Man who set himself on fire outside Trump trial dies

A man, who set himself on fire outside the New York courthouse where Donald Trump’s hush-money trial was taking place, has died.

Officials said the man did not appear to have been targeting Mr Trump.

NBC News and other US media said early this morning that the man had died. NBC News quoted New York City police as saying the hospital where the man was taken had declared him dead.

Officials had said earlier the man, who was in his late 30s, was in critical condition.

Witnesses said the man pulled pamphlets out of a backpack and threw them in the air with one of the pamphlets included references to “evil billionaires” but portions that were visible to a Reuters witness did not mention Mr Trump.

The New York Police Department said the man, who they identified as Max Azzarello of St Augustine, Florida, did not appear to be targeting Mr Trump or others involved in the trial.

“Right now we are labelling him as sort of a conspiracy theorist, and we are going from there,” Tarik Sheppard, a deputy commissioner with the Police Department, said at a news conference.

In an online manifesto, a man using that name warns of “an apocalyptic fascist coup” and criticises cryptocurrency and US politicians, but does not single out Mr Trump in particular.