Alvin K. Hellerstein died Wednesday at 92 of natural causes after nearly three decades presiding over high-profile matters. He had led the penal process against President Maduro and Cilia Flores since the two were kidnapped on January 3 during a U.S. military incursion into Venezuelan territory.
Ed Friedland, administrative director of the Federal Court for the Southern District of New York, confirmed the death.
RELATED: Global Manifesto Demands Immediate Freedom for President Maduro and Cilia Flores
Hellerstein held the role for nearly three decades. He was appointed in 1998 by then U.S President Bill Clinton to the Southern District of New York, considered one of the most significant federal tribunals in United States.
BDE: Longtime Manhattan federal Judge Alvin Hellerstein, an Orthodox Jew appointed by President Clinton in 1998, has died at 92, according to a court spokesperson. He was overseeing the prosecution of deposed Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. pic.twitter.com/w0nHyrcwc2
— KolHaolam (@KolHaolam) October 28, 2026
The federal case against Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has a new judge. Analisa Torres will preside over the Southern District of New York proceedings after the death of Alvin K. Hellerstein, court records confirmed Wednesday.
The tribunal posted a document covering the reassignment of matters “previously assigned to judges no longer serving due to retirement or death.” The notice names Torres as the magistrate now handling the file.
The court’s standard procedure produced the transition. A docket left by a deceased judge passes to a colleague, assigned without public choice. The reassignment document makes no special provision for the President Maduro file, treating it like every other pending matter.
Analisa Torres was born in New York in 1959. She reached the federal bench in 2013 by appointment of President Barack Obama, and she has since presided over a wide range of civil, criminal, and regulatory matters.
Her path runs deep in the law. Descended from a family of Puerto Rican judges, she graduated with honors from Harvard, earned her doctorate at Columbia Law School, and worked in private firms before entering the courts. Before her federal appointment she sat for almost a decade on the New York State Supreme Court. Earlier she served on the city’s civil and criminal benches.
New judge on the Maduro case is Analisa Torres, a Barack Obama appointee who took the bench in 2013. https://t.co/y37dLBuXia pic.twitter.com/YmbF6pAm7A
— Erik Uebelacker (@Uebey) October 28, 2026
The trial against the Venezuelan President and his wife remains set for June 14, 2027. The judge’s death did not alter that date, and the schedule already fixed by the court holds.
On October 15, President Maduro and Flores appeared at a judicial hearing in New York after prosecutors tightened the accusations against them. The two listened to the arguments and pleaded “not guilty” to the new charges of alleged conspiracy to commit torture brought by the U.S. Attorney’s office.
That same day Hellerstein accepted a request presented by both the prosecution and the defense to postpone the start of the trial by two weeks. The extra time allows both sides to present pretrial motions.
The next hearing was programmed for December 17. On that date the defense will argue its motions to dismiss the case. The outcome of those arguments could reshape the proceeding before it reaches a jury. President Maduro’s lawyers affirmed that sovereign immunity shields the President from prosecution in a foreign court.
Hellerstein’s career extended far beyond this single file. Over nearly three decades on the federal bench he supervised a wide variety of matters, including the litigation tied to the September 11 attacks.
That new judge will inherit the pretrial motions, the pending defense requests, and the responsibility of presiding over a trial that involves a sitting head of State and his spouse.
Venezuelan authorities have characterized the detention of President Nicolas Maduro and Cilia Flores as a kidnapping carried out during a military incursion into sovereign territory. The December 17 hearing stands as the next concrete step in a process scheduled to stretch into mid 2027.
“Chiusa in un bagno di New York vedo il sangue, il corpo che cambia senza preavviso. È la prima volta, e non voglio dirlo a mia madre, sono furiosa con lei”: Myrta Merlino ricorda la notte al Danceteria con la mamma
Che cos’hanno in comune Madonna e Myrta Merlino? Nulla, verrebbe da dire. In realtà entrambe hanno messo piede al Danceteria, l’iconico club di New York, e lo hanno fatto nello stesso periodo. Siamo agli inizi degli anni ’80: l’artista americana sta cercando un posto al sole e lì conosce il dj che su quella pista avrebbe suonato la demo del suo primo singolo, “Everybody”; la futura giornalista, invece, ha raggiunto la madre nella Grande Mela e con lei ha vissuto una notte indimenticabile che per anni avrebbe condizionato il loro rapporto. L’episodio viene narrato ne “La bambina del miracolo. Storia della mia mamma geniale”, l’ultimo libro di Myrta Merlino edito da La nave di Teseo. Un’opera nata per salvare dall’oblio la storia “grande e straordinaria” di Annamaria Palermo, scomparsa nel 2017 in seguito a una leucemia.
L'articolo “Ho cercato per tanto tempo di non somigliare a mia madre, la consideravo pericolosa. Era nata per entrare nella stanza e diventare la regina della festa”: Myrta Merlino e il suo ‘La bambina del miracolo. Storia della mia mamma geniale’ proviene da Il Fatto Quotidiano.
‘You try to leave, it is death,’ Halima Salman testified. Her mother and defense attorneys wept after the verdict
A New York woman whose father took her to Syria as a teenager and arranged her marriage to an Islamic State fighter was convicted on Tuesday of receiving weapons training from the militant group.
Prosecutors said Halima Salman, a US citizen, pledged loyalty to the extremist group and willingly participated in its activities. Jurors were shown a video of her holding an assault rifle, a photo of her with the group’s flag and loving text messages she sent her husband.
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© Photograph: Jane Rosenberg/Reuters
© Photograph: Jane Rosenberg/Reuters
© Photograph: Jane Rosenberg/Reuters
The New York Times is blessing the city's population of illegal migrant street vendors as noble martyrs, despite the diverse economic damage they impose on ordinary New Yorkers.
The post NY Times Endorses Migrants’ Law-Breaking, Poverty, and Exploitation appeared first on Breitbart.
Sale makes ‘Jodi’, a smaller relative of T rex, the ‘second most valuable dinosaur ever sold at auction’, Sotheby’s says
A rare skeleton of a Nanotyrannus, a smaller relative of the Tyrannosaurus rex, sold at auction in New York this week for $47.3m, making it one of the world’s most expensive fossils.
The skeleton, named “Jodi” after the person who found the remains in 2019, sold at Sotheby’s on Tuesday for $47.3m, “after a twelve-minute bidding battle that saw six bidders compete online and over the phones, before ultimately selling on the phone”, Sotheby’s said in a statement.
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© Photograph: Yuki Iwamura/AP
© Photograph: Yuki Iwamura/AP
© Photograph: Yuki Iwamura/AP
“Se avessi saputo che sarebbe stata l’ultima, quanto diversa sarebbe stata quella conversazione, e sono io ora che devo conviverci”. Il principe Harry aveva solo 12 anni quando la madre lo chiamò per un saluto mentre si trovava a Parigi. Lady Diana ne aveva solo 36 quando di lì a breve la sua auto, lanciata in velocità sotto al tunnel dell’Alma, si sarebbe schiantata contro un pilone durante una fuga forsennata dai paparazzi che la stavano inseguendo. Harry, mentre si trovava a New York per una Masterclass sulla sofferenza legata al lutto, ha affrontato le telecamere di GQ per parlare di nuovo del suo dolore per la perdita prematura della madre e di quell’ultima telefonata, troppo breve, troppo frettolosa. Il principe, all’epoca dei fatti, si trovava in vacanza a Balmoral con la famiglia. Il castello scozzese di pietre grigie e frugalità è un rifugio per i reali, un luogo di pace, natura e spazi di libertà. Quell’altalena nel parco è stata il centro dei giochi per generazioni e quel giorno in cui Diana aveva chiamato i suoi figli per salutarli, loro avevano voglia di tornare ai loro svaghi.
“Penso a mia madre quasi ogni giorno” ha raccontato Harry ricordando pieno di rammarico la voglia di liquidare quella telefonata per correre a giocare con i cugini, durante le vacanze spensierate. Come sarebbe stata la sua vita se la madre fosse ancora viva? Questa è una delle domande che passano più spesso nella sua mente che ha trascorso anni a rispondere distrattamente alla domanda che gli veniva rivolta più frequente: “Come stai?”. “Bene”, la risposta più ovvia, ma poi quello che succede dentro è tutt’altro. Il mondo di Harry è cambiato nel momento in cui è diventato padre. “Il mondo intorno ti guarda e ti dice: è cambiato”. “Cosa si aspettavano – ha commentato Harry – che continuassi a girare per i club ubriacandomi?”. Se la prende con la stampa, tanto per cambiare, accusata ancora una volta di aver tratto molto vantaggio da quella fase della sua vita. Ma oggi è padre e come i tempi cambiano, anche il suo modo di essere padre è cambiato, ha spiegato nella confessione. Ma c’è un filo conduttore che sembra non cambiare mai è la presenza di Diana.
“Sento davvero che esiste ancora una connessione con mia madre. In certi momenti e in alcune fasi della mia vita percepisco la sua energia”. Lui era quel bambino con il viso ipnotizzato dal dolore, ma senza una lacrima da poter versare, che seguiva solenne il feretro della madre per dare al mondo l’immagine della tragedia e del dolore. “A 12 anni non sapevo bene chi fossi, poi, negli anni la resilienza cresciuta dentro di me mi ha fatto capire che quel lutto poteva trattenermi e bloccarmi, oppure aiutarmi a crescere”. Da quel momento, ha confessato con la gamba in continua agitazione su quella sedia di legno affacciata sui grattacieli di New York, le cose sono cambiate in “meglio ma più duramente”. È stato grazie alla terapia che ho capito che la sofferenza di perdere una madre è uno schifo” ha ammesso dopo aver attraversato vent’anni di repressione di ogni emozione, ma la terapia gli ha “dato il permesso di essere in lutto e di piangere”.
L'articolo “Se avessi saputo che quella sarebbe stata l’ultima telefonata con mia madre la conversazione sarebbe stata diversa. Ora devo conviverci”: lo sfogo del principe Harry su Lady Diana proviene da Il Fatto Quotidiano.
Republicans lead Democrats by 31 points among Jewish voters on the congressional ballot, according to a McLaughlin & Associates poll that points to a potential shift among a group that has long favored Democrats.
The post Poll: Jewish Voters Favor Republicans over Democrats by Nearly Two to One appeared first on Breitbart.
A Malta-flagged tanker carrying Russian diesel is heading for New York after the fuel deal between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Reuters reported in an exclusive on 23 October, citing LSEG shipping data. Two weeks earlier, the US Treasury temporarily waived sanctions on Russian diesel.
The tanker is due in the US on 7 November, four days after Americans vote in the midterms. So the first US-bound cargo cannot reach American pumps before the election. Energy analysts also doubt the deal will lower diesel prices meaningfully. US fuel prices rose mainly because the war with Iran disrupted shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. Trump, however, has blamed Ukraine’s strikes on Russian refineries.
The medium-sized tanker Agioi Fanendes took on 40,000 metric tons of ultra-low sulfur diesel at the Baltic port of Primorsk on 22 October, shipping data showed. In March, Ukraine’s General Staff said its drones hit the Transneft oil terminal at that same port.
A day before the loading, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak announced that the first tanker would sail for the US on 22 October. He pledged more shipments and said Russia would meet US needs within its capabilities.
On 9 October, Trump wrote that Russia would immediately supply over 300,000 tons of diesel “to the American and Global Marketplace.” Another 500,000 tons would follow in November, then 1 million tons “immediately thereafter.”
Moscow had banned diesel exports on 8 July, after Ukrainian drone strikes shut down refineries and caused fuel shortages inside Russia. The Russian government stated on 10 October that it had partially lifted the ban, clearing 500,000 tons for the world market at this stage. Russian diesel shipments to Türkiye and Brazil have since resumed, boosting Moscow’s war revenue.
Trump has made other moves to cut diesel prices before the vote, Reuters reported. He waived parts of a new sanctions law against Russia. He also threatened Europe with a US diesel export ban unless countries released more fuel from their emergency reserves.
New Yorkers won't be voting on any citywide offices this year, but they do have five ballot initiatives that could shape the city's future more than any politician on this year's ballot. Mayor Zohran Mamdani created a version of the Trump administration's infamous Department of Government Efficiency in New York called the Commission on Government Efficiency (COGE). The plan is for COGE to modernize city operations and accelerate public infrastructure and permitting—in that vein, COGE placed five proposals before voters on the November ballot, largely targeting the bureaucratic processes governing new construction and business activity across the five boroughs.
Questions 1, 2, and 3 on the ballot would end or reduce the use of public hearings in different city review processes. Question 1 would, according to the ballot language, "simplify [the] process to use public space for uses such as ramps, planters and cafes, by removing mandatory hearings and Council disapproval of sidewalk cafes, while maintaining community and Council input." Question 2 would "reduce paperwork for City contractors by authorizing [the] Procurement Policy Board to simplify [the] contractor questionnaire….[And] remove mandatory hearing for required client services report." Question 3 would "simplify review of street safety projects to reduce construction timelines," among other changes. Question 4 is about simplifying permitting.
These policies were not directly introduced by Mamdani, but they reflect a governing philosophy that New York City and other big cities desperately need: a local government that won't allow a small group of organized opponents to obstruct progress for the city at large indefinitely.
Nowhere is the bottleneck against much-needed development clearer than at public review hearings. In theory, a public hearing is democracy at its purest: Every voice is heard. But in practice, it usually becomes a slow-motion filibuster. The most persistent and best-organized opponents get a megaphone, with little to no input from the millions of New Yorkers who would broadly benefit from more housing, better infrastructure, and businesses that can open without getting wrapped in red tape.
The 2026 ballot questions, if approved, would take small steps toward addressing these problems. If they all passed, it wouldn't be a seismic change—a planter here or a parcel of land there. But that's kind of the point: Should routine administrative decisions require another round of formal public review hearings to hold up any change, big or small?
The post Even Under Mamdani, New York City's Ballot Questions Might Cut Red Tape and Public Review Hearings appeared first on Reason Magazine.
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