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NEW YORK (AP) — New York mayoral candidates faced off in their first debate as voters prepare to choose the next person to lead America’s biggest city.
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NEW YORK (AP) — Two Californians diagnosed with mpox may be the first U.S. cases resulting from the local spread of a different version of the virus, health officials said.
The Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services this week confirmed the first case through testing at a state lab. Los Angeles County health officials on Thursday reported a second, similar case.
Officials say the risk to the public is low.
These are not the U.S. first cases of what is known as clade I mpox. But all six previous cases were among international travelers who were believed to have been infected abroad.
Both infected people in California were hospitalized, and they are now recovering at home. Officials declined to give other details.
Long Beach is located in Los Angeles County but has its own city health department. Investigators there say they have not found a close contact who traveled abroad, nor have they confirmed additional cases. A few of the person’s close contacts have been given a vaccine, said Nora Balanji, the Long Beach department’s communicable disease coordinator.
“We don’t have any proof that there has been ongoing community transmission,” she said. “It’s something we’re looking into. That’s something we’re concerned about.”
Mpox — also known as monkeypox — is a rare disease caused by infection with a virus that is in the same family as the one that causes smallpox. It is endemic in parts of Africa.
Milder symptoms can include fever, chills and body aches. In more serious cases, people can develop lesions on the face, hands, chest and genitals.
One version of the virus — called clade II — was the source of an international health crisis in 2022, when infections escalated in dozens of countries, mostly among men who have sex with men. At one point, the U.S. was averaging close to 500 cases per day.
The infections were rarely fatal, but many people suffered painful skin lesions for weeks. Those outbreaks waned later that year, thanks in part to the Jynneos vaccine made by Bavarian Nordic.
The other version — known as clade I — likewise can spread through sex, but also through other forms of contact. In Africa it has infected a broader range of people, including children.
A newer form of the clade I virus has been widely transmitted in eastern and central Africa. The World Health Organization declared the situation a public health emergency, but last month it said the problem had waned enough that it was no longer an international emergency.
Still, “it’s concerning if this virus has come here and now is starting to be transmitted from person to person,” said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious diseases expert at Vanderbilt University.
The case report comes amid a federal government shutdown and the layoffs of hundreds of employees at the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — the agency that usually would be involved in responding.
Balanji said a few CDC experts have been available to talk to her department about the situation. But Schaffner noted that “the longer the shutdown, the more impaired public health responses are to any outbreaks.”
A U.S. Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson referred questions to local health officials.
The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.
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As police departments around the country report a surge in 3D-printed firearms turning up at crime scenes, gun safety advocates and law enforcement officials are warning that a new generation of untraceable weapons could soon eclipse the “ghost guns” that have already flooded U.S. streets.
At a summit in New York City on Thursday, the advocacy group Everytown for Gun Safety will bring together policymakers, academics, 3D-printing industry leaders and law enforcement officials to confront the growing challenge. They fear that as the printers become cheaper and more sophisticated — and blueprints for gun parts spread rapidly online — the U.S. could be on the brink of another wave of unregulated, homemade weapons that evade serial-number tracking and background checks.
Numbers collected by Everytown from about two dozen police departments show how quickly the problem is growing: A little over 30 3D-printed guns were recovered in 2020. By 2024, that figure had climbed above 300. While still a fraction of the tens of thousands of firearms seized each year by the nation’s nearly 18,000 police departments, the spike mirrors the early trajectory of ghost guns — build-it-yourself weapons assembled from kits that for years eluded federal regulation.
“We are now starting to see what kind of feels very familiar,” said Nick Suplina, senior vice president of law and policy at Everytown. “It’s now at a small number of recoveries in certain major cities, such that it’s doubling or tripling year over year. We’re seeing this very familiar rate of growth and that’s why we’re getting this group together to discuss how to stop it.”
The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives imposed new rules in 2022 requiring serial numbers, background checks and age verification for ghost-gun kits, regulations upheld by the Supreme Court earlier this year. Lawsuits and state-level bans eventually pushed Polymer80, once the leading manufacturer of those kits, out of business in 2024.
But 3D-printed weapons present a thornier problem. They aren’t manufactured or sold through the firearms industry, and neither 3D-printer companies nor the cloud-based platforms that host gun blueprints fall under the ATF’s authority. That leaves much of the prevention work to voluntary action and new legislation.
In addition to seeking industry self regulations, the summit aims to bring together academics and policymakers to talk about possible legislative ways to address the issue such as creating statutes to criminalize manufacturing ghost guns or selling blueprints.
In New York, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has pressed printer manufacturers and online platforms to take down gun designs and add safeguards against misuse. His office recently asked YouTube to remove a tutorial on printing a gun that a suspect said he found while watching a Call of Duty demonstration.
″So we reached out to YouTube and got their policies updated,” Bragg said. “If we were just prosecuting gun possessions rather than thinking about how to prevent these guns from getting printed and proactively talking to these companies, then we would be sorely behind the curve.”
A major digital design platform also agreed to implement a detection and removal program earlier this year after Bragg’s office found numerous gun blueprints being shared and available for download on its site.
Both Everytown and Bragg said companies have been receptive. Some printer makers have introduced firmware that recognizes gun part shapes and blocks the machines from producing them, an approach that advocates compare to safeguards added decades ago to prevent color printers from copying currency.
John Amin, founder and CEO of Spanish company Print&Go, said he became fascinated with 3D printing when he was an engineering student. He voluntarily implemented a series of checks to prevent illegal weapons from being made including human oversight and automated detections.
“We must focus on curbing misuse, not demonizing the tool. And we already have powerful ways to do just that,” Amin said.
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In an Tuesday announcement, Walmart said the new offering will give customers the option to “simply chat and buy.” That means the retailer’s products would be available through instant checkout in ChatGPT — allowing users to buy anything from meal ingredients or household items, to other goods they might be discussing with the chatbot.
“For many years now, eCommerce shopping experiences have consisted of a search bar and a long list of item responses,” Walmart CEO Doug McMillon said in a prepared statement. “That is about to change.”
Sam Altman, cofounder and CEO of OpenAI, added that the partnership would “make everyday purchases a little simpler.”
The companies didn’t immediately specify when ChatGPT users would be able to start purchasing Walmart products within the platform. Tuesday’s announcement from Walmart just noted that the offering would be available “soon.”
But the partnership marks OpenAI’s latest expansion into online commerce. The company has recently launched similar offerings for Shopify and Etsy sellers.
Teaming up with Walmart — the nation’s largest retailer — marks an even more sizeable leap for OpenAI in this space. And competing with the likes of Amazon and Google for purchase fees from digital shopping could be a new source of money for the company. OpenAI hasn’t made a profit and has relied on investors to back the costs of building and running its powerful AI systems.
When announcing its Etsy and Shopify partnerships last month, OpenAI said it worked with payments company Stripe on the technical standards to enable purchases through its “Instant Checkout” system.
Separately, Walmart has worked to boost its own integration of AI across operations and its consumer-facing offerings in recent years. On Tuesday, the Bentonville, Arkansas-based company pointed to its AI shopping assistant named Sparky — as well as other uses of AI technology in product catalogues and customer care for both Walmart and Sam’s Club. Members of Sam’s Club, which is owned by Walmart, will also be able to shop through the coming ChatGPT offering.
Shares of Walmart were up more than 5% by Tuesday afternoon trading.
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EAST HAMPTON, N.Y. (AP) — Alec Baldwin and his younger brother Stephen escaped injury when their vehicle struck a tree in New York.
In a video posted to Instagram late Monday, Alec Baldwin said he was driving his wife’s Range Rover in East Hampton on Monday when he was cut off by a garbage truck “the size of a whale.” The 67-year-old actor and his 59-year-old brother and fellow actor were in the vehicle on their way back from attending the Hamptons International Film Festival, where Alec Baldwin serves as co-chair of the Executive Committee.
Alec Baldwin said that neither he nor his brother were injured, but the vehicle they were in had extensive damage. The elder Baldwin also thanked East Hampton police for their response to and handling of the crash. No other injuries were reported in the accident.
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NEW YORK (AP) — Toby Talbot, a great patron of art house cinema who with her husband, Dan, helped introduce movie lovers to celebrated works from Jean-Luc Godard,Pedro Almodóvar and hundreds of other international filmmakers and to American favorites old and new, has died at age 96.
Talbot died Sept. 15 at her home in Manhattan, The New York Times reported Monday. The cause was complications from Guillain-Barré syndrome, an autoimmune disease.
The Talbots, through their distribution company, New Yorker Films, and such prominent Manhattan theaters as The New Yorker and Lincoln Plaza Cinemas, were a prolific force behind the transformation of movies in the 1960s and ’70s from popular entertainment to an art form regarded with the seriousness of literature or painting. Martin Scorsese, Pauline Kael, Wim Wenders and Susan Sontag were among their many friends and customers, turning up for the latest Godard release, a documentary about Sen. Joseph McCarthy or a double feature of Cary Grant movies.
“The New Yorker was a very special place. It was a place of communion, where the customers, the owners, the programmers, and the filmmakers seemed to be part of the same family,” Scorsese wrote in the foreword to Toby Talbot’s memoir, “The New Yorker Theater,” which came out in 2009. “Dan and Toby were right there on the front lines, showing films … distributing films, sticking their neck out on pictures by Godard and Bertolucci and Fassbinder and Straub and Huillet and Oshima and Sembene.”
The New Yorker theater had a special role in movie history, as the setting for a classic scene from Woody Allen’s “Annie Hall”: While Allen and Diane Keaton wait on line in the lobby, they overhear a fellow moviegoer’s pedantic thoughts on the Canadian philosopher-media theorist Marshall McLuhan, who turns up in a cameo to rebuke the man.
For foreign language directors or for such contemporary American filmmakers as Allen or Jim Jarmusch who depended on the art house market, support from the Talbots was essential. The feature releases they championed were a template for cinephiles: Satyajit Ray’s “Pather Panchali” and Jarmusch’s “Stranger Than Paradise,” Yasujiro Ozu’s “Late Spring” and Werner Herzog’s “Aguirre, the Wrath of God.” The Talbots also helped inspire a reevaluation of Hollywood’s past, with retrospectives of Preston Sturges, Humphrey Bogart and Buster Keaton among others.
The Talbots’ art house dreams started in a car
Toby Talbot was born Toby Tolpen, a native New Yorker who met her future husband in 1949, went to the movies with him on dates and married him the following year. (They had three children). In the 1950s, Dan Talbot worked as an editor at Gold Medal Books among other jobs and Toby Talbot was an editor and translator.
Their art house years began spontaneously, on a road trip. The Talbots had been thinking about opening a book store in New Hampshire, but while driving north to look for possible locations they found themselves talking about the movies they loved. Soon after, Toby Talbot’s sister and brother-in-law mentioned that their accountant wanted to buy a theater on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. The Talbots convinced him to let them run it, on the condition that after a year they would have turned a profit.
The New Yorker Theater opened in March 1960, starting with Laurence Olivier’s “Henry V” and the French release “The Red Balloon.” The theater was a hit with critics and the general public, who loved not just the blend of foreign and American movies, but the New Yorker’s decorative touches, whether the mural designed by Jules Feiffer or the wall of black and white photos of Greta Garbo, Gloria Swanson and other stars. One summer night, Swanson herself emerged from a white limousine and headed inside for a showing of her most famous movie, “Sunset Boulevard,” while pausing first to look at the gallery of pictures.
“She lit up on finding herself in that stellar company and promptly checked her aging self on the mirrored wall, still angling for the best profile,” Talbot wrote in her memoir.
From The New Yorker, the Talbots expanded into bookselling, film distribution and additional venues. They opened a short-lived New Yorker bookstore and theaters on Manhattan’s Upper East Side and Upper West Side. In 1964, the Talbots were so impressed by a New York Film Festival screening of “Before the Revolution,” Bernard Bertolucci’s debut feature, they launched New Yorker Films so they could release it themselves.
Over the next 40 years, they acquired hundreds of films, from Senegalese director Ousmane Sembene’s “Black Girl” to Federico Fellini’s “City of Women.” Some releases enjoyed commercial success, such as the Wallace Shawn-Andre Gregory collaboration “My Dinner With Andre” and the Japanese comedy “Tampopo.” Others set off broader discussions, notably Claude Lanzmann’s epic Holocaust documentary, “Shoah,” which the Talbots premiered in the U.S. in 1985.
As the Talbots aged, the competition increased and the appeal of foreign films declined; their business holdings also contracted. The New Yorker theater closed in 1973 and they shut down New Yorker Films in 2009 (it was reopened later under new ownership). More recently, they ran just one theater, the six-screen Lincoln Plaza Cinemas. Dan Talbot died in 2017, just days after the building’s landlords declined to renew the lease for Lincoln Plaza.
“A movie house is not just a structure of brick and stone,” Toby Talbot wrote in her memoir. “It is a chamber where images captured in a much smaller one (the camera) survive on a screen. Movie scenes and images haunt my mental landscape with the fore of real life and dreams. Unbeckoned they surface.”
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LONG BEACH, N.Y. (AP) — A political candidate in the New York City suburbs went for a night swim in the Atlantic Ocean this past spring and never returned.
Petros Krommidas’ phone, keys and clothes were found on the sands at Long Beach on Long Island. The 29-year-old former Ivy League rower, who was training for a triathlon, had parked his car just off the picturesque wooden boardwalk.
As the months passed, local Democrats attempted to field a replacement to run for the seat in the Nassau County Legislature.
But two Republican voters took them to court and won: a state judge recently ordered Krommidas’ name to remain on the November ballot, ruling that he’s still considered missing and not officially deceased.
Now, as Election Day approaches, voters in Long Beach and other South Shore communities have a curious choice: reelect the Republican incumbent or the Democrat who seemingly vanished at sea.
Democrats want to elect the missing candidate
James Hodge is among those calling on residents to cast their ballots for Krommidas regardless — hoping to trigger a special election in which Democrats can put forward another candidate to run against County Legislator Patrick Mullaney.
The Long Beach resident worked with Krommidas at the Nassau County Board of Elections and had been tapped by Democrats to run in his place.
“We need to stand by and honor his name and memory,” Hodge told The Associated Press. “Let’s give him that victory. It’s the right thing to do.”
The Republican voters argued in their lawsuit that Democrats couldn’t claim Krommidas was dead because authorities still considered him a missing person. Under law, someone needs to be missing for at least three years to be legally declared dead, they argued.
Judge Gary Knobel agreed, writing in his Sept. 29 ruling that “‘missing person’ status does not qualify as a vacancy that can be filled.”
Dead candidates have won elections before
The justice, in his ruling, noted a similar situation decades earlier in Alaska.
U.S. Rep. Nicholas Begich Sr. disappeared in a plane crash weeks before the 1972 vote but still won reelection. The Alaska Democrat was eventually declared dead, and his Republican opponent claimed the seat in a special election.
More recently, Dennis Hof, owner of the Nevada brothel featured on HBO’s “Cathouse” documentary series, died weeks before the 2018 election but still captured a seat in the state Legislature. In 2022, Pennsylvania state Rep. Anthony DeLuca won reelection after dying from lymphoma the month prior.
Hodge and other Democrats argue that Republicans only sued to assure themselves victory as they seek to bolster their majority in the county legislature. They say the lawsuit has only prolonged the anguish for Krommidas’ family.
“I understand politics, but there’s a time to stop and be a human being,” said Ellen Lederer-DeFrancesco, who met Krommidas through the local Democratic Party. “Petros is someone’s son, brother, friend.”
Nassau County Republican Committee Chairman Joseph Cairo Jr., in a statement, vowed the party and its candidates will “show the highest level of sensitivity during these challenging times for the Krommidas family.”
Krommidas’ family declined to comment when reached by phone, but his mother and sister each took to Facebook recently to share a post calling for residents to “honor and vote” for him.
“My Peter cared deeply about people and his community and continues to inspire kindness and unity in our community,” his mother, Maria, wrote in her post.
Eleni-Lemonia Krommidas, his sister, described him in her own post as a first-generation American who loved his country and “believed in equality, education, and the power of unity.”
Voters weigh in on the beach where he vanished
In the days after his disappearance, family and friends joined first responders in scouring Long Beach’s broad, more than 3-mile-long (4.8-kilometer-long) swath of sand, which is located just east of the New York City borough of Queens.
Some of the missing persons fliers they put up with images of Krommidas’ youthful, smiling face are tattered and faded but still visible on telephone poles around Long Beach.
Meanwhile campaign signs for Mullaney, his opponent, are prominently displayed on fences along the main thoroughfares and on tidy residential lawns. The Republican didn’t respond to emails seeking comment.
Along the Long Beach boardwalk last week, longtime resident Maude Carione was dumbstruck at the choice facing voters in November.
“It’s insane to leave his name on the ballot. You’ll confuse people,” said the 72-year-old, who supports Republican President Donald Trump but didn’t have plans to vote in the upcoming election, which features mostly local races. “In fairness, you have to give another candidate a chance for the Democrats. You have to.”
For resident Regina Pecorella, the decision, while grim, was clear.
“If it’s between those two, I’m voting for the person that’s alive,” said the 54-year old independent, who voted for a straight Republican ticket in the previous election. “I don’t know how else to answer that.”
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Diane Keaton never really played the part of glamorous movie star. She was in iconic films and she dated some of the biggest stars of her generation, and yet she somehow remained other and defiantly herself despite so many years working in the Hollywood system. Eccentric and approachable, with a sort of effervescent charm, it’s no surprise that she played muse to so many, from Woody Allen to Nancy Meyers.
People often describe her as self-deprecating, as if it was a choice and not a product of deep-seated insecurity. Keaton was someone who thought herself ugly, who battled eating disorders and who never seemed to give herself enough credit for her successes. But she was also able to channel that into her performances spanning five decades unlike none other.
There are so many Keaton films worth noting, including her full run with Allen. There are the Instagram favorites like “The First Wives Club” (available to rent), nostalgic classics like “Father of the Bride” (streaming on Hulu) and dramatic turns in “Marvin’s Room” (streaming on Kanopy) and “Shoot the Moon” (available to rent).
Here are six essential roles to get you started.
“The Godfather” (1972)
Kay Adams, the future Mrs. Corleone, could have been a wallpaper role. But Keaton, in her breakout role, held the screen next to her flashier counterparts. She was the wife who had something going on behind her eyes, who could hold the screen in the chilling final shot of the first film. Social media doesn’t often produce anything worthwhile but in 2023 Francis Ford Coppola and Keaton had an exchange on an Instagram story “ask me anything” session. She wondered why he’d picked her.
“I chose you, because although you were to play the more straight/vanilla wife, there was something more about you, deeper, funnier, and very interesting. (I was right),” Coppola wrote.
WHERE TO WATCH: Available to rent on various platforms including Prime Video.
“La-dee-da, la-dee-da” where to even begin with “Annie Hall?” It is the quintessential Keaton role, a love-letter to her quirks, eccentricities, insecurities and charm all wrapped up in this fictional tie-wearing WASP from Chippewa Falls.
Allen encouraged her to wear what she wanted to wear, and so she assembled her iconic outfit — khaki pants, vest, tie — from “cool-looking women on the streets of New York.” The hat was lifted from actor Aurore Clement.
“No one had any serious expectations. We were just having a good time moving through New York’s landmark locations,” she wrote in her memoir. “As always, Woody concerned himself with worries about the script. Was it too much like an episode of ‘The Mary Tyler Moore Show’? I told him he was nuts. Relax.”
WHERE TO WATCH: Streaming on Fubo TV.
“Looking for Mr. Goodbar” (1977)
Keaton’s OTHER great film from 1977 drifted into cult classic status as it wasn’t released on home video or DVD and has only recently been made available on digital platforms. The part of Theresa Dunn makes Annie Hall look like a nun. With her Catholic upbringing and “good girl” job teaching deaf children by day, at night Theresa cruises bars looking for men to hook up with — the more dangerous (like Richard Gere’s character) the better.
WHERE TO WATCH: Available to rent on various platforms.
Warren Beatty directed, produced, co-wrote and starred in this historical epic about the journalists documenting the Bolshevik Revolution alongside Keaton, playing journalist and activist Louise Bryant. They were dating by the time they started making the film and their relationship curdled during production.
“Everyone knew I didn’t take well to Warren’s direction,” she wrote in her memoir. “It was impossible to work with a perfectionist who shot 40 takes per setup. Sometimes it felt like I was being stun-gunned. Even now I can’t say my performance is my own. It was more like a reaction to Warren — that’s what it was: a response to the effect of Warren Beatty.”
WHERE TO WATCH: Streaming on Kanopy.
In this comedy from Charles Shyer and Nancy Meyers, Keaton plays a Manhattan yuppie who unexpectedly inherits a 14-month-old and begins to reassess her life, eventually moving to Vermont where she meets a veterinarian played by peak handsome Sam Shepard. An ahead-of-its-time commentary on the have-it-all discourse of the next 30 years, Roger Ebert wrote at the time that “’Baby Boom’ makes no effort to show us real life. It is a fantasy about mothers and babies and sweetness and love, with just enough wicked comedy to give it an edge.”
WHERE TO WATCH: Available to rent on various platforms.
“Something’s Gotta Give” (2003)
Oh Erica Barry and her fabulous Hamptons home and ivory turtleneck sweaters. This was purely the brainchild of Meyers, the writer-director who had the glorious idea to make a 50-something woman the object of desire in a mainstream romantic comedy. Keaton plays this brilliant playwright who catches the eye of both an older playboy (Jack Nicholson) with a proclivity for much younger women and a young, handsome doctor (Keanu Reeves). Keaton has called it her favorite movie, in part because she got to kiss Nicholson (who she had acted alongside before, in “Reds”) “because it was so unexpected at age 57.”
WHERE TO WATCH: Available to rent on various platforms.
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Oscar winning actor Diane Keaton, who died at 79, was known for her performances and style that helped shaped some of the most indelible films of all time, including “The Godfather,” “Annie Hall,” “Father of the Bride” and “Something’s Gotta Give.”
She was beloved by fans and fellow actors, many of whom paid tribute Saturday after news of Keaton’s death broke. They included co-stars such as Bette Midler, Mandy Moore and Steve Martin, who shared an excerpt of an interview with Keaton and Martin Short that he said “sums up our delightful relationship with Diane.”
Here is a roundup of some notable reaction to Keaton’s death and legacy:
“She was hilarious, a complete original, and completely without guile, or any of the competitiveness one would have expected from such a star. What you saw was who she was … oh, la, lala!” — On Instagram. Middler co-starred with Keaton in “The First Wives Club.”
Kimberly Williams-Paisley
“Diane, working with you will always be one of the highlights of my life. You are one of a kind, and it was thrilling to be in your orbit for a time. Thank you for your kindness, your generosity, your talent, and above all, your laughter.” — On Instagram. Williams-Paisley played Keaton’s daughter in the “Father of the Bride” films.
“Loved!” — On the social platform X. Martin, who co-starred with Keaton in “Father of the Bride,” also posted on Instagram an interview exchange in which Short asked Keaton who was sexier, him or Martin. Keaton’s response: “I mean, you’re both idiots.”
“When I was a kid, Diane Keaton was my absolute idol. I loved her acting. I loved her vibe. I loved her everything.” — On Instagram. Nixon also recalled working with Keaton on the film “Five Flights Up” as a “dream come true.”
“They say don’t meet your heros but I got to work with one of mine and even call her ‘mom’ for a few months. An honor of a lifetime. What an incandescent human Di is and was.” — On Instagram. Moore starred opposite Keaton in the 2007 film “Because I Said So.”
“Thank you, Diane, for reminding us that authenticity never goes out of fashion.” — On Instagram.
“One of the greatest film actors ever. An icon of style, humor and comedy. Brilliant. What a person.” — On X.
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WASHINGTON (AP) — The coalition of New York NAACP chapters had just begun its annual state convention when Letitia James, a longtime member and the state’s attorney general, canceled her appearance.
For the New York convention’s organizers, the moment was alarming and underscored the gathering’s importance, which featured multiple sessions on building political power at the state level in response to what NAACP leaders called federal attacks on social welfare, civil rights and the rule of law.
“It was through our collective action that a democracy was built,” said NAACP New York State Conference President L. Joy Williams. “What we have to do is not only defend against what is happening now, but we have to push further past where we were before, to build a system to build a better American democracy that we all deserve.”
The indictment of James, who had previously prosecuted the Trump Organization for business fraud, immediately sparked debate over whether the justice system had been politicized for President Donald Trump’s personal grievances. It also drew many parallels with the recent effort by Trump to remove a Federal Reserve Board governor, Lisa Cook, from her post over similar allegations.
Claims against James and Cook carry symbolic weight
Advocates see some of Trump’s recent moves as exceptionally targeted at Black women leaders.
“This is something that we’ve been grappling with since the start of this administration,” said Shavon Arline-Bradley, president and CEO of the National Council of Negro Women, the country’s oldest civil rights organization for Black women.
The claims also have symbolic weight to Black families, Arline-Bradley said, where property ownership has historically been restricted by the legal system through outright and implicit discrimination.
“When you attack someone’s home, you attack their ability to own, you attack their ability to have choice, you have attacked their ability to make a statement about their economic future,” Arline-Bradley said. “This is a consistent pattern that has highlighted what they think is an Achilles’ heel in the Black community.”
Black women, Arline-Bradley added, “feel very targeted” because of the president’s words and actions, which she said was rooted in “a misunderstanding about the accomplishments and leadership of these women.”
‘One tier of justice for all Americans’
The Trump administration contends its prosecution of James over alleged mortgage fraud is justified and impartial.
“No one is above the law,” Lindsey Halligan, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said in a statement. “The charges as alleged in this case represent intentional, criminal acts and tremendous breaches of the public’s trust. The facts and the law in this case are clear, and we will continue following them to ensure that justice is served.”
And Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote, “One tier of justice for all Americans” shortly after James’ indictment in a post on X.
Critics of the administration have countered that the administration’s actions amount to political retribution and an attempt to unlawfully consolidate power. Black leaders have further argued that the administration’s actions have come at the expense of trailblazing Black leaders and Black communities.
“President Trump has made clear through his own public comments against Attorney General James that the goal of this indictment is simply to exact retribution against his political opponents,” Yvette Clark, chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, said in a statement.
“The American people see this corrupt prosecution for what it is — a desperate attempt by President Trump to weaponize the justice system. It will not withstand public or legal scrutiny,” she added.
Case against James ‘very uncommon,’ legal expert says
In addition to James, the Trump Justice Department has indicted former FBI Director James Comey for making a false statement and obstruction of justice related to a 2020 Senate Judiciary Committee testimony.
The Justice Department is also investigating Sen. Adam Schiff, a California Democrat, for mortgage fraud. Trump has called for Schiff, who was the lead manager of Trump’s first impeachment, to be jailed.
Experts question the merits and motives of the mortgage fraud inquiries.
“It is very uncommon for prosecutors to bring these sorts of claims absent a pattern of malicious activity or evidence that the individual has actually harmed the bank by not paying their mortgage or if it’s part of a much larger fraudulent scheme,” said Paul Schiff Berman, a professor of law at the George Washington University School of Law.
For James, Berman said, “the claim is that she said that the house was going to be used as her second home but she also used it as a rental property sometimes,” which Berman said could be argued as a reasonable use for a second home and likely not in violation of a typical mortgage contract.
Regardless of the ensuing legal debates, allies of James say they are ready to support her in whatever manner is needed. Organizers at the New York conference say she is welcome to return to the event when ready.
“While we are responding in this moment, this is also happening to her, and so we want to give her space,” said Williams, the New York NAACP leader. “And the thing about home is you can always go there. So we know she’ll always come back.”
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NEW YORK (AP) — Lawyers for Luigi Mangione asked a New York federal judge Saturday to dismiss some criminal charges, including the only count for which he could face the death penalty, from a federal indictment brought against him in the December assassination of UnitedHealthcare’s chief executive.
In papers filed in Manhattan federal court, the lawyers said prosecutors should also be prevented from using at trial his statements to law enforcement officers and his backpack where a gun and ammunition were found.
They said Mangione was not read his rights before he was questioned by law enforcement officers, who arrested him after Brian Thompson was fatally shot as he arrived at a Manhattan hotel for an investor conference.
They added that officers did not obtain a warrant before searching Mangione’s backpack.
Mangione, 27, has pleaded not guilty to state and federal charges in the fatal shooting of Brian Thompson on Dec. 4 as he arrived at a Manhattan hotel for his company’s annual investor conference.
The killing set off a multi-state search after the suspected shooter slipped away from the scene and rode a bike to Central Park, before taking a taxi to a bus depot that offers service to several nearby states.
Five days later, a tip from a McDonald’s about 233 miles (375 kilometers) away in Altoona, Pennsylvania, led police to arrest Mangione. He has been held without bail since then.
Last month, lawyers for Mangione asked that his federal charges be dismissed and the death penalty be taken off the table as a result of public comments by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi. In April, Bondi directed prosecutors in New York to seek the death penalty, calling the killing of Thompson a “premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America.”
Murder cases are usually tried in state courts, but prosecutors have also charged Mangione under a federal law on murders committed with firearms as part of other “crimes of violence.” It’s the only charge for which Mangione could face the death penalty, since it’s not used in New York state.
The papers filed early Saturday morning argued that this charge should be dismissed because prosecutors have failed to identify the other offenses that would be required to convict him, saying that the alleged other crime — stalking — is not a crime of violence.
The assassination and its aftermath has captured the American imagination, setting off a cascade of resentment and online vitriol toward U.S. health insurers while rattling corporate executives concerned about security.
After the killing, investigators found the words “delay,” “deny” and “depose,” written in permanent marker on ammunition at the scene. The words mimic a phrase used by insurance industry critics.
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NEW YORK (AP) — Two jurors who voted in June to convict Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault said they regret the decision and only did so because others on the panel bullied them, the former movie mogul’s lawyers said in a newly public court filing.
Weinstein’s lawyers are seeking to overturn his conviction for first-degree criminal sex act, arguing in papers unsealed Thursday that the guilty verdict was marred by “threats, intimidation, and extraneous bias,” and that the judge failed to properly deal with it at the time.
In sworn affidavits included with the filing, two jurors said they felt overwhelmed and intimidated by jurors who wanted to convict Weinstein on the charge, which accused him of forcing oral sex on TV and film production assistant and producer Miriam Haley in 2006.
One juror said she was screamed at in the jury room and told, “we have to get rid of you.” The other juror said anyone who doubted Weinstein’s guilt was grilled by other jurors and that if he could have voted by secret ballot, “I would have returned a not guilty verdict on all three charges.”
“I regret the verdict,” that juror said. “Without the intimidation from other jurors, I believe that the jury would have hung on the Miriam Haley charge.”
Weinstein, 73, was acquitted on a second criminal sex act charge involving a different woman, Polish psychotherapist and former model Kaja Sokola. The judge declared a mistrial on the final charge, alleging Weinstein raped former actor Jessica Mann, after the jury foreperson declined to deliberate further.
It was the second time the Oscar-winning producer was tried on some of the charges. His 2020 conviction, a watershed moment for the # MeToo movement, was overturned last year. Now his defense team, led by attorney Arthur Aidala, is fighting to eliminate his retrial conviction and head off another retrial on the undecided count.
Judge Curtis Farber gave Manhattan prosecutors until Nov. 10 to conduct its own investigation and file a written response before he rules on Dec. 22. That means a decision and a possible retrial or sentencing won’t come until after Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is up for reelection on Nov. 4.
Jurors said they feared for their safety
In the affidavits, which blacked out juror names and identifying numbers, the two jurors said they feared for their safety and the foreperson’s safety. They said that when the foreperson asked for civility, another juror got in his face, pointed a finger and told him: “You don’t know me. I’ll catch you outside.”
One of the jurors said deliberations were poisoned by a belief among some jurors that a member of the panel had been paid off by Weinstein or his lawyers. That claim, which has not been supported by any evidence, shifted the jury of seven women and five men “from an even 6-6 spit to a sudden unanimous verdict,” the juror said.
Some of what was said in the affidavits echoed acrimony that spilled into public view during deliberations. As jurors weighed charges for five days, one juror asked to be excused because he felt another was being treated unfairly.
After the jury returned a verdict on two of the three charges, Farber asked the foreperson whether he was willing to deliberate further. The man said no, triggering a mistrial on the rape count.
After the trial, two jurors disputed the foreperson’s account. One said no one mistreated him. The other said deliberations were contentious, but respectful.
Jurors spoke with the judge
When jurors came forward with concerns, Farber was strict about respecting the sanctity of deliberations and cautioned them not to discuss the content or tenor of jury room discussions, transcripts show. In their affidavits, the two jurors said they didn’t feel the judge was willing to listen to their concerns.
When jurors were asked if they agreed with the guilty verdict, one of the jurors noted in her affidavit that she paused “to try and indicate my discomfort in the verdict.” Afterward, when Farber spoke with jurors, she said she told him “the deliberations were unprofessional.”
Weinstein denies all the charges. The first-degree criminal sex act conviction carries the potential for up to 25 years in prison, while the unresolved third-degree rape charge is punishable by up to four years — less than he already has served.
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PepsiCo reported better-than-expected revenue in the third quarter despite weaker demand for its snacks and drinks in North America.
Revenue rose 2.6% to $23.94 billion in the July-September period. That was better than the $23.84 billion Wall Street was expecting, according to analysts polled by FactSet.
In North America, PepsiCo said sales volumes for its Frito-Lay snacks and other foods fell 2% in the quarter while sales volumes for its beverages were down 3%. Sales volumes were higher in Latin America and Asia.
Net income fell 11% to $2.6 billion. Adjusted for one-time items, the company earned $2.29 per share. That also beat analysts’ forecasts of $2.26.
The company, based in Purchase, New York, said Thursday that its feeling some pressure from Elliott Investment Management, an activist investor that recently took a $4 billion stake in PepsiCo.
In a letter sent to PepsiCo’s board last month, Elliott said the company has been hurt by loss of market share in its North American beverage business and slowing growth and weaker profits in its North American food business.
Elliott wants PepsiCo to slim down its food and beverage portfolio so it can reinvest in core brands like Mountain Dew or new products like protein snacks. It also wants the company to consider refranchising its North American bottlers, an action that its rival Coca-Cola took in 2017.
Shares of PepsiCo Inc. are up a fraction before the opening bell Thursday.
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NEW YORK (AP) — Federal prosecutors told a judge Wednesday that no harm was done to prospects for a fair trial after two U.S. Justice Department officials reposted potentially inflammatory comments President Donald Trump made about Luigi Mangione after he was charged with assassinating UnitedHealthcare’s CEO.
They said in a written submission in Manhattan federal court that the two employees aren’t working on the case and didn’t know that the judge had warned lawyers to be careful what they share publicly. They said they have since been warned.
And they said the distance from a trial date that has not yet been set makes it even less likely that anything said publicly might impact potential jurors who would be chosen to hear the case.
“These individuals are not members of the prosecution team, or trial counsel or staff supervised by the prosecution team, or otherwise employed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. Nor are they law enforcement agents working on this prosecution,” prosecutors wrote.
“They operate entirely outside the scope of the prosecution team, possess no operational role in the investigative or prosecutorial functions of the Mangione matter, and are not ‘associated’ with this litigation,” they said.
Requests for comment were sent to Mangione’s defense lawyers.
Judge Margaret M. Garnett last month said the officials likely broke court rules governing the conduct of prosecutors by reposting Trump’s comments. She asked the department to explain how the violations occurred and what steps were taken to prevent a recurrence.
On Sept. 18, Trump was on Fox News when he called Mangione “a pure assassin.”
“He shot someone in the back as clear as you’re looking at me,” Trump said. “He shot him right in the middle of the back, instantly dead.”
A video clip of Trump’s remarks was then posted on the social platform X by the White House.
Chad Gilmartin, a Justice Department spokesperson, reposted the comment, adding that “@POTUS is absolutely right.” Gilmartin’s post, which was later deleted, was then reposted by Brian Nieves, an associate deputy attorney general.
Mangione has pleaded not guilty to state and federal charges in the fatal shooting of Brian Thompson on Dec. 4 as he arrived at a Manhattan hotel for his company’s annual investor conference.
Earlier in September, defense lawyers for Mangione had asked that his federal charges be dismissed and the death penalty be taken off the table as a result of public comments by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi.
They later told the judge that the government was continuing to prejudice their client’s right to a fair trial with the re-postings on social media of Trump’s comments.
Bondi declared prior to his April indictment that capital punishment is warranted for a “premeditated, cold-blooded assassination that shocked America.” Bondi announced in April that she was directing Manhattan federal prosecutors to seek the death penalty for Mangione.
In the federal case, Mangione is charged with murder through use of a firearm, which carries a potential death penalty, as well as stalking and gun offenses.
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Staffing shortages led to more flight delays at airports across the U.S. on Tuesday as the federal government shutdown stretched into a seventh day, while union leaders for air traffic controllers and airport security screeners warned the situation was likely to get worse.
The Federal Aviation Administration reported staffing issues at airports in Nashville, Boston, Dallas, Chicago and Philadelphia, and at its air traffic control centers in Atlanta, Houston and the Dallas-Fort Worth area. The agency temporarily slowed takeoffs of planes headed to the first three cities.
Flight disruptions a day earlier also were tied to insufficient staffing during the shutdown, which began Oct. 1. The FAA reported issues on Monday at the airports in Burbank, California; Newark, New Jersey; and Denver.
Despite the traffic snags, about 92% of the more than 23,600 flights departing from U.S. airports as of Tuesday afternoon took off on time, according to aviation analytics firm Cirium.
But the risk of wider impacts to the U.S. aviation system “is growing by the day” as federal workers whose jobs are deemed critical continue working without pay, travel industry analyst Henry Harteveldt said. The longer the shutdown drags on, the more likely it is to affect holiday travel plans in November, he said.
“I’m gravely concerned that if the government remains shut down then, that it could disrupt, and possibly ruin, millions of Americans’ Thanksgiving holidays,” Harteveldt said in a statement.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Monday that there has already been an uptick in air traffic controllers calling out sick at a few locations. When there aren’t enough controllers, the FAA must reduce the number of takeoffs and landings to maintain safety, which in turn causes flight delays and possible cancellations.
That’s what happened Monday afternoon, when the control tower at Southern California’s Hollywood Burbank Airport shut down for several hours, leading to average delays of two-and-a-half hours.
When a pilot preparing for takeoff radioed the tower, according to communications recorded by LiveATC.net, he was told: “The tower is closed due to staffing.”
Nick Daniels, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, said the shutdown highlighted some issues his union’s members already face on a regular basis due to a national airspace system that is critically understaffed and relies on outdated equipment that tends to fail.
A couple of controllers missing work can have a big impact at a small airport already operating with limited tower staffing, he said.
“It’s not like we have other controllers that can suddenly come to that facility and staff them. There’s not enough people there,” Daniels said Tuesday. “There’s no overtime, and you have to be certified in that facility.”
Air travel complications are likely to expand once a regularly scheduled payday arrives next week and air traffic controllers and TSA officers don’t receive any money, the union leader said. If the impasse between Republican and Democratic lawmakers on reopening the government persists, the workers will come under more pressure as their personal bills come due, Daniels said.
“It’s completely unfair that an air traffic controller is the one that holds the burden of ‘see how long you can hang in there in order to allow this political process to play out,’” he said.
Johnny Jones, secretary-treasurer of the American Federation of Government Employees chapter that represents TSA workers, said he was hearing concerns from members about how they will be able to pay bills, including child support and mortgage payments, and if they’re at risk for termination if they have to miss work during the shutdown.
“The employees are struggling. They’re assessing what they need to do and they’re assessing how this is all going to work out,” said Jones, who has worked as a screener since the TSA was established.
Some TSA officers already have called in sick, but Jones said he did not think the numbers were big enough to cause significant problems and delays at airports.
Aviation unions and U.S. airlines have called for the shutdown to end as soon as possible.
The unions are also making appeals to food banks, grocery chains and airports to secure support for workers during the shutdown. Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport was offering federal workers $15 food vouchers and allowing them to park in the terminal, according to Jones.
John Tiliacos, the chief operating officer of Florida‘s Tampa International Airport, said the facility started preparing for the shutdown well before it began.
Nicknamed “Operation Bald Eagle 2” among airport staff, the efforts center around pulling together resources for the roughly 11,000 federal employees who are working at the airport without pay, including security screeners and air traffic controllers.
Tiliacos said the help would include a food pantry, free bus rides to work and a program with the local utility provider to keep the lights on at the homes of the workers.
“Whatever we can do to make life a little easier for these federal employees that allows them to continue coming to work and focus on keeping our airport operational, that’s what we’re prepared to do,” he said.
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NEW YORK (AP) — Two Delta Air Lines regional jets collided Wednesday night while on the taxiway at LaGuardia Airport in New York, injuring at least one person in what the airline described as a “low-speed collision.”
The wing of an aircraft getting ready to take off to Roanoke, Virginia, hit the fuselage of an aircraft arriving from Charlotte, North Carolina, according to a statement from Delta.
A flight attendant had non-life threatening injuries and was taken to a hospital, according a statement from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey. There were no reports of passengers injured, the airline said.
The rest of the airport’s operations were not expected to be impacted, according to Delta.
“Delta will work with all relevant authorities to review what occurred as safety of our customers and people comes before all else,” the statement from Delta said. “We apologize to our customers for the experience.”
The Delta Connection aircraft involved in the collision are operated by Endeavor Air.
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NEW YORK (AP) — Federal prosecutors have charged a man they say played a role in a gang-related shooting that broke out in a crowded Brooklyn bar this summer, leaving three dead and 10 others injured.
For the first time Wednesday, prosecutors also released security camera footage of the chaotic gunfight, which unfolded Aug. 17 inside the Taste of City Lounge in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn.
The video showed patrons scrambling for cover as bullets ricocheted across the densely-packed club, with at least 40 shots fired from five guns, prosecutors said.
Among the shooters was Elijah Roy, a 25-year-old gang member who arrived at the club with several associates, according to a criminal complaint unsealed Wednesday.
At around 3:30 a.m., one of those associates, Marvin St. Louis, 19, began taunting a rival gang member, Jamel Childs, 35, authorities said. The confrontation quickly escalated with, authorities said, St. Louis shooting at Childs, who returned fire. Both St. Louis and St. Louis were killed in the shoot-out, as was another man, 27-year-old Amadou Diallo, who is believed to have been a bystander.
After ducking under a table, Roy fired two shots, according to prosecutors. It was unclear if those shots hit anyone. He is accused of violent assault in aid of racketeering and illegal possession of ammunition.
Mehdi Essmidi, an attorney for Roy, did not respond to a voice message.
Prosecutors described Roy and St. Louis as members of the 5-9 Brims, a subset of the Bloods. They said Childs was part of a rival gang, the Folk Nation Gangster Disciples.
Roy was arrested last week in North Carolina, carrying $7,000 in cash, according to the criminal complaint. He was arraigned Wednesday afternoon and ordered held without bail.
New York City has seen a year of record-low gun violence, with the fewest number of shootings and shooting victims recorded across the city during the first nine months of 2025, according to police.
At a vigil held for the victims in August, Mayor Eric Adams said that “what happened in the Taste of the City is not a reflection of our city.”
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NEW YORK (AP) — Dozens of progressive nonprofits condemned President Donald Trump’s general attacks on his political opponents and a specific report of a potential investigation into billionaire George Soros’ philanthropy, Open Society Foundations.
“Targeting those you disagree with is a threat to the democratic values our organizations work tirelessly to defend, and is an attempt to silence those who disagree with President Trump,” the groups — including the American Civil Liberties Union, the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and Oxfam America — said in a statement Monday. “It is a continuation of the attacks on law firms, universities and the media. It is an attack on our most sacred value of free speech.”
The comments follow a report in the New York Times that the U.S. Department of Justice had directed prosecutors to consider possible charges against Open Society Foundations, echoing accusations Trump made in August that Soros and his foundations were funding violent protests.
Soros’ office sent a letter to “friends and colleagues” on Monday, stating, “Allegations that George or OSF are in any way engaged in unlawful activity or in fomenting or promoting violence are 100% false.” The letter also asked supporters to “make your voice heard” for the values they stand for, as well as signing a petition from the People for the American Way looking to “stop the weaponization of the Justice Department.”
In a statement Thursday, Open Society Foundations said they “unequivocally condemn terrorism and do not fund terrorism,” and that their work in the U.S. is dedicated to strengthening democracy. The foundations have not been contacted about any potential investigations or had any direct contact from the federal government, a spokesperson said.
Later on Thursday, Trump ordered a crackdown on “left-wing terrorism,” specifically naming Soros and billionaire Reid Hoffman, who helped start PayPal and the networking site LinkedIn. Hoffman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
In response, the nonprofits said they stood in solidarity with Open Society Foundations. Soros has also been a major donor to Democratic candidates and causes in the U.S.
The groups supporting OSF Monday include both tax-exempt charitable nonprofits, social welfare groups, which are allowed to do more political lobbying, and the Working Families Party, which supports progressive political candidates.
Interfaith Alliance, which advocates for religious freedom and social justice, was one of the groups that signed onto condemn the targeting of the Open Society Foundations. Its president and CEO, Rev. Paul Brandeis Raushenbush, said nonprofits and especially religious groups need to stand up for people and groups that the administration targets.
“I think people on all sides of the political spectrum should be showing up right now, recognizing the danger of what this is,” he said. “Just as they showed up, for instance, around Jimmy Kimmel from very different parts of the political spectrum, recognizing the danger of the suppression of free speech. This is another example of that.”
Associated Press coverage of philanthropy and nonprofits receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content. For all of AP’s philanthropy coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/philanthropy.
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NEW YORK (AP) — Albertsons Companies has recalled several of its store-made deli products because they may contain listeria bacteria, in a move that arrives shortly after federal health officials warned consumers to not eat certain pasta meals sold at Walmart and Trader Joe’s over similar contamination concerns.
The Boise, Idaho-based supermarket giant on Saturday said it was pulling five deli items because they contain a recalled bowtie pasta ingredient made by Nate’s Fine Foods. Albertsons is urging consumers to not eat these products — which were supplied by refrigerated goods distributor Fresh Creative Foods — and is instructing those impacted to throw them away or initiate a return at their local store for a full refund.
The products under recall include certain ready-to-eat basil pesto pasta salad offerings, as well as pasta dishes with chicken, spinach and other ingredients. Consumers can determine if an item they bought is impacted by looking at the list of product names, sell thru dates and other identifying information on Albertsons’ website.
The recalled items were sold in various Albertsons-owned stores — including Albertsons Market, Safeway and Von’s — across more than a dozen states.
“Listeria monocytogenes can survive in refrigerated temperatures and can easily spread to other foods and surfaces,” Albertsons warned in its release. The company also noted that the FDA instructs consumers to be extra vigilant when cleaning any surfaces or containers that may have come into contact with products recalled for possible listeria contamination.
The Associated Press reached out to Nate’s Fine Foods in California and Fresh Creative Foods, a division of Oregon-based Reser’s Fine Foods, for further statements on Sunday.
Albertsons on Saturday said that there had been no reports of injuries or illnesses related to its recalled products. But the company’s recall comes amid wider warnings from U.S. health officials about potential listeria contamination in ready-made meals sold by other retailers, some of which have previously been linked to a deadly outbreak.
Last week, the U.S. Agriculture Department issued a public health alert warning consumers to not eat Trader Joe’s “Cajun Style Blackened Chicken Breast Fettuccine Alfredo” with best-by dates of Sept. 20, Sept. 24 and Sept. 27 — as well as “Marketside Linguine with Beef Meatballs & Marinara Sauce” sold at Walmart with best-by dates of Sept. 22 through Oct. 1, due to potential listeria contamination.
No recall has been issued for either of those products, but Trader Joe’s in a company advisory urged consumers to discard or return its impacted chicken alfredo — and Walmart officials also said they put a stop on sales.
Similar to the bowtie pasta recalled at Albertsons, the pasta in these goods came from Nate’s Fine Foods.
Listeria infections can cause serious illness, particularly in older adults, people with weakened immune systems and those who are pregnant or their newborns. Symptoms include fever, muscle aches, headache, stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance and convulsions.
Roughly 1,600 people in the U.S. get sick each year from listeria infections and about 260 die, per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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