New York City in brief

Federal prosecutors in Manhattan charged Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi—teenagers from Philadelphia’s leafy suburbs—with plotting to bomb Gracie Mansion in hopes of outdoing the 2013 Boston Marathon attack, drawing inspiration from ISIS propaganda and expressing allegiance after arrest. Fortunately, vigilant police and defective devices prevailed, so just the suspects’ ambitions, not their explosives, made the news this weekend on Manhattan’s Upper East Side.

Authorities are probing whether the weekend’s failed explosive attack at Gracie Mansion, New York’s mayoral residence, was inspired by ISIS after two suspects, Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi, reportedly watched jihadist propaganda and retaliated for alleged religious slights. Both, it seems, made curious layovers in Istanbul. No casualties were reported, though the city’s bomb squad was called—nothing cements New York’s reputation for resilience like a routine brush with mayhem.

Federal prosecutors charged two teenagers, Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi, with attempting to detonate homemade bombs at an anti-Islam protest outside Gracie Mansion, New York, after authorities said the pair pledged allegiance to ISIS and hoped to outdo the Boston Marathon bombing. Swift police work thwarted their plans, reminding us that even imported would-be terror seldom outpaces good old-fashioned New York vigilance.

New York police arrested two men, Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi, after they attempted to bomb an anti-Muslim protest near Gracie Mansion, an act the NYPD labelled ISIS-inspired terrorism. Neither of their TATP-filled devices detonated, and mercifully the only thing blown up was rhetoric. Both groups at the protest—right-wing agitators and counter-protesters—left with bruised egos, while federal prosecutors prepare their encore.

Two teenagers, Emir Balat and Ibrahim Kayumi—reportedly radicalized online—were arrested after hurling a TATP-based device at protesters near New York’s Gracie Mansion, an act authorities have labelled ISIS-inspired. Both suspects made pro-ISIS statements in custody; Balat punctuated his perp walk with the group’s salute. Hailing from leafy Pennsylvania suburbs, their suburban backgrounds prove that dull affluence offers no guaranteed vaccine against bad ideas.