By JAKE OFFENHARTZ, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — New York City’s former interim police commissioner has filed a $10 million defamation claim against Mayor Eric Adams for reportedly suggesting he was mentally unfit for the job of top cop.

The filing comes less than a week after the ex-commissioner, Thomas Donlon, sued Adams and his top deputies, accusing them of operating the department as a criminal racket that rewarded unqualified loyalists and punished whistleblowers. Donlon said he was sidelined for trying to clean up the corruption.

After that lawsuit was filed, Adams privately told members of a nonprofit business advocacy group at a meeting that he’d fired Donlon, 71, from his brief stint as commissioner last fall because he was “rapidly deteriorating mentally,” according to attendees. Donlon cited news reports about those comments in his legal claim.

The department’s former top spokesperson, Tarik Sheppard, who was also named in Donlon’s lawsuit, told reporters that his former boss was “going through some cognitive issues” and believed “there was this conspiracy against him.”

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Their comments amounted to a defamatory “public character assassination” intended to “weaponize mental health to silence a whistleblower,” Donlon’s attorney, John Scola, said Monday.

Donlon, a former FBI official, was appointed by Adams in September to lead a department reeling from overlapping federal investigations and high-level resignations.

He was replaced by the current commissioner, Jessica Tisch, in November. During his short tenure, federal authorities searched Donlon’s home for decades-old documents that he said were unrelated to his work at the department. He has not been publicly accused of wrongdoing in connection with that search.

In his short time as commissioner, Donlon said he uncovered “systemic corruption” by members of the mayor’s inner circle, including a scheme to reward unqualified loyalists with lucrative promotions in exchange for political favors.

In his lawsuit, Donlon accused Sheppard of misappropriating the commissioner’s rubber stamp signature to give himself a raise, then threatening to kill Donlon when confronted about it.

Sheppard, who left the department in May, has denied that allegation. Inquiries to City Hall about the defamation claim were not immediately returned.

In a statement last week, a spokesperson for Adams, Kayla Mamelak Altus, described Donlon’s claims as “absurd.”

“These are baseless accusations from a disgruntled former employee who — when given the opportunity to lead the greatest police department in the world — proved himself to be ineffective,” she said.

The defamation claim adds to a recent spate of litigation brought by police officals against Adams, focusing scrutiny on his leadership as he seeks re-election on a platform emphasizing managerial competence and public safety.

Earlier this month, four high-ranking former NYPD officials brought separate lawsuits accusing Adams and his deputies of allowing rampant corruption and cronyism within the police department.

In response to those suits, a spokesperson for Adams said the administration “holds all city employees — including leadership at the NYPD — to the highest standards.”

By PHILIP MARCELO, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — A second suspect has been arrested in connection with the shooting of an off-duty U.S. Customs and Border Protection officer in a New York City park, law enforcement officials said Monday.

Christhian Aybar-Berroa is the alleged getaway driver in the apparent robbery-gone-wrong Saturday, according to New York City Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch. He is expected to appear in federal court in Manhattan later Monday.

Aybar-Berroa’s alleged accomplice, Miguel Mora, was taken into custody Sunday after arriving at a Bronx hospital with gunshot wounds to the groin and leg.

The 42-year-old customs officer, who was not in uniform, had been sitting with a woman in a park beneath the George Washington Bridge in upper Manhattan when two men approached on a moped, according to police.

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When he realized he was being robbed, the officer drew his service weapon. He and the suspects fired at each other: The officer was shot in the face and arm while the suspect was shot before he and the moped driver fled, police said.

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, in a separate announcement Monday, said the officer, who has not been identified by authorities, is recovering in a hospital and is expected to survive. He works for Customs and Border Protection, whose officers dress in blue and are stationed at airports and land crossings. Border Patrol agents in green uniforms patrol mountains and deserts for illegal crossings.

No lawyers were listed for Aybar-Berroa or Moro on the federal court case database and a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s office in Manhattan didn’t immediately comment.

Authorities say both suspects entered the country illegally from the Dominican Republic and have extensive criminal histories in their short time in the U.S.

The police commissioner said Aybar-Berroa arrived in 2022 and he has been arrested eight times for grand larceny and other crimes, and is a suspect in at least four other cases.

The Homeland Security chief said Aybar-Berroa was ordered deported by a federal immigration judge in 2023, but immigration detainers were ignored. She blamed New York City authorities for releasing him before federal officials could take custody of him.

He was “arrested again and again and again,” Noem said. “What did we think was going to happen?”

Moro, she added, has a “rap sheet a mile long” that includes grand larceny, assault and kidnapping charges.

Police said Sunday he entered the country illegally through Arizona in 2023 and had two prior arrests for domestic violence in New York. He is also wanted in New York to face accusations of robbery and felony assault, and in Massachusetts over a stolen weapons case.

“There is absolutely zero reason that someone like this — that’s the scum of the earth — should be running loose on the streets of New York City,” Noem said at a press conference at CBP’s Manhattan office.

Mayor Eric Adams, at a separate press conference, distanced himself from the so-called sanctuary city policies that Noem and other federal officials on Monday blamed for the shooting.

New York and other cities have longstanding laws and policies that limit or restrict local government involvement in federal immigration matters.

“I’m not protecting them,” said the Democratic mayor, a former police captain who is running for reelection. “I’ve always been clear: stop the revolving door system. Go after the dangerous migrants and asylum seekers.”

Follow Philip Marcelo on X: @philmarcelo

PARIS (AP) — Elon Musk’s social media platform X on Monday denied accusations from French prosecutors of alleged data tampering and fraud, calling them politically motivated.

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X was responding to an announcement earlier this month from the Paris prosecutor’s office, which said it was opening an investigation into the two alleged offenses.

Both offenses involved an “automated data processing system,” according to prosecutors, who provided scant details of the alleged wrongdoing. They are potentially punishable in France with a jail term of up to 10 years.

The platform said French authorities were carrying out a “politically-motivated criminal investigation into X over the alleged manipulation of its algorithm and alleged ‘fraudulent data extraction’.”

“X categorically denies these allegations,” it said in a post from its Global Government Affairs account.

The prosecutor’s office has said it acted on information that two people provided in January to its cybercrimes unit. One of them is a member of parliament, and the other is a senior official in a French government institution. It didn’t identify them or the institution.

Prosecutors said the two people alleged suspected use of X’s algorithm for the “purposes of foreign interference,” without providing details.

The platform said it “remains in the dark” about the the specific allegations. “However, based on what we know so far, X believes that this investigation is distorting French law in order to serve a political agenda and, ultimately, restrict free speech.”

The Paris prosecutor’s office said Monday that it has asked X to grant police investigators access to its algorithm, as part of the probe.

The request was made in a letter last week, it said. It said that “investigators are bound by confidentiality and that only those in charge of the investigation will have access.”

The office said it hasn’t had a formal response from X.

By ANNE D’INNOCENZIO and MAE ANDERSON, Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — With summer in full swing in the United States, retail executives are sweating a different season. It’s less than 22 weeks before Christmas, a time when businesses that make and sell consumer goods usually nail down their holiday orders and prices.

But President Donald Trump’s vacillating trade policies, part of his effort to revive the nation’s diminished manufacturing base and to reduce the U.S. deficit in exported goods, have complicated those end-of-year plans. Balsam Hill, which sells artificial trees and other decorations online, expects to publish fewer and thinner holiday catalogs because the featured products keep changing with the tariff — import tax — rates the president sets, postpones and revises.

“The uncertainty has led us to spend all our time trying to rejigger what we’re ordering, where we’re bringing it in, when it’s going to get here,” Mac Harman, CEO of Balsam Hill parent company Balsam Brands, said. “We don’t know which items we’re going to have to put in the catalog or not.”

A family shops in a JaZams toy store Friday, June 27, 2025, in Princeton, N.J. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

Months of confusion over which foreign countries’ products may become more expensive to import has left a question mark over the holiday shopping season. U.S. retailers often begin planning for the winter holidays in January and typically finalize the bulk of their orders by the end of June. The seesawing tariffs already have factored into their calculations.

The consequences for consumers? Stores may not have the specific gift items customers want come November and December. Some retail suppliers and buyers scaled back their holiday lines rather than risking a hefty tax bill or expensive imports going unsold. Businesses still are setting prices but say shoppers can expect many things to cost more, though by how much depends partly on whether Trump’s latest round of “reciprocal” tariffs kicks in next month.

The lack of clarity has been especially disruptive for the U.S. toy industry, which sources nearly 80% of its products from China. American toy makers usually ramp up production in April, a process delayed until late May this year after the president put a 145% tariff on Chinese goods, according to Greg Ahearn, president and CEO of the Toy Association, an industry trade group.

Mattel toys are seen at a JaZams toy store Friday, June 27, 2025, in Princeton, N.J. (AP Photo/Matt Slocum)

The U.S. tariff rate may have dropped significantly from its spring high — a truce in the U.S.-China trade war is set to expire on Aug. 12 — but continues to shape the forthcoming holiday period. Manufacturing activity is way down from a year ago for small- and medium-sized U.S. toy companies, Ahearn said.

The late start to factory work in China means holiday toys are only now arriving at U.S. warehouses, industry experts said. A big unknown is whether tariffs will keep stores from replenishing supplies of any breakout hit toys that emerge in September, said James Zahn, editor-in-chief of the trade publication Toy Book.

In the retail world, planning for Christmas in July usually involves mapping out seasonal marketing and promotion strategies. Dean Smith, who co-owns independent toy stores JaZams in Princeton, New Jersey, and Lahaska, Pennsylvania, said he recently spent an hour and a half running through pricing scenarios with a Canadian distributor because the wholesale cost of some products increased by 20%.

Increasing his own prices that much might turn off customers, Smith said, so he explored ways to “maintain a reasonable margin without raising prices beyond what consumers would accept.” He ordered a lower cost Crazy Forts building set so he would have the toy on hand and left out the kids’ edition of the Anomia card game because he didn’t think customers would pay what he would have to charge.

“In the end, I had to eliminate half of the products that I normally buy,” Smith said.

Hilary Key, owner of The Toy Chest, straightens merchandise on the shelves of her toy store in Nashville, Ind., Thursday, June 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

Hilary Key, owner of The Toy Chest in Nashville, Indiana, said she tries to get new games and toys in early most years to see which ones she should stock up on for the winter holidays. This year, she abandoned her product testing for fear any delayed orders would incur high import taxes.

Meanwhile, vendors of toys made in China and elsewhere bombarded Key with price increase notices. For example, Schylling, which makes Needoh, Care Bear collectibles and modern versions of nostalgic toys like My Little Pony, increased prices on orders by 20%, according to Key.

All the price hikes are subject to change if the tariff situation changes again. Key worries her store won’t have as compelling a product assortment as she prides herself on carrying.

“My concern is not that I’ll have nothing, because I can bring in more books. I can bring in more gifts, or I can bring in just things that are manufactured in other places,” she said. “But that doesn’t mean I’m going to have the best stock for every developmental age, for every special need.”

Hilary Key, owner of The Toy Chest, straightens merchandise on the shelves of her toy store in Nashville, Ind., Thursday, June 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

The retail industry may have to keep taking a whack-a-mole approach to navigating the White House’s latest tariff ultimatums and temporary reprieves. Last week, the president again reset the rates on imports from Brazil, the European Union, Mexico, and other major trading partners but said they would not take effect until Aug. 1.

The brief pause should extend the window importers have to bring in seasonal merchandise at the current baseline tariff of 10%. The Port of Los Angeles had the busiest June in its 117-year history after companies raced to secure holiday shipments, and July imports look strong so far, according to Gene Seroka, the port’s executive director.

“In my view, we’re seeing a peak season push right now to bring in goods ahead of potentially higher tariffs later this summer,” Seroka said Monday.

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The pace of port activity so far this year reflects a “tariff whipsaw effect” — imports slowing when tariffs kick in and rebounding when they’re paused, he said. “For us consumers, lower inventory levels, fewer selections and higher prices are likely as we head into the holidays.”

Smith, who co-owns the two JaZams stores with his partner, Joanne Farrugia, said they started placing holiday orders two months earlier than usual for “certain items that we felt were essential for us to have at particular pricing.” They doubled their warehouse space to store the stockpile. But some shoppers are trying to get ahead of higher prices just like businesses are, he said.

He’s noticed customers snapping up items that will likely be popular during the holidays, like Jellycat plush toys and large stuffed unicorns and dogs. Any sales are welcome, but Smith and Farrugia are wary of having to restock at a higher cost.

“We’re just trying to be as friendly as we can to the consumer and still have a product portfolio or profile that is gonna meet the needs of all of our various customers, which is getting more and more challenging by the day,” Smith said.

Balsam Brands’ Harman said he’s had to resign himself to not having as robust a selection of ornaments and frosted trees to sell as in years’ past. Soon, it will be too late to import meaningful additions to his range of products.

“Our purpose as a company is to create joy together, and we’re going to do our very best to do that this year,” Harman said. “We’re just not going to have a bunch of the items that consumers want this year, and that’s not a position we want to be in.”