depth of his legal predicament.

The Associated Press contributed reporting

Continue reading...

Writer E Jean Carroll to file new lawsuit after accusing Trump of rape

Posted on by

Carroll to file claim of battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress under new New York law

E Jean Carroll, the writer who accused Donald Trump of raping her more than two decades ago, plans to file a new lawsuit against the former US president.

In a letter made public on Tuesday, a lawyer for former Elle magazine columnist said she planned to sue Trump for battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress under New York state’s Adult Survivors Act.

Continue reading...

Ukraine war to take centre stage at UN as west and Russia vie for support

Posted on by

The general assembly is expected to see fresh tussles over future of Ukraine, as well as the threats of famine and the climate crisis in the global south

The UN general assembly summit this week will be dominated by a struggle – between the US and its allies on one side and Russia on the other – for global support over the fate of Ukraine, as the global south fights to stop the conflict from overshadowing the existential threats of famine and the climate crisis.

With a return to fully in-person general debate, presidents and prime ministers will be converging on New York, many of them direct from London, where the diplomacy got underway on the sidelines of the Queen’s funeral.

Continue reading...

The Phantom of the Opera to close on Broadway after 35 years

Posted on by

Broadway’s longest-running musical never fully recovered from the pandemic shutdown and will close next February

The Phantom of the Opera, Broadway’s longest-running show, is scheduled to close in February 2023.

The musical – a fixture on Broadway since 1988, weathering recessions, war and cultural shifts – will play its final performance on Broadway on 18 February, a spokesperson said on Friday. The closure will come less than a month after its 35th anniversary. It will conclude with an eye-popping 13,925 performances.

Continue reading...

Rats to the rescue: could pesky rodents finally get New Yorkers composting?

Posted on by

Campaigners hope to harness revulsion at booming rat numbers to expand composting services throughout the city and cut waste

At an August rally on the steps of New York’s city hall, rats were in the crosshairs. “No to rats”, read one poster. “Starve a rat”, read another. On a third, a pink rodent in a crown lounged on a throne of black garbage bags.

The demonstration wasn’t a generalized expression of anti-rat fervor. It was a gathering of sustainable waste activists. They had a proposition: composting could solve an escalating rodent problem that’s spreading across the city. “Our streets and sidewalks will be cleaner”, said New York City council member Carlina Rivera, “They’ll smell better and they’ll provide less food for rats, which is a public health crisis right now.”

Continue reading...

Former aide to Andrew Cuomo sues over alleged sexual harassment

Posted on by

Charlotte Bennett’s lawsuit is at least the second to be filed by one of the women who accused the former New York governor of misconduct


A onetime aide to former New York governor Andrew Cuomo sued him Wednesday, saying he sexually harassed her and then smeared her reputation after she became the second woman to publicly accuse him of misconduct.

Charlotte Bennett’s lawsuit, filed in a federal court in New York City, repeats many of the allegations she has talked about publicly in the year and a half since she first began telling her story.

Continue reading...

Anthony Varvaro, MLB player who joined New York police, dies in car crash on way to September 11 memorial

Posted on by

Pitcher who played for three major league teams before becoming Port Authority officer, was going to work at 9/11 ceremony in Manhattan

Anthony Varvaro, a former US Major League Baseball pitcher who retired in 2016 to become a police officer in the New York City area, was killed in a car accident Sunday morning on his way to work at the September 11 memorial ceremony in Manhattan, according to police officials and his former teams.

Varvaro, 37, was an officer for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. He played baseball at St John’s University in New York before a six-year career in the majors as a relief pitcher with the Seattle Mariners, Atlanta Braves and Boston Red Sox.

Continue reading...

Guns bought through credit cards in the US will now be trackable

Posted on by

A new ISO-approved measure will also allow sharing of suspicious purchases with law enforcement

Credit card purchases of firearms in the US can now be tracked and purchases deemed suspicious can even be shared with law enforcement, according to a new measure approved by an organization that sets parameters for business transactions.

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) voted in favor of creating a merchant code for firearms stores, according to Reuters.

Continue reading...

New York declares disaster emergency after polio detected in several counties

Posted on by

The governor’s latest step is a way to boost low vaccination rates in areas where the virus has been found

New York’s governor, Kathy Hochul, declared a disaster emergency on Friday and said the state was stepping up its polio-fighting efforts after the virus was detected in the wastewater of yet another county in the New York City area.

Health officials began checking for signs of the virus in sewage water after the first case of polio in the US in nearly a decade was identified in July in Rockland county, close to the city.

Continue reading...

Steve Bannon ‘stole millions of dollars to line his own pocket,’ New York attorney general says – as it happened

Posted on by

Steve Bannon has now been formally indicted, the Guardian’s Hugo Lowell reports.

Bannon was charged with money laundering and conspiracy in connection with his role in a fundraising effort to privately underwrite the construction of the US-Mexico border wall, according to the indictment unsealed on Thursday.

Continue reading...

‘Unhinged’ Rudy Giuliani drank and ranted about Islam, new book claims

Posted on by

Ex-mayor derailed ‘train wreck’ dinner with clients and colleagues, then was later considered for secretary of state

At a law firm dinner in New York in May 2016, an “unhinged” Rudy Giuliani, then Donald Trump’s suggested pick to head a commission on “radical Islamic terrorism”, behaved in a drunken and Islamophobic manner, horrifying clients and attorneys alike.

According to a new book by Geoffrey Berman, a former US attorney for the southern district of New York (SDNY), at one point Giuliani turned to a Jewish man “wearing a yarmulke [who] had ordered a kosher meal” and, under the impression the man was a Muslim, said: “I’m sorry to have tell you this, but the founder of your religion is a murderer.”

Continue reading...

Steve Bannon charged with money laundering and conspiracy in New York

Posted on by

Former Trump adviser surrendered to authorities in Manhattan in connection with fundraising scheme for US-Mexico border wall

Top former Trump strategist Steve Bannon has been charged in New York with money laundering, conspiracy and scheme to defraud in connection with his role in a fundraising effort to privately underwrite the construction of the US-Mexico border wall, according to the indictment unsealed on Thursday.

The indictment includes two counts of money laundering in the second degree and conspiracy in the fourth degree. Bannon surrendered himself to the Manhattan district attorney’s office after being told in recent days that charges were imminent, sources familiar with the matter said.

Continue reading...