American Express shut down a luxury wellness perk at its exclusive Centurion Lounge at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York and replaced it with a full-service coffee bar.
The credit card company last year shuttered its Equinox Body Lab, where members could partake in restorative therapy sessions that include self-guided meditations, stretching, compression boots and a vibroacoustic chair for relaxation.
Instead, cardholders who have access to the luxurious lounge will have the choice of picking up a free cup of joe at “Blue Roast by American Express,” a full-service coffee bar that offers espresso beverages, cold brew, seasonal specialty coffee drinks, smoothies, avocado toast and chia pudding.
The American Express Centurion Lounge is seen above at Terminal 4 of John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. American ExpressThe Equinox Body Lab at Centurion Lounge is no more.
When reached by The Post, a spokesperson for American Express confirmed the change. The company said that the coffee bar has proven to be a hit among cardholders traveling through Seattle.
The JFK location is the second complimentary coffee shop that American Express has opened at its Centurion Lounge, according to the company.
Several media reports indicate that the Equinox Body Lab was closed down recently, but The Post has learned that it has been closed since April.
American Express moved to close the spa and use the space for a coffee bar in order to accommodate a greater number of lounge members, according to a source.
The Centurion Lounge offers amenities for exclusive cardholders such as a speakeasy bar. American Express
American Express made similar moves last year at airports in Los Angeles, Dallas-Fort Worth and Miami, where it shuttered Exhale spas from its Centurion lounges.
In October, The Points Guy reported that the spas were closed down due to the overwhelming demand.
The spas were staffed by between two to four treatment therapists at any given time — meaning that a large number of cardholders needed to wait for an appointment, according to The Points Guy.
The Equinox Body Lab offered compression boots treatments. TikTok/mizzaddytude
The luxury spas were first included in the Centurion Lounge as a means to enticing American Express cardholders to upgrade to its more premium credit cards such as the Platinum Card and the Black Card — the ultra-exclusive account that requires holders to spend at least $250,000 annually and pay annual fees of at least $5,000.
This week, Mayor Eric Adams and I were proud to report that overall major crime declined in New York City in 2024, with 3,662 fewer crimes this year compared to last.
Murders in our city are at a five-year low.
Shooting incidents and shooting victims were down for the third straight year — including the lowest number of shooting incidents in Brooklyn since the early 1990s.
Major crime is down in public housing, and it’s also down in our transit system for the second straight year. In fact, discounting the pandemic years, 2024 was the safest our subways have been from major crime in 14 years.
Make no mistake: These crime reductions were achieved thanks to the hard work and grit of New York’s Finest — but we know that many New Yorkers don’t feel safe.
Their perception of public safety has become their reality, and we know why: surging recidivism.
Compared to 2018, 2024 witnessed an unacceptable increase in the number of individuals arrested three or more times for the same crime in the same year.
The increase was 61.3% for burglary, 71.2% for grand larceny, 64.2% for shoplifting and 118.6% for auto theft.
And when we look at felony assault, the increase was a staggering 146.5%.
The deck has been completely stacked against our cops by a shocking lack of accountability for crime.
Without a course correction, we cannot achieve the low crime levels New York City enjoyed before January 2020, when changes to criminal justice laws made it more difficult to keep recidivists behind bars.
The subways will always be a bellwether for the perception of public safety in our city.
And I’ll say this to New Yorkers: subway crime is not in your head.
While it’s true that major crime in transit is down, random acts of violence are up. And in many instances, these terrifying crimes are committed by recidivists who absolutely should not be on our streets or in our subways given their violent propensities.
NYPD officers walk Jamar Banks out of Transit Bureau District 2 station in New York City, U.S., January 5, 2025. REUTERS
With 40 prior convictions, Banks has a violent criminal history stretching back at least 36 years.
He was arrested for stabbing a man on a subway train in 2022, and arrested with a knife while shoplifting in 2023.
This New Year’s Day, he stabbed a man in the back after an argument on a Manhattan train; less than 24 hours later, he stabbed an off-duty MTA employee on a train in the Bronx.
Banks was arrested on January 5; when will our criminal justice system put him back on our subways again?
A mugshot of career criminal Gary Worthy.
And we’re seeing this scenario play out above ground, too.
Last month, career criminal Gary Worthy robbed a Queens deli at gunpoint before shooting and injuring a responding NYPD officer, and an innocent bystander.
Worthy had 17 prior arrests, seven of which happened while he was out on lifetime parole — including arrests for robbery, burglary, and menacing within the past year.
This is a dangerous criminal who should not have been on the streets, but it’s a story we see repeated again and again — and New Yorkers have had enough.
The problem is further compounded when you look at misdemeanors.
Compared to 2018, misdemeanor crimes in New York City were up in 2024.
At the same time, and for these very same crimes, the rates of decline to prosecute were up 31%, while 54% more pre-trial defendants were released on their own recognizance.
Imagine how disheartening it is for our cops to arrest the same people, for the same crimes, in the same neighborhoods, over and over.
And how scary it is for New Yorkers to see the same person who victimized them one day, walking the streets the next.
The time for band-aids and half measures is over, because the revolving door of the criminal justice system fails to put the rights and needs of victims first.
New Yorkers demand, and they certainly deserve, better.
Jessica Tisch is the police commissioner of New York City.
Once you have all that stuff stored safely in such a remote location, there’s a reasonable argument that you no longer need it also taking up space on your own local PC (unless you simply want the redundancy as an extra fail-safe and backup, of course).
You can address this in several ways: First, you can hide certain folders so they don’t sync to your PC. For example, in OneDrive, right-click the OneDrive cloud icon in your system tray, select “Settings,” click the “Account” option, and then click “Choose folders.” You can then uncheck certain folders, and they will never sync to your PC.
OneDrive also downloads files “on demand” as you use them. You can right-click big files in File Explorer and select “Free up space” to save space on your computer. The next time you open that file, OneDrive will automatically redownload it — but it won’t exist in both places and take up room in the meantime.
This is my 12th CES, so there aren’t many things that surprise me at this point, at least in terms of press conferences. All of the big companies used to try to one-up each other (celebrity appearances were the main method, although it’s not as common now). However, the venue itself has now become the battleground for CES addresses.
This week, Delta was the first company to host a CES press conference, or as the emcee called it, “a show,” at the Sphere in Las Vegas. You’ve likely heard about the high-tech venue at this point, which usually hosts immersive concerts rather than trade show events. Debuting in 2023, the “multi-sensory experience” is known for having both the interior and exterior draped in LED displays and offering 4D effects like wind and smells.
Three different credentials were required to attend the event in the venue which holds 18,600 people, one of which required a special trip to obtain. Once inside, Delta had various installations to celebrate its 100th anniversary and lines for the company’s merchandise were absurdly long. People even skipped the Lenny Kravitz performance at the end to queue up for those goods.
You could hear every realistic boom and pop. (Billy Steele for Engadget)
There was also food that may have been similar to what the airline serves in-flight, and snacks that you’d expect on a Delta trip, like Biscoff cookies. Of course, the company stacked the audience with employees and guests, plus it trotted out a couple of celebrities — Viola Davis and Tom Brady — which I saw as a throwback to the CES keynote days of old. Then there was the full-blown concert at the end: Lenny Kravitz with a full band. This gave the attendees the experience of coming to a concert at Sphere, where U2, Dead & Company, Phish and more have performed in the past.
But, as you might expect, the most interesting aspect of the whole thing is how Delta took advantage of the Sphere’s 4D capabilities. Video of each speaker was projected on the interior of the venue set on various backdrops that transformed the hall into spaces ranging from a dome to an observation deck and an airplane cabin. Several times during CEO Ed Bastian’s address there were interactions with planes where the seats rumbled and blown air provided a sense of flying, complete with directional, immersive audio. There was also a cameo by Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi where an Uber Eats delivery arrived at the stage with a hazelnut-flavored coffee for Bastian and those aromas were wafted into the audience.
Perhaps the most dazzling aspect of the whole “show” was the end, where cockpit video of a plane landing was projected on the interior of the Sphere. And when the plane landed, everyone’s seats rumbled just liked they do when you hit the tarmac in real life. This was quickly followed by my first indoor fireworks show, designed to cap off Delta’s 100th anniversary. I will say the immersive audio of the Sphere really enhanced this, and I doubt I’ll experience anything like it again. I feel confident I’ll never see indoor fireworks unless I return to this very venue.
Seats rumbled just like they would in real life. (Billy Steele for Engadget)
Of course, there was news. It wouldn’t be a CES press event without some. Delta announced its AI Concierge, an assistant inside the Fly Delta app that the company built to relieve travel stress. The airline first announced the concierge concept at CES 2020, but now it’s working to make it a real thing that anticipates travel needs. Beginning this year, customers will be able to interact with Delta Concierge via text or voice. Eventually, the platform will be able to do things like hail a Joby VTOL aircraft to drop you off at the airport to avoid traffic.
The AI tech can recognize both departure and arrival needs, including arranging a rideshare pickup for transport to a hotel. At the airport, you won’t have to go through a TSA checkpoint, you just keep walking to your gate thanks to PreCheck Touchless ID. If you’re wearing AR glasses during your trip, wayfinding then becomes a breeze with the travel assistant lighting your path. And once you’re on the plane, the Delta Concierge will eventually automatically connect you to Delta Sync Wi-Fi and the seatback entertainment system to display customized info and content recs just for you.
Delta’s event was easily the most impressive CES presentation I’ve attended. And I’ve been to press events where each person had a PC and a VR headset at their seat. I don’t know that any other company will invest what the airline did in the hosting and production this week, but it was immediately apparent that the bar had been raised, and that a ballroom at Mandalay Bay or The Venetian will no longer suffice if you’re looking to make a lasting impression.
Lenny Kravitz closed the show, and he’ll close this post. (Billy Steele for Engadget)
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In a court filing in response to Trump’s classified documents case, co-defendants requested an injunction to block the release of the report.
The Special Counsel has already transmitted his Final Report to the Attorney General (as permitted by the district court’s recent order). The Final Report comprises two volumes. Volume One relates to the Special Counsel’s investigation and prosecution of President Donald Trump relating to the 2020 presidential election (Election Case). Volume Two relates to the Special Counsel’s investigation and prosecution of defendants Waltine Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, as well as President Trump, relating to mishandling of classified documents (Classified Documents Case).
The Attorney General intends to release Volume One to Congress and the public consistent with 28 C.F.R. § 600.9(c) and in furtherance of the public interest in informing a co-equal branch and the public regarding this significant matter. But to avoid any risk of prejudice to defendants Nauta and De Oliveira, the Attorney General has determined, at the recommendation of the Special Counsel, that he will not publicly release Volume Two so long as defendants’ criminal proceedings remain pending.
For the time being, Volume Two will be made available for in camera review only by the Chairmen and Ranking Members of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees upon their request and agreement not to release any information from Volume Two publicly.
It makes sense that the DOJ would not release the classified documents report because there are still ongoing court cases.
The public needs to see the report on 1/6 and Trump’s role in the insurrection. The election is over, but it matters because Trump and his party can’t be allowed to rewrite the history of that day.
Common sense suggested that AG Garland always intended to release the report because if he didn’t, he would not have allowed Jack Smith to write it.
However, I am not convinced that things would have turned out any differently, even if Trump had been prosecuted sooner.
Trump still makes the immunity argument and ends up in the Supreme Court, where the conservative majority likely would have overturned his federal criminal conviction.
Trump runs on being exonerated. Voters are more concerned about inflation than Trump’s alleged crimes, and he wins the election.
In my view, the mistake was made by Democrats not taking legislative action to disqualify Trump when they had control of the government.
The DOJ should kick it into high gear before one of Trump’s allies in the courts blocks the release of the report because Trump should not be allowed to sweep the 1/6 attack under the rug.
What do you think about Garland releasing Jack Smith’s report? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
The destruction sweeping through California wildfires is absolutely devastating.
The Gateway Pundit reported that massive evacuations have been underway as the wildfires rage out of control and engulf homes in Pacific Palisades, California.
According to The Los Angeles Times, thousands have been evacuated and the fire has grown to more than 2,900 acres.
AccuWeather reports wind gusts reached up to 65 miles per hour in Southern California on Tuesday.
California’s Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom was on the ground watching his state burn down as Democrat legislators refused to properly manage underbrush.
“The hydrants are currently dry,” Fox LA reported.
Despite the tragedy, there are moments of hope. Fox 11 shared a video of horses, caught in the wildfire, being led to safety in Altadena after the 1,000-acre Eaton Fire started burning down homes and buildings.
Photo courtesy of Fox 11.
As embers flew around them, a brave group lead the horses through the flames to safety.
One of the rescurers noted he let several horses out to try to get to freedom in addition to the ones being let to safety. It is unclear if additional horses still needed to be rescued from the area.
Film critic Emma Jones tells us why Nicole Kidman’s latest role – as an executive who embarks on an affair with her intern – is perhaps more shocking for a Hollywood audience than a European one. Her performance in “Babygirl” won Kidman the best actress prize at the Venice Film Festival; we discuss some of the film’s taboos and standout moments. We also go through some of the big winners at this year’s Golden Globes, including French auteur Jacques Audiard for “Emilia Perez” and Demi Moore for “The Substance”. Emma tells us why Adrien Brody and Brazilian actress Fernanda Torres could be well placed to pick up Oscars, in addition to the acting prizes they won this week. Plus we take a look at Pedro Almodovar’s touching study of friendship and mortality, as Tilda Swinton and Julianne Moore shine in “The Room Next Door”.
A spokesperson for the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said they were supporting the family of a British man who died in Thailand.
The spokesperson added that officials were in contact with local authorities in the country.
The Bangkok Post reported that a total of 436 people died and a further 2,376 were injured in 2,467 traffic accidents across Thailand from 27 December to 5 January, according to the interior ministry.
Special Counsel Jack Smith delivers remarks on an indictment against Donald Trump in 2023 in Washington, D.C.
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
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The Justice Department wants to publicly release only part of its final report on special counsel Jack Smith’s cases against President-elect Donald Trump.
Smith recommended that the DOJ release only the first volume of his final report, covering the investigation and charges against Trump tied to the 2020 presidential election, the DOJ said in a court filing on Wednesday.
The second volume — which concerns the federal case against Trump’s handling of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago resort — will only be available to review to the top members of the House and Senate judiciary committees if they request it. That’s because the classified documents case is still ongoing, with the DOJ pursuing an appeal against two longtime Trump aides, Walt Nauta and Carlos De Oliveira, the DOJ said.
“To avoid any risk of prejudice to defendants Nauta and De Oliveira, the Attorney General has determined, at the recommendation of the Special Counsel, that he will not publicly release Volume Two as long as defendants’ criminal proceedings remain pending,” DOJ lawyers wrote in the filing to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit.
The “limited disclosure” to certain lawmakers “will further the public interest in keeping congressional leadership apprised of a significant matter within the Department while safeguarding defendants’ interests.”
Prosecutors dropped the two criminal cases against Trump after he won the 2024 election, and the final report by Smith may be the last chance for prosecutors to explain their decisions.
Florida Judge Aileen Cannon on Tuesday temporarily blocked the Justice Department from releasing Smith’s final report, pending an emergency motion from the appeals court to block the report’s release.
But the DOJ disagreed with that action, saying there was no need for the court to intervene, and also protesting the attempt to block the report’s first volume, on the election interference case.
“Defendants Nauta and De Oliveira have no cognizable interest in that volume of the Final Report,” the filing said.
After Trump won the 2024 election, the Justice Department dropped him from its appeal. But it continued the appellate case for the other two defendants, who raised concern that they would be prejudiced if Smith’s final report is published while they still face the threat of a trial.
Trump has also argued the special counsel was appointed unlawfully and that any public report would be legally invalid and hurt his transition into the White House.
More than a thousand homes, businesses and other buildings have burned and at least two people are dead in wildfires burning across L.A. County, making this one of the most destructive firestorms to hit the region in memory.
In Pacific Palisades, the Palisades fire had charred more than 5,000 acres as of Wednesday morning, burning down to Pacific Coast Highway where it engulfed homes along the iconic stretch. About 1,000 structures, including many homes, have been destroyed in the fire, Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said during a press conference Wednesday morning.
The Eaton fire, which broke out Tuesday evening, had burned more than 2,200 acres near Altadena and Pasadena whipped by gusts of up to 99 mph in the area. Two people have died in the Eaton fire and several others have been seriously injured in both the Eaton and Palisades fire, Marrone said.
The Hurst fire, which spread quickly during high winds overnight in Sylmar, had burned 500 acres. Extraordinarily powerful winds and gusts — of up to 99 mph — had been reported overnight.
On Wednesday, firefighters were bracing for another challenging day of fire fueled by strong winds. Red flag warnings remain in effect for Los Angeles County and much of Ventura County through Thursday with officials warning of a “life threatening, destructive and widespread windstorm.”
“We are absolutely not out of danger yet,” Los Angeles Fire Department Chief Kristin Crowley said.
The National Weather Service reported a gust of 99 mph near Altadena at 10:20 p.m. Tuesday; 98 mph near Woodland Hills at 9:37 p.m.; and 84 mph at Hollywood Burbank Airport at 8:30 p.m.
The National Weather Service has warned of a “particularly dangerous situation” across the San Gabriel Mountains, Beverly and Hollywood Hills, the coastal areas adjacent to the Sepulveda Pass, the Santa Monica Mountains, Malibu and the eastern Ventura Valley.
NWS meteorologist Rich Thompson said this could be the strongest such wind event since the 2011 windstorm that caused serious damage in Pasadena, Altadena and other San Gabriel Valley neighborhoods, knocking out power for days for more than 400,000 people. The 2011 windstorm caused at least $40 million in damage, according to a preliminary estimate.
“If it does develop, it can cause very specific damage,” Thompson said before this week’s fires broke out. “Imagine like a wave in the water. … Those winds kind of go down slope, then just hit the surface and get very strong.”
In Pacific Palisades, firefighters grappled with wind gusts up to 100 mph overnight bedeviling their efforts to get the blaze—burning both east and west—under control, said Los Angeles Fire Capt. Erik Scott.
“The fire is being fueled by strong Santa Ana winds and surrounding topography, which makes it extremely challenging for us firefighters to really get a handle on it,” Scott said. “Our priority is life and structure defense.”
On Tuesday night, increasing winds made an air attack against the wildfires impossible. Fearsome winds forced crews to ground aircraft in the battle against the Palisades fire shortly before 8 p.m. Tuesday.
About two hours earlier, the Eaton fire broke out in the hills above Altadena near Eaton Canyon. Strong winds led officials to suspend air coverage of the Eaton fire for the evening, officials said at 8:45 p.m.
The lack of rain has extended the fire season in Southern California. Since Oct. 1, the beginning of the water year, downtown Los Angeles has received 0.16 inches of rain — a tiny fraction of the 4.64 inches that downtown gets, on average, by this point in the season.
By contrast, Northern California hasn’t faced such fire weather, with rainfall at above-average levels. Downtown San Francisco has received 10.39 inches of rain since Oct. 1 — above the 9.29 inches of rainfall the city gets on average by this point in the season.
“Southern California has experienced a particularly hot summer, followed by almost no precipitation during what is normally our wet season,” said Alex Hall, director of the UCLA Center for Climate Science. “And all of this comes on the heels of two very rainy years, which means there is plenty of fuel for potential wildfires.”
Extreme fire conditions were expected to continue through the middle of Wednesday afternoon, the weather service said after midnight Wednesday. “Any wildfires that start will likely spread rapidly with extreme fire behavior,” the weather service said.
Another Santa Ana wind event is expected for Friday. But it is expected to be “more typical,” the NWS said, with winds forecast to come from the northeast “focused along the typical Santa Ana wind corridor, from the Santa Clarita Valley to Point Mugu. … The downsloping winds will also reduce the humidities and increase the fire danger.”
The weather service warned that winds “will be gusty and erratic, with lulls between gusts.”
Ahead of Tuesday’s fires, the National Weather Service issued a “particularly dangerous situation” red flag warning, alerting of extreme fire weather (abbreviated as a PDS). The weather service issued the same warning about a month ago — when the Franklin fire ignited and spread rapidly in the Malibu area. It went on to burn more than 4,037 acres, destroying 20 structures and damaging 28 more.
An infographic from the National Weather Service explaining a particularly dangerous situation red flag warning.
(National Weather Service)
And a month before that, a particularly dangerous situation red flag warning was issued on election day. The following day, on Nov. 6, the Mountain fire ignited in Ventura County and, whipped by powerful winds, razed more than 240 buildings. It became the third-most-destructive wildfire in Southern California since 2013, and burned 19,904 acres.
This type of red flag warning is expected to occur, on average, once every three to five years. But the National Weather Service office in Oxnard has now issued such a warning three times in just this fire season. The office issues forecasts for L.A. County, as well as Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.
Before November, the last time a particularly dangerous situation red flag warning was issued by the National Weather Service office for L.A. and Ventura counties was in 2020, the first year those alerts existed for the region. That type of warning was issued twice in 2020 — once in October and again in December.
