Watchdog to look at use-of-force allegations in Portland and Washington as other mayors say: we don’t need your deployments
The justice department inspector general said on Thursday it would conduct a review of the conduct of federal agents who responded to unrest in Portland and Washington DC, following concerns from members of Congress and the public.
Related: DoJ watchdog opens investigation into federal agents' actions in Portland – live
Continue reading...New York judge orders documents unsealed after Maxwell’s lawyers had tried to keep them secret
An extensive collection of “extremely personal” documents in civil litigation against British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell can be unsealed, a Manhattan federal court judge ruled on Thursday.
The documents relate to Maxwell’s deposition in this litigation, as well as her early 2015 correspondence with her longterm associate, the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Continue reading...Cases of Covid-19 among the young are on the rise as outdoor drinking draws crowds in neighbourhoods across the city
Motorcycles revved, waiters served drinks, and food in busy outdoor street seating areas and, on the pavement, people gathered to sip to-go drinks.
On Saturday night in Astoria, in Queens, it was almost as if coronavirus had never hit New York City.
Continue reading...The former teacher, who earned the support of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Elizabeth Warren, ousted 16-term Eliot Engel
Jamaal Bowman, a former teacher endorsed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Elizabeth Warren, has ousted the 16-term Democratic congressman Eliot Engel in the race for New York’s 16th district, marking a major win for the party’s progressive wing.
Bowman had been leading Engel and candidate Christopher Fink since the 6 July primary but the race had not been called by the Associated Press until Friday. In the end Bowman defeated Engel with 55% of the vote, a margin of roughly 12,000 votes, when the race was called. Bowman had declared victory earlier in the month when in-person voting had concluded.
Continue reading...My son’s 14th birthday was the first he and I had spent apart – then he called to say his mother had Covid-19. We were faced with a reality I had hoped to forestall for ever
Welcome to the Guardian’s Power of Touch series
We Jacksons are not effusive types. There ain’t a helluva lot of hugging and touching at family gatherings. However, one of the few exceptions is my son, who’s been unfettered with his affections since he was toddling around his mother’s New Jersey home – he and I have never lived together full-time. My son’s been a boy who, unprompted, says, “Dad, I love you” and wraps me in the tightest of hugs. Who, when he’s seen his sister after a long absence, almost tackles her with glee. Who’s still apt to let a deluge go on account of hurt feelings. In plenty of explicit ways, he’s my emotional opposite, a boy who showed me how to embrace; who, along with his sister, softened parts of me that my own boyhood had hardened; a kid who’s been instrumental in ushering me as close to comfortable with physical expressions of love as I have been in all my almost 45 years of life.
What kind of father was I that I was scared to receive my flesh and blood?
Continue reading...Maxwell, who faces up to 35 years in federal prison, was denied bail and will remain in custody
Ghislaine Maxwell appeared in Manhattan federal court via video feed on Tuesday, to plead not guilty regarding her alleged involvement in Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking of minor girls.
Related: More victims of Jeffrey Epstein have come forward, says lawyer
Continue reading...Defense team had cited Covid-19 in asking for her to be freed as she awaits trial relating to Jeffrey Epstein’s sexual abuse of girls
Ghislaine Maxwell should not get bail while awaiting trial for her alleged involvement in Jeffrey Epstein’s child sex trafficking because she is an “extreme risk of flight”, prosecutors said on Monday, firing back at her legal team’s arguments that she is not.
Related: Ghislaine Maxwell requests bail release due to 'unprecedented' Covid-19 risks
Continue reading...Bill de Blasio on Thursday helped to paint the large, bright yellow mural on Fifth Avenue in front of Trump Tower in Manhattan. Similar murals have been painted on New York City streets and in other US cities including Washington DC, Raleigh in North Carolina, and Oakland in California. The Black Lives Matter movement gained momentum after the death of George Floyd who was killed by police in Minneapolis in May.
Continue reading...Slogan painted on Fifth Avenue a week after president tweeted it would be ‘a symbol of hate’
New York City’s mayor, Bill de Blasio, took part in painting “Black Lives Matter” in front of Trump Tower in Manhattan on Thursday, a week after Donald Trump tweeted it would be “a symbol of hate”.
De Blasio was flanked by his wife, Chirlane McCray, and the Rev Al Sharpton as he helped paint the racial justice rallying cry in giant yellow letters on Fifth Avenue in front of Trump Tower. Activists watching chanted: “Whose streets? Our streets!”
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The Mississippi state government has started a process that will see the Confederate battle emblem removed from the state’s flag.
Breaking: House passed it with the two-thirds majority it required. It got immediate release, meaning Senate could take it up as soon as they want.
The latest: https://t.co/Jgcddn3i34 #msleg https://t.co/rKwKGkMmWt
The legislature has been deadlocked for days as it considers a new state flag. The argument over the 1894 flag has become as divisive as the flag itself and it’s time to end it.
If they send me a bill this weekend, I will sign it. pic.twitter.com/bf3vyzuObt
The Winston-Salem Journal reports on a disturbing development in the Bubba Wallace story. Wallace, Nascar’s only black driver, led a successful campaign to rid the stock-car racing series of the Confederate flag. Last week, a noose was found in his team’s garage although a subsequent investigation found the rope had been there since last fall, and Wallace was not the subject of a hate crime. Here’s what the Associated Press has to say on the latest development:
A North Carolina racetrack has lost some partnerships after its owner advertised “Bubba Rope” for sale online days after Nascar said a noose had been found in the garage stall of Bubba Wallace, the top series’ only Black driver.
Continue reading...Glaser’s bold logo, created for free in 1977, helped boost New York’s image and he was also part of the team that founded New York magazine
Milton Glaser, the groundbreaking graphic designer who adorned Bob Dylan’s silhouette with psychedelic hair and summed up the feelings for his native New York with “I (HEART) NY,” died Friday, on his 91st birthday.
The cause was a stroke and Glaser had also had renal failure, his wife, Shirley Glaser, told The New York Times.
Continue reading...Officers’ claims of Shake Shack ‘bleach poisoning’ were formally investigated and quickly dismissed by the NYPD’s own chief of detectives while Starbucks has debunked ‘tampongate’
Some good news, finally, for cops: you can go back to eating at Shake Shack without worry.
Last week, after drinking some weird tasting shakes, three New York officers alleged they had been poisoned with bleach. The claims were formally investigated and quickly dismissed by the NYPD’s own chief of detectives after video footage showed that the drinks had not been tampered with by employees. Subsequent New York Post reporting has shown the officers checked into the hospital even though they weren’t sick and, importantly, that Shake Shack could not have known they were cops because they pre-ordered through the Shake Shack app.
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Speaking at his joint press conference with Polish President Andrzej Duda, Trump confirmed he would be drawing down the US troop presence in Germany.
The US president told reporters gathered in the Rose Garden that his administration would reduce troop numbers in Germany from 52,000 to 25,000 and would probably then send some of those troops to Poland.
"They'll be paying for the sending of additional troops" -- Trump announces that Poland has bought US troops that have been stationed in Germany pic.twitter.com/4DnhvNQrcv
Trump does Putin's bidding by blaming Obama and Joe Biden for Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2014 pic.twitter.com/MvYiK7W62Z
A grand jury has indicted three men on murder charges in connection to the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, who was fatally shot while jogging in a Georgia neighborhood.
Cobb district attorney Joyette M. Holmes announced that a Glynn county grand jury has indicted Travis McMichael, Greg McMichael and William R. Bryan on malice and felony murder charges in the February 23 death of Arbery.
Continue reading...She is backed by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and represents a voice much needed in the south Bronx - but can López beat the nine others vying for the seat?
The first time Samelys López stood up for an adult she was eight years old. She and her mother were waiting in the welfare office for food stamps when López overheard the case officer speaking down to her mother.
Their lives before they got there hadn’t been easy. López and her mother moved from Puerto Rico when López was a baby, relocating to Williamsburg in New York. Back then, Williamsburg was the most densely populated city in the US: a by-word for poverty rather than trendy coffee shops and vintage boutiques as it is today. It was also host to a fierce sweatshop trade, and López’s family were privy to its harsh hours and low pay.
Continue reading...William Barr said Geoffrey Berman had stepped down, a fact denied by the influential attorney involved in investigations of Rudy Giuliani and Michael Cohen
US attorney general William Barr announced the resignation on Friday of an influential attorney who oversaw key prosecutions of allies of Donald Trump and an investigation into Rudy Giuliani – but it appeared the attorney in question had other ideas.
Related: White House defends Bolton hiring as Trump administration tries to block book
Continue reading...Move follows previous and current staff complaining of toxic working environment at global advocacy group
The global advocacy group for gender equality Women Deliver has launched an investigation into allegations of racism and discrimination within the organisation.
Its CEO, Katja Iversen, a G7 advisor on gender equality, has issued an apology and taken a leave of absence until the conclusion of the investigation.
Continue reading...More than 2,000 people have been arrested in the city and the police treatment of those detained is emboldening people
Protesters in New York have been unnecessarily arrested and detained for as long as 48 hours in “abysmal” conditions without access to masks, food and water, according to legal experts.
Since the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis just over two weeks ago, tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets of New York City in protest over police brutality.
Continue reading...Many ‘non-essential’ stores can open for delivery and pick-up as construction, manufacturing and wholesalers return to work
After three bleak months, New York, the corner of the US hit hardest by the coronavirus, gradually began reopening on Monday in what was seen as a landmark moment in the crisis and a test of the city’s discipline.
Related: 'People are too afraid': churches begin to reopen – but will worshippers go back?
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After a day of protests across Australia, Guardian staff have compiled some of the most striking images.
Tens of thousands rallied in state capital cities and towns to march against Indigenous deaths in custody and the killing of George Floyd.
The nationwide anti-police brutality protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd in the US have been marked by widespread incidents of police violence, including punching, kicking, gassing, pepper-spraying and driving vehicles at often peaceful protesters in states across the country.
The actions have left thousands of protesters in jail and injured many others, leaving some with life-threatening injuries.
Related: Protests about police brutality are met with wave of police brutality across US
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With protests over police brutality and the death of George Flloyd continuing around the US today, a short report from our voting rights editor on events this afternoon in Brooklyn, New York City:
Thousands of protestors converged on Brooklyn’s Cadman Plaza today for a memorial for George Floyd. The event was attended by Floyd’s brother, Terrence, who addressed the crowd with calls for solidarity and peaceful protest in memory of his brother.
Emotional and heartfelt speech from George’s Floyd’s brother Terrence today at the memorial in Cadman Plaza. #blacklivesmatter #powertothepeople #georgefloyd pic.twitter.com/UpE5J6euor
Rev Al Sharpton also used his eulogy at the memorial service for George Floyd to announce that, with the Floyd family, he would organise a march on Washington on 28 August to demand reform of the criminal justice system.
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