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    Inmate Dies After Fight Breaks Out at Troubled Brooklyn Jail

    Edwin Cordero, 36, died at the Metropolitan Detention Center, where his lawyer said conditions were “awful.”A 36-year-old inmate at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn died Wednesday after he was injured in a fight at the jail, the U.S. Department of Justice announced.The inmate, Edwin Cordero, was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead, according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons, which is part of the Justice Department and runs the jail. No other employees or inmates were injured during the brawl, which was stopped by jail employees, according to officials.Mr. Cordero had been in custody at the detention center, or M.D.C., which has more than 1,300 inmates, since March 2024. He was initially sentenced to 18 months in the District of New Jersey for wire fraud and was later sentenced in June to 24 months in the Southern District of New York for committing assault, which was a violation of his supervised release.Andrew Dalack, a lawyer representing Mr. Cordero, called his client’s death “senseless and completely preventable,” while adding that Mr. Cordero was “another victim of M.D.C. Brooklyn, an overcrowded, understaffed and neglected federal jail that is hell on earth.”A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office for the Southern District of New York declined to comment on the matter.In February, Mr. Cordero was walking home from a deli in the Bronx when he was struck by a snowball thrown by a small child who was playing with a 17-year-old across the street, prosecutors said in a court document. Mr. Cordero confronted them and slashed the older child’s face, the document said.Mr. Cordero’s death comes just months after a federal judge, Jesse M. Furman, refused to send a man convicted in a drug case to the troubled jail. The judge cited complaints of horrible conditions, frequent lockdowns and staffing shortages.In a June letter to another federal judge, Ronnie Abrams, Mr. Dalack cited the “awful” conditions at M.D.C., as he requested that Mr. Cordero’s sentence be 18 months instead of 24, followed by 12 months of supervised release. Mr. Dalack wrote that Mr. Cordero and other detainees were “denied the most basic level of care, including access to showers, medical treatment and phone calls with their families” during lockdowns.Ashley Cordero, Mr. Cordero’s wife, wrote to the judge in a June letter that she had spoken to her husband recently and that he was “depressed and upset.”The couple had two children together: a baby who was 8 months old at the time of the letter and a 2-year-old daughter. “Mr. Cordero is more than just a statistic,” Mr. Dalack said. “He is a real person with a family who genuinely loved and cared for him.”M.D.C. has been the primary federal detention center in New York City since the Bureau of Prisons closed its sister jail in Manhattan in 2021 because of deteriorating conditions there. Visitation has been suspended until further notice, according to the center’s website.Benjamin Weiser More

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    A Small Meteor Caused Awe as It Streaked Across Manhattan

    It had already been a weird few weeks in New York. Then a fireball streaked across the sky.New Yorkers have lived through their fair share of unusual events recently. There was an earthquake, an eclipse and the criminal trial of a former United States president, all against the backdrop of nail-biting national political crises and the hottest year on record.On Tuesday, the city added what seemed like a cosmic freak occurrence to the list: a meteor that had traveled millions of miles through deep space entered the atmosphere, passed above the Statue of Liberty, zoomed over the tourist boats of New York Harbor streaked over the Midtown Manhattan skyline, and exploded very, very high over the region.In a chaotic week, many New Yorkers did not seem to notice. Or, if they did hear a strange noise, they did what New Yorkers often do, especially when in Midtown Manhattan. They minded their own business.“I heard it, yes I did indeed,” Pat Battle, an anchor on the local NBC News broadcast, told viewers on Tuesday, with wonder in her voice. “But I never thought to look up.”The arrival and swift demise of a meteor above Midtown, the city’s noisiest and most chaotic precinct, attracted little attention there on Tuesday. But some residents in the other boroughs and New Jersey complained of a loud boom late on Tuesday morning, or said they saw a fireball streak through the sky.Ashleigh Holmes, a spokeswoman for New York City Emergency Management, referred questions about the meteor to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    A New Terrace Cafe for the Boathouse in Prospect Park

    Purslane Cafe, from the group behind Rucola and more, serves sandwiches and drinks; Parcelle adds a new location; and more restaurant news.OpeningPurslane CafeThe Oberon Group, a restaurant and catering company that is serious about sustainability and zero waste, is now in charge of the terrace cafe at the Boathouse in Prospect Park. Purslane, the group’s catering division, which also produces special events in the park, is running the restaurant. The group owns Rucola, June Bar, Rhodora and Anaïs in Brooklyn, and also runs the restaurant Clara in the New-York Historical Society in Manhattan. Tapped by the Prospect Park Alliance for this seasonal oasis, it serves sandwiches, pastries and coffee and, on some evenings offers cocktail time with music.Prospect Park Boathouse Terrace, prospectpark.org/purslane-cafe. NoméThis luxuriously appointed newcomer at the edge of Union Square, is owned by the New Jersey-based Mocha Hospitality which has other kosher restaurants, including steak houses. The menu from the chef Santiago Chiuz, who is from Honduras and has been a chef in Miami, includes a 50-ounce bone-in rib-eye steak, a Goliath they’re calling Jurassic Hawk. A number of dishes incorporate Asian touches.127 Fourth Avenue (13th Street), 212-419-8889, nomenewyork.com. Parcelle Greenwich VillageJeenah Moon for The New York TimesParcelle, a wine merchant with restaurants and wine bars, has added this new location. The compact yet airy space, with vintage décor, is the setting for a menu created and executed by Mark Ladner, the group’s consulting executive chef; Kate Telfeyan, its culinary director; and Robert Kent, the executive sous chef. A 500-bottle wine list includes natural wines and Burgundian rarities. The wines are also available for purchase from the online retailer. (Opens July 16)72 MacDougal Street (West Houston Street), 917-540-0884 (texting only), parcellewine.com. Din Tai FungJason VarneyAlready established and known for xiao long bao (soup dumplings) in over 180 locations globally, the much-anticipated New York edition of the family-owned Taiwanese chain is poised to open in Paramount Plaza near Times Square. An underground space abut half the size of a football field seats 450 in several areas, one of which has a windowed kitchen where cooks fold and pleat dumplings with precision and speed. A dramatic glass-enclosed street entrance and a staircase with a shimmer of gold curtains leads down to the restaurant where various xiao long bao, wontons, steamed dumplings and buns, noodles and rice are served. (Thursday)1633 Broadway (50th Street), dintaifungusa.com. We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Coney Island Drownings Fail to Deter New Yorkers as City Swelters

    Visitors were mostly unaffected by the third and fourth drownings at New York City beaches this season, matching the total number of swimming deaths last summer.The scene at Coney Island on Saturday was typical for a humid and hot weekend in July: colorful towels, tents and umbrellas packed into the strip of sand.Along the famed boardwalk in Brooklyn, signs warned visitors of the potential dangers posed by lightning or strong currents, and delineated where and when it was safe to swim.Yet in one area, closed off by small red flags staked into the sand, a handful of people ventured into the water with no lifeguards present. To the east, where two teenage sisters drowned in the water the night before, swimmers splashed around, unaware or undeterred, enjoying an escape from the city’s heat as temperatures peaked just below 90 degrees.The two teenage sisters who drowned on Friday entered the ocean after the beach was closed.Dakota Santiago for The New York TimesThe sisters who drowned Friday night, Zainab Mohammed, 17, and Aisha Mohammed, 18, were the second pair of teenagers to drown off New York City’s beaches already this summer. At nearby Jacob Riis Park beach in Queens, two boys, ages 16 and 17, drowned just two weeks earlier. Both incidents happened on especially hot days, after the beaches closed but before the sun had set.On Saturday, another man died after being pulled from the water off Inwood Hill Park in Upper Manhattan, according to the police. He was transported to NewYork-Presbyterian Allen Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    8-Year-Old Is Killed and Two Adults Wounded in Queens Stabbing

    Police officers arrived at an apartment in Jamaica to find a man holding his father at knife point and an 8-year-old mortally wounded.It was just after 5 p.m. on the Fourth of July when a bleeding woman staggered out of a Queens apartment building, begging for help.She had been stabbed in the back.When police officers from the nearby 103rd Precinct arrived, they found a grisly scene in a fifth-floor apartment: an older son holding his father at knife point; a younger boy nearby, dying from his wounds, the police said.The officers said the older son was holding his father in a headlock. They told him to drop the knife multiple times in English and Spanish, they said. When he did not, officers fired one round, striking the older son, who dropped the knife, said John Chell, the chief of patrol for the New York Police Department.The suspect is being treated for his injuries at a nearby hospital.“This was a tragic and horrific event,” Chief Chell said at a hastily gathered news conference on Thursday evening outside the apartment building, at the corner of Sutphin Boulevard and 94th Avenue in Jamaica, Queens.Police officials did not speculate on a motive for the attack that left the younger boy, who was 8 years old, dead. The family members’ names were not released, nor was the precise nature of the relationships among them.Police officials said the investigation was continuing. “This is a domestic incident,” Chief Chell said. “There is a relationship with all them here, and we’ll figure that out.”The police said that the woman, who is 29, and the father, 43, were expected to recover from their injuries. An 8-month-old girl who was also in the apartment was unharmed, the police said.Kaz Daughtry, the deputy commissioner of operations, said that the officers who had responded to the scene were crushed by the news that the boy had succumbed to his injuries: “One of them said, ‘We wish we could have got here a little sooner to save this young life.’” More

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    Marc Jacobs’s Latest Fall Collection Is Delightful Delusion

    The designer’s fall collection, inspired by “personal transformation,” was wholly cartoonish.There is a scene in the new documentary “I Am: Celine Dion” in which Ms. Dion describes her dedication to designer heels.“When a girl loves her shoes, she always makes them fit,” the singer said, spreading her fingers to demonstrate how she has contorted her toes to accommodate shoes ranging from size 6 to 10. Asked for her size while shopping, she said, she would respond to sales associates: “What size do you have? I’ll make them work. I’ll make them fit.”It is a feeling well-known to women who relish playing dress-up: determination so great it pushes up against delusion.That was certainly the feeling at Marc Jacobs’s runway show Monday night, held at the New York Public Library. Fashion is determined to be a joyful medium, even or especially when the world seems joyless. And Mr. Jacobs was determined to dress his models like surreal dolls of 20th-century American iconography.A heavy white Marilyn Monroe dress opened the show. Its bodice was oversize, with pointy bra cups and a skirt sculpted in permanent half flight. Marilyn walked in white sandals made to appear about an inch too large in every direction, like a girl insistent on wearing heels from her mother’s closet. (“I walk the shoe, the shoe don’t walk me,” as Ms. Dion would say.)The proportions were a continuation of Mr. Jacobs’s February runway show: big and cartoonish, like a joke we’re all supposed to be in on. Models seemed to be tensing to keep their thick clothes in place, though of course they fit just as Mr. Jacobs intended. Necklines were lifted by invisible fingers off the shoulders of Peter Pan-collar jackets, preppy V-neck sweaters, voluminous floral cocktail dresses. Saccharine bikinis — one in white pointelle, pinned with a photorealistic daisy brooch, and the other in yellow polka dots — swung and jutted off the body.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    Mikhail Baryshnikov on Leaving Everything Behind

    Fifty years ago, Baryshnikov defected from the Soviet Union. He discusses that day, the war in Ukraine and the challenges facing Russian artists today.On the night of June 29, 1974, after a performance with a touring Bolshoi Ballet troupe in downtown Toronto, Mikhail Baryshnikov made his way out a stage door, past a throng of fans and began to run.Baryshnikov, then 26 and already one of ballet’s brightest stars, had made the momentous decision to defect from the Soviet Union and build a career in the West. On that rainy night, he had to evade K.G.B. agents — and audience members seeking autographs — as he rushed to meet a group of Canadian and American friends waiting in a car a few blocks away.“That car took me to the free world,” Baryshnikov, 76, recalled in a recent interview. “It was the start of a new life.”His cloak-and-dagger escape helped to make him a cultural celebrity. “Soviet Dancer in Canada Defects on Bolshoi Tour,” The New York Times declared on its front page.But the focus on his decision to leave the Soviet Union has sometimes made Baryshnikov uneasy. He said he does not like how the term “defector” sounds in English, conjuring an image of a traitor who has committed high treason.“I’m not a defector — I’m a selector,” he said. “That was my choice. I selected this life.”Baryshnikov was born in the Soviet city of Riga, now part of Latvia, and moved to Leningrad, now St. Petersburg, in 1964, when he was 16, to study with the renowned teacher Alexander Pushkin. When he was 19, he joined the Kirov Ballet, now known as the Mariinsky, and quickly became a star on the Russian ballet scene.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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    New Jersey Transit Service Disrupted for Third Time in Less Than a Week

    Rush-hour commuters at Penn Station faced a shutdown of close to an hour, followed by extensive delays, after Amtrak investigated a report of a problem with overhead wires.New Jersey Transit service was disrupted once again on Monday evening, with travel suspended in and out of Pennsylvania Station for nearly an hour because of a report of a problem with Amtrak overhead wires in one of the Hudson River tunnels.Service was suspended at 6:37 p.m. and resumed shortly before 7:30 p.m., but trains were still subject to delays of up to 60 minutes, a New Jersey Transit spokesman said.It was at least the fifth disruption for New Jersey commuters in the last two months, and the third in less than a week. Amtrak and New Jersey Transit trains share the portion of Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor between New York City and Trenton, N.J., so issues with Amtrak tracks or wires immediately affect New Jersey Transit service.Trains were held in place for about 25 minutes, or in some cases pulled back to Penn Station, according to a New Jersey Transit customer service representative.An Amtrak spokesman said service had been suspended as a precautionary measure after a report of trouble with the overhead wires that provide the electricity that powers trains moving in and out of Penn Station. The inspection turned up no problems, he said, so service resumed after about half an hour.During the shutdown, trains were diverted to Hoboken, N.J., and New Jersey Transit rail tickets were accepted for rides by private bus companies and PATH trains in Newark, Hoboken, N.J., and Midtown Manhattan.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More