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Mamdani's affordability agenda flops as NYC rents surge to record highs

Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge
Mon, 13 Jul 2026 18:59 UTC
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D)
New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani (D)
New York City's socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani, and his radical-left lieutenants in City Hall promised voters free bus rides, government-run grocery stores, cheap housing, and much more. Yet the dream of a left-wing utopia has not materialized. In fact, rents in the NYC metro area just hit a record high.

New data from The Corcoran Group, a major residential real estate brokerage founded in NYC, shows that rents in the metro area have climbed to a new record high.

Manhattan's median rent rose 8% from a year earlier to $5,295, while Brooklyn reached $4,350, also up 8%, according to the report. Manhattan's vacancy rate narrowed to 1.49%. In Queens, Rego Park posted particularly sharp increases, with one-bedroom rents up 12% and studio rents up more than 20%.

"Manhattan renters are chasing a shrinking pool of available apartments, and the result has become predictable — record rents. Available listings dropped 16% year-over-year in June, while the borough's median rent climbed to a new high of $5,295. Leasing activity clocked in 7% below last year's pace due to the lack of inventory, causing competition to remain fierce. Additionally, June marked one year since implementation of the FARE Act, a milestone that may still be influencing pricing trends, particularly within the non-doorman market. Across the board, quality apartments are commanding a premium, and renters have little room to negotiate," Corcoran COO Gary Malin wrote in the report.
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Star of David

US Congressman Ro Khanna says he was detained by Israeli settlers during West Bank visit


NBC News
Sat, 11 Jul 2026 18:53 UTC
Ro Khanna
© Ammar Awad / ReutersRep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., speaks with a Palestinian resident of Turmus Ayya, near Ramallah in the West Bank, on Thursday
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., said he was detained by Israeli settlers armed with U.S.-made rifles during a West Bank visit this week that he cast as an unfiltered look at the human toll of Israeli occupation as he weighs a 2028 presidential run.

Speaking with Reuters on Thursday in a Palestinian village, Khanna said his ⁠group's van was surrounded by settlers wielding M4 rifles a day earlier while touring a part of the southern West Bank where residents face frequent settler attacks.

"We were at a village that Israeli settlers had destroyed, they had destroyed the school, they had destroyed that village, and we were just looking at it," he said.
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Handcuffs

Durov hauled in for questioning again in Paris, Telegram blasts case: 'still no evidence'

Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge
Fri, 10 Jul 2026 18:51 UTC
pavel durov
© Reuters
As the high-stakes criminal investigation into Telegram nears its second year with no resolution in sight, French authorities have again summoned Telegram co-founder Pavel Durov for questioning. Durov spent around six hours being questioned at the Paris Judicial Tribunal on Wednesday, local media reported, citing law enforcement sources. He's allowed to travel internationally, and to live at his home in Dubai - though he's agreed specific judicial supervision rules, part of which is to periodically return to France when summoned.

It marked the fourth time the tech entrepreneur has been interrogated as part of the ongoing investigation, stretching back to his initial arrest in August 2024 at a Paris airport. He was soon after indicted on a dozen assorted charges ranging from complicity in illicit platform activity to non-cooperation with state authorities.

Durov's legal team confirmed the questioning to AFP, slamming the lack of progress by French prosecutors, decrying that "almost two years after the indictment of Pavel Durov, there is still no evidence to establish the validity of the charges."
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Arrow Up

Analysis: Higher electricity rates in Blue States linked to renewable energy policies


American Greatness
Mon, 13 Jul 2026 13:34 UTC
power lines
© Getty ImagesPower Lines
A new analysis by Always On Energy Research and the Institute for Energy Research concludes that renewable energy mandates and net-zero policies have contributed to higher electricity prices in states that adopted them, while states with fewer climate-related mandates generally have lower electricity costs.

The analysis examined electricity pricing data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration and found that most states with electricity rates above the national average voted for the Democratic presidential nominee in the 2020 and 2024 elections.

According to the report, 86 percent of states with above-average electricity prices supported the Democratic nominee in both elections. By comparison, 80 percent of the 10 states with the lowest electricity prices voted for the Republican nominee.

Researchers said the study focused on identifying policy differences between states with higher and lower electricity rates.
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Skull

Best of the Web: How Israel planned the Gaza genocide decades ago


Jonathan Cook
Sun, 12 Jul 2026 00:00 UTC
Palestinian child
In October 2023, Israel found an excuse to breathe new life into an old story of slaughter and expulsion. The chief differences this time have been of scale and duration

The truth slowly comes to light: Israel's genocide in Gaza was planned decades ago.

Listen to the testimonies of four Israeli soldiers who served in Gaza.

Soldier 1: "Human lives didn't matter. You could kill, there was no law. No one would say a word to you. But it's not a good feeling. It mainly kills your humanity."

Soldier 2: "At first I wasn't willing to execute Arabs who weren't resisting [that is, civilians]. Then we came to the conclusion that we had to kill. We went through the process of ceasing to see them as human beings."

Soldier 3: "We caught guys, lined them up and eliminated them. In retrospect, it looks like murder."

Soldier 4: "We would roam through refugee camps in Gaza and carry out purges... Every soldier who was there created a 'concentration camp', and they didn't hesitate to kill people who caused a slight disturbance."

No, these testimonies are not new. The whistleblowers did not serve in Gaza during the current, ongoing genocide there. These accounts are nearly 60 years old, published last week by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz under the headline "We were ordered to kill".
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USA

Is the US having its socialist moment?

Connor O'Keeffe
Misses Institute
Wed, 08 Jul 2026 00:00 UTC
Claire Valdez rally
© UnknownClaire Valdez rally
In the last few weeks, we have seen self-described democratic socialists winning primary elections across the country. Most were closely associated with Zohran Mamdani, the socialist who became mayor of New York City this year, who is seen by many on the left as a figure who is finally able to enact the kind of agenda that had made Bernie Sanders and AOC popular in previous election cycles.

The growing popularity of this kind of explicit, full-on socialism and the indisputable electoral success it's having in some primaries has predictably caused establishment liberals, conservatives, and libertarians to panic. Centrist commentators across the country have been sharing the most extreme policy positions and previous statements from the socialist candidates who won their races, seemingly under the assumption that the radicalism alone will be sufficiently off-putting to enough people. That is, at best, a dangerous misreading of the situation.

Despite the surface-level rhetoric used by all sides, the growing popularity of "socialism" or "populism" is primarily a non-ideological phenomenon.
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Attention

A Most Sinful Man

Scott Ritter
Real Scott Ritter
Sun, 12 Jul 2026 17:49 UTC
Lindsey Graham had come to define the United States over the course of the past quarter century. This was not a good thing.
Psycho Dead
© Real Scott Ritter
Lindsey Olin Graham is dead.

He served the State of South Carolina in one form or another for 36 years, the last 23 of which were as a United States Senator.

Lindsey Graham postured himself as a man of integrity and honor, a patriot's patriot, who put service to country above all else.

A Christian.

But the reality is he was anything but.

Lindsey Graham was a servant of sin, and his life embodied at its core at least five of the cardinal sins of mankind: pride, greed, wrath, envy, and lust.

Lindsey Graham had an excessive belief in his abilities, and that of the causes he purported to support. Pride is considered the original and most serious sin, leading to a sense of superiority over all others.

Lindsey Graham was a proud man, in the most negative and damnable sense of the word.

Lindsey Graham was a greedy man, in so far as he possessed an insatiable desire for wealth or possessions, often at the expense of others. This was true when it came to the wealth and resources of other nations, which Graham sought to acquire through coercion and violence. Greed leads to unethical behavior and exploitation, concepts which literally defined the causes Graham espoused.

Lindsey Graham was a very greedy man.
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Sun

The cost of heat: Why Europe's economy is melting


RT
Mon, 06 Jul 2026 15:36 UTC
Europe heat wave
© RT CompositeEurope heatwave
From damaged roads to soaring power prices, scorching summer weather is exacting a heavy economic toll on the EU.

Western Europe has been enduring another record-breaking heat wave, with temperatures topping 40C in several countries. France, the UK, Germany and Switzerland have all seen their hottest June temperatures on record, while the extreme weather has disrupted transport, power generation and industrial output.

The scorching temperatures are burning a multi-billion-euro hole in the EU's already fragile economy. From parched fields to idle factories, the bloc is feeling the heat beyond what thermometers may indicate. Economists, meanwhile, warn that climate-driven heat waves are no longer temporary events but a structural macroeconomic risk.

Productivity is the first casualty

The most immediate economic cost of extreme heat is lost productivity. According to German insurer Allianz Trade, every additional degree between 30C and 35C cuts labor productivity by roughly $1.30 per hour - equivalent to nearly 3% of average hourly output. Construction, agriculture, logistics and other labor-intensive sectors bear the brunt as workers struggle in extreme temperatures.

As another heat wave swept the region, Patrick Martin, head of France's main employers' federation Medef, summed up the impact: "France is working in slow mode."
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Explosion

War on Iran: These are the heritage sites devastated by US and Israeli attacks

Rayhan Uddin
Middle East Eye
Mon, 16 Mar 2026 17:01 UTC
Golestan Palace
© Majid Asgaripour/West Asia News Agency/ReutersDebris at the historical monument Golestan Palace after it was damaged in strikes • Tehran, Iran
From Isfahan to Tehran to Khorramabad, Israeli and American strikes have damaged landmarks, including some inscribed by Unesco.

Iran's history is layered with conquest, cultural renewal and craftsmanship - all of which can be seen in its remarkable heritage sites.

The iconic turquoise domes of Isfahan and the intricate interiors of mosques and palaces across the country are internationally renowned.

Iran's architectural heritage can be divided roughly into two eras. The first is the pre-Islamic period, which included Iranian empires such as the Achaemenids and Sassanids, and the second involves a succession of Islamic empires and states, starting with the Rashidun caliphate and ending with the Qajar state until the early 20th century.

Iran has 29 sites recognised as World Heritage Sites by Unesco - the tenth most sites in the world. But these sites have come under attack over the past two and a half weeks by Israel and the US.
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Star of David

A new 'strategic' plan being pushed by the Israeli settler movement would establish 100 outposts in the heart of Palestinian cities

Qassam Muaddi
Mondoweiss
Fri, 03 Jul 2026 00:00 UTC
Masafer Yatta
© Mamoun Wazwaz/APA ImagesIsraeli settlers continue expanding an outpost in the village of Umm al-Khair • Masafer Yatta • south of Hebron • May 20, 2026
The Israeli settler movement and its allies in the government have submitted a plan to build 100 new outposts in Palestinian-controlled areas of the West Bank. The move would effectively eliminate the Oslo Accords.

Israel's annexation project in the West Bank is coming to a head as the Israeli settler movement pushes for a new strategic move that stands to render the 1993 Oslo Accords obsolete and further cut Palestinian population centers off from each other. The project surfaced last week when Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom reported that a coalition of Israeli settler groups announced plans to establish 100 new settler outposts in Areas A and B of the West Bank. These areas were created by the Accords, and together they make up about 40% of the West Bank, theoretically falling under the partial control of the Palestinian Authority (PA).

Until recently, the establishment of Israeli settlements and settler outposts in Area A — supposedly under full PA control and making up 18% of the West Bank — was considered inconceivable. Area B, comprising 22% of the territory and falling under joint PA-Israeli administration, has also rarely seen settlement construction. The remaining 60% of the West Bank, Area C, is where the majority of Israel's settlement enterprise has taken place.

But this new project stands to change the status quo arrangement that has lasted for over 30 years.

Comment: Israel's war with Iran has taken attention away from illegal settler developments...conditions to its advantage.

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