Kamala Harris declared the Democrats are holding the line as America’s government shutdown hits day 18, pointing fingers at Republicans—who now helm Congress and the White House—as the chief culprits. With federal workers unpaid and the military a f…
Donald Trump, never shy of wielding blunt instruments, reportedly warned Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House that Russia could “destroy” his country unless he yields to Moscow’s terms, according to the Financial Times. Their fiery discussion—featuring interruptions, curse words, and discarded battlefield maps—left little doubt as to the stakes, but ample uncertainty about whether peace talks will involve more diplomacy or merely more table-pounding.
Quality Services for the Autism Community, a venerable Manhattan-based nonprofit serving over 2,700 New Yorkers, has signed a 15-year lease for 42,000 square feet at 222-25 Jamaica Avenue, Queens—a notable outer-borough coup by brokers Colliers and CBRE. Details on what the new Jamaica center will offer are pending, but with $104 million revenue in 2023, we suspect they can afford more than crayons and good intentions.
Donald Trump confirmed plans to slap new tariffs on Colombia, just days after halting US aid and branding President Gustavo Petro a “narcotrafficking leader”—a characterization Petro disputes with predictable vigour. Senator Lindsey Graham declared the measures imminent, insisting financial pain will sting more than lectures. US-Colombia ties, lately a high-wire act, seem set for yet another round of brinkmanship, with neither side short on rhetorical fireworks.
We watched as Zohran Mamdani, the Democratic mayoral hopeful, beamed alongside Brooklyn imam Siraj Wahhaj—whose sermons have included calls to “defend against” LGBTQ people, and praise for shaming them into conformity, if not worse. When pressed, Mamdani’s camp insisted his universal rights credentials stand tall, but past grins with Uganda’s anti-gay law architect Rebecca Kadaga suggest a penchant for unusual photo ops—and some curious lapses in vetting.
Donald Trump’s decision to commute George Santos’s seven-year prison term for fraud and theft after just 12 weeks has united New York Republicans in rare public dissent; a bevy of House members, still smarting from the seat they lost to his scandals, denounced the move as a travesty for victims and an unwise show of second chances—especially when remorse seems largely theoretical.
Police in Queens are probing the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Jonathan Adams, who was killed while visiting friends at a Jamaica home—a grim milestone as he becomes New York City’s 23rd teenage gun violence death this year, already outpacing last year’s toll. Despite the drop in shootings in the area, Adams’ death joins a recent spate of unrelated teen fatalities; some trends, it seems, refuse to get with the program.
Prosecutors in Queens finally charged Michael Benjamin, a 57-year-old Georgian, with raping five women nearly thirty years ago, after DNA from a police station coffee cup fingered him for unsolved assaults in Jamaica, St. Albans and other nearby neighbourhoods. Lawyers dispute whether a creative indictment in 2005 skirted fairness, but the suspect—who boasts no memory of events—may soon find New York justice as tenacious as its public defenders.
In Paterson, New Jersey, just fifteen miles from Manhattan, the city's sizable Palestinian enclave finds life increasingly marked by distant headlines, as Israel’s war in Gaza fuels anxiety and activism on this side of the Atlantic. Despite the thousands of miles separating them from the conflict, many locals insist events feel uncomfortably close—proving that geography is no match for WhatsApp and worry.
