A landlady has been accused of “outrageous” and “control freakish” behaviour for setting unusually harsh restrictions for prospective tenants. The homeowner used an estate agent to advertise her two “spacious, sun-drenched” apartments in Brooklyn, New York, which were valued at $4,500 (£3,580) and $5,750 (£4,490) per month. When you’re charging such eye-watering rates, you’d hope these flats – with “spectacular outdoor spaces” – would be pretty exceptional homes. And yet, for many interested parties, the dream was shattered when they spotted that the “wonderful vegan landlord” had one eye-catching house rule: “No meat/fish in the building." Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Andrea Kelly, the agent managing the flat, explained to the New York Times (NYT) why the landlady had made such a strict stipulation. She told the paper that the apartments weren’t, technically, “vegetarian-only,” but added that “the owner lives in the building and doesn’t want the smell of cooking meat drifting upstairs.” To be fair, this means that tenants could enjoy the likes of sushi, ham sandwiches and even meaty takeaways without causing a scene. But woe betide anyone harbouring hopes of a Sunday roast or sausages barbecued in their “spectacular outdoor space”. The owner, Michal Arieh Lerer, refused to speak to a NYT reporter about her controversial regulation, but her ex-husband, who co-owns the building and is also vegan, admitted that they’d refused to rent their property out to keen carnivorous cooks since they bought it in 2007. “It’s not about discrimination,” ex-husband Motti Lerer insisted. “You have to fit into the building.” For anyone wondering whether this could legally be classed as discrimination, the answer is, perhaps surprisingly, no. New York’s Human Rights Law lists 14 characteristics that landlords must not consider when choosing a potential tenant. These include age, race, family status, and sexual orientation – there's no mention of dietary preferences. Lucas A. Ferrara, an adjunct professor at New York Law School told the NYT that an interested renter might be able to fight the meat ban if they could prove that they had a medical condition which required some sort of “reasonable accommodation” on the landlord’s part. Still, we’re not familiar with many illnesses whose sufferer needs to regularly fry steaks or grill fish as a matter of urgency. The original listing which caused such a stir was taken down from nextdoor.com on Friday, a day after it was posted. However, the apartments are still listed on the estate agent’s own site, although there’s no mention of the cooked veg-only policy. The listings do note: “Cats welcome on a case-by-case basis (only one, please).” We just hope those felines are happy to forgo mouse hunts or particularly pungent meal pouches, for their sake. Social media commentators have shared their horror at the meat-free rule, with a number suggesting Lerer "shouldn't be a landlord". One Facebook user wrote: "[She] can’t just tell people they can’t cook meat in a home they rent off [her]. It’s like telling a kid they can not play with toys." Another said: "Well I hope they/them enjoy paying the mortgage when they get no tenants." But a third suggested tenants should just find a way around the restrictions. "[Her] property, [her] rules," they pointed out, before adding: "If you lie to [her] and cook meat while [she] doesn't get to know then it's a win-win situation." Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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Police in Denver are looking for a female suspect in connection with a mass shooting that injured five people at a bar in the city’s Lower Downtown district. The shooting happened at Dierks Bentley’s Whiskey Row at around 11.14pm on Saturday. Surveillance cameras caught images of a woman pointing a gun in the direction of five people standing outside of the bar. According to police, the woman was denied entry into the bar, then started to walk away, but quickly returned to talk again with security staff. After she started to walk away from the bar for a second time, she took out a gun and fired it in the direction of the bar several times, injuring five victims who are presumed by police to not be the intended targets. Officers in the area quickly rushed to the scene along with paramedics who took the victims to the hospital. The injuries they sustained are believed to be non-life-threatening. Lissa Druss, a spokesperson for Dierks Bentley’s Whiskey Row told Scripps News, “We are disheartened by the events of last evening. Our thoughts and prayers go out to those that were injured,” she said. “We are grateful for the swift actions of DPD, but we are very concerned about the activity in LoDo and have been engaged with city officials and neighbourhood leaders on how to make positive improvements in the area. The safety of our staff and our patrons is paramount to our company." There has yet to be an arrest made in connection with the shooting. This particular shooting has been recorded as the 500th mass shooting this year in the United States, according to the Gun Violence Archive. The bar where the shooting took place opened in 2021 and is part of a chain of bars across the United States owned by American country music star Dierks Bentley. Another shooting also happened in the past few in Denver on 17th Avenue between Gilpin Street and Williams Street, where three people were shot, two of them hospitalised, Denver police say. The incident happened on Monday night, with a possible suspect in custody. Read More A Colorado mountain tied to an 1864 massacre is renamed Mount Blue Sky Minnesota man acquitted of killing 3 people, wounding 2 others in case that turned alibi defense Mother of Baltimore mass shooting victim condemns faulty police response: 'That's not right'

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Moscow said it had destroyed 20 Ukrainian drones launched towards the Crimean Peninsula early on Saturday, while an elderly woman was killed in Kharkiv due to shelling by Russian troops, a local official said. Kharkiv governor Oleh Synehubov said on the Telegram messaging app: “This morning, around 5:10, the enemy fired on Kupiansk-Vuzlovyi village in Kupiansk district. A residential building was damaged. A 73-year-old woman died.” Meanwhile, there were no casualties nor damage as a result of the alleged attack on the Russian-annexed peninsula of Crimea, the Russian defence ministry said on the Telegram messaging app, adding that 14 drones were destroyed by air defence systems and six were suppressed by electronic warfare. Ukraine almost never publicly claims responsibility for such attacks but has said destroying Russia’s military infrastructure is crucial for Kyiv’s counteroffensive. On Friday, a Ukrainian military spokesperson warned that Russia should expect “daily attacks”. Andriy Yusov told Kyiv Post that “the concept of security is increasingly distant from the residents of Moscow”, adding that the Russian air defence system is “ineffective, outdated, and cannot adequately respond to modern challenges”. Read More Ukrainian troops launch surprise raid across Dnipro River and break through some of Russia’s defences Ukraine accuses Russia of targeting rescue workers in latest missile strikes Pokrovsk reduced to rubble after Russian strike hits hotel, killing eight What Ukraine’s First Lady Olena Zelenska wants the world to know