Associated Press Apr 12, 2026 Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán conceded defeat on Sunday after what he called a ″painful″ election result, ending 16 years in power for a powerful figure in the far-right movement allied with U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Subscribe: http://smarturl.it/Associ
CBC News Apr 12, 2026 Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán conceded defeat to opposition leader Péter Magyar on Sunday after what he called a ‘painful’ election result, ending his 16-year reign. The powerful figure in the far-right movement was allied with U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
DW News Apr 12, 2026 Hungarian opposition leader Peter Magyar is set to form the next government in Budapest after incumbent Prime Minister Viktor Orban conceded defeat in an historic election. Early official results showed his Tisza party leading across the country. Orban described the result as “painful” and confirmed he had congratulated his rival. The outcome could reshape Hungary’s relationship with the European Union and NATO, and has major implications for Ukraine, where Orban had repeatedly blocked EU support. His defeat also sends shockwaves through right-wing political movements globally, including allies of US President Donald Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin. Magyar campaigned on tackling corruption and restoring democratic institutions, while promising to repair ties with European partners. Our correspondents report from both campaign headquarters as Hungary enters a new political era. 00:00 Orban concedes defeat 00:24 Magyar’s campaign on corruption, the Ukraine war, and EU ties 00:42 What we know so far 01:11 Orban camp reaction with DW Correspondent Ferenc Gaal 05:30 DW Correspondant Fanny Facsar from celebrations in the center of Budapest. For more news go to: http://www.dw.com/en/
US Senate hopeful Graham Platner wants Democrats to “deal with” the Supreme Court if they retake power in November and launch oversight and possible impeachments to remove justices from office.
Amid President Donald Trump’s historic unpopularity, Democrats are heavily favored to retake the House of Representatives and have gained momentum in the Senate, where Platner’s bid to unseat five-term incumbent Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) could prove decisive.
But the Supreme Court’s 6-3 conservative majority has the potential to effectively veto any significant actions a future Democratic Congress or president may seek to take, despite increasing doubts among the American public about its legitimacy and impartiality.
Its image as an independent arbiter of justice has come under further scrutiny as multiple justices have been embroiled in corruption scandals. This is where Platner believes Democrats could have options.
News – Maine Senate candidate Graham Platner says Democrats should be ready to impeach two Supreme Court justices. pic.twitter.com/LLqPxiFFeS
“There is structural power in the Senate to deal with the Supreme Court,” the 41-year-old Marine-turned-oyster farmer told a crowd of supporters during an event this weekend.
He said that if Democrats get a majority, “at that point, I very much think that we need to be exercising ethics oversight over the court.”
Unlike lower court judges, who must comply with a binding ethics code by avoiding partisan campaigning, disclosing conflicts of interest, and recusing themselves in cases where impartiality may be called into question, Supreme Court justices do not have to adhere to these rules.
Although the Supreme Court did adopt an ethics code for the first time in 2023, it is voluntary, and legal groups like the New York City Bar have described it as unenforceable and far short of what is necessary.
Platner said that “if we held Supreme Court justices to the same standards that we held federal judges, there is a compelling case for the impeachment and removal of at least two.”
While he did not specify which two justices he believed could be impeached, it is highly likely that he was referring to Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito, two of the furthest right justices, whom he has said have helped transform the court into a “political action wing… of conservatism.”
In 2023, ProPublica published an investigation exposing that Thomas had, for years, accepted gifts from GOP megadonor Harlan Crow, including trips on his private jet and superyacht, as well as $6,000-per-month tuition for his grandnephew. None of these were reported on the justice’s ethics disclosures.
It was also revealed that his wife, Ginni Thomas, was heavily involved with right-wing activist groups with business before the Supreme Court, including those that pushed discredited voter fraud claims to overturn Trump’s loss in the 2020 election.
Alito, meanwhile, was revealed to have taken a luxury fishing trip to Alaska with the billionaire hedge fund tycoon Paul Singer, who was directly involved or had financial ties to several entities with business before the court, including a right-wing pro-business group that was pushing to have the court block then-President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness policy.
The justice has also been accused of expressing support for Christian nationalism after a flag was seen flying outside his residence that appeared to express solidarity with the movement and with those who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. A documentarian has also published recordings of the justice speaking about how America must be returned to a “place of Godliness.”
Some Democrats have also raised the possibility of impeaching Justice Brett Kavanaugh, who has been accused of lying during his confirmation hearings in 2018 when he was faced with allegations of sexual assault from a former classmate.
And as Trump has expressed open contempt for constitutional limits on his power, the court has often indulged him, siding with his administration more than 80% of the time in emergency docket rulings during his second term while granting him broad “immunity” from prosecution for crimes committed while in office.
In addition to impeaching justices, Platner has called for Congress to expand the Supreme Court’s size the next time a Democrat is in the White House, which can be done with a simple majority vote provided the filibuster is suspended.
“But to make that happen,” Platner said, “we need to elect people to the Senate who want to wield power like that, who understand that power matters, that it’s real and you can use it.”
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Hungary’s legislative elections on Sunday are being closely watched in Moscow. Prime Minister Viktor Orban has long been Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest ally within the European Union, and a victory for the opposition Tisza party led by Peter Magyar could undermine the Kremlin’s influence in the bloc.
Issued on: 11/04/2026 – Modified: 11/04/2026 – France24.com
After 16 years in power doing Russia’s bidding in Brussels, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Fidesz party is at risk of losing power in Sunday’s parliamentary elections, with challenger Peter Magyar significantly ahead in polls.
The Kremlin appears to have pulled out all the stops to boost its man in Budapest. An internal intelligence report for Russia’s SVR intelligence service revealed in March outlined a strategy dubbed “the Gamechanger”, which included staging an assassination attempt against Orban to “fundamentally alter the entire paradigm of the election campaign”.
The Hungarian campaign has seen a major escalation in interference, including “documented influence operations, disinformation campaigns and reports of intelligence-linked activities”, says Edit Zgut-Przybylska, a research affiliate at the Democracy Institute of the Central European University in Budapest and a specialist on democratic backsliding.
Moscow has also been accused of dispatching a team of election “specialists” – linked to the GRU, Russian military intelligence – to Budapest to closely monitor these interference operations.
At this point, “what we are seeing is not interference but the collusion between the Hungarian government and Russia”, says Anton Shekhovtsov, director of the Center for Democratic Integrity in Austria and an expert on the links between Moscow and Europe’s far-right parties.
Shekhovtsov noted that US Vice President JD Vance’s joint appearance with Orban in Budapest earlier this week was another attempt by “foreign interests” to influence the vote. Rightwing US President Donald Trump has even promised to boost Hungary’s economy if Orban wins re-election.
The appointment of Daria Boyarskaya, a former interpreter for Russian President Vladimir Putin, to the observer team overseeing the vote for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has come under fire from Hungarian rights groups as well as European lawmakers. An open letter signed by 56 members of the European Parliament last week called for Boyarskaya to be removed from the role, citing her ties to Moscow.
“Russia has a clear interest in keeping Orban in power, because Hungary has consistently acted as a Trojan Horse of the Kremlin who worked against EU decisions on Ukraine and sanctions against Russia,” says Zgut-Przybylska.
Putin would lose his “most loyal and reliable” partner within the European Union, she says – a position only underscored by the leak last week of a conversation in which Orban said he was ready to help Putin in any way he can.
Russia has also tried to help Orban leverage the war in neighbouring Ukraine to “reframe the election as an existential choice between ‘Peace and stability’ under Fidesz and ‘Chaos and war’ under Tisza”, Zgut-Przybylska says.
But Moscow’s attempts to sow fear do not appear to have convinced an electorate of disgruntled voters who want the government to do more to help them in their daily lives, including in areas like public education and health care. Opposition challenger Magyar, a former member of Orban’s Fidesz who advocates a more pro-European policy, is leading by some 10 points in the polls.
Even a win for Tisza would not guarantee that it is able to successfully govern Hungary, observes Shekhovtsov, noting that after 16 years in power, Orban’s party and his allies have made deep inroads into Hungarian political institutions. The current prime minister has done everything he can to ensure his allies, political institutions and friendly media outlets outlive him.
But a Magyar win could mean that Hungary “would begin distancing itself from Russia, though Russian influence would not disappear overnight”, Zgut-Przybylska says. Moscow’s influence could even ramp up, as the Kremlin might actively “work to weaken” a new Hungarian government that was looking to normalise relations with the EU.
“Of course there will be huge attempts by the Russians to undermine Magyar,” Shekhovtsov agrees, adding that Moscow can also expect continued support from Orban from within Hungary.
And Russia still has allies in Europe beyond Hungary – notably in rightwing Prime Minister Robert Fico’s Slovakia – that could continue to undermine pro-Ukraine and pro-European Union policies.
Slovakia would, however, be a weaker replacement as a Russian partner since it is more integrated into the European system and thus has less room for manoeuvre. “Slovakia is part of the eurozone, [so] Fico has more constraints within the EU decision-making system and is less isolated than Hungary,” Zgut-Przybylska says.
‘Vladimir Putin absolutely nervous’ about Hungary’s election, expert says
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Russia might still be able to rely on Hungarian help even if Magyar wins. While he has promised a more Russo-sceptical approach, he is unlikely to make a complete break with Moscow.
“It’s not good for Russia, but it’s not a complete catastrophe for them either,” says Michael Toomey, a specialist in populism in Central Europe at the University of Glasgow, of a possible Magyar win.
Magyar reportedly also wants to ensure access to Russian energy resources.
“There are a lot of structural reasons for Hungary to want to continue to push for access to Russian oil and gas,” Toomey notes. So while Magyar is more likely than Orban to be supportive of Ukraine – and will be “less of a thorn in the side for the EU” – that does not necessarily mean he will always fall into line.
While the EU has called for all member states to end their reliance on Russian energy by 2027, Magyar has already made clear that Hungary would not be able to do this before 2035.
No one expects Budapest to cut ties with Moscow, says Shekhovtsov. What is expected, he says, is for Hungary “to be a responsible member of the European Union and follow the line of the European Union on Russia”.
And any real break from Russia can only happen if Tisza secures a comfortable majority in Sunday’s vote, which would allow it to avoid making significant ideological compromises just to form a government.
If Magyar wins but doesn’t secure such a majority, Shekhovtsov says, “he will have a huge uphill battle to fight”.
SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi is calling on Rep. Eric Swalwell to drop out of the California governor’s race following bombshell sexual assault allegations. Reports Friday from CNN and in the San Francisco Chronicle detail a pattern of sexual misconduct from Swalwell, who has consistently polled as one of the leading Democrats in the governor’s race.
“As I discussed with Congressman Swalwell, it is clear that is best done outside of a gubernatorial campaign,” Pelosi added.
FILE – Former Hose Speaker Nancy Pelosi speaks during the Concordia Annual Summit in New York, Sept. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Andres Kudacki, File)
Pelosi joins other leading Democrats including Sen. Adam Schiff in demanding that Swalwell exit the race.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has also weighed in, calling the allegations “deeply troubling,” and saying they “must be taken seriously.”
California Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis has joined the conversation, issuing the statement: “Californians deserve leaders who meet the highest standards of integrity. The allegations against Congressman Eric Swalwell are deeply troubling, and I commend the women who have come forward for their courage. For the good of the state, I believe he should withdraw from the race for California governor.”
Swalwell, who is married with two children, has vehemently denied all allegations.
“These allegations are false and come on the eve of an election against the frontrunner for governor,” he told KRON4. “For nearly 20 years, I have served the public — as a prosecutor and a congressman and have always protected women.”
“I will defend myself with the facts and where necessary bring legal action,” he continued. “My focus in the coming days is to be with my wife and children and defend our decades of service against these lies.”
KRON4 has not independently confirmed any of the allegations.
NY1 and Spectrum News Apr 9, 2026 You Decide with Errol Louis Mayor Zohran Mamdani this week will mark his 100th day since he became the mayor of New York City. At 34 years old, Mamdani is the first Muslim and the first person of South Asian descent to serve in the position. So far, the mayor has already navigated two separate snowstorms that left major impacts on the city. The city is also facing a multibillion-dollar budget deficit. Mamdani joined NY1’s Errol Louis to talk about his time in office so far, his relationship with President Donald Trump, his thoughts on the U.S. and Israeli war with Iran and more.
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During World War II, cartoonist Bill Mauldin was summoned to a meeting with Gen. George S. Patton. Mauldin’s Stars and Stripes cartoons drew Patton’s ire over his matter-of-fact depictions of war and American GIs.
To Mauldin, war was no fun adventure. In Up Front, his Willie and Joe were war-weary and disheveled soldiers, not heroes ready for movie stardom. They expressed a darkly comic view of the life of an infantryman. In an exemplary cartoon, one of the duo says to a medic attempting to hand out a medal: “Just gimme th’ aspirin, I already got a Purple Heart.”
Mauldin avoided punishment when Gen. Dwight Eisenhower circulated a letter instructing all officers “not to interfere” with “such things as Mauldin’s cartoons” (Oklahoman, 4/16/82). Mauldin won the Pulitzer twice for his editorial cartooning, once during the war and once afterwards.
Perhaps Donald Trump’s Pentagon saw itself as acting in the Patton tradition when it eliminated comics from Stars and Stripes. As FAIR (3/20/26) previously documented, Pete Hegseth has taken steps to crack down on the independence of the Pentagon’s own newspaper. Among the new guidelines to promote “good order and discipline” is a ban on syndicated material, including comics (Stars and Stripes, 3/13/26). US servicemembers have now been saved from the woke, subversive influences of Doonesbury, Pearls Before Swine and, perhaps worst of all, Beetle Bailey.
Hegseth’s anti-comics viewpoint is part of a global trend. Cartooning for Peace, Cartoonists Rights, Reporters Without Borders and several others have teamed up to produce Under Pressure; the March 2 report surveys the status of caricaturists around the world.
Under Pressure collects the stories of some of the most grave casualties in the global war on satire. Egyptian Ashraf Omar has been imprisoned for over a year, awaiting trial under specious charges of terrorism (Committee to Protect Journalists, 3/2/26). Saudi Cartoonist Mohammed Al Ghamdi (pen name Al Hazza) faces a 23-year sentence for “sympathizing with Qatar” (Reporters Without Borders, 7/23/25)—reflecting a since-resolved quarrel between the two governments—and because he allegedly “insulted the kingdom of Saudi Arabia” . In 2024, Palestinian cartoonist Mahasen al-Khateeb was killed in Gaza by Israeli bombardment (Middle East Eye, 10/20/24).
When the survey turns to the United States, things remain ominous. Kak, the president of Cartoonists for Peace whose work appears in L’Opinion, found the “same tactics” that appear in authoritarian regimes, or those headed in a dictatorial direction, “are being used” in the US. He continued that “the ‘Land of the Free’ is now flashing bright red on our threat map,” putting the US in the same crowd as Iran, India, Turkey and Russia.
It’s quite a shift from the 2023 report Cartoonists on the Line, which had no section dedicated to the United States. Much has changed for the worse in three years.
Trump has long mused about using official pressure to suppress satirical responses to his government. In 2018, he threatened to sue Saturday Night Live over their mockery of his administration (Mother Jones, 12/16/18). His FCC chair, Brendan Carr, argued that it was in the “public interest” to threaten Jimmy Kimmel’s late-night ABC show over the host’s comedy (Variety, 12/17/25). These words and deeds have created a climate of fear in the United States, one that political cartoonists are feeling.
The report cites a few US examples that paint a dark portrait of freedom of expression under the second Trump administration. Some of them have previously been covered by FAIR, including the resignation of Ann Telnaes from the Washington Post (FAIR.org, 1/7/25), the firing of Palm Beach Post editorial page editor Tony Doris (FAIR.org, 3/27/25) and Bob Whitmore’s firing and belated reinstatement to Creative Loafing (FAIR.org, 9/30/25). There are other examples, however, that deserve more examination.
In 1999, Felipe Galindo (Pen name Feggo) drew “4th of July From the South Border,” an endlessly reproduced and reprinted piece criticizing the militarization of the border with Mexico. Starting in 2022, Feggo’s work hung in the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History as part of the ¡Presente! A Latino History of the United States exhibit.
Feggo’s illustration was taken down after the Trump White House (8/21/25) attacked it as part of an “anti-American exhibition” that showed the US’s legacy of “colonization” and the history of Latino “victimhood and exploitation.” A crowing editorial in the Washington Examiner (8/24/25) asserted “the Smithsonian is long overdue for a housecleaning” over its “fashionable, culturally Marxist ideas.” The New York Times (3/28/25) described Trump’s interference with the Smithsonian as seeking “a more positive view of American history.” More positive for whom, is a question left unasked. Artist Rigoberto Gonzalez, whose “Refugees Crossing the Border Wall Into South Texas” was likewise removed, compared the administration’s censorship to the Nazi campaign against “degenerate art” (NPR, 8/24/25).
Julie Trébault of Artists at Risk Connection, who wrote Under Pressure‘s section on the United States, said it was a “rare and significant move” for the executive branch to single out “a specific work for removal from a federal museum.”
The report cited another Pulitzer winner, Adam Zyglis, in its section on the United States. His July cartoon for the Buffalo News (7/7/25) on flooding in Texas showed a MAGA hat-sporting Texan being swept away while proclaiming, “Gov’t is the problem not the solution!”
The New York Post (7/10/25) reran a Fox News piece (7/9/25) that slammed the cartoon as “vile.” The Post’s conscience is an interesting development, considering that the paper ran a cartoon in 2009 comparing President Obama to a chimpanzee (Guardian, 2/18/09), echoing a well-known racist trope.
The slings and arrows of press criticism were nothing compared to what was to come. In response to this cartoon, Zyglis was subject to numerous death threats. An appearance at Buffalo Museum was canceled over public safety concerns (Politico, 7/11/25). The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists, the Society of Professional Journalists and the Committee to Protect Journalists all released statements condemning the threats and supporting Zyglis (Daily Cartoonist, 7/17/25).
Trébault notes this as a sinister development. To criticize “the government’s actions or positions,” she wrote, “now exposes artists to direct threats.”
Unfortunately, Under Pressure has received little coverage in the United States, excepting the Daily Cartoonist (3/4/26). This contrasts with the coverage in New African Magazine (3/2/26), which gave the incidents the report highlights on that continent wider publicity.
The lack of attention media outlets gave to Under Pressure comes at a dangerous time for press freedom. The Inter American Press Association, a hemispheric media watchdog, recently classified the United States as a nation with “‘restrictions’ on freedom of speech” and of the press (AP, 3/10/26). By not giving reports like Under Pressure attention, media outlets are placing their heads in the sand.
Beyond open political censorship, there are also economic pressures on political cartoonists. Many newspapers do not employ their own cartoonists. Instead they choose material from syndicates, which reduces the amount of total cartoonists employed. It’s simple math. Why hire a dedicated cartoonist when syndicated material can be purchased for a fraction of the price?
The venues for cartoonists are also shrinking and sometimes disappearing. Since 2005, around 3,500 newspapers have shut down (Poynter, 10/20/25). Publications like the Atlantic Journal-Constitution, the Newark Star-Ledger and the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette are either ending their print editions or shutting down entirely. Cartoonist Walt Handelman (Editor & Publisher, 2/18/26), recently retired from the New Orleans Times-Picayune and the Advocate, said he was “optimistic about satire…. The real question is, how do you make a professional living doing it.”
Are there still political cartoonists out there worth looking for? Of course. In These Times has a vibrant comics section with witty and insightful commentary from the likes of Mattie Lubchansky, Jen Sorenson, Tom Tomorrow and others. The annual collection World War 3 Illustrated provides a perspective not likely to be found in other outlets, as exemplified by last year’s issue dedicated to Palestinian cartoonists. In between winning awards for Insectopolis, his comic study of creepy crawlies, Peter Kuper’s work enlivens The Nation. Cartoonists may be “under pressure,” but the best of them are capable of rising to the challenge.
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BROOKLYN, NEW YORK – It was the first Rental Ripoff hearing and people were pissed. Set up by Mayor Zohran Mamdani and attended by leaders of his administration and 150 city workers across multiple departments, the hearings gave tenants a chance to describe conditions their landlords refuse to fix—rats, mold, dangerous construction—along with a spate of unnecessary and hidden fees. They had three minutes each to share their experiences. But they also got to do something unexpected: set policy priorities for one of the largest cities in the world.
Arrayed around the room were posterboards, which not only asked tenants what problems they faced but sought their input on policy proposals brainstormed by staff, like fining landlords who don’t make repairs, making it easier to form tenant unions, or enabling the city to take over buildings when there are serial violations. Placing a sticker by the proposal signaled approval. But in addition, the public could also write their own policy alternatives on Post-It notes. And they did.
“Require transparency on who landlords (LLC) are so [we] can hold them accountable,” read one note. Another suggested a crackdown on charging market rates when the unit is rent-stabilized so the landlord could pocket the difference. “Some management companies list vacant apartments and request non-refundable application fees,” a third person wrote. “They make more money on application fees than collecting rent.”
“People came up with interesting ideas!” said Sam Levine, who runs the city’s Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP). “For policy development, it’s an interactive process. It’s like nothing I’ve done in my career.”
The last of five Rental Ripoff hearings, one for each borough, was in Staten Island this week. “I’m sad they’re over!” Levine said.
Mamdani came to Gracie Mansion on the strength of mass engagement from his supporters, including the 104,400 volunteers who knocked on doors daily during his campaign. His first hundred days in office end today, and his goals for the period have been twofold: show those supporters meaningful progress on their concerns, and expand participation in New York City democracy even more.
Sam Levine speaks to the press after being appointed by New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani as the incoming commissioner of the NYC Department of Consumer and Worker Protection. Credit: Derek French/SOPA Images/Sipa USA via AP Images
Yet the initiatives go beyond sewer socialism, though Mamdani has invested $108 million in improving city sewers. Mamdani’s administration spent countless hours during the transition scouring the existing laws of the city—in our interview, Levine held up a fat book of just the DCWP’s rules—to make progress wherever possible. He’s attempted to reposition New York as a place for fair pricing, honest dealing, and scrupulous businesses.
His administration has heavily publicized all this on social media and through interactive promotions, like a jingle contest judged by the Bronx’s own Cardi B to help kick off the historic extension of free child care to two-year-olds. And like the Rental Ripoff hearings, it has brought New Yorkers in to identify problems and be part of the solutions.
“In our 100 days, we have been relentlessly focused on securing real, immediate wins that people can see and feel,” Mamdani told the Prospect. “Trust is built through results. It’s built when a tenant sees accountability for a landlord who thought they were above the law. It’s built when a worker or a small-business owner no longer has to shoulder the burden of exploitative fees or predatory practices.”
This is designed to build momentum for the fights ahead that will be critical to Mamdani’s success. And they also seek to prove the concept of government as a force in people’s lives—not just as something worth supporting, but worth getting involved in.
This is beginning to pay off politically. Mamdani is most popular among young people, a new Marist poll shows, with 60 percent support from New Yorkers ages 18 to 29. Across all ages and party affiliations, his approval rating in the city is 48 percent (other polls have shown that quite a bit higher). But asked if they think he’s working hard, the number skyrockets. Seventy-four percent of New York City residents said yes.
THE MAMDANI CAMPAIGN PLATFORM was so ubiquitous and sound bite–friendly that by Election Day most voters could rattle it off: rent freeze, public grocery stores, fast and free buses, no-cost child care. The ideas were laser-focused on reversing or at least softening the national affordability crisis, and retaining working-class residents at risk of getting priced out. The message resonated enough to give New York City its first democratic socialist mayor since David Dinkins by a comfortable margin.
Credit: Whitney Curry Wimbish
In the first hundred days, he has made the most progress on child care. Within a week of Mamdani’s inauguration, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul agreed to provide enough funding to make child care free and universal by the end of the mayor’s first term. Building on the universal pre-kindergarten program that Mayor Bill de Blasio established, Mamdani plans to add 2-K and expand 3-K for younger children starting this fall. The first 2,000 free 2-K slots in five school districts will run full-day and year-round, the administration said this week. It also launched a child care pilot inside the Dinkins Municipal Building for city workers.
“To those who think that the promises of a campaign cannot survive once confronted with the realities of government, today is your answer,” Mamdani told reporters at the January announcement.
Progress has been slower on other fronts. A rental freeze for the next four years is up to the Rent Guidelines Board, which the previous mayor Eric Adams unsuccessfully tried to stock with his own appointees. That board, with six members handpicked by Mamdani, began meeting in March to collect testimony from renters and landlords. The economic conditions of both must be taken into account before a final decision is made sometime in May or June. There’s been little talk about the grocery store pilot since the mayor entered office, outside of a stunt by the gambling website backed by President Trump’s son, which set up a “free” grocery store. Mamdani responded with the ClickHole meme: “Heartbreaking: The worst person you know just made a great point.”
Mamdani has also been hobbled by the $5.4 billion budgetary hole Adams left him, a problem that will endure over the next two fiscal years. The stagnant national economic picture, with its continued high inflation, isn’t helping; the city lost nearly 20,000 jobs in 2025. Though these are legacy issues not caused by Mamdani, they have led to persistent calls for “economic development,” which in the minds of the city’s establishment always means tax breaks for corporations rather than creating conditions to attract workers and businesses, like offering free child care.
To deal with the budget gap, let alone promises like free buses, Mamdani identified areas where the city was overpaying for everything from office supplies to consultants from McKinsey, wringing out savings by making government more efficient and less beholden to middlemen. But there’s no ultimate solution without higher taxes or cuts in services. The latter flies in the face of Mamdani’s campaign promises (though he’s identified a few cuts), and tax changes in New York City are mostly contingent on lawmakers in Albany. One of the few things Mamdani can control is local property taxes, which he has said would have to go up significantly if he can’t get Albany to tax the rich and give New York City a fairer share of the money residents already send to the state.
The state legislature submitted a proposal to tax the rich, but Hochul has been reluctant to commit to it, expressing concern about billionaire flight eroding the tax base, a fear that for years has been repeatedlydebunked. Meanwhile, City Council Speaker Julie Menin, a relatively centrist Upper East Sider, countered Mamdani’s initial budget proposal with a plan that envisions no new revenues, cuts agency resources, and engages in a variety of gimmicks like double-counting revenue already realized and exaggerating savings, as Mamdani said in a blistering response. “Any proposal that claims we can close this gap without significant new revenue is unrealistic,” he said in the statement. Speaker Menin’s office rebutted that there are two revenue-raising options in the Council’s plan that would roll back tax breaks for high earners and generate about $1.25 billion, and that they do not call for any cuts in services. (Most of that comes from a $1.19 billion tax break that is floated as an idea and is explicitly not in the Council’s budget response.)
Waiting in the wings of this two-front fight is Mamdani’s army of supporters and allied groups, including the Democratic Socialists of America and Our Time, a grassroots organization available to call lawmakers, canvass neighborhoods, and push for the mayor’s agenda. So far, they have not done a full-court press on Albany amid negotiations, though they have sent 1,500 tax-the-rich supporters to the Capitol to pressure Hochul. Nor have they strong-armed Menin, though Mamdani’s social media condemnations of the Menin budget response drew a big audience. But the Mamdani base looms over the debate, ready and eager to act.
Preparing the ground for that possibility means keeping the public engaged in the promise of activist government, providing proof that if revenues do arrive, they will be spent well and for the benefit of the broad mass of New Yorkers. That’s where Mamdani’s strategy of delivering early, meaningful results comes in.
SNOWSTORM RESPONSE HAS TRIPPED UP more than one mayor around the country and in New York City. De Blasio was criticized heavily for failing to clear roads during a snowstorm early in his first term in 2014 and deciding not to close schools for a second storm. Winter weather blew in to test Mamdani shortly after his inauguration as well. It was not a uniform success and even led to tragedy: At least 20 unhoused people died during a legendary January deep freeze, with many feeling like not enough was done to protect those on the streets.
But emergency response accelerated over time. Warming shelters and buses were secured for a major storm in February, warm-weather supplies were distributed, and overdose prevention centers were staffed around the clock. One billion pounds of salt was spread across city streets. And a unique Emergency Snow Shoveler program that has expanded fivefold under Mamdani, from 1,500 to 7,800 members, delivered significant manpower to clear the snow. It was another example of participatory democracy, with neighbors helping neighbors through a weather snafu.
Quality-of-life improvements have been an area of focus in the first hundred days. “We should be working as hard as New Yorkers have to work, and move at the speed that New Yorkers move at,” said Julie Su, Joe Biden’s former labor secretary and the deputy mayor for economic justice. “When government delivers on those day-to-day things, they build trust in government.”
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That was evident in the way the city took on the Williamsburg Bump, a notorious hazard for bike riders that Mamdani himself has had to navigate. The bike lane on the Williamsburg Bridge crossing the East River had a large concrete wedge sticking out, initially designed to slow riders down as they headed into the pedestrian path along Delancey Street in Manhattan. But it was inducing accidents and consternation. So on Day 6 of his mayoralty, Mamdani took a Citi Bike, rode to the location, picked up a shovel, and assisted in transforming the bump into a ramp.
“In this administration there will be no issue too big for us to take on and no issue too small to focus on,” the mayor said on-site after the repair. “What you have seen in the last few months is countless New Yorkers reaching out, [saying] that they are tired of biking across this bridge, with an anxiety [about] what will happen at the end of it.”
Mamdani has been a chronic presence on street crews, joining them this week to fill the city’s 100,000th pothole since Inauguration Day. This fits with an unusual attention to the ground beneath New Yorkers’ feet, and includes a visit to overnight workers who repair the streets and stand ready for emergencies while the rest of the city sleeps. Mamdani’s office has restarted or initiated several bike lane and bus lane projects, and the city has committed to every eligible school having a slow zone of 15 miles per hour. Criminal enforcement for bike traffic violations has been downgraded to the same civil fines as for motorists. Bike riders and pedestrians will have their own access to the Brooklyn Bridge by June. New scaffolding rules intend to loosen requirements for shed coverage and accelerate repairs on publicly owned buildings, making the city more open and less under construction. And the commitment for public bathrooms, including modular units at a fraction of the usual cost, was announced on Day 10.
Mayor Mamdani lent a hand, joining Department of Transportation workers to fix the street bump near the Williamsburg Bridge, January 6, 2026. Credit: Yuki Iwamura/AP Photo
Su explained that these changes flowed from the concerns of the everyday people who live and work in New York City rather than from lobbyists for the powerful. “It’s about changing who gets to decide what the city prioritizes, and how we measure whether the city is being successful,” she said. And virtually all of these advancements have been paired with a social media video or other creative announcement, a key part of broadcasting the work the city is doing. Mamdani himself took calls on the city’s 311 response service last month.
“The willingness to put things out there so we can hear if it’s working is really important,” Su said. “So often government happened behind closed doors, with policies dropped on communities instead of built with them. This mayor really believes that if you’re doing the right thing, you should be unafraid to talk about it.”
THAT IS WHY SU, LEVINE, AND MAMDANI found themselves at the Prospect Park Zoo on Wednesday, announcing an $875,000 enforcement action against HungryPanda, a delivery app popular with immigrant-owned Asian restaurants. The app was charging the restaurants over the city’s cap on third-party food delivery service fees, including by mislabeling them as “promotion deductions.” Nearly 400 restaurants will get restitution, along with a fine on HungryPanda for breaking the law.
It was the second time HungryPanda had been fined in the first hundred days; the first was a $5 million settlement for thousands of illegally deactivated delivery workers on several apps. Su said that that enforcement action came directly out of meetings with the Worker’s Justice Project, a community organizing group in the city.
Mamdani has fully backed and promoted these actions as an early show of progress. “New Yorkers have been asked to accept a status quo that doesn’t serve them, where wealthy interests could operate with impunity while working people paid the price. That era is over,” he said. “Our message is straightforward: This city belongs to the people who keep it running.”
Levine, who came from the Federal Trade Commission under Joe Biden, has been encouraged by Mamdani’s direct presence in these and other enforcement announcements. “These lawsuits shouldn’t be confined to blog posts written by law firms,” he said. “I feel I have the mayor’s full backing, with no fear that some lobbyist will cut a side deal.”
Indeed, publicizing the cases is part of the enforcement process itself, Levine explained. “As a law enforcer I feel strongly, we’re never going to be able to sue every company. You need to send a message that if you do break the law and get caught, you will have to pay everyone back and a penalty.” High-profile announcements can help establish a deterrent that keeps every company inside the bounds of the law, in other words.
Mayor Mamdani and DCWP Commissioner Sam Levine held a press conference to announce more than $5 million in worker restitution and penalties secured from major restaurant delivery app companies, January 30, 2026. Credit: Katie Godowski/MediaPunch/IPX
One of the mayor’s first executive orders took on hidden and deceptive junk fees. A Bronx-area tow operator named Instant Recovery Corp. was sued for overcharges and demands of cash to relinquish vehicles. Tax preparation this year was free throughout the city for anyone earning below the median earnings level, freeing them from the claws of TurboTax and H&R Block. And fast-food workers who were given unfair schedules at Dunkin’ and Taco Bell franchises were given $1.8 million in compensation, with the franchisee paying added fines. The announcement, part of a series of actions that returned $9.3 million in stolen wages, was made while partaking in a fast-food feast.
On the other side, Mamdani has taken significant steps to make life easier for New York’s many small-business owners and entrepreneurs. He directed agencies to take a full inventory of fees imposed on small businesses and work to reduce them. He established a new Office of Street Vendor Services to help with their unique needs.
Su explained that these kinds of measures are part of an economic growth strategy that goes beyond business tax breaks. And she adds cracking down on dishonest businesses while letting honest ones flourish as part of that. “There’s been some sense that if you want the economy to grow you don’t enforce the law,” she said. “We reject that wholesale.”
Much of this push to position government on the side of workers, tenants, consumers, and small business came out of a transition push to scour the city’s rulebook for ways to make progress quickly. Lina Khan, the former Federal Trade Commission chair and a co-chair of Mamdani’s transition team, helped lead that effort. “He’s governing with both real urgency and focus on using the full set of tools and authorities at his disposal,” Khan told the Prospect. “He’s relentlessly focused on tackling concrete pain points in people’s daily lives, and modeling how government can be effective and efficient.”
But the administration has also used existing powers to create new tools. Just yesterday, New York became the first city to propose a “click to cancel” rule to make it as easy to close a subscription as it is to open one. That’s one of the many ways New York City has been enlisted into service as a substitute for the federal government. The FTC under Khan issued a rule making subscription cancellations simpler and eliminating traps in 2023, but it was stymied by legal challenges, and then the Trump administration delayed implementation, allowing it to be killed.
“No city has ever done this,” Levine said. But the DCWP looked at its authorities and found that it could use its ability to prohibit unconscionable practices. “Trapping people in subscriptions is an unconscionable practice, so let’s do it,” he said. When the FTC finalized the rule, it took two years; Mamdani’s administration completed the proposed rule in the first hundred days, and after a 30-day comment period, it will be tweaked based on public feedback and become law.
“We’re moving at the kind of speed that I think people don’t expect from government,” Levine said. “We are charged by this mayor to do so.”
IN THE HOURS AHEAD OF THE LAST Rental Ripoff hearing, Cea Weaver, director of the Mayor’s Office to Protect Tenants, reflected on what New Yorkers had told her during Mamdani’s first hundred days.
A nationally recognized tenant organizer and housing advocate, Weaver organized the hearings, which brought together residents and more than a dozen city agencies to provide answers to renters and hear ideas for what more the city could do. She wanted to understand the priorities of renters, who compose 69 percent of the city’s population, rather than just assume them. In addition to the posterboards asking for ideas, there were also ones asking renters to rank which issues were the most important to them. Topping the list were strengthening the ability to lawfully withhold rent to compel landlords to make repairs; more aggressively collecting fines and fees from the worst offenders; making it easier to know when an inspector is coming after a renter calls for help; and combating ICE-related harassment and other forms of landlord retaliation.
Su also cited multiple groups she has engaged directly to hear their ideas for setting policy, including taxi drivers at airports, deliveristas, bodega owners, and more. “There should be pressure on those of us in government to radically rethink what is possible,” she said.
Credit: NYC Mayor’s Office
At the first hearing in Brooklyn, one tenant wanted Weaver to fix her issue immediately. When Weaver explained that the hearing was to gather thoughts to inform future policies and offer available city services, the woman sat back in frustration. The mayor and his staff act like activists, she said, but this hearing is “more of the same.”
The interaction reflected one of the struggles Mamdani has faced in his first hundred days, as he creates new ways for New Yorkers to participate in their own government, an idea that politicians at any level rarely put into action. “Some people are certainly expecting a traditional hearing where we’re sitting on the dais and listening, and to me that’s a much less meaningful experience,” Weaver said in an interview. The goal, she said, is to move away from a model where New Yorkers play no part in determining their collective fate. The best way to protect everyone’s rights is to make sure “we are in a fighting posture.”
“I really believe that our broader housing goals to preserve and invest in deeply affordable housing and improve material concerns … will work better if tenants are organized,” Weaver said. A city code inspector can act more swiftly if they have a tenant contact, for example, and the city can take faster legal action if renters in a single building are working together.
City officials like herself can also be more responsive to residents’ needs when they know specifically what those needs are. The hearings highlighted new issues not yet covered by regulation or contemplated in law, such as the shift to electric heat, a major new expense for New Yorkers, who are used to oil- or gas-powered heat that’s included in the cost of rent.
Again and again, Weaver returned to her main points, an aspect of Mamdani’s administration from the beginning of his campaign for mayor. Message discipline is core to all his staff, who bring conversations back to their policy positions, a hallmark of all good organizers.
“I hope that people take away from these hearings that the most protected tenant is an empowered tenant who can talk to their neighbors about their rights,” she said, adding that the philosophy of participation is also reflected in Mamdani’s Office of Mass Engagement, which she called not just a nice-to-have initiative. Greater civic participation and greater equity go hand in hand, a claim that’s backedby years of research.
“The most important thing,” Weaver said, “is that in this administration, Mayor Mamdani is on your side.”
UPDATE: This story has been updated with a response from the New York City Council.
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Oscar-nominated filmmakers Carl Deal and Tia Lessin (Trouble the Water, The Janes) take us behind the scenes with the warm, wisecracking granddaughter of an Orthodox rabbi — raised in a tradition of asking hard questions – as she navigates a news landscape reshaped by technology, corporate consolidation, and political assaults on truth itself. Urgent, provocative and unexpectedly funny, Steal This Story, Please! is both a call to action and a celebration of resistance, posing the question: what happens to democracy when the press surrenders to power?
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US Sen. Bernie Sanders speaks at Brooklyn College, his alma mater, in New York City on September 6, 2025.
(Photo by Selcuk Acar/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“Billionaire-funded super PACs—AIPAC, AI, crypto, and others—are spending hundreds of millions to defeat any candidate who crosses them. They should be banned from Democratic primaries. Period.”
Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders on Friday called for a total ban on dark money a day after the Democratic National Committee voted down a resolution that would have condemned the leading US pro-Israel lobby, which has spent nine figures on US elections over the past five years.
The DNC Resolutions Committee rejected the resolution, which condemned “the growing influence” of dark money and corporate-backed outside spending on Democratic races, specifically calling out the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee. United Democracy Project, AIPAC’s dark money arm, unleashed a $100 million blitz targeting progressives during the 2024 election cycle.
When combined with other pro-Israel lobby groups, like GOP megadonor Miriam Adelson’s Preserve America PAC, that figure soars to over $200 million, according to the public interest group AIPAC Tracker.
Instead, the DNC panel opted for a broader resolution decrying the influence of dark money—defined as undisclosed independent campaign contributions—in the 2026 Democratic primaries.
“The DNC just passed a resolution condemning dark money,” Sanders (Vt.) said Friday on X. “That’s a start, but not enough.”
“Billionaire-funded super PACs—AIPAC, AI, crypto, and others—are spending hundreds of millions to defeat any candidate who crosses them,” the senator added. “They should be banned from Democratic primaries. Period.”
Sanders campaigned twice for president, centering his opposition to the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling, which effectively ushered in the modern era of secret unlimited political spending.
According to the Brennan Center for Justice, dark money spending in federal elections has skyrocketed from negligible amounts before 2010 to over $1.9 billion in the 2024 cycle alone, with over $4 billion in total undisclosed outside financing following the high court’s contentious ruling.
The DNC’s own suppressed postmortem of the 2024 presidential election also showed that former President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris’ unconditional support for Israel cost Harris votes.
As AIPAC has grown more toxic to US voters amid a litany of Israeli atrocities in Gaza and the West Bank under the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu—who is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes in Gaza—a growing number of Democrats, including some who once welcomed the group’s support, are turning their backs on the lobby.
“AIPAC really is not an organization that I think today I would want any part of,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said last month after affiliated groups poured $22 million into House races in his state.
While AIPAC cash was instrumental in unseating congressional progressives including former Reps. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY) and Cori Bush (D-Mo.), its largesse failed to oust others, including Reps. Summer Lee (D-Pa.), Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.), and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.).
Sanders wasn’t the only one to criticize the DNC’s rejection of the anti-AIPAC resolution.
“The American people are clear: They want our government to invest in life and stop funding the bombs that are destroying lives in Palestine, Lebanon, and Iran,” Jewish Voice for Peace political director Beth Miller said Friday.
“The DNC‘s failure to pass this simple resolution condemning the outsized spending of an extremist and Republican-funded group like AIPAC in Democratic primaries shows how wildly out of touch the party is with its base,” Miller added.
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This Sunday’s Town Hall: Announcing This Week’s Progressive Town Hall: Every Sunday at 4pm ET/1pm PT RSVP HERE Join PDA activists online from across the country to discuss the importance of progressives reclaiming the American story from the MAGA right, an issue of heightened importance as we’re now within one... Continue reading →
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