James Kane and Barbie Agostini pull up safe in Queens park with bundles of $100 bills inside and are told by police they can keep it
A New York City couple who were “magnet fishing” in a lake caught more than they had bargained for when they pulled out a safe that had $100,000 cash inside.
James Kane and Barbie Agostini tossed a line with a strong magnet attached to the end into a lake in Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens on 31 May, Friday afternoon.
Continue reading...In Fox interview, Trump derides his conviction and baselessly characterizes it as political weaponization of US justice system
Donald Trump on Sunday lauded the Republican party for rallying behind him in the wake of his conviction on 34 felony charges in a hush-money case aimed at influencing the 2016 election.
Trump made the comments in his first sit-down press interview since the guilty verdict was returned on Friday that held he falsified business records linked to an illicit affair with adult actor Stormy Daniels. The former US president appeared on Sunday in a taped interview on Fox & Friends, a friendly forum on the rightwing channel and in which he was served up a series of softball questions by a trio of Fox hosts.
Continue reading...Ex-president should also be made ‘the volunteer punching bag at a women’s shelter’, says former actor, following guilty verdict
Stormy Daniels has called for Donald Trump to be jailed after he was convicted of 34 counts of falsifying business records.
The adult film star, who was paid $130,000 as “legal expenses” for her silence about her affair with the former US president, warned the presidential candidate is “completely and utterly out of touch with reality”.
Continue reading...Failed contender for the Democratic presidential nomination says Kathy Hochul should grant pardon ‘for the good of the country’
The outgoing Democratic US congressman who failed in his presidential primary challenge against Joe Biden called on the New York governor, Kathy Hochul, to pardon Donald Trump over his criminal conviction for hush-money payments to influence the 2016 election “for the good of the country”.
Minnesota representative Dean Phillips, who was the first Democrat to call on fellow party member Henry Cuellar to resign following bribery charges against the Texas congressman, urged for the pardon on Friday in a post on X.
Continue reading...All opinions could be found on streets of New York City after conviction, including: ‘This is going to hand him the election’
The aftermath of the conviction of Donald Trump on 34 felony counts played out amid scenes of stress, jubilation and shock in Manhattan – the slice of New York that first made the former US president into a global celebrity and has now declared one of its most famous sons a guilty criminal.
Police cruisers tore downtown after jurors announced they’d reached a verdict in Trump’s hush-money trial, and many New Yorkers had been glued to their phones waiting for the decision to be relayed. Mayor Eric Adams tried to reassure citizens that authorities were prepared for unrest.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Kathy Hochul pushes online child safety, telling social media companies: ‘You’re not going to profit off the mental health of children’
The New York governor, Kathy Hochul, plans to introduce a bill banning smartphones in schools, the latest in a series of legislative moves aimed at online child safety by New York’s top official.
“I have seen these addictive algorithms pull in young people, literally capture them and make them prisoners in a space where they are cut off from human connection, social interaction and normal classroom activity,” she said.
Continue reading...Former mayor repeatedly lied and deceived creditors about his finances to avoid money going to them, lawyers say in court filing
A bankruptcy judge should appoint a trustee to immediately take control of Rudy Giuliani’s financial affairs after the former mayor repeatedly lied and deceived creditors about his finances, lawyers for the creditors said in a Tuesday court filing.
Among other things, the lawyers said Giuliani was funneling money into his businesses to avoid it going to creditors, undervalued his jewellery, and refused to disclose what several Apple and Amazon purchases were for. Giuliani filed for bankruptcy in December, shortly after a jury in Washington DC ordered him to pay $148.1m in damages to Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss – two Atlanta, Georgia, election workers he spread lies about after the 2020 election.
Continue reading...Dan Ilic wanted to project Vincent Namitjira’s work after Australia’s richest woman tried to have it removed from the National Gallery
An Australian comedian has dropped his plan to broadcast Vincent Namatjira’s contentious portrait of Gina Rinehart to thousands of tourists and New Yorkers in Times Square.
Dan Ilic told Guardian Australia on Tuesday lunchtime that, after exceeding his crowdfunding target of A$30,000, his stunt would go live in Times Square at 8pm on Friday night.
Continue reading...President entreats graduates at commencement to ‘hold fast’ to oath to US constitution in veiled reference to Trump’s threat to democracy
Joe Biden has called newly graduating US military officers the “guardians of American democracy” at a commencement speech in New York state, where the US president, without mentioning Donald Trump by name, gave strong warnings of unprecedented threats to US freedom.
Biden told the West Point military academy graduating class of 2024 that it is being called upon to tackle threats across the globe as well as preserve America’s ideals at home.
Continue reading...Two installations host a 24/7 live stream in both cities, but a small number of visitors initially abused the opportunity
The live video portal linking Dublin, Ireland, to New York, New York, has reopened after unruly behavior got the modern art sculpture temporarily shut down.
The two installations making up the Portal – created by the Lithuanian artist Benediktas Gylys – host a 24/7 live stream in both cities so people can see and interact with each other. One installation is located in the Flatiron district of New York, and the other is on Dublin’s popular O’Connell Street.
Continue reading...PFAS chemicals present in air, rain, atmosphere and water in basin, which holds nearly 95% of US freshwater
Toxic PFAS “forever chemicals” are ubiquitous in the Great Lakes basin’s air, rain, atmosphere and water, new peer-reviewed research shows.
The first-of-its-kind, comprehensive picture of PFAS levels for the basin, which holds nearly 95% of the nation’s freshwater, also reveals that precipitation is probably a major contributor to the lakes’ contamination.
This story was amended on 18 May 2024 to clarify that Buffalo does not border Lake Ontario.
Continue reading...As new exhibition opens in Amsterdam exploring the settlement of North America, original Manhattanites demand apology
Representatives for some of the Lenape people have called for an apology and reparations for the 17th-century Dutch “settling” of New Amsterdam, the place that is now New York.
Precisely four centuries after the Dutch established a colony at the mouth of the Hudson River, some descendants of Indigenous Americans believe it is time for a fuller story of the wars on their people, slavery, exploitation and dispersal.
Continue reading...Livestream artwork with 2.4m-wide screen allowed people in both cities to see but not hear each other, leading to offensive conduct
Authorities in Dublin are to temporarily shut down the live video portal with New York because of unruly behaviour.
The city council said in a statement on Tuesday it would switch off the interactive webcam at 10pm Irish time while technicians try to tweak – or censor – a project that has brought delight and notoriety.
Continue reading...Dubliners urged to give ‘Irish welcome’ via interactive sculpture, but bad behaviour has also been on display
Rain sluiced down on a grey Dublin afternoon but the crowd clustering around the portal ignored the downpour and waved at a man cycling towards the screen on a sunny morning in Manhattan.
He gazed back, waved and wobbled before recovering his balance and vanishing down Fifth Avenue, eliciting a cheer from the sodden observers on North Earl Street.
Continue reading...Former fixer tells hush-money trial Trump was ‘really angry’ after account of alleged sexual liaison with adult film star emerged
Donald Trump told his one-time fixer Michael Cohen to bury Stormy Daniels’s account of an alleged sexual liaison weeks before the election, demanding that he “just take care of it”, according to trial testimony in Manhattan court on Monday.
“This was a disaster, a fucking disaster,” Cohen, after he took the stand, recalled Trump saying. “Women will hate me.”
Continue reading...Sales to proceed despite failing to regain control of its website as staff and cybersecurity scramble to fix issue
The success of New York’s spring art auctions was in jeopardy Sunday, a day after auction house Christie’s confirmed that its website had been hacked, potentially shutting out some bidders on $850m worth of art work going up for bid this week.
Yet despite failing to regain control of its website, Christie’s said that its auctions – the most important of the year in the art world – would go ahead in person and by phone.
Continue reading...WABC owner says Trump ally received warnings not to discuss ‘election fallacies’ and that refusal to do so ‘left me no option’
The former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani’s troubles deepened on Friday when he was suspended by WABC radio, for trying to use his show to discuss the lie that the 2020 presidential election was lost by Donald Trump because of electoral fraud.
John Catsimatidis, a New York billionaire, Republican donor and owner of WABC, told the New York Times: “We’re not going to talk about fallacies of the November 2020 election. We warned him once. We warned him twice. And I get a text from him last night, and I get a text from him this morning that he refuses not to talk about it.
Continue reading...Jury hears from adult film star on 13th day of ex-president’s criminal trial in New York
Donald Trump’s criminal trial entered a new stage on Tuesday with testimony from Stormy Daniels, an adult film star at the center of his hush-money scandal, who told jurors that they had a sexual liaison in 2006 that left her nervous and ashamed.
“My hands were shaking so hard that I was having a hard time getting dressed,” said Daniels, who told jurors that she had gone to Trump’s Lake Tahoe hotel room under the belief that they would be getting dinner after meeting there.
Continue reading...This blog has now closed. You can see a gallery of the highlights here and read our coverage of a nearby protest calling for a Gaza ceasefire here
Co-chair and absolute queen of meta-dressing – see the shoes with tennis ball heels she wore to promote sexy tennis flick, Challengers – Zendaya has arrived. Her stylist Law Roach has had the internet speculating, with a red herring post yesterday on Instagram that read “How did I forget that I have this dress in my archive!… we had the dress the entire time,” followed by a face palm enoji. But the floral Emanuel Ungaro couture gown he posted a picture of was clearly not meant to be. Of course Zendaya went for the drama of this gown by Maison Margiela’s John Galliano, complete with wonky silhouette and plumage.
The Met Gala is all about drama and the British actor Gwendoline Christie is certainly bringing it by slowly ascending the steps and giving a different pose at each level. The GOT star is wearing a red velvet gown and sheer tulle cape by John Galliano for Maison Margiela. She closed his spring ’24 couture show in January so it’s a natural fit. Although we do kind of wish she’d opted for that corseted rubber look. This feels a little less adventurous and tonight of all nights is when you can really push the red carpet boundaries. The bouffant is fabulous, wonder how many cans of hairspray it took?
Continue reading...Dramatic conjunction of forces with aim to crash gala separated only by New York police and metal barricades
Dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters came within a block of disrupting celebrity fashion’s biggest night out – the Met Gala – on Monday evening in a dramatic conjunction of forces that was separated only by New York police and metal barricades.
Some protesters, chanting “Rafah!, Gaza!”, said it was their intention to crash the gala. Others said they didn’t know about it. At times, a roughly equal number of police were guiding the winding protest through New York’s Upper East Side as they were preventing fashion fans from getting a glimpse of their favorite celebrities.
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