All posts tagged: New York

Billy Joel addresses potential return to touring after health diagnosis

Billy Joel addresses potential return to touring after health diagnosis

Published by Daniella Wilson

Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Membership today. Join today Already a member? Log in Billy Joel has shed new light on his health and potential return to the stage. Joel, 77, shared last year that he had been diagnosed with the brain condition hydrocephalus after suffering an onstage fall. He has since been forced to cancel a series of concert dates. Asked in a new interview with The Hollywood Reporter if he’ll be able to tour again in the future, Joel answered bluntly: “I don’t know.” “I have to take a series of tests before I know, but I can’t drive right now. I’m not allowed to drive,” he continued. “And I can’t do performances because what the neurologist told me, every time you do a show, it’s like you’re getting a concussion.” Pressed further about his condition and why performing takes such a toll, Joel elaborated: “Rock ‘n’ roll is loud, man. Rock ‘n’ roll made me deaf already. So it’s the lighting, …

‘Lincoln in the Bardo’ Leaps From Book to Stage in Missy Mazzoli’s New Opera

‘Lincoln in the Bardo’ Leaps From Book to Stage in Missy Mazzoli’s New Opera

Published by Sam Flores

NEW YORK (AP) — The setting is a graveyard. Almost all the characters are dead. And then there’s Abraham Lincoln, alive but paralyzed by grief over the death of his 11-year-old son. If that capsule description makes “Lincoln in the Bardo” sound like a grim night at the opera, it’s actually far from that, according to its creators. “It does seem quite heavy,” said Royce Vavrek, who crafted the libretto for composer Missy Mazzoli from George Saunders’ Booker Prize-winning novel. “But it’s also so effervescent, quite hilarious at times. There’s such heartbreak, and such joy.” The inspiration behind both the novel and the opera is the concept of the bardo, which in Tibetan Buddhism is the period between physical death and rebirth. They’re dead, but they don’t know it The ghosts populating Georgetown’s Oakhill Cemetery refuse to accept the circumstances — often abrupt or violent — that ended their lives. They refer to their coffins as “sick-boxes,” and only when they are able to acknowledge their true state can they find peace, vanishing in a …

Martin Shkreli violated lifetime pharmaceutical ban: FTC

Martin Shkreli violated lifetime pharmaceutical ban: FTC

Published by Sam Flores

The Federal Trade Commission and seven states asked a federal judge in New York on Tuesday to hold notorious “Pharma bro” Martin Shkreli in contempt, alleging he “flagrantly and repeatedly violated” a 2022 civil court order that had banned him for life from the pharmaceutical industry. The FTC and the states allege that Shkreli, since being released from prison in May 2022 for unrelated financial crimes, violated that court order by publicly trading in at least 60 pharmaceutical industry stocks and “publicly broadcasting his opinions about the business and management of many Pharmaceutical Companies through livestreaming and posting on numerous social media platforms, including YouTube, X, and Reddit,” a court filing says. The contempt filing asks a judge to order Shkreli to “divest any pharmaceutical company stocks he currently owns” and “pay a fine equal to his profits from any pharmaceutical company stock trading (plus prejudgment interest) without the ability to account for offsetting losses.” The filing in U.S. District Court in Manhattan also asks that a judge make Shkreli “face clear and escalating consequences …

Chuck Schumer Has Broad Support From His Caucus, but Midterms Could Decide His Future as Leader

Chuck Schumer Has Broad Support From His Caucus, but Midterms Could Decide His Future as Leader

Published by Sam Flores

WASHINGTON (AP) — Chuck Schumer has won and lost Senate majorities since becoming Democratic leader a decade ago. But this year’s midterm elections could be his most important yet, with some in the party having said he needs to step down and make way for a new generation. Schumer, who has directly or indirectly overseen his party’s Senate campaign arm in almost every election cycle over the last 20 years, has regained trust within his caucus, for now, as Democrats are hopeful of making gains in the midterm elections despite a difficult map that favors Republicans. Interviews with more than a dozen Democratic senators in recent weeks indicate that Schumer has recovered his political standing with many in his caucus. If Democrats gain seats in the election, colleagues expect him to easily win enough support in the closed-door leadership election, likely the week after Election Day. Should they win a majority, a feat once seen as improbable, another term as leader would be nearly assured, many said. Both parties pick their Senate leaders by secret …

Trump taxpayer-funded TV ads blocked by federal judge

Trump taxpayer-funded TV ads blocked by federal judge

Published by Sam Flores

A federal judge in New York ordered the Trump administration Sunday night to immediately stop airing controversial government-funded television ads featuring President Donald Trump that critics call political propaganda intended to influence the November midterm election. The temporary restraining order by Judge Jennifer Rochon in Manhattan federal court also bars the Department of Homeland Security from spending any more of the $20 million allocated for the ad campaign. About $19 million of that allocation has already been spent on the ads. The order came a day after the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office, which is defending the Trump administration in a lawsuit challenging the ads, told Rochon the ads would not continue airing past Sunday. Rochon’s order, which lasts 14 days unless extended, directs the Trump administration to cancel all scheduled ads, including those due to air on Sunday evening. The ads have included the caption “Paid for by the U.S. Government” since they began being aired. The Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment. The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. …

inside her glamorous life and favorite hot spots in 16 photos

inside her glamorous life and favorite hot spots in 16 photos

Published by Daniella Wilson

While Jacqueline Kennedy has long been seen as the quintessential first lady, forever  associated with the White House and D.C. (or retreats like Hyannis Port), she spent far more years of her life in New York City, which became her refuge after the assassination of her husband John F. Kennedy in November 1963. Jacqueline was born in Southampton in July 1929, and spent her early childhood years in Manhattan, before studying at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie and becoming a fixture of the New York City social scene in the 1940s. She eventually transferred to George Washington University in Washington, D.C. — and worked as an “Inquiring Camera Girl” for the Washington Times-Herald — the city where she would ultimately meet her husband. In July 1964, seven months after becoming a widow, she purchased a penthouse apartment on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue, thus laying the foundation for her third act.  © Getty ImagesJacqueline making her way from Staten Island to Manhattan in 1976 Jackie’s life as an editor In September 1975, months after becoming a widow for …

from NYCC to Halloween parties

from NYCC to Halloween parties

Published by Daniella Wilson

The Food Network New York City Wine & Food Festival returns with four delicious days of events, beginning October 15. Comic Con isn’t the only celeb-filled affair this month. The Food Network New York City Wine & Food Festival is back once again — and you can expect more decadent dishes, delicious drinks, and creative chefs and charismatic celebs. In other words, it’s a four-day affair you won’t want to miss.  The all-star list of programming begins Thursday, October 15 and runs through Sunday, October 18. Each event throughout the festival requires its own ticket, with each offering its own unique experience — whatever type of cuisine you’re looking to taste-test, or alcohol you want to sip, or celebrity you want to see up close and personal. To prepare you for the job of sampling all the expertly crafted foods and drinks that’ll be on hand at each event, here’s a little sampler for you — of the extensive list of programming to choose from, that is. On Thursday, catch the return of Blue Moon …

ICE won’t pause enforcement in NY after Bronx shooting: DHS’s Mullin

ICE won’t pause enforcement in NY after Bronx shooting: DHS’s Mullin

Published by Sam Flores

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin (C) speaks during a press conference at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) headquarters on October 09, 2026 in Washington, DC. Secretary Mullin, joined by ICE officials, addressed yesterday’s shooting of a man in New York City by a federal immigration agent as he spoke out against sanctuary city policies. Kevin Dietsch | Getty Images U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement will not pause its activities in New York after ICE agents in the Bronx shot and wounded a man while he was in a car with a 5-year-old child, Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said Friday. The shooting Thursday afternoon prompted furious rebukes of ICE from New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani and New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who said she asked Mullin and President Donald Trump to immediately halt operations in her state. “We’re not putting a pause on enforcement,” Mullin said at a news conference Friday morning, which was intended to push back on the growing criticism over the latest ICE shooting. “I’m sorry, we’re not,” …

James Murdoch and Kathryn Murdoch Discuss ‘New York Magazine’—But Not Rupert Murdoch

James Murdoch and Kathryn Murdoch Discuss ‘New York Magazine’—But Not Rupert Murdoch

Published by Sam Flores

For New York magazine staffers, this archival pit stop was a relief. It signaled real interest—a sign that the Murdochs’ $300 million–plus purchase, through their investment company called Lupa, was not a vanity play. “You can just tell when someone is passionate about something versus when it is just a business decision,” Bankoff had told me just days before the deal officially closed. “They’re not someone who is curious and maybe did something in a different realm and now wants to enter the media space—they know the media space better than anyone,” he’d said. To say the media is in James’s blood, or part of his DNA, would be both cliché and true. He was four years old when his father, Rupert, purchased New York and 18 when he sold it. When we met on a sultry early June afternoon at Lupa’s headquarters, in downtown Manhattan, he had the unmistakable swagger of a Murdoch. “I remember that it was part of the sort of portfolio…because back then it was—” James says haltingly, careful not to …