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Zohran Mamdani, now NYC mayor-elect, announces mainstream transition team. Who’s on it?
The 34-year-old democratic socialist’s team includes familiar faces for New Yorkers. He must now navigate New York’s notoriously provincial politics.
Zohran Mamdani wins NYC mayor’s race
Mamdani, 34, will be NYC’s first Muslim and South Asian mayor.
NEW YORK − In his first hours as New York City’s mayor-elect, Zohran Mamdani has signaled his intention to reassure a nervous political establishment that he is bringing experienced operators into his administration.
On the morning of Nov. 5, the 34-year-old democratic socialist announced a progressive-but-mainstream transition team to execute his affordability-focused agenda.
“The poetry of campaigning may have come to a close last night at 9, but the beautiful prose of governing has only just begun,” Mamdani, a state assemblyman from Queens, told reporters in front of the Unisphere, a towering steel globe built for the 1964 World’s Fair.
That line itself could be interpreted as an olive branch: it was a reference to former Gov. Mario Cuomo’s famous observation that politicians “campaign in poetry” but they “govern in prose.” Mamdani just defeated Cuomo’s son Andrew, another former governor, in the mayoral race.
“The hard work of improving New Yorkers’ lives starts now,” Mamdani added.
An experienced team
Mamdani, who won the mayor’s race less than 24 hours earlier, takes over City Hall on New Year’s Day. His transition team includes familiar faces for New Yorkers.
Elana Leopold, a political strategist who served under former Mayor Bill de Blasio in several senior positions, will lead the team as executive director.
The four transition co-chairs include Lina Khan, the head of the Biden administration’s Federal Trade Commission; Maria Torres-Springer, former first deputy mayor under current Mayor Eric Adams; Grace Bonilla, president and CEO of United Way of New York City and a former de Blasio administration appointee; and Melanie Hartzog, de Blasio’s deputy mayor for health and human services and, before that, his management and budget office director.
De Blasio endorsed Mamdani, but Adams endorsed Cuomo.
Before Mamdani even won the race for mayor, he faced threats by the Trump administration to strip the city of even more federal funding. On election night, Mamdani called President Donald Trump out directly, saying he would protect New Yorkers as their mayor. Mamdani has said he would work with Trump to ease cost of living.
“Despite the headwinds the city we face as a city and as a country, the mayor-elect has truly rekindled something very powerful: Our shared faith in New York’s capacity to do big things and to dream boldly,” Torres-Springer said.
Earlier this year, Torres-Springer and other top city officials resigned from the current Adams administration. President Trump’s Justice Department dropped federal corruption charges in exchange for helping in the administration’s immigration crackdown, in an alleged quid pro quo Adams has denied. The scandal rocked Adams’ City Hall and contributed to his downfall as a one-term mayor.
During the campaign, Mamdani sought to reassure voters that, despite his young age and little experience in the state Legislature, he could manage the city’s $116 billion budget serving 8.5 million New Yorkers. He will also oversee a police department larger than many countries’ entire militaries.
Notably, he said he would keep current Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch in charge of the NYPD. Tisch’s super-wealthy father James donated heavily to previous Republican mayoral candidate such as Rudy Giuliani. Her cousin Laurie Tisch donated $150,000 to an effort to defeat Mamdani.
Mamdani has also been advised by Patrick Gaspard, a former aide to Barack Obama who previously led the liberal Center for American Progress think tank.
During the Democratic primary in June, Mamdani cross-endorsed with city Comptroller Brad Lander, a Brooklyn Democrat seen as a seasoned city politician. Lander’s support proved key in Mamdani’s primary win to defeat Andrew Cuomo, the former three-term governor saddled by a record of scandals.
On Nov. 4, Mamdani defeated Cuomo, running as an independent, a second time. Billionaires spent heavily against Mamdani’s candidacy.
“What we saw last night was New Yorkers not just electing a new mayor, but clearly rejecting a politics where outsized corporate power and money too often end up dictating our politics,” said Khan, an antitrust legal scholar who resigned from the FTC when Trump took office.
On Nov. 6, Mamdani continues his path to City Hall by flying to Puerto Rico, his spokesperson Dora Pekec said. While this sounds like vacation after a grueling campaign, he is Somos, New York Democrats’ unofficial annual power-brokering summit.
Eduardo Cuevas is based in New York City. Reach him by email at emcuevas1@usatoday.com or on Signal at emcuevas.01.
new video loaded: Singer D4vd Is Charged With Murder of Celeste Rivas Hernandez
transcript
transcript
Singer D4vd Is Charged With Murder of Celeste Rivas Hernandez
The musician D4vd was charged with murder on Monday, seven months after the police said that the body of a teenage girl, Celeste Rivas Hernandez, had been found in the trunk of his Tesla. D4vd, whose real name is David Burke, pleaded not guilty to the charges.
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“On April 23, 2025, as has been alleged by the complaint, Celeste, a 14-year-old at that time, went to Mr. Burke’s house in the Hollywood Hills. She was never heard from again.” “These charges include the most serious charges that a D.A.‘s office can bring. That is first-degree murder with special circumstances. The special circumstances being lying in wait, committing this crime for financial gain or murdering a witness in an investigation. These special circumstances carry with it, along with the first-degree murder charge, a maximum sentence of life without the possibility of parole, or the death penalty.” “We believe the actual evidence will show David Burke did not murder Celeste Revis Hernandez nor was he the cause of her death.”
By Jackeline Luna
April 20, 2026
In this photo illustration, The Onion website is displayed on a computer screen, showing a satirical story titled Here’s Why I Decided To Buy ‘InfoWars’, on November 14, 2024 in Pasadena, California.
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The satirical website, The Onion, has a new deal to take over Infowars, conspiracy theorist Alex Jones’s far-right media company. If approved by a Texas judge, the deal would take away his Infowars microphone, and allow The Onion to resume its plans to turn the website into a parody of itself.
Families of those killed in the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, who sued Jones for defamation, want the sale to happen. They’re still waiting to collect on the nearly $1.3 billion judgement they won against Jones for spreading lies that they faked the deaths of their children in order to boost support for gun control. That prompted Jones’s followers to harass and threaten the families for years.
The families are also eager to take away Jones’s platform for spewing such conspiracy theories. The deal not only would divorce Jones from his Infowars brand, but it would turn the platform against him by allowing The Onion to mock his kind of conspiracy mongering and advocate for gun control.
The families “took on Alex Jones to stop him from inflicting the same harm on others” by using “his corrupt business platform to torment and harass them for profit,” said Chris Mattei, one of the attorneys for the families. “When Infowars finally goes dark, the machinery of lies that Jones built will become a force for social good, thanks to the families’ courage and The Onion’s vision, persistence and stewardship.”
A mourner visits the Sandy Hook Permanent Memorial on the 10th anniversary of the school shooting on Dec.14, 2022 in Newtown, Connecticut. Twenty-six people were shot and killed, including 20 first graders and 6 educators, in one of the deadliest elementary school shootings in U.S. history.
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For its part The Onion called it a “significant step in an effort to transform one of the internet’s more notorious misinformation platforms into a new comedy network for satire.” The company says it could announce its new rollout of Infowars in a matter of weeks if the judge approves the deal.
“Eight years, almost to the day, after the Sandy Hook parents first filed suit against Alex Jones, they’ll finally get some justice, and even some money,” said Ben Collins, CEO of The Onion. “This is a chance to make something genuinely new out of a very broken piece of media history.”
On its website Monday, The Onion posted a satirical message from the fictional CEO of its parent company, Global Tetrahedron, “Bryce P. Tetraeder,” stating a “dream is finally coming true.”
Jones’s posted on X Monday that “The Onion Has Fraudulently Claimed AGAIN That It Owns Infowars!!!” adding that “The Democrat Party Disinformation Publication Is Publicly Bragging About Its Plan To Silence Alex Jones’ Infowars And Then Steal & Misrepresent His Identity!”
On a podcast in March, Jones alluded to the impending demise of Infowars, saying, “We’re getting shut down. We beat so many attacks. But finally, we’re shutting down like the middle of next month,” before insisting, “We’re going to be fine.”
Jones suggested Monday he would appeal any court decision to approve the leasing deal. And even if he loses control of Infowars, Jones could continue to broadcast from another studio, under another name.
Jones’s attorneys did not respond to a request for comment.
More than a year ago, a federal bankruptcy judge rejected The Onion’s first attempt to buy Infowars through a bankruptcy auction, saying the process was flawed. Since then, the bankruptcy court clarified that because Infowars’ parent company, Free Speech Systems, is not itself in bankruptcy, its property should be handled instead by a Texas state receiver. That cleared the way for the new pending deal to lease Infowars to The Onion, with the hope that a future sale could be approved.
In papers filed in state court, the Texas receiver said he “determined that licensing the Intellectual Property is in the best interest of the receivership estate.”
The deal calls for The Onion to pay $81,000 a month to license the Infowars.com domain and brand name, which the receiver says will “cover carrying costs to preserve and protect the assets of the receivership estate” until an appeal filed by Jones is decided and the path is cleared for a sale.
Jones’s personal bankruptcy case is proceeding in federal bankruptcy court, where a trustee continues to sell off Jones’s personal property, including cars, homes, watches and guns, with proceeds intended for the families.
A memorial to massacre victims stands near the former site of Sandy Hook Elementary on Dec. 14, 2013 in Newtown, Connecticut, one year after Adam Lanza shot and killed 20 first graders and six adults at the school.
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US negotiators to head to Pakistan and Iranian cargo ship seized – a recappublished at 00:37 BST 20 April
Tankers in the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday
Here’s a recap of the latest developments.
US negotiators will head to Pakistan on Monday with the intention of holding further talks on ending the war, Trump says – but Iranian state media cites unnamed officials as saying Tehran has “no plans for now to participate”.
The prospect of further high-level negotiations – a White House official says Vice-President JD Vance will attend – comes amid reports of fresh attacks on commercial vessels.
Trump says the navy intercepted and took “custody” of an Iranian tanker attempting to pass through the US blockade, “blowing a hole” in the ship’s engine room in the process.
Earlier, in the same post announcing his representatives would travel for more talks, Trump renewed his threat to destroy Iranian energy sites and bridges if no deal is reached.
Reports in Iranian media over the weekend suggest Iran is continuing to work on plans to potentially apply a toll to ships passing through the strait – although it’s unclear if such a move will be implemented.
Iranian state TV cites unnamed officials as saying that “continuation of the so-called naval blockade, violation of the ceasefire and threatening US rhetoric” are slowing progress in reaching an agreement.
Trump also accused Iran of violating the ceasefire, saying more commercial ships have been attacked by Iran in the Strait of Hormuz.
A UK maritime agency reported two commercial ships came under fire in the strait on Saturday.
Iran’s foreign minister had said on Friday that the strait would be opened – which was shortly followed by Trump saying the US naval blockade of Iranian ports would remain in place until a deal is reached. Iran has since said the strait is closed again.
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