New York | Pakistan

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will be among the attendees of a meeting of “select” Muslim leaders with US President Donald Trump in the coming week on the sidelines of the 80th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) session in New York, the Foreign Office (FO) said on Sunday. “The prime minister will also participate in a meeting of select Islamic leaders with US President Trump to exchange views on issues pertaining to regional and international peace and security,” a statement issued by the FO said. The meeting of Muslim leaders with Trump could be the first instance of PM Shehbaz directly interacting with the US president since the latter assumed the top office in his country in January. Earlier, he met Chief of Army Staff (COAS) Field Marshal General Syed Asim Munir in June, marking the first time a US president has hosted Pakistan’s army chief at the White House unaccompanied by senior civilian officials. On his visit to New York, the PM would be leading Pakistan’s delegation to the “high-level segment” ...

United States President Donald Trump criticised New York’s Democratic governor on Monday for endorsing New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, whom he branded a “Liddle’ communist” in a social media post. Mamdani, a 33-year-old New York state assemblyman and self-declared socialist, rocked American politics and the Democratic Party establishment in June by winning the party’s mayoral primary. He remains the front-runner in polls ahead of the November 4 election to decide who will be the next mayor of America’s most populous city. “Governor Kathy Hochul of New York has endorsed the ‘Liddle’ Communist,” the US president wrote. “This is a rather shocking development, and a very bad one for New York City. How can such a thing happen? Washington will be watching this situation very closely.” Mamdani has campaigned on a platform of narrowing the wealth gap between rich and poor New Yorkers and providing affordable housing to low-income residents. On Sunday, Hochul gave her backing to Mamdani over Andrew Cuo...

New York prepared to mark the devastating attacks of Sept 11, 2001 on Thursday, 24 years after the deadly plane hijackings that claimed almost 3,000 lives and forever changed the United States. Vice President JD Vance was expected to attend memorial events at Ground Zero in Manhattan, where the World Trade Centre’s twin towers were destroyed in coordinated attacks that also saw a jetliner crash into the nerve centre of American military power, the Pentagon in Washington. Another jet, Flight 93, crashed into the Pennsylvania countryside when passengers overran the hijacker and took control of the aircraft. This year’s gathering takes place against a backdrop of sharp political division both in the city and nationally. New York is in the grip of an unprecedented mayoral election campaign in which socialist Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani is facing off against former governor Andrew Cuomo and sitting mayor Eric Adams. New Yorkers go to the polls on November 4. It was unclear which of the mayoral candidates w...

US President Donald Trump branded the winner of New York City’s mayoral Democratic primary a “pure communist” in remarks that aired Sunday, an epithet the progressive candidate dismissed as political theatrics. Zohran Mamdani’s shock win last week against a scandal-scarred political heavyweight resonated as a thunderclap within the party, and drew the ire of Trump and his collaborators, who accused Mamdani of being a radical extremist. The Republican’s aggressive criticism of the self-described democratic socialist is sure to ramp up over the coming months as Trump’s party seeks to push Democrats away from the political centre and frame them as too radical to win major US elections. “He’s pure communist” and a “radical leftist … lunatic,” Trump fumed on Fox News talk show ‘Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo’. “I think it’s very bad for New York,” added Trump, who grew up in the city and built his sprawling real estate business there. “If he does get in, I’m going to be president and he is going to ha...

Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old state lawmaker and self-described democratic socialist, was poised on Tuesday to win New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary in a surprising upset over former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo. In brief remarks to supporters, Cuomo, 67, who had been seeking a political comeback four years after resigning amid sexual harassment allegations, said he had called Mamdani to congratulate him. “Tonight is his night,” Cuomo said while conceding the race to Mamdani. Mamdani, who entered the campaign as a virtual unknown, was ahead of Cuomo 43.5 per cent to 36.4pc with nearly 95pc of ballot scanners reporting, according to the city’s elections board. Nine other Democratic candidates trailed far behind. The outcome will not be final until next week, due to New York’s ranked-choice system that allows citizens to pick up to five candidates in order of preference. But Mamdani’s lead in Tuesday’s preliminary results appeared too large for Cuomo, or any other candidate, to overcome, particularly...

Food Network star Anne Burrell, known for Worst Cooks in America, has died at 55 at her home in Brooklyn, New York.

Former foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, along with a nine-member high-level parliamentary delegation, will visit New York tomorrow on a two-day visit to present Pakistan’s perspective on the recent military clash with India and counter New Delhi’s disinformation campaign on the conflict. Earlier this month, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif decided to send a diplomatic delegation to important world capitals in the aftermath of the recent military escalation with the neighbouring country. He entrusted PPP Chairman Bilawal to lead the delegation. The delegation comprises Senator Rehman, former foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar, Dr Musadik Malik, Engineer Khurram Dastgir, Faisal Subzwari, Tehmina Janjua, Senator Bushra Anjum Butt and Jalil Abbas Jilani. According to Associated Press of Pakistan (APP), the delegation members would conduct several meetings, including with the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, UN General Assembly President Philemon Yang, and the ambassadors of permanent and non-permanent ...