Halle Berry also agreed to share ‘the costs of her son’s private school tuition, uniforms, and school supplies'

China is taking stronger action to address financial risks of local governments, with Caixin reporting on a plan

After years of speculation and observation, residents of a leafy section of Brooklyn managed to discover that a veteran New York police officer was behind a string of bizarre littering incidents on a street in Greenpoint. “Now, I’m sure we all have random papers in our weekly recycling bin,” one resident wrote on the local site Greenpointers. “But I need to stress to those who have yet to experience this phenomenon with their own eyes the SHEER VOLUME of papers floating down the street. It looks like the work of someone with an enormous collection of old books who spends their weekend tearing apart pages before scattering them in the wind.” Residents told Gothamist that for years on end, they would wake to find find pile after pile of meticulously sliced book pages strewn across Noble Street, ranging from selections of the Bible to 1970s porn magazines to a book on Greco-Roman art. “Sometimes things would be underlined or highlighted on the pages, and we would try to figure out if there was a message,” former block association president Molly FitzSimons told the outlet. “We really could not imagine who would do this … It was just this shadowy mystery.” “It made me just feel compassion for this person who clearly was processing something difficult.” Others didn’t take so kindly to the document dumps. Neighbours began actively trying to catch the person they dubbed the “book bandit,” with one resident deploying their surveillance camera to the effort, and another arranging for a private security firm to stake out the street in the hopes of catching the serial litterer. Security footage obtained by WNYC shows the man in action, driving slowly in the dark and dumping an armful of paper into the road. Eventually, the citizen efforts helped yield a licence plate number, prompting the NYPD to investigate Sergeant John Trzcinski, a veteran officer who joined the force in 1994 and earned $177,516, according to public records. When asked about the littering allegations, the NYPD directed The Independent to a database of disciplinary actions, which showed Sergeant Trzcinski was disciplined on 30 May for littering, losing a vacation day. The Independent has contacted the officer and the police union for comment. The city Department of Sanitation confirmed to Gothamist that Sergeant Trzcinski, who lives in Long Island, hasn’t been fined for littering or illegal dumping. Litterers need to be caught in the act by police or sanitation personnel, and the bundles of papers Sergeant Trzcinski left in the street weren’t large enough to qualify as illegal dumping. Sergeant Trzcinski has been awarded multiple awards for police service, and hasn’t been previously disciplined, according to public records. Read More Veteran police official Edward Caban becomes first Latino to head the NYPD Gilgo Beach serial killer suspect named as Rex Heuermann after arrest for Long Island murders New York City's Rikers Island, facing possible federal takeover, found violating safety standards

Consumer inflation in the United States nudged down only slightly in April, the Labor Department said on Wednesday, despite strong efforts to cool the economy...

HONG KONG Hong Kong journalist Bao Choy won an appeal at the city's top court on Monday against

Alleged members of a global sextortion operation that targeted more than 100 victims and led to the death of a 17-year-old boy were extradited to the United States on Sunday to face federal criminal charges, authorities said.

Former President Donald Trump shared a menacing new video on his Truth Social account on Thursday in which he promises to “do things that have never been done before” to people who “f*** around with us.” The video, produced by MAGA.com, features audio of the former president’s appearance on the late Rush Limbaugh’s radio show three years ago. During that appearance, Mr Trump was discussing Iran. Now, with Mr Trump set to face another federal indictment over his attempts to overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election, the audio has been repurposed. The nine-second video features a close-up, black and white image of Mr Trump’s face set to ominous music and Mr Trump saying, “If you f*** around with us, if you do something bad to us, we are going to do things to you that have never been done before.” MAGA.com captioned its post featuring the video with the words, “We aren’t afraid of them.” That caption echoed comments Mr Trump made during a town hall on Fox News. “They feel, I guess, they want to try to demean, diminish, and frighten people, but they don’t frighten us, because we’re going to Make America Great Again,” Mr Trump said. On social media, however, Mr Trump has reacted with anger to news that he is a target of a federal investigation into efforts to overturn the result of the 2020 election and has to decide whether to appear before a grand jury. Mr Trump has already been indicted in New York for allegedly falsifying business records as part of a hush money payment scheme and is under federal indictment in Florida for allegedly mishandling classified documents. But despite his mounting legal problems, Mr Trump continues to run and lead the race for the Republican nomination for president. Mr Trump has led recent national polls of the race by more than 25 points, and also has a commanding lead in early primary states like Iowa and New Hampshire. Mr Trump’s lawyers have attempted to delay many of his legal proceedings until after next year’s election, at which point he or another Republican may be in a position to squash the Department of Justice-led investigations and shield him from prosecution entirely. It remains to be seen, however, whether judges across the country will be willing to delay possible trials that would take Mr Trump away from the campaign trail and make something like his alleged attempt to subvert democracy the centre of national attention. For now, the former president and many of his supporters are adopting a defiant tone. Read More Trump defends Jason Aldean amid music video backlash Trump shares threatening video as midnight deadline to appear before Jan 6 grand jury closes in - live

A Texas judge has ruled that Infowars host Alex Jones cannot use bankruptcy protection to avoid paying more than $1.1 billion to families who sued over his conspiracy theories that the Sandy Hook school massacre was a hoax

'Since I could walk, I was in the music industry,' said Alabama Barker slamming trolls for criticizing her after she posted an unreleased rap song

By Ange Kasongo KINSHASA (Reuters) -Democratic Republic of Congo security forces fired tear gas and fought running battles in the

Emerging-market bulls are still upbeat on the asset class, even after China’s highly-touted reopening rally fizzled and proved

Several homes, businesses and roads were left badly damaged after heavy rainfall at the weekend.