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.