Flash flood warnings were issued for parts of New York and Pennsylvania and an emergency was declared in New Jersey
At least two people were killed Monday evening in New Jersey amid heavy rain and flooding in that state and New York, according to authorities.
The pair died in the city of Plainfield when the car they were in was swept into Cedar Brook during flash flooding, local officials announced on Facebook.
Continue reading...Former governor lost the Democratic primary to Zohran Mamdani by more than 12 points last month
Andrew Cuomo, the former New York governor, said on Monday that he will run as an independent in New York City’s mayoral race, after losing in the Democratic primary to Zohran Mamdani.
Many saw Cuomo as the favorite in the primary, but he ultimately lost to Mamdani, a current member of the New York state assembly, by more than 12 points.
Continue reading...Jury finds music mogul not guilty on most serious charges but judge denies request for bail
A New York Jury has found Sean “Diddy” Combs guilty of two counts and not guilty on three counts, following a closely watched seven-week federal trial marked by emotional and graphic testimony.
The mixed verdict saw Combs being found not guilty of the biggest charge, racketeering conspiracy, not guilty of the sex trafficking of Casandra Ventura or the sex trafficking of “Jane”, and guilty of both the transportation to engage in prostitution related to Casandra Ventura and the transportation to engage in prostitution related to “Jane”.
Continue reading...Move comes after rightwing Republican accuses New York City mayoral candidate of concealing support for ‘terrorism’
The Trump administration has raised the possibility of stripping Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic mayoral candidate for New York City, of his US citizenship as part of a crackdown against foreign-born citizens convicted of certain offences.
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, appeared to pave the way for an investigation into Mamdani’s status after Andy Ogles, a rightwing Republican representative for Tennessee, called for his citizenship to be revoked on the grounds that he may have concealed his support for “terrorism” during the naturalization process.
Continue reading...Twelve-member jury in New York starts to deliberate following closing arguments from both sides
After seven weeks of testimony from more than 30 witnesses, jurors in the high-profile federal sex-trafficking and racketeering conspiracy trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs have begun deliberations, but ended their day with no verdict.
The 12-member jury – made up of eight men and four women – began deliberating on Monday, following closing arguments from both sides that concluded on Friday and lengthy instructions from the judge.
Continue reading...Woman’s injuries were not life-threatening, and officials were unable to find the likely young sand tiger shark
A 20-year-old woman was likely bitten by a juvenile shark while waist-deep in the surf at a suburban New York beach, according to state officials.
The unidentified woman suffered minor lacerations to her left leg and foot after being bitten Wednesday at Jones Beach state park on Long Island. She was treated for injuries that were not life-threatening, according to a release from state parks officials.
Continue reading...Hugo Carvajal faces narco-terrorism and weapon charges amid accusations he helped lead a drug-trafficking group
A former top Venezuelan military intelligence chief has pleaded guilty in a Manhattan federal court to narco-terrorism conspiracy, drug-trafficking and weapons charges, piling further US pressure on the government of Nicolás Maduro.
Hugo Armando Carvajal Barrios, AKA “El Pollo” or “The Chicken”, was the director of Venezuela’s military intelligence under presidents Hugo Chávez and Maduro. On Wednesday, days before his trial was set to begin, he pleaded guilty to four federal counts, related to accusations that he helped lead a drug-trafficking group within the Venezuelan government.
Continue reading...Democratic socialist tells MSNBC his campaign against Cuomo shows leftist politics can thrive beyond New York
Zohran Mamdani, in his first major interview since his upset victory in the Democratic party’s mayoral primary in New York shook up US politics, said his brand of campaigning and leftist political stances can translate to anywhere in the US.
Mamdani, a Democratic socialist, stunned many observers by beating Andrew Cuomo on Tuesday night, delivering a devastating blow to the former New York governor who ran a centrist campaign backed by most of the party establishment.
Continue reading...Mamdani signifies a generational change and rebuke to a party establishment grown complacent and hypocritical
The party was on its knees. It failed to beat Donald Trump, a twice impeached convicted felon, and lost both chambers of Congress. Since November, Democrats have been searching for a path out of the wilderness. On Tuesday, they found one.
But instead of celebrating Zohran Mamdani’s apparent victory in the New York mayoral primary election, the first major Democratic contest since Trump’s win, many in the party establishment went into panic mode.
Continue reading...‘Tonight is his night,’ says ex-governor as progressive state representative is top in first round of counting
Zohran Mamdani, the 33-year-old democratic socialist who would become New York’s first Muslim mayor if elected, led the city’s Democratic primary on Tuesday night, although it could be days before the final result is known.
After 90% of votes were counted in the primary’s first round, Mamdani, a state representative, had 43.5% of the vote. Andrew Cuomo, the former New York governor who had been a heavy favorite until recent weeks, was at 36.3%, and appeared to concede on Tuesday night. Speaking at a campaign rally Cuomo said Mamdani had run a “really smart campaign”.
Continue reading...Activist condemns Columbia’s ‘shameful trustees’ but praises students’ courage after release from Ice detention
Mahmoud Khalil, the Palestinian rights activist, freed from Ice detention on Friday, returned to Columbia University on Sunday to renew his commitment to the cause of Palestinian freedom and opposition to both the university and the Trump administration.
Khalil arrived back in New York on Saturday after being released from more than 100 days in detention in Louisiana by a federal judge who ruled that punishing someone over a civil immigration matter was unconstitutional and ordered his immediate release on bail.
Continue reading...Temperatures at or above 100F expected as extreme hot air and humidity are trapped in atmosphere
Scores of millions of people across the central and eastern US will swelter under the summer’s first “heat dome” beginning this weekend and extending through the end of next week as extreme hot air and humidity get trapped in the atmosphere.
The arrival of the heatwave coincides with Friday’s first day of summer and will bring temperatures at or above 100F (37.7C) to numerous cities as it moves to the east of the US in the coming days, forecasters say.
Continue reading...Brad Lander was manhandled and marched out of the courthouse after trying to shield a man from arrest – but, he tells the Guardian, he’s not backing down
As New York city comptroller and mayoral candidate Brad Lander was hauled away by masked Ice agents on Tuesday, all he could think about was whether there was anything more he could do for the man he was trying to help, an immigrant New Yorker named Edgardo.
Both men ended up detained, but unlike Edgardo’s, Lander’s ordeal was over after a few hours. By the time New York governor Katy Hochul marched him out of the courthouse – after proclaiming, of his arrest: “This is bullshit” – videos and photos of the officers manhandling him had gone viral. The arrest of yet another elected official prompted widespread condemnation of another sign of the US’s steady slide into authoritarianism. A host of New York politicians, along with a swelling crowd of angry New Yorkers, awaited Lander outside the courthouse in downtown Manhattan. (Andrew Cuomo, the former governor and mayoral race frontrunner, was a notable absence, though he did condemn the arrest.)
Continue reading...Lander, also the city’s comptroller, was ‘arrested for assaulting law enforcement’, says DHS
Brad Lander, New York City’s comptroller and a mayoral candidate, was arrested by masked federal agents while visiting an immigration court and accompanying a person out of a courtroom.
In a statement to the Guardian, assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin from the Department of Homeland Security said Lander “was arrested for assaulting law enforcement and impeding a federal officer”.
Continue reading...US appeals court denies challenge after 2023 civil jury trial found Trump sexually abused Carroll then defamed her
Donald Trump has lost his latest legal attempt to challenge the $5m in damages awarded against him for defaming E Jean Carroll, the New York writer who a jury found was sexually abused by the president in the 1990s, before he embarked on his political career.
A US appeals court in New York City on Friday denied Trump’s request to reconsider its decision in December to uphold the jury’s award of $5m to Carroll. The court was divided in its opinion, with two Trump-appointed judges, Steven Menashi and Michael Park, dissenting.
Continue reading...Music mogul warned to desist from looking and nodding at jury during sex-trafficking and racketeering conspiracy trial
The judge in the federal sex-trafficking and racketeering conspiracy trial of Sean “Diddy” Combs threatened to remove the music mogul from court for looking and nodding at the jury during testimony on Thursday.
The court also heard from a woman, under the pseudonym “Jane” and who previously dated Combs, as she began testifying about their relationship and the drug-fueled sexual marathons that she said Combs orchestrated.
Continue reading...Officials in New York, New Jersey, Iowa, New Hampshire and Maine issued alerts due to smoke from fires in Canada
Smoke from wildfires in Canada is spreading across multiple states in the US including the eastern seaboard, prompting multiple states to issue air-quality alerts.
The poor air quality stretching across the US came as a result of dozens of wildfires burning across Canada as the country’s annual wildfire season roars into destructive action.
Continue reading...Weiner makes comment as he campaigns for New York City council seat years after sexting scandal
Anthony Weiner says politicians such as him and Donald Trump can survive scandals while qualified candidates including Kamala Harris and Hillary Clinton lose elections because “women get judged much more harshly than men do”.
“I do believe that,” Weiner said Friday on ABC’s The View amid his run for a New York City council seat years after he crashed out of Congress in the wake of a sexting scandal that some argue aided Trump in clinching his first presidency in 2016.
Continue reading...Officials say Michail Chkhikvishvili is the leader of a neo-Nazi group that promotes violence against minorities
The leader of an eastern European neo-Nazi group has been extradited to the United States from Moldova following his arrest last summer for allegedly instructing an undercover federal agent to dress as Santa Claus and hand out poisoned candy to Jewish children and racial minorities, prosecutors said.
Michail Chkhikvishvili, a 21-year-old from the republic of Georgia, was arraigned on Friday before a federal judge in Brooklyn on multiple felonies, including soliciting hate crimes and acts of mass violence.
Continue reading...Ex-New York governor and current NYC mayoral candidate accused of mishandling nursing homes during pandemic
The justice department has reportedly opened a criminal investigation into Andrew Cuomo, the former New York governor and current frontrunner in the New York City mayoral race.
The investigation was launched after Republicans accused Cuomo of mishandling the state’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, multiple outlets reported on Tuesday.
Continue reading...