Investigators at the scene of a terrorist attack in New York, where a man mowed people down by driving a rented truck down a popular cycle path on Tuesday afternoon, have found a note at the scene referencing Islamic State, the governor of New York said on Wednesday morning.

Andrew Cuomo told CBS the investigation into the attack was continuing but said law enforcement officers had possession of the note. It was reportedly found inside the truck and mentioned Isis. The man who rented a pickup truck and drove it for about a mile on the bike lane on the west side of Manhattan was is in critical condition in a New York City hospital after being shot in the abdomen by a police officers, but is expected to survive. Cuomo called him a “depraved coward,” and insisted the attack “did not instill terror” among New Yorkers.(theguardian)…[+]

Dustin Hoffman has been accused of sexual harassment against a 17-year-old intern in 1985. Writer Anna Graham Hunter alleges that the actor, now 80, groped her on the set of TV movie Death of a Salesman and spoke inappropriately about sex with her.“He asked me to give him a foot massage my first day on set; I did,” Hunter wrote in the Hollywood Reporter. “He was openly flirtatious, he grabbed my ass, he talked about sex to me and in front of me. One morning I went to his dressing room to take his breakfast order; he looked at me and grinned, taking his time. Then he said, ‘I’ll have a hard-boiled egg … and a soft-boiled clitoris.’ His entourage burst out laughing. I left, speechless. Then I went to the bathroom and cried.”(theguardian)…[+]

The Metropolitan police were made aware of alleged sexual misconduct by Harvey Weinstein at the Savoy hotel in London more than 25 years ago by a 19-year-old, it has been claimed. However, it appears that no investigation took place because the woman dropped the complaint after Weinstein allegedly learned that she had reported it to the police.

Speaking for the first time in public about the incident, which took place in 1990 or 1991, Sophie Morris said she had “shut down” the incident in her mind ever since but had decided to go public because she wished to show the film producer’s victims were not only celebrities and would-be actors.

“My main point in speaking out is that I was never part of this world, I was never an aspiring actress looking for a part, I was a 19-year-old person doing admin, earning a bit of extra cash in my year out after my A-levels,” she said. “There could be others like me who want to speak out but haven’t. It is easier for actresses to speak out because they have Hollywood behind them.”(theguardian)…[+]

Catalonia’s deposed president, Carles Puigdemont, has said he has no plans to seek political asylum in Belgium, telling a packed press conference in Brussels he would return home immediately if a fair judicial process were guaranteed in Spain.

Puigdemont said he had come to the Belgian capital to seek safety and freedom, and accused Spanish police of failing to protect his rights and those of other separatist leaders. On Monday, Spain’s attorney general called for charges of rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds to be brought against him and 13 other separatist leaders. That request showed “a desire, not for justice, but for vengeance”, said Puigdemont, who had made his way to Belgium before the charges were announced.

His appearance, flanked by five of his ousted regional chiefs, marked a further twist in a month-long crisis triggered by an independence referendum in Catalonia on 1 October.(theguardian)…[+]

Donald Trump has broken his silence over the former foreign policy aide who tried to secure a meeting for him with Vladimir Putin during the election campaign and has admitted lying to federal investigators about his work.

Trump fired off a series of tweets on Tuesday morning in which he publicly addressed for the first time the conviction of ex-adviser George Papadopoulos, which was revealed on Monday shortly after Trump’s former campaign manager Paul Manafort was charged with a catalogue of serious federal crimes.

“Few people knew the young, low level volunteer named George, who has already proven to be a liar,” Trump posted on Twitter shortly after 8am local time on Tuesday, adding: “Check the DEMS!” It emerged on Monday that Papadopoulos pleaded guilty earlier this month to lying to federal agents working for special counsel Robert Mueller as part of his investigation into possible coordination between the Trump campaign and Russia.(theguardian)…[+]

Police in Kenya are searching for opposition politicians they blame for an outbreak of violence in a slum neighbourhood of Nairobi, senior officials have said. At least three people were killed in violence on Friday and Saturday in Kawangare, in the west of the city.

“In Kawangare people were targeting those who voted … We are looking for suspects who are politicians and you will see arrests soon,” said Martin Kimani, President Uhuru Kenyatta’s special envoy for countering violent extremism. Fears of bloodshed in Kenya are growing after violent clashes between ethnic groups and a hardening of divisive rhetoric after the contentious rerun of presidential elections last week.

With a series of flashpoints looming in coming days, civil society groups, diplomats and some leading politicians are making increasingly desperate efforts to reduce tensions. Although votes are still being counted in the poll, local media say Kenyatta, the incumbent, has won 98% of ballots cast in the election boycotted by the opposition led by veteran politician Raila Odinga.(theguardian)…[+]

Rose McGowan has claimed that someone close to Harvey Weinstein offered her $1m to remain silent about her sexual assault allegations against the producer.

McGowan, who has accused Weinstein of raping her in a hotel room in 1997, told the New York Times that she had received the offer from an individual close to Weinstein in late September, weeks before multiple sexual abuse allegations against the disgraced mogul came to light. The actor allegedly had previously signed a $100,000 settlement with Weinstein in 1997 over the incident, but says that she discovered this summer that the agreement did not include a confidentiality clause.

The actor says that she initially responded to Weinstein’s offer with her own counter-offer of $6m, partly as a way of raising money towards paying for her career as a multimedia artist and partly as a means of torturing the producer. However, one day after the New York Times published an explosive investigation detailing decades of alleged abuse by Weinstein, she decided to reject the offer outright. “I was like – ew, gross, you’re disgusting, I don’t want your money, that would make me feel disgusting,” she said.(theguardian)…[+]

Spain’s attorney general has asked for charges of rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds to be brought against members of the deposed Catalan cabinet for their role in trying to create an independent state.

José Manuel Maza announced on Monday that he would ask the national court to bring the charges against senior members of the administration of Carles Puigdemont, who was removed from his post as regional president by the Spanish government on Friday. Reports suggest 14 former senior regional government figures are to face charges, including Puigdemont, his deputy, Oriol Junqueras, and the administration’s foreign minister, Raül Romeva.

The supreme court, meanwhile, will oversee possible action against the Catalan political authorities over the part they played in paving the way for last week’s parliamentary vote to declare independence. Maza said the charges were being sought “because their actions over the past two years have produced an institutional crisis that culminated with the unilateral declaration of independence made with total contempt for our constitution on 27 October”.(theguardian)…[+]

Iceland heads into its second snap parliamentary election in less than a year on Saturday with the financial crash that brought the country to its knees nearly a decade ago still playing out in its politics.The island’s economy is thriving again, thanks mainly to an unprecedented tourism boom, but some of its top politicians have been hit by a succession of financial and ethical scandals that have badly dented voters’ trust.

The prime minister, Bjarni Benediktsson, called the election last month after his three-party government collapsed over an alleged attempt to cover up efforts by his father to help “restore the honour” of a convicted child sex offender. Benediktsson formed his centre-right coalition barely 10 months ago, following early elections triggered by his predecessor’s resignation. Sigmundur Davíð Gunnlaugsson had stepped down amid public fury at revelations in the Panama Papers that his family had sheltered money offshore.The Guardian revealed this month that while an MP, Benediktsson – whose name also appeared in the Panama Papers – had himself sold millions of króna of assets in a major Icelandic bank’s investment fund as the state was about to seize control of the country’s failing financial sector at the peak of the 2008 crisis.(theguardian)…[+]

Two indigenous women in Canada have filed a class action lawsuit over allegations that they were coerced into undergoing sterilisation at a Saskatchewan hospital. The suit was launched after health authorities in the province admitted that several women had come forward with similar claims.

The legal challenge, which still needs to be certified by a judge, centres on the idea of proper and informed consent – and whether this was obtained before the womenwere sterilised. One of the complainants alleges that she explicitly refused to have her fallopian tubes tied when staff suggested the procedure after the birth of her son in 2001. Despite her objections, she was taken to the operating room in a wheelchair, still weak from delivery, and the procedure was carried out, she said.  The second woman alleges that a doctor suggested tubal ligation as she was being wheeled into the operation theatre for an emergency caesarean section – and had already been given an epidural to counter the deep pain she was in.(Theguardian)…[+]