AFP USA

The rights and wrongs of the horse-drawn carriages that carry tourists around New York’s Central Park have been loudly debated for years, but the mayor has signalled they may be at the end of the track.Critics say the animals suffer, pointing to deadly collapses and dangerous escapes, while advocates point to the jobs they create and the heritage they uphold.The rides, which cost $150 for 45 minutes to several hundred dollars for a marriage proposal (no refunds), are popular with visitors to the Big Apple’s most famous natural attraction, which draws 42 million people annually.Native New Yorkers however have been calling for the rides to banned “for so long,” according to animal rights campaign group PETA’s outreach director, Ashley Byrne.The group leading the charge against tourist carriages, NYCLASS, was founded in 2008 and, in 2022, a survey found 71 percent of New York voters were against them.Mayor Eric Adams recently weighed in on the emotive debate and called on the city council to rein in the practice as he cannot do so himself.He also signed an order allowing for the voluntary surrender of carriage licenses and supporting the re-employment of the 170 people involved in the carriage trade while also hardening animal welfare and safety checks.- Hurdles to reelection -The summer season proved decisive in sounding the death knell for the Manhattan carriages, Byrne said.”This has been a summer where the danger and cruelty of this industry has been on full public display. Between (carriage horse) Lady dropping dead in the streets, four different incidents — that we know of — of horses breaking loose, spooking and running wild,” she said.The Central Park Conservancy, which manages the US’s most visited urban park, also threw its weight behind the calls for a ban.”With visitation to the Park growing to record levels, we feel strongly that banning horse carriages has become a matter of public health and safety for Park visitors,” Conservancy chief executive Elizabeth W. Smith wrote to city leaders.One way to phase out the carriages would be for the city council to adopt legislation first proposed in 2022 by councillor Robert Holden, who applauded the mayor’s intervention. But the union representing carriage drivers says “developers have long sought to see the carriage-horse stables…vacated so they can build skyscrapers” and that Adams “has betrayed working class New Yorkers.”Carriage driver Christina Hansen added that “this is good work for horses” which number about 200 and benefit from comprehensive veterinary care and “are highly regulated.”Hansen says that the far greater threat to park users are the ubiquitous ebikes and escooters.As early as 2007, a democratic city councilor unsuccessfully sought a ban after failing to garner support from powerful then-mayor Michael Bloomberg.His successor Bill de Blasio campaigned on a ban — but only managed regulation of the industry which bills itself as a custodian of New York’s cultural heritage.But Adams’s window to abolish the carriages is closing — New York goes to the polls on November 4 and polling suggests the sitting mayor is unlikely to clear the final fence.

President Donald Trump on Friday bashed US media coverage that he claimed was unduly negative and therefore “illegal,” stoking a debate over free speech following the suspension of comedian Jimmy Kimmel’s TV show by ABC.”They’ll take a great story and they’ll make it bad. See I think it’s really illegal, personally,” Trump, who has sued multiple major news organizations this year, told reporters gathered in the Oval Office. The 79-year-old Republican, an avid television watcher, chiefly focused his diatribe on US television networks, reiterating a claim that coverage of him and his administration is “97 percent bad.”He also defended the head of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), Brendan Carr, whose threats against broadcasters have sparked a national debate over free speech and caused some unease even among Republicans.Carr on Wednesday criticized Kimmel’s remarks on the assassination of conservative activist Charlie Kirk and threatened broadcasters who carry his show with possible sanctions.Hours later, ABC announced Kimmel’s show was suspended indefinitely.On Friday, Trump called Carr “an incredible American patriot with courage.”Texas Senator Ted Cruz, a close Trump ally, meanwhile said he believes it’s dangerous for a government to put itself in a position to say what speech it may or may not like.Commenting on Carr’s threat to fine broadcasters or pull their licenses over the content of their shows, Cruz referenced a Martin Scorsese gangster movie.”I got to say that’s right out of ‘Goodfellas’,” Cruz said. “That’s right out of a mafioso coming into a bar going, ‘Nice bar you have here. It would be a shame if something happened to it.'”Trump himself faced a setback in his personal anti-media crusade, with a federal judge issuing a scathing ruling and tossing out his $15 billion defamation lawsuit against The New York Times.

The Trump administration imposed fresh restrictions Friday on Harvard’s access to federal funds, opening a new front in its unprecedented crackdown on the prestigious US university.The Department of Education announced in a statement that it has placed Harvard under “heightened cash monitoring (HCM) status” saying there were “growing concerns regarding the university’s financial position.”It cited the administration’s own accusations of civil rights violations at the university as creating uncertainty over future funding, as well as Harvard’s move to issue bonds and layoff employees.The status shift requires the university to use its own funds to pay out student financial aid packages that federal officials have promised, with the school later able to seek reimbursement from the government.”Students will continue to have access to federal funding, but Harvard will be required to cover the initial disbursements as a guardrail to ensure Harvard is spending taxpayer funds responsibly,” the department wrote.Additionally, federal officials are requiring Harvard to “post an irrevocable letter of credit for $36 million” to “cover potential liabilities and ensure that Harvard meets its financial obligations to both students and the Department.”This latest jab in the Trump administration’s ongoing fight with academia comes after a judicial victory for the Cambridge, Massachusetts-based school in the northeastern United States.Trump officials accuse the university, and other schools around the country, of promoting so-called “woke” ideology, while failing to sufficiently protect its Jewish students during pro-Palestinian protests.Harvard has denied those claims, saying the federal government is instead focused on controlling the school’s hiring, admissions and curriculum.Earlier in September, a Boston judge ordered the administration to lift its freeze on approximately $2.6 billion in federal funds for Harvard, writing that Trump’s Department of Education “used antisemitism as a smokescreen for a targeted, ideologically motivated assault on this country’s premier universities.”Officials at Harvard did not comment on the latest federal funding restrictions, instead announcing Friday that it had begun recovering some of those frozen funds.”We are pleased to see the disbursement of $46 million in research funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. This is an initial step, and we hope to continue to see funding restored across all of the federal agencies.”

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told AFP Friday the world should not be  “intimidated” by Israel and its creeping annexation of the occupied West Bank.In an interview at UN headquarters in New York, he also called for more ambitious climate action saying that efforts to limit global warming to 1.5 Celsius above pre-industrial levels were at risk of “collapsing.”Guterres spoke to AFP ahead of the UN’s signature high-level week at which 10 countries will recognize a Palestinian state, according to France — over fierce Israeli objections.The meeting of more than 140 heads of state and government, which paralyzes a corner of Manhattan for a week each year, will likely be dominated by the future of the Palestinians and the war in Gaza.Israel has reportedly threatened to annex the West Bank if Western nations press ahead with the recognition plan at the UN gathering.But Guterres said, “We should not feel intimidated by the risk of retaliation.””With or without doing what we are doing, these actions would go on and at least there is a chance to mobilize international community to put pressure for them not to happen,” he said.”What we are witnessing in Gaza is horrendous,” Guterres said as Israel threatened “unprecedented force” in its ongoing assault on Gaza City. “It is the worst level of death and destruction that I’ve seen my time as Secretary-General, probably my life and the suffering of the Palestinian people cannot be described — famine, total lack of effective health care, people living without adequate shelters in huge concentration areas,” he said.Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has called for annexation of swaths of the West Bank with an aim to “bury the idea of a Palestinian state” after several countries joined the French push on statehood.But Israel’s staunch ally the United States has held back from any criticism of the war in Gaza or vows to annex the West Bank — and excoriated its allies who have vowed to recognize a Palestinian state.- Climate goals face collapse -Also on the agenda will be efforts to combat climate change which Guterres warned are floundering.Guterres said efforts to cap climate warming at 1.5 Celsius above pre-industrial levels were in trouble.The climate goals for 2035 of the countries that signed the Paris Agreement, also known as Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), were initially expected to be submitted several months ago. However, uncertainties related to geopolitical tensions and trade rivalries have slowed the process.”We are on the verge of this objective collapsing,” he told AFP.”We absolutely need countries to come… with climate action plans that are fully aligned with 1.5 degrees (Celsius), that cover the whole of their economies and the whole of their greenhouse gas emissions,” he said.”It is essential that we have a drastic reduction of emissions in the next few years if you want to keep the 1.5 degrees Celsius limit alive.”Less than two months before COP30 climate meeting in Brazil, dozens of countries have been slow to announce their plans — particularly China and the European Union, powers considered pivotal for the future of climate diplomacy.Efforts to combat the impact of man-made global warming have taken a backseat to myriad crises in recent years that have included the coronavirus pandemic and several wars, with Guterres seeking to reignite the issue.The UN hopes that the climate summit co-chaired Wednesday in New York by Guterres and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will be an opportunity to breathe life into efforts ahead of COP30.Guterres said he was concerned that Nationally Determined Contributions, or national climate action plans, may not ultimately support the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.”It’s not a matter to panic. It’s a matter to be determined, to put all pressure for countries.”Containing global warming to1.5C compared to the pre-industrial era 1850-1900 is the most ambitious goal of the 2015 Paris Agreement. But many scientists agree that this threshold will most likely be reached before the end of this decade, as the planet continues to burn more and more oil, gas, and coal. The climate is already on average 1.4C warmer today, according to current estimates from the European observatory Copernicus.

A Trump-backed health panel questioned Friday the efficacy and safety of Covid-19 vaccines — and declined  explicitly to recommend them — in an argument some experts said center on “myths” and “anecdotes.”The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) — a panel stacked with members handpicked by controversial US health secretary and anti-vaccination advocate Robert F. Kennedy Jr — said obtaining a Covid-19 shot should be based on individual choice in consultation with a medical professional.The panel also approved language recommending that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urge health care providers to more strongly warn about alleged risks from vaccinations.Many medical and scientific organizations have cited evidence of the Covid shot’s safety and its record of providing strong protection against severe illness or death.Calling the committee’s actions “extraordinarily vague,” Sean O’Leary of the American Academy of Pediatrics said “this was like nothing I’ve ever seen.””What it looked like to me was a lot of clear efforts to sow distrust in vaccines, to instill fear,” he told AFP.”The focus of a lot of the discussion that we saw today around Covid vaccines was around myths, anecdotes, case series, case reports,” O’Leary said. “They were not focused at all on the actual science.”Those comments mirrored criticisms leveled by non-voting observers who attended the meeting.”It’s troubling to see the erosion of the committee’s integrity,” said Sandra Fryhofer of the American Medical Association. President Donald Trump’s Food and Drug Administration has already narrowed approval for Covid shots — which all Americans could once get with relative ease — to the elderly and people with underlying conditions.That followed Kennedy’s spring announcement that the United States would no longer recommend the shots for children and healthy pregnant women.Public health experts have warned these shifts could muddle access for people seeking boosters both in terms of cost and availability, amid a resurgence in cases and hospitalizations. The ACIP committee considered whether to require that any person seeking a Covid vaccine first obtain a prescription — but that measure narrowly failed by a tiebreak vote.”The segment of the population that is under-insured, has lack of access to health care — they’re going to be unable to get a prescription. And those are the people that are at highest risk,” said ACIP member and epidemiologist Catherine Stein in her dissent.- Confusion -The ACIP meeting’s first day ended in confusion and contradiction. The committee recommended no child under four should receive the combination MMRV shot, which covers measles, mumps, rubella and varicella. But they also declared that a federal children’s vaccine program should still pay for it — and in a chaotic twist, they reversed that decision in a second vote Friday morning.Parents will still be offered separate MMR and chicken pox injections for their children younger than four. The combination shot has a small risk of causing temporary, non-life-threatening febrile seizures.Members also were meant to decide whether to recommend against the longstanding practice of immunizing newborns against Hepatitis B within the first 24 hours of life.Public health experts have met the prospect of that move with widespread alarm.Swift vaccination has proven the best way to prevent any maternal transmission of the incurable, highly contagious disease that can cause severe liver damage and cancer later in life, said Adam Langer, a CDC scientist who presented to the voting members.Ultimately the committee decided more debate was needed.Many respected members of medical institutions have criticized the redesigned ACIP panel.”What we’re seeing is what happens when individuals who have don’t have a basic understanding about how vaccines are delivered are making these crucial policy decisions for the American public,” O’Leary said.

Emmanuel and Brigitte Macron will offer “scientific” evidence and photos proving that France’s first lady is a woman, the lawyer representing them in a US lawsuit said Friday. Attorney Tom Clare said the Macrons planned to testify in their case against conservative American commentator Candace Owens, whom the plaintiffs accuse of helping fan online rumors about whether the French president’s wife is a transgender woman.”There will be expert testimony that will come out, that will be scientific in nature, that will also demonstrate the falsity of the statements,” Clare said in an interview on the BBC.  Clare’s comments on “Fame Under Fire,” a BBC podcast, were confirmed to AFP by spokespersons for his law firm.Speculation around Brigitte Macron’s gender has swirled in France for years. The lawsuit against Owens is unfolding as President Macron contends with a low popularity rating in opinion polls and government instability.  Clare said he couldn’t reveal details about his team’s strategy regarding the expert testimony but it was prepared to demonstrate fully that Owens, an influencer with a huge following on social media platforms, had spread falsehoods about the French first lady.The lawyer for the Macrons said that the burden of proof in this defamation case is on the plaintiffs.The plaintiffs, who filed their lawsuit against Owens in a court in the state of Delaware in July, also intend to present photographs showing Brigitte Macron with her children or photos of her when she was pregnant, Clare said. “These falsehoods are like a cancer,” he said. “They metastasize into the mainstream media.”And because Owens has a sizable audience, he added, “people listen to her.”  On Thursday, Owens posted a message on her X channel dismissing the Macrons’ allegations against her as “verifiably false.”    “She [Brigitte Macron] isn’t suing me for saying she’s a man. She has never sued anyone ever for saying she’s a dude. Because she is one,” Owens wrote.Brigitte Macron, 72, has also taken to the courts in France to combat claims she was born a man.Two women were convicted in September 2024 of spreading false claims after they posted a YouTube video in December 2021 alleging that Brigitte Macron had once been a man named Jean-Michel Trogneux — who is actually her brother.The ruling against Natacha Rey and Amandine Roy was overturned by a Paris appeals court and Macron appealed to the highest appeals court, the Court de Cassation, earlier in July.

Stock markets steadied and the dollar mostly rose Friday at the end of a week marked by central bank decisions, as attention turned to a call between US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.Wall Street’s three main indices finished the week at records for the second day in a row, extending a rally after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates on Wednesday for the first time in 2025.”Traders are satisfied” with the Fed’s decision, said FHN Financial’s Chris Low.The Fed on Wednesday lowered interest rates by 25 basis points and signaled it could cut two more times in 2025. The central bank explained its move as a response to weaker job data, adding that future decisions would depend on how the economy evolves.But Jack Ablin of Cresset Capital Management noted that the rise in US Treasury yields represents a source of concern.”I’m going to celebrate the equity records but the market is expensive and the 10-year yields is moving higher,” Ablin said. “That’s something we need to pay attention to.”Earlier, Europe’s main indices ended the day little changed or slightly lower.Markets greeted a phone call between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping that included discussion on selling blockbuster app TikTok.Shortly before European markets closed, Trump said he made progress in his call on  a deal for the social networking platform TikTok, though he stopped short of announcing a deal.”We made progress on many very important issues including Trade, Fentanyl, the need to bring the War between Russia and Ukraine to an end, and the approval of the TikTok Deal,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.He has repeatedly put off a ban under a law designed to force TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance to sell its US operations for national security reasons.The call came after high-level discussions between Washington and Beijing officials in Madrid, where they addressed trade ahead of a November tariff deadline.Trump said Friday that he would meet Xi at an Asia-Pacific summit in South Korea in just over a month, and visit China himself next year.Meanwhile, the British pound retreated after official data showed that UK government borrowing had reached its highest level since the Covid pandemic. In Asia, Tokyo led losses among major indices on expectations that Japan’s central bank would hike interest rates this year after leaving borrowing costs unchanged Friday.Before the announcement, official data showed that inflation in Japan, the world’s fourth-largest economy, slowed in August, with rice price increases easing following a spike that had rattled the country’s government.Among individual companies, Apple jumped 3.2 percent as the tech giant’s launch of new iPhones was greeted with long lines at retail outlets, suggesting strong demand for the devices.- Key figures at around 2030 GMT -New York – Dow: UP 0.4 percent at 46,315.27 (close)New York – S&P 500: UP 0.5 percent at 6,664.36 (close)New York – Nasdaq Composite: UP 0.7 percent at 22,631.48 (close)London – FTSE 100: DOWN 0.1 percent at 9,216.67 (close)Paris – CAC 40: FLAT at 7,853.59 (close)Frankfurt – DAX: DOWN 0.2 percent at 23,639.41 (close)Tokyo – Nikkei 225: DOWN 0.6 percent at 45,045.81 (close)Hong Kong – Hang Seng Index: FLAT at 26,545.10 (close)Shanghai – Composite: DOWN 0.3 percent at 3,820.09 (close)Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1745 from $1.1788 on ThursdayPound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3472 from $1.3555Dollar/yen: DOWN at 147.90 yen from 148.00 yenEuro/pound: UP at 87.18 pence from 86.96 penceBrent North Sea Crude: DOWN 1.1 percent at $66.68 per barrelWest Texas Intermediate: DOWN 1.4 percent at $62.68 per barrelburs-jmb/des

A federal judge, in a scathing ruling on Friday, tossed out US President Donald Trump’s $15 billion defamation lawsuit against The New York Times.District Judge Steven Merryday said Trump’s complaint, as submitted, was “improper and impermissible” and he gave his lawyers 28 days to refile it “in a professional and dignified manner.”Merryday, an appointee of Republican president George HW Bush, did not rule on the merits of the complaint against the newspaper but took exception to its florid writing, repetitive and laudatory praise of Trump and its excessive 85-page length.”A complaint is a short, plain, direct statement of allegations of fact sufficient to create a facially plausible claim for relief,” Merryday said.”Although lawyers receive a modicum of expressive latitude in pleading the claim of a client, the complaint in this action extends far beyond the outer bound of that latitude,” he said.”A complaint is not a public forum for vituperation and invective,” the judge said, and “not a protected platform to rage against an adversary.”In a statement on X, a Times spokesperson said the newspaper welcomes “the judge’s quick ruling, which recognized that the complaint was a political document rather than a serious legal filing.”Trump filed the lawsuit against the Times on Monday, adding to his growing list of legal attacks on news organizations he accuses of bias against him.Trump, 79, has intensified his long-established hostility toward the media since his return to the White House, repeatedly badmouthing journalists critical of his administration, restricting access and bringing lawsuits demanding huge amounts of compensation.- ‘Lie, smear and defame’ -In his suit filed in federal court in Florida, Trump accused the Times of a “decades-long pattern” of smears driven by feelings of “actual malice.””The Times has become a leading, and unapologetic, purveyor of falsehoods against President Trump on the legacy media landscape,” it said.In a post on his Truth Social platform, the Republican president said “The New York Times has been allowed to freely lie, smear, and defame me for far too long, and that stops, NOW!”The lawsuit also named four Times reporters and the publisher Penguin Random House as defendants.Trump’s lawsuit alleged that the Times deviated from industry best practices when covering him, writing articles “in the most antagonistic and negative way” and not giving him sufficient time to respond before publishing.”Put bluntly, Defendants baselessly hate President Trump in a deranged way,” the complaint said.The court was asked to grant compensatory damages of not less than $15 billion and additional punitive damages “in an amount to be determined upon trial.”While broad constitutional protections exist for US media, Trump has found success in similar lawsuits brought against other news organizations, winning multi-million dollar settlements from ABC and Paramount-owned CBS.The settlements in those cases — which are to be paid to Trump’s future presidential library — were seen as being motivated by the desire of the news organizations’ parent companies to stay in Trump’s good graces.Trump has also sued media magnate Rupert Murdoch and The Wall Street Journal for at least $10 billion after it reported in July on the existence of a birthday letter he allegedly sent to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.Meanwhile talk show host Jimmy Kimmel was indefinitely suspended by Disney-owned ABC this week after the head of the Federal Communications Commission threatened to cancel broadcasting licenses over comments the comedian made about the killing of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk.

Colombia on Friday blasted the United States’ “excessive” military presence in the Caribbean as destabilizing for all Latin America, a sharp rebuke from one of Washington’s oldest regional allies.  Foreign Minister Rosa Villavicencio told AFP that the US deployment of several warships off Venezuela was “disproportionate” and the threat of military intervention was rattling the region.”Venezuela, of course, is concerned, as is the entire region, about the possibility of an intervention,” she said. “Such an excessive military presence in the region is not justified.” Colombia’s top diplomat rejected outright President Donald Trump’s claims that the naval ships, a submarine, and a squadron of F-35 fighter jets were there to tackle the drug trade. This has “nothing to do with the fight against drug trafficking,” she insisted, echoing concerns that the US may be planning to strike Venezuela and even topple President Nicolas Maduro. Trump says US forces have “knocked off” three fast boats allegedly carrying drugs and drug runners. At least 14 people described by him as “narco-terrorists” are believed to have died. Venezuela has accused the United States of waging an “undeclared war” in the Caribbean. Villavicencio said these strikes were likely illegal, and she insisted any suspects should be captured, not killed. This “does not seem to be the legal way to pursue illegal groups,” she said. – Soured ties -The minister’s comments open another front in increasingly difficult relations between Washington and Bogota.This week Washington blacklisted Colombia for what it called flawed anti-drug efforts.Over recent decades, the United States has sent billions of dollars in aid southward to help tackle cartels, guerrillas, and paramilitaries who all profit from the ultra-lucrative drug trade.The blacklisting puts future cooperation in doubt, although immediate cuts have been ruled out.The souring of US-Colombian relations has been fueled by personal and political animosity between Trump and leftist President Gustavo Petro.The two leaders have clashed bitterly on social media, trading threats of sanctions and barbs about immigration policies.Villavicencio alleged that Trump’s blacklisting “was clearly a political decision, to condemn the president (Petro)”.”We are not going to change our policies” she said.US officials say the Colombian cocaine trade has flourished under Petro, who has sought to negotiate with armed groups and avoid confrontation. 

Venezuela on Friday accused the United States of waging an “undeclared war” in the Caribbean, where Washington has deployed warships and blown up alleged drug boats in recent weeks.”It is an undeclared war, and you can already see how people, whether or not they are drug traffickers, have been executed in the Caribbean Sea. Executed without the right to a defense,” Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez said as he reported on Venezuelan military exercises in response to the US “military threat.”Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who the United States accuses of running a drug cartel, announced late Thursday that troops will provide residents of low-income neighborhoods with weapons training.Maduro, for whom Washington has issued a $50 million bounty on drug trafficking charges, accuses the Donald Trump administration of planning an invasion in pursuit of regime change.The troops will “teach all those men and women who enlisted (in Venezuela’s civilian militia) how to handle weapons systems,” the leftist strongman said on state television.The biggest US naval deployment in the Caribbean in decades and US strikes on at least two Venezuelan boats allegedly transporting drugs, have stoked fears the United States is planning attacks on Venezuelan territory.The United States also sent F-35 fighter jets to Puerto Rico to support its Caribbean flotilla composed of seven ships and a nuclear-powered submarine.On Wednesday, Venezuela launched three days of military exercises on its Caribbean island of La Orchila in response to the perceived threat.La Orchila is close to the area where the United States intercepted and held a Venezuelan fishing vessel for eight hours over the weekend.- ‘Imperial plan’ -President Trump says US forces have “knocked off” three boats but Washington has only provided details and video footage of two of the strikes that killed 14 people described as “narco-terrorists” by the US leader.Washington says its operations are part of its war on drug trafficking and dismisses questions over the legality of the strikes in international waters.Trump has also sought to increase pressure on Maduro, whom the United States and much of the international community does not recognize as Venezuela’s rightful president after two disputed re-elections.Maduro accused the United States of hatching “an imperial plan for regime change and to impose a US puppet government… to come and steal our oil.”He has repeatedly vowed Caracas will exercise its “legitimate right to defend itself” against US aggression.