Evening Roundup: Diddy Trial Starts, Old Brooklyn Office Building Could Become Affordable Housing, Adams Denied Public Matching Funds AGAIN, What’s at Stake ...

Janae Pierre: Diddy's sex trafficking trial begins, an old Brooklyn office building could become affordable housing, Mayor Adams denied public matching funds again, what's at stake for defunded New York City researchers, and a Times Square statue sparks Internet hate.

From WNYC, this is NYC Now. I'm Janae Pierre. A jury has begun hearing opening statements in Sean "Diddy" Combs' sex trafficking trial in New York. A federal prosecutor kicked things off Monday, laying out their case after the jury was seated. That's 12 jurors and six alternates. The defense will respond next. Prosecutors will try to prove that Combs turned his hip-hop conglomerate into a racketeering enterprise that sexually abused women. Combs has pleaded not guilty. His lawyers say prosecutors are wrongly trying to make a crime out of a lifestyle that may have been indulgent but was not illegal. Combs could get at least 15 years in prison if he's convicted on all charges.

A soaring skyscraper in downtown Brooklyn may replace an office building considered one of the borough's biggest eyesores. WNYC's Arun Venugopal has more.

Arun Venugopal: The existing building at the corner of Flatbush and Fulton is dark, squat, and hard to love. There's a McDonald's on the ground floor and an H&R Block. Mayor Eric Adams says the city-owned site could give way to a 72-story high-rise with 1,200 residential units. Hundreds of those units would be affordable and without any city funding. That's because the building's developers hope to take advantage of new city tax incentives. Although the project has to pass through all sorts of clearances, the mayor says it represents the future of housing in New York and could help stem the city's housing shortage.

Janae Pierre: A campaign finance watchdog is withholding public matching funds from Mayor Adams' reelection campaign. The move by the Campaign Finance Board represents a blow to Adams' bid for a second term. The agency cited legal cases connected to the mayor's fundraising, as well as evidence in his since-dismissed criminal case. Adams had appealed for the board to release more than $4 million in public money. On Monday, the board upheld the move. A spokesperson says Adams' campaign is "deeply concerned the board is withholding funds when it's in compliance with the rules." They say the campaign is exploring its legal options.

Hundreds of federal grants to New York-based researchers have been canceled under the Trump administration, wrecking research projects and upsetting lives. More on that after the break.

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Janae Pierre: New York State receives more federal research dollars than any other state besides California, which means it has a lot to lose as The Trump administration slashes funding for science. Hundreds of studies at Empire State institutions have already been canceled on topics like HIV, vaccine hesitancy, and extreme heat. WNYC's Caroline Lewis asked some of the scholars affected by the cancellations about the future of their research and their careers.

Caroline Lewis: Christian Grov is a professor at CUNY's School of Public Health. He was just a few months into his project, studying ways to increase uptake of the HIV prevention drug, PrEP, when he found out his grant had been canceled.

Christian Grov: I was in complete shock. The letter that we got said that the grant was canceled because it was determined to be DEI.

Caroline Lewis: Grov's study specifically focused on a group at high risk of contracting HIV, men who have sex with men and also use methamphetamines. It aimed to get them to take an injectable version of PrEP that provides long-term protection. The termination notice from NIH said the study included "amorphous equity objectives and would do nothing to enhance health, lengthen life or reduce illness." Across the country, the Trump administration is canceling grants related to certain subjects and populations, including the LGBTQ community. Grov says that puts HIV prevention research at risk.

Christian Grov: You need to work with the populations that are most affected by HIV. In the United States, that includes men who have sex with men, that includes persons of color, and that includes transgender women.

Caroline Lewis: An HHS spokesperson said the department's goal is to restore "gold standard evidence-based science that directly improves the health of the American people." Scientists say they're worried the cuts will make it harder to solve problems that affect people around the globe. Some say grant cancellations have made them question whether they can continue in academic research at all. Xiao Wu is a 32-year-old assistant professor of biostatistics at Columbia University. He spent two years preparing his application for an NIH grant designed to help early-career researchers.

Xiao Wu: Actually, this is my first federal-funded grant also, so I was really excited to start the work.

Caroline Lewis: In December, Wu started his project using data to figure out how to make extreme weather alerts more effective. In March, the grant was canceled along with hundreds of others at Columbia University. Wu said the three-year $450,000 award paid most of his salary.

Xiao Wu: It's uncertain whether I can stay at Columbia or I need to find another job.

Caroline Lewis: The Trump administration revoked $400 million in federal funding to the university. They say the school failed to protect Jewish students from antisemitism during protests on campus in response to the war in Gaza. Colombia has since been negotiating with the administration to get the funding back, but not everyone wants the university to go along with demands related to academic oversight and student discipline.

Speaker 6: Good afternoon/evening. We're in the six o'clock hour milestone.

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Caroline Lewis: Faculty from across Columbia recently spoke for 25 consecutive hours outside the main campus in support of academic freedom and continued support for research.

Blake Turner: We call on the board and university leadership to commit to providing backup funding for all improperly terminated federal research funds that were awarded to Columbia investigators.

Caroline Lewis: That's J. Blake Turner, a professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Columbia's medical school. He said he's worried that not funding young scientists will have long-term consequences.

Blake Turner: There's a huge hole of people not trained to come and be the next generation researchers and so forth.

Caroline Lewis: Columbia officials announced last week that researchers affected by federal cuts will be able to apply for internal funding from a new research stabilization fund, but it's unclear how many people will be eligible. If President Trump gets his way, these cuts are just the beginning. He says the NIH is wasting taxpayer dollars and is looking to cut the agency's funding by about 40% next year. His budget proposal would eliminate NIH funding for studies related to climate change, race, and gender.

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Janae Pierre: That's WNYC's Caroline Lewis. A new piece of public art in Times Square has people talking, though as WNYC's Ryan Kailath reports, the conversation seems louder in the media than on the street.

Ryan Kailath: Giant DEI statue erected in Times Square. That was the chyron under Fox News host Jesse Watters.

Jesse Watters: Who is this woman? What did she do to get a statue? A nice one, too. Nothing. It's a DEI statue.

Ryan Kailath: Watters asks why it's not an image of Kamala Harris or Jalen Brunson and goes on to call the figure overweight. The 12-foot-tall sculpture of an anonymous Black woman by English artist Thomas J. Price is part of Times Square Alliance's public art program. Price has a major show up at the blue-chip gallery Hauser & Wirth right now. He had another sculpture in Marcus Garvey Park a few years ago. On a sunny afternoon in Times Square this week, nobody was paying the statue much mind. Tourists barely paused to snap a picture. Most people walked right past and a very few lingered.

Ayanna Joseph: This is the true representation of a Black woman.

Anna Jo: It could be you.

Ayanna Joseph: It could be me, yes.

Anna Jo: Also, she's not no skinny woman.

Ryan Kailath: New Yorkers Ayanna Joseph and Anna Jo each made a point of swinging by.

Ayanna Joseph: Just seeing somebody that looks like me, my daughter, my sister, my grandmother, my cousins, my auntie, this is real America. That pose, that look. I know exactly what she's thinking right now.

Ryan Kailath: Tell me.

Anna Jo: Don't tell me. I don't belong here.

Ayanna Joseph: Yes.

Ryan Kailath: As they walked away, another woman began circling the statue, beaming and taking a selfie from every angle. The piece is up through June 17th.

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Janae Pierre: That's WNYC's Ryan Kailath. Thanks for listening to NYC Now from WNYC. I'm Janae Pierre. We'll be back tomorrow.

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