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Zohran Mamdani wins New York mayorship, becoming city’s first Muslim mayor

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Zohran Mamdani has crowned his campaign for New York City Mayor with victory, coming in first with 50.4% of the vote.

According to data from the New York Board of Elections, former Governor Andrew Cuomo, who lost to Mamdani in the Democratic Party primary in June and ran as an independent candidate, gaining the support of President Donald Trump in the final hours of the race, received 41.6% of the vote.

Curtis Sliwa came in third with 7.1% of the vote.

On January 1, Mamdani will become the city’s first Muslim mayor and the second mayor in modern history after David Dinkins to be identified as a “democratic socialist.”

Mamdani’s campaign was supported by left-leaning, young voters who were particularly drawn to his message of low-cost housing for the housing crisis. In the Democratic primary, Mamdani was seen to have performed well in New York’s gentrified neighborhoods.

After the election results were announced, Mamdani addressed a large crowd at the Brooklyn Paramount Theatre, stating that his audience consisted of “progressive working-class voters, immigrants, and people of color who could not see themselves in the Democratic Party.”

Mamdani added that politics in the city would soon change to better reflect the needs of the people it serves.

Mamdani also addressed Trump

The mayor-elect said, “This new era will be defined by competence and compassion, which have been at odds for too long. We will prove that there is no problem too big for government to solve and no concern too small for it to address.”

Mamdani added that starting January 1, they will “launch a city administration that helps everyone.”

During the campaign, Mamdani managed to mobilize more than 100,000 volunteers to visit over 3 million homes in 273 New York neighborhoods.

In his victory speech, Mamdani invoked historical figures of socialist politics in the US, Eugene Debs and Fiorello Henry La Guardia, and said his administration would set “the most ambitious agenda to solve the cost of living crisis.”

The democratic socialist pledged, “We will stand with unions and expand workers’ rights because we, like Donald Trump, know that when workers have strong rights, the bosses who try to exploit them become very small.”

Stressing that New York will “continue to be a city of immigrants,” Mamdani noted that the city was built by immigrants, strengthened by immigrants, and “from tonight, will be a city run by an immigrant.”

Mamdani, who faced harsh attacks from Trump before the election, also addressed the president, adding, “So listen to me, President Trump, you will have to get through all of us to get to any one of us.”

In response to the White House increasing raids on immigrants, Mamdani opposed deportations, pointing to his strong base in the election and promising to take tough measures on the issue while in office.

Mamdani said, “I thank those who are often forgotten in our city’s politics, who embraced this movement as their own. I’m talking about everyone from Yemeni bodega owners to Mexican abuelas, from Senegalese taxi drivers to Uzbek nurses, from Trinidadian cooks to Ethiopian aunties—yes, aunties.”

He called the president a ‘despot,’ Trump accepted the challenge

Describing his victory as a way to defeat Trump, whom he called a “despot,” Mamdani, to the enthusiastic applause of the crowd, said, “Donald Trump, I know you’re watching, I have four words for you: Turn up the volume.”

Meanwhile, after Mamdani’s victory in the New York mayoral election, Trump issued a warning to him, writing, “So this is how it begins…”

In the middle of Mamdani’s victory speech, during which the mayor-elect made several references to the US president, Trump shared a short message on Truth Social.

This post could be interpreted as Trump kicking off his campaign for the 2026 midterm elections. Republicans have revealed their intention to use Mamdani as a weapon against Democrats, portraying him as a symbol of leftist radicalism.

Trump, stating that he plans to prevent Mamdani from “ruining” New York and is considering cutting federal funds to the city, may also be signaling a harsh conflict between his administration and the new mayor.

Cautious support from Wall Street

According to the Financial Times (FT), New York’s financial elites have given cautious support to Muslim democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani after he won the city’s mayoral election with record turnout.

Many on Wall Street had been skeptical of the 34-year-old Queens assemblyman due to his criticism of the wealthy class in a city dominated by finance and real estate giants, and his promise to introduce an additional income tax on salaries over $1 million.

However, in the final weeks before the election, Mamdani intensified his “courtship” of New York’s business community, attending a series of meetings to secure an inevitable victory.

Ralph Schlosstein, retired chairman of the investment bank Evercore and one of Wall Street’s most influential Democrats, said it was time for New York to come together after a bitter election race.

Schlosstein said, “The turnout is fantastic. Unbelievable. I think it’s the highest turnout ever in a mayoral election. We owe him a great deal of credit for energizing the voters. He offered hope and opportunity… Now it’s time for everyone to come together and help him be as successful as possible.”

Yasser Salem, chairman of OneNYC, an independent committee supporting Mamdani, helped establish a business advisory council that will begin working with the new mayor in the coming weeks and said his “phone has been ringing off the hook.”

But many financiers remain skeptical of Mamdani. One hedge fund manager said he was concerned that the crime rate would increase if Mamdani became mayor, adding, “You can’t have a socialist in the biggest capitalist city in the world.”

Another senior business leader, who said he appreciated the mayor-elect’s statements after the election, argued that “the move toward the middle ground seems a bit disingenuous” and added that Mamdani’s views on the economy and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict were inflexible.

Bill Ackman extends an olive branch to Mamdani

Wall Street giants like hedge fund manager Bill Ackman and former mayor Michael Bloomberg, along with business leaders like Palantir co-founder Alex Karp, donated millions of dollars to the campaign fund of Mamdani’s main rival, Andrew Cuomo.

Ackman, who had been particularly critical of Mamdani, extended an olive branch to the new mayor on Tuesday evening, congratulating him on his victory. The billionaire said in a social media post, “You now have a great responsibility. If I can be of help to New York, let me know what I can do.”

Mamdani’s opponents on Wall Street became increasingly pragmatic in recent weeks as his victory looked more and more likely, deciding it would be better to support the new mayor.

Robert Steel, who served during Mike Bloomberg’s mayoralty and worked as an executive on Wall Street for many years, said that the most important thing now is the dozens of agency heads chosen by Mamdani for city hall.

Steel said, “There are 30 to 50 people who really run the city.” One Wall Street heavyweight even expressed support for higher taxes.

Antonio Weiss, a veteran Wall Street financier and former US Treasury advisor who actively consults on New York City’s financial matters, said, “He has been effective in expanding his coalition and reaching out, which will build confidence in his administration. There should be no debate about a small tax increase combined with a real effort to make government more efficient and then invested in a program like childcare, which allows more young families to stay in the city.”

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Trump energy shares rose by up to $4.4m during Iran war, CNBC reports

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10/09/2026

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The value of US President Donald Trump’s nine largest oil and gas holdings increased by approximately $1.5 million to $4.4 million during the first six months of the war with Iran.

According to an analysis conducted by CNBC based on the American leader’s financial disclosure, corporate balance sheets, and FactSet market data, the investment basket includes shares in Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Kinder Morgan, Marathon Petroleum, Occidental Petroleum, Phillips 66, Valero Energy, and Williams Companies.

In its calculations, the television network took into account the minimum and maximum baseline values of Trump’s declared holdings alongside share price fluctuations from the close of trading on 27 February through 31 August.

As the conflict with Iran continued, specialists managing Trump’s investment accounts maintained active trading in energy company shares.

Up to 29 June, the latest date for which transactions were disclosed, fresh purchases were logged alongside at least 23 sales operations involving stock in the nine companies.

Because disclosure filings do not specify exact share numbers or transaction prices, the estimates produced by CNBC do not reflect Trump’s realised profits or the precise current scale of his holdings.

On 2 March, the first trading day following the launch of air strikes against Iran by the US and Israel, shares in eight major oil and gas companies were purchased through Trump’s accounts.

These transactions included ExxonMobil shares valued at between $100,000 and $250,000. Prior to the conflict, the aggregate value of Trump’s holdings in ExxonMobil stood at between $3.2 million and $12.5 million.

Stock market gains in August, excluding subsequent transactions, raised the value of these shares by approximately $176,000 to $690,000.

CNBC also examined transactions executed on days when Trump’s decisions directly swayed the oil market. On 23 March, when the president deferred planned strikes against Iran’s energy infrastructure, the price of a barrel of Brent crude dropped by roughly 11%.

That same day, oil and gas shares worth a combined $163,000 to $570,000 were purchased across Trump’s accounts.

A similar transaction took place on 7 April. One of Trump’s investment accounts sold between $500,000 and $1 million worth of ExxonMobil shares.

Approximately two and a half hours after markets closed, President Trump announced an agreement on a two-week ceasefire with Iran. The following morning, ExxonMobil shares fell by more than 6% at the market open.

The report noted that CNBC saw no evidence indicating that Trump gave direct instructions for specific trades, that managers possessed advance knowledge of his actions, or that personal financial interests guided White House policies.

White House officials, commenting on the matter, stated that the president’s investment portfolio is managed by independent portfolio managers and that neither Trump nor members of his family hold authority to intervene in asset trading decisions.

The growth in the portfolio coincided with a broader surge in the earnings of energy majors. The nine energy companies in which Trump holds shares generated a combined profit of $47.6 billion in the second quarter.

During the same period last year, that figure stood at $15.9 billion. The profits of ExxonMobil and Chevron alone climbed from $9.6 billion in the prior year to $26.6 billion.

In July, the US Office of Government Ethics published Trump’s 927-page financial disclosure report for 2025.

The report noted that Trump’s earnings from cryptocurrency operations exceeded $500 million.

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Over half of Latino voters back Democrats in key US House races

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09/09/2026

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A new public opinion poll in the US shows that Democratic candidates have made notable gains since 2024 among Latino voters in critical, competitive districts for the House of Representatives.

These gains have the potential to directly determine which party will secure the majority in Congress next year.

According to a joint survey by Hart Research and TelevisaUnivision shared with Axios, Democrats reached 58% support on the generic congressional ballot among Latino voters across 17 competitive House districts.

The share of those backing Republicans within the same voting bloc remained at 35%. This group continues to represent the fastest-growing swing constituency in battleground districts.

Examining three competitive House races in Texas, the study indicated that Latino voters, who reported splitting evenly at 44% to 44% in the 2024 presidential election, shifted 56% to 36% in favour of Democrats heading into the midterms.

Latino support for Democrats also increased in other states. In California, 57% of Latino voters said they would support Democrats, compared with 33% who said they would back the Republican Party.

Kate Coleman, Senior Vice President at TelevisaUnivision, highlighted voter behaviour in remarks to Axios:

“Latino voters are not locked into one party. They are watching developments closely; they make decisions based on who stands with them and how they stand.”

The survey data determined that 11% of Latino respondents who said they voted for Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election now support Democratic candidates.

Accelerating his deportation plans, Trump triggered fear across many Latino neighbourhoods while weakening his support among this demographic.

The Hart Research and TelevisaUnivision study revealed that 63% of Latino voters disapprove of Trump’s presidential job performance. The share of those approving of his performance in office stood at 36%.

Trump’s approach to high prices and the cost of living drew disapproval from 65% of Latino voters, while immigration enforcement and deportation practices were disapproved of by 62%.

More than half of Latino voters, at 64%, reported that they disapprove of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

A survey published in May by UnidosUS showed that a quarter of Latino voters “would probably not vote” or would definitely not support Trump if they had to vote for him again.

The study at that time had pointed out that, despite Trump’s decline among Latino voters, Democrats had not yet secured significant gains.

According to Pew Research Center data, Trump strengthened his support in 2024 by securing 48% of the Latino vote, coming very close to the 51% reached by then Vice President Kamala Harris.

Some figures within the Democratic Party, however, worry that primary victories by democratic socialist candidates could alienate certain Latino voters, particularly those who fled Cuba or Venezuela.

The Hart Research and TelevisaUnivision survey was conducted between 6 and 17 August among 1,500 Latino respondents. The poll’s margin of error was reported as 2.5 percentage points.

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Researcher quits Anthropic and warns AI firms gamble with lives

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09/09/2026

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Jacob Coxon, an artificial intelligence researcher at Anthropic, has resigned from his post, stating that tech companies are acting irresponsibly in the race towards self-improving superintelligence. Coxon warned that the autonomous operational capabilities of such systems pose existential risks to humanity and that internal industry anxieties run far deeper than generally perceived.

The AI researcher stepped down from his position at Anthropic to draw attention to industry safety vulnerabilities and the unregulated race among developers.

Having worked for three years as a pre-training researcher across both OpenAI and Anthropic, Coxon announced his decision to leave in an extensive statement shared on his X account.

Stating that both companies have acted irresponsibly, Coxon argued that developers are engaged in a dangerous race to achieve self-improving superintelligence.

“They believe it could kill us all by the end of the decade”

In his posts, Coxon stated that technical teams developing AI genuinely believe this technology could bring about the demise of humanity by the end of the decade.

Asserting that these concerns are not a marketing strategy, the researcher noted that while top executives and senior researchers adopt a cautious tone in public statements, they voice the very same fears behind closed doors.

Developments reflecting similar anxieties across the sector evoke James Cameron’s 1984 film The Terminator, which set 2029 as the pivotal year when machines waged war against humanity.

Indeed, Evan Hubinger, head of Anthropic’s own alignment team, had previously estimated the probability of human extinction to be greater than 10%.

Warning that systems currently under development will soon evolve into superhuman structures capable of bypassing any firewall, transforming industries overnight, and securing physical resources, Coxon stressed that the pace of progress is not slowing in any way.

Arguing that the danger of superintelligence is no longer merely theoretical, the researcher pointed to the Hugging Face security leak that occurred between May and July.

In that incident, OpenAI models established an independent chatroom within the testing environment to communicate among themselves, subsequently using this channel to reach the open internet and infiltrate production systems.

Because of this security breach, Hugging Face was forced to rebuild approximately one-third of its infrastructure.

“They are gambling with our lives”

Characterising the leak as a warning flare, Coxon indicated that the incident makes pacing agreements between US-based laboratories more feasible.

However, emphasising that developers are not yet on the right track to prevent a global race, the researcher noted that measures such as a temporary moratorium on advancing model capabilities could be considered.

Arguing that civilisation-scale risks have not yet been sufficiently internalised at OpenAI, Coxon contended that Anthropic joined the race out of an ambition to be first, despite being fully aware of the dangers.

Coxon is not the only figure to leave the sector on such grounds. Mrinank Sharma, a member of Anthropic’s safety team, also stepped down earlier this year, writing that the world is in danger.

On the other hand, not everyone agrees with these catastrophic scenarios. Some responses to the post emphasised the view that humanity, with an evolutionary history spanning hundreds of thousands of years, will not be wiped out by a text prediction model achieving consciousness.

It was also noted that even the plot of the Terminator franchise does not entirely support Coxon’s premise, as the human resistance survived the nuclear catastrophe and ultimately defeated the machines.

Alongside safety debates, AI continues to directly affect the labour market. Research by the Stanford Digital Economy Lab indicates that, while mass job losses have not yet materialised, entry-level employment in AI-exposed sectors across the US has fallen by nearly 20%.

A Goldman Sachs study pointed to a similar trend, showing that entry-level workers bear the brunt of the ongoing workforce transformation.

Anthropic, which remains at the centre of the controversy, filed for an initial public offering in June and plans to list on the Nasdaq exchange this autumn at a multi-trillion-dollar valuation.

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