One of the detectives, Roberto Cordero, who has also served for years on Mayor Eric Adams’s security detail, picked up the victim from the airport on May 6 and brought him back to the townhouse, where he was held captive until his escape last week, the officials said.
Detective Cordero and the other detective, Raymond J. Low, who investigates narcotics cases in Manhattan, were placed on modified duty on Wednesday, according to an internal document and the officials, who were not authorized to speak because of the sensitivity of the investigation.
It is unclear whether the detectives were employed directly or whether they had been working for a private security company. Officers are not permitted to work for security firms without Police Department approval, according to the department’s patrol guide. It was also unclear whether the men were present during the crime prosecutors say occurred there.
In a statement, the Police Department confirmed that two officers had been placed on modified duty, which generally restricts a person to desk work, and that the matter was under internal review.
Neither Detective Cordero nor any legal representatives could immediately be reached for comment. When reached by phone, Detective Low declined to comment.
A 20-year veteran, Detective Cordero has served on the Executive Protection Unit, the mayor’s security detail, since December 2021, according to records from the police and the Civilian Complaint Review Board, an independent oversight agency.
The house where they worked is at 38 Prince Street in the NoLIta neighborhood. On May 23, an Italian man, Michael Valentino Teofrasto Carturan, escaped from the home, where he said he had been tortured for weeks.
The Manhattan district attorney has charged the two cryptocurrency investors — John Woeltz, 37, and William Duplessie, 33 — with kidnapping and torturing him. Mr. Woeltz has been indicted by a grand jury, though the indictment will remain sealed until he is arraigned on June 11, the Manhattan district attorney’s office said on Thursday.
When Mr. Carturan arrived at the townhouse on May 6, he was captured and held by Mr. Woeltz and a 24-year-old woman, according to prosecutors and an internal police report. They wanted the password to a Bitcoin wallet worth millions, the report said.
The woman, Beatrice Folchi, was initially charged by the police with kidnapping and unlawful imprisonment, but she was released and her prosecution was deferred, a law enforcement official said.
Detective Cordero joined the Police Department in January 2005 and has served in the 46th Precinct in the Bronx and on a narcotics team in Manhattan, according to police and Complaint Board records.
He has been the subject of several complaints accusing him of abusing his authority and using physical force. In one complaint from 2014, a man accused Detective Cordero and seven other officers of beating him, strip-searching him and taking his money. The case was settled in 2016.
Detective Low joined the Police Department on the same day as Detective Cordero, according to police records.
Detective Low was elevated to his rank in 2013. He has been named in nine complaints dating back to 2008, including one that accuses him of making a false official statement and using a chokehold, according to Complaint Board records.
A record number of Americans applied for British citizenship between January and March, according to the first set of data covering the start of Donald Trump’s second presidential term.
Some 1,931 Americans put in an application, the most since records began in 2004 and a jump of 12% on the previous quarter, figures from the UK Home Office showed Thursday. Applications had already soared during the October-December period, which coincided with Trump’s re-election.
Successful applications by US citizens to settle permanently in the United Kingdom, rather than just move there initially, also hit a record high last year, the latest period for which official data is available. Settlement comes with the right to live, work and study in Britain indefinitely and can be used to apply for citizenship. More than 5,500 Americans were granted settled status in 2024, a fifth more than in 2023.
The last time American applications for British citizenship spiked was in 2020, during Trump’s first presidential term and at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Other data also showed that in the first six months of 2020 more than 5,800 Americans gave up their citizenship, nearly triple the number from all of 2019. The statistics were compiled by Bambridge Accountants, a firm with offices in New York and London specializing in cross-border taxation.
“These are mainly people who already left the US and just decided they’ve had enough of everything,” Alistair Bambridge, a partner at Bambridge Accountants, told CNN in August 2020.
Many people who renounced their citizenship complained of being unhappy with the political climate in the United States at the time and how the pandemic was being handled, but another reason for their decision was often taxes, he said.
While many Americans are looking to build a life in the UK and elsewhere in Europe, that’s becoming more difficult.
Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer said last week that the government would toughen requirements for legal migrants and extend the wait for newcomers to claim citizenship.
And earlier this week, Italy enacted a law that removes the route to citizenship through great-grandparents. The country had already tightened visa rules for non-European Union citizens.
Denmark is set to have the highest retirement age in Europe, after lawmakers voted to raise it to 70.
Parliamentarians passed a bill mandating the rise on Thursday, with 81 votes in favor and 21 against.
The new law will apply to people born after December 31, 1970. The current retirement age is 67 on average, but it can go up to 69 for those born on January 1, 1967, or later.
The rise is needed in order to be able to “afford proper welfare for future generations,” employment minister Ane Halsboe-Jørgensen said in a press release Thursday.
Denmark has a population of almost 6 million people, with around 713,000 between the ages of 60 and 69, and around 580,000 aged between 70 and 79, according to the official Statistics Denmark website.
“Developments in recent years clearly show a marked increase in the number of Danes who continue to work until — and beyond — the state pension age,” F&P, the Danish trade association for insurance companies and pension funds, said in a press release Friday.
Approximately 80,000 people over the state pension age are currently in work in Denmark, according to F&P, which put the increase down to good economic conditions, employers being more flexible, better financial incentives and a greater desire to continue working.
“For many Danes, the idea of the state pension age increasing to 70 by 2040 may seem overwhelming,” Jan V. Hansen, the director of pensions at the association, said in the release. “However, the figures clearly demonstrate that a growing number of Danes are remaining in employment for longer periods.”
“The good news is that many Danes not only have the health but also the desire to continue working — even after reaching the state pension age,” he continued.
‘Unreasonably high’
Denmark’s socialist Red-Green Alliance, however, described the vote by “the government and the right wing” in a post on Facebook as “unreasonably high,” and condemned the change in light of the “great” pension conditions enjoyed by many ministers who can retire at age 60.
“It is incomprehensible. It cannot be explained. And it cannot be defended,” Pelle Dragsted, a member of parliament for the party, said in another Facebook post, noting that teachers, scaffolders and many others in physically demanding jobshave said they cannot keep going for that long.
Denmark is the first European country to set its national retirement age beyond the 60s. The move will make it one of the highest in the world, on par with Libya.
In France in March 2023, more than a million people took to the streets nationwide to protest a rise in the retirement age to 64 — six years below the new Danish retirement age.
In September, the Chinese government passed legislation that would see the retirement age for men raised from 60 to 63, and from 50 and 55 for women, depending on their occupation, to 55 and 58, respectively.
The state pension age in the UK is set to rise to 67 between 2026 and 2028, although a review could see it revised to 68.
While the retirement age in the United States is similar to the UK’s, some Social Security benefits are available from age 62.
Better health in old age, increased life expectancy and remote working are allowing more Americans to work into old age. However, research shows that it is often a lack of money that keeps them working longer.
The justice department has reached a deal with Boeing that will allow the airplane giant to avoid criminal prosecution for allegedly misleading US regulators about the 737 Max jetliner before two of the planes crashed and killed 346 people, according to court papers filed on Friday.
Under the “agreement in principle” that still needs to be finalized, Boeing would pay and invest more than $1.1bn, including an additional $445m for the crash victims’ families, the justice department said. In return, the department would dismiss the fraud charge in the criminal case against the aircraft manufacturer.
“Ultimately, in applying the facts, the law, and Department policy, we are confident that this resolution is the most just outcome with practical benefits,” a justice department spokesperson said in a statement.
“Nothing will diminish the victims’ losses, but this resolution holds Boeing financially accountable, provides finality and compensation for the families and makes an impact for the safety of future air travelers.”
Many relatives of the passengers who died in the crashes, which took place off the coast of Indonesia and in Ethiopia less than five months apart in 2018 and 2019, have spent years pushing for a public trial, the prosecution of former company officials, and more severe financial punishment for Boeing.
“Although the DOJ proposed a fine and financial restitution to the victims’ families, the families that I represent contend that it is more important for Boeing to be held accountable to the flying public,” Paul Cassell, an attorney for many of the families in the long-running case, said in a statement earlier this week.
Boeing was accused of misleading the Federal Aviation Administration about aspects of the Max before the agency certified the plane for flight. Boeing did not tell airlines and pilots about a new software system, called MCAS, that could turn the plane’s nose down without input from pilots if a sensor detected that the plane might go into an aerodynamic stall.
The Max planes crashed after a faulty reading from the sensor pushed the nose down and pilots were unable to regain control. After the second crash, Max jets were grounded worldwide until the company redesigned MCAS to make it less powerful and to use signals from two sensors, not just one.
Boeing avoided prosecution in 2021 by reaching a $2.5bn settlement with the justice department that included a previous $243.6m fine.
A year ago, prosecutors said Boeing violated the terms of the 2021 agreement by failing to make promised changes to detect and prevent violations of federal anti-fraud laws. Boeing agreed last July to plead guilty to the felony fraud charge instead of enduring a potentially lengthy public trial.
But in December, US district judge Reed O’Connor in Fort Worth rejected the plea deal. The judge said the diversity, inclusion and equity (DEI) policies in the government and at Boeing could result in race being a factor in picking a monitor to oversee Boeing’s compliance with the agreement.
A federal judge further blocked the Trump administration from sharply cutting jobs and reorganizing the structure of many major federal agencies as part of its so-called DOGE effort under billionaire Elon Musk.
The order issued late Thursday granted a preliminary injunction that pauses further reductions in force and “reorganization of the executive branch for the duration of the lawsuit.”
The Trump administration on Friday morning appealed the decision to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and is expected to ask that court to block the injunction from taking effect.
“But Congress creates federal agencies, funds them, and gives them duties that — by statute — they must carry out,” Illston wrote.
“Agencies may not conduct large-scale reorganizations and reductions in force in blatant disregard of Congress’s mandates, and a President may not initiate large-scale executive branch reorganization without partnering with Congress.”
Illston’s injunction was issued in response to a lawsuit challenging the effects of a Feb. 11 executive order signed by President Donald Trump, which said it “commences a critical transformation of the Federal bureaucracy.” The order directed heads of federal agencies to prepare for large-scale reductions in force.
The suit was filed by a group of unions representing federal workers, as well as advocacy groups, and several cities, states and counties.
The Trump administration has already requested that the Supreme Court issue an emergency pause of Illston’s initial temporary restraining order blocking its reorganization efforts.
“That far-reaching order bars almost the entire Executive Branch from formulating and implementing plans to reduce the size of the federal workforce, and requires disclosure of sensitive and deliberative agency documents that are presumptively protected by executive privilege,” wrote U.S. Solicitor General John Sauer in the May 16 application to the high court.
“Neither Congress nor the Executive Branch has ever intended to make federal bureaucrats ‘a class with lifetime employment, whether there was work for them to do or not,’” Sauer wrote. “This Court should stay the district court’s order.”
The mass firing of federal employees has been a pillar of Trump’s domestic policy in the early months of his second term.
This week saw one of the most important — and perhaps surprising — events in corporate Britain’s annual calendar: the gala night of the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Chelsea Flower Show.
This traditionally marks the beginning of what, in English high society, is referred to as “the season.”
Coined as such by Debrett’s, the publisher and authority on society and etiquette, the summer social whirl was framed around the British royal family, which traditionally remained in London from April to July and from October until Christmas.
This meant that Britain’s ruling classes and key movers and shakers did the same — participating in balls, parties and court presentations.
These have largely now faded away, but what remains is a series of sporting and cultural events where the great and good continue to get together. Highlights include opera at the Glyndebourne Festival; flat racing at the Epsom Derby, Royal Ascot and Glorious Goodwood meetings; rowing at the Henley Royal Regatta; yachting at Cowes and, of course, tennis at Wimbledon.
All these events see gatherings of corporate chieftains, their bankers, lawyers and other advisors, but none brings together quite as many key figures, in a short space of time, as the Chelsea gala night: two hours of champagne (this year’s bubbles were supplied by Pommery), canapes and networking over displays carefully cultivated by hundreds of professional gardeners and landscape architects.
Tickets for the gala, which runs from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. (the King, who is patron of the RHS, visits earlier in the afternoon), cost £620 ($827) while those for the gala dinner which follows on site go for £885.
Seeds are sown
Many of the City’s top bankers can be spotted there: recent attendees have included Anthony Gutman, co-chief executive officer of Goldman Sachs International; Russell Chambers, the former head of investment banking at Credit Suisse and Charlie Nunn, chief executive of Lloyds Banking Group. Leading business figures also regularly attend, including the likes of John Browne, the former chief executive of BP; Martin Sorrell, the advertising kingpin and Nigel Wilson, the former chief executive of Legal & General.
Top politicians and policymakers can also be spotted at the event: George Osborne was a regular attendee when he was chancellor of the exchequer, while last year both Jeremy Hunt, then the chancellor, and Rachel Reeves, then his shadow, were guests of one of the U.K.’s major lenders.
While the cultivation of plants is central to Chelsea, the cultivation of client relationships is also paramount. Headline sponsors of the event have included Merrill Lynch Investment Managers (now part of BlackRock) and asset manager M&G Investments.
The seeds sown, too, are not necessarily of the horticultural kind.
The RHS Chelsea Flower Show on May 19, 2025 in London, England. (Ben Montgomery/Getty Images News/Getty Images)
For example, the 2018 sale of data provider Refinitiv (since acquired by the London Stock Exchange Group) by Thomson Reuters to Blackstone is said to have had its origins in a meeting between David Craig, the Refinitiv chief executive, and Joseph Baratta, Blackstone’s head of private equity, at the 2013 gala night.
Long-time attendees grumble that the event does not have quite the pull it used to. There are arguably fewer bankers present than there were 15 years ago which, according to some, reflects caps on the value of corporate hospitality some business people are now allowed to accept.
There is also a school of thought that modern CEOs are more likely to be seen competing in triathlons and, when they do accept invitations, it is likely to be for a more egalitarian and less elitist event such as, say, a Premier League football match.
This year’s gala suggested there may be some truth to that.
From the C-suite, there were certainly more FTSE 100 chairs than CEOs in attendance, although several individuals who have in the last year stepped down from such roles were spotted among the blooms.
Among the main talking points, a few common themes emerged. One was the uncertainty that continues to stalk businesses in the United States due to a combination of factors, chiefly President Donald Trump’s tariffs, which several attendees suggested may benefit the U.K. if it drives capital and business investment elsewhere.
Another is the impact that continues to be felt by Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ decision to abolish the so-called “non-dom” rules which enabled U.K. residents who declared their permanent home as being overseas to avoid U.K. tax on their foreign income and gains. It is credited with having driven hundreds of wealthy individuals out of the U.K. and harmed entrepreneurship in the process.
The third theme, though, was altogether more surprising. The mood music surrounding the U.K. economy during the last 12 months has been unremittingly bleak. Yet there were, on Monday evening, an unexpectedly high number of corporate chiefs who, when questioned how their business was faring, answered along the lines of: “I probably shouldn’t say this, given the backdrop, but we’re actually doing better than I expected so far this year.”
The U.K. economy still faces headwinds, not least Reeves’s recent increase in employer’s national insurance contributions, which makes it more expensive to hire people. There is also a sense that the GDP figures for the first quarter of the year were flattered by stockpiling of goods and strong export figures ahead of Trump’s tariffs kicking in.
However, leaving the show on Monday evening, there was a strong sense that these surprisingly strong figures may not have been a flash in the pan.
Two Israeli Embassy staff members were shot and killed by a gunman who later yelled “Free Palestine!” while being arrested in Washington, DC, Wednesday night, authorities said.
The slain staffers, who the Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs named as Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, were a couple who officials say were soon to be engaged.
The two were attending an event for young professionals at the Capital Jewish Museum hosted by the American Jewish Committee. At around 9 p.m. outside the museum, they were approached by a gunman who opened fire and killed them, officials said.
The suspect, whom DC police identified as 30-year-old Chicago native Elias Rodriguez, pretended to be a bystander after the shooting, an eyewitness told CNN News.
When police arrived, the man turned himself in and shouted “Free, Free Palestine” while being handcuffed. He is currently in custody, according to authorities. Metropolitan Police Department Chief Pamela Smith said the man “implied that he committed the offense.”
What we know about the shooting near the Capital Jewish Museum
Two Israeli Embassy staff members were killed in a shooting near the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington, DC, on Wednesday night.
Sources: CNN reporting, District of Columbia Metropolitan Police Department, Google (image) Graphic: Lou Robinson, CNN
The shooting, which took place in the heart of the Hill, has shaken the Jewish community at a time of heightened global tensions, as US-led attempts to broker a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas remain unsuccessful and fighting in Gaza continues.
Tensions are also high across US college campuses where hundreds of pro-Palestinian protesters have been arrested amid polarized debates over the right to protest Israel’s military actions and accusations of antisemitism.
“We’ll be doing everything in our power to keep all citizens safe, especially tonight our Jewish community,” US Attorney General Pam Bondi told reporters late Wednesday.
“These horrible D.C. killings, based obviously on antisemitism, must end, NOW! Hatred and Radicalism have no place in the USA,” President Donald Trump said in a post on Truth Social, expressing his condolences to the families of the victims.
Rodriguez is being interviewed by the DC Metropolitan Police and FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces, Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino said on X.
“Early indicators are that this is an act of targeted violence,” Bongino said.
Ted Deutch, the CEO of the AJC, described the shooting “an unspeaking act of violence.”
“At this moment, as we await more information from the police about exactly what transpired, our attention and our hearts are solely with those who were harmed and their families,” he said.
Suspect was seen ‘pacing’ outside museum before shooting
Police Chief Smith said Rodriguez was allegedly seen pacing back and forth outside the museum before approaching a group of four and shooting two of them with a handgun.
The 30-year-old later retreated inside the museum, where he was eventually detained, according to Smith.
According to Sara Marinuzzi, an eyewitness who spoke with WTTG, the suspect “pretended to be a witness” once inside the building and waited for police to arrive for over 10 minutes before claiming responsibility for the attack.
Police officers work at the site of the shooting. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
Another witness, Paige Siegel, told WTTG she heard Rodriguez say, “I did it for Gaza,” and “Free Palestine.”
Rodriguez, who was taken into custody on Wednesday night told officers, “I did this,” according to eyewitness Yoni Kalin.
Kalin was at the museum attending the same event organized by the AJC when he heard shots rang out. “At first I didn’t recognize them as gunshots,” he told CNN News over the phone.
Moments later, a man entered the museum appearing to be a witness, according to Kalin. He recalled the man sitting in the museum but not interacting with many people present at the event. Ten minutes later, when police entered the building, the man appeared to confess to shooting, telling officers, “I did this, I did this for Palestine,” according to Kalin.
“It’s horrible,” Kalin said. “I just didn’t realize he was the perpetrator.”
Kalin added that between the shooting and the arrest, Rodriguez appeared shaken up. People approached the suspect to offer him water and check if he was okay, he said.
Kalin said around 50 people attended the event, which was organized to discuss how multi-faith organizations can work together to bring humanitarian aid to war-torn regions such as Gaza. He added that over 30 staffers from various embassies attended the event.
“I’m still in shock,” Kalin told NBC News. “I just hope we learn from this and just recognize that violence and terrorism doesn’t get us where we need to be” he added.
Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter and US Attorney General Pam Bondi visit the site of the shooting. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
The couple ‘were in the prime of their lives’
When officers arrived on the scene minutes after the shooting, they found “one adult male and one adult female unconscious and not breathing,” Smith told reporters late Wednesday. “Both victims succumbed to their injuries,” she said.
“We are shocked and horrified this morning by the news of the brutal terrorist attack that claimed the lives of two of our Embassy staff members in Washington,” the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs wrote in a post on X in the early hours of Thursday.
“We embrace the grieving families during this painful time and will continue to support them always,” the post read.
“Yaron and Sarah were our friends and colleagues. They were in the prime of their lives,” Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, also said in a social media post Thursday. “The entire embassy staff is heartbroken and devastated by their murder. No words can express the depth of our grief and horror at this devastating loss.” Leiter earlier shared with reporters that the couple was about to be engaged.
“A young man purchased a ring this week with the intention of proposing to his girlfriend next week in Jerusalem. They were a beautiful couple,” he said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in a statement, expressed his condolences to the families of the young couple.
“My heart aches for the families of the beloved young man and woman, whose lives were suddenly cut short by a vile antisemitic murderer,” Netanyahu said.
A train hit two women who were walking on a railway bridge in an Ohio city on Sunday, the mayor said, and the authorities were searching overnight for a 5-year-old who went missing after the crash.
The train struck and killed the women, 38 and 58, at about 7:30 p.m. on a bridge that sits about 40 feet above the Sandusky River in Fremont, said the mayor, Danny Sanchez. Fremont is about 40 miles southeast of Toledo.
A 1-year-old child was rescued from the river and hospitalized, and emergency crews were searching the river early Monday for a missing 5-year-old, Mr. Sanchez said. He did not say what condition the 1-year-old was in, and it was unclear if either child had also been struck by the train.
The four people appeared to be part of a large family that had traveled to Fremont from Fort Wayne, Ind., to fish in the river, Mr. Sanchez said. The waterway is known as a place for white bass fishing in the spring.
“We believe they were simply here in the area trying to enjoy the Sandusky River,” Mr. Sanchez said.
He added that the bridge was clearly marked as being for trains only.
It was not immediately clear which train line was involved.
David Tucker III, 20, was fishing by the Sandusky River when he heard the train approaching the bridge and sounding its horn, he said.
As the train neared, it continued to sound its horn intermittently, until the engineer blared it continuously, Mr. Tucker said.
Mr. Tucker then saw what he estimated were four or five people “drop straight into the water,” from the train trestle, he said.
He could see only their feet as they floated down the river. Mr. Tucker called 911 at 7:25 p.m., he said.
His father, David Tucker Jr., had just returned home from work and also said he had heard the train sound its horn.
“I looked out my back window, and I could see people in panic,” he said, adding he also heard the train “slam its brakes.” He immediately called his son because he knew his son was fishing at the river.
According to the Tuckers, the victims appeared to be crossing the train trestle to reach the other side. The trestle has a “no trespassing” sign, they said.
A day after a Mexican sailing vessel slammed its masts into the underside of the Brooklyn Bridge, new details about the deadly crash began to emerge.
But as the hobbled, 300-foot long ship, the Cuauhtémoc, remained docked at Pier 36 in Manhattan on Sunday, a clear understanding of what went awry in the accident that killed two crew members remained elusive.
“To put it mildly, after being fully briefed on last night’s Brooklyn Bridge accident, one thing is very clear: There are many more questions than answers as to how the accident occurred and whether it could have been prevented,” Senator Chuck Schumer said during a news conference on Sunday.
As the National Transportation Safety Board and Mexican officials began a full investigation into the crash, those questions included what the “mechanical issues” were that authorities said caused the Cuauhtémoc to veer wildly off its course and into the bridge, and what role a tugboat seen in videos and photographs of the incident on Saturday night played in the accident.
The two victims of the crash were identified on Sunday by Mexican officials. América Yamileth Sánchez Hernández, 20, from the state of Veracruz, was named in a social media post by the state’s governor, Rocío Nahle, who sent condolences to her family.
There were 277 people on board when the ship drifted directly into the underside of the bridge on Saturday night, the authorities said. Two crew members were killed.Credit. (Dave Sanders/The New York Times)
The second victim was Adal Jair Maldonado Marcos, 23, according to Raúl Rangel González, the mayor of San Mateo del Mar, a coastal town in Oaxaca state where Mr. Maldonado Marcos was from.
At least 22 others were injured in the crash, including 11 who were in critical condition and nine who were in stable condition, the Mexican Navy said in a statement.
The accident occurred after the ship left Pier 17 in Manhattan, just below the Brooklyn Bridge. It was supposed to head south and sail out of New York Harbor, with a stop on the Brooklyn waterfront to refuel before heading to Iceland.
Instead, at about 8:30 p.m., the Cuauhtémoc headed in the wrong direction, under the Brooklyn Bridge, where it was never intended to sail, according to a spokesman for the city’s emergency management office.
McAllister Towing, a maritime towing, docking and transport company based in New York, said on Sunday that one of its vessels “assisted the Cuauhtémoc as it departed Pier 17.”
After the ship made contact with the bridge, “our crew provided additional assistance and promptly notified the appropriate authorities,” the company said in a statement.
“While the cause of the incident is still under investigation, McAllister Towing is fully cooperating with the relevant authorities and will continue to support the review process as needed,” the statement continued.
But Mr. Schumer characterized the tugboat’s role differently, saying, “The vessel did not use a tugboat’s assistance. The vessel pictured widely in posted videos was responding after the fact, not assisting before. Usually, very often, there is a tugboat before to help them get out, especially on a sailing ship.”
In the aftermath of the crash on Sunday morning, the regal ship, with its green trimmed hull and gilded masts, which are about 160 feet tall, sat at Pier 36 in the East River, a firm breeze rocking its disabled masts.
Crew members assessing the sails on Sunday.CreditCredit. (Dave Sanders)
Just before 10 a.m., a group of wounded sailors, including a man wearing an arm sling and another with his head bandaged in white gauze, emerged from the back of a white transport van to board once again. Boxes of supplies, including water and juice, were shuttled to the ship, where many of the 277 people originally onboard reportedly remained.
Bystanders tried to catch glimpses of the ship from behind police barricades. And throughout the day, a steady stream of visitors, most of them Mexican immigrants living in New York, arrived to pay respects, with some leaving flowers at the entrance to the pier.
Roque Anaya, 42, had traveled with his family from Rhode Island to New York City on Friday to see the ship he had learned about in school as a child in Hidalgo, Mexico. He had boarded for a tour, snapped photos with his family and spoken with the mariners making the voyage.
“A lot of things are going through my mind right now: Will it stay here, will it go back to Mexico,” Mr. Anaya said. “They’ll have to fix it.”
The Anaya family had returned to the site of the crash on Sunday to check on the ship’s status.
“It’s a little heartbreaking,” said Jessica Anaya, his daughter, while holding back tears.
On Sunday evening, a small group held a vigil at the pier, laying bouquets on the ground, lighting votive candles and hanging a rosary and a small image of a Virgin Mary on a fence. The organizer of the vigil, Maria Mejia, said the local Mexican American community was “crushed” that the accident had transformed the ship’s visit from a celebration into a tragedy.
The ship is currently docked at a pier in lower Manhattan. (Reuters/Eduardo Munoz )
“We were so full of love, full of pride,” Ms. Mejia said. “We couldn’t believe it.”
The commander of the Mexican Navy, Adm. Raymundo Pedro Morales Ángeles, said in a statement on Sunday that the uninjured cadets would continue their training and that the investigation into the crash would be carried out “with total transparency and responsibility.”
“We know that every sailing trip involves risks inherent to our seafaring vocation,” Admiral Morales Ángeles said.
A Mexican Navy official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to give interviews said that the Cuauhtémoc would go through an inspection process and that the ship’s fate would not be determined until a technical report was available.
The Mexican Navy said in a statement that the Cuauhtémoc had set sail on April 6 from Acapulco on a mission with the goal of “exalting the seafaring spirit, strengthening naval education and carrying the Mexican people’s message of peace and good will to the seas and ports of the world.”
The vessel had planned to spend 254 days making calls in New York; Kingston, Jamaica; Havana; Reykjavik, Iceland; Aberdeen, Scotland; Avilés, Spain; Bridgetown, Barbados; and London.
The ship — a steel-hulled, three-masted barque — was built in Bilbao, Spain, in 1981 and then acquired by the Mexican government the following year to use as a training ship at its Heroic Naval Military School. Last year, it won the Boston Teapot Trophy, an annual international award given to the sail training vessel that covers the greatest distance within five days.
In his news conference on Sunday, Mr. Schumer wondered aloud whether cuts and hiring freezes initiated by the Trump administration to the Coast Guard had played any role in Saturday’s incident. He compared the Coast Guard’s waterway control operation to the air traffic control duties of the Federal Aviation Administration.
“We know that there has been meddling by the Trump administration into the Coast Guard staffing,” he said, “and now we need to know how this meddling might have impacted the events of last night from a command, communication and local coordination level.”
By late Sunday afternoon, dozens of people in civilian clothing had begun moving rucksacks, duffel bags and other luggage off the ship. Later, more than 100 crew members disembarked with their luggage and boarded waiting vans.
The spokesman for the emergency management office said the ship would remain at Pier 36 for now, but that a plan to move it to a nearby ship yard was being formulated. Crew members who were leaving the ship would be provided with city bus service to Kennedy Airport with a police escort, the spokesman said.
People disembark the Cuauhtemoc in New York. (Reuters/Eduardo Munoz)
Rodolfo Hernández, Ms. Sánchez Hernández’s uncle, told reporters on Sunday that his niece had sent photos showing her in Central Park the day before the accident “She was so happy that she was going to go to Iceland,” he said. When news of her death came, he added, “we broke down; we didn’t have the strength to bear it.”
“My precious girl, last night we longed for it to be a lie and it hurts in our hearts that you will no longer be in this world. You left doing what you loved the most,” the post read. “We are proud that you got where you wanted to go, that you got to know NY. ”
Sordid sex marathons featuring gallons of baby oil. Physical abuse so savage that the victim was left bleeding and vomiting. A threat to blow up a romantic rival’s car.
Casandra Ventura’s testimony against Sean Combs, the music mogul who was her longtime boyfriend, during the first week of his criminal trial in Manhattan federal court was a depiction of untrammeled decadence. It spared neither the defendant nor the witness herself.
Ms. Ventura’s account of a life defined by Mr. Combs’s desires came in the early stage of what is expected to be an eight-week trial. Her testimony was a first step toward convincing the jury that Mr. Combs was not merely an abusive lover, but the leader of a criminal enterprise that carried out the sex trafficking of three women and committed arson, kidnapping and other crimes dating to 2004.
Whether a jury sees Mr. Combs as merely a violent voyeur or a criminal kingpin depends on more than shock value.
“You can be guilty of sins and not crimes,” said Donna Rotunno, a defense lawyer who represented Harvey Weinstein, the disgraced Hollywood producer, at his first sex-abuse trial.
In a trial that will feature more witness testimony and reams of other evidence, potentially including videos of Mr. Combs’s sex parties, the government will now build on the foundation provided by its star witness.
Ms. Ventura, 38, known just as Cassie, met Mr. Combs in 2005, when she was 19. She signed a 10-album deal with his label, Bad Boy, and in 2006 released her debut single, “Me & U.”
Soon after she signed, Ms. Ventura began dating Mr. Combs, the start of a relationship that was on-and-off until 2018. Its turbulent nature became public in 2023, when Ms. Ventura accused Mr. Combs of rape and physical abuse in a federal lawsuit. In May 2024, CNN broadcast a 2016 video of Mr. Combs assaulting her at a hotel.
“The purpose of her testimony is to set the stage for the case, the emotional stage for the case, and the overall contours of the charged crimes,” said Rachel Maimin, a former federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York.
Mr. Combs, 55, is charged with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking and transportation to engage in prostitution. He could face life in prison.
Ms. Ventura painted a damning portrait of the man who millions of people came to know as “Diddy,” “P. Diddy,” “Puff Daddy” and the other monikers he adopted while cycling through identities. She depicted Mr. Combs as coercing her to play out his fantasies, including by paying male escorts to have sex with her at parties he called “freak-offs” while he watched. He was, she said, prone to violent outbursts.
The freak-offs, Ms. Ventura testified, were drug-fueled marathons that could last from 36 hours to four days. She said that they left her so drained that she needed days to recover. She said she had agreed to participate out of fear that Mr. Combs would become violent.
“His eyes go black,” Ms. Ventura testified. “The version of him that I was in love with was no longer there.”
Mr. Combs’s lawyers have conceded that their client was a troubled man, one who committed domestic violence and was prone to jealous rages. But they said his transgressions did not meet the definition of the federal charges he faces, and that he was being penalized for his private sex life.
“He is not charged with being a jerk,” said Teny Geragos, a lawyer for Mr. Combs. “He is charged with running a racketeering enterprise.”
Teny Geragos, left, said in court that Mr. Combs’s personal behavior and proclivities are irrelevant to the legal case. (Jefferson Siegel/The New York Times)
Mr. Combs is one of the best-known figures in the history of hip-hop. As a rapper, producer and record executive, he was a constant presence in music and celebrity culture for decades. His elaborate “White Parties” were a hot ticket, with figures like Leonardo DiCaprio, Donald J. Trump and Al Sharpton attending.
Yet as he rose to an elite level of American celebrity, Mr. Combs was dogged by accusations of violence and abuse. In the 1990s, he faced allegations of beating a rival executive. He promoted an event at a Harlem gymnasium where nine young people were crushed to death, and he later helped settle a civil case. In 2001, he was acquitted of bribery and gun charges in connection with a shooting at a Manhattan nightclub.
Some observers said that Ms. Ventura’s testimony had provided nearly everything needed to convict Mr. Combs on sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy.
Moira Penza, a former assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of New York, said Ms. Ventura’s testimony helped prove that the acts were coerced and commercial, as the federal sex trafficking statute requires.
Ms. Ventura said that male escorts were paid thousands of dollars to have sex with her, and that she was fearful of Mr. Combs releasing blackmail videos of freak-offs she participated in.
“Just on Cassie’s testimony, the prosecution is basically there on proving the crimes,” Ms. Penza said.
Racketeering conspiracy cases involve typically several defendants, because the law they are based on is usually used against criminal enterprises with a hierarchy.
Yet, like Mr. Combs, the singer R. Kelly was a single defendant when he was charged with leading a scheme that lured women and underage girls for sex. Mr. Kelly was convicted of racketeering in 2021.
Elizabeth Geddes, a former assistant U.S. attorney in the Eastern District of New York who prosecuted Mr. Kelly, said the racketeering law encompasses what Ms. Ventura has already described.
If more evidence emerges about Mr. Combs’s associates paying for escorts, she added, the case would be even stronger.
“All of that facilitation by others will be used by the prosecutors to say, ‘Sean Combs could not have carried out the acts by himself,’” Ms. Geddes said.
How the jury interprets Ms. Ventura’s returning to Mr. Combs even after she said he raped and violently assaulted her, could be critical, legal experts said.
Some legal observers said the defense made an effective argument by saying that Mr. Combs, while an imperfect man who committed domestic violence, did not run a criminal enterprise and was on trial for sexual acts that many might find depraved, but that were consensual.
In cross-examining Ms. Ventura on Thursday, Mr. Combs’s lawyers presented messages in which Ms. Ventura expressed affection for Mr. Combs and enthusiasm about the parties. One message, written in 2009 from Ms. Ventura to Mr. Combs, said “I’m always ready to freak off lolol.”
“For Cassie, she made a choice every single day for years, a choice to stay with him, a choice to fight for him,” Ms. Geragos said during the defense’s opening statements.
One thing to watch, Ms. Penza said, is whether prosecutors calls an expert witness to testify about victims of sexual violence who might address why Ms. Ventura would stay with Mr. Combs.
“This is where expert testimony is going to be important, because sex crime victims often behave in ways that seem unreasonable,” Ms. Penza said.
Ms. Rotunno, Mr. Weinstein’s onetime lawyer, said Ms. Ventura’s testimony may have shown that Mr. Combs was guilty of domestic violence or even sex by force. It did not, she said, prove the federal charges he was facing.
Lara Yeretsian, a criminal defense lawyer in the Los Angeles area, said Ms. Ventura’s testimony was part of a strategy to portray Mr. Combs in such a negative light that jurors would be compelled to convict him.
But, Ms. Yeretsian added, it could backfire if jurors believed the government was trying to hoodwink them with shocking accounts of depravity.
“The jury might say, ‘OK, great, he was a bad person,” she said. “He’s a girlfriend beater. But that doesn’t make him guilty of the charges.’”
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