On #TheUpdate this Friday, a judge has rejected British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell's bid to block the public and news media from jury selection in her trial on charges she recruited teenage girls for financier Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse. Organizers of a bid to unionize Amazon workers at a distribution center in New York City are preparing to deliver hundreds of signatures to the National Labor Relations Board. It would be an important milestone in efforts to form a collective bargaining agreement for employees of the online retail giant. And in New Mexico, authorities say that actor Alec Baldwin fired a prop hunt on the set of the movie 'Rust' that injured director Joel Souza and killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins.

On #TheUpdate this Thursday, Guardian Angels founder Curtis Sliwa and and Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams, the two men running to become the next mayor of New York City, offered starkly different visions at their first debate about how to lead the nation's largest city out of the pandemic, improve public safety, and lead the city of nearly 9 million people for more powerful storms driven by climate change. Scientists have temporarily attached a pig's kidney to a human body and watches it begin to work. The feat is a small step in the decades-long quest to one day use animal organs for life-saving transplants. And bottlenecks at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach have spilled over into a neighborhood where cargo trucks are clogging residential streets. Residents of the Wilmington area just north of the ports have complained that trucks are backed up in the streets at all hours of the day and night. 🛳️

On #TheUpdate this Wednesday, Mayor De Blasio has almost guaranteed himself another vaccine fight with the unions representing city workers. New York City will require police officers, firefighters and other municipal workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19 by October 29th at 5pm or be placed on unpaid leave, the mayor said today, giving an ultimatum to public employees who've refused. An associate of Rudy Giuliani had a few hours left to decide whether he was going to testify at his own trial. Lev Parnas is charged with illegally enabling a Russian financier to contribute to U.S politicians. And in Haiti, negotiations are stretching into a fourth day seeking the return of 17 members of a U.S-based missionary group kidnapped over the weekend by a gang that is demanding $1 million ransom per person. 🇭🇹🇺🇲💵

On Tuesday's edition of #TheUpdate, it's about time this happened. New York City's Board of Health has passed a resolution that names racism as a public health crisis, joining the growing list of state and local governments around the country that have done so in recent years. A judge now says that Cuba Gooding Jr. will go on trial in February in his New York City groping case. Prosecutors are expected to portray the actor as a serial offender, while the defense to contend the case is an example of #MeToo run amok. And in Atlanta, mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms says that a Utah laboratory will examine DNA evidence from a string of killings committed during the 1970s and 1980s. At least 29 black children and young adults were killed in the city between 1979 and 1981. 🧬

On Monday's edition of #TheUpdate, judges around the country are increasingly being asked to weigh in on the deworming drug ivermectin as a COVID-19 treatment. It's a drug for parasites that has been promoted by conservative commentators as a treatment despite a lack of evidence that it helps people with the virus.

Eric Adams, the current Brooklyn borough president and the presumptive next mayor of New York City says that he doesn't intend to get rid of the city's program for gifted and talented students. Adams says that De Blasio can't get rid of the program until next year, when a new mayor is in place. And we're remembering Colin Powell, the former Joint Chiefs chairman and Secretary of State. He's died from COVID-19 complications, according to his family. 🇺🇲

From New York, the greatest city in the world, it's The Update with Brandon Julien!

From New York, the greatest city in the world, it's The Update with Brandon Julien!

From New York, the greatest city in the world, it's The Update with Brandon Julien!

On #TheUpdate this Thursday, a supposed love triangle has turned deadly in Brooklyn. An off-duty NYPD officer is now in custody after authorities say she shot two women, one of whom she was intimately involved with. The shooting left one woman dead and the other injured. Nearly all the female and transgender inmates at Rikers Island will be temporarily transferred to state lockups. Critics say though it will deprive inmates of services and move them farther from their families and other forms of support. And TikTok, the app best know for dancing videos with 1 billion users worldwide, has also become a shopping phenomenon. The #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt has gotten more than 5 billion views, and the app has made a grab-bag of products a surprise hit: leggings, purses, cleaners, and even feta cheese.

On #TheUpdate this Wednesday, a project to build a rail link connecting New York City to LaGuardia Airport has been put on hold. The FAA had issued environmental approval in July, but recently had asked the Port Authority to reconsider in light of a lawsuit filed by neighborhood and environmental groups. A federal judge had ruled that New York must continue to allow health care workers to seek exemptions from a statewide COVID-19 vaccine mandate on religious grounds as a lawsuit challenging the requirement proceeds. And The White House says that it had helped broker an agreement for the Port of Los Angeles to become a 24-hour, seven-days-a-week operation. This is an effort to relieve supply chain bottlenecks and move the stranded container ships that are driving prices higher for U.S consumers.