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Mayor Zohran Mamdani may be the new kingmaker of New York City politics. In a sweeping affirmation of his affordability-focused agenda, all three congressional candidates endorsed by Mamdani in a set of contested Democratic primary elections declared victory Tuesday night. Manhattan and the Bronx's Darializa Avila Chevalier and Brooklyn's Claire Valdez and Brad Lander were all joined on the campaign trail by the progressive NYC mayor in the weeks leading up to election night. Like Mamdani, Avila Chevalier and Valdez are members of the NYC chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, which backed their campaigns.
We speak to John Tarleton, editor-in-chief of the New York City local independent newspaper The Indypendent, about the insurgent left of the Democratic Party and the potential national ramifications of the Zohran-DSA machine. The races also functioned as a referendum on the growing split in the Democratic Party over Israel/Palestine. While the pro-Israel lobbying group AIPAC funneled an estimated $50 million into their opponents' campaigns, Valdez, Avila Chevalier and Lander refused to take any funding from pro-Israel groups and consistently emphasized their support of efforts to restrict U.S. military aid for Israel. "If you ignore the Palestinian cause of Palestinian liberation, you do so at your own peril," says Tarleton.
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(First column, 11th story, link)
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Israel is continuing to attack Gaza despite the so-called ceasefire. Israeli strikes killed Ahmed Wishah, a cameraman with Al Jazeera, and at least six people, including two children, on Saturday. Wishah's brother Mohammed, who also worked for Al Jazeera, was killed in an Israeli strike this April. Israel has now killed over 260 journalists in Gaza, including at least 12 working for Al Jazeera, since October 2023.
"We don't see the type of outrage that we would see if a Western journalist was killed by a country that is not a U.S. ally," says Sharif Abdel Kouddous, Middle East and North Africa editor at Drop Site News. "It's really a shameful state of affairs." Kouddous also comments on the expansion of Israel's "genocidal tactics" in Gaza that have now been "exported outside of Palestine in places like Lebanon."
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"People are really, really afraid … that ICE will go and raid communities where people are watching and gathering together" to watch the FIFA World Cup, says Nelini Stamp. She is an organizer with the Our Copa campaign, a grassroots initiative that aims to protect immigrant fans, center the sport's working-class roots, and host accessible local watch parties during the World Cup. "We will keep each other safe as much as possible during these games," says Stamp.
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