Tech company says it has ‘decided not to move forward’ with giant campus in Queens
Amazon has cancelled its plans for a new headquarters in New York City following a torrent of local political opposition.
“After much thought and deliberation, we’ve decided not to move forward with our plans to build a headquarters for Amazon in Long Island City, Queens,” the company said in a statement.
Continue reading...Joaquín Guzmán, 61, could spend the rest of his life behind bars after being convicted following three-month New York trial
The notorious cartel boss Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán has been found guilty of 10 counts of drug trafficking, at the end of a three-month New York trial that featured dramatic testimony of prison escapes, gruesome killings and million-dollar political payoffs.
Related: Behind the El Chapo trial: what's been left unsaid in a New York courtroom
Continue reading...Jury has surprised observers and unnerved prosecutors by asking for transcripts of ‘snitch’ witnesses
Whatever happens in the jury room in Brooklyn this Monday morning, people outside are starting to think the unthinkable: that Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán might get off.
It would be a reckless gambler that would bet on acquittal for the accused Mexican drug lord, but the odds shorten with each day of indecision. This is not the slam-dunk conviction prosecutors – and most of the rest of the world – were expecting.
Continue reading...Demonstrators call on museum to refuse donations from the owners of OxyContin
US art photographer and activist Nan Goldin brought the Guggenheim Museum in New York to a standstill on Saturday night as thousands of fake prescriptions were dropped into the atrium to protest against the institution’s acceptance of donations from the family who owns the maker of OxyContin – the prescription painkiller at the root of America’s opioids crisis.
Tourists and locals gawped in confusion as Goldin and fellow demonstrators began chanting criticism of the Sackler family, who owns Purdue Pharma. The activists handed out fake pill bottles as sheets of paper fluttered down inside the landmark building.
Continue reading...Instagrammer Jonathan shares his obsession with the city’s doors, from the grand to the graffiti-ridden
It is only natural to feel curious about what goes on behind the imposing, archaic or graffiti-ridden doors of our cities.
Instagrammer Jonathan knows this feeling all too well. For the past year and a half he has been photographing the doors of New York from the grand to the scruffy, presenting a unique view of this well-documented city.
Continue reading...Peggy Gavan’s book sheds light on the lives of workers in storied institutions in the 1800s and 1900s – and their bonds with cats
New York was no place for a stray cat in the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Thousands of feral cats were rounded up and gassed, ostensibly for “humanitarian reasons”. Poor children were paid one nickel per catch, which meant scores of healthy pets also met their ends.
Continue reading...An extreme concentration of wealth in a city where even the air is for sale has produced a new breed of needle-like tower. By Oliver Wainwright
It is rare in the history of architecture for a new type of building to emerge. The Romans’ discovery of concrete birthed the great domes and fortifications of its empire. The Victorians’ development of steel led to an era of majestic bridges and vaulted train sheds. The American invention of the elevator created the first skyscrapers in Chicago. Now, we are seeing a new type of structure that perfectly embodies the 21st-century age of technical ingenuity and extreme inequality. A heady confluence of engineering prowess, zoning loopholes and an unparalleled concentration of personal wealth have together spawned a new species of super-tall, super-skinny, super-expensive spire.
Any visitor to New York over the past few years will have witnessed this curious new breed of pencil-thin tower. Poking up above the Manhattan skyline like etiolated beanpoles, they seem to defy the laws of both gravity and commercial sense. They stand like naked elevator shafts awaiting their floors, raw extrusions of capital piled up until it hits the clouds.
Continue reading...Unsealed documents made public just as jury is about to start deliberations in Joaquín Guzmán’s drug-trafficking case
Unsealed documents about the Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán contain claims by witnesses that he had sex with minors he called “vitamins”. The disturbing allegation comes just as a jury is about to start deliberating in the US drug-trafficking case.
Related: Betrayal, torture and a $100m bribe: what the El Chapo trial has revealed
Continue reading...Prisoners at the Metropolitan Detention Center in New York have been banging on the walls and windows of their cells to get attention from people on the street in protest against conditions inside. The facility has not had any heating in the last week despite the freezing temperatures
Continue reading...Brooklyn star with huge social media following says he helped others try to kill a rival in the gang
The Brooklyn rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine is cooperating with federal prosecutors after pleading guilty to nine crimes and saying he joined a violent New York City gang and helped others try to kill a rival gang member.
The plea was entered last week by the 22-year-old rapper, whose legal name is Daniel Hernandez. Information about it was unsealed Friday in Manhattan federal court.
Continue reading...Just a quarter of stations in the nation’s largest transit system are accessible, leaving wheelchair users and parents with small kids struggling
New Yorkers have stepped up their criticism of the lack of elevators in city subway stations after the death of a young mother shed new light on the inaccessibility of the nation’s largest transit system.
Only a quarter of subway stations – 118 out of 472 – are accessible, leaving people who use wheelchairs, parents with small kids, and others struggling to get around the city.
Continue reading...A museum in New York claims to be the only collection focusing on the KGB’s espionage operations in the world. The newly opened exhibition hall, housed in a former warehouse on 14th Street, is home to 3,500 original period objects, which the designer of the museum, Julius Urbaitis, has gathered after 30 years of research around the world
Continue reading...Prosecution case against accused Mexican drug lord had lasted 11 weeks
After a prosecution that spanned 11 weeks and had its share of bombshells, the defense case at the US trial of the alleged Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán clocked in on Tuesday at a mere 30 minutes.
Attorney Jeffrey Lichtman called one witness and entered one document into evidence before resting the defense’s case. The jury was sent home for the day with closing arguments set to begin on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Subpoenas for financial information likely include Jenner and firms representing 25 models who starred in promotional video
Supermodels including Kendall Jenner, Bella Hadid, Elsa Hosk and Emily Ratajkowski, are potentially steps away from facing demands to return sizeable payments they received for helping to promote the ill-fated Fyre Festival.
On Monday, a New York bankruptcy judge signed off on subpoenas submitted by the trustee overseeing the bankruptcy of the Bahamas music festival, which collapsed in chaos and discord before it had even got under way last April, requesting “information regarding the [Fyre Media’s] financial affairs from third parties”.
Continue reading...Housekeeper Marites Fortaliza was alone in Warren Stephens’s townhouse when she became trapped on Friday night
A woman was rescued on Monday after being trapped in the elevator of a billionaire’s Manhattan townhouse for an entire weekend. She is now in the hospital in stable condition.
The house is owned by Warren Stephens, the chief executive of the investment bank Stephens. He has an estimated net worth of $2.4bn.
Continue reading...Guzmán alleged to have committed three murders, marking first time in three-month trial he has been personally accused
A former bodyguard for the accused Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán has told a court that he watched his boss personally carry out three murders, including one in which the victim was buried alive.
The killings described by Isaías Valdéz Ríos in federal court in Brooklyn, New York, were the first in the three-month-old trial to be attributed to Guzmán himself, rather than underlings following his orders.
Continue reading...Bodies of Rotana Farea and Tala Farea were found taped together, lying on rocks along the river last October
The tragic and mysterious death of two Saudi Arabian sisters whose bodies were found, taped together, along New York City’s waterfront last October appears to have been a double suicide.
Rotana and Tala Farea both drowned and the cause of death was suicide, New York medical examiner Barbara Sampson said in a brief report on Tuesday evening.
Continue reading...A collection of vintage ski and winter sports posters up to a century old – some worth thousands of dollars – is about to be auctioned in New York. The resorts advertised range from Europe’s Alpine jewels to the mountains of Canada, and all offer fun in the outdoors
Continue reading...A New York court has heard how the Mexican drug lord Joaquín Guzmán eluded capture with his mistress while paying millions to politicians and police
That Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán – on trial in New York for heading the world’s biggest drug cartel – escaped a raid through a tunnel beneath his bath is legend; what is not known is that he did so stark naked with the mistress with whom he was abed when the Mexican marines arrived.
That Guzmán’s Sinaloa cartel bribed politicians and senior military officers is presumed by most Mexicans; that he bribed presidents would surprise few – what we had not heard is that he allegedly haggled down a presidential demand for $250m protection money to $100m.
Continue reading...Alex Cifuentes, a close associate of the cartel chief, testified that he told US authorities about the alleged bribe in 2016
A witness at the US trial of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán has testified that he told US authorities the accused Mexican drug lord once paid a $100m bribe to former Mexican president Enrique Peña Nieto.
Alex Cifuentes, who has said he was a close associate of the Sinaloa cartel chief for years, discussed the alleged bribe under cross-examination by one of Guzman’s lawyers in Brooklyn federal court on Tuesday. Asked if he told authorities in 2016 that Guzman arranged the bribe, he answered: “That’s right.”
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